"Thanks for helping with dinner Midoriya-kun!"
A brunette wearing half of a red catgirl outfit thanked the green haired boy from across the kitchen.
"No problem Mandalay-san!" Midoriya Izuku was frying up some dinner for the hero course students who looked worse for wear, as they limped back toward the campsite more out of breath than a high schooler at an idol concert. Thankfully the stores at the pussycats lodge were much more well stocked than what his pitiful college student budget could ever achieve. Izuku simply felt a strange sense of security cooking in a fully stocked kitchen, it was like the feeling of seeing your pantry filled to the brim on grocery day to the Nth degree.
"Umm, Mandalay-san? Do you have any more nappa here? Or-actually, any kind of cabbage would probably do."
"We should have some over here…" Mandalay mumbled. "Kota! Where did you put the vegetable stock?"
A young boy, about elementary school age came hobbling out with a crate full of assorted vegetables.
"H-Here!" Kota struggled as he started to crumble under its weight.
"I got it!" Izuku jogged over to lend a hand, but was met with a glare.
"I don't need any help from heroes."
"KOTA!" His guardian yelled.
Izuku took a curious, almost scrutinising look at the boy, before taking the load of his shoulders anyway.
"It's a good thing I'm not a hero then." Izuku said with a gentle smile.
Kota widened his eyes, before rudely turning away with a scoff.
"Doesn't like heroes huh?" Izuku commented.
Mandalay simply sighed. "It's… complicated."
The green haired boy almost rolled his eyes. "What isn't?"
"ITAIDAKIMASU!"
The whole hero course threw caution to the wind, as they attempted to scarf as much of their dinner down their famished bellies as they could.
"This food is soooo goood!" Mineta Minoru moaned as he stuffed his face.
"It's like the heavens answered my calls for help and placed this meal on my plate!" Kaminari Denki screamed in delight.
"Uhh, no they didn't it's just me." Izuku awkwardly passed by, placing another dish of food on the table.
"THEN IT IS DOUBLY SO!" Both Mineta and Kaminari literally cried out.
Izuku decided that he would never make sense of what goes through their heads.
"And here you go! Please enjoy, Kirishima-san! Ashido-san!"
"No problem, Midoriya! You're such a manly guy! Taking time just to come out here and cook for us!"
Izuku wanted to retort that it wasn't by choice, but decided just to keep his mouth shut.
"Psst! Mina! You haven't thanked Midoriya for the food!" Kirishima not so discreetly whispered.
"Huh? Oh r-right! T-Thanks Midori…" Ashido couldn't even look him in the eye as she fumbled with her words.
Now that he thought about it, Izuku hadn't even seen her since the first day he came back in the 1A dorms. She must probably still feel awkward about the whole 'dating confession' deal.
"It's nothing much, please just enjoy!" Izuku politely smiled as he walked over to grab the next few dishes.
Everyone aside from Bakugou and Shinsou had politely gave him their thanks and delightfully chowed down on their food, leaving him with just…
"Here you go Eri! Eat as much as you want!" Izuku sat next to Eri, carrying a hefty portion of food for the both of them.
"It's so much!" Stars began to sparkle in Eri's eyes. "We never have this much for dinner!"
"I know isn't it great!" Izuku smiled, revealing in the power that was the fully stocked kitchen.
"Eh!? What about mine Midoriya-kun!?" A casually dressed Midnight complained.
"Umm, Sensei? Why aren't you eating with the rest of the staff? I already plated their food before the students even arrived."
"…"
"Aizawa-sensei is still mad at you isn't he?"
"…no?"
"He's still mad that you've done absolutely anything to help isn't he?"
A torrent of sweat started pouring down the professional hero's face.
"And it probably didn't help that you weren't supposed to be here in the first place but because you kept anno-"
"OKAY! OKAY! YES!" Kayama Nemuri yelled. "Jeez, you really have no delicacy kid…"
"It's ok! You can have some of my food!" Eri the little angel she was, offered the shameless woman her dinner.
Midnight squealed and began pinching her little cheeks. "Ooh Eri-channn! You're so preciousss! What did I ever do to deserve you?"
Absolutely nothing.
"It's ok Eri, I'll go get sensei some food." Izuku started to get up.
"Ah! Deku-kun! Don't worry we've got you covered!" Uraraka Ochako walked over with Asui Tsuyu carrying plates full of food.
"Ah, thanks Ochako. Oh, and you too Asui-san." Izuku politely thanked.
"Kero, I told you to call me Tsuyu-chan."
"R-Right, sorry Tsuyu-chan." Izuku shakily apologised.
Ochako gave her best friend a look, before taking a seat next to her boyfriend.
"~Delicious!" Midnight wiggle-danced as she took a bite of food. "I might just snatch you up for my agency after you graduate Midoriya-kun!"
"As your sidekick? I'm not even a hero student, you know?" Izuku deadpanned.
"There are plenty of other roles to be filled! You could be my secretary! Or my personal chef! Or my butler, or my maid, or my slave…"
"Your job offers are just getting worse and worse!"
"Hey! People would pay good money just to be my slave, and I'm offering you the job with compensation!"
"Those are the kinds of people you shouldn't be hiring in the first place!"
"Ehhh?"
"Kero, speaking of which. What are you planning to do after you graduate Midoriya-chan?"
"Eh? Umm…" Izuku honestly didn't think much of what he was planning to do. The general studies course had the least clearly defined track of all of UA's courses, and he didn't have many notable skills outside of punching people with his right fist. Izuku doubted the previous Midoriya Izuku had a plan to begin with, at least one that didn't involve getting into the hero course. This was probably the result of all the daydreaming he did since he was a kid.
"I just… thought I'd figure it out as I go. Maybe hop onto whatever company that takes me in as an intern, and see how I feel."
"Kero, I see…" Asui didn't sound convinced, and honestly neither did Izuku.
After dinner was done, Izuku got up to start on the dishes but was immediately stopped by Vlad King and Aizawa who insisted on letting their students clean up after themselves. So he opted for cleaning up the kitchen instead, since he was the only one who used it. But Izuku knew it was just to distract himself from his own thoughts.
"Hey idiot!"
Izuku turned to see the same small boy from earlier.
"Oh hey, Kota-kun right? What's up?"
He scoffed once again. "My aunt said you were washing up by yourself, so she sent me to help clean up your mess."
His aunt? He must be referring to Mandalay. "Oh, umm… Thanks I guess?" Izuku answered as politely as he could.
"Whatever." This kid was starting to remind him of Kacchan.
But as the pair scrubbed through every pot and pan the tension began to thicken the air, as if it was creating a new ozone layer. But as grateful as Izuku was for his help, he didn't really want to be in the same room as this rude little boy.
"Hey…"
Surprisingly, it was that same rude little boy that broke the silence. "Why the fuck are you even here?"
And Izuku instantly wish he hadn't. "To clean?"
"You know what I mean. If you aren't a hero wannabe like the rest, why are you even here?"
Well that was better than what Izuku expected him to ask. "You know Midnight?"
"Huh? The skanky old lady?"
"SHHH!" Izuku shushed him in a panicked frenzy. "Don't let her hear you say that! That'll just bring even more misfortune when school starts back up!"
The little brat didn't seem to care. "Whatever, whats it gotta do with her?"
Izuku sighed. "I basically got dragged to be her slave on this trip, and since I'm here I might as well do something useful and help the rest."
"That's dumb, you could have just said no."
"Trust me kid, I could beg and still come out at the short end of the stick. Best not to mess with the misfortune you're dealt with or it'll bite you back when you least expect it."
"Wow you're a downer."
It was Izuku's turn to scoff. "Says the kid who swears more than a college student at a house party, where did you even learn to swear that much? It's definitely not your aunt's influence, all things considered."
The boys face darkened. "… I… play on a lot of servers."
"… Can I be the one to install parental guidance?"
"Fuck off, the damage is already done. Besides, it's not like I have anything better to do while all the adults in the house are out 'Saving the world' and all that fluffy shit."
"Right…" Izuku still felt the need to rid the child of his internet access.
"But why aren't you in the hero course? Aren't you that dude who beat Endeavour's kid?"
Izuku raised a brow, but he probably shouldn't have been that surprised at this point. "Yeah, it's… complicated."
"…You wanted to be a hero didn't you? I can tell you're the goodie two shoes type."
Izuku laughed. "My disciplinary track record would say otherwise…"
"The vigilante type then? You failed to get in the hero course, so out of spite you fight crime when people aren't watching for nothing but thanks."
"… You watch too many cartoons kid. But yeah you're right, I did want to be a hero growing up. I mean most of the kids did. I just… didn't make the cut."
"Didn't make the cut by beating the number one heroes kid? UA must be a worse school than I thought."
Izuku sighed. "Like I said kid, it's not that simple. I'm just not fit to be a hero ok?"
Kota raised a brow. "Then by your logic, candy cane boy isn't fit to be one either."
"That's different."
"Why? Because he has daddy's backing? That's just plain nepotism."
"Because he's strong and he's much better at being a hero in literally every other way."
Kota rubbed his temples in frustration. "Let's just put the elitist fuckers aside for a second and think about it logically. I highly doubt that every single student in the hero course would be better than the dude who knocked out Endeavour's kid."
"They all have useful and powerful quirks, I can't do even half of what they can. If there's a collapsing building I can't hold it up, if there's a runaway criminal I'll be left in the dust. And like Togata-senpai proved today, once they train up their quirkless combat everything I did up to this point would be irrelevant."
"Are you kidding me? Most of them look like they can't even keep up with a villain. The invisible girl? What fucking building can she hold up? The tail dude? He looks lame as fuck! And that grape midget? You could end him with a single punch! You hero cocksuckers just keep thinking all of them are just like the Top 10. Well, news flash idiot, the Top 10 are hard carrying the industry."
"You really want to use that argument when your aunt and her team aren't even in the Top 100 anymore? Besides they do it because they care for people, all I ever do is mess up and care more about trying to keep up with schoolwork than save anyone."
Kota scoffed once again. "The fact that you're even fucking saying that is proof enough that you aren't in this for yourself. I've seen more hero students come to this camp than I can count, and I can safely say that only a fucking fraction of them even think about helping people because they want to. It's all about feeding their ego nowadays, every 'I want to help others' that comes out of their mouths is just plain bullshit."
Izuku sighed. "Look kid, I was the same way. When I was even younger than you I thought All Might was the coolest hero in the world, and all I ever wanted was to be just like him. I kept saying that I wanted to be a hero that saves everyone with a smile just like him, but looking back that was just an excuse, a coping mechanism for my own selfishness."
Izuku stared at his reflection in the soapy sink water.
"Did I want to be like All Might because he could save everybody? Or did I want to be a hero to help people because I wanted to be just like him? Honestly its been so long that the two blurred together into a singular mess of a reason, but either way I'm done with giving myself excuses. If I actually wanted to help people there were plenty of options for me to pick, doctors, firefighters, councillors, teachers even, and yet my selfish mind locked on to the one job that literally screamed 'Look at me! I'm a hero'. The whole thing was probably to make myself feel less useless than I was anyway, an ego boost that would last an entire career." Izuku sighed.
The kitchen was silent, the clanging of the pots and pans were the only sounds reverberating throughout the room.
"Tsk, I give up. Think whatever the fuck you wanna think." Kota walked away from the sink and dried his hands using kitchen towels at the side of the room.
"Y'know? All that shit about not giving yourself excuses… Maybe you should stop giving heroes excuses instead, they aren't as perfect as you fucking think." Kota said as he walked away from the kitchen.
"…I've made peace with that fact a long time ago."
