Chapter Text
In his defense, Izuku wasn't supposed to be around this long, so that's where he gives himself a little wiggle room with mistakes because hey, he's living, so he's doing something right? Right?
It wasn't hard to tell that it was dark outside despite the absence of windows in the room. It didn't take seeing the lack of light to sense the night air drifting across the hard wood floors of the bar and around Izuku's legs as they swung from the barstool,
Man it's really drafty in here isn't it?
Izuku enjoyed the night far more than the day. Less noise cluttered the city beyond the walls of the bar, fewer people awake and buzzing around the typically busy streets, less anything actually. Besides the faint sound of wind and the occasional rustle of branches, it was perfectly quiet. Izuku liked quiet. It let him think.
Thinking was his thing after all, He was constantly thinking about something, analyzing it, breaking it down to its very fundamental properties. It was practically his nature. He couldn't remember a time when his mind wasn't racing, and organizing, and filing away information.
The boy's pen flew across the paper of his open notebook, finishing off a page's worth of new analysis he had been working on. He softly closed the book with a satisfied humph and reached for the second notebook he had. He didn't even check the number to ensure it was the right one as he knew it had to have been. Notebook number 13 was always right next to notebook number 12, the previous one he had been working in. Therefore, he knows it was those two he grabbed off the shelf. He knew because there was a place for everything and everything was in its place. He didn't understand how anyone could get anything done if it was a mess? He opened the next notebook, (which was properly labeled 13), And began working on finishing another page of analysis.
This was Izuku's nightly routine, he'd wait for everyone to go to sleep and then come out and work on whatever it was he pleased with no distractions, his alone time was precious to him.
As Izuku concluded the next page of notes, he let out an audible yawn. He quickly scanned over the pages, checking his work and ensuring there were no grammatical errors or spelling mistakes before once again closing it with a satisfied hum and a slight smile that perked up his lips. Izuku could do almost anything almost, but he couldn't go to bed without getting his work done. His work was the one thing that made him useful. Useful to the League, Useful to Tomura. If he didn't have a use he was no better than the trash in the dumpsters of an alleyway, and boy did he know first hand what being trash felt like. Long story short he has a bad history with dumpsters.
Letting out another yawn, he glanced at the clock on the wall in front of him, 2 in the morning, he got done early. Happy with his progress he scooped up his notebooks and walked down the narrow hall to his room, flipping off the light switch. Shutting the door behind him, he went to his book shelf and hovered his finger down the line of identical notebooks before stopping between two, separating a space between them and putting notebooks 12 and 13 back in their proper place. He dropped his pen back into the cup on top of the table it was sitting on, and finally allowed himself to crawl into his bed. The creaky unstable frame and long beat-down mattress weren't exactly comfortable, but when you barely have any comfort to begin with even a bed of nails might sound appealing.
The green-haired boy laid on his back, his head resting against his weathered pillow as he stared up at the ceiling. With one final slow blink he reached over and flicked off the light switch, encasing his room in darkness. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. Izuku was grateful he didn't dream, his mind was too tired to handle anything else than just the dark nothingness of sleep.
Waking up was never as peaceful as going to sleep. On a good day Izuku would be up on time and quickly do everything he could to avoid his 'comrades'. On a bad day he would sleep in and have to face whoever decided to wake him up and recently it had been one of the league's newer members, Toga Himiko.
Izuku already had multiple pages of analysis for everyone in the League of Villains—as Tomura so creatively named it. But this blonde sociopath, psychopath? (Izuku was still yet to determine) was a new type of mystery to him. The girl was crazy to say the least, and if whatever was going on in her head didn't make reading her difficult, being a teenage girl did. Her interest in Izuku hadn't wavered since the day they met when she was recruited by Kurogiri—something he still hasn't forgiven the guy for—and no amount of snapping at, ignoring, or obvious annoyment Izuku faced her with seemed to change the affection she had for him.
That's why it was Unpleasant but not surprising when he woke up with Toga sitting on top of him in his bed, she wasn't heavy she was actually pretty light for someone her age but that didn't mean it wasn't uncomfortable and the fact Izuku could feel the pinch of a knife point against his cheek didn't help.
"Good morning sleepy head!" She said enthusiastically with her usual wide smile, Twirling the knife against his cheek.
"Good morning Toga." Izuku replied, clearly too annoyed and exhausted to want to be dealing with her. Usually he doesn't let her get this far with her assault on his sleep, being alert even while unconscious is a thing he picked up on quickly after he started living here. Thanks to Tomura's childlike ways of dealing with his anger he was quite used to waking up with a knife at his throat.
The girl giggled at his reply before sliding off of his bed. Izuku, now freed from under her, quickly got up as well. Toga did a quick twirl while she skipped around his room before stopping right in front of him, her smile far too wide for it being this early.
"Tomura said he needed to talk to you Izuku!" She squealed voice so high pitched it might have been able to break glass.
Great Tomura wants to talk.
He ushered Toga out of his room, the girl only going after an annoyed glare from Izuku and voicing a promise to be back soon.
Izuku sluggishly got dressed into his old middle school uniform, it was practically the only piece of clothing he had besides worn out hand-me-down shirts and pants, but the poor thing had been torn and stitched and scrubbed so many times it looked like it had been being worn for five years straight. Actually, it had been four but his point still stands.
He made his way out of his room and down the narrow hallway to the main area of the bar. Izuku scuffed his feet across the floor trying to drag out the amount of time before he had to speak with his 'Brother'.
As he moped along into the main area of the bar he saw Tomura sitting at the counter clearly trying to ignore people into leaving him alone, specifically at this moment, Twice, who doesn't seem to be getting the hint. Izuku could see the annoyed twitches under his brother's eye and figured he might as well play hero and save Twice before he got hit or---if Tomura is in a really bad mood---killed.
He walked up to the masked man and stood there for a second until he was noticed.
"Hey! Deku! How's it going man?" "Not like really care though." He stated, his entire demeanor flipping on its head midway through speaking. Those weird tone flips and mood switches were extremely common in Twice's speech and unlike with Toga, Izuku was able to uncover the root cause.
The teenage boy looked at Twice with tired eyes.
"Mind if I steal that chair? I think the boss here needs a word with me." Izuku stated, holding back a yawn. He was not excited the least bit for this conversation, but it's better to just rip off the bandaid right?
With a hasty agreement---and then disagreement---Twice got up from his seat next to Tomura, and walked away to go mingle with a few other of the people there, leaving Izuku and Tomura alone. Izuku climbed up onto the barstool---curse his short genes---and looked expectantly at the blue-haired man beside him.
Tomura only shot him a nasty glare before averting his gaze.
Well what was that about???
Izuku cleared his throat before speaking, making sure to keep his tone even and quiet.
"Uhm... Toga said you needed to talk to me..?" The words were a lot more hesitant to flee from his mouth than they should've been.
He was the one who wanted to talk to me so why would he get mad? Izuku thought to himself
With an annoyed---and painfully over dramatic---sigh, Tomura finally spoke
"You sure took your time, brat." He said with another side eye in Izuku's direction. Izuku stifled the small laugh that threatened to escape his mouth.
Funny. he thought I wasn't the one throwing tantrums whenever I didn't get my way unlike somebody, but hey, sure, I'm the Brat.
"Sorry." Izuku muttered. He didn't really mean it, God forbid he get a few hours of sleep after all, and besides no one bothered to tell him he was supposed to be up early so why is it always him who's the problem? This is why Izuku liked being alone. Less people around, less things to deal with for his already racing mind. He wished he could turn back time to last night and spend a few more minutes with his analysis. He knew it was morning yet yearned for the night to come so he could go back to taking his notes. God, writing stuff down made things so much simpler, infact anything was simpler than dealing with feelings especially those of other people.
Tomura rolled his eyes at the younger boy's apology.
"Yeah whatever." He brushed off. "I'm not letting you waste my time today, so listen closely." His voice was raspy. Izuku wondered when the last time Tomura drank water was. "You need to gather information on the first year hero course students at UA. I don't care how you do it, just get it done. You have a week. Understand, brat?"
Izuku sat there for a second blank faced. Why were they back with that stupid UA shit again? The league already attacked them once and that failed miserably, After all Izuku has the still-healing injuries to prove it. Izuku didn't feel much towards anything, like he said emotions were hard so better to just ignore them right? Right, But that stupid school made his blood boil. That stupid school was the reason his life went to shit. He loathed every Student and Teacher, Every Janitor and groundskeeper, every naive kid and teenager whose dream was to go there to become a hero. Izuku didn't hate anything but he hated UA.
"Can I ask why?" The green haired boy questioned, his tone a bit snippier than he intended. Tomura must've picked up on his tone switch because he responded with one of his own.
"Don't get short with me, Deku." He spat out. emphasizing 'Deku' like a slur, like it was such a horrible thing, because he knew to Izuku it was--at least when it came out of Tomura's mouth it was. Izuku gritted his teeth and his bored expression narrowed into a tired glare. The boy physically bit his tongue to keep from saying something he'd regret. No. He had to keep his demeanor.
"And why is none of your business." Tomura finished. Izuku released a breath through his nose, if he had his father's fire breathing quirk, the counter would've been up in flames. Ugh as if this day wasn't already bad now he's thinking of his dad?
"But-" Izuku started, his quiet demeanor had dissolved into something more irritated and rash and all cautiousness for speaking out had fled.
"Shut it." The familiar words left the blue-haired boy's mouth with a sharp edge. Izuku immediately cut himself off on instinct, resisting the urge to flinch away from the now pissed off threat beside him.
"Your constant need to know everything gets pretty insufferable when you're not putting it to use." He snapped, each word feeling like it was laced with venom, poisoning Izuku's gut which tightened uncomfortably. Did Tomura mean to target Izuku's insecurities or were these just a few lucky word choices?
"Since you're just so smart it's surprising how often you forget that I'm in charge, so shut your damn mouth for once and do as you're told." As he spat out the last of his anger at Izuku he loudly got up from his seat, the metal legs making Izuku's ears bleed as they skidded across the hardwood floor. Tomura stormed away angrily, Izuku not bothering to see where he went. The green-haired boy was too busy dealing with the red that flushed over his face.
How could he be so damn immature. Izuku didn't need anyone in charge of him, let alone a toddler-in-a-man's-body like Shigaraki Tomura.
Izuku clenched his fists on the counter in front of him. It wasn't fair.
Why was it always Izuku stuck on the receiving end of everything bad. Is this just the universe's way of punishing him for ever even thinking he could be a hero? No, because Izuku's punishment from the universe started the day he found out he was quirkless. What could that four year old boy have possibly done to deserve ending up here?
And now he has to spend his time thinking about that stupid Hero school. That stupid, biased, ignorant, narcissistic school. He hated UA so much he didn't want revenge. He didn't want to do anything to it because he didn't even want to think about it. Everytime it crossed the forefront of his mind it was like nails screeching across a chalkboard.
Because UA was the school that trained the best heroes. UA was the school Izuku wanted to go to more than anything. UA was the school that was only supposed to educate people fit to be heroes, and yet UA was the school that accepted Bakugo Katsuki just two months ago.
And that made Izuku's blood boil
Kacchan, made Izuku's blood boil.
So wasn't today just off to a great start.