Izuku walked through the halls toward the teacher's lounge with an energy coursing in his body that wasn't One for All. Anxiety kept him on edge as he made his way toward where he knew All Might and Aizawa were at that very moment. He'd had to leave his friends as they were setting up the decorations for the party tomorrow, which had gotten him all but booed out of the dorms — it was Christmas Eve, so he understood that attitude from Ashido and Hagakure about him ditching them to go talk about school stuff, or whatever they thought it was he wanted to say to their teachers. They didn't need to know what he was really after. His close friends, the ones who knew about One for All, didn't even know he was doing this. He approached the teacher's lounge with a heavy pit of dread in his stomach, and considered his options for how to do this, thinking back to how he'd managed this task so far.
The week and a half after the joint training battles between 1-A and 1-B, and the day he'd found out about the wandering Nomu, had passed without much progress on Izuku's part. It was even more frustrating than not getting a chance to speak with Aizawa alone, too, because by all means he did. There were three separate times during the following days that he was asked to stay behind to clarify an answer he'd given on a pop quiz, talk about Quirk training, and other things like that. Izuku hadn't been taking those chances, though. What would he even say to Aizawa if he tried? 'Hey! I, a first year high school student without even a provisional hero licence, want to get in on your private investigation that you're technically not even working on yet.' He'd be rejected immediately. He'd be told to sit down and let the professionals work. While that was absolutely valid and he'd normally let that stand, this was too important to him. It was All for One they were investigating, or a potential move of his from within Tartarus. The stakes were too big if One for All wasn't involved, and even though All Might was going with Aizawa in a few days' time to investigate when winter break started, he'd used up all of his embers of One for All. It was now Izuku's responsibility to be an active participant in this generational fight.
He knocked on the door to the teacher's lounge, his rhythm ringing out unevenly against his wishes. His hands weren't shaking, per se, but he stuffed them in his pockets as he heard a recognisably tired voice on the other side getting closer. The door opened and Aizawa was there, looking down at him with a blank expression. Izuku forced a smile and took a deep breath in, ready to hold the worst pitch meeting he'd ever have the displeasure of taking part in.
"Hello, sir. I was wondering if I could talk to you and All Might about something," Izuku said.
There was a moment between Izuku speaking and Aizawa's response that the boy thought his teacher was just going to shut the door in his face. However, Aizawa sighed and silently stepped aside to allow Izuku entry. He walked through the doorway and heard it loudly shut behind him, so loud that he flinched slightly at the sudden slam. He looked around and saw All Might's gaunt form on one of the sofas, bent over some paperwork on the coffee table between the couches. The hero looked up and his eyebrows rose at his successor's appearance, the lanky man straightening to attention.
"Good evening, Young Midoriya. If I recall correctly, your class is throwing something of a celebration tomorrow. I thought you'd be helping prepare," All Might said.
"I, uh, delegated to Yaoyorozu. She basically took over party planning anyway. I wanted to talk to you two about the thing from a few weeks ago, though. The, uh—" Izuku was struggling for a way to put it without coming off as too much.
"The pack of roving Nomu making their way across the countryside of Japan?" Aizawa said in a flat tone.
"Yeah," Izuku said. "That. I know you said that I can't come with you when you go to check it out because I don't have a provisional hero licence like my classmates—"
"Which hasn't changed in the time since we last talked about this," Aizawa cut in.
"But I really want to help however I can! I'll do anything that's both legal and productive concerning these Nomu," Izuku said, looking at All Might to appeal to the very well known bias the man had for him. He normally wouldn't take advantage of it, but he needed to be on this case, so he'd be willing to bend his standards a bit to do as much good as he could with the tools he was given. Unfortunately — and didn't this make him sound like his father's son — All Might's affection for Izuku was a tool in this situation.
"I figured that you'd come to us before we could tell you. Sit down, Young Midoriya," All Might said, gesturing to the sofa opposite him, the same one Izuku had sat at while explaining his talk with Hikage Shinomori about a month ago now. Once he did, All Might continued. "Aizawa and I have spoken about this numerous times since you came to us with your concerns, and we've come to the conclusion that it's best if you're part of this."
"Really? That's great!" Izuku said, his face lighting up in a grin. He hadn't even needed to do all that much convincing! Finally, some good luck had been thrown in his lap.
"However …" Aizawa said standing behind the couch All Might was sitting on. "… you're on a tight leash if we allow you into this investigation. I haven't forgotten what you did at camp."
Izuku felt his face get hot at the reminder. He'd flown off the handle and disobeyed a direct order from a hero to not fight, acted recklessly and put himself in danger where he hadn't strictly needed to. He'd scared and disappointed a lot of people with that move — Ochako, Hitoshi, Tiger, even All Might — but none had held it against him for long. None except Aizawa, who was giving him a look that had Izuku concerned about whether or not his teacher meant a literal leash.
"The only reason I am allowing this is because I know your habit of following your gut instinct against orders, especially because you have a Quirk that is just gut instincts. I might as well have you with me if you're going to do something anyway, at least then I can make sure you don't get yourself killed. But, if you are to be included in this investigation, you need to follow the rules to the letter, even if someone tells you differently. You need to be on your best behaviour, even better than your best. I'm yet to see anything extraordinary enough from you since camp to restore my faith in your decision-making skills, so you are going to be the picture perfect work study student this winter. Got it?" Aizawa lectured.
"Got it. Wait, work study student?" Izuku asked, leaning forward as he wondered where Aizawa was going with this.
"Yes." It was All Might who had picked up on his curiosity. "You may have missed both the licensing exam in September and the remedial courses that began shortly after, but there's still a chance for you to get a provisional heroics licence before winter break begins. There's an examination that is closed to hero schools, one that is held exclusively for hero trainees that the Hero Public Safety Commission itself raises up. I gave talks at a few of these exams in my heyday as the number one hero, and as such I was able to get in contact with an agreeable man named Yokumiru Mera who is willing to help you. You have a spot in that exam, which is held on the twenty-seventh of December every year."
"The day after tomorrow? But that's—!" Izuku stopped talking abruptly. It was Ochako's birthday on the twenty-seventh. "I don't have time to train." That was all he was comfortable admitting to his two teachers.
"How much of One for All can you use comfortably now?" All Might asked in reply.
"About eighteen percent. Twenty if I push it and don't mind being sore for a day or two," Izuku said. He could almost hear Recovery Girl screaming at him from all the way across the main building of the campus, telling him not to push it and to mind being sore for a while. He chose to ignore the part of his brain that told him that his recovery from the injuries sustained during the summer was still technically ongoing.
"That should be more than enough to thrive in this examination. Do keep in mind, though, that this isn't a traditional licensing exam. This is for students of the Commission itself. There are protocols in place that you have to be careful not to disrupt," All Might said.
"Right. I didn't even know the Commission did that. That's not something just everybody knows, is it?" Izuku asked, suddenly feeling very aware that he knew next to nothing about how the HPSC operated.
"No, it isn't, so it won't leave the three of us," All Might said, and his expression softened into a ponderous contemplation. "You'd be surprised to learn which heroes are and aren't curated by the Commission, though. I sure was. Anyway, we leave tomorrow."
"Tomorrow? We?" Izuku asked again.
"Yes. The examination is held in a Commission facility in Tokyo, and begins in the early hours of the morning, so we will have to stay in a Commission approved accommodation nearby the night before. And I may have had to deliver on a promise to Yokumiru Mera I made a long time ago in return for this chance for you, so I'll have things to do in Tokyo as well. I'll pick up your costume tomorrow, but I'd bring a change of clothes, Young Midoriya," All Might explained.
"Okay. I'll, uh, get on that. I also need to talk to—"
"Do not tell anyone what you are doing and why," Aizawa chimed in.
"Why not?" Izuku asked, looking back up at Aizawa standing behind All Might.
"This investigation is still ongoing and all information relevant to it, like who exactly is investigating, is confidential. The only reason we told you about this in the first place is because you'd have figured it out. A pack of Nomu shows up and then the former number one and a hero that can cancel multiple Quirks disappear into the countryside? Unfortunately for us, you've got a knack for stumbling into things like that, so we told you. You can't tell anyone else, though, because we know your little circle of secret keepers will want to help. It was bad enough when you thought All for One was trying to talk to you. It'd be difficult getting them to stay here if they knew that you were going to go tackle a Nomu, especially getting Bakugo to not blow up the building he's in when you tell him. So, no."
"That's fair," Izuku said, having to hold in a laugh at the image of Katsuki having a tantrum at the thought of being kept away from bad guys.
"If that's all you wanted, then you may leave," Aizawa said in that tone that meant he wasn't asking for Izuku to go.
Izuku complied, standing up and bowing to his teachers before exiting the teacher's lounge. Once the door closed behind him, Izuku pumped his fist in the air, an electric thrill running through him at having gotten onto the investigation. Now the only worry was actually going out to Tokyo and being tested alongside Commission approved hero trainees, and then going out to the countryside and fighting a horde of Nomu, all in the next week and a half. Izuku may not have fully thought through the implications of what it meant to be part of this mission before, but he'd faced worse. He'd faced Nomu before, and he'd competed against hero hopefuls before, though neither case had been quite as extreme as the tasks he was facing now. If his classmates at UA were tough, then what were trainees hand-picked by the Hero Public Safety Commission going to be like? And there had been a lot of Nomu when he'd read the news about the pack. He didn't know if the fraction of One for All that he could reliably control would be enough for either of these upcoming challenges, despite All Might's confidence. He needed to prepare.
He didn't run through the halls, because he'd had enough of the lectures from Yaoyorozu due to his habit of running when he was excited or nervous, but he did break out into a power-walk that got him to the dorms a minute or so faster than he'd normally take to arrive from school. Izuku liked the view, so he often dragged his feet towards the middle, but that night he was all focused and ready to do what he had to do before he couldn't do it anymore. He entered the dorm to see Shoji and Tokoyami packing up leftovers from dinner, Kaminari, Kirishima and Ashido were watching a Christmas movie from fifty years ago, Hagakure was trying to sneak around Yaoyorozu to get herself a look at one of her presents, and Hitoshi — who had a strangely troubled look on his face — and Tsu cuddled up on a loveseat listening to Jiro sing and play guitar, whose audience comprised most of the rest of the class. Only a few people were absent, such as the usual suspects in Katsuki and Todoroki, but Ochako was also not down in the common room enjoying Christmas Eve with everyone. Izuku figured that she'd be up in her room, and walked right past the bulk of the class sitting around in the common room, none of them catching his quiet arrival and exit.
Standing in the elevator while it took him to his floor felt like it took a lifetime. He was trapped in that metal box, tapping his foot impatiently on the floor so that it sounded like a tiny jackhammer. When the doors opened, he immediately kept up his hasty walk and entered his room, picking up what he needed for this before ducking back into the elevator before someone else could call it back down. He pressed the button for Ochako's floor, and waited. It seemed like it took even longer this time, and Izuku found himself not wanting it to go any faster this time around. He didn't tap his foot, but silently stood in the elevator as it made its way up, praying that this would turn out well. Izuku's heart hammered in his chest as the elevator stopped and opened, and sweat began to bead on the back of his neck as he shuffled out into the hall toward Ochako's room. He didn't know why he was still nervous — well, he did, but that meant admitting a few things that he was more than willing to bury for the sake of Ochako's hero training, as well as his own. He stopped in front of Ochako's door and took a moment, breathing deeply and making sure that at least his hands weren't sweaty when he handed the box to her.
He knocked. It was an uneven knock, and Izuku cursed himself for being this weird about something that was totally normal for friends to do. He'd only ever given one person that wasn't his mother a gift, though — Katsuki — and that had been back when they were three years old, back before any of the stuff that had driven them apart for so long. So, yeah. Izuku was a little rusty. For a moment, the other side of the room was silent, and Izuku's head began to swirl with anxieties and doubts. Had she heard his knock? Should he knock again? Oh, but if she had heard it and intentionally ignored it, then he would just embarrass himself. He was also assuming she was even in her room at the moment and wasn't off in the middle of a late training session. It was normally Izuku himself and Katsuki that were known for that, but she'd joined them a few times, so it was totally possible. Or she could just be asleep, and he'd be waking her up in that case. Izuku's brain was full to bursting with all the thoughts that it seemed like it took at least five minutes for the door to open, but in reality it was only about fifteen seconds.
The sight that met him was probably worth all the anxiety in the world. Izuku didn't know what to call the feeling that his chest had just turned into a pressurised container for his heart, something within him buzzing like electricity at the sight of Ochako with messy bedhead, and paired with the smile she sent his way as her bleary eyes recognised who was at her door, Izuku was lucky he wasn't knocked off his feet. It registered vaguely as a distant shock that his face didn't light up cherry red. He was more amazed than flustered, and he couldn't find it in him to speak for a moment. Hopefully it didn't make him some kind of creep or perv or something, but he couldn't help himself from taking a moment to commit the way Ochako looked right at that moment to memory. He doubted he would forget it either way.
"Izuku, hey," Ochako said, the sleep audible in her voice. "What's up?"
"Hi," he said, and his voice broke and shook like never before. That was awesome. "Did I, um, wake you?"
"Yeah, but it's fine. Hey, how'd your little mission go?" she asked with a big smile on her face. It looked like she was rapidly losing her state of drowsiness, and Izuku felt a pang of guilt at that. He'd kept her from rest.
Izuku grimaced. He'd told his friends that he'd wanted to talk with some teachers, but not about what, or even which teachers specifically. He ignored that for now, and took one deep breath in so that he could say what he wanted to say as quickly as possible before he got too flustered to do it.
"Uh, never mind that. I, um, don't want to take too much of your time with this, since you probably don't want to stand here and listen to me talk when you could be sleeping, which I totally get so I'll be out of your h-hair soon, and so I just wanted to take a quick moment to give you this, which—"
"Slow down, Izuku. I can barely hear what you're saying," Ochako said with a giggle that totally didn't make Izuku smile the widest he had in weeks.
"Right. Sorry," Izuku mumbled. "What I mean to say is, happy early birthday."
Ochako looked down at the box in his hands, wrapping paper decorating it with little stars and galaxy spirals. She slowly put her hands around it, keeping a finger from each hand lifted off the box in case she accidentally used her Quirk, and examined it as she brought it closer to her face. When she comprehended what she was seeing, a grin broke out on her face so bright that Izuku felt the warmth of it touch his face. That, or he was finally giving in to the blush that had been creeping up his neck since Ochako had opened the door. She looked back up at him, with eyes that locked him in, transforming his want to get this over and done with as quickly as possible into a desire to have this moment in particular last forever. She was looking at him for an explanation, though, and he had to speak. Not trusting his voice to work properly if he didn't, Izuku cleared his throat and gave her a wobbly smile, the best he could manage.
"I, uh, planned on giving you this on your actual birthday, but it turns out that I won't be around," Izuku said.
"Why not?" Ochako asked, her look of wonder turning to worry in an instant. Izuku had a chuckle under his breath at that, the way she cared so deeply about people that she completely ignored whatever was going on with herself. It was one of the things he admired most about Ochako.
"I got into this program to get a provisional licence late. It's held on the twenty-seventh, and All Might's taking me tomorrow, so I figured …" Izuku trailed off, not being able to think of a good enough lie to keep it going. He hadn't technically lied, he just wasn't sharing the whole truth with her. A part of Izuku's mind whispered that it was lying by omission, and he couldn't help but frown at that. He covered it with a smile when Ochako looked back at him from her present, and sighed. "I hope you like it."
"If it's from you, I probably will," she said like it was a fact. Izuku didn't mind how that made his heart beat even harder than it had been on the way up.
Ochako lifted the lid off the box and looked inside, her eyes widening as she did. She picked out what was in the box immediately, lifting it up and looking at it with an amazed expression on her face. It was a telescope, sleek and painted in the colours of her hero costume. The majority of it was black, with pale pink highlights, as well as around the lens cap. She inspected it, finding the engraving along the edge of the lens cap easily, since it was written in black against the salmon pink of the metal. It said, 'Not even the sky can limit Uravity.' Ochako moved her eyes back up at Izuku with a look of shocked wonder, and he smiled.
"If you take the cap off, the inside has a compass attached. You're never lost, now," Izuku said with a big grin. He watched as Ochako removed the cap attached to the wider end, and saw that the inside of the cap was, indeed, a fully functional compass. The way they were positioned, the needle was pointing straight at Izuku as she held it out between the two of them.
"Izuku, this is … how much money would you have had to spend on this?" Ochako asked in a small voice. She still couldn't take her wide eyes off the gift, even when Izuku laughed under his breath at the question.
"Doesn't matter. It was worth every yen. I'm guessing you like it?" Izuku said.
"No, seriously, how much did this cost?" she said with an edge to her voice, putting the telescope back in the box and shooting him an intense look.
"Around … fifty … thousand."
"Oh, god," Ochako said, letting her whole body lean to the side only to be caught by her door frame. "That's way too much. Fifty thousand."
"There were more expensive ones at the store I went to. Some of them were like seven hundred thousand yen, and that seems insane to me. But don't worry about it. It was pricey, sure, especially coming from our backgrounds, and I get that. However, I'm not going to waste my privilege of having a stable flow of money from my Mom. I'd also feel bad giving you anything less. You've done so much for me, and you deserve all the nice things in the world. I can't give you all that, though, so I figured I'd give you the next best thing — the stars," Izuku said. He felt his heart beating like crazy as he spoke, but he ignored it to focus on Ochako. This was about her, not whatever embarrassment he was feeling at the moment.
Ochako's eyes filled with tears as she looked back down at the telescope. Izuku smiled as her eyes passed over the covered up eyepiece. There was an engraved message from Thirteen around the ring of the eyepiece lens that she'd find when she properly examined it, but he wouldn't tell her about that one ahead of time. She abruptly put the box down and wrapped Izuku up in a hug that he thought would kill a lesser man from asphyxiation. Izuku robotically returned the hug, smiling so wide he feared he might split a lip. He was lucky she couldn't see his face at that moment, otherwise he might never have been able to show his face again around her. Eventually, though, it became more awkward than not to keep holding onto each other, so the two of them separated, their faces cherry red.
"Thank you, Izuku. I love it. I …" Ochako trailed off, picking up the box and meeting Izuku's eyes, before her expression was overcome with an emotion he couldn't identify, though it looked painful. It shifted as she sighed, and was gone before he could put a name to what had made her whole face warp like that. A smile was back in place before he could ask her about it, but he did anyway.
"Is something wrong?" Izuku asked.
"Yeah, now I have to one-up you when your next birthday comes around!" Ochako said with a wide smile that somehow looked wrong after the look she'd had on her face just before. Izuku wanted to ask again, but thought that if she'd brushed over it just then, she'd probably continue to do it if he asked more about it.
"I'll look forward to it," Izuku said, his own smile dropping into a confused frown at the way this night had gone. "I'll, uh, let you sleep now, too."
"Right! Sorry about that. I probably look like crap, huh!" Ochako said, trying to smooth out her hair, which had stayed stuck up at angels that were more akin to Hitoshi's usual style rather than her own.
Izuku had been about to speak, but he realised that he'd been about to say that she was perfect before shutting his mouth and, in the smartest thing he'd done all night, not saying that to her face. Instead, his tone flat as he realised their conversation was coming to an end, he said, "Nothing to apologise for. I'll get out of your way now. Good night."
"Hey, Izuku!" Ochako called out as he'd started walking away. He turned back as she continued. "In case you leave before I see you tomorrow, merry Christmas!"
"Yeah, merry Christmas."
Izuku left after that, not wanting to take up any more of Ochako's time. As he walked, he felt something hot and sharp settle in his stomach. He had been so looking forward to spending Christmas with friends for the first time, giving one of his best friends in the world his time and attention on her birthday, but that had been pulled away from him. He wasn't angry, especially not at All Might, but at himself, for thinking he could have both. He supposed it would've been worse had he accepted her feelings and tried a relationship with her all those months ago. He wouldn't have been able to be enough for Ochako, given his lack of desire for physical intimacy, but Izuku often found himself steering his own thoughts away from the what ifs. That couldn't happen, though. Both because he would just disappoint her with his inability to love her the way she'd want, and because of their training. He didn't want to drag her down and split her focus. It'd just be a bad decision no matter how Izuku looked at it. A weight settled into his chest at the thought of that, but he had accepted that.
He wouldn't let them down again — not his friends, not his teachers, nobody. Even if his heart was heavy, a feeling stirring in his chest that he couldn't name. He'd do it. He had to. People had put their faith in Izuku. He had to succeed. What was his power for if he couldn't?
