Memories

Theodora Flint-Shouldering The World

The more time I spent with Mrs. Bakugou, the more I saw how passionate she was. We went to multiple stores, expensive and thrifts. She went on and on about how certain outfits wouldn't work with my eyes or hair. How expensive fabrics were and how beautiful my skin was. I learned as we walked that she owned her own fashion business and that she hated buying anything from it.

"Sure! It's handy and promoting my business, but there are smaller chains that are wonderful and never get recognized," she told me. She was a blunt women, walking into a room like she owned it.

She tried her best not to snap and yell at "useless" workers, but I tried to ignore that. She told me about her life with my father and her husband. How she worked most of his childhood and that his father was too timid to do much with their son. She was just as feisty as Ground Zero, just as rough. He was never the type to be anything of the sort.

They fought a lot, she told me. They fought his whole childhood. Insults and name calling, pranks and bullying. It wasn't until my father found out about the restaurant and I-that he wanted them to get along for good. No fighting. No yelling.

That's when the dreaded question came up.

"Did you get along with your mother? What was she like?"
My nails dug into my palms. "She was good. She worked a lot," I answered with a dry mouth.
"Where did she work?" Mrs. Bakugou pulled a blue dress off a rack.
"An antique store," I answered shortly. I unclenched my hands and busied myself with the dresses in front of us. We were in a small scale store, employees eyeing both of us.
"Old fashioned, huh?" she shrugged slightly.
"What do you mean?" I turned to her.
"You dress rather formal, old fashioned," she cleared up. "Beat up sweaters and formal slacks."
"Oh, yeah. That's just kinda how we've always dressed," I explained. "I stuck out a lot in school because of it, but no one ever bothered me."
"Is that how you want to dress for the Hero Meeting?" she asked me. "I'm sure we can find something your style."

I thought for a second. I wasn't sure if I wanted to. I wasn't sure I didn't want to. My mother chose what I wore because she liked to. She had fun dressing me up. Brushing my hair, doing make-up. None of that was really my speed, but she liked it.

"We can do both," I decided. "Try the old fashioned and the new fashioned."

We ended up buying a red, off the shoulder dress that went to my knees. Mrs. Bakugou wanted me to dress formal but not too formal, so it looked like a more summer dress then anything.

When we finished shopping, she pulled me into a small cafe that she liked. It served all kinds of tea and snacks, which she ordered plenty of.
"I'm a little shocked," she gave a half-hearted chuckle. I raised a brow over the side of my cup. "The press would have normally come and hounded us already." I blinked, setting my cup down and looked around. She laughed.
"You're so..." she sighed. "You're so...odd...In a good way, but odd," she leaned onto her hand. "When I imagined my son having children, or a child, I always thought of the picket fence and the trophy wife. But this..." she sucked on her teeth, "is just so Katsuki like." I felt the need to apologize. "He was never one for marriage and never one for love, so I should have given up on the thought of him and kids, but this is just so perfect for him. It'll teach him something."
"How?" the word slipped before I could hold it on my tongue.
"I love Katsuki and I love his life, but he has never had something personal to him. It was always work, work, work-or school, school, school-or whatever. He always ran forward, no caring about himself or his life," she continued. "I, like many, watched the villain fight on TV. He acted differently. So much more careful. He didn't charge or go in recklessly. I'm his mother and every mother knows their son, and he wasn't think about how he could take down the villain quickly or how he could show off. He was being nagged by something. That's the reason Deku swooped in when he could. Deku reads him like a book and he took the worry from Katsuki's mind as the villain fell. He'd never tell you this but he wasn't mad that Deku took down the villain."

I thought back to the night prior. He was frustrated, pissed off maybe, but he wasn't mad. It seemed like was carrying the world on his shoulders while he drank his beer.

A uncomfortable weight settled in my stomach.