Shouta Aizawa-Yagi

Slowly the police, and the few investigators he'd been able to get a hold of at this hour, trickled out of the Midoriya apartment. It was just nearing three in the morning when he found himself sitting on Izuku's makeshift bed.

The boy's room, if you could even call it that, was a depressing sight to see. He could tell how much the boy treasured the small space he had. The care he put in to the things he seemingly built himself. He made sure that after all the evidence and pictures that were needed were taken, he cleaned up the small room to the best of his abilities. Taking mental notes of the things that seemed like it would be of importance to the small boy. His mind decided that he'd be packing up everything except the tattered clothes, the bed, makeshift desk. The blanket and pillow weren't given a second glance.

He searches around the small apartment for a suitcase or box to put the child's belongings in but comes up short. He was about to say 'fuck it' and just put what little there was in to one of the bags he'd found when he heard noises coming from the living room. Swift and silent steps were taken to the front door.

There was a man standing just inside the door way leading to the living room with a blank face that was only betrayed by his eyes. There was disgust, rage and most prominently there was sadness. The man's figure was shaking like a leaf but Shouta doubted that it was from the temperature in the room. He stood tall in the door way, taking in the entire scene. Light brown, spiky hair. Light brown eyes. Narrow nose turned up in barely concealed anger.

"How much of this was his doing?" The steady voice was not expected but Shouta took it in stride.

"That stain in front of you when he had Izuku on his back, scorch marks over there when they transferred him into quirk cuffs, the spatter across the back of Izuku's door from what I'm sure we'll find out about soon enough, the chair that's half burnt over there in the kitchen when he'd hyper extended his quirk to break free of my scarf. There's more evidence on Izuku than in the apartment." Shouta eyes the man as he speaks, watching his reactions as he pointed everything out. Giving him the quick gist of what all happened without going too in to detail. He has a feeling he knows who this man is but doesn't want to give anything more than what he knows will end up in the papers tomorrow in case he's wrong.

The brunette takes a deep steadying breath as he looks down to the half dried, small pool of blood just in front of his feet. That was when his mask finally broke.

A sob ripped from his throat and he all but dropped to his knees in front of the blood Izuku left behind.

"Where did we go wrong? How did we go so wrong?" The words were muffled into his hands when he brought them up to scrub at his face. "We read all the books and gave him all the love he could ever want or need! Mitsuki was always quick to clip the tantrums at the source with patience. Taught him forgiveness and to "do onto others as you would want them to you" and all that jazz." A choked off cry cuts off his rant.

Shouta stands in the hallway leading to the bedrooms, letting his eyes roam around the room to give the man a moment to collect himself without the feeling of being watched. His attention is brought back when the crying comes to a stop.

"We fucked up somewhere along the way and Bee is the one paying the consequences of it. I know for a fact he'll never blame us but there's never going to be a day that goes by where I don't think about the fact that my son almost killed his soulmate, one of the sweetest little boys I've ever met, just because he doesn't have quirk." The empty and resigned voice strikes a cord in Shouta.

"At some point kids start making their own decisions. No matter what you teach them or what paths you try to show them, they're still their own person. There's only so much that a parent can do." Shouta takes the few steps over to the man that was still on his knees in front of the blood pool, before placing a hand on his shoulder. "There's a time where the child's choices in life stop being your responsibility and it becomes their own." He waits till the man looks up at him to finish.

"From what you just told me, this," he takes a second to gesture to the blood in front of them, "was not from what you taught him. This was his choice. It was the wrong choice, yes, but his personal choice. It sounds like you and your wife did everything within your power to raise a respectful and kind young man. I'm sorry that his choices took him down a darker path." His voice as genuine as he can make it, he sees that the brunette takes his words to heart even if he seems to have a hard time swallowing the truth.

After being a teacher for a wide range of children from grammar school to doing two semesters at a university in a class for quirk developments, he's seen enough kids grow up and be involved in their lives to understand the struggle parents go through. Understand that the majority of parents put their heart and soul into making sure their kids become upstanding citizens in the world. Those parents are the ones that take on the most guilt when those kids they tried to instill goodness in, turned into villains or went on to live corrupt lives.

He hopes that the blonde find his way back to the teachings his parents seemed to have taught him but at the moment, Shouta really just wants to deck the little motherfucker. Not even having been with the green child for all that long, he feels a protectiveness over him that just sets his nerves on fire. Particularly when his thoughts drifted to the endless possibilities that could have happened to him before Nori found him and offered him training and sanctuary.

How much has the child been subjected to, to have a constant awareness and tension held in him? To always be on guard and near terrified of his own shadow? How much of that is a result of his apparent soulmate torturing him? Of his mother abusing him? Could Izuku even tell the differences anymore? Or did it all just register as pain now?

They both take deep breaths. Shouta to calm the rage that's been simmering just under his skin since he stepped out of the truck. He watches as the breath rolls through Mr. Bakugou to settle the shaking he had going on at the very least marginally.

Shouta helps the man back to his feet and they both step over the blood stain to make it further into the apartment. Since the front door had been taken off of it's hinges when he kicked it in, the living area had time to air out. It was better than what it originally smelled like, which he's grateful for.

"Masaru Bakugou." Shouta is finally given the man's name and was thankful to find he was right in his assumptions. Though it would be pretty hard to connect him with anyone else when he was talking about Katsuki like his son.

"Shouta Aizawa. Eraser Head is my pro name." He offers back and sees amusement come to light in the man's red rimmed eyes.

"Oh I know." The comment doesn't catch him off guard as much as it should. Yeah, he's an underground pro hero, but that doesn't mean he's completely hidden from the world. His name pops up in various news articles and in recent years at the U.A. Sports Festival that he helped operate and sometimes co-hosted with Present Mic. Regardless there's a slight smugness to the man's voice that he raises an eyebrow at. Thankfully Masaru elaborates without Shouta prompting him. "You're Izuku's idol. He's looked up to you since he was barely about to stand above my knee. I know more about you than I've ever really wanted to know." It's hard to make Shouta blush but he's coming close to it. What in the hell does Izuku, and by extension the people he's shared his observations with, know about him? "It's hard to tune out Bee when he gets excited." The smile that was on his face while he was talking slipped off.

Shouta is beyond curious about what this little group of people know about him but he can see that the brunette is not up for sharing anything further at the moment. He'll try to ask Izuku when he's in better shape than what he'd last seen him. Maybe those notebooks he'd found might have some information he's looking for? He'll have to ask Izuku if he can look through them. His investigative bones are itching but he refuses to break any type of trust he may have built with the boy. If he was going to become the boy's guardian and hopefully one day adoptive parent, he'll need to keep the trust and sense of "safe" intact.

Instead he'll just turn the conversation elsewhere.

"You wouldn't happen to have something to pack Izuku's things into, would you?" He asks Masaru, who makes like he was startled out of deep thought.

"Um. Actually, we might have something in the trunk."

Izuku Midoriya

Izuku was in the process of trying to find a healthy medium between laying back and sitting up when he heard the first cough come from All Might.

Who was still in his Pro Hero form.

He shot a worried glance at the man, who waved him off and proceeded to try and help him and Aunt Suki set up pillows behind his back. It was a weird angle he found himself in with his right leg elevated on several stacked pillows at the foot of his bed, his broken left arm in a temporary cast, and his ribs and back being set against the soft, yet firm, pillows behind him.

He felt like a half folded taco.

The sigh he lets out from finally finding a comfortable position to stay in gets overshadowed by his worry as another cough comes from All Might. "You don't have to stay, All Might." He tries to put on a brave face and steel his voice but the crack near the end betrayed him. He didn't want to be any weaker than he already was but the thought of All Might leaving the room was sending a flash of fear and anxiety through him. Sure, he'd still have Aunt Suki in the room but he hadn't seen her for any amount of extended time in so many years. If he was being completely honest with himself he was just waiting for the other shoe to drop from the older female Bakugou.

She had to have been feeling angry with him for what happened with her son. Right?

As if All Might could read his thoughts a warm, firm hand was placed on his relatively uninjured knee. "I want to be here for you, young Midoriya."

"But what abou-" Izuku's worries were cut off with a shake of the blonde's head.

"You're safety and peace of mind are more important than any secret I may have." The sincerity that was being shone brightly at him confused him.

"I'm not worth all that, though." He couldn't understand why All Might would put himself in jeopardy over him. If people knew that he didn't actually look or possess the strength he always seemed to have, then he'd be made a target by more than multiple villains. Bowing his head to stare at wrist in a splint was all he could do to keep his tears from being shown to the room. He doesn't even know why he's crying at the moment but he wants to keep them to himself. With his head bowed though he didn't get to see the hurt and anger that passed by on All Might and his Aunt Suki's faces.

"Izuku." All Might's voice trailed off in a near desperate note.

Toshinori Aizawa-Yagi

'I'm not worth all that' played in his mind so several tense moments before he was able to settle his anger at the situation. With all that the child has experienced in his short life, there's no doubt in Toshinori's mind that told him Izuku was telling him anything other than what he thought of himself.

'He really thinks he's not worth as much as he actually is.' It didn't take Toshinori more than maybe a total of three seconds before coming to a conclusion on what he needed to do. Actions do speak much louder than any words he could come up with. It's how he's come to earn the respect and trust through the world he has now.

With actions. Showing what he wanted to people to know when words failed him.

With that thought firmly in place he takes his eyes off of the near crippled boy in the bed to look up at the blonde mother on the other side of the bed. His gaze must have been a hard one because it catches her attention before he's able to call for it on his own. "Might want to take a seat for this one."

Izuku's pseudo aunt looked at him confused before silently sitting down in the seat she'd claimed when she first got to the room.

On his next deep breath in he felt his control over his form fail him. He turned his head just in time for the inevitable spray of blood to miss the hospital bed. The only reason that it happens is because his lung capacity is increased with his Pro Form so the build up of blood that's sitting in his lungs all comes out at once. He's long since come to terms with not being able to do much about it. He's tried so many times before to hold it in his mouth till he's able to spit it out in a trash can but the times he's tried he's just wound up nearly choking on it.

Now he keeps small, throw away bags on his person and in his pro hero suit. Which is what he'd dug out of his pocket seconds before he took the deep breath that pushed him past his limit. And was currently spitting the last bit of blood in his mouth into.

He felt the pain in his abdomen and chest ease slightly now that the strain of keeping his larger form in place was released. The pain was still there and always would be, but it was much easier to ignore when he wasn't in 'All Might Mode' and was just Toshinori.

Taking a few steadying breaths and wiping his mouth of any excess blood, he finally looks up to the woman that was across from him. She was sitting in the chair with a blank expression that he couldn't decipher.

"It's a lot to take in, I know, but I'm not leaving the room till Izuku asks me too. I trust you'll keep all of this," he gestures to himself then struggles to find the right analogy, "on the down low." He settled on the most recent one he'd heard Izuku's friend, Monoma, say to him. He hopes that the seemingly mutual care of and worry over the small boy between them will be enough for the woman to understand what exactly he's offering to her.

His trust. His most well kept and important secret. His open affections of a vulnerable person.

If any of this were to get out to any type of press, he'd be dragged through hell and back in more than a few ways. If any of this were to get out, then Izuku would be made an even bigger target than his quirkless standing already made him.

A firm nod was sent his way with a look a understanding to match it. She was up and moving around the bed with a tissue in her hand before he was able to say anything otherwise.

"You've been helping Izuku where I couldn't. I owe you and Eraser Head so much more than just keeping your secrets to myself. I'll be eternally grateful for both of you for protecting him. Your secrets are safe with me." Her voice was quiet, words almost sounding like a soft hum, as she confided in him and wiped a few drops of blood off his mouth that he seemed to miss.

"Thank you." Relief flood through him. He was taking a big chance on revealing himself to someone he'd just met today but he was happy with the results he received. Then something dawned on him. "Wait. Secrets? As in more than one?" The smirk on the woman's face was warm and amused but that didn't settle his confusion one bit.

Izuku Midoriya

All Might just showed his true form to Aunt Suki.

For him.

What?

The confusion and emotions running through him were going to fast and all at once for him to actually understand them.

The first thing he came to terms with, which he should have already known really, was that All Might really cared about him. None of it was an act to just pass his quirk on to someone. He wasn't offering him a place to live out of some weird kind of sense of obligation. Wasn't showing him kindness because he's been deemed worthy of his quirk. Which something else entirely that he didn't want to touch at the moment.

The second thing he came to terms with was the fact that Aunt Suki was willing to burn the world down for him. He remembers the blank looks she used to give him and Katsuki when they made actual bad decisions or when she'd caught Katsuki being overtly mean to him. That was her rage showing in it's truest form.

A blank face that took you off guard for her to strike as fast as a viper. It was a terrifying look that he'd really forgotten about till just then. His aunt was really ready to fight with the number one pro hero of Japan if he was about to make a move against him.

For him.

None of this is making sense.

Aunt Suki doesn't even have a quirk that would help her in her mission to take down the pro. She had a quirk that turned her sweat into some kind of chemical that he didn't have the brain power to to remember at the moment. His head was already throbbing with both the information it was trying to process and the concussion he was told he had.

The last thing he came to realize and terms with was the fact that both All Might and Aunt Suki were coming up with some kind of plans that involved him.

Right in front of him.

Without saying a single word.

It was a sight to see. He'd only ever really seen that type of communication between his aunt and uncle, pros that had worked with each other for a long time and soulmates that had completed their bond.

Even he and Katsuki had a silent type of way with communicating with each other. Their bond had completed when they were younger, not too long after they found out that they were each other's soulmate.

It's not entirely too hard to complete a soulmate bond, especially not for the two when they were younger. To complete a soulmate bond there has to be near constant skin to skin contact for twenty-four hours. Since the two were best friends at such a young age and sleeping over at each other's houses and playing with each other daily, it was a pretty simple task to accomplish.

Neither sets of parents found much trouble in allowing the bond to be completed since there was no indication that Izuku or Katsuki were going to be allowing the other out of their sights for any foreseeable future. There was also the trouble that Inko had brought up of 'They're going to do it anyway. May as well supervise the bond and give blessings.' Any reluctance that the Bakugous had spoke about were overshadowed by the fact Inko had brought up. She was right. They would had completed the bond regardless of what their parents had said. They had been young but they had it in their heads that there wouldn't be a single thing that could ever get between them to make them regret completing their bond.

Hindsight was always a bitch with 20/20 vision.

"...in more than one?" The question brought him back to the here and now. 'More than one what?'

"Just one other one. Eraser Head was the one to tell me. I was worried about letting Izuku come to the hospital by himself but Eraser Head assured me that his husband would be taking good care him and wouldn't leave his side." Aunt Suki gave All Might a grateful look before moving back to her seat.

"Husband?" He couldn't help but voice his confusion. "Wait you guys aren't in the 'dancing around each other' stage? You guy's are actually married? Oh wow I wasn't expecting that one. I knew you guys were together with how you both acted towards each other and look at each other but I didn't realize you guys tied the knot then again neither of you have rings or ring lines on your fingers like most married couples do which probably has something to do with both of your statuses in the hero community and keep Eraser Head's personal relationships out of public view would make his underground work much easier to go about while keeping your personal relationships out of the papers and tabloids would keep Eraser safer and less of a target than he already is an-' A sniffle to his right cuts off his start of an analysis.

His Aunt Suki was watching him with tears in her eyes and watery smile on her face. His eyes widen and he's quick to reach out for her hand with his least damaged hand.

"Wait, no. Did I say something? I'm sorry. Please don't cry." He squeezes her hand trying to give as much comfort as he could. He's always hated when people cried. Tears meant something hurt and the last thing he wanted was for his aunt to be in any more pain than she already clearly was.

"No, Bee. You didn't do anything wrong. These are happy tears. It's been so long since I've bared witness to your frankly adorable rambling." A few tears streaked down her cheeks that were quickly wiped away with her free hand that was sitting on top of their clasped ones. "I was just reminded of a few nice memories I have. That's all, Sweetheart."

The term of endearment had him nearly jolting out of his skin. "Oh shit." His voice was almost frantic as he looked around the room rapidly. "Where's my phone? Toto's going to flip his shit. Oh he's going to be so mad." That comment had him stopping in his tracks. "He's going to want blood." He whispers his last observation before his attention was pulled towards his aunt.

"I don't know who this "Toto" is but he won't be coming anywhere nea-"

"No, no Aunty. Toto won't be after my blood. He's not going to be upset with me." He tells her confidently. If there's one thing in this world that he knows without a second doubt, is that Neito Monoma would never hurt him intentionally. He's done it on accident maybe a handful of times since they met but he'd always done everything he could to make it up to him.

Thoughts and feelings that can be processed at a later time.

"Oh! Are you talking about that nice young man that called me the other day? Monoma, was it?" She looked from him to All Might and got head nods from both of them. "Oh, I like him, Bee."

"Oh yes. Young Monoma is quite the protector of Izuku. He's been doing a lot with helping Young Midoriya. He's quite the admirable gentleman, if I do say." All Might put in his own comments and thoughts about Izuku's best friend.

A weight he didn't even know that was on his shoulders lifted. He'd always known that his best friend was an amazing person but to have two people he cares about validate his own thoughts was comforting. But still...

"I need to let him know what happened. We don't keep secrets like this from each other. Even if I'm the one that's normally getting hurt." The last part was whispered under his breath but he was pretty sure the adults had heard it, if the hitch in their breaths was any indication.

"Here. Use my phone till Shouta gets here and we're able to bring you back to the house." All Might hands over his phone and Izuku gives him a questioning look when he finds that Toto's number was already programmed into the phone. "I figured if I was going to be training both of you, I might as well have his number as well. I also have it in case of emergencies. Such as this one." All Might gestured around the room and Izuku took that as a good enough answer. He feels like there's more there but he doesn't want to push it any.

Izuku pressed the call button next to Toto's name and brought the phone up to his ear.

It only took two rings before the line was picked up by his friend's frantic questions.

"All Might! Have you talked to Izzy? I can't get a hold of him! I have a feeling something happened! He always, always, calls or texts me by 11:30 before he goes to sleep! Something has to be wr-" He cuts off his friend before he could work himself up any further.

"Toto! It's me. Not All Might." The line goes quite before he hears a quite sob come through the line.

"You scared the fuck out of me, Izzy. I thought you died." His friend's voice cracks and falters by the end of his admission. Izuku lets the tears he was holding back go and leans into his Aunt who stands up to bring him into a soft side hug.

"I'm sorry, Toto. I didn't mean to scare you." He tries to hold back the small sob that makes it's way up his throat and mostly succeeds.

The two sit on the line together for a moment just crying quietly with each other. Letting relief wash over both of them. Izuku's body sagged as tension left his body at the sound of Neito's voice. He'd always called the blonde after a rough day with Katsuki. He wished he could get a hug from the boy now but it was almost four in the morning and Toto was already going to be heading to school with little to no sleep. He didn't need to drag his friend out of his home just so he could come comfort him.

There was some shuffling before Toto spoke up once more. "Wait. Why are you using All Might's phone?"

Izuku takes in a deep breath and looks around to his Aunt and All Might before accepting their presence and strength.

"About that Toto." Another deep breath. "I'm in the hospital right now."