Chapter Text
Izuku was fading. He wasn’t sure how long he had been reading, only that the sun had still been out when he started. The common area was pitch black save the light from his laptop. It was bright enough that it was starting to sting his exhausted eyes but not quite enough to illuminate the notes to his side or the paperback in his lap. Trying to strain his eyes to make out the text only made them hurt more. Briefly, he entertained the idea to get up and turn on the overhead light, but that would mean getting up from the comfortable position at the table. Nothing was about to break him out of his research rhythm. Except maybe that he couldn’t really see what he was writing down. But that didn’t really matter too much; worse comes to worse they wouldn’t be as neat as he liked them and might have to edit down the road.
Wait, no, focus. You can’t take notes if you’re not actually reading what’s in front of you, he thought. It didn’t help that the article was pretty dull: a laundry list of nearly identical pre-quirk organizations described in the most sterile way possible. Did he really need that many notes? He could just- No, that’s just my tired brain trying to sabotage me. I need to get this done by tomorrow. Have to-
“What are you doing in here this late?”
Izuku jumped to his feet and dropped his book, a shrill yelp escaping his lips. The light over the table came on, revealing All Might at the edge of its range.
“Didn’t mean to spook ya, kid,” he chuckled. He walked closer and leaned down to pick up the tossed book. Izuku was about to say he could get it himself when All Might cut him off. “’The Man of Yesterday: How Superheroes of Pre-Quirk Fiction Helped Shape Post-Quirk Reality.’ Are you really working on Midnight’s history project now?”
“… Yeah.” Izuku slumped back into his chair. All Might looked down at him with a furrowed brow.
“I thought that wasn’t due until next month?”
“Wanted to get a head start.”
“You can do that without staying up past curfew.” He crossed his arms and leaned against the kitchen counter.
“Yeah but I wanted to get as much done as possible, so I won’t have to worry as much about it on the Jakku trip,” Izuku argued, slightly bolder in his exhaustion.
“The Jakku trip?”
“Mmhm.”
“The one we’re leaving on tomorrow?”
“Yep.”
“The one where we all have to get up super early?”
“Yeah?” Izuku’s tone questioned his point.
“Young Midoriya, it’s one thirty in the morning,” All Might said sternly.
“… Is it?” he asked, finally picking up on the problem. All Might put his head back a little and sighed.
“There is a clock on your task bar.”
“Is there?” Izuku asked in a smaller voice.
“I’m looking at it right now.” Izuku turned to look at his laptop, then snapped back to his teacher.
“Huh, so there is… I can sleep on the bus,” he said, pointing at All Might.
“You can also read on the bus. Go to bed.” All Might pointed at the stairs.
“Just let me finish this one m-“
“Kid, you look dead on your feet. And they’re gonna be working you kids hard right out of the gate tomorrow. You need to sleep,” he tried to reason.
“Please, I’m almost done with this section. Please?” he begged. All Might stared him down for a good ten seconds before closing his eyes, putting his hands together and taking a deep breath.
“You have ten minutes.”
“Thank you so much!”
“Volume.”
“Sorry, thank you so much,” Izuku whispered before turning back to work. Behind him, All Might rounded the counter into the kitchen. “Wait, why are you here so late?”
“I’m watching your time,” he half threatened, half teased. Izuku immediately went back with another little whining sound. A snort from the kitchen. “I’m an old man with chronic pain and a lifetime of trauma.” Izuku winced. Another little chuckle. “And I forgot my mug.” The Superman book appeared in front of his face and he accepted it gingerly with some muttered thanks. It took him a moment to turn it back to the page he had left off on. All Might slid into the opposite chair. “So,” a quick swig from his World’s Okayest Teacher mug, “what’s your project?”
“I’m talking about how, in his world and in the real one, Superman was a symbol of human goodness and hope and how he kinda laid the groundwork for real heroes to be the same when quirks started appearing. But, like, a lot of people then and now just dismiss his perfect idealism as unobtainable and naïve so some don’t even try even though a lot of people would appreciate the effort like I do and nobody really even tried until All Might an- ah, I mean you did it and became the, uh, Symbol of Peace and, well you’re not really anymore and…” he trailed off, sinking further into his chair.
“You’re next?” All Might supplied. His soft smile was equal parts soft encouragement and sympathy. Maybe even a small apology in there somewhere. A brief but heavy silence came over them before Izuku spoke again.
“Yeah… And, and besides that, ever since you retired there have been all these think pieces claiming you didn’t do as much as people gave you credit for, or that you did more harm than good… It’s just wrong.” There weren’t any tears in his eyes, he didn’t even sniffle, yet he still rubbed his face with a sleeve. At this point it was a force of habit. The gesture and all it implied wasn’t lost on All Might. “Sorry for ranting a bit there…”
“It’s alright. If anything, I’m glad you feel so passionately about all this…” Mercifully, he steered the conversation back around. “Don’t you kids have to pick a specific story line to analyze? Have you decided what you’re going to do yet? If not, I can give you a recommendation or two.” He reclined a little.
Izuku mimicked his position. “Well, I think I want to do something standalone, so I don’t half to waste the word count on explaining continuity. And my stuff tends to run a little long as is.”
“Smart.”
“So, right now I’m torn between ‘All Star Superman,’ for the idealism in practice, or ‘The Death of Superman’ to talk about the presence and absence of a symbol,” he said, then rested his chin in his hands. “What were you gonna recommend?”
“Actually,” he started, as he went to copy his apprentice’s new stance, “’All Star’ was at the top of my list. If I were you, I’d want to focus on what Superman’s actions stand for, rather than his absence.” Izuku smiled a little. “Besides that, ‘All Star’ is just an all-around better story. And certainly more positive. Although, I may be a little biased considering it’s my personal favorite.” He leaned back again and took another drink. It took a moment, but Izuku slowly lifted his head with an awed expression.
“Wait… Did you… Did you get your name from that? From ‘All Star Superman?”
“Maybe…” All Might said, barely suppressing a smirk.
Izuku inhaled sharply. “Well now I have to do that one!”
“Volume.”
“Sorry,” Izuku muttered. “Can I quote you on that in my report?”
“Sure,” All Might mock-whispered. “If you go to bed now, I’ll let you borrow my trade of it.”
“Oh, so that’s your game,” the teen barked, throwing up his hands in an exaggerated display of annoyance. “I’m not a toddler, you know. I don’t need to be bribed to go to bed.”
“Then why won’t you go?” All Might laughed.
“Well, I can’t now that you’ve revealed this crucial information. I gotta follow up on it. Wait, does anyone else know that’s where the name comes from?”
“Nope. You’ve got an exclusive nugget of trivia, fanboy.”
“Oh man,” he breathed. So many follow-up questions raced through his mind at once he wouldn’t have been able to form one coherently even if his brain wasn’t running on fumes. The most he could manage was a wide-open mouth with a few gaping noises.
All Might chuckled again. “Really? You’re one of the only people who knows my identity and backstory. Heck, you have my actual quirk, and you give the same reverence to an influence on my name?”
“All knowledge is sacred.” More laughter. All Might reached across the table to ruffle his hair. Izuku gladly leaned into the gesture.
“You’re a good kid, you know that?” Said kid beamed. “I actually wouldn’t mind you spreading around. Might generate some interest in the comics. Maybe then people will start reprinting them again so getting a hold of them won’t cost an arm and a leg.”
“You collect them? Pre-quirk comics?” he questioned.
“Alas,” he put his hand over his forehead dramatically, “I have a long-standing addiction that goes back to before I was your age. Here’s another piece of the puzzle: I only got into heroing so I could afford a massive library of pre-quirk comics.”
“That’s not true,” Izuku said with fake offense.
“I mean, it sort of is,” he admitted. That was met with a tilt of the head and a lost expression. “When I was young, heroes didn’t have the overwhelming media presence they do today. They were more on the level of cops or firemen; they didn’t stand out unless you were paying attention. I started paying attention because I fell in love with the heroes of fiction first.”
Izuku stared, mouth open. “… Can you say that again I’m gonna write that down.” All Might put his head in his hands in mock-exasperation. But he did what his student asked. “So, Superman is your favorite hero?”
“Is this an interview now?” He put his hands behind his head and rested a leg on a spare chair. “Yeah, he’s one of my favorites. Was for most of my childhood. But after I started training with One for All, I got really into Blue Beetle.” The sound of Izuku’s pencil scratching filled the following pause.
“Never heard of him,” he said without looking up.
“Not surprised. He was more of a C-lister. But he’s another one I’d highly recommend, especially the original run of Jaime Reyes.” He paused for Izuku to interject. When he didn’t, he kept going. “The Blue Beetle was a legacy hero, and Jaime was the third incarnation. A running theme of his stories was about figuring out how to make his new powers his own while still honoring the memory of those who came before him… Now who does that sound like?” All Might ruffled his student’s hair again, almost pushing his head into the notebook. Izuku laughed weakly and pretended to bat his hand away.
“What sort of things do you read besides comics?” he asked, in a half-hearted attempt to keep the focus.
“When I get the chance, I also read a lot of pre-quirk science fiction.”
“Do you only read pre-quirk stuff?” he mocked. “Were you born in the wrong generation?” All Might flicked Izuku’ bangs.
“Oh, quiet you. Let me be an old man in peace.”
“You’re not that o-“
“To answer your question,” he cut off with a matter-of-fact tone, “I grew up on old American sci-fi because I inherited several old books from my family,” he finished, crossing his arms.
“Anything I’d know?” His laptop went dark with disuse.
“Doubt it. From what I remember of being in school, we didn’t have much exposure to American literature. And when I studied in America, they barely considered sci-fi to be literature at all.” He thought for a moment. “But you might have heard of some of the concepts. Ever heard of the Butterfly Effect?”
Izuku dipped his head to one side. “I think so. That’s like, a butterfly flapping its wings in one place causes tornadoes somewhere far away, is that it?”
“Hurricanes,” All Might corrected. “Something small can have huge ramifications further down the line, exactly. It’s a part of chaos theory. The general idea had been around for a while, I think. But the first use of the butterfly in the model was in a story called, ‘A Sound of Thunder’ by Ray Bradbury.”
“What happens?” Izuku asked with rapt attention.
“Basically, a bunch of idiots go back in time to kill a dinosaur and everything goes wrong,” All Might paused for dramatic effect, “but not in the way you think.” He looked up and the ceiling and sighed. “Yeesh, that story made me so anxious as a kid. I second guessed every little thing I did and looked everywhere I stepped for weeks.”
“Where does the butterfly come in?”
“Spoilers, kid.” All Might lifted his arm a bit and mimed bopping the boy on the head. Izuku snickered, then got quiet. He pulled at his bottom lip and gazed at nothing towards the ground.
“If… If the Butterfly Effect is like something small causing something big… Isn’t that like Superman?” All Might leaned in and gestured for him to keep going. “I-I mean, he was the first superhero. He inspired a whole genre and industry and it became a huge feature of pop culture… A-and when quirks started popping up, people started being superheroes for real, in part because they were inspired by that culture.” He paused, looking thoughtful but still at the ground. “Superman is our society’s butterfly…”
All Might clapped lightly and whistled. “Sounds like someone has an opening statement,” he applauded. But Izuku still didn’t lift his head. “What else?”
“… A-and it’s like, like how everything in my life right now, school, my friends, even this conversation, goes back to you giving me your quirk.” He got quieter with every word. His next were barely a whisper. “I owe you everything…” Of course, he knew that already. But if felt different to actually say it out loud. All Might sighed, then got up and put a hand on his student’s shoulder.
“I’m gonna have to disagree with you on that one,” he said lightly.
“Huh?” Izuku finally looked up at him.
“I may have made you my successor, but you were the one to prove yourself. You ran out to save Young Bakugou. Even though you couldn’t do much, you still tried. You inspired me to act.” All might poked his chest for emphasis. “And you have continued to inspire me ever since. If anything, I owe you.” He smiled the small, genuine smile he saved just for him. Izuku’s face scrunched up and he turned back to the floor. “Oh, none of that. No tears tonight,” he said as he pulled him closer, so his head could rest against his side. Izuku’s only response was a faint hum followed by a yawn. “And if you still feel you owe me, I have a way you can pay me back.”
“How?”
“By going to bed.”
“Wait what?” Izuku’s head shot up. “But I-“
“I gave you a topic recommendation and some backstory stuff, plus a pep talk. That’s more than enough for tonight. Ten minutes is up.”
“But-“
“No buts, unless it’s yours getting up to bed,” he said, tone leaving no room for argument.
Izuku groaned and dramatically sprawled his face and hands across the table. But soon after he packed up his things without any more of a fuss. The fact that saving the links and gathering up his writing implements felt like such a hassle brought him back to the reality of how tired he really was. It felt like it took forever. By the time he was done, All Might was waiting patiently by the elevator. They got in together.
“I wasn’t kidding before,” All Might started. “I’m pretty sure I’ve got a copy of ‘All Star Superman’ you can borrow. And I’m sure I have an anthology with ‘A Sound of Thunder’ in Japanese lying around if you want to read that.” Izuku just hummed again, letting himself rest against his mentor’s arm. Said arm moved slightly to pull him into a half-hug. “Those are much nicer examples to think about though, you and Superman. Usually the Butterfly Effect refers to something negative.”
The elevator doors opened to the second floor all too quickly. All Might gave his student a gentle shove to get him moving. Izuku slumped forward obediently and dragged his feet out into the hall.
“Goodnight, Superboy,” All Might called.
“Mmh g’night, Dad,” he slurred back. The doors shut before either could react. Izuku stopped briefly in his tracks. Did that actually just happen? Did I imagine that? Normally, he would have died on the spot from embarrassment. But at the time, he didn’t have enough energy to feel anything other than tired. Well, whatever. That’s morning Izuku’s problem now.