Chapter Text
A six-year-old Toshinori fidgeted with the ribbon on the gift. It was Kudou's seventh birthday, and the party was held at his house. Nothing too big, just a simple birthday dinner with a racecar shaped cake.
“You can put the gift on that table over there,” Kudou’s mother said, gesturing to a table with a few gifts piled on it.
Sakura Kudou worked as a hairdresser and her husband, Hiro, was an electrician. The Shigaraki Twins had shown up with their mother, Hina, who happily began to chat with Masami. Bruce’s mother, an American woman, was sitting between them, occasionally interjecting.
Toshinori ignored them in favor of looking for Kudou, not that it was difficult, all he had to do was follow the sound of arguing. Kudou could be a bit bossy at times and while some where okay with it, it always led to an argument with Hisashi.
“I want to go left!” Hisashi argued from where they stood in the backyard.
“Well, I think we should go right,” Kudou argued as Yoichi stood between them, trying to play mediator.
“What’s going on?” Toshinori asked.
They all turned to him with varying degrees of excitement.
“Toshi-chan!”
“Yagi-kun.”
“Hey.”
“Ugh.”
Yoichi rushed forward and explained, “Oh, thank goodness you’re here Toshi-chan. You see, we decided to try and race each other, but all races need a track, so we were deciding where to go and then Nii-san and Syou-chan got into an argument.”
“Because the right is full of gravel. Yoichi could fall! The left is better for balance.”
“You’re just scared of tripping and losing.”
“Am not.”
“Are too.”
“Why don’t you just vote on it?” Toshinori asked.
Bruce was the one who chimed in, having been sitting at the picnic table they kept outside, sipping on a juice box as he watched the argument. “I said that, but His Majesty said it wouldn’t be fair because I would just side with Kudou-kun. Which I would.”
They used royal terms to refer to Hisashi as a joke after finding out he could be even bossier than Kudou, then kept doing it because he didn’t realize they were joking, which made it funnier.
“Do we have to race? Hide-and-seek could be fun too. I can be the seeker,” he offered.
Knowing how the two argued, they could be there all day, and Toshinori would rather play any kind of game he could before he had to leave. He preferred sports but...
“I love hide-and-seek,” Yoichi squealed.
“Hide-and-seek is more fun than racing,” Hisashi agreed.
“Yeah, it’s really fun,” Kudou said.
Bruce rolled his eyes but nodded his agreement. They quickly established the rules and Toshinori covered his eyes and counted down from ten.
“3, 2, 1, ready or not, here I come,” he called out.
The sliding door to the backyard led into the kitchen which he gave a brief glance over before moving on, as it was too open spaced and full of adults to be a proper hiding place. He didn’t bother asking the adults for help as it would be against the rules, and breaking rules was something Hisashi would do.
He checked the living room, but it didn’t have very many hiding places besides the curtains, which had nothing behind them. There was no one in the bathroom either, but on his way to search the bedrooms, he heard a small thump from the coat closet. He paused and put his ear to the door, allowing him to hear another thump followed by a hiss of pain.
He threw the door open, a proud smile on his face, “Found you!” he exclaimed.
Yoichi pouted, crossing his arms. “I bumped into that stupid vacuum and then hit my ankle on that toolbox.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, but I wish I didn’t lose so easily.”
“You can come with me to look for the others if you want,” Toshinori offered, not wanting Yoichi to feel bad.
He shook his head, “No way, you just want me to tell you where everyone else is.”
“What? No, that’s cheating. I would never. I just don’t want you to be bored while I find everyone else.”
“Oh, okay,” Yoichi agreed.
-
Soon after they found Bruce. Well, not found so much that he gave up because he got hungry and went to the kitchen to get a snack.
“Okay, all that’s left is Kudou-kun's room since we’re not allowed in his parent’s room, and the front yard,” Toshinori muttered to himself as he pushed the door open, Yoichi following silently.
There was no one under the bed or the desk, which meant the only place left was the closet. However, just as he went to investigate, Yoichi tripped over a toy car that had been left on the floor and fell with a cry of pain.
Kudou and Hisashi seemed to teleport into thin air with how fast they ran out, rushing to comfort him.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” he said, waving them off, “It doesn’t hurt that bad. I can still walk, see?”
Reassured that he was okay, Toshinori decided to ask, “Why were you two hiding in there together?”
“I was originally hiding under the bed, but it was too dusty, so I went to the closet, and he was there. Of course, he can’t clean right,” Hisashi added, much to Kudou’s annoyance, but held back from saying anything.
As the four made their way back, Toshinori couldn’t help but overhear an interesting conversation between Kudou and Yoichi.
“I hate how your brother is always being mean to me.”
“Don’t worry my hero, when we get married, he’ll have to be nice to you.”
Did I hear that right?
“Yeah, I can’t wait to marry you.”
Apparently, he did. For the next hour while they played games, he would hear them talking about marriage and their wedding, which was very confusing as he thought only adults could get married, but then he realized that they must be playing a game. Normally, he would be angry at being left out, but he didn’t enjoy marriage games as much as others did, so he didn’t mind. Although, after being told that marriage was for adults, it certainly felt odd to hear people his own age talking about it.
Eventually it was time to cut the cake and they all ran with excitement to the dinner table, each child sitting with their respective parent(s).
“Okay Syouji, make a wish,” his mother said, holding her phone up to record.
He blew out the candles then turned to Yoichi, who had chosen to sit next to him, and smiled. “I wished for a kiss.”
“Okay,” Yoichi agreed, leaning in.
Gasps erupted from around the table as Hisashi pulled his twin back and Sakura turned off her camera to grab her son. It was then that Toshinori realized that they might have been serious after all. The two boys were pulled away to the living room for a talk, but thankfully everyone else was served cake by Kudou’s sheepish looking father, so he didn’t mind. And Kudou had enjoyed his gift, a Lego set of cars, so all in all, it was a good day.
As he began his goodbyes, he overheard another interesting conversation.
“Sorry we can’t get married Yo- Shigaraki-kun,” said a dejected Kudou.
“It’s not like we can’t, we just have to wait. Until then, you can keep calling me Yo-chan. After all, we’re still friends,” he said, holding his arms out for a hug.
“Yeah, we are,” Kudou agreed as he returned the hug.
Toshinori smiled at the sight before turning to grab his mother’s hand. It looked like he would have to think of a good wedding gift.