Chapter Text
Izuku just finished his speech and looked out over the crowd of fellow pro heroes old and new. He had been in this job for a long time, just forty years, and now he was sixty. He's been bitten, shot, stabbed, run through, thrown into buildings, slammed on the ground, and then some. His body is littered with scars yet he's not ashamed of any of them because each one meant he took the time to save people. He helped them even if it ended badly, at least he did his best. The green hero did his job, but now it was time to pass that torch to someone else before it went out. Izuku was number one for so long that doing this so suddenly was definitely a huge risk and would probably cause a lot of backlash since he wasn't going out All Might style. He was just giving a speech at a heroes chart gathering. He was just giving a rambling speech then saying goodbye to the job, figuratively putting up his cape.
Izuku struggled with the decision to do this, but in the end he wasn't getting any younger and doing hero work was starting to get the best of him in his old age. Being sixty wasn't necessarily old, but in the current world most heroes weren't lucky enough to even make it to the ripe old age of sixty. Izuku decided it was best to retire before his job retired him from life. Surprisingly there were things he wanted to do that he never had the time to do because duty called. So now after giving his retirement speech of how he became a hero with a few tears running down his still chubby cheeks he was saying goodbye to the job he loved and fought so hard to get. Even after all this time he was still such a crybaby. He could hear Katsuki telling him that.
The graying curly haired guy honestly thought that when he finished people would get mad and start yelling or questioning him on why he would do such a thing, but one by one each pro hero in the room stood up and started clapping. A roaring standing ovation echoed through the room as people cheered for the retiring pro hero. Izuku was so shocked by their reaction that more tears spilled down his wrinkled freckled cheeks. The blonde next to him patted his back for comfort. Deku was retiring, but the world still loved Izuku. The people he knew still loved him. His husband Katsuki, who helped him with his decision, would still love him even if he was no longer patrolling the streets. The world would continue on just like it always would even if Deku is no longer saving it. It's time for someone else to have that responsibility because Izuku has done his time and so much more. The world will be okay without him. It, like him, would move on.