Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hawks has always been known to be a tad bit controversial by the public. 

His opinions and actions whilst cordial generally, sometimes tended to… escape social expectations. It’s not that he held any unfavorable beliefs or anything, but now and then his views just didn’t align with what was socially acceptable, and whilst he didn’t purposely shout them from a rooftop for everyone to hear, he neither shied away from stating his views when prompted. Whilst obviously a part of society was uncomfortable with acknowledging that specific part of his perspective, they just mostly had a tendency to brush it off and omit it. On the other hand, a greater part of society liked him even more for it, praising him as refreshing, intelligent, and thoughtful and whatever other bullshit they could come up with. 

But that part was the reason the commission even let him have that perspective. To them, his image was built upon being a respectable and dependable hero, but also a casual and congenial one. He was efficient and proficient whilst doing his job, but he also spared enough time to chat and take selfies with civilians. Still, there were a lot of other heroes that had those qualities as well. For example, rescue heroes in particular, tended to be approachable and good at communicating with civilians. Statistics proved that whilst bigshot heroes like All Might or Endeavor were renowned and revered, rescue heroes tended to have a more loyal follower base. All though in All Might’s case those statistics got bent a bit, considering the man was known by his appellation ‘Symbol of Peace’ for a reason. So yes, such qualities weren’t as uncommon as some people believed.

No, Hawks had to be the perfect hero—by being close to the public. 

He needed to seem like a real, living person with his own personality and all that. He needed to be approachable and relevant to the people, which is why he was allowed to stop at the KFC’s for chicken nuggets or fly freely through the sky whenever he didn’t have anything urgent to do (which was scarce but still ). That in combination with the easygoing image they created for him lead to them encouraging his penchant for controversial opinions as long as they weren’t truly negative. It made him seem more real, it helped him gain a steady, loyal fanbase from the people who shared the same opinions, and it added well to his laid-back concept. So, it was all cool and since the commission didn’t have any issues, he expressed that portion of his thoughts a bit more freely than the others.

Still, not more than once he had wondered where they would draw the line.

And now he thought that he might have found it.

With U.A.’s Sports Festival having recently finished, he was expected to take up at least one intern from the school, preferably class 1-A. After the news of the USJ incident, he had already caught an interest in Tokoyami Fumikage upon seeing him in a picture of a newspaper. The student was a fellow bird, it was literally fated to be. And seeing Tokoyami’s performance in the Sports Festival only strengthened his decision. The boy was clearly strong and had good skills of self-evaluation. He was a good choice and the commission wouldn’t have anything to complain about considering his overall rank as third in the festival. Hawks never intended to take up more than one student though. Tokoyami was a good choice and more than enough. All he planned to do was to get some information about the USJ from the kid and alternate between taking him out on patrol and letting him work in the office for a week. Nothing more and nothing less.

Or at least that was the plan until the probably most controversial thing in recent times had to happen during the U.A. Sports Festival.

Class 1-A consisted out of 20 students and during the festival one of its students was revealed to be quirkless.

And said student won the whole damn thing. 

The revelation alone caused a media outburst, but the student’s victory had the whole country reeling back in, erupting into a pandemonium of discriminatory complaints mixed in with the headstrong support from the small part of the public who supported the kid. It’s all news articles would talk about in the last few days, even overshadowing the recent attack on pro-hero Ingenium to an extent. U.A. had gotten as many requests for an interview about the kid as they did get allegations from people accusing the kid of stealing a spot in 1-A from a quirked individual or accusing the school of deliberately killing the kid. It’s been an utter shitstorm. 

But what was probably the most disappointing thing in his opinion? So fucking many pro-heroes decided to comment on the situation rather negatively, fully against the idea of a quirkless hero. Some of them even expressed some quirkist bullshit in their protests, although most likely unintended. Honestly, upon reading some of the takes a few heroes have made, he decided to blacklist them from the affiliation list. And then he found out that some of the people working at his agency hadn’t exactly a positive outlook on the whole situation. Luckily, there weren’t that many as he chose who worked at his agency himself (one of the few things the commission gave him control over to cover up the fact from the public and fellow heroes, that almost everything else in his life wasn’t in his control) and as mentioned previously, he was known for his rather polemical views, so most of the people working at his agency shared several of these views. Still, a few employees didn’t and the quirkless kid winning was what it took for them to reveal themselves. Hawks wasn’t cruel. The ones who he thought could genuinely improve their viewpoint without too much work got a rebuke and a lecture. And that’s all it took for them to open up more about the kid’s victory and status as hero-in-training. And then there were the people who didn't budge on their opinion and even went as far as to insult the kid and/or U.A. High. 

Hawks fired them on the spot.

All these events fell down like domino pieces did, leading to the current situation.

Hawks sending in an internship request for both Tokoyami Fumikage and Midoriya Izuku.

Hawks has always been known to be a tad bit controversial by the public. 

And birds of a feather always tended to flock together. 

Chapter Text

Hitoshi isn’t sure how to feel when Izuku climbs into his room through his window at three in the morning. His eyes widen upon seeing him jump over the windowsill, making almost no sound as he lands on the ground of his room.

“Listen ,” Izuku whispers as Hitoshi puts down his phone, cat videos long forgotten, “I have something important to ask of you.”

For a moment, Hitoshi isn’t sure what to address first. His entrance? The fact that it’s 3 am? The way Izuku is looking at him like he’s the reincarnation of Amaterasu herself?

“Izuku,” he stresses, “Dad—Aizawa-sensei is going to kick your ass if he realizes you’re here.”

But of course, that doesn’t mean anything to his best friend, because Izuku is just like him—an Eraserhead fanboy at heart.

“I know he’s on patrol right now,” Izuku responds, waving a hand in dismal of Hitoshi’s legit concerns before he strolls over and plumps down on the bed, right beside him. “And it’ll take at least 30 minutes before he’s back.”

Then he shakes his head and turns to face Hitoshi, gripping his shoulders as he does. “But that all doesn’t matter right now.”

Hitoshi raises an eyebrow, contemplating for a moment if he should argue with the other because honestly, it should matter a lot to Izuku—what if he gets expelled from the hero course? Then he scoffs mentally. That would never happen, hell would freeze over before his father would ever consider expelling his problem child. Sighing loudly, he gestures at Izuku to keep talking. Izuku, way too comfortable and energetic at 3 in the morning, immediately latches onto the permission and starts talking.

“As you might remember,” he begins, eyes narrowing a bit, as he leans forward, “my internship with Hawks starts tomorrow.”

“I do remember. In fact, it would be really difficult to forget, considering he is the Number Three Hero,” Hitoshi points out.

They were all very surprised when Hawks dropped an offer for an internship to Izuku out of all people. Most heroes in the Top 20 have no qualms with ignoring the U.A. Sports Festival’s winner, just because he is quirkless. These heroes obviously didn’t realize that Principal Nedzu would spend the next few weeks researching them all to find out who genuinely just didn’t want to offer an internship to Izuku and who was a quirkist bastard.

Anyway, Hawks offering an internship took them all by surprise, especially Izuku who spent a good chunk of time mumbling something about ‘the HPSC’ and ‘old, bigoted farts’.

(Pretty much everyone from Class 1-A went to Izuku so they could weed out who not to intern with. His father actually smiled at them that day—and then promptly lectured them for not using any chances they were offered, but everyone could tell he didn’t fully mean it.)

“So,” he drawls, smirking slightly at the other, “are you getting cold feet now? Planning to chicken out?”

“Of course not,” Izuku immediately replies, choosing to ignore his jab and atrocious pun, “it’s far from that… I need your help, Hitoshi.”

 And wow, no ‘Hitoshi-kun’, so it was serious then.

“What’s so important that you couldn’t wait until tomorrow to do so?”

Izuku gazes down at the ground for a second, before sighing. “Tomorrow would already be way too late. And… and I didn’t come earlier, because I needed to think this through.”

That’s the cue for Hitoshi to straighten up and pay his full attention to his best friend. Izuku is always thorough so if he needs to think something through, he still makes sure to decide at least three days in advance, so there’s enough reaction and adjustment time. The fact that he didn’t manage to do that this time… whatever it is, it must be pretty grave and crucial.

 “... Izuku?”

 Izuku shakes his head softly, before grabbing something in the pocket of his trousers and handing it to Hitoshi. It’s a USB stick. There’s a label on it.

  ‘Project P. - E.’

 “Izuku? What… is this?”

 “Listen closely, Hitoshi.” Emerald eyes bore into his own and for a moment he believes that Izuku’s eyes are glowing, which is ridiculous. “I … might not come back alive from this.”

Hitoshi blinks, everything in his mind halting for a moment, as his brain tries to process the other’s words.

“...What?”

He blinks once, twice, and then his brain finally catches up.  “Izuku, what the fuck do you mean?”

“There is,” Izuku begins, clamming up for a moment, narrowing his eyes as he tries to continue talking, “There is something I’ve been… planning for a while.”

“Something I’ve been working on,” he admits, voice strangely soft and somber. “And it’s the reason I… accepted this internship, to be honest.”

Hitoshi is downright confused but his heart clenches in a way that he understands—he’s worried. He always is, when Izuku gets this peculiar gaze that just screams that he’s going to do something reckless but incredibly astounding. That he is going to do something that’ll end up with him in the hospital hurt and broken, leaving them—his father, his friends, and Hitoshi—to sit around his hospital bed and pray for his safety and recovery.

“Just what the hell are you planning, Izuku?”

Izuku shakes his head.

“I’m trying to give you plausible deniability here, so I can’t tell you much,” he explains.

The insomniac frowns. This isn’t reassuring at all.

“I don’t want plausible deniability, I want to know what the fu—"

“Listen,” Izuku interrupts him, “there are a few documents and videos on that USB stick. Don’t watch them, otherwise, you’ll get yourself in danger.”

And well, that’s not disturbing at all.

“If I go missing or end up dead… or anything in that direction, you have to release them on the internet or hand them off to Principal Nedzu. He’ll probably know what to do.”

Ok, now that’s downright scary. Just what in the hell is on that stick?

“If you’re going to do it yourself, I’ve set up a burner account for you, where you can release the stuff. The location should be pretty much untraceable and won’t lead anyone back to you. There are instructions and all for that account, in a separate document for it on this stick.”

And with that, Izuku hands him a second stick with another label.

‘B. A.’

Then Izuku goes back to gripping his shoulders, his fingers digging into his shoulder blades in a way that is uncomfortable but despairing . “No matter what, do not talk of this to anyone except Principal Nedzu. Pretend these USB sticks don’t exist unless you have to use them.”

“Izuku,” Hitoshi whispers softly, as fear slowly courses through his body. He reaches out and grabs the other’s arms, “If going to that internship is this dangerous… then why?”

“I need additional information for my plan,” he mutters, expression gloomy, “but mostly I need confirmation. Going there is the kinder way to fulfil my plan.”

And Hitoshi is beyond confused, stressed, worried—but Izuku speaks up before he can say something.

“Don’t ask me, Hitoshi. I don’t want to endanger you. Think… think about Aizawa-sensei and Yamada-sensei.”

And that shuts him up.

Instead, he tugs on Izuku’s sleeve. “Stay the night then.”

He’s too scared to leave the other boy out of his sight. He’s too scared of the possibility, that during his own internship, his father will get a phone call from Hawks. That the phone call will be a curt, I’m sorry your student died on our watch. Our condolences, and they’ll never really find out what happened to Izuku.

Izuku raises an eyebrow at him. “Even though Aizawa-sensei will kick my ass?”

Hitoshi scoffs. “Apparently, getting your ass kicked by Dad would be a kinder fate compared to whatever you’re up to during your internship.”

That shuts Izuku up, obviously picking up on the panic and concern in his best friend’s voice. His gaze softens, as he nods slightly in agreement to the request. Both move around—Hitoshi slips the USB sticks into the inner pocket of his school uniform’s blazer before he lays down in the bed beside Izuku, who covers them both with the blanket.

He clutches onto Izuku’s wrist, needing the reassurance that the other is still there. Hitoshi is too afraid to sleep until a good chunk of time passes and his consciousness eventually fades away.

Shouta knows he is exhausted a fuck, but he’s not sure if the exhaustion is strong enough, that he’s starting to hallucinate.

At that moment, Hizashi steps up beside him, having just left the bathroom, and takes a glance into the room of their son. He perks up.

“Izuku is here,” he whispers cheerfully.

Oh, great. He’s not hallucinating the hellspawn then.

“I can see that,” he replies, careful to whisper, but still managing to sound exasperated.

“Shouta,” his husband mutters, “we should just already take him in.”

“He has a mother,” he points out.

Both are painfully aware of that.

(More often than not, they wish they weren’t aware of her existence. At all.)

“One who is clearly neglecting him.”

“We don’t have any proof,” he points out.

And that’s the issue—they don’t have any proof and Izuku won’t be the one to give it to them.

It’s frustrating.

(He wants nothing more than wrap his problem child in soft, comfy blankets, drag him to their apartment and keep him forever, because obviously his mother is incapable of giving him the care and parental affection he obviously deserves.)

“... I know,” Hizashi mumbles, sounding as dejected as Shouta feels. “ I know. ”

They both did.

“Hitoshi, Problem Child,” Aizawa greets them as they wake up and make their way to the kitchen. Izuku knows there’s no use in escaping through the window—Aizawa always checks up on his son and husband after returning from patrol, because no matter how much their teacher pretends to be a bitter and grumpy old man, he’s full of softness and genuine care.

“Good morning, Aizawa-sensei,” he greets his teacher, fully intending to act as if he didn’t technically break into their apartment at 3 am. So, he does. He sits down at the table, where Hizashi has already placed a plate with pancakes and a mug full of tea for him.

 Hitoshi just sighs beside him. “He just appeared out of nowhere.”

“I tend to do that.” Izuku nods in agreement.

Aizawa groans but doesn’t say anything else except, “Just sit down and eat breakfast. We’re going to stop at the Midoriya residence, before driving to the school, so Problem Child can go get his stuff.”

And that was that.

Izuku enters the Aery alongside Tokoyami, promptly taking a glance around the entrance, taking in as many details as possible. Elevators, a staircase, the reception, and two doors on the right side. A few chairs are placed between those doors. There’s an emergency exit sign by the staircase. Good to know. Otherwise, the place looks clean but not memorable.

A man sits at the reception, he looks familiar but Izuku can’t place where he has seen him before. Definitely, something he’ll have to research once he has some time (in other words, at 2 am when he’s supposed to be asleep and regaining energy for the next day).

The receptionist looks up when they enter the agency and step closer to the counter, recognition lighting up in his gaze.

"You must be the two U.A. students that are going to intern with Hawks this week."

"That would be us," Tokoyami confirms for both of them.

"One moment then, please. I'll call him down."

Dark Shadow uses that moment to peek out of their hiding spot to greet Izuku and look around. Izuku greets them back with a small wave of his hand, before immediately straightening up and turning around. The elevator opens and Hawks steps out.

Japan’s Number Three.

Of course, Izuku had looked into the hero before he even started studying at the hero academia. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be the hero fanboy he was. He had been downright excited when Hawks debuted because his quirk was seriously awesome. As if the wings weren’t already enough, the hero could alter the durability of every single feather and move them telekinetically (plus, he had no confirmation as of yet, but Izuku is pretty sure, Hawks can do a lot of espionage-suited things with his feathers, like listening in on a conversation through a feather). That quirk was simply incredible, and Hawks himself was rather charming. No wonder he rose through the ranks that quickly.

Yet, Izuku wasn’t a fool. During his research he found a few things on the winged hero that tied a bit too closely with the HPSC—it’s just, during that time his life really started to fall apart, so he had to drop his research for a while.

Until the U.A. Sports Festival and the strange internship offer.

Then it all came back tenfold, and Izuku went down a rabbit hole trying to dig up all possible info on the winged hero. See, he already had a thorough analysis of the hero’s quirk, so he decided to hold off further research on the quirk until the internship, where he’d see it in action, hopefully. The focus was therefore anything else he could get his hands on.

So, the interesting thing is, Hawks has a lot of interviews. That was probably due to his charismatic but laidback personality, which was sure to attract the attention of teens and people in their early to late twenties. He was popular and relatable to the masses. Then there was also the fact that the winged hero was simply reliable. He was dubbed as the fastest hero for a reason. Immediately on the scene in his area and always defusing any possible negative situation as soon as possible. The hero simply just didn’t waste time, no matter what his laidback personality made him seem like to a few people.

Back on track, he was popular and relatable, therefore people wanted to know as much as possible about him. So, he got invited to a lot of interviews, entertainment shows, and other events.

That wasn’t the thing that really stood out to Izuku though.

What stood out to Izuku, was that although the winged hero had more interviews than All Might and Endeavour combined, suspiciously a lot less was actually known about him. Because most of the information the man gave out during his interviews tended to be the same things just worded differently.

And people just… didn’t question it. Well, there were probably people who questioned it but just kept their mouths shut or something along these lines.

(There were a lot of things that a large part of society collectively decided never to acknowledge.)

To Izuku that simple fact was interesting.

Sure, on its own it meant nothing—heroes were entitled to their privacy and no one could fault Hawks for trying to keep the information the public had of him at bay. However, what made this so oddly intriguing to Izuku was that Hawks contradicted himself.

Whenever there was something just a tiny bit controversial to the masses, he would speak about it, even agreeing with some of the controversial takes. Of course, it never was anything truly immoral (at least in Izuku’s opinion) but it was peculiar. Because such sort of opinions were the things heroes (or anyone in a position of power/fame) would usually try to hide, whilst they spewed all wholesome stuff about their private life out.

Not only was Hawks a tad bit controversial, but he was also strange.

That alone already had most of Izuku’s interest and attention.

But what truly got to him was the fact that Hawks worked directly under the Hero Public Safety Commission.

Now, as a quirkless kid, Izuku didn’t have many… friends to keep him occupied during his childhood. So, most of his time went into his analysis and research.

And well, he was a curious person at heart. He always wanted to know more, to find out more, to analyze more, to solve more puzzles . Eventually, he started to try to gain some of his information… through not-so-legal means. Of course, he wouldn’t abuse the knowledge for anything truly evil, he just wanted to satisfy his curiosity. When he was younger, satisfying his curiosity meant figuring out the quirks of some people or strangers around him. When he got older, satisfying his curiosity meant trying to hack into the Hero Public Safety Commission’s security system. Sue him, they always irked him just a tad bit wrong, and he couldn’t stop himself.

It took years to improve enough to actually understand any kind of information, but Izuku was stubborn if nothing else, so he eventually got to that point.

Now, the HPSC wasn’t completely stupid, so not every part of their data was on the same path, therefore there were a lot of things he couldn’t find out.

However, he could put the pieces together and that’s what he did with the data he did manage to copy and transfer. And well, if he didn’t like the commission before, he sure as hell couldn't stand the commission anymore, after that.

Because a lot of people working with the commission weren’t… great people, he eventually got wary of Hawks. Which sucked, because Hawks was one of the heroes he admired.

So, not wanting to be wary anymore, he eventually tried to dig for more information and managed to do so.

The Paragon Training Program.

Izuku didn’t easily get angry—years of Kacchan’s relentless bullying and strong discrimination desensitized him to the need of expressing his anger. Whilst he didn’t think anger was a bad thing he grew up with Kacchan, and that was what changed his perception of the emotion somewhat. He didn’t hate or reject it, but he neither liked to express it. So, he usually shoved it down until he was ready to address it.

But reading those files managed to bring it out without him immediately shutting it off—why would he? What he read was atrocious! He vowed there and then that the commission would go down one way or another.

And well, that vow was the catalyst for his current predicament.

Golden eyes boring into him with a glint to them that screams curiosity.

See, Izuku is well aware of why he accepted the internship.

He just doesn’t know why Hawks offered him an internship. Tokoyami is explainable, he’s also a bird, so there are similarities. Plus, he did get third place in the festival, and has generally very well-rounded skills and is strong. Izuku doubts that Hawks really cared about getting him as an intern because he’s the first place-medalist of the festival. The winged hero doesn’t seem like someone who cares about rankings that much. To an extent, sure, but the hero is rather lax about rankings in general, no matter how much he speaks about them.

Being unaware of why Hawks wanted him as an intern could turn out very dangerous for Izuku.

Therefore, the first goal of this internship—find out what exactly Hawks wants with him.

Death Arms @Real_DeathArms

That quirkless kid never should have gotten that victory. Why has he been admitted to U.A.’s heroic course? It’s too dangerous…

1.5k replies 5k retweets 8.2k likes

    Impeckable Con Artist @Not_Actually_Hawks

    @Real_DeathArms Hero work is dangerous by nature, so that’s poor reasoning on your side. 

     9k replies 10.2k retweets 20.5k likes

        Death Arms @Real_DeathArms

       @Not_Actually_Hawks In general, it’s just not plausible for a quirkless person to fight against quirked people and win.

        934 replies 1.1k retweets 1.4k likes

            Impeckable Con Artist @Not_Actually_Hawks

            @Real_DeathArms You say that but he clearly won the whole festival and all his opponents had quirks. You’re not making much sense here.

             9k replies 9.8k retweets 20.1k likes

Kamui Woods @Kamui_Woods

@Not_Actually_Hawks Although I respect his victory, I admit I’m also concerned with that kid being in the hero course. 

 4k replies 6.5k retweets 15.3k likes

    Impeckable Con Artist @Not_Actually_Hawks

    @Kamui_Woods Literally, what reason do you have to be concerned? He’s doing fine.

     4.1k replies 10.3k retweets 12k likes

        Kamui Woods @Kamui_Woods

        @Not_Actually_Hawks Quirkless people are just underdeveloped, there’s not much else to it.

         3.7k replies 10k retweets 16.2k likes

Miruko’s Thighs @moonrabbit234

Is it just me or is Hawks literally arguing with, like, over 20 other heroes about the quirkless kid from the U.A. Sports Festival??

654 replies 1.4k retweets 3k likes

“Midoriya, are you alright?”

Izuku blinks before he turns to glance at his classmate. Tokoyami and Dark Shadow are staring at him with curiosity and concern.

“You were spacing out,” Dark Shadow chirps in, tilting their head. “Did something happen? Is Hawks’ presence making you uncomfortable?”

Tokoyami peeks up at that, nodding his head as he stares at him with even more intensity than before. “Tell us if he is. We’ll believe you.”

Izuku realizes, not for the first time, that he’s blessed to have Class 1-A.

Class 1-A, who look past his quirk status and see him for who he is, instead of who society tries to paint him as.

Class 1-A, who is always ready to defend him against anyone daring to insult him— against a reporter snaring a nasty comment towards him this morning, against a student in the hallways of U.A. trying to taunt him, against anyone who just dares to look at him wrong.

He is so blessed to have Uraraka, Iida, and Tsu who sit with him at lunch, telling cheerful anecdotes to see him smile.

To have Mina, Shouji, Ojiro, and Jirou who scoff and talk back at anyone that says something meanspirited towards him.

Tokoyami, who glares and tells off reporters for him.

Shouto, who always catches his glance and nods at him in reassurance.

Hitoshi, who holds his hand and glares at anyone who stares weirdly at him.

Aizawa-sensei, who simply understands and doesn’t treat him any differently than everyone else in the class.

He smiles at his classmates, eyes shining with warmth.

“Don’t worry,” he reassures his classmate, just as much Tokoyami reassures him, “Hawks is fine.”

Hawks is okay.

And he is—that’s the conclusion Izuku has come to after their first day with their hero.

Then he glances down at the screen of his phone, before handing it to Tokoyami and Dark Shadow who look at it.

Both smile in approval.

Impeckable Con Artist @Not_Actually_Hawks

@Kamui_Woods That’s a load of bullshit. The festival is obviously proof that Midoriya Izuku is doing better than a lot of people, including yourself. Consider yourself blacklisted from ever again working with me.

3k replies 30.5k retweets 42.7k likes