Work Text:
“You are expendable.” the woman declared as she marched before the four new hires. Acting as if she was a drill sergeant. “You were hired, not because you were the best choices, but because you got lucky. Remember that there are hundreds of people that applied for your positions and if you screw up, we will be replacing you with one of them.”
Izuku swallowed nervously from his spot at the end of the line. He really did get luck with this job. Being homeless yet still obsessed with heroes, of course he wouldn’t pass up the chance to work for Hawks’ agency. After all, what better chance would a quirkless kid get then right after a discrimination lawsuit?
The case wasn’t against Hawks or his agency. It was actually against Endeavor’s. A man named Honzou Nakamura had been harassed and discriminated against for a so-called “weak” quirk while working at the number two hero’s agency. He had been keeping photos and recordings of the behavior along with copies of the multiple reports he made to the HR department.
Finally, after being hospitalized from being pushed down the stairs, Nakamura filed a lawsuit. Endeavor’s agency obviously tried to settle out of court but Nakamura wasn’t having it. His friend’s family was full of lawyers and they made sure that the case was very public.
In the end, Endeavor’s agency had to pay not only for the medical bills but back pay for missed work, mental distress, fines for violations of workplace harassment laws, and court costs. Along with a public apology from the hero himself.
The Nakamura vs Endeavor case has made people start questioning other agencies. Seeing, if the number two hero was found guilty, who else would be?
That’s when Hawks’ agency made a statement in support of those with “less desirable quirks” and claimed to have been offering positions for such people since they first opened. Simply explaining their lack of such individuals due to none applying.
Izuku called bullshit but applied for a janitor position anyway.
“We here at Hawks’ Agency do not tolerate failure. As such, you are given two chances. You will only be told something once. Failure to follow directions after will lead to immediate termination. Understood?” His new manager asked, giving the group a narrowed look. “Good. Now, each of you will be assigned a floor.”
With that, she gave each of them their assignments and dropped them off with their new coworkers.
Izuku made sure to learn fast and treated each correction as law. He only made mistakes once and asked nicer coworkers questions about things that hadn’t been explained.
Two months in, he was the only one left from the original four diversity hires. The other three had been replaced as easily as Murata warned. Izuku was just relieved his true age hadn’t been revealed.
He knew that technically working underage was illegal but he would be fifteen soon. Sure, they thought he was sixteen, claiming to work part time so he could still attend school, but that didn’t matter. What did matter was he could finally eat real food instead of whatever he could find in the trash.
All this to say, Izuku knew his position. He was friendly with his coworkers, did his work, and kept a low profile. He wasn’t stupid.
So why did he have to leave that note?
Well, he knew why. His hero obsession didn’t go away with his eviction at twelve. He stayed up to date, even with the villains they fought. He spent his time at the library researching and analyzing any footage he could find. So, while cleaning up one of the conference rooms, of course seeing the name of a recently escaped villain made him pause.
It was like his body had a mind of its own as he started scanning one of the packets on the table. Reading over the man's description as well as possible locations he could have escaped too. The report was both fascinating and frustrating at the same time.
It listed rivers as possible hiding spots for the guy. Not the sewers or maybe a pond, but rivers. Did they know his quirk at all? He would never hide in a freaking river! His quirk made his water morphed state unstable. If that man threw himself into a river while he himself was a blob of water, he would become extremely jumbled. Likely not able to keep himself together with the water flowing around him.
Izuku remembered that was literally how he was caught the first time. Vortex had accidentally pushed him into a broken fire hydrant, making the villain become humanoid again before hitting the water. It was clear he was afraid of it. Figuring out the why wasn’t that hard.
The report, however, said nothing on the matter. Simply stating that Vortex was the arresting hero.
Izuku, not sure what else to do, grabbed a sticky note and rapidly explained this. It wouldn’t due to have the man run free because of a simple oversight after all. He had to make sure they knew.
Once he was satisfied, he stuck the note to the second page of the packet and left. There were around ten packets in the room, each placed before a chair, but he didn’t think writing a note for each one would be necessary. Besides, he needed to finish cleaning up his assigned floor.
It was only that night, tucked away in an abandoned car on Takaba Beach that he thought about the issues with leaving a random note. Would they question it? Check the cameras? Would he get fired? His thoughts spiraled as he tried to sleep and even throughout his work the next day.
Thankfully, no one pulled him aside. No one even talked about it among the cleaning staff. The only thing that would hint at what he did was later that week when Backdraft captured the villain and even then, that could have been a coincidence.
Still, the feeling that it could be because of him. The rush. The excitement. The pure eagerness to help filled him with the confidence to do it again.
Of course, he was still careful. He didn’t leave a note every time he got a chance, just when there was an obvious detail not in the reports. He had also tried putting the note in different spots each time but learned quickly which spots actually read the notes and which didn’t. Whoever sat in the back tended to use the information most effectively, making sure Hawks or whichever hero was best knew what to do. The others that wouldn’t just ignore it would often leave things out, leading to the times Hawks lost some feather or broke his wrist.
After he ended up getting a concussion, Izuku just stuck to leaving his notes with the packet in the back.
During this time, he was also assigned to cleaning Hawks office. Not all the time thankfully but once a week or so, he’d cover for the one usually in charge of that section. It was nerve-racking the first time, the teen spending a solid minute hyping himself up before even daring to open the door, but once he did it was a mess.
The hero left papers everywhere, take-out boxes stacked and to-go coffee cups strewn about. Izuku couldn’t understand how it got that bad given how often they cleaned each room. Still, he made sure it was spotless before he left each time. Sometimes, if Hawks had a bad patrol the day before, he’d leave little treats to hopefully cheer him up.
It was going well. Five months into this job, three months of leaving notes, and he felt like he was on cloud nine. Coming to work, cleaning conference rooms till he got to room 503, quickly reading over whatever report was left in there in two minutes, then taking five to write up a mini analysis. He’d use the remaining three to clean up any coffee stains, crumbled pages, or wayward pens before heading to the next room with a little satisfied smile. Excited to see how the heroes would take on this next challenge or giddy about seeing Hawks snacking on one of his gifts.
It was all going so well for Izuku that he honestly should have been expecting it to go down hill.
“Izuku Midoriya. You’ll be fifteen in two weeks despite claiming to be sixteen, you stopped attending school at twelve after your mother transferred to America for work, and the address listed on your application is for an apartment building set to be demolished.” Hawks casually read aloud as he casually lounged in one of the seats in the room Izuku just walked into.
The seat in the back of conference room 503 to be specific.
Looking up at the teens frozen figure, the hero smirked. “You’re also the one leaving little notes in my reports.”
His eyes widened. He hadn’t realized it was Hawks’ copy he was messing with. He thought it was just one of the hero’s analysis or strategist or something. Not the hero himself! He’d been leaving them for months now.
And if Hawks had looked into him, knew he was a quirkless illegally hired fourteen year old, he was screwed.
In a snap, Izuku spun on his heel and attempted to book it down the hall. Unfortunately, before he could even take a step forward, he was lifted into the air and dragged back into the room, the door being shut and locked by one of Hawks’ feathers.
“Nuh uh uh. I wanted to chat.” Hawks lightly scolded as his feather deposited the teen into a seat near him. “After all, your insight has been a great help.”
Izuku blinked. “Your…your not mad?”
Hawks seemed a little surprised at the question himself before he gave a chuckle. “Well I don't approve of you lying about your age, baby bird. I could get into a lot of trouble violating child labor laws after all but your information has been fantastic! I think this has been the easiest couple of months I’ve had in a while.”
The greenette couldn’t believe it. He…he was being praised for his analysis? Hawks actually liked what he wrote? He thought it was helpful? This was amazing!
“Still, based on what I could find, it seems like you're homeless and again there is the issue of you being fourteen so I’ll have to fire you.”
That made his heart plummet. If he was fired then he would have to go back to dumpster diving, but a hero knowing he was a homeless minor? He’d get sent to foster care for sure and quirkless kids didn’t survive the system.
“But it would be a shame to let you go so I came up with a solution! All you have to do is sign this here and you’ll get to stay.”
What?! He could stay? He wasn’t getting fired? He could keep eating real food?
Swiftly grabbing the papers presented, Izuku tried to read them but for whatever reason, it was in English. The only part he could kinda understand was where to write the date and sign his name.
He looked at the hero in suspicion.
“What exactly is this?”
Hawks’ grin widened. “It’s just an agreement that you’ll stay here. You won’t have to worry about the foster system and I get to keep your analysis on my team.”
That didn’t really answer the question, so he asked a new one.
“Will I still be paid?”
The hero hummed. “Not in money, can’t violate the labor laws after all, but you’ll be given free housing and food as well as getting a say on how you want to go about schooling.”
Izuku quickly snapped back to the papers before him, scanning over them again like he could suddenly read them. He didn’t realize when Hawks said he’d get to stay that the hero meant he’d get to live in the building. This was starting to sound too good to be true.
“I guess I should also mention that your name will be changed from Midoriya to Takami but you don’t mind right?”
Now he was confused. He wasn’t really attached to his last name or anything but what kind of deal would make him have to change his name? And to Takami of all things? He couldn’t think of anyone with that name. “Why would it be changed to Takami?”
Hawks smirked as he held out a pen. “I’ll tell ya if you sign.”
The teen glared at the pen as he weighed his options. He could just not sign the contract. He couldn’t read it after all and really, you should never sign something you don’t understand. However, the alternative was being sent into foster care. Yea, he could possibly escape but then he'd be on the streets again. Homeless and dumpster diving for scraps to eat. Getting to eat real food the last five months, he wasn’t sure he could handle going back.
And Hawks was a hero. He wouldn’t trick him into signing anything bad would he? Besides, everything sounded pretty good. He’d get to have a safe place to sleep and food to eat. Going back to school wasn’t great but if he had say, he could possibly do it online to avoid the bullying. All he had to do in return was change his name and continue giving out analysis, something he had already been doing for fun.
Finally, taking a fortifying breath, Izuku grabbed the pen and signed.
As soon as he finished, Hawks yanked the papers back and looked them over. Nodding his head with satisfaction, he pulled another paper out of nowhere, signed it, and added it to the stack before making everything disappear from sight.
Grin seemingly wider than before, Hawks scooped up Izuku and spun the two in a circle.
“Ah! Finally! I have the baby bird all to myself! Take that Rumi!”
“Whoa wait, what are you talking about?!” Izuku protested as he tried to wiggle free. Hawks just clung on tighter.
“I’ve been wanting to adopt you since I caught you leaving dongo on my desk, but Rumi said I couldn’t. Once I figured out you were homeless and leaving those notes however, I knew you were mine!”
“A-adopt?!”
Putting the teen down but not letting go, Hawks explained. “Yep! I’m now your legal guardian. I’m too young to be your father though so think of me as your older brother. Oh, and my name’s Keigo Takami, but you can just call me Kei.”
His name-! So then Izuku just- but- what?!