Chapter Text
Shouto woke up to the sound of the door closing and opening, along with footsteps. He quickly startled, trying to figure out who the fuck was coming in their bedroom in the middle of the night.
But he quickly realized that wasn’t what was happening.
His first clue was the pain in his back from falling asleep in sitting position, curled in on himself. The second clue was that he had been fast asleep on Tenya’s lap in a small loveseat. The third was that there was a heart monitor going on in the background. And the fourth clue was that once his eyes focused he saw they were in a hospital room. And the fifth clue was his memories from the day before.
They were officially parents. Well.. they really had been parents for awhile now. Shouto considered himself a parent from the moment Izuku told them he was pregnant.
But now their baby is here.
A living breathing being.
Shouto couldn’t help but smile to himself a bit at that realization. But his smile quickly faded when he saw a nurse go from Chihiro’s bassinet and over to Izuku. She then started to gently shake his shoulder.
She didn’t need to be doing that. Izuku needed sleep. Labour was already hard for any person, but Izuku even more so. So Shouto was grateful that he was in a deep sleep, not even stirring.
The nurse was about to reach out again, but Shouto spoke up before she could.
“Why are you waking him up?”, Shouto said quickly, in a whisper.
She jumped a little bit, and looked at Shouto with a startled look on her face. But then she let out a breath, and laughed a little bit, “Sorry, you scared me. I thought you all were asleep”, she said. Shouto nodded in response, “But the baby needs to eat, it’s been two hours since the last time he ate”.
Shouto nodded, “Umm.. can I feed him? He really needs sleep”.
“Of course”, she said, “I will bring you a bottle in a moment. But just so you know we will have to check him over in fifteen minutes so he will have to be awake for that”.
Shouto nodded, “Yeah, I understand. Just whatever will make him get as much sleep as possible”.
She nodded, with a smile, “Yes, of course. It’s nice to see such a caring partner, most of the times they leave it up to the moth-.. or the person who gave birth, to take care of everything”.
Shouto scrunched his face up when hearing that. That’s terrible, and so selfish. Izuku was the one who just pushed a baby out of him. He needed rest, Shouto didn’t. This felt like the bare minimum.
“Oh.. umm.. well, thank you”, Shouto said, not really wanting to get into that conversation.
“Mmhmm”, She nodded, “Okay, I will be right back with a bottle for you”.
“Okay”, Shouto said, “Can I go ahead and wake Chihiro up or..?”.
“Yes, of course. He’s your baby, you don’t need to ask us permission for anything unless it’s for anything medical”, she responded.
He nodded, “Okay, thank you”, he said, and she left the room. He carefully got out of Tenya’s lap, trying so hard not to wake him up. But he was unfortunately unsuccessful.
When Shouto got about half way up, Tenya’s snoring suddenly stopped, “Shou?”, he said softly, “What are you doing hun?”.
Shouto turned around, “just feeding Chihiro so Izu doesn’t have to wake up”, he said, placing a kiss on Tenya’s jaw, “Just go back to sleep, babe”.
Tenya blinked at him, his sleepy brain trying to process his words, but then he nodded, “Okay..”, he said, leaning his head back against the back of the love seat, “Mm I love you”.
“Love you too, Tenya”, Shouto said, kissing his cheek. Tenya gave him a half asleep smile, and Shouto got up.
He then made his way over to the little bassinet next to Izuku’s bed. Chihiro was still fast asleep, breaking the typical newborn stereotype.
“Hey baby boy”, Shouto said, as he started to slowly lift him out of the crib making sure not to disturb the heart monitor around his ankle.
As Shouto was lifting him up Chihiro’s eyes blinked open, and he looked up at him, his pupils a little shaky as they tried to focus.
Shouto smiled, kissing his forehead, before sitting down in one of those uncomfortable hospital chairs close by Izuku’s hospital bed.
Chihiro looked a little confused, and made a small gargled noise.
“I’m sorry, buddy. The nurse said I had to wake you up to eat”, he said.
He could tell he was tired.. which seemed odd, he has only existed for a few hours. How could he be so tired, but he guessed for babies it must be exhausting just existing.
“Here you go”, the nurse said, as she entered the room, handing Shouto a bottle, “Do you need any help?”.
“No.. I think I got it”, Shouto said, but he had no idea why he said that, he has never given a baby a bottle before..
But it can’t be that hard, right?
“Okay, I will be back in about fifteen minutes, if you all need anything don’t hesitate to ask”, She said.
Shouto nodded, and she left.
Shouto looked back down at Chihiro, and pulled him just a little bit closer.
Okay what were they taught in those parenting/birthing classes. Okay, tilt the head up just a tiny bit, and carefully move the bottle up to his lips.
It was easy. It couldn’t be that hard.
He did just that, titling Chihiro just a tiny bit so his head was elevated and then put the bottle to his lips.
Chihiro blinked a few times, but then opened his mouth and started to suck on it.
And Shouto was doing it. He was feeding his baby for the first time.
His baby.
Their baby.
He was a parent.
They were parents.
They were building the life together that Shouto had never known he so desperately wanted.. so desperately needed. And he loved it. He loved this.
He loved Chihiro.
It was amazing.
He had spent the last few months trying to imagine what it would be like for him to hold his child for the first time, what it would be like to see that adorable little face for the first time.
But nothing could have prepared him for the feeling.
Nothing could ever compare to how he felt right now.
He felt tears prick in his eyes, but since his hands were pretty full he couldn’t wipe them away like he wanted. But he also didn’t mind, these were happy tears.
Up until today he had never had happy tears. It was odd, it felt so weird to be so happy that he cried.
But it was the best feeling.
As Chihiro laid there, sucking away at the bottle, Shouto couldn’t help but notice how beautiful he was.
He was honestly so happy that he was biologically Tenya’s.
He actually didn’t know if he wanted any of their kids to have his genetics. Passing the Todoroki lineage down sounded terrible. Letting another being have to take on the burden of being biologically related to the disgusting monster that is Enji Todoroki was terrifying.
And also if every child that was biologically related to Izuku and Tenya was this beautiful and looked this much like them. Then he would kind of be a terrible person for getting in the way of that.
Shouto had a terrible time with faces. They usually blurred together and confused him.
So then when someone has a child, he struggles to point out features that are like their parents’.
Like he knew Ai looked like both Tensei and Fuyumi, but he couldn’t point out how.
But since he had spent the past five years of his life studying his boyfriends’ features. Trying to recognize every single piece that made up the two most beautiful people in the world. He could easily tell which parts of Chi looked like them.
He had Izuku’s eyes, even if they were light blue, the eye shape was so Izuku. He had Tenya’s nose. His round face was Izuku. But his little chubby body was definitely inherited from Tenya. The little freckles that were hardly even there were Izuku. And his ears that stuck out just a little bit were Tenya.
And then the little bit of patchy hair on his head, the little bits of blue and green. It mixed the two together perfectly.
Chihiro was perfect.
And Shouto loved him so much.
Shouto never knew he could love someone this much outside of Izuku and Tenya.
But Chihiro had so quickly pulled his way into Shouto’s heart and had taken a huge chunk of it.
As Chihiro finished his bottle Shouto gently took it away. Chihiro looked confused, still making the sucking motion before he stopped, looking back up at Shouto. His eyes not quite focused on him.
Okay, now he had to burp him. He gently moved Chihiro up, resting him against his shoulder, before patting his back just a little. Exactly how they taught them in those classes.
And almost instantly he burped, spitting up part of the formula.
Shouto was a little grossed out, but it was okay.. he knew being a parent was gross sometimes.
He then put Chihiro back down in his arms, using one hand to grab a little towel that was placed near the bassinet and wiping the spit up away, before looking back down at Chihiro who looked like he was going to fall asleep any minute.
Shouto would be lying if he said he wasn’t absolutely terrified of the journey ahead. He had honestly never been so terrified of anything this much before, in his life.
He couldn’t mess this up.
He couldn’t mess up being a parent.
He was so determined to be the parent to Chihiro that he had needed as a child.
He never wanted to hurt him. He never wanted him to know the pain of having your parents hate you and resent you.
He never wanted him to feel the pain of being hit, kicked into the floor, stomped on, held down, or burnt.
He didn’t want his little boy to ever have a scratch put on him.
He never wanted to be the one to put a scratch on him.
He never wanted to yell at him.
He never wanted to make Chihiro feel like he was born with a responsibility.
He wanted him to know his only job was to be himself. He wanted him to know he was always safe with them. He wanted him to know that he always had a say in what happened to his body. He wanted to make sure he knew that he deserved to be treated with kindness.
He wanted to make sure he knew love.
He was so determined to make that happen for him.
Shouto sighed, more tears falling down onto his cheeks as he looked down at his sleeping son.
his son.
His son who will be so loved.
“I love you so much”, Shouto whispered, “I promise.. I promise I will be better than him.. and better than her. I will be the parent you need me to be, and I will always love you, no matter what. Please never forget that”.
He was still sniffling, crying, close to sobbing. And Chihiro was just sleeping through it in his arms.
And that was okay, Shouto’s emotions would never be his responsibility.
“Shou..?”, he heard a soft, tired voice say. But there was shakiness to it.
Shouto looked up, making eye contact with Izuku in the dark room.
He was crying.
He instantly panicked, “What’s wrong, Zu? Do I need to call a nurse?”.
Izuku shook his head, wiping away his tears that were still falling, “No.. no.. I'm okay. I just.. you’re going to be an amazing Papa”.
Oh.. he heard what he said.
“I hope so”, Shouto said, looking down at the beautiful baby in his arms.
“You are”, Izuku said, “You are one of the sweetest, most caring, and loving people I know. If anyone was meant to be a parent it’s you.. and you are already so much better than your parents”.
He hoped Izuku was right.
He hoped more than anything that he was going to be everything that Chihiro needed and more.
He wanted to be the parent Chihiro deserved.
He just hoped he was able to do it.
As he looked down at him he had a realization though.
His dad never loved him.
You don’t treat people you love the way his dad treated him.
But Shouto loved Chihiro. He loved him so much.
So he guessed he was already doing better than him.
.. Maybe he could be a good Papa.