The phrase "terrible twos" was apparently not just a saying—it was a prophecy.
And Haruto's body had decided to fulfill it with enthusiasm.
It started two weeks after his birthday party. Haruto woke up one morning and felt *wrong*. Not sick, exactly. Just... off. Like his body had decided to stage a rebellion against his brain.
"Time for breakfast, sweetie!" his mother called.
Haruto tried to get out of his crib. His legs didn't cooperate. They just sort of... flailed.
*What the hell?*
He tried again. This time, his legs worked but his arms decided to stop functioning. He ended up rolling out of the crib and landing face-first on the floor.
*Ow.*
"Haru? You okay?" His mother rushed in, finding him sprawled on the carpet. "Oh, sweetie, did you fall?"
*My body betrayed me,* Haruto thought. *Mutiny. This is mutiny.*
She picked him up, and Haruto tried to explain what happened. What came out was: "Body no work good."
His mother's expression shifted to concern. "Your body doesn't feel good? Are you sick?"
"No. Just... weird."
*I sound like a caveman,* Haruto realized. *My vocabulary is regressing. This is terrible.*
His mother felt his forehead. "No fever. Maybe you slept wrong? Let's get some food in you."
At breakfast, Haruto discovered that his hands had also joined the rebellion. He tried to pick up his spoon. It flew out of his grip and clattered across the table.
He tried again. Same result.
"Haru, what's wrong?" his father asked, looking up from his coffee.
"Hands broken," Haruto said, because apparently that's all the words his brain could supply.
"Broken? Did you hurt yourself?"
*No, they're just not listening to me. There's a difference.*
Haruto tried to pick up his juice box. Instead, he squeezed it, and juice exploded everywhere.
His parents exchanged one of those looks. The "our child is malfunctioning and we don't know why" look.
"Maybe it's a growth spurt," his mother suggested, grabbing paper towels. "Sometimes kids get clumsy during growth spurts."
*Or maybe being two years old is just fundamentally terrible,* Haruto thought. *That's also a possibility.*
The clumsiness persisted throughout the day. Haruto walked into door frames. Dropped things. Fell over while standing completely still. At one point, he tried to sit down and missed the chair entirely.
*I'm a disaster,* he thought, sprawled on the floor yet again. *A walking, talking disaster.*
*Well, walking is generous. More like stumbling.*
---
The next day was playgroup, which Haruto had completely forgotten about until his mother cheerfully announced it at breakfast.
*No,* Haruto thought. *No, I can't go to playgroup like this. I can barely function.*
"Do we have to?" he asked.
"Of course! You love playgroup!"
*I absolutely do not love playgroup. I tolerate playgroup. There's a difference.*
"Don't feel good," Haruto tried.
His mother felt his forehead again. Still no fever. "You seem fine to me, sweetie. I think you're just having an adjustment period. The doctor said this might happen."
*The doctor said I might become a malfunctioning robot? That seems like important information to mention.*
At playgroup, Haruto's body decided to escalate its rebellion.
"Circle time!" Miss Yuki announced, her hair a cheerful yellow. "Everyone sit down!"
Haruto attempted to sit. His legs gave out halfway, and he collapsed into a heap.
Mina, sitting next to him, giggled. "You fell funny!"
*Glad my suffering amuses you,* Haruto thought darkly.
"Today we're going to practice using our quirks!" Miss Yuki continued. "But safely! Remember, no acid on the floor, Mina-chan!"
"I know, Miss Yuki!"
"And Katsuki-kun, explosions outside only!"
Bakugo, who'd been about to demonstrate his quirk, scowled. "But I can control it now!"
"Outside. Only."
"Tch."
*At least someone else is having a bad day,* Haruto thought.
"Haruto-kun!" Miss Yuki smiled at him. "Why don't you show us what you can do with the classroom plants?"
There were three plants in the room—a fern, a small succulent, and a plant that Haruto suspected was plastic but nobody had told Miss Yuki.
*Great. Performance time while my body is actively trying to sabotage me.*
Haruto stood up—carefully, so he didn't fall again—and walked over to the fern. He placed his hand on it and focused.
*Grow.*
Nothing happened.
He tried again. *Grow. Please. Don't make me look incompetent in front of the other toddlers.*
The fern remained stubbornly unchanged.
*Oh, so my quirk is also rebelling. Fantastic. Everything is rebelling.*
"It's okay, Haruto-kun," Miss Yuki said encouragingly. "Sometimes our quirks don't work when we're stressed or tired."
*I'm not stressed or tired. I'm being betrayed by my own body. It's different.*
Haruto moved to the succulent. Maybe this one would cooperate.
He placed both hands on the pot and really concentrated. *Grow. I'm not kidding. Grow right now.*
The succulent grew.
And grew.
And grew.
And didn't stop growing.
"Um," Miss Yuki said as the succulent expanded from the size of Haruto's fist to the size of a small dog. "Haruto-kun? You can stop now."
*I'm trying!* Haruto thought desperately. *It won't stop!*
The succulent kept growing, its leaves spreading across the table, pushing aside art supplies and snack cups.
"HARUTO-KUN!"
Haruto pulled his hands away, and the growth finally stopped. The succulent was now approximately three feet tall and taking up half the table.
The room was silent.
Then Takeshi said, "Cool," and tried to take a bite of it.
"NO!" Miss Yuki lunged to stop him. "We don't eat the classroom plants, Takeshi-kun!"
"But I can digest it!"
"That's not the point!"
While Miss Yuki dealt with Takeshi's attempted plant consumption, Haruto stared at his hands.
*What is wrong with me?* he wondered. *Why can't I control anything today?*
"That was AWESOME!" Mina bounced over to him. "You made it HUGE!"
"Accident," Haruto muttered.
"Still cool! Can you make it bigger?"
*No. Absolutely not. I'm done with plant demonstrations for today.*
Bakugo walked over, eyeing the giant succulent with a critical expression. "Why'd you stop? Scared?"
*I stopped because I have no control and was about to turn this classroom into a greenhouse,* Haruto thought. *But sure, let's go with scared.*
"Just done," Haruto said.
"Tch. I could've made it explode."
"That's not better, Katsuki," Miss Yuki said, now wrestling the succulent into a bigger pot. "Different doesn't mean better."
"My explosions are better!"
*We're two years old and having this argument,* Haruto thought. *This is my life now.*
The rest of playgroup was mercifully uneventful, if you didn't count Haruto falling over three more times and accidentally activating the plastic plant (which turned out to not be plastic after all—it immediately started sprouting real leaves, much to Miss Yuki's confusion).
---
When his mother picked him up, Miss Yuki pulled her aside for a conversation.
Haruto couldn't hear all of it, but he caught phrases like "quirk fluctuations" and "perfectly normal for his age" and "maybe don't let him near expensive plants for a while."
*I'm a liability,* Haruto thought. *A walking plant-growing liability.*
In the car on the way home, his mother kept glancing at him in the rearview mirror.
"Miss Yuki says you had some trouble with control today," she said carefully.
"Yeah," Haruto confirmed.
"She said that's normal. Growing kids have growing quirks. Sometimes things get a little unpredictable."
*Unpredictable is one word for it. Catastrophic is another.*
"We'll practice at home," his mother continued. "In a controlled environment. Where you can't accidentally grow any... decorative office plants to enormous sizes."
*That was one time,* Haruto thought. *Well, twice if you count the sunflower. Three times if you count today. Okay, it's a pattern.*
When they got home, Haruto immediately went to the balcony to check on his remaining plants. The tomatoes and basil had been behaving themselves, growing at normal rates under his father's careful supervision.
Haruto touched the tomato plant gently. *Be normal. Please just be normal.*
The plant responded to his touch, but it didn't go crazy. Just a gentle acknowledgment of his presence.
*Oh thank god,* Haruto thought. *Something that works.*
"Haru-kun!"
Haruto turned to see Izuku and Inko at the door. His mother must have invited them over.
"Mama told me about playgroup!" Izuku rushed over, notebook already out. "You grew a succulent really big! That's so cool! How big exactly? Miss Yuki said three feet but I wanted to confirm because that's really impressive for a two-year-old and—"
"Izuku, breathe," Inko said gently.
Izuku took a breath but didn't stop talking. "And she said you're having control issues but that's normal! All Might had control issues when he was young too! Well, I don't know if he was young when he got his quirk, but probably! Everyone has control issues!"
*All Might probably didn't accidentally grow giant succulents,* Haruto thought, *but I appreciate the sentiment.*
"Can I watch you practice?" Izuku asked eagerly. "I can take notes! For science!"
"Everything's science to you," Haruto observed.
"Because everything IS science! Especially quirks!"
*He's not wrong,* Haruto admitted.
They spent the afternoon on the balcony, with Izuku documenting every time Haruto successfully made a plant grow without it going berserk. Which was roughly 50% of the time.
The other 50% involved a tomato plant that briefly achieved sentience (or seemed to), basil that tried to escape its pot, and one concerning incident where Haruto swore the plants were talking to him.
"Are they really talking?" Izuku asked, scribbling frantically. "Like actual words? Or feelings? Or—"
"Feelings," Haruto said. "I think. Maybe. I don't know."
*I'm losing my mind,* he thought. *That's what's happening. The terrible twos are making me lose my mind.*
"That's so cool!" Izuku's eyes were shining. "That means you have a really strong connection with plants! Like a bond! That's gonna be so useful when you're a hero!"
*Or when I'm trying to trap villains in wooden prisons,* Haruto thought. *Also useful for that.*
By dinner time, Haruto was exhausted. His quirk fluctuations, his body's rebellion, and Izuku's enthusiastic note-taking had drained him completely.
"Bath time," his mother announced.
*Finally,* Haruto thought. *Peace.*
In the bath, Haruto stared at his hands. These hands that could make plants grow, that could feel their presence, that could potentially reshape entire landscapes.
These hands that currently couldn't hold a spoon without dropping it.
*The terrible twos,* he thought. *They're called terrible for a reason.*
His mother washed his hair, humming softly. The water was warm. The bathroom was quiet. For the first time all day, Haruto felt like he could breathe.
"You had a rough day," his mother said gently. "But you did good, sweetie. You're learning. That's what matters."
*I'm learning that my body and quirk hate me,* Haruto thought. *That's what I'm learning.*
But his mother's hands were gentle as she rinsed the shampoo from his hair, and Haruto found himself relaxing despite everything.
"Tomorrow will be better," she promised.
*Will it though?* Haruto wondered. *Or will it just be a different kind of disaster?*
---
That night, Haruto lay in his crib and made a mental list.
*Things I can't control:*
*1. My body*
*2. My quirk*
*3. My emotions (apparently)*
*4. The rate at which plants grow when I touch them*
*5. Bakugo's personality*
*6. The fact that All Might is literally everywhere*
*7. My increasing attachment to people I'm supposed to be manipulating*
*8. The terrible twos*
*Things I can control:*
*1. ...*
*2. ...*
*3. Nothing. I can control nothing.*
*This is fine,* Haruto thought. *Everything is fine.*
The fake stars spun overhead, and Haruto heard a soft rustling from the balcony. His plants, responding to his presence even through the wall.
*Even they won't leave me alone,* he thought, but there was no real annoyance in it. Just resignation.
*I'm two years old. I have years—YEARS—before I can do anything meaningful. Before I can change anything. Before I can stop the events I know are coming.*
*I just have to survive until then.*
*Survive the terrible twos. The terrible threes. The terrible... everything.*
*And try not to accidentally grow a forest in the process.*
From the living room, he heard his parents talking quietly.
"Do you think he's okay?" his mother asked. "With all the quirk fluctuations?"
"He's fine," his father assured her. "The doctor said this is normal. He'll get control eventually."
"But what if—"
"Yuki. He's fine. He's just growing. Let him grow."
*Growing,* Haruto thought. *Yeah. That's what I'm doing. Growing.*
*Growing and planning and waiting and trying not to lose my mind in the process.*
*The terrible twos, indeed.*
He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but all he could think about was tomorrow's potential disasters.
*At least I can't make it worse,* he thought.
Somewhere on the balcony, one of his plants grew another inch.
*I definitely can make it worse,* Haruto corrected. *I absolutely can.*
*But tomorrow's a problem for tomorrow-Haruto.*
*Tonight, I'm just going to sleep.*
*If my body lets me.*
*Which is a big if.*
---