Work Text:
As with most things, in the end it’s all Hizashi’s fault.
“What??? Shouta you can’t seriously pin the blame on me!!! Shouta? Shouta!”
Shouta had denied 1A’s request to go holiday shopping. If the kids wanted to-
“Oh come on Shouta! They’re kids! And they won’t be going home for the holidays till the last minute so of course they all wanted to brighten up the place!”
If the kids wanted to decorate the dorms they could make a shopping list and send their class presidents. Or just order things online like normal people.
“Don’t just talk over me! And stop narrating! It’s creepy!”
Shouta had been firm. The entire class going to Walmart was just asking for trouble. Which is when Hizashi ‘Big Mouth’ Yamada had stuck his nose in and called Shouta a Grinch.
“Hey no need to get mean! I was just trying to-”
And then when Shouta had flippantly commented that he didn’t know what a Grinch was, his ex friend-
“Ex friend??? Come on Shouta! Now you’re just being dramatic!”
-had threatened to make him watch some movie-
“I did not threaten! I offered!!!”
-and Shouta had been forced to accompany 1A to shudder Walmart.
“...so technically it’s your fault for admitting you didn’t know what a Grinch was.”
Shouta takes a brief pause from narrating to kick his fellow hero’s ass.
Now where was he?
Oh yes.
Walmart.
The newest bane of Shouta Aizawa’s existence.
Loud festive music blaring over the speakers even at the very late hour he had chosen specifically to avoid any crowds. The place was deserted and each student had grabbed their own wagon and immediately gone off in their own little groups.
Hagakure and Aoyama were filling their wagons with all kinds of glittery decorations, the kind Shouta knew would be shedding over everything for weeks.
Mineta was loading his cart with mistletoe while Tokoyami, Shouji and Tsuyu followed him around, using their quirks to empty his stock every time he turned his back.
Shouta had briefly thought about stopping the quirk use but had let it slide in the end.
They all have their provisional licenses and if their actions don’t count as hero work then he’ll eat his damn scarf.
Four carts went whizzing by as Bakugou, Kirishima, Kaminari and Ashido competed to see who could go the fastest without crashing.
And that was a very bad idea and Shouta should probably have stopped them but the kids had all agreed to pay for their own purchases so it seemed to be a good lesson in responsibility to let them bear the fallout... And letting them get banned from Walmart would probably be doing them a favor-
“Why so much hate for the Wal-of-Mart? ...Are you still salty about that All Might endorsement where you had to see his face on every aisle? The Shoes Are Here!- Ow!”
Shouta had continued his observations.
“And people actually wear these???” Iida’s scandalized voice rings out.
Uraraka is stifling laughter in her arm as Midoriya waves his arms in a frenzy.
“It’s like. They’re the Ugly Christmas Sweaters! It’s a. It’s a thing... Uraraka help me out here!”
Uraraka cackles unhelpfully while Iida continues to stare at a black sweater. The words Fa la la la lama are all over it in white with a large lama head wearing sunglasses front and center.
“I don’t understand.” he whispers.
Todoroki is silent, simply holding up another black one, a large gingerbread man on the front surrounded by the words ‘Let’s get Baked’
His look of naive confusion is enough to send Uraraka into another laughing fit.
Further down the same aisle Jirou is looking flustered as Yaoyarozu points questioningly at a ‘My sweater is Uglier Than Yours’ design and Aizawa quickly turns away.
He’s not getting in the middle of all that…
Of course that’s when the cult showed up-
“Come on Shouta! Now you’re just pulling my leg! A cult??? Really???
The automatic doors had slid open and eight men had walked through, matching purple robes billowing in the nonexistent breeze. They were all humming in unison and holding unlit candles and Shouta had sighed and called it in.
“We have arrived to cleanse the souls!” announced a ninth man in a green robe as he stepped between the others to reach the front.
“As the prophecy has foretold!” the eight in purple had shouted.
“For the prophecy!” shouted the green one, laughing maniacally like some villain out of a cheesy spy movie.
“All hail!” screamed the chorus.
“This is Hizashis’s fault.” murmured Shouta.
“Stop it, you did not! You probably just swooped in and kicked all their asses. Now are you done narrating?”
“...fine” Shouta sighs and runs a hand down his face. “Taking them down was child’s play since they didn’t have any quirks. I found out later that the one in green would ‘cleanse his followers’ of them and unfortunately he managed to get everyone in that accursed Walmart before I knocked him out…”
“You mean…”
“Yes… We’re all quirkless for one full week…”
***
Izuku steps through the door and stops at the veritable mountain of pancakes and muffins stacked in platters on the available surfaces.
“Hey!!! Midori!!!” Ashido waves her fork wildly, cheeks full of pancakes. “Come join us!”
Izuku spins in a shocked circle. “Wha-?”
“I know right?” Kaminari lifts a handful of cookies. “Satou forgot about the quirkless thing so we’ve got enough goodies to last us an entire day!”
Izuku’s eyes slide over to a familiar form, now crouched low in a dark corner.
“Don’t worry about him! He’ll be fine!”
Todoroki hands Izuku a protein shake, head tilted questioningly.
“Iida isn’t back yet?”
“Oh yeah!” Uraraka tilts her head as well. “Don’t you guys usually run together?”
Izuku grimaces. “He’s not done yet…”
“Oh. Did he oversleep?”
“... no…”
“Oh my god, did he hurt himself???”
Izuku sighs and motions to the window. “He judges his runs by laps… and… since he doesn’t have his quirk…”
The three stare in unison at the lumbering form, staggering wildly from side to side and screaming something at the heavens.
“I see.” Todoroki states solemnly.
“When do we expect him back?” Uraraka murmurs.
Izuku puts his shake down so he can use his fingers. “Judging by the amount accomplished so far and the rapidly declining pace I’d say he’d be done in… an hour…”
They turn back to the window in unison.
“His dedication is inspiring…”
“Uh huh…”
“Rest in peace class prez. You’ll be sorely missed.”
They press their cups together and drink.
***
“Midoriya.”
Izuku looks up from where he’s doing one-handed pushups over his homework.
He’d usually stick to his room for this but a bunch of his classmates have been hiding in their rooms since losing their quirks.
Ojirou’s balance is so thrown off by his sudden lack of tail that he can’t even walk without staggering into walls like a drunk.
He’s already fallen down the stairs twice and been banned from training immediately.
Tokoyami and Shouji only come out once the dorms have quieted for the night since they’re self conscious about their normal looking faces.
Hagakure… Hagakure. She’s so unused to being looked at that all it had taken was Kaminari locking eyes with her for a second and she’d been flying up the stairs screaming about creepy staring.
Ojirou had tried to defend her honor but had merely fallen over when he attempted a fighting stance.
And of course there’s Mineta who’s hair now looks like-
“Midoriya?”
“Oh sorry Todoroki! I spaced out for a second… did you need something?”
Izuku switches hands and continues his mini workout but ignores the homework for now.
Todoroki… shuffles his feet? And is that a blush on his face???
Izuku’s hand slips and he faceplants the floor.
“I need you to…” He mumbles something under his breath, seemingly too focused on his embarrassment to notice Izuku’s predicament.
“Um…” Izuku casually sprawls and flips onto his back, quickly beginning a set of sit-ups.
Off in a dark corner, Sero laughs at the video he managed to snag. “Smooth Midoriya.” he whispers as he forwards the clip to the class chat.
Todoroki sighs and lowers his voice even further. “The showers,” He says. “I don’t know how to work the showers.”
Izuku snaps upright and checks his ears because there’s no way he heard that right.
Todoroki’s face turns red, bright red, a shade of blushing Izuku has never seen on his friend before and- Oh!
Izuku’s voice turns scandalized. “Have you been using your quirk to hide when you blush??? This whole time???”
“SHHHHH!!!” Todoroki hisses, spinning around in alarm.
“Oh my god. And here I thought you were always so… cool.”
He facepalms at the accidental pun but Todoroki simply grasps at his arm.
“The showers Midoriya. They’re empty at this hour so if we’re doing this it has to be now.”
Sero chokes. He can’t hear everything but it sounds like…
“Todoroki we’ve been in the dorms for months! What have you been doing till now?”
“TMI!!!” Sero suddenly screams as he runs for the stairs.
Izuku and Todoroki share a confused look and a shrug before the taller boy finally continues. “It's… The knobs… I can’t get the temperature right so I’ve been using my quirk to compensate… Can you please just... show me how the showers work?”
Izuku beams. “Sure!”
***
It’s a couple days later and some of the class have finally seemed to get back to normal.
It’s Friday Night Game Night! and a high stakes game of BS is going on. For once Jirou is not winning, proving Izuku’s suspicion that she’d been using her quirk to cheat all times previous.
“1 Jack!” Kirishima shouts, tossing a card onto the pile. It flips over as it lands revealing a ten of spades.
“Bull! Shit!” Bakugou laughs, shoving the entire pile into Kirishima’s hands.
“2 Queens!” crows Ashido.
“Wait! Wait! Let me get my cards in order! I don’t know what I-”
“1 King.” says Kaminari.
“No! Wait! I might have it! Just let me-”
“4 Aces!” Bakugou slams all of his remaining cards down, a smug look of victory on his face.
Kaminari eyes the pile. “Was that… more than four cards?”
Bakugou’s grin widens. “Are you doubting me?”
It’s at that moment that Izuku trips over nothing and the books he’s holding go sliding under the couch.
“Ah don’t mind me! I got this!”
He lifts the couch high and kicks them free with one foot before slowly lowering the couch back down. “Sorry about that…”
The three occupants of said couch blink at him in shock.
“You still have your quirk???” Kaminari splutters.
Izuku tilts his head in confusion and absently flexes one arm so his shirt goes tight around the muscle. “No? It’s just regular strength training.”
He suddenly fixes green eyes onto narrowed red ones. “And anyway, it’s not like being quirkless is hard, right Kacchan?”
Bakugou makes a choked sound and Izuku turns to face the rest of the room.
“Our power and abilities are more than just our quirks. Our quirks are useful tools to help us in our quest to become heroes but we aren’t powerless just because we’re quirkless…”
Kirishima claps slowly as he sniffs. “That’s so true bro!” He turns to Kaminari. “Punch me.”
“Excuse me??”
“Yeah dude. I want to make sure I’m still strong too! I don’t need my quirk to tank a hit! Punch me!”
“No way!”
“Ashido?”
“Hell no.”
“Baku-“
It’s immediate.
No hesitation.
Straight elbow to the face.
“Why would you use your elbow on him???”
“You kidding? I’m not fucking up my knuckles just so Shitty Hair can make a point!”
“S-S M-Manly” Kirishima sobs, tears of pain streaking his face as he lifts a shaky thumbs up.
***
There’s silence in the teacher’s lounge as Shouta finally finishes the story.
Then,
“It’s still not my fault though...”
Shouta hits him.