Consciousness comes and goes in waves, Izuku's brain struggling to shed off the remains of sleep rather than being lured back in. His lungs expand as he inhales deeply, then something tickles his nose and he abruptly sneezes.
"Hiss!"
Sharp needles dig into his chest and he grimaces, blearily opening his eyes. Two pale yellow orbs glare down at him, mere inches away from his face.
"Ahh!" He yells, throwing up his arms, then wincing when his throat protests. "Sushi," he rasps, pushing his cat off his chest, "What are you doing? Get off, you jerk."
Sushi moves off his chest, only to jump right on his lap a moment later. He meows loudly, staring directly at Izuku. The freckled boy sighs exasperatedly, trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes.
Sunlight streams through his window, illuminating the edge of his bed and making him squint. Huh, that's new. He blinks in confusion, wondering why it's so unusually bright in his room.
Wait a minute.
Panic surging through his veins, Izuku scrambles to grab his phone off his nightstand. 8:22AM.
Crap! He overslept!
He OVER slept!
Completely incapable of processing anything beyond 'fuck!' and 'I need to get to class!', Izuku flings his covers- and his cat- off of him and tumbles off of his bed. Practically tearing off his pyjamas, he throws on his uniform before grabbing his bag and racing out of his room, completely forgoing brushing his hair or teeth. There's no time for breakfast either, he just runs straight out of the dorm building and bolts towards the main campus.
He's completely missed his morning lesson with Recovery Girl- he'll have to apologise to her profusely later- but he can still make it to the last bit of homeroom if he's fast enough! Pouring on speed, he tears down the hallway and skids to a halt in front of his classroom, yanking the door open.
Twenty pairs of eyes land on him and his stomach plummets to his feet fuck why'd yank the door open like that-
"Midoriya-kun," Aizawa says in his usual dry tone, "Glad you could join us."
Izuku sweatdrops. "I'm so sorry, sensei!" He immediately blurts out an apology, "I didn't mean to oversleep, I-I don't know what happened, I-"
"Midoriya-kun," Aizawa repeats and Izuku's jaw snaps shut. "It's fine. Go to your seat."
Bewildered, all Izuku can manage to get out in response is, "Huh?"
His classmates are watching him with various expressions of amusement.
"We let you sleep in!" Hagakure says.
"You worked hard yesterday, so Aizawa-sensei said it was okay," Yaoyorozu tells him.
"Lucky," Kaminari grumbles.
Izuku's brain can't quite process their words. He blinks in confusion. "Eh?"
"Are you going to keep standing there, or are you going to go to your seat?" Aizawa asks with a hint of impatience in his bored tone. "I'd appreciate it if I could get on with class."
Startling, Izuku quickly scampers over to his desk. Kacchan's eyes follow him the entire time, but he says nothing. As Aizawa continues talking about whatever he was going on about before Izuku interrupted, the freckled boy sits down in his seat, breathing heavily from his run. His hand is still clutched around the rumpled tie that he didn't have time to put on before he left and he struggles to loop it around his wrinkled collar now. Shinsou snickers quietly behind him.
He's honestly, genuinely shocked that he overslept- and that he slept through his alarm too! He didn't think he was that tired from healing Tensei last night, it's not like he drained himself to quirk exhaustion or anything. He also definitely recalls having one of his usual nightmares, but he must've fallen right back asleep after he woke up. Maybe his lack of sleep recently finally caught up to him. It's… well, that's progress he supposes, but he can't do it again! That was so embarrassing!
He subtly tries to comb his bedhead with his fingers throughout the beginning of first period, although from the way Sero shoots him a sideways grin, he's not subtle enough. His stomach also makes its displeasure at missing breakfast very clear and growls incessantly during Present Mic's lecture. By the time lunch time finally arrives, he's ravenous.
Kirishima chuckles at him as he shovels food into his mouth at their usual table. "Slow down, man!" He says, "You're gonna start choking if you keep that up, and I think Todoroki-kun would probably kill me if I have to give you mouth-to-mouth."
Izuku nearly then chokes on his food, but manages to force it down his throat at the last second. Coughing into his elbow, he glares lightly at Kirishima, who merely laughs. Beside Izuku, Todoroki slurps his soba in suspicious silence.
Curling his lip, Kacchan tsks and scoffs, "Idiot. It's your own damn fault you're fucking starving. Why the fuck did you skip breakfast? You know your quirk makes you hungry."
"I was in a rush," Izuku stresses, "I freaked out as soon as I woke up and I just bolted out the door, I didn't have time to grab anything. I didn't even have time to put on my freaking tie."
Kacchan sniffs, "Yeah, it's a mess. As usual."
Izuku sticks his tongue out at him.
"You slept well then, though?" Todoroki asks gently. Izuku glances at him, then looks down at his food.
"Yeah, I guess," he says, "Better than usual, I mean."
"You must've been very tired after healing Ingenium," Todoroki says.
"Yeah, you looked like you were dead on your feet when you came back last night," Kirishima adds, "I'm surprised Aizawa-sensei wasn't carrying you."
Izuku flushes. "I wasn't that tired," he says, then shakes his head, "I mean, I was, but I wasn't tired enough to warrant oversleeping." He groans and covers his burning face with his hands. "I can't believe Aizawa-sensei let me off the hook so easily! I can't believe he actually allowed me to oversleep! I mean, you guys work hard all the time and he doesn't allow you to oversleep." He pauses, frowning. "Huh. Wait, that's weird. Why did he let me sleep in?"
For some unknown reason, Kacchan, Kirishima, and Todoroki all exchange glances.
Then, from the end of the table, Shinsou, who has been quiet up until now, suddenly coughs into his arm, "*Favoritism*."
Izuku stares, wide-eyed. His ears turn pink.
"Eh?"
Kirishima purses his lips, then nods decisively. "Yup, that'd be it."
"Sounds about right," Kacchan mutters nonchalantly.
"Mmm hmm," Todoroki hums around his noodles.
Izuku's eyes widen even further. "Ehh?!"
"Zuku, this isn't news." Kacchan gives him an unimpressed look, as if this is some common knowledge that he should have already known. Izuku blanches. It takes his brain a few moments to reboot.
"Aiza- I'm sure Aizawa-sensei doesn't play favorites." He gives a little nervous laugh.
Kacchan makes a sound that's a mix between a snort and an exasperated scoff. Meanwhile, Shinsou lets out an amused huff and shakes his head, muttering, "Oh, you sweet summer child." Louder, he says, "Of course , he plays favorites. All teachers do. If any teacher ever gives you an 'I don't play favorites' spiel I guarantee you it's complete bull."
"What our purple comrade says is true, my friend," Kirishima says, throwing an arm over Izuku's shoulder, "And lucky for you, you're practically every teacher's favorite student."
Izuku sputters, "Wh-What? Why me?"
Kacchan rolls his eyes skyward with a groan. Even Todoroki looks at him and says, "Midoriya-kun." Like it should be obvious.
"What?"
Kirishima grins toothily, then turns Izuku so that he's facing the rest of their friends sitting at their long combined lunch tables.
"Hey, everyone!" Kirishima calls out. Izuku feels a jolt of fear when their attention instantly turns to him, but the redhead keeps him in place with his hands on his shoulders. "Why is Midoriya-kun every teacher's favorite student?"
"'Cause he's a cutie!" Ashido immediately calls out, waving her hand in the air. Izuku turns bright red.
"Because he is a diligent and hard worker," Iida supplies helpfully.
"Because he's the only one of us that's not a constant pain in their asses," Sero says good-naturedly.
"Ooh, yeah, that's a good point," Uraraka agrees, "He doesn't cause a lot of trouble and he helps deal with us when we get hurt."
"Yes, I believe that having a healer on-site during training, even an apprentice, takes a lot of pressure off of the teachers," Yaoyorozu comments thoughtfully, "He's so mature and confident in what he does, I think sometimes they see him more as an aid rather than another student."
"Yeah, especially since he's so good at wrangling us," Kaminari says, "Not to mention how he's got the two strongest students in the class wrapped around his finger, so that's pretty dang helpful too!"
Izuku is internally screaming. Oh my God he is going to kill him-
"The fuck is that supposed to mean?" Kacchan whips his head around to glare at the other blond.
Todoroki, on the other hand, doesn't even deny it.
"He's also just super nice to everyone, including the teachers," Ashido says, pushing her hands on her cheeks, "Like, he's such a sweetheart, how could they not like him? He just wants to help everyone all the time!"
"He's also got those Bambi eyes that they just can't say no to." Uraraka giggles at the deepening flush on Izuku's face.
"Yeah, I already said he's a cutie!" Ashido says, "That falls under that category."
God, please end him.
"Yeah, but he's also a toughie," Sero adds, "Remember when he kicked All Might in the balls?"
Kaminari laughs, "Oh my God, that was legendary!"
"I... don't see how that would make him more likeable to the teachers," Iida says hesitantly, a hint of disapproval in his tone.
"'Cause he showed that even though he's nice he's not one to mess around with!" Sero says, grinning, "And we know! We're all scared shitless of our healer! That's why he has us all by our balls!" He snickers and the others burst into laughter while Iida sputters at the vulgarity.
"Sero-kun!" Izuku squeaks, finally forcing his voice to work again, "I- Oh my God, I don't even- I don't even know what you're all talking about, Jesus Christ-" His face feels like a furnace. "I- I mean, I'm flattered? I guess- that you all think that, but, I mean, I don't know- you don't know if it's even true- if they- if I'm their favorite or whatever- and even if I am, like, who even cares, it doesn't even matter right, it's just, I, uh, I- it- uh-"
He dissolves into unintelligible stuttering as his brain rapidly short-circuits. His friends gaze at him with shit-eating grins.
"Don't worry, Midoriya-kun." Ashido's eyes twinkle with mirth. "You're our favorite too."
A half-strangled, choked noise escapes Izuku's throat.
What the fuck?
What does that mean?
How does he even respond?
What is going on?!
With a stifled wail, Izuku simply gives up and buries his face in his arms down on the table. "Okay!" Comes a muffled squeak.
Todoroki pats his back placatingly while his friends laugh around him. Izuku groans.
Recovery Girl is thankfully very forgiving when he goes to the infirmary after school and apologizes profusely for missing his morning lesson. Aizawa apparently had given her a heads up on the situation, so it wasn't like she had been waiting for him to show up. Still, he vows to never do it again, but she waves him off and instead asks how he's feeling.
And, in all honesty, he's actually feeling pretty great. Last night was probably one of the first full nights of sleep that he's gotten since Kamino and even though the bags under his eyes still haven't left and definitely won't leave for some time, he feels more rested than he has in a long while. The energy that he used up yesterday has been rejuvenated and now that he's finished healing Tensei and he's back in school, Izuku is now more eager than ever to heal All Might.
He immediately jumps right back into training and his first two patients are practically gift-wrapped and sent to him on a silver platter. It's a second-year hero student duo covered in multiple scrapes and bruises from a training session in the landslide zone of USJ gone wrong. A rather painful mishap for them, but an absolutely perfect opportunity for him. And there's even two of them!
He, of course, still tells them what he's going to attempt to do, just in case anything goes wrong since it is new territory for him, but they're both fine with it. Then he turns his attention to the first one, cleans her wounds, puts his hands on her, then stops his quirk.
Here's where his new problem is. It's one thing to direct his energy between two injuries, but it's another when multiple injuries are involved. He can really only press down on the side of his hose that's closest to the bigger injury and that in turn helps create the smaller stream of energy. He isn't really sure if or how he can further guide that smaller stream to more specific injuries within the area it's already being directed towards.
Unsure of what else to do, he tries pressing down on one side anyway and eases up on the other side of the hose. The small stream automatically shoots out towards the nearest injury it can reach, then quickly branches out to the next one, and the next one, until all the injuries within its vicinity are healed and it fades away.
Huh. Izuku frowns in consideration. Was it just his imagination, or did his energy seem to pause slightly in between jumping from injury to injury?
Unblocking the other side of his hose, he quickly heals the rest of the girl's injury and moves onto the next patient.
Giving him the same treatment, he presses down on one side, shoots off, and- yes, yes, there it is! He almost didn't notice it at first, but there's definitely a bit of a time gap there! It must be because the stream is so concentrated, the energy must not be able to spread out to other injuries as quickly as it normally can.
Izuku's mind churns rapidly. Alright, alright, what can he do with this? He shouldn't bother trying to control the stream- it's too quick and it'd be a waste of time. But, if it doesn't spread out to multiple injuries right away, if it has to sort of jump from one to another, then maybe he can just stop his quirk right before it jumps? It didn't heal the wound completely before it continued spreading to the next one, so he'll have to keep turning his quirk off and on essentially, which would be a bit of a pain, but it technically would get the job done without him healing the injuries that he doesn't want to heal.
A thrill of excitement makes his heart flutter. He could heal All Might this way! All he needs to do is get rid of his smaller injuries and then he can finally focus on regrowing his lung without anything to stop him and then-
And then-
He whirls around to face Recovery Girl. "I know what to do!"
She blinks in surprise.
Hastily finishing up with the patients and sending them away, Izuku closes the door behind them before excitedly telling her of his discovery and his idea on how to heal All Might.
"This is it, Recovery Girl!" He exclaims, "I'm so close, I can do this- I can even do it today, it wasn't hard at all!"
"Whoa, whoa, okay, hold on," his mentor says, raising a hand, "Slow down a bit." He makes a desperate noise of impatience and she gives him a firm look. "Midoriya-kun. Easy. You healed a big injury yesterday, I don't want you rushing to heal another big injury before you're ready."
"I'm not! I'm not! I feel fine, I-" He cuts himself off at her glare and shrinks. Swallowing, he says, "I'm not going to completely heal him now, of course, just… take care of his smaller injuries. Maybe not even all of them! Just some- And I feel fine, really, I do. I know you think I'm just saying this 'cause I wanna rush ahead, and yeah, I don't blame you for thinking that, but I do really feel fine." He looks at her earnestly. "I slept like a rock."
She huffs and shakes her head. For a long moment, she simply gazes at him with a tired, resigned expression. Then, she takes a deep breath and straightens up. "You need to practice this more. Do it for the rest of the afternoon, and then, only if you feel confident, we'll have Toshinori-kun come over."
"Yes!" He fist pumps. "Thank you!"
"You're welcome." She gives him a warning look. "If you're not careful, I'll put you on desk-duty for a month."
He smiles nervously. "Right."
He practically vibrates as he eagerly waits for their next patients to arrive. The following hour passes by both quickly and yet painfully slowly at the same time. Every time he succeeds with his attempts at his strange new healing technique, he whips his head around to look at his mentor like an excited little puppy. Each triumph fills him with more and more confidence, and by the end of their lesson, he's practically glowing with happiness.
Recovery Girl steps outside to put the 'closed' sign outside the infirmary, then re-enters and looks at him solemnly. "Now, are you sure you have enough energy to do this? You did just heal a lot of minor injuries and this is certainly something that can wait until tomorrow-"
"Recovery Girl," Izuku whines.
His mentor presses her lips together and turns away. "'Recovery Girl, Recovery Girl'," she mimics in a mocking voice as she walks back to her desk, "'How dare you look out for my well-being?'"
Izuku lets out a sputtering bark of laughter, but the slight bitter edge to her tone has him walking over and to lean down and wrap his arms around her from the back. She pauses. Despite their close relationship, they don't actually hug that often, probably more due to their height difference than anything.
"I'll be careful," he promises, smiling softly.
She reaches up to give his forearm a gentle squeeze. "See that you are."
After she sends a quick text to All Might, they sit back and wait for the number one hero to arrive. Not two minutes later, there's a knock on the door.
"Young Midoriya. Chiyo-san," All Might greets as he enters in his normal form, "How is everything? I heard you had a bit of a late start this morning, my boy."
Izuku groans. "Don't mention it."
All Might chuckles, then says, "And congratulations on healing Ingenium as well! I'm sure Young Iida is thrilled to have his brother fully recovered once again."
Izuku grins, eyes glittering with excitement. "And now it's your turn! I've figured everything out, All Might!" He takes a deep breath and beams up at him. "This is it."
All Might blinks slowly, his smile fading into something softer, more awe-filled. "Wow," he says, "Alright, this is… This is it, my boy…"
Recovery Girl leans back in her chair and chirps, "Well, technically it's still going to take more than one healing session, but yes, this is the beginning of 'it'."
"Right, of course." All Might nods, then looks back at Izuku. "So, what shall I…?"
Izuku gestures towards one of the beds nearby. "Just sit here, please. And, I guess lift your shirt."
All Might obediently makes his way over to the bed and sits down before lifting his shirt, revealing his scar once more. Izuku does a slightly better job at not wincing this time.
Hopefully, it'll be gone when All Might leaves.
Nobody talks as Izuku walks up to his side and slowly raises his hands. Pausing, he glances over his shoulder at his mentor for approval. When she nods, he lets out a shaky breath and places his hands on All Might's ribcage.
He's never slammed down so hard on his quirk before in his life. Once he's sure his energy won't leak out, he starts familiarizing himself with All Might's injuries again. Now that he's not so shocked at how many there are anymore, he can start to get a feel for their severity. Aside from the giant one on his ribcage, the majority of them are deep, under the surface injuries, old scar tissue penetrating his muscles and ligaments or ghosts of fractures in his bones and joints. They're healed, of course, and that's not surprising- after all, All Might has had plenty of healers use their quirks on him to try to bring him back to full health, one of those being Recovery Girl. They really are just old wounds; they're not as bad as the crippling injuries Izuku felt all throughout All For One. But Izuku can imagine that they're very uncomfortable and painful at times, especially when he exerts himself.
Izuku presses down on the side of the hose closest to the gaping void of All Might's missing lung and shoots off his energy towards his nearest injury- that being the giant, sprawling scar on his ribcage. As his energy rapidly seeps into it, Izuku feels the scar tissue slowly shrink beneath his palms. He quickly shuts off his quirk in the pause before the stream of energy can branch off to the next injury. A couple of seconds later, he activates it again, slamming down, adjusting his hose, then shooting off his energy. The giant scar shrinks a little more before he has to shut off his quirk again, then restarts.
At the end of the third round, his fingertips slide over smooth, unmarred skin. All Might's ribcage jolts as his breath hitches slightly and Izuku's energy moves on to its next target.
It ends up being kind of a long process. The repetitive activating and deactivating his quirk gradually turns into a sort of rhythmic pulsing once he finds the proper timing for things. One by one, All Might's old wounds slowly heal. Some are small, like stubborn little surface scratches that heal right away, but others are a lot bigger, a lot deeper, like remnants of a devastating, bone-shattering blow. Izuku doesn't need to ask to know who he got those injuries from.
He has to focus hard on making sure that none of his energy slips past the hold he has on the other side of the hose and reaches All Might's lung. It takes an incredible amount of concentration and a decent chunk of energy too- even though the scar tissue and old wounds are easy enough to heal, there's still a lot of them, and some of them, like the one on All Might's ribcage, are pretty big.
But Izuku can do it! He doesn't want to push this off to another healing session. He can handle being a little extra tired. Besides, he's definitely still in the safe zone anyway.
So he pushes onward, continuing to heal All Might bit by bit until finally, all that's left is his missing lung. Izuku shuts off his quirk for the last time and pulls away, opening his eyes.
All Might's torso is a smooth expanse of tanned skin over hard muscle, completely free of any blemish. Izuku watches as a large hand hesitantly reaches up to cup the spot where his giant scar once was, long fingers slowly brushing over unmarred skin. All Might is silent for a very long time and Izuku doesn't feel it's right for him to be the first to break the silence.
He doesn't know what's going on in All Might's head right now, but he's learned a lot about scars recently. He's had to learn to live with more scars than he ever thought he would have had to in an incredibly short amount of time. And he knows from experience that there tends to be an awful lot of messy emotions involved with them. He just hopes… that with everything that's happened… and with All For One gone now… maybe he could have helped alleviate some of them…
Eventually, All Might's hand leaves his torso and instead reaches for him. It rests on top of his head for a brief moment, then slides down, gently pushing his curls aside.
A warm pressure presses into his hairline.
"Thank you, my boy," All Might whispers into his curls.
Knock knock knock.
"Midoriya-kun?"
The sounds slowly filter into his ears as if they're full of cotton, and then it takes a few extra seconds for his brain to process them.
Knock knock.
"Midoriya-kun? Are you awake?"
Izuku groggily opens his eyes. There's a heavy lump of fluff on his chest- Sushi- and pale light is gently trickling in through his window. His eyes widen.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
"YO, ZUKU GET YOUR ASS UP!" Kacchan yells through the door.
"I'm up, I'm up!" Izuku yelps, wincing when he stresses his voice. He rolls Sushi off of him and grabs his phone to check the time.
Crap, he slept through his alarm again? Well, at least he's not super late this time- he can still squeeze in breakfast if he hurries.
His muscles protest when he pushes himself off his bed, but he stifles a grunt and scrambles over to the door, opening it. Todoroki and Kacchan are on the other side, the latter looking like he was just in the middle of sneering something particularly snide to the former when Izuku interrupts.
"Fucking finally!" He scoffs, turning away with a sharp jerk of his head, "Get dressed already, or you'll be fucking late again!" He marches over to the stairs and disappears.
Todoroki looks back at Izuku, calm and smooth in contrast to Kacchan's ruffled feathers. Izuku lets out a little sigh. "Thanks for waking me up. And sorry I slept through my alarm again."
"It's alright. I'm glad you're sleeping well." A hint of mirth twinkles in his eyes. "Although I don't think Aizawa-sensei would forgive you if you overslept twice in a row. Even if you are his favorite."
Izuku's cheeks heat up and he covers his face with his hands. "Please don't," he moans, "It's too early. You're cruel."
Todoroki laughs, soft, more of a huff of air than anything, but it makes Izuku peek out through his fingers and smile.
"Why were you so tired last night anyway?" Todoroki asks, tilting his head, "I thought maybe you'd have a hard time sleeping since you slept so much the night before, but it's almost like you crashed or something after school."
"Oh." Izuku shrivels in embarrassment. He had kind of pushed himself healing All Might yesterday. Even though it doesn't take much to heal scar tissue and old wounds, there were a lot of them, and he wanted to get them all over with in one session, so he maybe used just a little bit more energy than he should have. Not too much, he didn't exhaust himself or anything, but it was definitely enough to make him dead tired by the time he got back to the dorms. A few of their friends had wanted to watch a movie together in the lounge after dinner and he kind of just ended up passing out on Todoroki's shoulder about two minutes in.
He must think he's terrible at movie nights.
Letting out a little laugh, Izuku shakes his head and says, "Oh no, sorry, I just had a big injury to deal with during my lesson and it kind of took a lot out of me, that's all." He averts his eyes sheepishly. "Sorry I fell asleep on you. Again."
A light tinge of pink blossoms across Todoroki's cheeks. "Don't worry about it. I like-" He cuts himself off abruptly as if he just bit his tongue, then coughs, "I mean, uh- Are you feeling better now, then?"
"Yeah, totally!" Izuku immediately reassures, even though- eh, not really. Healing All Might took a bit more out of him than healing Ingenium did and there's still a lingering fatigue in his muscles that he has yet to shake off. But he expected that much and it will probably be gone by tomorrow so there's no need to worry anyone about it.
Todoroki smiles. "Good." Taking a step back, he half-turns away and asks, "Join me for breakfast when you're ready?"
A little thrill goes through Izuku's chest and he grins, nodding enthusiastically. "I'll meet you there! Just give me five minutes."
He quickly darts back inside to get changed into his uniform and brush his teeth and hair before going downstairs. With twenty students often eating at the same time, breakfast is never as quiet of an affair as it used to be, but Izuku doesn't find himself minding as much as he thought he would. He and Todoroki sit at the end of the table with Jiro and Yaoyorozu and chat while they eat their breakfast. They don't get to talk for very long before Izuku has to leave early for his morning lesson with Recovery Girl, but it's refreshing to get to have an actual conversation with the other boy.
Izuku's been so busy over the past few days, he feels like he's barely been able to spend any quality time with Todoroki ever since they kissed. Which is weird, right? They just got together- shouldn't they be spending even more time together? That's why they wanted to be together, right? To spend more time with each other than normal friends. Don't new couples tend to do more stuff together? He doesn't know, this is all so new to him.
Still, he feels like he should put in a bit more effort, shouldn't he?
It's almost as if Todoroki is the one doing all the work for their relationship, and he goes ahead and proves it yet again when Izuku leaves the infirmary and sees him waiting right outside for him. Todoroki smiles and offers to walk him to homeroom, and Izuku acts like his heart doesn't melt just a bit.
They're walking alongside each other in the hallway on their way to class right now. Izuku casts a quick glance at Todoroki, then looks straight ahead and sneakily reaches over to grab his hand.
Bam.
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Todoroki's head turn to look at him. After a long, anxiety-inducing pause, his fingers slide more comfortably between his and he continues looking ahead as if nothing has changed.
Izuku smiles. Success.
It's almost worth the absolutely life-ruining, soul-crushing embarrassment he feels exactly sixty seconds later when they walk into class and Kaminari decides to cheerfully shout out, "Gaaay!" for the whole class to hear.
"I'm sure most of you have heard at this point that Midoriya-kun will be doing his work study at Team Idaten," Aizawa says once homeroom starts, "I know we didn't discuss exactly what your work studies will entail in much depth, but for obvious reasons Midoriya-kun's experience will be very different from the rest of yours, more similar to his internship- not to minimize it, of course," he adds with a glance to Izuku. The greenette nods understandingly. "However, today we'll have people who have experienced it firsthand tell you how these are different from the internships. Listen carefully." Then, Aizawa turns to the door and calls out, "Come in."
Izuku's eyes widen in shock as the door slides open and Mirio, Nejire, and Tamaki enter in a single file line. What in the world?! They didn't tell him they were coming to his class today!
"The three third-years at UA who stand at the top of all UA students," Aizawa says as the trio come to a stop at the front, "Also known as The Big Three."
Izuku has to stop gawking in order to stifle a snort of laughter. The Big Three? That's so dramatic!
For some reason that escapes Izuku, Mirio is standing with his arms crossed in front of his chest in a silly pose. When their eyes meet across the room, his senpai winks. Izuku very nearly then snorts- he has to smother it with his hand. Mirio's stupid grin widens.
Meanwhile, the rest of Izuku's classmates can't seem to decide if they're impressed or not. They've already met "The Big Three" before- fleetingly when they kidnapped Izuku that one time, and then later outside the hospital after the mall incident, but they've never been formally introduced. They kind of just know them as 'Izuku's weird upperclassmen friends', along with whatever rumors they might have heard about them. Which are impressive rumors, apparently. Izuku hasn't heard any, but maybe he's had his head stuck in the infirmary too long to pay much attention to hero student gossip. Either way, his classmates seem to be familiar with his senpais' reputation.
"The crown among the splendid UA students…" Iida says, eyes wide.
"The ones closest to pro heroes among us…" Yaoyorozu adds.
Kacchan wrinkles his nose. "These guys?" Judgement drips off of every inch of his voice. "Seriously?"
"I didn't realize it was them!" Kaminari whispers, leaning closer to him, "Dude, Midoriya-kun, you didn't tell us your senpais were The Big Three!"
Izuku shrugs cluelessly. He didn't know it either.
Aizawa turns to the third-years and nods. "Go on and introduce yourselves briefly, please. Let's start with Amajiki-kun."
Uh oh.
Tamaki already looks like he was dragged here against his will- he sulked behind his two friends as they marched inside the classroom and unsurprisingly has been keeping his head down the entire time to avoid everyone's gazes. When Aizawa calls him out, he immediately tenses up and sends a single glance at the crowd of first-years that sends chills up their spines, minus Izuku's- there's a lot of anxiety in that glance, Izuku can relate- before he promptly loses his nerve and turns to face the wall.
Nejire giggles and takes the stage, "Don't mind him! That's Amajiki Tamaki, he's got the heart of a flea! I'm Nejire Hado. We were asked to talk to you guys about work studies. But wait-" She blinks, suddenly distracted by Shoji. She leans forward into his space. "Hey, hey, why are you wearing a mask? Are you sick? Trying to look cool?" Taken aback, Shoji starts to respond, but before he can get more than a few words out, her attention is then drawn to Todoroki. "Oh, my! You must be Todoroki-kun, right? Right? You used to have a scar, but it's all gone now! Did Mido-chan heal it? You're so much more handsome now without it! But how did you get it in the first place?"
Both Izuku and Todoroki blink in shock at her blatant audacity. "That's-" Todoroki starts.
"Ashido-san, if your horns break off, will new ones grow in?" Nejire whirls around. "Can you move them? Well? Asui-san, you're a tree frog- not a toad, right?" She grins, bright and bubbly. "There's so much I want to know about all of you! Mido-chan, why haven't you told me anything about your classmates?" She whines at him.
Multiple heads turn to look his way. Izuku carefully considers his answer for a brief second, then says in a light tone, "I think you're doing a perfectly good job asking questions for yourself."
Shinsou lets out a wheezing snort behind him.
Nejire gives a squeal of excitement. "You're right! Hey, hey, Ojiro-kun, can you support your whole body with your tail?" Ojiro leans away as she moves into his space. "Hey, hey, tell me! I wanna know!"
Aizawa, who has been steadily getting more and more annoyed, finally reaches his breaking point and activates his quirk, hair flying up around him as he glares at Nejire. "This is extremely illogical," he growls.
"Don't worry, Eraserhead!" Mirio hastily reassures, "I'm going last to wrap things up, right?" Turning to face the class, he shouts enthusiastically, "The future is going to be…!" Everyone stares at him in confusion. "Grim!" He finishes. "That's what you were s'posed to say, right?"
Izuku is puzzled. Was it?
Mirio, as usual, doesn't seem bothered at all. "All right! My call-and-response was a huge fail!" His boisterous laughs echo throughout the classroom, only further confusing the first-years.
Amusement tickles Izuku's chest at the sound of his laughter. He really is just like All Might.
"Well, you guys look like you're not sure what's going on, right?" Mirio says, now standing behind the podium, "We're third-years who suddenly appeared to explain about work studies that aren't even required. That's confusing, right?" He puts his hand on his chin and pretends to think. "You guys got your provisional licenses as first-years, right? This year's first-years are really... energetic, right? Besides, it looked like my jokes didn't work earlier, right?" His smile takes a turn, and he suddenly lifts his fist into the air. "Why don't you all fight me at once?"
Everyone blinks.
"What?!"
Izuku sighs.
Oh yeah. Just like All Might.
"I just wanna say," Izuku rasps as he stands beside Aizawa with his arms folded, "I don't approve."
"Noted," Aizawa grunts.
They've gathered in Gym Gamma; class 1-A is standing on one side facing Mirio, who is nonchalantly stretching on the other side in preparation for their battle. They've all changed into their gym uniforms, except for Izuku, who's in his healer costume in case of injuries, which, in this case, is seeming very, very likely.
"Is this really necessary, Mirio-senpai?" He asks pleadingly, "They're just going to get hurt."
"Damn, Midoriya-kun, have a little faith in us," Sero snorts, stretching his arm.
Izuku winces. It's not that he doesn't believe they're strong, it's just that… well… Mirio is one of The Big Three for a reason. Hand-picked and personally trained to be All Might's successor by Sir Nighteye, Izuku doesn't need to have seen him in action before to know that he must be an incredibly skilled opponent. Combine that with what Mirio has told him of his quirk, and yeah, Izuku is starting to fear for his classmates' safety.
"It's nineteen against one," Shinsou says, eying Mirio across the room, "There's no way he'll win."
"Besides." Kaminari gives Izuku a dismissive wave. "What are you so worried about anyway? You know you can just heal our injuries in like two seconds."
"Actually," Izuku sniffs, "I can't."
Everyone's heads swivel towards him, Aizawa's included.
"What?"
Izuku presses his lips together.
Recovery Girl was… less than happy when she found out how tired he was after he healed All Might yesterday. She was even less happy when he came in this morning still feeling the dregs of exhaustion lingering in his muscles. So he's been… benched, so to say, for the next couple of days. He's not allowed to use his quirk, both as a way to regain and store up as much energy as he can in preparation to regrow All Might's lung on Friday, so that Izuku has the weekend to recover from the worst of his exhaustion, and as a punishment for pushing himself when he had promised to be careful- even though he was being careful and he didn't push himself that hard, but one look from Recovery Girl was enough to cow him into just accepting his punishment without complaint.
But how to explain this to his classmates?
Telling them that he got in trouble would be embarrassing, but he can't exactly explain that he needs to save his energy to regrow All Might's lung either.
After a moment of consideration, he carefully says, "I have a patient that I need to see to later that's going to require a lot of energy, so if you guys get injured now, I can't afford to heal you."
That should be fine, his classmates don't usually ask too many questions when it comes to healer business. As nosy as they can be, even they understand the importance of his patients' privacy.
Murmurs of surprise ripple through the students, followed by unease.
"Seriously?" When Izuku nods, Uraraka shrinks a bit. "Oh…Is- Is this still okay, then?"
"Recovery Girl is still a fully capable healer," Aizawa says dryly, "You all could also do well to not rely on Midoriya-kun's quirk so much. He won't always be there to pick you up after a fight in the future."
The unspoken command of 'toughen up' is loud and clear.
"That only makes it worse," Tamaki suddenly mutters, catching them all by surprise. They look over to see him standing on the other side of the gym facing the wall, much like he was in the classroom. His voice is quiet and barely audible as he mumbles, "For the work studies, it would've been enough for us to say, 'This is how it was, and I learned a lot from it.' Not everyone is filled to the brim with ambition. We can't end up with kids who are unable to recover after this."
Izuku blinks, then says in a deadly sweet voice, "If Mirio-senpai physically disables anyone, I will personally kill him."
"Ha!" Mirio lets out a sharp bark of laughter.
Tamaki glances over his shoulder at him. "That's not what I-"
"You misunderstand, Mido-chan!" Nejire chirps. Izuku turns to see her attempting to bend Ashido's horns, the pink-haired girl looking very uncomfortable while she does so. "In the past, there was a student who got so frustrated they quit trying to become a hero and that caused all sorts of problems. Did you know that?"
Surprised, Izuku glances up at Aizawa, whose expression hasn't changed as he watches Nejire through narrowed eyes. Her voice shifts then into a slightly more serious tone, still playful, but Izuku recognizes it as the one she uses when she's telling him something actually important. "It's tough, isn't it, Togata-kun? If you don't think things through properly, this'll be rough. Really rough."
Kacchan peels his lips back and scoffs. "Who cares?" Whipping his head around to glare at Mirio, he raises his hands threateningly and grins. "You may be an upperclassman, but we've fought with pros plenty of times before!"
"And we've fought villains before, too!" Kirishima adds, coming to his side. "So don't underestimate us!"
Mirio smiles, seemingly unconcerned, and nods. "Right. You can come at me anytime, from anywhere. Who's first?"
As Izuku's classmates get into fighting stances and glance among themselves to decide who will make the first move, the freckled boy steps backwards and leans against the wall with a sigh. "This will be good." He rubs his forehead tiredly.
Aizawa casts him a brief glance before gruffly calling out encouragement to the others. They're quick to decide their pecking order, having the close-combative fighters like Sato, Ojiro, Kirishima, and Ashido surround Mirio all at once before the long-range fighters move in. This plan, of course, is all blown to shit when Kacchan rushes ahead of everyone and launches himself at Mirio while screeching, "DIE!"
Izuku knows what's coming next. Kacchan's hand sparks, a bright explosion rushes towards Mirio, and then-
He smartly decides to close his eyes.
Jirou's traumatized shriek tells him it was a wise decision.
Mirio sputters out a brief apology and then the sounds of explosions continue. Looks like Kacchan doesn't seem to care that the opponent he's fighting is butt-naked. Izuku, however, thinks he could live without the sight of his senpai beating up his best friend with his genitals on display. He keeps his eyes closed.
"You went for the face, huh?" Mirio's voice says. There's the sounds of rocks shattering and then Izuku hears him declare, "I think I'll start with the long-distance fighters!"
Jirou shrieks again.
"He warped?!"
"His power isn't just slipping through things?!"
"What kind of strong quirk is that?!"
"DIE!"
A series of explosions echo across the room and then Kacchan suddenly lets out a pained grunt. Dark Shadow roars, only to be cut off by the sound of a fist landing and Tokoyami crying out. More punches follow, more hisses and grunts of pain, more thumps of bodies collapsing on the floor.
Hmm. Sounds like his classmates are having a hard time.
If only there had been someone who warned them that this was a bad idea beforehand.
What a pity.
"POWERRRR!" Mirio's triumphant shout echoes throughout the gym.
"Togata Mirio," Izuku hears Aizawa say, "As far as I know, he's the man closest to being number one. Including the pros."
Izuku pauses, and something about his tone has him opening his eyes and glancing up at him. 'As far as I know'... How much does Aizawa know? Surely All Might would have told him if he knew about Mirio? No, no, he probably didn't mean it that way. After all, even as he is now without One for All, Mirio is incredibly powerful and skilled. He would no doubt be a wonderful hero with his own quirk and who knows? Perhaps he could even take the number one spot too. Izuku's classmates can hardly stand their ground against him.
He accidentally turns his head and looks back at the disastrous scene in front of him, but- oh good, Mirio is wearing pants now. More than half of his class is sprawled on the ground in various positions of pain, so that's- less good.
"He got more than half of them in an instant." Izuku startles and whips his head around to see Todoroki standing on his other side. The boy narrows his eyes. "He's the man closest to being number one."
"What are you doing here?" Izuku asks, bewildered.
Todoroki turns to him. "I didn't get my provisional license, so…"
Izuku arches a brow and pointedly looks at Kacchan, who is currently struggling to get up from where he was previously curled up on the ground in agony. "That didn't stop him," he says, "It's not like you're fighting a real villain or something." He looks up at Aizawa, who simply gives a shrug of approval.
Todoroki glances between him and the battlefield, then slowly steps away. He almost looks reluctant. Izuku feels like he just sent him into the lion's den.
"That's it for the long-distance fighters." Mirio turns away from the smattering of students on the ground and perks up when he sees Todoroki. "Oops! Forgot one!"
He takes a step forward, falls into the ground, disappears for two seconds, then shoots out right in front of Todoroki and knocks him out with an uppercut to the jaw.
Izuku cringes.
God, he's a terrible boyfriend.
"Alright, now we can focus on the close-combat ones!" Mirio brushes off his hands nonchalantly and turns around.
Except- he's naked again. Izuku's face turns bright red as he unwillingly gets an eyeful and immediately drops his gaze to the ground.
His classmates grunt and cry out in pain as the upperclassman continues his assault. Izuku winces as he stares at the floor. Man, Mirio's really not holding back at all, is he? Izuku's starting to feel bad- he knows he was giving his friends a bit of a hard time, but this is a little brutal.
Kacchan has seemingly recovered and lets out a loud battle cry as he dives back into the fray- only to be abruptly cut off by another choked grunt. There's a thud, and then,
"POWERRR!" Mirio shouts again.
Groans fill the gymnasium.
"Is it done?" Izuku weakly calls out, eyes still locked on the floor.
There's a moment of silence, then Aizawa stiffens beside him. "Togata-"
Izuku shrieks in surprise as two muscular arms wrap around him from behind and swing him into the air. Mirio laughs loudly next to his ear, pinning his arms to his sides and pressing his back to his broad chest while he frantically squirms.
"Senpai!" He exclaims in alarm, "What- What are you doing?!"
"Togata-" Aizawa says again, raising a hand as if he doesn't know whether or not to stop him.
"Mirio-kun…" Tamaki glances up from his corner.
Nejire visibly brightens. "Eh? Are we kidnapping him?" She sounds far too excited for Izuku's liking.
"Oi!" Kacchan shouts. He and the others are still struggling to get off the ground, but Izuku's cry caught the attention of his classmates. Kacchan's eyes lock on Izuku's thrashing form and he snarls, "What the fuck are you doing with him? Put him down!"
But apparently training with class 1-A has gotten Mirio feeling a bit playful, because his arm tightens around Izuku's midsection and he practically prances over to the first-years, stopping just a few feet away. "Haha!" He laughs boisterously, "A new challenge has appeared! How will you all stop me now that I've taken a hostage?"
His classmates tense up.
Izuku stops struggling.
'Are you fucking kidding me?'
"You can't do anything that would harm our dear Midoriya-kun, now can you? But holding him also leaves me exposed too- or does it?" Izuku can practically hear the devilish grin in Mirio's voice. He's having way too much fun with this. "Will you take the risk? What are you going to do, hm? Your hostage needs saving quick! I might steal him away!"
Kacchan snarls wordlessly, pushing himself up onto his feet. "Fuck you!" His other classmates are getting riled up easily as well, struggling to get back up even though they just took a beating.
And well, that's flattering and all, but Izuku can't help but feel a little annoyed right now. He didn't sign up to be a damsel in distress today.
He squirms in Mirio's hold. "Senpai," he complains.
"Ah, ah, ah!" Mirio's voice is right in his ear and Izuku can't help the slight flush that creeps up his neck. His senpai's arms tighten around him, pressing him even more firmly against his body, and Izuku suddenly recalls the fact that Mirio is still very much naked. He can practically feel every muscle in the taller boy's body pressed against him, from his burly pecs, to his rock-hard abs, to his-
To his-
Izuku's brain short-circuits.
'Excuse me.'
He slams his head back and breaks Mirio's nose.
"HA!" Kacchan's bark of laughter echoes throughout the gym.
Mirio drops Izuku in surprise- and pain, probably- and the greenette quickly regains his balance and attempts to swipe his legs out from under him. He actually manages to land a kick on Mirio's knee, but since he's apparently made of brick he doesn't go down easily, and by that point he's had enough time to recover from his shock and, well- at least Izuku's defended his own honor.
Mirio proceeds to knock him on his ass in a decidedly more gentle fashion than he did with the rest of his classmates.
It still hurts, but it's definitely worth it.
"Sorry I broke your nose," Izuku apologizes for the fiftieth time, grimacing as he tosses the blood-soaked gauze into the trashcan and presses a clean one against Mirio's face.
"No worries!" Mirio lets out a nasally laugh, scratching the back of his head, "I totally had it coming!" His grin turns into a slight grimace as Izuku presses down gently to try and stop the bleeding. The freckled boy insisted on taking him to the infirmary himself after he wrapped up his demonstration in the gym, but they had to stop in the middle of the hallway to change the gauze since his nose bled through it.
"Sorry," Izuku repeats guiltily, "I didn't think I'd hit you so hard."
"Midoriya-kun, Midoriya-kun, it's fine," Mirio reassures with light exasperation, "Trust me, Sir hits me harder than that!" He grins, as if that's supposed to make him feel better.
Izuku presses his lips together. "Cool, I'm gonna have a talk with him then." Mirio makes a noise and Izuku begins leading him away. "Come on, let's get you to the infirmary."
They continue walking down the hallway until they come to a stop in front of Recovery Girl's office. Izuku knocks twice, then slides the door open.
His mentor glances up from her computer. As soon as her eyes land on Mirio, her face morphs into a displeased expression.
"You know what I said, Midoriya-kun." She turns back to her screen, waving her hand dismissively. "Those three are your responsibility now."
"I thought you didn't want me to use my quirk until Saturday?" Izuku protests, guiding Mirio over to one of the beds.
Recovery Girl clicks her tongue irritably. "And you'll do everything but use your quirk."
"Of course," he agrees, then turns and starts cleaning up Mirio's nose. Once the bleeding is mostly under control and he's checked it over, he says, "Alright, I'm gonna set it real quick. It's gonna start bleeding again so-" He plops the gauze in Mirio's hand. "-Get ready with this."
"'Kay," comes the nasally response.
Carefully grabbing Mirio's nose, he sets it with a few quick motions and gives everything a once-over before calling his mentor. She comes to his side, checks his work, then begrudgingly kisses Mirio on the cheek. The boy lets out a sigh of relief as his nose is healed.
"Thank you, Recovery Girl!" He says gratefully.
"Yes, yes," she grumbles, "Now both of you, out of my office."
Right. She's still a little pissed off at him.
Giving Mirio a sheepish smile, Izuku jerks his head towards the door and leads the way out, his senpai following after him. Once they're in the hallway, Izuku says, "So… I guess I'll see you later, then?"
Before he can turn away, Mirio stops him. "Wait!" Izuku pauses and tilts his head. "Do you have a second?"
Izuku blinks. "Uh-"
"Great!" Then Mirio's hands are on his shoulders and he's being steered down the hall. "Right this way, kouhai!"
"Wh-What- Wait, what? Where are we going?" Izuku stammers, "We have to go back to class!"
"This won't take long!" Mirio chirps, stopping in front of a smaller door that Izuku doesn't recognize. He phases his head through it, then sticks his hand in and unlocks it from the inside before pulling it open. Izuku blanches at the sight of a supply closet.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait-"
"In we go!" Mirio says, pushing him in and closing the door behind them. They're immediately shrouded in darkness, but he feels around the wall until he finds a light switch that illuminates the cramped space that they're in. "Ooh! Cozy!"
Izuku grumbles in annoyance. Thankfully it's not as small as the last supply closet he was shoved into, but he's had quite enough of Mirio moving him around as he pleases for one day.
"Senpai," he whines, having to crane his neck to look up at the taller boy this close, "What's going on? What do you want?"
Looking down at him, Mirio's bright grin dims ever so slightly into something more calm. "Actually, I've been meaning to talk to you," he says, "I just feel like it's… been a while, you know?"
"Eh?" Izuku blinks in surprise. "Oh! Uh, yeah, it has- I guess."
Mirio just wants to catch up? He supposes it has been a while since they've hung out properly. He feels bad for neglecting his senpai… but did he have to shove him into a supply closet to tell him this? Couldn't he have just come up to him during lunch?
"Yeah," Mirio says, "I don't know if All Might told you this, but he hasn't given me One for All yet."
Oh, so this is a One for All conversation. Supply closet makes sense then.
"I know," Izuku replies, "Well, I figured anyway. He would have told me. He said he wanted me there when he passed it on to you…" He pauses. "Which, by the way, what happened with that? I thought he was going to give it to you during summer break so you wouldn't be in school in case something went wrong?"
Mirio seems to hesitate for a moment, then continues, "Well, yeah, we were gonna wait for you to come back from your training camp, but then, you know… Kamino happened, and then everything else happened, and we've just kind of gotten distracted, you know? I've been training with Sir for months now and All Might since the summer, so we're pretty sure my body is ready to receive One for All, but then All Might mentioned that you were trying to heal him so we figured we'd just put it off for now. There's no rush anyway."
Izuku nods and Mirio's eyes lighten up a bit. "Earlier you said you were saving your energy to heal someone later. You meant All Might, right?"
"Yeah," he says, "I'm not using my quirk for the next couple of days so I can rest up, but the plan is to heal him on Saturday morning so I have the weekend to recover. All I have left is to regrow his lung."
"Wow," Mirio breathes. He leans back, head tilted in consideration. "I think even after you heal him I'll make him wait a bit. I feel bad for the guy. He deserves to enjoy his quirk at its fullest power at least for a little while before he gives it to me."
Izuku smiles, warmth blooming in his chest. It's nice that Mirio is so considerate of All Might's feelings on this matter. Even when it would be so easy to eagerly accept the power bestowed on him as soon as it's offered to him, he's willing to wait even longer for it to make his mentor happier.
All Might has found a truly wonderful successor.
"But when I do get One for All and become the number one hero," Mirio says, grinning cockily once again as he pushes Izuku's nose with his finger, "I expect to see you in my agency as my healer, my little kouhai."
Izuku lets out a huff of laughter and opens the door of the closet. "Yeah, get in line. My entire class already has dibs." He steps out into the hallway. "Now c'mon, we've both gotta get back to class."
"I wasn't kidding when I said I would steal you away!" Mirio crows as he walks after him.
The hallway is still empty since everyone is still in class, but Izuku makes sure to lower his voice slightly anyways as he asks, "So, what will you do once All Might does give his quirk to you?"
Mirio shrugs. "More training, I guess. Preparing me to be number one!" He flashes him a blinding grin, then ponders. "Sir did also mention bringing All Might in to help out with this villain that's been causing some trouble- Overhaul, I think he was called?" He shakes his head. "But anyway, now that All Might and Sir are back together, they're pretty adamant about training me together."
Izuku winces. "Yikes. Good luck with that."
Mirio laughs, short and loud. "Thanks!"
They have to part ways to leave for their own classes after that- but not before Mirio manages to snag Izuku and ruffle his curls into an unmanageable mess. The blond cackles while he shrieks in indignant fury and darts away a moment later, leaving him reeling.
Izuku lets out an exasperated huff.
All Might's successor or not, Mirio's hero agency is the last place he would work at as a healer.