#nanamom

[radioactivepeasant]

Fic Prompts: Free Day Thursday

(Going back a bit in my Everybody Lives au to when Nana and Toshinori first reunited. Little bit angsty I guess. TW for implied death of alternate versions of major characters)

Nana woke to hear her grandson's voice outside her hospital room. There was a metallic clicking accompanying him. Was he on crutches? Using an IV stand? She'd become so bored, staring at the same four walls day to day, that she had begun trying to guess medical equipment by the sound it made rolling down the hall.

"Is my grandma awake? They said we could see her today."

Ah, he didn't sound nearly as tired as he had the last time they'd spoken. In fact, Nana thought he sounded like he was in better spirits than he had been all week!

Nana raised the bed up, eager to see Tenko. Then she heard a second voice, and her stomach dropped with dizzying speed to land somewhere around her bandaged toes.

"I'm here to chaperone young Shimura, never fear! There won't be any overexertion today!"

Toshinori.

Nana made a soft, choked sound that the nurse immediately picked up on. Super hearing wasn't always all it was cracked up to be, but it made his work at the hospital much more efficient. He opened the door quickly to check on his patient, worried that she might have been in some kind of pain or distress. In the doorway behind the nurse, Nana could see Tenko sitting in a cheap wheelchair, wearing an All Might brand jacket. Where had he gotten that? And more relevant, how were they going to convince him to take it off to be washed? As Nana considered this, she lifted her eyes to the man pushing the chair. That was...

Was...

Tears slipped down Nana's cheeks despite the smile that spread trembling over her face.

"Toshinori?" she asked, "My Toshi?"

The whip-thin man seemed to fold in on himself. His face crumpled, and it was clear that he was using every ounce of his self-control to keep from an emotional outburst of some kind. The nurse looked between the two, finished checking his patient's vitals, then very hastily stepped out to allow All Might his privacy.

"Call me if you need anything," he assured them as he shut the door.

For a moment, Toshinori stood frozen in place. This wasn't her -- but it was! Somehow, it was! -- she didn't truly know him, did she? Could he even say that he knew her?

Nana unceremoniously interrupted his thoughts when she reached out her good arm for him. "My boy," she gasped, wiping tears onto her sling, "My sunflower boy, you're here!"

Alternate timelines be blasted. This was Nana. She was here!

Toshinori fumbled to take her hand. It was warm. Flesh and blood. This was real. Nana Shimura was really, truly, alive. He made a small, helpless sound, and Nana pulled him down with a surprising strength into her arms. She buried her face in his hair and sniffled.

"I've missed you so much!" Nana pulled back and held Toshinori's face in one hand. "I thought I'd never see you again and- and here you are!"

She laughed through her tears. "One of my sons, back from the dead. I must be doing something right."

Sons.

Plural.

Sons.

Something broke in Toshinori. A wall he'd hidden behind for over half of his life. He clung to the woman and buried his face in her shoulder. And for perhaps the first time since the day he'd lost her, All Might cried.

"You...! I..." he choked and fought to clear his voice. "I- even though you had your own family, I always thought of you as my own mother," he confessed, finally able to say the words to her face.

"Hey! I am your mother," Nana whispered into his hair. "No- no matter what...what version of you...I'll always be your mom, Toshi."

It was a long time before any of their eyes were dry.

Nana spent much of the visit clinging to Toshinori as though she feared that he would melt away the moment she let go. And he, for his part, was much the same. There was much between their two timelines that didn't match up, things that wouldn't reconcile according to the laws of Flashpoint's Multi Theory. But they could compare and contrast memories later. Now was the time for catharsis.

Tenko sat on the end of Nana's bed, watching his grandmother fuss over All Might as if he were a boy again. This version of Uncle Yagi seemed flummoxed by the attention, as though he wasn't used to being doted on. Flummoxed, but Tenko could tell he was sort of shyly enjoying it. Sensing his gaze, Nana abruptly looked up at him and grinned.

"We did it, kiddo!" she laughed and choked past a lump in her throat. "We got him back!"

Tenko scooted closer to them. His eyes shone with both excitement and unshed tears. "We got more than that, Gram. The Midoriyas survived, too."

Nana turned quickly to stare up at Toshinori. "Inko's alive? And poor little Izuku?"

Toshinori was, on the one hand, curious about the hints of explanation he was hearing. But on the other hand, the conclusion they pointed to was disturbing. Once he knew the truth, Toshinori knew he would never be able to go back.

Just now, it didn't seem worth the nightmares to ask.

"Young Midoriya is 16 now," he said softly. "A wonderful, compassionate young man. He's...he's my successor."

"Ah!" Nana squeezed his hand. "I can't imagine him all grown up, I'm just picturing little chubby cheeks and curls still! But I can't imagine there being a better candidate from what I remember."

Having his predecessor blatantly and verbally affirm his choice of a successor gave Toshinori a confidence boost he hadn't realized he'd needed. Sir Nighteye's harsh words, and the protective anger they'd kindled, were muffled now. Drowned out by the opinion that mattered to him most: that of his predecessor.

[radioactivepeasant]

I don't have an explanation behind the circumstances of whatever they're glaring at, but it was definitely inspired by @aconstantstateofbladerunner 's fiction "Exit Light", which I highly recommend reading but probably not at night.

[radioactivepeasant]

Toshinko Week 2020, Day 5: Royalty

Suppose that once upon a time in a land similar to others you've heard of, there was a small boy with neither home nor family, determined to one day be a Knight defending his homeland. His staunchest supporter happened to be the young daughter of a mill hand who let him sleep in their attic during the summer.

Little Inko would listen to Toshinori tell stories about the brave queen of their land, who had sent her own child back to be raised and rule in her homeland when the king was assassinated. How she now ruled their kingdom alone, riding with her Knights each day to protect her people.

"Someday," Inko's friend would tell her, "I'm going to protect us all, just like the queen!"

"But you won't forget me when you're a Knight, right, Toshi?"

"Never ever!" Toshinori always reassured her, "Someday I'll come back and we'll go have adventures together."

Sooner than either child expected, they were separated. Young Toshinori found himself intervening on behalf of a man falsely accused of theft in the marketplace, even when the guards were called on the merchant's behalf. Toshinori's courage did not go unnoticed, and a pair of Knights on horseback approached.

"Boy," said the woman on the paint horse, "Why have you placed yourself in this dispute? Where are your parents?"

"I have none, Lady," answered Toshinori, "But I am sure they would have taught me to stand up for what is right. This man has done nothing wrong."

Smiling, the Knight threw back her hood, and the marketplace fell silent.

"Boy," said the queen, reaching out her hand, "What is your name?"

Toshinori bowed his head. "Toshinori, your majesty."

He felt a hand gently tousle his hair and looked up. The queen was still smiling at him.

"Well, Toshinori, such a brave soul is always needed in my kingdom. Have you thought of becoming a Knight?"

When she learned that the boy did, indeed, wish to be a Knight, but feared that an orphan would be turned away, she lifted Toshinori up into her saddle.

"Then we shall not enter you as an orphan," she said.

Toshinori looked back at the crowd as Nana turned her horse back towards the castle. His eyes met those of Inko, clinging to her father's hand and looking as though she wanted to run after them.

"Don't worry Inko," Toshinori shouted, "Don't forget! I promised!"

Years would pass before they saw each other again. For six winters Toshinori learned to fight, to debate, to strategize, even to dance and to play music. The less charitable of the court whispered -- sometimes in the range of his hearing -- that the queen must have gone mad with grief to take the boy off the streets and raise him as a second son. Some even insinuated that he was no more than a decoy for Prince Kotarou, perhaps meant to serve as his bodyguard. But Kotarou was intended to rule the kingdom of Shimura, not of Yuuei. For that, Nana had chosen Toshinori.

On his sixteenth birthday, the queen announced a festival, just as she had for Kotarou's sixteenth birthday. But at Toshinori's request, this celebration was not a ball held in the Shimura kingdom. Rather, it was a more informal event, open to everyone in Yuuei regardless of age or economic status. He hoped, more than anything else, to see his childhood friend again.

Fortune was on his side, for Inko had been steadfastly watching for an opportunity to enter the castle and see her friend for the last six years. The opportunities had been scarce, and what few times she'd made it in, she'd barely been able to glimpse Toshinori from a distance. But this was a chance to see him face to face, and to ask him if he remembered their promise to go on adventures together.

Inko grew self-conscious as she entered the wide courtyard with her family. Perhaps he wouldn't recognize her. Perhaps now that he was a prince, Toshinori wouldn't want to associate himself with a mill hand's daughter in a secondhand dress. Perhaps perhaps perhaps. She was so caught up in her worries that her father had to prod her twice to look up.

Standing to the right of Queen Nana's outdoor throne, Toshinori beamed at her. There could be no doubt that he knew exactly who she was. Raising a hand to his mouth, the prince called out, "Inko!" and waved.

Nana stifled a laugh at his decidedly informal behavior. "Go on," she said, "Say hello."

Toshinori nearly tripped over his feet halfway down the dais and stumbled to a halt in front of Inko. Suddenly shy, he raised his hand in greeting again.

"It...it's good to see you again," he said, "You received all my letters, didn't you?"

Inko shifted from foot to foot and wondered why her face felt so hot. Perhaps she needed some water.

"I received most of them," she answered, "Save for what you must have sent the winter we were fourteen. The postmen were under attack by-"

"-The Warg Bandits, oh yes, I'd forgotten that," Toshinori laughed sheepishly.

At the left of Nana's throne, her advisor and Knight Captain, Torino, scoffed. "Do you think he knows he looks like a lovestruck goose?" he asked.

"Oh shush," Nana laughed, "Let him have this."

[radioactivepeasant]

Toshinko Week 2020, Day 7: Free Day

Oh look, it's the same Everybody Lives au I started for day 7 of Toshinko Week 2019! As a matter of fact, it was made the same year, but I didn't finish it in time to add to the original post. (To be fair, "Everybody Lives" is a bit of a misnomer, considering All for One got kicked into the stratosphere and hasn't come down yet)

Nana is thrilled that she gets to be present when Toshinori proposes to Inko. Gran Torino insists that he shouldn't have waited until the last day of college Spring Break to do it. He's judging Toshinori's timing.

[radioactivepeasant]

Everybody Lives au: Nana gets the chance to coach Toshinori on how to retire without getting cabin fever

And then there's Gran Torino. He appears to be spending his retirement being the troublemaking Grunkle. The kind who gives Izuku and the Shimura kids sugar and then sends them back to their parents.

[radioactivepeasant]

Fic Prompts: Free Day Thursday

(Another Everybody Lives au idea, in bulletpoint form)

• All for One starts missing his brother more than he'd thought. The longer he lives, the more hollow his achievements start to feel. Without realizing it, he begins to act a little like his brother here and there in an attempt to keep the memories alive.

• you'd never call him a hero in the traditional sense. But after a hundred years give or take, he behaves like a Time Lord. One of the crabby incarnations of the Doctor, maybe.

• AFO (who changes names like the seasons and is currently calling himself The Professor) develops an obsession with keeping his little brother's quirk "in the family". Which eventually involved a somewhat ludicrous and yet successful plot to marry his sixth-youngest son (he's had ten of them over the years) off to the seventh wielder of One for All. Even though he knows he Will Not get along with his new daughter-in-law.

• it is necessary to point out that he and Nana had already tried to kill each other at least once before AFO hit upon the idea of arranging for Nana to rescue Kosuke. He knows darn well that Kosuke is going to develop a Crush. Somehow, he thinks he's being subtle by telling Nana to stay away from his son. And yet he pays for the entire wedding.

• Nana and AFO still fight like cats and dogs, primarily because AFO is still committing crimes of a bizarre and dubiously prosecutable nature. But once Nana has Kotarou, they tone down the fights for the kid's sake. AFO really only makes sporadic appearances, usually, in his dozen or more grandchildren's lives, but it's usually entertaining and probably not entirely legal when he does.

• Basically he's what happens if Loki ever became a grandpa.

• Nana Shimura's husband/AFO's son works on a military base as a sort of Coulson type character. He uses his father's vast amounts of information to help fight the Quirk Liberation Army, who are A Big Big Problem.

• Kotarou ends up playing with the children of his dad's fellow agents, including a little boy without a quirk who wants to be a hero regardless. When Destro kills Agent Yagi and his wife during a raid, Nana and Kosuke end up offering to foster their orphaned son, Toshinori.

• Toshinori and Kotarou are raised as brothers, and when Nana chooses Toshinori as her successor, AFO/"The Professor" starts pondering the possibility of making a little dynasty out of their two quirks. After they deal with Destro, of course. He can hardly expect to train his grandsons properly if it's not even safe for them to play outside, right?

• AFO has gotten very good at rationalizing his more heroic acts.

• All Might becomes the Symbol of Peace, and Kotarou Shimura becomes a top agent in the same SHIELD style organization as his father. Nana is able to retire and enjoy her grandchildren, but she has a hard time staying retired. Yet another thing she and her father-in-law squabble about.

• When AFO learns that Toshinori has chosen a quirkless middle schooler as his successor, he instantly starts scheming again. He passes an element of his own quirk to his great-grandson, Tenko, as a way to control his rather destructive mutation of his mother's quirk. And then he starts trying to set up at least a camaraderie between Tenko and Izuku.

• Tenko is 18, and he has his own friends. He doesn't particularly care for Great-Grandpa asking him to take the Midoriya squirt along with him.

• when AFO finds out that Midoriya's mother is single and kind of likes Toshinori, the scheming and finagling reaches new heights of Ridiculous. While fending off less than subtle hints about settling down with a nice widow with a middle school son lady, Toshinori ends up explaining the situation to Inko as "My great-grandfather is a menace to society."

• unfortunately for both of them, Gran Torino is Also a menace to society and an agent of chaos. He joins the matchmaking plot and peer pressures Kosuke into talking Nana into wing-manning for their boy. What with him being nervous about asking the lady out and all. Poor, shy Toshinori never had a chance.

• by the time he starts UA, Izuku has gained a dad, grandparents, weird older cousins, and an even weirder great-granddad who drops hints about making him a new Symbol to reorganize society.

[radioactivepeasant]

Fic Prompts: Free Day Thursday

The phone rang at a quarter to midnight. Nana rolled over with a groan and squinted at the caller i.d. Beside her, her husband groaned and pulled the blankets up over his head.

"I thought we had it set for silent?" he croaked.

Nana's blurry vision finally cleared up and she frowned. "It's Sorahiko. Must be an emergency. Go back to sleep, babe. I'll take care of it."

She shuffled into the kitchen to answer the phone. "Hey," she yawned, "What's going on?"

Sorahiko didn't sound like he was in the middle of a fight, but he did sound a little flustered.

"Nan! Sorry about waking you, but I need somebody who can translate kindergartner talk."

Nana blinked slowly and ran the words through her mind again. This seemed remarkably like some kind of vivid dream she was having.

"Translate...wait, what?"

"Uh...it'll be easier to explain in person. Mission took an unexpected turn."

Mission? Nana raised her eyebrows. "Since when do you take midnight missions?"

Sorahiko Torino grumbled under his breath for a few seconds before admitting, "There's...only four licensed heroes in this district. I gave the police my number for emergencies."

[[MORE]]

Before Nana could comment on this unexpected show of initiative, Sorahiko kept talking.

"They tracked down a blackmail operation, looks like that Blue Moon gang, asked me to be backup on the arrest. All well and good, right? Except there's also a couple kids here, and they can only figure out where two of 'em came from."

Nana threw on her costume hastily. If there were kids involved, they'd need reassurance. Sora wasn't exactly the best at reassuring kids. Babies and toddlers he got along just fine with. But once they started talking, he was completely out of his depth.

When she arrived on the scene, she found Gran Torino and a police officer trying to talk to five children between the ages of ten and four. "Trying" was the operative word, as half of them were crying too loudly to hear a word.

"Hey, guys!" Nana called, flashing a bright smile, "What's all the fuss about?"

Gran Torino massaged the bridge of his nose wearily. "Okay," he sighed, "So: Blue-hair and Beanie-cap are actually the criminals' biological children. They don't know what's going on. Suction-cup-fingers is their boss's kid, she does know what's going on and she's mad they got caught. We can't understand a word Pinky and the Dandelion are saying."

Nana crouched in front of the five children. The boss's kid narrowed her eyes at her and made a rude gesture. The two who were the son and daughter of the blackmailers who owned the house clung to each other, wailing loudly. That just left the ones Sorahiko had nicknamed "Pinky" and "Dandelion".

The little boy covered in downy pink fur stared up at her with four red eyes. He fidgeted nervously and clung to a worn-out yellow blanket.

"What's your name?" Nana asked kindly.

"Don't talk t' strangers," the child replied.

The police officer sighed. "Unfortunately, that's all we can get out of him. One of the adults said these two were taken in off the street, but wouldn't say where or when. We'll go through missing persons reports at the station."

Thankfully, the other kindergartner had no such qualms about talking to strangers. It was just that he talked so fast that Sorahiko could only understand every third word or so.

"You FLY?" The tiny boy tiptoed to pull at Nana's cape. "Wow! I saw a lot of lot of heroes on, on tv, even though Mrs. Auntie says, she says heroes are a news ants but I don't know what that means because you're not ants and I never saw a hero that FLIES! I had a book with a hero that flies, and he's called Superman, but I lost that book 'cause the house got all on fire and-"

"Whoa whoa," Nana laughed and tousled the boy's wild yellow hair. "Slow down, kiddo. Take a breath before you tip over!"

The kindergartner took a comically deep breath, puffing out his cheeks. He held it until his face started to turn red, then let it out with a gasp. Still clinging to Nana's cape, the little boy pointed to Gran Torino.

"Do you know that guy can fly too?!" he asked. "I saw it! He jumped! An' he went SMASH! An' then he kicked Mr. Uncle right in his teeth! Kicking teeth is bad, I think. Except Mr. Uncle is mean and he plays with guns and that's bad. So he has to go to jail."

Between a garbled, high-speed retelling of the arrest and incessant questions about her quirk, Nana managed to get a name out of the hyper boy. The fuzzy boy filled in some of the other information, though it was like pulling teeth to get him to talk at all. Evidently their names were Toshinori Yagi and Haru Watanabe. Haru had evidently been taken in because of an impressive monster-type quirk, but he thought his parents might still be out there. Toshinori, on the other hand, didn't seem to have any family at all. Nor did he have a quirk -- something that had irritated "Auntie" and "Uncle" once they'd found out.

"Geez," Sorahiko muttered to Nana, "Poor kid. Hope they find somebody to take him in."

And they did, but it wasn't what either hero had been expecting.

Little Toshinori, as it turned out, was a very observant child. Not only did he remember where all the Blue Moon gang's weapons were kept in the house, he remembered the names of every member of the fledgling villain group. There were some concerns that the remaining members of the group might want to silence the kid -- especially since one of them had the same name as a local politician -- and when no living family members were located, it was decided that Toshinori would need a temporary guardian who could protect him while the trial was ongoing.

For decades afterward, Sorahiko Torino could never quite understand why the police had asked him to look after the kid. Well, in all fairness, they'd asked him and Nana. But he'd been the first hero through the door that night, and apparently the kid had imprinted on him like some kind of baby bird. Sure, he slept at the Shimura house, and went to kindergarten with Kotarou, but if he even caught a glimpse of Sorahiko he was off to follow at his heels.

Nana thought it was hilarious. Sorahiko was less amused and more completely bewildered.

At least, he often told himself at first, when the trial was over, the Yagi kid wouldn't need heroes to look after him anymore.

This turned out to be a false assumption on his part.

(@vixen-uchiha this is part of the Everybody Lives au I've been doodling for)

[radioactivepeasant]

And that was the last time Sorahiko let Nana choose a movie for the boys' sleepovers.

(Everybody Lives au)