Sure enough, Nedzu is quick to take action when people start looking towards UA for answers regarding why, exactly, Bakugou was accepted when his behavior had been so poor in Middle School. Never one to sidestep his own culpability, Nedzu freely admitted that he hadn't done his due diligence when he'd seen the temper and arrogance Bakugou had displayed during his admission exam and even after.
But Nedzu was also quick to slyly point people towards the Board of Trustees-also known as the school board. And people were quick to jump on that, as many had a soft spot for Nedzu and his obvious love of educating the next generations. The Board, on the other hand? Not so much. And when people went digging, they found far more than they were expecting.
Not only did they find a clear bias towards people with more obvious, violent Quirks, but they also found a system of clear nepotism. Those whose parents were Heroes were far more likely to be accepted into UA's Hero course, even if they'd barely squeaked by or even failed the exams. Izuku found the whole situation far more amusing than he probably should, but all things considered he felt like he could be given a pass on that.
Some of the focus on Bakugou had actually been lifted and shifted to the Boad, which Izuku was pretty pleased about. Giving Bakugou some breathing room meant that he wouldn't expect the next volley of attacks towards him. He had no interest in making Bakugou feel like he'd been backed into a corner-Izuku was all too aware of how he'd react. And besides that, Izuku had to take an unexpected step back from his plans for Bakugou, because work did come before plans to ruin someone's life, unfortunately.
And work was definitely picking up now that word was starting to spread that Nite-Lite was headed back their way for the raid that was being planned. People were whispering and staring at Izuku again, and he wasn't thrilled about that at all. But he could handle it for a while, as long as Nite-Lite went on her merry way again afterwards. Even if some of the staring was weirdly aggressive-almost glaring, really.
And then Hitoshi texted him.
Hitoshi: Izu, we have a problem.
Staring down at his phone, Izuku fought the urge to just snap it in half. He was really fucking tired
of problems.
Izuku: What is it now?
Hitoshi: Are you able to call me?
Izuku looked around, watching everyone watch him. And then he looked at the pile of work on his
desk.
Izuku: No, not really. I'm in a bad place to call anyone right now. Can it wait? Hitoshi: I don't think so.
Biting back a groan, Izuku closed his eyes.
Izuku: You'll have to text it to me then.
He wasn't pleased about Hitoshi having to text him bad news, but Izuku knew himself. If they left it for later, he wouldn't be able to focus at all. Not to say he'd be able to focus after Hitoshi finally spit it out, but he'd have a better chance of it at least. He watched the little notification that Hitoshi was typing appear and disappear on and off for about fifteen minutes as he worked on the pile of paperwork on his desk until a text notification finally came through.
For all the time Hitoshi had taken, the text that popped up on Izuku's phone was deceptively simple.
Hitoshi: Ms. Joke is telling people she and sensei were dating. Hitoshi: She's saying you're a homewrecker who stold him from her. Oh.
Oh, suddenly some of the looks he'd been getting were making a lot more sense. Izuku dropped his phone onto his desk and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying desperately to stave off the stress headache that was threatening. This was literally the last thing he needed right now. Sighing, he picked up his phone.
Izuku: Have you told Shouta?
Hitoshi: Ha. No.
Izuku: Toshi. I literally have zero time right now.
He grimaced at the pile of paperwork on his desk, which Izuku would swear had actually gotten bigger in the minute he'd taken his eyes off of it.
Hitoshi: He's not going to be pleased about it.
Izuku: I'm not exactly pleased about it either!
Izuku: But it's his ex, he probably should get an actual phone call and not a text. Hitoshi: You owe me so much for this.
Izuku: If Shouta wouldn't punt you off a roof, I'd kiss you square on the mouth for it. Hitoshi: Please don't.
Izuku huffed out a soft laugh as he put his phone away. Honestly? Fukukado Emi deciding to drag Izuku through the mud instead of Shouta was the better option. It wasn't a great situation either way, admittedly, but no one who actually knew Shouta-or had even had more than a five minute interaction with him-would believe Izuku could have stolen him from her. Tapping his fingers thoughtfully on his desk, Izuku pulled his phone back out to text Todoroki.
Izuku: Todoroki, apparently Ms. Joke is telling people I stole Shouta from her.
Izuku: Mention that to Bakugou for me, please?
Todoroki offered a thumbs up emoji, and Izuku dropped his phone down on his desk again. A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips. What better way for everyone to get a little bit of breathing room than to pit Bakugou and Ms. Joke against each other? Bakugou certainly wasn't going to want anyone to start hearing that Izuku had stolen Shouta from Ms. Joke when he was trying to spread the rumor that Shouta had stolen Izuku and was isolating him from everyone.
Suddenly far more pleased with the situation, Izuku dove back into his work happily for the rest of his shift. A decidedly pissed off Shouta met him at the from doors when he got off. Shouta's furious expression was quickly replaced with one of confusion when he saw Izuku easy little smile. "Did...did Hitoshi talk to you today?"
Izuku's smiled widened slightly. "He did." Izuku looped his arm around an even more confused Shouta's. "Let's go home, we'll talk more there." The walk home was filled with Izuku's cheerful chatter and Shouta's mostly one word answers, punctuated by further confused looks.
"We're going to pit them against each other," Izuku told him immediately once the door locked behind them.
"What?" Shouta's brow furrowed.
Izuku couldn't help the way he bounced slightly on his toes. "So, look. Bakugou has been hinting around to people that you stole me from him, that you're isolating me right?"
Jaw clenched at the reminder, Shouta offered a short nod of agreement.
"Right, but." Izuku grinned at him. "Now Ms. Joke is telling people, in a far louder fashion, that I
stole you ."
Shouta's expression cleared with his realization of where Izuku was going with this. "The two narrative's can't co-exist," he murmured. "People are going to realize they're being fed two different stories."
"Exactly!" Izuku pointed at him enthusiastically. "And at least some of them are going to realize that everyone close to the two of us haven't said a word in support of either of these stories. They may dismiss it as loyalty towards the two of us, but it'll plant a seed of doubt-especially in Bakugou's case, given his recent issues."
Shouta nodded slowly. "That makes sense." He paused, and a small smirk formed. "Exactly how are they going to be pitted against each other?"
Letting out a slightly sheepish laugh, Izuku rubbed the back of his neck as he admitted, "I asked Todoroki to let Bakugou know the story Ms. Joke is spreading. He won't take it lying down, and she's not the type to let him bully her into staying quiet."
"That's...honestly Izuku, that's brilliant. It's gives us all a little bit of breathing room, and switches his focus from you for at least a little while."
"That was the plan," Izuku said, relaxing a little bit. "She's a well known, well liked Hero, he won't be able to get physically aggressive with her without completely ruining himself. Bakugou will have to content himself with verbal warfare with her."
Throughout the next few weeks, they heard exactly that from Hitoshi and Todoroki. Neither Shouta nor Izuku got much information in the way of Bakugou or Ms. Joke by their own design prior to everything starting, and it would be far too suspicious for them to try and get information now. So they had to rely on the information provided to them by Hitoshi and Todoroki, which was frustrating.
Based on the information they were receiving, it was a surprisingly quiet war between them, given how loud the two of them normally were, but it was definitely a war. And Izuku was not above taking advantage of the two of them being wildly distracted by each other to finally get something he'd wanted for quite some time.
Namely, an uninterrupted date with his boyfriend.
"Let's go to a move, get dinner afterwards, maybe makeout in the park like a couple of teenagers," Izuku suggested one evening when neither of them had to work the next day.
"Bets on if Bakugou is going to appear again?" Shouta asked drily even as he stood up to get ready.
"Look," Izuku huffed, "If he's managed to split his attention between Ms. Joke and me to the extent that he's able to know when we're going out on a date again, I'm going to honestly be pretty freaking impressed."
Pausing for a moment, Shouta considered that and then nodded in agreement. "Honestly, same," he admitted before heading into the bedroom to get ready.
At the movie theater, Izuku let Shouta choose the movie. "I'll watch and enjoy pretty much everything," he told Shouta with a shrug. "You're a little more particular about what you like to watch, so you get to choose."
As he had expected, Izuku enjoyed the movie Shouta eventually chose. He was grateful it was empty in the theater, however, because he couldn't stop some of the comments he made regarding the unnecessary romance. He'd made Shouta burst out laughing twice, so he was pretty pleased with himself.
Since Izuku had made Shouta choose the movie, Shouta made Izuku choose where they were going to eat afterwards. After rolling his eyes expressively, Izuku quickly chose a small, quiet diner that he'd eaten at relatively often. After eating and exhausting the conversation about the movie, Shouta wrapped his hand around Izuku's wrist gently.
"Do you think that Bakugou and Emi would back off if we were married?" He asked lowly.
Izuku paused. "Probably not," he answered after a long moment of silence. "But also? That was the least romantic proposal ever. Do you even have a ring?"
"You need a ring?" Shouta teased gently, his cheeks flushing. "That's a little high maintenance Izuku."
Izuku tipped his head back and laughed. "Shouta. I love you," he said through his laughter. "But you're going to walk this back, get a ring, and do a far better proposal than whatever the fuck it was that you just tried to do."
Shouta smiled slowly. "But you're not opposed?"
"To marrying you?" Izuku asked, arching an eyebrow. "Not at all." His smile softened. "When
you know, you know, right?" That was what his Auntie Mitsuki had always said. Even though she'd raised the terror that was Bakugou, she and his Uncle Masaru had been deeply, impossibly in love for as long as he could remember.
Shouta hummed, looking incredibly pleased. "I've always thought so." He slid his hand down from Izuku's wrist to tangle their fingers together. "Let's go take a walk in the park so I can kiss you," he murmured. He wasn't ashamed of people knowing he was dating Izuku, and he was happy to wrap his arm around Izuku or hold his hand, but he didn't care for more than a quick brush of the lips around people he didn't know. And he really wanted to kiss Izuku, so they needed to get going.
Laughing, Izuku nodded and dropped some cash on the table and offered a wave at the waiter who nodded back, recognizing they were leaving. Shouta draped an arm over Izuku's shoulders and pulled him close-Izuku didn't protest, instead curling his own arm around Shouta's waist and leaning his head on Shouta's shoulder.
It was a relatively short walk to the park, and it was a cool, pleasant night so they took their time and meandered down the trails until the got to a relatively remote area. It was far enough away from the other people out for a late night stroll that Shouta felt comfortable prodding Izuku up against a tree.
Izuku laughed in delight, stepping back willingly. He'd been joking, mostly, about making out like teenagers, but he wasn't exactly opposed to it.
Pressing close against Izuku, Shouta murmured against his lips, "I'm going to marry the fuck out of you one day."
Izuku tangled his fingers in Shouta's hair and pulled him forward that last inch, angling his head just right so the position wasn't awkward. "I'm open to some negotiation about the proposal," he managed after they broke apart for air.
"Oh yeah?" Shouta smirked a little. "Not quite as high maintenance about the proposal when I have you up against a tree?"
"I...could be persuaded to be a little less high maintenance about it," Izuku said breathlessly before dragging Shouta down for another kiss.
They spent far too long exchanging long, slow kisses before the sharp laughter of someone who was obviously drunk broke them apart with a jolt. For fear of jinxing them, Shouta didn't say a word about their date until they were safely back in their apartment behind a locked door.
"I can't believe we actually managed to get through an entire date without anyone interrupting us," he murmured.
Izuku laughed. "Honestly, same. Even if it wasn't Bakugou or Ms. Joke, I was expecting either Hitoshi or one of your friends to end up accidentally crashing it."
"Trust me," Shouta said drily, "If any of my friends ended up crashing our date, it would absolutely not be by accident ."
Izuku couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at that. "It sounds like you're speaking from experience there," he pointed out.
Heaving a long suffering sigh, Shouta nodded. "Nearly every date Emi and I went on ended up crashed by them at some point. They managed to convince her it was by accident, but I knew
better. And they knew I knew better. They were just daring me to actually say something to her." "Did you?" Izuku asked curiously.
"No, of course not. She would have wanted me to make them stop, and there wasn't any making them do anything at that point in our lives." He grimaced faintly. "If I'm being honest I should have, because it wasn't fair at all to her, but I wasn't really thinking about that during that timeframe."
"I get it," Izuku said with a small smile. "I..." He hesitated and frowned briefly before plunging ahead. "I dated Shindo Yo for a while there-for a manner of 'dating', anyway-and Hitoshi nearly always found a way to interfere in our actual dates. He didn't mind him as a person, but Hitoshi hated the thought of him dating me, and Hitoshi's opinion was more important." He offered a wry little smile. "Which probably says a lot about how uninvested I was in that particular relationship. And also kind of makes me feel like an ass."
Because now, with Shouta? Izuku would absolutely tell Hitoshi to back off and mind his own business, and the difference was stark and obvious now that he was in a relationship he was actually invested in.
"Well, at least we'll be asses together instead of making other people suffer," Shouta said after a moment of consideration. Because he was realizing that if his friends had tried the same antics with Izuku that they had with Emi, he would have absolutely put his foot down regarding it.
Some of it was just the difference in his age-he'd been incredibly young when he'd dated Emi, and now that he was older he was more settled and able to tell his friends when he was really, truly uncomfortable with what they were doing. But most of it was that he wanted to keep Izuku in a way he'd never wanted with Emi.
"Sounds like a plan to me," Izuku said with an easy smile.
"Hideo asked me to be on standby for the raid next week," Shouta said after a few minutes of comfortable silence as they arranged themselves on the couch, Izuku curled into his side. "Any idea what that's about?"
Izuku grimaced. "Yeah, he's actually asked several Heroes not officially contracted with his Agency to be on standby, just in case things go south. He said he's got an itch in his gut."
Shouta frowned deeply. A Hero as experienced as Hideo developed a certain instinct during his long career that stayed with him long into the pseudo retirement of owning an Agency. And Hideo having an itch in his gut regarding the raid made Shouta deeply concerned.
"Why hasn't he sent anything up the chain officially?" But Shouta was pretty sure he already knew the reason, as much as it pissed him off.
Sure enough, Izuku shrugged and said, "He did. But the Commission said a 'feeling' wasn't a good enough reason for them to pay Underground Heroes extra to be on call for this raid."
"Of course, it all comes down to their damned budget," Shouta huffed.
"When doesn't it?" Izuku asked drily. "If Hideo had the funds in his budget, he'd just pay for you guys to be on call officially out of the Agency budget. But he doesn't, and since this came down to us through the Commission, we've got to play by their rules." He paused. "Officially, at least. Which is why unofficially he's asked several Underground Heroes to be alert and ready for a notification that they need backup on the raid."
Luckily for everyone involved, you didn't get into Underground Heroics for the money, so no one had complained about being on call for no pay.
Shouta had a bad feeling of his own, and it was only growing the closer it got to time for the raid- and time for Nite-Lite to be in their faces again. "This is going to be a disaster."
Izuku couldn't offer any disagreement.