Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

No Man is born equal. This is a fact that Izuku Midoriya learns at a very young age. He knows because he is quirkless. One extra pinky-toe joint is all it takes to pit the world against him.

His friends turn on him, beating and bullying him every day. The teachers turn on him, turning a blind eye or even helping the others taunt him. Katsuki Bakugou, his best friend, turns on him, becoming the worst of his bullies. His mother who’s supposed to be with him no matter what. She turns on him, neglecting him.

Every day is the same; get up, get beaten, go home, rinse and repeat.

All he wants is to be a hero, just like All Might. Saving people with a smile on his face, warding off evil and making sure everything is okay. But apparently, it’s too much to ask for.

--

“Midoriya,” his teacher’s voice rings out, making Izuku flinch. Of course this would happen. Izuku knew it would. “You’re trying for UA too, are you?”

Izuku looks down, burning holes into his desk. The class suddenly bursts into laughter and starts shouting out rude comments.

“Really Deku?! UA?! How pathetic!”

“You’re so useless!”

“As if they’d let a quirkless into UA!”

Useless. Quirkless. Pathetic. Stupid. Deku.

A fist lands on Izuku’s desk, only for it to explode, making Izuku sink deeper into his chair. “Oi, Deku!” comes the malicious snarl, “What makes you think that a useless, fucking Deku like yourself can make it to UA? You’d die in the entrance exam!” he cackles, letting off more explosions.

“W-well, i-it can’t h-hurt to tr-try.” Izuku manages to stutter out. A little part of him can’t help but think that he can probably disarm his blonde bully. An analytical side that doesn’t cower at the mere mention of Bakugou. He’ll get in trouble if he does, anyway.

You shitty nerd, you can’t even talk right!” he scoffs, “What? Gonna go mute on us again?”

Izuku wants to protest, but much to his dismay his throat locks up and he finds himself unable to do so, just as Bakugou had said. Stupid selective mutism.

“Bakugou, please return to your seat; I’d like to continue my lesson,” the teacher interrupts with a tone that’s supposed to be stern, but only sounds smug at Izuku’s expense, “You can talk with it after class, once school has ended.”

Wow, Izuku thinks, I’m an ‘it’ now.

The lesson drags on for what seems like ever, a storm of anxiety forming in the pit of his stomach. He’ll just have to bolt.

Finally, the lesson ends, and he speeds to pack his things away to avoid his former friend. He’s too late, though. Just as he’s about to put his analysis notebook in his bag, it’s snatched from his grasp and held high above his head. His gaze shoots up to see Bakugou looking down at him, notebook in hand.

Desperation breaks the lock on his voice, and he yelps with fear lacing his tone, “K-Kacchan.”

Bakugou’s eyes flicker over the title of the book, ‘Hero Analysis for the Future’, and his face contorts with rage. “What’s this Deku? Notes can’t help you be a hero. “You won’t be needing this anymore.”

Izuku’s eyes widen as the weight of the words sink in. “N-no!” he starts, but it’s too late as he’s cut off by crackles and pops that are shortly followed by a small explosion and the rustle of pages as it’s tossed out of the window.

Izuku gets no time to react before he gets shoved out of his seat and his back hits harshly against the wall, making him let out a small yelp. Bakugou places has hand on Izuku’s shoulder and smoke starts rising from Izuku’s uniform from under his tight, heated grasp. “Now, Deku, I’m gonna be the only one going to UA from this shitty school, you hear me?”

Izuku struggles to find his voice, and this makes Bakugo furious, his grip tightening. He shoves Izuku down again and stomps on the boy’s hand, and a crack is heard as Izuku bites back a scream, tears threatening to spill. There goes his wrist.

Bakugou, satisfied with his work, turns to leave, though stops in the doorway. He looks back at Izuku with a feral grin and speaks. Speaks the words the words that Izuku will have etched in his head for the rest of his life.

“You know, Deku,” he says finally, “if you really want to be a hero so badly, there actually might be a way. Just pray that you’ll be born with a quirk in your next life... and take a swan dive off the roof of a building.”

And with that, he leaves, leaving Izuku to drown in his cruel words.

Izuku finds himself being carried by his legs out of the school building, a numb sensation washing over him like a tsunami. He peers into the koi pond to see the fish nibbling at his book. Scaring the fish away, he reaches in to grab the burnt and now soggy book with a sigh.

He continues walking back to his house, taking as long as he cares. Inko won’t care anyway. She stopped caring since the diagnosis. Izuku feels a shadow fall over him as he walks under an overpass, not noticing the gurgling from a nearby manhole over the static in his mind.

Seconds later, he’s engulfed by a figure of sludge. What Izuku assumes is a villain starts talking, but his hearing is fuzzy from everything that had happened. He doesn’t fight back, not caring anymore. The sludge villain speaks once more, and Izuku manages to catch what he says, “Why aren’t you fighting back?”

Izuku looks back at him with dead emerald eyes as the sludge uncovers his mouth to let him speak. “Why should I?” he questions in a monotone, uncaring voice, making the villain flinch.

The sludge hesitates on what to say next, not expecting to come across such a situation. “Hey, kid...” he finally says, Izuku’s gaze staring tiredly at him, “you don’t happen to be... suicidal... do you?”

Izuku pauses for a second at that, mulling over the question. Is he? He’s never actually wanted to die, but now... now he just feels empty. Besides, the world will be better off without a useless Deku like him. So, he replies, “Yes.”

The sludge looks the boy over. He can’t be older than 14, way too young. His expression turns sympathetic, “I’ll make it painless for you.”

“...thanks.” comes his sole word.

As the minutes pass, he quickly feels himself succumb to his miserable fate. But he’ll be released from this cruel world, so can it really be miserable? As he’s blacking out, he faintly feels himself get tossed to the side, along with a distant ‘SMASH!!!’.

He wakes up to find himself face to face with familiar blue eyes and blond hair. He jumps up in surprise. “All Might!!” he yells in surprise, stumbling a bit.

“Hello, my boy!” All Might’s booming voice replies.

Izuku’s eyes dart to his notebook to see it signed by the pro hero himself. He bows profusely at the number one hero, thanking him for the autograph and for saving him. But as the hero turns to leave, Izuku remembers the question he wants so desperately to ask. So that’s how he finds himself clinging to All Might’s pants as they fly over the city.

All Might stares at the boy grasping his leg as he takes off into the sky, eyes widening. “Young boy! Let go!”

Izuku looks at the man with an incredulous look on his face, “If I let go now, I’ll surely die from falling.”

All Might’s face gains a sheepish expression. He probably should’ve thought of that, but his timer is running out and he’ll turn back any moment now. So, he lands on a roof, setting the boy down.

Izuku doesn’t let the hero speak as he looks down at his feet and speaks, “I have a question.”

Shit, All Might thinks as steam starts rolling off him and the boy launches into an explanation of his life. By the time Izuku speaks his question, All Might has turned into his Small Might persona.

“So can a quirkless person become a hero?” he asks, tone slightly louder as he looks up to see a stick figure. But he isn’t fazed.

All Might’s expression is one that of confusion. Why wasn’t this kid reacting to his true form? He expects many things, like the kid having a delayed reaction or something. What he doesn’t expect, is this:

“Ah, so I was correct.” the kid says, and All Might has to do a double take. Say what know?!

“As I thought, you sustained heavy damage from your fight with All For One, a super villain notorious for being known as the bogeyman of the underground. And if I'm not mistaken, you should be missing half your stomach and respiratory system, with heavy scarring, of course." the small greenette relays. All Might frowns because it’s entirely true.

"You are correct, young boy," he starts, "but to answer your question..."

The boy perks up at this. "No. " And he watches as the boy's face falls. His shoulders slump and he stares at the ground, hanging his head.

"It's good to dream, but you've also got to think realistically. Maybe try to be a police officer or a medic. And with those brains, you could even be a detective." All Might suggests as if trying to soften the blow, and then he leaves.

Minutes later finds Izuku sitting on the edge of the building, legs dangling. He thinks over everything. And boy is there a lot of negative thoughts. He peers down. It’s late and there aren’t many people around, in fact Izuku can’t see a single person in the streets. He can end it now. No one will care.

So, he does. He pushes off and feels himself fall, wind tangling his green curls.

Then black.

Chapter Text

Izuku felt himself fall through the sky and damn was it a beautiful scene. The sun was setting, a pink and yellow sky reaching out with cotton candy clouds hanging in their places. It was late enough that small specks of white dusted the sky, more than likely the stars. It was breathtaking. If Izuku was going to die, he was happy that he'd die to such an ethereal view.

He felt himself black out before he hit the ground, to which he was kind of relieved. A painless death. And then it was really over.

...

Izuku woke up to a splitting headache. Everything hurt. Why did it hurt? He was dead. He'd jumped. His brain received information on what hurt the most. His head, kind of a no brainer, though. His wrist from when Katsuki had stomped on it, and his back. Did it hurt from the impact? Wait. Was he still in the middle of the street?!

His eyes flew open as he shot up, instantly regretting it afterwards as pain wracked his body. He winced but tried to take in his surroundings anyway, blinking several times to clear his vision.

The streets were empty and the sky was dark meaning it was obviously night, the moon glowing against the inky black veil and stars more prominent from when he'd been falling. He felt a wet substance around him and could barely tell that it was red. It was blood, he concluded.

He took in shaky breaths as he processed everything so far. He'd had a shitty day, gotten attacked by a villain and had his dreams crushed by his idol. Well, former idol, that is. Then he'd committed suicide. But he was still alive...

Blinding lights poured into the street as a car sped past, bringing Izuku back to his situation. Right, he could think about this when he wasn't in a pool of blood.

He shakily got up, sucking in trembling breaths, his body aching from head to toe. Firstly, he needed to get changed, he was not going to wander around in his bloody Aldera uniform. Secondly, he was moving out of his mother's house. He'd take his stuff and find somewhere else to stay. Thirdly, he needed to sort out his finances. I mean, he'd have to live somehow. Actually, he should probably sort out his injuries first. Yeah, that was probably a good idea.

He started to walk off down the street, into the night. The walk was quiet peaceful, no villains and no people which was probably a good thing seeing as he was a teenager covered in blood.

He stepped up to the front door, about to unlock it when he thought better of it and retreated to the fire escape and climbed in through the window. This was a good call as he could hear his mother in the living room, supposedly watching TV to wind down.

He gathered up what he felt was essential into a duffel bag. Clothes, money, his laptop, school books a few hero collectibles that would sell at high prices and his analysis notebooks. After that, he changed into a hoodie and shorts, climbed back out the window and left.

He wandered the streets, searching for a place to stay. He wouldn't want to go to a hotel or something of the sort as he'd most likely be questioned and it needed to be somewhere he'd be safe. A thought crossed his mind and he set of with a new-found purpose.

When he arrived at the place he stood still for a moment, taking in the towers of trash that littered Dagobah Municipal beach. As much as he hated the fact that it was covered by junk, he needed a place to stay.

He continued in and scoured the place for a suitable sleeping spot. He of course wasn't expecting to stay very long as he's probably just try to find an actual place to stay, but for now this would suffice.

In the end, he'd found a perfect spot that was basically just a cave in a mountain of trash. It surprisingly didn't actually smell that bad either. So he set down his bag and laid down, head rested on the bag. He must've not noticed how tired he was because as soon as his head hit the make-shift pillow, he was out like a light.

...

Izuku awoke the next morning feeling pained and still surprisingly tired. He opened his eyes and blinked twice to clear his bleary sight. What he was not expecting, however, was to see green feathers that connected to large, green wings that came from behind Izuku. Scratch that. That came from Izuku's back.

Izuku shot up, hitting his head on the low ceiling making him yelp in pain. Clutching his throbbing head, he crawled out of his little cubby. He must've been so tired last night if he didn't notice two large, green wings protruding from his back, around his shoulder area.

Once he was fully out, he studied the wings, coming to the conclusion that if these wings attached to his back, he could theoretically move them. So he did. And as if it was second nature, he easily stretched out his left wing. Then his right. Then flapped them and for the second time within 24 hours, regretted his actions as sand clouded the area around him.

Once the sand settled down, he spat out sand from his mouth that he had accidentally breathed in. He wondered if he could fly but then thought that he probably could if he tried. Izuku then tucked his wings back behind him and crawled into the cubby.

He got out his computer and started searching. He searched for jobs, online schools and places he could aim to get, as well as setting up an account for him to sell his hero merch. He loved heroes, he really did. With the exception of the number 1 and 2 heroes, that is. But he did have to live somehow.

In all, he found a nearby cat cafe that was willing to hire, enrolled himself in an online school but currently had no progress on any apartments. He'd gotten multiple requests to buy his merch from many different people and set a time to meet up with the owner of the cafe.

So far, everything was fine. His meeting was later in the day which meant that he'd be able to sell a few merchendise before heading there. He knew that there was a popular beach further down and decided that they'd probably have a community shower for him to rinse off the dirt and blood.

He set off with a backpack of clothes, a towel and merch and a cap to hide the dried blood in his hair, soon arriving at a toilet and bathroom block. Izuku walked in and set his stuff down in a stall before locking himself in.

Izuku stripped his clothes and turned the tap on, feeling as though the water washed away not only the blood and grime but his worries as well. He found it a bit awkward as he washed his wings as he supposed that he should do so, so he didn't neglect the care of his new appendages.

He got changed into a T-shirt that said 'T-shirt' and a pair of black shorts, musing slightly as he noticed how his wings had torn his previous wear then grimaced as he realised he'd have to cut out holes to fit his wings.

In the end, he was thankful that he still had a pair of scissors at the bottom of his bag from the previous school day. However, was not thankful of how he'd had to ruin his favourite shirt.

He was taking this far better than he'd expected actually. Dying only to find himself awake in a pool of his own blood with a quirk.

He started heading to the train station where he could take a train to where he'd meet up with a few of his buyers then he'd take a train back to the cafe for an interview.

On the train it was like he had an invisible force field around him him because people stayed at least a meter away from him while. They eyed him warily like he'd stretch out his wings suddenly and wack them in the face. He'd gotten a few dirty stares from a lady that was quite some distance away and Izuku guessed that she didn't like people with wings or people with quirk mutations.

He got off at the second stop and wandered around a bit before going to the spot that he'd meet up with a buyer. By the end of it, he'd gotten a few thousand yen and was heading back to the station to get a train back.

...

He smiled slightly as he stood in front of the small, cosy-looking, cat cafe that had a friendly air to it. A small ding sounded as he pushed open the door and walked in, careful to not slam the door behind him.

He looked around to see a few booths along the walls and four or so tables around the area, three of which were occupied. He took in the pots of plants and books around the cafe and the cats roaming around. Finally his gaze landed on the counter that sported a cashier and a display case of delicious treats.

Behind the counter, he saw a short, old lady wearing a pastel green apron that had cat print patterns on it. He walked up to the counter and nervously greeted the lady. "H-hi," he said, internally cursing his stutter, "m-my name is I-Izuku and I'm here for a-a job. I-if you'd t-take me of course, that is."

"Well hello, dearie, " she replied, "it's very nice to meet you, my name is Kanna Takahashi. I run the place. "

She walked over to a booth, farthest from the door and beckoned him over. He started to follow but quickly stopped in his tracks when a ginger tabby gracefully jumped onto his shoulder and settled around his neck.

The lady, Kanna-san had chuckled at the sight of the shy boy freezing as her grumpiest cat had willingly curled around the greenette's neck like a scarf. "Well, it seems you've got Simba's stamp of approval." she chuckled.

Izuku continued to make his way to the booth, careful to make sure that Simba didn't fall off. He sat down across from Kanna-san and she began to talk. "Alright, Izuku-kun, first I'd like to know how old you are."

"I'm f-fourteen." Izuku answered.

"You got any experience under your belt? " she inquired.

"No," he answered once more, this time shaking his head, "but I'm a fast learner."

"That's good." she hummed, "Well, how about I put you on trial today then I'll decide to hire you or not. Afterwards we can discuss other details if I say yes."

"Th-that'll be great. Thanks." Izuku nodded in agreement.

The next hour consisted of him taking orders, learning to use and do different things as well as cleaning up. Kanna-san had thankfully agreed to hire him, practically beaming as she said that he'd passed with flying colours.

They discussed his pay, hours and stuff like that. Since he did online school, he was allowed to do it during breaks or when business was slow. He was also allowed to use the staff room showers and keep his duffel bag there too.

So that day, Izuku went to his make-shift home with a jump in his step and a very light heart. He was ready for his new school course and job for the next day.

Chapter Text

Izuku opened the door to the cafe and was immediately greeted by a chipper Kanna-san.

"Good morning, dearie. How are you? " she asked.

"I'm good, Kanna-san." Izuku replied with a small smile.

"That's good, that's good. Well, the cafe is about to open, why don't you go change and set up shop. If you finish early you can start that online school course."

"Right. " he replied as he went, only to be stopped again by Simba and three other cats. One was a creamy white, another was a pale blue and the last was a dark purple. Kanna-san shooed away the cats with a laugh and let Izuku continue.

15 minutes later, Izuku was sitting behind the counter frozen in shock as he stared dumbfoundedly at his computer screen with a surprised Kanna-san peering over his shoulder. Izuku always assumed that the teachers graded him the lowest they could, but this? This was something else.

When he got low scores in tests, when he was assigned extra, when he had to do double or triple the original work, he had always studied harder. Yet it was still very astonishing when he passed a college-grade entrance exam.

"Izuku, dear, you said you were 14, correct?"

Izuku nodded.

"And your quirk is just your wings?"

Izuku nodded again.

"I hired a mini genius." she whispered in disbelief and awe.

Just then a man entered the cafe. And Izuku's only thoughts were, 1. Is that... a hobo? and 2. Holy shit! It's Eraserhead!

Kanna-san patted him on the shoulder and disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Izuku as a nervous wreck. This was Eraserhead. The Eraserhead. His favorite hero!

"Hello, good morning, w-welcome to Paws and Coffee, how can I help you?" Izuku managed to say.

The man looked Izuku over and ordered, "I'll have a coffee, as dark as my soul. And a kitty cream puff."

"R-right, just a second, Eraserhe-" and with that he cut himself off because no one was supposed to know about Eraserhead.

--

When Eraserhead, otherwise known as Shota Aizawa, finished patrol on a Sunday morning, he wanted to go home to his husband and mark his student's work. After all, that was most logical.

However, it seems that the world just wanted to make him suffer when his husband shoved him out of the apartment saying he should go somewhere to relax. He scoffed and rolled his eyes at the scene that replayed in his mind.

Hizashi had given him 2000 yen to spend as if he were a child. This was illogical. The blonde then proceeded to text him about a really good cat cafe that he frequented. And at that, Shota smiled, after all, how could he turn down cats and coffee?

So that's how he found himself in front of a small cafe with a sign hung overhead saying 'Paws & Coffee'. It looked nice. Opening the door, he heard a small ding and he looked around. It seemed that there wasn't much business as no one but the two workers and cats were there. That was good, he could have peace and quiet.

He walked in further and the greenette of the two looked up at him while the older woman patted his shoulder and walked away.

"Hello, good morning, w-welcome to Paw's and Coffee, how can I help you?" the teenager said and Shota looked him over, analysing him. He looked younger than his current class, maybe the age of the kids that would be doing the entrance exams in around a year .

Shota then noticed the bandage wrapped around the child's wrist, frowning internally as he noticed how loose it was and the blue and purple colour barely creeping out from underneath. That looked really bad.

His gaze then went to the multitude of scars on the kid's arm. He took in his posture, how he tried to make himself smaller, though that looked like it was just habit. How he shifted and stuttered. How the kid looked like he was making plans so he could bolt at a moment's notice if he needed to.

And Shota thought of two reasons why he may be like this. Frankly, both were bad. The first reason Shota came up with was that the kid was a villain in his civilian life. Though that seemed unlikely. The second reason, was that the kid was a subject of abuse, whether at home or school or even both. And it was bad at that.

He narrowed his eyes that only a person who was actively looking for it could see and took his order, "I'll have a coffee, as dark as my soul. And a kitty cream puff."

"R-right, just a second, Eraserhe-" and the kid cut himself off.

'Wow' Shota thought, 'way to slip up. '

His eyes visibly narrowed now and his lips tugged down into a frown. How did he know about him? And so, the hero relayed the question on his mind for the younger to answer. "How do you know me?" he asked, his monotone voice sporting the most miniscule of interest, though he'd never admit it.

"W-well, I'm a huge hero n-nerd so yeah," the boy explained slowly, "you're actually my favorite hero."

"Really?" Shota asked in a disbelieving tone and a raised brow, because why would it be him? Why an underground hero? "and why not All Might or Endeavour or Hawks? Why me?"

He watched as the kid's face scrunched up with emotions that he couldn't place at the mention of the number 1 and 2 heroes but relax at the third before speaking, "All Might is an idiot, a liar and a fraud. Endeavour is an asshole who just burns anyone he wants into a crisp and destroys literally everything around him. And did you know that he abused his second youngest to the point that he ran away? And that he still abuses his youngest. He also neglects his other two kids and he put his wife in a mental hospital. Not to mention he forced his wife into a quirk marriage with him. But I guess Hawks is okay. I mean Hawks is really cool and chill, plus our quirks are really similar," suddenly, the kid cut himself off by bringing a hand to his mouth, gaze holding a fearful expression, "I'm sorry."

Those two words stuck in the hero's mind like glue, paired with the smaller's scared face. It told Shota that this kid got a bad reaction on this habit on a daily basis. Not good.

"It's fine, kid."

From under the teen's hand, Shota was able to hear the kid's next words, "It's just... You're my favourite cuz you're really cool."

Shota's heart clenched. Years of mental walls cracked slightly, but it was far more than Shota had ever seen since his marriage or Oboro. This problem child.

"Hey, kid," the kid perked up at being addressed, "what's your name? "

"Izuku," he replied, "just Izuku. "

And then there were more problems. The kid didn't use his last last name. Maybe abuse or neglect. Then the kid, Izuku, handed him a swirling cup of dark heaven and a kitty cream puff. He nodded in thanks and walked over to a booth. Shota decided then that he'd look into this matter, after all, he had nothing else to do.

He set down his coffee and pastry and sat down. Immediately, was approached by four cats that curled up to him. One was a light blue, another a light yellow, one had a coat of dark purple and the last was dark blue. (3 points if you know which characters I referenced the cats to)

Taking a sip of his coffee, he reached down into his bag to get some paperwork that Tsukauchi had given him. Now, Shota prided himself in stealth so it came as no surprise that he was able to do his paperwork while keeping a dutiful eye on the kid.

He watched as Izuku once again turned to face his laptop and was mildly shocked to see the kid doing college-grade work with ease. He couldn't be older than his previous 1st years (he expelled them all on the first day).

The day went on as such, the cafe having the occasional customers, either walking in and staying for a while or leaving hurriedly with a beverage and/or a pastry. However, when there were no orders to take and no matters to attend to, the boy sat and studied.

At 8:00 he watched as the green hair was replaced by grey and white hair as Kanna-san took over the counter, leading the greenette to pack his stuff and move to a booth next to Shota's.

Shota wanted to question the boy about his life and habits because every potential answer seemed to lead to paint a very depressing picture. So, after a few minutes, Shota's curiousity and worry got the better of him and he called the kid over.

He caught Izuku's attention and at being beckoned over, the boy picked his stuff up and walked over to Shota's booth, placing it down across from the ravenette. He sat down, resuming his studies, obviously curious as to why he'd been called on but ultimately not saying anything.

"What're you doing?" queried the more tired of the two.

"Just s-some school work. I do online schooling and it's great cuz I can work full-time." he answered with a small shrug.

"Why online? Why not attend a regular school? And why would you need to work full-time?" Shota pushed on.

"W-well, I haven't really had the best experience with schools and ummm..." the kid's eyes darted across the room as if he was searching for an excuse, "well my mum is struggling financially, so I'm trying to help out."

Shota took the answer as he felt it would be bad to push the boy further, resulting in him leaving. So he stayed silent. He found his gaze straying to the bandages on the kid's arm and wondered how bad it actually was.

In seconds, Shota had a plan. He just hoped that the kid had the heart of gold that Shota thought he had.

His arm sweeped across the table, "accidentally" knocking his pen over the table. It rolled to Izuku's side and he watched as the boy swiftly bent down to grab the pen with his bandaged hand. He watched as Izuku recoiled at the touch in pain.

The problem child brought his uninjured hand to support his wrist, biting his lip as to retain a noise of pain as he struggled to keep tears from dropping.

Just as swiftly as the freckled boy bent down, Shota was at his side, holding up his arm to assess the damage. He called out to Kanna-san and she made her way to the two, confusion turning to fear and worry.

"Kanna-san, I'll be taking him to the nearest hospital." he informed her, leaving no room for argument, not that she'd protest.

She nodded in agreement and voiced her thoughts, "That'll be just fine. His shift ended an hour ago so you're free to take him."

Great, the kid didn't even want to go home.

The hero gripped the kid's arm, helping him up. Luckily, Shota had the sense to pack up prior to his little experiment in case Izuku was in need of immediate medical treatment. And Shota was pleased to see how neat the boy was, quickly storing everything in his yellow bag.

Shota's eyes found themselves once again wandering, this time to the burns on the bag, also taking in how sandy it was. He steered the kid out of the cafe and saw how the curls of green ducked for the entire walk.

They entered the hospital, skipping the wait with a flash of Shota's pro hero license and Shota briefly wondered how much he could actually do with the card. He catered the problem child into a hospital room that they were instructed to go to, met by a bubbly looking man with cyan hair in a bun.

"Hello! " the man chirped, "I'm Dr Conner, nice to meet you. How can I help?"

Shota nodded at the introduction and pulled Izuku so he was in front. "He needs his wrist checked out."

"Alrighty then. Why don't you go and take a seat on the bed there and we can take a look." Dr. Conner instructed, to which Izuku obeyed.

He moved across the room, too silent for even Shota to hear and that was concerning, and took a seat on the bed. The doctor made his way in front of Izuku and held up the boy's arm for him to see, unwrapping the bandage.

Both men's eyes widened in shock and worry as their gaze fell onto black, blue and purple skin. "How did this happen?!" the silence was broken by the slightly shaken doctor.

"Th-the day b-before yesterday, s-some kids at school shoved me down and stomped on my wrist." the greenette replied and Shota's brows furrowed in confusion.

"I thought you were doing online school." he mentioned.

"Yeah, I do now. I only j-just started t-today."

"Are these scars also from these kids? How long have they been doing this to you?" asked Dr Conner.

"Yes. Th-they've been d-doing this for ten years." Izuku stated.

Shota did the math in his head and came up with an answer in seconds. He was four. This had to be something that related to quirks. "Your quirk. It's to do with your quirk."

Izuku flinched before he spoke once again with a sad chuckle, "Or lack thereof. I was a late bloomer."

"But how late did it come in for you to be bullied for this long?" Shota pushed on, wanting an answer.

"I got my quirk the night before yesterday. They don't even know I have a quirk now."

Both men's breath hitched as they tensed. Every person in the room knew the statistics on quirkless people. Was this kid even mentally stable? The quirkless were bullied, abused, neglected and suicide baited. Suddenly, a lot about the kid made sense to Shota who stared at the boy and he wished it wasn't true.

"That's not even humanly possible. Even quirk awakenings are rare, for it to happen to a quirkless person would require a traumatic experience and even with that it would be a very weak quirk." the doctor rambled.

Just then, a knock came from the door and all attention shifted onto the green-haired women standing in the doorway. "Oh, great. A healer is here. Hello, Sandra!" the cyan haired man greeted the lady who's name was apparently Sandra.

After the healer had healed Izuku, the three adults went out of the room to discuss something, leaving Izuku alone.

--

They'd left him in the room alone to talk. They'd left him to drown in his thoughts. Of course, they didn't know how fucked up his mind was. He could barely hear anything. Everything was static and it was like his ears were filled with cotton.

However, he was able to hear three words. Three words that froze everything and made him go stiff. It was hard to breathe. Why couldn't he breathe? 'Call his parents'.

They would call his mum and send him back. No. He'd worked too hard for it to end. He was far too happy. So much happier than ever before and they were going to take it away.

He wouldn't let it happen.

There was as a snap as the window latch broke and fell down to the floor. Izuku pried open the window and looked down, and holy heck was he high up! He grabbed his bag and internally cursed at what he was about to do.

Crouching in the window frame, he turned to see the two men enter the room, freezing at the sight of the greenette. "Sorry, but I can't go back." he said and for the second time within less than 12 hours, he let go.

The sky, once again, was beautiful and Izuku was happy that yesterday wasn't the last time he saw this sight. He'd do this more often.

Or he would if he actually survived this. Theoretically, Izuku could fly and if he didn't... well.

His viridian wings spread out and he flapped, stopping him from falling any further. Izuku decided then that flying was his new favourite thing to do. He flapped again and he took off into the sky. Soaring over the buildings through the peach coloured sky, a thought passed his mind and he liked the idea.

Izuku went higher and higher, everything below him sized down to look as tiny as ants as he flew up. His vision was now of pale yellow clouds as he continued.

And finally, he broke through the clouds and his breath was stolen. His eyes shone in wonder as he looked around. It was heavenly. The bright, gold sun hung in the sky, it's light was cast upon the clouds below him, making them shine a pale rose-gold.

This felt like he was floating above a sea in the sky and technically he was. He bobbed up and down in sync to his wing flaps as he soaked up the view.

After a while, Izuku told himself that he'd have to go back down to the ground and so he tucked in his wings and fell into a nose-dive. Now, people would say that this must've been seriously scary, just plummeting to the ground. Well, they'd be absolutely right but Izuku loved it.

He scoured above everything, looking for his home, flying down when he caught sight of it. A flap of his wings, a swish of sand and a bright smile later and Izuku was hitting the sand in exhaustion in his little cave.

Chapter Text

The entirety of the UA staff was concerned. Very concerned.

At first, everyone was thankful, happy even, when their boss, the rat overlord of UA highschool, principal Nezu, had taken a break from his chaotic ways. But now... Now everyone was unnerved. After all, this could just be the calm before the storm.

So that is how principal Nezu was cornered by the staff in the staff room.

"What the hell is happening, Nezu? " questioned the r-rated hero, Midnight, otherwise known as Nemuri Kayama.

"Yeah, principal, you've got us dying in stress. What the fuck are you planning?" called out the blood hero, Vlad King, otherwise known as Sekijiro Khan.

This got a few agreeing nods from the others. Hizashi Yamada aka Present Mic, Ken Ishiyama aka Cementos, Higari Majima aka Power Loader, Anan Kurose aka Thirteen, Chiyo Shuzenji aka Recovery Girl, Ryo Inui aka Hound Dog, Sekijiro Khan Vlad King, Snipe and Ectoplasm.

"I plan nothing sinister. Fear not." replied Nezu in a sweet tone and a smile to match.

"Yeah, no. Not believing that shit. You have barely been outside of your office for the past week. Last time you did this, Ishiyama didn't talk to us for two weeks." said Kahn.

"Rightfully so." grumbled the mentioned hero.

"Look, Nezu, what we're trying to ask is what's going on, ya dig? " Hizashi spoke up.

"Well, if you insist. Do you all remember the online school course that I run? " Nezu inquired.

"You mean that ridiculously hard one that allows you to, and I quote, 'pick out the good eggs and nurse them to healthy, smart birds'? The one that no one can get past the third grade?" asked an incredulous Chiyo.

"Precisely," Nezu nodded, "however, someone has just completed the entire course. He's now my personal student. Oh, and I found a chessmate. I shall allow bets on how many times you think they've beaten me."

"What?! The entire course?" exclaimed Majima.

"How old is the listener?" asked Hizashi.

"Yes, he completed the course and he's 14 years old. I'd recommend him myself to UA if I could just figure out his last name."

There was a collective silence across the room as everyone realised what that meant.

"You mean he's smart enough to be able to hide his identity from you?" Nemuri spoke quietly.

"Yes. Yes, indeed. It's quite peculiar." confirmed the principal.

"What's their first name?" came a tired growl from a couch. More specifically, a yellow caterpillar.

"Ah, Shota! That's just the question I was waiting for. His name is Izuku." replied Nezu in his chipper tone.

Shota froze.

He'd had a sneaking suspicion that his and Nezu's problem children were the same person but this was solid evidence. Shota now had a new-found respect for this kid, and he'd be lying if he didn't say that he was a bit afraid of said teen now that he knew his capabilities.

So, for the sake of the world, Shota decided that he'd keep his problem child away from the insanity that is Nezu. Or at least prevent the inevitable meet up for as long as he could, because Shota got the feeling that with these two together, they could conquer the world.

"Any thoughts on this mystery boy?" Nezu chimed.

"...no" Shota responded with a pause that was far too long.

The principal hummed and a ding sounded through the room. "Ah, it appears my chess mate has made his m-" Nezu started but stopped when his eyes landed on the move that was made. "What a clever checkmate!"

Silence rang through the room again apart from the cackling principal. And then chaos arose. "Checkmate?! "

"Someone beat you?!"

"What the fuck?! "

And if Shota saw Nezu leaving to his office amidst the madness with a smile, no one would know.

--

Izuku sat in front of his laptop in the cafe, mouth agape.

"What. The. Actual. Fuck?!" came a disbelieving shout that rang throughout the small place.

"Watch your mouth, Izuku-kun. You know, back in the olden days, they'd rinse your mouth out with soap." the stern voice of Kanna-san scolded.

"S-sorry, Kanna-san." Izuku said, his head bowed.

"Now," the old lady appeared by his side, "what's got you swearing?"

Izuku showed her the screen and if she swore like a pirate, Izuku didn't say anything. On the screen was the UA emblem. Not only that, but it was a letter sent by Nezu. The principal Nezu.

Kanna-san started reading it aloud:

Dear Izuku,
Am I a rat, a dog or a bear? I am Nezu, the principal of UA High School.

I send this letter to tell you that you have completed my advanced online school and in doing so, have caught my interest.

I would love to have you as my personal student. Either that be in person or by voice chat is up to you. You do not need to show your identity. In fact, I believe that it'll be a great game to play. Though, I'd like a hint. I must say, your security is too tough for me to crack.

If you accept, I'd like you to send a list of subjects you'd like to explore. If you'd like, you can text me. However, I'd like to see if you can do it without me telling you my number.

In regards, Nezu.

Both blinked then looked at the other and Izuku broke down in tears while Kanna-san hugged him. It took a while for everything to settle down before Izuku collected his thoughts and started hacking away.

Hacking was a skill that Izuku had picked up in order to aid in his analysis and he was proud to say he was among the best. So that was how Nezu received a text 5 minutes later.

???: Hello, Nezu, I must say, it was more of a challenge to break into your security.

Nezu: You must be Izuku, correct?

??? changed their name to Izuku

Izuku: Absolutely right

Izuku changed Nezu's name to Rat Satan Overlord

Rat Satan Overlord changed Izuku's name to Mysterio

Mysterio: As much as I love pre-quirk things, I refuse to be nicknamed after that jackass

Mysterio changed their name to Viridian Wings

Viridian Wings: That's your first clue

Viridian Wings changed their name to Green Bird Boi

Rat Satan Overlord: I assume that it's your quirk?

Green Bird Boi: Yep, but my quirk registration is different

Rat Satan Overlord: Interesting

Green Bird Boi: Also, you're a chimera, am I right?

Rat Satan Overlord: Indeed I am!

Rat Satan Overlord: Have you decided on your subjects?

Green Bird Boi: Yes. I'd like to study analysis, programming, technology/ inventing, healing and medical, human psychology, biology, zoology, chemistry, quirkology, anthropology and anatomy for now

Rat Satan Overlord: Quite the ambitious kid, aren't you?

Green Bird Boi: I have dreams to achieve and people to prove wrong

Rat Satan Overlord: Say, you're 14, correct? What high school do you plan on going to?

Green Bird Boi: I doing the entrance exam for UA

Rat Satan Overlord: If only I knew your name I'd recommend you myself

Green Bird Boi: As much as I appreciate it, Nezu, I have to refuse. If I'm to prove myself, I must do it without help. Besides, I think it'll be fun

Rat Satan Overlord: I admire your perseverance. I shall help you as much as you allow, then. Though I am curious as to what course you're aiming to achieve. Surely not general.

Green Bird Boi: I want to be a hero

Rat Satan Overlord: Well then, I truly believe that you'll be a great hero. And thank you for all of the hints that you just gave me

Green Bird Boi: Totally welcome.

Green Bird Boi: Srry, I gotta go. I have a job to do.

Rat Satan Overlord: Bye. Also, I'd like to play some chess with you.

Green Bird Boi: Sure. My Chess.com username is GreenCinnamonRoll

Rat Satan Overlord: Okay, bye.

Three minutes later, Izuku heard a buzz from his phone and when he looked, he saw that Nezu had indeed started a chess game. Oh, the game was on.

--

Nezu sat in his chair compiling a series of courses for Izuku to take. The kid had wanted to study eleven subjects at the same time. Nezu just had to admire the determination.

He already knew how the different subjects could aid him in heroics and Nezu was glad to see that he was taking full advantage of his situation.

Analysis was great to analyze the surroundings, people's weaknesses as well as your own. You could think up plans quickly to win in a fight or protect those in need.

Programming was good for getting through villain software or tracking someone.

Technology and inventing would be great to make support gear and to fiddle with hardware. Honestly, it would come in pretty handy for the physical exams.

Healing and medical studies are very useful when someone is hurt or sick and needs medical attention or first aid.

Human psychology was a bit of an odd choice for Nezu but he supposed that it could be helpful one way or another.

Again, Nezu couldn't really see how biology was to help in heroics but just shrugged it off.

Zoology was a peculiar choice but Nezu had a suspicion that it had something to do with animal quirks instead of actual animals and he had to say that he himself wouldn't have thought of it.

Chemistry was more than likely to help with the inventing stuff like making on the go explosions or poisons.

Quirkology was also a smart choice to help understand the workings of quirks as well as different types of quirks.

Anthropology was a really out there choice for the kid but the more the principal thought on it, the more it made sense.

Anatomy was a great one, too. It could help him with healing and medical studies as well as general fighting and weak points. Not to mention the pressure points as well.

A ding sounded from his phone and Nezu was ecstatic to see Izuku had moved in their chess game. So far, Nezu had 53 wins while Izuku had 87.

A knock sounded from the door and Nezu spoke a 'come in' and the door opened to reveal a very tired Shota Aizawa. "Aizawa! Hello." chirped the chimera.

Shota stepped through the door, closed it then continued forward. "Nezu, I need some help," he stated, "I need to find someone."

"Who? " asked Nezu.

"Izuku."

Chapter Text

Analysis.

This was a hobby that Izuku had. It was almost always called creepy and stalkish. So imagine the surprise when one Izuku found out that his 'creepy' hobby was actually well-paying job.

He didn't know that what he did that was called useless was actually one of Izuku's amazing talents and one of his greatest assets.

So there Izuku was in the cafe after opening up, once more looking at his laptop. How did he come to this? Well, Izuku was actually just casually snooping through the hero network as hackers do when he came to realize that there was an entire section dedicated to these analysts.

And so obviously Izuku, being Izuku, decided then and there to achieve one of his dreams aside from heroics. Izuku was making an analyst profile for himself and was thankful that they didn't ask for real names or age.

Emerald.

He was Emerald the analyst.

People could ask for analysis on villains, hero costume recommendations, strategy improvements, weaknesses to focus on, help on cases and more.

No, the first thing he did was not sending Eraserhead a very detailed analysis on himself and improvements to make. No one can prove it. So, yes, it is a complete mystery how Shota Aizawa received a very long and accurate report on himself.

Over a few weeks, if not days, Emerald made a very big name for themselves. Heroes requested them make analyses of villains, themselves and thoughts of anything and everything in between and Izuku was happy to do so behind the screen of his computer.

--

Eraserhead was confused. Emerald's first analysis was of Hawks which was sent to said hero at 7:40, so why had he received an analysis an hour prior. Shota didn't think that people would analyse him first instead of lime-light heroes.

--

The principal of UA sat in his chair looking at the profile of a certain analyst. There were only the basics like username and description. It seems Nezu had two games to play now.

/Green Bird Boi/

Rat Satan Overlord: Izuku

Green Bird Boi: Hi Nezu

Rat Satan Overlord: Are you able to hack into the hero network?

Green Bird Boi: Yep. Oh, have you heard of that new analyst, Emerald

Rat Satan Overlord: Yes, I have indeed. I must say, green is certainly becoming a popular colour these days

Green Bird Boi: Yeah

Rat Satan Overlord: What are your thoughts on Emerald?

Green Bird Boi: I dunno. He's cool I suppose

Rat Satan Overlord: He? Their gender hasn't been confirmed

Green Bird Boi: Umm. Hacking

Rat Satan Overlord: I can't get through their security. How did you do it?

Green Bird Boi: Secrets?

"Interesting," hummed Nezu, "very, very interesting."

Chapter Text

The sky was still dark but a small cafe bathed the street with a mellow yellow light. A dark figure jumped down from atop a building and approached.

As the door opened, the sweet ding of a bell coursed through the cafe and the greenette at the counter looked up. He grinned when he realized who had just entered.

"Eraserhead!" Izuku said in a chipper tone.

"Hey kid," came the gruff reply of pro underground hero, Eraserhead, though for a select few, Shota Aizawa, "just the usual please. And drop the Eraserhead, I have a lot of enemies, I don't need you to be their target."

"Then what do you want me to call you?" asked the younger.

"Shota or Aizawa is fine."

"You know, I could totally just start calling you Sho." the kid said with a shit eating grin.

"Whatever." the hero replied. In all honesty, he'd grown a soft spot for the kid so he really didn't mind him calling him a nickname.

The winged boy walked over to Shota holding a hot mug of coffee and a few kitty cream puffs. "Go sit, you must be tired. Just enjoy cat and coffee heaven." he ordered.

Shota sighed and plopped into his regular booth where he was met with the four cats that had swarmed him from the first day he'd come here.

"Y'know, I should put a sign there saying Shota's booth. I think Kanna-san would get a pretty good laugh out of it." Izuku suggested with a small chuckle.

"Go for it, kid. I've already got a couch, what's one more?" Shota said in a tired voice.

"How was patrol?" the greenette asked.

"Three attempted muggings, a rape and some dealers. Same usual." he reported.

"That's cool." Izuku spoke.

"How's the cafe?" the pro asked after a silence.

"Good. I'm glad I managed to convince Kanna-san to change the opening hours so it opens earlier." he replied happily.

A week after Izuku had started working at the cafe, the hours had extended from 5:30am - 10:30pm to 3:30 - 10:30 at the persistent requests from Izuku.

Izuku wanted this change for two reasons. First of all, Izuku had horrible sleeping habits and usually woke up at 1 or 2 in the morning. Secondly, Izuku knew that there were many underground heroes and vigilantes who couldn't find a decent treat and drink once they had to retreat to sleep or day activities.

"We got four underground heroes and even a few vigilantes. Vigilantes who I will not be naming." he added pointedly.

"Relax, majority of underground heroes like vigilantes. Plus, I saw ShockWave leaving the area with a coffee anyway. It's obvious he's been here."

"ShockWave is such a nice guy. He would've made a great hero. His strong and has an amazing quirk," Izuku nodded, "I mean, he can literally produce water and electrify it. Not to mention he can control it, too."

Izuku dissolved into a muttering storm about the vigilante and Shota was pleased to see that the kid was finally comfortable enough with him that he freely chattered away without fear.

"What does your mum think of you doing this?" he asked, breaking Izuku's mumbling, "surely she can't be completely fine with you waking up this early. I mean, you work from 3:30 to 10:30. Not to mention set up and pack up time."

Izuku's face fell a little bit before shifting into a smile that Shota knew was fake and he will never admit to how much it nearly fooled him. A smile that could only be achieved with much practice.

"She doesn't care." he answered with a sombre smile. Now, if Shota didn't know any better he would've shrugged it off, but he knew something was wrong and this was solid evidence. 'She didn't care'. Not 'She doesn't mind' or 'She's fine with it', it was 'She didn't care'. This either pointed to neglect or abuse.

"Oh." was all Shota said.

Just then Shota's phone buzzed from its place on the table and Shota picked it up.

/Lie Detector/

Lie Detector: Hey, Sho

Sleepy CATerpillar: And what told you that it was a good idea to text me at this ungodly hour?

Lie Detector: Oh, please, I know that you're at that cafe with your little problem child

Sleepy CATerpiller: yeah, yeah, what do you want?

Lie Detector: I'm putting you on a case

Sleepy CATerpiller: Which case?

Lie Detector: The Jade case

Sleepy CATerpiller: Please no. He's such a fucking pest

Lie Detector: Oh, so you know him

Sleepy CATerpillar: Sadly. He hacked into my coms and annoyed the shit out of me

Lie Detector: Welp, I'm putting you on his case

Sleepy CATerpillar: ... Fine

Shota put down his phone down and sighed, placing his head on the table. What a pain.

"What's up, Sho?" piped up the greenette, "god that's weird to say."

"My detective friend, Naomasa Tsukauchi, put me on the Jade case." the hero sighed.

"Oh! Nezu told me about that. He's that hacker guy who hacks into police files and hero coms to help out." Izuku exclaimed.

"Yep.That one." confirmed Shota. Another buzz came from his phone and looked to see another message, this time from husband.

/Zashi/

Zashi: Sho, when are you coming home?

Sho: I'm on my way, just wanted to make a pit stop

Zashi: That's cool. I'm leaving for my radio show in an hour

Sho: I'll be back before then

"Right, problem child, I gotta go." Shota spoke as he got up.

"Bye," he responded happily before the hero walked out, and once Shota was out of sight, he spoke again, "So Tsuki put Eraser on my case. This'll be fun."

--

Shota was running on the rooftops as he patrolled the area. It had been two days since he got put on the Jade case and he still had no leads. Frankly, it was driving him up the wall.

"Eraser! Hello." came a chipper tone from his coms.

He sighed as he accepted his fate, "Goodnight, Jade."

"Incorrect, Penciltip, it's morning now," the hacker corrected, "how's patrol?"

"Why ask, Jade? You have access to every security feed in Musutafu." he said in an exasperated and tired tone.

"Hah! Yeah, I do," Jade laughed, "speaking of which, you might want to stop that assault three streets to your left in that alleyway."

Shota sighed as he made his way to said location. He peered over the edge into the dark dead-end alley to see a man towering over another younger looking man who was prompted against the wall.

"Jade, I assume you already know the situation." the dark-haired hero said, not really a question.

"Victim is Daiki Ito. He's 21 and has an eye colour-changing quirk, most likey the reason for the attack. Possibly a case of quirk discrimination," he started, "The attacker is Sakuhiro Saito. He's 34 and a quirk that let's him control small metal pieces, at most a metal bin lid. He's got a history of quirk discrimination and was kicked out of two schools prior to him dropping out."

Eraserhead dropped down silenty and sent his capture weapon to apprehend the attacker, wrapping said person in it.

"Y'know, Eraserhead," came Jade's voice, "he can still use his quirk. I'd erase it quickly if I were you."

But before Shota's quirk could activate, a metal fork whizzed by him, cutting his cheek. Suddenly, the fork dropped to the ground as his eyes glowed red and his hair floated up.

"Police are on their way, Tsuki will be there so tell him I said hi. Knock out Saito and check up on Ito." the voice of Jade called.

"... are you telling me how to do my job?"

"Of course not~" he said jokingly.

"I just cannot with you." the hero sighed.

"Love you too, Eraser. Jade, disconnecting." shortly after was a small beep signalling that the hacker had left.

Tsukauchi walked over to Shota who had taken to leaning on a wall while waiting. "Eraserhead, how's patrol?" he asked.

"Same old. Though I did get assistance from Jade and I've learnt two things. One is that he's young, like probably 16 at most, 11 at youngest. Two is that the kid does not sleep. It's like he stays up all night helping pros or hacking away at police files. Third is that he is annoying as hell. He says hello, by the way." Shota reported.

"Looks like you have yourself another problem child," the detective teased and at that, the hero sighed, "anyway, your patrol is over. And make sure to get that cut checked. It doesn't look too big but we wouldn't want one of our best dying on us."

At this, Shota groaned, annoyed at his friend's antics but a hint of fondness in his voice. He used his capture weapon to get onto a nearby roof where he took off into a sprint, eager to get some coffee.

When an exhausted Eraserhead walked into his favourite cafe he was definitely not expecting a whack to the head and a scolding on getting hurt. He did not know how the greenette was able to be this caring.

"I'm fine, it's just a cut." he tried to resist but the kid had forced him into a chair and grabbed out a medical kit. He watched as the greenette took out a Present Mic band aid that was big enough to cover the cut and stick it on said cut. Nemuri would have a laugh out of this.

Curious, the hero peered into the kit and was... displeased... to see it containing lots of medical supplies. His stomach twisted as he thought of why the problem child would need this much stuff and frankly, all of the scenarios were bad.

Another thing that Shota had noticed was how there were a variety of hero band aids and that none of them were the number one and two heroes making Shota recount the conversation they'd had upon first meeting.

Then, grey, white and black band aids caught his eyes and he had to do a double, triple and quadruple take before coming to the conclusion that they were indeed Eraserhead themed. Which was kind of strange as Shota knew that he didn't have any merchendise.

"Kid, how did you get those." he questioned, pointing to said band aids.

The boy giggled before speaking, "Oh, so you noticed. Well, I happen to like drawing and I couldn't find any Eraserhead themed band aids so I just drew them myself."

"Can I see some drawings?"

There was a glint of fear in the kid's eyes before quickly fading away. "U-um, okay." he whispered before disappearing into the staff area. He came out with an art notebook, shifting nervously from foot to foot.

Shota took the notebook with more care than he normally would in a gesture that would hopefully let the kid east up, to which the greenette thankfully did.

He opened the book and was met by a well-drawn picture of the rabbit hero: Mirko. He flipped and was met with Sir Nighteye. Once more and he came to Best Jeanist.

He continued on and saw an assortment of heroes, vigilantes and even some villains, some having page numbers that didn't align to where they were situated in the book, others having some short dotpoints that looked to be a short analysis.

He saw lime-light heroes such as Mt Lady and Uwabami. Some daylight heroes like Present Mic and Ingenium. Some twighlight heroes like Midnight and Ms Joke. Some underground heroes including Shroud and himself. A few vigilantes were thrown in the mix like ShockWave, the Crawler and Mad Hatters. Even fewer villains that Shota was not bothered to recall.

And then he came to some ripped out pages. "What about these ones," the man pointed out, "these are torn out."

"Oh, those were of a few...classmates and All Might. I think I sort of just snapped that day and I really couldn't deal with seeing their faces." he explained.

Shota flipped the next page and saw someone who he wasn't familiar with. He definitely wasn't a hero, he was too young. So it might've been a past classmate. Suddenly, the book was snatched out of his hands by a somewhat frightful Izuku.

And then... well, the kid just tore it straight out.

"I must've missed this one," he mumbled shakily under his breath, "stupid Kacch- no, Bakugou. Fuck you, Bakugou."

He continued to tear the paper up with hands as shaky as his voice, only stopping when Shota placed a hand on his. "Calm down, Izuku."

The kid stopped but now held a broken expression like he was just so done with it as tears started rolling down his freckled cheeks. Shota guessed that this was what he meant by him not being able to handle seeing them again. Honestly, Shota was scared to know the full extent of what they'd done to him. His fear slowly replaced by fury to those who had hurt his problem child so badly.

He stood from his seat and pulled the kid into a hug as the teen cried into his hero suit, not that Shota cared anyway. He rubbed circles into the boy's back, being mindful of his emerald wings that were dropping slightly, as he spoke soothing whispers to try to calm him.

When the kid had stopped crying, the dark-haired hero assisted the greenette in picking up the pieces of thoroughly ripped papers off the floor and dumping said pieces into a rubbish bin.

--

It was Friday night and Shota, once again, was on patrol. It had been three days since he'd helped his problem child from a breakdown and Shota's mind lingered on the drawing of the blonde boy that had been torn to shreds. He'd have to ask Nezu on finding this Bakugou person. Maybe, if Shota doesn't murder him for hurting his brocolli child, the blonde could tell him who Izuku really was.

Out of seemingly nowhere, a slightly panicked voice spoke from his coms.

"Hey, Eraserhead, Jade here, requesting backup for underground pro hero, Shroud. I sent a location. Get there fast."

--

The cafe had closed fifteen minutes before, so it was currently 10:45pm and Izuku was walking down to his beach when his phone started wringing. He froze. The ringtone was one that was only used by an app that he'd created to help with his Jade work. The app would ring a certain time if there was a dangerous situation that needed more than one pro hero.

Izuku dashed back into the cafe and set down his belongings, dumping his Jade gear onto a table in a booth. He opened his laptop and put his headphones on as he checked on the situation. A fire. Personally, Izuku hated fire. He had been kinda scared of it after what happened with his father, not to mention Kacch- no, Bakugou's tormenting.

Izuku opened the camera feeds of the area and saw loads of civilians and only one hero. This would be a long night.

"Tsukauchi, Jade here. We have an emergency. A fire at the location I've sent you, I need at least five ambulances, police for villain apprehension and heroes. Preferably with water quirks but any will do. I'll get started on back up, you focus on everything else," he ranted, giving no time for the detective to speak, "is that clear?"

"Yes, Jade. Perfectly." came the gruff reply.

"Great, Jade disconnecting." finished the greenette before hacking into the coms of the hero at the scene.

"Shroud, Jade here." he said.

"Jade! Oh, how fucking glad I am to hear your voice." the hero sighed.

"Thanks, but flattery can wait. I've contacted Musutafu police so they're sending medics and police I'm sorting out back up from others. How many civilians have you cleared out?" asked Izuku.

"Jade, you're a fucking saint. 21 civilians." Shroud responded.

"Okay, I'll be here if you need but I'm contacting available heroes." he stared before muting himself to call potential back up. He sent alerts to some nearby vigilantes who were willing to help and were on the good side of the heroes.

Next he started calling heroes to the scene, the majority being underground heroes so there was no trouble with the vigilantes. In the end, he came up with five vigilantes either already there or on their way, as well as five pro heroes. Finally, he made one last call.

"Hey, Eraserhead, Jade here, requesting backup for underground pro hero, Shroud. I sent a location. Get there fast." he heard a tired 'okay' through the coms and went back to help with the scene.

He put all communication on the same line, vigilantes included, before speaking. "Alrighty folks, for those who don't know, I'm Jade and I'll be helping out with directions. Let's get to work." he heard a chorus of replies all greeting or agreeing with him.

"What's the plan, Jade." Tsukauchi spoke up.

"Okay, ShockWave, Waterwheel, Rainy Day and Backdraft, you guys clear out the fire. Back draft and Waterwheel go inside and try to snuff out the fire while ShockWave and Rainy Day stays outside and waters down any fire from spreading or injuring." he directed and saw the four doing as told.

"Building support will go to Rocky. Use your quirk to support the building with the hardest rock you can manage but be careful not to block any access points." Izuku told the hero.

"Sir, yes, sir." called the female hero as she put her hands to the ground and Izuku watched as a concrete substance crawled up the walls and hardening in place, supporting the building while snuffing out a few fires.

"Great, thanks Rocky. Okay, the rest of you. Ummm... Well, I want Cloudy at the entrance of the building to use her clouds to carry injured civilians to the medics. Serpentine, send out small snakes to scout out any civilians. Please try to make the cutest snakes you have as not to scare anyone." guided Izuku, seeing the forms of the two following his directions.

"Shadow, use your shadows to move rubble out of the way, don't be too worried about the building collapsing, Rocky has that covered. Everyone else is on rescue efforts. Save as many people as you can." he called on the rest, getting a cocophany of 'yes.'s and 'on it.'s in return.

He looked at his computer, watching over the scene. The fires had been dealt with within an hour but rescue efforts had taken a nerve-wracking two hours, the aftermath had taken also an hour and a half.

This resulted in Izuku having to stay up for the entirety of it. After being allowed to leave, he disconnected from the hero coms and laid his head on the table, exhaustion washing over him like a tsunami.

He did not see the group of vigilantes and heroes grouped together to decide where to go to wind down. He did not see Eraserhead suggest the very cafe that he'd done his Jade job in as well as his actual job. He did not see the group jumping from rooftop to rooftop, making their way to said cafe. And he did not see them enter the small cafe. As far as Izuku was concerned, he was in a land of sweets, heroes and cats.

That was until he heard a familiar ding and the chatter that eminated from the group. He shot up, alarmed by the sudden noise, only to see the mix of vigilantes and heroes all looking at him.

"Hey, kid." one of the vigilantes, Knuckleduster, spoke up, tone laced with worry, "Did you stay here all night?"

In a different context, Izuku's 'deer-caught-in-headlights' look would've been extremely funny. Expect, in context, Izuku was 14 year old being confronted by heroes and vigilantes, not to mention his Jade stuff still laid out on the table, open for everyone to see.

But he was exhausted. His eyelids drooped slightly and he fought the urge to go back to sleep. He couldn't see right with his bleary sight. But he had a job to do.

Not answering the question, Izuku apologised. "I'm sorry. I'll start now. You all must be tired." he said bowing his head in apologies then proceeded to pack his stuff away.

"Hey, hey, hey. Izuku, honey, it's fine. Honestly, you look more tired than us." Rocky piped up.

"No. You guys worked really hard at the fire all night. I gotta get you coffee and snacks and...stuff... or something." Izuku retaliated.

Izuku, in his sleep deprived state, let his mouth run. No civilians that weren't somehow connected knew about the fire yet. And maybe that's why everyone went so silent that you could hear a pin drop. And if all eleven pairs of eyes weren't looking at him before, they definitely were now.

"Izuku," a certain familiar tone broke the silence and Izuku's gaze landed on the dark-haired, generally sleep-deprived hero, "no one knows about that yet. How do you?"

"I am like 100% certain that I'd know about a fire that I stayed up until 3:15am helping in. Like, as soon as I heard my phone notify me of the situation, I was off like zhoom back to the cafe to help you guys out," do you know when you're drunk and your mouth just runs and runs and you can't stop it? This is how Izuku felt right now, "honestly, I'm kinda surprised that... that my horrible sleep schedule is catching up to me now. I mean, considering I've been staying up pretty early as of late."

Suddenly, Izuku stumbled. He stumbled again. And he fell. Shota ran to catch him and in a blur he had the kid in his arms, green staring into black. "Kami," he started, tears streaming down his cheeks and a sad, weak smile playing on his lips, "I really am just a weak, pathetic, useless deku. I even need people to help me with my stupidly bad sleeping. Oh well, at least I tried to rid this cruel world of my existence." and with that he fell asleep.

"There were so many fucking things wrong with what he just said." whispered Shroud.

Shota moved to stand, holding the sleeping greenette in his arms. His mind raced through the speech as he sat at the largest booth and let the boy lean on his shoulder. Quickly, everyone followed lead, sensing the oncoming conversation.

Silence coursed through the group, daring anyone to break it. Luckily, the entire group literally spat in death's face, saying 'fuck off' on a daily basis. "Okay, what the actual flying duck?" spoke up Serpentine, breaking the quietness.

"We are all adults here, you don't have to cover up." said Knuckleduster.

"I do, because if I start expressing how concerned I am for the little green bean, I will start swearing like a sailor with a horrible headache and anger issues." she argued.

"That... was oddly specif-" Waterwheel started but was cut off.

"Izuku is Jade." and oh my lord did that get everyone's attention. The sentence rang through their heads.

"...care to elaborate, Shota?" asked Rainy Day.

"Did you not hear his rant? I think it was plain as day." Shota growled.

"That was a bit ironic seeing as my name is legit 'Rainy Day'."

"Is no one concerned about his last sentence?" Shroud voiced.

The room fell back into silence. That silence, however, was broken when a certain green haired boy shot awake, jumped onto the table, grabbed his stuff and bolted out the cafe. Leaving the group shell-shocked.

"Did- did that just happen?"

"He's too tired to be wandering around."

"What if he tries flying?!"

The group of eleven shot out of the cafe to find the boy. They split up and searched everywhere but couldn't find him. In all fairness, though, Izuku had a shit-ton of experience and no one seemed to think that he'd go to a beach covered in trash.

Soon, the sun set again after a day of searching and everyone, as much as they hated it, actually had patrol the next morning and unlike Izuku and Eraserhead, they can't run on empty.

Chapter Text

Katsuki was on edge. The sludge villain attack had shown him how weak he really was and the actual villain had talked to him. He was forced to listen how the villain had nearly suffocated a suicidal teen and how he was sorry that he couldn't help the kid escape his suffering. In Katsuki's opinion it was sick.

Then, after the attack and being saved by All Might he had been crowded by the media, let go half an hour later. He'd spent the weekend recovering from the villain and then he'd gone to school.

Katsuki entered the school expecting to be flooded with questions and praises about the villain attack. Instead, he walked in to see people huddled in groups in hushed conversations. And for the first time ever, no one paid him any attention.

As he walked further into the school he managed to catch snippets of the whispers.

"-heard about the blood?" he was able to hear while passing a group of girls.

"-real bloo-" Katsuki heard as he sped up, eager to get to class. He wanted to get the story from those two extras that followed him around constantly.

The door snapped open and there he stood, gaze flickering across the room before having to back track to a certain greenette's desk that was lacking green colour. Deku was always early.

He stalked over to the two extras that he couldn't remember the names of. "Hey, Bakugou." the brown haired one called as he approached.

"Shitty extra," he grumbled in acknowledgment, "the fuck is wrong with the shit school?"

At that the room was coated in a thick, suffocating silence. "You haven't heard." the black-haired extra spoke meekly.

"What? Just fucking tell me!" the ash-blonde yelled.

"W-well, the day after the sludge attack there was a pool of real blood in the middle of the street that appeared over night. There wasn't a body found but they think that someone either jumped or fell from a roof because there was a chip of bone they think is from a skull." the brown-haired extra informed.

And Katsuki's mind raced through Friday's events and what he knew. He had told shitty deku to kill himself, the villain had said that he couldn't help a suicidal teen and his misery, the pool of blood and that deku wasn't here today. Surely not. It couldn't be... Right?

The day continued in a haze, Katsuki's head filled with possibilities. Then the week passed in a haze. Until it had been three weeks and he found himself at the dinner table staring at a fish with a blank expression.

"Brat, the fuck you starin' at that fish for? Eat." Mitsuki said, shaking the younger blonde from his thoughts.

"...hag, has auntie Inko said anything about d- Izuku?" he questioned with a flat tone.

"No. Come to think of it, she hasn't said anything about the sweety since... since he was four... I think. Why?" she answered.

"... He hasn't been at school for the past three weeks." Katsuki stated plainly.

"Oh. Well, I might just call Into then." Mitsuki hummed as she stood to grab her phone from the counter. She dialed and held her phone to her ear in wait.

"Mitsu! Hi! How are you?" a cheery voice came from the other side.

"Hi, Inko. I'm good, thanks. I was just calling about Izuku. How is he?" the blonde woman asked.

"Izuku? I haven't seen him." Inko informed.

"When did you last see him, then? Mitsuki queried patiently.

"Umm. I'm not sure maybe a month... Or two... Or five." came the reply. Masaru and Katsuki watched as a weird glint flashed in Mitsuki's eyes.

"Inko, how old is Izuku?"

"He's... He's seven, right?" Inko's tone wavered slightly.

"I'm sorry, Inko, but I've gotta go do something. Goodbye." and with that, Mitsuki hung up. She turned to the two watching her and spoke, "Let's go. We have to report a missing person."

...

"Hi, my name is detective Naomasa Tsukauchi, how can I help?" a certain tired detective asked a blonde woman.

"Hello, my name is Mitsuki Bakugou. I want to report a missing person." she replied.

"Okay, who's the person?" Tsukauchi questioned.

"My non-biological nephew, Izuku Midoriya. He's 14, has green hair and eyes, freckles and he's kinda short." she rattled off.

"How long has he been missing?" came the gruff tone, accompanied by some scratches of pen on paper.

"I found out today but my son, his friend, said he's been absent from school for three weeks. Although, when I called his mother, Inko Midoriya, to check on him, she told me that she hasn't seen him in a long while."

The pen stopped and the detective looked up, "And his quirk?"

"... He's quirkless." she said, looking pointedly at the detective.

"Alright, I'll try to find him. Due to his quirkless status, however, heroes may refuse to help so I'll only be telling a few unbiased heroes." he sighed.

"Thank you, detective." she thanked as she stood with her son and husband and ushered them out.

--

Naomasa groaned and sunk deep into his chair. He was tired. Actually, that was an understatement. He was exhausted. He'd been on the case of the blood pool and now he had to find a lost kid. Just his luck.

He'd just have to tell Shota that he couldn't help identify his problem kid. Frankly, he kinda just wanted the comfort of the chaos that is pro heroes.

/Pro Heroes GC/

Lie Detector: Hello

Loud Cockatoo: Heya, Tsuki

Tiredness Reincarnation: Hello, Tsuki

Rat God: Good evening, Naomasa

Bugs Bunny: Hello

Chicken Wings: G'day everyone

Blood Bender: It's night you crazy people

Fired: Stop blowing up my phone

Knock Out Gas: Oh shush, Endeavour

Loud Cockatoo: Nemuri!

Knock Out Gas: Zashi, we should totally take Sho to the mall

Giggles: Shota! Marry me!

Loud Cockatoo: Hands off, Joke

Tiredness Reincarnation: I won't marry you, Joke

Flash 2.0: What did I come to?

Rat God: Chaos

Flash 2.0: Why?

Lie Detector: Because I need to look for a lost kid

Knock Out Gas: You have a kid?!

Lie Detector: No, I'm a detective. Therefore I have to look for lost kids. But I'm busy with the blood pool case.

Rat God: Just ask Jade or Emerald

Lie Detector: Jade isn't talking to us since the fire and Emerald is too busy. Their wait line is so fucking long

Jade: Might be fucking pissed about what happened but not to the point where I wouldn't help people. I'm not that petty

Tiredness Reincarnation: Jade!

Jade: Absolutely not, questioning me in a vulnerable state was a dick move. Be ashamed of yourself

Tiredness Reincarnation: I'm sorry

Jade: You fucking should. I'm not giving you coffee for three days

Tiredness Reincarnation: I thought you said you weren't petty

Jade: I said I wasn't that petty. I'm still pretty fucking petty

Rat God: Jade, how very nice of you to drop in

Jade: Nezu, hello

Jade: So, Tsuki, who's the kid?

Lie Detector: Izuku Midoriya. He's 14 and quirkless

Lie Detector: Jade, you still there?

Jade: Yeah

Lie Detector: What happened?

Jade: Who called him in?

Lie Detector: The Bakugou family

Jade: HA!

Jade: I am laughing so hard right now. Very funny.

Lie Detector: I wasn't joking

Jade: You weren't?

Lie Detector: Not joking

Jade: You go to them and tell them to fuck themselves. And arrest their son while you're at it. I'm leaving. And don't bother Emerald either. Goodbye.

Jade went offline

Lie Detector: The fuck just happened?

Nezu: It seems that Jade knows the missing child

Chicken Wings: And it seems that he's pissed.

Lie Detector: Srry, I gtg

Lie Detector went offline

Now he was tired and confused. What relation did Jade have to Izuku to make him so mad? It was all twisting his mind into a knot and the lack of sleep definitely was not helping.

"Detective," a cat headed police poked their head in, "the DNA test results are here. And so is Eraserhead."

"Thank you, Sansa." he responded.

"No problem," Sansa said as he held out a packet, "here's the results and I'll send in Eraserhead."

"Alright." Naomasa tiredly spoke, taking the packet.

The cat-headed man smile then left as a dark-haired, tired man slunk in.

"Tsuki." Eraserhead greeted.

"Sho." Tsukauchi replied.

"You opening that packet?" Shota questioned, gesturing to the package in his hand.

"...yeah." he said and gently tearing it open.

Shota waited for a reply only to receive a wide eyed Tsukauchi. "Well? Who's blood is it?"

"Izuku Midoriya's" the brown-haired man spoke in a hushed tone but other wasn't fazed.

"As I thought," the hero hummed, "Emerald, Jade, Nezu's mentee, the Izuku from the cafe, your missing kid and the kid who's blood and skull fragment were found. They are just six problem children in one."

"We need to call a meeting."

Chapter Text

Shota grumbled under his breath as he slowly made his way from the Musutafu police station to his favorite cafe, rejoicing at the fact that Izuku couldn't ban him from his safe haven then slumping further than usual as he realised that Izuku could, in fact, ban the pro hero from coffee. Bitter, beautiful coffee.

He sighed as he caught sight of the cafe, a business woman hurriedly stalking out with a coffee in hand and a case in the other. Peering through the large glass windows, he saw the familiar warm light bathing the plants, furniture and the few patrons inside, as well as the cats roaming around the place.

A smile played on his lips as his gaze caught on the familiar sight of green, bush-like hair. Izuku (or Midoriya, apparently) was animatedly chatting with an older teenager. It nearly escaped Aizawa how both the new boy and Izuku had matching shoes. Maybe that was why they were talking?

The kind ding sounded as he pushed open the door and walked in. Some people looked up and their gaze lingered for a few moments before resuming their previous activities. He saw Izuku's eyes roll as the greenette stiffened while the other boy, a pinkette, turned to him and hunched over, looking more afraid than before. He reminded Shota of how Izuku looked when they first met.

Holding a clearly unimpressed gaze, Izuku looked him over before smirking slightly, "You know," he paused, "I wasn't joking about the three day coffee suspension. I didn't think you'd have the nerve to come back before your punishment was over."

Shota snorted, "Cats aren't something people should pass up. Plus, I deal with far worse than petty teens."

"That's rich coming from the one in trouble. Say, how would you like it if I extended your punishment?"

Shota looked like he'd seen a ghost, "Absolutely not, problem child."

"Hah! I won." Izuku turned to the pinkette who'd just been watching the entire ordeal, "Shota meet Sasuke Ikari. Sasuke meet Shota Aizawa."

Sasuke turned to face the pro and bowed, "I-it's ver-very n-nice to me-meet you, Aizawa-san."

Jeez, the kid has a horrible stutter. "Likewise, Ikari-kun."

Sasuke straightened and turned to Izuku, "Izuku-kun,
a-are you sure I could c-come here again? Th-they wouldn't kick m-me out?"

"Of course not. Hey, I could even talk to Kanna-san to hire you. It's do you real good. I promise, she's really nice and wouldn't be quirkist, I know from experience." he watched as the bob of green hair nodded excitedly.

"Thanks."

"No problem. After all, we've got the same situation. Just promise me you'll stick around for everything to get better." an unknown emotion flashed through his emerald orbs, shared by the hot pink eyes of Sasuke.

The boy gave a shaky nod whispering, "I'll try. I really will. But you and I both know that it never really does get better. At least not entirely."

Izuku gave an empathetic look, "Well, we'll never know until we try."

The older boy nodded slightly then left, brushing past Shota and he paled at seeing the big bruise on the back of the pinkette's neck. He was about to call out to the boy before he was interrupted.

"Don't." Izuku spoke sharply, "You won't help. It'll only make it worse for him."

"Did you see that bruise?" snapped Shota.

"Yes. Yes, I did." and Shota had to resist a flinch at the kid's harsh tone as the greenette turned to hide his face, "And I know for a fact... that if you 'helped' he might not survive the next time."

Shota's heart plummeted at the voice crack and the experience laced into the boy's words. He nodded to the kid, not that he'd see, and retreated to the booth that had a sign reading 'Shota's booth'. He tugged his capture weapon off of his neck, placing it gently on the table with his bag.

Sighing, he plopped into the booth as the four cats from day one surrounded him. He had to prepare all the information on the problem child he could before the meeting with Nezu and Tsukauchi tomorrow. Shota stared longingly at the coffee machine, flickering briefly to the kitty cream puffs. He groaned in pain as he sunk into his seat, closing his eyes.

"Ugh, you are so fucking lucky that you're my favorite hero, Penciltip. I honestly thought that you'd at least survive the first two days, though. It's really a shame that I can't let you die of coffee deprivation in all your sleep-deprived glory." stated a bored tone. Shota could hear the snarkiness to it.

He opened an eye to see Izuku holding out a folded shirt and pants. "I'll make your oh-so-precious coffee while you change out back. Don't worry, Kanna-san said it'd be fine."

"Thanks, problem child."

"Yeah, yeah, Shota. I'm still mad." Izuku rolled his eyes, "Now hurry up before I change my mind. I'd bet 100 yen that Tsuki gave you a shit-ton of paperwork."

A grunt was all the greenette got in reply as the ravenette stood, taking the clothes and stalking off to the employee change rooms.

Five minutes later, Izuku had a shit-eating grin plastered on his face as Shota's cursing graced his ears. "IZUKU! You fucking gremlin!" the hero yelled as he appeared from the back. He wore a 'Put Your Hands Up' radio t-shirt and basic jeans with sewn in cat patterns.

Izuku cackled. He laughed loudly as the pro hero chased him around the cafe, much to the amusement of both the customers and the winged boy.

"Why?! I thought you'd like it, Sho!" the little menace taunted over his shoulder.

"You know I could murder and no one would find the body."

"Yes, because you would totally get rid of your best source of your life-giving drink." he retorted sarcasticly.

This continued for around twenty minutes before Shota reluctantly had to do his work for the next day. He received a mug of coffee and a plate of kitty cream puffs from a very, very smug green menace, though Shota was not about to bite the hand that fed him coffee and snacks from heaven.

"I hate you, you little green gremlin." he scowled.

"I love you too, you big, grumpy, sleep-deprived man." Izuku sniggered.

Shota stayed the remainder of the day, compiling any information about the kid and he prayed that said kid wouldn't hack into his computer and destroy his progress. Customers came and went as the sun followed it's course but Shota stayed in the cafe, plowing through a probably unhealthy amount of coffee.

It was currently 6 o'clock and the only two in the cafe were the cats, Izuku and himself. A movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention and his head lifted up to see Izuku moving out from the counter.

"Keep watch for a sec for me, please. I'll be back." he stated, rubbing his eye.

Shota raised an eyebrow at the boy, "Where are you going?"

"My wings feel stiff and they're too big to be spread inside the cafe." the teen yawned and Shota really had to wonder how long the kid actually slept. Humming in response, he watched the boy walked out of the cafe, stopping right outside.

He watched as a cloud in the sky shifted slightly so a ray of sunshine landed on Izuku. The way that the kid fully stretched out his wings made him look absolutely stunning.

He looked truly angelic.

_

"Good morning, Tsukauchi, Aizawa." greeted the rat? dog? bear? who knew?

"Hello, principal Nezu." Tsukauchi spoke, while Shota just nodded tiredly in acknowledgment.

"So, an interesting, probably case-solving, discovery has been made?"

"Yes, Nezu." Aizawa confirmed.

"Eraser, I trust that you've compiled the information about the kid?" huffed the detective.

Pulling out his laptop, he shifted it to face the other two. "One month ago, I met a kid working at a cafe. His name is Izuku, no last name, the same day that the pool of blood was found. Your student, also named Izuku, applied for the course that day as well. I've made several connections between my problem child and your's. Later in the week, Emerald and Jade made their debuts. Izuku, under sleep-deprivation, directly admitted to being Jade and I've also tied Jade to Emerald. Not only that but Emerald sent analysis in order of Izuku's favourite heroes."

"I was under the impression that Izuku's favourite hero was you. Wasn't Hawks Emerald's debut?" Nezu asked, to which, Shota switched tabs to the analysis Emerald had sent him, hours before his supposed debut.

"Ah. Please continue then." Nezu spoke.

"You then Hawks? And Emerald is yet to do anything for the number one and two heroes." Tsukauchi inputted.

Shota shrugged, "bad history, apparently. Any who, yesterday Tsukauchi received a missing person report for a boy named Izuku Midoriya, matching the description of Izuku from the cafe. However, he also matched the DNA of the blood found in the middle of the street. What's concerning is how Izuku's aunt, Mitsuki Bakugou, was the one to inform the police of his disappearance, not his mother. Inko Midoriya can't even remember the last time she'd even interacted with her son. That's already neglect, meaning he can't return to his previous home life. Not only that, Mitsuki Bakugou is the mother of Izuku's bully and judging by Izuku's reaction, Bakugou went further than just calling him names."

"So where is Izuku staying now?" asked the detective.

"Who knows? He's usually quite sandy when he comes in though and he's always really early so he must live nearby to the cafe at some place with sand." Shota sighed.

"Next time you see him, try to get him to meet us so we can arrange something. Frankly, I don't fancy a 14 year old living Kami knows where." Nezu ordered sternly, then a smirk crossed his face, "and I'm sure, when it comes, you and Yamada have your emergency fostering licence."

"Yes, Nezu." replied the erasure hero with a nod. He'd do it even without being told.

Chapter Text

Fire.

Izuku could smell fire.

Wait what the actual fuck?! Why was there fire?!

Izuku shot up, his eyes looked frantically around him, only to have flames filling his vision. Not good. It was morning now and Izuku had slept at Dagobah beach again. He'd hidden in his rubbish cave but now everything was on fire. He expected it to hurt, though. Not for it to feel like a pleasant tickling sensation.

CRACK!

He looked up to see a fallen piece of debris coming straight for him. He needed to move out of the way. Izuku pushed off from the ground, diving out of the path of a falling microwave. There was no doubt in his mind that that would have killed him or left him with serious injuries.

Through the fire he could see an opening in the wall of trash, about the size of a small adult, meaning he could probably fit. He lunged for the hole but was stopped by his wing getting caught. His wings didn't fit.

Izuku had already accepted the fact that he wasn't affected by the fire, however, he doubted that he was immune to falling debris. So then and there, in either a stroke of pure genius or pure idiocy, he had the bright idea of dislocating his feathery appendage.

Finally free, Izuku tugged once more and scrambled away from the trash inferno. With adrenaline rushing through his veins, the greenette failed to realize how the fire seemed to follow him. That lasted for less then a few minutes.

He hissed in pain from the dislocation before looking back at his wings to assess the damage. Imagine the shock when he came to face his wings that were still on fire. Jumping up in panic, he started frantically trying to snuff out the flames that engulfed his wings.

After a few minutes, once he'd cooled down and used the analytical side of his brain, Izuku came to several conclusions.

Firstly, the fire didn't hurt and he'd never admit that it took him more than two minutes to figure that out.

Secondly, after looking closer, he saw that his wings had turned a beautiful ombre of red, orange and yellow.

Thirdly, he could now breathe, create and manipulate fire. In his panicked state, Izuku had let out a stream of fire and stupidly, had somehow become a fire bender from the last avatar and used some pyrokinetic abilities to ball up the fire in the air.

Fourthly, he could, thankfully, turn it off and on at will. He'd had so much fun lighting up his wings, then snuffing out the flames.

The fifth discovery made was after he looked in a somewhat shattered mirror. His eyes turned a sunset orange when he used his flame wings. Similarly, the tips of his hair were orange as well.

The sixth thing he found out, was that he was immune to his own fire and had a resistance to high heats and other flames to some extent.

The final realisations were that his wing was still dislocated and he had to get to work. It was pretty early in the morning, if he had to guess he'd probably say around 2 am. Izuku, having no experience in relocating wings, was stumped. It hurt but he didn't know how to put it back in place and he really needed to get to work. So, in another bout of idiocy but totally something only Izuku Midoriya would do, he sucked it up and continued to the cafe.

So apparently, the only sign that tells you a wing is dislocated is that it droops slightly. Honestly, it felt like carrying dead weight on his back, which was really annoying. Why was this not covered in Nezu's class? He'd have to ask about bird anatomy or something.

It took Izuku 20 minutes to get ready to open the cafe, between getting ready and setting up the cafe, leaving him with 10 minutes to spare. He sat behind the counter scribbling his new findings in his notebook.

Analysis Notebook No. 14 - Entry 1
-Wings-
Two large green wings around shoulderblade area. Wing span is around two and a half times the height of the owner (each wing). Person has full control of their wings, can fly and move them at will. The wings are green (unsure if the pigment is based on hair or eye colour.)

Analysis Notebook No. 14 - Entry 2
-Fire Wings-
Can be activated at will. If inactive, wings will resume original state. Green wings turn into an ombre of red, orange and yellow when active. Wings are on fire that doesn't burn the person. Person can breathe, create and manipulate fire at will (unsure if person can manipulate fires of other origins). Eyes turn sunset orange along with the tips of person's hair.

Izuku sighed as he got up from his seat behind the counter, groaning right after at the realization that he now had nowhere to sleep. Walking up to the door, he was amused to see a familiar dark-haired pro hero waiting patiently for the cafe to open. Izuku gave his million watt smile to Eraserhead, but when he opened the door his smile dropped and was replaced by worry as his sights fell on a large cut across the top of his arm.

"Shota!" the boy exclaimed worriedly as he led the hero inside. Sitting him down, the greenette went to get his medical supplies, mumbling under his breath something about stitches.

--

In all fairness, it wasn't Eraserhead's fault that he got cut. He had intervened with a trigger deal with around five people involved and one of them just so happened to have an invisibility quirk. Seriously, the kid was overreacting. It wasn't that bad.

Okay, maybe it was that bad. It was a pretty deep cut, maybe around 5 to 8 centimeters long. Again, not his fault. He'd dealt with the deal and dutifully handed them over to the police before escaping the medics. They would surely take him to the hospital and Shota hated hospitals. They reminded him too much of death and despair and... Oboro.

Shota honestly only wanted coffee when he decided to go to the cafe, so when he arrived it came as a complete surprise when the little green teen that he was looking to adopt, sat him down and tended to his wound. Well, not really surprising. He already knew that the kid had a heart of gold.

"What was it this time?" Izuku frowned.

"Trigger deal. Some guy with an invisibility quirk." he winced slightly as the greenette stitched his wound. "How do you know how to do stitches?"

"By learning, obviously."

"Don't be a smart-ass and answer the question." the hero said, rolling his eyes. The kid seemed to be amused by the answer because Shota then heard some quiet sniggering. The pair fell into silence before Shota got his answer.

"I was eight years old." Izuku stated with a somehow fond tone, "I was coming home when a kid from my school noticed me." he chuckled, too bitterly for Shota's liking, before continuing, "he had a panther mutation quirk and let me tell you, panthers sure can cut deeply."

"And your mother didn't take you to see a hospital?"

Another bitter chuckle, "My mother doesn't give a damn about me." he replied under his breath, more than likely for only himself to hear, rather than the hero.

The silence stretched on for what seemed like ever but probably had only been a couple of minutes. That silence was rightfully broken as Shroud and ShockWave came through the door.

"And I'm telling you! Snipe totally has a thing for 13! I am willing to bet actual money on it." came the voice of ShockWave.

"No. Snipe doesn't." stated a very tired looking Shroud.

"Too bad for you, Shroud. Shock would win that bet. Snipe and 13 have been married for 3 years." Izuku nodded as he informed the pro of his loss.

"Izu!!" ShockWave squealed as he approached Izuku with a hug. He was very childish for a 19 year old. Izuku expertly ducked under the embrace, careful of the needle halfway through Shota's skin.

"ShockWave, for the no. 11 vigilante in Musutafu, you don't seem to have the awareness to see that I am stitching up Eraser's wound." he scolded the now sheepish looking vigilante, "I would've expected better."

"Sorry, Zuku." ShockWave shifted on his feet, subtly favouring his left foot over his right. The action not going unnoticed by the greenette who sighed before speaking.

"Shock, take a seat over there," he pointed, "Shroud, you know where the cold packs are. Make sure this idiot uses it."

Once the four had settled, the playful chatter had resumed, starting off by picking up what they'd dropped from the discussion concerning Thirteen's and Snipe's relationship. This was followed by a harsh critique for a twilight hero who had recently debuted.

"I am actually serious. There is absolutely no way that this is the right way to use her quirk. Starry's quirk allows her to create a bright yellow, star-shaped barrier. Who in their right mind would use it primarily for offence? It is plain as fucking day that it's for defence. Not only that but she doesn't even know the basics of fighting!" the three older men watched on in fondness as the little, cute green boy dissolved into mutterings of the hero.

Soon, Shroud and ShockWave had to leave as ShockWave couldn't be seen in public and Shroud can't live on just two hours of sleep like a certain erasure hero. Said erasure hero stayed in the cafe because he can be seen in public and can live on just two hours of sleep, if not less.

Once other customers started coming in, Izuku left Shota for his place behind the counter. He watched as the kid took orders with practiced ease, moving around as if it was as easy as breathing. And as he watched, he noticed. He noticed how his right wing drooped, how he seemed to wince when his wing made contact with anything and how his shoe was slightly burnt. Shota saw it all.

Was it possible to want to adopt this child even more? Yes. Yes it absolutely was.

-

It was closing time and Shota had stayed the entire day again. He watched as the cafe emptied out and the boy started to pack up shop.

"Shota," Izuku approached him, fiddling slightly with his left wing, "we're closing."

"Alright, kiddo." he replied while getting up, much to the protest of the cats who had snuggled up close to him.

Izuku opened the door and waited for Shota to follow. Once he exited, Izuku followed suit and locked the door behind him.

"Bye, Sho, see you tomorrow." Izuku waved and left.

He was about to follow the boy and get him to UA, when his phone buzzed, signifying a call. Pulling out his phone, he answered, "Hello, this is Shota Aizawa, how can I help you?"

"Sho! How's my lovely husband?"

"Zashi. I'm good. What's up?"

"I got the entire afternoon off. When you coming home?" came the voice of his husband.

Shota looked up to see that any trace of the greenette was gone. He sighed, "Now. But I gotta leave for patrol."

"Oki doki! See you at home."

"See you." and with that, he hung up.

--

Eraserhead leapt from rooftop to rooftop, cloaked in the darkness of night. He'd taken to patrolling around the cafe's area, in hope of finding the problem child somewhere. But apparently, the universe wants to piss off Shota and make Izuku suffer.

It was a slow night, Shota only having to stop one or two muggings, and he was getting very restless. He was annoyed about not being able to get the kid out of his bad situation, and frankly, he was thankful that he didn't accidentally take out his frustration on a villain.

Eraser heard thunder in the sky and looked up to see lightning splitting up the inky night sky. He groaned as rain soaked him. The universe really did hate him. Shota stopped at the edge of a roof, gaze sweeping over the mostly dormant city for any crime or anyone that he could help.

Suddenly, Eraser heard a faint coughing from an alley bellow him. Shota knew that alleyways were usually inhabitted by homeless people and he'd usually leave them be, but the coughing sounded really young and he really couldn't leave a child on the streets. He jumped down with practiced ease, making the smallest splash in a puddle from the rain.

Shota froze.

In front of him, curled up, was Izuku. One wing was partially sheltering him from the rain, while the other laid splayed out at an odd angle. The kid was ghostly pale and was shivering so much that the puddle of water beneath him was constantly moving.

Eraser rushed to the boy's side and shook him slightly more frantically than professional, but he seriously could not give two flying fucks right then. "Kid! Kid, wake up!"

He didn't move other than the shivering that was currently the only sign that he wasn't dead. "Kid! Izuku! Wake up."

The greenette's eyelids fluttered open, squinting from the rain that was no doubt stinging his eyes. The hero let out a breath of relief as Izuku looked at him in confusion. The kid broke out in another fit of coughing, more violent than before, and Shota was reminded of the current situation.

"Kid, I'm taking you to UA. You aren't safe here." he said as he stood up and helped the kid to his feet. Izuku stuttered slightly in his movements and it seemed that he wasn't able to stand straight by himself so Shota let him lean on him. He noticed how his right wing drooped even more than before and how it kinda dragged on the pavement as they walked.

It was a very long trek to UA and he was extremely thankful that he'd called Nezu on the way when they were passing a covered route, in turn the rat principal called Naomasa and Recovery Girl. All the while, Shota was getting increasingly worried as Izuku was getting more and more sluggish.

"Sh-Sho..." suddenly, Izuku fainted, leaving Shota even more distressed. He took the teen in his arms and ran as fast as he could to UA.

-

The door to Nezu's office swung open with a loud bang as Shota rushed to place Izuku on the couch, eyes frantically searching for Recovery Girl. "Chiyo!" he called as his sight landed on the woman.

Chiyo was at Izuku's side in an instant, checking over the boy while shaking Shota down for information. "Where did you find him?"

"An alley near... near Dagobah beach. He was lying there in the rain, one wing kinda sheltering him while the other just stuck out at a weird angle. He was pale and shaking and he fainted half way here." he explained in a rush.

The healing heroine set down her stethoscope and turned to the others, "Well, he seems to be fine other than a fever from the rain and his dislocated wing."

"Dislocated?!" yelled the underground hero.

"Yes, Shota, dislocated." she responded in an exasperated tone, "I can't heal him right now, so we have to wait until he wakes up."

"Well, this certainly wasn't how I thought this would play out." Nezu mused, earning a glare from the soaked hero.

Tsukauchi, who was sitting quietly, sighed, "Shota, why don't you go and change, then we can talk this out."

Shota huffed but stalked out of the office nonetheless, returning half an hour later in another hero costume that was identical to the previous one. He sunk into one of the seats and started sipping on a cup of coffee, grimacing at the taste, "This tastes like cardboard. Problem child makes better coffee."

"I would expect no less from a barista." the principal chuckled before taking a sip of his own tea.

The room settled into a silence, broken only by the detective finally talking, "It's evident that Izuku isn't in a safe situation. He can't return to his mother, his father is out of the picture and I refuse to send him back to whatever environment he was in before. It was made obvious that the relationship between him and the Bakugous is a bad one."

"I refuse to let him just be thrown into the system. For one, he's already suffered far too much. Secondly, he was previously quirkless and I'm not taking any chances." Shota spoke, "But... in the end it's his choice."

"True. Then we shall wait until he wakes up!" Nezu exclaimed.

-

Izuku felt... warm. Warmer than what should be possible when sleeping in the streets. Not to mention more comfortable. His toxic green eyes fluttered open and took a while to adjust to the light. Taking in the ceiling, Izuku instantly knew that he, in fact, was not on the streets.

He sat straight up with a yelp of pain that shot up his wing. His gaze frantically took in all of his surroundings in hopes that it would point out where he was. It did. Well, he thought it did. I mean, it wasn't really easy to believe that he was on a couch in Nezu's office.

His eyes met Nezu's and he stumbled off of the couch into a 90 degree bow, "N- Nezu-sensei!", he squeaked out, cursing internally at the pain in his right wing.

Before Nezu was able to reply, however, the greenette was gently pushed back onto the couch by a little old lady in a doctor coat, "Now, dearie, you shouldn't be moving that wing of yours around while it's dislocated. You should have enough stamina for me to heal you, though."

Izuku had stars in his eyes as he draw a sharp intake of breath, "Oh my god! You're Recovery Girl, the youthful heroine!"

"The one and only, dear." she smiled before using her quirk to heal his injury and fever. She was shocked to see not even the slightest change to the boy, apart from the healed wing, "Dearie, how long do you usually sleep?"

To his credit, Izuku at least had the decency to look sheepish as he answered, "Like... 1 or 2 hours?"

This, in turn, resulted in the greenette receiving a whack to his head, "That is not nearly as much rest as you should be getting!"

"Well, I mean, I have insomnia, so..."

The lady gave an exasperated sigh and walked back to the seat she'd previously been in.

"Young Izuku, how nice it is to see you in person. I must say that I am a bit dissapointed that I wasn't the one to discover your identity." stated Nezu.

"Oh, sorry, Nezu-sensei."

The principal chuckled at that, "No, no, none of that. In fact, I am impressed that you could hide it from me for this long."

"Th-thank you, sir."

Izuku's eyes swept over the room once again, this time slower, and landed on the two others in the room, "Sho! Tsuki!" he exclaimed excitedly.

Tsukauchi got up from his seat and approached the kid, his hand out for a handshake, "Hello, Jade."

"Call me Izuku." the greenette replied, shaking his hand. Izuku then turned to face the black-haired hero who had practically teleported next to the detective with a blinding smile, "Heya, Sho."

"Hey, kid." Shota greeted with a small smile as he ruffled Izuku's fluffy, green hair.

"Wow, Shota, you really do have a soft spot for the kid." the detective teased with a snicker.

"Sh-shut up, Naomasa." he said to Tsukauchi, trying and failing to hide the creeping blush in his capture weapon, to which the other man doubled down in laughter.

"Izuku, we'd like to discuss some things with you, is that okay?" asked Shota. Izuku nodded in agreement and Shota continued, "We are aware of your living situation and we've decided that you can't continue living like th-"

"You can't send me back!" the greenette yelled in fear, cutting the hero off.

However, Shota just knelt down in front of him with a small, kind smile and spoke, "We won't. We know that your mum was neglecting you, and frankly, we want to put her in jail. We also know that the Bakugous are supposed to be your guardians if something happened to your parents."

"But you said 'supposed to'."

"Indeed. We are aware that the relationship between you and the Bakugous is a bad one, so you won't be going there."

"So where am I going?" he asked.

"Well, you have three options," Nezu started, "First option you have is the foster system. I'm sure that you know what that implies."

Izuku nodded.

"You're second option is a group home." he continued.

Another nod.

"And your last option is to be a ward of UA."

At this, Izuku gained a look of confusion and tilted his head that was far too cute to be possible, "What's that?"

"It's where a UA staff member with an emergency fostering licence fosters a child. It's usually just short-term fostering but it can also be long-term like adoption. In your case, however, if you pick this option it'll be just adoption." explained Shota.

"The choice is up to you, Izuku." Tsukauchi added.

There was a long pause where Izuku weighed the pros and cons of each option before he answered, "I want to be a ward of UA."

"Wonderful!" Nezu exclaimed as he clapped his hands together, "You'd usually go with your homeroom teacher, but since you aren't a student I'll place you in the care of Shota and Hizashi."

Izuku stared at Shota in surprise, tears slowly welling. At this, the underground hero immediately thought he'd made a mistake to make the teen hate him and quickly started freaking out, "U-uh, y-you don't need to go with us if you don't want to." and damn did that hurt Shota, "You can be placed with an-"

He was cut off by a green blur barrelling into him, arms wrapping tightly around him and a muffled, watery voice saying, "You'd really w-want me?"

Shota's panic died down, replaced by a small smile as he replied, "Of course, kid. Of course I'd want you. You're kind and lovely and bright and sometimes a little gremlin, of course I'd want you."

The kid broke out into sobs that they could only assume were happy sobs, clutching onto Shota like his life depended on it. The other merely wrapped his arms around the boy and held him tight as if he'd never see the teen again if he let go. He spoke sweet nothings to him and rubbed circles into his back as to comfort him.

Once both had calmed, green eyes met black as the hero started to speak, "Listen, Izuku. You are a great kid. A great kid who was dealt the worst hand. Yet you kept playing, regardless of how bad your cards were, and that, that is the bravest thing I have ever seen anyone do. If the kids at your old school didn't see it, it's their loss. If the teachers at your old school didn't see it, it's their loss. If your parents didn't see it, it's their loss. If anyone else doesn't see it, it is their loss."

Izuku, tears still streaming down his cheeks, buried his face in the crook of Shota's neck. "Thank you."

"No problem, kiddo. None at all."

---

Shota is tired. Again. When is he not? Anyway, Shota is tired. He's in Nezu's office, doing paperwork, with his kid in his lap who is now resting. That's right, his kid. Shota chuckles softly under his breath as he looks down fondly at the mop of green hair. He'd give this kid the love he was robbed of and more.

"I've finished the adoption papers, Nezu." he stated as he let out a sigh and looked at the principal.

Nezu looked up from his paperwork to meet Shota's gaze before responding in voice that was far too cheery for the time, "Great! Why don't you head home now, I think Yamada-kun is waiting for you. I'll excuse you and Yamada-kun from your teaching duties for the next week to get Izuku settled in."

"Thanks." Shota thanked before picking up his phone from the table.

/Zashi/

Zashi: Sho, when you coming home?

Zashi: Sho, are you okay?

Zashi: Did something happen?

Zashi: Please answer your texts

Sho: Zashi, I'm fine

Zashi: Sho!

Zashi: Why aren't you home?

Zashi: What happened?

Zashi: Are you okay?

Sho: Calm down. I'm fine.

Sho: I'll explain when I get home but can you please get some clothes for a 12 year old. Preferably pajamas.

Zashi: Sure

Sho: Thanks

Zashi: You're welcome, my lovely husband

Shota stared down at the last text, a small smile curling his lips, then at the mop of viridian curls.

"Kid, wake up. We gotta go." he said gently.

Izuku stirred and opened his eyes, squinting at the light, "Sho?"

"Good morning."

"G'morning."

"We gotta get going."

"Where?"

"Home."

Chapter Text

The jangling of keys in the keyhole broke through the silence of the night, followed shortly after by the figure of Shota Aizawa pushing open the door and walking inside the apartment, a small greenette shuffling in closely behind.

"Welcome to your new home, problem child." Shota spoke after toeing off his boots, Izuku copying his movements, although a bit neater than Shota had.

"Shota!" called a voice that Izuku had heard many times over the radio. He tilted his head up and his viridian eyes caught sight of a familiar blond-haired voice hero.

"Present Mic." he whispered softly, only heard by the ravenette hero who's eyes flickered for a second to Izuku before going to his husband.

"Shota, who's the little listener?" Present Mic asked, confusion and tiredness evident in his voice.

Shota sighed before introducing his husband to the kid and the kid to his husband, "Hizashi, meet Izuku. He's the newest ward of UA and we'll be adopting him. Izuku, meet Hizashi. He's my husband and your other guardian."

"A-adopting?!" Hizashi whisper-screamed, a little bit of his quirk leaking into the stuttered word and Izuku guiltily looked down, ready to apologise, before the blonde spoke again, "And here I thought that I'd be the one to first approach the topic of kids."

Izuku's head shot up in shock, "Y-you're not m-mad?"

"Huh? Why would I be mad, little listener? I've wanted a kid of our own since like a year into me and Sho's marriage."

Shota snorted in amusement of Hizashi having kept quiet about wanting a kid for over two years, "Wow, Zashi, two years." he chuckled before turning to Izuku, "Izuku, you're moving into the guest room, it's the last room on the left of the hall over there. Zashi has probably put a pair of pajamas on the bed for you so you can go have a shower, help yourself to whatever you want. The bathroom is the one right across from your room."

"O-okay." the greenette nodded before bowing, "Thank you for taking me in." And if Shota saw a drop of water that dropped onto the floor, he doesn't say a thing.

"No problem, little green bean!" Hizashi cheered as he gave two thumbs up to the boy.

"Yeah, kid," Shota added, "it's our pleasure."

Izuku straightened out, gaze locked onto the floor as he made his way to the aforementioned room.

Watching the kid disappear around the corner, both men turned to each other, a silent conversation held between the two by eye contact until Shota looked away, sighing heavily, "Yeah, I'll tell you. Let's just go make something to eat first."

"Okay."

Hizashi turned around and made his way to the kitchen, Shota trailing behind. "I think onigiri sounds good, ya dig? The little listener should be able to eat that right? I don't really think that he'd be allergic to rice."

"Yeah, I think that'll be good." he answered, getting out a big plate.

There was a silence that was neither comfortable, nor tense. Hizashi stopped what he was doing and turned to face Shota, as though the quiet atmosphere was too unbearable for him, "Why exactly is Izuku a ward of UA? He's not even in the school. I mean, don't get me wrong, the listener is great, it's just..."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Izuku was quirkless until a few weeks ago. As far as we've gathered without the direct input of the kid, he was tormented by his peers, maybe his teachers and neglected by his mother, his dad being kami knows where throughout all of it." he explained.

"...quirkless..." murmured Hizashi under his breath. Shota had faced a lot of discrimination when he was younger for his "villainous" quirk and Hizashi having also suffered because of his quirk as well.

"Yep."

A mop of damp, green hair appeared from around the corner and both heroes turned to look at the teen.

"And you don't have a shirt on, why?" questioned Shota, eyebrow raised.

"I need scissors." he answered shyly, shifting nervously.

The underground pro face-palmed before speaking, "How could I forget? You're wings. Come here."

Izuku shuffled to the black-haired man who had grabbed a pair of scissors from a drawer. "Where's your shirt?" he asked and Izuku held up a lavender-grey shirt. He then proceeded to take the shirt and cut two holes for the greenette's wings to fit through. "There you go, kiddo." Shota handed back the shirt, which was then quickly put on.

"Thank you." he murmured.

With a blinding smile, Hizashi said, "Come sit, little listener, we made onigiri."

The teen did as told and took a seat next to Shota at the counter, nearly dying of fright when something brushed past his legs. "Ack!" he yelped.

Hizashi started laughing and Shota snorted. "That'll be one of the cats." he explained, picking up a black tuxedo cat with white socks, "This is Coffee. He's a pretty good cat that likes nearly anyone he comes into contact with."

Hizashi, who had left moments before, returned with two cats in hand, "This one," he started, slightly lifting the pure white cat, "is Cream. She's kind of old but she's great nonetheless."

"The last one," Shota spoke, motioning to the third cat, white flecked with brown and grey, "is Sugar. Ironically enough, she's not as sweet as her name may suggest."

"She's demonic and hates nearly everyone." nodded Hizashi, setting down the two cats that immediately swarmed around Izuku, Sugar leaping up and setting down on Izuku's lap.

Shota chuckled at the sight, "Looks like you got the stamp of approval."

Hizashi sat beside Shota and pulled out his phone, tapping a few times before speaking up, "So, Izuku, our friend is coming with us tomorrow to get you some stuff, that alright?"

The greenette hummed in thought before responding, "Who's the friend?" he asked.

"Nemuri Kayama. Though you might know her better as-"

"Midnight?!" he cut the blonde off.

Both men blinked then stared in mild surprise and amusement. "That's right little listener!"

"She's such an amazing heroine! I've worked with her at least twenty times with the amount of time she patrols during the night. I can't believe I get to meet her in person!" Izuku rambled happily.

Shota nodded in agreement, "Yep. She's great hero. Though I think you'll be meeting a lot more heroes than her in the future. But before we go shopping with Nemuri, we're taking you to see Chiyo. You need a check up regarding your health. That includes your mental state too, problem child."

Pouting, Izuku nodded in agreement, however reluctant it may be. "Will I still be able to work at the cafe?"

"I don't see why not, little listener. As far as I know, you're smart as hell and don't go to school, so I'm not concerned about your education." Hizashi shrugged.

"Nezu said that he wants you to come to UA to sit in on lessons and take private lessons from the teachers and the rat god himself. I think you should only take weekend shifts." stated Shota, not looking up from his coffee that had appeared from seemingly no where.

"Okay. I'll tell Kanna-san."

"Apart from your lessons at UA, Zashi and I want to train you for next year." Shota informed as he took a sip of his 3rd? 4th? 5th? coffee.

Izuku started tearing up, "R-really?"

The hero placed a hand on the kid's hair and ruffled the bushy mess, "Yeah, kid."

"Can I still continue my Jade and Emerald activities?" he asked eagerly.

"Sure." Hizashi shrugged, "You're doing more good than bad. If anything, we should be encouraging you. Your work is awesome, ya dig?"

"Yeah," giggled Izuku, "I dig."

"That's what I'm talking about, little listener!" smiled the voice hero.

There was a comfortable moment before Hizashi talked again. "Umm, kiddo," Hizashi started, continuing at the hesitant nod from the greenette, "where were you staying after leaving your mother's house? Surely you can't have been sleeping in alleyways this entire time."

"Sh-she's not my mother. She stopped being my mother the day I got my diagnosis and she stopped calling me her son." Izuku stated bitterly.

"Sorry, listener." he apologized.

"N-no. It's fine. Not your fault." Izuku mumbled, "Don't worry, I wasn't camping out in alleys for a month. I found this little cubby at Dagobah beach. It was just last night because I accidentally set it on fire with a... new aspect of my quirk."

"And how exactly do wings cause fire?" asked Shota, an eyebrow raised and Izuku got up from his seat before activating fire wings on only his left wing.

"This is how." he explained, unhelpfully as he fiddled with an orange feather.

"L-listener! You'll burn... yourself?" he trailed off.

Absent-mindedly, Izuku gently blew a small stream of fire onto his palm and watched the flame jump across his hand. He looked up, allowing the two others to see his now sunset orange eyes, before flashing them a bright smile, "Don't worry. It doesn't hurt."

"That... is so cool."

"Indeed."

Hizashi gave a high-pitched squeal, "Listener! Your hair is amazing like this!"

Izuku giggled before deactivating the flames and sitting back down, "I have an analysis of it in the cafe, if you'd like it."

"Sure, Izuku. That'd actually help a lot for your training." agreed Shota.

"On another note," he started, "You are aware that the Bakugous are looking for you, correct?"

The teen stiffened slightly before nodding, "Yes. I know." he paused, "Will you tell them that I've been found?"

"Sadly, yes." Shota stated, a little harshly, though both Hizashi and Izuku suspected that it was because of the Bakugous, "We'll tell them that you've been found, but we'll also tell them that you've already been adopted."

"What about Inko?" Izuku asked, caution in his tone.

"Well, with all of the evidence against her, we're looking to arrest her. Tsuki has already started up a case."

"What about the listener's father?" Hizashi questioned.

"Absent. He left after my diagnosis." the teen spoke in a flat tone.

"Tsuki has started a case to find him." Shota inputted before smirking, "And Nezu is gonna burn Aldera to the ground for what they did to you. What they did was unforgivable.

Izuku's eyes widened and his arms wrapped around Shota's neck as he hugged him, thanking him profusely, "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Shota pat Izuku on the back while Hizashi stood and went to hug Izuku as well. Briefly, Izuku wondered if this was what it would've been like for his family if he wasn't quirkless. Would Inko have loved him? Would Hisashi have stayed? Would Bakugou have stayed friends with him? "It's fine, kid. You're fine. We're okay." Hizashi spoke softly.

They stayed like that for a while longer before Hizashi pulled away from the hug and ushered them to bed. Once Izuku was happily tucked into bed, Shota and Hizashi went to their room and did the same.

-

Shota waking up at midnight was not an uncommon occurrence. This is why he wasn't surprised when he woke up a little before 1am next to his still sleeping husband in near complete darkness. Nor was he surprised when he had the sudden want for a jelly packet. So, he carefully dislodged himself from Hizashi's grasp and stalked out of the room.

The hero was surprised, however, to hear faint sobbing emanating from the room that was, as of three hours ago, Izuku's. He quietly made his way towards the room and opened the door.

Izuku was asleep, curled up on the bed, blanket forgotten, with his wings wrapped protectively around him. The way that he was trembling and crying in his sleep made it obvious to Shota that he was having a nightmare. A bad one, too.

He walked in and sat on the bed, next to the shaking boy, sighing before speaking, "Izuku." he said, a hand extending to pat the green bush of hair, "Whatever you're dreaming about or remembering... it's not true. You're out of that place. You're safe and you're with us. Hizashi and me and Kanna-san and everyone else. You are safe."

Amidst his little speech, Izuku had stopped trembling and his sobs had reduced to small sniffles, making Shota feel at least a bit relieved that he was helping him. "Do you want a hug?"

Izuku nodded slightly and the Ravenette sat closer to wrap the kid in a hug. "Wanna talk about it?"

No reply.

"That's fine. You don't have to."

"I-Inko. Sh-she locked m-me out th-the h-ouse when I-I was s-six. I w-was really sc-scared. An-and Kac- Bakugou f-ound me in a-an alley and beat- beat me up w-with some other k-kids." Izuku stuttered through hiccups and choked sobs, leaning into the hug.

"I have no doubt in my mind that that would be scary. You're very brave for getting through that, Izuku." Shota comforted.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm b-being silly. I sh-shouldn't be s-so scared. It wasn't e-even th-that bad and i-it was a-a long time ago."

"You aren't being silly. It's perfectly normal to have nightmares about traumatic experiences." he paused a moment, "Izuku, do you want to know a secret?"

"S-sure."

"Zashi and I have nightmares, too."

"Really?" the greenette whispered.

"Yeah." he nodded, "In our second year at UA we had a friend named Oboro Shirakumo. He... he was killed during a work-studies. We never really recovered from that and we still have nightmares about that day."

"B-but that's different. That's your friend's death. That's a re-really scary thing." argued Izuku.

Shota huffed. This clearly wasn't working, "Okay... Izuku, do you know what my quirk is?"

Confused, Izuku answered, "Yeah. It's erasure. You can erase quirks."

"How do you think people would react to someone who could take away something that is really important to them?"

"Umm... They'd be scared?"

"Yeah, they'd be scared. When I was a kid, everyone called me a villain and they'd be really mean to me. They bullied me, kinda like how those kids bullied you, except the kids called me villainous instead of quirkless and they'd blind-fold me so is couldn't use my quirk to take their's away."

"B-but you're not a villain, you're a hero! And y-you don't take quirks away, you just temporarily erase them." Izuku reasoned.

"But I wasn't a hero then." he pointed out.

"I guess... But what about Pres- Hizashi? Does he have nightmares too?

"Yeah, kid. He does. People were scared of his powerful quirk and how he could hurt them, so they made him wear a muzzle. Point is, everyone has nightmares. Not everyone has trauma, but everyone has nightmares."

"O-oh."

"Do you want me to stay with you tonight?" Shota asked.

"Y-yes please." he nodded and hesitated before adding, "Can we watch cat videos until we fall asleep?"

Shota smiled, "Sure, kid."

Chapter Text

Hizashi woke up to the morning light seeping through the curtain lights and Cream sleeping peacefully beside him, unperturbed by the rays of light bathing parts of the room.

Something was wrong.

Shota never woke up before him and with that in mind, he got up and out of the room to look for his husband. He rubbed the sleep out of his eye and halfway through a yawn, his sight caught on the cracked open door of Izuku's room. He stopped outside of the door, wanting to check on the little green bean, and opened it.

Hizashi's eyes fell on the cutest thing he'd ever seen in the entirety of his life. There, in front of him, was Shota and Izuku cuddling together. Izuku's head was tucked into Shota's side while Shota's hand rested on Izuku's hair, more than likely from falling asleep while patting the boy's fluffy, green hair, and his other hand held his phone which kept alternating between 'Low Battery' and cute cat videos.

He quickly fumbled for his phone and suppressed a giggle when he snapped a few pictures. Even more so, when all the of the cats decided that the best thing to do at the moment was join the photos.

As Sugar crawled under Shota's arm, the dark-haired man started to stir and cracked open an eye making Hizashi try to quiet his cackles and snap even more pictures as his husband death-glared him.

"Sho," he wheezed, barely containing laughs, "death-glares don't work when you're buried in cats and cuddling with your adorable son."

"Delete the photos." Shota growled back as he resumed patting Izuku's green curls.

Hizashi doubled over in silent laughter, "Shota, you can't do this. Threats don't work like this. Let alone when you accompany them with such adorable actions."

Shota huffed in annoyance, though Hizashi could hear the nearly concealed fondness, "Fine. Whatever. Just... send me the photos. It's about time I change my lock screen, anyway."

The blonde fell to the floor, clutching his stomach while he laughed like a hyena. So much so, that Izuku let out a whine and started waking up, stretching his arms and wriggling out of Shota's grasp.

"Zashi! You woke up the brocolli child!" scolded the underground pro.

"Sorry, little listener." Hizashi apologized, getting up from the floor and pulling the winged boy into a hug.

"Coffee." came the muffled reply while Izuku wrapped
his arms around Hizashi's waist, making Shota chuckle.

"Shota! How dare you try poison our beautiful child with that deadly liquid you call coffee?" he gasped in mock offence.

Izuku wriggled out of Hizashi's hug and stated, "Coffee is an elixir of life sent down from a place far higher than the heavens." before simply walking out of the room, leaving the two speechless adults.

Shota grinned and agreed silently with the teen while his husband gripped his shoulders and shook him back and for while whining, "Shotaaa, look what you've done to the cinnamon roll."

"I have no doubt in my mind that Izuku can make delicious tea as well, Hizashi." he stated, while removing himself from Hizashi's hold to follow his problem kid to the kitchen, where he probably had gone to make some coffee.

He entered the kitchen, Hizashi following behind, and found Izuku moving around the coffee machine with practiced ease from his time in the cafe. The kid caught sight of the two and gave them a sunshine smile before handing over a mug of tea to Hizashi.

"Th-thanks little listener." Hizashi thanked, taking the mug and taking a sip. "How?" he asked in wonder and confusion.

"How, what?" questioned Shota.

"The listener knows how to do my favourite tea. It's like if I made it." Hizashi said in amazement.

"How?" Shota queried, this time directed to the boy.

"Uh... I remember you saying it in an interview with Hawks in his early hero days, two years ago. You were discussing favorite tea types and you basically gave instructions on how to make your favorite type of tea." explained Izuku, who now handed Shota his own mug of steaming coffee.

"How do you even remember that?" Hizashi asked in wonder.

Izuku just shrugged and responded, "I've got this pre-quirk thing called photographic memory, also known as Eidetic memory. It's kinda like an instant memory quirk. Basically, I can remember things perfectly and recall them at any given moment, as well as being able to glance over something and remembering it for ever. It's pretty cool and useful. Except for... traumatic experiences, that is."

The room grimaced at that, unhappy at the implications of the last part of the statement. Nevertheless, the tension seemed to be ineffective to the cats who were willing to help lighten the mood via Sugar jumping into Izuku's arms.

Shota sighed, willing to push aside the tenseness to get on with the morning. He walked over to the fridge and opened it before looking for any potential ingredients for breakfast. "We're having leftover pancakes." he stated while pulling out a container that Izuku could guess held the mentioned pancakes.

Izuku tilted his head in confusion, looking like a confused puppy, before speaking his mind, "I didn't take you for someone who'd eat western food."

"Zashi teaches English classes at UA and has an undying love for anything western, ranging from food to movies to music, you name it." Shota informs in a fond tone for his husband, as he retrieved the now warm pancakes from the microwave.

Izuku turned to Hizashi, "Yamada-san, could you please help me with my english? I was quite good when I was young, though I might have gotten a bit rusty."

Beaming, Hizashi replied, "Of course, listener. Though, you don't have to call me Yamada, Hizashi is perfectly fine with me."

Izuku tilted his head down, hiding his green eyes behind equally green curls and shook his head, "I don't think I'll be a-able to call you that... My f-father's name was Hisashi. They're just t-too similar for me. S-sorry."

"Hey, no, kiddo. It's totally fine, Izuku. I totally dig what you're getting at. How about you call me Zashi instead? That cool for you?" the loud blonde offered.

"O-okay." the greenette nodded, somewhat hesitant, but nodded nonetheless.

The rest of the morning passed without further hassle and soon the three are pulling up at UA and making their way up to the school's infirmary to see Recovery Girl. It doesn't take too long to make their way to the infirmary and when they do, Hizashi opens the door to allow them inside.

"Hello you three." Recovery Girl greets.

"Morning, Chiyo." grumbles Shota, evidently still tired (honestly, when is he not?).

Hizashi, being more awake than his husband, replies in a more peppy tone, "Good morning Chiyo! How are you today?"

The woman chuckles at the sparkly attitude of the man, "I'm good, Yamada." She then turns to the youngest of the room, "Hello, dearie, I'm Recovery Girl but you can call me Chiyo. Do you know why you're here?"

Izuku bows to the heroine, "Hi, Rec- Chiyo-san. I-I'm Izuku. It's really nice to meet you." he straightens up from the bow before speaking again, "And yeah, Shota and Zashi said that you're gonna do a health check up on me."

"Right you are. Why don't you go sit on that bed over there and we can start."

He nods before walking over to the bed and sitting down.

"Okay, first up, does anything hurt? I know I healed you last night but there should still be a fair amount of pain."

"No, there's no pain..." Izuku trailed off before looking down, frowning and looking like he wanted to continue.

"Are you sure, listener?" Hizashi tried.

"Well... I think the bullying must have done something to me... it's like I can't feel it." his frown deepened and his eyebrows furrowed, "I dunno."

Shota then remembered the day they first day they met and it pointed to a reason that was very likely to be possible. "Chiyo, how much pain would a person be in if they broke their wrist?"

She raised an eyebrow in question, "Enough pain to rush to the hospital, why?"

"And would they be able to continue their job for nearly the entire day?"

"It depends on what they do."

He narrowed his eyes at the kid, "Say they worked at a cafe."

"No, they wouldn't be able to work with that much pain." she answered.

"How would that injury feel like compared to being stabbed in the hand?"

"The stab would be more painful than the broken wrist but only by a little. Aizawa... why are you..."

Izuku, still insistent on staring holes into the ground, failed to see Shota approaching him. He only looked up when both Chiyo and Hizashi sucked in a sharp breath of air in shock. Only then did he realize what had happened.

"As I thought." Shota mumbled under his breath.

"Shota! You stabbed him in the hand! What the hell?! Hizashi screamed, his quirk seeping into his panicked yells.

"Izuku, don't you feel it? I mean, that's a lot of blood, even for a pocket knife." Chiyo asked.

"Huh?" he said dumbly, though he soon understood when he raised his hand to see a small pocket knife stabbed through his hand, blood trickling down. "Uh... no? I don't really feel it. Actually, it's kind of itchy."

"He's got a high pain tolerance. Alarmingly high." Shota stared bluntly as if he hadn't just stabbed his kid.

Chiyo sighed, "Dear lord, you're just problems after problems. Here dearie, I'll heal you up."

He nodded his assent. "I'm sorry for troubling you." he mumbled after Chiyo had used her quirk.

"Nonsense. It's you dad who should be apologizing, not you. Don't apologize for getting stabbed." she glared at Shota before her softening her gaze at Izuku.

"M'kay..."

Chiyo shooed the two adults out of the room but by the end of the check up, Chiyo was frowning far too much for Shota and Hizashi's liking. Their suspicions only being confirmed when the old lady directs them into the hall outside the infirmary to talk. The two followed her out, leaving Izuku to take a small nap from Chiyo's quirk side effect.

"So, what's with the kid?" asks Shota, frown matching Chiyo's.

"It's... it isn't pretty, Aizawa. He's got too many problems for a kid his age." she said grimly, "He's too underweight, for one. You'll have to start at a meal portion he can stomach, which hopefully isn't that small, and just work your way up to a normal amount."

"Okay... We can do that." Hizashi nodded slowly.

"Well, on the lighter end of the spectrum, there's his insomnia and pain tolerance that we can't really help." Chiyo informed, "Other than that... well, everything is seriously alarming. He's got multiple scars that range from what look like to be small explosions, to cuts and other things."

"Yeah, he said it was from the bullying he went through in middle school, though some may be from his mother." Shota stated.

"There's a really big scar. It's a fire burn that starts at his lower back and covers most of his left chest, it also wraps around his shoulders. And another that I'm not too sure on... It's a barely noticeable palm-sized scar behind his right ear that I can really only describe as cracked glass. It's as if cracks just branched out in any direction from the middle. I've never seen anything like it."

"So we don't know where it's from?" asked Hizashi.

"No, we don't." she replied.

"And the X-rays?" questioned Shota from his place against the wall.

"Well, under the scar on his head, his skull looks like its been fractured but it isn't very noticeable. Other than that, there's a few places that look like they've been broken but have healed themselves over time."

"Alright. That's all?" asked Shota.

"That's everything. There's nothing more to worry about, besides all I've mentioned." she confirmed.

Hizashi sighed, "Well... That is a lot."

"It is." Shota agreed, "He's really living up to the nickname, isn't he?"

"Sho, that really isn't a good thing." Hizashi deadpanned.

"Yeah, I know." he sighed and pulled out his phone to check the time, "Anyway, we should get home so we can have lunch before Nemuri comes to go shopping."

"Alright! Let's grab the little listener and hit the road." Hizashi cheered, running inside the room to get said listener. He's probably really hungry. Shota turned to Chiyo and spoke, "Thanks Chiyo. Sorry for the trouble."

"It's nothing. Except for the stabbing part. That was very stupid." she scolded, whacking him on the head with her cane.

"Yeah. I won't do it again."

Hizashi walked back out, joining the two, followed by Izuku who yawned away the remnants of his nap. "Are we going home?" he asked.

"Yep! We're gonna have lunch and then we're gonna go shopping with Nemuri for your stuff." Hizashi answered excitedly.

"Thanks again Chiyo!" the loud hero yelled over his shoulder as he grabbed the other two and started off to the car. Chiyo could only smile at the retreating forms of the small family.

It wasn't long before the family had made it home and finished lunch, Izuku only being able to stomach a small portion like Chiyo had said. The three settled on the couch, the smallest getting sandwiched between his guardians while the cats took it upon themselves to include themselves in the cuddles. One pre-quirk Avengers movie later and the sound of rapid knocking could be heard from behind the door.

Shota sighed as he got up, stretched then yawned, "I'll get it, it's probably Nem."

"C'mon listener, come meet Nemuri. Well, formally at least. This time it isn't through comms." Hizashi stood up and followed his husband out to greet their friend, Izuku trailing behind.

"Nemuri!" greeted Hizashi as he ran to hug his friend, "How are you?"

"Hi, Zashi! I've been great, though a little birdie told me that you and Sho have added a little one to your family." returned Nemuri, hugging Hizashi back.

"Wow," came a deadpan voice from behind the two, "I must be a ghost because she went straight past me to hug my husband."

Something, or rather someone, tugged at his sleeve and he looked down to see Izuku looking down at his feet. The kid hugged him. Shota chuckled at the greenette's antics, ruffling the green, messy curls, "Thanks kiddo, at least my son can remember my presence. Unlike some extroverted people I know." he said, narrowing his eyes at said extroverts who were now cooing over the kid still hugging him.

"Oh my god! Is this the kid?! He's so adorable!" Nemuri squealed, absolutely ecstatic at the prospect.

Shota sighed, "Yes, Nem, this is the kid." he tapped Izuku's shoulder and the winged boy turned to somewhat face the heroine, shifting nervously from foot to foot and not meeting the woman's gaze. "Izuku, meet our friend, Nemuri Kayama, otherwise known as Midnight. Nemuri, this is our kid, Izuku. He's a UA ward as of last night and has been adopted by Zashi and myself."

Izuku bowed at Nemuri, "I-its nice to meet you in person." he said before straightening up again.

"Awe! You're absolutely so cute. Though, what do you mean by 'in person'?" she questioned, not aware that the green bean in front of her was in fact Jade and Emerald.

"Oh yeah, I wouldn't suppose you'd know, would you." Hizashi chipped in, effectively inserting himself into the conversation, "The little listener here is actually someone you've met before, well... kinda. Nem, Izuku is not only Emerald, but he's Jade as well. You've worked with him before."

OMG! Really?! You're them! That's so cool!-"

"And you're so loud." Shota cut her off with a quirk-assisted glare.

"Dear lord, Sho, why do you even try at this point? I don't feel threatened by your quirky glares anymore, you're literally just giving yourself dry eye for no reason." Nemuri rolled her sky blue eyes in exasperation.

"You are scaring him." the man growled, uncaring of her previous statement. She turned back to look at the brocolli child who was now a couple steps away from where he'd previously stood and trembling.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you. Can you give me a second chance, please? I'd really like to get to know you better. But you don't have to if you don't want to, okay?" Nemuri spoke, her apology sounding so sincere and calm.

"I-it's f-fine." mumbled Izuku.

"Thank you. It really means a lot." she said, smiling, "So, I'm Nemuri Kayama, but you can call me Aunt Nemuri cuz these two are your dads. I like the colour purple and cats, in fact, I have a cat back at home named Sushi."

"I'm I-Izuku. I like th-the colour green and cats, too, but I also like birds and coffee and heroes." replied the greenette.

"Tell you what, whenever Zashi and Sho get me to look after you when they can't, I can bring you to my home and you can meet Sushi and we'll have loads of fun. I'm gonna be the coolest auntie and then we're gonna be the coolest auntie and nephew Duo ever!"

"Okay." agreed Izuku, finally looking up and smiling back at her.

"Alright!" Nemuri cheered and pumped a fist into the air, "I'm so happy that I get a little nephew to spoil! I can take you out for ice cream. You like ice cream, right? What's your favorite flavor?"

"Mint and choc chip." he answered, smile brightening.

"Me too! I've been trying to tell your dads that it's a great flavour but they won't believe me. Zashi likes mango and Sho likes cookies and cream."

"They're nice flavours but I don't think anything will ever beat mint and chocolate, aunty Nem." Izuku nodded.

"Oh my god! Zashi! Sho! Did you hear that? He called me aunty Nem. That was so, so, so, so, soooo adorable!" she squealed in delight.

"Yeah, we heard. Though I think it might be time we go, or otherwise we'll be there into the night." Shota chuckled at the two.

"Oki doki! Come on, Izuku, let's go so we can spoil you." Nemuri all but ushered the three out of the house and into her car.

When they got there, Nemuri led them to the first shop that sold clothes. Izuku marveled at the clothes that were made to work around any quirk needs, mumbling about the different quirks, while his aunt just watched on in fondness and amusement. His dads went up to one of the store workers to ask for shirts to suit wings.

The two approached a teenage-looking girl with periwinkle blue hair that went below her knees who was sorting out a few clothes. She wore the store's uniform, a white shirt and blue shorts along with a name tag reading Nejire Hado.

"Hey listener, could you please help us find..." Hizashi trailed off with his questions as the girl turned to face them, revealing a familiar teen, "Oh look, Sho! She's one of your 2nd years!"

"Hado, it's nice to see you here." greeted Shota in his monotone voice.

"Yamada-sensei! Aizawa-sensei! It's nice to see you too! And is that Midnight-sensei too? Who is that with her?" Hado spoke in rapid succession, greetings and questions thrown haphazardly.

"Yes, Hado, that's Midnight. The problem kid with her is ours though, she's just his aunt. His name is Izuku. Yes Hizashi and I are together, no the kid is not biologically ours, yes he's adopted, no Midnight is not our biological sister, yes you may tell Togata and Amajiki, no you can't tell any other students." he stated, answering the questions he knew she was bound to ask.

"Hah! Mirio owes me 1000 yen. I knew you guys were together, though I didn't think you'd have a kid." she exclaimed triumphantly.

Shota rubbed his temple, being social was tiring, "Hado, you shouldn't be betting with your friends. And Izuku only became a ward of UA last night."

"Tell that to Mirio. I'm 1000 yen richer." giggled the girl.

"Shoooo! Zashiiiiiii!" called Nemuri, "What's taking you so long? Me and the green bean are running out of things to do. You're not making out in an aisle, are y- Oh, little Hado! Watcha doin' here?"

Hado grinned evily, "Senseis, do you make out in shop aisles often?"

Hizashi sputtered and turned a tomato red, Nemuri cackled wildly, Izuku, who was holding his aunt's hand, also had to stifle his laughter. Shota, however, activated his quirk, "Hado, I will put you in detention for the rest of the year. And no, we've never made out in a shop aisle." though the menacing effect was drastically decreased by the blush the man had.

"Eep! Sorry, sensei!" she squeaked, scared of both her teacher and the threat, "So, what can I do for you?"

"We need help finding clothes for people with wing quirks, little Hado." answered Nemuri.

"Okay, Midnight-sensei. Right this way." Hado started off, down the aisle.

"Hado, sweetie, you can drop the 'Midnight-sensei' when I'm not teaching you. Just call me Kayama-san. And these two you can just call Aizawa-san and Yamada-san."

"Oki doki, Kayama-san." Hado agreed, then turned to Izuku, "You're Izuku-kun, right?"

Izuku nodded.

"That's so cool, I never would've thought that sensei would have a kid. How old are you?"

"I-I'm 14."

"Cool! I'm actually turning 17 next week."

"O-oh, happy birthday for next week." Izuku congratulated.

"Really nice quirk you got there. How long do your wings stretch out?"

"About two and a half times my height."

"Can you fly?"

"Yeah, I can. I can also set my wings on fire and can breathe, create and manipulate fire."

"So you have a normal version and a fire version? Oh, wait! Your fire wing form is like a phoenix."

"Oh yeah, I never thought of it that way." he agreed slowly.

"Do you have names for the different types? Like, in case you get another type. Like, you can call the normal one your default aspect and your fire one can be your phoenix aspect." Hado suggested leading them down another aisle.

"That's a great idea. So, I'll just call them aspects. Thanks, Hado-san!"

"Oh! You're technically my kohai, right?" the girl asked.

"Yeah, I am."

"That means I'm your senpai! So, you can call me Nejire-senpai, and I'll call you..." she trailed off then faced her teachers, "He's got your family name, right?"

"Yes, his full name is now Izuku Yamazawa." answered Shota.

She hummed and turned back to Izuku, "That's a bit long, don't ya think? No matter! I'll make it work. How about I call you little Yamazawa."

"She totally took inspiration from what I call her." Nemuri whispered to Hizashi.

"Okay, Nejire-senpai." agreed Izuku.

"Great, little Yamazawa! Oh, we're here. Here are all the clothes for people with wing quirks. You might wanna look at clothes with the little fire icon on the tag." Hado suggested.

"What for, listener?" questioned Hizashi.

"Well, since little Yamazawa told me about his phoenix aspect, I thought you'd want to get something fire proof, in case he has to use it." she explained then pulled a paper out of her pocket. The paper had a list of icons and what what they meant. "Here, in case there are some other requirements. If you need me just shout out." and with that, she was gone.

"Fire icon is fireproof, water icon is waterproof, lightning bolt icon is electrictyproof, metal icon is cutproof... Wow, they thought of a lot of things. And some clothes have more than one icon, too." Nemuri read.

"Well kiddo, get some shirts and shorts and whatever else you want. Look, there's hoodies too, and some are hero merch." said Shota, pointing to a FatGum hoodie.

"FatGum is a good hero. He was very compliant when I told him where to go when he was chasing a villain. He said that if I ever needed help, I could call him or his agency." Izuku nodded sagely, approaching the hoodie. He looked at the tag and immediately turned to face the other three, "I-I can't..."

"Why not?" asked Shota.

Izuku looked down, "It's t-too much."

In all honesty, they should've expected this. A kid who's just been rescued from an abusive and neglectful environment wouldn't just easily accept things given to them. They'd be so used to just getting the cheapest things to scrape by that anything else would just be alien to them. Why would Izuku be any different?

"It's not, Izuku." he stated, letting out a sigh and letting go of the tag he just read, "Between us three, we work seven jobs. We're all teachers and heroes and Zashi has his radio station. 2500 yen won't even make a dent. These are clothes to suit your need so we won't just get normal clothes and cut holes in them just because they're cheaper. Plus, you have an aunt that wants to spoil you rotten."

"B-but-"

"No buts. You go find a minimum of seven of each clothing item. That means shirts, shorts, pants and whatever else. And a hoodie or two. Can't go without the hoodies. Is that clear, problem child?"

Izuku reluctantly nodded his head in resignation.

"Good. Now go. If you want to try something on just tell us."

Izuku nodded again and shuffled away from the trio. Hizashi turned to his husband, "Was that really necessary? I mean, you were kinda harsh."

"Yeah, Sho, I agree with Zashi." Nemuri added.

"Due to his previous living conditions, Izuku has this mindset that makes him think that getting things from others and accepting help is basically the same as committing murder. And it's also ingrained in his mind that he has to follow orders. So, as much as I hate it, it's the only way we can help him for now. We've just got to show him that accepting help and things from others is normal." he explained.

"People can be so cruel." Nemuri murmured, slowly shaking her head in sadness.

A few minutes passed in silence before a mop of messy green curls appeared into view. Izuku walked up to them awkwardly holding a few shirts, shorts, pants and three hoodies. "I'm gonna try on some shirts." he mumbled, then proceeded to walk away from the group and towards to the changing rooms.

"I'm gonna find something really adorable for the listener to wear that can't refuse. Nemuri come on, let's go." Hizashi smiled, tugging the other along and leaving the other tired man to sigh and walk over to the changing rooms to wait for the brocolli child.

"Hey, kiddo, how're the clothes? Can I take a look?" Shota called through the door.

"O-okay." came the muffled, stuttered reply, before Izuku opened the door and Shota had suppress a groan.

"Problem child, I should be surprised. But I'm really not. This is something that you would absolutely do." he stated, absolutely deadpan.

Izuku sputtered, "H-hey! It's not that bad. I used to have a shirt like this and it was my favorite. I just couldn't resist it."

"So you actually walked around in a T-shirt saying 'T-shirt'?" he asked incredulously, eyebrow raised in question.

Izuku stiffened slightly and looked the man dead in the eyes, "Yes. Yes indeed I did."

"You really live up to your nickname, problem child." he sighed.

"I'll take that as a compliment." giggled the teen.

"Izu-kun!! You have gotta try this on!" shouted his aunt, rushing at the two, holding a hoodie over head and Hizashi following closely behind. They skidded to a stop with the activation of Shota's quirk, though neither of them payed any mind to him, more focused on dodging past him to get to Izuku.

"Zuzu, would you be a dear for you auntie and try this on?" asked Nemuri, bordering on pleading.

Izuku, shaking out of his previous startle from the two, hesitantly took the hoodie, nodded, then retreated to the changing rooms. Three rounds of scissors, paper, rock later, they heard the door open to reveal Izuku in a black hoodie that was at least three sizes too big. On the front, it read 'Shut the fuck up I'm trying to sleep' with a picture of a cute, anime-style cat that was curled up and asleep next to a mug of coffee and a book.

"Zuku, pull up the hood." Hizashi prompted.

Izuku, doing as asked, was pleasantly surprised to see that on the hood were two very cute cat ears. All attention shifted to Shota as he abruptly stood up from where he sat, and silently ventured into the store, presumably to find a matching hoodie for himself.

Not long after, Shota returned a matching hoodie for himself and, surprisingly, another hoodie but with a white colour scheme instead of black. The latter of which was promptly shoved into Hizashi's arms.

The four grabbed the other clothes and made their way up to the counter where a chipper Nejire Hado stood, waiting for people to assist. She caught sight of them and shot them a smile, "Heya!" she called, "Y'all ready to pay?"

"Yes, we are, Hado." spoke Shota.

"Great!" she exclaimed, already starting on scanning and bagging up the clothes.

Once that was finished the small family of two parents, a kid and an aunt said their goodbyes to the periwinkle-haired girl and left the store. They bounced from store to store with the adults constantly reminding the teen that he's free to get what he'd like, and the teen being stubbornly reluctant to do so. In fact, it got to the point that Nemuri, upon seeing Izuku frequently glancing at a Hawks figurine, had told the others to wait for her and marched into the store, resurfacing minutes later with not only a Hawks figurine, but a Present Mic and Midnight figurine as well.

They were wandering around through the place, aimlessly walking around, when Izuku froze in his tracks.

-

Izuku had been having a good day today, if you didn't count the stabbing part. He was with his new family that had his two guardians, Sho and Zashi and his aunt, aunt Nem.

And then he saw them.

And then they saw him.

And he froze.

And they froze.

He started trembling.

Sho, Zashi and his aunt hadn't noticed yet, bickering over something or the other. But Izuku couldn't breathe.

"Guys, look, it's useless deku!" one kid pointed, the other three of Izuku's bullies snickered and smirked.

"Oh, is worthless deku trying to act like a normal person?" a girl said and Izuku felt his wings puff up in agitation and fear.

By this point, the group of bullies were starting to walk towards him, throwing insults and taunts at him. It was all too familiar. He couldn't call out to his guardians, either as he felt his throat seize up and his words die. All he could do was step back from the advancing group.

His wings twitched.

His gaze went up to the sky, then to his tormentors. Would this be self defence? He really didn't want to get into trouble. Then his choice was made for him when he saw one of them activate their quirks. His fight or flight instincts kicked in and he shot up into the sky with a flap of his emerald wings.

He saw the shocked faces on the bullies' faces and people looking up at the shadow he was casting. He saw Shota and Zashi shove their stuff into auntie Nem's arms, telling her something, then trying to follow after him, with Sho using his capture scarf and Zashi taking a more normal route.

He could feel himself spiralling into a panic attack, his breathing getting quicker and shallow, tears streaming down his freckled cheeks. With watery sobs, he flew to the closest roof and crash landed onto it from his spinning gaze. He skidded on the concrete and his back slammed into a wall.

He curled into himself, wings wrapping protectively around him and his hand tugged at his green curls in an effort to ground himself while the other clutched his shirt. Izuku cried silently, his selective mutism silencing any screams or shouts or words he'd wanted to speak.

A hand grabbed his wrist, stopping his hand from pulling at his hair and preventing him from injuring himself further. He flinched violently away from the touch, though the hand remained and an arm pulled him into a hug.

"Izuku, kiddo, you gotta breathe." he could barely make out the voice. It was deep and comforting in a familiar way. A way that he'd only known from one person.

His hand was brought away from his hair and placed on Sho's chest, over his heart. He could feel it beating and the man taking exaggerated breaths. "Match my breathing, Izuku." Shota spoke, voice cutting through the static in his ears like a hot knife through butter.

He took a big, shuddering breath in attempt to mimic the other's calm breathing. He failed miserably. A few minutes of slower, though admittedly shaky, breaths later and the door to the roof swung open, revealing Hizashi, the noise and sudden movement making the greenette flinch.

The blonde's gaze swept over the roof and landed on the two. "Izu, Sho." he murmured, then slowly approached the duo. As much as he really wanted to dash over there, he wasn't just going to reset his husband's progress by sending their kid into another panic attack.

He knelt down beside them and wrapped them tightly into a hug.

It took a while, but eventually everyone was calmed down enough to head back to the car. Izuku, having fallen asleep, was now being carried by Shota, who was currently acting as the family's emotional pillar, as Hizashi, being the most emotional of the two, was currently trying and failing to disguise his worry, stress and sadness.

They found Nemuri pacing frantically infront of the car and when she spotted them she ran so fast it could've been a teleportation quirk.

"Is he alright?" she questioned, worry evident in her tone.

"He'll be fine after a good rest, "answered Shota

"What happened, though?" Nemuri asked, walking them back to the car.

They got in, Shota letting Izuku lean on his shoulder in the back, when he answered, "I'm not too sure, we'll ask when we get home and he gets sleep."

Nemuri, being the only one not preoccupied, Hizashi still in his previous state, Shota being a pillow and Izuku sleeping on said pillow, was the one to drive. They arrived at home and by that time Izuku, being the insomniac that he is and not needing much sleep, had woken up. He was silent all the way up to the apartment while helping carry the bags, much to the other three's dismay.

"Sho, Zashi, I'm gonna head home. I think you three need some alone time to sort this out. Make sure my nephew is okay, will you?" Nemuri said to the two.

"We will, Nem. Get home safe. We'll see you at UA." replied Shota.

"And Izuku will be coming, too. He's sitting in with Sho's 2nd years and having lessons with Nezu when they do practicals." added Hizashi from behind Shota.

"Cool. Anyway, I'll go now. Bye." after exchanging goodbyes, Nemuri left and the two shut the door and went to Izuku's room.

They stopped outside of the closed door and shared a look. "Izuku, we're coming in." stated the ravenette. After silence, they shared another glance and Shota opened the door.

Izuku was curled up in his new cat hoodie underneath his blanket, though they could both see the tears running down his face.

( '_____' is JSL from now on. Not thinking as I'm sure I did in the first chapter. Just thought I'd tell you now)

"Izuku." called Shota in the softest voice he could manage. No reply. They walked further into the room and sat on either side of the boy.

"Kiddo, do you want a hug?" asked the other. Izuku hesitated a moment, thinking it over, then nodded and sat up. Arms wrapping tightly around him from both sides and he sobbed silently into Hizashi's shoulder.

"What happened, Izuku?" asked Shota.

Izuku pulled away, held his trembling hands in front of him and started signing. 'I can't talk right now.'

"Why not, little listener?"

'I have undiagnosed selective mutism. It happens when I'm scared, sad, uncomfortable and other emotions like that or something.' Izuku answered shakily.

"That's fine. Is that why you learnt sign?" Hizashi was taking a less devastating approach by easing Izuku into the conversation that was bound to happen.

Izuku nodded. 'What about you?'

"I learnt because my quirk made me deaf, and Shota learnt because of me."

'Makes sense.'

"How long have you had it?" asked Shota.

'Since the bullying started. My throat would just lock up.'

"Oh. Do you want to tell us what happened?"

The kid paused a moment. 'I saw some of my old bullies. They were approaching me and teasing me. Calling me deku and useless. I backed away from them and tried to call out but I went mute. Then one kid activated their quirk and rushed at me so I panicked and flew away. I crashed onto that roof while trying to suppress a panic attack.'

"I'm sorry, Izu." apologized Hizashi.

Izuku frowned, furrowed his eyebrows and gave a questioning look. 'What for?'

"We should've been there, kid." Shota answered, matching Izuku's frown.

'It's not your fault, though.'

"It may not be, but we could've prevented it." Hizashi spoke up, and the greenette had trouble processing the words. Izuku's brain was seriously shutting down right now. Like, he was trying to fight off the tiredness and failing miserably.

He leaned further into Hizashi's chest as sleep came to claim him. But all he could think about was of how lucky he was to have found these two. So, as the last of his energy left him, his throat unlocked and he found his words. He whispered, "Goodnight, dad. Goodnight, papa." and with that, he fell into sweet darkness.

Chapter Text

Izuku woke up the next morning at 10.30, surrounded by Coffee, Cream and Sugar, still feeling partially drained from the day before. He was going to go back to sleep to ward away the tiredness he felt, but that idea was thrown out of the window when he could hear his dads talking.

Now, they weren't talking loudly, but Izuku had a feeling that his quirk may have given him better sight and hearing, akin to an actual bird. He sat up in his bed, accidentally dislodging Sugar from her place on his chest, earning himself a yowl from the cat, and promptly fell onto the floor. Did you know that birds have hollow bones? Because they do; meaning the only way you'd tell he fell, was from hearing a rustle from feathers.

The greenette rolled onto his back with great effort and laid on the floor, looking at the ceiling and contemplating life.

The cats had other plans, apparently.

Cream not-so-gracefully jumped onto his stomach and the other two poked him in the face. Izuku had never had a wake up alarm more persistent than these cats. "Fine. I'm up." he stated, scooping up Cream and gently pushing away Coffee and Sugar before standing up. Coffee, needing attention, jumped onto his desk and leapt into his hood. Following Coffee's example, Sugar jumped onto his desk but instead slunk into Izuku's hoodie pocket. Sighing, he walked out of the room.

His dads were in the kitchen, Zashi making what looked to be tamagoyaki, while Sho simply leaned against a cupboard, both talked in hushed tones. Zashi looked conflicted about something and Sho was frowning slightly as he stepped in. Sho, having more situational awareness than the other, noticed him first. "Hey, kiddo. You sleep well?"

He nodded before deciding that he should probably give a verbal answer as to tell them that he wasn't still mute, "I slept well."

Both brightened at Izuku, happy that he wasn't non-verbal, and the greenette shared the sentiment. "You're speaking again, listener!"

"Yep" he smiled back.

"So, kid..." starts Sho, a sly grin replacing his frown, "which of us is dad and which is papa?"

Izuku turned bright red from embarrassment, as his last memories of the night came flooding back to him and he buried his strawberry-red face into Cream's white fur. "You're dad." came the muffled reply as he motioned to Shota, "And you're papa." he continued, this time motioning to Zashi.

His dad snorted and said, "Nem owes me 500 yen."

"Wah! You bet on that?!" exclaimed Izuku, head shooting up so fast he nearly got whiplash.

He just shrugged in response.

"Zuku, where're the other two gremlins?" asked his other dad.

Sugar's head popped out of his pocket and her tail flicked from the other side, while Coffee transferred from his hood to his neck like a scarf, making them laugh.

"Great timing, you two." Izuku praised, the cats meowing happily in response.

"Are you making tamagoyaki for breakfast?" questioned the kid.

"You guessed it, listener. Why don't you and Sho go set up the table?" he said.

"Oki!" agreed Izuku, quickly placing Cream on the floor and doing as told, Shota already getting out plates.

It was after they breakfast that the two adults sat Izuku down to have a conversation about recent events.

"So, Izuku, we've got to talk to you about some things." Shota spoke from across the table.

"Okay..." came the hesitant reply.

"Chiyo told us about the burn scar you've got, as well as the multiple other scars. Can you tell us where they're from?" he continued.

"Well... th-the burn scar i-is from my fath- Hisashi. And the other scars are from my b-bullies, though some may be Inko."

Shota sighed, "Right. Well, Tsuki is gonna come by so we can sort out arresting the Midoriyas and some other things with Aldera and stuff."

"He should be arriving soon, actually." informed Hizashi from beside Shota. The other two nodded in acknowledgment, before there was a knock at the door to prove the blonde's words.

"That'll be him." his dad stated as he stood to answer the door. He returned moments later followed by Tsukauchi, to which Izuku teleported in front of them with his hand out to shake in greeting.

"Heya, Tsuki!" Izuku beamed, face losing any hint of the conversation before.

"Heya, kid." the detective responded, taking the hand and shaking it, "How've you been?"

"Good! Dad and Papa and Auntie Nem took me shopping." the greenette answered in excitement.

Naomasa's gaze flicked to his friend's face, it was stony but you see the blush creeping up the man's neck. "Is that so? Sounds like fun. I'm assuming Auntie Nem is Nemuri?"

Nodding, Izuku started rambling, "Yep! She's Midnight, but you probably already knew that. She's really cool and fun! Auntie said that when Papa and Dad need to go somewhere, she'd look after me and we could go get ice cream."

Naomasa nodded himself saying, "Yeah, she's a whole lot of fun. She helps me with some of the cases." The detective got a gleam in his eyes as his sight went from Izuku, to Shota, to Hizashi, "So, kid, who's your dad and who's your papa?"

"I'm Papa!" cheered Hizashi, far too happy to have the title.

Shota just groaned, sighed and dragged a hand down his face that muffled his words of acceptance that yes, he was now going to be called Dad, "I'm his dad."

Naomasa snickered at the new teasing material he'd just gained and whispered something that sounded very much like 'Dadzawa', though Shota was sure it wasn't that, because surely his friend would have enough sense to not call him that if he wanted to live.

"Well, it sounds like you had fun." Naomasa turned back to Izuku.

"Yeah. It was great... until the end, that is..." Izuku trailed off, likely remembering the trip's ending.

Naomasa's lips tugged down into a frown, recalling what Shota had told him about and what Nezu had spoken of on Izuku's history. "Why don't we move to sit comfortably? This might be long."

The four moved to the living room, sitting around the coffee table. Tsuki placed his messenger bag beside him and took out some paperwork and a recording device. "Okay, Izuku, would you like to sort out your paperwork first, or your statements?"

Izuku cocked his head in confusion. "Statements? Plural? Aren't I only doing one?"

Tsuki chuckled, "Observant as ever, I see. Well, you're to do one on the discrimination that you were subjected to at your old school, one for the case against your parents, The Blood Pool case, and then for the sludge villain attack that we believe you were subjected to."

"The sludge villain? What do you mean?" his dad's gaze travelled between the two in confusion.

"Izuku, what does he mean?" asked Papa.

The boy hesitated a moment before slumping back in defeat, tilting his head to see only the ceiling, "Bakugou wasn't the first to be attacked. It was me. I only found out about the second attack after a few days, though. I suppose we'd better get the statements over and done with first. We can start with the sludge villain."

The detective nodded in agreement, "I'm obligated to ask you if you're alright with me recording these statements, as well as telling you that my quirk, Lie Detector, will be in use."

The greenette nodded slightly in confirmation and Tsuki placed the recorder on the table and turned it on, "I am Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi of the Musutafu police department, here with Izuku YamaZawa to take his statement on the sludge villain attack. Also present for this statement are pro-heroes Eraserhead and Present Mic.

Alright, YamaZawa, what was your partaking in the attack?"

Izuku's face was worryingly blank and he knew that if this emotionless mask cracked even a tiny bit, he wouldn't be able to get through the statements. He was fully aware that this was a very unhealthy coping mechanism but it was one of the healthiest ones he'd had throughout his life; going numb prevented him from feeling the pain.

"I was the first attack of the day, after the purse snatching that started it all, of course. I was heading back to the apartment after school, a little later than school let out because I was held back by some of my bullies. My situational awareness wasn't at its best as I was dissociating, so I wasn't able to sense the oncoming attack. The sludge villain was upon me, trying to suffocate me to use as a disguise or something of the sort, I couldn't really hear much because my hearing was fuzzy. The villain asked me why I wasn't fighting back and so I asked him why I should."

There was a sharp intake of breath from Hizashi but Izuku pushed onwards, "He asked me if I was suicidal and I thought on it, strained for something that said otherwise, that I didn't indeed want to die. I said yes, after all I truly am- was... I was suicidal, wanted to die, wanted to end the pain and suffering and myself. And he offered to make it as painless as he possibly could and I agreed. I started losing consciousness but just as I blacked out a hero saved me."

He paused for them to digest it all though the silence was broken by Shota as he stated, "Izuku, you're gonna be doing therapy."

Izuku nodded and continued, "I came back to consciousness as All Might was slapping me awa-"

"All Might did what?!"

"He was slapping me awake. Yes, I'm aware that it's far from professional but I guess he didn't want me to die." The greenette chuckled humorlessly, "The one time I get saved is when I don't want to be. How stupid." Not that it mattered anyway, seeing as I died despite that, he thought darkly.

"He'd signed my notebook and was about to take his leave, but I so desperately wanted to ask him something. To know if he would be the hero for me like I believed, or if he was just like everyone else and would try to break me. I grabbed onto his pants as he flew off and he tried to kick me off. I told him I'd die if I let go. He landed on a nearby roof and I asked my question and he answered then left..."

Izuku sat straight and looked at the three with a watery, broken smile and tears streaming down his cheeks, "And I finally broke."

Tsuki cleared his throat and schooled his expression, after all it wouldn't do to be emotional when he had a job to do. "Alright, YamaZawa, I've just got to ask one more thing: did All Might get any medics at all? An ambulance?"

"Not as far as I know."

"Okay, I think we'll end this one here, then." he ended the recording and looked back at the teen who know looked painfully blank once more. "Kid, are you okay? Would you like to take a small break?"

"I'll be fine." Izuku answered.

The detective sighed and shot glances at the two others. Shota looked like he was about to murder someone and honestly, he probably was. Hizashi looked heartbroken and Naomasa couldn't help but think if he'd be alright to sit through all of the statements. "Alright, kid, it's your call." he sighed again and started recording, "YamaZawa, can you please explain to us what happened for the blood pool to occur."

"I fell." was the short answer. Everyone in the room blanched.

"You... fell?"

"Yep." Izuku confirmed, popping the p, "Well I was attacked first and then I fell." To be honest he really wasn't lying. He was actually attacked by the sludge villain and then he was emotionally broken by All Might, and he really did fall, just not accidentally.

"Well, did you see who attacked you?"

"He was blond and looked really fucking American. He attacked me and then left. Oh and my head was injured too."

(Wow, Izuku, you are really just riding on kinda truths there.)

"Was he armed?" questioned Tsuki.

"I mean, he probably could've killed me with his quirk."

Naomasa raised an eyebrow, "You know his quirk?"

"I dunno. Some sort of transformation quirk or something."

"Is that all you remember?"

Izuku nodded, "'S all I can tell you."

Once again, the recorder was turned off and Izuku went to go get a cup of water, leaving the three adults to talk. "Not that I think he'd lie... but is that all true?"

"Sadly, it is. This kid has gone through hell and back."

There was a choked sob from beside Shota and both men turned to Hizashi who buried his face in the crook of his husbands neck, "H-he was suicidal, Sh-Sho. He wanted to die. We c-could've lost h-him."

Shota wrapped his arms around him and rubbed his back to comfort him. By the time Izuku had returned, Hizashi was clutching Sho's hand like a lifeline and looked like he'd cried a lot. "Papa, are you okay?" he asked, rushing to hug him.

Zashi flashed him the best smile he could and said, "I'm fine, Zuku."

Izuku frowned, "But... you were crying."

His Papa carted a hand through his soft, green curls, "It's okay, Izuku. I'm just glad that you're with us and you're safe."

Izuku's lips pressed into a thin line before he sighed and spoke, "Okay. If you say so." His gaze flicked back to Tsuki and he resumed his previous place, "Are doing Aldera or Midoriyas first?"

The detective just shrugged, "I guess we can start with the Midoriyas if you want."

At Izuku's nod Naomasa started the recording device once more and began, "Alright, your biological parents are Inko and Hisashi Midoriya, correct?"

"That's correct."

"We've been told that Hisashi Midoriya has been absent for your life; is this true, and if it is, when did he leave?"

"Hisashi left us after my diagnosis as quirkless. So, when I was about 4 and a half years old."

"Did Hisashi ever hurt you in any way?"

Izuku hesitated. He didn't know why. He knew that that man deserved to be locked up. He knew that, but still...

"...He did." he admitted, "He'd hurt us... a lot. He and Inko would fight, and he'd scream and hit and kick. He'd use his fire breathing to burn us and he'd pull me by my hair and beat me and lock me in the closet. When he drank he was even worse; He would try to strangle whichever of us was the closest, or he'd throw bottles at us. Sometimes Inko would just leave the house for a few days to avoid him. For those days he'd tie me up and hurt me or lock me in the closet without giving me food. But when he found out that I was quirkless... he just lost it." Izuku's hand started tugging at his hair while his other started shaking, "H-he grabbed my wrist so tightly that he nearly broke it and he dragged me outside of my room. He yelled and screamed at me and it hurt so badly and I just wanted it to stop. I looked to my mum and she just stood there indifferently and she just watched. Hisashi started using Fire Breath and it hurt more and more and more, and it burned so much."

His dad's eyes widened in realisation and he whispered, "The burn. The burn Chiyo told us about, that's what you're talking about right now, isn't it?"

"Y-yeah." Izuku mumbled, tilting his head down for his curls to hide his tears, "After that, he left. We never saw him since."

Naomasa looked up from the notes that he was taking, briefly taking in Izuku's state, "Okay, did Inko hurt you as well?"

"Only rarely. Usually she would just ignore me, though when she did, she'd mostly throw knives as me or pull my hair with her quirk. But... one time she got really mad and she... she used her quirk to stop the blood flow to my hand. It was only for like half a minute, though."

Hizashi was seething with anger and Shota looked like he was about to up and go commit murder - he probably was - Naomasa's fists were clenched so tight that his knuckles were white.

"Anyway, she mostly just pretended like I didn't exist. Basically, not giving me food, clothes and stuff. I started doing jobs for people to get money to provide for myself. There was this really nice old lady who paid me a lot for babysitting her quirkless grand-daughter, but she passed away a few months ago; It was really sad. That's basically it..." he ended, staring emptily at the ceiling once again.

"Well... If that's all, then we'll end this one here." the detective clicked off the device again and slumped in his seat with a shaky sigh. "That... is absolutely... horrible. How the fuck can people do things like this?"

Zashi stood abruptly, ghostly pale, "I'm gonna be sick." he stated, rushing to the bathroom.

"I... I don't..." Shota looked lost for words, his usually stoic face scrunched up in a mixture of worry, anger, sadness and a few other emotions. He took a deep breath to steady himself before placing his gaze on the greenette, "Are you... okay?"

Izuku's dull green eyes met Shota's own black ones, "I'll be fine." he plainly stated in a monotone voice that shouldn't be used by his bright problem child.

"But you're not."

Dragging his gaze to the floor, he conceded, "I'm not... but I will be. I want to be."

Shota's lips tugged into grim smile, "Me too, kiddo."

A while later found the group sitting in there places once again, a heavy air ready to suffocate any and all laid over them like a thick, uncomfortable blanket. No one was really over the previous statement, none at all ready for the next that awaited them.

Naomasa cleared his throat, breaking the silence, and began to speak, "This one won't really take long since Nezu's getting video evidence, but we do still need your statement."

"I understand."

The recording device was turned on for one last time and they started, "YamaZawa, how long has the bullying been going on for?"

"The teasing started when I was 4, shortly after that came the actual physical bullying - the teachers turned a blind eye to this - , when I entered primary school the teachers started subtly encouraging the other kids, but by junior high they weren't even hiding it. They'd actively make situations that were against me in the worst ways possible, they'd jeopardise my test scores and write horrible things on my records and the sort. Quirk usage against me started in my fourth year of primary school, the flowers started in junior high, though."

"Flowers?" inquired Naomasa, genuinely confused.

"Red spider lillies, chrysanthemums, a white lily if someone was feeling strangely nice, the like."

"Red... spider lillies..." murmured his Dad, trailing off with a pale face, "They suicide baited you." he finished in a deadly whisper.

"Yeah. Not fun, I'll tell you. 's a shame they died before I got to the apartment, though; the colour would've done me some good in that shitty plain room."

"Kid, don't joke." he snapped, somewhat unnerved by the nonchalance his kid had at being told to kill himself.

"I'm not joking." he muttered back, "They were genuinely pretty and plus, gardening is a good distraction."

"You were told to kill yourself! How are you okay with that?!"

"I'm not. I'm not okay with it. I'm not okay with any of this. My life has been a fucking shit-show and I'm the fucking target. You think I wanted to co- to think about suicide?! You think I wanted to feel this shitty?! I am insecure and self-hating and self-concious and Kami knows what the fuck else!" Izuku, by this point, had stood up and was breathing heavily, tears streaming down his freckled cheeks, "Nobody liked me! I was hated and cast out, abused and neglected, and I hated every fucking thing about it! I wanted it to end so badly! And then Katsuki fucking had to break me like the shitty, egotistical bastard he fucking is and tell me to, and I quote, 'if you really want to be a hero, there actually might be a way. Just pray that you'll be born with a quirk in your next life... and take a swan dive off the roof of a building.' And I was so fed up with everything and everyone and I seriously couldn't find it in myself to care that the sludge would kill me. And fucking All Dick just had to ruin my shitty life all over again. I just got so fed up with it and I ju-"

Izuku's eyes widened as he cut himself off, feeling his throat seize up and fell to his knees, hands brought up to cover his face as he sobbed heavily...silently. He didn't dare continue in fear of revealing what had actually happened after All Might had left, how he actually got his quirk. Izuku didn't know how they'd react if they found out that he'd (tried to?) killed himself.

Naomasa rushed to end the recorder as the other two men quickly teleported to their son's side, followed shortly by Tsuki.

"Shit. I'm sorry, Izuku. I- fuck, I didn't mean to." his Dad apologised, wrapping him in comforting arms.

Hizashi added himself to the hug, "Izuku, baby, are you okay?"

The greenette continued to cry without noise before he lifted shaky hands to sign, 'I can't speak anymore.'

Naomasa turned quizzically to the two husbands, understanding the sign.

"SM disorder." Hizashi answered quietly, to which the detective nods in understanding. The blonde turned back to the winged teen and murmured, "That's okay, Zuku. It's perfectly fine."

The boy hesitated a moment before signing an 'okay'.

Time was lost to them as they stayed there, huddled on the floor around the crying child. Maybe it was an hour, or two, maybe only half an hour, though perhaps it may have been minutes, until Izuku's crying had subsided and sleep had come to claim him. Shota lifted him in his arms and place him gently on the sofa, teartracks and freckles plainly visible on his now serene looking face.

The cats quickly scampered to gather around him, providing warmth, comfort and a ways to ground himself if need be, while the adults moved to the kitchen to make lunch and talk before they needed to fix up Izuku's paperwork.

Izuku was awoken from his nap by a hand carding through his curls and a soft voice coaxing him to wake up. He blinked up blearily to see his Papa smiling at him. He untucked his arms from the blanket that had been draped over him and made grabby hands at the man who happily scooped him up into a hug.

Like that action had been a key, the lock on Izuku's voice box clicked open and his words formed on his tongue, ready to be spoken, to which he did, "Hey, Papa." he whispered.

"Hey, baby bean." his Papa whispered back, "We got lunch. How do ya feel about fried rice?"

The greenette hummed thoughtfully then responded quietly, "I think that fried rice sounds great, ya dig?"

Hizashi chuckled, "Yeah listener, I dig." He hoisted up the kid so he could latch onto his front akin to a koala, and walked to the kitchen.

"Sho, look... I don't know how to break this to you, but I'm clearly the favourite dad." Hizashi stated, motioning to the greenette in his arms.

"I see that someone has replaced our little birdy with a koala." his husband noted, "also, I'm clearly the favourite dad."

Izuku snickered, "Sorry but dad's right, Papa, you're not my favourite dad. Dad is my favourite dad."

Hizashi narrowed his eyes at his son's betrayal as both Shota and Naomasa started laughing like madmen, "Kiddo, there better be a 'but' in the next things you say or I'm gonna drop you." he warned.

"But you are my favourite papa." the greenette continued, joining in with the laughter, shortly followed by a few chuckles from Zashi.

"Nearly gave me a heart attack, listener. Thought you didn't love me anymore." he wailed dramatically.

The kid nuzzled back into his blonde dad's warmth before saying, "I love you, Papa."

"Awe~ love you too my little listener."

"Alright, c'mon let's eat. We still gotta do paperwork." reminded Tsuki.

"Oh! Tsuki! Can I please ask you about your quirk?" asked Izuku excitedly, teleporting to the man's side.

"Sure, kiddo. Ask away." he answered taking his seat at the table, followed shortly by Hizashi and Shota.

Izuku took his place as well and started rapid-firing questions while the other two watched on in interest as their kid dissected the other's quirk. It was interesting seeing Emerald's work in real life and they could all see exactly why Nezu had taken interest in the boy. Lunch continued like this until everyone had finished and Izuku had dissolved into indecipherable mutterings that were going at lightning speed.

Once they'd finished cleaning up they got to work on filling out Izuku's paperwork until they came to the last one: quirk registry.

"So, Izuku, what are you naming your quirk?" asked his dad.

Izuku hummed in contemplation before answering, "Second Chance Wings."

Shota raises an eyebrow, presumably at the 'second chance' part that came out of seemingly nowhere, not that Izuku could blame him seeing as they didn't know about what he'd done. The boy just shrugged and with one more suspicious glance, Shota stopped it.

In the end, they'd put that Izuku's quirk, now called Second Chance Wings, gave him his wings with a fire aspect to boot with the chance that other aspects may also show up later on. Naomasa also ended up crashing at their place on the couch after they'd watched the pre-quirk Spiderman Into The Spider-verse trilogy and they all just swamped the living room with pillows and blankets to sleep.

Chapter Text

Tuesday is nearing the end and with it the close of the fourth day since Deku's missing report was filed. The hag and old man were getting antsy the longer Deku wasn't found and Katsuki was fucking irritated about it. What was so important about stupid, quirkless Deku?

And then yesterday, some shitty losers show up to fucking school spreading rumors that Deku has a stupid wing quirk. Deku was fucking missing, not that Katsuki cared, but Auntie was probably worried sick that Deku was gone. The loser probably died in a ditch like the scum he is. Ha!

It was the end of school and Katsuki was making his way home. He stopped right in his tracks when he spotted the Midoriya household surrounded by police personnel, some were taping off the place while others talked to neighbours or into their hand-held radios (I was very tempted to write walkie talkies).

Curious, and somewhat worried for Auntie, he stomped up to an officer, tapping his shoulder to get his attention, and as the man turned he spoke, "What happened here?"

The officer raised an eyebrow before turning the idea of telling the kid over in his mind a few times, "Sorry, kid, can't tell you." And with that the man turned back around to resume his prior conversation.

Katsuki turned and ran to his house, eager to tell the hag and old man, but as soon as he entered the house he was met with the sight of his parents sitting across from a plain-looking man on the couches. He approached cautiously, unsure of what to do, ultimately a bumped over shoe was enough for the plain-looking guy's situational awareness to kick in as his gaze snapped to him.

The man's posture tightened, his demeanor changing entirely as his face soured. If looks could kill, Katsuki would be more than six feet in the ground. Katsuki immediately felt like a scolded child even if he knew that anything he did at school never reached home's ears, the teachers made sure of it.

"Brat, this is detective Tsukauchi, he's the man that we went to to file Izuku's missing status, remember?" the hag spoke, also turning to him, along with his old man.

Oh, that's why he seemed familiar. 1000 yen said that him being here had something to do with the Midoriyas. "Tch, yeah, I remember." Katsuki said, then turned to the detective, "Why the fuck are you here?"

"Well, I want to be here to arrest you, but I can't because I've made a promise. Instead, I'm here to ask you about Inko Midoriya, tell you that we've found Izuku, and inform you of your punishments." as the detective listed them off, Katsuki could feel the colour draining from his face, leaving him concerningly pale.

"I'm not sure I understand, detective." the old man looked at said detective with a questioning gaze.

"I think it would be best if your son sat down for this." suggested Tsukauchi, though he made it sound more of a command. Katsuki hesitantly took the seat between his parents before the man spoke up again, "Firstly, I'd like to inform you that we have found Izuku-"

"Why do you keep referring to him by his first name? Why aren't you calling him 'Midoriya'?" Mitsuki cut in.

"Because he isn't a Midoriya anymore." he responded plainly.

The blonde woman looked at him like he'd grown a second head, "What?!"

"As I was saying, he was found on Saturday night."

"Why isn't he with us? We're supposed to take him in if his parents couldn't take care of him anymore." Masaru inquired calmly, a nice contrast to the two blondes.

"Well, there are a few reasons why he isn't in your custody. The main reason is because he'd be living under the same roof as his main bully. Secondly, two pro heroes that Izuku knew were happy to take him in. Another being that since he's Nezu's personal student, he got the choice of being a UA ward, which he gladly took." he explained.

"Katsuki isn't a fucking bul-!"

"Yes, he is ma'am. We'll get to that later. Meanwhile, feel free to ask any questions about Izuku and where he is, though you must understand that I may not be allowed to answer some questions." he quickly countered, cutting off the woman.

"Are we allowed to see him?"

Tsukauchi turned to face Masaru, "That is up to Izuku unless we find that you might bring him harm. Although your son is not allowed to go see him whatsoever."

"Who is Izu-kun staying with now?" Mitsuki queried, seemingly having reigned in her temper.

"He's been adopted by the Yamazawas." he answered.

"I ain't ever heard of those fucking heroes." scoffed Katsuki, "Must be some low rate fuckers that got stuck with stupid deku."

Okay, maybe Naomasa was a little petty and annoyed with this brat when he answered, "Izuku was adopted by pro heroes Present Mic and Eraserhead. Furthermore, he's Nezu's personal student, as I stated previously. Not to mention that his aunt is pro hero Midnight."

Internally, Naomasa was extremely smug at the Bakugous' shocked and amazed expressions. Externally, he was indifferent. He contemplated if he should speak his next words and concluded that there probably won't be any negative backlash. "Also, I'd rather you stop talking about him like he's a piece of trash. Izuku is a brilliant person and far from stupid or useless. In fact, he's made a really big name in the analyst, police and heroics department as Emerald and Jade respectively."

"Isn't Emerald that new famous analyst that the news has been talking about?" Masaru was the first to break out of his surprise.

"Indeed. Heck, the kid makes way more than I do and he's not even half my age. Not to mention the amount of heroes he knows now." he chuckled, "More than three quarters of Japan's heroes would die for the skills he has. And his wait line is really long. Actually, I probably should bring that up with Sho and Zashi to make sure he's not overworking himself." the last part mumbled to himself, though heard clearly by the other's in the room. He looked back at the family before also smugly telling them about the greenette's other persona, "Jade is an online vigilante. Basically just a fancy term for hacker. He hacks into police files to solve cases and hero comms to help guide heroes."

"I- isn't that illegal?" stuttered Masaru, to which the detective shrugged.

"He helps more than he hurts."

Katsuki was next to break out of his stupor, "Some shitty extras at school said that deku had a quirk; that's not true, is it?"

"Sorry, can't tell you." he responded, absolutely not sorry.

"What the fuck do you mean?!" the boy yelled, jumping to his feet, palms crackling.

"You're already on thin ice, Bakugou. I suggest heavily against doing anything rash that you'll regret later." Naomasa warned pointedly.

"Speaking of which, why exactly is Katsuki in trouble?" asked said boy's father.

"Illegal quirk usage, assault, quirk discrimination, theft, abuse, harassment, need I continue?" Tsukauchi listed off. He took in the shaken family and felt a little guilty about the boy's parents.

"Did... did he hurt Izuku?" Mitsuki seemed to have lost her previous spark.

He shot her a sad smile, "I'm sorry to inform you that Izuku was Katsuki's main victim."

The woman slumped in her seat looking absolutely broken and lost. "I can't believe it." she whispered, "I knew that there'd been a falling out, but I hadn't thought it was this bad."

Masaru shot a dissapointed glare at his son before turning back to the man opposite him, "I'm sure that the police are doing something, right? I mean, Katsuki isn't going scott free with this."

Said man sighed warily before speaking, "Yes, Katsuki is getting punishment for his actions. Although, Izuku has persisted that I water down his consequences. Regrettably, I am obligated to follow his wishes to an extent as he was the victim and has a great say in what happens to his abuser. If it weren't for that, your son would be in jail right now for the aforementioned charges."

The blonde teen scoffed, evidently skeptical of the detective's words as if the kid were above the law, unaware of the storm coming his way, "What are you gonna fucking do? Send me to my room and ground me?"

"No." the man simply said, before continuing onto what would inevitably put the boy in his place, "Instead, you are to attend mandatory anger management and therapy, you'll be wearing quirk cancelling cuffs, will be under close surveillance, you'll be black listed from any hero course bar UA, your actions will also be put on record, and if you do manage to get into UA any wrongdoing will be a strike, three strikes and you'll be expelled or transferred."

"Y-you can't fucking do this!!" the boy yelled his aggressive protest, jumping to his feet once again and setting off small explosions.

"Trust me, I can." Naomasa chuckled darkly, "I would do so much worse for what you've done to Izuku. Alas, the kid has puppy eyes that could take over the world.

"That aside, I've got a few questions about Inko Midoriya that I'd like to ask you." he continued.

The family, too shook to protest, just stared dumbly at his transition from dark humor to bright as the sun. Inwardly Naomasa cackled, he knew full well that it truly disoriented the criminals that he interviewed.

"First, I'm obligated to tell you that Inko is going to be arrested as soon as we find her, given that she is currently on the run from the law. Now, have you any idea to where she'd go?" he questioned.

"She might've run away to be with that husband of hers, Hisashi Midoriya." offered Masaru.

Mitsuki scoffed, "She's smitten by the man. Absolutely head over heals. It's a surprise that she stayed with Izuku instead of going off with him. He was such a shit person though."

Naomasa couldn't help but boggle over Inko's love for her abuser. Surely this woman couldn't be so loving towards a man who hurt her. It truly put masochists to shame.

He checked his watch and sighed heavily at the time. He was supposed to finish this half an hour ago and Sansa would get on him for leaving him alone to face the rush hour of criminal activity.

"I apologise, but must now take my leave. Thank you for your time and hospitality, and I wish you the best of luck." he stated, bowing to the family before making his way out and to his car.

He could only hope that the youngest Bakugou had the sense to do as told so he could preserve his future.

And hope that Sansa would accept doughnuts as a viable apology.

Chapter Text

Izuku was sitting on a nearby roof, overlooking the police knock at his old house. The empty shell of a home it once was, filled with laughter and smiles and hugs and affection that knew no bounds. He saw the officers realise that Inko wasn't there and that the home was empty.

And...

It hit him.

It hit him like a truck.

Izuku knew that he'd been oddly calm about this all, about this last month. He knew that when he woke up that night he didn't cry. Not the day that followed or the day after that.

But seeing the police there, taping off that house just made it so... so real.

He didn't know he was crying until the front of his shirt was too damp to go unnoticed. Izuku tried to blink away the tears, but they wouldn't stop flowing. Wouldn't stop cascading down his freckled cheeks.

His breaths were coming in shaky and uneven and too short for Izuku's preference as sobs wracked his tiny frame.

It hit him that he'd tried to kill himself.

It hit him that he'd gotten a quirk.

It hit him that he'd gotten away from Inko.

It hit him that he'd gotten away from his bullies. From Bakugou.

It made him overwhelmed and sad and happy and... and he wanted it to stop. To stop hitting him because he didn't like the thoughts. He didn't like the realisations. Because holy fuck! Izuku had tried to kill himself.

He didn't register the red flash that appeared in his view. Izuku was quickly spiralling into a panic attack and his vision was blurred. He did, however, register the distant voice speaking.

"Hey, kid." it spoke softly. Izuku found it amusing that the voice was speaking like it was approaching a scared, wild animal, at least until he realised that it was talking to him. The voice continued, "Hey, little birdie, are you okay?"

Izuku actually laughed this time, hand tugging on green curls. It was a strained, watery, raw thing that sounded quite unhinged. No, he was not okay. Far from it, actually. "N-no." he choked out. He found it quite surprising that his throat hadn't locked up on him.

"That's fine. It's okay to not be okay." the voice comforted, "Is it alright if I come closer?"

Viridian curls bobbed up and down, slowly and hesitantly as he nodded his assent. The red came closer. It was obnoxiously bright and reminded him of a lot of things. It reminded him of the spider lillies and the roses that he once saw a guy proposing to his girlfriend with, reminded him of a painting that the little girl he used to babysit painted for him, reminded him of the red that his dad's eyes glowed when he used his quirk, reminded him of his Phoenix aspect, reminded him of red sunsets on a beach filled with trash.

It didn't remind him of Hisashi's flames, or blood, or red shoes that signified a person's suffering, or red eyes that used to look at him with fondness that turned to hate as he was hurt and beaten and abused.

He could make out a figure now. They looked young and had blonde hair and red wings that were folded against their back. They crouched down in front of him, meeting his dimmed green gaze.

A kind smile graced their face as they waved a bit to Izuku in greeting, "Heya, little bird, my name is Hawks. Would you like some help or some company?"

Izuku just nodded. He wasn't sure if it was to acknowledge one of his favorite heroes, or to the help, or the company, or even all three. He just nodded.

The older bird sat cross legged in front of him and pulled out one of those plastic waterbottles that you grab from vending machines and held it out in offering. The greenette, who had calmed down immensely, gave a watery smile and took the bottle before opening it and sipping.

"Thank you." he whispered.

"No problem, little bird. Speaking of which, can I get a name? I can't keep calling you 'little bird'." the older chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yamazawa. Izuku Yamazawa." he stated, "But you can call me Izuku."

"Nice meeting you, Izuku." Hawks smiled brightly, "In that case, feel free to call me Keigo."

Izuku, slipping a bit into his Emerald persona, recalled all the information he could on the pro, "Hero name: Hawks, Real name: Keigo Takami. Bought and raised by the HPSC in a program that basically turned children into soldiers, the same program that Lady Nagant was in. Publically, you are 23 years old but you're actually 18, turning 19 in two months."

Keigo stared dumb-foundedly at the kid infront of him in both fear and amazement. "H-how do you know a-all that?"

"Oh sorry, I keep forgetting that people who know my other personas don't know the actual me." the kid looked sheepish, "Hi, I'm Izuku Yamazawa, though I also go by Emerald the analyst or Jade the hacker vigilante."

"Holy sweet mother of chicken wings." whispered the pro.

Izuku perked up at this, "It's nearly lunch time; can we go get KFC?"

Keigo seemed to snap out of his shock, instead brightening up at the prospect of KFC. "Sure. I have the rest of the day off and I'm really hungry. Those wings work, right?"

The greenette nodded, grinning, and stretched out his wings, "Of course! These beauties aren't just for show."

"Wow, Izuku, those are really big wings." the blonde marveled, stretching out his own red wings that were smaller, if only by a little.

"So are your's." he replied.

Keigo grinned and took off into the air, followed closely by the younger. The two flew side by side, course only altered by some tricks, until they reached a KFC. They landed in front of it, shocking a few people, and walked inside. They sat at a table and chatted animatedly.

"I like you, birdie." Keigo suddenly stated.

"H-huh?" Izuku's rambling was cut off.

"I've decided that I'm gonna be your older brother." the older continued.

"O-okay?" it sounded more of a question than an answer, but Keigo seemed extremely happy, though suddenly the hero came to a realisation,

"Speaking of, who are your parents?"

"Oh, you might know them as Eraserhead and Present Mic."

"Your dads are Present Mic and Eraserhead?! That's so cool!" Keigo was bordering on fanboying as he spoke excitedly, "Wait! Does that mean that they're technically my dad's too?"

Izuku shrugged. He really didn't have an answer to that. "I can call Dad and ask him."

"Who's who?"

"Dad is Eraserhead, aka Shouta, and Papa is Present Mic, aka Hizashi."

"Oh, okay."

The greenette nodded and pulled out his phone, dialing his dad before connecting it to his earphones and handing one to Keigo who put it in his ear, Izuku doing the same. His dad picked up before the third ring.

"Izuku?" his dad questioned.

"Hi, dad! How's school?" Izuku greeted.

"Horrible. I should've just stayed at home with that leave Nezu gave me. These hellions are seriously trying to get themselves killed."

"What did they do?"

"Try a broken rib, fractured elbow and multiple bruises." Shota deadpanned.

Both greenette and blonde winced at the injuries. "Are you in class right now?"

"Yes." the man confirmed, "The class is listening in, by the way. I'll have to work on their subtleness."

"Dad, you are literally the best underground pro there is; Of course it'd be child's play to notice them listening in."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm flattered, problem child." Izuku could just see his dad rolling his eyes through the phone, "Anyway, why did you call me?"

"Oh, well, I just wanted to say that Hawks has now adopted me as his little brother and he was asking if that would also technically make you and Papa his dads as well."

He heard the man sigh before he spoke, "Is he listening in right now?"

Izuku glanced at Keigo, silently encouraging him to speak up.

"Hi, I'm Hawks, or well... Keigo Takami. Yeah... I've been listening." he confirmed awkwardly.

"Welcome to the family, I guess. I genuinely think that you'll be Izuku's brother regardless of what me and Zashi say so you might as well get the whole family."

"Wow, you are... taking this easier than I thought you would."

"Expect the unexpected." Shota said in a somewhat mysterious tone, "Just come home by 5.30pm and don't do anything too stupid or illegal. Burning Endeavour's agency is fine as long as you don't get caught."

"Dad! Isn't your class listening in?" Izuku yelped.

"It's fine, they have no proof. Also, are you gonna come to school tomorrow?"

"Yeah, probably. Sitting around and doing nothing is boring."

"Okay, well, Zashi and I have to go early for a meeting so you won't be able to go with us. Keigo, are you free tomorrow morning?"

Keigo pondered it for a moment before nodding his head, "Yeah, I'm free."

"Great, first big brother duty is to take Zuku to school."

"Okay!"

"Well, I've got to go; class is ending. Bye."

"Bye, dad." Izuku said cheerily.

"See ya!" Keigo spoke.

The call ended and Izuku was hit by a sudden realisation.

"Kei-nii, we totally forgot to order food."

"Oh, yeah. Also, cute nickname. I love it, Zuku."

Izuku blushed and hid his face in his hands as a waitress came up to them, "Hi, you've been here a while but you haven't gotten anything to eat. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, sorry. We just got lost in our conversation." Keigo apologised sheepishly.

"Oh, that's fine! Can I get you anything, then?"

"Zuzu, what do you want?"

"I dunno, chicken nuggets?"

"You suggested that we come here, how do you not know what to get?"

Izuku pouted at his brother, "Fine. Chicken nuggets and fries, I guess, please."

"And could I please have some chicken wings?" added Keigo.

"I-isn't that cannabalism?" asked the shocked waitress.

"Nope! Well... Yes. Birds like hawks, falcons, owls and eagles eat other birds. As you can clearly see, he's a hawk. Whereas I'm not really any specific type of bird." informed the greenette.

"Oh, okay. Wait, is Hawks your dad?" her out-of-the-blue question flustered Izuku and made Keigo cackle.

"N-no!" the smaller squeaked, "Kei-nii is my brother."

"Ah, sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass you. Sometimes my mouth talks without thinking." she apologised quickly, face flushing in embarrassment.

"It's fine." chuckled Keigo.

"Right, I'll just go now." she bowed to the two and dashed off.

The two ate, paid and left, once again takibg off into the sky.

"So, where do you go to school?" his brother asked.

"Well, I'm technically homeschooled, but I sit in with dad's 2nd years." answered Izuku.

"You don't go to a normal school?"

"No. Bad experience." he said, "I think it's only fair that we exchange tragic back stories if we're gonna be family, hey?"

"I guess... You gonna start?"

"Sure." Izuku shrugged, then proceeded to retell the nightmare that used to be his life. Not even half way through the story, Izuku had had to restrain his brother from going to murder at least a dozen people multiple times. It ended with both birds on a roof, hugging and crying. One cried from memories, and the other cried for the smaller.

They calmed down and settled on the edge of the roof. It was a nice view, sun setting in a clear, orange sky. Izuku's brother sighed heavily from beside him, not looking away from the mesmerizing sunset, "'s my turn, isn't it?"

The greenette nodded, popping the p as he said, "Yep."

Unnoticed by the red winged hero, Izuku clicked on a recording device in his pocket. Of course he knew that the Commission was corrupt and cruel, he just needed evidence to prove it to others.

And so Izuku listened to Keigo as he recounted being bought from his mother and raised by the HPSC. The brutal 'training' he had to endure everyday and the cruel missions they'd sent him on, making him kill countless people. Izuku had felt sick when Keigo told him about a time when the Commission had made him kill a five year old girl. In the end, he hadn't been able to do it and got bullet wound in his shoulder when he tried to protect the girl.

The sky was dark and the wind was biting at their skin, though neither of them payed any mind to it as they cried for each other while they hugged. "I'm sorry you h-had to go through th-that." sniffled Izuku, slightly pulling away.

"It's fine. Neither of us was at fault. Not for any of the shit that's happened to us." he chuckled, a bit watery.

"Do you want to go home now?" Izuku asked.

Nodding, Keigo agreed and stood up, gently pulling Izuku up as well. And if they held hands as they flew, it was because they're brothers.

-

It was 10 minutes past 5.30 and the problem children still weren't home. Shota wanted to trust them, but it was extremely hard when Izuku was a trouble magnet, not that it was Izuku's fault.

"Sho." Zashi's head poked out of the kitchen and Shota lifted his head from the papers he was marking, "When were they supposed to be home?"

"Ten minutes a-"

He was cut off by a thud and a yelp, followed by keys jangling. "We're home!" came Izuku's voice, and both parents dashed to the opening door.

They were met with the sight of Izuku and Haw- Keigo, feathers ruffled and some bent the wrong way, wind-tousled hair and bright smiles. Both glanced at each other as soon as they registered the obvious tear tracks, faded though they might be.

Shota sighed as he looked between the two of them, "Why are you late?"

"Well we were-"

Izuku was cut off by a disgruntled Keigo, "We were attacked."

"You were attacked?!" Hizashi was quick to worry.

"By pigeons." added the greenette as the other just nodded along solemnly.

The older shuddered, "It was horrible."

Shota stifled a laugh as his husband sighed a breath of relief. He shook his head fondly at their antics. "How do you get into these things?" he asked in amused exasperation.

"It was his fault." Izuku blamed, pointing to his older brother.

Said older brother turned to the younger with a scandalised look, "It was your fault!"

Izuku stood unfazed, "Dads, it was Kei-nii's fault. All him."

The blonde's gaze snapped to the two adults, "It wasn't my fault, I swear. Those pigeons, they have a mind of their own."

Shota really did laugh this time, followed closely by Hizashi who bent over in laughter. It was safe to say that Keigo would be a great addition to the family.

"Come on, listeners, time for dinner." Hizashi spoke, managing to even his breathing as he turned to walk to the table.

Izuku grabbed Keigo's hand and quickly dragged him inside, clearly eager to get some food in his system. Shota chuckled and closed the door, before following his family. And he couldn't help but think of how lucky he was to have this family.

Dinner was filled with excited chatter of the day, with Izuku animatedly recounting the moment that the waitress thought Keigo was his father, and Hizashi telling them about a kid who mangled English so much that Hizashi ended up laughing on the floor at what the boy had accidentally said.

Nearing the end of the meal, Cream had jumped onto Keigo's lap and promptly fell asleep, leaving the blonde in silent shock. Izuku finally took pity on the lost look on the boy's face and scooped up the cat, depositing her onto the couch.

Afterwards, they got dressed for the night after convincing Keigo to stay over and Izuku shoved some of his over-sized clothes into the boy's arms. Keigo had laughed when he saw that 'Birb Shirt' was written on the shirt. Izuku matched him with his own shirt saying 'Birb Pants', at which his brother fell on the floor, gasping for air as he cackled.

They'd settled for having a movie night as none of the heroes had patrol. Let's just say that the brothers found it hard to choose between Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. Honestly, the knowledge of pre-quirk things in this home is kind of concerning, considering how much of the pre-quirk era was lost in the quirk wars.

The family fell asleep on the third Harry Potter movie, surrounded by blankets, pillows and the cats, all thinking of how happy they were.

And if Keigo called them his dads, well sleep had a way of doing that. It's not like anyone corrected him.

Chapter Text

Keigo poked his little brother in hopes to wake him, "Zuku, wake up. You gotta get to school."

Said little brother, eyes still closed, just whined, "Go away, Kei-nii. I don't have school. I'm homeschooled, remember?"

Keigo rolled his eyes, "You still have to go to UA."

"Oh shoot! You're right!" Izuku shot up from his place on the couch, dislodging the sleeping ball of fur on his stomach. "Sorry, Sugar." he squeaked out at the sight of Sugar glaring daggers at him.

His brother just laughed, going to fix up the sofas and floor after Izuku hugged him and mumbled a still tired "good morning."

"Morning, Zuku. Now go get ready. I don't want dad getting mad at me for you being late."

"Pfft. Your baby face wouldn't let him get mad at you." laughed the greenette who'd crouched down to pet Coffee.

"Wah! I don't have a baby face!" exclaimed the older.

"Sure you don't, Kei-nii. Sure~." Izuku chuckled sarcastically.

The blonde just huffed in response and nudged the boy off balance with his foot before speaking, "Go get ready, you gremlin. We'll stop by that cafe of your's to pick up some breakfast."

Izuku squealed excitedly at the prospect of going to the cafe and seeing Kana-san again as he rushed to his room to get dressed and get his stuff.

Keigo waited at the door for Izuku to get his shoes on, texting Rumi as he did so.

/Floof Bunny/

Floof Bunny: Change my fucking name, you idiot pigeon

Idiot Pigeon: Change mine, then

Floof Bunny: Hah! No way

Floof Bunny: Yo, Kei

Floof Bunny: Whatcha doin

Idiot Pigeon: Waiting for my lil bro so I can drop him off to school

Floof Bunny: You have a brother!?!

Floof Bunny: Why didn't I know about this?!

Idiot Pigeon: 😏 secrets😏

Floof Bunny: U r such an idiot pigeon 😒

Idiot Pigeon: But I'm your idiot pigeon

Floof Bunny: You wanna go?!

Idiot Pigeon: Sure, bunny

Floof Bunny: Fuck off

Idiot Pigeon: Lol

Idiot Pigeon: But u love me

Floof Bunny: 😒 But I love u

Idiot Pigeon: I srry. Did I see that properly??

Idiot Pigeon: Did the great Rumi say she loves me??

Floof Bunny: Yes, u idiot pigeon

Floof Bunny: Love you ❤

Idiot Pigeon: Love you too, bunny babe😘

-

"Kei-nii, who ya textin'?" Izuku's voice beside him startled Keigo, making him yelp in surprise and drop his phone. Lucky for his phone, Izuku had really good reflexes.

"Holy shit, Izu. Scared the shit out of me." exclaimed Keigo.

"Sure, idiot pigeon." smirked the greenette, "By the way, I thought you hated pigeons."

"Yeah, well-" he started, before realising what Izuku had called him, "Hey! Don't call me idiot pigeon!"

"Why? Is it reserved for your girlfriend?" the little green menace teased, though the blonde just blushed deeply, "Holy shit, it is!! Who is it? Who is it? Spill the tea!"

The older bird sighed, accepting his fate as he told his brother, "Rumi Usagiyama."

"Oh my god! You're dating Mirko?!" the greenette exclaimed.

"Yes. Now let's go." Keigo conceded as he opened the door and stepped out. Izuku followed him out and closed the door behind him before jumping over the railings and falling from the 3rd floor, only to shoot up with a flap of his wings. His brother rolled his eyes at his antics, but followed him regardless, even if a bit less dramatic.

As they flew, Izuku asked his older brother questions about his girlfriend, to which Keigo answered, only leaving some unanswered. After a while, Izuku stopped the questions and started typing rapidly on his phone.

/Mirko/

Jade/Emerald: Heya, Mirko!

Jade/Emerald changed their name to Izuku

Izuku: So, I just found out that you're dating my big brother

Mirko: Pardon? Are you sure u have the right number?

Izuku: Srry. I'm Izuku Yamazawa and I'm Keigo's little brother

Mirko: Pigeon's brother is Jade and Emerald?!

Izuku: Yep

Mirko: Cool

Mirko changed their name to Rumi

Rumi: I thought Kei's last name was Takami

Izuku: It's a long story

Rumi: Oki

Izuku: Btw, since you're Kei-nii's gf, I thought that you'd appreciate a free detailed analysis

Rumi: Thank you!!

Rumi: Tell pigeon I said hi

Izuku: Will do

Izuku: Bye

Rumi: See ya
-

"Your girlfriend is nice, Kei-nii." Izuku commented, tucking away his phone, "She says hi, by the way.

"I know." replied Keigo, voice kind of dreamy.

"Awww~ Is my brother love struck??" teased the younger.

The blonde turned bright red from the comment. "Sh-shut up."

Izuku just cackled as he flew down to the cafe, Keigo trailing behind. They entered and were greeted by Kanna-san.

"Hi, Kanna-san!" Izuku waved to the old lady, "Did you get my texts?"

She rounded the counter and pulled the greenette into a hug that was easily reciprocated by the smaller. "Izuku-kun! I was so worried about you when you didn't show up for work!" she exclaimed, now looking the boy over for anything wrong before continuing, "And then I get your messages about what happened and I've been waiting to see you since!"

"I'm sorry, Kanna-san." he apologised.

"Oh, it's fine." Kanna-san waved off, before calling out into the kitchen, "Ikari-kun! Izuku-kun is here!"

Pink hair teleported next to the woman as Sasuke gave a bright smile to Izuku, "Hi, Izuku-kun."

"Oh my Kami! Sasuke-kun!" Izuku spoke excitedly, happy to see the pinkette, "You got hired! Good on you! And I can already see that it's doing you good."

Sasuke chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah. Thanks, Izuku-kun."

"No problem." the greenette laughed then turned to his brother, "Kei-nii, these are Kanna Takahashi and Sasuke Ikari. Kanna-san, Ikari-kun, this is my older brother, Keigo."

Keigo bowed to the two before speaking, "Hello. It's nice to meet you. Thank you for taking care of my little brother."

There was chuckling from Kanna-san as she motioned for him to straighten and waved him off, "Oh, it's no problem. Izuku-kun is a dear."

"Yeah, Izuku-kun is great!" beamed Sasuke.

The youngest smiled at the praise."Thanks, you two."

"Now, dearie, what can we help you with?" questioned Kanna-san.

"We just need some food and drinks for breakfast real quick because I gotta get to school." he answered.

Sasuke and Kanna-san went back behind the counter and Kanna-san spoke, "What are you getting?"

"Can I please have two of the red bean taiyaki and tea, and coffee and cream puffs for Dad, oh and a slice of carrot cake for Papa?" asked Izuku, fishing out his wallet.

Keigo snatched the wallet from his hands and stored it back in his bag, before pulling out his own and speaking, "And I'd like a melonpan and coffee too, please."

Sasuke made the drinks in no time, while Kanna-san quickly put the food in paper bags, put the bags in a bigger bag and handed it off. "Alrighty, that'll be 1760 yen."

The blonde pulled out his card and payed, before taking the drinks from the pink haired boy.

"Thank you. See you on Saturday." Izuku thanked the two as they left the cafe, and once more, they were in the air.

"So, Kei-nii." Izuku started, continuing when his brother nodded in acknowledgment, "Are you gonna tell Papa and Dad about your girlfriend?"

Keigo shrugged and bit into his melonpan. "Dunno. Probably will, though."

"You don't have to, if you don't want to." he reminded, "I mean, I get that you're part of the family and all... but that doesn't mean you have to automatically trust us and stuff. We don't want you to be uncomfortable, ya know? I'm not really sure how to say it."

His brother chuckled, "It's fine, Izu. Promise. I'm really happy to be with you guys. You're all already more family than I've ever had. I'm happy with you guys and Rumi."

The greenette hesitated for a fraction of a second, before he flashed the older a bright smile, "If you say so."

Keigo twirled in the air as he spoke again, "What about you, greenie? Any girls you like?"

Izuku stopped dead in his tracks and faced his brother with the most deadpan expression, "Dude, I am gay as fuck."

"Nice. So, any boys you like?" continued Keigo, evidently unfazed.

Resuming his flying, Izuku answered, "No. All the guys I knew were absolute dicks to me. Actually, everyone was. But that's beyond the point."

He watched as the blonde winced, "Sorry, Zuku."

"Not your fault. Oh, look! It's UA!" he exclaimed and sped up, followed by his brother. They found their dad's classroom and flew closer, tapping on the window as they got there. They watched as their dad rolled his eyes and huffed in exasperation as the class startled. Eventually, one of the kids opened the window and Izuku and Keigo entered the room.

Izuku immediately rushed to hug his dad, placing down his bag on the floor. "Dad! Good morning."

His dad smiled and hugged him back, patting his soft curls as he did so. "Hey, Zuku." he greeted back, before lifting his gaze to Keigo, "Morning, kid. Little gremlin didn't give you any trouble, did he?"

Keigo laughed while he approached. "Nah. Although he did take a while to wake up." he said, handing over coffee to his dad, "We got you coffee and cream puffs."

The greenette pulled away a bit to face his brother and poked out his tongue. Suddenly, like a switch had been flipped, Izuku's expression brightened as he turned to fully face Keigo. "Kei-nii! Kei-nii! Can I tell dad?" he asked.

Keigo turned bright red as he realised what the younger was referring to. Their dad just narrowed his eyes, halfway through a sip of his coffee. "Tell me what?"

The older bird groaned in resignation as he buried his face in his hands, muffling his next word. "Fine." he sighed.

Izuku turned to his dad with a smile and said, "Dad! Did you know that Kei-nii has a girlfriend?"

"Really?" he asked before turning to the blushing boy, "You'll have to bring her over for dinner then."

"R-right." Keigo stuttered while he shuffled to the window, "Well, I gotta get ready for my patrol. See ya!"

He fell out of the window with a yelp and it was quiet before they heard a faint Shout of "I'm okay!" as he shot up.

There was a collective silence across the room as the students processed what had just happened while the father-son duo played scissors, paper, rock.

"Uh... Sensei? What... just happened?" asked a boy from the back of the class with palr green skin and mint scales on his arms and cheeks.

"That was my eldest dropping off my youngest." the man responded plainly.

"Lil' Yamazawa, I thought you were an only child." Izuku's gaze was pulled to periwinkle-haired girl.

"Nejire-senpai! Hello." he greeted, "And no. That's my older brother, Keigo."

Suddenly, the class erupted into chaos as the students finished processing what had occurred.

"Sensei, you have kids?"

"Wouldn't that mean that you're with someone?"

"Was that Hawks!?"

"I thought he was like 23, though."

"Hawks has a girlfriend?!"

The room instantly quieted as their teacher gave them a quirk-assisted glare. "Quiet!" He turned to Izuku and spoke, "Introduce yourself."

The greenette nodded, before turning to face the class who was now waiting in anticipation. He bowed and smiled to the students, before speaking, "Hello! My name is Izuku Yamazawa, I'm 14 years old and I'll be sitting in with your class. I hope we'll be able to get along with each other. Thank you. Oh and pronouns are he/him."

The kid turned to his dad who gave him a small smile and a thumbs up. He sighed and turned to address the class, "Raise your hand if you have a question. Anything we answer will not leave this class, understand?"

There were nods and words of agreement as all the students raised their hand. "Sugiyama." he called.

A girl in the front row put down her hand and stood, turning to Izuku, "I'm Yumi Sugiyama, pronouns are she/her. Who's your mother?"

Shota had to acknowledge the girl's good thinking. She obviously knew that she'd have a better chance of getting an answer from Izuku, rather than him. Although, he had to stifle his laughter when Izuku tilted his head like a confused puppy and asked, "What mother? I don't have a mother."

Sugiyama immediately tried to apologize but was cut off by Shota, "Problem child, she means your other parent."

"Oh! That makes sense. My Papa is Hizashi Yamada, though you might know him better as Present Mic."

Shota quickly silenced the class before they could begin another outburst. "Ishida."

"Sensei, you're with Yamada-sensei?!" questioned a boy with hair that looked like lava, "By the way, the name is Kazan Ishida. My pronouns are he/him.

"Yes. And before anyone asks, because I know that at least four of you will, yes I am gay." he sighed, "Kuroiro."

This time it was a student who had pitch black skin and pure white curls, "Hello, my name is Kage Kuroiro and my pronouns are they/them. Does that mean Yamazawa-kun and Hawks are adopted?"

"Yep. No one in our family is biologically related. At least not that we know of." answered the youngest in the room.

"Mochizuki."

"Yo, I'm Hoshi Mochizuki, though most just call me Zuki. My pronouns are she/them. I was just curious about Hawks' age." spoke a girl with constellations on her skin and stars and planets in her purple-blue hair.

"Keigo's turning 19 in two months." answered the hero.
"Bara."

A girl with a rose crown spoke next, "I'm Bara Hara and my pronouns are she/her. What's your quirk?"

"My quirk is called Second Chance Wings. Currently I only have two aspects for it but I may get more. I have my normal aspect," he motioned to his viridian wings, "and my Phoenix aspect." he finished while activating the mentioned aspect, gaining some gasps or wondrous exclamations.

Next his dad called out, "Umi."

Two of the students who looked really similar spoke at the same time, "Which one?"

"Kaito."

"Sup, I'm Kaito Umi, though everyone just calls me Kaito or Kai. My pronouns are he/him. Why isn't Yamazawa-kun at school? Why's he sitting in with us?"

"Multiple reasons. One is that he's Nezu's personal student. Two is that he's extremely smart. Three is that he used to be... abused... at his previous school. Four is because Nezu will probably get him to help you all in classes. And also because he's taking classes from other teachers."

There were multiple confused gazes at this as Shota picked the next person, "Watanabe."

"Sensei, would it really be smart for a kid to give us help in classes?" she asked before adding, "Mizuki Watanabe. She/her."

"Izuku has graduated from online college, finished Nezu's insanely hard school course, become Nezu's personal student, and has made a big name in the heroics, police and analyst department as Jade and Emerald."

By now, the class had learnt not to burst out into shouts at the news. Shota had to hide a proud smirk in his scarf. "Hasegawa."

"I'm Kenji Hasegawa and my pronouns are he/him. Isn't Emerald that famous analyst?" spoke a dark skinned boy with brown dreadlocks and eyes.

(Totally not me recreating that part from chapter 13)

"Dad, I can't believe that you outed me like that." Izuku muttered, "I have a reputation and people are gonna be skeptical of my capabilities if they know I'm only 14."

His dad just rolled his eyes. "I think you've more than proved your capabilities, problem child." he said, ruffling his kid's hair. "Aka."

"They/them. Asha Aka. Who's Jade?"

"My hacker vigilante persona." answered the greenette, "If my phone starts ringing a certain tone and I pull out my Jade gear, please be quiet, otherwise people will die."

Just then, the bell rang and the door slid open, revealing Hizashi. The class immediately looked between him and their homeroom teacher, making the blonde look confused and the ravenette blush and look away from his husband. "Sho? What happened?"

"N-nothing, Z-zashi." Shota stuttered under the eager gaze of the class, blushing even more.

Izuku just cackled and answered his Papa with a Cheshire grin, "Dad got outed to the class about your marriage and him being gay."

Shota somehow blushed even deeper as he hid his face in the crook of his elbow while Hizashi blushed, too. "W-wow, Sho. Only you."

There was a random yell of, "Hug him, Yamada-sensei! Go for it!" from an either extremely brave, or extremely stupid, student.

A small smile graced their blonde teacher's face as he wrapped his arms around his husband who just tucked his head into the man's leather jacket. There were quiet whoops and cheers from the students and a click of a photo being taken. "Dads, I'm sending this to Aunt Nem, Tsuki and Kei-nii." stated an impish greenette.

Shota instantly spun around and shot out a loop of his capture weapon, but it was already too late as the kid pressed the send button to the family groupchat.

"You all are menaces." grumbled the man, before settling in his yellow sleeping bag on the floor and falling asleep.

"Well... that just happened." Hizashi muttered under his breath.

"Indeed it did." reciprocated Izuku, who now walked to his back and proceeded to hand over the carrot cake to his Papa, saying, "Kei-nii and I got you cake."

"Thanks, listener. I'll save it for lunch." he smiled, "Go take a seat in that empty desk over there and just take notes or do schoolwork."

With a nod and a hug, Izuku made a beeline for the empty desk in the front row, next to the windows. On his right side was a boy with wood-like skin and leafy hair, who flashed him a smile. Behind him was the sister of the Umi duo, who gave him a peace sign and a smile. Both of which he reciprocated with blinding smiles.

He pulled out his notebook and started taking notes as his Papa began the lesson. Izuku found himself having no problems whatsoever, but refrained himself from answering any questions as he technically wasn't a student, only answering when no one else did. The greenette soon found out that the boy beside him was Haru Hiramatsu, and the girl behind him was Manami Umi.

After Hizashi had handed out a few worksheets for the class, and Izuku had finished before the rest of the students, the greenette stood from his seat and handed back his finished paper. The two then proceeded to have a conversation in Auslan as not to be understood by anyone else.

Izuku eventually went back to his desk after sheepishly admitting to forgetting to eat his breakfast. He sat next to his dad on the floor and started nibbling on his taiyaki, humming to a tune that he'd had stuck in his head. After he finished, he went to retake his seat and complete an assignment that Nezu had given him.

A little while later, the bell rang to signify the next lesson, snapping Izuku out of his studying. He waved to his Papa, who was leaving for his next English class, and to his Dad, who also had to leave for his law and ethics class. The greenette brightened as he saw his Aunt walk in next, the woman doing the same as she saw him.

"Is that my nephew I see there?" she smiled widely.

Izuku stood and rushed to hug her, saying, "Hi, Aunty Nem." as he did so.

"Hey, green bean. You ready to learn about some fun modern hero art history?" his Aunt asked excitedly.

The greenette pulled away and pumped a fist into the air, yelling, "Yeah!"

The heroine chuckled a bit before motioning for the boy to go back to his desk which he did. He blushed in embarrassment as he remembered that the students had been watching the interaction, though readied to take notes.

The class passed with the most interesting thing that happened being that one kid had made a barrier with their quirk right in front of themselves and accidentally walked into it. The kid had tripped backwards into Kuroiro's desk, making them topple to the ground and trip Watanabe who hadn't seen them fall.

The bell rang to signify the next lesson as Midnight left and Ectoplasm walked in. The maths lesson had been quiet until someone had dared anyone to recite the first 200 digits of pi, with the promise of an ice cream of their choice from Lunch Rush that would be payed for by the darer. Ectoplasm had only reached the 37th digit before he had to admit defeat, while the other students barely got past the fifth digit.

Izuku, who had been perfectly reciting pi under his breath, was eventually heard by Hiromatsu as he neared the 70 digit mark. The class had fallen silent, before Ectoplasm, intrigued, had asked the greenette to stand in front of the class and restart. The boy had gone to the podium and faced the class as the teacher pulled out his phone and searched the 200 digits of pi.

Upon signal, Izuku started from the beginning, recalling every digit with the aid of his photographic memory. With each ten or so digits, the class's jaws fell wider in shock and amazement.

By the end of it, the boy was slightly out of breath and the class was so silent that you could hear a pin drop. Finally, a student with black hair in a ponytail and multiple pieces of metal jewelry, spoke up, "Sensei... is he correct?"

The hero blinked away his shock and looked back up at the class, speaking, "Yeah. Not one digit was wrong."

At this point, the class was too astonished to react and just sat silently, attempting to process what the greenette had just pulled off. The same student broke the silence once more, "Well, I guess I owe you an ice cream. I'm Hiroshi Kojima. He/him pronouns."

"Uh... Thanks?" It was more a question than anything as Izuku had never had anything owed to him.

"No problem, dude. You earned it." Kojima congratulated, giving him two thumbs up.

The bell rang again and Izuku, rushed to his seat, eager to not be in the limelight anymore. Ectoplasm walked out of the class and Cementos walked in to teach modern literature.

Izuku was already well versed in modern literature so he got out his laptop and started multi-tasking between doing Emerald work, solving cases as Jade, doing work assigned to him by Nezu, and playing (winning) chess with Nezu. Once in awhile Cementos would call on Izuku to answer a question and without looking up, the greenette would answer (correctly) without once stopping his work.

The boy was quickly getting more and more annoyed with the number 2 hero who kept on asking for an analysis, until he finally snapped and called. Endeavour picked up before the second ring and Izuku stood in rage at the hero as he spoke, "Kami fucking dammit, Endeavour. I swear to every fucking deity above that if you don't stop asking for an analysis, I will dig up all the dirt on you and release it to the public. I promise you won't survive. It's not a threat, it's a warning, because trust me I can and I will. I refuse to do anything for you or All Might, so the both of you can just go and fuck yourselves. Good bye. I hope you burn in hell and never call me again."

He hung up and took a deep breath to steady himself, placing his phone on the desk as not to accidently break it. Izuku tried to smooth out his wings that were puffed up in agitation and anger. Looking around, it was only now that he realised that the room was silent and everyone was looking at him.

"Sorry everyone, please continue." he spoke.

"No. Absolutely not. Dude, you just threatened the number 2 hero and insulted both him and All Might." the student who had walked into his own quirk broke the silence, "Ren Fukuda, by the way. He/him.

"Warned." Izuku quickly corrected, "I warned the number 2 hero. As I said, I can and will take him down if I need to."

"Why won't you help them?" queried Aka, getting a few nods from the others.

"All Might is an idiot, a liar and a fraud. Endeavour is an asshole who just burns anyone he wants into a crisp and destroys literally everything around him." the kid answered. (Not me just copying and pasting from chapter 3)

"I mean, he's not wrong about Endeavour." shrugged Kaito, "For someone who's got enough control to make a costume out of his fire, he sure does have a lot of property damage and casualties."

"I have to agree with him. Endeavour sucks." commented Aka.

Ishida rolled his eyes, "Ash, you don't count. You literally hate Endeavour."

The student just shrugged their shoulders and returned to writing their essay, though everyone knew that they were still keeping an ear to the conversation.

"Nope, I totes agree with them. Endeavour is so not cool." admitted a blonde girl with a slanted flower crown, "Yo, the name's Hana Hara. She/her is totes my jam."

"Hana, tone down with the slang." scolded her sister.

"Yamazawa-kun, my friend has a question." a blonde student with blue eyes suddenly called, raising their hand, "I'm Mirio Togata, but my friend here is called Tamaki Amajiki. We're both he/him, by the way. He's just a bit shy."

Behind the guy, Izuku could see a ravenette boy with pointed ears and an awkward expression. Izuku could tell from the boy's tells that he had social anxiety, though even without his analitical abilities he could still clearly see that he was an introvert.

"Sure. What can I help you with?" asked the winged boy, looking at the student hiding behind his friend. He spoke with a softer voice, more relaxed features and a kind smile, trying to make himself less threatening than ever. Izuku was ecstatic to see that it worked, though his demeanor didn't change, as the boy managed a small, shaky smile, while he came out from behind his friend a bit.

"I w-was j-just wondering wh-what you me-meant about A-All Might." Amajiki stuttered.

Izuku's smile grew sad as the memories flooded back in, "All might saved me a month ago, and when I asked, he told me that I couldn't be a hero."

There was a somber air to the class as Izuku returned to his desk. To those who looked, the boy had a single tear roll down his freckled cheek and shaking hands that he tried to hide by twisting his fingers in the fabric of his pants. The sadness for the boy hung over them for the rest of the lesson, though it grew lighter with each passing minute.

At last, the bell rang for lunchtime, snapping Izuku out of his studying. For once, Izuku didn't have to fear for his belongings or being hurt. For once, Izuku didn't have to run to safety or be scared of crackling palms and insults and beatings. For once, Izuku was in a school where he was safe.

He looked up as people started crowding around his desk. Among the students he could see, he could name at least nine of them, including Nejire-senpai, Togata, Amajiki, Aka, Ishida, Kojima, Hiramatsu, and the Umi twins.

"Heya, lil' Yamazawa." greeted Nejire-senpai.

"Hello, Nejire-senpai." he replied.

"The class was wondering if you'd like to sit with us. All of the people in 2A sit together on the grassy part of the courtyard, around the big tree. Sometimes we all sit in a big circle, but we mostly just sit around each other in our smaller friend groups." she continued, "The rest of us have already gone ahead."

Izuku smiled. This was the first time he'd had someone ask him to sit with them. "Sure."

The group made their way out of the classroom and through the corridors, stopping at the cafeteria to get food from Lunch Rush. As promised, Kojima got him a mint and chocolate ice-cream and with that, the group once again set off for the courtyard.

They arrived to see the class in a circle, missing a large chunk of it, and Fukuda in the middle acting out what looked to be a giraffe. There was a large, silver-furred wolf dozing off with Watanabe leaning against it, a lion watching amusedly at Mochizuki who was now acting as a chicken, and multiple chatting teens.

"So," started Hana, "I'm pretty sure that you know the majority of us, but just in case, is there anyone who you don't know?"

"Um... I'm not sure I know the student with light green skin and the one with blue flower earings." answered Izuku.

"Alrighty, then. Come meet them." she said, smiling, as she pulled him by the hand to the spiky, green haired student. "Oi! Abiko, intro yourself to the little greenie."

They turned around at the call and smiled once he saw the two approaching, "Hi, Yamazawa-kun. Nice to meet you, I'm Kanahebi Abiko and my pronouns are he/him."

With a parting thumbs up, Hana led the younger to the other mystery student. "Heya, class pres. Mind introducing yourself to the green bean?"

"Oh, hi! Kami, I'm so sorry for not doing so earlier. My name is Jun Tanaka and it's extremely great to meet you. My pronouns are she/her. I'm also the class president so feel free to talk to me about anything, or if you can't reach me, the vice rep is Hasegawa."

"Where is Hasegawa?" inquired the greenette, "I don't see him anywhere."

"Oh. He's the lion. His quirk is Animal Transformation and he loves to lay in the sun as a lion. He says it reminds him of when he played with the lion cubs when he was still in Africa. Kenya, was it?" she turn a questioning gaze to Hana who just nodded in return.

Tanaka turned away to go and stop the oncoming fight between the Umi twins, leaving the two to watch in her wake. "So now you've met everyone! How fun!" she cheered, before continuing, "Now, there are a few friend groups in our class. There's Hado, Mirio and Amajiki who are our golden children. Extremely precious and must be protected at all cost. Then there's Abiko, Aka, me, Hiromatsu and Ishida, we're the craziest group in the class and there's a 99% guarantee that there will be pranks if we're all together. The next group is the quiet, crafty kids that includes Fukuda, Bara, Kojima, Sugiyama and Manami. But Fukuda's mostly only quiet when he's reading or listening to music or something, he's a good singer though and knows how to to play like a thousand instruments. The last group has all of the actual sane people, including Hasegawa, Kuroiro, Mochizuki, Tanaka, Tsuyuri, Kaito and Watanabe. They keep us all in line, but Hasegawa loves to scare people by turning into a snake or crocodile. Any questions?"

Izuku shook his head and said, "No, I don't have any."

"Great!" Hana cheered again.

The rest of the break passed in no time with multiple rounds of charades, tag and conversing. Nearing the end, Izuku got a text from a certain chimera.

/Rat Satan Overlord/

Rat Satan Overlord: Hello, Izuku

Green Bird Boi: Afternoon, Nezu

Green Bird Boi: Watcha need?

Rat Satan Overlord: Instead of me teaching you during 2A foundational heroics practicals, you're going to overlook their lessons and analyse them

Green Bird Boi: Cool 👍

Rat Satan Overlord: Great job on dealing with Enji, btw

Green Bird Boi: Thx
-

"Hara-san?" Izuku got the girl's attention.

"Just call me Hana." she replied with a wave.

"Okay. Um... when's your heroics lesson?" he continued.

"We have a double period after break. Aizawa-sensei said that we're gonna focus on stealth, so we're doing a big game of hide and seek in ground Zeta." the girl explained excitedly, jumping up and down.

"M'kay." he nodded thoughtfully, thinking of how much information he could get from the lesson.

The bell rang and everyone started packing up to go back to the classroom. The lion got up and turned back into Hasegawa who stretched and yawned, Watanabe stood and the wolf behind her faded away, Aka dried the two Umi twins with a small fire, Abiko jumped down from the tree, followed closely by Fukuda and Hiramatsu, the rest just talking as they gathered their stuff. Tanaka and Hasegawa ensured that all the students were ready, before leading them through the school and into the class.

The students took their seats and watched as their teacher emerged from his yellow cocoon and took his place behind the podium. Tired, black eyes swept over the class as he sighed and spoke, "Costumes, problem children. Ground Zeta in 10 minutes. Izuku, with me."

The students were out of the room in an instant, already well-versed with the consequences of being late. Shota started off to the aforementioned ground, followed my an eager Izuku who wrote away in a notebook. "Dad, what are everyone's quirks?"

"Kanahebi Abiko. Quirk: Lizard. Gives him his green colouration and scales on his arms, cheeks and legs, as well as other lizard traits such as camouflage, partial invisibility, slightly better vision and strength, ability to stick to walls, cold blood and some other things.

"Ash Aka. Quirk: Fire. Ability to produce and manipulate fire. Their quirk makes them fire resistant and gives them a heat tolorence. Apparently, that does not include spicy foods, as we regrettably found out two months ago.

"Tamaki Amajiki. Quirk: Manifest. Grants the user the ability to enhance their body parts with the characteristics of anything they consume. For some reason, this doesn't include plants.

"Ren Fukuda. Quirk: Barrier. Ability to make barriers of varying transparency and size. He can make at most five small barriers, two big ones or a force field. His control is somewhat finicky, though. Sometimes he might accidentally make barriers at random. For some strange reason, his barriers automatically disappear once there's any cinnamon nearby.

"Nejire Hado. Quirk: Wave Motion. Grants her the ability to convert her vitality into energy that she can discharge as blast waves.

"Bara Hara. Quirk: Rose Vines. Allows her to create/ grow vines of roses that vary in size from anywhere she wants as long as she's in physical contact with where she wants it to grow from. However, she can't grow it from animals or humans.

"Hana Hara. Quirk: Flower Bushes. Allows her to create/ grow bushes of flowers that vary in size from anywhere she wants as long as she's in physical contact with where she wants it to grow from. She can't grow roses or black dahlias, though, and we still don't know why. She also can't grow it from animals or humans.

"Kenji Hasegawa. Quirk: Animal Transformation. He can transform into any animal that he wants, as long as he's touched one before. Transformation time depends on how much stamina he has left but it's not really an issue as he's got out of this world stamina.

"Haru Hiromatsu. Quirk: Oak. I don't know what else to say other than he's basically got the same quirk as Kamui Woods. He's basically just Groot reincarnate.

"Kazan Ishida. Quirk: Lava. He can produce lava and his quirk makes him fireproof and gives him a heat resistance. And as if to make Aka jealous, Ishida absolutely worships spicy food.

"Hiroshi Kojima. Quirk: Hephaestus. Ability to create metal from his skin and weld or bend metals. Creating metals requires body fat or stamina while simply melding or bending doesn't require anything. He does have some fire and heat resistance.

"Kage Kuroiro. Quirk: Black. Allows the user to merge their body into anything that is dark-colored, whether naturally dark, or dark via external circumstances, such as shadows. They can also move themself through the darkness freely.

"Hoshi Mochizuki. Quirk: Astronomy. She can use powers based off of the gods of Roman mythology with the planets in her hair as well as powers based off of the Zodiac signs with the constellations on her skin. If you ask me, it's pretty overpowered.

"Yumi Sugiyama. Quirk: Winter Wonder. She can produce ice and make the temperature drop. Her quirk makes her cold proof. Is cold proof even a word? Also, it makes her body temperature just generally colder.

"Jun Tanaka. Quirk: Super Strength. Your average strength enhancer quirk. Makes her 15 times stronger than the average person.

"Mirio Togata. Quirk: Permeation. Grants the user the ability to phase their body through all matter. The user can choose to make one part of themselves intangible or their entire body. I swear to Kami, that boy will be the death of me with his finicky quirk and his pranks.

"Rin Tsuyuri. Quirk: Super Speed. Again, your average speed enhancer quirk. He can run 13 times faster than the average person.

"Kaito Umi and Manami Umi. Quirk: Water. They can produce and manipulate water. They can breathe underwater but they aren't waterproof.

"Mizuki Watanabe. Quirk: Moon Wolf. She can summon a giant wolf that gets stronger the closer it is to midnight or if it's dark. The wolf, Luna, is extremely afraid of horses." the man finally finished, pulling out a well deserved jelly pouch as they arrived at ground beta.

"That is the longest I've ever heard you speak." Izuku mused, twirling his pen in his hand while taking an offered jelly pouch from his dad with a thanks.

"D'you get everything?" asked his dad.

Izuku just tapped his head and said, "Photographic memory."

"Right."

The class started filing in, all in great hero costumes and Izuku surveyed their costumes. They all looked good and well made to fit their quirks. From a glance, he could already tell who was going into what heroics department. Kuroiro, Bara and Abiko were obviously going for underground, Nejire-senpai, Togata and a lot others were going for lime-light or day.

Ground Zeta was a mock city. Not like the average mock city in hero schools like ground Beta. No, ground Zeta was better. Ground Zeta mimicked everything that you'd find in an actual city, ranging from sewers to aquariums to bookstores to homes. All it lacked was actual humans, though that was a given. Usually, the ground was used for the Civil War assignment for the heroics exams, but it was also used for other things, too. The business course often used it to advertise certain things and such, while gen ed used it for job practice.

The hero quickly explained the rules, basically none other than don't kill or badly injure anyone. There were two groups, the seekers and the hiders, akin to the average hide and seek. The first seekers group consisted of Aka, Fukuda, Bara, Hasegawa, Ishida, Kuroiro, Sugiyama, Togata, Kaito and Watanabe. The rest of the class, the hiders, got a 15 minute head start to find a place in the mock city, before the other ten students could go start seeking.

Shota and Izuku watched on in impressed amusement as Fukuda immediately began to make stairs from his barriers. Both had to praise the brilliance and creativity of the boy's thinking. From that, it wasn't difficult for Fukuda to spot and capture Mochizuki from where she had stationed herself on the roof. Izuku was slightly crestfallen at not being able to see her quirk in action, though he supposed he'd be able to when it was her turn to seek.

Next to be found was Hiramatsu, who was sniffed out by Watanabe's wolf. Shortly after, Hana was found and chased by Aka and Ishida who'd stuck together for the game. Hana had put up a great fight and was fast enough to evade the two's attempts at capture. Ishida had the disadvantage of having a quirk too dangerous to use, though he was able to quickly burn away the hedges that Hana had grown to bar them for reach her. Ultimately, Hana had made the mistake of trying to use a bush to climb onto a roof which Aka had burnt to a crisp, making the flower girl fall into Aka's arms.

The hot duo failed to notice Kojima, who was hiding in a vent in that same building. Although, Kuroiro had no problem with appearing from the shadows and scaring the living shit out of the guy. Tanaka was the next to go, found by Togata and Kaito who used Kaito's water to keep the girl unbalanced and unable to grab anything to fight back with. Togata was quick to tie the capture tape around the girl's wrist while Kaito dropped his hold on the water, letting them drop onto the ground.

Manami, Amajiki and Hado were found next, all putting up good fights but losing in the end. Although, no one had found Abiko and between his camouflage and invisibility, neither Izuku nor Shota thought that he'd be found. The other hider, Tsuyuri, was found multiple times, though with his speed it was basically impossible for them to capture him.

The hero was quick to call off the match as not to delay the inevitable win for Tsuyuri and Abiko. The two shared a small victory dance as the hiders became seekers and vice versa for the seekers.

The hiders this time were more prosperous in the exercise, hiding and staying hidden with ease. Fukuda had made a barrier in the dead end alleyway he'd hidden in to make it seem like it was just a normal wall as well as preventing capture if he was found.

Bara, already having training for underground heroics, had made sort of a hammock on the roof of a gardens store and took refuge in it. They had to admit that the hammock actually looked like a general decoration in the store, especially as Bara made several other similar ones so that her's didn't stand out.

Hasegawa transformed into a pigeon and found a group of other pigeons to hang out with. Ishida had done a similar thing to Fukuda, except he had sped up the cooling process of his lava. Aka hid with Ishida and Izuku literally would not be surprised if someone told him that they were joined at the hip at this point.

No one would find Kuroiro. Izuku would bet actual money. Kuroiro had this game in the bag.

Sugiyama had found a place in the zoo that had an arctic section. The polar bears and penguins were extremely realistic robots from the year 2 support course exams which had an uncanny resemblance to the real thing, not to mention the movements. She'd found a small igloo that was buried in the snow and hidden in it, unbothered by the freezing temperatures.

Permeation had been a great quirk for Togata to phase into the ground and drop into the sewer system. Luckily for the blonde boy, the only thing running through the sewers was clean water that was going to the fake zoo and aquarium and a few other places.

Kaito had done as Sugiyama had done, hiding in an aquarium tank that had robot sharks in it that were built by the year 3 support course for their exams.

Watanabe, though, had less of an advantage as the rest, resorting to just locking herself in the vault of the bank. Shota didn't even want to know how the girl had gotten the code for it.

The round dragged on to last the entire lesson with no one being found, despite the seekers' valiant efforts. Shota ended up calling the match as an undeniable victory for the hiding group and sent the class on their ways. All of them were eager to go home, though only the ones who hadn't found the city's bakery were hungry. (If Shota had sent Izuku into the city to quickly grab something from the bakery as well, nobody knew.)

Izuku and his Dad were quick to go to the teacher lounge to get Hizashi who greeted them with hugs and kisses, and then the three were on their way home.

Chapter Text

On Saturday morning, the cafe was quite full, though Izuku and Sasuke were somehow managing. Both had gotten a text message from Kanna-san saying that she was visiting her daughter in Tokyo who was having a child. She’d left them in charge of the cafe for the weekend and Monday, with plans to return on Tuesday, and Izuku and Sasuke had responded happily with congratulations and a promise to take care of everything with the cafe.

Izuku and Sasuke were currently having a breather as the flow of customers had stopped for a while. And by breather, it mean that Sasuke was trying to calm down his crying little sister over the phone, and Izuku was making a mad dash to finish the last of 2A’s analysis.

“Izuku, could you please take the trash out?” called out the pinkette, after he’d finally calmed down his sister and finished his call, “Before more people come in and we have no time.”

Izuku gave double thumbs up and went to do so, taking the trash and exiting the cafe. He rounded the corner, into the alley where the dumpsters were, and froze.

There, on the alley floor, was a purple-haired boy who was curled up on the ground, clutching his stomach in what was obviously pain. Stood over, were two others who were grinning down evilly, readying their quirks. Judging by their matching uniforms, Izuku could tell that they all went to the same school. Bullying, Izuku knew.

Guessing the two’s quirks was child’s play, especially since they were stupid enough to put it on full display, though Izuku really couldn’t really blame the first one for not being able to do so. The first, bigger one, had a jaguar mutation quirk, based on the guy’s tail, fur and markings (really, how are you supposed to hide that?). From what Izuku could tell from the sparking fingertips and the rubber gloves discarded on the ground, the other, slightly smaller, had an electricity quirk. Solely in the hands, it seemed. Like he said, child’s play.

Izuku quickly activated his Phoenix aspect as he ran to stand between the bullies and the kid on the ground. He glared at the two shocked boys in front of him, flaring up his wings for further intimidation.

“What the fuck do you thi-” the jaguar mutant started but was cut off by Izuku.

“No. What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Izuku growled out, voice low and anger just barely concealed by something thinner than tenjugo paper, like a volcano a second away from erupting, “What the fuck gives you shitheads the right to hurt someone?”

“The villain deserves it!” the other spat out as he sneered down at the purplette. Out of the corner of his eye, Izuku saw the kid flinch at the name.

“Is that so?” Izuku asked, raising an eyebrow. He gave away nothing, though it was evident that the two took it as him joining their cause by the way they instantly relaxed. Just as quickly, their thoughts were proved wrong as he continued on, “Then why aren’t you dead yet? Or screaming in pain? Or calling police or heroes?”

“W-what?”

The greenette rolled his eyes. Really, how thick are these guys? “You heard me. If this kid really is a villain, you’d be begging for mercy. Villains don’t take this shit, believe me. And if they do, they’re most definitely undercover, which means that you’d be on their hitlist once they quit the act. Either way, if this kid was a villain, you’d both be absolutely fucked. Nonetheless, I’d be a pretty bad human being if I just let you abuse this kid. So, I suggest that you scram. Three...” he started counting down, only to be met with wide, shocked eyes, “two...” still nothing, “one.”

Izuku punched the guy in the face.

It was probably wrong for Izuku to do so but... Izuku wasn’t sorry. He just couldn’t bring himself to be. Heck, he’d do it again without a thought if he had to. He’d just about had enough with bullies; with letting people hurt him and others.

‘Do no harm, take no shit.’ Izuku doesn’t know who’d spoken those words, but they were goddamn great. Those were words that he could live by.

Now that he thought about it, Izuku Midoriya really had died that day. Timid, weak, useless, quirkless deku had died that day. Instead, the person who rose from that blood pool, from those ashes, was Izuku Yamazawa. Strong, brave, sassy, kind, helpful Izuku rose from that fall.

The greenette grinned widely as the two fled, one clutching his bleeding nose while the other fumbled to put his gloves back on. Turning around, Izuku found that the kid had moved to sit against the wall, head bowed so that his gravity-defying hair hid his face. Their hands were clasped around something on their face, tugging on it then wincing in pain.

Izuku took a step towards the kid, though stopped immediately at seeing them flinch. Slowly telegraphing his movements, the winged boy crouched down in front of the kid. He looks older than me, Izuku deadpanned in his mind.

“Hey,” he greeted in a soft, calm voice, “are you alright?”

The other hesitated, then nodded their head slowly.

“Are you really?” Izuku asked, internally incredulous, though once again giving away nothing.

Another moment of hesitance, and then an even more hesitant shake of his head.

“I work in the cafe over there. Would you like me to help you?”

Their hands came down from his face and started loosely moving their hands in what Izuku realised was JSL. ‘Why do I get the feeling that you won’t take no for an answer?’

This startled a laugh out of the freckled boy. Of course he wouldn’t just leave him in this alley alone, no way. “Probably because I won’t take no for an answer.”

The sitting boy stiffened in surprise, as though they hadn’t expected Izuku to understand the sign. To be fair, his assumption was pretty reasonable, seeing as not many people bothered to learn other things like sign language, other languages or even morse.

“Come on. Let’s go inside and fix you up. Contrary to popular belief, girls aren’t crazy over guys with scars.” he joked, holding out his hand. “Oh, my name is Yamazawa, by the way. Izuku Yamazawa, but everyone just calls me Izuku. I’m 14 and I go by he/him pronouns if you’re wondering. If not, then it still stands.”

The purplette placed a trembling hand in his, not giving their introduction, though Izuku was fine with that. He gently helped them up and guided them into the cafe, their head ducked the whole way. A brief nod was received after a quick glance thrown to Sasuke and Izuku took them into the staff room, making the purplette sit while he got his aid kit.

“Hey, uh... is it alright if you look up? I need to see if you’re injured there.”

There was an unsettling resignation in the other as they slowly looked.

Izuku’s breath caught.

A muzzle.

They put a fucking muzzle on this kid.

He suddenly felt the urge to go hunt those boys down. Laws be damned.

“I’m gonna murder those goddamn motherfuckers.” Izuku muttered under his breath, anger rising so much that the tips of his hair and wings turned sunset colours, flames started flickering and his eyes glinted orange.

“No murder, Izuku!” Sasuke called from the front.

“Try and fucking stop me, Sasuke. Those bastards are gonna pay for this shit they pulled!” he retorted.

“Right. And you can make them pay for the shit they pulled in a legal way.” the pinkette groaned.

“They fucking muzzled the kid, Sasuke.” Izuku whined.

Silence. “I need names.” came Sasuke’s voice, “Everyone else says they want in, too.”

Izuku snorted and muttered to himself, “Great. Would you look at that. An entire cafe worth of angry revengers.”

Tears welled in the other boy’s purple eyes as he turned his head to look away. The greenette put a cap on his anger and focused on him. “I’m gonna get this off, okay?”

A slight nod was Izuku's cue to get to work. He looked it over and saw only the leather strap that kept it in place. It was at an odd angle, where he knew wasn’t reachable by the one condemned to it. He got out his pocketknife and started cutting away.
There was a sound of metal hitting tile as the muzzle fell to the floor. Izuku smiled at their shocked but relieved expression and said, “There you go! You good now?”

Another slight nod as the other turned to face him fully with a small, watery smile and whispered, “Thank you.”

“You’re totally welcome.” Izuku’s features softened at him. The boy held an expression that wasn’t fully broken yet but was still cracked; cracks that healed overnight yet broken just the next day. “Would you like a hug? I find that it always makes me feel better after things like this.”

A glint of the previous mistrust flashed in his eyes before quickly dissipating and the purplette ducked his head in a nod. Izuku’s arms wrapped around him comfortingly as the boy did the same and started crying. The greenette patted him on the back reassuringly for a while before the boy leaned back a bit.

He’s quiet for a few moments as he tries to find his voice. “Th-thank you.” he says finally, voice slightly off from the lack of use, though there was something soothing and captivating as well. “I’m Shinsou Hitoshi. I guess you can call me Hitoshi, though, since you said to call you by your given name. He/him pronouns and I’m also 14.”

Izuku beamed at the boy, happy that he was trusting Izuku at least a little bit. The winged boy was quick to store away the new information into the cabinet labelled ‘Purplette that I’ve decided to kidna- I mean, befriend’. Though he supposed that he’d need to rename it to ‘Hitoshi’, now that he knew his name. A small cabinet in the vast, ever-growing archive of knowledge in Izuku’s mind. Really, it got so exhausting and overwhelming sometimes.

“So, Hitoshi, what am I destroying those jackasses’ lives over?” he asked innocently, pen and notebook materialising in his hands from thin air.

“Wh-what?”

“Well, I’m a renowned hacker vigilante and analyst, not to mention my increasing number of connections throughout the hero, police and basically any law enforcement department. So, I could easily make them pay for what they did to you.” Izuku explained, tilting his head to the side, “Petty as it may be, no one should hurt people and they need to be taught a lesson. Trust me, it feels better to have that weight off your chest.”

Hitoshi narrowed his eyes. “How would you know?”

Shrugging, Izuku said, “I was quirkless until a month ago. Recently, by bully has been made to face consequences, a search and arrest warrant has been issued for my neglectful and abusive mother, and my former school is going to burn. It’s their actions, their choices, that are gonna explode in their face.”

“Q-quirkless.” Hitoshi muttered.

“Yep.” he confirmed, popping the p.

The other’s purple eyes gained a glint of determination and he said, “Kori Yamamoto and Isamu Hayashi.”

Izuku grinned and pulled out his phone, dialling a certain detective’s number. “Jade here, how ya doin’ Tsuki?”

There was a groan from the other side of the line before a voice came through, “Izuku, aren’t you supposed to be working? Also, why’d you start with your Jade greeting?”

“Well, I mean, I was working. I just...” he glanced at Hitoshi, “encountered a situation. Hence, Jade. Let a hacker vigilante have his fun, Tsuki.”

“Of course you did, you trouble magnet.” Izuku could easily see the man’s eyeroll.

“Yeah, yeah. Do your job mr detective. The alleyway next to the cafe, I saw two kids, Kori Yamamoto and Isamu Hayashi, both middle school, attempting to assault another middle schooler, Hitoshi Shinsou. Public quirk usage, though I don’t think there were any injuries before I stepped in. One had a jaguar mutation while the other had an electricity quirk that only affected their hands.”

“And the reason for the assault?”

Another glance at the boy and Izuku realised that Hitoshi probably wasn’t willing to give up that piece of information. “Wanna guess?”

Another groan. “Quirk discrimination.”

The greenette gave a humourless chuckle, “When is it not? Honestly, you would’ve thought that humans would’ve learnt from the racism back in the pre-quirk era. ‘More evolved’ my ass.”

“Language, kid.”

“Japanese.” he retorted before continuing, “But Tsuki, seriously, they muzzled the kid. A fucking muzzle.”

There was a deep sigh before Naomasa continued, “Make Nezu proud, kid. Analyse.”

“No visible physical mutations, so not a mutant. Not quirkless since he didn’t have the shoes. Based on the muzzle, he has a quirk to do with the voice, proven further by the captivating feeling it makes people feel. Those idiotic kids called it villainous, so it must be something like those stupid stereotypical powers. Actually, it could be a blood consumption quirk but that’s unlikely because those usually come with vampiric attributes such as red eyes, an extremely pale skin complexion, a blood craving or obsession, fangs, and a weakness to sunlight. So, on the table we have voice mimicry, voxikenisis, manipulation, brainwashing or a variant of Siren abilities. Siren, mimicry and voxikenisis is extremely rare, with only one documentation of each. That leaves brainwashing or manipulation.”

Izuku’s eye’s flicked to the boy as he took a sharp intake of breath at the former.

“Brainwashing.” he stated, “It’s brainwashing.”

“Nice, Izuku. That’s what it says on file, along with... woah, that is a lot of bad marks on his record.”

“They’re all probably falsified.” Izuku said, rolling his eyes, “Honestly, discrimination sucks.”

“Yea- Uh, oh. Sorry, Izuku, I gotta go. Sansa’s gonna have my hide if he thinks I’m slacking off. I’ll look into those kids you mentioned and have Nezu shake down their school. Kami knows he’s getting too bored for anyone’s good. Please ask your dads if I can crash at your apartment tonight, I finish late and won’t be able to catch the train.”

“Yeah sure. I think Kei-nii is coming too.” laughed the greenette.

“Seriously? Another stray? I swear that you people just pick up random traumatised people like breathing.” Tsukauchi deadpanned, making Izuku laugh harder. “Ack! Sansa, no! Bye Izuku!”

The call ended and Izuku slipped his phone back into his pocket as he turned back to Hitoshi. “Jeez, my family is crazy.”

“Relatable.” Hitoshi agreed, nodding his head solemnly, “What do you have to put up with?”

“Well, my dad, papa and aunt are pro heroes and teachers at UA, I’m Nezu’s mentee, Hawks is my brother, the detective, Tsukauchi, is a really close family friend, oh and Mirko is Kei-nii's girlfriend.” Izuku listed, oblivious to Hitoshi’s increasingly dropping jaw.

“What the actual fuck?” he whispered under his breath, “You weren’t kidding when you said your family is crazy.”

The winged boy tilted his head to the side, confused, “Huh? Why would I be kidding?”

“N-nothing.” Hitoshi mumbled.

“So...” he started.

“What?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never really conversed with people like this. Being quirkless paints a target on your back, you know. Really didn’t do me any favours.”

“Me either. People usually stay away from me because of my villainous quirk.” agreed the purplette.

“Hey, no quirk is villainous. It’s how you use the quirk that makes it good or bad. A quirk is just a tool.”

“You sound like my brother.” the boy commented.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yep. My older brother is Rein, my older sister is Kira, Aiko is my little sister, my dad is Haru, and my mum is Sakura.” he said, “They’re a good family.”

“Cool!” grinned Izuku. “Oh! Who’s your favourite hero? Do you have a favourite hero? Sorry if I offended you, I just assumed. Nevermi-”

“Eraserhead.” Hitoshi answered, “My favourite hero is Eraserhead. I wanna be just like him.”

Inside, Izuku was grinning like a mad man. What was the coincidence that the kid he saved was a huge fan of his dad? “Mine too!” he nodded vigorously, “Wait, does that mean you want to be a hero?”

“Yeah, I want to go to UA.” admitted Hitoshi.

“Same! What school do you go to? Is the work hard?”

“I go to Kenta, near downtown Musutafu.” said the purplette, “The work isn’t that hard, but the teachers always mark me down anyway. What about you?”

“I used to go to Aldera, so near Kenta, but I switched to online school a month ago and graduated from an online college. Now I’m homeschooled at UA by Nezu and my dads.”

Hitoshi looked dumbstruck as he whistled. “Wow. Go big or go home, I guess.”

Just then, Hitoshi’s phone rang from his pocket and the boy fumbled to take it out and answer the call. “H-hi, mum.”

“Hitoshi! Why aren’t you home yet? You had me and you father worried sick. Was it those boys again? You should’ve called us.”
“Sorry, mum.” Hitoshi rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, “And yeah, it was those boys from school, but someone scared them off and helped me.”

There was a relieved sigh from the other end before they continued, “Oh, that’s good then. Come home soon, please.”
“Alright. I’ll be there shortly.” he promised.

“Okay, bye.”

“Bye, mum.”

Hitoshi brought his phone down from his ear as there was a beep, signalling that the call had ended and said, “Uh, do you... want....”

“To exchange numbers?” Izuku finished for him, smiling, “Sure!”

He got out his own phone and put it the other’s hand, taking Hitoshi’s phone and adding himself as a contact. Hitoshi, after doing the same, swapped their phones so that they both had their respective phones, and gave a small smile. “I don’t sleep well, so you can text me at any time.”

“Same.” Izuku said as they stood and walked to the front of the cafe. They waved each other off as Hitoshi went off down the street.

“He’s kinda cute, don’t you think, Izuku?” Sasuke teased, wiggling his eyebrows, once Izuku had returned to the counter.

“Sh-shut up.” stuttered Izuku, flushing a deep crimson.

“Oh, you hopeless gay.” sighed the pink menace.

Izuku blushed deeper, if that was even possible, “G-go away, Sasuke.”

Sasuke cackled.

Chapter Text

When Hitoshi got home, he was quiet. Not the quiet from when the kids at his school had gone too far in their endeavours to make him suffer. Not the quiet from when he was tip-toeing around in practice for underground heroics. No, this was a thoughtful quiet.

"Hey, Toshi! How ya doin'?" called Rein from the couch as he walked by the lounge.

Hitoshi just distantly hummed in response, too caught up in his thoughts to fully register. This garnered the full attention of his older brother, because Hitoshi was never like this when he got home. His brother stood and rounded the couch to stand in front of the younger.

"What's got you all quiet? Puberty finally makin' you grouchy?" Rein joked, pulling Hitoshi from his mind, "Or, judging by that grey-blue heart, you are just really deep in thought. Oh, and a bit of confusion and happiness."

Rein, the oldest Shinsou sibling, was an 18 year old artist. He had curly, shoulder-length purple hair, and gold eyes behind round, frameless glasses. His quirk, Emotion Sight, gave him the ability to see people's emotions as coloured hearts on their chest, each colour meaning a unique emotion.

"'S nothing, Rei-nii." muttered the tired purplette.

"Riiiight." Rein dragged out in a suspicious tone.

"Toshi-niiii!!!" came an excited squeal as a small, blue blur came barrelling into him. Hitoshi just barely managed to crouch down to catch the small girl in a hug, the latter giggling profusely.

Aiko, the youngest Shinsou, was 5 years old and had curly, shoulder-length, lavender-blue hair and silver-blue eyes. Hitoshi would be lying if he said that didn't say that he laughed at every reminder of how her quirk had shown up. Sleepy Touch was a five-point touch-based quirk that allowed her to make people feel varying amounts of sleepiness, from minor drowsiness to deep sleep. Her quirk also had the amazing side-effect of letting her sleep instantly.

"Hello, Aiko! How was kindergarten today?" smiled Hitoshi.

Aiko leaned away enough to start bouncing up and down in joy and answered, "It was so fun! Mama let us play with the magic sand!"

"Kinetic sand? That's so cool." enthused Hitoshi.

"Oh, Toshi you're home." came the voice of the last Shinsou sibling.

Kira was a 17 year old student in UA's Gen Ed course. Her wavy, pastel-blue hair went to waist and she had rose-gold eyes. Her quirk was called Lovely Tunes, and allowed her to make people feel varying amounts of happiness; ranging from small smiles to full on laughing.

Hitoshi nodded, "Yeah, just got home. What about dad? Is he home yet?"

"No. I think he's on his way, though." she hummed thoughtfully. Just as the words left her mouth, however, there was the sound of keys and the door opening, followed shortly by shuffling and the door closing.

"I'm home!" announced the voice that undoubtedly was of their father. The four siblings quickly rushed to meet their dad at the door. "Hey, kiddos." he greeted, smiling widely at them.

Haku, their dad, was 41 and worked as a doctor near Hitoshi's school. His pastel blue hair was short and had the same defiance of gravity as his youngest son. Also shared with Hitoshi was his violet eyes, although he had rectangular-framed glasses. His quirk (though admittedly could've been named better), was called Slight Emotional Manipulation. He could slightly manipulate someone's emotions, as the name suggested, as well as one's pain. He often used his quirk to better his patients' mood and/or pain.

The man hugged his children and answered their questions about his day. "Where's your mother?" he asked after pressing a kiss to Aiko's forehead.

"Kitchen." answered Rein, "I think she's making cold soba."

"Score!" cheered Kira.

"He said he thinks she's making cold soba, sis. It's a maybe." Hitoshi rolled his eyes.

Kira just poked her tongue out and said, "You're such a downpour, Hitoshi."

"And here I was thinking that you were older and more mature than me." he retorted.

"Kids, be nice." warned their father.

"Yes dad." Hitoshi immediately agreed.

"You're such a suck up."

"Kira, I can and will tell your mother."

"Tell me what?" asked their mother as they entered the kitchen.

"Nothing, mum." Kira quickly said, at the same time Hitoshi said, "Kira was being mean."

"Kira, what did we say about being mean to your siblings?" their mum scolded. Hitoshi would never admit the satisfaction of seeing his sister wither slightly under her gaze.

"Oh, would you look at that; we're having ramen." stated Hitoshi smugly, "Score."

Their mum, Sakura, was 38 and worked at the kindergarten that Aiko went to. She had gold eyes and wavy, waist-length, purple hair. Lullaby, her quirk, made people feel varying amounts of sleepiness; from slight drowsiness, to deep sleep, by singing.

"Set the table, kiddos. Dinner will be finished soon." she reminded them and watched as Hitoshi set down Aiko and followed the other two in doing as told.

Dinner was filled with playful banter, recounts of each person's day, and other talk. Though throughout it, Hitoshi found his mind straying back to the boy he met and the new phone number in his phone. That smile was really cute.

Hitoshi snapped himself out of it.

No. No way he just thought his new friend(?) was cute.

But he definitely was interesting. It wasn't often that he found a person willing to be friends with him after finding out his quirk. Actually, it was practically never.

But anyway, there were more pressing matters.

Like what Izuku had called his detective friend about. Surely they wouldn't arrest his two bullies... Right? They deserved it, Hitoshi thought bitterly. And also, Izuku was apparently a legacy child?!?!?! He was friends with a legacy child. Not that it changed anything. At least he'd know someone if they both got into UA, other than his sister. Izuku probably would, seeing he's a legacy child, has a strong quirk, and is apparently really smart.

"-oshi. Oi! Tosh. Whatcha thinkin' 'bout?" Hitoshi was snapped out of his thoughts by his brother. A look around told him that his family's attention was all on him. "Is this about the thing earlier? What's got you like this?"

"Uh... I..." his eyebrows furrowed, "think I made a friend?"

"You think?" asked his dad, looking nearly as confused as Hitoshi felt.

"Well..." Hitoshi then proceeded to retell what had happened that day and, at Kira's insistence, showed them the new contact on his phone.

After they finished their dinner, the family moved to the living room, either doing homework or watching TV. That was until Rein stopped on a particular news station and all of their jaws dropped in shock.

"No way..." Hitoshi muttered.

"Tosh, aren't those two the kids that..." his mum trails off.

"Earlier this evening, Musutafu police received a notice from the hacker vigilante, Jade, about these two middle school boys who were attempting to assault a schoolmate of theirs. The two boys, Yamamoto Kori and Hayashi Isamu, are being charged with attempted assault, illegal quirk usage and quirk discrimination." the news lady reported, "This was the public debut of Jade, however the hacker vigilante has been active for over a month, assisting heroes and police in villain takedowns and cases. Talk about a real hero behind the scenes."

"No fucking way." Rein muttered.

Hitoshi's phone started ringing so the boy quickly took it out of his pocket and looked to see the video call from Izuku. He answered it and the screen was filled with a blur of green and the purplette could guess that the other boy was moving for some reason. Finally, it seemed to settle down on the other side, greeting Hitoshi to see Izuku's broad grin.

"Hi!" greeted the greenette before he could even say a word, "D'you see the news? Epic, right?" The screen flipped around to show a TV with the report about his two bullies, though he could also see four people looking at either the screen or Izuku. The only one he recognized of the four was Hawks, only because of his iconic wings, the other three remaining a mystery.

"I mean, I knew that I had a huge influence in the police, but I didn't know that it would get processed this fast." Izuku giggled.

"Bro, what the actual fuck?" another voice was heard from the other side, turning both boys' attention to the other winged person, "When did this even happen?"

"This afternoon." replied Izuku.

"And you didn't say anything?!" asked Hawks.

"Kei-nii, it's fine. I told Tsuki." the boy reassured, motioning to the smug, plain-looking man on the floor, next to a blonde.

The blonde turned to the man and whacked him upside the head, scolding him, "Tsuki, why didn't you tell us?"

"You didn't ask."

From beside the blonde, the man with shoulder-length black hair, who Hitoshi assumed was Izuku's father, stood up and walked to Izuku, placing his hands on his shoulders and hanging his head. "Izuku, buddy. I love you, I really do, but you are so fucking terrifying."

The boy's green eyes shone in amusement as they flicked to Hitoshi, grinning. The man's gaze follow's his son's and he seems to analyze the purplette, even through the phone. He's reminded that his new friend's parents are pro heroes.

"You must be Izuku's new friend. Hello, I'm Shota Aizawa, his dad." he introduced himself, "I appreciate you being my son's friend. Kami knows he needs friends his age."

"Uh? You're welcome? I mean, honestly I think I need friends just as much as he does." he says, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly as he gave a crooked smile.

"Izuku said you'd like to be a hero, correct?" the man continued moments later, to which Hitoshi nodded, "Well, my husband and I are already training Izuku as we're both heroes and teachers at UA. If you'd like to tag along, feel free. Just make sure that your parents are fine with it."

"Th-thank you." Hitoshi thanked, smile widening a fraction.

"Awe~. You're going soft on us, dad!" Hawks teased, slinging an arm over his shoulders as he grinned.

"I will disown you, Keigo."

Keigo just rolled his eyes and said, "Papa wouldn't let you."

"Neither would I." Izuku piped up.

From the floor, the other dark-haired man chipped into the conversation with, "Stop bickering! They're gonna think that we're a dysfunctional family."

"Toshi, do you think we're dysfunctional?" asked Izuku, questioning gaze set on the purple-haired boy.

"No. My siblings and I do this regularly." Hitoshi denied.

"See, Tsuks? Nothing to worry about." the greenette turned to the man on the floor, the latter shrugged and turned to the ramen commercial on the TV.

Hitoshi's eyes flicked to Rein as his brother approached, obviously wanting to be included. "Heyo! The name is Rein, and I'm Hito's big bro."

There was a chorus of greetings from the other side of the phone from the Yamazawas. Conversation continued from there, mainly between the two 14 year olds, though there were comments from either family.

It was after midnight after lights out that found Hitoshi lying in bed, staring blankly at the glowing stars on his ceiling and unable to sleep. It had been a weird day, but in a good way.

When boredom got the best of the insomnia-plagued teen, he found himself reaching for his phone. It accidently jostled awake the cat that had curled up on his legs. Hitoshi had forgotten that Patches was there. The Shinsou family had two cats: Patches and Ginger. Ironically, Patches was fully ginger, whereas Ginger had patches of white, black, brown, and grey.

Patches made her way from Hitoshi's legs to his chest, curling up where she felt most comfortable. Hitoshi unlocked his phone as he petted the cat, then entered the chat with his new friend. The boy stared at the last messages sent, unsure of what to text. Finally, Hitoshi discarded the idea of a text, instead taking a picture of him with Patches on his chest and sending that.

Surprise was the main emotion when a minute later, the greenette replied to the picture with one of his own. It was Izuku surrounded with three cats, the former making a peace sign.

The two friends talked about anything and everything after that, soaking in happiness that friendship brought. And if both fell asleep more content and before they usually did, then that was just good for their horrible sleeping habits.

Chapter Text

It's on Monday that Izuku and Hitoshi met again. Izuku had been at the cafe since midnight, having found out that an underground agency was doing a drug bust at that time. Not that he could sleep anyway. The bust went smoothly and Izuku assisted as Jade, though afterwards he may or may not have dropped the address of the cafe and gave them coupons.

Hitoshi was on his way to school, faster than usual as he wanted to drop by at the cafe that Izuku worked at. The boy was shocked when he was scrolling through the hero news and saw the drug bust that Jade had assisted in. Izuku was Jade. And the bust happened at midnight. No wonder his friend had Gucci eye bags.

Rein could've driven him, since he was on break from art school, but apparently the older had to finish an art project with his friend. His father had gone early to the clinic and everyone close to Hitoshi knew that he was morally opposed to waking up early. His mother took Kira to school and Aiko went to the kindergarten their mum worked at anyway. So Hitoshi was alone on his way to school.

Hitoshi was not at all surprised when he was greeted with a blinding smile from Izuku as soon as he entered the cafe. He was surprised, however, when his greenette friend picked up a paper bag and his backpack, called a goodbye to Sasuke, and tugged Hitoshi out by his hand.

"What are you doing?" he asked, confusion evident.

"Well, I'm on top of all my studies and stuff, so Nezu got me permission to survey your school's conduct as an honorary member of the UA staff. But really I'm just there as your bodyguard and friend." explained the boy, "How do you feel about flying?"

"Why?" he eyed suspiciously, "Izuku, whatever you're about to do, don-"

Hitoshi was cut off as Izuku wrapped his arms around the purplette's waist and took to the sky. The winged boy laughed as the other hugged him around his neck and buried his face into his chest.

"It's okay, Toshi, I do this with the 2A heroics class. I won't drop you. Come on, take a peek." Izuku reassured.

Much to the boy's joy, his friend slowly opened one of his tightly shut eyes to peer down. Then the other as he took in the city from above. They weren't as high as to break the clouds, probably lower than the height of planes.

"Woah." Hitoshi breathed in amazement.

"Indeed. Although, I do have to ask you to tuck your head back in 'cause I'm gonna do a dive." he said, waiting for Hitoshi to do so, before tucking in his wings and falling into a nose-dive. Izuku idly noted that the wind didn't seem to affect his eyes, and also that Hitoshi's grip was hella painful.

He flapped his wings around fifteen meters from the ground and softly landed on solid land. Izuku's gaze swept over the students around them, all with shocked and amazed expressions, before letting go of Hitoshi. His friend, however, continued to cling to his neck, much to his amusement. Eventually, Izuku tapped him on the shoulder and the boy let go.

They matched grins as they walked into the school, a large berth given by the other teenagers who whispered comments of fear and disdain towards the purple-haired boy. Hitoshi didn't hear them over his conversation with Izuku, though, too caught up in the recount of the drug bust.

But Izuku heard. He heard it all. Heard the slurs, and the comments, and the acidic talk of his wonderful friend. Sometimes Izuku wished he didn't have enhanced hearing, if only to not hear the poison-laced words that the others spoke.

It was fine, he told himself, it would all be over soon when Nezu tore down this retched institution. Soon.

They made it through the halls, Hitoshi leading Izuku, until they came to the reception desk. Since Izuku was here on 'official UA business', they had to sign him in, and probably get a late slip for Hitoshi. Both wondered how this would go over.

Hitoshi, being the actual student, explained to Izuku how the middle-aged receptionist woman put up a sickly sweet front, but everyone knew she was only there because she'd taken part in a crime and had no other choice after she served her time.

The woman, Mori-san, looked up at the green boy and smiled a poison-sweet smile, though immediately fell fell into disgusted glare at Hitoshi. Izuku shifted slightly to more hide his friend from the receptionist's sight. "What are you doing here, villain?"

"I- uh...-" Hitoshi stammered.

"He's with me. I apologise for taking time out of his class." Izuku cut off, piercing gaze on Mori.

"And what exactly are you doing here?" she asked, "You don't even go here."

"I'm here on official UA business. My name is Yamazawa Izuku and I'm on the UA staff." he stated, "I am positive that Nezu-san emailed you about my sitting in, though it may be under the alias: Jade."

The woman rapidly tapped away at her keyboard, checking the statement's validity. It wasn't long before she found what she was searching for and her face morphed to shock, horror and disbelief. Izuku saw the exact moment when Mori's demeanor shifted to a something socially okay, obviously trying to reverse the damage she'd done.

But it was too late, and Izuku already knew she was just another quirkist bigot. This school would not escape their demise at Nezu's paws and this woman was no exception.

The hacker signed himself in and collected his name tag, putting it in his pocket, and spoke again, "Right, if you'll excuse us, we'd best be on our way."

His friend was behind him as Izuku knocked on the door to 3F, Hitoshi's class. He opened it and walked inside with Hitoshi quick behind him. "Sorry we're late, sensei. Toshi and I got held up by a villain attack." Izuku said, voice deceivingly sweet, and lie coming out easily. Hitoshi wasn't shocked at all, having had Izuku explain his plan on the way.

It was ingenious, really. What better way to observe a school in their general state, than to arrive as just another unsuspecting student? Shutting down Kenta had taken top priority, via Izuku's insistence. Everyone had begrudgingly admitted that getting the purple-haired teen out of the toxic school was more important than taking down a school that wasn't currently hurting anyone, regardless of how bad it may be.

So here he was as Izuku Yamazawa, an innocent transfer student from Kyoto Middle School, with a basic wing quirk. Slightly higher than average grades and no friends other than one Hitoshi Shinsou who he met online while playing Overwatch.

The teacher stared at them in bewilderment, before his eyes flicked downwards, no doubt to the roster, and he smiled at Izuku, completely ignoring the other. "Ah, Yamazawa, that's right. Come, come. Introduce yourself." the teacher, Sohma-sensei, waved him over.

Once he got to the front, he quickly bowed to the class and introduced himself, "Hello, I'm Yamazawa Izuku. It's nice to meet you. I'm 14 years old and I transferred from Kyoto."

"Alright, Yamazawa, take a seat next to Saito, over there." Sohma-sensei directed, then turned to his friend with a distasteful expression, "Shinsou, to your seat this instance or a detention. You're lucky I didn't give you one for being late."

Izuku watched sadly as Hitoshi was shrouded in a sorrowful, submissive air that could only be gained from constant abuse. He'd seen it too many times in the mirror, in Sasuke, in the alley he'd first seen Hitoshi and the time after that. He hated it. Hated it on him and Sasuke and Hitoshi and anyone else.

Throughout the classes, the other students threw paper balls, pencils and other small objects at Hitoshi, and Izuku was very glad to be at the back of the classroom. It was easier to go unnoticed when he used his Phoenix aspect to burn the things to a crisp so it never reached his friend.

Izuku had found, in one of 2A's heroics classes, that he could still use his aspect without noticeably changing much. 'Noticeably changing' being his wings not imitating the sunset and bursting into flames. Instead, it was only his eyes that shifted to the orange-yellow colour, as well as the tips of his hair and wings.

He'd already finished his schoolwork, flying through it with ease - no pun intended - so he was only watching out for Hitoshi and answering the questions the teacher threw at him.

When the bell finally rang for lunch break, the students packed their stuff up and walked over to his desk. Izuku had to remind himself that this wasn't Aldera.

"Hey, Yamazawa. What's your quirk?" the girl at the front asked. That dreaded question. Those three words that could determine your fate; that could make or break you; that could dictate the rest of your life.

Some part of him that was still quirkless deku yelled and sobbed and screamed at him; told him to run and hide and protect his vitals. The part that was still in Bakugou's explosive grasp that flinched and panicked. Izuku locked that part of him away for later, when he was alone and could cry silently and for once not be a useless, world-heavy burden to everyone around him.

"I-it's just my wings." Izuku answered, internal storm of self-hating and anxiety unnoticed. "I can fly."

The girl looked at the others and gave a slight nod, then her smile turned sickly sweet, like when a child asks his parents for something they really want. "In that case, welcome to the class!"

"That quirk would be perfect for heroics, dude. Why don't you come sit with us for break?" chipped in another.

"Uh... I'm sitting with Toshi." he stated, making everyone fall silent.

There were a few moments of complete silence until a snort came from a student and all attention turned to her. "Good one, Yamazawa. Nice joke. Come on, sit with us before its too late and the villain takes control of you."

Izuku gritted out his next words through clenched teeth in anger and frustration, "He's not a villain." The greenette stood abruptly and shouldered his way through the crowd, stopping at his friend's desk. "Tosh, c'mon. I don't wanna waste the katsudon I have for lunch."

His friend nodded and signed, 'Okay.' And with one last glare to the other classmates, they left for lunch.

------

It was a week and a half later that the Yamazawas and Shinsous finally ironed out the details for training with Izuku. So there he was, walking along side with Izuku going to... somewhere. Hitoshi didn't actually know where they were going.

It was clear that he was the only one not in the loop. Well, not the entire loop, at least. He knew he was going to be training under the guidance of Izuku's dad with said boy, and afterwards would be having a sleepover since no one would be home when he got back and his parents thought it to be a great idea.

It wasn't until they started going past uptown Musutafu, that Hitoshi got an inkling of where they were headed. "Izuku," he started, garnering the others attention, "are... are we going to UA?"

His friend flashed him a grin and nodded. "I did tell you that my family is closely affiliated to UA. Nezu's letting us train there with the after school classes."

"So we won't be alone?" he asked.

"No. Papa's running afterschool training in the same gym that dad'll train us." Izuku answered, "I know all the students there, and they're all really cool. The 2A heroics class."

"Wait. Actual, hero students?!" Hitoshi exclaimed in awe, shock and amazement.

"Yep." he replied nonchalantly as he hands his friend a visitor pass as not to alarm the security. Not long after, they made it to gym gamma, not without lots of amazed stares from Hitoshi, though.

"Hey dad! Hey papa! Hey 2A!" he called as he walked through the doors, followed closely by a nervous Hitoshi.

"Guys! It's Izu-kun!!" squealed Hana as she bounced up to hug him.

"'lil Yamazawa! How you doin', buddy." grinned Hasegawa.

"Hello, listeners!" greeted his papa.

"Hey, problem children." joined a deadpan voice. The greenette and purplette turned to see his dad.

"What... the fuck?!" yelled Hitoshi, "That's- that's Eraserhead! Izuku, what the fuck?!"

The latter was already on the floor wheezing and laughing. The former was failing to stifle a laugh with his hand.

Hitoshi .exe has stopped working.

It turned out that Hitoshi was a limp noodle. An example of this would be when they first sparred.

"Hitoshi, get up. I threw one punch, and it barely grazed you." Izuku said, nudging his fallen friend with his foot, "You should work on gaining some weight and muscles. You're skinnier than me, and I'm a stick."

Hitoshi huffed out a laugh, "You are not a stick."

"Break, problem children. Cooldown stretches and then you get five minutes." called out Shota.

"Okay, dad." Izuku called back, already tugging Hitoshi up by the arm and dragging him to the mats in the corner. He turned to his friend who was sluggishly pulling himself into the first stretch and said, "This exercise is perfect for people watching and gossiping."

But as they went through their stretches, Hitoshi found that the only person he could watch was Izuku. Hitoshi was too busy dealing with his internal gay panic to realise that the boy beside him faced the same predicament. Shota, however, did not face the same problem and had no issue with snickering quietly to himself.

Suffice to say, by the end of their training session, both were tired and grinning madly. Hitoshi was less of a stick and Izuku had managed to use a capture weapon once without getting stuck.

"I feel like I'm about to die." Hitoshi stated from beside Izuku in the car, "How do you do that everyday and not feel like jello?"

"Just because I feel like jello, doesn't mean I look like jello." Izuku replied, "Besides, I always feel like I'm about to die."

"Right. Because that really helps." the purplette rolled his eyes.

"If someone punches me, can I sue them for animal abuse?" asked Izuku absently, throwing Hitoshi and Hizashi into a fit of laughter.

"Problem child, no." groaned Shota.

"It's a legitimate question." defended the winged boy.

"You can sue them for assault, Izuku."

"Yeah, but can I also sue them for animal abuse?"

"Who knows." Shota sighed heavily.

They arrived at the Yamazawa home just as the sun was going down. Keigo was already there, filling out paperwork on the couch. Hitoshi did not at all expect Hawks to be wearing glasses, though the other three seemed to already be used to it.

"Your brother wears glasses?" he asked Izuku.

"Yep. He has really good vision when it's far away from him, but apparently he's far-sighted." answered the greenette.

"Boys, set up the table." called Hizashi from the kitchen. Izuku, Hitoshi and Keigo quickly started on the task as Hizashi and Shota started making ramen and karaage chicken.

Dinner was filled with chatter, though with one more voice added to the mix. Mainly it was how school or patrol was, though there was the occasional analysis or some other.

They decided on a movie night as they were cleaning up from dinner, the suggestion coming from Keigo who had seen a trailer to a new movie. The others had quickly jumped on the wagon as well.

It turned out that Hitoshi and Izuku got the same brand of clothes. Evident by the purple 'Cat pants' shirt that Hitoshi wore. So now there was one with 'Cat pants', 'Birb shirt' and 'Birb pants'.

Both teens found it easy to fall asleep in the other's company, though neither said as much. Let it be said that neither boy is good at hiding their feelings for the other, though both just happened to be denser than osmium.

Besides, embarrassing photos of Izuku sleeping on Hitosh's shoulder while the purplette also sleeps was good persuasion (blackmail) material for both families.

------

Izuku had been excited for Saturday since Monday. The reason? He and Toshi got to spend the day out, along with Keigo and Rein. The two boys had been hanging out together more often, be it at school, training, the cafe or some other place. Izuku really couldn't deny his feelings now.

Keigo and Izuku had gotten to the Shinsou house via air travel and met the two Shinsous at the door. It was just after 11.00 am and they had to return home by 5.00 pm, meaning they had 7 hours.

"So, where do you kiddos want to go?" Rein questioned as they walked down the street.

"Can we go to the beach?" the two youngest ask in sync.

"Yeah, sure." he agreed, "You got swimming gear?"

"Yep. Zuku got Keigo's and I've got your's." Hitoshi stated, opening his purple backpack to reveal said gear.

"You planned this on, didn't you?" chuckled Keigo, to which both teens nodded.

They arrived at the beach not long after, quickly getting dressed into their swimming clothes and setting up a little spot for their stuff.

Remember that game that everyone plays at the beach? The one where you just splash others? Hitoshi and Rein quickly found out why you shouldn't oppose people with wings who can easily make a larger splash than you.

"Ack! A fish touched me!" Keigo yelped, flying into the air.

"Drama queen." Izuku rolled his eyes, "Come on, Kei-nii."

"But the fish!"

"Actually," Hitoshi interrupted, "We should get lunch."

"Yes! Lunch!" cheered Keigo.

"Good idea." Izuku hummed.

"What will we get?" asked Rein.

"KFC!"

"KFC!"

"KFC!"

"Woah. KFC it is." Rein muttered.

The group got out of the water and changed back into their casual wear. It wasn't hard to locate the nearest KFC, which was good because all of them were hungry. Better yet, the KFC was close to the arcade they planned on going to.

The look on the waiter's face when Keigo and Izuku asked for chicken was absolutely priceless, sending the group into laughter. Izuku had the privilege of explaining to the poor boy why cannabalism for raptors was a-okay.

Lunch lasted half an hour, after which they made their way to the arcade.

"You don't know about DDR?!" Hitoshi yelled incredulously after Izuku had asked what the game was.

"Toshi, you're talking to a teen who had a neglectful mother for most of his life. Do you really think I would've been taken to the arcade in my childhood?" Izuku deadpanned.

"Fair... Fair point." mutters the purplette, before dragging the winged boy to the Dance Dance Revolution game, "Here, Rein and I will go first to show you what to do. Then You and Keigo can verse each other."

They nodded, and Rein and Hitoshi took their positions on the platforms and selected a song and difficulty. Izuku and Keigo watched in awe as the Shinsous went through the song with expertise.

The analyst in Izuku couldn't help but follow the pattern of the game. The pattern. There's a pattern. Just follow the pattern.

Eventually, the turn came to an end and Izuku and Keigo took their positions. They selected the same song, and, to the Shinsous' shock and confusion, the same difficulty. The greenette took a deep breath and nodded to his brother who then started the game.

Keigo was good. He'd played DDR before, unlike his brother. Which was one of the reasons why it was so shocking that Izuku not only matched his play, but also exceeded. The boy's feet flew across the coloured platform like it was second nature.

Hitoshi watched his friend and suddenly, his breath caught. It was really hot all of a sudden and it showed on the purplette's face as he blushed, though it was probably just him.

Rein watched his brother and stifled a laugh. Oh, his brother was so gay for this kid.

When the turn ended Izuku hopped of the DDR machine and beamed at Hitoshi, who blushed even deeper. Keigo got off and went to Rein, fistbumping him.

"They are so unaware. It's painful." Keigo sighs.

"I second that." Rein huffed.

"You reckon we could, you know, just push it along a bit?" Keigo suggested.

This made Rein grin, "I thought you'd never ask."

They bounced from game to game, winning points, rewards and having fun. At one point, Izuku had figured out how to outsmart the claw machine. The boy had gotten four cat plushies from that game, one red, one lavender, one green and one dark purple.

He gave the red one to Keigo, the dark purple one to Rein and the green one to Hitoshi, keeping the lavender one. Both teens blushed at this, though didn't notice the other. The two older brothers rolled their eyes and sighed.

When they got to the counter to spend their tokens, Keigo got a Mirko key chain with a cheeky expression, Rein got a DIY temporary tattoo kit, Izuku got one purple bracelet as well as a gay bracelet and pin. Hitoshi's eyes immediately caught on one singular object and insisted the other three wait outside.

"Hi, could I please get the necklaces?" he asked, pointing to the said necklaces.

They were two parts of a silver heart. Like one of those friendship necklaces. But Hitoshi recognised the brand of these particular necklaces. The two pieces were connected to each other like puzzle pieces and only fit one other half, and there was a small coloured gem in each half.

The one Hitoshi saw was perfect. One half had a purple gem, while the other had a green one.

The girl smiled at him as she asked the colours he wanted, smiling wider when he asked for the green and purple pair. She got it and passed it to him, "You like that boy, don't you?"

Hitoshi blushed and nodded, "A lot. I want to give him this when I tell him."

"Ah, young love. What a beautiful thing. Take it for free, just don't tell anyone." the lady said, "Go get ice cream or something."

"Y-yes m-ma'am. Thank you." he stuttered as he slipped the box into a small pocket in his bag.

Luckily, his blush had receded by the time he met up with the others. He waved off any questions of what he'd gotten and he simply recommended they get ice cream.

"Hito, what flavour are you getting?" asked Izuku.

"Huh? Oh. Uh, raspberry and chocolate, please." he answered.

"We aren't getting any ice cream, you two." said Rein at their quizzical looks.

"Rein and I are getting frappes." grinned Keigo as he payed for the boys' ice creams.

"Oh, okay." Izuku nodded.

"We'll be back." assured Keigo as him and Rein left the two at a table.

They got their frappes, but didn't go back to the table. Instead, they found a bush to hide behind and watched them in true big sibling nature.

"500 yen says they exchange a bit of their ice cream with the same spoon." Keigo bets.

"500 yen says Hitoshi asks first." Rein adds.

"Oof. You just lost 1000 yen." Keigo chuckled lowly.

"Nooooooooo. Brother you've let me down." the purplette groaned melodramatically.

"It's alright." Keigo said sympathetically, patting the other's shoulder, "This is all for the greater good."

"If they don't get together by themselves, we'll have to outright do something."

"Agreed."

Chapter Text

Hitoshi goes to school on Thursday without Izuku by his side and his pocket feeling heavier than it should be. The former because Izuku had something to do, and the latter being because of the necklaces reminding him of his failure to act on his feelings.

He kicks the ground as he sighs. How is he supposed to be a hero if he can't even tell his crush how he feels?

The school's entryway doesn't feel as impending of doom as the thoughts of rejection playing through his head, and that's saying something considering the constant torture he's endured in the building. It just makes Hitoshi think more about how Izuku has changed his life for the better.

Students are less rude to him now. They don't look at him with disdain or fear, they don't whisper or talk acid, they don't trip or hurt him or take his stuff. It's... nice.

Classes fly by, Hitoshi studiously taking notes like his life depends on it, until third period.

There's frantic knocking at the class door, drawing everyone's attention as the teacher opens it. No one recognises the man outside except for Hitoshi. His heart plummets.

As he watches the man talking to his teacher, Hitoshi starts packing up his belongings, finishing just in time for the blonde to turn and walk to his desk. Hitoshi stands up with his bag in hand and worry in his eyes.

"Hey, listener." Hizashi greets, "We gotta go; Izuku's in the hospital."

"Wh-what?" Hitoshi stammers, "What happened? Is he okay?"

Hizashi runs a hand through his hair as he ushers Hitoshi through the school, "I hope so, kiddo. I... I don't know. We just got the call and... well..."

The rest of the way to the car is silent, as is this drive to the hospital.

Just the sinking feeling of dread.

---

Another person accidentally bumps into his wings, making Izuku tuck them closer to him. He isn't really comfortable with people touching his wings unless he likes them. Kei-nii says it's just a wing quirk thing since it's the same with him and some others he knows.

He looks around again, searching for a nice shop to go to. It's been on his mind for a while now, his feelings for his friend? crush? for Hitoshi. Ever since Izuku met him, he's really liked Hitoshi.

So here he is, searching for the perfect gift to give to the purplette when he confesses. He's already got flowers, but what else? His gaze scans the surrounding area of the small shopping district he's in, then something out the corner of his eyes makes him do a double take.

Perfect.

He rushes to the the other side of the street with a grin, his viridian eyes set upon a sole object, only slowing down a bit once he reaches the door. There's a bell that goes off as he enters, reminding him of the cafe, though slightly different.

Izuku greets the lady at the cashier with a wave before making a beeline to one of the shelves. From the front of the store, Izuku hears the bell dinging, paying no mind to it. That is until he hears the door lock and someone shouting for everyone to get to the front of the shop with their hands up.

Getting out his phone behind his back, Izuku quickly sends an alarm to the Musutafu police as Jade before slipping it into a hidden pocket of his jacket as well as his wallet.

The robber is dressed in all black with no visible mutations. Well, nothing visible at all, really, considering that their wearing a baggy hoodie, baggy pants, gloves, and a balaclava. The thing that really draws Izuku's attention, however, is the gun held in the robber's hand, steady and ready to fire at any moment.

They're experienced, Izuku realises grimly.

"Get on your knees, all of you." they command, everyone doing so. The robber gets out a bag and walks forward, "Put all your valuables in the bag or I shoot you."

They make it around the group before stopping at Izuku, "In the bag, kid. I wasn't joking when I said I was gonna shoot."

"Sorry, sir. I don't have anything." Izuku replies calmly, voice slightly muffled by his face mask.

"How'd you buy the flowers, then?" asks the robber incredulously.

"I used up my allowance on them." he answers.

They huff and move on, irritated, then turn to the counter, emptying the cash register into the bag. Once done, the robber goes back to the front of the shop and points to a young boy, around six and says with a wicked grins that sends shivers down Izuku's spine, "Get here, boy. I need a hostage."

No, no, no, no, no, no. This is bad, this is bad.

Where the hell are the police and heroes??

The robber pulls out a phone and dials the police as the boy gets up, shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. "I want 100,000 yen. I have hostages in this store and a boy at my gunpoint." they speak into the phone, oblivious to the winged boy mentally preparing himself to potentially lose everything with a probably reckless action.

After a few more moments of the robber bargaining with the response operator, Izuku takes a deep breath and spring forward. Alarmed, the robber presses the trigger of the gun, firing it. Everything seems to be in slow motion as two bullets are fired into Izuku's outstretched wing, protecting the younger boy from getting shot.

Izuku shoves the boy out of harm's way and tackles the villain, grabbing their wrist and pressing them to the floor. The robber fires once again, the bullet getting shot into Izuku's thigh, before getting knocked out of their hand.

"Put the phone on speaker." Izuku grits out, trying to suppress the white, hot pain exploding from his wing and thigh. He watches as one of the people shakily gets up and presses the speaker button.

"Hello? This is Jade the hacker vigilante. I've currently got the villain pinned down, now unarmed and not in a position to harm anyone further. There are no civilian injuries but I've been shot three times. I need at least one hero, a police squad and an ambulance, stat. Do you understand?"

"Jade?! Are you alri-"

"I said do you understand? There are fourteen lives at risk here and I need conformation that assistance is on the way. I won't allow any more blood spilled on my watch. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Jade. Help is on the way."

Izuku sighs, "Thank you."

It takes a minute more for heroes, police, and medics to arrive on scene, thanks to the alarm he'd sent earlier. One of the heroes barge in, followed by two police officers. The hero, Blackout, uses her quirk to knock the villain out as the police start to usher out the civilians.

Standing up, Izuku grabs the villain's collar and holds them up. "Hey, Blackout. Nice to meet you. I'm Jade."

"Jade?! As in-"

"The hacker vigilante? Yes, the one and only." Izuku finishes, "Now if you don't mind, I'm about to pass out from blood loss and pain. Just...make sure those flowers...come with me. They're really...really special..."

"Wait, what?" Blackout asks, slightly panicked as she takes the villain from Izuku.

Just as Izuku passes out, he hears a faint shout of, "Medics!"

---

Izuku wakes up in a white room to the smell of antiseptic and a persistent beeping noise. It isn't too hard to discern were he is now.

"Ugh..." he groans, slowly sitting up and grabbing his wing to assess the damage, then pulls down the hospital sheets to see the final bullet wound.

"Kid, you're awake!" a voice suddenly startles him from his right. He looks to see Tsukauchi sitting up alert in one of the chairs.

"Tsuki! You're here. Where's dad and papa?"

"Shota's sorting some stuff out with Dr Conner and Hizashi is getting Hitoshi. Nemuri, Keigo and Rumi are on their way as well. How are you feeling?" he answers.

"I feel fine." Izuku nods, "So the whole family's coming. Papa and dad, aunty Nem, Toshi, Kei-nii, Mi-chan and uncle Tsuki. How nice."

Tsukauchi sputters for a moment before managing to say, "Izuku, I- I'm not you're uncle. You are just high on pain killers."

"You are my uncle," Izuku states, "You always stay at our home. If you aren't, then fight me. I dare you."

"I won't fight you. Especially not when you're currently like that." Tsukauchi sighs, "Besides, I stay at your place because I'm good friends with your parents."

"Exactly! You're helping prove my point!" the boy grins, "You're my uncle Tsuka."

"No, I'm n-"

"Izuku!" a voice cuts Tsukauchi off, drawing their attention to Hizashi and Hitoshi, the latter rushing to hug Izuku. "Holy shit, you scared me four quarters to death."

"Sooooo, you're a corpse?" Izuku asks, hugging back.

"I swear to Kami."

"Huh- Toshi, you're crying!"

"When your dad came and told me you were in the hospital, I thought I might lose you and- and I couldn't..." Hitoshi trails off before taking a deep breath and saying, "I love you, Izuku, and I don't want to lose you."

"You... love me?" Izuku questions, "What a coincidence. I love you, too. Hang on, I had flowers for you. Where are they?"

"Here, kiddo." Tsukauchi says, handing over the bouquet of lilacs.

"Thanks, uncle Tsuka." he thanks, then faces Hitoshi again, "Toshi, I really, really love you, and I guess we're just a new level of dense to not notice each others' feelings, but would you have me as your boyfriend?"

Hitoshi gets out the box containing the necklaces from his pocket and opens it, taking them out. "I was gonna ask you today, but I guess you beat me to it," he says, putting the green half around Izuku's neck and the purple one around his own, "Izuku, I'd love to be your boyfriend."

Izuku stares at Hitoshi for a few more minutes with a dopey grin before saying, "You're so pretty... I wish I could kiss you."

In the background Tsukauchi says, "Kami, he's so high on pain killers."

"We're boyfriends now, Zuku. Kiss me." Hitoshi smiles.

Izuku giggles, "Oh, yeah." He cups Hitoshi's cheeks as the other leans down to kiss him.

The world seems to stop at that moment, leaving it for just the two of the-

"I should've brought popcorn."

"Shut up, Keigo!" hisses Rumi, batting at her boyfriend, "They're having ✨️a moment✨️."

"Mi-chan! Kei-nii! Aunty Nem!" Izuku squeaks out, blushing.

"Oh, my precious nephew is growing up." coos Nemuri, grinning like an idiot.

"We're here too, by the way." Shota adds nonchalantly from next to Dr Conner and Hizashi.

"Oh, dear Kami, I am so gonna die." Izuku mutters, turning dark crimson.

"Well," starts a quite flustered Dr Conner, "You might remember me, Izuku. I'm Dr Conner. It seems that you're doing quite fine already and your injuries are healing up all nice and quick. At this rate you'll be able to go home before tomorrow evening."

"We could call Recovery Girl to go over a last time if that would be alright." comments Hizashi.

"Oh, that would be great." smiles the doctor, "Well, I reckon that's all for now. If you have anything to say or ask just give a shout and I'll be there. I hope I don't see you next time, kid."

"Thanks, Dr Conner." Izuku thanks, waving a goodbye.

The room is silent for a few seconds until Hizashi speaks up, "So, Masa, a little birdie told me that you've been crowned an uncle."

"Oh shut it, you banana-haired dufus."

"The betrayal." gasps Hizashi melodramatically.

Chapter Text

Sitting on the couch, Izuku waits in near silence, thinking as he runs his hand through Coffee's fur. The apartment is empty aside from Izuku and the cats, his dads having gone to work.

A week ago, Izuku woke up in the hospital in Hitoshi's arms, memory hazy. He'd immediately started blushing and stuttering out something intelligible. He could hear chuckles and laughter as Hitoshi looked down to him, a smile on his face.

"Hey, Izu. You remember what happened?" the purplette asked.

"U-uh... I-I don't?"

"Yeah, Dr Conner said that'd happened," Hitoshi huffed, "I'll catch you up."

Izuku blushes at the memory. Apperently, in his drugged state, he'd called Tsukauchi his uncle and had become Hitoshi's boyfriend, which, awesome much. Later in the week, Izuku and Hitoshi went out on their first date, going to the movies to see a very underrated movie starring underground heroics.

Now, Izuku waits at home for two people he thought he'd never see again.

He hears the knocking at the door a little past 10:00 am, so he picks up Coffee and goes to answer. They'd chosen to meet here, since heavy discussions weren't meant for public spaces and it would've been wrong to talk in the home of his childhood tormentor. Besides, here was safe. Here was somewhere he trusted.

Izuku opens the door after taking a deep breath and mentally preparing himself. A flood of emotion crashes down on him as he sees their faces, seeing the happiness and sadness and guilt and other feelings in their expressions. He has to remind himself that he's not looking at Katsuki when he sees her.

"Hi..." Izuku greets after the silence has gone too long. He's unable to call them his aunt and uncle, not after what Katsuki had done. He knows its not their fault, but the uncertainty rushes in with the memories. He hopes that they can go back to what used to be, before this all started.

Mitsuki rushes forward to embrace him, but it's scarier than it should be. All he can see is blonde hair and red eyes and explosions and hate. He takes a step back and brings his arms up in front of his face, eyes screwed shut. He opens his eyes when a blow doesn't come.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, sweetie." Mitsuki says apologetically, terrible sadness and regret in her voice.

"N-no, it's my bad. I just... I'm not that comfortable with..." Izuku takes a breath, "Let's... let's go inside."

He turns and goes to the couch, followed by the two Bakugous, taking a seat.

"How have you been?" Mitsuki asks.

"Good." he replies, "Better than good, actually. My family is really nice and cares about me a lot. I have my dads, my aunt and uncle, my brother and his girlfriend, and my boyfriend and his family. I'm learning under Nezu and I get to hang out with class 2A at UA."

"We're really glad that you're doing good, Izuku." Masaru says, a small smile on his lips.

"How about you? How are you guys?" questions Izuku.

Masaru and Mitsuki share a glance before Mitsuki answers, "We're... We're still just trying to come to terms with all this. It's not everyday that your world gets tilted."

"...oh."

"But we're getting through it, so that's good." Masaru adds, "Anyway, tell us about school or family. We want to know, Izuku. This time it's different... we want to make up."

"Y-yeah." Izuku smiles, "Well, school is easy, and Nezu has me on a special course for the subjects that I chose. The class that dad teaches, the second year hero class, are the ones that I sit in with mostly. Recently, though, I've been going to Kenta, because my boyfriend goes their and I'm helping in the case against the bullies and teachers there. As soon as we shut down Kenta we'll finish the case against Aldera.

"And with my family, I'm really happy. I know it's only been a month and a half, but I knew dad since the day after I ran away, so it was easier for the pieces to just fall into place after that. Papa's even letting me interview heroes on his radio, but under my Emerald persona of course."

Mitsuki and Masari smile at the information, tears pricking their eyes. This is the Izuku they've missed. This is the Izuku that was taken away from them by Inko and their son and everyone else.

"That's wonderful. Does that mean you're still doing those notebooks? I remember that you were obsessed with them, and it was nice to see you preparing for being a hero." Mitsuki says.

"Yep! I've been doing a lot of it lately, especially with my Emerald and Jade jobs, but its still great." nods Izuku, "What about your fashion business?"

"It's going great. We recently got a partnership with another designer brand." Masaru answers.

Izuku grins, "I actually still buy from your brand. I was really happy to see your winged section."

"Yeah, after Hawks' agency contacted us, we decided that we needed to expand our mutants section." Mitsuki nodded.

"That's right. Kei-nii was talking about that." he says.

"If it's alright..." Masaru starts hesitantly, "Not that it changes anything, but... how did you get a quirk?"

"Oh... Oh, right, yeah. Uh... it was a trauma induced quirk awakening." Izuku answers, looking down and fiddling with a feather.

A sniffle startles him to look up to see Mitsuki crying with a hand over her mouth and Masaru pulling her closer.

"We're so sorry, Izuku." she sniffles, "We should have known when Inko stopped talking about you and Katsuki was so tight-lipped. We should have protected you. Instead, it was our own blood that spilled yours."

"It isn't your fault. Really, I swear." Izuku scrambles, flailing his arms around.

Masaru sighs, "It's bigger than that, Izuku. Maybe it's not our fault, but most people are wired to assign blame to themselves. I myself am guilty of how things turned out.

"But... then again... how could anyone have predicted this? Who could've known it would come to this?"

Chapter Text

The second that Kage opens the door, everyone can tell that something is off. The teen is nervous and shifty as they wave and speak awkwardly, “Sorry I’m late, Aizawa-sensei. But uh... I have a... dilemma, sort of.”

Shota raises an eyebrow, “Do continue, Kuroiro.”

“Well, I kinda maybe have a tag-along?” the student blurts out.

“A what?”

“A tag-along? A plus one. An extr-”

Sighing, Shota signals the boy to stop and says, “I know what you’re referring to. Who exactly is this tag-along and why are they here?”

Suddenly, a boy nearly identical to Kage, aside from the straight hair, steps out from behind them with an irritated expression, “I’m Shihai Kuroiro, Kage’s younger brother.”

“Wipe that look off your face, brat. You're already in trouble, are you trying to get me in trouble too?” Kage hisses.

“It’s not my fault the stupid school can’t get their stupid priorities straight.”

Palm to their forehead, Kage sighs, “Shihai got suspended from school for assaulting another student. Mother and father aren’t able to take care of him due to their line of work, so they left him with me.”

Izuku, excited at the prospect of meeting another person of the same age, lands with a flap of his wings in front of the white-haired boy. With a grin on his face, he holds his hand out for a handshake, the other hesitantly taking it and shaking. “Heya!” Izuku greets, “I’m Izuku Yamazawa, nice to meet you. If you don’t mind me asking, why did you hurt that other student?”

“...The boy was talking shit about queer people, and then he said something rude about Kage, so I kneed him in the crotch. I hate people like that.”

“Well, hate is a strong word, but I totally agree with you.” nods Izuku, “You can sit next to me; Hiromatsu is away on a trip to Australia. I hear they have most of the world’s dangerous animals. Anyway, how long are you suspended for?”

“Two weeks. Apparently, setting an asshole straight calls for a long time of not learning.” Shihai huffs.

“Oh, well it’s great that you’re in Japan’s best high school, then. And hey, as a bonus, you got me!” he smiles, “I’m one of Japan’s smartest people, and I could totally tutor you if you want.”

“Izuku,” Shota calls his attention.

“Yeah, dad?”

“If you’re going to teach him, then you can go to the library.” he suggests, “Actually, Hizashi should be there with his class as well.”

“Thanks, dad. Come on, smaller Kuroiro.” smiles the greenette, grasping the boy’s hand and grabbing both their bags before rushing out the door, Shihai in two.

“Just call me Shihai.” the boy says as they slow to a walk and Izuku drops his hold.

“Sure, Shihai. You can call me Izuku. Oh, hey, you wanna be friends?” Izuku asks, “I don’t really have any friends my age.”

“Oh, really?” Shihai questions, confused, “You seem cool.”

“Yeah, it’s complicated. Actually, the only person my age I like is Hitoshi, my boyfriend, oh and you, of course.” Izuku answers absently, but he laughs and quickly adds, “But that doesn’t mean I don't have friends. I’m friends with UA students, heroes, the police force, vigilantes, cafe goers, family friends. I’m not lonely by any means.”

“I don’t really have friends either.” Shihai admits, shrugging, “I’m not too social, so it is kind of my fault, but others just don’t like me. It doesn’t bother me that much though.”

“Nonsense! Humans are social animals.”

“Anyway, you said that you were one of the smartest in Japan?”

“Oh yeah, I am. I’ve already graduated college and stuff. I’m Nezu’s personal student, but even he’s starting to run out of things to teach me.” Izuku giggles, “So, what are you learning in school?”

“Essay on the quirk wars, Pythagorean theorem, research task on dystopian literature, and the quirk theory.” Shihai lists off as they enter the library.

“Sweet.” Izuku grins, flapping his wings a bit in excitement.

--

Three hours later... (Bonus points if you read that in the SpongeBob voice)

“I’m drained.” Shihai groans, sinking into his chair, drawing a slightly concerned and amused look from Hizashi, “How do people study like this so much?”

“But... it’s not that hard?” Izuku says, confused.

“Easy for you to say, Izuku; you’re a bona fide genius.” the boy whines flopping onto the table, “It’s basically second nature for you.”

“Oh, well, if it doesn’t come easy to you, I guess you could always choose a profession that doesn’t require this material.” says Izuku.

“I’m going to be a hero, just like Kage. I need good grades to get into UA, so I need to do well in my studies.” Shihai replies in a huff as he lifts his head and glares at the worksheets provided by Izuku with a determined glint, “I need to be a hero.”

“Well then, Shihai, I will try my absolute best to help you achieve your goal. I can tutor you and ask my dad to help train you.” he promises with a similar flame of resolution, wings puffing up as a smile splits his face.

“Thanks, dude.” Shihai grins back, “Oh yeah, what do you wanna be?”

“Me? I want to be a hero too.” answers Izuku, twirling a pencil between his fingers, “I’ve always wanted to be one, so I can save people.”

“Well, then. I’ll see you at the top.” Shihai says, holding out his hand.

Taking the boy’s handshake, Izuku nods with a smile, “See you at the top.”

--

Shihai doesn’t really know what to expect as he waits for his new winged friend and his boyfriend to arrive at their meeting place. Awkwardly, he stands in front of the beach by himself, kicking at the ground and looking around. It’s a nice beach and it's the perfect conditions for a day out in the sun.

He admires the pristine, almost white sand and the sparkling clear waters, eyes drifting farther to the boats on the horizon before snapping to the voice calling his name. Izuku waves cheerfully to him, smiling, his other hand in the purple-haired boy’s grasp, as they make their way to him.

“Hi, Shihai!” he greets once they reach him, “How are you?”

“I’m good, Izuku,” Shihai responds, smiling back, “What about you?”

“Good, good. I’m doing splendid. Anywho, Shihai, meet Shinsou Hitoshi, my boyfriend. Tosh, meet Kuroiro Shihai, the friend I met at UA.”

“Yo,” Shinsou says boredly, though not unkindly, then smirked mirthfully, “So, you’re the one who got suspended for standing up to a bully? Sweet, dude.”

Unseen by the two, Shihai flushes in embarrassment before clearing his voice a bit and saying, “Yeah, and you’re, well, obviously you’re his boyfriend. It’s- It’s really nice to meet you.”

“Pfft, you’re so uptight. Relax, Kuroiro, I don’t bite.” Hitoshi chuckling.

“You can call me Shihai,” he laughs slightly with him, “And it’s not that I think you’d hurt me, it’s just that I have social anxiety and meeting new people is awkward for me and yeah.”

“Same with me.” Hitoshi agrees, “Though my anxiety is better around Zuku. Oh, and just call me Hitoshi.”

“Cool, cool.” Izuku speaks up, grinning, “On another note, do you guys know how to bowl?”

They pause for a moment before Shihai asks, “Wait, like with a bowling ball and an alley and stuff?”

“Yep!” he chirps happily

“Sweet.” Hitoshi smiles.

“I second that.” agrees Shihai, just as happy, as they start walking to the nearby bowling alley as they continue to chat. They don’t have to walk for long, as the bowling alley isn’t too far away, though it’s past midday as they walk through the doors.

“Good afternoon,” Izuku greets the worker at the desk happily, “could we please get a lane?”

“Sure, kiddo.” the guy nods, looking the three over and bringing up three pairs of bowling shoes, “Lane three is free; you got two games.”

They all say their thanks as they pick up their shoes – which somehow fit perfectly – and Izuku pays, before they head over to the mentioned lane. As they’re swapping out their shoes, Izuku speaks up sheepishly, “You guys are gonna have to teach me how to bowl; I’ve never played before.”

“Sure.” they nod, Shihai cheekily adding, “The student becomes the master.”

“Teach me your ways, oh great sensei.” Izuku bows with the same energy, then looks up to the scoreboard, “So, you go first, Shihai?”

“Yeah,” he says, picking up a bowling ball, “Just watch me and I’ll tell you what to do.”

Shihai moves to stand a bit away from the mouth of the lane, Izuku watching from a few steps to the side. “So, you gotta stand a bit behind the foul line with the ball at your side, and as you walk just before the line, you bring the ball up, swing it back, then forward as you release it.”

Izuku and Hitoshi watch as the ball hits the ground and rolls smoothly and quickly down the middle of the lane, striking down all the pins. Shihai flashes them a bright grin, giving Izuku double thumbs up.

Tentatively, Izuku picks up a bowling bowl, trying to replicate how Shihai had shown him before as the two others give him encouraging looks. Izuku gives them a nervous smile before swinging his arm and releasing the ball. They watch the ball with eyes of hawks, though it doesn’t take long before the bowling ball rolls sideways into the lane gutter.

Surprise takes over their features, shocked that Izuku, someone who was good at everything, and who they were accustomed to acing everything he tried, could do badly at something so easy. Of course, they already knew that failure was something that everyone faced, Izuku included, but it just seemed so alien to them. Izuku himself looks oddly at the ball as it rolls away in the gutter, something unreadable passing his face before he starts to pout.

“Where did I go wrong?” he questions, looking like a kicked puppy as he turns to look to them for guidance.

Hitoshi immediately heats up at the puppy eyes aimed at him by his oblivious boyfriend, a dark blush spreading across his face as he spins around to hide his very gay panic. Shihai, being as straight as a ruler, has no qualms with facing the greenette’s gaze and pointing out what went wrong and how the boy could improve.

By the time Hitoshi has calmed down, Izuku is already staring the alley down with a determined expression that could rival a cat’s determination to knock down every single thing that’s not attached to where it sits. This time, when Izuku releases the ball, it rolls smoothly, looking like it’ll hit the pins until it starts drifting to the side near the end, striking down a total number of two pins.

Izuku disappointedly waddles into Hitoshi’s waiting arms, the boy wrapping him in a comforting hug, making Shihai feel more single than he ever has in his entire life. Awkwardly, Shihai goes to pat Izuku on the back, saying, “Hey, two’s an improvement, dude. You’ll get better.”

Nodding at the encouragement, Izuku regains that undying determination in his eyes, quickly switching to hurrying Hitoshi to get his ball and do his turn. The purple-haired teen complies, doing as his boyfriend tells him to do, though Shihai sees something in Hitoshi’s stance that makes him mentally facepalm. Honestly, this guy is so head over heels for Izuku.

Shihai’s thought ends up standing in the end as Hitoshi intentionally throws his ball in a way that purposefully gets him less pins as to not make Izuku feel bad. Of course, Izuku doesn’t notice, too busy cheering him on for him to see what the boy had done. Shihai really does facepalm this time.

The rounds go on after that, Shihai deciding to go along with Hitoshi’s quite irrational but completely understandable plan to protecc the cinnamon roll from feeling too bad. They go through one milkshake each, a plate of six taiyaki, and a whole lot of energy before they finish their games, Shihai unsurprisingly winning. Laughter and chatter follow them as they make their way back to the front desk, returning their bowling shoes and getting passes to the arcade.

Hitoshi proves to be scarily proficient and accurate on all of the shooting games but is sorely outmatched by Shihai in Mortal Combat and Maimai. Both of them absolutely cower to Izuku in Dance Dance Revolution, Hitoshi having flashbacks of watching Izuku play the game when they went to the arcade with Rein and Keigo. Shihai is just scared. Absolutely terrified. This is not humanly possible.

By the time that Rein pulls up to pick them up and take them home, they’re all grinning and sweaty with their prizes in their arms, absolutely exhausted. Rein just sighs, trailing into chuckles as they pile into his car before he pulls onto the road, listening as they retell the day as he drives to Shihai’s house, then Izuku’s, then to the Shinsou household.

Chapter Text

It’s midday on a Saturday that finds Izuku, Hitoshi, and Shihai in the cafe, the latter two talking to the former as he continues to work.

“I’m just saying, dude,” Shihai exclaims, “I don’t get how you can do the obstacle course so easily without using your quirk.”

“I don’t know, Shihai,” Hitoshi rolls his eyes, “maybe it could be that his dad literally made the course and has twenty-four-seven access to it?”

Shrugging as he calls out a takeaway number, Izuku answers, “It’s fun, honestly. Shihai, it should be easiest for you, considering your umbraportation.”

“Wait, what’s that again?” Hitoshi asks, mind blanking at the term.

“The ability to teleporting through shadows.” Shihai responds, then turns to Izuku, “But your dad said we can’t use our quirks, or we become too reliant on-”

The boy is cut off by the door slamming open, everyone’s attention shooting up as Izuku readies to scold whoever had done it before seeing the frantic and hurt looking boy, standing in the doorway. Without understanding the full situation, Izuku rushes to the boy’s side, ushering him behind the counter to hide.

Moments later, a heated presence floods the cafe as Endeavour steps onto the premises, Izuku matching the glare Endeavour has on him. The monster of a man walks up to the counter, staring him down as everyone watches in silence.

“Child,” Endeavour growls, “Have you seen this boy?”

Izuku stares at the picture Endeavour holds up, clearly depicting the teen hiding underneath the very counter separating the hero from the winged teen.

“Endeavour,” Izuku counters, wings flaring a bit, “You have no right to come in here, disrupt business, and ask for something that is not included in our services. You may come here for coffee, or food, but under no circumstances may you come here demanding for someone.”

Something in the man’s mind must click into place as he seems to recognise Izuku’s voice from the countless times he’s refused to analyse anything for the pro, fury washing over his expression.

“You insolent brat.” he snarls lowly, Izuku motioning for Hitoshi to stay seated, “You have denied information on many previous occasions and now this?”

“One might question why that is after it occurs so many times,” Izuku bites back, “But it seems that you are just a giant asshole who can’t see past his own fire.”

Izuku doesn’t flinch when Endeavour’s fiery hand slams down on the counter in front of him. He doesn’t, but it’s a near thing. In the back of his mind, chains rattle insistently as the memory of that day tries to break loose. He doesn’t want to remember. He doesn’t want to be back there.

“Don’t talk to a hero like that, boy.” he seethes, the air around him growing hotter by the minute. He fights back the urge to cry, hating the memories brought back to his mind by the fire.

Izuku himself pulls out his own fire, his wings turning into that beautiful but deadly ombre, “Try me, Endeavour. Remember what I said; I can and will release every single piece of dirt on you. I am not afraid of you. Now get the fuck out of this cafe and never return.”

The colour in Endeavour’s face drains quickly, along with his flames, Izuku briefly thinking that the man will just collapse in front of him, before he shakes himself out of it and storms out of the cafe. Izuku can’t hold it back anymore, the panic and fear of a boy who’d died ages before flooding his veins and spilling from his eyes as his legs give out.

His thoughts run from him, and all that he can see is the red, angry fire that had hurt him so many times before through his tear-filled eyes. He’s shaking, hands trembling on his lap as water drips down and his breathing comes in stuttered. A cold, tentative hand reaches out to him, rubbing his back comfortingly as familiar purple appears in his vision, a voice filtering through the static in his ears.

“Zuku, can you hear me?” Hitoshi’s voice is filled with worry.

Nodding, Izuku tries to face him, blinking away the tears that keep on coming.

“I- I can’t,” a voice so alien but so familiar as his own speaks shakily, “I d-don't-. I was so sure that it wouldn’t affect me anymore, b-but I was there, and the fire just hurt so much and-.”

“You hate fire too?” an unfamiliar voice asks.

He brings his hands to his eyes to wipe away his tears, only to be faced with the boy who he now recognises as Shoto Todoroki. There’s an impassive expression on his face, similar to Shota’s, and maybe that’s how he can so easily discern the curiosity and concern hidden beneath it.

“N-not all fire.” he answers, “But most of it. Oh, but wait, are you okay? He was chasing you, wasn’t he? And you’re hurt! Oh, hang on a second, let me get my first aid kit.”

He rushes to get up, drying his eyes with his sleeve and oblivious to the still worried looks on their faces as he himself worries over the candy cane haired teen. Hitoshi stands, followed by Shihai and the other teen. The purplette, who had helped multiple times in the cafe before, starts helping Sasuke behind the counter after sending the other two to follow the greenette, worry still plaguing him. They do as told, Shihai leading the other to where Izuku sees them and opens the kit on the bench.

Izuku looks him over, thankfully only seeing bruises instead of burns, but checks with the teen either way, “Where are you hurt?”

He nods when the boy confirms that there’s only the two bruises on his face and peeking out from his sleeve. As Izuku is putting on the bruise cream, he asks, “So, you’re Shoto Todoroki, right?”

The boy gives an affirmative sound before saying, “Please just call me Shoto, though.”

“Yeah, I thought so.” Izuku hums under his breath, though Shoto still hears, “This here is my friend, Shihai Kuroiro,” said boy waves, “the purplette is Hitoshi Shinsou, and I’m Izuku Yamazawa. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too.” Shoto returns, “Thanks for helping me as well.”

“No problem.” Izuku beams, “Though would I be right in guessing that you’d rather not go back there?”

“Well... it’s not like I’d hav-.”

“Say no further, Shoto!” Izuku exclaims, “My dads will be really happy that I’ve made a new friend, plus I’ve told of what I know about the Todoroki situation. Sorry about the invasion of privacy, but they’re really good pro heroes and they understand what’s going on.”

Tilting his head to the side slightly, Shoto asks, “Really? Who are they?”

“Oh, Present Mic and Eraserhead.” he answers brightly, quickly getting two icepacks and wrapping them in thin towels before handing them to Shoto.

The boy seems to ponder for a moment before ultimately deciding that returning to that house would be a death sentence, “I would hate to intrude, though given that you offered, I’d like to accept your proposition.”

Both Shoto and Shihai blanch when they notice Izuku is already on call with someone, presumably one of his parents, retelling what had happened to have led up to this point, as well as asking if they could have a friend sleep over. They can tell the exact moment that whichever dad he had on call says yes, as Izuku isn’t shy about letting a wide grin stretch over his face.

He talks a bit more before saying goodbye and giving them double thumbs up, “All good to go; you’re coming home with me tonight.”

Shihai huffs in amusement, “Zuks, don’t say that like you’re adopting a stray kitten.”

“Oh,” Izuku says innocently, “But aren’t I?”

And with that, the boy cheerfully makes his way back to behind the counter, relieving Hitoshi from substituting for him and continuing to talk with his boyfriend. Shihai turns to Shoto with a knowing look, “Good for you, dude. You just got adopted by one of the best families out there. Crazy, but good. I guess it’s a good thing that they moved into a bigger house, since from what I can tell, the Yamazawa family has been growing at a quick rate since Izuku joined it.”

“Really?” Shoto questions.

Shrugging, Shihai responds, “Well, I just became friends with Izuku and Hitoshi a month ago, but from what I’ve been told, Izuku got Nezu to become a weird sort of grandpa for him, dragged Keigo into the family, then the Shinsous, then got his dads’ friend to be his uncle. And then there's his auntie, who’s not biologically related. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t think any of them are biologically related.”

“...Wow.” the boy says.

“Also, I don’t know what you’ve been through, but I have no qualms with decking you if you do something to him. You may be a legacy kid, but he’s my friend first.” he warns, though something in his voice betrays that he doesn’t actually think that Shoto would do anything. Don’t get him wrong, the threat stands, he just doesn’t think he’ll need to go through with it.

They go back to the main part of the cafe, Izuku quickly fixing up a hot chocolate for Shoto between orders as he talks with them. After a quick scare from Izuku seeing someone who looked like Endeavour, Sasuke goes to fetch his extra hoodie for Shoto to borrow to hide his identity.

Shoto, who’s never felt this friendliness from any stranger, is reeling at the situation, not quite believing it, though no one can see it. Did Endeavour go too far and he’s dreaming? Was he hit with a hallucination quirk? Is he in a coma? But he looks around and it seems far too real, and he can feel his bruise still hurting slightly, despite the ice. And wow, this hot chocolate is really good. Good enough to get him to stop glancing to the streets in fear of Endeavour coming back. Good enough to get him to tune into their conversation.

“-I just feel like the fight could’ve gone more in his favour if he used his brain a bit more and used his quirk to reflect the light into the villain’s eyes to temporarily blind him.” the boy who Izuku said was Shinsou mentions.

“I agree,” Izuku nods before waving goodbye to one of the regulars, “But at least there weren't any casualties. Still, heroes have been slowly getting worse at their jobs. It isn’t that hard to remember fifth grade science.”

Laughing, the boy named Kuroiro says, “Oh Kami, I just imagined the top ten heroes sitting in a school classroom.”

“Nah, dude,” Shinsou sniggers slightly, “Half of them wouldn’t even fit in their chairs. They’re so muscly.”

“All muscle and no brains,” Izuku adds, “We have brains, but we’re built like twigs, and we would probably still be better heroes than them.”

Shoto thinks about Yamazawa’s comment, thinking of how absurd it is. But then he thinks of how he’d been trained by the number two hero for most of his life, even if he didn’t like it. And he thinks of how Yamazawa had made Endeavour scared, even if he’d had that reaction afterwards. He thinks of how he doesn’t know Shinsou’s or Kuroiro’s quirks yet, and how they could be powerful. He comes to the conclusion that Yamazawa could be right.

After what feels like just a mere hour, they find themselves still discussing multiple topics of interest before one of them realises that it’s been five hours. It doesn’t really matter to them, considering they’d gotten Shoto to actually participate in the conversations, even if it’s just a few sentences here and there, not to mention that they’d been genuinely enjoying themselves. Sasuke ended up clocking out an hour before, since he had his college class to attend, assuring that Shoto could keep the hoodie until he got one of his own.

Eventually, the other cafe worker clocks in, allowing Izuku to finish his shift just as Keigo lands on the street and walks into the cafe. Izuku runs up to him, throwing his arms around his brother’s neck and latching onto him with an exclamation of, “Kei-nii!!”

“Hey, little dude.” Keigo chuckles, easily holding Izuku up from all the past times this has happened, “How’s it going?”

“Good.” Izuku replies, grinning, “You?”

“Yeah, not too bad.” he responds, Izuku dropping to the ground lightly as he releases Keigo, peaking behind him to see Rumi walking through the door in sweats, having obviously just been on a run.

“Sup, kiddo.” she greets, holding out her fist.

“Hi, Mi-chan.” Izuku grins, bumping her fist with his own.

Hitoshi and Shihai walk up to them, followed by a slightly nervous Shoto. The two former ones greet them with fond familiarity before Izuku tugs Shoto to the front and introduces the boy, “This is Shoto. He’s staying over. Shoto, this is my brother, Keigo, and his girlfriend, Rumi.”

“Hey, kiddo.” Keigo grins, “Nice to meet you.”

Rumi follows that with an offered high five, Shoto hesitantly accepting as they exchange greetings. They make their way outside of the cafe, Izuku waving to the other worker before closing the door behind them, hugging his friends goodbye as they go opposite ways to their homes.

Keigo, Rumi and Izuku fall into conversation, all three trying to get Shoto to engage as they walk through the streets towards the Yamazawa residence. At this point, nearly the whole family lived in the house that was paid by the salaries of five heroes, three teachers, a detective, and a famous analyst, plus a cafe worker. It’s a six-room house between the upper and lower part of Musutafu in a nice place.

There was of course Shota, Hizashi and Izuku living there, along with Naomasa who’d gotten kicked out of his last apartment for flooding it with police paperwork and case files. Aunty Nem moved in too, since it was way closer to UA and her lease was ending, plus the Yamazawas offered. And Keigo was basically dragged out of the Commission’s clutches by Izuku and thrown in the house, bringing Rumi with him. Now, Izuku’s going ensure that Shoto is lumped in with the family, ignoring the fact that he’s being selfish for seeing himself in the abused boy.

Opening the front door, they can immediately smell Hizashi and Nemuri making dinner, their mouths watering with how good it smells. They take their shoes off, lining them against the wall before they walk in, Izuku leading Shoto by the hand.

It’s so alien, he thinks, mind racing through all of the times he’d wandered around the house, hating how bare and void of love it was. It’s bittersweet as he watches the Yamazawa’s greet each other with a love he barely gets anymore. They'd managed to make such a beautiful family is just months, whereas the Todoroki’s couldn’t do it over nearly a quarter of a decade.

But it just seems to disappear. It just sort of vanishes as Present Mic shoots him a bright grin and wraps him in a big hug. It makes sense, considering the fact that Present Mic is in the top ten for friendliest heroes in Japan, yet it still catches him off guard.

“Hey there, little listener!” the hero pulls back, patting him on the shoulder, “It’s so great to have you here.”

“Thank you, Present Mic.” he bows, “I really appreciate it.”

“No problem, little listener. Oh, and you can just call me Hizashi.” the man says, bright smile unwavering.

Nodding, Shoto replies, “Please just call me Shoto then.”

“Coolio, kiddo.” Hizashi agrees, though quickly runs back to the kitchen when Keigo’s panicked voice calls out for him. Keigo isn’t supposed to be in the kitchen. Not after the incident.

Izuku lets out a laugh before turning to Shoto with a smile, taking his hand and leading the boy upstairs and into the first room on the left. Two men are standing at a bulletin board with pins, papers and red string placed all over it, though they turn as they hear the door open.

“Hi dad! Hi uncle Nao!” Izuku greets cheerfully, bounding up to the black-haired man and hugging him.

“Hey Zuku.” the man, his dad presumably, says, followed by a greeting of, “Afternoon, kid.” from the other.

The greenette pulls away to look at the board, a case of a serial killer that’d first come up a month ago. At first, the murders weren’t thought to be connected, but they had come to the conclusion that all were done with the same person. Shoto also studies the board, piecing together bits and pieces from what he’d heard Endeavour ranting about.

“His hideout is that old bookstore.” he says at the exact same time that Izuku does.

They both look at each other in bewilderment, Shoto’s shock more concealed but still visible.

It’s then that the man Shoto had concluded that was Izuku’s other father greets him, walking up to him with a deadpan expression similar to his own and patting him twice on the head.

“You look like a candy cane.” the man states, “I’m Izuku’s dad. Call me Shota.”

“...Thank you?” Shoto replies, sounding more like a question, “You can call me Shoto.”

“Nice to meet you, Shoto.” Shota nods, then says, “The other guy is Naomasa. He’s the uncle. Don’t give him shellfish.”

And then he just... walks out. Shoto is so confused. What just happened?

He turns to Izuku who is trying to hide his laughter but failing miserably. “He likes you. That’s just his way of joking with someone who he doesn’t know. Oh, and the shellfish thing is fake. Uncle Nao can have shellfish.”

“Oh, okay.” is all that Shoto responds with, letting Izuku lead him once again, this time to the room at the end of the hallway.

The boy knocks twice, letting a feminine voice carry through a ‘yes’ before opening the door, revealing none other than pro hero Midnight sitting cross-legged on her bed with embroidery art in her hands.

“Hi, Auntie Nem.” Izuku smiles, hugging the woman after she sets down the art.

“Hello Zuku.” she returns, then looks up to Shoto, “Who’s your friend?”

“That’s Shoto.” answers Izuku, “He’s staying over.”

“Oh that’s nice.” the woman smiles, “Hello, dear. It’s nice to see Izu’s friends and it’s lovely to meet you. Call me Aunt Nem, or just Nemuri if you prefer.”

“Alright,” Shoto responds, “Please call me Shoto.”

“Okay, Shoto.” Nemuri nods.

It’s slightly weird to Shoto to see the R-rated heroine acting like this, but he knows to not judge someone by the facade they put up for the media. After that, Izuku takes him to a room with hero posters plastered on the walls, books lining the shelves, and a multitude of plushies piled on the bed. Oddly enough, Shoto feels a tug in his brain of wanting as he sees the soft toys. He’d read somewhere that children who are forced to grow up too fast often find themselves acting or wanting childish things when they’re older. It seems that he and his new friend are the same.

Maybe it’s the kindness that they’ve shown him, or the strange comforting air around the greenette, but Shoto finds himself letting down his walls. He lets his cold exterior melt away as Izuku waves him over to take the second controller for Mario Kart. He lets himself have fun.

Unbeknownst to them, two men talk in the kitchen beneath them.

“We are adopting that child.” Shota states bluntly.

“Yeah, Sho.” Hizashi smiles back, “Yeah we are.”

“You do realise Endeavour’s gonna have our necks, right?” Keigo sticks his head into the kitchen, interrupting.

“And?” the two deadpan in sync.

After a moment, Keigo shrugs and says, “Fair enough,” before walking away.

“I mean, is it really kidnapping if the child is willing and the father’s an asshole?” Hizashi questions, a grin on his face.

“What kidnapping?” Shota shrugs, “This isn’t kidnapping.”

Chapter Text

Maybe it's the fact that Naomasa's expression holds such deep pain, or maybe it's how he clutches his computer on his lap. Maybe it's the rain pouring down heavily, or the thunder that strikes the earth in rage. Maybe it's their own fear of what has come.

Maybe it's the truth they don't want to accept.

No matter how many times they replay the recording; no matter how many times they sit through the CCTV footage. No matter how many times they watch their son get crushed by a fallen idol, then see how he cuts his own last string. Or maybe he had none in the first place, and that's why he falls like a puppet.

Ignorance is a bliss, they say. But ignorance is just subjecting someone else to the pain as you turn away. Truthfully, ignorance is a sin.

Hizashi has enough, eyes tearing away from the screen as he runs to the bathroom covering his mouth. Shouta wants to follow; wants to cry or throw up or comfort his husband or all three. But he can't. He's frozen stiff like a coward who's too afraid to fight. Such a coward, when his son had to fight so much for so long.

It's unfair, and it's life, but it can't be changed.

A part of Shouta is grateful that it's just the three of them, but the rest of him faces a raging storm that threatens to break him. He has to force breath into his lungs, and it pains him to do so when a heavy feeling settles in his ribs. He knows what he has to do.

"Shouta..." Naomasa starts, briefly looking up at Hizashi stumbling back into the room, "I... I didn't know... I'm sorry. If- If I'd known I would've never been friends with him."

"It's- It's fine. I don't blame you for what he did. I just- I need to talk with Izuku and- and figure things out." his voice sounds unfamiliar, suppressing the tears and shaking into a somewhat calm and reasonable tone, despite breaking on the edge of breaking.

But he's on the edge nonetheless, just like his son was. Because that's what happened, and Shouta, as much as he wanted, couldn't change that.

"R-right." Hizashi agrees, voice trembling as he grips his husband's hand while sitting beside him.

"I... I can't imagine how this feels for you two..." Naomasa's gaze diverts, "but... he's my nephew, and the kid deserves to be happy, and I think he's still dealing with what happened that night."

Hizashi chokes on a sob as Shouta tries to mask his distraught with stoicism.

Shouta fumbles slightly with his phone, calling his son's contact before waiting until he picks up.

His cheery voice breaks something inside him, "Hi dad!! How did your meeting go? Was the case hard? Do you guys want me to bring coffee?"

"No, Izuku, it's fine." Shouta says, surprisingly calm, "Could you just please come home? Just you."

He can just see his son's confused expression through the call as he speaks, "Sure? I'll be there soon."

The silence that follows after the call ends is deafening, though that can't be right because the storm is getting heavier.

The storm...

--

Izuku doesn't know why his dad wants him home, but he waves to his aunt, brothers, and boyfriend before spreading his wings and shooting up into the sky. With a flap of his wings, fire engulfs them, nulling out the rain, but it doesn't last. Panic surges through him at the sight of flames surrounding him before he manages to stop it. The rain drenches him once again, but he can't feel it over his quickened heart rate drumming in his ears.

It's okay.

It's okay.

It's okay.

Pushing through the hold that encases him, Izuku makes his way through the rain to his home, but his heart lunges to his throat again at the sight of a lone figure on a rooftop. On the edge. And then not.

Izuku falls into a dive, wings pulled tight to his back, ready to spread out at the sight of ground. Then, falling beside him, he sees a man with heavy scarring and white hair. He doesn't hesitate in darting to wrap his arms around the man's waist, twisting his body so that he takes the impact of the wall that they crash into. Thank Kami for the ledge so that Izuku can get a footing to compose himself before making his back to the roof.

The roof... that's... familiar. Too painfully familiar.

Setting the man down, Izuku falls to his knees as coughs wrack his frame before looking up at the man who stares back in bewilderment and then a sad anger.

"Why did you stop me?!" the man's eyes brim with tears that mix with the rain.

"I- I hate seeing people die." Izuku answers, standing up shakily. This feels all too familiar, even though the situation is vastly different.

He wants to hear those words.

You can be a hero, even without a quirk.

"Please, don't make the same mistake..." he mumbles, just loud enough for the man to hear as Izuku puts his hand to the man's chest, maybe just to confirm that his heart is still beating.

Don't make the same mistake...

The one that Izuku himself made when he jumped off, or the one that All Might made when he shattered Izuku's dreams? Did All Might even make a mistake? Was he right?

"Go home, please, and don't try to kill yourself. It's not worth it, trust me." he says, experience laying heavy in his tired words. Is he trying to convince himself?

"I..." the man starts but trails off, rage forgotten at the sight of this... this broken teenager, "Okay."

"Thank you..." Izuku drops his arm, letting the man hesitantly walk to the exit door, leaving him alone to stumble to the edge of the roof.

He gazes down, hate, rage, sadness all swirling in with his tears as he looks at the road that watched Deku die.

"You won that battle," Izuku says bitterly, "But I'll never let you win again. Are you happy now, Bakugou? Are you happy now that you've killed him, when his only crime was loving you? What about you, mother and father? And you, All Might? Are you happy that you killed a young child who idolised you? Well?! Are you?!"

Hot tears spill down his face as he turns to the sky. What does he look for up there? A life he'd only get in another world?

Then he turns away, spreading the wings that were born from his ashes, and flies back home.

Chapter Text

Shoto is confused.

After being in his father’s grasp for so long, this fresh, flameless air feels... strange. It’s quite bittersweet, as even though he’d always been the one to face the rage of his father, he’s still leaving Natsuo and Fuyumi in that house... with him.

But Endeavour wouldn’t dare to touch them, not with the dirt that Izuku is holding over his head.
Izuku.

Izuku Yamazawa is also strange. The boy is an enigma, acting as though he’s been abused, even when the Yamazawa household is nothing but kind. Acting as though he’s been bullied, even when he goes to UA of all places. Acting like he’s the most inferior person in the world, even when he’s one of the best.

But Izuku is so kind and caring, not even hesitating to call Shoto his brother, and he’d stood up to Endeavour. Looking at the rest of the Yamazawas, though, Shoto isn’t surprised that Izuku is the way he is, surrounded by the best and kindest heroes and detective.

Yet Shoto waits.

He waits for the other shoe to drop.

What if this family is the same as his last? What if it’s all too good to be true? What if, what if, what if?

What if Endeavour takes him back?

Shoto’s skin crawls with bugs set aflame by that man, digging through his flesh and biting at his bones until he himself feels as though he’s been engulfed in that oh so familiar fire. It burns. It hurts. But Shoto can’t do anything to help himself, expression frozen from years of numbness.

But the numbness isn’t there to shield him anymore.
He’s trapped in the pit he’d been swallowed by since he got his quirk.

The quirk of a monster. The quirk that made half of him like a monster; like him.

Frost creeps up his fingers, the ice piercing into his skin and drawing blood that threatens to spill, yet Shoto can only think of it as a comfort. Shoto can only think of her as comfort. The boiling water never existed in her hands. It was a nightmare. Just a nightmare. Just-

He doesn’t know who he’s trying to convince.

Maybe himself.

Maybe the young, innocent boy that was trapped in his cage of a mind, by a key held by the ‘saint’ that turned demonic from power and greed and jealousy.

Maybe the ghosts of a family he could’ve sat down to eat cold soba with, if not for the treachery they all faced, inevitably fracturing them all.

And then the switch flips, and the light flickers briefly before shutting off entirely, drenching him in darkness. It’s so cold, yet this time he can’t decide if it’s good or not. He hates this. This isn’t numbness that walls him off from pain. This is a static that distorts everything into a sharp, jagged, raking mess that claws at his body and shoots thorns through his mind.

And suddenly he isn’t in a glass sharded room with paper-thin walls that fold like origami into a claustrophobic box, sucking the air out of his lungs like a greedy whirlpool. He’s outside, sitting on the front steps leading to the Yamazawa household, under the inky sky with the cold wind biting at him.
He’s better off dead.

So Shoto stands, hating himself for being so rude as to not thank the kind family that had been willing to take him in before he leaves, and takes a grand total of two steps before he hears the door open behind him, warm light spilling onto him as he turns to see Eraserhead leaning against the doorframe. They stand, unmoving, staring silently with equally apathetic expressions as even the night holds its breath.

“I had a feeling,” the man admits finally, dropping his arms from where they were previously crossed against his chest, “Strays have a tendency to be wary of care, no matter how innocent it is. Izuku ran away at first, or rather, flew away. Keigo kept his walls up, guarding himself until he realised there was no reason to. I myself did it when I was around your age. Point is, whatever is nagging at you to isolate yourself because ‘you’re a burden’ is lying to your face.”

Shoto’s fists clench until his knuckles turn a searing white and crescents dig into his palms, “I can’t be around you or your family. They’ll be in danger. I’d only hurt you. If not me, then them. They’ll find where I am, and they’ll take me away, and then you’ll be in trouble.”

“Kid, we’re a family that plays on the line of danger. Heroes and heroes-to-be, a detective and a kid who’s put away half of the villains in Tartarus, a HPSC escapee; whatever you’ll bring to the table, it’s nothing new.” a wry smile tugs at the man’s lips, “If anything, you’d be the one put in more danger.”

“But the Her-”

“The Safety Commission wouldn’t dare to touch us, especially when we have so many influential people on our side,” Eraserhead, or rather Shota, sighs, “I’m the one of the best in the Underground, Hizashi, Nemuri, Keigo and Rumi are some of the most known above ground, not to mention the social work that Zashi does and Keigo’s past, Naomasa is the best detective in Musutafu, Nezu is the smartest thing on earth and is the principal of one of the most renowned hero schools, and Izuku is, well, Izuku. The kid is a force to be reckoned with, especially with the rest of the gremlins. Oh, and we have basically everyone in UA.”

Shoto’s mind short-circuits. Of course, logically, he knew that the Yamazawas were an important family, considering how most of them are either heroes or teachers at UA, or both, but logical thinking tends to be thrown out the window when you have a shit father. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to the boy when the facts are laid out in front of him, but really, what else could you expect?

Except he couldn’t have.

How should he have known? How could it have struck him that he is indeed a child who should be living a normal childhood, when his life is anything but average? How could he have ever anticipated that he’d be free, that he’d be safe, that he’d be standing outside a genuinely caring home at midnight, tears rolling down his face as he finally feels hope for a feeling he’d long since forgotten.

Love.

A familial love that promises to shield you from the monstrosities of the world.

A promise that is kept until the friendly arms of old death welcome you.

And the tears feel warm but not burning, and the arms that wrap around him aren’t inviting pain, and the buckling of his knees isn’t a bad thing.

For the first time in a very long forever, Shoto feels like he wants to live another day.

---

But as Shoto watches the creeping dread and anxiety twitching in his new brother’s expression after he hangs up the phone a week later, he can’t help but think about that night, and how he can see it in Izuku’s eyes that the same will soon be unable to be said for the boy.

Because just as the wildfire had died out, a storm is soon to flood the peace.

Logically, Shoto knows that it isn’t his fault, but logic is hard to find when every direction leads to an endless, cold, dark ocean.

Just as he was getting better.

Just as he thought nothing else could happen.

Yet it isn’t even him who’s found themselves to be the target of this new strike.

It doesn’t feel fair that his wounds haven’t even fully healed yet, but when has the world ever been fair? When has the world ever waited for you to get better?

But it’s okay, because the healing always comes, and the calm after the storm always tends to everyone’s injuries.

Chapter Text

He can feel the rain seeping into his bones, cold and sick, when he finally lands before the front door, mind muddled with memories and the feelings that latch onto them.

Izuku feels numb.

This, of course, is normal to Izuku, who’d learnt early on that emotions were fine on the inside but only caused more pain if let out. That meant shutting down and letting waves of apathy wash over him, though recently something had changed. Izuku wasn’t taunted for crying, wasn’t shut down when he was angry, wasn’t overlooked when everything felt too much, wasn’t bullied into a state of static when he smiled.

But old habits die hard, and Izuku can’t help it when something other than rain drenches him. Something that forces his face into a careful neutral and locks away his emotions, killing the storm inside him.

But the storm will come back later. It always does. And it’s always more furious than before.

It’s about ten minutes after his arrival that he finally realises he’s been standing listlessly outside with his hand clenched around the door handle, knuckles white. At least, Izuku can tug on his phoenix aspect the smallest bit so that he’s able to muster enough heat to evaporate the water without flame. For which he’s endlessly grateful.

Somewhere deep in the back of his mind, a biting voice irks at the fact that he’d lasted more than a minute the last few times he’d used it, the more recent ones being when he’d helped Shoto and Hitoshi, while the other being the time he’d shown his dads. It’s bitter and cruel and so fucking annoying, but he desperately shoves the thoughts away.

It’s okay.

It’s unfair, I know, but just deal with it you useless Deku.

Ah, there it is again. That voice, bold and burning, spitting out that name, that insult. Bakugou. His mother. His father. His teachers. His classmates. All Might. Everyone. Every single person he’d ever known.

Himself.

That night that he’d first stepped into the Yamazawa household, when he’d held fire in his hand and gazed at it with fondness; what was so different? Why could he be happy then when being surrounded by something that had hurt him so many times before, and yet threw him into a jagged pit of panic now? Now when he’d needed it to protect himself from a storm? Now when it could’ve prevented him from getting soaked until he was a bottle with a bursting lid. Why he could he save others and not himself? Why, why, why, why, why?

Because you’re useless.

Because you’re broken.

Because the only reason for your miserable, pitiful, burdensome existence is to ensure that everyone around you thrives while you collapse in agony and exhaustion like the mess that you are.

Because deep down, you know this, and deep, deep down, you wish that you’ve finally served your purpose and your crumbling mess of a puppetted body can finally rot away.

Or maybe you don’t care and wish for the end of your sentence regardless of whether or not you’ve played out your pathetic part.

Why care if they all become stars without you?

‘Because they get to shine, while all I do is burn to keep them warm.’

And the thought is absolutely disgusting and putrid to Izuku, because it’s selfish and sour and unfair to everyone else.

Everyone else.

Everyone else because of course he doesn’t matter.

Because of course everyone but him deserves happiness.

Because of course his every breath is false and uncalled for, because of course that fall should have killed him.

And yet it didn’t.

So now Izuku stands, still soaked, hand frozen on the door handle but not turning as though it wants to see Izuku suffer in the cold. And yet it turns just minutes later, Izuku’s gaze on the ground interrupted by a pair of feet adorned with mismatched socks that wring familiar in his mind.

He doesn’t look up, doesn’t say anything, doesn’t even move. The defeat is written in thick sharpie across his face, hidden by his dripping curls that sag just like his shoulders, too overcome by the invisible weight not even his wings can lift as they drag along the pavement.

Pathetic.

“Izuku!” the person in front of him cries out as they move towards him.

It’s an embrace.

Not a fist.

Not a fist.

Not a fist.

A fist.

A fist.

Danger.

Danger!

The harsh flinch away from the touch comes before the thoughts carrying rationality. But what rationality is left at this point? Even as Izuku stumbles back, his arms don’t come up in front of him to protect from the impact. What is the point if even Izuku himself believes that he deserves the pain?

A pain which never comes, shoved aside in favour of a hug that’s warmer than the heart beating in his chest like a silent drum. It’s not returned. Izuku feels paralysed, painfully so as everything blurs together while he’s moved inside a home he shouldn’t be in, with people he shouldn’t be around.

He’s broken, which means that people can cut themselves with his shards, and he doesn’t want to hurt anyone else. They should’ve left him in the inferno he’d been burning in, where he deserved to be.

“Izuku.” the voice comes again, soft and muffled and oh so familiar, “What were you doing out there?”

Izuku feels drained. He’s so tired. They must be too, having to put up with this shit.

“’m sorry.” he murmurs weakly, nails digging into his pale, numb skin.

“No, baby, there’s nothing to be sorry about.” Hizashi’s – kami it’s his papa – tone is so worried that it just makes Izuku want to sink further into the floor.

Instead, his dull viridian gaze trails to the blood trickling from his arm underneath his pale fingers, and suddenly the guilt is too overwhelming, “I lied.” he speaks quietly, brokenly, “I jumped. It was selfish of me to come back and I’m sorry. I’m sorry for thinking I could actually have a good life. I-I shouldn’t have burdened you with what I am.”

His voice is shockingly steady, even as he supresses the chatter in his teeth and the bile that claws in his throat. He moves away from Hizashi – Hizashi. Not papa – as well as the other two who’d come at the commotion, despite how quiet it actually was, mostly drowned out by the storm.

“I’m so sorry.” he continues, though his voice is beginning to tremble along with the rest of his frame, “I-I’ll leave now.”

One step behind the other, the boy retreats like an injured animal being backed into a corner, though his vision is starting to swim black at the edges, and everything is starting to cave into the ground. His feet are dragging as if he’s trying to sift through molasses, so it’s no wonder that his knees feel like toothpicks that have already been half snapped.

He can’t look them in their faces, and Izuku knows that he’s a coward who should’ve left ages ago, but ground is rushing up to meet him, and then all he can see is darkness.

Chapter Text

To say that the Yamazawa household isn’t wracked with worry and misery would be a severe understatement, especially when considering that not only one, but two of the Yamazawa children haven’t left their room for three days. At least Shoto is willing to talk with them, though, even if it’s only when one of the adults come to supply them with food and medicine. Izuku, however, hasn’t spoken to anyone other than Shoto and continues to stay hidden in their shared room after he’d collapsed, unconscious, from a fever.

As far as the adults know from what Shoto’s managed to get out of the greenette, the boy doesn’t want to face their disappointment and anger for how he’d lied to them about his quirk. But even Shoto is limited in what he says, especially after they’d received a call from his father’s agency threatening a lawsuit for kidnapping, and with Izuku bedridden with sickness and unwillingness to interact with the rest of the family and Nezu swamped with work from the Commission, they’re basically sitting ducks.

Without the evidence gathered by the two geniuses from who the kami knows where, no one can access the real files for evidence against Endeavour, and while Naomasa can simply question the man for the truth, he’d be too involved in the case to be believed. Of course, Shoto could testify to the abuse and neglect, as well as the illegal hospitalisation of his mother, however since Hitoshi is also closely related to the family, there’d be believable accusations of the boy brain washing Shoto into going against Endeavour.

There’s also the fact that the Yamazawa family is connected to multiple investigations as well as involved in three other court cases. Not only that, though, since the Commission is certain to pull strings in order to withhold any good lawyer from them, while giving one of the best to their number two hero.

Overall, it’s a shitty situation to say the least.

So, when Hizashi opens the front door to one Hitoshi Shinsou, the boy is instantly alarmed by the fatigued and messy state of his boyfriend's father.

“Oh, my kami! What happened?!” the boy’s (admittedly quiet) panicked voice rings out.

A sinking feeling settles in the man’s stomach as the realisation hits him: everyone had been so distraught at the situation that no one had thought to tell Hitoshi anything. There isn’t a trace of Present Mic. How could there be? Instead, the person standing before the teenager is Hizashi Yamada, worried, dishevelled, and utterly at loss.

“No one has been answering their phones, so I assumed something was wrong, and well...” Hitoshi peers behind Hizashi into empty house, dark and cold, “something evidently has. Is everyone okay?”

Hizashi can’t look him in the eye.

And Hitoshi can tell that the man is in no state to discuss whatever is happening, and he wouldn’t be able to find out anything, so he nods briefly and begins to walk the rest of the way to the house, Hizashi stepping aside before closing the door and following Hitoshi. The latter makes his way to the kitchen, taking note of the absence of any life as he puts on the kettle and gets out two mugs and chamomile teabags.

As much as he is worried about his boyfriend and, well, everyone else, the person in front of him right now is Hizashi, and the man looks like he’s quite literally about to drop dead. So, Hitoshi makes the decision to prioritise Hizashi for the moment before going to see Izuku.

Admittedly, Hitoshi is actually quite fond of tea, despite the coffee flowing in his veins, but in this moment as silence looms over them and he’s riddled with worry, the mug in his hands seems to be filled with right poison instead of the sweat, tasty liquid he’d been making. It’s bitter and disgusting and makes Hitoshi feel like he’s going to throw up. Hizashi looks like he shares the sentiment.

Eventually, the drink becomes unbearable, and Hitoshi stands up from his chair abruptly, the poor thing scraping in protest as it nearly topples over.

“I’m going to go see Izuku.” he states, finality in his tone as he turns towards the staircase to the second floor where Izuku and Shoto's room is. This time, though, Hizashi doesn’t follow, still paralysed in his seat as though he’d been turned to ice, leaving Hitoshi to take every by himself.

He knocks three times on the door, just enough to grab their attention without sounding as impatient as he is, but no one responds, so Hitoshi curses under his breath before raising his voice enough to be heard through the door, “I’m coming in.”

Hitoshi hadn’t tried the door handle before to check if actually could go into the room, which was an oversight on his part, but nevertheless he’s grateful to find that the door is unlocked and as soon as he steps in, he can see Shoto presumably asleep in his bed with his knees tucked up to his chest and his arms tied loosely around them.

And Izuku... Izuku is huddled into himself in the corner of the room on his bed, from what he can see with his boyfriend’s crumpled wings curled protectively around him. The greenette’s sheets are sprawled onto the floor, Shoto’s pillow joining them on the ground as though it had been thrown. Both look as though they’d gone through hell, and Hitoshi feels his heart fracture at the scene.

He’s unsure as to what to do, suddenly coming to the realisation that he hadn’t really thought this far ahead and knew nothing about what had occurred to cause such an extreme outcome. Hitoshi knew it had to be bad, though, and he was already mentally cataloguing every event that could have led to this.

Suddenly, a tug on his arm draws his attention to the source. Hitoshi turns his head to see the culprit, only to find Keigo standing to the left of him with a shifty look in his eyes, just clear of the doorway. Keigo looks nearly as dishevelled as Hisashi had been, though he’s more panicked, which shows in a way that’s quite akin to an actual bird, which makes sense.

His eyes are pinning, which could honestly just be regular human miosis, but his feathers are also raised and puffy like he’d seen Izuku’s do on countless occasions, and Hitoshi can see that his nails, or rather his talons, have become slightly longer and sharper, which is definitely not plausible for a normal person.

Keigo chews on his lips, looking at Hitoshi with an expression that the boy can’t quite decipher, before taking the teen’s sleeve and pulling him along to his room, shutting the door with precaution before the man spins on his heels to face him. “Look, Hitoshi, I’m so sorry for not texting you about this, I really am, but I don’t think it’d be best for you to be around the situation right now. It really isn’t the best and some things... well, some things really shouldn’t be placed on your shoulders.” he rushes out, hand running through his hair.

Narrowing his eyes, Hitoshi stares at Keigo with scrutiny he probably didn’t mean, “Tell me what happened or I’m gonna get everyone you know to call you ‘Bird brain’ for the rest of your life.”

It was an empty threat, and they both knew it, but Hitoshi just really needed Keigo to understand that he didn’t care if it hurt him; he just needed to know what happened so he could help the Yamazawas. Keigo must’ve understood that, from the way his shoulders drop in resignation, but he talks nevertheless, “Well, everyone’s feeling like shit because Izuku and Shoto are doing really badly and are both thinking that they’re burdens and that we hate them, which we obviously don’t.

“They haven’t come out of their room in days, Izuku is sick, and Shoto feels really guilty and terrified because Endeavour threatened to take us to court for kidnapping.” he continues, “And, well, Izuku is under the impression that we want him gone because he lied about how he got his quirk and he feels like he tricked us into loving him, but he’s too ashamed to show his face, let alone leave his room to run away.”

“Shit,” curses Hitoshi, though something really presses on his mind, “How did he lie?”

Keigo falls dead silent, every single movement stopping as though someone had pressed pause. Hitoshi doesn’t think he’s even breathing. He's about to come to the conclusion that Keigo has just started to become as tight-lipped as Hizashi had been, but the man speaks anyway, though his voice is quiet and he won’t look at Hitoshi, “You know how Izuku got his quirk really late?”

“Yeah,” he nods.

“Well, he told you about meeting All Might too, right?”

Again, Hitoshi nods, unsure of where this was going.

He clears his throat, tears starting to brim in his eyes, “They were on a rooftop and All Might told Izuku he couldn’t be a hero without a quirk and then... and then All Might left... and Izuku... jumped.”

Oh.

Oh, shit.

It feels like a punch to the gut, and Hitoshi’s expression twists into a mix of despair, hatred (towards All Might), sickness, and, well, everything else you could imagine.

He really just wants to cry, or kill All Might, and he might only do the first option because murder is definitely illegal, but who knows. Except the tears don’t fall, so Hitoshi assumes they’ll come later on, but right now Hitoshi just stays silent, brushing past Keigo to leave the room before going into Izuku and Shoto’s.

Hitoshi goes straight to the closet and shoves some clothes they always use when training after school and on weekends into a duffel bag, then tosses it out into the hallways as he moves to where Shoto is now groggily rubbing his eyes. There is no pity in the purplette’s eyes as he – quite impressively – wraps his arms around the candy-cane boy’s waist and tosses him over his shoulder like a potato sack against the boy’s protest. Walking over the sheet covered floor and nearly tripping, Hitoshi carries Shoto over to Keigo who stares at him in bewilderment.

“Makes sure he doesn’t run away, and get your own bag to put your training gear in. Get dressed now or later, but it doesn’t matter because you’re coming either way.” Hitoshi quite literally orders as he drops Shoto at the man’s feet as gently as possible.

He doesn’t wait for an answer, doesn’t really need to as he goes back into the room for the other teen, repeating the process though with a bit more struggle, which makes sense considering that Izuku has wings whilst Shoto doesn’t. Nevertheless, Hitoshi picks up his boyfriend, ignoring how he struggles against the action, quite strongly too, but Hitoshi can tell that Izuku doesn’t want to hurt him.

By the time Hitoshi drags the greenette out of the room, Keigo has a backpack slung over one shoulder and his arm around Shoto’s chest to prevent him from escaping. It’s honestly quite a funny scene, ignoring the context, but Hitoshi says nothing as he picks up the duffel bag and continues down the stairs with his cargo.

Keigo follows behind, now holding Shoto in a princess carry, which is way more hilarious, but Hitoshi refrains from laughing, lest he accidentally drops Izuku. Admittedly, no real damage would be inflicted on the boy thanks to his hollow bones, which Hitoshi is extremely grateful for since he’s really not that strong as to be able to carry someone for so long, and especially not down flights of stairs.

On the kitchen island where Hitoshi had left him, Hizashi is slumped over with his head in his arms, evidently having passed out in exhaustion, mixed with the chamomile tea. Quickly, Keigo scribbles down a note of explanation so no one worries over their disappearance as Hitoshi tries to get Izuku to put on his shoes before sighing and doing it himself. Thankfully the same doesn’t happen with Shoto and Keigo, the former seemingly being resigned to the whole situation and thereby surrendering himself, letting Keigo put on his boots while Shoto slips on a pair of sneakers.

Hitoshi doesn’t know if Keigo had said something to the candy-cane haired boy to get him to comply, or if he’d just given up because he knew it was an impossible battle, but either way Hitoshi is kinda salty about having to carry Izuku, whereas Keigo is simply holding Shoto’s hand as a precaution. He sighs, at least grateful that he’d managed to actually get them out of the house.

Hitoshi is also grateful for his phone ringing, giving him the excuse to hand Izuku to Keigo, because his arms are beginning to ache and he doesn’t want to drop his boyfriend. He picks up the call as soon as Keigo gets a handle on the boy, holding it up after briefly reading the caller ID; It’s Shihai.

“Yo, wassup?” Hitoshi greets, glancing back at Keigo who shoots him a betrayed look whilst trying to keep Izuku from running or flying away.

“Any news on the Yamazawas?” the boy answers, “I’ve been ringing everyone, but they all seem to be offline and I’m getting really worried.”

To be honest, Hitoshi doesn’t really know how to answer. On one hand, the Yamazawa family had probably been depressed for the past few days, but on the other hand, he’d managed to get them out of the house and had an admittedly half-baked plan to help them. “Well, it’s kinda complicated?” it comes out as more of a question than anything, but at this point he has no qualms with taking it, “If you want, we’re heading to Takoba beach to get our spirits up or whatever, probs some training, so you’re free to meet us there and I can tell you what happened.”

At some time or another, Hitoshi had read something about exercise and good environments being great for getting out of depressive states, and he knew for a fact that Izuku at least would feel extremely rewarded about cleaning up the environment; he wasn’t too sure about Shoto, but Hitoshi had a feeling that the boy would like the beach. See, the thing about Takoba was that it had become a dumping ground for all and anything that people in the surrounding residential areas didn’t want anymore, which had turned a beautiful beach into an almost wasteland. Hence, they’re about to do some community service.

“Yeah, sweet! I’m down for that.” Shihai exclaims enthusiastically, “I’ll grab my gear and meet you there.”

And even though the boy can’t see him, Hitoshi finds himself with a grin stretched across his face as he nods.