Chosen family bonds

Death to paperwork

"Sho... SHO!" Hizashi tries to get his attention. "You were spacing out are you okay? We can wait to submit the form if you need more time." Shota shakes his head and Hizashi gives him a look of curiosity mixed with concern he knows something is on his mind if only he could get him to tell him what it was.  

"I'm fine just don't want to mess this up" Shota gives a half smile but for him, this is more than usual, and Hizashi lets it drop if Shota doesn't feel like sharing that's a boundary he will respect, he's had Shota shut down on him for prying too hard into the past before and he doesn't want that to happen again.

"Alrighty then!" Hizashi presses submit on the form cementing their decision to try and become foster parents. He looks over at Shota and catches the smile quickly flitting across his face he may not want Hizashi to know for whatever reason but this means a lot to him.

As they go through the process of getting qualified to become foster parents Shota shows more emotion than usual Hizashi suspects it's some childhood trauma combined with the way he had internalized Oboros' death, but this seemed almost therapeutic for Shota no matter how much he gripes about the paperwork. It's completely smooth sailing so far and it had gone by rather fast it no doubt helped that both men were pro heroes so background checking them was trivially easy now it's just a long wait for everything to be processed and a kid who matches with the household to be found. 

The two had taken today off just like they do each year Shota refusing to get up from their bed, Hizashi just barely managed to force him to drink his coffee which any other day disappears instantaneously. "Come on it isn't healthy to do this every year I miss him too but..." Hizashi trails off while known for being loud and, obnoxious in some cases, he also knows especially when it comes to Shota when someone just needs a hug. So that's all he does after all he had lost not only his best friend on that fateful day years ago but a part of his husband too. 

There's always this air of apathy to him he had never been the most expressive but Oboro dying had only exacerbated that. It had taken him years to get Shota out of the funk and to get him to stop saying it should have been me the survivor guilt had wrecked him and it showed. Plus Shota was known for being a bad teacher but he's not he just can't let any of the kids die that's why he expels so many not because of some insane expectations but out of fear and a need to protect his problem children, which is part of why Hizashi had brought up adopting or fostering possibly having a kid he knew was safe, a kid to stay, he could get Shota to heal a bit more. After all, you can only hold on to ghosts for so long eventually it has to stop and you have to confront the grief.

After the hug lasts for seemingly hours he pulls away glancing at the clock it's almost noon Hizashi realizes at some point both of them had started crying. "Hey Shota I'm going to get lunch from the cafeteria at UA, can you please be out of bed when I get back? even if it's just moving to the couch, you can't hide in bed all day." Shota nods and Hizashi heads to the school they may have the day off but lunch rushes food was not something to sneer at and was certainly much better than he or Shota could make. Shota hates to admit it but Hizashi has a point and he gets out of bed forcing himself to take a shower, it helps clear his mind quite a bit. He feels bad for worrying Hizashi and resolves that Hizashi will come home to him being semi-functional, he can't be at 100% but he can at least try, moping around all day would do no one any good and it most certainly wouldn't bring Oboro back, then again nothing to his knowledge could do that.

Hizashi returns from his lunch run to find Shota out of bed fully dressed and with his hair pulled back in a man bun. "Hey Zashi, thanks for the hug it helped," he says underplaying his emotions in typical Shota fashion. Hizashi nods handing him a bag of food. 

"Soooo Sho want to go do something? Possibly take a look at old class photos? I'm sure we could find some pretty solid blackmail against Nemuri in there!" Hizashi is out of calm comforting mode he tries but staying calm, quiet, and somber for too long is something he's just not capable of. Plus Oboro had been a light in some pretty dark and hellish times for the both of them, of course, this is all just a yearly routine, except for the part where Shota willingly got up typically Hizashi has to jokingly threaten to burst Shota's eardrums by using his quirk to get him up and out of bed.