A/N: Guess who finally reunite in this chapter?
Early in the morning, Izuku awoke to the sound of dishes quietly clacking from the kitchen. Figuring Tomura was already up, he slipped out of bed and crept out of his room and down the hall.
When he entered the kitchen, he indeed found the older man reaching up to get a cup from the cupboard. He paused when he heard Izuku's footsteps, but relaxed somewhat when he glanced back and noticed him in the doorway.
"You're awake early," he commented, his voice raspy from sleep.
"So are you," Izuku greeted with a yawn. "Nightmare?"
"Nah, just stress I guess," he shrugged, pulling down his favorite mug. It was cherry red with a simple white smile on the side. He set it on the counter and paused. "Do you... want a drink, or something?"
"I'll take some tea," he replied, walking in.
It still felt surreal to be here, standing in the kitchen with a villain in his house, but then again he never would have guessed his future would've panned out like this either.
When Tomura glanced at the All Might mug, he snorted. "I can't believe you still have that thing."
"It was a birthday gift from Uraraka-san," he defended with a chortle, giving it a fond look.
"Uraraka..." Tomura narrowed his eyes in thought for a moment before nodding. "Oh, that girl that followed you around like a puppy?"
"She's... not that much like a puppy," he muttered, looking away.
"Even I could see how much she liked you," the silver-haired man said bluntly, turning on the stove. "Shame. You could've had a girlfriend by now."
Izuku's face turned pink and he stammered out a non-answer, much to Tomura's amusement. He just chuckled, stuffing his hands in his sweats pockets. His hair fell in waves to his shoulders, and his face had been cleaned up quite a bit - ever since he and Hisashi had moved in, Inko had been asking a colleague at work to help him with the damage his quirk had done to his face and neck, and it was helping quite a bit with the decay. The clock was turning back on his appearance, and not only did he look healthier (Inko's cooking was just too good to pass up), but he was looking more youthful than before.
It really surprised him just how quickly his mother had taken to Tomura. At first she was cautious around him, recognizing him as the one from news reports, but when his father had reassured her that he wouldn't hurt them, it didn't take her long to start mothering him just as much. To his credit, Tomura was relatively patient with her worrying, and even seemed at times to enjoy it - Izuku had noticed sometimes that he would seek her out second if he was troubled, the first choice being, obviously, Hisashi. He was careful when he touched her, always making sure one finger was up at all times. It wasn't until she got him special gloves to wear when he finally began to ease up on it. While he didn't wear them all the time (the habit of raising his pinkies was too ingrained to forget), he wore them when he wanted to play video games or specifically to touch other people. The day he wore them and gently hugged Inko back made her start bawling (and Izuku had to quickly get tissues because he started crying too).
He'd analyzed Tomura's quirk so many times, he could practically recite the facts in his sleep. He probably had once or twice, as not only did he mutter, he sometimes talked in his sleep if he went to bed stressed enough. Tomura had his own entry in his notebooks (Entry Neo-1, as he'd wanted to start anew after the interrogation incident). Surprisingly, he'd helped out somewhat with the fine-tuning of the entry, reciting certain pieces of information that would make it easier to theorize. He had been surprised, to say the least, when he'd heard of everything Izuku had done during Yuuei. From analysis to his classmates (he refused vehemently to give him that information, no matter how much he asked) to info about the potential traitor that had been largely abandoned along with Yuuei, he wrote down everything. And speaking of the traitor...
Tomura glanced over at him as the water boiled. "You're muttering again."
"O- oh, sorry." Izuku sheepishly backed away and stopped, unaware that he'd even been doing it. It was a rough habit to break, but apparently Hisashi was once prone to doing the same exact thing when he was younger.
"Never said I hated it," he muttered in reply before turning back to the pot. "What're you thinking so hard about, anyway?"
He hesitated. The last time he'd asked, Tomura hadn't given him anything to go on, and he was forced to make his own conclusions. Although he wasn't at the school anymore, it still helped to try and flesh out his theories, even if he couldn't properly watch everything from a first-person view.
But Tomura glanced back at him again, waiting, and he swallowed before replying. "My hypothesis about who the Yuuei Traitor was... I was right, wasn't I?"
Tomura paused for a moment. "It depends on what that hypothesis was."
"About the identity being not a student, but a staff member," he corrected, frowning up at the older man. "I was close, right?"
Tomura hesitated to answer for a moment, but finally sighed and turned fully to face him. "I can't say for sure either way, but all I'll say was that you had the right idea."
"Right idea, wrong person, hm?" He murmured to himself.
"Again, I can't say either way." Tomura turned back to the teapot when it began whistling. "Sensei may have more to say than I, but I don't know if it's time to confirm or deny your theory about them."
He nodded, his frown deepening. If it's not who I thought it was... then who could it be? Wait, he said 'them'... either he's keeping them gender-neutral, or were my guesses...?
Tomura poured him some tea and handed him the mug. "You're going jogging soon, right?"
"Yeah," he confirmed, sitting down at the table. "Why?"
Tomura paused, his eyes darting back and forth as if he were nervous to speak up. After a moment, he asked quietly, "Would you mind if... if I went with you?"
Izuku looked up at him in surprise. This was progress! He'd never asked to spend time one-on-one with him before if it wasn't to discuss the RPG they'd been chipping away at. "Sure, I never mind."
Tomura looked just as surprised that Izuku agreed, but after a second, he schooled his expression back to its neutral state. "Okay... I'll just, get changed then."
Izuku watched him set his own mug on the table at the spot next to his before turning and stalking off to his bedroom, and the boy regarded his retreating back with wonder.
It was currently 3:59 in the morning, and Uraraka was freezing.
After the hassle that was herding the students of class 1-A out the balcony at 9 PM, to getting on the last bullet train to the city an hour later (the few people on the train stared openly at the students, some decked out in their hero costumes, others dressed in sweaters and sweatpants), they'd been out for hours trying to locate where Deku lived.
She'd gone with Todoroki most of the way, trying to find any place that looked familiar enough. From what she hoped she still knew of Deku's family, his mother had work at 6, so it would be a while before she was awake and heading out. She had absolutely no idea what his father did, and from what she still knew of Deku, the boy of habit that he was, he wouldn't get going for hours yet when they first arrived.
Here she was now, at her vantage point near the office building that went up in flames only the day before. She was high up on the roof of another office building with the binoculars that Yaoyorozu had handed her, and she diligently searched up and down the mostly-empty streets, trying to find some glimpse of a familiar green boy, now with black hair from Todoroki's reports.
When her watch beeped, signaling that it had changed the hour, she was alert as a hawk.
Nothing yet, she thought to herself with a sigh. I was hoping to find him earlier than this, but we jumped the gun.
I miss him so much...
He wasn't just a hero. Deku had been her hero, a shining example of what she could become. He was always so selflessly helping people and trying to be better, and it had honestly inspired her a lot. In the beginning she'd suffered, feeling like she didn't belong at Yuuei at all, but his friendship and attitude had quickly overturned that feeling. In the beginning, she was nothing. With her friends' help, and especially with Deku's help, she became something.
It wasn't for that reason alone that she fell for the boy; watching him with kids had made her realize the charm he possessed. Even Kota had stubbornly clung to his leg the day he visited Yuuei not even a week before he disappeared, and watching him with Eri was heartwarming to the extreme.
The other girls may have teased her for her helpless pining, but she was determined to use her feelings as determination to stride forward, to catch up with him.
She was taken from her thoughts when her phone buzzed. She set the binoculars down and quickly fished it out, scanning the screen eagerly.
On it was a notification from the group chat, one that made her heart race.
4:02 AM
icythot: I found him.
icythot has shared their location.
Going out jogging with Tomura had been surprisingly pleasant. Although he wasn't at the same lung capacity that Izuku was, he had a good pace and could keep up fairly well. The two had dressed in sweats and hoodies, Izuku with his black clothes and bright red shoes, and Tomura with his gray clothes and red sneakers (at least they had similar taste).
At first, they'd jogged in silence, but when they paused for a quick breather at a street corner, he found himself asking more about what he did with the League. Tomura was usually reticent about what exactly it was they did in their down time, but today he must've been more talkative, as he immediately delved into a story about the time Toga nearly exploded a microwave trying to make a mug cake recipe.
Things lightened after that; Izuku found himself laughing and offering his own stories of his time in the dorms (the most memorable was the time Kaminari short-circuited the entire dorm trying to make the communal PlayStation work better), and the two settled into easy conversation as they went.
Tomura, when he wasn't being intimidating or standoffish, had an easy chuckle and a snarky humor to him that was like a breath of fresh air. He was genuinely a likeable person once you got past his hatred for the entirety of hero society and a special distaste for All Might (he'd nearly burst a blood vessel when he saw Izuku's room for the first time, and he still refused to take a step inside).
Just as they got to the halfway point, Tomura paused, grabbing Izuku by the shoulder. When the boy stopped, looking up at him in confusion, he looked around. "I feel someone watching."
Izuku's nerves soon became more pronounced as he also looked around. He could see nobody in the immediate vicinity, but when Tomura pointed upward, he looked atop one of the high-rise office buildings and noticed someone at the top.
His heart plummeted when he noticed a peculiar chill in the air, more pronounced than before. "Oh..."
"Stand back," Tomura hissed, right as a wave of ice came down to the street.
He shoved Izuku against the side of a building, standing in front of him as Shouto Todoroki touched down before them, his eyes alight with anger as he regarded the man.
"Take your hands off of Midoriya-kun, villain," he spoke in a frosty tone.
"T- Todoroki-kun, what are you doing here at this time of morning?" Izuku squeaked, peeking past Tomura's side with wide eyes. "Don't you have school in a few hours?"
"We came to take you back, Midoriya-kun," the boy explained, his eyes softening when he looked at his friend. He extended a hand. "C'mon, I'll get you out of here so that we can make a clean escape."
"This is the exact reason I despise that damned school," Tomura spoke up with a scoff as he scratched his neck. "You're always sticking your noses in places where they don't belong."
"My friend is my business, Shigaraki." Todoroki's voice was icy again, and he glared at the silver-haired villain.
"Guys, wait," Izuku pleaded, gently pushing away from the wall and taking a step forward. "Todoroki-kun, I can't... I can't go back yet."
"What do you mean you can't?" He asked, frowning at him. "Are you also looking for Sensei?"
Izuku winced at that, and Tomura snorted.
"Todoroki-kun, I appreciate the effort that you've put in to find me, but I didn't... exactly... want to be found. Not yet." He took another step forward, fishing around in his pocket. "I know where Aizawa-sensei is, but I can't tell you where he's located yet. Not until he's well enough to go back."
"He's been injured?" The boy's eyes were confused, even as Izuku handed him a folded piece of paper.
"He was injured when Mom found him two days ago, yes," he nodded. "Please don't read that until you're back on campus. I... I still have something to do and I can't go back yet. Please wait for me."
Todoroki studied his face for a moment before sighing and pocketing the paper with a nod. "Alright," he capitulated. "We'll wait. You are coming back to Yuuei, correct?"
Izuku winced again. "I... I don't know. I'll have to think about it. Right now, it's not safe."
At his friend's puzzled expression, he hastily added, "It'll take much too long to explain. Just trust me, please."
Shouto's face softened, and he nodded again. "I would trust you with my life, Midoriya-kun," he said, and the sincerity in his voice made the greenet's throat tighten with emotion. "I'm certain the others would say the same."
"We need to go, Izuku," Tomura suddenly spoke up, resting a hand on his shoulder.
"Right, sorry." He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Todoroki, squeezing. "I've missed you, Todoroki-kun," he said quietly.
Todoroki immediately hugged back, closing his eyes for a moment. "I- we've missed you too."
After a moment, the boys stepped back, and Todoroki glanced up at the sky. "The others will be here soon... do you want to see them?"
Tomura immediately went on-guard and Izuku tensed. "You... brought everyone here?" He squeaked.
"Everyone in class came to try and see you," he confirmed, tilting his head to the side. "Is there a problem?"
"I just... wasn't expecting all of you to be here," he said, blinking lamely.
"Neither was I," Tomura hissed, looking irritated as he glanced up. "I'll go on without you."
"Are you sure?" He turned back to the man with concern.
"This is going to be... awkward to explain to them," he replied, scratching his neck again. "I'll give you privacy. See you back at the house."
Izuku searched his face for a moment before relenting with a nod. "Okay. Be careful."
Todoroki placed a hand protectively on his shoulder as the two watched Tomura slink away. As soon as the man turned a corner and disappeared, Todoroki looked at him in relief.
"What was that about?" He questioned in concern. "Was that the leader of the League? What was he doing with you?"
"Again, it's a lot to explain," he replied with a sigh. "I assume you figured out correctly about my dad?"
"So it is true..." he murmured in wonder. "When did you find out?"
"When he came to get me," Izuku explained, running a hand through his hair. "My mom had already started the move at that point, so for the first week or so we stayed at one of the League's bases until Dad could find a house for us to live in."
"And that means Shigaraki..." Shouto trailed off.
"He's now my adopted brother, yes," he finished tiredly. "He's not so bad, though. Just don't mention heroes or All Might around him and he's fairly chill."
The prodigy eyed him with wonder for a moment before giving a light sigh. "What about the traitor?"
"I..." Midoriya winced. "I had my hunches. What did you find?"
"None of the students popped up on my radar," Shouto explained, frowning at the ground. "That only leaves the staff. I've found a few that have acted suspicious, but..."
Izuku nodded gravely. "You're right, it's one of the staff. Or at least, I think it's one of the staff."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I-"
"DEKU!" A voice shouted, and they both looked up to see Uraraka falling from the sky above them.
In a panic, Izuku rose his arms to catch her. She fell right into them, but thanks to his quirk kicking in, she didn't pull him to the ground with her.
The two stared at each other in surprise before Shouto spoke up nonchalantly. "Nice catch."
"Y- yeah, thanks for catching me," Ochako breathed, her face blooming red.
"I- it's fine, don't worry," Izuku stuttered in reply, laughing nervously.
"Midoriya!" Yaoyorozu's voice chimed in, and the three glanced over as around five of their classmates rushed at them, the vice-rep leading them with a relieved expression.
Ochako felt disappointed as he let her down onto the ground right as Yaoyorozu wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug.
"Thank goodness you're okay," she sighed, pulling away a moment later to look him over. "Are you hurt? Are you in distress?"
"No and no," he replied with a soft smile. "I'm sorry I worried you so much, Yaoyorozu-san."
"Why'd you just disappear like that?" Ashido chimed in with a disappointed frown, her hands on her hips. "We looked everywhere in Musutafu for you, Midoriya! The teachers thought you died!"
"Everyone except for Vlad King," Ojiro added, his expression neutral but his tail wagging behind him.
"So Aizawa-sensei was right," he breathed. "Huh."
"You know where he is?" Hagakure asked excitedly. "Can you take us to him?"
"I'm sorry, guys, but I can't." He shook his head. "Mom and Dad have been working hard to keep our location secret so that nobody tries to raid us."
Hagakure groaned in disappointment while Satou hummed in thought. "So it's true, then? Your dad is All For One?"
Izuku nodded nervously. "Yeah... I- I just found out myself when he broke out of Tartarus, please don't-"
"We would never judge you for that, Midoriya," Yaoyorozu said soothingly. "You aren't defined for your father's actions, nor should you ever feel judged for your father's actions."
"If that was how it went, I figure more people would treat me like my father," Todoroki added with a sour expression.
"Yeah, we're your friends, Deku!" Ochako grabbed his hand and squeezed it, giving him a pleading face.
He looked at her with a fond smile, and she grinned hopefully back at him. "Thank you, guys... that means a lot to me."
"So what now?" Ojiro spoke up, gesturing to him. "Are you coming back with us?"
"His father is surely keeping tabs on him," Yaoyorozu surmised with a contemplative hum. "It wouldn't be wise to just steal him away."
"Why not? He kidnapped him first, it's only fair that we kidnap him back!" Hagakure argued. Ashido nodded in agreement, pouting.
"Guys, I appreciate that you wanted to find me, but I can't go back just yet!" He pleaded.
"Wait, what? Why?" Ashido asked, her face falling.
"I can't go back just yet, I still have a plan to stick to." He shifted uncomfortably in his spot. "It wouldn't be safe for me to go back while there's still a mole at large."
"Oh, right, you were taking notes about that before you left!" Ochako remembered. "Do you know who it is?"
He looked at Shouto, who gave him a grim nod back. "Todoroki-kun should know by now," he relented.
"Whoa, Todoroki found it out himself?" Hagakure cheered. "Smart!"
"This paper has the info I managed to get. Todoroki-kun, you can't tell them until you're back on campus," Izuku instructed. "Until then, you-"
"OI, DEKU!" Bakugo's unmistakable voice rang out, and he visibly flinched.
"I told them to be a little more discreet," Yaoyorozu groaned, cupping her face with her hand. "I should have known they'd be a little... energetic, considering Kaminari and Kirishima are in that group."
Bakugo and his group of four rushed towards them from down the street, causing the few people out at 4 in the morning to turn their heads with strange looks.
"Hey Midobro!" Kirishima waved excitedly, a big grin on his face as they came to a halt near them. "We finally found you! This is a huge city, man."
"Yeah, it took forever!" Kaminari huffed, bending over to catch his breath.
Bakugo regarded him with a cool expression for a few moments before stalking forward.
Shouto tried to get in front of him to protect him, but the blond gave him a look that made him reluctantly stand aside.
Ochako looked up in warning as the two made eye-contact for several seconds.
"Katsuki," Izuku cautiously greeted. "It's been a while."
"Deku." Bakugo said monotonously. "How is Auntie Inko?"
"She's perfectly fine, she's happy." He replied.
"Good." Bakugo nodded. "Keep it that way."
With that, he planted a hand on his shoulder, looking away as his cheeks heated in embarrassment.
Izuku continued to stare into his face, a smile playing at his lips. "I missed you too, Katsuki."
"Ugh, fucking nerd," that apparently ruined the mood as Bakugo scoffed and removed his hand, stuffing both into his pockets.
"It sounds too weird to hear Bakubro's first name from you," Kirishima shivered, stepping forward to loosely wrap an arm around his shoulders.
"Oh, sorry." Izuku chuckled, not minding as Kirishima squeezed him gently. "My therapist has been trying to get me to let go of the nickname habit."
"You see a therapist now?" Ochako asked gently. "That's really admirable."
"Yeah," he nodded. "My mom managed to get me one shortly after we moved. She said it would help my mental health."
"Apparently it's been doing you well." Yaoyorozu smiled. "You look more confident."
"Anyway!" Kaminari chirped, grinning at him. "We should get breakfast somewhere! We don't have to leave until six, so we should catch up."
He wanted to refuse. He didn't want to make this any harder. He wanted to gently turn them down, but Ochako's hopeful gaze and Shouto's expectant look made him relent.
"Sure," he acquiesced, giving his friends a small smile. After all, who knew when he'd be able to see them again after this?
Kirishima's hand taking his free one and Ochako gently pulling him forward made his heart grow warm again. The rest of them followed suit, Yaoyorozu pulling out her phone to send a text to the group chat. Excited chatter started to arise from the group as one of them asked him if he knew any good places that were open at 4:30 in the morning.
He smiled as he gave them an answer, and Ashido and Kaminari cheered as they surged forward, Jirou not far behind with a fond shake of her head.
Ah, I missed this. He shared a glance with Shouto, who smiled fondly at him. He returned the look before looking back to where Ochako was chattering about something. I missed my friends.
A/N: I had to take a break from the heart-wrenching angst of the entire Suspected Traitor tag. It won't last long though! :)
Also, normalize giving these poor teenagers therapy to cope with all of the traumatic experiences they've had so far! They're literally only 15-16 and they've gone through enough to give them horrible PTSD. Especially Bakugo's kidnapping and witnessing All Might nearly get his ass obliterated.
Please tell me what you thought!