Feral

Kids are hard to deal with

Shouta carefully laces his boots, nimble fingers looping a familiar pattern before tightening the strings, sealing the knot. From the corner of his eye, he could see his son pacing restlessly around the room, his own shoes laying forgotten off to the side. Though, that wasn't an uncommon occurrence, given how much the boy hated wearing them. But Shouta could sense his restlessness was not related to his dislike of footwear. With a sigh, the hero realizes this must be one of those days.

It only occurs a few times a year, but for some strange reason the boy would gain bursts of extreme energy out of the blue, making him antsy, fidgety, and impossible to keep still or focus his attention on something for more than a few moments.

The only thing to satiate Izuku when he got like that, was to allow him to burn the energy until he tired out. He needed somewhere to run.

And if this were any other time, Shouta would have been happy to do so – to prevent him from destroying the house with his restless pacing, if anything. But unfortunately, neither of them has the time for that.

"Izuku, shoes," he reminds. Izuku pauses briefly, his long rabbit ears swiveling in Shouta's direction, and after a moment, his green gaze falls to the discarded shoes. With his tail twitching behind him, Izuku sits roughly down on the floor with a thump and uses quick hands to grab one of his shoes, totally ignoring the bright green socks next to them. And what's more, Shouta could see Izuku was trying to put on the shoe while his foot was still scaled up. His long, jagged claw tips threatening to rip through the soles.

With a sigh, Shouta kneels beside his distracted son, giving his arm a light touch. "You need to let go of your quirk before putting those on, Izuku."

"But I don't want to," Izuku bristles, giving the shoe a reproachful glare. "They trap my feet. I don't like it."

"They keep your feet protected from stepping on something sharp, kid."

"My feet are tough! They can handle it."

"But your human feet cannot, they don't have that kind of protection," Shouta points out.

"Then I won't use my human feet!" Izuku rebukes hotly, tucking his legs under himself for good measure. Shouta could feel a headache starting to form behind his skull. The green haired youth could be so damn stubborn when he got like this.

"Fine," he eventually concedes after a pause, "no shoes today." At least the kid was properly dressed, sans the shoes.

Slinging his paper-filled bag over his shoulder, Shouta steps towards the door, only to hesitate as the child harness catches his eye.

They've been using it less and less, as Izuku gets more accustomed and comfortable with the crowded streets, but when he gets like this the kid is more often than not to run off ahead if Shouta so much as glances away for a second. As much as he wants to trust Izuku to behave, he knows they're not quite at that stage yet.

But that was alright. He knows given the circumstances of his raisings, Izuku was exceeding expectations in his transition into society. Children growing up feral had happened in the past before, with less than pretty results. It was nearly impossible for them to integrate back with their own kind. Most had died in the process due to the strain, their bodies either falling under the stress or even going as far to starve themselves.

Shouta blinks down at his son, who is now pushing against his side, eager to get through the door to go outside. Before he can, the dark-haired hero leans over to grab the child harness from where it hung limply against the wall. "Here, put this on," he says, tossing it.

Catching it, Izuku quickly equips the harness himself. He was used to the item. Once it was tightly fastened, the kid shot towards the door, childlike excitement and energy radiating from his small body. As Shouta trails a few feet behind an impatient Izuku who was trying to urge him to walk faster, the dark-haired hero reflects on the detective's call a few days ago.