Chapter 13: Eraserhead *Tries* To Have A Heart To Heart

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"You're always too hard on these children. I know that they're trying to be heroes but honestly, this one almost got crushed and this one badly damaged his wrists due to overusing his quirk. If he's not careful then he could face serious consequences for doing so. Not to mention the hearing damage that I had to repair!"

Shouta sighed as he listened to Recovery Girl scold him yet again, and it wasn't even his fault this time! "Hearing and sight are tricky to work with, I know. You've told me this before…multiple times actually." He mumbled the last part under his breath and earned a glare from the woman.

"Absolutely right. Maybe try switching things up this year huh Eraser? Let's have a bet to see how long your class can go without a visit to see me."

"You know that I refuse to gamble with you. Besides…you'd win."

Recovery Girl's mouth pulled into a smirk as she went back to treat the two examinees who got the most injured this year: Katsuki Bakugou and Ochako Uraraka.

As much as Shouta hated to admit it, she was right. The students, especially the hero course students, tended to spend more time in the infirmary than they did out of it and that was a problem. Of course, that was simple a part of being a hero. Hero work is dangerous and should not be treated as any less.

But maybe something he would really focus on this year is self-preservation. God knows they all need it.

…and it might just so happen that he's still shaken up by what happened with Serpentine and is going to take it out on his official problem children.

Speaking of which-

What was he going to do with these two? What if they actually ended up in his class and he had to deal with them and whatever it was that happened today?

Shouta didn't want to think about it. He had monitored the exam with the rest of the teachers, and it was safe to say that these two made quite the impression on everyone.

No one expected the kid with the explosion quirk to be so gentle and protective of those around him. He actively blocked them from any possible debris or such that his explosions might throw around. It was interesting, and absolutely no surprise that he got the highest amount of rescue points even before the zero pointers showed up.

Uraraka was a surprise as well. Just looking at her you'd never expect the girl to be so tough and determined, but she tore through the exam while still being kind to those around her and helping when she could.

If Shouta didn't know any better, he might say that he had hope for this year's litter of applicants. If the rest of the kids in his class were like these two then this year was sure to be an interesting one.

As he continued to think about some of the other applicants and his future class his mind couldn't help but wander to Serpentine.

He didn't actually know how old the kid was, but he was young. Right around the age of the rest of the students here actually. Shouta wondered if the kid would do well in this exam. It was geared more towards physical quirks (which he was very against, but it took time to reason with Nezu) and from what he witnessed the other night, he thought that it was safe to say that his quirk wasn't the offensive type.

Maybe that was why he was so against getting his license when Shouta brought it up? Being unkillable wasn't a very flashy quirk and kids don't usually praise that sort of thing.

Deeper and deeper his thoughts went, and he found himself wondering if the kid had ever been bullied and that was why he seemed so meek when they first met. It would make sense, but then why had he one-eightied so suddenly?

The possibility of Serpentine being bullied in the past make Shouta angry for some reason. It was irrational, he barely knew the kid. So then why was he being so protective?

"Why don't you just admit that you're a dad and go see your child?"

Tsukauchi loved to tease him with that kind of thing, but Eraser didn't agree.

He wasn't a dad. He was a teacher and a underground pro hero, neither of which he acted very happy doing. He was supposed to be the cold-hearted and strict teacher and then mysterious hero, what about that was parental?

Sure, he cared for the kid…to a degree, but that didn't make him a father. Right?

Ugh! Shouta hated thinking about this because it always confused him, and he didn't like not being in the know. He pushed all of it to the back of his mind and cordoned it off in hopes that he wouldn't have to deal with it again any time soon.

But that was probably too tall of an order when he was friends with Tsukauchi.

Maybe he should get better friends? Nah. It was hard enough to get the ones he had, and beggars can't be choosers.

He would never admit it, but Shouta was thankful for the people in his life and wouldn't trade them for the world. But he couldn't ruin his reputation by saying something like that.

Izuku's mood was a little bit more irritable than usual, and it was very obvious. He didn't mean to be, but he had been a little bit more rough with the guys he had taken down tonight. It was hilarious when he realized what had happened, what he had done, and immediately began to apologize profusely to the criminal who was tied up on the ground just barely conscious.

He knew exactly why he was in a bad mood. Izuku decided to head out just a bit earlier than usual today so that he could grab dinner when he caught glimpse of Kacchan walking home.

Bakugou was quiet and somber looking as he made his way to their apartment building, looking a bit worse for wear. He had bandages all up his arms and one of them was in a sling and he also had a few more injuries around his body that looked almost healed.

Izuku wondered what could've happened, until he remembered what today was…

The UA entrance exam.

He must've been just getting back. What must he have done to get those injuries? And he didn't look happy, so was it possible that Katsuki Bakugou actually…failed?

No, no that was impossible. Everyone knew that Kacchan was going to be a hero, the best hero. But was that really the case? Izuku realized just how messed up his behavior had been all of these years and he knew that that wasn't how a hero was supposed to act.

Heroes protected people, they lifted them up and encouraged them…although that doesn't really mean much when not even Izuku's favorite heroes had done that for him.

Regardless, Katsuki was no hero. At least in attitude.

I wonder what the exam was like…

It was probably hard, given that UA is the most prestigious hero school there was. But even so, it's hard to believe that Kacchan might not have passed.

Even as kids, Katsuki had always been the best. Not because of his quirk, or because he was smart, but because he worked to be the best. He trained his quirk until he mastered as much as he could at such a young age and he studied like crazy until he was the top student in their grade.

Sure, he was benefited by the quirk he was born with, but he could have the coolest quirk in the world, and it wouldn't matter unless you work to hone and master it. And quirks aren't everything, Izuku knows that better than anybody.

Even as kids, Kacchan's ambition was like no one else's.

Izuku wondered if in some alternant universe they might be taking the exam together, working side by side to be number one. Motivating one another and pushing each other to be the best that they could be.

Maybe in that universe his mother might still be alive and Izuku wouldn't be so alone…

Stop it.

It's pointless to dream about things that will never happen.

That was why Izuku was in a mood. And Eraserhead noticed it as soon as he saw him.

"What's that face for?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Izuku answered blankly, not looking at Eraser.

The two of them were on a roof (shocking) and Izuku was sitting on the edge with his legs dangling off the side. He pretended to not see the look in the hero's eyes when he saw him so close to the edge.

Even though it had been weeks since the incident, it was still a bit tense between the two of them and Izuku hated it. Eraser was trying to pretend that everything was fine and back to normal, but Izuku knew just how freaked out he was when he found him 'dead'.

He didn't know why, but that's just how it was apparently. And it probably didn't help that Izuku's attitude had changed after he woke up.

The hero had commented on it a few times and even had asked about it only to be cut off by Izuku leaving or changing the subject. He really didn't feel like going into his tragic past and such, so Eraser would just have to deal with it.

"Alright then," the hero came to sit beside Izuku, "We can talk about something else."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," he thought for a moment, "The UA entrance exam was today. Did you know that?"

Izuku's face fell before it completely shut down. That wasn't supposed to happen, but Izuku couldn't help it! UA was the last thing he wanted to talk about right now, they could talk about literally anything else. "Next."

Eraserhead's eyes turned worried, before he schooled his face and hummed as he thought of another topic. "What about…oh, you like heroes right? Did you see what All Might did earlier today? Pretty amazing for a daylight hero. I could never be in the spotlight like that." He scoffed as he finished his thought and didn't seem to notice that this conversation wasn't any better.

"No. Next."

"Alright then, why don't you tell me a bit about your life?"

"Absolutely not. You know, you're really bad at this." Izuku looked at Eraser from the corner of his eyes and smirked slightly, feeling comfortable to show expressions again.

The hero just groaned and flopped on his back with his hands over his face. "I knowwwww. I'm trying, okay? You don't exactly make it easy."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

He seemed to be trying so hard, but why? What did he get from this? Izuku was just some random kid who happened to be outed as a vigilante and he witnessed die. It wasn't like he was obligated to be around him anymore, Izuku could handle himself fairly well now, with all of the training the two of them would do.

"Why are you doing this?"

The blunt question caught Eraser off guard and the hero just stared at him for a few seconds before sitting up and staring at Izuku, "What do you mean?"

Izuku gave the hero a look and gestured to himself like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "…this. Being around me, looking after me. It's not like you have to or anything, so why are you doing this?"

The hero hummed for a moment, "That's a good question. Tell you what, an answer for an answer."

"Mmm, I don't like that." Izuku grimaced as his mind immediately went over all of the possibly detrimental questions Eraser could ask.

"Well then I guess you'll never know."

Oh, that was not fair.

Eraser you sly little-

Izuku continued to glare at the hero who just shot back a smirk and quirked brow, until he sighed and slumped his shoulders. "Fine! Fine, what do you want to know?"

Notes:

Anndddd we're back to Izuku and Dadzawa!!!

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