Just got done signing up for classes! Ugh, 4 hours of online orientation. It'll be weird going back after 2 years of being a hermit from covid. But even if I'm somehow swamped with three online classes and one in person, I still have a shit ton of content to pump out. Don't worry about that stopping anytime soon lol. And I actually made a reverse crossover! Hawks and Dabi in OP world! I'm consumed by that ship thanks to the plethora of stories on ao3. Damn that place was made for the fangirls. Enjoy~

It was weird being back home for good. He was happy that he'd still get to see Rayleigh over break, even if it wasn't at school. Summer break was finally here. His first year was over. A long many months that also passed quickly in their own way. He was at the beach with his brother and two friends. Tsu and Tenya didn't come. They really did move on. Or at least weren't as close to Izuku as they had been before.

The four were sitting on a towel while Inko was watching for a bit behind to give them space. Sabo's arm burned still, but it was only uncomfortably warm, not dangerously hot, which was a huge improvement for him. Marco had no idea if his quirk was healed since he was terrified about getting hurt and deaging.

They were all sitting on a picnic blanket, Ace with his shirt off to not irritate the sensitive skin, even if the bumps were slightly pink with the taut skin. His tail was out, the long feathers resting behind him. He was completely open right now, not wearing a hat either. He was with his friends and family, not focusing on what other people at the beach thought of him being there.

"So, your favorite hero is All Might, right? Would you want to meet him?" Marco wondered. Izuku looked curious, but also shy. He admitted he thought he might make a fool of himself in front of him. But it would be amazing to meet him. He wondered why, what the reason for the question was. "He's supposed to be going to the news to talk about his latest hero event. Maybe we could swarm outside the doors and ambush him for autographs!"

Ace laughed but Sabo and Izuku thought there were many flaws in that plan. First of all, All Might could totally get away instantly if he wanted to. Then there was the fact that there would be a bajillion other people there already. It would be a moot point. Though they might catch a glimpse of him on purpose.

"Heh, maybe I can get close enough to get his scent, and we can follow that and ambush him for autographs then," Ace suggested.

"That's a great idea!" Marco explained, while Sabo looked a bit tired and Izuku was laughing happily. "We should totally do that."

"We can't go anywhere without mom," Izuku pointed out. Marco frowned, already knowing why. When Ace was kidnapped, it made her think hard about letting her children go out alone ever again while they were still not preteens at least.

Marco suggested. "Maybe we could go there, and Ace could get lost in the crowd and sniff him and then come back. We know where he is and all!" Sabo didn't protest anymore, probably seeing no real point to it at the moment. So, the next day, after Sabo and Marco slept over, they convinced Inko to take them to the place All Might would be going to. Ace just had to get close enough.

Sabo still had the fire extinguisher on his back, but now had a fire proof tarp that was wrapped around his arm like a cast. Which worked. It had only been thought of the last session at school, but it was brilliant. So, Ace "disappeared" into the crowd and was short enough to not really get in anybody's way. They were too distracted to notice him standing there, even if he was covered in white feathers in certain places and had horns.

When All Might came out, Ace pretended to trip dramatically at just the right moment, and fell to his feet. He helped pick Ace up, and Ace took a discrete whiff. Sweat and deodorant. All Might handed out signed papers, and then was gone.

Ace ran back out of the crowd, and handed Izuku the signature. "He was just tossing them around. But I got it. Heh," Ace whispered so Inko didn't hear. Marco gave a thumbs up and Sabo rolled his eyes.

They had no idea when it would become useful at all.

-x-

"Wait! I'm not a dragon!" Ace shouted at the park when he was shifted in a secluded area. Rayleigh was right about mothering dragons seeing him and assuming he was an abandoned baby. He was the size of baby dragons at a few years old, after all. "Wait, I wasn't trying to lie!" he called. "I'm half-dragon!"

Inko and Izuku were hiding behind a tree, even though the mother desperately wanted to run out and protect Ace, but knew it would probably only make the situation worse.

Ace said, "I'm sorry, I truly didn't mean to deceive you. But thank you for being concerned about me." He bowed, his action and words sincere. It was nice that she had been worried about an abandoned looking baby, showing deep compassion for other dragons. The dragon lost the offronted expression and gave a light pat to Ace's back, which made him wince.

She looked worried, pulling her hand away. "My wings are slowly growing in and they hurt," he explained. Her expresionate face fell into pity and sadness. "It's okay, I can deal with it." She turned to stand behind him, and suddenly attacked, biting the wing spaces, breaking the skin. Ace screamed, and Inko came running out with a stick as a weapon, screaming about it. The shirt was torn apart, and the dragon growled at the woman, not wanting her approaching. But the dragon boy felt a tingling sensation in his back, and felt nothing. Well, when he touched them, he felt pressure from his fingers, but it wasn't in pain.

Ace stood up, and turned to the dragon with wide eyes. She smiled, and he smiled back. Then she took her strong hand into her mouth and pulled out a back tooth, seeming to be painless, and handed it to Ace. Was this medicine or something? "Is it… medicine? For the pain?" Ace asked, hoping it was so.

She nodded, and Ace put it in Inko's purse to keep safe. "Th-thank you!" Ace said with tears in his eyes. The dragon nodded, and patted his head one more time lightly. She gruffed at him with a light bow and flew away. Izuku ran out, legs shaking, and asked if Ace was okay. Inko was also scared. Ace didn't really want to get that huge, but he expected it. Rayleigh was pretty big when he showed him his dragon form once.

"Yeah. My back doesn't hurt at all," Ace said. Immediately, he was brought to the emergency room to be checked out. So, the puncture wounds were stitched up, and he was told that the saliva of full dragons was rumored to help heal others.

If he rubbed the tooth on his back at night, it would help, even if it wasn't all the way painless. "Keep it safe, it could sell for a lot and you'd probably never get a second one," the doctor said. He wasn't mean or judgemental at Ace at all, but that could have been if all the other doctors just refused to check on him. Well, at least he had a pleasant trip with no scary news.

He was happy all day, but did his best to not even see if it hurt by touching anything with them. But it didn't hurt at all, and he was so happy. His eyes were bright, his lips turned up in a smile, upper canines just barely peeking over the bottom lip. It was a great day.

-x-

"Try and wrap it on, I can't reach it myself," Ace said, in dragon form, at the park with Izuku with their mom there to supervise from the car. There was only one week left of break, and then Ace would return to his school for the week and fifth grade would begin for both of them. Izuku clicked the customized saddle into place around Ace's toso.

He was nervous too, but climbed onto his back, and Ace started trotting. It was like a horse, only Izuku's feet were closer to the ground. Then Ace started to run. He felt more durable as a dragon, but he wasn't physically stronger. He couldn't lift heavier things, or break stuff that were hard to break. His claw fingers were sharp, and his teeth were sharp, so those were the only useful things that came from it.

He only did this for twenty minutes before turning back when he heard the huge flapping of dragon wings. He transformed and he and Izuku fled for the car, not wanting to get in another altercation with a confused dragon that could possibly not be as nice and understanding as the first.

They all got in the car, and Ace grinned, giving his brother a high five. "Maybe when I have real wings and am bigger we could use me as transportation or something! That would be awesome."

"I bet I'll be afraid of heights," Izuku replied in an uneasy voice. Ace shrugged, and said they'd be older by then. "But this was fun. Like a safer horse! Horses are scary."

"Hey… so, I was doing a report at school about a type of horse and learned something really weird. Their privates are sucked into their body and come out when they want to mate. They're like, twenty inches!"

"Ew!"

"What are you boys talking about back there?" Inko wondered.

"Nothing," they both said suspiciously.

-x-

Ace stood in his anger management class. He'd managed to push it back until school started again, claiming he just wanted to live happily with his family for the summer break. So the classes and counseling started that day, Tuesday afternoons, back to back. Each one took half an hour to start.

He was a brat about it all, short answers and refusing to go into detail about how he felt. So the first two visits were useless to him, but the two psychologists said it was just getting to know one another. They had plenty more visits to do productive work, as seen by Ace. But he left the classes angry, but didn't take it out on anybody else.

Though his reputation wasn't obliterated from throwing the book out the window, kids who knew that he could get really angry, and managed to purposely stay out of his way. Make sure to walk to the side of them, not give him any looks. It was nice, even if there were a handful of first graders who thought he was scary. He was in fifth grade now.

Since starting, he hadn't seen Bakugo blow up a single time, and had heard accidentally that Bakugo had been taking anger management classes for over a year. Plus it was proved when the room had smelled like burnt socks, too. Hopefully the anger management class worked, though he thought he would never be rid of some bad attitude towards people he didn't care for a lot.

-x-

"Shanks… I think I might have cheated," Ace said after class one day, after everyone else had gone. The man looked up from the desk with surprise and wariness. He asked why Ace thought that. "I overheard the answer sheet in the other room. And I don't know if I answered because I was smart and knew the answers, or if I only did it because I heard what the answers were," Ace confessed honestly, sounding truly bothered.

Shanks smiled. "While it's very mature for you to say, you didn't do it intentionally, and you are very smart, Ace. I know you would have done well on a simple graphing test on your own. You are not in trouble." Ace sighed in relief, so worried he'd be considered a cheater. "I'll make sure to be quiet when I talk about test answers so this doesn't happen again."

Ace nodded, and left feeling happy that he was trusted and seen as very smart. Though he did well with the fifth grade curriculum and helping his new classmates. It was almost all the same people. He was so happy he still had Sabo and Marco!

Izuku was alone. Tenya and Tsu were in different classes, but didn't hang out with him even when they could. Ace was angry about it, but was convinced not to say anything to them.

-x-

"Hah? Who the heck are you?" Ace asked a very skinny and gaunt looking blonde guy in the back of a store where he was buying oversized clothes.

"Is he there?! Really?!" Izuku shouted, running through the store to the back with his notebook out. The guy froze, really looking sick and malnourished. Ace was disappointed, sure All Might was back there, recognizing his scent. The man looked shocked, and asked who they were.

Ace said, "Just curious fans. Hey, did you see All Might pass through here?" Ace asked. "Cause it smells like him back here." He gave Ace a once over, looking surprised. "What?" Ace snapped. He hated being stared at. More feathers covered his arms and chest. Some were itchy and got infected in the last couple months, but they were easy to treat and deal with.

His back was still feeling fine with the tooth that never stopped healing it. It sometimes felt cold or stiff, but not agonizing. He always tried enjoying it and not worrying about when the pain would inevitably come back. "I apologize, I've just never come face to face with a half-dragon child. I'm sorry to say All Might wasn't here. Not since I got here." Both boys were disappointed. But they left. They were in the shopping mall, allowed to go buy a new game for the wii.

When they got out, Ace gestured for Izuku to hide with him around the corner. "Should we really be spying on him?"

"Yes! I wanna know. It's not like it's disrespectful to spy on someone."

"Yes it is, Ace."

"I don't care," he mumbled. His point was proven when a buff All Might came out of the store in the same clothes. "I knew it!" Ace hissed. Izuku was shocked and frozen. "I wonder if he can transform and that's his real quirk. He never ever said what it was before, right?"

"He's still amazing, though," Izuku said firmly in defense of his idol. Ace nodded, not going to argue because he felt the same. "I want to send him something, though. If he's sick or something. Then he can get back in shape!"

So, they spent the extra money from the game on a box of yummy looking protein powder and some basic weights. Ace thought it was funny when they mailed it to his agency so he'd find it with all the other stuff he was sent. They left a note inside, wishing he would not be sick anymore. They signed their full names, wanting to see if the number one hero would message them back!

Inko didn't know why they were sending them to him since he was in incredible shape, but said she found it cute. And Izuku had a delayed reaction about actually meeting him, even if he was skinny and gaunt, looking so different from the All Might everyone knew.

Ace was at school when there was a reply to them. It was a thanks for the considerate gifts, but that he was just having an off day and hadn't eaten. Wow. How much did he usually eat to get that bad after not eating? He must have to eat a lot, being so buff and active all the time. Man, it would suck to have a bad day and turn into that.

But both brothers were thankful that he wasn't permanently ill or anything of that sort. Just hungry.

-x-

Sabo was staring at his arm all day, which wasn't on fire at all. It had been that way over the weekend, and stayed that way when he came back. For now, his quirk was under control. And Newgate was kind enough to refuse to kick him out if he could end up controlling his quirk before the end of sixth grade.

But the class was wary to get excited, as was Sabo. Though they were all holding their breaths in a way, to not mention it or make a big deal about it so Sabo wasn't crushed when the fire returned out of control. Ace didn't know what his practice was on Friday's - or Marco's. They never talked about theirs, and Ace didn't ask.

He was doing much better at not snapping verbally after his sessions. But he did give nasty stares, inconsiderate looks, and made disrespectful noises. But he didn't snap verbally or physically in a couple weeks of sessions. It was going well, as the guy who was doing his anger management seemed like a nice guy. A practical one who didn't get mad at Ace when he got mad at him. This place had great staff.

When the whole week passed with no fire, though Sabo didn't try it once, not daring to risk it coming back, they had a party at Marco's house for it. Everyone from their class and Izuku were welcome. It went great! Sabo's arm stayed not on fire, even though he had the flame resistant blanket tied around his waist and the fire extinguisher on his hip, a smaller one than the one he had been bringing to school.

Ace was very happy for one of his best friends. Truly hoping he didn't fall back into having his arm on fire and mostly out of control, impeding certain easy tasks. It was a great Saturday, and left Ace in a good mood for his close friend. Marco was overjoyed, too, knowing Sabo a lot longer than Ace had.