Chapter Thirteen: Friend

Izuku stared down at his workbooks. He'd been training with Hawks for over a month now, and he didn't feel like he'd made any progress in moving past The Basics. Hawks insisted that he was improving, but it wasn't good enough, not for him.

There was a nice, peaceful park at the turn around point of his ten-kilometre run, and he always stopped off there to pace himself through Hawks' core program steps. It was difficult though, not having someone to spar with. When he was with Hawks, he could always work on trying to match the man's speed.

Of course, that was impossible, but he focused on it religiously. He came away from each training session bruised and cut up. Hawks was not gentle. He smashed him into the gym floor, and dropped him from insane heights. They were working on trying to get him to level out his inner ear balance, to prepare him for something Hawks called 'sky-dancing' – he'd found no reference to it in any book, and when he'd asked Hawks what it was, he'd just received a warm smile and a 'patience, baby birdie'.

It was frustrating. Yet, it was also all very rewarding, even if he felt like he wasn't getting anywhere.

Izuku glared holes at the notes that Present Mic had scratched out on one of Hawks worksheets. The note hadn't been intended for him, but for Hawks. The two were using his homework book to communicate back and forth in some weird schoolyard manner. The latest debate was about not pushing him too hard and too fast on aerial combat, but to first get him used to the ground.

Hawks had replied with an extremely rude rebuttal, and then a 'please see notes in workbook five. Feel free to use them for your own students, arsehole.'

"They're like teenagers…no…they're worse." Izuku sipped on his water. He couldn't figure out the relationship between the two heroes. They knew each other, but how, and from where, he had no idea. None of his magazines or books, or any of his podcasts had references of the two interacting, at all.

Izuku dropped his head back, sighing heavily. None of this helped his immediate problem. He should get up and go through his mantras again. He had training with Hawks tomorrow, and he really—really didn't want to show any signs of having slacked off.

A twig snapped. Izuku flipped onto his feet, dropping low in a defence position.

"Whoa, whoa. Sorry." A teen—maybe about his age—flung up their arms in innocence. Izuku blinked at them in surprise. Er. Okay.

They weren't wearing their school uniform, but, instead lousy, old sports gear and a torn up Crimson Riot shirt. Somehow, the sandals just pulled the whole outfit together. It was bordering on being just as adorable as his own All-Might hoodie. Wow—was this what he looked like to other people?

Oh—

Now he kind of got it. He suppressed a giggle.

"Hey." He relaxed his stance. He did what Hawks did, and what All-Might did, he smiled warmly.

A smile of sharp teeth returned his own smile.

"Hi. Ah." The guy scrunched a hand through his black hair. "I'm Eijiro Kirishima. Sorry, um, I've kind of…wow…this is awkward…but…I've been watching…not like creepily or anything…but the last few days…watching you workout here, in the park, um…yeah…"

"Oh." Izuku glanced around nervously. He probably should have realised someone was going to notice him out in public, but he didn't really have anywhere else to practice.

"I live up there. That's my bedroom." The teen pointed to one of the apartment buildings and a visible window through the trees. The red curtains matched his red shirt, and red eyes. Izuku was seeing a pattern.

"Ah, I see." Izuku laughed, feeling a little easier. "I suppose I must make a bit of a curious sight. Sorry if I disturbed you."

"No, no, that's not it at all!" Eijiro waved his hands. He dropped down beside him in the grass. "I just couldn't help but be interested in what you're doing. I tried so hard to tell myself not to be nosy."

"It's fine." Izuku waved off his worry. "I'm not really doing anything that interesting, just working on the exercises my…" Izuku choked. Oh—wow—this was it—this was the moment he got to use it—

The spy stuff—

Excitement bubbled up through him.

He couldn't screw this up. He could not screw this up. Everything—everything—their entire family—hinged on getting this right.

"Brother." Izuku burst out.

Sometimes he wondered just how Hawks could do it so easily; crafting an entirely new identity for all of them. Even his Mum was in on the whole thing, which still baffled him.

"My big brother…" he whispered fondly. "What my big brother gave me."

"Cool." Eijiro picked up the workbooks. "Is he, like, a martial artist?"

"Ah, I guess you could say that." Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. "I only…er…see him three times a week. His work is really…um…you know, demanding."

"Oh, yeah, that's harsh, man. My Dad works in the military. I don't see him for months."

"I'm sorry. That's hard."

Eijiro shrugged. "It's okay. I try to video call him, but reception sucks."

Hawks talked often about The Upheavals of the past. Times of unrest that had shaped their world, for better or for worst. One such upheaval had resulted in the dismantling of the pre-quirk old world satellite systems that had once run the global, international communications network. It had led to a far more divided and separated world, with countries forming their own pockets of humanity.

It was taking time, but they were getting that global communication network back online, though, now that Izuku knew of the repeating Upheavals, he really wasn't sure if it was going to be such a good idea. He hadn't liked any of Hawk's descriptions of pre-quirk ancient global wars. They weren't taught about at all in school, and that was beginning to unnerve him, just how much history had been erased—either deliberately—or unintentionally, he couldn't figure out.

Izuku leant towards Eijiro who was still flipping through his workbooks. Now he was really glad he and Hawks wrote everything in code, some of the stuff Hawks wrote was really—er—alarming if someone wasn't prepared for it.

What was it All-Might had said the other day, oh yeah, it was about how Hawks didn't hold his punches, or something like that. The world was brutal, so Hawks kicked it back just as brutally, but with a weird sense of optimism that everything would be better once he'd finished kicking. Honestly, Izuku wasn't sure if it was the same philosophy he had, just more warped. He was still trying to figure that out.

"I'm having trouble, since I don't have a sparring partner. So, I just feel I'm going over the same ground and not improving." Izuku sighed.

He was suddenly staring into huge, hopeful red eyes.

"I can spar with you."

"Oh. Um."

"I swear, I won't hold you back. Please." Eijiro bounced up. His skin seemed to gleam, not with sweat, but calcification. Eerily similar to how Hawks' wings hardened. That was cool.

There was an intense desperation, mixed with hopefulness in Eijiro's eyes. Izuku had seen it before—in the mirror—he understood what it meant. He was pretty sure the uncomfortable feeling swelling up in his throat had to be just a smudge of what All-Might had felt when facing him that day, on the road, when he'd asked if he could still be a hero without a quirk.

"I…I don't know…" Hawk was teaching him for a reason—a reason he still wasn't entirely sure on yet—but it went far beyond preparing him to receive All-Might's quirk, that much he had figured out. Did he had a right to pass that teaching on to someone else, even if it was second-hand knowledge. The faintest look of defeat that cross Eijiro's face did it.

What if All-Might had told him no—

What if none of what had happened to him, had happened—

Hawks' was always talking about fate, like it was some sort of deity that moved his wings. Well—he'd been wanting a sparring partner.

"Okay." He nodded. "Sure. It's been kind of lonely, doing it on my own."

Happiness just seemed to swell through Eijiro. "No man should do anything alone. We're totally better together." A fist was held out to him.

Izuku frowned.

"You bump it, it's a fist bump."

"Oh. Oh, right." Izuku laughed. This was new. He hadn't done this before. He clenched his fist, bumping it against Eijiros.

That felt—

Fun.

"Um, so, what's your name?" Eijiro asked.

"Oh!" Izuku laughed nervously. "I'm Izuku Midoriya."

The Apprentice of Hawks, and future successor of All-Might.

It was a mouthful.

Sometimes Baby Birdie was just easier on his brain.