Hey All! Sorry, I meant to update this earlier today, but it was super busy. We got our Christmas Tree up, did some baking and cleaning, not in that order...anyway, the point of all this is, here is chapter two/three, depending on whether you count the prologue as a chapter. Enjoy!
Shouta stared at Midoriya's phone, sitting gently in his hand. He wasn't the kind of teacher to disregard his students' privacy, but...this was different. This could potentially be detrimental to his student.
Having made up his mind, Shouta unlocked the phone, using the passcode which he had happened to see the boy tapping in once. His screen lit up with a picture of Dagoba Beech, the recently clear sand stretching out to the calm sea. Somehow, it wasn't what Shouta had expected his homescreen to be.
Shaking his head at himself for getting distracted, Shouta tapped his way through the phone until he got to the email. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting when he opened it, and he supposed he shouldn't have been too surprised considering what he had already seen, but he wasn't expecting to see that the boy had two accounts, one for himself, and one for... Midoriya Inko. Shouta slid through it, and there they were, all the emails sent between the school and Midoriya's mother.
"Problem Child, what did you do?" He murmured to the boy sleeping on his lap. Midoriya's head twitched, but other than that, he didn't wake up. Shouta resumed stroking his hand through the boy's hair, having stopped when he had gone into the boy's email.
Shouta sighed, and closed the app. He knew that he wouldn't be able to get any answers out of the boy, not when he was like this, so he had to resort to the only other person he knew could give him answers.
He held his phone up to his ear, and heard the line being answered after the second ring. "Ahh, Aizawa, what can I do for you?" Came the chipper voice of UA's principal.
"Midoriya's mother, what do you know about her?" He didn't bother to explain further, since he knew that Nezu would understand.
"Ah," the principal's voice grew serious, "about that, Aizawa, she's dead. She passed away five years ago."
Shouta blinked once, then twice, processing it. When his brain had fully registered what it heard, he groaned, letting his head fall back to rest against the headboard. A shelf was digging into his head, but he didn't care. All he cared about was that Midoriya's mother had apparently died five years ago, and his father had left when he was just a baby. The kid was an orphan.
At that thought, his head snapped back up. His legs jolted a bit as well, causing Midoriya to groan and shift a bit, but he settled down again once Shouta played with his hair more.
"Nezu, where's the kid staying when he's not at school?" He asked frantically.
"An orphanage, where he has been for the last few years before UA, and the dorms. He started out in foster care, but none of them lasted, and after a year, the orphanage was the only place that would take him."
"Why? He's a good kid, and has a strong quirk. Most people would be eager to get behind him," he said, genuinely confused.
"Yes, well, that's something you will have to ask young Midoriya yourself. But, may I ask, how did you figure it out?" Nezu asked, voice going back to sweetly innocent in a moment.
"Midoriya's sick. I emailed his mother to see if she could pick him up, and Midoriya's phone got the notification. I'm assuming that he forged all the documents he used for the school, too?"
"Yes," Nezu replied. "I noticed of course, but I was curious to see what he would do with it, and I didn't want to have to turn him away for forging documents."
"Who else knows?"
"Just you and I, as far as I know."
"Not even All Might?" He asked, knowing how close he and Midoriya were.
"No."
"And which orphanage?" Shouta asked his last question.
Nezu gave him the name, which Shouta recognized as the least well reviewed one in the area. He felt what could only be described as a growl coming from his chest, but again forced it down. "However," the principal continued, "you don't need to contact them. In fact, I already have all the necessary documents drawn up. All they need is your signature."
Shouta paused for a second, confused. "What documents?"
"Why, the adoption papers, of course. I've had them drawn up with your information on them since a few weeks after school started. I'm honestly disappointed with myself that I couldn't be sure sooner, but Midoriya is very private, and very good at hiding things, considering how long his charade lasted."
"Adoption papers!?" Shouta said loudly into the phone, glancing down after to make sure that his student was still sleeping. "Why would you draw up adoption papers for me?"
"Why, to save time, of course. And I would like you to notice that you didn't ask me why you would need the papers, only why I drew them up. You know yourself that this can't go on. It's not good for him, and he deserves to have a proper home. Of course, he could stay at UA while he is a student here, and after that he can stay on his own, but Midoriya should have more than that, don't you agree?"
Shouta breathed in deeply, and then let it out, forcing himself to go about this rationally, since that was the only way he got through conversations with the principal. Also, he was used to acting rationally in every aspect of his life. Although, when it came to Midoriya, he found it a bit harder, for some reason, especially now that he found out the kid had been living in an orphanage for three years.
"Yes, I agree. The kid deserves a home, but I don't understand why you put my information on the documents. He's closer to All Might than to me. And I'm not saying I think Yagi should adopt him, but I don't think I'm the best person either.
"But you wouldn't hesitate to sign, if you knew that's what he wanted, would you?" Nezu asked. Shouta didn't answer, but he knew what his answer would be. Apparently Nezu knew it to, if what he said next was any indication. "There you have it. When he recovers, you can ask him. I'll send the papers over to your place in the meantime."
"Fine," Shouta ground out through clenched teeth. "And just so you know, I'm going to take Midoriya to my apartment in the teachers' dorm building.
"That's fine, take good care of him."
Shouta grunted into the phone, then hung up. He placed his phone down and sighed, then ran his hand through his hair. Midoriya was still sleeping, but he couldn't stay here. Shouta would have to bring him to his apartment in the teachers' dorm, but he didn't want to wake him up. He wasn't even sure if he would be able to walk there if Shouta did wake him up.
The underground hero shifted, using both hands to lift up Midoriya's head, and sliding out from underneath him. The boy didn't stir; he must have fallen into a deeper sleep.
Shouta gently lifted Midoriya up into a sitting position, wincing as the boy's head lolled, then, careful to still support his weight, he turned around and pulled the boy onto his back, so he was being carried piggyback. He could feel Midoriya's breath against his neck from where the boy's head was buried in his shoulder, nestled in the capture scarf.
Shouta made sure Midoriya's arms were over his shoulders, and hooked his own arms under the boy's knees to support his weight. Glancing at the packed suitcase, he decided to come back for it later. Right now he had to get his student to his apartment and comfortable, and get some medicine in him.
He stood up, shifting his position a bit to accommodate for the extra weight. Then he made his way out of the room and downstairs, freeing one arm when he needed to by shifting the other behind is back so it was supporting all of Midoriya's weight.
Moving quite quickly, it was only a minute till he was stepping off the elevator and into the common area. It was there that Midoriya stirred a bit.
"Mmf," he groaned, and Shouta could feel him lifting his head up, although it didn't get very high. "Where're we goingg?" He slurred, head sinking back down to Shouta's shoulder. A cough escaped him, but it was muffled by the capture scarf. Shouta waited for him to stop coughing before he answered.
"We're going back to my apartment in the teachers' dorms, Problem Child," Shouta answered, keeping his voice level.
"Mmm, kay," Midoriya mumbled, voice still muffled by the capture scarf. "You're warmm." Shouta felt a small tremor go through the boy, and he glanced at him quickly, seeing his pale face pressed into Shouta's neck. "You've always been warm, though..." Midoriya continued, "everyone else was always cold, but you're so warm."
Aizawa blinked a couple times as he stepped out of the building, making his way up the path to the teachers' dorm building. However, he knew he wasn't blinking from the brightness of the sun, he was blinking at the statement Midoriya made.
The kid was delirious with fever, and half asleep, but that made him more honest, and Shouta knew that at the end, he wasn't talking about physical warmth. It was strange, since most people who met Shouta would call him a cold person, and that was fine, since that was what he wanted them to think. Anyone who actually knew him well, students included, knew that he wasn't always cold, but he didn't know of anyone who would call him warm. Not even Hizashi and Nemuri, his two closest friends, had called him that.
Somehow, though, Midoriya thought that, and even compared him to everyone else, who he thought was cold. And, considering how the kid had lived for the last few years, it was no wonder he didn't have many warm people in his life.
Still, Shouta just couldn't understand why the kid was so nervous, so hesitant around others, and so withdrawn. And he didn't understand what Nezu had said about him not lasting long in foster care. Midoriya was such a bright boy, and always so eager to help. He had the heart of a hero, and the quirk of one, too, if only he could learn to control it.
Shouta paused a bit at that, his steps slowing down a bit, before he sped up again, the building he wanted in sight. His thoughts resumed, running faster than ever. The boy had a strong quirk, but had only learned to control it while at UA. That may have been because of the school's help, but Shouta highly doubted it. He had always thought it was suspicious how untrained and undeveloped Midoriya's quirk actually was.
He could be a late bloomer, which would explain the lack of control, and possibly even the hesitance and nervousness around others, and loud notices and sudden movements, since Shouta knew that quirkless kids, and those with "villain" or mutant quirks were bullied more in school. But...even if he was a late bloomer, he still would have gotten his quirk at least seven years ago, if not more. And in that time, he would have stopped being bullied, and would have gained more control. And that still didn't explain the lack of constancy in the foster care system.
None of it made sense, and the only way it would make sense, is if Midoriya got his quirk way late, way too late for it to be possible.
Sighing, Shouta stopped his thoughts before they ran rampage. He supposed he would just have to listen to what Nezu said, and ask Midoriya himself when the boy was more coherent. And he had to ask him about the adopt—no, Shouta wouldn't go there. That was way too sudden, and strange.
Coming out of his thoughts, Shouta realized that he was already walking up the stairs in the teachers' dorm building. Focusing on the task at hand, he made it the rest of the way up to his floor and over to his door.
He struggled a bit with getting his key, but finally managed to slide it out of his pocket, and swipe it through the lock on the door. Pushing it open with his left shoulder, making sure that Midoriya's arm wasn't getting squished in the process, he stepped into his apartment, slipped off his shoes, and walked over to the couch.
There, he turned around, knelt down slowly, and placed Midoriya down, spinning around quickly to grab the boy's shoulders, which he then pushed down onto the couch. Finally, he grabbed Midoriya's legs and swung them up, then reached over and snatched a pillow from beside the couch, slipping it under Midoriya's head.
His student groaned, and shifted his head on the pillow, pressing his face into it more, but he didn't wake up. Breathing a sigh of relief, Shouta stood up slowly, trying to be quiet, and wincing when his knees popped.
Glancing back behind him again, hesitant to leave but knowing it was necessary, he slipped his shoes back on and slunk out of the apartment, making sure to close the door quietly behind himself.
He made his way back to the 1-A dorms again, his mind running through everything that Recovery Girl had told him on the phone. He had thought he would just be handing him off to Midoriya Inko, which, while more uncomfortable, would still have been simpler and better, but now that he knew that she...well, was dead...he would have to take care of Midoriya. Not that he was complaining, it was more just that he was unsure if he was even capable of taking care of a sick child. He supposed he would have to get used to it, if he ended up signing those papers Nezu—wait, where did that thought come from? No, think of that later, after talking to Midoriya.
He shook himself of those thoughts again, hurrying through his students' building back up to the greenette's room. He grabbed his phone from off the rumpled bed, and put it into his back pocket again. He started to turn away from the bed, but looked back, and, after a second, he took the blanket and top sheet, shook them out, and remade the bed.
He then pocketed Midoriya's phone as well, which he had left on the desk again after he had looked through his emails. He would have to apologize for that later...And then he grabbed the handle of the boy's suitcase, which was sitting beside the desk, already packed conveniently for his relocation to Shouta's apartment.
Then he made his way back to the teachers' dorms, back to Midoriya, and back to confusion. He finally had some answers, but he had a lot more questions. Hopefully he could get them, but helping Midoriya feel better came first. One step at a time.
So there it is! Aizawa now knows, and...Nezu has adoption papers drawn up. 😏 I really hope you enjoyed, even though this chapter is mostly just filler, and doesn't have as much as Midoriya, and more of Aizawa's thoughts. I promise things get more exciting in the next chapter! Until next time!