Archive of Our Own

He was told no by so many people since he was declared to be quirkiness. He was berated by Kacchan, his childhood friend, who tried to tear him down every chance he gets. His mother did not believe in him, and she was hovering over him as if he were a fragile as glass.

That day was the most horrible of his life; he was made a laughing stock because he wanted to be a hero, even the teachers participated in the joking. His hero analysis notebook was burned and tossed through the window into a small pond, the ink running through the pages and become a black smudge. He could vividly recall the harsh words that were thrown at him, repeating in his head like a mantra.

Take a swan dive off the roof. Take a swan dive off the roof. Take a swan dive off the roof. Take a swan dive off the roof. Take a swan dive off the roof.

Shaking his head and doing his best to ignore the words, Izuku tightened his grip on his notebook and walked under a bridge hastily to avoid his bullies. Unfortunately, lady luck was not on his side, and Izuku found himself being suffocated but a slimy villain. 

‘You got your wish Kacchan’ he bitterly thought as he found himself unable to fight back and consciousness was fading away. He could see a silhouette standing in front of him, a broad smile taunting him, laughing at him.

The next thing he knew was that he could breathe once more and there standing in front of him was the number one hero, All Might, himself. Izuku went full-on fanboy mode and began mumbling like he always does but managed to stop himself before he freaks the hero out. 

“Hey All Might, do you think a quirkless kid like me could become a hero like you?” he asked quickly, surprising himself that he didn't even stammer one bit.

“Hmm,” the hero thought for a second before looking down, “without power, can one become a hero? No, I should think not…”

The hero continued on about being a police officer and how it was a safer option, but Izuku could not hear a word. His mind was filled with static, and he was drowning into his own demons. 

Weak.

Useless Deku.

Powerless.

Useless Deku.

Quirkless.

Useless Deku.

Loser.

Useless Deku.

You can’t be a hero.

Useless Deku.

Take a swan dive.

Midoriya opened his eyes to see that All Might had left, that even the number one hero did not believe in him. Tears welled in his eyes as he opened his notebook to see that All Might had signed it for him without asking. The hero didn’t even make sure he was okay; he just dropped a bomb on him and made a run for it. Guess that revealed All Might's stance on quirkless individuals, so much for being a hero.

Take a swan dive. Take a swan dive. Take a swan dive. Take a swan dive. Take a swan dive. Take a swan dive. Take a swan dive. Take a swan dive. Take a swan dive. Take a swan dive. Take a swan dive. Take a swan dive. Take a swan dive. Take a swan dive. Take a swan dive.

The words kept coming back, this time it was not Kacchan’s voice but All Might’s as well. He let out a bitter laugh and made his way to the highest building he could see, which was incidentally his middle school. He made his way to the roof and took out a pen and wrote a simple letter on the page that All MIght had signed.

Dear Everyone, congratulations, your wishes are about to become true. You will no longer have to deal with poor old quirkless and useless Deku.

Dear Mom, I’m sorry that you ended up with a son like me, you deserve better, and I love you, and this is no way your fault.

Dear Kacchan, thanks for the advice.

Dear All Might, you are a piece of shit.

Goodbye, 

Midoriya Izuku.

Setting his book on the floor, opened on the page of his note, he placed his backpack on the book so that the page won’t flip because of the wind. He stood up by the railing and took in a deep breath before leaning forward and falling down. It felt liberating as if he were set free from the shackles that chained him down. Then everything went dark.

.

Eraserhead was heading back to UA from his recent mission when he saw a child standing on the roof of a building. He could see the boy close his and take a deep breath, that's when Eraser understood what is going on and he rushed towards the boy. He could see that a few others have noticed the boy and were yelling too.

But it was too late, he had managed to get his scarf around the boy’s torso, but the boy had touched the ground, he could hear bones cracking and blood spilling on the pavement. A shrill scream overtook the loud thumping of his heart, breaking him out of the trance. He had been a pro-hero for a decade now, an underground hero nonetheless, but seeing a child splattered on the pavement with cracked bones and a pool of blood made his heart clench. He could briefly hear some sirens in the distance, but it didn't matter, he needed to check if the broken child was still alive. He reached down and saw that the boy’s neck was not broken, a small relief, as he pressed his index and middle fingers to check for a pulse.

Thuthump.

A sigh of relief had escaped his lips as he could feel a faint pulse, hope that the boy was alive. He turned his head to see one of the school teachers standing with a phone by his ear. His face was deadly pale, and his whole body was shaking, “Th- The am- ambu- lance w-will be hear in 10 - 10 mi- minutes,” the teacher stammered.

Eraser nodded and went to inspect the body further, a boy that looked like he was 12 or 13, green hair that was now covered in blood, and four freckles that decorated each cheek like a diamond. The boy looked rather scrawny and almost sickly, making the hero suspect that the boy had been suffering from depression for a while. He noted that he was still wearing a middle school uniform, one that oddly was the same as the fellow students who were around the campus and saw the boy jump, they were all crying and shaking; clearly traumatized.

“Oh shit, is that Midoriya?”  he heard a student ask one of his friends, spiraling into a panic “no, no, no, fuck, fuck, fuck”

“Is- is he dead?” another girl asked shakily, as she tried to regain her strength and approach the hero, “h-hey? did you push him?”

“VILLAIN!” another student yelled, “Please don’t kill us too.”

Eraser scoffed and removed his goggles, taking out his hero license and flashing it to the crowd, “I’m a pro hero,” he began, “I didn’t make it in time to stop him from jumping, but I managed to slow the speed of his fall by a bit.”

The hero could hear the sirens getting closer, he estimated a minute or so before the arrived, “where are his belongings?” he asked, but the look on peoples faces told him that they didn’t know.

“He carries a yellow backpack,” one of the teachers answered, “but he had left for home more than 30 minutes ago?”

“Stay here and press a cloth over here to stop the bleeding,” Eraser demanded, pointing to the wound at the back of the boy’s head. He had a brief idea where the bag might be, and he needed to get it quickly, it was evidence, and knowing that there might be a suicide note, some kids would rather hide that note than be exposed for the indirect murder of their fellow colleagues.

The hero used his capture gear to catapult himself to the roof with the help of his parkour skills, there he found the said yellow backpack and underneath the bag was a notebook. There next to an obnoxious All Might signature was a suicide note, it was short and simple but yet explained some and opened up more questions.

He wanted to know what was the advice given to him by this ‘Kacchan’ person, and who was this person. He also wanted to know what did the number one hero do to the boy for him to write such a message for the hero in his notebook, next to a place where the hero had signed. But what had pissed him off was the words ‘poor old quirkless and useless Deku,’ they painted an image of discrimination, bullying, and oppression.

The hero jumped down of the roof with the boy’s belongings as the ambulance entered the school campus. He asked to be taken to a proper hospital and that the hero will cover the bills. Just as he was about to enter the ambulance with the boy, a teacher had come up to him and handed him a paper with a number sprawled over it with a home address and a name, “Midoriya Izuku’s mother contact info.”

“Thank you,” the hero nodded, taking in the address and typing it on his phone quickly. He then immediately dialed recovery girl and asked her to meet her at the Mustafu general hospital and that there was an emergency. He knew that he needs to call the mother, but he needed to make sure that the boy, Midoriya, reached the hospital first and that recovery girl was there to look over him. And he needed a police officer, preferably Tsukauchi, to be with him when he broke the news.

During the car ride, Eraser flipped the pages of the notebook to try and see if there were other hints of bullying. He felt the charred pages, and they were enough to tell him that the bullying was also physical. Looking at the front cover of the book, he could see the words ‘Hero Analysis for the future Vol. 13’ written.

The boy wanted to be a hero even though he was quirkless. The boy had been holding onto a false hope the whole time, maybe that was what was holding him together. Sighing the hero flipped to the first page and took a double take, there written was a detailed analysis of a pro hero, their quirks, how they fought and their weaknesses, all in great detail.

He quickly shuffled through the pages and looking at how accurate some of these analysis were, with more honing they could rival Nezu’s as well. The boy even had a detailed analysis of Mt. Lady and Kamui woods even though they had debuted recently, meaning that boy had a good eye and could pick up on things that others couldn’t.

Oh, what he would do to have this boy working for him, helping him with cases that are hard to crack and finding out what peoples quirks are based on their personality and ticks. He quietly went out of the ambulance as they reached the hospital, he walked by as they carried the gurney into an operating theatre, while a nurse came up and hoarded him for questions.

He felt like a thief as he searched through the boy’s belongings, handing an ID and what seems to be a medical ID card with the boy’s info to the nurse. A few minutes later, recovery girl was at the hospital, and he had explained the situation, she gave him a nod and asked if she could help in any way possible and that she would act as a temporary guardian until the boy’s parent’s arrived.

Ten minutes later, the detective had arrived, and Eraser gave a recount of what had happened, showing the hero analysis book as a proof. The detective furrowed his eyebrows when he saw the message to All Might but decided to investigate later; they had to go meet a mother and bring her to the hospital. Besides they can’t accuse All Might of anything before hearing the story from the boy himself.

The car ride to the apartment complex was 25 minutes long; Recovery Girl had been updating them every 5 minutes of the boy’s condition. Eraser’s phone pinged one more time as they reached in front of an apartment door, it seemed like the boy lived in a slightly poor area, that was explained by the rundown middle school. 

‘Midoriya Izuku has been stabilized at the moment; the bleeding has been stopped for now.’

“I guess that’s good news, for now, they still don’t know if he will make it out of the operating room,” the hero commented as he pocketed his phone and knocked on the door three times.

A middle-aged woman with green hair and eyes opened the door, looking at the two men warily, “H-How may I help you?” she asked timidly.

“I am detective Tsukauchi Naomosa, and this is the Pro Hero Eraserhead,” Tsukauchi began but was cut off when the woman went into a frenzy.

“Oh god, did Izuku get close to a hero fight and hurt himself?” she asked, tears welling up in her eyes. Well at least they confirmed that this was Midoriya Izuku’s mother, but that question caused them to have more questions themselves.

“None of that sort ma’am,” Tsukauchi replied, “this is a private matter, and we wish to discuss this inside if you may ma’am.”

“Oh sorry, where are my manners,” the mother apologized as she opened the door widely and let the two men inside. Eraser had noted that the house was small, enough for two people, perhaps the father was out of the picture. This was further proven when he saw the pictures and drawing littered around the house, it was of Izuku and his mother.

The detective explained to Midoriya Inko, he had now learned her name, about what happened to her son. He could see the woman burst into tears and start crying about how she had failed her baby, and how she was going to sue the school for not stopping her son from jumping of their roof. She seemed genuinely confused about the fact that her son was being bullied a lot, which meant that the boy was lying to him mother about the extent of his bullying. 

They also learned that Izuku was quirkless, just as they had suspected and that he wanted to be a hero and had idolized All Might while growing up. The boy had ended up picking a habit of analyzing heroes and quirks in general, being fascinated by them. The let Inko pack a bag for herself and her son for an overnight stay. They also explained that Izuku would most likely be hospitalized with the psychiatric ward until he was evaluated to be well enough to leave.

They left the appartment and drove back to the hospital, during the car ride, Eraser explained that he would cover the hospital bills but Inko argued back. She told them that they were well enough and are able to cover their medical fees, and that her husband sends them huge checks at the start of every month and that she no longer works and is instead a housewife. The money that they recieve was more than enough to keep them afloat every month and allows them to buy luxury items if they want to. That had explained how they managed to afford the All Might memorabilia, even the limited edition ones, which were sometimes quite pricy.

When they reached the hospital they had been told that the surgery had went well and that Izuku was stabilized and should wake up within the next three days. Eraser had shown Inko the suicide note and the woman had agreed to let them keep it as evidence for the moment until Izuku had woken up.

The days passed in a blur and Izuku woke up and was questioned by the detective and the psychiatrist, and they ended up collecting bits and pieces of what had happened. The doctor had explained that Izuku was traumatized and has developed selective muteness, and would not respond to others. The boy would only nod his head when asked a yes or no question, otherwise he sat there staring at nothing, with dull and lifeless eyes.

Eraserhead had come on the fifth day and visited the boy, asking for some alone time without anyone interfering. The doctor was reluctant to give him the space but allowed it in the end when he noticed that the hero was not willing to back down. 

Eraserhead had entered the room and saw Midoriya lying on the bed looking at the ceiling, like it was his default setting. The hero closed the door and grabbed a chair to sit next to the bed, “I’m sorry,” the hero spoke, but Midoriya paid him no mind, “I was to late to stop you from jumping, all I did was reduce the speed of impact but it didn't work as much as I hoped, both of your legs are broken and there are multiple fractures in each leg, your left shoulder was dislocated while your right had a fracture, several other breaks and fractures in both arms, you cracked your skull and fractured your spine, all that because I was too slow.”

When he stopped listing the injuries as a result of his failings as a pro hero, he could see Midoriya looking at him, “I’m an underground pro hero, my name is-”

“Eraserhead,” Midoriya spoke softly, shocking the hero. He was informed that the boy had refused to speak to anyone, he would only mutter a few words to his mother and that was it.

“y-yeah,” the hero replied, slightly shaken, “but you can call me Aizawa”

The boy nodded as he looked at the hero, expecting more questions. “I’m not going to ask you a lot of questions, I was just checking up on you for now, I know that recovery girl is slowly trying to speed up your healing process” Aizawa stated, “once you get better I will ask you the deep stuff but for now I just want to know who should we hold responsible.”

Izuku broke his eye contact with Eraser and stared back to the ceiling. That meant the boy was not ready to answer the question yet, so he decided to stir away from the problem and focus on another thing, “I read your analysis book,” Aizawa began, only to see Izuku look back at him warily, “thats some amazing stuff, if you want to be a hero, the underground could do use some help with someone with a brain like yours.”

Out of nowhere, hiccups could be heard as tears filled Izuku’s eyes and he started crying heavily, alerting the pro hero. The boy was trying to wipe his tears away but the hand casts did not allow him to do so. Aizawa stood up and reached for a box of tissue to help Izuku wipe his face off, and then went on to ruffle the boy’s hair.

After that incident the boy had slowly began to open up, and the doctor had done more progress in the following days and Recovery Girl had managed to heal his cracked skull and spine first and foremost. Two weeks later Midoriya was discharged from the ICU and ER care and was sent towards the psychiatric ward care.

There he would work to heal his mind first, and was not allowed non pre approved visitors. Even his mother would have to be approved before visiting him. Eraserhead had visited him on the day he was moved to psychiatric ward care, the hero had come to ask him a  few questions, “why did you say that All Might is a piece of shit?” he asked.

Midoriya had looked at him for a second, the boy still didn’t speak as much, just short direct sentences. The boy furrowed his brows in contemplation, “I guess,” he began slowly, “you could say that he is a hypocrite.”

Aizawa was about to press for more but the look the boy had given him meant that the conversation was over. The hero chuckled at the answer and sat on a chair next to the boy, “between you and me,” Aizawa began, “the man is somewhat a clown.”

“You said it,” Izuku shrugged and sighed, “did you mean it?”

“Please be more specific kiddo.”

“When you said that I could be a hero?”

Aizawa pressed his lips in a straight line as he thought about it, he had said it on a whim of sorts. Sure he believed the boy could be useful, his analysis skill had shown potential, more potential than his class at UA. He ended up expelling the whole class by the end of the first week. But Midoriya was different, the kid was scrawny sure, he had no muscles and he didn’t know if the kid knew anything about fighting. Aizawa himself only used his quirk to level the playing field, he basically fought like a quirkless person, so he didn’t judge.

“Logically speaking with the correct training and support items,” Aizawa answered, “you could become a hero, but in the end it depends on both mental and physical potential,your mental potential is better than those in the hero course.”

“I wanted to become a hero like All Might,” Izuku explained, “but I don’t think I could ever see his face and not throw up in my own mouth.”

“Midoriya”

“Then I remembered that I had entered a log about you in one of my notebooks,” Midoriya continued, “I didn’t have much to write about you since you were an underground hero but your fighting style always gave me hope.” The boy nodded to his bag by the desk, his arms and legs were still in a cast.

Aizawa reached for the bag and placed it in front of the boy, “you will find your entry in volume 6 pages 33 - 38,” Izuku stated, giving the hero permission to go through his things, “I’m not sure how accurate it is since I had written this three years ago, and besides there isn’t much on you.”

Aizawa nodded and flipped through the pages, so far he was impressed by what the child had written down, and to think that this was what the boy came up with at the age of 10. “Say,” Aizawa asked, “do you want to attend UA, become a hero?”

Midoriya closed his eyes and took a few breaths, it seemed like the boy was trying to calm himself down, “I gave it a lot of thought, you know,” he replied, “I always wanted a hero but then shit happened, and then I thought to myself why be a hero when I could be something better.”

“I’m not sure I follow what you are saying?”

“Well I was speaking to my doctor and he thinks that right now I should avoid things that stress me out, and that includes becoming a hero and attending UA,” another deep sigh, “but you see I always wanted to be a hero, and I thought I could do it without a quirk but I faced reality and understood that the risks are much more higher for someone like me, so what’s the next best thing.”

“Your point.”

“As I was saying, heroes can’t act on many things without intel, there are many operations that require informants and I know that informants are mostly underground and they are not team players.”

“you want to be an informant of sorts?”

“In a way,” Izuku explained, a small smile gracing his lips, “I was talking to my dad the other day, he can’t come back due to work commitments, and it’s not like he can leave his post without the government approval.”

It was the first time he had heard a word about the boy’s father, he had assumed that the man was only sending money while he had an affair abroad, but then again he had made many assumptions with the Midoriya family that were proven wrong time and time again.

“Anyways, I thought, why become an informant and be confined to the underground, my knowledge of quirks and heroes could make me become a quirk or hero counsellor but no one would come to a quirkless quirk counsellor” the boys smile widened and color came to his eyes, “with proper training I could become both an informant and a hero quirk counsellor”

“So you want to lead a double life?”

“Nope,” Izuku hummed, making a popping sound, “I would basically become a freelance informant working for heroic agencies, I will become the guy who leads missions and gives advice to other heroes.”

Aizawa thought about it for a second, he could understand what the boy was trying to become, it seemed less dangerous than being an underground informant, but still dangerous. “I mean at the moment I would just give my thoughts, opinion and advices to whoever needs them, then I will infiltrate any criminal organization or do recon jobs, I mean I would look like your average citizen and besides I don’t need a hero license and vigilante laws don’t apply to me”

“I think there would be a way to make it work,” Aizawa replied, “just let me see how feasible it is and what I can do to help but at the moment you need to focus on becoming better and don’t become a vigilante.”

“The laws don’t apply to me,” Izuku shrugged, “so I technically won’t ever be a vigilante.”

The two talked for a while, with Aizawa secretly trying to assess the green boy. The teen had shown keen intelligence and he was sure that the school principal would love to have a chat with the boy, but at the same time he didn’t want Nezu anywhere near Izuku. He also hated the fact that All Might was in negotiation of teaching at the school in the next year, and he had already understood that Izuku hated the man with passion for some reason that the boy refused to say.

.

One Year Later

.

Izuku laughed as he sat on Todoroki Rei’s bed, while the woman sat on a chair by her desk. The two had met each other once Izuku was moved to the psychiatric wards and he attended his first group therapy session. He had learned that the woman had a mental breakdown almost a decade ago and that her husband, Endeavor, the number two hero, had locked her in the facility.

He had become friends with the shy woman, she always seemed scared and cried when she first heard Izuku’s story. At first Izuku was not allowed to leave his room and had to be monitored by a nurse from afar, but three months later he was allowed to roam the psychiatric ward. 

The past year he had weekly visits from Eraserhead, the man had introduced him to UA’s principal, a mouse bear hybrid of sorts named Nezu. The two clicked and exchanged analysis about certain heroes and the system, though they had to always be chaperoned by a doctor as the animal tended to be inconsiderate sometimes.

Eraser had agreed to Izuku’s idea with some changes and conditions, the first would include physical rehabilitation and building up a toned physique. The boy would not do any field work until he was discharged from the hospital for at least a whole year without relapses.

Izuku had agreed on these terms and had ended up becoming the pro heroes ward. During that time he had met up with a few other pro heroes, namely Present Mic, Midnight, Cementoss and Snipe to give them some of his limited expertise. He hadn’t expected that they would send him flowers and gift baskets as a thank you for helping them do their jobs.

The first time Aizawa missed a schedule was during his first week of teaching the new year at UA. Apparently there was a villain incident where a group named the league of villains had attacked class 1-A, Aizawa’s class while they were doing an exercise at the USJ facility.

The teen went to worst case scenario mode and started screaming and thrashing, demanding that he goes and see Eraserhead. But it was Rei who had managed to calm him down in between tears of her own, she had explained that her son was also in that class, and that she hadn’t seen him since she was hospitalised, she only know about him attending UA from her daughter.

As soon as Aizawa been discharged he had visited Midoriya at the hospital, he wanted to visit earlier after hearing the distressed sound of the boy’s mother. He had hoped that the boy had not become dependent on him, but it seemed that outside of his mother and the other patients, Aizawa was the only constant in the boy’s life.

“Wowww,” Izuku exclaimed with a grin as Aizawa entered the hospital room, “you seem to be well mummy man.”

“Not a word,” Aizawa groaned as he took in a seat at the desk, Izuku was apparently chained to the bed so that he won’t start throwing a second fit. After his initial depression, the boy become more angry and frustrated, often having mood swings, making his diagnosis all the more difficult. The boy had become less timid and more open and would speak his mind without holding back. Rei had said that the boy had become a bit sassy but Aizawa simply believes that the boy had decided to throw away his filter.

“So,” the boy hummed, “how are you holding up, I managed to see a picture of the nomu, thats a beast”

“Well we were lucky that most students were unharmed, only one was in a critical condition, part of his face was decayed.”

“His first battle scar?”

“The kid had pulled out of the hero course,” Aizawa explained and pulled out a file, “I was planning on giving this to you a few days ago, this is the student file to my class and I wanted you to analyze their performance during the sports festival.”

“UA is still continuing with that?”

“Apparently we need to show the public and the villains that such a petty attack will not scare us.”

“hmmm,” Izuku hummed as he took the file and briefly skimmed through the papers, he tensed slightly when he saw Bakugo’s photo but Aizawa couldn’t tell from where he was sitting or the bandages covering his eyes. “I blame All Might, if he didn’t decide that he wanted to become a teacher then this wouldn’t have happened, is he even teacher material, does he have the correct skill set and certificates?”

“Well he has no experiences, I mean he let a battle stimulation go too far on his first day, one of the students ended up breaking his arms”

“Thank god I’m still locked up here,” Izuku chuckled, “good thing I didn’t take you up on your offer.”

“Brat.”

“Hey it’s problem child or did you forget”

“Any updates from your end?”

“Old man you need to be more specific.”

“I can’t ask your doctor because of the damn patient confidentiality clause.”

“Aside from me throwing a tantrum a few days ago, I am improving,” Izuku sighed as he laid on his bed, “doc said I can be discharged by June but because I was an idiot it seems like I will have to wait until September.”

“I mean if you think about it school year wise, the later you get discharged the less time you have to spend at home”

“Aizawa I will finish my high school diploma by the end of this year, there won’t be much school for me to do.”

“Why are you being difficult?”

“It’s my middle name,” Izuku laughed as he rolled in bed and chatted with Eraser. He had gave the hero his weekly updates and spent 15 minuets talking about his lunch. Once the hero had left, Izuku pulled out a file and a new notebook, this was one of the first assignments he had with Aizawa and Nezu. He would loo at the student files and provide some insight on how the hero trainees could improve, and how they could utilize their quirks.

The principal insisted on compensating Izuku for his efforts even though the teen insisted that this could count as training. In the end the principal had won and Izuku had no choice but to accept the payments, which he used to buy new notebook and pens. He started writing notes based on what was on the files, he took a double take when he reached Bakugo, the boy was no longer Kacchan. 

Izuku took a deep breath to calm himself, he tried his best from grabbing the student file and tearing it into shreds, instead he took the high road and started writing down all he knew about Bakugo. After finishing from his childhood bully, he moved onto the next series of students, and froze when he was met with the file of one Todoroki Shōto.

The boy had an asymmetrical face, his left side was different from his right. Red hair on the left compared to white on the right, heterochromatic eyes, and a large scar on his left side. He could easily see Rei in the right side of the boy, he seems to have taken after his mother build wise. On his left there wasn’t much of Endeavor just the same hair and eye color and the shared flames, he could only wince as he thought of Rei having a breakdown and burning her son.

Two weeks later was the sports festival, Izuku had given Aizawa the preliminary report for his class and was watching the festival to see if there were any potential students to transfer to the hero course. Izuku had watched intently and focused on the non hero kids during the preliminary round, he had managed to identify one Shinsō Hitoshi as an ideal hero course transfer candidate.

He also kept an eye on the Todoroki child, he could see that the boy was having some sort of internal crisis, always using his ice, even when fire was a better option. He also noted how the boy seemed angry at the start of the one on one battles, instantly freezing his opponent and half the arena, but as he melted the ice all Izuku could see was a sad little boy crying for help.

That made Izuku determined to find a way to convince Shōto of using his left side, Aizawa had told him that Todoroki had refused to use his fire in any battle stimulation or rescue training. That night, he sat in Rei’s room and told her that her son was a stubborn asshole and the he wanted to punch him in the face if he ever saw him.

The woman looked confused until Izuku had explained how her son was harming himself by strictly sticking to his right side and never using his left. She looked down and clenched her hands together, “I wish I was a better mother.”

“No Rei, you are an excellent mother,” Izuku exclaimed, “I mean look at Fuyumi and Natsuo they have taken after your kindness, it's the flaming trashbag’s fault that Shouccan is drowning in some metaphorical sea.”

Izuku continued talking to Rei about how she can tell her older children to knock some sense into their younger brother, but he doubted that the trashcan™ would ever let them talk to each other. The next day he gave Aizawa his analysis and pointed to him that Shinsō is an ideal candidate and that he would make a good underground hero.

The days passed by with Izuku juggling between his therapy, studies and side job as a quirk and hero counsellor for UA. Even though his side job was not made public and that only the principal and a handful of teachers were aware of it. He was asked if he could check with the third years and give them his uttermost priority, that’s when he discovered something strange with Togota Mirio’s quirk.

The file had stated that the boy had a permeation quirk, that did not explain the sudden strength augmentation and speed quirks. And he knew for a fact that permeation is not a stockpiling quirk and so that would not explain the sudden energy bursts or the yellow lightning covering the young hero.

He had called Nezu directly instead of going through his usual route of contacting Eraserhead. The principal’s secretary had almost shut the phone thinking that he was just some prank caller until he told her that it was a matter of life or death and that Nezu needs to answer the phone or there would be a leak to the media.

To say that the principal was not happy with his lies was an understatement, “listen Nezu this is a sensitive matter that I can’t speak over the phone, and it is regarding one of your students, and I think we may need Tsukauchi to be present.”

The panicking tone that Izuku had spoken from and the request for the detective meant that the kid was suspicious of something, hopefully the boy had a suspect about the possible traitor in UA. “Very well, I will ask detective Tsukauchi to pick you up and bring you to UA if your doctors will allow it.”

The talk with the doctors was a long one, they had barely allowed Izuku to go. The condition was that he was to avoid any possible triggers and that the boy be in a safe environment the whole time, and that a nurse is to chaperone him. It was a matter of several minutes until the detective and a second police escort had arrived to transport Izuku to UA.

It was the boy’s first time being near the building, he half dreaded entering and was half excited to surprise Eraserhead, that is if the hero wasn’t told of the visit. He had made it to the principal’s office without any hassle, except for running into Aizawa as the hero left the teacher’s lounge.

The pro hero almost dropped his coffee as he saw Izuku standing there in jeans and a plain yellow shirt that said ‘unstable’ in english with a dark blue shirt over it. Aizawa wanted to comment on Izuku’s fashion sense but he was no better than the boy and stayed quiet.

“Eraser fancy seeing you here.” Midoriya waved casually as another pro hero had watched them in confusion, eyeing the nurse, the detective and the police officer.

“Midoriya what are you doing here,” Aizawa brooded, “and you know that I teach here so stop with the jokes.”

“Oh I have an urgent matter with Nezu,” the green haired teen shrugged and pulled out a notebook from his bag along with a thick file, handing them to the hero “here is the data you requested, I also took the liberty to add some extra tidbits that you didn't ask for.”

The second hero looked with wide eyes, “he is your counsellor?” he questioned as he looked at the notebook. It was the same notebook that Aizawa and Nezu handed the teachers with quirk analysis and advice to help the students improve. Several heroes wanted to know who was Aizawa’s contact but the underground hero remained tight lipped, only several other teachers were able to meet the counsellor and they refused to speak about him.

“You mad that a quirkless child could do better than you?” Izuku taunted as he gave Eraser a mock salute and went on his way, “duty calls, see you around.”

“Thanks problem child,” Aizawa waved back and took the file and notebook to his desk, ignoring the glare and questioning glance the other teacher was giving him.

Izuku had sat in the principal office with Tsukauchi as he pulled out a note book from his bag, he had asked the nurse and the police officer to step out for a while until the meeting was over. “You see, Togota Mirio has permeation, not a strength augmentation quirk, and his quirk most certainly can’t stockpile power, so how do you explain the emergence of a second quirk,” Izuku began, letting the principal flip through his notebook, “but then again, in one of the police files you had me look at stated that the nomu had multiple quirks, now what if the person who had genetically engineered the nomu had given Togota the second quirk? Wouldn’t that mean that he is somehow associated with the league and that he may have somehow used his first quirk permeation to access the UA class schedule’s and had given the league that info?”

“Hold on a second,” Nezu stopped the boy, he hadn’t aired his thoughts but it seemed that the teenager was already suspecting a traitor in the midst of UA. He may be right about that but he was wrong about Togota, the boy had actually inherited All Might’s quirk and was training under the pro hero. “You are right about the possibility of a traitor but it is not Togota-kun, I can vouch for him,” Nezu explained, “there is more to it, if you would give me a few minutes.”

Ten minutes later a skeletal tall man had entered, Izuku felt like he had seen the man before but he couldn’t exactly remember when. The man had looked at Izuku with a surprised look, as if he had recognised the teen. “I feel like I have meet you somewhere but I can’t exactly remember when or where,” Izuku stated eyeing the man warily.

“I apologize my boy,” the man explain and her recognised the voice in an instant. Aizawa had him do hearing training in order to recognize voices and tones of people, something to do with understanding perception.

“All Might” Izuku tensed as he lost his friendly smile which he had put on as a front and pursed his lips tightly. He kept counting up to three to calm down before he does something rash. The man’s eyes widened in surprise as if he had not expected to be recognised in whatever form that is.

The man nodded and explained how he had become a skeleton and how he had a quirk that could be passed on from on generation to the other and how he had chosen Togota as a successor and had given him his quirk. He also explained about the existence of a century old villain named All for One and that he was the one behind the nomu and the league.

“Does Togota know about any of this?”

“Not about All for One,” All Might admitted, looking slightly guilty, “I had hoped that the man would die with me but it seems like I ended up throwing the burden to young Togota.”

Izuku stood up and started to pace around the room trying to contain his anger, he was seething and he wasn’t doing anything to contain it. He kept walking and rubbing his upper arms before turning towards the pro hero and pointing an accusing finger, “you really are a hypocritical piece of shit you know that All Might, natural born hero MY ASS,” he yelled, “YOU THREW YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES ON A CHILD WITHOUT TELLING HIM THE WHOLE TRUTH, THATS JUST PLAIN MANIPULATION, IF HE DIES BECAUSE OF THIS THEN WE ALL KNOW WHO IS AT FAULT.”

He grabbed his back pack and stalked towards the door, “Tsukauchi, I’m going back to the hospital,” he stated in a much calmer voice but the slammed door told him that the boy was far from calm. It was already lunch time and the students were walking the hallways, some looked at him and the cop and nurse trailing behind him.

“DEKU,” he heard a snarl coming from his left side, Izuku was already pissed and upset enough as it is and he was not in the mood to deal with Bakugō, “What are you doing here?”

He spun around his heels and saw the explosive blond standing with a group of people, he identified as class 1-A’s Kirishima, Kaminari and Ashido, and further behind them was Todoroki Shōto along with two students from class A. He plastered a fake smile and took a step towards the blond, “Katsuki I took you advice and dived from a roof top, I guess it really did me wonders as I am the one who has been writing up your quirk counselling reports so shut the fuck up and shove that damned inferiority complex of yours up your FUCKING ASS.” 

The group was shocked at the bitter and rude tone that Izuku had spoke but he didn’t care, he turned and glared at Todoroki, stalking towards the dual haired boy. He turned his right hand into a fist and punched Todoroki in the face, “Shoucchan why don’t you grow a pair of balls and use your left side before you hurt yourself or someone. LEAVE YOUR DADDY ISSUES AT HOME.”

Having said his pieces, he felt rather good about himself and went back towards the police officer and the nurse who looked distressed and were about to repramaind him. An explosion resounded from Bakugo’s palms as the teen was about to lurch forward, while Todoroki was nursing his now broken and bleeding nose.

“You want to fight lets go to the parking lot,” he taunted, before he found himself and Bakugo each wrapped with Aizawa’s capture weapon. The hero had activated his quirk in order to cancel the explosions created in Bakugo’s palms, “Midoriya, Bakugo,” he spoke in a threatening tone.

“Forget it Eraser,” Izuku snarled, “I don’t want to ever deal with that cunt ever again, and I guess that my discharge will no longer be in September, I’ll be lucky if I was deemed to be stable by next year.”

Unknown to Izuku, Aizawa had been around the corner and had heard everything. He had thought that he would never have to hear that degrading word ever again. And Aizawa had managed to connect the dots that Izuku had been leaving out, he looked between the two boys before turining towards Izuku.

“Midoriya, is Bakugo responsible?” the hero asked, “what was the advice exactly.”

The teen simply shrugged as he attempted to untangle the bonds of the weapon, “I don’t know, he is your student ask him yourself.” His anger had dissipated and was replaced with sadness, he looked at the floor as his eyes lost the light and shine to them, the nurse hurried towards him and Eraser had loosened his hold.

The nurse had grabbed Izuku gently and turned him towards the exit, rubbing his arms in comfort. The boy looked up to see Shinsō staring at the scene in confusion, “Good luck Shinsō you deserve it, I can see that you are working hard,” he softly stated, “if anyone else has beef with me you will find me at Mustafu’s general hospital psychiatric ward, just make an appointment first.”

He could briefly see the recognition of the hospital name in Shōto’s eyes, hopefully that would inspire the boy to come to him and hopefully his mother. 

When he went back to the hospital he had received an earful from the entire staff, he even had Eraser visit him just before the end of visiting hours. The teacher had told him that he wanted to expel Bakugo immediately after learning the truth but the other teachers and All Might had vouched for the boy and that Bakugo’s temper could be improved. In the end he had agreed to switch one of the students from class B with Bakugo, but Shōta could see the dejected look on the teens face, a reminder of how messed up the system is.

.

June

.

Izuku had said goodbye to Eraserhead before he had left for the summer training camp with his class, collecting his summer homework from the hero. Izuku had thought that his summer would be a normal and uneventful one, he hadn’t expected that a villain attack will occur, or that a pro hero went missing and Bakugo and Tokoyami were kidnapped. Twenty students were heavily injured, five of which were in critical condition, one student and one civilian child dead. 

He had cried the night he heard the news, worried about Eraserhead. The media were blaming him and Vlad King for the incident, along with the pussy cats. He had snuck out of his room that night and visited Rei, he knocked lightly on her door before whispering “Rei its me Izuku, can I come in?”

The door slowly slide open and he could see tears flowing through his friend’s eyes, she had allowed him to enter the room. Whenever his mother had went back home, Rei would act as his second mother, she had become an honorary Midoriya and would often have lunch with the mother and son duo.

He gave the woman a hug and burst into tears once again, he knew in the back of his mind that he will end up under supervision for much longer than he had hoped. They spent the night together with their fears and anxiety, not knowing the exact details of the incident or the names of the people who were injured, missing or dead.

Three days later Izuku found himself watching the press conference that UA held, he was glad that Eraser was fine but he something seemed off. In the past few years he had learned to read body language, and he had met Vlad on two occasions, but this time it seemed like the hero was hiding something, as if he were guilty. ‘Maybe I should tell Nezu of my suspicions, the damn list keeps growing.’

Immediately after the press conference, the heroes attacked the league of villains, with All Might leading the charge. But when the villain mastermind All for One appeared, that was when things turned to shit, and Izuku could see from the corner of the screen a bunch of students creating a diversion even though they seemed to have been injured by the attack that leveled half of Kamino ward. Both Bakugo and Tokoyami were able to escape through that diversion, and he was able to make out Todoroki from the group of kids, his red and white hair standing out.

Izuku took in a deep breathe and decided to no longer watch the fight, he had a feeling about how it would end, and he couldn’t handle it emotionally. There was a reason that there was only one TV in the whole psychiatric wards, and it never previewed any violent shows or news. No, Izuku had snuck in to the ER waiting room to watch the news.

He moved to a much quieter place and dialed Aizawa’s private number, the hero picked up by the third ring, “GOD DAMN IT AIZAWA, are you not aware what your students are up to?” he hissed.

“Midoriya I don’t have the time to talk right now.”

“yeah no shit, a bunch of your students have snuck into Kamino ward to help with the rescue operation, I don’t know if you noticed but Iida, Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, Kirishima and Uraraka are all there, are you even doing your job right.”

“Fuck,” he heard Aizawa curse and run a hand through his hair as he did when the hero was frustrated, “are you sure it’s those five?”

“yes, I’m mentally unstable not blind and you can always rewatch the recording, they will be towards the bottom left of the screen if you are watching the Tokyo TV broadcast, and in the bottom right of Fuji TV.”

“Are you watching the fight right now?” he could hear the worry in the heroes tone.

“No,” Midoriya sighed as he walked back to his room, “I couldn’t bear to watch it anymore, you know for my mental health, I would feel bad about being happy that All Might would get his karma and all while the whole hero system will start to crumble, besides I need to get back to my room before the entire psychiatry staff flips the hospital upside down searching for me, take care Eraser and stay safe.”

Eraser could only sigh as he heard Izuku’s defeated tone and replied, “take care yourself too and don’t forget to talk to your doctor about this.”

“Byeeeee.” Izuku drew out in an effort to be a lighthearted and ended the call before Aizawa could say anything. He ran past his doctors and nurses and into his room, throwing his phone on the corner and jumping onto the bed and falling asleep that instant.

The next morning he woke up to a series of lectures and a short evaluation, and was then informed that he would not be allowed any visitors today and his electronics will be confiscated as a punishment for sneaking out of the ward and not informing any of the nurses about his whereabouts, and the fact that he was watching the news which would require that he has a session with one of the counsellors.

Groaning Izuku had stayed in his pajamas and went over to Rei, the only other person he talked to really. He flopped down on her bed and started to complain about how shitty the day was, “I mean can you believe it, he takes away my visitation rights just like that, like he basically doesn’t let me see my mother.”

“I mean you did sneak out and they are trying to prevent any dependency from happening Izuku,” Rei reminded much to the teens dismay. He let out another groan and whine combo, “and my phone Rei, like how am I supposed to function without my phone and laptop, the world is in shock and spiralling because of what happened last night but me, I’m grounded because I went to the ER waiting room so I can watch the newscast. I didn’t even stay that long or watch the whole fight, I knew myself so came back and went to sleep directly.”

“is it that bad?” she asked, her brows furrowing together and her lips pressed in a straight line.

“It was that bad when I was watching the news, I don’t know what is going on all because my dear old doc is grounding me.”

“Izuku,” there it is, Rei’s motherly stern mode. It only shows up when Izuku was being an ass or rude, the teen knows not to mess with Rei when she goes into that mode.

A soft knock on the door drew their attention, and judging by the tone of the knocks it seemed to be a hesitant one. “If it’s that old man again I swear I will riot,” Izuku mumbled as he sat up on the bed instead of lying down, he didn’t want to be chewed off as well.

“Come in,” Rei replied softly, a soft chuckle escaped her lips at Izuku’s wierd antics.

The door slid open to reveal Rei’s youngest son standing there, heterochromatic eyes looked from his mother towards the other occupant of the room and then back to his mother. Izuku looked at Shōto in shock, he was definitely not expacting the boy to visit any time soon, he didnt even think the boy would come at all.

“Shit,” he muttered as he got of the bed and awkwardly walked towards the door waving his hands, “I will leave you to discuss whatever it is that will be discussed and umm byeeee.”

Izuku quickly made a mad dash out of the room and towards his own, ‘well that was awkward’ he thought to himself, ‘of all things I will leave to discuss whatever it is that will be discussed, ugh you damn moron, might as well laugh at his face while i was at it, damn idiot.’

.

Shōto looked at the boy who had punched him a few months ago, it had taken him some time to comprehend what had happened. He had never seen his teacher this angry, and it ended up with Bakugō going to anger management classes and had switched places with someone from class B. What had confused him the most was the boy seemed to have somehow know about his issues with his father, he wondered about how the boy came over such sensitive information, he doubted that Fuyumi or Natsuo would tell anyone, let alone are aquainted with this strange teen. But he had an inkling about how he came to such knowledge when he heard the boy mutter his address, namely the name of the hospital and ward.

“M-Mother,” he spoke quietly, unsure of how to proceed. He hadn’t expected to see the boy in his mother’s room, and he most certainly didn’t expect to hear the boy complain to his mother of all people. And the boy had added more to the awkwardness with his quick getaway much to Shōto’s annoyance, he really wanted to punch him in the face.

“Shōto!” his mother smiled, “I didn’t expect to ever see you again.”

Mother and son have reunited after a decade of separation, the reunion was tearful and lasted for hours. Shōto had explained to his mother that he decided to visit her after he saw his life flash before his own eyes at the summer camp, he left out being at Kamino and the whole incident out. He didn’t want to distress his mother in their first meeting after not seeing her for ten years.

They talked about how Shōto had grew up without his mother, skipping over his father. He mentioned going to UA and finally having some friends of sorts, he said that he didn’t want to be their friend but these people had latched on to him. He always kept drifting back to the other teen, Midoriya Deku, he assumed the boy’s name.

He told his mother about how he had met the boy a few months prior, the boy was visiting UA and ended up punching Shōto in the face. This earned a soft laugh from his mother, and he looked at her confused and slightly mad, “don’t hold it against him dear, after the sports festival he did say that he wanted to punch you in the face if he ever saw you and I told him to go lightly on you.”

“What did I ever do to him?”

“It’s not you,” Rei spoke softly, a whimsical expression adorning her face, “it’s just that Izuku is perceptive and analytical and he said that you are hurting yourself with your quirk.”

“Did you watch the festival?”

“No!,” his mother exclaimed, “dear heavens no, I’m not allowed to watch live television in case he appears suddenly.”

“Sorry,” Shōto apologized and looked down at his feet, holding his juice box tightly. He didn’t want to make his mother think about his father, but that reminded him of something, “where you the one who told Midoriya about the family situation?”

“He heard tidbits at group therapy,” Rei replied looking rather solemn, “he went through a lot and he had developed selective mutism at the start, he’s been here since he was 14 and he is about to become 16 in the next few weeks. My point is, he refused to talk to anyone and was living like a doll, I ended up feeling sad about it and told him about my life story, that got him to open up a bit.”

“What had happened exactly to him?” Shōto asked, recalling the incident after the sports festival and seeing Aizawa angry and almost expelling Bakugo if it weren’t for the other teacher’s intervention. “All I understood was Bakugo saying mean shit to him, something like that and then Midoriya lashed out before he punched me.”

“I remember when he came back that day,” Rei added, “It was the first time in over year since he left the facility, everyone had hoped he would be okay but he came back at shut everyone out for the next few days.”

“They shouldn’t have let him leave the facility if he is that unstable.”

“Shōto!,” Rei reprimanded, “you should talk to him and give him a chance, he doesn’t get to talk to anyone besides his parents, the staff, a few pro heroes, mainly it's Eraserhead, and sometimes Fuyumi and Natsuo when they come over.”

“Aren’t there any other children in the facility, I swear I passed by a few.”

“There are but they all get into arguments when they hang out, and some end up lashing out,” she explained, “besides they always ignore him.”

Shōto wanted to ask more questions, every time his mother says something, he becomes more curious. It’s like opening a can of worms but instead of a can it is a bucket. “Eraserhead is my teacher and it was the first time he talked about Midoriya and it seemed like they were close, even some teachers hounded him about something that Midoriya does for Aizawa.”

“Seriously you should go talk to him,” Rei smiled, “I don’t think all the answers should come from me, besides you might be good influences on each other.”

Shōto was about to say something when his mother stood up and extended her hand, a wide smile plastered on her face, “c’mon, lets go see him.”

He wanted to decline but the expression that his mother wore told him that she was excited about introducing the two boys together. Shōto nodded, placing his messenger bag on his mother’s desk before taking her hand and getting dragged by her. They walked towards the faculty reception and went towards the opposite section, there he noticed that the interior of the hospital was less bland and more cheerful. An array of colors painted on the walls and the floor, the ceiling had complex drawings on them, “minors are placed in a different space from adults, less depressing and more cheerful, though it kind of looks like a kindergarten.”

“hmmm,” Shōto could only nod as they walked towards room B23, the name plate Midoriya Izuku was written underneath the door number. His mother knocked the door and loudly spoke, “Izuku honey can you open the door.”

“One second,” came a loud reply from the other side. A few seconds later, he could hear shuffling and then the door opened fully, revealing the same green haired teen from before. 

The boys looked at each other awkwardly, “you boys should talk, I will be in the cafeteria if you need me,” his mother stated. She all but shoved him into the room and waved them goodbye. He knew that the day was going to take too much energy and that there was a lot to process but he had not expected this much to happen.

“H-Hi,” Midoriya greeted, “I’m Midoriya Izuku by the way but you already know that but sorry not sorry about punching you.”

“Todoroki Shōto.” 

“Come in, they will think that we are retarded if we just stand at the doorway and talk all day,” the boy laughed, “I’m already stuck here, wouldn’t want you to be here too, though it could get you closer to your mother, but will flaming trashcan allow it thats the question, but does he have any say in peoples mental health, I don’t think he is legally allowed to stop someone from being checked in a facility for their health, maybe if I fight him then he will reconsider, it will be bad publicity……”

Shōto stood there dumbstruck at the mumbling before letting out a small laugh. He barely had the chances to laugh but he had lost it when he heard the nickname the stranger had given his father and the threat of fighting the man. That broke Izuku out of his thoughts and he looked at Shōto for a second, his cheeks red in embarrassment but he let the boy through into the room.

Todoroki took note of the room, it was roughly the same size as his mother, a private bathroom on the left corner, next  to it was a closet. The boy’s desk was messy and filled with many notebooks, there seemed to be charger cables attached to the electricity socket but there was no phone or laptop, or any electronic device in sight.

Midoriya saw that his guest was looking at the cables and he blew a raspberry, “Doc took away my electronic because I snuck out to the ER waiting room to watch the news last night.”

“You saw what happened at Kamino?”

“Not all of it,” Izuku shrugged, taking a seat on his bed, folding his legs underneath him, “I mean I couldn’t exactly watch because I hate All Might and I was rooting that he loses but it’s not a fight that he should lose and my emotions were all over the place, so I watched until you and your friends decided to play decoy for a sec there.”

Shōto whipped his head towards Midoriya so fast that he almost broke his neck, his eyes were wide saucers. “Oh don’t worry I didn’t tell your mother, but your teacher on the other hand, I gave him an earful.”

“Shit!”

“Yeah no shit, he is pissed.”

“Why did you even tell him in the first place?” Shōto snarled, glaring at Izuku, “and what is your relationship with him?”

“First of All he needed to know because I don’t know if you saw the press conference but they were tearing him apart and calling him irresponsible when he is the most responsible person I ever met,” Izuku hissed back, “I had just yelled at him because after the news broke of the attack at your camp he did not contact me telling me that he was okay, I was kept in the dark until the conference, so naturally I scolded his teaching skills because his students had snuck out to Kamino, and second of all he is the only reason I’m alive today.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, I shouldn’t have lashed out,” Izuku groaned, changing his position so that he is lying on his bed, “God I’m such a disappointment.”

Shōto didn’t know what to say, he wasn’t good at comforting people, he turned his gaze towards the books on the desk, the one lying around and not on the shelves with the other books, ‘Class 2-B Analysis and Rescue potentials’. He had seen one book like it, it was after the sports festival, Aizawa had handed them copies of their won analysis. He raised his brow and pointed towards the book, “Can I?”

Izuku sat back up and got off the bed, he gave him a friendly smile and shook his head, making his way towards the desk. “Not this one, you know the whole confident and sensitive information and all, but I can show you this one,” Izuku explained, picking another book, this one was labelled ‘Class 1-A Individual analysis - Todoroki Shōto’.

Shōto took the book from Izuku’s hand and started flipping through it, he noticed that some pages he had seen previously, some he saw during the summer camp. He continued reading, seeing how the boy had detailed the benefits of using his left side, and that Shōto has a big potential for rescue missions.

“Eraser is the only person who has individual books for his class,” Izuku began, “he is actually the main source of contact between me and UA.”

Shōto placed the book on the desk and looked to see Izuku, “this is amazing, Aizawa had shown us each of our pages and I gotta admit some of the stuff you had wrote made me question whether I use my fire or not.”

“you really should use it, and I’m guessing you have some sort of complex and let me tell you this, it’s really your power and not trashbag’s” Izuku explained, taking a seat on the desk, “you have one quirk that is half hot and half cold, garbage can on the other hand has Hellflame, see different quirks.”

“Does your mood always keep flipping?”

“You have no idea,” Izuku laughed, throwing his head back, “what about you? you always brooding, I mean I met Fuyumi and Natsuo and you each one of you is different.”

“I can’t believe my mother told you everything about our family.”

“Nah, I guessed somethings and asked her, she just confirmed it.”

“You didn’t tell me,” Shōto began, looking at Izuku directly in his eyes. These green eyes didn’t tell him of the thoughts swirling around them. “How you know Aizawa, he never mentioned you except when you came to UA and you said he is the reason you are alive, you don’t have to tell me but-.”

“Yeah I get it,” Izuku jumped from the desk and twirled around the room, his arms extended outwards “Long story short I was bullied because I was quirkless and then over a year ago I snapped and tried to kill myself, Aizawa managed to come at the last second and stop me from dying but like he failed miserably, I had cracked my spine and skull and broke and fractured both of my arms and legs.”

Shōto’s eyes widened in shook at the lighthearted way that Izuku had spoken. The nonchalant way he explained his suicide attempt and how a pro hero had saved him. 

“And Bakugo, how does he tie in with it?”

“Oh Explosion McFace,” Izuku shrugged, “that day he told me to take a swan dive of the roof if I wanted a quirk.”

“I- I-”

“It’s okay now, I sort of had gotten over it, just can’t handle seeing Bakugo, brings back nasty memories.”

The two had chatted for another hour before Rei had come back, they had exchanged numbers and email addresses, with Izuku asking Shōto to keep him updated in the instance another attack happens. Though Izuku had the contact info written on a paper because he didn’t have his laptop or phone with him.

Shōto had texted Izuku the following day telling him about the dorm system and how he will be moving there, and asked the message to be passed on his mother. The day after Aizawa had visited Izuku and was surprised to see the teen happy, he never had a smile that big and was always looking at his phone as if he was expecting a call or a message.

Aizawa had apologized for leaving the boy in the dark and in turn he sat with Izuku to rewatch the footage of the All Might fight. Izuku had pointed to the screen where he saw the students hiding, and asked that Aizawa not be harsh as they had helped the battle tilt in All Might’s favor.

The teen gave his remarks and analysis on how the situation could’ve been handled better. Before he left, Aizawa cornered Izuku and asked him why he hates All Might this much, which the teen had replied by telling the truth. That had only managed to piss Aizawa off even more, and he cursed at the former No.1 hero’s lack of tact.

.

January

.

Izuku had been officially discharged from the hospital after almost two years of hospitalization. He had looked forward to seeing Shōto and Aizawa every Saturday, that the doctor had noted that having a friend had improved his condition by a lot. The boys had become closer through out the past six months, and Aizawa was surprised to see the level of trust between them.

Shōto held a box with a homemade gift in his hands as he walked up to the hospital. It was a Tuesday and he requested special clearance to go visit his friend. When he spoke to his teacher he had learned that Izuku will be offered a position as an assistant teacher for the hero course.

So here he was, standing with Eraserhead in front of Izuku’s room, the name plate was no longer there. Aizawa knocked on the door twice before sliding it open, to see Izuku struggling to close an overflowing travel bag. “My heroes, help me shut this zipper,” he exclaimed as he jumped over the bag.

“Zuku.”

“Midoriya.”

Both Shōto and Aizawa spoke, the teen shook his head and placed the box on the desk and went to help his friend. They both struggled for a few seconds before managing to zip the bag, “geez what is in the bag?”

“Shit,” Izuku replied giving his lopsided grin as he went and gave Shōto a hug, the other teen reciprocating the gesture. Aizawa cleared his through to catch their attention, and behind him Midoriya Inko had come back into view. The woman had lost a lot of weight in the past two years and had looked much younger, reverting back to her younger years.

“Hey Shōto-Kun, Aizawa-San,” she greeted, “The last box is in the car, is your bag ready?”

“yupp”

“Let me carry it for you,” the hero offered, and went to pick up the heavy bag and walked with Inko to the car, presumably to chat with her regarding her son’s future. The man had become a father of sorts to the boy, seeing as Hisashi was only able to communicate them via phone calls and sometimes the calls would get interrupted.

“I got you something,” Shōto quickly said and grabbed his gift, handing it to Izuku. The two had sat on the edge of the now sheet-less bed, their shoulders touching. Izuku looked at Shōto with curiosity and picked up the box, unwrapping it and removing the lid. He gasped as he saw the contents of the box, “No way!”

“I hope you like it.” Shōto scratched the back of his neck as he suddenly found the ground more interesting.

“THIS IS THE BEST GIFT EVER!”

In the box was a red notebook titled, ‘Things that represented Midoriya Izuku’. Izuku felt tears in his eyes as he flipped the first page to see a polaroid of the two of them sitting on the floor, a bunch of notebooks surrounding them. The next page had a table of contents, the pages of the book were thick and filled with different notes. He looked back into the box and found another notebook, this one was a white book titled, ‘Conspiracy theories by Todoroki Shōto Vol.1’.

“Oh Shoucchan I rubbed on you,” Izuku cooed as he skimmed through the pages. He let out a chuckle when he passed through the page titled ‘Togota Mirio is All Might’s secret lovechild’, happy that his friend was able to notice the connection between the two. He continued going through the pages and stopped at one about Eraserhead, “well I guess maybe Aizawa will adopt Shinsō and then it will no longer be a theory.”

“Don’t tell him I came up with this theory,” Shōto joked as he looked at the door in fear of said teacher having returned and is eavsedropping on them. “And last but not least,” He then added, pointing towards the third book, one that Izuku hadn’t noticed.

“Things I can’t express or say them to your face so I wrote them down for you,” Izuku read, “thats one long title.”

“Just read it.”

“Bite me,” the teen threw back and grabbed the green notebook, he flipped through the first page and read it, “Dear Izuku, I don’t know how to say this to your face but you are a beckon of light. I was happy and excited when you told me that your discharge had been finalized and I yelled in happiness, which in hindsight was not a good idea because my classmates almost knocked my door down, they thought something had happened to me.”

Izuku raised his head and looked at Shōto, one look at his friend and he burst laughing, “I can’t believe that the cool and cold Todoroki Shōto screamed in excitement, how childlike.”

“Shut up,” Shōto replied, cheeks red in embarrassment, “continue reading before Aizawa and your mother return.”

“Sure thing kiddo, okay where was I,” Izuku hummed as he looked back to the notebook,  “ah here I go, I wanted to give you a gift but I didn’t know what to buy, you are one difficult person to please. Then I thought about our first real meeting, not when you punched me in the face but in the hospital. One of the first things I had learned about you is that you go through notebook religiously and that you like to analyze things. So I decided to give you three books, the first book is what you mean to me, I put in what reminds me of you. Book two is something that was inspired by your hobby and I decided to create my own collection of theories, please feel free to add to them. And finally at book three, sometimes I get scared of saying things to you because I don’t know how to express them but I recently found out that when I sit down and put them into words it becomes much easier, that is the purpose of this book. So I want to start by saying that I really do enjoy your company, you have become a great friend in those past months. I can’t wait to hang out with you outside of the hospital in the near future and even introduce you to some of my friends. Out of everyone in my life you are the person who I trust the most, I know that I can always confide in you and that you will do your best to cheer me up when I’m down. I was in a dark place for a very long time and I was hurting myself. I was screaming for help but only you extended an arm for me, making me feel safe and loved. You know that I’m am awkward teenager and I don’t understand a lot of pop culture and current trends. I’m also terrible with feelings. I sat down and had given it some thoughts and I realized that I really do like you, more than a friend and in a romantic way. So will you like to go out on a date with me? Yours truly, Todoroki Shōto.”

Izuku read the last like over and over again as his brain started to short circuit. He knew that he feels the same way towards Todoroki, but he needed to say something before he panics and his discharge being rejected. “I mean you don’t have to give me answer right now, and if you don’t feel like it then that’s okay its just-,” Shōto began but was cut off when he felt calloused hands grabbing his face and soft lips pressed against his.

He didn’t know how but he combusted as he froze in shock while Izuku had pulled away. The green haired teen was a deep shade of red, his eyes looking at Shōto shyly. A deep cough had caught their attention as both boys turn to see Aizawa and both of their mothers and a few doctors standing at the door way.

“Fuck,” Izuku cursed as he rolled over to the other side of the bed, his hands covering his face in embarrassment. “My life is over,” he cried, “it was nice knowing y’all.”

“It’s not that bad,” Shōto spoke, “is it?”

“I’m not giving any of you THE talk” Aizawa broke the silence, “that’s on your parents and Midnight not me.” Both mothers looked at them with a glint in their eyes, and both boys knew that when those two women teamed up it was going to be relentless motherly teasing. 

Izuku had said goodbye to the whole staff and that included the waterworks, and in that time Shōto had sat with Rei. Once the goodbyes were done, Izuku came to say goodbye to Rei but promised to come and visit her with Shōto every Saturday. The two boys sat in the back of the car the whole ride to the Midoriya apartment, Aizawa had sat in the shotgun seat and was reading some report on his phone while Inko had driven them.

They intertwined their hands as Izuku took the conspiracy theory notebook and started reading it and absorbing the information. Sometimes the boy would whisper a comment or two about some of the theories, and doing his best to avoid anything involving Eraser.

At home, Shōto had helped Izuku settle back. Inko had went and taken all the All Might posters and memorabilia and placed them in a box. She had invited both the student and the teacher for dinner and insisted that they stay and celebrate with them. Aizawa knocked on the bedroom door before entering, he need to make sure not to walk in on anything traumatizing. Thankfully the boys were organized the small desk.

“Hey Midoriya, come here a second,” he spoke and watched as the teen came over to him. He pulled out a small envelope from his pocket and handed it to Izuku, “this is for you.”

The boy opened the envelope and watched as a projected image had come out. There in the hologram stood the principal Nezu, whom Midoriya had talked a lot with and was responsible for the long phone bills. “Dear Midoriya,” the animal began, “congratulations on being discharged from the hospital, it is such a wonderful news. As UA’s principal I had come to value you greatly in the past two years, and your insight had benefited the school and society as a whole. Without you, Stain would not have been apprehended, the traitor working for the league would still roam around the school, and most importantly some students would’ve been heavily injured or worse, died on the field. Seeing as you have already completed your high school education, here at UA we could extend our job offer from a part time job to a full time teacher’s assistant. Naturally though you would need to get a teaching certificate which I’m sure you can get by the end of March. I hope to see you soon and that you will become a UA teacher for the next school year.”

The image had closed and Izuku had looked at Aizawa like a gawking fish, “So we spoke to your mother and your doctors and they say that it’s okay, that is if you want to take the job.”

“What about All Might?” he asked. 

“He decided that he wan’t cut for teaching and decided to completely retire,” Aizawa explained, “If he still was teaching I wouldn’t let Nezu offer you this job, also Bakugō asked to be transferred to Shiketsu.”

A grin broke out on Izuku’s face and he threw the letter on the floor and he extended his arms outwards, gesturing for a hug from Eraserhead, “I can’t believe that I get to annoy you all year round.”

“Whatever,” the teacher replied and walked out of the room. A smile hidden behind his capture weapon.

Inko had called the two boys to come to the kitchen and that dinner was ready. Aizawa had helped with setting the table, sighing as he heard the two boys coming table hurriedly. “Hey mom, we are four, why is there a fifth plate?” Izuku asked as he seated Shōto to his left, Eraserhead sitting directly in front of him.

At that time the doorbell rang and his mother smiled excitedly, “Izuku honey why don’t you go get the door.”

Izuku nodded and looked at his mother warily, his mind trying to figure out who would be the extra guest and why is his mother excited about this guest. He just hoped that it wasn’t someone he didn’t get along with. 

“Coming,” he yelled and went to unlock the door. 

Wide green eyes stared into dark eyes. A tall man, almost 5’1’’ stood by the door. He was dressed in black pants, and a black skin tight shirt with matching back combat boots. His outfit had many harnesses all over and the man held a bouquet of flowers in his gloved hands. Izuku took note of the black black hair and freckles all over the mans skin, his mind traveling over 100mphs. 

“DAADDDD!!!!!!” Izuku exclaimed and jumped on the man, he could hear his mother laugh and tell Shōto that her husband visiting was a planned surprise.

“Izuku,” the man spoke in a deep yet soft voice, “look at how you’ve grown.”

The two Midoriya’s had greeted each other, with the younger one crying in has father’s chest. It took them ten minutes to make it to the kitchen to have lunch, with Hisashi leaving his boots at the shoe stand. Izuku had taken the flowers and went to put them in a vase while his mother greeted her husband before introducing him to their guest.

When the man walked into the kitchen he froze in his tracks, staring at Aizawa. The teacher did the same, he looked at the man with wide eye and a pale complexion, as if he had seen a ghost.

“Little Shōta!”
“Uncle Hisashi!”

They both exclaimed at the same time, before they grumpily went to greet each other. It was the first time Izuku had seen his teacher hug someone else, and he couldn’t help but exchange a glance with Shōto. His father turned his gaze to Todoroki, “and who is this young gentleman?”

“Oh, that’s my boyfriend Todoroki Shōto,” Izuku replied as he took a seat next to Shōto.

“It’s nice to meet you Midoriya-San,” Todoroki bowed respectfully, “thank you for inviting me to your house.”

“humble hmm…” Hisashi hummed and waved at the boy, “you better take good care of my Izuku or I will end you.”

“DAD!”

“Hisashi!”

HIsashi shrugged and took a set adjacent to his son while his wife sat in between him and Aizawa. They made small talk over dinner and Izuku had learned that his father had adopted his wife’s family name and that the man’s birth name was Aizawa Hisashi and was Eraserhead’s youngest uncle.

“I actually called by boss every day and begged him to give me a vacation,” Hisashi explained how he managed to come back home, “he told me that once I finish my mission then I have a year worth of leaves and that I am promoted.”

“What is it that you do Midoriya-San?” Shōto asked curiously, wondering what is it that the man worked. He dressed like a well dressed version of Eraserhead but instead of a capture weapon he had harnesses filled with unknown things.

“Oh I work for the an agency that is a collaboration between the CIRO, the hero commission and the military and a bunch of other countries,” Hisashi replied, “it’s sort of an international agency that deals with law enforcement and intelligence, my role was espionage. I was posted to this job when Izuku was 6 and it was basically an infiltration mission, get in, pretend to be one of them and dismantle the whole web, and find any allies or other associates. Took me 10 years to do it but here I am.”

“Wait a second,” Aizawa looked at his uncle, “the one who took down the Spider’s Nest was you?”

“I had two other guys with me but yeah.”

 “I was reading the report in the car, it was published earlier this morning in the underground.”

“It took me two weeks to finish it.’

“So the whole family is somehow involved with the undergound?” Shōto asked suddenly, “Aizawa sensei is an underground hero, Midoriya-San is a spy and Izuku is planing to become an informant.”

“I guess so,” Hisashi rubbed his chin, and Todoroki had to admit that the man was an older Izuku but with a different color scheme.

They continued on talking and discussing their future plans before it got late and Aizawa had to return Todoroki back to the dorms. Before he left, Izuku had given him a peck on the lips without anyone seeing and handed Shōto the green notebook, he told him to open it when he goes back to the dorms.

Once he was safe in the dorms and in his room, Shōto opened the book to see a new entry after his rather embarrassing love letter. He smiled as he read what Midoriya had written him, hell he didn’t even know that Izuku had written something.

‘Dear Shōto,

Now that we're are dating, I don’t expect any romantic gestures. I mean this is my first romantic experience and I have no idea how to navigate through this. I will always look forward to seeing you, and I hope that next Saturday sounds good, we could go somewhere after we visit your mother. I also wanted to tell you this. Thank you for being my friend even though I’m quirkless. Thank you for cheering me up when I’m down. Thank you for not making fun of my habits. Thank you for encouraging me to be better. Without you I would still be stuck, you are my my hero. The light that scares of the darkness. Thank you for liking me more than a friend.

Love,

Izuku.’