A sibling relationship… is a strange thing. Some days one might want to kick your brother's ass for hogging the controller or not listening when you say you're busy. Other days, they can be so close, that if someone hurt the other, you can almost guarantee the sibling, young or old, is going to want revenge. Other times, however… they just like to argue.

That was the case in the Todoroki household.

"Absolutely untrue."

"You can say that all you want sis, but it will never be right. Everyone knows I'm Izu and Shoto's fav elder sibling," Touya chuckled, Fuyumi simply scoffed in response.

"Oh please, whenever they need help with anything, they come to me first. Like when Shoto needs help with his homework or Izu needs help with proper wording in his quirk notebook," she responded.

"Yet, when they want someone to play hero with, they come and ask me to play with them."

"Ok then, question, do you ever get to play the hero, or do you always have to play the villain, so Shoto and Izu get to play hero together, hmmm?" Fuyumi asked with a Cheshire cat smile across her face as if she already knew the answer.

"...They named me Dabi," Touya muttered, seeming to lose the pride he had a moment ago.

"Why?" Fuyumi asked.

"Apparently, it's cool but it sounds too edgy to be taken seriously," Touya replied.

"I bet Izu came up with it, probably thought it'd make you cooler."

'Damn Fuyumi and her skills of figuring this stuff out,' Touya cursed mentally.

"Speaking of the little guy, it looks like Izuku has been doing a lot better since visiting dad's agency," Touya said and he was right. In the last month, Izuku's recovery had made significant improvement, the frequency of his nightmares having declined significantly; granted, most believed it was thanks to Izuku getting back Mr. Patches.

"Still can't believe how much getting that toy back helped him."

"It's not just the toy. All Might, Izuku's idol returned it to him and told him he could be a hero. Pretty sure that was a major factor," Fuyumi explained, only leaving her older brother more confused.

"You seem to know a lot about this kind of stuff, any particular reason?" he asked.

"Well I do want to be a teacher and knowing stuff like this really helps, especially with spotting kids that need help in certain topics or problems in their home life."

"Really? Because I don't recall any of my teachers giving two shits."

"Exactly! I want to actually help kids that never got the help they deserved," Fuyumi explained, feeling proud in herself for her goal. "Still I'm glad he's getting better, I think I even heard dad say he might need to start talking about getting Izuku enrolled at Shoto's school." Fuyumi squealed in excitement at the prospect of those two being in the same class.

"I would so pay to see that." Touya chuckled, "I bet Shoto would keep Izuku all to himself, those two are practically inseparable sometimes."

Fuyumi giggled.

"I bet, heck, don't think Izuku would complain at that."

"Yeah. Still, when he seems so happy, you wouldn't think he went through all the stuff dad said."

"Yeah, which is why I want to do my best to help get back what he missed out on." Fuyumi cheered, as she thrust her arm into the air. "I actually helped give him his first good snow day. He loved it so much, he keeps asking if we can do it again soon."

"Seriously, he never had a good snow day? That's like a staple in childhood experiences."

"I know, that's why I was happy to help."

"Makes me wonder though, what else has Izuku missed out on?" Fuyumi asked making a light go off in Touya's head.

'Maybe I could help show Izuku some of the stuff he missed out on.'

After asking his parents for permission and seeing if Izuku would be up for it. Touya decided to take Izuku out for the day, in Touya's own words, "To help him experience what he missed out on." It was a simple plan, Touya would take Izuku to the nearby park and a couple of areas close to the house.

"Okay Izuku, you ready?" Touya asked.

"Yep!" Izuku replied with enthusiasm.

"Wait for me," a voice called out from further in the house; around the corner came Shoto, all prepped to go outside.

"Wait Shoto, you want to come?"

"Yes! I want to spend time with you and my best friend." Shoto cheered as he hugged Izuku, who was quick to hug back.

Getting their shoes on, the three boys made their way to the nearby park. Upon arrival, they saw the place seemed to be quite calm, with only a few people within view of the entrance. Touya was happy at this, less chance of Izuku feeling scared from dealing with large groups of people.

"Okay, so what do you two want to do first?" he asked.

Shoto was quick to raise his hand.

"Oh, I want to feed the duckies!" He cheered.

"Okay, that's one vote for ducks. What about you Izuku, anything you want to do?"

Izuku jumped at the question.

"O…o-oh, I'm fi..ine with what y-you want to do," Izuku replied.

"Hmmm, well okay then, we'll feed the ducks. I know a certain kid, with candy-cane, themed hai-" Shoto, at that moment, kicked Touya's shin. "Owwww, damn Shoto, learn to take a joke" Touya winced in pain.

Shoto pouted.

"I rather have candy cane hair, than try and dye my hair like you did." He fired back. "Only to stop because I said you look dumb." Shoto replied mockingly.

Soon Touya and Shoto, got into what could only be called a brother's spat. They continued to hurl insults at each other, all the while, Izuku watched curiously. Wondering, if this is what Rei called, "a good sibling relationship."

After Touya and Shoto had finished their little spat. Touya led the boys to the park's impressively made pond, granted Touya swore the size of the said "pond" seemed more like a lake due to the size. But he was happy in this case, it helped disperse the people around the pond and in turn, gave certain spots a more calming aura.

"Okay, you two, who wants to feed the ducks?" Touya asked

Shoto was quick to raise his hand.

"I do!" He cheered.

Izuku meanwhile, simply raised his hand slowly.

"Me too."

"Cool, now if I remember…" Touya scanned the nearby area and to his luck, he spotted what he was looking for, a food cart.

"Okay, you two wait here, I'll be right back." Dashing to the cart, the kids saw Touya buy something from the cart and once he returned, he handed the boys something that threw them for a loop.

"Birdseed?" Shoto let out, confused at his brother's purchase.

"Yeah, they started selling it a few years ago"

"I thought you feed bread to ducks?"

"Well… not really. The park made it clear that bread isn't a healthy option for the ducks and it makes the water dirtier. So they enforced new rules and even had the food carts sell the more healthy options," Touya explained to Izuku and Shoto.

"Oh, so the adults who run the park, don't want the duckies to get hurt!"

"Exactly."

After the little lesson on appropriate food for ducks. The boys soon got to feeding the inhabitants of the lake; after a while, a few ducks turned into a dozen. Soon enough, it seemed like the boys had attracted all the ducks living in the lake.

"Wow, the ducks are really fond of you Izuku," Touya pointed out, as he glanced atIzuku.

"You think so?" Shoto asked.

True to Touya's word, it almost seemed like all the ducks and their young were eating the birdseed Izuku was throwing into the pond. Touya chuckled when he saw his little brother get the stragglers of Izuku's flock. But when he turned back, he was shocked to find that the baby ducks had taken to resting on Izuku's head, clearly, they had taken a special liking to him.

"Hehe, look Touya, the baby ducks love me!" Izuku laughed.

The ducks were plentiful enough, it almost seemed to the prying eye, that Izuku's quirk was control of the waterfowl and that he was trying to form a suit of duck armor. He had two green-headed mallards upon his shoulders, two flushes of ducklings lining his clothing's pockets, a single white duck seated on his upturned clasped palms, and his legs surrounded by a lake of white, brown and black.

"Can I keep them?" he asked with a level of joy and hope most wouldn't believe possible from a boy with his background. Touya knew he had to be strong, he had to fight against the overwhelming force that was Izuku's "ultimate puppy dog face" as Fuyumi called it.

"Well… Izuku, our place isn't really made for, well this many baby ducks. And how do you think the other kids would feel if you took the baby ducks from them?" Touya asked.

Izuku quickly lost his cheery look, for a more thoughtful one, or as thoughtful as a six-year-old could be. "O-oh, they would be super sad."

Touya was quick to jump on this line of thought. "That's right! The other kids like watching, feeding, playing with and well uh..."

The elder boy listing things off his fingers realized bringing up how some children tended to scare the birds for fun, wasn't a great argument for making Izuku leave them behind. In fact, if he said that, it would most certainly make Izuku more determined to keep the ducks.

"So yeah. Plenty of other kids like the ducks too and their families also tell them- "

"What's the fourth thing?" Izuku asked.

"Eh?"

"The fourth thing. You said play, feed, watch, and. But you didn't say the fourth thing," Izuku pointed out.

It was times like these Touya had learned to loathe the small green fluff ball's unparalleled natural observation abilities.

Shoto quickly raised his hand, getting the other's attention. "Oh, they love to get pictures of the ducks!" he answered.

Hearing this, Izuku agreed with his best friend. Doing their best not to hurt the ducks, the three of them pulled the ducks off Izuku and put them back into the pond. After patting down the feathers that had caught on Izuku's clothes, Touya led the boys further into the park. For a while, all was calm, Touya listened as Izuku and Shoto talked about heroes, mostly sticking to All Might and Endeavour.

After an hour of walking through the park, the three found a quiet place to rest. That was, until Shoto found a football in the nearby bushes.

Once he had the ball, Shoto was quick to run up to his older brother with it. "Touya, can you show us some tricks, please," Shoto pleaded.

Touya was a bit hesitant to do as his brother asked, but figured, what harm could a bit of football do?

"Ok then, since you're so eager then, watch this." Grabbing the ball, Touya started his game of keepy-uppy, he kept the ball going for a bit, making sure to throw some tricks in, to appease his quiet little audience. Just as he was at the thirty mark Touya just missed the ball, leaving his score at twenty-nine.

"Thank you, thank you!" Touya cheered as he took a little bow, while Shoto and Izuku applauded him.

"Great job big bro, I wish I could do that!" Shoto cheered.

Chuckling at Shoto's praise, Touya grabbed the ball and held it out to his brother. "You're always welcome to try," he said.

"No way, last time I did I ended up hitting the back of dad's head." Shoto sniggered. "Oh man, he was angry!"

"Can I try?" Izuku asked.

"Sure thing Izuku," Touya responded as he handed the ball to Izuku. "Don't get upset if you mess up ok?"

Once Izuku got his hands on the ball, he quickly started his own game of keepy-uppy. To his onlookers' surprise, Izuku was doing quite well and before they knew it Izuku was up to twenty-five and was still going strong. Before Touya or Shoto knew what was going on, Izuku had reached forty Heck if it wasn't for just him sneezing and missing the ball, they were sure he could have kept going.

Izuku's end score ended up being forty-four. Unfortunately, his combo breaking sneeze had some surprising power too, causing little Izuku to overshoot the ball and follow it up by stumbling forward. As Izuku tried to balance himself, it was then the stray ball returned from its ascension to strike the young fanboy head, causing him to hit the ground face first. Izuku quickly regained his bearings and stood up noticing Shoto giggling and Touya stifling his own.

"Good job Izuku, I can see someone's been training," Touya chuckled as he walked over to Izuku. "If you keep this up, I bet Natsuo will start seeing you as a r— Oh hey Izuku, hold still for a second, you got a bit of dirt on you." Touya went to wipe the dirt of Izuku's face, but the little boy quickly flinched back, catching both of them off guard.

Izuku was quick to respond.

"I'm sorry Touya! I didn't mean to-"

"Woah, Woah what're you talking abo-"

It was at that moment of questioning Touya realized he had been reaching for an abuse victim with a history of physical violence with an open palm at a quick pace. He wasn't apologizing because he had actually done anything wrong but because he thought it was believed he had.

"Hey it's okay Izuku, I understand. It's just your body reacting based on past events, my dad said it's likely something that will take time for you to adjust," Touya explained. "It's my fault for not remembering that, you don't need to apologize."

Sadly though, Izuku couldn't hear Touya's apology.

He could almost feel the world around him closing in, turning into a black void, his chest tightening with fear as his heart thumped rapidity against it. No matter how much Izuku tried to breathe in, it all felt useless. He could feel his head splitting at the seams, as it began to flood with all the worse case scenarios it could conjure. Izuku tried to fight against this, reminding himself that the Todorokis wouldn't hurt him, but it proved futile as more and more images flooded his mind. The only thing Izuku felt at that moment was the tears running down his cheek and the bile rising in his throat.

'Shit, what do I do? I wish dad or mom were here, they'd know what to do... Damn I feel so useless!' Touya thought as he watched Izuku continue to tremble in silence.

What happened next caught both Touya and Izuku off guard. Shoto walked up to Izuku, stopping just a couple feet away from him.

"You want a hug? It might help," Shoto asked as he held his arms out.

As Shoto held his arms out Izuku could feel a build-up of caution, not fear, but he had learned from the past, an open invitation for physical comfort wasn't always what it seemed. Unlike prior experiences, however, there was no sense of trickery or malice. Actually Shoto had a surprisingly straight face for a person offering consolation, especially for his age. Every instinct Izuku had built up from the years of neglect and abuse were telling him "don't fall for it again" but something else was speaking up. His fragile little heart even after everything wanted to take a chance and see if it wasn't a cruel game, that it might get to feel the proper warmth of reciprocated affection once more.

Izuku was quick to accept the offer and hugged Shoto, who, at this point, was his best friend.

"I just want to get better, I don't want to be scared anymore," Izuku wheezed as he continued to hug Shoto. After hugging what felt like forever, Izuku felt someone patting his head, he looked up to see it was Touya.

"You make it sound like you haven't improved at all, but look how far you've gotten," Touya said.

"But I still get scared, how can I be better?" Izuku asked.

"Well, you agreed to come out with me and Shoto, you're not freezing up as much as you used too. Hell, you're much more social around everyone, I say that some good progress." Touya continued to list off the things Izuku is able to do compared to when he was first found by Endeavour.

"I do help out Rei a lot and Endeavour is asking for my help with quirks," Izuku said, adding to the little list.

"See! That's way better than when you could barely speak to people!" Touya cheered. "In fact, such progress deserves a very special reward and I know just the thing that's guaranteed to make everyone feel better."

"Thank you, Touya!" Izuku and Shoto cheered as they dug into their ice cream cones; Touya was glad he seemed to salvage the day out. The second he brought the boys to the ice cream stand, their paired frowns were replaced with smiles in an instant.

Touya took particular note of how fast Izuku was eating his ice cream.

"This is amazing!" Izuku screamed as he started downing his ice cream.

"Ugh Izuku, you may want t—" Before Touya could say another word, Izuku yelped as he grabbed the sides of his head, dropping his ice cream in the process.

"Hahahahahah, Izuku got a brain freeze!" Shoto laughed, Izuku hearing this quickly ran over to Touya.

"Touya quick, unfreeze my brain!" Izuku begged as the brain freeze felt like it was getting worse, Touya did his best to hold back his laughter after hearing Izuku's request, but it proved too much for the teen as Touya joined Shoto in the laughing fit.

After a couple more hours of playing at the park, Touya saw it was getting late, indicated by the setting sun, and to the disappointment to Shoto and Izuku, it meant they had to go home. Before leaving, Izuku said goodbye to some of the ducks he had played with earlier. After Izuku's farewell to the ducks, he, Touya, and Shoto made their way home.

Once back home, Shoto and Izuku quickly took their shoes off and ran towards the kitchen. Upon entering the said room, they saw Rei was in the middle of finishing up dinner.

"Hi Mom! Hi Rei!" they cheered.

Hearing the boys' cheers, Rei smiled as she turned to face them, "Oh, evening boys. Did you enjoy your day at the park?"

"Yeah!" Izuku cheered. "We got to play with the ducks, then we played some football and Touya treated us to ice cream and it was delicious!"

"You forgot the part where you got a brain freeze." Shoto snickered, Izuku just pouted back.

Rei giggled seeing how the two were acting, to her it was so precious. "Well, you two should wash up for dinner."

"Okay," they said as they ran out the kitchen, just missing Touya on the way out.

"So how did it go? Did you use the boys to try and impress some girls?" Rei giggled, causing Touya to blush.

"N-no… w-we just fed the ducks and played with a football," he said.

Rei smiled.

"Great, I'm glad you three enjoyed yourselves, did anything happen?" she asked.

"Well… it didn't start off that great…" Touya muttered.

"Oh, did something happen?" Rei asked, the concern clear in her voice.

Touya then told his mother about Izuku's "little" moment. The mother was silent the entire duration of the story, only nodding occasionally to let Touya know she was still listening. Once Touya was finished with his story, he was surprised to then feel Rei pat his head.

"You did a great job," she said.

"H-huh?" He was quick to refocus himself when his mind had processed what his mother had said. "B-but, it was Shoto who comforted Izuku, not me. Hell, I made things worse."

"Nope," Rei replied, once again catching her son off guard. "You did the best you could and helped Izuku see his progress. And so what if you needed Shoto's help? Touya it's okay to get help, you can't do everything."

Rei's words brought a smile to Touya, he was happy he had Rei as a mum on days like this. It just made him wonder how his dad, who was terrible at romance, had convinced Rei to go out on a second date.

"Now onto more important businesses, did you get any adorable pics of Shoto and Izuku?" Rei asked, excited for Touya's answer.

"U-ugh… w-well… you see…" Touya mumbled, causing Rei to pout at her eldest son.

"I can't believe you missed out on a golden opportunity!" Rei whined as she flailed her arms in a cartoonish way. "To think I raised a son, who can't tell when you need to get pics! What about when you have a kid huh? I bet it'll be up to me or whoever you marry to know when," Rei whined.

Before the conversation could continue, Touya and Rei were interrupted when they heard Shoto scream. The pair bolted to the bathroom and found what had caused Shoto to scream.

There was a baby duck in Izuku's hair.

To say, the three Todorokis weren't gobsmacked would've been the understatement of the decade. The little duckling chirped and proceeded to jump from the mess that was Izuku's hair, and into the young boy's hand.

"I guess he really wanted to keep playing," Izuku chuckled, petting the baby duck's head with care.

"W-well it looks like you'll get a chance for those pics now."

AN: Oh man did that take time to write, sorry for lack of updates recently, but been dealing with personal issues and bad cases of writer's block. Still, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.