Archive of Our Own

The attack on the USJ was sudden. No one had expected it; in fact, most of the students assumed that the dark portal opening in the centre of the structure and the villains pouring out of it were simply a part of the training exercise. Even when Aizawa-Sensei warned them, it took the man actually charging into battle for them to realize the danger.

The few students standing near Midoriya could hear his muttering. 

“He's going to get himself killed. Eraserhear isn’t meant for long-term combat against multiple opponents.”

That muttering was expected, comforting even. The students were all beyond familiar with their resident healer's antics. If they left him alone, he could keep up that steady stream of information for nearly twenty minutes before snapping out of it (They had timed him once, Aizawa-Sensei had called it a ‘logical experiment on Midoriya’s limits’) What was unfamiliar, for those who happened to glance at him, was the expression on his face as a large shadowy villain who appeared to be made of smoke appeared before the students.

For those who happened to look, it was terrifying. Midoriya was always the first to smile; his face was so expressive and full of joy and wonder. Even when he was lost in thought, it was easy to tell how he was feeling with the little crinkle between his eyebrows, occasionally chewing on his lips in concentration. But now? As Midoriya stared at the villain who had appeared and was currently under attack by Bakugo and Kirishima? His face was blank. No emotion shone through, and for those who really knew him? Well, they would know that was when he was at his most dangerous. Because if he is bothering to try and hide his emotions? Well, the usually even-tempered healer was furious. 

Only a handful of his closest friends had witnessed this particular expression, and only once before. When he had seen Bakugo bullying students from the gen-ed course, his face had fallen into that expressionless mask. When he had marched right up to him, the rest of the students had watched in utter shock as, after taking one look at the shorter student's face, Bakugo had paled and immediately held up his hands in surrender. Midoriya had simply reached up, grabbed Bakugo by the ear, and dragged him off somewhere private. When they had returned to class, Bakugo had been seen actually apologizing to the students he had been tormenting, and he spent the rest of the day silent, with his head down and focused on his work. 

So, needless to say, seeing that expression levelled at the villain who was currently talking about splitting up the class was, for the situation, probably warranted, but unsettling and frightening at the very least. Even more odd, in the moments between the portals opening and the class falling through them, a few swore they heard the villain say a few words.

“Asclepius?? No…” 

Before they fell into their respective zones, they wondered how this villain knew Midoriya's hero name. 

By a string of luck, Midoriya was not dropped into the water sector alone, and Asui was actually transported with him. They were able to quickly escape the water-based villains and make it to the shore. After a brief argument, with Asui practically demanding that Midoriya go with her to the entrance where he would be safe, and Midoriya summarily refusing to leave their teacher without support, they naturally headed in the direction the healer dictated. 

One thing that the students of class 1-A had learned very quickly is that you do not argue with the person who is single-handedly capable of keeping you alive. Midoriya was an absolute angel, and even without his quirk, the class would have naturally been protective of him. Even so, Aizawa-Sensei had held the entire class (minus Midoriya) back on the first day of classes and launched an impressive speech about how they all had a duty to keep him safe. 

“Healers are special.” He had said, “Don’t assume that everyone in a battle will leave him alone just because of his status. There are and will be villains who target him because he is a healer. Whether to take him for their own use, or to remove his ability to help you all permanently.” He had looked over the class, meeting each of their gazes. “Just like it is his job to keep you all alive and well, it is your job to protect him. Stay by his side; don’t leave him alone. And if for some reason, he decides that he is going to run head-first into danger, some of you better be right by his side.”

The lecture had landed quite well, especially considering several members of the class had already been subjected to a warm hug and a stern word from Midoriya after the quirk assessment that day. Over the next few days, seeing his warmth and scary analysis skills, he had won over the rest of the class without any issues. 

So of course, when Midoriya had leveled Asui with a disappointed stare and asked her how she could even think about abandoning Aizawa-Sensei when he was risking his life to keep them safe, she had folded immediately. 

When they made their way to the central plaza, it was chaos. Villains were strewn about, obviously having been restrained or incapacitated by Eraserhead. The man himself was facing down a blue-haired villain with… hands? Clinging to parts of his body. They approached just in time for the man to point at their teacher and the massive creature behind him to spring forward. 

It happened so fast, one second Eraserhead was dodging attacks, and the next, Aizawa-Sensei was on the ground, face smashed against the pavement, arms and more broken, and sitting at unnatural angles. 

Asui gulped and glanced towards Midoriya. She knew they couldn't take on these villains; her quirk was strongest in water, and Midoriya had taken some kind of “do not harm” oath well before he had even started at U.A. 

She had expected a look of utter devastation on his face, but she was instead met with that blank stare. It made her flinch back from him on impulse, heart racing and a pulse of fear shooting up her spine. 

Before she could recover, Midoriya had abruptly stepped out from the cover they were huddled behind and begun walking directly towards Aizawa-Sensei. She reached out for him, but missed him by a hair's breadth. She cursed that she had strained her tongue in the earlier escape, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to grab him and pull him to safety with it. 

Instead, she was forced to watch a nightmare come to life as the blue-haired villain lunged towards Midoriya, hand outstretched to his face. The same hand that had just melted part of Aizawa-Sensei's elbow. 

The hand made contact, and she cried out in horror. Only to be surprised when nothing happened. She glanced towards Aizawa-Sensei and saw that he had managed to level a quirk-enhanced glare at the villain in question. 

She was even more surprised when the villain seemed to actually look at Midoriya for the first time and abruptly pulled his hand away and stumbled back a few steps. From what she could see of his face, he looked horrified.

“I- what? No. What are you doing here, Asclepius?” The villain rasped out, all the confidence from his earlier tirade completely missing. 

Midoriya didn’t respond. He just… stared at the villain and then turned towards Aizawa-Sensei. 

He made his way over, the… creature quickly retreating from their teacher at a garbled word from the villain. 

Students and Villains alike watched as Midoriya simply knelt on the ground to pull Aizawa-Sensei into his arms to give him one of his signature warm, healing hugs. As soon as he had him situated and the healing began, he leveled that blank, angry gaze onto the villain. 

“Apologize to Aizawa-Sensei.” He demanded calmly. 

“That- Eraserhead is your sensei?” The villain exclaimed. Apparently, that was the wrong answer, as Midoriya leveled the man with a glare none of the students knew he was capable of making. 

In a move that was entirely confusing for everyone watching, the villain promptly dropped to the ground, bowing in a perfectly formal way. 

“I beg your forgiveness, Eraserhead.” He rasped out. “If we had known this class belonged to Asclepius, we would never have made a move on it- even if it meant losing our chance at All Might” 

Asui stared at the villain. Aizawa-Sensei, who had regained consciousness in Midoriya's arms, stared at the villain. Todoroki and Bakugo, who had just made their way onto the scene, stared at the villain. 

Midoriya kept his gaze on the villain for a few seconds before looking away with an audible sound of discontent. He promptly focused all of his attention on their teacher, asking him his usual slew of medical questions in a low, soothing voice. 

The villain cringed. Behind him, the portal villain hovered in a way that seemed almost anxious before settling himself near the blue-haired leader. He, too, made what might have been an approximation of a bow.

“Please forgive our trespass, Asclepius. It was a grave error on our part.” The villain's deep voice sounded tense, unsure. 

Midoriya ignored the villains; the students simply hovered in the area, unsure of how to continue. 

For several minutes, Midoriya continued questioning Aizawa-Sensei, and when the healing was complete, he released their teacher, and the two stumbled to their feet. He swayed, and their Sensei automatically caught him before he could fall over. 

Steadied by Aizawa, Midoriya finally turned his gaze back to the villains.  

“Why are you still here?” He asked with a yawn.

His question seemed to startle the villains, who promptly flew to their feet, glancing at each other. 

“I- yes. Shigaraki let us depart immediately,” The smoke villain said. 

And just like that, the members of class 1-A watched as a portal appeared behind the two villains who, after a final glance at Midoriya, quickly stepped through and vanished. 

Midoriya, for his part, seemed completely unbothered and simply held his arms out for Aizawa-Sensei to pick him up, and promptly fell asleep in their teacher's arms. 

The next day, there was a large gift basket waiting on Midoriyas' desk. The students of 1-A all crowded around it, exclaiming over the items inside. There were dozens of expensive notebooks, the kind that they had often seen the healer using for his quirk analysis. There was a beautiful-looking fountain pen, and several containers of inks in various and mesmerizing colors. There were packets of Midoriya’s favourite snacks and little bottles of his favourite energy drink. Whoever had put it together clearly knew the green-haired boy well. 

The class excitedly wondered who could have been responsible for this gift and waited excitedly for Midoriya to arrive from his morning meeting with Recovery Girl. Knowing him, they expected his face to light up in surprise and joy when he took in the basket. Maybe a slight blush making his way onto his face as he took in the obvious care that the package represented. 

None of them expected this.

Upon seeing the basket, Midoriya's face took on that blank, angry look once again, and he made his way over. He gave the items a cursory glance before reaching his hand in and pulling out a note. He glanced at it for barely a second before frowning and simply ripping the note to shreds. 

“Does anyone want anything from this basket?” he asked, looking around at his classmates. “I would hate for it to go to waste, and im not accepting anything from this person” 

The class exclaimed in surprise. The items were obviously expensive and were well matched to their healer. But no matter how they protested, he refused to budge. Eventually, they picked apart the basket, Iida stepping in to split up the items evenly amongst them. 

No one except Aizawa-Sensei, who was pretending to sleep at the front of the class, noticed Midoriya take a photo of the class splitting the items and type on his phone, seemingly sending a message before tucking it away in his pocket. 

When they returned from lunch, there was another gift basket. This time, however, it was on Aizawa-Sensei’s desk. 

The class approached this basket with much more caution, but no less curiosity. 

Inside, there were several bags of what some students recognized as a luxury brand of coffee, both pre-ground and whole beans. There were fancy flavor syrups, delicately flavored sugars, and more add-ins. There was also a surprising amount of cat-themed items. A coffee mug covered with little cat heads and butts? Cat-shaped coffee spoons, even what appeared to be a package of several dozen small cat-stickers. Taking up the centre of the gift basket, there was even a high-tech, expensive coffee machine. 

The students were shocked. Gifts for Midoriya, they could understand. He was a treasure, and he regularly helped anyone he came across. Hardly anyone who met him was resistant to his charm, and if they were, they weren’t immune to his perseverance. But their sensei? They all respected Aizawa-Sensei; how could they not, especially after he had risked his life to keep them safe? But they all knew that he was not the most… approachable person. In fact, from what they could tell, the only person he was even friends with was Yamada-Sensei, who could almost rival Midoriya with his aggressive friendliness. 

So who would be giving their Sensei a gift basket? Let alone such an expensive one?

Hearing the door slide open, they all rushed to their desks. Watching as Midoriya and Aizawa-Sensei entered the class together, likely having both been with Recovery Girl to ensure that Midoriya’s quirk had healed Sensei correctly. 

They watched as both of them took the in basket on the desk. Aizawa-Sensei looked surprised, Midoriya- well. Midoriya looked almost pleased? 

Aizawa-Sensei made his way over to the basket, pulling a sealed note off of the coffee machine. After he read it, his eyes flicked to Midoriya, a questioning gaze in them. 

Midoriya stepped forward and glanced at the note. He let out a soft laugh and smiled fully and brightly. 

"Well, if you want to keep it, you can Sensei. I promise theres nothing harmful inside, they wouldn’t dare.” He answered the unspoken question from their teacher before making his way back to his desk, seemingly in a much better mood than this morning. 

When a new coffee mug made its appearance in the staff room, everyone knew better than to laugh. Well, almost everyone. If any students saw Eraserhead chasing Present Mic around the school grounds after class, well. They assumed correctly that the Voice hero must have done something to deserve it. 

The next time any of the students had a run-in with the league of villains was during their intern week. 

Iida had been rightfully devastated by his brother's injury and had taken it upon himself to take an internship in Hosu, intent on catching the hero-killer Stain. He had been so determined that he even endured a full day of the silent treatment from Midoriya upon his announcement. 

Of course, at the end of the day, Midoriya had crumbled and apologized, practically begging his friend to be safe and to be smart. It had nearly been enough for Iida to call the entire thing off, but not quite. It was enough that he had requested that Sero join him at his internship, and the resulting brilliant smile that Midoriya levelled at him was enough to convince him it was the right choice, and enough for Sero to agree without much complaint.

Midoriya himself was going to be joining Todoroki at Endeavor's agency. He told the class that working with such a large agency would be good practice in active-duty healing. (Not to mention that Endeavor held the record for the most civilian injuries) But most of their close friends knew he just wanted to keep an eye on his crush while they were working under his father. 

The class group chat during the first few days of internships was… interesting. Many students reported a similar phenomenon. They would be out patrolling with their mentors and come across a villain. The villain would give the usual speech or spit the usual aggression, but then they would notice the student hovering behind their heroic mentor. The villains would then either immediately turn tail and run or simply allow the hero to arrest them without any conflict. 

By all counts, this was incredibly strange behavior. Some of the mentors had taken to calling class 1-A their good luck charms, and attributed the incident at USJ to being intimidating to the lower-tier villains they had been dealing with. 

Since no one except Todoroki was with Midoriya, only Todoroki was a witness to the satisfied smirk on his friend's face as he read the updates. 

The incident happened while they were out on patrol. It was their third night on patrol with Endeavor, and it was the third night that Todoroki couldn’t quite shake the feeling that they were being… watched? Followed? At the very least, he felt like there were eyes on him at all times. It was unsettling, and it made him twitchy and nervous, sticking practically glued to Midoriya’s side. 

It had started as a peaceful patrol, but then the Villains had attacked. It was chaos. It had been a while since such a large group of A-Class Villains had coordinated an attack, and civilians were running rampant all over the place. It took all of Todoroki’s concentration not to lose Midoriya to the crowd, and he ended up reaching out to take his hand in his own, stubbornly ignoring the blush he could feel creeping onto his own cheeks and how Midoriya was practically the color of a tomato himself. 

They had been mid-stride, chasing after Endeavor, when both of their phones dinged with the sound of a text message. When they pulled out their phones to see it was simply a message from Sero, who had shared his location, they paused, taking a moment to glance at each other uncertainly. 

“Sero wouldn’t have sent out a mass text like that for no reason,” Midoriya finally said, nibbling at his lip nervously

“I agree.” Todoroki acknowledged, pulling up a map on his own phone. “We can cut through the alleys here to get there, estimated time is about three minutes”

Midoriya just nodded and headed off in the direction Todoroki had indicated. Neither one of them was inclined to let go of the other's hand. 

The scene they arrived on was terrifying. Pro-Hero Native was slumped against the wall of the Alley, Sero was frozen, kneeling in place on the ground, and Iida was lying against the pavement, unmoving as the Villain above him held a sword tauntingly above his face. 

With a quick movement, Todoroki pulled Midoriya behind him, shielding the healer with his body, and sending out a burst of disruptive ice at the same time. This, of course, drew Stain’s attention to them, but Torodoki managed to use his ice to at least slide the others closer to himself and out of immediate danger. 

This had the unfortunate side-effect of leaving Todoroki as the only one able to fight the hero killer. But, well, his friends' lives were on the line; Midoriya’s life was on the line; what choice did he have? 

He began fighting, barely noticing as Midoriya had begun trying to rouse the others, only noticing that they were still not able to move. He was proud of how long he lasted against the villain. But in the end, he was only a first-year student, and his opponent had decades of experience and would not hesitate to kill. 

He knew, as he rushed towards the killer, that he had miscalculated, that his arm was directly in the path of the vicious swords the hero-killer favored. He shut his eyes in anticipation of the pain to come and- 

He slid easily to a stop, arm intact, relatively healthy. He looked back and just… stared in confusion at what he saw. 

The hero-killer Stain was there, lower body lost in a familiar-looking inky portal. And there, stepping out of another portal that had appeared, was the villain from the USJ. What was he called… Shigaraki? 

“Tch. I knew you were going to be trouble.” The blue-haired villain rasped, looking down at Stain. “I thought I told you that all the student NPC’s were off-limits this week” 

Stain just glared and stared off on another rant about ‘true heroes’ and those who were ‘unworthy’. Todoroki stopped listening as Midoriya ran over, practically tripping over himself to get to him.

He blushed as the healer began examining him, running his hands over his arms, cupping his face, tilting his head to the side to examine a cut, sliding his hands down his sides, checking for bruises. The whole time Midoriya was rambling, muttering about being careful and not taking on full-grown villains by himself. 

Todoroki was honestly not paying attention, finding himself quite distracted by how pretty the other boy was. Finally, having decided that he was not going to die immediately, Midoriya pulled Todoroki in for a hug, and he couldn’t help but relax as the familiar feeling of warmth and comfort flooded his body, soothing the aches and pains he had earned during his short fight.  

He was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of a throat clearing. Right. Villains.

He moved quickly, moving to stand between Midoriya and the confusing villains before them. 

“What do you want us to do with this guy Asclepius?” It was Shigaraki, and he was asking Midoriya what to do with the Hero-Killer that they had… captured? 

“Just leave him; I'm sure Endeavor will be along soon to take all the credit,” Midoriya responded, stepping out from behind Todoroki and towards the villain with a disintegration quirk. 

He watched as the villain just shrugged and signaled to the smoke villain, who promptly knocked out Stain and left him slumped against the wall. 

There was an uneasy silence as the two groups stared at each other. Todoroki was distinctly glad that Native seemed to be unconscious, because this weird almost-truce would be pretty hard to explain to the Pro-hero. 

Finally, Midoriya broke the silence. “Im still upset with you.” It was a simple sentence, said with very little emotion, but from the reaction the villain, Shigaraki, made, it might as well have been an attack.

Shigaraki flinched before looking away guiltily. 

“I already apologized to the Eraser,” he practically whined. “And i made sure everyone knew that your kids were off-limits,” he added with a grumble.

Midoriya didn’t respond, just levelled Shigaraki with an expression that Todoroki wished he could see; if the guilty look on the villain's face was anything to go by, it was spectacular. 

After a few more moments, during which Shigaraki alternated between glancing at Midoriya and at his feet, the villain sighed and turned to look at Todoroki directly. 

“I am sorry for the distress our attack on your class caused,” He said, ducking into a slight bow.

Todoroki just stared at him. What. What??? What do you say to a villain who is apologizing for attacking you and trying to kill you? His answer was to follow the example Midoriya had set, and so he just crossed his arms and levelled his best glare at the villain.  

He watched in disbelief as the man grumbled and turned to go make similar apologies to Sero and Iida, both of whom seemed equally as confused. At least Iida awkwardly accepted the apology; he likely deemed it too ‘impolite’ to refuse to acknowledge the man. 

Hearing the acceptance of at least one student, Skigaraki looked back towards Midoriya with an expression that Todoroki could only compare to a puppy. Eyes wide and hopeful, like he was expecting to be praised for doing something good. 

Imagine his surprise when that was almost exactly what Midoriya did. 

With a sigh, Midoriya stepped forward, again towards the villain who could literally disintegrate him. 

“Fine. Come here,” he said, opening his arms in the familiar gesture that led to his healing hugs. 

Shigaraki didn’t quite smile, but he did quickly shuffle over and crouch down to accept the offered embrace. 

Todoroki was left staring at the scene in shock; the whole thing just seemed so unreal. Clearly, the villain wasn’t that injured, as the hug barely lasted a minute before Midoriya pulled back.

“Does this mean you’ll rejoin our party?” Shigaraki asked, looking down at the healer. 

“Absolutely not.” Midoriya was quick to answer, and the villain once again got a look on his face. Todoroki was really leaning into the ‘kicked puppy’ comparison now that the man seemed to be a… non-active threat.  “I'm still mad at you for attacking my class and trying to kill my dad,” Midoriya grumbled, glaring at the villain. 

Wait- his dad? Todoroki was intrigued; maybe his theory about Midoriya being Aizawa-sensei's secret love child wasn’t so far-fetched afterall. 

“I didn’t know!” Shigaraki stressed. “You never told us where you were going to school, and you certainly didn't tell us Eraserhead was your dad.“

“I shouldn’t have to tell you that! We talked about this! You were going to work on toning down the villainy. And less than a month later, there you were, trying to kill a bunch of students!” 

 Oh no, Midoriya was gearing up for a lecture. It seemed like Shigaraki realized that too and was quick to try to placate the healer. 

“We didn’t want to kill anyone except All Might! And he wasn’t even there!” 

Uh oh, clearly Shigaraki hadn’t learned yet that fighting with Midoriya was never a good idea. He almost felt bad for the guy. But well, he had also tried to disintegrate their teacher, so maybe he deserved it. 

“And that's exactly why I'm not going to rejoin your party, Tomura! You aren’t even really sorry that you broke your promise; you’re just trying to justify it!”

Todoroki tuned out the resulting argument, deciding that it was likely safe enough to check on his classmates, shooting off some ice to stick the hero-killer to the wall as he walked past. 

Luckily, both Sero and Iida were relatively unharmed, meaning that Todoroki felt completely safe launching into a lecture of his own about how irresponsible it was for Iida to go off on his own, chasing a known villain who had already killed several pro-heroes. 

By the time he was done emulating Midoriya in his ' I'm very disappointed in you’ speech, the villains had been sent on their way by said very annoyed healer, who had wandered over to quickly offer hugs to his classmates. 

Once that was done, Midoriya wandered back over to Todorki, letting out a large yawn as he leaned against his side. Deciding the entire situation could be a conversation for later, he quickly wrapped an arm around his healer, happy to wait together for the adults to arrive and take over the scene. 

Over the next few weeks, Aizawa watched as each of his students received their own mystery gift basket. He would probably be concerned about the obvious level of stalking that had gone into personalizing each basket, but well… His problem child didn’t seem overly concerned, and considering the kid was the self-proclaimed expert on the League of Villains, he decided it was probably alright to allow… whatever was happening to continue. 

The regular delivery of more of that delicious coffee to his desk in the teachers' lounge certainly helped matters. That the mystery gifts left Yamada feeling particularly jealous and possessive by the time they got home in the evening was another bonus. 

Each of the baskets for his students had a similar, generic note apologizing for the incident at USJ and containing a promise that each student would be ‘safe from most villains’ until they graduated and earned their formal heroes license. 

He knew that Midoriya had made friends with some “shady” people. The kid had told him as much during their training sessions, before the kid had even applied to U.A. He wished he had looked into it more; it would have been nice to know that the problem child that he saw as his own was actively spending time with an organized group of super villains. 

Yamada had been equally upset that his “little listener” seemed to have the self-preservation skills of an overly friendly puppy. But ultimately, as much as they cared about the kid, his mother had the final say, and she seemed to trust his judgement on the matter. 

Which led to this… situation. The League had been dead silent after the USJ incident. Aside from the… gifts. The first one to Midorya had been expected, as he had been told later. The note that Shigaraki had left him had just been an apology for attacking what was “his”. Midoriya had told Aizawa that he refused to accept it because he wasn’t the one the villains had hurt. 

Sure, they had apparently broken some kind of promise about being less villainous now that the kid was attending a hero school, but he was more upset that the attack had traumatized his classmates and nearly killed his mentor/father figure.  

The gift sent to himself had been… unexpected. He appreciated the care and taste that had gone into the gift, but it had felt wrong to accept something he knew came from a group of villains. But Midoriya had said he could keep it, so against his better judgment, he had. 

Then the Hosu incident with Stain occurred. Aizawa swears he had aged ten years while reading that incident report. Reading exactly how close not one, but four of his students had come to being the latest victims of Stain. Then, hearing the whole story from Todoroki of all people, he sighed in exasperation. 

From then on, the gifts to the students were something that he practically expected. It was still strange to see the delighted smile that lit up Midoriya's face each time another one of his classmates received a basket. But, in his own way, he supposed Midoriya was doing some kind of rehabilitation with the league. So he decided to just let the whole thing play out. 

He was very glad for that decision a few nights later. 

He had been out on patrol, despite teaching full-time, he maintained a presence as Eraserhead at least four evenings a week, usually lining up with the evenings that Yamada worked as well. Staying home alone had never boded well for him, so he would rather keep himself busy. 

He had been chasing down what he thought was a villain with an average to moderate strength quirk. The woman had been using it to extort various shops in the area and had progressed to an accidental death a few days before. He miscalculated. Between one moment and the next, he found himself going from chasing her down a quiet street, turning the corner at a run, to being blindsided by an entire car being thrown at him. 

He was getting old. 

He tried to dodge and managed to avoid getting hit by the worst of it, but in the end, he found himself pinned against another car, trapped under the weight of the one that had been thrown at him. It was excruciating. At the very least, his leg was broken, if not completely crushed, and the rest of him was pinned down so he couldn't move.  And here he was, as an underground hero- alone well past 2 in the morning with no way to reach his phone to call for backup. 

He heard footsteps approaching and felt a sense of despair settle over him. The villain hadn’t taken the chance to run away. He was probably going to die out here, alone. Leaving his husband, his students, leaving Midoriya- 

He was abruptly pulled out of his spiral by the feeling of the weight crushing him, disappearing. He watched in complete shock as the car that had been crushing him simply crumbled to dust. And of course, standing above him, scratching at his neck, was Shigaraki. 

He only really had time to process that fact before the pain of being crushed by a car caught up to him, and he passed out. 

When he woke up, it was to the feeling of being held in a familiar pair of arms, with a familiar soothing warmth spreading through his body, healing wounds and soothing his sore muscles. And a familiar voice murmuring in his ear.

What was unfamiliar was that instead of Midoriya’s usual soft reassurances and soothing rambling that he emitted during healing, the words were, in fact, neither soothing nor reassuring.

“-imes have I told you, you need backup. Its dangerous out there, especially as a solo-underground hero. If Shigaraki hadn’t been stalking you because he felt bad you could have died- Oh good you’re awake”

Oh no

As it turns out, Midoriya does not enjoy being woken up at 3 am by a portal opening in his bedroom to deposit his homeroom teacher, in full hero costume, bleeding onto his carpet. 

Usually, Aizawa has managed to avoid the worst of Midoriya's legendary lectures. Bakugo has been the subject of many, and many of his classmates have been on the receiving end. Even Yamada had earned one, after he shattered a decent portion of the Midoriyas' glassware when they had been over to dinner, and his husband had gotten too excited. (The problem child had a hard time believing that it was an accident, and had accused the man of enjoying the drama caused by his quirk accidents) (They had sent Inko a full set of new, top-of-the-line glasses the very next morning) 

This time, however, he was trapped. The healing was not quite finished, so he didn’t feel as though he could run away. And, there was no one else around to distract from the healer's rage. 

With a feeling of dread building, he settled in and prepared for the worst. 

Class 1-A was going on a camping trip. Everyone was ecstatic. It sounded like a dream, a week in the woods with all of their friends and their teachers? 

Maybe it was too good to be true, but only Todoroki and Midoriya put that particular puzzle together before the class as a whole was unceremoniously thrown off a mountain and into the woods. 

Midoriya had not been impressed. He had been quick to grab his boyfriend's hand and pulled him out of the way of the quirk before it could hit him. What followed was an impressive lecture, made all the more effective by Todoroki levelling the adults with a stern glare from behind him. 

In fact, the entire exercise had been paused, as Midoriya insisted on checking each of his classmates out for injuries before allowing them to continue with the planned activity. After healing a few bruises, several sprained ankles, and one minor concussion, he had promptly dragged Todoroki onto the bus and fallen asleep on him. Aizawa-Sensei’s protest that Todoroki, at least, should participate fell on deaf ears. 

He was even less impressed when the students started to trickle in from the activity, each and every one requiring an additional healing (or emotional support) hug from their resident healer. 

The glare he had levelled at Aizawa-Sensei had the man making a strategic early exit to take dinner in his room that evening. Vlad King had taken one look at the healer and simply turned around and walked away. 

The next day and a half had, admittedly, been very fun. Midoriya had spent a lot of time working on befriending Kota, Mandalay’s nephew. The boy was very resistant, but Midoriya had taken that as a personal challenge. 

In fact, he had finally managed to get a tentative approval from the kid after bringing him dinner and healing his scraped knees with one of his famous hugs. Now, while his class had begun running a quirk training exercise, he found himself following Kota through the woods and up towards his ‘secret spot’.

Of course, that was when the villains attacked. 

The first clue was the smell of smoke in the air. It had a specific smell that instantly reminded Midoriya of Todoroki and Endeavor's flames. With a frown, he had tried to get Koda to hide, but before the kid could be convinced to leave him, they were attacked by the villain Muscular. 

Midoriya took one look at the villain before picking up Koda and running. 

His quirk had come in early; it was hard not to notice when every time your kid hugged you (Which was many times a day, Midoriya had always been a hugger), you were filled with a warm, comforting feeling, and any injuries you had disappeared. His mother had been delighted and insisted on getting him medical training as early as possible. While his quirk could eventually heal most injuries, having an intimate knowledge of how the body worked only improved his efficiency, speed, and energy consumption. 

This resulted in Midoriya choosing to take a true healer's oath to ‘Do no harm’ on his 12th birthday. At the time, he had thought it was a great idea. Afterall, he hadn’t been sure that he could ever be a hero with his quirk, and helping people was far more important to him than anything else. 

He regretted that oath slightly now. Of course, Aizawa-Sensei had ensured that he learned self-defence, but he still stubbornly refused to learn any kind of maneuver that wasn’t intended to simply incapacitate an opponent. 

All that to say, he certainly had nothing in his repertoire that could be used to safely disable the 6’7 monstrosity of a villain that was now chasing him and Kota down. 

He was so grateful that his dads had both insisted that he take endurance training. Aizawa-Sensei had been training him on the U.A obstacle courses for years now, and Yamada-Sensei had been insistent on taking the little family out to the countryside for hikes and other outdoor activities for nearly as long. This meant that he wasn’t completely hopeless at weaving his way through the forest towards the commotion he could hear ahead. 

If he hadn’t been carrying a small child, he probably would have made it. 

Muscular, having gotten annoyed at his target running away, had resorted to ripping a tree out of the ground and throwing it at them. Midoriya had to skid to a stop abruptly to avoid getting crushed, and the two of them were in a pile on the ground when the villain caught up to them. 

Knowing there was likely no way to escape this, Midoriya quickly stood and hoisted Kota over the fallen tree, with instructions to run before he turned to face the blonde villain. He thought he heard the pitter-patter of small feet, and truly, truly hoped that the kid had actually listened to him. 

“Why are you attacking us?” He asked, hoping to buy some time as he scanned the area for an escape route. “Who are you working with?”

Muscular stopped and considered him for a moment. “We are the Alliance of Villains!” He proclaimed with a sneer. “And we’re here to capture a couple of brats with useful quirks.”

Midoriya paused at the proclamation, tilting his head to the side in curiosity. 

“Do you mean the League of Villains?” He asked, confused

“No! We are the Alliance of Villains! The League was full of cowardly traitors.” 

While Midoriya took a moment to process the information, Muscular seemed to grow tired of the discussion and began to charge at him. Just as he was preparing to dodge, he heard a sound like a dull roar, and could only watch in surprise as bright blue flames erupted out of the ground, forming a burning hot wall between the two of them. 

“Hey. That's my future brother-in-law you’re running at.” A familiar, dry voice sounded. 

Midoriya had never been more thrilled to see a murderous pyromaniac in his life. 

“Dabi!” He happily exclaimed, running over, trusting the older boy completely. “How are you? It’s been a long time!” 

Muscular screamed and ran through the flames towards them

“Maybe now isn't a good time to catch up. Asclepius.” Dabi responded, pulling Midoriya behind him. Midoriya pouted at the emphasis on his hero name. He knew Dabi thought it was stupid, but come on, he chose it when he was 12 and obsessed with pre-quirk healing lore. 

"Oh, so you’re the one we’re after.” Muscular’s voice sounded out as he cracked his knuckles, looking at Midoriya with renewed interest. 

Dabi frowned, moving into a fighting position. 

“Follow the burned-out trail back to camp; the rest of the league is here helping the students. I'll keep this guy off you.” Dabi murmured, just loud enough for the healer to hear him. 

Midoriya wanted to protest, but seeing the serious look on his friend's face, he knew better than to argue. Trusting the other man completely, he quickly turned and ran. Following the trail was easy, but he admittedly let himself get quite distracted, looking all over to see if there was any sign of Kota in the woods.

The distraction cost him. The last thing he remembered was the forest turning into a sea of blue as he was shrunk down into a containment sphere. 

Aizawa was not having a good day. This entire training camp had been a nightmare from the start, what with the students being thrown off a mountain and Midoriya’s resulting lecture. (Which he had to pretend was part of the plan. He may be a bit of an asshole, but he wouldn’t wish Midoriya on some unsuspecting heroes who were doing the school a favor by hosting them this week) 

Then, Midoriya had been giving him the silent treatment for days as if every injury obtained by any of the problem children was directly his fault. Which was ridiculous. At the very least, they should be half Vlad King’s fault as well. ‘

And then, of course, the villains. 

He had been standing with the hell class, waiting for the students currently running the activity to return, when an annoyingly familiar purple portal had opened, depositing Shigaraki and several other known and wanted villains. 

He had barely gotten an explanation from the man when an explosion sounded in one part of the forest, followed closely by screams emanating from the other. 

And so, in a very strange turn of events, Aizawa found himself fighting side-by-side with the group formerly known as the League of Villains, now tentatively dubbed the League of Vigilantes. 

From what little he could gather, the group had taken a vote and decided that staying in their healer's good graces was more important than maintaining the way that they had previously been operating. And so, the main players, consisting of Shigaraki, Kurogiri, Dabi, Toga, Twice, Spinner, and somehow Pro-Hero Hawks, had all defected from their lives of villainy. 

Only, it turns out that the rest of the League hadn’t appreciated that and had split off to form their own group and launched this attack intending to take out Midoriya and restore the league to its former glory. 

Because, of course, his problem child was the cause of some kind of civil war in the villain world. 

They worked surprisingly well together, all things considered. Shigaraki was deadly, and the others were useful. Dabi had split off, carving a path of fire through the forest towards where Midoriya’s last known location was, while the rest moved seamlessly to protect the students. 

Despite their flawless teamwork, however, they utterly failed to protect their healer. 

After the main battle had concluded, Dabi had returned, carrying a crying Kota in his arms, who had explained that a villain had captured Midoriya in a marble and made his way out of the forest unnoticed. 

Aizawa could only watch as Shigaraki dissolved nearly a dozen trees before he thought to activate Erasure on the man. 

“They took Izuku!” Shigaraki wailed, scratching at his neck furiously.

“Yes,” Kurogiri replied, the only one brave enough to do so.

“He probably thinks we attacked his class again!” 

“Most likely,” Aizawa concluded.

Shigaraki screamed, reaching out to attempt to decay more trees, only to hiss in frustration as Aizawa cancelled his quirk once again. 

“We have to get him back. Hes our healer. He belongs to us.” 

Before Aizawa could even think to agree, the League of Vigilantes had all enthusiastically agreed and made their exit via portal, leaving him to clean up the total mess the battle had left his students in. 

Midoriya Izuku was missing for a grand total of 2 hours and 48 minutes. It turns out that when you take someone whom some of the most powerful villains consider to be theirs, the turnaround on revenge is pretty quick. 

The infiltration was swift and brutal. 

Midoriya found himself promptly swarmed by his villains and scooped up effortlessly into Shigaraki’s arms as the others hovered anxiously nearby, not paying any mind to the smouldering remains of the warehouse around them as Dabi continued to get revenge on those who were left alive.

“This wasn't us. You know that, right?” The blue-haired man demanded

“Yeah, I figured you guys didn’t rename yourselves to the ‘Association of Villains’ overnight,” Midoriya answered with a grin. “Thank you for rescuing me so quickly!” 

“Of course. You’re part of our party. We wouldn’t ever let someone else take you.” Shigaraki looked offended at the prospect, and Midoriya couldn’t help but laugh.

“Thank you for protecting my friends,” Midoriya finally said softly, looking at each of the Vigilantes. “And thank you for saving me”

The mismatched family all pressed closer to their hero in an awkward but perfect group hug.

“Anything for you, Izuku.”

Shigaraki was fairly certain that the League had, at this point, successfully made it up to Midoriya for the incident at the USJ. 

Sure, the healer had yet to formally declare that he was rejoining their party, but he was also no longer ignoring their invites for movie night or their biweekly smash tournament. 

Considering how absolutely miserable they had all been because of that mistake, he had decided to take the win for what it was and not push the kid for anything more than what he was ready to offer. 

So things had gone… somewhat back to normal. Sure, there was a lot less meticulous planning of nefarious activities. The Nomus were all quite hungry. And, overall, they were overwhelmingly bored, but that was a small price to pay in exchange for having Midoriya and his little boyfriend over to eat shitty takeout ramen and binge-watch pre-quirk shows on their tiny TV on the weekends.

Still… some things were different. They had all gotten used to shadowing Eraserhead on his patrols, and can you blame them? It was a lot more interesting than sitting around in an empty bar all evening, so most nights saw one or more of the League out on the rooftops, performing ever-increasing feats of parkour mastery to keep up with the underground hero. They had even, on occasion, helped the hero capture a villain or two; after all, they had appearances to keep up now that they had reclassified themselves as vigilantes. 

Eventually, their movie night attendance increased by two, as Eraserhead refused to attend without his annoyingly loud husband. But, when they showed up for the second week in a row with a brand new TV in tow, well. They were only human; they accepted the bribe for what it was. 

No one ever quite did figure out what exactly Midoriya had done to wrap the League around his finger like that. Some people assumed it was fear, that perhaps the healer had bullied them into submission with some well-placed words, while others figured that he was nothing more than a healer who would actually work with them, which was a valuable commodity. 

All one had to do was look at them to see the truth. Family comes in all shapes and sizes, and Midoriya had simply found his in an unlikely place.