Chapter Text
Izuku was watching the sun rise over the beach, having sent All Might a text to meet him whenever he wanted. It would have to be before school though. He still needed to go shopping for camping supplies. He heard the surprisingly soft footsteps of Yagi Toshinori walking down the sidewalk. He paused on the stairs, just as he often did when he watched Izuku train, before descending them onto the sand. Izuku took in the scent of the ocean. It was stronger, which meant it would either be muggy or rainy. The crunch of steps on the sand was nearly covered by the crashing of the waves. Izuku was drawn from his stalling thoughts by a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to his mentor. He looked him in the eye, deciding to let the man keep his emotions. After all, they were supposed to be private.
"Hey, All Might..."
"Hey kid. So, what do you want to talk about?"
Izuku took a deep breath and put his hands in his pockets.
"Ever since the final, whenever I talk about it, it comes out wrong. Even Aizawa-sensei thinks I blame myself for the whole... Incident. And yeah, there were things I could've and should've done to prevent it-"
"Midoriya, it wasn't your-"
"I'M NOT SAYING IT'S MY FAULT! It's the League's and Stain's, because you know what happened?! I had flash backs of the League and Stain! What I mean is I could have sought help for the issues I was dealing with. I could have gotten counseling, or even just talked about it with one of my teachers, like you. Yes, you should have held back more. Yes, you hurt me. It was negligent and dangerous to go all out against teens. Especially teens with powerful, barely regulated quirks. Regardless of your own strength, I could have killed you by my lack of control. I probably would have killed myself in the process, but you've only seen a fraction of what I'm capable of. And I'm getting stronger! I may not be able to go all out for years without hurting myself, if ever. I'm off topic. You're not solely to blame, and I don't hold it against you. It was a collection of oversights and and bad circumstances that culminated in a poor situation. I'm not absolving anyone of blame, but there's too many people to blame so everyone is pinning all of it on you. That's wrong. You're a member of the guilty party but I won't let them use you as the scapegoat. I refuse say you're the only one who messed up. And you certainly weren't the worst."
All Might was quiet as Izuku finished his rant. Izuku took a deep breath as he calmed down, realizing he begun to pant from yelling.
"You're right."
He blinked up at the old pro. He honestly hadn't expected All Might to say that. He'd expected another talk about 'Oh you're just a teenager, you don't understand." or "It's not you're fault, I know how you feel." He'd thought he'd be brushed aside again because he was too young and inexperienced to understand his own damned experiences. It felt good to be validated for once.
"It was a lot of different things. Do you know why you were paired with me? Because the other teachers knew you're strong enough to cause real damage to someone. I could take it. You were paired with Bakugou because you two are so at odds with each other. Not because you compliment each other, or you could reign each other in. You two fight and he attacks you and it was decided that exercise would get your heads on straight so you would push your differences and grudges aside to pass. Instead you broke each other's noses, mutilated yourself, nearly sent me to the hospital for emergency surgery, and disappeared onto the school grounds in the midst of a PTSD attack so bad you were hallucinating. Your mother should have sued Yuuei so hard the school shut down. She would have won."
Izuku laughed.
"I don't think she could have. Not at the time at least. But I'm glad we talked. The thing that was the worst about it was you wouldn't even look at me! All of a sudden I couldn't talk to you, we weren't texting, nothing. Totally ghosted me even though I tried reaching out. I get it though, it was traumatic."
All Might patted him, and Izuku had to hold himself back from lighting up. His phone beeped loudly.
"Ah! It's time for my run. I had to up how far I run to match my level, so I start earlier. I never thought I'd enjoy running."
"Well, let me grab my segway and I'll join you. We have a lot to catch up on."
He nodded, following All Might to his truck and helping him set up the scooter. He was excited to run with his mentor again. They hadn't run together since school started, after all.