Chapter Text
“-and once we have a few years under us and saved enough money from our hero work we all plan on pooling our money together and buying a stretch of forest and mountain outside of the city and living there together as one great, big team! It’d be great for you and Izu-chan!” Ryuko grinned just like her namesake, though the older woman seated across from her on the park bench returned the smile; it was smaller and more unsure.
“I don’t know, Ryuko-chan. It would be a big change for Izuku, I know he’s anxious enough as it is with his quirk not showing up yet,” Tsuchikawa Inko sighed and placed a hand on her cheek to mask her nervous tic of chewing on the inside of her cheek, she looked down and then back to her nineteen-year old sister-in-law, “Moving to Nagano…living so close to UA was what Hisashi wanted…and it has only been a year since…”
Inko bit off the words she had begun to say, The Accident, but it was too late - for both her and Ryuko as she could see the younger woman’s excited, energetic expression had dampened - her eyes growing misty just as Inko’s were. Though Ryuko was not in her hero costume, Inko could invision imaginary cat ears drooping on the blonde’s head,
“Thats…that’s why,” Ryuko stumbled on her words before she gently placed her own hands on top of Inko’s, seeming to gain strength from the shared touch “It’s important that family sticks together! My older bro... I think he’d agree! He moved to Musutafu when I got accepted to UA…then met you and you both had Izuku together. Now I wanna repay that and look out for you and your little kitten! And-and I’ve talked with the other Wild, Wild Pussycats-”
“Wild, Wild Pussycats?” Inko interrupted, looking confused by the name drop.
“Oh- yea! That’s we’re all going to be calling out rescue agency! Don’t worry it will make more sense when you meet-”
“MAMA! MAMA! AUNTIE! AUNTIE!” the high-pitched and giddy voice shouting out immediately grabbed both Inko and Ryuko’s attention as they snapped their eyes over to see a green and blonde colored blur race toward them. Their respective son and nephew did not (or could not) stop neither his excitement or his legs as he careened into the bench at full speed before he fell and bounced on his back onto the ground. He gasped as the little remaining air in his lungs escaped and he sputtered wordlessly.
“Izuku! Honey, are you alright?” Inko asked, worry in her tone as she bent down to pull her son up to his feet while trying to wipe the dirt off of the back of his clothes. The boy was wearing a pair of shorts and a shirt with a stylized, chibi version of All Might looking like he was about to throw one of his famous ‘SMASHES’. Izuku had inherited his mother’s hair and green eyes he had inherited his father’s freckles and the streaks of blonde in his hair that ran around the temples and back of his head. Ryuko barely hid her amused grin behind one of her hands, pressed to her face like a cat’s paw.
“Hehehe. They haven’t gotten around to teaching you kids how to brake yet in kindergarten have they, Izu-chan?” Ryuko said, sticking her tongue out at her nephew and immediately looked away when Inko turned a stern-eyed look her way - at the sametime missing Izuku mimic his aunt by blowing a silent raspberry back at her as he caught his breath.
“What had you so excited to come running all the way over here, Izuku?” Inko finally asked after a quick once over to determine nothing was badly bruised or torn on her son. Predictably her son gasped loudly as he seemed to remember what he had been running over to tell them as he promptly wriggled free of his mother’s hands and spread his hands up to the sky as he shouted.
“MY QUIRK! I GOT MY QUIRK!!!!!” Izuku was practically vibrating on the spot, surprise showing on both Inko and Ryuko’s faces as he continued into a ramble, “So I was playing with Kacchan and some of the other kids at the swings! They were chasing me and I was running around and around! I told them I was getting tired and asked them to stop but they said ‘NO’ and kept on chasing me so I was getting all tired and my arms were waving about while I was slowing down and that’s when-! That’s when! That’s when!!!!”
“When what, Izu-chan?” Ryuko interrupted, hoping to get an answer from her nephew before he started just saying ‘That’s when’ for an hour in his excitement.
“Then THIS happened!” Izuku replied eagerly, he stomped his feet down on the ground and then brought both of his hands out in front of him. Both older women were surprised speechless when they felt the ground tremble, just a tiny baby tremor, beneath their feet and a moment later-
-the earth seemed to bend upward as a small mound of dirt popped up out of the earth.
It was only barely higher than either of their ankles but for a younger, smaller child like Izuku it would have seemed much larger and impressive. Especially by the ecstatic and almost awe-filled look the boy gave the small mound of dirt, “-AND THEN! Kacchan tripped over it- I think I’m going to call it ‘Earth Bump’ and then the boy behind him tripped over Kacchan and the boy behind that boy tripped over the kid that had tripped over Kacchan! Then I was so happy I ran right over to show you Mama and Auntie!!!!!! Isn’t it so cool! It’s just yours Auntie!”
Pixie-Bob was shocked and absolutely delighted by this revelation! Her nephew had a quirk just like her’s and like his old man’s! Earth Flow allowed her to control the earth and soil around her for kilometers around her and even shape it into a multitude of ways only limited by her imagination. When she was Izuku’s age and first got her quirk she fondly remembered being able to create her own ‘Earth Bumps’ which of course Hisashi had teased her about in his older-brother-being-annoying way. What was more impressive was that he had not even needed to touch the ground first with his hands like she needed to do to activate her quirk!
“Oh-h-h! My baby is growing up!” Inko sniffed, fully teary eyed now as she quickly scooped up her son into a mother-bear hug.
“Ma-ma don’t c-c-ry! I’m-I will start crying-!” Izuku’s words were drowned out as he started to bawl his eyes out in synchronicity with his mother. Ryuko took a step back and rubbed her head with a sigh, crying was also something he had inherited from his mother and more than once made her think the woman had some family relationship to Shino’s cousin. Shaking her head as Izuku wriggled in his mother’s hug, she looked down at the right moment to see something was happening to Izuku’s ‘Earth Bump’.
It was trembling in the ground more, seeming to wriggle side to side in time almost with Izuku’s own waving limbs - at first glance appearing to get taller as it bunched up on the ground. Then going against Ryuko’s own expectations the mound of dirt shot up straight -OUT- of the ground itself and hung in the air about two extra feet above the ground which made Ryuko do a double take. The earth she was able to change and shape needed connection with the ground itself to stay in one piece otherwise it would crumble back down - but here Izuku’s earth bump was levitating off the ground without any connection to the soil whatsoever!
“Whaaaaaat!” Ryuko gasped, bringing both her nephew and his mother’s attention to the ‘Earth Bump’ - causing both of their eyes to suddenly widen as large as dinner plates.
“I-I guess Izuku’s quirk is…also like mine too?” Inko swallowed, her quirk ‘Pull’ used gravitational energy to bring small objects to her hand. Which certainly seemed to be a case here as Ryuko could guess her nephew was doing to the lump of soil.
“I’m…I’m…” Izuku said, awe and ten different kinds of amazement flooding his face and voice as he spoke, “I’m…bending the earth!”