Chapter 7: Enter Dadzawa!!
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
"Eraserhead!!" Izuku's eyes widened as he recognized one of his all-time favorite heroes. Eraserhead was an underground hero that almost nobody knew about, but Izuku had been obsessed with him because he fought almost completely quirkless. Not to mention that he was just so. Freaking. Cool!
The hero's faced scrunched in confusion as he continued to look at Izuku. "Uh, yeah…"
"Oh my gosh! It's really you, you're really here and you were jumping across the roof tops with he and you saw-OH NO! You saw me absolutely eat it!" Izuku slapped his hands over his now blushing face as he realized just how embarrassing that was.
Great job Izuku, of course you would make a complete idiot of yourself in front of your favorite hero. Just like the useless deku you are.
He probably thinks that you're such a loser for wiping out on that jump that was so easy. Gosh dang it!
"Uh, kid-" Eraserhead cleared his throat and looked away. He probably couldn't stand to look at such a failure. "Are you alright? That was quite the fall."
Izuku's face burned even hotter in embarrassment, "Oh. Y-yeah, I'm good. Sorry you had to…see that." Slowly, Izuku stood up and stared at the ground so that he didn't have to see the hero's disappointed look on his face.
There was a small chuckle that was quickly covered up with a cough, "Nah, you're good. It happens to the best of us. But, uh, what are you doing running across rooftops in this part of town? Isn't it a bit past your bedtime?"
This caused Izuku to look up and glare at the smirking hero. The glare only lasted a second before he dropped it and went back to avoiding eye contact. "Um, you know, just having fun and enjoying the views. What about you?"
He chanced a peek at the hero's expression and found it unimpressed as if he could see right through Izuku. "I'm a hero, it's kind of my job to patrol these roofs."
"Right…" Stupid! Stupid-dumb-idiot- "Well, I'd better be going, it was nice to meet you Eraserhead!" Izuku let out a nervous chuckle and turned to run away from this disaster as fast as he could. Unfortunately, he instead found himself wrapped up in something that Eraser was holding and-OH MY GOSH! "This is your famous capture weapon that you use to both apprehend and fight villains! The fabric isn't as hard as I thought that it'd be, but I guess for it to move as fluidly as it does, it has to be at least a little flimsy, but then how is it so strong and sturdy-"
"Woah kid, I'm going to need you to slow down."
Izuku hadn't even realized that he had been rambling and quickly snapped his mouth shut. If he had done that in front of Kacchan or any of his classmates, they would've screamed at him and then pulled him aside after school to teach him a lesson.
What if it annoyed Eraser like it did everyone else? He already probably hated him for having to watch him make such a fool out of himself and this would just be the cherry on top. Maybe that's why he stopped him, because he found him too much of a burden to roam the streets and wanted to arrest him or something.
Izuku felt like crying, and he could feel the familiar burning feeling in the back of his throat, but he refused to cry. He was tired of crying in general, but he would not cry like a baby in front of his favorite hero. So, his expression shut off completely instead.
This caused the fabric around him to loosen a bit as Eraser faltered at the change in Izuku's face. The hero's eyes turned concerned in an instant and he took a step closer. "Hey-hey, are you okay?" Izuku wanted to answer, but he knew that if he did then he'd probably cry. Although, not answering wasn't much better.
He was worrying Eraserhead unnecessarily and he couldn't' even apologize for burdening him without breaking down. God, he really was a failure.
"Kid…KID!" A hand snapped in front of his face and Izuku allowed himself to glance at the hero beside him. "Hey, what just happened?"
Swallowing the last bit of his emotions, Izuku closed his eyes and took a breath. "Nothing, but I really do need to be getting home." He somehow managed to wiggle out of the loose capture weapon and began to literally run away.
"Wha-Wait!" Eraser's calls behind him were getting louder as he assumed that the hero ran after him, but he ignored it. He had already caused enough trouble tonight and he really didn't want to cause any more. Especially for Eraserhead.
So, he ran. It wasn't a secret that Eraser was faster and better at this than he was, but Izuku was still pretty speedy. He was also small and slippery, and he knew that he could escape from him. After all, he had plenty of practice. Guess all those years of running and hiding from his classmates were finally going to pay off.
Too bad he had to run away from one of his favorite heroes. But what if he started to ask questions, what was he going to say? 'Yeah, my name is Izuku Midoriya, you know, that kid that committed suicide last week? That's me. Oh, also-I'm alive. Bye!' Yeah no, that wouldn't go over very well.
He knew as he clumsily landed on the third building over that he wouldn't be able to outrun this. Like…he knew that from the start, but it was a lot more prevalent now. He needed a way to slip away, but how…That would work.
It was Izuku's favorite thing, a fire escape, and a small one that a grown man would have trouble navigating quickly while trying to catch a small child…well, teenager. It was Izuku's best bet and only real idea at the moment, so he just decided to go with it.
Izuku took a sharp right turn halfway across the roof and shot towards the fire escape. Once he got there, he quickly maneuvered his way through all of the pipes and poles that bordered the edge and began to sprint down the rickety stairs.
About halfway down, Izuku jumped over the hand railing and tried his best to grab on top a steady branch of the tree that was right next to him. He grabbed on a little too early and ended up falling a bit further down than he originally planned but managed to catch a branch anyway and shimmied his body onto it and near the base of the tree so that it would be harder for him to be spotted.
Eraser would wonder why the noise of him clattering down the escape stopped and start to look around. He just hoped that the leaves protected him from the hero's watchful eyes.
He held his breath and the hero tried to sneak his way down the stairs and figure out where he had gone. Izuku had to admit it, even though he already knew, but Eraserhead was good. He searched places that Izuku hadn't even thought of hiding and scanned the area carefully before letting out a curse and jumping to the ground to start looking around the building.
Not good enough apparently, Izuku smirked.
Once he was absolutely positive that the hero was gone, he climbed his way down the tree and ended up on his back, of course, with the breath knocked out of him. He really needed to get better at this kind of stuff…if he was going to stay alive.
The walk home was quiet, and a little nerve racking considering that Izuku kept on looking over his shoulder, positive that Eraserhead had somehow found him and was following him. But that was ridiculous…right?
As he walked through the streets he couldn't help but run his hand through his hair, a nervous habit he picked up sometimes when he was particularly stressed about something.
Wait-
Hands…hair…Eraserhead now knew what he looked like.
F*
Izuku's nerves eventually calmed when he got home and wiggled through the window that he left unlocked.
Home sweet home.
Shouta sighed as he walked through the doors of the police station. How could he lose a child? A child. He really was pathetic, wasn't he?
"What's got you so mopey Eraser?" A teasing voice asked as he sat down in the seat opposite them.
"Not now, Tsukauchi-" Shouta rubbed circles on the sides of his temples in an attempt to relax himself, but not succeeding in the slightest. Another sigh and then Eraser slammed his back against the back of the chair. "I met a kid tonight."
"Ooh, how interesting. You're not usually one to take interest in anyone, let alone a child."
"It wasn't-" Tsuki was just teasing him, Shouta had to remind himself. Wow, he really needed to calm down. "I don't think it was like that exactly. The kid was just…interesting to say the least."
His friend sat up in his chair and rested his elbows on his knees, "Do tell."
Aizawa rolled his eyes, "I don't know, I was patrolling and out of the corner of my eye I see this tiny figure flying across the rooftops so I obviously go to investigate and find out it's this kid in an All Might hoodie. The kid is just free running across the rooftops like it's no big deal and then he saw me and freaked out or something because he completely ate it."
"Well, that's certainly one way to make an impression."
"Yeah, so anyway, then the kid starts rambling about me and my capture weapon like he was a fan, which I don't understand, but whatever, and then his entire demeaner just like, shifted."
"What do you mean?"
"When I asked him why he was running across the rooftops in that neighborhood he dodged the question and then totally shut down."
The detective hummed thoughtfully, "That is interesting." The two of them thought in silence until Tsuki finally decided to break it, "So what are you going to do about it?"
"What?"
"The kid, what are you going to do about him?"
The question shocked Shouta. What was he going to do? What was he even supposed to do? It wasn't exactly like children were his forte (he says as he is a literal teacher at UA). "Nothing."
He glanced at his friend's confused expression and rolled his eyes once more. "It's not like he's my responsibility, I already have an entire class full of problem children that I have to deal with, I can't just add a random kid off the street to my load." He sat back in his chair and rubbed at his dry eyes, "Don't look at me like that."
"Like what?" Tsukauchi tried and failed to look innocent as he smirked slightly at Aizawa who narrowed his eyes at him.
"You know exactly what, it's that look you give me when you think that you know better than me."
"Well, don't I?"
"No. And whatever you're thinking, you're wrong. Plus, what are the odds that I'd ever even see him again? Probably zero."
Tsukauchi's smirk just widened as he watched Shouta with amused eyes, "You're doing that thing."
"What thing?"
"The thing you do when you're trying to rationalize not caring about something. You can try to keep up your whole 'I couldn't care less about anything' act, but I know you Shouta."
"I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't do that."
"Sure. Oh, and when you see the kid again, tell him hi for me."
Shouta glared at his friend who was barely able to keep himself from bursting out with laughter and just decided that it would be a better idea to just leave before he could tease him anymore. If Tsuki was right, which, as much as he hated to admit it, was more often than not, then Shouta sure had his work cut out for him. Great.
Izuku was exhausted, but what else was new? He didn't even do all that much today, but he was still just as tired as when he'd woken up, maybe even more so.
He slipped into his apartment and plopped down face first on the couch and before he knew it, he was out. The next morning, he would wake up only slightly better rested than the night before, which was extremely annoying, but what could you do?
Izuku took the time to take inventory or all of the things he had: some clothes, a few pictures, mom's bowl, some money, and his phone and laptop, both of which were dead and couldn't be charged because they had cut off their power since no one was supposed to be living there.
Not a lot, but better than it could be. He was just thankful that the orphanage hadn't decided to take any of his stuff for their own or broken anything when they threw it out. It was the little things.
Then, Izuku decided to take advantage of the day light trickling throughout the apartment to clean it up a bit. He didn't have much to do so with, but he could at least wipe some things down and do a little sweep. The moving company hadn't taken much of the cleaning stuff, maybe they had thought that the next people to move in could use it or something.
By the time he was finished, the place smelled clean and felt a lot better. It made Izuku happy, this was absolutely something mom would've done and the thought of her cleaning away at a supposed vacant apartment made him smile softly.
The thought only lasted a moment before his smile faded again. What was he supposed to do now?
Ugh, who knew that being dead would be this boring?
Izuku looked out the window at the city that was just switching over to the nighttime; streetlights were turning on, the sun was setting, and people were making their way home to their families. It was beautiful and sad at the same time.
It was no secret that he was still tired and could probably sleep for another day or two, but Izuku was tired of sleeping. He needed to do something, to get out and move. Anddddd, if he just so happened to fall off of a building in the process then there's really nothing that you can do is there?
Notes:
Imma just warn y'all, if self-deprecating and jokes about dying aren't your thing then I'm sorry. That is literally 90% of my personality and 100% of this fic. You can't expect me to write a story where the main character cannot die and NOT milk it for all it's worth.
Anyways, that aside, what do you guys think about both Eraserhead and Tsuki beings tired dads just waiting for Izuku to barge into their lives and cause chaos? Cause I'm so freaking pumped! There's so many friendships and dynamics that I'm so excited to explore in this fic and I hope that y'all are excited too!
Please let me know your thoughts on the story so far! Thanks for reading