Cookie1657: Thanks for your input! Still not sure which one to post first, but the JJK will come out eventually.
muswieckhannes: Thanks for responding! Still taking opinions. Interesting that ao3 is leaning more towards ATLA and is towards JJK.
The next few days were… strange. School was normal and everybody looked forward to the barbeque. He hadn't gotten anyone at school who cornered him or asked him to show them his power. That interview seemed to really do the trick, and he was glad he was brave enough to do it, ask to do it and not be invited.
But, what was weird was that that fan account had gained a massive following. Photos of him with the store owner, looking awkward but comforting nonetheless while he had the villain unconscious and contained. He felt like people forgot he was a first year high school student and praised him for being down to earth and showing true emotions, like sympathy or sadness or awkwardness.
They did realize he was a kid, right? And he had no idea who the owner of the fan page was. Just that it was full of memes and photos or videos of him. People even made fanart, which was also weird. He never thought this would happen after getting in the public eye. He always thought he'd be hated or ostracized. He wasn't feeling any of that.
People, it seemed, had (probably temporarily) moved on from his quirk that he hadn't used at all like he said he wouldn't, and were now focused on just him being him. With the messy battle that he saved people from the nomu and lost his wing during it to having him capture the League of Villains alone while also losing both wings had gained him a following, as well as the whole baby Felix incident.
All Might told him that this kind of thing happened to him when he was his age, but that it ended up fizzling away a bit until he came out in the open again and did big events. Luffy didn't want to be an All Might. He was still aiming to be Hawks' sidekick, that hadn't changed and he was sure it wouldn't. Once he left the house when he got older, he still wanted to be around Hawks, the first person he remembered caring about him at all. He was important to Luffy.
But Hawks congratulated him about the attention. "But what if I'm caught doing something embarrassing?"
"It's the internet, something like that would fade quickly. I was caught dropping food all over my costume once in public, looking grumpy with food dripping down my front and face. That was up for about two weeks before it faded away completely," Hawks said. Luffy said he'd never seen a picture like that. "Exactly! It disappeared from everywhere."
Luffy felt better after hearing that, but did search thoroughly for that photo. Just to be a smart ass, he went shopping for a frame and printed it, putting it next to the TV for him to find. And it took him a couple days to find it, when he just gave Luffy a deadpanned look and threw it away.
Things were going back to normal despite the fan account gaining even more traction. He completely avoided all fanfiction about him. Never looked, never cared, and completely kept it away from himself. And thank god nobody he knew was interested in it and read anything. Thank god.
The school barbeque had actually been a memorable mess. Someone had knocked the huge grill over and smashed all of the thousand shishkabobs onto the grass. Everyone was angry before they just chugged soda and chips. The barbeque part was gone, but it was really entertaining. Everyone laughed about it by the time it was over. It definitely didn't go to plan, but they enjoyed it anyway.
After another week, Aizawa announced they were doing rescue training. A few started to look upset before the teacher clarified that it would not take place at USJ, because it had traumatizing memories and the school didn't want to cause any uncomfortable feelings. It was really considerate.
It was in another city, so they got on the bus and headed there. Luffy saved more room for others by keeping his wings in. He'd compromised with both sides of himself. The side that wanted to keep them safe at all costs, and the side that wanted to show he was still winged and wasn't afraid. So he kept them in while indoors and out when outdoors. But, if he was on patrol, he did take them out while flying but hid them when dealing with a situation that involved any villains on the ground. And it was working so far.
Baby Felix had been quickly adopted, which Luffy was overjoyed with. He had a nice home now. Apparently, the feather was laminated for him so it wouldn't be destroyed. He was okay with that, now able to stick it in his mouth. But, if he had a hard time sleeping, running a feather across him made him sleep. It was adorable and touching.
When Luffy went out with Ace, it was always in disguise. He didn't want to put the spotlight on Ace. He wore a jacket with no hole in the back but with a shirt that had one, also wearing a hat and regular glasses. And nobody caught on yet, luckily.
"Put on some music!" Ashido called in the bus. Then people started arguing about what music to play until Aizawa refused to put any on unless they came to a consensus. So, no music was played.
The bus ride felt normal and happy, and Luffy enjoyed it, finally going on a trip with everybody. There had been no nomu sightings in weeks since the League's capture. It was reassuring. When they got to the place, the others said it was nothing like USJ since it was even bigger and wasn't indoors.
"All right, everyone line up," Aizawa directed once the bus stopped. "This isn't like USJ was supposed to be. There will be villains and heroes. The heroes have to fight the villains while also guarding survivors who are trapped and need your help.
"If your victims die, you lose points. There will be groups and they'll be split in pairs." He then clarified for Iida that they were life-like dolls that would still die if crushed or hit by an attack. "The villains are attempting to kill the victims. Groups are: Tokoyami and Luffy, Ashido and Iida, Midoriya and Jiro, Kirishima and Sero, Sato and Bakugo, Todoroki and Hagakure, Tsu and Aoyama, Yaoyorozu and Kaminari, Ojiro and Shoji, Mineta, Uraraka and Koda since there's an extra."
Luffy heard Mineta complain that he wasn't paired with Luffy. Tokoyami looked at Luffy and asked if he thought this was because they were in hero work studies together. "I'm not sure. If we are, then why are the others not paired that way?" he wondered.
Tokoyami said, "I'm don't know. We haven't really worked together at all, but I don't see how the teachers would know that too well." Luffy said that was true and made more sense to pair them like this. Their first fight was with Yaoyorozu and Kaminari. They were directed to the building area, where they were allowed to go inside, as the "victims" were inside.
"The buildings are sturdy even if you destroy the insides. They won't fall," Aizawa said and then announced the other matches. They were all in their hero costumes, Luffy's headset turned off and unable to dial Hawks unless he pressed a button on the back for ten seconds. He and Tokoyami were the villains.
Yaoyorozu and Kaminari went into the building first before Luffy and Tokoyami started. Both of them started on the top floor, Luffy kicking the windows in as he flew inside before absorbing his wings back inside. He and Tokoyami looked down. "They're somewhere below. If we were real villains, we'd get there as fast as possible."
Tokoyami and both of them broke the floors mercilessly, Luffy kicking down while Tokoyami used Dark Shadow to help his destroy the floors. They quickly made it to the heroes and saw them guarding the victims with a metal tent over them so the ceiling didn't crush them. The villain team was to attack both the heroes and victims.
Dark Shadow flew at Kaminari, who let loose lightning that Luffy bypassed and slammed his foot into his side, throwing him into the wall, but not as hard as he could. The numerous burns Kaminari had given him healed over. Tokoyami went for the victims while Luffy went for Yaoyorozu, but she used a shield made of the same material of the glasses Luffy had. It wasn't destroyed even with his hardest punch. It was smart, but she was the smartest of the class.
Luffy attempted to grab it and rip it away, but Kaminari sent one of his disks to the wall and electrocuted Luffy, who had immediately sucked his wings in when he realized he'd be attacked. He couldn't be too careful. It dissolved Dark Shadow and Luffy winced before he turned to Kaminari and moved his leg hard enough to send a burst of air that ripped through the building completely besides the outside beams.
Kaminari had barely ducked before Luffy was on him, and threw him at the victims while Dark Shadow was pinning her to the ground. Kaminari tried to electrocute Dark Shadow again, but was messy and his disk hit the nearest wall, and created electricity between himself and his disk, frying those he was supposed to protect. They'd lost as the dolls started beeping, dead.
"Shit!" Kaminari said, clearly close to getting stupid, which was always funny to see. But also pitiful, to be honest.
Luffy high fived Tokoyami and Dark Shadow. They all left the building, Luffy carrying them down to be faster. Tokoyami had been flown before so he wasn't so nervous, but Kaminari screamed the whole way down and Yaoyorozu had her eyes scrunched closed. When he landed, he put his wings away. They were fully purple now. Better than Hawks' red, but he still liked his former blue ones more.
Aizawa had them wait for the other matches to end before they rotated and Luffy and his partner were the heroes in a different area.
So they did that for 10 rounds, and by the end all of them were exhausted. Luffy and Tokoyami had won most of their matches besides when they were fighting Bakugo and Sato. They won, but Luffy wasn't upset, and Bakugo didn't brag. Luffy was embarrassed when he sucked in his wings the moment Bakugo made it look like he'd blow them up.
Instead he went for Dark Shadow and Sero tied Luffy up. Luffy broke the tape, but the victims had died by then when Bakugo let a stray explosion hit them, not even aiming. But they won the match.
So, by the end, most of them slept on the bus ride back, it being late in the day. It was past the time school got out, and Luffy had called Hawks and told him he'd be home late. Now he was napping on the bus as well, head bumping against the window. The bus was much quieter on the way back than it was on the way there.
He was rested enough to fly home, not on patrol that day. Tokoyami was going with Hawks himself. He was nervous, but Luffy told him to try and relax, Hawks wasn't scary or mean. "He doesn't know you well enough to be teasing. Don't worry," Luffy said as he packed up his backpack and costume. Tokoyami nodded, planning on taking the train this time. "See you next week if I don't see you at the agency."
"Have a good day," Tokoyami said politely. Luffy flew away and back home. When he got back, he changed into more comfortable clothes and then looked at his leg. It was a darker brown color than the rest of his body. At least it didn't look like a massive burn. He didn't know what it looked like.
He poked it, moved it around, but there was no pain. It felt like normal, which he was grateful for. Then he went to the bathroom and attempted to bring his old wings out. Nothing, the back was flat. They were never coming back… were they? If they hadn't grown at all in the last month, they weren't going to come back.
Then he brought his new wings out, looking at the deep purple. He touched the feathers and sighed, sniffling. "I accept you," he said, finally completely saying goodbye to the hope that his own wings would grow back again. It may be stupid to talk to a body part, but for him it wasn't.
He looked on his phone to see a photo sent to him from Kirishima. He opened it and saw a picture of baby Felix with a stuffed animal in Luffy's image. The baby was sleeping with it. Then there was a picture of his mobile that had blue and red winged birds. He smiled, glad to see the photos. Luffy thanked Kirishima, and asked where he found them. Your fan page. They posted it there.
Thank you for sending them. They mean a lot.
He grinned and printed them. He took a photo of Merry out of a hanging frame and put baby Felix and his Luffy doll in it instead, and hung it on the wall. He was happy he saved that baby and made sure it lived somewhere loving. And clearly he was loved if his parents made him a customized stuffed doll. It even had his outfit and face shield made out of fabric.
He looked at the fan page and saw another photo of baby Felix, as the internet was calling him. It was the baby seeing a photo of Luffy and giggling at it. Luffy grinned widely, the biggest smile he'd made in a month. The internet seemed to have exploded with the photos of baby Felix adoring Luffy.
Nobody knew the baby's last name or location, just his first name, so it wouldn't be affected by the attention, which was good.
He was cooking dinner when Hawks came in, looking tired. He sighed, and Luffy asked what was wrong. "He's so uptight, I don't know what to do."
Luffy snorted and said, "He's respectful."
"Being respectful all the time is boring. You have to joke, y'know? He looked so nervous. What kind of stuff do you tell them about me?" he asked in suspicion.
"Definitely not that you're scary and uptight. I've told Tokoyami multiple times that you're not scary or mean. I think he just naturally is like that. Maybe meeting new types of people will be good for you."
"You my mom now or something?" he asked in a grumpy voice. Luffy laughed, grinning. "You're in a good mood. Is it about baby Felix?" Luffy nodded.
"Maybe he'll be you and I'll be his Endeavor." Luffy moved the pan with the steaks in it and then checked the temperature for the sweet potato fries in the oven. Hawks flopped down on the couch and asked how the day went. "Tiring. Almost everyone napped on the bus on the way back. We went to a not-USJ and fought in disaster areas to protect or attack fake victims. Me and Tokoyami were paired and only lost one round."
"See, he could have told me about that when I asked how his day went!" Hawks said. He was really irritated by this, and it was entertaining. He said all of his classmates were in other hero agencies. "It's not like I want to replace him. Just get him to loosen up."
Luffy put the food on the plates and turned the stove and oven off. "I don't know what to tell you," Luffy said, handing him the food. Hawks looked at his back, which was wingless. He asked Luffy if he was going to keep them in all the time. "I'm not sure. Hopefully I'll get over the overwhelming fear that they'll be ripped away, too," he said honestly. Hawks frowned.
"It's not weird to feel that way y'know?" Luffy nodded, saying he knew but didn't know how to change it. "You could go to counsel-"
"No. I'm not going to a counselor." Hawks backed off and then asked how he was feeling. Probably about his leg. "It's not hurting. I don't think it will, I think it will just be that weird color forever. I'm not going to cut off my leg and regrow it or something like that. I know my fingers grew back, but my wings didn't, and I don't want to try doing anything else."
Hawks ate and said that he didn't tell him to cut his leg off. "I know. I wonder if I'll be brave enough to wear shorts. It's like a huge new scar."
"At least you have legs, they don't. I think you got them back for everything, even though I wanted a chance to take out my anger on them, too." He was still furious with the former League members, wanting to get back at them for taking away Luffy's wings twice, stealing his confidence and giving him emotional scars. But there was nothing to do about it.
The hero society didn't condone torture of it's criminals and prisoners. Luffy's torture was excused as him not wanting them to have any chance to get away again.
"I got it! I'll teach him how to fly!" Hawks exclaimed suddenly, startling Merry to run under the couch. Luffy pointed out that, though Tokoyami has a bird head, he didn't have wings. "Then I'll make him have wings."
Luffy replied, "He doesn't even seem like the type to want to fly. I've flown him before." Hawks said that he probably didn't make it interesting enough. Hawks was being especially immature that night. But he was disappointed and when he was disappointed he de-aged 15 years. "I mean, you can try, I guess. Maybe Dark Shadow could learn to fly. But we wouldn't be wing buddies anymore."
Hawks pointed out that they'd always be wing buddies and Tokoyami would be using Dark Shadow. Luffy said he was joking. "I could help out. I could fly below so he knows if he falls he'll land on me."
"Sidekick…" Hawks whispered in amusement. Luffy said that was his aim, and maybe this was good practice. Hawks just smiled.
-x-
Luffy was in the bathroom, trying to figure out a good smile since he was popular now and he couldn't avoid everyone on the street forever. Hawks was trying to coach him and for once not laughing at him being awkward. "It should be big, small smiles look weird. Luffy beamed. "There we go!"
"Should I do something with my hands? You do the peace sign with your fingers."
"Hmm, well you don't seem as laid back as me so maybe the peace sign would be kind of unfitting. No, not the middle finger either." Luffy said the thumbs up looks kind of stupid. And boring. "Well, I do one peace sign, what if you do both hands? Then you don't have to touch anyone."
Luffy thought it was weird when people suddenly took photos by leaning up against you and putting their arm around their shoulders. Even if it wasn't a guy and it was a girl, it still seemed weird. "That sounds like a good idea," Luffy admitted and then smiled and used both hands.
"There, now you look super friendly." Luffy poked at the bags under his eyes. He wondered when they'd go away. He slept fine, he wasn't having nightmares anymore, but they were still there. Hawks frowned softly and said that they'd go away eventually. Luffy knew that, he just didn't understand why they were still there. "Try to ignore them."
Luffy nodded, and walked out of the bathroom, putting his hero suit on. "So when were you gonna offer to teach Tokoyami to fly? It's already been a week since you got that idea." Hawks said he was still trying to get Tokoyami to trust him. He still seemed wary of Hawks' behavior, but he didn't want to give up on him, knowing he had potential.
"Hopefully tomorrow," Hawks replied. Luffy was surprised, since that was his day off. "If I do it on my day off, then I wouldn't be distracted with anything else. I could show I really want him to get used to me and hopefully learn to fly."
"So you'd show him you are dedicated?" Luffy summed up. Hawks put up his thumb and nodded. Luffy was going to go on patrol, Hawks not going with him often so the public got to know Luffy and not be distracted with Hawks being there, even if patrolling with Luffy was fun since they both flew.
Luffy was going to dinner with Ace that night at one of the hero-friendly restaurants that Luffy hadn't tried yet. Ace was still awkward about Hawks, so Luffy invited it to be just the two of them. He thought Ace just had conflicting feelings about him. Yes, he saved Luffy and gave him a home to make him happy, but if he hadn't done that, Ace would have been reunited with Luffy when they were kids. So he was torn on being thankful or unhappy.
Hawks understood this as well, and so he didn't push to hang out with Ace either. Even though he wanted to get to know Luffy's family, he wanted to keep Ace's dislike of him to a minimum, and this was the safest way to do that.
Both of them went down stairs, Luffy bringing a big basket of muffins for the lowest floor and cupcakes for the upper floors.
Once he gave those out, he left to go on patrol, while Hawks did in an opposite direction. There were no major cases happening at the moment, which the pro-hero was happy about. No more nomus were spotted either, making Luffy feel better and Hawks less worried about Luffy going far on his own.
Walking this time with his wings out, he got a lot of waves and cheery hellos. The press had dispersed after weeks of being avoided. Luffy still didn't like being under a microscope, so for the press to finally get annoyed enough or find something else to talk about was relieving. His defeat of the feared League of Villains and the absence of nomus eclipsed the topic of his quirk. People had grown bored with that since Luffy hadn't used any other quirks since then, like he said he wouldn't.
He was keeping his word and the press didn't like that, it seemed. At least, not major news stations that had been happy to air the interview. Since then, Luffy stayed out of the eyes of professionals, most of the photos or stories told of him were from those he'd been around or met in person.
His fan page was still going strong, showing some of the public hadn't moved on from him yet. So, when people approached him and asked for pictures, he did it. He smiled. But when he was asked for an autograph by a little boy, well, Luffy didn't have a signature. And any time he tried to do so on documents, it looked different each time.
So, he'd thought hard about it and had not used his name as an autograph, but a stick figure with wings. People seemed entertained by that and it was unique. He was a terrible artist, but he thought that was what made it the funniest.
Hawks thought it was absolutely brilliant when he'd entertained the idea.
When he heard the sound of car tires swerving on the pavement, he flew off to find it and saw a car pile up. Some of the cars were starting to be on fire and people were screaming. Luffy called Hawks up as he beat his wings so hard the fire was completely put out, calming those in the car. Hawks said he'd be there in a little bit. Luffy flew to the car on top.
"Stay calm, okay?" he asked through the broken windshield. She nodded and Luffy grabbed the car on the roof and carried it off of the wreckage and onto the side of the road. He separated the cars from one another while Hawks worked to get them out of the vehicles. No fires were made, and once all of the cars were in a line down the side of the road, Luffy got to helping them out as well.
There were ambulances ready and Luffy used his improved comforting voice and words, saying he was taking them to get them help and flying them to the ambulances. Those who said they were fine were denied by Luffy. "We don't want to let anything slip past, like a head injury that we can't see yet."
There were many gurneys waiting for Luffy to carry the victims to while Hawks used his feathers. Once everyone was saved, Luffy went to the cars that weren't totaled and pulled dents out or put some of the parts back together for their cars weren't completely dented everywhere when it was fixable for someone with super strength.
He also thought to collect all of the driver's licenses and personal information in the cars for those who were taken to the hospital without them. He gave them to one of the police cars and asked him to distribute them to those who were at the hospital. The man agreed to do so.
Hawks gave Luffy a high five. "No way would I be able to get this so neat and tidy," he said thoughtfully, looking at the line of cars on the side of the road, out of the way completely. Luffy thanked him and then looked to the side to see a plastic bag on the windshield of the first car.
"Found the perpetrator," Luffy said, bringing the plastic bag over.
"This is why I don't drive."
"Really? Or do you just not like the inconvenience?"
Hawks said, "You're not one to talk."
"Of course not. I'm under age." Hawks was silent, knowing he was just owned for a stupid comeback. Luffy asked what they did now.
"Do a report, but that can wait and we can go back on patrol," Hawks replied. They both waved and smiled to those who were in the wreckage. There was a news van, who of course filmed the whole rescue.
Later that day, Hawks called Tokoyami about learning to fly the next day. Luffy monitored the phone call in case Hawks started to bomb the conversation. "Yo, Tsukuyomi!"
"H-Hawks?" he asked in shock and nervousness.
"Yup, I was wondering if you wanted to come in tomorrow. I know it's a day off for both of us, but I've decided a way I can unlock some of your untouched potential. I'll teach you how to fly," he explained. Luffy gave him a thumbs up; he was doing well so far.
Tokoyami pointed out he didn't have wings. "Dark Shadow may be able to fly. I have a plan. And Luffy offered to help out if you want it."
Luffy said loud enough for Tokoyami to hear, "Learning to fly is a life changing experience. I promise you that." Tokoyami was hesitant before he agreed, saying he would try. Hawks grinned and told him to meet him at the agency at11:30 the next day. "I can come pick you up if you want," Luffy offered. "It'll be quicker and cheaper," he pointed out reasonably. But Tokoyami said he would take the train, perhaps to get mentally ready to attempt.
"Nice and honest. We'll see you tomorrow, Tsukuyomi."
"O-okay, Hawks-sensei," and he hung up.
"He called me sensei!" Hawks said happily.
"Proof you're becoming an old man."
"Hey! Don't ruin that for me!"
Luffy laughed and got up to go meet Ace at the restaurant they'd planned on, excited to tell him about his day. "See you later," Luffy said and left through the window to see his brother.