My Father's Son - Chapter 46

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“Wow! It’s so big!” Yuuto gushed, climbing up the railing to look out over the shimmering lake. “What are all the boats for?”

“I think they’re tour boats, mostly. You can go out and row around the lake, or take a ride and see the sights from the water.”

“Really?!”

“Uh-huh. You wanna try it some time?”

“Yeah!”

“Alright, I’m sure that can be arranged,” Katsuki smiled, plucking him off the railing and settling him on his shoulders. “Can you see better now?”

“Yeah!”

“We’re not doing the whole hike like this, though,” Katsuki teased. “You gotta do some walking too.”

“I will!”

“Shall we go get started?”

“Uh-huh!”

Yuuto was surprisingly animated as they made the walk back to the base of the mountain, where they’d taken their little detour to look at the lake. Katsuki knew they’d see it again, once they started their hike, but when Yuuto had seen the picture on the map, Katsuki had been unable to resist the enthusiasm.

“Have you been on this mountain before?” Yuuto asked, tucking his hand into Katsuki’s when he was back on the ground.  

“I have, but it was a long, long time ago,” Katsuki nodded. “My Dad brought me here when I was little, too.”

“Really?”

“Mm-hm. It’s a good starting mountain, for people who haven’t done much hiking. My Dad was never super athletic, so he picked the easy ones to do with me until I was old enough to go do the hard ones on my own.”

“Is that why you picked this one? Because it’s easy?”

“No,” Katsuki snorted. “I just thought it would be nice to bring you, like he brought me. I know you don’t need easy, and I certainly don’t.”

Yuuto nodded, satisfied with that, and Katsuki smiled again as he reached down to adjust Yuuto’s hat. It was too big for him, but it was the smallest size Katsuki’s merch suppliers produced – he needed to get that fixed pronto. Yuuto had been so happy to see it, to see the bright orange cross embroidered across the front, the little grenade on the back. Hiroki had always been a nightmare with hats, constantly pulling them off when he wasn’t looking or losing them in the ten seconds Katsuki wasn’t paying attention – Katsuki hoped that if nothing else, the Downfall merch would make Yuuto hold on to his.

“What does it say?” Yuuto asked, when they stopped at the map to look closer this time. “Does it have directions?”

“Let’s take a look, shall we?” He hoisted Yuuto up again, this time settling him on one hip, high enough to see the little pink panel. “Do you know these ones?”

“Mm... Up and mountain. I dunno the rest.”

“Good! This says Mount Tenjo, that’s the name of the mountain. Do you recognise this one? You see it lots, even if you don’t really read it.”

“I don’t think so.”

“This bit says ‘park’ so it’s on the signs when we go to playgrounds and things.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“All of it together says ‘Mount Tenjo Park Guide’, because it’s a guide to the area here.”

“And the little bits here?”

“You know these ones.”

“Mm... July and August. Mount Tenjo. Colours... Too many words.”

“You got it, it says from July to August there are lots of colourful flowers in bloom here, called hydrangeas. Maybe we can come back in July to see them.”

“I like colours.”

“Me too.”

Katsuki reached out with his free hand, tracing a winding path up the image, from “you are here” all the way up to the viewpoints he hoped to show Yuuto.  

“We’re gonna walk all this way,” he explained. “It might take us about an hour. Then if we’re tired, we can take the cable car back down, but if we still feel okay, we can walk more. Sound good?”

“Uh-huh!”

“Let’s go then, yeah?”

“Yeah!”

“Which way do you think we need to go?”

He pointed out another sign, and Yuuto scrutinized it for a minute, scanning over words he’d never seen before until he found familiarity.

“Toilet that way,” he said after a moment, as he got further down the list. “Do you need to go toilet?”

“Nope, I’m good. Do you?”

“No, I went at the station,” Yuuto reminded him. “So it must be the other way then? Hmm... Ah! Hiking! Hiking this way!”

“Good work,” Katsuki grinned, planting a tiny kiss on his hair in a moment of weakness. “See? You are a good reader.”

“Is this the park words again?”

“Yeah, it says Hydrangea Park. The flowers.”

“Oh, that’s the flower, okay. Is that on the way to the top?”

“Exactly.”

“Okay! Let’s go toward the flowers and hiking, then!”

“Sounds good, bud. Lead the way.”

He set Yuuto back down on the path, letting him walk slightly ahead where Katsuki could keep an eye on him, and he couldn’t help but smile at the little bounce in Yuuto’s step. They really were so much alike – so withdrawn at times, at home or at school, but so quick to perk up when they were away from the world.

The path they walked along was like log stairs covered in a thick layer of dirt, just enough to give them some extra grip on the trail rather than slippery dirt alone. When the ground flattened out, the logs began to spread further apart or even disappeared entirely, while on steep slopes they lay closer together, to help prevent falls. Yuuto didn’t seem to pay much mind to his feet, busy looking around at all the trees and bushes, and the glimpses of sky between thick trunks, out to more mountains in the distance.  

The trail zig-zagged up the mountain, and Yuuto kept his pace valiantly. They stopped once or twice for a quick water break, but mostly they just kept climbing, eager to reach the top.  

Sure enough, it took them about an hour to get to the viewpoint, not a bad run at all for a kid with such little legs, and when the forest opened up on a flat observatory area, Yuuto froze.  

Katsuki cracked a smile, when Yuuto looked up at him, and with a little nod to give him permission, he ran.

He ran straight to another metal railing, ignoring the animal statues and binoculars, staring out in awe at the snow-capped peak way out on the horizon.

“That’s the one,” Katsuki said fondly, when he caught up and lifted Yuuto to his shoulders to see better again. “Me and you, one day, we’ll go all the way to the top.”

“Can we really?”

“Absolutely. It’ll take lots of practice, though.”

“Have you done it before?”

“Once, right after I finished high school. I decided to do it just after I graduated, before I got super busy with work and stuff. It was a really nice graduation trip.”

“On your own?”

“Yeah, none of my friends were really into it like me. It would be nice to take someone I love with me, next time.”

“Like me?”

“Exactly like you,” Katsuki laughed. “Who else? What, you think Hiro or Papa would do it?”

“No,” Yuuto pulled a face. “Hiro would get bored, and Papa is...”

“Not as athletic, it’s okay, you’re allowed to say it.”

“He tries hard, I feel mean.”

“I know, he works so hard. He knows, though. He was the one who told me you want to do it. He said he’ll never be able to do it, no matter how hard he tries, but he hoped that I would do it with you.”

“I think he could, if he tried really hard.”

“I think so too. Maybe one day, after lots and lots of family workouts, we can convince him to try.”

“What was it like?”

Katsuki hummed thoughtfully, staring out at the distant peak, the weather so inexplicably perfect for their day together.

“It was cold,” he said finally. “It was spring, nice and warm everywhere else, but up there was still freezing cold and windy. And it’s hard to breathe, being up so high. I practiced on a lot of other mountains, but that was the hardest one for breathing. That’s why kids don’t do it so often. I should have waited another month, but I was worried about waiting that long and still being able to find an agency to work with when I got back.”

“Should we go in summer?”

“Yeah, it’s probably a good idea. Maybe not this summer, though.”

“I know, more practice first. Do we have to go allllll the way in one day?”

“No bud, they have little cabins along the way. We could spend a whole week doing it, if we wanted. You can also take buses and stuff partway.”

“Maybe a week when we bring Papa,” Yuuto mused. “I wanna go up there.”

“I know, buddy. We will, I promise.”

“Pinky promise?”

“Pinky promise,” Katsuki agreed, linking their little fingers together. “Have you ever been rock climbing?”

“Nuh-uh. Hiro said it once.”

“Yeah, we’ve been a few times. Maybe we can make it a family date, one weekend. Sometimes when we hike, there’s parts where you have to climb not just walk. So it’d be good to practice that too.”

“And when I’m a hero I can climb stuff to save people!” Yuuto agreed, his smile brighter than Katsuki thought he’d ever seen. “I’m a good climber!”

“I know, I’ve seen you in trees and on the playground, you’ll be great at rock climbing. Shall we take a look around, now? There’s another view of the lake, too.”

“Yeah!”

They wandered around the cable car station for a bit, a flat area at the top of the mountain where people could rest and look at the view. They took their time looking through the fancy binoculars and taking plenty of photos, even stopping to ring a little bell in a spot traditionally for lovers, Yuuto happily pointing out that Dad-love was just as good. When they walked the last little bit uphill to a shrine, Yuuto found the entrance to another trail, mouthing words again as he stared at a little sign.

“Is this more hiking?” Yuuto asked, eyes lighting up. “You said we could do more if we weren’t tired.”

“Mm... It is, yeah. It’s a very long and narrow path, though, a lot harder than what we just did.”

“I’ll be careful, I promise!”

“It’s a long one, see the sign?”

“Six hours,” Yuuto confirmed. “I read that one. That’s six times as good as it already is!”

Katsuki snorted at that, but conceded a nod – he really was a sucker for his kids’ whims.

“Alright, but if it gets rough you have to let me carry you if it’s safer, okay? Same if you get tired, you need to tell me so I can help.”

“I promise!”

“Alright, come on then.”

─────

Hiroki’s feet didn’t reach the ground from his seat, swinging back and forth happily beneath the table instead, but he sat up straight in his button-down shirt, carefully pouring two cups of tea from the little pot the waitress brought by. It was just as Katsuki had said, he loved being part of such a grown up activity, and Izuku couldn’t help but smile as he watched.  

“Are you excited about school?” he asked, as Hiroki took a sip from his delicate little cup. “It’s getting close, now.”

“I’ll miss kindy, and most of my friends are going to different schools,” Hiroki hummed thoughtfully. “But I liked this school the best, and I’m really happy I got in. And I’ll have Yuuchan and Ryou with me!”

“How come you and Ryouji didn’t go to kindy together?”

“Mm... They lived too far away. Ryouji’s kindy is really good, and my kindy is really good, but we didn’t live very close and it was silly to take long trains just for kindy.”

“That makes sense. Long trains were okay for school though?”

“Uh-huh! Our old home was only one train to get to new school, it was a little bit long but it was just on and off. But to get to Ryouji’s kindy was three trains, lots of changing, or he could drop me off with the car but then he had to drive back to work the other direction so it took a long time. Now he has you and Nana to take us to kindy, so it’s okay, and when we go to school it’s just two stations!”

“That close, huh? I hadn’t really looked.”

“That’s what Ryou says, his Dad tells him sometimes if they take the train and go past the school station.”

“Maybe we can take a train ride some time and see it, figure out how to get there for when you start.”

“Yeah!”

Izuku’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and he slipped it out to take a look, smiling when Katsuki’s name lit up the screen. Attached to the message was a sweet photo of him and Yuuto, up at the summit of the trail Katsuki had picked out, Mount Fuji clear and crisp in the background. Katsuki had expressed concerns a few times, in the days prior, that if it was too cloudy or rainy they wouldn’t be able to see Fuji at all, so to see it so beautifully must have made him so incredibly happy.

“Look at what Kacchan sent,” Izuku smiled, holding it out for Hiroki to take. “They made it to the top already.”

“Wow! It’s pretty! How far did they walk?”

“I’m not sure, Kacchan said it would probably take an hour.”

“Oh. That’s a long time to walk.”

“Yeah,” Izuku laughed. “It’s a bit long for me.”

“Mm-hm, I’d rather go on the cars.”

“The cars?”

“The cable cars!” he clarified, handing the phone back. “Then you can sit and look at the view out the window instead of all the walking.”

“You’re right, that sounds a lot better. Should we take a photo to send back?”

“Yeah!”

Hiroki leaned in, and Izuku turned his phone camera around to face them both, meeting Hiroki in the middle to snap a picture. His hair was a mess, he was disappointed to see – for a little while it had behaved so well, but the past week or so had been a nightmare. He pulled a face, running his fingers through it in an attempt to rake it into place, and Hiroki giggled at him sweetly.

“Papa, you already look handsome!” he insisted. “You don’t need to change!”

“Thank you, sweetie, you’re too kind.”

Izuku caved, taking the picture as they were, and attaching it to a reply for Katsuki. He wasn’t sure if they’d get it right away, figured the forest on the way back down might block their signal for a while, but he knew Katsuki would be happy to see Hiroki’s smile, no matter when it arrived.  

“Do you think we should buy some ice cream on the way home so we can have strawberries and ice cream?”

“Ooh! Yes! That sounds good!”

“Just don’t tell Kacchan we had dessert with lunch, too.”

Hiroki glanced at his empty plate, stained with chocolate cake crumbs, and giggled, nodding.

“I won’t tell if Papa doesn’t tell!”

“Deal.”

When they’d finished off their tea, and Izuku had paid the bill, Hiroki picked up their big bag full of strawberries and led the way back to the car. Izuku suspected the grown up feeling was probably spoiled a little by climbing into his car seat, so he stopped to watch as the little hands fastened his own seatbelt in place.

“You’re getting big,” Izuku explained, when Hiroki looked up at him questioningly. “We might need to get you a different seat soon.”

“Daddy said when I start school I get a proper booster seat,” Hiroki grinned. “No more big car seats, just a little one to make me taller!”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Izuku nodded, smiling fondly. “One with no back on it?”

“Uh-huh!”

“That’s exciting, not long left to go.”

“Just three more weeks!”

“Is it that soon? Wow, you are getting old.”

Hiroki giggled, and Izuku smiled at him again, reaching out to pet his hair fondly.

“You’re such a handsome boy. I never used to like the way I looked, until I saw you.”

“Papa likes that we look the same?”

“Mm-hm. I feel bad, making you put up with what I didn’t like, but you look so good like this. I’m jealous.”

“Nuh-uh, Papa is handsome too! I’m happy I got to look like you!”

“Thank you, sweetie. You’re always so kind, you’re amazing.”

“Papa too!”

“Thank you,” Izuku laughed, leaning in to kiss his cheek fondly. “Alright, I’d better drive. You gonna take care of our strawberries?”

“Yeah! The best care!”

“Perfect, thank you.”

─────

It was getting dark by the time Katsuki opened the front door, watching as Yuuto fought his shoes off in the doorway. With a little smile he kicked off his own, picking Yuuto up and slinging him over a shoulder before he headed for the stairs.

“Daaaad,” he whined, giggling all the same. “I can walk!”

“I thought your legs were tired.”

“They are! But Dad’s legs must be tired too!”

“Yeah,” Katsuki smiled faintly. “We’re gonna sleep well tonight, huh?”

“Yeah!”

He set Yuuto down when they reached the top of the stairs, watching fondly as he ran into the living room to find the others, and a bunch of excited babble began immediately -  he’d forgotten how lively the house was, how energetic his boys were.

“How was your day?” he asked, when Hiroki dove at him for hugs. “You have a good time with Deku?”

“The best!” Hiroki agreed, beaming from ear to ear. “You’re home late! We made dinner, do you want some?”

“You cooked for me? Wow, I’m the luckiest Dad ever.”

“Papa helped,” Hiroki laughed. “And there’s lots of strawberries for dessert! Nana went for dinner with Grampa though.”

“Oh, she did, huh?” Katsuki smirked, widening when Hiroki giggled. “Those two are inseparable, these days.”

“Do you think they’ll get married?”

“Hmm... I dunno, do you think they’d like that?”

“I think Nana just likes being with him,” Hiroki answered solemnly. “But Grampa has never been married before, so he might like it!”

“That’s true. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what they decide. Gotta be patient, no pushing them to do something.”

“I know,” Hiroki grinned. “I’m good at waiting, I’ll wait as long as it takes for them to decide they wanna! But do you think I can carry the ring at the wedding when they do?”

“You’re getting a bit ahead of yourself, kiddo.”

“I won’t say it to Nana,” Hiroki assured him. “But I can say it to you.”

“I’m sure if they decide to get married, they’ll let you carry the ring if you want to.”

“Yay!”

“But patience.”

“I know!”

He finally slid down from Katsuki’s grip, skipping back to the table to grab a bowl of strawberries, offering them to Katsuki and waiting patiently for him to take a couple before he dug in again himself. His fingers were already tinged pink from them, and Katsuki suspected they would stay that way for a few days.

Hiroki slid over, making room for Katsuki on the couch, who obediently sat down and dragged the boy into his lap. Just like always, though, Hiroki didn’t question it or complain, he just leaned happily into Katsuki’s chest and snuggle up with a smile.

“Wow, no wonder you’re home so late!” Izuku gushed, when Yuuto finished describing the second part of their climb. “You must have really liked it!”

“Yeah! There was sometimes that Dad had to carry me though, I gotta get bigger and stronger so next time he doesn’t gotta!”

“I thought maybe we could go rock-climbing tomorrow,” Katsuki suggested. “Hiro loves it, and I think Yuuto will too. You’ll come have a go too, right?”

“M-Me?” Izuku stuttered. “You can take the boys, I won’t be offended!”

“I am taking the boys,” Katsuki frowned. “I’m asking if you’ll come too. It’s a good workout, and you might enjoy it.”

“I’m not sure I’d be very good at it.”

“Don’t start this again,” Katsuki huffed. “You’ll do fine, I’ll help you. Besides, you’re twice the height of either of these two, you have a huge advantage.”

“Maybe I could come watch?”

“Don’t be such a big nerd. What lesson are you teaching our boys, huh? Don’t try if you might be bad?”

“No! Of course not!”

“You should come, Papa,” Yuuto mumbled, turning his head to bury in Izuku’s side. “I’ll be bad too until I learn. You just gotta try to learn.”

Izuku sighed, hugging him lightly, and finally conceded a nod.

“You’re right. I’m being kind of a hypocrite, aren’t I?”

“Uh-huh. It’s okay, I know Papa gets nervous.”

“You’re such a good boy.”

Izuku finally conceded a nod, sighing faintly, and Hiroki’s face lit up when he saw it.

“I’ll be the best teacher!” Hiroki promised. “Just like for pull ups!”

“You promise?” Izuku smiled. “You’re a good teacher.”

“Promise!” Hiroki grinned. “It’ll be so much fun!”

“Yeah, I’m sure it will.”

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