He took a deep breath, glancing over at the teen who for some reason was still around him even though their passions were so vastly different. Why was the teen still around him of all people?
The green haired teen next to him wanted to be a hero, even though he didn't appear to have a quirk – and Tenko knew full well that he didn't have a quirk, but Tenko's own uncle; whose hero name was All Might and coincidentally was the teenager's favorite hero; had let it slip a few times when he was over for dinner or lunch with Tenko, about the training the teen was undergoing, and although Tenko himself wasn't part of the hero business, he could add something like that up and get the answer pretty easily -however now Izuku did and for better or worse, depending on how you looked at it, the teenager was going to go through with his dream.
Being a hero.
Tenko Shimura knew that being a hero was a hard job, how could he not when he had been raised by Gran Torino, who had warned him of all types of different heroes, villains and incidents that could kill him. As well as helping him work on his quirk to defend himself should it come to it, although that wasn't what Tenko wanted from his life, but he appreciated the sentiment though and at least he could defend himself if no heroes were around to save him or others, and of course if there was little chance that he would hurt any bystanders by doing so.
The old man had meant well, he had thought that the boy would follow in his grandmother's footsteps and be a hero like her, but he had no ambition for that kind of thing.
No, he was too full of anxiety and far too nervous to even consider such a thing. The mere thought of fighting someone was enough to make him be drenched in a cold sweat. He was fine with never being a hero, and he had worried too much about Gran Torino when he went out on patrol when he was younger and although later he had learned exactly what the older man did, courtesy of a babysitter who never realized that the young Tenko knew little about what Gran Torino was doing outside those walls. In fact the old man had been very devious in keeping the hero work separate from his ability to raise a child, who had been messed up in the head due to a neglected and rather tragic start at life.
Tenko could look back on that time of his life, when he learnt the truth, and although he had been pissed off at the old man, enraged even, letting his quirk destroy many chairs, pillows and a coffee table which had scared the babysitter to such an extreme that the old man had to hire a student from UA to look after him, but as an adult Tenko understood and respected the man for being able to balance out his life, to do what he enjoyed doing and yet still take care of the grandson of his old friend.
Then Gran Torino retired, claiming that the younger generation could take up the hard work, there was more of them now after all. Although Tenko was fairly certain that the old man never really retired, he had a theory that he just took a large step back from the spot light.
And then of course there was All Might, his 'uncle' of sorts and who was the main concern/worry that Tenko had in his mind, particularly after that nasty fight with what the public thought was Toxic Chainsaw… or as he knew it All for One, the man who had attempted to kidnap him. Twice.
The second time had been the reason how All Might was badly injured. Tenko shuddered at the memory, he had almost been taken away from the only people who cared about him by the villain, who had very nearly won and then something happened. He wasn't sure what, but All Might pushed through the pain, ignoring the fact that his insides were slowly becoming part of the outside and just viciously attacked All for One once Tenko had managed to break free of the chains that he had been imprisoned in with his quirk. The memory was horrible, the nightmares were worse and Tenko had refused to leave All Might's side while he was in hospital, although he had been coaxed away to have a shower and get dressed in clean clothes by the nurses, but he barely ate or slept in that time, which had a few of the nurses fussing over him at the same time as they were checking in on All Might's stats every few hours.
He shivered as he remembered that man, that villain. He had seemed so charming, and worse still was that part of him thought that he would have gone with him, however he had been raised by a hero; Gran Torino taught him well, everything the man was saying, even if the words were laced with charm and friendliness, there was still something off about him. The vibe around him just didn't feel right and he sent a quick message to All Might and Gran Torino before he was caught off guard and chained up, almost forced to join the villain.
He pushed those thoughts away, after all they were in the past now… although the nightmares still came every so often, particularly if he was feeling down about himself, or his lot in life, or even envious regarding Izuku being able to focus totally on his goal of being a hero.
Yet in regard to All for One, both he and Gran Torino warned All Might that his heir had to know the truth, because All for One was the biggest bad out there, the worst of the worst, a villain that couldn't be compared to any other because in a sense, he was the first villain. For Izuku to remain ignorant of that fact? It was foolish.
Yet both remained silent about it, although Tenko found it hard, considering when he had nightmares and wanted to talk to his friend about it, he couldn't. He couldn't even speak to the two men who raised him about it, because they were heroes and from what he understood, they had a different way of coping with these kinds of things.
Yet here he was hanging out with the young would-be hero on his day off, just sitting in the park and relaxing after having some lunch that Izuku's mother had made for them.
"You know, your quirk would be brilliant for rescue work." Izuku commented suddenly which caused Tenko to look at him in confusion.
"What?" he blinked at him, wondering how that cropped up, although he needn't have wondered that. He had a rough idea of how Izuku's brain worked, it was how he impressed All Might and how he got through UA while still learning to control One for All.
"Your quirk, because it decay's things it would be really handy for people who are trapped or stuck under rubble." He elaborated rather simply, and the older man nodded slowly in understanding before frowning.
"Er, not really." He started and noticed the confused look on his younger friend's face. "I met up with Thirteen and we spoke about it. Not that I thought about being a hero!" He added though Izuku just smiled at him, understanding that they probably got onto the topic because Tenko accidently decayed something in front of Thirteen and it opened the conversation. "But, they said that while my quirk would be handy to free people from difficult situations, trapped tunnels and stuff, on injured people stuck under rubble?" He spotted how Izuku's eyes lit up, probably because he had been talking about Thirteen's advice in regard to his own quirk, and Izuku was a fan boy of all heroes, it was just that his main favorite out of all of them was All Might. "My quirk would make their injuries worse, they might get infected faster because of me. So, no I wouldn't really make that great a rescue hero."
Tenko had told Izuku a few times that he enjoyed what he did, true he wasn't a hero and it wasn't exactly glamorous, no one would praise him for it, but it kept him away from people and his job did affect people, it just wasn't that obvious. Besides it paid the bills and kept him fed, what more could he ask for really? It had also been helpful when his uncle had Izuku train down at the illegal dumping ground at the beach, it meant that he could easily decay all the rubbish without having to take it all back to the yard.
"Oh." Izuku looked downcast when he realized that situation was very likely to happen, and how had he not thought of it himself? "I never thought about that. I suppose that is a point…" he began to mumble to himself and pull out his notebook, one that Tenko spotted was called Civilian's, though it was confusing, why would the boy have a note book regarding people who couldn't legally use their quirk the same way as heroes could?
He smiled at the boy who was mumbling, it had unnerved him to begin with, causing him to scratch at his neck viciously as he tried to find certain words to break Izuku's concentration from mumbling to himself. Now though he realized that this helped Izuku think and focus his thoughts in regards to other people's quirks and how he had so badly missed the mark with Tenko's own quirk.
"Izuku, I don't need to be a hero." He told him, and the green haired teen looked over at him in surprise, stopping his constant mumbling and note taking. "I mean think about it, there are so many people out in the world who had amazing quirks but aren't heroes. Take your mother for example." He decided to bring Inko Midoriya into the conversation, not because he hoped it would give Izuku a wakeup call with his schedule of punishing training, but because Inko was a woman whose company he actively enjoyed and he liked hearing about her job, even if at times it made him feel rather anxious, he didn't fully understand how she could do such a job, yet that just made him respect her even more. "She's a hero, she raised you after all."
Izuku blushed at that. "Yea… yea she did, and by herself too."
Tenko didn't understand why Inko's husband wouldn't be around, or indeed come around to visit his family, but he never asked, he couldn't ask, not when she was laughing and smiling when she told him a story regarding her son, or something silly that had happened at work.
"I'll be honest, I'm envious of you. I'd love to have a mother like her." He admitted and then realized what he had actually said out loud and blushed. "I mean…"
"Yea, I know, she's pretty great. I know she misses your chats, she was wondering why you haven't been round for a while." Izuku commented and Tenko felt himself become flustered.
"I… I…" He tried to focus, this was something that he knew would come up in conversation, and yet no matter how many times he tried to prepare for it, he clearly failed.
"Tenko? It's okay, she's just was wondering if you'd like to visit on your next day off."
He let out a breath and nodded. "Yea, I would like that. Um, tell her thanks for lunch too, I appreciate it." His blush began to calm down now once he realized that Izuku wasn't annoyed at him, nor thought he was trying to say something more than wishing that he had a caring nurturing mother. Maybe if he had that as well as Gran Torino he wouldn't be as anxious as he was now. Maybe.
"Sure. You know you can talk to either of us about anything right?" He reminded him, and the older teen nodded solemnly.
"I know… I had better get going, don't want the old man to worry about me." He pulled Izuku into a quick hug, something that he didn't commonly do, but considering the conversation they just had, he felt that perhaps the younger teen needed it, overlooking the fact that somewhere in his mind was screaming at him that he needed this kind of contact more, that he needed this basic reassurance that he wasn't worthless and he was important in some way.
That his avoidance of Inko Midoryia wasn't just due to him fearing that he was being humored by the woman because he was a lonely young man, a man who was just a civilian with a quirk that could easily kill someone if he wasn't careful with his hands.
The only person who knew about his insecurity in that regard was the old man, Gran Torino, who had told him that he was an idiot. It wasn't the most helpful of advice, yet he kept coming back to it and realizing that, he was right.
As he walked home he realized that with Izuku asking him to visit his mother, and Gran Torino calling him an idiot, it all clicked to place. Inko liked having him around to talk, she didn't look like she spoke to many people aside from the parents of Izuku's friends and Tenko really didn't have a link to her son apart from All Might and even then, it was pretty clear that he wasn't a big hero fan. She had been able to speak to him about her fears regarding Izuku's training, and although she was pleased with her son's vision of being a hero coming to light, she was afraid what that might mean. He tried to assure her that her fears, while well founded, weren't something to worry about all the time, after all the worst he'd seen Gran Torino come back home from patrol was scratches. Granted All Might was another level, but from what he understood and had seen for himself, Izuku would need more time to reach those levels.
He sighed as he came into his home and heading to his room, realizing that he was selfish for keeping away from the woman who seemed to listen to him and his rather boring life, even if she didn't completely understand what he was talking about.
Reaching for his phone, he sent Inko a quick message, letting her know that he appreciates the food he made himself and Izuku and that he would be free to see her later on in the week if she was okay with that.
Lying down on the bed he had to remind himself that he needed to work on his friendships, he couldn't expect other people to do the work for him, or indeed for them to be mind-readers. He had to put the effort into it and looking at the message he received back from the woman, a smile appeared on his face, knowing that he had at least one civilian friend who would understand the frustration of being around heroes who were heedless to the worry they placed on their loved ones.
