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With each passing year since the war, interactions with villains was becoming less and less. No matter how much society improved, Midoriya didn’t believe crime would ever fully end. As the last few years had shown there, with all the work the heroes and civilians have put in, things were improving and at a faster pace than Midoriya expected.
It didn’t happen as much anymore, but occasionally there would be the sounds of fighting. Unlike his time as a hero roaming the streets of a destroyed Japan to capture the escaped villains, the civilians around weren’t protesting their hatred of the heroes. And yet, it wasn’t quite like before Japan was destroyed by Shigaraki either. Back then, the civilians cheered for the heroes and watched the fights like they were a show being put on. At that time, it was like the heroes were on a stage putting on an act.
It was a step in the right directions. Heroes were not actors putting a show on. Villains were not actors putting a show on. They were all human and they all had a reason for doing what they did. They simply needed to begin to understand each other and stop acting like villains were not worthy of care. It didn’t excuse their actions, but if they understood one another, then super villains like Shigaraki and Dabi and so many others wouldn’t exist.
That was what Midoriya learned in his first year at UA. It was what he taught other heroes and the civilians in his fight with Shigaraki.
To always keep reaching out.
The civilians didn’t interfere with the heroes fighting villains but they didn’t blast the villains like they used to. There were no insults. There was no mocking of the villains or ignoring them to cheer for the hero who won. Don't get Midoriya wrong. There was still plenty of cheering for the heroes and heroes still were famous. The job of society was to now not get blinded by the heroes. All Might held up peace alone for decades and thus no one saw past his blinding light. They forgot that he was still human underneath his strength.
That couldn’t happen again.
Heroes and civilians.
They had to work together to maintain this peace.
They couldn’t let the world get blinded by heroes again or society would go back to what it was before the war.
All of this to say, there was a fight going on nearby that drew his attention.
And his feet moved.
Despite it being a few years since he lost One For All, he never learned how to stay away. It caused his friends quite a few heart attacks while they were still at UA.
Midoriya didn’t run towards the fight though.
No, his feet took him to the kid. His arms curled around the child and he twisted his body to use it as a shield against the debris that had been flung through the air. He felt it slam into him from the side. He felt something snap and pain flair up, but he didn’t loosen his hold on the child in case there was more danger coming towards them.
Midoriya twisted his head to the side to see what was going on. A small hand gripped his suit jacket, but since there was no crying, he could assume the child was fine.
When he turned his head, he found another type of shield behind him in the form of Kirishima with his quirk activated. Knowing he could trust Red Riot to keep any more danger from coming his way, Midoriya turned to the child and loosened his hold from him and grinned down at those brown eyes blinking up at him.
“Are you okay?” Midoriya asked.
He got a small nod in reply.
“Akira? Akira!”
The boy twisted around in Midoriya’s arms to see his mom running towards them. Midoriya unhooked his arms from around him to let him go running towards his mother, who looked up towards him with a grateful look that soon turned to one of shock when she saw his face.
Midoriya's brows furrowed in confusion and he wondered if he had something on his face, but didn’t have much time to ponder it.
“Midoriya! Oh, shit, man.” Kirishima ran over to him frantically as the fight was dying down with Bakugo and Kaminari working together.
Midoriya turned away from the mother and son to smile at his friend that he hadn’t seen in a couple months. “Red Riot!” He grinned widely at the pro hero. “In the flesh. I simply must have your autograph.”
“Oh, man,” Kirishima blushed. “Do you have to do that every time you run into us while we’re on the job?”
“Yes, you guys still haven’t signed my autograph book.” Midoriya teased.
“You say that every time, but you never have it on you. I'm convinced you don’t even have an autograph book.” Kirishima retorted good naturedly.
Midoriya laughed. In truth, he should get his notebooks from school that had their analysis in it and get them to each sign their page.
“No, wait, don’t distract me.” Kirishima said. “Midoriya, your arm is broken.”
Midoriya glanced at his limp arm and had the audacity to just shrug, waving off Kirishima’s concern. “Don’t worry about this. It's a scratch.”
Kirishima stared in disbelief. “I think we have different definitions of what a scratch is.”
“I just meant it’s insignificant in the grand scheme of things.”
“Again,” Kirishima stressed. “I think our definitions are different here. I'll take you to one of the paramedics.”
Midoriya took a step back from Kirishima trying to grab his uninjured arm. He ducked around it and grabbed Kirishima’s shoulder with his broken arm while looking him straight in the eye. “I promise you. This is fine.”
Kirishima was so confused by his friend’s unwilling nature to get help so he was grateful they were interrupted.
“What are you two idiots doing?”
“Midoriya broke his arm, but doesn’t want to go get it fixed.” Kirishima said before Midoriya could even finish turning to greet Bakugo.
Great. Now Midoriya had two pro heroes looking at him in complete bafflement. They just didn’t get it.
Bakugo’s eyes zeroed in on the broken arm still being used to clasp Kirishima’s shoulder, causing a scowl to start to form. “I know your pain tolerance is high, but you can’t leave your arm dangling like that, Izuku.”
“Well, I can’t get a cast.” Izuku argued.
“Why?!?”
Izuku flushed at his point. “You don’t get it.”
“No shit I don’t!” Bakugo screamed, grabbing Izuku by his shirt and pulling him away from Kirishima so he could shake him. “You haven’t explained anything! Why won’t you go to the damn paramedics?”
They were drawing a crowd. Kirishima turned and waved with a strained smile to the confused, but getting excited crowd as they began to recognize who was here. This was why Midoriya and Bakugo shouldn’t be allowed in public together.
“You don’t get it!”
“Stop saying that and explain, damn it!” Bakugo shook Midoriya a bit more roughly, which drew Kirishima’s attention to the broken arm just flapping around.
“Kacchan,” Midoriya sounded one, maybe two, steps away from whining. “I work at UA.”
“All the more reason to get treated. You shouldn’t teach your students to ignore their injuries.” Kirishima said.
“Do as I say, not as I do.” Midoriya retorted.
Bakugo tightened his grip on Midoriya’s collar to force his attention back to him.
“Aizawa-sensei is my colleague!” Midoriya shouted. “He sits across from me in the teacher room and just stares at me with his patented disappointed look that says ‘I can’t believe you broke another bone.’ I can’t face that again!”
“How often have you broken bones since we graduated for him to still have that look mastered?” Bakugo demanded.
“He patented the look?” Kirishima wondered.
“No, but he should.” Midoriya sulked.
“Hey, Bone breaker!” Kaminari cheered as he joined his former classmates by swinging an arm around Midoriya’s shoulder in greeting.
“That’s so mean.”
“Man, I can’t believe Aizawa-sensei thought you would stop breaking bones after you lost One For All.” Kaminari said. “That’s like your trademark at this point. Remember the look on his face when the embers of One For All went out.”
“Midoriya fell from a high height when it happened and broke his leg.” Kirishima recalled, lips twitching at the reminder of that day. It was a sad day that he finally lost his quirk, but Midoriya just looked at his broken leg with such a resigned look and Aizawa just looked fed up with everything as they shipped Midoriya off to the infirmary once again. “One For All can’t fade away forever without breaking his bones one last time.”
“As sad as it was, I bet Aizawa-sensei felt some relief that Midoriya would stop breaking his bones.” Kaminari snickered.
“And he somehow broke his arm a week after that.” Kirishima laughed loudly. “Aizawa-sensei’s face that day! It lives rent free in my mind!”
Midoriya’s face turned bright red. “I’m not that bad anymore.”
“And yet you don’t want a cast on your arm cause you don’t want Aizawa-sensei scolding you with just his eyes.” Bakugo snarled, not finding any humor in the situation as he once again had to deal with Midoriya’s idiotic choices. “You dumbass.”
“Look,” Midoriya looked around, finally noticing the civilians staring at the group, more in particular him and felt himself getting redder in the face. Being in the limelight wasn’t something he was used to since he didn’t make it as a pro hero since he lost his quirk. “Where is Todoroki? Get some ice on it and it’ll be fine.”
“WE AREN’T DOING THAT!” Bakugo screamed. “You’re going to get it fixed and suck it up that Aizawa-sensei will always be disappointed in your lack of self-preservation.” His hand curled around Midoriya’s shirt collar to get as much fabric as he could in his hand and yanked his friend forward to force him to follow him towards an ambulance.
“Kacchan, no. I have a choice in this matter.”
“Not when it’s a dumbass choice.” Bakugo retorted. “Aizawa-sensei will only be more disappointed in you if you show up with a broken arm encased in ice.”
Kirishima and Kaminari shared an uneasy smile before turning to deal with the aftermath of the fight and the civilians nearby while Bakugo dragged Midoriya away with the two arguing loudly the whole way.
A few days later:
“What the hell is this?!?” Bakugo prodded the computer screen angrily. “Why am I losing points in my rating?”
Kirishima leaned over Bakugo’s shoulder to look at the screen, snickering softly. “Well, you assaulted the hero who defeated Shigaraki in a very public street.”
Bakugo scowled as he recalled the day Izuku decided to get involved with their battle against that pathetic villain. “That damn Izuku! He is doing this on purpose! I’ll show him!” He screeched as he snatched his jacket off the chair and spun on his heel to leave.
“Where are you going?” Sero asked. “We’re about to have lunch!”
“To UA!”
Sero blinked as the door slammed shut behind Bakugo. “Should we warn Midoriya?”
“Naw,” Kirishima dropped down in his chair and pulled his plate towards him. “Surprises like this will keep Midoriya’s skills up.”
At UA, Izuku feels a shiver travel down his spine and looks around warily. At first, he thought it was Aizawa that was causing him unease since the older teacher had yet to stop silently judging Izuku when he came in with an arm in a cast a few days ago. It made him want to avoid the teacher’s lounge altogether, but that felt too much like running away so he swallowed his fear and dragged his feet into this room every day and accepted Aizawa’s unimpressed look and the new snide comment he had every day that Izuku was sure wouldn’t stop until his arm was completely healed.
“What’s wrong?” Aizawa asked, looking up from his computer when his former student started shifting around as if he was on edge.
“I feel danger in the air.” Izuku muttered, glancing warily over his shoulder at the closed door of the teacher’s lounge.
Aizawa quirked a brow. “I thought you lost danger sense.”
“This isn’t a joke!”
Izuku knew death was in the air.