Chapter Text
Shouta sat back and watched his class discuss. A couple of students had already headed out for the night to search for Midoriya. The rest stayed back and planned a “welcome back” party to help him readjust to dorm life, and hopefully also prevent him from running off again.
It had been a couple of weeks since the kid ran off. No one knew what prompted him to. Aizawa just got a call in the middle of the night from a panicked Aoyama, explaining that he’d heard a loud crash in Midoriya’s room, only to find the room in disarray and no sign of Midoriya. There were also notes posted on everyone’s doors, explaining the nature of One For All and Midoriya’s relationship with All Might. No one could get ahold of Midoriya, and his phone was later found outside the UA gates. Abandoned and cracked beyond repair.
Bakugou was the most worked-up about Midoriya’s disappearance. He was also the first to piece together that this vigilante, self-proclaimed anti-hero, figure that the news kept talking about was Midoriya. The description of the person’s outfit matched Midoriya’s hero suit, and a couple of witnesses who claimed to get glimpses of his face even said he looked far too young to be doing such work, with green hair, green eyes, and freckles.
Ever since, Todoroki and Ashido had spent hours each day working out any pattern between sightings and trying to figure out where he’d be next. Sero, Yaoyorozu, and Jirou joined them shortly after. Meanwhile, everyone else took shifts looking for him. Shouta never joined any of the search teams, as he had to stay behind with the rest of the students and keep an eye on them, making sure no one else ran off unannounced.
It had been surprisingly easy to convince Principal Nedzu to agree to let the class join the search party. Everyone had prepared for it to take enormous amounts of convincing. But in the end, all they needed to do was pitch the idea, and he agreed.
Shouta wasn’t going to complain, though. They needed anyone they could get on board to search for the kid.
The police already had an investigation ongoing to locate the kid, but the class was persistent about doing their own investigation to find him. Shouta was proud of them. They were committed and worked hard, even those who had been endlessly tired out by each day’s training.
“Sensei!” Bakugou, already in his hero outfit, walked over to Shouta, dragging Uraraka along behind him. She looked confused about what was happening. Shouta took a sip of his coffee.
“I’m taking Uraraka and heading out to look for Izuku.” Bakugou let go of Uraraka’s wrist. “I’m telling you, so you don’t think I ran off as well.”
Shouta nodded. “Stay safe.”
Bakugou scoffed. “I’m not stupid.” He turned to Uraraka. “Hey, round face, go put on your suit. We’re leaving in 10.” Uraraka was about to protest, but Bakugou just walked off before she could say anything. Uraraka just sighed and left to get her hero outfit.
Shouta turned back to the rest of the class. It didn’t take long for someone else to grab his attention.
“Aizawa-Sensei!” Ashido called, hand waving in the air. Shouta walked over.
On the living room table, Todoroki, Ashido, Sero, Yaoyorozu, and Jirou had spread out countless papers with various notes and quotes from news reports.
Ashido was the first to speak.
“We think we’ve finally pinpointed his next location,” She said, bouncing enthusiastically from where she sat. Shouta took a seat.
Bakugou wasn’t super enthusiastic about being told where to go, but he obeyed anyway. It wouldn’t be a particularly quick trip on foot, so Shouta contacted some heroes in the area and told them to keep an eye out. He had planned to drive them over there himself, but Bakugou was persistent about getting over there on their own.
Everyone said goodbye, and Ashido immediately jumped up to start prepping for an early movie night. Shouta found himself a spot on one of the sofas and took a nap.
***
Yaoyorozu was preparing tea, Sato was baking a cake, a few others were cooking, and Aoyama was helping Mina pick out movies and set up the living room for their de-stressing movie night. Jirou had already texted the class group chat to let those already out searching know of their newly pinpointed location. Maybe they didn’t have anything exact, but they had a general idea, and that alone narrowed down the search by a large margin. Mina was so excited.
It didn’t take long to get everything set up and prepared, and Mina couldn’t help starting a mini celebration at the end.
Once everyone was settled down, she turned on the first movie. Everyone was still too frazzled by the potential return of Midoriya to sleep or even focus on the movie, so they ended up sitting about and discussing, rather than relaxing. She was surprised Aizawa slept through all of it.
Everyone, even Aizawa, had been aware of how empty the dorms felt without Midoriya there. Even with how upset he’d been lately, he still managed to be exactly what the class needed. Without him, it was just… empty. In a way it never was before. Even Bakugou seemed off. No one talked about it, though. The empty room no one would look at, the vacant spot at the table that no one acknowledged during meals, the silence that would follow any mention of Midoriya, or what he’d say about some news story someone shared. Even the way Bakugou would stall and stare at the empty pillar where Midoriya would’ve been practicing ultimate moves. It was never talked about, but they all knew.
The conversation kept coming to abrupt halts. It was clear everyone was thinking about Midoriya’s return. No one was going to bring it up or talk about it, but they were all thinking about it. That buzzing anticipation that doesn’t leave until you reach the result. Eventually, all conversation seemed to fizzle out completely, as everyone anxiously watched the movie, trying to distract themselves from what was to come.
Aizawa’s phone rang, waking him up abruptly. Everyone was startled. Mina saw the call was from Bakugou.
***
Shouta wasn’t fond of being awoken suddenly, especially not by his phone. But since it was his student, he wasn’t too mad. It was likely about Midoriya.
“Aizawa,” he answered.
“I need you to get the fuck over here. Right now.”
“Bakugou, what happened.” He could hear the boy panicking through his tough composure. The kid was terrified. This wasn’t going anywhere good. His class started running around to gear up.