Bab 101: Familial Love
__________ POV Beru__________
How does one greet an acquaintance that he's supposed to be closer to than he actually is?
Well, I will answer this conundrum right now! I just arrived at her front door and rang the bell. She's taking a bit to answer, I think Izuku is at school now too?
Well, I just hope she's not at work. Why not check it, just to make sure?
Just as I was about to look through the walls to check for her, Inko decided to open the door. The smile on her face was honestly quite nice to see.
"Beru! I'm so glad to see you drop by! Did you come to stay? I could start making some food for you. Or were you just passing by?" Inko spoke with a warm smile on her face. It helped relieve some of my stress.
I honestly expected her to be a bit mad at me for that whole kerfuffle two months back. I never truly apologised for failing to protect Izuku back then.
But then again, I guess she never really blamed me... Although she was pretty confrontational towards me back then. I guess she was truly just stressed.
"Inko~ It's nice to see you're still so caring~ I'll stay a bit~ It's been a while since we've spoken~," I said while sidestepping her and walking into the house.
I also wrapped my hand around her and dragged her towards the couch, I ended up having to use my tail to close the door.
Inko was a bit startled at first, but she relaxed after a few seconds of me carrying her.
Why did I do this? I don't really feel like standing at the door for long, and she'd likely feel obligated to go and cook something if I just let her. So I'll make sure she just sits down and talks with me.
In the end, we sat down beside each other. She started the conversation with a smile. "You know, you should be careful when you grab a woman like that... People outside might get the wrong idea..."
Hmm? Is this Inko's attempt at making me embarrassed?! It's not that great... But I guess it would've worked on someone like Izuku.
"I don't mind any misunderstanding~ They can be fun sometimes~" I leaned in closer to her while speaking in a lower voice, almost a whisper.
And, just as I expected it, she turned red almost instantly. Hah! Don't try to embarrass me if you're this soft.
I did give her some space afterwards though. No need to bully Inko right now. Although her reactions can be pretty fun apparently.
She was quite silent after that, leaving me to restart the conversation.
"How are things with Izuku lately?~" She seemed really glad to change the subject.
She sighed, and with a smile on her face, she started speaking about how Izuku has been enjoying his school life, as well as how happy he was as pursued his dreams.
It's honestly pretty nice to see her so invested in a story. It's also nice that she's stopped trying to cook for me, I'm really not hungry and I'd hate to waste food.
"Oh, Beru! What happened with the whole villain attack two days ago? I saw it on the news, I found it quite strange that they blamed you like that..." She probably saw one of the reports of the more butthurt journalists.
Either that or someone is trying to lessen the influence of heroes in general. I've seen similar things happen to others recently... I wonder if the ones behind that are in the same group as the clone villains?
"Meh~ Sadly, they targeted me (like I cared or something)~ But the situation was cleared up eventually~," I said with a relaxed tone, I won't burden Inko with any of my concerns. There's no real reason to do that after all.
__________ POV Narration__________
"Still... I found what you did to be amazing! I'm really proud that you've become a hero." She said while patting Beru's shoulder. The affection in her voice was apparent.
Even though Beru wasn't her child. She still found herself feeling happy for his accomplishments. She knew how rough his beginning was, she knew that his start in life was by no means a good one...
And yet, all of that didn't matter at all. He became a figure that motivated countless children in the younger generations. He had unknowingly become a pillar of strength in the eyes of those around him.
And it wasn't that he was incapable of seeing that. He just didn't consider it all that much. He still considered his public identity to be as simple as that of an underground hero.
But he was in fact a contender for the title of 'Symbol Of Peace'. A person that many believed would pick up All Might's mantle one day and carry on his legacy.
Beru would've found that silly if he knew about it. But people couldn't really help feeling like that. Strength speaks, and Beru had proven himself to be a reliable hero, even taking down the strongest and most infamous villain of Japan all by himself.
So, even though Beru had no idea just how important he was in the eyes of the public, Inko clearly knew about it. She was also a member of the public after all.
And, Beru was quite stumped when hearing those words. 'I'm proud of you' was a phrase he had never heard from anyone. He never had any parents, not in his past life or his current one.
He was not quite used to such comments. Maybe it was only possible because Inko saw him as her own child? Well, he didn't see Inko as a parent, hell he was likely older than her.
But the words still held weight. And Beru was happy to hear them, although he was quite stuck thinking about how to respond to them...
Inko was quite stressed when seeing Beru's silence. She was extremely happy that he had finally visited her again.
She had honestly thought that their last meeting had driven him away from her. Even if it had ended well, she had still blamed him for everything, not even considering his hardships at all.
She almost jumped in excitement when seeing him at the door, she waited around a bit before opening it, just to calm her nerves down a bit.
"I'm happy to hear that...~" In the end, Beru opened his mouth and mouthed those words to Inko.
And she was relieved to hear his response. She didn't even find it awkward, in her mind, Beru was a person that had been deprived of any parental love in his whole life.
He had turned out alright through his own effort alone, and Inko found that truth to be somewhat depressing.
"Well~ This whole Hero business is a lot less of what I thought it would be...~" Inko was happy to hear Beru start speaking to her so openly.
"I wasn't sure at first~ About what I wanted to do~ Saving people had never been something I thought about~ But I ended up fighting villains often~ And I ended up caring for some people~ Actively trying to save lives too~" Beru's words somewhat befuddled Inko.
In truth, she didn't really know Beru's personality all that well. Not as well as she would've liked to anyways.
So, hearing his perspective on things gave her a good feeling. That Beru was letting her learn more about him.
"Nowadays~ I don't even patrol or look for people to save~ I just live my life how I want to~ And I still end up saving people from time to time~ Are you truly proud hearing that?" Beru's question was a serious one.
Inko thought of it as a test.
Beru's view of the world was obviously not going to be conventional, that much was to be expected, Inko herself had quite a few questions about his views on the world. But, since Inko wanted to show Beru that he wasn't alone in the world, she was going to accept him as he was.
"Of course, regardless of what your intentions are, you are still out there, putting yourself in danger to save the lives of others. It's something not many can do." Inko said with a warm smile.
In the end, Beru just decided to take that comment in stride. Deciding not to think much about it in the end.
'No point in stressing over things right now. I doubt Inko would start lying to me to make me feel better anyway.'
Beru was a bit paranoid in nature, but not of his own fault. He was simply not used to trusting people. He only started to learn about doing that in the last years of his current life.
Before that, he lived a solitary life. He wasn't paranoid out of fear, he simply wasn't used to relying on others, he always tried to overthink everything and every action that others took around him.
Sometimes, he would still act like that even now.
But it was at least a bit better now. Enough to accept Inko's attempt at showing him some parental love.
This moment was broken by the sound of an opening door, accompanied by some screams.
"Old Hag! Why are we even eating here anyway?!" Beru somewhat recognized that voice, but he didn't quite remember who it belonged to.
"Shut up you little shit! I said we're coming over for dinner! I gotta catch up with old Inko, see how she's faring up!" Another unfamiliar voice. A woman this time.
"P-Please, let's calm down a bit. No reason to fight here..." This one was the voice of a meek middle-aged man.
Beru was confused for a bit. Inko also gained a look of remembrance on her face. As a family of three, as well as Izuku, walked into the living room.
'The Bakugos were coming today!' And she had gotten so taken with Beru that she had forgotten about cooking.
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Hope you liked the chapter!
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