Chapter 23: Back on patrol
Izuku pulled the the mask over their face, checking that they had everything they needed once more before climbing out of their window and onto the fire escape, from there it was easy to parkour onto the roof where Aizawa was waiting, finally, their first patrol in a month and a half, it had been far too long in their opinion and they were eager to stretch their legs. Maybe this didn't quite count as a patrol, since they wouldn't actually be fighting anyone, Aizawa had refused to let them on account of them being unarmed, the sign pole they'd been using previously had been lost when they moved out of the warehouse, and while they did have a pocket knife on them for emergencies, they were far from skilled with bladed weapons. Another concern had been for their sleep schedule, but honestly it wasn't like they got any sleep normally, and besides there was always the option of coffee, they paused in their tracks at that thought, maybe Yamada was right, they really were taking too much influence from Aizawa. Oh well.
They took one last jump and landed right next to Aizawa who barely acknowledged their presence before he took off across the rooftops, Izuku quickly followed, easily keeping pace with him as the pair dashed across the city. Oh how they missed this feeling, the cold of the night, the air rushing past them, the silence and darkness perfect for going unnoticed, the feel of their feet hitting the concrete of the rooftops, it was comforting in an odd sense, despite not being quite the same it was still familiar, running across concrete roofs, jumping from fire escapes, landing on dumpsters, they darted along with practiced ease. Eraser was always one step ahead of them, following a path long etched into his mind, while Izuku's movements were far more chaotic as they had always been, it was easy, comfortable even, for the two of them to slip back into their old dynamic, not mentor and student, or guardian and child, but rather hero and vigilante, Eraserhead and Wraith. They always felt much more confident as Wraith than they ever did as Izuku, so patrol mostly consisted of them sassing and poking fun at Eraser.
Izuku noted, somewhere in their mind, that they'd never actually gotten to appreciate just how much of a skilled fighter Eraser was, usually they were either fighting with him or sparring against him, so watching him take effortlessly down a pair of muggers was just a bit mesmerising. They sat on the rooftop, staring down at the fight, if it could even be called that, Eraser had the first mugger tied up in his capture scarf before either of them could even blink and the other was knocked out just as swiftly, the person they were trying to mug had already called the police and ran away. Eraser climbed back onto the rooftop after securing both muggers. Izuku couldn't wait until the day when they could take down criminals like that, when they became a hero they were gonna be just like Eraser, taking down the bad guys before they can even react! Their mind went full nerd mode as they analysed the fight in their head, mostly because even though they had practically memorized Eraser's fighting style by now, there was one thing they still had yet to figure out, how did he control his capture weapon? They had asked before, probably one of the first questions they'd asked him when they began training, he had assured them that there was no technology involved, nor a quirk effect, and that the scarf was made from steel alloy and carbon fibre, not regular cloth. Izuku suspected that it was a series of hand movements that allowed the scarf to move like it did, but they were likely incredibly minute as it was almost never obvious, even when Izuku had spent an entire sparring session focusing just on Aizawa's hands to see if they could spot it. They wondered how long it took him to master the weapon, probably at least a year.
Patrol went smoothly for a little while, but soon enough something went awry, at this point Izuku figured they just had terrible luck, they had been standing on a rooftop overlooking an alleyway as Eraser battled a group of drug dealers (that kind of thing was getting far too common for some reason), and one of them tried to escape by climbing the fire escape, right onto the roof where they were. With Eraser occupied with the rest of the group, there was nobody to stop the dealer as she immediately charged at Izuku, she must have had a transformer quirk because one second they were facing a petite looking woman and the next they were facing what looked like a werewolf, Izuku dodged the charge easily, however that didn't stop the lady from trying to run away, leaving them with only one option. They knew they shouldn't do this, Eraser had specifically forbidden them from fighting anybody, but if they didn't, the criminal was gonna get away and surely stopping that was worth the risk? They made that decision in the split second they needed to doge a claw swipe, and they quickly took the pocket knife out of their pocket, and slashed out, barely grazing the criminal's arm. She turned around and once again tried to swipe at them, her reflexes were fast, really fast, probably thanks to her quirk, they almost got hit several times before an opportunity presented itself and they managed to hit her on the head with the knife's handle, swinging with all their might, which wasn't really that much. They could have just stabbed her, it certainly would have been more efficient, but that would have been unnecessary, and it was way more brutal than they were willing to go. Instead the hit stunned her for a few seconds, and all that stalling was plenty of time for Eraser to show up and restrain her with his scarf.
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Shouta quickly knocked out the criminal before turning to Wraith, he had to make sure they weren't hurt, he double and triple checked that they in fact, weren't injured, after all, they were always good at hiding their injuries, but they were fine, which was a relief, but on the other hand. "Wraith! What on earth were you thinking!?" As relived as he was that they weren't hurt, he was also incredibly annoyed at the reckless stunt they'd pulled "didn't I specifically tell you not to fight anybody if you could avoid it!?".
"Well, she would have gotten away! And, it wouldn't be right if I just stood by and let her run!"
"But you could have gotten seriously hurt! Especially since you only have that pocket knife to defend yourself!"
"Isn't that okay? It doesn't matter as long as a hero gets the villain! Right? And it really doesn't matter if I get hurt, I can deal with a lot of pain after all!"Shouta stared at Wraith in disbelief, were they really trying to argue this point? He thought they'd gotten past that! How many times had he explained that just because they could tolerate getting hurt, didn't mean they should!?
"Kid, seriously, listen to me, capturing a criminal, especially one this petty, is not worth your life or any major injury for that matter" Shouta started pacing, fully intending to sternly lecture Wraith about putting their life in danger for no reason.
"But it's a hero's job to catch criminals, and they put themselves at risk all the time to do it!"
Shouta stopped and looked at Izuku, he sighed, typical, the kid had no sense of self-preservation anyways, as long as they thought they were doing something to help people, they never cared what happened to them. He knelt down in front of them, putting a hand on their shoulder and looking them dead in the eye "you're right, it's a hero's job to catch criminals, and it's a hero's job to risk getting hurt, but you're not a hero, not yet, right now you're still a kid, and it's not your job to put yourself in harm's way just to stop a crime, understood?"
Izuku nodded after a few seconds, which was far too much hesitation in Shouta's opinion, but at least he knew that they wouldn't try that again, he stood back up and looked over at the lady who was slumped over, unconscious. He ended up dragging her back into the alleyway, this was one of the situations that he would wait for the cops, probably accompanied by detective Tsukauchi, that man handled far more cases that he was paid to. And the police had been especially concerned about the increase in criminal activity, particularly drug deals, Shouta figured that it was probably just a wave of people getting desperate and turning to less than legal means to find money, there had been some major villain attacks in the area, and that usually caused quite a bit of financial trouble for any people who get caught in the crossfire.
Soon enough the sirens of police cars filled the night air, Shouta turned to Wraith, expecting them to run away, but they were just standing there, they pulled their mask down for a second and gave him a wild grin, oh, they wanted to cause trouble, Shouta gave them an equally wild grin in return, if they were going to make some mischief, well, he wasn't going to stop them, he did feel mildly sorry for the poor sap who had to take this report, only mildly. Wraith pulled their mask back over their face and snuck into the shadows just across from where Shouta was standing.
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Naomasa noticed something odd the second he got out of the car, the scene was pretty normal, a bunch of people tied up and unconscious, and Eraserhead standing off to the side, trying not to be noticed. Hero reports, particularly the ones concerning underground heroes, were things that often got handed off to Naomasa, he was one of the few cops that seemed to be trusted by almost all the undergrounders in Musutafu, so he had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with all of the cases concerning the less social ones, which included Eraserhead. Meaning that while the other officers handcuffed and arrested the criminals, he was stuck with talking to a grumpy hero who would probably disappear whenever he felt like. Walking closer he could see that Eraserhead was actually talking to someone, although, Naomasa couldn't see anybody in the alleyway.
"Hey Eraser, what happened?"
"Deal gone wrong" of course he was as curt as ever.
"Right, by the way, who were you talking to just now?" Naomasa asked, surely he wasn't talking into thin air, right? Eraserhead just looked at a spot behind Naomasa, but when he turned around, there was no-one there, he turned back to Eraserhead, fully questioning the hero's sanity, and there was someone else standing right next to him. Naomasa stumbled backwards in surprise, the other figure was short, wearing a green hoodie and a pair of bright red shoes. Wait, where had he heard that description before?
"Eraser, uh, is that…"
"Oh, right, Tsukauchi, meet Wraith", the vigilante gave him an enthusiastic wave.
Wraith, the vigilante who had been active for years, only to disappear off the face of the earth last month without a trace, also this was several blocks outside of their previous range. Naomasa wanted explanations, "and why exactly is a vigilante having a friendly conversation with you?" he could already feel a headache forming behind his eyes.
"I'm keeping an eye on them" the statement rung true but did nothing to clear up Naomasa's ever growing confusion.
"So you're not going to arrest them?"
"Nope, but they'll be patrolling with me from now on, so get used to seeing them around" the bottle of whiskey hidden away in his office was looking more enticing by the second.
"Right, okay, got it" he did his best not to focus on the vigilante as he took the report of the crime, then, as soon as he was done, both Eraserhead and Wraith disappeared into the night. Naomasa stared at the alleyway where they were previously standing, he was absolutely not paid enough for this.
Chapter 24: A rat in the vents
Izuku woke up a little slower than normal, which is to say, not instantly, usually they would have shot awake in the aftermath of one nightmare or another, but it seemed that whatever hand of fate there was had decided to give them a break. Maybe soon they'd finally be able to stop having so many nightmares, although they knew better than to truly hope, their guardians had been talking with Inui about getting them some therapy, but in the meantime, Izuku just resorted to dealing with it the way they always had, distracting themself long enough to stop thinking about it. To be fair to Aizawa and Yamada, they weren't aware of most of the nightmares Izuku was having, seeing as they would happen almost every day without fail, Izuku saw no need to trouble anybody with the tame ones. The only times their guardians would know of their nightmares would be if they were particularly disturbing, not really because Izuku would tell them, more so because even they couldn't stop themself from crying when those ones happened.
They eventually got themself to get up and get dressed, then wandered into the kitchen, greeting both Shadow and Mop on the way, the latter of which kept meowing as loud as she possibly could until they relented and sat down to pet her, she was probably mad that they had the gall to wake up a few minutes late and thus miss the usual time that they'd play with her, and Shadow whenever she decided to show up. They still couldn't believe it had been over two months since they started living here, it had taken a while for them to get used to the apartment, in all honesty it was only around week ago that they finally stopped expecting to wake up back at the warehouse, but now they could probably navigate the place blindfolded, provided that the cats didn't get in the way. They walked into the kitchen, Aizawa was already up and drinking coffee, Yamada would take a little longer to wake up as usual so they'd have to wait for breakfast since Aizawa was forbidden from touching anything in the kitchen that wasn't the coffee maker, they hadn't seen him try to cook anything but Yamada had told them once that the last time he did the kitchen almost got burnt down.
"Morning kid" Aizawa looked up from his coffee cup tiredly, neither of them were morning people, it's just that they woke up early anyways, in Aizawa's case it was because he had work to do, in Izuku's it was that they wanted to avoid their nightmares.
"Morning Aizawa" Izuku had to stifle a yawn as they grabbed a cup and filled it to the brim with coffee.
Aizawa huffed in amusement "finish that before Hizashi wakes up would you? He's already concerned about my coffee drinking habits, he might hide the coffee maker entirely if he finds out you've been drinking that much."
Izuku nodded, Yamada had given up trying to entirely stop them from drinking coffee, but he was sure to get a heart attack if he saw them drinking what might be considered a completely absurd amount of it. Aizawa hadn't tried to stop them at all, just smiled and showed them how to operate the coffee maker, much to the chagrin of Yamada who kept loudly complaining about how he would have to deal with two coffee addicts in the house.
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The first thing Hizashi saw when he walked into the kitchen was Izuku having a staring contest with Shadow, it was adorable really, Shadow was just standing on the counter and looking at them unblinkingly like the good void she was, while their face was all scrunched up in concentration as they did their best to keep their eyes open, meanwhile Shouta was doing his best not to laugh and startle the two. Hizashi took the opportunity to snap a picture of the scene without being noticed before getting started on breakfast.
It was only a little while ago that he had noticed Izuku really settling in, not that they weren't before, but now they seemed particularly comfortable, they had stopped getting jumpy whenever someone walked into the same room as them. And they were far more receptive to physical affection, like the random headpats that Shouta would give them every time he walked past, or Hizashi's habit of constantly hugging them, Hizashi's phone also had several pictures of them cuddled up on the couch with the cats and/or Shouta after a long day. They were also getting less and less overprotective of their notebooks, at least around Hizashi and Shouta, even leaving the books alone entirely when previously they would have taken them everywhere they went just to make sure nothing bad happened. They still had a long way to go of course, but even these little things were vast improvements compared to how they were earlier.
By the time they had finished breakfast Izuku was already telling him about their newest analysis, they had showed him the page in their notebook, but quickly realised that Hizashi couldn't understand a single word in there thanks to that code that Nedzu had helped them create. They continued talking about it anyways and asked him if he'd ever met that particular hero, if he could tell them what they were like, if they were as nice as they seemed, or if he'd ever seen their quirk used a certain way, and even more questions that he was barely able to keep track of, he did the best he could to answer them but each question answered gave rise to three more and eventually Shouta had to practically drag both of them out to the car or else they'd be late.
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Izuku sat at their desk in the teacher's lounge, switching between studying and translating their analyses, they were determined to finish translating everything before their next lesson with Nedzu. They also spent quite a bit of their time observing the teachers as usual, and all the expected silliness that came with them, although there was one thing that had been bugging them for a while now. They set their maths textbook down and walked over to the couch to talk to Inui, who would always hang out in the teacher's lounge before classes started, despite the fact that he didn't even have a desk in here and usually either sat on the couch or stood near Kan's desk.
Inui was currently in a conversation with Kayama but he looked up when he heard them approaching "hey Izuku, got a question?"
"Why are you in here?"
Inui looked a bit confused "I'm sorry, what do you mean by that?"
"You're the guidance counsellor right? Why are you in the teacher's lounge? Shuzenji-San and Tanaka-San don't stay here"
"… Reasons"
For some reason Inui's response caused Kayama to giggle wildly, Inui growled softly at her, but either she didn't get the warning or just didn't care because she pointed towards where Kan was seated "reason number one" she signed, winking at Izuku like she was telling a secret that she shouldn't.
"They don't need to know that" Inui's voice sounded strained, like he was embarrassed about something, Izuku wasn't sure what exactly was going on but they figured they should probably drop it if Kayama was looking that excited to talk about it so they excused themself and returned to their desk to continue with their studies, making a note in their notebook to check for a possible connection between Inui and Kan.
After some time Izuku decided to get some more translating done, they had just finished with the last one from Analysis #8 when they heard it, the soft sound of something sharp skittering over metal. If the room were any kind of busy they might not have heard it, luckily most of the teachers were in class, leaving Ishiyama as the only one in the lounge, and he was quietly sitting at his desk, reading a novel, you could have heard a pin drop in the room. At first they were confused, what on earth would be making a noise like that? Then they realised that the source of the noise was above them, they looked up and their eyes narrowed in on the vent grate in the ceiling, after all, there wasn't any other metal surface in the room. Was something in the vents? They racked their brain for a bit, trying to think of what could be up there, then they remembered that Nedzu had a habit of dropping into rooms from the vents, was he watching from there too?
"Nedzu-San?"
The vent grate popped open and a furry paw waved at them from the ceiling.
"What are you doing?"
Nedzu dropped down from the vents "gathering information, what else?"
"Information? You mean you were spying on people? From the vents? How did you get in there?" They were incredibly curious now.
Nedzu smiled sharply "there are several entrances to the vents from certain spots in the school, several in random hallways, one in my office and one in here" Izuku got up and started looking around, obviously Nedzu wasn't going to show them where the entrance in this room was, that would defeat the purpose of them being hidden, so they looked for any sign of an opening. It would have to be at ground level for ease of access, and there would have to be screws or hinges, but they couldn't find anything like that, so maybe it was a sliding mechanism, in which case there should be a seam in the wall and some evidence of movement. It took them a little while, but eventually they found it, hidden away in a corner, coincidentally it just so happened to be the same corner that their desk was placed at, or, given the way Nedzu was grinning, perhaps it wasn't a coincidence at all.
"So if I open this it will give access to the vent system" Izuku poked at the panel a bit, trying to figure out how to open it, when Nedzu stopped them.
"Nothing will happen like that, it's fingerprint activated" he placed his paw on a specific spot in the wall next to the panel and suddenly the panel slid open revealing a hole just large enough for a grown adult to crawl through. Izuku stared at it in awe as Nedzu walked into the hole and disappeared, the panel didn't close however, did he want them to follow him? They looked around, Ishiyama was still the only person in the room, and he was very purposefully ignoring whatever Nedzu was doing, so they crawled into the vents, Nedzu then pressed a button on the wall of the vents and the panel closed behind them.
The tunnel wasn't as cramped as Izuku had initially imagined, they had some room to move and they could probably turn around if they wanted to, which made sense if these vents were constructed with the intention of using them like secret tunnels. Nedzu was a few paces ahead of them, and he was explaining the layout of the vent system, each entrance was carefully hidden, you could enter or exit through them, but also you could use any of the normal vent grates to drop into any room you liked. The fingerprint system was to prevent anyone from accidentally stumbling upon the entrances, and only two people currently had fingerprints registered, Nedzu and Aizawa, Izuku's would have to be added into the system and then they would have complete access to the vents, meaning they could travel anywhere they liked in the school without the notice of others. Izuku nodded along although they suspected they would quickly get lost if they were left to their own devices.
The two of them stopped by almost every class, checking in on how things were going, Izuku already knew that people tended to gossip when they thought they couldn't be heard but they were still stunned about how much information they had heard while passing by the hallways, mostly students gossiping about other students. Eventually they returned to the teacher's lounge, sitting in the vent in the ceiling, looking through the grate they could see quite a few of the teachers had returned, including their guardians, an idea formed in their head. They quietly opened the grate and made sure that they weren't going to land on anybody and then, they dropped. Quite a few people were startled by their sudden appearance, the only ones who were unaffected were Aizawa, Kan and Inui, all of whom probably heard them opening the grate, Kurose practically jumped out of their skin and Izuku definitely heard some, colourful commentary from Kayama and Majima.
"Oh great, Nedzu showed the child how to use the vents, I'm sure that won't cause any issues at all" Kurose's voice was practically dripping with sarcasm.
Aizawa grinned at them while Yamada seemed entirely unperturbed by the situation, they supposed he was used enough to Aizawa's antics by now that he wasn't affected, Nedzu was speaking with Majima, presumably about getting Izuku's fingerprints added to the system and Kayama muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "oh god, there's another one". It seemed that the vents were a useful tool indeed, not only did it allow them to eavesdrop on random conversations, it also meant that they could surprise people by literally dropping in on them, Izuku quietly returned to their desk and went right back to studying, entirely ignoring the mild panic they'd caused, although, instead of studying, they started trying to mentally trace the path they'd taken, making a half-formed mental diagram of the vents, imagine the chaos they could cause, Izuku grinned, this was gonna be fun.
Chapter 25: Happy Birthday Izuku!!!
Chapter TextHizashi hummed to himself as he hung up green streamers around the living room, today was a very special day, it was Izuku's tenth birthday! Of course that meant that there was going to be a party, not a big one though, there wasn't really anyone that Izuku had wanted to invite, just himself, Shouta, Nemuri and the Iida brothers. Everyone was bringing a present, and Nemuri was in charge of bringing the cake. Hizashi was decorating, Shouta and Izuku were supposed to be helping, but they had gotten distracted when the cats tried to attack the balloons they were putting up.
It was actually a complete accident that they found out when Izuku's birthday was, looking back, he and Shouta should probably have asked a while ago, but it was actually Tenya who asked the question. About a week ago, when everyone was hanging out at the apartment, the two had been talking about some show Tenya liked when he mentioned that he had gotten a poster of the main character for his birthday last year, then, in his usual blunt fashion asked Izuku what they had planned for their birthday this year. Izuku had been surprised for a while, before answering that they had in fact, no plans for their birthday, and that they hadn't celebrated their birthday in a long time. They didn't tell Tenya exactly why, but Hizashi and Shouta could guess the various reasons, between having nobody to celebrate with and the general lack of self-worth they had while they were living on their own. That had then prompted Tenya to ask when Izuku's birthday was, it was July fifteenth. That exchange had launched into everyone planning the party. Hizashi and Nemuri were particularly enthusiastic, although they toned it down after Izuku said that they didn't want anything too extravagant, a small celebration was enough for them.
Hizashi looked around at the now fully decorated living room, all the decorations were in green of course, there were streamers hung up on the walls and balloons scattered around. There wasn't much else, and in Hizashi's opinion it looked a bit lacking, but Izuku had been rather insistent on the matter when they had gone to pick out decorations. The table was set with paper plates and plastic cups, there was a bowl of candy and some bottles of juice as well, everything you needed for a kid's party. He had left his present on the table, it didn't really matter if Izuku saw it early, but Shouta had hidden his present in their bedroom, making sure there was no chance of anyone finding out what it was before he gave it to Izuku. Hizashi smiled, Shouta had been fussing over the present for a while, even though he already knew what he wanted to give them, he had been worried that they wouldn't like it, no matter how many times Hizashi assured him that Izuku would love it.
There was a knock on the door and Izuku practically ran to the door to open it, almost tripping over Mop in the process, it was Tenya and Tensei, Tenya had a small card in his hand and Tensei was carrying what seemed to be two books of some kind.
"Happy birthday Izuku!" Tenya greeted them enthusiastically. Izuku grinned and pulled him inside, then the two of them drifted off into an excited conversation.
Tensei chuckled and walked over to Hizashi, setting the books on the table, "you know, Tenya spent hours last night making sure he memorized the sign for birthday". That sounded about right, Tenya had made great progress in learning JSL, and he could understand enough to carry out a conversation with Izuku, although that did mean that about half of the signs he knew focused on quirks and the related scientific terminology.
There was another knock on the door, and since Izuku was preoccupied, Hizashi went to open the door, Nemuri stood outside balancing a box, presumably with the cake inside, in one hand while she knocked with the other. "Hello, I hope I'm not too late, I had to take a little detour to grab this" she said lifting a very small box, like the kind you put jewellery in.
"Nope, you're right on time." Hizashi took the cake box from her and set it on the table, she wished Izuku a happy birthday and brought both children over so that they could start the celebrations.
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Izuku stared at the cake in front of them, it was a vanilla cake covered in green icing with images of various heroes decorating the sides, the top of the cake had a nice border with the words "Happy Birthday Izuku" piped on top in neat handwriting, and a candle in the shape of a number ten was lit. It was so much more than they had ever expected, despite what Yamada said everything about this party felt grander than anything Izuku had ever seen.
"Go on, blow out the candle, make a wish!" Kayama encouraged them. Izuku closed their eyes, what did they want to wish for? They wracked their brain trying to think of something, but what did they want that they didn't already have? They had a home, they had mentors who cared about them, they were studying their passion, they were training to be a hero! They had everything they had dreamed of since they were little, what more did they even wish for? Then, an idea popped into their mind, that was the perfect wish. Izuku blew out the candle, as they did they heard Kayama start singing happy birthday, and one by one everyone else joined in, and they knew in their heart and soul, they had made the right wish.
Yamada handed them a knife to cut the cake with, and they carefully cut slices for everybody, although, they probably didn't have to be so precise, with the small number of people there would be more than enough cake leftover for people to grab seconds. The entire group slowly struck off into individual conversations, Izuku returned to talking with Tenya.
"What did you wish for anyways?" Tenya asked, Izuku thought about telling him before shaking their head.
"If I tell you it won't come true."
"That doesn't make any sense, if anything its more likely to come true if you tell someone" Tenya reasoned, ever the rational thinker.
"Well, this wish is different, it's important, so I have to keep it a secret" Izuku wasn't quite sure what the consequences of telling their wish to someone would be, but any response they could think of wasn't all that good.
Tenya mumbled something about that not being rational but was cut short when Yamada loudly called everyone over so that they could give Izuku their presents, Tenya brightened up at that and practically dragged Izuku over to where the adults were sitting.
Izuku was a little startled when Tenya suddenly handed them a card, it was a rather nice looking light blue card, it said Happy Birthday in Tenya's neat handwriting, and there were some balloons and a generic birthday cake doodled on the front, the inside had a small note about how great of a friend Izuku was and that Tenya was honoured to be considered their friend. They smiled and thanked him, to which he beamed "I made that myself, I didn't even have to get my brother to help me!" He seemed really proud of that accomplishment.
Tenya's brother handed them two books, one was a mystery novel that Izuku had shown an interest for in the past, and the other was a book on the history of quirks. "The novel is from me, the history book was Tenya's idea" he explained. Izuku took both with shining eyes, as much as they wanted to start reading the books right here they still had two more gifts left, they set the books down on the table.
Kayama gave them a little purple jewellery box, inside was a silver locket, "it's empty right now, so you can put whatever you like in there" she said excitedly. Izuku turned it over in their hands, it was really pretty, the outside of the locket had an elegant pattern of stars engraved onto it, they had no idea on what to put in it right now, but they could always figure that out later.
Yamada gave them a really nice looking notebook, the kind they could fit in their pocket, it had a black cover and a small pocket where they could keep a pen "so that it's easier for you to take notes on the fly" Izuku smiled, this was going to be used quite a lot.
Everyone wished them a happy birthday once again, and after some more small talk, Kayama and the Iidas left, at which point Aizawa tapped their shoulder. "Well, now that they're gone, you have one last present" Izuku looked confused which made Aizawa smile in amusement "you didn't forget about my gift, did you?" Izuku hadn't thought Aizawa had gotten them a gift, they hadn't seen any hint of another gift laying around, had he been keeping it hidden somewhere? Aizawa left the room to fetch it and when he got back he was holding long metal bo staff. Izuku's eyes widened, did this mean what they thought it meant? Aizawa must have seen their shocked expression because he grinned and nodded his head "I figured I've kept you benched long enough" he handed the staff to Izuku, it wasn't too heavy, probably made for speed rather than damage, they made sure they wouldn't hit anything and experimentally swung it, it would take some time to get used to, but they could definitely work with it. Izuku put the staff down and hugged Aizawa who seemed surprised but returned the hug.
Yamada chuckled "I told you they would love it."
By the time the living room was cleaned up it was starting to get dark, so Izuku took their gifts and returned to their room. They carefully put away their gifts, the books all went on their shelf along with Tenya's card, the locket and it's box sat on their nightstand and the bo staff was put in the closet next to the rest of their vigilante gear.
Izuku looked out of their window at the last of the setting sun and smiled, they were feeling over the moon, maybe it was because this was their first birthday in five years, maybe it was because of the people around them, but this day felt truly special. They had so many things they couldn't wait to do, so many things that they worked towards, and today, they were one year older, and one year closer to their goals, but for now they would sleep, hopefully not have any nightmares, and wake up tomorrow for another day spent with the people who made them feel safe.
I wish that I will always have a family like this.
Chapter 26: Connecting the Dots
Izuku dodged a punch as they tried to keep a distance from the lady in front of them, her porcupine quirk was a real problem since their staff kept getting caught in the quills that made up her hair. They had to wait for an opening, and soon enough the opportunity presented itself. She got distracted by one of her friends getting thrown into a light pole by Eraser's capture weapon. Izuku made two quick strikes, one to her legs, causing her to fall, and one to the chin, knocking her out. They sighed and looked over the situation, several unconscious or tied up people were scattered around them, two rival gangs had started a fight in the middle of the street, about three people on each team, Eraser had noticed it first and since de-escalation hadn't worked, Izuku joined in the ensuing fight. Luckily no sane person would be wandering the streets past midnight so there were no civilians at risk. It wasn't a particularly tough fight since, while they were fighting six people, those people were also fighting each other, that didn't mean that they got out of it unharmed of course, Izuku definitely had a bruise or two from getting literally thrown into a pile of trash by someone with a strength quirk and Eraser had a cut on his hand from a lucky hit from someone's knife.
Izuku hopped up to the rooftop and, after making sure the police were called and telling them what happened, Eraser soon joined them and the pair set off down their usual patrol route. Izuku had to adjust their pace a few times, the extra weight of the new staff strapped to their back was taking quite some time to get used to, a month still hadn't been enough, even their old sign pole had been hollow and therefore it was much lighter and far easier to run around with. It was nice to be back to properly being a vigilante, and not just Eraser's shadow, although there was the one problem of Yamada constantly fretting over them now that they were getting involved in the fights, and they were sure they were going to be fussed at for the bruises they'd managed to get today, on the bright side it was always funny to see Yamada worry over Aizawa, who always looked like a disgruntled cat whenever he couldn't escape Yamada's notice.
A scream rang through the air and immediately they were sprinting in that direction, Eraser running right alongside them. They quickly reached the alleyway that the scream emanated from and Izuku looked over the situation in the split second it took to jump down and get themself involved, a young woman with bruises and cuts all over her face and arms was cowering away from a man who was yelling at her, something about her being ungrateful, but he was quickly cut off by Izuku landing on top of him and knocking him out with their staff. The woman still looked terrified flinching away as they got closer, they held out their hand to help her up, she took it cautiously. Eraser had jumped down next to them and was calling the police, he asked the woman some questions, apparently that was her ex-boyfriend and he had been stalking her for some time after their breakup, she had confronted him, and he got violent. They stayed until the police showed up to arrest the man and take the woman in for questioning and to get her to a hospital, at which point they left to finish patrolling.
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Shouta smiled to himself as Wraith hid in the shadows of the alleyway, they had just stopped a mugging and were waiting for the police officer that arrived to arrest the criminal, at some point the officer worked up the courage to ask about the vigilante.
"Uh, who is that behind you?"
Shouta internally cackled as he heard the faint footsteps of Wraith slipping into the shadows "there's no one there" he said, completely deadpan.
The officer pointed at the alleyway "yes there is they're…" the officer blinked a few times, realising that Wraith was no-longer in sight, "I could have sworn there was…"
"You're probably seeing things, there's no-one else in this alleyway" Shouta only felt a little guilt for making the poor officer question their sanity, but it was far outweighed by the sheer joy he felt seeing them look around frantically as if searching for a ghost.
The second the officer left, completely bewildered and muttering something about needing more sleep, Wraith stepped out of the shadows Shouta could swear that they were grinning under their mask, they always had fun messing with whatever poor sap arrived on the scene, the only person they couldn't pull tricks on was Tsukauchi, on account of his quirk triggering whenever Shouta tried to play dumb about Wraith's antics. Then again, it was likely only a matter of time until Wraith found a way to bypass it, until then however, they settled for making him question his career choices by being as annoying as they possibly could be, Shouta was fairly sure the detective's face fell every time he saw them at a crime scene.
It was almost three in the morning by the time they got back home, Hizashi was probably asleep by now, Shouta smiled, at least he would be able to bandage the cut on his hand without that overgrown cockatoo looking over his shoulder and lecturing him about getting hurt. Izuku had immediately gone to bed, good, they had analysis lessons tomorrow and being tired during that would spell disaster for everyone.
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Izuku layed on their bed, Shadow curled up beside them, today had been eventful, they supposed they should get some sleep. They couldn't wait for their lesson tomorrow, it wasn't that they didn't enjoy learning their normal school subjects, but analysis was just so fun, and Nedzu was an amazing teacher, there was so much he'd taught them about that they'd never even considered adding into their analyses, it all seemed kind of obvious in hindsight.
Of course they got plenty of opportunities to put what they learnt into practice, not only because Nedzu allowed them to analyse various students, mostly the third years, but it also helped them greatly on their patrols, being able to identify their opponents' quirks quicker than ever, meaning they spent less time assessing situations before they interjected. Of course Nedzu didn't know about that second reason, but they still figured it was only a matter of time, especially now that they were fighting criminals and no longer staying hidden.
Izuku closed their eyes, they'd probably get a few hours of sleep, not that much less than what they usually got, their nightmares as persistent as ever, but tomorrow would be a great day, even if they had a small, nagging feeling in the back of their mind that something was going to go sideways.
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A small pile of police reports sat on the desk in the principal's office, some dated as far back as three years ago, all dealing with a curious vigilante. Nedzu never normally paid attention to these things, best to let the police department deal with vigilantes however they saw fit, but he'd recently had a talk with Tsukauchi, not anything particular, just business, but he had mentioned a particular thorn in his side, a vigilante by the name of Wraith. According to Tsukauchi, the vigilante had recently taken to following Eraserhead around, again, not really something Nedzu would look into, if the vigilante's description hadn't rung several bells, namely, the red shoes, the same red shoes that Izuku had informed him were worn by quirkless people. Now, what would it mean that a quirkless vigilante starts following Eraserhead around a month and a half after Aizawa takes a quirkless child under his care. And digging further into the case he found out that the hero originally put on the Wraith case was Eraserhead himself, things were clicking into place. Nedzu had thought that they were far more familiar with each other than should have been for only having met the day that Aizawa saved Izuku's life, it made far more sense that they'd known each other since he was put on Wraith's trail.
Now, the question was, what to do with this information? As a hero? He should tell Tsukauchi, let the police, and Aizawa, deal with whatever the fallout is. But, as Izuku's mentor? He couldn't bring himself to tell anybody, not if it meant losing his protégé. Of course, he would have a stern talk with Izuku tomorrow, or at least, try to understand the reason they chose this path at such a young age. And as for who else would find out, that would have to be discussed with Izuku themself.
Tomorrow was going to be a very interesting lesson indeed.
Chapter 27: The vigilante is out of the bag.
Izuku practically bounced around as they walked into UA, as usual the hallways were empty, save for the few staff who were headed towards their designated areas, Izuku on the other hand had a different route, they split away from Yamada and Aizawa and found the secret panel located nearby the front doors. Nedzu had added their fingerprints to the vent system's database, meaning they had full access to the secret passages that made up the vents, they didn't have to use them to get around, but it was fun, and they would be lying if they said it didn't amuse them to pop out of the ceiling and surprise the unsuspecting staff. They made their way to the principal's office for their analysis lesson, pausing to greet Tanaka as they passed over the cafeteria and took a small detour to say hi to Shuzenji in the infirmary, they would have gone to the teacher's lounge to say hello to everyone there, but it was an inconvenient detour and they didn't want to be late. Soon enough they reached the principal's office and dropped in near Nedzu, he appeared to be organizing some papers. Izuku paid it no mind however since he always had paperwork to deal with, one of the side effects of running a school, so they sat down in their chair with only a small glance at the papers, they looked like police reports, perhaps it was about some operation or raid that Nedzu was helping strategize.
"Good morning Nedzu-sensei!" Izuku said, taking their notebook out of their bag, it was a new one, their tenth actually, their ninth was mostly full of entries on the students, it was the same plain black cover as their last two, it made it a lot easier to keep track of which notes were analysis and which notes were for normal subjects, since those notebooks were always colourful and usually hero themed.
"Good morning Izuku" Nedzu greeted them, putting the papers back in his desk, again, Izuku tried to catch a sneaky glance at the papers' contents but Nedzu kept them face down the entire time, the only thing they could see is that one of the reports was dated for last night, that was odd, maybe it was important? Surely he would say something if it was truly important, or at least, he never cared if they happened to catch a glimpse of whatever he was working on, however, Izuku was definitely curious. What could possibly be so important that Nedzu was actively hiding it from them?
Their analysis lesson started out rather simple, a short test on the different types of quirks and their technical classifications, it seemed a bit too easy for what Nedzu normally gave them, but perhaps it was their imagination, Izuku completed the test quickly. They moved on to talking about the situational effectiveness of different quirks, including discussions on how quirks that relied on external factors, namely kinesis quirks, transmutation quirks, and any quirk that required a situational trigger, were easily taken down by simply depriving them of the necessary material or circumstance, on the other hand, given how almost anything can be found anywhere it was much harder to expect where the user would get their ammunition from, for example someone with a hydrokinesis quirk fighting in the snow could use the water that forms from the snow melting around their feet. Meanwhile quirks that relied on internal functions like mental quirks, most mutation quirks or quirks that relied on the user's body, were far more reliable since, unless you were willing to cause permanent physical or mental damage to the person, it was a lot trickier to nullify, but reliable also meant predictable, a touch based quirk simply requires you to stay out of reach of your opponent in order to avoid being affected. Then the discussion took a disconcertingly familiar turn as they started to discuss the most effective way to take down a series of quirks that sounded identical to some of the quirks that the criminals they had fought last night during patrol had, at first it was easy to brush off, a strength quirk was common enough, a transformation quirk with specific details, okay, maybe Nedzu was just pulling from random police files, and then it kept happening, and they were starting to get suspicious.
"What would be the best way of taking down someone with a mutation quirk, specifically that of a porcupine?" Nedzu's eyes gleamed sharply, and Izuku resisted the urge to hide under the chair, if Nedzu knew about Wraith, they were in big trouble, Izuku started scanning the area for escape routes.
"I suppose it would be to deal with them at long range, perhaps a gun, or a non-contact quirk" they tried to play it cool, desperately hoping this was all a coincidence.
"What if all you had was a melee weapon?"
Izuku did not like where this was going, "what kind of melee weapon exactly? I'm sure a knife wouldn't be of much use" they could feel the smile on their face grow strained, although they hoped Nedzu hadn't picked up on it.
"A bo staff."
Oh shit, oh shit, oh no, Nedzu knew, he knew everything, Izuku's mind went into overdrive, they forced a smile and tried to answer the question as if they had no idea what Nedzu was hinting at "a bo staff? Well, I think that would be a pretty inconvenient weapon to fight this quirk with, its long and relatively thin, it would probably get stuck in the person's quills, but I suppose if you could catch them off guard you could find an area without quills to hit."The vents were the closest option, but the panels could be controlled remotely from Nedzu's computer, Izuku wouldn't be surprised if he had already locked them, the next option was the door, but it was the middle of the day and close to lunch time, running out in the middle of the hallway like that would draw attention.
Nedzu nodded "that would work, although I imagine it would be quite difficult to accomplish without a teammate." They would have to take the risk, but where would they run to? The teachers' lounge maybe, either Aizawa or Yamada would be in there at this time, but what if the other teachers had been told? As skilled as their guardians were they didn't think they could distract eight fully trained pro heroes. The better option would be to make a break for it and hide somewhere on school grounds.
Izuku tried to divert the direction of the conversation away from a retelling of last night's events "maybe, but assuming that you were alone it would still be your best bet given the circumstances you have laid out for me." Nedzu had cameras everywhere there was no way they wouldn't be found if they tried to hide here, but the school gates were also operated by an electronic system, it wouldn't open without an ID and they didn't have one, there was no need since Aizawa and Yamada always accompanied them into and out of the school.
"Well, that doesn't matter, you weren't alone" Izuku froze, there was no way to avoid the inevitable, they would probably be turned over to the police custody, Aizawa and Yamada, they'd probably get in trouble as well, they did know who they were and never reported it. This was the end of their dream, wasn't it?
"I don't understand, this is a hypothetical, why are you addressing me directly?" maybe if they played dumb enough.
"We both know why Izuku, or should I call you Wraith?"
Izuku sighed "what are you going to do?"
"Nothing."
Izuku had to pause and process that response "nothing?"
"Nothing" Nedzu confirmed "I would hate to lose my star pupil to such, trivial concerns."
Izuku didn't know what just happened, but they were thanking every higher power out there that Nedzu had such an unconventional sense of morals.
"Of course the question of who else to tell, well, I'm certain my staff would find out sooner or later, however, when that happens is up to you, but it would be better to do it soon" Izuku nodded, that was, understandable. When would be a good time, maybe it would be better to rip the band aid off.
"Now, we tell them now."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes"
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Shouta wasn't expecting anything to go wrong today, nothing unexpected at all, just a normal day of teaching. And so far, that was what had happened, it was getting close to the end of the school day, everyone was once again gathered in the teachers' lounge, chattering away, while Shouta was just waiting for the day to end so that he could go home and chill out with the cats, Hizashi and Izuku. When suddenly, the god damn rat drops in, followed shortly by Izuku.
"I believe we require everyone's attention, there is something Izuku would like to say." What? Shouta glanced at Izuku, who looked incredibly sheepish, what was Nedzu talking about? "I believe some of you are familiar with a vigilante called Wraith?" Oh, oh hell no. Shouta tensed, and he saw Hisashi sit up straight next to him, Nedzu knew, he knew and Izuku was going to tell everyone here, they made eye contact, Shouta looked concerned, if Nedzu was forcing them say this, forget the fact that he was in a room full of pro heroes, Shouta was going to walk over there and strangle that stupid rat until his eyes fell out. Izuku gave him a smile, a reassurance that they were doing this willingly, still, he kept an eye on Nedzu, just in case.
"What's so important about a random vigilante?" Majima asked, not looking up from xyr work.
"Because" Izuku began, pausing as they decided how to word this "because I am them"
And the uproar that erupted in the room could have rivalled one of Hizashi's yells, a cacophony of questions and exclamations that only ceased when Kan hit it's desk with such force that Shouta was surprised that the desk didn't break, it looked like it couldn't decide whether to be impressed or angry. Oh right, as an underground hero stationed in Musutafu, Kan would have been part of the group that was keeping an eye out for Wraith before Shouta was personally put on the task of hunting them down.
"You're saying, that the vigilante who has been running circles around all the undergrounders of Musutafu, for three years" Kan said through gritted teeth "has been, a. God. Damn. Child."
"Uhh, yes?" Izuku shifted uncomfortably.
Kan shook it's head "I-" it sighed "damn kid, you sure are something"
"Thank you?"
Shouta relaxed as he saw everyone else slowly start talking a lot less chaotically, apparently having had time to process the information, Izuku was asked a few questions, although, nothing too personal, mostly just random things.
"Hey Izuku?" Kurose asked "where'd you learn how to fight?"
"Well, you see, I didn't, not for a while"
"Really? But, you can fight now?"
"Yeah, Aizawa taught me, he also didn't let me fight anyone until I learned" they looked a little miffed at that.
Shouta spoke up "well I'm not going to let some kid fight criminals when they can't even throw a punch."
Somehow, nothing went wrong, some of the others had reservations about letting a child put themself in danger like that, but it only took Izuku arguing with them for a solid ten minutes before they realised that they were going to fight crime no matter what, and the only real difference was whether Shouta was able to keep an eye on them or not. Nemuri was a bit miffed that they hadn't told her before, but laughed it off, saying she understood why.
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By the time they left for home Izuku could feel themself tearing up from all the kindness they were getting. They had been nervous, but, after the initial outcry, everything had been fine, everything was going to be fine.
Chapter 28: Realisations and Decisions
Izuku was practically bouncing around their room as they got ready for the day, the weekend was always fun, since they just got to hang out with their guardians all day, whether that was going outside or just staying at home and watching a movie, sometimes Tenya and his brother would visit, or maybe Kayama. Today though, was just going to be them, Aizawa and Yamada, and these days always felt, actually, Izuku could never quite put their finger on the feeling they felt, but if they had to describe it, they would say that it was cozy.
They rooted through their closet and decided on wearing one of their joke shirts, they had to dig it out from next to their Wraith costume, they really needed to put that thing in its own box, now that it had more parts to it that took up way too much space in their small closet. The extra stuff was some padded armour that they wore underneath their hoodie and jeans, courtesy of Majima, who had insisted that if Izuku was going to go around beating up criminals, that they at least have some armour to protect them, it wasn't impenetrable by any means, but it allowed them to take a few more hits than they normally would, and it wasn't bulky, so they still had their full range of movement. Izuku was honestly surprised at how little changed after they told everyone about their vigilantism, the only real thing that changed was that everyone asked them about their patrols whenever they got the chance. They knew from sneaking around the vents that some of the teachers, namely Kayama, Katou, Inui and Ishiyama had started secretly collecting any and all articles about Wraith that they could find and were putting them in a "secret file", although Izuku thought that their file looked suspiciously like a scrapbook.
They scooped Shadow off their bed and wandered into the kitchen, cat in hand, they were immediately greeted with the mouthwatering smell of katsudon, Yamada must have gotten up early and made breakfast. Izuku loved katsudon, they remembered Inko frequently making it for them when they were little, and even though those memories were rather bitter and a bit hazy to them now, it was still their favourite dish. The vague memories of the taste were always rather odd, before, they would have said that Inko made the best katsudon in the world, but now? They couldn't say the same, maybe it was because their opinion of her had soured so much over the last half a year, but Izuku honestly couldn't imagine her katsudon being even half as good as the one Yamada made. They set Shadow on the counter and grabbed a cup of coffee from the machine, earning them a defeated sigh from Yamada as he gave an annoyed glare towards where Aizawa was drinking his own coffee and smiling at the scene before him.
The three of them talked about what they wanted to do today while they ate breakfast, several ideas were thrown around, but in the end, they decided on going to the park. Izuku hurried back to their room after breakfast, they quickly grabbed their pocket notebook and then waited impatiently for the extra few minutes it took for their guardians to get ready. Aizawa had to remind them several times to slow down as they made their way down the building's staircase, although Izuku knew they wouldn't trip. And they were practically vibrating in their seat on the drive to the park, amusing Yamada to no end because, even though they'd gone to this park several times by now, they always had the same reaction, over-excited impatience.
When they got to the park Izuku barely waited until the car had stopped before getting down followed shortly by Yamada and Aizawa, the three of them set off to what had quickly become Izuku's favourite spot in the park, it was near one of the big trees that dotted the park, but it was in the far corner of the park, so they usually weren't disturbed by any other people. And on the rare occasion someone wandered by, Izuku and Aizawa usually just slipped behind the tree, wanting to avoid any unnecessary social interaction, and a combination of their stealth skills and the relatively large shadow cast by the tree made it almost impossible to spot them unless they wanted to be spotted. Today however was a calm day, Izuku could see several people in the middle of the park, families having picnics, a few couples going on dates, groups of friends hanging out, kids playing with sticks, it seemed that everyone was taking advantage of the nice weather to have some fun.
After some time the discussion briefly turned to their studies and Izuku excitedly talked about all the progress they'd made, in fact, they were already learning material taught in the first year of middle school, and even more excitedly they talked about the latest quirks they'd analysed, Yamada matched their enthusiasm, interjecting with jokes and gossip, while Aizawa settled for headpats and half hidden smiles to show that he was listening.
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It was just Shouta and Izuku at the moment, Hizashi had run off to get lunch for all of them, although, he was taking a long time. He smiled as Izuku wandered around the area, looking at whatever odd things caught their eye, usually a bug, or a cool rock. They always showed him whatever they found, it was adorable really, and he did try to be interested, even if he couldn't really match Hizashi's enthusiasm, but he got the feeling that they understood what he was trying to do anyway. It was times like these when it was so obvious that Izuku was still just a child, Shouta had honestly worried a bit when he and Hizashi had first taken them in, after all, spending five years of your childhood fending for yourself and two of those years being a vigilante, in addition to all the discrimination, well, that could certainly mess someone up. And at first, Izuku had acted far too mature for their age, and in some ways they still did, but it was nice to know that underneath all the skills and genius, they were still capable of being a kid. Shouta suspected it had something to do with the fact that they were finally getting some therapy.
When Hizashi returned, lunch in one hand, and a box of cookies in the other, so that's what took him so long, he must have run to the bakery all the way down the street, Shouta shook his head fondly, no doubt this was entirely on impulse or he would have told them where he was going before he left. They all sat down under the tree, ate lunch, and then had a peaceful conversation while munching cookies, for approximately two minutes. Suddenly, Hizashi snatched a cookie right out of Shouta's hand, of course, he tried to get it back, but to no avail, Hizashi held the cookie triumphantly, that was, until Izuku snuck up on Hizashi and stole the cookie for themself, taking a bite out of it so that nobody could steal it back. In the end however, the actual cookie was forgotten in favour of a game of tag, it was honestly a bit unfair, after all two of them had a major advantage, then again, Hizashi didn't seem to mind being "it" for most of the time, Shouta didn't really mind that either, since it kept the game relatively sane. When he or Izuku was "it" things got a little crazy, after all, the two of them parkoured across the city almost every night, so climbing the tree to escape each other was child's play. He did panic a bit when, at some point, Izuku fell from one of the lower branches, but they only got a scratch on their hand, luckily Shouta always carried plasters with him, that wasn't even a habit that had formed because of Izuku, no, he started carrying them shortly after he started dating Hizashi, who used to be, and still sometimes was, a major klutz.
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By the time they left the park, the sun was starting to set, and it was almost completely dark by the time they got to the apartment, Izuku was rather tired, and they ended up flopping onto the couch the second they got the chance, soon joined by the cats, they heard a soft laugh and the clicking of a photo being taken, no doubt by Yamada. They smiled to themself as they half listened to whatever conversation their guardians were having, and they were flooded once again with that cozy feeling, but cozy wasn't enough to describe the feeling, no, it was every good thing in the world wrapped into one, the feeling of a warm blanket on a cold night, or the sound of laughter and energy. They vaguely remembered feeling this feeling before, but, it must have been so long ago that they'd forgotten why.
They frowned, it had been bothering them for quite some time now, the mystery of this feeling. They had been trying to puzzle it out, but, if only they could remember why they'd felt it before, they dug through their hazy memories of their early life, every time they remembered that feeling, it was in a memory of one of their biological parents, or their home, but, they couldn't ever remember the feeling being as strong as it was now, or perhaps that was due to the fact that they were so young back then, that they could no longer recall how strongly they'd felt it, or maybe it felt stronger now because they hadn't felt it in a long time. Still, Izuku was confused, if they had associated this feeling with their parents, at least, before they were abandoned, then logically this feeling would have something to do with family, so why would they be feeling it now? Then it hit them, it was because this was their family now, they'd spent so long without one, that they hadn't even realised how quickly they'd gained one, looking back, they could practically pinpoint the exact moment they'd started considering Aizawa and Yamada as family. It was shortly after they'd started mentoring them, even before Izuku had started living with them. They'd looked up to them, as a source of encouragement and comfort, just like they used to with their old parents. Did that mean they thought of the two as their parents? Izuku hesitated on that, for one, they had no idea what that would mean for them, for another, these realisations had happened in the span of a few minutes, and they weren't entirely ready to grapple with the mental spiral they'd likely go down if they accepted these new understandings as fact. But, no, they couldn't deny it, the issue was, what would they do with this new information? They supposed they could think over it more, yes, that is what they'd do.
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Hizashi had just finished cleaning up the plates from dinner when it happened, Shouta and Izuku were seated on the couch, simply relaxing with the cats, and Hizashi joined them soon afterwards, they were having a discussion about some case or another, he wasn't really paying attention, Shouta had been complaining about Izuku being reckless, and Izuku indignantly responded. "Actually I knew exactly what I was doing".
"That may be, but it was still reckless, if I wasn't there to get you out of that fight who knows what could have happened" Shouta sounded entirely too exasperated, but Hizashi could hear the underlying worry in his tone.
"Sorry dad, I won't…" Izuku froze, and it took Hizashi's tired brain a few seconds to process why.
"Did you just call me dad?" Shouta sounded shocked, honestly so was Hizashi, yeah, they had both considered Izuku as their kid ever since they took them in, but they never really acknowledged it to anyone but themselves, after all, they didn't really want to overstep any boundaries.
Izuku quickly apologized, even though they really didn't need to "it was an accident, I just, um, well, I was thinking earlier, and I guess it was on my mind, but, you two are basically parents to me, I just, didn't realise it until earlier today, I- sorry, that's awkward isn't it." To say Hizashi was overjoyed was an understatement, and he could see Shouta smiling as well, Izuku looked so ambarrased however.
"Don't worry about it little listener, we don't mind" Hizashi was quick to reassure them.
"You don't?"
"Yeah, I mean, we both think of you as our kid anyways, so it's really not an issue" Izuku looked stunned at that, and looked at Shouta for confirmation, he just nodded.
Hizashi could see Izuku's eyes start to water, he internally prepared himself for the waterworks that would inevitably follow, the kid had a rather endearing habit of expressing almost every strong emotion through tears. Inevitably the three of them ended up in a cuddle pile on the couch.
They were all quiet for some time, Hizashi knew what he wanted to ask, "hey Izuku?"
"Yeah papa?" Izuku asked, and Hizashi had to blink away some tears himself.
"Do you want to be our kid, like, officially?"
"You mean?" Izuku's eyes lit up as they realised what Hizashi was asking.
"Yes, do you want us to adopt you?" Shouta asked, "you don't have to give your answer now, you can think about it-"
"Yes, yes yes yes" Izuku interrupted him, and the tears were back in their eyes.
Hizashi smiled, it was going to take some time, what with all the procedures and paperwork, but they'd finally be able to call Izuku their kid, and looking at them, they were just as excited about the idea.