Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku pulled Hitoshi in for a hug. “I’m going to come back to you,” he whispered in his friend’s ear. “We’re going to become heroes together.” 

***

Hitoshi rushed forward and kissed Izuku

***

The microbots and black tendrils speared towards their targets at the same time, both embedding.

***

“I just know that each and every one of you will be the best heroes. Of past and future generations combined,” Izuku continued. 

“We’re supposed to become heroes together,” Hitoshi said, finally looking up to meet Izuku’s eyes. 

“You’ll have to continue on without me,” Izuku said with a sad smile.

***

Izuku shook his head. The scene had played out so clearly in his mind, but he needed to focus right now. He would not be dying today; he still had too much to do. He risked one more glance back at Hitoshi and his friends. Hitoshi seemed to be explaining Izuku’s crazy non-plan to them as Kacchan was letting off small explosions and Kirishima was having to hold him back. Izuku smiled before turning and focusing on the two powerhouses in front of him. 

All Might and Sensei were continuing their fight, throwing quirks and words at each other. Izuku snuck his way across the crater watching them, waiting. He sent out several microbots to track Sensei’s progress, keeping them close to him, but always out of sight. 

“This is for what you did to Nana, All For One!” All Might shouted, throwing a series of quick punches at the villain. Izuku mentally filed away the name, finally having something to call him besides ‘Sensei,’ even if it was a mouthful. 

With the two fighters distracted by this recent attack, Izuku closed the leftover distance and came up behind All For One. All Might’s punches weren't even pushing him back, he was using a quirk to block them, perhaps some form of regeneration on his arms. It went downhill for him when Izuku took a running start and kicked All For One’s knees out, making him crash to the ground. All Might’s punches started landing and All For One barely paid him mind as he turned to Izuku. Izuku made the microbots he’d sent out fall behind All For One as he swatted All Might away from him. Before All For One could make another attack, this time towards Izuku, the microbots rushed for All For One’s pressure points, his tubes, and any other weakness they could find. The tubes were separated from the machine on his back, but before he could gasp for air, one of the pressure point hits landed and he was knocked unconscious. 

Izuku sighed in relief, and looked out over the field. There was a helicopter whirring overhead, tousling his hair and making it so that he couldn’t hear anything, but he saw All Might, deflated on his knees in the middle of the crater with a shocked look on his face as he watched Izuku. 

Izuku crumpled to the ground, adrenaline rushing out of his body and his friends ran into the crater towards him. Hitoshi tackled him in a hug, knocking them both over in the crater and Izuku could feel Hitoshi’s shuddering as he quietly sobbed. 

“You did it, you actually did it,” Hitoshi whispered. 

Izuku brought his arms around his friend. “I made a promise, didn’t I?”

“Bro! That was so manly!” 

“You stupid idiot! What the hell were you thinking!” 

“I totally thought we were about to watch you die!”

Izuku laughed as the rest of the boys walked up to them and gently nudged Hitoshi until he relented his grip and got to his feet, helping Izuku up after. Izuku was soon crowded by hugs from Kaminari and Kirishima, a shy pat on the shoulder and a nod from Shouto, and a rough hand mussing his hair from Kacchan. 

“You’re actually insane,” Kaminari said, looking over his shoulder at All For One’s prone form. 

“It wasn’t the smartest move,” Shouto added. “But I’m glad you were able to stop him without injury.”

“Young Midoriya,” All Might called out as he walked over, causing Izuku to flinch. 

His friends had caused him to forget that All Might was even there in the first place and at his reaction, they all gathered and stood in front of him, blocking All Might. 

“I-”

Before All Might could get another sentence out, cops and heroes flooded the scene. He was whisked away by Naomasa as cops restrained All For One and took him away and the heroes started helping their comrades. Izuku let out a sigh of relief, as Pro Hero Hawks sauntered over to them. 

“Heya little birds! Let’s get outta here, yeah?” Hawks asked. 

Izuku nodded and pushed his way to the front of their group and followed after the hero, the others falling in line behind him. 

“You doin’ okay there kiddo?” Hawks asked him in a low tone. 

Izuku nodded again. “I think I’m a little in shock.” 

Hawks laughed and slung an arm around Izuku’s shoulder. “Not surprised by that at all. You’ve been through quite a lot in the past 48 hours, haven’t you?” 

“Yeah, guess I have,” Izuku muttered. 

Hawks led the group to a medic tent before disappearing. Everyone was checked over and quickly cleared given that none of them were actually injured. Izuku was given a blanket to wrap around himself and Hitoshi and Kacchan stuck close to his side the whole time. 

“How ‘bout I escort you kids home?” Hawks asked, appearing once they stepped out of the tent. 

“Really?” Kaminari asked excitedly. 

“Of course! Wouldn’t be right to just let you all off on your own after something like this. The detectives will have to ask you questions before we can leave the scene properly, but after that, I got you,” Hawks said with a big smile. 

“I think my dad’s around here somewhere, but I’d like to come with if it isn’t too much trouble,” Shouto said. 

“No problem at all!” Hawks chirped. “Let’s get out to the detectives so we can get out of here sooner than later.” 

“Did you volunteer for this so you didn’t have to deal with the cleanup and press?” Izuku asked him as they walked towards the line of cop cars. 

Hawks laughed. “Perchance. I may resemble a hawk, but the press are damn vultures .”

The group laughed quietly and settled into a comfortable silence before they reached the cop cars and got divided up to give their statements. Izuku just wanted to go home and try finding Tenko. 

Chapter Text

“So, we gonna talk about that kiss, or…” Izuku asked, twirling a strand of Hitoshi’s hair around his finger. They had finally been cleared to go home from Kamino and Kacchan was holed up in his room, leaving his two friends to their own devices once he made sure they were fed and had drank water.  

Athena was draped across Hitoshi’s stomach as Hitoshi draped across Izuku’s bed with his head in Izuku’s lap. “What’s to talk about?” Hitoshi asked, turning his head away. 

Izuku tugged on the hair lightly and leaned over to better look at Hitoshi’s face. There was no reaction so Izuku tugged lightly on the hair again, causing Hitoshi to glance up at him. He looked scared and Izuku hated it. Izuku moved his other hand to rest on Hitoshi’s cheek. “Given that my best friend-” Hitoshi winced, “and my longtime crush-” Hitoshi’s eyes widened in surprise, “kissed me as I headed into a fight against the supervillain, I would assume that there is something we have to talk about.” 

“You-” Hitoshi started, closing his eyes. “You aren’t mad?” 

Izuku couldn’t help the disbelieving laugh that escaped him. “Why on earth would I be mad at you? Besides the fact that your kiss almost distracted me from the fight.” 

Hitoshi tilted his head away again. “Sorry,” he mumbled. 

Izuku turned his face towards him and leaned down, kissing him. Izuku pulled back for a second and saw Hitoshi’s eyes snap open to meet Izuku’s before they both closed their eyes and gave in. It was over after a few moments and Izuku sat up again. “Next time, make sure you ask me out before kissing me,” Izuku said, smiling down at Hitoshi. 

Hitoshi hurriedly sat up, dislodging a disgruntled Athena, and faced Izuku sitting cross legged in front of him. Izuku gaped and hurriedly moved his legs out the way so he was sitting cross legged too. “Midoriya Izuku, will you be my boyfriend?”

Izuku could feel his face heating up quickly as he let out a little giggle and raised his hands to cover his face. “Hitoshi, you big dork. You’re not even going to ask me out on a date first?” He lowered his hands from his face and looked at his friend, who had horror creeping into his features. Izuku reached forward and gripped Hitoshi’s hands. “Of course I’ll be your boyfriend.” 

Hitoshi leaned forward and kissed him again. When they pulled away from each other, Hitoshi flopped on the bed next to Izuku. Izuku slid down on his bed to lay next to him and rested his head on Hitoshi’s chest, grabbing his frie- no, boyfriend’s hand, interlocking their fingers. Athena jumped onto Hitoshi’s lap and circled twice before settling down on his legs. Soon enough they were passing out, smiling and feeling safer than ever. 

***

“How exactly do you know this person?” Echo asked as they ducked into an alleyway. It was just past midnight, they’d slept maybe two hours, and their trip was taking longer than expected since Medusa couldn’t make one direct trip without falling into at least 3 incidents he wanted to stop. 

“Anybody who’s anybody in the underworld knows him. He buys and sells anything and everything, including knowledge. I just so happen to know that he was working very closely with the League of Villains,” Medusa explained as they hopped up onto a precariously balanced board and walked along it with their arms out. “He has to know where they went.”

“I just don’t get why he isn’t answering the phone,” Echo grumbled. “Would make this a hell of a lot easier, especially since we don’t know what kind of house to start looking for until we know who exactly needs housing.”

“We’re still waiting on our paperwork to be processed anyways. We’ll probably find them before we can even start looking. I’m just glad I got that day job,” Medusa responded, jumping off the end of the beam. 

“Of course you did, you’re too adorable not to hire,” Echo said, bumping their shoulders together. “Especially at a cat cafe that you spend almost every weekend at anyways.” 

Medusa rolled their eyes. “Whatever you say, Echo. Either way we’re here. Remember what I told you?” 

“I’m just a guest, an observer at that. Don’t give any personal information on top of not giving any information at all. Stand back and watch, no matter how much he digs or what he says to you,” Echo repeated back their instructions. 

“Perfect echo, Echo,” Medusa said with a smirk even though Echo couldn’t see it. 

They came to a stop in front of an alcove in an alley. Medusa knocked in some pattern on the alcove wall and the door opened immediately to reveal an older man with white hair, glasses, and showing missing teeth as he held a cigarette between them. “Well, well, well,” Giran said in a weasley voice. “Medusa has returned to the Strait of Messina once more, and with a friend no less.” 

“And still choosing to fall into Charybdis than chance Scylla,” Medusa countered. 

Giran laughed and waved the two vigilantes in. “I assume you’re here for information?” 

“If you know why I’m here, then just cut to the point, Giran. We have a lot of work to do,” Medusa said, crossing their arms. 

Giran laughed as he blew out a puff of smoke. “Well, I do know the location of Charybdis, but you’ll have to pay.”

“What’s new?” Medusa asked, before he could state the price. 

“Just a little information from you is all I ask,” Giran continued, ignoring the snark. “There’s a certain harpy taking out villains at night.”

“What do you want?” Medusa asked when he didn’t continue. 

“I need his hero name,” Giran said. “Dressed in black with a grey scarf.”

“It’s a capture weapon and his hero name is Eraserhead.” Medusa stated. “Give me the location.” 

“Perfect,” Giran smiled. He gave them the address for a warehouse on the other side of the city and they took their leave before he could try to press them for more information. 

“Strait of Messina?” Echo asked. 

“Allusion for the underground. Charybdis is the LOV, and Scylla is the yakuza,” Medusa explained as they ducked through allies to get to the warehouse. 

Echo hummed in acknowledgement. “You realize we won’t get to the warehouse until just before sunrise? Pomeranian will be suspicious if neither of us are back.” 

“He’ll be fine,” Medusa stated. 

“We could use faster transportation,” Echo continued. 

“And what do you suggest? That we hail a taxi in our vigilante forms?” Medusa snapped. 

“I was thinking we could take the bike that’s next to that dumpster, actually. It’s got back pegs that you could stand on,” Echo said, ignoring their tone. 

Medusa stopped in their tracks and looked towards the dumpster, where there indeed was a bike, perfectly intact. “Oh.” 

Echo smirked as they went to test the tires, and finding them full, hopped on. Medusa stood on the back of the bike and in no time, they were riding through the streets at a decent speed towards the other side of the city. 

“Didn’t know you could cycle so well,” Medusa noted as they sped around a corner. 

“I used to have a bike at my foster’s house, but they dumped it one night,” Echo explained. 

“We can get you another one,” Medusa offered. 

“No, it’s fine,” Echo said, waving them off. “We have enough on our plates besides.” 

Medusa clicked their tongue but didn’t press. Echo’s birthday was coming up and he’d been wondering what to get them anyways. The rest of the ride was in silence besides Echo’s heavy breaths as they biked as fast as they could to the other side of the city. 

It took maybe an hour to get to the warehouse. Medusa could tell that Echo had underplayed his love of cycling after about ten minutes, but was still surprised at the speed he held for the full hour. The warehouse itself was an old building, clearly not being used for anything in an outside perspective. 

They discarded the bike in the alley between the warehouse and another building before sneaking up to one of the warehouse’s windows. The warehouse was definitely soundproofed because as they peered through the window, they saw Tenko and Dabi shouting at each other about something. 

Medusa sighed. “This is going to be a mess.”

Echo nodded grimly. “How should we do this?”

By the time Echo turned from the window to look at Medusa, they were gone. They gaped and turned in a circle, looking high and low for their partner, but they were gone. They mumbled about stupid vigilantes with a reckless streak as they turned back to the window to look back at the scene inside only to find Medusa screaming at the pair. They gaped once more wondering how in the hell Medusa had got inside so quickly and how they’d already picked a fight. A portal opened next to them and they sighed as they stepped through, immediately being accosted by screaming voices. 

“-ve a damn phone, use it !” Medusa screamed at Tenko. 

Dabi was hiding his laughter behind his hand, whatever he’d been arguing about with Tenko forgotten as he watched his leader be berated by a teenage vigilante. 

“It’s been off so no one could track the location!” Tenko argued back, scratching at his neck. Luckily he had the foresight to grab his gloves before he left and he was wearing them now so he didn’t damage his neck. 

“I fucking reprogrammed the damn thing so that couldn’t happen and you know that you dumbass!” Medusa yelled. “I had to go to motherfucking Giran to figure out where you were hiding out!” 

“Perhaps we should calm down,” Mr. Compress tried interjecting as he stepped up with raised hands. 

That was the wrong move. When Medusa is on a rampage, it is best to not step in unless you want their rage turned on you. “And you! You’re supposed to be one of the adults! Where was your sense of responsibility? Did you not think to check in or anything ?”

Mr. Compress was currently not wearing his mask, so they could all see his face pale as he took a step back. “Well, I-” 

Medusa waved them off. “Didn’t think so.” They rounded on Kurogiri, whose misty body started swirling anxiously. Medusa pointed a finger at him and he flinched back. “You are the guardian in this instance, are you not?”

“Erm, yes?” Kurogiri said, unsure. 

“You have not only my number, but Echo’s. Not only did you not contact us, but you also ghosted us. We have been cleared from the hospital and trying to get in contact with the two of you for almost 20 hours now!” Medusa ranted, voice rising as his anger rose again. 

Echo sighed and stepped forward. “Medusa.” 

Medusa whipped towards them and Echo could see the anger in their eyes, but also the fear, relief, and anxiety. 

“They’re here and safe, calm down,” Echo said. “This isn’t what we came here for.” 

Medusa shook their head and turned back to Tenko. “You’ll be hearing more about this, but Echo’s right.” Medusa stepped back to look at the whole group. “Gather around, we need to talk.” 

Twice and Toga jumped up from their spots on a pallet across the room and walked over, Magne joining from where she’d been leaning on a box near them. 

“Alright, we need to figure out housing and plans for you all. Tenko?” Medusa asked, turning to the leader of the group. 

“Sensei is gone,” Tenko muttered, looking down. 

“Do you still want to follow on your path, or do you want to try to not get arrested and turn your lives around?” Medusa asked the whole of the group. They took their masks off so that their face was bare. 

The group tensed up and looked towards Tenko. Tenko sighed. “I don’t know what to do anymore. All of our plans are ruined.” 

“They weren’t good plans to begin with,” Izuku muttered. 

“I never went forward with my plan,” Dabi grumbled, running his hands through his hair, revealing white roots. He really needed to dye it soon if he wanted to keep up his disguise. 

“Your father?” Izuku inquired. 

Dabi only nodded, clenching his jaw and looking away from the group. 

“That is one of many things on my list to figure out. I would be happy to work with you on bringing him down and bringing your family justice. But, you’d have to stop villainy in the meantime,” Izuku offered. 

Dabi shook his head before sighing and going to stand with Echo. It seemed they’d become the point of where to go if they decided to drop their villain status because one look at Toga and she giggled and skipped over to Echo without Izuku even saying anything. 

Izuku sighed with a fond smile on his face. He looked to the rest of the group, gaze stopping on Magne who looked contemplative. “What are you thinking Big Sis?” 

Magne’s gaze snapped to the boy. “I can go back to my dad’s. Open a coffee shop or something and help him out. Make sure that he’s doing okay.” 

Izuku smiled at her, warmth lighting up his gaze. “I think he’d appreciate that very much, but if you ever need a break or it gets to be too much, you can always let us know.” 

Magne walked over and gave him a hug. “I’ll always be your big sis, I’ll always be here for you too,” she said as she pulled away and went to stand by Echo with the others. 

Izuku turned to the rest of the group. 

“I can figure something out. There’s always people offering odd jobs here and there, and I have enough saved up to start renting an apartment,” Spinner shrugged. 

“I still got my apartment! Fucking shithole is what it is! ” Twice added in. 

“I know of some therapists that I think can help you. We’ll take a look together, yeah?” Izuku asked. Twice nodded as he walked over to Echo and Toga jumped on him to give him a hug. 

“Twice can stay at my house in the meantime,” Mr. Compress said. “It won’t be a problem,” he added when Twice started waving his hands and stating it wasn’t necessary to burden himself. 

Tenko groaned. “The league is done for. Was there even a point to begin with?” 

“We can talk about it later, Tenko, but for now, I’d like to offer for you and Kurogiri to come stay with us,” Izuku said, smiling at his friend. “We have an extra room, and Hitoshi and I can share a room so that Dabi and Toga can move in for a bit if they want.” 

“You’re in an apartment with a school friend aren’t you?” Kurogiri asked. 

“Yes, but Hitoshi and I are getting emancipated. I’m quirkless, so I’m technically an adult by legal means, and Hitoshi is in the foster system, so we got it worked out with his fosters already,” Izuku said. “Besides, I already got a job and once I’m an adult I’ll be able to take out a loan for a house. We were waiting to see who all needed housing before we started house hunting.” 

Kurogiri dipped his head in acknowledgement. 

Tenko sighed and dropped his shoulders. “I don’t know what to do. Everything I was raised for has been ruined and taken away.” 

“We’ll figure it out, one step at a time,” Hitoshi interjected as they took off their mask and pulled back their hood with one hand. Toga was holding their other hand and swinging it back and forth. “There’s no need to have answers so immediately after everything happened.” 

Izuku smiled at his partner. “Why don’t we all go to our respective places and sleep on it. We can check in tomorrow or some later time. There’s definitely no way I’m losing contact with everyone.” 

Tenko nodded as Toga agreed with a loud whoop. 

Izuku turned to Kurogiri, but he was already opening several portals next to the different groups. 

“We’ll at least text to check in tomorrow!” Izuku called out as everyone started saying goodbye. Soon enough it was only a small group of those going to Izuku’s apartment. “Well, let’s go home.”

Kurogiri opened one more portal and they all warped to the living room of the apartment. Izuku sighed and looked at the group around him. “Welcome to our temporary living situation, let me-”

A glass shattered and the group whipped around to see Kacchan standing in the kitchen, hand still gripping the air where his cup, now shattered on the floor, had been. “Izu? What the absolute fuck ?”

Chapter Text

“Oops?” Izuku said as Kacchan stood there gaping at the group that had just warped in. 

“I warned you about this,” Hitoshi said as he took his mask off. 

“You too?!” Kacchan shouted. 

Hitoshi flinched back and Dabi stepped in front of him. “Cool down, kid.”

“This is bullshit! Zuku and the Walking-Monster-Can over there are out there fighting crime every night while I’m just lounging around? You trying to pass me up or some shit?” Bakugo shouted at the pair, completely ignoring Dabi. 

“Kacchan can you please calm down?” Izuku asked, raising up two hands placatingly. “I’m sure we can… explain… somehow?” 

“Real strong start there, Medusa,” Tenko muttered.

Izuku sent a glare at him. “Not fucking helping asshole.” 

Kacchan growled. “You five,” he said, pointing at the League members. “I don’t know most of you.” He pointed at Tenko and Kurogiri. “You two attacked us at the USJ. Why are you here?”

Hitoshi sighed. “Since we’re not gonna be sleeping anytime soon, how about we let everyone take a seat and I’ll make coffee. You’re buying a new mug, Kats.” 

Kacchan sent a pointed glare at Hitoshi before huffing and taking a seat on a chair. The League members spread out throughout the living room and Izuku realized he’d need to get more seating when they got a new house. Granted they’d have much more room for it anyways, so it would be fine. Izuku sat on the arm of the chair Kacchan was sitting in and clapped his hands together. 

“Alright, now that we’re as comfortable as can be, let’s get to the explanation bit, shall we?” Izuku asked, looking around. There were some nods and rolling eyes and Izuku deemed that that was the best he was going to get from them. “Alright, well, big surprise, I’m the vigilante Medusa, not super well-known unless you work underground. Echo, my partner, is Hitoshi,” Izuku explained, waving his hand at his now-boyfriend who was pouring coffee in the kitchen. “I’ve been friends with the League of Villains, well most of them anyways, and they just recently disbanded,” Izuku continued. He pointed to each in turn as he introduced them. “Tenko, Kurogiri, Dabi, and Toga. Meet Kacchan, also known as Pomeranian, also known as Explosion Boy, also known as Bakugo Katsuki.” Izuku patted Kacchan’s hair, earning a growl as Kacchan moved his head away quickly. 

“Fuck off,” Kacchan said. “I wanna know why they’re in our apartment. Why did the League disband?” 

“Because I defeated All for One, and my friends need a place to stay. We’ll be moving soon enough anyways,” Izuku said, waving his hand noncommittally. 

“What do you mean , we’ll be moving soon?” Kacchan asked. 

“Hitoshi and I are getting emancipated and buying a house. There’s too many people living in this apartment now,” Izuku explained with a shrug. 

“When the hell were you gonna tell me this? How are you even going to pay for this?!” Kacchan yelled. 

“Nedzu and I already worked out a loan plan. I can really get as big a house as I need and Nedzu will pay for it and I’ll pay him back in increments eventually,” Izuku explained as if he hadn’t just terrified the two boys he went to school with. 

“Isn’t Nedzu that super smart rat of a principal y’all have?” Dabi asked.

“He’s actually a chimera, but yes. I’ve been his personal student for about a month or so now,” Izuku explained. 

“So, he’s the one that’s helping you build a case against Endeavor?” Dabi asked, recalling a conversation they’d had a couple weeks prior when Izuku was visiting as Medusa. 

Izuku smiled at him and nodded. “The one and the same.”

“Taking down Endeavor?” Kacchan asked at the same time. 

“He’s a piece of shit trash can of a human,” Izuku said as a way of explanation. “Besides the point though.” 

Kacchan growled, but stopped when Izuku sent him a pointed glare. Everyone sent Izuku nervous glances as they’d never seen anyone be able to control Kacchan before. 

“Okay, so I want to get some sleep because I have a bunch of errands to run tomorr-”

“And our date,” Hitoshi interrupted, handing Izuku a cup of hot coffee. “If you miss it I will kill you.”

Izuku winced. “Right, I have a bunch of errands and a date to attend to tomorrow. Wait, today. So, I need at least two hours of sleep. So let’s figure out the sleeping arrangements and get that all set up, and we can discuss everything more later if you really want to.” Izuku stood from the arm of the chair, taking a sip of his coffee. If anything, it’d probably help his headache rather than wake him up right now. 

“We’ll have to clear out my room and move my stuff to yours for there to be two rooms,” Hitoshi said as they walked towards his room. 

“Yeah, but it shouldn’t be too much of a problem besides the pc. We’ll make it work though and it’s just temporary,” Izuku said. 

They got to Hitoshi’s room and opened the door, looking at all the stuff they had to move. 

“Sorry, but is no one going to mention the fact that you’re gonna share a room?” Kacchan asked. 

“They’re dating dipshit,” Dabi chimed as he sprawled on the couch in the living room. 

Kacchan whipped his head back to his two friends. “Since fucking when?”

“Last night,” Izuku said with a shrug as he grabbed a laundry basket and started throwing clothes in it. 

“Technically it was very early this morning,” Hitoshi added. He grabbed a stack of blankets and pillows and walked out of the room, Izuku following with the now-full laundry hamper. They dumped the stuff in Izuku’s room, which was surprisingly clean, before going back for more. Hitoshi starts taking apart the pc as Izuku makes trips back and forth with other stuff. 

Kacchan tried helping but gave up after Izuku kept telling him not to put stuff in specific spots. He went out and to the guest room to clean it up before joining the League and asking about who was sleeping where. Izuku giggled at the way Kacchan seemed to be very out of his element with how confused he was at the situation. 

“Enjoying picking on him?” Hitoshi asked when Izuku came back into his room to grab more stuff. 

“He picked on me for years, I think I can have one night when I’m sleep deprived. He’s making it too easy,” Izuku replied, walking over and hugging Hitoshi. 

“You do need to get sleep, I can do the computer on my own,” Hitoshi offered. 

“No, I’m not gonna make you do this alone, and I don’t trust the other to not break something or keep me awake. Besides, it’s the last thing,” Izuku countered. “Let me take the computer and you take the monitor. I set up a station for everything.”

Hitoshi nodded and wrapped cords around his neck before grabbing the monitor in both hands and leaving the room. Izuku grabbed the computer and followed his boyfriend back to his room and set the computer on the table beside the monitor that Hitoshi had put down. 

“I’m gonna go let them know that they can settle in however they want, try to get some sleep,” Hitoshi ordered as he left the room. 

Izuku smiled and waved him off before dropping onto his bed. Luckily, he had a queen size which gave him plenty of room even with Hitoshi now sharing it. 

Only a couple minutes later, as Izuku was finally slipping into sleep, Izuku felt the mattress dip and Hitoshi pulled him close. Within the next minute, Izuku was already passed out.

“You found a house?” Nedzu asked. 

Izuku had spent the morning going around Musutafu looking at houses for sale as close to the school as possible. He’d found one that he thought was perfect and was able to do a tour even though the realtor was very confused. Izuku had promptly shown them a letter from Nedzu explaining that Izuku was touring houses for Nedzu to buy and the realtor had perked up after that. It was big enough and even had a couple extra rooms just in case family wanted to visit which was really nice. 

“I sent you the house listing on my way up here,” Izuku said, pulling out his phone. His last errand of the day was to meet with Nedzu about buying the house so that they’d have enough time to move in before school started up. It was a rushed decision, but Izuku was sure that the house was in stable, working condition and would fit his ever-growing family. 

“Ah yes, I did take a peek at it. You double checked that everything was in working order?” Nedzu asked, pulling up the email and taking another look at the listing. 

“Yes, I also talked to the neighbors about general issues around, and there don’t seem to be any that’ll be bothersome. If anything, my family is gonna be the one to mess the house up,” Izuku said, shaking his head. 

“I’m glad you’ve found people to be so close with,” Nedzu said, taking a sip of tea as he turned his full attention to his student. “I know being quirkless can be very hard in today’s society and from yours and Bakugou’s middle school letters of recommendation, I can only assume that you were not treated fairly by the staff.” 

Izuku pursed his lips and looked away. “The only teachers that I’ve had that cared or even just treated me fairly are all UA teachers.”

Nedzu hummed and when Izuku chanced a look at him, Nedzu’s eyes were sharp with anger. “I have already filed against the middle school, but we’ll talk about that another time.” He turned back to his computer, the anger slowly leaving his eyes as he scrolled through the pictures again. “This house looks to suit your needs well. I’ll call the realtor and place the money down today.” 

“Thank you, Principal,” Izuku said, bowing his head. “I’m extremely grateful that you’re willing to help me with this, considering everything.” 

“I don’t believe there to be anyone better for the job of turning villains towards civilian lifestyles,” Nedzu said with a smirk. 

Izuku choked on his last sip of tea he was taking. “That’s not quite exactly what’s happening.”

“Isn’t it though?” Nedzu inquired with a tilt of his head. “You defeated All for One when All Might couldn’t, you found the League of Villains and disbanded them, and you’re going to be checking in with them regularly to make sure they’re staying on the right path.” 

“I-” Izuku stopped. Nedzu’s logic was there and everything he said was true. That just wasn’t how Izuku viewed his actions. “I just want to help my friends,” he said quietly. 

“And that’s exactly what you’re doing,” Nedzu said in a more gentle tone. “Now, don’t you have a date to be getting to?” 

Izuku glanced at the time and cursed under his breath. “Thank you again Nedzu!” He exclaimed as he jumped from the chair and set his teacup gently on the table. 

Nedzu chuckled. “You’ll have the house by tomorrow!” He called as he waved. 

Izuku ran from the room and through the halls to leave the school. Luckily, he wasn’t headed too far, but he was already late and Hitoshi was going to kill him. By some fortune, none of the teachers he saw called out to stop him, whether it was because they were too surprised, were very used to it, or Nedzu had said something, he didn’t know. 

After five minutes of running, he skidded to a stop at the bottom of the hill UA was situated on and tried collecting his breath. The cat café was across the street and he could see Hitoshi sitting inside with a cat on his lap checking his phone, probably wondering where the hell he was. Izuku tried to comb his fingers through his unruly hair and straightened his shirt before crossing the street and entering the café. A bell chimed above the door when he opened it and he greeted the waitress behind the counter and asked for his usual before going to sit at the table with Hitoshi. 

“You’re late,” Hitoshi noted with a quirked eyebrow as Izuku sat down across from him, a cat immediately jumping into his lap and clambering up to his shoulder. 

“I was finalizing the house situation, I’m sorry,” Izuku apologized as he tried to support the kitten in its climbing. 

“You’re here now,” Hitoshi smiled. 

“You’d kill me if I stood you up,” Izuku laughed. The kitten was now situated on his shoulder and rubbing its cheek in his hair. “We should have the house by tomorrow though, so we should get boxes on the way home to start packing.” 

“We should make the others get boxes, they’re all just lounging around the house anyways,” Hitoshi said with a shrug as he took a sip from his coffee. 

Izuku laughed. “Yeah, knowing them they’d get in at least one fight though.” 

“It’d be a good test for them,” Hitoshi said. “Tell them that if they get in a fight they’re on dish duty for a month or something.” 

The waitress brought over Izuku’s latte and he smiled and thanked her before turning back to his boyfriend. “What, we’re just gonna ground them anytime they cause a ruckus?” 

“Seems reasonable enough. The whole point of this is getting them to not get into any trouble and try leading normal-ish lives,” Hitoshi explained. 

Izuku hummed as he took a sip from his coffee. “Sounds to me like we’re becoming parents to a bunch of adults, and we only started dating yesterday.”

Hitoshi sputtered. “Hey!” 

Izuku couldn’t help the laugh bubbling out of him. “You can’t say I’m wrong!” He said when he gained back his breath, only to burst into laughter again at the affronted look on Hitoshi’s face. 

“Either way, Toga’s only a year older than us, so it’s not all adults,” Hitoshi pouted. 

Izuku stifled his giggles. “Fine, fine. Dropping it, even if I think it’s hilarious.” 

Izuku deemed the date successful, full of laughter, picking fun at each other, and just general conversation while drinking their favorite drinks and surrounded by cats. 

Chapter Text

Izuku looked up at the mansion that he had just bought, not quite believing the papers he was holding in his hands. 

“Zuku?” Himiko asked, causing him to turn towards the girl standing next to him. 

“Yeah?” He asked, looking around at the group that seemed eager with all eyes on him. He sighed as he caught on. “Let’s go pick our rooms, shall we?” 

Himiko cheered as she rushed towards the house, Twice quickly following behind. 

“You wanna stand out here and get last pick on the room?” Hitoshi teased as the group all filtered inside. 

Izuku tilted his head at him. “You’re saying that as if I don’t already know which room I want.” 

“They’re gonna throw a fit if they try choosing the room you already picked out. And what if I don’t like the room?” Hitoshi questioned. 

“Top floor in a corner,” Izuku stated. 

Hitoshi smirked. “Perfect.” 

Izuku laughed. “Okay, let’s see how they’re doing in there.” 

Hitoshi laughed as they walked inside and were immediately hit with the volume of shouting. Izuku sighed as Kurogiri came up beside them with two cups of tea for them. 

“Thank you,” Izuku said. He took a sip of tea and then walked over to the front door. There were a series of buttons on a pad by the door and he pressed a bright blue one before speaking into the mic installed into the button pad. “Can everyone shut the fuck up and come to the ground floor common room?” There was an immediate cut in the screaming as Izuku’s voice echoed throughout the house through speakers situated on every floor. A stampede of footsteps followed the end of his command as everyone found their way to the common room where Izuku, Hitoshi, and Kurogiri waited. 

“I’m calling the basement and no one can stop me,” Dabi immediately said as he walked into the common room. 

Izuku sighed. “With your health, sure. I don’t really care, you just have to be willing to deal with the laundry units down there.” Dabi shrugged and Izuku turned to the rest of his housemates. “Any other requests ?” 

“I want to be on the same floor as you,” Kacchan snapped. 

Izuku rolled his eyes. “That was a given, Kacchan. Okay,” Izuku said, pulling out his notebook. “Okay, so there’s 10 bedrooms total. Hitoshi and I are sharing one, but I’m assuming everyone else is going to have their own room. With one bedroom in the basement accounted for…” Izuku started taking notes as he continued speaking and made a table for each floor, writing out how many rooms there are and wrote ‘Dabi’ in the one for the basement. “... that leaves one on the ground floor, and 4 bedrooms each on the second and third floor. Our bedroom is on the top floor, so Kacchan will be up there as well. Where do the rest of you want to be placed?” 

“I would like to be placed next to Tenko if possible,” Kurogiri requested. 

Izuku nodded. “So, you two can take the two remaining rooms on the third floor or be on the second floor. Any preference?” 

“I wanna be on the second floor with Jin!” Himiko called out, waving her hand in the air. 

“Second floor. I don’t want to climb all those damn stairs,” Tenko grumbled. 

“Okay, perfect,” Izuku said, writing out the League member’s names in the four boxes for the second floor. 

“So there’s a UA brats floor and a League floor,” Dabi said flatly. 

“With you trapped in our basement for good measure,” Hitoshi shot back. 

Dabi rolled his eyes. “Can we start moving our shit in now?” 

“Yeah, go grab your shit,” Izuku said, waving his hand towards the front door. 

There was a flurry of motion as everyone went out to the couple moving trucks that were stationed outside with items from the apartment, the bar, and various houses that were previously owned by All For One that Izuku and Kurogiri had ransacked for furniture(including a pool table and a hot tub that they’d be installing later). 

Everyone was slowly settling into the new house, and Izuku was glad that they were all getting along with one another. Kacchan had finally gotten over the shock of the vigilante personas, the disgust of having villains around him, and was finally becoming friends with the group as they set up the kitchen. Surprisingly, he and Kurogiri had set up a kitchen schedule of Kacchan cooking dinner, Kurogiri cooking breakfast, and one of the housemates cooking lunch on alternating days. Izuku had worked with Hitoshi and Kacchan on making a cleaning schedule to make sure that everyone was putting their own fair share of work into keeping the house neat and tidy. Izuku was certain that they’d also be coming up with a penalty system for those not participating in the chore schedule, though they’d leave that for another date. 

The best part was that the house had two extra guest rooms, meaning that people could come and visit their raucous family and spend the night if they dared. Izuku imagined that the other League members that weren’t living with them might at the very least come visit, as well as Kacchan’s parents. His plan was to at the very least get Shouto out of his dad’s house, whether that was to come spend the night a couple times, or move in altogether, he wasn’t sure yet. 

And the rooms were huge . Hitoshi and Izuku were still sharing a room, even though they were still fresh into their relationship. They found it easier to sleep if they were together, both having insomnia, even if they never went past kissing and cuddling. They were still teenagers, and new to friendships let alone relationships. Of course, having a house full of nosy people wasn’t usual for them. They stepped out of their room and immediately wished they’d taken the window. 

“Where exactly do you think you’re going?” Kacchan asked them, standing against the wall with his arms crossed. 

Medusa sighed and shot Echo a glare. “Excuse me for wanting to take the door instead of the window ,” Echo shot at their partner. 

“Why are you even going out tonight?” Kacchan huffed. 

“We haven’t been on patrol in ages ,” Medusa whined. “Besides, with All for One not heading the underworld of villains, there’s bound to be fighting about who’s gonna take the role. Though one has already stepped up.” 

“Who?” Echo asked, tilting their head. Medusa hadn’t talked to them about this yet. 

“The Yakuza. They’re pretty old school, but their new leader is vicious,” Medusa explained. “Tonight I want to place my snakes around and see if we can get any input on them or not.”

“Any chance I can go with you?” Kacchan asked, seeming to already know the answer. 

“I swear by the Styx, I would never let you come out on vigilante patrols until you passed my training,” Medusa said in a harsh tone, leaving no room for argument. “This asshole decided to follow me out, but only after I’d already been training them which is why I allowed it.” 

Echo hummed in amusement and there was a smug glint in their eye. 

“Or you just wanted to get with them and decided the more time spent together the better,” Kacchan huffed, rolling his eyes. 

Medusa preened at the way Kacchan used ‘them,’ he had been shocked at first at the preference, but didn’t care besides that. Yet, he was still an asshole for calling them out like that. “Again, they’d already been training with me. I wouldn’t let anyone come with me unless I was sure that they could keep up safely and legally.” 

“You’re a vigilante, dumbass. There’s nothing legal about it!” Kacchan shouted, leaning towards the pair. 

“I’m quirkless! And Echo doesn’t use their quirk, only support gear! Therefore, it isn’t against the law by a biased technicality!” Medusa shouted back. 

“Aizawa-san is going to kill you when he finds out,” Kacchan said, leaning back against the wall again in exasperated acceptance. 

“Aizawa-sensei doesn’t have to know shit,” Medusa countered. “Besides, when he finds out, it’ll probably be too late, so it doesn’t matter.”

“It’s literally already too late,” Echo said, laughter hidden in their voice. 

Medusa rolled their eyes and grabbed Echo’s hands. “We’ll be back late, so don’t stay up. I don’t wanna deal with a sleep-deprived Kacchan tomorrow!” Then, Medusa ran, dragging Echo away from the exploding blonde. 

They still lived fairly close to UA, within walking distance, so their patrol route wasn’t too different. Yet, they both wanted fresh air, and a sense of quietness, so they ventured into the busier parts of the city, jumping over rooftops instead of ducking between alleyways. 

The night was busy, which wasn’t unexpected. Losing a king of the underworld led to villains wanting to fill that void. They came across drug deals, mobbings, hit and runs, and even territory fights. Poor Tsukauchi and Eraserhead were also having a busy night with all the calls they received from Medusa and Echo. They tried to lessen the stress by adding in jokes, but they had a feeling that the two adults didn’t find them nearly as funny as the teens did. 

It wasn’t until they were lazily walking along alleyways on their way home in the early hours of morning that they encountered real trouble. Or as real trouble as a little girl knocking over Medusa can get. She’d careened out of the alley they walked past and barreled into his legs. Echo immediately jumped into a fighting stance at the thought of a threat, but relaxed as they noticed the child. 

“Woah, woah,” Medusa said, activating pink light in their contacts, choker, and snakes’ eyes. The little girl froze as Medusa picked her up and stood and they could feel her racing heartbeat start to slow down with the calming light. 

“Are you okay?” Echo asked in a quiet, soft voice. It was a tone they rarely used and Medusa loved it. The little girl shook her head and the two vigilantes met each other’s eyes. 

‘What if she’s being followed?” Echo signs. 

Medusa’s eyes widened and they looked around quickly before spotting a fire escape and pointing towards it. Echo got their message immediately and ran towards it, pulling it down so that Medusa could easily climb with the girl in their arms. 

Though it was still a little difficult, they both made it up to the roof, Echo having pulled up the fire escape once they were both on it to hide their escape, just before they saw the girl’s pursuer. If they hadn’t moved as quickly and quietly as they had, they would have been caught red handed, and Medusa knew exactly who this villain was. They quickly handed the little girl to Echo and signed for them to position themselves in the middle of the roof as they walked towards the edge. They made sure that the snakes were recording footage before sending one slithering down towards Kai Chisaki. Also known as Overhaul and leader of the Shie Hassaikai Yakuza group, who had been the first to fill the gaping hole in the underworld that All for One had left when arrested. Medusa had been trying to keep tabs on their movements, mainly only getting glimpses of them and snippets of conversations through their microbots that they had placed around the city. 

The Yakuza leader stalked through the alley and, not finding his charge, growled in frustration. He quickly went back the way he came and took the other turn at the intersection. Medusa let out a breath in relief as Chisaki left their sight then turned back to their partner and the little girl who was shaking with sobs despite not making any noise. Her silent crying was disturbing and Medusa felt their heart squeeze at the sight of the terrified little girl in their partner’s arms. 

“He seems to be gone for now, but let’s keep to the rooftops. Echo, will you take my bandolier and strap her to my back?” Medusa asked. They felt a sense of calm wash over them despite the anxiety of the situation. 

Echo nodded and Medusa took off their bandolier, laying it on the floor. Echo quickly transferred the little girl to their back and then used the cords in Medusa’s belt to hold her in place before strapping Medusa's bandolier to their chest. The girl was still quietly sobbing as Medusa turned their head towards her as best as they could. 

“What’s your name kiddo?” Medusa asked. 

“E-Eri,” the girl whispered. 

“Would you like to come home with me and Echo for the night, Eri?” Medusa asked gently. 

The little girl nodded against their neck and Medusa smiled even though she couldn’t see it. 

“Alright, we have an extra room already, so it’s perfect!” Medusa cheered. “There’s also tons of babysitters at the house that would just love to play with you, I’m sure.”

That got a surprised giggle out of Eri and Medusa counted it as a win. “Alright Eri, you’re strapped in, but we’re gonna jump, so I need you to hold real tight, okay?” 

The little girl nodded and tightened her grip on Medusa’s suit and the two vigilantes nodded at each other before taking a running start and leaping across the rooftops. Medusa tried to be as gentle as they could, but it was a bit hard to be gentle when rooftop jumping. 

They figured they were safe after a couple miles, and the strategic placement of Medusa’s extra snakes helped confirm that Chisaki was still prowling the same area, though he seemed to be yelling at his phone, presumably about getting a search team to find Eri. Medusa ordered their snakes to travel back to them and gestured for Echo to climb down into the alley. 

Medusa quickly followed and Eri let her grip loosen minutely as they were back on solid, level ground. Yet, Medusa cursed their luck because leaning against the alley wall at the bottom of the fire escape was Eraserhead. Fuck . 

Chapter Text

Medusa quickly followed and Eri let her grip loosen minutely as they were back on solid, level ground. Yet, Medusa cursed their luck because leaning against the alley wall at the bottom of the fire escape was Eraserhead. Fuck .

Eri screeched and ducked behind Medusa, effectively untying his mask and showing his face. Double fuck . 

“...Izuku?” Aizawa asked. 

“I know we were joking about Aizawa finding out about us just a couple hours ago, but this really wasn’t how I was expecting it to happen,” Echo sighed. 

“Hitoshi?” Aizawa asked. He looked between the two dumbfoundedly, and it would’ve been funny if Izuku didn’t know he was in serious shit from his teacher on top of trying to escape from a Yakuza leader with his ward. 

“Wanna come to our house and have coffee?” Izuku asked. He didn’t even try to smother the exhaustion out of his voice. There was no winning this one. “I kinda need to get Eri here off of the streets and our house is the safest place right now.” 

Aizawa, bless his rationality or simply his love of coffee, simply nodded and waved for them to lead the way. 

“You did not just invite our teacher over to our house where we are hiding the League members,” Hitoshi hissed at Izuku, pulling off his mask. 

“I’m too tired to deal with this on the street and we really can’t take the chance that Chisaki finds Eri,” Izuku said to his boyfriend. 

Eri whimpered at the mention of her previous guardian’s name and Izuku rubbed her legs. 

“Don’t worry, Eri. We’re going to keep you safe,” Izuku reassured. 

“What about the man behind us?” Eri whispered into his ear. 

“He’s our teacher, he’s safe too. He’s just mad because we’re acting as heroes before we got our licenses,” Izuku explained. 

Eri nodded and laid against his back again. At least she was calmer and once again her heart rate had lowered to a normal beating rhythm. This girl really didn’t need any more anxiety. 

Given that they’d already raced across the rooftops of the city, they were only a block or so away from their house when Aizawa had found them, so it wasn’t long before they were opening the door and stepping inside. They didn’t call out that they were home due to the early hour of the morning and not wanting to wake anyone up. They simply took off their shoes and stepped into the kitchen. Eri was now asleep on Izuku’s back, so he excused himself to take her to the guest room that was upstairs and right next to his and Hitoshi’s room before unstrapping her from his back and tucking her into the bed. They could make sure that she got a proper bath and clothing tomorrow. 

When he returned to the kitchen, it smelled strongly of coffee and Kacchan had joined them. Izuku sighed in exasperation. Of course , Kacchan was already awake. 

“I didn’t know shit until about a week ago,” Kacchan defended himself. 

“True,” Izuku chimed, accepting a mug of coffee from his boyfriend. “He only found out after we escaped Hosu when we were coming back from a patrol.”

Aizawa sighed and chugged his coffee. Hitoshi immediately refilled it then took the pot back to the counter to make more. “So, you’ve been Medusa this whole time?” Aizawa asked. 

Hitoshi huffed a laugh. “We really thought you knew since the Sports Festival.” 

Izuku buried his head in his hands and groaned. “Don’t remind me.” 

“We had suspicions, but there was no proof. We thought Medusa had a quirk,” Aizawa said, ignoring Izuku’s embarrassment. 

Izuku looked up from his hand with a sharp glint in his eye, embarrassment forgotten. “That was the point. I use microbots that I made in the shape of snakes and use a bit of color theory to distract my opponents. Also, Nedzu pulled all the proof and connections between Medusa and me. That’s why I’m his personal student.”

This caused Aizawa to groan. “Damn rat,” he muttered. 

“Zuzu?” Toga whispered, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as she stumbled into the kitchen. 

Aizawa immediately got in a defensive position, but Izuku had already jumped out of his chair and was standing in front of Toga. 

“Hey, Himi, what’s up?” Izuku asked, ignoring the weird look she was giving him. 

“I couldn’t sleep and the lights were on,” Toga explained. 

Izuku smiled and ruffled her hair. “We have a new guest up in the room next to mine, can you do me a favor and check in on her? She should be sleeping, so be extra quiet. She’ll be staying with us for a while and I want to make sure she’s comfortable.” 

Toga’s eyes gleamed. “Of course Zu-kun!” 

Izuku smiled at her and patted the top of her head before she took off for the stairs. He sighed and turned back to the group in the kitchen. “So, that’s another of our housemates,” he said by way of explanation to the still-tense Underground Hero. 

“Toga Himiko. The blood-quirked villain. Your housemate,” Aizawa drawled.

Izuku shrugged as he sat back down. “We’ve also got Jin Bubaigawara, formerly known as Twice; Dabi; Tenko Shimura, formerly known as Tomura Shigaraki; and Kurogiri as housemates. The League disbanded and they needed a place to stay while they get back on their feet and move away from villainy. Would we be able to call ourselves heroes if we turned them down, Aizawa-sensei?” Izuku knew there was a glint in his eyes as he made eye contact with his teacher. 

Aizawa sighed again as he retook his seat. “Problem children. Does Nedzu know about this?” 

“Yup!” Izuku chimed. “How do you think we got the house in the first place?” 

“We didn’t sign up for this either, Sensei,” Hitoshi added to Izuku’s dismay. 

“What he said,” Kacchan agreed, jutting a thumb at Hitoshi. 

“Hey!” Izuku called out, glaring at the two boys. “You both definitely agreed to letting them move in!” 

“First off,” Kacchan started, putting a finger in the air. “You didn’t even tell me we were moving until you already bought the house. Second,” he continued, raising a second finger, “we were talking about you getting a loan from Nedzu, not housing former villains.” Hitoshi nodded in confirmation that he had been talking about the same thing. 

Izuku huffed and leaned back in his chair. “I guess that’s fair.”

Kacchan and Hitoshi huffed in amusement. 

“Does anyone have a plan for bringing the villains into civilian lifestyles?” Aizawa asked. “Or are you just gonna house them and send them out and about?” 

“We have a grounding system in place already,” Hitoshi said, very helpfully. Aizawa raised an eyebrow at him. “If they step a toe out of line, then they get grounded to house chore duties for a week. Second offense raises it to a month. Third offense gets them sent to Nedzu. Oh, and each offense gets a lecture from Izuku!” 

Aizawa groaned. “So, if they go out and murder someone, you decided their punishment is a lecture and doing chores ?”

“Not quite,” Izuku explained. “Besides, now that All for One is out of the picture, the likelihood of them committing murder is much lower. They also have a lot more to lose now. But, on the off chance that they do murder someone, depending on who it is, then we’d probably have to send them to prison. But, Nedzu gets a hold of them first.” 

“What, exactly, did you mean by ‘depending on who it is,’ Problem Child?” Aizawa asked with a little fear and apprehension leaking into his voice and features. 

“Well, if Dabi wants to kill Endeavor, then I’m certainly not going to blame him for it,” Izuku explained. “I guess that’s really the only case where they probably wouldn’t get in trouble though.”

“Endeavor is the current Number One Pro Hero,” Aizawa said with shock written into his features. 

“Yeah, and if anybody took the time to talk to his family, they’d find out what a horrible person he was. But,” Izuku stopped Aizawa from interrupting him by holding a finger up. “It’s not my life, I’m not one of his kids, so I can’t tell the story. You’ll have to ask one of the Todoroki’s.” 

Aizawa sighed for probably the 10th time that night. “I’m going home.” 

“Probably for the best,” Kacchan chimed in. “You’ll only get more of a headache if you let him keep going.” 

“School starts next Monday and the Provisional Hero License Exam is two weeks after. Oh, and dorms are being implemented, but it’s optional, just give me your decision by Friday,” Aizawa dumped on them as he returned to the front room with the three students following him. “We’ll deal with all of whatever this is when I’m being paid to interact with you.” 

“See you Monday, Sensei!” Izuku chimed. 

“Good luck,” Kacchan scoffed. 

“See ya,” Hitoshi muttered. 

The three boys waved to the disgruntled teacher as he left their house before returning to the kitchen. 

“You could have told him your plan for getting them jobs and stuff,” Hitoshi said as they walked back. 

“ You’re the one that brought up the grounding system!” Izuku countered. 

“Yeah, and you decided to continue it by telling our teacher that you’d let Touya kill his dad! Except, you left out the crucial connection that, I don’t know, he’s his dad ,” Hitoshi said exasperatedly. 

“I honestly don’t know how he deals with the two of you,” Kacchan supplied helpfully. 

“He’s been doing just fine,” Izuku said cheerfully. “It’s actually really fun having him as a teacher, even with how tired he is all the time.”

“He’s tired and vicious,” Hitoshi said. “But, he’s a really good teacher.”

“Who’s the guest occupying the room upstairs?” Kacchan immediately questioned as soon as they were all sitting again. 

“Izuku decided to adopt a stray on our way home,” Hitoshi supplied. 

Izuku squawked at his boyfriend. “Hey! I decided to save a little girl who was most likely being tortured by the Yakuza!” 

“The Yakuza that you went out tonight to try to track down?” Kacchan asked. Izuku nodded in confirmation. “I thought you weren’t interacting with them and just setting up surveillance?” 

“Well, see, we were doing that. Only Eri decided to run into me and we had to save her!” Izuku defended. 

Kacchan sighed. “And I’m assuming as you were running away from the Yakuza, you ran into Aizawa and instead of having the confrontation in the city, you brought them both here so that the Yakuza didn’t find you?” 

“And here I thought Izuku was the analyst,” Hitoshi said mirthfully.

Kacchan clicked his tongue. “Growing up with the nerd had some perks.” 

“Kacchan has the brain and the brawn,” Izuku said, waving him off. “We’re lucky he decided to go into heroics.”

“Tch. Fuck off nerd,” Kacchan snapped. “As if I would ever stoop so low as to become a villain .”

“Kacchan, please refrain from that tone as we currently live with a handful of previous villains,” Izuku sighed. 

Kacchan’s eyes widened for a millisecond, barely noticeable before he turned his head. “Former villains. They’re different.”

“They tried killing your class,” Hitoshi drawled. 

“Not helping the case,” Izuku chimed. “Next topic! Operation: Reforming the League of Villains!”

Kacchan groaned. “What do I have to do with this?”

“As someone living in the House of Reformation, you have to help keep the League in check,” Izuku said. 

“I didn’t sign up for this!” Kacchan yelled.

“Shut up or you’ll wake up the house,” Hitoshi said, pouring himself another cup of coffee. 

“Besides, it counts as community service according to Nedzu, which you need to become a hero,” Izuku supplied. “So count this as getting ahead of your class.” 

Kacchan clicked his tongue and folded his arms. “Fine.” 

Izuku clapped his hands together before pulling out a notebook from seemingly nowhere and slapping it in on the counter. “Alright! Now that we got that out of the way, let’s go through the plans for everyone!” 

“Magne, Spinner, and Compress are already good on jobs and housing,” Hitoshi said. “We just need to make sure that they don’t get in trouble.”

Izuku flipped to a blank page of his notebook and grabbed a pen out of his costume. “Magne is at a coffee shop,” he said, taking notes. “Spinner is working at a convenience store, and Compress is fulfilling his magic show dream. So we mainly have to work with who’s living with us.” 

“Why don't Twice and Kurogiri open a moving shop?” Kacchan asked. “With how fast it went moving here, I’m sure they’d make bank.” 

Izuku tapped his pen to the notebook. “Yes! Wait, that’s an amazing idea actually!” 

“Don’t act so fucking surprised,” Kacchan snapped. 

Izuku waved him off as he started taking notes again. “We’d have to get them set up with quirk usage licenses, but it shouldn’t be too hard. Plus if Compress allows Twice to make copies of him it’d go even quicker!” 

“Tenko could just work on becoming a professional streamer,” Hitoshi added. “I can’t really see him holding any other job.” 

Izuku laughed. “Yeah, same here. Plus, he’s, like, actually really good, so I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard, we just have to help him on what he’s putting on the internet and all that to help get him more views and subscribers.”

“Okay, so what about Toga?” Kacchan asked. “She’s technically still high school age but dropped out, right?”

“I think she dropped out in middle school or the first year of high school. She’s only a year above us. We’ll have to see if she wants to go back to school or try to get a job without schooling,” Izuku said. “I’m not really sure what job would fit with her quirk unless she was a crime scene investigator and helped identify bodies? That would actually work really well for bodies that are too damaged to get a read on their face for. Of course, we do have good technology to help with all that, but for someone to just immediately take on the victim’s face would probably speed up the process extremely. Oh and-”

“Izuku, you’ve devolved into muttering. Let’s just ask Toga what she wants to do when she comes back down,” Hitoshi interrupted. 

“Oh, sorry,” Izuku said, ducking his head. 

“Why don’t you two go and try to get some sleep before everyone wakes up?” Kacchan asked, grabbing their empty cups and taking them to the sink. “You’ve barely slept the past couple days and you were out all night.” 

Hitoshi yawned. “A nap sounds pretty nice right about now.” 

“Maybe you’re right,” Izuku mumbled, jotting down notes for what Toga could do. 

Hitoshi closed Izuku’s notebook on top of his hand, stopping him from writing anymore. “That means now , Zu,” he said. 

Izuku groaned. “ Fine , I’m coming.”

“See ya later, lovebirds,” Kacchan snickered. 

Izuku squawked in protest which only made Kacchan laugh harder before Hitoshi pulled Izuku out of the kitchen and up to their room. 

Chapter Text

Himiko knocking on the door was not how Izuku was wanting to wake up. But, then he remembered what had happened on patrol last night and gently pulled away from Hitoshi to answer the door. 

“What?” Izuku asked, blinking slowly as he registered Himiko’s long blonde hair falling past her shoulders.  

“Little Eri-chan was asking for you, she’s really freaked out,” Himiko said hurriedly. 

Izuku immediately pushed out of the doorway and closed the door behind him before going around the corner and down the hall into Eri’s room. “Eri?” 

“Zuku?” Eri whimpered. She was curled up in a ball in the corner of her room away from the window and door. 

Izuku took slow steps towards her before crouching in front of her. “What’s wrong Eri?” 

“I-” Eri sniffled. “I thought you left.” 

Izuku’s heart broke, just a little, maybe a lot . “Oh, Eri,” he whispered, reaching out and running his fingers gently through her hair. “You’re safe here. I’m not going anywhere, I pinky promise.” 

“Pinky promise?” Eri asked, looking up at him with a hint of curiosity. 

“Here,” Izuku said in a quiet but excited tone, holding out his pinky finger. “When we lock our pinkies together, it’s a binding promise that can never ever be broken, by anything .” 

“Never?” Eri asked, her eyes lighting up as she held out her own pinky. 

“Never ever,” Izuku confirmed, locking their pinkies together. “I pinky promise that I will always forever be with you.” 

Eri gave a short, determined nod in turn. “Then I pinky promise that I will never use my curse on you.” 

Izuku froze. “What?”

“I pinky promise that I won’t use my curse on you,” Eri said again, slower and making sure she was enunciating her words as if he simply hadn’t heard her. 

“Curse? What’s your curse, Eri?” Izuku asked, tilting his head and lowering their hands. 

“I make people disappear. I made Daddy disappear and that’s why Mama left me with O- the mask man,” Eri explained. She had flinched right before almost saying ‘Overhaul.’

“Is that part of your quirk?” Izuku asked, shifting his hand so he was holding hers gently. 

Eri shook her head. “Mask man said it was a curse. He needed me so I could make other people’s curses go away.” 

Izuku silently cursed. Overhaul was somehow using Eri to try to make people quirkless? How was that even possible? “Eri, can you explain exactly how your qui- curse works?” 

“I- I’m not sure. It just makes people disappear,” Eri said quietly, ducking her head. 

“Well, let me know if it causes any problems, okay? We’ll figure out exactly how it works later, does that sound okay to you?” Izuku asked. 

“Are you going to use my curse, too?” Eri asked, head still ducked. 

Izuku gave her hand a little squeeze and brought his other hand up to gently raise her chin until he could look her in the eyes. “I will never use your quirk like that man did, Eri. Your quirk is your own. It is your own special gift that you get to grow and cultivate and flourish as you see fit. I will help you in making sure that you’re safe and don’t get hurt or hurt others, but it is your power , nobody else’s.” 

Eri’s eyes teared up and her lip wobbled before the cascade of tears came pouring down her face. And damn everything to hell because Izuku was a sympathy crier and that started his own waterworks show as he pulled Eri close and held her until her breaths evened out. 

There was a quiet knock on the door and Izuku lifted his head to see Hitoshi hovering in the doorway with a concerned look. ‘ Everything okay? ’ He signed. 

Izuku gave a slight nod in response before lifting a hand to shoo his lovely, hovering , boyfriend away. He turned his full attention back to Eri as he started rubbing circles on Eri’s back. 

He sighed as he heard footsteps that he knew were Hitoshi’s padding back towards the door. Didn’t he shoo him away not even a minute ago? Did he have no respect in this house? 

He looked back up at the doorway and- oh . Oh, he loved his boyfriend so much. He gave him a slight nod with a small smile and his boyfriend quietly padded over. 

“Eri?” Hitoshi asked quietly. 

She tensed up in Izuku’s arms, but he hummed and pulled back from her slightly, giving her a big grin when she looked at him worriedly. 

“It’s okay Eri, you remember Hitoshi, right? He was with us last night,” Izuku prompted. 

Eri gave a small nod before looking over at Hitoshi and Izuku wished he had a camera to capture the moment when she froze, eyes going wide, and her mouth forming a small ‘o.’ 

“I brought you someone to play with,” Hitoshi explained. “Her name is Athena.” He walked closer and crouched down next to the two, setting the black abyss on the floor. 

Eri simply stared at the kitten with awe. 

“You can pet her,” Izuku offered, moving his own hand to do exactly that. 

“What if I hurt her?” Eri whimpered. 

“You were just touching me and I’m fine Eri, don’t worry about it. Athena is a strong cat,” Izuku assured her. Eri was still hesitating, so Izuku gently grabbed her hand and moved it onto Athena’s back, rubbing it from her neck to her tail. “See? She’s perfectly fine.” 

Athena sniffed at Izuku’s arm before huffing and walking up to Eri. Hitoshi failed at suppressing his laughter and Izuku glared at him without any real heat. Eri was enraptured in the cat so Izuku stood and stretched out his limbs. He didn’t know how long he’d been on the floor with her, but it was long enough that his limbs had started to lock up. 

“I’m gonna make some food with Hitoshi. Do you want to come or stay here with Athena?” Izuku asked the girl. 

“Athena, please,” Eri whispered as she continued petting the cat that had now crawled into her lap. 

Izuku chuckled and ruffled her hair affectionately. “Alright, I’ll bring something up for you. I’m not sure what all we have but is there anything in particular you want?” 

“Do you have apples?” Eri asked, finally looking up at him. 

Izuku gave her a small shrug. “I’m not sure, but if we don’t, I’ll make sure we get some on our next grocery run.” And by that he meant he would have Kurogiri immediately make a portal so he could buy some real quick. 

Izuku and Hitoshi quietly slipped out of the room and headed down the circular staircase to the first floor where the kitchen was. At least having rooms on the third floor meant they’d be getting leg exercise for sure everyday. 

“Is she okay?” Hitoshi asked once they’d reached the second floor. 

Izuku grimaced. “Chisaki told her her quirk was a fucking curse . And he was using her quirk to somehow make people quirkless. She was scared I was going to do the same fucking thing.” 

Hitoshi winced. “Oof. What’s her quirk?” 

“No clue. She said it made her dad disappear, but didn’t know anything else about it,” Izuku huffed. It was incredibly frustrating. 

“Well, if anyone’s going to figure out what her quirk is, it’s gonna be you and your crazy ass analysis,” Hitoshi said, gently bumping their shoulders together. 

Izuku huffed again. “I’ll have to talk to Nedzu about this.” 

“Okay, now that we’ve gotten a little settled into the house, we need to figure out how everything’s gonna work from here on out and set some ground rules,” Izuku said to the full dining table. 

Half of them glanced at him disinterestedly before returning to their food. Kacchan rolled his eyes, as did Dabi, and Eri only cocked her head in confusion. 

“Any rules that anyone wants to set right off the bat?” Izuku prompted. Having nine people under one roof was bound to not be the easiest dynamic, especially when three were going into heroics and five were ex-villains. 

“Laundry hours,” Dabi grunted. “I don’t want those loud ass machines keeping me up all night.” 

“Maybe you shouldn’t have chosen the room in the basement then, dumbass,” Kacchan sniped. 

Izuku sighed. No one could have a single conversation without any sass or conflict in this house. Besides Eri. Even Athena was included in that group. “Okay, we’ll set up a laundry schedule and hours that the machines can be used. To add to that, we’re going to create a chore chart. Obviously, your own spaces are yours to take care of, but communal areas need to be a joint effort to be kept clean and tidy. This includes dishes and cleaning bathrooms.”

Himiko scrunched her nose. “Do I really have to clean a bathroom ? After a bunch of boys ?” 

“We’re all pitching in Himi,” Hitoshi said. “We’ll split the bathrooms on each floor by those rooming on that floor and the one here will be cleaned on a rotation schedule with dishes and other chores.” 

“Are we just gonna talk chores all throughout dinner?” Tenko asked. 

Izuku shook his head. “No, I’ll draw up some mock schedules and we’ll rework them as needed later on. Are there any other rules that anyone wants to add before we move on?” 

“If any of y’all wake me up, I will rain hell upon you,” Kacchan said. 

“That’s not really a rule, and if you make sure to take your hearing aids out before going to bed that won’t be a problem,” Izuku countered. 

“Can we have a grocery list and cooking chart?” Himiko asked.

Izuku nodded. “That’s a good plan. I’ll put together a cooking schedule along with the chore schedule, and I’ll get a white board for the kitchen so that we can keep note of anything that we’re out of or low on. Obviously you should get it if you have the money and are already out and about, but we’ll figure something out for that as well.” 

“Noise levels need to be kept to a reasonable volume,” Hitoshi offered when it was quiet for a while. 

“Yeah, that’s a general rule for the whole neighborhood as well. Obviously we’re going to be more of a loud bunch, we can’t really stop that. But screaming should stay indoors and music needs to be a quiet volume from 10pm to 8am.” 

“No parties?” Twice asked. “Who would party with us anyways?!” 

“Parties are probably a no-go, but we’ll deal with that if it ever comes up. Is there anything else?” Izuku asked. After everyone had shook their heads, he shrugged. “Alright, as we get more comfortable in the house, there’s bound to be more rules just to make sure that we can all live here together comfortably. But, onto the next point: what everyone’s going to be doing. Magne is at her shop now, Compress is doing his magician shtick, and Spinner is off doing his thing. Does anyone have any plans?” 

“Does gaming count?” Tenko asked. 

Izuku laughed. “If you continue streaming and get enough subscribers that you start earning money then I don’t see why not.” 

“You should probably start recording your streams to post online, it could help boost your content,” Hitoshi added. 

“Whatever, as long as it’s not too much work,” Tenko shrugged off, returning to his food as he deemed the conversation unworthy of further attention. 

“I can pick up odd jobs here and there,” Dabi said. “And yes, they’ll be legal jobs.” 

Izuku huffed a laugh and nodded before turning to the rest of the group, but they just looked back at him blankly. Izuku sighed. 

“Just tell them your plans, nerd. No reason to hold onto them if they don’t know what to do anyways,” Kacchan grumbled. 

“Plans?” Himiko asked. 

Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. “I might’ve been trying to think up different career paths for you all when I got back this morning. I’m not sure how interested you’ll be.” 

“What’d you come up with for me?” Himiko asked, slamming her hands down on the table and leaning towards him. 

Izuku gave her a small, nervous smile. “Um, well, I’m not too sure how much schooling you’ve done, but I was thinking of working on getting you a certificate to test out of high school and maybe have you entered into a CSI program? You could use your quirk to help identify people that are unrecognizable if they have enough blood left.” 

Himiko sat back into her chair, tilting her head. “You’re in your first year of high school, so that means that I would be in my second year I guess. I’m not sure what program would allow me in, especially since I never finished middle school…”

“If it’s something that you’re interested in, I can work on it with Nedzu and we’ll figure something out,” Izuku offered. Himiko gave a noncommittal hum as she tapped a finger to her lip in thought. 

“What could I do?” Twice asked. “ No one will hire me! ” 

Izuku laughed a little. “Okay, hear us out. We were talking about this last night and came up with this crazy plan that would work so well .” 

Kurogiri cocked his head to the side. “And that is?” 

“Well, okay, so-” 

“Oh shut up Izu. The plan is to have Kurogiri and Twice open up a moving company with the chance of help from Compress,” Kacchan butted in. 

Izuku rolled his eyes at his friend. “Essentially, it would be the quickest and most efficient moving business once we got your quirk use licenses approved for it! Kurogiri could make portals between the two locations and Twice could make clones of himself and maybe Compress to quickly get everything moved over with no hassle! What do you think?”

Kurogiri hummed, lifting a hand to his chin. “That is a very legal, practical way to use my quirk if we can get the licenses.” 

“ And ,” Izuku added. “Twice, you wouldn’t have to work for anyone else. You and Kurogiri could be co-owners, it’d be your very own business!” 

“What if the customers don’t like me? They’ll kick me out of their house !” Twice countered. 

“I highly doubt anyone would care who you are if you prove that you’re able to make moving that much more efficient,” Hitoshi chimed. 

“This is a very interesting prospect,” Kurogiri noted. “I would like to talk more about it later and draft up what all we would need to do to get started.” 

Izuku nodded furiously, but then noticed that Eri was raising her hand slightly. “Eri? Did you have a question?” 

“If everyone else has a big plan, do I have one too?” Eri asked, looking nervously around the table. 

“Of course!” Izuku said, giving her a big smile. “It’s completely up to you, and we need to do some testing to see where you’re at, but our big plan for you is getting you enrolled in school!” 

“School?” Eri asked with a tilt of her head. 

“Yup!” Izuku agreed. “Kacchan, Hitoshi, and I all go to the same school, and Himi will be going to school soon too, maybe, so we want to make sure to get you enrolled in school as well!” 

“School is a place where you go to learn, though there’s a chance that we may hire a tutor for you or set you up with online school where you learn on a computer,” Hitoshi explained. 

“I want to go to school,” Eri said with a determined nod. 

“Perfect! I’ll have to meet with Nedzu for some stuff when we go back to school next week, and I’ll see if he has any recommendations for getting you set up!” Izuku said, leaning over and ruffling her hair which earned a small giggle in turn. 

Walking to school on their first day back was… strange. They lived closer, but had a lot more to deal with than they had when they’d lived at the apartment. Izuku had checked in with everyone’s schedules for the day despite their grumbling and jabs at him acting like an overprotective father. But really, he needed to know when and where they’d be, not only for his daily check ins, but also to make sure that there was always someone home with Eri, and that the rest were within close range for protection if need be. Not that Chisaki knew where they’d moved Eri to, but one could never be too safe. 

Kacchan had literally pulled Izuku out the door, yelling that he was going to make them late on their first day back to school despite it only being a 15 minute walk and it was still over half an hour before school even started. 

What Izuku had forgotten to factor in though was that he and Hitoshi had class with Aizawa first thing in the morning. Aizawa… who they’d run into on a vigilante patrol. Aizawa… who Izuku had invited to their house for coffee. Aizawa… who now knew they were vigilantes and were housing ex-villains . Aizawa… whose red eyes were currently directed right at him. Fuck . 

Chapter Text

Izuku put on his most cheerful, shit-eating grin. “Good morning Aizawa-sensei!” 

“Morning,” Hitoshi offered, plopping onto one of the couches. 

Izuku hopped over and plopped down right next to his boyfriend, trying to ignore the intense glare his teacher was sending his way. 

“So, there’s a lot to discuss today,” Aizawa drawled as his eyes returned to their normal black color. 

“Oh!” Izuku said, hopping up. “I almost forgot! Nedzu and I set up a meeting to discuss some stuff regarding Eri-chan!” 

“Sit. Down.” Aizawa demanded, eyes flashing red. 

Izuku knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that there was no reason for him to fear Aizawa’s quirk. It wasn’t like there was anything for him to erase anyways. But the red flash and the floating hair were a very effective intimidation factor. Izuku immediately sat back down, deflating. There was no getting out of this then. Oh well, he could get this over with then go talk to Nedzu at lunch or something. 

“How long?” Aizawa asked them.

“How long what?” Izuku countered, tilting his head with an innocent look upon his face. 

“Don’t play dumb. How long have you two been running around as Medusa and Echo?” Aizawa snapped, eyes flashing red again. 

Izuku sighed. “Longer than the Underground Hero community has known about us, that’s for sure.”

Hitoshi raised his hand a little before speaking even though he didn’t bother waiting to be called on. “Echo didn’t exist until this year.”

Aizawa pinched the bridge of his nose. “And why are you two running around at night as Medusa and Echo?”

“To keep this idiot in check,” Hitoshi immediately supplied, earning an offended scoff from his boyfriend. 

“ Rude . Medusa exists for many things, though all you have to do is search a little into her history to find the basis of it all,” Izuku explained, ever so helpfully. 

Aizawa sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’re both nuisances and I don’t have enough energy to deal with this. If Nedzu knows, then I don’t give a shit.” 

“Did Eraserhead just cuss in our class?” Hitoshi gasped, throwing a hand up to his chest and lying back into Izuku’s lap. 

“Shut up. Onto the next order of business. The provisional hero license exam is approaching and you must prepare for it,” Aizawa announced. 

Both boys perked up at that and sat forward on the couch. 

“This being said, the hero students will be working on super moves with their quirks,” Aizawa continued. Both boys deflated at this. “As we all know, you two don’t have quirks that we would really come up with super moves for, so we’ll be doing alternate training for you. It will start next week as Nedzu and I are finalizing plans for it.” 

The boys nodded as they pondered what their training might contain.

“Now, Izuku you have a meeting with Nedzu which is stupidly taking up our training time, but get,” Aizawa intoned, standing from the couch. 

Izuku reached out and squeezed Hitoshi’s hand before he grabbed his backpack and left the room to head up to Nedzu’s office. It was quite a bit away from the 1-U classroom, but there weren’t any students blocking the hallways, so Izuku was quickly standing in front of the principal’s door, with it automatically swinging open. 

“Ah, Izuku! Just on time!” Nedzu called, pouring a cup of tea. 

“Hello, Nedzu,” Izuku cheered as he entered the room and sat on one of the plush chairs in front of Nedzu’s desk. 

“Before we start, are there any inquiries you have for me?” Nedzu asked, sipping from his own cup of tea. 

“Ah, actually. I was hoping to discuss how to get schooling for Eri?” Izuku asked. 

“Ah, yes. That is quite an important topic,” Nedzu hummed. “Are you thinking in-person schooling or online?” 

“I think in-person would be good, but I think that online would be best for now until we find out what’s going on with her background with the Yakuza,” Izuku explained, twisting his hands. 

“Yes, they do cause quite a problem, though there is a hero agency that is currently working on tracking them down,” Nedzu explained. “There are several online schooling programs that we could sign her up for and she could complete them either at the house or here with you.” 

Izuku tilted his head. “Oh, I didn’t think of her coming here as an option.” 

Nedzu smiled. “If there’s no one there to babysit her, she’s always welcome to come sit in on your classes while she completes her own work. I’m sure the other students would enjoy having her.” 

Izuku hummed. “I really appreciate that! I’ll start looking at online schools tonight, do you mind going over the top couple to make sure that I didn’t miss anything tomorrow?” 

“I would be glad to! Now that we’ve settled that, is there anything else?” Nedzu asked. 

Izuku sipped from his tea, trying to rack his brain for anything else he might have wanted to ask Nedzu about. Suddenly his eyes lit up. “Oh! So, for provisional hero training, we’re doing something other than the hero course students and Aizawa said you were planning something, but I have a feeling that nothing is actually planned yet, is that right?” 

Nedzu cackled for a moment before containing himself. “Yes, that would be quite correct.” 

Izuku smirked. “Okay, so I might have a plan for an intensive training exercise…”

Nedzu leaned forward, steepling his fingers together. “And just how much would this plan upset Aizawa?” 

Izuku’s eyes gleamed with mischief. “There’s a reason why I came to ask you.” 

Nedzu grinned back at him, fully showing off his pointy teeth. “Then let’s hear it.” 

“Why the fuck are they here?” Aizawa drawled as he met Izuku, Hitoshi, and Kacchan at the front gates. 

“We have guest passes!” Himiko cheered, waving said pass around in the air. 

Aizawa sighed. “I need more coffee.” 

“Izuku told me to give this to the grumpy man with the scarf,” Eri said, holding a thermos out to Aizawa. 

“New favorite problem child,” Aizawa grunted, grabbing the thermos. He uncapped it and started gulping it before turning to the side and spitting it out in the grass. “What the absolute fuck .”

“It’s tea!” Izuku cheered. 

“Immediately revoked status of favorite problem child,” Aizawa growled, capping the thermos and thrusting it into Izuku’s hands. 

“You really had to do him like that?” Kacchan huffed, clearly trying to hide his amusement and failing. 

“Did I do something wrong?” Eri asked, glancing around the group worriedly. 

“No, of course not sweetie. I just must have made the wrong drink by accident,” Izuku reassured her. 

Atsuhiro sighed before holding a marble out to Aizawa. Aizawa eyed it warily before taking it and Atsuhiro demarbaled the item to reveal a new thermos. Aizawa opened it and hesitantly sniffed at it before taking a drink and sighing in relief. 

“Trust Compress to have actual bean juice on him,” Hitoshi laughed. 

“This is high quality bean juice and I hate both of you and tea,” Aizawa growled. He pointed at Atsuhiro. “He’s my favorite as of right now.” He pointed at Eri. “She’s my other favorite.” 

Izuku rolled his eyes and leaned over to whisper to Hitoshi. “Even Aizawa can’t resist her charm.” 

Hitoshi snickered. 

“Can we go to class now, Sensei?” Izuku asked. 

“You never answered why this bunch is here,” Aizawa grunted before taking another large gulp of his coffee. 

“Nedzu said that they were part of today’s lesson plan and since that left no one to babysit Eri, she’s come with us to work on online schooling,” Izuku explained with a smirk. 

“Fucking rat,” Aizawa grumbled. He turned and walked towards the UA building, waving a hand for them all to follow. “Bakugou get to class before you’re late,” he called back. 

Kacchan grumbled. “I already have a super move, why can’t I join your class today?” 

“Go to your damn class,” Aizawa said, ignoring his question. 

Kacchan huffed and waved to Izuku as he stormed ahead to the 1-A classroom. 

“Why isn’t Uncle Kacchan coming?” Eri whispered to Izuku. 

Izuku picked her up as they started to follow Aizawa to the 1-U classroom. “He isn’t in my class, but I’m sure we’ll see him in a minute.” 

“Okay,” Eri said before turning her gaze to look at the new environment. 

“Everyone inside while I make a call,” Aizawa said as he stood at the doorway. 

Izuku ushered everyone into their homeroom and Dabi and Hitoshi immediately fell onto the couch while the others looked around the room, noting the lack of furniture. 

“Is it really just you two in the class?” Tenko asked. 

“Yup! It’s for underground heroics and we were the only two to express interest during the entrance exams,” Izuku explained. “It’s pretty much a trial course as they’ve never had a class like this before, so they figured they’d only select the students that seemed really interested.” 

“And what about the other hero brats?” Dabi asked. 

“There’s two courses for hero students in the first year. We mainly interact with 1-A who Tenko attacked, but every once in a while we interact with other classes too.” 

“Aren’t you also in support?” Kurogiri asked, having heard such from one of the boys’ gaming sessions. 

“That kid doesn’t know what rest is unless he’s unconscious,” Hitoshi drawled. 

“‘That kid’ is your boyfriend, asshole,” Izuku sniped back. 

“Doesn’t deny my statement though,” Hitoshi said smugly. 

Izuku rolled his eyes, but before he could form a response, Aizawa walked into the classroom with Kacchan, Shouto, and Kaminari following behind him. Izuku raised his eyebrows at the group. “Um, Sensei, what are they doing here?” 

“Thirteen sent them down since apparently they have super moves thanks to their analyst friend ,” Aizawa drawled, glaring daggers at Izuku. 

“Oh,” Izuku said, before brightening up. “Good job you guys!” 

“Thanks for your help!” Kaminari shouted. 

“Whatever, just more brats to babysit. Go change into your gym uniform and head to Gym Delta. You all, with me,” Aizawa ordered, gesturing to the League as he briskly left the room. 

Izuku sent them slightly apologetic looks as he passed Eri to Himiko who cooed at her as they left the room. 

“Dude, was that the League of Villains?” Kaminari asked nervously. 

“Fucking idiots,” Kacchan grumbled, turning and heading towards the locker room. 

Izuku shrugged. “Uh, yeah, they’re kind of disbanded now.” He followed Kacchan and the rest filed in behind him. 

“How do you know them? And who was that little girl?” Shouto asked, coming to stand to his left as Hitoshi stood to his right and grabbed his hand. 

“Ah, I’ve kinda been friends with their leader since I was in middle school? I didn’t really know he was a villain. Well, actually, no, nevermind. But, the little girl is someone I rescued from a different villain. They’re currently working on his case and I have temporary guardianship over her,” Izuku explained. Hitoshi snorted at his lackluster explanation and Izuku bumped their shoulders together, sending him a glare. 

“How do you have guardianship? I thought only adults could do that?” Kaminari asked from the left of Shouto. 

“I’m actually a legal adult. I got emancipated,” Izuku said, waving his hand dismissively. 

“Can I do that too?” Shouto asked as they reached the locker room. 

“Technically yeah, though it might be a little harder for you,” Izuku said. “I’d be happy to help though!” 

Shouto’s eyes lit up as he headed towards his locker, mumbling under his breath. Izuku and Hitoshi separated from Kaminari, who sent them an inquiring look, as they moved to their own lockers, away from the 1-A and 1-B lockers. Most of the students still thought that they were just hybrid students, but a select few had found out that they were in a separate heroics course, mainly Kacchan and Mei. 

They pulled out their uniforms and quickly changed into them before exiting the room and heading towards the gym they were assigned. They opened the door and found the League entertaining Eri while Aizawa watched on with a cautious eye and… Nedzu sat with a full ass tea set. 

Izuku sighed. “Probably not one of my smartest plans.” 

“Too late for that thought,” Hitoshi chimed as the other boys joined them in the gym. 

“Perfect! You’re all here!” Nedzu called out, gathering everyone’s attention. “Now, Eri, why don’t you come sit and have some tea with me while these kiddos get some training in… quirkless of course.” 

Chapter Text

“Quirkless?” Shouto asked, tilting his head. 

“Yup!” Nedzu chirped. “The League is fully allowed to use their quirks, but UA students are to fight quirkless.” 

“What the hell, rat?” Kacchan snapped. “We’re fighting all these fucks without quirks?” 

“Quite so,” Nedzu hummed, ignoring Kacchan’s disrespect. 

“What? You think you can’t take us?” Dabi asked, smirking. 

Kacchan whipped his head towards the flame user. “Don’t act as if I don’t know where you sleep,” he growled. 

“Ooh, I’m so scared,” Dabi mocked, waving his hands around. 

“You wanna fucking go?” Kacchan snarled. 

“And go ahead and start the exercise. Again, no quirks problem children. I will erase them,” Aizawa drawled as Kacchan launched himself at Dabi.

The fire user laughed as he dodged Kacchan’s attack and the next thing Izuku knew, each of his friends were throwing themselves at each other as he watched the fight. Himiko tried jumping at him with a knife, but Izuku ducked to the side and hit her wrist to make her drop the knife. 

“Sneaking up on me has never worked Himi,” Izuku chided. 

“You never know!” Himiko cheered out as she pounced towards him again, this time joined by Jin. 

Izuku huffed in frustration, but it was far from the first time in which he’d been outnumbered in a fight. The problem was that he usually didn’t have teammates also fighting against opponents on either side of him. 

Kacchan was fighting very loudly against Dabi while Hitoshi, Sho, and Kami were attempting to fight Kurogiri, Tenko, and Atsuhiro. Fighting against those three quirkless was a horrid matchup, but Shouto was a recommendation student and Hitoshi had been training with Izuku, so they were making do. 

“Eyes over here, Bush,” Jin mocked as he went to kick Izuku’s legs out from under him. 

Izuku jumped over the kick and threw a hand out to chop the back of Himiko’s neck as she missed her own swipe at him. “You act as if you haven’t seen me fight before. I don’t have to pull a Theseus to defeat you,” Izuku chided as he caught Himiko’s unconscious form and lowered her to the floor gently. 

“One: that doesn’t make any damn sense. Who the fuck is Theseus? Two: I only saw you a couple times,” Jin countered. 

“Should’ve been enough to know I don’t fuck around,” Izuku said as he jumped forward and swept Jin’s legs from under him in the same move he’d tried only moment’s prior. 

“You’re also fighting quirkless when you could’ve immediately overwhelmed us. Too late for that now though I suppose,” Izuku hummed in disappointment. Just as Jin realized his mistake and went to make clones, Izuku said, “I'll explain the myth of Theseus when you wake up,” and knocked him out with a powerful punch to the back of his head. 

A burst of blue flames shot towards Izuku and he barely managed to roll out of the way in time. “Are you trying to fucking kill me, asshole?” Izuku shouted at his friends. 

“The point of this exercise is to train quirkless against powerful quirks,” Nedzu chirped from where he was calmly sipping tea with Eri while Aizawa drank his coffee. 

“Though please try not to seriously injure the students,” Aizawa drawled. “Recovery Girl is already going to be pissed enough as it is.” 

“She is kinda scary,” Denki muttered as he ducked underneath Tenko’s hand. 

“She hit me with her syringe cane,” Shouto grumbled, punching Atsuhiro in the stomach. 

“I think she yells more than I do,” Kacchan sneered as he dove under another burst of flames and sprinted closer to Dabi. 

“At least you guys aren’t taking classes with her,” Hitoshi chimed in, taking a hit from Tenko in his distraction. 

“Pay attention dumbass,” Kacchan snapped. He threw a punch at Dabi who took it and hissed in pain. 

“I’m just glad she actually treats my wounds,” Izuku said absentmindedly as he snuck behind Kurogiri and pulled him to the ground in a tight headlock. 

The shock running through the crowd allowed Hitoshi to take down Tenko and Kacchan to take down Dabi. Even Kurogiri paused and promptly passed out from lack of airflow. 

Izuku turned and cocked an eyebrow at Atsuhiro who had frozen just before punching Denki, the latter of whom was staring at Izuku, gaping, with his arms half raised in defense. 

Toshi jumped over Tenko’s slumped form and knocked Atsuhiro on the back of the neck in Izuku’s favored move to knock him out. 

“Well, that was quite an unexpected ending,” Nedzu hummed as he stood up and walked over to the group. 

“What did you mean by you’re glad that she treats you, kid?” Aizawa asked, appearing at Izuku’s side without him having noticed that he’d stood. 

“I mean, I’m quirkless?” Izuku asked as Himiko slowly stirred and sat up. 

“Hospitals don’t like treating the quirkless. Straight up told the nerd that it was a ‘waste of resources,’” Kacchan scoffed. 

Hitoshi clicked his tongue. “That’s why he already has medical knowledge, and me too. We had to patch him up ourselves.”

“Is someone refusing Izucchan medical treatment again?” Himiko inquired with a glare as she came to stand next to Izuku protectively. 

Izuku tilted his head. This was not how he thought this conversation was going to go. He knew his treatment by hospitals in the past made his friends mad and protective, but he’d never had teachers stand up for him about it before. Or about anything really. 

“Don’t make that face, we’ve talked about this before,” Hitoshi said, slapping him upside the head. 

“Ow!” Izuku snapped, ducking behind Himiko. 

“Do we happen to know the names of the hospitals?” Nedzu asked with a hard gleam in his eyes. 

“Um…” Izuku hummed, looking down at his red shoes. 

“I already have the list,” Kacchan huffed. “I’ll give it to you tomorrow.” 

Izuku squeaked in dismay. “How do you have a list?”

“Because I talked with the Pantheon and we came up with a list, dipshit,” Kacchan sneered. “Those assholes deserve whatever Nedzu will bring to them.” 

Nedzu hummed. “We’re already filing against your old school. What’s a couple hospitals added to the list?” 

“You filed against Aldera?” Kacchan asked. 

“Try every hospital in Musutafu,” Hitoshi sneered.

“Who’s the Pantheon?” Aizawa asked. 

Izuku’s head snapped back and forth at everyone speaking at once. It was overwhelming and he waved his hands in front of him. “I have Recovery Girl now you guys, it’s seriously fine!” 

“We’re the Pantheon!” Himiko explained cheerily at the same time. “The former LOV and the UA students that live at the house make up the Pantheon! Oh, and Mei too!” 

Aizawa cocked his head to the side and hummed. “I’ll choose not to question why you have a name for yourselves. Either way, hospitals denying health care to someone based on their quirk is blatant discrimination and it needs to be dealt with for future patients. Would you not agree, Problem Child?” 

“I- well, when you put it that way,” Izuku conceded. “I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right. It is the logical solution after all,” Aizawa said, giving a curt nod. 

“Um, not to interrupt, but shouldn’t we get Recovery Girl in here for the… um, Pantheon, you said?” Denki asked, raising his hand slightly. 

Shouto nodded from where he’d crouched over Dabi to check his breathing. “They do seem to be fine, but we should double check, Dabi’s breathing funny.” 

“Yeah,” Izuku said, waving his hand dismissively. “He has asthma, ignore him.” 

“I-” Hitoshi snickered. “That is not how we deal with asthmatic people, Izu.” 

“Recovery Girl is already on her way,” Nedzu chimed in, amusement sparkling in his eyes. 

“I believe we need to set up a joint training between 1-U and 1-A,” Aizawa drawled. 

“What? Why?” Izuku asked. 

“Because I will not deal with the disgrace of having all of the UA students relying on one person in the licensing exams when I know Ms. Joke is going to be there. And she’ll never let me live that down, even if they aren’t all my students,” Aizawa sneered at them. 

Izuku snickered. “If you want them to not rely on others, wouldn’t it be better to just do training with them instead of having us join them?” 

“No, because Shinsou here needs to not rely on you just as much as the others,” Aizawa said, rolling his eyes. 

Hitoshi huffed. “It’s just because we’ve patrolled together so many times and know each other’s style in and out.” 

Izuku smacked his forehead and muttered out a string of curses at his boyfriend. 

“Wait! You’ve already been on patrols?” Denki asked. 

Hitoshi gaped at the electricity user. “Um, a couple times?” 

“That is not what you implied in your statement,” Shouto drawled, looking between the two underground students. 

“Way to fucking go, insomniac,” Kacchan laughed. 

“What do you mean?” Denki asked, looking back and forth between Hitoshi and Kacchan. 

“These two dumbasses decided that being vigilantes would be a good idea,” Aizawa said, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

“They WHAT?” Denki shouted. 

“Who are we killing?!” Tenko asked, shooting up to his feet. 

“Hitoshi,” Izuku deadpanned. 

“Excuse me! You’d kill your own boyfriend?” Hitoshi cried in dismay as Tenko looked between the group and rolled his eyes at their antics. 

“Wait, you’re dating?” Shouto asked, genuine confusion playing across his face. 

“Looks like Izu was taken before you could shoot your shot,” Kacchan muttered. 

Izuku snapped his head over. “What?” 

Kacchan rolled his eyes and went to sit with Eri who was watching the situation like a very confusing tennis match. 

Izuku looked back at Shouto who was now steaming on his left side. He turned to Hitoshi who was gaping at the youngest Todoroki. 

“Well, now that this has turned into a teenage drama show, I’m going to discuss training with Thirteen,” Aizawa said. 

“Recovery Girl should be here any moment!” Nedzu called out as he grabbed onto Aizawa’s capture scarf and was lifted onto the man’s shoulder. They quickly escaped the room and the growing tension. 

“Izucchan and Toshi-kun started dating after Izucchan absolutely destroyed Tenko’s Sensei!” Himiko cheered, oh so helpfully. 

“Himi!” Hitoshi hissed. “Not the time.” 

Izuku couldn’t process what exactly was happening around him. Too much, really. “You like me?” He whispered. 

Everyone’s eyes shot to the green-haired boy, but he was looking down at his shoes. 

“Um,” Shouto said very eloquently. “Yes?” 

Izuku nodded. “Alright.” 

“What do you mean alright?” Denki squeaked. 

“I mean, Izu and I have talked, and we’re both poly, so it’s really up to Todoroki,” Hitoshi said, shrugging. 

Izuku met his boyfriend’s gaze and Hitoshi’s features softened, telling him that he didn’t mind the situation even if Izuku knew that he’d have preferred the conversation to have happened in private. 

“Wait, before this whole relationship thing unfolds, can we go back to how the two of you are vigilantes ?” Denki asked. 

“How else do you think he knew us?” Tenko asked. 

“I mean, from you attacking us?” Denki asked. 

“You think that he would be so friendly with us because we attacked you?” Tenko scoffed. “No, I’ve known these two since they were beginning middle school.”

“Oh, so you’re a perv,” Denki said, nodding. 

Tenko sputtered. “I’m NOT a perv ! We used to play online games together and that’s how we met!” 

Izuku laughed. “Nah, he’s definitely a perv.” 

“Why else would an adult willingly hang out with a bunch of kids?” Hitoshi asked, nodding along.

“I only met you this year! And you’re the one who practically kidnapped me after getting my Sensei arrested!” Tenko cried out, pointing at Izuku. 

“The nerds are Medusa and Echo. Recently made a vigilante team, but Medusa has been around since our first year at middle school or so,” Kacchan chimed in. 

“Can you just shut the fuck up Kacchan? You’re spilling shit left and fucking right today,” Izuku snapped. 

“I would stop before he gets Katsuki level mad,” Himiko hummed. Everyone in the Pantheon had seen him get mad enough to call Kacchan ‘Katsuki’ at least once by now, and it was never enjoyable for anyone involved. 

Kacchan scoffed and rolled his eyes before turning back to Eri and ignoring the conversation again. 

“What’s poly?” Shouto cut in. 

“Aren’t you even the slightest bit concerned that they’re vigilantes?” Denki cried. 

“Not really.” 

“Polyamorous,” Hitoshi supplied. “It means that we’re open to having more than just two people in a relationship. So more than just a couple.” 

“Meaning, you could also be our boyfriend if you so chose. But, unlike Hitoshi, I would prefer if we could take you on a date before we let you join the relationship.” 

“We’d been on dates before I asked you out!” Hitoshi said. 

“We went out as friends,” Izuku drawled. “Hades, Kacchan and I did some of the same shit that we did together.” 

“You guys didn’t bike across the city romantically!” Himiko tried helping. 

Izuku laughed. “You mean the bike ride across the city because we thought you guys were dead because no one thought to answer their damn phones?” 

“We apologized!” Tenko countered. “Now we have systems in place!” 

“They wouldn’t need to be in place if you hadn’t been so stupid!” Izuku shouted back. 

“What’s going on in here?” Recovery Girl asked as she walked into the gym followed by a team of med bots. 

“Relationship drama and vigilante reveal,” Kacchan supplied. 

Recovery Girl clicked her tongue. “Well, save that for after everyone has been checked over.” She ordered the med bots to put the unconscious Pantheon members on stretchers and went about checking the other’s health. 

“So,” Hitoshi drawled as he walked up to stand between Izuku and Shouto. “Date after school? I know a cute cat café.”

“Do all of our dates have to be at the place where I’m literally employed?” Izuku groaned. 

“I can take you two to dinner?” Shouto offered. 

The two turned to gape at the boy. “We can’t ask that, we’re supposed to be the ones taking you on a date,” Izuku complained. 

“And here I’m offering to take you on a date. Yes or no? Will you let me treat you to dinner?” Shouto asked. 

“Yes they will. Can we stop the damn relationship talk now?” Kacchan grumbled, walking Eri over to the group. 

Izuku hummed and shrugged. “He’s not wrong.” He picked Eri up as she made grabby hands at him and hoisted her onto his hip. 

“Is training over now?” Eri asked. 

“Yeah love,” Izuku hummed. “You need something?” 

“Do you have any apples?” Eri asked. 

“Mmm, not on me, but it’s just about lunch, so we can go ask Lunch Rush if he has any apples?” Izuku offered. 

Eri nodded. “Yes please.” 

“You’re such a dad ,” Denki snickered. 

Izuku blushed brightly. “I’m-no- I-”

“Just accept it, we all know it’s true,” Hitoshi laughed, hugging his boyfriend from the side so as to not disturb Eri. 

“You literally dote on the shrimp,” Kacchan added. 

“This is literally just shit on Izuku day isn’t it?” Izuku complained. “I’m going to the cafeteria.” With that, he left the room. The sounds of the group behind him laughing followed him down the hall. 

Chapter Text

The rest of the school day passed quickly, and soon enough Hitoshi and Izuku were rushing home to change for their impromptu date with Shouto. 

“We really need to find a way to get places quicker,” Hitoshi huffed. 

“We really need to shower before the date,” Izuku shot back. 

“It’s not till 6, we have enough time,” Hitoshi said, waving a hand dismissively. 

“My hair takes forever to dry,” Izuku complained as they reached the driveway to their house.

“Maybe you should cut it,” Hitoshi said. “Or I could cut it for you.” 

“You can cut hair?” Izuku questioned. 

“I’ve always cut my own hair. Foster families wouldn’t take me to a barber,” Hitoshi explained. 

“My mom used to cut my hair, we never went to the barber either,” Izuku replied as they walked into the house. “We’re home! Don’t bother us!” He called out as they headed towards the stairs. 

“Where’s Kats?” Himiko called out from the living room as they passed. 

“He walked, we ran,” Hitoshi explained. “We’re gonna go take showers.” 

They could hear Himiko’s grumbling as they took the stairs two at a time, but ignored her. Izuku went to take a shower first while Hitoshi picked out their outfits. Izuku was banned from picking out date outfits since their last one where he wore a T-shirt that said ‘dress shirt’ and a pair of jeans. He didn’t regret it. 

By 5, they had both showered and changed and Himiko had done Izuku’s hair after she found out they were rushing because they had a date. They decided to try and do some homework as they waited for Shouto to arrive and set up at the kitchen table. 

A knock at their door came about 15 minutes later and they raced to the door, but Himiko beat them, much to their demise. 

“You must be Todoroki-kun, hmm?” Himiko asked as they walked up behind her. 

They could just barely see Shouto’s head dip in a nod. “You can call me Shouto.” 

Himiko brightened at this. “Name is Himiko Toga, but you can call me Himiko! Now, boys need to be back by 7:30, you hear? Little Eri-chan needs her bedtime story and she refuses anyone but Izu to read it to her.” 

Shouto cocked an eyebrow and Izuku groaned. “Himi, I love you, but get the fuck out of our way so we can leave.” 

“Hmph! You own this house and have responsibilities! I’m just making sure your date knows that!” Himiko exclaimed, crossing her arms and pouring as she turned to Izuku and Hitoshi. 

Izuku rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to forget about them. Now, move.” 

“Fine!” She exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. “Be safe, wear a condom!” She yelled as she bolted up the stairs. 

Both boys turned to Shouto with very red faces. “I’m so sorry, please ignore her.” 

“She was in the League, right?” Shouto asked as Izuku and Hitoshi stepped out and closed the door. 

“Yeah, but now she’s working on passing exams so that she can make her way up to where she’d normally be for high school,” Izuku explained. 

“Oh?” Shouto asked, leading them to a sleek black car. 

“Izuku gave her the idea of becoming a CSI, so he and Nedzu are helping her out on getting on track for that,” Hitoshi explained. “Is that your car?” 

“It’s Endeavor’s,” Shouto huffed. “I told him I was going out and he told me I needed a chauffeur.” 

“Where are we going?” Izuku asked, sliding into the car when Shouto opened the door for him. “Oh my gods! This car has so much room!” 

Hitoshi chuckled. “If it’s Endeavor’s, then it has to fit the flaming piece-“ he cut himself off before finishing the insult. 

“Go ahead and finish. Flaming piece of trash?” Shouto said, a small smile tugging at his lips. 

Hitoshi blushed again. “I was gonna say shit, but yeah. Sorry.” 

“You’re right. He’s an ass,” Shouto shrugged. 

Izuku raised an eyebrow, but decided to go back to his original question. “Where are you taking us?” 

“Aeaea Ambrosia,” Shouto replied. 

“A-uh-whuh?” Hitoshi asked.

“Aeaea is the island that Circe lived on,” Izuku explained. “In The Odyssey , Odysseus stopped there on his way home and Circe turned all of his crewmen into swine. Shouto, are you taking us to a restaurant that turns people into food?” Izuku looked at their date with honest confusion written all over his face. 

“Um, it’s-” Shouto shook his head. “I do not believe they use humans in their meals. They serve a mixture of Japanese food and Greek food, so I thought that it would be a nice place to go to, besides the fact that you seem to have a fascination with the Greeks.”

“A fascination with the Ancient Greeks,” Izuku corrected. “Their myths and legends are really interesting!” 

“So, what I’m hearing is that we’re going to a cannibalistic restaurant,” Hitoshi deadpanned, arching an eyebrow. 

“No!” Shouto complained. “I just wanted to find somewhere that seemed like it’d be a nice place! It has really good ratings!” 

“Okay.” Hitoshi shrugged before turning to Izuku. “So, what’s the ‘amber’ thing?”

Izuku laughed. “Ambrosia. It’s the gods’ food. Which is actually really interesting that the restaurant would put Aeaea and ambrosia together because in the myth of Tantalus, he invited the gods to his house for a party and he killed his son and served it to them. I mean, that’s not what ambrosia really is, but given that with Tantalus we have the gods' food being essentially cannibalism and Aeaea is an island where men were turned into an animal that is often eaten- I mean, there’s only so many ways that this could go wrong.” Izuku pinched his lip in thought. “Of all the names for a restaurant to choose, it is very interesting in the least. I’d love to speak to the owner and see what prompted them to choose the name.” 

“What if they just chose it for alliteration purposes?” Hitoshi asked, trying to stop Izuku’s mumbling, and hopefully veering away from the topic of cannibalism. 

“Oh,” Izuku visibly deflated. “I guess that is also an option.” 

“Perhaps the owner is there tonight and you can ask them?” Shouto offered hesitantly. “And we can double check it’s not for cannibalistic purposes as well?” 

Izuku laughed again. “Yeah, I really hope it’s not the latter. That’d suck a little. But, either way, I’m excited to see the restaurant and spend time with you Shouto!” Izuku shot a beaming smile at Shouto. 

Shouto put a hand over his eyes. “Too bright,” he mumbled. 

“Yeah, you get used to it,” Hitoshi mumbled back, looking out the window as they drove through the city. 

Izuku shook his head, not dropping his smile as he laughed. “You’re both ridiculous.” 

“Todoroki-san, we’ve arrived,” the chauffeur called from the driver's seat. 

“Thank you Yachi, go ahead and head home, I’ll call you if I need you,” Shouto said as they began piling out of the car. 

“But your father sa-“

“I don’t care what Endeavor said. I’ll call you if I need you,” Shouto clipped, making the other two boys raise their eyebrows. 

“As you wish.” Yachi bowed his head before driving off and leaving the three in front of the restaurant. 

Izuku was vibrating in place in excitement at all of the mythology references. The Muses were painted on the archway of the entrance, pointing to the restaurant’s name; the Greek Pantheon was painted along the sides of the entrance, each god depicted in meticulous detail; and Circe was painted on the door, surrounded by nymphs and swine. 

“Come on nerd, Shouto set a reservation that we don’t want to miss,” Hitoshi said, pushing Izuku towards the doors from behind. 

They entered the restaurant and the waitress was able to seat them immediately, to all of their surprise. She laid out menus and they ordered their drinks before turning to the food portion. 

“How do you even pronounce these?” Hitoshi asked. 

“All I know is gyro, I think that’s what I’m gonna get ‘cause they have it wrapped in pita bread here,” Izuku replied. 

“This one sounds good, but I’m not saying it out loud,” Shouto said, pointing to an item on the menu. 

Izuku leaned over to look at it. “Stifado? I think it’s just pronounced how it sounds. You could also just say beef stew,” he said, shrugging. 

“Do you think they make it cold?” Shouto asked, tilting his head. 

Izuku laughed. “Probably not, but you can ask.” Izuku closed his menu and put it off to the side and Shouto handed him his menu to put aside as well. “What are you getting Toshi?” 

I’m getting this and I’m simply saying ‘Greek lasagna’ cause it has too many letters that my brain can’t put together,” Hitoshi said, handing his menu to Izuku. 

Shouto cracked a smile. “Some people would say that about Japanese.” 

Hitoshi rolled his eyes. “It can be said about any language Sho.” 

“Sho?” Izuku asked with a playful smirk. 

“I-“ Hitoshi cut himself off, turning red. 

“I like it,” Shouto said with another small smile. 

“Okay,” Hitoshi said. 

“Do you know what you want to order boys?” A waitress asked, coming to stand at their table. 

“Do you serve the Stifado cold?” Izuku asked before the other two could say anything. 

“We typically don’t, but I can ask the cook if he can work it out?” 

“That’d be wonderful! Can we also get a gyro and the Greek lasagna? I didn’t get to see what it was actually called,” Izuku ordered. 

“Sure thing!” The waitress said with a cheerful smile. “I’ll be right back after I place the order and talk to the cook and I’ll bring your drinks.” 

“Thank you!” Izuku said, the other boys returning the gratitudes albeit quieter. 

As soon as the waitress left, the two boys turned to Izuku. “You didn’t have to order for all of us,” Hitoshi said drily. 

“Both of you have some social anxiety, so I figured I’d take the reins,” Izuku shrugged. 

“Thank you,” Shouto replied. 

“No problem,” Izuku said. 

“Here’s your drinks,” the waitress said, setting the drinks on the counter. “The cook said that he can make the stew cold for you Todoroki-san.” 

Izuku blinked at the waitress and turned to Shouto who just nodded before the waitress left. “Have you been here before Shouto?” 

“No, but most people know I’m Endeavor’s kid, so I’m used to people doing stuff like that,” Shouto said, sipping his iced tea. 

Hitoshi clicked his tongue. “Your dad may be an ass, but that is kinda nice to have some extra privileges.” 

“I’d give it up without a thought,” Shouto mumbled. 

“What? Like getting emancipated?” Izuku asked, tilting his head. 

“Would that get me out of the house?” Shouto asked in reply. 

“Yeah, but you’d have to find somewhere to live and prove you can support yourself. Though, you could always move into my house, we have plenty of rooms,” Izuku offered. 

“You’d have to deal with our crazy family,” Hitoshi added. 

“Though you have expressed that you’re willing to deal with our craziness, our family is a tad extra,” Izuku laughed. 

Shouto hummed. “I’d like to meet your family. Can I walk you guys back home after this?” 

“Of course! I don’t know who all’s gonna be there, but Himi, Eri, and Kacchan definitely will be,” Izuku explained. 

“Tenko’s streaming tonight, so we won’t be able to bother him and Dabi also has a date tonight,” Hitoshi added.

“Oh yeah! He’s with the chicken!” Izuku cheered. 

“Dabi’s dating a chicken?” Shouto asked, tilting his head. 

Izuku laughed. “No, no. He’s going on a date with Hawks.” 

“The number three hero is dating a villain?” Shouto asked, even more confused. 

“ Reformed villain. Dabi’s working on getting a tattoo studio, but he’s working at a clothing store until he saves up enough,” Izuku explained. 

“So you’re really reforming everyone that was in the League of Villains?” Shouto asked. 

“They were just dealt a shitty hand in life,” Izuku grumbled. “If our society wasn’t so focused on heroes, villains, and quirks, then they wouldn’t have felt like the League was their only option.” 

“They really aren’t bad people either,” Hitoshi added. “Sure they made some bad choices and did some horrible things, but a lot of it was influenced by All for One.”

“That’s the villain that made All Might retire, right?” Shouto inquired. “He destroyed like half of Kamino ward.” 

“Yeah. He’s an ass,” Izuku agreed. “Like the big stereotypical boss villain.” 

“And this bitch is the one who ended him,” Hitoshi said, jabbing a thumb at Izuku. “But, you already knew that ‘cause you were there with us.” 

Shouto hummed. “I was. It was very confusing though.”

“Alright I’ve got your food ready here,” the waitress called as she walked up once again. They figured out whose food went to who and she bowed to them before taking her leave. 

There was silence between the three as they dug into their dishes, minor comments about the taste passing between them. 

“When we get to the house it’ll probably be just about time to put Eri to bed,” Izuku commented as he took a sip of coffee. 

“Should I not come over?” Shouto asked before taking another bite of stew. 

“No, no,” Izuku said, saving his hands in the air. “That’s not what I meant at all. Besides, I’d like for you to meet her, in a setting outside of the classroom that is.” 

“Ah, she was the one drinking tea with Nedzu then sitting with Bakugo, right?” Shouto asked. 

“Yup! She’s my unofficial daughter,” Izuku beamed. 

“Might as well just be the daughter of the Pantheon,” Hitoshi mumbled. 

“That’s true,” Izuku said, chuckling. “Everyone dotes on her, though she deserves every second of it.” 

“How’d you get her?” Shouto asked, pushing his plate away as he’d finished his stew. 

“Err, let’s talk about that somewhere else,” Izuku said, rubbing the back of his neck. 

Shouto nodded and gave the waitress his father’s card when she came by with the check. She returned with the card and receipt and they made their way out of the restaurant. 

“Was it really expensive?” Izuku asked. “You didn’t let us see the check.” 

“Don’t worry, my father paid for it,” Shouto said as Hitoshi led the way back to their house. 

“No, I mean yeah, but I was asking ‘cause I really liked the restaurant and would like to go again,” Izuku said. 

“Oh, it was mildly expensive. I’ve seen worse bills,” Shouto shrugged. “If you want to go again, I can have my father spot the bill, he won’t even notice.” 

“I feel like we shouldn’t take advantage of that,” Hitoshi said. 

“Probably not,” Izuku replied. 

“It’s fine. He gave me the card anyway,” Shouto shrugged. 

“I mean, I guess,” Izuku said, ruffling his green curls. 

“So, Sho. I have a serious question,” Hitoshi said, turning to walk backwards down the street. 

Shouto tilted his head. “Um, what is it?” 

Izuku smiled and linked arms with their date, causing Shouto to jump a little, though he quickly relaxed. “I think it’s more that we have an important question.” 

“Will you be our boyfriend?” Hitoshi asked, looking down at the ground. 

“I thought that was obvious?” Shouto asked, looking between the two boys. 

“Well, we had to ask you officially!” Izuku cried out. “And it had to be on or after our first date!” 

“But doesn’t the date imply that we’re dating?” Shouto asked, still wonderfully confused. 

“I- uh, Toshi help!” Izuku cried leaning onto Shouto’s shoulder. 

Hitoshi laughed. “Okay, so I didn’t do this for Zu, but technically you’re supposed to go on a date to see if you want to date, if that makes sense.” 

“It doesn’t,” Shouto deadpanned. 

Izuku groaned. “Okay, it’s really hard to explain, but that’s just how it works!” 

“Okay,” Shouto said, trying to shrug with Izuku still leaning on his shoulder. “But, I’ve accepted now, so we’re boyfriends?”

“Yup!” Hitoshi said, turning back around to walk forwards again. “Welcome to the relationship, we’re officially poly!” 

“And that means that it’s more than just two people in the relationship, right?” Shouto asked. 

“Yeah. Sometimes only one person in the relationship is poly, but I’m pretty sure all of us are poly here?” Izuku asked. 

“I think I’m poly,” Shouto said. “I mean, I want to date both of you.” 

The two boys blushed furiously and looked away from their new boyfriend. 

“Okay,” Hitoshi whispered as they finally turned onto their street. 

“Well, are you ready to meet the family?” Izuku asked, turning to look at Shouto again. 

“Maybe,” Shouto said, face turning back into its calm exterior. 

“You don’t have to be nervous,” Hitoshi offered. “They’re chaotic, but they’re all really nice. Actually, Izuku’s the most chaotic with Himiko a close second, and you’ve met Himi and are dating Zu now.” 

“I call bs!” Izuku cried. “That can’t be true!” 

Hitoshi stared at Izuku. “And who would you say is first?” 

“Well, um. I say… Kacchan!” Izuku stuttered. 

Hitoshi snorted. “You think the guy that religiously goes to bed at 8 pm is more chaotic than you?” 

“Have you seen him?” Izuku cried. “He’s a chaotic menace!” 

“He’s very explosive,” Shouto added. 

“See! Even Shouto agrees!”

“Explosiveness does not equate to chaos,” Hitoshi said. “I won’t disagree he’s explosive, but it’s very controlled.” 

“You’re just saying that because I can control him,” Izuku grumbled. 

“Kirishima does so as well,” Shouto countered. 

“That’s because he has a crush on Kirishima,” Izuku waved off. 

“He does?” Shouto asked. 

“Apparently Mina cornered him after class the other day and made him question his existence,” Izuku laughed. “Don’t tell him I told you that though, he’ll kill me.” 

“No he wouldn’t,” Hitoshi countered as they walked up to the door. 

“Wouldn’t be the first time he’s tried,” Izuku said as he opened the door and walked inside. 

“He’s tried killing you before?” Shouto asked. 

Izuku waved his hand. “Nah, just told me to kill myself.” 

“Oi nerd! We talked through that!” Kacchan screamed from the kitchen. “I thought you were over it!” 

“Why would he be over his friend telling him to kill himself?” Shouto asked as they walked into the kitchen. 

Kacchan sneered. “You wouldn’t understand IcyHot.” 

“No, Sho’s right.” Hitoshi said. “I still don’t know why he forgave you so quickly either.” 

“Can we not you guys?” Izuku sighed. 

“Is that Zuzu?!” Eri screamed down the stairs. 

“And this is why she’s my favorite,” Izuku mumbled. “Yeah Eri I’m home!” 

The sound of feet pattering down the stairs echoed in the room as Kacchan grumbled while he finished doing the dishes which they’d distracted him from. The small girl skirted around the corner and flung herself at Izuku, and he laughed as he leaned down to catch her before twirling them in a circle, making her giggle. 

“You were gone for sooooo long today,” Eri whined when he stopped twirling them around. 

“Sorry Er, but I brought a friend home,” Izuku consoled. 

Eri gasped and leaned over his shoulders to see who it was, but Izuku kept twisting them so that Shouto was kept out of sight. 

“Hi Eri,” Shouto said with a small wave. Izuku huffed, but turned her towards his new boyfriend. 

“You were at the school today with Zuzu and Toshi and Kacchan!” Eri shouted, pointing at him. 

Shouto chuckled, causing Izuku to beam. “Yeah, I was. Did you have fun?” 

Eri nodded enthusiastically. “I met so many people today! And Nedzu made me hot cocoa and showed me a school on the computer!” 

“That does sound fun,” Shouto said with a soft smile. 

“Are you ready for your bedtime story, love?” Izuku asked. 

“But I don’t wanna go to bed,” Eri pouted. 

“Maybe if you go to bed, Sho can come back tomorrow?” Izuku asked, throwing pleading eyes at Shouto. 

“I’ll come back tomorrow, but only if you listen to Izuku and be good,” Shouto said. 

Eri groaned. “Okay, I’ll go to bed. Can you tell me the story of the horse again?”

Izuku waved to the three boys as he turned towards the stairs. “Pegasus?” 

“Yeah!” Eri cheered. 

Izuku laughed. “Yeah, I can tell you the Pegasus myth.” 

“Thank you Dad!” Eri said, hugging him tighter. 

Izuku paused on the steps before rubbing her back and continuing upwards. “Of course, Eri.” 

Getting Eri to bed was a task and a half. He told not only the myth of Pegasus, but also the myths of Hermes and the hippocampus before she finally fell asleep. 

Luckily, Shouto was still downstairs when Izuku slid down the pole in the middle of the stairs. 

“Why do you have a fireman pole in your house?” Shouto asked. 

“It came with the house,” Izuku waved off. 

“Yeah, after you requested it,” Hitoshi scoffed. 

“Semantics,” Izuku shrugged. 

“Pretty sure that’s not how you use that word,” Shouto said. 

“Give me coffee and I’ll word properly,” Izuku mumbled, making grabby hands at the coffee pot next to Hitoshi. 

“Why are you two drinking coffee at 9pm?” Shouto asked as Hitoshi poured a cup for Izuku. 

“It’s the life juice. We drink it at all hours,” Izuku said as he hugged his new cup to his chest. 

Hitoshi put his hand up and stage whispered, “don’t tell him, but it’s decaf.” 

Izuku growled. “I hate you.” 

“You love me,” Hitoshi said, rolling his eyes. 

Izuku scoffed, but continued to drink his coffee. 

“Where is everyone? I thought you lived with a bunch of people,” Shouto inquired. 

“They’re somewhere, we all have weird schedules,” Hitoshi said. 

“What time do you have to be home?” Izuku asked. 

“Endeavor doesn’t get home until midnight tonight, so I just have to be home before him.” 

“Well that gives us a couple hours. Anything you want to do?” Hitoshi asked. 

Shouto shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t exactly hung out before.” 

“Ever?” Izuku asked, setting his cup down and leaning forward. 

“The only time I saw anyone else my age is when Momo was also attending the events Endeavor took me to,” Shouto explained. 

“What about your siblings?” Izuku asked. “You have a sister and a brother right?” 

“I wasn’t allowed to play with them. They apparently weren’t worthy,” Shouto scoffed. “I hardly know them in all honesty.” 

“Didn’t your mom do anything?” Hitoshi asked. 

Both Izuku and Shouto flinched, the other was much less apparent. 

“She gave me this, though it wasn’t her fault,” Shouto said, pointing to his scar. Hitoshi flinched at the admission. 

“You don’t have to explain,” Izuku offered. 

“No. It’s fine. Have you ever heard of quirk marriages?” Shouto asked. 

“Yeah,” Izuku whispered, knowing this story by heart. 

“Well, that’s what happened to my mom. Her parents sold her to Endeavor at the beginning of his hero career and he jumped on the transaction so that he could create the perfect masterpiece to defeat All Might.” Shouto looked down at his hands. “My mom was dealt a horrible hand in life and I can’t blame her for anything she’s done. Nothing in her life has been her choice and she tried her hardest until she finally snapped.” The front door opened as he continued. “She’s in a mental hospital now. Has been since she dared harm Endeavor’s perfect creation.” 

“Zu, Toshi! I’m home!” Dabi called as he walked down the hallway. Shouto clicked his mouth shut and the other two boys turned towards Dabi’s entrance. “Oh, hey little bro- Fuck,”

Izuku burst out laughing in half nervousness and half incredulity. “You did not.” 

Hitoshi facepalmed at the mistake Dabi made while Shouto looked at the man in confusion. “Little bro?” 

“Um, sorry,” Dabi said, a little too quickly. “You look just like my brother but his scar is on the right.” 

Izuku fell off his seat from laughter. 

“What’s your brother's name?” Hitoshi snickered. 

“Zuko,” Izuku choked out in between laughs. 

“The bestest of brothers we’ve ever met, Zuko and Dabi,” Hitoshi nodded. 

“Your brother also has a face scar? How'd he get it?” Shouto asked. 

“Uh, his… uh our father,” Dabi stuttered. 

“Sounds rough. I’d like to meet him,” Shouto said. 

Hitoshi quickly joined Izuku on the floor in laughter. 

“I think I’m missing something,” Shouto inquired. 

“Sho,” Izuku laughed. “Hun. You ever watch tv?” 

“Um, it wasn’t allowed,” Shouto muttered. 

“This would’ve worked if you two weren’t such fucking assholes!” Dabi complained. 

“Oh, go defeat the avatar you dipshit,” Hitoshi laughed. 

“I hate both of you,” Dabi cursed. 

“I’m still confused,” Shouto said, raising his hand slightly. 

“Shouto, meet Touya. Touya, meet our new boyfriend, Shouto,” Izuku introduced from the ground waving at the two. 

“You’re dating my little brother?!” Dabi shouted. 

“Touya?” Shouto whispered at the same time. 

“Not the right way to go about it, Zu,” Hitoshi groaned. 

“What do you mean? You’re always telling me to get straight to the point,” Izuku countered. 

“Yeah, when you’re not telling me your injuries!” Hitoshi shouted. 

“Hey Sho,” Touya said with a little wave. “Wanna tell me why you’re dating these two dumbasses?” 

“Wait,” Izuku said, cutting off both Shouto and Hitoshi. “You’re gonna come back into his life and immediately question his relationship choices?” 

“When he decided he wanted to date you ? Yes!” Dabi shouted. 

“Izuku is nice,” Shouto supplied. “And Hitoshi is blunt, but he’s really nice too.” 

“No more compliments please ,” Hitoshi begged, blushing brightly. 

“Yeah, Toshi has met his daily quota,” Izuku snickered, earning a slap upside the head. 

“Wait, Touya. Where have you been? We had a funeral for you. There’s a shrine at the house,” Shouto interrupted. 

“Well I was on the streets for most of it,” Dabi said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Then Izuku found me last year when I tried joining the League and soon enough, well, here I am.” 

“Why’d you join the League?” Shouto asked. 

“Er, to destroy dad?” Dabi asked. 

Izuku and Hitoshi picked themselves off the floor and retook their seats at the table as the conversation got more serious. 

“Is that still your plan?” Shouto asked, tilting his head. 

“I mean I’d like to see it happen, but I’m not allowed to step out of line,” Dabi grumbled, glaring at Izuku. 

“It’s either live here and behave or go to Tartarus. I didn’t think this was a hard choice,” Izuku said, rolling his eyes. 

“But my mission ,” Dabi groaned. 

“Listen. There’s your way of completing your mission. Or my way. And my way includes making sure Sho is safe and still has housing,” Izuku explained. 

“What do you mean?” Shouto asked. 

“You can get emancipated as we’ve talked about and move in here… and then I crush him,” Izuku said with a manic grin. 

“Legally of course,” Hitoshi muttered. 

“Oh shut up,” Touya growled. “Not everyone has a crazy ass talking rat helping them.”

“He’s not a rat!” Izuku cried. 

“Semantics,” Touya said, rolling his eyes. 

“He’s a chimera ,” Izuku stressed. 

“That’s literally not the point here,” Touya hissed. 

“It’s important!” Izuku said. “He hates it when people call him a rat!” 

“He literally calls himself a rat in his introduction,” Shouto said. 

“Yeah, but he’s asking what animal he is, which is rhetorical because he’s not one singular animal at all,” Izuku explained. 

“Okay, Zu, we’re not calling him a rat anymore, we get it,” Hitoshi said. 

“Thank you. Anyways, Nedzu and I have plans upon plans. We’re just working on gathering enough evidence for a higher success rate on the cases.” 

“How long have you been building a case against Endeavor?” Shouto asked. 

“Personally or with Nedzu?” Izuku asked. 

“Yes,” Hitoshi replied drily. 

Izuku flipped him off before replying, “I’ve personally been building a case against him since I met Dabi. It was kinda obvious that he was Touya and I looked into the Todoroki family after that. He also gave me a statement after he finally fessed up which is helping the case a lot.” 

“He’s scary smart. I flipped my shit when he said he knew I was a Todoroki,” Touya added. 

“You literally almost cremated me,” Izuku deadpanned. “Anyways, I brought the case to Nedzu as soon as I became his personal student. We have two current cases being built and one that finally just went through.” 

“The case with your old school went through?” Hitoshi asked, slapping his hands onto the counter. “Why didn’t you say anything?” 

“Nedzu texted me while I was putting Eri to bed,” Izuku said, raising his hands in the air placatingly. “There’s kinda been a lot happening.” 

“We need to tell Bakugou,” Hitoshi said, standing up. 

“Do you want to die?” Izuku hissed, pulling him back down into his seat. “I’ll tell him in the morning on our way to school.” 

“Fine,” Hitoshi said, rolling his eyes. 

“What’d your old school do?” Shouto asked.

“Quirkist bastards that promoted and executed discrimination and abuse,” Izuku said, waving his hand. “They got shut down permanently and all of the staff members got blacklisted from working in a school ever again.” 

“Congrats, bush,” Dabi said, ruffling Izuku’s hair. 

“That was the easiest case by far. The next two will be a lot harder,” Izuku grumbled, swatting away Dabi’s hand. 

“Would it help if I gave a statement too?” Shouto offered. 

“It actually really would. Do you think Natsuo and Fuyumi would also give statements?” Izuku asked. 

“Natsuo would if you explained,” Shouto said, rubbing his chin. “Fuyumi would probably try to stop the case or warn Endeavor though.” 

“Why the hell would Yumi do that?” Dabi asked. 

Shouto shrugged. “She’s been trying to convince us to forgive him and become a normal family.” 

“As if any part of that family could be normal,” Dabi scoffed. 

“We’ll keep her out of it for now, but you should come by my personal lesson tomorrow, Sho, to give your statement and start the emancipation process,” Izuku said, pulling out his phone to text Nedzu. “It’ll be excused and I can help you catch up on whatever classes you miss.”

“Oh, sure,” Shouto agreed. “It’s getting late though,” he added, glancing at Izuku’s phone and seeing the time. “I should get back so Endeavor doesn’t throw a fit.” 

“Right!” Izuku said, setting his phone down and throwing his arms around Shouto. “I’ll see you tomorrow!” 

Shouto reached up to awkwardly pat Izuku’s back. “See you tomorrow, I promised Eri I’d come back again, too.”

Hitoshi smiled and waved at their new boyfriend. “See you tomorrow.” 

Dabi ruffled his brother’s hair. “Only a little bit longer Sho. I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

Shouto nodded before leaving the room and walking out the front door. 

Izuku and Hitoshi both turned on Dabi with mischievous grins, causing him to take a couple steps back. 

“Zuko?” Hitoshi asked sweetly. 

“And how was the date with Hawks?” Izuku added, also in a honeyed tone. 

“Nope!” Dabi shouted as he turned on his heel and sprinted down the hallway to the stairs. Izuku and Hitoshi burst out laughing again as they heard his feet pound down the stairs in his hasty retreat. 

Chapter Text

“Okay. Class 1-A, 1-U- you’ve all done enough super move training, or other training,” Aizawa drawled, cutting off Izuku’s interruption with a pointed look. “Therefore we’re doing a joint quirkless sparring exercise. Midoriya, get up here.” 

Izuku startled from where he and Hitoshi were elbowing each other. He pointed at himself, tilting his head. Aizawa sighed and waved him over. Hitoshi patted his shoulder and Izuku shot him a smile before skipping over to his homeroom teacher. 

Aizawa set his hand on Izuku’s shoulder causing him to jump a bit. “Since certain students are intent on leaning on Midoriya for strategy, you all will be facing against him,” Aizawa said with a manic grin. 

“Wait, what?!” Izuku shouted. “ All of them ?” 

“Yes problem child, now go strategize or whatever. Exercise starts in 5 minutes.” 

Izuku scrambled away from his teacher to the middle of the mats, looking around for anything that might help him. 

“Zu, you’re in your hero costume. Calm down,” Hitoshi said from where everyone was lined up at the edge of the mats. 

Shouto nodded. “From what I saw the other day, Izuku can definitely beat us.” 

“Stop giving him confidence you love sick dumbasses!” Kacchan shouted. 

Izuku smiled at the three and nodded to himself. He had more experience than any of them. His boyfriends were right. 

“We’re screwed,” Denki muttered. 

Izuku shot him an impressive imitation of Aizawa’s manic grin. “Let’s begin, shall we?” 

Aizawa sighed as several of Thirteen’s students immediately rushed Izuku. Izuku smirked at the set of students as they rushed towards him. With everyone fighting quirkless, it was finally an even playing field. 

Kirishima ran towards him and threw a left hook that Izuku ducked under, spinning to kick Ojiro away as well. Izuku rolled his eyes as his microbots flew out of his pockets after a quick tap to his headband to turn it on. Hagakure was quickly stopped from where she was sneaking up on him by the microbots tripping her while Izuku jumped back from another hit thrown by Kirishima. Ojiro grunted as Izuku slammed into his chest and jumped on his foot. He tried to trap Izuku by wrapping his arms around Izuku, but Izuku snapped his head back and kicked his leg up, hitting the boy twice and making him drop to the floor. Kirishima tried to rush him again, but Izuku caught his arm and flipped him over his shoulder, knocking the wind out of him as he hit the mats. 

Izuku turned to the remaining group of students with a raised eyebrow. “Who’s next?” 

“Plus Ultra!” Uraraka cheered as she charged forward with Tsuyu. Tsuyu tried slapping him with her tongue, but Izuku jumped back to avoid it. Iida came bursting forward with his quirk activated behind the girls and aimed a roundhouse kick at Izuku, which he ducked under before spinning and kicking his leg out at Uraraka. 

Uraraka cried out as she fell, Tsuyu catching her just in time. Izuku went on the offensive and threw a punch at Iida, who made a messy block and the hit pushed his arms harshly into his chest. Tsuyu came up behind Izuku and tried to kick out his knees, but Izuku bent back into a handspring and caught her in his thighs, bringing her down with him. Izuku sprung back up to his feet and blocked a punch from Uraraka and threw one in turn. He swept his leg around and Uraraka went crashing to the ground. Iida came rushing at him again, but Izuku’s microbots sprayed fire deterrent into his engines, making him stall and tip over, causing several students to laugh. 

Izuku raised an eyebrow at the group around him. “That’s six down.” 

“In only 6 minutes,” Aizawa added. 

The remaining students jumped at the realization and glanced around at one another, becoming more apprehensive about rushing in to fight. 

“He can’t take all of us at once, right?” Sato asked warily. 

“Did you not just see how he took on two groups of three easily?” Denki countered. 

“Fuck,” Sero muttered. “All or nothing right? Plus Ultra!” Sero charged forward, Koda and Sato following immediately. Tokoyami and Shouji were only a second behind, ignoring the warnings from the other students. 

Izuku laughed as they all rushed at him. He felt at peace, the fighting clearing his mind and easing his stresses. Shouji made to tackle Izuku, but he rolled under the tall boy and knocked over Sero. Sato went to punch where he’d rolled, but he dodged to the side and sprung back up to his feet. Tokoyami was there behind him and Izuku spun with his leg out, hooking it around the boy and bringing them both to the ground. Koda hesitantly stepped forward, but stepped back again when Izuku raised an eyebrow at him. Shouji charged him again, using his arms to cover the lower and higher defenses, so Izuku jumped straight at him, scrambling through the grasping arms and pulling with all his might on one till he was able to get to the ground and pull Shouji over his shoulder and down to the floor. 

Koda finally charged at him as Aoyama darted forward and threw a sloppy punch that Izuku easily dodged and threw one right back, knocking him down. Koda skittered into view and threw a punch as Izuku turned with his arms raised to block. Aoyama yelled something about being flamboyant and Izuku scoffed before kicking out at the other’s knees and knocking him to the ground as well. Jiro and Momo ran forward to take the place of the two downed boys and Izuku laughed as they came up to frame him on either side, Mina yelling about girl power before joining the other two. 

He was now framed on either side and the front, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t been in this position before. Momo aimed for a hit to his left side and as he was blocking, Jiro aimed a hit to his back. His microbots pulled her shirt back, making her hard punch turn into a slight graze. Mina tried to put him in a headlock, but it wasn’t proper form and Izuku hit her funny bone causing her to cry out and let him go. Momo aimed again for another hit at his side, and Izuku bent back so that it missed him. Standing up straight again, he aimed a punch at the girl who blocked just in time, but was left to succumb to the hit he aimed at her ankles, knocking her over. Jiro rushed him and jumped onto his back, making him yelp in surprise. Mina came back to aim a kick at his ankles, but he’d finally gained purchase on Jiro, and he whipped her off his back and onto Mina, effectively knocking both of them down. 

“I fucking got this,” Kacchan grumbled, stalking onto the mats to face Izuku. 

“Long time coming, no?” Izuku asked, smirking at his friend. 

“Shut up, nerd,” Kacchan growled. 

He rushed at Izuku, throwing his famous right hook, which Izuku easily brushed off, throwing an uppercut right back at him. He clipped Kacchan’s jaw which only made the other boy more mad. Kacchan threw a left hook this time, Izuku barely blocking in time. He sent his microbots around and just as Kacchan went to throw another right hook, Izuku threw a left hook and ordered his microbots to hit his achilles heels and the back of his knees. The three attacks overwhelmed the explosive blonde, taking him down just like the others. 

“Do I really have to fight my boyfriend?” Shouto asked, grimacing at his fallen classmates. 

“Yes, hurry up,” Aizawa drawled. “You too, Kaminari, get out there.”

“Time?” Izuku called as Shouto and Denki walked onto the mats. 

“15 minutes,” Hitoshi called back, looking down at his phone. 

Izuku clicked his tongue. “If I finish early, can I leave early?” 

“No,” Aizawa sighed. “Just finish the damn exercise please.” 

Izuku laughed as Shouto and Denki approached him apprehensively. 

“I’ve been training against my father since I was four, I’m sorry Zu,” Shouto apologized. 

Izuku laughed again. “Hun, that was quirk training with sparring sparsely added in. I’ve seen your hand to hand combat.” 

“Damn, going for the throat Izuku,” Denki laughed. 

“Always,” Izuku winked. He took the moment of surprise this caused and charged Denki. The blond boy yelped and tried to backpedal off the mats, but Izuku’s microbots pushed on his back, keeping him in place as Izuku rushed and threw a punch at his friend. Denki took it head on, too surprised to block, and Izuku’s microbots moved away in time for Denki to fall back off the mats. 

Shouto clicked his tongue as Izuku turned towards him. “Ignoring your boyfriend?” 

“Ignoring both of them it seems,” Hitoshi added, stepping onto the mats. 

Izuku couldn’t help the smirk. “Now, how could you ever accuse me of such a thing when I was simply getting rid of the others to give you both my full attention?” 

“What you were doing was cutting down each foe like Achilles,” Hitoshi drawled. 

“I was simply completing the tasks given to me like Hercules,” Izuku drawled. 

“Oh? Trying to become a god now?” Hitoshi asked. 

“Simply trying to get on Nedzu’s level,” Izuku said, making Hitoshi wince. 

“I seriously need to read up on mythology. I am clueless as to your conversations,” Shouto whined. 

“Don’t worry, Izuku will tell you most of it himself anyways,” Hitoshi drawled. “Shall we kick his ass?” 

“You wish you could,” Izuku responded, sliding into a defensive stance. 

“We can certainly try,” Shouto countered. The two boys rushed at Izuku and he smiled as they went for alternative attacks against him. Hitoshi threw a kick out at his legs while Shouto threw a left hook. Izuku jumped over Hitoshi’s legs and blocked Shouto’s punch and as he landed, he threw a punch at Hitoshi that had him jumping back. Shouto threw another punch that Izuku ducked under before he threw one in turn that hit him square in the stomach, causing the boy to wheeze. 

“Rushing me has never been a good option,” Izuku said playfully as Hitoshi charged back in and attempted to catch his boyfriend off guard with another punch being thrown. Izuku ducked once again and slammed his body into Hitoshi’s, making him jump back once again. Shouto rushed in with a kick this time and Izuku reached out to grab his leg and throw him into Hitoshi. The two yelped as they went down and Izuku stood over them with a smug grin. “Told you rushing me wasn’t a good idea.”

“Now that you’ve all essentially had your asses handed to you. It’s time to realize that you can’t all rely on one person to make all the decisions.” Aizawa came to stand at the edge of the mats with Thirteen and both of them looked severely disappointed in the group before them. “You need to be able to analyze the situation for yourself and decide what the best course of action will be. Is there anyone who can tell me what a better course of action might have been?” 

“Sending in Hitoshi first,” Denki muttered. 

“And why would that be?” Aizawa asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“Oh, um, sorry,” Denki blushed. “I just think that Hitoshi knows his fighting style best, having been a vigilante with him and all.” 

“Vigilante?” Uraraka screeched. 

“Shit,” Denki muttered. “Sorry.” 

“You’re apologizing too much,” Izuku waved off. He turned to the class and bowed. “Hello, nice to meet you. I have recently been outed as the vigilante Medusa and Hitoshi here is my trusted sidekick Echo.” 

“Don’t call me your sidekick,” Hitoshi grumbled. 

“You can question them later,” Aizawa snapped as the students started shouting over one another. “For the rest of the period, you’ll be working on your sparring, guided by Thirteen and I as well as Izuku and Hitoshi, now go pair off.” 

The class hesitated for a moment before Kacchan grabbed Kirishima’s arm and pulled him away to a separate area of the mats. Soon all the students were paired off and waiting for further instruction as the two vigilantes stood with the two Pro Heroes. 

“Why are we tasked with helping them?” Hitoshi asked. 

“Because you both have experience where they don’t,” Aizawa drawled. “Given that the both of you persist to go out at night.” 

“It’s not like we’re doing anything illegal,” Izuku muttered. 

“I just don’t get why the two of you are vigilantes while in the hero course,” Thirteen inquired. 

“Simple. The Hero Commission,” Izuku replied. 

“That’s not simple, Zu,” Hitoshi sighed. 

“It’s simple enough. They’re corrupt and destroying society. Excuse me for not following all of their pretty laws,” Izuku said, rolling his eyes. 

“A law is a law, problem child,” Aizawa sighed. 

“And laws are meant to be stretched to see how long it takes them to break,” Izuku counters. “You won’t win on this one Aizawa-sensei. I’m not going to stop being a vigilante.”

“Until we get our hero licenses, cause then we’ll be doing the same shit just under the name of hero,” Hitoshi added. 

“What he said,” Izuku agreed, pointing a thumb in Hitoshi’s direction. “Now, what are we instructing our peers to do?” 

Aizawa sighed. “You’re going to give me grey hairs. Just check on their form while fighting and help them on moves if they need it.” 

“Got it sensei!” Izuku called as he skipped out towards the crowd of students trying to ignore the stares he was receiving from the class as they all wondered about his vigilante status. He knew that whatever group he went to would have questions about it and he really didn’t want to deal with that right now, so he decided on one of the safer pairings by heading over to Shouto and Denki. 

“Ready to get some sparring in?” Denki asked as Izuku approached the pair. 

“I’ve done enough sparring, now let’s see how long the two of you can last,” Izuku smirked. 

“Please don’t kill us,” Shouto drawled.

Izuku laughed. “I would never kill my boyfriend and friend, I’m just gonna make sure you know proper hand to hand by the end of class.”

“He’s a sadist, you’ll feel like you’re dead, trust me,” Hitoshi said as he walked by and towards Kacchan and Kirishima. 

“Says the one attempting to go give Kacchan pointers,” Izuku snarked back. 

“You took the calm group that already knows we’re vigilantes and no way in hell am I dealing with everyone’s questions right now,” Hitoshi said, shooting a glare at his boyfriend. 

Izuku laughed. “Well Kacchan definitely will keep the questions away, good luck!” He turned back to the pair in front of him that were glancing at him warily. “Now, let’s get started shall we?”  

Chapter Text

“Thank you, Izuku! Have a good night! And tell Shinsou-kun we say hi as well!” The portly woman that owned the café waved as Izuku headed towards the exit. 

Izuku laughed and waved back. “I’ll be sure to let Toshi know, I’ll see you later! Bye everyone!” 

“Bye Izuku!” The girl with blue hair and curled horns called from the register where she was ringing up a customer. 

Izuku exited the cat café with a smile and headed down the familiar streets back towards his house. Wondering who’d be home today, he pulled out his phone and checked the family calendar they’d set up. Jin and Kurogiri were in some meeting of sorts for their upcoming grand opening, but the others should be home or wandering elsewhere. 

Izuku hummed as he turned onto his street and walked towards his driveway, nodding at one of his neighbors as he walked past their house. They turned abruptly and went back into their house, causing Izuku to chuckle. It was no mystery that most of the neighbors didn’t approve of his family moving into the mansion on this street, especially given the fact that they hadn’t signed into the HOA agreements, but they could deal with it. 

Finally coming up to his doorway, he opened it and kicked off his shoes. “I’m home!” Izuku calls out. He went to close the door as he heard Shouto and Hitoshi’s voices calling back to him, but something caught his eye. He looked up to the sky and tilted his head, seeing the red blur that was approaching their house. “Hey, did anyone order chicken?” Izuku called out. 

“You gotta be shitting me,” Dabi replied, coming into view behind Izuku. They stood in the doorway together and watched as the Pro Hero approached the house. 

“Play nice and invite him in for tea. He flew a long way to come see you, you know,” Izuku commented as he turned away from the door finally. 

Dabi blushed. “Fuck off, brat.”

Izuku smirked. “Are you really telling me that when your brother is my boyfriend?” Dabi reached out to smack him upside the head, but Izuku ducked and danced out of reach. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Calm down and enjoy talking to your crush.” 

Dabi growled at him, but Izuku was already walking down the hallway to the common area. Shouto and Hitoshi were playing an old board game called “Candyland” with Eri and he smiled at the sight of three of his favorite people huddled around the floor laughing. 

“Who’s winning?” Izuku asked as he sat on a chair and looked over the board. 

“I am!” Eri cheered. 

Izuku raised an eyebrow at the two boys, but they only shrugged in reply. “I think she inherited your smarts,” Shouto deadpanned. 

Izuku laughed. “She’s not actually my daughter, that’s not how it works.”

“No, but with the amount of time she’s spending with you, she’s definitely absorbing it,” Hitoshi said. 

Izuku rolled his eyes. “You guys want anything to drink?” 

“Can I have hot cocoa, Dad?” Eri asked. 

Izuku blushed, but nodded his head. 

“Caffeine,” Hitoshi begged as he laid down on the floor, throwing himself across Eri’s lap and causing her to giggle. 

“Tea, please,” Shouto asked. 

“You all want different drinks, it’s like you’re trying to make my life harder,” Izuku muttered as he walked into the kitchen. He could hear laughter from the room behind him and it brought the smile back to his lips. He really did love his small family. 

“I can make the tea, Hawks is here too right?” Shouto asked, joining Izuku in the kitchen. 

“Don’t you have a game to finish?” Izuku inquired as he started heating up water for the drinks. 

Shouto shrugged. “I was in last place, there’s no way I was going to win.”

Izuku laughed. “Isn’t it a game based on chance?”

“Yeah, and I have terrible luck,” Shouto said, pulling out the tea and preparing the teapot. 

“The party has arrived!” Hawks called out from the entryway. 

“We’re preparing tea if you want some,” Izuku called back. They could hear bickering from Hawks and Dabi as they made their way to the kitchen and both of them shook their heads before returning to their tasks. 

Hawks and Dabi sat at the kitchen table as Izuku and Shouto finished making the drinks for the group. They called Eri and Hitoshi over when they were finished and Eri immediately started rambling about how she won the game to the group. 

“I won the game! I beat Sho-kun and Toshi-kun!” Eri cheered as jumped up onto a chair and Izuku handed her the warm hot cocoa. 

“Good job Eri!” Hawks cheered, the others joining in while Hitoshi grumbled. 

“Yeah! Toshi-kun landed on the licorice and I got the ice cream card, so I won!” Eri explained cheerfully. 

“Told you it’s a luck game,” Izuku whispered to Shouto as they handed out the drinks. 

Shouto smiled and shook his head. “You’re the best at the game, Eri.” 

“Thank you Sho-kun!” Eri said, turning a bright smile towards him.

“She also inherited your blinding smile,” Shouto whispered, ducking his head so his bangs covered his face. 

Izuku pushed his boyfriend’s shoulder. “Oh, shut up.” 

“I think I’ll have to play a game with you just to see how good you are,” Hawks said with a gentle smile. 

“Would you really?” Eri asked, practically with stars in her eyes. 

Hawks laughed. “Of course!” He put a hand over his mouth to stage whisper, “maybe we can rope grumpy Dabi into a game too.” 

Eri giggled and nodded before taking a sip of her hot cocoa. 

Sensing a lull in the conversation, Izuku turned to Shouto. “Oh, Nedzu emailed me while I was at work. Your emancipation went through, you can officially move in now if you still want to.”

“Wait, really?” Shouto asked, setting down his tea cup. 

“Yeah, Sho. You’re free from the bastard,” Izuku smiled. 

Shouto rushed around the table and pulled Izuku into a hug. “Thank you,” he whispered.

Izuku chuckled and hugged his boyfriend back. “Of course.”

“We gotta throw a welcome party!” Hawks cheered. “Shouto’s moving in and a part of The Pantheon!” 

“He already was a part of The Pantheon just by becoming our boyfriend,” Hitoshi drawled. 

“I like the party idea,” Dabi chuckled. 

“You just want to get drunk,” Izuku said, rolling his eyes.

“Can’t blame a man for trying,” Dabi shrugged. 

“Anyways,” Izuku said, shaking his head. “Speaking of emancipation…” Everyone turned to him with intrigued looks, but he turned his gaze to Hawks, who rustled his feathers in surprise. “Hawks, you done being owned by the Commission yet?” 

“Wha-” Hawks jumped back from the table, wings flaring out. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t bullshit me,” Izuku demanded. “I know who you are, Takami Keigo.”

“H- how do you know that name?” Hawks stuttered.

“Takami Keigo. Child soldier of the Commission. Taken in at the age of ten and born to a murderer and the woman who sheltered him. You saved 5 people in a high speed car accident which garnered the attention of the Commission leading to Endeavor’s arrest of your father. The Commission then essentially bought you from your mother as a deal for her to not get arrested and she disappeared off the grid soon after. You took over Lady Nagant’s spot as a child soldier and the Commission raised you and abused you and you now own your agency and confirmed your spot as the youngest Top 10 hero, securing your spot as Number 3,” Izuku read off from his memory. 

“...what the fuck,” Dabi whispered. “Did you do a fucking background check on my boyfriend?”

“Ah, so he’s your boyfriend now, is he?” Izuku inquired, ignoring the question. 

Dabi blushed. “Not the point. Did. You. Do. A. Background. Check?” 

“Listen, if new people are coming around my house, especially with Eri, then I’m making sure they’re safe,” Izuku admitted. “If that means I’m doing a background check on everyone’s partners, then so be it.” 

“You’re a lunatic,” Hitoshi laughed. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Izuku waved off, turning back to Hawks. “Anyways. Question. Answer. Are you done being owned by the Commission yet?” 

“I-” Hawks paused. “I don’t know anything else.” 

“Heroes deserve to have breaks and rest and happiness, right?” Izuku asked. “So, spend the night tonight, and I’ll get started on the paperwork to bring to Nedzu tomorrow.” 

“This feels like a kidnapping,” Shouto said. 

“Are we kidnapping chicken?” Eri asked, looking between them all in confusion. 

“Yes, we’re kidnapping the chicken dear,” Izuku chuckled. “But, it’s a good kidnapping because we’re making sure that he’s happy and cared for.”

“Good kidnapping?” Eri inquired. 

“We’re not actually kidnapping him,” Hitoshi sighed. “It’s more like Izuku is adopting him.”

“Did Zuzu adopt me?” Eri asked. 

Izuku sputtered, a blush rising on his cheeks. “Uh, no- I mean- well…”

“He took you in, but he never did the paperwork to have you adopted,” Hitoshi explained. 

“Can you adopt me?” Eri asked. 

“I mean, do you want me to? I’d officially be your dad if I did,” Izuku offered. 

“Yeah! You’re already my dad, so yes!” Eri cheered.

“Izuku, she doesn’t know what official means,” Dabi chuckled. 

“Oh! Um, well, it’s kind of like I guess…” Izuku stuttered. “Well, think of it like I’m just taking care of you for fun right now, but if I adopt you and it’s official, then I’ll be taking care of you as your actual dad.” 

“Okay!” Eri said. “Can we do it today?” 

Izuku laughed. “Not today, sweetheart. But, I’ll ask Nedzu to prepare the papers when I go talk to him about adopting Hawks tomorrow.” 

“Wait!” Hawks called out, coming back to stand at the table with a shocked face. “Are you actually going to adopt me? I’m an adult!” 

Izuku rolled his eyes. “And so am I. And I have a house and an income that isn’t controlled by anyone. Therefore I can easily adopt you. It’s technically supposed to be done by an adult that’s older, but with Nedzu and I, it’ll get done.”

“You’re really going to fight for custody against the Commission?” Hitoshi asked, shaking his head. 

“Nedzu has been looking for more advanced cases for me to work on, and this is the perfect opportunity!” Izuku said, laughing. 

“And the Medusa connections continue,” Hitoshi chuckled. 

“How so?” Shouto asked, tilting his head. 

“There’s a version of the myth that he follows where Medusa created a refuge for women who were being abused. Of course, he’s extended this myth to be that he takes in literally everyone,” Hitoshi explained. 

“Wait, you didn’t just choose the name Medusa because of the snakes?” Hawks asked. 

Izuku scoffed. “I’m offended that you thought that.” 

“There are plenty of reasons and analyses on why he chose Medusa, he’s just a vague asshole who doesn’t like to explain his reasoning,” Hitoshi added. 

“Anyways, my new child and new boyfriend are both staying the night tonight!” Izuku said, veering the topic away from himself. 

“I don’t even have any of my stuff with me…” Hawks said, looking down. “And the Commission is always watching when I exit and enter the agency.” 

“I mean, you could just buy new stuff,” Izuku shrugged. “But for now, you can borrow Dabi’s clothes for pajamas and then we have extra bathroom stuff that you can have. When we go to clear out Shouto’s stuff, we’ll also help get your stuff. Kurogiri and Twice are literally setting up a moving company, so they’ll probably do yours for free if you offer to promote them.” Izuku said with a conspiring glint in his eye. 

Dabi sighed. “I’ll inform Kurogiri,” he said, pulling out his phone.

“They’re already helping with Sho’s move, so it shouldn’t be too much trouble, but they’ll probably rope me into helping them finalize their business,” Izuku groaned. 

“Speaking off, can you also come by the shop to help me finalize some designs?” Dabi asked. 

Izuku groaned again. “Everybody is always asking me to do stuff.” 

“That’s what you get for taking in everybody and being the head of the household,” Hitoshi laughed. 

“You set us on the track with these jobs and in turn your job is making sure that we keep the jobs,” Dabi said with a smirk. “You literally signed up for this.” 

Izuku rolled his eyes and waved his hand dismissively. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll come by the shop after I help these two move in. Oh! Let’s go pick rooms!” Izuku jumped off his chair and herded Shouto and Hawks out of the kitchen. “Okay, so there’s a guest room on this floor that no one uses really,” Izuku explained showing them the room. “I figured you’d want this one Hawks, or you could just move into Dabi’s room downstairs.” He put his hand up to stage whisper, “Though, I have to warn you, he has asthma and sleeps with a really noisy breathing machine.” 

“I fucking heard that you asshole!” Dabi shouted from the kitchen. 

“Stop fucking cussing in front of my daughter!” Izuku shouted back. 

“Dad, you just cussed too,” Eri informed him.

“Shit,” Izuku hissed. “Sorry, Eri!” 

“It’s okay, Dad,” Eri called back. 

“Anyways,” Izuku said, running a hand through his curls as he turned back to an amused Shouto and Hawks, the latter with a slight blush over his cheeks at Izuku’s previous offer. “You can choose where you want to reside. Shouto,” he said, turning to his boyfriend. “There’s a guest room on the third floor between Eri and Kacchan’s room. Kacchan goes to bed at 8 and Eri typically goes to bed at 9, so it’s usually very quiet up there.” 

“When do you and Toshi go to bed?” Shouto asked. 

“We don’t,” Hitoshi drawled as he came to lean on the hall beside them. “We both have insomnia so we tend to stay downstairs or go out at night until we tire ourselves out enough to go to bed.” 

“You mean you go out as vigilantes?” Shouto inquired. 

Izuku clapped his hands together. “Exactly! Now, how do we want to divide the rooms?” 

“I’ll take the upstairs, I don’t really care either way,” Shouto shrugged. 

“I’ll take this room,” Hawks added, jabbing a thumb at the guest room they were standing by. 

“You realize that the third floor just gained yet another UA student? Tenko’s gonna throw a tantrum when he finds out,” Dabi drawled, coming into the hallway with Eri on his hip. 

“It’s not my fault that League members outnumber us and we had to establish dominance by taking the top floor,” Izuku countered. 

“You’re ridiculous,” Dabi said, rolling his eyes. “It’s pea’s bedtime, you taking her?” 

“Oh! Yeah,” Izuku reached out to take Eri from Dabi. “Let’s head up babe.” 

“Okay, Dad,” Eri whispered sleepily as she was transferred into Izuku’s arms and immediately rested her head in the crook of his neck. 

“Go ahead, and make yourselves at home, I’ll be down in a bit,” Izuku said as he walked down the hall towards the stairs. 

“Wait, Hawks said he’d play a game with me,” Eri complained, sitting up in Izuku’s arms. 

“I’ll play a game with you tomorrow, I promise!” Hawks cheered. 

“Yeah, the chicken’s moving in with us, so I’m sure you’ll get plenty of games in,” Izuku added. 

“Okay,” Eri pouted, resting her head down again. 

Izuku chuckled as he carried his soon-to-be-official daughter up to bed and tucked her in. His family was growing and he couldn’t be happier.

Chapter Text

“You literally almost got fucking stabbed!” Echo yelled at their partner as they ran through the back alleyways. 

“But I didn’t!” Medusa yelled in turn. 

“Yeah, because I got stabbed!” Echo countered. 

“You’re such a damn baby! The knife barely even grazed your skin,” Medusa said in exasperation. “Climb here!” Medusa jumped up and grabbed onto a fire escape to pull it down and the two vigilantes scrambled up the stairs to the roof. They rested at the edge and peeked over, watching for their pursuers. 

“You’re a fucking nightmare to work with,” Echo muttered. 

“And yet you decided to date me. Now let me see the cut so that I can bandage it,” Medusa said, waving their hand rapidly as their pursuers ran through the alley and they ducked behind the low wall. 

Echo grumbled and pulled up their hoodie, showing the shallow cut to their partner. 

“It’s literally a cat scratch,” Medusa said, rolling their eyes as they pulled out antiseptic wipes and bandages from the pouches on their outfit. They quickly cleaned the cut and slapped a bandage on before putting their supplies away and standing to stretch. “Now, shall we go get those fuckers?”

Echo groaned and stood up. “Yeah, let’s go.” 

Medusa ran and jumped down to the next roof, rolling to take the impact. Echo joined them a couple seconds later. 

“Bots picked them up in the next alley over,” Medusa said as they raced over to the next roof. They jumped over smoothly and quietly made their way down the fire escape into a back alley. They snuck their way over and peeled around the corner and saw the group of men huddled together. 

“Plan?” Echo asked as they retreated around the corner. 

“Four of them, two of us. We know what weapons they have as well as their quirks now,” Medusa recounted. “We’ll use the bots this time and I’ll change the color to pink to paralyze them. It might not have as much of an effect since I’ve used it on them once already, but hopefully it’ll get at least two of them.” 

“Or you two could go the fuck home and let someone with a license take care of it for once,” Eraserhead drawled from where he was perched on the fire escape. Both boys jumped and turned to the new party. 

“What the absolute fuck, Eraserhead,” Medusa hissed, the snakes of their hair twisting in annoyance. 

“Go. Home.” Eraserhead demanded. 

“And let you take the glory of this capture? No thanks,” Medusa snapped back. 

“Let’s just go. We’re already going to have to run extra laps in class tomorrow,” Echo conceded. 

Medusa threw their hands up in the air. “You’re both ridiculous. We’ve got this.” Without another word, Medusa ducked around the corner, snakes raised up and glowing with a faint pink color. As predicted, only two of the drug dealers froze, but Medusa’s snakes locked onto the other two as they rushed forward. They threw a punch at the other one as Echo rushed forward to take down the other. The man took the punch and went down and soon Medusa had cuffs linking their wrists together, Echo finishing up with the other man as Eraserhead strolled over to the two men that were still frozen in place and knocked them out and cuffed them as well. 

“ Now will you go home?” Eraserhead asked as he texted the incident in. 

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever Dad ,” Medusa snarked. They grabbed Echo’s wrist and took off at a run down the alley and turned before Eraserhead’s capture weapon could snag them, laughing all the way. 

“You’re such a prick to him. He’s our teacher , Medusa,” Echo huffed as they were dragged through the alleys. 

“He’s just as much of a prick,” Medusa countered, finally letting go of Echo’s arm and slowing their pace. 

“You literally made us run across the whole city,” Echo groaned as they turned onto their street. 

“Would you stop complaining about running? It’s good for you,” Medusa said. 

“Doesn’t feel good for me,” Echo countered as they worked to catch their breath. 

Medusa chuckled and opened the door to their house. “Again being a ba- fuck!” The alarms set up for Eri’s room were going off and Medusa ran to the stairs, taking them two at a time as Echo slammed the door behind them and followed at just as quick a pace. 

“What do you think happened?” Echo huffed out. 

“Anything could’ve happened, but it doesn’t matter till we make sure she’s safe!” Medusa shot out as they reached the third landing. They rushed down the hall and slid around the corner, coming upon Eri’s room which had an open door. Kacchan and Shouto were there with a panicked Eri sitting in the corner of her room. 

“Eri, sweetie, it’s okay, Izuku will be back soon,” Kacchan said in a consoling manner with his hands raised placatingly. 

Izuku took off his mask and pushed Kacchan aside to kneel beside his daughter. “Hey Er-bear, it’s alright. I’m here. It’s alright,” he repeated, running his hands over her hair. She latched onto his suit and pulled him close. 

“She had a nightmare, I think,” Shouto whispered to Echo. 

“I- th-thought you we-were g- gone ,” Eri sobbed out. “I th-thought it w-was all a- a d-dream.” 

“Oh, sweetie,” Izuku consoled, picking Eri up and carrying her back to bed. He shooed the others out of the room, which they quickly did, shutting the door gently. “I’m right here, I haven’t left, and you’re safe.” 

“I-I’m sorry,” Eri cried. “I woke up K-Kacchan a-and Sho-kun.” 

“It’s alright, hunny,” Izuku said. “They’ll be fine and everyone will go back to sleep. Do you want me to tell you a story?”

“Y-yes please,” Eri said, sniffling as her sobs died down. 

“Let me tell you the story of Medusa then,” Izuku said, braiding Eri’s hair. She nodded and he continued, “there once was a fair lady whom everyone thought was gorgeous and the most beautiful of the town. She had two sisters as well, though neither lived up to her beauty. One day, the god of the sea, Poseidon heard of her beauty and convinced her to go to a temple. But this temple was for the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, Athena. Athena found the two in the temple and to protect Medusa, Athena turned her into a gorgon, which means that she grew snakes for hair and her stare would turn men into stone. Medusa fled the temple and took shelter in a cave where she was deemed to reside for the rest of her life.” 

Eri gasped. “What about her sisters?” 

“Well, Athena learned of her sisters, and turned them into gorgons as well. So they became known as the gorgon sisters,” Izuku explained. 

“What did they do in the cave?” Eri asked. 

“They protected people. Women and children were allowed to come to Medusa in case they were being hurt, to seek refuge and be safe.”

“Like me?” Eri asked, looking up at Izuku, who still had the snakes twined in his hair. 

“Exactly like you,” Izuku said, poking a finger into her chest gently. “And like Hawks, though the gorgon sisters never took men into their refuge.”

“But, what if they needed help too?” Eri asked. 

“There were other ways for them to seek help, but Medusa was very sure about only helping women like her and the children that needed help as well,” Izuku explained. 

“So that’s why you’re Medusa at night?” Eri asked. 

“In a sense, yes. I also became Medusa because she was cast out of society, and so was I,” Izuku explained. “She was hurt for something that she couldn’t control and ended up exiled. 

“The more popular versions of the myth include Medusa and her sisters becoming monsters and turning anyone to stone that they come across, even luring people in. So, another reason I became Medusa was to remind myself of who I am and that I want to help people, not harm them.”

“Why did people hurt you?” Eri asked, tears gathering in her eyes. “You’re too nice.” 

Izuku laughed sadly. “Part of the reason I was hurt was actually because of how nice I was. But, the main reason is that I don’t have a quirk like you and Kacchan and Toshi and the others. People didn’t like that I was different.” 

“I think that you’re a really good Medusa,” Eri whispered. “You’re proving that she was a hero.” 

Izuku ran his fingers through her hair, undoing the braid. “Thank you, love. Do you feel a little better now?” 

“Yeah, thank you Dad,” Eri said, hugging him around the middle. 

“Let’s get you all tucked in again, then. Yeah?” Izuku asked, hugging her back. 

“Okay,” Eri said, yawning. 

Izuku chuckled as he got off the bed and tucked his daughter in (because even if the papers weren’t filed yet, Eri was definitely his daughter). He ran his fingers through her hair and hummed a soft tune. A couple minutes later, she was asleep once more and Izuku slipped out of the room, making sure to pick up his mask on the way out. 

“You okay?” Hitoshi asked as Izuku leaned against the door and sighed. 

Izuku looked up to see Hitoshi and Shouto sitting cross-legged against the wall next to Eri’s door. Hitoshi had changed out of his vigilante costume and was in a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. They must have stayed after Hitoshi changed and had probably heard the story as well, then. “Yeah, Eri’s fine.” 

“We’re wondering if you’re okay though,” Shouto inquired. 

Izuku gave them a small smile. “I’ll be fine. Just a little panicked still.” 

Hitoshi stood from his spot and pulled Izuku into a hug, Shouto following after a slight hesitation. Izuku could feel the tears dripping from his eyes as he laid his head on Hitoshi’s shoulder and was wrapped in his two boyfriend’s arms. 

“Let’s go to bed,” Hitoshi offered. 

Izuku nodded against his shoulder and Hitoshi separated from the hug, grabbing Izuku’s hand to pull him towards his room. 

Shouto went to pull away to his own room, but Izuku tightened his grip on his hand and looked over to him with a watery smile. “Stay, please?” 

Shouto gave a small nod and followed Izuku and Hitoshi into their room, looking around as they entered. 

Hitoshi handed Izuku a pile of clothes. “Go change and then we can sleep.” 

Izuku nodded as he took the pile and headed across the hall to the bathroom where he stripped out of his vigilante costume and put on the comfortable sweats and t-shirt that Hitoshi had grabbed for him. He went back across the hall and dumped his vigilante costume in a pile in the corner where Hitoshi had left his Echo gear before climbing into bed, Shouto and Hitoshi climbing in after to lie on either side of him. 

“It’s a good thing we have a California King bed,” Izuku laughed, tears still slowly spilling from his eyes. 

Hitoshi nudged his shoulder against Izuku’s. “Almost like you planned it.” 

Izuku scoffed, glad that Hitoshi was going with the topic. “How could I have ever planned that we’d land such an incredible boyfriend?” 

Shouto made a small noise in his throat and brought his hands up to his face, left side steaming. 

Izuku and Hitoshi laughed as Izuku pulled both of his boyfriends closer by their arms and held them together as they all settled in. 

“Everything’s going to be fine, Zuku,” Hitoshi whispered.

Izuku nodded. “Yeah, I’ll make sure of it.”

“That’s not threatening at all,” Shouto huffed. 

“I got you emancipated, I got Hawks out of the Commission’s agency, I saved Eri from an abuser-”

“-kidnapped her,” Hitoshi cut in, earning an elbow to the side. 

“-I got my old school full of abusers shut down, and all of the hospitals in Musutafu to change staffing and regulations. I can make everything fine,” Izuku said. 

“With help,” Shouto added. “We’re here and we can help you.” 

“Plus, you have the Chimera on your side,” Hitoshi added. “And his power is scary.” 

Izuku rolled his eyes even though they couldn’t see it. “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” 

Hitoshi huffed a laugh. “Sleep Zu, we’re right here if anything goes wrong.” 

“No one will think twice about coming against The Pantheon, and you’ve made sure of that,” Shouto added. 

Izuku smiled and closed his eyes. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

Chapter Text

Izuku took a sip of his tea and stared at the chimera in front of him. 

“So, who are we planning to take down today?” Nedzu asked as he took a sip of tea. 

“You know me too well. I think it’s time to take on the Commission,” Izuku said as he leaned back in his armchair. 

“You haven’t even been here for a full semester and you’re already the best personal student I’ve ever had.” Nedzu cackled into his cup of tea. “It is a truly delightful experience having you as my student!” 

Izuku chuckled. “It is as much a pleasure to have you as my teacher.” 

“So, how might we be attacking the Commission?” Nedzu inquired. 

“They’ve been raising child soldiers, the most recent being Hawks who took over after Lady Nagant was arrested,” Izuku explained as he pulled his laptop out of his backpack. “I have all of their files that I obtained when running a background check on Hawks.” 

“And what are we doing about Hawks?” Nedzu asked, opening his own laptop that was sitting on the couch next to him. 

“I proposed that I adopt him. An adult adoption is rare, but it’s possible. The problem comes in the fact that I’m younger than him,” Izuku said, tapping his bottom lip as he thought through his plan. 

“No need to worry about that, I can get the adoption papers to go through easily enough,” Nedzu said as he sent some files to print. “Any other adoptions?” He asked knowingly. 

Izuku chuckled again. “If you already know then we really must be spending too much time together.”

“I’ve had the papers printed for a while actually,” Nedzu admitted. “I was simply waiting for the time in which you confirmed the plan.”

Izuku blushed. “Am I that easy to read?”

“Do not forget my quirk, Midoriya,” Nedzu reminded. 

“I guess you’re right. But, either way, yes I would like to adopt Eri as well.” 

Nedzu nodded. “The papers are already prepared. They just need your signatures.”

“Perfect, I’ll take those and Hawks’ too.” Izuku said, taking another sip of tea. 

“How did Todoroki-kun take the emancipation news?” Nedzu asked. 

Izuku hummed as he put all his files together and emailed them to Nedzu. “He took it fine. He gave me a hug.” 

Nedzu chuckled quietly. “So I assume he was happy?” 

Izuku looked up once he’d finished his task. “Oh, very. Apparently, I have to throw a welcoming party for both Shouto and Hawks after we help them move in after school.” 

“Do you need help getting Hawks’ stuff out of his agency?” Nedzu asked with a tilted head. 

“Oh, no,” Izuku said, waving a hand dismissively as he finally set his laptop aside. “We’ve got the Hermes Express moving company to get everything in and out efficiently without anyone noticing. Plus, I’ll be there to make sure all cameras and audio are disabled.” 

Nedzu hummed as he opened the email that Izuku had sent him. They sat comfortably in silence for a while as Nedzu looked at all the information that Izuku had gathered and Izuku sipped his tea. 

“How is the Endeavor case coming along?” Izuku asked when he’d finished his tea. 

“Just waiting on Natsuo’s testimony,” Nedzu said without taking his eyes off the screen. 

Izuku hummed in response before pulling his laptop back towards him. There was always something that could be done, especially between  The Pantheon and schoolwork. Izuku hummed as he thought about one of his tasks today: meeting Dabi at his tattoo parlor to go over designs. 

Dabi had previously apprenticed with a tattoo artist and did it as a side job for a while before joining the League, so he didn’t need to go through that lengthy process again, though he did have to set up a portfolio, the shop itself, and the name and design of the shop. There was a lot for him to do and it didn’t come cheap either. 

Izuku opened a drawing app on his laptop and pulled out his drawing pad and pen. Dabi had been having no trouble designing his portfolio and ordering supplies, but that’s about all he’d been able to do. Izuku had already helped him on the interior design, though he knew that tonight Dabi was going to ask for help on the name of the shop, his logo, and probably the exterior design as well. 

Izuku sighed. This was going to be a very long day, though luckily the school day was coming close to lunch. Izuku and Nedzu had already spent their time doing analyses and working on cases before they’d delved into personal topics, both of which were very entertaining to both of them. Izuku tapped his pen to his lower lip, his thoughts were all over the place and this act usually helped steady him. 

“Helping The Pantheon again?” Nedzu asked absently as he clicked around on his computer.

“Dabi still needs a name for his shop and a logo,” Izuku muttered, staring at the blank white page in front of him. 

“Phoenix or Hephaestus? It seems everyone in The Pantheon is sticking with the Greek mythology theme, so Hephaestus would work, or Daedalus,” Nedzu offered. 

Izuku brightened. “Both of those are amazing!” He started drawing on the pad and coming up with different alternations of shop names for Daedalus and Hephaestus. After a couple variations, he crossed out Daedalus and stuck with Hephaestus. It was perfect for Dabi, and he hoped the man would like it. “Hephaestus is the god of fire, he has physical deformities, and he was cast out of his family. It fits Dabi to a tee.” 

Nedzu hummed. “I hadn’t made all those connections, I was thinking of what he was the god of. Were you aware that he’s the god of artisans and craftsmen in general?”

Izuku tilted his head. “Yeah, he’s also the god of blacksmithing, metallurgy, metalworking, volcanoes, carpenters, and sculptors. It’s amazing how many areas that each god looked over when they had so many gods in the first place.”

“Several gods also covered the same thing or slight variations such as how Hestia was the goddess of the hearthfire,” Nedzu added. “Greek mythology is truly an interesting topic! However, I must get us back on track, unfortunately.”

Izuku perked up. “How’s it looking?” 

“The Commission case should build very well, but we are going to get a lot of heat for it. Is this truly something that you want to follow?” Nedzu asked, looking up to Izuku finally. 

“You know that I don’t care what they do against me. They’ve been trying to find me since Medusa started patrolling the streets. If this will keep Hawks, and other children, safe, then it needs to be done,” Izuku replied, setting his technology aside and leaning forward in his seat, determination burning bright in his eyes. 

“Very well, I simply wanted to confirm before we took the next step,” Nedzu said, turning back to his computer. 

“What needs to be done?” Izuku asked. 

“With the evidence you brought? Not much,” Nedzu admitted. “It is simply seeing if there is anything more to compile and then the hard part is finding a judge to take the case.”

“Did you find one for the Endeavor case? If they’re willing to take on that case, they might take on the Commission,” Izuku pondered. 

“True, but I’m thinking of taking this on myself. Most judges are paid off by the Commission and won’t take any cases even against heroes let alone against the Commission,” Nedzu replied. 

“You’re a judge?” Izuku asked.

“No, no,” Nedzu laughed. “I have a team of lawyers and a judge on standby for any cases regarding UA so that they can be dealt with without the hassle of finding an external judge who is paid off.”

“But, your judge is essentially paid off by being employed by you,” Izuku pointed out with a smirk.

Nedzu beamed, his beady black eyes shining. “Yes, I suppose that’s true. Either way, I will contact the judge and let them know that I have two more cases prepared for them to take on.” 

Izuku nodded. “Is there anything else?”

“No, I believe it’s actually time for your lunch,” Nedzu said, glancing at the clock on his wall. 

“Oh!” Izuku said, scrambling to put everything in his backpack again. “I didn’t even realize!” 

Nedzu chuckled. “Go have a good lunch with your friends and if anything comes through, I’ll email you immediately. Otherwise, I’ll see you in our next class.” Nedzu grabbed his laptop and hopped off of the couch and headed over to his desk to set up there. He handed Izuku the two sets of adoption papers which he quickly stashed in a folder in his bag. 

Izuku bowed to the principal. “Thank you for everything!” He shouted before heading out the door. 

Izuku rushed through the hallways towards the cafeteria until he was stopped by the sea of students. With a groan, Izuku looked around the hallway till he found a vent lower on the wall to his left. He cheered as he maneuvered around the students and pulled open the grate, slipping into the vent and pulling it closed once more. The vent shafts were clean and free of dust as he crawled through and made his way towards the cafeteria. 

Izuku peeked through a vent grate and cursed. He must’ve missed a turn because the grate opened into the kitchen. With a shrug he pushed open the grate and hopped out, making Lunch Rush jump in surprise and scaring the students he was serving. 

“Oh! Hey Sho! Denki!” Izuku cheered as he closed the vent and stood up. 

“Izuku, why did you just come out of the vents?” Shouto asked with a tilted head. 

“Why are you in my kitchen?” Lunch Rush cried. 

“Too many students and I’m hungry. Lunch Rush, can I get eggs and rice please?” Izuku asked 

Lunch Rush plated the dish and handed it to Izuku, still in shock from said student tumbling out of a vent shaft into his kitchen. 

“Thank you!” Izuku said with a bow before exiting the kitchen and joining his boyfriend and friend in the cafeteria. 

Shouto shook his head as he grabbed his cold soba from Lunch Rush and they started to walk away, Denki falling in line beside them. 

“So did you start the case against the Commission?” Shouto asked as they walked towards their usual table. 

“The Commission?” Denki asked as he sat down across from Hitoshi who was already at the table with Mei and Kacchan. 

“It’s better not to ask, Dunce Face,” Kacchan scoffed. 

“The case has started. Nedzu is contacting his lawyers and judge and then we’ll bring the case to the Commission. We still need Natsuo’s testimony to start the Endeavor case, though,” Izuku said. 

“He said that he’s coming in on Monday to do it,” Shouto said. “Is everything else ready?” 

“Yup!” Izuku cheered. 

“And the adoptions?” Hitoshi asked. 

“Oh, the forms are in my bag,” Izuku shrugged. “I’ll get them filled out after the move.”

“You’re moving?” Kirishima asked as he joined them at the table.

“I’m moving in with them,” Shouto answered, in between slurping his noodles. 

Denki and Kirishima whipped their heads towards the dual-quirked boy. “WHAT?” They both screeched.

“Well, I am dating Toshi and Zuku, but I also just got emancipated, so I needed somewhere to live that wasn’t Endeavor’s and it’s not like I have a job yet or anything,” Shouto shrugged. 

“Still can’t get over how nonchalant you are about everything,” Denki muttered, shaking his head with wide eyes. 

“I wish I could move in, but unlike the rest of The Pantheon, I actually have good parents,” Mei commented, tinkering with some random parts on the table. 

“Mei, that better not explode,” Hitoshi sighed, scooting away from the girl. 

Izuku laughed. “While knowing her explosion rate, that has a very low chance of exploding.” 

“Wait, who’s getting adopted by who?” Kirishima asked. 

“I’m adopting Eri and Hawks,” Izuku said, reaching to try and snag a part away from Mei that raised the explosion rate exponentially. 

“Hawks?” Denki asked. “As in Number Three Pro Hero, Hawks?” 

Izuku nodded, snagging the part when he’d faked to grab the whole thing and tossed it in his backpack. “He was essentially a slave to the Commission, that’s why I’m building a case against them,” he said, turning back the conversation. 

“What the fuck,” Denki whispered. 

“That’s so manly bro,” Kirishima said, wiping a tear from his eye. 

“So, is Eri taking your last name?” Hitoshi asked. 

Izuku nodded. “Yeah, we talked about it this morning. Also, fucking chimera has had the adoption papers printed out and prepared for who knows how long.” Izuku shook his head. 

Kacchan laughed. “You’ve been spending too much time with the damn r-chimera.” 

Izuku narrowed his eyes at his friend. “Nice save. But, yes you’re right, that was my response too.” 

“He has an intelligence quirk though, I’m sure that aided in his assumption that you’d be adopting her after analyzing your personality,” Shouto shrugged.

“...and that was Nedzu’s response,” Izuku laughed. 

“So what all are we doing after school?” Hitoshi asked. 

“We have to help Shouto and Hawks move in with Kuro and Jin, and then I have to go over and help Dabi with his shop after,” Izuku explained. “Am I missing anything?” 

“...the adoption papers?” Hitoshi sighed. 

“We were literally just talking about this,” Shouto sighed. 

“...I need to start writing things down,” Izuku said, slumping his shoulders. 

The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch, and Izuku jumped up. “Time for math! Let’s go!” 

“Why the hell is he so pumped for math?” Denki groaned. 

“He’s a genius, so it isn’t hard for him,” Hitoshi whispered back. 

Izuku blew a raspberry at his boyfriend before rushing the group out of the cafeteria, Mei slipping away from his excitement with a kiss on the cheek and a promise to see him tomorrow in support class.

Chapter Text

“I don’t know. I really think she likes the detective,” Himiko said. 

“No, no, no,” Hitoshi argued. “She definitely likes the assassin. Did you see the way she watched her fighting?” 

Katsuki laughed. “Dude, she was so enamored by her fighting style.”

A loud rumbling outside cut off their conversation of the show they were watching. 

“Did someone buy a truck?” Atsuhiro asked, looking up from the newspaper he was reading on one of the recliners. 

“Hey, we’re both here, so it isn’t the moving truck,” Jin said, raising his hands in surrender. 

“Who the fuck has such a loud vehicle?” Katsuki asked, looking over to Hitoshi.

Hitoshi shrugged. “Hell if I know.” The loud noise suddenly cut off and they looked around at each other in confusion. 

The front door slammed open causing the Pantheon to jump to their feet from the various positions they’d been sitting in the common room. 

“Hey guys!” Izuku cheered, walking through the hallway carrying a box that was clearly heavy if his muscles flexing was anything to go by. He dropped the box on the ground in the middle of the common room and smiled up at everyone. 

“Wait! Not without me!” Mei shouted, running into the room. 

“Do I even want to know?” Touya asked, glancing at the box warily. 

“Yes!” Mei shouted. “You definitely want to know!”

“That better not be a dead body, Zu,” Katsuki grumbled, Shouto nodding along with him. 

“It’s not a dead body,” Izuku scoffed. “You would smell it if it was.”

“You have Mei with you,” Hitoshi pointed out. “She probably has something to counter such smells.” 

“I mean I do, but that doesn’t mean anything,” Mei waved off. “Zu! Open the box!”

The Pantheon backed away as Izuku bent down to open the box, revealing… blackness? 

“Izuku, what are we looking at?” Hitoshi sighed, taking a couple steps closer to peer into the box. 

Izuku pulled one of the black things out of the box. It was a black leather jacket. “I got us jackets!” 

“For what?” Atsuhiro asked. 

“Oh! Give me mine!” Himiko squealed, darting forwards. Izuku laughed and dug around the box before pulling out another jacket and handing it to her. She screeched as she put it on. “Oh my gods! It fits perfectly! This is amazing!” 

“Now we’re really going to look like a gang,” Katsuki sighed. 

Hitoshi laughed. “Did you create a crest for us?” He asked as he saw a glimpse of the design on the back as Himiko spun around. 

“Wait, I drew that!” Touya said, grabbing Himiko by the shoulders so he could see the design. “Holy shit, this is embroidered.”

Hitoshi raised his eyebrows. “…where’d you get the money for this?”

“They were made at the school! Nedzu agreed that it was good practice for the students in support and costume design, so there weren’t any expenses,” Izuku explained. 

“Yeah!” Mei cheered. “We got the fabric from the costume design and then super-inforced it. It’s fireproof, shock proof, water-”

“It’s every kind of ‘proof,’ we get it,” Touya said. “More importantly, when and how did you snag the drawing and get it embroidered on all of these?”

“I literally commissioned the drawing, first off,” Izuku said, holding up one finger before adding a second. “And second, I stole your tablet and sent the drawing to myself.” No one needed to know that he had done so while humming the tune of Pink Panther under his breath. 

“Bastard,” Touya hissed. “Give me mine.”

Izuku chuckled as he reached into the box and grabbed the first one on top, looking at some detail on it before he threw it at Jin. Hitoshi watched him fumble with the jacket, snickering when all of a sudden a wad of leather hit him in the face. “Hey!” 

“Oop, sorry Toshi,” Izuku said, giggling. 

Hitoshi looked down at the jacket in his hands, fingering the nice material before looking at the crest that Touya had drawn for them. It had ‘The Pantheon’ written in a fancy cursive with an Ouroboros encircling it. On the snake’s body, there were different colored rings, one for each of the Pantheon members, Hitoshi assumed. After looking at all the details of the large embroidery, he held the jacket up and flipped it around, stopping when he saw what was embroidered on the left breast. “You gotta be shitting me…”

“Oh! Do you like it?” Izuku asked. At some point, he’d donned his own jacket, a beautiful rendition of Medusa’s head embroidered on his left breast. 

Hitoshi glared at him. “You get an awesome reference to your vigilante persona and I get a fucking purple Monster can?” He asked, jabbing a finger at the offending work. 

“I got clouds,” Kurogiri said in a soft tone, fingering the fabric. 

“Your quirk is more like mist than clouds, but whatever,” Katsuki said. “I’d also like to know how the fuck these were chosen. Why in the hell do I have a fucking dandelion on mine?” 

“If you put an angry face on it, it’ll look just like you,” Shouto observed, causing Hitoshi to snicker. 

“The fuck did you just say, IcyHot?” Katsuki screeched, stalking towards the boy. 

Izuku darted forward and held up his hands in front of the two. “Now, now. We’re family, get along.”

Katsuki clicked his tongue and shoved his jacket in Izuku’s face. “Why the fuck is mine a dandelion?”

Izuku pushed the jacket out of his face. “Damn, calm down.”

“I told you it’d piss him off,” Mei snickered. 

“I mean, yeah, I knew that,” Izuku relented. “But seriously. Calm your muscular ass tits. Everyone got a symbol, whether or not it was a seriously made symbol was up to my mood when drawing them.”

“I like mine,” Shouto offered, earning a soft smile from Izuku in turn. 

“Mine’s perfect!” Himiko cheered. On her jacket, Hitoshi could see a dagger dripping blood. It was perfect for her. 

“As amazing these jackets are,” Atsuhiro cut in before everyone could show off their own symbols, “do you mind explaining what the loud engine we heard earlier was?”

“Oh!” Izuku said, jumping in place. “I totally forgot about that! Come on, I’ll show you!” He grabbed Hitoshi’s hand and dragged him to the front door, the rest of the Pantheon following behind. Mei took the lead and opened the front door, opening her arms wide to show off the two motorcycles parked in the front yard. 

“I-” Hitoshi started. “When the fuck?”

“Bitch!” Touya shouted. “You got one before I did!” Touya pushed through the group and started examining the motorcycles. “You got your symbols painted on them?” He asked, looking up at Izuku. 

Izuku beamed. “Yeah! Look at Mei’s! It’s got the wrench symbol too!” 

“We’re becoming a biker gang…” Kurogiri said before letting out a deep sigh. 

“How did you even buy this?” Katsuki asked, walking up to the bikes to examine them as well. 

“I’ve been saving up ever since we got driving classes,” Izuku shrugged. 

“You-” Hitoshi started. 

“That was like in the first couple months of school,” Shouto noted, recalling the class that all hero students were forced to partake in. They’d been forced to get licenses for all classes of cars as part of their hero training just in case the need ever arose for a vehicle. 

“Yeah,” Izuku agreed with a shrug. “But I knew I wanted one. Mei and I talked about it and we finally finished altering the bikes today.” 

“Kuro, I want one,” Tenko declared, eyeing the bikes with wonder. 

“You need to learn how to drive first,” Kurogiri sighed. 

“I’ll pay for classes for those who aren’t in UA and for the bikes,” Shouto offered, causing a giggle to arise from his boyfriends. 

“Dad’s card?” Touya asked. 

“Dad’s card,” Shouto said with a slight uptilt to his lips. 

“Fuck yeah, this is dope!” Touya shouted. “Y’all I’ve been wanting one for so damn long.”

“We’ll have to get all of our symbols painted on them like Zu and Meimei!” Himiko cheered. 

“Yes!” Jin shouted. “Can we customize our bikes however?”

“Of course, they’ll be yours,” Izuku shrugged. 

“Mine’s gonna be split black and white!” Jin cheered.

“I think I’ll get a purple one,” Kurogiri pondered. 

“Oh? So you agree to this?” Izuku asked with raised eyebrows. 

“So, it’s decided,” Hitoshi drawled. “We’re officially becoming a biker gang.” 

________

The process of getting licenses, buying bikes, and getting them customized was a fairly simple process in the end. Todoroki using Endeavor's card also speed-ran the process and it was really only a week-long timeframe which surprised Izuku to no end. Each person ended up with a different colored bike, they all went through the support department to get geared up, and then through the costume department to get painted. 

The day that they were all done, they all rode back home together, fully geared in customized helmets and their jackets. Their riding showed their excitement as they weaved around traffic and one another on their way to the house before tearing down the road, almost home. 

Izuku couldn’t hold in his laughs at the faces that his neighbors wore as they drove past. They seemed absolutely mortified at the scene and it caused pure delight in him. 

As they pulled into their yard and went to park the bikes in the garage, Eri came running out to meet them with Nemuri and Mic following closely behind. 

“You’re home!” Eri cheered as they started filing out of the garage. 

“You all look so amazing!” Nemuri added, beaming at the group. “I just want to squeeze your cheeks!”

Izuku took a step back from the Pro Hero who was raising her hands and making pinching motions. 

“You really do look amazing,” Mic agreed. “I’m a little jealous now,” he added, fingering his own leather jacket. 

“Who knows,” Izuku said. “Maybe you’ll join the Pantheon one day,” he said, glancing at Kurogiri. Mic sent him a questioning glance before shrugging it off. 

“Maybe if we babysit the little listener enough, it’ll guarantee us a spot!” Mic laughed. 

Izuku smiled as he shook his head in amusement. “Thank you for helping, by the way. It was either you or Nedzu and I’d prefer to keep world domination for after she gets into high school if possible.” 

“Just after high school?” Hitoshi scoffed. 

Izuku shrugged. “Can’t keep it from her forever if it’s something she wants.” 

“Will I be the princess with world domination?” Eri asked, looking up at everyone in confusion. 

“You’ll be the queen, dear,” Nemuri corrected. “And we will all serve you.”

Eri’s eyes glowed at that. “Really?”

“Great, now she’s actually going to plan world domination,” Tenko groaned. “Like we needed another one.” 

“Oh lighten up,” Hawks laughed. “We have until she’s in high school, and before that time even approaches, Izuku will already have done it for her.”

Kacchan grimaced. “Yeah, that’s not lightening the mood at all.” 

“Speaking of mood killers,” Kurogiri interrupted, pointing down the driveway where a group of neighbors were walking towards them. 

Izuku groaned. “Do I seriously need to put up ‘No Trespassing' signs?” 

Mic grimaced. “What do you think they’re here for?”

“Probably because Izuku decided to make us be a gang by getting us all to want motorcycles and have matching leather jackets,” Hitoshi drawled. 

Izuku sighed, but threw an arm around Hitoshi’s waist, drawing him closer. “You’re all happy with the choice and you know it. Besides, I didn’t think they’d actually decide to come up to the house.” 

Shouto came up on Izuku’s other side and grabbed his hand, giving it a small squeeze. “They can’t do anything. You didn’t sign into any agreements.”

“Yeah, but they keep pushing me to sign up for the HOA,” Izuku complained, squeezing Shouto’s hand back. 

“Why not just let Nedzu deal with them?” Nemuri asked. 

“And have him kick out everyone on the road?” Izuku asked with a grimace. “I feel like that’s not the best course of action?” 

The neighbors finally reached them and Izuku scowled at them. “Any reason why you decided to breach the boundaries of my property?” Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Eri duck behind Kacchan.

“We have come to make a complaint,” one of them sneered. 

Izuku raised an eyebrow. “Last time I checked, I was not registered to take complaints from mere commoners.”

A couple in the group gasped. “How dare you!” One shouted. 

Izuku raised an eyebrow. “You decided to breach the Fields of Asphodel, do not complain if I turn it into the Fields of Punishment.”

“You are simply a minor pretending he knows everything when you know nothing of how the world actually works,” one of the men sneered. “Just wait till you’re an adult and have to face the consequences of your actions.”

“I have faced plenty of consequences, thank you very much. I have dealt with Cronus and sailed through the Straits of Messina. I am completing the tasks from Zeus, and I do not need to deal with Eurystheus adding to those as I am no Heracles,” Izuku responded. 

“You are all just a gang of misfits!” A neighbor shouted. “Shame on all of you adults that are letting these children run so rampant!” 

Mic raised an eyebrow. “We’re just babysitters,” he said, pointing a thumb towards Nemuri. “We have no control over anyone here.”

“And besides that,” Atsuhiro added, “Izuku is not only an adult, but the owner of this property in full. He calls all of the shots.”

“He is simply a child playing at adult,” a woman complained. “He knows nothing of responsibilities.”

“Say that to the fact that he’s not only in school, but also has a job,” Katsuki hissed. 

“How about this? You want to play Eurystheus? Take it up in court,” Izuku said. “I will take no tasks or orders from the lot of you. My family and I are living our lives peacefully and we do not need those who are jealous and playing at being royalty to ruin that. Now get off my property before I call some Pro Heroes to deal with you,” he finished in a cold tone. 

The neighbors scoffed at him, but his family around him stepped up with cold glares to back him up and soon they were scampering off back to their own houses. 

Izuku sighed. “I could really go with never having to deal with them again.” 

“Did you really have to spit so much mythology at them?” Touya chuckled. 

“Huh?” Izuku asked, tilting his head. 

“The nerd didn’t even realize what he was doing,” Kacchan noted with a smirk. 

“You spouted shit about the Underworld and Heracles’ trials,” Shouto offered. 

“Oh, yeah, they pissed me off,” Izuku said. 

“Well, since everyone’s home and we don’t have to cart away civilians for trespassing and harassment, we should probably go,” Nemuri said with an exaggerated sad sigh. 

Izuku chuckled and let go of his partners to bow to the two heroes. “Thank you again for taking care of Eri.”

“No problem kiddo! Let us know whenever you need babysitters! She’s a joy to be around!” Nemuri said, ruffling Izuku’s hair. 

Izuku shook her off and waved to the two heroes as they went to their car which was parked outside of the garage before driving off. 

“We should come up with gang signs,” Himiko pondered as they started filing into the house.

“No,” Kurogiri said. 

“Meh,” Izuku agreed. “We could just all communicate via sign language and they’d never know the difference.”

Kurogiri sighed. “I’m gonna go start dinner.”

“Thank you!” Izuku said as Kurogiri walked away. “Okay, but seriously. Let’s all learn sign.”

“I’m down,” Tenko shrugged. 

“We all know it,” Shouto hummed. “So we can all help teach it.”

Hitoshi nodded. “It shouldn’t be too difficult.”

“Family language learning!” Izuku cheered. 

“Yeah, this is gonna be disastrous,” Magne commented. 

The group laughed as they all walked further into the house and split off to do their own things before dinner was finished. 

Chapter Text

“Ready to fuck this shit up?” Izuku asked, bouncing in place on his motorcycle. 

Hitoshi smirked at his boyfriend as he pulled his helmet on, raising the visor so they could still talk. “I’m ready to see the reactions when we pull up.”

“Oh, my class is gonna flip their shit,” Kacchan said, smirking as well. 

“I must agree,” Shouto added. “They’ll probably be pretty shocked at the very least.”

“I’m excited for Aizawa’s reaction,” Izuku hummed, starting his bike. 

“”I’m sure he knows due to Yamada and Nemuri babysitting Eri when we went to pick them up,” Shouto said, tilting his head in question before starting his own bike. 

Izuku shrugged. “Knowing it’s a thing and seeing it in person are two different things.”

Hitoshi and Kacchan started their bikes and soon enough they were zipping out of the garage, down their driveway, and up the hill to UA. 

Aizawa was standing next to the bus with crossed arms and tapping his foot as he waited for everyone to show up. His gaze snapped towards them as soon as he heard their engines roaring. Izuku could almost hear the groan that Aizawa let out as he realized who it was. The students standing with him gaped at the scene, but granted it was a bit intimidating to have 4 motorcycles racing towards them, the riders wearing black helmets and black jackets. 

As they came to a stop, Izuku pulled off his helmet and shook out his curls with a wide grin. “We’re here, Aizawa!”

“Yes, I see that,” their teacher said, rolling his eyes. 

“You all got motorcycles?” Denki cried as the others also pulled off their helmets. 

“You look like a gang, kero,” Tsuyu added. 

“That was part of the reason we got them,” Shouto confessed. 

Izuku gasped, turning to his boyfriend. “Sho! You aren’t supposed to tell people that!”

“I’m assuming it’s meant to look like a gang so you can piss off your neighbors?” Aizawa clarified for the horror-stricken class. 

“That is very unheroic behavior!” Iida called out. 

“Yeah, we don’t really care, like, whatsoever,” Shinsou drawled, rolling his eyes at the taller boy as he slung an arm over Izuku’s shoulders. 

“Alright Problem Children, get on the bus,” Aizawa calls out, cutting off Iida’s gasp of dismay. 

“Why isn’t Thirteen-Sensei with us?” Uraraka asked as everyone lined up to get on the bus, Iida shouting out formation orders. 

“They had to deal with stuff at the USJ, so I’m accompanying you lot,” Aizawa drawled. 

Izuku, Hitoshi, and Shouto got onto the bus to see that the order that Iida had made them stand in pointless and they both rolled their eyes as they took seats at the back of the bus, ready to ignore the class with Izuku hoping that it wouldn’t be as much of an interrogation as the bus ride to summer camp. Sitting in the back row, Kacchan took the last available seat and Tokoyami and Shoji took the seats directly in front of Hitoshi and Izuku, Kirishima and Kaminari in the seats in front of Shouto and Kacchan. Mina and Sero were just in front of them and Kouda and Yaoyorozu were in front of Tokoyami and Shouji. 

“Are you just leaving your bikes here?” Kaminari asked, looking out the window where they’d parked the bikes next to the bus.

“Nah, Mic-sensei is gonna take them to the staff parking garage for us,” Hitoshi answered, waving a hand lazily in the air. 

“Mic also rides a bike?” Kaminari said with an excited gasp.

“He was the one to teach us that portion in those driving classes,” Shouto drawled. 

“Oh yeah,” Kaminari muttered, blushing a bit in embarrassment. 

“I think it’s manly that you guys all got bikes!” Kirishima said, punching his fists together.

“And the aesthetic is so awesome! I’m jealous!” Mina cheered. 

“It is like joining the darkness in daylight,” Tokoyami observed. 

“How come I didn’t get a jacket though?” Kaminari whined. “I’m practically Pantheon-adjacent.”

“You must join the cult fully to receive full benefits,” Shouto drawled. 

“Yeah, you gotta get hazed,” Hitoshi snickered. 

“You’re all fucking ridiculous,” Kacchan scoffed. 

“Alright hellions!” Aizawa called from the front of the bus as everyone was finally sitting in their seats. “The bus ride is much shorter than summer camp, so don’t interrupt my nap.”

“Or you’ll be running laps as soon as we get there,” Izuku added quietly. 

“I heard that Problem Child,” Aizawa drawled, making Izuku blanch and hunker down in his seat. 

Soon after, the bus started and they were on the road, quiet chatter filling the bus as most people went on their phones to play games, listen to music, or inform friends and family that they were on their way to the exam. 

Izuku opened the Pantheon chat himself and sent a message that they were on the way as the proclaimed Bakusquad started up easy chatter amongst themselves. 

Bloodsucker : fuck yeah! kick ass zu-chan!

SwitchBitch : ^^^^

MistyBoi : Who changed my name? 

                Also, good luck boys, let us know how it goes.

EatMyDust : What name change? 

                   And good luck or whatever, I’m muting this shit while I’m on stream

Insomniac : What? You don’t want your viewers knowing how we did? Rude.

Medusa : Oop, he brought out full punctuation. He mad mad

Dandelion : Izuku change my fucking name 

                   Also u always use full punctiation nerd

Medusa : Yeah, ‘cause there’s hellions like you who have a ridiculous amount of typos when 

              texting. 

BlueFlame : Burn 

RedFlame : Freezer burn

BigSis : I hate you both for that

BlueFlame : :P

Insomniac : yeah, im leaving

Medusa : See! See the difference!!! 

EatMyDust : Fine ill leave it unmuted you sensitive ass butch

RedFlame : He’s definitely not butch

Medusa : omg stahp

Dandelion : He stopped punctuating, in his words, ‘he mad mad’ 

Izuku set his phone down and glared at Shouto. “Really?”

Shouto shrugged with a slight smile. “He set it up perfectly.”

“Maybe if y’all just typed properly, it wouldn’t have been set up at all,” Izuku muttered, tucking his phone into his pocket again despite the constant buzzing. He sighed as he laid his head back against the seat before letting it drop onto Shouto’s shoulder, a cold hand instantly coming up to play with his curls. As Hitoshi began drawing nonsensical symbols and designs on Izuku’s hand, he quickly found himself falling asleep, between his two boyfriends, surrounded by his class, safe and happy. 

It was those same gentle touches that woke him up, though it hardly felt like he’d even fallen asleep when they did. 

“We’re here love,” Hitoshi whispered down to him. Wait, down?

Izuku looked around and saw that they were the last three on the bus, though he could hear Aizawa corralling the students outside. At some point during the ride, he’d ended up sprawled over Hitoshi and Shouto with his head in Shouto’s lap and feet in Hitoshi’s. Izuku groaned as he sat up, stretching his back and sighing at the relieving pops that echoed up his spine and shoulders. 

“Probably not the best position to be sleeping in, but we didn’t want to wake you,” Shouto commented, wincing at the popping. 

Izuku shrugged. “It’s fine, let’s get out before Aizawa comes in like a Fury.”

Hitoshi chuckled as he stood up with Shouto and they all made their way off the bus to find Class 1-A huddled together, carrying their hero suit cases. 

“Finally, brats,” Aizawa grumbled. “Grab those, we go inside in 5,” he said, gesturing towards the remaining three hero cases just outside of the bus. 

As soon as they grabbed the hero cases and joined the other students, the bus left and Izuku noticed the students fidgeting nervously or trying to hype themselves up. 

“Problem children, once you pass this test, you will be on to the next steps of your future as heroes,” Aizawa said, drawing everyone’s attention. “So, look sharp and don’t forget you’re representing UA.”

“Right! Let’s call out the usual!” Kirishima cried, throwing a fist in the air. 

“Ready, set-” Kaminari shouted. 

“Plus Ultra!” Most of the class called out, with a few of the quieter students simply looking on. Everyone’s gazes snapped to the student from another school who had infiltrated the call with a boisterous voice and raised fist. 

“You shouldn’t barge on other school’s huddles, Inasa,” another student with the same hat on said. 

Izuku could tell that they were from Shiketsu, but he had no idea why Inasa was so excited to join the call out. 

“I am very sorry!” Inasa called, dropping into a bow so low he hit his head on the ground. 

“The fuck is a Shiketsu student doing infiltrating our call?” Kacchan growled. 

“I just wanted to try it once! I will see you in the exam!” Inasa cried out before turning to chase the two other Shiketsu students who had already begun walking away. 

“He was the top scorer in the recommendation exam,” Aizawa drawled, looking tired at the interaction. 

“Do you remember him?” Izuku asked Shouto from where they were standing on the outskirts of the group. 

Shouto shrugged. “I wasn’t really all there.”

Izuku hummed as he grabbed his boyfriend’s hand, Hitoshi coming to stand on Shouto’s other side and slinging an arm over his shoulders. 

“Wait, if he was the top scorer, why’d he go to Shiketsu?” Kaminari asked. 

Aizawa shrugged. “I am not one to look into personal matters and choices. He’s not my student so I don’t ca-”

“Eraser! Is that you?” A bright cheery voice called out, causing Eraser to wince and hunker down in his capture weapon. 

Izuku turned to look at the newcomer to find Pro Hero Ms. Joke, walking towards them with a bright smile and a friendly wave. 

“It’s been forever since I saw you last! Unless you count watching you on TV of course,” Ms. Joke giggled. Izuku tilted his head as he glanced between the two, trying to figure out their connection. As she finally approached Eraser, she waved a finger between the two. “Come on, let’s get married! It’s such a joyous occasion after all!” 

“No.” Aizawa rolled his eyes as he looked down at the shorter woman. 

Izuku looked around Shouto to meet Hitoshi’s eyes. Hitoshi looked confused for all of two seconds before understanding then mischievousness passed through them. Wearing matching Cheshire grins, Izuku and Hitoshi left Shouto’s side and walked up to Aizawa where Ms. Joke was still trying to get him to agree to the proposal. 

“Look how many kids you have with you!” Ms. Joke cried, derailing the conversation. 

“Only two of them are mine,” Aizawa grumbled. 

“That’s why you’re refusing my marriage proposal!” Ms. Joke cried. 

“Dad, are you trying to cheat on Pops again?” Izuku asked with a pout, looking between Aizawa and Ms. Joke. 

Ms. Joke straightened up and looked between the two boys hovering at Aizawa’s side and Aizawa himself. “Wait, two of them really are your kids? You married someone already!” 

“They’re heathens and I hate them,” Aizawa said, shooting a glare at Izuku. 

“I’m telling Pops that you’re being an ass again!” Hitoshi refuted. 

“Eraser! I never thought you’d be such a bad dad!” Ms. Joke snickered, reaching over to pull Izuku and Hitoshi in close. Both of whom tensed up at the unexpected contact. 

“Joke, let them go. Problem children, go change before I expel you and don’t have any students this year,” Aizawa said, sighing. 

Ms. Joke let the two go, ruffling their hair as her own students came up to stand behind her. 

“I’m still telling Pops that you let someone propose to you!” Hitoshi said, finally speaking now that he wasn’t being held against his will. 

“Kids!” Ms. Joke called out as Aizawa tried slapping Hitoshi with his capture weapon, only to have the hit evaded. “Come meet the U.A. students!” 

One of the boys gasped and rushed forward and all of a sudden, Izuku was being touched again, the student having grabbed his hands. “I’m Shindo! U.A. has had a lot of trouble this year, but I saw you at the Sports Festival! Super cool that you announced the awards!” 

“Please let him go,” Shouto said, coming to stand at Izuku’s right shoulder as Hitoshi stood at his left. 

Shindo immediately let go and moved onto Shouto, grabbing his hands as well. “You also fought so well! And the dual quirk must be amazing to have even if it seems like it’d be hard to master!”

Just as Shouto’s hands were about to freeze Shindo’s, he abruptly let go and moved on to Kacchan who was standing behind them. He didn’t grab his hands, but he did get dangerously close to him as he looked up with stars in his eyes. “And you got first place! Your quirk is going to explode the Hero Charts!” 

Ms. Joke cackled at the pun even as Aizawa groaned loudly. 

Bakugou raised his hands in an explosive threat. “Back off.”

Shindo’s eyes hardened. “I can’t wait to learn from such a heart of fortitude.” 

“Hey, go change into your hero costumes, you have an exam to get to,” Aizawa called out. 

Shindo spun on his heel and headed back to his own class as the two groups of students headed to the facility where signs pointed them to the changing rooms. 1-A was talking excitedly about the exam and what it might be like all the way up until they were standing in the conference hall with a very tired Commission member standing behind a podium. 

“Alright, let’s do this provisional license thing I guess,” he groaned tiredly. Izuku and Hitoshi exchanged looks and Izuku chuckled as Hitoshi mouthed ‘mood.’ “I’m Mera from the Hero Commission. Nice to meet you. I would love to go take a nap cause they’ve been overworking me because we’re understaffed.” Izuku chuckled again. He couldn’t wait to tear the Commission down. “The first exercise that all 1,540 examinees will participate in a free-for-all exercise.”

“What?” Sero hissed out. 

“There is doubt being sewn into society regarding heroes and frankly it comes from Stain and the League of Villains, more so on the former.” Several glances were thrown at their group of students, but Izuku just stood taller, glaring at Mera. “Though, to ask people to risk their lives without reward is frankly stupid. Anyways, what you’ll be tested on here is speed. The first hundred to fulfill the requirements will pass.”

“That’s about 10% of the examinees,” Momo gasped. “They said that half would pass!” 

“So anyway, here’s the requirements. You get three targets that you have to put on your body in a visible area. No feet or armpits. The targets light up when hit by these balls,” he explained holding up a target and a ball. “When all three targets have been hit, you’ve failed. You get six balls. You get through the round by defeating two people. Hitting the last target, failing someone, gets you the defeat. Anyways, they’ll pass out the targets and balls or whatever, I’m going back to sleep.” With that, other Commission members headed around the groups of students, passing out the exam materials and Mera slumped forward on the podium. 

Izuku looked around at his yearmates. “We’re going to be targeted.”

That caught most of the class’ attention. “What do you mean?” Momo asked. 

“We know from our interaction with Shindo that they saw us at the Sports Festival. Or, well, they saw you. You’ll be targeted. Hitoshi and I are unknowns to them. But, that’s besides the point. They know your quirks and how you fight. So you have to prepare yourselves to be targeted.”

“What do you have cooking?” Kacchan asked. 

“Split up. Groups of… four or five. One stealth person in each,” Izuku said. “Go to areas that are more suitable to the group.”

Without further discussion, the class started splitting up making sure that the more stealth-focused students were split between the groups. By the time that the Commission members came to give them their supplies, they were all standing in their groups and Momo had made earpieces for each of them. 

With just enough time to place targets on their bodies, the walls began to fall down around them, revealing the rest of the arena, a mixture of different landscapes.

Chapter Text

“Begin,” came Mera’s tired call and all of the students rushed into the arena. Koda’s group headed to a forested area, Shouji’s headed towards a mountain area, Jirou’s went towards a factory based area, Hagakure’s ran to the giant road section and Izuku’s own group headed into the cityscape. 

“Rooftop! Let’s go!” Izuku called, microbots already embedding into the side of the building for him to start climbing up, Hitoshi using them to swing up until he could reach the top as well. Shouto had made an ice ramp that he sent fire to melt as soon as he reached the top and Kacchan used explosions to boost himself up. 

“How many tails?” Izuku asked, already scanning the area. 

“Over 200 in the city, about 300 in the extended city, 200 after Koda, 50 to the mountain, 100 to the factory, and 50 to the street. Rest are duking it out in the center,” Hitoshi listed off as he’d reached the roof first and had watched the groups running around. 

Izuku nodded as he took in their immediate surroundings. “We need 8 people to pass, two each.”

“Let’s just fucking grab and go,” Kacchan said, letting an explosion pop in his fist. 

“Not a bad idea. We can use the bots, Hitoshi’s capture weapon, and Shouto’s ice to restrain and collect other students,” Izuku nodded, earning a Cheshire grin from Kacchan. 

“Alleyways?” Hitoshi asked. 

“Alleyways,” Izuku nodded. He looked over the roof’s edge they were on, walking the full perimeter before coming to a conclusion. “Sho, Toshi, go east and capture 4, report back. Kacchan and I are going north.”

The group nodded to one another and set off in their designated directions. Kacchan grabbed Izuku around the waist and jumped off the roof, using explosions to ease their descent. Izuku, not wanting too much strain on one of Kacchan’s wrists, wiggled around and hooked his legs around the boy’s waist, arms thrown around his neck. Kacchan immediately began using both hands to slow their descent in a much more effective manner and soon they were dropping the last foot onto the floor of an alley. 

“Try not to use your quirk too much from here on out. It draws too much attention,” Izuku said, already stalking down the alley, microbots splitting off to watch for threats. 

“The fuck you want me to do then?” Kacchan growled, following after him. 

Izuku reached into the pockets of his hero suit and threw over three pairs of handcuffs. “Quirk suppressing. We’ll use them to restrain the students.”

“What about the fourth?” Kacchan asked with a raised eyebrow. 

Izuku turned and smirked at his friend. “They get knocked out.”

Kacchan scoffed and shook his head, but didn’t retort to the suggestion, so they continued down the alley until they came to the end, a microbot whizzing back to Izuku and landing on his right shoulder simply laying there, another one quick to join it tapping twice before also just resting. 

“Two to the right,” Izuku explained as Kacchan watched. “One with a blatant mutation, the other has no obvious quirk.”

Kacchan nodded before pressing his back to the alley wall, Izuku following. They could hear the footsteps of the two incoming students and it wasn’t long before they were walking past. The mutation student was a boy with hair… everywhere, and the other student was a girl, both of whom had been with Inasa’s school group. One of the microbots flew over to the girl and landed on her hair, much to Izuku’s chagrin. 

The girl perked up and turned to look at them with a bright smile, sharp in all the wrong ways, yet familiar enough that Izuku groaned. “Seriously Himi?” It now made perfect sense as to why the microbot had attached to the girl, matching microbots had attached to Hitoshi, Shouto, and Kacchan. He did the same thing when he went on patrol with Echo, and sometimes Boreas, microbots attaching to them and letting them know of their whereabouts just in case anything happened to any of them. 

The hair-covered student whipped around and immediately there was hair being flung at them. Himiko hopped out of the way and ducked behind the student, peeking her head around to smile sweetly and wave. 

Izuku held his hand out and Kacchan immediately handed over the cuffs, which he then threw to Himiko. This might be cheating, given that Himiko wasn’t an examinee, but this student needed to get out of the way so that they could get her out of here before she caused too much mayhem. Himiko grabbed the cuffs out of the air and immediately restrained the hero student, much to his surprise if his shout of dismay was anything to go by. 

Izuku grabbed the boy from Himi and used rope to tie him to a nearby pipe. Then he grabbed Himi’s hand and tapped his earpiece, “Sho, Toshi, meet up, we’ve encountered an obstacle.” 

“Vague,” Himiko giggled as he tapped his earpiece again, hearing affirmatives from his boyfriends.

“The earpieces are connected to all the UA students,” Kacchan said, rolling his eyes. “The fuck are you doing? And whose body are you even wearing?” 

“Oh this?” Himiko asked, waving at her stolen body. “Some really pretty girl. I was gonna take that really mean boy, but I thought it’d be cute to see you deal with him, Izu.” 

“What mean boy?” Izuku asked. 

“The boy who kept glaring at Shocchan!” Himiko pouted.

“Who’s glaring at me?” Shouto asked, coming around the corner with Hitoshi, two bodies tied up and being skated across ice behind them. 

“Himiko?” Hitoshi asked, getting a closer look at the girl. 

“You knew!” Himiko cheered, rushing over to hug Hitoshi who just sighed. 

“Himi. Boy. Glaring. Who?” Izuku asked. 

“Oh, that boy who snuck into your little class cheer,” Himiko said, waving a hand dismissively as Hitoshi detached her from him. 

“Okay, fine we’ll deal with him,” Izuku sighed. “Why are you here though? If you get caught it could ruin our whole deal.”

“I won’t get caught!” Himiko pouted. 

“Himi, please, just go watch in the viewing area or go home,” Hitoshi said. 

Himiko brightened up. “Is Eraser up there?” 

Izuku chuckled. “Yeah, just go up, in your own body, and say you're his kid to the lady with green hair.”

“Okie dokie!” Himiko cheered, already giving the boys rushed hugs before sprinting away. 

“The fuck even was that?” Kacchan grumbled. 

“Who cares,” Izuku waved off. “We have three people together. We need five more to pass the exam. Let’s get back to work.”

Shouto slid the two he’d captured with Hitoshi over to the hair-quirk kid that Izuku and Himiko had restrained, and set a layer of ice over them to keep them there as they all set off again. 

“East and north again?” Hitoshi asked. 

“Might as well stick together now, we can probably just set off some explosions and draw attention,” Izuku said, a finger tapping on his chin. 

“Don’t set off explosions, Kacchan. It draws too much attention, Kacchan. Oh no, we need explosions, whom could we ever turn to?” Kacchan mocked. 

“Just use your fucking quirk, ass,” Izuku sighed. 

“Ush yur fuckin qwirk ash,” Kacchan mumbled back, already letting his hands pop with explosions that he aimed down the alleyway. 

“I’m blaming the Bakusquad for this behavior,” Hitoshi said, laughing. 

“Coulda been Touya,” Shouto countered. 

“Or Jin,” Hitoshi added. 

“But also, there’s Kaminari,” Shouto pondered.

“Traitor,” Izuku hissed. “Denki’s supposed to be on our side!” 

“Yeah, well, maybe you shoulda been in his class,” Kacchan grumbled. 

“Go suck Kiri’s dick,” Izuku retorted. 

Shouto and Hitoshi burst out in laughter, holding their stomachs and leaning over as Kacchan spun on his heel and raised a sparking hand threateningly. 

“Wanna fucking say that again, Zucchan?” Kacchan hissed. 

“Go. Suck. Kiri’s. Dick,” Izuku said, glaring at Kacchan. 

“Oh, you’re fucking on , loverboy,” Kacchan hissed, jumping towards Izuku. Hitoshi and Shouto jumped out of the way as Kacchan let an explosion go, Izuku dodging at the last second. “Oh shit,” Kacchan said, looking at the kid he’d just exploded. 

“When’d he get there?” Shouto asked, recovering slightly and looking down at the kid. 

“Like two minutes ago,” Izuku shrugged. “Tie him up with the others.” 

Kacchan grumbled as he locked the quirk suppressant cuffs onto the boy’s wrists, only getting dazed resistance, before tossing him over to the other restrained students. 

“Now only four to go,” Izuku said with a cheeky grin. 

“You’re an asshole,” Kacchan snapped. 

“And you started it,” Izuku quipped. 

“Sometimes the two of you act like an old married couple, holy shit,” Hitoshi grumbled, rubbing his temples. 

Izuku and Kacchan both scoffed and turned to look at each other with utterly disgusted faces. 

“I don’t know, they’re more like the sibling rivals that were on that one show that Mag made us watch,” Shouto said. 

“That one. That one’s better,” Izuku quickly replied. A microbot came to give a quick tap on his shoulder before flying off again. “We got another inbound.”

“What’s their 20?” Hitoshi asked. 

“8 o’clock,” Izuku said. 

Hitoshi spun and shot out his capture weapon just as the student rounded the corner and they were quickly pulled in and restrained with the others. 

“Footsteps,” Shouto said. 

Izuku watched the microbots darting around. “5 incoming, more than we need. 2 o’clock.” Izuku sent his microbots to cover the ground and walls around where the students were bound to appear soon while Hitoshi readied his capture weapon again, Shouto and Kacchan both raising their hands in preparation to use their quirks. 

“This way!” a student called out, much closer now. 

“Five seconds,” Izuku whispered, hunkering down against the wall. 

As he counted down the seconds, his friend and boyfriends moved around him to stand fully in the alleyway and soon there was a flurry of ice, explosions, and purple cloth from their side, a good handful of balls from the other. As it all went quiet again, Izuku stood up, dusting off his pants and looked around the alley to see his microbots had pinned each of the students to the walls or floor. 

“Alright, let’s get these points and head out,” Izuku said, walking over and tapping a ball to 6 targets, the others following suit and soon enough all of their targets lit up blue, signaling that they’d passed. 

“Easy enough,” Kacchan grumbled, kicking at the ground. 

“Let’s just go see who else has passed,” Hitoshi said, already turning to walk back to the anteroom. 

The walk to the anteroom was short and inside they found Hagakure and Jiro’s group. That was 12 of them. Only Shouji and Koda’s group left. Though, they didn’t have to wait long, as they showed up within the next ten minutes, marking 80 students passing. Within another twenty minutes, the last 20 students showed up and Mera was once again addressing the whole group of examinees. 

“Good job or whatever. Everyone who didn’t pass, go ahead and leave promptly as you have been withdrawn from the exam,” Mera said as a screen lit up on one of the walls, showing the same arena from before, but now it was all being destroyed, eliciting gasps from around the room. Buildings fell, the mountain collapsed, dust rose everywhere. “Now you all perform a rescue exercise as bystanders in this disaster site. Assume that you have your provisional licenses and act accordingly.” All of a sudden people showed up in the disaster area, walking around through the rubble. “With help from the Help Us Company, we have citizens that are in dire need of your rescuing.”

“That’s a job?” Ojiro asked. 

“It makes sense for how heroes need to be trained that there’d be all sorts of jobs like this,” Tsuyu commented. 

“We will be scor-” Mera cut himself off with a yawn. “-ing you based on points and if you have more points than the benchmark at the end of the exercise then you pass. We begin in 10 minutes.” With that, Mera slumped on the podium once more, soft snores reaching the microphone he’d been speaking into. 

“Let’s get some food,” Izuku said. “Momo, Sato, make sure you’re eating too,” he called out without thinking as he headed towards a table filled with snacks and hand-food. 

“Pork buns, I shall die in happiness,” Hitoshi said as he rushed forward and grabbed two. 

“Too bad there isn’t soba,” Shouto said with a sad look. Izuku chuckled as he patted his boyfriend’s shoulder before grabbing a pork bun himself and setting it on a plate along with some other snacks. He idly noted that the whole class had followed his idea on getting food, with Sato going for his sugar foods and Momo going for the more fatty foods. 

The ten minutes passed quickly and soon enough the walls were falling around them once more. 

“Let’s get a med station started!” Momo called out, rushing to do just that. 

“I’ll join since I’ve taken the most classes with Recovery Girl,” Hitoshi said, raising a hand up before following her. Several of the other remaining examinees followed along as Izuku turned to the group of 1-A students who were blatantly staring at him. 

“Hey, remember those classes Aizawa made you take?” Izuku asked, looking over the 17 students. There were a few hesitant nods. “Then why are you all looking at me?”

“Because you have the analysis, nerd,” Kacchan scoffed. 

Izuku threw his hands in the air. “This is so easy! Recon team to find the people, med team to help injured, retrieval team to recover people from the disaster site. Go!”

The class rushed off into the disaster zone splitting into groups again. Izuku looked around at the small group of people that stayed with him. “Kacchan, you’re banned from retrieval.”

“HAH!” Kacchan shouted. 

“My point exactly,” Izuku said, clicking his tongue. “You really gotta work on being nice and patient with hurt citizens. They’ll just dock your points. Go high and look for HUC members for Shouto and I to retrieve. Tokoyami, can you also have Dark Shadow look for people? In case there’s collapsed buildings? Kirishima, we can use your help in getting them out, too.” 

“Sounds good to me!” Kirishima shouted, punching his fists together. 

The group quickly set off, Kacchan and Dark Shadow finding people from above and on ground level and Kirishima, Shouto, and Izuku helping get them out with placating words and smiles on their faces. Every once in a while one of them would have to split off to carry an injured person to the med bay, but there were a couple times where Shouji had passed doing that for his own team and had offered to take their injured civilians as well. 

Maybe 20 minutes had passed, maybe it was more or less, but the next thing they knew, there was a much louder explosion than one of Kacchan’s. Kacchan promptly dropped down to the ground and tapped his earpiece so that everyone could hear his report. 

“Gang Orca and about 20 villains or some shit have just entered the arena. They’re heading towards the med bay as of now,” Kacchan said. 

Izuku tapped his own earpiece. “Kacchan, Shouto, and I will head to the villains. Keep getting the injured civilians out and whoever we can spare needs to head back to the medbay and help move it farther away from the villains. We don’t want extra casualties on our hands.” 

Izuku looked up to his boyfriend and friend and they nodded in turn. “Tokoyami, Kirishima, why don’t you head back to help move the med bay. Having two people on rescue is enough, but not as efficient.”

“Whatever will help in the coming darkness,” Tokoyami said, Dark Shadow shrinking before completely disappearing. 

“Kirishima and Tokoyami headed to med bay, will check in if needed,” Izuku spoke into the earpiece before leading the way back to the medbay and villains. 

As soon as they arrived, Shouto threw out ice at the villains to try and halt their movements as much as possible. Someone- wait, that was Shindo- was laying on the ground a couple meters from the villains. Izuku, Shouto and Kacchan rushed forward into the fight, Shouto making an ice ramp that carried Shindo to the medbay. 

“Gang Orca mainly works with water quirks, we’ll need your fire Sho,” Izuku commented. 

Shouto nodded and readied his left hand to shoot flames as Kacchan braced his wrists for an explosion. The impending heat from both attacks melted whatever the villains were shooting at them and Izuku rushed forward and sent out his microbots without a second thought. 

Going hand to hand with one of the masked villains was easy enough. They were clearly holding back, but Izuku would do no such thing. His microbots pinned the guy’s feet to the floor as he sent a roundhouse kick into the side making them drop. He grabbed the gun from them and aimed it at other villains, finding that it was shooting some form of cement substance which honestly sounded miserable to be shot with. Granted, he didn’t feel bad shooting it at them since they were still advancing on the medbay and also trying to shoot Shouto and Kacchan. 

“Zu, duck,” Hitoshi called in his ear. Izuku had no thought behind the action as he ducked out of the way, rolling away from the villain rushing him. An arrow clamped onto the man’s shoulder, netting spreading out and trapping him. 

“Thanks, Toshi!” Izuku called out, seeing his boyfriend standing a few yards behind him, his new bow out in all its glory. 

Hitoshi waved back before training an arrow on another villain and letting loose. 

Honestly, it was all going perfect until Inasa decided to show his face again, wind sweeping up and spreading the fire and explosions back in their faces instead of towards the villain. How did this kid rank top scorer in the recommendation exam?

“Oi! Wind and heat don’t work together without precise control!” Kacchan shouted up at Inasa who was floating in the air scowling. 

“You both just diverted my attack to make me look bad!” Inasa called back. 

“Hah?” Kacchan shouted, explosions sparking in his palm.

Izuku walked forward and laid a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Let me, Kats.” Kacchan backed down and diverted his attention back towards Gang Orca and the rest of the villains while Izuku and Shouto faced the boy from Shiketsu. “Listen, I don’t know what your problem is, but we are here to train to be heroes. At this point, it seems like you’re trying to sabotage that which is not appreciated. You can either help up make a fire whirlpool around these villains or you can go back and help with rescue ops.” 

“You!” Inasa shouted, pointing a finger at Shouto. Izuku sighed. “You deliberately used your flames to sidebar my wind!” 

“Why?” Shouto asked, tilting his head. 

“Why?” Inasa shouted, wind whirling even faster around him. “Because you’re Endeavor’s son!” 

“That bastard has nothing to do with me!” Shouto shouted back, flames raring once more. 

“Shield!” Hitoshi shouted. 

Shouto’s flames grew in size to block himself and Izuku from the incoming cement, the one being shot at Inasa just getting tossed aside with his wind. 

“Shouto is not Endeavor’s son anymore,” Izuku growled. “Now you can either leave this fight and go help the operations, or I can make you leave the fight and make sure you never become a hero.” Shouto stiffened beside Izuku, sending an awed, yet fearful look his way. 

“Like you could even attempt that!” Inasa growled back. 

“I’m gonna do it,” Izuku muttered, looking at the ground. He took a slow, deep breath before looking back up at Inasa with hardened eyes, a scowl upon his face. Shouto grabbed one of his hands, but it seemed to be more out of comfort than anything else. Izuku released the deep breath and shot his microbots towards Inasa, the momentum and their size letting them dig through the winds, piercing his cape and carrying him back towards the med tent, pinning him to an empty stretcher. 

“Sho! Flames!” Hitoshi called out. 

Shouto and Izuku turned back towards the battle and where all but Gang Orca had been knocked out and they stepped forward together, still hand in hand. Shouto raised his left hand and shot flames forward, Hitoshi shooting an arrow and Bakugou an explosion all at the same time. With the mixture of getting caught in a net and being dehydrated from all the heat, Gang Orca laid there, captured. Within seconds, a buzzer sounded announcing the end of the exam. 

When they were all finally changed out of their hero costumes, into casual clothes, they searched the board behind Mera, tuning out his words as they searched for name after name. Hitoshi and Izuku gaped at one another. 

“We passed,” Hitoshi said. 

“All 20 of us passed,” Izuku replied. 

“Wait really?” Kaminari asked, searching the board himself. 

“Yes, yes. A grand event. Go ahead and search the board for your names. Your teachers have all of your licenses already,” Mera intoned. “Oh, and congratulations to UA who had all 20 examinees this year pass the exam.” 

A loud cheer took up the hall as the other students around them tried to desperately search for their own names on the board, but Izuku couldn’t care less. His family, his friends, they’d all passed. 

A sudden weight on his back had him almost falling over until Shouto grabbed his shoulders and steadying him. Luckily, he already knew the weight and feeling of this person or else he’d have flipped them over his shoulder and onto the ground. 

“You did it!” Himiko cheered. “You all did it!” 

“I honestly forgot you were still here,” Hitoshi chuckled as Izuku tried to readjust the new weight on his back. 

“Of course! I had to see you all kick ass! We’re eating out tonight, right? Right, Zucchan?” Himiko asked, tilting over Izuku’s shoulder to look him in the eyes. 

“Yeah, yeah. We’re eating out tonight,” Izuku confirmed. They were going to anyways as it was supposed to be Kacchan cooking and they didn’t want to make him cook after such a strenuous exam. 

“Next time make sure she stays home,” Aizawa grumbled, coming to stand behind the small group. 

Himiko pouted up at the man. “You’re so mean, dad!” 

“Kami, can you all drop that?” Aizawa groaned, rubbing a hand down his face. 

“Nope!” Himiko said, popping the ‘p.’

“Hey Himi, is your bike here or at UA?” Hitoshi asked, derailing the conversation. 

“Oh, I just walked to the school and then hopped on the underside of the bus to get here,” Himiko waved off. 

Izuku sighed. “Well, ride the bus back with us and you can ride with me back home.”

“Okay!” Himiko cheered, skipping towards the bus, the rest of Class 1-A sending her wary looks. 

“Sorry, Zawa,” Izuku said with a shrug before following her, the rest of his group falling in line as they exited the building and piled into the back of the bus once more, this time with Himiko spread across their laps, somehow none of them minding. 

Chapter Text

“So this is what you spend most of your nights doing,” Boreas said as they kicked the tied up villain. 

Medusa shrugged. “Someone has to do it.”

Echo pushed Medusa’s shoulder. “That’s literally what the heroes are for.”

“I must agree with Echo,” Eraserhead said from where he was perched on the fire escape above them, making the three vigilantes jump in surprise.

“Fucking shit,” Medusa cursed. “I get that you have the whole ‘local cryptid’ vibe going and all, but could you not jump scare us?”

“Don’t make me give you detention, Medusa,” Eraserhead said in exasperation. 

“Hey, we’re out in the field. We’re equals now, Sensei ,” Medusa snarked back. 

“We are anything but,” Eraserhead argued. “You’re simply acting as vigilantes. And poorly too, if that ice says anything,” he continued with a pointed look at Boreas. 

Boreas raised their hands in surrender. “Hey, I’m just here to bond with my boyfriends.”

Medusa pulled out their hero license, provisional as it was. “We’re heroes now, you can’t stop us.”

“You’re provisional heroes,” Eraserhead drawled. “You’re only allowed to be patrolling under the supervision of another hero.”

“Good thing you’re here then,” Echo smirked. 

“I know you’re smirking even though your mask is covering it,” Eraserhead said with a glare. “And no. I’m not here to supervise you. I have a job to do. Go. Home.”

“Technically,” Medusa started with a finger pointed up, causing Eraserhead to groan. “Provisional licenses allow one to act with either supervision or express permission from another hero or mentor,” they finished with a determined fire in their eyes.

 Eraserhead sighed. “Just go home, children.”

“Consequently, we have express permission from both a hero and a mentor. One who has more power than you do,” Medusa continued, ignoring Eraserheads demand. 

“Fucking rat,” Eraserhead growled. 

“Here we go,” Echo grumbled. 

“He doesn’t like being called a rat and you fucking know it!” Medusa cried out, pointing a finger at Eraserhead with a glare. “You’ve been his personal student and employee for long enough to know this!” 

“Yeah, and when he pisses me off enough, he gets called a rat. I’ve known him longer and you can’t stop me,” Eraserhead replied with an eye roll. 

Medusa screamed under their breath. “Fuck you, we’re leaving. Tell the Detective he has some trash to pick up.”

“You have his number, too,” Eraserhead drawled. 

“Yeah, and you pissed me off. You deal with it,” Medusa quipped before spinning on their heel and stalking out of the alleyway, their two partners following behind them. 

“Bye Sensei! See you in class on Monday!” Echo shouted with a mock wave as they sauntered after their partner. Boreas gave a slight bow to the hero before following as well. 

“Damn Problem Children,” Eraserhead muttered as they left. 

“So, where to now?” Boreas asked as they followed Medusa down the streets of Musutafu. 

“We’re heading to Hermes Express,” Medusa shrugged. 

“Hermes Express?” Echo echoed. 

“Classic Echo,” Medusa smirked, taking off their mask so their partners could actually see it. 

“Oh, shut up,” Echo sneered, taking off their own mask. 

“Isn’t it the name of the moving company?” Boreas asked. Their hood was pulled back now, revealing their dual toned hair. 

“Yes, thank you for paying attention to the family’s business,” Medusa said. 

“Everyone’s going with mythology names! How can you expect me to keep up with them all?” Echo cried. 

Medusa shrugged. “You were doing well enough.”

“Medusa!” Jin cried, masking Echo’s snarky reply. “Boreas! Echo! You made it just on time! About damn time! You were almost late!” 

“We just closed everything up,” Kurogiri added. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yup!” Medusa said, recalling their snakes into the pouches around their waist. 

“Roger! Villains and vigilantes… roll out!” Jin cried as he skipped ahead on the path. 

“Isn’t it Autobots?” Atsuhiro asked, striding forward, the rest of the group following. 

“Yeah, I don’t think he really cares,” Echo laughed. 

“What’s the next destination?” Boreas asked. 

“Hephaestus’ Forge,” Medusa muttered, following Jin down an alley. 

“Is that a code?” Boreas whispered to Echo. 

Echo shrugged. “Never know with them and the mythology terms.”

“It’s Touya’s new tattoo shop,” Kurogiri explained with a wave of their hand. 

“Why are we going to his shop?” Echo asked, tilting their head. 

“We’re picking him up and then having a celebratory dinner for you getting your provisional licenses,” Atsuhiro replied. 

“It’s like 1am,” Boreas pointed out. “Dandelion is already passed out.”

“We already had one,” Echo pointed out at the same time.

Medusa shrugged. “That’s why we already had dinner with him. This is just those who are still awake being hungry and they decided to turn it into another celebration.”

“Well, I am hungry, so I won’t complain,” Echo said. 

“Hopefully they have cold soba,” Boreas added. 

“I’m sure they will, kid,” Kurogiri said, ruffling Boreas’ hair and mixing the two tones. 

The rest of the walk was spent contemplating where to go for dinner and what they’d done since they’d seen each other much earlier in the evening. 

When they arrived at Hephaestus’ Forge, Medusa pushed ahead and started banging on the door. After literally ten seconds, Echo counted, Medusa pulled out a key and unlocked the door, pushing into the shop. 

“Oi! Come out! This is a robbery bitch!” Medusa called out, pretending to hold a gun as they scanned the front room before moving to inspect the back rooms. 

Echo sighed as they followed their partner in, Boreas following behind as Kurogiri complained about the neighbors potentially calling the police. 

“Oh! Fucking shit!” Medusa cried, running back into the center room, hands covering their eyes. 

“What is it?” Boreas asked hurriedly, raising their hands in front of them in preparation to use their quirk against the unknown threat. 

“Calm the fuck down and don’t ice me,” Touya called out, coming into the front room while… zipping up his pants? 

Echo raised an eyebrow at the man. “Having fun in your new shop all alone?”

“Who said he’s alone?” Keigo asked, following behind and adjusting his jacket over his wings. 

“Oh, that is fucking unsanitary,” Echo scoffed. 

“Shut it, ass,” Touya quipped. “I thought you said you were going to call me, Atsu.”

Atsuhiro shrugged, though it was clear that it wasn’t sincere as he had a giant smirk on his face. “Ah, must have forgotten that part.”

“You’re all heathens,” Touya hissed. 

“Can we just go to dinner?” Kurogiri asked with a sigh. 

“I don’t think I can eat. Like ever again. I’m scarred for life,” Medusa complained. 

“Oh, come on little chick,” Keigo said, throwing an arm around the vigilante and almost getting a knife to the side for it. “Oi! You’re the one who barged in!” 

“They were literally screaming and banging on the door,” Boreas noted. “I’m certain that this place isn’t soundproof like our rooms at the house.”

“They’re two consenting adults, let’s just get to the restaurant, yeah?” Atsuhiro asked with a slight chuckle, ushering everyone outside. 

“Is no one going to ask why Medusa has keys to the place?” Jin asked as they all began walking to their destination after Touya locked the door. 

“I have keys to everyone’s place of business,” Medusa shrugged. 

“Better yet, why are we going to dinner with y’all in your get ups?” Touya asked, glad for the turn in the conversation. 

“To be fair, we,” Echo said motioning between themself and Boreas, “didn’t even know we were going to dinner till Eraserhead pissed off Medusa.”

“Eraserhead pissed off the snake kid?” Jin asked, laughing as he walked backwards to face the group.

“He called Nedzu the ‘r’ word,” Boreas stage whispered. 

Touya gasped loudly. “The ‘r’ word? How dare he.”

“Awe, leave the kid alone, Touya,” Keigo chuckled, throwing an arm around his boyfriend’s shoulders. “I think we’ve tortured him enough for the night.”

“Damn right,” Medusa muttered with a pout. 

 Touya reached forward and ruffled Medusa’s hair, earning himself a glare. “Relax, kid. We’re almost there.”

“Where exactly is there?” Echo asked. 

“Oh, you’re gonna love it,” Touya smirked. 

“Yeah, I doubt that,” Echo muttered. 

Touya just laughed as they continued down the street, not bothering to give any more explanation on their destination. 

When they arrived 5 minutes later, everyone except for Touya and Keigo stopped to stare at the building in shock. 

“I don’t even think I’m allowed in,” Boreas muttered, staring at the business front. 

“You’re emancipated, so you’re technically an adult,” Touya countered. “Plus, you three have fancy licenses to wave around.” 

“Of all places, this is where you decided we’d be having dinner?” Kurogiri asked with an exasperated sigh. 

Touya shrugged. “Not many other places we can go out for food when it’s 1am.”

“It’s… a gay bar,” Medusa muttered. 

“Indeed,” Atsuhiro said, shaking his head in disbelief. 

“Honestly, I’m not even surprised,” Echo said. “Let’s just see if they let us in.”

They moved towards the entrance where a bouncer looked over the group with a disinterested stare that could rival Eraserhead’s. “ID’s?” He asked. 

The group all pulled out their ID’s, Keigo and the boys pulling out their hero licenses instead. The bouncer looked over each of them and grunted as he passed them back. “You kids are too young.”

“We’re all emancipated adults,” Medusa countered. “I can pull up the documents if you wish.”

The bouncer rolled his eyes. “Whatever, just go in and don’t cause any trouble.”

Medusa saluted the bouncer before they led everyone in. “Guess you were right, Touya.”

Touya ruffled Medusa’s hair again. “Duh. C’mon, there’s good seating over here.”

Everyone followed Touya as he wove his way through the crowds of dancing people towards a sectioned off back area where there were a bunch of tables. Echo couldn’t stop themselves from looking around the floor and bar areas to observe the people around them. Everyone seemed to be happy to be dancing, drinking, kissing, and talking to one another. 

“Let’s take this one,” Keigo said, drawing Echo’s attention. 

They all sat at the large circle table that Keigo had picked and scanned the QR code to get the menu. It was a very simple menu, but Echo was glad that they had cold soba for Boreas. Touya placed the order for everyone on his phone and within 20 minutes, food and drinks were being placed on the table. 

“That was fast,” Medusa mused as they picked up a piece of sushi. Echo nodded in agreement as they started to eat their yaki onigiri. 

Touya shrugged. “They don’t have much to do at this time. Everyone’s pretty much drinking.”

“This place is mainly frequented by good ole civilians,” Keigo added. “But, there’s also a bunch of heroes and vigilantes that come in at odd hours which is why they keep their kitchen open.”

“If it’s for heroes and vigilantes, how’d you know about this place?” Boreas asked with a pointed look at Touya. 

Touya rolled his eyes. “I simply came here because I’m gay and like alcohol.”

There were a couple of chuckles around the table at that and the conversation soon moved on to how the trio’s patrol had gone that night and how exactly their conversation with Eraserhead had played out. There were laughs all around from how the provisional heroes had taunted Eraserhead. Soon enough, they’d all finished their meals, Touya having paid on his phone already, and they were back out on the streets once more, headed home. 

“We should have brought our bikes out,” Echo complained as they finally walked down their driveway. 

“I could’ve just warped us here,” Kurogiri countered, earning a betrayed look from Echo. 

“Why didn’t you mention that sooner!” Echo cried. 

“You all commented that it was a nice night to walk around in,” Kurogiri responded with a shrug. 

Echo groaned. “Next time, ignore us and open a warp gate. My feet are absolutely killing me right now.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have worn your Converse out on patrol then,” Medusa laughed. 

“We were only supposed to be out for a max of two hours!” Echo countered. 

“Yeah, it’s now 3am and I honestly don’t know where the time went,” Boreas added. 

“It’s already 3?” Medusa asked, their head whipping over to look at their partner in shock. Boreas shrugged as they held up their phone to confirm the time. 

“The bar was pretty far from the house,” Keigo commented as they mounted the steps. 

“I blame Kurogiri for the loss of time,” Jin muttered. 

“I don’t see how this is my fault whatsoever, but sure,” Kurogiri said with a sigh. 

Medusa chuckled at their antics as they opened the door and toed off their shoes, sighing in relief. They started taking off their gear as they walked further into the genkan to let the others come in as well and started storing it in the cupboards they’d had installed. 

“Put this in there for me, will ya?” Hitoshi asked, handing over their scarf and mask. 

Izuku nodded tiredly as they grabbed the items from their partner and stuffed it into the corresponding area. “Sho?” Izuku asked, turning back to the group. 

“Go sit down, I can put my own stuff away,” Shouto said, making shooing motions at Izuku. 

Izuku chuckled as they headed into the common room where they found Hitoshi slumped in one of the armchairs, Keigo and Touya sprawled across a couch. “Why not go to your rooms?” Izuku asked the group as Kurogiri and Jin came in behind him to look at the scene. 

“Too far,” Touya groaned, though his voice was muffled since his head was buried in Keigo’s shoulder. 

“Zu, did you notice the lights were on upstairs?” Kurogiri asked, ignoring the trio in the common room. 

Izuku frowned. “We turned our lights off when we left, and Kacchan has to sleep in complete darkness.”

“Eri?” Shouto asked, coming into the room and sending a wary eye towards the stairs. 

“Probably,” Izuku sighed, already walking towards the stairs. “I’ll be right back.”

He left the group to head up the two flights of stairs to the third floor of the house. They would’ve rushed, but they hadn’t received any messages and there weren’t any alarms going off. It was likely that she had woken up from a nightmare and Himiko had gone to calm her down. 

Walking down the hallway of the third floor revealed that last thought to be what had happened as they heard the two girls’ whispers coming from Eri’s room. They knocked quietly before peeking their head in, seeing Eri sitting in Himiko’s lap.

“Dad!” Eri cried, throwing herself out of Himiko’s lap before she ran at him full speed. 

Izuku chuckled as they opened the door fully and caught her as she jumped at him, spinning her around in a circle before coming to a stop facing Himiko again. 

“Hey Zu-chan,” Himiko said with a tired smile. 

“Hey Himi. Sorry that we got back so late, we all ended up getting a bite to eat before walking back,” Izuku explained.

Himiko waved off their explanation as she got to her feet. “No worries, we both just got up anyways.”

“You doing okay Eri?” Izuku asked as Eri nuzzled her face in their shoulder. 

“I don’t know,” Eri whispered. 

“That’s alright,” Izuku said, rubbing a hand in circles on her back. “Do you want to go downstairs? Everyone just got home, so the only two not awake are Tenko and Kacchan.”

“Can we bake cookies?” Eri asked, finally looking up at him. 

Izuku chuckled. “Yeah, we can bake cookies.”

Eri smiled before dropping her head back onto his shoulder. 

“You wanna join us or go back to bed, Himi?” Izuku asked, already turning from the bedroom. 

Himiko turned the lights off and closed the door. “I’ll join, I’m awake anyways.”

“Fair,” Izuku laughed. 

“Can we wake up uncle Ko?” Eri mumbled into their shoulder. 

“I’ll wake him up for you, Eri!” Himiko cheered. 

Izuku sighed. “If you want him to wake up, you also have to go,” they told their daughter. 

“Here, I’ll take you to his room while Zu-chan goes and makes sure we have all the needed ingredients!” Himiko cheered. Eri looked over and smiled at the girl before nodding. 

Izuku handed over Eri to Himiko and gave Himiko a stern look. “Please don’t be too loud in the halls. Last thing we need is for Kacchan to wake up.”

“Doesn’t he have his hearing aids out?” Himiko asked.

“We can hope,” Izuku sighed. “He’s always forgetting,” they added with a shake of their head. 

They parted ways at the second floor landing as Izuku went down to the common room to find everyone lounging around on the chairs and couches. 

“We’re making cookies,” they declared. “All hands on deck, let’s go!” 

There was a chorus of groans from the group, minus Kurogiri who immediately stood and headed into the kitchen, Jin not far behind. Shouto dragged Hitoshi out of their seat and pulled them into the kitchen, giving Izuku a kiss on the cheek as they passed and earning a blush from them. 

“Do I have to?” Touya groaned from under Keigo. 

“Don’t make me drag you two off the couch myself,” Izuku warned, taking a couple steps forward. 

“Nope!” Keigo yelped, jumping off Touya and fluttering his wings to help him stand. “You’ll drag me by my feathers you little shit, I’m not dealing with that.”

“Dammit, you were my next excuse for not helping,” Touya complained, heaving himself up into a sitting position. 

“No excuses, the girls are waking up Tenko and bringing him down too. It’s a whole family affair,” Izuku chided. 

“Then the fucking Pomeranian needs to get his ass up too,” Touya muttered as he stood from the couch. 

“Then go wake him up,” Izuku shrugged. “I’m not doing it.” They spun on their heel and walked into the kitchen where Hitoshi was slumped against the counter, seemingly about to fall asleep and the others were looking around at one another, confused. “Okay!” Izuku cheered, clapping their hands and startling their partner. “There’s a lot of us and a lot of ingredients. We’ll be making a couple different types of cookies. So, any requests?” 

“Brownies!” Jin called out. 

“Not cookies, but I also want those,” Hitoshi mumbled, coming to stand next to Izuku and leaning their head on their partner’s shoulder. 

“Snickerdoodle?” Kurogiri offered. 

“Red velvet,” Touya added as he walked through the kitchen.

“Go get the Pomeranian,” Izuku sniped at him. Touya stuck out his tongue as he continued past the kitchen towards the stairs. 

“Chocolate chip cookies?” Shouto asked. 

“Good start. Okay, let’s get the ingredients out. Sho, get the chocolate chips out of the cupboard. Jin, can you get the cocoa powder, flour, sugar, and chocolate chips out of the pantry?” Izuku asks. 

“I’ll get the ingredients out of the fridge,” Kurogiri said, already turning to open the fridge. 

There’s a flurry of motion as they all work to gather various ingredients for multiple different types of cookies. Why there’s raisins and orange juice on the counter, Izuku doesn’t know. 

“Okay, here’s the butter, I’m going to leave the other dairy in the fridge until we need it,” Kurogiri stated, setting a box of butter on the counter with the other ingredients. 

“What the fuck is this?” Kacchan asked, walking into the kitchen. 

“Seconded,” Tenko mutters, rubbing his eyes. 

“We’re making cookies!” Eri cheered, eyes shining as she looked at all the food on the counter. 

“And brownies,” Hitoshi huffed, scrolling through his phone for a good recipe. 

“Now that everyone’s here, let’s actually decide what we’re making so that this doesn’t get too chaotic,” Kurogiri suggested. 

Izuku nodded along. “Okay, Touya suggested red velvet which Kacchan also likes-”

“Damn straight,” Kacchan muttered, hopping up onto a bit of empty counter space. 

“The other two suggestions were snickerdoodles and chocolate chip cookies,” Izuku finishes, ignoring Kacchan. 

“Those are so boring,” Himiko whined. “Let’s do the ones where you put your thumb in the middle and put chocolate in the print!” 

“I want those!” Eri agreed. 

Izuku laughed. “Okay, we can do thumbprint cookies.” 

“That’s two chocolates and red velvet,” Kurogiri noted. “Do we want a different type as well?”

“Let’s just do one more,” Izuku said, looking at the ingredients that they’d have to sort through. “That’ll give everyone something to do and plenty for us to eat.”

“I want shortbread!” Jin cried. 

“Ew, fuck no,” Kacchan hissed, sneering. 

“How about gingerbread cookies?” Keigo asked. 

“We could do white chocolate with macadamia nuts,” Hitoshi offered. 

“That’s still chocolate, Toshi,” Izuku chided. 

“Yeah, but it’s different,” Hitoshi countered, squinting their eyes. 

“Sprinkles!” Eri cried out, snatching a bottle of them off the counter and waving it in the air. The group laughed at her excitement, causing her to laugh too. 

“We could make sugar cookies with sprinkles,” Shouto said, smiling softly at Eri. 

“Still boring,” Himiko pouted, glaring at the ground.

“You can ice them as well,” Izuku offered, pointing to the tubs of different colored icing on the counter. 

Both Himiko and Eri lit up at the offer with big grins stretching their faces. “Yes!” Himiko shouted.

“Okay, so we need recipes for brownies, red velvet cookies, thumbprint cookies, and sugar cookies,” Izuku said, tallying the types of sweets they’d be making on their fingers. 

“Which means that we don’t need the orange juice out,” Kurogiri said with a sigh as he grabbed the bottle and put it back in the fridge. 

“Whoever thought that’d be used was an idiot,” Kacchan scoffed. 

“I have the brownie recipe. It looks like we have everything and it’s fairly simple,” Hitoshi cut in. 

“Okay, Himiko, find a sugar cookie recipe. Kacchan, get your mom’s red velvet recipe. It’s in the cookbook. Touya, can you- actually nevermind,” Izuku cut themself off as they pulled out their own phone, not trusting the man to find a normal and easy cookie recipe. Touya snorted at their redirect and started sorting the ingredients. Jin, Shouto, and Keigo joined in with him and duplicates were put away as well as obvious ingredients they wouldn’t be using like the raisins. 

“I want to be on sugar cookie duty with Eri!” Himiko called out, having found the recipe and consulted it with the girl. 

“I want to try doing the thumbprint cookies,” Shouto said, raising his hand hesitantly. 

“How about this?” Kurogiri said, stepping back up to the group. “Jin, Hitoshi and I will make the brownies; Shouto and Izuku will make the thumbprint cookies; Keigo, Touya, and Katsuki will make the red velvet cookies; and Tenko, Himiko, and Eri will make the sugar cookies. Whoever is waiting or finished can help the others.” 

Everyone agreed to the plan and set up their own work stations in their groups as they gathered the needed ingredients, though the flour, sugar, and other general baking ingredients stayed in the middle of them all. 

Just as Izuku and Shouto finished the dough they needed, a shout rang out from Keigo, wings fluttering and flour flying across the room. 

“Keigo stop! You’re throwing flour everywhere,” Izuku chided. Keigo’s wings snapped shut and he looked guiltily towards Izuku. Just as Izuku was about to wave off the look, they got smacked in the face with flour. 

Izuku slowly turned to the culprit: Hitoshi. “Really?” Izuku asked, arching an eyebrow. 

“I think you look good in white,” Shouto noted. 

Hitoshi couldn't hold in their laughter anymore and bent over, gasping for air. Izuku took the distraction and grabbed a handful of flour and threw it at their partner. 

“Oh dear,” Kurogiri muttered as he warped himself out of the kitchen just before a full on flour fight sprang up in the kitchen.

Himiko took a handful and dropped it over Eri who gaped at her before reaching in the bag and throwing it at Himiko’s face, though it missed and hit Tenko. Hitoshi threw another handful of flour, this time at Shouto, covering the boy’s red hair in white. Keigo and Touya threw flour at one another before Touya snuck around and got Kacchan in the face which caused small explosions to pop off and a whole group call out for no quirk use in the house. Jin threw flour at Himiko before picking up Eri and dancing around the kitchen, holding the girl above everyone’s heads. 

Ten minutes later, Kurogiri came back into the room with brooms and ordered everyone to clean up before finishing the desserts. There was a lot of grumbling, but they finally got most of the flour off of the floor and counters and went back to their groups, trying to salvage what work they’d done and soon enough the sweets were in the oven. 

“There’s probably so much extra flour in all of them,” Hitoshi bemoaned. 

“They’ll be fine,” Kacchan huffed, crossing his arms. 

“We should all take showers,” Izuku noted, as they looked at the floor that had another thin layer of flour coating it from their movements. 

“I’m taking upstairs,” Kacchan called, already rushing up the stairs. 

“Second floor!” Tenko shouted, following on Kacchan’s heels. 

“They’re gonna try to sneak back to bed,” Izuku laughed. 

“Just like those two,” Shouto said, pointing at Keigo and Touya who were inching out of the kitchen. 

“I’ll just warp everyone back,” Kurogiri noted, crossing his arms. 

“I’ll take Eri into the bathroom down here and make sure we get rid of all the flour,” Himiko offered, leading Eri out of the room. 

“Well, we drew the short stick,” Hitoshi muttered. 

“Yeah, who knew we’d need even more bathrooms,” Izuku laughed. 

“You’d think that 4 was enough,” Shouto added. 

“There are 10 bedrooms though,” Hitoshi countered. “There should be 5 bathrooms at the very least.”

“I might turn two of the guest rooms into bathrooms,” Izuku noted, tapping his chin in thought.

“One on each of the lower floors?” Shouto asked, tilting his head. 

“Or one on the first and one on the third floor,” Izuku said before shaking his head. “I’ll think about it more later. C’mon, Kacchan’s probably out by now. You too, Jin. Tenko’s probably done, too.”

The four of them headed upstairs where the other two were indeed done with their showers. Jim split off on the second floor while Shouto, Hitoshi, and Izuku went upstairs to take turns in the shower. Hitoshi went first claiming it’d help wake them up a bit more, then Shouto, and finally Izuku went.

Meeting back downstairs, freshly showered and in much more comfortable clothing, they found Kurogiri had already taken out the brownies and red velvet cookies. 

“Movie time?” Himiko asked, leaning her head back on the couch to see the trio approaching. 

“Something calm like Ghibli,” Izuku said, nodding. 

“I wanna watch Kiki!” Eri cheered. 

The group laughed as Himiko queued up the movie but set it to pause as they waited for the rest of the desserts. Izuku went back to the kitchen to help Kurogiri, pulling out plates and napkins and transferring the sweets to serving dishes. 

They waited 5 minutes after the last batch of cookies were cooled to plate those as well before they returned back to the common room and found seating amongst the crowd, everyone grabbing at least one of each sweet before settling back in to watch the movie as Himiko pressed play. 

“Thank you, Dad,” Eri said from where she was sitting in their lap, holding a plate with enough sweets for the both of them. 

Izuku ran their fingers through her hair with a soft smile. “Anything for you, sweetie.” 

Eri cuddled a bit more into their chest, making it impossible for them to keep playing with her hair so they grabbed a thumbprint cookie instead and chewed on it as they focused back into the movie, surrounded by their family as the sun finally crested the horizon. 

Chapter Text

“Is there a reason you rode your bikes to school?” Aizawa asked. 

Izuku shrugged. “Makes us look like the Furies coming with a vengeance.” 

Hitoshi pointed to their bike handle. “Look, we even got parking passes!”

Aizawa huffed as he led the group out of the garage. “You two aren’t my students, so I don’t have to deal with you. Get to class,” Aizawa said to Todoroki and Bakugou as they walked towards the main building. 

“There’s still another hour before class starts, hobo,” Kacchan huffed. 

“You show up early, you go to class early. Not my problem,” Aizawa sniped back as they entered the main school building. He didn’t note that Kacchan was wrong and it was really less than 30 minutes before class started. 

Kacchan huffed before he led Shouto away, Izuku and Hitoshi waving at the two before following Aizawa to their own homeroom. 

“Pronouns?” Aizawa asked as he walked into their classroom. 

“Huh?” Izuku asked, tilting his head. He followed Aizawa inside and sat on their usual couch with Hitoshi as Aizawa plopped onto the couch across from them. 

“Hizashi told me you both use he/they, so what’s the pronoun for today?” Aizawa clarified. 

“It’s like halfway through the school year,” Hitoshi huffed. “They.” 

“He,” Izuku added with a shrug. They had this conversation every morning anyways, and typically wore identifiers for the rest of the house, but they’d forgotten this morning. 

“Most of the time, you can tell from the bracelets we wear, we just left them on accident this morning,” Hitoshi added. 

Aizawa nodded. “Bring them tomorrow so I can tell the difference. They for me today, too.” 

“You’re non-binary?” Izuku asked, eyes brightening in excitement. 

Aizawa made a so-so motion with their hand. “I don’t really identify. I just know that sometimes I’m he, sometimes I’m they.” 

Hitoshi and Izuku nodded along in complete understanding. 

“Is there anyone else?” Izuku asked. 

Aizawa rubbed their chin in thought. “Thirteen uses they, you know Hizashi’s pronouns, and there’s probably more that I’m not remembering right now. Now, to get on topic…”

Hitoshi and Izuku winced as they remembered their run in with the Pro Hero right after they got their licenses. 

“I obviously can’t stop the three of you from going out, especially given that one of you isn’t even my student. But, given that you have plenty of experience, your training and studies will be getting pushed forward to a level that actually matches your skill,” Aizawa finished. 

“So… you’re not mad?” Hitoshi asked, looking down at their hands. 

“You had permission, so I can’t truly be mad,” Aizawa responded with a shrug. 

“So, what now?” Izuku asked. 

Aizawa held a finger up and within a minute, the bell chimed for students to start getting to class. “Good enough. The next step for you all is to go on Work Studies. These are different from internships as you will actually be able to go on patrols and see what hero work is like.”

“So, like sidekicks?” Hitoshi asked. 

“Pretty much, yeah,” Aizawa grunted. “Though, they’re supposed to be less intensive than being a sidekick so that you’re getting eased into it.”

“Are we using the same placements as our internships?” Izuku asked, Hitoshi immediately sitting up at his question. 

“No.”

“In other words, yes,” Izuku smirked. 

“Yeah, we wanna ride motorcycles with you, Eraserhead!” Hitoshi added. 

“No.”

“C’mon! We run into you on patrol all the time! It’ll just be more official this time!” Izuku countered. 

“Yeah, and this way you will be able to stop us from patrolling because we’ll only be able to go out with you when we’re on the Work Study,” Hitoshi jumped in to add. 

Aizawa groaned and dropped their head onto the back of the couch. “Fine,” they grumbled. 

Hitoshi and Izuku stood up and cheered loudly before dropping down a second later after receiving a bright red glare from Aizawa. 

“Okay, so is there anything else about the Work Studies that we need to know?” Izuku asked. 

“Yeah, Nedzu’s waiting for you,” Aizawa said with a wave of their hand. 

Hitoshi blanched at the mention of the principal, but Izuku just stood and dragged his partner to their feet. “You think we’ll be back for Heroics?” 

“Given that we’re holding Heroics during the usual time that 1-A has theirs? Most likely,” Aizawa grumbled. “If so, see you then with your other boyfriend. Oh, and Bakugou is joining again today.”

“Kacchan?” Izuku asked, stopping just short of the door. “Why?” 

“Got in a fight with All Might. Really don’t want to end up with 4 heathens in my class, but what can I do?” Aizawa huffed.

“You could send them with 1-B,” Hitoshi offered. 

“They also get taught by All Might, Toshi,” Izuku reminded. 

“Oh, that sucks,” Hitoshi muttered. 

Izuku just laughed and dragged their partner out the door, giving one last wave to Aizawa as they left the room and made the trek up to Nedzu’s office. 

“What do you think he wants with us?” Hitoshi asks. 

“Probably something to do with the Work Studies given that both of us are going. Maybe a secondary project?” Izuku pondered. 

“Hopefully it’s not too much work,” Hitoshi grumbled. 

“No, it’ll probably be something more like a game. Difficult maybe, but fun nonetheless,” Izuku said with a shrug. 

Walking up to the principal’s office, they found the door already open and Nedzu sitting at one of the couches inside, awaiting their arrival while sipping on tea. 

“Come, come. Have a seat and drink tea with me,” Nedzu said with a smile while beckoning the two inside. "You're not wearing your bracelet today."

Izuku chuckled. "Can you believe that Aizawa has only just asked us about pronouns and such? I'm going with he, Toshi they," he explained. 

Nedzu chuckled. "Sounds about right for Aizawa. He can look over the finer details of social cues at times. Now, onto today's topic."

“Is this about Work Studies?” Izuku asked, taking a seat across from the chimera. 

“Precisely,” Nedzu nodded. “I have a proposition for you two.”

“Told you,” Izuku whispered as Hitoshi took a seat. 

“The project,” Nedzu cut in with an amused smile, “is to take as many pictures of Eraserhead as possible without being noticed. This will be in place of both of your finals if you succeed.” 

“Just take pictures? Any other requirements?” Izuku asked with a mischievous glint in his eye.

“No other requirements besides taking a picture and not being caught,” Nedzu confirmed. 

“Do they have to be in their hero costume?” Hitoshi asked. 

“Nope!” Nedzu said cheerfully. “Though, to be honest, they usually wear their hero costume even when they’re not on duty.”

Izuku hummed. “Is there a requirement for how many photos we need to post?” 

Nedzu waved his hand dismissively. “Not really. But, they also need to be shared with me in some way so that I can see how successful you are.”

“What if we aren’t successful?” Hitoshi asked. 

“Knowing the two of you, there is no chance for zero success,” Nedzu said with a maniacal smirk. 

“Okay, does it count if we create an online forum to post the pictures on to when we take them? Doing this would have the chance of other people seeing them, but would also make it easier for you to see them as soon as we take them,” Izuku said. 

Nedzu hummed. “That could work just fine. I assume you already know where to make the forum?” 

Izuku nodded. “I used to be on a bunch of online forums. Well, I still am, but I’m not as active anymore. So, I was thinking of creating a new one dedicated to our favorite underground cryptid.” 

Hitoshi laughed. “Aizawa will hate it.”

“Which makes it all the more perfect,” Nedzu chirped. “Why don’t you make the forum now and share it with me and then everything will be set in motion by the time you leave for your Work Studies?” 

Izuku nodded, already pulling his laptop out of his backpack. “Toshi, can you create an account on this site so that I can share admin privileges with you?” 

Hitoshi looked over at Izuku’s screen before taking out their own laptop and pulling up the website.

They failed to pay attention as to how much time had passed as they set up accounts, created the forum, and shared it between the three of them. The longest part of the process was naming the forum: “Musutafu’s Own Mothman?” The three of them were cackling by the end of the meeting and Hitoshi had become much more comfortable within the principal’s presence. 

Nedzu shut his computer and clapped his hands together. “Now, go on so that you don’t miss lunch. I’m sure that Aizawa has some fun exercises cooked up for the four of you today.” 

Izuku stood and bowed to the principal. “I’ll see you later!” 

Hitoshi followed suit and soon they were headed back down hallways and stairs to reach their homeroom. 

“Oi, idiots!” Kacchan shouted as they passed the 1-A classroom. 

“Hey Kacchan!” Izuku waved. “I heard you were with us today!” 

“What’d the bigot do to make you start a fight with him?” Hitoshi asked. 

Kacchan smirked as he and Shouto joined them in their walk to the cafeteria. “Idiot made some homophobic comment after the girls were gushing about you three being in a relationship. No one else had the balls to call him out on it.” 

Izuku flinched in surprise and his partners both took one of his hands. 

“Who knew it could get worse,” Hitoshi huffed. 

“Doesn’t help that practically everyone in my class is in the Alphabet Mafia one way or another,” Kacchan growled, pushing his way through the cafeteria doors harshly. 

“Well, he is just a human,” Izuku started, earning disbelieving stares pointed at him. “He’s bound to have flaws is all I’m saying!”

“Yeah, he really just has all the worst flaws,” Shouto grumbled. 

“Yeah, he really does,” Izuku sighed, taking a seat at one of the cafeteria tables.

“It technically could be worse,” Kacchan said as he and the others sat around the table. 

“No, please don’t jinx it,” Hitoshi said, snapping their eyes up to glare at Kacchan. 

Kacchan threw his hands up. “I’m just saying!” 

“Saying what?” Denki asked, joining them at the table. 

“All Might is an asshole,” Hitoshi supplied, making Denki gape. 

“What’s new?” Mei asked, plopping down her tray as she joined the group. 

“Honestly,” Momo said, following Mei. “You’d think the Number One Hero would have more tact.”

“It’s not like the Number Two Hero is much better,” Shouto grumbled. 

“I feel like I’m missing something,” Denki muttered. 

“That’s because you were overloaded in Heroics yesterday, Kaminari,” Momo supplied. “You missed our teacher saying some rather foul words about these three being in a relationship together. Both because they’re all male-adjacent and because there’s three of them.”

“I like that term,” Shouto said. 

“Male-adjacent?” Hitoshi snickered. 

Shouto nodded. “It makes sense. We’re not all male and none of us are female or even specifically non-binary. So the three of us collectively are male-adjacent.”

Izuku shrugged. “Better than just calling us boys or whatever.”

“Hey,” Denki said. “Are you two doing Work Studies like we are?”

“Yeah,” Hitoshi said. “Going with Aizawa again.”

“How’d you convince him to agree to that?” Kacchan huffed. 

“Told them that he’d be able to control when we go out on patrols,” Izuku laughed. 

“Of course you did,” Kacchan laughed. “Damn, so that means you’re already set in stone with a Work Study. I have no clue who I’m going with.”

“I’m joining Amajiki from the Big Three,” Shouto said. “He approached me after their demonstration.”

“Damn it,” Kacchan hissed. “Shitty Hair is also going with Amajiki. And Energy Bitch had her eyes all over Pink Cheeks and Froggy.”

“You should really call them by their names, Kacchan,” Izuku said, rolling his eyes. 

Kacchan flipped him off and went back to picking at his food. 

“Anyways, how’d the demonstration go? Aizawa just flat out told us what was going to happen, so we didn’t get anything like that,” Izuku asked. 

Shouto nodded. “They brought in the Big 3 to introduce it. They were… a lot.”

“Nejire-senpai got all up in our faces asking about our quirks and stuff,” Denki added. 

“And fucking Shiny Ass beat all of us by himself,” Kacchan grumbled. 

“Shiny- Mirio Togata?” Izuku asked, tilting his head. 

“Literally how?” Hitoshi asked, shaking their head at their boyfriend. 

Izuku held up his fingers as he counted off. “The Big 3 of UA. Mirio Togata- blonde, always happy, very loud; quirks: One for All and Permeation. Nejire Hado- blue hair, very talkative and blunt to the point she seems rude, but she’s just curious; quirk: Wave Motion. Tamaki Amajiki- indigo hair, social anxiety, hates having to talk to anyone other than the other members of the Big 3; quirk: Manifest. Due to this information, it’s pretty easy to discern that ‘Shiny Ass’ is Mirio, especially since Kacchan used ‘he’ pronouns.”

“I- okay sure,” Hitoshi sighed. 

“Wait, what’s One For All? Mirio-senpai just said that his quirk was Permeation,” Momo asked. 

“Oh, that’s All Might’s quirk,” Izuku shrugged, not bothering to care about the fact that he was revealing this secret in the middle of the cafeteria. All Might was retired anyways and All For One was locked up in Tartarus with no successor. “It’s a stockpiling quirk that can be passed down from one person to the next. All Might passed it down to Mirio.”

“How do you know that?” Denki asked. 

“The way his quirk developed made it clear that something weird happened, actually,” Mei piped in. “If you watch the Sports Festivals, you can see the change. In his first year, it’s clear that he just had his original quirk: Permeation, but this year’s Sports Festival showed a clear change in his quirk, which added super strength into it.”

Izuku nodded. “Plus, All Might told me about his need to pass on his quirk and it was pretty easy to put two and two together. Especially given that Mirio does his internships and Work Studies with Nighteye, who used to be All Might’s sidekick.”

“Your brain is too powerful,” Denki muttered in awe. 

Izuku shrugged, turning back to his bento. “I’ve studied heroes my whole life. Meeting them hasn’t always been the best, but they’ve never been able to sway me from the path I’m on.”

“Not that we’d let them,” Mei chirped, waving a wrench at him. 

“True that,” Hitoshi added, swinging an arm over Izuku’s shoulders and pulling him into a side hug. 

The bell rang and the group sighed collectively. 

“How am I supposed to get through Heroics knowing that our teacher is homophobic?” Denki asked as they all stood from the table. 

Izuku grabbed his hand and gave it a small squeeze. “He doesn’t know shit. And besides, I’ve attached some bots to you two so I can record anything he says in your class. We can easily build a case to get him fired once I also pull together all the security camera footage of his past misdeeds and put in my own statement.”

Denki smiled gratefully at him and gave his hand a small squeeze back before skipping to join Momo and the rest of Class 1-A as they all headed out to their own classroom. 

“You two are with us today!” Izuku cheered, looking towards Shouto and Kacchan. 

“Hope you’re ready for another day of hell,” Hitoshi grumbled, causing Izuku to laugh. 

“Aizawa can’t be that bad,” Kacchan grumbled as they descended the stairs to 1-U. 

“You’re right,” Aizawa said, stepping out of their classroom. “I’m worse. This way.”

They all followed Aizawa as they led them to one of the many training gyms, Izuku wearing an amused smile. 

“Today we’re working on not getting caught when doing stake outs,” Aizawa grumbled as they entered the gym. “Go get changed into your hero costumes and meet up back here.” 

Izuku could barely hold in his laughter and as soon as they all entered into the dressing room, he and Hitoshi burst into a fit of giggles, knocking them both onto the floor. Kacchan and Shouto looked down at them in annoyance and confusion respectively. 

“Care to explain what all this is about?” Kacchan asked as he folded his arms and raised an eyebrow at them. 

“They- Zu- this is too perfect,” Hitoshi wheezed in between laughter. 

Izuku recovered from his laughing fit first and sat up to look at his friend and boyfriend. “Okay, so, Thirteen introduced the Work Studies to your class right?”

“We talked about this at lunch, nerd,” Kacchan said, clicking his tongue in annoyance.

“Anyways, we’re going on a Work Study with Aizawa again,” Izuku continued to explain, ignoring the blonde. “But, Nedzu also gave us a side mission which plays in perfectly to today’s lesson, at the expense of Aizawa.” 

“What do you mean at his expense?” Shouto asked. 

“Their expense,” Hitoshi corrected. “And the task that Nedzu gave us was to essentially take as many pictures of Aizawa as possible without getting caught. And now he’s teaching us how to not get caught. Therefore, at their expense.” 

Kacchan barked out laughter at that. “That’s amazing.”

“We should probably change before Aizawa busts the door down,” Hitoshi groaned, pushing themselves to their feet. 

“They’ll just make us run extra laps for being late,” Izuku said, standing as well. 

They all hurried to put on their hero costumes before rushing out the door to try to lessen the punishment of the already long amount of time it’d taken them to get changed. They stepped back into the gym just in time to see Aizawa with red eyes and a feral grin. 

“Let’s begin, shall we?” Aizawa asked. They all shuddered in fear of the exercise to come. 

Chapter Text

“Hand me that screwdriver,” Izuku muttered, hunched over a group of his snake-like microbots. 

Mei handed over the screwdriver and clicked her tongue as she fiddled with her own group of the microbots. 

“Okay, I’m done,” Izuku said, screwing together the last bot. 

“One second,” Mei said. Izuku looked over to watch her as she snagged the screwdriver back and hunched over the bots in a similar manner that he was just in and screwed them back together. 

“Testing?” Izuku asked, smirking at the pink haired girl. 

“Testing,” Mei said with a matching smirk. 

“Power Loader Sensei!” Mei and Izuku screamed together. 

Their teacher sighed and brought over a glass cage in which a mouse was crawling around. “Please don’t kill the poor thing.”

“We modified the bots to include the option of how much gas to emit. The mouse, in theory, should be fine,” Izuku said as Power Loader set the cage on the desk in front of them, crossing his arms. 

“Do you have to watch us?” Mei grumbled as Izuku slid one of the snake bots into the cage before quickly sealing it again. 

“If there’s an explosion following this, you’re both getting expelled,” Power Loader explained. 

“I’m only like 1/3 your student,” Izuku commented as he turned his headband on with a slight tap. “I don’t think you can expel me.”

“Besides it won’t explode,” Mei chirped, watching intently as Izuku made the bot come to life. 

Silence fell between the trio as they all watched as Izuku commanded the snake to glow a bright red which surprised the mouse into staying still, just as expected. 

“Now,” Mei said eagerly as the mouse seemed to regain its bearings. 

Izuku hummed quietly in answer as the snake opened its mouth and a thick stream of smoke blew out of its mouth towards the mouse before it reached the allotted amount and its mouth closed once more. The mouse tried to back in a corner away from the smoke, but all too soon the mouse had breathed the substance in and stopped moving completely. 

Power Loader reached into the tank and grabbed the mouse. “It’s still alive, if panicked about not being able to move.”

Izuku and Mei jumped off of their work stools and screamed in victory, throwing their hands up in the air before hugging each other and spinning in circles. There was a slight sound at the door and Izuku immediately sent microbots towards it. 

“Hey!” Hitoshi cried as he was dragged back into the room by the bots. 

Izuku laughed as he disengaged himself from the hug and turned to his boyfriend, now sitting on the ground in front of the trio. “I noticed you trying to escape. We still have stuff to show you.”

“You two are in mad scientist mode. I want nothing to do with it,” Hitoshi countered, glaring up at the two who were still grinning ear to ear. 

“They didn’t explode anything this time around, so let’s try to keep it that way,” Power Loader said as he placed the mouse back in the cage and took the snake out before retreating back to his desk. 

“Did you just test an experiment on Sensei’s mouse?” Hitoshi asked as he watched the man hover over the cage at their desk. 

“He allowed it. It was either the mouse or we test it on each other,” Izuku said with a shrug. 

Hitoshi groaned. “Okay well, you have like 15 minutes before lunch to show me whatever wacky shit you did.”

“I don’t know. He doesn’t seem like he wants his support gear,” Mei said, crossing his arms. “Maybe we should keep it to ourselves, or make it fit with some other hero in training.”

“Or a Pro Hero even,” Izuku pondered. “Maybe we should go to the Teacher’s Lounge. I can think of a couple of them that this gear would work with.”

“Oh fuck off and just show me,” Hitoshi said, rolling his eyes. “I’m hungry and tired from the extra training.”

Izuku laughed as he motioned for Hitoshi to grab a stool and they all sat at the bench together again. As Izuku put the bots away and started to clean the work station, Mei pulled out the boxes they needed. 

“So, first up: we stole your mask,” Mei said. 

Hitoshi raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, no shit. It wasn’t in my case when I went to change for training and there was a chicken scratch note saying not to worry.” 

“My handwriting is not chicken scratch!” Mei complained. 

Hitoshi just gave her a deadpan look and she sighed. “Izuku, you explain it. He obviously woke up on the wrong side of bed today.” 

Izuku laughed. “He’s just upset ‘cause I caught him in the kitchen eating a whole tub of ice cream last night and made him go to bed.” Hitoshi scoffed at that, glaring at his boyfriend, but Izuku just waved it off. “Anyways, there are a couple new features in your mask,” he said, pulling a box towards himself and opening it to show Hitoshi’s voice modulator mask. “First off, it has a microphone and we put in earpieces that automatically connect. This will make it easier during Work Studies since it connects into the hero network; a private network between the Pantheon; one with just Sho, you, and I; and one with Aizawa, you, and I.” 

Hitoshi took the earpieces when Izuku offered them and put them in. “They fit perfectly,” he noted. 

“I should hope so,” Mei grinned mischievously, Hitoshi opting to ignore the comment. “There are also five sets of spares that we made for each person connected. Which includes me. My set is always tuned in, even when you’re on a private network, so try not to make me have to bleach my ears.”

Izuku chuckled. “Yeah, yeah, we already had the shovel talk, Mei.” 

Mei huffed and grabbed the mask. “Okay, but also that’s not the only thing. We placed a tracker in the mask as well as health monitors. For now, we’re the only ones with full access to the data that is received by it.”

“Oh, Nedzu also has access,” Izuku cut in. “And I’m sure Tenko will try to hack his way into it as soon as he hears about it.” 

Hitoshi sighed. “Okay, but I’m not nearly as problematic as Izuku is. At least I have a sense of self preservation.”

“Don’t worry, Izuku got the same systems coded into his mask and headband. We were also thinking of making something for Shouto, but for now he just gets the earpieces,” Mei explained. 

“Why not add the health monitoring system in his wrist thingies you were talking about?” Hitoshi asked. 

“Oh!” Izuku cried. “The temperature regulators! We have to get those finished!” 

Mei blanched. “Shit. I forgot about those.”

“You’re not skipping lunch,” Hitoshi demanded. “You can stay after school or bring the equipment home.”

“I have work today,” Izuku complained. “Mei, can you bring all the stuff for our projects to the house? We need to work on Kacchan’s suit, too.”

“Yeah, yeah. Okay. We’ll make it work.” Mei nodded in an attempt to reassure herself, already scribbling on a tablet that she pulled out of nowhere about what they needed to finish for the rest of their projects.

“Don’t forget you need teacher and parent’s permission!” Power Loader called out. 

“Sensei, can we bring our projects to my house? I’ll sign for it,” Izuku asked. 

Power Loader sighed. “Godammit, I forgot you were a legal adult.”

The class around them giggled at their teacher cussing and he sent a glare out at them. 

“Okay, so that’s handled. Five minutes left. We created new crossbow bolts,” Izuku said, pulling the next box towards himself. 

Mei looked up finally as he opened the box and pointed at the feathers which were a variety of colors. “We colored the feathers so that they were easily distinguishable, but the shafts also have different textures so that if you can’t look, you can still figure out which is which.”

“So like Braille?” Hitoshi asked, grabbing one of the bolts gingerly. 

“Precisely,” Izuku said. “We don’t really have time to explain them all, so we’ll just get them signed off as well so that you can read through the instruction manuals and try to memorize the textures of each different bolt.”

“Sounds good to me,” Hitoshi said, placing the bolt back into the box. 

“I sent you the list, including the bolts,” Mei said, setting the tablet down. 

“Perfect,” Izuku said, grabbing his own tablet which was under one of the boxes. He pulled up the proper form to have Power Loader signed and quickly filled it out, before signing it and emailing it to their teacher. “Okay, that’s done. Do you need help packing everything up to take to my house?” 

“No,” Mei said, waving the offer off. “I have an extra hour of support, so I can just use that time to pack it all.”

Izuku nodded just as the bell rang. 

“Okay, food time, let’s go,” Hitoshi said, ushering the two off of their stools and out the door. Izuku didn’t miss the relieved look from Power Loader and chuckled. 

They quickly made their way to the cafeteria, Izuku and Mei semi-hoping that if they ate quick enough they’d be allowed to return to the workshop. 

“Oh good, you managed to lure them out,” Momo said with a smile as they approached a table she was sitting at. 

“They’re bringing their work home tonight which is probably the only reason why,” Hitoshi admitted, making sure Izuku and Mei sat before he did himself. 

“Did you need us for something, Momo?” Izuku asked as Kacchan joined them and dropped bento boxes in front of Mei, Izuku, and Hitoshi, before sitting with Kirishima on the other side of Hitoshi with his own bento. 

“Ah, well. I just noticed that you three are kind of separated from our class. I was wondering what you thought of creating a club?” Momo asked, twisting the end of her long ponytail. 

“A club?” Mei asks, eyes twinkling. “My middle school had a bunch, but I couldn’t join any of them.”

“Same,” Hitoshi and Izuku said at the same time. 

“Do I hear Tragic Backstory™?” Denki asked, joining the group at the table. 

“Momo suggested we start a club, so that Hitoshi, Mei, and I would be more included in your class,” Izuku explained. 

“What kind of club?” Shouto asked as he came up to the table, Kacchan scooting over so he could sit next to Hitoshi. 

“Ah, I hadn’t really thought that far,” Momo admitted. 

“We could make an Izuku Protection Squad,” Hitoshi offered, chuckling even when Izuku elbowed him in the side. 

“Okay, ignoring that stupid idea,” Izuku said, glaring at Hitoshi who laughed even harder, the group around them laughing as well. “What if, hear me out, we create a gay club?” 

Kacchan scoffed. “Really, nerd?” 

“Hey, you’re the one that said that we have a homophobic teacher and that most of your class is in the Alphabet Mafia,” Izuku defended.

“Don’t we need a teacher to start a club?” Denki said, cutting off Kacchan’s argument. 

“Plenty of the teachers are some level of, well,” Izuku raised his hand and let his wrist fall limp. 

Mei chuckled. “Yeah, you should hear the amount of gossip that the Support students hold over heroes.”

“Why the Support students specifically?” Kirishima asked. 

“People get nervous when they come in to request, test, or just pick up modifications and support items which leads them to fits of random rambling,” Izuku explained as he pulled out his tablet. 

“What should we call the club though?” Hitoshi asked. 

“We’re starting a club?” Mina asked excitedly, plopping into the seat next to Momo, Sero sitting next to her. 

“Yeah,” Denki said, equally as excited. “Why don’t we just call it GSA?”

“Ew, boring,” Mei said, scrunching her nose. 

“That’s what they’re normally called,” Kacchan said, shaking his head. 

“What do you think, Izuku?” Momo asked, watching as he scribbled away on his tablet with a stylus. 

“Huh?” Izuku asked, blinking up at her. 

“Wait, don’t ask him. It’ll be some obscure mythology reference,” Hitoshi complained. 

“It’s not obscure!” Izuku complained, setting his tablet down. “I was thinking ‘Apollo’s Cult.’”

“What about that isn’t obscure, dipshit?” Kacchan asked, rolling his eyes. 

“You guys are starting a cult?” Tokoyami asked, joining them. 

“No, we’re starting an LGBT club,” Shouto explained. 

“Oh. I like the name. Apollo was a raging bisexual and he had many cults following,” Tokoyami said, nodding his head. 

Hitoshi sighed. “Are we really going to create a club with ‘cult’ in the name?” 

“It would keep those who… well, homophobic people rather, from really knowing what the club is,” Momo said. 

“I think it’s a great idea!” Mina cheered. 

“We should make little statues of Apollo to have at our meetings!” Denki chimed in. 

“I might have some,” Tokoyami offered. 

“Perfect!” Denki cheered. “Wait, how exactly do we start a club?” 

“Ah, I already filled out the forms. I was just waiting on confirmation for the name. We already have the required minimum of people to start a club, so now all we really need is a teacher’s signature and to turn it in to Nedzu,” Izuku explained, turning back to his tablet and writing a couple more things down. 

“Oh yeah, which teacher should we choose?” Kirishima asked. 

“I vote Mic,” Hitoshi said. 

“Mic’s great,” Sero agreed. “He would also probably be totally down with the idea.” 

“Plus, they’re a raging homosexual,” Shouto added. 

The whole table laughed and Izuku wrote in the teacher’s name, leaving the area for their signature blank. “Well, I guess that’s all we need. Do we know who all would want to join the club?”

“My girlfriend,” Momo said shyly. 

“What!” Mina exclaimed, jumping from her seat. “Who?” 

“Um, Kyoka,” Momo admitted, twisting her ponytail again. 

“That’s amazing! I’m happy for you,” Izuku said, smiling at her. 

“I’ll join your stupid club,” Kacchan grumbled. “There better be food though at the meetings.” 

“Nope!” Izuku said, popping the ‘p.’ “You’re banned from the club until you meet the requirements.” 

“Hah?!” Kacchan shouted, standing from his seat.

“I don’t think we should ban anyone,” Momo said softly. 

“Trust Izuku, it’s for his own good,” Hitoshi whispered across the table. Momo looked unsure, but nodded anyways. 

“What the fuck are the requirements, asshole?” Kacchan demanded. 

“You have to confess to your crush,” Izuku sang. 

Red poured over Kacchan’s face. “You’re a fucking asshole.” 

“And yet, you love me,” Izuku said. “Better hurry along, I’m turning this form in when I meet with Nedzu today.” 

“Fuck,” Kacchan hissed, standing from the table and rushing out of the cafeteria. 

Hitoshi, Shouto, Mina, and Izuku burst out in laughter once the explosive blonde left, leaving the rest of the table to look at them in confusion. 

“Um,” Kirishima said nervously, looking downcast. “Who’s his crush?”

“Sorry sweetie,” Mina said. “That secret we’re taking to the grave until he confesses.”

Kirishima nodded dejectedly and Izuku felt a bit bad for letting the boy think that Kacchan liked someone else, but he also wasn’t about to ruin Kacchan’s confession. 

“Are we putting any actual restrictions on who can join?” Sero asked. 

“I mean, I feel like that’d be counter intuitive,” Izuku said. “It’s an obscure enough name that anyone in the club won’t be outed, but I feel like you also shouldn’t have to out yourself just to join.” 

“We’re also just first years, some people might not know how they identify or even if they do,” Momo added. 

“So the member requirements should be the Alphabet Mafia and those who support our darkness?” Tokoyami asked. 

“LGBT+ and allies,” Hitoshi nodded. 

“We’re all just Apollo’s followers,” Shouto said. “Whether it’s because we’re gay like him or just support him doesn’t really matter.” 

“So, I’m still allowed to join?” Denki asked. 

“Babe, we all know you’re gay,” Mina said softly. 

Izuku ignored her and reached around Mei to grab Denki’s hand and give it a light squeeze. “You are a part of the family, of course you can join.” Denki gave him a soft smile and nod of thanks in turn. 

“Oh!” Mei said, perking up. “Speaking of, when are we hazing Denki?” 

Denki scooted back in shock. “Wait, what?” 

“We don’t haze people to let them join the Pantheon, Mei,” Hitoshi chided. 

“We have to make sure that Eri likes him!” Mei countered. 

“That’s not hazing,” Izuku laughed. “Anyways, she is right. Eri has become the centerpiece of our family and it’s really up to whether she feels comfortable around people or not for them to join the Pantheon. So, come over at any point and you can meet her.”

“That’s if you still want to join,” Shouto added. 

“I- um, yeah, sure,” Denki nodded, a little dazed.

“Can anyone join the Pantheon?” Momo asked. 

“Actually, Momo,” Mei said. “I could use your help while Zu is at work today if you wanted to get your hazing over with today.”

“Please stop calling it hazing,” Hitoshi groaned. 

“I’ll have to inform my parents, but I’m sure that’d be fine,” Momo nodded. 

“Eri’s about to get two more aunts,” Shouto noted. 

“Ah, yes, we should probably see if Jirou can come over, too,” Izuku nodded, finally putting his tablet away. “Momo, will you ask her?” 

“Sure,” Momo agreed easily. 

“Let’s just have a study night at the house,” Hitoshi said. “Anyone from 1-A can come and we can work on getting this week’s work done early, especially for those of us with work studies.” 

“Oh, that’s a wonderful idea!” Momo said, sitting up a little straighter. “Are you sure we wouldn’t be imposing?” 

“We have very minimal rules for guests at the house. There’s already so many of us living there that no one will probably even notice,” Shouto said. 

“I can bring some snacks!” Mina offered.

“Oh, thank you,” Izuku said. “I have work after school, but I’ll also bring some stuff from the café when I get off.” 

“Then we can invite everyone to our club at your house, too,” Denki said. 

“Thanks for offering to host, man,” Sero said. “I’ll see if I can bring some stuff, too.” 

“I mean,” Izuku said. “No one really needs to bring anything, but the offer is appreciated.”

Just then, the bell rang and the group hurried to clear their boxes and trays before going off to their next classes, Mei splitting off with a promise that everything would be packed and ready to take home by the end of the hour.

Chapter Text

“Oh, look who it is!” Himiko cheered as Hitoshi and Izuku walked inside. 

“Please tell me there’s food,” Hitoshi complained as they walked towards Himiko who was hanging out the doorway to the kitchen. 

“Shouto’s night, we have cold soba,” Himiko said, walking into the kitchen as they approached. 

“I have some bowls ready for you already,” Shouto added, sitting at the dining table. 

“Thanks love,” Izuku murmured, plopping into a seat next to the boy. 

“How’d your first patrol go?” Shouto asked, pushing bowls towards both of them. 

“Long, slow, and quiet,” Izuku complained. 

“Isn’t that how they’re supposed to be?” Touya asked. 

“Not the point. I see more activity when it’s just me and Echo going out,” Izuku said. 

“At least you went on a patrol,” Kacchan grumbled. “Nighteye’s a dick.”

“Office work?” Hitoshi asked. 

“Yeah,” Kacchan said. “Which is stupid ‘cause Bright Ass went on a patrol.”

“Mirio’s a third year,” Izuku noted. “He’s also been with Nighteye since his first year, so Nighteye trusts him to patrol. You only met the Hero today.” 

“Doesn’t mean it’s not stupid,” Kacchan countered, dropping his head onto the counter. 

“Maybe you should’ve been the one to go with Fat Gum,” Shouto said. “You’d be with your new boyfriend and I’m well accustomed to hard ass Heroes.” 

There was a faint blush on Kacchan’s cheeks. “Shut up.”

Izuku chuckled. “At least we don’t have to watch the two of you pining anymore.”

Kacchan threw a glare at him, but didn’t deign to respond. 

“Plus, now you’re officially one of Apollo’s followers,” Hitoshi teased. 

“Oh fuck off,” Kacchan said. “Why do I even bother with the lot of you?”

“Repaying your sins?” Hitoshi asked. 

“The chaos,” Himiko added. 

“You love me too much to leave,” Izuku said. 

“Rhetorical question, idiots. I’m going to bed,” Kacchan said, standing up and clearing his dish. 

“You don’t even want to see the photos we got of Aizawa?” Hitoshi asked, holding up his phone. 

“Izuku will send me the link. Again, Nighteye’s a hardass, I’ll see you all tomorrow,” Kacchan grumbled, eyeing the phone as if he wanted nothing more than to sit back down and scroll through the pictures with everyone. 

“Goodnight Kacchan,” Izuku laughed. The blonde boy huffed before spinning on his heel and walking towards the stairs. 

“Okay, we all need whatever this link is,” Touya said, already pulling out his phone. 

“I’ll send it to the server. To preface what you’re about to see,” Izuku started, typing on his phone. “Nedzu gave us a secondary task that would take place of one of our larger exams if we did well during the Work Studies. The task was that we needed to take as many pictures of Aizawa as possible without being caught.”

“And that’s how… Musutafu’s Own Mothman? was created?” Himiko asked, tilting her head at her phone. “Are you talking about the American Hero?” 

“What? No, of course not,” Izuku scoffed. “That Hero is as much of a rip off as Native. Shouto, if you may?”

Shouto sat up in his seat with an excited glimmer in his eyes. “Mothman was one of the most popular cryptids in America the pre-quirk and even into the quirk era. The folklore never really faded, though there was a pretty weird time when everyone essentially wanted him as their boyfriend for some reason… that’s besides the point though,” Shouto waved his hand in the air before continuing. “In the state of West Virginia, there were several claimed sightings of a large humanoid figure with wings that they soon dubbed Mothman in the 1970s. Since then, he’s been spotted worldwide, but mainly in the states, primarily to warn us of tragic events, not that people really heed his warnings. Nobody has seen hide nor tail of him since the Hero Mothman debuted though.” 

“Uh huh,” Himiko said, nodding. “So… you’re saying that Aizawa is a humanoid bird that shows up to warn the populace of danger?”

Hitoshi laughs. “It was more that we were saying that Aizawa is a folklore cryptid in his own right.”

“And that people want to date him for mysterious reasons?” Touya asked with a smirk.

Izuku scrunched his nose. “He’s married.”

“That doesn’t stop Ms. Joke,” Shouto pointed out. 

“I- yeah, okay, sure,” Izuku relented, shaking his head as he stood and took everyone’s bowls to the sink. “Either way, that link shows you all the photos that we were able to take without getting caught on patrol tonight. We’ll be updating it every night when we’re with him, so there’s something to look forward to.”

“I’ll do the dishes,” Touya said, pushing Izuku away from the sink as he turned the faucet on. “You lot have work to do tomorrow. Even you, Himi, you have that big test tomorrow, don’t think I forgot. You need to pass to enter into the CSI program.” Izuku looked over to see Himiko shrink in on herself. “Go to bed, all of you, I’ll see you sometime tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Touya,” Izuku said, knocking their hips together before he joined his partners who were standing at the kitchen doorway. “Goodnight you two,” he said, waving to Himiko and Touya, his partners doing the same as they left the room and headed up to theirs. 

“Given how slow patrol was yesterday,” Eraserhead said, missing the shutter of the camera behind them as they jumped across a rooftop. “We’ll be splitting up today.”

“How so?” Echo asked, pocketing their phone as discreetly as possible. 

“Well, we’re in the Yanagicho quarter, so we can split it up in thirds and just do a low level sweep,” Eraserhead explained, pulling out their phone and showing them a map of the area.  “I’ll take the southern block since I can scan the larger area quicker than the two of you. You’ll both split up the remaining portion with Echo taking the northernmost section and the top block on the left of the middle section while Medusa takes the rest of the middle section. Make sense?”

Medusa studied the map for a second longer before nodding. It made sense that they were splitting it up in such a weird way given that the quarters were really meant for only one Hero as they were sometimes laid out in weird shapes when looking at an overall map. This quarter was shaped like a rectangle with a triangle on the side and, of course, the north section they were splitting up was where the triangle was. 

“When and where are we meeting back up?” Echo asked. 

“Let’s give it an hour, if one of you finishes before the other then you can patrol the rest of the area together. I’ll meet both of you at Manraiken Yanagicho and we can get some food,” Eraserhead said, pulling up the ramen shop on their map. “Alright, sooner we start, sooner we get home. Head to your areas and don’t forget to use the comms Mei made us if you come across anything.” Eraserhead gave them both a stern look before heading into the quarter and quickly disappearing. 

“Well shit, this ruins our chances of getting more pictures,” Echo grumbled. 

“Yeah, but we’ll have more chances later. See you in an hour or so,” Medusa said, pecking a quick kiss onto Echo’s cheek before running into the middle of the quarter and starting to sweep the sections. 

Eraserhead had shown them the detailed structure of patrols for Underground Heroes during their last patrol, so Medusa took to the roofs, having their snakes assist them by making steps up the wall. It was still only dusk, so there wasn’t that much activity to be expected. Medusa leisurely walked the perimeter of the building that they were standing on, not seeing anything happening on the ground below. They put an earpiece into the opposite ear as their comms and started up some music before jumping across the alley and onto the next roof to do their next perimeter scan. 

About 30, very calm and boring, minutes into this routine, Medusa spotted a face they’d hoped to never see again: Kai Chisaki. Though, he was just slumped up against a little café that was still open for some reason; it must stay open all night. Would it be that bad if they just sent a microbot into his heart? No, Eraserhead would probably kill them. They turned off their music and took out the earpiece before debating with themself whether they should call the sighting in or not. And, in their typical fashion, Medusa shrugged before finding a drain pipe to slide down to land in a nearby alley. 

Strolling up to Chisaki, the man didn’t even acknowledge their presence until Medusa kicked his shoe. “Oi. Why you loitering?”

“Is that illegal?” Chisaki asked, finally looking up. He was still wearing the stupid bird mask and his long trench coat, though it was thoroughly dirty. Medusa wanted to kick him again. 

Medusa arched a brow and pointed at a sign posted on the door. “It literally states ‘No Loitering’ right there.”

“Huh,” Chisaki said, looking up at the sign. “Didn’t notice that.”

Medusa rolled their eyes, the urge to kick the downtrodden man growing. “C’mon. I’ll get you a coffee at least before sending you on your way.” They walked into the café without looking to see if Chisaki followed them or not and went up to the counter. 

The barista sent them a skeptical look which they assumed to be because of their Hero costume. Maybe she thought they were a villain or vigilante, which technically the latter was true still. They gave her a warm smile and she returned it easily, the tension seeming to drain from her at the notion. “Welcome to Rikka Café, what can I grab for you?”

“Hi, can I please get a medium coffee with a lot of sugar?” Medusa asked. 

“Of course, are you on patrol?” The barista asked. 

Medusa laughed. “Yeah, third patrol Underground.”

The barista’s smile widened at that. “Well, then it’s on the house.”

Medusa blinked at the girl before smiling a bit wider this time. “Thank you!” They looked behind them to see Chisaki finally walk in. “I’ll pay for whatever this guy wants then,” they said as if that wasn’t the plan already. 

The barista nodded as she started making their coffee and handed it to them before turning to Chisaki. “What can I get for you, sir?” Medusa started taking small sips of the deliciously sweet coffee as Chisaki looked over the menu.  

“Uh, can I get a cappuccino?” Chisaki asked. 

“Of course,” the barista smiled. 

Medusa handed her the yen required before going to take a seat at one of the small tables facing the door and windows, Chisaki following after grabbing his own drink. 

“So, what are you doing in this area, Overhaul? You looked pretty upset,” Medusa asked, using their coffee to warm their hands as they took another sip. 

“I lost somethin- How do you know my name?” Chisaki countered, a skeptical look in his eyes. 

Medusa huffed, wondering how much trouble they’d get in if they poisoned the coffee they’d just ordered for the man. “Kai Chisaki. You’re the head of the Shie Hassaikai group. There’s a lot of talk about you in the Underground.”

“You some type of Hero or something?” Chisaki asked, preening at the attention even though he still seemed skeptical. 

“Something like that,” Medusa said with a smirk. “Though I’ve known about you for a lot longer than I’ve been in the Underground.” 

“Why’s that?” Chisaki asked, tilting his head. 

Medusa rolled their eyes. “Maybe for the fact that your group places flyers around the area promoting a safe space for people like me.”

“People like… are you quirkless?” Chisaki asked, lowering his tone and leaning forward in his seat. 

Medusa shrugged, taking another sip of the coffee. “Yeah, but I never actually took up your offer.”

“Why not? Your kind is the future of our world. You can save society; save humanity,” Chisaki explained, waving his arm out in an attempt to encompass everything. 

Medusa tilted their head. “I don’t see how that’d work.” 

“We have plans upon plans on how you can save us. You should come to the base and we’ll tell you all about it,” Chisaki offered. 

“I might think about it, but it’s not too likely. What did you lose that made you so upset that you didn’t care about how dirty you were getting?” Medusa asked, changing the topic to try and get more information.

“I lost my su- daughter,” Chisaki said, stuttering with his correction. 

Medusa raised an eyebrow. “Have you filed a report with the police?”

“No,” Chisaki scoffed. “They wouldn’t do anything for me given my standing.”

“So… you’re just letting your daughter go missing? Aren’t you worried?” Medusa asked. It was a bit ironic given their conversation, but now that Eri was their daughter, they knew they would tear the world apart if she went missing. 

“I can only hope that she’ll return to me,” Chisaki said, clicking his tongue. 

“How old is she? Maybe if you give me a description, I can keep my eyes out for her,” Medusa offered. 

“She’s 6, with long white hair and a horn on her forehead,” Chisaki offered easily. Medusa nodded, pretending to note down the vague description of their daughter. He hadn’t even said her eye color or what she had been wearing when he’d seen her last. 

“And her name?” Medusa asked, looking up at the man and taking another sip of coffee. 

“Eri,” Chisaki huffed as he took a drink of his own coffee. 

“That’s a pretty name. I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for her,” Medusa said, taking their last sip of coffee and standing. 

“Wait! At least take some protection before you leave,” Chisaki said, hurriedly standing. 

“And what would this protection be?” Medusa asked, keeping an eye on Chisaki’s hands as he reached into an inner pocket of his jacket. 

“Some bullets,” Chisaki said, pulling out a small black case and handing them over. “They’re rare and I don’t know if I’ll be able to produce any more of them. The black ones erase people’s quirks permanently, but the red ones only erase them temporarily. On the lid of the case, you’ll find the address to the base as well. Just in case you change your mind or find Eri.”

Medusa opened the case which held five bullets- three black and two red- with an address engraved on the inside of the lid. “I’ll keep it in mind. Thanks,” Medusa said. They turned on their heel, waving to the barista as they left the café. 

“Medusa in,” they said as they climbed back onto a roof. “We need to meet back up.”

“How quick can both of you make it to the ramen shop?” Eraserhead asked. 

“Estimated 5 minutes,” Echo called in. 

Medusa pulled up their map and marked the location. “Less than two minutes if I continue my method of travel.” 

“Don’t fall into an alley or Mei and I will kill you,” Echo hissed. 

“So will I,” Eraserhead added. “You’re gonna be giving me so much paperwork, I already know it.”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Medusa said into the comms, already running across the rooftops again. 

“Given that you didn’t call for backup before anything happened, I’m still blaming you,” Eraserhead countered. 

“What even happened?” Echo asked, seeming to run out of breath. 

“I’ll tell you when you get here,” Medusa said with a smirk as they turned off their comms and dropped down into an alley. They rounded the corner and found Eraserhead tapping their foot as they stood outside the ramen shop with crossed arms. “You’re going to scare away all the customers.”

“Were you tailed?” Eraserhead asked. 

Medusa huffed. “No, he wouldn’t even think of it.” 

“And who is this ‘he’?” Eraserhead asked. 

“Please don’t make me have to explain it twice over,” Medusa complained. 

Eraserhead rolled their eyes. “Fine. Any injuries?” 

“Not even a scratch,” Medusa beamed. 

“What the hell happened, Medusa?” Echo asked as they ran out of the alleyway and grabbed Medusa’s shoulders, inspecting them for potential injuries. 

“So,” Medusa started. “I may have run into Kai Chisaki.” 

“You what ?” Eraserhead hissed. 

“But he gave me evidence and an address!” Medusa cheered. 

“I need a drink,” Eraserhead groaned. 

“Same,” Echo said, pinching the bridge of their nose with two fingers. Eraserhead smacked the back of their head and sent them a glare, causing Echo to yelp and Medusa to laugh. 

“Can we still get ramen as I explain?” Medusa asked, diverting their attention. 

“Sure, kid,” Eraserhead said, leading the two of them into the ramen shop where they ordered at the counter and found a small, secluded booth. “So, start from the beginning. What happened?” 

Medusa detailed their interaction with Chisaki to the two as they waited for their ramen and was able to get to the point in which they left the café just as the waiter walked towards their table with three bowls. 

Eraserhead drummed their fingers on the table as they waited for the waiter to go back to the counter and then turned back to Medusa. “Show me the case.”

Medusa nodded and pulled out the case, handing it to the Hero before digging into their bowl of ramen. “We need to send them in for a chemical analysis. He said that he can’t produce them anymore, so I think we should also submit a sample of Eri’s blood. Just in case.”

Echo growled into his bowl. “I wouldn’t put it past the asshole.”

Eraserhead handed the case back to Medusa. “Keep ahold of that and do not lose it. We’ll give it to Nedzu when we’re done here and he’ll get it analyzed. I’m assuming Eri needs a check up anyways, so Recovery Girl can also pull some blood if you bring her in tomorrow.” 

Medusa nodded as Eraserhead started on their own bowl of ramen. “Is there anyone else that we need to contact about this? I know we- or rather I- have to submit an official report. But I also have video and audio evidence from my snakes and mask.”

Eraserhead nodded, slurping their noodles. “We’ll also have to go to Nighteye’s agency. He’s the one working on the yakuza case.”

“Oh! We can see Kacchan!” Medusa cheered. 

“He’s gonna be pissed that we found evidence when he’s been stuck on office duty,” Echo snickered. 

“Office duty?” Eraserhead asked, looking between the two. “Is that all Nighteye’s been having him do?” 

Medusa shrugged. “He’s been complaining the past two nights about it. He was mad that we went on patrol on the first night with you when he was stuck on office work.”

Eraserhead sighed. “I’ll talk to Nighteye about that tomorrow as well then. Also, you’re not patrolling alone again for… ‘til you’re a Pro.”

“For ‘til I’m a Pro?” Medusa shouted, almost choking on the noodles they were eating. 

“‘Til you’re a Pro,” Eraserhead growled. 

“Why!” Medusa asked, slamming their hands on the table. 

“For having a conversation with that villain!” Eraserhead shouted.

“You let me go alone on patrol!” Medusa countered. 

“Yeah, well that shall happen no more,” Eraserhead growled. “We’ll go on patrols but only with you by my side in eyesight.”

“Medusa…” Echo tried butting in. 

“Why! What did I do that was so bad?” Medusa asked, ignoring Echo. 

“You interacted with a villain without informing me,” Eraserhead snapped. 

“I live with villains,” Medusa defended. “I’ve been interacting with villains since before I started middle school!” 

“You live with reformed villains. Villains that have a conscience and that obviously have some soul. Chisaki is different. You’re lucky that you’re alive!” Eraserhead shouted. 

“Maybe we should…” Echo tried again. 

“Yeah, well, I knew he wouldn’t kill me once he knew I was quirkless. ‘Cause news flash! The only people that care whether quirkless people like me live or die are the villains!” Medusa shouted, standing from the table and stalking out of the restaurant, ignoring the shocked faces of their two companions.

A moment later, Echo caught up with them and silently grabbed their hand as they began walking in the direction of UA. 

Chapter Text

“I really did not expect it to be this busy,” Kacchan huffed as he took a seat on the couch next to Izuku with a fresh soda in his hand. 

“We’ve been really working on PR for the place and trying to get it as hyped up as possible,” Izuku responded, watching as Hizashi cheered and sat backwards on a chair to bare his shoulder blade for Touya. 

“What do you think Yamada is getting?” Shouto asked, watching Aizawa and Nemuri stand over their friend. 

“Who knows, I guess the three of them are getting matching tattoos,” Hitoshi said. 

“They’ve been friends since they all met at UA. Looks like they requested matching cloud tattoos in a watercolor art style,” Izuku read off the booking app. “He hasn’t had much practice with those before,” he noted absently. 

“He will after tonight,” Kacchan grunted. 

Izuku chuckled. “You’re not wrong.”

“Hey kid, can we talk?” Aizawa asked. 

Izuku looked up to see the Pro Hero standing in front of him. He locked the tablet that had the shop’s information on it and handed it to Hitoshi before nodding and standing. “There’s a back room this way if it’s private,” Izuku offered, gesturing to a door to his right. 

Aizawa nodded and Izuku led them through the back door after scanning a key card. Inside, Keigo was sitting at the table filling out some paperwork, not even looking up when they entered. 

“Hey Keigo, mind if we use this room for a couple minutes?” Izuku asked. 

Keigo finally looked up and took in Aizawa and Izuku. “Oh, yeah, sure,” he said, gathering his papers and standing. 

“Thank you,” Aizawa said. “Sorry to interrupt your paperwork.”

“No worries at all!” Keigo said. “Just finishing up some last minute reports before the party tonight.” 

“Party?” Aizawa asked, turning to Izuku as Keigo saluted them before walking out the door. 

Izuku shrugged. “We’ve been building up to this day for months now, so the Pantheon is celebrating. Not much more to it.” 

Aizawa nodded. “It turned out really nice.”

“Did you just bring me back here for small talk, Sensei?” Izuku asked, crossing his arms as he leaned against the table Keigo had previously been occupying. 

“No, no I didn’t,” Aizawa said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Listen, I need to apologize for the other night. Our conversation went down a road that I didn’t mean for it to and we have yet had the chance to talk more about it.” 

Izuku shrugged. “It’s fine. I’m quirkless; I’m used to people underestimating me or not allowing me to do as much as others.”

“That’s not it at all though,” Aizawa huffed, crossing his arms as well. “It’s not that I don’t want you doing as much as myself or Shinsou while we’re out on patrol, it’s that I want you to check in with me when you’re in a dangerous situation, even if it’s just a conversation.”

“I had it under control,” Izuku said, looking to the side. “I would have called it in if I thought anything was going to happen.”

“For some reason, I’m having a hard time believing that,” Aizawa said. “I want you to trust us, trust me. We’re your teachers and we’re here to help you. Especially when we’re out in the field. If you can’t trust me when we’re on patrol, it’s only going to lead to injuries.”

“Teachers have never gained my trust,” Izuku muttered. 

“No matter what your teachers may have done to you in the past, or what they didn’t do, I’m trying, kid. I can tell that you have some level of respect for me, but we need to work on trust as well. Otherwise, I don’t know if I can allow you on the raid,” Aizawa said, almost seeming to regret the words. 

Izuku’s head snapped towards his teacher. “You’re taking me off the raid?” He asked with a hint of fear. 

“I don’t want to,” Aizawa said, shaking his head. “I’ll only agree to keep you on if you agree to trust me. At least for the duration of the raid,” he added at Izuku’s skeptical look. 

“I… I do trust you. Or maybe, it’s more that I respect you,” Izuku said, looking away again. “You’re different from any of my other teachers. So, I agree. I’ll trust you, for the duration of the raid and maybe onward.”

“All I ask is that you try, kid,” Aizawa said, reaching forward to ruffle his hair. Izuku subconsciously leaned into the touch, but jumped away when a knock sounded at the door. 

Izuku stepped around Aizawa to open the door and found the principal greeting him with a murderous smile. “Nedzu?”

“Hello hello!” Nedzu chirped. “I have wonderful news and your friends told me you were back here. I believe that I did give them quite a scare!” 

Izuku laughed. “Nedzu, you have on a murderous smile right now. If you hadn’t just said that you had good news, I’d assume you were here to kill me.”

Nedzu clicked his tongue. “None of that! You’re my favorite student!” 

Aizawa scoffed. “Thought we weren’t picking favorites, boss.”

“He’s your favorite, too, so hush. Anyways, I’ve come to add to tonight’s celebrations!” Nedzu said, waving his arms in the air. “All Might's case has gone through and he has officially been fired from UA!” 

“Oh damn,” Keigo said walking up. “That’s big news. Glad to see you’re still alive, Zu.”

Izuku couldn’t help the laughter at Nedzu’s offended expression. 

“Oh, and I forgot to add,” Nedzu said, grinning again as he fully turned to Keigo, who took a step back. “Number 1 Pro Hero Hawks will be taking All Might’s vacated position.”

“What? Number 1? Me teaching?” Keigo sputtered. 

“Yes, Endeavor got kicked from the rankings and All Might retired after Kamino. You’re the Number 1 Pro Hero in the Rankings that get announced tomorrow,” Nedzu chortled. 

“My own son will be teaching my boyfriend and friends,” Izuku said, wiping away an imaginary tear. “Oh, they grow up so fast.”

Keigo turned an affronted look towards Izuku. “I could be teaching you as well sometimes, y’know.”

Izuku raised an eyebrow while jabbing a thumb at Aizawa. “The only time that happens is when this one is called away. And that’s usually my fault anyways.”

Aizawa scoffed. “It was your fault one time. And even then it wasn’t your fault, it was about a villain attack that we were all involved in.”

“Anyways, I take it that everyone is happy with this news?” Nedzu asked, clapping his hands to get everyone’s attention again. 

Izuku nodded. “Thank you so much for helping me with the case!” 

“Nonsense, all I did was push it through. Without your testimony and the files you pulled together, this case never would have happened,” Nedzu said with a softer smile aimed at the student. 

“I still don’t fully know what All Might did to you,” Keigo said. 

“Neither do I, which is pretty illogical,” Aizawa huffed. 

“He’s gone now, so there’s no reason to keep talking about it,” Izuku said with a shrug. “We should get back to the opening though. You still need to get your piece done, Sensei.”

“Crap,” Aizawa said, pushing through the door and rushing back to his husband and friend. 

Izuku chuckled as he watched his teacher scurry off. “Kei, you staying back here?”

Keigo nodded. “Yeah, gotta finish that paperwork before we close.”

“Alright, I’ll see you later then. Good luck!” Izuku said as he led Nedzu out of the back room. 

“I’ll be heading out, too,” Nedzu said as they walked into the main parlor again. “I just wanted to deliver the news to you.” 

“Thank you for stopping by,” Izuku said. “It’s always a joy to work with you.”

“As with you,” Nedzu said, smirking up at the teen. “I’ll see you for our next lesson.”

Izuku waved to the chimera as he left the building and returned to his friends that were still sitting on the couch. 

“Nedzu scared the shit out of us,” Himiko said, pulling him into a hug. 

“He had some good news to share is all,” Izuku comforted, hugging the girl back before settling into his seat next to Hitoshi. 

“Case went through?” Hitoshi asked, throwing an arm around his partner. 

“All Might is fired and will never teach in a classroom again,” Izuku smirked. 

“Fucking good,” Kacchan commented. “‘Bout time.”

Izuku chuckled. “Yeah.” He looked over to the tattooing bed and saw Aizawa laying face down with Touya poised above him, tattoo gun in hand. “Looks like our final customer is about to be done.”

“Half hour past schedule,” Atsuhiro said as he came up to the group and leaned against the wall next to them. 

Izuku shrugged. “Yeah, but Touya made good money today. Hopefully it’ll stay this busy.”

“With having so many Pro Heroes come through, I’m sure it will,” Shouto commented from the other side of Hitoshi. 

Izuku hummed in agreement. Not only had Nemuri, Mic, and Aizawa come to get tattoos, but many other Pros had as well. Some even just came along to support the new parlor, and promoted it on their social media accounts. Hitoshi offered the tablet back to him and he checked the accounts from the day as well as how much it had been promoted on socials. 

“Thanks for coming everyone! Hope to see you again!” Jin cheered from the front door. 

“Or don’t ‘cause that was fucking miserable,” Tenko muttered, startling Izuku who hadn’t noticed the man playing on his Switch in the corner. 

“Party time?” Himiko asked as soon as the last customer was out the door and the open sign was flipped to closed, eyes brightening. 

“Tattoo time,” Izuku smirked, which got a loud cheer from the girl. 

“We’re too young to get tattoos, idiot,” Kacchan huffed. 

Izuku raised an eyebrow at his friend. “First, it’s Touya. Second, four of the ‘too young’ group are emancipated, given that Himiko’s parents released custody months ago. And third, I got written consent from Auntie.”

“When the fuck?” Kacchan asked, gaping at him. 

Izuku chuckled. “Last week. She said she didn’t care what you did to your body.”

“I don’t know why anyone gets surprised by your antics anymore,” Tenko laughed. 

“What are we even getting?” Hitoshi asked. 

“Pantheon symbol with a twist,” Izuku said, pulling up the stencils on the tablet. “You all ready for us, Touya?” 

“Stencils are printed. Hop on the table, Bush. You’re first as you drew the designs,” Touya said, as he gathered the supplies he needed. 

Izuku laid on the table, placing his arm on the extension for easier access after handing the tablet to Hitoshi. Him and Shouto had stood from the couch and pulled chairs over to the tattooing table to watch Touya work. “All matching with a little variation,” Izuku explained. “Forearm if everyone’s okay with that.” 

“My dad is gonna be so pissed if he hears about this,” Shouto said. 

“Your dad doesn’t have control over you anymore,” Hitoshi said with a shrug. 

“Jin, can you go get Kei and tell him that if he’s not out in 5 minutes that I’m coming back there to get him myself?” Izuku asked. 

“Okie dokie!” Jin cheered, jumping up from his chair and running down the back hallway. 

“Are we having Momo and Denki get the tattoos, too?” Hitoshi asked. 

“If they’re comfortable with it,” Izuku said with a shrug. “Momo’s parents probably  won’t let her, but maybe Denki.” 

“Lay still,” Touya said as he grabbed the stencil. 

“Why don’t we have her come live with us, too,” Shouto asked. 

“Yeah!” Himiko cheered. “We need more girls in the house!”

“I’ll talk to her about it,” Izuku said, closing his eyes as Touya turned on the tattoo gun. “Maybe we can get Denki in, too.” 

“Only if his parents are okay with it,” Kacchan said. 

“Obvious- oh,” Izuku started before cutting himself off as the tattoo gun pierced his skin. 

“Hurt?” Touya asked, smirking. 

“Do you know how high my pain tolerance is?” Izuku asked, laughing. 

“Fair,” Touya said with a chuckle before refocusing on the outline. 

“He’s gotten stabbed without noticing before,” Hitoshi said with a sigh. 

“Okay, that was one time,” Izuku huffed. “You’re never gonna let me live that down.” 

“Maybe if you stop getting stabbed on patrol, I won’t have to keep remembering it,” Hitoshi countered. 

“That’s not really in my control,” Izuku said, rolling his eyes. 

“I go on patrol almost as much as you and have yet to be stabbed,” Hitoshi scoffed. 

“To be fair, Zucchan is very stabbable,” Himiko offered. 

“I got drinks and food!” Spinner called out, coming through the front door, Kurogiri locking it behind him. 

“Fuck yeah,” Kacchan said, getting up and grabbing a pizza box. 

“Alcohol?” Keigo asked, popping into the room with Jin behind him. 

“No alcohol, idiot. It thins the blood,” Touya sniped. 

“I highly doubt all of us are getting tattooed tonight,” Keigo pouted. 

“Nope,” Izuku said, knowing what Spinner had picked up from the store as he’d sent the grocery list. “Just the UA kids tonight.”

“And therefore…” Spinner said, reaching into the bag. “We got drinks!” He called out, waving around the bottle of alcohol which Kurogiri promptly swiped from him, as well as the whole grocery bag. 

Pounding on the door made a couple of the group jump in surprise, but Izuku just chuckled as Kurogiri went to open the door. 

“The party has arrived!” Mei shouted, dragging a cart with a speaker system behind her and holding a box of sweets in her other hand. 

“Did your moms give you consent?” Touya asked as he looked up from the design blossoming on Izuku’s forearm. 

“Hell yeah,” Mei said with a smirk. “They told me to get something badass and that they’d be by on their next day off so we can all get matching ones, too.”

“Can’t wait to see the design y’all do,” Izuku said, eyes glistening as his mind ran through all the variations that Mei and her moms could come up with. 

“It’ll probably just be a robot with how nerdy they all are,” Kacchan grumbled. 

“One of my moms isn’t even in support!” Mei countered. 

“I bet it’ll be something like a butterfly,” Hitoshi offered. “Seems like the vibe.”

“How in the hell do you get a butterfly vibe from those crazy women?” Touya laughed. “Either way, you and your moms are welcome at any time to come get them done, just let Izu or me know in advance obviously.”

“I’ll just schedule it in myself,” Mei said, looking affronted.

“Yeah, sounds about right,” Touya muttered, shaking his head as he refocused on Izuku’s tattoo. 

“Oh, hey,” Mei said as she stooped to set up the speakers. “Didn’t you guys have that debriefing for your mission?”
Izuku nodded. “Yeah, I’m surprised how many heroes there were.” 

“It’s a big mission, Zu,” Shouto said. “There’s always a lot of heroes for this type of raid.”

“Do you know when you leave?” Keigo asked, his wings rustling a bit. Izuku blamed it on the fact that Mei’s music started thumping through the sound system before she was able to adjust the volume. 

“All we know is that we’ll get a call literally any day now to tell us it’s go time,” Kacchan huffed. “I just know they’re gonna call when I’m asleep.” 

“What even is the mission?” Kurogiri asked. 

“Taking down that bastard Chisaki and his whole Yakuza,” Kacchan said with a smirk. 

“Really weren’t supposed to say that,” Hitoshi grumbled. 

“As if we weren’t eventually gonna tell them anyways,” Izuku said, waving his free hand dismissively as he leaned over to look at the progress of the tattoo. Izuku was a bit surprised to see that the whole outline was done already and Touya was starting on adding color and the finer details. 

“Wait, how’d you get the raid approved?” Atsuhiro asked. 

“Well…” Izuku started, pulling at one of his curls as he turned away from Touya’s work. “Remember how I said that I talked to Chisaki a couple days ago?”

“Yeah and you got banned from solo patrols for that move,” Touya chuckled. 

“Fuck off,” Izuku said, grimacing. “Anyways, he gave me an address and some of those quirk erasing bullets. When I took Eri to UA the other day, it was to get blood samples as well as do the check up. There was a DNA match with her blood being in the bullets.”

“What the actual fuck,” Spinner hissed. Almost everyone had frozen in shock at the statement, besides those who’d already known. 

“After we got the analysis on the bullets, we went to the Nighteye agency and gave him what we had: the analysis itself, the address and extra bullets, and the video and audio recording of Izuku’s interaction with him,” Hitoshi explained. “He called a debriefing pretty quickly after that.”

“When I was with Fat Gum, Kirishima, and Tamaki, we encountered the bullets as well as Trigger. Tamaki actually had his quirk temporarily erased,” Shouto offered. “That’s why I’m also on the raid mission.”  

“Are Work Studies always like this?” Himiko asked. 

“No, I’m blaming Izuku,” Kacchan said. 

“Wha- Why?” Izuku cried.

“You’re always finding trouble,” Hitoshi said with a raised eyebrow. 

“Which is how we got Eri!” Himiko cheered. 

“And how you were such a good vigilante,” Magne added. 

“And how you saved us from Sensei,” Tenko called out. 

“How you saved me from my dad and made me your boyfriend,” Shouto said, leaning further into Hitoshi. 

“Okay okay, I get it!” Izuku said, waving his hand  in front of him. “I have a knack for finding trouble which sometimes leads to good shit happening.” 

“I hope you realize how much you moved just then,” Touya mumbled. 

“Shit, sorry,” Izuku said, looking back at the man who had a squirt bottle in his hand. 

“Let me sanitize and wrap it before you go beating up the family,” Touya laughed. 

Izuku obediently gave his arm back and Touya sprayed some of the foamy liquid on it before rubbing it in and wrapping it in plastic with medical tape to hold it in place. 

“Okay next child, let’s go!” Touya called out. Hitoshi immediately hopped from his chair onto the bed, earning indignant grunts from the other two UA boys and Mei. Though, Mei actually came forward and swatted his knee. “You know, you don’t have to fight, you’re getting the tattoos tonight anyways, right?” Izuku chuckled at their antics, grateful for his family and the peace they had found together. 

Chapter Text

“Where the fuck is my mask?” Izuku groaned, stumbling around their shared bedroom as their partners and them tried to change into their hero costumes as quickly as possible. 

“It’s on the bed,” Hitoshi said. They were the first to be ready as they had the simplest costume and were experienced in having to change quickly from the nights of having to rush out and find Izuku. There really shouldn’t have been as many of those nights as there had been. 

“10 minutes before we have to leave,” Shouto added, slipping on his gauntlets. 

“Shit,” Izuku said, swiping their mask off the bed and slipping their headband on, making sure to tap the side to turn it on. “We have to say bye to Eri.”

“Crap,” Hitoshi said, grabbing their jacket off the bed. “Let’s go.”

The three partners did one last check of the bedroom and took one look at themselves in the mirror to make sure they had everything before they left the bedroom and headed down the hallway to Eri’s room. Izuku gave a couple knocks on the off-chance that she was awake before opening the door. Luckily, she was still asleep, curled around her snake plushie that Hitoshi had bought her last week. 

Izuku walked towards the bed and sat on the edge of it, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. “Hey, Er-Bear. I need you to wake up for a minute sweetie.”

There was quiet grumbling coming from the sleepy girl and slight shifting as she tried to bury her face in the snake. 

“Eri, we have to leave for the day, so we wanted to say bye and give you big hugs,” Hitoshi coaxed. 

“And then you’ll get to go back to sleep and when you wake up, you’ll get to have a fun spa day with all the girls,” Shouto added. 

“Will Mei Mei be there?” Eri asked, the words slightly slurring. 

Izuku chuckled. “Yeah, Mei will be here, and Auntie Mags and Momo; even Auntie Nemuri. It’s gonna be a big ole’ girls party where you paint nails, do makeup, watch movies, drink tea, eat chocolate…” 

“Either way, you’re going to get spoiled,” Hitoshi laughed, reaching forward to ruffle the girl’s hair. 

“Dad won’t be there?” Eri asked, blinking as she looked up at Izuku. 

Izuku frowned slightly before giving their daughter a soft smile and dragging her into their lap. “No, sorry love. But I’ll see you after the mission, okay? And I promise that you’ll have a lot of fun with the girls today.” 

“I’ll make sure to tell you all about it,” Eri said with an excited smile. 

Izuku hugged their daughter a little tighter to them. “I can’t wait. But, we really need to leave now. I just wanted to make sure we said bye since we didn’t see you last night because of Touya’s shop.”

“Can I get a tattoo too when I’m older?” Eri asked, hugging them back. 

Izuku chuckled. “When you’re older, you can get as many tattoos as you want.”

“Thank you Dad!” Eri cheered as they separated from the hug. 

“Can I get a hug too, Eri?” Hitoshi asked, opening their arms to the small girl. 

“Everyone gets hugs!” Eri said, giggling. She jumped off Izuku’s lap and rushed to give Hitoshi a hug, then Shouto. 

“Oi, we gotta go,” Kacchan said, coming to stand in the doorway. 

“Uncle Kacchan gets a hug too!” Eri shouted as she jumped at the explosive blonde. 

Izuku laughed as Kacchan stumbled back in surprise, but still caught the girl and hoisted her up onto his hip. Luckily, he wasn’t wearing his gauntlets yet. 

“Love you too Eri, but we gotta leave now, okay?” Kacchan said in a soft tone that seemed to be solely reserved for the small girl. 

“Okay,” Eri nodded as Kacchan set her back down. “Be safe and I’ll see you after your mission!” 

Izuku gave her another wide smile, ruffling her hair as they all walked past to the doorway. “See you after, Eri. I love you.”

“I love you too!” Eri said, leaning against her doorway and waving to them as they all filed down the hallway and towards the staircase. They all waved bye to her too and as soon as they rounded the corner, they heard her door shut. 

“Think she’ll be up for the rest of the day?” Shouto asked. 

“No, she’ll fall asleep in like 5 minutes,” Izuku laughed. 

“She can really sleep anywhere as long as she knows she’s with the Pantheon,” Hitoshi added. 

“I wish,” Izuku sighed. 

“Same,” Hitoshi agreed. 

“Damn insomniacs. Just sleep better,” Kacchan huffed. 

“Let’s head out before we’re actually late,” Izuku suggested, leading them down the stairs. They went out the front door without encountering anyone, though it was 5am, so they weren’t too surprised about that. They could only hope that everyone stayed asleep as they went to the garage and mounted their bikes, revving them to life before peeling out of their driveway and heading into the city. 

As they rode, Izuku called to the microbots they had scattered around, not caring whether they were snake in nature or not and had them gather in their bike’s bags, ready to be used at any given moment. 

It took maybe 15 minutes to make it to Nigtheye’s office and park their bikes in the lot before finally making their way into the building with 30 seconds to spare. 

Aizawa looked up from his watch as they entered through the back door, Kacchan leading the way as he’d been here the most. “You were almost late.”

“Sorry Sensei,” Izuku said with a bow. “We had to check in on Eri since she wasn’t with us last night.”

Aizawa gave a curt nod before spinning on his heel and waving for them to follow as he led them to a conference room on the ground floor. There were heroes and police officers, as well as the other hero students, filling the space already. 

“You four won’t need headsets, but we will need to make sure that you’re tuned in to the proper channel before we leave,” Aizawa said, bringing them over to a small radio. 

“Don’t you have the headset we made for you?” Izuku asked. They knew that they were on the proper channels, they’d worked on them themself. 

“Yes, and before you say it, I do trust your work. It’s just a precautionary measure that we have to take. Remember, we have protocols we must follow,” Aizawa said with a raised eyebrow. 

“Mess up one time and you’re banned for life,” Izuku grumbled, pulling their mask from where they’d stuffed it in their jacket and tying it onto their face. 

“Your ‘mess up’ was interacting with a S-tier villain,” Aizawa said, rolling his eyes. 

“And nothing bad came out of it,” Izuku said, rolling their eyes back as they pulled out their phone to connect their comm sets. They looked over to find their partners and Kacchan following suit with their own comm variations. They set their comms to the Hero Network line and were immediately able to hear all of the heroes around them counting in to test their sets. 

“The problem is that it could have ended badly,” Aizawa said. “Cue in.”

“Medusa here,” Izuku called into the earpiece. 

“Boreas,” Shouto said, the voice coming from right next to them as well as in their ear. 

“Dynamight,” Kacchan grumbled. 

“Echo,” Hitoshi finished. 

“Eraserhead in and out,” Aizawa said, finishing their group’s call. “Okay, everyone’s on the right channel. There’s a meeting in 10 minutes, so stay in the room, but you can do whatever until then.” 

The group separated from the Pro Hero, meandering about the room before finally finding Kirishima and Tamaki. 

“Hey Bakubro! Todobro!” Kirishima called out. “Oh! You’re with Midobro and Shinbro, too!” 

Izuku smiled and gave a small wave to the enthusiastic boy. “Hey Kiri.” They turned a smaller smile towards Tamaki who was essentially hiding behind the redhead, though they gave a nod in return. 

“You’re way too energetic for how early in the morning it is,” Hitoshi complained. 

“It’s our fault for having the party last night,” Shouto countered. 

“We didn’t know we’d get called in at 5am the next day,” Izuku pointed out. 

“Wait, y’all had a party?” Kirishima asked. “Bakubro, where was the invite?”

Kacchan scoffed. “Original Pantheon members only. And it was a night full of pain.”

“What?” Kirishima screeched, gathering attention from the nearest heroes and officers. 

Kacchan shushed the boy before he pulled up his sleeve. “We got matching tattoos,” he said, showing his wrapped forearm. “Touya’s shop opened up, so he did one on as many of us as he could. He’s doing more today too while we’re here.”

“Dude, that’s so cool!” Kirishima said, still excitedly even if it was in a much lower tone. 

Kacchan smirked. “We can get you all tatted up too once you become a longer standing member.”

“We’ve been dating for like a week,” Kirishima said with a slight blush.

“All partners are automatic members of the Pantheon,” Izuku said, grabbing onto both of their partners’ hands. “Toshi is a founding member, but Shouto is the second newest besides you, Denki, and Momo.”

“What about the other 1-A kids that came to the study group?” Kirishima asked. 

“They didn’t request to be a part of the Pantheon,” Shouto explained. “Plus, everyone has some connection already when they become members. Denki was the first in 1-A besides Katsuki to get really close to them and Momo and Izuku have some bond that none of us really understand.” 

“And I got initiated because I’m dating Kats?” Kirishima clarified. 

“Precisely,” Kacchan agreed. “Now come on. Let’s grab a seat. You too, Chimera.”

Tamaki startled from their spot behind the redhead and flinched back from the attention now on them. 

“You can sit next to me, Senpai,” Izuku offered. “Or Toshi, we’ll probably be the two calmest here.”

“I think it’d be best if you sit next to me for this meeting,” Hitoshi said. “There’s a chance Izuku will start going off on the heroes and officers once the meeting starts.”

Tamaki’s head had been flipping back and forth between them all, but they finally gave a small nod and shuffled behind Hitoshi instead of Kirishima and they all made their way to the conference table, quickly finding seating. 

“I already went off on them during the debriefing,” Izuku told Hitoshi once they sat down. “This meeting is just finalizing our plan before we head in.” 

“The raid isn’t going to happen until night anyways, there’s plenty of time for you to get in an argument,” Kacchan huffed. 

“Do not encourage him to get into an argument while we’re here,” Aizawa chimed in as he walked past. Kacchan gave him a two finger salute before Kirishima asked him something and he turned away from the group. 

“Shouto! Guys! There you are!” Uraraka called out, waving to them. She was walking with Tsuyu and Nejire. 

“Aki!” Nejire cried, bouncing over to sit next to her partner and immediately pulling him into a hug. 

Izuku laughed at the couple’s antics, wondering where their third partner was, and effectively ignoring Uraraka. “Where’s Mirio?”

“He’s talking to Nighteye,” Nejire responded, detaching herself from Tamaki. 

“It’s cool that we’re all on this mission, kero,” Tsuyu said, sitting next to Uraraka who’d sat one seat over from Nejire to give Mirio a seat. 

“Are you sure you’ll be okay to go on the mission, Midoriya?” Uraraka asked. 

“Here we go,” Hitoshi mumbled. 

“What do you mean?” Izuku asked in a fake sweet tone. 

“Just, y’know…” Uraraka started before lowering her tone to a whisper, “‘cause you’re quirkless.” 

“Do you not remember how he beat 19 students all on his own?” Shouto snapped as Izuku winced. 

“Well, yeah!” Uraraka said. “But that was in a controlled environment and we weren’t putting our all into that in case we hurt him!” 

“You weren’t,” Kacchan hissed. “Perhaps some of the others as well, but that doesn’t mean that everyone else wasn’t putting their all into it.”

“He’s also a vigilante and has been on more patrols than you can count,” Hitoshi added. 

“I beat everyone fair and square,” Izuku finally added. “I’ve been sparring against Aizawa, Shouto, and Kacchan for almost a year now. Not to mention the additional sparring I did with Hitoshi before we started at UA and how long I’ve been sparring with the League of Villains.”

“Izuku is strong within his own right and will do fine,” Keigo said, walking up to the group and taking a seat across from them. 

“Hawks,” Izuku said, nodding their head to the hero. “Since when are you on this mission?”

“Since he decided to come this morning,” Aizawa huffed, taking a seat next to the Number 1 Hero. 

Hitoshi turned to Kacchan. “This is why we weren’t supposed to say anything.” 

“Alright everyone!” Sir Nighteye called from the front, stopping Aizawa from questioning the group. Mirio sat in between Uraraka and Nejire and the other heroes and officers took seats around the table. “The raid is going to happen tonight at precisely 6pm. We will issue a search warrant and raid the house they are occupying. Between the debrief a couple days ago and now, I was able to make contact with one of the runners for the Yakuza and through that connection, I was able to locate the hidden passageways throughout the house. There are tunnels snaking throughout the whole bottom of the house that are occupied by various members, though it’s mainly for the Eight Precepts. Our goal tonight is to apprehend as many villains and criminals as possible. We will bring the Yakuza to justice and stop their manufacturing and distribution of Trigger and other drugs. Are there any questions?”

“Why are we bringing children along?” One of the officers asked. “This is bound to be a dangerous mission and some of them are just first years.”

“That’s no one’s concern besides their mentors,” Aizawa huffed. 

“While what Eraserhead said is true, I will remind everyone here that several of the first year students here were a primary source of evidence for this raid to happen,” Nighteye added. 

“Both my third year and two first years encountered Trigger and the quirk-erasing drug,” Fat Gum added. “They all have just as much of a right to be here as any of us do, and they all have the experience and power to do so.” 

“One of my first years made contact with Kai Chisaki, or Overhaul, and got us the address for their base as well as samples for the different types of bullets they made,” Aizawa said. “Besides that, there was no convincing either of my first years when it’s their daughter’s blood that made the quirk-erasing bullets.”

Izuku huffed at that. While it was true, he didn’t need to mention their connection to Eri. 

“I live with the little girl as well as four of the students here,” Hawks said. “I believe in each of their abilities to take action against those that hurt her in a manner that only Heroes can achieve.” 

“That’s all well and good, but they’re still only first years,” a hero chimed. “It’s unheard of for kids that young to come on a mission this big.”

“And back to my point about it being no one’s business,” Aizawa said with an eye roll. 

“The fact of the matter is that their mentors trust them to be able to handle this mission and so should you,” Nighteye snapped. “Enough about the hero students. Are there any relevant questions?” 

“I have a concern,” Uraraka said, raising her hand. 

“I swear to Kami,” Izuku muttered under their breath as Hitoshi reached over and squeezed their hand. 

Nighteye sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “What is your concern Uraraka?”

“I just wonder if it’s truly okay to have Midoriya with us on this mission. Not only is he well, underdeveloped, but he also has a familial connection to the case.”

“It’s fucking ‘they’ you bitch,” Izuku snapped. “Second off, like Aizawa said, it’s up to the mentors as to whether the students should go on the missions or not, and despite my quirk status, Aizawa doesn’t give two flying fucks. And third off, there are now 5 people on this mission that have familial connections to Eri and yet I’m the only one you’re concerned about this for. I’m the one who saved her from Chisaki. I’m the one that contacted Chisaki. I’m the one who got his address and the bullets from Chisaki. And guess what? Only a quirkless person would’ve been able to get the evidence off him without conflict!” Izuku slumped back into his chair and crossed his arms, finally calling his snakes to slither up into his hair, letting their movements and the way they twined around the strands ground him. 

“Uraraka, a word outside if you will?” Ryuku asked. 

Izuku’s head snapped up to the Pro Hero who had a burning fire of rage in her eyes. They looked around the table and saw most of the adults sending them pitying looks, but several of them were sending hate-filled glares towards Uraraka. 

“Alright,” Nighteye said as Uraraka and Ryuku left the room. “I will no longer be taking any questions given that they’ve all been a waste of time. If anyone has any serious questions regarding the mission please reach out to myself, my team, or Eraserhead. Meeting adjourned.”

With that, people started filing out of the room, talking in huddled groups as they went. Izuku couldn’t help but to wither down into their seat to try and hide from all the looks that were getting sent their way. They hated the pitying looks that adults sent them when they found out that they were quirkless. 

“Hey, ignore them,” Fat Gum said, clapping a hand on Izuku’s shoulder and startling them.  “They’re either worried about you or jealous that you have more potential than they could wish for when you’re still so young.”

Izuku turned a thankful smile up to the hero. “Thank you Fat Gum. I just wish they wouldn’t send me pitying looks like I have some disease.” 

Fat Gum shrugged. “Some people see not having a quirk as a curse, some people see quirks as a curse. I think that we are all just living with what was given to us and we’re going to do what we can to make the most of our own lives. Keep up the good work, kid.” Fat Gum ruffled his hair before stepping away to talk to some other Pro Heroes. 

“Alright, since you’re all UA students, I was tasked with giving you the rundown of everything, so I expect each and every one of you to listen to me and do as I tell, understand?” Aizawa asked, pulling the group’s attention. 

“I’m not one of your students,” Hawks chimed in. 

“Listen to your elders,” Izuku said with a deadpan face before turning to Aizawa. “Sorry, he’s going through a rebellious phase, I swear I raised him better than this.” 

Hitoshi and Shouto couldn’t hold in their laughter at that as Aizawa sighed and rolled his eyes. 

“Anyways,” Aizawa said, cutting the laughter off. “You all can do whatever you want before the raid and we’ll call you back an hour before. So, don’t go too far, but I do suggest getting lunch and maybe dinner beforehand.”

“Thanks, Sensei,” Izuku said as Aizawa stood from the table before walking out the door. 

Medusa stood in front of the gates, tapping their sides as the snakes in their hair wriggled in the slight breeze. Echo stood on one side of them with Eraserhead on the other as they waited behind Sir Nighteye, Lemillion, and Dynamight. The other heroes, officers, and students were placed in positions around them as an officer walked up to the gate and pressed on the buzzer, speaking through the microphone. 

“Police! We have come with a search warrant, open up!” 

The doors burst open and several low-grade Yakuza members came bursting out, fists swinging and quirks activated. Lemillion and Dynamight burst forward to take them down as another, much larger Yakuza member came running out of the compound towards them. Ryuku activated her quirk and grew triple her size as she transformed into her dragon form and started attacking the man, Nejire-Chan, Uravity, and Froppy aiding as much as they could.

“Go forward! We’ve got the ones out here!” Ryuku called out in a distorted voice. 

Hawks’ feathers flew around the compound pinning down as many Yakuza members as he could as the officers rushed forward to cuff them and started dragging them away. 

They all rushed into the compound, Hawks following behind as his feathers retreated from the cuffed villains to fill his wings once more. Each hallway was filled with Yakuza members and no one was able to avoid fighting. Medusa sent out their microbots in the same fashion that Hawks kept sending out feathers, which aided their quick travel deeper into the compound. 

“Here!” Sir Nighteye called out as he stopped in front of an alcove with a flower pot. He knocked the flower pot aside and quickly got the secret entrance open. “Move forward!” 

They were down to about half the amount of officers now as they rushed down the stairwell, luckily not having to fight anyone. 

“Shit!” Dynamight cursed as soon as they reached the bottom. Medusa rushed down to his side and found the floor was warping and moving, walls dropping down to separate the raid team. 

“Stick with your mentors!” Eraserhead called out, using his capture scarf to pull Medusa back towards him just as the floor opened up and swallowed their small group whole. 

Chapter Text

Medusa landed on the floor with an oomph and quickly took stock of those around them. Echo, Eraserhead, Boreas, Suneater, Fat Gum, Red Riot, and Hawks had all landed around him, only a couple of them able to stay on their feet. 

“What now?” Echo asked. 

“We keep moving,” Fat Gum insisted. “We need to find the Eight Precepts. Keep an ear out for anything in the hallway or over the comms.”

Eraserhead nodded in agreement and they were on the move again. Yakuza members were still spread out around in this area and they fought their way through until they hit a dead end. 

“This must be Mimic’s doing,” Medusa huffed. “He must have used Trigger to enhance his quirk. It’s the only registered quirk that has any capability of doing this.”

“Which is probably why he separated me and Sir Nighteye,” Eraserhead huffed. “Even with Trigger, I can still erase his quirk with mine.”

“Either way, we need to get through this wall,” Hawks said, wings fluttering in agitation. 

“I got it!” Red Riot called out, running forward and activating his quirk just before punching through the wall. Izuku gave an appreciative hum at the boy’s strength as they all climbed through the new hole and made their way down the next hallway. 

“All heroes in the surrounding area have been requested to backup,” a voice said over the comms. “I repeat, all heroes in Musutafu are requested to backup.”

“Shit, think Midnight is coming?” Echo asked, turning to Medusa. 

“Unfortunately, despite the girls' day you all had planned, she has to come,” Eraserhead answered. “Now, where the hell are we?”

“I think we’re still on track,” Medusa commented, pulling up the map on their phone. 

“You idiots think you could go on a raid without me?” Mei demanded through their comm sets. “Nemuri just booked it out of our girls’ day!” 

Medusa winced. “Sorry, Hatsume. We didn’t think that your day would be ruined. Think you can confirm whether we’re going in the right direction?”

“Just make me the guy in the chair and call it a day,” Mei huffed as the sounds of her keyboard echoed through the comms. “Bye Momo!” She called out, making Medusa and Echo sigh in tandem. “Oh, sorry. Kurogiri is taking the girls to Mei's house. Go right at the next intersection.”

“Thanks babe!” Medusa called out. “You heard her, let’s go!” 

“We’re following the orders of children,” Eraserhead sighed as they continued on, following Mei’s directions. 

Just after turning right at the next intersection, they found themselves in a room facing off against three villains. Eraserhead immediately activated his quirk as did Suneater, who engaged in a fight with the three. 

“I got these guys, go!” Suneater called out. 

“Let’s go,” Fat Gum confirmed. “He can deal with them.” 

The group hesitated for a moment before resolving to leave the hero student behind and charged forward once more. Not 20 feet into the next hallway and a new wall started dropping down. 

“Eraserhead!” Fat Gum called out, noticing that it was trying to isolate the man. He rushed forward and knocked Eraserhead out of the way, and Medusa barely had time to register that it was just them, Echo, Shouto, Eraserhead, and Hawks now. Red Riot must have gone through the wall with Fat Gum. 

“I don’t like how split up we’re getting,” Medusa muttered. 

“They think it’ll help them in the long run,” Hawks said. “Let’s prove them wrong.”

Medusa nodded and they set out once again. Mei whispered in their ears about which direction to go or detours that they had to take given that they’d lost their man to break down walls. 

“You’ve almost reached Dynamight,” Mei chimed. “I’m assuming there’s a lot of villains with the way his tracker is moving around, so be careful.”

All of a sudden, Medusa’s vision swam and they stumbled and gripped onto the wall next to them. The group around them seemed to be having the same problem. 

“Sakaki’s here!” Eraserhead called out. 

“How did you find us?” A voice called out. 

“Chisaki gave me the address,” Medusa responded before slapping a hand over their mouth. 

“Sakaki and Nemoto, quirks Sloshed and Confession,” Mei whispered. 

Eraserhead looked up and removed Sakaki’s quirk as Nemoto kept throwing questions at Medusa, getting frustrated with their answers. 

“Why did he give you the address?” 

“Because I’m quirkless.” 

“Why are you with the heroes instead of the Yakuza?”

“Because you guys tortured my daughter.”

“Do you know where Eri is?”

“Yes.”

“Where is she?”

“Home.”

“Where is your home?”

“Wherever the Pantheon is.”

“Who is the Pantheon?”

“My family.” 

Hawks’ feathers finally stopped their back and forth and he rushed forward to attack the angered Yakuza member. Medusa looked over and found Echo holding them up, with Boreas standing in front of them, hands raised and covered in ice and fire respectively. Eraserhead was actively fighting Sakaki further down the hallway. 

“Go find Sir Nighteye! We’ll detain these two!” Eraserhead called out to them. 

Medusa nodded and got their feet back under them before leading their partners deeper into the compound once more. 

The three hero students paused on the final doorstep as they watched the fight before them. Dynamight and Lemillion were fighting together against Overhaul and Chronostasis. Sir Nighteye was bleeding out as he’d been stabbed through with one of the many spikes jutting from the floor. 

Medusa and Echo ran towards Sir Nighteye as Boreas rushed in with Dynamight and Lemillion to trade blows with Overhaul and Chronostasis. 

“Help the boys,” Sir Nighteye groaned when they approached the hero. 

“We’ll help you then help them,” Medusa growled. They went on one side of the hero as Echo took the other and they carefully lifted the hero off the spike he was impaled with. Medusa had their microbots grab the medical supplies as they were lifting the hero. So, as they sat him up against the spike, the bots were already pressing material against the wound and they brought the medical kit to Echo who had more field training. 

“What’s happening?” Mei asked over the comms. 

“Sir Nighteye down. Boreas, Dynamight, and Lemillion engaging with Overhaul and Chronostasis,” Medusa responded in a clipped tone, worried for their friends. 

“Shit,” Mei hissed. “I’m trying to see if anyone else can get their asses over there.”

“I’ll take care of him, go help the others,” Echo said. “Medusa heading in to assist the others, I’m staying with Nighteye,” they said into the comms. 

Medusa nodded, leaving the bots there to help as much as they could. They turned towards the fight just to see Overhaul swipe Dynamight and Boreas through the air, both flying into a wall. “No!” They screamed as they ran forward, sending microbots to try and pierce the villain. 

“You’re the quirkless kid,” Overhaul said, immediately recognizing them while grabbing the microbots and deconstructing them with his quirk. “Join me.”

“You’re injuring my friends,” Medusa growled, sweeping a kick at the man and hitting him in the stomach. “No way in hell I’m joining you.”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Overhaul said, blocking the next punch Medusa threw with his forearm. 

“Well, I definitely want to hurt you,” Medusa countered. 

“Boss,” Chronostasis warned.

Overhaul turned just in time to block Lemillion’s own punch, throwing the hero in training into a wall as well. “This is getting tiring,” Overhaul said with a sigh. Before Medusa could stop him, he crouched down and laid his bare hands on the floor, sending more spikes and pillars throughout the room. 

Medusa turned to watch, not being able to do anything as pillars struck his partners and the other students. 

Lemillion got his leg pierced with a concrete spike, making him scream in pain, immobilized as he couldn’t phase through the spike without the potential for bleeding out.  

Echo got punched in the stomach, throwing him away from Nighteye and into a wall where he collapsed to the floor, unresponsive. 

Nighteye’s wounds were just barely patched up and a few pillars rose around him to keep him down, not that he’d be of much help in his state. 

Boreas and Dynamight got punched with more pillars as they were finally responding from the last attack, several more growing around them to cage them against the wall they’d previously collapsed against. 

“It’s just us,” Overhaul said with a vicious smirk. “No heroes to help you. Will you still refuse my offer?” He asked, putting a glove on and holding his hand out to Medusa. 

Medusa slowly turned towards the man. “You have hurt my family too many times, Chisaki,” they said coldly, straightening their stance. 

Overhaul waved him off. “They’re still alive, is that not enough for you?”

Medusa let out a growl and raced forwards. “You act as if I’m weak, just like all the others.” They threw another punch at the man and sent their microbots fighting with them. Two of the microbots pierced through the gloved hand’s palm and Overhaul was so distracted with the pain that he wasn’t able to block the punch aimed at his face. Overhaul’s head snapped to the side and he had to spit out blood when he regained his composure.  

“Medusa!” Mei screamed in their ear. “What the hell is happening? The other’s vitals are dropping!” 

“Immobilized, it’s just me,” Medusa hissed back, not taking their eyes off the villain in front of them. 

“I think I’m getting quite tired of you,” Overhaul growled. 

“About fucking time,” Medusa spat back. 

“Chronostasis,” Overhaul ordered. “Shoot him first,” he continued, pointing towards Echo’s collapsed form. 

Medusa’s head snapped towards the other villain as he aimed his gun. They were already running as the villain lined up their sights and they jumped in front of Echo just in time for the bullet to pierce his shoulder. 

“Medusa! Your vitals!” Mei yelled. “Tell me what’s happening you bastard!” 

“Stay out of it Mei,” Medusa hissed, grabbing their shoulder. 

“Sorry, boss,” Chronostasis muttered. 

“No worries,” Overhaul waved off. “Next one.”

“Stop trying to kill my friends!” Medusa shouted, this time running straight at Chronostasis as he aimed the gun at Dynamight and Boreas, Overhaul using his quirk to pull the pillars back to give him a clear shot. Chronostasis fired again, but again, Medusa was there, taking the quirk-erasing bullet to their other shoulder. 

They rushed forward despite the pain lacing through them, the adrenaline blocking their pain receptors, and twisted Chronostasis’ wrist making him drop the gun into their awaiting hand before using it to knock the man out with a slam of the gun into his head. 

“You need to retreat!” Mei yelled. “You’re too injured no matter what the adrenaline is telling you! You’re going to die!” 

“I said stay out of it!” Medusa screamed into their comm. “And you!” Medusa said, turning towards Overhaul. “Stay the fuck away from my family!” 

“You bastard!” Overhaul screamed, rushing towards them. “I’ll show you what comes of quirkless people in a cursed society!” 

“As if I don’t know!” Medusa yelled, commanding their bots to start dragging the others away as much as possible. 

The roof shattered and Medusa got a glimpse of Ryuku’s form fighting Rikiya before Overhaul was racing towards them. Medusa dodged out of the way, but Overhaul latched onto Chronostasis instead and started melding their bodies together. 

“Dammit,” Medusa hissed. They knew that they wouldn’t be able to fight the merged villain on their own in their injured state, but they had to get the others out of here. 

They glanced over to their friends and partners who were all together with the help of the microbots, wondering if there was a way to evacuate them from the destroyed room when they noticed a purple portal forming, the Pantheon stepping out in rage-fueled glory. Medusa let a relief-filled smile grace their face as their family joined the battlefield. Several copies of Compress raced towards his fallen heroes in training and trapped them in marbles before racing back out of the portal and hopefully to safety. Medusa waved to them as Touya and Tenko rushed forward. 

“Dad!” Eri screamed, making them turn towards the girl. 

“No,” they whispered, horrified. Why would they bring her? “You aren’t supposed to be here, it’s dangerous!” Medusa screamed out. 

“Behind you!” She screamed out, pointing. 

Medusa turned back to see the merged villains bearing down on them. “Shit,” they hissed, knowing they wouldn’t be able to dodge in time. Medusa was just thankful that they got to see their family one last time before blackness consumed their vision as the merged villains threw him into a wall. 

Chapter Text

Echo cursed as they dropped into a crouch to prevent any injuries from the sudden drop. Boreas didn’t have as much luck as he laid in a crumpled pile next to Echo. They went over and helped their partner stand and noticed others doing the same thing.  

“What in the absolute fuck?” Dynamight hissed. 

“What now?” Echo asked, looking around to take stock of those around them. Eraserhead’s full team was with them as well as Fat Gum’s and Hawks. None of the officers had fallen through. 

“We keep moving,” Fat Gum insisted. “We need to find the Eight Precepts. Keep an ear out for anything in the hallway or over the comms.”

Eraserhead nodded in agreement and they were on the move again. Yakuza members were still spread out around in this area and they fought their way through until they hit a dead end. 

“This must be Mimic’s doing,” Medusa huffed. “He must have used Trigger to enhance his quirk. It’s the only registered quirk that has any capability of doing this.”

“Which is probably why he separated me and Sir Nighteye,” Eraserhead huffed. “Even with Trigger, I can still erase their quirk with mine.”

“Either way, we need to get through this wall,” Hawks said, wings fluttering in agitation. 

“I got it!” Red Riot called out, running forward and activating his quirk just before punching through the wall. The team rushed through the makeshift door and found a long empty hallway. 

“I think we’re still on track,” Medusa commented, pulling up the map on their phone. 

“You idiots think you could go on a raid without me?” Mei demanded through their comm sets. 

Echo winced. No way in hell were they about to put themself in front of the explosive girl when she was mad. 

“Sorry, Mei,” Medusa said, grimacing. “Think you can confirm whether we’re going in the right direction?”

“Just make me the guy in the chair and call it a day,” Mei huffed as sounds of her keyboard echoed through the comms. Echo chuckled at the girl’s sass. “Go right at the next intersection.”

“Thanks babe!” Medusa called out. “You heard her, let’s go!” 

“We’re following the orders of children,” Eraserhead sighed as they continued on, following Mei’s directions. 

Just after turning right at the next intersection, they found themselves in a room facing off against three villains. Eraserhead immediately activated his quirk as they assessed the villains in front of them. One had seemed to be growing crystals from his body, one had a knapsack over his head, and the last had the traditional bird’s beak mask. Suneater jumped in front of their group and activated his quirk, growing clams from his hands and knocking them out as they reeled from their loss of quirk. 

“I got these guys, go!” Suneater called out, deactivating his quirk to tie them up. 

“Let’s go,” Fat Gum confirmed. “He can deal with them.” 

Eraserhead’s team charged through the door, but the others hesitated before joining as well. Not 20 feet into the next hallway and a new wall started dropping down. 

“Eraserhead!” Fat Gum called out, noticing that it was trying to isolate the man. He dashed forward and knocked Eraserhead out of the way. Echo got a glimpse of red joining the hero before the wall slammed down. 

“I don’t like how split up we’re getting,” Medusa muttered. 

“They think it’ll help them in the long run,” Hawks said. “Let’s prove them wrong.”

Medusa nodded and they set out once again. Mei whispered in their ears about which direction to go or detours that they had to take given that they’d lost their man to break down walls. 

“You’ve almost reached Dynamight,” Mei chimed. “I’m assuming there’s a lot of villains with the way his tracker is moving around, so be careful.”

All of a sudden, Echo’s vision swam and they crouched down to stabilize their footing. The group around them seemed to be having the same problem as Boreas fell and Medusa gripped onto the wall. 

“Sakaki’s here!” Eraserhead called out. 

“How did you find us?” A voice called out. 

“Chisaki gave me the address,” Medusa responded before slapping a hand over their mouth. 

“Sakaki and Nemoto, quirks Sloshed and Confession,” Mei whispered. Echo cursed. This place was just swimming with inconveniences. 

Eraserhead looked up and removed Sakaki’s quirk as Nemoto threw more questions at Medusa.

“Why did he give you the address?” 

“Because I’m quirkless.” Echo had to jump forward to grip onto their partner as a trickle of blood leaked down their nose and they stumbled again. Medusa was probably trying to fight the quirk, and it showed in their roundabout answers. 

“Why are you with the heroes instead of the Yakuza?”

“Because you guys tortured my daughter.”
“Do you know where Eri is?”

“Medusa,” Echo hissed, squeezing their partner’s shoulders. “Don’t answer that.”

“Yes,” Medusa answered through gritted teeth. 

“Where is she?”

“Medusa, I swear to fucking Kami,” Echo cursed, trying to cover their partner’s ears with their hands which proved to be difficult as they were also holding their partner in a standing position. 

“Home.”

“Just leave them alone!” Boreas shouted, coming to stand in front of the pair and raising his hands, covered in fire and ice respectively. 

“Where is your home?” Nemoto asked, ignoring Echo’s other partner. 

“Wherever the Pantheon is.”

“Who is the Pantheon?”

“My family.” 

Hawks’ feathers finally stopped their back and forth and he rushed forward to attack the angered Yakuza member. Medusa looked up and smiled at Echo, raising an eyebrow at how Boreas was positioned threateningly in front of them. Eraserhead was actively fighting Sakaki further down the hallway. 

“Go find Sir Nighteye! We’ll detain these two!” Eraserhead called out to them. 

Echo didn’t want to separate from the two Pro Heroes, but they knew that they had to reach the others as soon as possible. They patted their inside jacket pocket and felt the box still there, thankfully. They just hoped that they and their partners made it out of this raid, so they could finally propose. The rings had been picked out before the party yesterday with Shouto and Katsuki’s help. Everything was set up to be perfect… until they got called onto the raid. 

“Echo, let’s go,” Boreas called. 

Echo looked towards their partners who were already down the hallway and followed after them. The others needed their help; they couldn’t afford to hesitate. 

Yet, hesitate is exactly what all three of them did as they entered the final room. Inside the final room, Dynamight and Lemillion were facing off against Chisaki and Chronostasis alone. Sir Nighteye was speared through with a spike growing from the ground, likely from Chisaki’s quirk, and with the amount of blood, it seemed to be a more recent injury.

“Dynamight can’t keep going like this,” Medusa muttered, drawing their attention to their friend. 

“He’s moving slow,” Boreas remarked. 

“Go help them,” Echo said. “Dynamight has obviously overused his quirk by now and Sir Nighteye needs immediate medical attention.” 

Medusa nodded. “Thank Kami for your classes with Recovery Girl.”

“Hey,” Echo said, stopping their partners before they could dash away by grabbing each of their wrists. “We’re not gonna let this end like Kamino, right?”

Medusa flinched. “Toshi…”

“We’re all going home to Eri tonight,” Boreas said. 

“And we’ll watch My Neighbor Totoro,” Echo continued with a soft smile. 

Medusa shook their head. “Okay, I promise this won’t end like Kamino, but in order for that to happen, we have to go now.”

Echo nodded and pulled them both into a hug. “Go give him hell for what he did to Eri.” 

Medusa smirked. “You know it,” they said before running off. 

Boreas stayed and watched as their partner made their way just out of hearing distance before turning back to Echo. “We’ll make it out and we’ll give them those rings together,” he said with a soft smile. “We’ll have a proper proposal and everything will be fine. We deserve the happiness we give each other.”

Echo smiled as they dropped their head onto Boreas’ shoulder. “If we make it out of this, I’m buying you a year’s worth of cold soba.” 

Boreas chuckled. “I’m holding you to that!” 

Echo laughed as well as they pushed their partner towards the battle. “Keep him safe.”

Boreas mock bowed to Echo before running off to join Medusa, Dynamight, and Lemillion. Echo stayed to watch just long enough to see Boreas make a shield of ice that kept Dynamight from getting stabbed before they turned and ran towards Sir Nighteye. 

They slid to their knees next to the fallen hero and started pulling out their medical supplies from the various pockets in their hero costume. “Mei, please tell me there’s medics on standby,” Echo cursed into their comms as they carefully lifted the hero off of the spike. 

“They’re waiting just above you,” Mei answered. “I’m trying to get people in there to help you, but they’re being idiots.” 

“We’re a little busy!” Nejire-Chan called into the comms. 

“Oh, shit,” Mei giggled. “Forgot this was the Hero Network line.”

Echo sighed at their friend’s antics. “Listen, we have Sir Nighteye here in critical condition. I’m doing the best I can, but that amounts to nothing in regards to his internal damage.” As Echo relayed the information, they did their best to clean out the wounds and cover them in gauze the best that they could. It was too dangerous to stitch the man up given that there was definitely internal damage as well. 

A gunshot rang out and Echo’s head shot towards the group fighting Chisaki, his heart stuttering in his chest at the sight. 

“Medusa!” Mei screamed. “What the hell just happened!”

Medusa had been shot by Chronostasis. 

Aizawa ran down the hallway with Hawks right behind him. It had taken far too long to detain the two Yakuza members while their kids went ahead to find Chisaki. Aizawa cursed himself for ordering them to go on ahead. With Midoriya there, it was a recipe for disaster. 

Upon entering the last room of the hideout, both heroes couldn’t help but hesitate on the doorway to take everything in. Midoriya had just been shot by Chronostasis in the right shoulder. Yet, he was standing firm in front of Dynamight, who was kneeling on the ground, panting. Boreas stood in front of both of them and was shooting fire at the villain while his right side was slowly building a shield of ice behind him to protect the other two. Lemillion had just landed a punch to Chisaki’s stomach and was gone again before they knew it. Echo was the only one completely separated from the group as he kneeled on the ground next to Sir Nighteye. 

“Hawks, get the children,” Aizawa commanded, rushing towards Shinsou. 

Hawks hurried to the kids fighting Chisaki, sending feathers to pull them back away from the fight and dropping down in front of them. 

As soon as Aizawa saw that the kids were safe, he ran towards Shinsou and Nighteye, who were on the other side of the warehouse from him. He kept an eye on the battle to the side of him as he went. Lemillion and Hawks were putting their all into the fight as Todoroki performed basic field aid to Midoriya’s gunshot wound. Hawks managed to knock Chisaki down and Aizawa refocused on Shinsou and Nighteye as he raced the last yard to them. 

“No! Toshi!” Midoriya screamed, diverting Aizawa’s attention and seemingly Hawks who sent feathers their way. 

Aizawa was pulled away just as he was about to reach the two and left him to watch as one of Chisaki’s spikes pierced through his student. He gaped at the scene before him as he let himself lay where he’d been dragged away. This isn’t how the raid was supposed to go. They were just first years. Midoriya and Todoroki and Bakugou shouldn’t have to feel the pain that he had when he was in his first year. They didn’t deserve to lose someone they held so close in their hearts so young. Shinsou didn’t deserve to be another Oboro. 

Aizawa snapped out of his shock and rushed to his student’s side, barely registering the screams echoing around the room from Midoriya and Todoroki as he saw them launch themselves at Chisaki in his peripheral vision. Aizawa slammed onto his knees next to Shinsou and pulled their head into his lap, running his hands through their hair and across their neck, trying to find their pulse point. He panicked as he couldn’t find anything and dragged their wrist up, trying to find their pulse there, but again nothing. 

In his arms, the child was dead.

Chapter Text

I am finally back here with an update that the first chapter of part 3 is up!!! Go ahead and click "next work" if you're interested!