Chapter 22: The Izuku Protection Squad

"Oh my god-"

"Shut up! You'll wake them!"

"Hold on, I need photo evidence that this is actually happening because Shouta will never admit it otherwise."

"Good idea."

"Okay, but just be quiet you two!"

Whispered voices slowly broke through Izuku's consciousness. He could vaguely make out what they were saying and soon the pieces fell into place that they were talking about him.

He was debating whether or not to try to pretend like he was still sleeping when a deep and groggy voice cut through the still hushed whispers.

"You know that I can hear you right?"

At once the whispers stopped and the mood changed instantly. That's also when Izuku decided to make his presence known as well, "Yeah, you guys are horrible at whispering."

He opened his eyes and sat up from where he was draped across two hospital chairs and found that three familiar faces were gaping at the two of them with fear in their eyes.

"Oh, heyyy Shouta. Didn't know you were awake yet…"

"I'm aware."

"Did you sleep well? You look like you did-"

"I never sleep well."

Izuku's snickers cut off whatever else Present Mic and Ms. Joke were going to say as all eyes turned towards him. "S-sorry guys," He managed to get out in between laughs.

"No need to apologize kid." Tsukauchi's calm voice called out and the detective walked over and sat in one of the chairs that Izuku had just been using as a bed. "How did you sleep?"

"Meh," He replied and immediately yawned after as if to sell his answer.

Eraserhead scoffed making all heads turn towards him, "Yeah, that's what you get when you argue about who gets the bed."

"Like I was going to let you sleep anywhere but your hospital bed. You're still recovering!"

At this, the hero simply waved his hand in dismissal causing Izuku and Tsuki to both sigh.

"So, what exactly are you doing here kid?"

"And without your gear?"

Crap!

I totally forgot that I wasn't in my vigilante clothes…well, guess it can't be helped.

"Oh-uh…you know, life…"

Four heads looked at each other as if trying to find any source of sense in Izuku's answer, but when they looked to Eraser he just shrugged.

"Right…well if you spent the night then how did you…wait-you broke the lock again didn't you?" Tsukauchi looked over at the window that was suspiciously missing its latch and then over to the bed-side table that had a latch on it and then back to a suddenly very quiet vigilante who was looking at the floor, "Midoriya!"

"I'm sorry oka-hold on! How do you know my name?" The kid straitened up, his voice rising.

"Shouta and I figured it out weeks ago."

"Eraser!" Izuku shot a betrayed look over to the hero who shrugged under his stare. "Wha-and you didn't tell me?"

"I assumed you already knew."

"Well, I knew that you guys were looking for it, but I didn't know you actually figured it out."

"It was fairly easy once we had all of the necessary information."

"Wow. I really can't stand you guys." Izuku stood up from his chair and stretched his arms above his head, "I'm going to go use the bathroom and then hope that you all will be better when I get back."

All four adults laughed as he left the room and tried to navigate his way to a bathroom.

Once the kid left all eyes turned to Shouta, the amusement gone from every expression.

"Okay, what's going on?" Emi asked since no one else seemed to be willing to break the silence.

Shouta just sighed. It really wasn't his business or place to tell, but the kid was in trouble and they wanted to help. "The kid's father is back. When Tsuki and I went digging into him, we found a name, Hisashi Midoriya, but that was it. As far as we could tell, he had abandoned them when Midoriya was just a child and hadn't contacted them since."

"And he just decided to pop back up out of nowhere?" Hizashi asked with a serious expression on his face. It was rare to see that on the pro, but it showed just how much he cared even though he had only known the kid a short amount of time.

"I didn't get that far, he was kinda a mess last night. All I got was that he showed up out of the blue and thought that the kid was dead. When he saw him, he tried to talk to him, but Midoriya left before he could."

All faces were sad at the situation. Shouta even thought that he heard Emi whisper a swear under her breath but decided to ignore it. "Wow, that's a lot. And it doesn't help that the kid is already going through so much."

"I know."

Like always, Shouta and Hizashi were on the same brain wave, or at least the same frequency. It had been like that ever since their first year at UA. The other two weren't far off either.

It was then that Midoriya entered back into the melancholy room. "Hey so-what happened?" He stopped in his tracks as he took in the feel of the room. "Are you guys okay?"

"I think that we should be asking you that."

"What do you…Eraser told you."

The hero had the decency to look guilty as he looked at Izuku. "Sorry kid, but they just want to help, we all do."

Izuku looked at each pair of eyes in the room and was confused by what he saw. Nobody had ever looked at him like that except for his mother, with eyes that said we care about you. But why? They didn't know him, and even with Eraser who did actually know him, why did he care?

It wasn't like anyone had before, so what was different now?

"Why?"

The group looked at each other confusedly before Mic cleared his throat and spoke up, "What do you mean kiddo?"

"You all barely know me, why would you want to help? Why would you even care?"

"Why do we care? Because even though we haven't known you for long, we know that you're a good kid. A good kid who has been through a lot of crap." It was Tsuki who answered, and that just confused Izuku more because he knew that Tsuki didn't lie. But the words that were coming from his mouth didn't make sense.

"How do you know that? How do you know that I'm a good kid and not just a useless waste of space who would be better off dead?" Izuku hadn't meant to snap at them, but memories began to rush back of his teachers and classmates scolding him and brushing him off.

"Who told you that?"

Izuku stopped. He was ready to say something back but was caught off guard by Tsukauchi's tone. Who had told him that? Everyone. Everyone except for his mother and she wasn't here anymore.

Sure, Izuku knew that what everyone had said and done to him was wrong and that he did not deserve it, but years of being told that you were nothing tend to leave scars. Scars that never really healed all the way.

"I-" He started but the only thing that came out was a small, strangled noise as his throat closed and his eyes burned with tears.

"Kid. Who told you that you were worthless?"

Another couple of tries to answer but he just ended up opening and closing his mouth like a fish. "I-it doesn't matter." He finally managed to get out.

"It absolutely does matter. Midoriya, you need to know that that is not true. None of us think that you're useless or a waste of space and we certainly do not think that you'd be better off dead. We've seen the good you do and your heart with those that you save. You help people and you do it well."

"I need you to hear this, okay? I know you. I've been working alongside you for months and I can honestly say that you are not worthless. I need you to understand that." Eraser stared at Izuku who refused to meet his eyes, "Midoriya, I need you to say that you understand. That you understand that none of us think any of that."

"I-I understand."

"Good."

The mood in the room lifted, if only slightly. Izuku took back his spot in his chair next to Tsuki and brought his legs to his chest.

"Shouta, you get discharged today, right?" Mic was the one to break the silence yet again. Izuku had a feeling that he was usually the one to do so in these type of situations.

Eraser grunted in confirmation and Mic turned back towards Izuku.

"So what are you going to do kid?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you can't avoid your dad forever and I'm assuming that you don't want to go back home yet, so what are you going to do?"

Izuku hummed in thought. It was true to going back to the apartment probably wasn't the best idea if he wanted to stay far away from Hisashi, so that meant that he would have to come up with somewhere else to stay tonight.

He could always squat somewhere abandoned, but that felt too illegal. It was different when it was your own place. Regardless, he'd think of something.

He would have to.

"Do you have anywhere else that you can possible stay?" Eraser asked Izuku who was still deep in thought.

The boy came back and shook his head making the hero frown. "But I'll figure something out."

"No." Izuku's head shot up from where it had been laying on his knees and he looked at Eraser questioningly. "I'm not going to let a child live on the streets, you can crash at my place until you find somewhere else."

This time, everyone shot shocked looks at the hero. Where had that come from? That wasn't like Eraser at all. "What? No, no I couldn't ask you to-"

"You don't have a choice; you're a technically deceased minor with no legal guardian. You're staying with me."

"Eraser-"

"I don't want to hear it."

"Wow Shouta, who knew you could be such a dad?"

"Hizashi if the word dad comes out of your mouth one more time you will be the one in this hospital bed."

Present Mic fell into a fit of laughter with Ms. Joke and Tsuki smirked at Eraser mischievously. "Aww don't be like that Shouta. Now that the kid's staying with you it's official!"

"I'm serious you guys. No more father talk for the rest of the night."

"Whatever you say…dad!" Present Mic dodged the jab that Eraser tried to throw at him and he zipped out of the room before the hero could get up.

A couple of hours later, Eraserhead was signing the discharge papers and the two of them were on their way to his apartment that Izuku had been told only a select few had ever been to. The fact didn't surprise him at all, Eraser was a private person and so it made sense that he wouldn't want too many people mixed up in his personal life and where he lived was pretty personal.

The apartment complex wasn't too far away, but it took them a while to get there because Eraser made them take a bunch of roundabout ways to shake off any potential tails. Izuku didn't think that anyone had been following them, but he wasn't about to complain.

As they finally arrived at the building Izuku was just a tad bit confused. Maybe confused wasn't the word, but just looking at the outside, he wasn't impressed. The building looked old and run down, not somewhere you'd expect a hero to live even an underground one.

Izuku didn't know much about what heroes made in terms of money, but he did know that it was a pretty decent amount. Definitely more than whatever Eraser probably paid for his place here.

Thankfully, despite the rickety stairs and the few holes here and there, the actual apartment was quite nice. As they were walking down the hallway, Eraser explained that a few underground heroes lived in this complex because it was good for discreteness and the neighbors were all good about keeping to themselves. Nobody stuck their nose in anyone else's business and that was very appealing to pros who were trying to keep a low profile.

They got to his apartment and Eraser pulled out a key and unlocked the door. Izuku had honestly been expecting a lot more locks like you saw in the movies, but that might draw too much attention.

Once the door swung open and the two of them stepped inside, they were immediately rushed by two cats. One jumped onto Eraser's shoulders from the shelf next to the door and the other circled Izuku's legs, sniffing him and rubbing it's head against his pants.

"Sorry, I should've mentioned these guys."

"I didn't know you had cats Eraser!" Izuku laughed as he crouched down to pet the head of the white, orange, and brown calico cat at his feet.

The cat that was still on Eraser's shoulders, jumped down to check Izuku out as well and soon was being pet by him as well. This one was pure black with bright green eyes. "Yeah, the black one is Loki and the other one is Milo. He's pretty sweet, mostly just likes attention, but Loki…well, let's just say that he lives up to his name."

Loki's head turned towards Eraser and Izuku could've sworn that the cat narrowed his eyes at the hero almost as if he had understood him.

Eraser put his keys on the rack above the shelf next to the door and made his way across the apartment with Izuku close behind.

The apartment was a decent size. The entryway went straight into the living room where a long grey couch sat in the middle of the room facing a tv on a black entertainment center against the wall to Izuku's right. A matching chair was to the left of the couch a side table to its right and a black coffee table in front of it.

Then there was the kitchen that was to the left. It wasn't too big, but it worked. There was a bar with three black bar stools just along the walkway that led to the hallway.

"So here it is. I know it's not much, but it's comfortable. I live alone, but you'll soon figure out that it's rare that I'm the only one in this place. Come on, let me you show you to the guest room."

He took him down the hallway. There were two doors on the left and one on the right and then two folding doors that were open to reveal a washer and dryer.

"That's the bathroom," He gestured to the first door on the left, "That's my room," He gestured to the door on the right and then stopped and turned to the last door on the left, "And this is your room for the time being."

He opened the door and the two of them walked in. A queen bed with a plain grey bedspread sat against the middle of the wall to the right with two black bedside table on either side of it. In the left corner was a black desk and grey rolling chair and what Izuku assumed to be a closet next to it. And a small bookshelf sat immediately to Izuku's right.

"Here it is." Eraser said sounding slightly uncomfortable.

Izuku looked at everything for a moment more before turning towards the hero. "You really like black and grey huh?"

That brought a surprised laugh out of the hero, "Why don't you take a shower and get settled. I'll go grab some clothes you can change into and then we'll talk about dinner. I'm sure Hizashi will be wanting to join us."

Izuku nodded and made his way to check out the bathroom while Eraser went to get him some clothes. Honestly, this was a lot better than it could've been. Izuku didn't take anything with him when he left except for his phone and so he was really living with only the clothes on his back.

He'd have to talk to Eraser about that, he couldn't wear the pro's clothes forever, for one he would probably look ridiculous in them due to Izuku being significantly smaller than him. If he had his way, he wouldn't be returning to that apartment until his old man was long gone, but he couldn't stop his vigilante stuff, so he'd have to scrounge up a makeshift outfit to wear while he's patrolling that doesn't look absolutely ridiculous.

Izuku sighed, this was going to be interesting…