Archive of Our Own ^beta

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.

Chapter Text

Izuku's pen tapped an unsteady rhythm on the countertop. this was bullshit.

Tap, tap tap,

The League shouldn't even be concerning themselves with UA anymore. What good would those wannabe heroes bring them?

Tap, tap, tap 

Izuku tightened his grip on the pen. The impatient tapping slightly lowered his urge to punch something, and at least if he stuck to this, it meant fewer broken knuckles. 

Tap, tap, tap

His teeth thoughtlessly gnawed on his bottom lip. They should just be forgotten about all this stupid shit with these kids meanwhile there's actual issues they can be taking care of.

Tap, tap, tap 

Izuku stared daggers into the notebook in front of him. He tapped his foot on the metal rungs of the chair. Whatever aura he was giving off sent a clear message to everyone else in the room. stay away or get pounced on by this little underdeveloped 15 year old boy

Tap, tap, tap

Ok well- Izuku knew it didn't sound very threatening to anyone other than maybe little 5 foot tall Toga who even then probably would've found it cute, but just because the boy was small didn't mean he couldn't rock someone's shit. I mean, he remembered what he used to be able to pull off on Kacchan back before the blonde boy genuinely started purposefully hurting him. 

Tap, tap, tap 

Hmm... Kacchan, huh?.

Tap, tap, tap,

crack.

Pain shot through Izuku's lip, and he paused to look at the pen in his hand. It was snapped in half between his fingers, and dark ink coated his hand. He could taste iron on his lips. He hated the taste of blood. Never understood how Toga could like it so much.

Great. Today was so great.

Tossing the pen aside, he got up from his chair and began walking over to the bathroom, locking the door behind him as he faced himself in the mirror. 

When he saw himself, he noticed the crimson running down from his mouth and his cheek sporting a nasty bruise a shade of purple and yellow. 

When had he gotten that? Oh yeah. He remembered. 

His mind drifted back to yesterday. Izuku just happened to make a jeer at Tomura at the wrong time. He should've known what to expect. He should've predicted Tomura being angry and just kept his mouth shut. It's more his fault than anything he got his head slammed into the edge of the counter he should know better by now.

Izuku's mouth seemed to be getting him into a lot of trouble recently, huh?

His fingers traced over the bruise and applied a bit of pressure. A shot of pain ached through Izuku's face. He winced a bit and moved his attention to his bit-through lip. He took a tissue and used to soak up the blood from his lip. God knows what Toga trying to kiss him would be like if she saw this. 

With his lip properly not-bleeding, he threw away the tissue and walked back out to his notebook. He stared at the blank page in front of him, well, this clearly wasn't working. He sighed and picked up his notebook. 

You could just leave. his mind unhelpfully supplied

nobody is keeping you here, so just walk through the door and don't come back. 

You hate it here, don't you?

He wiped the thought from his head. He wasn't going to leave. He couldn't. If he tried, they'd find him anyways but also...

He owed Tomura his life. 

So no. He would not be leaving. Not until he feels like he doesn't owe his brother anymore. Because as much as he might hate Tomura, that psychopath was still the closest thing he had to family for the past 4 years now.

He walked down the hallway back to his room, swiftly shutting the door behind him. He clicked the lock into place before taking a few steps forward and consequentially collapsing on his bed.

His mind was blank for once. 

He hated Bakugo Katsuki so much. He was the root of all of Izuku's problems. His mind wandered back several years. 

Wait.

Did he still have it?

He flew off his bed and across his room, scrambling to grab the very first notebook on his book shelf he plopped down on the creaky hardwood floor and threw the pages open. 

Izuku giggled to himself slightly. Ofcourse this notebook was from several years ago, back when Izuku mainly used it as a normal notebook wrather than strictly for analysis, so ofcourse among the pages of jotted notes and badly drawn pictures were things that didn't quite fit in. Several pages dated at the top, pages full of Izuku's thoughts about Katsuki. 

Now, was Izuku a bit obsessed and psychotic? Yes, absolutely. If anyone found this notebook, he probably would've been sent away to a mental ward. For Izuku though, this was how he dealt with his anger. Pages upon pages full of small 1-2 sentence entries about 'Kacchan' 

'Kacchan keeps calling me Deku, I think I'm going to punch him.'

'Kacchan in his friends beat me up again today, I want to send a box of spiders to his house and let them lose in his bed.'

'I want to rip of kacchans legs and hit him with them.'

'I want Kacchan dead. Can he please just die.'

'Kacchan burned me today, I want to cover him and gasoline and light him on fire'

'Kacchan deserves to be sent to hell.' 

'Kacchan was crying about the rain. What if I pushed him into the river and let him drown'

There were at least 10 pages completely full of similar ideas. Izuku laughed to himself as he read through them. The last entry was dated from 4 years ago, the day Izuku... well, he'd wrather not think about that. 

He flipped the page before he read the entry. He didn't remember exactly what he wrote, but he got the jist of it. An idea popped into Izuku's head like a lightbulb. He got up, and with a smile on his face and a pep in his step grabbed a pen out of the jar on his nightstand and seated himself on his bed criss-cross apple sauce. Then Izuku wrote. 

He wrote about every thought he had about Katsuki, every fantasy about ending that sick bastard's life that his brain came up with. The thing about analysis is that it makes you notice things. It helps you put the puzzle pieces together, so creativity was now a part of Izuku's skill-set.

Boy was Izuku creative. 

He didn't know how much time had passed, but before he knew it, he had filled up five pages when his pen stilled. His mind was once again flowing with thoughts. Perfect everything's back to normal, just like it should be. 

A knock came from his room door. It didn't take long for the dinky doorknob lock to jiggle out of place, and the door swung open. Toga stood behind it. He should've expected that. 

"Ohh Izukuuuuu~!" The girl sung, waltzing into his room and plopping herself down on the bed right next to him. She leaned her body against his and wrapped her arms around him. Any other day, Izuku would've wiggled away from her. If it was a bad day, Izuku wouldn't have been aboving hitting a girl, but no. Today was actually a lot better than before, so he barely minded her company. 

"Tomura said not to bother you, but I just couldn't help myself!" The girl's voice rang out. Izuku briefly wondered if she could somehow tell he had a bleeding lip as that's where her eyes were focused. Her eyes trailed down to the now closed notebook in Izuku's lap."

"Watcha working on?" She asked sweetly. If you didn't know her, you might think she was just a normal---maybe slightly more obsessive than average---Teenage girl. Izuku's face lit up with a smile, though it wasn't one from joy. 

Izuku didn't smile much nowadays. Before, when he would smile, it would be from joy, excitement, but now the only smiles that crossed his lips stemmed from either satisfaction with his work or sadism. This smile was entirely sadistic. 

"I'm supposed to be doing analysis, but I found a funner way to spend my time." He admitted to the girl still clinging to him, Izuku wasn't flustered by it anymore. It had been happening for months now. 

"And what's that?" She inquired. One arm dismissed its vice grip around the boy and fell down to let her fingers grab hold of his notebook. Izuku's smile dropped, and he jerked the book away from her grabby hands. His demeanor shifted from that comfortable, satisfied one to one much more alert and rigid.

"What did I say about touching my work, Toga." He scolded, moving away from her hold. The blonde girl giggled. 

"Cmon Izu, stop being so secretive. Let me see!" She argued, lunging for the notebook. With a palm pressed against her face, Izuku managed to hold her back and protect his notebook that she was so desperate to see.

"No, get out of my room!" He retaliated with a finally shove which threw the girl to the floor with a thud. Her overly-expressive smile never wavered as she got up, brushed herself off, and giggled. 

"I love our little spats, Izu!" She gushed. "See you later, m'kay!" Were her parting words before finally leaving the boy alone. Izuku sighed, wondering why he put up with this every day. 

Turning back to the notebook he had been so desperately protecting from his intruder, he smiled his satisfied smile. He placed his notebook back in its spot on his shelf and grabbed the one he was Going to start his UA student analysis in, sitting back onto his bed he pried open the book to the first blank page and actually wrote!

Take that writer's block!

He started with Class 1-A, who might as well get the annoying ones out of the way first, right? He moved operation over to his desk where his janky, ancient computer sat.

Look, he wasn't exactly rich, okay?

After taking the eternity to boot the dang thing up--and praying for five minutes straight that it didn't just straight up catch on fire--he got the things he needed pulled up, TV coverage from the UA Sports festival, Some old News stories taken by reporters interviewing UA students, some security tapes and copies of entrance applications and student files from UA itself that he managed to recover (even though it was a bitch and a half to get through their firewall), and security footage from the USJ attack.

Hey, wouldn't ya know? at least that failed mission was good for something. 

He decided to work backward alphabetically. His brain always paid more attention that way. It also meant more time between now and when He'd have to fill out his analysis on Katsuki. 

He titled the Subject's Name at the top of the paper. 

Yaoyorozu Momo

Class: 1-A

Age: 15

Quirk: Creation

Explanation: She can create any non-living thing out of her body.

Technicals: Uses Fat (Lipids) in her body and transforms them into the object she wished to make

Requirements: She must know the atomic makeup of items she wishes to create.

Extra Notes:

- accepted into UA on recommendation

-Comes from an extremely wealthy family

-Vice Representative for her class

-No obvious special relationships among classmates

One down 39 more to go, plus teachers Izuku thought. This was going to be a longggg night. 

Leaving a page in between for a further analysis later, he began on the next student.

Uraraka Ochako

Class: 1-A

Age: 15

Quirk: Zero Gravity

….

It was well past 3 in the morning when Izuku closed his notebook. He had gotten 42 basic analyses done, and he considered that good enough for one day. He clicked through the tabs on his computer, slowly as it took a good 15 seconds before the computer process the action. 

Maybe he could spin this job into an excuse to get a new laptop, at least it would make this so much easier.

After clicking off one of the tabs, the screen switched to the window containing the sports festival coverage, specifically Katsuki's fight with Uraraka Ochako. Another sadist smirk plastered itself on Izuku's face. Katsuki had practically gotten his shit rocked by a girl half his size, and she would've beaten him had Katsuki had a single humane thought in whatever pea sized brain was in his head.

even as he was analyzing the fight to learn more about her quirk, he had decided he liked this girl. She had a bit of a plain looking face, much like Izuku's, but there was a sense of passion in her eyes the boy couldn't help but admire. Izuku long since lost passion for anything, but she made him wonder what could've happened if things didn't turn out like this. Who knows, maybe they would've been friends?

Izuku berated himself for wishful thinking. He hated being hopeful. All hope did was disappoint. If you never wish for anything, never wondered about things that can't be, never thought about anything except the task at hand, you'll never be disappointed. 

Izuku learned that the hard way at four years old and the lesson has been punching him in the gut ever since. 

The last time Izuku held out hope for anything was when he was five, when he prayed all night and day to whoever was listening that his quirk would show up, and he would prove everyone wrong. Izuku learned there wasn't any God, there wasn't a higher being to solve his issues, or maybe there was but they just didn't feel like paying Izuku any mind. That's possible. Either way he was on his own.

His mind helpfully flashed back to a foggy memory, one from so long ago. One of him laying sprawled out in a patch of grass in pain. Everything hurt so much. That was what he got for trying to be a hero: Beat up by the kids who were lucky. It wasn't fair. The tiny boy just gazed at the sky, waiting for somebody to check on him, to help him up, to take him back to his mom so she could kiss him all better.

Nobody ever came, so Izuku got up. He got up because nobody was going to help him; he could only try to protect himself until he was rescued. 

One day, he would be saved. He thought as he walked himself home. 

One day, he would be saved. He thought as he banged on the locked door of the utility closet he had been shoved into. 

One day, he would be saved. as a familiar right hook broke his nose, and blood spilled down his face. 

One day, he would be saved. as he retrieved his notebook from the water fountain, ink smudging all over his hand from his months of hard work ruined.

"Maybe not." He concluded aloud. He layed flat on his back, limbs sprawled out like a starfish across that mattress while he just breathed. 

The sun came before sleep did. 

The slightest Orange hues peaked out between the gaps in the wood of his boarded up window. Izuku sighed, relinquishing the thought of sleep at all, he groaned and got up. 

It was still pretty dark out and with the early hour he doubted there would be many people on the streets. 

With a plan popping into Izuku's mind he took off the uniform he had forgotten to change out of and threw on a too-big hoodie and worn out sweatpants. He didn't bother being quiet as he walked out of his room; the creaky floorboards would give him away anyways. He walked through the main room of the bar and threw the door open, walking up the staircase that led to the street. 

His ragged appearance didn't seem to faze the few bystanders as he took his stroll around the building. It was 4 am in the middle of Kamino Ward afterall. He was sure people had seen way crazier things than a 15 year old boy wandering the streets. He made his way to the back of the building and climbed up the dinky fire escape that he was certain could fall apart literally any minute. As he finally stepped on the roof of the building he gazed at the sky. 

By now it was still dark but the splashes of Orange and Pink and Yellow in the sky mixed together in the most beautiful sunrise Izuku had ever seen. 

"Huh." The boy huffed out happily. He was once again reminded why he preffered the night over the day. 

Izuku stood staring up for longer than he bothered to count. A slight wind blew his hair out of his face and left a whistling noise that felt so strangely peaceful. The sun was higher in the sky now and the previous darkness was quickly growing brighter, Izuku should probably get down now unle-

A rustle. Izuku's head snapped around followed quickly by his body. His movement was stiff and the boy's demeanor immediatly became alert and rigid. 

Izuku's eyes met gold ones. A man stood about 10 feet behind him. His posture was relaxed as if he was just coming to chat with a friend. Izuku however, was not this man's friend. It wasn't the light brown Aviator jacket that caught Izuku's attention, nor was it the yellow visor that sat in front of his eyes. No, what caught the boys attention was the Vermillion wings spreading from the man's back.  

Hawks, The number three hero. 

Oh,

Fuck.

Chapter Text

Izuku's entire body trembled. He bit the inside of his cheek to conceal the horrified look he was trying not to show, because what the hell was the number three hero doing in Kamino of all places?

Heroes didn't patrol Kamino. That's the main reason the League had set up their base here. 

Izuku tried to determine what the hero's face reflected. Of Course on the surface it was just a typical surprised expression, a usual response to the reaction Izuku gave to his presence. That didn't really satisfy Izuku though. He scanned over the expression, looking for any nick, any twitch, any crease that would suggest the Hero's real intention. 

Izuku had done plenty of analysis on the number three hero. He had spent days on end studying every little thing about him. Izuku hated to admit it but he was a bit obsessed with Hawks. There was so much about him to unpack. The biggest thing was he was a commission hero. That meant lots of files and records, and that meant lots of dirt. The commission worked so hard to create the perfect PR image for all the heroes they got their grubby hands on, and Takami Keigo, Hawks, was their prized possession.

 Of Course every file Izuku managed to pry open contained invaluable information, but he knew deep down the really good stuff was buried deep, deeper than Izuku could go with the few skills he had. It pissed him off. 

With what he had right now though, Izuku knew he couldn't trust Hawks. Sure the hero was Attractive, Charming, and good at what he did, but he was also cunning, quick, and far too smart for Izuku's liking. One wrong word, gesture, facial tic, twitch, and he would see right through the boy. Hawks was scary. 

"Sorry, kid didn't mean to spook ya" The hero finally spoke. He raised his hands defensively, and took a firm yet cautious step forward. 

"You're not thinking about jumping are you?" He added. Izuku quirked a brow. Why would the Hero assume he was going to jump? 

Then Izuku realized where he was. While watching the sunset he didn't notice his subconscious movement towards the edge of the roof. He was standing directly on the ledge of the building.

Whoops.

Despite the predicament, the realization also calmed Izuku. 

He doesn't know anything. The boy reassured himself

He just thought you were in danger, that's why he came down, you're not caught. maybe the assumptions and wishful thinking were Izuku's way of trying to get his heart to stop beating so quickly. 

He quickly scrambled away from the edge of the roof. 

"No- No! Sir- I.. wasn't gonna- uhm..." Izuku stammered he was clearly panicked, so much for his previous poker face. He moved away from the ledge and closer to the Hero which honestly made him start missing the possibility of falling, Izuku decided that yeah.... he'd rather be dead on the pavement than try to act natural around someone who could ruin his entire life in an instant. 

"Hey, no- you're alright I was just making sure you were okay, it was kind of an odd sight so I wanted to check out what was going on." The Hero explained. Explained and reassured Izuku noticed, meaning yes he could sense Izuku's panic. What else had he already noticed? 

Izuku let out a nervous laugh. He could practically feel the ice cold gaze of the hero looking over his entire body. Izuku knew underneath the facade of those carefully crafted soft golden eyes were hard narrowed ones that pierced through the cover up. It's like Izuku could see the gears turning in the man's head to piece together exactly what Izuku's situation was. 

"Yeah... 'm sorry didn't mean to freak anyone out I just came up here to watch the sunrise." 

Don't make up lies on the spot, base everything on truth the words echoed through his mind. The voice was his but it wasn't. The words weren't his, the tone wasn't his, it was that sly little voice in Izuku's head the one that could be equally annoying and helpful.

One of the first things Izuku taught was how to lie, how to convince, how to take control of a situation. He should be a pro, but of course he's always been timid. It's just his nature and no amount of conditioning will change somebody's natural response when panic takes over. 

"It's pretty today isn't it? You come up here a lot?" 

Izuku is disgusted by how easily the interrogation sounded like a conversation coming from the Hero's mouth. Izuku knows every word the man says is for a reason, he's trying to pinpoint Izuku exactly, take notes on him to add to later so eventually he can put the puzzle together. The boy knows because that's exactly what he does when he's writing his analyses. 

Izuku rests his hands in the front pocket of his hoodie to hide the fidgeting. He averts his eyes and kicks a foot out, brushing the concrete briefly. 

act cool, Izuku. Figure out what he's trying to learn with the question and give him a convincing answer.

"Ah.. not really, just happened to be up early and wanted to watch it." 

"Do your parents know you're here?" 

"They know I went out I don't think they know I'm up here though…"

"Do you know you're trespassing?" 

"Am I? there were no signs or anything?

"Nah, I'm just messing with ya, I know there's a lot more to worry about than one trouble-making kid in this city. Though you probably shouldn't be up here anyways." The Hero said with a smile. 

"But hey, I'm not gonna rat you out or anything, not my circus, not my monkeys y'know? Just as long as you're safe." He added, there was the slightest hint of smugness in his impression. It made Izuku's heart drop. 

He messed up somewhere hadn't he. He let his demeanor slip, His tone was off, his lie wasn't confident he must've done something. 

Focus on right now.

"Ah! Yeah- Thank you! Uh- Sir!" He stuttered with a small bow. While his face was concealed he let his polite expression drop into a frown. 

If the Hawks wanted to play dirty like that Izuku could play dirty right back. 

Putting back on his small polite smile he rose. 

"Before you go, do you mind if I ask something? We usually don't get Heroes around this area, I was just curious why one, especially a top three, would be here?" Izuku focused on every word. His tone stayed even and jumped exactly when it should. His face remained a pleasant yet confused smile, his posture was relaxed. It was perfect acting. 

The Hero's soft expression was disturbed by the piercing of cold eyes where easy ones usually appeared. Izuku snickered to himself internally. 

gotcha.

"Had some work nearby and was headed back, happened to be flying over." Hawks replied. His tone was an uncanny calm. 

Izuku had won, he may have slipped up first but the hero slipped harder. He broke the number one rule of lying, never blame coincidence. 

Izuku's sadistic smile showed through his eyes as they met Hawks's The corners creased with giddiness. 

Despite the glimmering gold of the eyes staring back at him the gaze was freezing cold, aware, and best of all- pissed off. 

Their staring contest ended with a quick tonal shift from Hawks. A polite smile on his face and a more ready posture as the hero accepted his defeat. 

"Alright I should probably get going just make sure you get home safe, Kid" 

With a two-finger salute the hero took off, Zipping away just as quickly as he appeared.

Izuku collapsed on the concrete rooftop and took a huge gulp of air. God that was horrifying. That was the worst encounter he's ever had with a hero. The worst part was now he would be on the Hero's radar, meaning he would be on the commission's radar. 

Normal kids don't act the way Izuku just did and it was pretty damn clear to all parties involved. Izuku trembled, hands shaking as they wrapped protectively around his body. 

His mind's constant racing of coherent thought was now replaced with a slew of words Izuku wouldn't want to repeat to any person who desired to keep their dignity. 

Izuku scrambled to his feet. He paced around the rooftop shaking incessantly, the world spun around him and he felt like passing out. 

Reluctantly he forced himself to stop dead in his tracks and take a long, deep, aggressive inhale, then and outhale in the same manner. 

In, 1, 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6.

Hold, 1, 2, 3, 4.

Out, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Izuku repeated it over and over till finally his heart stopped beating like it was trying to win a race. His limbs stopped shaking, his vision stopped spinning, he was cool. 

Fuck who was he kidding?

With a half coherent mind the boy swiftly ran down the janky fire escape, part of him hoping if the steps would break and he'd plummet 8 stories so he wouldn't have to worry about whatever the hell this situation was. He stumbled down the steps to the bar entrance and took a breath before opening the door. 

He walked through, planning to beeline straight for his room and hibernate till forever. Izuku took about three steps into the main room before,

"Where were you?" The voice was raspy, Izuku didn't need to see a face to know it was Tomura. He sat at the bar, clearly he didn't need to turn around either to see it was Izuku as his gaze was piercing bullet holes into the countertop. 

The green-Haired boy scoffed. 

"The hell do you care?" He retorted. Tomura turned his head slightly, enough to where Izuku could see the burning in his eyes. 

Averting his gaze, Izuku spoke again. He was quiet this time, the information really meant to be heard by Noone but his brother. Because if Izuku supplied info it made Tomura happier, not always happy, but happier, and if Izuku didn't want to end up a pile of dust he better start supplying. 

"The commission is on us." He muttered. The news wasn't anything good and he braced himself for Tomura's reaction. Bad news mixed with his brother's temper was never a good thing. 

"What makes you so sure, genius?" He responded sarcastically. He never took Izuku seriously, never heeded his warnings, Izuku barely knew why he bothered even trying to help anymore. 

"I dont know maybe because five minutes ago the Number three hero was on the goddamn roof of this fucking building, Tomura." Izuku's annoyed tone was emphasised with a hand sliding dramatically down his face. 

The annoying face, the one Tomura always wore, the one with so much self righteousness melted off, replaced by one of loathing as he snapped his head around to face Izuku. 

"What the hell did you do." Were the only words out of his mouth. Ofcourse he blamed Izuku, everything was always Izuku's fucking fault. 

Izuku just gave him a hard stare back, it lasted a moment, then another, then one more, then Izuku turned his head and continued his path to his room. He could hear the rush of his blood in his ears. His face was completely red though the boy wasn't sure out of anger or embarrassment. 

Each time he put one foot in front of the other he felt like gravity increased on him ten times. His mind raced, it raced in a different way from usual, it was less like a stream and more like a freight train that had hit him and he was stuck to the front of it as it sped along the track. 

Right as he crossed the threshhold into his room he felt a tug, and a hand, and-

SHIT OW FUCK

 he had to bite his lip from screaming the words outloud as his head was slammed into the wall.

"Try again, Deku." That familiar raspy voice rang out, it wasn't calm like you'd expect those words to be. It was angry, full of hate and disgust, it seemed more like the words should've been screamed rather than said normally even if it was through gritted teeth. 

There was a hand at the back of his head, roughly gripping his hair right at the root, another was in a tight 4-finger clamp around his forearm, holding it painfully strained behind his back. Izuku's head pounded from the impact, the pain forcing a sharp hiss from between Izuku's teeth.

"What the fuck did you do." Tomura's voice rang again. 

"Nothing, asshole!" Izuku screeched back through gritted teeth. His head was swiftly reared back and slammed against the wall once again. 

"DON'T GIVE ME THAT YOU LYING PIECE OF SHIT! WHY DID YOU LEAD A TOP HERO STRAIGHT TO US OR ARE YOU JUST THAT DENSE!?"

It was a full on screaming match at this point and half of Izuku's mind was praying they didn't get a noise complaint.

"ALL WE DID WAS TALK I SWEAR ON MY LIFE I'M NOT LYING" Izuku finally admitted after a few turns of the two of screaming obscenities and threats at each other.

The room finally went quiet. Quiet pained whines and poor attempts at breathing escaped Izuku's mouth despite his best effort to not let the sounds slip. Izuku's head was bleeding, he saw it dripping down the bricks the last time Tomura shoved his head into the wall, his vision spun, he definitely had a concussion. Everything hurt, Tomuras grip on his arm stretched out painfully behind his back from an earlier threat to snap it in two.

"IF HE FOUND OUT ANYTHING FROM YOUR PATHETIC ASS ACTING YOULL BE FUCKING DEAD, IZUKU. DEAD." Tomura yelled finally, releasing Izuku harshly. Before Izuku could even peel himself away from the wall a harsh kick knocked him to the ground and another one dug into his abdomen before he barely registered what was going on. 

With a final sneer, Tomura left the room, the sound of distancing footsteps like music to Izuku's ears

Izuku felt something pooling at the back of his throat. When the sudden choking feeling hit, he coughed as a red viscous liquid, matching the one dripping down the wall, poured from his mouth. Great, this was just such a great day. 

If there was one positive though, at least Izuku was so concussed he passed out right there on the floor, blood splatter and all. 

As if that ferocious ass beating wasn't bad enough of course Izuku had to have a dream, and okay that doesn't sound bad but concussion dreams suck l, Izuku's had enough of them to know that. It's either uncannily realistic and vivid or something straight out of a psychological horror/fever dream.

Unfortunately for Izuku his dreams would also be both.

The sun was setting, a field stretching for miles around Izuku. Birds flew overhead, It was peaceful. 

The grass was soft and a slight breeze left a whooshing sound in his ears. 

Izuku was littler, his hands were tiny like toddlers and his limbs short and stubby. As the little boy gazed at the sky he felt a presence next to him. 

With a turn of his head, a face framed by spiky blonde hair came into view. Crimson eyes met his bright green ones, a childlike kindness to them Izuku hadn't seen in a long time. 

"What are you looking at, Izuku?" Katsuki said. 

Izuku nearly flinched at his name. It felt so strangely alien being said by that voice. 

"The birds." The green-haired boy replied monotonically. There was one that was circling overhead, its body was a bright red, with piercing eyes. 

"C'mon 'Zuku stop spacing out on me, you're no fun when you're like that!" The blonde replied, shaking Izuku aggressively by his shoulders. 

"Do you ever wish you could fly, Kacchan?" Izuku asked abruptly, not turning his gaze away from the bird. 

"Huh? What are you on about?" Katsuki looked at his friend as if he was babbling nonsense.

"Y'know just take off and fly away from all your problems." A slight smile crept onto little Izuku's lips.

The blonde's gaze turned from a soft childish one to a hard, piercing one. 

"You can't run away from your problems when the problem is yourself, Deku." The boy's tone was concise, clear, nothing like how a child should sound. 

Izuku's smile dropped into a hurt, wobbly, frown.

"What?" The boy's small voice squeaked with a tremble. A hand locked around Izuku's wrist in a painfully tight grip and he was yanked forward.

He wasn't in the field anymore, he was in a classroom. The person in front of him was no longer a toddler, it was a boy, probably around 10

Katsuki leveled his face with Izuku's. The hand around the green-haired boy's wrist warmed up, and then it burned, heat scorching at Izuku's skin.

"C'mon, Deku you can't seriously think it's just chance that a pathetic person like you was born quirkless, it was obvious you didn't deserve one in the first place." The venomous words the blonde spat out burned worse than the hand around Izuku's wrist.

"Don't you get it? You're the issue." Izuku was shoved away from Katsuki, instead of his feet meeting the floor though they met only air. 

Izuku fell, wind whipped around his ears as that feeling of weightlessness nauseated him. He saw a platform far above him growing smaller and smaller as he fell, there was no scene this time, Izuku fell through the darkness. 

The dream was almost over, right? He would wake up before he hit the ground..? That's how these dreams always go-

Izuku shot up, but he wasn't in his bed. No. He wasn't freed from this stupid dream quite yet. 

He sat in a puddle of water on a hard pavement ground. All of his surroundings were dark, he couldn't make out a single thing. 

"Poor, child." A voice rang out. It was filled with a tone of compassion. It was rare that Izuku heard that nowadays.

"You don't belong out here. The world is so cruel to people they don't want to bother forming a place for." The voice was in front of him, Izuku tilted his head up. He felt so small, helpless, alone.

A hand was reached out to him, palm up, an offer.

"But you don't need to be afraid anymore, I have a place for you, Izuku." Izuku couldn't see whoever the person was, he couldn't see anything past the hand extended out to him. 

The words were warm, sickly sweet. Yes, he wanted a place, he wanted to belong, he'd do anything for that. Timidly, Izuku lifted his own hand, it was shaking, and scraped, and bleeding, as he took the one extended to him, an acceptance to the invitation.

Chapter Text

Izuku finally woke up, not with a jolt like he thought he would, but with his eyelids cracking open and immediately squeezing shut as he realized just how bad of a headache he had. 

He let his head sink down onto his pillow and

Wait.

Izuku wasn't on the floor anymore. Someone had moved him to his slightly more comfortable bed, and not only that, there was an icepack pressing against the back of his head. Someone had come in and cleaned him up, and this had happened enough times in the past for Izuku to narrow it down to two people. 

Of course, it was like Izuku to start solving cases as soon as he opened his eyes, but it was just second nature at this point.

Back when he was littler, it was always Kurogiri who cared for him like that. The Man/Nomu was ordered to care for him like that. Of Course Izuku got older and he started taking care of himself to make up for the ways no one else was (believe it or not a half-resurrected corpse wasn't the best caretaker) Izuku started fixing up his own injuries, picking himself up off the floor and patching whatever cuts or bruises he had. It had been years since Kuro did anything like that for him, and Izuku expected it's because he was ordered to stop. 

The more likely candidate was Tomura. This was his way of apologizing, causing harm, then fixing it. That's just the way their relationship worked. Izuku felt grateful for his brother for it. Because Tomura could always just leave Izuku how he left him---bleeding on the ground most of the time---but he came back, he fixed what he did. Izuku knew Tomura didn't hate him because why would he bother helping if he did? That's what brothers do, right? They play rough, but they never really mean the harm they cause. Izuku didn't really know. He never had any siblings after all. Tomura always had his back when it was serious, though. That was good enough for Izuku.  

That's why Izuku felt like shit. If they got discovered now, it would be 100% his fault, and at least Tomura made up for what he did. Fuck. How was he supposed to fix this? 

Cmon, you're great at solving puzzles. This is the same. Just put the pieces together and find a solution it's the least you could do.

Despite the pounding in his head begging him not to, Izuku got up. Based on the amount of light in his room, he guessed it was probably evening-ish. He tried to ignore the pain by just thinking harder. 

If Hawks was in the area on purpose, that must mean one of two things, they know the League was somewhere in Kamino specifically, or they had pros investigating suspected areas. 

The USJ attack had severely screwed the League over as every hero and their mother was dead set on taking them down. Izuku wasn't about to let that happen. 

Izuku was young, but he wasn't stupid. He knew the League did screwed up things. That's the only reason he agreed to help with the USJ invasion in the first place. He couldn't give two shits about U.A. but he still had morals. He knew Tomura's lack of them. He went on the USJ mission to make sure none of those kids died. Now, the whole plan to kill Allmight still rubbed Izuku the wrong way. Tomura hated him, but the guy was generally considered a good person. Izuku hardly minded that part at all, though. The hero was a pro. He became a hero knowing the risks so if he died that was something he signed up for. Those kids were 15, though. They had no clue what the hell they were getting into. They didn't sign up to die. The game didn't use the same rules when it came to kids.

That's why those broken ribs and wrist Tomura gave him then are still healing. He put his own morals above the league. He doesn't regret stepping in to save that girl, Asui was her name, right? Asui Tsuyu? She has a basic mutation quirk, but the way she uses it is beautiful. She made it pretty far in the sports festival, too, if Izuku remembers correctly.

 Yea, Izuku is glad he stopped Tomura from killing her, even if it was just a momentary stall that he caused, and it was really because of Eraserhead that she didn't die. It made Izuku feel a little less shitty about himself. God, what a hero complex he had; it pissed him off.

Izuku threw himself clumsily into his desk chair as he booted up his computer, begging the thing to be quick for once. 

If he could just check the news, or maybe recover some files from the Hero Commission, he could find a way to fix what he did. 

Once the million year old chunk of circuit boards finally turned on, Izuku wasted no time pulling up every news source he could find. Scanning article after article as quickly as the computer would allow, he finally stumbled upon a title that caught his eye. 

"Top Pro Heroes Paying Unexpected Visits to Unpatrolled Districts! Is the Hero Commission Finally Stepping up to Solve the Rising Crime Problem?" 

Bingo.

Clicking on the article, he read that several commonly unpatrolled and out-of-the-way cities, Kamino, Hosu, The Red Light District, had all had multiple sightings of top ranking pro heroes. 

A small glimmer of hope crept into Izuku's eyes. This was it! They had no confirmation the League was in Kamino. An organized attack in another suspected city would no doubt draw the pros like moths to a flame. 

Izuku scrambled to his shelf and grabbed a notebook from the very bottom where his unused notebooks sat. He immediately got to work brainstorming, waiting up ideas, a plan A-Z of each plan A-Z. 

He didn't even notice the light slowly fading from his room as his work became illuminated by only the glow of his computer. 

As Izuku turned the page to begin writing yet another plan, he noticed he was out of pages. 

Wait, how long had he been at this? Looking at the time on his computer it read 2:12 am. Oh shit- Izuku hadn't even noticed he wasted the day away. He wasn't even tired. Granted, he never really felt tired anymore. Sleep was a privilege he didn't always often get and he learned to be okay with that. It was the same with food, he didn't really ever get hungry, he'd just eat and sleep whenever he remembered to, or—more commonly—when he passed out. 

He flipped through the notebook, eyes intently skimming over each page until they stopped at one. 

With one last careful reread of the plan written on that page, he ripped It out. He shoved his way out of his chair, speeding out of his room and down the hallway towards Tomura’s room.

Izuku’s hand scrunched his hair, this plan seemed like the best he had come up with out of all of them, a coordinated attack in Hosu, it would draw the pros away from Kamino at least for a few weeks and they had plenty of people to spare. 

As Izuku approached the door to Tomura's room he halted. His breathing became shakier; it felt like his heart was trying to beat its way out of his chest. When he stretched his arm forward to grab the door handle he noticed the tremble in his fingers. He was scared. 

Scared of what? Of Tomura? No, that wasn't right. Izuku couldn't be scared of Tomura, sure his brother beat his ass a lot but that's just a sibling thing. 

Izuku mentally cursed himself for being so pathetic. With a firm exhale he twisted the knob and opened the door. 

Tomura sat on his bed in the corner of the room, his knees scrunched Up to his chest. The only illumination in the room came from the door letting light in from the hallway and the Nintendo DS Tomura held, lighting up the man's face. 

“What?” Tomura’s voice was annoyed but not angry, not spiteful or vicious like it had been that morning. 

“You're like a moth…” Izuku remarked, his face pinched up judgmentally. The statement wasn't wrong considering it was plausible to believe he had been sitting in the dark for at least a few hours playing video games.

“Do you need something or are you just being a prick?” Tomura glared at him. Izuku walked further into the room, flipping on the light switch to turn on the dinky lightbulb. Izuku could've sworn he heard Tomura hiss as the light brightened the room. 

“asshole! What the hell is wro-” 

“here.” Izuku sat the three papers in his hand down in front of Tomura. He picked them up–careful to hold one finger away–and scanned over them. 

“The HPSC is sending out pros all around Japan to find us, thought something like this might draw away their attention.” Izuku looked at the floor as he spoke. If Tomura thought it was stupid, well, Izuku didn't really want his face to give it away.

“That's..not a bad idea.” It took Izuku a minute to process the fact he wasn't being insulted. He looked up, his brother's face seemed skeptical but partially Intrigued. 

“You think?” The boy’s face practically lit up as he inched a bit closer. “Like you think It might work?” There was a hopeful tone in his voice that practically made Izuku sick, the positivity felt unnatural. 

Tomura placed the papers down on top of the sheets. “I just said it's not a bad idea, not that we're doing it, chill out. We have other things in the works and that little plan of yours isn't foolproof.” That annoyed tone of his was back which the younger boy almost immediately shut up. Izuku's face flushed as he once again made intent eye contact with the carpet, heat creeping up his cheeks. 

Since when had Tomura cared about things being foolproof, he had done everything impulsively as long as Izuku knew him, what was so different now?

“I don't see a reason it wouldn't work and we have to do something to get the commission off our ass…” Izuku sounded unsure as he spoke, the prior confidence he didn't even really have was completely gone. He cautiously sat down on the edge of Tomura's bed and picked up his notes. Tomura, at the same time, picked up his DS.

As his brother's attention was drawn away by video games Izuku proofread over the papers.

“We could use the Nomu.” Izuku said abruptly. That made Tomura pause. “Y’know… we could use the Nomu instead of people. We have a lot, and that way we don't have to worry about anyone getting hurt.” His voice grew quieter the more he spoke. Tomura remained silent for a long minute. 

With a small scoff and forced eye roll Tomura spoke. “And when do you suggest we do this?” 

Holy. hell. yea. Tomura was actually considering his idea for once. 

“soon probably… maybe within the week? If we wait, we're just giving heroes more time to find us.” The words slipped thoughtlessly from I uku’s mouth as if he had planned the response, well he did plan the response, he planned a lot of responses for various questions, but that was just Izuku’s nervous habit. The papers were plucked from Izuku's hand once more as Tomura took them, looking at them more carefully this time. 

“This Tuesday.” Tomura spoke finally. 

“What?” 

“This. We're doing it this Tuesday.” He repeated. 

“Wait- seriously-?” Izuku couldn't believe what he was hearing. He did something useful, he came up with a plan for the league. Then Izuku paused, there was a reason he had wanted to do it this week specifically not next week.

“Wait… next week is-” He began. 

“The UA internships.” Tomura said a sadistic grin spread across his face. “Trust me I know.” His tone had changed, He was excited. Izuku's face dropped. He knew Tomura had no reservations about hurting kids, but hearing it outloud made Izuku sick. Yes he hated those kids, all of them, but even he didn't want to purposefully /kill/ any of them. (except maybe one.)

“They're kids Tomura-” 

“Kids who like getting in the way.” Tomura cut him off. Izuku gingerly placed the papers down in his lap as the man sat up straighter. 

“You're seriously putting this off because you want revenge? You can't put your pettiness above the actual problem, Tomura.” Izuku turned his head to face his brother, his eyes narrowed. Tomura's face was like a reflection of Izuku’s both boys' minds being made up.

“And yet you run and hide like a bunny when things get tough.” The retaliation hit Izuku right In the gut because he couldn't defend himself from that. He could only grit his teeth and accept it was the truth because he was right, Izuku did run when things got tough. He ran this morning when he was frustrated. He ran from the USJ after Tomura had snapped his wrist. He ran from his old life all because… Kacchan.

Kacchan was the reason he started running. 

Kacchan ruined Izuku. 

Izuku wanted to ruin him back. 

A hand was placed on the younger boy’s shoulder. A four fingered grip. 

“You need to choose, Izuku. This moral high ground you think you have, or your family.” Izuku had a choice. It was one or the other. 

“When did your morals ever save your life?”

The question went straight through Izuku’s heart. Because Tomura was right. Morals never kept him alive, morals never got him anywhere, morals never kept him safe, his family did. Tomura, Sensei, The League. They were his family, they kept him safe, alive, gave him a purpose. When society threw him in the trash, they were there for him. 

So fuck morals.

A grim expression took up Izuku’s face as he accepted his defeat, no. Not defeat, his change of heart. And maybe it was for the worst, but the people who think that are the same people who’d want Izuku dead, so why even care? His family is all he needs. 

“Whatever you say, Tomu-nii.”