Chapter Text
“Ey Rody! Can you get me another beer?”
“How’s it goin’ Stan! The kid doing okay?”
“I’d like to order some of those buffalo wings, if ya got any.”
Rody huffed, walking quickly behind the counter and grabbing the orders with ease that came with practice. It had been busy since he started working at Stan’s bar, more than he ever remembered it being when he used to do the ‘other’ kind of work. He still saw the occasional thug from back then stop in for a drink or a secret chat with Stan, but he always turned a blind eye to that sort of thing. It wasn't his business, and even though now he was trying to do things the more legal -ish way, that didn’t mean he suddenly wanted to be a perfect saint.
If you needed money, you needed money. He wasn’t gonna judge. He wasn’t gonna tell the local Heroes either.
Pino chirped, a bit disgruntled from his pocket, obviously cramped and wishing she could spread her wings. All he could do was pet her head carefully, earning a twitter in response. “Just a few more hours.” He spoke under his breath before putting on that laid back smile again, handing the next person their order and asking if they needed anything else.
He was lucky a lot of the people in the slums knew him and wouldn’t yell for no reason, unless they were drunk, but Stan was not afraid to take care of those people in his place. People here knew when to give others a break, to understand when someone was working hard to get out of a shitty situation. The only other time people were an absolute pain was if they were from the city, hounding him about what he’d heard in regards to those “hero kids”. Rody wasn’t sure how his involvement was ever released but he was lucky it was more a quiet trickle than a raging storm.
If people wanted to know, they’d have to give him a nice tip. The extra cash was always nice, especially if it meant he could buy a treat for his siblings.
A twinge of pain started to grow behind his left eye, and Rody had to stop to put a bit of pressure on it, pausing what he was doing to see if it would pass. He took a deep breath and tried to loosen up, making sure he wasn’t clenching his teeth. Pino chirped in discomfort.
“Oi, Kid.” Rody squinted up, seeing Stan in front of him, rag cleaning a glass and watching him carefully. “‘Nother migraine?”
Rody paused, assessing the pain level and sighing. Ignoring the flicker of strange light flashes around the room, blinking as if the after images would go away. He nodded and got a hum in response.
“Advil in the bathroom cupboard, if you need it.” Stan turned back toward the customer he was chatting with and it was as much of a dismissal as he could expect.
Not wasting any time, Rody set down the rag he’d forgotten he was holding and slipped away from the crowded room and into the back, closing the door and leaning over the sink to catch his breath a little. Pino fluttered out of her hiding place, fluffing up into a tight ball as her trills sounded slightly pained. When he looked up into the mirror, feeling the building pressure in his head and flickering lights begin to form around his vision, he noticed a strange shadowy string leading from his chest to Pino. Confused but intrigued, he reached out.
Rody didn’t feel anything, but he could have sworn the string bent slightly with his finger before his focus seemed to vanish. He sighed, opening the cupboard and grabbing the advil, taking a few dry before awkwardly bending down and drinking some water from the tap.
It has been a few weeks now since they started.
Before, they were only minor headaches. Nothing more than a subtle pulsing in his head. Rody thought they were just because his body wasn’t used to the stress of the kind of work he was doing and the day to day struggle of trying to keep everything together while his siblings were safe and happy. But then, on his day off, while he was in the middle of pushing Lala on the swings at one of the parks nearby that was safe to play at, the headache escalated.
“Rody?” He remembered the deep worry in her voice, as he clutched his head and her swinging stopped. Lala had jumped off the seat quickly and knelt beside him.
Roro wasn’t far behind, running up from the bench he was sitting at and reading. His little brother had raised his head carefully, observing his eyes and the way they seemed to squint at the light, or how he’d flinched at the touch to his chin. “Rody? Are you okay?”
Rody could only try to breathe through it as Pino squeaked beside him, tense and face strained. They had gone home early that day, his siblings guiding the way and put a warm towel over his eyes while he laid down on the couch for a few hours till it finally seemed to subside. He’d called out the next day, slinking to the payphone while his entire body felt like it’d been through a blender.
Since then, Stan had started to keep those meds on hand as it seemed like the migraines were only getting worse and more consistent. He sighed, rubbing his eye again where the pressure was still coiled tight before the meds kicked in. Rody didn’t remember ever having this kind of pain before… at least not before stopping Humarise.
Not wanting to think about that anymore than he already did late at night when his siblings were asleep, Rody scooped up Pino who chirped weakly and put her in his hood, returning to the rush of sound, light, noise and shadows. He still had a few hours left in his shift and then he needed to hurry home and make sure Lala and Roro were okay, help them with homework if they needed, and study for his test that was at the end of the week.
He just needed to wait. Just a bit more money. Then he could finally get a phone.
Then… he could call Izuku.
+++
Izuku was staring at his desk, fiddling with his pencil in deep thought, when he got a phone call from an unknown and foreign number.
He startled, dropping his pencil and then frantically trying to catch it before it fell off his desk while his phone kept vibrating. Izuku watched as the call kept going, before it stopped, and then a few minutes later, his phone pinged with a voicemail. Now, Izuku knew not to trust any number like that, especially not a foreign one, but he was curious . If it was some sort of scam that's fine, he could easily delete and block the number. It's not like he hasn’t done it before. For some reason though, this seemed… different.
Opening up his missed calls, Izuku clicked on the new voicemail and put it on speaker, waiting for the stranger’s voice to come through.
The problem was… it wasn’t a stranger he heard on the other line.
“...Um, hey. Sorry if this is the wrong number-” It couldn’t be…
“-but um, man it's been a while since I’ve used a phone to call people.” It was!
“-This is-”
Izuku wasted no time calling the number back, waiting all of one ring before the other line connected.
“Hello?”
“RODY!” Izuku felt his heart flutter when he heard the relieved huff of laughter on the other line. “You called!” It had been a while since he spoke in english, he hoped his accent wasn’t too bad.
“Ye, sorry it took so long. Had a few paychecks to save up before I could afford the cheapest phone.” Izuku smiled, already noticing the biggest update in that statement alone. Rody had gotten a job, a real one. He was so happy for him. “I was worried the number wouldn’t go through, I have no idea how international calls work.”
“I know a long time ago, before quirks, they used to charge for international calls, but that hasn’t been an issue in the recent era.” A twitter could be heard in the background as Rody groaned.
“I would hate that, it would be impossible to stay in touch then, with the money I make a week.” Izuku grimaced.
“Does your phone and plan allow texting at least? We could coordinate better and chat more easily that way!” Izuku glanced at his clock, startling to see the time. He was lucky it was the weekend. “Wait, what time is it for you right now?”
At the silence on the other end, Izuku couldn’t help but pull up a tab on his computer nearby, checking the time zones between Otheon and Japan. “...Um-”
“It’s 10pm there! I hope you weren’t sleeping?” Izuku chewed his lip as he heard Pino make an annoyed squawk.
“...Hero, it's 3am there. Why are you worrying about me?” He could practically feel the deadpan stare at that, sputtering out a lackluster response only to hear the other boy sigh. “I’m on my way home from work, figured I’d give a call to keep myself occupied while I get there. I’m glad you picked up, it would have been awkward if it was anyone else.”
He couldn’t help how the worry in him twisted for another reason. “You get off work that late?”
“...I don’t think it’s exactly legal to hire a kid under the age of 18 to work at a bar, Hero. I mean, it’s still a job which makes decent money to pay rent and the water bill but no other place would hire me without calling the cops.” Which was a fair point but also made Izuku slump. Rody was better off but… not by much. “Anyway, I didn’t call to talk about how depressing my financial situation is, I called to make sure I had the right number.”
It was quiet over the line for a few seconds, the faint walking on brick and occasional tweet from Pino the only sounds Izuku heard. “...I’m glad you’re doing better.” Izuku whispered, hearing the tired sigh on the other end.
“I’m glad I don’t run as much of a risk getting in trouble with the cops and local heroes. Though Stan is not afraid to work me like a horse, the jerk.” Izuku chuckled at that, knowing intimately it's not easy to completely change one's ways. “So how about you, Hero? You still helping people? Happen to kidnap any unsuspecting errand boys on their daily route and take them for a joy ride?”
Izuku flushed. “H-hey! You were anything BUT a simple ‘errand boy’, Rody.”
“Ha! Happy to hear I made an impression!”
Izuku smiled, face still hot. “And ‘BlackWhip’ isn’t really a ‘joy-ride’ either. I heard a certain former-criminal give it two stars.”
“The ride was rough, but at least the driver was cute.”
The blush on his face grew unbearable at that, all he could do was splutter as Rody laughed on the other line. “Why are you like this!?”
“Because you’re fun to talk to.”
It was said so sincerely, with fondness and all Izuku could do was try his best not to implode. The bantering wasn’t new, in fact it felt like a bit of normalcy was returning. It may have only been a month and a half since he left Otheon, but the daily grind of work study with Endeavor and school work leading into the new year felt… empty, without Rody. He remembered what it was like on I-Island and he never felt this kind of connection with Melissa past her love of interesting support weapons or All Might. It just felt like talking to another Mei with a different level of genius.
Rody was a whole different kind of breed.
A smooth talking criminal who only did bad things because life kept throwing every curveball they could at him, knocking him down before he could even run. Raising his siblings all on his own, growing up too fast… a hero in his own right. Not that telling him that would make him happy. The difference between Izuku and him… was that where Izuku thought he was trying to be a hero, even while quirkless, even when he didn’t seem to put any actual effort into becoming stronger, Rody didn’t have the choice but to try, to succeed, by any means necessary. He gave up his dream to keep his family safe, and almost gave up his life for the same thing.
Izuku couldn’t help but be drawn to that. Someone who worked so hard for the bare minimum. It made him want to help others in similar situations. It gave him a whole new perspective on what true heroism is, and it's not about being in the spotlight, the fame and glory, the number. It's about making a difference.
Rody got him out of his own head for the first time in a while and actually made him think again.
“To answer your original question,” Izuku huffed, twirling in his chair and fanning his face with one of his textbooks. “We’re going on break soon, final exams are close and my second year as a hero student will be over in a couple weeks.”
“Hey, that’s a big deal! I imagine you’ll ace it with flying colors!”
He felt a slightly self deprecating smile bloom on his face at the compliment. “I’m not so sure about that. I’ve caused a lot of problems this year alone, not to mention our mid-term exam was… brutal.”
“...How brutal we talking? Flect Turn brutal? Or sitting in a locked room with Bakugou for several hours straight kinda brutal?”
Izuku snorted. “Both.”
“Fun.”
Suddenly, there was a mechanism being fiddled with and a door opening. Two loud, childish voices shouted in greeting, in a language he couldn’t recognize, to which Izuku heard Rody laugh but also shushed and told the kids what he assumed to be something calming, words flowing together in a way his English words never did. Izuku couldn’t help but smile. Rody adored his siblings, it was obvious over the crackling phone.
“Hey, Hero. You wanna say ‘Hi’ to the gremlins?”
“Hey! We’re not gremlins!”
“Ye! You’re just tall!”
Izuku laughed, agreeing easily and giggled as he was suddenly bombarded by Lala and Roro in equal levels of excitement. Rody and Pino could be heard hovering, telling them to be careful with the new phone while he ate the dinner they had left out for him. They talked for who knows how long, telling him about all the things they were learning in school, their friends, something nice that Rody did for them recently, happy and content even if they still struggled with money.
“Rody? Are you okay?” Were the words that suddenly took Izuku out of the moment. He stopped his fidgeting to listen carefully, suddenly worried.
“...I will be.” Rody made a tense noise, followed quickly by a chitter from Pino.
“Rody?” Izuku asked carefully, trying to assess the situation. Without visual on Pino or looking at the other boy directly it was a bit harder to tell what was going on.
“I’m okay, I’m okay.” Rody huffed, chuckling slightly. “Just a headache from work. But it's getting late, both there and here.”
Izuku startled, suddenly looking at the time and realizing it was now 5am. “Ah… shoot okay. Text me later with your schedule? We can try to coordinate another call time. Feel better soon alright?”
“Ye, will do, Hero.” Izuku felt his face heat up at the one last bit of teasing. “Say goodnight, you two.”
“Night, Deku!”
“Sleep tight, Deku!”
“Night guys, take care of Rody for me!”
“We will!” Izuku smiled as they all said goodbye.
Looking at his phone he quickly created a new contact, adding a little bird emoji to go with it. Izuku spent no time flopping down on his bed, staring at the new contact with a warm smile, before turning over and falling asleep with his phone clutched to his chest. It felt like a hole in his chest was a little more filled.