I'm Alive!

Sorry it's been so long. After the issues I've been having, I had a positive turn and recently got a new job and have been settling in and getting the ball rolling. Also, although I'm back, I don't know how often I'll be able to post. Thank you all for your patience.

So, I bet you thought the night was probably over, didn't you? Well, so did I but my plans ended up changing on me. Although, this is a wrap up of the student's evening, there's still more for the adults.

I was originally just going to reference this conversation that became the majority of this chapter, a chill conversation between Midoriya and Todoroki but I realize that with everything being so heavy, it's nice to just have something that's more leaning toward just being fluffy every once and a while.

This is another short Chapter. If I thought I was going to do this scene before now, I probably would have combined it with the last chapter.

My next chapter will be much longer, I promise. I just figured that you've waited long enough for me to get back to it.

Dangerous Hobby

After another long silence where Shoto just sat with Izuku, he decided to ask something he had been curious about for some time. "So, whenever everyone else talks about stuff they like to do, you seem excited to hear about it but I don't think I've ever heard about anything you like to do."

"Oh…" Midoriya said, surprised. "I guess you're right… To be honest, over the last couple years, I haven't really had much free time to do anything like that. I've been busy training my body up for my quirk. If I hadn't, it could have hurt me worse than it has."

"Worse?" Shoto asked, his mind summoning images from the Sports Festival, Villain attacks and the various hospital beds Izuku had been on in between them.

Izuku nodded but then kept right on going as if the comment was an afterthought. "How about you?"

"I wasn't ever really allowed to go out and have fun like that before coming here and now that I have the time for myself, I don't really know what to do with it. So, I just study more or just hang out with you and the others."

Izuku smiled and said, "Well, when I was younger, I guess you could say I really fed into my dreams of being a hero. I'd always loved quirks even before I knew there were things like heroes and villains and definitely before I knew I wasn't going to have one. So, the only thing I really did for fun was go hero watching."

Shoto found himself straightening, well familiar with the term, although in his household, the words 'quirk stalkers' were associated with such people far more than 'hero watchers.' "You ran toward hero incidents without a quirk?"

"I was careful," Izuku assured him.

"Do you know what could have happened?"

Hearing his father even vaguely allude to his fights, he had an idea of how dangerous that could be and not just because of the villains. The main duty of many of his sidekicks was to get civilians a safe distance from the fight. And even then, well, Shoto had heard about civilians being trampled by each other or worse, occasionally 'disappear,' in the areas where Endeavor had to use his full power to resolve a situation.

Shigaraki was hardly the only person who could turn people to dust.

"I did," Izuku admitted.

"Then why…"

"Because I wanted to be a hero and I knew that I couldn't stop to 'stay safe' if that was going to happen. No one was going to help me. Besides, the danger didn't seem all that bad when basically everything I did outside my house ended with me getting hurt." Izuku sighed and added, "Even after I found out I wouldn't get one, I still loved everything about quirks and wanted to see them in action." He frowned and added, "I also found out early that I could never just turn ignore someone who needed help. I think that was a part of why everyone hated me as much as the fact that I was quirkless; I couldn't just mind my own business like a normal person."

"What about the people you helped?"

"Somehow, the kids I would help would be angry or embarrassed because they got teased for needing a quirkless kid's help, the bullies got angry that I got in the way, adults would be angry when I was interfering with my classmates' games or scolding me when I was doing things that a quirkless kid was just too weak to do." Midoriya sighed before continuing, "Maybe that's part of why I liked going hero watching so much. I got to get away from all that and be somewhere that 'a quirkless boy had no business being.' Not as much as just seeing them use their quirks to save people, of course, but it still might have been part of it. Everyone just treated me like glass and tried to break me or protect me from everything."

"You were angry that they all wrote you off and wanted to prove them wrong," Shoto said, able to relate to the need to do something that wasn't necessarily healthy in order to make a point.

"I guess," the other boy admitted. "But I wanted it to be something I enjoyed that could take my mind off of them, too." The very method Shoto had been trying with his father since the Sports Festival. "I suppose you could say that quirk watching was my childhood hobby. So, here at UA, I get to do something like it every day. Although, it is different than actually finding quirks on the streets."

"So are hero fights the only place to find them?"

"Oh no! Definitely not. I would often go to watch kids on playgrounds or even just pick a place with a lot of foot traffic, like a busy street or a train station and just watch what happens. Quirk use laws are kind of like ones on littering. It's technically illegal but if your quirk isn't 'dangerous' nobody really cares."

"Really?" Shoto asked, having trouble imagining it. Having grown up with the number two hero, anything he'd hear about related to quirk use was either hero work or villain activity.

Izuku nodded. "Maybe I could take you some time?" he offered, suddenly becoming awkward as he said it.

Shoto smiled and said, "That would be nice. We probably should say something else to Mr. Aizawa, though. Something tells me he wouldn't be too keen on the idea of us looking for illegal activity, even if it's harmless."

Midoriya actually smiled a little at that. "Yeah, you're probably right. I'll have to think of something safe for us to do somewhere public so that he won't worry."

"We should probably take someone known for being responsible, too," Shoto added.

"Good idea, maybe we could take…" Izuku trailed off before asking "Umm...who do you think we could bring that Aizawa would approve of for that?"

Shoto suddenly saw his problem. Both of the two most responsible people in the class had come with them to Kamino Ward and had both been involved in other incidents…even if their teacher didn't know about I-island. "Maybe Tsu…"

"I don't know," Izuku said, "it almost seems like an insult, seeing how she was the one who expressed her disapproval for that and she was really torn up about it."

The two fell silent, trying to think of someone who it wouldn't be awkward to ask; who might want to come along with them and would be trusted to steer them away from trouble.

Suddenly, a phone ringing broke through their thoughts and both boys looked toward where Izuku's cell sat charging.

He picked it up and said, "Oh! It's mom. Would you mind if I took this?"

Shoto nodded and said, "I need to get my homework done, anyway. Maybe we can plan out something later."

Izuku smiled, nodded an affirmative and said, ["sounds] "Sounds good," before pressing a button and putting the phone to his ear.

As Todoroki slipped out the door and closed it behind him, Izuku picked up the phone. "Mom?"

"Izuku, honey. Are you alright? I got an email from the school requesting a meeting."

Izuku bit his lip guiltily. He should have known that seeing a request like that would worry her. In the past, meetings at the school—no matter who it was with—were usually bad news for Izuku. A teacher saying he was disrupting class and making a mess after an incident where all of his classmates had participated in some 'fun' by tossing things from crumpled paper to pens, to spit wads at him. A school counselor stating that he was disconnected from reality for expressing that he wanted to be a hero when asked what he was planning for his future. A principal stating that he was a troublemaker as he stood quietly, bloody, black and blue while the other students involved in the 'fight' were unmarked.

"It's fine mom. I promise, it won't be like at the old schools." 'No,' a little voice in the back of his head stated sarcastically, 'instead of obviously being punished for being born quirkless, this time they were going to tell his mom about legitimate concerns about his safety with his newly acquired quirk.' "They actually found out how new my quirk is and need your permission to make some of the changes to my education. They want to adjust my training to account for my inexperience."

"Oh…" Inko sounded surprised. "You mean you didn't tell them before?"

Izuku felt his face heat up as he said, "Well, at first I just felt kind of awkward but then all this stuff with the League of Villains and quirk stealing came up and I was scared of how it would look, you know?" This wasn't a reason but as he spoke, Izuku realized how legitimate a concern this could have been. What if someone had found out how new it was without immediately being told it was associated with All Might? He felt a shiver at the thought.

Izuku realized from how quiet his mom had gotten, that she might actually be having similar thoughts, so he quickly assured her, "B-b-but you don't need to worry about something like that. We've got it all worked out and they understand so…"

"I'll contact the school so we can meet up as soon as possible. If their changes will help you, I want to help get you started."

"Thanks mom. See you then. I love you."

"I love you, too. Have a good evening."

"Bye, mom."

"Bye."

And with that, they ended the call.

I've brought up the term 'quirk stalkers' in my other BNHA fan fiction, Unnoticed and Underestimated. It's a derogatory term I've have in my headcanon. It came about because up until relatively recently, heroes that drew these spectators often disappeared, due to the fact that AFO had a similar hobby but ultimately plucked up the people with qiorks who most interested him. Unfortunately, even though AFO had to stop years ago, thanks to All Might chasing him into hiding, it has permanently tainted the reputation of the rest of the quirk watching community.

In the vigilantes spinoff, there is a point where Endeavor uses Prominence Burn and someone he didn't know about got severely burned without him knowing. It was a villain with a powerful healing quirk, which was the only reason he wasn't burned to ash but it leaves the question of how often people died that way without Endeavor ever knowing.

It is a point I've seen in many fan fiction stories that Izuku's circumstances could look suspicious without the full story. I was glad to take the opportunity to acknowledge it in story, here.