Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku was thrilled with his day so far. His mom was able to get a Saturday off of work to celebrate his 11th birthday. It was her gift to him that year. A Saturday all to themselves with no school or work to get in the way. His birthday landed on a Thursday this year, and he got a homemade card from his mom. It was proudly displayed on his desk. He also got the promise of a whole Saturday, it was the best thing Izuku could have ever asked for. The mother and son started their day with miso soup for breakfast.

“How has school been? Are the teachers leaving you alone?” Inko watched her son closely, looking for any hints of a lie. Thankfully Izuku didn’t even hesitate to nod.

“Yup! The teachers don’t encourage any violence, and I haven’t seen any of them throw away any of the homework I turn in!” Izuku smiled so wide his eyes were scrunched closed. A quiet breath eased out of her chest. It was good the adults at Aldera Middle School were leaving him alone.

“That’s good hun. And the other kids in your class?” Izuku’s smile remained bright, keeping his eyes shut. Inko felt comforted knowing her son was still full of so much joy.

“Oh! Well I know everyone in my class. They are all from elementary school, at least I have the familiarity to fall back on, and of course Kaachan! ” The last bit of tightness in her chest eased at his reassurance. Safe in the fact that her baby wasn’t being targeted for him being quirkless, Inko relaxed her posture. Her face softening.

“So is there anything special you want to do today?” She asked after finishing off her soup.

Izuku stared at her, a mixture of hopefully happy emotions in his wide green eyes. “I don’t care, I just really miss spending time with you.”

“Well why don’t you watch the hero news while I take care of the dishes. Then, I’m sure we can figure something out” she suggested while gathering the dishes. Inko loved her son with everything she had and more, but she felt guilty not being able to spoil her son more like he deserved.

Izuku followed her to the kitchen, “are you sure you don’t want me to help?”

Inko flicked some of the bubbles at Izuku, who scrunched his nose when some of the bubbles landed on it. “I am positive. Besides I know how much you love the hero news, and this will only take me ten minutes.”

Izuku hesitated before slowly nodding, “Okay, just let me know if you want my help.” It was only a few more seconds before the familiar sounds of the news and the light scratching of a pencil filled in the silence. Inko let herself drift while washing the dishes. She didn’t know how to make today extra special for him. They were hard pressed for money, and she was already late on some bills. She didn’t want her son to concern himself with monetary struggles yet, but she knew he suspected something. He never complained about her being home less and less as she picked up more shifts at the hospital.

“Mom!” Izuku’s call broke her out of thought. “Did you see that All Might is patrolling closer to Musutafu!?! Do you think I’ll be able to observe one his fights up close? Aw man! That would be so cool, I might even be able to get his signature!” Izuku continued to voice his hopes and observations about All Might, not giving Inko a chance to respond. She always liked listening to her son fanboy about his heroes, though the thought of him watching All Might fight in person made her heart leap to her throat. She pushed the thought to the side for now, today was about spending all the time she could with her son. That’s when the idea slammed into her. Her Coworkers got together to buy the ingredients for matcha cookies, she was tasked with actually baking them. They were for the head nurse who was retiring soon. Nobody would notice a few missing, worst case scenario she would just say she dropped a few.

“Izuku honey” she called gently, instantly getting his attention. “I need to make some matcha cookies, do you want to come help eat them?”

Izuku’s eyebrows furrowed, “of course! But don’t you mean make them?”

Inko turned back to the kitchen to hide her smirk, “Sure we can pretend that you’ll help bake them.” She giggled at his spluttered denial at only eating the cookie batter. “C’mon I need to make six dozen of these for tomorrow. We won’t have time for Katsudon and desert if you keep up with your innocent act~” She teasingly sang at him. The smile never left her face as she heard scrambling from the living room. It stayed on her face even hours later watching her sons poor attempt at sneaking the raw batter. The television that was mumbling background noise lit up with breaking news. The mother and her son didn’t notice, too caught up in witty banter and laughter.

"Why do you have your shoes on?" Inko chuckled at Izuku's put out expression.

"I don't want my socks to get wet! Name one thing worse then wet socks and I'll do the dishes for a week."

Inko rolled her eyes teasingly, "tempting... hmmmmm." Inko looked up to see her son scooping up more batter with his fingers. “Izuku Midoriya I am going to count to three, and if your hand is still in the batter by the end we will be having issues.”

Izuku squawked “Wha-! I don’t even know what you’re talking about! I am innocent I swear it!”

“One…” Inko dragged out, trying to look stern. There was a muted boom off in the distance that went ignored.

Izuku didn’t move from his place by the counter, specifically next to the bowl. “No! Wait I’ll be good I swear! There’s no need for rash decisions, let’s talk about this!”

“Two…” An evil grin played on her face. She raised both hands up, wiggling her fingers in a threat of what was to come. Behind the curtained window smoke was rising nearby, police lights flashed.

Izuku hunched in on himself, arms protecting his rib cage, hands clutching the bowl tightly. “I’m eleven years old now, you know tickling will no longer work on me! Thems the rules! Please we both know this is completely unnecessary! In fact it’s a complete waste of time! So so so so I wouldn’t- wouldn’t even bother!” Izuku’s pitch rose higher for every slow, creeping step Inko took. Inko stopped. The two stared at each other, in a silent standoff. A slightly louder explosion sounded. Not loud enough to break the anticipation.

Inko smiled wide.

Izuku’s eyes widened.

The world shattered.

Chapter Text

Consciousness was not kind to Izuku. It was slow, his ears were ringing and his everything hurt. It was only after those observations did Izuku notice that he couldn’t breathe. There was so much pressure on his whole body, his lungs couldn’t expand enough to let air in. What little air he could breathe was full of dust and other stuff that wasn’t the oxygen he craved so desperately.

Izuku tried to open his eyes to attempt to sort out his predicament. A bad idea he found out, as debris immediately attacked his eyes. Tears leaked out of his closed lids, as his chest tightened, and his tiny breaths quickened. He couldn’t move, white sparked across his vision when he tried to. Small whimpers escaped him, and his stream of tears fell faster.

The darkness pressed in where whatever was crushing him did not. In his own corner of misery, air becoming a distant memory, Izuku was swept away in a tide of unconsciousness.

The second round hit Izuku like a sledgehammer. It was another slow awakening; however, he could have sworn that someone bashed his head against a brick wall twenty times over. He couldn’t think, he couldn’t breathe. The last thing he noticed before the darkness took him again, was the taste of metal in his mouth.

“Honey, you need to get up now. Stay awake for me, okay?” This time it was instant. One moment, it was sweet numbness. Next, all his senses came rushing in at once. Izuku gasped for air, his torso barking at the action. The light hurt his eyes, and his head felt like it would explode. There were too many people shouting around him, their words indistinguishable. He started coughing, losing any air he managed to inhale. He couldn’t stop. Tears fell from his eyes, his lungs burned. Izuku knew he was dying, he had to be.

“Shhhhhh, you’re okay,” a voice cooed. Green hair filled his vision. “Take slow deep breaths. You got this, breathe with me now.” A dark liquid dripped from his mouth as he tried to breathe, he only succeeded in coughing more. It would be okay though; his mom was here, and she would make it better soon. She shouted something at someone, forcing spikes through his head. Gentle hands pat his back making him cry out.

“Shhhh, you’re doing great” she cooed again. Izuku didn’t know how long he sat there just trying to get enough air to satisfy his lungs. Chaos still reigned around him, the sound of people barking out words and their footsteps rushing about kicking up more dust. After what felt like hours Izuku felt he could finally breathe somewhat normally, his ribs and abdomen still groaned in protest for every breath he took. He looked to his mom, who was not his mom? The lady’s hair was green, but a lighter shade then his moms. The green strands were partially covered by an orange bandana that matched the orange stripes in her shorts. It was Mrs. Joke, in any other circumstances Izuku would love to ask her more about her quirk.

“Where, ahm where’s my mom? Do you ahm do you know where she is?” Izuku managed to cough out. Mrs. Joke smiled at him; it didn’t reach her eyes which never landed on him. Instead, she seemed looking behind him, probably keeping an eye out for any other dangers?

“I’m sure she’s just fine kid, let’s get you to the paramedics yeah?” She swept him up, putting pressure on the wounds in his back and legs. A small noise of pain escaped him, but he grit his teeth. Now was not the time to bring attention to himself, he had to make sure his mom was okay. Izuku looked around as best he could to try and spot his mom in the chaos. There was a giant crater a few yards from his apartment building, and it seemed every window in sight was shattered.

His apartment building, well… the ten-story building was now maybe a floor and half. His heartbeat wildly in his chest, and it was a struggle to breathe for different reason. His home, his one safe space was gone.

He had technically told the truth to his mom at breakfast that morning. His teachers didn’t verbalize any encouragement towards violence, and he has never seen his teachers throw away his assignments. However, his teachers do nothing when they see someone push him into the wall. They don’t say anything when Kaachan teaches him a lesson with his quirk, and scold Izuku when he shows up with his uniform singed. The teachers don’t throw away his homework, they make eye contact with him and put it through the shredder.

Now his safe haven was gone, the place he shared with his mom. His mom, who works so hard to provide for him. His mom who worries about him, and his mom who loves him. She tries so hard just for him, he figured he could try not to make her worry as much about him. He learned how to fix his uniform enough to escape too much scrutiny. He learned to treat his burns, bruises, and cuts. He even had some knowledge on broken bones, luckily, he didn’t need to put it to too much use.

He had to find his mom to make sure she was okay. He would be fine, Izuku knew that already even if his whole torso disagreed. He would be fine. His mom though… she needed to be fine. He needed her to be fine because she is all he has left. She wouldn’t leave him like this.

Izuku’s body immediately locked up when Mrs. Joke plopped him onto the edge of the ambulance. All of his injuries protested at the movement. It was fine, he’d live. Mrs. Joke had still yet to look at him and instead she looked directly at the paramedic, “I found him under some rubble, and he coughed a lot. I’d say probably a panic attack.” She ruffled his curls a bit, “poor kid. I gotta go help the evacuation, All Might doesn’t seem to be holding back in this fight.” Mrs. Joke turned to walk away but paused to throw over her shoulder “prepare for a lot more injuries. This fight is spanning miles.” With that parting warning she left.

Izuku looked at the paramedic that started to look him over. He noticed the man had eight eyes, and his black hair looked coarse. A spider quirk probably? It didn’t matter. He needed to find his mom first, he could study the quirks later. “Uhm I’m- I’m sorry to bother you sir, but um did you happen to see my mom? She has ah- long green hair, kinda- she’s kinda short, and- and um…” Izuku trailed off noticing the paramedic was fixated on a single spot, his red Primordial shoes. His heart leapt to his throat, Izuku forgot that he put his shoes on before baking with his mom.

The paramedic slowly looked back up, his face was blank but all eight of his eyes were cold and hard. Izuku gulped nervously. “You only have a bruise; you can walk it off.” Izuku only nodded before standing oh so slowly, trying to be gentle with his injuries. His blood drained from his face, and black spots danced across his eyes. However, Izuku remained standing. He swayed a bit but remained upright.

“Right uh thank- uh thank you! But uhm my mom-“

“Is probably dead. Get out of here, you’re in the way of real injuries” The paramedic spat. Tears flooded Izuku’s eyes as he stumbled away. He didn’t know where he was going, or where even he could go. He moved anyway, his body screaming in protest. She isn’t dead, she’s not.

Blind with tears, Izuku didn’t see the officer until it was too late. He tumbled right into her. Luckily she caught him before he fell, unfortunately she grabbed him around the waist making him cry out. She quickly let him go, making sure he didn’t fall. “Woah! I’m so sorry! Are you okay? You look like you need to get checked out, you’re not looking so good.” She started to give him a once over.

“I- no I’m- I’m fine, mom- uh my mom” Izuku couldn’t finish his sentence, his chest was heaving.

“Okay kid, I need you to calm down for me. You’re not going to be able to find your mom the way you are now okay? I need bigger breaths from you. Good job. Oh.” Izuku looked up at her, only to see an unknown emotion on her face. What was it? What had happened while he was trying to breathe? Again. “Your shoes… um listen I gotta go.” At least she looked semi-guilty, “I’m sure everything will be fine. Um yeah… good luck.” The officer awkwardly shuffled off.

There was a roaring in Izuku’s ears, and sight was a thing of the past. He hobbled as quickly as he could in whatever direction he was facing. His body protested and his lungs burned, but he didn’t care. He had to leave, he had to get out of the situation, find someplace safe. If only his safe space hadn’t been destroyed. Izuku moved for what felt like days, not caring about any of the looks his state might be attracting. When he finally stopped Izuku noticed he was surrounded by trash. He somehow made it to Dagobah beach.

'How fitting' Izuku laughed bitterly to himself. It was still relatively warm out, so he didn’t bother with too much cover. He hid himself underneath a half-rotted table, and let gentle unconsciousness take him away.

Chapter Text

It was apparently two weeks later, according to the battered newspaper Izuku held in his hands. It also reported his mom as one of the many casualties in the fight between All Might and the villain Double Time, a speed quirked villain. Towards the bottom there was a small blurb about him being last seen walking away from the ruins of his apartment. He was missing and presumed dead… huh. Izuku put the paper in the corner of his new home. The past couple weeks were a haze of pain.

Izuku would wake up, lay in agonizing in silence until his stomach drove him to wander to the train station. On his way there he would scavenge for food in dumpsters, or eat the rotten food thrown at his head when people caught him. Once he made it to the train station Izuku would fill the two plastic bottles, he found at the beach, at the public fountain. Once he was chased away by security he would head back to the beach and his makeshift home.

It took Izuku roughly a full week before he felt steady enough to explore the dump that was the beach. About half a day in his search Izuku found space in between a banged-up dryer and the remains of a car that looked more like a pretzel. He painstakingly moved the table to make his third wall. It wasn’t the best setup, but it kept the worst of the elements out. It was made marginally better by all of the scraps of cloth he found. Izuku took the two longest pieces and draped them over the entire structure. Every other scrap was used to make the inside as comfortable as he could make it. He effectively made the saddest pillow fort in existence, but it did well enough.

There was a hollow pit in his gut, Izuku had nothing left. His mom was officially dead, and aunt Mitsuki was taking care of the funeral. A funeral for both his mom and him. Though he loathed to admit it, Kaachan hated him, Izuku doubted his presence would be a welcome surprise. It was probably best to just let things be anyway.

Everyone had already moved on without him, and they didn’t even give him a backwards glance. They were probably happy that he was gone. Izuku used to dream that one day he would be able to hold the whole world in his hands. He would protect it with everything he had, and he would do it with a smile on his face. That dream died with his mom. If he couldn’t save her, then what hope did he have in helping anybody else?

Izuku studied his shelter with despair wrapped around him like a cold blanket, it was then he realized what his next steps were. His little fort wouldn’t last forever, and food was a hard thing to come by. He was already struggling, and he’d only been homeless for barely two weeks! It was best he went quickly instead of starving to death, or something worse. Izuku nodded to himself, he would go to his mom since she couldn’t come to him.

Izuku walked around staring at the top of the surrounding buildings. It needed to be tall enough for his purpose, but also be somewhat accessible to the public. He couldn’t exactly just waltz into a government building. A lot of the buildings around were too short, Izuku wanted to make sure he succeeded the first time. Failure would more than likely bring on something worse than death. He might need to go closer to the city because while the chances of getting caught were higher, there were at least taller buildings.

Izuku was too busy glaring upwards, he didn’t notice an older woman staring at him with concern. As he continued moving she stepped into his path, causing the both of them to tumble to the ground.

“Oh! I am! I am so sorry! I wasn’t even-! And I-! Ma’am are you okay?!? Oh! I am so sorry!” Izuku scrambled up, and hurried to assist the woman up.

“Oof! Ow ow ow! My word!”

“Oh no! Do you need a hospital? I don’t have a phone to call 119… I’ll figure it out. I am so sorry!” Izuku bent forward at a ninety-degree angle, “I am so so sorry! I wasn’t paying attention, and I will make sure to be more aware from now on!”

“I should hope so!” The lady huffed, “well stand up straight and let me get a look at you.”

Izuku slowly straightened and stared over her left ear. Maybe she would shout at him, maybe slap him across his face, or maybe even just push him back down again. Whatever she did he wouldn’t fight it, he deserved it. He was such a Deku, couldn’t even walk around without getting in someone’s way.

“Well I suppose you’ll have to do.” Izuku blinked at the woman, I’ll do? “Yes you’ll do.” Oh, he said that out loud. “You knocked me down onto the hard ground. The least you could do to make it up to me is help out at my café.”

Izuku continued to stare at her. She can’t be serious. She wants a random kid working in her café? She must crazy, especially if she wants me. She must not have realized that I am quirkless. “Uh ma’am…”

“Well don’t tell me you refuse. I’ll be even more offended!” The woman crossed her arms and stared down her nose at him. The blood drained from his face.

Izuku waved his hands frantically, “oh no! But-“

“Good! Be at the Toe Beanery by sunrise, or I’ll hunt you down.” The woman nodded decisively to herself. “Until then…” she trailed off looking at Izuku expectantly.

“Midor- um Izuku. My name is Izuku.”

“Okay Izuku. Remember, Toe Beanery before sunrise. Have a good rest of your day now!” She didn’t give him a chance to reply before she hobbled off, leaving Izuku gaping in the middle of the sidewalk.

What just happened? Izuku slowly wandered back to the beach in a daze. He made sure to pay extra close attention, he didn’t think he could handle another encounter today.

When he arrived back to the beach Izuku did his best to clean himself up. It was made harder considering the fact that he was standing in a sandy dump. He drank the last of his water and ignored the twisting in his stomach. He was lucky he already knew about the café; it was near his dream high school, UA. Izuku always pictured himself going there to study with any future friends he may have had. A pipe dream now.

The green haired boy thought back to his bizarre encounter. Why have some random kid help out in her café? Did she know he was quirkless? Why did she tell him to be there before sunrise instead of a specific time? Should he even go? He shrugged to himself.
With nothing else to do, Izuku fell into a fitful slumber. His original purpose for that day forgotten. He dreamed of his mom. She cried while engulfing him in a hug. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” She sobbed, clutching him closer.

Izuku woke up with dried tear tracks on his face. The sun had yet to rise, and he hoped it wouldn’t for a while. He still had about an hour’s walk ahead of him. He spent an hour trying to rationalize why he shouldn’t go. He didn’t know her, and vice versa. While he did run into her, he had apologized. No sane person would help out at a stranger’s business because of an accident.

Then again, had Izuku ever been fully sane?

He took a deep breath staring at the glass door that led to the café, it had a pink paw print decal on it. Arching over the paw print was elegant letters that spelled out ‘Toe Beanery’. The lights were on, but Izuku stood there shifting his weight between each foot.

A weathered face appeared, exasperation written plainly to see. The woman from yesterday opened the door.

“Well come on in, we don’t have time to dally!” She quickly ushered him into an enclosed area behind the counter. Not giving him a chance to look around; she threw cloths at him making him sputter. “Put those on, they should fit. I can’t have you looking like a ruffian now can I?”

Izuku just nodded mutely and went where directed to change. She had given him loose black pants that were a little too big around the waist, a white button up, and a black apron that matched the door decal.

When he exited back to the kitchen the woman was putting a lid on a to go cup. She eyed him critically. “Well you’re presentable enough I suppose,” she put the cup in his hand. “Go take this to the man out by the counter, then I’ll give you the run down.”

“Yes ma’am” Izuku nodded.

“That’s Gran to you,” she corrected sternly. Izuku nodded again and left the kitchen to find the man slouched by the counter.

He had long black hair, and an off-white scarf that covered his face. He was in a black jumpsuit with his hands in his pockets. When Izuku left the kitchen the man perked up, then squinted at Izuku.

Izuku who had stopped as soon as his eyes landed on the scarf. “Eraserhead…” he whispered in awe.

The man- Eraserhead didn’t even blink, he just stared still squinting at Izuku. Then he grunted,

“Aizawa.”

Chapter Text

Izuku stared at the door to the Toe Beanery, wishing he could have just stayed in his nest of blanket scraps. It was his birthday today, the day Izuku hated most since his mom died. While she didn’t die on the exact day, she died celebrating it. He felt that was just as bad. He didn’t plan on coming in today, but yesterday Gran had practically begged him to open. Well, she told him to open or else she would hide the good coffee from him.

Izuku reluctantly made his way over to the door, when he felt water soak his right sock. Good morning to me… he sighed to himself as he took his shoe off. Four hops later had Izuku precariously balanced on one foot while he unlocked the door to the café. He grumbled to himself as he made his way inside, he flicked on the light switch-

“SURPRISE!”

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”

Izuku whirled around, cursing. When nothing immediately bad happened, he took stock. Most of the UA teachers were there. Including Aizawa, with a single eyebrow raised, whose scarf was wrapped around the shoe Izuku had apparently thrown. There were also a handful of UA students there as well. Everyone was sporting smiles and grins, except Aizawa who looked as if he’d rather be anywhere else. Mood.

Izuku tried his best for a smile, but he was pretty sure it was more of a grimace. “Hey uh, hey? What’s, what’s, what’s uh- what’s going on?” Izuku mentally face palmed.

Could I be any more of a moron?

Yamada left his spot by Aizawa (who still had his shoe Izuku noted wearily) to wrap his arm around the greenette’s shoulders. “We’re celebrating your birthday little listener! Before you ask, Nezu told Nemuri when it was. I think you can guess the rest,” Yamada finished with a wink.

Yamada was right, once Kayama found out about this sort of stuff everyone would know within three hours. The corners of Izuku’s mouth quirked up, at least it was genuine. By the softening of Yamada’s face, he understood.

Another arm snaked around him, pulling him away from Yamada. Kayama clicked her tongue “I have no idea what you’re talking about!” She ruffled Izuku’s already wild curls. “Our green bean NEEDS to be spoiled! It’s not everyday you turn twelve you know!” She wiped an invisible tear from her face, “he’s basically an adult now!”

Yamada squawked, “twelve is not an adult!”

“Well” Izuku interrupted, “legally I can be an adult.” The boy started wiggling uncomfortably, there were too many people focused on him.

An awkward silence followed.

It remained unspoken how quirkest the laws of Japan remained. Quirkless kids could be emancipated as early as twelve. Kids with mutation or ‘villainous’ quirks could be emancipated as early as fourteen. It was for their protection, or so the government claimed.

“Well?” Gran clapped, “are we just going to stand about? Come on! Let’s eat!” Everyone began to move at that, gathering around the buffet table set up by the counter. Izuku stayed quiet, and slowly creeped back toward the door.

“You could leave” a dry voice startled Izuku. Aizawa was leaning against the door frame. “Or you can take what I have in my hand, you can’t do both.”

When did he even get there?!

Izuku tried peering around Aizawa, who merely shifted to keep the mysterious thing hidden. “What is it?” He squinted at the man suspiciously.

“Guess you’ll have to suffer these people with me to find out.” His blank face gave nothing away.

“Ooooor,” Izuku pointed at the door with his thumb. “We could both go, and you show me what’s in your hand.” He bounced on his toes hopefully, “that’s not my soaked shoe.” Izuku added hastily.

“No.”

“Yamada-san bribed you to stay, didn’t he?”

Nothing.

They stared at each other in silence, Aizawa’s eyes held a glimmer of amusement. Izuku felt that alone was gift enough. The fact that Aizawa trusted him enough to see a glimpse of that emotion.

“Fine I’ll stay!” Izuku broke. Across the room Yamada cheered and was immediately elbowed by Nemuri. Snipe chuckled as Yamada dramatically bent in half, cradling his stomach.

Aizawa rolled his eyes and hid the bottom half of his face in his scarf.

“Here” Aizawa finally held his hand out. He was holding a to go cup, “don’t tell Gran.” Izuku ignored him, too zoned in on the holy grail.

Aizawa had once let Izuku try his home brewed special coffee. It held enough caffeine to kill a lesser mortal and was bitter enough to satisfy Satan. The last bit was courtesy of Yamada. Gran called it an abomination and had banned Izuku from ever drinking it, much to his chagrin.

Izuku cradled it gently to his chest, his eyes welling with tears. “I will forever cherish your generosity” Izuku solemnly swore to Aizawa. The man just rolled his eyes again and pushed the greenette’s head as he passed by.

Yeah, today kinda sucked but at least he had the good stuff. Izuku slowly savored his coffee while talking to Thirteen and Ishiyama. Thirteen’s most recent rescue was amazing to watch, and he had to grill them about using their quirk without harming any of the trapped civilians.

“Izuku what do you have?” Grans stern voice told him she already knew. So he made the only logical decision he could, he popped the lid off the cup and started chugging. “Izuku!!” Gran lunged at him, deceptively fast. When the grey-haired woman yanked the cup out of his hands it was already too late, it was empty. Her eyes burned holes into what was left of his soul.

“Don’t worry!” Izuku held his hands up in surrender, “It was just coffee.”

“No whatever that man gave you,” Gran shifted her glare to Aizawa, his face remained blank. Izuku envied his skill. “Is a war crime, not coffee.”

“Wait,” a second year that Izuku vaguely recognized interrupted. “Aizawa-sensei let you drink his death coffee?!?”

Izuku opened his mouth to say something, something idiotic probably, when Yamada piped up.

“Desert everyone! Make sure to save some for the birthday boy!” Izuku smiled gratefully at him, from the finger guns he got back Yamada understood.

Gran poked him in the side before taking mercy on him. Izuku let out a little sigh, relieved.

The next few hours were the most stimulation Izuku had ever had to suffer through. There were multiple rounds of karaoke, making the few cats lingering about run under furniture. Izuku partially wished he could hide with them. Nemuri’s screeching into the microphone was a bit much, but she was smiling widely, and Izuku didn’t blame her for having fun.

Gran had whacked a couple of students with her broom for knocking a table over. Thankfully she didn’t try yelling over the music, unfortunately for the students, she instead had Aizawa assign them an essay for their ethics class on the moralities of destruction of other’s property. Their excuse of a dance off to the death went ignored.

For every cat brave enough to venture out, there was a human more than happy to give them attention. That is, if they could beat Aizawa to them.

Izuku near flooded the building with tears, as people would sporadically approach him with gifts. He was thankful that they didn’t approach him all at once. He was mostly gifted clothes and food. Izuku suspected that everyone had at least an idea that his living situation was abnormal at best. Izuku was grateful it remained unspoken.

Kayama had gifted him a new notebook and some pencils, with a pat on his head. She also gave him a bag full of textbooks, the tag read in elegant kanji ‘Is this from a mouse? Dog? Or bear? None! This is from Principle Nezu of UA! May you never stop learning Izuku-kun.’

Izuku gaped at the bag. Nezu sent me a gift?!? I am not worth anything everyone has given me.

Gran had walked up to him frowning, “whatever it is you’re thinking, stop it.” He mentally shook himself. She was right, now was not the time. “Now it’s my turn.”

“You really don’t have to give me anything Gran!” Izuku waved his hands frantically, “really! You already do too much for me.”

Gran clicked her tongue, “don’t be… illogical.” Behind her, Yamada choked and mouthed ‘illogical.’ Gran held out an envelope, “happy birthday Izuku.”

He slowly opened the envelope, inside was small stack of yen. Izuku’s eyes widened and shot up to meet the older woman’s. “I definitely can not accept this! It’s way too much!”

“You can, and you will.” Izuku went to protest, but she continued in an even tone. “It’s about time you get paid for a job that you do. You should never work for free.”

“But! But I don’t work here! I just- I just-!”

“Help out we know,” a small group nearby groaned. At this point Izuku felt he resembled a strawberry.

“Either way! You- you give me food! An- an- and you give me clothes! You already do so much for me!” His already sore eyes were spilling tears at an alarming rate, for anybody except him.

“Izuku,” Gran reached out slowly enough for Izuku to pull away, he didn’t. Her hands landed on his shoulders, and gently squeezed. “I don’t know what your home life is like, and I respect you enough not to ask” she murmured. “But I also know that whatever you’re getting is not good for you. Let me do this.” Izuku hiccupped a sob. “You remind me so much of my son, who wore the same shoes you do. I promise I’m not going anywhere, so let me take care of you.”

Izuku could do nothing but hold on to Gran as emotion, after emotion, slammed into him.

Later he would look up to see Yamada try to subtly wipe at his eyes, and Aizawa would roll his eyes as he handed his husband a tissue. Later, when Izuku is sitting around with everyone else, Aizawa would plop the fluffiest cat in his lap with a knowing look. Later, Izuku would wonder on his way back to his shelter on the beach, just how many knew that he was homeless and legally dead.

Chapter Text

Izuku had already filled the mug when the door to the Toe Beanery opened. The tired hero trudged to the counter and dropped the money, that was already in his hand, onto the counter. Izuku silently gave him the mug then the change a few seconds later. Izuku waited until Eraserhead downed the drink before taking the mug back to refill it.

“So are you ready for the entrance exams this year?” Izuku asked handing Eraserhead his second cup of coffee. Izuku watched as Eraserhead started to slowly shift into Aizawa. His shoulders started to relax, and the vice grip he held the mug with loosened.

The dark-haired man took a large gulp of his drink before answering, “I can already tell you that they are all brats. Maybe a handful will have potential this year… maybe.”

“Compared to the twenty students you expelled last year?” Izuku chuckled while wiping the already clean counter.

Aizawa rolled his eyes, “they would have died within their first year of being a hero.” Izuku hummed in agreement. He stayed quiet knowing Aizawa would say what he came to say when he was good and ready. The real reason why Aizawa was here. The same reason Yamada, Kayama, Snipe and Higari have visited multiple times with an increasing frequency. It was only a matter of time before Aizawa got brought in. “You know,” he started staring holes into Izuku. “There is still time for you to put your application in. Nezu could fast track it. You would make it into any course of your choosing,”

Izuku made a noncommittal noise finding one spot on the counter particularly interesting. Just because he knew this was coming didn’t make the conversation any easier.

“Izuku” Aizawa sighed.

The fourteen-year-old didn’t raise his eyes from the counter, scrubbing absently. “Like I told everyone else,” he mumbled. “My parents don’t want me attending UA. They won’t sign any of the forms.”

“Is that what you’re sticking with?”

Izuku’s shoulders hunched in on himself as he nodded. Aizawa gently set the mug back onto the counter. Izuku wished he would have slammed it, smashed it, started yelling, something more. Izuku couldn’t stand the silence.

“Okay.” There was no inflection in that word. No anger, sadness, or judgement. Yet, Izuku couldn’t help but feel like he disappointed one of the few people that actually cared about him.

“Aizawa-san?” The man hummed his attention. “Do you think that-uh well that is uh…” Izuku took in a shaky breath, “what do you think it takes to be a hero?” He rushed out in one exhale.

Aizawa paused, seeming to weigh his answer. “Heroes need to value saving people, even above catching villains. They need to be willing to put in hard work physically and mentally. Basically,” Aizawa stared intently at him, “anyone with enough hard-work and determination could be a hero.” Izuku nodded distractedly, muttering a quick thanks. The man ruffled his green curls wishing a good him a good day, before leaving the café.

Izuku took in another shaky breath before plastering a smile on his face. He had customers to serve after all.

Mittens seemed to sense his distress as the fluffy Maine coon stayed at his side. The cat liked to weave between his feet, and Izuku thankfully had practice to avoid tripping over the well-meaning cat too much. Whenever there was a lull he would reach down to scratch at the white cat’s ears, making him rumble with contentment.

He couldn’t help but float through his shift. Izuku, despite himself, still wanted to be a hero. He knew it wasn’t possible because of his quirklessness, and Izuku couldn’t stand the thought of attending the number one hero school without being in the hero course. He used the fact that he was legally dead like a shield, hiding from the fact he was born useless. A Deku.

But, Aizawa never said anything about needing a quirk. Izuku always dreamed of saving people, catching villains just happened to be a part of that, and he was willing to put everything into being a hero. He would do it.

First, Izuku had to put in an application of some sort. Nezu one hundred percent knew about his predicament. He was kind enough to not approach Izuku about it. All things considered how Izuku lived could be much worse, and he was positive Nezu knew that as well. Izuku would never survive in the system. Either way, Nezu would probably be willing to help him, if what everyone has been telling him was true that is.

Izuku had a hard time reading the chimera. Every once in a while, the principle would come to the café and order tea. The type of tea was never consistent. He would spend hours sitting at the coffee bar and talk with him about different topics. Anything from quirks, morality, math, and anything in between. They even spent a whole day with Izuku giving a long speech about why katsudon was the superior food.

He smiled to himself at the memory. Nezu never said his own opinion on the topic, he’ll have to ask the principle during their next chat. Izuku gave a purple haired kid their drink and thought back to the teachers of UA.

Whether anybody else fully knew his situation was up in the air, but that sounded like a future him problem. Izuku was almost certain that everyone thought he lived in a group home, and he didn’t plan on correcting them if asked.

He vaguely registered Gran enter the café, but it was quickly shoved to the back of his mind. He had to figure out how he was going to get into the hero program.

Izuku was not muscular in the least, but due to moving some heavy garbage around his beach he had the beginnings of muscle. A starting point. He could only do so much two weeks before the exam, but he could improve. Worst case scenario Izuku would also apply to the general education course and use the sports festival to transfer.

He had a plan, and a glimmer of hope warmed his chest. Gran stared at him.

Was she talking to me? …Oops.

Izuku mentally shook himself, “hey Gran!” He smiled sheepishly at her unimpressed face. “I’m sorry what did you say?”

“I said” she huffed, “that it’s time for you to get!” She emphasized her point with a flick to his ear.

“Ow! Okay! Okay! I’m going!” Izuku rubbed at his ear muttering, “no need to be so mean.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing!” Izuku smiled as she handed him a fresh cherry filled pastry.

“Mmmhmm” she hummed.

“Thank you! I’ll see you later!” He rushed out, heading out the door of the café. Izuku practically ran all the way back to his beach shelter, panting he picked up a less used notebook and pencil. He didn’t have much, but he had a little stockpile of notebooks and pencils accumulated through gifts over the years.

The greenette drew a rough map of the beach, marking off small sections of the beach to clean. Izuku also put in some estimates of difficulty in weight so he would have a rough idea of what order to clean each section. After eating a quick dinner of cold canned soup, courtesy of his now weekly pay and lack of electricity, he went to the library for some quick research.

First, Izuku found some places to donate what items he could find while cleaning. Then he was able to locate a dump relatively nearby he could take the garbage to. He figured carrying it all there would be slow, it would probably help his stamina.

The next thing he did was try to look into every subject the written entrance exam might cover. Unfortunately, it seemed the answer looked like yes. What subject should he study? Yes. All of them. Now Izuku was not as academically stupid as he could be, he tried to teach himself on subjects that interested him at the time. There were two main problems; self-study could only get you so far, and while Izuku loved learning, not every subject interested him. He would just have to do his best to study for… well everything.

The next two weeks Izuku threw himself into his hastily put together schedule. His mornings were consumed with working at the café and absorbing any knowledge he could from the books he borrowed from the library. He also had to seem like nothing changed, he wanted to surprise everyone while also not getting their hopes up. The guilt of lying, that was previously burning him from the inside, was slowly turning into fragile hope.

After he was done at the café Izuku would then return to his beach and start picking up, right where he left off the day before. On the first day of his rush training, he found a mostly intact wagon. Walking things to the dump was the worst idea he had ever had. Even with a wobbly wagon he managed to fix, it still took multiple trips to get everything from the day to the dump. He had to admit, the sections he originally created were a bit ambitious to get done in one day. It was a bit disappointing, but there was nothing to be done about it for now.

He had to be extra cautious of the large appliances, the last thing he needed was to get tetanus. Bit by bit, he was able to take apart refrigerators and ovens. It was slow going, and driving him nuts! By the time Izuku would finish for the day, he barely had enough energy to collapse into his makeshift bed.

The morning of the entrance exam had come early for Izuku, his sleep was fitful at best. Izuku decided a light jog before breakfast wouldn’t hurt, and lightly bounced towards the Toe Beanery. Acid seemed to bubble in his chest, as he gnawed on his bottom lip. No one knew that he was applying.

Well no one other than Nezu that is he thought ruefully. Technically there was no one to disappoint, yet Izuku couldn’t help but feel everyone’s expectations weigh on him.

The bell chimed daintily as he entered the café, thankfully he was used to the distance and had yet to even break a sweat. He did not want to enter the exam smelling.

“And what are you doing here young man?” Gran scolded as she walked out of the kitchen with a fresh batch of muffins. “The first time you request a day off ever, and you show up here? I thought you finally went and got a life!”

Izuku dramatically slapped his hand over his heart, “oof! Straight for the kill Gran, you wound me!”

“Oh please!” Gran scoffed, putting the muffins in the display case. “You’ve been hanging out with Hizashi way too much.”

“Do not!” Izuku instantly denied. “And for your information, I am here for breakfast!” He pulled out a couple of bills from his pocket, “one muffin and my usual coffee please!”

“What are you up to that I don’t have to shove food down your gullet?” Her tone was suspicious as she slid a fresh apple cinnamon muffin towards him. Izuku just smiled innocently at her. “Fine” she huffed, “keep your secrets. Now put that crap away, are you trying to insult me?"

“But I don’t work today, so I am just a normal customer” he protested.

Gran slid his coffee towards him, “get out of here before I smack some sense into you.”

“Okay…” Izuku shrugged taking his coffee and leaving the money. He ran out the door cackling, with Gran shouting after him. She would get him back later he knew, but it was worth it in his opinion.

He put all his focus on eating his muffin and drinking his coffee, trying to ignore the bundle of nerves threating to make his breakfast come back up. What if Aizawa was wrong? What if he couldn’t be a hero, or worse, what if he wasn’t even smart enough for the general education course? There was only so much he could do by himself. The thought of bothering the students or teachers that came into the café practically made him combust, there was no way he could ask them.

Izuku knew he couldn’t rely on Nezu liking him to get into UA. Even if he could, that wasn’t the way Izuku wanted to get in. He needed to earn it like everyone else. He didn’t know what he would do if everyone thought he was a charity case. He would just be stealing the spot of someone more deserving.

Too caught up in his own storm, Izuku didn’t notice a sloshing noise from the sewer grate behind him. A shadow fell over him making Izuku whip around and gasp. A large sludge form was towering over him menacingly.

A villain!

The sludge lurched forward and began encasing him from his feet, making it impossible to run. “Don’t worry, I’m just taking over your body,” the villain stated like he was talking about the weather.

The more Izuku struggled the higher the sludge rose, making it even more difficult to move. His breathing was rapid. His heart pound in his chest.

“It’ll be easier for both of us if you don’t fight back.” The sludge was up to his shoulders, and rapidly enclosing on his head. “It will only hurt for a minute.”

He was fully submerged in the sludge.

“You’ll feel better soon.”

The villain’s voice was muffled.

He couldn’t breathe.

He clawed first at his throat, then at the sludge around him.

He couldn’t breathe.

“Grab all you want; my body is made of fluid.”

He was drowning.

“Thanks for the help, you’re a real hero to me kid.”

Black spots danced across his vision.

“I didn’t know he was in the city.”

His lungs burned.

“I gotta get out of here fast, before he tracks me down.”

HELP!!!

The last thing Izuku heard before losing consciousness was a booming voice. “Texas… SMASH!!!!”

Izuku woke suddenly, a sharp pain emanating from his cheek. He started coughing, the sludge getting lodged in his throat.

“Hey! Thought we lost you there!” A deep booming voice echoed off the tunnel. Izuku looked up, and up, and up.

Oh. My. All Might. Standing there in all his red, yellow, and blue glory was All Might himself. Izuku almost fainted again right there. All Might was no longer his favorite hero; he hadn’t been since his mom died. However he never blamed the hero, the villains actions were their own. All Might was still one of the most inspiring heroes out there, it was hard to not like the guy. Unless you were Aizawa, but he didn’t count.

“Well it looks like you are moving around alright, sorry about that back there!” All Might beamed at him. “I didn’t mean to get you caught up in my justice-ing, usually I pay more attention to keep bystanders safe!”

This was it! Izuku barely survived being drowned by sentient slime, only to be killed by the excitement of meeting All Might. He didn’t even have a piece of paper to ask for an autograph!

“It turns out this city’s sewer system is difficult to navigate!” All Might’s laugh echoed. “Anyway, you were a big help! I have captured the evil doer! Now I must get this guy to the police so they can take care of him. Stay out of trouble! See you around!”

“Wait!”

All Might crouched down, ready to launch himself into the air.

“Thanks for your continued support!”

Izuku’s mind blanked. He had to know! He opened his eyes, that had suddenly shut, only to have them widen in both surprise and fear. He was in the air. Clinging onto All Might. He had grabbed All Might and is now flying through the air.

“Hey hey hey! What do you think you are doing?! Let go! I love my fans, but this is too much!” All Might yelled, trying to shake him off his leg.

“No way!” Izuku shouted clinging on tighter. “We’re flying! If I let go now I’ll die!”

“Oh, that’s a good point.” All Might landed on the roof of one of the tallest buildings nearby, nearly thirteen stories high. “Okay-“

“Wait!” Izuku interrupted desperately. “You’re a great hero All Might! I have to know!” Izuku stared him in the eyes with tears welling. “Is it possible to become a hero even if I don’t have a quirk?” All Might was quiet. “I’m- I’m a normal kid without any powers. Could I- Could I ever hope to be someone like you? A hero?”

“This job isn’t easy, pro-heroes are always risking their lives. Some villains just can’t be beaten without a power. So can you be a hero?” Izuku held his breath. “Not without a quirk.”

Izuku felt cold. Any fire he had managed to save, blown out like a candle. By the number one hero.

“If you want to help people, there are plenty of other ways to do it. You could become a police officer, it’s a fine profession!” All Might beamed again. The smile now felt mocking. “It’s not bad to have a dream young man, just make sure your dreams are attainable. Be realistic.”

Realistic...

Realistic...

Realistic...

Be realistic?

“Now I must be going! Knock on the door for someone to let you in.”

Realistic...

Realistic...

Realistic...

The number one hero took off without a second glance.

Did All Might know what being realistic meant for someone who was quirkless? Getting into a good high school was a pipe dream. The police academy wouldn’t even accept quirkless applicants.

A cold hollow feeling took over his mind. Words from his past circling, overwhelming.

Useless. I’m sorry! Deku. I AM HERE! Waste of space. All Might V Double Time: All Might saves the day again! Worthless. Civilian casualties: Inko Midoryia. Freak.

Izuku stared over the edge of the building, the explosions in the distance went unregistered under the facts of his life.

His life was marginally better at the café with Gran. Nothing ever filled the gap that his mom left in his chest though. While he didn’t get bullied by his classmates anymore, that didn’t mean the comments stopped. People would see his shoes and spit on him, metaphorically and literally.

Izuku took care of any injuries himself, as hospitals would turn him away. ‘A waste of resources’ they would say. Gyms would kick him out, ‘too fragile’ they would say. Shop owners would refuse to let him into their stores, ‘it’s asking for trouble’ they would say.

Realistic?

Izuku stayed on the edge.

Meanwhile at UA…

Aizawa stared at the multiple screens dispassionately. They were showing all of the applicants running around like headless chickens, firing off quirks with no regard for each other. No Izuku. He had thought the problem child would be there. After their talk something changed with the green haired boy.

There was a spark in his eyes. That and the kid was a shit liar. From the looks of it he wasn’t the only one disappointed. Everyone in the display room had seemed to deflate when Izuku’s name wasn’t on the list of applicants. Everyone except Nezu, who he could never get a read on, and All Might.

Aizawa tried not to show his disgust. Why the rat had let Yagi of all people become the new heroics teacher was beyond him. The blond oaf didn’t even have a teaching class under his belt. Aizawa also knew he was going to have to pick up whatever slack was left behind in the student’s education. As far as he was concerned, Yagi was stealing whatever precious nap time he might have been able to smuggle into the school day.

Aizawa sighed to himself, maybe he could talk to Izuku. If he had to suffer through whatever mess Yagi created, the kid had to as well.

Chapter Text

Izuku stared up at the night sky, the clouds were blocking any speck of starlight from reaching him. He didn’t jump, not yet. Izuku missed his mom terribly and his future wasn’t looking so good, but he wasn’t sure he could face his mom if there was any afterlife. Maybe she would understand.

After All Might had left, cold seeped into him leaving no trace of any body heat that might have been there. Izuku didn’t cry, his tears seemed frozen in the pit of his gut. There was the quiet thought of going back to café that almost went ignored. So started his halfhearted attempt to get off the roof.

His burner phone was destroyed when the sludge villain attacked him, apparently slime didn’t mix well with technology. He had tried banging on the door, he did it for what felt like hours, and his shouts were hoarse at best. Almost drowning disagreed with him too it seemed. No one had come, leaving him no way to get down except the fast way.

Damn. Well… I tried.

By that point the sun had started to set, and Izuku sat on the edge of the roof to stare in that direction. He couldn’t really process what he was looking at, his attention had turned inward. It left him with a lot of time to think, for better or for worse.

There he sat with his thoughts floating, not able to stay for more than a few seconds. His feet kicked out making a rhythmic dull noise, the only sound he could vaguely hear. The next thing he registered was the darkness, causing him to look up and notice the sun was gone and there was no moon to replace it.

Still all there was to do was think. As far as Izuku knew no one had come up to the roof, of course that didn’t mean much. He wasn’t exactly paying attention.

All Might had told him point blank that he could not be a hero without a quirk.

At least he didn’t beat around the bush…

His limbs were heavy and staticky. His feet that were swinging on the side of the building were practically straining to pull him off. He knew he should care, he didn’t. What would he do now?

He didn’t think he could stay at the café for the rest of his life. Being constantly surrounded by what could have been would probably drive him completely over the edge sooner or later. No other job would hire him, one look at his shoes and he would be kicked to the curb. Izuku would rather walk straight into traffic then resort to crime, he would cut off his own hand before stealing for himself.

What else is there?

He would figure it out, there was no other choice.

The wind picked up, making him shiver against the cold that had set in when the sun went down. There wasn’t much he could do about it. At least the slime had dried, though it left him feeling crusty.

His joints protested his movements to stand. The wind seemed to whisper soothing words to help him let go. It would be all too easy. Just to let the wind cradle him and sing to him his final lullaby. Izuku shivered.

No. He wouldn’t force his end, but when it finally does come for him, he wouldn’t fight it. No Izuku would greet his end with open arms and a smile on his face.

He lowered himself next to the door that led to the stairs, his eyes drooping. His stomach growled its displeasure, and his tongue could probably rival the cats that he adored at the café. Nothing he could do about it at this very moment, and nothing he wasn’t at least partially used to. He let his eyes slowly shut and he curled into himself, shivering a little more.

The first drop of rain for the night fell.

Some time later the hinges on the door screeched, forcing Izuku back to awareness. His whole body felt like lead, and his eyes refused to open. Izuku could still hear, he put all of his effort into deciphering what was going on.

Quick footsteps sounded nearby, almost directly in front of him if he had to guess. Someone was talking too, the words were quick and slowly getting louder. Was someone talking to him? He knew he should answer, it was rude to ignore people after all. Any noise Izuku might have been able to make got caught in his chest, forcing a pressure to build.

He felt something brush against his leg. He couldn’t even muster up the strength to twitch his fingers, fingers he realized he couldn’t feel. Something warm was touching his forehead, it was too warm. Burning actually. Izuku wanted to turn away from whatever was hurting him, no matter how much he mentally yelled at himself he couldn’t move.

The voice was babbling quickly the pitch rising the longer they talked. Izuku wanted them to go away, he was perfectly fine before they came. Before he was floating in blissful numbness, and now this person was trying to pull him into the heat of Hell.

The heat spread from his neck, down his arms, and wrapped around his torso. He was suffocating. Millions of tiny needles stabbed at him where the heat was. He wanted to cry out, scream, make some noise to get the person to just stop.

Citrus and leather invaded his nostrils. Dying, he was dying.

“-on wake-up buddy!”

Oh those are real words. Who? Why? What?

“-orry!”

What?

Before Izuku could make sense of the words he heard two searing bands scorched across his shoulders and the back of knees. Blissfully everything stopped.

Izuku’s body was sore and not from the exercises a started. His every breath rattled in his lungs, that was probably not great either. Where was he?

“-AHt DO yOU mEAN nO!?!” Izuku’s ears rang at the screeched question. The voice tugged at something in his brain. The thing he was leaning against was moving rapidly. It was at that moment he realized someone was holding him, cradling him really.

Nope! Izuku started twisting his body, pushing any of his bodies protest to the back of his head. That was a later him problem to deal with. The arms holding him tightened, not painfully so.

“Shhh, you’re okay listener. I’ve got you now, you’re safe Izu I promise.” A voice soothed. “It is against the law for you to turn away someone who so clearly needs medical attention!” They snapped, no he snapped.

“Yamada-san…”

“Yeah little one it’s me. Try to relax a little for me okay? Don’t start moving around on me now.” Yamada was mad at someone, Izuku didn’t think it was him. The blond lowered his voice when addressing him but sounded angry when talking to whoever else was in the room with them. Izuku had never seen the dramatic hero angry. The arms holding him shifted a bit, and Izuku heard something slap onto a hard surface.

“Now you will get him a room to help him until Recovery Girl arrives to transfer his care. Otherwise, I will have to report to principal Nezu of UA just how your discriminatory actions have kept me from our meeting.” Yamada’s tone was made of steel.

Murmured voices replied, Izuku’s thoughts slipped between his fingers like grains of sand. He was hurt, kind of. Yamada was here, and angry. Izuku’s mouth was dry, it made his tongue a really gross texture. He was still tired and the thought of going back to sleep was appealing. Yeah, sleep was good.

The supporting arms jostled him a bit, making him grunt.

“Sorry little one,” Yamada cooed. “Now that you’re awake, I need you to stay that way until Recovery Girl gets here.”

“T’red” the greenette’s voice was slurred. “Mm ‘urts.”

“I know, she’s almost here I promise.” Izuku didn’t realize Yamada was walking until he stopped, which had halted the swaying motion. He slowly cracked one eye open to see Yamada’s blurry face peering down at him. The man grinned, “Hey there little one! There is those pretty emeralds.”

Izuku made an acknowledging noise in the back of his sore throat, it was the best he could do. He felt himself get slowly lowered onto something soft.

“Okay we need to get you into a nice and fresh gown, do you want me to stay or leave?”

Izuku latched onto Yamada’s hand, eyes nearly spilling over with tears at the thought of the man leaving.

“S’ay. Please.” Izuku wouldn’t survive if the blond left, taking the comfort with him. Yamada’s reply was muffled. Gentle hands maneuvered him, a chill ran up his back as it was exposed. Izuku felt he should be worried, in any other circumstance he probably would be. Instead he basked in the between of his head and the world around him.

Chapter Text

Hizashi Yamada felt disheartened watching the kids in his sector battling robots. There was no sign of green hair in the auditorium when he gave the presentation on what the practical exam would entail. Izuku didn’t come, not even for the general education exam. After Shouta had gone to talk to him Izuku had seemed different, Hizashi had hoped that Izuku changed his mind.

The ground beneath his feet rattled, signaling the release of the zero pointer. As predicted the kids ran in the opposite direction, away from the biggest robot. He kept a sharper eye out n the chaos, if anything were to go wrong it would be now. Hizashi pushed his thoughts of Izuku to the back of his mind, he couldn’t let them distract him from taking care of the children in his care.

“Help!” The cry was quiet compared to the destruction the exam was creating. He scanned the mass of students running, they seemed fine so where?

There!

Underneath a slab of stone was a brunette, and the zero pointer was headed directly towards her. Hizashi prepared to jump down to stop the exam when a shock of purple hair made a beeline toward the girl. Hizashi hovered from his perch, prepared, but giving the kid a chance.

“Hey! Can you move?” The boy shouted, almost reaching her side.

“It’s too heavy! I can’t reach it to use my quirk either!” While her voice was filled with fear, she was to the point. That was quite admirable especially with no training in crisis management.

The boy cursed and quickly scanned his surroundings, a lot of the examinees continued to run past them. While not surprising, it was disappointing. Suddenly the purple haired kid straightened.

“Hey! Engines!” the kid called out. Iida, Hizashi’s nephew, stopped and looked at the boy.

“What-?” Iida trailed off. His body went slack, his eyes looked to be glazed over.

“Help me lift this slab” the kid commanded. Iida didn’t hesitate and moved towards the pair. “Without hurting yourself!” He added on quickly, he then turned his attention back to the girl.

Hmm some kind of mind control? Very cool. Shouta is going to love this kid. Hizashi allowed himself a private smile as he watched the kids. The robot was rapidly closing in, they were cutting it close.

“We are going to lift the stone as high as we can, we need you to pull yourself out. Can you do that?” The purple haired kid squatted down grabbing the stone, Iida coming up beside him doing the same.

The girl nodded her head, “ready!” She called out.

The two boys pulled, shaking with the weight of the stone. “Go!” the teen grit out. The girl quickly pulled herself away yelling a clear. The stone dropped with a heavy boom and the purple haired kid dropped, his legs seemingly giving out. Iida shook his head in confusion, his eyes clearing.

A shadow loomed over them, the zero pointer. Hizashi had seen enough.

“TIME!!!” he yelled out with a slight assistance from his quirk. The robot stopped one step away from the trio. “THE EXAM IS OVER! IF YOU ARE UNINJURED, PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE EXIT! IF YOU ARE INJURED, PLEASE REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE, AND MEDBOTS WILL BE OUT TO ASSIST YOU SHORTLY!” Hizashi watched the kids for a few minutes before heading off to the staff meeting to discuss the exam.

As soon as he entered the room, he went straight towards his husband. His empty chair was to Nezu’s right, putting Hizashi in the middle of two of his favorite beings. Nemuri was to Nezu’s left, seating the chimera at the head of the table between his two personal students. It looked like everyone else had already arrived, well everybody except…

The door slammed open jarring most of his fellow teachers sitting around the table. “I AM HERE!” All Might fell into the only empty chair across from Shota, his lovely husband, who was currently glaring at the number one hero.

Hizashi leaned toward the dark-haired man, “you’re using your outdoor face” he whispered. “Can you at least try to be civil?”

Shouta continued to glare at All Might, but briefly flicked his eyes towards Hizashi. “This is civil,” he grumbled.

Hizashi sighed and held his husband’s hand under the table as Nezu started the meeting. Nemuri smirked at the two of them, he smiled innocently while Shouta’s scowl deepened.

The meeting was long.

As soon as Nezu dismissed them, Hizashi latched onto his husband to drag him away from the oblivious number one hero. He didn’t feel like becoming a vigilante for his husband, not today anyway.

“Come on Shou, let’s go visit Izu at the café yeah? That will make you feel better. I’m sure Miss Kitty misses you.” Shouta grumbled his agreement, and Hizashi drove them to the Toe Beanery. He hoped to see Izuku there.

The bell chimed their arrival, Gran greeted them from behind the counter.

“The usual boys?”

“The strongest stuff you got Gran” Shouta slapped a handful of yen onto the counter. “Make that my usual, I have to deal with a blond dumb-ass this year.”

Gran tskd “now Shouta I told you, you shouldn’t talk about your husband like that. People may get the wrong idea you know.”

Hizashi squawked in offense, “he meant All Might Gran!” The old lady traded smirks with his husband, mischief dancing in her eyes. “Where is the green bean? Surely, he wouldn’t betray me!”

Gran’s eyebrows furrowed as she pursed her lips. “I don’t know, I thought he went to the UA entrance exams.”

Both men stared at her intently, “did he say he was going?” Shouta asked, his knuckles turning white around his cup.

Gran shook her head and reached for something below the counter, “No. but he’s been studying like mad any free moment he gets.” She slid a textbook towards them. “He wasn’t as subtle as he thought he was.”

A phone cut into the building tension.

“Eraserhead. Mmhm.” His husband glanced at him, frowning. “Tonight? Fine.” Shouta hung up and stuffed his phone back into his pocket. “That was Naomassa, the raid has been moved to tonight and they need me there. Zashi…” Hizashi knew his husband felt conflicted. They had been planning the raid for months, for it to have been moved something must have happened. But Izuku might be in danger.

“I got him.” He placed a gentle kiss on the crown of Shouta’s head, “come back to me.” While Hizashi would never ask Shouta to leave heroics, he couldn’t help but hate this part of the job.

“Of course. Take care of the problem child.” He squeezed Hizashi’s hand and left with a nod to Gran. Rain began to fall.

Hizashi sighed to himself as he pulled out his own phone, it took two rings for the mammal to pick up. “Hizashi-kun! I must say I am a little surprised to hear from you. Am I correct in assuming something is wrong with Izuku-kun?”

“Yes, we believe he’s missing sensei, will you find him please?” He started pacing while listening to the typing on the other end of the line.

“But of course Hizashi-kun!” Nezu assured. Hizashi tried to give Gran a reassuring smile, it probably came out as more of a grimace. There was silence on the other end.

“Sensei?”

“Izuku-kun is on the roof of a business building, I sent you the address.”

“hE’s wHAt?!?” Hizashi screeched, scaring away Miss Kitty who had been rubbing against his leg for attention.

“Izuku needs you calm pup, he’s not on the ledge. He seems to be locked up there though. Go to your pup, we’ll discuss everything once he is taken care of.
”
The blond stared at his phone dumbly for moment before shaking himself. He looked at Grans worried form, “don’t worry, I’ll make sure he’s okay.” At Grans nod Present Mic rushed out the doors.

It took him thirty minutes to make it to the appropriate building, thirty minutes too long. Mic paused just long enough to inhale some air after his run. He was thankful for his knowledge to pick locks with hair pins as the lock clicked open. Another three minutes wasted going up the stairs to yet another locked door. This lock was harder, that or his hands were shaking too much.

“Who locks this many fucking doors!”

He fumbled with the lock for ten more seconds before the lock also gave in. The door squeaked loudly as he walked through it.

“Izuku?” He called, almost walking past the boy. Green caught in the corner of his vision right by the door he had just walked through. “Green bean!” He dropped to his knees in front of the child, he looked unconscious. Hizashi slowly brushed his hand on top of the boy’s leg, trying not to startle him. He was freezing!

When there was no reaction, Hizashi brushed his hand against Izuku’s forehead. It felt practically frozen, the wind howling the answer as to why. He called Recovery Girl.

“Yamada Hizashi! Do you know what time it is?” She scolded.

“Chiyo-san! I think Izuku has hypothermia, he’s freezing cold, and his lips are blue! Should I take him to the hospital?” Would they even help, went unspoken.

“Is he awake?” her tone shifted into business mode.

“No!”

“Take him to the hospital and try to wake him up. You’ll beat me there, but I am on my way. Remember, he needs you to be calm.”

Present Mic took a deep breath, “right. Thank you, Chiyo-san.” He pocketed his phone again and sat down fully, pulling Izuku into his lap. He tried covering the boy from the pelting rain. “Izuku, you need to wake up.” Mic tried to gently shake the greenette awake. “Come on, wake up buddy!” He tried to sound teasing; he didn’t think it worked. Mic buried his face in the soaked locks, “I am so sorry!”

Ever so gently he picked the kid up, he paused thinking the boy made a noise.

“Izuku?” Nothing. Present Mic ran, trying not to jostle his precious cargo. It was yet another agonizing thirty minutes before the hospital came into view. He rushed in panting, the nurse at the reception desk stood quickly. “He needs medical attention,” he managed in between pants.

The woman opened her mouth when her stare bore into the feet of the child he held. More accurately, his red primordial shoes.

“No.”

“-AHt DO yOU mEAN nO!?!” Hizashi didn’t mean to let his quirk slip, truly he didn’t, but did the woman not see how Izuku’s pale skin was turning as blue as his lips. Hizashi held Izuku in a cradle, his chest rising and falling rapidly from his sprint to the hospital. The hospital that refused to treat a child.

“There are no beds available, and we don’t have the resources to help someone with his condition. Sorry.” The woman looked anything but sympathetic.

Hizashi opened his mouth to lay into the woman when his charge moved suddenly. He tightened his hold to keep him from falling.

“Shhh, you’re okay listener. I’ve got you now, you’re safe Izu I promise.” He tried to sooth the boy. He looked back the woman who had turned her attention elsewhere. “It is against the law for you to turn away someone who so clearly needs medical attention!” He snapped, putting in as much authority he could muster while trying to break for this child.

“Yamada-san…” the kid groaned.

“Yeah little one it’s me. Try to relax a little for me okay? Don’t start moving around on me now.”

That was it. Hizashi carefully maneuvered Izuku so he could reach his pockets, he pulled out his wallet. Shifting again he slammed the wallet on the desk leaving it wide open to show his hero license.

“Now you will get him a room to help him until Recovery Girl arrives to transfer his care. Otherwise, I will have to report to principal Nezu of UA just how your discriminatory actions have kept me from our meeting.” He figured Nezu would back him up, if he didn’t tear the hospital to pieces.

The woman picked up his wallet and paled, showing it to her coworker. They conversed in hushed voices. He was at the end of his rope when they both looked at him, one of the girls handing him his wallet.

“This way,” she mumbled.

He noticed his cargo had stilled and jostled him a bit, earning a grunt of pain.

“Sorry little one,” he cooed. “Now that you’re awake, I need you to stay that way until Recovery Girl gets here.”

“T’red” the greenette’s voice was slurred. “Mm ‘urts.”

“I know, she’s almost here I promise.” Hizashi stopped at the bed the woman indicated, and Izuku slowly cracked one eye open. He grinned, “Hey there little one! There is those pretty emeralds.”

Izuku made an acknowledging noise in the back of his throat. Hizashi slowly lowered his bundle onto the bed.

“Okay we need to get you into a nice and fresh gown, do you want me to stay or leave?”

The boy latched onto his hand, eyes nearly spilling over with tears.

“S’ay. Please.”

Hizashi’s heart hurt at the broken answer. “Okay, it’s okay.” Izuku’s eyes were glazed over as he dressed him. He pushed all of the horror he felt at the scars that littered the child’s body to the back of his mind, that was something to be addressed later. The blond pulled up a chair to sit by Izuku's head, Hell would freeze over before the thought to leave ever crossed Hizashi's mind.

He leaned back in the chair with a sigh, carding his fingers through green locks. Chiyo couldn’t get here fast enough.

Chapter Text

“Do you see this right here on his pinkie toe?” The doctor asked his mommy, completely ignoring him. That was okay though, Izuku was used to it. Something about not being able to understand until he was older. It didn’t matter, he had to wait what felt like a million days to find out what his quirk was! All this doctor seemed to care about was his foot, which he had no idea how this could possibly relate to what his quirk was.

“There are two joints, see here and here. Now as we humans evolved to develop quirks, our bodies no longer developed useless parts. Things like an appendix, wisdom teeth, and… well a second joint in the pinkie toe.”

The grip his mommy had on his hand tightened. It hurt a bit, but he would support his mommy like any great hero would. Like All Might would!

“So what- so what does that mean for- for my boy?” His mommy’s voice was weird. Izuku cupped her hands and smiled up at her, he wanted to reassure her that everything was fine. No matter what else his body had, he would still be the best hero for his mommy, he would make her proud!

“Well, the only time we ever see this is when evolution has not fully caught up in a bloodline.” The doctor gathered up all of the pictures of his feet bones, that must mean that they were almost done here.

“But both his father and I have a quirk?” Izuku could barely hear his mommy’s voice. She didn’t look back at him, even when he pat her hand to make her feel better.

“If someone on either side of the family line was quirkless, there is always the possibility of it occurring later down the line in someone with weaker genes. I am sorry Mrs. Midoriya, but your child is quirkless.”

“What?”

How could he not have a quirk? How could he save people with a smile like All Might without a quirk?

The doctor finally looked at him, his expression was blank. Something that the, then four-year-old, would quickly get used to. “You will not have a quirk.”

Izuku looked up at his mom, tears threatening to escape. She looked back at him, she looked so sad.

“Mommy?” That one word seemed to break something in her. She wrapped her arms around him tightly, her whole body seemed to shake. “I- I- I can- I can still be a- a hero-o? Right? Mom- Mommy?” he sniffled. She pulled away to look at him, tears running in rivers down her face. “I can- I can still be your hero. Right?”

His All Might video still played in the background; the sound of his heroism barely even registered. His mom stared at him right in the eye, cupping his cheeks.

“HAVE NO FEAR!!!” The All Might in the documentary bellowed.

“Right mommy? I can still be your- your hero?” He couldn’t help but notice she wasn’t answering.

“Izuku…” his mom trailed.

“BECAUSE I AM HERE!!!” All Might beamed at the camera.

“What do you mean you don’t have a quirk you dumb freak!?!” Kaachan sneered from behind his mommy.

“Mommy?” Izuku implored, mentally begging her.

“I- I-“ she still cradled his face gently, always so gentle.

“So can you be a hero without a quirk?” The scene on the computer changed to show him and All Might standing on a rooftop together.

“Tch! You can’t do anything right!” Kaachan snarled, palms crackling.

“Mom…”

“I am so sorry!” She was full on sobbing while she hugged him, it did not obstruct his view of All Might looking at him through the screen and Kaachan boiling in rage.

“No, not without a quirk.”

“You stupid fucking Deku!” Kaachan lunged towards his face, the sparks turning into full blasts. The entire apartment exploded, and his mom screamed. Or was that him?

Hands griped his shoulders, a slight pressure that seemed to hold him to the burning ground. His eyes remained squeezed shut. He just wanted everything to be over.

Please! Please make it stop! I’m sorry! Please! I’ll leave everyone alone!

“-uku! You’re safe! Wake up!” A different male voice that Izuku vaguely remembered. The hands seemed to be shaking him lightly.

It was definitely Izuku that was screaming in the dark. His body felt strained.

When did it get dark?

“Izuku it’s over, I promise! You’re okay now!” That was Yamada’s voice, he sounded worried.

That’s when Izuku registered the feeling of blankets wrapped around him. There was something warm on his forehead, neck, underarms, knees, ankles. He collapsed back into the bed; he hadn’t even realized he was straining against someone until his body seemed physically incapable to.

“Shhh, there you go. Are you with us listener?”

Izuku blearily opened his eyes to see a man with blond hair, and a pinched expression peering at him. “Yamada-san?” Izuku’s voice was cracked and just confirming that it was Yamada tore at his throat. The man gently pulled his hands away from Izuku’s shoulders, the greenette just stared blinking slowly. He didn’t know where he was and found that he didn’t particularly care. Moving felt like a herculean task.

“Yeah listener, it’s me. How are we feeling?” Yamada brushed some of Izuku’s green strands away from his face.

He could do nothing but blink at the hero. He didn’t understand how his mind could be so loud and jumbled, yet so quiet at the same time. He was both floating yet chained to the bed. He saw Yamada’s mouth move, but no words made it to his ears.

Should he be concerned?

An older doctor walked into his room, her cane in the shape of a syringe. Something niggled in the back of his mind, he couldn’t even attempt to mentally reach for it. She was looking at him as her mouth moved, still no sound reached him. He continued to slowly blink, his eyelids drooping.

A weathered hand was suddenly very close to his face making a snapping motion. Maybe he lost his hearing? Oh well.

Izuku let himself be engulfed in the floating sensation. He was just so tired.

Something cold and rough touched the tip of his nose. His eyes went cross eyed trying to see what was touching him. A tiny black paw was pushing against his nose. He followed the black fur all the way to impatient grey eyes. Thena, the newest addition to the Toe Beanery, let out a high-pitched meow. She bapped at his nose again before standing back on all fours, staring up at him from his own lap.

Slowly, Izuku lifted his hand to scratch the black kitten behind her ears. Her little engine ran, as she leaned into the scratches appreciatively.

“We can not tell Shou that he was right. I’ll never hear the end of it, and we’ll end up with another cat.” Izuku blinked up at Yamada who was lounging in a beanbag chair across from Izuku’s own.

“Huh?” He said, ever the linguist.

“You weren’t responding,” Yamada smiled, gently petting his own lap cat. Obviously, it was Miss Kitty. “Recovery Girl couldn’t do much for you because of how little energy you had. Once you warmed up you started screaming in your sleep.” Izuku vaguely remembered that.

“Wasn’t that just a few minutes ago?”

“No little listener,” Yamada was staring at him now. Izuku didn’t mean to say that out loud, now Yamada probably thought he was crazy. “That was about three hours ago.”

Izuku fixated on Thena, who had lost interest in ear scratches, and decided nibbling on his fingertips was a better use of her time. “Oh…”

“When you stopped responding I got really worried about you.” Izuku’s shoulders hunched over, he didn’t mean to worry anybody. He was selfish for taking up everyone’s time like that. Thena nipped the skin between his thumb and pointer finger, forcing his attention back to the present.

“Hey,” Yamada knocked on the wood flooring softly. “I didn’t say that to make you feel guilty, I’m sorry.”

“No, no you’re fine.” Izuku still couldn’t bring himself to look at the man.

“There is nothing immediately life threateningly wrong once Recovery Girl and I staved off the hypothermia. You were out there a long-time kiddo.” Izuku ignored the slight pause Yamada left after that statement. He wasn’t going to volunteer any information he didn’t have to. “Well I called Shou freaking out, he’s finishing up raid paperwork he’s fine, and just said cats fix everything and hung up!” Yamada gestured in a ‘can you believe it’ way, causing the corners of Izuku’s mouth to twitch slightly.

“Anyway” Yamada sighed theatrically. “I brought you here because Gran was also worried, and she has plenty of cats. All with the okay from Recovery Girl, who said that she needed to talk with us soon. She saw something in your scans she didn’t like but told me it wasn’t an immediate concern.”

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Izuku’s heart was having palpitations. What was he going to do now?

“What?”

“I- I can’t afford the- the scans! Or- or- or the tests! Or- or anything really!” Even with his meager savings, Izuku was still in some serious debt now.

“Woah! Listener-“

“Izuku.” A stern voice stopped everything in its tracks. Gran had appeared in front of him, holding a cup of something warm. “Breathe child, in for four. Try again, it’s fine. In for four. Good, now hold for seven. Out for eight, good. Can you fully process the words I’m saying?” Izuku nodded breathlessly.

Gran slowly lowered herself to the floor, her joints popping in protest. She reached out to rest her knobbed hands in his curled-up knee, giving him enough time to move away. He didn’t, he put all of his focus on the warmth seeping into his knee and the sound of Gran’s voice.

“I want you to listen to what I say, and do not respond. I am going to make some statements then hand you the cup of tea in my other hand. You will listen, you will take the tea I give you, you will drink it, and you will not respond. Instead you are going to sit with these statements and marinate on them, only once you finish your tea will you be allowed to respond in any manner you wish. Do you agree?”

Izuku looked at Yamada, who only smiled at him encouragingly. “Agreed.”

“You are a child,” Gran’s hand lightly squeezed his knee. “It is not, nor should it have ever been, your responsibility to handle basic necessities. This includes but is not limited to food, water, shelter, hygiene, and first aid. I and most of the people at UA have decided to take care of you in any way we can. We did this on our own volition. We do not see you as a burden, as a project, as a charity case, or as any sort of inconvenience. We want you to let us take care of you, and help you learn how to feel safe and how to be loved with no strings attached.”

Izuku couldn’t tell if he was still breathing. Warm ceramic nudged the back of his hand, he looked up at Gran. Her jaw was set, but her hands were gentle as she helped him cradle the cup. Everything was a little blurry and it took an embarrassingly long time for him to realize he was cry.

“Now drink,” her voice had lost the commanding tone and was replaced with a weariness that showed her age.

Izuku took slow sips of his honey lavender tea, absently petting Thena. The kitten seemed to sense the atmosphere and allowed him the repetitive motion.

How should he respond to this?

Denial?

They would be disappointed, and logically everything she said makes sense.

Thank you?

But, just the thought of letting someone take over his life made his chest tighten in panic.

All Might told me I couldn’t be a hero without a quirk. Now I feel like I’ve lost all sense of myself, even though I thought I had given up on even going to school just a few weeks ago?

That opened up a whole other can of worms he wasn’t sure he could handle right now. Gran and Yamada were murmuring to each other quietly. Nothing substantial, just small things about their day, they were keeping the conversation light. They stopped when he fully looked up at them after he set the empty cup on the floor, careful not to disturb the now sleeping kitten.

They didn’t push, and for that he was thankful. It gave him the strength to take a breath.

“So, what do we do now?”

“Now,” Gran smiled, “we take care of each other.”

Chapter Text

Izuku had to admit that the rest of the night was a little anticlimactic. After Gran spoke there was a heavy silence that followed, it was awkward for him anyway, he couldn’t speak for the two adults in the room.

‘We take care of each other.’ That’s what Gran had said.

Well yeah. Is that not what we’ve already been doing? How does that change anything?

The two adults didn’t move from their seats, so neither did he. He did have Thena in his lap, and she looked content to sleep there no matter if Izuku had wanted to move anyway. Staying in the café it is, at least for now.

Time seemed to move at a snail’s pace, every tick of the clock behind him seemed to echo. No one was talking, and the silence was driving him insane. His mind was his greatest enemy at the moment, and the quiet only made his thoughts roar.

I should leave. I’m wasting their time. Why am I even here? Am I supposed to say something? Jumping off that roof seems like a better situation to be in. I can’t be a hero anyway. I’m useless to society. I’ve disappointed everyone, and now they hate me.

“Zashi, Gran,” the rumbled voice from behind made him jump in his skin. Thena voiced her displeasure before jumping off of his lap, he mourned the loss of her warmth. “You’re torturing the kid.” Aizawa plopped onto the pillow next to Izuku with an arm over his eyes.

“What? Oh! Sorry listener I guess I was just thinking too hard” Yamada rubbed his face sheepishly.

“A dangerous past time for you,” Aizawa drawled. Yamada squawked in protest, trying not to dislodge Miss Kitty.

A soft noise from Gran’s chair had the three looking over at the woman. Her arms were slightly crossed over in an imitation of a hug, her head was tilted against the back of her chair, and her mouth was parted slightly with soft snores escaping her lips.

“Oh, I guess uh.” Izuku rubbed the back of his neck as he started to rise from his seat, “I guess I should head home.”

“Sit.” Aizawa’s tone held no room for argument. Izuku sat, picking at his fingertips.

“Izuku you almost died. When I saw you on that rooftop I- hell I was terrified I was too late.” Yamada looked at Izuku, his face almost pleading. “What happened out there?”

“We’re not mad at you” Aizawa added. “We just need to know what happened so we can take care of it.”

Izuku had no idea what to tell them. How could he look them in the eyes and say that he gave up? They would realize that they wasted their time on him, that there was no hope for him. Would they even believe him? It was his word against All Might’s, but he couldn’t lie to them. Aizawa had no problems on calling him out whenever he tried to.

“I was walking,” Izuku felt no need to tell them that he planned to take the exam. It wasn’t important anyway. “I passed over a sewer grate where a villain made of sludge appeared. He talked about how he was going to take over my body.” A warm hand covered his, blocking himself from continuing the assault on his fingers.

“Gentle on yourself” Aizawa chided softly. He then handed him a tangle which Izuku took gratefully.

“Thanks. Well um- anyway, the villain was suffocating me. I think I was drowning, which is very gross if you think about it because-“

“Very gross, but don’t try to change the subject” Yamada redirected.

“Right. Well, um, I think I might have um. I think I passed out, because next thing I know I am waking up to someone trying to slap me awake. I guess, uh I guess that’s one way to do it” Izuku huffed a humorless laugh.

Aizawa frowned at that, and Yamada opened his mouth as if to say something.

“Anyway!” Izuku rushed, “uh yeah so I woke up and there was A- a hero. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I grabbed onto them as they were trying to leave.”

“After they got you help.” Yamada’s tone contradicted his words.

“No. But it’s fine!” Izuku waved his hands to emphasize his point. “I was fine, I tend to get out of villain attacks relatively unharmed anyway. It doesn’t matter!”

“Attacks plural?” Izuku did not like the dark-haired man’s tone. It made the hairs on his arms stick up.

“Uh- it was a long time ago…” Izuku trailed nervously.

Aizawa sighed while pinching the bridge of his nose. Yamada cleared his throat. Great, they both hate him now.

“Just continue listener.”

“Okay, um well?” Izuku had no idea how to continue from here, at this point his brain was on autopilot. “I grabbed onto the hero as h-they were about to uh, fly away? And we landed on the roof that I’m assuming you found me on.” Izuku gestured towards Yamada, who nodded in confirmation. “Right, um they were in a hurry. So ummm… they said to knock on the door until someone opened the door. And uh. And then h-they left.” Izuku shrugged as he finished his story.

“So let me get this straight,” Aizawa started.

Uh-oh

“I’ll be reporting a hero for failing to prioritize a civilian over a villain, endangering said civilian by not following basic rescue protocol, abandoning a victim after a traumatic attack in a dangerous area, and improper containment of a villain.” Aizawa looked at Yamada, “am I missing anything else?”

Izuku nearly fainted then and there. “What? Report! Wha- why?”

Aizawa turned back to Izuku, eyebrow raised. “Any hero that can’t keep up with their basic duties deserves to have their license revoked. What happened was negligence at best problem child.”

Yamada looked at the greenette sympathetically. “If I were to hazard a guess, we could probably add quirkism to that report.”

While Yamada had no idea just how right he was, Izuku hated the sympathy. He would rather roll with the physical punches then deal with pity.

Aizawa nodded, “anything else we need to know problem child?”

“You can’t report the hero,” all of the fight seemed to leave him. Izuku felt like gravity was holding him hostage and was trying to force his eyelids shut. He just wanted to go back to the beach and sleep for a few years.

“Izuku… we just want to help. Besides, you may not be the first person to be hurt by this hero.” Yamada spit the word out like it offended him. “And, you probably won’t be the last if HE remains unchecked.”

“Please,” Izuku sighed, he felt like he could feel his eyebags worsening. “Please just… just drop it.”

Yamada looked as if to refuse, but Aizawa spoke up softly. “Okay.” Yamada inhaled sharply as he whipped around to look at Aizawa. “Okay, we’ll drop it for now. You’ve had a long day.”

Yamada nodded slowly, “he’s right. I’m sorry Izuku.”

“It’s-“ Izuku yawned. “You’re fine.” He slowly rose from his seat trying to mentally prepare himself for the walk.

“Upstairs,” Gran’s voice commanded.

Izuku’s brain halted, “uh?”

Gran smirked at him, “I’m old not deaf. You all weren’t exactly whispering. Now head on upstairs young man, you’ve lost your homeless privileges.”

“I- wha?” Izuku’s mind might as well have been making a dialup noise for everyone to hear.

“You heard me! Head on upstairs. Keep going straight until you’re face hits a door, that room is yours.” Izuku swore everyone was laughing at him. Well as close to laughing as Aizawa lets himself get.

“We’ll come back tomorrow to talk more problem child. Get some rest.” Aizawa elbowed a still snickering Yamada. “Let’s go home I’m exhausted and need stitches.”

Izuku’s mind didn’t even register what words meant anymore as he wandered up the stairs. Gran watched him go up as if afraid he’d fall, which fair.

“Why didn’t you go to the hospital!?!” Yamada sounded like a stressed-out parent.

“Because I had better shit to do, now let’s go.”

Izuku, true to Gran’s word, ran face first into the door. The thought that he should protest more was shoved to the back of his mind. Maybe tomorrow. He flopped down onto the almost too soft mattress and grunted when his forehead hit something that was not a pillow.

He cracked one eye open to glare at the offending object. It was a green phone with a bright pink sticky note that read ‘yes Izuku this is yours. It’s your baby shower gift -Gran’.

But I can’t get pregnant?

The light from the phone was blinding. Izuku squinted trying to see the screen. He noticed the background was a picture of himself with no less than four cats laying on him from the cat café, he also vaguely remembered that he thought he was alone when that photo was taken.

Too much overthinking when he should be sleeping. He opened up the contacts, a quick scroll showed all of his contacts from his old phone was on there. Izuku opened up Aizawa’s contact and typed up a quick message. Pressing send, Izuku allowed himself to finally cave into his much-needed slumber.

Outside the cafe...

“I still can’t believe you didn’t at least let the paramedics check you out.” Zashi grumbled as Shouta, and his husband got into their car.

“This is mild, you should know better” Shouta poked at the wound on his stomach.

“Stop that!” Zashi slapped his hand away from its prodding, “you’ll make it worse. I’m just worried about the example you’re setting for the baby!”

“He’s a teenager” Shouta rolled his eyes fondly, his phone meowed at him. He glanced at his phone, “Oh speaking of the problem child.” He scowled after reading the message and started typing immediately.

“Shou I’m driving!” Zashi whined. “What did the green baby say? What are you saying? I need the details!”

“He said nothing important” Shouta replied, while still scowling at the phone. “And I’m telling him to fuck off.”

Zashi gasped, “don’t you dare!”

Chapter Text

The next day found Izuku fired and pouting in a booth by a window at the café. No coffee to be had. Nope, Izuku spent five whole minutes perfecting his coffee just for Gran to pull it out of his hands and fire him. His protests went unheard as she shoved a cup of tea and some miso soup into his hands. He was to eat out in the open with the general population, Izuku stared at her with betrayal as she wiped the counter down. The counter he was supposed to be cleaning.

The bell chimed the arrival of a customer, but Izuku ignored it. His soup was the only thing that he could trust in this world.

“Careful you don’t drown in your soup; I think you’ve had more than enough fluids in your lungs.” Aizawa. Izuku was tempted to try and drown himself anyway.

“Aww chin up listener! Everything will be alright!”

A whine sounded in the back of the green haired boy’s throat, as he finally lifted his head enough to zero in on the tired man’s coffee. Izuku made eye contact with Aizawa, silently pleading. He needed that coffee; it was his life blood. Aizawa, the traitor, looked completely unsympathetic as he took a long slow sip.

“You’re a sadistic monster, and I hope Racoon pees on your shoe” Izuku grumbled, slurping his soup as obnoxiously as he could. Yamada snorted, then quickly tried hiding it with a fake cough. It didn’t go over well, considering the exasperated look Aizawa shot the blond.

Aizawa’s gaze slid back to him, “Racoon knows better, he’ll pee in Zashi’s shoe.” Ignoring Yamada’s grumbled rude, the sadist took another large gulp of the sweet bean juice. “Anyway, the Rat said he’s willing to let you take a private exam if you want to go to UA. A lot of the people know you’d do great there.”

“It could be any course of your choosing” Yamada added softly. “You’re a smart kid and have a lot of people rooting for you, even this grump!” Yamada lightly pushed at Aizawa. The tired man grunted a bit and, ignoring Yamada’s soft ‘sorry’, flicked his arm in retaliation.

“Either way kid it’s your decision.”

Izuku sighed, one that full of bone deep weariness, he was exhausted. Every breath, every movement, and every thought took too much energy that he didn’t have. Izuku was relying on working the café as a distraction, and though the thought was nice, Gran took that from him today. The thought of going to UA… Izuku genuinely believed it would kill him.

“No, I am good.” Izuku really wished one of the cats were here to be pet. Instead, they gathered by one of the newer regulars. He briefly wondered if the kid would be one of the first years starting at UA in a couple of months. Slowly Izuku peered at the two adults. One with eyes filled with concern and gripping his mug a tad too tight to be casual, the other with a carefully blank face that Izuku thought might hide a worry of their own. “I like working here, and I can’t imagine my life anywhere else.” The words tasted like ash, but they were technically the truth.

“Okay.” Aizawa said, about to take another gulp but found the cup empty. He closed his eyes, as if in mourning. Slowly they opened again, “finish your soup, we’re grabbing your stuff.”

Izuku nearly choked on his soup, “wah-! Wait what?” The green haired boy did NOT want his personal heroes to see his mockery of a shelter. It worked for his needs, but Izuku knew the men would be disgusted when they laid eyes on it. Then they would realize just how useless he really was. “There’s no need!” He added, waving his hands frantically, before either man could respond. “I don’t ha- I don’t have anything…” Izuku noticed Yamada’s face, then tacked on “nothing I want to keep anyway.”

“There perfect! No need for them to see anything, and I am now a master at this. I’ll have to sneak my notebooks here at some point though… Hmmm I wonder if today would be too suspicious, probably, sometime next week would be better when everyone will hopefully let their guard downandatthatpointIcouldprobablysneakawayandstopbeingaburden-”

The boy’s attention snapped to the hand barely grazing his own, the hand that was attached to one scowling Aizawa.

“Kid you’re not a burden I- “The man’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times before glancing over at Yamada.

The blond leaned forward “kiddo we know you don’t believe us. Yet. But do you really think you disappearing on us would make our lives easier, in any way?”

Izuku stared intently at his hands, he figured saying what he really thought wasn’t the way to go.
I am a burden to everyone.

Izuku shrugged instead. He heard one of the two men sitting across from him get up, and a shaky exhale. Izuku knew, then and there, this is where they leave. Little beads of red started forming at the tips of the fingers he had been steadily picking at.
“Oh Izuku… no.” Yamada nearly whispered. “Never in a million years would we ever want you gone. Do you want to know what would happen?” The mans voice changed, a slight tone of something entered his voice. Something Izuku couldn’t put his finger on.
A black cat was dropped onto his lap, a soft ‘gentle’ echoed in his ear. Sunny sat easily in his lap, demanding green eyes held his own. The cat squeaked at him, bumping their noses together leaving Izuku’s own nose feeling wet. Absently scratching Sunny’s ears, he looked up. The corners of Yamada’s mouth tilted up slightly, and Aizawa was petting his acquired hairless cat.

“Classes for UA would be cancelled, this shop would close, and Japan would have to deal with at least two new vigilantes until you were found.” Yamada nodded his head definitively, then turned to Aizawa. “Did I forget anything?”

Aizawa hummed “Depending on the circumstances the Rat would probably defect. Also, anyone who has been to UA in the last few years would probably riot.”

Izuku couldn’t help but snort, which got the adults’ attention. Aizawa raised a single brow in question. “I’m sorry” he giggled, “but the principle would defect from the commission for a stale corn chip.”

Yamada let out a chuckle “probably!”

The three of them sat, listening to the twin engines on either side of the table. It was comfortable, Izuku realized, easy. He loved Sunny, the cat constantly followed him when he worked the café. The menace also yowled at the shut door when Izuku would bake in the kitchen, multiple customers had asked after the cats’ wellbeing. He usually just grumbled threats aimed towards the creature.

“I live in Dagobah Beach” he mumbled.

“Okay.”

That was all Aizawa said before slowly plopping his companion onto Yamada. He tilted his head at Izuku. The green haired boy stood up with Sunny in his arms, then also placed the cat on Yamada’s’ lap.

“Hey!” The blond exclaimed, earning two annoyed meows. “How am I supposed to get up?”

Aizawa groaned as he stood “you don’t.” Before Yamada could splutter his response, Aizawa gently pat his husband’s head. “That’s the cat rule” the man shrugged casually, “sorry.” He looked at Izuku, “ready?”

Izuku hummed in the affirmative as they left a helpless Yamada.

He couldn’t help but side eye Aizawa the entire time. The mans face never changed when they approached his shelter. It remained blank when he told Aizawa he was done, with all of his stuff in one ratty duffle bag.

The only time the tired mans face changed was before they left, he scanned the beach and let out a low hum. When Izuku asked about it, the man turned away from the beach and toward him.

“Nothing,” He replied eyeing the boy critically. “It just seemed like the beach was a little cleaner than the last time I saw it.”

“Oh” was all he could say. “I don’t know anything about that.” The man just let out another hum. “Did you know Gran fired me?” Izuku asked, quickly changing the subject.

“Oh really” the man drawled.

“Yup” he popped the end of the word.

When they arrived back at the café, Yamada could barely be seen under the pile of cats. Aizawa went to join when Izuku dragged the man towards Gran at the counter.

“Tell him!” He accused gesturing towards Aizawa, who wasn’t paying attention. He had eyes only for his cat covered husband on the floor.

“Tell him what?” Gran huffed.

“Tell Aizawa how you’re a traitor and fired me!” Izuku kept the man’s wrist hostage as he gestured wildly.

“I didn’t fire you” Grans voice held a note of exasperation, “I told you that you were not to work for two days. The world is not ending dear.”

Izuku stared at Aizawa with wide eyes, “see! Fired. Heartlessly fired!”

Aizawa gently freed his wrist and pat the kids head, before walking away. “Cats.”

Chapter Text

Izuku believed life to be acceptable. He wasn’t on top of the world, and he didn’t jump out of bed in the morning with forest creatures frolicking around him. He wasn’t on a roof though. He didn’t have the urge to jump and didn’t urgently need to die right then and there. He wouldn’t be upset if he just didn’t wake up one day, but he wasn’t going to force it. Therefore, life was acceptable.

Izuku had dragged himself out of bed, showered, got dressed, and he even brushed his teeth. That alone was a win. Did he forget to eat? There was no proof, he would just nibble on a croissant that was just about ready. The baker glanced at the timer he had five minutes before the croissants had to be taken out. It was game time.

He ran (I power walked Gran, I swear! I would never run!) to the bag of cat food and hauled it over to Miss Kitty’s bowl first. The orange cat had no qualms about eating the others food, it gives Kimchi a chance to eat some of his own food before Miss Kitty bullies him for the rest. At the sound of kibble hitting the dish the small hoard of cats converged to where Izuku stood, Miss Kitty bulldozing her way to her dish.

Izuku hurried across the room to the other dishes, expertly dodging the four cats trying to trip him up. Kimchi first, to give the orange and black calico a chance to eat. Then came the twins Sunny and Thena. They were not from the same litter, but they were both dropped off at the café on the same day. Both cats were black short hairs, the only difference were the eyes and obviously the personalities. Finally there was Beast, the hairless cat that most people tended to avoid. All the poor cat wanted was cuddles, but a lot of the customers were weirded out by the lack of fur.

Izuku ran back to the kitchen, and just as the timer went off, he had the lid to the cat food padlocked shut. The baker raised both fists in victory. The croissants were the last things needed before everything was prepped for the Toe Beanery to start her day. He flipped the sign to open and began making the first day of school drinks for the trio.

Not more than a minute later, the doorbell chimed announcing the arrival of his teacher trio. Izuku finished putting the whipped cream on Kayama’s mocha, before sliding all three caffeinated beverages to the small group with chipper ‘good morning!’
“Aww! Good morning green bean!” Kayama cooed, leaning against the counter. Aizawa grunted, snatching his cup and chugged the contents.

“Good morning lil’ listener! Don’t mind Sho” Yamada put his hand up to his mouth as if to whisper, “this is only his second cup.” The blonds husband continued to devour his coffee but made sure to flip Yamada off. The man slapped Aizawa’s hand, “Shou! We talked about this. No inappropriate words or gestures in front of the baby!”

The Raven-haired man plopped the, now empty, cup onto the counter to look at his husband properly. “And I keep telling you that he is the same age as our first years, he’s fine.”

Izuku chose to ignore both the name and the squabble the two men were having. Instead he turned to Kayama, “So got any super interesting quirks in your class this year?” Thus started a five-minute-long conversation about a kid who rapidly grow plants from their seeds. The conversation ended with a single, very heavy, sentence. “We can’t let Aizawa-san know, or give the kid a coffee plant seed.”

Izuku interrupted the married couple’s argument, which had somehow evolved to the ethics of punting a child, by sliding a to go gallon of coffee into Aizawa’s view.

The man handed him three thousand yen and grabbed the container of coffee, after ruffling Izuku’s hair. “I’m not sharing this.” The tired hero seemed to ignore Kayama’s snickering and Yamada’s warning ‘Sho…’ in favor of staring at the kid. “Are you still avoiding Recovery Girl?”

“Nooo?” Izuku quickly turned his back to the three adults and started wiping down the already clean espresso machine.

“Izuku.”

“Aizawa-san.”

There was an exasperated sigh, “Aizawa.”

“Nope I’m Izuku!” The gremlin responded with a cheeky grin. Aizawa glared at him, his eyes were the only parts of his face peaking out from his scarf.

“You’re a menace” Aizawa’s voice was muffled.

“Anyway!” Yamada clapped suddenly, “you should really go see Recovery Girl. Or at least let her come and see you, she’s got some concerns.”

“Well, I’m not dying, otherwise it wouldn’t be my choice.” Izuku scanned the three adults, his brows furrowed, “why don’t you just ask Recovery Girl? It would make you feel better if you knew, right?”

Yamada made a sound similar to a tea kettle, Kayama rubbing his shoulder soothingly.

“Problem child” Aizawa cleared his throat, “not only is that illegal-“

“Very illegal!” Yamada emphasized.

“Yes, but it would also be invading your privacy. That’s not something we are willing to do.” Aizawa glared at the wall above Izuku’s head, “except The Rat. He probably already knows, and delights in being able to invade anyone’s privacy.”

“Either way green bean, it’s your decision. Just know that you will be the one to deal with Recovery Girl.” Kayama snickered.

Izuku shrugged, a smile playing on his lips. “I feel fine, I’m not actively dying, I think I’m good!”

“Whatever you say green bean~” Kayama sang as she walked away with her drink, leaving too much money behind on the counter.

Typical Izuku scowled at the offending bills. Yamada also left too much money behind, and practically ran away yelling out “all right Izuku! Have a great day!” That left him alone with Aizawa.

“Stay out of trouble problem child.” If Izuku didn’t know any better, he would have thought Aizawa was pleading with him.

“I shall endeavor not to” Izuku said bowing lowly, acting like the tired man was the empress.

“Ugh… Endeavor.” Disgust laced the man’s tone. He gave Izuku a soft head pat before leaving as well. When Izuku went to give the counter a quick wipe he let out a loud squawk. Another thousand-yen bill stared at him mockingly.

His head jerked up at the sound of a deep chuckle. He must have missed the bell jingle because there stood a guy with purple, gravity defying, hair. His eye bags could give Aizawa’s a run for their money. The guy was smirking at him, Izuku realized. The guy was a regular, so Izuku turned around to make Shinso his drink. It was definitely not to hide his embarrassed blush for being surprised.

“The usual?” he asked while he started making the dark roast coffee with a drizzle of chocolate. He had to force the words past his throat.

“Sure.”

Izuku tried to force himself into customer service mode, popping the lid on. He turned around and set the coffee in front of Shinso. “Here you go on me, as a congratulations!” he chirped.

Or on the trio he thought fighting to keep the scowl off of his face.

“A congratulations for what?” he asked, taking a sip of his drink. Izuku’s gut warmed at the pleased noise the other teen made after tasting the drink.

“For getting into the hero course! Obviously!” Izuku wondered if he was being too creepy, but decided to think about it later.

“Oh, thanks” Shinso said slowly, his eyes narrowed. “How did you know?”

“Your uniform!” Izuku went to make his own drink, but kept his head turned toward Shinso. “I’ve been helping out here for a while, and I’ve gotten pretty good at recognizing the different departments.”

“Right, the uniforms” Shinso rubbed at his neck, “I don’t know how I forgot they are pretty recognizable.”

“No worries” he savored his first sip of many, letting out a sigh of bliss. Coffee really could reach the soul. Distantly the bells chimed. He opened his eyes to look at Shinso again, “it is your first day of school. That’s gotta be distracting. But hey! If you have Aizawa-san as your teacher, make sure you tell him how much fun his class is.” Izuku’s eyes crinkled, trying not to give himself away. “I’m sure he’ll love that.”

“Right, I’m sure” Shinso drawled shoving one hand in his pocket.

“It’s true!” Izuku insisted, leaning so his stomach hovered over the counter, with his arms supporting most of his weight. “Last year Aizawa-san expelled his entire class,” Shinso’s eyes widened slightly at that. “I bet you they didn’t tell him how much they appreciate him; his ego needs stoking sometimes” Izuku finished solemnly.

Shinso continued to fiddle with something in his pocket, “I still don’t believe you.”

Izuku groaned in defeat and started making Aizawa’s code black coffee, Izuku had a feeling it would be needed. “You’re right… partially. He really did expel his entire class last year, said they had no potential.” Was Shinso a little pale? The bells chimed again, so Izuku continued quickly “Aizawa-san knows what he’s doing. He may seem cruel, but he just doesn’t want to see people die because they didn’t take being a hero seriously. Just try your best, and you’ll be fine.”

Shinso opened his mouth to say something, before quickly closing it. Instead, saying “I thought it was just the orientation today?”

The green haired boy shrugged “maybe. But~” He slid a thermos to Shinso “this certainly wouldn’t hurt to give him either. Think of it like a break glass in case of emergency.”

“Thanks” Shinso cradled the thermos like it was the most precious thing in the world.

“Sure! Better hurry though.” At the boys questioning hum Izuku continued, looking at his non-existent watch “the school is a fifteen-minute walk from here, classes start in twenty, and you’re holding up the line.”

Shinso glanced behind him to see at least five people behind him. He muttered out some curses before, slamming his hand on the counter, he ran towards the door “Thanks!”

“No problem!” Izuku called after the other teen. When he went to take the order of the next customer (a third year he noted) he noticed some bills lying innocently on the counter. Izuku took a deep breath “DAMN IT! SHINSO!”

Izuku swore there was an echo of cackling laughter.

Chapter Text

It was time. Izuku didn’t know if he would survive but there was little choice. He hoped Aizawa would pour some of their shared coffee over his grave. Maybe if the gods were merciful, they would allow Izuku to taste it. One last time. If there were gods, they were anything but merciful and he would have a bone or two to pick with them. The bells chimed his death song.

And so it begins

Students were barreling through the door grouping around the counter like an angry mob. The green haired boy got to work. He took orders three at a time, turning to make all of the drinks, grabbing food, and handing off the items to the correct locus. He didn’t have time to make sure his fingers were safe; it was a sacrifice that needed to be made.

That’s how he spent the next hour. He got into a rhythm and sunk deep into his work. He barely heard what his customers were saying if it didn’t have anything to do with their orders. He hummed to the ones attempting to make small talk, he may be busy, but he didn’t want to be rude. He didn’t need to tell Gran if they ever ran low on any of the food. The woman was baking like mad in the kitchen and would randomly rematerialize to restock the pastries and bentos.

He handed off the drink in his hand to the girl waiting, then whirled back to the register to take the next few orders when both his mind and body screeched to a halt. No one was there. He looked around cautiously, waiting for someone to pop out frothing at the mouth (a support student would be most likely). No one. He took a slow deep breath and looked at his hands; he was somehow able to retain all ten fingers. Though sticky with syrup, sugar, and other such things his hands were unharmed.

A lilting chuckle made the boy straighten up, opening his mouth to ask what the order was, when he realized it was Gran. He then processed that the woman was laughing at him, two could play that game. Izuku looked up at Gran pouting, taking one slow step toward the evil woman.

“Graaaaaaaan!” Izuku whined, another slow step. “You just left me to the wolves!” A third slower step. “I could have been seriously maimed!”

Gran snorted.

Izuku let out an offended nose, “or even worse? I could have died!” He held his hand up millimeters from his forehead, slowly letting gravity take his weight towards the floor. In Grans direction. The woman made an alarmed noise, reaching forward to catch him.

Gran let out a gush of air as she took half of his weight. “What is wrong with you boy?! Are you tryin’ to take us both out?!”

“Oh! Oh! Thank you Gran! I knew you had a heart in there somewhere. Please,” Izuku smirked lightly to himself, still in Grans arms. “Let me show you my sincerest gratitude.” Abruptly he stood, unbalancing the woman, and took her face in between his sticky and syrupy hands. He made the most obnoxious kissy noise he could muster and planted a wet smackeroo on her forehead.

“Ugh!” Gran pushed him away from her, wiping at her now syrupy face. “You little… uhg! You little brat! Why I oughtta… Yugh!” Fast as lightning her hand, sticky he noted miserably, shot out and pinched his cheek. “I am going to clean up, you’ll be here by yourself.”

A noise of protest bubbled in his throat; Grans eyes glinted.

“Suffer.” With that, she left.

Izuku felt his soul leave his body at the puff of air he let out. The barista ruminated on his sad existence while attempting to wash the ick off of himself at the sink.

The bell at the door jangled happily, followed by loud voices.

“Are you sure this place is-“

“I heard ALL of the third years go-“

“Too bad Bakubro refused-“

“Aww! I’m sure he’ll come around! Right Shinso?”

“help.”

It was that last voice that made Izuku turn around. He was about to pick up where they left off, that is with Izuku scolding him, when he looked upon a very pitiful sight. There stood the purple insomniac. To his left a blond with a lightning bolt was poking his shoulder asking ‘right?’ with every poke. A redhead with a shark toothed smile had his arms wrapped around the both of them. A very pink girl with horns was hanging off of Shinso’s right arm practically shouting in his ears about all the different cat themed decorations, although she seemed to be speaking to a black-haired boy with tape still dangling from his elbows.

“The usual?” Izuku asked already turning to make the drink, it was eerily reminiscent of that morning.

“more…” The purple haired teen’s voice was quiet, almost weak. The barista winced in sympathy.

“Oh! Shinso did you already come here a lot?” A girls voice asked, probably damaging what was left of the teen’s hearing.

“Obviously dude! Look at all of the cat stuff!”

“Yeah! It’s totally manly how dedicated our bro is to cats!” Izuku added four extra espresso shots to the drink, trying to stir it in completely. “Hey! Do you think Bakubro would-“

The barista plopped the cup on the counter in front of the insomniac, said insomniac finally got a spark of life as he snatched the cup and chugged. The boys’…friends? Seemed unfazed.

The girl bounced up to the counter, “so you know Shinso?”

Izuku looked over to the boy in question, Shinso just raised a single brow with a small shrug. Bastard. “Uhhhhh.” What should he say?! Another glance at Shinso let Izuku know that boy was smirking now, making his face feel hot. Again, bastard. “I yelled at him this morning.”

The blond nudged his shoulders against the girls. “No way dude!” His eyes were wide with anticipation, “what did he do?”

A snort from Shinso, “yeah what did I do greenie?”

“Greenie!?” Izuku yelped, causing the redhead to chuckle.

“Yeah bro! You’ve got a whole green vibe going on!”

It was at that moment Izuku decided this group could never know his last name. He would take it to his grave.

“Doesn’t matter now” he glared at the smirking teen. “What can I get you guys?”

“Oh Kami yeah! I forgot! Can I hav-“

“Oh yeah I’ll take a-“

“Wait shouldn’t we-“

“No no! Can I-“

“How about” the barista spoke up, “I catch your names first, to keep the orders straight?”

“Oh! You can call me Mina, since we’re going to be friends.”

“Kaminari, Denki Kaminari. You can call me Denki though! He/them please!”

“I’m Eijirou Kirishima! You can call me whatever you’re comfortable with bro!”

“Sero, they/them pronouns” they smiled wide.

“Alright, cool! I’m Izuku, now one at a time what do yo-“

What followed was a mess of orders, they seemed to be quite the excitable group. Izuku was happy they were though, that meant they probably were not expelled by Aizawa. The greenett gave the last drink to Denki, an iced cappuccino.

“Kami help us” Sero muttered.

Shinso lingered behind, “thank you for that break glass coffee.”

Izuku let out a breathy laugh, “someone say the test would be fun?” Shinso nodded, his shoulders slumped. “Mina?” At Shinso’s confirmation, Izuku cackled loudly. “You totally deserved it.”

Shinso slammed his empty cup on the counter, “I didn’t do anything!”

“Uh-huh” he filled the cup with more coffee. Taking Shinso’s payment for the group without complaint. One cup every now and again is forgivable, an order for a group of five might be harder to get away with.

“Whatever” Shinso grumbled, taking his change. “By the way there’s been chocolate syrup on your cheek this whole time.

“What!?!”

Chapter Text

Shota, contrary to popular belief, loves his jobs. Hizashi knew that if his husband truly didn’t want to do something he simply wouldn't. So Hizashi was confident that his husband was content in his work life…

“He’s an idiot Zashi, an absolute buffoon.”

...That didn’t mean that there weren’t some downsides. Hence where Hizashi is now, in his office sitting on the couch. His wonderful, dramatic, husband burying his face in Hizashi's stomach complaining about the new heroics’ teacher. Complaining about All Might.

“My students this year don’t stand a chance. Any potential from yesterday is going to be absolutely ruined by that spotlight loving moron.” Hizashi just continued to absently comb his fingers through his love’s hair. “That asshole is going to leave me with so much paperwork Zashi, I just know it.”

“Come on Sho, he hasn’t even broken any doors yet” Hizashi cooed. “That’s gotta be a good sign.” His pouting husband just huffed, squishing his face in more. “Don’t borrow future trouble, you have plenty enough for now.” As if on cue both of their phones buzzed. The blond grabbed his phone from the arm of the couch, Shota moving to grab his with a grumble.

Please go with Shota-kun to handle the situation

“Asshole” Shota spit, storming out the door. Hizashi scrambled after his husband, wishing his boss had given him a heads up on what he was supposed to help in handling. Even with the heavy feeling in his gut, he prayed it had nothing to do with All Might. He realized they were heading Chiyo’s office, and all of Hizashi’s hopes evaporated.

Before Shota kicked his way into the infirmary, Hizashi put a hand on Shota’s shoulder to stop him. “Take a breath, you can’t go in there kicking” the corners of his mouth quirked up involuntarily. “Be rational Sho Sho.” Shota rolled his eyes but took a breath, held it, then with a long exhale opened the door. As soon as they entered Hizashi had to work to keep his face in check, he couldn’t help the noise he let out from the back of his throat.

In the infirmary lying in beds were seven of Shota’s students. Two boys had a slightly blue tinge to their lips, and blankets wrapped around them. There was a boy with purple balls on his head and had his arm in a sling, bandages wrapped around his wrist. Another boy had his wrists wrapped, a couple of bruises could be seen yellowing behind the dust coating him. His arms were crossed and a scowl etched on his face. Hizashi’s nephew, Tenya, was unconscious. His leg was elevated and wrapped in a thin cast, he was dust covered and debris was still in his hair. A girl sat on the edge of her bed, her legs dangling. Her face was slightly red, it looked freshly scrubbed, and she was holding an ice pack to the back of her head. Her eyes, slightly unfocused, kept glancing over to the last boy who was also unconscious. The edge of the left side of his face looked to be a healed over burn. His hair on that side was singed, the smell of burnt hair was faint in the air. Both of his arms and hands were wrapped, his bandages were staining a yellowish pink. What bruises he could see stood stark against the boys pale skin. Hizashi couldn’t tell if the boy had major eyebags or were severely bruised, probably both.

Recovery Girl, who was tapping at her computer, glanced up at their arrival. She made eye contact with the both of them, then turned to the students. “I’m going to talk to your teachers, if your pain increases let me know. Otherwise,” Hizashi knew without seeing that she shot them a stern glare. “Do not move from those beds, do you understand me?” It wasn’t truly a question, the students mumbled their assent. Chiyo reached them, still standing by the door, cane tapping on the floor.

“What happened” Shota seethed, his jaw still clenched. Hizashi could practically feel the anger radiating from him.

Chiyo levelled him with an unimpressed look. “You watch that tone of yours” Hizashi nudged his husband with his arm, causing Shota to unclench and take another breath. “Battle trials is what happened” What? “and I am not impressed.” She tapped her cane to emphasize her point. “I thought nothing like that was supposed to happen for at least a few more weeks.”

“Battle trials? What like let them loose with their quirks battle trials?” Yeah Hizashi was still stuck on that point.

“It wasn’t” Shota hissed. “Usually it’s quirkless hand to hand. At most.” Shota took another breath rubbing at his temples. He muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “asshole.”

Hizashi looked at the kids. The two boys with blankets were talking quietly with each other, shivers running through them. The girl was now openly staring at the unconscious purple-haired boy. The blond was scrolling through his phone, scowl still firmly in place.

“The kiddos are still looking a little rough” he said out loud to no one in particular.

Chiyo scoffed, “You should have seen them when they were first brought in.” She glanced at the kids again. “I’m good, but I’m no miracle worker. I would gladly take a pay cut to get some help in here, but the school board remains to hold not an inch of common sense.”

“How bad?” Shota sounded utterly done.

“Ojiro and Sero both had frostbite from the Todoroki boy’s quirk. No one is losing any limbs, but they’ll have to warm up naturally. Mineta has a broken wrist, no one here says they know how. The cast and sling are precautionary, I’ll take a look tomorrow and take it off if it’s up to my standards. Bakugo has minor burns on his wrist from the grenades on his wrist backfiring a bit.” She sent Shota a sharp look when she mentioned the kids’ gauntlets. “Uraraka’s concussion is now only mild, and her bruises have been healed. She’ll be going home with a friend since she lives alone. Iida’s leg got caught under the rubble, his leg was broken in two different places and his engine was bent. I was able to heal the breaks most of the way, but I’ll have to have another session with him before the cast can come off. His brother agreed to have someone else look at the engine, since my expertise does not cover how to safely fix that.”

Tensei was probably losing his mind right now. The second day of school and his little brother was already out of commission for a while.

“And then there is Shinso. He sustained burns up to the third degree, after I got to him all of the first- and second-degree burns were healed fully. His arms, however, sustained third degree burns. They’ve been healed to an extreme first degree, hence the bandages, and they will scar. He has a mild concussion that I left to focus on the burns, his guardians will need to keep an eye on him. Shinso will also need to visit me tomorrow.”

Shota’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and he whipped it out without hesitation. After a minute of scowling at his phone, reading the message, he looked over to Chiyo. “Can you hold the fort with them until their parents arrive?”

Chiyo tskd, “of course I can. Who do you take me for?” She started to go back to her desk but paused, “Shota I trust I won’t be seeing anything like this anytime soon?”

“Not if I have anything to say about it” his husband growled. Hizashi tilted his head when Shota turned to him. “Can you check on the brats before you send them home? I don’t trust him to have checked on them before leaving for the Rats office.”

Hizashi was already nodding before Shota could finish, “no problem. The kiddies will be all set before they go. You and Nezu will have your hands full.” Shota nodded, leaving to go to Nezu’s office.

“Asshole.”

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Nezu had a problem. Problems are not always a bad thing, after all he did love a good challenge. This particular problem however, needed to be solved and soon. All Might. The number one hero is very close to being moved from an inconvenience to an enemy, and no one wanted to be on the wrong side of Nezu.

It started out small. The hero commission had forced him to allow All Might into his staff, the heroics staff in particular. This in particular was not a real problem, but the reminder that he was not in full control of his own school was. But that is part of a long game that Nezu has been playing and will continue to do so until the game has reached its end.

Next, Toshinori-san decided that the classes for a teachers license were optional. Annoying, but not surprising. An inevitable event that Nezu had planned for. There were many meetings and personal lessons in the mans future.

What really brought the hero to his full attention was the rooftop. Nezu was pleased Izuku-kun was confident enough to start chasing his future. In fact he was prepared to take the boy on as a personal student in his second year, as he did for Shota-kun. However, Izuku-kun never showed, and Nezu was very displeased with what the cameras had shown. The number one hero crushing a child’s spirit, and then leaving, almost killing said child. The man has harmed one of Nezu’s own, and that just won’t do.

Nezu had decided to allow Izuku-kun to recover, and watched as his chosen staff helped the boy lick his wounds. He would watch Izuku build himself back up, in whatever way the boy saw fit, from afar. Nezu would be ready to support Izuku-kun when he was ready to try again. In the meantime, he started to plot and plan against the number one hero. Nothing permanent, just a reminder of whom exactly the man worked for, and the standards Nezu would be holding him to. It was rather enjoyable if he was being honest. It was almost time to inform the staff of just who had hurt their pup. That was until until All Might moved himself from the 'inconvenience' category to the problem box.

Battle trials with quirks, Nezu could almost scoff. Toshinori-san had allowed significant harm to come to the students of his school, and now Nezu needed a permanent plan. Unfortunately this plan would take longer to put into action, move too quick and the consequences would outweigh the outcome of the goal.

Perhaps Izuku-kun would like to help? Something to think on.

The first step to the permanent plan is where he is now. Toshinori-san sitting on the other side of Nezu’s desk, fingers interlocked tightly, sweat beading down his face, waiting for Shota-kun to arrive in all of his barely controlled fury. Nezu made sure the door opened before Shota-kun could attempt to smash through it. His first student stormed in with the red of his quirk bleeding into his eyes.

Oh yes, a much more permanent plan was now in the works.

Chapter Text

Something was off, and it was driving Izuku mad. Maybe it was because he got to sleep in, a new employee taking over the morning shift for now. While the extra sleep was nice, he was disappointed he didn’t get to make Aizawa his morning coffees. Or maybe it’s because he’d spent his morning off lying in bed staring at the ceiling. He knew that he had been in a downward spiral since the whole ‘roof incident’. Izuku figured that since he hadn’t hit rock bottom, it was probably fine anyway.

Either way, something was off, and he couldn’t blame it on one thing in particular. Izuku had taken over the counter at eleven and couldn’t help but be a little extra twitchy. If he wasn’t making something, handing something off, or receiving something, he was deep cleaning. He took the coffee machine apart to clean everything, then put it back together. The espresso machine got the same treatment. Even the rush, after UA got out for the day, did not alleviate the feeling. If anything, his chest tightened even further for every person he served.

5:30 PM rolled around, and Izuku was about ready to take apart the lights for the bento display. To clean of course. The doorbell jangled signaling the arrival of more people. It was Shinso’s group, the boy in question nowhere to be seen. There was no conversation flowing through the group, and their feet dragged with every step. Izuku started gnawing on his bottom lip, the sharp prick of his teeth kept his brain from wandering too far.

”Hey guys! Back again?” His voice sounded fake, even to his own ears, and his smile felt more like a grimace. Shinso’s friends felt like the complete flip side compared to yesterday. Mumbling their greetings, and their order. Personal space still didn’t seem to be a concept they knew. Where they were eager, bouncy, moving around like a dance yesterday; they now looked like they were using each other to hold themselves up. “Did someone get expelled?” Izuku asked hesitantly, trying not to jump to worst case scenario. The first expulsion usually took the wind out of the hero students’ sails; he’s seen it in years past.

”We had our first heroics class today, it was… um” Sero glanced up towards the ceiling in thought. After a minute he sighed “it was a little rough.”

Mina lifted her head from Denki’s shoulder, her eyes brightening a bit. She tilted forward a bit, “Hey! We could tell Izu-kun about it! He could give us an unbiased opinion.”

”Oh yeah” Kirishima looked at him in consideration. “We’re kind of in a split on one of our teachers and some classmates of ours. Everything happened so fast so maybe telling you might clear some things up, even if you don’t have an opinion.”

Now when it comes to the inhabitants of UA, Izuku has worn many hats to help whoever wanted his help. He loved it most days, it made him feel useful to be able to help the upcoming heroes. That’s not even mentioning literally any other course that talks to him, he won’t turn somebody down because they’re not a hero student. Izuku knew that there were feuds between courses, especially the hero course and Gen Ed. Luckily the café was neutral grounds, he and Gran wouldn’t have it any other way.

So yeah, he was basically a sounding board for anyone at UA and he loved it most of the time. Now however, he wished the ground would swallow him whole. He just knew whatever they wanted to talk to him about was the cause of his worries all day. But who was he to say no? The rush was at its’ end, so he poked his head into the kitchen to let Gran know he was going to talk to some first years’. Gran, already familiar with this routine, just nodded her with a fond eyeroll thrown in.

Izuku pulled a chair up to the end of the table the group had commandeered. Almost immediately after sitting Beast, their only sphinx cat, hopped onto his lap to steal his body heat. Izuku absently circled his arms around the cat and leaned forward so his stomach was pressed against the cat. The poor thing was always cold being without fur.

”So…?” Izuku trailed when none of them started talking. It felt like he was dropped into an alternate universe. He had only ten minutes of interaction with these students, but he knew their behavior was not normal. He thinks it’s his gut instinct that is normally absent. He had to keep a scowl from his face at the thought, he didn’t anyone to think he was annoyed with him.

Denki, fidgeting with Minas’ fingers, spoke up first “Well we had our first heroics class today.” He looked straight into Izuku’s eyes then glanced away “it was really intense. Which makes total sense, with our teacher being All Might and all!” Denki tacked on frantically.

Oh right, All Might. Izuku had been trying really hard to not think about the new first year heroics teacher. Just his name made the feeling of sludge choking him return. He pursed his lips but nodded his head for them to continue.

”We got to do battle trials with our quirks!” Mina cheered half-heartedly, still allowing Denki to play with her fingers. “Eijirou-kun is the only one of us who won, it was awesome!” Genuine pride seeped onto her face when she mentioned Kirishima’s win.

Battle trials? Why would All Might think that’s a good idea? Aizawa is probably furious, rightfully so.”

”Yeah Aizawa-sensei was pretty mad, he had Present Mic-sensei take over the end of class, just to calm everyone and dismiss us” Kirishima spoke softly. Izuku had said that out loud. He let out a breath hoping his face wasn’t turning red, awesome.

"I personally think All Might knew what he was doing.” Izuku thought he heard some bitterness in Sero’s voice. Izuku wouldn’t be surprised, but stayed silent on the matter. “I mean he was reading off of note cards and struggled to answer any clarifying questions” Sero crossed their arms, definitely bitter.

”Well I wished he hadn’t told us to go all out” Denki hedged, “but this is his first time teaching. It makes sense he’s not very good at it.” He shrugged hesitantly. “I mean he wouldn’t be allowed to teach if he wasn’t qualified in some way.”

”That’s easy for you to say” Sero didn’t quite snap, but their tone was harsh. When Denki flinched back into Mina a look of regret crossed their features. “I’m sorry Denks, that was uncalled for.” The corner of his lips quirked up, apology accepted then. Sero looked over to Izuku “I was one of seven classmates that ended up at Recovery Girls’ office.”

”Seven!” he gaped. Izuku figured All Might wouldn’t know how to teach, but seven injured students surpassed his expectations in the worst ways. Aizawa was definitely on a rampage right now.

”Yup” Sero popped the ‘p’ at the end of the word. “The trial was teams of two going against each other. One team was playing villains; they had to hide a bomb and defend it until time was up or both heroes were captured. The hero team waits until ten minutes passed to allow the villains some setup, and then they would go in. Their goal was to either capture the villains or touch the bomb. We were supposed to use our quirks and go ‘Plus Ultra’ and all that.” The air quotes they used made him snort in amusement.

Mina started giggling “wow Sero! Maybe you should become a teacher, you explained the exercise precisely AND without notecards.”

”Aww c’mon guys! Denks has a point” Kirishima pointed out. “All Might-sensei is a new teacher, and we were his first class. It makes sense that maybe he underestimated just how literal some people take him. I’m sure he’s learned from this experience and will do better.”

”No Eijirou-kun! All Might was reckless and thoughtless, which led to some of my friends getting hurt and I won’t stand for that!” Mina defended. “Hanta got glaciered!” Kirishima deflated at that.

Izuku hated All Might with every word spoken, however he was confused. “What do you mean glaciered?” His eyes were flickering around the group of four.

“Hanta got paired with Ojiro as the villain team against Todoroki and Shoji” Mina started. Izuku vaguely recognized Todoroki, seeing as he was the youngest of Endeavors children, but the rest were lost to him. He figured he’d ask about them later, Mina seemed to be on a roll. “As soon as All Might said the ten minutes were up, Todoroki encased the whole building in ice! Hanta and Ojiro got frost bite and sent to the infirmary, and All Might just continued unconcerned!”

Izuku looked at Sero with more scrutiny, they seemed okay on the surface. However he realized that they were wearing a hoodie, even with the warm temperatures. He’ll have to sneak them a hot chocolate later.

“Todoroki went too far, that’s not All Might-sensei’s fault” Denki seemed slightly annoyed. “If anything we should be upset with him for endangering Hanta and Ojiro.”

“Actually,” Izuku piped up before the argument went too far. He didn’t like seeing friend groups fighting like this. “It is All Might’s job to ensure the safety of his students. If you think about it, Todoroki has probably the most training with Endeavor as his father. When All Might said to go ‘Plus Ultra’ Todoroki was just doing as he was asked, and All Might should have taken that into account if he was going to have you guys use your quirks like that.” Which Izuku still had strong feelings about. He’s starting to feel ashamed he ever idolized the hero. Izuku shrugged “It’s probably all Todoroki knows, he took the ‘threat’ seriously.”

“Oh” Denki mumbled staring off into the distance, “I guess I didn’t really think about that.” Izuku didn’t like how his words seemed to affect Denki.

“It’s not your job to think about stuff like that, it’s All Might’s. You didn’t do anything wrong Denki, just don’t write Todoroki off as callous yet. You’re all learning, and I’m sure Aizawa will tell you the same thing.” Denki perked up a bit when Mina agreed with Izuku’s assessment.

“And that was just the first match” she huffed towards Izuku, rubbing Denki’s arm. Kirishima had gotten quiet with a thoughtful look on his face. “He didn’t stop the matches after that catastrophe.” Mina grimaced a bit before continuing “I’m not actually too upset about the next injury, but All Might could have handled that situation differently.” Denki squeezed her into a hug, the tension in her shoulders loosened a bit. “There’s this guy Mineta, and he’s really nasty.”

“He’s a pervert you mean” Sero interjected, his face scrunched in disgust.

Kirishima leaned his upper half on the table, “Yeah not very manly at all. He was leering at some of the girls during our assessment on the first day. He didn’t say anything, but some of us tried to keep him away from the girls. Apparently, he was making inapropr-“

“Disgusting” Mina interrupted.

Kirishima nodded “Right. Anyway during my match, he kept commenting on my partner Hagakure. Saying stuff about how he wanted to see how um” Kirishima trailed off, wiggling in his seat looking uncomfortable.

Mina scoffed “He said that since he couldn’t see how full Haga’s boobs were, he was going to have to feel for himself” she spit. “He said the school uniform was unflattering, and since her hero costume is just shoes and gloves, that the heroics class would be his chance to feel her up.” She looked straight at Izuku, “I know All Might heard but he didn’t say anything, even when we brought it up during the grapes match.”

“What the hell!” Izuku couldn’t believe that All Might would let that kind of harassment slide. He believed Mina, of course, but Izuku was genuinely shocked. Seriously, just how is he the number one hero when he lets these things slide? Then another thing hit him “Why is Hagakure’s costume only boots and gloves!? She could get really hurt!”

The group of four glanced at each other uncertainly, “I guess it’s because while she’s invisible, nothing she wears is?” Kirishima’s answer turned to a question.

“You make sure to tell her the support department can make some equipment that can turn invisible using her DNA. I can’t believe no one has said anything about that!” Now he was fuming for multiple reasons. Getting worked up had Izuku gesturing around, causing Beast to jump from his lap. The cat ran to another customer, but Izuku was too engulfed in the conversation. “Is she okay?” At their nods he sighed “Did you tell Aizawa?”

“I… totally should have thought of that” Sero palmed their face. “Aizawa-sensei is terrifying and would probably make All Might run for the hills!” Sero and Mina shared a smirk.

“I don’t know, Aizawa-sensei is terrifying and I am behind that one hundred percent.” He took a sip of his drink before continuing, “it’s pretty hard to imagine All Might-sensei getting in any real trouble though.”

“Either way you should tell Aizawa so he can talk to All Might” and strangle the hero with his scarf probably. Izuku left that part to himself. It seemed that some of the kids are struggling to put the image of All Might that they had looked up to, to the man they had met today. Izuku sympathized with them. “He’ll also probably let Nezu know too so that he can help All Might become a better teacher.” Hopefully Nezu would drop a wrecking ball on the hero when he is in his Small Might form. “Back to the point though, Mineta was expelled right?”

A viscous grin split on Mina, Denki, and Sero’s face. Kirishima grimaced, but didn’t look upset. “No” Mina said innocently. “Hypothetically though, say the grape went to feel up Jirou in the observation room-“

“Hypothetically of course!” Denki interrupted.

Izuku suppressed a laugh, “Of course.”

“Well I think it would be fair to say if that did happen Jirou would be in the right to retaliate” Mina continued. “If she hypothetically broke his wrist, I would hypothetically think that it was deserved.”

This time Izuku did not try to hide his smile, Denki and Sero paled which was a little confusing. It’s not like he smiles like Aizawa. “If that did happen-“

“Which it didn’t!” Denki interrupted again.

Izuku was far from annoyed, “then I would say good for her.”

Kirishima shrugged not making eye contact with anyone, “obviously that wouldn’t happen. Jirou would never do anything like that, and it was very rude of him to accuse her of such an unmanly action. Unfortunately, nobody had seen anything so it must have happened during his fight or something.” The group exchanged sly smiles, until Denki sobered.

“There is one more thing though” he scowled down at the table like it had offended him. “Shinso-kun was paired with Uraraka-kun against Bakugo and Iida-kun.” A lump formed in Izuku’s throat. “Bakugo went absolutely nuts after Shinso-kun and Uraraka-kun won the match. All Might-sensei could have stopped it, but he didn’t.”

“Fuck. Just…shit”

Mina looked at him, something knowing in her eyes “that’s why he’s not with us for today.” She pat his arm “I’m sure he’ll stop by tomorrow morning, Recovery Girl said we see him tomorrow.”

“Hold on” Kirishima spoke suddenly, “If what happened wasn’t Todorki’s fault, then wouldn’t the same logic be applied to Bakubro’s match? After all he was just listening to All Might-sensei’s instructions.”

“That’s different!” Denki countered. “Bakugo almost killed Shinso, probably would have if he didn’t have his scarf. And” Denki actually glared at Kirishima “did you just conveniently forget that he attacked Shinso after the match?” Yeah that sounded like Bakugo.
“Look” Kirishima held his hands up in a surrender position, “what he did was not manly. I’m not arguing that point, but All Might-sensei said to go all out. Bakubro was probably in the heat of the moment. I just don’t think we should write him off either. I say if we are giving Todoroki a chance we should extend the same courtesy to Bakubro.”

Sero looked between Denki and Kirishima, “I don’t like it. But” they continued cutting Kirishima off, “you guys do what you want. I won’t be hostile towards Todoroki, it is what it is and he iced me for the match. I can live with that because it wasn’t personal. As for Bakugo, I am going to wait for Shinso to tell me what he thinks and back him up.”

Both Denki and Mina nodded their heads in agreement. “If it helps” Izuku piped up. “If Aizawa is going to be going over everything with All Might, then he’ll probably see what happened with Ka-Bakugo. I’m sure he’ll work with him on controlling his… explosiveness.” Kachan had bullied Izuku when they were younger, and he had been hoping Kachan would get better as he got older. Izuku was disappointed but not surprised.

“Exactly! His determination is so manly, we just need to socialize him a bit. Who better than us! I bet we wear him down before the semester even ends.” Kirishima was grinning, and Izuku swore he could see his teeth glinting.

“If you can withstand his bomb hands I’m sure you can tame blasty” the group started snickering at Minas words. She smirked, pride evident on her features.

“Hey if anything I was made to withstand anything!” Kirishima emphasized his point by smashing his hardened fists together.

Izuku gaped at him, “I’m sorry but what. Is. That.” Questions whirred through his mind, and his fingers itched for a notebook.

Kirishima glanced at him, eyebrows furrowed “My quirk?”

For the rest of their stay the group feared for their lives. The normally sedate freckled boy turned into a single-minded bullet train. His words running over them without a care if he hit anything. He didn’t notice the collective crises the group had fallen into as he dissected their quirks like he was explaining elementary math. Gran rescued them, dragging the now mumbling boy by the back of his shirt. “Izuku we’ve talked about this, no traumatizing the first years. We need them to come back.”

Chapter Text

Izuku had a long day of work ahead of him, and he had zero regrets. After learning about the dumpster-fire of a heroics class yesterday he needed to see Aizawa. The man needed to know everything, and while Izuku liked his new friends(?), he didn’t trust them to tell Aizawa everything. In a way Izuku understood. Aizawa was their very intimidating homeroom teacher, if he didn’t know the man he would probably think similarly. So to see the teacher he told… what’s her face, he really needed to learn her name, that he would take over her morning shift at the café. She had warned him that she wouldn’t be able to come in the afternoon, Izuku didn’t care. It wouldn’t be the first time it was just him and Gran running the café for the whole day.

He danced around the cats, swarming him and demanding food like the demons they were, to get the coffee pots brewing and the ovens warming. He then set to work feeding the cats and of course made sure to pay the petting fee after feeding each one. Five butt scratches later, Izuku washed his hands and entered the kitchen. Gran had already made three batches of blueberry muffins and three batches of cinnamon muffins for Izuku to bake first thing this morning. Izuku popped one of each in the oven to start.

During the process of putting together the morning bentos, Izuku felt an invisible weight crushing his shoulders. It felt like his eyelids weighed a thousand pounds. Unfortunately, this occurrence was not unusual. Some days were fine, and he could enjoy his day by chattering happily with whoever was willing. Other days, like yesterday, weren’t the worst. They also weren’t the best either. He would feel like someone was watching, and he’d be constantly jumpy. His work at the café gave him something to focus on and gave his hands a break from the constant abuse they went through otherwise. Days like today were the worst. Everything was fine, he had a purpose for today, so why did his body choose today to shut down. As he brought the last bento to the display area the bell rang, signaling the entrance of his first customer for the day.

He repressed a tired sigh and turned towards the pots to make Aizawa and Yamada their usual coffees. It was time to blunt force his way through this day; he still had a goal. Izuku set the coffees in front of the men, one normally silent and the other unusually silent. Aizawa, as per tradition, tossed the cup back like it was a shot and set the cup down for a refill. Yamada didn’t chide him.

Izuku was nice enough to wait until after Aizawa finished his second and was in the process of savoring the third. “So… Battle trials.”

Yamada looked at Izuku with exasperation in his eyes as the man’s husband thunked his head on the counter. Yamada slowly slid his hand in the spot Aizawa was going to hit his head again so the man couldn’t give himself brain damage.

Aizawa started speaking, not moving his head from lying atop Yamada’s hand, “I told you he was a-“

“An asshole I know Shou, I was there the last hundred times you told me.” The corners of Yamada’s mouth quirked up in thanks as Izuku took his drink to refill that one too. It seemed like the poor man needed it. “Thanks listener,” Yamada said as he took his cup back. “So the rumor mill made it all the way here?”

Izuku was already nodding “yeah, and about more than just the trials.” He looked at Aizawa, making sure to have the man’s attention. “You have stuff to take care of; I talked to some of your students that were there.” Aizawa grunted and nodded signaling Izuku to keep going. “Apparently some kid named, uhhhh… Minta? Meanta?” Izuku scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment.

“Mineta” Aizawa rumbled helpfully.

Izuku snapped his fingers “Right! That’s the name. Anyway, your students said that he’s been harassing the girls.” Yamada’s face twisted, like he smelled something bad. “They seemed hesitant to tell you, so I’m giving you the heads up now.” Aizawa hummed his acknowledgement, but there was a gleam in his eye that spelled trouble. Izuku almost felt bad for the kid. Almost. “Also do you know anything about…” Izuku sighed. Normally his memory was better than this, but just trying to form words felt like trying to talk with a mouth full of peanut butter. “Do you know anything about the invisible girls costume?”

“No” Aizawa glared down at his half-gone coffee, “the moron approved them before I could take a look at them. Powerloader has his hands full this year and hasn’t been able to get their schematics to me yet.”

“This year? It’s been two days” Izuku teased.

“Exactly” Aizawa was completely deadpanned. “It’s been exactly two days and seven of my students ended up visiting Recovery Girl. All Mights’ dumb-assery knows no bounds, none of the departments are safe.”

“Fair” Izuku agreed, “after all it was his decision to approve a hero student to be naked for her hero costume.” Yamada inhaled softly, Aizawas’ nostrils flared. “The same students told me that she only had gloves and shoes so she can stay invisible.”

“The support department can make-“

Izuku cut Yamada off. Oops, “I know I already told them. You have some good students this year,” Izuku started. “They seem really genuine, but they still have that middle school mentality. Not wanting to be a snitch and all that” he flopped his hand lazily, suppressing a yawn. “Hopefully coffee will fix this” Izuku turned around to make the most caffeinated drink he could think of, in addition to an energy drink mocktail. He continued talking “I don’t know how much they’ll tell you, so I wanted to make sure you were made aware.”

The bell chimed signaling the arrival of a customer. “Sensei’s…” a familiar voice greeted awkwardly. Izuku whipped around, and sure enough, Shinso was standing in the middle of the café staring at Aizawa and Yamada. Izuku was glad that Shinso was well enough to still come in this morning.

“Shinso” Aizawa dipped his head slightly in greeting, eyeing the boy critically. He was wearing his Yuuei uniform, and Izuku could see cuts and burns marring his skin. Izuku could recognize Kaachans’ work anywhere, even after all this time.

“Shinso! What are you doing here so early?” Concern laced Yamadas’ every word. Shinso scuffed his foot on the floor not making eye contact with anyone. Izuku could feel the discomfort radiating off the other boy. What a mood. If Izuku didn’t have a loose script from working at the café, he couldn’t say he would be any better.

In his sluggish state, the weight of the atmosphere was too much. “The usual?” Shinso finally made eye contact with him, humming an affirmative. Izuku quirked his mouth up in what he hoped was a smile and got to work.

“I have to be in early to see Recovery Girl” Shinso approached the counter, leaving as much space he could get away with from his teachers; he placed some yen on the surface.”

“This isn’t her office” Aizawa lifted a brow. Izuku was sure the man was hiding a smirk in his capture weapon. Izuku didn’t understand why none of the students believed him when he said the main is a menace to society.

Shinso went to shrug but aborted the motion, “ummm coffee?”

Yamada suppressed a snort, Aizawa seemed to try to stare into the boy’s soul. Once again Izuku broke the building tension, placing Shinsos order with sigh.

“Acceptable” Aizawa nodded. Shinso looked at the man wearily while grabbing his drink. “Come on Mic” Aizawa started walking towards the door, “I’m going to need you to shriek into the morons’ ear.”

Yamada rolled his eyes, following after his husband “bye listeners!”

Shinso thunked his head on the counter with a groan, mimicking Aizawa just minutes before. Izuku blinked slowly at him, eyelids heavy “I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to do that.” He turned around to make himself an energy drink mocktail, he didn’t think coffee would get him through the day.

“My teachers were here” Shinso whined.

“Really? I hadn’t noticed” Izuku smirked, back still turned. He poured his drink into a glass cup; he figured he’ll probably make another one later today.

“You are so not funny” Izuku could practically feel Shinso glaring at him. “My teachers were here, and now they know that I’m a moron.”

Izuku turned around and saw another glass cup filled with the drink he just made… Damn. “They don’t think you’re a moron, I’m pretty sure that title is reserved for someone else.” He put the drink he just made in the mini fridge for later, he couldn’t let it go to waste. Shinso’s drink was half gone, when had he drank it? He wrapped his knuckles on the counter, getting the boy’s attention. “Do you want another?”

Shinso hummed in thought before nodding, “I think Recovery Girl won’t be too mad at me if I drink it after my session with her.” Izuku started to start making said drink when Shinso spoke suddenly “are you okay?”

“Yeah” Izuku trailed, furrowing his brows “why?”

“It’s just- well” Shinso started fidgeting with his cup again. “You seem different, and you uh- you look tired. Which is fine” he rubbed the back of his neck, “I just wanted to make sure that you were okay.”

There was something in Shinso’s eyes, Izuku couldn’t place it. The low lights made them have an amethyst glow to them, and Izuku couldn’t dredge up a response. Izuku was stuck between wanting to tell him that he wanted to just collapse on the spot and not wanting to worry him. He clearly had enough to worry about, and Izuku didn’t want to add to it. He stood there, stuck, blinking slowly at Shinso.

The timer for the muffins decided for him. Izuku popped the lid onto Shinso’s cup, “I’m fine, but thank you for asking.” He smiled tiredly at the other boy before heading into the kitchen to grab the muffins. When he returned, he saw Shinso sliding some money over the counter.

“If that answer changes, you can always talk to me” Izuku was sure Shinso was staring into his soul.

“Thanks Shinso, good luck today” the boy saluted him with his cup, leaving Izuku to continue his work.

The rest of his day was a haze. With no goal to keep him tethered, his mind seemed to float. His body moved on autopilot, and he was pretty sure he was concerning some people with his lack of conversation. He knew he spoke just enough to get through the orders, but nothing else. He didn’t try to conjure up any smiles, he suspected they would only come out as a grimace. A numbing tingle overcame him as the day went on, shapes becoming less distinct. Was he even breathing?

Shapes became colors, and the colors were fading.

His lungs, once heavy, fell still.

He couldn’t see. He couldn’t breathe.

Am I even alive? There was nothing. Do I even care?

A hand on his shoulder dragged him to the surface, and he inhaled sharply. He followed the hand to look at the person it was attached to. Gran. He exhaled slowly, shakily. Gran was looking at him, concern painted clearly on her face. She looked like she was waiting for him to answer.

Izuku blinked a couple times “huh?”

“I said” Gran moved her hand from his shoulder to cup his cheek. “You’re done for the day.” They stood there for a minute before Izuku stepped away with a low hum.

“Mkay, I think I’m gonna go run for a bit.” Hopefully it would clear his head and help him settle back into his limbs.

“If you’re not feeling well…” Gran trailed off, her brows furrowing.

Izuku wiped his hands on a towel that was nearby “I’m fine.” At Grans disbelieving snort he corrected himself, “I think it will help.”

Gran nodded slowly, straightening herself, “Alright. If you’re not back in a couple hours I will call Kayama-san to find you.”

Izuku huffed out a laugh and nodded his assent. Midnight was a far worse threat than Aizawa or Yamada. Izuku started off at a light jog, the rhythm of his feet hitting the cement was already clearing away the fog. Izuku ran faster. As he reached the less populated area, he broke into the fastest sprint he could manage. The cool air burned his lungs, Izuku swore he could feel the oxygen waking his body up from the stupor it had been in all morning. Once he stumbled for a third time, he leaned against the entrance to an abandoned alley to catch his breath.

“Don’t you want to be a part of making history?” Okay so not an abandoned alley. The voice sounded raspy.

“I don’t know, that sssoundsss like a ballsssy plan. No. Actually that sssoundsss like you’re begging to be caught.” A womans voice hissed. Snake quirk maybe.

“If you don’t want any part of killing the number one hero while he’s week that’s your loss!” He sounded kind of young, even with the rasp. Should he feel concerned that he was currently listening to someone plan on killing All Might? Probably. Did he? Not really.

“Hey!” The woman snapped, “You asssked ME for help, I didn’t come to you! Good luck with your half-asssed plan with your little ssschedule.”

The man’s voice turned smug “Oh? Didn’t I tell you?” He didn’t wait for an answer before continuing, “I stole this straight from his office at UA today, as a little side quest.” Izuku straightened at that.

This guy broke into the best hero school in the country…and didn’t get caught? He really didn’t want this to become a thing.

The woman hissed again, “how did you manage that?!?”

Izuku didn’t dare peek into the alley, he didn’t want to get caught, however he could practically hear the man shrug. “None of your business NPC, you were the one that refused to join my party.”

“Fine! I’ll do it! If really broke into that ssschool and lived, then I’ve got to sssee thisss.”

“I thought so” the man’s voice was definitely smug, “I’ll send you the location of the spawn point later. We’ll attack when he’s teaching the little hero students at the USJ.”

Great, this is a thing now. If villains wanted to try their hand at defeating the number one hero, fine. Whatever. Wouldn’t be the first time. But using students and other teachers as collateral was unacceptable to him. Now Izuku was involved because for some reason people cared about him so aggressively that he now cared about them, and now those people are in danger, and now Izuku is annoyed. This is why he will never go on a run again, he should have known better. With the day he’s had he really should have known better.

Izuku quietly turned and started back towards the café, “Honestly… Fuck that guy.” Whether he meant All Might or the villain, he couldn’t be sure. Probably both.

He didn’t turn around to notice the red eyes flick over at his grumbled words, towards where he was just standing. Quick enough that they caught on his bright red shoes that disappeared…

Interesting…

Chapter Text

Shota will finally finally get to expel the student. Contrary to popular belief, he didn’t expel kids for his own enjoyment. In fact, stomping on a kids dreams made his cold dead heart twinge. Only a little bit though. It was an unfortunate fact that becoming a hero is dangerous business, and a lot of kids come in expecting it to be all fun and games…ugh. Those kids were promptly expelled, better their dreams crushed than dead.

Mineta was one kid he had wanted to expel immediately, the way the kid leered at the girls made his nostrils flare. That’s not to mention the kid complained about everything. He made the students run the assessment without quirks first, then he had them do it again with quirks. Mineta’s nasally complaints each time he had to do anything without his quirk gave him a migraine.

Shota had brought his concerns to the rat and was promptly informed there was nothing to do unless things escalated. Dealing with kids who had parents on the school board was exhausting nine times out of ten. When he complained to his husband he only got a fake sympathetic pat on the head. Jerk.

So, Shota watched and waited. Then Izuku had told him his concerns, that had gotten Shota’s attention. Of course, he would address the rest of that shit show when he got to school. But something else caught his attention. Izuku.

When he and Zashi first walked into the café, nothing seemed amiss. The longer they stayed, the more they seemed to watch Izuku wilt before their very eyes. The kid tried to maintain the status quo, making quips and coffee at a speedy pace. But his eyes were glazed over, posture sinking in on himself, slowly loosing his color like all the blood in his body was actively draining.

He and Hizashi had, of course, both noticed. Neither quite knew how to approach the kid about what was going on. He was evasive at the best of times, and Shota knew there was more the brat was hiding. He and Hizashi had come to the silent agreement to tackle the issue after school. They didn’t want to rush the conversation, and as Izuku had said, Shota had work to do.

He was gearing up for round two with the blond buffoon before he remembered that the man would be holed up with Nezu all day. Fine. Shota’s wrath could wait. He almost went into class early to see if the previously mentioned students would approach him, but he tossed the idea. It would be suspicious to change routine now.

He walked into class right on the dot for the start of class. All of his students were in their seats. Good. Most already had their attention focused on him. Less good. Either way one of those students was on the brink of expulsion anyway, so that was a later him problem.

He launched into the home room announcements. Eat a big lunch. They would be spending the entire second half of the school day in a heroics exercise. Yes it’s exciting be quiet. Hero costumes are optional. Don’t be late, and don’t be brats… okay he didn’t say the last one out loud, but he did think it. Very forcefully. Hopefully they got the mental message.

When lunch rolled around he made sure to pull Hagakure aside. Honestly who approves of no clothes as a costume? Oh wait. A moron. He suppressed a sigh. The girl approached him nervously, her steps hesitant.

“You’re not in trouble” he started, dhe didn’t seem to believe him. “We need to discuss your hero costume, or rather your lack thereof.” He grabbed the form he had brought from the teachers’ lounge and slid it across the desk so it sat in front of her.

“Um no offense sensei” she exhaled in a nervous laugh, “but that kinda sounds like I’m in trouble.”

Shota leaned his arms on his desk, “Hagakure you’re a smart girl.” She let out a little squeak of embarrassment. “Do you really think gloves and noise muffling boots is proper protection?”

“N- Um no?”

He nodded decisively “No. So walk me through your logic here.” Shota already had a good idea, but he was a teacher. If this wasn’t a teaching moment, he didn’t know what was.

“Well um… I’m invisible sensei?” He raised his eyebrows unimpressed. “I mean I am, that’s obvious” she laughed nervously. “Sensei if I wear a full outfit that kinda defeats the purpose of being invisible. I have noise muffling boots to protect my feet without hindering my stealth, and my gloves are reinforced so my punches have more of an impact.”

“The gloves and boots are a good idea” he started, “but your quirk is invisible not invincible.” She jolted back a bit. “You can’t rely on your quirk to protect you. Even if your opponent struggles fighting against you, lucky shots happen all the time. When they do happen your chances of dying is raised exponentially without some form of protection around your vital organs.” He didn’t want to scare her, really he didn’t, but he needed her to listen.

“But sensei the whole point is to avoid fighting… so that means that I won’t, get, hurt?” Her defense turned into a question, doubt creeping into her voice. Good she was starting to realize the error in her logic.

“But?” he prompted.

“But I guess avoiding fighting isn’t a guarantee” she said sullenly. Shota nodded his head in agreement. “Well how am I supposed to wear protection that won’t hinder my quirk?”

Shota tapped the paper he had in front of her, “This is a request form for costume adjustments. Make sure you are fully protected and add some specifics of ideas that you might want to incorporate. When you’re done, turn it in to Power-Loader sensei with some of your hair. He can make it work with your quirk with some of your DNA.” He shrugged “I don’t know how that works, but he can make it happen.” Shota stared intently at where he hoped her eyes were “as a hero you’ll need to utilize every resource you have. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.”

With a whispered thank you sensei, Hagakure ran off to hurry through lunch. Shota did not get to eat his lunch. His students should fear for their lives later during their rescue training, he will show no mercy. He did have to admit the reason was for a good cause though. Kirishima and his gaggle of friends cornered him in his own classroom before he could make it out the door.

They had taken his precious thirty minutes left of lunch to lay out their worries in front of him. He did listen because, again, he did like kids. None of them should feel uncomfortable in their own classroom, and he would take care of it as swiftly as his boss would let him.

A grin slowly creeped onto his face that he quickly hid in his scarf, his students seemed to shudder.

“So just to be clear” Shota clicked his pen, “this is two formal complaints. One against Mineta, and one against All Might.”

“Wait I- we are not complaining against All Might!” Kaminari waved his hands frantically in front of him like he could push the thought away. Pity. Shota’s life would be easier if he wasn’t the only one to bring attention to the fact that the perfect number one hero was a shit teacher.

“I am complaining about Mineta though” Ashido crossed her arms huffing, “I don’t even know how someone like him got into this school.”

Nepotism at its finest. He kept that thought to himself though. “Either way thank you for coming to me with this.” He started filling out the proper form, better to get it done now. “I know that it’s difficult to talk about this stuff with authority figures, but what you guys did shows me you have great potential in becoming heroes.”

“Wait really?” Seros eyes were wide.

He was already tired of having teaching moments during lunch and hated Nemuri a little more for convincing him to teach a bunch of brats.

Shota slowly put his pen down, trying to figure out how to scar even more children. “At some point we will cover this in ethics class, but I’m about to give you a crash course so pay attention.”

All four students nodded hastily, “contrary to societal belief, not all heroes are good people.” Shota paused, figuring out his next words, “say you came across someone taking money from an unconscious person’s pockets. Do you intervene?”

“Of course!” Kirishima said incredulously, the rest of the little group nodded along with him.

“Okay, so you approach this person to stop them. When you see this person, you realize that it’s Present Mic.” Shota knew that Zashi would never but he had a point to make, “Do you still try to stop him? Or do you turn away?”

They looked at each other uncomfortably, he understood of course. No one wants to be put in a position where someone they trust is doing something wrong.

“Mmm… yes?” Good on Kaminari to answer, even if it was said as a question.

Shota nodded “yes. The law applies to everyone, heroes and government agencies included.” Shota picked his pen up to continue to fill the form out, ugh paperwork. “This is obviously a more extreme example, but Mineta is a hero in training and should be acting as such. UA has a three-strike policy, unless in extreme circumstances.”

Three strikes too many in his opinion, but whatever.

“For privacy reasons I can’t tell you anything about Mineta right now, or possibly ever.” He made eye contact with Mina specifically, “but I want you to know that it will be handled. If anything else happens, whether you think it’s minor or not, I want you to come to me or another teacher you trust.” He would help even if he had to miss his lunch, he sighed internally.

“Don’t worry, we’ll keep watch sensei” there was a gleam in Sero’s eyes. Should he worry about that? Fuck it, he decided, that can be a later him problem.

“Okay” he glanced at the clock and died a little inside, “lunch ends in four minutes.” They stayed rooted in place, “shoo.” They scattered.

By the time the bell rang, signaling the start of class, Shota had finished the form. All he had to do is bring it to the rat after school. This will be write up number two for the same offence he might add.

He stood up from his desk, and the class fell silent immediately. “We are meeting outside the bus in ten minutes. If you’re not there we will leave without you.” They sprung into action immediately, all but running towards the door. Shota himself lazily made his way towards the bus, pulling out his backup jelly packet. He despised his backup, and only used it in dire circumstances. Who decided black licorice made a good jelly flavor? Demons, that’s who. His students should definitely fear for their lives.

As they gathered, he noted most students forewent their hero gear including Hagakure thank Kami. Bakugo, Kirishima, Yaoyorozu, and Aoyama were in their full gear. Shinso wore his gym gear but had on his boots from his costume. Overall Shota approved, but he also didn’t particularly care at this point.

Iida had been a bit much, trying to load everyone onto the bus in a specific order. Shota could have told him that the bus layout was different, but if he had to suffer so did they.

During the hour-long bus ride, a name caught his attention.

“Do you think Izuku-kun will want to talk about our rescue training today?” Mina asked.

“I don’t know…” Kaminari trailed for a moment. Shota needed to get that kid some confidence asap. “Shinso didn’t you say he was really out of it this morning?”

Shota scanned the students, then zeroed in on Bakugo. He was laser focused on the conversation, when he normally did his best to avoid him.

“I think we should back off a little bit for now” Shinso said tonelessly, “I’m still getting my coffee tomorrow though.”

“Besides” Kirishima smirked, “we don’t know that Izubro will be working tomorrow. Didn’t he say that they hired a new employee?”

“He’s working tomorrow” Shinso blinked tiredly. Recovery Girl’s quirk did that to people.

Because Shota was watching, he saw the moment Mina realized Bakugo was listening for once. “Oh my gosh! Bakubabe you have to come to the café with us tomorrow!”

Bakugo snarled in disgust “Don’t call me that racoon eyes!” The blondes’ fists were clenched, “I don’t want to go to some shitty café with you shitty extras!”

“Oohhh! What nickname do you think Bakugo would bestow on Izuku?” Sero teased.

“Greenie would be the obvious choice” Mina quickly jumped to answer, “Ya’ know because of all the green he’s got going on.” She turned to the other students that were listening nearby. “He’s such a sweetie, always willing to listen, and he’s already memorized our names and orders! He’s got green hair, green eyes, and the cutest freckles-”

“That’s it!” Kaminari interrupted, “Bakugo would call him freckles! He’s got four really visible freckles in the shape of a diamond on each cheek.”

Bakugo seemed to get a shade paler with every description shared about Izuku. It made Shota very suspicious.

“No way!” Kirishima chuckled, lightly bumping Bakugo with his elbow in jest. “You would totally call him curly, because he’s got these really wild curls. Aaaand shitty hair is already taken.”

“I think kero” Asui added, “that Bakugo-kun gives mean nicknames.” She ignored Bakugos’ growled ‘watch it!’ “I apologize for being crass, but I think he would use something along the lines of ‘the coffee extra’”.

“Back off! I’m not going to some shitty coffee place, so you can all shut the fuck up!” Bakugo was trying to sound intimidating, but Shota could see how pale the boy was and how wild his eyes were. He narrowed his eyes, there was something there. It had to do with Izuku, which meant that this warranted some investigation.

The bus stopped. “Bakugo language. Everyone off the bus and don’t be foolish.” He watched the students file off, and finally finally handed the reigns over to Thirteen. He would still help, but this was her bread and butter. Shota knew that technically All Might was supposed to be there, but the rat had other ideas. Needless to say that he was not mourning the fact that he didn’t have to deal with the hero in all of his ‘All Mightness’.

Shota had to admit that he had zoned out when Thirteen started their speech. Later he would regret that.

“Woah! Is this part of training?” Kaminari’s question snapped his attention to where the kid was pointing.

A cold pit opened in his stomach as dark as the whirl pool in the center of the building.

“No”.

“Student’s stay with Thirteen!” He locked down his emotions to deal with later.

No.

He pulled his goggles over his eyes, “Thirteen protect the students.”

No.

A young man stepped out of the portal, just as it closed. He was covered in hands.

No.

“We are here for All Might” the guy rasped. Shota inhaled sharply

That motherfucker.

He didn’t know whether he meant the villain or the hero, but it didn’t matter, he was already jumping into the sea of villains. With a fair amount of trouble, he dispatched each villain and was fighting what he assumed to be the leader. A kick to the guys head dislodged the hand on his face.

“You are so cool Eraserhead” he rasped, “to bad I’m not the boss battle.”

A blood curdling scream echoed in the air.

It gave him pause.

He'd hesitated.

It was his undoing.