So for those of you who were asking if this is after USJ... Heh. It's not. This story covers the USJ events briefly and goes on for most of Class 1-A's first year - although the time line might be vague and unsettled where I don't want to get too close to plot. Above all, this is EraserMic fluff! Well... after this chapter it is.

Remember you can check out my tumblr at ibelieveinahappilyeverafter for a bunch of other content and outdated memes and jokes that people wish would die already. This is what you get for setting up a queue, folks.

Enjoy!

"Yamada, just when are you going to give up on this guy?" Startling at the voice, Hizashi did his best to not shriek from where he had been distracted dealing with his favorite customer. "I mean, he doesn't even notice what you write on his cup every day."

"Maybe he's just too shy to mention it?" At the flat, disapproving look given to him, Hizashi puffed up his cheeks with a pout. "There's no need to be mean, Suzuki-chan."

"I'll stop being mean to you when you get a job fit for your age. You know only teenagers and college students work in coffee shops, right? Right? Because this is just sad, Yamada."

"When did children get to be so disrespectful," Hizashi tsked, glancing around the shop to see it was dead as it usually was. Lovely Coffee tended to be on the expensive side and, unlike chain stores, they took a bit longer to make an order. The result tended to be very few customers – even in the mornings. "And stop prying into my love life!"

"Aha! That means there's a love life to speak of!" Suzuki pulled herself up onto the counter, the extra height doing very little to make her look intimidating. Hizashi was certain that no one with bubblegum pink pigtails could look threatening. "Come on, Yamada, tell your senpai everything."

"You started here three days before I did, kid." Hizashi sighed and went to restock the coffee cups, contemplating poking a hole in the bottom of each one. "He's just a cute guy."

"Your old man tastes are weird. He looks so old, Yamada, he probably has kids my age!" Considering Aizawa was around Yamada's age of thirty, he sincerely doubted the man had a seventeen-year-old child. "Just ask him out on a date the next time he's in here. I mean, I've seen some of the sappy stuff you write on his cups."

"Hey! My heart and soul go into the lyrics and poems I pick out to put on those cups!" Hizashi rolled his eyes at the disapproving look he was given, turning back to his work. "It's fine if he doesn't notice them. Honestly, I would be surprised if he did. He looks like he can hardly breathe in the mornings, let alone read."

"You've been stalking this guy for months, Yamada. At this point it's just getting sad," Suzuki huffed, mumbling and muttering to herself before she snapped her fingers. "I got it! You can- Dammit." Looking back, Hizashi tried not to laugh at seeing the girl was floating off the counter. "Shut up!"

"Hey, hey, easy, Suzuki-chan," Hizashi soothed, seeing the look of fear in the girl's eyes as she started floating higher. Before she could get too high, Hizashi grabbed her wrists and gently pulled her back down until she could safely snap her fingers and fall out of the air. "I still have problems with my own quirk, you know."

"Yeah, but you're a hopeless old man, it's fine if you can't use your quirk right." Suzuki gave him a rare smile even as she kicked out at him and forced him to jump back to dodge. "And we were talking about your love life! Don't change the subject!"

"I wasn't," Hizashi complained, crossing his arms as he leaned back against the opposite counter. "I'm listening, though, if you want to share that idea you obviously had."

"You mentioned he was some pro hero or something, right?" 'Some pro hero or something.' Hizashi had told her no less than a dozen times by now that Aizawa was Eraserhead, one of the top underground heroes in all of Japan. "Stage a scene where he has to save you! When you ask how you can repay him, then you can offer to, you know… repay him."

"I am almost absolutely certain that it is illegal for someone your age to talk to someone my age about that, and even if it wasn't, it feels like it should be." Children were so much worse than they were in his day - and he hadn't thought that possible!

"You're no fun," Suzuki huffed, jumping off the counter. "You can't just keep giving him secret love letters he never reads, you know! You have to get his attention in another way, Yamada, or nothing is ever going to happen!"

"Oh, don't worry… I have ways of getting Aizawa's attention." At least, Present Mic had his ways of doing that. If everything went to plan, then he'd definitely have Eraserhead's attention tonight.

"I don't know… Maybe you should cut your hair and save that stupid mustache-"

"Hold your tongue!"

::

Hizashi had been about to pull off his greatest scheme as a villain yet. It would have been the perfect scheme to really gather media attention, get his point across, and prove to the heroes of the world that they were never looking. He had planned it out for weeks, had gone over every detail as carefully as possible, and had been ready for any and all possible setbacks.

He had not, however, been prepared for the two hours it took him to climb a tree to rescue a squealing, screaming cat that seemed to be stuck right at the very top. It was a very tall tree, too, and the screams had broken his heart before he could even try to mount a defense against it.

So when Aizawa found him those two hours later, it was not to the sight of a brilliant scheme and trap that he had meticulously planned and laid out, but instead to the sight of Hizashi exhausted and sore from rescuing a cat from a tree.

"I would ask what you're doing, but mostly I'm just hoping you fall out of that tree." Maybe if Hizashi pretended he wasn't there, then Aizawa would go away and leave him to his misery in peace. "If you step there, you're going to fall."

"I have no doubt you'd catch me, Eraser," Hizashi called down cheerfully, putting his weight on another branch instead. "Don't you know it's rude to shout up to people who are in trees, though? It's distracting and could cause them to fall!"

"Who says that's not what I want?" Aizawa was waiting at the bottom of the tree and, even from where he was, Hizashi could tell he was tracking his progress with careful eyes. It was almost enough to make him clutch at his heart at the obvious show of care and worry, but he did rather need both hands at the moment.

"You're breaking my heart, hero!" Getting down to the last few branches, Hizashi carefully swung himself down, sighing in relief when he was back on the ground with his arms sorer than they had been to prove it. "Right, then, Eraserhead… I have something to ask of you."

Waiting a few seconds to make the moment more dramatic, Aizawa tense and uncertain across from him, Hizashi untucked the kitten from where she had hidden herself in his jacket as he climbed down the tree. "Is- Is that a cat?"

"You like cats?" Hizashi already knew the answer considering he had seen the man feed the alley cats near his coffee shop and he only ever ate those cat muffins in the mornings.

"They're cats," Aizawa said, as if that explained everything. Hizashi supposed it rather did, for him. Honestly, Aizawa was like a cat himself, some days.

"Right! Um, can you take this little guy back to the station? I'm not welcomed back there." He had angered the police chief, a horrible little man, with his last trip down to the police station, so he'd rather avoid that place for a while longer.

"I almost wish you robbed banks," Aizawa finally muttered, looking honestly upset as Hizashi laughed and pushed the kitten into his arms.

"She doesn't have a collar, but she's well-groomed and might be a lost pet," Hizashi explained, giving the sweet little thing a scratch under her chin. "I'd take her myself and make some posters, but my lease only allows for one cat, and Snowball doesn't like to share!"

"You… have a cat?" That would get Aizawa's attention, wouldn't it? Well, at least Hizashi wouldn't be lying to Suzuki when he said he finally had Aizawa's attention. "A cat named Snowball."

"I know, I know, it's a bad name, but it fit at the time," Hizashi laughed, shaking his head. "I found him half drowned in a gutter and took him home and by the time I got him dried off he was a little ball of screaming fluff."

"Present Mic." Oh, boy, full villain name. That wasn't good. Maybe Aizawa had realized what Hizashi's plan had been, tonight? "Go home."

"I- What?" That… had not been what Hizashi had expected. Aizawa always ended the night by dragging him to the police station except the one or two times Hizashi had managed to run away before he had been cuffed. He had never just let Hizashi go. "Oi, oi, I know you don't think so, but I am a villain-"

"No, you're really not." Aizawa didn't even raise his voice. He spoke evenly, meeting Hizashi's gaze as he held the quiet kitten in his arms. "I'm telling you to go home because there's no point to what you've been doing. Why are you even doing this?"

"No point-" Hizashi cut himself off, taking a steadying breath. "Look, I'm not just going to walk by a cat stuck in a tree when I can get up there and help - and this one is just a kitten!"

"Mic." Aizawa took a steadying breath after his outburst, looking frustrated - although Hizashi couldn't tell if it was with him or Aizawa himself. "You are not a villain." Well, not in the traditional sense, but that was the whole point of this, wasn't it? "You've been giving us tip offs and helping with the Trigger case for months, now."

"That's just because our agendas lined up. It's not like it cost me anything to help you out with that when it didn't hurt me, any-"

"You're not an idiot." The words weren't surprised and tinged with something amused and warm, this time. They were instead cold and angry. "If you were really trying to 'change the system,' then you could have done any number of things with that Trigger beyond giving it to me."

"Funny for you to say I'm not an idiot and then treat me like one," Hizashi drawled, feeling a swirl of cold rage that he hadn't felt in a long time. "You think I'm just some pity case of yours, don't you? Some way to break up the long, predictable patrols." Aizawa flinched, Hizashi narrowing his eyes. "Thought so. Whatever you want to believe, this has never been just some game to me."

"Yet you treat it like one?" Aizawa shook his head before Hizashi could get a word out. "You take over bars, cause mischief, and you end up helping more than you end up hurting. You're like a child who doesn't know what a villain really is. Do you know how many people die in villain attacks each year? You do your research, don't you? There is no such thing as a reformed villain in our society. Criminals and thugs, sure, maybe, if they were people in the wrong place at the wrong time, but villains?

"Villains are not a game for you to play at. A real villain is out to cause harm for the sheer fact that they want something - power, attention, recognition, money, and the list goes on. You work to get attention, but you never do anything with it. You play around like the kid who's stuck with the role of villain during a game of heroes. You? Dangerous? Don't make me laugh."

Aizawa's voice had gone cold and amused, a smirk pulling at his lips as he stared Hizashi down, never stopping, "You keep telling me your quirk is dangerous, and maybe that's true, but it's a poor 'villain's quirk' for someone like you. You couldn't be dangerous if you tried. When was the last time you hurt someone innocent, Mic? When was the last time you sacrificed someone standing in your way for your own plans? When did you last kill someone, Mic?"

Aizawa stared at him for a long moment, finally huffing something that could have been a laugh if there was any heart in it, "Go home, Mic." For the first time in a very long time, Hizashi found himself utterly speechless as Aizawa turned away and just left. He walked away and turned his back as if he knew, without a doubt, that Hizashi wouldn't even try to put up a fight and attack him.

"No… No, you don't get to just end it like that!" The man didn't even bother to turn around, instead disappearing into one of the alleyways. Hizashi knew that even if he ran, he wouldn't see the man again tonight. "Eraserhead-"

Slapping his hands over his mouth when he felt the slip of his quirk, Hizashi stared at the empty street in front of him where a hero, someone who he saw as a hero, just told him to go home. As if there was anything at 'home' besides a loud cat and busted furniture. Fuck- Fuck. It had been so long since he had lost control over his quirk, and it only took a few words from someone like Aizawa… No. It only took a few words from Aizawa to make him lose it.

It had been months since he had started everything as Present Mic and he had gotten comfortable. He had gotten too comfortable in his routine with Aizawa and trying to get attention focused on him. What else was he supposed to do? Becoming known as a villain would make people look - and if they looked, they would listen. They wouldn't listen if he didn't make them, though.

Hizashi gritted his teeth as his clenched fists started to shake, one thought running through his head. It wasn't ending like this. He wasn't just going to let Aizawa end it like this, like Hizashi was some misbehaving child who needed a slap on the wrist and some advice.

Hizashi had been annoyed, before, and he had certainly been upset, but now? Oh, now he was pissed.

::

Hizashi didn't see Aizawa in Lovely coffee the next day and Suzuki didn't ask about his sudden change in mood. He didn't bother to offer an explanation, either, no matter how many times she looked like she wanted to start a conversation - the silence was better. He wouldn't have been able to focus on anything else, anyways, what with how Aizawa's words kept running through his mind.

Had he been the one to think this was all some sort of game? Was he just humoring the child playing heroes and villains, then? Hizashi had known that Aizawa was blunt with a sharp, depressing sense of humor, but before last night, he had never thought of the man as cruel.

It had been months, yet Aizawa still didn't seem to understand what the purpose of Present Mic was. Did he not see? Was it not obvious? It wasn't a game, but an attack brought onto their own battlefield. The world of heroes was filled with media attention, bright lights, and the knowledge that the world was constantly watching.

It was the opposite where they lived. Their world was filled with shadows, secrets, and the knowledge that no one in the world would ever see what happened on these streets. That could change, though. If a bright, flashy, and loud villain repeatedly attacked the same area and pulled off ridiculous crimes, the media would be forced to act eventually - if for no other reason than to satisfy their curiosity.

Once they looked, however, Hizashi would have made sure that they didn't look away - no matter what it would have taken. If a light needed to be shined down upon these dark streets, then he'd be the one to take all the blame and hell that there would be to pay.

If Aizawa was going to accuse him of this being nothing but a game, though, then Present Mic would show him that it wasn't. He wasn't dangerous? His quirk wasn't a 'villain's quirk?' Fine. Hizashi would just prove true what everyone else had ever told him.

Adjusting his headphones, Hizashi glanced up at the buildings in front of him. It was an old, abandoned block that should be empty, that night, with the time and location - it was close enough to get the attention of some hero agencies, though.

"You don't want a game, Eraserhead? Alright." Planting his feet and making sure his stance was solid, Hizashi danced his fingers across his directional speaker before turning it off. "Then how about a show?"

Taking in a slow, deep breath to fill his lungs with as much air as possible, Hizashi didn't bother to hold back his quirk any longer, throwing everything into his voice as he opened his mouth and screamed. The world fell silent, nothing escaping past his headphones as the vibrations rocked through him, Hizashi swearing he could feel the shiver of the paved road under his feet.

When he finally was forced to suck in gulps of air, Hizashi opened his eyes, not quite sure when he had even closed them. Looking up at the buildings in front of him, Hizashi gave a bitter laugh at seeing every window in his eyesight looked to have been shattered, the buildings around him crumbling. The building directly in front of him, the one he remembered so well, looked to have been shattered to pieces.

These buildings had been condemned for years, but Hizashi got petty satisfaction at seeing that that building, at least, would never be used again.

Flipping his directional speaker back on, Hizashi looked around for a fire escape that looked steady, making his way up to the rooftops as quick as possible, body vibrating with tension and adrenaline. This time, with this much noise and destruction, it would be more than Eraserhead to show up.

It took almost half an hour, but Hizashi was right in his guess that Eraserhead wouldn't be the only one. There was a pro hero in front of him - a pro hero who was dressed in a very revealing… Ah. Midnight, then. Looking around for Aizawa, Hizashi scowled to himself when he didn't see the man. What was taking him so long?

"Hmph. You're not Eraserhead." It didn't seem like there were any other heroes around, at least. "Look," Hizashi sighed, taking his sunglasses off for a moment and giving a beaming smile. "Nothing against you, Miss Midnight, but could you beat it?" He slid his glasses back on, keeping on a smile that he didn't feel. "It's just that Eraserhead and I have a thing going on! Ya dig?"

Feeling his knees suddenly buckle, Hizashi caught himself before he could completely fall on his face, swearing as he quickly covered his nose and mouth at remembering this was Midnight. Her quirk, while simple, was a powerful one.

"Dolt," Midnight tsked, rolling her eyes as she walked over to him, heels making a sharp sound against the concrete of the building roof. "You must be Present Mic, then. Eraserhead told me you could scream, but he didn't mention it could get like this!"

There was a pink mist that surrounded the air, Hizashi cursing himself for not noticing it sooner as he felt like his head was being filled with cotton. Glaring up at the hero, Hizashi saw Midnight only give him a sharp smile.

"Oh, you seem like you could be fun." A sudden lunge and Midnight had his wrists grabbed and held tightly, her free hand gripping his chin and forcing him to hold his breath even tighter. "Aw, come on, baby, don't you want to take a nice nap?"

Hizashi met her eyes and glared, lungs and chest burning as he shook from the need to breathe, Midnight making an approving sound, "You certainly last long, don't you? I can see why Eraserhead is so caught up on you."

It was no use. Hizashi had already breathed in more than enough of the mist to drag him down and, judging by the way his vision was swimming, it wouldn't be much longer until he was fully under. Gaze catching on Midnight's, Hizashi sucked in a breath, tasting the sweet scent that coated his mouth before he spoke, "Tell him… it wasn't a game…"

Hizashi had time to see Midnight's surprised look before he felt himself tip to the side. He was out before his body even hit the ground.

The sudden sensation of something cold and wet smacking his face had Hizashi jerking up with a gasp, the noise turning into a pained hiss at the bright sunlight that burned his uncovered eyes. Scrambling to find where his glasses were, Hizashi snatched them up when he saw a twinkle of orange before shoving them on his face.

"Damn kids. You dress crazier every night." An old man with a wet mop was staring down at him, looking aggravated. "Get off this roof. I have cleaning to do."

"I- What time is it?" The sun was well on its way into being in the sky and it had to be late morning, at the earliest, Hizashi's mind scrambling to try and adjust to the change. It had been midnight just a few seconds ago. Midnight. Midnight.

"Almost eleven," the man - a janitor? - snorted, giving him a kick. "Get off my damn roof, already."

"Alright, alright, I'm going!" Standing up, and more than a bit wobbly, Hizashi gulped down lungful's of clean, untainted air as he looked around at the bright, sunny day. A sunny day had never felt as cold as this one.

Not only had Midnight not even bothered to take him to the police station after drugging him unconscious, but it was a safe bet that Eraserhead had never even shown up. Hizashi had done more damage in one night than he had ever done in his whole run as a villain, and Aizawa had never even showed himself.

Bitter, he decided, didn't even begin to describe how he was feeling.

::

"Present Mic, right?" A body dropped into the seat beside his, voice loud even over the deafening bass of the club that Hizashi was attempting to get himself drunk in. He had half a mind to cause some trouble, but he was waiting until he was a bit closer to wasted instead of just tipsy.

"Ah, ah… Getting approached by people who know me in clubs seems to be becoming a new thing of mine," Hizashi joked, shot glass held between his lax fingers as he turned his gaze to the man, studying him quickly. It looked like he was armed and the amount of muscle, and where it was, showed that the man knew how to fight, if nothing else. "What can I do for ya!"

"How would you like to join a little party that's being thrown?" Oh? Now Hizashi was curious. Ah… but why should he be? It wasn't like a villain would care much.

"And what makes you think your party is worth going to?" The smile the man gave him was wild and wide and looked like nothing but trouble.

"You're the one who wants to destroy the hero system, right?" Well, at least he was stirring up attention somewhere. "The one who wants revenge on heroes?"

"Maybe," Hizashi sang the word, drawing it out and turning around in his chair and doing his best to put on a cheerful face. He couldn't help but think on how Aizawa would have known his smile was fake in a moment. "What have you got in mind?"

"Something to show all of Japan just who the strong ones in this world really are." The man laughed, voice just barely heard over the thumping of the music. "What would you say if I said the Symbol of Peace could be defeated?"

"I'd say you were crazy." There was the system of heroes, but then there was All Might. He was number one for a reason – he was the Symbol of Peace for a reason – and Hizashi had no delusions about 'defeating' All Might. "And that you're going to get you and your party killed."

"Don't be so sure." A slip of paper was pressed into his free hand, a laugh accompanying it. "You know All Might started teaching at that hero school, right? U.A.?" Hizashi had heard about that, but his focus was mostly on how it felt as if his heart had just stopped. U.A. was a school full of kids. "Call me when you're interested, Present Mic. You'd be good to have on our side."

A group of villains were gathering together to try and defeat All Might. There was no way that would ever work. Seeing the man start to leave, Hizashi quickly raised his voice, "Oi, wait! Who's the leader of this little party of yours!"

"Don't worry about it, man, don't worry about it!" The laugh was wild and fierce and so confident that Hizashi felt nausea pooling into his stomach. "Let's just say he's in a league all his own!"

"Let's just say that we're a league onto our own."

Watching the man disappear into the crowds, Hizashi looked back down at the number in his hand before downing his shot in one go and thumping the glass on the bar counter.

He didn't have a good feeling about this.