Shouta watched Tokoyami and Hagakure gesture as they told a story from across the room. This wasn't suspicious exactly, as Friday evenings had turned into regular ranting and gushing sessions about how their internships had gone throughout the week.

Shouta approved, as it meant they were learning from each other's experiences. It also made them happy, which made him happy, and he was telling no one ever (Harry may have found out, considering the way he'd grinned when Shouta had explained Friday dates weren't an option).

Hagkaure was always happy to bounce out a tale. Tokoyami, however, was talking far longer than usual. And Hitoshi and Koda were nodding along while occasionally contributing. While the entire class was carefully listening to that one conversation.

This was suspicious.

Also. Midoriya was angry. That was Midoriya's I'm-still-because-I'm-plotting pose. And Bakugou's I'm-scowling-becasue-I'm-going-to-back-you-up face. Which wasn't so much suspicious (Shouta owed Hound Dog coffee for the rest of the man's life) as a major fucking warning sign.

Shouta stood up, pushing his papers across the counter and managed five steps before Yagi appeared at his elbow. Shouta blinked up at the man, who grinned sheepishly before giving his phone a little wave.

"Young Midoriya texted me."

Shouta narrowed his eyes and Yagi gave a little cough.

"He asked me about taking down a corrupt hero. Then immediately texted back a garbled apology that said the text had been meant for Nezu."

Shouta bit back his sigh. "I regret that internship so much."

With a wry smile, Yagi tilted his head. "We put it off for two years. I'd run out of things to bribe Nezu with."

"And I ran out of distractions. Ok, let's go see what's got our kids and the Problem Child in particular so ruffled."

It didn't take long to get within hearing range, though it took a bit longer for students to start noticing Shouta and Yagi's approach. Not quite long enough to necessitate more situational awareness drills, but long enough that Shouta wasn't particularly impressed.

Kirishima, like the good friend he was, tried to subtly inform Hagakure of their presence, but she was too involved in the punchline of her story.

"-and then he gave us cookies!"

Hitoshi, who had watched his teachers cross the room with glinting eyes, met Shouta's stare dead- on and stated, "They were fucking delicious."

Shouta quirked an eyebrow. "And why were you accepting cookies from strange men?" Hitoshi's body language pretty much guaranteed Shouta already knew the answer, but, as a teacher, there were some questions he couldn't afford not to ask.

Hagakure yelped and spun, but was already speaking before fully registering Shouta's presence. "He wasn't strange! I mean, he kinda was, Sensei, but he's a hero! We checked his license and everything! And he's so useful. Like, I've learned more tricks about eavesdropping in the last week than I have in the last month of this internship."

Shouta blinked, and Yagi covered his mouth with his hand as he went to lean on the arm of the sofa next to Midoriya. He looked like he was trying not laugh.

The kids decided that Shouta's silence was a request for more information. Which, to be fair, it often was.

Tokoyami crossed his arms. "His tips on tracking suspected villains through shadows and alleyways were quite enlightening." He hesitated even as Dark Shadow nodded. "As were his suggestions on balancing the dark within."

"He's really kind." Koda's voice was quiet, but he met Shouta's gaze without flinching.

Hagakure pointed to Hitoshi hard enough that she smacked Ojirou in the nose. "Hitoshi said he knew him! That it was fine and you trusted him."

Half the eyes in the room spun to Hitoshi while the other half spun to Shouta. Midoriya was the only exception, since he was looking at his shaking mentor trying to determine if Yagi was having some sort of attack. Which he wasn't, the laughing bastard of a man.

Unfortunately, Shouta had something simmering in his stomach that prevented him from following suit.

"You let a strange hero, who was not part of your internship, mentor you, learn details about your quirks, and feed you random sweets?"

Hitoshi stared back with a slight smirk. "You're the one who keeps calling him strange. I just figured he was being overprotective."

"Why," and Shouta knew his voice was coming out flatter than usual from the way his students were straightening up into something approaching battle stances, "would my war-veteran, pro-hero boyfriend feel the need to be overprotective?"

There was a pause, and then a series of shrieks.

"The boyfriend was real!?" Ashido exclaimed while leaning rather too far forward.

Uraraka turned to her. "You thought we made him up?"

"Kinda!" Ashido replied with Sero and Kaminari nodding beside her.

"So he's a good person?" Momo asked, looking for confirmation from Todoroki. "He won't break Sensei's heart?"

"We'll have to give him a little talk." Bakugou didn't let of small explosions, because the consequences of setting fire to the common room had been pounded into his head with home repair and cleaning lessons. He did have a down right malicious glint to his eye, though.

"Done and done!" There was a short yet heavy pause as all eyes travelled to Izuku and Yagi and everyone had the simultaneous realization that they had both spoken.

Shouta sighed. This was all very unhelpful. He pulled out his phone to text the question to Harry, and then frowned at the immediate yet also unhelpful response.

Hitoshi was nodding along to the confused faces of his classmates. "Harry has confirmed that the All Might - Deku Shovel Talk was on par with Detective Tsukauchi's and thus are tied for the lead, but no one will tell me what they actually said. Harry just smirks and they just do that."

With a small hand wave Hitoshi indicated the happy beaming of mentor and student and their identical innocent expressions.

"I can do better." Bakugou muttered while crossing his arms. "Sure, Kacchan."

"Problem Child," Shouta said in his best teacher voice. Everyone immediately fell silent which was good, since Shouta really wasn't in the mood to focus on the combined antics of his boyfriend and class. "Explain."

Midoriya's head shot up. "I wasn't even there?"

"Irrelevant."

Midoriya blinked at him for a moment, before whipping his head to Yagi. "All Might!"

Yagi chuckled before patting the boy on the head. "Sorry, sorry. But Aizawa was suspicious before I arrived. He doesn't need a text to know you were angry."

"Righteously angry, Problem Child. The kind you only get when someone is hurting your friends.

My students."

Midoriya nodded, the mischief from earlier falling off his face even as his spine straightened; another sign that the kid's anger was justified and not very far away at all. He didn't even look at the four who'd started everything. "What did Harry say when you texted him?"

"Ten minutes."

"What does that mean?" Ashido asked, leaning forward over Kaminari.

Shouta flicked his eyes to her and back to Midoriya. "That you're all getting cookies. And that his explanation is too far away."

"The Rockwalk Agency is crooked." All eyes snapped back to Midoriya. "I don't know how far; I don't have enough information," and here the Problem Child scowled a clear 'because no one came to me earlier' glare towards Hitoshi and company that Shouta empathized with so very much, "but their instruction is very problematic."

"Izuku-" Hitoshi started, but quickly got cut off by an irate Problem Child.

"No!" He turned back to Shouta. "Favouritism, Qirkism, the worst assignments, minimal backup,

minimal teaching."

There was quiet. A very uncomfortable quiet.

"And you didn't tell me? An agency I arranged was using your last opportunity for work experience before graduating," when they'd leave to face villains and crime and society alone, "to not only teach you nothing, but actively belittle your work and efforts, and you didn't tell me?"

That wasn't quite what he'd wanted to say. Dammit, his kids looked uncomfortable now. And Shouta knew, he did, that there were many reasons people, particularly kids, didn't tell adults things like this. It was just, he'd thought they trusted him. And that all of those reasons made Shouta want to murder something. Violently.

An arm wound itself around Shouta's waist. When Shouta relaxed backwards, realizing intellectually what his senses and instincts had clearly already known, Harry's hand rose up to rest against Shouta's heart, fingertips just brushing against the base of Shouta's throat.

"They couldn't, Shouta. There wasn't anything to tell; just general incompetency. And if there was, I would have told you immediately."

Shouta ignored the many eyes of his students to lean back and stare into the green eyes of his partner. He took a deep breath, letting the air wrap around his bones. "But you thought there was more to it."

Harry let go, coming to stand shoulder to shoulder. "Yup. I have a lot of experience, you know, including that of an abused and bullied child." Midoriya looked down and Bakugou clenched his fist in the corner of Shouta's eye. "Warning signs abounded. Don't worry, though. I got it covered! In a completely and entirely unrelated matter, can I have a copy of those statistics you were working on last week?"

Completely and entirely unrelated Shouta's ass. Those statistics involved crime and response rates for neighbourhoods that included the Rockwalk Agency's territory and if Harry was asking for them, this soon-to-be-dead Agency was involved at some level of kickbacks or organized crime.

But Shouta trusted Harry. He did. Shouta would get the full story when there were no children present, which would also include the full story of the complete and utter ruination Harry was in the process of raining down on an Agency that was fucking with the education of children (Shouta's children).

So Shouta nodded and stepped away, going to retrieve the statistics that were currently spread over the kitchen counter.

"Hello, Shouta's children!"

He returned just in time to see Midoriya and Uraraka finish little waves and Todorroki a formal greeting. Hagakure and Koda were getting hair ruffles while Dark Shadow was getting a friendly nudge.

Kaminari, however, was the one who blurted, "So when do the rest of us get to try these awesome cookies?"

Before Sero had finished swatting Kaminari in the back of the head, Harry had straightened up. "Ah. Thanks for reminding me!" He proceeded to reach into the pocket of his jeans and pull out a massive container that he floated with a wave of his hand to sit on the coffee table.

Midoriya's eyes lit up with all the questions.

Shouta cut them off by slapping his folder into Harry's chest. Harry opened it, flipped through, and grinned. "Perfect, thanks." He kissed Shouta's cheek and turned his back on Shouta's flabbergasted class.

"Goodbye Shouta's children!" He raised a hand in good-bye as he walked away. "Sorry I can't talk, but Nezu's expecting me. Corruption to destroy and all that. Ta!"

Shouta let the class have their moment. When over half of them had turned back to him, he growled, gaining the rest of their attention. "Full reports. All of you. Leave nothing out. Talk."

They talked. It wasn't quite as bad as Shouta feared. It was bad, but Harry and the kids were right, it was the kind of bad that he would have been very hard pressed to do something about.

Nezu would have pulled the kids from the internships on Shouta's word, no problem, but then they would have been stuck. With no explicit reason given, other agencies would have been hesitant to take the kids mid-way through the term. Worse, since it was third year, that might have actually harmed their job prospects as well.

Considering the nature of the offences, Shouta probably would have let the kids decide, possibly even turned the experience into training for when working with problematic colleagues. There was no way the kids were going to just fall into another group dynamic like this class, after all.

But, and this was the but that lodged under his skin and was picking at his bones, Harry had seen something. His war-veteran, pro-hero boyfriend, the one who'd been through hell and come out of it with a protective streak for all kids a mile wide, had seen something. Had seen something Shouta's brilliant yet inexperienced kids hadn't, and Shouta didn't know what that thing was. Yet.

"Are you mad, Sensei?"

Shouta blinked out of his thoughts. "No, Hagakure. I would rather have known," he glared at a all of his students because he would always rather know, "but I have faith that you would have come to me if it got any worse."

Tokoyami, Hagakure, Koda, and Hitoshi all nodded just shy of frantically.

"Will he be all right?" Koda asked with a blush.

"Yeah! "Hagakure added. "Harry kind of made it sound like he was going up against the entire

agency."

"Rockwalk Agency is fairly high profile; they have a lot of strong heroes." Tokoyami was calm, but Dark Shadow was buzzing around more than usual.

Shouta stared at the earnest faces of his students, then made the mistake of locking eyes with Yagi. Shouta snorted even as Yagi had to very deliberately look away to avoid the same fate.

"Um, Sensei?" Uraraka looked concerned from her spot on the floor by Izuku's feet.

"It's fine, Uraraka. Harry's got it covered."

He wondered if he should be put out by the number of skeptical looks that got him. Was Harry really that physically unimpressive? The scars at least should have indicated he'd survived some shit. Or was it Shouta's own choice in partner that was in question here? Did they really think that Shouta would pick someone who wasn't just as deviously competent as himself? Because that would be offensive. And boring as fuck.

Thankfully, Midoriya seemed to agree. He was busy staring at Todoroki, Uraraka, and Hitoshi, even pivoting off a grumbling Bakugou to gain leverage to meet each of their eyes.

"Really? None of you, none of you know?"

"Know what?" Uraraka asked, rather cautiously because she had been friends with Midoriya for three years by now.

"You met him! For longer than five minutes, which is the excuse I'm allowing the rest of them!" Izuku blurted.

"Not much longer," Todoroki calmly added.

Midoriya blinked, then looked back to Hitoshi who simply raised his hands. "None of you know?" "I do!" Yagi chirped, even as Hizashi scowled.

Hizashi had entered the common room several minutes after Harry had left, bringing Shouta coffee like a good best friend. He'd stayed because someone was threatening their students, and it was usually Hizashi's job to make sure Shouta didn't commit murder and therefore be forbidden from seeing his kids. Like a very good best friend.

Hizashi had also been caught up on the fact that Sensei's boyfriend was real, appeared, left cookies, and went to trample said threat into dust. He was quiet put out that he'd been all of ten minutes shy of actually seeing the boyfriend (officially).

Shouta grinned with all of his teeth, meeting Midoriya's worried gaze. "It's fine, Problem Child. Harry's identity isn't secret. Everyone else just sucks at info gathering."

There was sputtering from around the room, particularly from Hizashi, but Midoriya beamed. "Okay then! Harry isn't an underground hero. He's got plenty of backing and clout to take on an agency like Rockwalk, even in Japan."

Uraraka sighed and patted Midoriya's knee fondly. "Izuku, we're not all hero nerds like you and able to keep track of foreign heroes."

Midoriya looked at her flatly. "You've heard of Potter Harry, trust me."

She opened her mouth to reply, when everyone heard a soft, "Oh, shit."

It took a moment for most of the kids to realize the words had come from Bakugou, who was having one of their weird silent conversations with a rapidly grinning Midoriya.

Once the eyebrows had stopped moving, Bakugou turned to stare at Shouta, before nodding once. "Good fucking catch, Sensei."

"That's what I said!" Yagi interjected, clearly proud that he and his protege were the only ones on top of this conversation.

"What!" Ashido screeched. "Tell us, tell us, tell us."

"Shut up! Nerd's right. You all had better heard of Phoenix."

There was a beat, and then all the voice started washing over Shouta as he leaned back into the couch he'd commandeered.

"Phoenix of the the hero team Marauders?" That calm question was Iida.

"The ones who re-defined teamwork for heroics?" And Momo, equally calm in her pursuit of more knowledge.

"We learned about them in class last year!" Ashido was so loud.

"Phoenix and the Marauders who brought down that terrorist group when they were our age?!" Kirishima looked like he was a step away from shaking Bakugou.

"Hey, we fought a war!" Kaminari sounded pouty,

Sero smacked the blond boy up the side of the head again. "So did they! Without the Commission or other heroes to back them up!"

"Leader of the Marauders!? England's number seven hero ranking?" That one was Hizashi, by far louder than the rest.

Shouta made sure to keep his face impassive as he glared his friend into silence, cutting through the noise with a clear response. "Yes."

The quiet was sharp and beautiful.

He waited a moment then looked at Hizashi. "You know this is what happens when you leave me alone in bars; I adopt strays."

"That was about cats. Cats, Shou!" Hizashi whined. "Not top ten heroes! Wait. You picked up a top ten hero in a bar?"

"Don't be illogical." Really, Hizashi should know better by now.

"I picked up him!" Everyone turned to stare as Harry waltzed in, again, and threw himself over Shouta, arms twining around Shouta's neck from behind.

"Agency still standing?" Shouta asked as he leaned back to study Harry face. Harry's green eyes sparked and simmered. "What agency?"

Shouta grinned, the scary grin that had everyone but his students backing up a step or nine. Harry returned it in kind.

"I so get it now," Uraraka whispered.

Shouta ignored her, instead gesturing to Tokoyami, Hagakure, Koda, and Hitoshi. "Congratulations. You have four new interns."

"Aw." Harry's smile softened. "You give the best presents."

Shouta did give good presents. He also had good students and a good boyfriend and was not above using both to his advantage.