Work Text:
I walk beside Mirio-senpai as he leads me to Sir Nighteye’s agency. I’m so nervous! I can’t believe I’m meeting All Mights former sidekick- and his only sidekick at that! Working with Sir Nighteye would be such an amazing opportunity to learn from one of the few people that know about One For All.
Sir Nighteye used to be one of my biggest inspirations as a kid. Of course I looked up to him because he is the only person to work so closely to All Might, but also because he fights quirkless! Even though I have a quirk now- and I will always be grateful to All Might for that- I can’t help but admire heroes like Nighteye, Midnight, and even my homeroom teacher Eraserhead. It would be an honor for Sir Nighteye to even consider taking me on for work studies, let alone actually allow me to.
“If you don’t want to be turned away, then before you finish talking to Sir today, you need to make him laugh at least once,” Mirio says, drawing me out of my thoughts as we arrive at the agency. That makes me a little nervous, I’ve never been good at making jokes. Sure, people used to laugh at me all the time in middle school, but never because I was joking with them.
I push any negative thoughts aside as I open the door, determined to make a good first impression. I step into the building and-
What.
The.
Fuck.
The first thing I see when I enter the building is one of Sir Nighteye’s sidekicks strapped into some kind of- tickling machine?- with Nighteye himself standing in front of her. That doesn't seem like something OSHA would approve of. This is shaping up to be one hell of a weird day.
………………………………..
“Once my stamp is on that paper the work study contract will become official,”Sir Nighteye looks really bored as he says this, as though he doesn’t want me here. Even if I made a bad first impression I still really want him to like me. He is one of my favorite heroes after all! Still though, seeing him look at me with contempt in his eyes reminds me of something, but I can’t quite remember what.
Sir Nighteye raises the stamp dramatically and slams it down. I flinch internally at the sudden movement and loud noise, quickly realizing that the stamp did not land on the paper, but on the table next to it. No, that can’t be right. This is THE Sir Nighteye. He wouldn’t miss the paper, he is one of the smartest heroes after all. And yet, right in front of me I can see, the stamp is clearly on the table.
“Um- Sir, you missed,” I say, and GOD I can't believe I said that. Geeze way to point out the obvious Deku. I really am just trying to be helpful but the look in his eyes is telling me that I am being anything but.
“Because I don’t feel like stamping it,” Hearing one of my favorite heroes say that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. “I Understand the merits of working here for you. But what merit is there in my employing you? With two sidekicks and one work study student, this agency runs smoothly, so to add you… What benefit is there in that? How can you contribute to society? How can you be useful-” That’s where I stop listening.
Useful. I hate that word with every fiber of my being. The only thing I have ever wanted to be is useful. I studied heroes and analysis so that I could be useful. I never complained about the burns and bruises so that I could still be useful. I trained my ass off so that I can be useful. I learned to cook and clean so that I could be useful. I always take notes in class, even when we don’t have to, so that I can be useful. I have spent over that last decade of my life doing everything I can to be useful and to prove everyone wrong and this man I am meeting for the first time had the nerve to insinuate that I am useless.
Sir Nighteye is still going on about how I need to contribute to society but I’m not listening. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. My ears are ringing and all I can focus on are the voices of everyone that used to call me useless playing in my head. I feel overwhelmed by an emotion I can’t name.
Nighteye tells Mirio and Bubble Girl to leave the room. I honestly forgot that they were still here.
“In order to show how you can benefit my company, you should show it with your actions, not your words. Three minutes. Try and take this seal from me in less than three minutes if you want to work as a hero under me,” Nighteye stands up as he says this, holding the stamp between his fingers, “then stamp the seal yourself”.
This is a test. He wants me to prove my worth to him. He wants me to prove that I can be useful. Just like my old teachers. Just like my old classmates. All they ever wanted me to do was prove how useful I could be, and Sir Nighteye is acting just like them. Sir Nigheye, All Might's former sidekick, is acting like my middle school bullies. That emotion is back and I think I figured out what it is.
Anger.
Just as Nighteye starts the timer, I take the contract off of his desk and put it back into my backpack and start heading for the door.
“What are you doing! Where are you going,” Nighteye nearly yells, sounding extremely confused and frustrated. Hearing his tone almost makes me smile. I finally understand why Kacchan likes pissing people off so much.
“I’m leaving, Sir,” I don’t look back at him as I say this, Just stopping halfway between the door and the desk. “I’ve decided that I no longer want to complete my work study with you,”
“You are making a huge mistake young man. Do you have any idea how amazing of an opportunity it is to work for All Might’s former, and only, sidekick? I’m also the only hero that knows about your quirk. I’m your only option,” Sir Nighteye, the same Sir Nighteye I used to admire, has the same look in his eyes that Kacchan used to get when he would talk to me. It pisses me off just enough to get me to turn around.
“I mean full offence when I say this Sir, but if you are done sucking your own dick over there, I will happily tell you why I have changed my mind,” I channel my inner Aizawa-Sensei when I say this, not letting any emotion seep into my voice because nobody ever listens when I get emotional. “I decided against working with you the moment you opened your mouth and started acting like one of my middle school bullies. I cannot work for, or respect anyone who would have the nerve to call a CHILD, especially a child that was quirkless up until a year ago, useless and make them prove their worth. Do you have any idea what it is like to be quirkless in today’s society? No, of course you don’t because you are just a bigoted, bitter man who is pissy because All Might didn’t want you to choose his successor for him.
“And speaking of Mirio, what the hell made you think that he would be a good choice to inherit One For All, besides the fact that he looks Like All Might. I mean no disrespect to Mirio but from what he has told me and from his performances in his previous sports festivals, he had little to no control of his quirk until fairly recently. What made you think that he would have been able to handle a whole new quirk on top of that?”
“Mirio-kun has a very strong, very versatile quirk that would help him as the next Symbol of Peace,” Nighteye finally interrupts my tangent, looking quite shocked by what I have to say, only to say something so idiodic.
“Is that really all Mirio is to you? His quirk? He speaks so highly of you and the only good thing you have to say about him is that he has a strong quirk? You should know better than anyone that a hero isn’t only their quirk. A hero can’t be a one trick pony.
“I simply cannot work for someone who can’t show basic respect to someone they just met, or for someone that has their head so far up their own ass that they can’t see just how rude they are being. Thank you for your time Sir but I will be finding someone else to mentor me. Someone who is willing to actually teach me without taking their frustrations out on me first. If you’re ever able to get your head out of your ass have Mirio- Senpai tell me and maybe we can work together at some point in the future, but I honestly don’t see that happening,” and with that I turn and walk out of the office, not sparing Nigheye another glance.
I calmly close the door behind me and lean against the hallway wall, finally letting the anger show on my face for a moment before putting on a neutral expression once more. As I walk down the hallways towards the exit I notice all of the All Might posters plastering the walls. I see that wide smiling face looking down at me from every angle and realize that, even though he is my mentor and the former number one hero, I don’t trust All Might.
I don’t have much time to think about that though before I arrive at the front office and see Mirio excitedly talking to Bubble Girl about something I can’t hear.
“Midoriya-Kun!! How did it go? Were you able to grab the stamp” Mirio questions me as soon as he sees me. I smile when I see him, reminding myself that I’m angry with Sir Nighteye, not Mirio.
“I actually decided not to complete my work study here,” I see Mirio’s smile dim slightly when I say this so I immediately explain a bit more, “Sir Nighteye’s teaching style just doesn’t seem to like up with my learning style,” It might not be the whole truth but it also isn’t a lie.
“Oh, I guess that makes sense,” Mirio’s smile picks up a bit, as though he understands. “Sir can be a tough teacher so I can see how that wouldn't be for everyone. Do you know who you are going to end up working with? I could help you brainstorm a few ideas if you’d like,” He smiles, similarly to All Might but more genuine, it makes me smile too.
“I still have to think about which hero I want to work with, and I will definitely let you know if I need any help! Thank you for the offer,” I smile my widest, most genuine smile when I say this. In my interaction with Nighteye I had forgotten just how happy I get when I talk to my friends. It still is kind of weird to have friends, especially friends as amazing as Mirio-Senpai, but it’s nice. “Even though we won’t be doing our work studies together we should still train together sometime! Your quirk is really cool and I would love another chance to spar with you!”
“Absolutely! I can’t wait to have another chance to kick your butt,” Mirio laughs.
“Text me when you’re free and you can try your best,” I joke getting excited at the prospect of being able to spar with an upperclassman, and in that excitement I nearly forget about my altercation with Sir Nighteye. Nearly.
I say my goodbyes to Mirio and Bubble Girl and head off toward the train station. I have a lot to think about tonight.
………………………………..
I had meant to think about who I want to do my work study with on the train ride and subsequent walk back to UA, but all I could think about was All Might. More specifically I thought about how he had treated me when I first met him. I thought about how he treats me now and I thought about his attitude towards teaching, not just me but my classmates as well. I couldn’t think of a single positive thing.
I planned on bottling up those thoughts and never telling anyone about them, but when I got to campus All Might was right there and something inside of me snapped.
“Midoriya my boy! How was your meeting with Mirai? Did he accept you? Oh what am I saying- of course he did! You are my protege after all,” All Might laughed. I hadn’t realized just how annoying and fake sounding his laugh was until now.
“I actually decided not to work with him,” I say quickly trying to get this conversation over as quickly as possible.
“Why not? He is the best choice, he was my sidekick after all. He is also the only hero who knows about One For All,” Thank the Gods that the campus was empty today. Honestly, for someone that has had the quirk for over thirty years at this point All Might certainly isn’t very good at hiding it. Seriously, if someone had been walking by when he said that the secret that had been hidden so well for generations would have been found out.
I don’t really feel like hiding my emotions any more today, so I decide to tell the truth. “He may have been your sidekick but Sir Nighteye is an asshole.”
“My boy-”
"Don’t call me that,” I interrupt him. This very well might have been the first time I have ever interrupted him. “I’m not your son and I never will be. And if you’re going to tell me that I’m being too harsh or too rude you can take your opinions and kindly shove them up your-”
“My boy!”
“I just told you not to call me that! By the Gods do you ever listen? I haven’t had the best day and all I want to do is go to my dorm, so, if you will excuse me,” I turn toward the 1-A dorms and just as I start walking he grabs my shoulder, making me flinch at the sudden contact.
“My- Young Midoriya, we should talk about this,” All Might saying this makes me whip back around, shaking his hand from my shoulder.
“Oh, now you want to talk? Why now and not after any of the times that the quirk YOU gave me landed me in the hospital? Speaking of the quirk, how come you have never once tried to teach me how to use it? Are you really that much of an incompetent teacher that you couldn’t explain to me not to use 100% the first time I used it? Why didn’t you just give me the same advice that your mentor gave you,” At this point I am yelling. Any other day I would have been freaking out about yelling at the former Symbol of Peace, but today I couldn’t care less. “I really shouldn’t be surprised though, you have never cared about me all that much.”
“I care about you!”
“No you don’t! You might have convinced yourself that you do, but you don’t. If you really cared about me you wouldn’t have crushed my dreams the first time we met. Speaking of that, what kind of hero rescues a child from a villain, doesn’t call an ambulance or the police, tells the child that they can’t be a hero and then leaves them on a roof? A roof! Did you know that less than an hour before that I had been told to ‘take a swan dive off of the building and pray for a quirk in the next life’? No, of course you didn’t because you never once tried to get to know anything about me as a person. All you cared about was the fact that you thought I could be the next Symbol of Peace. What if I had jumped off that roof? I was going to. I had my dreams crushed by the person I admired most in the world after being told by my former best friend to kill myself. I planned on jumping, wrote a note and everything. Then I heard the explosions from Kacchan and knew I had to save him.
“Even after offering me your quirk and training me, and telling me I could be a hero, you never once asked me what kind of hero I want to be. Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don’t want to be a spotlight hero? That maybe I want to be able to save people and take care of people from poor neighborhoods without having to worry about a stupid fucking ranking? You never once asked about me, or about what I want. You are a shit teacher, a shit mentor, and an overall shit person. I am going to find someone that is actually willing to teach me and who cares about me,” Before he can say anything, I turn and walk away. I walk away from All Might, from the former #1 Hero, from the former Symbol of Peace, from my former Mentor.
Goddamnit I’m going to have to redecorate my whole room.
………………………………..
I get about halfway to the dorms when it finally hits me. The only teacher, the only adult to ever care about me. The teacher that didn’t make me prove my worth. The teacher that actually teaches me. The only adult I actually trust.
Aizawa.
I quickly turn toward the main school building, remembering hearing Aizawa- Sensei complaining about having to grade tests today, and that he only ever grades in the teacher’s lounge. As I walk I let myself calm down and think about everything that has happened today. When I enter the school building I make a decision, I’m going to tell Aizawa-sensei everything. He has never lied to me, so I won’t lie to him.
Once I get to the teacher’s lounge I stand in front of the door for a few moments, allowing myself to collect my thoughts. The longer I stand there however, the more nervous I become. Deciding to bite the bullet, I knock on the door, getting a cheerful ‘Come in!’ in return. I open the door and see Present Mic-Sensei and Midnight-Sensei sitting at desks near each other, clearly in the middle of a conversation.
“What ‘ya need ‘lil listener,” Mic-Sensei asks, looking slightly shocked to see me.
“I was wondering if Aizawa-Sensei was here,” I try not to sound too nervous as I address the hero.
“What do you need, Problem Child,” Aizawa asks as he sits up on the couch where he had been laying. He startles me slightly at first, but then I chuckle because, of course Sensei was napping.
“I was actually hoping to talk to you in private, Sensei,” This makes Present Mic and Midnight look at me with slight concern. For good reason too. I never talk to teachers if I can help it, a habit that I picked up in third grade as a form of self preservation.
“Of course kid, we can use one of the meeting rooms down the hall,” Aizawa kept his voice as neutral as always when he said this, but I could tell by the look in his eye that he is worried too. He stands up and walks past me, out the door. I hurry to follow him, not wanting to make him wait.
“What did you want to talk about kid,” He asks as soon as we are seated across from each other at the table in the meeting room.
“There’s a few things actually. The first is that I was wondering if you were taking any work studies students this year.” I notice that Aizawa’s posture stiffens ever so slightly when I say this. He never talks to us about work studies any more than he needs to, always having another teacher or a student explain for him, so I hope that I’m not crossing a line.
“I thought you were doing your work study with Sir Nighteye.”
“That was my original plan, I decided against it.”
“Why”
“Well, to be frank sir,” I take a breath, preparing myself for what I’m about to say, “Sir Nighteye is a self righteous asshole. He basically called me useless and then refused to stamp the contract, telling me that I had to get the stamp from him and do it myself. I got kind of mad and told him to get his head out of his ass and walked out.”
Aizawa takes a long breath, looking at me as though he can’t tell if I’m being serious or not. “It’s about time someone knocked that prick down a couple pegs. I wish I could have seen that.”
I’ve got to admit, that response surprised me a little bit, but not enough to show it. “Nezu probably already hacked the cameras in his office and has copies of that and of me yelling at All Might.”
Aizawa-Sensei studies me for a moment before he talks again, “Lucky for you, I am accepting work studies students this year. However, I don’t think I have to remind you that I am an underground hero and you want to be a spotlight hero,”
“That’s actually one of the other things I wanted to talk to you about. I don’t think that I want to be a spotlight hero. I never have actually, I was just pressured onto that path by All Might.”
“Let me see your work studies contract Problem Child,” Aizawa says without hesitation, holding out his hand for the contract.
I take the contact out of my bag and hand it to my teacher. “Before you sign it there are a few more things I want to talk to you about.” I didn’t think I would ever tell Aizawa-Sensei this. All Might said it was a bad idea, but I trust Aizawa and it makes sense for him, as my teacher, to know everything.
“What else did you need to tell me?”
“I need to tell you about my quirk,” I try to keep my voice level as I say this, but the nervousness seeps through. Luckily for me Aizawa doesn’t say anything. He simply looks at me and gestures for me to continue. I take a deep breath. “I was born quirkless, diagnosed at age four, I have the double pinky-toe joint and everything. I’m sure you know what kind of hell life is like for quirkless children, that’s what my life was like for the first fourteen years of my life.
“I always loved heroes. You and All Might were my favorites. You know that thing they say about ‘never meet your heroes’? That was true for me in middle school. About ten months before the entrance exam, I met All Might after he saved me from a villain. I asked him if I could be a hero and he said no, and then he left me on a roof.” When I say this Aizawa gets visibly angry, but he doesn’t say anything so I take that as my cue to continue. “The only reason I didn’t jump that day was because Kacchan got attacked by the same villain that had attacked me. I ran in to save him because none of the Pro’s on the scene were doing anything.
“When I was walking home after that All Might found me and told me that I could be a hero and that he had deemed me worthy of inheriting his quirk. I know how weird that sounds but that’s what he told me. He told me that his quirk is called One For All and that it is a strength stockpiling quirk that can be passed on from one user to the next. Even though he had just destroyed my dreams, he was still one of my favorite heroes. He trained me by having me clean Takoba Beach, and on the day of the entrance exam, when the beach was all clean, he gave me his quirk, but he didn’t tell me how to use it. He has never given me any real advice about how to use it, so I thought that since you’re my teacher and I trust you, you could help me figure out how to utilize it to its full ability,” I take a deep breath, never being more thankful for all those years of incessant rambling.
“I always knew Yagi was an idiot, but I never knew he was that incompetent,” Aizawa laughs, which makes me feel much better about this entire situation. “Thank you for trusting me kid, of course I will help you. So, am I right in assuming that All Might never asked you if you wanted to be a spotlight hero or not?”
“No, he never did. I’ve wanted to be an underground hero since I discovered them. I want to be able to help people without having to worry about hero rankings,” I smile as I say this, remembering how I would dig through the internet to find information on different underground heroes to analyze. I smile at the memory.
Aizawa glances at the contract on the table briefly before pulling his stamp out of his pocket and stamping the paper. “I’ll get this turned in for you, Problem Child. You head back to the dorms, you’ve had a long day,” he looks at me and a small smile forms on his lips. “I’m going to go get the footage of you bitching out Nighteye and All Might from Nezu and then All Might and I are going to have a chat.”
“Don’t kill the man, Sensei. I’ll have to find a new work study if you’re in prison for murder,” I laugh.
“Don’t worry kid, I won’t leave any evidence,” We both chuckle when he says this.
I stand up from my seat at the table and start walking toward the door. Before I leave the meeting room I look back at my teacher, my new mentor, the only adult I have ever truly trusted. “Thank you, Sensei,” I say quietly as I walk out the door. For the first time in over a decade, I am genuinely excited to see what the future holds.