Wariness

Shinsou's words echoed through his head as he stepped onto the elevator. His declaration that he was 'not here to make friends' causing Izuku to think back to Todoroki's challenge on the day of the UA tournament.

Unlike with Todoroki, Izuku already had some understanding of what drove Shinsou to make that declaration. Izuku had a good idea of some of the challenges he'd had to deal with to get here. And, while Izuku had openly reached out for friends, even now he couldn't believe how so many people had been willing to have him around.

He knew from experience that keeping to himself, while lonely, was safer. People can't hurt you as much if you don't go out of your way to give them the chance.

Of course, that didn't just apply to making friends, Izuku reflected with no small amount of trepidation as he watched the elevator doors slide close.

For most of Izuku's life, meeting up with school staff one on one had been bad news. Generally, his authority figures really wanted nothing to do with him. For him to be nothing more than a name on the attendance record and a paper to grade. So, when they directed any attention at him, it was bad news and the higher in the system, the worse it was. A teacher complaining that he was being a distraction in class because of his mumbling. Guidance counselor meetings to insist Izuku needed to be realistic. A call to the principal's office for 'starting fights' with his quirked classmates who didn't have a scratch on them while he prayed his mom wouldn't ask about what he might be hiding beneath his own clothes. That kind of thing.

Thus far the only exceptions to this rule were All Might and, possibly, Mr. Aizawa. And even with the latter, Izuku worried that he was just reading too much into his teacher's actions at times like last night and that they outweighed his aloof behavior that Izuku recalled from the beginning of the year. Sure, he had protected his students from villains but he'd do that for anyone who needed to be saved, whether he wanted to deal with them or not.

Either way, meetings with authority figures scared Izuku and he had grown up doing everything he could to avoid them.

So, naturally, he was extremely nervous about this meeting with Principal Nezu, especially on his own.

Izuku glanced over at a set of buttons. Only the bottom portion were lit. It had always been that way, the rare times he used it. He honestly preferred the stairs; an excuse to get that little bit more exercise in each day.

Right now, though, he couldn't afford to waste the time it would take to go over and climb the stairs.

The elevator reached the floor and as the doors slid open, Izuku was surprised to see that Nezu was already standing there. He gave the same smile Izuku remembered from when he popped out of Aizawa's capture weapon on exam day as he stepped onto the elevator and said, in the same patient tone, "Good evening, Midoriya. I figured that since we'll be going up a few more floors anyway, I'd save you the trip to my office."

But they were already at the highest floor that students were allowed on. Still, Izuku fought the urge to vocalize his surprise. He'd learned long ago that at times like this, he was best off not to ask questions unless 'invited' to and even then, he had to pay attention to if there were specific questions or statements he'd been guided to.

So, instead, he stuck to a more familiar part of the usual meeting script that tended to keep the adult who were talking to him or more often, at him, satisfied.

"Thank you, Mr. Nezu, sir. You didn't need to do that for me."

"Oh, but I insist. And it's just Nezu. I chose not to use the multiple name system. If you are uncomfortable with that, you may continue referring to me by my title as the principal."

"Yes, Principal Nezu," Izuku said politely as he immediately started internally scrambling to figure out the implications of the principal having only one name and how that might fit into the rules of etiquette.

Nezu pulled out a card and slid it through a reader that Izuku had once noticed but had long ago stopped seeing, as it had never been used while he was in the elevator. All the lights for the usually inaccessible upper floors instantly switched on. The principal selected a button indicating a room not too far above the usual floors and the elevator began to ascend.

As the seconds stretched, Izuku started to get nervous. Had he said something wrong? Was there something that the principal had expected him to say. Surely, he couldn't have messed up this early in the conversation.

"So," Nezu began, breaking the silence, "I bet you're wondering: am I a mouse, a bear or a dog?"

The question caught Midoriya so off guard that he forgot his nervousness in the confusion. As the elevator door swung open and he followed the principal out, he tried to work through his thoughts.. "I…uh… no, I wasn't…wait…isn't that the question that your opponents used in the case when you fought for your right to legally be considered a person?"

The smile that the principal gave suddenly seemed sharper as his swished. "You've done your research, I see."

"When I was younger, I wanted to know about your quirk but the description available for the public to view seemed really vague. I thought that your case was the best opportunity to learn about it, since there was such a large focus on you at the time."

Nezu hummed and thoughtfully before asking, "Vague how?"

"Well, it describes you as having an intelligence that surpasses that of humans, but what does that even mean? What's the standard of measurement? An IQ test? Are you better at learning and remembering facts? Logic and Reasoning? Street smarts? Emotional Intelligence?"

Nezu's tail actually thumped the floor a couple times as his eyes took on a mischievous glint. "Not bad questions to ask, although I can personally assure you, that last one can be scratched off the list."

Izuku blushed in embarrassment. "Sorry, I shouldn't have said anything."

"No, you misunderstand. I asked because I wanted to know your view on 'High Spec's' description. Did you find any answers in the news surrounding my case?"

"Not really. Everyone seemed more focused on how…you looked."

"You mean how cute I was…" Nezu stated.

"Yeah, it kind of seemed…Rude to talk about, though."

"Indeed," Nezu replied in agreement. "But it was better the public focus on how 'cuddly' I look, rather than my intelligence. Many can hardly tolerate more intelligent members of their own species, let alone someone like me. I couldn't afford to have the society I was trying to join reject me before I even had a chance to become a part of it."

Izuku nodded in understanding, recalling how things had been for him because he was quirkless. He'd never wish that on anyone.

After a moment of silence, Izuku realized Nezu was quietly studying him. The principal's smile was gone, his ears lowered the tiniest amount and his tail drooping ever so slightly. "It's a constant battle though."

"Yeah," Izuku replied, reflecting that if All Might had not given him One for All, the same would be true for him. Nezu wasn't going to get some Deus ex Machina to let everyone accept him, though. He'd probably always be on the edge because he wasn't 'normal.'

"Ah, here we are," Nezu stated, breaking away from the sputtering remnants of their attempt at conversation as they approached a doorway. "Come on." He opened a door and said, "This is where I wanted to take you."

Izuku followed Nezu through the doorway.

He looked at the office space that Nezu led him to.

It was nice. There was a desk with a wheeled chair, and what looked like a dual-screen computer system. Along one wall was set of bookshelves; some of the m were empty while others were filled with books. There was a filing cabinet in the corner close to a window.

As he looked out, he found that he had a direct view over a large section of the school grounds that included Ground Beta. Athough at this angle, he only recognized the upper floors of building that had now been the site of not one but two fights with Bakugou because he knew where to look.

"What do you think?" Nezu asked.

"It's nice. Is this Mr. Aizawa's?"

"No, he wanted the one across the hall. He felt there were fewer distractions and the almost complete darkness when he turned off the lights made it easier for taking naps. I couldn't agree more." Nezu added the last part cheerfully, although Izuku would personally find it claustrophobic.

"Then, whose room is this?"

Despite the smile being gone, Izuku got the impression that Nezu was really enjoying himself.

"You have some great and potentially powerful skills Midoriya. You need a safe place to nurture them."

"This…" he looked around the room again, "…is for me?"

Nezu gave a nod. "There's still a little work to be done. The computer isn't completely set up and there are more materials I want to have moved in here for easy access but yes, it's yours." There was a gleam in his eye as he added, "As is the object in the top left drawer of the desk."

Izuku pulled it out to see a tablet with a clipped-on stylus, along with an instruction manual.

"I thought you might want to be able to keep taking your notes. We usually provide these to the Support Course Students. Competition is fierce in the industry and the data encryption system that we install on these helps discourage cheating among them. I figured it would be useful for your notes too."

Izuku glanced around the room and then back at Nezu, suddenly nervous.

"Is something wrong?" Nezu asked.

Izuku placed the tablet back on the table and sat down in the well cushioned, leathery chair to study Nezu. He was trying to think of a nice way to phrase his thoughts but decided there probably wasn't one. Still, he'd do his best.

"Even regular principals who don't have heroics duties on top of school responsibilities are too busy to make much time for individual students. None would just waste their funds on me. Why are you doing this? What do you want?"

Nezu's positive mood seemed to vanish and he suddenly couldn't read the gaze, beyond an inhuman quality it had taken on, reminding Izuku that the principal was not, in fact, a human.

"You've had people make offers this way before, haven't you?"

Izuku suddenly felt tired. He found himself thinking of kids who said they wanted to play with him before jumping him and stealing All Might toy of his and how the teachers sided with them when he tattled and they claimed it wasn't, saying Izuku should know better than that. He certainly knew better than bring any more of his toys to school afterward or to trust kids who suddenly wanted to play with him.

He remembered another principal who'd introduced him to the girl with a scar reducing quirk, so that the school could better cover their more 'enthusiastic' students under the guise of giving his mom a few less reasons to worry over him.

Of a kid pretending to be his friend to get their grades up, and him falling for it because he was so desperate for a friend despite part of him already suspecting the truth that would later be confirmed when the other went back to ignoring him except to laugh with everyone else.

Also coming to mind was the Chief of Hosu Police, threatening to ruin his, Iida's and Todoroki's reputations toward their future careers in Heroics if they spoke of the truth about Stain's capture and many other incidents but phrasing it in a way that made it sound like he was trying to protect them.

These were just some of many experiences Izuku had experienced related to such situations. He shrugged and admitted, "I've dealt with everything from bribery to beatings from people who want something from me."

Izuku noted how Nezu's fur rose ever so slightly on the back of his neck as the heels of his sneakers just barely lifted from the floor, even as he tucked his hands behind his back, taking up a position that would have sent a human tumbling forward. He tried to disguise it by rolling his shoulders before settling back down. Most people might have missed the motion and written off the look on his scarred face look for thoughtfulness but Izuku had learn to pick up on distress, as in middle school, the people around him might decide to make life harder for him to blow off some steam.

The sight made him recall that that Nezu was once a lab animal. He had no idea what the other had been through or how it had shaped him. He didn't really know anything about him. Izuku tensed, too, stepping so the desk was between him and the principal as he wondered whether he had crossed some unknown line with the other in his moment of boldness.

The principal must have realized that Izuku had taken notice of his momentary lapse and actually looked embarrassed. "My apologies, Midoriya." He sighed, looking as tired Izuku already felt as he gestured to the chair. "Please, take a seat and allow me to explain."

Nezu remained on the far side of the desk as Izuku sank into the chair to realize that both it and the desk were almost fitted for his size.


Nezu looked at Midoriya as the boy watched him with now open mistrust from across the table.

Like a cornered animal.

Because of his personal Experience, Nezu could easily recognize it, along with several other warning signs that Midoriya had been giving off since he'd stepped onto the elevator.

Nezu wished he had his tea set, right now. It was more than a tool to influence others' actions. It's original purpose had actually been to keep him from overgrooming and stress gnawing, back when he was still openly struggling with his trauma induced behaviors. With a cup in hand, he could change the motion to 'groom' his paws into taking a sip from the cup. It also kept clawing paws busy. If one could see under his fur, they'd see the scars from said old habit. It was nothing like the injury that nearly cost him his eye, where the fur couldn't even grow back but he could still feel them beneath the whenever he toucked the top of one of his paws by the pads of the other.

Now, after all this time, the use of a teacup itself was usually enough of a coping method for him.

Looking at Midoriya, he could see the boy tucking his own hands out of sight under the desktop as he watched warily from across the table. Nezu wouldn't be surprised if he had more scars than the ones he'd since the start this school year that he kept hidden or if he had his own stress related behaviors that he was currently trying to keep out of sight.

"I think that the best approach to this is to give you a lesson, if you'll allow me. It's one that usually requires more than a single lecture to teach but that I think you'll find it mostly just coalesces things that you are already aware of into a more concise picture."

Nezu saw that Midoriya didn't really think he had a choice before he nodded. And in all honesty, if he'd tried to leave, Nezu would have insisted he'd stay for this, at least. But still, for him to already have such a nuanced understanding to make the interpretation at all was sad. It spoke of a deeply broken trust, which would serve him well here but was not something Midoriya should be able to grasp so well, already.

Someone, somewhere, didn't know it but they were about to pay for what they did to this pup and however many more they hurt. Probably several individuals. He'd drag out every detail he could and hold them accountable.

But that was for later. Right now, Nezu was going to have to win the trust of someone who obviously had extraordinarily little to give. "Although it isn't always true, people usually don't act unless they feel it benefits them, would you agree?"

Midoriya gave a small nod.

"So, when someone is trying to convince someone else to do what they want, they will often try to make it more desirable for the other to cooperate than not. If they are close enough, the simple act of socializing or doing something together is enough to make the action worth it but as the individuals are less familiar, there generally needs to be a more obvious value associated with the act." He sighed before stating, "You can boil most methods of coercion down to one of two approaches in their simplest form. Oversimplified, perhaps. Do you know them?"

"Carrot and stick," Midoriya stated, far too quickly.

This was the part that Nezu was unsure about. Did he just go with this, keeping his own past out of view, or did he give the boy something more solid about himself in order to build the trust he wanted? He placed his paws on the edge of the desk, grabbing at the corner from its back and top as he said, "That's a nice, neat way of putting it. In the lab I hailed from, we were more blatant. We had to be. So, we referred to it as zap and treat. The nature in which they are presented is more degrading, but it was a demeaning situation."

Rather than pale with shock at what should be an unimaginable horror, as most would, Midoriya just looked depressed. Empathetic, even.

"So, it sounds more accurate to you, too then?" Nezu asked.

Midoriya's eyes had a shine that Nezu had come to associate with unshed tears among the humans as he crossed his own arms and said, "Yeah. So, what is the treat for?"

Nezu couldn't wait to get his paws on the people responsible for making him capable of empathy over this, rather than sympathy. "Just to listen to an offer."

"All of this is just to listen to something you want to say?"

"Yes, but I didn't expect in offering said 'treat' that it would turn into a 'zap' to your trust. That generally only happens if someone's been offered treats to accept awful things."

Izuku looked down at his desk as he said, "I promise I didn't do anything that hurt anyone else."

"Just you?" Nezu asked.

"What's this talk about?"

Nezu could tell that he was pressing on a major sore spot for Midoriya, a vein of emotions that were probably deeply buried. He would have to be extremely cautious. "I'm trying to correct for the unintended zap. The problem is, we don't know each other well enough for me to do so by offering something small. Different people have different values and different levels of trust. I don't know what your values are, nor you mine, but I am sure you understand that my description of treat' and 'zap' tells you something obviously important about me."

"I don't want to talk about mine to you, though."

"I don't expect you to. You earned that distrustful nature and I think you're going to find you are in good company. Neither Aizawa nor I are usually very open, either. There are advantages and disadvantages to such behavior but in our lines of work, skepticism proves invaluable. And anyone who knows me is aware that there are times they can trust me above all others and times that they can't put any faith in me at all."

The statement clearly confused Midoriya. "How can you trust people in some ways and not others? Don't you either trust someone or not?"

Nezu smiled and said, "The simple answer is it's about knowing they type of person you're dealing with. It's more complicated than that, of course. All of this is. The offer I wanted to make to you was to teach you. Learning to read people is just one aspect of what I would cover, of course. But this offer is the real purpose of bringing you up to this room, beyond showing you where your books will be kept."

"You…want to teach me, like this?" He gestured between them, referring to the conversation they'd just had.

"Not just through conversations. That would quickly become tiresome," Nezu declared. "In fact, most of what I want to focus on will be developing various skills and giving you tools that will help you teach yourself." He chuckled as Midoriya looked ever more befuddled. He then declared, "I'd like to think that some of it will be fun, although there will also be times where you're bored or frustrated. I promise that I will be testing your limits and helping you learn to know and overcome them in ways beyond what you've undoubtably already developed. It will be hard and not everyone I've made this offer to sticks with it. You can stop at any time. In fact, you could tell me 'no' right now and I'd say the offer still stands and leave you with this space. But I think you are the type of person who'll benefit greatly."

Midoriya studied him warily, seeming to be trying to figure out if there was some trick or obvious caveat to Nezu's offer that he'd missed. "I can back out at any time."

Nezu nodded, once again wishing he had his tea. This time so he could take a celebratory sip from his cup, confident that he knew exactly what decision the boy needed this affirmation to be certain of.

Midoriya lifted his hands into view, intertwining his fingers as he rested them atop the desk and proved Nezu right by stating, "I think I'd like to try."

"Excellent," Nezu chirped cheerily. "It'll be a pleasure to work with you. It appears that we will have to make some adjustments to your schedule so that you can get the most out of your time."


I was originally going to have Nezu's lecture take place as part of the next chapter but it seemed like too jarring as a cutoff point and the end of it seemed like an excellent place for a chapter cut. So, I decided to post a longer chapter than usual. Although, I doubt it broke many hearts to get an extra long chapter, did it?

Starting the conversation between Izuku and Nezu was extremely difficult and took me forever to figure out. Part of me feels like the conversation is a type that should have probably occurred later down the line than their first talk but this is where my mind led me and it worked, so after all of this struggling, I just went with it, rather than try to force something else to happen.

I would like to thank one of my AO3 readers, Oliver_Twist_3 for the idea of an encrypted tablet and stylus. I would have never thought of it on my own. I'd also like to thank everyone else who provides ideas. I will probably never be able to use all of them but they all help me think of approaches for my story.

Lots of animals that have stress issues may develop habits such as what I described with Nezu in relation to overgrooming until they bleed or worse (although it does not always need to be due to abusive/neglectful situations that cause the behavior; my family has a pet dog at home who's spoiled rotten and still has to be watched because she developed this type of habit).

There is a drawing of Nezu smoking in a description of him in the Manga and, no matter my personal opinion on smoking, I can understand why he might have picked it up with the high pressure he's probably been under most of his life. Are there healthier ways to deal with stress; most certainly but there are worse ways, too.

I could see Nezu having to overcome a lot of personal issues he probably developed living in a lab, where publicly acceptable behavior probably was not something of great importance among what he would learn there as a test animal. I picture it as evidence of both his intelligence and patience that he was able to figure out and adjust to social norms and overcome detrimental habits at all once he escaped from wherever he was being held.

I chose to have Nezu refer to Izuku as a pup because it is a term for a baby mouse, is short like cub and could seem like an abbreviation to puppy, so it seem like a good middle ground for the way Nezu might internally think of kids when he's not calling them 'students.'

The difference between sympathy and empathy is in whether or not a person can personally relate the others experience in some way; whether it is just 'I feel bad that you had to go through that,' or they actually went through something that allows them to be able to relate on some level.