It started with a phone call.
More accurately it started with almost ten years of weekly phone calls to his radio show at an hour far too late for how young his caller was (had to be between the gape-tooth lisp and excited rambling).
Hizashi Yamada, Pro Hero Present Mic, loved every single one of his jobs and almost everyone he came across in those jobs (there were a few notable exceptions, namely Endeavor) but he had a soft spot for his little Sprout.
Sprout had been calling for years, rambling to him about quirks and heroes and anything that crossed their mind. Hizashi remembered staring in open- mouthed shock at his assistant outside the recording booth the first time Sprout had called in to ask questions about Voice that the analysis Hizashi literally paid had never thought of.
That first call had become another a week later after Sprout had seen a debut of some new hero and just had to talk about it to someone. Then the next week they called about a fight they saw on the news where a certain flame hero had caused an apartment building to collapse (and if Hizashi had recorded some of Sprout's argument to play back for his husband later that was no one's business but theirs). Then Hizashi dedicated a weekly segment for Sprout's Corner where they discussed heroes and analyzed quirks.
Nearly ten years and Sprout hadn't so much as slipped a name or any other identifiable information. Hizashi would be proud (was proud distantly) if he wasn't so worried about the little things Sprout did say.
"My teachers don't like me very much."
"I did my homework, but one of the other kids took it."
"Mama doesn't mind that I stay up. She's at work until morning so I have to make sure the house is okay."
And so, so many more little things that added up to big things in Hizashi's mind. Everyone in the station and his connected agency were always on high alert for any information that could lead to Sprout and getting them finally out of whatever toxic environment they were in. (Because Hizashi knew. He was a teacher and a hero. He knew how children acted, even the more timid or anxious ones, and everything about Sprout's stuttered apologies and evasions hit every alert in him. You didn't become a hero without picking up a good idea of who needs saving, and Sprout needed it.)
His assistant frowned on the other side of the glass and waved to get his attention. Hizashi was quick to queue up a few songs and slip from the booth to the normally stoic young man's side.
"Mic-San, we just got a call and it sounds like Sprout but I can't get anything out of them but coughing and tears. They don't sound too hot."
Hizashi's frown deepened and he held his hand out for the headset that was already half off of the man's head. "Let me talk to them. We might have to end the set early today, ya dig?"
The man nodded and scrambled up out of his seat to let the others know. If Sprout was hurt or in danger then none of them wanted to stick around when their boss could be helping the kid they had all grown so fond of.
slipping the headset on, Hizashi winced at the wet, heaving coughs broken with a few sobs and blared in his ears, but a barely heard whimper between gasps solidified who it was he was listening to.
"Sprout, baby? Can you hear me? It's Present Mic." He kept his voice low, just a bare hint of quirk coloring his tone to give it the smooth rumble/almost purr that civilians and students at ease.
"P-pres-" The strangled little voice broke off into more coughs and the labored breathing in his ears kicked up with an edge of panic that made Hizashi's heart break.
"Yeah, sweetheart, it's me. Don't try talking just yet. Can you focus on one of the breathing exercises I taught you?" It's familiar, coaching them through the 4-5-7 breathing pattern, yet it never stops making his heart hurt. Hizashi had helped hundreds of people through panic attacks in his careers (shockingly more in his role of teacher and host than his actual hero role) but it's always different when it's his sprout in the other side, something that grabs into his heart with sharp talons and twists.
Once the panicked breathing had slowed to a more reasonable level and that hacking cough had subsided for the most part, Hizashi started to speak again.
"Good job, Sprout. You did so well. It's a bit early for your normal call in, did something happen?" Hizashi had to fight to keep his voice calm when all he wanted was to scream at whoever or whatever hurt His Kid this badly, but that won't help here and the only one listening was his scared little Sprout.
There was another choked sob before the kid forced themself to take a deep breath. "Th-there was a villain attack on my way home from sc-school," the kid whispered with a hoarse voice that was so different than their normal bubbly rambles. "He, he tried to- I almost-" The kid sobs again.
"Hey hey, you don't have to say anymore about that if you don't want. Are you safe now, listener? Do you know where you are?"
"Um." There was shuffling of shoes on concrete and far too much wind for what Hizashi could see blowing outside the station windows. Not good. "All- A hero caught the villain and took him in I think. I-I don't really know where I am. A roof somewhere I think."
Everything in Hizashi froze. A roof. His Sprout was attacked and left on a fucking roof when he so clearly was in need of medical attention.
"How'd you get up on the roof, Sprout. Last I checked you don't take that path back from school." The joke was weak even to his own ears, but it did earn an equally weak laugh from his kid so Hizashi was counting it as a win.
"It-it's my fault. I wanted, wanted to ask Al- the hero a question, but he, they were leaving and I kindofgrabbedonwhentheyjumpedimsorry"
Rage pulsed through Hizashi's veins as his Sprout spoke. The hero was going to leave him there? They didn't call for medical and just intended to leave a traumatized child behind after nearly-
"None of that now, Sprout. People do funny things when they're scared. I once shattered a statue when a spider fell on me on patrol, trust me that was a hard one to explain." A wet giggle is his reward and Hizashi treasures it. His kid is laughing. His kid is alive. Hizashi can still help.
"Don't get too close to the edge, kiddo but is there anything that you can see that can help me find you?" He would find them, he had to find them, he had to save them.
A little more shuffling came through the line. "Um, it looks mostly like businesses. I can't really-" A thud and a muffled yelp nearly made Hizashi's heart beat out of his chest, but a gruff voice that he knew almost as well as his own had him slumping back in his chair.
"Kid? Can you step back from the edge?" Eraserhead, his husband, asked with the same low soothing voice he used with stray cats and panicked students. Hizashi would have cried from relief if he wasn't still on the line. Shouta was there. He would protect their baby.
"O-oh! Mr. Eraserhead sir! I-I wasn't going to-"
"Sprout? Sweetheart can you put me on speaker?" Hizashi asks, breaking through the mutter storm that was brewing with practiced ease.
"Y-yeah! Of course!" Some fumbling later and Sprout's voice returned. "Y-you're on speaker now Mr Present Mic."
What Hizashi wouldn't give to see his husband's face right now. Shouta probably had dropped his face into his capture weapon to hide the hit-by-a-brick expression that had to be on clear display to anyone that knew him (it looked more like a scowl and slightly widened eyes to anyone else but Hizashi had made a study of his husband's face for years now).
"Eraser, Sprout here was a victim of a villain attack earlier today. I have a feeling that there's some fluid in his lungs based off of his cough, not to mention he's probably still in shock. Can you be a doll and get him to a hospital? I'll meet you there to give my own statement."
There was a hiss of shock from his husband. Sprout had been a constant figure in both of their lives for nearly a decade, Nem and Tensei teased them about their kid constantly, so to hear that they had been attacked had to tear at him just as much as it did Hizashi.
"Bu-but they won't take me!" The frantic little voice of his Sprout piped up. "They n-never treat qu-quirkless andimsorryinevertoldyoumrmiciknowishouldhave"
Hizashi wanted to scream. He wanted to sob. He wanted to deafen every fucking person that broke his kid this much. Quirkless. His baby was quirkless, and they thought that Hizashi wouldn't want him anymore. (And if that didn't make the scars on his cheeks burn under the concealer and foundation that hid them. To think his baby had gone through anything like he did for having an 'undesirable' quirk or no quirk at all, made him want to rip his own hair out. Or do something that would definitely lose him his hero license.)
"Sprout, baby, quirk or no quirk it doesn't matter to me. You're my Sprout! My genius little analyst and my absolute favorite listener!"
"B-but your husband listens too doesn't he?"
Shouta laughed, low and full of warmth normally only shown to him, but Hizashi would gladly share with their kid if it makes his chest this warm.
"Trust me, kid, his husband is well aware that he hasn't been the favorite in years."
A little giggle and then, "Sorry to take your spot Mr. Eraserhead."
Hizashi was glad no one was in the booth to see his stupidly proud grin as Shouta stammers in his ear. Their relationship wasn't technically secret (anyone who saw their third year Sport Festival knew there was something going on after Shouta kissed him on live television in order to get the upper hand in their fight) but not many people were able to put the breadcrumbs together that Eraserhead and Present Mic were a thing.
"See, Sprout? You're in the best hands I can think of. Trust Eraser to make sure you're all taken care of until I get there, and I promise we will make sure everything is okay."
It took a little cajoling, and Shouta promising less- than-legal repercussions to anyone that would dare deny their baby medical attention, but soon Hizashi was leaving their kid in Shouta's capable hands and rushing to change into civilian clothes for the trip to the hospital.
And if there were tears and hard truths about their Sprouts home life waiting for him there, then he and Shouta made sure to get a two bedroom apartment for a reason. And if the door already had a sign hanging on it with Sprout in beautiful green calligraphy, then none of them were going to tell anyone. Besides Sprout's, Izuku's, watery smile at the realization of how much they had wanted them in their home since the very beginning was worth any amount of teasing Tensei or Nem may have subjected them to over the years.