H E Y !
This is a thing that I'm doing that does NOT work with some things that I wrote in the first chapter but I'm changing anyways!
It doesn't work with the first chapter since I talked about the stuff with Deku's work study and tried to imply that Centipeder led it now. Like, I made a mistake because I still included Nighteye saying stuff, but yeah, that was because I didn't know whether or not to stick truly to canon and stuff like that and was legitimately just a mistake.
I say this because I am completely revoking that decision because Nighteye's death made me cry a little bit, not gonna lie, and also because I like the idea of happy Eri and Mirio with a quirk and especially the thought of Great-Uncle Nighteye. Like Grandpa Might and Great-Uncle Nighteye (I think that's how family trees work? No idea.).
Also, this will be incredibly easy to notice in the chapter, but can you tell that I have no experience whatsoever in the matter of how little kids act? So Eri will probably seem like a mix of a robot and an alien trying to act like they're human!
But yeah, that's about it!
Enjoy!
also like the reason this chapter came out so much later than others is because i got yakuza like a dragon a week ago and i have fifty hours on it already, i love its humor so much
have rewritten this chapter so many times lmao it's not even funny because i was like "why does it not seem like my writing" and then i realized: oh wait fuck i didn't even write it as a meeting
writing this while listening to space girl on a ten hour loop in discord. i've never heard this song before today but yeah i'm too far into it to stop
The Deku Club preferred to be organized. Hell, they had even made a shared Google Doc folder where all their meetings were stored.
Yet, there came every now and then, times that they could not bother to write it down. The results, and the meeting, would have to be recorded after the time had passed. Some of these issues had lasted days, or even weeks.
Sometimes, it were these issues that had larger impacts on how Deku had felt about them than any other time. Sometimes, even after the battle was recorded, the issue within it kept going on and on.
Informally, they'd referred to these as Live Battles, as the issues would often continue further beyond the meeting itself, but creating a whole new folder simply to organize these seemed unnecessary.
And when they heard his words one day?
They shuddered.
That being said, despite the fact that there had only been one Live Battle that had happened before, which was of course still transpiring, this one seemed far more urgent.
This was unique. Their audience, their reason for battle, was not by blood a Midoriya. However, considering their ties to Deku, they might as well be.
Eri.
Meeting 41, Main Branch of the D.C
"You know, I can't even be annoyed," Kirishima sighed, crossing his arms. "We went through all the stuff we went through to save her, and it's not even her fault. She deserves to be happy, you know?"
Uraraka and Asui adamantly nodded in agreement, the former speaking up, "Of all people, she deserves to be happy now more than ever. You know how hard Deku and Mirio worked for her smile."
A few of them frowned at this, Aoyama especially, given how he had noticed how grimy Midoriya's outfit had been upon returning from what was supposed to be a simple grocery trip, only for him to fight two villains working together.
"It's just so...hard to hold any, like, bad feelings towards her," Kaminari emphasized, clenching his fists as a means of letting out his emotions. "Because she's free to make her own choices and all that. Hell, even Bakugo can't get angry at her!"
He gestured towards the normally temperamental teen only for the class to follow, seeing only an accepting nod. By some way that likely transcends time and space, they had found a way for Bakugo to be calm if something was annoying him: having Eri in the same room.
"But we all ended up getting angry at each other," Iida lamented, eyes clouded by the glare of his glasses. "And forgot our main goal. And now…"
"Now we're back in last place," Todoroki muttered, uttering the words nobody wanted to hear within the club. "Even if we've been closer to Midoriya up until now, they've...they've skyrocketed."
There simply weren't any other words that could describe the situation in which their rival class had gotten to in terms of earning Midoriya's heart.
Meeting Purpose: Competition
A new meeting purpose, to be sure, but with the rise of incidents involving members of the rival class, it was decided to be added to the list of acceptable meeting purposes.
Besides, there was competition amongst themselves at some point, before they realized they were blinded by their emotions.
Meeting Subject: Custody
Iida snorted upon seeing the subject after Todoroki had finished the last details while looking at it to make sure it was up to meeting document standards, but kept it. To them, it was all the same.
Midoriya Izuku, Parent of Eri
Operation: Become Eri's Second Parent
Meeting Origin, a month ago…
"Eri!" Deku beamed, seeing the little girl they'd saved enter 1-A's classroom. In an instant, Kirishima, Asui, and Uraraka softened; they'd known how hard everyone worked for her sake, and with her smiling now, it was all worth it. They witnessed Midoriya jump up from his seat, interrupting his conversation with Kaminari (who couldn't even be mad; after all, they'd heard about how much he cared for her) in favor of walking up to her.
"H-Hi!" She stuttered out, giving him a shy smile of her own. "G-Good morning, Papa!"
"I remember it as if it were yesterday," Kaminari dramatically put a hand over his forehead, wiping a fake tear from his eye. "The day I died from too much adorable."
Hagakure, who had sat next to him, only nodded; Eri AND Midoriya in the same room together was never a good recipe when it came to their hearts. The cuteness was overwhelming!
Papa? Just as quickly as those involved in the raid had softened, the room stiffened in silence.
"E-Eh?" Midoriya stuttered, pinks turning cheek as he dumbly pointed to himself. "M-Me?"
"Mhm!" She nodded vigorously, Aizawa walking in lethargically after her, though his eyes were gentler than normal. Clearly, not even he was immune to the effects of Eri. He witnessed Eri point at Midoriya excitedly, jumping up and down.
"P-Papa! Papa Deku!" She smiled at being able to say it correctly, as did Midoriya, whose heart definitely did not absolutely melt at it. "A-And Uncle 'Zawa!" She pointed at the teacher behind her. "He's been helping me a lot! Thanks to you and Uncle Mirio!"
Midoriya froze, and Aizawa seemed taken aback. Uncle 'Zawa?
Aizawa took a sharp inhale, I'd already known that she thought of Problem Child as her dad, which is weird enough. But me? An uncle? Present Mic was either going to laugh about this for ages to come or cry about how his best friend had finally become an uncle. Either one was equally likely.
Well, either way, Mirio being considered Midoriya's unofficial older brother was practically a given, especially with how close they were after the raid.
"Uncle 'Zawa said that we could go get ice cream! Can you come with me? Please? Please? Pretty please?!" She jumped up and down, pleading with him as she held her hands together.
A beat of quiet.
"P-Papa?" Eri squeaked out. "A-Are you crying?" Unsurprisingly, the wave of emotions blasted open the tear ducts for Midoriya, who hadn't even realized that tears were leaking out of his eyes.
He quickly wiped them away, and gently smiled at her, "I'm okay, Eri. I'll come with you to get ice cream, okay? Do you want Uncle 'Zawa to come?"
Aizawa turned catatonic. If there was one thing that he absolutely hated, according to Midnight and Present Mic, it was his students brushing him off outside of their teacher-student relationship. It was Aizawa-sensei, or Eraserhead, maybe Eraserhead-sensei, and that was it.
"Problem Child, I swear, if you-" Aizawa began, about to spew the most poisonous words ever to disgrace the Earth before he felt a special pair of eyes on him.
Eri's eyes.
Fuck.
He looked at the hesitant look in Midoriya's eyes as he grabbed Eri's hand, gently squeezing it. Well, at least he knows that this is a special case. He's probably only going to call me that when she's around, which I can...tolerate, I suppose.
His class, however, seeing Midoriya refer to Aizawa like that, smirked like he'd just entered shark-infested waters and they were the sharks.
Fuck again.
"Mhm!" Eri nodded, pointing at the disheveled hobo hero. "Uncle 'Zawa said he really likes r...ro...rocky road?" She looked back at him to confirm. Eraserhead only confirmed it with a soft nod.
"Class is cancelled," Aizawa muttered, doing his best to preserve his image in front of his students. He witnessed the bloodthirsty looks on Ashido and Sero's faces, and resisted the urge to facepalm. "Just do training before you head to your next class or something."
As Eri and Midoriya walked out, he hit them with a look, "Mention a word of this to Present Mic or Midnight and I expel you. Try to become Eri's Mama or second Papa to the point that it ends up distracting her or makes her feel uncomfortable, I will not hesitate to ban you from U.A. premises. Understand?" He received half-hearted nods, before deciding that was the best he was going to get from them.
Oh, how his class were all problem children.
"Ooh, Midoriya," Ashido confidently walked up to him with a smirk after the two of them had gotten back, one of her hands holding onto Midoriya's while the other held onto Aizawa. "How's being her Papa?" She noticed a slightly dazed look in his eyes, as if he'd fallen into some sort of trap, like he'd lost focus of everything in front of her.
The words left his mouth instantly, "I'd give everything for her. Ashido, seriously, I think she means everything to me."
Uraraka rolled her eyes, puffing her cheeks out, "I still don't believe he said that."
Ashido only scoffed, "Why don't you ask him yourself? He'd give the exact same response. I'd bet my whole allowance on it!"
Aizawa quietly snorted, but disguised his amusement as a cough. He'd seen firsthand how fond Izuku was of Eri. Plus, I can't say that she didn't lure me in, too. He tried to hide the agreement in his eyes, the affection in his eyes towards his newly found niece.
Wait, fuck, would that make me Midoriya's brother in his eyes?
Aizawa:
Demoted from Teacher to Student's Brother
Is it worth it to give Midoriya detention for that? Would that be a valid reason on the write-up form?
No, Present Mic would give me hell if he ever found out.
To her credit, Ashido's jaw didn't instantly hit the floor once she heard his words. Normally, Deku stuttered. And by stuttered, she meant stuttered a ton. It got to the point where he confessed to them that he had to work on not stuttering so much in middle school, especially during speech class, but that that didn't work too well for him.
These words?
He said them crisp, clear, and without hesitation; it was like he'd been more than willing to admit it, and that he was more than proud to be Eri's father figure.
Aizawa noticed this, and gladly continued, always savoring the moments that he caught his students off guard only to lecture them tomorrow morning (Present Mic often referred to this as reaping what you sow), "Eri, how would you like to stay with Midoriya and his friends over the weekend?"
She positively glowed like the sun had just appeared on Earth, causing Aizawa's eyes to nearly go completely dry from the light, not unlike a raisin, "Really?! I get to stay with Papa's friends? Wait!" She looked at Midoriya, who could only fondly smile at her.
"Yes, sweetie?" He gently spoke, affection clear in his tone.
"Are they my aunties and uncles too, just like Uncle 'Zawa?" Eri shyly asked him, causing him to freeze for a moment, before gently nodding with a soft smile.
"Mhm! Do you remember the brown-haired girl with pink cheeks?" A nod. "What about the man with red hair and sharp teeth?" Another nod. "The frog-girl?" Yet another nod. "The three of them are in there, and so are their friends. Do you want to see your aunties and aunts?"
She nodded yet again.
"Well, we can introduce you to one right now!" He chirped, gesturing to Ashido, who hesitantly waved at the girl with a smile. After all, this was the girl she'd have to convince about her being the Mama to Deku's Papa. "This is Ashido-san. Say hi!" Eri took Deku's hand, shyly waving back towards the pink girl.
"H-hi…" She whispered, sticking close to Deku's leg.
Aizawa's eyes slightly narrowed, noting the child's reluctance, "Problem Child, Ashido, please tell the rest of your class that Eri will be staying with you in your dorms over the weekend. I'll speak with Eri for a moment, understand?" The two heroes-in-training nodded, with Deku ruffling Eri's hair lightly.
"Don't worry, Eri," he assured her with a soft whisper. "I'll be back in just a moment. I just have to tell your aunts and uncles about you staying with us, mmkay?" He took her soft, albeit hesitant nod as admission, and took a step back to talk alongside Pinky to the rest of their class.
He sighed, before kneeling down to Eri's level, looking her in the eyes, "Eri. I want you to know this. It's pretty important, okay?" She tilted her head, confused, but nodded nonetheless.
He internally rolled his eyes; to have to explain the situation of the fucking Deku Club that he'd found out about, to a young girl who considered him to be her uncle? A true travesty that he was certainly going to get on his problem children's case for later.
"Some of the people in there," he gestured to the dorms. "Well, all of them really, are trying to do something with Midoriya."
"Do something...with...Papa?" She repeated, earning a nod from the Erasure hero. "Do what?"
"Well...even if they don't know about who you are yet...they want to be your Mama or second Papa," he explained, scratching the back of his neck. Crap, why was this so tough?
Her eyes brightened, "So I can have a bunch of Mamas and Papas?!"
Aizawa nodded, "In a sense, yes. They want Midoriya to think of them as your Mama or Papa." He tried to speak calmly and normally, but he wouldn't deny the fact that saying those words made him truly need to puke.
Despite his calm demeanor, there was a clear worry bubbling behind Eri's eyes, as her bright smile turned into a worried frown.
"But what if they take Papa from me?!"
Should've expected that, he mentally lectured himself before speaking again, "Don't worry, they won't do that. They can't do that, remember?" He brushed away a little bit of her hair, tucking it behind her ear before softly smiling and booping her nose.
(Present Mic would eventually see Aizawa do it again one day and absolutely destroy him afterwards, when Eri wasn't listening.)
"After all, didn't you hear him? He said that you mean everything to him, Eri, and I'm sure they'll respect that."
Oh, how he underestimated what that meant.
Because they fucking revered the potential that Eri presented in terms of getting close to Deku. Being called Mama or Papa by the person who Deku called their child? That'd make them Midoriya's spouse, pretty much!
Which was something far too enticing for them to ignore, even for a moment.
As Midoriya left the dorm room to retrieve Eri once he and Ashido told their classmates about her stay, Ashido's shoulders loosened, before she narrowed her eyes to look at them.
"Everyone. There is something really, really important that you need to know," She shuddered out, a slightly fearful look in her eyes. This had been the strongest impact on Deku she'd seen since ever. Hell, she was convinced that she had more of a profound impact on him in the last five hours than the entire class had had on him in the past year.
As they all stared at her, curious, she continued, "Eri thinks of us as her aunts and uncles right now. That being said, she hasn't gotten the chance to meet us and learn about our relationships with Deku. Meaning…" She fumbled around with her hands, letting them make the connection.
Iida finished the sentence, realization dawning on him, "Meaning she doesn't know if we're her Mama or Papa yet."
The words that Aizawa said to them earlier? The ones about him saying "Try to become Eri's Mama or second Papa to the point that it ends up distracting her or makes her feel uncomfortable" and they'd likely be destroyed?
They had never disregarded their teacher's words with so little hesitation before. Even Iida, the one known for being a stick in the mud when it came to rules, was ready to throw out everything he knew about the student handbook and its rules.
"So, we know that Mirio-senpai is definitely her uncle," Uraraka pointed out, earning nods from Kirishima and Asui. "And that Nejire-senpai and Amajiki-senpai are also considered her uncles, right?"
The class shuddered at the first name she pointed out; he was truly a barrier they'd have to break past to earn Deku's heart, especially with how the two considered each other as brothers at this point.
"Meaning that if we get closer to Eri in a different way than how they're closer to Eri, then we'll have a greater chance of being more than an uncle or aunt, right?" Yaoyorozu hypothesized, tossing the obvious idea up in the air.
They looked at each other, nodding as one would in an anime or action movie right before a showdown was about to go down.
This was different from the battle trials at the start of the year, or fighting against the teachers to mark their progress. There, they were fighting for their grade, fighting to show off what they could do, and in the case of the teachers, proving their mettle and ingenuity, and being able to fight as heroes.
This was real life.
This was a goddamn battleground.
This was a chance to prove who they were not as heroes, but as people.
Eri has more power than all of us combined, even Bakugo!
"Did you really need to add that last part, asshat?" Bakugo sneered, though it was more of a rhetorical question than anything; now that they'd made him aware of how much influence he had on Midoriya, he'd brought it up any time he could.
Uraraka only shot him a dirty glare in response on behalf of the rest of the Deku Club present.
"D'ya think we maybe, I don't know, put too much weight on her?" Sero clicked his tongue, realizing why people said that hindsight was 20/20. "Like, she's just a little kid, right?"
(Sero was simply going through the five stages of grief at the moment, and had been in denial for the last twelve minutes.)
He received eyerolls in response, which he expected as they continued, completely disregarding his words.
Yaoyorozu scowled, more at herself than anything for being so blind to the factual evidence presented to them, "It's more on us than anyone. And I know we've said it so many times already, but how can we not?!"
"I mean, we could've had a better start, some of us more than others," Iida hypothesized, shooting a pitiful look towards Mineta in particular. "But I don't think that that was a major issue for us."
"Then what was it?" Todoroki prompted, slamming his hand down on the table, frustration having bubbled over. "The hell do you think we did that was wrong?! It must've been our first impressions!"
"Well, let's go over it first, kero," Asui suggested, paying no mind to the emotional outburst from the normally calm and collected teen. "If we're disagreeing on whether or not our first impressions matter, then let's talk about it, right?"
Todoroki grumbled, settling back down, "Fine."
Round 1: Introductions
Roughly two weeks ago, Friday Night...
"Hey, everyone!" Midoriya greeted upon entering, holding Eri's hand gently as he led her into the dorms and helped her take off her shoes before setting them away. "How are you doing?"
He received loud, excited greetings, and thanked the heavens. Well, at least they're in a good mood! Maybe Eri'll feel more comfortable that way! He held out his arms to her before she gladly was carried by his warm arms; she'd always loved the gentle embrace of her new Papa.
"So, everyone," Deku smiled as the two of them entered the common room. They saw Iida, Satou, and Kirishima in the kitchen while everyone else was either at the dinner table, helping set things up, or on the couches, just playing around and talking casually. "Eri's here." He looked at her, before gesturing to his classmates. "Do you wanna say hi, Eri?"
She saw all of the teenagers in the room. A few of them seemed to catch her eye instantly. The boy with both white and red hair. The boy who looked like he was trying, and failing, miserably, to stop himself from scowling out of instinct.
"I'm convinced Bakugo was half of why our introductions failed," Todoroki explained. "Do you think any kid would feel safe after seeing that face?" He pointed at the mentioned teen, who had graced them with the exact expression he had displayed then: Trying to hide his scowl, but failing miserably.
"Good point," Mineta clicked his tongue, seeing his feral expression. "More like a dog than a parent, don't ya think?"
Oh, how Mineta was so close to death that day.
Scary, the thought ran through her mind, even though Midoriya was smiling brightly at him in particular. Whether or not it actually resulted in changing her mind was undecided.
She recognized the frog girl, and the brown-haired girl with pink cheeks, and the redhead that was grinning wildly.
Yet, despite all these unique people, like the girl with pink skin from earlier, or some of the newer faces like the tall girl with black hair tied into a spiky ponytail, there was one person who caught her eye immediately.
The person in question had roundish, purple hair and incredibly thin eyebrows, yet their main trait that Eri instantly noticed was his incredible lack of height.
She gasped, her eyes widening and sparkling as she instinctively pointed to him.
No fucking way, the thought ran through their heads, while Mineta gained an incredibly satisfied look, bordering on the edge of annoying Bakugo just enough for him to throw him through a window.
Of all the fucking people for Eri to think of as a second father? H I M ?
"Oh, Mineta!" Midoriya gently smiled, getting on his knees so that Eri could safely get out of his arms. "Eri wants to say hi to you!"
Eri excitedly waved to him, causing the resident pervert to smirk, looking at Midoriya's left hand, as if he could already see the ring on his finger, before looking at his future daughter.
"Hi, Eri. I'm Mineta Minoru, one of Deku's classmates!" He did his best to present himself well, making sure that he had a good start in Eri's eyes, knowing just as well that his classmates were looking at him enviously, considering how they couldn't bring themselves to break his legs and potentially scare Eri.
There was a moment of silence, where Eri simply tilted her head while facing Mineta, as if analyzing him. All was quiet for a moment.
Then, Eri pointed to Mineta.
Naturally, as a little kid who'd learned to stay silent only when Overhaul was around, her only filter was not speaking whenever he was there. The other members weren't as horrifying as him, usually letting her prattle on about whatever or how mean Overhaul was, but outside of that? She didn't exactly know what made other people tick, or what were their soft spots. After all, when the main measures she used to determine how freely she could talk to people being Overhaul on one end while Midoriya and Mirio were on the other, the random spectrum left a lot of room to explore.
So explore she did, without a filter, of course.
Eri turned back to Midoriya, pointing at Mineta, "Papa, is he my little brother? He's shorter than me..."
Here lies Mineta Minoru.
The room almost dies, restraining their laughter. Mineta turns into a skeleton, like he'd just gone six feet under spiritually.
He'd never known what it was like to feel true defeat before. He'd felt terror and horror during the USJ incident. He'd felt fear and concern when he watched All Might in his last fight against All For One. He'd felt pain and anguish, jealousy, even, when he watched Sero fall asleep in Midnight's lap.
But defeat?
This is what it felt like.
He wasn't friendzoned by Deku. He wasn't even rejected outright by Deku.
He was fucking little-brother-zoned not by Deku, but by his unofficial daughter.
By the way that Deku was struggling to hold in his laughter for the sake of being polite, Mineta knew right then and there that he'd been sent right back to the bottom of the barrel, the lowest candidate for Midoriya's heart.
Naturally, he didn't think he was going to break top 5 considering how that was considered the Dekusquad in 2nd through 5th, and then Bakugo somehow in 1st, but he was hoping to at least stay in the top ten.
Being thought of as a little brother?
Mortifying. The rest of the room's occupants didn't know whether to laugh at his misfortune, pity him, or empathize with him. It truly was a new experience, seeing Eri's mind jump from Aunties and Uncles and maybe another parent all the way to little brothers.
The unspoken words rang in their minds, and all the bravery they'd accumulated through all their hero training vanished, So, who's going to try next? Mineta'd taken the opportunity to be the first, and he'd been absolutely eviscerated in a flash.
What if it were to happen to the rest of them? There were very few who had complete armor to being knocked down in the rankings. For forever, the top five had stayed the top five, and it'd been an endless battle to try knocking them from their thrones.
But for the rest of them? For the mortals?
Making a march on Eri seemed nearly impossible simply because of what had happened to Mineta.
Nearly impossible, that is, for everyone without armor, except for one. For the one brave soul that walked up to Eri, they truly held courage in their heart. However, they knew they had a secret weapon alongside them.
"Oh, Kirishima, you wanna say hi?" Midoriya offered, gently guiding Eri by the shoulder to look at the redhead, who did his best impression of someone safe to be around.
She looked up at the teen for a moment, tilting her head in confusion. She stayed silent for a moment, blinking. For a little bit, the room froze, wondering what her reaction to Kirishima would be. After the disaster that was Mineta, what would happen here?
"You're the one from…then?" Eri whispered, her mind going back to when Midoriya and Mirio, with the help of others such as Nighteye, came all the way just to save her, and her alone.
Midoriya nodded, "Mhm!" He gestured to Kirishima again, who awkwardly smiled, not sure how to introduce himself at this point. "He helped everyone during that time. He was really amazing then, Eri!"
Kirishima tried to keep his composure after such a direct compliment from Midoriya of all people, his strong soul the only thing supporting him. The others weren't sure if they could take such an attack on their heart, especially in front of Eri, who seemed in awe of the teen.
"T-Thank you for helping me…" she whispered quietly, though the silence of the room let him hear her loud and clear. The breath they were sucking in let itself out, the fear and tension in the room seeping away as Kirishima tried making casual conversation with her, succeeding rather easily considering they already had a subject to talk about, the subject being the raid.
Okay, so it's NOT impossible to get to know her. Good.
Well, at least they knew there was one rival who wasn't going to become Eri's second parent anytime soon.
R.I.P to Mineta.
These Introductions were neutral at best!
"Look, does it even matter about whether or not our introductions matter when half of us didn't even talk to her?" Jirou brought up, clearly fed up with the seemingly meaningless discussion between the two.
"Think about it," Todoroki rationalized, rolling his eyes as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "A single member of a club helps give off an image of the entire club. Like how the fight between me and Midoriya at the Sports Festival was one of the more notable instances, which gave off a certain...vibe," he said 'vibe' as if uncertain as to how to use it properly. "About our class."
He ignored the glare that Sero sent him, like he'd completely forgotten how unbelievably overkill his attack was when the two of them had faced off in the first round.
"I guess that makes sense," Ashido shrugged with a sheepish smile, just going along with whatever he had said. "But, then, if anything, they helped, didn't they?"
"How so?" Someone asked out loud. Was it Asui? Iida? Kaminari? Ashido didn't really pay attention to whoever had said it.
"'Cause of Kirishima, duh!" She smirked, pointing to the boy, who only pointed at himself dumbly in response. "Exactly, you! You already made a really good impression on Eri, since you helped save her and all."
"Yeah, but she didn't even see me then…" Kirishima scratched his cheek, unsure of her assertion.
"Well, that doesn't matter, does it?" Iida interrupted, defending the redhead. "She trusts Midoriya, so as long as he said you did, she trusts that. Meaning you did well either way."
He looked at Todoroki, "Meaning that Mineta's failure didn't override your benefit, meaning we all benefited."
Tension rose in the room, before Kouda blinked, "U-Um...is this the time to be arguing about our introductions? I-I mean, that barely did anything compared to…"
He gulped, eyes turning downcast, "1-B…"
Silence.
They wanted to avoid it.
Iida shuddered, forcing himself to keep going, "Next point." His words were terse, quiet, strained.
Round 2: Establish Potential Parenthood
Roughly two weeks ago, Saturday...
Midoriya yawned as he stretched, cracking what felt like every vertebrae in his back.
Holy Cow, what do they make these beds out of? He mused, wondering if he'd slept on a pile of rocks instead of a bed. It's not usually this bad…
He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he sat up, the realization hitting him.
Eri was still in the bed.
Dang.
Naturally, even on weekends where there were no interruptions or classes and all that, Midoriya would still allocate quite a bit of his time to a morning workout. Granted, on Saturdays and Sundays, he practically spent the entire day honing his body so he could better control One For All, much to most of his classmates' chagrin. The only ones who could keep up with him exercising for what seemed to be the entire day were Todoroki, Bakugo, Kirishima, Tetsutetsu, and the Big 3, though the Big 3 seemed to be there more to help teach Midoriya than train with him.
It helped that the Big 3 were more like older siblings to Midoriya rather than romantic rivals. They wouldn't know what the hell they would be able to do with how objectively attractive Nejire was in addition to her natural curiosity that matched Midoriya's, how unbelievably Midoriya-like Mirio was in many ways, especially in their almost equal beliefs of heroics, and how unbelievably kindhearted and genuine Amajiki was, which worked incredibly well with how in tune Midoriya was with his emotions.
So, considering how there were four people who could regularly take advantage of free time with Midoriya, including Mamadoriya, the weekends were rather tough for them. Hell, even their attempts to invite him out were usually rejected, as he would typically respond, "S-Sorry, I'm training that day!"
Yet, today, in an instant, Eri had presented the competition at hand, even though she was asleep when she had done it.
Izuku bit the inside of his cheek, glancing at the window nervously. The sun hadn't even been up, as Midoriya's internal clock had become so accustomed to waking up at an unhealthy time (which was, of course, a great worry to the Deku Club in regards to his health) for his workouts.
4:47, he hummed to himself as he clicked his tongue. Still too early for my alarm… He rolled his eyes; it'd become an equally common occurrence for him to wake up before his alarm at 5 o'clock.
No, it's more of a failsafe at this point, Midoriya told himself, shutting his phone off and stuffing it in his pocket one day when he woke up at a staggeringly early 2:41 A.M.
He scratched his cheek, looking at his newly declared daughter.
I should stay here with her, shouldn't I? The words felt weird for him to think. Of all the things he thought he would do today, not working out was absolutely not one of them. She'd probably get scared if I wasn't here with her… He didn't know if his mind was making an excuse for his body, or if he genuinely thought that, but at this point, who would know in the first place?
This was the tale of how Midoriya Izuku decided to sleep in for the first time ever since they had moved into the dorms.
And the tale of how all of 1-A became housewives and househusbands for an entire morning.
Todoroki, as always, heat up his cup of tea whilst preparing the cups of coffee that his fellow early bird classmates would typically have. This, of course, consisted of exactly who you'd expect to be early birds.
Iida and Yaoyorozu were always there, if not earlier than Todoroki. Kirishima was also frequently an early riser, though typically by 6:15, the time at which these people normally woke up, he and Bakugo had already started their morning workout. Todoroki preferred to work out in the afternoon, though he certainly wouldn't refuse morning workouts if it meant seeing Midoriya shirtless.
On a side note, of course Bakugo was going to be up early. For someone who fell asleep before the sun went down, it'd be incredibly unusual for him to somehow wake up incredibly late as well.
Bakugo, of course, never accepted the coffee that Todoroki offered, but the dual-haired teen knew damn well that Bakugo downed it instantly when he thought they weren't looking.
As the rest of them trickled in around 7, however, they noticed the odd presence of three extra people in the common area. Bakugo, Todoroki, and Kirishima. Midoriya's absence was nothing new to them, but all three of his 1-A workout buddies taking a rain check? Why?
"Oy, Kacchan!" Ashido teased him with Deku's nickname yet again, something that never failed to rile up her classmate. "Why aren't you guys with Midori right now? Is he busy today?"
Todoroki shrugged, answering for him, "That's the thing. We're...not sure." He looked pensive, staring down at his cup of tea only to see his blank expression in its reflection.
"Not sure?" Asui put herself in the conversation, having heard it as she scoured for food in the cabinets. "What's that supposed to mean, kero?"
Internal chaos broke within the room. Tension rose dramatically, and for once in their lives, Bakugo wasn't the only reason the average blood pressure in the room became far more unbalanced and unhealthy for the students.
"We...don't know. We haven't seen Midoriya at all this morning, not even when he comes back to the dorm to pick us up so we can work out together," Kirishima muttered as he leaned on the counter. He did his best to maintain his composure. If not for him, he told himself, then for his classmates.
"Should we ask Aizawa-sensei?" Satou suggested, flipping the pancakes he was making for breakfast.
They were blueberry pancakes, of course. The best pancakes.
"You mean Uncle 'Zawa?" Kaminari chuckled, who'd been lying down on the couch while trying to make sure Mineta didn't destroy himself from being taken down to a Little Brother status.
Of course, if his tone wasn't as desolate as it was, Kaminari would've likely jested, "Take pics!"
A few of the people in the room were caught off guard, the verbal sucker punch even causing Yaoyorozu to spit out her coffee.
"Careful now, he might expel you," a new voice gently whispered, and they instantly knew who said it.
It was, to them, the voice of an angel.
And holy fuck they wanted to preserve the image of him deep into their minds.
There he stood, Midoriya Izuku, wearing an incredibly oversized All Might hoodie that Mirio had bought for him. It was completely covering his arms and hands, the sleeves way too long, and the hoodie was so large that they had reached the middle of his thigh. A gentle yawn came, the light from the window shining on him. He looked like he just woke up, and by god, the amount of adorableness that'd reached them that morning almost sent them into a coma.
Hagakure would later end up having the rest of the Deku Club (with the exception of Bakugo and Uraraka) on their knees, begging her, for she was the only one to capture a picture of Deku in that state.
For perspective's sake, the Deku Club (unsurprisingly) had a photo ring going around with photos of Midoriya Izuku..
Did it seem like a stalker thing to do? Yes. "But it's for a good cause!" they swore.
Regardless, they had a few tiers for it. Pictures were eligible for any of the tiers, but these are just general measures.
A-: Normal pictures of Midoriya, typically taken when he was aware. Iida held the record for the most pictures in this tier.
A: Normal pictures of Midoriya, typically just talking with Mirio or whatnot. He was usually unaware. Todoroki held the most pictures in this tier.
A+: Pictures of Midoriya when he was exercising, simply because they found him, as Todoroki put it, "Hot as fuck." Kirishima held the most pictures here.
S-: Cute kid pictures of Midoriya. Unsurprisingly, Bakugo dwarfed any other member in this aspect.
S: Pictures of Midoriya in cosplay or just generally cute outfits, like his All Might costumes and all that. A catboy maid Izuku topped this tier, yet still didn't make it into S+. There were eleven total pictures in this tier, and Yaoyorozu held four of them, the most out of anyone, obviously because she could make any cosplay outfit whenever, or buy it should she want to.
S+: The absolute cutest they'd seen Midoriya. There were only two pictures in its entirety ever since the formation of the Deku Club. Uraraka possessed one of them, while Bakugo held the other. [These are not to be viewed at any time for the safety of the viewer's heart, unless repeatedly exposed to multiple documents of cute Midoriya.]
Hagakure, as of now, held the second most S tier pictures, with three in total, only one behind Yaoyorozu.
(There were no D, C, or B tier pictures simply because they felt it was an offense to Midoriya to have pictures of him only deemed above-average in the form of a B. He was way too amazing to them for that to even be a reasonable claim.)
Regardless, the sight of Midoriya in an oversized hoodie in the dorms showed them two things.
One: Midoriya. Fuck yeah.
Two: He was still at the dorms. He wasn't working out or on a run, nothing like that. He was in the dorms, and nowhere else, and by the looks of it, he seemed completely intent of staying there. He didn't seem to be in any rush to get out of the dorms so he could workout. He looked...calm. Peaceful. Relaxed.
"Uh...Deku?" Uraraka questioned, the first one to snap out of her daze. "Aren't you going to workout like usual?"
To their incredible surprise, he shook his head, a gentle smile gracing her features, "No, I'm staying in today. Figured that Eri would want me here instead of working out, so I'll probably be spending my whole day here with her, unless she wants to go out, that is."
Todoroki took a sharp inhale; he'd heard time and time again how he valued becoming a great hero that can save everyone more than anything, and that improving his power seemed like the best way to do so. To take some time off, away from that, when he felt that becoming a hero that can save anyone was his life's purpose?
He shuddered. Eri's too strong.
He hadn't felt this sort of power exuding from one person ever since he had to fight against Stain, even with Midoriya and Iida's help.
For months on months, the Deku Club had all been trying him to take a day off, and yet,no matter how hard they'd tried, they failed. They all failed miserably.
There was only one person up to this point that had been able to consistently do so, and that was his mother. Hell, even Mirio had trouble getting him to take a rest day, and that barely works either!
Yet, here comes Eri. Sweet little Eri.
Able to, in a single day, mind you, convince Midoriya to take a day off in an instant, even without asking. That was even more of an effect than Ms. Midoriya had on her son.
Todoroki inhaled sharply yet again. Midoriya's not even an adult and he's a better father than mine can I ask him to be my daddy holy fuck-
And thus, Todoroki went from daddy issues to a daddy kink.
Iida hummed, turning to the clock, "How long have you been awake, Midoriya?" It was a question he'd ask anyone, but he'd always get varied responses. However, from Midoriya, he was used to the same response he'd always received, The good old "Oh, I've been awake the past few hours!" which was always accompanied by a bright smile.
"I...kinda just woke up?" Midoriya sheepishly chuckled, throwing Iida even more off guard. "I mean, I woke up a little before five, but then I saw Eri was still sleeping so I just decided to stay with her. She's awake now, and she's using the bathroom. I'm thinking the two of us are just gonna hang out in my room for a little bit, and then I'll make breakfast for her."
"No need to fret, Midoriya," Aoyama put himself in the conversation smoothly, placing a hand on his shoulder softly. "You will not need to prepare breakfast for you, nor your precious daughter, for I will graciously prepare a bed-in-breakfast for you." Midoriya only blinked, not bothering to correct him by saying "bed-in-breakfast" instead. Instead, he sent him a grateful smile.
He didn't notice, however, how Aoyama's hand was shaking from shock that Midoriya had only recently woken up.
"Oh, really? Thank you, Aoyama!" He muttered out shyly, rubbing the back of his neck with a slightly embarrassed blush.
Jirou let out a soft breath of relief, keeping her top 10 ranking. Luckily, it didn't seem to be a big enough impact that Aoyama would move up from his 11th place rank.
"That'll give me time to do laundry, then!" Midoriya chirped, already turning himself in the direction of the washing machines.
"Oh, don't worry about that," Kouda interrupted, stealing Aoyama's thunder (much to his chagrin), "I've gotcha covered. It's my day to do laundry, anyways." He shrugged casually, knowing full well he just let the clearest lie of the century go through his teeth.
Granted, Midoriya was completely let out of the chore loop simply because they didn't want to burden him, even though Bakugo would never admit it. He adamantly requested that he be allowed to do just as many chores as they did, but Bakugo refused just as harshly, stating that he'd somehow attract villains just from washing dishes.
Midoriya could only whine as a weak defense, seeing his classmates find some odd logic in that statement that he certainly wasn't stumbling upon.
Aoyama only glared at him stronger, his sparkle strengthening in intensity, having known easily that it was his day to do laundry. However, he couldn't even hold up the glare for too long, with how kind and just genuinely pure Kouda was.
(He actually didn't know. It was Kaminari's, but who was Kaminari of all people to take more work than he had to?)
Midoriya blushed even further, "W-Wait, r-really, Kouda?"
He nodded, quietly speaking, "Mhm. Don't worry about it, just go help Eri out. Sure she's already missing you." He jested slightly with a smile on his face, earning a thankful bow from Midoriya.
"I'll go clean up, then!" Midoriya grinned, walking off to the bathroom to get himself ready for the day.
Kouda, upon seeing Midoriya exit, let his shoulders loosen a bit before sending a victorious look towards Aoyama, who could only scoff at his defeat.
And thus, the day turned into one noot where people went out, but one where everyone tried to make sure Midoriya had as much time with Eri as possible, so that they too could spend time with the two of them.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the Deku Club...
As Midoriya walked down the hallway, he gave a soft wave to Eri, "Hi, sweetie!" She smiled back, running up to him before hugging his leg. His heart melted, seeing the All Might sweater he'd worn so often as a little kid on Eri instead.
"Hi, Papa!" She smiled brightly, her eyes sparkling as she looked up at him. "Where are you going?"
"Just gonna head to the bathroom real quick so I can clean up, and then I'll spend time with you," he explained, ruffling her hair. "Do you wanna go see your aunties and uncles? They're in the common room just over there." He pointed towards where all the noise was coming from.
"Just follow the noises and you'll get there. They'd be happy to see you!" He encouraged, earning a hesitant, yet willing nod from her.
As Midoriya walked off, Eri followed his directions, following the noises. However, as she got closer, the voices came to a quiet murmur, like it was a secret meeting.
Are they doing something? Eri thought to herself. She walked up to the door, catching Iida's voice.
"Remember: If Eri wants anything, anything at all, we do it," he reminded them, though Kaminari's snort interrupted him.
"As if you need to tell us. Imagine if Eri calls me her Papa instead of any of you guys? It'd be perfect!" He almost squealed at the thought, the thought of Eri riding on top of his shoulders entering his mind while Midoriya watched him.
He...wants to be my Papa, too? Eri wondered, peeking her eyes just enough so she could see them make disgusted faces at the electric user.
"Like it'd ever be you!" Uraraka stuck a finger onto his chest, pushing him away. "If anything, I'm gonna be Eri's Mama, no matter what it takes!"
She wants to be my Mama?
"Wrong. It'd be me," Yaoyorozu cuts her off. "I'm gonna take that #2 position from right under you, and then I'll steal Bakugo's top spot."
"Bullshit!" Bakugo swore, hissing at the tall girl, who was technically a fourth of an inch taller than him.
Eri blinked, Do...all of them want to be? She really had no idea what was going on at this point.
"Also wrong," Asui interrupted, a dark glare in her eyes. "I already have younger siblings, so I know how to deal with young people. Once I get close to Eri, kero, before any of you, Midoriya'll be mine and mine alone!"
They want Papa? Eri wondered to herself, before remembering Aizawa's words. Oh yeah, Uncle 'Zawa said that they wanted Papa's love!
And I'm the one to choose? She reasoned out. Why else would they be talking about me like that?
"You hooligans keep speaking as if you have any chance raising a child with how unruly you are. How naive it is to think it will be anyone but myself!" Iida pushed up his glasses, looking at Ashido, Sero, and Kaminari in particular.
So...I have to choose the best one! Eri realized, the apparent responsibility reaching her mind. So whoever treats me best is the one, I think? Is that what they mean?
The rest of the class broke out into chaos right then and there were the class rep's lecturing, a moment of chaos that gave Eri a quiet mind.
I have to choose the one who'll show the most love to Papa! She declared, nodding to herself with resolve.
For her father, the teen who'd saved her from Overhaul, she would definitely do this.
"G-Good morning…" Eri whispered as she entered the room, silencing the class's continued yelling match.
There's this one saying. This one saying that speaks about, how, when you realize you can control, when you're free to do whatever, when you're free from any shackles, you get addicted to it, and you lose yourself in that control and that feeling that makes you feel immortal, that makes you feel on another level.
That's what Eri was about to go through.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
"Ah, good morning, Eri!" Iida bowed in front of her, as he would anyone he respected, but especially in Eri's case.
"U-Uh…" Eri hummed, unsure how to respond to it. She hadn't really been exposed to bowing or anything of the sort, or other forms of respect that people casually showed to each other. "Hi?"
"G'mornin'," Sero greeted, attempting to seem casual, though the fact that he seemed to sweat literal buckets wasn't helping his case in the slightest.
She twiddled her thumbs together, thinking of something to ask them for, "C-Can you...uh...show me around?" She was pretty sure that was the phrase that Aizawa had used with her when she first got to U.A. "The…The…" She attempted to remember the word that they'd used to refer to this place.
"Dorms?" Kirishima finished for her, earning a nod from the little girl. Got it.
"Yeah…" She finished, before realizing how the class was practically clawing at each other to get some alone time with Eri, some time where they could showcase themselves without any interruptions from the other members of the Deku Club.
All except one, it seemed. An ash-blonde with spiky hair had his arms crossed in the background, seemingly unamused by the rest of the class's desperation.
"Uh…" she walked up to him. "You're...Kacchan, right?"
"Huh?!" He raised an eyebrow. "Why the…" he was hit with the collective murderous glares of the class, before realizing what he was going to say. "...heck," the murderous looks turned slightly softer. "are you calling me that?"
"Isn't that what Papa calls you?" Eri innocently wondered. For her credit, she genuinely wasn't trying to use that against him. It was just what she learned. Bakugo only scoffed, begrudgingly nodding.
"So you two are close, right?!" Eri chirped, an idea churning in her head. "Does that mean you can carry me?!"
You piece of shit, Bakugo, Todoroki cursed his entire existence right then and there, though the rest of the class held similar animosity towards him.
How the HELL do you always get opportunities to somehow worm your way closer to Midoriya's heart without even doing anything?! It's unfair!
"Nope, not doing it, kid," Bakugo shook his head instantly. "Not having that."
And how the HELL do you keep turning them away, and still win?!
"Oh…" Eri pouted, seeming downcast at that. However, in reality, she was preparing her weapon. She had prepared for war, battle-hardened. If she wasn't going to get what she wanted with pure intentions…
Then it wouldn't be so bad if she did one thing for herself, right?
After all…
It was for her Papa, right?
"S-Sorry...I-I just thought you were also my Papa...b-because you're so close with Papa…" Eri whispered quietly, constricting Bakugo's anger-fueled soul.
His breath hitched.
What once was a room of teenagers who were simply scheming to worm their way into Midoriya's heart via Eri had quickly turned into a hungry pack of wolves, only equipped with a carnal desire.
Bakugo's sudden failure had turned into an opportunity.
"Oh, don't worry about that sucker!" Sero was the first one to take the opportunity, speedwalking near Eri far too quickly to seem casual. "I can take care of that for you. I'm your actual second Papa, y'know." He winked assuringly at the young girl, getting in as much as he could before he would inevitably be murdered by somebody nearby. "Even though Kacchan over there seemsreallyclosetoDekuit'sactuallymewaitNOERIHELP!" And thus, Shoji resorted to being the one thing he knew his body could be: violent. What good's a quirk if you can't use it?
Momo would eventually be the one to pay for the lamp that broke (along with the wall behind the lamp) when Sero was suddenly thrown through it, with Shoji taking up his spot.
"Sero's quite the jokester, wouldn't you say?" He jested, stretching out one of his arms to the little girl, who seemed...surprised. She hadn't noticed how Sero had suddenly disappeared, no. It was just the arms that seemed...weird to her.
"I'd say you're quite similar, Shoji," Hagakure sweetly spoke, an underlying tone of 'I will kill you if you get in my way' lacing her voice.
She took it nonetheless. She noticed something, however.
Despite everyone clawing over the chance to carry her, including the three who helped save her from Overhaul, there was one exception.
Bakugo.
Instead, he simply stood there, watching, as if he didn't need to do anything.
"Eri," his voice cut through the meaningless shouting, though they didn't seem to notice. It came out as a growl, but it was there, and almost informative, filled with confidence.
"If I make Deku happy now, can I just fuckin' leave you for later?" He posed the offer, like it was a business deal. Eri silently gasped, allowing Uraraka to pick her up without any hesitation, before using her quirk on the two of them to put them out of reach of a few of their rivals.
Does he know? She wondered to herself, seeing his determined eyes.
No, he didn't. He was being completely honest. Bakugo certainly wasn't going to beat around the bush when it came to children, especially since the last time he'd tried to work with kids, his first instinct was to beat them into the ground so that they'd learn their lesson.
That strategy obviously wouldn't work here.
She pouted, puffing out a cheek as she reluctantly nodded her head, accepting him as a potential second parent.
For as much as they wanted to earn Deku's favoritism, Katsuki was somehow, in some goddamn way, the only one there who actually properly expressed that they wanted to make Midoriya in particular happy.
He definitely needed to work on the "parenting" part of being a parent, though.
Deku Club Ranking (Main Branch) Updates:
Bakugo:
1st → 1st
He didn't even try! WHAT?!
"It's not my fault you guys didn't think of it sooner!" Bakugo proudly bragged, a shit-eating smirk on his face. He absorbed the positivity he'd felt from the jealous glares on his classmates' faces. Had it been anyone (except Uraraka, who'd been in 2nd. She doubted even being a potential parent for Eri would end up with her surpassing Midoriya's affection for Bakugo) else, being marked as a potential parent for Midoriya would easily land you among the top ten, if not even higher, undoubtedly rising you up some ranks in the Deku Club.
For example, if it were Mineta, it would probably take him from 19th to 6th. For someone like Yaoyorozu, it'd likely take her from 11th to 7th. For someone like Asui, it'd likely take her from 4th to 2nd, surpassing both Todoroki and Uraraka.
But for Bakugo, someone who was already first overall, even including Class 1-B, the students from Shiketsu, Shinsou, Hatsume, and the general population of U.A. He'd even come the closest to earning approval from Mamadoriya, considering how close their families already were.
Seeing his rank go from 1st...to 1st? No change? Like he'd only done it for extra credit?
Painful.
"You ass, you weren't even trying to act like you would be a good parent!" Kaminari swore, glaring him down without hesitation despite all the times he'd threatened death or worse.
"Because I'm not, idiot!" Bakugo defended himself. "How the hell would I be a good parent if I've never had to interact with kids before?!"
"Well, didn't you have to talk with children for your exam thing?!" Ashido pointed out, an 'aha' moment coming to her. "If you survived that, you could've definitely not been so...so...weird about it!"
She didn't know how else to phrase it.
"To be fair," Todoroki came to Bakugo's rescue all of the sudden, despite how he had been so clearly against the higher-ranked teen before. "His plan to deal with them was to beat them up to show who was in charge."
Iida raised an eyebrow, "I don't believe that for a moment."
"Well, the hell was I supposed to do?!" Bakugo shouted out, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "They were acting like entitled brats!"
Ah, Kirishima realized. This is what they mean when the pot calls the kettle black.
"You idiot," Jirou groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose, shaking her head in annoyance. Kaminari, having been on the receiving end of that annoyance, recognized it from a mile away.
"We're getting sidetracked here," Shoji realigned their chaotic minds, trying to ignore the jealousy bubbling up in his mind. "We spoke about our introductions, as Iida and Todoroki wished. We also spoke about our initial attempts to become closer with Eri. However, I think we're missing the bigger issue here."
Silence broke through the room, even Bakugo going silent at the issue. The real heart of the meeting, why they even felt the need to document it in the first place.
Class 1-B.
Round 3: Where Th are they
Roughly two weeks ago, Sunday…
"So you mean to tell me that you all just...forgot to keep an eye on him?" Yaoyorozu shot Kaminari and Mineta a disapproving look, huffing as she crossed her arms. The two of them could only make a feeble attempt to seem guilty.
"It's not our fault!" Kaminari tried to defend himself, but another glare from Ashido shut him up even quicker.
She rolled her eyes, holding up the note that Midoriya had left on the countertop, "How did you two get distracted long enough that he was able to write a whole goddamn note about where he was going, who he was going with, when he was coming back, and draw a doodle all before you two even noticed?"
She presented the thin paper to the rest of the class. Lo and behold, Midoriya had written what seemed to be a goddamn thesis with lines of reasoning in addition to a quick sketch of All Might's signature smile. In addition, on the bottom right corner, Eri had tried to sign her name as well.
"To be fair-" Mineta began, only to be slapped by Asui's extended tongue.
"We were trying to get into contact with Mirio-senpai so we could ask about what Eri likes!" Kaminari tossed up, closing his eyes, anticipating Jirou's earjacks to stab him.
And yet, nothing came.
Bakugo scoffed, entering the room, "You goddamn extras really can't do stuff on your own, can you?" Kaminari still had the dignity to feign offense.
"Did he at least say where he was going to go?" Todoroki questioned, entering the room soon after alongside Iida.
Yaoyorozu shook her head, "Only that they were going to stay on campus. That narrows our search area far down."
"You dumbasses," Bakugo pinched the bridge of his nose. "We're not in the goddamn pre-quirk era. We've got, you know, technology! Can't you just call him?"
Todoroki blinked.
"Ah. That's a solution."
(It was a common habit for the Deku Club to be completely idiotic whenever it came to Midoriya, even if it was the most obvious thing ever. This included using Jirou's quirk to help find Midoriya through sound instead of calling him, attempting to find out what his favorite food was through its ingredients instead of just asking, or trying to make an incredibly unique gift for him like through clothing instead of literally buying him any All Might merch.)
Bakugo brought out his phone, "Fine, I'll call him." Tying in his password (It was 0000), he rolled his eyes and gave a disapproving glare to a few of his classmates as he put his phone on speaker.
They heard the ringtone buzz for a few moments. Once. Twice. Thrice.
Then it stopped, a new voice coming through, "Hey, Kacchan! Are you okay?" The rest of the Deku Club flinched away for a moment, hearing an extreme cluster of noises coming from his end. The sound of teenagers blasting random noises, the clamoring over something, and the dramatic cries for help.
Bakugo clenched his fist almost tight enough for it to bleed in an attempt to stop a smile from coming to his face. Of course his perfect Midoriya would start off the conversation by asking about whether or not he was doing well.
Be casual, be casual, don't be a fucking prick, he told himself as he formed his response instinctively.
"Just fuckin' fine, nerd," Bakugo spat out. Not what I was going for, but fine. "The extras here wanted to ask where you were."
"Oh, I'm just next door, Kacchan!" Midoriya chirped, his voice somewhat staticky from the other end. "I'm hanging out with 1-B! I thought it'd be a good idea for Eri to meet some of them!"
"You're...where?" Todoroki spoke up, an emotion in his voice that they quite literally had never heard from the usually stoic teen: Fear.
"Just in the 1-B dorms!" Midoriya explained again. "Hey, guys! Wanna say hi?"
"Yo!" Tokage's voice came through. "Mornin'!"
In any other setting, they likely would've responded with equal vigor (barring Bakugo, who likely would've tried murdering her for existing), considering how she was always amicable and kind to each and every one of them.
Yet, today seemed...different for some reason.
Followed by Tokage came Kendou, Shiozaki, and Honenuki. As each of them spoke on the phone, 1-A's hearts sunk deeper and deeper. He really had made the decision to hang out with 1-B instead of them, even though it was literally none of their business who he hung out with (unless they truly carried malicious intent).
"Midoriya," Iida came into the conversation, speaking up despite the lump in his throat. "Do you mind if we stop by?"
"Go for it! The more the merrier!"
Four letters.
Four letters was all it took.
Mama.
Class 1-A had gone through many things in their short span of being heroes-in-training. The USJ attack. The training camp. Seeing All Might career's end. A few of them fighting Stain. Constantly fighting every day for Midoriya's heart. That sort of stuff.
And yet, four letters was all it took for Class 1-B to annihilate them. They'd beat Class 1-B in the joint training. They'd beat Class 1-B during the sports festival. They'd beat Class 1-B for total work-study students. They'd beat Class 1-B in almost every way, shape, and form.
Yet, such as in chess with a blunder, the game turned around instantly the moment that Mineta and Kaminari had let Midoriya out of their sights.
"You idiots," Hagakure cursed them, likely until the end of days themselves.
"Mornin'!" Kirishima greeted them with a wave, with extra vigor towards Kirishima in particular. "You doing good? Come in!"
"Good morning," Iida cordially returned the gesture, bowing lightly as the class entered. They'd become accustomed to the fact that Class 1-B wasn't as rambuncktious as theirs, yet it still somewhat came as a shock to them when their common room was nearly fucking silent. Usually, there was Monoma who made the most noise, but they suspected that was only because a member of Class 1-A had come in.
That wasn't here, either. Monoma didn't seem to be present at all.
"So, where's Midoriya?" Kirishima casually questioned, but Tetsutetsu saw right through his facade. He could tell when Kirishima said something to be polite, but was completely panicking internally. Like he would die if he wasn't able to stop 1-B from getting too close to Midoriya.
It was a fact that all of them knew. Their classes' camaraderie had grown immensely through their common goal in the Deku Club, but their rivalry as classes had exponentially increased as a result.
By the same token, they expected Tetsutetsu to deflect, to do everything he could to squeeze out every single last millisecond that he could for his classmates to wrench Midoriya's heart away from 1-A. Of course, he would do it himself if he could, but he knew his priorities. It didn't matter if he could get through to Midoriya whenever he met with him if the two barely interacted. The more he hung out with 1-B, the better.
"Oh, he's just in the kitchen!"
They sucked in a breath, seeing his confident, almost cocky smirk. There was something...wrong in his smirk. Something they caught, but couldn't place.
Kirishima slapped himself in the face, trying to prevent the tears from leaking, "I should've known! I should've goddamn known that he was...he was smirking like that because he'd already won!"
"No, don't say that!" Ashido nearly cried out, wiping away the moisture from her eyes. "Just...just 'cause they got us that one time doesn't mean they've taken Midori away from us!"
Denial.
It felt like life itself had gone into slow motion.
Step.
Iida walked into the common room, leaving his shoes by the door. He heard the quiet laughter from the kitchen. He gulped, seeing Shoda kicking his legs back and forth casually, like they weren't even a threat for Midoriya's heart right now.
Step.
Asui felt clammy as they approached the kitchen. She fiddled around with her hands nervously, trying to calm her heart rate just a little bit. She hoped that everything was going to be okay, but she felt like her body was sticking itself to the floor, like it was afraid for the truth to be revealed.
Step.
Todoroki could sense the warmth coming from the kitchen as he took a step, catching a few of the 1-B students sitting on the couch, eyeing them with a confident glint in their eyes. Their eyes were on fire, but their thoughts were most certainly cold-hearted.
Step.
Uraraka gulped, forcing her legs to move, feeling the atmosphere change as the rest of them entered the room. Reiko's eyes followed her curiously, but her thoughts were clear. You want to know...right? Why we're so confident?
Step.
With each movement Bakugo took, he felt his heart rate speed up. He scoffed, clenching his fists to stop his sweat from building up enough to blow up the dorm building.
Step.
As they approached the open kitchen area, they met Kendou's eyes. The same kindness that they'd seen within those eyes had completely vanished. She looked like a completely different person.
The same eyes that'd shown them hospitality, care, respect, friendship, camaraderie, and kindness before had been filled with two clear things.
Victory and pity.
Like it had been an overwhelming win for them, like it was revenge for the 4-0 losses they'd suffered in some of the joint training matches.
"He's in there," she explained, though she couldn't stop the haughtiness from finding her voice.
They stepped ever-so-closer to the kitchen to the point that the clear tight-knit atmosphere in the kitchen was able to take note of them.
"Oh, hey, guys!" Midoriya greeted them with a smile. "I'm making breakfast with them right now! Do you want anything?" They noticed a slight blush on his face, the sort of pink on his cheeks that were there when he was embarrassed, but not too opposed to the idea of whatever embarrassed him.
They shook their heads, their appetites long-gone. Their throats were dry, the entire conduct of Class 1-B strangling them. What the hell do they know that we don't?
"Mama! Can I have some?!" Eri's cheerful voice came along, dragging a detached hand with her.
Wait.
A detached hand.
"Eri, it's only breakfast," Tokage's voice followed, trying not to sound too harsh. "You shouldn't be having ice cream this early in the morning."
"But I've seen Uncle Satou have ice cream in the morning!" She defended, pointing at the sugar-eating teen.
"Well, that's because he needs it for his quirk to work," she smiled, booping Eri on the nose. "You, however, don't. So no ice cream for now."
Eri only pouted, turning to Midoriya, "Pretty please?!"
Midoriya scrunched his nose up a bit, staying silent for a moment before giving in with a sigh, "Fine…" He reached into the freezer and pulled out the pail of ice cream for her to take from.
"You spoil her too much," Tokage teased.
"Careful now," Kendou called out from behind them. "You two are actually starting to act like a married couple." It was more of a warning to Setsuna, but who said they were going to take it like that?
Midoriya turned beet red, as did Tokage.
"K-Kendou!" Midoriya whined, but the lizard girl could only stay silent, completely caught off guard by the potential of them being married.
"I'm sorry, what?!" Uraraka shouted out, trying to take preventative measures, but the damage had already been done.
Eri had practically chosen Tokage already.
"Thank you, Papa! Thank you, Mama!"
"If you idiots didn't stop looking at them, we wouldn't be in this situation!" Bakugo snarled, the word 'Married' ringing clearly in his mind.
At this point, neither of them could even defend themselves. They'd taken the loss worse than anyone else.
Hearing Eri call someone from 1-B 'Mama?'
It was devastating.
"Oh, don't you know?" Tetsutetsu slung an arm around Kirishima's neck, that smirk coming back, and this time, he knew exactly why that smirk was so different. "Midoriya might be coming here more often, y'know, since Eri really likes Tokage, you know. I don't know why myself, but I'm gonna assume it's because she's chatty, confident, and is sorta the Midoriya of our class, in a way, you know? Leader, reliable, cooperative, inspirational, all that.
"Don't you think Eri would be drawn to someone with a few of the same traits as Midoriya?" He continued, resembling Monoma more than Tetsutetsu at that point. "Like, I know that Mirio-senpai's really similar, but Eri already thinks of him as an uncle, since Midoriya sees him as a brother. But Tokage?" He brought their attention back to Lizardy.
"Midoriya might be seeing our class as a better pool of options soon, you know, now that Eri's already approved of us, even more than you guys." He patted Kirishima on the back, as if there was pity in the action.
"Might wanna catch up, Uncle."
We cannot allow Class 1-B to overtake us!
Kirishima moaned dramatically, betrayal leaking into his words, "And here I thought he was my brother-in-arms! But he's doing all that stuff behind my back! So unmanly!"
"It doesn't even make fucking sense how the Tokage of all people was considered her Mama," Kaminari cursed under his breath. "You think she just bribed her or something? Or just acted like she was Midoriya's wife or something?"
They shook that possibility from their heads. That was clearly against one of the key principles of the Deku Club: Don't act like Midoriya's partner. Not even one of the 1-B evildoers would stoop to such a thing, right?
"Don't care about that," Jirou brushed him off, in favor of actually being productive. "What do we do about it?"
Yaoyorozu followed up, "Precisely. How do we deal with Class 1-B? What can we do to convince Midoriya that we're better choices than them?"
"Regarding Eri, anyways," Shoji coughed, reminding them. "We're currently ahead of them in terms of heroics, as we showed from the joint training exercises, which stands as incredibly important to a hero fanboy such as Midoriya. So, how do we approach Eri in a way that surpasses them?"
Uraraka put a hand on her chin, deep in thought before making a suggestion, "Well, it looks like they're winning because they're using their quirks better."
After the room quieted to listen to her suggestion, she continued, "Well, we saw Kodai make that bowl of ice cream gigantic for Eri, right?" They nodded. "And Reiko was able to lift her up to play around thanks to her telekinesis." Another nod. "And Shiozaki practically made her vines in the shape of a playground for Eri to have fun in."
"Get to the point, Round Face," Bakugo growled.
She rolled her eyes in response, "Anyways...those are all their quirks. Don't we have quirks that could help us win Eri over?"
"I could recreate the playground stuff!" Sero declared. "And Ojiro can use his tail to guide her around!"
"And I could create whatever snacks Eri desires, that way we're not limited to what's available, as Kodai's quirk is," Yaoyorozu continued. Good, they were getting somewhere. Shiozaki's playground stuff, down. Kodai's size quirk, down. What else was there?
"Oh, I could use my zero gravity to lift her up and keep her floating! Eri would be able to move on her own instead of Reiko just moving her around instead!" Uraraka excitedly realized.
Some of the members clicked their tongues; was this really their best option? After all, they were including two people from the top 10, one of them being Uraraka, who'd been in second place! She'd only benefit even more, creating yet another large gap between Bakugo and her compared to the rest of the Deku Club!
They steeled themselves, however, realizing what the consequences could be should they not let them do their magic. Either way, for some of the lower members of 1-A, it was a lose-lose. Either 1-B steals Eri away, or Uraraka steals Eri away. They were practically stuck between a rock and a hard place.
However, at least Uraraka's in 1-A, meaning they'd have more opportunities given that Eri would be there more often instead of the 1-B dorms.
"Alright, it's decided! We're going to steal Eri away from 1-B with our quirks!" Iida typed down. "Now, what do we do with 1-B?"
"We can't just let them loose, obviously," Bakugo rolled his eyes. "We gotta do something with them."
Todoroki muttered to himself, "Do you think we could convince Stain that they're fake heroes?"
"Todoroki!" Iida lectured, even though nobody else heard the quieter boy. "While I suppose that is a rather effective way of dealing with the issue, getting him here would be quite an inefficient process." Ah, of course, transportation was the problem there.
"Well, we can surpass them, like we have in heroics and in with Eri," Asui recounted. "But...punishment? Is what they did really all that bad?"
Uraraka shot her a disgusted look, like punishment was the literal only option available.
"We're literally pretty much trying to do the same as them, kero," Asui reasoned. "It's not fair for us to try to do something to them when what we're doing is the literal exact same."
"You forget," Uraraka grabs onto her shoulder, squeezing far too roughly to be normal or friendly. "They're trying to take Deku away from us."
She leaned in to whisper, "Which also means they want to take Midoriya away from you, meaning you wouldn't be with Midoriya. That's what they're trying to do. Don't you see?"
That was enough to push Froppy over the edge. Nobody takes Midoriya away from her.
"We're disbanding them," are the next words that exit her mouth.
Final decision of Meeting 41 (Operation: Become Eri's Second Parent): Put in a formal request to Vlad King to disband 1-B.
Small aftermath event:
"Oh, hey, Eri!" Setsuna greeted, waving to her with a detached arm. "You staying here for a bit again?" It'd become a regular occurrence for Eri and Midoriya to show up at the 1-B dorms, ever since what Class 1-A dubbed the "day our rivalry was truly sealed."
"Mhm!" Midoriya nodded, leading Eri into the dorms, where she received warm welcomes from Pony, Kendou, Kodai, and Kamakiri.
"Awesome!" Tetsutetsu chortled, offering a high-five to Midoriya as the two of them settled into the common room, just like how they always had.
"Good afternoon, Midoriya, Eri," Shiozaki softly greeted with a soft bow, reaching out a vine for Eri to hang on to as she carried the small girl into the kitchen.
Midoriya was barely able to sit down on the couch, confident that Kodai and Reiko would be able to help Eri get whatever she wanted (usually enlarged ice cream), before Pony casually strolled up to him to start a conversation.
Simply put, all was going well in the 1-B dorms.
Until, of course, it wasn't.
"Ah, ah, ah, Midoriya!" Monoma's voice came rolling down the staircase, walking down to greet him with a firm handshake, which the greenette awkwardly returned. "I see you've come back to our superior abode! Tell me, is it because I'm here?"
Midoriya blinked, unable to formulate a response. It wasn't so much that he was caught off guard.
It was more so that he...didn't know how to respond without accidentally letting out some tone including 'creeped out.'
Monoma only clicked his tongue, taking it as a silent nod, "Well, if you're here, I suppose that Eri is here as well?"
Midoriya dumbly nodded, sticking a thumb out to the kitchen, to which Monoma quickly walked to, eager to surpass not only class 1-A, but his own class in earning Midoriya's heart through Eri.
"Why, hello there, Eri!" Monoma greeted, offering her his outstretched hand. The class kept a close eye on the two, curious as to what their interaction would result in. After all, from what they knew, the two hadn't interacted in a conversation before.
And to everyone's shock, she backed away. She took a solid step back. Then another. And another, before she eventually reached Kendou, who tilted her head in confusion as Eri stepped behind her. Her protective instincts blared, and by god, she didn't care if Monoma was her classmate, she was going to strike him down (alongside the rest of the Deku Club) if he even threatened to hurt her.
"Is something wrong, Eri?" Tetsutetsu prompted, though it was less of a question and more of him waiting for her to give the go-ahead to justifiably do some rather unmanly things.
She shook her head, letting Class 1-B and Midoriya relax for a little bit, until she spoke up quietly, "Uncle Mirio told me that he was part of the bad parts of U.A…the scary parts...and that I shouldn't go near the bad parts…"
Midoriya disguised his snort as a cough, though couldn't help the shaking from amusement at hearing it.
Monoma's mortified face didn't help Midoriya, either.
Rival Status (Monoma): Eliminated
If there was ever a chance of Monoma getting close to Midoriya through Eri, it certainly vanished right then and there.
Extra aftermath event:
"Hey, Eri, you wanna see Uncle Mirio?" Midoriya brought up one day during lunch period, as he, Setsuna, and Kodai had all finished their lunches before making their leave with Midoriya's proclaimed daughter. "I'm pretty sure he's in class right now, but I'm certain that Cementoss'll be a fan of seeing you, too!"
Eri tilted her head, but at the mention of Lemillion, her eyes lit up as she nodded excitedly.
"Awesome!" Midoriya smiled brightly, gently grabbing onto her hand as the four of them walked towards where Mirio had texted him he was going to be. "Uncle Mirio and Amajiki and Auntie Nejire all said they're really excited to see you again!"
For a moment, Eri was able to completely take her attention off of the enlarged dessert that Kodai had held steady for her to smile back at Midoriya
Before, that is, a sound caught her off guard.
"I swear, Hizashi, speak one more time, and I promise you I'll find a way for Nezu to lower your salary again."
"Again?!" Present Mic's offended voice was almost drowned out by Midnight's snickering. "You're telling me you're the reason why my pay was cut by 20%?!"
"Well, I was the one who collected the signatures from the students," Midnight defended Aizawa, smacking Present Mic firmly on his left arm. "Told them I was pranking you, but it was Shota's idea anyways, so the credit goes to him."
Present Mic only pouted, muttering, "So that's why Nezu seemed so gleeful when he cut my salary; he must've known it was a prank, too."
"Duh," Midnight rolled her eyes, before catching sight of Eri. "Oh, hey, kid!"
She gasped, seeing the trio.
Specifically, it was seeing one of them in particular.
Midoriya held his smirk back as he let go of Eri's hand, allowing her to run up to Aizawa and do her best to hug him.
"Uncle 'Zawa!" She greeted with glee, freezing him in his tracks. "Good afternoon!"
Aizawa, out of instinct, softly smiled, "Afternoon, Eri," before ruffling her hair.
"I'm sorry, what?" Present Mic wheezed, causing Aizawa to completely freeze, shoulders tensing. He looked at his coworkers to meet their hungry smirks. "You wanna run that by me again?"
"Hey, Eri," Midnight maliciously prompted. "What'd you call him?"
"Uncle 'Zawa!" Eri repeated, this time with more vigor.
"Oh, you gotta tell me about this one!" Present Mic howled, hanging onto Aizawa's shoulder while trying to stop himself from laughing too loud.
Aizawa only locked eyes with Midoriya, his glare speaking volumes.
It's your fault that she still calls me this.
Midoriya only shrugged.
