Chapter 2: Attempt 2: Music

After a week of giving Endeavor mayo-coffee, it finally sank in that sabotaging Endeavor's coffee would not get Izuku fired. If anything, the flaming hero seemed to be in a better mood lately because of his daily mug of Toxic Waste. He hadn't yelled at anyone for the entire week, and the interns seemed to last more than a few days.

Assuming they didn't try hitting on Burnin', that is.

Izuku sighed as he typed away at his computer, trying to ignore his coworkers. He kept one ear clear in case of sudden emergency, but he had an earbud in his other so he could listen to music. It was wireless, so there weren't any cords to get tangled. The earbuds were a gift from the best inventor in his year at UA. She gave them to him cuz she couldn't get the battery working as long as she wanted.

…Izuku still wondered how 163 hours wasn't long enough…

A sudden cough from across the room startled Izuku from his thoughts. Izuku sighed from the noise and started to put his other earbud in, but stopped. He realized something. He pulled out his sole earbud, really noticing just how quiet the room was. The silence was absolutely maddening. How hadn't he noticed before? Oh yeah, his earbuds.

"Hey, uh, quick question," Izuku waved down a sidekick walking by. "Why don't we have music playing? I mean, I can understand not having rock or anything loud, but why not even mellow stuff?"

"Boss doesn't like it," the sidekick replied. "He thinks any music is distracting. He got really angry when a fellow hero tried to play music a few years back. We just stopped trying." Izuku nodded, letting the sidekick get back to what he was doing. He turned back to his desk with a smile.

He had a new idea.

—

At the end of the workday, everyone was packing their things. Endeavor would be the last to leave (as always), but Izuku made sure he'd be the second-to-last. And while Endeavor was locking everything else up, Izuku snuck into the server room. He knew it'd take Endeavor a good ten minutes to finish up in his office, which should be plenty of time for what he had planned.

Izuku knew the Agency had a PA system for blaring the morning news or important stuff, and helping a sidekick with maintenance a few weeks prior let him know what exact system it was. And it was one he could hook an mp3 player up to. Keeping an ear out for his boss, Izuku quickly hooked his personal mp3 player to the device and set it up to play a random song assortment instead of the morning news. Even better, he had a specific song set to start the list. His name was written on the back of the device in white-out, no way anyone wouldn't figure out it was him. With a smirk, Izuku left the office two minutes before Endeavor. Best part, it was his weekend. He was gone for two days. With any luck, they'd tell him not to come back.

—

The following morning, Endeavor sat at his desk, going over the overnight reports from other heroes. He heard the PA click on, but ignored it. It usually just repeated what he was reading anyway. Nothing surprising.

Instead, it was surprising to hear music start up. Even more surprising was what came next.

I am a superstar with a big big house and a big big car

I am a superstar and I don't care who you are…

Endeavor dropped the folder he was reading through and looked up in confusion.

"What the hell?"

—

No one contacted Izuku the entire weekend. He wasn't sure if this meant his attempt failed or if everyone was just so angry at him they couldn't bear to speak to him. He hoped it was the latter. He held onto that hope as he walked to the office. Stepping through the doors, Izuku was expecting for someone to be waiting for him to drag him away.

He was not expecting to hear peppy music playing through the office. No one was waiting for him, either. Rather, everyone was grooving along with the music. Izuku was so stunned at the sight he did not take another step until a sidekick came running up.

"Hey there, Midoriya!" the hero greeted. "Have a good weekend?"

"Why is everyone…" Izuku gestured.

"Oh, it was your music player!" the hero explained. "Initially Endeavor was pretty confused, borderline mad, at what you did, but after an hour he saw the office was in a bit better mood than usual. We convinced him to let it go as an experiment for the day, and what do ya know? We actually got our paperwork done faster by writing with the tempo of the music! After seeing our increased efficiency, the boss decided to let it keep going! Can't really praise you this time, though, cuz it took us a couple hours to rework things so the music would stop if an emergency order came through, but other than that you did good! Also, Endeavor wants more of your special coffee."

"Goddammit," Izuku groaned as he slowly sunk to the floor.