𝐃𝐘𝐍𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐊𝐔'𝐒 𝐃𝐀𝐘𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐄✓

XVII: Normal-ish

XVII: Normal-ish

Third POV

When Izuku woke up and headed to the daycare, he'd never felt so drained in his life.

When he was confronted by principal Nozomi he was all too grateful to get away with basically nothing after Katsuki's live explanation and the fact that Izuku was one of the only teachers to have a high approval rating from parents and guardians alike.

To put it bluntly, if the daycare didn't want eyes on them and their approval ratings to drop then their best bet was to leave Izuku alone.

Izuku turned over to his phone that remained unlooked at the entire morning- not being able to stomach whatever messages would be left for him by Katsuki.

And to think he'd be seeing Keiko's face within less than 10 minutes from now.

He turned his swivel chair so he'd be facing away from the wall, constantly wiping his eyes that felt way too moist for their own good.

He fanned his face, listening to yet another ping of a text notification; knowing he could no longer take the anticipation.

He picked it up and finally looked at everything.

10 missed calls from Katsuki and 20 more messages.

He just wanted to pick up or reply to at least one thing from him, but he simply couldn't. If he wanted to move and upheld this new promise he made then he couldn't be giving in to his desires.

He already did once and look where he was now.

He could already hear the rampant, child footsteps leading to class from down the hall.

He quickly wiped his face and sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm himself down before placing on a fake smile.

Normally, seeing his students would brighten up his mood exponentially but today just wasn't normal.

It was normal-ish.

Everyone flooded into the room, taking their proper seats, and immediately quieted down before turning to Iduku who'd usually start with some upbeat tone.

But instead, they got a,

"Good morning, everyone!" Izuku spoke normally, "I'm not feeling so good so I can't raise my voice, but let's have a good day, yeah?"

Everyone nodded, preparing for attendance.

One by one their names were called and everyone took out their workbooks and began to study, well, almost everyone.

Izuku could feel Keiko's stare from across the room. He tried hard not to look at her but once she raised her petite hands, he knew he'd have to acknowledge the girl.

"Yes, Keiko?" Izuku raised his brow, "Do you need something?"

She gently nodded, "May I come up?"

Izuku sucked his teeth before shaking his head and waving her over.

He watched her uniform shirt bounce with each step she took, before arriving on his lap.

"Daddy isn't doing too good..." she whispered, looking away from Izuku's gaze, "I think he's mad at me but I don't know why."

Izuku furrowed his brows and leaned in close, "why do you think he's mad at you?"

She hardly shrugged, holding the hem of her shirt tightly her eyes feeling moist, "Yesterday, He forgot to call me to say goodnight like he usually does and my uncles were talking about him when they thought  I went to bed... And..."

She paused slightly sniffling.

"And?" Izuku questioned, gently rubbing her back to help alleviate her heart that was seemed broken.

"And today, before I came here, he smiled at me when he said he was okay, but his eyes didn't look happy..." she quietly sobbed into Izuku's lap, she cried being muffled by his clothing.

If his heart already wasn't hurting, it must've shattered to see her cry over her dad.

He quickly turned to everyone else in the room, who were beginning to watch what was unfolding after getting tired of waiting to go over the workbooks.

He needed to get the attention off of Keiko now.

"Okay everyone, please put away your workbooks, we'll start choice activities a bit early today," Izuku called out, watching all the kids go from concerned to excited; each rushing to go and enjoy themselves.

Izuku scooped Keiko, and placed her on his lap, feeling her bury her face into his shirt.

"Shh... it's okay sweetheart, it's gonna be okay..." He repeated, attempting to comfort the young girl in distress by coming up with a solution.

He looked over to his phone and picked it up, texting something fast with only one hand before it started to ring.

Keiko picked her head up, noticing the name on the caller ID, as Izuku brought the phone closer to her.

"Is it... is it for me?" She whimpered out, watching izuku softly smile and handing off the phone for her small hands to grab and place to her ears.

'Hi, daddy...'

Izuku couldn't hear what Katsuki was saying since Keiko was still breathing pretty hard, but he figured it out using some context clues.

'I wasn't crying... or not a lot..'

'Because you didn't say goodnight to me yesterday and even though you smiled, you still looked sad...'

'Is it me? Am I the reason you're upset?'

It was silence for a while before Keiko let out a small giggle, 'Yeah, I know and I love you too.'

'Ice cream? I like chocolate.'

Keiko turned over to Izuku, whispering in the boy's ears if he wanted ice cream too.

And though he was supposed to say no, for some reason the sound of ice cream really cheered him up.

"Green Tea..." Izuku answered back softly, listening to the girl repeat her words back.

'Okay bye, Daddy....'

She handed Izuku back his phone, slowly sliding out off of his lap and letting off a weak smile to Izuku.

"Thank you..." she murmured, gaining a soft nod from her daycare teacher, feeling a hand brushing her soft locks.

She looked up at him, her voice meek but with what she said, Izuku felt like she'd shouted it through a megaphone.

"I think I love you like I love daddy..."