Keigo was not alone in the kitchen. This was not of course unusual in itself given that besides himself and Dabi, both Tomura and Kurogiri lived in the apartment connected directly with the bar as well as recently Kurogiri's boyfriend Sako too. Not to mention the fact that Izuku would sometimes be eating his own dinner here since he was on a completely different meal schedule from the majority of the people in his house. All the same, he froze as he spotted All for One walking into the kitchen with what looked to be some form of take out containers. "Oh. Sorry, I didn't realize you would be awake already or I would have come back sooner."
"What?"
All for One gestured over to the seat at the kitchen counter that Hawks generally sat at to eat breakfast. "Kurogiri mentioned you normally eat around 7ish here before he warps you home so I got here in time to try and make your breakfast before you leave as an apology for scaring you so badly. Dabi mentioned something about fried chicken being your favorite food. Tell me, have you ever had the American breakfast Chicken and Waffles?"
Keigo gave him a bewildered look. "You're making a dish up aren't you?"
The man flashed him a grin. "Nope. It is a Southern American staple from what I understand. Fried chicken on waffles." He held up the take out bag. "I hope you forgive me for using takeout chicken tenders. While I know we have a waffle iron here, we don't have a deep fryer."
Keigo studied the bag. KFC. More than acceptable. "Won't the chicken be cold by the time the waffles are done?"
The man shook his head. "Already ahead of you on that." He gestured to the oven that Keigo had just realized was on. "I had Kurogiri turn it on before he headed to bed to help keep the tenders warm."
Curiosity overriding his nervousness about the man, he pulled out his normal low backed chair (that he had been embarrassingly happy to realize Kurogiri had gone out and bought so he could sit more comfortably while he ate there without any hesitation after he had crossed paths with Tomura that first time). "The Symbol of Evil knows how to cook?"
The man shrugged before putting the tenders now on a cookie sheet into the warm oven. "While I don't do it nearly as often as I used to, I used to cook quite regularly. I was my younger brother's sole caretaker for well over a decade so it was more than necessary for me to teach myself. Do you know how to cook?"
Hawks considered the man a moment before reluctantly shaking his head. "I've never really had the time or energy to learn."
"Well there is no time like the present to learn if you want." The man offered him a soft smile as he began to pull out ingredients and cooking implements from around the kitchen as naturally as if it was his own.
"How are you doing that?"
"Doing what?" All for One gave him a puzzled look as he pulled out the waffle iron.
"Finding everything so easily? I live here and I can never find anything when I need it."
The man paused as a look of confusion briefly passed over his face before something seemed to click. "Oh! I helped Kurogiri set up the kitchen originally and remember how he likes it organized. Because of his Quirk, he doesn't ever rearrange things so he can pull things out and put them away without having to open things."
"But it literally makes no sense? Why are the spoons in a completely different drawer from the rest of the silverware? Or the knives above the fridges?"
"If I had to guess it is to discourage anyone else besides him from cooking in here. A lot of his cookware is chef grade quality and Tomura has accidently destroyed it in the past. While it is easily replaced on my part, some of it has to be specially ordered which can take some time. As for the knives, Himiko kept stealing them when she first moved in so he had to relocate them somewhere harder to get to to discourage the habit."
They fell into a largely awkward silence after that, only broken with explanations on All for One's part about what he was doing in each step of the cooking process. It was strange for Keigo. On one hand, this was the guy who had stolen his Quirk (albeit temporarily) but one the other, he now knew without a shadow of a doubt that he didn't plan on hurting him. It was a bit jarring how normal the guy seemed. How despite his massive stature, he did not ever loom over Keigo. In fact, he seemed to be making sure to not block any of the exits to the room for him.
He was still pondering the oddness of the situation when a plate with waffles and chicken tenders was set down in front of him, along with a small bottle of maple syrup and cup of tea. Keigo watched the man step back and pour himself his own cup of tea. "You not going to eat too?"
All for One shook his head. "Not yet anyways. I'll eat breakfast with the girls when they wake up."
Keigo considered the other man as he took a sip of his tea before shrugging and beginning to eat.
…
Keigo found himself giving an involuntary happy chirp as he swallowed his first bite, feathers fluffing up instinctually in pleasure. The other man gave a wry grin. "I take it you approve?"
"How have I never tried this before?" He began to eat in earnest as the other chuckled.
"Dad, what are you doing here?" Keigo didn't bother to look up from his food, having recognized the voice.
"Good Morning Dabi. Do you want what Keigo is eating? I made enough extra batter to make a few more waffles."
Dabi slid into the seat beside him, accepting a cup of tea from his father. "No thanks. Unlike him, I don't think I could stomach more fried chicken right now."
"Just waffles then?"
"Sure, I guess. Still doesn't explain what you are doing here."
Keigo finally looked up from his cleaned plate in time to see All for One shrug. "Apology breakfast."
"So, uh, do Eraserhead and Sir Nighteye know…about all this?" He gestured vaguely at All for One.
The Villain snorted. "Yes, as do several others close to the family, including Nedzu. I believe the majority consensus was that so long as I don't do anything comically evil that it was better for them to ignore the issue given I prevent worse things crawling out of the Underworld to hurt the average citizen. Like with Overhaul. The only reason he felt as bold as he did to even try to make his Quirk erasing bullets was because he believed the rumor that All Might killed me."
Keigo froze as something at the back of his mind clicked. "The reason we never found the girl he was making the bullets out of… It's because she's Eri right? The League removed her from the site when they crashed the raid."
All for One flashed him a grin. "Got it in one. Originally we were going to fake adopting her from an orphanage or something but, well, you've seen how much she looks like she could be Izuku's full blood younger sister. Thankfully everyone who would call us out on her appearing out of thin air are in on the con so there isn't really any concern of people figuring out that we are lying about that."
Keigo stared at him dumbstruck. "What about the kid's actual family?"
Dabi grimaced. "Dead, comatose or abandoned her. Honestly of the options alive, only her biological grandfather even sounds like he treated her like a normal kid after her Quirk accident that killed her birth father. But given that Overhaul rearranged his insides and that there is little chance of him ever waking up, it is unlikely anyone would challenge the claim, even without knowing about Dad's alter ego."
Keigo winced. "Oh. Well that sucks. So the kid is okay with… everything?"
All for One nodded. "While there is a lot she doesn't understand about how the world works thanks to what Overhaul did to her, she does fully understand the darker side of humanity." He gave a sad sigh to himself. "I really hate the fact that one as young as her had to go through all of that. It is because of her history that we are going to have to home school her for the next couple years. While I am not worried that she would slip up and reveal the truth of her origins, that doesn't change the fact that she struggles to understand what would be conventional child appropriate topics. Additionally she has unfortunately picked up the Bakugou family habit of using expletives casually. So to avoid dealing with angry mothers of Elementary school students, we thought homeschooling until she gets into Junior High would be the best."
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Mirai blamed Sachi's off hand comment for the thought. After everything that had happened over the past year, his excuses for not dating were sounding more and more hollow, even to himself.
It would be dangerous for his partner? Well, he doubted that he would ever want to date a civilian in general. Besides, the greatest threat that he had feared for his family as it was due to his connection with All Might was literally his brother-in-law and would fold the moment he threatened him with Inko and now Naomasa.
There was the chance that he could get badly hurt while working and just never come home? Honestly, he very rarely went out in the field solo. Even his patrol overlapped heavily with other heroes in the area and ever since he babysat Izuku on a patrol for the first time, he had decided that it was better patrolling with at least one of his two sidekicks, if nothing else then for the company.
There was no one he was interested in?
That one was a bold faced lie to himself.
Sure, he had dropped his crush for Yagi off a tall building at some point, but he was hardly the only Hero that had caught his eye. While Tsunagu rarely ever showed his full face from behind his collar of denim, Mirai would have had to have been blind to miss how attractive the man was from the start. And then there was Toyomitsu who he crossed paths with regularly given how close their agencies were to one another. The man was one of the few heroes with a good sense of humor, and well, the fact that he was a good head taller than Mirai most certainly didn't hurt.
There was however the issue though that he had no idea how either would feel about him approaching them in such a manner. Okay, sure, it was fairly common knowledge that his friend Tsunagu was gay from his many interviews, that hardly ment that Mirai would be his type. And Toyomitsu on the other hand was a complete mystery on that side of things since his Hero branding was angled so heavily towards being child friendly so anything romance related was basically off the table in his interviews.
…
Well he could just ask him he supposed? It wasn't like he didn't know where to find him, which wasn't necessarily the case with Tsunagu with his far busier schedule as the number 3 Hero.
So, before he lost his momentary courage on the matter, Mirai left his agency a little early that day and walked the few blocks to the Fat Gum Agency. It was a markedly smaller place then his own with only himself as the currently sole Hero though that would be changing soon with the addition of Suneater when the soon to be Third year graduated and became his full time Sidekick. Still in the meantime, it left Toyomitsu manning his own front desk.
"Oh! Hello Sir! Did you need something?"
Mirai shook his head. "No, I just finished for the day a little early and thought I would come by and see if you were busy."
That earned him a puzzled look. "Not too busy. Nothing that can't wait for tomorrow anyways. Is something the matter?"
Mirai winced. Well this was to be expected. It wasn't like he was a terribly social person normally outside of his family at this point. "My family has been telling me I need to go out and socialize more. Admittedly I don't exactly have many friends, especially in the wake of my fight with All Might, and I can't exactly ask my employees…"
Mirai trailed off slightly embarrassed as he spotted the sympathetic look on Toyomitsu's face. "And I am going to guess the couple you do have aren't exactly local?"
Mirai nodded. "Shield is still on I-Island doing his own thing and I am honestly not sure where Hakamada is this week."
The man grimaced. "Family names only? Are you this stiff and formal all the time?"
Mirai frowned. "No? I merely used their family names because I was uncertain you would have known who I was referring to otherwise."
He seemed to consider that. "Okay that is fair. I probably could have figured out Shields since I doubt that there are many Americans you would hang out with but I will admit it did take me a second to remember that was Jeanist's name. Still, things aren't awkward with you and Shields with the whole All Might thing? I mean, he would have been his friend longer."
Mirai snorted. "It probably would have if it wasn't for the fact that his daughter is also Quirkless like my vigilante nephew. I am probably going to go with him to the I-Island expo coming up this summer so the two of them can finally meet."
"Huh. What are the odds of that?"
"Pretty high apparently given Dave is only Second generation and his wife was First as well as the apparently Quirklessness that runs in my brother-in-law's family due to the high risk of Quirk instability on his side. Izuku is not the only recent Quirkless in the family, just the youngest."
Toyomitsu had risen from his desk to begin packing up for the day at this point and shrugged out of his signature hoodie and pulled off his mask to go fully off duty. "So there are more Quirkless people in your family?"
"Apparently. We found out a couple days ago that my brother-in-law had another kid that he was in the dark about that happened to be Quirkless too named Sachi. She is actually old enough to have a son of her own a couple months older than Izuku. Additionally, Hisashi's younger brother was also Quirkless."
Toyomitsu paused. "Wait, how old is your brother-in-law? He didn't seem anywhere near old enough for that. As it was, I was having a hard time believing your nephew Dabi was actually his."
Mirai snorted. "No idea frankly beyond clearly being old enough to possibly be my grandfather. He is really cagey about his age to the point he won't even tell Inko his birthday. His Quirk has a secondary effect of slowing his aging which is why he calls it Dragon's Breath and not just Fire Breathing so he basically stopped physically aging somewhere in his mid 30s. According to what Sachi says her mother told her about him, he hasn't aged a day in the 50 years she has known him."
"And… you are just okay with that?"
Mirai sighed. "Honestly I am more resigned to it than anything. If my sister wants to stay married to a man that is possibly functionally immortal I am most certainly not going to stop her at this point. Besides, with how clingy Hisashi is, I highly doubt he would let any of us cut contact. The only reason Sachi's mother got away with it was by not completely cutting contact when they broke things off. Hisashi just assumed that Sachi was someone else's kid since he never saw her in person before a couple days ago and incorrectly assumed that her mother would have told him if she was his. It is also how Dabi's mother was able to hide the truth for so long too since she was already married, it was easy to play Dabi off as her husband's son."
Toyomitsu did not seem totally convinced but seemed to drop it as he changed topics. "So did you decide to try and see if I wanted to hang out because I was the closest other hero?"
"Partially. It is because of that fact that you are one of the few other people I have spent any amount of time around." Mirai found himself shrugging again, no intention of mentioning his possible crush on the man unless he was sure at least of the man's sexual preference if for no other reason then to avoid making things even more awkward then he was. Okay perhaps his family had a bit of a point about him needing to get out more.
Toyomitsu was frowning again at that. "I'm not going to lie, Sasaki, that is kinda sad. We've, what, talked to each other off the clock maybe two or three times? You really don't hang out with people do you?"
Mirai shook his head. "Not really, no. The only reason I had something vaguely resembling a social life before my fight with All Might was because he was my designated extravert as my younger brother likes to put it. Similar to how my intern is one of your intern's dedicated two."
That earned a laugh from Toyomitsu. "Ah! I see. So that is the real reason you sought me out. I was the closet extrovert you thought you could put up with."
Mirai cracked a smile. "Well it certainly doesn't hurt."
"Come on, I'm starving. We can talk more over dinner."
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Dinners were by nature awkward affairs within the Todoroki household. Conversation was often stilted when it did rarely happen. That is why Shoto never expected to find himself rolling on the floor laughing in the middle of one.
His Old Man was giving him a strange look as Fuyumi looked torn between shock and disgust. "What?"
Shoto struggles to get a hold of himself as Fuyumi's mouth opened and closed repeatedly seemingly unable to get out the words. "Dabi isn't Fuyumi's boyfriend. He's Hawks's."
Finally the words seemed to find their way out of her. "Dad, literally both of us are gay! I have a girlfriend!"
His Lesser Dad did look a bit embarrassed that he had apparently misread things so badly. "Oh! Um, what's her name then?"
Fuyumi considered him for a beat. "It's Rumi."
Shoto fake coughed into his arm like he had seen his brothers do in the past. "Mirko."
The Old Man blinked in surprise as Fuyumi gave Shoto a small glare that Shoto just returned his more normal poker face too. "Mirko? How did that happen?"
Fuyumi sighed. "Apparently both our friends are cowards and we both got roped into their first date for moral support. While the boys were being complete social disasters with each other, the two of us were sitting back and watching. It turns out we have a decent amount in common so when the date ended, she asked me if I would go out with her on a date the next time she was in town. The rest is basically history."
The Worst Dad seemed to reluctantly accept that explanation. "So how does Dabi fit in with all of this? You spend a lot of time with him."
Thankfully, Fuyumi and Dabi had at least thought about this question in advance. "Well besides the fact that he is dating my girlfriend's best friend, he is just a fun guy to hang out with. We have similar tastes in music and hobbies so we get along fairly well."
The Old Man seemed to consider that before Shoto found himself at the center of his attention. "So, Shoto, you…aren't dating anyone also are you?"
Shoto blinked. Okay, to be fair he probably should have seen this coming. "No. While I can't deny that many of my friends could be considered attractive, I have been more concerned about everyone getting into UA to really think about that sort of thing."
Now Fuyumi was paying him full attention. "Shoto, you haven't mentioned that you thought any of your friends were cute before."
Shoto tilted his head slightly. "Objectively speaking, I believe all of us would likely be considered conventionally attractive. That does not factor into any possible interest I have in them though. According to Hitoshi, I am likely pansexual which apparently does not describe someone interested in dating cookware."
Fuyumi nearly choked on her mouthful of food and the Old Man was staring at him slightly bewildered at his last comment. Huh, Izuku and Hitoshi were right, it was fun to play dumb about things from time to time if that was the sort of reaction he could get.