Chapter Text
It had been a full week since Izuku moved into the house. A lot of that time was spent figuring out the rules of everything including banning using his quirk on any object that wasn’t approved. The windows almost shattered when Hizashi saw one of the cat toys shaped like a mouse was running around on its own.
There were also mobility problems to consider. From the start, Izuku had been using a blanket tentacle to get himself where he needed to go in a weird spidery kind of way (as he was still weeks off from standing again let alone walking). It was alright at first until he tried going downstairs using that and a new rule was established that he couldn’t do that without help.
A third rule was then born when a large package showed up outside their house. Several. They almost called the police, worried it was a bomb targeting a house with two heroes in it until Izuku told them it was a computer and monitors he bought online. No buying stuff without getting their approval first.
Although Izuku looked more annoyed every time a new rule was introduced he didn’t seem to take it personally, or at least that’s what his new foster parents hoped. They didn’t want to push him too far or else he might think about running away (even though such a thing was physically impossible at the moment.)
Besides that things have been alright. Leaving the green haired boy at home was something they couldn’t do so they enlisted a lot of help from Tensei and Nemuri, the four taking turns watching Izuku.
Meeting with Tensei was new as he hasn’t met Izuku yet despite seeing him when they fought Hisashi. He was naturally his friendly self and the boy was receptive to it but he still stayed locked in his room the whole time until Hitoshi came home.
Despite them both being friendly though, the kid seemed to gravitate a lot more to Nemuri, which made Shouta and Hizashi dread the things she was teaching him. They knew she wasn’t going to do anything awful, despite being called the ‘R-Rated hero’ she knew when to draw the line between her persona.
No, the problem was that the two had been conspiring on ways to get the two fosters to do what he wants, typically by pretending to play dumb when he ‘accidentally’ ignored rule three and bought a human sized teddy bear that was no doubt going to be used with his quirk. Tragically, Hizashi fell for it.
Besides that, Hitoshi wanted to do something during the weekend with Izuku. Obviously the two had been getting along amazingly since they could finally see each other face to face. The green haired boy made the offer that he could watch him train because he was curious and the black haired man accepted, taking the two to the training room.
- - -
Izuku had been struggling a little. He’s hidden it from Aizawa and Hizashi he thinks but he knows there’s only so much he could handle before he might lash out a little. Well lash out as well as he could from his position.
The new rules that’s been thrown at him are certainly his biggest gripe. He didn’t appreciate having to have a set sleeping schedule, not being able to use his quirk as he pleased, being unable to buy what he wanted and the biggest of all, the looming terror that was school in just two short weeks.
He played nice with them, made them think he was going to go through with it when in reality he was scanning online for ways he could trick them. He didn’t have as much stuff as he did in the warehouse but he knew with some of the hair products, make up and other stuff he could fashion a doll out of a child mannequin that could look like him.
Yeah, he could do that and just hide under the bed so no one would know he was still in the house, at least until the building was empty. Then he could just puppeteer the doll from afar and never have to leave the house again. Simple.
Now that wasn’t the only development that happened during that initial week. Another was being asked whether or not he wanted to meet with the Bakugous. Apparently they were wondering how he was and wanted to know if he was alright where he was currently living. At first he contemplated saying no but after some thought he decided that he might.
They were familiar. He might be alright around them provided he could hide behind a bunch of other stuff like a blanket or four. Kacchan though was someone he might be able to talk to without that though.
He didn’t think much of the boy from when he last saw him at the arcade. Honestly his existence slipped his mind until he was asked.
It’s not that he didn’t care about the blond, he did, it’s just that there were other things going on in his head that weren't friends.
His opinion of him was that he always saw him as someone to look up to, mostly because he was far more capable and determined than he could ever be, at least back then. There were times where he made remarks about Izuku’s love for dolls but looking back it was less mean and more teasing.
After all, if Kacchan really didn’t like him then why would he let Izuku hang around him? They would talk about heroes and what they thought of them and the greenette would mimic their moves with his latest, not thrown out doll, whilst Kacchan used an action figure.
Ultimately, he’d say they were close. Kacchan was basically his only friend because no one wanted to be around the boy carrying dolls around or from a house with divorce waiting to happen. He imagined if they weren’t he’d be even worse with social situations than he was now.
Anyway, let’s stop zoning out and focus on what’s happening in the real world.
Izuku watched the two go through some training drills whilst he sat at the side of the small hall and took videos with his phone. He wanted to capture some of the movements because it’s been a while since he ‘fought’ and didn’t want to lose those puppetry skills.
It was honestly amazing to see it in person. The way a kick shifts the air and you can feel it, the loud bangs on a punching bag that sounds even louder up close and the breathing that isn’t picked up on the feed, made the scene more alive and some part of him felt he could imitate it better.
Eventually Hitoshi stopped for a break. Apparently the two were going to have proper sparring sessions today for the first time after months of the purple haired boy getting fit enough to keep up. Aizawa picked up a few mats and was laying them out whilst the boy sat with Izuku.
“You smell.” the phone uttered.
“That’s called sweat.” Hitoshi said as he leaned in a bit to look at Izuku’s phone better.
The other boy wormed away, typing quickly. “Get away. I don’t want to smell like you.”
At that, the purple haired paused before smirking as he inched closer. “What’s wrong Izuku? Scared of a little sweat?”
“Yes!” the phone cried as Izuku tried pulling himself away from Hitoshi who tried to hug him.
“Oh come on Izuku!” called Hitoshi. “Just give me a hug!”
The purple haired boy tried to hug his friend to the other's lament. Izuku tried to bat him away with the blanket tentacles but it was futile as he only had so many. The green haired boy whined in defeat as he was wrapped in a disgustingly sweet embrace. It was nice.
“Okay, you two stop.” Aizawa warned. He had finished setting up the mats and motioned Hitoshi over to stand by him. “I want you to pay attention to this too, Izuku. I know in the future you personally might not fight much with your own two hands but it’s still important to know how.”
The fighting began and he could easily see how much Aizawa was holding back. He’d seen him in action and could tell his movements were intentionally slower to give Hitoshi a chance to actually fight and not be taken out immediately. The entire time he watched, he felt like he wanted to get involved too. His dolls of course, never him personally.
That’s when he got a bright idea.
After they finished a few rounds, Aizawa winning most of them of course, they took another break to give Hitoshi some time to breathe and get water. He left the hall and it was then just him and the pro hero there.
Izuku wasn’t sure what to make of Aizawa. For the longest time he’d known him as Eraserhead and fought him at least three times, only one of them resulting in the man’s victory. Even though he was fighting with other heroes and his dolls were already injured from other fights they still lost to him and that was something to consider.
Despite fighting quirkless and practically only quirkless he is just as capable as other heroes. Even though Edgeshot, a top ten hero, fought the same enemy, he struggled against Brutus whereas Aizawa was the one who dealt a mortal wound.
Then there was his personal life. Aizawa Shouta. He couldn’t tell half the time what the man was thinking with how little he showed expressions that weren’t obviously drained or monotone. It made it hard to understand him.
He was married to someone loud and dramatic unlike him, he had a mug that said ‘Meanest Teacher in the World’ yet he was so patient when training Hitoshi. Then there was the way he treated Izuku. He gave all these rules to him, some fine, others annoying, but he never seemed to give them out of a want to restrain him.
It still felt restraining though, more so with each new one.
He didn’t understand the feeling he had towards the man. He knew he was the only person Izuku had yet to call by his first name despite being told he could. Actually…
“Is it bad that I haven’t called you your first name yet?” asked Izuku, using his phone.
Aizawa halted and looked over at the boy. “No. I know it can be hard to adjust to a new living situation.”
“But I call Present Mic, Hizashi.” the boy noted.
He didn’t know why he did it. Honestly. Maybe it was less so it was something the blond did though but more to do with Aizawa. Unlike Hizashi he knew the other man well before he got properly acquainted. For three years he’d only seen him through a computer screen so trying to be personable now felt weird.
Hizashi, on the other hand, only saw him on camera once, no twice actually. Both times when he was in this house, when he robbed it and, well, robbed it again. Their first meeting didn’t count because he didn’t know who he was then. Maybe that was the difference there.
He’d also had full conversations with him too. The midnight meeting in the park, the cat cafe, outside the water treatment. And it was always adversarial. They were always enemies in Izuku’s mind so suddenly it felt like there was some kind of wall between them. That’s the difference between Hizashi and Aizawa to him.
The man responded. “He can worm his way into anyone’s heart. I don’t expect you to like me right away.”
“It’s because we’ve only fought each other.” the boy typed out his thoughts.
Aizawa paused when he heard that idea. “That’s certainly something that’s happened.”
Now was the time to implement his idea. Kill two birds with one stone.
“Can you spar with me?” the boy asked.
The man blinked at him. “You can’t do that kid, don’t know if it’s obvious or not.”
“I can use Fredrick.” the boy posited, referring to his life sized teddy bear.
Aizawa thought the idea through and looked like he was about to deny it so Izuku employed a move Auntie Nemuri taught him. Apparently he was an ‘expressionally stunted man’ in her words and taught him something that could break through it.
He typed out his response, turned his head down and looked up at him through his eyelashes. “Please Aizawa.”
The man froze for a moment and looked almost stunned at the masterful display of manipulation before him and closed his eyes. He let out a long sigh, shrinking an inch before just nodding. “We can do one match. Don’t get mad if your doll gets ruined.
Internally Izuku cheered as he watched Aizawa leave to go get Fredrick. So far he had two named dolls. Ezuku and Fredrick. Ezuku (Hitoshi named him) was the cat plush he got from Auntie and so far he had loved him with how soft he was. Obviously he was no Ana, or Brutus or even Charlie but he loved how much comfort he gave him.
The black haired man returned with the huge teddy bear, Hitoshi snickering behind him as he struggled to fit the toy through the door to the training hall. The purple haired boy slipped through whilst he struggled and asked Izuku what he was doing.
“I’m going to spar Aizawa.” he told him over his phone.
There was a sudden spark in the other boy’s eye. “I get to see you fight?”
Izuku nodded. “It might not be good though. Fredrick isn’t very strong.”
It’s true, the teddy bear wasn’t very stable and unlike Charlie, didn’t have solid feet to walk on. Still he wanted to fight the pro hero somehow and maybe drop that ‘pro hero’ perspective he had on him.
The logic being, if he can walk away from Aizawa after a fight normally instead of as enemies, it might make him see the man as something other than a past foe. Look, it makes sense in his head!
The bear came through and Aizawa made a huff as he set the doll down in front of Izuku. “Here.” he said.
The small boy reached out, the tips of his fingers where the small hair sized needles sticked up and dug into the doll. He already filled it up before (don’t tell Aizawa) so he needed to make a show of him doing it for the first time.
The other two looked on curiously. It was the first time either of them had seen the injection side of Izuku’s quirk and were even startled a little when the bear twitched a little as the spinal fluid filled it up to the brim.
The doll was slightly damp, the fibres not good at retaining the fluid but absorbent enough to not leak. The boy pulled on the invisible strings of the teddy bear and it picked itself off the ground and shakily stood up as he focused on getting its balance right.
“Great.” Aizawa uttered but Izuku could tell there was some awe in there.
“He won’t be able to hit very hard.” the puppeteer commented.
“That’s why we’ll give them boxing gloves.” the man said, grabbing some off to the side and putting them on the doll. Fredrick doesn’t have fingers to put them on himself.
The weight of the gloves almost felt like a shock but thanks to Izuku’s own training he managed to keep the doll from feeling off balance. The man and the bear both went over to the mats with the kids watching from the sidelines.
“Hitoshi, count us down.” Aizawa asked, keeping his eyes on Fredrick.
“Three… two… one…” the boy counted down. “Go!”
The bear and the man rushed to fight. Fredrick was the first to swing, making a punch at Aizawa who blocked it and returned one of his own, intending to push the doll back.
He succeeded, the bear stumbling a little bit before being grabbed by the black haired man and tossed over shoulder. There was a resounding squeeze as the doll hit the ground but until he managed to pin him, he could still fight.
With strength only his quirk could provide, the bear kicked upward with its legs bent backwards. It wasn’t effective with some kind of footwear but it was enough to stop the man from pinning Fredrick and gave him enough time to get back up.
With a punch, Fredrick tried to swing at the man but the doll was still not fast enough and it went wide. That’s why he already had a second ready, managing to get a soft blow on the black haired man’s stomach, earning a grunt.
However the bear was slow to pull back, earning an arm grab and pull. The doll stumbled over a leg before a kick from Aizawa sent the bear heels over head and it was a quick pin from there.
Fredrick was trying to break free until Aizawa, using his full weight, crushed the doll and squeezed the spinal fluid out of it in a fatal but messy way. It would be a brutal defeat if it wasn’t the weirdest sight to see for a bystander, of which Hitoshi was.
“So weird.” he muttered, watching the small pool on the mat form.
“Izuku?” the man asked, checking if the fight was over.
The boy nodded. Fredrick had lost too much fluid to fight back. The bear was still soaked, most likely needing a wash now but that was something later to do.
“The punches were too soft.” Izuku typed.
“I know. Any stronger and I think my ribs might’ve cracked.” the man admitted, nursing his chest where the blow landed.
Hitoshi looked between the two. “Are you going to have a rematch?”
“No.” the greenette shook his head. “I don’t think we can fight better than that.”
“A giant teddy bear isn’t the best puppet for you to work with.” Aizawa agreed.
Hitoshi smiled a little, looking down at his phone. “But it’s going to be funny to watch again.”
The father narrowed his eyes before widening when he realised that his son had just recorded him fighting a life sized teddy bear. He must be thankful that the bear wasn’t any stronger unless he wanted footage going around of him getting his ass handed to him by a stuffed toy.
“Can you send it to me?” Izuku asked.
“Sure.” the other boy replied grinning, sending the video over.
“Okay, problem children, enough with the chatting.” Aizawa grumbled. “And Hitoshi don’t send that to ‘Zashi unless you want to be put through your paces.”
“...Too late.” the boy grinned but then turned to panic when he felt the thrill down his neck of Erasure.
“Up here now,” he ordered.
When the sparring session finally ended, the purple haired kid was wracked with so much exhaustion that for once he slept longer than six hours. To say he would try that same sleep inducing method though, was not something he was willing to do, especially with the aches and pains he got the next morning.
All this while Izuku kept thinking over the fight and how it felt going against Aizawa, Shouta? No, still Aizawa he thinks. He might need to do something more before he felt ready to be more personal.
- - -
It had been a few days since then. They had a shopping trip planned on the weekend to look for clothes and some stuff for Izuku but before that they had to get through the week. Today it was Aizawa’s turn to stay home and watch the kid.
The man in question knew that the greenette liked to keep to himself. That was the whole reason this mess happened in the first place but it was something he was concerned about, especially as the new school day comes closer.
He hoped the mall trip would serve as a kind of feeler. To get an idea on just how severe his anxiety was when it came to being outside; he knew it was bad, just how bad was the question. He could tell Izuku was struggling with the idea because every time they’d mention it he’d look away, or stop answering questions for a moment and then try to change the topic.
They’d need to talk with him properly soon to see how he was feeling about it.
Today, the man planned to sit in his office and write some lesson plans he had to implement for the new school year. It amazed him. It would mean that he’s spent an entire year teaching.
At the start he was nervous. Afraid that he might make a mistake or wasn’t good enough to teach or didn’t have the charisma to actually get along with teenagers but even he surprised himself. Admittedly he wasn’t the nurturing type. He was strict, stern and what some of his students might call ‘malicious’ but it seemed like that was alright.
Hizashi has assured him he was doing ok. So were the rest of the teachers every time he would confide in them. He even built up a little bit of a rivalry with the other heroics teacher, Kan, but that was more on the other man’s side than his.
Ultimately, he can say he’s doing well as a teacher.
Now it was time to think if he could be a good father.
He knows he’s doing right by Hitoshi, at least that’s what he hoped to think. He knew the right things to say and do because he really was just a kid version of him. A younger Shouta but more social and more expressive. There was an understanding there he could grasp but with his new kid there wasn’t much.
He knew of Izuku but he didn’t know him. Over the weeks he’s learned a lot he never would’ve expected about the kid from what he saw of Dollmaker.
Firstly he was always flighty, looking at every place he could run to and hide. He knew there was still some lingering fear there about being seen but it still hurt his heart a little to see that kind of paranoia in a little kid.
Next was how much the kid talked when he was being sociable. Even if it’s over text-to-speech, it still spins his head every time he is bombarded with questions either about his work, students or quirk. Izuku was clearly an inquisitive kid and he’d have to think how they could put that energy to something productive for him.
Finally there was how quiet he got sometimes. It was dizzying when he got chatty but that was better than the bouts of silence the kid would go through. It’d happen at random where Izuku would be downstairs with Hitoshi and the two were watching a movie together. Shouta would notice how the boy looked.
It was slightly absent, like he was a puppet with no strings, not reacting to anything in front of him. He understood though it was because he was deep in thought. Deep enough to practically vacate his own body and leave himself looking like a doll. He didn’t know what thoughts he had but he was hoping they were nothing serious.
Maybe that was the wrong mindset to have actually…
Shouta’s stomach grumbled, announcing it was time for lunch and the pro hero stood up to head downstairs. On the way though he noticed that Izuku’s door was slightly open. That wasn’t normal, so he peeked in to see the small green kid commanding the giant teddy bear to drag in a box.
It was clearly something he bought that he didn’t want anyone to see.
“Izuku.” Aizawa called, opening the door and the boy squeaked out loud as the bear collapsed.
The box was not small at all. About the size of the bed and looked like it would’ve been difficult to get up the stairs.
‘How the hell did he get this up here without me hearing?’ the man thought but dismissed it for now.
“What is this?” he asked, lacing the words with a stern edge. “We told you, you can’t buy anything without our approval first.”
The boy sheepishly shifted in the bed he was sitting on, pulling up the duvet to hide himself a little whilst he typed. “I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“Great. What is it?” Shouta questioned. He’d decide if it was going to be a surprise or not.
“I don’t want to say.” Izuku responded.
“Kid, tell me what it is right now or I’ll open the box and find out for myself.” he said, raising his voice a little to let him know he was serious.
He didn’t want to but he knew he couldn’t let Izuku do as he wanted. He was still technically in custody and as such they needed to know what he was doing. If not then it could be used against them by the HPSC later. It also wasn’t good to let him do whatever he wanted and laying down these ground rules was to remind him the law existed.
“I just wanted a mannequin to move with,” he finally admitted.
Whilst he could believe that the box was big enough for it, he could tell it wasn’t a full sized mannequin. He went out and down to the kitchen to grab a box cutter, coming back up to get whatever was inside out and found that it was as he expected.
It was a children’s mannequin.
“You can’t just send in a doll and say it’s you.” Shouta immediately argued, more gently now that he understood what was going on.
“Why can’t I?” Izuku typed, clearly looking upset.
He released the box and headed over to the bed, plopping down. The boy was further back on the mattress, curled at the wall but it was close enough for the conversation to feel personal.
“Remember what I said about ‘living’?” he recalled, referring back to almost a year ago.
The boy gave a curt nod as he pulled his legs up and shoved his face in them, typing on his phone behind them. “I know but it feels like everything’s moving too fast.”
Shouta paused, thinking through exactly what that meant so he could understand him. “What do you mean?” he asked just so he knew he was listening.
“I’ve only been here a week and I’ve had to do so much stuff I never had to do before. I've always bought what I wanted. I’ve always used my quirk on anything I want. Now I can’t but I have to do a bunch of stuff I don’t want to do too.” he explained.
“Izuku, you know that the HPSC…” he watched as he went further into his sentence the boy got more frustrated looking, “...will be looking for anything to use against you.”
The kid started typing fast. “Why does it matter if everything does feel like too much? I don’t want to go outside. I can handle the stuff like not being able to buy what I want and the therapy but the other stuff too? I don’t want to go to school myself. Why can’t I just send a doll?”
Shouta tried to think how he could help him. He really didn’t know what he was doing, he and Izuku were alike in one small way and that was they didn’t like people. That was the only fact and even then there was a difference of degree.
He didn’t like people because he disliked being social. Izuku didn’t like people because he has spent the last three years making it second nature to fear them. He can’t compare to that. He can’t compare their two experiences like he could with Hitoshi, they were too different.
And he was right about the rules. Maybe they were a bit pushy. But this wasn’t about trying to make Izuku ‘normal’ for the sake of being so but because people were going to force him in a lot worse ways if they don’t. He can’t imagine the HPSC will have any patience or tolerance for him.
‘What the hell am I thinking? That’s still wrong. He shouldn’t be forced into anything… but then what could be done to help him?’ he thought.
Maybe that isn’t a question for himself but rather Izuku. The kid was a kid, yes, but he knows what makes him feel the most comfortable and he needs to know that Shouta does care about what he thinks.
“Look. I can’t think of an answer. It’s a hard situation we are in and it’s no one’s fault but the HPSC’s. There’s no solution to this that I can think of but maybe you have an idea?” he said. He kept his tone as passive as he could, especially on the last line so Izuku knew he wasn’t being snippy and was trying to find an answer alongside him.
- - -
He just doesn’t understand. Why can’t go at his own pace? He knows there is an overarching time limit to him ‘getting better’ but why does he have to change completely? And so quickly too? Can’t he just be the same as he was before?
‘What I was before was alone, depressed and paranoid. Now I have a chance to change that.’ he reasoned in his mind.
That’s right but everything feels like it's going a mile a minute. Before days were slow, with just the quiet of the warehouse feeling like a void with the only window out being a computer screen. Now there were sounds he hadn't heard and people who were looking at him, not his dolls.
Maybe this was all a mistake…
Then he heard Aizawa offer him the chance to give his own solution to the problem. A problem that only exists because he is trying to be happy and not alone and miserable. His problem is wanting to not be face to face with other people, to go back to how he was before where everything was handled through a screen and a doll.
‘Through a screen and a doll… mobility… looking at- ah!’
An idea weaved itself together in the boy’s mind and immediately he picked up his phone to put it into words.
“I have an idea that satisfies all of us.” he typed, “But it needs your trust.”
Aizawa nodded. “There’s no harm in saying it.”
Izuku fiddled with the phone, wondering if the idea was too farfetched or ambitious considering that odds were they were going to need some help for it. He still typed it in anyway because if he doesn’t try then what’s the point of any of this anymore.
“What if I made a doll I could hide inside? Like a mechsuit that was vaguely human?” he asked, studying the black haired man to see his attitude towards the idea.
“Would that be legal?” he questioned, not fighting the possibility but making sure the idea was feasible.
“I need some form of mobility to move on my own. Technically if we can get this doll to be labelled as a ‘mobility device’ then yes. That and the quirk use.” he reasoned.
That way he can hide behind a screen inside the doll and no one would be looking at him but the doll instead. Not just that but it gave him a doll to play with, a way to move on his own and a way to go outside without panicking.
Because he’d be inside, always.
- - -
Shouta looked down at his kid and could clearly see how desperate he was for this to work. The idea was admittedly a bit crazy as it stretched a lot of laws. Then again, if anyone could stretch laws it would be Nedzu and he was in their corner. If he could convince the rat to help them with this, they could find a way to make it possible.
“I’ll ask Nedzu and see what he thinks.” he promised, taking out his phone to make a call.
It was picked up near instantly and after a short chat about the feasibility of such an idea, it seemed there was a very real chance they could do it. All they would need is to convince a judge to sign off on the quirk use, which would be easy for the rodent’s network of connections.
“There’s a decent chance it could be done.”
And if those emerald eyes lighting up brighter than gemstones didn’t stun him, he's never known the feeling.
"Thank you Shouta!" the boy typed into his phone.