It has been many years of having Izuku in her life. Nemuri wouldn't trade it for the world.
It was one of those weekends when everyone' schedule would allow for them all to have a huge play date. It didn't happen very often, but when it did everyone had fun. It happened mostly only once a month.
And when she says everyone, she means everyone. Aizawa, Hizashi, Tensei, Rei, Touya, Fuyumi, Natsuo, Shoto, Tenya, Hitoshi, Momo, Katsuki, Mitsuki, and Masaru.
Everyone.
Mitsuki had suggested they all go to the beach for today which was a lovely idea. Miku was running after a frisbee that Izuku threw. Nemuri his a laugh behind her hand when Miku ran full speed with the frisbee in her mouth before tackling Izuku to the soft wet sand underneath him. His joyous laughter was heard from under the fluffy curls of Miku's fur.
Shoto was making a sandcastle with his sister a few feet away which turned into him accidentally making it covered with ice on accident when he sneezed. Fuyumi laughed while Shoto blankly stared at the ice castle before shrugging and making tiny snowmen to live inside it.
Natsuo was splashing the seawater on his older brother, Touya. Touya was returning the favor tenfold with his flaming arms hitting the waves towards his younger brother. Touya had only graduated from UA about a year ago and was already an official sidekick to Ingenium while Natsuo was still in middle school.
Aizawa was taking a nap which made the perfect opportunity for Hizashi to take the chance to cover him in the sand. Right now, Aizawa was rocking one hell of a mermaid tail. Hizashi even decorated the end with little shells that he found nearby to really give it an elegant design. Momo helped out, gathering all the best looking ones for the decorating. Momo really liked to collect the coolest seashells she found on the beach, especially the ones that she found under the waves. Hitoshi was relaxing on the blanket next to his father's, fighting the urge to sleep just from the tea blend that Momo had to give him earlier. It must have been a type of sleepy time tea.
Tensei and Tenya were running along the sandy beach before Nemuri watch them charge headfirst into the incoming wave. She straightened up to make sure they were alright, only to let out a sigh of relief when she was them both resurface. Natsuo welcomed them with a splash right to their face. Tenya wipes his glasses with the back of his hand while his brother splashes back. And when Tensei splashes back, he used a bit of the engine in his arms to really give it some strength behind it.
Mitsuki was sunbathing on her blanket while listening to her husband talk about the sketch he was working on. His hair was still wet from Mitsuki's earlier attempt of dragging him into the ocean waves with her. Safe to say, it didn't last that long, but it was a cute moment between the two of them. Nemuri smiled as she watched Katsuki begin to play around with Izuku and Miku. She had watched Katsuki mostly making a huge sandcastle away from them before becoming bored.
Nemuri leaned back on her elbows after positioning her sunglasses back on her face. It was a very nice day to be out at the beach.
Katsuki separated from Izuku while he was still playing in the seawater with Miku. Katsuki ran up to Shoto who was talking about something with Touya. Touya was drying his hair with a towel while Shoto was asking something. Katsuki was close enough to hear Shoto ask, "...know why Izuku doesn't like fire?"
Touya answered back, "I don't, but I know it must be pretty bad. I know he still has a feeling of unease towards it. I think he might be afraid of it, so I never really use my quirk when we all come together like this."
"I don't want to scare him with father's flames," Shoto admitted, tightening up his left fist.
"Hey, it's no dad's quirk. It's yours. Just like my own flame is my quirk," Touya said, rubbing Shoto's head to mess up his hair.
Katsuki thought back to the time after Izuku's quirk awakened. How his explosion was redirected and then all of a sudden the whole park around them was floating. He remembered how he felt responsible because he might have mistakenly triggered the memory from that night. He felt guilty about not being able to save his best friend from the overpowered trance he was in.
After that, he was afraid to use any large explosions while Izuku was around. When Izuku asked to see his quirk, he would only make small compact sparks that stayed on his hands, so Izuku wouldn't freak out as much. He was there to see Izuku flinch at a bonfire, stare amazingly at his sparks and to ignore a large candle. He really didn't know how large Izuku's fear was, but he knew that Izuku's fear was real.
Katsuki spoke up, "I think we should talk to auntie about this. Izuku's fear isn't really my place to guess, so Aunt Nem can help us out."
Touya shrugged, holding out his hand for the young Shoto to hold as they followed Bakugo back to Nemuri's blanket nestled into the sand.
Nemuri looked up at them and mailed. Ah slushed her sunglasses onto her head to look at them fully, "Hi, you three. Are you having fun? Do you guys need anything?"
"We are all good, Aunt Nem, But Shoto had a question," Bakugo piped up.
Nemuri looked to Shoto, "What is it?"
"Does Izuku hate fire?" Shoto questioned, holding onto Touya's leg.
"It's a bit more complicated than that. He doesn't necessarily hate fire entirely, he just has a certain fear to it that I can't quite pinpoint," Nemuri explained. "Izuku's mother passed away in an incident that his father caused. I adopted him as my own shortly after the situation to provide him a happy home. After all these years, his mother's death still affects him. He still has a big fear of fire especially when it is too close around him."
Shoto's eyes widened slightly, "Is my fire.. bothering him? Am I bothering him?"
"No, Shoto-Kun. It's just that he is afraid of fire, he isn't afraid of any of you. You three are his friends, he knows that you wouldn't hurt anyone." Nemuri answered back.
"But he still is hesitant about our quirks, right? I wouldn't blame him if that were the case. Fire can get pretty intense, I should know," Touya said while Izuku listened.
Katsuki looked to see Izuku with a contemplative expression on his face.
"Zuku," Bakugo greeted, making the others look back at Izuku.
Izuku replied, "I don't want you guys to be scared of upsetting me. I might be afraid of fire, but I'm not scared of any of you. And I don't want you to be scared to use your quirk around me either..."
"Izuku. It's okay. If you are uncomfortable, you can just tell us and stuff. We just won't use our quirks around you that much if you are scared of it," Touya suggested.
"That's just it. I...," Izuku took a deep breath, "I don't want to be scared of it anymore. I want to be a hero! I want to save others! How can I do that if I'm afraid of rushing into a fire to help someone..?"
Nemuri asked with a head tilt, "What are you trying to propose here?"
"Let's...um...make me not scared anymore. I'm not scared as I was back then, but I'm still afraid of fire hurting anyone. Maybe you guys can help me become better at controlling my fear of it? Maybe we could find a way for me to no longer be afraid of it?" Izuku explained his plan. Miku came up from behind him, allowing him to pet her fluffy ears in comfort.
They heard a yawn from a few feet away. The four of them turned around to see a tired Aizawa that was now awake. "That sounds like a good idea. I'll help you guys through it if you need it," He offered, putting a hand on his sandy mermaid tail hip.
Touya couldn't help it and started laughing so hard that he kneeled down to the sand to curl up. Shoto grinned before crawling onto his brother to try to calm him down from his loud laughter fit. Hizashi joins them in the laughter that was cut off quickly from his loud volume that was canceled from Aizawa's red glare.
Eventually, everyone started to laugh in response. Mitsuki and Masaru looked back to see their son getting tackled into a hug by Izuku as everything went down. Natsuo was too busy drying his hair to notice why anyone was laughing, but the image of seeing Aizawa looking sassy with a sand mermaid tail was enough to set him off into laughter. Tensei scooped up Tenya at hearing the laughter to join in the fun while Momo giggled with Hitoshi laying next to her.
*
With the plan in their heads, Midnight took it into her own hands to start off with getting Izuku therapy. She mentally kicked herself for not doing it sooner since he might have been struggling with his feelings for so much longer and she didn't even know.
She took him to a trusted therapist for him to talk about his fear. She waited for them for about an hour or two before they came back out from the room. The therapist took her into the room to talk about what she could do to help him out with his fear. The therapist told her that she should I try fire exposure therapy to get him used to it. If he shows no improvement, then she should come back and see if there is a need of another treatment.
She nodded her head at the information, taking any pamphlet that the therapist gave her. When it was all done, Nemuri took him for ice cream at the new place that just opened. Apparently they rolled ice cream there and it sounded pretty fun to try.
*
And so, everyone had started to help out with Izuku's fear of fire. Uncle Hizashi took him back to their apartment one weekend to start off slow before he got more exposure with the three. Aizawa showed him some cool videos talking about the science behind fire. Hizashi showed him a video with a dancer that twirled around fire ribbons. Hitoshi was right next to him during the experience while they were both covered with a warm weighted blanket that calmed him down.
His two friends, Momo and Tenya, helped him a bit while they were having a study session. Momo just simply allowed him to watch as she made herself a pot of tea for simple exposure. She then talked about how she loved the specific tea that they were both having. Tenya was next to them the whole time, enjoying the peaceful tea time. He even chipped in with some facts that he learned from the fire that would be able to spark Izuku's interests. Like how S'mores taste differently over a campfire than they do with a regular stove flame.
*
*
Izuku had training with Touya first. Touya started off with having a little wisp of blue fire from his fingertips before he threw them up into the air. He repeated the motion until Izuku looked more comfortable watching the wisps disappear into the air.
Izuku likes the blue color of the flames while Touya kept manipulating them in different ways around him. With the blue color, he grew to dissociate it with the red fire often burning buildings that night.
Touya looked over to Izuku, "Now what do you think of fire as of now?"
"What?"
"You heard me. Just answer so I know where to start," Touya replied.
Izuku responded with a shrug, "Um, I don't know. I can't really feel the head from over here and I like the blue color of your flames. It seems so calming when you make them face like that in the air."
"Why thank you," Touya said. "Now, come closer. Just a few steps until you can feel a bit of heat from it, but not that much heat. Okay?"
"Okay," Izuku answered back as he stepped forward until he could feel a bit of warmth on his cheeks from the flame. Touya continued to throw in little tricks with his blue flames before sending a fireball up into the air. Izuku watched it all with an amazed look on his face with only the slightest hesitancy behind his eyes.
"Would you like to hear about some stories I have?" Touya asked him. Not waiting for an answer, he began, "Fire isn't all bad. And that should mean something coming from me. Our sperm donor tried to teach us that the more powerful your flames were, the more powerful you were. That the only strength that you could have was it he flames you held. He taught that to me very well through the trainings he put me through."
Touya continued, "It wasn't until after the whole thing went down that I had begun to actually like my quirk again. Fire can do many other things other than hurting others. Tensei taught me and Shoto that there are many uses to fire. You use fire to cook delicious hot meals. You use the heat to warm your homes in winter. It provides the light when you are stuck in darkness. Fire can be destructive, but it's up to you to see how it can be used creatively."
Touya finished off my launching a large fireball towards a pile of sand behind him. Izuku Shut his eyes when a puff of sand came flying from the impact point only to open his eyes once it cleared. On the beach was a glass sculpture made from the heated sand that looked like a spiky open-faced flower. The glass was smaller than he thought it would be, but it looked strangely beautiful. It didn't quite look like finished glass, but it looked so pretty amongst the sand.
*
Izuku had his training with Katsuki on the same beach that Touya had trained him before. It started the same way with Izuku at a safe distance away. Aizawa was here as well, surveying everything to make sure nothing happened. He did the same the other day apparently, but he was very good at hiding himself.
Katsuki started off by showing off small sparks from his hands while Izuku watched intently. Izuku approached just a little bit to look at the sparks more closely. Then Katsuki released a small explosion with hesitancy because he didn't want his friend to flinch away. Katsuki looked at Izuku to make sure he didn't flinch before making a bigger explosion into the air.
Aizawa watched as Izuku flexed his fingers just a bit before relaxing his fingertips again against his arm.
Katsuki looked behind him, "Are you still okay?"
Izuku nodded, walking just a bit closer to his friend.
"I'm not really good with words, but I'm going to try to get this through your head," Katsuki started, "I have been afraid to show off my explosions with you no matter how strong I got. I always wanted to show you how far I've been growing, but it just feels like I will scare you. The last time I did a full explosion was when that thing in the park happened. And when that happened, I could do anything, I felt so weak."
"I got stronger with my quirk after that incident, so I could protect your ass if something like that ever happened again. But I can't show you when I feel like if I do, it will just happen again," Katsuki continued, "I want to save others like you when we become heroes with my quirk. With it, I can defeat the villains no problem and get rid of any debris in the way. Firepower can save other than hurt others."
Katsuki ended it with shooting off a large explosion through his fingers, making a precise line of fire into the air. Izuku watched it go into the air wide wide eyes before he got tackled into a warm hug by Katsuki.
"I don't want to scare you anymore. I don't want to be the reason that you remember that horrible night. I don't want that! I want you to become stronger with me, so we can still be the duo we wanted to," Katsuki admitted.
Izuku wrapped his arms around his friend, "I'm not afraid of you. What happened back then was the ember fell on a blade of grass too close to my face. When the fire started to spread in the grass, I freaked out. It wasn't your explosion or your sparks it was the sight of the fire spreading on the grass. I like you little sparks and I think the move you just did was amazing, Kacchan."
*
Then it was finally Shoto's turn. Aizawa was there in the background, wondering how this one will turn out the other two days has been relatively good. But he had a feeling this one would be the one where he had to use his erasure quirk. Shoto has the red flames that were the same color as the ones that burned his old apartment building.
Shoto started off much like his older brother with the little wisps of red flame from his hands. When he saw Izuku shift his fingers a bit, he started to use his ice as well to balance it out. Izuku became more relaxed at the display of ice along with the smaller flames.
Aizawa watched as the two friends kept going. Shoto made his flames a tad bigger when Izuku approached a bit closer, but also adding a bit of ice to counteract the growing flame. Aizawa kept watching, pinpointing the exact moments when Izuku felt the tiniest bit of hesitancy.
Aizawa kept watching while Shoto backed up a bit in the sand. The next moment he didn't quite see happening the way it did.
He saw Shoto trip backward while he made a large flame in his hand. When he tripped, the fire shot out from his hand into a stray bucket a few feet away from him that was buried halfway into the sand. The bucket caught the fire inside, letting the fire burn inside with what he could only assume was some kind of material that made for a great kindling. Shoto's head connected with something behind him which made him cry out in surprise.
Aizawa was about to step in when he noticed the whole thing go down, only to pause when he notices that Izuku's eyes were flowing the same radioactive shade that it was that day. He turned his gaze from shoot to Izuku, ready to erase his quirk if he began freaking out.
But what he didn't expect was for Izuku to run towards Shoto even if he was close to the fire. The radioactive shade to his eyes disappeared when he realized that his friend was hurt. He checked on his friend before using his telekinesis to manipulate the seawater to extinguish the fire burning in the plastic bucket.
"Shou-Chan, are you alright?"
"I think my head hit something," Shoto answered back, allowing Aizawa to positioned him into a sitting position next to Izuku. Aizawa picked up a beer bottle that was hidden beneath the sand and groaned in disgust.
He looked down at the two children, realizing that Izuku wasn't afraid of fire as much as he was before. He freaked out momentarily about the flame for a short instant before immediately running to his friend's side. He grinned down at them, rubbing his hand through Izuku's curls affectionately before going off to throw the glass bottle away into the trash.
*
And with all of the exposure therapy, Izuku was beginning to feel more comfortable around a fire. Nemuri watched as he twirled a little string of fire from a candle using his telekinesis.
Nemuri looked back to the shrine that she had finished to honor Inko. She peeked into the room she placed it in, watching the red of the incense burnt in her memory. She smiled at the photo that Mitsuki had copied for her that showed off Inko alone and another one with her and Izuku. She had put up the shrine after she had gathered the best materials to make an elegant shrine for her to remember Inko.
'Thank you for allowing me to take care of him. I'll make sure he is happy forever.'
—
Izuku finally connects with the help that his fear is connected to his loved ones hurting, not necessarily fire. Fire could only manage to trigger him if it is hurting his loved ones, other than that he is totally neutral about it. Basically, if it is hurting family members or putting danger onto people he loves he grows out of control like a lot. (Hint, hint...USJ)
His pyrophobia was more mild than severe. He doesn't really consider it an inconvenience, but it really isn't affecting his ability to function. He feels like he won't be able to save anyone from the fire if someone gets hurt. He fears that he will lose the people he loves again, and he doesn't want that to happen.
Shoto and Izuku will bond over their fire fathers that they hate the most. Touya will second that along with Natsuo and Fuyumi.
I hope I did well portraying his fear.