Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku is late for work.

Again.

And as always, it’s not even his fault. Transit is down thanks to yet another villain attack but there is no way his boss is going to accept that excuse.

What does he take Izuku for, a fanboy?

...well fair actually, Izuku is a fanboy- but he’d never stop to ogle a fight when he’s got somewhere important to be! And definitely not when he’s already late!

What does his boss expect him to do- run to work?

Apparently yes and also, keep a spare suit in your office so you don’t stink up the place afterwards.

Asshole.

This is not where Izuku thought he’d be first year out of high school.

The way ahead is technically clear now, but considering the villains attacking are a group of five, and the backup for the only hero on scene has yet to arrive, Izuku isn’t going to make things harder on the heroes by trying to get through.

Even if he can practically hear his boss yelling at him already.

“This keeps happening because you insist on getting the signatures on foot! If public transit is down, you should just take a taxi instead!”

Just take a taxi. Just take a taxi! As if Izuku has the spare funds to lay the expense out while he fights with accounting about a petty cash reimbursement. And it’ll be a fight that’s for sure. Without a note from his boss okaying the deed in advance Aki would never allot company funds for the quirkless kid who’s apparently only good for coffee runs and hand delivering contracts to and from clients.

”They don’t even let you handle the filing Midoriya.”

Quirkist assholes the lot of them!

...Izuku is maybe a little bitter.

High school had been… somehow worse than middle school, even without Kacchan in his daily life. Being treated like he was useless -or even worse, like that made him mentally deficient, had gotten old real fast.

At least Aldera hadn’t automatically signed him up for remedial classes without even letting him take the tests first.

And they hadn’t talked to him like he had the mental acuity of a five-year-old either.

(They hadn’t talked to him at all but that was somehow better if this was the only alternative.)

This day has barely even started and yet Izuku is somehow already ready to be crawling back into his shitty little bed in his shitty little apartment. Why did he let his mom move to America again?

‘...because I was tired of being a burden on her and wanted her to be happy?’

And she definitely is happy if the sound of her laughter during their weekly phone calls is anything to go by. He could have joined her, Hisashi had made that very clear but…

Useless

Worthless

Deku will never amount to anything

‘I just wanted the chance to prove that I could make it on my own…’

His black briefcase of files suddenly feels like a heavy shackle in his grip. And it’s not even an exaggeration as the thing weighs significantly more than one would expect of a bag like this.

”It's practically bulletproof so even someone like you can keep it safe.”

Izuku lets out a long sigh.

He’s just. So tired.

If there was any other job willing to hire him, he’d quit this place in a heartbeat.

But who else would agree to hire a quirkless kid with less than zero credentials?

Up ahead a villain with four bulky arms lifts an empty car and lobs it down the street, while two of his four teammates head into a jewelry store. The car flies fast heading towards- a bus full of trapped kids, having previously crashed onto its side, oh no!

The sole hero that’s been struggling to hold them off, Twinjet- a speed hero who uses airblasts from her hands for offense, defense as well as mobility- lets out a panicked yell. Even if she pushed her quirk to the very limits to reach the bus in time, all she’d accomplish would be impacting with the flying car herself.

Where is her backup-?

A living shadow suddenly swells upwards into the shape of a large taloned hand and catches the car with ease.

A relieved sigh leaves Izuku’s lips as Tsukuyomi begins efficiently helping civilians out of the bus through a window while Dark Shadow provides defense.

‘Good, smart, but they can’t honestly expect Twinjet to defeat five villains on her own-’

Hawks flies past overhead and the civilians cheer in gratitude and relief.

Izuku allows himself a small bittersweet smile. Seeing Hawks around this area is inevitable but the sight of him always reminds Izuku that it is Hawks who is the number one hero now.

‘When Kacchan got snatched by villains while at the UA training camp, no one could have imagined it would lead to All Might’s death. The Symbol of Peace absolutely decimated his opponent- a villain later dubbed the Scourge of Kamino posthumously- though at great personal cost. I was probably the only one watching that knew why the villain kept hitting him on his side but All Might didn’t let something as trivial as an old injury stop him…'

'In the end he was right. Without a quirk, someone like me would never have been able to push past all of that pain and injury to make sure that the villain went down too... Hawks had only become number two after that, but then a couple months later there were hushed talks of a secret Endeavor scandal leading to his own announced retirement. Even a hero nerd like me hasn’t been able to find out what really happened. And the media’s been pretty harsh about it all, expressing on multiple occasions that they’d feel better with someone older like Best Jeanist or Gang Orca in the top spot- but honestly I think that’s ridiculous. This is Hawks’ terf and while the hero may still be on the young side his record is impeccable!’

Izuku’s lip twitches despite himself.

‘...im-peck-able... because he’s a bird…’

One hand comes up to cover his laugh.

‘No! No laughing Izuku! It’s not appropriate to make jokes during a villain attack! Even if the pun was… im-peck-able…’

He pinches himself on the arm to cut off the laughter.

‘Stop that you need to focus! The villains could decide to target us civilians at any moment, though I guess they really do revel in the attention so much that they would allow all the idiots holding phones up to survive.’

Just then, Hawks swoops and spins in midair, his feathers flying free towards the three visible villains while Twinjet blasts into the jewelry store to stop the heist.

Which is of course when Four-Arms throws another car at Tsukuyomi and the two villains beside him pull out what look like heavily modified guns.

Izuku’s mind races even as Four-Arms begins a heavy assault that Dark Shadow starts to struggle with while Hawks is forced to wheel around in the air as a hail of bullets is sent his way.

‘If they’re using guns that means most likely their quirks aren’t useful for this situation. Hawks’ original position allowed him to block the sun from shining directly onto Tsukuyomi’s quirk which is an unavoidable weakness during the daytime hours as some of his old sports festival battles have shown. Ordinarily Tsukuyomi himself wouldn’t remain stationary like this either but with him needing to help every single person climb out of the bus through that one window he’s a sitting duck!’

His lips start to twitch at the reflexive, ‘You mean a sitting crow?’ but Izuku immediately forces the laugh back down this time. He needs to think.

‘So Dark Shadow no longer has time to drop the projectiles they’re catching as it would take too long to make sure that there’s no one else in the way. The stack in their grip is growing and they’re clearly starting to strain. Tsukuyomi looks like he’s saying something to them but he’s also not looking up from the civilians who need him, which- that’s an amazing amount of trust in his quirk as well as coolness under pressure! Truly the mark of a great hero who actually survived the multiple villain attacks on class 1A! It’s so- Focus Izuku! Alright! Here’s what I know: Tsukuyomi and by extension Dark Shadow are sitting… crows… unable to abandon their position. And while I couldn't be sure before, it really does seem like the villains are now deliberately keeping Hawks from casting his shadow over Tsukuyomi- logical given that UA’s sports festivals are mass broadcasted for anyone to view and the whole ‘Go Plus Ultra’ thing means most students aren’t holding back from showing their true powers- which, what the fuck UA? You telling me not a single analyst sat down and said “Hey! Maybe we shouldn’t do this since it gives villains front row seat to weaknesses? And” -OH MY GOD I’VE REACHED NEW HEIGHTS; I’M RAMBLING MIDRAMBLE!’

He slaps his hands onto his cheeks to get back on track- forgetting momentarily about the reinforced briefcase still in his hand.

Ow.

Izuku ignores the strange looks he’s getting and retraces his mental steps to see what it was that he’d almost discovered.

‘Dark Shadow targeted. Straining. Hawks being kept away by bullets (and man somebody needs to deal with that at some point because fired bullets don’t just disappear, what goes up must come down, so someone somewhere could be getting shot by this right now)- wait. That’s the key! They’re keeping Hawks away which means they know he was covering for Tsukuyomi which means they know Tsukuyomi’s weakness! Four-Arms has enough strength in each individual arm that only two of them are focusing on the barrage on Dark Shadow while the other two are keeping Hawks’ feathers from landing any hits to stop him. But none of them are aiming the guns at Tsukuyomi or even at the crowd. Is that because if they let up on Hawks even a little, he’ll take them down? But this situation isn’t sustainable, sooner or later they’re going to run out of bullets. So what’s the play? What’s the play? Are they banking ha it’s not a bank it’s a jewelry store- NOT THE TIME on the two villains in the store managing to take down Twinjet in time to come back into the fray so they can reload?’

Out of the corner of Izuku's eye he can see the people nearest to him shuffling away, as if his mumblings are frightening. And isn’t that something, that his rambling thoughts muttered aloud are somehow scarier to them than their proximity to a literal battlefield.

Four-Arms rips a nearby stop sign from the ground and it comes up along with a solid chunk of concrete. He swings it wildly before throwing it and Dark Shadow is forced to stretch upwards to avoid the hit.

Leaving them, and their pile of projectiles… directly… over… Tsukuyomi…

Izuku’s eyes widen as the pieces finally slot into place.

He is the only one watching for it and so he is the only one to notice when one shooter shifts her gun to her right hand so she can start to pull her left glove off with her teeth.

Light peeks through from underneath, her skin seeming to glow and shine, and Izuku realizes that this was the plan all along. In but a moment Hawks will see it too and then he’ll swoop down to save his sidekick and they’ll both be buried under the heavy pile of everything Dark Shadow is holding when the quirk is made to shrink down into nothing.

Everything else has changed but one thing remains the same.

Someone is in trouble right in front of him and his feet move on their own.

‘Oh good.’ Izuku thinks somewhat hysterically. ‘I’ve graduated from backpack to briefcase.’

And then he is twisting for momentum and letting it fly, the reinforced bag slamming into the distracted villain's head with a satisfying thunk that immediately takes her out of the equation.

Things wrap up fairly quickly after Izuku brains the trump card villainess with his briefcase. Four-Arms is immediately distracted by his teammate getting knocked out, and with a mighty heave Dark Shadow buries him in everything they’d been holding instead. Izuku approves of the irony.

The remaining shooter tries to run but without the rain of bullets keeping Hawks away he doesn’t get more than a single step before he too is taken down.

With the immediate danger passed, Tsukuyomi and his quirk climb into the bus to help the very injured civilians leave and Hawks swoops into the jewelry store to see what was keeping Twinjet.

Izuku quickly heads over to retrieve his fallen briefcase, which is when he sees all the phone cameras pointed his way.

Fuck, he is so fired.

Chapter Text

As if to punctuate the prediction his phone rings immediately.

It’s Aki because of course it is.

“Where are you Midoriya?

“Got stuck behind a-”

“Don’t lie to me! I’ve already seen the clips!”

“-police barrier…”

“How dare you take such risks with those files! Is this company a joke to you???”

‘Of course not! It's just that considering how often you stress the durability of it and how that way even someone like me could keep it safe I thought I’d just check for you if it was actually bulletproof.’

Izuku forces the snarky thought back and keeps quiet as Aki continues. “You’re finished Midoriya! You hear me? You’re done! Don’t even bother looking for another job, I’ll have your name on every blacklist in Japan! Stay right where you are! Suna will be there shortly to pick up the briefcase and you had better pray that the files are still intact!”

‘Stay here?? The reporters will be here any minute! And why does she have to come get it if I need to come in anyway to clear out my locker? And why would you fire me before giving me additional orders, I can just leave right now and you wouldn’t be able to stop me!’

He says none of that out loud though, merely croaking out a small, “okay.”

God he’s so tired.

“Pardon the intrusion,” a deep voice says from behind him.

Izuku sighs and pockets his phone before turning around.

He chokes on his inhale at the sight of Tsukuyomi standing right there looking directly at him. “N-No problem!” he manages, voice overly high and somewhat strained at the full force of the hero's piercing gaze.

“I appreciate the assist,” the young hero says, offering his hand to shake.

Izuku takes it carefully, internally screaming at how warm it is, and silently vowing to never wash this hand again.

Tsukuyomi cocks his head to one side as the handshake seems to drag on. “... I would also appreciate your name,” he finally says.

Izuku flushes, his inner voice screaming and fanboying even louder. “Midoriya. Midoriya Izuku.”

His hand is finally released and he immediately holds it out towards Dark Shadow next. “It’s a pleasure to meet both of you,” he squeaks.

Tsukuyomi’s eyes widen a fraction as his quirk eagerly snatches Izuku’s hand.

Izuku blinks and tries to figure why the hero looks so shell shocked but can’t come up with anything. “... did I say something wrong?”

Dark Shadow cackles and pointedly doesn’t let go of Izuku’s hand. “Don’t mind Fumi. He’s just surprised because no one really treats me like my own person.”

Izuku blinks again. “Why wouldn’t I though?”

The quirk laughs and ignores his attempts at retrieving his hand. “Fumi I like this one! Can we keep him?”

Tsukuyomi presses his fingertips to his forehead and sighs deeply. “We have been over this Shadow. It is generally frowned upon to collect your favorite humans.”

Dark Shadow cackles even louder but finally lets go of Izuku’s hand if only so they can drape over his shoulder possessively instead. “I’m a crow Fumi. I go ‘ooh shiny’ and ‘mine now.’”

The hero covers his eyes with his palms and groans. “The civilian is not shiny.”

This is of course the exact moment when pro hero Hawks arrives, or more accurately, he’d been present this whole time, but now he’s here here, landing on the sidewalk just a couple steps away.

Izuku is not ready.

“Hey there!” the hero grins, throwing an arm around his young sidekick’s shoulder and leaning all of his weight on him. Dark Shadow immediately removes themself from Izuku to swell upwards and do the same on Tsukuyomi’s other side. Said sidekick grumbles under his breath at it all but doesn’t falter.

“Thanks for helping out, Random Citizen! Mighty brave of you!”

Izuku’s breath stutters and he has to cough lightly into his fist to delay his response.

‘Oh man. A hero. A popular one. The freaking number one hero! You really haven't learned anything from the sludge incident have you? Any second now he’s going to-’

“You understand though that for vigilante purposes I’m gonna need to be sure you didn’t use your quirk just then.”

Right. Of course he does.

Izuku knows what comes next. He tells them that he’s quirkless and they rescind their earlier thanks and mentions of bravery.

‘Reckless’

‘Thoughtless’

‘You could have gotten hurt!’

‘But I didn’t!’ Izuku wants to scream. ‘It’s only reckless if it doesn’t work!'

Instead, he grits his teeth before finally answering. “I did not use a quirk.”

Hawks tilts his head in a way that's reminiscent of Tsukuyomi. “Sorry kid, that’s not good enough. I'm gonna need to see your school ID to make sure.”

Izuku bristles, gesturing sharply at his suit in indignation. “I’m not a kid! I’m eighteen!”

Dark Shadow lets out an excited trill. “That's the same age as you Fumi! It must be fate!”

Tsukuyomi just ducks his head lower, pulling on his hood to hide his face as he hisses something at his quirk under his breath.

“Oh!” Izuku suddenly realizes, his mind catching onto the quirk’s phrasing and immediately analyzing it. “You two aren’t the same age? I mean I should have suspected since it’s only mutations that are manifested at birth but I guess the sentience was throwing me off so I kept thinking of it more like Siamese twins as opposed to an actual quirk manifestation-”

Izuku cuts himself off as Dark Shadow starts laughing maniacally.

His face burns as what he'd just done sinks in. “I am so sorry!” he wails, bowing low in apology.

Dark Shadow doesn’t seem to hear him, choosing instead to duck beneath Tsukuyomi’s hood to loudly whisper into his ear. “Please?”

The young hero lets out a drawn-out sigh and pushes the quirk out of his face. “I believe a form of madness is taking hold. If that is all Hawks, I shall adjourn to the nest.”

“Sure sure.” The older pro nods, eyes still fully fixed on Izuku.

His sidekick sighs again, once more pressing his fingertips to his eyes as he visibly holds on to his last shreds of patience. “... Hawks... you are still hanging onto my shoulder.”

Hawks laughs loudly as if that’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard and finally releases him. “Off you go then my young apprentice!”

Izuku thinks about sneaking away in the interim, but before he can reach a decision the pro’s eyes are on him once more.

“Now then, where were we? Oh yes! You don’t have a school ID!”

The hero is not at all what Izuku was expecting, less professional and mature then he comes off in battle and Izuku thinks he can see why Tsukuyomi was sighing so much.

In a sudden fit of irritation at how very badly this day has been going, he decides to just get this over with. He yanks out his wallet, jerks his driver's license free with more force than necessary, and hands it to the hero as he braces himself for the speech.

‘Here it comes. But hey, at least I’m not on a rooftop this time.'

***

The brave young civilian hands over his license, glaring at it all the while like it has personally offended him.

Keigo scans it eagerly before freezing as the bright red word in the corner registers.

“Quirkless?”

The boy flinches back at the yelp but Keigo continues to blink at the plastic card in his hand, once, twice and then he’s shooting forward to clutch at the kid’s arm. “Hey! You want a job? I have a job! You’re perfect! Oh say yes! Please please please say yes!”

Now it’s the kid’s turn to stand there blinking and really Keigo should stop thinking of him as ‘kid’ seeing as he’s clearly gone to the trouble of looking his age, what with the dark business suit, the exhausted businessman expression, and the wavy green hair pulled tight into a small neat pony at the back of his neck.

Unfortunately Keigo is the type to call em as he sees em and the kid’s got a baby face that makes him want to pinch it.

Keigo refrains but only because he doesn’t want another lawsuit.

“Y-You. Want to hire me? Even though I’m quirkless???”

‘Of course! Quirkless people are literally walking loopholes! Forget vigilante laws, most obstruction of justice and even assault laws don’t apply to Quirkless people if you play the victim card right! All Might had one for years and whenever that skinny emaciated form appeared over police lines they just sighed and waved him on no questions asked!’

Keigo’s been dreaming of having his own walking loophole since forever and even tried to track down All Might’s after the man’s devastating passing, but to no avail.

And now the perfect candidate has just fallen into his lap? Dark Shadow was right! This really is fate!

The kid is still staring at him, obviously waiting for an answer.

‘Quick! Act casual!’

He coughs once to stifle his enthusiasm and only speaks once he's sure he can manage a casual tone. “My agency’s pretty full of the older gens. I could use someone that’s closer to my baby sidekick’s age so he’ll stop running off as soon as patrol’s over and actually hang with me.”

‘Are you insane?!? That’s literally the stupidest thing you could have come up with!!! Tokoyami is going to kill you!!!’

The kid- Keigo glances subtly at the ID in his hand- Midoriya- blows out a long exhale. “What kind of job?”

His voice lacks any enthusiasm or energy and if Keigo didn’t know any better he’d think Midoriya wasn’t interested at all. But he’s the freaking number one hero! What fresh faced eighteen-year-old wouldn’t jump at the chance? He must be playing hard to get!

Keigo wracks his brain quickly for possible positions, something that would allow him to utilize the loophole while also sounding like a normal job- while also being something he could feasibly hire someone young for without any prior experience or training.

“On the job shadowing,” he says slowly. “For uh. Costume and support feedback from an outsider perspective and for, um, preparing paperwork drafts.”
Green eyes stare into his unyieldingly and he quickly adds. “We’ll provide you with a fancy phone and camera of course, with unlimited data and hot spot for updating the social media accounts with live images and reports. And fight footage! Definitely fight footage!”

Midoriya opens his mouth to respond and Keigo speaks even faster. “If you’re worried about safety, tech support can hook you up with casual wear body armor for when you’re tailing us on patrol! And we can get a zoom lens for the camera! And anything else you think you’ll-”

“There you are!” an angry woman’s voice sounds from behind them and Keigo can suddenly hear heels clacking towards them at a rapid pace. “You’ve been causing trouble from the moment you were hired, do you have any idea how hard it is to get here in afternoon traffic?? I should charge you for the inconvenience!”

Keigo gets to watch the kid’s face shut down in real time as he responds in a monotone. “Sorry they made you come out, Suna. I would have brought it back myself but Aki told me to wait here.”

‘Smooth,’ Keigo thinks. ‘Way to shift the blame to the right people without actually acknowledging the demand for compensation. Hero politics will be no big deal for him!’

Midoriya hands over the briefcase wordlessly and then pointedly turns back to face Keigo. “Okay then. But I need to head to my old job first to clean out my stuff and collect my last paycheck… and of course I’ll need time to read over the contract before I sign or actually agree to anything…”

Keigo resists the urge to preen.

“Lead the way then Newbie!”

***

It had taken some time to get back to The Nest.

Keigo, being the hero and gentleman that he was, offered (read: insisted) on getting Midoriya to his old office and following him around while he got his stuff together. The big boss man had tried to pull crap with the severance pay and last paycheck, but all Keigo had needed to do was clear his throat and wink and that had been the end of the haggling.

He grins to himself at the memory, sure that he’d scared the shit out of the kid’s old boss. That was fun.

The kid (and Keigo knows now that his name is Midoriya Izuku and that he’s technically an adult but calling him kid just seems more appropriate) hums thoughtfully as he flips pages in the contract.

Keigo watches him, not because he thinks the kid needs watching but because it’s the best excuse he has for avoiding Tokoyami’s sharp gaze.

His young padawan had not been amused by Keigo’s plea to be present so ‘the newbie has someone his own age to talk to’ but he’s here so the winged hero is counting it as a win.

Keigo is still mentally patting himself on the back over flipping the same excuse for the both of them when Midoriya suddenly stops moving. He looks up at Keigo with a confused expression, his green eyes narrowing and his eyebrows furrowed. “Why do I need to sign an NDA to protect the commission?”

A trickle of sweat slides down Keigo’s neck at this unexpected development. “Uh… come again?”

The kid lifts a paper and shakes it slightly at him. “I thought you said the job was just on the job shadowing and paperwork? Some light input on costume and support designs and access to the social media accounts? Why would I need to agree to protect the commission and their ‘interests’? I’m not doing that! Asking me to sign something like this off the bat just means that someone's got something to hide! I don’t need this job if I'm going to be expected to compromise on my-“

His shiny new loophole is vanishing right before his very eyes and Keigo’s hands are waving wildly before he even registers it. “No need to be hasty, we can work something out! Just uh. This is the standard contract! We can just go down to legal and work out a new one!”

Shrewd green eyes are now fixed solely on him. “Hawks. It’s your name on the building. This is a separate sheet of paper that requires its own signature. You could literally just tell me not to sign it.”

More sweat runs down his back at having those eyes focused squarely on him. “Ah that’s-“

“Wait.” It’s the first Tokoyami has spoken since he sat down on the window ledge but Keigo is far from relieved at him suddenly joining in. “You called that a standard contract. Was one of those pages in mine too? I do not recall agreeing to such a mad design.”

Midoriya’s eyes widen as his tone turns downright horrified. “You don’t know??? Didn’t you read it???”

“Let’s all take a deep breath chickadees, I can explain!”

And oh, lovely, now there’s two sets of shrewd eyes staring at him. Three if you count Dark Shadow’s.

“So uh, to answer your question first,” he points towards Tokoyami. “You haven’t received the standard contract yet since you’re still a sidekick and before that you were a minor through the internship program. You did sign a clause though that ties your culpability to your direct supervisor along with an agreement to be covered under the umbrella of your superior's contract…”

“Which would be you…” Midoirya surmises. “Right? Since he’s still not a fully recognized hero on his own right, he doesn’t have his own manager or publicist and therefore only answers directly to you.”

“You sure know your stuff,” Keigo hedges, wings fluttering nervously.

“Have you signed such a thing, Hawks?”

“Look. Let’s not get into it.” Keigo smiles widely and tugs the stupid NDA from Midoriya’s hands. “You don’t want to sign it, no problem, consider it gone.” He crumples it into a ball and sends a feather to fly it to the trash can. “Poof. It is no more!”

The three sets of eyes all narrow at him in unison and he flusters impossibly further. “You’re worried about having to follow it Toko? That’s no big deal! I’ll just uh. Transfer your umbrella of authority to someone else!”

Tokoyami blinks at him. “Are you… promoting me? Just like that?”

“Yup! Congratulations! You are now officially your own hero affiliated with the Nest!” He turns and points a finger at Midoriya. “And you are now his manager!’

***

“What the hell were you thinking Hawks??? You just hired some street urchin you met two hours ago and made him Tsukuyomi’s manager???”

“He hasn’t signed it???”

“Tsukuyomi’s not a sidekick anymore???”

“Call a press conference! We can still use this if we act quickly!”

“What did we even bother hiring Yoshi for if you were just gonna give Tsukuyomi someone else???”

“Does he even know what he’s doing? Where did he graduate? What’s his resume?”

Keigo sits back and watches everyone scramble in a panic. He doesn’t get to exercise his absolute authority often but the kid was right. At the end of the day, it is his name on the building and he can do what he wants.

He clears his throat and the team settles down immediately, though with plenty of muted grumbling and harsh glares in his direction.

“Hey hey now, calm down everyone! Kid’s great! Should have seen him handle himself out there, making snap second judgement calls that saved our asses. Did I hire him on a whim? Yeah sure let’s go with that. But my gut says he’s gonna go far and I really think he’ll be an asset to the Nest. I mean, heck, if I could have just made him my manager I would have done it in a heartbeat!” He swivels to face his own manager. “No offense Shiro.”

“Offense fucking taken!!!”

Chapter Text

Izuku sinks down into his seat before immediately sitting back up. He tugs at his tie in agitation and then immediately fixes it again. He has to resist the urge to fidget any further and settles for picking up his pen and rolling it between his fingers instead.

He’d thought his first official day as a manager at The Nest would be a bit more calm; thought he’d be eased into things a bit till he managed to settle in. Instead, he’d taken one step through the front door this morning and been informed that he was already late to a meeting, specifically, the debrief of the events that had happened yesterday.

“A message was sent to your company email.” The receptionist had sniffed coolly.

Izuku had wanted to retort that this being his first day and all, he hadn’t even received his company email yet much less a company phone to view it on. Tech Support was supposed to have been his first stop of the day!

But instead he’d turned away, heading straight for his and Tsukuyomi’s wing (ha, wing) of the third floor and setting his stuff down.

He knows all about those types. Arguing would have been a waste of time and only would have served to make him even later than he already was.

Tsukuyomi was nowhere in sight but there had been a paper with a detailed map to the meeting room waiting on his desk which Izuku had appreciated immensely.

And now here he is, sitting at a long table where the only faces he knows are Hawks, Tsukuyomi and Dark Shadow, and struggling with the urge to make himself small in the face of all the hostile stares.

The pen slips from between his fingers and he winces, already imagining the reaction to the sound of it hitting the floor.

Except...

Nothing happens and Dark Shadow passes it back to him discreetly from under the table.

Izuku resists the urge to pat their head in thanks.

“Though we did manage to capture four of the villains, it seems one got away with an unspecified number of diamonds.” The man who was speaking finally finishes his recap and passes a paper to a woman with feline mutations before he sits back down.

“You wanna explain how exactly that happened, Hawks?” the woman half hisses, ignoring the paper in favor of shooting a dark look at Izuku, clearly implying that it must somehow be his fault.

For once Hawks's face is totally serious and the hero steeples his fingers before responding.

“Here’s how the incident went down from our side of things. At approximately 10 am, a five villain team arrived at the bustling streets nearby the Mayako Jewelers, which we have confirmed was their target all along. By the time we were called in, Twinjet had been attempting to hold them off alone for an unspecified amount of time. Right as we were arriving on scene, one of the villains, the one with multiple arms,”

Hawks stops and gestures with a wide sweep of his arm at one of the techies who tears his gaze away from glaring at Izuku to bring up some images on the wall screen. There is a shot that looks like it must have been pulled from the newsfeed of the battle, Four-Arms mid throw. Immediately to the right of the shot a mugshot and accompanying rap sheet appears.

“threw a car at a trapped busload of kids. Tsukuyomi and I took over the defending and rescuing of civilians and Twinjet headed into the jewelry store, supposedly to take down the two villains that had run in there before our arrival. With the help of Tsukuyomi’s new manager,” Hawks nods towards Izuku and even darker looks from all across the table immediately flash his way.

Izuku once again resists the urge to slide down in his chair.

No! He’s been given a chance and he’s going to prove himself! He still isn’t sure what exactly Hawks sees in him but damn it he is not going to make the number one hero look stupid for it.

He purposefully straightens his shoulders and focuses on taking notes from here on so that he doesn’t have to look at anyone anymore.

Dark Shadow immediately moves into his lap to peek up at his paper from just over the table edge.

Izuku struggles to ignore them too.

From beside him, Tsukuyomi sighs.

“we managed to subdue the three villains outside and at that point I rendezvoused with Twinjet to help with the remaining villains.” Hawks pauses briefly before continuing. “Here’s where it gets tricky. You see, Twinjet, was not actually the airblast hero, merely someone who we all thought was Twinjet.”

He waves a hand at his own manager. “When Shiro reached out to Twinjet’s agency for the joint takedown paperwork we discovered that Twinjet had been working another case at the time of this entire attack and that Twinjet would never have taken a job like this alone either way.”

Izuku nods to himself. He had noticed that it was odd that she was facing so many villains alone and had even wondered where her backup was-

He cuts the thought off before it can inspire a ramble. As it is he can literally feel the hard stares he’s receiving for having nodded along.

“It was then that we contacted the Mayako’s and had them check if anything was missing. They are still combing through the boxes and safes which is why the exact number of stolen goods is still unconfirmed but so far only diamonds have been reported missing. And a large quantity at that.”

“How embarrassing,” one of the Suits on the opposite end of the table sighs. “to be so utterly fooled by a simple shapeshifting quirk.”

Izuku bristles. Part of his reaction is for the insult to the heroes in the room but majority is for the dismissive tone.

‘It doesn’t even make sense for it to be a shapeshifter. That wouldn’t explain how they’d managed to leave the scene with such a large quantity of diamonds. Twinjet’s suit doesn’t leave much to the imagination and isn’t well equipped at all when it comes to pockets. For this villain to have simply walked away they’d have needed something else. Another accomplice? No. They’d had no problem betraying the five villains they’d originally been working with seeing as even the two that had been doing the actual robbing were already tied up and unconscious when Hawks had walked in to help Twinjet with the takedown… and then the main sticking point: the matter of Twinjet’s quirk. I myself saw her using it at the scene. All of that seems to point less towards shapeshifting and more to-'

A hand slams onto the table startling him out of his rambling.

“Do you mind??? Some of us are trying to have a professional debrief.”

Izuku flushes but doesn’t allow himself to back down. Even if he does need to squeeze the pen in his grip to keep his hands from shaking. “Um sorry. It was just that you classified the perpetrator as a shapeshifter when an illusionist makes more sen-“

“If you think we’ve missed something, you are more than welcome to go through our villain and quirk databases to support your little theory. Till then, keep these silly possibilities to yourself!”

***

“You do not actually have to comb through the entire database, you know this, yes? Chihara was merely being dismissive of you because of the way you were hired.”

Izuku doesn’t look up from his shiny new office computer where he’s been rapidly flicking through files since the meeting had ended. “Yeah, I know, but it’s expected that I’ll have to look things up in a pinch anyway so it's really a-” He cuts himself off violently.

'Two birds with one stone??? Are you kidding? You can’t say that to them!!!’

He clears his throat and shrugs awkwardly, his pen anxiously tapping against his open notebook as he fumbles. “Um, I mean, this way it’ll at least be familiar by then and I’ll know where to look, so my response time will be faster… ya know?”

Tokoyami, (the hero had insisted Izuku use that name instead of Tsukuyomi when he’s not on active duty) says nothing, continuing to eat his lunch silently at his won desk while Izuku takes more notes.

Dark Shadow is not as accepting.

“Why are you doing that by hand?” the quirk wheedles, draping over Izuku’s shoulders to read what he’s writing. “Didn’t support give you a tablet?”

“Not by choice,” Izuku mumbles.

Dark Shadow seems to find that funny and Izuku immediately flushes. “I mean! Not that they didn’t give me one, they did! And I’m not avoiding using it because I’m ungrateful or anything, honestly that piece of tech alone probably costs more than my whole apartment!”

Now Tokoyami is also staring at him and Izuku panics just a little.

“It's just, there wasn’t any wait time!” he blurts frantically as if that means anything.

Dark Shadow coos at him and starts messing with his hair and Izuku uses the distraction to suck in a deep breath to calm himself.

“I mean, look at it.” He tugs open the top drawer of his shiny new desk and shows off a sealed box. “When they gave me the standard company cell phone and I requested an additional device, one with digital notebook capabilities and a stylus and I also specified that it should be able to have independent data access as well as remote access to my work computer and my home laptop I was expecting a few days wait! I mean a request like that? Hell, I was half expecting to get denied! But they handed it over immediately no questions asked! Isn’t that odd?”

Tokoyami is still eyeing him silently with that shrewd gaze of his so Izuku just keeps going. “The guy just reached into his desk and handed me one, no individual programming necessary. But it's still sealed in the box which implies that it came like this from somewhere else...”

He won’t spell it out any clearer than that. Tokoyami was there when he found the commission’s clause in the contract after all. He should know who Izuku means by that.

“...so I just. Didn’t want to use it till I could check it out when it isn’t connected to the agency wifi. Or you know, the internet.”

That finally sparks a response. “You are planning on disabling the internet connection to-” The hero cuts off but they both know what he was about to say.

Check it for bugs.

Listening devices.

Backdoors and automatic uploads.

Trackers and Spyware.

All things you don’t talk about while in earshot of said unchecked device.

Dark Shadow continues petting at Izuku’s hair and he just knows that he’s going to have to fix his hair tie now before leaving the room again.

Still.

It’s kind of nice.

“What happens if you cannot reinstate the internet connection once you are done?”

Izuku startles a bit at the question. Dark Shadow’s ministrations are surprisingly soothing and he’d almost zoned out a bit at the calm settling over him.

When was the last time someone touched him like this?

Not since the last time he’d seen his Mom probably.

Tokoyami is still waiting for an answer and Izuku blinks at him dumbly as he replays the hero's question in his head. “Oh uh. Nothing so fancy. I’m just taking advantage of what was quite frankly the bane of my existence before today...”

He laughs to himself humorlessly. “My apartment is pretty shit. I only get it so cheap because it’s a literal dead zone. Nothing works there. Quite fitting for a quirkless kid to live in, right?”

Tokoyami’s face turns serious and even Dark Shadow pulls away to look at him.

“What?”

“You…” Tokoyami looks momentarily lost for words. “You speak of it so… blase`.”

Dark Shadow nods along eagerly. “Yeah! You sound so unbothered! Calm! Comfortable! Nonchalant! Unmoved-”

“That’s enough Shadow. I think he gets the point.”

Izuku blinks at them both again before snagging on the possible distraction with extra enthusiasm. “Oh! That reminds me! Can I call you Shadow on the field? Dark Shadow might not be that many more syllables but I might have to transmit information or orders in a rush so the nickname would speed things up a bit! Just because it’s easier to say in a pinch although I could call you Dark instead if you’d prefer having a separate name from what Tokoyami calls you… Only if it’s okay though! I definitely don’t want to be overly familiar if it makes you uncomfortable!”

Tokoyami eyes him like he knows the subject change was purposeful but he ultimately lets it go and Izuku sighs in relief. It’s not that he minds per se but he’d rather they know each other for a few more days at minimum before being forced to share his quirkless salt. Tokoyami might enjoy snacking on pretzels but this is a whole nother level of salty.

Izuku subtly knocks his fist against his forehead and visualizes the weird thought falling out of his head at the imapct and hitting the floor so he can step on it. It’s a weird thing to do but he’s found it helps when he needs to shut down certain thought trains or dislodge the more strange ones entirely. And acting like he’ll be waltzing in to work with an actual bag of quirkless salt that they can use on their food might not be the strangest thing his mind has come up with but it’s definitely up there next to “The Commission is called the commission because people used to have to literally commission them for help” which- oooooo he works here now maybe he can-

Izuku knocks that thought out too and stomps on it extra hard. Jeopardizing this job for a stupid pun theory like that is, well, stupid.

He gets back to work flipping through the registries now that Tokoyami is thoroughly distracted by Dark Shadow crowing about getting a nickname first, whatever that means.

***

Izuku flops down face first onto his bed and then almost smacks his nose into the floor when the mattress slides clear off the bedsprings and he loses his balance. That’s one major perk of this very well paying job, he’ll be able to spring for some better furnishings as soon as he’s tested the longevity of his position. It wouldn’t do to blow all his new money now and then get fired when he inevitably messes something up and then have to sell everything secondhand to try to make rent.

He gets up with a sigh, tugs the mattress fully onto the floor and gets to work lugging the broken bed frame down to the dumpster. Dammit he should've just gotten a futon instead.

That done he makes the bed, straightens up, showers, and puts up some rice to cook. His bag, and the innocent until proven evil tablet within, glare at him accusingly from his one chair beside his rickety desk but he refuses to give in. He’ll get to it when he’s good and ready and no he isn’t stalling thank you very much.

He stares down into his fridge for a bit, as if that might magically conjure up some more food items within- before finally just pulling out the lone egg carton with a sigh. Breakfast for Dinner it is. Not like he actually eats breakfast anyway.

He is just digging out a frying pan from the cabinet under the sink when he’s interrupted by a knock on the door. The thought of someone actually visiting him is so shocking that his fingers go slack and the frying pan hits the floor with a loud clatter.

Izuku's mouth twists ruefully as he heads to answer now that he can’t possibly pretend anymore that he's not home. He takes a breath to steel himself, wonders who it could be, and rues the fact that he doesn’t have a peephole. Then with another deep breath for strength and patience he pulls the door open.

Tokoyami is stood there, a scarf wound around the lower half of his face in an obvious attempt to hide his distinctive features from view.

“Greetings.” he says, sounding… nervous? Apprehensive maybe? “I was wondering if it wouldn’t be too much trouble then perhaps you could…”

He trails off and removes his own company phone from his pocket, lifting it meaningfully. “I thought perhaps not to even bring it home until I was sure. The thought of it…” he shudders, feathers ruffling slightly at the motion and Izuku... hesitates.

He hasn’t even started on his own yet and his meager one room apartment with its cracked walls and squeaky pipes and lack of extra places to sit that aren’t just repurposed couch cushions on the floor is hardly the place to entertain a pro hero.

Izuku bites his lip. “Um…”

“I brought food as well...” Tokoyami says, lifting a large bag of takeout into view.

Izuku has never agreed to something so fast in his life.

Chapter Text

Izuku startles awake already regretting falling asleep at his excuse for a desk. Although judging by the clock beside him it's not like he's been sleeping long.

He idly massages the back of his neck with one hand as he moves his mouse with the other to wake up his screen. It’s now four in the morning which means he’s been at this for literal hours- not counting the impromptu nap of course. Tokoyami must have left while Izuku was still single mindedly focused on his task.

Izuku pushes down the rising feeling of guilt and disappointment that follows that realization. This is who he is, a nerd that gets pulled so far down rabbit holes in pursuits of knowledge and research that he forgets to eat and sleep if he doesn’t set alarms for them. Better for Tokoyami to learn that now before-

The thoughts stop as the smell of freshly brewed coffee pierces through his sleepy fog and he’s already accepting the warm mug and taking a sip before he even registers the presence before him.

He chokes, only narrowly avoiding spewing coffee all over his laptop.

Tokoyami frowns down at him in clear concern. “Was it too hot?”

In the background somewhere Dark Shadow is audibly howling with laughter as Izuku wipes at his streaming eyes and struggles to clear his throat. “N-No! You’re perfect- it's perfect! I’m-”

He coughs into his elbow as the hero pats at his back with palpable sympathy. “Y-You just startled me,” Izuku finally manages, partly distracted by the feeling of Tokoyami’s hand on him. “I w-wasn’t expecting it…”

“Sorry.” Tokoyami says, tilting his head thoughtfully. “I was making a bit of noise getting the coffee started so I thought you heard me.”

“Fumi made a mess,” Dark Shadow snickers. “There was sugar everywhere!”

“You dropped the milk on my foot!”

“You turned on the light!”

“I had to find the-” Tokoyami cuts himself off abruptly and takes a deep breath. “Never mind.” he says only once he’s returned to his usual unruffled calm. (ha. unruffled.) “The point, Midoriya, is that I shall replace both the milk and the sugar, I have already cleaned up the spill and I apologize for startling you.”

The hero then bows low in said apology and Izuku immediately flusters.

“N-No I wasn’t- I mean I was but it wasn’t you! I mean it was you but it wasn’t your fault?” He groans and covers his face with his palms silently praying for the ground to open up and swallow him. “I thought you already left so it was a surprise to see you still here,” he mumbles.

Tokoyami frowns. “You still have my phone.”

And see this, this is why Izuku can’t have nice things because yes actually, Tokoyami’s Nest Issued Hero Phone, (NIP for short because why the fuck not,) is still plugged into Izuku’s laptop being swept for questionable programs and apps, just like Izuku’s phone is, and now that it’s been pointed out so bluntly there really is no way the hero would have left without it, no matter what time it was.

Izuku thankfully still has his hands pressed to his face and so he continues to hide within them until the silence becomes unbearable. He’s almost praying for his computer to interrupt with a timely notification but unfortunately his laptop, champion that it is, doesn’t quite have the processing power to handle both phones at once without severely lagging, thus, no notifications for now.

The tablet waits patiently for its own turn, though Izuku knows that there’s no way he’ll get to it tonight. 'Or is it today? Does it already count as today because of the time? But then, hang on, the statement of not getting to it today would also extend to cover tonight right, which makes it no longer accurate as the phones will definitely be done before we have to get to work, leaving the entire evening free to focus on the tablet. And anyway this is just the sweep for suspicious applications. I won’t be able to do anything about the things I find until later when I can camp outside the library to get some much needed wifi. Not that I'll even be able to remove anything I finds anyway as that would just tip off our hand. My deadzone will keep my privacy safe but Tokoyami will have to find some other kind of solution. It’s not like he can just not bring his phone home with him, he’s a hero, he needs to be reachable 24/7 unless he’s in the hospital. Even this one night off grid in my apartment could be disastrous if someone tries calling Tokoyami in. Maybe a secret second phone? Programming it to forward the hero notifs and calls from the actual hero phone so he can leave it behind in his work locker would be childsplay. Although if the phone has something that tracks the location then that’ll be a bit trickier. Maybe some kind of lockbox that will allow the location to transmit without allowing the audio and visual through? That could be good if he ever wanted to leave his house while off duty without them knowing too. Maybe-'

“That won’t work.” Tokoyami interjects softly, startling Izuku out of his musings. “Any requests for support items or technology must go through the Nest’s own department. And I do not possess the authorization to place orders with outside contractors. I suppose I could go myself in person- and pay out of pocket of course- but if it ever got back to them that I had done it, it could very well be seen as a breach of contract.”

Izuku internally screams at having clearly devolved into mumbling out loud. After a short silent freak-out, he finally removes his hands from his face and clears his throat awkwardly. “What about requesting from your manager? Anything wrong with that?”

“Nooo.” Tokoyami drags out the word thoughtfully, head tilting in that way of his as he considers. “I mean, I would say that it is implied that the manager would simply forward the request to the in house Tech Support but that part was not specified in my contract.” He taps a finger against his chin as he muses, “I suppose it all depends on yours.”

Izuku smiles. “Mine didn’t specify at all.”

Tokoyami blinks at that and even Dark Shadow looks up from whatever it is they are doing in the kitchen.

“At all?” the hero echoes slowly.

“Not at all,” Izuku repeats with a shrug. “Forwarding your support requests is in my list of duties and so is coordinating between the Tech Support department and my hero, but it doesn’t outright say that I can’t make my own personal requests not in house. The wording used is specifically about forwarding my hero's requests but there’s honestly nothing mentioned at all about making requests of my own.” He laughs. “I suppose according to the order and detailing of the tasks listed it’s supposed to be implied. Not to mention that they probably didn't anticipate that your manager would need personal support requests. I was never supposed to be offered the job and Hawks gave me the standard contract off the bat instead so it’s probably something they would have mentioned in the job interview.” He pauses meaningfully. “If I’d had one.”

“Well that’s perfect then.” Tokoyami muses. “My contract does not say that I cannot use outside company items, merely that I cannot request them.”

“They probably tried and had to take it out,” Izuku laughs. “Could you imagine showing up at a rescue site and being handed an earpiece by a rescue hero coordinating things, only to have to turn it down because it wasn’t made by the Nest?” He tries and fails to hold back a snort at the very thought. “That’d be ridiculous.”

Dark Shadow snickers as a look of dawning comprehension crosses Tokoyami’s face. It almost sounds like he murmurs, “Is that what happened?” to himself but Izuku can’t be sure over his computer finally chiming that the sweep on his phone is done.

Tokoyami’s is still going strong, though at a faster pace now that it’s the only one, which honestly makes sense seeing as Izuku had started the process with his own phone first just in case there was some kind of anti-tamper response set up. There hadn’t been so far but he won’t know for sure until he finishes with the phones and then sweeps his laptop to make sure nothing new had been installed while he’d been running his scans.

Izuku mumbles to himself absently as he scrolls through the list of applications and accompanying software versions installed on the device. Some of them are easily recognizable like music, photos and the like, though Izuku will still be checking that the versions, data, and default settings all match with standard and that they aren’t clever copies masquerading to hide suspicious programming. Assuming that the results on Tokoyami’s phone match up with his then he should only have to research the results off the one list, but the odds of that are slim and Izuku heaves a near silent sigh at the work laying ahead of him. Honestly at this point he should either give up on getting to the tablet later or email the list to himself so he can open it on his old clean phone to work on during his lunch break. So long as he doesn’t try to use the agency’s wifi the protections on his phone should keep snoopers out and anyway if anyone tries to hack in it’ll set off his own counter measures and then at least he’ll know for sure that somethings going on…

Nodding to himself, he opens up his email to start drafting the message. He won’t be able to send it till he snags himself some wifi but there should be more than enough time to walk past the library with the sole purpose of connecting long enough to hit send.

“My car is outside.” Tokoyami states, startling Izuku into an accidental keysmash. “We could simply pass by an internet cafe whilst on our way to work and thereby utilize the excuse of picking up breakfast. My trunk has been modified to not overheat in the sun so it will be safe to leave tech in there throughout the day.”

“Oh-” Izuku manages, heart still racing at the shock of embarrassment as he once again was speaking aloud without realizing it. “Th-That’s very. Useful.”

“Indeed.” Tokoyami fixes the ruffled blankets before sitting back down on the mattress and Izuku only just realizes that that’s where the hero had been perched (ha. perched.) while he’d been doing his thing.

‘The blanket was ruffled. The blanket needed fixing. The blanket that I smoothed out neatly before dragging the bedframe down to the dumpster was rumpled. Did. Did Tokoyami-’

Izuku slaps his cheeks harshly to cut off that train of thought. It’s stupid and irrelevant and he needs to finish up or they won’t get to work on time. He attaches the file to the email and then copies it into the body as text too just in case. It’s as he hits save that he notices another email in his drafts. It’s a days old response to Power House with the advice on that water quirk he'd wanted and Izuku realizes that he’s suddenly looking at the answer to all of his problems.

Well. Not all of his problems. But the immediate one for sure. Quickly he opens up a new draft and lets his full typing speed go.

To: Power House >
Cc/Bcc, From: Smol Might >
Subject: About that favor you owe me…

Hey. Sorry to bother you but you’ve been going on about owing me a favor for literal years at this point and while I still maintain that it was what anyone would do and doesn’t warrant anything in return I finally do have something I need help with.
Let me preface with: No. I don’t want a job. Or even need a job for once. Long story.
Short version: I need to place an order for certain specific support type items, (more details if you agree) though nothing illegal I swear. It’s for my hero. Ok that sounds creepily possessive. What I mean is I’m managing a hero. No, I'm not telling you which one.
Anyway, since you teach at UA and are always offering to help me out I was wondering if you could slip me some rec forms for Hatsume Inc and kind of act as a go between if she agrees to make the stuff. I know teaching the support department part time on top of inventing means she’s probably busy but she’s the best in the biz and I’m willing to pay.
Oh right, Note: the favor is simply the forms and the facilitating of the deal. Please don’t try to pay for me or I’ll make a very sad face and you don’t want that. (Your words not mine.)
After this I hope you will finally consider us square and stop throwing frankly obscene amounts of money at me to analyse your student’s quirks. (especially since we both know you’re more than capable of analysing them yourself)
Hoping to finally be the one in your debt,
Smol Mi_

“You know a teacher at UA?”

Izuku shrieks reflexively.

He doesn’t know when Tokoyami came up behind him and started reading over his shoulder but the hero is leaning slightly on his chair and has one hand resting on the desk, which means his chest is pressed pretty close to Izuku’s back. He can almost feel the body heat even with the back of the chair and his own shirt serving as a barrier between them.

A weight settles down on top of his head, and oh good, Dark Shadow is here too.

This is the closest thing to a hug Izuku has had in a very long while and it takes him a moment to unstick his tongue from the roof of his mouth to answer. “Uh yeah. I mean. I knew him long before he was a teacher, though maybe ‘knew’ is the wrong word? We’ve never officially met. We just used to chat a bit in comment sections and then graduated to email once he vowed to never rest until he’d repaid me or something. I still don’t really know what I did but…” He shrugs, forced casual. “That part of our interactions always made me uncomfortable honestly so I’m looking forward to him no longer ‘owing me’ as he likes to say.”

Izuku finishes typing out his nickname and then flushes when he remembers that Tokoyami can see it.

The hero doesn’t say anything about it though, finally stepping back as Izuku saves the draft and checks on the phone’s progress. Dark Shadow remains nestled in his hair.

‘Nestled, more like nested. I suppose my hair is green enough to pass for a tree. But does Dark Shadow even-’

“How did you learn the skills necessary to do all of this?”

Izuku glances over but Tokoyami simply looks curious and earnest, not the least bit suspicious of him so Izuku slowly reaches for his now cool mug of coffee and takes a careful sip. He doesn’t have to share. He hasn’t known Tokoyami long but it’s still been long enough to know that the hero would never push. But Izuku’s put him through a lot already what with the rambling and the spacing out and the falling asleep at his desk leaving Tokoyami waiting alone where he inevitably fell asleep on Izuku’s-

He chokes on his sudden inhale, almost dropping the mug in his hands, but managing to slide it clumsily onto the desk as he coughs.

‘Nope! Nope! Not thinking about that!’

“Are you alright?!”

And then that strong hand is clapping him on the back again even as Dark Shadow flops half off of his hair to hang upside down in his face. The quirk somehow looks concerned and Izuku coughs into one hand even as he pats awkwardly at the top of his own head with the other hoping to placate the quirk somehow. Touching Dark Shadow doesn’t feel exactly solid but he’s definitely petting something and that awful worried look slowly disappears, so Izuku keeps it up until he himself manages to calm down.

“S-Sorry,” he wheezes. “I was-”

“Startled, we know.” Tokoyami finishes for him and Izuku wonders if he’s imagining the amused tone. “That seems to happen a lot.”

Izuku gives a sheepish shrug. What else can he possibly say to that?

He takes another careful sip to soothe his throat and then clears it once for good measure. “So um, to answer your question… It's... kind of a long story…”

Tokoyami’s phone is finally done so Izuku drafts another email to himself to give his hands something to do while he talks. “Um so. High school was… it wasn’t good. Not that middle school was good but um. The high school had this uh, like a chat site? I don’t know how to explain it but every student could choose to set up an account and each classroom had its own chatroom and the teachers were there and it was like. A neat way to organize studying or to get homework and stuff. You could go to settings and choose whether the teacher could post your grades for everyone to see or not. It was actually a pretty nice system I guess. I just um. Well I’d never gotten along well with students or teachers and so since having an account was optional I just. Chose not to make one... “

His hands are suddenly trembling, perched above the keyboard, and he slowly lowers them to his lap out of sight.

This next part... It's been years but Izuku still can’t think about this next part without tearing up.

“S-Someone. Thought it would be funny to-” He has to cut off and grasp for his mug to try and calm down enough to keep going with a quick drink.

Tokoyami steps forward. “Midoriya, you don’t have to-”

“Thought it would be funny to make my account for me.” Izuku says over him, knowing that if he stops now he won’t ever start again. “They set their own password for it and a. A very... bad profile picture. And then they sent really, really bad messages in all of the chats.”

He can close his eyes but the image of his face, photoshopped and terrible, still swims before his eyes. And those words. Those words.

“That’s how I found out about it actually. I got called to the principal’s office and was punished for it. They suspended both me and my account and they wouldn’t listen when I said it wasn’t even mine.”

He can still remember the principal’s sneer as he’d spoken down to Izuku like he was a little child. "Why would anyone want to pretend to be you?"

Izuku shakes his head and takes another sip. Dark Shadow is fussing with his hair again and Izuku focuses on the feel of it even as he wraps his fingers around his mug and squeezes.

“My father was livid. But he didn’t do anything about it. At least, not at first. To me it felt like he was taking their side. He sounded so angry on the phone that I thought he would finally come back to Japan just to yell at them.” Izuku smiles into his coffee. “But it turned out he had something better in mind. My suspension started a month before the summer break. So Dad flew me down to America and signed me up for some courses. And when I was getting ready to come back home he said to me, ‘Now you have the power not only to protect yourself and stop this, but if you wanted to, you could do to them exactly what they did to you.’ and then he poked my chest and said. ‘But you won’t. Because you have a good heart and you’re better than that.’”

Izuku’s hand has gravitated to splay over his heart almost without conscious thought. “He could have come here himself and made things better for me but instead he gave me the tools to help myself. I think that was really cool of him.”

Tokoyami and Dark Shadow are silent and Izuku clears his throat awkwardly as he glances down at his watch. “So um… how bout that internet cafe?”

It was mostly just a deflection to change the subject, but as Izuku sits in the hero’s car tapping away at his laptop while he waits for Tokoyami to pick up their order, he can’t help but think that actually... he could get used to this.

Chapter Text

Midoriya is strange.

The thought cycles through Fumikage’s mind as he leans against a wall to await the completion of their order. Dark Shadow is hidden beneath his jacket and a scarf is once more wrapped around his face.

It is a poor attempt to remain mostly anonymous and yet it must be enough for it is all he ever has. He frequents this cafe often enough that he already has an account and a card on file so as soon as his order is complete he can abscond, usually before he is spotted.

Still, the morning rush today is keeping him waiting a bit longer than he’d like, especially considering Midoriya is still awaiting his return in the car. Sure the man is his new manager and there is nothing odd nor scandalous about that but considering gossip sites are not exactly known for fact checking before posting pictures and bold headlines it will still be a headache and a half to need to explain who the stranger in his car was to the media.

And that is of course without mentioning that his hero persona has become somewhat notorious for the lack of flings and drama, - with Maiko down in Publicity desperate enough to practically beg him to get caught in a bar just once so the tabloids would have a reason to talk about him - so the media is quite frankly ‘grasping at straws’ when it comes to Tsukuyomi gossip.

Fumikage had of course respectfully declined Maiko’s request. He is perfectly capable of relaxing with a good book by himself thank you very much. Though perhaps ‘by himself’ is the wrong phrasing. Wherever he goes, Dark Shadow goes, and Fumikage hasn’t yet met any potential partners that were not off put at the thought that his sentient quirk always tagging along, running commentary and all.

An image of a choking Midoriya choosing to expend energy soothing Dark Shadow, with a soft comforting hand even in the midst of his own distress, pops unbidden into Fumikage’s mind and he sighs.

His thoughts have truly come full circle.

Midoriya... is strange.

Fumikage is just pulling out his phone to warn Midoriya to be on the lookout for cameras when said phone vibrates in his hand.

< Manager Midoriya >
Mission accomplished o7
House response affirmative
We should work out a limit when we can

Fumikage can’t hold back an amused smile at Midoriya’s antics before tapping out a reply, mindful of the potential spyware still on his device and what it could mean.

‘Limit’ was probably Midoriya’s code for budget or item list which would have been a more suspicious thing to mention, his second day on the job and all. Even with Midoriya accidentally implying they are now looking into a house together.

< Tsukuyomi >
That was fast.
I am impressed.
Perhaps we should discuss over dinner like we did last night?

He needs to almost force himself to hit send, fully aware of how it sounds and what he himself is now implying but ultimately it is the best way to avoid scrutiny. The department cannot exactly call him out on supposedly dating his manager and possibly moving in together without revealing that they are reading his messages after all.

There is no immediate response to his message but Fumikage had not been honestly expecting one.

He has known Midoriya for only three days now yet he can perfectly picture the man flailing red faced in the car as the new massage flusters him.

The thought brings another smile to his face as he allows his thoughts to drift once more.

Midoriya is somehow connected with a UA teacher, one that he knows only by the moniker of Power House. Fumikage is well acquainted with the educators of his alma mater, a roster that has changed and expanded since his own days in those hallowed halls, but he knows none of them that answer to the name of Power House. It is neither a hero name nor a quirk name and must therefore be some form of civilian side account- as evidenced by the fact that the email Midoriya had been messaging had not been a UA affiliated one.

According to the information gleaned from the one email he read over Midoriya’s shoulder, Power House has been offering Midoriya a job and money for years. Consequently Fumikage’s first thought had been Principal Nedzu, however Power House definitely teaches a class as Midoriya referenced analyzing his students’ quirks for him.

The next thought had been Present Mic but the line about Power House being fully capable of analyzing the quirks himself had crossed that guess off as well and the more Fumikage had thought about it, the more the name Power House had become less a hint to the actual power and quirk, and more a simple adjective that could apply quite frankly to any capable hero.

There is of course one more clue Fumikage has yet to explore.

Midoriya’s own side account: Smol Might.

The name is vaguely familiar, oddly enough, though he can’t quite place it.

Fumikage is just reaching for his phone to type the name into his search engine when his order number is finally called. With no small amount of relief Fumikage accepts the bag and tray of coffee cups before taking his leave, the name Smol Might all but forgotten.

***

When they arrive at the agency Hawks is leaning against the front door waiting for them.

“Here so soon?” the hero laughs. “I know the early bird catches the worm but this is a bit much don’t you think?”

By now Fumikage is an old hand at pushing down his reflexive homicidal urges when it comes to his boss’ eccentricities. He does make sure to loosen his grip on his coffee before he can accidentally crush it as he speaks each word with a bland care. “This is my usual start time.”

“Ah ah ah,” Hawks chides teasingly while wagging a finger at him. “That was before you were your own hero. I don’t need you at my side anymore little bird, I need you on the streets when I’m not.”

He snaps said finger ostentatiously before suddenly pointing at Fumikage’s chest. “Welcome to the big leagues and embrace your destined role as a creature of the night! Yank off those kiddie gloves and set them on fire! Let those rusty training wheels disintegrate into pieces! Push that baby out the nest and hope it spreads its wings, it’s time to fly!”

Fumikage focuses his ire through his eyes alone with the strength of his glare. “And you did not see fit to inform me of this yesterday because?” The words are gritted through clenched teeth, Fumikage beyond irritated at this turn of events even as a small part of him relishes the ability to go to bed considering the all nighter of the past night.

Hawks merely beams and swipes Fumikage's still full coffee cup, taking a sip and spreading his own wings wide. “How could I start my day without seeing my beloved Tsuki’s face?”

From beside him Midoriya audibly chokes at the nickname, mouthing Tsuki to himself wide eyed.

Fumikage does his best to ignore both it as well as the subsequent rush of embarrassment at the hated play on his hero name. “You are incorrigible.” He says instead, tone forcefully even.

Hawks simply laughs again, stolen coffee still in hand as he flies off to patrol.

“Um.” Midoriya speaks hesitantly. “Since we’re already here, I’m gonna go return the tablet…”

“Yes.” Fumikage presses his fingertips to his eyes and takes a deep breath. “That sounds wise. Would you like me to accompany you or shall I simply wait here?”

“Oh uh.” The air turns awkward and somewhat stifled. “I was thinking that I should stay here for a bit.”

“Oh.” The rush of disappointment Fumikage feels is unexpected and apparently clear to see because Midoriya starts waving his arms and rambling.

“I-It’s not that I don’t want to- I do I swear! It’s just that since I haven’t organized any files onto the tablet yet because I was planning on returning it and I don't exactly want to sync my phone or laptop to the company server so I really only have my memory and handwritten notes for referencing data which isn’t conducive to timely researching and also…” He trails off face bright red and covers his face with his hands. “I wasn’t sure if I should even accompany your patrols since I’m. Well I’m a bit accident prone and I don’t want them to use it as an excuse… If I somehow get hurt or injured or something...”

This last is mumbled and Fumikage finds a relieved breath escaping him.

If Midoriya is worried about getting fired then that implies that he himself is not looking to quit which is… something Fumikage hadn’t realized he himself was worried about. In hindsight though, yes, a non strange person that had come to the conclusion of the agency’s tech possessing spyware whilst also suspecting that, to quote, “shady shit is going on” would have long tendered their resignation.

Either Midoriya simply doesn’t scare easily or he is just that desperate. Fumikage is hoping it is the former.

“Can you drive?” he responds at last.

Midoriya blinks at what clearly seems to him a non sequitur. “I mean I don’t have a car here obviously and I’ve only ever really driven in America which is where I learned because it’s just easier to get around that way and my dad insisted on it when I went to visit but I did take the test here as well even though I haven't ever used it here besides as a form of identifi-”

He slaps a hand over his mouth before slowly lowering it again. “Yes.” he enunciates clearly, face red once more. “I can. Yes.”

“Good.” Fumikage says, beyond amused. “Then you can stay in the car while I patrol and manage the situation for me from there.”

Midoriya’s eyes go wider than Fumikage has ever seen them and he’s sure that the other man is about to launch into a detailed breakdown on why exactly he can’t be trusted, and how expensive the hero car must be, so Fumikage simply holds up a hand and says, “It will be nice to always have it near enough for easier transport to emergency calls. Besides,” and Fumikage can’t resist cocking his head to the side and meeting Midoriya’s eyes. “I trust you.”

***

Keigo leans back at his desk and stretches till his back pops. It’s been a long and productive day and at long last he is finally done with the last of his reports. The building is quiet at this time of night and Keigo takes a moment to simply relish in the peace and silence before turning back to his computer with a sigh.

He just needs to clear out his inbox and then he can finally call it a day night.

🔵 [email protected] 9:15 AM >
📎 New Email Request Form
Attachment: email change request form.pdf

🔵 [email protected] 7:19 AM >
📎 Mission Parameters
See for your approval all pertinent details of the proposed undercover…

[email protected] Tuesday >
Answer my emails Hawks!!!
What the fuck am I supposed to tell the candidates we interviewed!!!

[email protected] Tuesday >
RE: Tsukuyomi’s New Manager + Resumes
With all due respect Hawks. What the fuck?

📎 [email protected] Monday >
Tsukuyomi’s Manager + Resumes
After careful consideration of all the candidates I find these three to be the most…

Hawks ignores the new email from Shiro in favor of the other one that is yet unread.

Izumi?

Since when do they have an employee named Izumi? Clearly this is the more time pressing matter of the two.

From: [email protected] >
To: [email protected] > Hide
CC: [email protected] >
New Email Request Form
Today at 9:15 AM

Good morning.
I received my company email today and was a bit taken aback by the abbreviation of my first and last names. I have tried to edit my full name into my account profile so that emails from me will appear from Izuku Midoriya instead of just from the email address itself but to no avail. I have already been mistakenly referred to as Izumi a few times since starting here and have been brushed off when offering a correction. Attached please find my official request form to change my email, either to include my full name in the details or if that is not a function that @thenest.org possesses then I am formally requesting a new email of either izuku@thenest or midoriya@thenest. I leave the decision of which one to choose in your more than capable hands.
When I tried to make this request in person I was told that these abbreviated mashups were par for the course but after scrolling through the directory I have ascertained that it is not the case. (see also attached a full list of the civilian employees whose first names are used instead.) I am therefore emailing the completed form to you now and have taken the liberty to cc our shared boss so that my complaint cannot be brushed off.
Hoping to resolve this quickly and peacefully,
Izuku Midoriya
Hero Manager

There are two feelings immediately warring for dominance in Keigo's chest.

There is anger at tech support for what seems to be some kind of hazing or prank on the new guy, (Keigo isn’t sure he wants to call it discrimination just yet.) and there is also pride at his little loophole for already kicking some verbal ass.

He is just composing a reply of his own when his computer chimes, a notification of a new email.

Considering the lateness of the hour, he immediately assumes it to be more important than Midoriya's unfortunate company email (no matter how hilarious Keigo’s reply would have been) and so he deftly saves his draft for later before switching back to his inbox again.

🔵 [email protected] 1:37 AM >
📎 Incident Report, New CI Forms, Reimbursement...
To all concerned parties,
During patrol tonight (incident report attached) two civilian informants were recruited and…

Keigo blinks at his monitor dumbly for an inordinate amount of time.

Even in the tiny preview alone there’s a lot to unpack.

Incident Report. So a resolved fight or takedown. Something big enough to warrant an immediate form as opposed to waiting to file the paperwork until after returning from patrol.

New CI Forms. Plural. More than one. Confidential Informants are rare in the sense that the information isn’t always good enough and therefore the expense is not always justified. To lump the two forms together in a single email implies that whatever information the CI’s had given over had already led to an arrest, and that said CI’s were in a position to continue with the information sharing in a mutually beneficial partnership in future. That last being clear since this is not a petty cash request for a one time transaction. Instead it is a formal request for vetting and adding to a hidden payroll list known only to a select few. And there must always be sufficient grounds for doing so...

Keigo opens the email and skims it quickly. Sure enough it stipulates that the petty criminals Salt and Pepper will only work with the hero Tsukuyomi from here on, coordinating through the hero's manager Midoriya.

Salt and Pepper... Those names sound familiar. Typing it into his database yields an immediate hit. Villainous duo, still at large, quirks unknown, faces unknown, approximated at middle age, warrants out for their arrests... Standard CI rap sheet honestly. Their known crimes are mostly petty with a few aggravated assaults thrown in, and Keigo frowns at the email that specifically labels the two as petty criminals and not villains.

Tsukuyomi wouldn’t have the ability to expunge their records, especially not before the CI Forms have even been reviewed and accepted. So why have they been classified as…

Keigo opens the forms and freezes.

Oh. That’s why.

On the line to fill in their quirks both criminals have put down the word quirkless.

His eyes widen in barely restrained glee as he silently crows, complete with celebratory fist pumped in the air. “More loopholes!”

He can already picture the shitshow that will be the meeting tomorrow but for now all he does is pull up Tsukuyomi’s social media and scroll through the pictures already uploaded from the battle.

He pauses on one that is clearly a mid-fight shot, taken immediately following a Dark Shadow powered punch judging by the cinematic way the villain is flying back into a wall. Tsukuyomi himself looks unruffled, his cloak mid billow in the breeze all cool and dramatic and Keigo’s mouth pulls into a wide smile at the sight.

Yes, he nods to himself.

Midoriya will do just fine.

Chapter Text

Two villains are caught in the act of mugging a group of civilians.

Salt - ‘I will a-salt you!’ - brandishes her steel bat threateningly, while Pepper - ‘I’m gonna pepper your body with blows!’ - waves brass knuckled fists in a drunkard’s face.

Tsukuyomi swoops low, cape flaring outwards dramatically, as Dark Shadow flies them both in like a mythical creature of the night come to life.

The villains curse, the civilians run - or stagger in some cases- for their lives, and the opposing forces ready themselves for battle.

“Wait! Wait! Don’t fight!”

Midoriya suddenly comes running in, before skidding slightly on a damp patch of ground, arms pinwheeling madly to stop himself from crashing into a wall.

He bends over, hands on his knees as he tries to catch his breath from the desperate sprint, and this new development is so ridiculous that both heroes and villains alike stand stupefied into silent inaction.

Then-

Keigo bursts out laughing, unable to contain himself any longer. “You sneaky chicks! That's not what you wrote on the report at all!”

Tokoyami ducks his head while mumbling a cowed, “since Midoriya is also quirkless I thought it best to leave him out of it, lest he, and by extension I, be accused of some inane crime such as collusion or favoritism.”

Dark Shadow lets out a whoop from within Tokoyami's jacket and Keigo grins at his protege proudly. “I see. Nice one. And where is your little manager? I was hoping to talk to him at least a little bit before you guys leave for the night.”

The clock on the wall reads 5am and the sun is clearly rising through the view of the floor-to-ceiling windows, but Tokoyami doesn’t call him out on the discrepancy. In fact the hero almost seems to get flustered and Keigo is suddenly sure that there must be a blush spreading beneath those dark feathers.

He heaves an internal sigh at the fact that it isn’t visible. The teasing just doesn’t hit the same without it. A true shame.

“Since Midoriya’s duties don’t extend past my patrol time he left to pick up some food while I met with you to discuss my report.”

Keigo pouts playfully. “Aw that’s no fun. You’re hogging him all to yourself.” He wags a finger mock chidingly. “Sharing is caring Tsuki!”

“No way!” Dark Shadow crows, popping up into full view to glare Keigo down. “He’s ours!”

“Shadow!” Tokoyami hisses, pushing the quirk back down with effort. The young hero's eyes droop tiredly and Keigo is abruptly reminded that this is Tsuki’s first day as a Night hero and he should perhaps get to the point so the poor guy doesn’t literally pass out on his way home.

He sighs once more to himself before straitening his shoulders and finally getting serious. “The intel checks out.”

Keigo steeples his fingers and leans forward. “It's a shame they didn’t know anything concrete about the diamonds and their speculations led us nowhere, but the tip about the illusionist in the Naji Gang has been a real boon! Barebones investigation has shown that she’s been overheard bragging about impersonating a hero recently, and while that obviously won’t hold up in court, it’s more than enough for us to get the ball rolling on something more official and in depth. We’re leaning towards an eventual infiltration but that’s all still up in the air while the boys look into it. There’ll be a meeting about it all early Saturday morning which I’ve made sure coincides with the timing you get off shift. You can stick around after patrol for the meeting and then enjoy your night off- but bear in mind to get to sleep early Friday so you’ll be awake enough after work to actually participate and follow along...”

Tokoyami nods once and gets to his feet wearily.

“Oh. And tell Midoriya. He probably already knows since it’s in the schedule he received but with that whole email mix-up who knows whether he actually got it. Also, and this is just between you and me, but he’ll probably be under fire about that whole illusionist versus shapeshifter thing which Chihara apparently still hasn’t gotten over. So he especially should take special care to be alert and not half asleep just in case.”

Dark Shadow lets out a menacing trill at that, and Tokoyami eyes the ceiling in a clear desire for patience at his quirks antics, before giving Hawks a short bow. “Thank you, we appreciate the warning.”

***

By the time Tokoyami comes outside Izuku is already halfway through a cheese bun, which is perhaps not the healthiest thing to be eating at this hour and so close to ‘bedtime’ but sue him, after the day he’s had, he deserves it.

Also the sun coming up keeps making him think it’s time for breakfast which is throwing him off considering how much he badly wants a coffee.

Tokoyami knocks on the window and Izuku, half the bun still hanging out of his mouth, slowly looks up. His fingers pause their previously rapid typing on his phone so he can roll down the window, but he makes no moves to remove the pastry from between his lips.

Tokoyami coughs once into his own hand, before leaning slightly on the car so he can duck his head closer to the open window. “Are you planning to drive?” he asks, voice smooth as always even through his clear exhaustion.

Izuku nods, finally biting the piece in his mouth off of the remaining bun so he can hurriedly chew and swallow. “You did the actual fighting so you’re definitely more tired than I am and this way you can eat while I’m driving.” He holds up his phone to show off a message he’d been composing to Power House with the specs and budget for what they want from Hatsume Industries, and with a pointed glance towards the company phone in the cupholder he doesn’t say a word about it out loud.

Tokoyami returns the nod and finally stands back upright and walks around the car to the passenger side.

Dark Shadow doesn’t bother, flopping straight through the window and onto Izuku’s lap so their connection with Tokoyami wraps around the front end of the car.

Tokoyami pauses, one hand already on the door handle. He presses a finger to his forehead and sighs.

Izuku watches him worriedly, petting absently at his lapful of quirk with the side of his hand. Tokoyami must be really stressed, or maybe he’s just tired? Yeah that’s probably it. It’s a big change switching from Daylight to Night like this so it stands to reason that there must be an adjustment period. Izuku himself is used to pulling all nighters and sleeping all day on weekends to make up for it, but Tokoyami has been with The Nest since high school so he must be struggling at least a little with the sudden shift.

He waits for the hero to get in as Tokoyami slowly lifts his head and stares at Izuku meaningfully.

The silence and eye contact stretches and Izuku can feel himself getting lost in that piercing gaze- when the hero suddenly shakes his head and points down.

Izuku looks where he’s pointing.

Oh.

His face is suddenly burning with heat, flaming red and everything no doubt, as he finally unlocks the door and then buries his face in his hands.

His hands that had still been holding a phone and a pastry respectively.

Just great.

He flushes harder, barely registering as Dark Shadow makes a noise of complaint, untangles themself from around the car and through Tokoyami’s still open door, to finally settle on Izuku’s hair.

“Uh um sorry bout that,” Izuku mumbles, too afraid of revealing his now pastry-covered cheek to lower his hands from his face just yet.

“It is quite alright.” Tokoyami murmurs back. “I believe we are both of us out of sorts. Remaining awake while the world around us sleeps - save the few depraved souls out for mischief of course - can be quite taxing. You are well within your rights to remain on a daylight schedule even as my manager. Regardless of timings, I am sure most managers do not accompany clients on patrol, social media accounts or not.”

“That’s okay!” Izuku startles, irrational fear coursing through him at this line of conversation and the subsequent thought that he’ll be stuck at The Nest all day by himself in that lonely office where everyone in the building except for Hawks definitely hates him. His hands wave wildly, pastry crumbs flying free as he finds himself shouting. “I like to revel in the dark!”

There’s a split second of silence before Tokoyami groans and buries his own face in his hands. “You say something one time as a teenager and suddenly it’s on t-shirts.”

“Not just t-shirts,” Izuku mumbles, pocketing his phone so he can try and salvage what’s left of his cheese bun. “I’m sure I’ve still got a ‘Revel in the Darkness’ shot glass somewhere.”

Dark Shadow cackles at that and Izuku finally remembers to pass Tokoyami his food. The hero stares at him blankly before slowly reaching out and brushing a soft hand over Izuku’s face.

Izuku freezes as Tokoyami pulls back and takes the bag from Izuku’s now limp fingers.

“You had. Crumbs.” the hero says quietly, studying the contents of the bag like he’s never seen food before.

“O-Oh. Th-Thank you.” Izuku’s voice comes out higher than he’d like and to change the subject he pops the rest of his pastry into his mouth and shifts the car into drive.

Dark Shadow continues playing with his hair and Tokoyami turns on the radio, humming quietly between bites of food, and Izuku slowly relaxes into his seat.

This is... really, really nice.

Chapter Text

Izuku scrolls through his phone and tries to keep his leg from shaking.
He’s sitting at his desk waiting for Tokoyami to finish changing out of his hero costume so they can head to the meeting together and his nerves are making themselves known. His post-patrol coffee sits ignored to the side because as tired as he is Izuku knows better than to add caffeine to his already anxious jittering.

‘Midoriya. Hawks said to warn you that Chihara is still upset so watch yourself at the meeting.’

‘Chihara?’

‘... I don’t suppose you would have caught his name before. He’s the one who yelled at you for correcting him about the Twinjet imposter and made you go through the villain quirk database yourself. ’

‘...oh… that.’

Izuku absently taps his thumb against his lip and resists the urge to bite at the nail. Coworkers like that are the worst and he knew that already from past experience but that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with. Odds are Chihara already knows he was wrong back then but pride is keeping him from admitting that the quirkless new kid noticed something he’d missed. He’s gonna dig his heels in and doubledown and Izuku will be forced to choose between correcting him again or keeping quiet to save himself the embarrassment and increased animosity and hostility.

What a pain.

Izuku would have expected the Number One’s Agency to value truth and closing cases over stupid things like who came up with the theory and who gets credit but whatever. At least he’s prepared with actual proofs this time, though he may have overprepared just a bit.

Izuku sighs and continues scanning news feeds. It’d be so much easier to distract himself if he could mess around with his new phone that had just arrived from Hatsume Industries but since it’s safer to leave the new tech in the car so no one knows they exist yet Izuku is stuck without it for now.

Just thinking about his digital notebook where he can take notes with a touch keyboard or by writing with a stylus makes him want to blow off this meeting so he can get started transcribing his patrol notes over and get some work done on new posts for Tsukuyomi’s public accounts.

‘And it uploads automatically to the new phone too and I can even access the data from my laptop so long as I plug in the bluetooth usb ah I’m so blown away by the quality it's amazing!’

Somewhat calmed by his excitement - as contradictory as that sounds - Izuku finally takes a sip of his now cool coffee.

His finger pauses it’s manic scrolling as it comes across an article from last week about the Doro Gang’s latest crime spree. There’s just something about it. Something looks off, the picture and story clashing just slightly that he can’t put his finger on it but it’s already driving him nuts with that itch to keep digging until it all makes sense again.

A warm hand suddenly snatches his wrist and Izuku startles and looks up.

“My apologies.” Tokoyami states gravely, fingers still wrapped around Izuku’s sleeve. “But you were about to spill.”

Izuku flushes, free hand already flailing slightly, phone clenched tightly in its grip as Tokoyami holds his other hand steady. It’s immediately apparent that the hero has saved him from entering the meeting with coffee all over his jacket and pants and Izuku is torn between apologizing for getting so lost in his thoughts and asking if Tokoyami had needed to run to be able to help him in time. Of course he is a hero, one who has trained with the number one for years so it would make sense that his reaction time was just that good. His eyesight must be somewhat enhanced as well to be able to discern a possible threat at the moment of stepping foot in the room. But to also be able to act on it fast enough to actually make a difference is amazing! This of course all implies that Izuku spilling coffee on himself registers as a threat to Tokoyami or maybe it’s Izuku himself? His clumsiness?

“I wanted to be sure your confidence was not impeded by a stain,” Tokoyami’s voice is soft but his eyes are looking anywhere but at Izuku. “considering how the others view you. That is all.”

Izuku’s face must be bright red considering he can practically feel the heat radiating off it but Tokoyami doesn’t move. His hand is still on Izuku’s own and he finally glances down and meets Izuku’s eyes.

“Thank you.” Izuku croaks, throat suddenly going dry under that piercing stare.

“Don’t worry about it.” Tokoyami murmurs.

A clock ticks in the background as the two stare at each other frozen in place by the weight of the moment. Izuku slowly lowers his phone to the desk as if to do it any faster would somehow shatter the, whatever this is.

His hand now empty it moves almost of its own accord towards Tokoyami’s face-

“You’re late to the meeting.” Dark Shadow cackles, volume overly loud as if to purposely startle the two.

Izuku flinches and Tokoyami rears back but somehow the hand holding his coffee cup steady adjusts for his jump and Izuku’s suit remains clean. He’d probably be more impressed by that if he wasn’t so busy being mortified by what just happened and simultaneously horrified that he lost track of time.

This meeting is going to be hell.

***

Fumikage races down the hall on Midoriya’s heels but pulls him to a stop before he can open the door. “Deep breaths,” he says, straightening his jacket and adjusting his cuffs. “Calm down.”

“But we’re-”

“Perfectly on time,” Fumikage cuts in, tilting his head slightly. ”Aren’t we?”

“Uh. I mean.”

“We are.” He reaches for Midoriya’s jacket, fixing it so it sits right on his shoulders again. He hesitates slightly, hands brushing on the material a bit more than they need to before pulling the company phone from Midoriya’s pocket and pressing it into his hands. “Now open up an article and tell me about it.”

“Wha- Now???”

Fumikage smiles, hand ready on the doorknob. “Yes. Right now please.”

“Uh. R-Right. So the Doro Gang seems to have stepped up their game recently with the inclusion of two new members, identities and quirks unknown. I mean everyone in the gang is unknown of course what with the matching uniforms and face coverings but since I’ve been following them for so long it’s pretty simple to isolate the quirks they must be using and from there to analyze the footage available to determine who has what…”

Midoriya slowly starts loosening up the more he talks and Fumikage finally opens the door and walks in. His head is bent low to show focus on what his manager is rambling lowly to him as he follows to their seats.

“...obviously you still can’t tell them apart but if you focus solely on height and build and the odd bumps in the back of the hood that point to more hair under them than the flatter ones do and use that to differentiate between them then it's less of an unknown variable and more of a, this one can only have one of these three quirks type of thing, as opposed to factoring for all of them at once for every single member.”

“Good point.” Fumikage murmurs back just loud enough to be heard over the sudden silence that had descended as soon as they’d walked in. He finally looks up then and nods his head at Hawks. “Sorry we’re late. I of course had to change after my patrol and asked Midoriya to wait for me. Please. Continue.”

“No worries!” The hero beams, looking immensely pleased for some unknown reason. “We’d only just started. Shiro?”

The man grumbles under his breath but dutifully goes back a couple slides so Hawks can start from the beginning.

Fumikage wonders briefly why Shiro is manning the projections as opposed to the usual support technician before concluding that the meeting is either too early in the morning for that or is simply classified.

“As per our latest intel it appears that the Naji Gang was behind the Twinjet Diamond incident.” A picture of seven identical figures in black with faces covered by white masks with a number on the forehead comes up on screen.

Privately Fumikage ponders if the button will survive Shiro’s finger stabbings for the entire meeting.

“Number Three here,” the image shifts to a closeup of the figure with the three on the mask, “is a high ranking member of the Naji Gang and is purported to have an illusion quirk. This makes them our prime suspects at this time coupled with our reports that they were overheard boasting about successfully impersonating a hero.”

Midoriya mumbles something to himself and starts rummaging through his papers as Dark Shadow hangs over his shoulder to watch.

Across the table Chihara bristles and Fumikage sighs. Here we go again.

Hawks continues on, blissfully oblivious. “Seven is more than enough for me to handle so with the diamonds finally back on our radar I will be handling the Naji Gang while Tsukuyomi takes over my investigation into the-“

“Wait wait.” Midoriya is on his feet now, papers scattered all over his side of the table. “Something doesn’t add up.”

Chihara, Shiro and three other suits Fumikage hasn’t ever met before all react, some startling, some slamming fists onto the table and one even leaping to her feet. “Now see here-!”

Midoriya ignores her, though it’s less out of malice and confidence and more that he’s on a roll and doesn’t seem to even register them.

Fumikage leans his head on his palm and simply listens.

“Look I’ve done a lot of research on villain teams that use uniforms and how the main purpose of using them is to throw off observers so they can’t be told apart. Even gangs that primarily use weapons try to conceal their quirks in case they need an ace later hence the identical outfits. But the Naji Gang is. It just doesn’t make sense!” He slams his papers down, finger jabbing at them harshly so Hawks can see what he’s pointing at. “This is the Doro Gang who’ve been in the news lately. They too use matching outfits to hide who is who but look. You can still somewhat tell them apart.”

Fumikage blinks and sits up straight as he catches on. “The heights and builds and hair under the hood, correct?”

Midoriya startles, green eyes shooting to him as if in shock. “Uh yeah. You were. Sorry. I didn’t think you were listening.”

“Get to the point!” Chihara spits, looking downright murderous. “If you’re going to have the audacity to interrupt then at least have the good grace not to pussyfoot around!”

“R-Right. So um now that I’ve pointed it out you should be able to tell for yourself right?” He doesn’t wait for Hawks to confirm before continuing. “If you pulled up the picture of the Naji Gang I could show you what’s odd about it.”

Shiro doesn’t move until Hawks stares at him expectantly but when he finally brings back the picture Fumikage is surprised he didn’t break the keyboard with how hard he pressed it.

“Here see.” Midoriya gestures at the image and the five disgruntled employees take a look despite themselves.

“...well?” A woman at the back demands, metallic nails tapping at the table in irritation. “What are we supposed to be seeing, I don’t notice any differences.”

“That’s the point!” Hawks’s eyes are wide and his wings are fluttering in barely restrained excitement. “There are no differences!”

“Right!” Midoriya confirms. “They look like someone copied over the same person seven times and the only way to tell them apart was-“

“To put numbers on their foreheads.” Hawks finishes. “So what does that mean? Are we looking at septuplets or what?”

“I think it’s all more connected than that.” Midoriya puts down another photo, this one a still taken from the footage that day outside the bank. The Imposter Twinjet is standing outside the bank and Midoriya has scribbled calculations along the side that Fumikage can’t make out from here.

“If Number Three is said to be the illusionist we’re looking for than it’s possible the entire gang is an illusion meant to distract us from the real culprits. After we discovered the Twinjet on scene was fake I did some research and the real Twinjet is slightly taller and thinner than the imposter we had. In the rush of battle it wasn’t as noticeable but once I was combing through footage it became obvious. So the illusion quirk must have the disadvantage of only being able to alter appearance or create perfect copies that I assume had to be numbered because they’ll fade if touched leaving only the real one behind. Likely the number holding the real one is alternated or maybe the real one isn’t even there at all and the numbers reference a time limit of some kind, like whichever was made first will wear off first or something.”

“Again with this!” Chihara spits angrily. “If the Naji Gang truly were simply an illusion we wouldn’t have been able to get them on camera!”

“Wrong!” Midoriya is smiling now and gesturing excitedly as he digs through his mess for another picture. “It’s a common misconception but only illusion quirks that affect eyesight as a branch off of hypnotic suggestion don’t show up on camera! I realized the true potential of the imposter's quirk when I remembered that there were cell phone cameras recording all around us. If the illusion were merely eyesight related then the first person to start filming would have realized the Twinjet was fake and started screaming.”

“That just proves that it was a shapeshifter all along.” Chihara grumbles.

“You would think that!” Midoriya cheers, oblivious to the ever growing animosity in the room.

Fumikage finds it somewhat admirable his dedication to his craft and the bigger picture. Though if he’s learnt anything about Midoriya in all their time together lately it's that he’ll probably panic after the meeting once he processes what he’s done. Which… Fumikage is not the best at giving hugs and comfort but he can give it his best effort for Midoriya.

“and that’s exactly what they wanted us to think! But since they not only impersonated a hero and their quirk and left with the diamonds it all points to an ‘area of effect imaging illusion’! If we had footage of the Naji Gang walking around or even just how far spread out they are I could calculate an exact area but basically the quirk can make them appear different and then cause minor illusions within their area of effect like the doubles and the quirk use. My best guess is that in order to create an illusion of multiple people it needed to be something simple that wouldn’t require as much focus which is why I don’t think you’ll be able to get footage of them doing their own thing and I’d say when this picture was taken they knew they were being watched. I’d go so far as to say that’s the only reason Three has supposedly been boasting all over the place. My guess is the illusionist wasn’t even in the room and was instead in the next room facing a mirror so the illusions would take even less focus to hold.”

“Are you kidding boy?!? No villain would go through all that trouble! If they really can conceal that many diamonds so effortlessly they’d sooner skip town than set up a fake gang!”

“They would if the diamonds weren’t stolen for money!”

There’s a split second of silence and then a roar of laughter from around the room.

“Do you hear this?” The woman gasps, clutching her side as she cackles.

The others follow suit besides Chihara who draws himself upright. “Now see here-“

“I went through the database like you asked Chihara-san. Don’t you want to know what I found?” Midoriya’s voice is soft but it cuts through the chaos like butter. “Our Illusionist was a small time pickpocket until recently.” A mugshot of a woman snarling at the camera hits the table with a muted thwack. “The face can't be proven accurate considering the quirk but the height matches not only our illusionist and the Naji Gang members but also,” Midoriya holds up his phone to the still open article he’d been reading from when he walked in. “the newest member of the Doro Gang. Wanna know what their latest attacks have been?”

“We don’t need you to tell us.” A man in the back sniffs haughtily. “They’ve been using a scare tactic to incite a panic which is when the looting members descend on all the abandoned vehicles and storefronts.”

“That’s right. And they’re doing it with the diamonds.”

“Don’t be absurd-!”

Midoriya gives up on brandishing his phone and digging through his papers, stalking to Shiro’s part of the table and grabbing a spare plug. With a couple taps of his fingers the image from Shiro’s laptop is replaced with the article. “These are the two new members of the Doro Gang that joined right when the new tactic went into place.” An image of projectiles falling from the sky, injuring civilians as they run is replaced by a picture of two people in the Doro costume. “Noticing anything about this one?” Midoriya hums. “Same height, build and hair bump as the Imposter and the Naji Gang. And this one,” he jabs a finger at the second member triumphantly. “Matches our Illusionist’s foster brother Zero.” Another mugshot pops up and Midoriya grins. “I was looking through the minutes from our last meeting when preparing for this one and I noticed a conflicting statement. All five villains were arrested at the jewelry store but we only had four in custody. One of the two villains betrayed by the imposter and left tied up was just an illusion, a cover for the accomplice who’d been able to steal only diamonds so subtly that it was only after we called the Jewelers and told them to check that they even realized anything was missing.” Midoriya spreads his arms wide. “Wanna take a guess as to what Zero’s quirk is?”

And Fumikage knows the question is rhetorical but he can see the line where the quirk is written and he can’t resist backing Midoriya up.

“Diamond based telekinesis, right?”

Midoriya beams.

Chapter Text

Izuku gasps for breath, fingers digging into the white porcelain bowl of the sink he’s clinging to for dear life. His next inhale is shaky and he finally looks up from the running water to stare at his reflection in the mirror. Wide green eyes stare back at him in panic and he ducks his head back down as he chokes on an exhale.

He’d done it.
He’d put the pieces together, stood his ground, presented his proofs and gotten Hawks to see the truth.

He gulps desperately for air, grip tightening on the sink so hard his fingertips turn white.

What he’d done was make himself a room of enemies and by tomorrow that hatred and animosity will have spread through the entire building.

Tomorrow.
Sunday.
Hawks’ day off.

He’s. He’s screwed. No two ways about it.

Nobody has been anything resembling accommodating or accepting. But on a day when Hawks won’t be around to keep their attitudes in check? There’s no telling what terrible things Izuku will find in his desk or locker Sunday night.

He turns off the water with hands that shake as his brain throws possibilities at him, scenario after scenario until he’s sobbing from what he’s sure his future holds.

The meeting had ended and Hawks had clapped him on the back and he’d been proud and euphoric and-
And then someone had bumped him.
Harshly.
A sharp elbow and a leg out to trip to him and dark eyes glaring at him everywhere he’d looked.

Izuku wheezes and trembles and tries not to think of the whispered voice in his ear hissing “You should have just kept your head down Kid!”

He’s-
This is a hero agency!
So why does he feel so scared?
Why did it feel so threatening?
Why is he terrified someone is going to-

“Midoriya you need to breathe.”

Izuku gasps as he turns but it’s a shallow thing that barely gets him any air and he trips over his own feet as the room seems to spin and-

Tokoyami’s fingers close gently over his wrist and then he’s being tugged forward against the hero’s chest. He doesn’t have time to process before his wrist is released as strong arms most famous for saving people wrap around him and hold him close.
Tokoyami’s voice is soft as he whispers into Izuku’s hair. “Breathe.”

Izuku breathes.

It takes him a while to calm down but through the wisps of panic and embarrassment at being found like this Izuku feels… safe.
Grounded.
Warm.
Tokoyami is holding him so tight he can feel the hero’s heartbeat where his face is pressed against his shirt. Every inhale and exhale of Tokoyami’s ruffles Izuku's hair and centers his own breathing.
And behind him he can feel Dark Shadow settled over his back like one of Tsukuyomi’s hero cloaks and Izuku has to blink rapidly to keep more tears from spilling over.

Eating together and driving together and working together are nothing compared to the comfort of this hug. So freely given without a second thought. They’ve been up all night and Tokoyami could have just gone home to bed as soon as the meeting was over- he was under no obligation to wait for Izuku or drive him home, much less look for him and help him through a panic attack. It’s as if Izuku is someone worth caring about.

“You are.”

The words rumble through Tokoyami’s chest and Izuku flushes and flinches back on reflex. Or, he would’ve had the hero not tightened his hold as if he’d known how Izuku would react.

Dark Shadow coos and then a tissue is being pressed gently against his eyes.

“I-I’m.” His throat closes as the tears finally spill over, most seeping into the tissue but some dotting Tokoyami’s shirt like raindrops.
“I’m. So sorry.” He finally manages, extricating an arm from the hug to take the tissue from Dark Shadow.

“Nothing to apologize for.” Tokoyami murmurs, words slightly muffled by Izuku’s hair.

Izuku dabs at his face, keeping his head ducked to avoid the hero’s gaze. “...thanks.”
A wave of exhaustion hits him and his heart sinks as he realizes that he needs to either walk home or continue taking advantage of Tokoyami’s kind heart and accept a ride home- fully knowing that the hero will then have to drive himself home on just as much sleep as Izuku himself but with the added exhaustion of a hero patrol.

“I really don’t mind.” said hero interjects softly, reminding Izuku that he is still wrapped up in a hug. “If it makes you feel better I came prepared this time.”

Izuku grabs the distraction with both hands, stepping back and moving to the sinks to wash his face. “O-Oh?”

“There’s a futon in my trunk.”
The hero turns away then almost immediately, suddenly busying himself with his phone as Dark Shadow snickers in his face.

Izuku tunes it out as he pokes at his eyelids dejectedly. His face and eyes are washed and his heart rate has returned somewhat to normal and while he definitely looks like he’s been crying there’s nothing to do about it now. Maybe he should start bringing a bottle of primer with him on days when there are meetings scheduled. It might not do anything for the actual swelling but it definitely works to soothe the burn.

His head snaps up in panic at the thought that he’d maybe mumbled that last out loud but Tokoyami and Dark Shadow are bickering about something quietly and don’t seem to have heard anything. Izuku lets out a sigh of relief. The less said about his old experiments to find the best way to hide his crying eyes the better.

He dries his hands slowly and pulls out his phone to check the time.

📧 MAIL 10m ago
[email protected]
Fwd: Mission Parameters
How soon can Tsukuyomi get on this?

Izuku pauses. He must have missed the notification while he was… indisposed. Frowning slightly at whatever was so urgent as to be sent over immediately while also not being important enough to be brought up at the meeting he unlocks his phone and opens his email.

His eyes widen in shock.

“Are you ready to go, Midoriya?”

“No.” Izuku replies absently, tone cold and grip tightening on his phone. “You can leave without me.”

He throws the door open, all thoughts of his red eyes forgotten in his haste as he marches down to his boss’s office. His pace is fast, bordering on punishing but he can’t slow down or Hawks will already be on his morning patrol and Izuku won’t be able to- what, yell?
Is he really about to throw down with the number one hero- the only other person in this building that doesn’t hate his guts- the only person to hear he was quirkless and respond with enthusiasm and a job offer?

The contents of the email swim before his eyes and his resolve hardens.

Yes. Yes he is.

From: [email protected] >
To: [email protected] >
April 20 at 8:17 AM 📎
Fwd: Mission Parameters

How soon can Tsukuyomi get on this?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: [email protected]
Date: Wednesday, April 17 at 7:19 AM
Subject: Mission Parameters
To: [email protected]

See for your approval all pertinent details of the proposed undercover mission for Hero Tsukuyomi.

📄
Mitsu Smu...Ring.docx
23 KB

He barely registers the sounds of Tokoyami following after him but Izuku can’t stop. He’s already overstepped once today and stopping had led to a breakdown. If he stops now he might lose his nerve and he can’t. Not yet.

Izuku doesn’t bother knocking, throwing the door open so hard it bangs into the wall.

Hawks pauses, one foot halfway out his balcony door. “Midoriya! Great job at the meeting kid! I knew you could-”

“What the fuck is this?”

Part of Izuku is screaming at the fact he’s just cut off the number one hero- while said hero was complimenting him no less- but the greater part of him is focused, holding up his phone where the email is still open. Tokoyami is his and if he needs to go toe to toe with big names to keep his hero safe then that’s what he’s going to do, anxiety be damned.

“Can this wait? I was just about to-”

The snarl that leaves Izuku’s mouth is unexpected to all of them, Izuku included, but it has the desired effect. Hawks slowly steps back inside, hands held up in surrender. “Okay look, it wasn’t my idea but-”

Izuku squeezes his phone so tightly he’s surprised it doesn’t burst into pieces. “This email was sent to you Wednesday, the day of Tsukuyomi’s first night patrol- a patrol where I uploaded no less than five action shots to his accounts, as I was told was part of my job! And yet, the document attached here states that Tsukuyomi is the perfect hero for this long term undercover mission since he is still an- and I quote- unknown!”

“Yes well-”

“AND!” Izuku raises his voice to steamroll over Hawks’ attempted rebuttal. “The very idea that Tsukuyomi is an unknown at all just because he was a sidekick till recently is absurd! Forget all his amazing performances at the UA Sports Festivals landing him on the winner’s podium all three years he attended, he’s also been talked about in all the forums ever since you took him on as an intern considering you’d never had one before!”

“I was?” Tokoyami murmurs somewhere in the background.

Izuku ignores him.

“And all that pales in comparison to all the hype once he graduated and became the youngest person to sidekick for a number one hero ever! #birdbois was trending for months after it became official and there are still entire social media accounts dedicated to just sharing shots of you guys flying together.”

“There are?” Hawks blinks.

Izuku ignores him too.

“This plan has more holes in it than ‘Hero Quest III : Battle for the Destructinator’ and that’s saying a lot!”

He’s got so much to say his thoughts are practically shouting over each other and he needs to focus on getting everything out. As it is he’ll probably end up leaving something out only to remember it later.

He takes a deep breath to force himself to calm down, managing to get his tone a bit lower as he grits out. “This is just an excuse to get rid of me since I’m not qualified to be a handler, especially for this situation and Tsukuyomi won't need a manager till he comes back.” His voice cracks on the word ‘till’, the thought of saying ‘if he comes back’ instead sending a pang through his heart. It won’t happen because Izuku won’t let it. He’s putting his foot down now!

“I get where you're coming from Midoriya but as you said, this email was sent to me a couple days ago. It’s my own fault for neglecting it so long but that doesn’t take away from the fact that this isn’t some kind of conspiracy or punishment for what happened today.”

“If it was sent after I was hired then I think it’s entirely justified that I assume it’s to get rid of me.” Izuku’s hands squeeze into fists as he poses his next question mock casual. “Or is there some kind of task in place for me to handle while Tsukuyomi is undercover? I saw no mention of one in the document but I’m prepared to move onto my concerns for the mission itself and Tsukuyomi’s safety if I’m wrong…”

Hawks sighs, shoulders slumping as he moves to sit at his desk. “There isn’t.” he steeples his fingers and stares Izuku down. “At least not yet and look I know the timing is suspicious and you’re not wrong about that, but the Mitsu Smuggling Ring is a real threat. This isn’t a fabrication to get rid of you. People have been going missing and according to our intel they’re sold or traded for rare goods. We need to take them down- from the inside or we have no hopes of recovering all the members and victims.”

“You say we, but this entire thing has been dumped solely into Tsukuyomi’s lap to handle by himself, alone, trying to hide who he really is even though he’s too distinctive for that to work long term. What exactly are you doing Hawks, that makes you incapable of taking this on yourself? The two of you working together would have no problem taking the entire thing down in the span of a single night with the proper planning and backup. Heck you’ve done it before in Kanto and the Musutafu Drug Raid last year. What’s so important that you’ll allow a fresh hero to vanish off the map with a difficult mission in their first-”

Izuku stops, eyes widening in realization as more pieces fall into place. “Of course.” he whispers slowly. “His first year…” his head snaps up and his glare must be impressive because Hawks jerks back in his seat as Izuku hisses. “This is about the rankings!”

“What? No it isn’t.” and to Hawks’ credit the man does look genuinely confused at what seems to him a subject change but Izuku can see it all clearly now.

“Isn’t it? A long term undercover mission is assigned the day he officially became his own hero- only a couple weeks before the UA sports festival meaning he won’t be able to take on an intern. But that’s not all! The Hero Awards are only a few months away and that means he won’t be eligible for any of the newcomer categories since undercover heroes are treated the same as underground for the duration and are unable to be nominated for anything. And by the time the awards roll around next year he’ll be in his second year as an official hero and won’t be able to be considered for them then either. Rookie of the Year and Rising Star are the most credited with boosting a newcomer’s career but they’re only for the very freshest of faces and Tsukuyomi would be a shoo in this year if he’d be around for it. Can you still say that this isn’t related? Since he’s only just been promoted to hero I had thought the push would be to get his approval ratings up as much as possible especially since he’s covering the night shift when you, the number one hero aren't around as competition. That’s been my whole goal with all the pictures I’ve been posting and the engagement’s been great so far. So it honestly doesn’t make sense why he’d be switched to a long term undercover mission when he’s just a Night hero and not an Underground one.”

Izuku freezes at Hawks’ grave stare. The full seriousness of what he’s doing suddenly hits him and he pales as his hands fly wildly. “N-Not that the rankings are more important than taking down the smuggling ring! I’m not implying that at all I’m just confused as to why the case is even being handled by the Nest at all when it’s solely a Spotlight agency! They would have had to request the case, especially since it’s technically out of our jurisdiction! Tsukuyomi blends into the dark just fine and that gives him more stealth and power to be operating as a Night hero but I really don’t see him as being unremarkable enough to infiltrate a smuggling ring by going undercover. He’s just too well known for that. It really only makes sense if you consider it either as a means to firing me or as a means to tank his rankings!”

Izuku is heaving for breath by the end of his rant, fists clenched against Hawks’ desk. “No offense.” he manages to mumble at the hero beside him.

Tokoyami shuffles in place, a restraining hand settled on Dark Shadow’s head. “None taken.” he murmurs back.

The older hero sighs and massages his forehead. “You make some good points, Kid, but the case is ours due to the possible connection to the missing diamonds.”

“But I’ve already solved that!” Izuku bursts out, frustration bleeding into his tone and keeping his rising anxiety at bay. “The illusionist stole the diamonds for Zero’s quirk and they’re being used by the Doro gang in the recent attacks!”

Hawks’ hands fly up in surrender and his tone is regretful. “Look Kid you’ve got me convinced but it’s out of my hands. The higher ups think the smuggling ring may be responsible for getting the diamonds out and since its a priority case to shut down anyway because of the human trafficking aspect they’ve gone ahead and made us lead on this. I myself will be focusing on the Naji Gang and if that doesn’t pan out then we can revisit the Doro Gang.” He gets up and bows before heading back to his balcony. “I gotta start my patrol now.” he says, sounding regrettable but not looking back. “We can talk more about this later.”

***

The elevator ride down is so quiet it’s practically stifling.

Izuku and Tokoyami face the doors silently, lost in their own thoughts.

Izuku is the one to break it. “Do you remember what I said to him that first day?” He asks softly. “‘It’s your name on the building. You could literally just tell me not to sign it.’” He sighs then, shoulders slumping as if that single exhale had drained him off all his energy. “I’m starting to question whether that was true.”

Out of the corner of his eye Izuku can see Tokoyami turn to look at him but he keeps his gaze fixed on the doors. “Maybe they really have been planning this since then. End of the day, I didn’t sign it and me being your manager means you didn’t either. I’m worried that beyond getting rid of me as a manager this mission won’t be properly handled so they can…” he chokes on the words, heart stuttering at the very idea. “get rid of you too…”

The doors slide open smoothly and the two step out in sync.

“Midoriya…” Tokoyami’s tone is hesitant and soft. “May I see the email please?”

“O-Oh! Yeah sure!” Izuku fumbles with his work phone in his haste, pulling it up and handing it over. “The email itself doesn’t say much, it’s the attached document that has everything.”

Tokoyami hums, focused on reading while Dark Shadow opens the door for them and keeps their human from walking into anything.

Izuku chews on his lip for a second as he thinks over the idea that had occurred to him in Hawks’ office and whether it’s worth actually doing it. “Hey Tokoyami?”

The hero hums again, still scrolling through Izuku’s phone.

“Can I borrow your phone a second?”

Tokoyami turns to look at him, no doubt to ask why he doesn’t just use his personal one but before he can say anything Dark Shadow is handing it over. “Here you go! Use it well!”

“Shadow!” Tokoyami groans, pressing a hand over his eyes. Almost as an afterthought he adds. “It is no problem Midoriya.”

Izuku grins. “Cool thanks.”

They get into the car, both of them absorbed in their devices before Tokoyami finally puts the phone down with a sigh. “I see what you meant. It reads as very…”

“Sus as hell?” Izuku offers for him.

Tokoyami laughs, turning to look at him with mild amusement. “Yes. However there was one thing I noticed.” he shifts the car into drive and starts in the direction of Izuku’s apartment. “The phrasing used by Hawks. ‘How soon can Tsukuyomi get on this’. That is not an order to get to it immediately. We can stall for a bit while we work on a plan.”

Izuku pauses what he’s been typing on Tokoyami’s phone but doesn’t lift his head. “About that… They want you to go undercover ostensibly to be sure we can take down everyone and recover everything and everyone right? So what if we just, did that, but without the undercover bit. If we take them down in a single night we can ensure no one escapes or has time to destroy evidence and bury files.”

“Sounds risky.”

Izuku nods energetically. “Oh it is and dangerous too. Not to mention the stakes are as high as they can get since failure would mean the ring cutting their losses and going to ground and we wouldn’t be able to catch them again without finding them first.” he forces a laugh to hide his nerves. “So no pressure, right?”

Tokoyami squints while Dark Shadow whoops with glee.

“Dangerous, risky and high stakes? I’m almost afraid to ask what you’re planning.”

“Nothing too fancy.” Izuku grins. “You still keep up with your old classmates?”

Tokoyami nods slowly as he finally catches on. “Some of them, yes… Who did you have in mind?”

Izuku tells him.

Chapter Text

The sun has set only a few hours ago but the streets surrounding the compound are already dark. Some villains are skulking around the outskirts, guns holstered at their hips as they share a quick smoke break.

“Bit dark tonight huh?” One of them grunts, taking a deep drag on his cigarette.

“Yup. Damn streetlights are out again.”

Behind them, lights go out in the windows one by one until the entire area is plunged into darkness.

“The fuck-?”

A thug skids through the front doorway on his knees seconds before the emergency shutters come down trapping them outside. “We’re under attack!” he shouts, drawing his weapon and aiming it at nothing. “The power went out but the generators didn’t kick in! None of our calls are going through! Linx is trying to manually restart and hookup but nothing is working! We’re on our fucking own till reinforcements show up or we miss the next check in!”

“What?!”

“How could this-?”

“So sorry to interrupt gentlemen but as your friend so kindly pointed out, we're on a bit of a time crunch.”

“Who the fuck-?”

As one the five spin towards the voice, guns cocked to aim at… nothing.

“Wha-?”

A mass of shadows shifts and swells in the darkness till it’s towering over them; with the only indication it’s even there at all being the two white pools glaring down at them like eyes.

They scream and open fire.

The shadow mass does not move or flinch but the eyelike spots narrow in irritation. “Rude.” it calls, in a voice that echoes and distorts like it’s glitching.

The cacophony of bangs peeters out, replaced by the rapid clicking of empty magazines.

“What are you?” a woman gasps, her now useless weapon clattering to the floor as she takes a step back.

“Cursed!” the shadow screams, an opening appearing in its depths in a creepy parody of a giant mouth. A veritable swarm of crows flies out cawing loudly as they zoom past and around the villains at impossible speeds. Talons scrape and slash as the birds swirl in a maelstrom of chaotic motion.

The villains scream.

In a move so smooth it must be practiced, the shadow stretches impossibly upwards before thinning out and winding itself around the now sobbing villains like a giant shadowy snake. It squeezes tight enough to suffocate while the birds swoop in and out snatching cell phones and weapons, and dropping them carefully into a bag at the feet of an as yet unnoticed man in a black insulated jumpsuit.

“Mission accomplished.” the man murmurs, the cloth over his mouth area a sensitive alternative to a microphone. “Suit test is also a go. The insulation kept me from showing up on the infrared or x-ray quirks as planned and the beast quirks did not detect me either, not by sight, smell or hearing. Moving to Phase Two.”

The unconscious underlings are dumped unceremoniously at Tsukuyomi’s feet and he wastes no time dragging them behind the pitch black wall and cuffing them all to each other hand and foot in a purposefully chaotic tangle of limbs.

Behind him, his quirk gears up to rip the shutters off the front door as the flock of crows returns to their previous hiding spot in Dark Shadows depths; ready to do the performance all over again for the rest of the building's occupants.

On a side street in a parked black van Izuku watches the multiple screens carefully with Anima and Uravity at his side. One hand sits poised above his keyboards ready to redirect outgoing messages and calls to the burner phone beside him so he can sift through it later for leads. He lifts the other and taps a finger to the earbud in his ear.

“Distraction worked, everyone inside was occupied with trying to get the door down and are now swarming Dark and Tsukuyomi’s unit. Invisible Girl, you’re up.” He tilts his head as he receives confirmation and then switches the line back to Tokoyami. “Uravity,” he calls without looking away from his screens, “you still good?”

“Perfect!” the hero beams at him. “Not gonna lie I’m feeling like the least contributing member right now but quirkwise I’m still good.”

“No way!” Izuku bursts out. “You might be in the van with us but you’re the cornerstone of this operation! Without you none of this would have even been possible!”

Uravity mumbles an “I guess” and Izuku finally looks over at her for a second with a smirk. “Besides, you’ve got quite the role coming up.”

He turns back around, shoving a second comlink into his other ear for Invisible Girl as he scans the hacked security footage to be sure her way ahead is clear. “The night’s just getting started.”

{3 days earlier}

“Who did you have in mind?”

Izuku digs in the glove compartment for their new faraday cage bag and slips the two NIPs into it. Pulling out his private phone he speed-dials Tokoyami and eyes the bag critically. When the call doesn’t go through he sighs in relief and finally tells him.

Tokoyami hums thoughtfully. “Is that all? I could probably request some of the heavy hitters as well if needed. No need to limit ourselves on my account, I really do not mind.”

“Oh no don’t worry! This isn’t me asking for random people because I think you were friends with them specifically and would therefore have a greater chance of them not only accepting but agreeing to keep things quiet, as well as come in for training, thereby losing patrol times and stuff. I mean all that’s a plus don’t get me wrong but I need these three specifically. The combinations of your quirks working together are endless especially if we want to hide the fact that we’re heroes as long as possible so we have time to take the entire operation down in one night. N-Not that you need to worry if any of them say no! I can always come up with something else but all things considered these three aren’t underground and are still sidekicks at their various agencies making them more expendable to give up for a collaborated mission like this while also making them more likely to give their all for the case because if we pull it off all four of you will be legends.”

Tokoyami makes a noise of agreement. “I see. So what’s the plan?”

Izuku grins.

{Now}

“I’m in!”

Invisible Girl’s voice filters though and Izuku smiles.

“Almost insulted at how easy this is honestly. Didn’t have to use any of your backup plans or anything.”

Izuku fights back a laugh at her put out tone. He’d maybe gone a little overboard with the predictions and subsequent contingencies. The insulation suit they’d put a rush on for this was specially made to the specs of the one he’d designed for Tsukuyomi but with a couple additions for her invisibility quirk. Like the detachable weights on the wrists and bottoms of the shoes which were wrapped in the same material as the suit itself to keep them invisible and were the only things keeping her from being totally weightless under the influence of Uravity’s quirk.
Pressure pads in the flooring was the number one way to detect the unseen after all and Hagakure had needed to train for a full day to be able to slip the weights off in a pinch and use their tethers to keep herself from floating away like some kind of helium balloon. She’d gotten really good at manipulating them from above to move herself across the room without them touching the floor so Izuku can understand her disappointment that it wasn’t even needed in the end. Or maybe she’s more upset that they bothered to add oxygen canisters and a sealable face plate in case there were sensors to pick up elevated carbon dioxide levels in a room without enough occupants to account for the increase?
Either way this compound is definitely low on the totem pole to not have any of those preventative measures in place though maybe they're just cocky. There’s always a chance she’ll have better ‘luck’ at the big boss’s office once they get the location from the servers but Izuku keeps that thought to himself.

One of his screens pops up with a notification and he taps at his keyboard feeling borderline giddy. This is almost too easy.

{2 days earlier}

“You want me to what???”

Izuku forces down his lingering panic at running an op for actual heroes who he has never met in person before and gestures at the roomful of birds Anima— Kouda while off duty— had recruited. “Um if you could… to just… use your quirk on them? I uh haven't been able to test this myself yet— obviously since I’m not the one with the gravity quirk, but since the plan hinges on them being able to handle the higher speed flight capabilities that being weightless affords then we really need to practice as much as we can now so that I have time to discard or tweak this plan as needed if it looks like it won’t work…”

“No, I get that.” Uravity— Uraraka right now holy shit!— says. “I just don’t get why you’d want to.”

“Oh that’s simple! Nighttime coupled with darkness makes things seem scarier than they really are so a jumpscare at the right moment can really go a long way at lowering the defenses and capabilities of our targets. The birds chosen are all black crows which means as long as Tokoyami doesn’t show his face it’ll be assumed to be someone, or something else. Villains react differently to hero attacks versus rival gang skirmishes or even the unknown so we’ll capitalize on that so they don’t realize our actual goals.”

“Which are?”

Izuku beams. “The servers of course. All the info we’ll need for Phase 3 will be ripe for the taking.”

“I see.” Tokoyami muses. “So the main battle will be as flashy and eye-catching as possible because it is only a distraction.”

“Exactly!”

“How do you plan to access the information if you’ve cut the power first? It won’t just be the lights and hardlines that turn off but the internet and wifi as well. For that matter how will you access the secure servers without power?”

Izuku grins. “Who said anything about killing the power? According to the info my CIs got me, the big boss is quite paranoid. Whenever the power goes out for any reason a backup generator kicks in which sends him an alert. Likewise if the security feeds go down or the phone lines. Anything being shut off will alert the boss and he’ll be in the wind before the hour is up.”

“Oh.” Kouda mumbles quietly. “So that’s why you wanted to know if I knew any rats that would be willing to wear some kind of camera setup. You’re going to get the inside layout first so you know where the security room is to loop the feeds before we do anything else.”

“Yeah! And since the security room also has the master controls for the compound in case of a necessary emergency lockdown, finding that room first will allow us to take control of that panel and just override the building's amenities. In layman’s terms I’m just gonna turn the lights off manually after dealing with the cameras. And the best part is, if we simulate a shutdown they’ll assume their boss and/or reinforcements are on the way and won’t fight back as desperately or try to wipe their computers!”

“Of course!” Hagakure laughs, long sleeves waving in clear excitement. “That’s why you asked if I’d be willing to sneak in at 3am tonight, right? So you can familiarize yourself with the setup and test everything out before we actually launch the mission!”

“Where’d you find this guy?” Uraraka teases, elbowing Tokoyami lightly. “And where can I get one?”

“He is one of a kind.” Tokoyami says at the same time Dark Shadow yells “Back off, he’s ours!”

A stunned silence falls as nobody quite knows how to respond to that.

Izuku finally breaks it with an awkward laugh. “He found me on the street.”

The silence returns with a vengeance and Izuku startles as the implication of his own words hits him. His hands wave wildly as he hurries to correct himself. “N-Not! Not like– I wasn’t laying on the ground or anything and it wasn’t an alley, or even nighttime, it’s not like I was being mugged– that is to say it was just a regular street outside Mayako Jewelers– well not right outside it was more that I was actually across the street on the other side and he was the one in the street– but he wasn’t laying on the ground either!”

“Good to know.” Uraraka snickers.

Izuku slams his hands over his mouth to keep himself from putting his foot in it any further and turns wide eyes towards Tokoyami, pleading with his eyes for the hero to save him.

So naturally the traitor smiles and says. “He threw his briefcase at the villain’s head.”
Dark Shadow cackles as the hero adds, “The hollow thunk of the impact was both a war cry as well a song of triumph.”

Izuku whines and covers his face with his hands. “Can we just. Get back to the briefing please?”
A tiny part of him points out that briefing for a case and briefcase would make a wonderful pun but Izuku shoves it down violently and prays no one else thinks of it.

“Sure.” Hagakure snickers. “I think you were about to tell me what cool gadget I’d need to hack the control panel for you.”

Izuku grins and holds something out in the palm of his hand.

“...that’s it?”

Tokoyami cocks his head to the side. “Isn’t that…”

“Yup!” Izuku beams. “Wireless USB facilitator for bluetooth capability! Came with my digital notebook to access my files on my laptop but I’ve already checked and tested that it’ll work for this so long as I boost the signal with some kind of satellite dish on the van.”

“Wait. Wouldn’t that mean the facilitator runs in the wrong direction? If it’s made to give remote access to your device then how will it help us take over their control panel?”

“Connections are a two way street. Get me close enough and I’ll be able to use my notebook as a bridge between their system and my laptop.”

“And for the servers?”

“That’s the best part!” Izuku pulls out a box, practically vibrating with excitement. “Look at it! Isn’t it perfect!”

Silence.

“...what is it?”

“It’s a miniature portable external hard drive with an operating system! Hatsume made it for free in exchange for me letting her have the designs. You plug this baby into the server and it’ll leech enough charge to connect remotely to its controller where I can input commands like download, transfer files, delete files, all that good stuff! And the best part is right here!” he lifts the bug sized device carefully and turns it over to show off tiny wings. “Once it’s done, the leeched charge powers the motor and it flies back to you! I call it…” he can’t help pausing for effect as he relishes the moment. “the USBeetle!”

{Now}

Izuku slides his chair over to focus solely on his laptop and the stream of files uploading from his creation. Uravity takes his place immediately in a practiced motion so there’s still someone manning the cameras while he sorts and scans everything for information on the branch locations and the bossman himself. There’s nothing concrete on the head of course, Izuku wasn’t expecting there to be, but the pieces are all there ripe for the taking. Cellphones, emails, account numbers and best of all, warehouses with detailed manifests of all the… merchandise...

Izuku jabs at his earpiece a little harder than necessary. “Phase Three everyone. It’s time to split up.”

{1 day earlier}

“Hey Midoriya?”

Izuku hums questioningly, only half focused on what Tokoyami is asking as he checks and rechecks all the gear for tomorrow’s mission.

“Why do I have a message from Aizawa-sensei that, and I quote, ‘it’s done’?”

Izuku pauses before turning with a wide smile. “It is? Awesome.”
Tokoyami shoots him a look that tells Izuku his grin is a touch feral, perhaps even borderline evil, but he can’t dial it back so he simply embraces it. “That was so fast! I wish I could see the look on Chihara’s face when he finds out.”

Tokoyami blinks at him and Izuku can almost hear the cogs turning as he thinks of what to say. “…I assume this is related to your request for my phone Saturday?”

“Yeah! I realized that since Hawks said he wasn’t going to revisit the Doro Gang until he investigated the Naji Gang that if I got the Naji Gang out of the way he’d have no choice but to honor my theory. So since my hypothesis was that there was only one actual member in the Naji Gang I thought I’d reach out to Eraserhead and see if he could just erase their quirk and bring them in thereby freeing up Hawks to go after the real culprits. I still can’t believe he got it done so fast though he probably had to rearrange his patrol routes a bit to make it happen. Honestly this is the outcome I was hoping for since they’ll be so busy dealing with this and the fallout that they won’t notice us deviating from your patrol route tomorrow. In fact they probably won’t be looking at us at all!”

“But how were you aware of Aizawa-sensei’s identity? Eraserhead is underground and is therefore not saved in my phone as such.”

“Power House told me. Well… not really… Basically uh, way back in your first year I thought it was weird that no one knew who taught homeroom for Class A even though other teachers like Lunch Rush, Present Mic, Cementoss and Midnight were famous for working at UA. And then after the USJ was attacked the media reported that only two teachers were injured but no students so I thought that the teacher couldn’t be an unknown since they had to be amazing to keep all the kids safe while facing those odds. It had to be someone underground. And then I heard the announcer's voice at the Sports Festival, you know, the one making sarcastic comments over Present Mic? Anyway by the time I ‘met’ Power House I’d already narrowed down my guesses to three high ranked heroes on the unofficial underground rankings and Power House just confirmed my guess. I haven’t told anyone though so you don’t need to get him in trouble. Not that UA ever officially makes anyone keep his name secret. It's more of an unspoken thing once kids understand the importance of it. And Eraserhead probably doesn’t introduce himself by his hero name until you’ve covered the unit on underground heroics and anonymity just to be sure. Though all that is just speculation obviously, I’ve got no way to test that.”

“No you are correct.” Tokoyami murmurs, seeming thoughtful. “I had not noticed but now that you’ve pointed it out, Aizawa-sensei was the only teacher we did not address by hero name. I cannot recall the moment we were informed of the name Erasehead but it definitely did not precede the USJ attack… Interesting…”

Izuku beams and zips the duffel bags closed again, content that everything is ready.

When Tokoyami breaks the silence his tone is quiet and pensieve. “...you know most managers don’t do this…”

Izuku is riding the high of his theory being confirmed and can’t hold back a teasing, “Well it’s like you said, I’m one of a kind.”

{Now}

Izuku cracks his knuckles and shakes out his hands. There’s a nervous energy buzzing through his skin making him jittery and he stares at the three screens before him as all the pieces of his convoluted plan come together perfectly.

As soon as he’d found the boss’s email he’d wasted no time forwarding a virus he’d found in an employees inbox with only a minor change to allow Izuku himself access. The boss hadn’t clicked the link that would have given Izuku control over his device but that was fine. All Izuku had really been interested in was his location after all and just opening the email was enough to give him that. Invisible Girl was sent off to investigate at once, along with a squadron of Anima’s rats. The ones that had been persuaded to wear earpieces and trackers, anyway. Anima has been having a grand time directing his troops from beside Izuku and they’d made sure to bring plenty of food to reward the animals with later.

Tsukuyomi and Dark Shadow finish rounding up everyone at the compound location with the exception of one high ranking person that Izuku had him ‘accidently let loose’. The man is on foot and without a phone and unbeknownst to him, being followed by Uravity and her own band of rats. They’ve got strict instructions to capture him before he can sound the alarm but for now they’re letting him run to see where he leads them to.

Squad cars are enroute to pick up the criminals, flashing lights and sirens turned off to prolong the secrecy of the bust as long as possible, and Tsukuyomi is ready to fly to the warehouse location as soon as they arrive to take over his current post.

Izuku smiles. They can’t take down an entire smuggling ring in a couple hours, that was never realistic. But with the main compound, warehouse and boss taken care of it’ll be a simple matter to pose as the boss and call in everyone else to one of those two locations later. By tomorrow the Mitsu Smuggling Ring will be no more and the four heroes who pulled it off will be catapulted to fame.

Just as Izuku had promised.

The van is quiet as the occupants sit in a state of muted shock.

“We really did it.” Hagakure whispers, staring down at her gloved hands. “I can’t believe it.”

Kouda nods just as reverently, absently petting at the crows perched on his knees.

“Eeeeeee I don’t even know what to do with myself!” Uraraka squeals bouncing in place. “When the guy I was tailing led us right to a secret bunker I think I screamed!”

“Yes I remember,” Izuku laughs, fighting the urge to release the steering wheel to massage his ear at the memory.

“And he didn’t even cover up the keypad! Having the passcode after I knocked him out made everything a cake walk after that!”

“We made the perfect team.” Tokoyami intones quietly, eyes focused solely on Izuku.

“Hells yeah!” Uraraka cheers. “I’m so glad I accepted this offer!”

Izuku smiles, content to focus on the drive while the others come down from their adrenaline highs of battle.

Tokoyami in the passenger seat lets out a sigh before leaning closer. “I do not regret our victory. But I must admit a measure of concern over the way we ignored orders. They will likely be enraged at our perceived insolence.”

“Of course they will, but they shouldn’t be. We got all the info they wanted and more, and successfully took down the entire ring– they shouldn’t even care how we did it! This will be big news and you know it so they’ll have to be approving even if it's just to save face.”

“Yes I know. It just seems to me they were adamant I do this by infiltrating the higher circles… almost as if they specifically wanted a long term undercover operation.”

“Yeah.” Izuku whispers. “Kind of like they wanted you out of the way.”
He’s said it before, the day he got the email and it doesn’t ring any less true now. He’d gone to all this trouble just to find a way to keep Tokoyami safe after all.
Everything he’d done, storming into Hawks’ office, texting Eraserhead, organizing an impossible mission and seeing it through to the end, all of it.
He’d done it so Tokoyami wouldn’t be in danger.

But he can’t exactly say that can he?

The light turns red and the van rolls to a stop. He turns towards his hero and grins. “I guess they should have specified which definition of infiltrate they were using.”

Chapter Text

There’s silence in the conference room, so thick it’s almost oppressive.

“What. The fuck.” Chihara snarls, slamming a fist onto the table. “I thought you said you were handling this!”

Shiro’s hands fly up in a gesture of surrender. “I didn’t know about this! I swear I went through all the proper channels, set up a proposal for the undercover mission, got it approved by Hawks and everything! I have no idea what happened!”

“Well obviously someone messed up somewhere,” Aria sniffs, long claw-like nails tapping sharply at the tabletop, “how else could this have happened.”

“I don’t know! I had everything planned! All we needed was for Tsukuyomi to submit for specialized training while we brought in a real handler for him and phased that– that abomination out! They weren’t supposed to just– start the mission immediately! Who the fuck even does that!”

“Midoriya apparently,” Chihara spits, like the name is an insult he can’t even bear to hold in his mouth for a second longer than he needs to, “Tsukuyomi would never have thought to do something like this before that excuse for a manager came around!”

“The problem,” Shiro intones gravely, tapping a finger on the table to gain their attention, “is that it worked.”

Silence greets his statement but it's a silence that speaks volumes.

“In just one night four heroes pulled off the impossible, it’s all the news sites can talk about, everyone’s raving about it. We can’t exactly fire him after this no matter how much a real manager is needed.”

“Tch,” Aria scoffs, “You make it sound like there’s only one way to make a problem go away.”

Shiro and Chihara stare.

“You’re not suggesting–”

“Hey! Hey! Beautiful people!” The door slams open as Hawks bursts in and the three occupants stifle their flinches at the sudden intrusion. “Did you see the news! My baby bird is all grown up! And that trick with his hero cloak? Amazing! So jealous I didn’t think of it myself! I’m telling you, that Midoriya kid is going places, am I right?”

Chihara slowly nods, gaze solely focused on Aria. “Indeed he is Hawks. Indeed he is.”

***

“and it has since come to our attention that the coordinated attack featured only four heroes and one consultant, though said consultant has been adamant that the newest Nighttime Hero, Tsukuyomi, be counted as a duo. ‘Dark Shadow is as much a hero as Tsukuyomi himself,’ the Jet Black account reply tweeted to fans who were raving about how the hero managed to pull this off with so little backup, ‘the mission was contingent on Dark Shadow’s participation and they should be recognized as the hero they are.’”

“That’s right and true fans of the hero immediately apologized for the accidental slight as a veritable wave of outpouring of support for the sentient quirk has been flooding Tsukuyomi’s official account since. The other heroes involved in the raid; Uravity, Anima and Invisible Girl have all added their own support and thanks for the quirk, saying this impossible feat could not have been pulled off without them.”

“It really is amazing what they managed to accomplish here folks, so for those of you who somehow missed it, we here at Hero Highlights have put together a reel for you. Take a look.”

A clip starts playing of grainy security cam footage that has obviously been enhanced. Dark Shadow towers over a group of villains, trapping them tight while crows zoom by at fantastic speeds.
The picture switches to a shaky body cam, text along the bottom labeling it as Uravity’s as the gravity hero stealthily follows a fleeing villain, accompanied by a team of rats. There’s an audible “Yes!” from the hero as the man punches a code into a hidden panel on a nondescript wall and then a blur of movement as Uravity moves in for a takedown.
More security cam footage, this time of the recognizable Tsukuyomi cloak moving slowly down a hallway before being surrounded. The cloak drops revealing the group of crows hiding inside and as the birds begin flying erratically at the screaming villains, the real Tsukuyomi drops from the ceiling, knocking three men down with his weight alone as Dark Shadow handles the rest.
A wide shot of Uravity stretching out her hand, grabbing a glove hovering in midair and screaming “Invisible Bullet!” before whirling on one heel and launching Invisible Girl at a villain.
The reel ends with a clip taken from a phone camera of the four heroes swapping cheers and high fives— and in the case of Tsukuyomi, regal nods at his companions— as from behind the camera an unknown voice lets out a bright, ‘Amazing job guys!’

“Unfortunately there was only that one clip captured of Invisible Girl but considering her line of work and her tag line that just means she’s doing her job right!”

Studio laughter as the anchorman grins. “My fanboy is showing so I’ll try to tone it down. This was truly a stunning showing from these up and coming heroes. They do their alma mater, UA proud, don’t they, Sachi?”

“That’s right and with the annual UA Sports Festival coming up, I’m sure we’ve all got our eyes peeled for whichever youngster manages to catch Tsukuyomi’s eye. It’s his first year since graduating that he’ll be able to attend as a hero in his own right and take on his own intern you know.”

“That’s right. Of the four he's the only one not still a sidekick but considering what they’ve managed to accomplish I’m sure it won’t be long before the rest of them catch up.”

“That’s for sure. As we all know Tsukuyomi himself got his start when he caught the eye of the then number three hero Hawks, now number one, and we’re sure that should he decide to take his own intern this year, whoever he chooses won’t disappoint.”

“Stop hyping it up so much or you’ll scare all the kids off, Sachi.”

“Alright alright. We’ll end off with this parting thought, though the nominees for this year's Rookie of the Year haven't been announced yet, we here at Hero Highlights are sure Tsukuyomi’s got this in the bag!”

“Hey don’t count Rising Star out just yet! Nothing’s definite yet of course but since a newcomer can’t be nominated for both be sure to follow Hero Highlights in the coming weeks to find out which one manages to capture The Jet Black Hero.”

“Speaking of captures, seems last night was a busy one over at The Nest with Hawks taking down the Doro Gang single handedly just minutes after they launched their latest attack. Sources say a member of the gang who was arrested a few days ago on unrelated charges, finally agreed to a plea, giving up the gang’s location and plans for the next few attacks where our number one was waiting for them.”

Fumikage slowly reaches out and taps the spacebar to pause the rest of the news still playing across Midoriya’s laptop.

Midoriya himself doesn’t seem to notice, digital notebook resting on the steering wheel as he scrolls through Twitter. “The response has honestly been overwhelmingly positive, though I’ll need to reply to some of our more staunch supporters to tone down their defenses of us so they aren’t so… violent. Also #teamoftwo is trending as well as #license4darkshadow so the support for my posts about recognizing Dark as their own hero for their contributions are really taking off. I never imagined…” Midoriya keeps going, pointing out different tweets that are gaining traction, and gesturing excitedly with his free hand.

Fumikage inhales deeply, attempting to process the wave of emotions threatening to overwhelm him, and failing. He wants to say something— needs to in fact, but the words refuse to form and even Dark Shadow is uncharacteristically silent, resting over Midoriya’s shoulder as usual but not saying a word.

“Oh! Listen to this one! ‘This is why we need more heroes like Hawks. I mean has anyone else ever had an intern-turned-sidekick-turned-affiliate hero and just. Handed them their first big mission all, here ya go kiddo, knock em dead, I believe in you!’ That's great. Oh. The replies aren’t so nice though. Like they all agree that you killed it but keep claiming you're an exception to the rule and shouldn’t be held as the new standard…”

Fumikage continues to struggle with articulating his thoughts aloud, a phenomenon he had been mostly unfamiliar with before meeting Midoriya.

Midoriya continues on unhindered and snorts, holding up his phone with a laugh, “and here come the panicking hero students, freaking out at the idea of being tasked with something this huge so fast. As if we didn’t spend days planning and training for this.”

Fumikage clenches his fists and takes a deep breath.

“‘Ok Twitter, we need to spread more love for Anima and IG cause T/DS’ that’s such a cute abbreviation for you guys, I love it, ‘and Uravity were def the flashiest, but those two def kicked ass too!’ Amazing. I’m liking it… and Oh! Here's one that tagged all four of you, ‘but who’s the consultant though!?’ hmm that’s kind of… aw someone replied ‘stop harassing the heroes for info it’s obviously not safe to credit a civilian!’ That's so nice they’re looking out for me. I’m liking this one too. Wait, look at this one!!!”

Fumikage barely registers the text, (This is now a Dark Shadow Stan Account, I will take no questions) because Midoriya has grabbed his forearm to gain his attention and the warmth of the contact is all Fumikage can focus on.

‘You're perfect.’ he thinks.

But somehow what slips out of his mouth instead is “Do you wish to accompany me to the UA Sports Festival?”

Midoriya stops what he’s doing immediately to flash the brightest smile Fumikage has ever seen.

“I’d love to, Tokoyami.”

His long period of silence must have built up a backlog of words because Fumikage suddenly has no problem speaking his mind as he blurts out, “You should call me by my first name.”

Midoriya’s face turns the shade of red Fumikage has come to expect when he’s flustered but then Midoriya is beaming at him and whispering through his fingers, “Then call me Izuku.”

Chapter Text

“Hey Hey UA!”

The booming voice of Present Mic roars over the screaming crowd and Izuku practically vibrates with excitement. He can’t believe he’s finally here.

“Welcome to the annual UA Sports Festival!”

Beside him Toko– Fumikage pulls his hood over his head with a grimace at the onslaught of noise and Izuku has to hold back a laugh. He’s just too cute.

“With me commenting today is the homeroom teacher of the 1A class this year, give it up for Chargebolt!”

The crowd roars its approval and Izuku grins. 

This is the best day ever.

***

Fumikage grips his hood together as the raucous surrounding him swells to a crescendo. The two blond powerhouses continue hyping up the crowd as one by one the first year classes start–

Wait.

Power. Houses?

He sits up straighter in his seat, discomfort all but forgotten in the face of a long awaited fresh clue. 

Power House. A UA teacher. A moniker and not a hero name. 

The possibilities are now clear before him.

There’s Kaminari and Present Mic of course though he’d already decided against it being Present Mic back when the challenge had first presented itself. Shinsou is the homeroom teacher for class 1B this year but Fumikage discards him as a candidate as well along with Aizawa-sensei, Midnight and all the other teachers that don’t really fit as a Power House. 

In the case that it is meant to be literal, meaning someone that houses power, then only Kaminari really fits the bill. 

But surely it isn’t that easy is it? 

Besides there’s someone else, someone he’s forgetting as he runs through the options. Another new hire for a newer position wasn’t it? 

Fumikage wracks his brain thinking back to what Kaminari had been going on about at the last get together. 

Ah yes that’s it. Someone who works part time helping Recovery Girl and training to one day replace her. They also fill a newer requirement for onsite quirk counseling as an optional extracurricular after some students had come forward about not receiving proper counseling as children due to prejudice or discrimination. Yes, that's right. If memory serves, Kaminari turned out to also be dating this person which was why he’d been ranting about them to begin with. The self proclaimed Bakusquad hadn’t been very impressed with the revelation if he recalls correctly but without knowing who exactly this staff member is Fumikage can’t safely weigh in on whether their hatred for said person is founded or not.

Still. An unknown like that probably wouldn’t hold a moniker like Power House. So coming back to Kaminari, he really does seem like the best guess. 

And there’s only one way to find out for sure.

“Izuku?”

His manager turns to face him immediately, green eyes shining with an almost childlike glee.

“Hm?”

Fumikage glances around before leaning closer and lowering his voice. “I was wondering what your thoughts were on the likelihood of Chargebolt being Power House…”

Izuku blinks. “Power… House?” All at once his expression clears and he flushes, arms waving slightly. “Oh! I already know who Power House is! Sorry I see how the way I said it could have been confusing. We’ve never met in person but we met online when I defended him in the comment section of an analysis YouTube channel that likes to cover the sports festivals. I just use Power House all the time because I’m less likely to slip and use his real name to people if I’ve never used it for him before… I mean he doesn’t know who I am. At first I was worried he’d drop me if he found out I was quirkless but then after a while of him being… you know all ‘I would die for you,’ and ‘name your price!’ and ‘who can I beat up for you,’ it became about… I dunno I was uncomfortable I guess. Here was this great hero practically bowing at my feet just because I defended him from bullies like any decent person should have and I just. It just didn’t feel right.” He fiddles with his hands and his smile turns rueful. “Also it was because he’d made it pretty clear that he’d probably just show up to pester me about returning the favor in person so– Oh! They're starting!” 

Fumikage mulls over that information as below them Midnight assembles the students and prepares to explain the rules of the first round.

So Izuku knows who Power House is but keeps his own identity as Smol Might a secret? Because… well at the core it seems that Izuku is uncomfortable having a hero owe him or the like– likely due to his own lack of self worth and the resulting dissonance between the two facts. If quirkless is worthless then a great hero cannot possibly see worth in him. That is the way Izuku’s brain works.

Fumikage frowns. 

How then would Izuku react to the thought that he , Tokoyami Fumikage, pro hero Tsukuyomi, apparent shoo-in for Rookie of the Year or Rising Star, holds Midoriya Izuku in the highest of regards?

How then would Izuku react to the confession that Fumikage really–

“It’s a race to the finish with a UA twist! An obstacle course from hell!” Midnight licks her lips and gestures at the course. “First across the bridge gets their pick of the fifteen motorbike vehicles we’ve laid out! However! Only two of them have enough juice to get you home free! They’re clearly labeled on the small tags we’ve attached but will you have enough time to check them, or will you be forced to grab the first bike you see and hope for the best?”

Izuku nudges him slightly and Fumikage glances over to see him pointing at the students near the front of Class 1B. “That’s the one to watch out for,” Izuku whispers like he’s sharing a great secret. “Chizu Odina, hero name Nightlight. She’s aiming to graduate as part of the duo Nightfall with her twin brother, Kuro, hero name Darknight. They’re really cool, at first glance their quirks seem to be polar opposites but at its core they both function on absorbing light and just utilizing said light differently.”

Fumikage hums, taking in the girl holding an open palm up over her head and the boy at her back who is close enough to duck his head down onto her shoulder. “They already have hero names?”

“Yeah! That’s the mark of Power House tutelage! He says you can’t truly go beyond at Sports Fest if you don’t already have a hero name ready to scream from the podium.” He laughs. “Polls are still out on whether it works or not.”

“I see…” he peers down at the girl who is still holding her arm up. “and what exactly is Nightlight doing?”

Izuku grins and passes him a pair of sunglasses that must have been made special to fit his face. “She’s charging.”

Midnight counts down in tandem with Present Mic and right as the bang goes off to start the race, a bright flash of blinding white light fills the entirety of the space below.

While the students as well as the pros and staff are blinded and disoriented, Fumikage has no problem spotting the two siblings now making a run for it across the bridge. They split up immediately to check the tags, even taking the time to trash the second bike equipped with maximum gas before getting onto the remaining one together and racing for the finish line.

Fumikage’s mouth drops open in shock as they cross the line thoroughly unimpeded by a single student.

From beside him Izuku whoops. “Aren't they the best!? In a real fight she’d have to scale it down since using all your reserves in one move wouldn’t be feasible but since this race had vehicles to do the heavy lifting she was able to go all out and use Supernova right off the bat.”

“That’s why Darknight had his face hidden in her shoulder,” Fumikage realizes. “He was hiding his face from the light.”

“Yeah! She took off as soon as she lit up even before it faded away and he didn’t need a signal since he could feel her moving. He probably also used his quirk to keep the light out of his eyes but since that shrouds them in shadow he was essentially blind till her light cut out and he could let the shadows go.”

“I see. Light and Darkness, manipulated in tandem. It is clear now why they are aiming to be a duo.”

“Uh huh, but do you see why I pointed them out to you? They’ll be perfect for your kind of patrols! Nightlight is at a disadvantage during the day since she needs to let off more light than she does at night to pull off a stun move. And Darknight is almost impossible to spot when he’s blending into already dark surroundings. Both of them have quirks that absorb light but where Nightlight can store and then output it offensively, Darknight transforms his immediate surroundings into the absence of light, making it appear darker. It’s the coolest!”

Fumikage hums thoughtfully as the remaining vehicles cross the finish line, leaving the stragglers to manage on foot. “How do you know so much about their quirks?”

“Oh! So you know how Power House pays me to do quirk analysis for him? These two were my first.” He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. “Sorry if it’s out of bounds for me to push them on you so hard. I really do think you’d all mesh well together but I also have a soft spot for them and really want them to do well. I’ll stop though.”

Fumikage laughs. “Izuku you are my manager,” he says in a tone that hopefully depicts his attempt at quoting Izuku’s old words back at him. “You could literally just put in the intern request yourself.”

Izuku ducks his head sheepishly. “But I won’t.”

Fumikage nods. “But you won’t.”

Because that right there is why Midoriya Izuku is the best manager he could have ever been granted. 

Now if only it were that easy to convince Izuku himself of that fact. 

***

The second round goes off with about as much Nightfall chaos as the first round had. 

A glorified game of hide-and-seek, with a capture-the-flag twist. A large dark cavern had opened up beneath the arena as soon as round one had ended and the rules were very simple. Each team of two to four participants had to choose one member to wear their glow-in-the-dark headband worth their combined total of points. The higher the point value, the brighter the headband glows. The player wearing the headband was not allowed to attack or defend or otherwise use their quirk in any way. Essentially they become the flag. Removal of the headband at any point was an automatic elimination for the entirety of the team. Teams could choose to focus on defense if their points were high enough, or offense if they needed to eliminate more teams to bump themselves up in the rankings. The game would continue until only six teams remained at which point the amount of team members per remaining team would determine who moved on to the one on ones.

The Nightfall duo, having tied for first, were assigned a headband that glowed far brighter than any of the others and worth a whopping ten million points– half that for each of them should they decide to split up.

They did not.

At this point in the games Darknight hadn’t overtly used his quirk yet so it was only members of 1B that were groaning in consternation at was sure to come. The rest of the remaining participants excitedly watched as Nightlight fixed the glowing headband across her forehead, marking her as a target who wouldn’t be able to use her quirk.

“She can’t use it right now anyway,” Izuku whispers, grabbing Fumikage’s arm in his excitement. “Supernova totally wiped her light reserves and down in the caverns she won’t be able to absorb any more. Making her the flag to hide the fact that she’s running empty is genius, especially since Darknight has been absorbing light this whole time! Even with their increased glow handicap he has more than enough to shroud them in shadow till the game is up as long as they can find a corner to hole up in!”

The game drags slightly at first as the majority of the teams with big numbers chose defense to start but with Nightfall totally concealed from view and the small numbered teams attacking at once it’s only a matter of time before it’s an all out brawl. Four membered teams opted to split up, leaving just one member to guard the flag while the other two focused on offense, a gamble to be sure but once alliances between the underdog teams allowed three flags to be guarded by one strong hero student so all the remaining members could go steal headbands the game was over before long. 

As predicted, Nightfall once again took first place. 

Izuku was super excited for the one on ones but as it turned out, Tsukuyomi publicly sitting in the spectator stands for the first time was more of a draw then Izuku had realized it would be and once the crowds had noticed someone sitting beside the hero— let alone someone who made the hero laugh and leaned in close to whisper and casually touched the hero’s arm— well. They’d been accosted during the break for lunch prior to the third round and it was only Fumikage’s quick thinking that found Izuku’s face hidden beneath the cloak of Tsukuyomi’s hero costume right before any pictures could be taken. 

Though perhaps the image of the Jet Black hero whipping said cloak off of himself to wrap it around his companion was more damning than a simple picture of them walking around together would have been. 

Regardless, Izuku is safe in name and face if not in spirit and that’s all that matters right now. 

Though if you asked Izuku he’d probably disagree on account of having missed getting to watch the one-on-ones. 

***

They stroll leisurely off the grounds, neither of them in a particular rush to leave now that they’ve given their pursuers the slip. 

Tsukuyomi officially has the night off tonight since it had been assumed he’d be watching the entirety of the Sports Festival and would therefore be too tired to patrol afterward. 

Izuku tries to apologize for being the cause for them leaving early but Fumikage merely chuckles and tells him that since the point was to scout for interns, leaving early has not affected their goal since he’s already got his eye on acquiring Nightfall. 

Izuku squeals and pulls out his phone immediately, getting to work on an email to Power House for an official request. 

He doesn’t get far before Fumikage pulls them to a stop shortly after they’ve stepped into a deserted alley, clearing his throat awkwardly. 

“Izuku...” Fumikage reaches out slowly and takes Izuku’s hands almost carefully. 

Dark Shadow’s eyes widen from where they’d been hanging off Izuku’s shoulder to read the email, and then the quirk is disappearing back into the hero’s chest in a rare display of tact. 

“I’m…” Fumikage starts, gaze fixed firmly on their joined hands, and an uncharacteristic hesitance in his stance. “Forgive me if this is overstepping… however I must confess… I know you might find it hard to believe but please trust in my sincerity when I say that I… I like you. A lot. And I understand if— I know I’m not— conventionally attractive and… I come with… what is in essence, a sentient shadow demon that would follow our every move. But. I would hope that you would do me the honor of allowing me to take you out to dinner sometime.” He looks up then and his eyes are sparkling with hope and mirth as his fingers curl around Izuku’s hand gently. “Properly this time…”

Izuku’s breath catches in his throat and his insecurities rise up threatening to choke him. 

His first instinct is to deny, to refute, to run. 

But he thinks of Power House and Anima, Invisible Girl and Uravity. He thinks of Hawks and— and Fumikage and how all of these amazing heroes somehow think he’s worth something. 

And for the first time in years Izuku feels strong enough to push his insecurities back down with a burst of determination as he squeezes the hero’s hands back. “You. You mean it?” His voice is soft and wholly unable to hide the burst of awe overwhelming him— along with the tiny drop of fear and apprehension he can’t help feeling. “You really… Me?”

Fumikage smiles and slowly moves forward to rest his soft forehead against Izuku’s. “You.”