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Izuku wakes up out of breath. It’s not an unfamiliar feeling, he’s used to gasping out of nightmares of suffocating fire or overwhelming pressure threatening to flatten him, but it’s never been so literal as the unfamiliar weight in his chest, not quite heavy enough to put pressure on his lungs but still there and he doesn’t know what to do about it. Except for opening his eyes, that might help, he figures.
The sunlight that greets him as he executes that thought spreads spots in his vision and he blinks them away in confusion. The sun doesn’t usually hit his face in the morning, his bedroom window wasn’t angled like that and he always keeps the curtains to the balcony closed at night anyway, so where-
Oh.
Oh no.
As if a dam had been broken, the memories of the past day rush to the forefront of his mind in an avalanche of embarrassment that only worsens as he realizes the unfamiliar weight in his chest is a small black kitten, sleeping on top of his ribs and seemingly unbothered by his increasingly rapid breaths as he tries not to spontaneously combust on the spot. He fell asleep on his sensei’s sofa. He’d hugged said sensei, something he’d never have done to any other teacher in his life, and oh god the things he’d said.
He knows it had been the quirk, his rational mind is already working through what he remembers feeling at the time, how every emotion had become incredibly overwhelming and almost the only thing he could focus on until a different emotion took its place in an almost whiplash-worthy trade and how his usual - if somewhat faulty for occasionally letting the mumbling through - filter had become almost nonexistent during the time he was affected. He’d acted on immediate impulses without thinking them through, which would explain how he’d practically pounced on Aizawa-sensei when he walked into the infirmary since subconsciously - and somewhat consciously too even if he’s afraid of admitting it - he associates his current teacher with being safe, for the first time in his life.
He’s not quite sure when that feeling cemented itself, to be honest. He’s always admired Eraser Head, the underground hero that became one of his absolute favorites ever since he found out about the pro in one of his forums and scoured the internet for more information on the elusive hero that apparently fought mostly quirkless. Videos and pictures had been incredibly hard to track down, but witness statements were a little harder for whoever did away with the images to identify and vanish since they didn’t always mention the hero by name, which made it easier for a ten-year-old Izuku to find and match a variety of posts and comments around the internet with the hero’s usual ambush style operation mode and general area of patrol. Between Eraser Head, Mandalay, and Nighteye he’d had no shortage of heroes who worked partially quirkless to admire, nevermind his discovery of underground heroics as a whole and the subsequent fall into a new research spiral that only reinforced his dream of becoming a hero.
Meeting Aizawa-sensei did nothing but increase his admiration, especially finding out that the hero not only worked tirelessly at night to keep the streets safe but gave up his daytime to teach the next generation of heroes. Izuku had immediate respect for him as a person, even though he was now his teacher and something in his mind insisted on reminding him he couldn’t trust him, not really, not if he knew. But he didn’t know, and he even stopped All Might’s quirk - his borrowed power - from hurting him! Sure, he also said Izuku couldn’t be a hero with a quirk like that, but he didn’t say it because he was quirkless, he said it because he didn’t want Izuku to hurt himself and get others hurt because of it. He cared, and it made Izuku try even harder to prove himself worth caring about, worth being taught to become a hero.
He knows he let a little bit more of his guard down after attending a couple of his homeroom teacher’s Law and Ethics in Heroics classes, which seemed more focused on the ethics part than the law, at least for the first years. Discussions of quirk bias and discrimination in the heroics industry made his classmates think more about the world around them and the people they were working towards being able to save and gave Izuku somewhere to dump all of his accumulated knowledge on rescue statistics and how biases became apparent depending on what hero was on the scene, even if it was only twice a week. Aizawa-sensei didn’t single him out or hold him back after class even if he exceeded the word limit in their assigned work, only returning it with additional written comments in the usual red pen and sometimes post-it notes with the web address of additional sources for his research.
Then came the USJ and Aizawa-sensei launched himself at the villains to protect them even though he was at a severe disadvantage no matter what he said about not being a one-trick pony. He got hurt for them, his elbow disintegrated, his arm broken and he had a scar under his eye, the organ he needed to work his quirk, all to protect them. Izuku knew rationally that it was his teacher’s job as a hero to put his life on the line to protect others, but that didn’t stop him from remembering the times he’d been outright ignored by other heroes at the sight of his shoes or once they’d learned his quirk status. He wasn’t quirkless anymore, he would remind himself, but it would have been so easy for Aizawa-sensei to just… not erase Shigaraki’s quirk when he reached for Izuku. Casualties happen, he’d almost been one a few times, so when he was one of his hero’s priorities, he just couldn’t let go of that feeling of being saved for once even if he proceeded to ignore orders and fight that scary bird thing because he didn’t want his teacher hurt either.
The lecture he’d received when Aizawa-sensei went to see Recovery Girl and saw him in one of the beds was legendary, but it hadn’t included any of the things he was used to hearing like how he was too fragile and needed to be careful or how he’d brought this upon himself, instead he’d been thanked, even if it was after a lesson in prioritizing rescue and how Asui-chan and Mineta-kun had been vulnerable after he charged the Nomu and he should have taken his classmates toward the entrance instead of trying to protect his teacher, a full-fledged pro-hero.
When he thinks about it, Izuku can see why he might subconsciously associate his sensei with safety, but it does nothing to stop his face from heating up in mortification at the memory of how he clung to the man, and he’d let him. He didn’t push him, or look disgusted, or- oh, right, he has a quirk now. He keeps forgetting it - even if it should be impossible to forget - because it’s easier than remembering the broken bones and the pain and All Might’s congratulations and encouragement, incentive even, that he should keep trying and eventually everything would work out, no matter the number of times he had to break himself over and over again to achieve it.
Maybe Izuku is too used to forcing himself to focus on other things to avoid bigger issues because as much as he’d like to suddenly manifest an invisibility quirk and use it to avoid his sensei in the foreseeable future, the whole hug aspect is the least of his worries.
Fortunately, the sound of approaching footsteps pulls Izuku’s mind away from the memory of tattling on his previous teachers and forces him to focus on turning his head to look toward the entrance of the living room without it exploding at the movement. Did he mention he had one hell of a headache? Because he did, and it was incredibly unpleasant to have the sun in his eyes while he tried his best to ignore it until it went away.
“You’re awake,” Aizawa-sensei’s voice points out unnecessarily in his usual deadpan tone as he approaches the sofa, and Izuku can’t help but groan and attempt to bury his head under the fluffy blanket keeping him warm, cheeks burning in embarrassment. “Head a little clearer?”
“Hurts,” Izuku answers, remembering something about Recovery Girl and pills, and he really doesn’t want to move right now but sensei probably wants him out of his hair as soon as possible so-
“Relax kid, I’m not kicking you out,” Aizawa-sensei explains and Izuku realizes that just because the quirk effect is gone doesn’t mean he’s stopped his stupid mumbling habit and most definitely said that thought out loud. “You’ll need to sit up to take this though,” he warns as he places a glass of water on the kotatsu’s tabletop followed by a small blue pill.
Giving up on becoming one with the sofa to avoid his teacher’s scrutiny, Izuku focuses on propping himself up on his forearms instead. Apparently, that’s enough movement to finally disturb the sleeping kitten in his chest and he watches with amusement as it levels him with the closest thing to a disappointed look Izuku has ever received from a cat and proceeds to climb on the table, trying to steal his water.
“Shoo, that’s not for you,” his teacher thankfully picks up the kitten before it can reach his cup and the wannabe water thief settles down on Aizawa-sensei’s arms, hiding its little head in the crook of his elbow, and Izuku only realizes he’s staring when he looks up to meet his teacher’s expectant look. Right, the medicine.
It feels like a gargantuan effort to reach a sitting position with the constant pounding of his head but Izuku powers through it with the determination to not be more of a burden to his teacher, finally popping the pill into his mouth and draining the full cup of water with a thirst he didn’t realize was there a moment ago.
“Sorry,” he mumbles, eyes not leaving the empty cup on the table, not quite sure how to phrase his regret at having inserted himself into his teacher’s personal life because of a silly quirk accident.
Audible footsteps - and he can tell those are for his comfort because Aizawa-sensei usually makes no noise if he can help it - tell Izuku his teacher is moving and the tense silence remains. He watches from the corner of his eye as his teacher lowers himself to the sofa a few centimeters to his left, cross-legged and too focused on Izuku for his comfort. A teacher’s - an adult’s - full attention on him has never spelled good things for him.
“Midoriya-kun,” Aizawa-sensei started and Izuku couldn’t help but turn to look at him, trying to keep his eyes on his teacher and not look toward the only exit of the room, because he knows how good his teacher is at reading people and he hardly thinks he’d make it past him if he noticed the plans forming in his mind. He’s safe his subconscious points out, but experience screams louder. “You have nothing to apologize for, having a quirk used on you is hardly your fault and it would be illogical to blame you for anything you did under its influence.”
Izuku knows he meant to say something, but all that leaves his mouth is air the few times he tries to verbalize anything and his head is still pounding, making his thought process clouded with pain. He just wants to sleep and not be a problem for anyone, how difficult can that be? Pretty difficult, in his experience.
“You can go back to sleep, it’s only five-thirty,” Aizawa-sensei assures him and Izuku is in too much pain to wonder if he said anything he wasn’t meant to out loud again or if the non-gravitational field around sensei’s head when he uses Erasure may be a sign of some latent mind-reading quirk. A low chuckle startles him out of those thoughts. “You’re mumbling, kid. I need to check on you later so try not to pull any disappearing acts.” Uh-oh, he must have noticed Izuku watching the entrance. Or maybe he’s not too far off with the mind-reading theory, who really knows?
He only nods in response before grimacing at the pain the movement brings, barely registering Aizawa-sensei’s sympathetic look as he decides to give up on any escape plans and lie back down, sliding almost fully under the kotatsu and hugging the fluffy blanket closer to bury his face in it. The movement on the sofa tells him his teacher stood up and a moment later the inconvenient sunlight is gone from his eyes, so Izuku figures the curtains were closed. His last coherent thoughts are that Aizawa-sensei is too nice, and he wonders when the other shoe will drop.
The next time Izuku wakes up it’s to the soft sound of movement nearby, likely in the kitchen if he correctly identified the sound of sizzling oil. The curtains are still closed so he doesn’t delay in opening his eyes and taking in his surroundings with a little more attention and a lot less of a headache to influence his thought process. The ceiling is cream colored while the walls are a contrasting beige much closer to the light brown of the wooden floors, which makes the marine blue of the closed curtains stand out even more from the remaining monochrome. It’s pretty light, Izuku notices as he sits up, and not like he’d imagine Aizawa-sensei’s living room to be like. Not that he’d imagined where his teacher might live in the first place. There are also a lot of books in the high, dark-brown bookshelves sitting against one of the walls and he has to hold himself back from rushing to look at the titles. At least the kotatsu in the center of the room keeps to the earlier color scheme with the light brown tabletop and cream-colored blanket, though the sofa is dark brown and apparently very comfortable given he can hardly remember having such a good night’s sleep in the past few months. He’ll have to thank his teachers for it, and for putting up with him since he has no idea how long he’s been sleeping but it’s definitely more than they’d likely want anyone to intrude for.
That thought stirs him into motion, he’s hardly got any excuses for staying put when the quirk effects have been gone for a while and his headache seems to have followed it after he took that pill and slept it off. Careful not to make much noise, Izuku crosses the living room and approaches the room he can hear chopping noises coming from. He sees Aizawa-sensei before the man sees him since he’s got his back to the entrance of the kitchen, hands busy as he cuts something out of Izuku’s sight. It’s kind of strange, he thinks, seeing his teacher out of his hero costume, hair pulled up in a bun, and black jumpsuit traded for a fluffy-looking gray sweater and- pastel pink sweatpants. He tries his best to hold back a giggle, death by laughing at his teacher is definitely not in his plans for the day, but his hands come up to his mouth too late to cover the sound and both of them freeze at the same time.
Aizawa-sensei moves first, turning toward him as he tries to hide his face in his hands and mentally pray for that spontaneous invisibility quirk, it would be great right about now. He really didn’t mean to laugh! Promise!
“It’s fine, Midoriya-kun,” Aizawa-sensei assures him and he doesn’t seem upset. If anything he looks the closest to amused Izuku’s seen him since Iida and Todoroki got into an ethics debate over collateral damage in their last class.
Still, he really needs to get that mumbling under control.
“S-sorry, sensei,” Izuku offered anyway, eyes moving to the ground because he just noticed his teacher is wearing an apron, and it’s got a drawing of a black cat clinging to it and some English on top of it that he’s pretty sure says ‘made from scratch ’ and definitely looks like something Mic-sensei would gift him and he can’t laugh stop it Izuku.
“Still nothing to apologize for, Midoriya-kun. But since you’re up, you can help set the table for lunch,” Aizawa-sensei adds with a movement toward the kitchen island, where Izuku can see a few side dishes set aside.
“Wait, lunch?” Izuku stares in confusion and steps further into the kitchen, looking around until his eyes settle on a clock pointing to nearly one in the afternoon. “Oh.”
“Have you been sleeping alright, kid?” Aizawa-sensei asks and Izuku tries not to fidget or do anything that will give away the fact that this was definitely the most he’d slept in years, especially without nightmares.
“Y–yes sensei,” He mentally sighs at the persistent stutter but avoids his teacher’s eyes and hopes it was still believable.
“I’ll take your word for it,” Aizawa-sensei relents, only making him feel guiltier for lying to his teacher. He should be used to it by now, given the big lie that his whole life has become. “Get those to the table for me? Zashi’s stopping by for lunch and then I’ll walk you back to the dorms to explain why you haven’t been with them.”
“I can go back now! I m-mean, I don’t wanna keep imposing-” he nervously twists his fingers, he shouldn’t take more of their food! They’d been so nice already to let him sleep in after giving them trouble the night before.
“You’re not imposing, Midoriya-kun,” Aizawa-sensei insists and Izuku doesn’t have it in him to argue with his teacher.
“A-alright,” he whispers and gets moving, picking up some of the side dishes to bring to the table. He almost trips as a small black blur runs in front of him and hops on the sofa, but thankfully keeps his balance long enough to put down the dishes before glaring at the little fur creature of chaos that just tried to trip him. Uchuu just looks back at him with the widest, roundest eyes he’s ever seen in a cat, “stop it, I can’t be mad if you look like that.”
“He’s a little menace and he knows it,” a cheerful voice calls from the entrance to the living room and Izuku nearly jumps out of his skin, since when is Mic-sensei stealthy? “Sorry for the scare lil’ listener, and thanks for helping set the table!”
Izuku already figured his English teacher was in his hero persona when he was called a ‘listener’ but it was still pretty cool to turn and see the blond in full hero gear, directional speakers - which he didn’t usually have on when teaching and Izuku only got to see from a distance in the entrance exam and the USJ - included.
“It’s t-the least I can do for l-letting me stay so long,” he shook his head at the thanks, but his thoughts seemed to get away with his mouth and he couldn’t help but ask, “d-did you give Aizawa-sensei that apron?”
Mic-sensei’s following laughter was almost worth the embarrassment of asking and he fought back the heat from his cheeks as he tried to apologize for prying, it just came out.
“I sure did, and I don’t mind questions at all so stop with the apologies, ya dig?” The voice hero steps up and ruffles his hair. Izuku blinks at the unexpected affectionate touch and tries not to chase after it as his teacher moves to the sofa and starts messing with the speaker around his neck, probably to take it off since it seems pretty heavy.
“I thought Uchuu was holding you hostage,” Aizawa-sensei deadpans as he walks in, somehow balancing three plates of what Izuku could now identify as tonkatsu. That made sense with the miso, rice, and veggies on the sides, and wow did sensei cook all the time? That smelled so good. “I cook most weekends, but we usually eat at the school.”
“S-sorry, I can still help!” Izuku hurries from the room to fetch any remaining side dishes in the kitchen and mentally tries to turn off his habit of mumbling his thoughts out loud, was it always this bad or could it be a side-effect of the quirk? He didn’t really have anyone unbiased to ask.
Soon enough the trio settles down around the kotatsu, diving into their meal with gusto. Present Mic-sensei keeps asking Izuku things and he can’t help but engage in the conversation, not wanting to be impolite but not used to so much interest directed at him all at once. It felt nice if a little weird, and Mic-sensei even let him ask questions! He was itching to write about the fact that his teacher’s Saturday patrol route always passed by U.A. so he could have lunch with Aizawa-sensei and they both had no patrols at all on Sundays except for emergency requests for their specific quirks. He had so many questions about their quirks!
“You really like quirk science, huh? That’s an elective next year, usually gets some students from the support course and a couple of gen ed, but it’s not like hero students can’t apply,” Mic-sensei points out between bites.
“Really?” Izuku tries his best not to bounce in place at the prospect of actual classes about quirks! “I’d really like that. It does make sense that support students need to learn how to work around quirk drawbacks or how to add DNA into materials to work with transformative quirks, even some emitter ones like Permeation or Eras- uh,” he quickly cuts himself off with some more pork before he can start gushing about his sensei’s quirk.
“No, keep going!” Mic-sensei grins, and it’s a little sharper than Izuku is used to seeing in class but feels slightly more real, “what does my dear husband’s quirk have to do with DNA-infused materials?”
Izuku takes advantage of the food in his mouth to try and figure out if this was some sort of test, but a glance at Aizawa-sensei just has him meeting his less enthusiastic but still somehow interested gaze as if they actually want to hear whatever theories he’s come up with.
“I-I mean, t-that’s just a theory I have ‘cause when Erasure’s active t-there’s something like a non-gravitational field that makes Aizawa-sensei’s hair float, but it affects the capture weapon too and it’s a lot heavier than hair so at first I thought it might be minor telekinesis but then he’d have to be making his hair float on purpose or he could make it stop floating unless he’s working with other people since I think that’s how anyone Aizawa-sensei teams up with knows when it’s safe to use their quirk, but DNA-infused fabric would activate along with the secondary quirk aspect and make some of his moves make more sense since nothing just floats like that on its own,” he groans slightly in frustration at the memory of how long he spent trying to figure this out before finding out this type of fabric existed, “i-it’s still super impressive though s-since you still use the capture weapon without your quirk active!” Izuku hurriedly adds, “but it looks different, so I couldn’t- uh, not think about it,” he finishes in a smaller voice, eyes glued to his nearly empty plate.
“That’s a really good theory, kiddo!” Present Mic-sensei exclaims and he dares to look up, noticing with some surprise that neither of his teachers seems mad or annoyed.
“It’s right too,” Aizawa-sensei adds, “and I do keep my hair down on purpose, not just in case of unexpected team-ups but because most of my takedowns don’t last long enough for criminals to figure out the tell, and it helps me blend in. You’ll learn about necessary handicaps in Foundational Heroics eventually, though it usually entails stricter quirk control instead of visual tells.”
“We’ll have lectures in Foundational Heroics too?” Izuku is a little confused but mostly enthusiastic as he asks.
“You mean you haven’t had any?” Aizawa-sensei’s tone surprisingly leaves the usual deadpan as he asks, “Does All Might only teach practical classes for two whole periods?”
“Uh- yeah, pretty much,” he shrugs, tilting his head slightly at the look on his teachers’ faces. They don’t seem too happy about that.
“Kami give me patience,” Aizawa-sensei sighs, leaning back on the sofa and looking absolutely done with everything.
“This time Nezu will have to do something about it,” Mic-sensei points out in a more positive tone, which seems to cheer his homeroom teacher up slightly. “But that’s nothing you need to worry about, kiddo. How about you tell me any theories you have about Voice?”
By the time lunch is done and dishes have been washed, Izuku has so much information to put in his notebooks he can barely wait. He didn’t say anything about his more personal theories like Voice making his teacher hard of hearing or the vibrations affecting his body, but he did learn that Present Mic can reach infrasound frequencies and the possibilities with the ability to produce sound other humans can’t usually hear are so many! Something as low as 7hz, matching the frequency of the brain, could cause disorientation, nausea, and even organ rupture or death, not that Izuku wants the hero to kill people but to know he could and without anyone hearing anything is still amazing. Quirks are so cool!
Mic-sensei did have to leave eventually, giving Aizawa-sensei a peck on the lips that had Izuku blushing and looking away and then ruffling his hair again before he left. He wasn’t about to complain, especially since everything about that morning seemed like something out of a fever dream. Izuku didn’t remember the last time he’d had lunch with adults and didn’t feel like he was being a bother but actually had fun talking with them, mostly Mic-sensei since Aizawa-sensei kind of didn’t do small talk but still, it was so nice it didn’t feel real. But he had to leave now, he reminded himself as he waited for Aizawa-sensei in the living room and enjoyed cuddling with the fluffy piece of the void that was currently hogging his lap. Uchuu was too adorable, Izuku would miss him.
“Midoriya-kun,” his teacher starts, coming back into the room clad in the usual black jumpsuit of his hero costume and stopping by the side of the sofa, “I know I said we would be leaving now, but we need to have a talk before that.”
“Oh,” he’s not very surprised by that change of plans since expecting Aizawa-sensei to forget everything he’d said the night before was entirely unrealistic. “D-do I have to?” He feels pathetic for even asking, of course his teacher will do what he wants.
“No, and I definitely can’t make you,” Izuku’s eyes widen slightly at the answer, “but some of the things you said were extremely worrying and made it seem like the people who did those things are still out there, capable of doing them to other people.”
“T-they won’t, ‘s just me,” Izuku can’t help but explain, because of course that’s what his teacher was worried about, now it makes more sense, but he was quirkless and that’s the only reason that stuff happened to him, they wouldn’t do it to anyone else, they said so.
Aizawa-sensei takes a deep breath and moves to sit on the sofa, there’s some space between them and Izuku moves his eyes to stare at it so he doesn’t have to look at his teacher.
“That’s still wrong, Midoriya-kun,” Aizawa-sensei says after a moment, “and even if you could be sure, which you can’t, they still need to be punished for harming you.”
“No they d-don’t,” he corrects reflexively because it’s true. No one would punish them for putting the quirkless freak in his place, they’d say he deserved it because he didn’t- oh. He forgot again.
“They do, Midoriya-kun. You matter just as much as everyone else,” his teacher insists and Izuku’s brain can’t help the choir of wrongwrongwrong even as he tells himself that it’s not wrong because he has a quirk now. He matters now, right? “Is there a reason you’re so sure they won’t be punished?”
And Izuku doesn’t know how to answer that, because even if he matters now, all this stuff still happened when he was Deku and quirkless and useless so his new quirk wouldn’t make a difference anyway. But he can’t tell his teacher that, can he? Secretsecretnevertell the little voice in his head reminds him, with a memory of All Might standing above him and explaining how important it was that no one finds out about One for All.
But… no one has to.
He’s never been more thankful for the amount of quirk research he’s done over the years because maybe he can explain to his teacher why it doesn’t matter, and maybe it gets him expelled but All Might wouldn’t let that happen, right? And he has a quirk, so it’s not the same, they can’t expel him for being quirkless before, at least he hopes not. Maybe it’ll even help his teacher understand why he shouldn’t be here, imposing on their hospitality, and he tries not to panic as he opens his mouth to tell his favorite hero - his teacher too which is way more nerve-wracking when people occupying both positions have let him down repeatedly - why he didn’t need to talk about this.
“I’m a f-false negative,” Izuku all but whispers, eyes still locked on the sofa, “p-pretty late bloomer too. T-they thought I was quirkless .”
“So?” Aizawa-sensei asks and he can’t help but whip his head up to meet his teacher’s dark eyes, somehow seeming softer than before in contrast with the nonchalant tone. “That’s no excuse to abuse children in their care, those people can’t even be called educators if they think anyone’s quirk status allows them to discriminate like that.”
“B-but that d-doesn’t apply,” Izuku insists, something desperate clawing against his chest because it has to be right, “i-if there’s no quirk to d-discriminate against,” they have to be right because nooneeverhelped-
“That’s not how it works, Midoriya-kun. They were wrong, and you deserve justice, quirk or no quirk.” If Izuku hadn’t already been at the edge of bursting into tears, that would have done it anyway.
He hurries to hide his face in his hands, trying his best to muffle the sobs that crawl up his throat like hungry beasts that had been waiting to be freed for a long time. He’s not even sure what he’s crying about, is it having to talk about it? Finally knowing someone cares, even if it’s their job? It was All Might’s job too and look how that went his mind whispers. Maybe he’s crying for every hit and cut and burn and muffled screams and touches and-
“Midoriya-kun, I need you to breathe with me,” Aizawa-sensei’s voice sounds far away, did he move? Was he leaving? Maybe he realized it wasn’t worth- “I’m going to touch your hand, alright? I need you to follow the rhythm with your breathing,” and suddenly there’s touch but it’s grounding and a pattern, and he- he’s good with patterns, he knows that. “That’s it, come back to me kid, I’m not going anywhere,” lielielielie his mind screams, but there’s a large, calloused hand in his and a tapping on the back of his hand so he’s here, right? He’s not leaving, not yet, “not any time soon, kid, you’re stuck with me for three years minimum.”
Three years? Oh- the hero course, what was he going to do now? They’d all know how weak and useless he was and they’d leave him behind and he was just starting to maybe make friends! Oh god, what if they tell his mom? She can’t know, she’d lock him up so tight he’d never breathe fresh air ever again, he can’t talk about it can’tcan’t-
“Kid, please,” his sensei sounds different, scared? He can’t be scared, he didn’t mean to scare him, he just can’t do anything right and he can’t even think, why does his head feel like that? Wasn’t the quirk supposed to be gone? Helphelphelp “can you understand me? You don’t have to say anything, just nod,” Izuku blinks through his tears and tries his best to obey, “that’s good, I need you to focus on me alright? Here, is it okay if I put your hand on my chest so you can feel me breathing, then we can try to match it, just nod or shake your head,” he wants the tight feeling on his ribs and the choking sensation to go away so he nods again, “you’re doing great kid,” there’s surprisingly soft fabric and warmth under his palm and his breath hitches at the light, quick heartbeat he can feel under it, “we’ll count our breaths and you try to match me, alright? One… two…” Aizawa-sensei starts and Izuku does his best to follow.
“N-nine,” he stutters out once he feels like there's enough air in his lungs to spare for words again, his whole body sagging in relief as they keep counting for a few more seconds and he barely notices the tired tilt of his body until his forehead meets something soft and when did Aizawa-sensei get so close? He thinks distractedly and tries to gather the strength to sit upright, but the unexpected addition of a hand stroking his hair to the rhythm of their breaths has him relaxing further into his teacher’s chest with a tired sigh instead.
“Good job kid,” Aizawa-sensei’s voice is slightly rough but he can hardly pay attention to it as he’s melting under the soothing experience of something as rare to him as positive physical touch. He still feels lighter at the thought of having done a good job though, whatever it was. “I know this is hard, we don’t have to figure everything out all at once.” that sounds good, he doesn’t really want to figure out much of anything at the moment to be honest. Didn’t he just wake up? Why was he so tired? “Panic attacks are pretty tiring,” oh he was mumbling again.
“S-sorry,” Izuku breathed out against the black fabric he was leaning on. Here he was making more trouble for his teacher that somehow didn’t seem to act like the rest of the world when it came to him.
“Still nothing to apologize for kid, happens to the best of us,” Aizawa-sensei assured and Izuku was pretty sure he hadn’t heard such a soft tone directed at him since he had been under the quirk the day before. Or ever, really, not without an underlying pity or condescension. It was kind of nice. “You won’t have to do anything yet, Midoriya-kun, but if people treated you like that because they thought you were quirkless, it’s not just a crime but a hate crime, which means it’s aggravated and they’ll be put away for a long time.”
“R-really?” He doesn’t know if he believes it, much as he wants to. And he really wants to.
“I promise kid,” his sensei insists and maybe, just maybe, Izuku thinks he might trust a teacher again, just this one time.
“O-okay, sensei,” he nods into his teacher’s chest, realizing he’s still leaning on him but too mentally exhausted to overthink himself into a panic about it. He’ll probably do that once he’s in the privacy of his room and obsessing over the past two days in his mind, but not now. He’ll let himself enjoy the feeling of warm and safe just a little more.
Uchuu seems to think he’s had enough though and moves from the spot on his lap to squeeze himself in between him and Aizawa-sensei, making Izuku chuckle without meaning to at the attention-seeking behavior.
“We get it, you attention hog,” sensei moves the hand not in Izuku’s hair to pet the kitten who promptly starts purring in satisfaction, a sound Izuku would definitely be making if he was able to as he wondered if practice petting cats translated into petting people. The choking sound from his teacher and the way his hand stilled in Izuku’s hair told him he said that out loud and immediately makes him move away from his teacher, sitting up and hiding his reddening face behind his palms with a muffled ‘sorry’. “You’re fine, Midoriya-kun,” Aizawa-sensei assures, ruffling his hair like Mic-sensei did before leaving, “but you don’t have to leave yet, especially after that, so if you want to keep cuddling this little menace while I look over some homework I promise you won’t be bothering or intruding in anything. I can always walk you back to the dorms later.”
Izuku lowers his hands to face his teacher, trying to find any hint of a lie in his tone or expression but seeing none. He looks back down at his hands, nervously pulling at his fingers as a teardrop drips from his chin to the back of his hand. Kami, he probably looks like a mess, his classmates would probably hound him with questions if he went over now and Kacchan would call him a weak crybaby and- yeah, he didn’t really want to leave. Not yet.
“J-just for a bit,” he all but whispered, still not sure if he should be selfish and make his teacher look after him in his only student-free time. His thoughts screech to a halt as a purring ball of fur is promptly deposited back on his lap, settling quickly with a satisfied increase in volume as Izuku immediately moves to pet Uchuu’s unfairly soft fur. Adorable.
“Just for a bit,” Aizawa-sensei agrees as he stands, probably to grab the homework he talked about.
Izuku leans back and sinks further into the soft back of the sofa, eyes moving to stare at the ceiling even as they unfocused as he lost himself to the repetitive petting motions and swirling thoughts in his head. Maybe, he dared hope even if not too strongly, things would be alright. Just for a bit.