Chapter Text
Tenya tried to focus off in the distance, deep into the desolate landscape that was previously half of Jaku City. He mostly just heard the distant, echoing crashes and booms from clouds of dust and smoke low to the ground, sometimes backlit by green, yellow, and orange. Like a dry thunderstorm centered around the battle, maybe a mile away.
Fittingly, he caught a glimpse of blue-green lightning. He froze. Midoriya was still in there. Bakugou probably was too. Were those his explosions? Did Todoroki join them as well when he ran off?
It was better to stay back than run into a war zone, especially when he'd be running in blind. He reminded himself that he was only a first year hero student and his presence would likely be a burden for the Pro Heroes. But he also remembered running away from a titanic robot and a trapped girl while a scrawny-looking boy in a light teal jumpsuit ran towards it. And a strange flash of green down a dark alley just before a chipped and bloodied katana could finish off Ingenium's legacy. Todoroki had once posed a question to him under a gout of flame: What kind of hero was he going to become?
...With Recipro Turbo, he could get there within--
A hand clasped onto his shoulder and he looked over to see Burnin, uncharacteristically stern and somber for the few hours he has known her.
"Don't lose focus, kid. Do your job, the pros will do theirs."
His gut twisted and the desire to argue arose, but logically, he knew it was right. He bit his tongue and continued onwards, guarding the evacuees.
He didn't know if he was making the right choice.
After the surviving heroes fell back, rejoining the evacuation crew and remaining hospital raiders who were loading up buses and receiving the medical equipment and patients who'd been bubbled and floated from the hospital, Tenya only got a very brief look at Midoriya from about ten meters away. He was hopping along the rooftops with a hunched posture and his disheveled green bangs hung low to his eyes. There was several splatters of blood on his torn up costume. Tenya wondered where his injuries were, given the amount of blood on him, but he was too much of mess for Tenya to tell at this distance.
He wiped the tear-streaked dust and soot off his face before hopping down with the rest of the group. Under the bangs, there was far-off stormy look in his heavy-lidded eyes, like the battlefield was still in them. No tears seemed to be imminent. His mouth was in a firm line unlike the usual wobble when he cried.
While Tenya caught sight of Todoroki returning, he had made himself scarce and Tenya lost track of him. Midoriya and Bakugou drifted close to each other and headed into the makeshift medic station. Tenya realized he had been distracted for too long from his duty of moving hospital beds and attached equipment up and down the road, assisted by Uraraka. He turned to the Pro Hero next to him, bearing most of the weight on their side of the bed.
"I deeply apologize for getting distracted--"
"No need, Ingenium. This one is pretty light, though we may need you on the next one. You can run in real quick to check on your classmates," the Pro, Stitch, hummed. His voice was muffled under the stylized wrap that covered his lower face and presumably long neck.
"I-- are you certain?"
"Go ahead kid, just make it quick! You Turbo heroes are good at that."
"Thank you so much, Stitch," Tenya said profusely before running towards the medic station. "Midoriya-kun! Bakugou-kun!"
They both flinched, Midoriya especially, and looked back with wild eyes, as if prepared for a fight.
"Iida-kun! Is everyone safe?"
"There have been no incidents back here, but we are still waiting for communication lines to come back online. But why did you two separate from everyone? And why would the pros just let you go?" Tenya paused. Then, unbidden words tumbled out right afterwards. "Going off alone is exactly how my older brother got hurt."
The pair looked at each other. Bakugou looked stern, but remained silent. Finally, Midoriya spoke up and faced Tenya like he was facing a judge. His voice was hesitant, quiet, and halting. "I... had reason to believe Shigaraki was after me. The situation was a little complicated and I am... not sure how much I can tell you right now, there's some things that I was asked to... keep confidential. Sorry, Iida-kun."
"Yeah, not the damn time to get into it. Don't you have some shit to drag around?"
Tenya looked back to where the pros were carrying along floating hospital beds. He turned back to the duo, but Bakugou was dragging a stumbling Midoriya into the medic station by the wrist. Tenya put up and hand and opened his mouth to shout after them, but thought twice. Midoriya was walking alongside Bakugou by the time they entered the tent, but Midoriya glanced back and locked eyes with Tenya before the flap fell down after them.
Tenya stood there dumbly. Then, he stepped forward towards the tent with hesitance, and stopped at the entrance and debated whether to follow. In the quiet as he silently argued with himself, he heard Midoriya whimpering just behind the fabric of the tent. Was it fear? Pain? The sound made him want to push in and embrace his friend, but then...
He caught a whisper between Midoriya and Bakugou.
"...reminded me... Shigaraki called me 'little brother,'" his friend hissed venomously, almost to himself, in a tone that screamed disbelief.
Bakugou's distinctive growl was furtive and exhausted. "He's also insane, Deku. I was right about what I said about your quirk and All for One, but they're clearly playing some fucked up game of house that you shouldn't get involved in. Now shut up, I'm... I'm tired. Besides, someone could hear..." he said, his voice moving away with soft footsteps deeper into the tent. Another set of iron-clad footsteps stumbled after.
Tenya stepped back quietly. He shouldn't have heard that. He had no intention of eavesdropping but--
That was going to be a lot to think about.
His entire family were waiting at the dorms when he had returned, among many other families, but they left by the evening. Every hour since, right on the hour, he patrolled the dorm halls, took everyone into account even if they were behind closed doors, and returned to his room to sit in silence. Even if it was past lights out.
Tenya didn't expect to get much sleep that night. Even in the safety of the dorms, the events of the day followed him. All of his classmates came back, but not all the teachers did.
...With shaking hands, a few minutes after another patrol at eleven that night, he called Tensei.
His brother picked up after the first ring. He cried with relief into the phone.
By midnight, he fell unwillingly into a restless sleep, his still-on phone in his hand.
There were no classes for the next few days. He encouraged his classmates to try and keep up their studies nonetheless.
He and Yaoyorozu managed to round up Satou, Kaminari, and Kirishima to organize and cook a big dinner two nights after they returned. Surprisingly, Bakugou inserted himself into the operation as well. The blond was alarmingly quiet and complacent, but Tenya was grateful and delighted that he was participating without even being pestered into it.
That dinner was too quiet for twenty people, but there were still some smiles and chatter. Anyone who shed tears was quickly comforted with gentle touches, offers of food, and jokes. Most everyone found themselves directly next to their closest companions. Tenya himself was to the right of Uraraka and allowing her to hug him and hugging her a little in return. She teased him on how stiff his hugs were, but thanked him. Tsuyu was to her right, and was often holding her hand.
To his left was Todoroki, and next to him Midoriya and Aoyama. The latter two were leaning together, Aoyama especially clinging to Midoriya. For all his compassion and openness, Tenya had come to know Midoriya wasn't usually comfortable with physical affection, but Midoriya made no complaint and just held on to his friend.
When most of the food had been cleared, including Satou's indulgent cakes, Tenya stood with Yaoyorozu and tried to articulate what he felt, seeing his friends here, alive after everything... but words failed him. He couldn't get them all out. In the quiet, as his eyes grew heavy with tears...
Kirishima had apparently unglued himself to the rest of his friends and tackled Tenya with a hug.
Given how much Kirishima had built up muscle and how unsteady Tenya had been on his feet, they went bowling over with twin yelps. Through laughter and tears, an indistinguishable mass of his friendliest classmates joined the dogpile. Tenya couldn't scold them through the smiling and sobbing he tried futilely to keep back.
Still, in dark and quiet moments, Tenya was lost in thought over Midoriya. Neither he nor Bakugou followed up to explain and Tenya wouldn't force himself to ask.
All for One seemed to "nurture" Shigaraki like a child. Shigaraki, who was admittedly insane, called Midoriya his "little brother."
And Midoriya, or at least his quirk, was connected to All for One.
Midoriya's quirk was an anomaly. For one, it was theoretically powerful beyond Tenya's comprehension and completely unlike his parents' claimed quirks. That, and he once mentioned some time after the Joint Training incident that he expected more "alternate manifestations" to crop up in the future. And he said to Aizawa's face that he couldn't explain what caused it.
Could he explain it now?
He was similarly vague about why he joined the pro heroes in battle against a walking cataclysm.
On the third day after the raid, he ended up on the couch in the common room with Midoriya. As Tenya went through old notes, Midoriya was curled up on the opposite end of the couch with his phone. Tenya could hear tinny indistinguishable noise, signifying his friend was watching a video with the volume low. The two of them were coexisting casually, absorbed in what they were doing, until crashing noises from the phone and Midoriya's own murmuring caught Tenya's curiosity.
"What are you watching, Midoriya-kun?"
Midoriya startled and dropped his phone in his lap. He looked at Tenya, blinked, relaxed a bit, and picked up his phone again. He tilted it hesitantly toward Tenya to show the still-running video. "It's definitely a bit weird... I, uh, I'm rewatching footage from All Might's fight at Kamino. I wanted to study the villains more, especially-- especially the boss villain and his quirk."
The night-darkened images of ruined cityscape were easily recognizable. However, the video was relatively low quality and the positioning of the cameraperson...
"Who filmed this? It's far too close to the battle to be safe for news!"
"Well, it's amateur footage. It's pretty common in villain fights for civilians to make recordings. Of course, it's not quite like being there, but there are sites for footage like this that I use to observe or rewatch fights."
Tenya grew up around heroes and thus was quickly made familiar with the concept of skirmish-chasers: civilians who sought out active fights or disasters to gawk at or record. While he was eager to watch his family members, especially his brother, fight from behind designated safe zones since he was a child, he could recognize how reckless such pursuits can be.
Tenya stared directly at Midoriya without saying a word as he tried to gather his wits. Midoriya kept watching the phone for a few seconds, glanced at Tenya, did a double-take, and froze like a deer in headlights.
That was how Tenya learned his friend used to be a skirmish-chaser and why he debated with an ashamed but not-fully repentant Midoriya on the dangers of such a hobby.
Later that evening, Tenya's curiosity got the better of him. He looked up the footage that Midoriya was watching and followed the path onto sites and forums where people shared videos and first-hand accounts of villain fights. He didn't have the nerve to look at footage from Jaku that was plastered all over the place, but he caught a thumbnail that featured a huge, swirling mass in the sky above a city-- and a hint of familiar blue-green lightning.
Looking at the upload date, he guessed it was posted around the time of their second internships. When Midoriya, Kirishima, Uraraka, and Asui were on a secret mission.
He clicked the video and got lost in the grimy, distant footage of a massive villain, trapped in the sky, facing down a cataclysm wreathed in lightning.
Sleep wouldn't come because the back of his eyelids flickered blue-green.
In an attempt to quell his restless mind, Tenya pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen and tried to sort through some... aspects of Midoriya.
Midoriya's desire for knowledge was ravenous when it came to quirks. He was happy to share his own writings, even his treasured "Hero Notes", with trusted friends. The messiest pages were scribbled with blurbs or seemingly random information and hypotheses. Tenya himself considered himself curious, but he didn't analyze to the level of scribbling "turbulent telekinetic field centered on Aizawa-sensei's eyes (shared quirk factor) that activates when he readies or activates his quirk."
Learning about new quirks came naturally to Midoriya. It clearly helped his own abilities, by how he learned to wield his enhanced strength and his "blackwhip technique" in tandem. After he started getting used to the new ability, Tenya witnessed him juggle skills for maximum effect. And he was only getting stronger.
- Educated and creative with quirks and their mechanics
- Proficient with multiple quirks quirk-related abilities
He was ambitious and strong-willed and a harbinger for all the class to follow. For all his initial meekness, at his strongest moments, Tenya couldn't help but feel a little dwarfed by him in the best possible way. Bakugou was similar but... not quite in the same way. Midoriya's was usually a quiet and steady determination, a steel core. That determination was ready to burst into action under pressure and his confident smile could turn into a manic grin in battle. Tenya knew with certainty that Midoriya would claw his way into legend.
- Adept with leadership
- Ambitious
Sometimes, when close to him, his quirk's aura caused Tenya to shiver. Of course he trusted his friend, but there was something unnatural about the power he exuded. Some primal instinct told him there was danger. On top of that, Midoriya could be rather ruthless, now that Tenya truly thought about it. Of course, when compared to Bakugou and his borderline bloodlust, it wasn't exceptional. Even Uraraka could get very impassioned! Passion was certainly a good trait to have!
But Tenya just watched Midoriya's passion and raw power rip apart a titan.
With hesitation, his hand added another note.
- Ruthless during battle
Midoriya had many smiles. He could smile like he wasn't sure if he was allowed to be so happy. He could smile like he wanted to outshine the noon sun. He could smile like he figured out something he could twist to his advantage. He could smile like a hound bearing its bloody teeth. When he gets old enough and powerful enough, would he smile like a drake watching a kingdom burn down?
When he woke up the next early dawn, he forced himself through his usual routine. It was their last day without classes, and Aizawa was rumored to return that evening. Tenya needed to make sure everyone was ready and the dorms were presentable! As the temporary keeper of the dorms, Yamada, while he had been recovering energy since the battle, did not hold many of the students to the same standards as Aizawa.
As Tenya got on his workout clothes and prepared to head to the bathrooms, he looked at the paper on his desk.
His mind turned over what that paper meant for him and his friend.
A soft, familiar ache caused by all his movement caused him to look at his still-bare left arm and the two vicious puncture scars on his shoulder and forearm. He watched his hand as he tried to curl it into a fist but his fingers only bent awkwardly instead of closing all the way with his index finger managing to get the closest. He massaged his left hand with his right and coaxed his reluctant, damaged nerves to life.
His hand was a harsh but necessary reminder he'd chosen to keep all those months ago.
He grabbed the paper in his left hand, crumpled it with both hands, and dropped it in the trash.
Five minutes later, he was outside and stretching in preparation for his run. The chill of winter was still lingering despite the new leaves and hints of sakura buds. The cloudless sky was still bleeding gentle blue and hints of orange from the horizon into the deep navy above.
He heard a step of footsteps and a yawned greeting. He fought back his own yawn as he responded out of habit. He didn't need to look back to see who it was even if he hadn't recognized the voice, as no one else would willingly join him at this hour on the day without work or school. A slight apprehension crept up on him as Midoriya began silently going through his own stretches.
Tenya finished first and jogged in place as he waited for his sleepy partner. Midoriya's curly hair was barely tamed and his eyes were outright closed. He looked in danger of tipping over, but considering he tended to look like that on a lot of non-school mornings, Tenya didn't worry.
Finally, Midoriya gave him an affirmative grunt and the two of them fell into step as they began their run.
The remnants of sleep washed away with the breeze through their hair and soon enough, Midoriya's head wasn't drooping.
Tenya let the quiet soothe his thoughts and worries, but the dark residue of them remained. Enough that a more-conscious Midoriya would notice on their cool down laps.
"You've seemed uneasy to me for the last few days. If there's something going on, do you want to talk about it?"
The thumps of their synchronized walking footsteps and the chirps of birds were the only sounds in the chill morning air. Tenya tried to formulate a response.
Midoriya was wordless and looking ahead, allowing Tenya to take his time. Tenya looked forward again and tried to put every jumbled thought he'd had for last several days into something he should say.
"Midoriya-kun, I--" he started, but nothing could follow. He looked to Midoriya.
Midoriya was looking at him with such compassion and lack of judgement. His wide eyes were gentle but attentive for any sign Tenya's face gave away.
At the sight, any sense of a script fell to pieces in his mouth. His mind rushed to bring it together again.
"Since-- since these complications about your quirk have come up, you've been vague about it and I can't help but think you haven't been telling the full truth about it. In the last few days, I've been struggling over you having secrets. I kept trying to fill in the blanks, but now... I shouldn't judge you for it and I shouldn't make assumptions. You are entitled to your secrets. I realize now that you've had secrets ever since I first met you. I... just wanted to know if there was anything you could tell me. Perhaps it is just me being selfish and wanting to not be-- but you are the one who told me that 'if you need someone to talk to...'"
As he trailed off, he realized his footsteps were now the only ones and stopped. He turned to see Midoriya stopped a couple meters back, staring into the middle distance. Tenya turned to him.
Midoriya looked down. His face was unreadable, with his eyebrows tensed together, flat, and his mouth in a straight line. After a few seconds, he looked back up and seemed to search Tenya's eyes. He bit his lip and pulled out his phone. A spark of determination in his gaze that belonged to him and him alone.
"I think I want to talk to you about it. Do you think Uraraka and Todoroki will be awake yet? I think... I would want to talk to them too."