Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Inko is just 19.

But she feels so old. And so young.

It’s a strange feeling. She kind of hates it. She had thought 19 was so grown up. 

It’s not. It’s only two years older than 17 but the difference feels massive. 

19 was so grown up just a few days ago. 19 was looking for your own apartment. 19 was going to university. 19 was going on serious dates with the pretty boy from economics class with a face full of freckles. 19 was having a job interview, for an actual job, not minimum wage.

19 is helping plan a funeral.

19 is doing it yourself because eventually you realize your father is in too much shock, and your mother won’t stop crying.

19 is sick with grief.

19 is wanting to get rid of that stupid staff, and that stupid jacket, but not being able to part with it.

19 is dressed in black.

19 is hearing your brother died a hero.

19 is hating that word.

Hero

20 is getting married. Just as long as you don’t have to stay in that mausoleum of grief, taking care of three ghosts, not just one.

21 is realizing your son will never meet his uncle.

19 has Inko losing Oboro.

Izuku has always loved heroes. Ever since he was born. Every hero has endeared themself to him in some interesting, special, unique way. In the way they move, in the way they smile, in the way they laugh. In their mercy and in their ruthlessness. 

Izuku wants to be a hero.

Izuku wants to save people.

He has wanted to ever since he could understand what it meant. But first, he had to get his quirk.

He’s already almost 5. Just a few weeks away.

He’s been hearing a word thrown around, over his head, among the adults. Quirkless. His mother has denied the thought. His quirk will come in when it’s time.

When it’s time.

When it’s time, Izuku will stop Kacchan from falling from the tree in the Bakugo’s backyard. When it’s time, a branch will break, and a boy will fall. When it’s time, Izuku, standing next to the tree, will catch him. When it’s time, a cloud will catch the falling star.

When it’s time.

When it’s time, things will change between a mother and son. When he says with utter certainty, ‘I will be a hero. ’

Izuku sits on the roof, eating the bento he had made the night before. His history textbook sits in front of him. They have a test the next period and he wants to do some extra studying.

The door opens behind him, “Hey, Moya.”

His mouth is full, but he waves at the blond sitting next to him nonetheless. He quickly swallows, “Hey Kacchan.” 

Katsuki opens up his bag and pulls out a bento as well, adjusting the position of the textbook so both of them can see the page clearly.

After minutes of silence, and observing the chaos in the courtyard below them, Katsuki brings up, as delicately as he possibly can, “UA applications are due next week.”

Izuku rolls his eyes at the poor attempt at subtlety. “She’s never gonna sign that paper, you know.”

“She might if you ask.” Katsuki argues, “Come on, she never says no to you! You could ask for the moon and she would start working for JAXA!”

“Yeah, well, she’ll say no to this. She always does.” Izuku’s words effectively shut the conversation down, even as Katsuki fumes at not being listened to.

The blond looks down at the extras in the courtyard, passing meaningless nonsense between them. He contemplates things. Like the extras who worship the ground, he walks on. The classmates who would kill to be Katsuki’s right-hand man, his best friend. He thinks about the power he has over every person at this school. About the fact that if things had been different, he would have been different. He glances over at the shock of fluffy, cloud-like green next to him, and is thankful he is not.

Izuku is studying intensely next to him, keeping his eyes pointedly on the page. He takes a big bite of a sandwich and Katsuki sees his opportunity to speak.

“You sit her down.” He begins. Izuku glares at him but is unable to interrupt. “You lay out the facts. At UA, they have the best of the best. That means, obviously me, and you! You tell her how important it is to be a hero, especially since she loves me, and wouldn’t want me to go insane surrounded by mediocre extras without you. We show her some of the martial arts we’ve been working on! You bench press the couch to show how strong you are, and bing bang boom! You and I are eating lunch on the roof of UA for the next three years of our lives!” At some point, Katsuki’s semi-level instructions become louder and he ends his tirade with a few minor explosions.

Izuku swallows and glares at the other boy. If that look had been on anyone else, they wouldn’t have a face left to glare with. But Katsuki just reaches out and pokes Izuku in the forehead.

“Your plan is all well and good, but let’s face it, she’s never ever going to let me go,” Izuku states.

Katsuki flops backward, staring up at the cloudy, early March sky. “I know.” He whispers.

Izuku takes the bus home, like every day. He and Katsuki have different stops but take the same bus.

For the ten minutes, it takes when they are both on the bus they sit and people-watch. Izuku points out quirks, or even just little observations he has about people, and in turn, Katsuki makes fun of them. Izuku always scolds him, but sometimes Katsuki will say something funny, and Izuku will giggle a little.

He waves and steps off the bus. The walk is another 5 minutes. Slipping the key into the lock he enters his home and takes off his shoes, setting them on the mat. The house is empty when he arrives but he didn’t expect anything different. His mother works so much. For years already there has been a certain expectation that Izuku will make his own dinner unless told otherwise. That isn’t to say Inko never cooks, she does on weekends, and nights when she is home early.

He unpacks his school bag and sets his things out on the desk. Booting up his computer, he navigates the internet until he gets to UA’s website. The home page is bright and colorful, with pictures of some of the famous Pros that teach there. The standouts are Present Mic and Midnight, but there are plenty of them. He clicks on Applications and it brings him to a form to fill out.

Most kids got their applications on the first day it had gone up on the site. Every year there is a moment where the site almost crashes. It did a few years ago. But Izuku waited. He and Katsuki had filled the blonds out together, with the help of his parents.

But Izuku has to fill his out by himself.

He clicks all the boxes. Answer yes to all the questions. Fills out all the information, even some things that most kids don’t know, like medical history from when he was a baby. UA is nothing if not thorough. The last part of the form is where he stops. A little section for parental approval.

He heaves a great sigh and shuts the computer off. Glancing at the clock on his desk he decides to reheat some katsudon. As he watches the bowl turn in the microwave, he contemplates a lot of things.

For one, his uncle.

Uncle Oboro. Ghost, martyr, angel, hero.

Izuku remembers visiting his grandparents when he was very young. He had only just started to toddle around. Eyes hadn’t been on him for just a moment and wandered deeper into his grandparent's apartment.

The door to a room he had never been in was slightly ajar and he used his pudgy little hands to push it open the rest of the way. The room was a typical teenager's room, with posters of heroes, a comic book-style bedspread, action figures lining the shelves, and an old-school Nintendo. The only thing out of place was the shrine. In the middle of the room, Izuku saw a picture of a boy with wispy blue hair, smiling brightly at whoever was taking the photo. Little candles surrounded the picture, and a little plate of food had been left in front of it.

Before Izuku was able to explore any further, he had been swept up in his mother's arms and carried out of the room. They went home shortly after. Just a few months later, his grandmother went, followed quickly by his grandfather.

A little ping on his phone brought him out of his thoughts. He glances down at his phone on the counter.

Inko: Going to be later than usual, work emergency. I love you. You’ll probably be asleep when I get home, so sleep tight.

He shot back a quick text telling her had gotten dinner and would be fine. He pulls the katsudon from the microwave, careful not to burn his fingers.

The TV is put on a random channel and he zones out while eating.

He doesn’t know what possesses him to do it, but he sets the empty bowl down on the table and wanders to his mother’s room. Her room is exactly what you would think it would look like, with a plush rug, soft pillows, and many pictures of Izuku’s childhood present.

Like he’s on autopilot, he opens up the closet. He pulls the cord to shed light on little space. Past the dresses, and behind the various boxes and pieces of luggage, is a cardboard box. It’s damaged at the edges and looks like it’s been dropped a few times, based on the crumpling in the corners. There is no mystery about what’s in the box. Izuku has known for years. He and Katsuki had taken a peak in his mother’s closet out of curiosity when they were 8. He hadn't understood death in full, but he had understood when they opened the box, that its proper owner was long gone.

Inside is a brown jacket. He slips it out of the box and puts it on. It’s heavy on his shoulders, and the sleeves are too long on him. But it’s worn and comfortable. It smells like dust, but faintly of rain as well. He dips his hand into the left pocket and pulls out a pair of angular goggles, with clear glass to protect the eyes from the wind. The right pocket is empty, but Izuku is familiar with this jacket. He opens the inner pocket and pulls out the two photos kept safe there. The first is one of his mom and his uncle. They are younger than him, his mother is just ten in the picture, if he guesses right. It’s old and ripped at the edges. The second is more recent but still creased and damaged slightly. It’s of his uncle, around his age, sitting with two other people. One is a blond, grinning behind his shades, at Oboro. The other is a ravenette, tucking his face in a gray scarf as he pets an orange cat in between him and the blonde. The photo is candid and he has always wondered who took it.

The two photos in the jacket are the only photos he has of his uncle. He knows there were more, back at his grandparent's house. But the only one on the wall at home is the family portrait when Inko was just a toddler and Oboro was a newborn.

He realizes he let the time slip away from him when he hears a key slide into the front door. Shoving the goggles back into the pocket he shoves the jacket back in the box and puts it in the back corner of the closet, he just barely remembers to turn off the light as he slips out of his mother's room and into his own.

He hears his mother shuffling around, trying to be quiet. He realizes he should have been in bed hours ago, but had lost track of time. As the realization sticks him he glances down at his fully clothed body, only to see the two photos still in his hands.

Panic overwhelms him, he looks around the room frantically. The sound of his mother coming down the hall shocks him into action. He stuffs the photos under his pillow just as his mom opens the door.

“Izuku, you’re still up.” She says a little surprised.

“Yeah, I lost track of time. I was just headed to bed.” He rushes out.

She hums a little. “Izuku.”

“Yes?” His voice cracks at her slightly hard tone.

“You left the TV on again.”

“Oh, I’m, uh, I’m sorry, I’ll remember to turn it off next time.” He says quickly.

“Okay, good night.”

“Good night Mom.”

“Did you talk to her?”

“She was working late, I didn’t get the chance.”

Katsuki glares at him but doesn’t argue the statement.

The two of them go through the motions for the rest of the day. They get on the bus and sit together, like always. “You know you have to talk to her eventually.” Katsuki starts. “Even if she says no, but she won’t, Auntie Inko is a reasonable woman, she’ll listen.”

Izuku takes a deep breath, “Yeah, maybe…”

He hops off the train and heads home like always. When he opens the door he notices that his mother’s shoes are on the mat and her coat is hung up.

“Mom?”

He walks into the living room to see his mother sitting on the couch, with the two photos he had taken the night before. His mother never looks angry, but she looks furious when he walks in.

“You’re uh, home early?”

“I didn’t leave.” She gestures for him to sit down in one of the chairs across from the couch. “I noticed something missing and called out of work today. I turned the whole house upside down, and you’ll never guess where I found them.”

“Mom, I, I’m sorry- ”

“I thought we talked about this…”

His gut twists at his mother's voice. They had. They had talked about it on and off for years, ever since his quirk came in. She had indulged him for a while, assuming he would grow out of it. But he didn’t, and they argued. Eventually, he just stopped talking to her about it.

“We did but…” He thought about all the times he had spent at Katsuki’s house, with his parents supporting him entirely. Signing him up for a gym, and martial arts classes. His mother, for his entire life, has desperately tried to cover him in bubble wrap. “But I’m going to be a hero.”

Something in his voice must shake something loose in her because she stands up. “Fine, but if you’re going to be a hero, I can’t be here for it. My son won’t be a hero.”

She stalks away, and he hears her slip her shoes on and grab her coat, leaving the house.

Izuku sits there, stunned. She… doesn’t want him in her life?

His chest burns, and he’s not sure if it’s from sorrow or anger. His eyes brim with hot, angry tears as he stands up. He stomps through the house to his room and grabs the duffel bag at the back of his closet. Shoving clothing, his computer and the cord, two empty notebooks, and his pencil case. He leaves the duffel in the hallway. Grabbing the box from his mom's closet, he takes the jacket. He grabs some packaged food from the kitchen and throws it in the bag.

In just fifteen minutes he has packed up everything he needs. He sits on the couch with the duffel on the coffee table and the jacket on his shoulders. But he can’t seem to finally put his shoes on and leave the house.

Izuku loves his mother. And he knows his mother loves him. But her love is stifling. And he can’t let that love destroy his dream.

Moya: I’m coming over, have your window open.

Kacchan: Is something wrong?

Moya: We’ll talk when I get there.

He leaves his house key on the table and puts on his shoes. 

It’s late and the March air is frigid. 

He decides to walk instead of taking the bus. It takes about twenty minutes to get to the Bakugos. The lights are mostly off, but he sees Kacchan’s room light is on.

In their youth, the two of them sometimes snuck out when they had sleepovers. The Midoriya house is a simple, one-story house, easy to leave at night. The Bakugou house is a little more difficult, but they realized very early on that the trellis on the side of the house is stable enough to support their weight.

He climbs up easily and sees the window is cracked. He pushes it open and tumbles onto Katsuki’s bed. The blond is sitting at his desk, glaring at the greenette. He waves, “Hi.”

“What the fuck?”

“Yeah, good to see you too.” Izuku straightens himself out and sets his shoes near the door to Katsuki’s room, putting the duffel down next to them.

“What are you doing here!?” He hisses, careful to keep his voice low so as to not wake his parents.

“I, um, listen - ”

“Is that your uncle's jacket? And why the fuck do you have a duffel bag?”

“I’m running away.”

“Fucking what!?”

They spend nearly an hour going over his conversation with his mother. And his decision to leave after his mother’s hurtful words. They sit together on Katsuki’s floor for a while.

“Where are you gonna go?”

“I have some money left over from summer jobs and babysitting. I’ll get a full-time job, and finish the school year online.” He explains.

“What about UA?”

“Please, every time we went on a hero-related field trip I forged her signature. And you know I was taking a bunch of computer courses, I could probably fake whatever documents I would need from her.”

“You seem…  very unaffected by this. Way less than I thought you would be in a situation like this.”

“I may be in shock,” Izuku answers. “I was wondering if you would let me sleep on your floor tonight, I’ll be gone before your parents wake up.”

“This is fucking crazy.” Kacchan snarls.

Izuku turns to look at him straight on, “I am going to be a hero. If it’s the last thing I do. I can’t live my life afraid of my dreams.”

“Alright.”

Izuku takes a deep sigh of relief. He sleeps on his friend's floor, stealing all his blankets and pillows in the process. At some point early in the morning, Katsuki steps over Izuku and goes to the bathroom, he stands in the hall afterwards and debates knocking on his parent's door.

He steps back into his room, and Izuku is gone.

Izuku saved a lot of money, but an apartment would be expensive. He needs an actual job.

He leaves early when Kacchan goes to the bathroom. He hears his pause outside the door and knows there is a chance he talks to his parents, he can’t take that risk, so he opens the window and climbs the trellis down.

It’s Saturday morning, no one pays attention to a kid wandering around downtown. The first thing he does is buy a burner phone from a convenience store, right down some numbers from his cell phone, and then leave his cell in an alley. Then he sets himself up in an internet cafe and starts looking for apartments. He looks in run-down parts of town, for cheap one-bedroom apartments, knowing that’s all he can afford. Being a minor, he would need some refutable proof that he has permission from his guardian, but as he told Kacchan, he can fake a pretty convincing signature.

He also looks for jobs. He finds a few coffee shops, bookstores, fast food places, etc. He sends an application to all of them, hoping to hear back from any of them.

When packing, he had brought a blanket, and the weather was good enough that he could get away with sleeping on the street for a few nights, but eventually, he’d need somewhere proper to sleep. And to shower.

The gym at school has locker rooms with showers, but like he told Kacchan, he’ll finish school online. He didn’t think the teachers would care, but if they did and they realized he had run away from home they’d call his mom, and when she told them she didn’t want him back, they’d call the cops, and he does not need that kind of heat at the moment. Speaking of the school though, he set up a second email account, with his mother’s name, then emailed the school, telling them that 1, they could strike her previous email and phone number from the record and could reach her under the new email address and his burner phone number. And 2, that Izuku would be finishing the school year online.

He expects the teachers will be thrilled to have him out of their hair, they don’t dislike him, but he can tell they don’t like him either. He’s heard far too many times that he’s ‘too smart for his own good’, and ‘needs to learn to be quiet sometimes’. Everyone always acts like it’s a compliment, but their tone suggests otherwise. No teacher likes knowing their student is smarter than them. And for some reason, Izuku just can’t bring himself to keep his mouth shut when they make mistakes. So he has not endeared himself to them as well as he could have.

Oh well.

He charges his computer and phone at the cafe and stays until closing time. The barista at the counter gives him a weird look when after three hours he doesn’t leave, but he bought breakfast when he got there so they can’t really complain.

A knock on the table has him look up at the cafe, completely empty, with most of the tables wiped down and the chairs stacked neatly in the corner. He looks down at the time on his computer and realizes it’s closing time for the cafe. The barista doesn’t look upset that he held them up, more bemused.

Quickly shutting his laptop, he starts packing up. “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t realize I had been here for so long, I didn’t make you late, did I?”

“Nah, you’re good.”

They have shaggy, light brown hair with some streaks of blue and green, done in a wolf cut. They have on a baggy t-shirt with an apron over it and a flannel over the apron. They are only a few years older than Izuku, maybe in their last year of high school or first year of University.

He glances at their name tag, Chez. He leaves quickly and Chez cleans off his table.

He wanders through the city. The cafe closes at 7, and the city darkens quickly afterward. A park, halfway between his house and Kacchan, is where he settles for the night underneath a large elm tree.

Falling asleep, he wonders if his mother misses him.

Chapter Text

For the next few days, Izuku bounced between community centers, coffee shops, and internet cafes. Anywhere with wifi. He can only hope luck is on his side when it comes to finding an apartment. If he budgets right, he’ll have just enough for one month of rent while he figures out a job. He also really needed an apartment soon. It’s Friday. UA applications are due on Sunday at 5:00 pm sharp. If he doesn’t get his form in, he misses the deadline and everything he’s been through in the past week will have been for nothing.

While working on an English assignment a little ping showed up at the bottom of his screen. 

A response about one of the apartments he had applied to. He let out a sigh of relief. He didn’t have the apartment yet, but he was one step closer. The landlord was asking when he was able to come by and check out the apartment. Responding immediately, he told them he was open any time, and asked if they could meet today. They said yes, and decided they would meet at noon.

Feeling so happy he could cry, he looks up the bus route to the bad part of town where the apartment is and packs up his stuff. Waiting on the bus, he vibrates with excitement at the prospect of finally sleeping under his own roof again. So far he had slept in a park, an alley, and under a bench. It wasn’t pleasant.

The apartment complex is just outside the red light district. The building looks almost crumbling and the fire escape doesn’t look remotely safe but the main door to the building at least locks. A pot-bellied man waits for him. His face is round and tinted red, his hair is thinning and gray. He smells a bit like cigarettes and when Izuku approaches the man smiles, showing off slightly yellow teeth. 

He’s holding a clipboard and tapping a pen.

“Mr. Wacom?” Izuku asks.

“That’s me, you the one interested in the apartment?” He asks, his voice rough but not unkind.

“Yep.”

He looks Izuku up and down before narrowing his eyes. “You seem a little young to be renting, are you even 18?”

“You, um,” Come on Izuku you’ve rehearsed this, “No, I’m not 18, my mom is actually the one renting the apartment for me, technically. She and my dad are in Tokyo. I’m here for school.” 

Mr. Wacom grunts but unlocks the door to the apartment building. “If you move in you’ll get a key to the building and a key to your apartment. I’ll need them back when you leave. If you want an extra set you’ll need to pay for it. Rent is the first of the month, but I’m pretty flexible.” He leads Izuku to the elevator and presses UP. He can hear some faint music but thinks the speaker might be broken. “You can paint and decorate however you want, but if you paint the walls a ridiculous color, you gotta paint it back when you move out. I would recommend trying to keep it down. I don’t deal with noise complaints, but if you have a problem you can always take it up with whoever is being too loud.”

The elevator pings as they get to the 5th floor. The apartment isn’t all that tall, and Izuku chose an apartment on the top floor. In nicer buildings, a top-floor apartment would be pretty expensive, but in such a poorly maintained building, the top floor is more of a safety risk than anything else. But in case of emergency, Izuku can use one of his clouds to get down.

“Most of the other tenants are really nice as long as you don’t piss them off.” Mr Wacom took Izuku down the hall, stopping at a door labeled 5H, and unlocked it. 

The space is almost entirely empty. He can identify the little space next to the door as the kitchen area, and a door is left ajar that is clearly a bathroom. The only really interesting part of the apartment is the little loft area. A set of stairs leads up to it, and a large window looks out at the city from the loft area.

It looks altogether shabby and Izuku definitely spots a dead rat in one of the corners.

“I’ll take it.”

Mr Wacom claps his hands together and gives Izuku the paperwork. “I’ll give you this, you gotta get a guardian to sign it, but the place is yours. Rent is due on the first.” He hands Izuku a set of keys, labeled ‘building’ and ‘apartment’. “I’ll let you get settled in.”

The man leaves, and Izuku is left alone in his empty apartment.

He sets his sleeping bag up in the loft area, right next to the window, so he can see the street moving below him. The rest of the night is spent writing an email to Mr Wacom from his mom’s fake email account, a granola bar, and applying for more jobs.

The sun goes down and he closes his computer. Lying on his side he brings out the burner phone he had bought. In the week he had been away, he hadn’t called Katsuki. He feels bad about it, but in between finding a place to sleep at night and trying to dodge concerned people asking too many questions, he hadn’t had time.

hhey it’s izuku.

Kacchan texts back immediately.

hey

They pass texts back and forth for the rest of the night. Kacchan tells Izuku that his mom hasn’t put a missing persons report in, and his parents have not clued in that he’s gone, mainly because Inko hasn’t said anything, and Katsuki has been covering for him. Izuku tells him about the apartment and not much else. He doesn’t feel great about scaring Kacchan, given he knows the blond worries for him, even if he would deny it.

They say good night and Izuku puts his phone down, rolling onto his back to look up at the plain ceiling.

Izuku falls asleep in his empty little apartment, with the sounds of the red light district as his lullaby.

Chapter Text

The next day Izuku gets up and checks his emails. On his account, he gets confirmation that his UA application has been received and that he will be taking the entrance exam in one week. He breathes a sigh of relief, thankful for the confirmation. He had known he had done the application right, but there had still been a fear that there had been a mistake, or that they had called his mother for something and she had set the record straight. UA policy is to always start with an email unless it’s an emergency. Next, he checks the emails on his mother’s fake account. Mr Wacom had emailed ‘her’ back with confirmation that the lease was set up. Finally, he hears back from one of the many jobs he had applied for. A little cat cafe in desperate need of someone for the night shift, from 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm.

He begins packing up his sleeping bag before realizing he technically didn’t have to. He smiles at the thought and leaves it out. Switching into baggy jeans and a t-shirt, he emails the cat cafe back and asks how soon they’d be willing to do the interview.

In the end, they schedule for the next day. There's not much for Izuku to do, given he’s up to date on his school work and it’s the last week of school, so there are no new assignments. Pulling out his pile of clothing from the duffel bag he finds a pair of shorts, in the pocket is a single sock, inside the sock is a plastic baggy, and inside the baggy is all the money that Izuku took with him. He pulls the bag out and spreads the money out. Rent is 50000 yen, he’s got 70000 in total, leaving 20000 left over after rent.

He glances down over the edge of the loft at the empty apartment.

Furniture shopping it is.

Izuku and his mother never had a lot of money when he was growing up, his dad’s child support was usually spent on rent and bills. They had always been thrifty. In his mother's house they cut their own hair, always ate their leftovers the next day, took care of breaks and replaced appliances themselves, and very rarely bought anything new. So Izuku is very familiar with thrift shops.

He looks up at the closest one and heads out, remembering to lock the door behind him. The store is close enough to walk, and the day is pleasant enough given it’s mid-March.

The thrift store is busy when he gets there, and he heads over to the furniture section. Some of the furniture is better off than others, but Izuku spots some that he likes.

At home his mother was always looking for something simple, but modern. Izuku never told her, but he had always felt the decor a little boring. He’s a fan of color and variety, his mother is not. It was never worth it to argue with her, given he was allowed to decorate his room how he liked, but his mother used to say his room looked a bit like a rainbow dressed in hero merch had thrown up all over it.

Huh, it had never occurred to him how much that observation had hurt his feelings until now. Deciding to shrug off the uncomfortable thought he continues looking for things for his apartment.  In the end, he finds a squat, russet couch, an armchair the color of basil, a little wooden coffee table, and a set of standing lamps that look like jellyfish, among other things.

At some point, he asked one of the employees if he was able to place the couch on hold and come back later. She says yes, and offers to let him borrow a push trolley that they have at the store, he accepts and thanks her profusely. 

He takes the rest of his things home, leaving the couch for later. When he gets back to his apartment he realizes that he can’t get them up the stairwell himself, and the elevator will be too small to get the furniture up to his apartment.

Thinking about this problem outside his apartment building, he spots an older woman come out of the building next to him and pull out a cigarette. She pats down her pockets but soon realizes that her lighter isn’t there. She sighs and snaps her fingers and the end of the cigarette and it lights.

Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen a single cop or hero patrol the area he was in. It made sense in a kind of upsetting way, given that he was just outside the red-light district. Simply put, if he was quick about it, he could probably use his quirk to get the furniture up to his window and get it in through that.

He glanced around, but the smoking woman had already gone inside, and only a few people were milling around. Taking a deep breath and holding it in his lungs, he kneels down and blows the air out under the cart. The breath he blows takes shape and puffs up to look something like a mattress made of cotton. Poking at it, he confirms it’s solid and hops on, focusing on where he wanted the cloud to go. Which wasn’t hard, really, considering clouds want to go up. He kept his ascent as steady as possible and stopped when he reached his window. He's for once thankful he didn't bother to lock his window, and pushes it open, directing his cloud inside and finally letting it dissipate.

His things clatter as they hit the floor. As soon as his butt hits the ground he lies down, flat on the cool floor. The furniture weighs probably more than his usual upper limit.

Before he lets himself fully pass out from quirk exhaustion, he sends a quick text to Kacchan, telling him to meet at the thrift store, to help Izuku move his couch. He gets a confirmation, then promptly passes out.

He wakes up just in time to meet Kacchan at the thrift store. He gets there just as the blond is about to call and ask where he is.

“Hi, sorry I’m late.”

“It’s fine,” Kacchan huffs, but still pulls Izuku into a quick hug, before promptly releasing him and the two of them head into the store.

Izuku finds the store worker he had talked to earlier and pays for the couch. Izuku takes one end and Kacchan takes the other. The walk back to his apartment isn’t too long, and the couch is light enough with another set of hands. Together they maneuver the couch up the narrow stairwell, and into Izuku’s apartment.

When they set it down Kacchan has a chance to look around at the space. “This looks like shit.”

“I’m well aware.” Izuku snorts.

Kacchan shrugs and pulls the backpack Izuku hadn’t even noticed off his shoulders and opens it. Inside are some household things that Izuku didn’t even think to get. A pot, a frying pan, a stack of plates, a plastic baggy of utensils, a couple of bowls, cups, dish soap, a washcloth, a box of garbage bags, two towels, toilet paper, a new toothbrush, and toothpaste. Finally, he also pulled out a bag of takeout.

“How did you fit all that in there!?” Izuku squeaks.

Kacchan rolls his eyes, “I knew you wouldn’t have any actual necessities, so I brought some stuff from my house, to get you started.” He said, not really answering his question.

Izuku snorts.

“Come on, we’ll eat, then put some of this away.” Katsuki opens the bag and sets out the food. He opens the bag of utensils and pulls out a fork for each of them.

They sit on the floor across from each other, eating takeout and talking about the UA entrance exam.

Chapter Text

The next day Izuku wakes up bright and early. He has an interview with the cat cafe at 1, but not much to do before that. He puts away all the necessities that Katsuki had brought the night before, and moves the furniture around, trying to find the right positions for everything. He moves the couch and coffee table to the corner under the stairs and puts one of the jellyfish lamps at one end. He pushes the armchair into the last corner, not occupied by the kitchenette, the door, or the couch, he puts the other jellyfish lamp beside the chair.

He realizes he still doesn’t have a bed or anything to go on the walls. The apartment looks minimal, at best. He decides to head to a thrift store and find some other things.

At the store, he finds some cute pillows, one that looks like a daisy, a cherry blossom, and a yellow mushroom. He also finds a mirror that is held in a frame of lily pads. He buys them and takes them back home.

The mirror is hung up over the couch, and the pillows are laid on the couch.

Checking the time he decides to walk over to the cafe he’s interviewing at. It’s still within walking distance of his apartment, but definitely in the direction of the nicer homes and apartments.

The cafe is small, the sitting area only a little bigger than his apartment, with pale yellow walls, and second-hand furniture.

Cats mile around, with collars around their necks, color-coded to tell the patrons if they are a girl or boy. The place is pretty busy, considering it’s just around lunch. 

Izuku heads to the counter. The barista working is a pretty young lady, probably around university age, with brown skin and snow-white hair done in braids. She has freckles in the same shade as her hair and a sleeve tattoo in the same shade. Her cropped button-up is covered in strawberries, and her red pants go high on her waist. Izuku almost feels insecure about the cargo pants, and the t-shirt that says ‘pants’, he stands in. But she just smiles her pale rose pink lips at him and asks what he would like.

“Oh, um, I’m here for an interview.” He says quickly.

“Izuku, right?” She asks.

He nods.

“Right, stay right there.” She heads into the back and calls for someone. A moment later she comes back out, followed by an older man, his temples touched with gray, and deep smile lines.

“Hi, I’m Botan Sazuki, you must be Izuku Midoriya?” He says.

Izuku nods once again and shakes the man's outstretched hand. His handshake is firm and he leads Izuku to a table in the corner.

Izuku doesn’t really remember much of the interview, too busy trying not to freak out, but he thinks it goes okay. After 30 minutes of talking, Mr Sazuki stands and shakes Izuku’s hand once again, before telling Izuku they’ll be in touch. He offers him a pastry and drink of his choice from the menu. Izuku chooses a blueberry muffin and matcha tea.

He hangs out after the interview for a little bit, enjoying his food and drink. After his snack has been consumed, he heads home.

Looking at his stash of food that he took, he realizes he’ll soon need to go grocery shopping, unable to live off of protein bars, and packaged snacks forever.

Though he decides to hold off until he hears back from Mr Sazuki, needing to know if he’ll have a job to pay for those groceries.

He lays down on his couch and makes a mental list of things he still needs to get for his place, along with his preparation for the UA entrance exam. A sudden pain, like a migraine, shoots through his head and his hands shoot to his forehead.

Where he should feel his bangs falling lightly down his face, he feels nothing. Bolting up he looks in his new mirror and is shocked at what he finds.

He had seen photos of his uncle, with his hair standing on end, floating with some invisible force. Izuku had always been told that his hair often defied gravity, but at the moment, that observation is more fact than hyperbole.

He pokes at the wisps of hair standing on their own.

Well, that’s new.

Chapter Text

His hair goes back to normal after a minute, and he decides, like with all difficult things in the past week, to simply ignore it. A skill he learned courtesy of his mother.

The next morning is Monday, and Izuku doesn’t know what he wants to do. School ends on Friday, but all his assignments are done.

Deciding he can’t exactly sit in his apartment all day, he decides to get up and explore his new neighborhood. He slips on his jacket  his uncle's jacket, and heads out. Where he and his mom lived was a much nicer part of town, with suburbs adjacent. The place he’s in now is nothing like that. As he walks, litter covers the street and he passes more than a few homeless people.

Something in his heart twists at not being able to help them. Before he can wallow too much in the thought though, he arrives at a beach, right at the edge of town. It’s covered in trash and broken appliances. He looks around but sees no one. No garbage people cleaning it, no volunteers with bags, no one doing community service. Nothing.

He supposes that tracks, given no one really cares about this part of town. 

Someone should do something about this!

Wait a minute. I’m someone!

It takes him an embarrassing moment to realize he is just standing there, not cleaning up. When he was a child he was always so indignant about cleaning up messes that weren’t his, until one of the teachers reminded him that that’s what heroes do. They clean up messes.

It’s not a villain to fight, but it’s something. Something that needs to be done. And he doesn’t see anyone else doing it. Nodding to himself he walks onto the sand and grabs a loose grocery bag that had been softly floating in the wind. Rolling up his sleeves, he starts grabbing pieces of trash and filling the bag.

It’s a tiring two hours, and he only makes a small dent, but he smiles at the chunk of clear sand he can see.

He also finds something very interesting. An almost entirely intact microwave. The only thing wrong with it is the hinge. He can’t help but think about how wasteful it is but tucks it under his arm and walks back to his apartment.

Among the various items that Kacchan brought him was a screwdriver. He figures it can’t be too difficult to fix the hinge.

Settling down on his couch with the microwave in front of him and a video telling him what to do playing on his laptop, he sets to work.

It takes a couple of tries and he contemplates giving up, but he eventually gets it and the door closes with a satisfying click. He laughs in triumph and sets it on his kitchen counter, after cleaning it with some of the dish soap Kacchan also brought.

A little buzz in his pocket catches his attention. Opening up the little burner phone, he sees an email from Mr Sazuki.

Reading quickly he squeals and does a happy little dance. He got the job! And he starts the next day!

He goes to sleep that night excited to start the next day. And excited to finally have money to buy food with.

The next couple of days are pretty mundane, but Izuku is overjoyed when he sees his first paycheck, it’s not a lot but he’ll be able to pay rent. And buy food. Kacchan had been very insistent they had to go grocery shopping. There was a variety of disagreements about what constitutes a meal, but in the end, the blond did get Izuku to buy some vegetables, with the promise to actually eat them.

He goes to the beach when he can, usually after work if he’s not too tired. He takes garbage bags from work, but no one seems to notice, or care. He finds a few useful things, including a mattress. He takes it up to the roof of his apartment and uses a mixture of dish soap, baking soda, and hydrogen peroxide to clean the mattress since mixing chemicals inside his apartment sounds like a bad idea.

He works every day for as many hours as possible, doing overtime and taking other people's shifts. Until Sunday. UA’s entrance exam is notoriously hard. The written exam changes every year, as goes the practical. Izuku is confident in his knowledge for the written exam but has no idea what to do for the practical. The written exam can be studied for, the practical, not so much.

In the time not spent at work, he and Kacchan trained. They had been training since they were children, but their spars and workouts only doubled in the week preceding the exam. He had no doubt Kacchan would pass. He didn’t have the same confidence in himself.

‘Explosion’ is overtly offensive, but has a variety of uses that Kacchan has discovered over the years. ‘Cloud’, less so.

The application of his quirk is interesting, he can produce a variety of different kinds of ‘air’. Though air is a loose term in this context. All throughout his life, he had played with the way he could use and produce his clouds, including what kind of air he could make. Solid clouds strong enough to carry multiple people, dense fog or mist, smoke, ect. All of it can be produced through a simple breath. It’s a good quirk, but not necessarily one made for a hero.

But his uncle could do it. So can he.

The exam rolls around and Izuku is up at 5:00 am sharp. The exam doesn’t start until 9:00, but he wanted to get a jump on the day. He goes for a run, takes a shower, makes breakfast, gets dressed, texts Kacchan, and that only gets him to 7:00.

He and Katsuki meet at the train station at 7:45, wanting to get to UA as early as possible.

They get there and they're not the only ones with an early arrival in mind. They spot a bunch of other kids their age, stretching, studying, and talking to one another.

“That’s a lot of people and the exam doesn’t start for another hour,” Izuku whispers to Katsuki as they enter the grounds. The doors to the school are still closed, but a registration table is set up right at the entrance, they both sign in and are given slips of paper with their groups.

“Yeah, and we’re gonna kick their asses,” Katsuki assures him. “Don’t even worry about it, their chumps, and we’re gonna be the best heroes this school has ever seen, Moya.”

He smiles at the blond and they sit in the shade of a tree. Katsuki shares a bento his mom put together and they wait for the doors to open.

Students trickle in before coming in waves. Soon the courtyard is full of students, some talking excitedly to their fellow examanies, others glaring at their competition.

Izuku might have liked to talk to them, but the general aura of death Katsuki gives off is a bit of a deterrent to anyone who might want to talk to him.

At 9:00 sharp the doors open and groups are called in every five minutes. Katsuki’s group is called, then Izuku’s 15 minutes later. He’s kind of glad they’re not in the same group, he’d be too distracted worrying about Kacchan to focus. He knows he shouldn’t worry, but he can’t exactly help the clawing anxiety.

He shuffles along with his group to a classroom on the second floor, where a woman with dark orange hair sits at the desk. The room looks like an art room, but all the projects have been moved out, probably to make space and not distract any of the students. After everyone settles in their seats she smiles at them.

“Hi everybody.” She greets, standing and beginning to hand out sealed test packets. “Please don’t open your packets until I say so. My name is Ms Asha, I’m a third year economics teacher here. The exam covers a wide range of subjects, including literature, history, math, science, English, etc. If you are unsure of a question, don’t linger too long on it, answer what you know, then work on what you don’t. Don’t leave anything blank, even if you’re not a hundred percent sure, guess. There is always a chance you’re right.”

“You may begin.”

The room fills with the sound of the seal on the packets breaking and people immediately begin to read through questions and start writing.

The easiest questions are literature, math, and English. Before his parents got divorced, Izuku and his mom would see his dad in America. Over the multiple visits, he became mostly fluent and has still kept up his practice with the language.

The exam takes an hour and a half. He lands in the middle of the pack in terms of finish time. When he hands his paper to Ms Asha, she hands him a paper, the back side is a map, and the other side is instructions. Including instructions on how to get to the cafeteria, where there is a free lunch. He thanks her with a nod and exits the room silently. He passes other exam takers headed to the cafeteria. Some look confident, others look as nervous as Izuku feels.

When he gets to the cafeteria his eyes immediately zero in on a head of spiky blond hair. Kacchan is focused on his food, so Izuku goes to the counter, where a large buffet of food is set out, with little note cards telling people what it is and the ingredients.

He grabs sushi, tempura, and curry. Heading over to Kacchan he spots several people with interesting mutations or little peculiarities, that could be the result of a quirk, or simply something superficial. He sits next to Kacchan.

Without looking up, he asks, “How’d it go?”

Izuku picks up a piece of sushi with his chopsticks and dips it in soy sauce. “I think it went okay, English was easy, the science section had some hard questions but I think I got it.”

They discuss the exam and what the practical might bring. The cafeteria continues to fill with students, the sound reaching an almost unbearable volume. Izuku and Katsuki had had the table to themselves, mostly because Kacchan kept scaring off anyone who came near, but eventually theirs was the only table left and Katsuki relented to have some company, though he refused to speak to any of the students. Izuku did though, chatting and asking about quirks.

Soon enough the cafeteria runs out of chairs, people gather in big clumps in between the tables, it becomes impossible to walk without bumping into someone.

A sharp whistle cuts off the noise and the attention is on a man standing on a chair, so everyone can see him. His large beige coat and unsettling mask make him instantly recognizable. Ectoplasm reaches down and someone hands him a mega phone.

“Hello, future UA students.” His voice booms over them, and Izuku can’t help but wonder why they didn’t have Present Mic do this. “I hope you have enjoyed your lunch, but it is time to continue onto the practical portion of the exam. Please follow the map you were given to the auditorium, then find a seat. If you are at any point lost or unsure where to go, please try and find an adult who can help you. Any student not in the auditorium for the orientation will be disqualified from the exam. Good luck.” He steps down and leaves the room.

The cafeteria erupts into movement. Students shove food into their mouths and dump their trays in the bins around the edge of the room. The halls fill with a wave of students trying to move past one another to get to the auditorium first.

Kacchan also moves to run, but Izuku puts a hand on his shoulder. “I think they might be doing this on purpose.”

“What?”

“The halls are big, but not big enough for this many students. They might be trying to see who will panic. Who will lose focus in the chaos? You need to be able to see clearly in a panic to be an effective hero.” Izuku explains as he finishes off his tempura.

“‘They’?” Katsuki asks.

Izuku points to one of the corners, in which Katsuki sees a camera, with a blinking red light. “They’re watching us. Nezu, the staff.”

“Shit.”

“It’s fine, we just gotta show them we’re calm. We can’t panic.” Izuku stacks his and Katsuki’s trays and takes them to the little drop-off counter, even grabbing the trays students had left carelessly lying around in their rush.

Katsuki sees that he’s right. The doorway out is swarmed with students trying to push past each other.

“They’re letting us go buck wild to see who will resort to pushing down other students.” Katsuki realizes.

“Yeah,” Izuku grabs the paper Ms Asha handed him. “Plus there's an itinerary. We don’t have to be at the auditorium by 1:30. It’s only 1:00. They’re seeing who will remember the important information they’ve been given even when panicking.”

“This is more complicated than it needs to be, like something you’d do.” Kacchan scoffs.

Izuku rolls his eyes. “Well, I’d imagine Principal Nezu is the one that put this all together, and not many people can hope to understand the inner workings of his brilliant mind.”

Somewhere, across campus, in a private viewing room, a rat is cackling.

Chapter Text

One of Shota’s least favorite days of the year is exam day. And the absolute agony that comes after. Many people think he’s demented, that he takes joy in shutting down people’s dreams, telling them they’ll never be a hero, but that’s not true. He is honest. And he doesn’t teach people without potential. No matter how much they try to make training like real life, it will never be exact. Every student goes through a hard transitory phase when they graduate, but they have the potential to survive. Some don’t, so Shota doesn’t teach them.

How cruel could someone be, to put a child into the line of fire when they know they're not going to make it out.

He gets to the school, bright and early. Hizashi picks him up, of course. Shota is a bit of an erratic driver, so Hizashi always drives. It’s nice. 15 minutes of Hizashi chattering on about his radio station, his interesting and goofy interns, what he plans for the day, and what he’s thinking for dinner, while Shota listens quietly, letting his voice wash over him like a healing balm. They’ve been dating since their twenties. Really, it was Nemuri who got them together. She got them out of their own way, and he’s always been thankful for that.

They get there a little after 7, before any students, and head to a viewing room, in the administrative office. The room is loaded with comfy chairs, bean bags, snacks, drinks, and an ungodly amount of office supplies. Already the first year teachers are gathered, getting supplies together and talking about the exam. Nemuri seems to have even brought a board game, that she is currently losing to Snipe and Cementoss. Nezu has set himself up on a comfortable little armchair, that Shota is sure he will eventually trade in for just burrowing in Shota’s scarf. The rest of the teachers are picking at the food and already writing notes on the files they have spread out in front of them, already covering the large conference room table.

A giant TV, with camera feeds all around the school are also set up, waiting to spy on the kids. Shota doesn’t love spying on them, but it has admittedly come in handy in weeding out candidates who are too violent, or cruel.

He spots a pair of fluffy red wings in the corner and wanders over, while Hizashi waits for the next round of Monopoly.

“What are you doing here?” Shota asks.

Hawks is slouched in a bean bag chair in the corner, with a clipboard in hand, and thick sunglasses over his eyes.

“Man, let’s not be so loud, it’s 7 in the morning…” Hawks groans, rubbing at his forehead.

“Hung over?”

“Always.”

“Hawks, I would say that’s unprofessional, but I’m not All Might.” Shota sighs.

“Yeah, he’s over there debating whether anyone will notice if he takes another cupcake.” Hawks gestures to the other side of the room lazily with his clipboard, to All Might, who is in fact milling around the snack table.

“We’ll notice, I don’t think anyone would care though.” Shota pushes a bean bag chair next to Hawks and sits down, sinking to the floor.

“Eh, when you’ve been in the public every day of your life for 30 years, you think everyone is watching what you do.” Hawks mumbles.

“Mm, maybe,” Shota turns his head, “seriously though, what are you doing here?”

“You know what I’m doing here.”

“They didn’t send Merra?” Shota asks.

“Got him doing something else at the moment,” Hawks sighs, mumbling, “Guess that’s why they have a dancing monkey for these kinds of things.”

“See anyone worth scouting so far?” Shota asks, looking at the empty screens.

“Nah,” Hawks says, “I think this year we might come up empty on recruits, too bad. There’s always next year's bunch.”

“Hm, bad luck.”

“Yeah, now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get a little shut eye before we watch some kids get the shit beat out of them by robots.” Hawks drops the clipboard to the ground and throws an arm over his eyes.

Shota nods and leaves his bean bag chair, going to the long conference table and grabbing some files to go through, looking at the candidates and their quirks.

There are so many of them, by the time of the written exam, he’s only gotten through a 7th of the files. As students start arriving, teachers put away their games and find seats, all with clipboards, notebooks,  paper, and, pencils and pens. The courtyard fills with students, then the classrooms. There’s not much to see during the written portion, but it is always good to watch.

Shota’s eyes rove over all the students, trying to take in everything about them. Every year they catch at least 5 kids trying to cheat. The camera’s help, giving them different angels. Once or twice, Nezu will catch someone cheating in a particularly ingenuitive way and take them under his wing, but only so often.

Students begin to trickle out and the teachers are able to see how they act in the cafeteria. It tells them a surprising amount, if they sit away from their fellow examanies, or if they try to make friends. When Ectoplasm makes his announcement, the same thing that always happens, happens. Chaos erupts, and everyone disregards all prior knowledge, etiquette, or kindness in favor of trampling each other. 

A pair at the back of the cafeteria does catch his, and several other eyes. One blond, and one green haired boy, sitting together. The blond goes to follow the crowd, and the vicious expression on his face tells Shota he would have flattened the crowd. His green haired friend grabs his arm and sets him down. His green haired friend is strickenly familiar, but he can’t place it.

“Can we get volume on them?” Nemuri asks.

Once again, Shota protests the use of spy equipment on students, but it does sometimes come in handy. It’s a little hard to hear over the noise but they can still make out the words. 

“‘They’?” 

“They’re watching us. Nezu, the staff.”

“Shit.”

“It’s fine, we just gotta show them we’re calm. We can’t panic.” 

“They’re letting us go buck wild to see who will resort to pushing down other students.” 

“Yeah,” 

“Plus there's an itinerary. We don’t have to be at the auditorium by 1:30. It’s only 1:00. They’re seeing who will remember the important information they’ve been given even when panicking.”

“This is more complicated than it needs to be, like something you’d do.” 

“Well, I’d imagine Principal Nezu is the one that put this all together, and not many people can hope to understand the inner workings of his brilliant mind.”

“Oh, whoa.” Snipe gasps.

Nezu immediately lets out a cackle, “Who has the file on the little green one!?”

They scramble to find it before Ectoplasm finally tosses it to Nezu. He opens it, and his grin only becomes wider. “Excellent, his name is Izuku Midoriya, Aldera Junior High.” Once again the name is vaguely familiar.

Shota tries to look at the file, but Nezu shuts it before he can look. He glares but doesn’t argue Nezu’s action. “And the other one?”

“I have it!” Nemuri says, “Bakugo Katsuki, same middle school.”

“Interesting, very interesting.” Nezu taps his paws together.

Shota hears a groan from in the corner, glancing over to see Hawks looking at Nezu with a strange mixture of fear and annoyance. “You can feel the headache this is gonna cause?”

The blond just nods miserably and goes back to pretending to be asleep.

Chapter Text

Mic leaves the room to start the practical exam.

That Midoriya kid apparently mumbles, not that Shota could make it out from the audio on screen,  but Tensei’s little brother hears, scolding him, then attempting to correct Mic’s presentation. Once again, the blond moves to stand, Shota spotting little sparks dancing on his palms, but Midorya pulls him back down into his seat. Bakugo glares but stays silent and the presentation continues.

The boys are split up in different groups. Shota was kind of hoping to see if their dynamic translated into combat. Oh well.

The screens get split up, giving them multiple views of the fake city, preparing for the first group of students. When Mic yells Go, some move immediately, some hesitate, some even try to trip up their fellow competitors. Those ones are immediately taken out of the running. They watch as students begin trying to tear apart as many robots as possible. They run through the city, Shota spotting Tensei’s brother and Midoriya before losing them in the chaos.

Izuku runs, grabbing a pipe on his way into the city. He and Kacchan had been training with bo staffs at one point. Kacchan didn’t like it, he was more of a brawler any way, but Izuku enjoyed the weapon. He was hoping to get one for his hero costume when he got into UA. When. 

He uses his clouds to help him get up to where the robots' eyes are, clearly the most vulnerable parts of them. He works through them with deadly efficiency. He tries his best to focus just on the robots, but then he starts seeing people faltering, becoming exhausted from the fighting. Some students are knocked so hard out of the way that he’s worried they might lose consciousness. He can’t stop himself from going towards them, dragging them out of the way, to lean up against the buildings. He leaves them quicker than he might want, but does leave them with bandages from his pockets.

It’s just nearing the end of the exam when the ground shakes and a shape rises over the buildings.

“Zero pointer!” Someone shouts. People scramble to get away. Izuku is about to do the same when he hears a shout.

He spots a girl with chestnut hair cut in a bob. Her leg seems to be stuck under some rubble, and she looks sick to her stomach, her pretty face tinted green.

He looks at the crowd of students rushing away from the robot, then back at the girl. Without anymore hesitation, he turns back for her.

Some part of his mind, that sounds a bit like his mother, tells him You’re gonna get crushed, is this stranger really worth it? Put your own safety first, she’ll be fine.

He pushes it away. He runs, the zero pointer getting closer and closer. Even as he sprints, he knows he won’t get there in time to get the rubble off her and get them both out of the way.

The hulking body of the robot is going to crush her. Crush both of them if he doesn’t stop running.

He doesn’t stop running.

He slides in front of her on his knees. The thing brings down its mechanical arm, only to be met with solid cloud cover.

Nezu had been reaching for the controls for the zero pointer when it happened.

Shota had Uraraka’s file in hand, worried Nezu wouldn’t be able to deactivate the robot in time, when he spotted Midoriya running towards her. He still didn’t know his quirk, but given his observation with the cameras and what Nezu was trying to do, starting a panic, Shota didn’t think the boy is stupid enough to run in there if he couldn't stop the thing.

He slides to his knees and Shota leans forward in his seat, waiting to see what he does.

Midoriya’s hair floats in a gravity defying sort of way, like Shota’s does when he uses his quirk, and then clouds explode from his mouth. It looks like he’s screaming, but the noise is all coming out as solid, fluffy clouds that surround the zero pointer. 

His arms stretch out and he holds the clouds on his back, the weight of the giant metal monstrosity bearing down on him. Shota stares at him and thinks about Atlas holding up the sky.

In Nezu’s hast to grab the controls for the zero pointer, he had left Midoriya’s file on the table. Before anyone else can react, Shota snatches up the file and opens it.

Quirk: Cloud

Family Connection: Uncle, Shirokumo Oboro.

Chapter Text

When Izuku wakes up, his shoulders and hands hurt so bad he almost screams. As soon as he opens his eyes though, his arms are full of a brunette girl.

“Thank you so much! You saved my life!” She says.

“Miss Uraraka, please, let the poor boy breathe.” A stern voice tells her.

She backs up and Izuku sees her clearly as the girl that was stuck under the rubble. Next to her is a squat old woman with a cane that looks like a syringe. “Oh my god, Recovery Girl!” He chokes out in his shock and excitement.

“Take a breath deary, you had quite an interesting exam.” She says.

It all comes flooding back to him and he sits bolt upright, his pain forgotten quickly. “Are you alright!?”

The girl, Uraraka, nods. “Thanks to you! I was trapped and had overused my quirk. You saved me!”

“I did?” When he was running in there, he wasn’t really thinking, just trying to buy her some time to pull herself free or have someone else save her. 

“You did,” Recovery Girl confirms, “You were very brave, and very stupid.” She tacks on the last part before Izuku can get a big head about it. “The exam is over, Miss Uraraka here just wanted to stay to make sure you’re alright.”

“Oh, thank you.” He says, unsure of what to say.

“It’s alright! I just wanted to thank you.” She glances at the clock and begins rushing for the door. She calls over her shoulder, “It was really nice meeting you, I’d love to stay and talk, but I’m about to miss my train!” She turns the corner so fast Izuku barely has a chance to wave goodbye.

“I called your emergency contact, but it went to voicemail. Do you want us to call again for a drive home?”

“No!” Recovery Girl startles at his outburst, but he quickly recollects himself, “No, she’s still at work, I can get a ride on the train.”

“Right,” She hands him a little bag of gummies, “for the quirk of exhaustion. It’ll help.”

“Oh, thank you.” He smiles gratefully at her and hops off the bed, grabbing his things. Leaving UA feels weird. It might be the last time he ever sets foot on the school’s grounds. He hopes it’s not, but can’t be sure, and there’s not much to do about it now.

He takes the train, texting with Kacchan, asking how his exam went. When he tells the blond about the end of his, he is immediately scolded for his recklessness. Smiling at the barrage of texts telling him he’s an idiot he hops off the train and starts walking. The sun has gone down by the time he gets to his part of town. The street lights flicker on and people begin filling the bars and clubs, spilling out into the street. He does his best to ignore it.

He is quite adaptable, like his clouds. He’s learned not to listen too closely to the sounds of hedonism, or not look too closely at the not too subtle deals going on in the dark. Of course, as a hero he would arrest the dealers and buyers, but it’s best that he just stay out of it all, for now.

A sound, just a few blocks from his apartment, does break through the noise. It sounds like crying. He can just see the top of his apartment building. So close.

He groans and turns into the alley. The alley is dark, much too dark to see. But he sees a set of yellowish eyes looking at him, the pupils slited. They shine in the dark, like tapetum lucidum. The eyes narrow as they lock with his and a sharp hiss fills the alley. He takes a breath. Just a cat. He sets his bag down and gets low to the ground, keeping his hands out and palms up.

“Hey, it’s okay, I’m not gonna hurt you…” He says soothingly, inching closer. A car passes on the street and the headlights illuminate the alleyway. A shaft of light falls on the cat.

And…  that is not a cat!

He tries to keep himself steady, the shock almost making him lose his balance. A girl, about his age, crouches over the body of an older man in a business suit, his white shirt covered in blood. Her mouth and chin are dripping with blood, her clothes and hands stained with it as well. Her blond hair falls around her face and shoulders in disarray, dirt streaked through it. She bares her teeth and growls at him, revealing blood stained teeth and sharp canines. 

“Whoa.” He breathes out. The car passes and the light goes out. For a second nothing happens then she pounces on him. She tackles him to the ground, pinning his arms to the ground above his head and perching on his chest, peering down at him with her glow in the dark eyes. He stays very still for a while before she releases one of his hands, bringing her free hand to his hair, gripping the green strands and turning his head left, then right very slowly.

With his now free hand, he slowly reaches out and touches her blood soaked chin. She stiffens, but lets him wipe away some of the still wet off her. Most of the blood is dry but his hand still comes away with blood.

She lets go of his other arm, but does stay perched above him. “Hi.” She whispers.

“Hi.” He smiles at her and she smiles back down at him.

A piece of gravel digs into his spine and she mist sees the discomfort on his face, because she delicately steps off him, and helps him up. Standing at her full height, she’s just a bit shorter than him. She watches him as he grabs his bag. Glancing behind her quickly, he breathes a sigh of relief at the mans still moving chest.

He steps out of the alley, looking back at her. She stands mostly in shadow, but he can see her eyes watching him intently. He reaches out a bloody hand. She slips her hand into his and skips alongside him to his apartment.

She perches on his kitchen counter, still covered in blood, peering down at him as he makes her a sandwich. Watching him intently she leans close to sniff at the bread and at the condiments. He hands her the sandwich when it's done and she tears it apart quickly, holding it close, like it’s going to be taken away.

Izuku waits for her to finish and lick her fingers. Reaching his out, she takes it and hops off the counter, letting herself be led to the cramped little bathroom. She sits on the closed toilet and he fills the little tub with warm water. “For me?”

He settles at the sound of her voice, not expecting it. “Um yeah, I can’t imagine all that blood is comfortable.”

She picks a little at the dried blood on her chin, nodding a bit. “Um, do you want bubbles?” Kacchan had brought a bottle as a joke, but Izuku actually quite enjoys a good bubble bath. She nods. He smiles reasuringly at her and pours a bit of bubble soap into the water. The tub fills with bubbles, then looks back at her. “Oh my god.” His hands shoot up to cover his eyes and feels the slight discomfort behind his eyes that comes with his hair changing.

In the time it had taken him to fill the tub with soap she had completely stripped. He hears her walk softly over to the tub and sink in. “Is the soap covering you?”

“Yep.” She pops the ‘p’ at the end.

He peaks through his fingers and breathes a sigh of relief. “Do you have a hair brush?” She asks.

“Oh, yeah.” He grabs the hair brush sitting next to the sink and holds it out to her. She reaches to grab it but hisses in pain instead. “Are you okay?” She turns her arm over to reveal a large gash.

Scrambling, he grabs a roll of bandages and gauze and quickly wraps the wound. “If you wanted, I could…  get your hair for you?” He asks awkwardly.

A dusting of pink settles on her cheeks. “Sure.” She says.

He sits down at the end of the tub and slowly begins pulling at the knots in her hair, going through with the brush until her hair isn’t tangled. He grabs some to the shampoo and drizzles some on her scalp, working it into her hair. She hums contentedly, relaxing into his touch. He rinses the soup from her hair, revealing it to be a much lighter blond than he thought.

“I’ll leave and let you finish up, I’ll leave some clothes outside the door?” He asks. She nods and smiles at him again. He closes the door, digs a pair of basketball shorts and a baggy t-shirt and leaves them in front of the door.

Then he promptly freaks out.

Okay, there is a strange girl taking a bath in my apartment.

Who I found covered in blood!

But the guy was still breathing!

But she could still be a murderer!

But she seems so nice!

So did Jeffrey Dahmer!

Take a deep breath moron!

The last one kind of sounded like Kacchan, he muses.

Kacchan!

He pulls his phone from his pocket and calls his best friend. The phone rings a few times and he almost thinks he won’t pick up, probably in bed.

“What do you want, it is ten o’clock at night!” He snaps

“Hello to you too, I have kind of a situation.” He cuts in.

“What kind of situation?” The blond asks, over the phone Izuku can hear him shuffling around his room, probably finding clothes.

“I have a strange girl taking a bath in my apartment.”

He hears the shuffling stop and an incredulous, “I don’t see what that has to do with me?”

Izuku sighs, “I found her covered in blood standing over an unconscious guy.”

A beat, then , “I’ll be right over.”

Chapter Text

Katsuki prides himself on being ready for anything, on being ready to fight and jump into action at a moment's notice.

But as he watches the strange blonde girl sit on the floor in front of them devouring the burgers that he had brought, he has no idea what to do. She doesn’t seem… dangerous. Well, she definitely is, but with one of Izuku’s old t-shirts hanging off her tiny shoulders, her hair soaking wet and hanging over her face, limp and stringy, she just looks small and cold.

She keeps eating, unconcerned with the two sets of eyes on her. Eventually she finishes her food and looks up at them, tilting her head like a bird at them.

“Um,” Izuku starts, “Hi, I’m Izuku Midoriya, this is Katsuki Bakugou.”

He wants to tell him not to tell her their names, but she’s already in his apartment, so maybe they had already crossed that bridge. “What’s, uh, what’s your name?” Moya asks.

“Toga Himiko, nice to meet you!” Her mood seems to switch on a dime, her face lighting up with a bright grin that shows off strikingly sharp teeth. She sticks out her hand and Moya reaches over the couch to shake it. Katsuki does too, though a little more hesitantly. He notices her fingers are bony and he can see the veins under her pale skin.

“Um, Toga - ”

“Please, Himiko!”

“Um, okay, Himiko, we were just wondering what happened - ”

“In the alley?” She asks absentmindedly, licking her fingers of any extra ketchup.

Moya laughs nervously, “um, yeah, kinda.”

“I was just walking, he’s the one who came at me.” She says, “He shoved me into an alley. But I fought back.”

After a beat of silence, she asks, “He’s not dead is he? I didn’t really check.” She sounds hesitant, like she doesn't want them to know she cares whether or not he’s dead.

“He was breathing when we left.” Moya tells her.

She nods at her words and silence falls again before Katsuki asks, “Where are your parents, or where do you live?” In truth he doesn't actually care that much, but he wants her out of Moya’s apartment.

“Oh.” Her face falls a bit and Moya jabs him in the stomach with his elbow. “My parents kicked me out.”

“Why?”

“My quirk.” She brings her knees to her chest and wraps her arms around her legs. “If I drink someone's blood, I can change into them. I get, um, sick, if I don’t. I was just so hungry. I attacked a boy at my school. I don’t even remember it happening, they kicked me out after though.”

“And the boy?” Katsuki asks.

“He was fine!” She snaps, “Couple stitches and he was back to school the next day.” She leans her chin on her knees. “I really didn’t mean to.”

She goes quiet again and Moya stands up, grabbing Katsuki’s hand, pulling him to the washroom. It’s small, they have to squeeze and are almost nose to nose. “What do you think?” The greenette asks.

“I think she’s fucking crazy.” Katsuki tells him.

“Yeah, but other than that.” Izuku laughs.

“This is not funny, you have a crazy blood thirsty girl in your apartment that could snap at any moment!” He hisses.

“She’s not blood thirsty, I think she might be iron deficient and combined with her quirk that translates to mania.” Moya says.

“What?”

“The burgers you brought.” He begins to explain, “They were hamburgers, she seems a lot better after eating, like a major amount. She said she was hungry when she attacked that man. I’m thinking iron supplements and mood stabilizers could help.”

“Why? Do you want to run a series of experiments on your pet psychopath?” At Izuku’s silence, Katsuki sighs, “Come on!”

“You make it sound like I’m some kind of mad scientist, I want to help her!” Moya exclaims.

After contemplating the situation for a moment, Katsuki finally sighs. “It’s your apartment. But if she murders you, I’ll kill you.”

“Good to know.”

They shuffle back out to the living room and sit on the couch again. “Hey, Himiko. If you don’t have another place to stay, you could crash here?” Moya offers.

Her eyes light up at her words and she throws herself over the table and into his arms, “Thank you thank you thank you thank you!” The three of them watch a movie on Izuku’s computer until she falls asleep. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Katsuki whispers.

“I have no idea.” Moya answers honestly, “But I want to be a hero, and this is what being a hero is. I gotta try.”

Katsuki huffs, but lets himself relax on the couch.

Chapter Text

Himiko Toga is an interesting roommate. She is perfectly happy to sleep on the couch. Izuku had offered to give up his bed, but she refused. She becomes active at strange times at night. He is woken up often by her milling around the apartment. In the dead of night she cleans, she bakes, she showers, she rearranges the furniture. She sleeps during the day most of the time. He sees her passed out on the couch as he leaves for work every day for the next week.

In his head, he can’t help but compare her to a vampire bat, flitting around all night, but crashing during the day. She is majorly helpful with one thing though. In getting her accustomed to living with him, grocery shopping for iron rich food, and going to thrift stores with her to find clothes, he has barely had any time to worry about the entrance exam, and whether he passed.

The cafe also keeps him busy. As he walks home he thinks that a job might benefit Himiko, given she needs a bed sooner rather than later, and she would have something to do. Maybe the night shift somewhere? He really doesn’t want to push her, but he thinks she seems a little bored.

Getting home and finding his apartment turned into a giant blanket fort only confirms those suspicions. The rest of the apartment is blocked off, the only way to go being the entrance to the fort. He wasn’t even aware they had this many blankets. He finds her in his sleeping bag reading a book. “Can I join you?” 

She nods and smiles, they shimmy around each other until they are both comfortably stuffed in the sleeping bag meant for one. “So, can I talk to you about something?” He asks.

“Sure, “ She shuffles so they are facing one another.

“You seem… bored.”

“Was it that easy to tell?” She wonders. “It’s just this is the first time in a long time that I didn’t have to fight for food or a place to sleep. It’s super nice, but it means that I’ve got nothing to do with my day.”

He doesn’t know how to bring it up tactfully but still continues, “Well the cafe always keeps me busy, maybe you could… get … a job?”

She is silent for a moment, and he opens his mouth to back track, but she cuts him off before he can say anything. “That’s the best idea ever!” She jumps out of the sleeping bag and shuffles over to Izuku’s computer. “Can I use your computer?” He nods. She army crawls back to him and gets back in the bag. She opens it up and he puts in his password. She starts looking for jobs immediately with excitement. He advises her on night shift jobs, given her sleeping habits, and she happily changes the search.

He’s never seen someone so excited to get a job.

He receives his letter from UA a week after the exam. Himiko is out at a job interview, so he opens it alone. Originally, he had thought that he should wait for her to get back, or call Kacchan and ask him to come over so they could open their letters together. But Mitsuki and Masuro will probably want to open the letter with Katsuki.

Izuku wouldn’t want to intrude.

Taking a butter knife from the kitchen he slips it under the flap and opens the envelope. A small round disk falls from the envelope and the room is awashed in a soft blue glow as a hologram lights up.

All Might smiles down at him. “Hello, I am here. As a hologram!”

The rest of the message is a bit of a fog, but Izku knows one thing. 

He got into UA!

And All Might is going to be a teacher!

He bounces with excitement as he opens the letter, detailing some of the specifics of being a student at UA, along with things like uniform and school honor code. All things he’s read before, but he still squeals with joy at every line.

He’s really done it.

I’ll make you proud, Uncle.

Chapter Text

His phone starts ringing and he picks up immediately. 

“Did you get in?” Kacchan asks immediately

“Yes. Did you?”

“Was there ever any doubt?” He can hear Katsuki smiling over the phone.

“Not at all.” He takes a deep breath. “We did it.”

“We did it.”

First day of UA.

Let’s fucking go.

He’s giddy with excitement and anxious energy. Bouncing all around the kitchen, he makes himself a bowl of cereal that he scarfs down quickly. He takes a shower, packs his bag and gets dressed in his brand new UA uniform. The fabric is crisp and soft and he loves it so much.

Himiko wakes up thanks to the noise he makes, but she just smiles and helps him fix his tie. “You’re gonna do great.” She says it like a fact. He doubts that very much. But he can only nod at her.

When he’s all ready, she slips her arm around his and they leave the apartment together. “Come on, I’ll walk you down.”

They take the elevator down together and she gives him one last hug before he goes.

He walks to the bus stop and gets on, finding a seat at the back like always. UA is in a much nicer part of town than where Izuku lives, so the drive is a bit long. He bounces his leg and taps on his knees, his nerves going haywire the closer he gets to the building. He would have liked to ride with Kacchan, but they don’t take the same bus, however he will see him at school. He’ll see him everyday in class. And Izuku is thankful for that. He loves his best friend more than anything, but he also recognizes that when Kacchan’s position as the strongest one in the room is questioned, he can become a little…  erratic.

That’s what he likes best about their friendship. That they balance each other so well. He thinks they would have been fundamentally different people had they not been friends. Sometimes he does wonder, who he would be without his closest friend.

They text each other as they travel and it calms Izuku’s nerves a bit.

He thinks it’s a bit funny that his two best friends are both unhinged blondes with awesome quirks. Of course he thinks all quirks are awesome, but still.

The bus stop is just a two minute walk from UA. He thanks the bus driver and hops off. Instantly he joins a crowd of students wearing the same uniform as him. He had thought he would avoid the crowd if he came early, but obviously the rest of the first years had the same idea. The second and third years are looking down at them from where they are watching, perched in trees and sitting on the steps. They look like they’re evaluating the first years. Izuku thinks they are. It makes him feel distinctly uncomfortable, but at least the others in the herd of students are as uncomfortable as him.

The school is a maze, and this time there are no signs directing him to the exam rooms. In his acceptance letter, there was also a map of the school. He pulls it out and starts trying to follow it to 1-A.

He’s successful, coming to a stop outside a ginormous door, obviously for someone with a mutation.

He takes a deep breath and pushes the door open. Immediately he hears a stern voice demanding Kacchan take his feet off the desk. He can spot Kacchan gearing up to start a fight and rushes in, getting in between them. “Hi, Izuku Midoriya, nice to meet you, so sorry about my friend, he can be a bit harsh, but he doesn’t mean anything by it!” He rushes out, trying to avoid a fist fight on the first day.

His eyes widen as he recognizes the boy in front of him as the one who yelled at him at the entrance exam. He almost wanted to let him and Kacchan go at it after that, but it was too late to take his intervention back. “My name is Tenya Iida! You were the one to correctly deduce that true meaning of the entrance exam and the zero pointer, I commend you!” He speaks too loud, considering Izuku is right in front of him, but he shakes the offered hand anyway.

“Oh hey!” They both look over and he sees Uraraka, the girl he had saved at the entrance exam. She rushes over and pulls Izuku into a hug. He hears Katsuki growl behind him, ready to start a fight with her, but Izuku waves him away. He returns her quick hug. “Thank you so much again, I was sure I was roadkill!” She exclaimed.

“It wasn’t that big a deal, I’m just glad you’re alright.” He smiles at her.

She’s about to say something but a voice stops her. “If you’re here to make friends, you can just leave right now.”

They all look down at the man lying on the ground in a bright yellow sleeping bag, slurping on a juice packet. “Get to your seats, you’re wasting your time and more importantly, mine.”

They all run to their seats and look expectantly at him. He climbs out of his sleeping bag, leaving it crumpled on the floor. He stands at the podium at the front of the room and looks out over them with unreadable eyes.

“I am your teacher, Shota Aizawa.” He grabs a stack of gym uniforms from under the podium and sets them on the desk. “Grab these, get changed and meet me on the field.” He walks to the door. The class is frozen. “Well, go!” He leaves and they all scramble to grab their bags and a gym uniform.

They make it to the field quickly, everyone dressed in gym uniforms. Mr Aizawa looks at them. “10 minutes, not the worst time I’ve seen, but you’ll need to be a lot faster in the future.”

They nod hesitantly, unsure of what to do under his watchful eyes. Izuku gets the uncomfortable feeling that AIzawa is looking at him more than the other students, but he thinks it's just paranoia.

“We’re gonna be doing a quirk assessment today, to see where you’re all at.” He says.

Iida puts his hand up before he can finish. “Sir, what about orientation?”

“UA believes in teacher autonomy, we’re skipping that.” He says simply.

Izuku spots a pink skinned girl whispering to her friend, “This is gonna be fun!”

He can tell it’s a mistake when Aizawa’s eyes narrow at her. “Fun? Nothing about being a hero is fun. In fact, the lowest performing student today will be expelled.”

This causes an uproar, students start yelling and complaining, but Aizawa silences them with one hard look. “There will be 8 tests, ball throw, standing long jump, 50 meter dash, long distance run, grip strength, repeated side step, seated toe-touch and situps. We’ll start with the standing long jump.”

As Izuku watches his classmates go through the test, he tries to figure out how to best use his quirk for these tests. That’s part of it, he thinks. How you use your quirk, not just how strong it is.

When it’s his turn to go, he simply blows a cloud and has it carry him to the other side of the sand pit. He turns back to Aizawa, but he is pointedly not looking at him. Izuku is unsure why. He can’t think of anything he did to upset his new teacher. He’s never been good with authority figures, or maybe authority figures were never good with him, but it’s only the first day, Aizawa can’t have realized what a pain it is to have Izuku as a student already.

Something about Aizawa’s little scowl does seem familiar to Izuku, but he can’t figure out from where. He quickly gets out of the way, and the next student goes. Grip strength, repeated side step, seated toe touch and situps weren’t affected by his quirk at all, but he thinks he did pretty okay. For the 50 meter dash and long distance run he created a cloud to take him to the finish line. When they got to the ball throw he had the most impressive throw, next to Uraraka. He created a small cloud to carry the ball around, getting him infinitely. He and the brown haired girl high five at their shared score.

Finally all the tests are done and Aizawa displays the scores. 

9.Izuku Midoriya

Izuku grins at his score, and at Kacchan getting third place. The kid with the purple balls on his head starts crying and he assumes he’s the one on the bottom.

Then Aizawa tells them it’s all a ruse. “I thought it was quite obvious?” Yaoyarozu says, confused.

“It wasn’t!”

Iida pats her shoulder as she deflates at the scorn of the other students.

The tests are done and Aizawa dismisses them for the day, telling them to go home.

Izuku gets changed while the rest of the guys chatter about Aizawa and how scary he seems. As they walk out of school, Izuku asks Kacchan if he wants to hang out. He says yes and they bus back to his apartment after a successful first day at UA.

Chapter Text

“Did it not go well?” She asks.

“No, it did, all my classmates were nice, I just think my teacher doesn’t like me that much. I don’t think I did anything to bother him, so I don’t know why.” Izuku explains.

“Oh, that sucks.” Himiko says. “Do you want me to stab him? Just a little?”

“No!”

She shrugs. “Eh, either way, he’ll see that you are the totally awesome and cool person you are, or he won’t. You just gotta keep being you.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you should be doing motivational speeches?” Izuku asks.

Himiko snorts.

The first class on their second day is homeroom with Mr Aizawa. Who takes a nap during that time. Once again, Izuku is sure he has seen him somewhere before. He’s an underground hero, so it couldn’t be on merch or a billboard. He feels like it’s important but can’t place it.

Their next class is with Ectoplasm, then Present Mic. Izuku adores both of them, though he loves all heroes. It’s a miracle but he manages to hold himself back from bombarding his math teachers with questions.

When Present Mic comes in he smiles widely at the class. But once again, for some reason, Mic falters when his eyes land on Izuku. He recovers quickly and jumps right into rapid fire English, seeing who can follow him. Izuku can easily, so he focuses more on Mic’s expression. And the way he looks at Izuku is a beat too long. He can’t place the emotion in his teacher’s eyes, but it looks like grief. No one else seems to notice it, so Izuku says nothing, hoping to chalk it all up to jitters.

They break for lunch and Izuku sits with Kacchan in the cafeteria. Uraraka comes to sit with them, as does Kirishima and Kaminari, who seem to have made it their mission to make friends with Kacchan. He wishes them luck. Iida sits with them as well, clearly seeing that they may be the most concerning combination of students and wanting to monitor them. Izuku might have been insulted if he didn’t totally agree. But Kacchan only tries to blow Kaminari up a little bit, so Izuku counts it as a win.

The first class after lunch is art. Izuku is super excited for that one. He loves art, especially because the class will have a focus on hero design, and he has a lot of thoughts on that subject.

Midnight comes in as loudly as Present Mic, her entrance a big spectacle that Izuku can appreciate. For a moment when she looks at him her smile feels a bit too forced but he blinks and she’s back to normal, so he assumes he imagined it.

Finally they end up back in their home room class, waiting for the final teacher of the day.

“I am here! Coming through the door like a normal person!” All Might bursts into the room in one of his vintage costumes. The class goes wild, including Izuku. He loves All Might, but who doesn’t? He was never allowed to watch any All Might cartoons, or hero shows of any kind, because of his mother. The other kids had been obsessed with All Might, but Izuku hadn’t. He had other heroes. Loving All Might was noticeable with his right colors and loud voice, easy for his mother to notice and get upset about. So he chose subtler heroes. Ones that were less eye-catching. He still loves All Might, though.

His smile almost hurts as All Might introduces the course and tells them to put their costumes on.

Izuku’s costume is pretty simple, and heavily inspired by his uncles. A skin tight black thermal shirt, a pair of dark green baggy pants, heavy duty combat boots, fingerless gloves with brass knuckles sewn in, and a pair of goggles to keep the wind out of his eyes and with some thermal imaging, almost identical to the ones that belonged to his uncle, sitting in his apartment. Finally, he has his uncle's jacket.

His costume is pretty plain compared to his classmates, but he adores the way it looks. They all gather in the monitor room for one of the many fake cities the school has and he tells them they will be doing two on two battle trials.

When the groups are introduced his excitement sky rockets. Uraraka has a quirk that complements his and he thinks they’ll work really well together. The fact that they’ll be fighting Iida and Katsuki is even better.

He grins at Katsuki and the blond smirks back, an unspoken challenge between the two of them. May the best hero win.

He and Uraraka hunker down outside the building, discussing a plan. “With our quirks, they’ll expect us to go high, my guess would be the bomb is being kept at a lower level.”

“So we go low too.” She says.

“I can lay down some cloud cover at the top as a red herring.” He says, “They’ll most likely split up, Kacchan will want a fight, so Iida will probably be the one guarding the weapon. We gotta be quick, Kacchan will notice pretty quick we’re not in the fog.”

“Let's do this.”

They shake hands firmly and the alarm goes off signaling the start of the exercise. They go in through one of the windows on the first floor. They search quickly before Uraraka catches his attention and points to a sign above a doorway. Basement.

Izuku uses a cloud to open the door, trying to muffle the sound. They creep down the metal stairs, finding themselves in a long hallway illuminated by red light. Izuku switches on the thermal imaging on his goggles. One of the rooms near the end of the hallway lights up with a heat signature. He points it out to Uraraka and she nods.

“Ahem.”

They both turn to see Bakugo standing beside the stairs, his arms crossed. “You really thought you could pull one over on me?”

“Go for Iida, I’ll handle him.” As Izuku speaks, a thick fog rolls from his mouth, filling the hallway, obscuring Kacchan’s view, allowing Uraraka to disappear.

“That’s fine, you bought Cheeks some time, but I’m still gonna take her down after I crush your ass, Moya.” Izuku can hear the smirk on his face.

Izuku knows the fog is thick enough that Kacchan is going to have a hard time seeing him, but with his goggles, he’ll have no problem seeing him. As long as he stays silent. Before he had filled the hallway with fog he had spotted an open doorway. Despite his heavy boots, he moves on silent feet. Getting close to Katsuki and angling himself just right. He keeps on his friend, pushing him in the open room, attempting to pin him to the ground.

Before he can get him pinned well enough to pull out the capture tap, Katsuki hooks his ankle around Izuku’s leg and flips them so he’s the one pinned. Izuku jabs him in the side with the brass knuckles, not hard enough to do any real damage, but it’ll bruise, and it gives him the momentary distraction he needs to kick Katsuki off of him and flip up into a standing position.

He sees Katsuki getting ready to charge at him and he crouches, ready to meet him head on, before the alarm goes off and All Might’s voice echoes through to speakers.

“Well done! The hero team wins! Please return to the monitor room!” 

The tension in both the boy’s relaxes. “Good fight.” Izuku smiles as they walk back together, spotting Iida and Uraraka ahead of them.

Kacchan nods, “I totally would have won.”

Izuku rolls his eyes, “Yeah, right.”

Chapter Text

The week goes by quickly. Izuku settles into a routine, school, then he drops by the beach to clean for a bit, grabs something to eat then heads to work, he gets back the apartment by ten, by then Himiko is already at the convenience store where she works nights, he crashes, then wakes up to get ready for school. He’s exhausted most of the time, but it’s worth it.

By the time they are ready for the USJ, Izuku has made friends with most of his classmates, and he sits with Kacchan, Uraraka, Iida, Kaminari, Kirishima and Mina everyday for lunch. He clams up a bit at personal questions, which he thinks the others have noticed, but luckily he has Kacchan with him to divert the conversation if need be. He sits on the bus between Katsuki and Kirishima. Things are going well and conversation is flowing around him until Tsuyu asks, “Midoriya, I tend to speak my mind, so I’ve gotta ask, you don’t ever talk about your family, is there a reason for that?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he spots Aizawa tense, oddly enough. “No particular reason,” He lies, “My parents are divorced, my dad’s in America, my mom’s up in Tokyo, where we live. I’m only here for school.”

“Wait, then how are you childhood friends with Bakubro if you live in Tokyo?” Kirishima asks.

Shit. “Well, um… I lived here as a kid, then we moved when my parents got divorced.” He shrugs, trying to feign nonchalance. That’s the issue with lying so completely about his life, he can never lie well enough.

But that seems to abate their suspicions. He was saved from having to answer anymore questions, by their arrival at the USJ. As they get off the bus, Katsuki whispers under his breath, “You need to get your story straight.” 

“Oh like you could have done much better, you were no help.” He hisses back.

The USJ is separated into multiple different sections, each focusing on one disaster, like the shipwreck zone or the landslide zone. Thirteen gains their attention as they gather together on a parapet overlooking the entire USJ. They begin their speech by introducing themself and their quirk.

Before they can finish however, Kirishima asks “Uh, what’s that?”

“Stay back, those are real villains!”

What appears to be some sort of portal opens in the middle of the dome, near the fountain; several villains pour through the portal, before it solidifies into some sort of man wearing a bartender's suit and a metal armor piece on his neck. Standing with him is a scrawny young man wearing baggy clothes and bright red sneakers. His face and body are covered in severed hands. And finally with them is a hulking creature with a bird like maw and an exposed brain.

Mr Aizawa jumps into the mass of villains. Izuku wants to yell at him that there are too many, but he’s too focused on the shadow man. Something about him is drawing Izuku’s attention, but he can’t focus on everything that’s going on. The shadow man disappears and reappears next to them, destroying thirteen with their own quirk, then opening a portal underneath the students. They fall.

As he falls, Izuku is distinctly aware that he is entirely weightless, and the feeling is familiar, like when he flies with his clouds. As fast as it starts, it stops, and he lands hard in the water.

Unfortunately his clouds don’t work too well in the water, so he needs to swim to the surface. His attention is caught as a shark-like man swims towards him at terrifying speeds. Before he can be bitten in half, something surrounds his waist and pulls him up, setting him on the deck of the boat. He looks to see Tsuyu and Mineta.

Mineta is freaking out, getting tears and snot all over his face. Normally Izuku would be rushing to comfort a civilian in a disaster, and technically that's what they are, given they aren’t actually heroes yet, but he's been generally creepy all week, so he decides to just let him stew.

“This is really fucking bad,” Izuku whispers to himself.

“Yep, kero .” Tsuyu says from beside him.

“Okay, we need a plan. We can’t stay here forever.” Izuku looks around at the shipwreck zone. “I can carry us over to the shore, then we can go help Mr Aizawa.”

Tsuyu tilts her head at him, “Is that a good idea, kero , those are really villains, we barely have any training?”

“Well, they say you learn best on the job.” Izuku smirks and blows a cloud, helping Tsuyu and Mineta hop on, “Hold on tight and please keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times.”

They take off and float easily over to the shore. The cloud dissipates and they crouch near some rocks to get a better view of the situation. Mr Aizawa is fighting off multiple assailants with relative ease. Izuku is extremely impressed. When the leader, who’s name is Shigaraki, starts talking, that’s when Izuku gets worried.

That’s some big talk, but I don’t think he’s bluffing.

Shigaraki gets bored sending villain after villain to Aizawa. “Nomu, fetch.” The thing moves faster than any creature of that size should. It smashes Aizawa into the ground, snapping both his arms in between two of his fingers.

Tsuyu’s sharp intake of breath and Mineta’s crying must alert him to their presence, Shigaraki appears before them, taking Tsu’s face in his hand, with all five fingers on her skin. Nothing happens and he lets her go, chuckling. “You really are so cool, Eraser.” He waves his hand, as if dismissing them, “Nomu, kill him.”

The creature smashes his head into the ground. Izuku screams as he hears his teacher's skull shatter. The cloud that slams into the nomu is solid and thick, surrounding the creature, becoming dense, trying to weigh it down. With a mighty wave the thing disperses the cloud.

“Ugh, such a lame NPC interfering with this quest. I want to fight the boss!” Shigaraki gestures in Izuku direction, the nomu taking it as an order. Before the nomu can slam into him, Izuku manifests a cloud, taking him above the nomu. Tsu and Minta dive to one side to avoid the impact, and he shouts at them to get to the exit.

Tsu seems reluctant to leave him, but Mineta starts bolting without a second thought. Nomu leaps up to swat at him, but Izuku zips out of the way. He spots Aizawa in the rubble, bleeding out. He makes a decision, laying down a thick fog almost impossible to see through over the main area of the USJ. He slips his goggles on and switches on inferred vision. The area lights up and he locates Aizawa. He sends thick clouds over to where the nomu is to confuse it.

He carefully picks his teacher up and sets him on the cloud, then speeds as fast as he can to the exit. It doesn’t feel like a fight the way he is, but he needs to find Aizawa medical attention. Just as he arrives with his teacher at the exit, where the other students have congregated, one of the glass walls bursts open. All Might’s shadow falls over the USJ and he immediately begins to tangle with the nomu.

Emergency services and other heroes flood into the building behind All Might. EMTs rush over and load Mr Aizawa onto a stretcher. Izuku sees him peel an eye open to look up at him, but his eyes are unfocused and covered in blood.

“Oboro.” He whispers, looking right at Izuku. The medics take him away before he can ask anything.

The students are all taken to the hospital, even the ones who aren’t injured.

He texts Himiko, hoping she’s awake enough to receive it.

Izuku: Emergency, plan M, meet at Mustafu General Hospital.

He does decide to hedge his bets though, first attempting to convince the doctors that he’s really okay to go home, and that they shouldn't bother his mother because then she’ll have to take the train out to get him. They don’t listen and he starts thinking of escape routes.

Nearly four hours later, it’s nearing the end day and he and Uraraka are the only students left at the hospital. The door to the hospital room swings open and his doctor comes in, followed by a tall woman with long green hair that fades from dark forest green to sea foam, braided in a plait down her back. Her blue eyes look like sea glass, and in between her fingers is some almost imperceptible webbing.

He’s never seen this woman in his goddamn life.

“Mom!” He exclaims.

She rushes in, wrapping her arms around him, mindful of any injuries he might have sustained. The doctors said there was some minor bruising due to his fall in the water, but other than that he’s completely unharmed.

“Izuku!” She sighs happily, her voice light, sounding like an ocean breeze.

The doctor gives her some things to sign, and he sends them on their way. They go home.

Chapter Text

They just stumble through the apartment door when Himiko’s disguise begins to drip off. She sprays herself off with the shower head and changes into a hoodie and a pair of Izuku’s basketball shorts. When she comes back Izuku is sitting on the couch, curled up with his chin on his knees. She sits next to him and wraps her arms around his slender shoulders.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?” She asks.

She feels him shake his head. “That’s okay. We’ll talk tomorrow.” She glances at the clock on the wall and sighs. “It’s late, we should both get to bed.” She drags him up the steps to his little loft bedroom. She takes his jacket and his shoes, setting them down on the floor next to his bag.

She helps him change into a pair of sweatpants and an old t-shirt. He lays down in his bed and she kneels next to him. She stays until he falls asleep.

Himiko wakes up in the morning to the alarm on her phone. She stumbles to the kitchen, filling a cup of water and downing a little cup with her assortment of meds. Mood stabilizers and iron pills. She feels a bit bad, given she had to technically commit medical fraud, but oh well. If the shitty little rundown pharmacy wasn’t going to check her ID, or just didn’t care enough then that isn’t really her problem.

She climbs the steps to the loft, prepared to gently rouse Izuku from his sleep. She isn’t entirely sure what had happened. Izuku had told her when he started school that he had given them her number as an emergency contact, and that if an emergency were to arise, she should steal some blood of someone on the street that looked enough like him they could be one of his parents to transform into. He had also given a timeline, he had told his classmates and the school his parents live in Tokyo, so she needs to wait long enough for it to be believable that she had taken the train down. That part of his plan does irk her, given it means she had to wait before seeing if he’s okay. 

Yesterday the plan had gone off without a hitch. She had been out getting groceries when the text came in. Quickly looking round the store she spotted a lady with green hair, sea glass eyes and a soft enough face that she would work. Speed walking over to where she stood, Himiko slipped a thin needle between her fingers, hidden under her sweater. The needle had been a gift from a criminal contact Izuku doesn’t actually know about. Usually the needle, tube and bottle attached to it just sit in her pocket, but it makes her feel better to have it on her. She picks up her shopping cart and starts walking slowly towards the woman, keeping her eyes on the basket, moving her hand around like she’s searching for something.

They crash into one another, and on the moment of contact, she stabs the poor woman with the needle. 

“I’m so sorry! I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“That’s totally alright, I wasn’t paying attention either!”

She helps gather up the lady’s things and they go their separate ways. Himiko, despite wanting to down the bottle and run to the hospital, follows the plan. She pays for the grocery’s, heads home, puts them away, then spends the next 3 and a half hours passing back and forth until her timer goes off and she heads to the hospital.

To her surprise, when she gets up to the loft, Izuku is already awake. “Iz?”

He looks up at her, deep bags set around his eyes and his lips worried between his teeth. Gesturing for her to come over she climbs onto his bed and sits next to him. He’s holding a picture usually tacked up next to his bed with other sentimental photos. Of three boys, one with black hair, one with blond hair, and Izuku’s uncle Oboro.

“I knew they looked familiar.” He whispers, tracing the faces of the two unknown boys.

“What?”

“It’s Aizawa sensei and Present Mic.” She peers closer at the photo and thinks that in retrospect, they should have realized given the hair. “I just assumed I had seen Mr Aizawa on some online underground hero website. And everyone knows Present Mic.”

She nods. Doing the math it makes sense, given they all would have been in UA at the same time and all in the hero course. But… “Who took the photo?”

He sighs. “I still don’t know.”

She hugs him tight around the waist and asks into his shoulder “What happened yesterday?”

He tells her everything.

She has the night off. She doesn’t tell Izuku that. He’s still up when she leaves, but looks about ready to go to sleep. She feels a bit bad. She’s not lying, just not telling him some things. Nothing bad, she swears!

But when you’re homeless as long as she’s been, you meet some shady characters. One of whom Himiko needs to talk to.

The seedy bar she walks into is not the worst place she’s been, especially to get out of the cold. Near the back of the bar, at one of the tables is where she finds him. Sitting across from him she gets a clear view of gold circular framed glass, the tacky gold chain, and his gaudy purple suit. Despite the tackiness of the outfit, Giran wears it as well as anyone could.

“Hello, little lady.” Giran greets, taking a drag of his cigarette.

She nods in greeting. “Do you know anything about what happened at the USJ?” She cuts straight to the point.

Giran shrugs. “Not anymore than what everyone else knows. Group of villains got together to kill All Might at the USJ. Didn’t work, but they got closer than most, from what I hear.”

“Who’s in charge? Cause I heard Shigaraki isn't the top dog.” Izuku had said the hand freak mentioned a boss. 

Giran looks around the bar, a little too careful to be casual, before he leans in close. She can smell the nicotine and scotch on his breath, and fights to not wrinkle her nose. “You don’t want to get involved in this. I heard you went straight, got a job and a place and shit. If that’s true you don’t want any part of this. It’s a lot bigger than most people think.”

She leans in too, holding eye contact with the information broker. “How big?”

“Boogeyman big.” With his words, he leaves the table, paying the bartender and quickly leaves the establishment.

Himiko sits shocked before she too slips out of the building. Most people on the wrong side of society’s light know about the boogeyman of the underground, but Himiko had always thought he was a legend, to scare new recruits. Either Giran is trying to scare her, or there are more to those rumors than she originally thought.

She weaves through the vagrants and drunks, pulling her jacket closer to her.

“Mr Boogeyman, how real are you really?”

Chapter Text

Izuku and the rest of his classmates are given the next few days off. Instead of resting, like the doctors and the school had advised, he simply picked up more shifts at work and spent more time cleaning the beach. He should be resting, he knows, but he can’t make himself still long enough to do so.

He manages a great find at the beach though, a bag of slightly waterlogged books in a garbage bag. A few of them are too damaged to read, he throws those out, but the ones that are still legible, he takes home. They’re the trashy YA novels that Himiko likes. Speaking of his roommate, she had been acting odd. Jittery and nervous. He thinks it's just that she's worried about what happened, but he can’t be sure.

Izuku’s injuries had been minimal, just a few scraps and bruises and they’re almost entirely healed by the time they return to school. As he walks to the bus station, he thinks about what he has learned. Mr Aizawa and Mr Yamada are the two other boys in the picture. It certainly explains the weird looks they give him. Sometimes when Mr Yamada looked at him, Izuku thought he was seeing something else. Now he knows what he sees. That was always one of his mothers issues with him. He looked shockingly like his uncle. Even more so with his newly acquired misty hair. That doesn’t actually do anything, but looks cool when he uses his quirk.

He walks with Kacchan to class on the first day back to school. They don’t exchange words, but the familiar silence is comforting. Most people, when they first meet Kacchan, assume that he’s always loud and always abrasive, and he is most of the time, but that’s just not true. With Izuku especially, the two of them often hang out in silence, or with very minimal talking. How thoughts and ideas can pass between the two of them without so much as a word. Their parents used to say when they were young, that the two of them had a secret, extra quirk. Telepathy between just the two of them.

As soon as Izuku had been right enough to text Katsuki, he told him about what he had learned. The blond hadn’t said much, only that it did make a lot of sense. They shuffled into class to find some of their peers already there. Uraraka wraps him in a tight hug, Tsu pats him on the shoulder, and Iida gives him a stern nod. Kirishima and Kaminari swarm Katsuki immediately, chattering about their time off and asking him about what he did.

They settle down just a few minutes before class starts. Whispers flare up, students wondering about a substitute teacher. “Everybody shut up.” The door opens. 1-A would recognize that voice anywhere. 

“Mr Aizawa!” 

“Before you all freak out, the doctors said I was fine to come back to teach.” Izuku vehemently disagrees, given the bandages covering every inch of his teacher's body. Before any one can protest, Aizawa launches into an explanation of the Sports Festival.

Izuku’s smile grows into a grin, as do the looks on many of his classmates' faces.

The rest of that day is spent with their teachers giving them insights into the Sports Festival. It’s split into three rounds, the first two are decided at random (Izuku doesn’t believe that for a second), then the third is one on one battles.

At the end of the day, when they try to leave class, they are blocked by a group of students from 1-B and the general education course. Izuku recognizes Monoma, and a few others. The blond yells in their faces about how much better 1-B is, and that 1-A will be crushed.

At that, eyes are rolled and most of his classmates scoff. Then a tall boy, with purple hair and a gen ed uniform pushes to the front of the crowd. He tells them that when a gen ed student performs particularly well, they can sometimes be moved to the hero course. If that happens, someone from the hero course needs to be removed.

Mr Aizawa comes out and shoos them away, letting his students through.

“Is that true, can they really replace one of us?” Ochaco asks.

“Yep, though it would probably be the lowest performing students, so I think we’re all okay.” Izuku says. A sigh of relief passes through the group. Izuku hops on his bus and goes home.

They train harder than ever after class 1-B’s declaration of war. No one wants to be at the bottom of the totem pole if a gen ed student does move up.

The Sports Festival comes quicker than any of them would have liked, but they’re as ready as they are gonna be. The prep room reserved for class 1-A is a buzz with nervous energy. Izuku and Kacchan sit close together. Izuku is on his phone, texting Himiko. She’s wishing him luck. The little convenience store has an almost ancient tv on the wall, and she’s watching through that.

“Midoriya.” Izuku looks up, to find Todoroki standing in front of him, staring at him intently. 

“Yes?” He asks nervously.

“Objectively, I am stronger than you.” At that, the rest of the room is completely silent, focused on them. “I am going to beat you.”

His friends look at him, obviously expecting some kind of response, but he doesn’t rise to Todoroki’s declaration. He stays seated. “Sure.” The thing is, Izuku isn’t super interested in going into limelight heroics. Winning would put him in the spotlight. He will do his best, he will try his hardest, but he doesn’t need to win. He just needs to not be last.

Todoroki’s usually flat face contorts in surprise. Obviously he had expected Izuku to fight him about it, but it doesn’t seem like it’s necessary. The alarm goes off, alerting them that they are needed in the stadium before Todoroki can say anything. They leave, walking out onto the field.

Oh, hello headache. The noise and flashing lights hit him with such force he stumbles back slightly into Uraraka. She gives him a concerned look, but he gives her a reassuring smile and keeps walking.

Midnight calls out each of the classes. 1-A gets the biggest cheer, which seems to make the other classes even more angry. Monoma looks like he’s grinding his teeth. Izuku feels bad for his dentist.

Kacchan is called to the stage. “I just want to say, I’m gonna win.” He walks off stage and the stadium is filled with boos.

He finds his way back to Izuku’s side. He elbows the blond, “What the fuck was that?”

Katsuki shrugs. “I’m gonna win.” Izuku snorts.

They turn back to the giant wheel that has been wheeled out. Midnight spins it, landing on an obstacle race. Izuku has the sneaking suspicion the wheel is rigged.

The students all gather at the starting tunnel. Izuku is once again next to Katsuki. Before Izuku can say anything Katsuki says, “The entrance bottle necks.”

Izuku grins at him. “You’re learning.”

“Dick.”

The countdown begins. “Are we doing this on our own, or together?” Izuku asks.

“I wanna win on my own.” Kacchan says, not unkindly, just firmly.

Izuku nods.

3…

2…

1…

GO!

A cloud forms under Izuku just in time to avoid being frozen to the ground by Todoroki. Katsuki is right. Students are almost immediately stuck at the entrance. But Izuku, and a few other students who are able to fly soar above them. 

Things are going pretty good until he sees the robots from the entrance exam. Many of them have already been frozen by Todoroki, but in precarious positions, meant to topple on the other students. Izuku curls up as small as he can and begins flying under and through the arms and legs of the robots, careful to not so much as brush them.

The second obstacle is once again incredibly easy. A giant jorge spreads out, but Izuku passes it without trouble. The mine field is next, but Izuku sees an opportunity. Like he said, it’s not about winning the Sports Festival, it’s about getting offers for an internship. To help show variety in his quirk, he lays down a thick fog, keeping the other students from seeing where the bumps that show the mines are. It twists something up in him, sabotaging the competition, but he knows his friends will forgive him. He passed the finish line first, Todoroki second and Katsuki third.

They gather once more before the small stage Midnight stands on. She congratulates those that passed, and gives condolences to those that didn’t. The wheel is spun again. It lands on cavalry battles. Izuku is already planning out who he would want on his team. The Midnight drops a bomb.

“And the first place head band, belonging to Izuku Midoriya, is worth 10 Million points!”

The eyes of every other student is on him immediately.

I am so fucked!

Chapter Text

It’s hard finding a team. No one wants to start with a target on their back. Eventually he gathers Hatsume from the support course, Uraraka, and Tokoyami. The strategy is pretty simple. With the combined power of Uraraka’s anti gravity quirk, Hatsume’s hover boots, and Izuku’s clouds, they should be able to stay above the competition. Dark Shadow will grab headbands, and Izuku will make smaller clouds made of smoke to run interference with the other teams.

The smoke clouds are harder to make, and he tries not to use them too much, because of the strain they put on his throat.

Present Mic tells them to start and immediately they shoot into the sky. They start with the hover boots and Anti Gravity, leaving Izuku’s clouds for last, in case Uraraka needs to tap out. Teams try to get at them, trying to jump up at them, but they swerve out of the way.

“MOYA!” He looks down to see Katsuki blasting up to them.

Izuku smirks and forces a cloud of smoke out of his mouth, blowing it down to Katsuki. It catches him in the face and he starts coughing, losing focus and beginning to fall. His team catches him before he can hit the ground. He glares up at Izuku, but turns his attention to teams on the ground instead of going again.

Izuku coughs a bit, but quickly focuses back on the competition. The first half is spent simply avoiding teams trying to get at them, before everyone realizes it’s a pointless endeavor. Once everyone else has turned their attention to the teams on the ground, they strike. First, Dark Shadow snags headbands easily, as Izuku lays down cloud cover to help cover her movements.

When Midnight calls the round, Izuku’s team is sitting with the most points in the game, and would have passed even without the 10 Million Point headband.

The students head to the exit and all gather back into the prep rooms to eat lunch. He and Kacchan eat lunch together, as always, with their classmates all around them. Half way through, he spots Todoroki slip out. If Izuku had been someone with a little less of a bleeding heart, he might have let Todoroki go on his own, but he tells Kacchan he’ll be back, and follows the bi-coloured boy.

He follows him through the winding maze under the stadium, attempting to catch up, but Todoroki just keeps walking, until he turns a corner. Izuku is about to turn it as well, hoping to finally corner him and talk, but he hears a voice.

 “Shoto.” He’s heard the voice on the news plenty. Todoroki's father. Endeavor. He should walk away, wait for another opportunity to talk to Todoroki, but… “This display is absolutely unacceptable. You must use your fire. It is imperative you win and do not embarrass me.”

Todoroki’s icy voice carries clearly for Izuku to hear. “I will not use your fire.”

He can hear the sneer in Endeavour's voice as he says, “Then you and I have nothing more to discuss today.”  He hears Endeavour begin to walk away, which will have him see Izuku listening in. He panics for a moment before blowing out a cloud and letting it carry him up to the ceiling, and lets Endeavor pass under him with even a glance up. He sighs, thankful he’s in the clear, until he hears a pointed cough from below.

He looks over the edge of the cloud, to see Todoroki looking up at him. In his surprise, he loses concentration on his quirk, and the cloud dissipates under him. He’s able to roll at the last minute, taking a bit of the force. He shoots up and rushes to explain, “Todoroki! I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, it really wasn’t-”

Todoroki cuts him off, “I lead you here for a reason. Do you know about quirk marriages?”

Izuku shakes his head meekly. Todoroki begins to explain to him what they are and why he must win. Why he will never use his fathers power. Izuku stares wide-eyed at him. “Todoroki,” he says after his classmate is finished, “I’m so sorry.”

Todoroki’s expression of determination is not changed as he says, “I will win.”

Izuku sighs, knowing the ‘without his power’ is unspoken, “It’s not his power, it’s yours. ”

Todoroki scoffs and turns to leave. Izuku is left standing in the hallway, thinking about the cold look in Endeavors eyes, and how it may look the same, but it is worlds different than the look in Todoroki.

Izuku paces up and down the hallway after Todoroki leaves, his mind going through many different thoughts. Mainly, ‘Could I beat Todoroki if he's only using half his power?’ At full power, Izuku would be majorly outclassed by Todoroki, so much so Izuku is shocked Todoroki sees him as enough of a threat to issue a challenge, but at half power? He’s been observing all his classmates and their quirks since the beginning, and the most glaring weakness Todoroki has is the major risk of hypothermia. 

Using that to his advantage, Izuku might use clouds that would be frozen simply by coming into contact with the other boy as projectiles, along with making him colder, and more likely to pass out. Or, he could use smoke clouds, and steam to mess with his game, throw him off focus.

But…   would it be against his values to use this obvious physiological weakness against him?

Everyone always looks at Izuku as soft and kind. And he is, but after being best friends with Kacchan for his entire life, and his mother always underestimating him, he had learned to be pretty cut throat. Does his morality out way his need to be the best? If he asks for Kacchan’s opinion, his friend will tell him to go for the throat, but if he were to ask his other friends and classmates, they would tell him to take a gentler approach.

After weighting the pros and cons of each course of action, and still with no answer, he decides who he needs to ask. There is only ten minutes before lunch is over and the games start again, so he has to be quick. He finds the teacher area under the arena, and slips past the security guard, which Izuku thinks is kind of redundant. He knocks on the door where he spots the teachers through the door window.

Snipe opens the door and looks down at Izuku, surprised. “Midoriya? What are you doing back here? What can we do for you?”

“Sorry Snipe Sensei, but I really need to talk to Aizawa sensei.” Izuku says.

Snipe thinks for a moment before walking back into the room. Aizawa comes out a moment after, holding an iced coffee in his bandaged hands. “What is it, Problem Child?”

Izuku raises a questioning eyebrow at the nickname, but doesn’t say anything about it. “Aizawa Sensei, if you were me and you just learned some information that would give you a major advantage if you decided to use it against your opponent as physiological warfare, what would you do?” Izuku quickly tries to explain. He doesn’t want to go into too many specifics, given he does know Todoroki’s privacy is important, even to their teacher.

Aizawa tilts his head and peers down at Izuku through his bandages. “What kind of information?”

“I can’t tell you.” Izuku says.

Aizawa takes a deep breath and says, “I would use it against them,” he admits, “but I don’t think you and I are the same type of hero. I’m underground, and more than that, I’m not interested in an opponent's feelings, even in training. I won’t be overly cruel but I will use every advantage I have. Mic would say "be kind, banish the information from your mind if it’s not for good intentions.” He goes quiet for a moment, and Izuku can guess pretty easily what he is thinking about. “I had a friend who’s advice I think would be best for you. They are your competition, give them no leeway, don’t be kind or cruel, just kick the shit out of them.”

Izuku nods, “Thank you Mr Aizawa, that was a big help.” He speeds off back to the students area.

Lunch ends and the semi final round of one on one fights starts. Izuku stretches and warms up as Kacchan obliterates Tokoyami, though the bird headed boy gives quite a fight.

Finally Izuku and Todorki stand on opposite ends of the arena, staring at each other. Izuku sees Todoroki glance up to where Endeavor is sitting in the stands, looking down on them with a scowl. Their eyes meet and Izuku loses his breath for a moment at the swirling emotions in his classmates' eyes. Izuku puts on his best determined face, and gets into something like a fighting stance.

Midnight yells go and the ground is immediately covered in ice. Izuku hops on a cloud and begins flying at top speed toward Todoroki. The bicoloured boy dodges him and sends up an ice spike, getting Izuku to swerve out of the way at the last second, and almost go over the boundary line.

They trade blows back and forth, Todoroki sending ice shooting at Izuku, and Izuku dodging and sending back thick clouds in retaliation. At some point, Izuku had switched from flying to walking. Todorki had eventually slowed down, shaking with cold, his lips turning blue and his finger becoming covered in frost. At that point Izuku starts seeing more and more openings to end the fight, but he keeps hesitating to do so. The fact is Todoroki should be able to beat him.

For a second, Izuku glances up at the announcers booth, where he can spot Aizawa and Present Mic.

Let it not be said that Izuku is not kind. But he does not give Todoroki his victory.

“Come on Todoroki! It’s your power! It’s yours!” He shouts, silencing the cheering audience for a moment.

Heat fills the stadium and before he can be too badly burned, he wraps himself in a cloud and is pushed out of the arena.

Todoroki does end up only getting second place, but Izuku still claps for him, maybe even louder than he claps for Kacchan. The students all stay late, for various things. Most of his classmates are driven home by their parents, but Izuku simply hops on the train. People who had been watching the Sports Festival live high five him and pat him on the back.

It’s nice, but he is thankful when it gets to his stop. Living in a part of town that doesn’t care about the Sports Festival is actually very refreshing after having worried about it for so long. By the time he gets to his apartment, the sky has darkened.

He takes the stairs two at a time up to his apartment. Unlocking the door to his apartment and slipping in, he is immediately hit with the smell of disinfectant and blood.

Himiko is kneeling beside the couch with a cool washcloth, bandages and antiseptic spray next to her. On his couch, laying in a fitful sleep is a man with patch work scars all up and down his bare skin and jet black hair. Multiple fresh burns over his body ooze blood and pus.

Himiko looks at him and smiles nervously. 

“Himiko,” he sighs, “what the fuck?”

Chapter Text

Izuku, despite being very confused, helps Himiko clean the burns and other injuries the man has. After they are done, they leave him to sleep and head up to Izuku’s bed.

“Okay, tell me exactly what happened?” Izuku asks.

Himiko nods, “Okay, so what happened was…”

Himiko is called early on the day of the sports festival. One of her coworkers had called in sick and everyone else was busy.

She had silently protested the idea of being called in during the day given she works the night shift, and had been planning on watching Izuku compete in the Sports Festival. Thankfully, there is a shitty tv within view of the register, so she’ll be able to watch still, she just hated the idea of having to work during that.

She gets there quickly and punches in. Given it’s basically a holiday, everyone taking a day off to watch the Sports Festival, or going to the arena, she doesn’t have a lot of people coming through.

She watches and lets herself cheer out loud when Izuku wins first place in the obstacle course. “You got money on the kid?” The customer in front of her asks.

“Oh, no, he’s my roommate, he’s here for school, but his parents are in Tokyo so we live together.” She responds easily.

The man nods. “Huh, if it was my kid I wouldn’t let him live with his girlfriend.” He leaves with his things and Himiko rolls her eyes.

Everyone always seems to assume they are dating. She gets why they might, her and Izuku hold hands sometimes when they are out, she’ll kiss him on the cheek sometimes, and they live together. But that’s really only because he’s her only friend. Well, and Katsuki, who hangs out at their apartment a lot. He’s loud and exciting, and when Izuku is tired and not in the mood to talk, Himiko and Katsuki hang out. He’s great, but Izuku is her best friend. Her first friend in a while. He means the world to her, so everytime he does something amazing, or spectacular, she cheers for him, even if there are people in the store who stare at her.

After her shift is over, she stays for a little longer, to finish watching the festival. She knows Izuku will need to stay after it’s over for a couple of things, so she heads out, hoping to get home before him and get something for dinner as a surprise.

She walks down the street, picking up a couple containers of chinese food. After that she heads home. Already the sky is starting to darken. She walks past a dive bar, but is stopped by the smell of burning. Not from the bar, but from the alley next to it. She sets the food down and gets close to the wall, peering around the corner.

Two men are hitting each other, in some sort of bar fight that has moved outside. The first man is rather unremarkable, with brown hair, wearing a ruffled blazer, probably having drinks after work. The second man is much more interesting. His black hair is spiked up in every direction. His long black coat had holes burned and worn through it, and Himiko gets a clear view of the wicked burns all over his body, some old and mostly healed, other fresh and leaking blood. The black haired man’s fist is shrouded in blue fire.

They are both sloppy, both drunk, but the black haired man is practically limping through the fight, with his burns giving him a major disadvantage. The first man punches him hard in the jaw and he drops. Obviously he’s not used to this side of town, given he looks worried. He runs from the alley, right past Himiko who blends back into the shadows as he passes.

She enters the alley, where he’s lying, his fists and various parts of his body basically smoking. She leans down and touches his face, which is hot to the touch. She pulls out her phone, her fingers hovering over 911. But… this is not the type of guy that would be able to afford a hospital room, she knows.

Two months ago, she would have left him. Or actually, she might have bled him nearly dry and then left him. She sighs, feeling distinctly like she is going to regret this.

She wakes him just enough that she can help him stand, and move his arms around her, letting him support his weight on her. They walk back to the apartment and the second his head hits the couch, he is out again.

She grabs antiseptic wipes, bandages, and other medical supplies from the bathroom and starts trying to help. As she starts wrapping his burned hands, she realizes she had forgotten dinner in the alley.

“Okkkaayyyyyyyy.” Izuku responds.

“What do we do with him?” Himiko asks, heating up the oven and putting in mini pizzas that they had in the freezer.

“You brought him home without a plan?” Izuku asks incredulously.

She glances at him with her eyebrow raised, “Did you have a plan when you brought me home?”

“Touche.” Izuku shrugs. They eat dinner in Izuku’s bed and watch a movie on his laptop. They both fall asleep, given the man is asleep where Himiko sleeps. 

When the first rays of morning light shine in through the window Izuku cracks his eyes up. Himiko is still asleep, so he shuffles out of his bed as quietly as he can and heads down to the kitchen for breakfast.

He’s pouring a bowl of cereal when a pointed cough makes him turn around. The man is sitting up, inspecting his bandages and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Before the man can start asking questions, Izuku asks one. “What’s your name?”

“Dabi,” he says, his voice gravelly.

“Cool, I’m Izuku.” Izuku finishes pouring himself cereal and getting out a spoon. Izuku pulls one of the bean bags over to the coffee table in front of the couch and sits down, digging into his breakfast, in between bites, he asks Dabi, “What do you remember?” 

Dabi groans, probably from a hangover, or from being punched in the head. “Um, getting into it with this guy at the bar. Bartender kicked us out but we kept fighting in the alley. He got a good hit to my head and I went down. It’s all kind of a blur after that.”

Izuku nods. “Yeah. My roommate was walking past while that happened, she took you back here.”

Dabi nods, looking around the tiny apartment. In the time since starting to rent it, Izuku and later Himiko had both made it their own. With posters of movies and bands, clothes all over the place, little paintings of flowers and butterflies on the wooden furniture and strange eclectic furniture found at the trash beach or on the street. “Where are your parents?”

Izuku keeps cool, slurping at the milk left over. “Not here.” Dabi looks at him, expecting more. There are a number of different answers he could give. But given Dabi’s general nonchalonce at the situation, and the fact that Izuku simply gets a good vibe from him, he tells the truth. “My parents are divorced, and I’m not flying to my dad in America just cause my mom doesn’t want me. Himiko, my roommate, was kicked out. We rent the place ourselves.”

Dabi nods. The talking must have woke her up, because Himiko comes trudging down the loft stairs, peering at them through sleep hazed eyes. She makes her own bowl of cereal and sits down in a bean bag next to Izuku. Izuku gets Dabi a bowl as well, and another bowl for himself and the three of them eat breakfast together.

They both try to ask Dabi questions, but his answers are all vague at best. When he mentioned he had recently lost his apartment, the two of them glanced at each other, and silently agreed to let Dabi stay.

Dabi doesn’t even realize until he thanks them for letting him spend the night and tries to leave. He stands and tries to walk to the door. Izuku and Himiko scramble out of their bean bag chairs and rush to block him from the door. “Actually,” Izuku begins, “We need to do some grocery shopping today, do you think you could come with us? You're an adult and people always ask where our parents are.” Himiko nods furiously next to him.

He glares down at them, squinting at their pleading faces. “I’ll probably prompt more questions actually, given my whole look.” He gestures at the various burns and bandages, along with his grungy clothing.

“We can tell people you’re our goth older brother!” Himiko exclaimed. “Please!” She stares up at him with her best pleading eyes.

“First of all, I’m more crust punk than I am goth.” He corrects her. “Secondly, fine.” 

Izuku and Himiko both cheer. They both rush to change from pajamas into street clothes, grabbing their grocery bags and putting their shoes on.

The three of them leave the apartment, hoping on the train going into the nicer part of town, to the big super store. 

Izuku has a list of things to pick up for dinners, along with snacks and other essentials. Everytime Dabi lingers on something, Izuku grabs it. When they get to the register, Dabi even helps them pay! They spend almost two hours grocery shopping, then go to a cafe for lunch. They spend the whole day together, Himiko and Izuku dragging Dabi around, going to the apartment to drop off the food, then back out to get Himiko a mattress and some more pillows from the thrift store, then to Mr Wacom’s office on the ground floor to give him the rent. They come up with random things to do so Dabi doesn’t have a chance to leave. By the time they crash back at the apartment, the sun has gone down and they eat leftovers in the fridge. 

As they eat, Dabi checks his cracked watch. “Crap, it’s really late, I should get going.”

“Or,” Izuku says casually, “you could just stay here the night?”

“We wouldn’t mind.” Himiko adds.

Dabi looks conflicted at their offer, but again their pleading faces sway him and he eventually accepts. Before bed, they push Himiko’s mattress to the other corner, where her bed will go. They need to head to trash beach tomorrow to find some things to make a makeshift bed frame for her, and to buy a curtain so she has some privacy, especially with an extra person living with them, not that he knows that yet.

Dabi crashes on the couch again, exhausted from being dragged around all day. After he falls asleep, Himiko and Izuku congregate back in his bed.

“Do you think he’ll stay?” Himiko asks, nervousness touching her voice.

“I think so.” Izuku says with a small smile.

They fall asleep in his bed.

Chapter Text

The next day the three of them head out to the trash beach.

“So what exactly are we looking for?” Dabi asks, looking through a pile and throwing garbage in a bag.

“Well, anything really.” Izuku says, inspecting a waterlogged book that's unfortunately too damaged to save, before throwing it in the bag. “We clean up here and anything we find that might be useful we take home and fix up. But we need to find a curtain so Himiko has a bit of privacy, along with something for a bed frame.”

Dabi nods and keeps looking for anything interesting.

“Hey!” They both look over at Himiko, who is holding up a couple of milk crates. “We could use these!”

Izuku nods and they pack up their things. All together, they’ve collected two bags of trash, some only slightly damaged dishes, and enough milk crates to keep Himiko’s bed off the floor.

They get back to the apartment, and once again, Dabi looks about ready to leave. Himiko quickly distracts him by asking him to help with moving her bed. Much like yesterday, they do everything they can to distract Dabi from leaving. They watch a movie, clean the apartment, bake cookies, and like yesterday, by the time they run out of things to do, it’s night and Dabi crashes on the couch.

Izuku comes into school on monday to high fives and compliments from the other UA students. Apparently, his performance was good enough to warrant some respect from the other students, even if he didn’t win. 

Kacchan catches up to him, “Hey, you and Himiko didn’t answer any of my texts, what the fuck is with that?”

“Oh,” Izuku sighs, “We have another roommate.”

“You what?”

“Yeah, guy with a fire quirk, he’s our new roommate. He doesn’t know that yet though.” Izuku smiles, “You can come over and meet him.”

Kacchan rolls his eyes, “Moya, one stray wasn’t enough?”

“Nope!” Izuku says, with a skip in his step. They get to class and both notice the somber air around Iida. Izuku leans close and whispers, “What’s with him?”

“You didn’t hear?” Kacchan whispers back. “Ingenium was injured during the sports festival. He’ll never walk again.”

Izuku's eyes widened, “No way, which villain?”

Kacchan glances around to make sure no one is listening, “The Hero Killer.”

Izuku rears back and glances at Iida, who’s staring down at his desk, not even scolding Kacchan as he throws his feet up on the desk. “Oh, shit.”

The class slowly fills, some people noticing the mood, others not. Yaomomo goes over and puts a comforting hand on Iida’s shoulder for a moment before going to her desk.

Aizawa comes in with Midnight. “Alright class, today is important, but not really my area, so Midnight will lead class for today.” He lays down in his sleeping bag and lets her take over.

Midnight stands tall and introduces the lesson. “Hero names!” She says with a flourish. “It’s one of the most important parts of your hero identity! It should strike fear into enemies and comfort civilians. It needs to encompass the kind of hero you want to be.” She hands out white boards and markers to each of them. “You’ll take the next half hour deciding what you want to be called, then you’ll present it to the class. This doesn’t have to be permanent, but a bad name can follow you.” She warns, then lets them start.

Already students are talking, trading names back and forth, trying to find something that fits them. Izuku taps his marker against the board, going through the dozens of names from his childhood. At one point, he had thought about going by Loud Cloud, but it didn’t seem right. He wanted to honor his uncle, but he wants his own name, something that is just his.

He sits like that for nearly 20 minutes before a shadow falls over his desk. He looks up to find Aizawa standing in front of him, still in his sleeping bag. He shuffles an arm out of the yellow monstrosity and plucks the marker from Izuku’s hand. Hunching over the board, Izuku can’t see what he rights until Aizawa spins the board around for Izuku to see.

Izuku reads it and looks up at Aizawa curiously. His teacher just goes back up to the front of the class and goes back to sleep.

Midnight calls for them to start sharing their names. Izuku smiles as his classmates explain their names. Though it does fall when Iida presents his. Izuku’s heart aches for his friend.

When it is finally Izuku’s turn, he comes up to the podium to show the class his name.

“ Atlas .”

Chapter Text

Izuku takes his stack of papers home with him, wanting to get Himiko and Dabi’s input on who he should intern with. Himiko hangs over his shoulder as he reads through them.

“Hey, wait, is that Hawks?” Himiko asks, pointing at one of the agency names.

Dabi looks up from where he’d been stirring a pot of pasta sauce as they speak. “Yeah, Tokoyami got an offer too.”

“Why would he request you? You don’t exactly fit the bird theme.”

“Well, I can sort of fly I guess,” Izuku shrugs. “Should I choose him?”

“He’s pretty impressive, and you can check out some gear he has for flying and stuff.” Himiko suggests.

“Dabi?” Izuku asks, noticing the man hasn’t moved in quite a while, “What do you think?”

He takes a deep breath and says, “I think he’d be a good choice.” That’s all he says on the matter, going back to preparing dinner.

Himiko and Izuku glance at each other, concerned, but let it go.

The next day, Izuku hands in his forms to Aizawa. 

“Hawks?”He sks, glancing down at the page.

“Yeah, I figured he could help me with the flying I do using my clouds.” Izuku tells him. Aizawa nods. During lunch, Izuku gets out his computer and sits in the grass near the front of the building with Katsuki. They hadn’t spent a lot of time together, one on one. At school they are always with their friends, and Himiko is usually at the apartment when Katsuki is.

It’s nice to sit together again, just the two of them, like old times.

Izuku has been searching up all of Hawks movements in the last few weeks. Apparently he’s been working in Hosu for the last month or so, helping with the Hero Killer case. Izuku is excited, because he’ll be working with Tokoyami and in the same city as Iida, and Todoroki.

“So, tell me about your new roommate?” Kacchan asks, after Izuku puts his computer away.

“Oh, yeah,” Izuku tells him all about how Himiko had found Dabi, “And now we’re trying to trick him into moving in.”

“How’s that going?”

“Good!” Izuku says excitedly, “We just found a bunch of stuff to do, then he crashes on the couch, plus it means we finally got Himiko a bed.”

“Yeah, usually people have beds where they live, dumbass.” Kacchan rolls his eyes and listens to Izuku chat about his new roommate.

Izuku trains extra hard in preparation for working under Hawks. He’s the number 3 hero, and Izuku needs to impress him. Hawks’ favor could mean a fast track to big things, but if he doesn’t like Izuku, his hero career could be over in moments.

When he voices that fear to his roommates, Himiko consoles him, telling him to do his best and Hawks will like him. Dabi agrees vehemently, saying, “Bird Brain will love you.”

Izuku and Himko both look at him weirdly for a moment in confusion, before shrugging and going back to eating.

Izuku drops by the cafe, and puts in a time off request. Mr Suzuki is happy to grant it, and April, one of his coworkers, is happy to take his hours. His coworkers all wish him good luck on his internship.

He packs his bag and gets up early the morning he is supposed to leave. Himiko and Dabi rub sleep out of their eyes as they both walk him to the bus stop that will take him to UA. There he’ll meet up with Tokoyami and they’ll take the train together to Hosu, along with the other students going to the city.

He gives both of them quick hugs, then hops on the bus. Since it’s so early, the bus is nearly empty, and when he gets the UA there are no lights on, and the only students are the hero students leaving for internships. He waves to Tokoyami, who nods back.

“You’re going with Goth Bird?” Kacchan asks from behind him.

Izuku nods, “Yeah, he seems cool, so I’m hoping we get to know eachother better.”

Kacchan nods.

The students all mill around one another, talking and leaning on each other sleepily. They had been told to get to the school by 7:00 am sharp, because certain students needed to be on the road all day to get where they needed to go. Luckily for Izuku and the other kids going to Hosu, it would only take two hours by train to get there. But Aizawa had told them all to come at the same time, and no one was going to argue with him.

Speaking of their teacher, he and Mic pull up in a bright yellow sports car, which Izuku is sure was Present Mic’s decision. They also gave a ride to Vlad Kind apparently, because the large man squeezes himself out of the back seat and heads towards his students, grumbling the whole time. Aizawa and Mic head for 1-A and they all gather together.

Aizawa and Mic start handing out packets to each of the students. Information on the cities they’ll be in, student identification, where they need to go, who will meet them at their stations, ect. Izuku and Tokoyami’s is shorter than the rest, with students ID, and instructions to ‘look for a sign at the train station, they’ll know which one’. They both glance at each other confused.

“Alright, some of you have long trips ahead of you, so I’ll keep this quick.” Aizawa says, gathering the attention of the class. “Listen to your supervising heroes, listen to any rescue workers, any cops or EMTs. You are not heroes yet. Literally everyone has more seniority than you, so you listen. Under no circumstances should I be getting a call or email from your supervising hero, so stay out of trouble or so help me Kami. I want to be clear, your behavior now dictates whether or not you get to participate in the Work Studys late this year. Do not fuck this up.” He gives them a sharp nod and walks towards the school.

“Alright, Listeners!” Mic says, clapping his hands happily, “You’ve all got to catch your rides, let's get a move on!”

The students all grab their bags and go in different directions. Some had chosen to stay in the city, so didn’t actually need to be up so early. Some had to catch a bus, but most of them were heading to the train station. The station is luckily only a few blocks away, so close enough to walk.

They travel in a large pack, chatting to one another. Iida is at the front of the group, not speaking to anyone. Izuku falls into step with Uraraka, “Hey, how’s Iida doing?”

She sighs, “I don’t really know. Not good, but he won’t talk to me about it.” She glances at him, a nervous look on her face, “I really don’t like the thought of him going to Hosu, especially since he’s the only one for Manual’s agency.”

“Well, I’m going to Hosu too, I could try to keep an eye on him, if we see each other.” Izuku says, giving her a comforting smile.

She sighs in relief, “Thanks.”

He pats her on the back and they continue walking to the station. They get there and immediately people start splitting up, looking for the train to bring them to their city. Izuku, Tokoyami, Todoroki and Iida all head to the train marked for Hosu station. Izuku walks next to Todoroki, the two of them chatting a little bit. They all board the train together, and Izuku falls asleep quickly when the train starts along the tracks.

Chapter Text

Izuku, Todoroki, Iida, and Tokoyami all hop off the train at the Hosu station. Iida and Todoroki both spot the people picking them up quickly and depart. Todoroki wishes them well, but Iida just walks away, uncharacteristically rude.

“Do you see ours?” Izuku asks.

Tokoyami scans the ground then sighs and gestures in a direction. Izuku looks, and chokes on his laugh. A young woman stands near the entrance, looking rather embarrassed as she holds up a sign that says, “Bird Besties!!” The sign is covered in glitter.

“You think that’s it?” Izuku snorts.

“Unfortunately, yes.” Tokoyami sighs and shoulders his bag, walking over. Izuku laughs and follows him.

As they get closer, the young lady comes into more focus. She is wearing plain clothes, but Izuku recognizes her. The Angel Hero: Michael. She is easy to identify because of the large white wings she has tucked behind her. They glisten in the sun, and sparkle like they’ve been dusted with glitter. Her dark skin shines as well, like there is gold light under her skin. Her stark white hair is done with beautiful goddess braids. Izuku understands where she got her moniker. 

She tucks the sign under her arm and shakes their hands. “Hi, I’m Atarah Kuroiwa, you two must be Midoriya and Tokoyami.” She smiles brightly at them.

They both introduce themselves and she leads them to where they will train with Hawks. “Sorry about the sign, talk about embarrassing, right?” She laughs as they start walking. “It was the boss's idea, and I pulled the short straw. Oh, no offence, I meant the sign.” Izuku laughs with her, and Tokoyami nods with them. The city is bustling and loud, people rushing past them. Kuroiwa chats about the city, and about what they’ll be doing, which seems to be mostly regular training, shadowing heroes on patrol, and doing paperwork.

Izuku knows immediately when they get to the agency Hawks is using. Usually the flying hero would be shooting all over the country, stopping crimes in various cities and prefectures, but because he’s been called in to assist with Stain, he has settled in one of the many Nests run by his agency, located all over the country. Izuku can tell it’s the Nest, because of the large protrusions of metal sticking out various spots on the tall building. Izuku questions what the purpose is, before he spots a hero with holographic fairy-like wings walking out onto the lowest protrusion, jogging to the edge and kicking off into the air.

Land and take off. Duh.

They enter the building and Kuroiwa procurse two ID’s, and key card’s for them. “You’ll be staying in the dorms, two people in a room, so you’ll share. These will get you where you need to go, make sure you always have them on you, and try not to lose them.” She leads them to an elevator that takes them up to the dorms, they then drop off their bags and switch into their hero costumes. She then takes up another 100 floors, to the top floor. 

The elevator opens to a lavish open concept living room/office, and the sound of loud rock music. The four walls are entirely see through, and Izuku is almost sick at the sight of how far up they are. Fancy couches and chairs, two flat screen tvs and a glass coffee table. Milling around near a buffet of food is a blonde man with large red wings tucked behind him. Hawks.

He doesn’t seem to notice them. Kuroiwa leads them into the penthouse and calls for Hawks’ attention. “Hawks.” He doesn’t respond, “Hawks!” She tries calling for him a few more times before simply walking over to a computer mounted in the wall and turns down the music. “Hawks!”

He turns around, “Michael! What’s up?”

“Your interns are here.” She gestures to Izuku and Tokoyami, who are both standing awkwardly near the elevator.

“Oh, right! That’s today.” Hawks turns to them and walks over shaking each of their hands, “Hey, I’m Hawks, but you knew that already.”

“I’m Izuku Midoriya!”

“Fumikage Tokoyami.”

“Thanks for bringing them up Michael, I’ll call if I need your help.” Hawks dismisses her, and she leaves.

Hawks gestures for them to follow him to a room off to the side. The room is largely empty, except for some weights and other workout equipment pushed off to the side. There are no walls, not even made of glass. This far up, the air gets chilly, and Izuku is glad for his uncle's jacket.

“You two can fly?” Hawks asks.

Both of them look at each other nervously, before Tokoyami shakes his head and Izuku makes a so-so motion.

“Tell me about what you can do.” He points to Izuku.

“Oh, um, I can make clouds solid enough to support a person's weight.” Izuku explains.

“Show me.”

Izuku quickly spins a cloud under himself, floating up until he can reach the roof of the building, before coming back down. Hawks nods, and has Tokoyami give a display of his power as well. Hawks nods again and lead them to the edge of the building. Izuku peaks over the edge. He can feel the tight grip Hawks have on the back of his jacket. He won’t let us fall. From so far above, Izuku can’t make out any detail about the world below. The wind brushes against his cheeks and runs through his hair with the tenderness of an old friend. 

Then the wind overtakes him. He is spinning through the air, his feet have left solid ground. The panic resolves into action and he pulls his goggles up over his eyes. He gains his bearings in the fall and sees Tokoyami falling next to him. That asshole! They lock eyes through Izuku’s goggles, and Izuku reaches over, locking an arm around Tokoyami’s waist. Under them, Izuku blows out a cloud that they land on heavily.

The cloud begins to rise up and a flash of red appears in front of them. Hawks is beating his wings in front of them, pushing them over the roof of a nearby apartment building. Izuku forces the cloud to descend until he and Tokoyami are able to disembark safely and the cloud dissipates. Tokoyami breathes heavily, his fingers digging into the gravel covering the roof. Izuku is heaving, breathing lung fulls of desperate air. Hawks land on the roof as well.

He’s nodding, with a smile gracing is stupid face. “Not bad you two, good work.”

Izuku whips his head around. Tokoyami is glaring at the hero, and Izuku copies his expression. “‘Not bad’!?” Izuku shouts. His next words, if he’s thinking practically, should be nothing short of thankful that Hawks even agreed to let them work for him, but Izuku can’t think logically after almost falling to his death. “You pushed us! What the hell!?”

Hawks waves his complaints away, “I wouldn’t have let you hit the ground!” He chortles at the idea.

Izuku doesn’t stop glaring as Hawks tells them to make their way back to the agency, and find Michael, so she can teach them about paperwork.Then he promptly flies away, leaving them on the roof. There is no access door to the building, but there is a fire escape. Izuku stomps down the fire escape, huffing and puffing the entire time. Tokoyami followed behind him, back to his sullen, brooding demeanour. They walk back to the agency, just a block away from where they landed, and flash their key cards to get in.

Then find Michael, already doing paperwork on the 10th floor, thankfully entirely walled in with sturdy glass. The rest of their day is spent doing blessedly boring paperwork.

The next day, after breakfast in the large cafeteria, surrounded by winged heroes, they head back up to the top floor, as Michael told them to. This time when Hawks take them to the training room with no walls, they both stay clear of the edge.

It doesn’t help much when, while Hawks is explaining the training  regime for the next week, two small feathers shoot out and push them faster than they can think towards the edge. As Izuku goes over the side, the only thing he can think to shout at that smug bird is a heartfelt, “YOU ASSHOLE!”

He slips his goggles on even faster than yesterday, and this time when he reaches out to Tokoyami, the bird headed boy grabs his arm as well, and they embrace, allowing Izuku to blow out a cloud. Hawks once again uses his wings to push them towards a nearby roof, allowing them to get down.

“Better, faster than yesterday.” Hawks tells them once they catch their breaths.

Izuku glares, “Is this going to be an everyday thing?”

“Probably.” Hawks shrugs and flys away, leaving them to make their way back once again.

Izuku glares as he leaves. Thankfully this building does have an access door, and no lock. As they trudge down the service stairs, Izuku mumbles, “I hate that chicken.”

“I really hate that damn chicken.” Izuku complains to Tokoyami.

“Oh what a mad banquet of darkness.” Tokoyami says, which Izuku takes to mean he agrees. 

The third day, and the third time that week they had been pushed from about 200 floors up. That day they had kept their attention on Hawks, watching for any stray feathers. But today he had instead enlisted help. A pro hero that works at the Nest, that could not only fly, but could also turn invisible. They had been lying in wait for the right moment, before barreling into both of them, sending them flying out of the training area again.

This time, Izuku had left his goggles on when they got up there. Tokoyami had used Dark Shadow to grab Izuku from a distance, pulling him to the other boy, while Izuku created the cloud. They had finished even faster than last time.

Izuku is getting really sick of being thrown off roofs.

Chapter Text

Pixie and Ikarus are the ones to take them on their first actual patrol. Both of them have wing quirks. Pixie is a man in his early thirties, with magenta hair, and beautiful holographic wings. Ikarus is a solidly built man with dark skin and blonde dreads. Izuku and Tokoyami follow behind them as they walk their patrol route. Izuku asks Pixie about his quirk while they walk.

“They look really fragile?” Izuku ponders.

“They are but they heal very quickly too. Plus they move so fast, most villains can’t actually get their hands on them.” Pixie explains. He emphasises his point by fluttering the glimmering wings so quickly they blur together.

“Cool!!”

Izuku is about to ask a myriad more questions, but the shouting begins. Around them, Nomu, like from the USJ, descends on the city. Ikarus darts off, immediately engaging with one of the nomu. Before Pixie leaves he says, “Evacuate civilians, do not engage the nomu!”

Tsukyomi and Atlas nod resolutely and rush into the fray. All around them people are shouting, running from the nomu. Izuku is dragging injured civilians to the EMT’s that arrive. More and more heroes arrive to help, and Izuku spots Manual directing his agency. But he doesn’t see Iida.

Atlas jogges over and asks him, “Manual! Where’s Iida?” 

Manual turns to Izuku, looking panicked. “I don’t know, we arrived, I turned my back, and then he’s gone!” Izuku nods and looks around, not spotting distinctive blue hair and pristine white armour in the chaos. Iida, where are you? Izuku dreads the first, and most probable answer that comes to mind. Damn it!

He blows out a cloud and rises above the fighting, dodging flying debris. He soars over the chaos, peaking into alleyways and behind buildings, looking in Stain’s hunting ground, before he finally spots them. 

In an alleyway, just a few blocks from the most dense fighting, is Iida, his armour bloody and scuffed. He lays prone on the ground, and a shape stalks closer to him, who Izuku guesses is Stain. There is another man lying in the alley, slumped against the wall and bleeding out fast. 

Izuku pushes the cloud to just over where Stain is. Thankfully no one ever questions a cloud passing overhead. Izuku lets the cloud disperse right over top of Stain. He falls, positioning himself like an arrow down, aimed right for Stain. He draws his staff. Stain looks up too late. The impact ends with a satisfying crunch.  

Stain stumbles back, clutching his nose, which is gushing blood. Izuku flips, and rushes over to Iida. “Iida!” He shakes his classmate, “Iida, can you hear me?” He pulls the helmet off to see Iida’s face screwed up in pain. “Iida, can you move?”

“No, Midoriya, Atlas, what are you doing here?” Iida snaps.

“Saving you!” Iida clearly can’t move, so Izuku tries to drag him out of the alley.

“Not so fast.” Izuku looks up to see Stain whipping away the blood on his chin. “It is noble to try and save your friend, but he is a fake hero, and must be culled. Step aside now, and you will be spared.”

“Not gonna happen.” Izuku lets Iida go and twirls his staff. 

“This is not your business.” Stain spits, drawing his katana.

“Getting involved in other people's business is kind of what a hero does.” Before any more talking can happen, Izuku leaps at Stain, his staff raised. Stain has his sword up to meet him. Metal clashes against metal, as they parry eachothers moves. Stain is by far the more skilled swordsman, stronger, and has way more experience. But Izuku is quick and agile. And most importantly, fighting for his life.

Izuku dodges one of Stain’s slashes, sliding under his leg and hitting his back hard with the butt of his staff. Stain grunts and whirls around slashing at Izuku. He jumps out of the way.

“Impressive, young hero, what is your name?” Stain grins, his tongue flicking to the side.

Izuku stands as tall as he can, spinning his staff again. “I am Atlas: The Cloud Hero. And I will not let you continue to kill people!” He shouts. 

He charges Stain again, this time with a cloud under him. He avoids Stain’s strikes, but feels himself getting tired. His throat is dry as sandpaper, and his arms are shaking. He texts the group chat as best he can, giving out only a location. Before he can add more, Stain uses a knife to knock the phone from his hand.

“Focus on the fight, hero!” Stain shouts.

Izuku changes tactics, splitting his bo staff into a pair of escrima sticks. He parry’s Stain’s moves as quick as he can, but Stain does end up catching Izuku’s leg with a deep gough. Izuku doesn’t make a sound as agony overtakes his thigh. Izuku snarls.

Stain’s smile grows. The blade he had cut Izuku with is held lightly in his hand. His snake-like tongue darts out of his mouth, flicking over the blade. Izuku recoils, but before he can do much else, he feels his muscles lock up, and he falls to the ground.

“You certainly gave me a fight, little hero.” Stain praised him, “You get to live. Your friend does not.”

“No!” Izuku finds he can still speak, and shouts at Stain, “No! Take me instead! Please!’

Stain tutts as he walks towards Iida, “There is no changing my mind, Atlas.” Stain is within stabbing distance of Iida when the temperature of the alley plummets. A bolt of ice shoots out at Stain, knocking him against the back wall of the alley.

The air is so cold Izuku can see his breath as he shouts out, in a mixture of joy and relief, “Shoto!” 

The half hot half cold hero holds up his phone, with the alley’s location dinging. “Be more specific next time, I was almost late.”

Izuku laughs hysterically, then shouts, “Don’t let him cut you, if he ingests your blood he can paralyse you!”

“Thanks for the heads up.” At that point, Stain recovers from the brutal hit and charges Shoto. Shoto sends ice walls to meet him, even as Stain punches through each of them. When Stain finally gets to Shoto, he meets the villain with a flaming fist to the face. They engage in combat.

Izuku shivers at the rapidly fluctuating temperature as he tries to move. The feeling returns first in his fingers, thankfully clutching his staff. As feeling returns to him, he uses the staff to help pick himself up. He glances back to see the fight continuing. Shoto won’t last forever, but Izuku decides to focus on the injured first. He drags the unconscious hero, who Izuku now recognizes as Native, out of the alley. Then goes back for Iida, who is fighting the paralysis. As he drags Iida out, his classmate says, “You shouldn't have gotten involved! This isn’t your business!”

“Like I told Stain, getting involved in other people's business is what a hero does.” Izuku taps Iida’s face lightly before standing up. “Now, are you going to hero up, or just lay there and bleed?”

Before Iida can answer, Shoto shouts for assistance from the alley. Izuku runs back in, sending a cloud to knock into Stain hard, who had previously had Shoto pinned. Izuku pulls his friend up. 

“Let’s finish this.” Izuku says.

Shoto nods firmly. They push apart, dodging Stain as he tries to cut them both down. Izuku uses his clouds to give them both a boost, getting Shoto above Stain, to blast fire down at the man.

“And who is this new hero? Arriving to save the fakes?” Stain taunts, “Foolish. Noble, but foolish.”

“Heroic, you mean?” Izuku taunts back, enjoying the annoyed look on Stain’s face. 

Stain charges them again, but before he can get very far, a flash of white shoots past Izuku and Shoto, directly at Stain’s katana. The force of the impact is so strong, it shatters the blade, sending shrapnel flying.

Iida stands before them, his helmet returned to where it belongs. He stands tall as he faces Stain. “Villain, you are right! I have been selfish, but I will not let others suffer for my mistake!” Iida darts at Stain, zig zagging to avoid the throwing knives Stain lobs at him.

“Make sure he can’t get the upper hand! I’m going high.” Izuku says to Shoto, who nods and starts icing Stain in. Izuku pulls a cloud and gets above Stain, zooming down to hit Stain with his staff.

It takes one final hit from Izuku’s staff, right on Stain’s head, to knock him unconscious. All three of the hero students breathe a sigh of relief. They tie Stain up and drag him out of the alley. Izuku almost cries with relief when he sees police, ambulances and heroes waiting for them outside the alley. Native is being loaded onto a stretcher, and police quickly come to take Stain from them. Pixie, Ikarus, and Tsukuyomi rush over to Izuku. He sees Manual rushing to Iida, and Endeavour staring at his son. Shoto only stares back.

Above them, something swoops down, and Izuku feels pain explode as a nomu with wings digs its claws into his torso and begins to fly away. The hero’s shout, preparing to attack, but before they can, the nomu is slashed almost to pieces, by Stain. Izuku falls, but catches himself on a cloud before he can hit the ground.

Stain, having somehow freed himself, stands before the heroes. He raves about the society he wishes to create, with no false heroes and fake righteousness. Before he can escape, heroes and police swarm him, and he is quickly knocked out again.

Izuku glances around at his fellow injured heroes. Then he looks down at the deep gouges in his torso from the nomu’s claws, and the stab wound in his thigh, and promptly passes out.

Chapter Text

Izuku is beginning to wake up when the door slams open. He shoots straight up and looks around at his surroundings. He’s in a hospital room, with two other beds, where Shoto and Tenya both lay. They both look towards the door, and Izuku follows their view.

Aizawa Sensei, Manual, Hawks, and a man with a dog head walk into the room. Aizawa looks ready to murder the three of them with his bare hands. Manual is radiating anxiety, and Hawks just looks amused. The other man wears a police chief’s uniform.

“You three are in big trouble.” The Police Chief says. “You all used your quirks without permission, that’s classified as vigilantism.”

“We apprehended a murderer.” Izuku counters.

“While using your quirks.”

“Iida and Native would have died!” Shoto snaps, glaring at the man. “You would have us stand by and watch Stain kill them?” 

“That’s not what we’re saying,” Aizawa cuts in, “but you three need to be more careful in the future, when using your quirks. Because of the lack of witnesses, Nezu was able to smooth things out. No one outside of this room can know it was you three that took down Stain, or else things could get messy.”

“Officially, Endeavour was the one to take Stain in.” Manual tells them.

Izuku sees Shoto clutch the hospital sheet and glare at the heroes and policeman.

“You three were lucky, be thankful there were no cameras in that alley.” The Police Chief gives them a bow. “You did good work taking down Stain, you got a dangerous criminal off the streets, and I look forward to seeing you all become pros. You have bright futures.” He leaves them.

Aizawa immediately begins scolding them. “Dangerous. Stupid. Idiotic. Illogical. Just some words that come to mind when I think about the absolutely insane actions you three took.” He turns to Iida. “Iida, going after a murderer that outclasses you ten times over, for revenge. Midoriya, leaving the fight to look for Iida while the city is being attacked. Todoroki, also leaving the rescue effort because you received one text from Midoriya. Did I get all that right?”

They all nod. “You all should be expelled.” The three of them hold their breath, “But, you did take down a dangerous criminal. Which was pretty impressive. Detention for three weeks when you get back to school.” He sweeps out of the room, muttering about stupid children.

Manual immediately goes to fuss over Iida, and Hawks comes over to Izuku.

“Pixies and Ikarus tell me you were pretty quick under pressure.” Hawks says. Izuku nods. “Obviously, you probably should have at least told one of them you were leaving, but nevertheless, you did good work.” Hawks holds out his fist, and Izuku gives it a little bump. Hawks leaves through the open window.

Manual leaves eventually as well, and Izuku notes that he does not see anyone from the Endeavor agency speak with Shoto.

The first adult to collect their kid is Tenya’s mother. She scolds him profusely, before fussing over him. Tenya says goodbye to both Izuku and Shoto before leaving.

“Is your sister coming to pick you up?” Izuku asks.

“Yes, she should be here in 20 minutes or so. Who is coming to get you?” Shoto asks.

The hospital had called his emergency contact, so Himiko should be arriving in disguise any time now. “Not sure, maybe my mom, maybe my dad.” Izuku tries to be vague. He is even more thankful for his thoughts when 10 minutes later the hospital room door opens, and instead of Himiko wearing a stranger's visage, Dabi walks in, wearing a medical mask and sunglasses to cover up his scars.

“Come on, we gotta go.” Dabi says, helping pack Izuku’s things.

Shoto raises his eyebrow at the man. Izuku laughs awkwardly, “Oh, this is my cousin. Guess my parents asked him to pick me up.”

Izuku sees Dabi glancing over at Shoto. His friend's shoulders hunch even more, and he continues to try and rush Izuku out the door. Shoto stares at them as they leave. Izuku gives him a quick wave before the door shuts behind them. They leave the hospital and hop on the bus. Dabi removes his abysmal disguise and sits next to Izuku at the back of the vehicle.

“What was that?” Izuku hisses.

“What was what?” Dabi counters.

“Himiko is supposed to pick me up, no offence, but you’re not exactly inconspicuous.” Izuku sighs.

“First of all, I take full offence to that, second of all, I told her I could go for her.” Izuku peers up at Dabi, and is almost sure there is more to it, but he chooses to let it go.

“Well, thanks for coming to get me.” Izuku smiles.

Dabi gives him a grin.

When they get home, Himiko has a pillow fort set up over the couch, and Totoro is waiting  to play on the computer. She tosses a pair of clean clothes at Izuku and he changes into a pair of impossibly soft sweatpants, and a hoodie that used to belong to Dabi. She has popcorn ready for them. When Izuku is finished changing, Dabi and Himiko have a space waiting for him on the couch, tucked safely between them.

He grins and sits between them. Totoro begins playing and Izuku hasn’t felt this safe in so long.

June has come so quickly. And with it, the end of term exam.

Class 1-A returns to school with much fanfare, especially the three people involved in the Hosu incident. Tokoyami actually looks rather thankful that he wasn’t involved, given all the attention they are getting. Over the week in Hosu, Izuku can say for certain he had definitely gotten to know Tokoyami better than he had. Izuku could even call them friends.

Aizawa explains that the exam will take place in two parts, written and practical. He tells them nothing about the practical exam, as is to be expected. The written exam is pretty basic. English, Maths, Science, Japanese, Art History, Ethics, Heroics, Ect. Izuku is confident in his ability to pass the written portion. He’ll obviously need to study, to brush up on where he might be a little underprepared, but in the end, it's the practical he is worried about. 

He goes home that night with many packets from all of his classes to help him study. He is thankful when Dabi agrees to make dinner for all three of them. They eat together before Himiko heads to work. Dabi does the dishes as well, which would usually be Izuku’s job, but his roommate had offered so Izuku could have extra time studying.

The class group chat is blowing up with messages, people freaking out at the amount of material they have to work with. Yaomomo and Tenya suggest a study group. Izuku is thankful to have such well organised class presidents.

The next day at school, Kaminari and Kirishima tell the class that they heard from 1-B that they’ll be fighting robots, like from the entrance exam. Izuku breathes a sigh of relief, knowing he can hold his own against the metal monstrosities. And he has way more training than he did at the entrance exam. Most of the class relaxes slightly as well, but Iida reminds them to be vigilant, given the teachers will probably throw a curveball at some point.

Chapter Text

The day of the practical exam arrives, finally. They had taken a full day before to complete the written exam, and will receive the results after all exams are complete. Izuku thinks he did rather well. 

Since Dabi had moved in, he got two different jobs, to help pay the rent. Izuku and Himiko laugh at the fact he still thinks it’s a temporary thing. He works at a mechanic shop during the day, and a dive bar at night. He seems exhausted, but happy to have something to be doing.

Dabi’s boss had let him borrow an old Harley to fix up, so he could get to work easier. The man offers to give Izuku a ride to school the morning of the exam, stating he wants Izuku to have as much energy as he can before his exam. Izuku gratefully accepts his roommates offer.

The old bike sputters to a stop down the street from UA. “Good luck, kid.” Dabi pats him on the back as the greenette hops off the bike. “You’re gonna do great.”

Izuku grins up at Dabi, who he knows is smiling under his bike helmet. “Thanks, Dabi.”

“Call me when you’re done, I’ll try to pick you up.” He gives Izuku’s hair a ruffle before driving off.

“Who was that?”

Izuku jumps out of his skin, and turns around to see Shoto peering down at him. “Shoto! Don’t scare me like that!”

“Sorry, who was that?” The bicoloured boy doesn’t seem very sorry. They are just down the street, and can see where the rest of their class is waiting. Izuku starts walking with Shoto.

“Oh, uh,” Quick! Fucking think of something! “My neighbour offered to give me a ride for the exam.”

Shoto nods. They join the rest of their class. Over the next ten minutes, a few more people arrive. Kami, Mina, and Kiri are the last to arrive.  They all stand in their hero costumes. Aizawa had told them to arrive early. So the twenty of them stood outside the gates of UA at 6am. Izuku spots Sero and Jirou both lying on the ground, using their bags as pillows, and Momo and Tsu leaning on Shoji’s broad back like a pillow. They all look dead on their feet. Well, except for Iida. He looks exactly like he always does. Izuku is actually a little jealous.

Izuku would assume they had to get here so early because they need the whole day for the exam. But 6am is just cruel. 

At about 6:10 a fleet of black trucks arrive at the front of the school. There are ten trucks in total. We must be doing the exam with partners.

Out of the first truck, Aizawa hops out. He walks over to stand before them. He looks as tired as ever, before he graces them with his signature fear striking smile. 

“Good morning, hellions.” He says, “As you’ve noticed, there are only ten transports to the exam. You’ll be going in pairs. I know you’ve heard from 1-B that you'll be fighting robots. However,” oh fuck, “that was a logical ruse.” The class groans in unison, even Iida and Momo. “You will actually be fighting us.”

In his words, nine more pros step out of the other transports. Nezu, 13, Power Loader, Cementoss, Snipe, Midnight, Present Mic, Ectoplasm. Out of the last transport, on heavy feat, steps All Might.

What the fuck?

The teachers grin down at them, and Izuku is seriously regretting every action that took him here. Aizawa starts calling out names, pairings to go with each pro. Izuku watches each transport leave, and has the itching feeling he knows exactly who he’ll be fighting. Because he can never catch a break.

There are only two teachers, and four students left. Izuku, Momo, Shoto, and Katsuki. All Might and Aizawa. His mind rushes through the possible combinations. Him and Shoto, him and Momo, him and Katsuki. All good pairings for him. He works well with all of them. But against Aizawa? Or, god forbid, All Might?

Finally, Aizawa puts him out of his contemplative misery. “Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, you’re with me. Midoriya, Bakugou, you’re with All Might.”

Izuku knows he looks like he’s about to throw up as All Might smiles down at him.

Fuck this school.

Katsuki swallows, but doesn’t let any fear show, and Izuku admires his friend for his impressive poker face. He watches Shoto and Momo leave, and actually envies them for having to fight Erasurhead.

Katsuki and Izuku load into the transport with All Might. All Might hands them each a packet that explains the exam in detail. Already, Izuku has a million and one plans running through his head. All of them feel like they are just short of success. Instead of discussing his idea out loud, he slips his phone out of his pocket, and texts Katsuki.

Moya: This is so fucked

Kacchan: you fucking think

Moya: Don’t get mad at me, we need to plan, and I don’t want him to hear.

Kacchan: good idea

Moya: It says we win by either capturing the villain, or getting to the exit before the time is up. We can’t fight him, we need to go for the exit.

Kacchan: you want us to run from a fight

Izuku glances over at Katsuki, who’s glaring down at his phone.

Moya: We can’t let ego get in our way, we need to be rational.

Kacchan: this isn’t ego

Moya: Then what is it?

Kacchan: …

Kacchan: we’ll go for the exit

Izuku breathes a sigh of relief at his friend's willingness to listen. Katsuki is stubborn and egotistical, but he does his best to listen to Izuku when he gets distracted from the goal at hand.

They drive for another half hour before arriving. The mock city is sprawling, as expected of UA. “You two have 5 minutes to prepare, do not waste them.”

They immediately dart off into the city, away from All Might. They sprint behind a building and climb up a fire escape, into an open 3rd floor window. The apartment is entirely empty, and they duck into a room with only one window. Izuku checks his watch. They have 3 and a half minutes.

“Do we agree? We need to go for the exit.” Izuku confirms. Katsuki doesn’t look happy, but he nods. “Good. All Might doesn’t know that. I’m gonna say something kind of mean.” Katsuki raises his eyebrow, urging his friend to go on, “It’s easy to think you’re short sighted, we can use that to our advantage. We trick All Might into thinking you’re going for the capture, we can distract him, while we make a break for the exit.”

“Not as mean as I thought you were gonna be, you’re kind of an asshole.” Katsuki drawls.

“Not the time, dick.” Izuku rolls his eyes. He shrugs off his jacket, and takes a deep breath in, before blowing out a large cloud. It’s dense, and when Izuku touches it, it feels like the weight of fresh snow. He moulds the cloud into a vaguely human shaped silhouette. Then repeated the process on a slightly larger cloud. He draped his jacket on the shoulders of the first cloud. “Can you take anything off your costume?” Katsuki hands him some costume implements, like his large, spiky mask. “Your gauntlets too.”

Katsuki narrows his eyes, but does hand his gauntlets over. Izuku attaches the gauntlets to cloud Katsuki’s hands. The fakes definitely won’t fool anyone up close, but they just need to distract All Might long enough for them to get to the exit. Katsuki sets a charge on one of the gauntlets, to go off when All Might catches up to the fakes.

Izuku checks his watch again. Only 30 seconds left. Izuku, Katsuki, and the clouds head to the roof. Izuku blows a swirling breath of wind out of his mouth, pushing the fakes out over the roofs.

The two of them drop into the alley way. They start moving through the darkness in the streets avoiding all light. The timer has gone off, and they can both hear All Might pass overhead. They hold their breath, and stand still in the shadows as he passes. Once he has gone, the two of them break off in a dead sprint towards the exit. They weave deftly through the alleys. Izuku can see the gate, however the last stretch of the city is bare, with nowhere to hide.

They continue running into the open, but Izuku lets a dense fog pour from his mouth, covering them. Somewhere behind them, Izuku hears a massive explosion. All Might has found the fakes. And he knows they must be going for the exit.

“Stay low,” Izuku hisses.

All Might lands in the fog, but Izuku keeps breathing more to cover whatever All Might blows away. Izuku has his goggles down, helping him see through the fog. Izuku and Katsuki inch through the fog, getting closer and closer to the exit, while trying not to gain All Might’s attention.

He grabs a handful of stun grenades from Katsuki’s bandelier and carefully rolls them towards All Might. He and Katsuki make eye contact. Izuku holds three fingers and counts down.

When he puts his final finger down, Katsuki blasts the closest grenade, which allows the rest to go off in a chain reaction. They break out in another dead sprint towards the exit. The grenades blow up in All Might's face.

Izuku and Katsuki cross the finish line.

They both fall to the ground, panting. They glance at one another, and break out in uproarious laughter.

They passed!

Chapter Text

Kiyashi Ward Mall is full of people when 1-A gets there. They all require various supplies for their camping trip. Momo and Tenya suggest splitting up to cover more ground, and because all of them won’t fit in the stores they visit.

Izuku breaks off on his own after a while. He never has any time to just enjoy being around strangers and among the hustle and bustle of the city. It’s nice. He had almost everything he needed for the camping trip, and so wandered mostly aimlessly through the mall, in the general direction of the coat store for a new jacket.

“Hey! Are you Izuku Midroiya from the Sports Festival?” Someone calls from behind him.

He turns around with a smile on his face, ready to greet whoever had recognized him, only to come face to face with the grinning face of Shigaraki Tomura. His breath hitches and in his split moment of hesitation, Shigaraki swings his arm over Izuku's shoulders. “Be calm, we’re just two old friends catching up. Try anything and I’ll dust you.”

Izuku nods.

“Let’s find somewhere to sit.” Shigaraki says it with absentmindedness, less threatening than everything else and Izuku responds on auto pitot, like it’s a regular conversation.

“There’s a boba place I like.” He snaps his mouth shut as Shigaraki’s eyes slide over to look at him.

Shigaraki stares at him with a mixture of confusion and his baseline anger. But surprisingly, he shrugs and he walks them toward the boba place. They sit down at a booth across from one another and a waitress comes up immediately. Shigaraki no longer has direct contact with izuku, but the look in his eyes is clear. Try anything and this waitress is dust.

Shigaraki doesn’t even glance at the menu. “Taro milk tea.”

“Honeydew milk tea.” Izuku says. The waitress gives the tense pair a long look but shrugs and goes away to make their orders.

Izuku relaxes slightly at the woman being out of harm's way, but there are lots of people in the mall, and Izuku knows how fast Shigaraki can move. “What did you want to talk about?” Izuku asks, hoping to stall him.

“Stain.” Shigaraki spits the vigilanties name out like it’s poison. “I mean, everyone is talking about him, all the time! Even though I’m the one that released all those Nomu! And attacked the USJ! I almost killed All Might!”

“Your Nomu almost killed All Might.” Izuku says without thinking. He slaps his hand over his mouth, but the words are already out and Shigaraki is staring at him with an unreadable expression. He wonders briefly if begging for mercy would gain him any points with the psycho across from him. No, I’ll at least keep my dignity if he kills me.

Shigaraki blinks a few times in shock, before he breaks out in a round of maniacal laughter that has a few heads in the shop turn to them. He calms down quickly enough, and the waitress brings their drinks over. Shigaraki picks up his drink with his pinky raised, and takes a sip. Izuku does the same, enjoying the sweet fresh taste.

“Anyways, we’re the same, him and I,” Shigarki continues on, “we both destroy things we don’t like. So why is Stain more talked about than me? I don’t get it.”

“And…  you want my opinion?” The idea is so outrageous Izuku has to ask to make sure he’s getting this right.

“Obviously, why would I be talking to you if not?” Shigaraki answers incredulously.

“Okay, well, first of all the mistake you’re making is thinking Stain destroyed for the sake of destruction. He doesn’t. Most people assume that is all villains do, but there is always a reason. Stain’s reason just happens to be something a lot of people can deeply understand.” Izuku begins to explain. “He is working under the idea that all heroes who act heroically for money are false and should be killed, whereas heroes who do good simply for the sake of doing good are true heroes. It’s a simple ideology that a lot of people can get behind.”

Izuku continues, waving his hands, “However the issue with Stain is that he cannot see past his infatuation with All Might. I like All Might as much as the next guy, but he has a fundamentally flawed idea of All Might. He benefits from merch sales, he is paid by the hero commission. Heroics, even if it is a true passion for All Might and he would do it without the paycheck, is a job for All Might. The idea that all heroes that earn money as heroes are false is fundamentally untrue. For me it comes down simply to the fact that people need money to live comfortably, and how can the heroes that save us do that if they are also working a nine to five. Hero’s like Erasurehead and Present Mic do it, but they are special cases.” Izuku takes a deep breath and opens his mouth to continue, before catching sight of Shigaraki’s face.

He looks bewildered by Izuku’s words. Izuku chuckles nervously, “Sorry, I get chatty when I’m nervous, and I’ve thought about this a lot, but no one wants to hear that Stain was kind of right, from a hero student.” Dabi and Himiko like to listen but they’ve both heard this speech a million times.

“You…   certainly have thought a lot about this.” Shigaraki finally says.

“I feel like I have to.” Izuku sighs, “I think every hero should take Stain’s philosophy into account. He’s right in some places, wrong in others.”

Shigaraki nods, and Izuku takes another long drink. “Okay,” Shigaraki begins, “how do I get people to follow me like they follow Stain?”

Surprisingly, the villain in front of him looks like he actually wants to know what izuku thinks, which is weird and a little flattering. “What do you want?”

“To kill All Might.”

“Yes, but after that.” Izuku explains, “Say you do kill All Might, what are your next steps? All Might is a pillar, but there will always be another number 1 hero. How does killing All Might fit into the grand scheme of things? People can’t get behind things that appear finite. It’s good to have a concrete goal, but just killing All Might and then doing nothing with that new power vacuum is short sighted.”

Izuku glances up from his drink when Shigaraki doesn’t say anything. The man’s red eyes are glimmering with inspiration, and Izuku is certain he made a mistake at some point.

“You are so right.” Shigaraki says slowly. “What do I want for the world after All Might is gone? That’s the question.” He stands up. “Good bye, I need to think about this.” He leaves the little cafe as quickly as he had come. He rounds the corner and then he is gone.

Izuku sits stunned for a minute, before gasping and clutching his chest as all his restrained panic comes rushing up. As he begins hyperventilating, the waitress from before comes rushing over.

“Are you alright?” She asks.

In between deep, steadying breaths, he says, “Call the police.”

Mr Aizawa and the police get there in less than 5 minutes. The police, including the detective Izuku has encountered before, ask him lots of questions. He tells them all he can, about Shigaraki and what he wants. They look concerned when Stain is brought up.

The mall is evacuated and searched top to bottom, but the villain is long gone by then. Izuku is able to convince the police to let him go home, but only if Aizawa escorts him.

They leave the mall and Izuku starts walking towards the bus station. “I live in kind of a shitty part of town, I’ll admit, but it's alright.”

“And your parents are in Tokyo?” Aizawa confirms.

“Yep.”

They board the bus and sit in silence at the back. Izuku texts the group chat with Himiko and Dabi to tell them about the situation.

He can feel Aizawa looking at him and takes a deep breath. He had thought about speaking with his teacher about his uncle, but hadn’t for a number of reasons. Figuring he won’t get another chance so perfectly presented to him, he decides to ask.

“You knew my uncle, right? Shirikumo Oboro?” Izuku asks. He takes note of the way Aizawa clutches his pant leg.

“Yes.” He says, “How did you know?”

“My uncle’s jacket. It had a photo of you and Mic from high school. I didn’t recognize you guys at first.” Izuku tells him.

“When did you realise?”

“At the USJ. After the villains had left, Tsu and I were carrying you to the exit. You called me Oboro before you passed out.” Izuku explains.

Aizawa’s eyes widened. “I don’t remember that.”

“No, I didn’t think so, you had lost a lot of blood.”

They arrive at the bus stop and get out. Aizawa looks around, concern written on his face. Izuku knows full well that the part of town he lives in is terrible, but even with him, Himiko and Dabi all paying rent, they can’t afford anything better. And in better parts of town people would look twice at him and his roommates. They walk towards his apartment, and he waves at a few people he knows. Living in such a run down community has fostered a sense of companionship with his neighbours.

Izuku stops at the door to his apartment building. “This is me.”

“Do your best not to attract any villains for the time being.” Aizawa sighs.

“No promises.” Izuku says. Aizawa cracks a smile, and Izuku enters his apartment.

Finally getting back to his apartment, he barely has the energy to take his shoes off before he is face down on the couch asleep.

Chapter Text

“You’ll call us when you can?” Himiko asks.

“Yes, but I won’t be able to for most of the time.”

“Yes, but if you have the chance?” She amends.

“Yes.” Izuku nods.

Himiko pulls him into a hug and Dabi wraps his arms around both of them. “We’ll make him late if we don’t go soon.” He tells her.

Himiko sighs and lets him go with great reluctance. They are standing outside their apartment, at 7:30 in the morning. Izuku needs to be at the school for 8, to get on the bus to take him and 1-A to the training camp. Himiko gives him one last hug before he and Dabi get on Dabi’s motorcycle.

He’ll be out of contact with his roommates for two whole weeks, the longest he’s spent away from them since meeting the two. Aizawa had told their class that they wouldn’t have the use of their phones to call anyone. Simply put it’s a safety precaution, because of the League. Aizawa told them there would be a landline there, but they would have limited use of it. Like last time, Dabi drops him a block away. Dabi gives him a tight hug before Izuku leaves.

1-A boards the bus without much fanfare and most people go back to sleep, including Izuku. He curls up in the back, sharing a seat with Ochako, who is also asleep.

So Aizawa starts camp by dropping them off a cliff. Izuku’s excitement at meeting the Wild Wild Pussy Cat’s is definitely dashed. Though he does still have a lot of questions for them when they get to camp.

Izuku’s quirk comes in clutch, softening the landing substantially. Izuku could probably get back to camp on his own very easily, but felt it wouldn’t reflect well on him if he left his classmates behind. He does use a cloud to get above the tree line and make sure they are going the right way. He can see a large clearing in the trees a few miles north.

1-A makes it to the camp for lunch. Thankfully food is waiting for them when they get there. He spots a little boy hanging around Mandalay. A boy that actually punches Iida in the dick. Izuku felt very bad, but he did laugh under his breath. Thankfully the only one to hear it was Kacchan. They all head to bed early. And wake up even earlier. 5:00am.

The 20 of them trudge out of the compound they are staying in, the sun just barely rising over the building. 1-B had arrived sometime last night, and looked just as exhausted as them. Aizawa smirks down at them, obviously enjoying their misery, that bastard.

“The next two weeks of your lives are going to be hell.” He states. “Over the last 4 months we have been working on combat, teamwork and a variety of other skills. Now it’s time to work on your quirks. You will push your quirks to the absolute limit, and then far past that.”

Some people groan and complain, but Izuku and his friends all stand tall at Aizawa’s words. They’ve faced down the League of Villains. Izuku helped take down Stain. He can handle a summer camp.

Three days in and Izuku is certain Aizawa is secretly working with the League of Villains to break down 1-A’s defences and strength before killing them. It’s the only explanation for the cruelty he is putting them through.

Izuku shovels more rice into his mouth, despite his aching throat. He’s been pushing the limit of what kinds of clouds he can make, and it’s been hell on his throat. As he eats, a textbook is open next to him, one he had borrowed from Momo on types of toxic gases. He had been speculating the possibility that he would be immune to his own gases, like how Midnight is immune to the sleeping gas she produces. He’s hesitant to try it, given he doesn’t want to do it wrong and produce something dangerous, especially if he’s not immune.

Much like Momo, he must understand what it is he’s making on an atomic level. Before he left, he had asked Midnight for the chemical formula for her knockout gas, and an explanation when she looked at him suspiciously.

After lunch Izuku, and Ashido, his willing volunteer, head into the building and find a room to practise in. Aizawa is with them, and will stand outside the door, with a gas mask in hand, just in case things go wrong. When he had thrown the idea out at dinner last night, Ashido had volunteered almost immediately, stating she needed a good nap. They shut the windows and turned to face one another.

“You’re sure you’re okay with this?” He asked once more.

Minda shrugged. “Sure, I’ll be fine. I have an unusually high constitution anyways. Do it.”

He looks at her once more, before reviewing the formula Midnight had given him, running through it a few times in his head. He breathes in. His focus, his awareness, travels through his body, settling in his lungs. Chemicals bond together inside him and take form as an imitation of Midnight’s gas. Sighing out, he sees roiling puffs of mint green gas exit his mouth and fill the room quickly.

Mina breathes in and he sees her eyes roll back in her head. Her knees buckle and he thankfully catches her before she hits the ground. She’s out cold, but breathing fine.

Izuku calls through the door to Aizawa, “It worked, Mina’s out, could you come and get her so I can air out the room?”

Aizawa comes in a moment later with a gas mask and takes Ashido from him. He gives Izuku an encouraging nod and leaves to let Mina sleep off the effects. Izuku opens the windows and fans the gas out.

That night, Izuku is able to snag a phone call on the land line with Dabi and Himiko and excitedly tells them about his progress.

“This opens a whole lot of doors, I’m really excited.” He tells them.

“That’s awesome!!” Himiko laughs over the phone.

“Good work.” Dabi says. “We’re proud of you.”

The words strike him in the heart, even though they’re so far away. When was the last time someone had said that to him? That they were proud of him? Not since he left home, and even then, he can’t quite remember when last she said it. Probably about something he didn’t care about, something frivolous, to try and draw his attention to anything other than heroics. 

“Thanks.” Izuku whispers, wiping the tears leaking from the edges of his eyes.

Chapter Text

After learning about Kota’s parents, Izuku sees Kota in a new light. Izuku understands being disillusioned with the society they live in, especially when heroics takes someone important away. Izuku brings Kota dinner for the next few nights, hoping to talk to him. The chances are slim, but Izuku still wants to try. Kota’s little hideaway would have been hard to find had Izuku not followed the little boy.

The test of courage begins as the sun sets. Izuku is paired with Aoyama.

Suddenly villains break through the tree line and attack the pro heroes. Izuku sees a tall buff woman with a large magnet, and a man with a lizard mutation. Chaos spreads around them and Izuku is acutely aware of one thing in the mess. Mandalay, shouting for Kota.

Izuku shoots off into the forest on a cloud, headed to the mountain. He tunes out the sound for Aizawa shouting behind him. Logically there is a near zero chance someone finds Kota’s spot. But there is always the possibility. His cloud takes him up the mountain in record time. He can see fire raging in the trees, and a yellow coloured smoke rising.

He’s come upon the ridge to see a terrifying sight. A man, built like a brick shithouse, towering over Kota’s shivering form. The blond man chuckles as Kota whimpers. He brings his large fists up over the boy's head, ready to cave in his skull. Izuku is moving before he really knows what’s going on. He zips through the man’s legs, hooking his arm around Kota and already soaring down the path towards the compound.

The man is bounding after them, but he’s built for strength, not speed. Getting back to the compound, he heads straight for Aoyama, who’s blasting at the two villains from behind a tree. He lands right next to the blonde boy. “Aoyama, take him. Get him inside. I’ll cover you.”

Aoyama’s fear smooth’s over slightly as he takes Kota, and Izuku fills the clearing with a dense fog. Izuku always keeps his goggles on him. He slips them over his eyes. His classmate bolts towards the door as Izuku guides him. Izuku makes sure they are inside and the door locks behind them before heading back into the fight. 

Aizawa is engaged with the lizard man, and Mandalay is fighting the tall woman. Izuku heads out into the forest, only to run straight into the monstrous man that would have killed Kota. Seeing his face, Izuku recognizes him as the villain Muscular. The one who killed the Water Hose Heroes.

Izuku dodges a large fist and blows a large smoke cloud in Muscular’s face. The villain coughs hard and Izuku zips around him. He jumps on the villain's back. The formula for Midnight’s Gas is visible when he closes his eyes. He breathes out and Muscular takes a deep breath.

The mint green gas fills his lungs and the hulking villain drops.

Izuku looks around, and switches his goggles to inferred. The closest three are engaged in combat. Two against one. One of them looks to have a significantly lower body temperature. Izuku would bet on Tsu and Ochako fighting a villain. He heads over to them.

He finds his two friends fighting a large man with various parts of his body transformed into animal parts. His hands are transformed into bear claws and his back is covered in armadillo scales. Izuku barrels into him while he’s focused on Ochako and Tsu. 

Heavy, almost solid clouds hold him to the ground as Izuku blows green smoke into his face like he had done with Muscular. The man tries to struggle, but the knockout gas already fills his lungs. He falls limp and Izuku lets him go.

Ochako and Tsu run over and the three embrace in a quick hug. “Come on, we need to get back.” He turns inferred back on and blows more fog for cover. The three of them hunker down and begin the trek back to camp.

On their way back, they run into another group. Yanagi, Rin and Tokage barrel into them, having been turned around on their way back to camp.

“Are you guys alright?” Tokage asks.

“We’re good, Izuku is leading us back to camp.” Tsu tells them, gesturing to izuku’s infrared goggles, that are helping him see through the fog and gas.

“Is the gas from you?” Rin asks.

“No, this isn’t mine.” Izuku tells him.

“Ahem.” Their attention shoots up to a man perched in the trees. He wears a long orange coat and a top hat. His mask is an abstract black and white and he rolls a shiny blue marble over his fingers. “I am terribly sorry to interrupt. But I must borrow Izuku Midoriya.”

“What?” Izuku whispers.

“Yes, the boss is very interested in seeing you.” He confirms. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he recognizes Mr Compress, a B rank villain with a flare for the dramatic and an unknown quirk. “Come peacefully young man, if you would be so kind.”

Izuku scoffs and rolls his shoulders. His fellow hero students all tense in preparation for a fight. “Not a chance.”

The magician chuckles darkly. He leaps down from the tree and Rin intercepts him, with Tokage as support. The rest of them spread out around Compress. The second he knocks one of them back, another one of them fills the space.

It’s going well, and Izuku thinks Compress might go down, when Tsu strikes him with her tongue. Her tongue shoots right through him and the hole in his stomach doesn’t bleed. He begins to melt, his body turning to grey goop. The fake(?) laughs at them. And a similar laugh sounds right next to Izuku.

“The power of misdirection my friends.” 

Izuku feels his whole world go dark.

Chapter Text

Izuku jolts awake, bound tightly to a chair. The feeling of quirk suppressants feels like lead in his blood. He looks around blearily at his surroundings. He’s in a run down bar, with a few booths around him, and facing the bar. Kurogiri stands behind the bar, polishing glasses. But he’s not watching his own work, instead staring intently at Izuku with his glowing eyes.

Dotted around the bar are a few other people. Mr Compress, Spinner and Magne sit at a booth playing cards, and Twice is lying in the corner, trying to sleep. Shigaraki sits at the bar, with a handheld console in one hand and a glass of apple juice in the other. His red eyes glance up as Izuku stares at him. A grin grows on his face and he sets both things down.

He pulls a stool right up in front of Izuku so they are face to face. “I’m so glad you could make it.”

Izuku pointedly glances down at the ropes binding him. “Didn’t have much of a choice.”

Shigaraki shrugs. “We had to be sure you would show up.”

Izuku glares. “Alright, you got me here, what do you want?”

He snorts, “Isn’t it obvious? We want you to be one of us!”

“What!?”

“Yeah!” Shigaraki exclaims, “You had so many ideas about how to get more support, you could be a real asset, and your quirk is super versatile. You’ll make a great member of the team!”

Izuku has no words as he stares at Shigaraki’s thrilled face. “I know, you’re so excited you can’t find the words!” The man laughs, “My sensei just wants to meet with you, then we’ll get you all set up. We have a few rooms left, so you get your pick.” He picks up his handheld and begins playing again.

He glances around again, just to make sure he’s not being punked. But no, no one jumps out from behind the chairs and bar to yell ‘gotcha!’ He finally gets out, “You can't be serious?”

“Hmm?” Shigaraki pauses his game and looks up.

“You can’t seriously think I would join you guys?” Izuku repeats.

“Of course, you’re hesitant, but that's just because you’ve been brainwashed by the media. But our talk made it clear you were breaking through your programming. You’ll be a wonderful player two, like Kurogiri. A nice game companion.” Shigaraki tells him. He seems almost shy when he says the last part. 

Izuku is struck with the sudden and uncomfortable realisation that Shigaraki Tomura is lonely. He supposes it makes sense. From listening to him talk before, his Sensei is in charge, and Kurogiri is a babysitter. The rest of the League is simply his subordinates, NPC’s, in Shigaraki’s words. Games are no fun if you’re playing alone.

Okay, I can use this. Shigaraki wants a companion player. This is a chance to get some information. And sow some discord. 

“So, Shigaraki,” Izuku begins, “If I am supposed to be your player two, can you tell me a bit about what we’re doing here? Just so we’re on the same page.”

He glances up at Izuku. “See, I knew you would get into it. First of all, we’re still definitely gonna kill All Might, but I thought about what we talked about, and decided that we shouldn’t just stop at All Might. All heroes need to go.”

Izuku supposes the natural progression of hating one hero is hating all of them. Definitely not good. “How are we gonna do that?”

Shigaraki smiles at the use of ‘we’. “Well, the doctor has been working on lots of Nomu for me. He’s making high ends, they are fancy nomu, able to think and plan. So they can improvise in fights. He’s making ones to combat specific heroes. I can’t wait to see what he cooks up. I’m thinking of something with fire resistance and a water quirk for Endeavour. Maybe an ice quirk too.”

The existence of high end nomu’s changes the game completely. One of the only advantages they have had up until now has been that the absolute powerhouses haven’t been able to think, only subject to their masters' order. They are easy to out smart, but now…

“That’s really impressive. Will I get to meet the doctor, if I’m your player two?” Izuku asks.

“Oh, of course. You’ll have to. So he can take out all the bad memories.” Shigaraki says.

“Bad memories?” 

Shigaraki waves his hand, “Yeah, the stuff that makes everything weird and uncomfortable. The stuff that makes everybody less effective and happy. I was super unhappy and couldn’t do anything, then the Doctor and Sensei helped take those feelings and memories away. The Doctor told me he did the same thing for Kurogiri too, before he became my second in command.”

He looks at Kurogiri, still polishing glasses, still staring holes in Izuku. “Do you ever think about what must have been in those memories?” He asks.

“Not really, why would I?” Shigaraki asks.

“Because they’re yours.” Izuku says it firmly. He for one has plenty of bad memories, but they belong to him, and he would fight tooth and nail if someone tried to take them.

Shigaraki blinks at him, tilting his head in confusion. “I guess I never really thought about it before, what about you Kurogiri?”

Still polishing glasses, still staring at Izuku, he says, “I have no strong opinion Master Tomora.”

Shigaraki shrugs at Kurogiri’s none answer. “Anyway, enough about the Doctor, or Kurogiri, they aren’t that interesting. What else do you want to talk about, Player Two?”

Great, so that nickname is going to stick.

“Um, how about your Sensei? He seems like a cool guy.” Izuku says.

He lights up at the mention of his sensei. “Oh, he’s awesome! He took me in when I had no one. When the heroes had all failed. He says he’ll give me the world. That’s what all this is for. The League, the nomu, it’s all so I can have what I want. All that, for me.”

Sounds a bit like love bombing to me. Instead of saying something that would definitely get him disintegrated, he instead says, “That’s great. So you kind of already have a Player Two?” It’s a gamble, pointing out that Shigaraki technically already has a companion, but if he’s right, Shigaraki will realise maybe ‘Sensei’ isn’t in it for his best interest.

“Oh,” Shigaraki hesitates, “No, no, Sensei is like the wise mage that sends the party on the quest. A player two is a companion, an equal.”

“So you are below Sensei? He’s in charge?” Izuku asks.

It seems the other villains in the bar had been listening, because the cards had been abandoned and Twice had stopped trying to seem asleep. They all lean forward at Izuku’s words, even Kurogiri, still polishing, still staring at Izuku.

Shigaraki seems taken aback at Izuku’s words, and takes a few moments to respond, teetering on the edge of confusion and anger. “I’m not beneath him! He’s…  he’s… ”

“The wise mage,” Izuku says, “ is always sending the party to do their dirty work.”

Shigaraki reals back, “You don’t understand, he’s doing this for me. Letting me become the villain I was always meant to be.”

“If he really cared, why isn’t he here? Why hasn’t he killed All Might for you? A good sensei would take care of your problems for you, not send you into the belly of the beast, like at the USJ. Why isn’t he here, Shigaraki? Why do you need a Player Two if he cares about you so much?” Izuku says.

He sees anger, frustration, and just a hint of doubt fill Shigaraki’s eyes. A pager buzzes on the bar counter, and Kurogiri opens a warp gate, right under Izuku’s chair, still polishing, still staring, as Izuku disappears.

The feeling of Kurogiri’s warp gate is uncomfortable and so familiar. More familiar than just the USJ. 

Izuku lands hard in a warehouse. All around him are large tubes, inside are nomu. All of them look to be in varying states of growth. Some look like regular people, others like the grotesque monsters Izuku has come to know. There is medical equipment all over the place, and an ominous looking medical examination table.

Out of the shadows walks a man. His aura of malice and hatred is so overwhelming Izuku fights not to pass out before it subsides. The man walks closer and Izuku can see a large black helmet covering his head and he wears an expensive suit. He stands as tall as All Might, and just as strong.

He chuckles as he comes closer to Izuku, pulling a chair with him until they are sitting face to helmet. “Hello Izuku Midoriya.” His voice is deep and menacing. “You have been quite the little nuisance.”

Izuku, in an insane moment of impulse that he didn’t have before meeting Dabi and Himiko, says, “Well I live to be frustrating.” He curses himself as the words leave his mouth.

The man looks taken aback, but only for a moment. He chuckles. “You have a sense of humour. Even in a situation like this. That is admirable.” His sighs, “You have no idea how annoying you have been, and we’ve only just met. First, Tomora tells me you were a big piece in foiling him at the USJ. Though you and I both know that plan would have never worked, it had put a damper on Tomora’s mood. Then you took down Stain. And again Tomora complains. Talking my ear off about that vigilante. Then you and him run into each other at the mall. And suddenly you are all he can talk about. Izuku Midoriya this, Izuku Midoriya that. And finally I just have to ask, ‘Tomora, what will it take for you to stop talking about this boy?’ And he says he wants you to be his Player Two.”

“And you said no, cause that would be a crazy idea.” Izuku says, before clamping his mouth shut. The man laughs again.

“I was going to say no at first, you are right. But then,” He pauses, and Izuku knows he is peering down at Izuku through his mask, “I did a little research of my own, just to make sure. And I must say, I was surprised and thrilled to find out just who exactly you were. Your mother, Inko Midoriya. Maiden name, Inko Shirokumo, was an excellent discovery. She had buried herself, put as much space between herself and her brother as possible, but there were still threads that led me to the truth. You are Oboro Shirokumo’s nephew! What a magnificent find!” He laughs.

“What do my mother or my uncle have to do with any of this?” Izuku hisses. He and his mother have their problems, sure, but he loves his mother. And with absolute certainty he knows his mother loves him. He won’t let her be put in danger. And he’ll be damned if he lets this villain disrespect his late uncle.

“My boy, they have everything to do with this.” The man smirks under that helmet as he asks his next question, “Tell me, do you know how your uncle passed?”

“A heroic accident while in his second year of high school.” Izuku bites out.

“Yes. Crushed by a building during his second year work studies.” He pauses for a moment, “But that is not where his story ends. See, the rubble was so unstable they were never able to recover your uncle’s body. Fortunately, we were able to. The fascinating thing about the nomu's is that they can begin to process either dead or alive, and the product is virtually the same. Your uncle was the Doctor’s very first successful high end nomu, able to think and feel, but still loyal. Yes, Kurogiri has been indispensable.”

“No.” Izuku whispers, unable to believe it.

“Yes.” The villain grins, “He has been such a wonderful tool. And you will be too. I know you will never stop fighting, so I will simply need to break you. Or, rather have the doctor break you. Your quirk is the natural evolution of your uncle's quirk, so I expect you will become an even more dangerous nomu. Tomora will have his Player Two, and I will have an annoying little bug off the board.”

Izuku struggles in earnest against his bonds and tries to form a cloud, but the suppressants aren’t out of his system yet.

“Don’t fight. It will only make this take longer.” The man says, and gestures for someone to come over. A bald man with a bushy beard and large goggles scurries out of the shadows. In the back of Izuku's mind, he recognizes him as his childhood doctor, but doesn’t focus on it, simply lashes out with his teeth when the doctor gets too close.

The Doctor tutts at Izuku's behaviour and gestures towards him. A nomu walks over and uses its long talon like nails to slice his bonds. Izuku falls from the chair and starts to run, but doesn’t get far before the nomu is scooping him up and binding his arms to his sides. He struggles but the nomu’s grip is like iron.

It carries Izuku over to the examination table and holds him down as The Doctor secures him with metal clamps. The nomu retreats at the Doctor’s order, and Izuku realises the man is gone as well.

The Doctor smiles down at Izuku as he pulls on a pair of medical gloves. “Hello, Midoriya. I’m so happy to have you joining us. Before we start, we’ll need to take a look at what we’re starting with. Let’s get a closer look shall we?”

He hooks an IV up to Izuku’s arm, and Izuku glances over to see bags of blood on ice. Izuku looks back and sees the Doctor take a pair of scissors and cut open his shirt. The scalpel in his hand shines menacingly in the flickering lights over head.

The first cut doesn’t elicit a scream, nor the second or the third. The cold metal and the warm blood cause Izuku to shiver. Two large cuts from the points of his shoulders come to meet at his sternum. The third cut starts at where the previous two meet and extends all the way to his naval.

The Doctor tosses his scalpel to the side, and traces the deep incisions with delicate fingers. He grins, and reaches carefully to pull the flaps of skin back to expose the muscle underneath. A new scalpel is required, and the Doctor cuts a similar pattern into Izuku’s muscle. Blood fills his mouth as he bites his tongue to keep from screaming. Tears fill his eyes as the doctor moves past his muscles and sets his eyes on Izuku’s lungs.

Shock finally sets in, and Izuku falls blissfully unconscious.

Chapter Text

Izuku comes to beeping. He thinks, for a second his phone is going off, and he should get up for school. But that’s not right. Himiko is always up before his alarm, and she’s always the one to wake him up. And it doesn’t smell like the apartment, and he can’t hear Dabi shuffling around, and there is no light streaming through the windows. Awareness returns to him. He opens his eyes to find himself suspended in liquid. The water is green. He’s in a tube, and there is a gas mask like contraption so he can breathe.  He’s in the warehouse. He’s…  being turned into a nomu. There are wires snaking all around his body. His shirt has been removed, and all he has left are the basketball shorts he had been wearing. 

Don’t panic, you are awake. Do something!

He slowly starts removing the needles connecting him to various bags outside the tube. He can see a blood bag, but the others are foreign to him. Next he swims to the surface of the tank, which is thankfully open. Once he breaks the surface he removes the mask and hops over the side, landing on nearly silent feat. The remaining wires connect him to a set of machines keeping his pulse and other medical stuff. Izuku expects that to remove them would send an alarm to the Doctor or the man he had met.

Looking down, he spots a tube leaking liquid and crouches down. It looked like a rat or another small animal had chewed through the tubing. Following the tube up to the bag it’s connected to. It says, ‘Sedation’.

The rat must have chewed through the tubing, cutting off the sedation from me, allowing me to wake up!

Izuku takes a deep breath, and silently thanks whatever vermin saved him. He looks around but the facility is empty. He looks at the nomu all around him for a long time. Most of them look to be on some sort of life support during this transition. It had been kind of a debate in his class for a while, given their personal experiences. ‘Is a nomu alive?’ ‘If you kill a nomu, is it murder?’ The class had gone back and forth on opinions, and came up with no clear answers. The question opens up to a bigger discussion, and Izuku wasn’t a philosopher. 

But he did believe in mercy. 

Before he could do anything though, he had to unplug himself from the machine without it flatlining. He wasn’t sure if it would actually send an alarm to the Doctor, but better safe than sorry. He crouches down and takes off the panelling, revealing the wires and machinery underneath. The machine wasn’t complicated, and Izuku was pretty good with computers and machinery. He rewires it slightly, so the heart beat monitor is on something like a closed loop, repeating his heartbeat.

He closes his eyes and prays before unplugging himself. No alarm goes off, and the machine keeps reading him as alive. He sighs and gets up, heading over to the nomu closest to him. It looks like the first nomu he fought, with dark, blackish skin and an exposed brain. It’s even bigger than the one at the USJ, though Izuku checks its chart to find it’s definitely not as powerful. It looks complete. He travels to the next nomu and the next. As he goes, they get progressively more human. All of them are clearly in the process, but some of them Izuku can truly identify as people. There are charts, with the quirks they have and other information. After looking closely at all of them he makes a decision. All of them are regular nomu, no high ends. It is a surprisingly simple matter of pressing a few buttons, then unplugging the machines. He cuts all the wires and shuts down the large containment tubes just in case. Once he gets the first one, the others follow shortly after.

Soon every nomu in the place is dead, or more dead than they had been before. He stares at them, floating peacefully in the liquid. He doesn’t think there is any real difference, but they look more peaceful than before. Wherever these people go after this, he hopes they aren’t hurting so bad.

With all the machines unplugged, he then finds a desk. It looks like the Doctors. There are dozens  of notes. At the top, are papers on high end nomus. Izuku folds those up and tucks the pages in the pocket of his shorts. His rifles through the drawers. A file the Doctor seems to look through often is Kurogiri. Or Oboro, as Izuku now knows. He is rather numb to it right now, simply focusing on collecting any files or papers that look important. He grabs Kurogiri’s file, Shigaraki, the high end’s, and a file on someone called All For One? He doesn’t know who the hell that is, but they sound important. 

In the doctor’s desk, is also a lighter and a box of cigars. The lighter is what Izuku is interested in. He grabs it. And looks around again. On the side of each of the tanks, is a drainage system. He grins and walks over. The files stated the solution that the nomu’s are bathing in is highly flammable. Trying to use his quirk again, he finds he’s able to blow steam across his body, drying him off. He drains out the first nomu’s tank, then the second and all of them after that. Soon all the nomu are slumped in the tanks and the solution is covering the floor. Izuku heads towards the door, files and lighter in hand. The door locks from the inside, so Izuku simply unlatches it and opens the door. He walks out into the fresh night breeze. Before he lets the door close, he sparks a flame on the lighter, and touches the fire to the liquid on the ground. Like lighter fluid, it spreads over the trail and begins to consume the building.

Izuku rushes for cover as the building begins to burn. His surroundings don’t tell him much, he’s never been here before. It’s night time, and he’s not sure how long he’s spent in the tank. He’s been gone at least twenty four hours for it to be night again.

Okay, what the fuck do I do now?

It seems his question is answered as a voice calls out for him. “Izuku!” He whips around to find his roommates and five of his classmates. Himiko and Dabi rush to pull him into a hug. Kirishima, Shoto, Katsuki, Momo, and Tenya are right behind them. Dabi pulls his jacket off and drapes it around Izuku’s bare shoulders.

“What are you guys doing here?” He asks. “And how did you all meet?”

Dabi and Himiko trade a glance.

“It’s a really long story.”

Chapter Text

Himiko gets a call from the school while she’s walking home from work. They tell ‘Inko Midoriya’ that her son has been kidnapped. She hangs up the phone and sprints home. Dabi has the day off, and had been cooking dinner when she gets there.

She relays what the school had told her and Dabi turns off the stove. “What the fuck do we do?” He asks.

“They want Inko Midoriya to come down to discuss this with the police.” She grabs a vial of blood that she had taken from a woman on the street. She’s been collecting a few vial’s, just of people she sees that look strikingly like Izuku, in case of something like this. She downs the bottle and the blood begins transforming her. “I’m going now, I’ll tell you what I find out, and we can go from there. Call up any contacts you still have, see if anyone knows anything.”

Dabi nods and pulls his phone out, already texting a few people. Once the transformation has been completed, she grabs Dabi’s keys to the bike and heads down stairs. She hops on the bike and speeds down to the station they had told her to meet at. She’s a little worried, given the precinct is the one Detective Tsukuchi works at, but thankfully, he’s not the one interviewing her. Another detective takes her to their office and tells her what happened. She takes note of a few things, including which hospital the other kids are at. She thanks the detective, properly teary eyed and distraught. She dries her eyes almost as soon as she is out of the building and drives home.

Dabi hasn’t found anything important, just what she already knows, that Izuku was taken by the League of Villains. She detransforms and sprays herself off, then changes her clothes. “We’re going to the hospital where 1-A is. Let’s grab Kat, and get our boy back.” Himiko says, Dabi nods and they race through the streets on the bike towards the hospital.

Katsuki has been trying Himiko’s phone for about 20 minutes, but the other blonde isn’t picking up. The school and police will have informed ‘Inko Midoriya’ that her son has been kidnapped, but before she does anything, he wants to tell her and Dabi about the tracker Ponytail had made. He’s pacing up and down the hall. The plan is to leave in half an hour, with Ponytail, IcyHot, Kirishima, and Speedy. He can’t risk Dabi and Himiko fucking this up cause they haven’t communicated. He’s just outside Ponytail’s room when he hears someone whisper his name. He turns around, to find Himiko peeking her head out of an empty room. She beckons him closer and he slips into the room.

She and Dabi are both wearing hats, sunglasses, and paper masks. She brings him into a quick hug, and Dabi pats his shoulder.

“I was called into the station, we know what happened.” She tells him before he can speak. “Let’s go, we might be able to shake the League’s location out of some thugs we know.”

“Wait, we already have the location. Ponytail has a tracker.” He tells them.

“Which room is she in?” Dabi asks.

“The one right next to this one.” He says, unsure why the man had asked.

Himiko pulls out a small pocket knife, with a small smear of blood on it. She licks the flat of the blade and transforms into a doctor Katsuki had seen roaming around. “I’m gonna go in, and swipe the tracker.” Before Katsuki can stop her, she is already out the door and Katsuki sees her enter Ponytail’s room.

Momo is awake. But she closes her eyes when the door opens. Her breathing is steady and her fingers don’t twitch. She’s had lots of practice pretending to be asleep. She used to read late at night, well past her bedtime and had to make sure her parents didn’t catch her. She tracks the doctor's footsteps around the room. It seems like they are looking for something, but she can’t tell what. They walk slowly closer to the hospital bed she is lying in. Hands touch her arm, and trail down to her hand, where she is clutching the tracking device.

Careful hands pry her fingers away and take the device. She can make another one, but she still tenses as the doctor leaves the room.

She opens her eyes and glares at the door.

Katsuki, Himiko and Dabi walk out of the hospital. The sun is beginning to set. With a location, they’ll be able to head straight for Izuku. The three of them walk down the steps and head for the train, when a pointed cough cuts them off. Dabi turns around to see 3 UA kids he doesn’t recognise, and Shoto. His brother doesn’t seem to recognise him, and at the moment he’s thankful for that.

The girl with black hair is glaring at them, and holds up an identical tracker to the one Himiko had stolen. “What the hell are you doing Bakugou?” She asks.

The three of them glance at each other. “Going to save Moya?” He says, though it sounds more like a question.

“Why would you steal Yaomomo’s tracker?” The spiky red head asks.

Dabi glances at his cracked watch. “We’re wasting time here, you guys are headed to save Izuku, right?” The four UA students nod. “Great, so are we, let's head to the location on the trackers, and sort out the rest of this later.”

The four of them exchange looks, clearly hesitant to help two strangers who had already stolen from them, but eventually they agree to work together. The tall one with blue hair looks especially upset, but does relent and joins in. They catch the bus and hop on, heading to Kamino Ward. The one with glasses, who introduces himself as Tenya Iida glanced nervously at them. Himiko doesn’t help when she hands Katsuki a knife, ‘just in case’. Dabi keeps trying to subtly look at Shoto, who’s looking out the window in worry.

Yaoyarozu doesn’t seem too upset that they had robbed her, thankfully. She makes disguises, so they aren’t recognised when they get off the bus.  Overall, from what Izuku has said about his classmates, Dabi knows this is a pretty solid team for a rescue. But he doesn’t trust them to do what might need to be done to save Dabi’s roommate. Izuku had saved Himiko. Himiko had saved Dabi. In the end Izuku was the one to welcome them into his tiny apartment, and give them a place to call home. Izuku Midoriya had saved their lives. It’s time to return the favour.

They get off the bus and head to the location the tracker is binging. Only to find the warehouse it has led them to is burning. The seven of them stare in horror as the building goes up in flames. A flash of movement to the side brings Dabi out of his fear and he glances over. To see Izuku, shirtless and shivering slightly, with files clutched to his chest. His horror returns however, when he sees the large, stitched up wound on Izuku’s chest. It looks like an autopsy wound and Dabi wants to throw up. Himiko follows his gaze and shouts his name. They both run over and pull Izuku into a hug. Dabi takes off his jacket and drapes it over the boy's shaking shoulders.

He looks at them in mild confusion. “What are you guys doing here?” He asks. “And how did you all meet?”

Dabi and Himiko glance at one another. 

“It’s a really long story.”

It seems his roommate had been running on adrenaline, because he simply hands the files over to Yaomomo, who puts them in her bag, and promptly passes out in Dabi’s arms.