Chapter Text
Being a vigilante was one thing. Izuku was good at that. Izuku knew how to do that. Being a normal teenager? That was a LOT more complicated.
It was bad enough that Eraserhead had caught him, let alone that the underground hero had realised that the reason he was a vigilante despite his age was because he had to be awake at night. It was too dangerous to sleep on the streets in the nights. That discovery of course had led to Eraserhead realising not only was Izuku homeless, he also hadn’t been going to school since the event- the event of course being after the sludge villain attack when he had gotten kicked out by Inko for being too reckless.
Eraserhead, being the obnoxiously caring hero he was, decided to take Izuku in, which in theory would be fine, but in practice? It was bullshit.
First off, he wasn’t allowed to patrol anymore. Something about vigilantism being illegal which was boring as fuck but oh well.
Secondly, because Eraserhead clearly had it out for him, Izuku was expected to return to a normal sleep cycle. After months of sleeping on rooftops during the days, it was painfully hard to sleep at night instead.
And no, that wasn’t all, because Eraserhead had also taken away Izuku’s cigarettes- seriously what was this guy’s problem? And while he permitted Izuku one per day to quote ‘wean him off’, it was still bullshit.
You would think that all was enough, wouldn’t you? But noooo, of course not. There was always more. Izuku was expected to eat 3 meals a day, honestly unnecessary and wasteful. Izuku was doing summer classes to ‘catch up on missed school’ from which he discovered that school fucking sucked, even without the prescience of bullies. He was stuck doing therapy once a week- an honestly fucked waste of time in Izuku’s opinion, especially with how much the stupid man wanted to talk about Izuku’s mother- someone he actively avoided talking about for a fucking reason.
Then, probably the worst part, Izuku was banned from talking to his one friend. Apparently Dabi was “a villain and a murderer” and Izuku interacting with him would “ruin his place in the rehabilitation program”. Such fucking bullshit.
Izuku had been here a week, and while spending time with Eraserhead and Present Mic was certainly fun, and yeah, the food was nicer than what he was used to, he still ached for all the freedoms he’d lost. So, after dinner, which he forced himself to eat seconds of, knowing there was no reliable food source on the streets, Izuku packed his bags and slipped out the window.
It was freeing to run across rooftops again. Freeing to remember how it feels to have wind whipping around him and blowing his hair behind him. Izuku had missed this, had missed the joy and easy warmth. Had missed the effort and adrenaline of each jump, had missed all of it.
Izuku didn’t even last the night. He had returned swiftly to his vigilantism, loving that he was finally free to do so, when Eraserhead appeared, cuffing the criminal Izuku had been fighting, only to fucking cuff Izuku as well- although Izuku’s wrist got cuffed to Eraserhead’s rather than his other wrist. Still, it was humiliating, especially when Eraserhead nonchalantly dragged Izuku behind him as he brought the criminal to the station.
Izuku ducked his head, trying to hide the embarrassed heat to his cheeks as the policemen all stared at the teenager cuffed to a pro hero. Yeah, it wasn’t his best look.
“You ran away,” Eraserhead stated tiredly once they had left the police station.
“You we’re keeping me fucking prisoner.”
“Kid-”
“Why can’t I just keep doing what I’m doing and you just let me do that?” Izuku whined.
“Because what you’re doing is committing crimes,” Eraserhead pointed out. He was obnoxious like that, always pointing out logical things.
“So? I’m not hurting anyone!”
“You literally broke that criminal’s nose. I know you didn’t need to do that to capture him.”
“Yeah, well, I was mad because some fucker tried to lock me in a room and take away my fucking cigarettes.”
“You can’t just-” Eraserhead cut himself off with a long suffering sigh, “I’m trying to help you here kid.”
“So let me do my thing!”
“Your thing is crime.”
“So!?”
“I literally cannot let you do that.”
Izuku kept trying to argue, and Eraserhead kept knocking his arguments down. Even Present Mic, who was supposed to be the more fun of the two refused to give in. So, Izuku ran again.
He didn’t even make it out of the apartment; one leg was out the window when he felt Eraserhead’s scarf wrap around him.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Eraserhead asked, and Izuku just groaned and let himself fall back fully inside dramatically.
“Home,” Izuku muttered.
“Home being a rooftop somewhere random?” Eraserhead asked, eyebrows raised and Izuku just whined. “Kid, I-”
“Don’t bother Eraser,” Izuku snapped, storming away to his room, “I get it. You’ve told me plenty times.”
Izuku tried to escape 6 more times. Twice he succeeded in getting out the house, leaving while Eraserhead was on patrol, only for Eraserhead to find him again while on that same fucking patrol. One of the times he had gone while Eraserhead was on patrol he hadn’t even made it out of the apartment. That time it was Present Mic who stopped him. As he had done each time Eraserhead caught him, Izuku just slinked his way back to his room with his stupid locked window and his stupid soft bed, which he ignored in favour of sleeping on the solid ground that felt far more natural.
His eighth escape attempt- another one where he didn’t really manage to leave the apartment- was different. He had gotten all the way onto the fire escape, only for Eraserhead’s scarf to pull him right back in the window he’d just climbed out of. That wasn’t so new, as compared to the fact that Eraserhead didn’t unravel the scarf and let him go.
“What do you want?” Izuku muttered.
“I want to know what part of running away is the part that draws you the most, because I doubt it’s being homeless or not having enough food. So, what is it?”
Izuku stared at the hero for a long time, thinking over his possible answers before eventually giving in. There was no disadvantage to being honest. Maybe Eraserhead would even listen to him.
“I miss the patrols. I miss roof jumping. I miss that freedom,” Izuku answered, because truthfully, he didn’t care about the other restrictions, didn’t care about the cigarettes other then it being a way to rebel and complain. Didn’t care about any of it except the patrols.
“You understand why I can’t let you come on patrols, right?” Eraserhead asked softly, and Izuku nodded, rolling his eyes.
“Yeah, it would jeopardise my pardon and get me sent to jail.”
“Right, so I can’t take you on patrol, but there are other options, you know that right?” Eraserhead asked, and Izuku tilted his head. What other possible options even were there? “Long term, we can sort it out so, you can get your licence and do patrols legally.”
“That’s bullshit. I don’t need a licence to save people, and I certainly don’t need to go to fucking school.”
“Midoriya,” Eraserhead warned and Izuku grumbled but shut up to let the pro speak, “Thank you. Now, that is the only way I can get you back to doing patrols. More short term though, I can sign you up for parkour classes. You would get to do things similar to roof jumping while not risking your place in the rehab program. Does that sound good?”
“Yeah fine. Whatever. Can I go now?” Izuku muttered, and Eraserhead nodded, removing his capture weapon from its place holding Izuku, and allowing the boy to stalk grumpily back to his room.
——
It was after Izuku’s first parkour class- which had genuinely been amazing fun- that he finally gave into Eraserhead’s insistent encouragement and called the hero Aizawa.
Slowly but surely, Izuku moved away from hero names for Aizawa and Hizashi. Although when he was annoyed or thought they were being too up tight and hero-y, their hero names came back. It turned out to be a surprisingly effective weapon, and while he tended to get grounded afterwards for whatever he had done regardless, it felt good to let out some of his frustration through the use of their formal hero names.
Also, he got grounded now? Originally all the heroes were able to do was take his phone away when he tried to run away or steal an extra cigarette or skip his catch-up classes (which he thankfully no longer had to do and now had officially graduated middle school). Now, with the freedoms of being able to go to the shops or even the arcade- provided one of them (or Nemuri who called herself a quote ‘fun aunt’) was there. Those freedoms meant that when he did get the urge to attempt to run away to patrol (and he really did plan to come back in the morning, though he never lasted that long anyway), the heroes were able to ground him and have it mean something. When he was grounded he almost exclusively called them by their hero names. (It really was his only weapon)
Nemuri however never got called by her hero name, but that was mostly because she filled her self appointed role of ‘fun aunt’ fairly well and if she came over while he was grounded she always argued on his behalf- usually trying to convince the two to let her take him to some cafe she wanted to try, but still, Izuku appreciated it.
————
Izuku- clearly stupidly- had thought the catch up classes to graduate middle school would be the end of school. As such, when Shouta (as he’d recently started calling the man) came to him to discuss arrangements for UA, Izuku screamed.
“Izuku!?” Hizashi cried, running into the room at the sound of Izuku’s high pitch wail, only to find him glaring at an unimpressed looking Shouta.
“No. I’m not fucking doing that. I’m done. I did my stupid fucking classes and I graduated. I’m not going to school.”
“Izuku, Hizashi and I are teachers, you didn’t really think we were going to let you drop out did you?”
“I quit school for a fucking reason Eraserhead!” Izuku snapped, feeling a probably unhealthy amount of glee when the man flinched at the name. It had been a while since Izuku had last called him Eraserhead. Every now and then he had dropped “Eraser”, but the full hero name? No, that had been quite some time ago.
“Izuku…”
“Get out of my room! Get out!” Izuku screamed, not sure if he was screaming because he was angry at the two or because he hoped maybe they would change their mind or because he was scared- he wasn’t scared. What loser vigilante would be scared of fucking school?
At least the two listened to him. It had been part of their one of the more recent deals. Izuku’s room was his, and if he wanted to be alone he had a right to be alone. That had come after another attempt to run away- yes, he did have a bad habit of running at every inconvenience, but that one had been after a full on and very valid meltdown. He had pretty much never been alone here and he had missed the freedom. This had been the compromise. Izuku had control of who came in his room.
“Call me if you need anything, ok?” Hizashi insisted before he left.
“I’m mad at you too Mic,” Izuku snapped in response, because he was a part of it. Shouta and Hizashi never did anything without discussing it with the other. One was never more guilty than another- although Hizashi only got called Mic instead of Present Mic because he hadn’t been the one to actually bring it up.
Izuku stared at the small, locked window, silently wondering if there was any way to get out through it. There wasn’t. He had tried. Apparently it was a quirk reinforced lock that wouldn’t open no matter how good someone was at lock picking which had at least given him a new quirk to analyse. Still. He was considered (very validly) a flight risk, and the only way out was through the shared living areas of the apartment. Not exactly an easy escape.
Izuku was pulled out of his thoughts when someone knocked on his door.
“Go away!” He grumbled, because usually they had the decency to give him however long he needed rather than pestering him.
“It’s just me. Can I come in ‘Zu?” Nemuri called back and Izuku relented, opening the door for her. He waited until the door was firmly shut behind her again before he let his aunt wrap her arms around him. Fuck he hadn’t realised how much he needed someone right now.
That was a weird thing he’d started noticing in himself. He never used to feel a need to have someone around to care for him, so on the rare occasions when someone had filled that role, he didn’t particularly feel any way about it. Ever since moving in with Shouta and Hizashi though, he seemed to have that need, and while he rarely recognised that was what he was longing for, the relief that came when someone filled the role was visceral.
“Hey kid, you’re ok, you’re ok,” Nemuri spoke softly, her hands rubbing circles in Izuku’s back, calming down the panic that he hadn’t even noticed. When had that started? Why was he panicking?
He didn’t move for a long time, and Nemuri clearly didn’t expect him to. Eventually however, he spoke.
“I don’t wanna go to school…”
“I know kid, can you tell me why though?” Nemuri asked. Izuku wasn’t dumb. He knew Nemuri had been called in by Eraser and Mic to convince him, but he also knew that if Nemuri joined his side, he would at least have a chance.
“People at school always hurt me. School doesn’t like people like me and I… I thought I was done having to deal with that.”
“You know ‘Zu, both your dads will be there. They aren’t going to let anyone hurt you. Neither will I. Anyone who is mean to you will get expelled. You won’t have to deal with that.”
“Even if you expel people who are mean, I’m gonna be an outcast. No one will wanna talk to me and I’ll just feel shit but it’s not their responsibility to talk to me just to make me happy. You can’t expel them for not being my friends.”
“If you think about it ‘Zu, you don’t have any friends now, so even if no one wants to be your friend- which I can say with almost complete certainty will not be the case- you won’t have less friends then if you don’t go to school.”
“I have friends!”
“Who? And don’t say Dabi, you know villains don’t count.”
“You’re my friend,” Izuku pouted.
“And I’ll still be your friend no matter what happens,” Nemuri promised, her smile practically audible in her voice, “You can even come visit me in between classes as much as you want.”
“Still, school fucking sucks,” Izuku pointed out with a grunt, because he really didn’t have much to argue against on the previous point.
“I thought you wanted to go back to patrols?”
“Yeah? So what? Eraser said he’s working out something to get me a licence.”
“Zu, this is the thing he’s working out. You’d be in the hero course.”
“I’m quirkless.”
“So?” Nemuri asked in that almost obnoxious way she did whenever Izuku argued any point she thought was unrelated.
“So, I can’t be in the hero course.”
“Not sure I follow.”
“You do follow Nem, you’re just making me spell it out,” Izuku whined.
“Well yeah, because if you spell it out, you will realise you’re wrong.”
“But… I need a quirk to get into the hero course…”
“No, no you don’t. There are three ways into the hero course, and none of them require a quirk, although a quirk tends to help them. One, the entrance exam, which is simply score based and again, a quirk would help, but not be needed to succeed. The second way is through recommendation by a hero, again, a quirk would help but not be required. The third, the way you are getting in, is less commonly known. Through the vigilante reform program, you are given the ability to take any course of study you wish, in order to keep you from… you know… running away. So, heroics is fully on the table and you get automatic entrance.”
“But… I’m… me…”
“I’m not picking up what you’re putting down Zu.”
“Why would UA take ME?”
“Well they are legally required to- reform program and all- but more importantly, you have potential, and they would have to be stupid not to take you. Nedzu is not stupid by any means.”
“But I’m useless.”
“Izuku, darlin’, you were one of the best vigilantes Japan has seen. You single handedly brought down hundreds of criminals and villains. You are far from useless.”
“Disagree.”
“If you disagree, well, you’d simply be wrong.”
“But I’m quirkless Nem, I CAN'T be a hero.”
“Zu, I don’t care that you’re quirkless. Do you know how many fights I have to do quirkless? Whenever too many civilians are around, it’s too dangerous to use my quirk. Or what about Hizashi? He can’t use his quirk often at all in his fights without risking the public. Or Shouta, who’s quirk literally just makes other people quirkless as well? Just because there hasn’t been a quirkless hero yet, doesn’t mean that makes any fucking sense. You were Japan’s first quirkless vigilante, now you can be it’s first quirkless hero.”
“You… you really think I can be a hero?”
“Yeah kid.”
“But only if I go to school?” Izuku asked with a whine, because he really did not want to go.
“Zu, darlin’, there’s no getting out of school when your dads are both teachers. You don’t have to be a hero student, but you are going to have to go to school.”
“I hate school,” Izuku muttered under his breath.
“That’s fair, but there’s not much of a choice to be made kiddo.”
“But… I haven’t had to deal with kids my age in over a year. I don’t want to go back to it…”
“Zu, at some point you’re going to have to have friends the same age as you. You can’t just be friends with people twice your age.
“Why not?”
“It’s not good for you kiddo.”
“School isn’t good for me,” Izuku muttered under his breath, but Nemuri, predictably, heard it and just ruffled his hair with a light chuckle.
“You’re a smart kid, Zu. You’ll do just fine, I’m sure of it.”
“Fine. I’ll go to fucking school, but if people are jerks there, then I’m quitting and running away. For real.”
“Ok kiddo,” Nemuri laughed.
They didn’t leave Izuku’s room for a while, Izuku still thoroughly set on moping.
When they did eventually rejoin Izuku’s guardians, Izuku- with much grumbling and groaning- begrudgingly agreed to go to UA’s hero course.
They ended up waiting another two days before properly bringing the topic up again.
“Izuku, we need to talk about UA,” Shouta started, dragging Izuku out of his soft mumbling over one of the newest hero sidekicks he was analysing.
“Do we have to?”
“Yes kid. We do have to.”
“Ugh, fine, ok, what is it?”
“You are a flight risk.”
“How often do I have to run away to move from flight risk to flight threat? Or flight peril?”
“If you make a run for the window right now I’m going to be so unimpressed,” Shouta warned and Izuku pouted, relaxing from his tense and ready to move position. How dare Shouta know him so well.
“Mean,” Izuku grumbled under his breath.
“Izuku,” Shouta sighed while Hizashi just cackled in his corner, finding way too much enjoyment in Izuku’s grumpy sarcasm.
“Shouta,” Izuku sighed back mockingly, earning himself a slight eye roll.
“My question was, how likely are you to try to run away on the trip to school?”
“Do you want the honest answer or the good kid answer?”
“Honest, please.”
“Oh, then pretty likely, I do not want to go to school. You’re so lucky Nem talked me out of running when you first brought it up.”
“Alright, looks like we are following Nedzu’s suggestion then.”
Well, that was terrifying. All Izuku knew about the rat was that even Shouta was scared of him.
“Uh… what does that mean?” Izuku asked apprehensively.
“UA is looking at setting up a dorm system. You and the rest of the class will be staying at dorms.”
“That’s fucking 24/7 school,” Izuku gritted out. There was no fucking way he was doing that.
“You have Nem, who will almost certainly be your chaperone to leave at any time,” Hizashi pointed out.
“Thanks for that Yamada. I guess I’ll just fucking get her to chaperone me during school hours then,” Izuku gritted out. This was stupid. How dare they think this was smart.
“Izuku,” Shouta started, resulting in a glare sent his way from Izuku.
“Yes *Aizawa*?” Izuku grunted. Yeah, this was deserving of last name basis.
“Kid, you will have your own dorm, zero requirement to socialise outside of school hours, I can even organise for you to have a kitchenette in your room if you don’t want to go down to the common rooms. All this will do is make sure you don’t run away.”
“Fucking prison bullshit.”
“Listener,” Hizashi tried gently, “We can’t have you running away all the time. At some point you’re going to have to decide to stay.”
“I just… I can’t… not yet…” Izuku muttered. He wasn’t ready to give it all up yet. Hizashi and Shouta both nodded understandingly.
“That’s ok kid. It’s part of why we’re here, and that’s ok. Do you think the dorms will work for you?”
“I’ll be allowed to lock the door?”
“Of course.”
“And Nem will still take me out to random places?”
“I don’t think we could stop her if we tried. She’s determined to be the cool aunt.”
“Then… ok. Fine. I can deal with that.”
——
Izuku got to go into UA a day earlier than other students to begin organising his dorm while Hizashi, Shouta and Nem all had to go in for a Staff Only day. Izuku guessed there were some advantages to having parents who were teachers, even if the whole having to go to school thing was shit.
Once his room was set up to his liking, having moved all the stuff Hizashi and Nemuri had convinced him to buy on the multitude of shopping sprees they went on. He had customisable led lights connected to a remote that would change their colours, some glow in the dark stars on his roof, a large collection of hero merch, including a not yet released prototype Present Mic figurine that his guardian- his dad?- his guardian had gifted him.
Then there was the honestly disturbing amount of clothes he had ended up with, again thanks to the shopping sprees of Nemuri and Hizashi.
And of course, on his bed was the ragged Hawks plush that was the only thing Izuku had kept from before his forceful adoption. Nothing else had been worth keeping, especially considering the pure amount of good quality clothes he had now. All his old stuff, even his vigilante get up (a ratty old dark green hoodie and black cargo pants that were full of holes) had been thrown out. The mask had been pretty trash and homemade, so he hadn’t even felt particularly bad throwing that out either. Especially not considering he wasn’t allowed to be a vigilante anymore.
Just as Shouta had promised, Izuku had a mini fridge, cupboard and small counter with a kettle and a sink to use as a miniature kitchen, and he had brought plenty of things to stock it up- most important being the milk and hot chocolate powder, and his collection of jelly packets he’d stolen from Aizawa.
Izuku annoyingly still wasn’t allowed access to his cigarettes without his guardians approving it, but it wasn’t like he could smoke in here anyway. He would have to go to the teachers dorms, get it from the two and then smoke it.
The other thing he noticed during his day of setting up his room and exploring campus, was the fact that his room was the only one without a balcony. And the only room with all the windows locked. Brilliant touch.
Nemuri- (and his guardians but he was annoyed at them so they don’t count)- at least took him out to his favourite place, which made the worlds best katsudan, for dinner, so he supposed he would accept it. Still, he couldn’t help but be unimpressed.
The next day, he showed up at UA at an unholy time in the morning since Hizashi and Shouta both had to do stuff before school, but at least he got to sit in the teachers lounge rather then the classroom. It gave him opportunity to analyse the hero teachers to his heart’s content.
Shouta had warned Izuku that All Might would be a teacher here- something that prompted multiple attempted escape, so at least he wasn’t blindsided by that, but he couldn’t help the way he curled in on himself slightly upon the man’s arrival. He had no trust in All Might anymore. The man was no longer a hero to him, but Shouta had promised All Might would not be teaching the first years, so at least he had escaped that. He was pretty sure that was something that Shouta had personally organised, but he wouldn’t complain.
“Why is there a kid in here?” All Might asked, because of course he didn’t pay attention to the briefing Izuku KNEW they had yesterday.
“That’s Aizawa and Yamada’s kid.”
“Isn’t letting him stay here unfair special treatment?”
“You’re one to talk,” Nemuri muttered under her breath, something All Might seemed to miss entirely, but Izuku certainly didn’t. Interesting. He wondered what that was about. He’d have to ask Nemuri later.
“He’s part of the vigilante reform program, and yes, if him getting special treatment keeps him from committing vigilantism, he will be given those so called special treatments. Plus he already had enough trauma without forcing him into situations he isn’t comfortable with such as being alone in a classroom with students he doesn’t know. Were you even listening yesterday?” Nemuri snapped at a volume clearly actually meant for All Might this time.
“I thought young Aizawa said he was quirkless?”
“Two things Yagi. One, I have told you not to call me Young Aizawa, you are not that much older then me, and as such it is demeaning and unnecessary. Two, I know your discriminatory views on the quirkless make you pathetic and honestly disappointing, but if you dare imply that my son isn’t just as good as any other student here simply because he doesn’t have a quirk, we will have problems. Do not even try to tread the line if you want to avoid my wrath, and trust me, you want to avoid my wrath,” Shouta warned, his voice low and deadly in the way it only ever got when a villain threatened his family which didn’t really make sense but- oh- oh he was their family. Oh.
“Alright kid, it’s time for class, let’s go,” Shouta instructed, and Izuku grabbed his bag and got up, silently following his guardian- his dad.
“Thanks Dad,” Izuku whispered quietly, and Shouta stopped in his tracks for a solid second, before continuing.
“Any time kiddo. Any time,” Shouta replied, and Izuku couldn’t even bring himself to be angry about the whole having to go to school thing right now.
That sentiment vanished the moment he walked into the classroom.
“Nope,” Izuku declared flatly, spinning on his heels and sprinting in the opposite direction, towards an open window he had seen only moments prior.
“WHAT THE FUCK DEKU!?” Came crashing from behind him, to which Izuku paid no mind as he leapt out of the window and continued to sprint away, only to be pulled to a stop by Shouta’s now familiar capture weapon.
“Nope. Nope. I’m not doing this. Nope. Not a chance.”
“What happened kid?”
“Nope. I’m not. Let me go Eraser. I want out.”
“Kid-” Shouta winced.
“I want out. I want out. I’m done. Let me fucking go.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“Fucking Bakugo Katsuki.”
“He knows you,” Shouta sighs, clearly coming to an understanding.
“Yeah. He’s the one who told me to fucking kill myself. I’m not dealing with that shit. I’d rather real jail. I don’t care. I’m not dealing with him.”
“You don’t have to deal with him. He shouldn’t have been accepted with a history like his. He’s expelled.”
“You can’t just expel someone because they were mean to me. You won’t have any students left.”
“I’ve done it before. I will not teach quirkist students. I will not teach bullies. I will not teach bigots, and I will not teach those with zero potential. That is my rule, and that will always be my rule. He’s gone. Will you please come back to class now?”
Izuku hesitated, looking towards the big gates to UA, wondering if he could make it to them before Shouta captured him again and knowing he stood no chance.
“Fine. I’ll go back to class or whatever.”
“Thank you.”
Sure enough, the moment they walked back into class, Shouta stepped into action, quirk firing and all his intimidation skills at work. Terrifying to anyone not insanely used to it the way Izuku was.
“Bakugo, you’re expelled for suicide baiting another student. Get out of my class. The rest of you sit down.”
If it weren’t for Shouta’s quirk, Bakugo would have exploded the entire room by now. As it was, it was only Shouta stepping between Izuku and Bakugo that stopped him from hitting Izuku the way he clearly wanted to.
“I’ll fucking kill you Deku.”
Well, if he could argue that it hadn’t been while he was at UA, he couldn’t argue that logic now. That was… something Izuku supposed.
Aizawa watched him leave warily, before moving to the front of the class.
“Alright, anyone else a bigoted bully or can we move on with it?” Aizawa snapped, and the class just nodded silently, “Good. My name’s Aizawa, I’ll be your homeroom teacher. As you all know, this year is different to most, with the dorms being added, there is a reason for that.”
Izuku couldn’t help but look down in embarrassment. He knew where this was going, after some discussion, they had decided to make it clear from the start what was going on with Izuku, but it wasn’t exactly the most pleasant experience.
“This is Izuku. He’s part of the vigilante reform program, and as such is joining your class. He is however a flight risk and not allowed off campus without supervision of a teacher here. He has mastered a lot of the skills you will be learning this year during his time as a vigilante, so there will be some instances where he does slightly different things, in order to focus on what he needs work on. Are there any questions?”
Three hands shot up, one from a pink girl, one a boy with spiky red hair and one a boy with navy blue hair.
“Kirishima?” Shouta asked, because of course he had already memorised all the names and faces. Izuku should have asked for that list.
“What happened with Bakugo? Did they know each other?”
“He was my bully. I haven’t seen him in over a year. Last time I saw him he told me to kill myself.”
The room was silent after that straight to the point answer but Izuku couldn’t bring himself to care. He had no reason to be nice about Bakugo after the shit the other boy put him through.
“Alright, Ashido, you’re next.”
“I was just wondering what your quirk is… doing vigilantism so young, you must have a pretty strong quirk to survive…”
“I’m quirkless,” Izuku gritted out. Not even five minutes of bliss before that little tidbit got out. Of fucking course.
“That’s so cool! You must be so skilled!”
Huh. He had not expected that. In fact, the only person who had a reaction he was expecting was the navy haired boy with his hand raised who seemed to be spluttering wildly at the revelation. The others seemed either impressed, or completely neutral. Huh. He really hadn’t expected that.
“Iida, what was your question?” Shouta seemed tense as he said it, practically daring the boy to say something mean.
“Isn’t vigilantism illegal? How can a criminal be a hero?”
“The same way any criminal who has finished their sentence can be a hero, provided they pass the same ethics tests and psych evaluation all heroes must take. Once he has completed the reform program, Izuku will be cleared of all charges.”
The boy seemed… not quite happy with that answer, but he didn’t say anything.
“Very well sir,” The boy said, his arms cutting through the air wildly. Izuku was glad he wasn’t sat next to him.
“If that’s all the questions, everyone grab one of these uniforms and head to the PE grounds for a test.”
With that, Shouta walked out, and Izuku was practically surrounded by students. Wow. Thanks for that one or whatever.
“You’re the reason we have the dorms? Thank you so much it’s so exciting!”
“Yeah! Especially because UA didn’t raise the costs so it’s actually saving my family money which is like super important for us right now!”
“What did Aizawa-Sensei mean about flight risk?”
“What’s it like being a vigilante?”
“Do you know many heroes?”
“Have you sent any criminals to jail? How many?”
Izuku stared wildly around at the group, aching to be anywhere but here. There were too many of them. He didn’t have anywhere to go. He was surrounded. He needed to get out but he couldn’t get out and-
“Can you guys seriously not recognise when someone is uncomfortable? Give him some damn space!” With that, someone gripped Izuku’s wrist and pulled him away from the others, shoving a uniform into his hand as he pulled Izuku out of the classroom, “Sorry about that.”
“I- thank you,” Izuku stuttered, wrapping his arms around the uniform and holding it close.
“Any time. You looked like you could use some help getting out of there. I would have hated being surrounded like that, fucking hell.”
“Yeah…”
They stayed quiet as they walked for a while before it was interrupted by the boy, who Izuku had now taken in fully, (everything from the boy’s purple almost gravity defying hair to his deep eye bags to his slight hunch as he walked).
“My name’s Shinsou Hitoshi by the way.”
“Izuku,” He replied evenly, and to his surprise, Shinsou didn’t so much as comment on the lack of a last name. Once Shouta and Hizashi had started moving to calling him Izuku, he had realised just how much he hated his last name. He wasn’t ready to ask to take one of his new parents’ names, but he also didn’t like Midoriya, so he was just Izuku for now.
The silence that followed the proper introduction was calm and comforting in the way Izuku hadn’t thought was possible around people his age. Hell, even Hizashi, Shouta and Nem were distinctly rare in that ability of theirs. Still, Izuku wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth or anything.
Instead, he simply enjoyed the soft yet companionable silence. They were walking out of the change rooms by the time the rest of the class started to arrive, led by the apparently very bossy navy haired boy. Izuku didn’t speak to them, simply dropping his head down and heading towards the PE grounds.
“You know where you are going, right? Because I’m just following you,” Shinsou admitted after a moment.
“Yeah. It’s this way,” Izuku nodded. He had made sure to memorise the routes yesterday during one of the boring hours of nothingness.
“Thanks,” Shinsou grinned before returning to the quiet company, which continued when they reached the PE grounds, with Shouts not saying a word, simply nodding to them. Izuku thought there was a hint of pride in the man’s eyes but he couldn’t say for sure. Was that because he wasn’t alone or because he was first to arrive? Izuku had no clue.
When the rest of the class joined them with Shouta, the man began to talk, reprimanding them for being slow before eventually moving onto explaining the topic. Izuku didn’t miss the way Shinsou winced at Shouta’s obvious logical ruse- obvious to Izuku at least, so he leaned in. He owed the boy a favour for getting him out of the loud class after all.
“It’s a logical ruse. He’s doing it to make sure people put their full effort in. The only way someone gets expelled for this is if they don’t put in the effort,” Izuku explained in an almost silent whisper, “Also when he says anything goes, he means ANYTHING. Don’t be afraid to manipulate the rules. There are none.”
“Thanks,” Shinsou whispered back, eyes not leaving their teacher. Good. Izuku was proud. He watched as one by one everyone threw the ball, carefully calculating his actions. He could do a lot of things. He could throw it as hard as he could normally, he could bend the rules some how, he could straight up skip it and threaten to run if Shouta made him do anything. That was a last resort though considering he really wasn’t particularly against doing this since it had its obvious benefits. Although, Shouta did already know his capabilities… then again, the class didn’t and he refused to have them look down on him. That cemented it.
He was still thinking his plans over when Shinsou was called and he stopped, electing to see what the boy did with the knowledge that Izuku had imparted.
“You said anything goes, are you sticking with that?” Shinsou asked Shouta, his voice flat but there was something nervous in it. Again, interesting.
“Yes,” Shouta responded. Izuku grinned at the way Shinsou set his shoulders in resolve and stepped into the circle. He was going to do something, the question was, what? He took the ball from Shouta’s stretched out hand before looking around.
“Hey, Uraraka was it?”
“Yeah? Wha-” Her eyes went unseeing before she even managed to finish her question.
“Touch this with your quirk,” Hitoshi instructed, and stiffly she moved towards him, doing as she was told. Mind control. Interesting. There were screeches of outrage, but Shouta didn’t move to stop it, so no one else did either. Sure enough, Hitoshi threw the ball an infinite distance.
“Alright. Izuku, your turn,” Shouta called, completely ignoring the complaints that the other students were muttering. Izuku sighed, walked up to the circle and stepped in.
“This is to test how strong we are without limitations, right?” Izuku asked, more making a point then anything. Shouta nodded and Izuku just grinned, “Interesting. I’ve never been allowed to participate in these sorts of sports apprehension tests before. I guess whatever I get is infinitely better then before.”
With that, leaving his class spluttering in Siri se, he took the ball and threw it as far as he could. By no means was it a quirked throw, but it was certainly stronger then those whose quirks hadn’t been used. Izuku would take it.
“Izuku,” Shouta interrupted before he could return to the rest of the class.
“Yeah?”
“Why haven’t you done sport apprehension tests before?”
“Quirkist jerks said I’d probably hurt myself if I did. I was more likely to get hurt in maths or some other class where the students would randomly beat me up but that didn’t stop them banning me from sports,” Izuku shrugged. He’d forgotten that he hadn’t shared that tidbit with Shouta yet. Oops.
“Fucking idiots. Alright, next up is the sprint.”
Izuku knew the look Shouta had sent his way. They were going to have another one of those stupid talks about how Izuku needed to tell Shouta more in proper discussions. Izuku much preferred just randomly dropping lore (his words not Shouta’s) but he had to admit he understood where Shouta was coming from.
Unsurprisingly, Izuku did not come first. He was in a solid 14th place, which he would take quite happily, especially since none of the tests particularly worked to his strengths. He wondered when they would get around to sparring. Then he could really show off.
“Holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit,” Shinsou sounded to be going insane at the way he was whispering ecstatically to himself. A pretty reasonable response for third place.
“You did good,” Izuku murmured to the boy, who just seemed to grin wider at the words, his hands flapping by his sides in excitement. It was adorable- where had that come from? Izuku shook the thought away, dragging his attention over to the rest of the class.
The invisible girl was crying, which Izuku felt bad for. She was probably the one in last place, and while he’d been willing to tell Shinsou beforehand about the logical ruse, he knew he couldn’t tell her before Shouta did. Luckily the man put her out of her misery, easily explaining the logical ruse before instructing that while they are expected to remain on campus, they were done with classes and were free to do as they please (within the school rules of course).
Izuku immediately turned to head towards the teachers lounge to see if Nem had finished with her homeroom class as well. What he wasn’t expecting was for someone to fall in step with him. He looked over to see Shinsou, head down tiredly, but following Izuku none the less.
“Hi?” Izuku offered, not sure what Shinsou was looking for from him.
“Hi, I just… I wanted to say thank you for the advice, I owe you one, and uh… I was wanting to know if you uh… if you hate me because of my quirk and if I should just leave you alone...”
“The advice was just returning the favour for you helping me out of the class when they were surrounding me. I’d call us even. As for the question, no, I don’t hate you. I’m guessing some people do otherwise you wouldn’t be asking the question but those people are genuinely so stupid. Your quirk is super cool and also if anyone were to think a person is more then their quirk, it would be me.”
“Thank you, that… that means a lot. Most people just call me a villain and I was kind of hoping UA would be different but then people all got mad at me for how I used my quirks and I thought maybe that had been stupid but you didn’t look mad so… yeah. Anyway, is it all good if I hang out with you maybe? I’m not used to being around people who don’t hate me.”
“Yeah, sure, but warning I’m by no means normal and also I haven’t had a friend my age since I was like four so I’m not very good at this stuff…”
“Hah, same though,” Shinsou snorted, “Where are you headed?”
“I’m going to see if my Aunt is done teaching.”
Shinsou blinked at him for a few seconds, seeming to think hard for a long moment before he spoke.
“Your aunt works here?”
“Yeah. So do my guardians.”
Again, Shinsou stopped to blink at him for a few seconds before continuing.
“Sorry, your guardians AND your aunt all work here? I didn’t know any of the staff were even married? Also as far as I’m aware none of the teachers are siblings so how… how?”
“Ohhh yeah that’s not common knowledge, I forget that sometimes. Oh well. My aunt’s not that by blood or even adoption, but if I denounced her as my aunt it would break her heart I think. Our homeroom teacher is one of my guardians. You’ll probably work out the other one soon enough,” Izuku explained, and with that he entered the staff lounge, beckoning Shinsou in. Sure enough, Nem was there.
“NEM!” Izuku beamed, bounding up to her and wrapping her in a hug, “I didn’t run away today! Or well only once-”
“I’m so proud Zu darlin’, I told you that you’d be fine.”
“What the fuck…” The whispered words dragged Izuku’s attention back to the boy he’d brought along.
“Oh! Right! Shinsou, this is my Aunt Nemuri, also pro hero Midnight. Nem, this is Shinsou, he’s in my class and has a cool as fuck quirk!”
“You made a friend?” Nem asked, her grin wide and teasing, causing Izuku to scowl slightly.
“We hadn’t said we were friends yet! You’ve gone and made it awkward if he doesn’t want to be,” Izuku whined, looking down, not quite willing to meet Shinsou’s likely extremely judgemental gaze.
“Izuku I’m following you around embarrassingly like a lost puppy, I thought that was a pretty clear sign I’m interested in being your friend,” Shinsou said, not so much as a hint of judgement in his tone. Izuku stared at him. He wouldn’t lie about this… right? He wasn’t that mean… right?”
“I- thank you, I’d love to be your friend and- Nemuri if you dare say ‘I told you so’, so help me, I will fucking kick your ass into next week.”
“I wasn’t going to!” Nem lied, you know, like a liar.
“Sure. Sure. Anyways, you’re clearly done with your class, can I get an escort off campus I wanna get food.”
“Aren’t you all supposed to stay on campus today, kid?”
“Yeah but I made a FRIEND. Don’t you want to celebrate?”
Nemuri laughed, a slight eye roll as she did, but she didn’t say no.
“Yeah ok, how about I go get you and your friend some ice-cream and I’ll deliver it to your dorms. That way neither of us get in trouble for breaking the rules?” Nem offered, and Izuku agreed, immediately requesting one of the last few flavours from the ice-cream shop that he hadn’t tried (he hadn’t known what his favourite ice-cream flavour was and so he had decided to try every single flavour until he knew) (so far he was leaning towards strawberry).
“What about you Shinsou?” Nemuri asked when the other boy didn’t follow in Izuku’s footsteps.
“Oh uh- you don’t- you don’t have to do that. I’m fine. Really.”
“Nonsense, your my nephew’s first friend at UA, I have to buy you ice-cream. Choose a flavour.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course kid, I wouldn’t be offering if I wasn’t.”
“Ok um, cookies and cream flavour?”
“Alright, sounds good, I’ll go collect it now, ok?”
“Ok!” Izuku grinned, waving goodbye before heading out again.
“Your aunt… is Midnight? You’re related to pro hero Midnight?” Shinsou asked, seeming stunned and awed.
“Not like- she’s like besties with my guardians so…”
“Your guardians being Aizawa-Sensei and another teacher here?” Shinsou asked, still seeming to be in a stunned haze.
“That’s right! Being a vigilante got me the hero connections I guess?”
“Huh. I guess so,” Shinsou murmured.
“So, about your quirk, do you mind if I ask some questions because I want to analyse it so bad- I do quirk analysis. One of the only hobbies I wasn’t cut off from after being caught.”
“Uh sure I guess?”
“Awesome! So is the question you asked before each one required or just for the vibe or unrelated entirely? If it’s required have you ever considered pretending it’s something else so if someone knows your quirk they might think they’ve stopped it but you could still use it? Like a finger snap or something? Also how many people can you control at once? How long can you control them? Can someone escape your control? Can you make someone do something they can’t do normally? Can you make them do something they could do but you can’t- obviously you can because you made Uraraka use her quirk that was silly of me. Can you-”
“Ok, that’s a lot, and I have lost track of what questions you asked originally, would you like to go slower to get answers or maybe type all the questions so I can reply with all the answers?”
“Oh- right- slower works fine, so firstly, what are the activation requirements of your quirk?”
The rest of the walk to the dorms featured Shinsou explaining his quirk in depth and Izuku occasionally dropping suggestions but mostly just mumbling under his breath and scribbling in his notebook. Shinsou didn’t seem to mind though, so Izuku dedicated it as a win.
Upon arriving at the dorms, Izuku and Shinsou were bombarded by a collection of way too energetic teenagers- was this what school was like for most people? Why the hell were they so excited for this shit hole? Izuku certainly didn’t want to be here?
“Hi! You’re here! We were planning to do a room tour and see each others rooms as a little get to know you type thing! Now you can join!” The pink girl cheered excitedly.
“If I join this can I spend the rest of the afternoon in my room avoiding the other get to know you activities? I could use a nap. I am running on two hours of sleep and anxiety right now,” Shinsou begged, and damn Izuku related HARD. Sure he had slept more then two hours (he had finally gotten some level of control over his sleep schedule after no patrol for months), but not by a whole lot (as he said, only some level of control), and Shinsou was right about the anxiety thing.
“Yeah sure!”
“Same please,” Izuku agreed, and the very loud, very excited pink girl beamed in agreement.
The dorms were… not much in the way of anything. Some were interesting, some definitely made it clear what type of person they were, and others… others seemed impressively plain, but Izuku couldn’t question it.
Then there was his room.
“Where’s you balcony?”
“Why do you have a whole ass kitchen in here?”
“Why are your windows locked?”
Yeah. Izuku should have expected this.
“I’m a flight risk,” Izuku shrugged, “I’ve ran away more times then I can count, but I refuse to not have an area that is completely mine. They agreed with that and just took away my open window or balcony privileges. Kitchenette was part of the deal for me to agree to come here. I have bad days where the thought of interacting with anyone at all makes me wanna… well anyways basically this is here so I still eat while I don’t feel up to interactions.”
The class responded with varying levels of understanding, but no one really asked anything else until Jirou gasped as half the class had already left the room.
“Is this official Present Mic merch!? I thought I had all his stuff!”
“Oh, that! Yeah, it’s official! It’s going to be released in three months, this is just the prototype!”
“Sorry, you have a Present Mic PROTOTYPE MERCHANDISE PIECE!? HOW!? SPILL THE SECRETS!”
“I uh- You want to know how I got it?” Izuku asked, suddenly a bit nervous.
“Yeah!”
“Oh. Uh. I kinda… I’m being fostered by Present Mic so…”
Jirou’s eyes widened a seemingly impossible amount as she tried to process that, muttering an almost inaudible “holy shit” on repeat under her breath.
“Sorry- Sorry- I’m a music nerd so Present Mic is my favourite hero because of his radio show and that just… wow… that’s so cool! I mean I knew I would have him as a teacher so I was hyping myself up for that but… wow ok…”
“Yeah, uh, I guess I’ll just get this out of the way now then. Present Mic and Eraserhead- Aizawa-Sensei, they are my foster parents. Nem- Midnight, she’s kind of like an aunt to me,” Izuku explained. Easier to just tell them all now than have them find out later.
“Just kind of like an aunt? Damn, I didn’t realise my just kind of like a nephew didn’t want his ice-cream,” Nem’s teasing voice interrupted and Izuku dashed out of his room and hugged his Aunt- he loved hugs with Nem.
“I’m sorry! Can I please have my ice-cream?”
“Yeah, here you go kid,” Nemuri grinned, passing both his and Shinsou’s ice-cream over, before elegantly distracting the rest of the class with questions about their first day so Izuku could give it to Shinsou and both retreat into his room without the rest of the class noticing.
It wasn’t even a full twenty-four hours in before Izuku attempted to escape- an hour past curfew and no one guarding the windows of the common rooms.
Apparently that wasn’t quite true and Izuku was dragged back inside by an Ectoplasm clone, and he could hear the way the clone remained outside his door for the rest of the night. Great. Just great.
It was halfway through modern literature where Cementos was looking just a little too possible to outrun and his class was just a little too boring that gave room for Izuku’s second attempt at escape. He managed to get out the window before 4 walls of cement surrounded him and he was dragged back inside, Cementos not even stopping his lecture as it all occurred.
After his fourth escape attempt in class on day 1, Shouta showed up, despite it distinctly not being his class. Still, Ectoplasm stepped aside to give Shouta room to speak. Bitch.
“Alright. Izuku, come on, can you at least leave the escaping to after school hours? Please?”
“I’m trying!” Izuku whined. It wasn’t his fault the teachers were so boring and the lectures were so incredibly unimportant and the windows were so tempting.
“Alright. 1A, here’s your training task. Anytime Izuku tries to escape or run away, you’re in charge of bringing him back. Make sure a teacher knows he’s missing, but as a class I expect you should be able to bring him back. No one hurts him. No one yells at him. Just bring him back. Is that understood?”
The class all agreed while Izuku bemoaned loudly that they were ganging up on him, to which Shinsou pointed out that they were only hanging up on whoever tried to run away and it wasn’t their fault Izuku was the one to run away. Obnoxious really. Izuku needed to have a word with all the obnoxiously rational people in his life and get them to stop before he imploded.
Either way, his next attempt to escape was after class in the common rooms upon remembering Ectoplasm had set fucking bullshit homework.
It was the combined effort of the tape quirk kid, the ice kid and the zero gravity kid who dragged him back in. It was Shinsou who encouraged him not to scream and to instead go make himself a hot chocolate in his room and rant to Shinsou instead.
Soon enough, it became a comfortable thing. Any slight inconvenience? Izuku was dashing for the nearest window and the entirety of 1A would spring into action to get him back inside. It was kind of fun to see how it would go down each time, always a different group who brought him back, and no one seemed particularly mad about it. Shockingly, it resulted in him getting closer to more people as they started to realise Shinsou’s idea of hot chocolate and venting sessions helped minimise the amount Izuku hissed and grumbled at them after a failed escape attempt.
It was with a hot chocolate in hand and recovering from the latest such vent session with Ashido that brought about the next new thing.
“What do you do to look after your hair?” Ashido asked much to Izuku’s confusion.
“What? I like wash it every now and then? I don’t know?”
“Huh… have you ever considered using some hair treatments for curly hair?”
From there Ashido coaxed him into a full hair makeover after which he couldn’t help but admit his hair was so much less horrid to deal with. It became a thing they did together, Ashido- who now insisted on him calling her Mina- would show him all the strategies to look after curly hair and in return Izuku would hang out with her while she looked after her own hair.
All in all, school wasn’t as bad as Izuku had expected it too. He had a shockingly large collection of friends- Hitoshi and Mina were by far the closest, but most of the rest of the class weren’t far behind. He got to spar and actually improve his fighting techniques. He got to do some actual roof hopping- if only in one of Nedzu’s intricate gyms of fake buildings. He got to go to the arcade and cafes and other cool places with his Aunt and his friends. He got to do so much that he never thought he’d be able to do.
Slowly, very slowly, the attempts to run away decreased. Slowly they became rarities, still around on the particularly bad days, but no longer at every small inconvenience. Slowly, Izuku began to recover properly. It would take a long time, but eventually he would get to the point where he didn’t rely on running away to cope with everything. He would get better at talking about it to his friends. He would be ok. One day. If not right now, one day. For now though, he would let himself learn to love school and his friends and heroics and training and so much more.