If I Had One Wish

Chapter Fifty One

Chapter Fifty One - Mothers 

You will grow all you need to grow inside my spine

And then take what you need to take, what's yours is mine

And then just give all you want of it to some new thing

I'll stay here, the provider of that constant sting they call love

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Inko and Izuku sat together after dinner much like they did when he was a child, side by side on the couch in front of the TV with mugs in each hand and snacks before them on the coffee table, a warm fuzzy blanket draped over Inko's lap. But it wasn't the same in this house with its large, overbearing walls and shadows in the corners. With the stiff, white couch with cushions made of what felt like leather and the TV that expanded larger than their vision.

They sat in silence, huddled close together like they were embracing each others warmth to escape the frigid arms of their surroundings. The supposed man of the house had to leave after their meal, bidding farewell with a kiss to his wifes mouth. Izuku felt like he was watching a sitcom, not two people in love, the soundtrack of replayed laughter heard.

This entire life was a mirage and he felt like an outsider up in the stands of those shitty sitcoms, laughing when cued even if the joke wasn't funny, staring blankly before himself. Was his house always so empty? Did goosebumps always raise on his flesh when his father trailed behind him, a hand on his shoulder in farewell, his body uneasy with his presence. Tracking the lies in his words; the attempts to keep him blinded.

He didn't know these people and he wanted to break free of this damned loop. This dollhouse with painted faces and a mirage of innocence and perfection.

"Mama?" He said softly, a teasing lilt to his voice as he used the childish nickname. One arm rested over the top of the couch and he glanced sideways at her, waiting patiently as she lowered her cup of coffee to glance at him with a smile of her own that looked tired and worn.

"Izuku." She replied in the same tone, voice softer. Her eyes held such affection for her boy who had seemingly grown into a man in the blink of an eye. Her face was the only one that no longer looked like a stranger to him, with the shadow of an enemy gone he could finally see who she really was. The lines of her face showing age, roots of her hair starting to shoot through with strands of grey, lacing into the deep evergreen hair wound into a loose bun. She was beautiful.

"Are you really happy?" He whispered, the cacophony of speech from the television in the background seemingly fading away as he grew smaller beside her, forever her child no matter how grown he had, or thought he had, become. She sighed, knowing what he was asking of her. Setting down her cup upon the glass coffee table, marble coaster clicking against ceramic, she spoke.

"Of course I am, Izuku. I just," A pause as she sat back and breathed in, shifting the cover on her legs. "I feel homesick, I suppose, since we sold the apartment. This house is everything a woman could ask for but it feels un-lived in and-"

"Cold." He finished for her and Inko nodded, a faint smile over her lips. He had gotten his softness from her, those gentle features and mannerisms. He drank his own coffee, far more bitter than hers, as she went on.

"I can tell he's trying to fix what he did, leaving us while you were so young, and he's doing wonderfully. I'm happy, I'm taken care of but-" She cut off, as if she didn't even know why she felt unsettled. She was so honest with her son, for her to cut off so abruptly meant she truly didn't know yet. Izuku rests his scarred hand above hers in her lap, letting her hold his hand, squeezing lightly with both hands with a feather light laugh. "It takes some getting used to, that's all."