Elmo Vespa's eyes twitched as he was once again compared to the damn puppet from an old PQ show by some American tourist and began cursing the show in his head for still being so popular that people were talking about it. Thank god he was old enough to start dying his fur/hair or he'd never hear the end of it, well more than he already was.

To be fair to his father though, Elmo knew how difficult it was to handle naming the almost hundreds of Vespa children something original but not ridiculous would be.

And he had only intended to name him after the saint, but that didn't stop his siblings and cousins from teasing him with a bunch of pet rocks and googly eyes.

Walking out of the cafe Elmo scrolled through his messages, checking updates on his family's "business" and if he was needed for anything, cause even though he was only starting his second year of college he had been working in the family business since he was fifteen starting as simply a pair of eyes and ears.

Now though he had earned enough credit with the family to be a broker while he was working through college, and consequently that meant that he had a lot of meetings with people as the face of the Vespa family, which could get quite tedious since it felt like he had to meet at least five new people a day.

Elmo rarely had last minute meetings arranged but not so few he wasn't surprised to see a new one on his list and checked the details for it.

Client: Mastermind

Repeat customer number: 8

Status: Active hero (Twilight, rescue/info) Deku-approved

Info requested: On an info broker, unspecified

Elmo raised an eyebrow, heroes usually didn't contact them for info given they were technically on different sides.

But it wouldn't be completely impossible with his family as good as it was, and some people were able to swallow their pride and ask for help, or in this case pay for some questionable outside help.

But a repeat hero customer of eight times? That was just unheard of, and he would've been suspicious of this Mastermind.

However, if Midoriya approved of this hero Elmo would hold off on raising any of his concerns with his family.

Midoriya rarely expressed positive opinions on heroes so whenever he did their database would be updated with this knowledge, his last count was around fifty-seven officially Deku approved heroes.

So, Elmo stopped to brush his (much nicer) brunette hair back and quickly made his way back to the listed meet up spot and decided that the diner looked fine enough for some place near the red-light district and calmly walked in with the patiently taught Vespa charm.

A single glance around and he spotted a lanky looking blond man in a striped shirt and jeans sat in one of the booths tucked in a corner.

Elmo put on a lazy grin as he strolled over and pointed to the other half of the booth "Is this seat saved?" he asked, Mastermind didn't lift his head and simply gave a light shake and Elmo slid into the booth "Well, it's lovely to see you again Master~ Glad to service a repeat customer." Elmo purred placing his head on his folded hands.

Mastermind gave a soft hum "Indeed, though risky to interact with your family your information networks are very accurate, if costly." Mastermind replied nursing a cup of coffee that was brought by a waitress.

"Would you like something sir?" she asked but Elmo waved her off waiting for her to leave before trying to continue speaking.

"So, you want some info on a broker, right?" Elmo inquired and the blonde nodded.

"There has been someone making quite a few waves, ones that have made Nezu take notice." Mastermind explained and Elmo hummed inconsideration, there were a few names that came to mind knowing what he did of Nezu's intelligence.

"Given his ties to some powerful syndicates, I'm sure you would have heard something about him before." Mastermind commented and Elmo scoffed slightly bemused, it was a fair assumption given what Mastermind just told him and the identifying gender of 'he' narrowed it down to about three people.

"Does this little broker have a name Master?" Elmo questioned with his head tilted curious now of this mysterious info broker.

"Deku-Sensei." Mastermind answered.

Elmo's practiced personality was shattered, his playful demeanor dropped in one second as he rigidly sat upright with white-knuckled fists on the table, and his ears were pressed flat to his skull.

*What? Midoriya? An info broker?* Elmo thought confused and panicked because while he could understand Midoriya being on Nezu's radar but to be thought of as an info broker of all things?

Elmo quickly re-cataloged everything he knew of Midoriya and began cursing when he realized what it would look like to anyone else in the world.

Because who in their right mind would think that some random dorky two-toes would be going around the country teaching lessons, handing out supplies, and helping people with their quirks and gaining a shocking amount of goodwill.

Instead of the (far more likely to be real) idea that it was some scary up and comer in villain circles.

*Fucking hell! Of course, they'd think that was what was happening. Fuck... of all the things we thought to prepare for when the heroes started asking questions why didn't we think of this?* Elmo scolded himself for not considering the very obvious misconnection that would've happened and tried to regain some of his composure but it would be hard to backtrack after such an overreaction.

"Mastermind," Elmo coolly said "I'm afraid that you've wasted your time. I shall arrange for the money you've paid to be wired back to you since we cannot help you with your request." Elmo told him keeping his word choice far colder and professional than he was taught to in these situations.

"Why? Is the amount I paid not enough for the information I want? I can offer you well over triple the amount I've already given you." Mastermind offered and Elmo was caught between spitting in the man's face and laughing his damn ass off.

Because Midoriya in the short nine months he's been traveling around the island he had established himself as an irreplaceable piece of their organization that made them a shit ton of money by just existing.

Dozens of people used their family to arrange meets with Midoriya, hundreds of more people paid good money for the thorough quirk breakdowns Midoriya churned out, and then there were massive auctions for the information on people who had crossed Midoriya that never earned them anything less than ¥6,687,000 per person.

That wasn't even taking into consideration about the millions they saved on schooling costs for their family's thousands of children by just having Midoriya teaching them instead of the traditional homeschooling, and more effective if the higher scores on all of his little siblings' tests were anything to go by.

And this man thinks that he can just give them what would basically be some damn pocket change in return for the most valuable resource available to his family? It was laughably pitiful.

But unlike some of his family Elmo had a more personal reason to be protective over the boy, saving his sorella was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to his fondness for Midoriya.

He rarely got to see the boy in person but that didn't stop him from hearing the countless stories from his family about the endless acts of kindness he'd perform for their family without even thinking.

Family was everything to the Vespas, it was the only thing they had in the world that would never change and the only thing a Vespa should ever rely on.

That was a value Elmo held more tightly than most, so with all Midoriya has done for his family it was hard not to become attached to him, and the few times he spoke to Midoriya one-on-one at the college let him see well pass the tough exterior he built, and he saw the bleeding-heart underneath it all... though Midoriya never tried to hide it.

And God be damned if he would ever sell the boy out to some random fucker he didn't know, 'Deku-Approved' or not.

"There isn't enough money in the world." Elmo spat with a tightly clenched jaw picking up his bag off the floor and was about to stomp out of the dinner but stopped after he got to his feet as Midoriya's disappointed face briefly passed through his mind and Elmo groaned dragging a hand down his face.

Turning back to Mastermind Elmo took a deep breath before he spoke "Look Mastermind, you've been good to the family and you always paid up, that is the only reason I'm bothering to say this to you."

"Leave Deku-Sensei alone, let me assure you that if you keep digging the only thing you're going to do is come up empty handed and this whole thing is more trouble than it's worth." Elmo told him before heading for the door in quite a foul mood knowing he'd have to talk with the family about this situation.

"It's not like you should be worried about him in the first place." Elmo grumbled under his breath as he walked out into the bask late spring-early summer night.

Isamu frowned as he walked home when it started sprinkling and opened his umbrella, the whole meeting hadn't gone to plan but wasn't a total loss either.

Paying for information from the Vespas had taught him that almost everything was for sale when it came to information, and this was the first time a Vespa had ever returned his money and told him to mind his own business.

It was also the first time he'd seen one break their carefully held persona, something that was vital given their short height and relatively friendly look in criminal underground.

But it had confirmed that Deku-Sensei had ties with the Vespas and very strong ones at that given the Vespa he met was so distressed and that Deku-Sensei had something that made him invaluable to the family as a whole.

However, it was the Vespa's last parting comment he found himself thinking back to, the man clearly hadn't meant for Isamu to hear him, but it certainly gave him some pause.

*Not someone I should be worried about? That would imply there is someone I should be worried about.* Isamu thought as he pondered it, it wasn't something that he had considered given the lack of any second name being thrown around alongside Deku-Sensei's but having a silent partner could be possible.

Maybe if the partner had been around for such a long time no one spoke of them because everyone knew them and around long enough to make strong ties to explain Deku-Sensei's sway with the other groups.

Isamu pursed his lips as he tried to think of someone that could fit the bill but was coming up empty-handed and resolved to speak to Nezu about this theory later, he'd likely have a bigger pool of names to draw on then Isamu's current knowledge.

A sudden chirping from his phone made him stop walking and check his messages.

[Dodo: Hey Himawari-Sempai could u come over? Sho's had a bad day and needs some magic 2 Zzz it off]

[Sunflower: I'll be over soon, you're at home right?]

[Dodo: Yes! Ratgod pulled strings and forced Sho 2 go home after an accident]

[Sunflower: How bad of a day?]

[Dodo: IIIs on fire (T﹏T)]

[Sunflower: Understood, I'll bring the special eye mask.]

Isamu sighed his heart feeling a touch heavier as he thought of the possible misfortune that could've plagued Shouta, Shouta has always suffered from dry eye but it rarely got to the point where it felt like they were on fire, that was the reason that Isamu started carrying around a cooling eye mask and meds for headaches.

Unfortunately, this was because Shouta has never taken very good care of himself even back when they were in U.A. but it had gotten worse recently since he has been trying to track down his Yaizu vigilante and something more on Deku-Sensei since there were resources available now, all on top of his regular hero work and teaching.

What a silly little kitten.* Isamu thought fondly exasperated with the man as he got ready to get a ride to Shouta and Hizashi's apartment.

Given fanfiction won't let me keep the emojis I want I've replaced them with the word equivalents.