Puppet Master

Let's Design A Costume!

*Knock... Knock Knock... Knock*

Shouta looked up from his laptop. Hitoshi's head popped out of the hallway.

"Excited?"

Hitoshi came out, crossing his arms. "No."

Shouta rolled his eyes. Yeah right. You've been talking about this since Izuku's parents said yes three days ago. Shouta closed his laptop and got up, leaving it on the coffee table. He crossed the apartment to the door and opened it.

"Hey, kid."

Izuku looked up at him. "Hey, Sho!" Shouta smirked and ruffled the greenette's hair. He moved out of the way. "Hitoshi is in the living room." A beat. "You can go in." Izuku nodded and entered the house with Kirishima who was apparently the boy's "artist." Shouta turned back to Mr. and Mrs. Kirishima.

Mr. Kirishima chuckled. "We are still working on social cues with him." Shouta hummed. "That's fine. Thank you for letting him and Kirishima come over."

"Thank you for having them," Mrs. Kirishima smiled. "It gives us a good chance to get some alone time." Shouta hummed. "That's good. I'll take good care of them. Is there anything I should know before you two go?"

Mr. Kirishima shook his head knowingly. "Today has been a pretty good day I'd say. Izuku didn't have a nightmare last night and both he and Eijiro have been really looking forward to this."

Shouta looked over his shoulder at the three boys who were fawning over the cats. "You..." he looked back at the adults. "Your family has been really a blessing for Izuku. If you had seen him when we first got Izuku off of the streets compared to now you would not have been able to recognize him." The couple smiled. "He has been a blessing to us as well," Mrs. Kirishima chirped. "He has really brought out the best in all of us whether he knows it or not. I think our family really came together when Izuku came into our lives."

Shouta nodded. "I'm glad you stuck with him."

Mr. Kirishima smiled. "Us too. He still has a lot of nightmares and mental and emotional scarring but I think he has really grown." The man chuckled. "I sound like a doting father."

Shouta raised an eyebrow. "That is what you are, isn't it?"

The man laughed. "You are right about that!"

Shouta hummed. "Well, I'll leave you to it. I will take care of them well."

He closed the door and turned back to the boys.

-----

'Hey, Sho!'

-----

Izuku sounded so happy. He even smiled. Or, well, 'smiled.' He tried really hard but it was still good to see that sort of expression after the last time they had seen each other was at the entrance exam and that went about as well as that could considering what happened.

Speaking of which... Shouta's eyes trailed to the redhead's lower arms. The boy had visible backlash that appeared in the form of jagged scars. Shouta shook his head and walked over.

Hitoshi looked up at him. "Can we start?"

"Yeah," he replied. "Let's move to the dining room table." And they did, all gathering around it. Because Kirishima was going to be their "artist" he sat in the middle with Izuku on his left and Hitoshi on the right. Shouta sat across from them.

"Let's make sure we are all on the same page before we start this because hero costumes are important." Shouta looked at the two boys. "I know that when we agreed on your training with us, Izuku, you and Hitoshi said that you wanted to be partners. I am just making sure that is still how you two want it because if you make a name for yourselves as a duo when you become pro's then it will be very hard to change that.