Chapter Text
Cathleen Bate is clearing off her desk, nearly ready to finish up work for the day and warp herself over to Japan when there’s a knock at the office door.
Cathleen raises an eyebrow. It’s not one of her brothers in arms, she knows that much from the fact that they bothered to knock.
“Come in,” she says.
The door opens and in strides a broad man with short dark hair. Cathleen smiles.
“I hear congratulations are in order?” says John Henry, the current and long-standing Number One Hero of West Virginia.
“John!” Cathleen says. “I could say the same about you! I hear they’re predicting you at Nationwide Number Two this year. But what’re you doing here? I figure you see enough action on your own coast.”
John shrugs with a shit-eating grin. “Just because I couldn’t make the wedding doesn’t mean I can’t congratulate you, y’know. Someone has to keep you on your toes.”
He’s not kidding.
The American Hero Rankings are sorted between the State and Federal levels. While the Hero rankings within each state tend to fluctuate wildly, the national rankings are damn near set in stone. Only the top Hero in each state is considered for the Nationwide Rankings. States with higher populations by nature have more situations—not only crimes, but accidents and disasters—resulting in more Hero activity, and by extension higher rankings. As such, the Nationwide Hero Rankings are based less on which of the 51 State Leaders is the best and more on whether they operate out of a populous state. Almost every year you can predict where everyone’s rankings will end up based solely on total population of their state.
Except for John Henry, who despite operating primarily out of the 40th most populous state is so damn good he has a habit of wandering into the surrounding states and dealing with problems there too.
If anyone is going to dethrone her rank, it’s John Henry.
“I appreciate it,” Cathleen says. “None of these upstarts have given me a good challenge lately.”
John laughs. “You know rookies talk about Blazing Sun like a cautionary tale, right?”
Cathleen shrugs. “He shouldn’t have talked shit.” That only makes John laugh harder.
“Who knows?” he says. “If Captain Celebrity ever pulls his head out of his ass, he stands a decent chance.”
“I’m not exactly holding my breath,” says Cathleen.
“Me neither, but you never know.”
Cathleen glances down to her watch, the one set to Japan time. “Sorry to cut this short, John, but…”
“No, I completely understand,” says John, holding his hands up placatingly. “Go see your girl.”
As John moves to step out into the hall, Cathleen pauses.
“Actually, can I get your autograph for Izuku?” she says.
John rolls his eyes fondly but obliges, pulling a signed Steeldriver collector’s card from a case in his pocket.
Time feels weird.
Cathleen’s entire world shifted on its axis and yet the planet keeps spinning.
She spends more time at the apartment now, sometimes even days at a time, but for the most part being married to Inko isn’t all the different from dating her. Other than that they’ve sworn themselves to each other, something Cathleen can’t help but remember every time she sees Inko’s face.
Soon enough, it’s already April.
Inko sets a cup of tea down on the table besides Cathleen. She sags in relief, looking up at her wife.
“You are a goddess,” she says.
Inko laughs like chimes. “So says the reality warper.”
Cathleen’s face heats up the same way it always does when she hears Inko’s laugh. Two years of dating and months of marriage hasn’t yet inoculated her against the power of how wonderful Inko is, and Cathleen doubts she’ll ever truly be used to it. She takes a quick drink from her absolutely heavenly tea so she can hide her face.
She glances down at the papers strewn across the table. Flyers, mostly, with a handful of online printouts. Inko’s been working on something big for almost as long as Cathleen has known her, something she’s remained tight-lipped about. Cathleen is hardly in a position to judge, what with carrying national secrets and all.
But recently, that project has started taking more and more of Inko’s time. Which has left them both with the problem of supervising Izuku.
Cathleen can teleport, but she still works in the states, and spends a considerable amount of time there. Mitsuki and Masaru—who insist on having Cathleen call them by their given names now that she’s married Inko—have somewhat unpredictable schedules from their work in the fashion industry. They have enough trouble keeping an eye on their own kid, let alone Izuku.
Inko presses a kiss into the back of Cathleen’s neck, sending a jolt down her spine.
“I think you’ve been at this a little too long,” she says.
“Huh?”
“Cathy, that’s a martial arts instructor.”
Cathleen blinks down at the packet in her hand.
Oh.
It’s a research packet on of her brothers put together for her when she expressed interest in finding a trainer for Izuku. If he’s going to be a Hero when he grows up, getting started early is important. It can affect his growth in ways starting later can’t help with, and he’ll need every advantage he can get.
But it’s also not a babysitting service.
Cathleen sets down the packet. “…I see what you mean.”
“I know you can do this, Cathy,” Inko says sweetly. “But please remember that I’m here too?”
“How could I forget?” says Cathleen.
“Then maybe take a break for a moment. You aren’t going to get much done if you’re too tired to think straight.”
“Inko, you know I can’t think straight.”
Inko rolls her eyes but her smile gives her away.
“Go on, take a break,” says Inko, wrapping her sturdy arms around Cathleen. “I’ll take a look and see what I can do.”
Cathleen smiles, leaning her head against Inko’s arm.
“Okay,” she relents, slowly getting up to let Inko take her seat.
Cathleen doesn’t quite stumble over her own feet as she makes her way down the hall, but it’s a close thing.
The apartment hasn’t changed much after the wedding. There are new photos on the walls of the three of them, as well as several from the wedding, but otherwise it’s exactly the same.
Truth be told, it’s almost insulting how the world didn’t seem to react at all to their marriage.
Cathleen knows she’s partly responsible for that. For the time being, there’s been no indication that she’s in any kind of relationship, much less married. She knows full well that once the news breaks there’s a good chance the paparazzi will descend on her demanding to know answers.
Star and Stripe is no Underground Hero; she’s the American Hero right now. Number One Hero of California, and a strong contender for Number One of the whole country this year. She can’t avoid dealing with the media, no matter how inconvenient that can be. But Heroes have long since learned how to keep certain things quiet. With any luck, no one who wasn’t present at the wedding itself will ever find out about it.
And while that’s a good thing for all of them, Cathleen still feels weird that something so monumentous can go so completely unnoticed.
She pauses at the door to Izuku’s room, glancing in.
Izuku and Melissa take their newfound cousinhood very seriously, as it turns out. Cathleen is just happy that Izuku has someone close to his age he can talk to about his Quirklessness. Neither she nor Inko have any personal experience with Quirklessness, and she knows that Izuku might need outside assistance with his struggles, or at least a shoulder to lean on.
The two of them mostly talk through a digital chat program, letting them ignore time zones in much the same way Inko and Cathleen text each other. From the way Izuku’s tiny fingers are dancing across the keyboard, it looks like they’re having an intense conversation. Cathleen smiles.
Her son is so cute when he’s excited!
Cathleen fails to stifle a yawn and takes the hint.
Whenever Cathleen has the pleasure of staying overnight—or ideally, several days—she shares the master bedroom with Inko. She crosses the hall to the bedroom, stretches her arms over her head, and plonks herself onto the bed.
In moments, she’s out like a light.
“Mama!”
Cathleen groans as sleep leaves her, but she can never begrudge Izuku when he calls her that.
She cracks open her eyes and shifts along the bed so she can look down at Izuku. For his part, Izuku bounces in place.
“What’s up?” she says.
“Mom found a babysitter!” he says. “She’s got a really cool Quirk! Oh, and Mom wants you to come and meet her to see if you like her!”
“I’ll be right out,” Cathleen says. Izuku nods rapidly and darts out the door down the hall.
Cathleen knows Izuku well enough to know that ‘she has a cool Quirk’ is the same as him saying ‘she has any Quirk at all,’ but hey, thinking about Quirks seems to really make him happy, and he figured out how she can teleport herself, so there are easily worse hobbies for Izuku to have.
She just hopes he isn’t rude about asking this sitter any questions.
Cathleen steps out into the hall, still rubbing sleep from her eyes, but feeling significantly better than she was earlier.
“I’m here,” she says, blinking. “It’s a pleasure to meet…”
It isn’t all that often that Cathleen meets people much taller than her.
Cathleen looks up.
“Um,” says the girl, because despite having at least two feet on Cathleen, she’s clearly only a girl. Her posture is tight. Restrained. Pulled in on herself. She’s covered in a teal fur, with a long, smooth snout extending from her face and perky ears on the top of her head, giving her the appearance of a fox. “Hello. I’m uh, I’m Ippan Josei.” She fiddles with some of her white-blonde hair, the same as the fur on her hands.
Cathleen smiles. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ippan. I’m Bate Cathleen. I hear you might be Izuku’s new babysitter?”
Ippan nods, but doesn’t say anything right away, choosing to wring her hands instead.
“Ippan here is a first-year at UA’s Management Course,” says Inko, evidently sensing the girl’s anxiety.
Ippan nods again. “We have to, um, we have a project where we need to—to work part time.”
“And your hours won’t conflict?” says Cathleen. “And please, have a seat.” She’s brushing against the ceiling as it is. That cannot be comfortable.
“Well, um, I take my classes, uh, online,” Ippan says quietly as she sits down in one of the chairs around the table, lowering her to roughly the same height as Cathleen. “I… I don’t, uh, fit.”
“That seems like an oversight,” Cathleen murmurs, taking a seat herself next to Inko. Ippan’s ears twitch. Right, animal mutation Quirks like hers tend to enhance hearing.
“It’s… they can’t remodel because then all the other students wouldn’t be able to go,” Ippan says. “It’s fine! Principal Nedzu promised he’d set something up for me between terms!”
Cathleen has never had the pleasure of meeting Nedzu, but if half the rumors she’s heard about him are remotely true, he’s probably planning on somehow remodeling the entire school in those few weeks of break. Though Ippan looks like she’d faint if Cathleen actually tells her that.
“Your Quirk is so cool!” Izuku says, darting around Ippan like a hummingbird, standing on his toes to get a better look at her head. “How strong are you? Can you breathe super well? Do you get hot easy?”
“Um,” says Ippan.
Cathleen glances at Inko. “Should I be worried that our six-year-old son understands Square-Cube Law?”
“He learned about it while researching Godzillo’s Quirk,” Inko replies. “You know how he gets with his research when he’s interested.”
Considering the kid is nearing fluency in English, yes, Cathleen does know.
“Well, uh,” Ippan says. “Yes, the doctor who examined me for my Quirk when I was a kid found that I have, um, my heart and my lungs are stronger? And my bones and muscles are, uh, structured a bit differently to compensate for the weight.”
“Awesome…” Izuku says, eyes shining.
“It’s, um, nice to meet you, Izuku,” says Ippan. “What’s your Quirk?”
“Oh, I’m Quirkless,” Izuku says.
Ippan blinks, “O-oh. Okay.”
“I’m gonna be a Hero!”
“Oh! Does that mean, um, are you aiming for UA?”
“Uh-huh!” Izuku pumps his fists in the air. “That’s where All Might went!”
Cathleen lets out a silent breath she didn’t know she had been holding. That’s one major concern they don’t have to worry about. Not that Cathleen was expecting Quirkism from someone with such a strongly expressed Quirk, but you never know.
“It doesn’t hurt that it’s only a short train ride away,” says Inko. “But I can assure you that All Might is the biggest reason.” Inko shakes her head fondly. “My family are the biggest All Might fans you will ever meet, Ippan.”
“Hey now,” Cathleen says, bumping her shoulder against Inko.
“Please refute me,” says Inko. And, well, Cathleen did base her entire Hero persona on All Might, so…
“Yeah, yeah.”
Ippan quietly clears her throat. For someone of her size, she seems to do everything quietly, which leaves Cathleen feeling cold. “So if I’m, um, if I get the job, what would my responsibilities be?”
“Mostly you would supervise Izuku,” says Inko. “He has a lot of energy, but he’s rather well behaved; don’t worry about that. But we can’t always be here to keep an eye on him. It might be comparable to a chaperone. You’d make sure he gets to and from school safely, help him with homework if he needs it. We also intend to look into options to help him start preparing for UA, and you might be the one to take him to a dojo or a gym for example.”
“I see.” Ippan looks thoughtful.
Cathleen personally vets all the applicants for support staff at her Agency. It isn’t strictly necessary for her to do so with all the security in place, but redundancy never hurt anyone, and it keeps her skills sharp.
She lets Inko guide the interview, interjecting with her own thoughts or opinions on occasion, rarely voicing a question of her own. Mostly she sits and observes.
Eventually, they thank Ippan for her time and wrap things up so that Inko and Cathleen can talk.
“What do you think?” Inko says.
“She’s a bundle of nerves,” says Cathleen. “But she was paying attention to everything we said, and she kept a careful eye on Izuku the entire time.”
“I thought so too,” Inko says. “About the nerves. I’m worried about her.”
“She didn’t have any physical injuries. I’m guessing that she gets trouble from her looks and her height. Not a lot of public spaces are equipped for Quirks that make you so tall.”
“You think she’s being discriminated against.” says Inko, as though she thinks that herself.
“Probably. Hopefully not from anyone at UA. I doubt Nedzu would allow that to happen. But in general, there’s a pretty good chance that’s the case. How’d you find her?”
Inko shrugs. “I knew about UA’s policy of having their management students find some kind of work study. I see interns like that all the time at law firms, though admittedly, those are almost always third years. I figured it was easier than running our own background check; or at least, easier than me doing it. I wasn’t expecting the first years to do it too.”
Cathleen hums to herself but doesn’t voice her suspicion. Ippan’s finances are none of her concern. But at the very least she’ll be sending an email to Nedzu about this. It could be a concern he needs to be aware of.
“So were there any other applicants from UA?” she says.
“No,” says Inko, “Only her.” There’s a pause. “So, should we keep looking or do we think that Ippan is a good fit?”
“I like her!” Izuku says. “And I gotta know what her parents’ Quirks are! One has to be a fox, but I think the other is a water animal!”
Cathleen snorts and ruffles his hair. “I think she’ll do an alright job.”
“She didn’t even care that I’m Quirkless,” Izuku says, hopping up onto the couch beside Cathleen and Inko.
“Izuku,” says Cathleen. “You aren’t getting a hard time at school, are you?”
He pauses like he’s thinking. “No? Not really.”
“If that ever changes, let us know, alright?” says Inko.
“Uh-huh.”
Still, as much as Cathleen hates to admit it, he has a point. Ippan doesn’t seem the type to treat him like he’s glass, and while she was surprised, she didn’t insult him about it either. Cathleen knows her perspective is skewed by American Quirk regulations, but she has done the research about having a Quirkless child in Japan.
(It mostly boils down to, ‘if someone says they’re part of the Hearts and Minds party, run.’)
“What did you think?” Cathleen says. Inko purses her lip.
“I think,” she says, “That Ippan needs to have more places that she feels comfortable, and that she might be worried about money. I think she’ll do a good job…” Inko trails off for a moment before pulling out of whatever thought she’s having. “I think she’ll do a good job.”
“So it’s agreed then,” says Cathleen.
“And just in time,” Inko says, leaning back on the sofa with a sigh. “These next few months are going to be very important.” She looks over at Cathleen and grins slyly. “If all goes well, I might even be ready to finally tell you what I’ve been working on.”
“Yes!” Izuku cheers, flopping onto them. “Mom, Mama, you gotta call Ippan now! Then it won’t take as long for your thing, right?”
Inko laughs like chimes. “Alright Izuku, I’ll call her.”