Izuku

"They aren't handling the situation very well." Shoto comments from beside me.

"Their quirks aren't compatible, but that's not an excuse." It was on one of our daily 'runs' that my intuition led us to a crowd of people watching a few heroes fighting a villain that looks like a sentient blob of sludge. To make matters worse, the villain has a hostage.

"LET GO OF ME YOU FUCKER!" And because the world is definitely conspiring against me, the hostage is Bakugou of all people. Who hasn't stopped screaming obscenities the entire time, and is likely trying to explode the villain from the inside if the violently bursting bubbles where his hands would be is any indication.

It's funny, in an ironic sort of way. Before I remembered, Bakugou always seemed so invincible. Even when he picked fights with the older kids, he won more often than not. So, it's a little jarring to see him reduced to a victim, I guess this proves he just a kid with no real experience.

The sludge rises up to cover his mouth and nose, cutting off the start of his next tirade mid scream. Bakugou struggles harder, his face turning red with exertion and oxygen deprivation. And the heroes are still doing a whole lot of nothing.

"He going to suffocate by the time they actually get their act together." I whine.

"Are you…?" It's not the first time we've run into trouble while we were out. Shoto is both resigned and amused at my ability to attract trouble.

"Yeah" I complain, not wanting to get caught up with this. "He'll likely die if I don't."

I build up my flames and release them on the villain and Bakugou. The effect is pretty much instantaneous. They both slump to the ground, the sludge falls off Bakugou to form a puddle underneath him. The heroes quickly get Bakugou, who is currently occupied hacking up sludge, which ewww, out of the way and to a paramedic while they argue about the best way to contain the villain.

"Let's get out of here." Before the heroes notice something, or worse Bakugou does. We head back to a bench we passed on our way. I collapse back on to it and let my head rest against the back.

"You ok?" He asks sitting next to me.

"Yeah, just a little tired. I got called out last night to help with a situation, I'm running on like 3 hours of sleep. Why people think kidnapping is a good idea is beyond me."

"You didn't have to come." I tilt my head to look at him, he's got a vaguely guilty expression.

"Don't be stupid." I huff lightly whack his arm, "I wanted to."

And that small smile he gives me is totally worth the exhaustion.

"Just don't overdo it."

"I'll be careful." I assure him, when my intuition alerts me to someone approaching us.

"You handled the situation well." The man comments. Shoto startles slightly beside me, and I narrow my eyes in thought. He knows I did something.

"Well, Bakugou may be an unbearable asshole, but he doesn't deserve to die. He would have suffocated if the heroes kept twiddling their thumbs."

I pull myself up. And wow does this guy looks rough. He's really tall, but so thin it looks unhealthy and it isn't helped by the fact he wears clothes that are latterly hanging off of him. His hair is a scraggily blond that sticks up like bad bed hair. All in all, he looks like he's about to keel over from a gust of wind.

"You knew the hostage?" He asks.

My face pulls into a grimace. "You could say that he's my five-year-old."

I cast a quick side glance at Shoto, who pulls a similar face. The man is obviously confused by my response but doesn't push.

"How'd you notice it was me anyways?"

"Your eyes change colors when you used your quirk. And while I'll commend you for acting, you should leave it to the pros in the future. You could get into real trouble if someone saw you." In other words, he's not going to do anything.

"Thank you for your concern, I'm sorry, what's your name?"

"Yagi Toshinori. I'm All Might's secretary." That's a lie but seeing as he doesn't have any ill intentions towards us, I won't call him on it.

"I'm Midoriya Izuku."

"Todoroki Shoto." Yagi-san eyes widen with recognition.

"Your one of Endeavors kids."

Shoto scowls, as always unhappy about being called out on his relationship with Endeavor.

"Wait kids?! As in plurar? I didn't know you had siblings!" I fake surprise, saving him from having to respond. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Most of them have moved out, and Fuyumi isn't home when you come over." He gives me a grateful look.

I hum, "Introduce me to them?"

"Eventually."

"Anyways," I turn my attention back to Yagi-san. "Thanks for looking out for us, but we both have a temporary provisional license."

"Already? Aren't you both a little young for that?"

"Yeah, Shoto helps his father on patrol, and I help out the police department with Erasurehead due to the nature of my quirk."

"That's quite impressive. I take it you'll both be attending a hero school?"

"I'm taking the recommended student exam for UA this coming school year. What about you Izuku?"

"I'm going to UA as well; I don't know what exam I'll be taking though." If I'll even be taking one at all, I'm too dangerous to leave alone so whatever they decide will just be a formality. "I guess it depends on how spiteful Erasurehead's feeling."

"Spiteful" Yagi-san asks bewildered.

"Yeah, he keeps on going on about inflicting me on the general masses."

Shoto sagely nods "You are really annoying to fight."

"I take offense to that." I pout, I'm not that bad.

"But it's true? I can barely keep up with you, and I've been training for years"

Yagi-san laughs, breaking off the coming argument. "I'm sure you two will become great heroes, I'm looking forward to see you at the sport festival."

I beam at him. "Thanks!"

"Well, I've got to get going. Be more careful in the future."

"We will." He waves as he walks off.

"That was odd." Shoto comments once Yagi-san was out of sight.

"He was nice though."

"Yeah… Hey Izuku I've been thinking."

"About what?"

"I don't want to use my fire at UA."

I take a deep breath. "Why?"

"I don't want to give him the satisfaction, I want to prove that I can be a hero even without his quirk." I close my eyes in thought. I really want to punch something right now. Preferably Endeavor.

"You're an idiot." I mumble. "I'm sorry if this offends you, but I have to ask. Do you even want to be a hero?"

"Of course, I do!"

"I had to make sure it wasn't your father pushing you into it." I sigh. Now, how to convince him that crippling himself isn't the best way to get back at his asshole of a father.

"What about you?"

I give a weak laugh. "No. I don't really want to be a hero."

He gives me a shocked look.

"Is it really that surprising? I'm selfish. Between some stranger and someone I cared about; I'd abandon the stranger every time. And even I can admit my morals are pretty skewed. That's part of the reason Eraserhead keeps such a close eye on me." I shake my head and give him a wry smile. "I'm not a hero Shoto."

"You're the idiot." He tells me, his hands clutched white. This is probably the most emotive I've seen him. "You can't walk away from some one in trouble. You stood up to my father! No one else even noticed what was going on or didn't do anything if they did. You literally showed up on my house and strong armed that asshole into letting you be my friend! Hell, you just save someone you don't even like!" He's yelling at me now, eyes glistening. "If that's not a hero, then I don't know what is."

He scrubs his face, leaving me astonished.

"Then I guess we're both idiots." I say after he's gotten control of himself.

"You're the bigger idiot."

"Sure, sure." I agree, not looking for another fight. "You know? I kind of hate my quirk too. It only awakened last year."

"That's really late."

"Isn't it? Anyways, I was quirkless for 12 years, the only memory of my father I have is him abandoning my mother and I when I was diagnosed. My mother became a stranger, and my best friend started tormenting me. And I still wanted nothing more than to be a hero." I sigh. "People laughed when I told them that. They told me I'd never amount to anything. Over the years the bullying got worse," I pushed up my sleeve, he gasps at the sight of all the scars.

"I tried to hide all the injuries at first, before I realized that no one cared. They knew what was happening, they just didn't care enough to do anything about it. And then my quirk activated when I got held hostage. I was so excited at first, I could finally be a hero people would stop treating me worse than dirt. I naively thought having a quirk would make everything better." A bitter laugh escapes me.

"It didn't. The first thing my mother told me when I woke up in the hospital was 'now that you have a quirk, you won't be useless anymore.' She wasn't worried about me at all."

"It was then I realized having a quirk changed nothing. It didn't change the years of neglect and abuse. Or the fact that everyone had just let it happen. It left me bitter, so I hid my quirk. Let her think it was a mistake. And everything went back to the way it was before. I ran into Erasurehead several times soon after. He noticed something wasn't right and stepped in. I was placed in his custody; the school was investigated, and the main offender of the bullying was punished."

"So yeah, I kind of hate my quirk." Even as Tsuna, I couldn't help but hate my flames. "But, they also led me to meeting Aizawa-san and you, so I don't consider it all bad."

"I don't understand what your trying to tell me." He scrunches his eyebrows together.

"I mean, it's ok to hate your quirk. Just don't forget the good things that came with it."

"I can't think of any."

"Without your fire, I wouldn't have been able to convince Endeavor so easily. I mean, I still would have done it, it just would have been a lot harder."

"I guess." He responds drearily.

"Haa…" I shake my head in defeat, I'm not going to get anywhere with him like this. "It's your quirk Shoto. I won't tell you what to do with it, just think about it some more before you go and do something as drastic as crippling yourself."

"My quirk?" He mumbles under his breath.

"Of course." I glance at him incredulously, "Who's else would it be?"

He sits there intensely staring at the ground in deep thought.

"Hey Izuku?"

"Hmm?"

"We're both idiots." I drop my shoulders in relief,

"Ha, yeah. Yeah we are."

"You're still the bigger idiot." He mocks playfully.

"I will hit you." I half heartedly threaten.