The first day of classes was jarringly boring, they'd been through so much in so little time, the mundane classwork initially felt unreal to everyone. Izuku himself was dissociating a bit; finding it hard to concentrate as his mind continually went to what Big Tiny could possibly want from him that required an indirect form of communication.
"You good there Mido-bro?" Kirishima asked, making Izuku look up, when did they get to lunch?
"Yeah, just thinking." he said, shaking his head a bit before digging into the Katsudon he'd somehow ordered, "Pops said we were having a special informational class this afternoon, what do you think it is?"
"No idea, but I heard the Rehab guys already went through it." Kaminari said, "Kan mentioned it when I saw them in the infirmary."
Izuku looked up sharply at that, "They're in the infirmary?" he asked worriedly.
"Yeah, don't know what happened, but Kan said the class was fun at least." Kaminari tried to sound excited, but he definitely sounded scared.
"Yiannis was in there too?" Sato asked with a whistle, "I thought that guy was indestructible."
"Guess someone finally found his limit." Kirishima whispered in awe.
Izuku grunted a bit, toying with the idea of going to see them, but Yui settling down beside him distracted him, "did you hear anything about the Rehab class in the infirmary."
"Mhmm."
"...you gonna tell me?" he asked with a small smirk as she simply began to eat.
"Mmm…m-m." she hummed.
"Thanks babe." he said, kissing her forehead.
"-bunch of villains if you ask me."
The whispered insult had Izuku's ears pricking up, glancing out of the corner of his eye to look at a few second year Gen Ed students whispering about something.
"-heard some of them were a part of a gang, how'd they get a chance with UA?"
"It's that fire brat, isn't it?" another scoffed, a little louder, none of them realizing that the whole table of first year heroic students were now listening with rapt attention, "had to of wheedled his friends in somehow."
"How'd you think he did it?" Izuku asked, plopping himself down at their table, making the dishes on it shake as well as making the three students jump, his friends were staring worriedly, with Kaminari wondering just when the boy had moved.
"W-what are you talking about?" one stuttered.
"Y-yeah, we were having a private-" the other tried to say, but Izuku cut him off.
"-private conversations aren't heard across the lunch room." he said coldly, "so tell me how you think my friends cheated their way into UA. go on, i'd love to hear all about it."
"Midoriya, come on man." Kaminari said, trying to keep the peace as he put his hand on his friend's shoulder, "they're not worth it."
Izuku gritted his teeth, then let a breath escape, "yeah, you're right." Izuku muttered, getting up.
"They're just jealous anyways." Kaminari whispered as they reached their table, he thought he'd said it quietly enough.
But one had heard him.
"Jealous of what?" he snapped.
Izuku whirled around, smirking as Kaminari had just given him ammunition, "jealous that you couldn't get into heroics with two years of chances while these 'villains' got in on merit alone, makes you wonder what that says about you-" Izuku was cut off as the boy punched him in the jaw. It was a harsh hit, and he would be the first to admit it had rattled him.
But he'd had worse, and the boy had just given him the green light to vent his current frustrations out on him, he came up with a biting uppercut that sent the boy crashing into the table, food and trays falling with a horrible clatter as the other two charged at Izuku, who bobbed and weaved between their sloppy punches before socking one in the stomach, making him double over in pain as his friend was suddenly restrained by Sato, Kirishima getting Izuku in a Full Nelson.
"Come on guys! This is seriously not manly!" Kirishima exclaimed, his chin hardening when the first gen ed student tried to punch him, a satisfying crack! Filled the air as the idiot broke his hand on the sturdy hero's jaw.
"What is going on here!?"
The thunderous shout had everyone quieting down, Izuku glanced back and cursed quietly under his voice when he saw Aizawa glaring at them all, Yui behind him, having gone to go get him when the altercation started. Kirishima quickly let Izuku go as the dark teacher stomped towards them.
"Well?" he demanded, his voice ice cold.
"T-these guys attacked us!" the boy who just broke his hand said, "for no reason."
"You were the one to throw the first punch." Sato pointed out.
"After your friend provoked us!"
"Yeah!"
"Shouldn't have been talking shit about my friends." Izuku snapped back.
"ENOUGH!" Aizawa snarled, his eyes flashing and making everyone go quiet, "everyone involved in the fight will be receiving detention, I will be reviewing the security footage to see who started it." his stare went straight to the gen ed boy, who'd paled drastically, "and they will be given extra punishment. Everyone to class. Now."
The group immediately dispersed, Izuku heading straight for the door before Aizawa's hand stopped him.
"Walk with me." it wasn't a choice.
Izuku sighed as he followed his father in all but blood, glancing back at Yui, who was giving him a disappointed frown.
That hurt more than the punch he'd just gotten.
He sulked the rest of the way to a nearby faculty exit, Aizawa pushing the door open and motioning for him to walk through; which he did without a single protest. Leaning against the wall as Aizawa stood in front of him, arms crossed.
"What happened?" Aizawa asked again, his voice stern, but gentle.
"...overheard them talking about the rehab class." he said after a moment's pause, "they called them villains, when i called them out on it they evaded until Kaminari came over and pulled me away. While we were walking away Kaminari whispered something about them being jealous, and one tried to call him out on it; unlike them I repeated it and that's when he punched me." he rubbed his jaw, "might've added something else but i didn't lie."
"So he threw the first punch," he reiterated.
Izuku nodded mutely, "can't lie and say I wasn't looking for it." he muttered, "I've been on edge since Kamino, that's not an excuse."
Aizawa sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "what am I gonna do with you, problem child?" he asked.
"Send me to recovery girl to check my jaw?" he questioned.
Aizawa scoffed, "i've seen you take worse." he muttered, "you'll be serving detention with Midnight tomorrow, don't be late." he turned back around to open the door, "and next time, walk away, you can't start a fight with everyone that says something negative. You'll be fighting for the rest of your life."
WVWVW
Later that afternoon.
"Alright, today we're talking about the work studies I alluded to when we initially talked about your provisional licenses." Aizawa said to his class, everyone sitting with rapt attention as he continued, "unlike your internships, this is purely on a voluntary basis, with the stipulation that the only heroes allowed to take on work study students are those with a proven track record of hosting such students."
"Now, to talk to you about the benefits and caveats of Work Studys, please welcome Mirio Togata, Nejire Hado, and Tamaki Amajiki."
The three walked in and Izuku raised his eyebrow as the blue haired girl suddenly shot towards him.
"Oh my god! You're the fire guy! Does your fire keep you warm all the time?"
"Usually-" he began, but she was already off, straight to Shoji, "hey! Hey! Why do you wear that mask?"
"Well actually-"
Once again she was off, now grabbing onto Mina's horns, much to the girl's embarrassment, "oh! You have horns! Can you feel when I'm touching them!?"
"Please stop." Mina pleaded.
Izuku felt anger starting to bubble up, but before he could do anything, Aizawa was pulling Nejire back, "enough." he said pointedly, "you're all here for a reason, Amajiki, why don't you try."
Amajiki stepped forward, an intense stare pinning everyone to his seat.
So intense, Izuku thought, what kind of quirk does he have to be able to- he sweat dropped as suddenly Amajiki was facing the wall, shaking in terror.
"It's no use, I tried to imagine them as potatoes but it's still intimidating." he practically whimpered.
"Come on guys! Where's your spirit!? Let me try!" the tintin rip off stepped forward, "hi! Mirio Togata here! And the future is gonna be-!" he flexed as he finished his sentence, not a single person said anything, 'terrible! You were supposed to respond!" He laughed, "oh man that fell flat! Anyways, we're here to talk about work studies! They're really great! Good for helping you refine fighting style and quirk with an experienced veteran! It also gives you a good insight on the goings on in a hero agency!"
"Can't be that great if you're a part of it." Bakugo grumbled.
"Actually Mirio Togata is currently the top of his class." Aizawa said, getting everyone's attention, "this group is known as the Big Three, the strongest candidates in the Hero Course."
"Bullshit!" Bakugo snapped, "that Tin-Tin mother fucker is at the top!?"
"I wouldn't say the top, I bet Amajiki could beat me if he tried." Mirio laughed, slapping his friend on the shoulder.
"Please don't bring me into this."
"But if you really wanna see what the work study can do for you-" he began, grinning, "then how about let's spar?"
"The last class isn't out of the infirmary from this morning." Amajiki reminded him.
"That was you?" Izuku questioned, eyes narrowing.
"Yep! Kinda got carried away, but I promise not to this time!"
"I can't believe we're at this point again…" Aizawa sighed, "but it's better you all see the kind of experience you get, lets go."
WVWVW
Izuku popped his neck, glaring at Togata, standing opposite of their entire class sans Todoroki.
"Are you sure you don't want to be a part of this Todoroki?" Aizawa asked, looking at the boy standing on the sideline, "Bakugo's participating as well."
"I don't feel I have the right, considering I failed." Todoroki muttered.
Aizawa nodded, and looked back. "This is a friendly spar Togata, don't kill my class."
"Righty-o erasure!" Mirio said with a grin.
"Alright, begin!"
Izuku got into a stance as Kirishima and Ojiro lunged for Togata, almost everyone flinched when the boys clothes immediately began falling around him.
"COVER YOURSELF UP!" Jirou screamed, covering her eyes as she blushed furiously.
"Whoops! Sorry! Fine tuning is a problem!" Togata chuckled as he began pulling his pants back up.
"He's open!" Izuku shouted, blasting a large fireball at the boy, Kirishima hardened and followed the blast up with a biting uppercut while Ojiro came from up top, slamming his tail down on top of the boys head, and then Bakugo was sliding in, a powerful blast sending a mushroom cloud into the sky.
All three attacks phased through him.
"I guess I should take out the long range fighters first huh!" he said cheerfully as phased into the Ground.
Damn it! If he's going after the long range fighters-he whirled around, as Togata began raising from the ground, "I got you!"
The stream of fire immediately spiked the temperature in the building, the flames and embers billowing against the walls.
And to Izuku's surprise, Togata emerged from it all without a scratch, his fist lashed out and buried itself into Izuku's stomach, driving the breath out of him and sending him crumpling to the ground alongside Jirou, Mina, Aoyama, Hagakure and Sero "POWER!"
"FUCK YOU!" Bakugo snarled as he flew right at Togata, hands launching forward to unleash another powerful explosion.
Togata didn't even flinch as his fist came flying up in an uppercut, catching bakugo in the stomach and sending him crashing to the ground, he disappeared back into the ground as Dark shadow and Sato attempted to capitalize on his distraction, these two being the next to join their classmates on the ground alongside Yaomomo and Uraraka.
"I got you!" Kirishima snarled, fists raised over his head, he brought them down, eyes widening as his fists passed through his head and shattered the ground a split second before a powerful hand chop slammed into his neck, driving him face first into the destroyed concrete. Before anyone else could move Choji, Tsuyu, Mineta and Kaminari were flattened with another roar of "POWER!"
"DARK SHADOW!" Tokoyami snarled, the shadowy monster flying with a roar of its own, but with frustrating familiarity; the upperclassmen phased through the attack and shot forward, driving a fist into the boy's stomach. Not even moving as tape shot through him and Ojiros tornado tail dance swung through his head; with a grunt he pulled Ojiro out of the air and slammed him into Sero, striking another pose and proclaiming "POWER!"
Izuku forced himself to his feet, "I ain't down yet." He muttered, fire climbing up his arm as silver lightning darted across Togata's body.
It suddenly vanished as a single strand of Aizawa's capture scarf wrapped around his arm.
"That'll be all." Aizawa said plainly, "last time someone said that: class R got sent to The infirmary, everyone up."
The class collectively groaned as they got up, Bakugo was beside Izuku, he'd risen to predatory crouch before Aizawa had interrupted, his eyes narrowed furiously on his upperclassmen.
"Sorry for going a little too far, but I was trying to make a point." Togata said, putting his shirt on, "what do you think my quirk is?"
"Something strong, like a strength boost or dodging quirk right?" Kaminari asked.
"Ha! I wish! My quirk is Permeation! I can phase through anything! The drawback is it takes a lot of concentration, and while using it, I can't see, hear, or even breathe!"
"That's insane!" Kirishima shouted, "you were so accurate in taking us all down!"
"Practice, and my mentor worked hard to help me understand my quirk." Togata said, "That's what these work studies can do for you, help you refine and work on your quirks and give you the experience you need to be effective heroes!"
Aizawa nodded, "with the right hero mentor you could advance your training infinitely. So make sure you all choose wisely, and don't forget: you'll still have to keep up with your school work while working with your work studies, you also have a smaller pool to choose from; the Rat has decided that only heroes who've previously done work studies are allowed to take on first years, make sure you think about whether this is for you. Until then, class dismissed."
Izuku helped Bakugo to his feet, holding his hands up in appeasement when he shrugged him off roughly.
"I'm fuckin' fine." he snarled.
"Oh i'm sure." Izuku rolled his eyes as they began heading out with everyone else, "that guy was crazy. Took out our whole class in a few minutes."
"If Sensei hadn't stopped us." he griped, steaming a bit as Izuku nudged him good naturedly.
"I know what you mean," he admitted as they all entered the locker room. "I was hoping to get at least one good hit in for Gin and the others…that didn't work out." he turned towards the bathroom stalls like he usually did but hesitated; straightening his back he walked towards his locker pulling his uniform out and undoing his jacket.
Everyone cast a few surprised glances, Izuku hadn't freely changed in front of them at all this year, and few could deny they were curious as to why.
Even fewer were ready for the scars.
"Holy-" Kaminari started, but shut up when Ojiro nudged him roughly, eyes never leaving the deep whip marks and brands on his skin.
Izuku did his best not to look at anyone as he changed, he could feel eyes on him, burning almost as much as the brands had. He quickly put a shirt on, "I…i'm not hiding anymore." he said, his voice a little shaky, but firm. "I don't want to talk about it…but I'm done running from my past."
Kirishima put a hand on his shoulder, the boy tensed but slowly relaxed as Kirishima spoke, "that's super manly man, and we'll be here to support you anyway we can!"
There was a quiet, sincere chorus of agreements and Izuku slowly relaxed, "thanks guys." He Said softly, finishing getting ready and following his classmates out of the room; feeling more at ease with them than he'd ever had before.
WVWVW
Later that week.
"Are you sure you don't want back up?" Gin asked as Izuku walked towards the train station, Tsume and Kayaba right behind them. Of the three only Izuku was dressed casually in blue jeans and his leather jacket, a blue T-shirt with the kanji for 'formal wear' underneath. The other three were in their gym wear, with Gin tying his jacket around his waist while Kayaba had his sleeves rolled up.
"I'm sure." Izuku said for what felt like the eightieth time. "Don't worry Gin, i'm just going to see Big Tiny."
"Yeah but you said it yourself: it's serious if he called you in like he did." he grumbled, crossing his arms.
"It'll be fine." He said again, patting his shoulder, "pops had the support course set up a panic button and voice recorder, just in case."
"You're going hot to big Tinys?" Tsume asked in shock and a little worried, "he may be on probation, but he won't be too happy if he finds out."
"Then he won't find out." Izuku said simply, patting the simple pen in his pocket Hatsume had whipped up for him, undetectable and inconspicuous. Perfect for this.
"I still don't like it." Gin grumbled.
"I'll be back before curfew." Izuku reassured him, "you'll have time to walk the Nun back to her Abbey before we meet up."
Gin blushed as Tsume and-surprisingly-Kayaba snickered at him, "w-we ain't like that." he stuttered, "besides, she wants to focus on being a hero.'
"So you asked?" Izuku asked with a grin, making Gin shove him.
"Worry about your own relationship Akuma." Tsume chuckled as she got him in a headlock, knuckles grinding into the top of his head until he was squirming.
"Geroffme!" he griped as he escaped her clutches.
"How is Yui?" Kayaba asked a little snidely, "I heard you two had a spat.'
"Not…a spat, per say." he grumbled, his turn to sulk as they finally reached the train station, "she's still not happy about that fight I Got into on monday."
"I thought those upperclassmen started it?" Tsume questioned.
"I didn't help the situation." he sighed, leaning against a nearby pillar, "I've been on edge for a while now, I was looking for a conflict. I'm lucky the dumbass was the first one to swing, as is I got another detention for escalating the situation instead of de-escalating it."
"Surprised they let a criminal like you out of their sight." Tsume teased, getting a chuckle out of her sulky friend.
"Yeah it was already approved before all of this, and when I told them the reason for it they made it an 'official operation' which means I have to let Aizawa know everything I find out." he shook his head, "I get their reasoning, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth."
"This is the life of a hero." Gin said hesitantly, "I'm sure Big Tiny would understand-"
"-all the same, you probably shouldn't let him find out." Tsume finished.
"That's obvious." Kayaba scoffed as the train pulled up, "are we done here? I have a study group at 3."
Gin rolled his eyes, "be careful out there Akuma." he said, clasping hands with his old friend, Tsume giving him a hug afterward, "let us know what you find out."
"Soon as I get back." he said, giving a terse nod to Kayaba before stepping onto the train.
Gin watched the train go off, "we should follow." Gin muttered, flexing his hands a bit.
"We don't have permission to go off campus today." Tsume reminded him.
"When's that ever stopped us?" he challenged.
"Since we got accepted into a hero school."
Gin grunted, glaring after the train, "what do you think Kayaba?" he asked, looking to the wolf-boy, only to find him gone, "where'd he-"
"He has a study group." she reminded him, "and so do we, come on, don't want to keep your angel waiting." she cackled as she took off at a fast sprint, ducking out of Gin's playfully attempt to swipe at her, both racing back towards the campus, neither noticing the denser than normal shadow move quickly along the tracks with the train.
WVWVW
West Shizuoka hadn't changed.
The cracked sidewalk and street are still grimy and semi-overgrown with weeds and stunted grass. What store faces weren't boarded up had metal grates and bars over windows and doors, cameras watching all that came and went; on every corner there was a group of mean-looking youths; some dressed similarly, others dressed in a certain color, all leered at anyone and everyone who walked past them. Sizing up potential scores and shrinking away from those they knew they couldn't touch.
Most moved down the street as Izuku walked past.
Many in this area still remembered him if the wide, scared eyes from several groups were any indication; they whispered and subtly pointed at him as he walked. Others glared, no doubt remembering past fights that they lost, unwilling to try again for fear of a repeat.
Still others were staring at him hungrily, the up and comers who saw him as a way to fame; desperately wanting to establish a name for themselves, but too scared of the retribution to really act on it.
Izuku ignored all of them as he strolled into the old neighborhood and towards a familiar house, it was on the small side, single bedroom with no driveway, a metal chain link fence surrounding a fairly well cared for lawn. In his youth there had been trash and wrecks that they'd spent the majority of their time hiding out in; that was all gone, now replaced by folding chairs and what looked like four milk crates taped together serving as a pseudo table; a speaker blasting some western song he didn't know. None of the faces he saw were familiar, all of them glaring at him distrustingly as he walked up; leaning against the gate as he looked between them all.
"You lost hero?" one asked, snake-like eyes glaring at him as a forked tongue hissed out between his lips as he ran a quick hand through his long blue hair,"DoTo is twelve blocks that way." he jerked his head back the way Izuku came.
"I'm here to see Big Tiny." he said evenly, eyes darting to the large teen made of stone stepping around from the side of the house, crossing his impressive arms with a sound of grating rock, his gray skin scorched and chipped in places, "gave me this address and said to come here around this time."
The snake boy stared at im for a few moments, before looking over to a sallow faced boy casually smoking a cigarette as he leaned against the wall, solid blue eyes staring right at Izuku "he tellin' the truth?"
The boy nodded, not saying much else as he knocked on the door.
Izuku grinned as Big Tiny came out, currently shorter than everyone else; his Bulls Jersey pooling a bit alongside his jeans inside too large shoes. His eyes were squinted a bit in worry, but they brightened as soon as they saw who was standing at his gate, 'Akuma! He boomed as he shot up to nine feet, lumbering over to hug him as his people jumped, realizing just who they'd been trying to intimidate.
"How you doin' Tiny?" Izuku laughed as he returned the hug, "Sorry it took a bit, came as soon as I talked with Katara."
"I'm glad you did, shit's been getting tense-" he stopped himself as he looked around, "let's talk inside, never know who's listening."
Izuku nodded and opened the gate, following his friend inside his mothers house.
"Changed the place up huh?" he asked looking around the near empty house, a wrap around couch sitting in the corner facing a medium sized flat screen mounted on the wall; he nodded to the three people sitting inside, two were rolling a joint on the couch and gave him a small wave of their hands, he recognized them as a few goons that liked to stick with Big Tiny; not really friends but definitely not unknown to him.
"Tweety." he greeted, staring at the harpy-like girl perched on the counter in the kitchen, her owl-like face perking up at seeing him.
"Akuma." she greeted, waving the claws at the end of her wings, tawny feathers ruffling a bit as she tapped her clawed feet against the granite countertop. "How you been?"
"Good, good." he said as Big Tiny closed the door," so what's this about?" he asked worriedly, "I'd of thought you would have-" he stopped as Big Tiny held his finger up, motioning to one of the boys rolling the joint.
The boy's eyes suddenly started glowing green, a pulse of energy filling the room before everything went back to normal, "no one's listening on the outside boss." he said, before looking at Izuku, gray seemingly staring through him, "is there a reason you're recording this?"
"Orders." Izuku said, shooting Big Tiny an apologetic look, when the boy shifted uncomfortably, "only way they'd let me come this weekend."
Big Tiny nodded, "fine." he grunted, moving towards Tweety and letting her wrap her tawny feathers around him,relaxing in her embrace, "not like I gave you much info…sorry for all this, things have heated up since ALl-Mights downfall."
"So I've heard." izuku muttered, putting his hand in his pocket and pulling out the pen, placing it on the counter, "Katara said there were some new gangs causing trouble?"
"New." he muttered, leaning back into Tweety's embrace, "it's not new, under new management maybe." he shook his head, "bout a month and a half ago, we had some guys comin around talkin' tough. Couple quirkless kids trying to intimidate some of the businesses and trying to recruit some local elementals; Granit took care of em, then a few days later they come back, more of em, few more quirkless and three fire users, Snake-eyes and Gidget over there got him out before they could kill him, I stepped out for that one. They spewed some bullshit, talking about the Caldera Syndicate, tellin us that we either submit or they take care of us."
"What'd you do?"
"I beat their asses." he scoffed, "me, Blitz and Tweety sent them running, fire users were a hassle but we dealt with em; had a few others poking their heads around, trying to recruit other elementals and muscle, but we've kept em at bay so far.'
"Sounds like you got this all well in hand," Izuku said, scratching his jaw, "what exactly do you need from me?"
Tiny popped his jaw, "those fire users," he muttered, meeting Izuku's gaze, "they had some real familiar moves."
Izuku's eyes sharpened, "do tell."
"It was sloppy, undisciplined, but those moves-it was like watching you fight." he said, "not just that, they kept talking about some Fire Lord, said we'd pay when we saw blue fire."
"Blue fire." izuku growled, "you thinkin' Dabi?"
"I don't know, he's not one to be this organized." he sighed, "even when he was 'in charge' of us, he'd leave us alone for months on end. Only thing he did with any consistency was train you, and you didn't fight then like you do now-"
"-he fights like me now." Izuku said grimly, "I don't know who trained him, but he was able to beat me."
Tiny grumbled a little, "I still don't think it's him." He muttered, pulling a cigarette out and lighting it, offering the pack to Izuku as he blew a cloud of smoke into the air, Izuku waving it off; "especially now that you've confirmed you've fought him recently, cause these guys were asking about you."
"Me?" he asked in surprise.
"Yeah, nothing big, what your rep was, who you hung out with, people that helped you." he ran a hand through his hair, letting out a huff of irritation, smoke angrily spewing out from his nostrils, "people around here know not to talk on stuff like that; but it's worrying they're asking."
Izuku nodded slowly, eyes growing distant, "sounds like they 're trying to angle towards a recruitment.' he muttered, "the question is: do they think that I'd turn villain, or do they think my position as a hero would help them?" he shook his head, "anything else of note about these guys?"
"They spat a lot of shit about Caldera." he said, "bunch of wackjob cult like shit about how the Caldera Syndicate will rise from the ashes like a phoenix."
Izuku felt like Ice water had been dumped on him, "Iroh said they were toast." he whispered, fists clenching, "there's no way-"
"There's always a way," Gin said sternly, "all it takes is a few kids remembering their pops or uncles and suddenly they're back. And unlike others they're actually able to ride on the clout; that tells me they're a lot more established then they should have been had it just been a bunch of kids."
"This is big…" he muttered, lip twitching a bit as he realized his hands were burning; with a growl he unclenched his hands, letting the smoke die, "i need to talk to the others about this…did you want me to put a word in for a hero presence? Not sure what I can dredge up but i'm sure if I contacted X-Less directly-"
"-don't worry about us man, we take care of our own." he said, patting his shoulder, before flicking his cigarette into a small bucket nearby, pulling another out and offering the pack again to Izuku, who accepted it with a distracted 'thank you', "got a lot of guys around here now doing better because of your example, lot of young bloods tryna stay on the straight and narrow so they can make it in the hero bizz; meaning I got a lot of OG's doing what they can to make sure they don't have to. My biggest concern was warning you about this without them finding out and swarming this place."
"What if they're watching the house?" he questioned.
One of the boys on the couch snorted at that, "they keep it to the area around the businesses, they know not to come around here."
"And we made sure to run some interference." Tiny explained with a small grin, "sokka's girlfriend still runs that biker club, and they get irritated with these guys pretty easily, last I heard there was a rumble down at th
Izuku laughed at that, "meaning Death Arms will be there in a bit to break it up. Guess I should get going before then huh?"
"Wish you could hang out longer." he said clasping hands with his friend as tweety jumped down from the counter, hugging Izuku good-bye, "guess that can't happen til this new shit's dealt with."
"Maybe we can organize a block party instead of crashing one like we used to." he joked, eliciting a deep bellied laugh as Tiny grew to tower over him, "Come on, i'll walk ya to the end of the street.
The two old friends walked down the street, cigarettes hanging from the corners of their lips, the sun was hanging high in the sky and a chilly breeze blew past them, threatening winter but not yet promising it yet.
"Tell Gin and the others I said whats up," Big Tiny said, "I know it may be a bit until it can happen, but I won't say no to having y'all over again."
"I'll pass on the message." izuku mused, blowing a long trail of smoke into the air, letting a tongue of flame chase it for a moment, "if you need anything contact me directly, I don't care if they know, and unless it puts you in danger I'd rather know immediately rather than wait on Sokka or Katara to contact me."
"Understood." they stopped at the corner, Izuku turning towards him fully as he pulled the finished cigarette from his lips, letting it brown and turn to ash in his hands with a little bit of applied heat, "keep your eyes open Big Tiny," Izuku said, clasping hands with his friends once more, "hate to see your ugly mug on a t-shirt."
"Same to you, I don't want anyone accusing UA of pest control."
Izuku laughed as he stepped back, "keep me posted!" He called as he walked away, hands in his pockets as he made the journey towards the train station, taking a few short cuts he knew to get there quicker.
Passing between two of them he came to a halt as a white blur crashed into his legs, the force barely enough to stagger him, he hummed in confusion as he looked down, eyes narrowing a bit at the bandaged little girl staring up at him fearfully, "hey kid, you alright?" he asked with a gentle smile, carefully kneeling down to look her over, dirty bandages, terrified, no shoes, he listed in his head as he began pulling his phone out, arm going around her to pick her up.
"I'm sorry for the inconvenience sir,"
Izuku's eyes narrowed at the young man walking out from the alleyway, fur-lined green coat swaying in the breeze a bit as he fixed his plague mask with glove covered hands, "that's my daughter, i've told her before she should look before taking off out of my sight, if you'll just hand her over I"m sure we can sweep all of this under the rug, don't you agree?"
Izuku's arm was tightening around the little girl even before she whimpered "please don't go." into his collar bone, hiding herself as best she could from the man in front of them.
"Yeah, that's not gonna fly with me."