Izuku Midoriya was having a very confusing day. He'd woken up bright and early, eaten breakfast with his mother and Blackmore, then parted ways with his brother-turned-butler at the train station to make his way toward Miruko's hero agency address. It was a lovely day outside, the sun shining bright overhead, and he felt confident as he stepped aboard his train that nothing could possibly go wrong. He was on his way to work with Japan's number 7 highest-ranked hero! A bona-fide icon, Miruko would surely have lots to teach him.

The ride was pleasant; he managed to get a seat, at least until he offered it to an elderly man who sat down with a heavy whuff and thanked him. He was recognized at every turn, people shaking his hand and congratulating him for his excellent performance in the Sports Festival. Tying for first place had been one hell of a coup for a student who hadn't even had a Quirk just a few months ago. Izuku was at the top of the world, and the only way to go was up.

The problems began when he reached the listed address. Miruko's office was… well, it didn't seem to be present. He poked his head into the small Chinese restaurant and asked the man behind the counter if he was in the right place. The man read the form and told him in halting Japanese that he didn't now any heroes in the building; it was just him, his mother and his two daughters, and they all lived upstairs. Izuku thanked the man and stepped outside, looking around. Had he read the address wrong? No, this was the right number, on the right street.

Huh. He checked his email; both his prior messages to Miruko had gone unanswered, which was odd. Perhaps… was this some sort of test? A game? "If you want to work with me, you have to find me first"? He shrugged, before looking around. Sighting a suitable space, he stepped into the space between a dumpster and an alley wall and emerged from between a large neon sign and the building, leaping up to grab onto the rooftop's edge and climb up. A bird's eye view, maybe…

The neighborhood was a low-income one, lots of short, blocky apartment buildings and scattered small businesses with a few empty, undeveloped lots scattered here and there. Nowhere that seemed fitting for a hero agency of such gravitas as Miruko's. The only suitable building he could see was a high-rise in the distance, so he shrugged and began steadily warping his way over, using the gaps between alleys and various small spaces to carefully cross the rooftops. Technically speaking he was breaking the law, but nobody around here seemed to really notice or care for the green-haired boy teleporting over their heads.

By the time he reached the high-rise, he realized it wasn't any sort of office building; he was staring up at a luxury apartment block, the sort of place he figured top tier heroes lived. He looked around for a moment, but when he caught no sight of Miruko he simply waited a moment, looking at the windows opposite. Everything was tinted and reflective, making it impossible for him to warp inside. So he waited for someone to open the massive glass doors, and when they began to shut he grinned and stepped off the wall, into the alley beside him.

He appeared in the still-ajar doorway, shooting out feet-first for a moment before righting himself and landing on his feet. He was standing in the vast lobby, free of any alarms or onlookers; aside an older woman sitting on a bench he had apparently scared half to death, judging by her pallid expression.

"Sorry, miss," said Izuku, bowing. "Just looking for someone."

He walked toward the elevator, glancing down at the forms again. Miruko's private address was, well, private, but given that she was a solo-operator… it made sense that she would work out of her apartment. He checked the residency list on the wall next to the elevators, and sure enough; Usigiyama, R, living in a penthouse on the forty-second floor. Izuku grinned.

Exterior access would be impossible, but he had an idea now. D4C allowed him to transmit between any two spaces; he could even squeeze himself between objectst that were effectively touching, so long as there was a pocket of space large enough for his body to pass through at the access point. He called the elevator, and when he peeked inside to see a keypad in place of a standard array of buttons, he nodded. Then, glancing upward at the gap between the elevator and the doorway, a tiny sliver, he nodded once.

He stepped back, allowing the elevator to shut; right as it began to close, he threw himself through the gap. His point of entry needed to be wide enough to accommodate him, but he'd learned rather rapidly that he could exit through just about any space so long as he had the momentum.

He vanished, and appeared pulling himself through the gap between the elevator's roof and the wall, rolling flat onto his back. There. Inside the elevator shaft, free to climb as much as he wished. He noticed the elevator cables, two thick, heavy steel cords with about a foot of space between them, and grinned again. Then he stepped between them, reappearing between them about eighty feet up. Some quick mental math told him the forty-second floor would be about four hundred feet up, so he began swinging back and forth between the elevator cables, repeatedly warping higher and higher.

He emerged on what he assumed would be the forty-second floor and came to a halt, clinging to the narrow ledge the doorway formed. These doors would be impossible to open from the inside, unless he had the key, but he didn't need a key; he just needed to peer through the gap between the elevator doors and the floor. It was miniscule, barely a quarter of an inch, but it was there as he dropped down and held onto the ledge with his fingertips.

A quarter-inch. Much smaller than his usual access points, but… well, if he got stuck, he'd have failed the test. So he shrugged, braced his feet against the wall, and shoved himself backward, between the elevator cables again, focusing D4C on the gap. He took a deep breath as he passed through, before rocketing out of the gap and nearly hitting his head on the wall opposite the elevator door. He exhaled, looking around; a long, spacious hallway, with a orange carpeting and cream-coloured walls.

The plate above the door read 41. Izuku read it, read it again, and then slapped his forehead. He'd miscalculated by a single floor. As he looked around, he noted the somewhat obnoxious (to his mind) absence of any narrow spaces. The alcoves for the doors were wide enough, but he couldn't move while channeling D4C through a larger space like that, as he'd learned from the Sports Festival. So he pondered it a moment. Then, he blinked.

This was an expensive building. Expensive buildings were made expensively, with expensive architects who made expensive and expansive blueprints, usually sticking to a formula. If the 41st floor, which had two penthouse suites in this wing, looked this way; would the 42nd floor look the same? It stood to reason, he figured; the doorways would be in the same place. Doorways with alcoves large enough for him to pass through, hopefully.

Izuku took a long look at the hallway, envisioning it in his head, then pulled off his blazer and threw it over his head. As it fell onto him he concentrated on that mental image, just above him…

And appeared, falling sideways through the doorway alcove of a penthouse suite, on level 42. He punched the air triumphantly, then paused, because now his blazer was stuck a floor down. He'd just have to pick it up later with Miruko's help, he figured.

He turned and faced the penthouse door. Success, at last; he'd made it to Miruko's office. He checked the note one more time, as if to affirm that this was really happening, and then raised a fist and knocked on the door, a steady tap-tap-tap. He stepped back a respectful foot or so, and waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

"She isn't home," he said to himself. "She isn't home, and I've made a mistake."

Then he pulled out his phone, and checked the usual hero-news pages. He searched for "Miruko", sorted by "recent", turned safesearch "on" and…

She was in the middle of pursuing an active villain, just a few blocks away. Izuku closed his eyes for a moment, and then reached into his backpack, pulled out the purple coat his mother had modified from Valentine's original outfit, and pulled it on. Then he loosened his school tie, dropped his backpack by the door, and looked intently at his phone. Someone had uploaded an image just moments ago; he stared intently at it, scanning for possible warp points, and found one. There was a point where a sign jutting from a building's face was about a foot distant from the actual brickwork. He closed his eyes, envisioning it, and then pulled his coat around himself in a swirl.

The coat folded in on itself and he appeared fifteen feet off the ground, spinning out of the gap between the sign and the road. He opened his eyes and looked forward, seeing a trail of cars run off the road, broken sections of asphalt and, in the distance, two figures bounding down the road. He grinned.

Time to make his entrance.

He ran, slid under a car, appeared under another car fifty feet up the road, and repeated the process, warping under cars, between cars, even using a chunk of broken asphalt as an exit point to leap into the air and pull his coat around himself again. The two were moving quickly but he was covering football fields in seconds. He got into the air again, using Thunderstruck in his left leg to leap almost twenty feet up, and eyed the road ahead. There, in front of the villain, a narrow alleyway.

He whirled his coat, and appeared with a fistful of crackling emerald lightning. The villain was a man, with the legs and head of a deer, a proud rack of antlers rising from the crown of his head. He glanced sidelong at Izuku long enough to look shocked before Izuku's fist slammed into the side of his head, throwing the runner to the ground. Izuku slid, twisting, and before the villain could get up onto his feet he grabbed the man by the antlers and drove his knee into his face. There was a heavy thud, and the villain fell still.

Then Miruko came down, the ground cracked and Izuku was knocked off his feet. She'd landed feet-first, in a squat, leaving a crater five feet around from the force of her impact. Izuku rolled with the impact when he hit the ground, smacking the back of his head against a wall. For a moment he was seeing double, before his eyes focused and he saw the Rabbit Hero stalking toward him. Her steel-capped boots clicked against the asphalt, unmarred despite the damage they'd done.

"Stay down!" she snapped, and it took Izuku a moment to realize she was speaking to him, pointing a finger at him. "I don't know what the hell you think you're doing, but you're in a lot of trouble, you no-good vigilante!"

"Wait!" Izuku threw his hands up. "I-I'm not a vigilante! I'm Izuku Midoriya, y-your intern from UA!"

Miruko froze in place for a moment, her finger still aimed at him accusingly. Then, she scowled, before turning to look down at the villain.

"Well…" She sounded… angry? "That's just great."

The sound of sirens in the distance heralded the approach of the police. Izuku climbed to his feet, rubbing the back of his head where he could feel a bump forming. He stepped toward her, at which point she aimed her glowering expression back at him, red eyes gleaming.

"You…" She pointed at him again. "Just… dammit!"

She stomped her foot, the shockwave nearly knocking Izuku to the ground again and leaving another small crater in the sidewalk. Then she looked down at the villain, back at Izuku, and then to the roof above him. Then she looked him in the eye, and shook her head.

"Just go home, kid," she said. "I don't work with interns. I don't work with anybody."

Then she leapt up and away, onto the rooftop above Izuku's head. Izuku followed her with his eyes until she disappeared over the edge, before frowning. What the hell was that? He'd appeared, beaten her weird challenge, even taken down a villain for her, and her response was to tell him to leave?

"No," he said to himself. "No, I won't."

He channeled Thunderstruck into his left leg and leapt up after her, mantling the building to find her already a block away, and rapidly increasing the gap. His head swam with the sudden burst of motion, but he wasn't letting her take off without at least something of an explanation. He took off in a sprint, his arms pumping at his side, channeling Thunderstruck from leg to leg to turn every third or fourth step into a long leap. He couldn't catch her, but he could keep up, and she seemed to notice his pursuit when she looked over her shoulder and saw the flashes of green light.

And then she sped up. Was this another test or something? What the hell was going on? Izuku continued his pursuit, channeling Thunderstruck more and more, leaping longer distances, ignoring the building ache in his legs. Eventually he dove between two buildings, into a narrow alley, materializing almost directly behind her from the gap between two signs.

"Please!" He kept running as he called to her. "What's going on? Will you please just explain what's happening?"

She came to a stop, skidding across a gravel-covered roof. Izuku fumbled his own landing, rolling to a stop at her feet after tumbling head over heels a couple times. His legs were killing him and his head was swimming again, vision wavering in and out of focus. Slowly he tracked up her muscular legs to look her in the eye again.

She didn't look pleased. She looked pissed.

"Please…" Izuku repeated. "I… I got your intern offer. I… I've been looking for you all day."

He pulled the crumpled envelope from the inside pocket of his coat, holding it out to her. She took it, took one look at the form inside, and cursed.

"I'm going to kill Crust," she said, before tossing the form on the roof and whirling around. "I'm going to kill him. That idiot!"

She stomped back and forth, tiny tremours shaking the roof, but thankfully she didn't slam her foot through anybody's ceiling. She just paced for a while, leaving Izuku to stare at the internship form, now crumpled from her gloved fist. What did… what did Crust have to do with anything?

"M-Miss Miruko?" he asked, looking back up at her. "I… I don't understand. What are you talking about?"

She stopped, and looked at him. The pacing and running seemed to have calmed her anger; now she just looked tired.

"Look, kid, I…" She hesitated, putting her hands on her hips. "This whole internship thing, I… I wasn't really being serious."

Izuku's heart sank.

"W-What do you mean?" he asked, climbing up to his feet. "Was this a p-prank?"

"Yeah," she scoffed, before noticing his distress and wincing. "Not on you, kid. On me. I kinda… ugh, this is so stupid… I lost a bet."

"Lost a bet?" Izuku blinked at her. "W-What do you mean? What were you betting on?"

"During the Sports Festival, I was watching it, and suddenly Crust called me out of nowhere." She scowled as she spoke. "He was talking to some of the other top tens, and he… he wanted me to settle a bet. Apparently Hawks thought you would win the final tournament, and he was wondering if I agreed."

"You didn't," Izuku guessed.

"No, I didn't, because…" She frowned at him. "Look, it's nothing personal, okay? I just… you had this kinda smug look during the whole tournament, warping around and being all tricky and stuff. It pissed me off. So I told Crust no, that Bakugo kid would win, because he actually looked he was passionate about the event. He wasn't walking around all high and mighty, he was grinding away at all those tasks, rushing into his fights, you know? I figured he'd wipe the floor with you."

Izuku blinked, surprised to find himself feeling almost bereaved. One of Japan's finest heroes thought he was a… an asshole, just because of his demeanour during the Sports Festival? He swallowed, hard, but Miruko continued.

"So Crust tells me that he thinks Hawks and I are both wrong; he figures it'll be a tie." Miruko laughed, bitterly. "And I called him an idiot, so he said we should actually put a wager on it. If I was right, he and Hawks had to send Bakugo internship offers. If Hawks was right, Crust and I would have to send you internship offers. And if Crust was right…"

"You had to send me an offer, and Hawks had to send an offer to Kacchan." Izuku frowned. "And… you lost. So the internship offer was just… what, a joke? You didn't even want to send it?"

"No," Miruko replied, crossing her arms. "I didn't. I didn't want to send anybody any internship offers, because that would be stupid. I don't even like working with other pros, forget about first year students! So I threw my internship offer together at the last second, stuffed it in an ugly envelope and tried to forget all about it. I thought you'd accept an offer from Endeavour or one of the other top were rumours All-Might was your sponsor or something, I thought maybe you'd work with him."

"But I chose you," Izuku said, and he was surprised when his voice cracked. "I… I chose you. Because… Nobody ever works with you. You never work with anybody. I thought you… I thought you saw something in me, maybe, something that made you think you'd break your whole lone-hero ideal. But…"

There were tears in his eyes, which he hated.

"There was nothing," Izuku said, swallowing hard to try and clear the lump from his throat. "You just lost a stupid bet. You never wanted me to work with you. You never even wanted me to win the Sports Festival at all."

His hands clenched into fists at his sides. He didn't know if he wanted to throw a punch or fall to his knees and sob. He didn't even know why he felt this way, about something that shouldn't have even mattered. So the internship wasn't real, so Miruko didn't like him at all, so he'd basically wasted his time being excited for the entire affair. What did it matter?

It shouldn't have hurt as much as it did.

"Look, kid, it wasn't… I wasn't really thinking about it as a serious offer," Miruko tried, sounding at least a little guilty. "I just… it was an obligation, right? I never thought you'd actually agree to it."

Izuku sat back down. His legs were killing him, his head hurt and now his chest hurt and he couldn't stop crying. Just great, like this was going to make him look like any more appealing a partner for Miruko. But he couldn't stop. It had been a while since he'd cried, since he'd broken down into tears, because ever since that day where Valentine stepped into his life he'd… well, he'd been doing great. He had Blackmore by his side, new powers, new responsibilities, he'd finally been winning, succeeding, showing the world that even though he was Deku he could still do it, still fight and win.

And in turn, one of Japan's best heroes had looked at him and assumed he was just another arrogant, overpowered student. She'd thought… she'd thought he was no better than Bakugo. She'd been rooting against him, hoping he lost. It hurt. It hurt to think about, to know, and it hurt because he was wondering if she wasn't at least a little right about it.

He took a long, heaving breath, then another. He managed to stop sobbing, before looking up at Miruko again.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I… I just need to get my things from your apartment building, and then I'll go… go back to UA. Try and find another internship or-or something. I'll stay out of your way."

He got up on his feet, wincing as the world span again, and turned away. His coat drifted gently in the summer breeze. In the distance, there were clouds forming along the horizon line. He walked toward them. He'd just warp back to his bedroom and… take a little break.

"Jeez, kid," Miruko said, behind him. "I… I didn't think you'd take it like that. Wow."

He looked back at her, and she stared at him for a moment.

"You… you did pretty good back there, intercepting that villain like that," she said. "Bondarchuk is fast, even I have trouble catching him. But you just… got him, right in the side of the head. And that knee to the face was pretty clean too."

Izuku blinked, clearing the tears from his eyes. Miruko looked almost like she was thinking about something, rubbing her chin between her finger and thumb.

"I… alright, kid, I'll tell you what," she said, finally. "I screwed up, alright? I was the asshole here. I shouldn't have sent that internship offer, and I shouldn't have tried to blow you off like that. It was unprofessional of me, or whatever. So… if you can keep up, you can run with me for the week, alright? See if you can't learn something by watching number seven kick ass."

She grinned at him. Izuku blinked again. He turned back toward her, taking a single step, then another. Soon he was back in front of her, and then he thrust a hand toward her.

She looked down at it, and shook her head.

"Nah, we… we aren't there, kid," she said. "Just… c'mon."

She turned and kicked off again. Izuku looked down at his empty hand for a moment, slowly clenching it into a fist. His chest still ached, his head was still pounding, his legs were still sore. He wanted to lie down for a while. But Miruko was gone, and going just as fast as she had before. So Izuku grinned after her.

"Alright, Miruko," he said, watching her run toward the highrise. "I'll keep up. I promise."

Then he channeled Thunderstruck and took off with a running leap, following Miruko back to her penthouse. It was time to prove himself again. Good.

He relished the chance.

AN:
I would love to say this entire idea of Miruko's offer being semi-illegitimate was some hard-won scheme concocted at the end of a long series of ponderous questions, but in reality it just kinda came to me all at once while my remarkably patient beta readers watched me do the textual equivalent of muttering to myself in their DMs for twenty-plus minutes. I'm quite proud of it though.

Also, first Izuku crying scene in the 'fic! It's an MHA staple and I just had to get it in, at least once. Our boy has been having a crazy couple of months, it's about time some of it caught up with him. Maybe the whole Blackmore-clinginess thing went both ways? Time will tell.

Speaking of Blackmore, how's he doing? Find out in our next chapter, when we see how both of our heroes are dealing with the world of Professional Heroism. Having written Blackmore's segment, I can say he'll be having a rough go of it. As for Izuku… well, that would be telling. I don't wanna ruin the surprise!