Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

If anyone thought that not needing any sleep would make them productive they would be correct. However, most likely they would have forgotten that it is important to rest so naps are given.

This was the case of Midoriya Izuku who since the age of 4 did not need to sleep (before that his mother was awfully concerned about how little her son slept and always seemed tired). And with the available night hours and a brain filled with ideas, Izuku got to work.

But in addition to the in-depth and somewhat frightening analysis and creations, Izuku also took many naps.

Naps that occurred in less than ideal places.

It became the norm for Inko to find her son taking a short nap everywhere except his bed. When he was small enough, she often found a head of green hair instead some of the supplies from the cupboard. There were times where she pulled out a chair from the dining table to find a small body sprawled across 2 chairs. It was normal to see him crawl underneath the coffee table and nap while she watched her show.

His naps were never longer than 5 to 10 minutes. He took multiple throughout the day. Although his dark circles and tired demeanor never seemed to go away. Which Izuku was completely fine with.

And when Izuku was accepted into UA, Nedzu seemed completely fine with Izuku’s need for multiple naps thought the day.

“Take a nap wherever you feel is comfortable,” Nedzu has said, and he meant it quite literally (at least that’s how Izuku took it).

When Todoroki arrived to UA and saw two students with messy hair and dark circles, the first thought he had when he saw his homeroom teacher who also had messy hair and dark circles was completely logical.

Aizawa-sensei has two children attending UA.

And while one of them was currently in his class, their purple hair smooshed on their desk, Todoroki wondered where Aizawa-sensei’s other son was.

___

He later caught sight of messy green hair sleeping somewhere behind Lunch Rush when he was getting some soba. It seemed that the top of a refrigerator in a loud cafeteria was a perfect place for a nap.

Maybe he likes the noise, Todoroki thought as he sat down at the same table Shinsou was sitting along with Kaminari and Sero.

“Does noise help someone fall asleep?" He couldn’t help but ask the others. Kaminari and Sero both paused chewing while Shinsou was the one to respond.

“It can help some people. There’s even videos that are hours long of different noises to help people fall asleep.”

Todoroki hummed in thought and looked back at Lunch Rush even if he would not be able to see where Aizawa-sensei’s green-haired son was napping. He looked back at Shinsou who was still looking at him while the other two were still silent.

“Thank you,” Shoto said before returning to eat his cold Soba.

“No problem,” Shinsou said before also returning to his own food.

Both Sero and Kaminari looked at each other and smiled as if they had seen something amazing happen. Both Todoroki and Shinsou decided not to address the smile and just continue eating.

Hatsume was getting a headstart with creating her babies in the lab. Despite her homeroom teacher being stressed out, she was informed by the principal that it was fine for her to have extra time in the lab.

With that blessing, she began to create a new baby (it of course would be amazing). But first, she needed something.

With a certain tool in mind, Hatsume opened the cupboard that was under the table workshop.

Instead of the silver gleam of various tools, she saw green. Green that was attached to someone who despite that enclosed cramped space looked completely comfortable taking a nap.

Hatsume only spared a glance at the boy before looking over which tools she needed. Once she found it, she quickly took it out and softly closed the cupboard door. She looked back at her table that now had all that she needed.

“You will be glorious,” she whispered to herself as she imagined her baby coming to life.

Over in the corner, Majima let out a defeated sigh.

At the end of the first day of class there was a meeting held to discuss how things went and about any possible worries.

“Nedzu, did you know I found a youngin in one of my shooting booths today when I was showing it to my class? I mean he had the ear protection on and wasn’t in the line of fire, but I was sure I had locked the place up before.” Snipe said and a few other faculty recalled seeing a student sleeping around campus that day.

Nedzu smiled at them all before he responded.

“Ah yes, that is Midoirya Izuku who, given his quirk needs to take multiple naps. I gave him permission to sleep wherever is comfortable.”

“But there’s more comfortable places than a shooting booth to take a nap in,” Vlad said. He even glanced over to Aizawa who was currently resting in his sleeping back set up against the wall.

“That there is!” Nedzu chirped. But he did not say anything else which made the faculty uneasy.

“Nedzu, what exactly are we supposed to do when we find him sleeping where he isn’t supposed to be?”

“Nothing! Midoriya has my permission to sleep wherever so there is no need to do anything when you come across him, just let him nap.”

The teachers looked at each other but none said anything else. There was no change in the decision that Nedzu made. So it seemed that they would simply have to let one of their students sleep wherever, even if it was concerning where he had slept already during the first day of class.

Aizawa listened closely and smirked into his capture weapon, whoever the student was, he was sure that they would cause chaos. Nedzu would have fun seeing what happened.

Chapter Text

Class 1-A was in the observation room as All Might and the others watched the first match.

They were all startled when the door to the observation room opened to reveal a green-haired boy with dark circles that were worse than their homeroom teachers.

Jiro choked when she heard Todoroki mutter ‘Aizawa-sensei’s son’.

Everyone watched as this boy made his way to the control panel and ducked his head as if he was going to go underneath it before pausing. They watched green eyes looked at the screen, watching as Bakugou made his way searching for the hero team.

They all heard a quiet mumble of “that should not have been approved” before the boy moved to the side and pressed a button.

The button to speak to participants in the current match.

In a voice that was louder and clearer than they expected, the boy said, “The match is temporarily paused until Bakugou Katsuki removes the gauntlets. They are too dangerous for a match for a first-year and are not to be used. Once they are placed outside the building, the match can resume.”

Class 1-A watched as Bakugou started to yell and All Might winced considering he had a comn letting him hear the audio from inside the building. It was clear that Bakugou was pissed at the announcement while the others looked confused but waiting.

“Young man, what are you doing? You do not have the authority to interfere and much less take away young Bakugou’s tools,” All Might said, looking down at the small boy with a disapproving look.

Everyone was sure that the boy would apologize.

However, that didn’t happen. Instead, there was simply a bored and tired look on the boy’s face.

Jiro heard another mutter come from Todoroki about how the look was just like Aizawa-sensei’s.

“All Might,” the boy said, getting everyone’s attention. “Bakugou’s quirk relies on his sweat and those gauntlets are collecting large amounts of sweat. Given the size and clear design, the pull of a pin would let off an explosion with enough power to bring down a wall facing whoever Bakugou chose. That action could result in a student’s death. The tool should never have been approved and so the match cannot continue until those are removed for everyone’s safety.”

Then the boy continued to stare All Might down without saying anything else.

Everyone was waiting for what would happen next.

There were several looks of surprise when All Might turned away and pressed the button to speak to the participants. He told All Bakugou to remove the gauntlets and once that was done he said the match could presume. All Might actually looked a little nervous when he looked back at the boy.

The boy looked like he couldn’t care less, but instead of leaving or continuing to stand, he proceeded to crawl underneath the counter of controls. Everyone watched as the boy made himself comfortable and closed his eyes.

“He’s taking a nap,” Sero said disbelievingly while a few others laughed quietly.

All Might look unsure at the boy and the screen before sighing and looking back at the screen.

“God I wish that were me,” Shinsou muttered.

__

The boy left a few minutes before Bakugou’s match ended and when Bakugou came back he demanded to know how it was that told him to remove his gauntlets before All Might.

Everyone was too busy laughing to tell him.

__

When All Might went to Nedzu about what happened instead of concern he watched as Nedzu laughed so much he spilled his tea.

After leaving the principal's office, All Might was aware to not bother young Midoriya if he were to come across the boy taking a nap. Also, it seemed that he should listen to Midoriya should the boy make a decision like he did in the observation room. The principal seemed to think highlyof Midoriya when he told Yagi that he should listen to the boy.

Yagi didn’t feel so confident in his new teaching position after hearing that.

After hearing from his class about the boy that interfered during their exercise the previous day, Aizawa smiled when he came across a boy sleeping under the coffee table in the teacher’s lounge.

Midoriya Izuku.

The kid had dark circles that made it clear that he needed sleep even if technically his quirk made it unnecessary. Aizawa thought about how much extra time he would have without needing sleep as he got comfortable in his sleeping bag. It was with the thought of the things he could do that he fell asleep to.

__

When he opened his eyes at the arrival of Yamada he saw that the boy was gone.

“Aw you already got coffee” Yamada whined.

Aizawa looked at the two coffee cups in Yamada’s hands before he noticed a still-hot cup of coffee set beside him. There was even a sticky note on the cup.

Taking out his arms he picked up the cup and sipped it.

Fuck, that is good coffee.

After taking another sip he finally looked at the sticky note.

Aizawa ignored the odd look Yamada sent him, got out of his sleeping bag and slipped the note into his pocket.

Vlad couldn't help but sigh when his students walked into the classroom after their own exercise. Mostly because they were all sending him questioning looks about the boy who was laying on top of their shelves with an arm slung over their eyes.

Then just as everyone was settled in their seat and about to ask questions, there was movement.

Everyone watched as the laying figure seemed to roll over the edge. Before any of them could do anything to break his fall, they saw as he managed to tuck his legs underneath himself and land in a crouch.

Then he got up and everyone had a full view of his tired eyes and dark circles. It was an appearance that did not at all match the speed it took to do the action he just did.

Vlad took the silence to start discussing what they would be doing for the rest of the week. Meanwhile, as he talked he watched as Midoriya took out a notebook and started writing quickly. Then as he got to the end of his explanation of future events, he watched as Midoriya ripped out the paper, came up to his desk, placed the paper on his desk, then left.

He ignored the questioning look from his student as he read the note.

___

When Vlad went into Nedzu's office, the principal simply asked, "Midoriya, yes?"

Vlad sighed. "Yes, he took a nap on top of one of my shelves and then gave me a note telling me about a possible abuse victim with a blood based quirk."

"Well, you would be suited for a case like that, especially if the girl is ashamed of her quirk."

Vlad nodded as they were right. "Anyways he said you would be able to give me more information."

"Yes," Nedzu said before pushing the file that was on top of his desk towards Vlad.

"You made a file?" He asked only to take a step back when he saw one of Nedzu's fangs as the principal smiled.

"Oh no, not I. Midoriya handed me this file some time early this morning. I assume he simply gave it to me for your convenience when you would come looking for more information."

"Couldn’t he have kept it and then tell me to go to him for more information?"

One of Nedzu’s ears twitched.

"Tell me Vlad," the principal said, leaning forward and clasping his paws together. "Do you know where Midoriya is on campus?"

Oh, Vlad didn't know.

In fact, Vlad wasn't even sure in which class Midoriya was in.

Chapter Text

Vlad King had barely been able to catch up to Midoriya in the hallways when he caught sight of the boy. But after only saying his name once, Midoriya had stopped and waited for Vlad to walk up to him.

“I just wanted to say I got the file and have been looking into it. I think later today I will be able to officially go and remove Toga from her situation considering that you did almost all the evidence-gathering needed to do so,” Vlad said when he got to Midoriya.

In all honesty, the previous night Vlad stayed up a bit late simply impressed by the amount of organized information in the file. There was even a thumb drive for the files to be digital that also included photos and video footage of some of the treatment the girl received. There was even security footage of the girl late at night outside, apparently having been kicked out of the house on several occasions.

The most surprising information had been testimonies from Toga Himiko herself.

It seemed that Midoriya knew her and they had been in contact for a while. That itself would make it easier seeing as she had an active role in trying to get out of her situation. Vlad felt oddly proud of the girl. There was strength in accepting help and trusting someone, and it seemed like Midoriya had been just the person to help her do that.

So that’s why Vlad felt it was necessary to thank the teen and let him know what he would be doing.

“Thank you Vlad King,” Midoriya said almost too low that he could have missed it in the hallways still filled with students. “Just make sure to bring some blood, she hasn’t managed to get any this week and it can make her anxious.”

“I’ll make sure to do that.”

Midoriya nodded before looking down the hallway and back at Vlad.

The hero realized that Midoriya was probably on his way somewhere. “Oh that’s all Midoriya, I’ll be going now.” And with that, both Vlad and Midoriya went their separate ways.

Nedzu couldn’t help but smile a bit genuinely when he heard the tell-tale knocking coming from a vent above him. With a press of a button, the grate moved to the side to reveal a teenager looking down on him.

“Hello, Midoriya. What brings you here?”

Nedzu could hear a hum come from the boy before they finally spoke.

“Vlad King is nice...do you know what snacks he likes?”

“I do believe he likes strawberry flavored candies,” Nedzu replied remembering seeing the man pop one into his mouth a few times while in the teacher’s lounge.

Midoriya nodded before saying a quiet ‘Thank you’ that Nedzu had no trouble hearing. And with a press of a button, the grate moved back into its place and Midoriya moved on.

Nedzu looked up from his computer and at Aizawa who was still scrolling through his phone. Feeling the principal’s gaze, Aizawa spoke.

“He’s pretty stealthy,” the man said with a small uptick in his lip.

Nedzu’s ear twitched, “That he is Aizawa.”

Shojii had not been expecting to hear a heartbeat coming from up above. Much less for the owner of the heartbeat so suddenly fall from the ceiling. It was only instinct for him to make sure he caught the person before they could get hurt.

Shoji let out a sigh of relief when he had the warm body secure in his arms and looked down to see who exactly it was.

He paused when he realized he actually knew who it was.

The green eyes of the boy that had stopped Bakugou’s match and scolded All Might looked up at him camly and blinked. He didn’t look at all perplexed at being in Shoji’s arms. The image reminded him of the photo of a cat that Koda had texted him.

And like a cat would do if they were comfortable, the boy did not move.

“Do you want me to put you down?” he asked hesitantly.

“Not particularly,” the boy responded. “Do you want to put me down?”

Shoji huffed in amusement. “I actually don’t know, but I was on my way to my class, so that’s where I’ll be taking you.”

“That’s fine.”

Shoji smiled. “Alright,” he said before he started walking. “I think this could count for training technically. I should probably thank you.”

The boy smiled. “You're welcome.”

Shoji chuckled. “Why exactly did you fall from the ceiling?”

“I was coming back from asking the principal a question,” they replied like their answer wasn’t odd.

“Through the vents?”

He nodded and Shoji wondered if anyone was even allowed to be in the vents.

He was brought out of his thoughts when the boy asked a question about what class he was in.
__

For the next few minutes, Shoji found himself speaking a lot more than he had done with anyone for a while. Much less with a boy he had just met. But it was nice and didn’t feel uncomfortable, especially with how the boy seemed fully interested in what he had to say.

The boy was nice. And Shoji actually felt a bit disappointed when they asked to be let down in front of one of the storage closets. They had thanked him for catching them before going inside the closet, leaving a slightly confused but amused Shoji in the hallway.

When he finally got to class he realized that he had failed to get the boy’s name. But that thought was pushed to the side as Tsuyu asked him about the news reporters they had seen that morning at the entrance.

A few of the others chimed in about the reporters too. Iida of course with talk about the obstacle they had posed when trying to get onto campus that morning. Aoyama spoke about the way he had the opportunity to truly shine as he distracted the reporters while his fellow classmates sneaked by. They were still talking about it as they went to lunch and heard some of the other’s experiences. Just as Kaminari had mentioned how upset Hound Dog and Aizawa-sensei were about the group of reporters, an alarm went off.

The following chaos made Shoji think of Tokoyami’s saying of ‘What a mad banquet of darkness’.

Chapter Text

Shigaraki tried to keep from scratching himself as he made his way through the hall. But the words from his Sensei echoed in his ear, they made his fingers twitch and he almost decayed the doorknob of a storage closest.

You will kill All Might, Tomura. That is what you are meant to do, that is what you have to do.

Those words wormed their way around his head and seemingly under his skin. They made it difficult to avoid decaying his phone as he texted his coordinates to Kurogiri to get picked up. He was in the middle of texting the other message saying to open the gate when a voice rang out in what was supposed to be an empty room.

“You know it’s rude to come in without knocking, especially to break into a school and make plans to murder someone.”

Shigaraki froze, waiting for something to hit him or restrain him, but nothing did. Instead, he slowly turned around as the voice sounded like it came from behind him. He then came face to face with green eyes and dark circles and what looked like a flashlight from a phone before they turned the phone to face the ceiling.

After his eyes adjusted, Shigaraki finally took in the sight of what looked like a small teenager on a shelf. More specifically laying on a shelf that made him at eye level with him.

“You look like you could use a nap,” the boy bluntly said not moving from their spot on the shelf.

And Shigaraki couldn’t help but let his curiosity get the better of him about why the kid was on a shelf. “What are you doing up there?”

The boy raised an eyebrow at him. “I was taking a nap until your criminal activity so rudely interrupted me. Anyways, you know there are easier ways to kill someone than break into a school to kill them, much less All Might. Did you come here to look at his schedule or something because the man barely sticks to it.”

Shigaraki’s fingers twitched. “He doesn’t stick to it?” he asked in disappointment.

The boy nodded. “Anyways Dusty, why do you want to kill All Might?”

His whole hand spasmed at the question and the words of Sensei that had slowly started to fade came back full force making him wince. Words started tumbling out of his mouth, words that he used to believe somewhat but as he kept speaking they grew more and more twisted. They grated at his throat and he wanted to do nothing more than scratch at the skin. His skin felt like ants were crawling all over and the sensation only went away as he was nearing the end of the onslaught of words he spoke.

Words that always made people look at him warily and only put more distance between him and anyone else that wasn’t Sensei or Kurogiri.

So that’s why he was so thrown off when he looked at the kid and only saw eyes that seemed to stare right into him, and even more so by what the kid said next.

“That was a lot and I get it, I do. But Dusty, are you okay?”

Those last three words seemed to throw everything off balance and Shigaraki suddenly felt weak in his legs. He stumbled to the side and into another shelf. When he tried to catch himself, all five fingers touched and items started to fall down.

And so did he.

He fell to the ground while his skin felt like it was fire. The words of Sensei felt like they were being whispered right into his ear as if the man were right there. His fingers twitched and he just wanted to scratch.

Scratch

Scratch

Scratch

Scra-

“Hey, hey, hey. Dusty, you’re gonna hurt yourself,” a voice gently said.

Shigaraki looked up to find green right in front of him. The sensation of two hands gripping his wrists was warm and gentle.

“Why don’t you breathe just like me, just slow deep breaths.”

He tried to catch his breath and match it with the kid in front of him. The gentle grip on his wrists was grounding. It didn’t hurt like the few times he had been touched. Sensei’s hands were never so gentle and Tomura was always well aware of the threat they held. But these hands were different, they were smaller for one and they belonged to someone who was speaking softly to him. Someone trying to stop him from scratching and get him to breathe (Sensei only simply watched in disappointment when he would scratch his skin until he bled)

He looked at the teen in front of him and despite how tired they looked, they still seemed completely focused on him.

Tomura eventually matched his breath with theirs and the itch went away. When they let go he almost felt sad at the loss of contact but quickly got over that as the boy moved to sit next to him on the floor.

His right side was warm from where it came into contact with them.

“I think you should just rest here a bit alright,” they said. “Cause I don’t think you’re okay Dusty.”

Tomura turned his head to look at the kid’s face. He could see any sort of deception, no malicious intent. It really was completely different from Sensei’s face.

And Tomura... well he thought it would be nice if could just rest for a bit. He didn’t really want to go back to that bar, not after he got a small taste of what it could be like without Sensei watching him, whispering those words into his ear.

“Okay,” Tomura said quietly before looking away and letting his head lean on the boy next to him.

It was warm.

Kurogiri decided that the amount of time that Tomura was taking to tell him to open the warp gate to the last coordinates he sent was taking too long. Yes, the young man took longer than average in an attempt to not decay his phone every time he texted but this was too long. So he was ready to see his charge possibly standing empty-handed with a new pile of dust on the floor when he stepped out of his warp gate.

__

“Oh so that was the escape plan, not bad,” a voice that did not belong to Tomura said and Kurogiri looked down in the dimly lit storage closet.

The scene he was met with was completely different than what he had imagined. Yes, there was dust on the floor. But there was also Tomura and another child on the floor. A child that Tomura seemed to be leaning their head on and sleeping. A child that was still alive and seemed relatively calm despite the odd situation.

Even Tomura’s individual fingers were wrapped in tape.

The unidentified boy was simply looking at him with eyes that seemed they would fall shut at any moment given the dark circles underneath them.

While Kurogiri could have warped the boy out and simply taken Tomura with him (or even dispose of the boy if necessary) he didn’t. That would have been impolite, and Kurogiri couldn’t help but be curious.

“Who might you be young man?” he asked.

“A student of UA who just happened to be here when Dusty walked inside. Who are you?”

“My name is Kurogiri.” And Kurogiri wondered where there would be a UA student in a storage closet because of course that would only happen when Tomura was supposed to be carrying out Master’s plans. But there was no sound of heroes running in or a subdued Tomura.

Instead, his charge was asleep and seemed to be completely at ease.

“Is he alright?" Kurogiri asked.

The green-eyed boy turned his head to look at Tomura. “I don’t think he is, so I got him to rest for a bit.” - the boy turned to look back at him - “Say Kurogiri, do you genuinely care about Dusty?”

The question and the look the boy was sending him made him falter for a second. Those eyes that were almost shut were now wide open and Kurogiri felt as if they were taking note of every single detail of him. But despite the feeling of being too exposed, like all his secrets were being laid out for all to see, he replied.

“I do, I was told to care for him by my Master.”

“Master?”

“The man who created me,” Kurogiri said because he was well aware that he was Master’s creation, that he had to serve that man. The man never failed to make him feel like nothing but a servant.

“Created you hm? Tell me, do you want to always be his or would you like to be your own person?”

“My only purpose is to take care of Shigaraki,” he said, because how could he think of being his own person? Any thoughts of that never seemed possible throughout all those years.

“Well then, I will ask you again Kurogiri. Do you truly care about him?”

Genuinely care...was he even capable of feeling such a thing? Master had always treated him as a sort of machine without emotions, but there was always a part of him that felt different. Part of him felt a warmth when Tomura was little and clung to him. And uncomfortable when he was told to leave the boy despite them being in distress. He liked the idea of the boy being healthy and safe.

“Yes, I do.”

“I do believe I can help you. Although it won’t be the easiest thing, with one phone call I can start. So would you like my help?”

Kurogiri nodded.

The boy smiled. “Then hand me the phone on the shelf.”

The faculty was in the middle of an emergency meeting due to the alarm that went off. All of them were smart enough to know that a bunch of reports weren’t the ones to destroy a high-tech security gate so easily.

It was in the middle of Nedzu speaking that a phone rang and everyone froze. Eyes searching for the person responsible for interrupting Principal Nedzu only to see the chimera himself take out a phone and press a button before placing it on the table.

“Yes, Midoriya?” Nedzu asked with his usual chipper voice.

The voice that responded rang out clearly on speaker.

“Hi, Nedzu. I was wondering if you could help me with two people who used to be criminals and possibly villains essentially defect. Also, help them with possibly mental control and manipulation quirks being used on them. One specifically ranging from a very young age and other more likely with massive biological manipulation and possibly human experimentation.”

The silence in the meeting room seemed to be loud on its own after Midoriya had finished speaking.

Nedzu however, didn’t seem to miss a beat. “Most definitely Midoriya.”

“Ah that’s good because I have with me the intruder from today along with their caretaker. Dusty is asleep right now and probably needs medical attention while Kurogiri is conscious and standing before me. I already spoke to him and he agreed to me making the call.”

“Are you alright Midoriya?” Present Mic asked.

“Perfectly fine, just a nap interrupted. Oh by the way Dusty’s quirk is a five-point contact decay quirk and Kurogiri’s is a warp gate quirk. None are a threat right now, but I don’t want you to be uninformed.”

Nedzu hummed. “Than you for that. Now, where exactly are you Midoriya?”

“In a storage closet.”

Someone snorted and one of the teachers face-palmed.

Chapter Text

“Take your time Nedzu, I might have enough time for a short nap,” Izuku said, smiling after he heard someone snicker on the other side of the call and could hear amusement in Nedzu’s voice when they said they would come to him in a few moments.

“Very well Midoriya,” Nedzu replied.

The call ended a second later and Izuku looked up at Kurogiri while putting the phone back down with the light shining towards the ceiling. Kurogiri seemd to be looking at him oddly.

Oh, I never introduced myself.

“I’m Midoriya Izuku by the way, nice to meet you,” he said politely and softly.

The odd look seemed to turn into one of amusement when Kurogiri responded. “The pleasure is all mine Midoriya.”

__

It was after about five minutes that there was a soft knocking at the door. Izuku could see an anxious sort of movement from Kurogiri’s mist but the man didn’t say anything.

“I can ask them for a few more minutes if you’d like Kurogiri,” Izuku offered.

“No, I'm quite alright.”

“Alright” - Izuku turned his head towards the door, moving his foot from where the door would hit his foot if it opened - “You can come in, Nedzu.”

The door slowly creeped open and Izuku was met with the sight of his smiling principal at the opening. Behind him stood Eraserhead and Recovery Girl, though they made no movement to enter.

“You seem quite comfortable Midoriya,” Nedzu said after taking in the sight of Izuku on the floor with someone leaning on him.

Izuku smiled. “I usually am Nedzu. Even Dusty” - he motioned his head towards the sleeping individual next to him - “here is comfy on the floor with me.”

Nedzu nodded his head. “I can see that,” he said before looking away and at Kurogiri. “You must be Kurogiri the warp user, I take it?”

Kurogiri nodded.

Nedzu accepted the response and continued. “And it seems that you would like our help” - he glanced back at Izuku - “or more specifically the help Midoriya offered?”

“Yes that's true, “ Kurogiri said. “It seems my charge is amicable towards him to be in the state he currently is in. Also Midoriya is rather polite as well.”

“That does seem to be the case,” Nedzu said, and Izuku could hear how Nedzu was amused by what he had heard. “Is there any medical information we should know regarding your charge?”

Kurogiri took a movement to simply look at Dusty. “He’s dehydrated due to his quirk and hasn’t been allowed to sleep enough for the past few days.”

“I’ll make sure to inform Recovery girl. Now will you come outside with me” - Nedzu motioned a paw towards the slightly opened door - “I do believe we should let Midoriya be the one to wake your charge considering their position.”

Izuku could hear a hum of agreement come from the warp user before he and the principal walked out. From the slight opening of the door he heard Nedzu introducing Kurogiri to the two heroes outside. After a moment he turned his attention to the young man beside him.

Very gently he nudged Dusty with his arm. “It’s time to wake up,” he whispered.

He could feel when Dusty woke up as they stiffened before slowly releasing the tension and lifting their head from his shoulder. Then there were red eyes still tinged with sleepiness looking at him calmly. The two of them for a few seconds simply looked at each other before Izuku spoke.

“Kurogiri is outside with Principal Nedzu.”

At those words, Izuku could feel how Dusty stiffened again.

“You’re not in trouble,“ Izuku said while nudging Dusty’s arm to get him to relax. It worked but now the man looked confused.

“I’m not?” Dusty asked. It was a reasonable question considering he had broken into the hero school.

“No you’re not,” Izuku confirmed. “I said I was going to help you - well I told Kurogiri while you were sleeping and he was fine with it. He cares about you so he agreed to let me help.”

Tomura was confused when the kid told him he wasn’t in trouble, even moreso when they said that they had talked to Kurogiri and apparently Kurogiri accepted their help.

Just when did he talk to Kurogiri? How long was he asleep? Kurogiri said he cared?

And his confused face must have been amusing because the next thing he knew, the kid was smiling at him. “You can see him outside if you want,” they said before leaning to the side as if offering him to lean and see more out of the opened door.

When Tomura leaned into that space, he saw Kurogiri outside in the hallway. After a moment he seemed to catch the man’s eye and they waved at him.

He looks completely fine, Tomura thought as he hesitantly waved back at Kurogiri from the storage closet. Then a second later he realized that there was something on his hands, more specifically on his fingers.

Tape.

There was tape wrapped around the tips of all of his fingers.

He spent a few seconds looking at them before looking back at the boy who simply shrugged. “You were asleep and I didn’t want you to accidentally decay something or scratch yourself. Also it’s sort of a fashion statement isn't it?“ they explained.

Shigaraki was sure that he sent a deadpan expression when he responded. “It’s medical tape.”

“Exactly,” the kid quickly responded as if that explained everything before a concerned look crossed their face and they asked “Is it too tight or something?”

Tomura looked back at his fingers and touched them together. He was reminded when he was younger and he tried to do the same thing. Except he was never able to get it to look as nice or be as comfortable as they were now.

“It’s fine,” he said while still looking at his fingers resting in his lap. His side was still resting against the kid. They had yet to move. It was comfortable even if they were sitting in silence for a bit. But once again, the kid was the one to break the silence (if it were up to Tomura he would have stayed in that comfortable silence for a bit longer).

“You ready to go or do you need some more time?” they asked. “Kurogiri, Eraserhead, Principal Nedzu, and Recovery Girl are outside. None of them are going to try to do anything if that’s something you’re worried about.”

Tomura was worried about that. But if they were going to do anything, it would have happened already. But there he was, still sitting on the ground with his fingers taped nicely and an itch that seemed duller than it had ever been. So, he shook his head at their question and got up as the kid did the same. They got in front of him when opening the door, letting in more light into the closet. Once they step out into the hallway Tomura moved to be beside the kid rather than behind. Slowly he took in the presence of the heroes.

It was odd to be so close to them without there being a fight, it made him feel odd in the head. But he looked back at the kid who seemed calm like it was the most normal thing to occur and Tomura finally fully realized that he didn’t have to fight.

He didn’t have to go back to Sensei.

The heroes were apparently going to help, the kid was going to help him.

And he was okay with that.

Yet while the thought was pleasant and made him something he could even, dare to say happy, there was suddenly a piercing pain going through his head. A pain that felt like a knife being driven into his skull before traveling down all his limbs. He could tell the moment that he lost strength in his legs and that he couldn’t hold himself up any longer. The last thing he knew before passing out was that something warm had caught him.

Chapter Text

If Aizawa didn’t know better, he would have mistook the pep in Nedzu’s step for anxiousness. But the fact of the matter was that he did know better. So he knew very well that Nedzu was excited as they walked towards the storage closet that apparently had two villains and one UA Student inside.

The phone call that informed them of this was ridiculous in of itself. Especially the fact that it had been Midoriya, the boy who took naps everywhere and seemed close enough to Nedzu to have his personal number (something he never gave lightly). Aizawa knew that Nedzu had to be happy with the situation that he, no doubtly, somehow created when it came to Midoriya. Meanwhile the other heroes and faculty in the meeting had been nervous when the call ended. A third year teacher, who typically was the devil’s advocate, had been the one to pose the suggestion that Midoriya could have been pranking them, in league with a villain, or had some other reason to want Nedzu to come over.

Of course, Nedzu had addressed those suggestions with ease, stating that they were simply not applicable to Midoriya. The Principal seemed to be completely trusting of the teenager. Well, trust was a funny thing when it came to Nedzu considering he didn’t trust like humans did. No, his trust seemed to have a sharper edge than other’s.

But nonetheless, there was a good relationship between the principal and student, that much was clear. So there was nothing stopping the mammal from dragging Eraserhead and Recovery Girl to accompany him to the storage closet. Aizawa himself was curious to see what situation Midoriya exactly somehow ended up in and he couldn’t help but want to be there in case the erasure of a quirk was needed.

In the end, it didn’t seem necessary as Midoriya sounded completely fine when he spoke from inside the closet for Nedzu to come inside. Aizawa caught sight of Midoriya on the closet floor with someone leaning against him sleeping completely fine. Then not a few moments later, Nedzu was walking out with a man made out of purple mist in formal clothing.

Nedzu introduced the man as ‘Kurogiri’, apparently the caretaker of the man who was sleeping on Midoriya on the floor. Then Nedzu was telling recovery Girl what to expect regarding the health of the other individual named Shigaraki Tomura.

As they stood there and Aizawa kept a close eye on Kurogiri, he couldn’t help but feel an odd sense of melancholy. The movements of the wisps coming from the man reminded him of someone he used to know. Although the color was wrong. Aizawa moved his eyes away from the wisps but caught sight of Kurogiri’s eyes they seemed to be staring at him.

He didn’t get to think too much about it before Midoriya and Shigaraki were coming out of the closet. Midoriya seemed unharmed and at ease while the other was a bit anxious before looking at Midoriya one more time with a hint of a smile. There was still that hint of a smile as Shigaraki looked up at him until his face contorted into one of pain.

Aizawa could see how Shigaraki’s body tensed painfully before it stopped and they seemed to collapse, crumbling in on himself. He moved to catch him, but before he could there was someone already there supporting Shigaraki.

Despite his small stature and appearance that he would fall asleep at any moment, Midoriya was fully supporting Shigaraki’s body. The young man’s head was slumped over the kid’s shoulder while Midoriya had an arm wrapped around the man’s back. It looked like the very beginning of a fireman’s carry though Midoriya didn’t make the move to lift Shigaraki’s legs which were still touching the floor.

And he looked completely fine with it.

Aizawa watched Midoriya looked at Shigaraki for a moment before to Nedzu.

“I’m thinking this is the effect of the mental quirk, probably one with a failsafe against the influence of heroes,” Midoriya said bluntly.

Nedzu hummed in agreement. “Most likely since it was when he was finally with heroes in front of him rather than a teenager who couldn't necessarily be labeled as a hero.”

Midoriya nodded. “Well, let's go to the infirmary then, shall we.”

Then the damn kid started walking with Shigaraki still on one of his shoulders.

The adults watched Midoriya walk for a few seconds.

“I can carry Tomura,” Kurogiri said to Nedzu.

The principal waved a paw, dismissing the offer. “Oh there’s no need. Midoriya is perfectly capable of carrying him to the infirmary.”

Kurogiri looked back at Midoriya who had yet to falter in his steps. “Very well.”

Shinsou choked on the canned coffee he was drinking when he heard Todoroki mutter “Just how many kids does Aizawa-sensei have?”

Then he continued to cough when he looked to where Todoroki was looking because there was his dad following after the boy with green hair. The boy that at the moment carried what looked like a dead body over his shoulder without any struggle at all. A body that seemed to have shaggy hair and a preference for dark clothing.

Someone - who now - Shinsou could hear Todoroki questioning if was his father’s secret love child.

Next thing Shinsou knows is the gentle patting on his back and seeing Sero come up behind him. “Yo Shinsou, you good? Don’t die on me dude.”

Shinsou covered his mouth as he caught his breath. “Yeah, just saw something surprising, that’s all.”

Izuku was a bit worried about Dusty who wasn’t moving as he carried him. But he did feel relieved that any pain he had felt was no longer happening considering how relaxed his body was at the moment. Although, even if there was no longer any pain it still made Izuku angry.

He’d like to simply talk to whoever used their quirk this way.

But any plans that could have been put into action were put on pause when it was time to put Dusty on the bed in the private room that Nedzu had so thoughtfully had others prepare while they were on their way. It was at this point where Kurogiri came up to help settle the red-eyed man onto the bed. There was also another bed in the room that was probably for Kurogiri.

The other thing that was there were two pairs of quirk suppressant cuffs that had been made to look like a simple nondescript bracelet. Kurogiri made no fuss putting them on even though they didn’t make the mist disappear. Then Aizawa gently put the other pair on Dusty’s wrist.

Aizawa seemed to look at the bracelets for a while and glanced at Izuku with what looked like a curious look.

Maybe he wanted to know how it would affect me, Izuku thought.

“Curious? How bout we put them on me as an experiment,” Izuku offered.

Before Aizawa could respond, Recovery Girl cut in. “We don’t know what would happen to you dearie if you put those cuffs on. Considering how you haven’t slept since you were 4. I would be concerned if those cuffs take away the only thing that technically is keeping you alive despite the stress put on your body.”

“You’re saying it could kill him?” Aizawa asked incredulously.

Izuku smiled at the concern. “Then I die in the name of science and search for knowledge, I give my consent.”

It was hard to not keep smiling at the reactions he got. Recovery Girl reminded him of a scolding grandmother, Kurogiri seemed curious as did Aizawa. Nedzu however was the one to speak.

“That’d be quite the tragedy, You’re a pleasure to have around Midoriya.”

Izuku could hear the snort that Aizawa tried to hide. “Alright. I’ll stay alive for you, Nedzu.”

“I appreciate that.”

____

It was 15 minutes later that a quirk specialist came. They were a contact of Detective Tsukauchi from what Aizawa said. Her name was Harada and she specialized in seeing what influences were on someone’s thinking or generally their brain (both past and present).

Did that include events, strong emotions, people? Does that include the influence of substances? Surely it would have to include the influence of other quirk because she wouldn’t be here if it cou-

Izuku cut off his train of thought to focus on the matter at hand, lest he lose himself in his thoughts.

Harada told them she needed physical contact in order to activate her quirk and with Kurogiri’s and Nedzu’s permission, she touched Dusty’s wrist.

__

“There are years of traumatic events and abusive treatment. Specifically coming from a parental figure. Following this, there are years of manipulation, conditioning, and a couple of mental quirks being used. There is one quirk of implementing thoughts that are triggered to be emphasized in certain conditions/thoughts, and the other quirk is doing two things.

“One: it leaves a sense of cognitive dissonance even though Shigaraki’s actions may be aligned with his original attitudes. Secondly: what you saw was a failsafe of that but at a more severe level. To cause extreme pain at a major action that does not align with what the manipulator wanted. In this case, Shigaraki feeling positive towards you heroes in such close proximity. Even going as far as to stay with you and accept help was highly against what the manipulator wanted,” she explained in a professional manner after letting go of Dusty’s wrist. “There is also the stress of sleep deprivation and lack of positive socialization.”

Izuku was glad to see if was not the only one displeased by the information. Several faces of disgust and anger could be seen around the room. And they only worsened when she told them that Dusty would have to be kept in a medically induced coma to prevent any more pain and harm that would come to him if he were conscious.

Unfortunately, Kurogiri’s mind was not pleasant either.

Harada once again in a clinical manner (that Izuku was sure was necessary to handle such quirk) reported that Kurogiri used to be a person but suffered something traumatic and could not access that mind. She told them that it was like there was a part of Kurogiri locked away, hidden and unlikely to be revealed.

“I see,” that was the response that Kurogiri had given before going to the other bed and sitting on it.

Kurogiri couldn’t say he was surprised by the information he heard. He knew that there was a body underneath all the mist. Although he himself had never been able to see it. He had only been able to feel it a very small amount at the very beginning of after being 'created' until his ‘master’ had looked at him with warning. After that, he never dared to feel his own face.

And yet, even away from the man’s grasp, it seems that a part of him. Who he was, was hidden away. He had hoped he would have been able to figure out why he had felt odd looking at Eraserhead.

There was a sort of somber tension in the room until the bed he sat on jostled and he looked up to see that Midoriya had taken a seat at the foot of the bed with a laptop (from where it appeared he didn’t know) while sitting with his legs crossed. Without looking up the young man spoke.

“Hey, would you liked to change out of those clothes? I’m pretty sure there’s some spare clothes around here that would be more comfortable than the bartender outfit you have on.”

Before Kurogiri could answer the odd question, Eraserhead seemed to take up the responsibility for the task. “I’ll go get some clothes for him.”

With that, the tension broke and Nedzu took Harada out of the room along with Recovery Girl, leaving Kurogiri alone with his unconscious charge and a boy sitting on his bed with a laptop.

“Thank you.” That’s what Kurogiri had to say to the boy. He was thankful for Midoriya for quite a bit already in this short amount of time of meeting him, but it was nothing to be upset about. The boy seemed completely content to help and be in his presence.

“How do the cuffs feel on you Kurogiri?” Midoriya asked.

He looked at the cuffs and felt the absence of being able to create a warp gate. “It’s odd but not entirely unpleasant.”

He heard the boy hum before they spoke again with a sort of casualness that Kurogiri was not used to. "You know, considering this new situation and how it's my fault I'd like to get to know you Kurogiri."

“Is that so?” he asked and watched as Midoriya lifted his head and then nodded at him.

Kurogiri turned back to look at Tomura in his bed. “There is not much to tell other than I cared for him and maintained a bar.”

“Did you like taking care of the bar?”

Kurogiri thought back to the satisfying view of clean glasses set on the shelf with an array of bottles. The comfort that came from the well known routine of serving a drink and cleaning it. He also thought about the interesting conversations he heard and chaotic moments in the bar he saw.

“At times, but it would have been nice to do other things,” he replied and looked back at Midoriya. The boy looked pleased with his response.

“Do you like music?” they asked.

He nodded.

Midoriya smiled. “Then I’ll play you some of the music I listen to, just so you can get to know me too. Will that be alright?”

Amusement made him feel like smiling. “Yes it would.”

__

When Aizawa came back with what was clearly some of his own clothes, he was presented with the sight of both Kurogiri and Midoriya laying sideways on the bed while a laptop on Midorya’s stomach played music. The misty man’s legs clearly hung farther off the bed than Midoriya’s shorter legs.

The two were laying in perfect silence, perfectly comfortable with just listening to the music.

Chapter Text

The faculty meeting that they had at the end of the day was odd, to say the last.

Apparently, UA would now be housing two villains, well ex-villains. One of them would be kept in a medically induced coma due to mental quirk being used on them and the other, their caregiver that had been experimented on to the point where a part of who they were was locked away...perfectly reasonable people to have living on campus.

And the reason for these new tenants was none other than Midoriya Izuku.

The same person that was the reason why Vlad was waiting at a school for Toga Himiko to come to the office. The girl’s principal was obviously nervous in his presence and he should be. Among the large file of information and evidence regarding the abuse and mistreatment of Toga, there was also evidence that the school administration did nothing to help their student despite being aware of it. She was still in a school under the same administration, so Toga had yet to even escape the faculty that didn’t care.

The Principal shuffled nervously in their seat as Vlad sat silently in the chair in front of him. “Sir, now if you could just explain why you’re here, I’m sure it could be resolved,” the man said. Eyeing Vlad’s lower canines that peeked out when his mouth was closed.

Vlad stared at the man until they looked away and he sighed. “I’m here to ensure the safety of Toga Himiko.”

A dumbfounded look came across the principal’s face. “Why would you need to do that?” he asked.

“Because she’s withdrawing from this school and I know that you would put her in danger by keeping her here and calling her parents,” Vlad explained, remembering videos of how Toga’s father gripped the girl’s arm too hard after exciting the principal office on several occasions.

“Harming her? Surely not,” the man floundered to say but Vlad could see the false confidence a mile away.

Disgusting.

Then the door opened to reveal a nervous-looking teen girl with space buns and bruises on her arm and neck. The Blood Hero watched as she glared at the principal who had the gall to greet her with fake cheeriness and then looked at him. Her eyes widened and he could see the beginning of what could be a smile with sharp canines similar to his own.

“Vlad king?” she asked.

He smiled. “Hello Toga, Midoriya sent me.”

The smile he got next fully revealed her two sets of sharp canine and it made him want to laugh about the odd boy that lead him to see such a sight.

Less than ten minutes later, Vlad walked out followed by a skipping girl who had officially left her school and was holding a bag of her possession she had already packed up due to a message Midoriya sent her the day before.

And when she asked if they could go see Midoriya, he had no reason to say no.

He was pretty sure Midoriya wouldn’t mind one bit.
____

He waited by the door of the teacher lounge when Toga went up to Midoriya. The boy was sitting in one of the chairs and had yet to look up from his computer screen.

Izuku was in the midst of typing about a mental quirk, the sports festival, and the hero killer in separate tabs when the laptop was suddenly closed by someone.

When he looked up he smiled.

“Hey Izuku-kun,” Toga said, before putting his laptop to the side and pulling him up into a hug.

Her head fit snuggly below his chin and she held on tight. It was only fitting he do the same and he closed his eyes at the contact. There were no words she needed to say because he already knew. He knew very well how grateful she was for the time they talked. The video chats he kept going all night when she had to sleep outside, the help he provided with getting the files and making sure she had everything she needed digitally.

They had never been able to meet up in person but he had done his best and he was more than happy with a hug. It was warm, comforting, and he was amused by how the girl was older than him by two years but still just a tad shorter than him.

When she pulled away she had some tears but he didn’t comment on them. Instead, he had something far more important to tell her.

“Himi, I found her.”

Those words only made more tears come down, but also a smile.

And why wouldn’t it? Toga had always been close wither her ‘Auntie Mags’ before her quirk came in and her parents took her away while also cutting all contact with the woman.

“Toga, if you keep crying I might cry and you know my eyes don’t need that,” he said nudging her.

She giggled. “I’m crying cause I’m happy Izuku-kun. You helped me get out and now you found her for me.”

“You know she’s been looking for you for a long time,” Isuku said and he took out a paper from his pocket then placed it in one of Toga’s hands. “Here’s her information. It’s her phone number, email, and even the address for the apartment she’s living in.”

“You did this instead of sleeping didn’t you,” she pouted and poked at his chest.

Izuku laughed. “Of course I did. After all, what’s sleep compared to helping my friend?”

He got another crushing hug after saying that. And for the rest of the night, Izuku was more than happy to know that Toga was sleeping in a comfortable bed with Vlad King as her temporary guardian until they got to Magne.

I should give him a gift, Izuku thought as he opened back up his laptop and opened up a new tab to look at the schematics of a certain hero costume he would go down to the workshop and work on.

When Vlad looked into the teachers’ lounge the next morning, all he saw was Aizawa sitting on the couch while his legs rested on the coffee table in front of him. He was reading papers, as usual.

It was an hour before classes were to start for the day and Aizawa never failed to be the the only person in the lounge before the others came in. Vlad was aware of the odd sleep schedule Aizawa had, at times he had even talked to him about if there was something he could do to help since the underground hero looked tired all the time.

But Aizawa had simply said to give him coffee.

He was picturing that memory as he walked to his desk when he heard a voice call out his name. He turned his head, but the only person he could see was Aizawa.

Did he call me?

But a he looked at the man, a dark eyebrow was raised while dark eyes looked at him questioningly and Vlad heard his name called again. This time it almost seemed like it had come from the coffee table.

Then Vlad King watched as what could only be Midoriya Izuku, rolled out from underneath the table. Still laying on the ground now directly underneath Aizawa’s legs that were resting on the coffee table; Midoriya raised an arm straight up while holding something in his hands.

It was a red bag tied with a green ribbon.

Midoriya’s face was calm when he spoke. “Nedzu said you like strawberry flavored candies.”

He didn’t say anything else.

Vlad looked at Aizawa who seemed completely unphased by the teen laying underneath his legs on the floor. Instead, Aizawa gestured to the bag with his head.

With that, Vlad walked toward the upheld arm and gently took the red bag from Midoriya’s hand. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Midoriya said before promptly rolling back underneath the table.

Vlad could see the smile on Aizawa’s face that the man didn’t even bother trying to hide and walked to his desk. Setting the red bag on the table, he untied the green ribbon holding it closed. Instead was an array of different candies, all of them strawberry flavored.

My favorite.
____

While Aizawa looked amused at Vlad’s smile when he ate one of the candies the kid had gifted him, he heard a soft voice come from under the table once again.

“Did you like the coffee from last time?”

“Yeah I did, it was pretty good. Where did you get it?” Aizawa asked. He had been thinking about that cup of coffee Midoriya had left him for a while now. Zashi had called him obsessed when he wouldn’t stop bringing it up.

“It’s a blend I made for my mom’s coffee shop.”

At that response, Aizawa’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth to ask another question. But before he could speak, Midoriya rolled back from under the table and once again held out his arm straight up while holding something in his fingers.

It was a small rectangular piece of paper.

When Aizawa took that paper and looked at it, he realized it was a business card for a coffee shop named The Grotto with the address and website. Then Midoriya simply rolled back under the table to the other side before getting up, stretching his arms, and walking out of the teacher’s lounge without saying another word.

Chapter Text

When the bus driver had unlocked the bus and went in soon followed by class 1A, they hadn’t expected anyone else to be in the bus.

But there, behind the driver’s seat, laying on the bench meant for 4 people to sit was the boy from the battle simulation. He wore the UA gym uniform and had an arm strung over his eyes. He didn’t even move as they made their arm onto the bus. Iida seemed too stunned to even say anything and his arm was frozen mid-chop in the air before Yaoyarozu softly touched his arm to get him to continue moving.

Taking the cue, everyone simply walked past the seemingly sleeping boy. Although Shoji looked like he had a smile under his mask and Aizawa quietly took a seat at the open space that was by the boy’s head not saying anything. And still, the green-haired teen made no move.
___

When Shinsou sat down, he couldn’t help but notice the confused face Todoroki had sitting next to him.

“Dude are you okay?” he asked when Todoroki kept staring at him even when the bus started to move.

“Why didn’t you say hi to your brother?”

From two seats behind him, Shinsou could hear Kaminari and Sato laugh.

“My what?”

Todoroki pointed towards their teacher and the boy laying on the seat that still looked unbothered and unconcerned about the fact that there was a teacher sitting right here.

“Your brother is here,” Todoroki stated like it was obvious.

Shinsou sighed. “That’s not my brother, I don’t even have a brother.”

The dual-colored boy frowned, looking back at the sleeping-teen and the sleep-deprived teen. “Are you sure? Because I think you have two brothers actually an…”

While Todoroki began to explain his theory about Shinsou’s supposedly larger family, Bakugou was questioning if he was hallucinating.

When Izuku sprang up from his laying down position, he was pleased to see that the underground hero Eraserhead was taking a nap.

He needs one.

When he turned around, he saw a boy with a rock-like face looking at him with wide eyes.

“Excuse me, but where are we going?” Izuku asked in a soft voice, trying to startle the boy anymore than he might have already done.

Instead of responding verbally the boy shyly signed to him -The Unforeseen Simulation Joint for training-

Izuku smiled. He had wanted to see USJ after hearing about it in the vents from when Cementoss had told Midnight about it. Apparently, it had different zones like a flood zone and a fire zone within the same large building.

-Thank you!- Izuku signed back to the boy.
___

Izuku got off the bus along with Aizawa who had opened his eyes the moment the vehicle stopped. He was standing next to the man while his students exited the bus.

“Midoriya, won’t you get in trouble with your teacher for being here and missing class?” Aizawa asked while keeping his eyes on his students. And despite the question, Izuku could hear amusement rather than concern in the man’s voice.

Izuku smiled.

“I’m ahead in all of my classes so it’s fine,” Izuku said. He was actually working on some college classes to get another bachelor’s degree. The night hours throughout all the past years had provided ample time to get ahead in several aspects. Although that fact seemed to trouble his professor who had called and asked Izuku to 'please do some regular kid shit, my other students are badgering me about who you are after seeing 2 weeks of work on my desk after the first two classes '.

Izuku had laughed at his professor.

Aizawa didn’t question Izuku’s answer as they all headed inside.

Once inside the building, the class had a few moments to look in awe. Izuku was towards the back of the crowd and while he looked around he saw a multi-armed teen wave him over which Izuku gladly complied with.

The boy seemed to smile under his mask. “Do you need me to carry you while you’re here?”

Izuku slumped his head down at the question. “Sadly no.”

He saw one of the mouths Shoji had created laugh at him while another hand ruffled his head before they both looked up to what Rescue Hero Thirteen had to say to them.

Izuku paid close attention to the hero’s words and as soon as the speech was finished made a beeline towards the hero much to the surprise of the other students. Although Aizawa soon got their attention to add his own words.

While Aizawa spoke Izuku managed to get an autograph and the name of Thirteen’s favorite treat. Izuku was feeling rather pleased with himself as he walked away when suddenly, there was a harsh poke at his ribs. Which he prompt replied with a hard wack to the person who poked him so suddenly.

When Izuku turned around he saw Bakugou Katsuki looking at him while rubbing the spot where he had hit their arm.

“What the fuck are you doing here Zuku?” the blonde asked looking rather confused.

“I got to school here,” Izuku said, gesturing to his gym uniform.

Bakugou looked him up and down. “Since when?”

“Since I got accepted.”

Shock appeared on Bakugou’s face. “You never told me that!”

Izuku shrugged. “You never asked and you were busy training while I was busy too.”

Bakugou brought a hand to his head. “What-you can’t be busy all the time, you don’t even sleep!”

Izuku shrugged again which only made Bakugou grunt in frustration. “I make do Kats.”

Izuku proceeded to have the pleasure of watching Katsuki simmer in his own frustration before a sudden look of realization crossed their face. “You were the bastard who stopped my match!”

“Glad to see that brain still works,” Izuku said, poking the blonde’s forehead.

Katsuki swatted his hand away (Izuku didn’t mind). “Tch why the fuck did you do that?”

Izuku sent him a deadpan look and crossed his arms. “I’m all for the destruction of a building Kats, but those gauntlets are a little excessive for a first year. And as my father’s son, I should know.”

“But that old man is the one who helped me make them,” Katsuki said.

Izuku snapped his fingers and pointed at him. “Exactly.”

While Katsuki stood before him with a dumbfounded face while Izuku didn’t move his pointed fingers a red-haired boy hesitantly and pulled the frozen Katskui away. The boy looked at Izuku in a sort of wonder while Izuku simply waved bye to Katsuki before walking away.

He was heading down the stairs to get closer to the flood zone when he passed a group of girls talking. In particular, it was the girl you could not see.

“I was so surprised to find something in my case and when I tried it on it was really comfortable! How are all your other costumes?” Hagakure said energetically.

Izuku came closer behind the brown-haired girl when he spoke. “If you have any issues with your costumes make sure to go to Power Loader and Hagakure if there’s an issue with your’s please tell him so I can fix it. I hope it’s been working for you.”

However, a part of what Izuku had said was while he was floating upside down since his sudden appearance had startled Uraraka who had slapped him and activated her quirk.

The girls stared at Izuku with wide eyes as he floated a bit more still upside down before Aizawa came up to them and looped his capture weapon around Midoriya’s foot, stopping him from floating further away and making him right side up once again.

The man looked away from Izuku and back at the group of girls. “Good reaction time Uraraka, but please make sure you know who it is exactly that you make float.”

Uraraka blushed before looking up at Izuku. Meanwhile, Hagakure didn’t seem bothered by the situation. “You made my costume?” she asked.

Izuku looked down from his high vantage point. “I couldn’t just let you run around naked. Also your quirk proved to be a fun challenge and I had the time. Did you like it?”

Hagakure’s clothes seemed to bounce at his response.”Yup!”

Izuku kept floating looking pleased before he looked at Aizawa who kept him tethered. “Hey can you take me to the flood zone and have her drop me there?” he asked the hero.

Aizawa looked at him for a few seconds without saying anything before looking at Uraraka. “Keep watching us and release your quirk when I saw so.”

“A-Alright Sensei!”

At that, Aizawa turned around and continued to go down the stairs towards the flood zone while dragging along Izuku like a balloon who bopped down at the motion until they got on flat terrain. It was a quick walk until Izuku floated above the water. While in midair he took off the short-sleeve jacket and then the black tank top he wore underneath it. He bundled up the clothes and threw it at Aizawa, who caught it with ease with one hand and then Izuku sent the man a thumbs up.

Aizawa looked back at the group of girls. “Now Uraraka,” he called out.

From a distance, Izuku saw her put her fingers together and they all watched as he fell into the water with a splash while Aizawa rested the clothes on the ground. They kept looking at the water until they saw a head of green hair pop out from the water. The teen’s hair was plastered to his forehead and covered his eyes. But despite that, Izuku had no issue with facing the direction in which Todoroki had been standing and watching the scene.

“Todoroki can you come here real quick?” Izuku asked from the water.

Todoroki looked confused but came over to where Izuku had gotten closer to where dry land met wet.

“Can you make me some ice please?” Izuku asked looking at Todoroki with hair still in his face.

Todoroki froze for a movement before looking over to Aizawa who gave a simple shrug. And with that Todoroki brought up his hand to create large chunks of ice, creating a pile in reach of Izuku. When he was done he saw Izuku smile before the teen reached out and dragged all the frozen chunks into the water with him.

“Thanks,” Izuku said quietly before suddenly sinking beneath the water again and Todoroki was left staring oddly at the floating ice before Thirteen called him over to join the others.

Later on, when Todoroki helped Shinsou avoid being crushed from falling debris he asked “Why did your brother want ice?”

There was about 30 minutes left of training when Thirteen came up to where Izuku was still in the water with his nose and eyes being the only things above water.

“Midoriya, would you mind keeping an eye on Ojiro? He got a little overheated in one of the zones,” Thirteen said with while Ojiro stood next to them looking flushed and a little unsteady on his feet

Lifting his head more above water Izuku nodded before completely getting out of the water and standing in front of Ojiro while still dripping wet with his hair sticking to his face. The heat-stricken boy looked at him and Izuku tilted his head towards the water. “You can chill with me in the water, it’s still cool from Todoroki’s ice. I’ll help you take off the top for you if you need help.”

Ojiro let out a breath and nodded at him. Since he had already taken off the short-sleeved jacket all Izuku had to do was pull the tank top off of the boy who seemed to feel relief at the removal. Although he shivered when Izuku’s slightly cool fingers brushed across his skin.

Izuku let out a huff of amusement. “Come on let’s get you in the water.”

Izuku had no issue maneuvering the boy into the water and sitting in the water on a rock until his head was the only thing that stuck out of the water (he made sure Ojiro’s tail was in the cool water too). Izuku moved himself to be in front of Ojiro taking note of his features and still flushed face.

Ojiro’s eyes looked a little dazed and when Izuku moved those eyes followed. Familiar with relieving oneself from overheating Izuku got closer to Ojiro. “This will make you feel better,” he said before cupping some water and gently pouring it over the boy’s head.

He saw how Ojiro’s eyes closed at the action and Izuku chuckled, cupping more water to pour on his head. “Feels nice right?”

Izuku was pleased to get a hum of agreement from the teen and he kept pouring water onto his head. At one point he gently moved Ojiro’s head so that it was titled back.

“Close your eyes for this, I’m going to pour some water on your face.”

When Izuku heard a quiet ‘okay’ in response he cupped some more water and let it flow out of his hands onto Ojiro’s forehead. When he had no more water he cupped some more and repeated the process before softly touching Ojiro’s head so that it was no longer titled anymore and Midoriya went back to his position of being in front of Ojiro.

From the looks of it, Ojiro looked less flushed and was looking at Izuku with more focused eyes. ”Thank you,” the boy said with a smile.

Izuku smiled back at him. “Don’t push yourself so hard Ojiro, you’ll do fine,” he said before letting himself slip under the water once again.
___

When it got closer to leave Izuku decided it was time to get out of the water, Ojiro looked much better and agreed with him. The two boys though did have a little slip while getting out. That ended up with Izuku falling back into Ojiro and the two falling back in the water, when the two got out they were laughing.

Neither of them minded and once out of the water they both started to stretch, chuckling a bit at the synchronicity of their action once out of the water. Which was how they ended up in the position that Aizawa found them in. Both Izuku and Ojiro sat in front of each other with their legs spread and feet press against each other respectively. Izuku grabbed Ojiro’s arms and pulled while leaning back making Ojiro stretch until he couldn’t anymore before they switched positions. Though from the difference it was clear that Izuku had been much more flexible considering that his chest had been touching the ground when Ojiro leaned back and pulled Izuku towards him.

Aizawa didn’t comment on their position and looked at his student. “Ojiro are you feeling better?”

Not moving from his leaned back position or grip on Izuku’s arms Ojiro nodded. “Yes, Sensei.”

“Good, we’ll be leaving in a few minutes so try to dry up. Yaoyarozu made the two of you towels so be sure to thank her.”
___

On the bus ride back, Ojiro was bombarded with questions.

“Ojiro! What was it like with that boy!? Who is he, tell us all the details!” Mina asked excitedly while Ojiro took another sip of the water bottle and tried to wrap one of the towels around himself more. He saw that his classmates were listening to what response he would give.

Ojiro looked to where the boy who was in the water with him was seated next to Aizawa-sensei there was a towel around the teen’s shoulder and a smaller one around his head that covered his face as he rested his head against the window.

He thought about how Midoriya (that was the name Thirteen had used) didn’t hesitate to come out of the water and help get his shirt off of him and helped him into the cool water that had felt relieving. It was clear that all his actions were careful and only to help him cool down. It had been unbelievingly gentle how Midoriya and poured the cool water on his head with the promise that it would feel good and then poured water on his face. It reminded Ojiro of how his Aunt would bathe her baby, pouring water carefully around their head making sure no soap got in their eyes.

Ojiro had never thought he’d experience something like that while at UA, much less from a boy he didn’t know and wasn’t even in his class.

But it had been so nice.

It had been so nice in that comfortable silence with cool water against his hot skin. It had been so nice when Midoriya smiled at him and said ‘Don't push yourself so much Ojiro, you'll do fine’.

Words so different from what he usually heard from others. Past friends and teachers told him he had to push himself to catch up with the others with ‘better’ quirks. When he trained in martial arts he pushed himself, trying to make sure that in the next match he’d be better. He pushed himself until he had been able to get accepted into UA and he figured that he’d have to keep pushing after seeing quirks like Todoroki’s, Tokoyami’s, and Yaoyaorozu’s. It felt like his wasn’t enough.

But those words had been spoken softly with a smile and Ojiro couldn’t have help but feel reassured by them.

Unknown to him, his classmates saw a soft smile appear on his face as he went over what happened in his head.

“He was nice.”

Chapter Text

Later that day Vlad was preparing himself for what would happen after Toga knocked on the apartment door. According to the paper Midoriya had given the girl, this should be the place where her Aunt Magne lived.

He looked at Toga who still had her hand raised but didn’t knock just yet.

“I’m scared,” she said suddenly, still looking at the door.

Vlad smiled. “That’s okay. But from what you told me and Midoriya saying she’s been looking for you all this time, I don’t think you need to be scared.”

Seeming to take in his words, Toga nodded to herself before knocking on the door 3 times.

It took less than a minute for the door to be opened and revealed a woman with shoulder-length hair. The woman looked at Vlad before turning to look at Toga in which she froze.

“Himiko?” she asked in almost a whisper.

Toga barely got to nod before she was swept into a hug and Toga giggled despite the tears coming out of her eyes. It felt like a private event when Magne put her niece down and urged her to come inside so Vlad made to move to go in and he looked to the side. But suddenly there was a tug on his sleeve and he looked down at Toga, with her smile showing her sharp teeth and red slightly red face from crying.

“You won’t get rid of me that easily,” she said and Vlad looked up at her Aunt to see what the woman said.

Magne smiled at him. “Come inside.”

So Vlad did (and as soon as he did he got a crushing hug from Magne).

Izuku waited for the call to be picked up as he sat at his desk still tying something on his computer. Eventually, the tablet screen stopped showing the waiting screen and revealed a familiar face.

“Izuku! How have you been? What are you up to right now? Where’s your mother?”

Izuku smiled at the barrage of questions and closed the laptop to have his attention simply be on the tablet. “Hey, dad. Mom’s in the kitchen if you want to say hi,” Izuku said, already grabbing the device and out of his room.

“Is that your father on Izuku?” Inko called out from her spot in the kitchen and Izuku saw her come into view with a smile of her own when she heard her husband’s voice once again.

He let the two greet each other and subjected himself to hearing his father attempt to flirt with his mom through the video call. Of course, he always managed to make her blush before she handed the tablet back to Izuku with a kiss on the cheek.

Izuku walked back to his room and looked at his dad.

“Do you have to do that every time?”

“Izuku it is my job to sweet talk you mother, how do you think she’s so happy all the time.”

Izuku smirked. “Because you’re not here blowing up something in the bathroom.”

“Hey! That was only 3 times, okay and the last time was because the floor was slippery. Why did you even mop the bathroom at 4 in the morning?”

“Because it’s a good time since no one was supposed to be using the bathroom. Much less building something in there,” Izuku replied deadpan.

His dad returned the deadpanned look. “Did you forget that we both have messed up sleep schedules, your’s practically non-existent.”

The two stared at each other before the older Midoriya gave in (as he usually did whenever stuck in a staring contest with Izuku). “Anyways, I have to talk to you about something I’ve been working on but before that, how have you been?” he asked taking on a more serious look.

Izuku sighed. “Fine, taking the naps I need and haven’t had an episode yet. Actually did a little ice bath thing earlier today which was nice.”

“Those are the best and feel great on the scales. More are gonna appear as you get older so make sure to take care of them Izuku.”

“Will do.”

Then after the usual check-up questions Izuku listened as his father described his latest project, taking on fevered energy of his own that almost made his amber eyes seem to glow. Izuku enjoyed listening and inserting his own opinion that his father took in stride.

They talked for two hours, eventually shifting to Izuku’s working on Hagakure’s costume and getting snacks for Vlad and working at the Grotto. Just like Izuku, Hisashi liked to listen to him even though his son had a much more toned-down energy than his own, but he loved it all the same.

Once it was late, Inko came in telling them it was time for Hisashi to get to bed which Izuku always found amusing.

But before he ended the call, Hisashi said the thing he always did.

“Goodnight my Sleepy Dragon”

Izuku smiled at the name and when the call ended he opened back his laptop. Although it was two hours later that he remembered he had completely forgotten to tell his dad about Shigaraki and Kurogiri.

Izuku Midoriya
-Age: 15 years old
-Quirk: Sleeping Dragon.
-Type: Mutant

Family history
Mother: Inko Midoriya
-Quirk: Pull
Grandparents: Power napping & Tactile telekinesis
Great-grandmas: Attraction field & Quirkless
Great-grandpas: Hypnokinesis & Thermal manipualtion

Father: Hisashi Midoriya
-Quirk: Dragon breath
Grandparents: Cooling breath & Pyrokinesis
Great-grandmas: Desert Night Lizard & Spark
Great-grandpas: Quirkless & Quirkless

Overview of quirk
User has reptilian features which consist of sharp nails/teeth, scales, and reflective membranes in the eye. Increased agility, flexibility, and strength. Claws and fangs provide use for offense and defense. Scales are durable and provide protection on parts covered. The reflective membrane allows for better vision at night and in low-light.

Due to Dragon breath from the father, user has a high body temperature which makes them unable to have a regular sleep schedule and cannot access REM. However, due to history of Power napping in the maternal side and a previous nocturnal quirk on the paternal side, the user is able to have short bouts of rest and function normally. This is done through ‘naps’ of approximately 5 to 10 minute intervals. This provides mental rest and prevent overheating.

Drawbacks:
Unable to have regular sleep schedule due to high body temp. The appearance of exhaustion is unlikely to go away regardless of energy level. Overheating is a risk and naps, icebaths, rest are necessary to prevent and treat them. During episodes (overheating) the user will experience fever-like symptoms, a period of being mute, and ‘odd’ behavior. However, there is already a treatment plan in place for episodes.

Chapter Text

Early in the morning as Izuku was preparing breakfast for his mom to eat when she woke up later he received an email from Nedzu. It was about how the teachers would be telling the students about the sports festival.

About 20 minutes later, his mom’s meal was ready to be heated up later and he left her a note saying he was going to get a headstart on things at UA. Then he was off.

Unsurprisingly Nedzu had a cup of tea waiting for Midoriya when he got to his office. The Principal was sipping his own cup when Midoriya settled himself on the couch and grabbed the cup on the table.

“Good Morning Midoriya,” Nedzu said warmly, finding it amusing how the teen looked like he was asleep despite drinking the tea. He found himself enjoying the early morning tea-drinking sessions he would occasionally get with Midoriya. The boy was not at all bothered to come to campus before some of the teachers and Nedzu was never one to deny the company of someone when it came to drinking tea, especially with an individual as interesting as Midoriya.

After finally setting the cup down, Midoriya looked up. “Morning. I got your email about the announcement, anything you’re excited about for this year?”

Nedzu let himself show his fangs when he smiled at the question. Yes, he’d never pass up an opportunity to have some tea with Midoriya, a boy who wasn’t afraid to smile back at him, showing sharp teeth in return.

For the next hour, Midoriya listened to Nedzu speak about past sports festivals and how things would be different this year considering security but also certain individuals who would have a lot of attention focused on them. Midoriya chuckled at Nedzus's story about a third-year who in the past had a difficult time keeping a hold of his pants. He also added some commentary about looking forward to seeing if there were some additional heroes he could possibly get an autograph from.

“By the way, can I have your autograph? I realized I hadn’t really asked any of the faculty for them a few hours ago.” Midoriya said, suddenly sliding a leather-bound notebook across the table.

The tea that fell out of Nedzu’s cup, fortunately, missed splashing onto the pages of the notebook as the Principal laughed.

After getting the Principal's autograph along with his current favorite brand of tea, Izuku went off to see how Kurogiri and Dusty were faring.

Kurogiri looked comfortable in the turtle neck sweater when he opened the door. “Hello, Midoriya what are you doing here so early?” he asked and Midoriya could note that sounded like concern.

Izuku looked up at the taller man. “To check up on you. How’s Dusty?”

Kurogiri moved out of the doorway to let Izuku in. “There have been no changes but I was told that a specialist would be coming in later today.”

“That’s good,” Izuku said, walking near the bed where Dusty was. He took in how Dusty didn’t look in pain and seemed to be sleeping well, but then he turned around to look at Kurogiri. “But how are you doing?”

“I’m doing fine, your principal had been very welcoming considering the circumstances.”

Izuku have him a small smile and nod at the response. “Would you mind If I visited again later?”

“Not at all,” Kurogiri said but paused when he saw that Izuku had climbed onto the foot of the bed, but then he kept speaking. “Would you be willing to share your music again?” he asked.

Izuku, who had gracefully gotten on the bed and was standing at the end of it looking up at the ceiling looked back at Kurogiri. “It would be my honor.”

At that, there was no more to say and Kurogiri quietly watched a vent open on the ceiling and Izuku jumped up to grab the edge. He pulled himself into it without making much noise.

Once inside Izuku peeked his head out of the vent. “I’ll see ya later Kurogiri.”

“Goodbye Midoriya.”

Kurogiri got a kind small smile in return before the boy’s freckled face disappeared from view and the cover slid back into place. And when Kurogiri returned to his seat where he had been reading before, he looked at the sleeping form of his charge.

“Tomura, I think you would be very intrigued by Midoriya if you aren’t already.”

There was no sighting of Midoriya until later when classes were returning from an assembly notifying students of the upcoming sports festival, rules for use of training grounds, resources, and being told ‘good luck’.

Class 1A in particular were the ones to see the signature head of green hair that seemed messier than usual. They paused at the sight of Midoriya sitting on Bakugou’s desk while Bakugou kept on walking until he stood right in front of Midoriya.

“What do you think you’re doing here nerd?”

They watched as Midoriya seemed to stare at Bakgugou with a relaxed small smile, his legs still swinging as they hung off the desk. Bakugou huffed and poked Midoriya in the shoulder two times, the second time (even though light) seemed to be enough to make Midoriya let himself fall back.

But he didn’t fall off the desk, instead, Midoriya laid on the desk while his legs still were swinging. So in an oddly silent room, Midoriya remained calmly draped over Bakugou’s desk. And then an arm popped up.

In his hand, there was a folded-up piece of paper.

The others watched as that hand tapped the piece of paper against Bakugou’s face a few times before he finally took it. When Bakugou opened the note and quickly read it, he huffed in amusement before starting to push Midoriya slowly off the desk while Midoriya let him. There was no need to worry about falling as Midoriya easily landed on his feet and stood up and started walking backward away from the desk, still looking at Bakugou who had taken his seat.

Bakugou glared as Midoriya walked out of the classroom backward while wiggling his fingers goodbye at him.

Then Midoriya was gone and everyone else got to their seats too. Uraraka was the one to come up to Bakugou and ask what the paper was.

“None of your business round cheeks.”

Later a note that said, ‘Don’t piss off your classmates or they might just beat your ass at the sports festival. Have fun at training!’ was reduced to ash by Bakugou who had a smile welcoming a challenge.

The next sighting of Midoriya was in Snipe’s class. A student came across what they thought was a random body and ran towards the sharpshooter teacher who reassured that Midoriya was, in fact, not a dead child.

He walked up to the boy who was laying half his body on the floor while his legs reached up towards the ceiling against the wall.

“Hi Snipe,” Midoriya said with his eyes still closed.

Snipe looked at him and wondered what to do. It seemed the shooting range, or more specifically the booths would be a common napping location for Midoriya. Snipe wondered if Midoriya was interested in shooting.

“Youngin, do you want to give the gun a try?” he asked, sure that Nedzu wouldn't have an issue with letting the boy try.

And while he was sure the Principal wouldn't have an issue, Snipe questioned if he made the right offer when he saw those green eyes open to look at him. He felt as if he were the target at the end of the shooting ranges.
___

Later Cementos walked in to see Midnight sitting next to Snipe looking like she was trying to hold back her laughter while the man was hunched over with his head in his hands.

Cementoss hesitantly asked what was wrong.

“Midoriya was in my class and I offered for him to try out the gun since Nedzu seems to deem him responsible.”

“And what happened?”

Midnight snorted while Snipe replied. “Damn kid caught on real quick and scared the shit out of some third years with his face when he was shootin. The boy looked like a western outlaw with the look in his eye.”

Cementoss tried to ignore the giggling that Midnight had given up trying to hide. She always broke down at Snipe’s theatrics and similes since he came back from America.

Yagi, in his small form, was listening to another lecture on teaching methods from Nedzu when there was a sudden knocking sound coming from above them. Instantly, Nedzu stopped talking and he looked up which Yagi did as well.

Promptly Yagi coughed up some blood at being startled to see green eyes looking down at him surrounded by darkness. When he looked up again after catching his breath he saw that those eyes in fact belonged to the child that had scolded him, Midoriya.

Seeming to have waited for him to catch his breath, Midoriya spoke. “I think I scared some third years in Snipe’s class.”

“How so?” Nedzu asked, not at all asking why the child was in the vents in the first place, much less one in his office.

Yagi could see vaguely that Midoriya shrugged. “I was just shooting like Snipe showed me.”

One of Nedzu’s ears twitched. “Well, that is what they do in Snipe’s class so it’s odd that they got scared.”

Midoriya agreed with the Principal. “That’s what I thought too, But I didn’t get to ask since they left pretty quickly when their class ended.”

Nedzu had picked up his cup of tea and took a sip. “That’s unfortunate.”

Yagi could see the Midoriya seemed to have his arms crossed and rested his chin on the arms while looking down at them before he spoke again. “Yeah, but it was fun.” Green eyes looked at Yagi again before returning at Nedzu. “What are you doing Nedzu?”

Nedzu smiled and looked at Yagi. “Catching up with Yagi-san here and telling him about various teaching methods I’ve observed over the years.”

“Oh, well then I’ll leave now. Goodbye Nedzu, Goodbye All Might.” Then Midoriya disappeared into the darkness from the vent before the opening slid back closed.

Tokoyami was walking with Shoji in the hall until he realized that the multi-armed teen was no longer beside him. When he looked back he saw that Shoji was a few feet back and looking up. Shoji used one hand to beckon Tokoyami back to him another to speak as he continued to look up at the ceiling.

“Do you need me to catch you again?” Shoji asked, still looking and Tokoyami wondered who he was talking to.

A grate on the ceiling moved to the side and a head appeared out of the darkness, hanging out slightly with a smile on their face. “Not necessarily, but I would like it,” Midoriya said.

Tokoyami huffed in amusement at Midoriya’s comment and saw that Shoji smiled.

“Then come on down,” Shoji said.

Tokoyami’s impression of Shoji’s strength was only confirmed when his friend caught Midoriya easily after the boy fell from the large height. And he had a positive impression of Midoriya’s physicality when he showed no pain from being caught despite the drop. Midoriya seemed content in Shoji’s arms before looking at him.

“Hello, I’m Midoriya Izuku.”

Tokoyami bowed his head in greeting. “Tokoyami Fumikage, a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I see you already know Shoji.”

Midoriya nodded. “He caught me a few days ago and I was simply smitten by his chivalry.”

Tokoyami smiled, but before he could respond a familiar shadow made itself known.

“If anyone can sweep someone off their feet it would be Shoji!” Dark Shadow said.

A glint of gold was seen in Midoriyas eyes when he leaned forward, still in Shoji’s arms, to get a closer look at Dark Shadow who did the same. “You’re Dark Shadow I presume.”

Dark Shadow’s eyes made it clear they were pleased with the recognition. “The one and only, I heard you like dark places.”

Midoriya leaned back in Shoji’s arms, making himself more comfortable. “Yeah, they’re good places to take a nap and also just to relax. Have any recommendations?”
___

The four of them continued to walk down the hallway (although two weren’t technically walking at all) for a bit while talking. A good portion consisted of Dark Shadow and Midoriya listing pros and cons of odds spots like cabinets, closets, the shade of trees, and even under beds.

Though the two of them agreed that Shoji’s arms didn’t really have any cons.

“As much as I am glad you two like my many arms,” - Shoji said with a slight blush, he looked down at the person he was carrying - “Do you have somewhere to be Midoriya?”

“Yeah, I made plans to go see Dusty again.”

It was amusing how Tokoyami hummed in agreement despite not knowing who ‘Dusty’ was. “Will you go back into the darkness that lay above us at all time?” Tokoyami asked.

Midoriya nodded and Shoji chuckled at how Midoriya seemed to understand perfectly that Tokoyami was referring to the vents. It was also amusing to see Dark Shadow volunteer themselves to bring Midoriya back to the ceiling to a vent that for some reason just happened to open just as he pointed it out.

While his Dark Shadow retreating back to Tokoyami Shinsou was walking down the hallway.

“What was that?” he asked, looking at the vent that just closed.

“That was Midoriya, Shoji was carrying him,” Tokoyami said while Dark Shadow snickered behind him.

Shinsou looked at Shoji’s arms and the thought of being carried came to his mind.

He must have been staring at them for a bit because it was Shoji’s voice that broke through his thoughts. “Do you want me to carry you?” Shoji asked and Shinsou couldn’t help but notice that the teen didn’t at all sound annoyed and only genuine.

With the slight shock and also lack of coffee in the last 5 hours he didn’t filter the next words that came out of his mouth. “I would literally die happy if I got to be carried by you, Shoji.”

“Then I hope you’re like Tokoyami who has a will ready,” Shoji said as he opened his arms towards Shinsou.

Shinsou who had been standing next to Tokoyami whispered, “I think I’m in love.”

Seemingly not at all perturbed by this information, Tokoyami nodded sagely. “A wise choice.”

Shoji smiled underneath his mask. He was enjoying the odd but fun group of friends he had made here at UA. Although, he was starting to see a pattern of ‘darkness’ and sleepiness in them. He’d have to make sure to make them get some rest even if he had to carry them to a couch and wrapped them in a blanket himself, which seemed they wouldn't even mind.

Chapter Text

Nedzu patiently waited for Yagi to stop coughing. Amused by the panic Midoriya had caused with a simple goodbye. Yes, such a simple thing, and Nedzu had a front seat to how gracefully the number one hero conducted himself after learning that a child knew of his secret.

“Nedzu, how does he know!?” Yagi said in an almost whisper, only just wiping the blood away with wide eyes.

Nedzu took another sip of his tea.

"I can surmise that he simply came to the conclusion himself. It wouldn't have been too difficult considering his intellect,” he calmly responded although it didn't seem to calm Yagi at all.

Yagi leaned forward. "But it's a secret that needs to be kept! Surely you are concerned that a child knows it."

Yagi would have been correct if that child had been anyone else other than Midoriya. The boy was not any ordinary teenager. That boy had high connections and years of education under his belt after using up the number of hours others used to sleep. There was a certain maturity or attitude gained from something like that. Something that set him apart from the others.

Which was why Nedzu replied, "Oh no, not at all."

Once again he was amused by the confusion that appeared on All Might’s face.

"Why not?"

At this Nedzu could help but smile in the way he so often did in the company of Midoriya. "Well, he's smart enough to keep to a secret."

The face All Might made in response made Nedzu spill some tea as he took another sip.

When Midoriya arrived at the room where Dusty and Kurogiri were in he simply popped his head in, letting it hang upside down.

“The specialist is not here yet Midoriya,” Kurogiri said without looking up from the book he was reading.

“Oh, that’s fine. I can play some music while we wait,” Midoriya offered.

“That would be nice.”

At Kurogiri’s response, Midoriya let himself fall out of the vent easily landing on his feet. He made his way to one of the other seats, took out his laptop (from where no one could say), and pressed play.

Music filled the room as Midoriya got to work on some documents while Kurogiri kept reading.
___

It was about thirty minutes later that there was a knock on the door and Kurogiri said to come in. Midoriya paused his music but kept working, although his focus was more on the specialist.

He listened as they introduced themselves and then checked over the comatose patient.

It was fairly quick

In the end, the specialist didn’t reveal much, probably because the principal wasn’t there. Kurogiri and Midoriya were aware of this but not bothered.

“He seems to be doing alright, the rest is good for his mind and also protecting him so it's best to keep him in it for now. I’ll be coming by tomorrow to go more in-depth about what I can do and what steps are going to be taken.”

Kurogiri simply nodded at the specialist who took that as their cue to leave.

When the door closed Midoriya turned to Kurogiri and asked “Press play?” to see if the man wanted him to play the music he had paused.

At Midoriya’s voice breaking the silence, Kurogiri let out a deep sigh. It didn’t take a genius to know the man was stressed about his charge. But Midoriya could see some tension (how there was tension in mist he didn’t know) leave the caretaker as he responded with “Press play.”

With a click of a button, music filled the room once more.
_______

Later that night Izuku found himself talking to his dad again, this time remembering to tell him about Dusty and Kurogiri. He told the story, not embellishing it like he usually heard his dad or Katsuki do.

The whole time his dad was quiet but then he finished speaking and he waited for the man’s response.

Hisashi looked at his son in disbelief before curiosity took over. “Who are they? What are their quirks? Are they cool? Are they assholes or nice? Did they hurt you? Did you hurt them? What did you do? How did your teachers react?”

Izuku was amused by his dad. The man always had questions and even when he was little he didn’t hold back with asking his son a ton of questions even when he couldn’t answer all of them. Inko thought it was cute but reminded her husband that no their son couldn't tell him the reasoning behind a policy seeing as he was only 3 years old.

But now at age 15, Izuku was able to dutifully answer his dad and say ‘No I did not hurt them, why would I do that?’ There was no concern for security breach though as he told his dad about the school's response due to the secure line he and his dad created themselves. Izuku was also able to tell him about the condition of Dusty and Kurogiri.

In typical Hisashi fashion, he paid close attention to what his son said. And similar to Izuku, he had been concerned about the villains’ welfare.

The two of them were talking about how despicable someone was to mess with a kid's mind when Inko walked in with a plate of fruits and a glass of water. Not bothering to interrupt her boys' late-night discussion she simply set the plate and dish in front of Izuku while giving him a kiss on his head before leaving.

Five minutes later Hisashi asked when the food appeared and then whined that he missed flirting with his wife.

Popping a piece of strawberry in his mouth Izuku said in a deadpan voice, “I can't believe you did that to Mom, don't you love her? She deserves better, I’ll send you the divorce papers. We’ll be taking all your assets for the emotional damages”

“How are you my kid?”

Izuku shrugged. “I hang out with Kurogiri since he’s alone, he likes my music,” he said completely changing the conversation.

Obviously noticing this Hisashi smiled before pausing, going over what his son just said about music. On the other side of the screen, Hisashi felt himself start to sweat.

His kid’s music taste was odd. Sometimes Izuku’s music taste ventured into the weird side and lowkey make Hisashi question his existence. Sometimes it made him feel like he has a swirling black hole full of stars in his gut. It was weird and worse than when he tried one of his coworker's version of LSD. And that was when Izuku was only 10 years old, who knew was weird music he found within the last 5 years.

More concern grew for Kurogiri.

“He sounds like a fun dude,” Hisashi said.

Either not noticing his dad’s anxiety or ignoring it, Izuku moved on to the next topic discussion. And when a coworker yelled at his dad to go going the two said goodbye. But Izuku didn't go to sleep. Instead, he continued to type up questions on a worksheet. It was about coming up with fake scenarios to put in a new simulator they created at a college. Izuku was working on his fifth scenario and had five more to go.

Kurogiri sat tense in his seat while Midoriya sat beside him. The man listened and watched closely as the specialist checked over Tomura before speaking to Nedzu and Recovery Girl.

“Now there are two ways to go about removing the manipulations,” the specialist said, making Kurogiri lean forward in his seat while Midoriya kept his eyes closed as he was leaning back. “This is due to the effect that it could have on the person who placed them, and if Shigaraki had been conscious it would affect him too but with how he's unconscious and essentially willing due to how he accepted being in your company it won’t hurt him.

“One route will not cause the perpetrator any pain, but it’s slow and would take about two weeks with the sessions spaced out. The other route is highly dangerous to the perpetrator with a lot of backlash. It could be done in about two sessions hours apart in the same day. But the backlash is very severe. There could be damage to the brain tissue and in severe cases: death.

“These are the two routes and I implore you to think carefully,” the specialist finished saying with a serious look on their face.

Not three seconds after the specialist said those words did Midoriya speak up.

“I say go route two.”

All eyes turned to him and only then did Midoriya look up at them, his eyes fully open instead of partially closed. It was unnerving but it also showed how serious the boy was.

And when the teen began to speak, Kurogiri saw that everyone listened and so did he.

“The person who did this had no issues with locking away who Kurogiri was inside and no issues with manipulating and harming a kid. Building a relationship on lies and pain. Controlling how he could think and what he could do without feeling pain. Dusty was in so much pain that day outside of the closet before he fell unconscious and it isn't fair to him to still be unconscious when he should be enjoying his time out of that man’s control.

“So go route two. Get it done and free him from those manipulations, and whatever damage is done is sure to damage the amount of power that man holds. It’d be good to throw him off and give authorities and heroes a chance to get him,” the boy finished saying.

The whole time Kurogiri did not hear hesitance or a lack of confidence in Midoriya’s words.

“Surely one of you is worried about the pain it’ll cause?” the specialist asked, flustered by Midoriya’s opinion.

“Not at all,” Kurogiri found himself saying before Midoriya could respond.

If Midoriya, a child who only knew them for a short amount of time and managed to get them the help he had wanted to give Tomura for years was able to come to this option so quickly; Kurogiri could not feel any discomfort in coming to the same conclusion. His Master had done much harm and kept him trapped, even now that he was free he was still blind to who he used to be.

And Kurogiri thought it only be fitting to hurt the man who had done this to him and his charge.

“Then that settles that!” A chipper voice said and Kurogiri saw that it was the Principal speaking. “If anything it will give us an advantage and if we are lucky take out that man. I think it would be best to start the first session as soon as possible so that the young man can finally wake up and formally introduce himself.”

The specialist looked at all the people in the room. They thought over how cold, brutal, and scary that teen had spoken. How quick the misty man would give no mercy and how on board the principle of a highly respected hero school supported their decision.

It was frightening how easily these individuals said to go down the painful route.

Are they sadists?

“A-Alright then. I’ll get started right away.”

It was a few hours after the specialist came to the realization of the sadism of certain individuals when an underground hero speculated to be a sadist visited that infirmary room.

Aizawa was unsurprised to find Midoriya sitting legs crossed on the bed that belonged to Kurogiri as the misty man lay horizontal on the bed, their legs hanging over the edge.

It was odd to look at Kurogiri. The man felt familiar and a bit too polite at times, but every time Aizawa saw him he could see they were loosening up (he could really see this whenever Midoriya was near). This time Kurogiri was wearing one of his sweatshirts he hadn't worn in years. The man was similar in size to him. Aizawa saw Kurogiri messing with some frayed string at the end of one of the sleeves in a way that reminded him of a friend (a friend that kept coming to mind whenever he looked at Kurogiri).

“Can you tell me about the villain you went up against while working with Midnight 7 years ago on Okinawa?” Midoriya asked bringing Aizawa out of his thoughts.

“Why do you ask?”

“It's for a simulation thing,” the boy responded and Aizawa decided that asking how the teen even knew about that specific covert operation was not worth it. Instead, he described the villain and details of her quirk. The whole time the teen continued typing and added side comments.

In the end, Aizawa was now able to figure out why that villain had been going after her target (something she had never revealed even under a truth quirk), and as he thought about how getting into contact with the lead detective in that case a notebook was being shoved into his line of vision.

Aizawa looked at the teen.

“Can I have your autograph?” Midoriya asked.

Aizawa couldn’t help but think it was fitting that the boy looked a little excited asking him for his autograph despite befriending villains and then without mercy brutally declaring pain on the man who had hurt them. Someone who was probably in immense pain if the face of the specialist he passed by had said anything.

The underground hero had been correct in his assumption. Somewhere, in an undisclosed location, that person was in pain and causing disarray in what used to be an organized facility.

All for One wanted to rip his brain from the pain he felt. He had never felt anything like it despite the years he had lived. There was a burning sensation pulling and ripping into his very mind, into parts of himself that had been there for more than a century. There was no escaping the pain. Even as blood dripped down the scratch marks that decorated his scarred head the pain did not stop.

Even the Doctor could not do anything and he knocked the short man away in his anger.

And as much as he was in pain he was furious. Furious that this pawn disappeared and now what surely had to be the quirk he used on that boy was causing him such pain. The years that quirk worked in the boy's mind had to be why it hurt so much.

All for One cursed at the person who took what was supposed to be his new body away from him. He raved at them, screaming and cursing the one who was to blame for it. And when that damned doctor suggested drugs, in blind rage AFO hit him again.

Eventually, after what felt like days All for One collapsed and went unconscious.

The Doctor who held a cloth to a cut on his head let out a sigh of relief that the scarred man did not heavily damage his projects and could not hit him again.

Chapter Text

The first feeling Tomura had was feeling lost.

It wasn’t unfamiliar. He had been feeling lost since he was little, wandering the streets waiting for someone to help him, for anybody to help him. When a man in a suit had spoken to him, he thought he had been found.

He hadn’t.

Instead, that feeling of being lost was buried underneath anger, sadness, and the feeling that he had lost utter control of himself. Now there was only the feeling of being lost, except for the first time, it wasn’t as bad anymore.

When Tomura wondered why that was, he slowly began to remember what happened.

He remembered Sensei speaking to him, placing a hand on his shoulder as more ants crawled along his skin and words were whispered into his ear. He remembered the pain. He remembered UA and a dark closet before things changed. Suddenly he remembered comfort, a sensation at his fingertips, and a warm embrace. He remembered careful hands, reassuring voices, and then peace. He wondered how he could remember things he never experienced. But as the fog on his mind lifted, Tomura remembered he did experience it. He had met someone in that closet. He remembered how they didn’t scream, run away, or hurt him. Instead, they had sat down next to him and promised to help.

He had felt the sensation of the itch being pulled away as if a soothing balm had been placed on it.

He had felt relief.

Tomura had felt as if someone had finally found him.

So when he finally managed to open his eyes which felt heavy, he didn’t panic. Tomura didn’t panic at the unfamiliar sheets tucked around him or the ceiling he had never seen before. He didn’t panic at seeing just a little bit of light coming through blinds on a window (light that never made its way into his room at the bar).

It was calm, quiet. There was a silence that didn’t threaten to choke him, that would cause him to bring his nails to his neck once again.

It was nice.

Tomura let himself just lay there for a bit, breathing slowly, enjoying the sensation of a clear mind. Enjoying the feeling of being found before he finally made a move to sit up. His limbs and eyes felt heavy, but it was as if he was waking up from a deep deep sleep. He was slouched as he rubbed his eyes, but when he let his eyes open again he paused.

At the foot of his bed was an odd sight that had him leaning forward to get a better look.

When Tomura what it was, he couldn’t help but be amused.

It was the boy from the closet. But instead of curled up on a shelf like the first time they met (which he still didn’t fully understand), they were curled up at the foot of his bed like a cat. There was really no other way to describe it.

He stared for a few moments, wondering why the teen was on his bed when suddenly silent anymore.

“It’s nice to see you awake Tomura,” a voice softly said and Tomura turned to see Kurogiri looking at him. The man was seated in a chair to the side. Most surprisingly was that the ma was in a sweater instead of his usual formal clothing.

“Kurogiri?” Tomura asked before coughing at the dryness in his throat.

Kurogiri handed him a glass of water and as he drank he took in more details of the man that he had known since he was little. Details like how they were wearing metal bracelets and his mist didn’t seem as active as it usually did. Details like how calm the man looked.

“Where are we?”

“At UA,” Kurogiri said, taking the now empty glass and setting it on the bedside table. “You collapsed due to a mental quirk and the staff here took you under their care. Do you remember the help Midoriya” - he gestured to the teen on his bed - “offered?”

Tomura nodded.

“Well both of us accepted it. Except when you walked out of the closet and saw the other heroes there, the mental quirk that had been used on you caused you great pain which made you collapse. Midoriya managed to catch you before you fell to the floor though.”

There was a moment of silence before Kurogiri continued. “Tomura, I’m sorry to say that we have been greatly manipulated, and not by the heroes or Midoriya.”

Tomura saw how Kurogiri suddenly looked very tired. He thought about the other times he saw Kurogiri look like that.

“It was Sensei wasn’t it?”

Kurogiri nodded.

“How long?”

“Since I was created,” Kurogiri said. “And since he found you as a child.”

The words felt uncomfortably loud in the room, especially the silence that followed them. As the silence grew so did the anger that had been laying wait in Tomura’s mind.

Anger at his father for the pain they caused, the fear. Anger at how his other family membered couldn’t save him. Anger at himself for what he did. Anger at everyone who looked away from a distraught little boy wandering the streets. Anger at himself for feeling hope when Sensei ‘found’ him. Anger at Sensei for making him only more lost.

It erased the heaviness in his limbs. He didn’t feel the urge to scratch as he usually did when he was angry. He felt the urge to scream, to punch and kick. Tomura wanted to destroy the silence around him. He wanted to yell at the way Kurogiri looked so defeated.

He didn’t understand why Sensei did this to him. He didn’t understand why it all happened. He didn’t even understand why he was at UA in such a comfortable bed with an odd but kind teen sleeping at the foot of it.

Tomura didn’t understand why he felt like he might just cry. He hadn’t cried in years, he hadn't cried since Sensei had found him.

A sudden movement on his bed broke through the anger though and he looked up to see green eyes looking at him. Eyes that didn’t look at him in disgust or fear. Instead, they looked at him softly.

As Tomura felt tears build up in his eyes without permission, Midoriya smiled at him.

Suddenly, Tomura found himself being hugged gently but firmly. Green hair brushed against his cheek as arms smaller than his own wrapped around him, warmth seeping into him through the fabric of the clothes he wore.

“It’s good to see you awake,” Midoriya said softly without mentioning how his tears were wetting the back of Midoriya’s shirt.

It was only for a few seconds, but Tomura let himself feel the hug for every single one of them until Midoriya released him. Then suddenly, they presented a tissue out of nowhere and were off the bed standing on the floor.

“I’m going to give the two of you some privacy,” Midoriya said before promptly walking out of the room.

When the door closed Tomura looked at Kurogiri in confusion. The man still looked sad but now slightly amused.

“Let me explain what has happened.”
___

For the next 30 minutes, Kurogiri explained how he arrived in the closet, the collapse, the trip to the infirmary, the results of the investigation into their minds, and the decision to rectify it (the practically sadistic choice that Kurogiri, Nedzu, and Midoriya made). He described the principal and the underground hero that had been in their company the most.

But the thing Tomura was most interested in other than what had been done to his won mind was Kurogiri talking about Midoriya.

“Like you no doubt already know, Midoriya is an interesting individual. He doesn’t show fear in regard to us. In fact, he is friendly with me and you from the look of the hug he gave you. He seems to have a lot of freedom here in the school and a friendly relationship with the principal,” Kurogiri said.

“He does?”

Kurogiri nodded. “I would assume so with how he spoke to them and how he doesn't seem to follow a set schedule of classes. And I haven’t seen any other students who use the vents to travel or be allowed in this room.”

“He uses the vents? Wait, how many times has he hung out with you?”

“He visits almost daily. We listen to music together.”

Tomura stared at Kurogiri for a few seconds, trying to create the image of him and a teenager listening to music together. He was having a hard time with it, but from Kurogiri’s tone, the man wasn't lying. And from what he knew of Midoriya’s interactions with him, the hug, he didn't find it hard to believe.

Although, Tomura didn’t understand why.

“Kurogiri,” Tomura said slowly, “why does he act that way?”

At this, Kurogiri actually laughed which only threw Tomura off even more.

“I haven’t the faintest clue.”

The next morning, after Kurogiri convinced Tomura to get some more rest he woke up to music.

When he turned his head, he doubted if he wasn't still dreaming. Because never had he seen Kurogiri in a hot pink hoodie letting his legs hang off the side of a bed while a boy in a blue hoodie lay beside him with a phone on his stomach playing music. The two seemed completely at ease with each other and Tomura couldn’t help but watch as Midoriya was swinging his legs idly off the side of the bed.

“What are you guys doing?” Tomura couldn't help but ask.

“Chillin’ to music. Got any requests?” Midoriya responded without even getting up or being surprised that Tomura was awake.

At the sound of Tomura’s voice, Kurogiri sat up and checked up on him. Apparently, the man had been holding back on being a caretaker all these years due to Sensei’s order because never had Tomura felt more like a child as Kurogiri fretted over him at that moment.

He saw that Midoriya was simply watching and it was only after a minute that Midoriya got off the other bed and went to get a nurse. As if to give Kurogiri more time to fret over him before it was done by a professional. Which the nurse did, much to his displeasure. After almost being force-fed some kind of protein jelly thing, the nurse finally left him alone.

All these interactions were almost giving Tomura whiplash. He fiddles with the newer medical tape he presumed Midoriya had reapplied on his fingers sometimes during his coma(later Kurogiri would tell him that it was indeed Midoriya who had done it). He didn’t need tape though with the quirk suppressant bracelets he had on.

After a few minutes, Midoriya seemed to sigh and stood up. “Alright, get up. We’re gonna stretch.”

“What?”

“Stretch Dusty,” Midoriya almost said sternly. “You haven’t moved a lot and this is gonna make you feel better. Also, Kurogiri is anxious too so both of you stretch.”

Tomura saw how Kurogiri stiffened at being called out before sighing in defeat (just more of the man’s personality that was peaking out the longer he stayed he was away from Sensei). Following Kurogiri, Tomura let himself slip out of bed, wincing at the coldness of the floor on his bare feet.

Seemingly pleased, Midoriya smiled.
___

For the next 15 minutes, Midoriya led them through stretches, even ones on the surprisingly clean floor. Tomura grudgingly admitted he was feeling better for it when Kurogiri asked him. So silently, he followed Midoriya’s examples except when the teen was doing what was called the butterfly pose and was able to lean forward until their chest was touching the floor.

“Midoriya,” Tomura said after failing to even make both of his legs touch the floor in that position, “I can't do that. Just no I- how are you even doing that right now?”

When Midoriya laughed, Tomura could have sworn he saw a glint of gold in their eyes for a moment.

Nedzu smiled when he heard the tell-tale knock above him and the sound of the vent opening.

"Good morning Midoriya, how is Shigaraki today?” he asked, knowing that usually, the teen visited the two ex-villains in the morning even before Shigaraki woke up two days ago.

“Good. But he did complain about being stuck in the room,” Midoriya said.

“Don’t worry. We have figured out where they can stay. It’ll be on campus but a decent distance away from students so the authorities won’t be worried. I’m sure you will figure out a way to continue your visits,” Nedzu said.

It was funny how much mothering a teen could do towards two grown adults.

“That sounds good.”

At Midoriya’s response, Nedzu looked up and saw the boy was letting his head hand down from the ceiling.

“Have you finished the assignment I gave you?” Nedzu asked.

“It’s in the drawer to your right.”

Nedzu smiled as he opened the drawer and found a packet stapled neatly together. “What about the simulation worksheets you’ve been working on?”

“Almost done with those. I’m doing extra ones seeing as it's better to have a large database of scenarios to fall back on instead of repeating one too much.”

“Have you thought about a program to take aspects from separate scenarios to create a new one?”

Midoriya sighed. “The program leader already thought of that and said I needed to focus on the worksheet they gave me. They also talked to my professor too who told me to ‘stop taking on so many things’ or they would make phonecall to my mom, especially if I tried to work on that program or other big projects.

Nedzu paused at the mention of Midoriya’s mother. He thought it was amusing that the teen loved projects so much, but would follow his professor's instruction to not work on the program at the threat of a phone call to his mother.

Humans were interesting.

“Speaking of your Mother, how is The Grotto?”

As usual, Nedzu got a few minutes' worth of a response to the topic of the boy’s mother and her business. Nedzu listened as the teen spoke about their mother’s plans and how he wanted more workers for their mom as he worked on certain documents and sipped tea.
___

Later that day, Nedzu got to enjoy the company of Kurogiri. The two of them would occasionally have meetings such as this. Ones where Nedzu was able to take out his good tea that he would never take the risk of Yagi coughing up.

After taking a few sips Nedzu asked “Now that Shigaraki is awake, how would you feel about sabotaging the men who did this to you both?”

He watched as Kurogiri let themself enjoy the taste of the tea before speaking.

“It would be my pleasure.”

An hour later Nedzu had a plan in mind with the information Kurogiri was more than happy to share and willingly use his quirk for. If all things went accordingly, Kurogiri would be able to enact some revenge on the Doctor that no doubt experimented on him and also prevent any more Nomu creatures from being created.

“I have to ask Nedzu, will Midoriya be involved in this? I think he would be delighted to cause trouble for the Doctor,” the man said, clearly thinking back to Midoriya’s ruthlessness from before.

Nedzu laughed. “Unfortunately, he will not. If he was, I would have to call his mother. Although, I do doubt that he will manage to stay completely uninvolved. Sometimes he just seems to step into these types of situations while looking for a place to take a nap.”

Chapter Text

In the days before the festival, UA was full of activity.

The hero classes trained and hounded their teachers for extra practice and answers to questions. Students drifted around the entrance of the teacher lounge until a pair of red eyes glared at them from a dark corner which sent them scurrying and speaking of a cryptid in the school.

The rumors grew with reports of whispers from the vents.

Recovery Girl was hounded for energy gummies and bruise creams for support students who were less than aware of their surroundings. Power Loader specifically asked for burn cream because Hatsume had exploded something six times in a row despite her smoldering clothes.

A certain warp user took pleasure in screwing over a short creepy doctor with the help of a polite Nedzu. Kurogiri and his charge also got settled into their new living situation on campus (it was also where employees had the option to stay as well, Nedzu did always like to take out two birds with one stone). Tomura had been pleased by the natural light in his room and Kurogiri was pleased by the tea set waiting for him in the kitchen along with a box of tea leaves. The next morning though, he found next to the tea leaves a box of a coffee blend labeled from a place called The Grotto.

In the next cabinet over, he found the person who put it there.

A few other people encountered Midoriya in his spots as well. Some were too busy or nervous about the upcoming activities to even notice. In Midnight’s art class, a student felt jealous about the realistic sculpture that someone created. In Power Loader’s class, students avoided him, thinking it was a robot that Hatsume made. A 2nd-year hero class thought it was a dummy in their training grounds. The teachers were too busy to correct them.

Though, on the day of the festival, there was no sign of a green-haired dummy/sculpture/robot anywhere in the school.

Class 1B was full of energy. They were excited and at the same time apprehensive about how they would perform and who’s eyes they might catch for internships.

They were getting ready in the locker rooms they were led to and Rin had opened his locker to put his jacket away. After taking it off, he used his quirk. Letting the scales appear on his arms, on and off just to check that all was as it should be. It was a normal routine every time before training, and while the others might have commented on it in the past the voice that said “oh, nice scales” was one completely unfamiliar and closer than usual.

Rin paused and looked towards his open locker only to see two eyes that seemed to be glowing in his locker. Before he could even respond or get away, Shishida who was at the locker next to him yelled and slammed Rin’s locker door closed.

At the commotion, everyone froze and looked toward the two 1B students.

Then there was a knock.

A knock from inside Rin’s locker.

“Can I come out or am I gonna get hit by the big guy?” a quiet muffled voice asked.

Rin looked at his locker and to the rest of his classmates. Awase mouthed to him ‘what is that?’ and Rin shrugged in response. He had no clue.

Kaibara yelled from his spot “Who are you?”

They all waited for a response.

“A student,” the voice said.

“Oh yeah, and where’s your proof?”

Kamakiri got ready to run for a teacher if it really was an intruder, but then they all watched as a card poked out of the slits on the locker. Rin quickly grabbed it.

It was a UA school ID. The photo showed the boy that they had seen on top of one of their shelves in Vlad’s class. Midoriya Izuku, who weirdly enough their teacher had no idea what class he was in, and even on his ID there was no information revealing it. But this meant that they had just trapped another student in his locker. Shishida slammed a locker closed, trapping him in there. Rin cringed as he showed the others the ID and watched as they came to the same realization.

Slowly Rin opened the locker, letting light shine on the crouched figure of Midoriya who looked bored rather than annoyed.

Rin handed him the ID and Midoriya took it quietly before asking “Can I get out?”

Rin nodded and watched as Midoriya got out with ease as if he was used to getting out of tight spaces. Once out Midoriya stretched before turning to Shishida, his dark circles and tired expression only made Shishida feel a bit guilty.

“Is the festival starting soon?” Midoriya asked.

Shishida looked to the side awkwardly before responding. “Yeah in 30 minutes.”

“Ah Alright,” Midoriya said. Then he turned to see that the other boys were staring at him.

Before any of them could ask Midorya a question Rin was already asking one.

“Why were you in my locker?”

“I was looking for a quiet place to relax before the festival started.”

“And you chose my locker.”

Midoriya nodded. “Technically I don't think it was your locker an hour ago.”

Rin paused. “You were in there for an hour?”

“It's comfy,” Midoriya said as if it was obvious.

Rin watched as those tired green eyes looked him over. He could feel their gaze on the scales still on his arms. He saw that Midoriya said something, but it was too soft to hear.

“What did you say?”

“Oh,” Midoriya said moving his gaze to Rin’s face. “Your scales. They’re a lighter green than mine, it's nice.”

“You have scales?”

Midoriya smiled at his question and moved his hands to lift some of his hair up, revealing his nape and skin behind his ears. When he turned Rin was able to get a better look which was when he saw them. They were dark green scales, much darker than Rin’s own. He could see how they led underneath Midoriya’s shirt towards his back and how they were also going toward the back of Midoriya’s ears.

“They’re cool,” Rin found himself saying with ease.

At the compliment, Midoriya simply gave a pleased hum.

After that, there was a moment of silence before one of Rin’s classmates broke it. No longer able to hold their question back.

“Dude I gotta ask were you trying to sneak a peek at us?”

Rin and Midoriya turned to look at Awase who looked a bit awkward at the question but serious nonetheless.

Everyone looked to see what sort of reaction Midoriya would have but the teen showed no reaction. Actually, Midoriya looked a little confused.

“Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know!” Awase sputtered. “They're some real perverts out there ya know.”

“Oh. Well, I’m not a pervert,” Midoriya said.

“Then did you come for sabotage?” another voice asked and they saw that Monoma had finally chosen to speak. Already the boy looked defensive of his class.

Once again Midoriya didn't seem angered by the accusation.

“No, you’re Vlad’s class. I like Vlad, he’s nice. I wouldn't do that to him. So if you win you win, and if you lose you lose. Simple as that,” Midoriya said.

At the simple answer, Monoma just nodded in agreement.

The others thought it was nice that someone who wasn’t in their class liked their teacher. Usually, students always favored their own teachers. Although they weren’t even sure who Midoriya’s teacher was. A few of them were going to ask but when they looked they saw that Midoriya was no longer in his spot standing next to Rin. Instead, he was on top of the lockers getting into an open vent.

How Midorya got there so quietly and quickly, they didn’t know. Then before any of them could ask any more questions Midoriya was completely inside of the vent although he popped out his head.

“Good luck,” he said quietly before disappearing back into the darkness while the vent grate went back into place.

Yamada and Aizawa did not look surprised when one moment there was no sitting in between them and then the next, there was a tired-looking teen. Yamada simply continued his announcement sending smiles at his husband and Midoriya. Meanwhile, Aizawa saw that Midoriya remained silent but his eyes followed the student’s movements. Aizawa had a feeling that the teen’s mind was running nonstop despite his outwards appearance.

Aizawa also couldn’t tell who Midoriya was rooting for. Throughout it all, the teen kept a neutral face. His eyes only slightly lit up whenever something interesting happened.

When there was a break, as Yamada spoke about the next event, Aizawa simply watched as Midoriya made his way into the vents again.

“Is he gonna be okay in the vents?” Yamada asked, thinking of what could be up there.

Aizawa smiled.

“Yeah, he’s used to them.”

Izuku was enjoying himself. It was nice to see everyone using their quirks and the crowds cheering them on. There were many ways the quirks were being implemented and Izuku liked how Mic kept up the exciting energy for the crowds.

Though during the break he went to go find a spot to relax, maybe take a nap. The vents were easy to use and always empty so the chance to run into anyone was close to zero. He was thinking about the different structures of the vents compared to those in the school building when he came across a hot spot.

There shouldn’t be any hotspots in the vents.

Moving forward Izuku saw a grate and looked down.

Below him, he saw Endeavor and in front of the number two hero was his son. His son did not look happy to be there. From what Izuku could hear, it was due to the rude and abusive language the man was using. Seeing as the angry tirade was yet to end and the discomfort in the other teen, Izuku made a decision.

Not bothered by the heat, Izuku removed the grate and braced for impact.

Shoto stood still in silence, letting the angry words of his ‘father’ wash over him. The uncomfortable heat grew the longer the man spoke. It was things he had already heard before. Words about pushing him to beat All Might and ensure his legacy as the perfect creation.

Words he was tired of hearing, but felt he could not escape.

Except, suddenly his father’s words were cut off by a green blur falling from above.

A second later the heat from Endeavor’s flames disappeared and Shoto looked down to see that Midoriya was sitting on an unconscious Endeavor. There was smoke coming off of Midoriya but the boy didn't seem to notice.

The two of them stared at each other before Midoriya finally spoke. “Are you having fun?” he asked.

Shoto narrowed his eyes.“Fun?”

Midoriya nodded. “The festival and seeing everyone do interesting things with their quirks. It’s kind of fun, isn’t it?”

Shoto thought about the pressure from Endeavor but also about his classmates and how excited they had seemed. He thought back to the jokes and taunts they made to each other, even during the actual challenges. How they had smiles.

They were having fun.

Shoto wondered if he could have fun too. His siblings had told him to have fun in their various texts. But he wondered how he could have with his Endeavor's quirk.

Although, his siblings continued to tell him that it was his quirk. Whenever he even called it Endeavor’s quirk Natsuo never hesitated to get him into a headlock and mess up his hair as if trying to scrub that idea out of his head. Meanwhile, Fuyumi had tried to get him to use both aspects of his quirk to help her cook and always thanked him whenever he did.

As if sensing his thoughts Midoriya began to list things Shoto could do with his quirk. Shoto listened as the boy spoke of ice skating rinks, ice sculptures, fireballs, fire blasts, explosions (from the rapid change in temperature), steam, ice daggers, ice domes, and a whole other array of things from odd combinations that he had never thought of with both sides of his quirk.

“-and those can be used in fights but some of the things I mentioned can just be for fun. If anything, I think you’d be able to figure out what other nice things you could do for fun after all it's yours.” Midoriya finally finished.

Before Shoto could respond there was an announcement that all participants needed to get back to their designated locations.

“Seem like it's time for you to go,” Midoriya said, getting up from his seat on Endeavor before grabbing one of the man’s legs. “I’m going to deal with this, but you go have some fun.”

Then the teen began walking and dragging Endeavor in the opposite direction of where Shoto needed to go.

As he watched Midoriya go Shoto thought it was funny how Midoriya was similar to his siblings.

He must be a good brother to Shinsou.

While Shoto headed back to his class’s section there were heroes and workers doing their rounds to make sure everything was as it should be.

One of the new workers that were on their own for the first time, was now regretting telling their supervisor that they were fine to go on their own. This was because currently, they were in a hallway that had some broken lights and a few that were flickering. And towards the end of the hallway, there was a figure dragging something, dragging something big.

With shaky hands, they took out their phone and started to record the figure.

The video ended when the small figure turned and two green glowing eyes could be seen.
___

During the rest of the Sports Festival, the video would go viral on Twitter. And during his classmates’ matches, Shoto would send it to his brother. Touya (or Dabi as he was known to others) laughed when Shoto texted him what it actually was.

Of course, he looked away from his phone when he heard a yell.

Looking across the street he saw a green-haired woman yelling at a man who was trying to take her purse. Seeing the woman’s stature and the thief’s growing anger, he ran over to them.
___

Ingenium rushed to get to his destination after getting caught up in watching a live stream of the Sports Festival. He had stayed longer than he should have among a crowd watching one of his brother’s matches.

Although, he sent a message to say he would not be able to make it to his usual patrol route, already late as he was when he came across an odd commotion. It involved a woman with green hair being comforted by a scarred man as she cried while there was a man unconscious on the floor showing clear signs that he had been beaten with the purse the woman was clutching.

Chapter Text

Tomura was sleeping until he wasn’t. He was still getting used to having a normal sleep schedule, but the creepy clacking he was hearing in the mostly dark room wasn’t helping. He was reminded of the scary stories he used to read online at night when he was younger about people waking up in the middle of the night hearing was sounded like claws walking across their floor or someone tapping on their window. But considering that this wasn't a haunted house or much less one where someone snuck in, Tomura simply turned his head towards the sound. He froze when he caught the sight of a pale-looking face with wide almost glowing eyes at the foot of his bed.

Wait I know that face.

“Midoriya?”

Those eyes that had been focused on the screen of a computer moved to look at him and the glow he thought he saw disappeared.

“Yeah?” Midoriya asked.

“What are you doing?”

Midoriya tilted his head at him. “Writing up some packets for the students about the sports festival and what I saw”

Tomura kept looking at him when Midoriya didn’t say anything and he looked at the clock by the bed which showed the time. “At 4:23am?”

“Oh, that's the time right now? Huh.”

Tomura sighed seeing that the kid wouldn't explain. “Why are you here though?”

Midoriya shrugged, “It's nice and I wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

At Midoriya’s response, Tomura was reminded of just how he had ended up in this situation. All because a teen had asked him if he was okay while in a storage closet. Ever since then, Midoriya has been kind to him, almost motherly too in a way. Kurogiri had told him how Midoriya had checked up on him while he was in the coma and how angry Midoriya seemed for him after learning what had been done to him. Even though Tomura knew he didn’t have the best appearance or personality, it didn’t seem to drive Midoriya away. Instead, Midoriya hung out with him and Kurogiri. He treated them like friends.

It was nice.

Although it was odd for Midoriya to just show up in the middle of the night (well not that odd as showing up in their kitchen cabinets).

“Aren't you worried about Kurogiri?” Tomura asked considering he wasn't the only one who lived there.

“Oh, he’s with chillin’ his headphones,” Izuku said pointing to his right.

Tomura turned to see Kurogiri in cozy clothes with headphones sleeping soundly on a chair (the man still worried after Tomura despite Recovery Girl’s clean bill of health). The sight made Tomura want to laugh, still unused to seeing Kurogiri like that.

He looked back at Izuku who had returned to his computer. Those green eyes once again focused in a way that looked so different from their almost closed appearance.

Tomura hummed to himself thinking over his new circumstances again and the person who helped him get there. He laid back down and turned to go back to sleep.

It was to those pleasant thoughts that he let himself slip back into the gentle hold of sleep.

The next few days followed the same pattern.

At least once a day Midoriya was in their living space, eyes glued on a screen, typing. At one point Tomura couldn't hear the typing anymore and when he looked he saw that Midoriya had installed a new keyboard. When asked, Midoriya said that his mom got it for him after pointing out the noise they made. Tomura felt grateful for the kid’s mom so he wouldn't be woken up by creepy clicking near the witching hour anymore.

Eventually, though, Midoriya made his usual appearances at the school.

The vents were welcoming as ever for their traveler. Voices and conversations from down below floated up into the vents giving their traveler a peek of what was the topic of today. Going over several classrooms Izuku could hear idle chatter as the students waited for their teacher to come in.

The majority of the words were in regard to possible internships and requests from heroes after the sports festival. But oddly, Izuku heard snippets of the words ‘cryptid’, ‘video’, and a ‘dead body’. Izuku wondered if he should check a long-abandoned account he had on Twitter to see what the fuss was about. But pushed the thought to the side when he heard a distant explosion travel down the vents.

He had wanted to check with Hatsume later that day. Apparently, she was going to be working with small robots. It should be a small enough project that no one would bother to call his mom about.

Izuku continued making his way through the vents.

Unbeknownst to class 1A about their overhead traveler(other than Jirou and Shoji), the students continued their discussion about the viral video.

“Wait Sero, have you seen the video of the cryptid of UA”

Sero twisted in the seat to look at Kaminari. “Cryptid of UA?”

“Yeah, there’s a video of something dragging a dead body through the hallway,” Kaminari said and pulled up his phone to show the video.

A few of the others crowded over it as he pressed play. They were silent as they watched someone dragged something big, Sero's eyes widening when the thing turned and glowing eyes were seen as the person who took the video cursed and ended the video in panic.

“Sooo where do you think the dead body came from?” Kaminari asked.

Before any of the others responded Todoroki’s voice cut through the air. “He wasn’t dead, only knocked out,” he said bluntly.

Several heads twisted to look at Todoroki only making the boy raised an eyebrow. Before any of them could ask him to elaborate Aizawa-sensei walked in and Kaminari groaned at the missed opportunity for answers.

Their teacher, however (somehow under his usual blank face) looked pleased at the silence before discussing the plans for that day, but while he talked those who heard the Todoroki burned with questions.

It wasn’t until lunch that they finally had a chance to ask Todoroki about what he had said earlier.

Kaminari almost skipped his way with his food to the table where Todoroki was eating. Though his mission to ask a question slipped into apologizing when he spilled some of his food at the way he almost slapped it down on the table in excitement. Meanwhile, Mina and Sero who followed only snickered and took their seats.

“-it. Sorry about that dude, but anyways how do you know it wasn’t actually a dead body?”

“Well,” Todoroki said, “seeing as I saw Midoriya only kno-”

Though it was when he only began to say the name Midoriya before their group was interrupted by some students from 1B. Kaminari looked up to see Monoma along with a boy who wore a ponytail, he thought his name was Rin.

“Is he in your class?” Monoma asked while Rin was beside him.

Todoroki looked unbothered by the sudden question. "No, he isn't. But he's visited a few times. How do you know him?"

Rin shuffled his feet and stepped closer to the others. "Uh, he was in my locker at the sports festival.”

“Damn,” Mina said. “He’s practically everywhere.”

“As I was saying," Todoroki continued. "Endeavor was speaking to me until Midoriya fell on him from one of the vents and knocked him out. He then told me to go back to the festival activities while he took Endeavor to recovery girl.”

“What do you mean took?” Sero asked.

“He dragged him.”

“Really?”

“Yes, he grabbed his leg and simply pulled.”

“What a guy,” Mina said with a smile leaning into Sero’s side before he poked her in the ribs and made her squeal.

“He must be strong then,” Monoma said.

Kaminari nodded. “Seems that way, along with batshit crazy for falling on top of the number two hero. Did he tell you anything else Todoroki?”

They all turned to the boy who titled his head. His hand holding chopsticks that carried some cold soba paused in the air. “He told me to have fun.”

He said nothing else before bringing the noodles to his mouth.

Everyone had the same thought as Todoroki ate and gave no more answers.

Fucking cryptids.

Vlad was about to begin the next section of his lesson when something slipped out on the shelf and crouched silently.

The hero only paused for a moment when he finally caught sight of Midoriya in the dark (the light was on just a minute ago so Nedzu must have been being a little shit). The boy was crouched, his eyes half-lidded as usual and he held something in his hands.

It reminded Vlad of the gargoyles he had seen throughout his trip in Europe two years ago. They were unmoving creatures, but their eyes seemed to follow you. Vlad was even sure that Midoriya had fangs like him, hidden with how his smiles were fairly small. It was different to Tog-Himiko’s (she insisted he call her) revealing smiles that she always showed him when he came to visit and happened to bring spicy blood snacks.

When he finally made eye contact with Midoriya, he watched him as they climbed down the shelf. The teen’s body moved like a liquid, smooth and quiet. Midoriya simply stared at him as he walked towards him, steps silent startling a few of his students he walked by, before stopping right in front of him. Then Midoriya held something out to him with his hand. Almost as a reflex, Vlad took it and Midoriya looked him in the eyes for just a second more before nodding and then turning around to walk out of the room.

It was only when Vlad no longer saw Midoriya’s back that he finally looked down to see what it was that Midoriya had given him.

It was a bag like last time. It was red, with a green ribbon. But this time the red had white polka dots decorating it.

Like a strawberry.

___

Later when he was packing up his things, Vlad would find a pile of packets on his desk. Apparently one for each of his students and a quick scan showed that it consisted of an analysis of their quirks along with suggestions for things to work on during their internship week. Even suggestions of other heroes, new and retired to contact.

When he walked into the teacher’s lounge he looked at Aizawa who then proceeded to lift his own pile of similar pile of packets.

Hatsume had been glad to find the boy with green hair in the cabinet underneath her workshop table. Especially since he wordlessly handed her the tool she had been looking for. Smoothly she stepped to the side as the boy stepped out. She grabbed a pair of goggles and handed them to him. Wordlessly he took it.

Hatsume turned her attention back to the contraption that Nedzu had contracted her to build.

The boy stood beside her taking in the details and he seemed to see what she did. A moment later he was giving her another tool and she hummed, pleased. Usually, by now the other person would have left.

Izuku ignored the building heat at the nape of his neck to help with stabilizing the explosives that were supposed to be in the small robots.

Chapter Text

The next day, the conversations switched to focus more on the packets that were handed out to the hero classes. They had seemingly appeared overnight but the teachers including those of the first-year hero course were well aware of the one who dropped them off.

Despite this, Aizawa-sensei had made no comment about the origin of the packets or their content when he handed them out. The only thing he had said was, “Read this and take notes. If you have any questions feel free to ask,” before letting them have time to go over them.

There was quiet chatter in the classroom as each of the students went through their carefully catered packets. The volume only rose as one by one, students went up to ask questions and started to discuss the content with their fellow classmates. When the time was up Aizawa-sensei brought up how they will be needing to start figuring out their hero names and internship offers.

To say the least, it was a chaotic day.
___

Everyone had been excited to finally share their hero names.

When Rin in 1-B had come to the front to say his hero name, Dragon shroud, he heard a quiet voice from the ceiling say “Cool”.

Rin looked at the vent. “Oh, um thanks Midoriya.”

A moment later a hand with a thumbs-up stuck out before retreating into the darkness.

Vlad King made no comment and only signaled Midnight to call up the next student to share their hero name.
___

Shinsou was going over a worksheet for Midnight’s class when Todoroki came and sat in front of him. He placed one of the packets their class got on the table and Shinsou could see different portions highlighted. They were in pastel.

“Your brother is smart,” Todoroki said.

“Wait what?”

Todoroki pointed to his packet. “Your brother pointed out a lot of applications for my quirk. Not all of them were hero related which is…good to know.”

Giving up on understanding Midnight’s assignment, Shinsou put it down. “Dude you know Midoriya” - because it was always Midoriya who Todoroki was so insistent on being his brother- “isn’t my brother. And how do you even know it was Midoriya who made the packets?”

Todoroki looked unconvinced by his denial and instead flipped to a page in the packet and showed Shinsou. Some of the text was highlighted pink. “These are some of the things he mentioned I could do with my quirk after he knocked Endeavor out.”

“Oh” - Shinsou looked and saw some things he didn’t even consider Todoroki could do - “ these look cool a-wait what?”

Izuku found himself at The Grotto. It was a late night shift so he had yet to meet the new worker his mom hired. He’d have to work a more regular daytime shift if he wanted to meet them though. Rarely was there someone wanting to be working in the midnight hours.

It helped that he didn’t need to sleep when most people did but that didn’t mean there weren’t those who weren't awake at the same time he was. The late working students or employees that needed a coffee or pick me up in the middle night could usually count on The Grotto being open. Izuku was there, with his dark circles and calm demeanor to deliver whatever sweet or savory bakes good or occasionally worshipped beverage into their tired hands. It was a safe haven for them when the sun went down and most other places had long closed.

It also provided an opportunity for Izuku to meet several different types of people, all sorts of personalities. Including now, a man who spoke with two different voices.

One of the voices was deeper and more aggressive than the other. He listened as the two voices seemed to argue, unable to come to an agreement on what they would like to order. But when the man looked like he couldn’t do it anymore, Izuku decided to do more than just listen.

Silently, Izuku made his way around the counter. He observed his customer carefully for unease or anger but all he saw was anxiety and shame. He looked at the jacket they wore. He tugged on the corner of it lightly.

The customer's head turned in his direction. Eyes wide and searching. They looked down at Izuku’s fingers' small grip on their jacket and back on his face.

After a few moments, Izuku tugged it lightly again and looked over to a seat at the side of the cafe. The customer followed.

When Jin found a cafe open at 2:23 am, he thought that maybe things would be alright. His sleep schedule had been messed up and he could use something nice to distance himself from his own brain. Except when he went to order his mind couldn't keep things straight or make a decision that didn’t contradict each other.

He didn’t even have his mask to hold him together. It had hurt, to feel like something was pulling away as he tried so desperately to hold it all together. All in the effort to make the simple decision about what to eat and drink. Already he started to worry that the employee would kick him out as so many others had done in the past.

Sure enough, the employee left the counter and came around. Just one more time for the record where he’d be dragged out and called a freak.

Except, unlike the others, this employee just tugged lightly at his jacket. He felt his neck crack when he turned to look at them, finally able to focus long enough to take in their features.

It was a young teenager. He looked tired, probably too tired to deal with him. But yet, they didn’t make any move to drag him to the exit or berate him. Instead, they looked at him. Their eyes didn’t hesitate to take in his less-than-put-together appearance, not even lingering on the scar in the middle of his forehead.

There was another tug at his jacket and the teenager gestured his head to a seat nowhere near the exit of the cafe.

Jin let himself be led to sit down in a comfortable chair. Once seated the employee left but sure enough came back. They placed four items on the table. Two drinks and two pastries. The four items he kept arguing with himself at the counter when he tried to order.

“I didn’t want both of them. That's too much to eat idiot!”

The employee looked unbothered by his response and instead nodded. “Alright, which one did you want?”

Jin looked down at the four items. Already he could feel the different opposing sides within himself. It was an internal argument and Jin waited for the employee to leave, to sigh in frustration at how long with was taking him to make a decision.

Though, this time with the items in front of him where he could see and smell the fresh pastries slowly Jin felt a bit better than he did at the counter. He grabbed the sweeter drink and pastry out of the four.

The employee grabbed the other two items. “Do you mind if I have these?” they asked.

Jin didn't see a reason they couldn’t have them and shook his head. They nodded and began to drink their drink, still sitting across from him at the table. Jin did the same.

He couldn’t remember the last time someone sat down to eat with him. The last time he grabbed a cup of coffee with someone. There was rarely anyone who wanted to stay within his vicinity for longer than necessary, especially when he spoke. Jin looked around the cafe and saw that they were the only ones there.

Every employee needs a break once in a while, Jin thought and took a bite out of his pastry.

The employee did the same and then asked, “So what's your name?”

“Twice. My name is Bubaigawara Jin,” he said hoping they wouldn’t recognize the first name. He knew he had made the news in the past but that was it, the past.

“Nice to meet you Bubaigawara-san, I’m Midoriya Izuku,” Midoriya said before taking another bite of his pastry. He showed no recognition at the name ‘Twice’.
___

Jin stayed in the cafe for almost an hour. A surprisingly good amount of it had been talking to Midoriya. A lot of it was small talk but it undeniably made Jin feel a bit more settled in his skin.

The whole time as he talked, Midoriya never flinched at Jin’s own interruptions. He had been unphased and would ask another question or add his own comment. Even though he looked like he should have been sleeping instead of working, Midoriya looked comfortable sitting across from him and just talking.

When Jin finally left, Midoriya had said to come back any time. Jin actually believed he meant it.

Izuku looked out the storefront into the night. He had a feeling that no one else would walk in but stayed at the counter and pulled up his seat as he took out his computer. When he opened it he saw the document he was working on still there and he started to type again. He drank some water and ignored the heat at the back of his neck.

He had heard recent chatter about Stain and was putting together information. He knew that Nedzu, Kurogiri, and Hatsume were up to something too. That was only confirmed when after he sent Nedzu an email with his research he got a response from Nedzu thanking him for the information but also threatening that he would call his mom.

Izuku took heed of Nedzu’s warning and debated whether or not he should block Nedzu from calling his mom. Though he had a feeling that it wouldn’t stop the Principal.

When it was morning and time to head to UA, Izuku made sure to make a cup for Aizawa-san.
___

After taking a large and concerning gulp of still-hot coffee Aizawa-san looked a bit livelier when he said that the students had made their decision about which internship offers they would be accepting. “They’ll be gone for the next week or so.”

Izuku nodded and went on his way.

Three days later Izuku frowned as he watched the evening news footage about the attack in Hosu. There were various creatures with exposed brains that had gone on a rampage including an attack on some heroes who arrived at the scene by Stain. Stain, however, had evaded the authorities but fortunately, there were no casualties. The creatures were dealt with and Izuku noted how in some photos on social media it looked like parts of the creatures suffered small explosions in their body. One of the common locations was always the brain.

Izuku headed to a specific dorm on UA and the door was already opened by Kurogiri when he approached it.

“Hello Midoriya, Tomura at the moment is asleep,” Kurogiri said and Izuku could hear the faint sound of the news coming from the television.

“Your plan was successful,” Izuku said.

Kurogiri sounded pleased when he answered, “It was. Your Principal told me you helped with the explosive devices despite not being aware of the plan.”

Izuku nodded.

“Thank you.”

Izuku only looked closely at Kurogiri noting how he looked. He didn't have that stiff posture like the first time he saw him. Instead, Kurogiri held himself with more ease and comfortable. He looked down and saw that Kurogiri was even wearing some fuzzy socks that were Midnight themed.

After bidding Kurogiri goodnight, Izuku went back to do more research and possibly hack into the police database again.

Jin had gone back to The Grotto several times, each of them Midoriya was the only one working and always saw with him. Rarely did he see another customer in there but still the cafe was open and Midoriya always gave him a small smile when he came back.

Each time Midoriya’s behavior didn’t change and Jin found himself feeling the tension melt away every time he walked inside. Midoriya had even given him some papers with some information about possible job opportunities after Jin had told him how he was looking for a job two nights ago.

It was nice to see The Grotto on the list of possible places.

He had wanted to thank Midoriya, but when he turned back he saw Midoriya looking at his computer with a frown. It seemed that Midoriya had been working on something for a while now. Every night without fail Jin saw him go back to the computer when he left.

He hoped it was nothing too important, Midoriya had been looking a little sick that night and Jin hoped it wasn’t a fever.

When students finally return to school after completing their internships everyone was talking about the attack in Hosu. Especially how the Hero Killer: Stain was still on the loose. There were also many different rumors and theories about where the creatures with the exposed brains had come from.

Other than that, the other topic of conversation was the different things they had done in their internships.
___

“Tsuyu that's so cool!” Kirishima said after Tsuyu finished her story of how she helped Selkie and their sidekick Sirius apprehend some stowaways. “Tetsutetsu and I helped out clean a park with Fourth Kind which was not as dangerous but it felt good.”

The two of them kept walking down the hallway and Tsuyu told Kirishima, “Aizawa-sensei says being a hero is more than just action. Kero. Cleaning up parks matters too.”

Kirishima smiled and sighed. “I know, it’s jus-”

A scream cut Kirishima off and the two of them looked to see Kaminari run out of a classroom, almost crashing into Kirishima. An electric spark went through Kirishima at the contact.

“Ah shit sorry!” Kaminari said stepping back from him.

“Nah dude it’s fine, were you the one that screamed?”

At the question, Kaminari's eyes widened and he leaned in close to Kirishima and Tsuyu. “Yes, don’t tell anyone. But I found something and it hissed at me so I screamed. Perfectly normal response.”

“What was it?” Tsuyu asked and she looked past Kaminari’s shoulder to the room he came out of.

Kaminari shrugged. “No idea.”

Kirishima looked at Tsuyu and smiled before doing the same to Kaminari. Kaminari sighed. “Dude seriously? Things that hiss usually mean a bite or something painful will follow!”

Kirishima put his hands on Kaminari's shoulder and hardened his skin. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you. Come on let's go!” With that, he walked towards the room Kaminari came out of. Apparently, it was one of the rooms for the costume design department.

When they opened the door nothing happened and all they saw was a dark room. Kirishima at the font reached to flip the switch for the light to turn on but it didn’t which was odd. Tsuyu brought up her phone with the flashlight feature while Kaminari stood next to her holding up his phone too.

They moved the light around looking for whatever it was that Kaminari heard hiss.

“Do you think a snake got loose?” Tsuyu asked. “We could get Koda.”

“It wasn't a snake,” Kaminari said.

Kirishima looked back at him. “How do you know it wasn't a snake?”

“Snakes are different, this wasn’t a snakey hiss.”

“What’s a snakey hiss?”

“Haven't you seen any of the animal documentaries Koda’s recommended? Animals have all sorts of hisses,” Kaminari said. “There was even one that showed that there is a cockroach that hisses too, like really big ones an-”

Kirishima had taken a few steps deeper into the room when suddenly there was a noise. All three of them paused and Tsuyu and Kaminari moved their lights. None of them dared to make a sound.

It was when Tsuyu’s light went over a shelf with that held folded-up fabrics that they heard something and saw one of the piles move.

The three of them were frozen until Kaminari asked “Soo…who’s gonna see what it is?”

In a dark room, they failed to come to a decision on who would go see what was hiding in a pile of fabrics. Tsuyu brought up what usually happens in horror movies which led to Kirishima and Kaminari arguing about which of them would be most likely to survive in a horror movie. During this, they failed to notice that the pile had moved again and it was only until Tsuyu had poked Kirishima in his side hard enough to make him squeal that they finally turned to look at where she had her light shining.

Kirishima screamed and jumped at Kaminari who fell under the sudden weight.

Tsuyu only spared them a glance before looking back to the shelf where Midoriya looked back at her with wide eyes while his head stuck out from among the fabric. His eyes carefully watched every movement she made.

Midoriya’s eyes narrowed when she stepped forward and she heard a noise that might have been what Kaminari said was a hiss. A moment later he disappeared back into the fabrics on the shelf.

Tsuyu looked at Kaminari and Kirishima who were frozen on the floor and couldn’t help but agree when one of them let out a, “What the fuck?”

Chapter Text

Logic would dictate to avoid weird rooms where some unknown creature was inside along with whatever was making Shouta’s evil rat employer so amused. Things that amused Nedzu tended to make Shouta break into a cold sweat and lay awake at night questioning why he bothered to work for Nedzu. Of course, the next morning he would arrive early.

Nedzu found this particularly interesting.

In this case, it didn’t seem like it would be as severe. Although, Shouta wasn’t a fan of how Tsuyu had said, “He’s still here,” in a somewhat ominous way when they walked into the room.

According to her and two other student testimonies, Midoriya’s new habit was to crawl around a dark room and hiss at others. Shouta would have loved to know why.

“Well, it seems that Midoriya has skillfully hacked into the cameras and interfered with the lighting system. It will take two weeks and a professional to turn them back on in this room without Midoriya’s assistance,” Nedzu said, not at all bothered by standing in the room that would have been pitch black if it weren’t for the flashlights Shouta and Ectoplasm held. The Principal remained calm despite the small noises from various parts of the room that caused his ears to twitch.

“Two weeks?” Shouta asked.

“Yes! There is a wonderful virus that would play a series of pre-quirk era documentaries about various topics on all of our display monitors if the wrong step is taken with disabling the virus.”

Ectoplasm looked at Nedzu. “That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“The collection starts from 1922 and encompasses various languages.”

“Nevermi-”

One of the light beams caught on a retreating arm behind two boxes. They watched as one of the boxes slowly moved until it was pushed against the other. It grated against the metal shelf in a constant ‘shhh’ noise that didn’t stop even as the other box began to reach the edge of the shelf and eventually tip over.

It fell to the floor with a crash.

Wires spilled out of the box along with some little bits and bobs. Although Shouta could see the limbs of what used to belong to some robots. A few of them were the ones used in the entrance exam.

He wondered if maybe some of Powerloader’s students were using them in class or something of the sort. However, with how one of the arms was being dragged underneath the shelf by a wire, it looked like they’d be one short.

Just as the fingers of that robot limb were dragged into the darkness where the light didn’t reach, Nedzu spoke. His voice was still ever cheery. “I’ll be making a call.”

“To an exorcist?”

“No, to his mother.”

Nedzu was quick to make the call and put it on speaker. Midoriya Inko’s voice was a direct contrast to the atmosphere of the dark room.

“Nedzu-san! To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“Midoriya-san, I hope you are doing well. I’m simply calling about your son, it seems that he’s displaying some odd behavior and I believe is having what you would call an ‘episode’?”

“Oh, can you just describe it for me?” Midoriya-san asked still kindly. Her voice was the only sound in the room and Shouta could swear that he saw eyes low to the ground from under a shelf looking at him in the corner of his eye.

“He’s currently sequestered in a dark room where we have a variety of things in storage. The lights and cameras have been deactivated…”

The eyes disappeared.

“...and three of our students reported that he hissed at them while on a shelf before retreating.”

Shouta felt a tug on his scarf and looked to see the fabric leading down his side and towards another set of filing cabinets.

“He’s also currently pulling away one of my employees’ scarf.”

The tug didn’t waver and Shouta was reminded of an unwinding string. He didn’t feel inclined to stop it.

There was a laugh from the phone and when Midoriya-san spoke, she still didn’t sound concerned. In fact, she sounded amused. “Yes, that’s an overheating episode. I’ll call my husband and he can come to the school. But for now, set something cold out for Izuku, like an ice bath. You don’t have to worry about leading him. Just turn off the lights where you set it up and he’ll go to it with no issue.”

Goosebumps rose from Shouta’s neck as the last of his capture weapon was dragged away. Only to be pulled out of sight, though he could still hear it dragging against the floor and other pieces of furniture in the room.

“Don’t worry too much,” Midoriya-san continued. “He won’t hurt any of you, at worst you’ll be a bit unsettled.”

Shouta’s eyes caught sight of his scarf being pulled up a shelf into the dark.

With that the call ended and Nedzu simply made another call, already setting plans into motion to do as Midoriya-san instructed. Soon enough Shouta was still standing in the dark room with two of his coworkers and one of his students, Todoroki.

Nedzu didn’t hesitate to explain the situation and Todoroki didn’t hesitate to agree to help create an ice bath. Shouta ignored the fact that they had perfectly good ice already in the kitchen and how Todoroki was staring at him with what he knew was his ‘thinking gaze’. Apparently, his student was under the impression that Midoriya was his child, as Hitoshi mentioned…several times.

Nothing seemed to dissuade Todoroki from this theory. Nedzu must have known about it.

Ectoplasm’s shifted with his flashlight and suddenly there were eyes right behind Todoroki’s shoulder. Specifically, the cold one.

Shoto could feel the grip that suddenly was on his sleeve and he was sure it belonged to Midoriya. It was light, but there nonetheless. The more pressing sensation was that of Midoriya’s head against his shoulder. It felt like Midoriya was running a fever.

His teachers were still staring and slowly Shoto turned his head to get a better look at Midoriya, making sure he didn’t dislodge the other from his shoulder.

Midoriya’s head was wrapped in Aizawa-sensei’s scarf. He looked like a weird mummy though his eyes and a bit of his forehead were the only things exposed. His eyes almost looked like they were glowing. As close as he was, Shoto could see green but hints of amber too.

“I do believe your help will prove very useful,” Principal Nedzu said and a second later Midoriya left Shoto’s side without a sound.

Instead, all they heard was the sound of Midoriya shuffling around the room again before there was a thud in the ceiling. Lightbeams moved to point at a now open ceiling vent where they caught the tail end of Aizawa-sensei’s scarf being pulled into the darkness.

A second later the light flickered back on in the room making several of them wince, though Principal Nedzu looked unaffected. Instead, he just clasped his paws together behind his back. “Let's move to the infirmary shall we?”

No one said otherwise.

They ended up in a bigger room in the infirmary wing. There was a bed and some chairs but everyone’s focus was on the tub where Shoto was supposed to put his ice. It was only after he asked out of curiosity why they needed his ice that Principal Nedzu explained that his ice was colder longer than the regular ice they had.

“Midoriya-kun needs something to cool down continuously at this state and so it was more efficient to use your ice that is guaranteed to stay colder and solid compared to what we have. Also, we can think of this as a learning opportunity for you as well, which I’m sure your teacher will appreciate.”

Shoto didn’t point out the glare his sensei was sending towards the Principal. It was unusual to see the man without his neck and shoulders covered. Instead, he just focused more on his ice.

It was easy to make and he did try to make it specifically to be colder. It was only a few minutes later that he was finished and they put water into the tub. Then all that had to do was wait.

A minute later the lights went out in the room.

It took a while for his eyes to adjust to the sudden change but it was enough that he saw something come down from the ceiling. It was unsettling how he could see it reaching the floor, but couldn’t hear a thing. Then a larger figure that had to be Midoriya dropped down, still silent as ever.

But the longer he looked the more unclear it became in the dark and Shoto couldn’t tell where Midoriya was in the room anymore.

Another minute and the teachers spoke softly to each other in a questioning tone.

Suddenly there was a sound behind them and they whipped around, finally flicking on the flashlights but nothing was there.

When they turned back to where the tub was they could see the water and ice moving unlike before. On the floor next to the tub was Sensei’s scarf.

The ice moved and Shoto sucked in a breath suddenly.

There peeking out of the water was Midoriya, his dark hair wet and plastered to his forehead, and his eyes wide open staring right at them.

Hisashi was very glad that he always made sure to answer Inko’s calls. He still remembered the way little Izuku looked at him when he had gotten home but missed a call from her earlier that day. It was a look that kept him up awake at night. It was only after Inko talked to Izuku that Hisashi could sleep easily again. But still, never again did he miss a call.

Which meant he was used to what other Fathers could say was an ‘unusual’ phone call. They certainly weren’t expecting a call that their kid was hissing at people, but it barely fazed Hisashi.

He only packed up his things and shook his head.

However, he had to admit he was curious as to how the UA faculty and students were handling Izuku during one of his overheating episodes.

Hisashi thought it was relatively easy to handle him, but Inko told him that others would have a different opinion.

He still didn’t get it.

Kaminari, Sero, and Todoroki stared at Midoriya as he stared back at them from his spot underneath the water of the tub. His eyes were still the only things peeking out of the water. Tsuyu had said he looked like a crocodile before leaving them when she had stopped by.

Sero leaned towards Todoroki, Midoriya’s eyes tracking the movement. “He legit has not said a word and just keeps staring at us…what do we do?”

Todoroki in lew of a response just began to move his upper torso in a circle while remaining standing in the same spot. Midoriya’s eyes tracked that movement. A moment later Kaminari and Sero copied what Todoroki was doing.

It was a break time at the moment and they had snuck in, though Todoroki said that if it was easy to get in, then it was probably because Sensei and the Principal didn’t see an issue with it. So there they were, moving in circles seeing how Midoriya’s eyes followed them.

“Dude, do you think he’s getting dizzy or something?” Kaminari asked when more than a minute had passed and still his eyes followed them.

“Oh no, he could go on like that forever,” a deeper unfamiliar voice answered very closely to Kaminari who proceeded to scream and jump right into Todoroki’s arms.

Backing up with Kirishima in the front with his arms hardened and Todoroki in the back, a secure grip on Kaminari they looked at the man who had spoken and somehow got inside the room without them noticing.

He was a tall muscular man. He had dark green curly hair and there were light freckles on his face along with what looked like dark green scales on his cheeks and under his eyes. They crept towards his ears and down his neck where they couldn’t see covered by the jacket he wore.

Then there were his eyes. They looked like amber and it reminded them more of a predator than a man.

When he smiled, it was with sharp teeth. “Izuku, what did you do this time to get like this?”

Finally, Midoriya reacted and they saw how his eyes narrowed at the man who only laughed in response. He stepped closer to the ice bath, a hand reaching out. Kirishima was about to step up when Midoriya’s hand shot out of the water and grabbed it.

Unlike how they flinched at the sudden movement, the man didn’t even react. Only moving closer and sitting on the floor outside the tub while Midoriya still held onto his hand.

With the two close, the family resemblance was even more obvious yet Todoroki still whispered to Kaminari, “Still think he’s Aizawa-sensei’s son.”

Kaminari who was still being held by Todoroki sputtered, “Dude, that’s his dad right there!”

Todoroki looked at the man who was leaning his head onto the tub while Midoriya slowly dragged his hand into the cold water. He shrugged.

The man laughed.

Chapter Text

The infirmary had a new resident.

A fact that Ryo Inui, Hound Dog would have appreciated being told earlier rather than later considering the scare he just had in the infirmary. He never did have heart problems, but the slight scare of looking into an empty infirmary only to be met with two lights looking back at him when he shined his flashlight around.

“Ah yes, young Midoriya Izuku will be there in an ice bath while he recuperates. His father said it was best.” Nedzu explained when Ryo had burst into his office.

Ryo growled in frustration. “Tell me next time why don’t you. I need to know these things.”

“Yes yes,” Nedzu said but Hound Dog just resigned himself to having to be on the lookout for the next thing Nedzu would pull just for his amusement.

Ryo had been called several times since the beginning of school because of Midoriya’s many sleeping spots. Even if the kid had blanket permission, he still didn't understand how they could fit and comfortably nap in certain spaces. He had to console 4 students already that ‘No, they actually did not come across a dead body. And no he was not ‘gaslighting’ them’. It was only a matter of time before parents called. Ryo didn’t need any more work.

If anything Nedzu would be the one to gaslight the whole administration and student body. He was the type.

Knowing this, Ryo simply shook his head and made his rounds as usual. He just made sure to add to the list of possible Midoriya’s napping spots. It was now updated to include bodies of water. The kid wasn't a bad kid at all, even if he had scared the shit out of him. Ryo had little notes that showed that Midoriya was actually a bit of a fan of heroes.

A couple of the others had gotten notes like that too.

Aizawa seemed especially smug whenever someone brought it up even if no one could actually tell unless Hizashi pointed it out. How the two ended up married, Ryo didn't know and he was perfectly happy with that. He didn't need to get involved with them more than necessary. He still remembered consoling a few people that, ‘no they hadn't found a dead body’ when they came across Aizawa in his sleeping bag or that, ‘no that is not an undead zombie’ when Aizawa would proceed to rise up, still in the sleeping bag.

Now there were two of them.

Despite, the at-times unsettling appearance, Izuku did get visitors.

Todoroki came around to refill the tub with more ice and check the temperature at Nedzu’s request and while he did that, Izuku stared with wide eyes at him from just above the waterline. Though Todoroki didn’t mind, it gave him the perfect opportunity to share a few of his theories. Such as explanations for Hisashi Midoriya’s existence and the interesting yet complicated dynamic he had with Izuku’s biological father, Aizawa-sensei, of course.

That along with the underground rumors of a centuries-old figure who would take your quirk away if you were unworthy.

“-ough, a lot of people dismiss it as a simple bedtime story to warn kids about controlling their quirks and not misbehaving,” Todoroki said, “Maybe Sensei told you stories like that when you were growing up?”

Izuku responded by grabbing one of the large ice blocks and submerging himself entirely underwater. When Izuku rose up again Todoroki had gone though he left behind a substantial pile of ice much to Izuku’s pleasure. Anyone who passed by Todoroki in the hall would confidently say that Todoroki looked smug.

Tomura was used to being the one visited by Midoriya, not the other way around. It felt wrong not to wake up in the middle of the night to see the younger teen at the foot of his bed with light reflected in his eyes as he typed away at his computer. Or the lack of music that Midoriya would play while lying on the bed with Kurogiri either next to him or sitting in the chair to the side.

“They reported he was fine, simply a quirk drawback and of overwork,” Kurogiri told him without prompting, not that he needed to. Kurogiri always knew when Tomura was restless.

“He needs sleep.”

“His quirk makes that quite difficult.”

Tomura grunted and checked that his handheld game console was still fully charged. Kurogiri had mentioned earlier that while Midoriya was fine, he was a bit ‘unsual’ and nonverbal. Usually, Midoriya did the talking or showed things on his computer but most likely the roles would be reversed this time.

Which should be fine, but still Tomura wasn’t a big fan of the sudden change.

He certainly hadn’t been expecting someone to be in the infirmary beside Midoriya either.

There was a man with dark curly hair, his back faced them while his hand or possibly arm was in the water.

“You must be Dusty and Kurogiri!’ the man turned around with a sharptoothed smile, “I’m Midoriya Hisashi, Izuku’s dad. Nice to meet you, you can just call me Hisashi if you want.” When he turned around, Tomura could see the family resemblance and where Midoriya got his freckles. However, the demeanor in which he held himself, the bright eyes, and wide smile was unlike Midoriya along with how enerytic he seemed. His voice was louder than what he would have expected.

In fact, Midoriya’s demeanor matched more of Aizawa-san’s.

Kurogiri, in place of Tomura’s stare stepped forward with his own greeting and introduction.

‘Has Midoriya-kun spoken of us?”

Hisashi laughed. “Don’t worry I’ve heard the story and have a good impression. You’re basically family from what I’ve heard from Izuku.”

Kurogiri almost flickered at the word but he didn’t falter while Hisashi continued happily telling the two of them of Midoriya and his apparent fondness of them.

They knew that they were very grateful Midoriya and he was friendly. Probably even considered them friends. Even going far as being merciless when it came to the consequences for the person who had used a quirk to mess with Tomura’s mind. But for Midoriya’s dad, Hisashi, to say in no uncertain terms that they probably meant something more to Midoriya was unexpected, but not exactly unwelcome.

Tomura found it hard to hate that he was found in a closet by a weird kid.

“...I have a video game to show him,” Tomura offered, hoping to brush past the heartwarming discovery. Much less right in front of Hisashi.

Hisashi smiled before wincing as he moved. “Oh that’s great buddy, it’s just gonna take a minute before Izuku will come up again,” his arm suddenly moved deeper in the water with a surprised grunt.

“Are you unwell?” Kurogiri asked taking a step forward.

Hisashi waved them off with his other hand, “Ah, just Izuku has a real good grip and I think he’s a bit upset at me about something.” As he said this the man winced and suddenly the water turned just the tiniest bit red from where his arm was submerged amidst the ice. He sighed. “I already said I was sorry, your mom wasn’t even upset,” he said towards the water defeatedly.

After a few seconds, a head slowly emerged from the water and ice. A pale face with wet hair almost completely covering it came up revealing to Tomura the white of Midoriya’s teeth biting into partially scaled skin. Sharper teeth than Tomura expected but made sense considering those Hisashi had.

Midoriya was still glaring at his dad through the wet plastered hair on his face.

Holding eye contact, Midoriya bit harder causing more blood to well up. “I know I know,” Hisashi said, reaching out to move Midoriya’s hair behind his ears and out of his face, “I’ll make it up to her this weekend, okay?” the whole time he spoke softly and lovingly while looking right at Midoriya right in the eyes.

Not at one point did Tomura see a flicker of anger or disgust at Midoriya’s behavior. Hisashi was the one apologizing.

The two of them stared at each other for an uncomfortably amount of time before finally Midoriya opened his mouth and Hisashi was able to retract it with a light laugh.

Alright!” Hisashi said already trying to dry his hand with a nearby towel. “You can go ahead and show him your video game kid,” he stepped up with a groan and patted Tomura’s on the back with the dry hand, slightly pushing him towards the metal tub.

With that, Tomura took a chair and moved it over to the tub that Midoriya already was waiting staring at him as he walked closer. There was only a bit of blood on his lip but when he smiled it was soft. It was contradicting but Tomura thought it suited Midoriya perfectly. He didn’t waste any time setting up the game and beginning to explain. He didn’t even have to worry about decaying the game console because of the gloves he had been given earlier.

Hisashi in the meantime was trying to clean and didn’t deny Kurogiri’s offer to help him.

“If you don’t not mind, may I ask what upset the young man?” Kurogiri asked after wrapping the bite.

“Oh,” Hisashi laughed and used his other hand to rub the back of his neck awkwardly, ‘I accidentally missed a call from my wife because the battery died. I forgot my charger in my office at work.”

“Hm, I see.”

At some point Hisashi left, most likely to get a new charger after another glare Midoriya sent toward him.

The two of them stayed for roughly two hours before Tomura’s stomach growled and Midoriya’s head whipped towards Kurogiri with such urgency that Kurogiri deigned it appropriate to drag Tomura off to go eat something despite his protests.

“I was gonna show him how to beat the boss!”

“Yes yes, but you must eat something.”

“You can’t ju-”

“I insist, other Midoriya-kun may take a bite of me I fear.”

Tomura finally looked at Midoriya and he didn’t fight anymore when he saw the look Midoriya was giving the two of them.

Once they were a decent amount of distance away from the infirmary Tomura couldn’t help but whisper to Kurogiri, “Was it me or was that really creepy?”

“I think you would find no one to disagree.”

Shouta was already letting himself slump deeper into his capture weapon with all the rumors and whispers going around about the possible creature in the infirmary. Tetsutetsu from class 1B could have sworn that there was a crocodile hiding in the infirmary. Shouta knew that Nedzu knew about the rumors as well and was doing nothing to decrease them.

In fact, it may have been possible that he was trying to increase them solely for his amusement. Which honestly, was nothing out of the ordinary when it came to the Principal.

He had to get his fun from somewhere and this was the safest way without jeopardizing the way Japan was run at the moment. Not that Shouta didn’t think Nedzu still had something in the works for the government, it’d be concerning if he didn’t.

Either way, Shouta minded his business and let himself into the infirmary quietly.

He let himself smile softly at the sight of Hizashi signing something to Midoriya and was relieved when Midoriya hands rose above the water and signed something back.

They had been warned that Midoriya would be nonverbal for a bit but at least they knew he could sign. That and from the bandage on Midoriya’s dad, Hisashi’s (as he insisted to be called) hand, Midoriya was not afraid to draw blood if needed. Though in Shouta’s opinion, missing a phone call didn’t particularly qualify as a biting moment.

Hisashi though was insistent, “Really, it was my fault, I should have made sure to have the phone charged, he’s been like that ever since he was little and it could have been important,” he said.

The Midoriya’s were an interesting family to say the least.

“Did you bring the goods?” Hizashi called out and Shouta huffed in amusement as he walked forward. He tossed a small package and Hizashi caught it with ease before handing it to Midoriya

It was a jelly packet. One of the flavors Shouta actually liked.

“How did you know he liked that flavor?” Shouta asked considering Hizashi typically left his favorite flavors alone.

“Oh, Todoroki told me that children will sometimes have the same preferences as their parents,” Hizashi said with a shit-eating grin

Days passed and slowly Izuku went from only signing to making verbal sounds and eventually answering a few questions. It was a relatively slow process and a few of the administration grew worried but Hisashi and Inko reassured them that it was expected and Izuku was doing rather well.

Eventually, he was completely verbal but still spent most of his time in the tub.

One visitor came by, as he usually did but this time Shoji came because of a slightly dislocated shoulder. "I heard you were clinging to Todoroki. Am I being replaced?" Shoji asked with a raised eyebrow but the other arm had a smiling mouth.

Izuku smiled and rested his head against the metal side of the tub closer to Shoji. "That would be a crime Shoji."

Shoji leaned forward. "If anyone was to break a law it would be you."

Izuku huffed, blowing some bubbles in the water before he said. "I'd bet my money on Iida. He'd kill a man if given the chance, I just know it."

Shoji laughed. “He’d be horrified if he heard you say that.”

“Because it’s true?” Izuku asked while teasingly looking at the shoulder that had been dislocated because of a training accident with Iida.

Shoji reached out a hand and ruffled Izuku’s hair with a towel. “Find out once you’re better. And I already told you how many times he apologized, I was worried he’d end up stuck bowing with how many times he did it.”

“Todoroki would say it is the perfect cover.”

Shoji shook his head but distinctively did not say anything to deny it.

It was amusing and Izuku welcomed the more little tidbits that Shoji shared before he eventually had to leave. He had a few other visitors too, mostly peaking a head in quickly before having to get back to class and other things.

Tomura kept coming with different games to show him. He had been more than pleased when Izuku had given a tip after being nonverbal for a bit. Tomura hadn’t even made a big deal about it, too focused on finally beating a boss in a fight that was known to be unfairly glitchy despite the new updates promising to fix any bugs. It made it harder for Kurogiri to draw the two of them away from the screen.

Kurogiri didn’t hesitate to tell the two of them they needed to limit their screen time to a healthier amount in the future. He continued to do so when Tomura tried to convince him when he was once again dragged away to actually eat something.

Izuku so helpfully submerged himself in the water when Tomura asked if he was on his side.

The playfulness and lack of him reaching for his face was reassuring when it came to Tomura’s health. Kurogiri had visited a few times by himself giving small updates to Izuku along with offerings to listen to music. Kurigiri always looked a bit more at ease after those visits too.

Eventually, Izuku was able to be out of the tub for longer periods of time. The nape of his neck didn’t feel as hot as before and he didn’t feel so bothered by the lamp on in the room. Though slowly the light would make his jaw tense and his eyes squint while he wanted to get further away and hide and he’d have to retreat back to the water and ice that would soothe the heat.

He was just about to get back in when the door opened slightly and Ojiro walked in.

“Oh, Midoriya! How are you, you okay? I thought you had to be in the tub?”

Izuku’s eyes trailed Ojiro for any signs of injury and found none. "Yeah just gotta go back…’m warm again,” he murmured as he slid back into the tub sighing in relief at the cold water

Ojiro came closer and took a seat beside him. “Any pain?”

Izuku shook his head. There was a discomfort and a slight haze to the mind. But there wasn't really any pain. Usually, there might have been a headache if it got particularly bad but this time was actually doing fine. He wondered why. What had been different from other times? What factors had changed? It would be good to note it down for the possible next time it occurred, though he’d have to make sure to look over the se-

The trickle of cold blissful water at the top of his head over his nose interrupted his thoughts. He reflexively closed them before opening once the water stopped.

Ojiro had paused with a small cup in hand. “I -uh thought it was time to return the favor and you seemed a little lost in your head, Shoji told me I should probably watch out for that.”

“He usually ruffles my head.”

Ojiro smiled. “Yeah well, I’m doing two birds one stone.” He dipped the cup in the tub again and looked at him with a questioning gaze.

Izuku nodded.

As he raised the cup out of sight and slowly poured the water out, he softly said, "You know you should take your own advice. I heard that you pushed yourself and ended up like this.” Ojiro moved his hand back into the water before pausing to look at him in the eyes. “So in your own words. You'll be fine.”

Izuku huffed in amusement while visibly accepting the words and Ojiro continued to pour water on his head. It reminded him of when his Mom and Dad did the same thing for him, it felt nice especially when it flowed down to the nape of his neck. "Tell me what you been up to." Izuku asked while letting his head slump forward.

"Regular stuff. Some training. There’s already talk about final exams and concerns about that. Aizawa-sensei has been asking us to make sure we've really reviewed the packets you made,’ Ojiro said continuing to scoop up water and pouring it over Izuku’s head. While he talked Ojiro only occasionally commented about how cold the water was. It made Izuku laugh but still, Ojiro continued with Izuku listening.