"Well, it's been good seeing you again, All Might," Tsukauchi said, "and meeting you, Midoriya, but I must get going. I'm still on duty after all." He chuckled.
All Might smiled at him, "Oh, of course." He motioned in his direction. "I'm sure young Midoriya will agree with me that it's been a pleasure."
Izuku's face flushed as both Tsukauchi and All Might looked at him expectantly. "Oh, um, yup! It's b-been great meeting you!" His arms waved in front of him in a desperate attempt to get the attention off of him. Being in the spotlight always gave him stage fright, no matter how small the situation.
Tsukauchi laughed, "I'm glad to hear that!" The laughter died down and he stood up while turning to All Might. The chair squeaked slightly against the tile. "You know where to find me if you need anything."
He walked over to the doorway and was about to open the door when Recovery Girl piped up. "Hold on," she hoped out of her chair and made her way Tsukauchi's side. He blinked at her. "I'm coming with you."
At his questioning look she just rolled her eyes, "Can't I catch up with a friend as well? Or does Toshinori only get that privilege?"
Realization crosses his features, "Oh! Why of course you can. I'm sorry." He amended.
Recovery Girl laughed, "You better be!" She tapped her syringe looking staff-thing on the ground impatiently, "Now, are you going to open the door or not?"
Regardless of whether Tsukauchi felt threatened or not, the door was open a moment later. "My apologies." He said nervously.
The short, old women walked out of the door mumbling something, and Izuku felt slightly relieved that he couldn't understand a word. Tsukauchi stepped out into the hall after Recovery Girl and glanced back. He gave them a final farewell, "Goodbye Toshi, Midoriya."
Izuku's small "Bye," was quickly covered up by All Might's very much louder "Goodbye!"
The door shut with a click and Izuku's gaze instantly slid over to the skinny man in the bed next to his. All Might was currently smiling and seemed to be in a very good mood, but his mind could only focus on one thing.
"Toshinori?"
The man seemed to snap out of whatever daze he had been in at Izuku's inquiry. His blue eyes met Izuku's green ones. "What?"
His eyebrows furrowed, "Recovery Girl called you Toshinori, and Tsukauchi called you Toshi."
It was easy to track the realization as it dawned across his bony features. A thin hand reached up to scratch to the back of his head while his eyes closed in mirth. "Oh, that's right! You don't know my citizen name."
He might have researched everything he could about the Number One Hero, found everything ranging from his fighting technique to his favorite food, but not once had Izuku ever been able to find out All Might's real name. It was something that some heroes shared freely, while others preferred to keep it a secret. All Might one of those that kept it a secret. Was he really going to tell him?!
It would certainly be a dream come true for Izuku. Many nights of staying up in the common room, on the only computer the League had, had yielded no results. Yet here he was, about get the answer from the man himself.
"My citizen name is Yagi Toshinori," he said, "but I would prefer it if you continued calling me by my hero name."
Izuku chuckled quietly, "It would be pretty weird if I just showed up to class calling you by your real name."
All Might laughed, "Yeah, I guess it would."
The laughter trailed off and they were left in an awkward silence. He shifted from where he was sitting up in the bed. He wasn't going to lie, it was kind of unsettling.
"Young Midoriya?"
Izuku snapped to attention. "Yeah?"
His teacher looked nervous. "May I ask you a question?"
You just did.
"Shoot."
All Might looked up with a troubled look on his face. He cleared his throat before speaking, "If you had my powers, what would you do?"
Well isn't that a strange question.
Gears in his mind instantly started turning and in no time he had managed to come up with several ideas. None of which he could possibly share with All Might.
Almost all of them had to do with him using it to defeat the League of Villains and finally freeing himself from the invisible cage they had him trapped in. There were many ways in which he could go about doing that, and he could happily spend the rest of the day just thinking about it. But for now he needed to give All Might an answer.
It was a simple answer really. But he knew it was the best one. "I'd save people."
A smile crossed his lips. "But wouldn't you do that anyways?"
"Yeah," Izuku nodded, "I would save people regardless of whether or not I had your quirk. Don't get me wrong, it would be amazing to have your power, and it would certainly make saving people easier, but that's not what a hero is." Oh great, he was going off again.
"A real hero saves people no matter what, even if they have no powers at all. So yeah, if I had your powers, I would save people."
Oh, saying that hurt. He had been born quirkless, he had only been given his quirk a couple of years ago, so he knew what it was like to be completely powerless.
Even then he had wanted to be a hero, to save people and maybe even save himself, but he realized now that it was completely pointless. He could never become a hero when he was a villain.
That didn't mean that he had completely gotten rid of his ideals, though. Sometimes those dreams were all that kept him sane and made him get up in the morning.
To lay those ideals out now, when he had already given up, almost made him want to cry.
It just wasn't fair.
"You alright?"
Izuku blinked and realized that he had actually started crying. Rubbing his eyes, he groaned in frustration. Why won't the tears stop?!
"I-I'm s-sorry! I'm trying to st-op, but they j-just won't!" Izuku choked out.
He heard a sound next to him like someone moving around, but he couldn't see past the tears.
Suddenly something wrapped around his shoulders and he froze. Was that an arm?!
"Hey," Izuku jumped around how close All Might sounded. "It's okay, just calm down. Can you do that?"
As he tried to do as All Might said, he suddenly became aware of the presence sitting right next to him.
Wait, All Might was sitting right next to him.
His head snapped upwards and he felt All Might startle at the sudden movement. He stared at the slightly blurry shape of All Might and he proceeded to freak out.
"Oh my gosh! You shouldn't be out of bed! Especially to help me! You need to rest, you're not healed all the way and ohmygoshifsomethinghappensit'llallbemyfaultandi'll-"
"Young Midoriya!" All Might yelled over his rambling. Hands wrapped around his wrists. "Breathe!"
He noticed how his lungs were screaming at him, so he figured it was a good idea to do as All Might said. Air rushed into his lungs and the room seemed to spin around him. It stopped after a moment and Once it cleared Izuku realized he see again.
Immediately turning To All Might, Izuku scanned just teacher for any signs of pain or fatigue. To his relief, the hero seemed to be completely fine, besides the worry marring his face.
He looked away, embarrassed. "I-I'm sorry, All Might. I don't know what came over me." Well, he did, but he sure as hell wasn't going to tell him that.
"It's alright, young Midoriya. Sometimes even great heroes like myself get overwhelmed sometimes." A chuckle came from the man and Izuku glanced at him.
He wore an amused smile. "There was this one time that I went out to grocery store to, you know, buy groceries. I was in this form of course, and nobody recognized me as usual. I was in my way to leave when the person in front of me opened the door and actually held it open for me." All Might straight up laughing now. "I swore I nearly broke down in tears right there and then. And, oh boy, the person was so confused! They kept asking me if I was alright and all I could do was stare at them."
Izuku just stared at All Might, much as the person in his story must have. But he could feel something bubbling up his throat and before he knew it, he was chuckling right alongside him. It really was a strange story.
It was at this moment that Recovery Girl walked in. They must have looked crazy, laughing and giggling on Izuku's bed for no apparent reason. Recovery Girl was not happy in the fact that All Might has gotten out of bed and soon enough Izuku has his bed to himself again.
"I can't believe you two! You know better than that All Might!"
Izuku tried to stifle his laughter and then Recovery Girl was on him. "You're no better yourself, young man! Either one of you could have gotten hurt! Do you understand that?"
He ducked his head, "Yes ma'am." Any laughter was long gone now.
She nodded her head, "Good." The short woman turned so that she could see them both. "Care to tell me what happened?"
Izuku wrung his hands, "I-it's my fault. I started crying and All Might came over to help me."
All Might shook his head, "No, it was mine. I asked him a question that clearly distressed him. It was insensitive of me."
He felt his eyes widen at that and a distressed noise came unbidden from his throat. "But-"
"Ok! Enough of that. I'm not going to sit around and listen to you bicker over whose fault it is. Honestly, you two are worse than children sometimes!"
His face wrinkled in confusion, "But I am-"
"Shush!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
She sighed, "Now that we have THAT out of the way," she turned to Izuku, "how are you feeling?"
"Better," he said, "I don't feel any pain when moving and my skin doesn't seem to be peeling or anything anymore."
Recovery Girl nodded, "Good. If you're feeling better, then you are free to leave. Oh,"he glanced at her, "one of your classmates told me they wanted to talk to you when you got out. I believe they may be in the classroom still."
Confused, Izuku nodded back at her. "Thank you."
She harrumphed, "Thank me my being more careful! At this rate you'll cause permanent damage or worse."
Oh, that didn't sound good.
"I'll try." He said quietly.
"You better!"
Getting out of bed was surprisingly harder than it should have been. He guessed it must have been the fact that he had never had pain meds before.
Walking was easier once he knew what to expect and he walked to the door with little difficulty.
"Hold on!"
He turned to Recovery Girl. She held a glass full of water out to him. "Drink this before you leave."
He didn't question it, not wanting to be yelled again by the woman, and downed it all in one go. No matter what anyone else says, water is one of the best things in the world.
Giving the glass back to her, he waved at her. "Goodnight, thanks so much for your help, Recovery Girl."
She smiled at him, "My pleasure, be careful on your way home."
"Yes ma'am, he turned and opened the door. Sometimes Recovery Girl was an enigma, and he would just have accept that. He paused and glanced back at All Might. Their eyes locked.
Izuku gave his teacher a nervous smile. "Thank you, All Might," he said quietly.
The skinny man smiled brightly back in return, "Any time, young Midoriya."
The door closed with a click and Izuku was plunged into the darkness of the hallway. He hadn't realized how much time had passed.
"Hey, Midoriya."
"Eep!"