Inko sat alone, two empty mugs drying on her kitchen counter, when the sound of the deadbolt clicking sounded through the apartment. Inko hadn't move from her spot after she escorted Katsuki out of their apartment a little over half an hour ago. The boy hadn't protested, too shocked by what she had said to put up any real fight, and Inko had gone back to thinking about every single thing that could have gone wrong while Izuku was gone. And now here he was. For better or worse the test had ended. Izuku had returned.

The door had barely opened before Inko was there, slamming into the first body that stepped inside and pulling them into a tight, bone crushing hug. "Oh, Izuku! I'm so glad you're back! Tell me everything!"

"Mom?" Came the strangled reply. "I don't think Aizawa-sensei, can um-" Izuku's words cut off, choking on a laugh. "I don't think Aizawa-sensei can breathe?"

Pausing, but still not letting go, Inko had to wonder why Aizawa would have a hard time breathing. Had he been injured during the test? But why would he have been injured? Had Izuku been injured? What if- The sound of a throat clearing above her pulled Inko from her thoughts. It was only then that Inko realized that the person she was hugging was not, in fact, Izuku-sized after all.

"Aizawa-san!" Inko stepped back, almost tripping over herself in her hurry to release him. "I'm so sorry!"

Hizashi's laugh boomed as he stepped into view behind Izuku, clapping a hand hard against his friend's back. "Don't apologize, Inko-san! Old Shouta needs all the hugs he can get, and I can't be the only one making sure he meets his quota."

Inko still turned, worried, towards Aizawa whose face was half hidden by the scarves wrapped around his shoulders. "It's fine, Inko-san. I know you've been concerned about Midoriya."

"Izuku!" Inko brushed aside her embarrassment for the moment, her cheeks still burning, as she pulled her son into a hug too. "Are you okay? Were you hurt? What happened?"

"I'm okay, Mom," Izuku said, returning her hug, and oh Inko should have realized her earlier mistake the moment Aizawa didn't respond to her tight embrace with one of his his. "It.. It worked out. I think."

"Don't be modest, Izuku!" Hizashi cried. "Your son did amazing! Gave those first years a lot to think about, that's for sure."

"So you won?" Inko asked, still hugging him. She would never admit it, not after the blow to his confidence she had given him when he was younger, but she had been so worried about how the test would end. Inko would never make the mistake of putting limits on what Izuku was capable again. She never should have doubted him in the first place. But this was still a test that pitted her son against a class of students three years older than him. That placed his two months of training against their lifetime of experience.

Inko didn't doubt that Izuku would be capable of everything he had dreamed but in that situation? She couldn't help but be worried.

"Maybe we should go sit down." Izuku mumbled, and Inko's heart plummeted.

"Izuku?" She asked, but Izuku pulled away from her without a word. Inko turned to Aizawa and Hizashi as he headed passed her into the living room. Izuku had seemed happy when they had first arrived. If he had really lost his recommendation Inko doubted her accidently hugging his mentor would have been enough to cheer him up.

"Your son is being too hard on himself." Aizawa huffed. "He should be proud of his performance. But he didn't win."

"It was a close thing, really," Hizashi added, closing the door behind himself. "I was watching from one of the security cams. Didn't want to make it seem like he had too many pros in his corner in case there was still backlash. One of the first years knocked him out of bounds right as the buzzer went off."

"Oh, no. Izuku." If that principal had said that Aizawa couldn't train Izuku anymore because of that Inko was going to have words with him. Actually, Inko had a lot she wanted to say to him about this whole affair. Only the thought of putting Izuku's future at risk kept her from taking the first bus down to that school. "So his spot…"

"Apparently," Aizawa said, the words slow through his gritted teeth. "His recommendation spot was never at risk."

"I-" Inko bit her tongue around the words she wanted to say, knowing that Izuku could hear everything they were saying from the other room. "He lied?"

Aizawa's expression mirrored back the anger Inko could still feel rising at the thought of the anguish Nedzu had put Izuku through for no reason at all other than his need to make a point. "He said he needed Izuku to fight as if his future was on the line. To justify his decision to make a fifth recommendation spot."

"That-"

"Oh, Shouta will definitely be giving him an earful about that later," Hizashi said. "You don't need to worry about Nedzu getting off easy for that. Shouta's going to make his life a living hell in staff meetings next year, for sure. Retribution will be as prolonged and as painful as possible."

"How is he going to do that?" Inko asked.

Hizashi's answering grin had Inko smiling in return on reflex. "He's not going to stop me from talking when I shouldn't."

Aizawa huffed again, not denying the claim, and gestured to where Izuku sat. "Shall we?"

It only took a few moments once everyone had settled in the living room for Inko to be told the whole story.

"You said you were okay!" Inko cried when Aizawa explained how Izuku had been injured. Her eyes darted to the untorn Yuuei sweatpants he had not been wearing when he left the house that morning as Izuku avoided her gaze.

"Recovery Girl helped me. It doesn't even hurt anymore." The lie was clear in his voice, and Inko was about to call him on it when Aizawa interjected.

"He's been ordered to take it easy for three days. No training or exercise of any kind. It wouldn't have been as bad if he hadn't pushed himself through it, but that is not something he will be doing again."

"Shouldn't I get used it it though?" Izuku asked, speaking for the first time since they had joined him on the couch, his voice quiet. "If I become a hero, won't I need to know how to push passed injuries? If it's life or death-"

"I'm going to stop you right there, kid," Hizashi said, "because it's not a matter of if, but when. And when you become a hero, it's not going to be like this. You're training is going to help you prevent situations like that, situations where you're outnumbered and outgunned, from happening, and you're going to have other heroes at your back. As for life or death situations? I'm not claiming those don't happen because you need to know what you're signing up for, but pushing yourself past your limits now isn't going to do you any good. You need to worry about life or death situations as they happen. For now just focus on making sure you're prepared as you can be. And that means taking care of your health." Hizashi's words emphasized by a sharp poke to Izuku's stomach that had him hunching over. "I swear. You're going to be as much trouble as Shouta, if of a different kind. I have enough on my plate with him as it is. Let Uncle Hizashi live."

"Izuku." Aizawa said, and he waited for Izuku to look up, startled at the use of his given name. "You did well. Stop beating yourself up about it, because no one else thinks it's a big deal. All you're going to do is waste time you should be spending on other things. You don't like how the test turned out? Then work on making sure you're ready for the next challenge. You have a year and a half until the demonstration. You can either spend that time dwelling on a loss that means nothing or you can use it to better yourself. It's up to you."

Izuku stared at him, eyes wide, but said nothing.

"I don't waste my time on students I don't believe in. You know that. So I want you to do what Recovery Girl says. Rest. And in three days I'll be waiting. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Think you can handle that?"

"Yes, Aizawa-sensei!"

Inko and Hizashi exchanged a look over Izuku's head. "Yuuei isn't going to survive the both of them, is it?" Inko asked.

"It'll do the school some good," Hizashi answered. "It's gotten a little stagnant as of late. I think Izuku-kun is just the person to shake things up a bit."

Izuku's three days of rest passed at an agonizingly slow pace. Aizawa and Yamada had stayed for dinner the night of the test and had managed to keep most of Inko's fretting at bay, but the moment they were gone there was nothing to hold her back. Izuku spent the entire day of his Recovery Girl mandated rest with Inko hovering around him, making sure he wasn't pushing himself too hard. Izuku appreciated it, he really did, but by the end of the day the attention was just a little too smothering. The second day passed almost exactly the same, and by the third day he was ready for something, anything, to do to get him out of that apartment.

When the phone rang the night of his last day of rest Izuku jumped up to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Midoriya." Ah. So the use of his given name wasn't going to be a permanent thing.

"Aizawa-sensei?"

There was a hiss from the other end of the line, the muffled sound of Aizawa snapping, "Marlo!" followed by a crash.

"Aizawa-sensei, is everything okay?" Izuku hadn't spent much time around Aizawa's cats, but Yamada had told him enough stories for him to know that whatever was happening in Aizawa's apartment probably wasn't anything good.

"Don't worry about it. I was calling about our plans tomorrow. I'll meet you at your apartment after school. Be ready to go when I get there. We have an appointment to keep."

Izuku forgot how to breathe for a moment. "An appointment?"

"Hatsume called. You're equipment is ready. She wants us to stop by tomorrow so you can make sure everything works for you. Unless you have other plans, of course." The smirk sounded clear through his voice.

"I'll be ready to go when you get here!" Izuku answered.

Waiting for his three days had been long, but waiting for school to get out the next day felt like forever. Classes passed with little fanfare, Bakugou seeming quieter than usual as he sat in the back of the room. Izuku wasn't going to complain about being left alone for the day. Especially not when he had so much to think about.

Izuku had given Hatsume over a dozen ideas for support items. Some of them he knew he wouldn't be able to use until he was officially at Yuuei or got his provisional license, but the others… how many of them would Hatsume have prepared already? Defending himself without weapons, everything that Aizawa had been teaching him-those were invaluable skills and Izuku would need as much training in those areas as he could get to be on the same level as the other students who would be in his class, but having those support items could boost him to a whole other level.

Intelligence. Physical skills. That would always have to be where his strength laid. But just because he could come up with solutions for countering quirks didn't necessarily mean that he would have the skills to do it on his own. How many other options would he have had during the test if he had had those items with him? Izuku would never know for sure, but he liked to think that the fight would have gone more in his favor if he had been allowed that opportunity.

When the school day finally ended, Izuku was out of his seat and through the door before anyone else could even stand, making the walk back to his apartment in record time. Aizawa arrived to find his young student waiting outside the building just as he had requested, bouncing in the toes of his feet as the pro hero made his way closer.

"You didn't run home from school did you, Midoriya?" Aizawa asked when he reached the front of their building.

"I waited the three days like Recovery Girl said," Izuku responded. "And you said to be ready before you got here."

Aizawa hummed. "I suppose I did." He started walking in the direction of Hatsume's shop without another word, and Izuku scrambled to follow.

"What happened last night, Aizawa-sensei?" Izuku asked as he reached Aizawa's side once more. "I heard a crash in the background when you called me. Were your cats okay?" So far Izuku hadn't been left alone with his mentor's cats, but he knew there would be times when the pro hero would need someone to look out for them while he was busy with an assignment or on a job. Izuku wanted to be that person, but Aizawa rarely opened up about his pets.

Covering his eyes his a hand, Aizawa sighed. "Leo ate Marlo's food, so Marlo found it amusing to trap Leo in a box. Again. That crash you heard was him knocking the box of papers I had idiotically placed on my counter into the floor so he could sit on it."

Marlo, Izuku knew. The little orange fluffball had been the one to greet him that first day at Aizawa's apartment. "Which one is Leo?"

Aizawa glanced at him from the corner of his eyes. "The oversized forest cat. That's four times the size as Marlo. You can see why this would be a dilemma."

"Well. Food is very important. I can see why Marlo would be upset."

"Of course you do."

They walked in silence for another block.

"Do you-" Izuku started.

Aizawa waited, but Izuku didn't continue. He watched as his student kicked at the ground, his hands twisting together.

"Go ahead, Midoriya."

"It's just...Do you think Hatsume-san's daughter is going to be there today?" The words, just like the first time Izuku had asked after their first trip to the shop, were spoken with a vulnerability Aizawa still couldn't believe he was allowed to be privy to. What had he done to earn such a level of trust from the boy?

"Apparently one of the items you'll be receiving today was designed by Hatsume Mei, although her mother was ultimately the one to construct it. Mei has been very adamant about meeting the young hero who will be using her tech."

Izuku's small smile made Aizawa's chest ache.

When they finally came to a stop in front of the familiar brick building that housed Hatsume's shop, Izuku hesitated in front of the door. The workshop had been impressive the first time, but Izuku had been totally unprepared to appreciate the magnitude of the situation. Here he was. The student of a pro hero. At a support shop to pick up tech that had been made specially for him. All so that he could be prepared for a demonstration because he was going to Yuuei on recommendations. Nothing about this situation felt real, and Izuku doubted that it ever would.

He had just lifted a hand to ring the bell when the door slammed open, crashing hard as it collided with the wall behind it.

"Hero-kun!" A voiced cried, but the person waiting for them in the now open doorway was not Hastume Natsumi like Izuku had been expecting. Instead they were greeted with the sight of a girl who had to have been about his age, her bright pink hair pulled back by thick metallic looking goggles. Yellow eyes locked in on his as a large smile spread across her face. "I've heard so much about you!

And then, before Izuku could do or say anything in response, she launched herself at him, draping an arm around his shoulder as she pulled him into a hug that rivalled his mother's.

"Call me Mei!" She said, her voice bright. "I'm about to be your new best friend!"

AN:First off, thank you everyone for being so patient and understanding about the lateness of this chapter. I never planned on having to go a month without an update, but as those of you who follow me on Tumblr might have seen I actually graduated from college yesterday. This last month has been extremely hectic as I tried to get all of my graduation requirements filled-including taking a huge test that covered everything in my field of study that I was supposed to have learned and that I had to pass to graduate. I won't be starting my Master's until July, so we are officially back on my regular weekly update schedule starting today. Expect a new chapter next Saturday!

Two more things:
1) I've gotten a lot of comments after All Might's introduction with people concerned that I'm going to give Izuku OfA anyway. I'm not going to give away any spoilers because that will be a difficult decision Izuku is going to have to deal with, but this story has aways, for me, been about showcasing Izuku's inner strength and determination. I don't plan on changing that. So trust me when I say I think you will like how the question of All Might's successor is going to be answered.

2)Tododeku. A lot of people have also been asking about when this is going to happen. This is going to be a long fic and when I say long I mean LONG. Tododeku will still be happening, but it is definitely a slow burn. Todoroki's introduction will be soon, but they both have a lot of growing to do before they can have any kind of relationship. I hope you like what I have in store for them.

Thanks to everyone who commented on the last chapter! I love seeing what you think! Until next week