Aizawa stood at the edge of the park, feeling extremely out of place.

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, and every family and their dog were out enjoying themselves, basking in the sunlight as they shed the stress of the week. Which was great and all, except Aizawa most certainly did not want to be here. He'd much prefer to be on his bed, snoozing away to regain some energy after a particularly exhausting patrol, but no. Hizashi just had to kick him out for being at home too much. Aizawa doesn't need fresh air, thank you very much. He was perfectly content with just hanging out on the balcony every once in a while, but that wasn't enough for Hizashi, apparently.

Stuffing his hands in his pocket and trying not to look too suspicious, he walked around mindlessly, vaguely taking in the generic scenery. Eventually, he decided to sit down on a bench and grab a drink from a nearby vending machine. Sipping on the mediocre coffee, he observed, pretending like he was on a job.

The lady by the water fountain had a huge bag. Perhaps she was hiding a bomb in there, ready to take out the innocent civilians resting at the park. He eyed her with suspicion, waiting for her to make a move.

Wait. Nope. She only had snacks and drinks in it and was passing them out to her kids.

Aizawa groaned, slouching back down on his bench. It was too damn peaceful. Why was he here again? If he was just going to sit and do nothing, why couldn't he do the same at home? At least it was more comfortable there. He wished he had the foresight to bring his sleeping bag; he could use a nap right about now.

Amid his inner complaints, a small scuffle between kids seemed to have begun at the playground. Normally, he wouldn't have cared, but this one looked particularly nasty. A blond boy had shoved a smaller kid to the ground. He towered over him as he shouted something that Aizawa couldn't quite make out. Bullying, huh? He supposed this was what he gets for complaining about the peacefulness. Quickly getting to his feet, he sped over as he wondered why none of the other parents were intervening.

Before he could get there, however, a little green-haired boy sprung up between the two with a yell, effectively shielding the kid on the ground from the blow and taking it for himself. Aizawa's eyes widened.

The boy yelped but doesn't back down. "Kacchan! Stop!" he cried, his voice strong despite his pained face."Leave him alone!"

"Deku! Get outta my way!" the bully yelled, his fists making tiny sparks and smoking.

As much as Aizawa wanted to see how the green-haired kid planned on doing to stop the bully—surely he hadn't rushed in without a plan—he'd hate for one of the kids to get hurt. Putting himself in between the two, he activated his quirk and gave the bully a watered-down version of his annoyed glare.

"What are you doing?" he asked coldly. There was a small scuffle of footsteps, and he saw one of the bullied kids taking the opportunity to run off from the corner of his eye.

The boy stared down at his not sparking hands, a blank horror spreading across his face. Aizawa tried hard not to feel satisfied from it, but he couldn't stop a small smile from emerging. He abhorred bullies, even pint-sized ones.

"My quirk! What did you do, you creepy weirdo?" he yelled, clenching his fists. He glared at Aizawa with narrowed red eyes.

"I don't think you're in a position to be yelling at me and demanding answers," Aizawa said in his most authoritative tone. "But I've taken it for now. You're not supposed to use your quirk in public, especially not for hurting other kids."

"Give it back!"

"Apologize to the boy you hurt first and promise you won't do it again," he said, crossing his arms. His eyes were starting to feel dry.

The boy's face contorted in anger. "Why should I? I didn't do anything wrong. The other kid was an idiot for using the slides when I wanted to, and Deku just happened to get in the way of my fist."

"Then I guess you won't be getting your quirk back," Aizawa said. "I'm a pro hero, do you really want to test your luck?" He didn't want to pull the hero card, but he was starting to grow tired of this.

A hint of hesitancy entered his confident face, and he scowled. "Fine. I'm Sorry, Deku, I won't do it again," he spat. "Happy?"

"It's okay, Kacchan," the other kid, Deku, said.

Aizawa heaved a sigh. This was going to have to do. Deactivating his quirk, he blinked a few times. "Go on then. You better keep your promise. I won't be as lenient next time."

The kid let off a few mini explosions as if to make sure, and with one glare at Aizawa, took off. Aizawa let him. He doesn't feel like giving a lecture today, and he had a feeling the kid wasn't going to listen anyway.

Turning around, he finds the green-haired boy standing behind him. His green eyes were sparkling as he stared up at Aizawa with what looked to be pure admiration, and he was smiling widely. Aizawa took an alarmed step back.

"Thank you, sir!" he said.

"It's nothing," Aizawa said. "Uh. Are you alright?" The blow earlier he'd taken hadn't looked that bad, but maybe the other kid's quirk had done something.

"Yeah! Thanks to you!"

"What's your name?" He recalled hearing the other boy calling him Deku, but that couldn't have been his actual name.

"Izuku," he said.

"Where are your parents, Izuku?"

"She's around, probably chatting with Kacchan's mom somewhere!" he chirped. "She comes to pick me up before the sun goes down, usually."

"Make sure to tell her about what happened later, alright?"

"No, that would make her worry! Besides, Kacchan and I are friends. It's no big deal."

"You gotta pick better friends than that, kid," Aizawa said.

"I've known Kacchan for forever," Izuku said. "But more importantly, are you a hero? Your quirk is so cool! Your eyes turned red and it was so scary! And… and …I've never seen Kacchan so angry! I mean, he's always angry, but not like that, ya know. No one's ever stood up to him before."

"Yeah, I'm a hero," he said, scratching his head.

"Wow! A hero! What's your hero name? I don't think I've seen you on TV before, and I thought I've seen every hero! Oh! Wait, then does that mean you're an underground hero? I've never met one before." His eyes were shining even brighter now, making Aizawa wish he hadn't said anything. Uncomfortably, he began to walk, hoping he would get the hint and leave him alone. He felt he had done his part already by breaking up the fight and making sure Izuku was unhurt; he's not his babysitter.

"It's Eraserhead, and yeah, I'm an underground hero," he said curtly. Glancing down, he was dismayed to find Izuku keeping perfect pace with him despite having shorter legs. He started walking a little faster in response.

"Awesome! What's it like? Are you like a ninja? I heard underground heroes only go out at night. So do you do stealth takedowns like in video games?"

"Huh? No. Underground heroes are just regular heroes except they don't show up on TV. That's all."

"Oh! I see," Izuku said, sounding out of breath as he tried to keep up with Aizawa. "But your quirk stops other people's quirks, right? How do you fight villains? You must be really good at fighting if you don't have an attacky power like Kacchan. Cuz you and the villains are on an even level all the time, right?"

Aizawa was now walking as fast as he could without breaking into a sprint now. He wasn't sure where he was going anymore, but he just wanted Izuku to stop following him and asking rambling questions. This was precisely the reason why he didn't want to come out in the first place. "I use a capture weapon."

"Wait! W-why are you walking so fast?" Izuku asked, panting heavily.

"This is how I usually walk." Glancing down, Aizawa doesn't see him next to him anymore. However, the soft pitter-patter of his footsteps told Aizawa that the persistent boy was still following him.

"Please! Slow down!" he said, but Aizawa ignored him and continued walking.

Then, the footsteps stopped, and Aizawa was about to celebrate when he heard a thud followed by tiny sniffles.

Stopping dead in his tracks, Aizawa turned around to find Izuku sprawled out on the dirt.

His previous annoyance vanishing in an instant, he hurriedly walked over to him. Carefully, he lifted Izuku into a sitting position. His face was blotchy and there were tears in his eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked, trying to push down his guilt. It wasn't his fault the kid was following him.

He nodded, springing back to his feet and brushing the grass and dirt off his clothes. Aizawa noted with further guilt that his knees were badly scraped—not bleeding though, thankfully. "Thank you," he said quietly. "I'm sorry if I annoyed you. I'll stop bothering you."

Aizawa sighed. "No. Come on, let's go sit down."

Walking slowly now, he lead Izuku to a nearby bench and went to buy another drink from the vending machine. Not because felt guilty, not at all.

"Drink." Aizawa pressed the cold can of energy drink into Izuku's hands.

"Thank you!" He doesn't waste a second and chugged it, to Aizawa's alarm.

"I didn't get you a drink so that you can choke on it," Aizawa said with exasperation.

"Sorry. I was thirsty." Izuku dropped the now empty can in the garbage can next to them.

"I can see that."

"Thanks again, Eraserhead! For first helping with Kacchan and now the drink! You're really nice, even though you look kinda scary." He beamed widely at Aizawa, his fall from earlier already forgotten.

Aizawa frowned, but decided to ignore the strange compliment in favor of asking a question. "So what made you jump between your friend and that other kid?" he asked. It was something that he had been wondering about since witnessing the fight.

"I wanna be a hero when I grow up!" Izuku said with determination. "I don't like seeing people hurt. I wanna be like All Might and save everyone that needs help!"

"Is that so?"

"Yea!"

"What were you going to do if I hadn't stepped in?"

"I was gonna stop Kacchan from hurting the boy."

"How? With your quirk?" With the confidence Aizawa had seen, Izuku must've had an amazing quirk. "You know it's not allowed, right? Two wrongs don't make a right."

To his surprise, Izuku slumped. "I don't have a quirk," he said quietly.

"Then why? Aren't you afraid of getting hurt?"

"I wasn't really thinking. I just moved," he said.

"Next time, go ask an adult for help. You'll only get hurt if you continue to run headfirst into fights without a quirk or any skills."

"No! Then the other kid would've gotten hurt. It doesn't matter if I have a quirk or not, I'm still going to try!"

Aizawa wasn't sure whether to be impressed or concerned. "That's heroic of you, but it really would be better if you just go and get help the next time something like that happens. I won't be there to help you next time, you know. You don't know how to fight anyway. There wasn't much you could've done."

"Heroic? You think so?" Izuku face lit up like a Christmas tree, and Aizawa regretted his choice of words. He didn't want to encourage recklessness.

"Well, yes, but you heard what I said next right? About not throwing yourself in a fight without any fighting skills or a quirk?

"But Kacchan picks fights at school all the time and none of the teachers do anything. He used his quirk on me right in front of a teacher once and nothing happened," Izuku said, tilting his head.

"What. That's not right," Aizawa said, feeling a surge of defensiveness on Izuku's behalf; his hero instincts popping up, no doubt.

"Yeah! So I gotta step in to stop Kacchan when it happens. No one else will."

Aizawa sighed. "Which school do you go to?"

"Aldera Elementary school, why?"

"No particular reason." Aizawa knew quirkless discrimination was becoming more prevalent, but he hadn't known it to be this bad. As much as he hated adding more tasks to his already full plate, he knew he had to do something about it. It'd be a shame if his spirit got crushed before he could even try to become a hero. Quirkless or not, Aizawa thought seen more heroism in Izuku than he had in the newest batch of U.A students. It wasn't something that could be taught. "Just be more careful, alright? If the teachers won't help, then at least think up a plan before you go charging in. If your opponent is stronger than you, then you have to compensate in some other way, even if it means fighting less honorably." Aizawa had never subscribed to the zero-tolerance policy against violence. If the teachers won't step in, then he had no qualms with Izuku retaliating by any necessary means.

"But I wanna be like All Might. He always jumps in without hesitation."

"That's because All Might is stronger than everyone else. He's also trained, unlike you," Aizawa said sternly. He was suddenly struck by the urge to teach the dense boy some simple fighting techniques. He clearly wasn't going to stop getting himself involved in fights, and Aizawa wouldn't be surprised if he was reckless enough to go up against people much bigger and stronger than him. It might be better if he knew the barest minimum about self-defense. Before he could though, a woman with dark green hair appeared in front of them.

"Izuku, there you are! Who's this with you?" she asked, looking at Aizawa.

"Mom! This is my new friend! He's a hero!" He gestured frantically at Aizawa, who smiled at his mom awkwardly, praying she wouldn't get the wrong idea.

"Did you now? That's great, Izuku!" The woman smiled warmly at Aizawa. "Thank you for keeping my son company. I hope he wasn't too much of a bother."

"No, he was fine. It's no problem," Aizawa said stiffly.

She grabbed Izuku's hand. "Well it's quite late, so we'll have to get going now. It was nice meeting you! Say bye, Izuku!"

"Bye-bye!" Izuku slid off the bench, waving enthusiastically at Aizawa. "Will you be here next week?"

"I…" He was about to make an excuse about being too busy, but the words got stuck in his throat upon seeing his hopeful face. "Yeah. I might be."

"Really? Promise? I'll show you my new All Might figurine! I didn't bring it today cuz I didn't want to get it dirty, but I'll bring it next time!"

"Don't pressure him," her mom chided. "It's rude. And I'm sure the hero is busy."

"O-oh. I'm sorry," Izuku said, his smile dropping.

"No, it's fine." Aizawa sighed, resigned to losing yet another day off. "I'll be here, I promise."

"Yay!" Izuku cheered. "See you, Mr. Eraserhead!"

Aizawa watched the mother and son duo leave, then headed home. He'd reached his social quota of the day and was ready to go nap now. However, he couldn't quite shake the nostalgic feeling that had flared up during his conversation with Izuku. He reminded Aizawa of his own U.A entrance exam where he had to employ less savory methods to even pass, and that was with a quirk. It was going to be an even harder road for Izuku, but from what he had seen today, he doesn't think he was going to give up. Aizawa couldn't help but want to root for the persistent brat. It would certainly be satisfying to see a quirkless kid rise over everyone else.

Maybe Aizawa could lend a hand. If he had to waste away at the park every Saturday, he might as well make it productive and teach Izuku a few tricks.