Chapter Text
The chair on the front porch isn’t the most comfortable thing in the universe, but it does the job of giving Shouta a place to sit and keep an eye on the kids and the coops. That kid’s still awake. I wonder what’s keeping him up. Izuku passes back in front of the windows three times in as many minutes, either he forgot multiple things upstairs or he’s trying not to pace as much as he usually does.
Most of the kids are so exhausted they aren’t even making it through dinner. Watching Denki nearly faceplant into his potatoes had been the highlight of the evening. Though the light scolding that Tenya had given him had been interesting to watch as well.
Shouta watches the lights flicking off one by one. His sitting out here was purely precautionary at this point. He’s gotten to know the kids in the last few weeks, they’re not stupid kids. Sure, lacking in the wisdom department, but time would (hopefully) fix that. They took him seriously overall. That was a good thing about being an honest man, when he could back up the little promises it made them believe the big ones.
The moon was already getting higher, he could see it over the bunkhouse already. I have to go to bed soon, or I won’t be able to herd the kids tomorrow. It wasn’t that late, but he’d have to be up sooner than he wanted to. He’d still be drowning himself with coffee in the morning either way, but at least he’d be up and about earlier.
But still, I miss the stars.
It was later than he’d been up in a while, months, actually. In the city, he’d spent more than his fair share of time awake, under the filtered stars of the city. Out in the cold of the unfeeling city. But here he was, standing guard under the stars like he never had before. But he’d have to go inside soon, he couldn’t spend all his time in the dark of the night, with only the light of the moon and stars to see by.
Just a couple of months ago I had never seen stars like this, and here I am thinking about how I miss them just from watching them for a couple weeks. Shouta laughs at himself. He gets used to things a little too quickly for his own good.
Out in the darkness, he can see the soft blue from the scarecrow moving around. It passes the coop and goes into the barn, only to quickly leave and head towards the fields. Shouta knew it was late, but for the scarecrow to already be moving around in areas where he could see it it must be later than he thought.
The scarecrow’s moving around a lot tonight. I wonder what it’s doing? Groaning, Shouta gets off the chair and wanders closer to the railing. He couldn’t see the scarecrow any better with his new vantage point, but it got the blood moving again and reminded him of the general aches and pains he had at the end of a long day.
Helping or harming, though it’s been doing an awful lot of chores to be harming. If possible the scarecrow had actually been fixing more things now that there were students on the farm.
Maybe it just wants help with fixing up the farm before killing us all. Shouta snorts as the thought passes his head. That's kinda messed up, I should probably go to sleep now before my brain comes up with any other terrible, strange ideas.
The glow from the scarecrow is just barely visible through the brush and fields, though if you didn’t know to look for it, it would probably be indistinguishable from the light of the moon.
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Looks like the scarecrow's moved his post again, I wonder why he moves it so often? Shouta notes as he looks out his bedroom window to find the scarecrow no longer out there.
The only thing that got regular use anymore in the kitchen of the farmhouse was the coffeemaker. And that was in near-constant use. The nice thing about having hordes of teenagers passing through his house nearly all day every day meant that the coffee was usually fresh and there was always at least half a pot left behind. The coffee was burnt, but it was still warm, and it was enough to last until the first pot he brewed this morning was done.
Maybe he just likes the change in scenery during the day.
Looks like those two are awake already, I thought it was supposed to be impossible to wake teenagers up early. He watches the early morning activities of the early-riser teens, Tenya and Katsuki. Both appear to already be perky and ready to pick fights based on Tenya’s handwaving.
Shouta almost, almost, wonders what the two early risers talk about while they both do their stretches, but really it’s probably just the two of them showboating and complaining about lack of gym equipment.
There goes Iida on his morning run. The kid always ran like he was being chased, high speeds and no breaks at all during his run. Shouta had overheard him mention once that he liked to do at least one lap around the farm, which was probably impossible to do every morning. Then again with the way the kid ran, it might be possible. No idea where he gets the energy for that.
And there's Bakugou doing some kind of strength training out front. Katsuki was a weird kid, always somewhere between completely calm and completely furious. He acted like nothing affected him, but if it didn’t enrage him then it hurt his feeling, and that enraged him. It was a terrible cycle really.
Maybe the rage came from all the hot food he made, you could probably only eat so much spicy food before it started affecting your attitude. He was a pretty good cook when you could convince him to cut back on the spice level. He seemed to want to burn peoples’ tongues off when left to his own devices.
That kid was the only one that had a pretty decent relationship with the chickens too, and he was the only one. The chickens hated everyone but that kid. Shouta was fairly certain it’s because when Katsuki threatened to eat them he was actually serious.
Shouta notes some movement through the windows at this point, Mina is dancing in the kitchen while she cooks. Mina’s making breakfast, it’s either going to be delicious or a disaster.
Aizawa definitely didn’t just see Mina fall or the massive splash of whatever she had been mixing going up and probably all over. A disaster then. He drinks his coffee and tries to modify his mental timetable of when breakfast will be ready.
Katsuki is doing something that looks like the demented cousin of pushups. Is he just going to move that inside when winter comes or is he going to keep going that in the snow? Cause he'll probably die if he tried to do pushups in the snow.
There goes Izuku, how the hell is that kid up so early when I know for a fact he went to sleep later than I did.
Izuku pauses in the door on his way out of the bunkhouse, apparently talking to someone who’s still inside. When he gets all the way out he apparently says something to Katsuki, but based on the way he shrinks back the other boy probably cussed him out again. Bakugou being a prick again, Jesus I hope I don't have to talk to him about anger management.
It was something that he would need to talk about with the kid sooner or later, but he was hoping to push it as far into the ‘later’ category as he could. That's just a whole thing waiting to happen.
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Shouta enjoyed talking with his friends, oftentimes they could just skip the pleasantries and get right down to what was going on and what was interesting to them at the time.
"It's a little strange to not crave cigarettes as much as I usually do." He was telling them, his addiction was something he’d been fighting on and off for right around a decade. When smoking stopped being cool and started feeling like a chore.
"Not even a little?" Nemuri asked, genuinely curious.
"Well, I mean, a little. But not enough to actually bother going into town and getting some for myself." Shouta answered instead. He’d gone through the two half packs he’d found when packing right after the living scarecrow discovery. But it had been different to smoke on the farm. There wasn’t an ever-present smell of it in the air. There weren’t people across the street also on their smoke break. There was nothing here that encouraged smoking, nothing that said, ‘It’s okay, you’re not alone, you’re not the only one doing this.’
"That's new, but smoking is a nasty habit anyway, it's probably better to rid yourself of it," Nemuri said over Shouta’s introspection, but he couldn’t find it much in him to be upset.
"No shit, Nem.” He laughs, “Anyway, how's Hizashi dealing?"
"There are good days and bad days, I think he misses being your foil. He definitely isn't going out and partying as much." Nemuri says, she must have put him on speakerphone because he can hear the rasp as she files her nails over the phone.
"Considering he's almost thirty-one. I'd hope he's not partying as much, you can only keep that lifestyle up for so long and he has to be near the end of his rope." Shouta says back, leaning in his chair, thinking about going inside.
"Yeah well don't tell him that, he'll have an aneurysm or something." Nemuri laughs.
"He would too." Shouta sighs.
Shouta and Nemuri sit in companionable silence for a little while. This is what Shouta had always liked about her, she didn’t mind the silence and he didn’t mind her presence in the silence.
"Hey, what are you doing up so late for anyway?” She asks suddenly, “I thought you rose and set with the sun these days?"
"I'm just keeping an eye on the kids for a bit.” He answers, “I told you one of my major rules is 'no leaving the house after dark or else' so at very least I'm trying to act as a deterrent for long enough for them to realize I'm serious."
"How's that been going?" Nemuri asks after giving him a couple of breaths to expand on that if he wants.
"Not well.” Shouta answers then pauses, finally elaborating, “Well, most of the kids aren't going to sleep around dusk but at least they're finally starting to figure out their limits."
"Their limits huh?" Nemuri purrs, aiming for way over sexual to get a laugh out of him.
"Not that way you perv.” She succeeded and he does laugh, “Like the kids are figuring out what time they should be in bed if they have to be up at dawn, or figuring out that they need to nap in the afternoon if they're going to be up most of the night." He kinda wishes he had a smoke if only for something to do with his hands.
"Well, I suppose that is a good thing.” She hums, politely interested. Shouta knows it’s an act. “And how about the rotating meal schedule?"
"That's going less well, some of these kids are pretty good in a kitchen. Remember the quote 'Explosive blond' I was telling you about?"
"He's got a nasty temper right?" Nemuri says after a moment of thought.
"It's pretty bad. But I think the regular schedule and the hard work are helping him calm down. Maybe. He’s still a dick but he hasn’t punched any holes in anything so I’m counting that as a win. But anyway, so this kid is like, a master level chef, he had one of the girls helping him. Basically made a feast, enough for dinner and lunch the next day. Other than the fact that it was all spicier than hell I would have gladly paid to have more of it."
"How good/spicy are we talking?" Nemuri asks, she wasn’t a huge fan of spicy food but if it was good enough she’d eat it.
"Literally chugging milk with every other mouthful, but still ate two full plates that night."
"And you're not a wimp when it comes to spice either! How'd the other kids do?" Nemuri is now actually interested.
"Izuku and Bakugou ate it without any problems. At least three of the kids were all but sobbing as they were eating it." Shouta laughs.
"That's terrible, why did the kid make it so spicy?" Nemuri laughs with him.
"Here's the funny part, I asked him the same thing: He said it was 'mild.'" Shouta says.
"No! Seriously?" Nemuri gasps, laughing harder.
"That's exactly what I was thinking. We had a 'short' discussion afterward about taking other people's palets into consideration when cooking, but I really don't think he was listening." Shouta shakes his head, “He’s a good kid at heart, listens to most directions, he just wants to do things ‘his way.’”
"These kids can't be doing too bad if he's the first example you had in mind." Nemuri isn’t pleading but she’s hoping for better at this point.
"He was the 'best' example. Most of these kids aren't used to cooking for a crowd, a few of them I don't think have ever even stepped foot into a kitchen before." Sighing Shouta gets up for a lap of the deck.
"That can't be good."
"Nope! Have I told you about the disaster breakfast?" He looks at the bunkhouse kitchen from his place on the deck. There might still be specs on the ceiling from that debacle. Though it might be from whatever went flying from Mina’s mess this morning.
"This sounds like I'm going to need a beer to even hear it." Nemuri groans.
"You're not wrong, let me tell you that." Shouta pauses, then when he hears Nemuri’s little, ‘go on’ noise he continues. "So this kid, Kamanari, he can be really clever every now and then, but at the same time, it's like his brain just goes on short vacations sometimes and leaves him there looking like a complete idiot. So the other day was his turn to make breakfast, I know for a fact he was up more than early enough to make it, for some reason though when I went over to see how close to done he was it looked like the kitchen had exploded." He tacks on an explosion noise just to make sure she gets the point.
"Exploded?" Nemuri sounds aghast.
"That's right, this kid somehow got pancake batter all over the counters, floor, walls, cabinets, as well as the oven."
"HOW?" Nemuri yells.
"Kid didn't have an answer, just looked at me like a deer in the headlights." Shouta laughs.
"So what'd you do?" Nemuri asks.
"Helped him clean up and then finish making breakfast."
"You're too nice sometimes." Nemuri sighs at him.
"Yelling at him wouldn't have helped. He already knew he'd messed up, if I had yelled he probably would have cried and run off or something and I would have been left to make breakfast alone. As it was we had a halfway cooked meal by the time the rest of the kids finished their chores so it wasn't as bad as it could have been." Shouta says.
Another long pause and then Nemuri asks, "Well. I suppose. It's getting kinda late Shouta, shouldn't you be getting to bed soon?"
"Probably, that one kid's light is still on and I'm a little worried."
"The kid will be fine, they're probably taking the chance to play video games or something while it's nice and quiet there." Nemuri soothes.
"You're probably right, I just want them all doing their best, you know?" Shouta says.
"Yes, you're an incurable mother hen. Now go to bed so you can properly mother hen all your students in the morning." Nemuri lightly scolds.
"Fine, fine. Goodnight Nemuri, talk to you same time next week?" Shouta play sighs.
"Sounds good to me, Shouta. Sleep well." Nemuri sighs and the phone clicks to indicate the call is over.
Shouta sighs into the night, before dragging himself back inside. Izuku was still up and moving, but that kid would probably never go to sleep at this rate.
He can’t see the scarecrow or its post. Maybe it's going to set up far, far away from the house and the bunkhouse and he can rest easy for a little while.