Archive of Our Own ^beta

Izuku was minding his own business. He was minding his own business in a place he had no business being in the first place, but he was minding his own business.

He was working through some things, mentally. He was quirkless and had been promptly abandoned for it when he got diagnosed. It was fine, he was probably better off on the streets than he would’ve been under Hisashi’s roof, but if there was one thing he could’ve done without it was the lasting distrust of any and all adults. A few had seen the small child on the streets and tried to either help but turn their backs when they finally figured out his diagnosis or ‘help’ but try to do… non-helpful things.

It was fine, Izuku figured out the shitty side of the world probably a little too early, but whatever. They never actually hurt him, they didn’t have the chance to before he had his own kind of fun with them. (He didn’t do anything they didn’t deserve.)

But then there was the underground pro who wouldn’t get off Izuku’s back. It’d been weird or confusing at first, because he wasn’t trying to hurt or apprehend Izuku despite the fact Izuku was technically breaking the law (or technically he wasn’t, since vigilante laws revolved around using quirks, yay legal loopholes), he was just trying to stop Izuku from joining fights. Or trying to feed Izuku, like he was some sort of cat.

(Izuku saw how Eraserhead treated the street cats he came across, and he resented the implication. Even if it was accurate.)

He was the only one to figure out Izuku was as young as he was, and his reaction to that was to try to earn Izuku’s trust. He (claimed he) wanted to help, and he didn’t stop even when Izuku rebuffed him at every turn. For literal years.

Until Izuku got in over his head in yet another place he had no business being and the pro almost got himself killed trying to protect Izuku. Izuku somehow managed to get him to a hospital in time (where Izuku could only imagine the man still was), but along the way Eraserhead gave Izuku’s vigilante persona his civilian identity. Eraserhead was Aizawa Shouta, and he was married to Yamada Hizashi (who was fucking Present Mic of all people), and he insisted Izuku had a place at their house no matter what happened to him. Yamada was just as willing to adopt the teen, even if Aizawa died.

There was no reason to go that far if the man wasn’t serious about it.

To give not only his identity but his partners, in public where anyone could overhear… that meant he had to be genuine. Izuku hadn’t responded in the moment, he was too busy trying to keep the stupid man alive, but when he got back home after leaving Eraserhead in front of the hospital all of it hit him full force. That’s when Izuku panicked.

What else was he supposed to do? The idea of trusting adults, any adults, was terrifying, but Aizawa seemed pretty damn sure Yamada and even fucking Nedzu were all willing to protect him. And… Izuku kind of wanted to go. He didn’t want to be alone anymore, not really, but he also didn’t know how to accept that people cared about him.

So he ran. He’d spent a long time working on his technological skills and while he wasn’t on, say, Nedzu’s level, Izuku was more than skilled enough to acquire himself the first possible plane ticket out of Japan. He panicked so hard in fact that he made it all the way to America, now he was walking along the sidewalk in New York trying to figure out what to do.

One of the things about Izuku that ensured his survival is that he had a photographic memory. It was a bitch and a half to deal with at times, but once he saw something he practically had it forever. He also had a lot of free time to do deep dive style research and he kept a running mental log of exit plans, including places he could run to if he really ran afoul of the wrong side of the law and the politicians/powerful people in those places that were a threat to the local quirkless population.

Imagine his surprise when he saw one of the local ones to New York walking down the sidewalk towards him, fully dressed in a suit and carrying a briefcase like he was on the way to a morning meeting.

He wasn’t one of the politicians (technically). He was a healthcare CEO, but his bigotry was so intense and so vile that he made Izuku’s To Be Aware of list regardless. (He was someone nearly every quirkless person knew about; his name made the rounds regularly on the underground quirkless forums because he was one of the brilliant minds behind the ‘just let or ‘let’ the quirkless die on the table’ mindset a terrifying amount of doctors were okay with.)

For a split second, Izuku entertained the idea of a little cathartic payback for how many people they’d lost because of him. It’d be so very, very easy, but he didn’t kill and a part of him didn’t want to disappoint Aizawa. Not now. Not when that same part of him was already thinking about catching another flight back home and showing up on Aizawa and Yamada’s doorway.

Izuku didn’t do anything, but he was still watching the CEO’s face. He saw when the man clocked Izuku’s atrociously red Q shoes and the way the CEO’s lip immediately curled in disgust.

Then he saw when the man jerked and half turned to face behind him, still moving jerkily as another man in a hoodie fired bullet after bullet into him. A woman screamed, racing her way into the safety of the hotel to Izuku’s left as the killer met Izuku’s eyes and nodded, flashing a quick hand sign Izuku recognized as a way the American quirkless community used to subtly connect with each other. Then the man took off, running in the opposite direction as fast as he could.

Holy fucking shit, that just actually happened.

Izuku stared down at the broken, bloody body of the CEO for a few moments, tired brain still processing all of that, before he realized there was construction leading into a road block the way the vigilante ran, plus an accident that still had a heavy police presence.

God fucking damn it.

Izuku took off after the guy, just hoping he didn’t have enough of a head start that Izuku couldn’t catch up. Thankfully, he wasn’t.

“This way.” Izuku grunted in accented English, grabbing the dude’s arm and pulling him sharply to the left down a side street. Call him paranoid, call him overcautious, but he committed the street maps of anywhere he went or even might to go memory just in case of emergencies. He was able to call on that knowledge now to get them both the fuck out of dodge.

Izuku was just glad the vigilante seemed willing to listen to him, especially because he pulled off a wig and changed clothes while running with a clearly practiced ease. The guy- who Izuku could see wasn’t actually a guy now that she’d ditched the hoodie- had put more than a little thought into this.

“Okay, lets stop here.” Izuku panted, slowing to a stop about a block from his shitty motel room. He’d booked there on purpose, it was cheap and in a neighborhood where people weren’t going to pay him any mind. That only worked for him better now that he had surprise company.

“What was that for?” The girl, surprisingly not much older than he was, asked as she tried to fix the ponytail her curly brown hair was falling out of. She also had brown eyes and even more freckles than Izuku had. “I could’ve killed you too.” Izuku shot her an unimpressed look at that, paired with the same subtle sign she’d given him earlier.

“No, you wouldn’t have.” He told her. “Suffice to say, we’re not necessarily that different, and you were about to run directly into… unfriendly company due to an accident that just happened.”

“...I didn’t know about the accident.” The woman muttered, face paling ever so slightly.”

“I figured.” Izuku muttered back, straightening his clothes as best he could. “My hotel is right there, we shouldn’t be having this conversation on the street.

“...I could just keep running.” The woman pointed out.

“You could.” Izuku pointed out. “But now that you’re… off schedule, do you know how to adjust?” She’d planned well and even practiced, but she wasn’t a ‘professional’ vigilante, Izuku could tell. She followed him too easily, she was too uncertain. At this point, he wasn’t sure if she could get out of the city without help, but even if she could somewhere safe to hole up and plan her next steps would definitely be helpful. “Just come with me, get some breakfast, we’ll look into some… local attractions, and plan our day.” He lowered his voice. “I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.”

“Okay, fine.” The young woman finally gave in. “But if you try anything funny, I’ll stab you.”

“If I tried anything funny, I’d give you the knife.” Izuku told her.

“You can call me Akatani.” Izuku gave her a fake name (he wasn’t a total idiot) once he finally closed the motel door behind him.

“Kate.” Definitely not Kate introduced herself. Izuku nodded, then pointed out the bathroom and the convenience store snack haul he’d acquired for himself on the way to the hotel. “Breakfast of champions.” Kate murmured, but she picked out a sealed bottle of water and a halfway decent banana. “How’d you know how to get back here?”

“I memorize city plans whenever I go somewhere new.” Izuku shrugged. “Photographic memory.”

“Huh.” Kate blinked at him, processing that. “Not from around here either, then?”

“That’s one way to put it.” Izuku answered, balancing on the razor thin line between being genuine and not giving away a stupid amount of information. He was technically aiding and abetting a murderer, there was no reason to give her enough info to turn him in too if she got caught.

“Why are you helping me?” Kate hesitated, then asked.

“Because I know who he was.” Izuku told her softly. “And what he’s done. I’ve lost too many friends to his bullshit Let Them Die policy.” Kate nodded, grief darkening her eyes.

“My sister- my sister died. Because of him.” Kate wiped away tears as she explained why she did it. “She was the last person I had left. I don’t- I’m on my own now. He can’t just get away with that. But I don’t kn-know what t-to do n-now!” She broke off, sobbing, and Izuku couldn’t do anything but gently yet awkwardly pull her into a hug. He didn’t know how to comfort people, but he couldn’t just sit there and do nothing.

His mind raced as he also awkwardly shushed her. He was right, she wasn’t a true vigilante. At this point she was probably fucked if she stayed in NYC, or more realistically in the country at all. She wasn’t going to have the resources to get herself out, but Izuku did. And Izuku also knew a couple people with an apparent penchant for adopting teenagers who were just doing what they had to to survive. (He wasn’t totally sure how Aizawa or Yamada would react, but at a minimum Nedzu was probably down to help with what Aizawa had shared about the ‘rat’ over the years.)

“Hey, random question.” Izuku asked when Kate finally calmed down. “How old are you?”

“Uh… sixteen.” Kate fidgeted. A killer she might be now, but a liar she definitely was not.

“How old are you really?” Izuku raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

“...Fourteen.” Kate quietly admitted.

“If it helps, I’m only thirteen.” Izuku admitted, unlocking his phone. “If you’re okay with being adopted, I think I might have a way to get you out of the country.” Kate just stared at him as he pulled up his phone app and typed in a number Izuku had found on UA’s website for… reasons a few years prior.

“I guess I don’t have any reason to stay here.” She eventually muttered.

“Okay, give me a minute here.” Izuku hit dial, hoping against hope it was actually Nedzu who answered.

“I must say I wasn’t expecting me to be the one you called.” The chimera’s iconic, squeaky voice sounded through the tinny speakers on Izuku’s shitty phone. “How very curious. Shouta-kun is doing fantastic, by the way. He’s already resting at home, though he’s rather unhappy about it. It seems someone he cares about has disappeared without a trace.”

“Oh, thank fuck.” Izuku couldn’t quite catch the quick murmur before it left his mouth, grimacing as he heard an echo of it on Nedzu’s end of the line. He cleared his throat to give him time to refocus, then continued. “I wasn’t. I wasn’t sure if he’d want to hear from me, after… that. But if you know about me, then I have no doubt you know where I am. I made a new friend, and she needs help like I did. Aizawa seemed pretty sure you like to help, in cases like this, and… and I’d like to come home. If that’s still okay.”

“Of course it’s okay.” Izuku didn’t know Nedzu’s voice could sound that gentle, but Nedzu’s heart was breaking (as much as it could- he didn’t quite feel emotions the same way humans did) for how scared the young teen sounded. He understood the kit’s motivations and he was already looking into the new friend he’d just made under such intriguing circumstances. “I know we’ve never met, but I promise you you’ve always got a place with Shouta-kun. If it’s not to presumptive of me to say this, we’ve all been waiting to you to be ready to reach out for a long while. Now, about your new friend… I have a few ideas.”

And that’s how Izuku found himself drinking Nedzu’s fancy coffee on a private jet with his new sister, both on their way back to Japan with a new lease on life.