Hizashi knew something was up with his buddy. Eraserhead had been acting decidedly off for the better part of a month.
Which was why he decided to crash his friend's apartment to see if he couldn't snoop and find clues as to what was going on.
The last thing he expected to find was a kid in the apartment. With familiar messy black hair and crimson colored eye staring at him.
The little boy was positively adorable, and made him think rather strongly of a chibi Aizawa with kitty features and crimson eyes. His right eye was partially covered by his bangs, but the left one was perfectly visible. He was in second-hand clothing that looked relatively clean and there was an intelligence behind his gaze that was almost unnerving in a child.
When Aizawa came into the room, he looked a mixture of annoyed and slightly relieved.
Mostly annoyance though.
"What's with the kid?"
What Aizawa said next almost made him faint from shock.
"He's my son."
Hizashi could tell this was going to be a long, awkward night...
Some time later...
The boy's name was Haruhi, and he was the product of a drunken one night stand. Somehow the woman managed to track Eraserhead down and more or less forced him to take the kid in because she couldn't handle having him around anymore.
After being subjected to rather unnerving stare down that reminded him far too much of his more tempermental cats, he could partially understand why. When the test came back that Aizawa was the boy's biological father, he gained full custody of Haruhi.
That had been less than two months ago, and he was still having trouble adjusting to the life of a single father.
No wonder his friend was so out of sorts. He had never thought about having kids before, so having a son dumped on his lap like this was enough to throw him off his game big time. Worse, he had no idea how to handle a toddler who was too smart for his own good.
The kid knew how to undo actual locks. Baby gates weren't going to cut it in the least, never mind the fact he could apparently make actual cat claws that would allow him to climb over them.
Hizashi almost dreaded to see if the kid developed anything else once he turned four.
As it stood, Aizawa had been mostly managing this entire mess by treating the kid as another one of his cats.
Hizashi couldn't help but feel sorry for his long time friend. That being said he reserved the right to tease him for years after this once they were able to settle into a routine.
Hizashi went eye level with the kid.
"Hey Haruhi-kun. I'm your Uncle Hizashi," he said patting the kid on the head.
Haruhi tilted his head like a cat.
"Uncle?" he said, before looking to his dad. It was ridiculously cute. Aizawa made a slight nod, so the boy seemed to accept the idea.
"That's right," he said gently. The kid was way too quiet for his age, not to mention calm.
He wasn't sure if it was the kid's natural disposition or if being dumped on his dad had made him a bit shy around adults. Though considering who his dad was, he probably inherited the stoic behavior from him anyway.
Haruhi seemed to settle in a bit better after Hizashi watched him long enough for his friend to explain to the principal the full change in circumstances.
Teachers weren't paid much, and kids needed a lot of attention during their early years. Aizawa did want to bond with his son, but it was slightly difficult when he had to teach a class.
Considering Haruhi was too young for kindergarten, the principal came up with a simple solution, one that was jumped upon rather enthusiastically by Aizawa's fellow teachers.
They could take turns watching Haruhi while Aizawa was in class. At least until he either found a babysitter or Haruhi became old enough to attend school himself. The women in particular took to the idea with great glee.
Amusingly enough, they were the most disappointed when Haruhi finally became old enough to attend school, thus freeing up their schedules again.
Time skip, six years later...
He stared down at the wall around UA. In his hand was a letter that he had been 'politely' asked to deliver to his father.
Closer inspection of the courier revealed a boy about ten or eleven years old, with mid-length messy black hair that went down past his neck. Around his neck was a thick black scarf that was made of roughly the same material as his father's personal weapon, though unlike his father his had rather large bells the size of his hands tied to the end of them. It made sneaking around difficult, but he liked the pleasant sound they made so that was okay. His right eye was obscured by his long black bangs, while the other was left exposed. He wore a dark shirt and dark pants, and his shoes were slightly odd in that they had small openings that allowed his claws out. He felt uncomfortable keeping them cramped inside of his shoes all the time. He wore fingerless black gloves that were made of rather stretchy material. To top it off was the black cat ears and the tail wrapped around his waist in lieu of a belt.
In short he looked remarkably like a younger, feline version of his father who he loved dearly.
The first time he wore his current outfit, his uncle had laughed himself into hiccups and took so many pictures that his father had been unable to delete the evidence in time.
He fingered the letter in his pocket. He had been told to deliver the letter straight to his dad, but there was a large crowd of noisy adults in the way, not to mention the barrier prevented anyone without a student or teacher's ID to get inside.
He did have a phone, but his dad had made it clear he wasn't to call any of the first ten numbers during school hours unless it was an absolute emergency. And all ten of those people were inside and rather busy at the moment since the school year had just started.
He pouted...he didn't want to get in trouble for staying outside the barrier until someone noticed him, and he really didn't want the noisy adults to notice him.
Much like his father, he disliked the 'press'. Though his dislike stemmed from how noisy and irritating they were...they made his poor ears hurt with their squawking.
He was about to give up and head home when he heard a weird sound. The noisy reporters became even louder from surprise, then excitement as the barrier suddenly had a hole in it.
Debating on what to do, his ears flattened from the racket.
He would likely get into a lot of trouble hanging outside the barrier, but if he could find Uncle Hizashi or his dad and deliver the letter, then he could go hide outside the main building until his dad came for him. Anything to get away from this horrible racket.
He darted inside, and soon enough Uncle Hizashi in his hero uniform showed up with some other teachers. He couldn't see his dad, but he had a clear path to his uncle.
It took him a few minutes to get past the noisy adults long enough to stuff the letter into Hizashi's pocket, before bolting to elsewhere on the school grounds...preferably far away from the noisy adults.
He found a nice tree to nap in until his dad came to look for him.
A few hours later...
"That was a complete mess and a half. How the hell did they get past the barrier?" said Hizashi exhausted.
"We'll find out soon enough," said Ishiyama.
"Hey, what's that in your pocket?" asked Midnight.
Hizashi looked...and found a crumpled up letter. Closer inspection revealed it was address to "Aizawa Shouta".
"What the... How did that get in my pocket? It wasn't there when we left the building to deal with the reporters!" said Hizashi confused.
"What is it?" asked Aizawa.
"Here, it's addressed to you. Wonder why they put it in my pocket," said Hizashi, handing it over.
Aizawa opened it up, and recognized the letterhead as the one from Haruhi's school. Wondering what his son had done now, he carefully opened it and started to read.
His face paled.
"You said this wasn't in your pocket until after we came out to deal with the reporters?" he said.
"Pretty sure," said Hizashi. He noticed his friend's expression. "What?"
"We need to find Haruhi. I think he's on school grounds," said Aizawa.
"What?! How? Why?" said Hizashi, already getting up.
It took them two hours, but they finally found Haruhi stuck up a tree. Toshinori was already looking rather distressed as he happened to notice the kid up there earlier and had been trying to coax him down for over an hour.
"Haruhi!" said Aizawa.
Haruhi flinched, but relaxed a bit.
"You know him?" asked Toshinori.
Aizawa was already climbing up the tree, scaling it rather easily and perching himself roughly near the same branch Haruhi was stuck on.
"Haruhi, why are you on school grounds?"
Haruhi's ears flattened, upset.
"The principal told me to deliver the letter. He said I wasn't allowed back at the school anymore. But the reporters were so noisy it hurt my ears, so I came here instead. I made sure uncle Hizashi got it though!"
"Haruhi, you need to come down and explain properly."
Haruhi looked visibly upset.
"I didn't mean to come in! The barrier was down and I didn't want to get in trouble with the police for being out of school!" he replied.
"You're not in trouble. I just want to sort this out properly before things get any more confusing," Aizawa said gently.
Haruhi stared him down, before he cautiously started to make his way down from the tree. Aizawa made sure to follow slowly behind him, and only dropped down once his son was out of the tree.
Haruhi kept close to his dad, as he didn't know Toshinori at all.
Thirty minutes later...
Nezu was slightly amused to see Haruhi again. However his presence was just another issue he had to deal with on top of the mess created when the reporters got through the barrier. Haruhi squirmed a bit under his gaze.
"So what seems to be the issue?" asked Nezu.
"According to this letter, Haruhi isn't welcome at his school anymore. Though they refuse to explain why," said Aizawa crossly. "I don't like the fact they told him he wasn't allowed on school grounds and that he had to deliver the letter, instead of calling me directly."
Nezu was already frowning.
He knew Haruhi. While he was a bit too catlike, he was a good child who would never do anything to disappoint his father. Reading the letter revealed nothing.
Haruhi sipped his tea quietly while Nezu called the other school. Whatever they revealed made him rather vexed with them.
"It would seem Haruhi took some advanced placement tests without permission," said Nezu.
"How does that result in him being banned from the school?" said Aizawa irritable.
"The tests were for the senior year of high school and were geared towards getting the students ready for college-level courses," said Nezu.
"Are you telling me this entire mess was because he took the wrong tests?" said Hizashi incredulous.
"No, the problem is that he got a perfect score on all of them," said Nezu. "And the school he attends doesn't have any classes which are sufficiently advanced enough to properly challenge him."
Dead silence. Aizawa looked at his son in disbelief. He knew Haruhi had trouble with school, but this was the last thing he expected.
Nezu looked rather amused now.
"It would seem, Aizawa-sensei, that your son is a natural genius. One that might even rival my own ability if he's given the right courses."
As if to demonstrate his point, Nezu tossed Haruhi an expert-level logic puzzle that required skill and patience to solve. It was rather shiny as it was made of sturdy metal to prevent cheating.
Haruhi had it solved within five minutes, looking thoroughly entertained in the process. His father, on the other hand, looked like he had a migraine.
"So the problem is that Haruhi is too smart and the school isn't able to handle that?" said Hizashi.
"The school year just started. There's no way I'll be able to find him a new school at his own level and handle my own student's," said Aizawa exasperated.
Haruhi's ears flattened.
"Did I do something wrong?" he asked.
Aizawa sighed, and petted his son's ears. That seemed to calm him down as he started to purr, happy at the attention.
"No. It's just going to be a bit more irritating than normal for a while until we find out a new school for you to go to where you won't be bored to tears," said his father.
There was no way he was leaving Haruhi alone either...the kid would just play his games for hours on end and not bother to leave the apartment until he came back from work. He wasn't letting his son sit in the apartment all day.
"Haruhi could always stay at the school. So long as he doesn't interrupt classes, he can help the teachers out by helping to carry materials for their demonstrations or help out the support classes by testing their new equipment for them."
Aizawa made a face, but it was still a better alternative compared to leaving his son at home all day. Besides, the students weren't that far off in age from his son and Haruhi always had trouble interacting with kids his own age.
Though at least now he knew why.
To be fair, it was only natural to assume that the kid in front of the bus was lost.
Iida, always eager to emulate his older brother, approached the boy first and was summarily brushed off. Before anyone else could figure out who the boy was, their teacher appeared.
"Sensei, there appears to be a lost child in front of the bus!" reported Iida.
Aizawa-sensei sighed.
"He's not lost," said Aizawa. "This is Haruhi. He's going to be joining us today, but he will not be participating in the exercise."
"Sir, why is there an eleven year old joining our lesson?" asked Iida.
Haruhi flatted his ears. Some of the girls wanted to stroke them to see if they were really as soft as they looked, but refrained.
Aizawa looked irritable.
"Because it's going to take another day for his visitor's pass to be made and there's no way I'm leaving him alone at home when all he'll do is play video games for hours," said Aizawa flatly.
Haruhi's ears twitched.
"Come on dad, I'm not that bad."
"The last time you were left at home sick, you spent the entire day playing online video games instead of actually resting," said Aizawa flatly.
Haruhi pouted.
However it was what Haruhi called their teacher that threw the students for a loop.
"Did he just call you dad?" said Bakugo incredulous.
Now that they were looking for it, the resemblance between their strict teacher and the pre-teen were pretty obvious. They looked really alike, even down to the way they were dressed.
"Sir, this is most irregular," said Iida. The obvious show of favoritism made him rather uncomfortable. He always saw Aizawa-sensei as a strict, but fair teacher.
"It's not dad's fault. The school said I wasn't welcome there anymore, so now he has to find a new place for me to go," said Haruhi unhappily, his tail twitching this way and that.
Now the students were really curious, but they were on a schedule.
"Everyone on the bus. If we don't hurry up we'll be late and I refuse to stand here while you gossip about my personal life when we should be heading to the facility already," said Aizawa flatly.
That got them to move, but there was little doubt that the kids would attempt to get the full story out of Haruhi on the ride there.
A few minutes later...
"Wait, so your school kicked you out because you aced some advanced placement tests meant for a high school student?" said Yaoyorozu incredulous.
Haruhi had relaxed and opened up after a bit, mostly because his dad was there to act as deterrent in case things got too much.
"They said they didn't have any classes I could take that would be challenging enough, so they told me not to come to school on Monday. But they forgot to call dad and tell him what happened, so there was a bit of a mix-up when I went to deliver the letter the principal told me to give him," said Haruhi, his ears flattening unhappily. "Those reporters were really noisy."
He purred happily when Izuku stroked his ears just right. They had found out really quickly that Haruhi was more in-tune with his feline instincts than most...he also seemed to take towards the green-haired teen the best, oddly enough.
Izuku didn't mind much...he treated Haruhi like an oversized kitten which seemed to help.
And as the girls were happy to find out...yes, Haruhi's ears were as soft and fluffy as they looked.
Haruhi knew what his role in the upcoming exercise was going to be. He was to stay in the central area and find a place to take a cat nap or read from his tablet for the majority of the exercise, as he wasn't supposed to be there in the first place. Thirteen had already been alerted to the situation and agreed to ignore his presence since Aizawa vouched for his son.
As the bus slowly rolled into the parking lot, the students got ready to disembark.
They had no idea the sheer level of terrifying chaos about to occur.