It's... bigger. Definitely bigger.
That's what Shouto couldn't help but keep thinking as he got off the Midoriya family's car and followed his friend and class adviser up the stairs to the entrance of the huge manor. A number of servants were also present just outside the doors, bowing to greet them and accompany them as they headed to the lounge room a little further in the house.
He had heard from his classmates and he himself had also presumed that Izuku's home would be a mansion, but this-- he didn't expect this.
They had to travel to the very edge of the city to get the gates of the estate, and even then, they still had to go through acres of land and greeneries to arrive at the manor. It was nothing like what he had expected. Izuku didn't live in a simple mansion like him. No, Izuku had been living in a manor like nobility.
It made Shouto question what Izuku's father does for their family to be able to afford all this.
"Master Izuku," Shouto heard the chauffeur refer to his friend, "I'll bring these over to the kitchen to be heated. Master and the little miss should be coming down shortly."
Shouto heard Izuku thanking the servant, while their class adviser took a seat on one of the chairs in the room.
Exactly as Adohira left the room, a maid came in with a cart with an assortment of drinks like coffee, tea, orange, and grape juice, as well as an assortment of biscuits for them to munch on as they waited. Meanwhile another maid, a male one, went and switched on the television for them.
After watching the male servant take his leave, Izuku turned around to see if his two guests were comfortable, only to find Shouto still on his feet and looking at some of the picture frames displayed in the room.
There weren't a lot really, maybe about a dozen or two just displayed on top of a cabinet aligned along one side of the room. Most of them were various photos of who Shouto correctly assumed was Izuku and his brother as children, with the earliest one seemingly being a photo of the elder brother having some difficulty holding the younger as a fussy infant.
There were newer photos too, mostly of their sister just by herself or with one or two of her brothers, but there weren't as many of those, and Shouto didn't seem to put much mind into them.
Shouto was more interested in the photos of the brothers. They both looked so happy in every photo. They were always smiling and having a good time with each other. There were a few photos where one was frowning at the other brother, but it always looked like it was all in good sport and that they both broke into laughter just after the photos were taken.
Izuku and Tenko both looked like they had a great childhood.
The Midoriyas seem like the perfect family to Shouto.
"Shouto-kun?" Izuku tried to call the attention of his bichromatic friend as he walked near him, "What are you looking at?"
Shouto looked over at Izuku and he told him, "Your home is very western."
Izuku was taken aback at first, but then he simply chuckled and replied, "Yeah, I guess it is, huh?"
"Dad and our uncle were actually born and raised in America before they moved back here to Japan, that's why our home is very western." Izuku explained.
Shouto just stared at his friend for a moment after he said that, then he bluntly told him, "You're very lucky, Izuku."
His friend's words confused Izuku for a moment and took him aback.
"Your dad clearly cares about you and your siblings, you have a brother that you grew up very close with, and you always smile whenever you mention them, so you must really appreciate them. Your family is just so happy and perfect." Shouto stated.
"You haven't mentioned your mother, nor do I think our class has met her yet, but I'm sure that she is a very lovely person as well."
Izuku winced at his friend's presumption, and he could only just look away.
Shouto was clueless as to what he had just brought up so he was taken aback when Izuku responded.
"I... I actually never met my mom." Izuku told his friend as he began rubbing the back of his neck.
"She died a few months after I was born so I never really knew her." Izuku told Shouto.
Shouto's eyes widened slightly, and he immediately went to apologize, "I-I'm sorry. I didn't intend to--"
"No, it's alright." Izuku cut off his friend, "It's not really a big deal for me." Izuku told his friend with a smile.
"Tenko had told me a few things about her now and then, and even said a couple of times that I would've loved her if she was still alive, so I guess you'd be right about her. Tenko sounds like he was really close to our mom and knew her really well so..." Izuku's voice trailed off at the end.
"Do... do you miss her?" Shouto asked, reluctantly at first, "Do you sometimes feel like you're missing someone in your life?"
"Hm? No, not really. I mean, I never really met her so I don't have any attachments." Izuku answered.
"Plus, Dad and Tenko never made it feel like I was missing a mom or lacking anything or anyone for most of my life, so I'm not that affected." Izuku told him.
"I'm perfectly content with just having them and Eri in my life." Izuku added with a huge smile on his face.
Shouto just remained quiet and stone-faced, however.
It was then that the doors to the room opened and in came running was an incredibly excited Eri in a peachy pink casual dress layered over by a light pink off shoulder sweater, with the top half of her hair tied up in a neat bun.
"Izuku-niiiiii!!!" Eri excitedly squealed as she ran towards her older brother.
Izuku immediately knelt down to reach his sisters height, prepared to accept her hug, but instead of a tight embrace, Eri went and grabbed hold of her brother's freckled cheeks and began pinching and pulling them in frustration.
"Izuku-nii, you meanie! Meanie! Meaniiiiieeee!!! You big stupid meaniiiiiieeeeee!!! Meaniiiieeeeeeee!!!" Eri repeatedly yelled at her brother while continuing to pull on the latter's cheeks.
Izuku just knelt there and took all of it, however, and he acknowledged that he was the one at fault, I should've expected that she'd still be mad. Izuku thought.
Even the night before, Eri was still angry enough at him that she didn't even want to come and talk during their video chat.
Hisashi, who had entered the room just a little after Eri did, couldn't help but chuckle at the sight, causing Shouto to flinch.
He didn't even notice the Midoriya family head in the room.
"Good afternoon, Midoriya-san." Shouto greeted his friend's father with a bow.
"Good afternoon to you too, young Todoroki. I'm glad you can join us." Hisashi greeted back to the boy, before looking over to the Pro Hero in the room and greeting him as well, "And to you too, Aizawa-sensei. I hope you can join us for lunch. I'm sure we ended up inconveniencing you this day."
"No, not at all. I'd be glad to join for lunch." Shota replied as he put down his now-empty cup of coffee onto the coaster on the table.
Hisashi smiled upon hearing that, then he looked over at his children and Shouto and he told them, "Let's head over to the dining room now, shall we?"
Izuku nervously smiled at his father as he carefully pulled his sister's hands from his face before trying to carry her and tell her, "Come on, Eri. Your apple pies are waiting for you."
Eri's ears immediately perked up upon hearing the golden word, and she looked at her brother with shines in her eyes, "Apple pies?"
Izuku slightly chuckled and he told his sister, "Yup. I made them for you as an apology. So please forgive me now, Eri?"
Eri frowned for a bit at her brother, and she hummed as she pondered whether to accept or deny her Izuku-nii's apology.
Eri puffed up her cheeks in apparent reluctance then she told her brother," F-fine. I-I forgive you now, Izuku-nii."
Izuku couldn't help but smile slightly in delight before finally standing up with his sister in his arms.
"Okay, let's go." Izuku told the other people in the room, and they were all on their way to leave and finally eat when the station the televi was on suddenly went into breaking news.
"Live at Fukuoka City, reporter Takeshi Hongo from our Kyushu station is here to relay real time footage and information about the on-going fight between an unidentified N--"
Activate Quirk: Radio Waves.
Izuku, Shouto, and Aizawa-sensei were only barely able to tune in to the news when the television suddenly began displaying static instead, which caught them off guard.
Izuku instantly had a clue as to what happened and he snapped his head over to his dad and asked, Dad, did you do that?
But his dad didn't respond.
Izuku wasn't sure if it was because his dad wasn't using his mind conversing Quirk at the moment or if he really didn't intend to answer him, but the slightly annoyed look on his dad's face immediately confirmed Izuku's suspicion, or so he thought.
Hisashi's annoyance instantly disappeared just a second after, as if it was never there, and a maid who seemed a little panicked and jumpy immediately came running into the room and began apologizing.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. This is my fault, I accidentally bumped and messed up the wires behind the television while cleaning earlier. I didn't realize it was still loose. I'll fix this immediately. I'm really sorry." She apologized.
O-oh. Izuku thought.
"Please, head on over to the dining room, we'll fix this meanwhile." The maid told them.
"Izuku-nii," Eri called to her brother, then said with a pout, "I wanna eat the apple pies already."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Eri." Izuku apologized as he snapped back out of his thoughts, "Let's go eat."
---
NOTES: I finally finished this chapter! \(>0 <)/
:V Took me a week after the last chapter to start and I kept on putting off actually finishing this a couple of times. Sorry about that. 😅
On another note, I noticed that my inability to end chapters properly has returned. ಠ_ಠ
(;´༎ຶٹ༎ຶ') I promise I'll try to fix it.