A/N: Here's more Vigilante!Inko and CutiePatootie!Hisashi!

(Seriously, though, there are waaaaay too many Villain/Abusive/Asshole!Hisashi fics whyyyyyy?! Izuku had to get some of his adorableness from somewhere besides the adorable badassery that is Inko! C'mon everybody!)

Greener Grass

Chapter Two:

Teenage Dreams

Knight Owl had given cute-baby-Hero a handkerchief for his nose and orders to guard Inko while he went to assist the police. He had then left the two flustered teenagers alone with the most deadpan order to behave that Inko had ever seen or heard. It was honestly rather impressive, she absently noted as she clenched her hands nervously around her bag of mochi, blinking embarrassed and hormone-driven tears away.

"I'm really, really, really sorry," she told the baby-Hero softly as they sat near the edge of the building, so they could clearly see the drug-bust. Immediately, the cute boy waved one blood-smeared hand with a nasally laugh, offering her a bright grin.

"It was totally my fault," he reassured her cheerfully as he pinched his nose shut. "Knight Owl's always gettin' onto me for not thinking things through. You'd just been cornered on a rooftop across from a criminal's hide-out, the last thing I should've done was grab you! So, my bad, I apologize and I totally deserved that punch," she chuckled, and Inko flushed a little darker,

Oh no even his laugh is cute what do I do?!, she internally screamed as she offered a weak smile and quickly dabbed at her eyes, hands falling to cradle her belly as she ducked her head.

"I'm H- I mean, Zashi," he told her next, stumbling for a moment over what was, no doubt, his actual name. "My Hero Name is Zashi." Inko blinked and looked at him.

"Midoriya Inko," she offered softly, shyly as she tightened and relaxed her hands over her belly nervously. "Ah, do you mind if I ask-?"

"Why Zashi?" he replied, smiling ruefully. "Originally, I was gonna go with Draconis or something dragon-related, see, because my Quirk is Fire Breath," he told her, turning his head and spitting out a small, ridiculously bright and hot burst of flames, forcing Inko to blink dazedly for a second at the afterimages it left behind in her vision. "I had it all planned out, y'know? Since my Quirk came in when I was eight, I was gonna be the Fire-Breathing Dragon Hero!" he chuckled, rubbing a hand over the top of his head and between the long 'ears' of his headgear.

"What changed?" she asked; he rolled his eyes and laughed a little.

"There's a girl in my class who can turn into an actual dragon," he replied dryly, grinning. "Kinda took the whole schtick right outta my hands." Inko giggled slightly as he wiggled his hands at her for emphasis. "So, until I can come up with a better Hero Name, Zashi is my temporary fill-in."

"I'm, ah, sorry about that," she told him, smiling warmer now, feeling more comfortable and less like she was going to throw herself from the roof because he was too cute god why?!

...It was a work in progress.

"Eh, shit happens!" he waved her off cheerfully. "And my classmate is super chill and fun, too, so it's not like I'm mad or anything! No one gets to pick their Quirks, after all, and she's gonna be a fantastic Hero, no doubt," he told Inko earnestly, matcha-green eyes bright with enthusiasm and optimism and whelp there goes Inko's heart, right off the roof.

"So, um, that is," Inko stuttered, face flushed and heart pounding, "Is the, um, dragon-theme what you were trying to go with for your costume?" She asked; Zashi bobbed his head rapidly, beaming. "It, um..."

"Looks like a weird cat, I know," he laughed, grinning at her, dimples deepening, and god, Inko's poor, poor heart. "Support did their best, but, well, at least they got the colors bright enough!" He cheerfully declared, holding out an arm and admiring the violently neon colors. Inko giggled, and the two of them glanced over at the drug-bust as someone was thrown out a window, pausing to watch avidly as Knight Owl leaped out after what Inko recognized as Toxicallo, a five-foot-nothing pale-green skinned bald man in a dark purple tuxedo with a gas-mask on, the poison he could secrete from his hands gleaming oddly in the police-lights as he tried to fling palmfuls of it at the Nocturnal Hero.

"Oh, wow!" Zashi breathed, leaning forward with eyes bright. "Is that some sort of Mutant Quirk?" Inko hummed, absently digging another mochi out of her wrinkled bag. "It has to be, right? Something to do with the sweat-glands or pores in his hands, prompting a chemical reaction that becomes poisonous... Probably once it makes contact with oxygen?" He mumbled, eying the two fighting with keen interest, and Inko found herself nodding along.

"It's actually a really strong hallucinogen," she told him, making him hum sharply with interest as he leaned further over the roof edge, eyes gleaming. "Toxicallo's been using it to create the drug called Vision."

"So that's how it's made!" Zashi breathed. "There has to be some sort of twist in his biological make-up to produce those results, then," he murmured, watching his Mentor throw the Toxic Villain around. "Maybe something about the proteins in his blood, or, or maybe the plasma itself is the source." Inko hummed.

"Maybe it's in his bone marrow," she offered; Zashi's head bobbed rapidly, fingers twitching as he observed.

"Man, I wish I had a notebook or a recorder or something!" He complained. "I do Quirk Analysis for fun sometimes, you know?" he informed her warmly. "I like to write up theories about how the Quirk manifests within the cellular make-up of its holder, because there has got to be something in the biochemistry that causes Quirks, something quantifiable so people don't have to rely on that stupid toe-joint bullshit the doctors are all raving about. My doctor told my family I wasn't going to have a Quirk because of that, you know," he informed her easily. "And I was a late-bloomer, so for four years everyone believed I was Quirkless and reacted accordingly." Immediately, Inko grimaced. The Shadow Zone had some Quirkless members, people kicked out like Inko just because of a genetic issue. They were all perfectly pleasant, good people, but, to society? Toxicallo, as someone with a Quirk, was worth more to society than any Quirkless person, and he was a Villain.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," she told him sincerely; Zashi blinked at her, cheeks going pink as she set her hand on his shoulder. "I have no doubt that you're going to be a fantastic Hero," she told him quietly, earnestly. "You got into U.A., didn't you?" she offered; Zashi blinked twice (were those tears? Oh god he was in touch with his emotions, she was screwed) before nodding with a bright smile, rubbing his sleeve across his eyes briefly.

"Y-yeah, I got in without a Recommendation and everything," he told her warmly. "It was kinda a big deal for a while there, the fact that I got in like everyone else, cause my uncle-well, I call him Uncle but he's actually more like a second-cousin-he's was already slammin' his way through the rankings by the time I was born, and now he's in the Top Ten, y'know?" Inko blinked, and then frowned at him, eyes narrowing.

"You mean to tell me," she started slowly, "that you have a Top Ten Hero as a relative and you didn't get a single Recommendation?" Zashi flushed and tried to laugh it off, flailing his hands at her and looking away. Inko's eyes narrowed further. "Let me guess, he's one of those assholes who thought you were a 'worthless Quirkless', wasn't he?" She demanded, fingers curving sharply into quotations around the insult as she did, eyes glinting like steel when Zashi flinched.

Someone hurt this precious boy and they were going to pay.

"You are going to be a phenomenal Hero," she told him, setting a hand on his shoulder and meeting his wide eyes directly, face hard and serious. "You are going to kick ass, you are going to take names, and you are going to rub your bastard Uncle's face in it. And, you know what else, Zashi?" She leaned forward, expression fierce and voice sharp. "You are going to do it with style." Zashi's eyes were huge, jaw dropped as he gaped at Inko, a slowly rising flush starting at his ears and moving across his face. Staring into his eyes, making sure that he understood, Inko nodded once, sharply, and sat back with a satisfied air as she returned her attention to the drug-bust in time to see Knight Owl handing an unconscious and bound Toxicallo off to the police.

"Why are you mentoring during the summer, anyways?" she asked suddenly, blinking as she did so. "I thought that the Internships for the Heroics Course were during the school year?" Zashi cleared his throat and looked towards the drug-bust as well as his Mentor helped gather the captured criminals up.

"I, ah, got really sick during the actual Internships this year," he admitted to her, voice cracking a little. "A nasty infection from overusing my Quirk in the Sports Festival and exhaustion from too many sleepless nights landed me in the hospital for two weeks. So, instead of going to the Summer Camp this year, I'm Interning at the Nocturnas Agency all Summer!" He offered her a bright grin, cheeks and ears still bright red. "Knight Owl's my main Mentor, but I also train with Moonlight, Star Chaser, and Infra-Red! Since their Agency specializes in night crimes, I'm getting as much experience in as I can without having to worry about trying to keep up with school activities. Since I'm not at the Camp, I have to send my Senseis weekly reports on my training regimen, Quirk statistics, and a weekly report on what crimes I've had a hand in stopping." Inko blinked, and smiled brightly back at him as Zashi all but bounced in place.

"That sounds really cool," she told him warmly; the blush that had been fading returned with a vengeance, and Zashi laughed awkwardly, voice cracking again as the two of them smiled at one another like idiots.

"Zashi," a deep, hoarse voice called suddenly from behind them, and, immediately, Inko and Zashi flailed with equally high-pitched squeaks, turning, wide-eyed, to find Knight Owl standing behind them on the roof, avian-gold eyes glinting in an expressionless face. "Time to go."

"R-right!" Zashi squeaked, scrambling to his feet and immediately offering Inko a hand so he could help her up as well. "It was nice meeting you, Inko-Chan!" He chirped enthusiastically, beaming at her. "Maybe we can run into each other again!" Inko flushed and smiled helplessly back.

"I hope so," she told him; he beamed even brighter and darted away towards his Mentor, leaving Inko to blink dazedly into space for a moment. And, just like that, the two disappeared off the building and into the night, leaving Inko standing by herself on the roof, a single mochi left in her bag and a crush as big as Jupiter in her heart.

"Oh boy," she whispered as she shakily began to move towards the ladder on the opposite side of the building. "I'm doomed."

"You're doomed," Mimi agreed cheerfully the next day as Inko sprawled out on her living room floor with an arm thrown dramatically over her bright red face, the other curled absently over her stomach. The Arachnitaur trilled mirthfully as her young employee groaned, her six eyes glittering as she grinned. "You're doomed and you love it."

"I just, I can't help it!" Inko wailed dramatically, bursting into tears, making a frustrated noise as she flailed her hands. "And now I'm crying! And it's not that big a deal?!" She forced herself into a sitting position, huffing as her baby shifted and pressed against her lower ribs. "I just, I just have a type?! And it's freckles and curls and intelligence and I just-!" She flailed helplessly, furiously, as she wept, and Mimi shook her head, clicking her fangs in amusement even as she obligingly handed over a box of tissues and a whole pear. Sniffling into the tissues, Inko took a mean bite of the pear and munched on it moodily.

"You've got a Type," Mimi agreed easily. "And you also seem to find that type in places you know you probably should try to avoid." Inko grumbled in agreement, taking another bite of her pear while swiping at her tears irritably. "While this boy sounds far, far better than the one who got that little one into your belly, he is a Hero Trainee, and you are a Vigilante," the Arachnitaur pointed out mildly. Inko groaned and stuffed the pear into her mouth, cheeks bulging comically as she sulked into her tissues, huffing tearfully as she did so. Mimi sighed, shaking her head, and reached down to easily lift the teenager into the air, Inko not even trying to hold herself up but instead slumping into limp, heavy dead-weight, pouting as she chewed industriously on the remains of her pear. Mimi twisted her torso around and plopped the sulking teen onto her large, round spider-back, absently sticking the girl there with some quickly applied webs, before skittering out the large, balcony-esque window of her apartment and down the side of the building. Inko moodily waved at Kentaro as they passed his living room window, the Quirkless twenty-year-old waving back before turning back to the laptop where he did his online work. Kentaro was a hacker, an incredibly good one, who made money selling information to people that he deemed 'pretty chill'. Considering she'd once seen him sell blueprints of some Villains hide-out to another Villain, however, Inko wasn't sure if 'chill' meant nice to him or if it meant doesn't deal with Children, which was his only Baseline of Nope as far as she could tell.

"Listen, Inko-Chan," Mimi spoke as they finally reached the ground, her long, black-and-gold legs clicking like expensive high heels on the cracked pavement as she moved towards her store. "If you like this Zashi boy, and you're willing to play it safe, I say go for it. You're young, you're rather mature, and it's not like he can get you pregnant right now, anyways," she added wryly, making Inko huff. "Just be aware of the consequences of your nighttime escapades, and you'll be fine. You're a highly intelligent and studious young woman," the Arachnitaur chided gently as she shifted her head so the further-back eyes on the left-side of her face could blink at the teenager. "You understand risk assessment, you understand the laws surrounding this place, and you understand what all that means to both yourself and the little spiderling in your womb. I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't do something," she added calmly. "You can make your own decisions, and you can handle the consequences. I trust you." Inko sniffled, fresh tears falling even as she ducked her head and rubbed furiously at her face.

"Ugh, body, why?!" She whined, hiccupping as she covered her face with her hands. "Thank you, Mimi, I swear, I'm not trying to cry, but my stupid hormones are being jerks and ugh, my eyes are going to be so swollen and gross...!" Mimi laughed easily, the older woman shaking her head with an amused trill as she unlocked and opened her store for the day, turning and unsticking Inko from her back before setting the teenager firmly on the stool behind the counter and leaving her there to go check the office and security system...

Which, in reality, the Security System was actually just Bo. Bo had an Alarm Quirk that meant that any building or secure area he Activated it in was essentially Armed with an ear-shatteringly loud alarm that had mild sonic-soundwave capabilities that left any unfortunate robbers temporarily paralyzed with burst eardrums. As soon as all windows and doors were locked, his Quick Activated, completely instinctively. This was, in part, due to the fact that Bo had sever Autism and the act of locking and securing safe places helped keep him happy and focused. Added to the fact that he had severe insomnia, it meant paying him as a nighttime guard was actually to everyone's benefit. Bo got a safe place to spend the night, playing video games and watching YouTube videos to his hearts content, and Mimi had a guaranteed deterrent to any hoodlums that wanted to try and steal her merchandise.

Bo was actually one of the first people to find out that Inko was Feather Touch. She'd rescued him from Villain, after all. The Villain in question (some asshole with a Magnetic Quirk calling himself Push-Pull) had kidnapped Bo when he was fifteen and had forced the boy to be his own alarm system for the next seven years. The only reason Inko hadn't been hurt by Bo when she'd snuck into the warehouse to gather some evidence for the police, had been because the boy had been crying over his broken finger and hadn't been able to actually use his Quirk, since it required a feeling of safety, even if only the illusion of safety, and no one felt safe while injured. So, she'd snatched him up with soft words and dire mumbles of retribution on his behalf, gave him all of her dango, wrapped him up in a cocoon of the softest blankest she'd owned, and then destroyed Push-Pull's entire operation while leaving poor Bo with Mimi to fuss over him.

Come to think of it, that was when Feather Touch had gotten 'his' most serious on-screen debut, actually. Thirty-two criminals, most of them minor Villains beneath the control of Push-Pull, all of them captured and unconscious with only mild injuries and no way of identifying Feather Touch besides what everyone already knew? Added to the folders upon folders upon flashdrives and laptops of information about every single one of Push-Pulls associates, plans, and past endeavors?

Well, Inko hadn't truly considered the fact that it would get so much Media Coverage, or that there would suddenly be Heroes crawling out of the woodwork All she cared about was the young man she'd rescued and that the ones who'd hurt him for being "retarded" and "worthless" were never doing it again. And, as she smiled warmly at the sleepily mumbling form of Bo as he shuffled towards her, Inko had absolutely no regrets.

"Good morning, Bo-Kun!" She greeted, just like she always did when they saw one another; instantly, the older boy lit up-literally, the blinking security-system lights that made up his eyes and dotted his forehead flashing brightly in response to his mood-and offered her a small smile as he bobbed his head.

"In-In," he muttered happily; Inko smiled, reaching under the counter and pulling out the small, snack-sized candy bar that Mimi left there for just this little ritual.

"Did you have a good night?" she asked as she held it up; Bo bobbed his head several times, leaning left and then right and rubbing his fingertips to his thumbs rapidly enough to make almost-fluttering sounds.

"Safe," he told her sincerely. "Safe night. Keep Mimi and In-In safe," he crowed proudly, and Inko beamed at him and gave him the candy bar.

"Thank you very much, Bo-Kun!" she told him brightly; Bo beamed at her, and then waved goodbye before shuffling out the door. Across the street, the old woman Inko only knew as Ruse was waiting to take him home. She was another of the Shadow Zone's Quirkless members, but she had also made a bit of a name for herself as Vigilante a decade or two ago. A broken knee and hip, however, and no insurance or actual identity to get it fixed, had forced her to retire into the nameless Shadows and away from the limelight. She'd become sort of the Zone Matron for Runaways and Lost Children, since then, having taken control of a large warehouse at the far end of the District. She was all too happy to snatch Bo up and coddle him fiercely when Inko had gone looking for trustworthy people, even if the retired Vigilante had mildly told Inko that she needed to shape up or ship out with her own work as Feather Touch.

Still, Inko mused as she waved at the kindly, harmless-looking old woman who had poisoned and beaten both Top Ten Heroes and Supervillains in her prime, it was always nice to have another opinion when she didn't know what to do with her little Pseudonym at night.

"Inko-Chan!" Mimi called, pulling the teenager from her musing. "I've got to do inventory! You're in charge of the store, okay?!"

"Roger that!" Inko called back, settling more firmly into her seat and pulling out the thick Law book she'd stashed under the counter for times like this. Mimi's store wasn't as popular as Take Away's down a few blocks, but as soon as people realized it was Inko at the counter and her mild Aura kicked in, they'd get busier. Until then, in the dead hours of the morning, she would study and memorize and learn, so that she'd be able to provide the absolute best life for her child in the future.

And, if more than once she found herself staring out the window and thinking wistfully of curly hair and matcha-green eyes and star-bright smiles...

Well, she was a teenager. She was allowed to slack off every once and a while!

A/N: Ta-Da! And no worries, we'll learn more about Hisashi-Chan soon enough! Thanks for reading! I tried to make Inko act a bit more like a Teen in this chapter. Still responsible, still with Izuku's Bad Luck (or does he have Inko's Bad Luck?), and still really smart and mature for her age, but more of a teenager. I hope I did that right!

(Also, Inko has absolutely no tolerance for abuse or bullying of any sort in this AU. She sees her fellow Shadows get taken advantage of and hurt every day, so fuck yeah, she will destroy you if you hurt someone precious to her.)

Please Review!