Down the Rabbit Hole
Protection
"Is it really witness protection if you're basically just watching your boyfriend?" Slicer hums into the comm, and while some of her comments are way off base, this one is on point.
Uraraka huffs, rolling her eyes. "He's still a…" Villain didn't quite work anymore. "transitioning vigilante." She replies, "and it's just lunch. It's not like I'm taking him for the rest of the day." Tuesdays were usually busy days for her agency anyway. Tomorrow would be wonderfully free.
And if she was annoyed about Eraserhead getting him all of her day off, then that was her business.
"When is he classified as a civilian?" Slicer chirps back as Uraraka bounds over the next building.
Zero-gravity really helped when you were late for a lunch date.
"Next year in February." She replies automatically and rolling her eyes at the -kerokerokero- laugh that comes in from the other end of the comm. "Tsu!" She hisses. "I just know it cause he's keeping me informed about it!"
"Like he's keeping us informed about the ring he's getting you- Ribbit?" Tsuyu replies and if she wasn't already weightless, she'd be floating up into the lower atmosphere.
As it is, she's pretty sure the blush on her face has enough heat it could replace the sun for a bit.
"Tsu!"
And even if it's embarrassing, she laughs too, and the comm crackles with the kerokerokero-laughter that she's grown so used to hearing recently, accented by the snickers of Slicer. She lands on the next building, stumbling another step forward and shaking her head.
"Come on Tsu. It's only a year and a few months…" She sighs. "If her proposes right now." She rolls her eyes.
Gosh.
She wonders if he'd have asked her parents. They did go up and see them recently… a few weeks back when one of her new cases took her out to the country. They'd taken a detour just to see them, and Izuku had introduced himself. It hadn't been a long visit but…
She shakes her head.
No. No no no no no.
She did not need thoughts of one Izuku Midoriya and one very sparkly diamond ring in her head right now. No no no no.
"I'm going to be hopping off the comm for a bit." She lets Froppy and Slicer know just as she slips off the side of the building. It wasn't uncommon for her to meet Izuku for lunch. But it was uncommon for him to specify where he wanted to meet, and more specifically, what restaurant as well.
Usually he left that to her.
And usually he'd take the check. They'd fight over it, he'd skip away and pay for it. Always in cash, and always with a laugh, informing her that just because he wasn't in the business of trading black market information didn't mean he didn't have the profits from doing so.
He'd been getting into day trading lately, and his casual zeal for it was a little ridiculous. Not quite as ridiculous as his "casual" profits from it, but…
She slips around the corner of the building, vaulting the roof ledge and drifting down to the sidewalk. With a huff, she unclips her helmet, tucking it to the side and walking the rest of the way to the little soup and sandwich shop.
The last time she was here had been to talk with Yagi-sensei, and that was…. Gosh. Had it really been nearly a year and a half ago? She shakes her head, scanning the tables. Izuku liked sitting outside. She doubted he'd change that just because of the new eatery.
And spotting him is easy.
Dark green hair, fingers knit together, holding his head as he leans back in the little metal wicker chair. He's wearing a pensive look, but his lips spread into a tentative smile.
And the reason why is his company.
"Y-Yagi?" She asks, hesitating as she approaches the table.
The retired Symbol of Peace hums, looking back at her with tired, but focused eyes. "Ah. Uraraka." He smiles at her and it looks genuine, despite his company. "I was just talking with Young Midoriya here." He gestures to her boyfriend. "And…" He shrugs. "Making amends I suppose."
"Apologizing rather." Izuku supplies, and his tone is bright and chipper, and it's so… unexpected she's not truly sure what to do.
"Why…." She hesitates, afraid if she speaks it, the tentative peace between the two will shatter.
Izuku charges through it, fearless as usual. "Because he's a part of your life." Like it's obvious. "And if I'm going to be a part of that, then I think I need to settle some…long overdue disagreements."
She blinks at him, frowning. A year…
A year since Dimajio…
A year where he'd been cycled through the heroes around here, most of which were her classmates… and back and forth all over…
"How…how long have you been?" She starts, unsure how to finish that thought.
He smiles, "Planning? Since the first real kiss. Dimajio just sped up the timeline." He hums, looking back at Yagi. He extends a hand, and Yagi accepts it.
"You will be …" Yagi hesitates, then smiles. "You are." He corrects, "a great man. And I'm proud that you've found your own path." He pauses, then purses his lips. "I'm sorry you had to find it on your own. I should have…"
Izuku shrugs, shaking the man's hand and pulling away. "You said what you thought was right. Perhaps not kind. But right." He settles back in his seat. "But no. You shouldn't have said what you did. But you recognizing that- is a step towards you knowing what you could have done instead. You're still a lot of people's role model All-Might. Even if you're no longer mine."
Yagi nods, shuffling his feet before getting up. "Well. I'd better get going." He mumbles, easing to his feet. Izuku watches, emerald eyes flickering over him.
"Take care." He replies, and they part like distant friends instead of two people that shattered the other's futures.
She collapses into the empty chair Yagi left, blinking a few times before fixing her boyfriend with a withering look. "You've been talking to people."
"Well, I save all my puns for you, and all my flirtatious remarks." Izuku replies, all sunshine and cheer. "But I suppose I've been persuading the heroes watching me to let me visit some specific individuals."
She glares at him but can't keep it up as she rolls her eyes and huffs. "Alright fine." She hesitates then, looking at the empty table. "Did you already order?"
"I knew what you wanted." He replies with a smile. "And I even ordered something to-go for Froppy. I assumed she'd cover your lunch break." Damn how did she find this man?
Oh right.
On a stakeout.
Because he's an ex-criminal.
She rolls her eyes at him, because honestly that's the best response she can manage at the moment. Izuku doesn't fault her for it, and instead fills her side of the conversation with an easy laugh and a wriggle of his eyebrows- like he knows information she couldn't even fathom.
Which probably isn't too far off course. But.
He doesn't hide it from her.
Not since he started moving from one end of the court to the other. Not since he started slipping more information to heroes than to villains. Not since he started shuffling trade routes and sliding other false tips out to be delivered. Letting heroes gain the edge that makes all the difference in fights.
How he got away with it was his secret.
But he made a point to never be shady about his personal doings.
His laptop was always in reach, the password texted to her one afternoon when she mentioned she was curious about his files on her. His credit cards and debt card password written down and slipped into her hand the first time she furrowed her brows at him purchasing a new helmet rig for her. His habits told to her through hours of watching movies, holding hands and muttering little hopes and dreams to each other (she wants to own an expresso machine, he's concerned being a university teacher). His schedule seamlessly dropped into her phone; little pink blocks filled in letting her know when he had free time.
Almost all of those were spent with her.
And his transparency was….
Ugh.
"Remind me why no girl wanted to date you in middle school?" She asks, deciding to voice her thoughts instead of just simmer in them.
He cracks a smile and winks at her. "Quirkless." He reminds, then slips into playful flirting once again. "Besides, I saw my future with you and knew I had to save up every bit of affection I could to spoil you."
God was he just made of sugar?
"You're ridiculous." She huffs, rolling her eyes. "Did you invite Yagi or did he ambush you?"
"Invited. We had somethings to discuss anyway." He replies with a shrug and something between a grimace and a smirk. But the discussion has to be put on pause because the waitress arrives with two sandwiches and a to-go box.
And honestly she's not sure anything has looked more beautiful than Izuku knowing exactly what kind of sandwich she wants after a patrol.
"BLT's are kind of classic." He dismisses the notion all together that he's fantastic, and instead picks up his grilled cheese, something she desperately wants to tease him about, but pointedly can't.
"So." She says, chewing and swallowing and trying not to moan in bliss.
Food.
Ugh.
Food that's been ordered by your boyfriend.
Uuuuuuggghhhh.
"Yagi?" She broaches, watching him take a bite, chew three times and swallow.
"We had the discussion about his quirk." He shrugs. "Turns out he already knew, figured I got it when Mirio lost it, because he didn't feel like the Quirk itself vanished."
"And your decision not to use it?"
Izuku takes another bite, humming while he chews. He washes it down with a swig of water before, "Disagrees, but understands and sympathizes. He wants it to be used, but he also agrees it's getting too powerful for casual use. And he'd rather it be in my hands, capable but unknown and unused, instead of someone else's whose volatile and not as…" He hesitates, rummaging around for a word.
"Inclined to consider consequences." He settles on the phrase and she snorts because it's just so like him.
"So he's good with it then. What about Lemillion?"
"Being a little bitch." And she actually does snort at that, snapping her eyes up to consider his expression. "He wants it back, but he knows he can't, it doesn't shuffle back and forth like that. So he's stuck. I think he'll pester me about becoming a hero till the day he kicks the bucket."
She laughs, shaking her head because it's ridiculous. In the last year Mirio had settled into the #2 spot, and his following and fanbase were only growing by the day. For him to be jealous was something she had a bit of trouble seeing.
"And with me?"
He smiles at her again, a thousand-watt-smile that puts Lemillion's and All-Might's to shame. It's so genuine and bright and clear and sweet, and it's saved only for her, instead of broadcasted to millions.
"We both know the only thing I'll use this quirk for is for you. Helping or saving." He replies, taking another bite of his sandwich.
The rest of lunch is calming, settling as they shuffle back to more lighthearted topics. Who's picking him up after lunch (Shoto, apparently they play chess and Izuku works with him on temperature control while they do), when she's coming home (late, she and Froppy are logging a report about an influx in muggings in the past couple weeks), what she wants for dinner ( because he cooks and she will never not be grateful), and then it turns to a topic she's not completely sure.
"Your mother called recently." Is the starting line, and it makes her suspicious because she's sure her mother doesn't have Izuku's number.
"Oh?"
"She mentioned wanting us to come up next holiday. Or going on a trip?" He looks up at her, teeth biting his lower lip as uncertainty sparks in his eyes. It's an unusual occurrence that anything unsettles the once-unflappable-villain-Rabbit, but she sees it more as Izuku Midoriya.
"What does dad think?"
"He thinks you need a break from hero work and is willing to put away time off and money to do so." Izuku snorts. "Not that I'd let him pay." He mumbles it.
She attributes her father's latest raise in Izuku's casual integration to her life. She's not quite sure if she's mad at him for that, or thankful. So she's settled on just not addressing it at a whole and pretending he didn't have anything to do with it.
"Well, I guess I'll have some time off in the fall, there's usually a down tick in street level work when it gets cold, before the holiday season where it picks up." She reasons.
"I can make a few requests to the contacts I still have to populate some other areas." Izuku adds, and the eagerness with which he presents that suggestion makes her suspicious.
The entirety of it is suspicious.
"I'll talk with Tsu." She stalls, and he lets her. Instead of pressing he just nods, slides his plate to the center of the table and leans back in his chair.
"That's fair." He sighs, stretching in the chair before considering the city around him. "Where do you want to live?"
He says "you" in a way that makes her think he means, "we".
She shrugs, they've had this discussion, mostly in relation to her apartment, since he's basically moved in under pretense of "continual observation". He sleeps on a futon in the living room, they cuddle, he carries her to bed and rubs her back.
Mina is convinced they're doing things.
Things is only accurate if it can be defined as running through her Netflix To-Watch List, and deciding they don't want a cat, dog, child, live-in-roommate, or fish in their next apartment. Izuku wants a garden, because he wants something to do if he takes up day-trading. She wants a balcony and privacy to lay out and bake in the sun and nap.
"I like the countryside." She admits. "Less bustle of the city, probably a lighter case load, but I dunno if that's exactly hero-location."
He smiles. "I'm sure I could make it."
She glares at him. "You are not giving me extra work." And then she laughs, shaking her head. "We'll see. Heroes have to live in the city to make any headway in the rankings."
"Alright." He folds his fingers together, lacing them behind his head and considering her. "I can start looking at some houses in the suburb if that's a good compromise."
She considers it, unsure where the topic came from. "House?"
He shrugs. "Forward thinking." Like what he's just proposed is nothing. Like if she wants fried rice or onigiri for lunch instead of if she wants to commit to buying a house instead of renting an apartment.
"For?"
"Nothing you have to worry about yet." He hedges, giving her a smile. "I think your lunch break is up." He adds, pointing over her shoulder.
She whips around, scowling as she sees a man with wheels for legs zip down the sideway, a purse in hand. "You are not getting out of this conversation that easily Rabbit!" She growls, looking back at him.
"Another time then." He settles as she takes off, vaulting the railing and rushing off in pursuit of the mugger.
"She's going to figure it out eventually."
Izuku glances up, eyes trickling around the side of the table to consider his new company.
Todoroki Shoto is an interesting man, but one that's quickly settling firmly into a category that Izuku would reserve for a best friend or perhaps, best man.
"Well of course she is." Izuku replies, snapping the velvet case closed and sliding the box into his pocket. "It wouldn't be any fun if she didn't have all the clues to see."
Shoto sighs, shaking his head as he gets up from the chair. He doesn't comment, simply strolls away, forcing Izuku to get up and accompany him or else he loose his muse, and technically his escort.
At this point, he's not sure if the heroes view watching him as a job, or a forced hangout with a friend.
He's not opposed to either option for most.
"Going for a rematch today?" Izuku teases, brushing up against Shoto's left side. " We're 43 and 39. You're catching up."
Shoto hums, but his mood is betrayed by the spark of flames that flex off his finger tips as he gets the car door. "Don't gloat. I've been studying." He says, "besides, you can't gloat to me when you're loosing to my fiancé."
Izuku rolls his eyes, sliding into the car. "Yeah yeah. 53 to 72." He sighs. "I can't concentrate when she's reciting the chemical make up of the board."
Shoto smiles, or as much as the man does, a quirk of his lips, a flash of teeth hidden by the thinning of his lips as he presses them together.
"Jeweler first though." He says.
"Jeweler first." Izuku agrees, considering the weight in his pocket. It's short something very important, and while he could ask a favor from Creati, and get her to make one, she thinks it might be better if he buys it himself.
Besides.
Her father was pretty explicit in saying he couldn't swindle his daughter with some fake or stolen ring. He had to buy it.
And who was he to deny his future father-in-law?