Author note: Just a quick one shot I wanted to write, I have a TON of ideas for the current fic I'm just not sure what arc I want it to end at yet, It won't be soon obvi, and it most likely is going to go to the war/possible series end, that's what I'd like in a perfect world at least, but just in case, I wanted to put this quick one out there :). Not many differences from the manga after Izuku took his leave from U.A. but there is a major difference in how he comes back. Oh another difference, Izuku and Momo are dating (because she's best girl and Izu/Momo is the best rarepair), and U.A. is a university in literally any and all fics I'm going to write. IF YOU DO NOT WANT ANY SPOILERS NO MATTER HOW SMALL THIS IS YOUR WARNING, ANIME ONLY'S/NOT CAUGHT UP FRIENDS. Thanks for reading and enjoy! Oh and please leave a review if you liked it, or if you have a piece of constructive criticism please share it, I'm still very new to this so I appreciate it all immensely.

The return of a Hero

"If the wall wasn't up it'd look like U.A. hadn't changed a bit."

An exhausted Izuku Midoryia, after months of non-stop fighting and searching, has decided to take up Nezu's offer and go back to his hero school. Most of the villains that had escaped from Tarturus were accounted for, and most minor crime had been at an all time low, the L.O.V were still out there, but in his last briefing Tsukaichi told him they weren't far enough along in the investigation to act just yet. For the first time since the coordinated attack on the League, and the subsequent failure of the Heroes, Izuku could rest.

Izuku was exhausted, the most sleep he had gotten was about two and a half hours every night, and naps when he could sneak them in during the day, at most those only lasted about fifteen minutes.

His suit was shredded, caked in mud, debris, and gore. The reinforced shoes Mei had made for him were cracked and broken looking closer to claws; the same could be said for his specialty gloves. His eyes blackened, only showing his brilliant emerald iris. With his hood and face mask up, he looked like a monster, Izuku had stopped caring about the way he looked to the public, more concerned for the fear his current look put on the faces of the villains he faced.

Izuku had decided to walk to front of the 2-A dorms and go to the room Eraserhead told him was his, apparently Nezu had moved Izuku's room for him after he left the school, wanting him to know he always had a home there. The greenette was happy knowing there was a home somewhere for him. He was about to walk up the steps and let himself in before his body stopped moving.

"All because Nezu wants me here doesn't mean my classmates do." Izuku thought out loud.

"I left them all with only notes, I knew they would try to stop me if I told them, but that's something that I couldn't let happen, I had to do this alone. I bet Momo already moved on after I left, I didn't want to keep her in the dark all this time but it was the only way I could keep her safe. Maybe I should go see if one of the gym's are open, I might be able to sleep there for a whil-." The greenettes thoughts were cut off, before he had the chance to turn around the doors to the dorms opened.

Ashido was talking Ochaco's ear off, the two girls wanted to head out for a few hours before curfew, and thought a run around the campus would be a good idea.

"You better not use your quirk to skate past me again Mina" The gravity user joked, "It's seriously unfair!"

"What? It just makes you have to run faster! If anything you should be thanking me for the free training!" The pink skinned girl shot back.

The two girls were playfully arguing together as they walked out of the dorm, but Ochako froze in her tracks wide eyed as she noticed who was in front of her, Mina noticed her friend was no longer talking and turned to her "hey something wrong Chako?" Ashido asked. Uraraka's eyes were brimming with tears as she lifted her arm and pointed forward. Mina, confused, decided to follow the girl's gesture. She almost turned white when she realized there was another person in the courtyard.

"Is that Izuku?" Mina barely whispered out. But Ochaco couldn't say anything, only crying and letting out a small "D-deku?"

"H-hey guys, long time no see" The greenette stammered out. I'm sorry for leaving the way I did but I-" the greenette was cut off by his brown haired best friend slamming into him and wrapping him in a giant hug.

"Deku y-you're back, I-I missed you so much" The gravity user cried out.

"It's good to see you too, Ura" the greenette smiled at his friend, happy that at least she didn't hate him.

The second Ochako took off towards their long lost friend, Mina rushed back into the dorms, shouting to their classmates hanging out in the kitchen and living room, ""He's Back! Izuku's back! Hurry tell everyone and get outside!" The pinkette ran back out followed by Denki and Shinsou, while Jirou, Sato, and Tokoyami ran to the elevators, to alert everyone already in their rooms.

"Holy shit it's really you! Wow you really do look scary as fuck" Denki laughed out. The blonde zoomed past Mina and Shinsou and joined the hug, Izuku was still in. "Dude I missed you so much! YOU DON"T GET TO LEAVE ME AGAIN I WAS SO BORED." The electric boy yelled at his friend.

"I m-missed you too Denki" The greenette barely let out. "You really don't hate me f-for leaving?" Izuku had asked out.

"Hate you what? Dude I could never hate you! I've been worried sick about you, we all have!" Denki had tears falling from his eyes but still had his normal huge smile on his face.

Uraraka and Denki were still embracing the One-For-All user, whose arms were laying limply at his sides. Izuku wasn't sure how to feel, he was emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted. He felt somewhat numb still, but that changed as he started hearing the commotion at the front doors.

The rest of the hero students were told about Izuku's arrival from their classmates and had started rushing outside to see him. "Izuku! both Shoto and Tenya yelled out to him, the pair were running towards their friend, joining in on the love, going towards the greenette.

"I can't believe you would just leave like that! What the hell is wrong with you?" Iida shouted his normal hand chopping movements buzzing past Izuku's face, "I've missed you so much my friend".

"I'm sorry Iida, I should have told you something" Izuku sighed out, he knew people were going to lecture him about this.

"Forget it, I'm just so happy you're home now" Iida smiled at his friend. Izuku was shocked, he didn't expect one of his classmates, especially Iida, to blow off his apology, and just forgive him. Izuku felt something pulling at his arm but wasn't sure what. Turning to his right he saw his short time rival, turned best friend Shoto pulling at his sleeve.

Shoto was staring directly in his friend's eyes. "For years I wanted my father to just vanish without a trace, never to be heard of again, I never wanted that from you. Never, ever leave me like that again Izuku." In a rare moment the two friends looked like they had changed personalities, the normally stoic and quiet Shoto was crying like a lost child, squeezing his friend's sleeve tighter, almost as if he was afraid he'd run away, but Izuku had a shocked look in his eyes, but a more stoic expression on his face, still hidden by his mask.

The rest of the class had started making their way towards Izuku to greet him but before they could they saw Izuku throwing his friends off of him and holding his head in his hands.

Izuku was about to tell Shoto he had missed him too, but before he could he felt a pinching pain in his head. His danger-sense was going off like crazy, he threw his friends back towards the rest of his classmates and grabbed his head.

"There's a villain! My quirk is going off, there's something dangerous close by." Izuku grunted and shot up, readying his quirk and started frantically looking into the rain filled darkness behind him.

"I KNEW I couldn't come back here, god dammit I told them over and over again I was too dangerous." Izuku shouted out to no one but himself, his danger-sense was flaring like crazy.

His classmates had started to ready themselves just in case of an attack, and Izuku was about to use float to get into the sky and leave again but not before scanning the area for the threat, but before anyone had started a fight, the symbol of hope heard something from behind his classmates, something that scared him more than any of the horrible atrocities he's seen in the last three months combined. He finally knew what was responsible for his quirk flare up

"IZUKU MIDORIYA"

He had never heard so much venom placed into his name before, especially after he realized who it had come from. Izuku's classmates had split like the red sea, and between them walked a furious Momo Yaoyurozu. Noticeably her proper and prim attitude was fully gone, replaced by a white unrelenting rage.

"IZUKU, DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO LEAVE." Momo yelled at him.

Izuku was wide eyed at the sight in front of him, only able to let out a small "Oh shit". Momo was walking towards him as if she were angry at the ground, a threatening aura leaking out from her.

She was finally standing in front of the greenette glaring daggers through him. Izuku was at a loss for words, he knew he needed to see her as soon as possible, but he wanted to be able to come up with something, anything that could make her forgive him.

He wanted to do that but unfortunately all he could come up with was "Hi Momo".

There was a beat before a loud slap cracked throughout the courtyard; the Hero students all instinctively flinched at the sound. Momo had slapped Izuku HARD without any care for the metal facemask attached to his mouth. She was still glaring at him, but Izuku's face was still facing the right, he slowly turned to her and lowered his eyes. "I deserved that" the greenette said.

"No you don't get to talk!" the ravennette shot out.

"How DARE you, you leave me with nothing more than a letter, and no communication for months. I had to watch the news and check the hero boards EVERYDAY just so I could make sure you hadn't died! Do you have any idea what you did to me? Do you even care? And then you have the gall to show back up here as if you didn't do any of that! You have the nerve to just show up and say Hi Momo? HI!, thats all you fucking say to me? I can't believe you!"

Izuku still couldn't look in her eyes but knew he should say something. "Momo, please let m-" but the greenette was cut off again. "I SAID NO TALKING" his girlfriend (well he hoped still girlfriend) yelled at him.

"I have zero want for whatever bullshit hero speech you have prepared. I lied when I said I couldn't believe this, of course I can. I'm talking to Izuku "throw his life away" Midoriya. The one thing I asked of you, the one thing you promised me was that you would at least let me help you, no questions asked, no matter how dangerous. I never pressed you about your quirk, or your relationship with Allmight because of that, and you just, broke that, as if it meant nothing to you, you gave me your fucking word!" There were hot tears flowing down Momo's face at this point. "And you're still in your costume, still wearing that stupid fucking mask you've been hiding behind while shutting all of us out, the people who care about you most, at least look at me you coward!" There was venom in the last part of Momo's sentence, Izuku knew she was right, he did everything she accused him of, but he had to do it alone, he knew no one could understand how bad things actually were.

Right?

Izuku lifted his head to look into Momo's eyes. She was still crying but the fire in her eyes wasn't lowered if anything it was only burning hotter. He realized how long it had been since he's actually seen her face up close, her beautiful onyx eyes burning holes through him, her gorgeous black hair pulled back into her ponytail, the elegant shape of her face, and her lips, the lips that became his addiction after the first time they placed theirs together.

Izuku stared at Momo and after a few moments, with a shaky hand grabbed the back of his head and pulled his mask off. Letting Momo finally look at him after all this time.

His normally wild curly green hair, had been cut shorter into a more manageable length, his normal bright happy eyes now hollow and sunken, black bags were in full effect under his eyes. His smile was small and forced, and the biggest difference being the large scar that ran across the boy's face, across his nose.

Momo was glaring at him still but the rest of their classmates were horrified. The sun of their class burned out. The Izuku they once knew was gone, and what stood before them was the Hero they had been hearing about on the news. The monster Deku was there.

"M-momo" He shakily let out. I'm s-so, so…" but the tears Izuku hadn't realized he was holding back were flowing freely. "I'm so sorry!" Izuku had pulled Momo into him and sobbing into her shoulder, he kept tightening his hold on her, hoping she wouldn't stop his embrace. The numb feeling he had was now replaced with an intense feeling of guilt and sadness. Momo hadn't moved. Izuku was clinging to her as tight as he could but after a few moments, her features started to soften to more of one of sadness, her tears no longer hot and were flowing down harder than before. She reached her hands up and embraced her love tightly. The two were embracing the other with no intent of letting go.

The ravenette started speaking through her tears. "It's going to take me a very long time to forgive you for this, but one day I know I will. I..I love you so much, welcome home."

Izuku couldn't respond; however, he was too overwhelmed by the emotions running through his head.

Izuku was completely spent, and started to feel himself begin to lose consciousness, before that could happen however he heard an angry (not even close to Momo's but angry nonetheless) "DEKU!" Shouted at him from the heights alliance doors. By the time Momo was done reprimanding Izuku, Kirishima and Katsuki had made their way down with the rest of their classmates. Momo let go of Izuku to glare at the explosive blonde.

"It's handled for now, Katsuki." Momo spit at her classmate.

The two shot daggers at each other before Katsuki decided it wouldn't be worth it to argue.

"Tch, FINE BUT TOMORROW-" the blonde started.

"You can beat whatever you have to say into him, I fully agree, but tonight."

Momo stared at the other Heroes in training as well. "You will leave him alone. I'm taking him up to my room to clean him up and put him to bed, you can all talk to him tomorrow. No one comes to my room, no one disturbs him. Now excuse us".

Momo started to lead the still sobbing Izuku towards the dorms, their classmates making a middle aisle, having split off to either side of them. After the way Momo had just treated their powerhouse of a classmate, none of them even dared to try and cross her.

Izuku and Momo had made their way up to her new room on the fourth floor. Upon entering the room Izuku noticed the cork board on Momo's wall filled side to side and top to bottom, with news clippings on Izuku's exploits after the last few months. The guilt pinging in his chest stronger than before.

"Take off your costume". The ravenette softly told her boyfriend.

Izuku complied, stripping off his costume until he was in nothing but his compression shorts. Momo gasped when she saw her boyfriend's chest and back, Not only was he much stronger and more defined then before he left, he was covered in scars, after months of non stop fighting she knew he'd most likely look different, but she hadn't expected so much.

"I guess I don't look as good as I used to huh?" The greenette tried to joke out, Momo had a tiny smile on her face, but her eyes looked so sad.

"Nonsense Izu." The ravenette said to her boyfriend, she took his hand in hers and led him to the shower, she turned the hot water on and set it up and led him to stand inside of it. "I'm just going to be in my room, call me if you need anything." Leaving her boyfriend to clean himself up.

Izuku sat down, letting the hot water hit his back and head, this was the first shower he's actually been able to enjoy, it wasn't just rain water cleaning him or the quick showers he'd grab while taking his small breaks from patrolling. The water coming from him went from clear, to black, and then red, as he watched the dirty water go down the drain, Izuku knew none of the blood was his, but that of the villains he had to face. For a reason he wasn't aware of for the first time in months Izuku was disgusted at what he was forced to become. He started sobbing uncontrollably into his knees, hoping Momo wouldn't hear him. He had been stuck like that for more than ten minutes now, when he was surprised by two elegant arms wrapping around his chest and two mounds pressing into his back.

"It's okay Izuku, I promise you're safe. Don't worry about anyone else just for tonight, let it out." Momo had whispered into his ear. Izuku continued to sob and Momo held him tightly. She washed his hair for him and helped him disinfect his new cuts. Once he was finally cleaned up, Momo gave him a towel and dried herself as well. She led Izuku to her bed and he eagerly crawled into his old spot to her left and sunk into her wonderfully comfortable linen sheets. Momo had crawled into bed next to him after turning out the lights, laying a soft kiss on his lips. As if the last months never happened, Izuku found himself melting at her touch.

After a moment she broke their embrace, and Izuku let out a small whimper and shot a confused look at Momo.

The girl giggled at her boyfriend's expression and said "easy now tiger maybe tomorrow but tonight you sleep.'' She gave him another peck on the cheek. "Now rest up handsome." and laid her head on his chest.

Izuku let a small laugh escape his lip. "Yeah that's fair, but tomorrow I'm not letting you leave for a second."

Momo laughed at her boyfriends sudden exclamation, "it's cute you think you have that choice, we have three months to make up for I~z~u." She added a sexy lilt to her voice on his name that didn't go unnoticed by the greenette."

"I look forward to it, my love." The greenette slowly let out. Momo snuggled deeper into his chest.

"Good". Was the last thing she said before dozing off.

Izuku was staring at Momo, he forgot how amazing the feeling of not having the weight of the world on his shoulders felt. He forgot how much he loved being like this just holding his girlfriend as tight to his heart as he could. Izuku moved his gaze up to the ceiling. The thoughts of his time alone moved through his mind, but they were canceled out by the girl next to him tapping his face with her hand.

"Go to bed Zuzu, I promise things will get easier starting tomorrow." Momo sleepily said.

Izuku smiled, "yeah, sorry I'll try to sleep, I love you."

"I love you too, now sleeeeep.'' The ravenette got out before falling back to her dreams.

Izuku was still smiling when he started to fall asleep.

His last thought before falling asleep was "Maybe things will be better like this, I'm so glad I came home."

The symbol of hope finally getting his much needed rest fell asleep with a smile on his face, the love of his life in his arms, and a new hope for the future.

Author note #2

I hope you all enjoyed my one shot! I've been really wanting to write this for a while but originally just wanted to wait until the fic I'm currently writing got to the war arc, however I have zero self control. Like I said, leave a comment if you enjoyed this, or if you'd like to leave some constructive criticism! Thank you again, LOVE YOU.

Kami 3