Chapter Text
It was purely by chance that Shouta happened to be on the street when the villain attacked. The two third year students he'd been chaperoning had jumped at the chance to finally put their provisional hero licenses to good use, jumping straight into the fight once it became clear the only pro hero around was Shouta himself.
They'd thrown themselves into the fight a little too eagerly in fact, and Shouta would have to lecture them later on not being too reckless.
But despite that, they had fought well. They were fine now, with minor injuries, chattering excitedly and already talking about how they'd have to tell their classmates about this when they got back to school tomorrow.
The fight had collapsed part of a building, and while the villain had been defeated and taken away in handcuffs, there had been many civilians injured in the skirmish.
Two ambulances had just rolled in, EMTs rushing out and spreading out among the bystanders.
Most directed their focus towards civilians, but one moved in Shouta's direction. He waved them off, pointing in his students' direction instead. He'd already looked them over himself, but a quick check up from a professional wouldn't hurt.
Aizawa and his students hadn't been alone in the fight, a winged hero had joined a few minutes in.
The man had taken a hit to the head and crashed to the ground near the end of the fight, but his contribution, both to evacuating citizens and to the fight itself had been essential.
He sat now on a broken piece of concrete that had once been a part of the wall, largely ignored by the commotion of people that had arrived on scene, his large red wings partially shielding his face from view, that flinched slightly as Shouta moved closer.
Shota had never seen him before. It became evident that he was young, he looked about his students' age, maybe a little younger. The hero was simply dressed, not wearing any particular costume, with wavy blond hair now disheveled and dirty from the fight. He'd pressed a bunched up sweater against his face in a weak attempt at stanching the bleeding from a large gash on his forehead.
The left side of his face was covered by the sweater, but his right eye watched Shouta warily.
"You should do something about that gash." Shouta spoke first.
"I'm not your student." The teen said flatly. He jerked his head in Shouta's student's direction. "They're over there."
"I know. But you were in the fight, it's my responsibility to check up on other heroes involved too. You're hurt. You should let the EMTs take a look at you,"
"No EMTs," the teen said immediately.
Alright.
He knew some heroes disliked getting medical attention when there were people around, afraid it'd make them look weak.
But this was an odd, strong reaction from someone who was clearly still a student, who didn't have to worry about publicity just yet. Not to mention, a clearly injured one.
His sweater was still covering his head wound and the shirt he was wearing was short sleeved, so Shouta could clearly see the scrapes and bruises running up and down his arms. If Shouta was being honest, some of them didn't even look like something he'd gotten from the fight.
He hadn't been paying too much attention to the winged teen during the fight, focusing on the villain and on the two teens he was actually responsible for, but Shouta was positive he hadn't been thrown around that much, not counting his crash at the end.
But he didn't seem at risk of actively bleeding out right now, though he did look a bit dazed, so Shouta didn't push him on it just yet.
"Are you a UA student? I don't think I've seen you before."
"I'm not a student."
Shouta waited. That was all the information he got.
"Not a student? Do you even have a license?" He asked skeptically.
Silently, the teen pulled out a provisional license and handed it to Shouta.
Oddly enough, while his hero name was printed out clearly as "Hawks", the space where a hero's real name would appear had been blacked out. His age was listed normally, sixteen, while his grade was once again blacked out.
His agency was listed simply as "The Hero Public Safety Commission".
This raised more questions than it answered. Shouta hadn't even known non hero course students could get a license. But this card seem to indicate that the teen, Hawks, wasn't a student at all.
There was nothing indicating this was a fake though, apart from the odd blacked out parts, so Shouta handed the card back without a word.
"Are you alone? Or is there someone with you?" He asked.
"My handler. I ditched him a few streets back when I heard the explosion. He's not going to be happy about that. They're not going to be happy about that,"
Hawks didn't even seem to be talking to Shouta, mostly mumbling to himself. What did he mean by handler? His movements were uncoordinated and sluggish as he readjusted the jacket on his face.
"You should really get that head injury checked out." Shouta said finally. "I think you may be concussed too,"
"I'm fine." Hawks snapped, glaring at him.
"Please stop talking to me," he added, more subdued. "I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't have intervened. Just pretend you didn't see me,"
Before Shouta could open his mouth and ask what that meant, a car pulled up, the letters HPSC emblazoned on it's side.
A woman got out and strided towards the two. She barely spared Shouta a glance before talking to Hawks. "You ran off. Nishioka is furious."
Hawks straightened. "There was an explosion. People were hurt. Was I supposed to ignore that?"
Vaguely, Shouta remembered that the Hero Public Safety Commission had been listed as Hawks's agency on his provisional license.
"We've been over this. This isn't why we gave you your license, you can't just-"
The lady cut off, glancing at Shouta.
"We'll talk about this later. Get in the car."
Hawks obeyed, wings dragged along the ground as he got into the back of the car. He didn't look back at them.
This all felt wrong.
"He needs to go to the hospital. He's going to keep losing blood from that head wound." he told the woman.
"We'll take care of it Eraserhead. Thank you for intervening today." She said.
"Who is that kid? He said he's not a student. And his provisional license is...odd."
The woman's smile got the slightest bit strained. "Don't worry about it. We'll take it from here."
Shouta did not like this one bit.
"Where are you taking him?"
The woman's smile had dropped completely by now. "This is HPSC business Eraser, I'd advise you to not intervene."
Shouta's hair lifted slightly into the air as he activated his quirk.
He didn't always agree with them, but he trusted the Hero Commission.
But something here felt really really wrong.
"Mr. Aizawa?" Someone interrupted, cutting through the tension. It was one of his students, who'd come up to him.
"When are we going? There's nothing left to do here. My parents are worried and the painkillers they gave Maeda are making him really loopy and he keeps giggling."
Reluctantly, Shouta released his hold on his quirk. His hair dropped down onto his shoulders again.
His students came first.
"We're leaving now. Just give me a minute." he answered.
"Have a good day ma'am." He told the woman coldly.
Shouta's eyes met Hawks's as the woman got back into the car. The boy looked even more tired than he had before.
"I'm not your student," Hawks had said.
And he wasn't.
But in that moment, Shouta kind of wished he was.