Debrief: you and your husband take your kids holiday shopping when he gets off work
Case Notes: for @smashley351, happy holidays love! Enjoy 💚
The mall was packed; warm lights woven across beams, garlands draping from balconies, and a very persistent loop of holiday music playing at a volume that made Shouta’s eye twitch. He stepped in beside you, still in full hero costume, goggles perched on top of his head, capture scarf wrapped comfortably around his shoulders.
Which, frankly, only made him stand out more.
Your older son, Shosuke, immediately tugged on your sleeve, “Mom! We gotta get Dad’s present today! Before he sees!”
You raised a brow at your husband, “Think you can handle the gremlin by yourself?”
Shouta lifted your toddler, Ren, onto his hip. The younger boy squealed in delight and smacked the scarf with both hands. The capture cloth rippled from the jostling.
“I can handle one,” Shouta replied dryly, “It’s the shopping center I’m concerned about.”
You grinned, squeezed his arm, and crouched beside Shosuke, “Operation Secret Shopping is a go. You ready, agent?”
Shosuke nodded so seriously that Shouta huffed out a tiny laugh.
🎁❄️🎄❄️🎁
Twenty Minutes Later…
Shosuke was buzzing at your side, hands clutching the carefully wrapped cat themed thermos you both decided on. You were mentally preparing for whatever fresh chaos might greet you when you spotted Shouta long before he noticed you.
Because people were staring.
Pointing.
A mom even took a picture.
“…Oh no,” you whispered, already smiling.
There he was: Pro Hero Eraserhead, leaning against a giant fake candy cane pillar like he hadn’t a care in the world… wearing his capture scarf like a full-on baby carrier.
The scarf had formed a perfectly structured sling, one that would have made any baby-wearing expert proud, and Ren was absolutely zonked out inside it. Snoring. Thumb in mouth. Drool puddling on the cloth with the power of a small waterfall.
Your husband, exhausted from his shift, looked equally close to passing out upright.
You approached on silent feet.
“Shouta.”
His eyes cracked open, “Mm?”
“You turned your capture weapon into a moby wrap.”
He looked down at the sleeping toddler and shrugged, “He wanted up. This works.”
“It’s… shockingly functional,” you admitted.
“It’s ergonomic,” Shouta corrected, deadpan.
Shosuke bounded forward, “Dad! Dad! Look what we got you— wait— why is Ren wrapped like a baby burrito?!”
Shouta adjusted the scarf slightly, bouncing Ren without thinking; absolutely looking like one of those dads in the baby carrier commercials.
“Because he’s tired,” he said simply. “And because I am adaptable.”
You bit your lip to keep from laughing, “You’re adorable, more like.”
“I’m practical.”
“You’re adorable,” you repeated, standing on tiptoe to kiss his cheek.
Shosuke tugged on Shouta’s pant leg, “Dad, look! Mom helped me pick it out—”
“Ah—secret,” you reminded softly.
Shouta smiled down at Shosuke, just the slightest curve of his mouth, “I don’t know anything.”
Ren shifted against his chest with a soft whine, and Shouta instinctively patted his back, rocking lightly.
Your heart melted into a puddle.
“Okay,” you said, looping your arm through his, “How about we grab dinner, head home, and never tell Present Mic you invented a new use for your gear?”
Shouta groaned, “He’d name the technique something ridiculous.”
Shosuke perked up, “Like… Capture Baby Mode!”
Shouta nearly walked into a display from gaping at his older son, “Absolutely not.”
You were still laughing when he squeezed your hand, warm and tired and content, his toddler snoring against him, his eldest beaming with the thrill of a secret gift.
Holiday chaos with the Aizawa family.
Just the way you loved it.
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Pumpkin Spice - Mirio x Reader - Baby Series - part 1
- 6 weeks -
“Hey Pumpkin,” you greet Eri as she walks up to you. “Did you have a nice day at school?”
“Yeah,” she hugs you tight. “Do you know about Periods?”
You fight the laugh that wants to bubble out. “Woman’s periods?”
“Mhm.”
“Course I know them. Did you learn about it at school?”
“Yeah, I mean, no, I mean…” She halts for a moment. “Dad told me that I might have them soon and my friend got hers this week.” Eri pulls up her shoulders to her ears, lets the words taper off. You get it nonetheless.
“Mhm, they come different for everyone. I got mine super late.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I think I was the last in my friend group or class to get it. That just happens sometimes. How about we stop at the drugstore on the way home and look at the different supplies? Or did your Dad do that with you already?”
“He bought me some things,” Eri blushes a soft pink. “It was a little embarrassing.”
“I get that. My Dad was never good at talking about this stuff either. But he bought me a little pink trash can for the bathroom, just for my period stuff. I thought that was kind of sweet.”
She takes your hand. “I like that. Do you think Dad would buy me a purple one?”
“If you asked, sure.”
- - -
- 12 weeks -
“Hey Pumpkin,” you smile as she wraps her arms around you. “You seem excited.”
“I got an A in Algebra,” Eri tells you proudly. “I got the most points.”
“Oh, that’s great. Do you want to get some sweets on the way home?”
“Can we?” She beams up at you, hopeful as always.
“For sure. Just don’t tell Mirio about it, or he wants some too.”
Eri presses her pointer finger over her lips and giggles when you wink at her.
“What kind of sweet treat do you want?”
“I don’t know,” she swings your joined arms as you walk. “What do you like?”
“Uh,” you hesitate for a second. “That sounds weird, maybe, but I’d love some pickles with Vanilla Ice cream.”
“Yuck,” she pulls a face before hesitating. “Wait, is it good?”
“Well, I think so, but Mirio thinks it’s disgusting. Speaking of him, we’ve got a surprise for you.”
“Oh?” She turns, excitement on her face.
“Yeah,” you smile and stretch out your hand to tuck a strand of grey hair behind her ear. “What do you know about babies?”
“Well, many babies are called pups. A dog baby, a fox baby, even a shark baby.”
“That’s true. What do you know about a human baby?”
Eri hesitates for a moment as she thinks. “They need nine months to grow?”
“Correct again. Do you know any human babies?”
“Not really. Our English teacher got pregnant but I didn’t get to meet her baby.”
“What would you say to me having a baby?”
She stops dead in her tracks. “Right now?”
You laugh. “Well, it takes nine months to grow, so I’m not popping it out right now, but yes, I’m pregnant right now.”
Astonished, she looks at your belly. “It’s in there already?”
“Yeah,” you pull your shirt a little tighter so the faint outline of a bump is visible. “He or she is pretty tiny right now. About as big as a plum.”
Eri’s hands press gently against your lower belly and she looks as if she could see it right now, the little plum-sized being growing inside.
“Is it going to be my brother or sister?” She asks. “O-or my cousin?”
“That’s a good question. What do you think?”
“I’m older,” Eri points out, not letting go of you. You caress her hair, let her feel the gentleness of your affection. “I think I should be the aunty now.”
“That’s a nice idea,” you lean down to press a kiss to her forehead. “You’re going to be Aunty Eri.”
- - -
- 16 weeks -
“I’m home!” You call out from the door over the noise of loud music and clattering of dishes.
Eri shrieks and turns the corner, running into you at full speed.
“Hello to you too,” you laugh, hugging her back. “Why are you covered in flour?”
“I can explain!” Mirio exclaims, rounding the corner as well to pull you into a hug. “Cookies are a lot harder to make than we thought.”
“You made cookies without me?” You ask, leaning up to kiss him before emphasizing the pout. “What have I done to deserve that?”
“We tried making cookies,” Eri emphasizes from where she’s pressed against you, face squished against your growing belly. “Hi, little one. How big is he or she now?”
“As big as an avocado. Apparently they’re able to pull faces now, so they could be smiling at you.”
“Really?” Eri pulls back in the tight space to squint at your belly. “How would you tell?”
“Sadly, I don’t have x-ray vision.”
“You’d need ultrasound vision for that, honey,” Mirio corrects you. “Do you wanna lay down?”
“No,” you free yourself from their grip and put your bag down. “I’m gonna save those cookies. Who’s with me on the rescue mission?”
Both of them raise their hands.
- - -
- 20 weeks
“Hey Pumpkin!” You wave at Eri and she pulls away from her friends with one last hug before running over.
“Hey Aunty!” She hugs you tight, dropping a kiss onto your ever-growing belly. “Hello there! What size are you now?”
“Little one is about as big as a banana now.” You pat your belly gently. It’s not the most pronounced bulge, but it’s there. “I’m mostly off Patrol for now, so you’ll notice that Mirio is a little calmer.”
“I’m curious to see how that looks,” Eri jokes, gripping your hand. “Did they tell you the gender yet?”
“Well, they found out, but they haven’t told us. Instead, we got an envelope and we gave that to a baker. Today we’re picking up the cake.”
“They put the envelope in a cake?”
“No,” you laugh. “They looked inside and filled the cake with colored filling. Blue for a boy and pink for a girl.”
“And what does the outside look like?”
“Well,” you swing your joined hands. “Usually it’s white or neutral in some way, but we wanted it to be green and purple, so we got that.”
“I love purple,” Eri grins up at you.
“What, really?” You joke, which is even more hilarious given her all-purple outfit today.
“Really really,” she emphasizes before she tells you all about the annoying boy in her class and what her best friend is up to.
-
- a few hours later -
-
“Uncle Tamaki!” Eri is quick to rope him into the middle of it all, despite Tamaki’s best efforts to stay on the sidelines. “We’re making a video. What do you think the gender will be?”
“I, uh, I’m not sure-”
“You don’t have to be on camera if you don’t want to,” you assure him, squeezing his shoulder as a greeting.
“No, please, what do you think it is?” Eri immediately goes against it, pulling on his trousers. “Hitoshi said he would double my pocket money if I guessed it right. Do you think it’s a boy or a girl?”
You send a questioning look in Hitoshi’s direction but the boy holds the camera upright, no sight of a guilty expression. Hm.
“Well, I think it’s going to be a girl,” Mirio declares, swooping right into Eri and Tamaki’s one-sided conversation. “Coffee is in the kitchen, Tamaki, if you want.”
“Oh, thank god,” your friend exhales loudly and shuffles off. You can’t help but pity him. Nightshifts suck.
You would have understood if he stayed away from this celebration. Crowds are not his thing and your two-bedroom apartment is stuffed right now.
Parents and friends are standing almost back to back and somewhere in the midst of all this, sits the cake that holds a secret.
“Can we cut the cake now?” Eri asks. “I think we’ve got everyone on camera.”
You agree and clap your hands, trying to get everyone’s attention.
“I think we can start cutting the cake. Mirio?” You look around for your husband in the crowd. He’s quick to appear at your side, to press a kiss against your cheek and his hand against your belly.
“Where’s the cake?”
“Oh,” he turns as if he’s already lost sight of it. He probably has. “Eri?”
“I have it!” She jumps up and down to make herself more visible. “It’s over here.”
Your apartment, you’ve already realized, is a little too small for all these people. But no one seems to mind much as you push toward the cake that seems to have grown legs.
Shouta hands you a knife that Mirio eagerly pulls out of your grip.
“Let me do it,” he asks, pleading. You laugh, pulling Eri closer by her shoulders when you notice her curiosity.
The knife cuts clean through the purple and green buttercream. When he pulls away, there’s not even a hint of blue or pink on the knife and you feel anxiety rise up in your stomach. What if they forgot the filling?
It’s like the whole room stops breathing for a second as Mirio brings the knife down again. Your hand curls into shirt as he pulls the piece out.
There it is, bright against the purple-green buttercream. A perfect, light blue filling.
“Mirio was wrong,” Eri points out unnecessarily as the people around you cheer.
Mirio does not. He puts the piece on a plate with utmost focus and hands it over to Eri, insisting with a quiet, calm voice that she tries it first.
“It’s good,” is her verdict, but Mirio’s already sinking into you, heavy in more ways than one.
When you look at him, he seems fine, a bright smile on his lips that could convince everyone but you.
You pull him closer, press your mouth to his ear, tell him quietly, quiet enough that only he can hear: “It’s okay. I know what you want and it’s going to happen.”
“Everything okay?” Your mother asks, worried as usual.
“Yeah,” you answer her worried glance with a smile. “We’re just a little overcome with emotion, that’s all.”
She doesn’t quite believe you, but she’s your mother. It has always been her job to question you.
“If you say so,” she mutters before taking over.
“Let’s hand out the cake. Everyone wants a piece.”
You leave her to it, pull gently on Mirio’s hand until he follows you into the quiet of your bedroom.
“Are you okay?” He asks, already worried about you when you’re the one worried about him.
“I’m fine,” you pull him down to kiss him, to let him sink into you as much as you sink into him. “How are you?”
“I’ll be fine,” he mutters into the skin of your neck and you don’t have to wonder to know how often he has tried burying himself there, his worries, his fears, his grief.
A soft knock on the door has you looking up.
“That’s Eri,” you say before you even have to check.
“I’m sure she’s worried,” Mirio adds, pulling the door open.
“Are you okay?” The little girl asks, hands folded together. “You didn’t eat the cake.”
“Yeah,” you smile, pulling her into the room. “We’re fine. Just a little sad.”
“Why?”
“It’s-” Mirio starts but turns to you for help.
“Well, Pumpkin,” you settle on the edge of your bed and she sits down next to you. “Grief is something that never really stops existing. It’s like a pebble in your pocket. Sometimes you forget it’s there, but other times you pat your pants and find yourself remembering that it’s there.”
Her eyes are wide and open as she looks from you to Mirio and back to you.
“Who died?”
Mirio sniffles a little. “My Mentor. I don’t know if you remember him, but-”
“We always knew we’d name a child after him,” you explain when he tapers off again, his hand in yours, his shoulder pressed against your back. “But when it happens, you can’t help but be brought back to that first time you felt this grief. And you miss them.”
“So you’re going to name the baby after him?”
“Yeah,” you pat your belly. “Mirio didn’t even have to ask. That’s what made him so emotional. Because he knew he wanted it but it’s our joint decision.”
“And what’s his name going to be?” Eri edges a little closer toward you so you let her in, let her put her smaller hand next to yours.
“Mirai.”
“Mirai,” she repeats to herself. “I like it.”
-
- 30 weeks -
The door creaks open and you lift your heavy head from the pillows to squint at the intruder.
“Pumpkin?” You sniffle. “What are you doing here?”
“Hi,” Eri waves awkwardly and readjusts the mask on her face. “Hitoshi brought me here. I’m supposed to do my homework until Mirio gets home.”
“Oh no,” you cough. “Were you sitting in the living room all on your own?”
“No,” she moves her weight from one foot to the other. “I didn’t want to do my homework on my own so I thought… if I put on my mask, can I come in here?”
“I really don’t want you to get sick.”
“I’m not going to get sick, promise!” She points at her mask. “Nothing gets past these.”
“Well,” you sigh. “If you keep it on, I guess you can come in. But you have to open the windows.”
“Okay!” She’s quick to follow your request but by the time she slips under the covers, you can feel yourself dozing off again.
“How big is Mirai now?” Eri asks, pressing her cold feet against your warm skin.
“Uh, Cabbage,” you mumble groggily. “And he’s sitting on my bladder too. I need to pee.”
“Do you need help?”
“Not yet,” you climb out of bed. “But the time will come.”
- - -
- Week 40 -
“Do you think I’m going to be a good mom?” You ask Mirio during Dinner, your anxious mind unable to think about anything but the due date. It’s so close you can feel it breathing down your neck already.
Mirai’s restless too, his movements visible now.
“The best,” Mirio insists, kissing your temple. “Let me do the dishes, okay? We can go have a bath together after that.”
“Can you massage my shoulders?”
“Sure,” he sneaks in another kiss. “I can even wash your hair for you if you want.”
“You’re my Hero.”
He chuckles but lets go when your phone rings.
“It’s Eri,” he hands it to you before taking your plates to the sink.
“Hey Pumpkin,” you pick up, a little curious about the late-night call.
Your curiosity turns into worry when all you can hear is her crying.
“Hey, hey, what’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
Mirio turns at the sink, ready to spring into action.
“My tummy hurts,” Eri sobs into the phone and you push yourself up to focus.
“I’m so sorry, Pumpkin. Did you eat something funny today?”
“No,” she sniffles loudly. “It hurts so bad and there’s blood a-and…”
It clicks all together and you relax your shoulders, signing toward Mirio that he can stay where he is.
“Oh, pumpkin, we talked about this, remember? Do you have a Pad nearby?”
Eri sniffles. “Yeah.”
Gently you guide her through the next steps.
“Do you have some painkillers? Is your Dad around?”
“Dad has a parent-teacher conference,” you can hear her wipe the snot from her nose and you cradle your phone closer as if it were her. “I’m alone.”
“Do you want me to come over? Or we can stay on the phone together until he’s back.”
“Can you?” She sounds so small. “Stay on the phone? You don’t have to come, it’s dark already and you’re pretty slow.”
You can’t help but laugh. “I am pretty slow. But I could send Mirio over or let him carry me.”
Mirio turns at the sink. “I would carry you over in a heartbeat.”
“Did you hear that, Pumpkin? He says we could be over in a second.”
“It’s okay,” she sniffles. “I just… I freaked out. I thought I had to die and-”
“Hey, that’s no thing to be ashamed of, okay? When I got my period for the first time I thought I pooped my pants. I hid everything from my mom because I was so ashamed.”
Eri giggles. “Really?”
“Really really.” Mirai chooses that moment to kick you in the kidneys. “Ugh,” you groan. “Mirai thinks it’s funny too.”
“How is he?” Eri asks. “How big is he? Am I still coming over tomorrow?”
“Well, it’s Tuesday, right? You always come over on Tuesday.” You wait until she giggles before you add on. “He’s as big as a pumpkin right now.”
The words sink in slowly.
“As big as a pumpkin?”
“Yup. But not as big as you. You’re my biggest pumpkin.”
“What are you going to name him?”
“Mirai? What do you mean?”
“Well, you call me Pumpkin. Are you going to name him Pumpkin too?”
“That’s a good question,” you look up at Mirio who’s drying his hands. “What do we call Mirai when Eri is already our sweet Pumpkin?”
Your husband looks just as conflicted as you feel.
“I mean,” he says, visibly weighing his options. “Shouldn’t we decide that when we meet him? What if we call him a Bean now but he’s really a Stinker?”
You relay that to Eri who giggles. “Would you really call him Stinker?”
“Only if he is a stinker,” you promise.
“Oh, Dad is here,” she adds. “I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah, Pumpkin. See you tomorrow.”
When you put your phone down, Mirio smiles at you from the kitchen sink.
Listen all of class 1-A should've gotten matching custom "I survived my trip to USJ" shirts with some ugly-ass version/angle of shiggy's face or something and you all know I'm Right.
