After reading @nartothelar‘s headcanons about Aizawa’s potential hair care situation, that got me thinking about it too… In my world it would be accidental/indifferent on his part, but we both seem to definitely agree he would use Mic’s stuff hahaha
The directional prompts for this were "Trapped, Misunderstanding, Deception"
Hitoshi gingerly sits down at the dinner table, his guts churning with nerves, though that's not the only reason. He barely got anything to eat for breakfast because he was too loud during the night and even though he tried his best to behave after school, he's pretty sure he's getting some points deducted again.
He always does, these days.
Edamura sits across from him and just from the look on his face, Hitoshi knows that he'll go to bed hungry tonight.
Well, hungrier.
Edamura gets the chart out he uses to keep track of Hitoshi's infractions and for now, all the magnets are lined up at the bottom, but soon enough they'll be distributed between the side that means Hitoshi will get food, and the one that means he doesn't.
"What do you think you did right?" Edamura asks, barely even looking at Hitoshi and still, he keeps his head down.
"I left on time this morning," Hitoshi quietly says and Edamura nods, putting one magnet down on the side that means Hitoshi will get something to eat.
"I did well during school," Hitoshi goes on and puts down the test they got back today.
He got full points and he thinks that should at least count for two magnets, but Edamura makes a displeased noise.
"That's up for debate yet. Go on," he orders without putting down even one magnet and now Hitoshi starts to worry.
"I stayed out for as long as I could. I was quiet when I came back home and I went to my room without saying anything. I stayed out of the way," he lists off and it should mean four more magnets in his favour, but Edamura doesn't move for the longest time.
Finally, he puts down four magnets on the good side, but the long sigh he lets out means that he's displeased by something, Hitoshi knows that by now.
And a sigh like this always means he'll barely get enough food that day to tide him over to the next. And with how little he already had at breakfast it's not looking good for him.
Aizawa already commented on the fact that he's not gaining muscle like he's supposed to, he inquired about the meal plan he gave Hitoshi more than once now and Hitoshi always has to lie to him, because Edamura made it more than obvious that this stays between them.
But Hitoshi is running out of excuses for Aizawa and there's always a sharp glint to his eyes these days when he asks about it and it won't be too long until he prods and prods until Hitoshi no longer has any excuses left, he just knows it.
He doesn't want to imagine that's going to happen then, but he fears it's inevitable.
"Your teacher called me," Edamura says and Hitoshi goes cold with fear.
"Which one?" he dares to ask and immediately one magnet is put down on the bad side of the board, making Hitoshi duck his head in shame.
"The one that trains you," Edamura says after a moment and now Hitoshi really starts to worry.
Why would Aizawa call his guardian if everything was okay? Surely this means that he fucked up somehow and that Aizawa is going to drop him and then all his hopes of becoming a hero and getting out of this situation are going to die a very silent death.
"I'm sorry," Hitoshi mutters and Edamura clicks his tongue.
"You should be."
He doesn't elaborate, doesn't explain to Hitoshi why Aizawa called him but he puts four magnets down on the side that means Hitoshi won't get any food at all and so it must have been bad.
Hitoshi desperately wonders why Aizawa didn't say anything to him during training today, but he guesses he'll find out tomorrow if he's been dropped or not.
With Edamura's reaction, it seems likely.
Hitoshi's stomach is tying itself into knots and he supposes it's lucky that he won't get any food tonight, because it's not as if he would get anything down anyway.
"You also left your shoes crooked and I heard you walking to your room," Edamura goes on and puts two more down on the bad side and yeah.
More bad than good ones today, so that means no food for Hitoshi at all.
Might be for the best really.
"You know what that means," Edamura says, putting the chart away and plating himself some food.
Hitoshi simply nods, because he does, he understands that he was bad and therefore doesn't deserve any food this evening and he spends the rest of dinner with his head bowed and as silent as a mouse.
He's not allowed to leave the table before Edamura is done and Hitoshi thanks all the deities out there that he feels sick with nerves about Aizawa's phone call, because at least like that his stomach is not going to growl and make him lose points for breakfast.
Hitoshi will need to be on his very best behaviour this night, because his only real meal today was lunch at school and if he has to skip breakfast again, it'll have been an entire day since he ate.
And one of these days he's simply going to faint during training and then he'll be so deep into shit that being allowed to eat will be the least of his problems.
Edamura really has it out for him tonight, because once he cleared his plate, he gets out dessert and still, Hitoshi has to sit and watch and be silent and it's close to an hour before Edamura finally sends him to his room.
Hitoshi makes sure to not scrap his chair across the floor, he makes sure to keep his steps absolutely silent, he makes sure to close the door to his room as softly as he can and then he just takes a moment to stand there and breathe so he doesn't start to cry or—gods forbid—scream.
That would earn him a beating so bad he wouldn't know up from down and Hitoshi really can do without that.
So he stays quiet and unobtrusive and acts as if he doesn't even live in this house and it doesn't bother him at all.
He's used to it.
~*~*~
Hitoshi carefully, oh so carefully, sits down at the table, aware of the way Aizawa and Yamada watch him.
He's still reeling from everything that happened that day, still can't believe that he's staying with them now and to make it worse he doesn't know the rules.
Normally his foster parents make sure to lay them out for him as soon as he enters their house, his incredibly thick file advising everyone to give him a rule set to work with because he can't be left to his own devices and even though Aizawa and Yamada must have gotten his file they didn't yet sit him down and explain anything to him.
And now it's already time for dinner.
Hitoshi doesn't know what he's allowed to do here, in this house, and without any current rules he just stuck to the old ones, but he's certain that he must have messed up more than once, so he doesn't know how much dinner he's allowed.
And Aizawa and Yamada keep staring at him, even though they are trying to hide it.
Aizawa finally moves and puts some food on his plate, Yamada following suit right after but Hitoshi stays still and unmoving.
He knows better than to assume how much food he's allowed by now and so he needs them to tell him first.
It's entirely likely that he's not allowed any, or at least not anything more than plain rice for today, but he needs them to tell him.
He always gets it wrong, otherwise.
"Go one, kid," Aizawa says when he realises that Hitoshi isn't going to take any food for himself but Hitoshi stays still.
It's likely that this is a test, that they want to see how well-trained he is, and Hitoshi is not going to disappoint them. He wants to stay here, already, and he's not going to jeopardise that by being greedy and taking something that wasn't meant for him in the first place.
"I can't," Hitoshi lowly admits. "You haven't yet told me how much food I'm allowed."
Hitoshi keeps his gaze lowered, knows that he always comes across as defiant when he looks at someone, but he can practically feel the gaze Aizawa and Yamada are exchanging.
"Hitoshi, you're allowed to eat as much as you want here," Yamada finally says and that, too, is just another test.
Hitoshi knows better than to fall for it.
"I'm not. You need to tell me how much I've earned. I know I must have broken some rules, so it's unlikely I'm allowed to have any sauce or vegetables. I might have behaved well enough to earn myself some rice but you have to tell me."
It's dead silent in the kitchen for a moment, before Yamada shoots up from his place so fast the chair topples over, crashing to the ground with a sound so loud Hitoshi flinches and goes ice-cold and then Yamada storms out of the room.
"Shit," Aizawa mutters before he, too, gets up, clearly intending to go after Yamada, but he hesitates for a moment, hovering at the table. "Hitoshi, listen, we're not mad at you," he says before he rushes after his husband and Hitoshi is left staring at the table.
He doesn't understand why Aizawa would lie to him like that, doesn't understand how he could have possibly messed up like that because he was trying to be good! He was mindful of any possible rules which was hard, considering that they didn't give him any and he gave them the time to tell him just how he fucked up instead of just assuming that he's earned himself something he didn't and now—
"Hizashi," he hears Aizawa snap from the living-room. "What the fuck are you doing?"
"Shou, did you not hear—"
"I did! And he doesn't need your anger right now. So either you get a grip on yourself and come help me sort this out or you get the fuck out right now!"
Aizawa sounds mad in a way Hitoshi hasn't heard him before and he thinks it's only a matter of second before Yamada blows up in his face and they have a real fight.
One that Hitoshi directly caused and he doesn't even want to imagine the punishment for that.
Food really is going to be the least of his problems now.
"You're right. Shit, Shou, you're right. Sorry," Yamada says, much more quiet than before and definitely not at screaming volume like Hitoshi expected.
"I know. But don't say that to me, say it to him," Aizawa replies and moments later they make their way back to the kitchen.
Hitoshi doesn't even dare to breathe.
"I'm sorry, kiddo, I'm really sorry. I'm not mad at you, I'm just really mad at everyone who ever made you think that," Yamada says as soon as he enters the room and it's enough to make Hitoshi take in a careful breath but he doesn't dare move otherwise.
"It's alright," he finally mutters when it becomes clear that they are waiting for something and only after that do they both sit down again. "Just, please give me another chance."
"Listen, Hitoshi," Aizawa says and then waits, as if he's waiting for Hitoshi to acknowledge him, which is just strange, because it's expected of him to listen to his guardians at all times.
Still, he gives the tiniest nod in case Aizawa really wants his input and only then does Aizawa go on.
"It's not alright, not at all. In this house food is not a commodity you have to earn. You'll always be allowed to eat as much as you want and we'll never keep food from you. If you're hungry, you'll eat until you're full."
Hitoshi doesn't know what to say to that; this is not how this goes. It must be a misunderstanding because there's no way they are telling the truth.
He'll be bad, he'll fuck up, he'll break rules and then he won't be allowed to eat, that's just how it goes, how it has always been for him and surely, this house won't be any different for him.
It's unimaginable to him to eat until he's full.
"I don't understand," he finally admits when no one says anything else and Yamada makes a displeased noise before he simply takes Hitoshi's plate.
For a split second he thinks that this is already it, that he angered them enough to lose eating privileges but then Yamada loads it up with so much food Hitoshi isn't sure anyone could finish it and puts it back down in front of him.
"Eating is not a privilege," Yamada says as if he read Hitoshi's thoughts. "It's a basic need that everyone has and it will be met to full here. So you can load your plate up as high as you want and eat until you feel like you're done and if something is left on your plate, that doesn't matter. Do you understand, Hitoshi? You get to decide how much you eat here."
That's not right, it can't be. It never has been like this for him before.
"But that's not—you have to tell me what I did wrong so I know how much I—"
"You earned enough food to make you feel full," Aizawa interrupts him and then silences Yamada with a look. "If you need us to tell you that you earned it, for now, then we will, but you always earned to eat until you're no longer hungry. We can make that a standing rule, if you want."
"You can't just do that," Hitoshi mutters because they can't. He needs to be punished for something, he's certain of it, they need to make sure he understands the rules and how is he ever going to learn if he gets rewarded for breaking them?
"We can actually," Yamada easily says and nudges Hitoshi's plate. "So eat until you feel full. We'll pack the rest away to eat later, maybe as a midnight snack, if you get hungry again. Heaven knows Shou does often enough. I've gotten a heart attack more than once, coming into the pitch-black kitchen only to find him snacking away."
"Rude," Aizawa huffs out. "If your cooking wasn't so delicious, we wouldn't have this problem."
It's banter, that much is obvious and it's strange and new and not something Hitoshi is used to, but when Aizawa nudges his plate, too, clearly urging him to eat, he hesitantly picks up his chopsticks.
He's just waiting for them to take the plate away, to laugh at him and his stupidity, berate him for ever thinking he deserves to eat, but nothing happens.
Nothing happens after the first bite, or the fifth or when he's close to done, except for Yamada casually asking "You still hungry? You can always go for seconds," and then taking some for himself as if he wants to show Hitoshi that it truly is alright.
He doesn't quite dare to believe it, but he does still feel a little hungry, so he cautiously puts some more food on his plate and when nothing happens, he eats it, too.
And for the first time in a very, very long time, Hitoshi goes to bed with his stomach so full he almost feels sick with it.
(He keeps waiting for them to take that privilege from him, but instead, they give him more. There's breakfast. Lunch. Cake in the afternoon. Dinner. And all the snacks Hitoshi didn't know he likes, always at the ready for him.
And eventually, he stops hoarding and guarding his food like a starved animal, knowing there will always be more for him.)
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romaincrisis
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