Why do children have to be so small?

Arcade dates

I head back home about an hour after the sun’s up. The apartment door is open, Hitoshi probably forgot to lock it. The stool in front of the door has been moved, so Hizashi is home. I sneak inside. It’s six am, so I can probably get about an hour or two of sleep before breakfast. I open the door to the bedroom. The small night light in the corner is on, of course. Otherwise it’s completely dark. It smells weird too. Like… alcohol. I sigh and get undressed. He’s been out drinking. Stupid man. I crawl under the cover and look at them. Hizashi’s face is red, stained from tears. Actually, no, he’s crying in his sleep. I carefully put a hand on his cheek, drying his tears. I look at Hitoshi, tightly squeezed between his arms. He seems calm though. His arms… he has a bandage around his left forearm. Did he hurt himself while drunk? Or on purpose? I don’t dare to remove it myself, in case it starts bleeding. I’ll have to ask in the morning. Or rather, force him to tell me. But for now, I need to sleep. I give them a kiss each before I close my eyes.

The first thing I do when I get up is check the papers where I left them. Where I left them, on the living room table… they’re not there.
“Calm down, I’m signing them right now.”
I turn around to face Hizashi, sitting at the kitchen table with the papers. I walk over to him. He seems a lot more like… himself, than yesterday.
“You went out drinking.”
“Yes, I did. I had to do something.”
“And…?”
I nod towards the bandage on his arm.
“Oh, uh… I got a tattoo.”
“A tattoo? Hizashi, that’s-”
“Illegal, I know. But… I had to do it. I had to feel some kind of pain, some kind of punishment, but I didn’t want an ugly scar.”
He starts unwrapping the bandage to reveal a tattoo on his forearm. It’s… a cat, surrounded by lavender flowers, like a frame.
“Hm. A cat.”
“No, not just any cat. Look closer.”
I do as he says. The cat has red, almost glowing eyes, and the fur seems to be standing straight up.
“It’s… me?”
Hizashi nods.
“And the flowers are Hitoshi. Look at the color.”
He’s right, the color of the flowers is the exact same shade as Hitoshis hair. I smile a little.
“You are extremely stupid, you know that right?”
“Yeah, I’m aware.”
“I can’t believe I’m marrying you, stupid man.”
I raise my hand and slap him across the face. He doesn’t seem to mad about it.
“That’s what you get for 1) trying to throw a cup at me, 2) trying to stab me with a kitchen knife, 3) drinking at 2 am and 4) getting a tattoo!”
“Yeah, I deserved that…”
“I shouldn’t even forgive you! I should break up with you, take Hitoshi and the cats and leave!”
“I know…”
“...But I will. But! If you try any of this one more time, I will do it, I swear.”
“I know.”
“I can’t believe I’m marrying a fucking moron.”

I sleep through my alarm. I even managed to sleep through Hizashi’s loud entrance. I only wake up when both Hizashi and Hitoshi jump on top of my stomach. It seems like both of them decided that it was time for a cuddle session. I put my arms  around them.
“My boys…”
I yawn and look at them. Both of them look up at me with the same puppy eyes.
“Did you practice this or something?”
“Maaaaybeeee?”
Hizashi pouts, begging for attention.
“Again, I can't believe I’m marrying a moron.”
I kiss his forehead.
“Hey, I’m really sorry about yesterday, I…” he sighs. “I overreacted.”
“Yes, you did. Stupid man. Coming at me with a knife when you know I’m better at close combat? It was basically suicide.”
He smiles.
“You don’t have to tell me. I’m better at long range though.”
“You are probably the most stupid man I’ve ever met.”
“I’m better at English too!”
“I know, stupid man! Stop trying to prove yourself!”
I ruffle his long, newly washed hair, making it tangled. He smiles up at me with his large, white teeth. I remember when we started UA, and he still had braces. It looked ridiculous. Apparently he had had very crooked teeth before. I can't imagine that now.
“Hey. How about we go on a date?”
Hizashi blushes. He looks… shocked.
“A date? Now?”
“Yes now. C’mon, get dressed. You too, ‘Toshi. We’re all going.”

We arrived at the mall at 6.30 pm. We ate dinner in the food court. Now I’m dragging Hizashi and Hitoshi up the stairs to the top floor. The arcade. Me and Hizashi used to go there a lot during our first year at UA. It’s been a while though. I open the doors to the arcade. It’s changed a bit. Some of the games have been switched out, and there’s new lightning. It’s mainly lit up by black lights. A lot of the games are painted with neon paint, so they glow in the dark.
“The arcade?”
“Yes, the arcade. Are you disappointed?”
“Of course not, just surprised.”
“Hey! Daddy, papa, I wanna play that one!”
Hitoshi points to a game that looks like a huge piano. That one surely wasn’t there when we were in high school.
“Calm down, we need to get tokens before we can play.”
I grab his hand again and walk over to the counter. I hand the employee enough money for at least thirty tokens.
“We’ll get more if they run out.”
I hand Hitoshi a couple of tokens, and he runs to the game he pointed to, dragging Hizashi with him. I start strolling around the arcade, looking at the prizes in all the games. Most are hero related, mainly All Might. It wasn’t very long since he had his debut, but he’s already very popular. All Might plushies, All Might shirts, All Might masks… something catches my eye. A claw machine. I walk up to it and look around in the pile of prizes. It’s mainly hero plushies. And there, in the corner, half buried under two All Might plushies, is a plushie with blond hair standing straight up, wearing a leather jacket. It’s a Present Mic plushie. I quickly insert a token. The machine tells me I have two tries. Okay, here we go. I move the claw with the joystick. I have to move the other plushies on top before I can go for the Present Mic one. I click the red button, and the claw machine goes down. It grabs one of the All Might plushies. Okay, I’ll take it. Two plushies are better than one. The machine gives me an extra go, for free. Sure thing, sure thing. But I’m not leaving without the Present Mic plushie. I quickly run out of tries. I guess the first one was luck. I insert another token and try again. Still can’t reach it. I have to move the other All Might plushie. But I don’t want another one… I sigh and try again. It grabs onto the other All Might plushie and drops it down to the little box where you receive your prize. But who do I give this to…? I spot a kid wearing a All Might onesie. I bet they’d enjoy it. I walk up to the kid and carefully poke their shoulder. The kid turns around to me. It’s the boy from Hitoshis class, with messy green hair. I think he called him Izuku, but I’m not sure.
“Hey, kid, you’re friends with Hitoshi, right? He’s in your class.” The boy nods at me with large eyes.
“I accidentally won an All Might plushie that I don’t need… do you want it?”
The boy’s eyes become even larger, if possible. He nods enthusiastically. I give him the All Might plushie.
“Thank you so much, sir!”
Without hesitating, he rushes up and hugs me. I stiffen up a bit, but it’s not much different from Hitoshis hugs. Izuku is just a bit smaller. A woman, a bit older than me, walks up to us. I look up at her. She shares the same dark green hair as Izuku. It must be his mother. Izuku lets go of me and goes to his mom instead. I stand up.
“You must be Mrs. Midoriya. I’m Shota Aizawa, Hitoshi Shinso’s dad.”
The woman smiles at me and shakes my hand.
“Inko Midoriya. Is Hitoshi here?”
“Yeah, he’s here with me and my hu- boyfriend.”
She doesn’t seem to react.
“Hitoshi told me about the time his dad saved him from a box out in the cold.”
“Yeah, that would be me…”
“I’m just glad you found him. He seems happy with you.”
A small smile forms on my lips.
“He is. We’re actually-”
“Kacchan, wait up!”
Izuku starts running across the arcade floor. I follow him with my eyes. He’s running towards that other kid, the aggressive one with the light blond hair. I believe his name was Katsuki.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, I have to go…”
“Don’t worry.”
I smile at her as she leaves to look after her child. God, it’s so odd to be out and… socialize. Make friends with fellow adults and parents. The only friends I ever had were Hizashi, Tensei and Nemuri. I walk back to the claw machine. I hope I didn’t seem creepy.

After another ten tokens, I finally have the Present Mic plushie in my hands. I start looking for Hizashi and Hitoshi. I find them at one of the karaoke games, both singing their hearts out. Hitoshi doesn’t know the words or the melody, but he’s doing his best anyways. The song ends and they receive their scores. Hizashi’s score is a lot higher, but Hitoshi seems happy anyways. I tap their shoulders and they turn around. I hand the plushies I won to Hitoshi. His eyes widen and jaw drops. It takes him a few seconds to process what just happened. Then he hugs me.
“Thank you, daddy.”
I crouch down and hug him back. I guess he enjoyed my gift.
“It took me eleven tokens so this better be worth it.”
He nods against my chest.
“I love it. Thank you.”