Guess who's not dead!

I don't even have an excuse for taking this long. Almost a year whoop.

School was a lot more work then I thought and I had a pretty wild year, in both school and in my personal life.

I also gotta find a way to write better maybe? Part of my problem is that I want it to be accurate and perfect to the point that whatever I write doesn't sound good to myself and I'm constantly trying to change it.

I also worry about being repetitive and that you guys might actually be getting tired of it.

But thank all of you for being so supportive!

"Okay, that's pronounced /purple/."

"... what's that one?"

"That's /the/ Izukun, it's a word used in english to make things flow better, but there isn't really a version we use 100 percent of the time to compare it to."

"... sooo, I write 'the car is purple'?"

"Yeah! You got it!"

Aizawa could hear Yamada clapping and when he looked over, Izuku was hiding his face in his hands, clearly embarrassed by Yamada's enthusiasm.

"Look at him, being such a good student and doing his summer work early," shoving the last plate towards him, even though she knew exactly where all the dishes went, Nemuri leaned against the fridge "I mean it's not like I didn't use to do my school work, but technically summer vacation hasn't started for him yet."

"Izu already caught up with his regular school work, there's not much else he has to do." Izuku had completely finished his make-up work half way through term finals this week and had started most of his summer assignments soon after that. Granted it probably helped having an entire staff of teachers who specialized in each subject that were more than willing to help him. All he really had left was his summer assignments in English, which Yamada was currently helping him with, and math, but that was easy enough for Izuku to do by himself anyways.

He could technically do the English by himself too, but after Nemuri had convinced Izuku that the English version of Present Mic was /Presentation Michael/, Yamada wanted to make sure Izuku was learning the correct things.

Although Aizawa had a feeling Izuku knew exactly what he was saying and he was just humoring Nemuri because playing pranks on Yamada was pretty funny. Adorable little shit.

"Nezu cleared it for him to come with you during summer training right?" Nemuri had to pause and wave at Izuku when she noticed him peeking over the top of the couch "What is it this time? The mountain training camp?"

"Yeah, he doesn't seem to mind Izuku being around." That might be an understatement considering when Aizawa had gone to get Izuku after Nezu had asked to watch him one day, he had opened the office door to see Nezu handing Izuku some fresh tea and telling him about how tiresome humanity can be sometimes while Izuku nodded mutely along.

"I think Izu would be okay staying with you or Yamada for a little while but I'm not sure if he could do a whole week."

"That's true, I love the little broccoli child, you know I do. But in all honesty, the way he cried last time he couldn't see you still haunts me." Nemuri sighed as they watched Yamada list of some verbs, emphasising each by flicking his wrist.

"... broccoli child?"

"Yes broccoli child, have you seen his hair? Pbbt- whatever, he got new meds recently right? How's he adjusting? Everything good?"

Aizawa tiredly ran a hand over his face. Izuku had gotten new medication, originally he and Izuku's psychologist had hoped that Izuku would only need 'when needed' meds for anxiety and problems sleeping, though Eto had warned him that it might take awhile before symptoms start appearing.

The meds for anxiety were the only ones that changed, and it was from 'when needed' to daily. "He seems to be doing okay but it's only been a week."

Nemuri made a humming noise before pushing off the fridge and coming over to the couch so she could ruffle Izuku's hair "So, are you excited to be turning 30 tomorrow Izukun?"

"Yeah!" "He's turning 5!"

Both Nemuri and Izuku looked at Yamada in confusion and Aizawa didn't even try hiding his smile. Idiot still couldn't remember.

"I'm gonna be 6 tomorrow." staring up at Yamada with wide eyes, Izuku cocked his head to the side.

"6?" Yamada looked genuinely distressed as he reached forward and pulled Izuku into a hug "You're too small to be 6, Izukun you have to stop growing so fast."

Muffled giggles could be heard as Izuku tried to push himself up so he could return the hug "but I'm not small!"

"No! You're small and you're huggable." squishing their faces together, Yamada blew a raspberry on Izuku's cheek before giving him another tight hug

Izuku stuck out his tongue and wiped his cheek against Yamada's jacket "Dad says I'm not small!"

"Your dad's only saying that because he was short until his second year of-"

Yamada didn't get to finish as Izuku was yanked out of his arms and replaced with an ice cream bar. Aizawa was very tempted to shove it in his mouth.

"He was short, shorter than me and then bam! Average size tree man. Complete hunk." Nemuri plucked one of the ice creams from his hand and stuck her tongue out at him before taking a bite.

Izuku leaned into his side and said a soft 'thank you' when offered an ice cream before starting to nibble at it while Aizawa glared at Nemuri as she flopped over the back of the couch.

"You're probably going to break it if you keep doing that."

"Shouta are you calling me fat."

"No I'm saying you're not meant to do backflips over a couch."

"I think you're calling my fat."

Ignoring Nemuri's overdone display of hurt, Aizawa waved off Izuku offering him a bite of his ice cream "Did you finish your homework?"

"Yup!" bright smile and a thumbs up

"And you already took a bath?"

"Mmhmm!"

"Then you can watch the news tonight."

Aizawa was really starting to wonder how Izuku managed to make it look like stars were in his eyes every time he smiled like that.

Izuku didn't seem like he wanted to really do anything on his birthday.

When Aizawa had asked a few days ago, he had just shrugged his shoulders before going back to his drawing. When given options he would say anything was fine as long as Yamada and Nemuri could come with them. Aizawa wasn't sure if Izuku understood that he didn't have to choose things that other people liked.

It was later decided that all of them would go to the museum, which had exhibits on some newer heros as well as old, then lunch at a certain cafe before going to the grocery store to get ingredients for a cake. Again Izuku didn't seem to have a preference, except red velvet because it was apparently too sweet, so they would choose whatever batter they thought was good at that time, then all 4 of them would decorate it at home.

Yamada, of course, came early that morning, because missing out on Izuku's morning clingyness was apparently a travesty. He also died when he learned that Izuku didn't like raw tomatoes, they were disgusting thank you very much, and had to have them cooked. Izuku also didn't like it when his food touched because only certain food can touch otherwise they don't taste right. Also understandable.

Aizawa had to deal with Yamada hugging him while he cooked breakfast because he could finally say the phrase "like father like son". When Nemuri arrived the two of them clung to each other about how cute it was that both he and Izuku had the same taste in terms of food.

After a while, Izuku finally came out of his room in his usual adorable sleepy haze only to be drowned in hugs from Yamada.

"Happy Birthday Izukun!" Yamada was probably crushing the poor kid with how tightly he was hugging him "You want to open presents now?"

"Presents are reserved for after breakfast."

"Shouta! Don't be such a party pooper!"

Nemuri came over and took Izuku out of Yamada's grasp and placed him on her hip, ruffling his hair gently "Happy birthday Izu, did you sleep well?"

Rubbing his face with his hands, Izuku hummed and rested his head tiredly against her shoulder while Nemuri stuck her tongue out at shocked Yamada. "Well that's good, you ready for breakfast?" another humm and Nemuri carried him over to the table where Aizawa had just finished placing the dishes down.

After a quick breakfast, full of laughing, giggling, and awing as Shouta reminded Izuku to wipe his mouth, they all settled down in the living room, Izuku in Shouta's lap, as Izuku started to shyly open his presents.

Though it was probably an easy gift, Aizawa had gotten him a limited edition Silver Age All Might jacket, Izuku had mentioned once that he thought it was the coolest of all of All Might's hero costumes. The jacket had layered fabric instead of paint and ink that a lot of them had so it was more durable than most, it also had a soft inside with a lining so that you couldn't feel the stitches on the inside of the jacket.

Yamada had gotten him a similar gift in a sense, getting Izuku one of those insanely expensive pop up hero books that contained some of the most iconic heros from the start of quriks and some personal interviews with each of them as well as specific details as to how their quirks and their hero costumes worked.

Nemuri had bought him a long mint green scarf with small silver stars and constellations on it, leaning over and mentioning to Aizawa how she had noticed Aizawa's scarf was a big comfort to Izuku but unfortunately was apart of his gear so Aizawa couldn't just leave it with Izuku always.

"Hopefully" she said "it'll make up for when you can't give him yours, I made sure to get one long enough he could practically roll up into it and be completely covered… at least for now."

The thought behind it was honestly very touching, just the kind of surprise you'd get from her sometimes.

Izuku's eyes had welled with unshed tears of happiness with each gift he was given, a few may have fallen after getting through each of the gifts and giving everyone hugs and watery thank yous. He also decided that he would bring all of his gifts with him which seemed... not entirely rational considering it was summer and wearing both a jacket and scarf seemed a bit warm, but they would be inside for most of the day anyways, only being outside when walking the museum from the station. If he got hot, Aizawa would be fine with carrying some things for him.

Besides, Izuku looked perfectly fine in a predominantly red jack, mint scarf, goldenish satchel, and black rain boots. No it wasn't supposed to rain but Izuku said they looked like his boots and since there wasn't any real merchandise for Aizawa, he couldn't not get them for Izuku even though Izuku didn't even ask for them. Izuku never really asked for anything but he always had that look in his eye that said, yes, he did want it, but he was too shy to ask.

The 4 of them took Nemuri's car to the train station, Izuku in the back seat absorbed in reading his new book and sharing certain facts from it every time he found ones that were interesting, earning him head pats. He was a little sad when Aizawa said that he shouldn't bring the book with him onto the train, but quickly cheered back up when he realized he could still bring his own hero journal, which was easier to carry anyways since it fit inside his little satchel.

Walking to the museum from the train station, Izuku held both Azawa's and Yamada's hand and every now and then they would pick him up and swing him so that Izuku could pretend to fly while Nemuri took pictures. They could honestly fill multiple books with pictures of Izuku at this point.

Actually he should probably do that, it was good to document childhood. At least Aizawa was pretty sure it was good, his parent's had never done it but that wasn't the point.

Upon entering the Izuku did stiffen at the amount of people there, his grip on both their hands noticeably tightening but once they got to the first exhibit, all of the tension in his shoulders melted away.

Izuku immediately got caught up in all the information presented to him, the displays, the videos, the presenters, everything caught Izuku's eye and not even 5 minutes in he already had his notebook out and was busy adding new notes and heros to it, muttering the entire time he did. Aizawa could on occasion here snippets of the new entries.

"...especially known for his fearlessness, Crimson Riot...

"Skyshot's quirk is based on caffeine consumption…"

"Gang Orca uses training tactics similar to a drill sergeant…"

"...because of his ability to turn his body into sand, Snatch can easily…"

Izu would undoubtedly ask his and probably the entire UA teaching staffs opinions on his notes. If there was one thing that could get Izuku to push past his shynesses, it was the need for accuracy and to know more.

And of course, the biggest excitement came when the got to the brand new All Might exhibit, full of displays and information from the number 1 hero's start to current day. Hero costumes, most famous achievements, a list of some of the most heniouse villains All Might had taken down, everything was there in the grand wing, all dedicated to him.

Of course exhibit was predominantly why most of the people where there that day so at one point Aizawa had picked up Izuku and placed him on his shoulders so that Izu could get a better view of everything, but that only meant he could feel Izu literally rocking back and forth with excitement, and more than once he had to reach up and hold Izuku's hand to make sure he didn't fall off.

Aizawa was glad things were going well, or at least they were until almost most of the way through he felt Izuku freeze.

Glancing up he saw Izuku staring wide eyed and paralyzed off at one of the displays and before he could even ask what was wrong tears had already started to run down Izuku's face.

"Shi-" taking Izuku down from his shoulders, Aizawa quickly pulled him into his chest and began to run his hands through Izuku's hair while he gently bounced him up and down, all the while searching for whatever could have caused this reaction.

As far as he could tell there wasn't anything, a hologram of All Might talking about the characteristics of a good hero, an old video of the number 1 hero saving hundreds of people with his signature grin and catch phrase, maybe it was the crowd starting to get at Izuku? No that wasn't it, Izuku always told him when he felt overwhelmed by the amount of people in a room.

A sharp gasp tore Aizawa away from his search and back to Izuku

"Izu, Izuku, it's alright, it okay." Aizawa softly murmured before placing a small peck on his forehead and tightening his grip around him "Can you tell me what's wrong?"

Shaking his head, Izuku began to aggressively whip at his eyes, obviously upset with his own reaction and Aizawa had to pull his hands away before Izuku hurt himself.

"Shouta?"

Turning around Aizawa saw Nemuri standing behind him with a look of concern that shifted to sadness when she noticed Izuku shaking slightly in his arms.

"I'm going to take him some place quieter, probably the lobby"

"I'll go find Yamada, he's…" Nemuri waved her hand off to the right of her "... somewhere here."

Putting her hand on his shoulder and giving him a reassuring squeeze, Nemuri went off while Aizawa pushed through the crowd to get back to the entrance, the whole time humming and gently reassuring Izuku until he finally stop shaking.

After getting to the lobby, he had found a chair near a window that overlooked the courtyard that was slightly secluded by some plants.

Brushing the hair out of Izuku's face, Aizawa tried to get him to look up but Izuku held his gaze firmly downwards towards Aizawa's chest.

"Feeling a little better?"

A small nod and another run and his eyes.

"Can you tell me what… what happened?"

Isuzu bit his lip and looked like he was going to clam up like he did sometimes but then Izuku spoke up

"my mom use to play that video for me."

That video?

Aizawa thought of all the videos they had seen before remember the last one he had glanced a before leaving the exhibit with Izuku "the one where All Might saved all those people in minutes?"

Another small nod "we'd watch it all the time, sometimes she'd play it when I was really sad."

Sighing Aizawa let his gaze drift up to the ceiling "I'm sorry Izu"

He felt Izuku shift in his lap before Izuku rested his head against his shoulder and shook his head.

After a moment of silence that was only interrupted by an occasional sniffle from Izuku, Aizawa spoke again "Do you want to eat lunch when Nemuri and Yamada get here? We can come back to the museum another day if you want."

It took Izuku a moment to respond but when he did he finally looked back up at Aizawa " The place with all the cats? Like the one Kayama-oba-san said?"

Aizawa huffed "Yeah that one."

"We can play with cats too?"

Smiling softly, Aizawa brushed away any stray tears on Izuku's face

"You can play with all the cats kiddo"

The cafe Aizawa had chosen was a specialty cat cafe that he had visited constantly during school and after he had graduated.

It had been a nice place for him when he went to UA to help de-stress, and he was hoping that it would be the same for Izu, seeing as how he seemed to share Aizawa's love for cats. Though Izu basically loved most animals.

The cafe had a pastel colour scheme with lavender, pink, blue and white as the main colours, and soft yellow stars and moons painted across the walls. Multiple cubby holes of different sizes and patterns lined the back wall above booths, and towers that went up to the ceiling. Tables were scattered around and more importantly, there were cats everywhere.

There were cats of multiple different breeds and colours, calicos resting in some of the cubby holes, a siamese playing with a feather attached to a scratching post, some bobtails playing with each other, to name a few.

Izuku had been enamored by the bobtails and immediately pointed them out them out to Aizawa, so he sent Izu over to play with them while he ordered. With every cat Izuku played with, he would sit on the floor in front of the cat then hold out his hand and patiently wait for the cat to come to him before playing with it. Each time one of them would brush Izu's hand, he'd look back at the 3 pro heros with such amazement before going back to playing with cats.

By the time the food had come out, Izuku had probably played with a third of the cats in the cafe, carrying one over a tuxedo one and putting it in his lap so that he could still pet it while he ate, and by the end of the meal, Izuku had at least 4 sleeping around him while Izuku himself was starting to doze.

The sight honestly had Aizawa considering getting a cat. Pets were known to help with anxiety and even though his apartment didn't allow animals, exceptions could be made for therapy ones. The rule against pets was probably one of the only reasons he didn't have a cat in the first place, besides almost never being home. But the whole discussion of getting a cat would have to wait until after summer training, there was no way he would bring an animal on the trip, so best to wait until after.

When it was time to leave Izuku said goodbye to each cat he had played with and gave each either a pat on the head or a hug before taking Aizawa and Nemuri's hand as they walked to the store. Nemuri had said it was only fair that she got to hold Izuku's hand this time, since Yamada had held it on the way to the museum, and she couldn't hold it when they went to the cafe.

At the store they decided that cupcakes would be a better option for decorating since they could each decorate their own, and they got plenty of different icings colours, tools, and decorations for the "maximum amount of fun decorating."

Which sounded like a blatant excuse for Yamada and Nemuri to get more than what they actually needed, because Aizawa pretty sure they didn't need a powdered sugar mesh shaker but arguing with Nemuri was a losing battle. Plus it was funny watching Yamada pout when Nemuri got her way and he didn't get his.

Aizawa carried Izuku on his hip on the way home while Izuku held onto one bag and everyone else carried the rest. During the train trip, Izuku wold pull out one of the icings out of the bag and show it to Aizawa, silently asking his opinion before taking out the next colour. He was pretty sure Izuku was trying to see what he liked so that Izu could make a cupcake for him, which was sweet of the little brat.

Getting back to the apartment, Aizawa let Izuku down and got out the bowls and pans they would need and Izuku got his new pop up book out again and was reading a section of it too Nemuri when Aizawa felt his phone buzz.

Pulling it out of his back pocket, he saw that it was a call from Goda.

Yamada looked over his shoulder, trying to read who the caller id was "OOooh, who's that? Someone important? I can handle cooking if you need to take it!"

Taking a bowl from the counter and twirling, Yamada struck a pose and looked at Aizawa with sparkling eyes.

"...Nemuri please help Izuku make the cupcake batter."

"Aye aye Captain!"

"Hey! Just because I burned a baking thing once doesn't mean I can't do it at all!"

"Better safe than sorry." Shrugging and walking away as Yamada tried to defend his non existent cooking skills, Aizawa ruffled Izuku's hair before taking the call inside his room. "Hello, Goda, how are you?"

"Hi! I'm fine, thank you for asking! It's been a while and I'm sorry to bother you but I just remembered that it was Izukun's birthday and I was hoping to wish him happy birthday."

"I'm sure he'll appreciate that, thank you." Aizawa breathed a laugh "He's in the other room, I can give the phone to him."

"That'd be great thank you!"

Aizawa opened the door to find Izuku trying to pour the bag of cupcake mix very slowly into a bowl with intense focus and his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth in concentration while Yamada had turned over a pot and was starting to make a drum roll, and Nemuri waved two tissues in each hand has makeshift pom pom to cheer Izuku on.

"Why are the two of you like this?"

Hope you guys liked that haha!

I don't actually like writing birthdays, they feel incredibly awkward to me so I probably won't write another chapter like this again.

I don't know when I'll post again but hopefully soon? Not another almost year?

I have an orientation this Thursday and classes start soon after that, plus I signed up to do two zines? But I don't know if I'll be accepted into those yet.

In the mean time, look at these two amazing pieces of fanart!

post/176894968829/the-most-stunning-part-of-this-amazing-dadzawa-fic

post/176718425768/messy-asf-quick-asf-sketch-but-i-wanted-to-draw

Again thank you guys so much for the comments and support!