-x- Shoto -x-

"Shoto. Shit it gonna go down. If things go wrong, are you gonna regret not having contact with Yumi and Natsu?" Touya asked. Shoto was sitting on his bed with the lights off, knees up to his chest. It was past midnight, and Touya called him now because he knew nobody else would be awake.

Which included Shoto. He'd been sleeping peacefully after a long day of work studies and training with Katsuki. "Are we all gonna die, then?"

"You're a hero, Shoto, that can happen any day."

"Then why do I need to talk to them now, if I might die everyday?"

"Are you seriously asking this? Don't be an idiot, there's a difference between 'some day work might kill me' and 'damn I might fucking die tomorrow'." He said it with great attitude, like the 24 year old man he was.

Shoto sighed. "I don't know. What if I get attached? Or what if they get attached and then I die?"

"It's better than never having known them. Face it, you don't know them as much as they don't know you. I never thought I would be the one trying to piece our broken ass family together," he said with a disbelieving huff. "Now that I'm alive, now that mom is no longer in Endeavor's claws, and you're fine and dandy, can't we all just meet one time?"

"You want this for you, not for me."

"I want it for both of us, you little shit." Touya was growing annoyed and would only get crankier if Shoto continued to resist.

"Fine. When am I supposed to meet them?" he sighed.

"This morning. I asked Hawks, but he won't let you come hang out when you're only s'posed to be out for work studies. Stupid villains." Shoto snorted at the irony. Touya didn't comment. "For a group chat. You can turn off the camera if you don't want them to see you, or you have to cry or somethin'." Touya could be so insensitively sensitive. He had trouble delivering kind or thoughtful statements, even if he had some good intent.

"Fine… I don't have school or work today… you already know that. If I have to do a family thing later, I'm going to sleep now," he grumbled.

"Alright. I'll call in the morning, yeah?"

"Yeah…"

"Try not to think too much." Shoto nodded, and the call ended. He managed to sleep by counting from 1,000 backwards by seven. Something Maya saw in an anime a long time ago and he'd just remembered a few weeks ago, and it helped. He wondered if she was happy where she was.

He didn't want to hurt, to miss, so he hadn't actually contacted his former foster siblings. He hated himself for being to weak to see them happy with him not in their lives anymore. Like how his original siblings were. He had no idea what they ever thought of him being a vampire, or anything that transpired afterwards. He would be going into this completely blind. Who were they? What kinds of things were they interested in? What was their relationship together? Were they close?

When he woke up, it was early. Izuku and Katsuki were both sleeping. He was going to do this on his own. It was his family. His biological family, not the ones that raised him from the incident onwards.

Touya called after Shoto staged his room, cleaning everywhere, putting pillows against the wall, and moving the only posters he had to behind his head. He wanted to come across as having a personality, even if he was bad at emoting. Fuyumi and Natsuo wouldn't know he was not disinterested because he looked to be so.

He waited and Touya called after he had some blood and thoroughly washed out his mouth to get all he blood gone. Touya gave him an encouraging look, though he looked slightly uncomfortable. Shoto took a deep breath and nodded and the call connected. He had put his contacts in at the last moment.

Fuyumi and Natsuo showed up in the same window, so they were together. Touya was on his own, Hawks' apartment in the background. Shoto looked the least invested. There was silence for a few long seconds before Fuyumi said. "Hi, Shoto." Her cheeriness pissed him off, but he didn't show it.

"Hi," Shoto replied.

"Right, let's introduce ourselves and our favorite foods," Touya said. He was trying to mediate. Shoto didn't know how long he could pull that off without getting pestered.

"Cold soba," Shoto stated, no way going to talk about his favorite blood dishes.

"Pork buns," Natsuo said.

"Chocolate honey comb," Fuyumi said.

"Spiked coffee," Touya said. It wasn't a food but they didn't point that out.

"Shoto… we're so sorry for leaving you." Touya huffed at Natsuo jumping the gun already. Shoto didn't know what to say, but he wanted a reason. So he simply asked, "Why?" Why did they leave him?

Fuyumi looked like she didn't want to explain it. Maybe she was ashamed there had been no good reason. Natsuo spoke, growing bitter. "Endeavor convinced us you'd attack the moment you were freed. Said that what was going was what was right for vampires with dual quirks. Then, after you go out and did the attacks, you were gone before we could do anything. When you were taken away, we were moved to live with grandma, and she didn't let us see or contact you. We didn't know where you were or how to contact you.

"Eventually we were sent back to Endeavor's place. He refused to ever speak of you and didn't know where you were anyways. We never had any information on where you were. We couldn't find you online and had no idea where you'd went. Mom told us after the dorms that you were going to UA. Until then she kept your location a secret if you didn't want us to know," he explained.

"You didn't think… to help me while I was screaming?" Shoto asked, not fully satisfied with the excuse. "I only went on a rampage because I was starved."

"We were… we were scared," Fuyumi said honestly. "We always regret not telling someone, but Endeavor told us awful things. And we were only twelve kids when it started." Shoto slumped his shoulders. "We're so sorry we didn't save you."

Shoto couldn't bring himself to fully forgive them, not right now. "We're so happy you and Touya are okay," Fuyumi said sincerely. She sniffled, wiping her eyes. "If - if we could be a full family again, it would be a dream come true," he cried, wiping her eyes.

"Yumi," Touya said firmly.

"I don't mean with dad. I know you three could never forgive him," she said quickly. "Just… if mom could come out, we could live together, we could be a family." Shoto spoke before he thought.

"I already have a family I want to return to." Touya gave him a soft, understanding look. "The people that raised me and understood my are my parents." Natsuo and Fuyumi drooped. "Even if I'll leave them some day, I still consider them my parents… maybe… after I leave, if I don't have anywhere to go, I could live with mom, if she ever gets out," he said the last part sadly. She seemed fine enough to live assisted as long as she never saw Endeavor.

"How are you doing at school?" Natsuo asked, sounding sincere.

"Okay," Shoto replied simply. He wasn't meaning to shut down, he just didn't give lots of details to people he didn't know well. "Um, what… what about you?" he asked, not really wanting to talk about himself and have them hate him. He tried to emote, but it just didn't come. He just wasn't capable of smiling when he wasn't truly happy. It just didn't happen. He already knew this, he shouldn't be disappointed.

Natsuo explained his college, and Fuyumi her teaching class. They talked to Touya a bit, but he mostly stayed quiet to let Shoto get to know their siblings. When there was a knock on the door, he could tell it was Izuku. Shoto used this to end the call, which lasted a long half hour. "I have to go… study group." Even though it was still night time.

"Okay. Can we have your phone number, so we can text?" Fuyumi asked uncertainly. Shoto thought for a moment, weighing the pros and cons. But he nodded, and put the phone number in the chat box. "Thanks! And thanks for talking to us. You don't need to forgive us, we did something awful - by not doing anything. But we'd love to get to know you. We lost both of you… we want you back, in at least some form."

Shoto nodded curtly. "Talk to you laters, Sho," Touya said, and the call ended.

He flopped onto his back and sighed. "Come in, Izuku." He punched in the code and went inside, seeing Shoto looking wiped out. The other had to have heard them talking. He didn't ask about it, just curled onto the bed next to him, tracing his finger along the scar spanning his face.

He finally talked about what he'd been doing. "Good job," he said fondly. "You've made so much progress."

"I probably made them feel bad about preferring my foster family," Shoto said, not looking on the bright side.

"They don't deserve your love yet. They have to earn it. You won't love them automatically just cause they apologized, even if they may have had a good feeling."

"Endeavor… ripped all my family away from me," he said, though not surprised. "He made mom insane, who hurt me and was put away. Touya left to burn alive due to Endeavor's neglect. Nastuo and Fuyumi were lied to to abandon me. It's all his fault," Shoto said with a shaking voice and pink eyes. Izuku pulled him into his chest and let him cry about everything he'd lost. His whole family. So broken. Could they really repair it?

When he told Katsuki about it after breakfast when they were sparring, he was angry with Shoto's siblings for trying to sweep everything under the rug. "They didn't ask you about being a vampire? When that was the whole issue in the fuckin' first place? They didn't ask how you're doing?!"

"It was nicer for them not to bring it up," Shoto said as he punched Izuku ten feet away, making a tooth be knocked out, only to regrow just fine. He shot back at Shoto while Katsuki kept trying to shoot himself up by his feet, surrounded by pillows with fireproof blankets over them in case he shot high and fell down.

"Still, they have to acknowledge it sometime," Katsuki grumbled.

"Break, Izuku." He nodded, and both sat down and got some blood out of the bag they brought out with water and snacks, as they planned to train for awhile. Kirishima would come back when he got out of that day's work studies. They practiced some more until all three were really hungry, and then went back to the dorms to get some food and then work on homework. They'd gotten very good at balancing training, work studies and school work. It kept them up late into the night most nights, but it was what they needed.

All three were becoming better fighters by playing off of their individual skills. While Shoto and Izuku were faster than Katsuki, he had better reaction time to given situations. He didn't need to think as long. Maybe because he was more reckless, but it could be a big advantage. The two vampires were glad for him to have ay advantage so he didn't feel jealous.

-x- Izuku -x-

Hawks had been absent awhile. He didn't do much hero work anymore, even if he usually returned to his home every night. Izuku kind of missed him. He was fun to be around and really understanding and encouraging with all three of them. They hoped he'd be back soon but were also worried about whatever big thing was going to happen some time, they didn't know when.

Right now they were on patrol with one of Hawks' many sidekicks. Still not allowed to be on their own off campus without a special pass. And work studies didn't not change the rule. When Hawks was gone, he was not the center of attention. Shoto was. With his perfect hair and perfect face even with the scars. He was incredibly uncomfortable, and didn't know how to act. "I'm on patrol, I can't talk right now," he said.

"Clear out, you're fucking with work!" Bakugo snapped. Izuku hurried Shoto away.

"What's wrong with them? They were acting so weird?" Shoto asked cluelessly.

"They probably thought you looked nice." Shoto looked baffled, not understanding at all. "You're pretty, Shoto."

"But you're pretty, too. Why don't they like you?" Then they heard a car crash around the corner and the three hurried that way before the sidekick could even do anything. Shoto with his ice sliding and melting so he could maneuver more smoothly, and he wanted to be minimal with his vampire body for patrols, since he saw all these people regularly, and wanted to have good interactions with them.

Shoto iced the burning cars, steam erupting from the heat coming into contact with the ice. Izuku and Kacchan got the people out of the managed cars. The sidekick finally caught up, but by then the trainees had fixed everything. Just the three of them got it done. Izuku saw a lot of people filming it. It wasn't surprising, but he hoped he looked okay.

"Nice, you three!" Ratty said. He had rat characteristics. "Remember to write this in your reports. File information away." They nodded.

When they went back, Hawks was there. He looked happy, talking with his employees and sidekicks. Izuku smiled at seeing him. "Yo, kiddos!" he called with a bright smile. "Been takin' my advice?" They nodded. "Great! I saw what you did today, very nice. Yeah, it's already online. You can skip the interview if you're uncomfortable with that," he said, waving his hand flippantly.

"How… are you doing with your work?"

"Splendid! I'll only have one month left and then I can come back and work normally." Izuku's eyes flicked to the other two, easily knowing what he meant. Whatever was to happen was going down in one month. It was worrisome. Him being so vague was annoying but made sense. He could only tell them the bare minimum, which was probably the same with Touya. Hawks had to be telling his bosses, but that was it. He only told those he was concerned with, possibly.

They would wait to know what was going to happen. It would be a stressful month.

-x- Shoto -x-

"I have a… favor to ask," Hawks said over the phone while Shoto sat on the gym roof, where he often went for private phone calls. Nobody was around, nobody close enough to hear. It was out of the way for most students. They didn't walk all the way over there unless it was during class. It was odd to get a call from Hawks.

"What is it?"

"I want your help trying to find Shigaraki's whereabouts." Shoto raised his brows, but let Hawks elaborate. "With your senses, you may be able to find him. You remember what his voice is, and his scent, right?"

"Yeah. Unfortunately."

"Perhaps not. I know multiple places he may be around. I can't scope them out, I'm completely obvious. Big red wings, quite noticeable. Slap some make up on you, a wig, and you're good. I understand if you say no, but the alternative is shit going wrong in two weeks. I'd rather not let their plans succeed."

"Why are you telling me this? I'm not good at keeping secrets."

"No, you're good at keeping secrets that don't involve your personal life," Hawks corrected. "I need to ask the school for permission. I think they'd understand." Shoto disagreed. Aizawa would not like that. But Shoto would be willing to help. He didn't want all hell to break loose. Hawks was so foreboding lately, whenever they managed to see or talk to one another, that it made the hairs on Shoto's spine pull up.

So, he went back to school, and Hawks showed up. They talked in the teacher's dorm, Eri sleeping upstairs. "No." Shoto knew that would be the answer. "You can chose someone else with advanced senses."

"What if you came along, too? You let the students go against Overhaul as long as you were there," Hawks said in a conversational, not pressing vice. Reasonable and patient. Aizawa looked vaguely annoyed. "It could turn the tables."

"Should you be telling people this stuff?"

"Would you rather go in blind?"

"Shoto, you've known this, correct?" He nodded. "And the other two, as well." He nodded once again. "You're good at keeping secrets." He was, Aizawa didn't know about Touya. "I will go with you."

"Great! I know a guy who can change appearances!" Hawks said brightly, clapping his gloved hands together. "We'll do it tomorrow." It was very short notice, but it would be over quickly, hopefully. Aizawa sighed, and rubbed his hands down his perpetually tired face. He nodded. Shoto did not sleep well that night. He was up late, uncomfortable and worried.

In the morning, Shoto left before anyone else was awake. It would be a long day. He met up with Aizawa, who was in the teacher's lounge, much to the man's deep annoyance. Shoto walked in, backpack full of bottles of blood, and both of them were given a makeover. Shoto had his scars covered up, he had his brown contacts in, and his hair was sprayed black like Dabi's had once been.

Aizawa was given a wig, sunglasses, and make up for the bags under his eyes. He wore a suit, and Shoto wore long sleeves and pants with boots. Hawks didn't look like he was enjoying this, he was uncomfortable, too, and looked guilty. He didn't want to bring Shoto along, too. It would be nice if Shoto could do some good here. Then he and Touya would have both tried to help bring down the villains.

On the way there, Hawks was stuffed in the backseat of the car Aizawa was driving, completely uncomfortable. On the way, he explained briefly what they were doing, and why they were doing it now. To stop Shigaraki from being even more powerful. "How do you know of this?"

"Overheard when I was at their base," he said. "My in there got me plenty of information." Aizawa didn't ask what he meant. And Hawks didn't say anything of Touya. When they got to the first site, the windows inside were darkened, and the small cameras were set up in front of Hawks so he could watch. They both had earpieces on.

"I will remove us if something goes wrong. Understand that," Aizawa said on their walk inside the mall. It would be awful if this place actually somewhere house the villains. Whatever was going on with their young leader… it would be bad to be in a very public place. They went into every store, Shoto deeply smelling and listening. Not a single trace of any of the villains. They'd never been there before.

So they left after two hours of that. The next on was a retirement facility. Hawks already fabricated a speech for Shoto to make about his grandmother possibly moving, so he'd like to look around. Aizawa was left in the lobby or this, but there was no trace of the villains there, either. Just old people. They smelled gross. Obviously not the most disgusting smell there was, but not exactly pleasant.

They did this for three more locations before they arrived at a hospital. Shoto was bored and tired by now. They walked around, discrete since neither of them looked too interesting or eye catching. Shoto had no interesting hair, eyes or scars. Aizawa didn't look anything like he did before.

When they got to the elevator behind the cafeteria, Shoto froze. He turned to his teacher with slightly wide eyes, and nodded. When the elevator went to the basement area, which was for babies, the smell was stronger and that was disturbing. They didn't actually go into the room with all the mechanical equipment.

No wonder the villains were here if nobody ever paid attention. Shoto smelled deeply, and then quickly turned around and walked back to the elevator. He was continually clenching his fists. Aizawa noticed his tense and worry and put his hand on his shoulder, squeezing in support. They hurried back to the car and Shoto climbed in, trembling slightly. "He's there. Behind a wall in the basement."

"Was he feeling that scary?" Hawks asked, sounding kind at Shoto's discomfort.

"It was faint… but there are nomu in there. They smelled like the black nomu from school - from USJ -, not the white ones from Hosu. The liquid that was with the tanks in the black nomus at their first base, that smell is there as well." Hawks face went dark.

"Was there anyone else there?"

"One more person I didn't recognize," Shoto said with a nod. "I didn't hear anything, only smell. Well, there were bubbly noises and faint typing sounds. Can I go back home, now?" His last part was in a small voice. Hawks pat his shoulder.

"You did good, Shoto." He nodded at the praise. He knew the nomu hadn't been that terrifying, but there were just so many. If that was where the smart nomu were, where Dabi had gotten that one that attacked after he had given up villainry, what was next? The car was about to move before Shoto heard a ticking, ripped the roof of the car up, and grabbed Aizawa by the neck and threw him a distance before doing the same for Hawks.

Then the car blew up with Shoto inside.

"Shoto!"

-x-

Bakugo and Izuku were in the hospital with Shoto, who was in the bed, loopy on pain medicine. They were at a normal hospital since the one at school didn't have the same equipment. The bomb had been fire but also with gas in it that got into Shoto's lungs from inhaling it, and then poisoned his blood. So all of it was being sucked out, filtered, and returned.

Aizawa was sitting in the corner, looking so regretful. Shoto's spray on hair die had come out a bit, and the makeup was gone as well. The burns had healed over instantly once he was out, thankfully, or he'd be incredibly scarred. Shoto and Aizawa had not said where they had gone, but that was okay. Annoying a bit, but okay. They had a good reason. When Aizawa left to get food for the two students that were able to eat at the moment, Touya showed up. He looked at Shoto with a sad face.

"I'm okay, promise. No long term damage," he assured him. He wasn't in any pain, he felt fine, really. It was more annoying he had to be here, for four hours a few times in one week. Then he'd be okay probably. "Nothing hurts."

"Doing hero shit, then?" Shoto nodded. "Hawks feels awful."

"What we did was good. This just was a bad part. But I got them both out in time, so that was good," Shoto stated. He didn't want them worrying about him. "I get hurt a lot, don't I?" he asked in a bland voice.

"It's always been doing brave things, though."

"Stupid things, too," Katsuki and Touya said at the same time. Izuku chuckled. Both vampires stiffened when Aizawa came closer.

"Be Touya," Shoto said firmly. Aizawa came in with a little bag that had multiple sandwiches in it. "Aizawa-sensei, this is my brother, Touya," Shoto introduced, very glad his voice was stable and he looked the same as always. Touya gave a simple wave. The teacher looked angry. Crap. Touya turned around and started to walk out at a fast speed.

"No, get back here," Aizawa growled. Touya turned around and glared at him, narrowing his eyes. "Boys; explain, now." He totally recognized Touya as Dabi, despite the complete change.

"Fuck, how'd you recognize me?" Touya asked in annoyance. He sat down on the end of Shoto's bed. He hoped they wouldn't get in trouble, and Aizawa would think Touya was no longer Dabi. Izuku shut the door tightly so there was no listening. And the room was not bugged. Shoto took a deep breath, and explained everything. He put emphasis on Touya ratting out All For One and then going into hiding. Spending the last five months like he'd never been a villain before.

Touya nodded along. Shoto could smell the sweat beading on his body. Aizawa looked conflicted - angry - but conflicted. "C'mon man, don't rat me out, I'm not a villain anymore and I fed Hawks most of the information he didn't have before. Besides, I haven't used my quirk once since gettin' the burns healed up. You'd notice, I'd be covered in burns again."

He decided to take the pity route. "I only became a villain cause Endeavor abused us. I get it's not a great excuse, but I didn't start it for fun." He did have fun killing and burning things, though. None of them said this. Izuku and Katsuki looked nervous.

"I am aware of Endeavor's abuse and neglect of Shoto. But he did not become a villain."

"Bruh, everyone is different."

"Don't call me bruh." Touya couldn't help but roll his eyes. "So Hawks has been in a relationship with you for how long?" Touya didn't answer.

"Well, isn't that a good thing? He pretty much fixed me. Heroes are for saving people and fixing others. He got rid of a villain, right?" Touya reasoned, hands clenched. "C'mon, please don't ruin everything." He sounded tired. "I got a job, I reconnected Shoto with Fuyumi and Natsuo, I ratted out the main boss. I'm not evil anymore. I know everything I did before was fucked up and I can't rationalize it on just a bad childhood."

Aizawa's anger bled away slowly after hearing Touya tried to plead his way out of being told on. "Please, sensei. He's my brother, and he's not a bad guy anymore. Hawks promised if Touya went bad again, he'd put him away."

"He did?" Aizawa asked in shock.

Touya nodded. "I asked him to. I don't want to be a villain ever again," he sighed.

"...I will not rat you out. I appreciate what you have done for Shoto. And you aren't targeting Endeavor anymore? You had a personal grudge with him."

"I'd be glad if he dies, but it won't be me who kills him," Touya said with a shrug. Shoto could practically see him keep in something about Endeavor being a "cripple". Touya looked at his phone. "I gotta go to work," he stated. "Keep me updated, okay?"

"You don't need to worry." Touya looked annoyed. "I'll tell you when I'm out." The brother agreed, and left. He stiffly turned back around.

"I'm sorry about the summer camp. I shouldn't have done anything involving kids. And sorry for trying to fry you." Then he hurried out. Aizawa glared at the three teens, who pointedly looked away.

Izuku spoke first. "If Dabi could turn like this into Touya, who says we can't fix other villains? I'm sure they all have hard pasts. A villain isn't born, they're made through past experiences."

"That's a nice outlook, Midoriya. But villains should spend jail time."

"Don't you think a mental hospital for them would be better? Conditioning them or some shit? What good is keeping a villain hateful and evil in some prison? Who does that help in the end? They can't leave prison while not being a villain," Izuku insisted. "Seeing Touya like this… I want more villains to be better. And the League - Toga, Shigaraki - they're young. Maybe they can change sides eventually. And Toga would do well with fixing her mental health."

"They killed people. They would need time in jail."

"We would not have found AFO and robbed them of two powerful villains if Dabi had been thrown in jail," Shoto argued lightly. His blood was still being filtered, and he tried not to look at it.

"We won't see completely eye to eye on this, but I understand your points," Aizawa said. "I swear I will not tell anyone about Touya. As long as he doesn't become a villain again." The boys smiled and nodded. A nurse came in and said Shoto could leave now. He was glad to. He was to not do anything strenuous.

He wondered, "Who blew up the car, anyways?" He was glad he'd saved his two teachers. His homeroom and his practical hero teacher.

"I don't know, but it's bothersome. It caused quite the scene. At least we weren't directly in front of the hospital," he said. "We have a lot of work to do. Shoto, rest easy and you'll take part when you're better. You really did help a lot. And thank you for saving me." Shoto's cheeks turned a bit red at the praise, and nodded.

It had been an extremely long day and he looked forward to cuddling with Izuku, and try to pretend the future so damn uncertain.