Chapter Text
His feet pounded on the pavement, heart racing as he sprinted as fast as he could. He didn’t care where he was going, as long as it was away. The buildings raced past him, from clean and new to not so clean and not so new.
He could still hear the echoing of laughter from behind him and three more pairs of footsteps. Izuku took a few quick turns through alleyways and side streets until the only thing he heard was the faraway honking of cars and the buzzing of cicadas.
When he was sure he’d outrun Kacchan’s friends, he stopped to catch his breath.
Where was he?
Izuku didn’t like running away. He didn’t like the way it made him feel gross inside to run instead of fighting back, the way his legs ached, the way he could still hear the taunts of ‘quirkless freak’ from behind him (even though his quirk was just late both of his parents had quirks so there was no way he was-) .
Well, now he’d found something new to dislike about running.
He didn’t recognize anything around him. There was nobody chasing him anymore, so that was a plus. As he looked up at the molding buildings around him, he couldn’t quite bring himself to feel positively about it. The sidewalks were cracked and crumbling, so Izuku, being clumsy, kept his eyes down as he walked.
The occasional flowering weed cheered him up but not at much as being home with Mama would.
It was getting dark, too, and Mama had told him he shouldn’t be staying out when it gets dark. He turned around to go back the way he came. After wandering around a bit, he found out pretty quickly that he couldn’t remember any of the turns he had taken to get here, and he couldn’t ask for directions because the way people looked at him made Izuku feel Bad.
When he walked up to one of them to ask for directions, he couldn’t even open his mouth because the way they glanced at him then looked back at their phone… It was like he was in the way. Like Haruka-sensei at school.
He kept his mouth shut and looked for someone else, but he couldn’t find anyone who felt… Welcoming, and the only people who looked like they wanted to talk to him felt hungry and Izuku didn’t want to talk to them at all, even if it was just to ask for directions.
So he kept walking around aimlessly, in hopes that he would somehow end up back where he had started. He didn’t succeed in accomplishing anything but getting more lost, finding himself somewhere near a bar and a couple other businesses, neon lights flickering and missing in the dark.
Izuku could hear laughing and talking from inside the bar, but he was too scared to go in, there were too many people and he shouldn’t be in places where there were a lot of strangers and he didn’t want to be here!
A tear rolled down his cheek, then another. Izuku burst into sobs. He had stayed calm long enough and he just couldn’t suppress it anymore. He felt like he had been going in circles forever and Mama was probably so worried about him. His sobs grew louder as he continued trying fruitlessly to figure out where he’d come from
It was beginning to be too dark to see outside of the dim buzzing light of the street lamps, and Izuku’s sobs had begun to peter out when something caught his attention.
Izuku squinted into the shadowed alleyway next to the bar. It was lit fairly well by the lamps so he didn’t have to try too hard. There were three really big guys, and they had a smaller guy up against the wall. The smaller guy was wearing a suit, so he was probably a businessman.
He couldn’t really see their expressions too well, or hear what they were talking about, but what else could three big guys have to talk about with a businessman? Izuku was sure that this was a mugging. Would they hurt the guy if he couldn’t give them anything? He didn’t want that...
His mind made up, he got ready to do what Mama had later called the most irresponsible and dangerous thing he had ever done.
He ran up to the guys, grabbed the businessman’s hand, and dragged him away. They ran fast (or at least what could be considered fast for a five year old’s legs).
Izuku didn’t hear anyone running behind them, so maybe the guys had just given up? Hopefully, the businessman seemed like a less easy victim and they would just go home for the night.
When Izuku thought they were far away enough he stopped and turned around to look up at the man.
“Are you okay?” He asked in concern. Being cornered like that was really scary, Izuku would know.
The man, who Izuku only just noticed had white hair just as fluffy as his own, looked baffled. His eyes were wide open, staring at Izuku.
Izuku could understand that. Probably nobody in a bad situation expected to be rescued by a child.
__________________
All For One hadn’t been particularly interested when he’d heard a child crying from outside of the alleyway. He was a little busy telling his semi-competent subordinates about a minor task he wanted done with minimal fuss, and besides, children cried in this area all the time.
Until the child started approaching him. What on Earth was he doing? What child in their right mind approaches three men as large as Akutsu, Haruto, and Makoto?
He ignored whatever Akutsu was saying (complaining about his “safety” or something? Whatever) in favor of focusing on the child’s muttering.
“He looks like he’s in trouble? Should I… Do something?”
Ah. It seemed the child had seen him, assumed he was in trouble, and was waffling over whether to take some sort of action. Judging from what he could see, there wasn’t very much action the one meter tall quirkless child could take, but All For One was still just a little curious.
His questions were answered when he heard the child run towards them. He wondered for a second if the boy was going to confront his supposed muggers, but the child just grabbed his hand and pulled him out, succeeding solely because All For One let him, and because his subordinates were too stunned by this turn of events to react.
He was glad in this case because he was curious to see where this would go, but they would need retraining. Not only snuck up on but left stunned by a small child? Laughable.
They were just barely smart enough to chase, though, so All For One sent them a warning glare to ensure they knew not to follow him.
The child was slow, all things considered. Obviously, since he was practically an infant. His hand was quite warm, All For One noted. He resisted the very odd urge to check the child’s forehead for a fever.
They stopped once they were a few streets away, the child very much out of breath. In fact, he seemed like he was already tired before this whole fiasco, why was that…?
Once they stopped, the child let go of his hand and looked up at him.
“Are you okay?” He asked innocently with huge green eyes and a mess of freckles and and veritable bush of green hair and God he was so tiny this was a literal infant who let an infant out here he could get hurt or die or-
Wait.
Why did he care?
All For One stared at the child in some amount of distress, his chest feeling… Uncomfortably warm, almost painful.
This stupidly kind child had saved an adult he didn’t know, already dangerous, by intruding into a situation where he could obviously get hurt, and for what?
The boy didn't want anything from him, this child didn’t even know who he was. What, it was just because he wanted to? Why? Why? The heat in his chest increased and, looking at the child who was clearly lost in front of him, he elected to deal with the infant before this odd feeling that had infected his chest.
Ah, he had yet to answer the boy’s question.
“I’m alright, and you?”
The boy nodded, not looking alright at all. Those were clearly tear tracks on his face, his uniform had a dusty footprint on it, and his knees had grass stains. He also seemed… Exhausted. Too exhausted for a small child.
“Are you lost?”
The boy nodded again. Hadn’t someone told him he shouldn’t trust strangers like this? This boy was in danger.
“If you give me your address, I can get you home…”
The boy backed away a step, finally looking as cautious as he probably should have been from the very beginning. At least he had some sense of self-preservation. Still, he had to get the boy home.
“I have a teleportation quirk,” he took a card out of his pocket and teleported it to the child’s shoulder, the boy’s eyes widening in awe, “apologies, I also need your name.”
He didn’t, but the child didn’t need to know that. All For One simply hadn’t seen anyone who was so awed by that little quirk demonstration. He was just curious, that was all.
That was all.
“Midoriya Izuku,” the boy offered hesitantly, “m-my address is 546 Minoru Lane.”
All For One eyed Midoriya approvingly. That address led to a school, not a house. Pretty smart kid.
He smiled comfortingly at Midoriya, hoping to soothe him a bit before using the teleportation quirk. It worked just fine when teleporting humans, but it could sting a little.
Within a couple seconds of activating the quirk, Izuku was safely sent to the front of what All For One assumed was his school. The man teleported himself to the bar where Kirogiri was, as always, cleaning a glass.
“My lord.”
All For One knew that the Doctor programmed him to be efficient and value work over play, but he had to question the efficiency of washing the same glass for multiple hours. It wasn’t as if the bar was popular, though, so it didn’t really matter.
“Hello, Kurogiri,” he sat down at the bar and tried to keep his breathing stead. Why had being ‘saved’ by Midoriya made him feel so… Warm? Sure, he was one of the most adorable things that All For One had ever seen, but he’d seen baby rabbits. And cats. Cuteness was not hugely effective on him.
There was a particular, creeping sense of dread as he came to a realization of what this feeling might be.
“Are you alright, my lord?” Kurogiri asked. Goddamn his fantastic observation skills and inability to mind his own business. Why was that the one thing that survived the brainwashing?
Wait.
Kurogiri spent time around people, right?
“I have a query.”
“I will answer it to the best of my ability.”
He struggled on how to formulate a question he knew the answer to but loathed accepting.
“... In what conditions might one person give another person a feeling of warmth in their chest?”
He knew the exact moment that Kurogiri processed the question, because in that moment he dropped the glass he was cleaning and barely managed to catch it in a portal before it shattered on the ground. Pretending nothing had happened, he attempted to answer the question.
“I imagine that there could be a few situations in which someone might feel warm. I hear when someone is extremely angry their chest feels hot,” All For One gestured for him to continue, he knew anger and this wasn’t it, “on the other hand, positive emotions like affection also leave people feeling warm…”
“Stop,” All For One sighed, “that’s enough, thank you, Kurogiri.”
Affection
How long had it been since he’d felt affection? And for some hero wannabe child at that? A hero wannabe child that made dangerous, self-sacrificing decisions like trying to save an adult from other adults at night in a place he didn’t recognize!
Midoriya needed protection and obviously none of the adults in his life were doing that properly if the child ended up where he had been today.
Affection…
Now that he’d accepted it, though it still irritated him, the warmth in his chest had faded out into something hazy and pleasant. Relaxing, even.
Hmm.
He’d have to meet Midoriya Izuku again.