Natsuo Todoroki is a good doctor. As a good doctor, he makes a good salary. He has a nice car and owns a comfortable two bedroom apartment as a bachelor.
For the last two years, Natsuo has been hosting their family dinners.
Touya still lives with his roommate even though both of them certainly make enough to get their own apartments. His roommate, Tenko, is a bit of a jerk but so is Touya, so he guesses it works despite them both being alphas.
Fuyumi used to invite family over but ever since she started dating that Kudo guy, she's never invited them over again. Dad grumbles miserly about him and tends to hover over his only daughter but there haven't been an incidents… as far as they know.
Shouto still lives in the studio apartment he got when he immediately graduated. It's tiny and in a horrible location so after the first and last time they had dinner there, a fist fight broke out across the street. Both pro heroes had to get involved and it took two hours before everything was resolved. Dad keeps sliding apartment listings under Shouto's office door and Shouto slides divorce papers underneath his.
Dad cannot host for obvious reasons: Kotori still lives there. If they had dinner at Dad's house, she'd start steamrolling everyone. She'd complain why aren't they eating at an expensive restaurant, Touya should stop dating an alpha, Natsuo should give her friend a free check up, and Shouto I want grandkids!
It's not just a couple statements throughout the dinner, she literally takes over the conversation and makes it about her. When they were still kids, their mom manipulated them into believing their dad was a bad person. Back in those days, he was working so much that for a time, Shouto was convinced Dad had died in the line of duty. Kotori did nothing to refute Shouto's beliefs and it took Fuyumi consoling her sobbing brother for three hours before Touya finally got Dad on the phone.
So yeah, it's a whole mess and Natsuo is the only one who hosts. It's not so bad, really. Once a month, usually planned to be on a Wednesday but just about always moved to another day.
Today, it's just Dad, Touya, Shouto and him. Fuyumi can't make it (for the third month in a row) and isn't free anytime soon. She won't accept any offers to reschedule to any other days either, citing that everyone else has much more demanding jobs.
Touya is a horrible cook, so he brings some homemade futomaki and store-bought mochi ice cream. The futomaki is quite thick, its shiny seaweed hide just filled to bursting with whatever rice and veggies are inside.
Shouto is a decent cook. He's been a bachelor for so many years now that he's actually on the verge of being a good cook. He texted beforehand, asking if he had some essential kitchen ingredients. When pressed, Shouto admitted the he wanted to make steamed meat dumplings this time. He arrived an hour earlier, needing to prepare the dough before the food would be ready.
Dad brings the ingredients for tori katsu. He's not the best with most cooking but he's pretty good at barbecuing and frying. Whenever pressed about it, he says soemthing about a "devil in disguise named Gran Torino".
Natsuo is sweeping behind the kitchen counter when Shouto drops a bomb on them, in his casual, deadpan manner.
"Dad's been making a lot more chicken dishes than usual." Shouto says, cutting circles in the flattened out dough. Touya is prepping the rice cooker, not too far away.
"I never thought he liked chicken. He always goes for beef at the restaraunt." Natsuo pauses in his sweeping.
"He doesn't." Shouto's expression doesn't change.
"Shouto, darling," Touya leans over his shoulder, "are you telling me our dear old man is in love?"
Twitch of a lip.
"I can neither confirm nor deny." He solemnly says, pretty much confirming in Shouto-speak that yes, their father is in love with someone and cooks for them.
The bathroom flushes and everyone rushes to act natural. Enji pauses at the threshold of the door, noticing that something is amiss but doesn't say anything.
Like father, like son. The Todoroki family has always had a flair for the dramatics, never mind how much they pretend they don't.
It's closer to the end of their meal, only a couple bits and pieces left on the plates, when Enji drops a bombshell.
"Do you have any children Shouto?" Enji takes a bit of the cucmber salad.
Everyone pauses at the question, looking at Shouto.
"...not that I know about?" His eyes, which make him seem half-asleep or bored because of the downturned look, are wide open. "Why are you asking?"
"Mm." Enji swallows his food. "I was analyzing the kidnapping case when I noticed a very interesting pattern. Three siblings, all eight years old. One child has green and white hair with a frost quirk. Another child has green hair with a fire quirk. The third child has a temperature quirk with heterochromia. They look like you when they were young. Ringing any bells?"
Touya looks the cat that caught the canary, a smug shit-eating smile on his face. Natsuo is choking on a bit of pickled radish, dying over here and Shouto leans forward.
"Hm. That would've been when I was twenty. There's multiple possibilties." He trails off, staring at the table. He snaps his fingers, looking up, "Though, I do remeber this one omega. Long, green wild hair and a great ass. Very sweet. I don't know if I had sex with him because I was very drunk. Don't know his name or any other identifying details."
Enji nods. "Should I reach out to their parent or will you?"
Shouto looks away, getting red in the face. Touya begins to cackle. "Aw, is baby bro embarrassed?"
Shouto's fire side ignites while he reaches over and starts swatting Touya. Touya curls into a ball to protect his head but doesn't react to the flame-covered hand.
Enji sighs and pours a cup of sake for himself and Natsuo.
"I have a surgery tomorrow. I can't drink." Natsuo rasps, taking a sip of water instead.
Enji downs both cups like shot glasses. He sets them down with a firm clink. There's a twinkle in his eye, it says 'i like to pretend to be stoic and cold but actually i love taking the mickey out of everyone and no one ever realizes it'. Natsuo is very familiar with it after his dad grilled not one, not two, but three of his partners about safe sex but then acting clueless when asked about condoms. ''Kon-dum? What is that?' my ass,' Natsuo thinks, not trusting the old man for a second.
"Have you asked that nice neurosurgeon out on a date yet?" He asks, tone mischevious but face like a stone wall.
"Dad!" Natsuo slams his hands on the table.
Enji begins to laugh, covering his mouth with his hand. It took them a long time to get here, but Enji wouldn't trade his children for the world. (His wife though…)
Somewhere far, far away, a previously abandoned building explodes.
The kids stand and watch as the wave of heat sends the walls and roof falling, flinching away from the heat even standing so far away.
"Okay, I see why Amma says your quirk is the most destructive now." Atsu pats Chi-chi's shoulder.
Kuba, the oldest of the children, does that Catholic sign, crossing her heart. "At least, we didn't kill them. My soul couldn't bear the weight if we did."
The kidnappers, four of them, lie bound in metal restraints. Little Funai, only five years old, had a metal softening quirk that allowed them to easily bend the metal. Tamon, who had a soldering quirk, welded the edges together so the perps couldn't escape for sure.
"Okay," Kuba clapped her hands, bringing the attention of twenty-six children to her. "Follow me everybody!" She led her gaggle of ducklings into the forest. They left behind their captors (and the ghosts of the two missing children).
Izuku is eating in the neurosurgery staff room, absently scrolling through his patient's charts. The TV plays the news quietly as two of his residents take cat naps in their chairs.
"A strange disturbance on the outskirts of Ueno. Local residents claim that they saw bright light in the distance and a sound like thunder. Is it possible this was the work of villains? Tune in at 7 pm as our analysts dissect the strange light of Ueno." The newscaster reports, a plastic white smile glued on as he stares straight into the camera.
While techincally, strange lights in a town that is over two hours away from where the kids should have been camping, Izuku's instinct says to pay attention.
He spent his residency in the apocaplyptic wastes of North America, traveling with in a military van, getting shot at and shooting back. You get a sense for when an outcropping of rock is just a rock or a camoflaged sniper spot. Right now, his instinct is saying 'yep, those are my kids right there, causing trouble'.
He shoots off a quick text to Hioro.
Izuku:
>You should check out Ueno. It could be related to the kids. Mom sense are tingling🕷️
>If you don't, I will drive up there and check it out myself.
Placing his phone down, he only returns to his charts for a moment before the intercom starts playing: Neurosurgery to the ER. Neurosurgery to the ER .
"This day only gets better, doesn't it," He mutters as he throws his doctors' coat off. He waves off one resident to keep sleeping (she's pulling a 16-hour shift and those are hell) but motions for the other resident to follow him. It's good to keep them on their toes. Who knows what awaits them in the ER.