Chapter 29: hE DoEsN't EvEn gO hErE-

Izuku hadn't been joking about the two of them training again the next day. Hitoshi was on the verge of collapsing already due to the amount of pain he was in and he almost fainted when Izuku told him that they'd be working on his cardio and endurance today.

Great…

"How are you not even out of breath?"

Izuku, turning back towards a hunched over Shinso literally fighting for his life, looked at his friend and continued to run in place, "How are you still complaining?"

"I wouldn't have agreed to train with you if I knew that you were so freaking jacked."

"Okay, one, we both that's not true, and two, I'm a vigilante. What exactly did you expect?"

After another few seconds of Shinso trying desperately to catch his breath, he finally continued, "But how is your stamina this insane?"

Izuku seemed to think about that for a moment before shrugging, "I guess all of those years running from my classmates helped me out in the long run, huh?"

"The what-?"

It went on like that for most of their training sessions.

Izuku would go over everything that they would be doing that day and explain to him why it was all important. Then the two of them would get to working and Izuku would always be right beside Hitoshi. Never told him to do something that he wouldn't be doing himself. It made him feel less alone and embarrassed that he had a friend in all of this.

Then came the bickering…

"Ugh!" Shinso groaned frustratingly after being flipped to the ground yet again and trying to catch the breath that had been knocked out of him. "How are you so…?" He clenched his hand as if trying to strangle Izuku with his mind.

"Good?" His friend peered down at him with a smirk on his face and outstretched his hand to help him back to his feet.

"You're impossible." Hitoshi grumbled as he accepted Izuku's hand.

The boy shrugged once Shinso was back upright, "What can I say? I work out."

"I wOrK oUt-okay, but that doesn't explain how you can do a split and flip me over your shoulder simultaneously!

He simply shrugged again, and Hitoshi threw his hands up in exasperation before the two of them continued with their training.

Before they knew it, the sports festival was here, and the two boys were determined to get Shinso in the hero course. He had been putting in work training with Izuku almost non-stop and when they weren't training their bodies, they were training their minds.

It became a daily occurrence for Shouta to come home and find two teenage boys sprawled out on the living room floor surrounded by books. Actually, there was barely a day when Shinso wasn't at the Aizawa residence. Not that he minded, but it was nice to see Izuku becoming so close to someone his own age. He was also thankful that the boy seemed to be doing better mentally, Lord knew he needed it.

And Izuku didn't let up all the way up until the day of the festival. Drilling Shinso on different techniques and plans of how to utilize his quirk to the best of his ability. Hitoshi felt ready. He felt confident in his friend and his training.

He was going to do this.

So tEcHnIcAlLy…Izuku wasn't allowed to go to the festival. He wasn't a student or a hero and honestly, Eraser didn't need to deal with the stress of trying to babysit the gremlin while watching over the rest of his problem children.

But he really shouldn't have put so much faith that.

All he could do was sigh when he caught a glimpse of a boy with curly green hair trying to hide in the back of the stadium seating. Mic's laughter boomed all throughout the booth the two of them were in and Shouta merely groaned to himself.

"You gotta love him Shouta-"

He just groaned even louder and put his head in his hands in response, resulting in even more laughter.

They were both sat at a long table that stretched out across the entire small announcement booth and Mic was more than ready to commentate this event. Honestly, Shouta didn't even know how he got roped into commentating with him, but there wasn't much he could do about it now, so he would just have to suffer.

He quickly took out his phone that he had just silenced and dialed a number that he had as number two on his speed dial, a scowl creeping up his face as Hisashi tried to ask who he was calling.

The line rang for a moment before a small voice sounded on the other end. "Hello?" He was trying so hard to sound innocent and not like Shouta was literally looking at him sneaking into one the most guarded events UA hosted. "Can I help you Eraser?"

"Cut the crap Izuku, I can literally see your stupid little smirk."

"IT'S NOT MY FAULT!" He immediately went on the defensive and Shouta had to hold the phone a little ways away from his ear so he didn't go deaf. "Hitoshi was nervous and asked if I'd be there to support him and he gave me his puppy dog eyes and you know how I can't resist his puppy dog eyes so I just kinda snuck in and you guys really need to up your security because I had almost no trouble whatsoever-"

Eraser sighed loudly into the phone cutting Izuku off. "No, I'm pretty sure that's just you. Also, since when did you start calling him Hitoshi?" Shouta raised his eyebrow and glanced at Hizashi who was very curious about their conversation.

The boy sputtered on the other end of the line before eventually being able to formulate a complete sentence, "Wha-it's not like that! He's my friend, the only friend I've ever had actually. And he's literally at our place every day, is it so weird for me to start calling him by his first name?"

His voice had gotten quiet as Eraser could hear the doubt and worry begin to settle in.

In all honesty, he hadn't thought that anything was going on, but he had to poke fun at the kid whenever he could and now, he just kind of felt bad. "Hey, hey-," He interrupted Izuku's worried rambling, "It's completely normal to call your friends by their first names, okay? I'm sure that he'll appreciate it."

"You think so?"

"He thinks of you as a friend too, right? Calling each other by your names is just a representation of how close you've gotten since you met. It's a good thing."

"Alright…okay…if you're sure-"

"I'm sure Izuku. Now I have to go and help Hizashi begin announcing, but I expect you to be on your best behavior and to not cause too much trouble, okay?"

"Yes sir!"

Eraser didn't even have time to roll his eyes at the kid's very obvious sarcasm before he hung up.

"What was that about?" Mic asked with a hint of a smirk in his voice.

"Izuku's freaking out because he's never had a proper friend before. It's actually kind of cute."

Without any words Shouta could just feel the look his friend was giving him and turned to glare at him.

"Don't say a word." He demanded.

Mic held his hands up in surrender, "I wasn't going to say anything," He pressed a button and began to welcome everyone to the festival all the while smirking at Aizawa who just scoffed and turned away from him.

'Stay out of trouble'…yeah right.

He couldn't believe that Eraser had actually asked him to do that. Did the man not know who he was?

At the moment he was on his way to try to find Shinso before the events began. He knew that Mic's announcements would take a second, so he wasn't really worried about missing him.

Somehow, he found the right place and wasn't stopped at all by anyone while making his way there. UA really had to do better…Izuku was literally galivanting around without anyone so much as blinking an eye.

The hard part was trying to navigate these hallways, but eventually he managed to find someone. Unfortunately, his way of greeting was to smack right into them and send them both to the ground groaning.

Izuku held his nose as he sat up, regretting all of his clumsiness that he doubted would ever leave him, and looked at who he had just accidentally assaulted with his face. It was a boy, he seemed familiar somehow, two-toned hair and duel-colored eyes that held a very deep coldness in them as they stared back at him.

"I'm so sorry! I was looking for someone and wasn't paying much attention to my surroundings and-"

"S' fine." The boy's voice was monotoned and cold, just like his eyes.

The two of them got to their feet, still assessing the damage of their little face collision. The other boy seemed to be fine, there was no visual evidence of the incident at least. While Izuku continued to hold his nose, surprised that I wasn't bleeding from how much it hurt.

"No seriously, I'm really-"

"Todoroki! It's so not cool to ditch us and go on ahead without-oh." Another boy came trotting around the corner.

This one was shorter and not as physically built. His hair was blond with a cool looking lightning symbol imprinted on it in black. From the first boy's reaction to the other's arrival, Izuku guessed that the two weren't exactly close.

"Who's this?" The new boy asked as he tried to rest his arm on the other's taller shoulder but was quickly brushed off.

"I'm not sure. We haven't officially met."

Blonde boy tilted his head in confusion before Izuku decided to introduce himself and clear the air. "Um, I'm Izuku Mi-Minori…" Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! You can't just give out your full name so willy nilly, people might find out that you're actually dead! "Yeah, Izuku Minori. I accidentally ran into your classmate here while I was on my way to find someone."

Izuku was still mentally face palming as the two-toned kid glared at him suspiciously and the blonde boy looked none the wiser. "Oh, that's cool. Who are you looking for, maybe I know them-well probably only if they were in class 1-A but-"

"Class 1-A?" Pieces began to connect in Izuku's mind, and he couldn't help the smirk curling from his lips as he thought about how much trouble he would probably get in from Eraser. "So, you two are hero students?"

"Sure are!" This time the blonde boy succeeded in throwing his arm lazily around the other's shoulders but was pushed away in an instant. "Hey, come to think of it…are you a UA student? Cause I'm pretty sure that only students and faculty are allowed back here."

Crap crap crap…

Aw man, Izuku should really invest in an acting class. Not that he had any doubts about his acting, but it probably couldn't hurt, especially with how much he was lying recently. "Uh, yep! Yeah, I'm in the general education course though and was just looking for my classmate. He's competing you see."

"Oh, okay," Izuku panicked for a moment, thinking that the blonde kid would see right through him, but let out a breath when he received a bright smile from the guy, "Well I hope you find your classmate!" And then the two students began to walk away and Izuku could hear more coming.

That meant that the events were about to start. He needed to find Hitoshi fast if he was going to catch him before he went out.

Izuku searched for a bit longer and was on the verge of giving up when a mop of purple hair and eyes that held Chanel bags under them rounded the corner. "Hitoshi!" Izuku ran up to the boy who had seemed focused on something and jumped right into him sending them both to the floor…again. He really needed to stop doing this.

"Midoriya!" Shinso looked up surprisingly at his friend who had just tackled him with a hug. Wait-why was he here? How did he even get here? He was sure that he had heard Eraser tell him that he wasn't allowed to come. And how did he find him and- "Wait, Hitoshi?"

The small boy who was still sitting on him began to blush and look away, "Um, yeah. I thought that we were close enough that I could call you that…is that okay? Because if you're not okay with it then I can stop and we-"

Hitoshi let out a small chuckle at his panicking friend. Leave it to him to stress out and overthink every little thing. "No, it's fine. Only if I can call you Izuku though."

Midoriya cringed at the sound of his name out of Shinso's mouth causing the other boy to roll his eyes.

"Ugh, fine! Anyway, I just wanted to tell you good luck," Hitoshi looked down at his friend who was giving him the brightest smile he had ever seen. He was afraid that is he looked too long that he might actually go blind.

He had never seen him smile like that. So pure and happy and…genuine. Izuku had only just began to actually share his emotions with Shinso and so to see something so raw shining on the boy's face, he couldn't help but reflect his expression.

In all honesty, he had been freaking out big time before Izuku showed up. But now…he knew that his friend supported him, that he believed in him, and suddenly he had no doubt that he would be able to do this.

He would do his best and prove to everyone not only did he deserve to be a hero, but that everyone who told him that he would never be able to be one was wrong.

"Thanks Izuku…"

The boy gave another blinding smile before stumbling to his feet and retreating back to wherever he was going to be watching from. "I'll be cheering you on!"

"You'd better!"

This was something so alien to Hitoshi. Having someone who believed in him, who saw his strength and potential and decided to nurture and grow it rather than stomp it out, who literally fell into his life and had decided to stick to him like glue.

He had a friend. One who had just decided to start calling him by his first name. Something that no one had ever done before. Not even his foster parents. He actually…had a friend.