Work Text:
Izuku vowed, as the building sat heavy on his shoulders, that he would never be going to the mall again.
Eraserhead was a taskmaster, his whole class knew this. Izuku knew this, yet here they all were together, in a cat café. The man looked so incredibly at rest and peaceful, yet so distrustful of the rest of the class, Izuku had to push giggles down whenever he looked over to the man.
He was sat at a table on his own in the corner furthest away from the door, and with a visual of everyone in the room. He was also completely covered in cats, with one small kitten, black with white flecks, napping in hair.
On a table with Ochako, Tenya, Shouto, and for some reason Mina. Izuku too was covered in cats. Well, the leftovers that had spilled off of Shouto’s side.
“He looks simultaneously so peaceful and yet so stressed. In his natural habitat with his natural enemy, children who he cannot expel right at this minute.” Mina said, cackling into her hot chocolate – speaking into existence the words in Izuku’s head. Giving her a suspicious look Tenya nodded, unknowing what to do with a girl that wasn’t Ochako. The smile she was wearing did not give Izuku much hope about what was going to come out her mouth. “I bet I can make his eye twitch.”
“Mina, why would you do that.” Tenya asked?
“Oh yeah I don’t know whether to laugh or beg when that happens,” Ochako began, chin resting on her closed fist, ignoring the aghast look on Tenya’s face, “what would you do?”
The girl shot up in her chair, startling Shouto out of his cat induced daze. Ignoring Tenya’s waving arms to get her to sit back down.
“Just you watch me!”
She made her way over to Aizawa, Izuku watched in awe as she blatantly woke him from his own cat induced daze. Brave, stupid girl. Izuku wouldn’t go near that man while he was like that, he had done it to Hitoshi once and lived to talk about it – just.
Her face started to fall, as the evil smile pulled itself onto Sensei’s face. Before he gestured back to their table, making eye contact with Izuku before he whipped back to face the rest of the table, who all were looking down and in shame.
The slam of a body into the booth told them Mina was back. Braving it Izuku cleared his throat.
“So how was it?”
And before she could reply Aizawa spoke up.
“I have been asked to go to the mall with all of you today, since this will be eating into my own time, I have decided that we will turn it into speciality training, you all need to work on your stealth. I will give more details when we get there. So, thank Ashido for that, we will leave in 10 minutes. Say goodbye to the cats and get ready to leave.”
Izuku could see the steam rising from Bakugou’s ears as the level of glare sent Mina’s way was far more burning than her acid. Then the glare turned to Kirishima, and Izuku could hear the shout that would be released soon. It was, in fact, Kirishima’s fault for him being there.
They got to the mall, and 10 minutes afterwards a villain took hostage several members of the public. They had a vibration quirk and used it to threaten the whole of the mall. 1-A were helping evacuate the members of the public out.
Then the villain’s quirk went on for a bit too long. The ceiling came down. Dust pouring up and around Izuku, as darkness settled around him. He came too as the dust was settling, luckily with only a forehead wet with sticky blood. A groan from above him relaying him the movement of the buildings moments before something beside him gave way.
The bright green lightning lit up the small cave where he, Aizawa-Sensi, and three civilians were housed. He was not the only one awake, and he was not the only one injured.
Izuku could see the blood leaking out of the gash on Aizawa’s side from where he was standing. The sky heavy on his shoulders.
Eyes pulling away from his Sensei, Izuku looked towards the three civilians. One knocked out, a deep wound on his forehead, head cradled in the lap of a women. The third, their arms wrapped around their knees and head wedged into them.
“Hello,” Izuku began, trying not to move – every time he moved, he could feel the rubble above him shifting. “Can you please help me here?”
He was calm, he was in control. This is no time or place to panic, smile smile smile. All Might would save everyone with a smile, Deku would bring them to the sun with a smile to match. They just had to relax, and he would get them out.
The woman with the man on her lap nodded, forcefully and with determination. Quickly glancing down at the man as she shifted him in her lap.
“My name is Deku; I am a hero student. That is my Sensei Eraserhead. I am a UA student. I don’t need you to do anything but follow my directions. Can you help me with my Sensei- I am worried with how much he’s bleeding, and I can’t help him out. I need you to be my hero, can you do that for me.”
She nodded again; the words seemingly stuck on her tongue. The flashing green of the lightening made her already pale skin and hair luminous. Izuku would guess she was not entirely Japanese.
“Can you tell me your name? Tell me a bit about yourself, help distract me.” His head tilted to the side, eyes flicking to the women with her head in her lap, the ‘help distract her’ unspoken. The women nodded again.
“My name is Lucy, I’m on my honeymoon. This is my husband, he’s half Japanese and wanted to come see his grandparents, his name is Enji Mikumo. I’m British.” Izuku was watching her, nodding every now and then again, an eye out to the woman in the corner, whose head peaked up from her knees.
“If you are comfortable, I speak English, my father’s American.”
“No don’t worry I need the practice.” The women said with surprisingly convincing false cheer.
“Ok, Lucy, I need you to take the scarf from around his neck, and then I need you to go to his right side and get the knife out from his belt. If that is not there, he has one in one of his boots. I then need you to cut the scarf up into long strips about two inches wide and a meter long.”
The other women, who now Izuku could see was only a couple of years older than him was finally looking at him. Their eyes met and Izuku gave her a warming smile.
“Hello, can I ask your name? You don’t have to move if you don’t want, but if you could just have a look at Mikumo.” The girl shook her head minutely, eyes darting to the roof of the small cave in they were in. Only held up by Izuku’s shoulders. “Ok, don’t worry! Just focus on breathing nice and deeply ok! If you feel like it let me know!”
His shoulders were starting to twinge and it was all he could do to stop the grimace from spasming across his face. Izuku vowed, as the weight of the ceiling was heavy on his shoulders, that they were never having a trip to the mall again.
“Isamu.”
“Ok Isamu, you just stay there ok. Keep watch on Mikumo!”
“Deku, I’m done with the strips. What do you need me to do?” Lucy spoke, and Izuku wished everyone were like Lucy in a crisis.
“Lay him on his back, I think I have some disinfectant in my belt, so I will need you to roll his top up apply the disinfectant and tightly wrap the bandage around his middle.”
As she moved forward, with several strips in her hand with the disinfectant applied the cheery theme tune of the All Might show rung out from his pocket. Lucy looked up, face twisted and hands already bloody, she turned to look at Isamu.
“It’s not that scary, moving. You’ll be ok! Deku is protecting us, and we will be fine. I can’t help him with his phone, I need you to do that for me ok. Enji will be fine for a few moments and Deku isn’t that far away!” Izuku’s mouth was frozen as the calming voice of Lucy filled the room, if Izuku had to guess a quirk was at work.
Isamu already looked a bit calmer than before. Her eyes weren’t darting around, and her knees weren’t so tightly locked against her chest.
“You will be fine.” Lucy said again, breaking the tension in the air with the echoing buzzing from his phone. Letting Isamu crawl forward, pulling his phone out and answering the call, turning the speaker function on.
“Izuku! Please tell me you are ok! Where are you? Did you get out? Do you know where Sensei is? Everyone else is out of the wreckage with most of the civilians. We have rescue heroes on the way!”
Groaning lowly, his shoulder shifting slightly Izuku spoke.
“Yep, I am fine Uravity! I am near where the hot-topic was, and I have three civilians and Aizawa-Sensei with me. Two unconscious, and uncertain on injury level. But we will need an medical evac for Eraserhead and a civilian. I assume concussion for both, and Eraserhead has what looks like an wound on his side.”
“Deku, we need certainty on the injuries, can you tell me more about how they look.”
“Sorry Tenya I can’t, we have a situation where I am unable to.”
With a sharp, tone Ochako questioned, “are you injured? Or are any of your bones broken?”
“No Ochako, I am currently holding up the ceiling. I would really like to know an eta for the Heroes coming. Like I said I am with three civilians, they can hear, I am on speaker due to the fact that I am holding the ceiling up, and will need urgent medical care for Eraserhead, as well as an unconscious victim. There needs to be a structural specialist here as well to check the debris field and laying structures. I would recommend Bricklayer; their agency is nearby.”
They read the message behind the words Izuku hoped to have given. Even if he were injured, he wouldn’t want to spook the civilians. Izuku hoped also that the message about Bricklayer, a hero whose quirk was able to map out a building and its structural weak points once every 24 hours, and to not start moving the stuff around.
A murmur went over the phone as the questions were asked about the arrival.
“Eta around 5 minutes. We just got word that the villain had been caught. So, no worries about further structural damages.”
Izuku sucked his teeth, watching as Lucy finished with one bandage, it was far too loose, and Izuku could still see the blood staining it.
“A little bit tighter, with how he’s bleeding out we don’t need sloppy bandages. Isamu, you can put the phone down now, thank you very much. But I do need you to check on Mikumo for me please. You two are doing very well.” Sucking in a deep breath, he could feel his shoulders quaking. “Ochako, I assume 1-A have taken point? Is anyone injured? Have you contacted faculty?”
“They’re here!” Izuku heard over Ochako’s reply, a breath of relief from the three conscious people in the room. “Ok so I just had the run down. No Bricklayer, they already used their quirk today. But Faultline is here.”
Faultline was a hero who could strengthen the bonds between weak areas in the physical world. A bit like Rock Lock but she could freeze together things that would slip apart, as long as she had contact with something that was connected to the fault. She was better than Bricklayer, especially with Ochako there. She could freeze the roof over them and let Ochako float the other debris away.
“Thank God. Ok right, we were outside hot topic by the western southern entrance. We have to be quite deep. Let me know if it would be safe for me to release the ceiling.”
“Got it! She’s making her way over now, I had you on speaker.”
“Hey honey,” a deep, clear feminine voice spoke, “is that Deku? I’m Faultline, can you describe the area you’re holding up so I can find it with my quirk? You are doing very well, and it won’t be too long. I’ll let you know when you can stand down ok?”
“Ok, I cannot really say very well because we only have the lightening my quirk lets off to light up the room, but I would say about 3 or 4 meters across in a roughly circular shape, with a triangular but that sticks out about a meter on both sides. That looks like it has been made from a corner of the ceiling and the wall. Does your quirk work better if I describe the materials or is it more an echolocation type search quirk? Can you see the whole building the connections and faults or does it work where you have a immediate knowledge that you can follow?”
She gave a little laugh, “Ok kid, how about I’ll let you ask me as many questions as you want when you are out? Ok? I just need to concentrate, and I’ll get you out.”
Izuku could feel his cheeks heat up, especially when he looked over at Lucy trying not to smile while she wrapped Aizawa’s bandages tighter. He was looking alarmingly pale. Isamu was smiling too, and she had brought Mikumo’s head onto her lap.
There was a sudden silence in the cavern, “gotcha, this is going to be scary, and I need you to be on guard Deku. But if you could move a little to test if I have the right area that would be good.”
The fear sprung back into their eyes.
“Ok, I can’t hear the groaning of the metal anymore. That is a good sign. Ok” Izuku said, psyching himself up. Gesturing for them to come closer to him, which they quickly did. “I’m doing it. Three, two, one.”
And he dropped, less than a centimetre. The ceiling didn’t follow. His hands that had been on the roof next to his shoulders dropped. The ceiling stayed up.
“Thank fuck.” Izuku said, as he dropped to the floor. Arms curving over his shoulders.
“Language. Ok your friend is helping me clear you out. You can stand down now.”