You Deserve it All

Chapter 7

BAKUGO'S POV

"Hey, ready for food?" I asked from the doorway to my bedroom. Deku was still lying in the center of my bed, nuzzled in my blankets. After we awoke from our nap, he refused to leave the bed.

"I missed your bed," he murmured. "It's comfortable, and it smells like you."

I walked to the bed and pulled the blanket off him. "Come on, Deku." When I reached for his hands, he didn't pull away. He didn't seem thrilled when I pulled him from the bed, but only last week, I had to practically drag him from his bed. I'll take this as a win.

Dragging him to a different country didn't seem like the best idea at the time, but I now have no regrets. He may not have been the happiest, but it was worth it in the end.

"Katsudon?"

"In the kitchen," I confirmed while pulling him to my closet. I reached in and grabbed the first shirt I touched. He smiled widely as I handed it to him. "Change and meet me downstairs. Do you want to eat in the kitchen, dining room, or living room?"

He thought about it before asking, "Do you still have the patio set outback? It's a nice day."

He wants to eat outside? He usually doesn't want to go outside at all. "Yeah. Change and meet me outback. What do you want to drink?"

"Water is fine," he said.

I leaned forward and kissed his forehead before walking from the room and heading downstairs. While he changed, I grabbed two glasses of water for us and took them outside. He was right. The sun was high in the sky, casting a warm glow over the backyard. A light breeze rustled the leaves of the trees, providing a welcome relief from the summer heat.

My large, empty backyard.

"What are you thinking about?" Deku asked from behind me. When I turned around, he was setting our bowls on the table. Before he could sit, I stepped over, grabbed his chair, and pushed it in as he sat down. "Thank you," he said.

"I was thinking about how empty the backyard is, by the way." Since the boys were only here for two or three months out of the year, I never bothered to do anything with it since we were rarely at home. But now, I'll have four kids living here. Daizen won't be here too much longer, but I still want something they can all enjoy.

"Well, you can install a pool, build a tree house, get a swing set or a trampoline. Daizen has outgrown a swing set, but he would probably enjoy everything else," he said.

"You think Daizen would enjoy a tree house?" I know the twins will, but I'm not sure about him.

"You don't? He's almost seventeen."

I raised a brow. "Yeah, I know how old all of our kids are."

He smiled like an idiot. Things may have gone south with our relationship, but he's still like another dad to them. The twins still call him Dad when they mention him. Daizen never had, but he still views him as a father.

"Well, Daizen is almost seventeen. We both know he smokes pot, parties probably more than he should, and he's sexually active." He took a bite of his food and swallowed before adding, "So, yeah. I think he would enjoy the treehouse."

"No treehouse," I said immediately. I get that Daizen is nearly seventeen and that everything is completely normal for kids his age, but I still think of him as the same kid who used to build forts with me in the living room and have hand-shadow performances. I want to protect that innocence for as long as I can.

"Or, we could finally have that talk with him."

I groaned because he wasn't wrong. "I'm bad at those talks." We've done the birds and the bees talk. We also had a serious talk after he got in the car with his drunk friend last summer, but we haven't talked about much else since then. Not in a serious setting like that.