Chapter Text
He couldn’t just leave the kid alone, seeing how banged-up and teary-eyed and utterly alone he was. The rumpled hair and bandaged arms were enough to make Yagi drop everything to sign the adoption papers. The way he flinched away from Yagi’s gestures, it was as if he’d taken the man’s heart in his own small hands and ripped them in two.
“Is it someone at home?”
Squatting down at eye level, willing the boy not to scamper away.
The kid shakes his head, tight-lipped.
“School?”
Hesitation, then a nod.
“What’s your name?” He asks. He can’t just leave this beat-up kid alone, bleeding, hugging that burnt notebook to his chest.
“Midoriya,” The boy says. He never looks Yagi in the eye. “Izuku Midoriya.”
Yagi gives him his kindest, most winning smile, though it’s the first time in a while it’s been completely genuine. “I suppose I don’t need to introduce myself.”
Midoriya laughs through his tears at this. “You’re only my favorite hero ever.”
Yagi almost asks him, “Even like this?” but thinks better of it. His therapist told him to work on that. He holds out his bony hand to help Midoriya up, and he reaches to take it, but something bright and green and distinctly not normal crackles and he draws his hand back.
Yagi looks at him in surprise. “What was that?” He asks. It comes out quicker than intended and he bites his tongue.
Midoriya opens his mouth, closes it, and shakes his head.
He doesn’t know either.
To say that Yagi is excited to see his new pupil at school is an understatement. Of course there are all sorts of prospecting heroes to be found, but never one with as much promise as Midoriya. His power, too, is extremely uncommon. He told Yagi over and over again he had none, until he reached for the boy’s hand and it began to spark, green and white-hot and more powerful than his own yet so painfully similar. He’d talked it over for hours, puzzling, with his roommate, before coming to the conclusion that maybe he’d accidentally passed his Quirk onto him. It sounded more foolish every day since they had postulated that, but Yagi had nothing better to offer. His roommate more often than not was full of ridiculous theories that occasionally turned out to be true.While everyone was offering up their scientific theories, Mx. Hizashi Yamada in all his ridiculous and campy glory, believed the powers were products of the supernatural. Yagi was not inclined either way, but now and again listened to Yamada yell (impressively loudly) something about oni at the television. Yagi had ignored this and continued to disinfect his BiPAP mask, though he couldn’t shake off the feeling that Midoriya’s powers were doubtfully genetic. Quirk mutations were possible, but the timing was just too specific.
Yagi is shaken from these thoughts as his tea announces its readiness. He grabs the mug -- too tiny for his hands, as usual -- and peeks out the staff room door as unobtrusively as he can. He can’t be noticed like this, almost no one at the school is aware of his different form, and that anxiety always gnaws at him. He cranes his neck looking for Midoriya, worrying he may have missed him, but breathes a sigh of relief as he sees the familiar tousled head of green hair bobbing among the throng of students. He feels a little thrill when he notices the boy is not alone, though he looks anxious and red-faced as his new companion bounces alongside him. He remembers her from the entrance exam, the girl Midoriya had saved. He fondly watches Midoriya bluster his way through the conversation, though half his mind is occupied by the image of the boy’s limbs waving in the air. His Quirk had hurt him like that at first, too, but not half as badly. A few broken fingers here and there, a sprain every once and awhile, but never once did his bones utterly shatter. He has so many questions about Midoriya’s Quirk he may just need to write them all down later. Eventually Midoriya and the girl, Uraraka, if he’s remembering correctly, round a corner and Yagi shuts the door behind him. He makes sure his lunchtime meds are in order, then leaves for his first in-school staff meeting.
Aizawa senses something strange as he pores over his lecture notes for the day. His first thought is Yamada, but no, his aura was never that strong. Aizawa looks up.
A few students have entered the classroom -- a round-faced girl with a brown bob haircut, a fidgety, freckled, blushing mess of a boy with a forest of green hair, and a bit behind them, a broad boy with glasses and rigid posture, who Aizawa immediately recognizes as Tensei Iida’s younger brother Tenya. The other two’s names, he has to search for. Uraraka and…. Midoriya. Aizawa had protested his class placement, but there he was, in all his social-anxiety-fueled un-gloriousness. Was he responsible for this feeling, this prickle on the back of his neck, the twist of his innards. He tries to deny it, but the fact is that the sensation had begun upon the boy’s arrival. Aizawa is going to have to remain unbiased as ever, but it’s overpowering, especially as Midoriya takes his assigned seat a mere four desks away from the front of the classroom. Aizawa pulls his eyes away from this child. He’s never felt an aura this strong in a while. With Yamada it’s always there, just a bit, given his status as a very low-tier demon (“Don’t remind me,” He would have grumbled), but this was so different, and so petrifying, that Aizawa was fully prepared to expel Midoriya on the spot purely so he wouldn’t have to come in contact with this overpowering feeling of raw dread and destruction.
Give the kid a break, He thinks. You’re here because your new assignment is the fucking Symbol of Peace. And this is just a child. It’s fine. Be rational.
He goes through everything as normally as can be expected in a classroom full of superpowered teenagers, going through the same spiel as he’s gone through every year. He goes through roll call, he briefs them on the curriculum, lets their other teachers introduce themselves -- the excitement is palpable when All Might himself ducks into the room and stumbles over his notecards -- then after lunch, they head out to the field for the fitness test.
Aizawa knows his assignment has been standing around the corner the whole time he’s conducting the test, and his very presence causes Aizawa a wave of irritation. So naturally, being occasionally petty as he is, he decides to bother him right back. It’s childish, and irrational, but this was the last assignment Aizawa wanted, so he feels little remorse making this man squirm. And as for Midoriya…
He knows the boy’s powers are dark, even if the students don’t, though the way he can tell is the way his body rejects them. Aizawa saw the shattered arms and legs for himself, and it gives him a twisted sense of hope that Midoriya may not have any ulterior motives for his power. But the expression on Bakugou’s face disturbs him when Midoriya’s real turn to throw comes. Of course he’s focused on his student, but the blond boy’s glare lingers in the corner of his eye. Bakugou’s face is almost permanently twisted with rage, but it’s deepened somehow as Midoriya winds up, veins sparking to life. He doesn’t look just angry, he looks disturbed.
Midoriya throws the ball one meter further than Bakugou (and only broke two fingers), though no one will ever surpass Uraraka’s record. Even if she had used her Quirk, the power she put into her throw even without it was impressive given her stature. Of course he’d flashed his usual threat of expulsion to the students, with the intent of Midoriya being at least one of the victims, but he just can’t bring himself to. So he tells the class it was a ruse. That he just wanted to bring out their very best. He’s not even sure if it’s true as he says it, but the class lets out a collective sigh of relief. Midoriya even cries a little, warranting a mix of revulsion and pity from Aizawa. He’s never been one for emotional displays.
As his students head inside, Aizawa hangs back, knowing that All Might is aware of Aizawa having spotted him. It’s hard to hunch behind a corner at 220 centimeters. He gives the taller man a hard look. All Might almost flinches, and Aizawa realizes quickly that he’s gone into this with no script. Not good, he thinks. He’s never agreed much with All Might, and he was never Aizawa’s style anyway. Aizawa stares at him for several uncomfortable seconds, trying to figure out if he should tell All Might the truth of his hiring at UA, or just say something teacher-related to him. Eventually he gives up and brushes past, leaving All Might standing there in utter confusion as to what just happened with his new coworker. Aizawa curses himself on the way back in. All he knows is that Yagi is going to need his help with something, but he has a feeling this job is going to be harder than anticipated. Which was to say, near impossible.
Midoriya is still half-frozen from his last encounter with Kacchan, so of course he nearly has a heart attack when Uraraka and Iida appear behind him, both buzzing with excitement. Midoriya tries to disguise his relief when it turns out they’re all headed to the same station. Kacchan is headed there, too, but this means he won’t have to face him alone in case of emergency. He’s so lost in thought from everything between his childhood friend turned bully to his newly found superpower he can barely keep up with Uraraka and Iida’s conversation. Both are talkers, and Midoriya knows he would be too if his social anxiety hadn’t gotten this bad, but despite his struggles to focus he likes hearing this duo’s voices. There’s nothing mean-spirited in their words, just pure excitement and care for what they’re doing. Midoriya hasn’t met too many people that have spoken like that in his presence. In fact, it catches him off-guard enough that he gets emotional again. He tries to hold back tears but a few have already hit the pavement when Uraraka and Iida notice.
“Oh, no, Deku, are you okay?”
That’s right, the nickname , Midoriya thinks to himself.
He nods, giving his new friends a watery smile. Every time he thinks about the fact that he has friends it sends a thrill through his heart.
“I’m okay I just--” Midoriya isn’t sure if he should be so frank.
“We’re all friends, here, it’s okay to speak your mind, Midoriya!” Iida says.
Midoriya looks down at his shoes as they traverse down the hill together. “I’ve never really had friends before,” He mumbles, feeling his ears go hot. “I always thought of Kacchan as my friend but… I guess that didn’t go so well.”
“It’s okay now, though, right? Since you have us!” Uraraka replies.
“Yeah!” Midoriya says.
Iida smiles and gestures in the direction of home. “This way to the station, friends! Let us make haste.”
Uraraka laughs and Iida looks confused, which makes Midoriya laugh, and then it’s contagious enough that Iida can’t help but join too even though he has no idea what was funny in the first place.
Yagi sets down the thick school file Nezu had given him, thoroughly informationed out. He’s new in town, and has been rooming with another hero, a certain Present Mic in all his loud, incredibly queer glory, who is also indeed a teacher at UA. Yagi has pored over the names of all his coworkers and students many times so as not to forget them, but something tugs at his attention on Aizawa’s file specifically.
“Hey, Yamada, you and Aizawa are friends, right?” Yagi asks offhandedly.
“Sure are! We’ve known each other since high school. Same year at UA, baby!” Yamada responds with enough enthusiasm to make the lampshades rattle.
“Ah, okay, do you know why Aizawa doesn’t have an address on file by any chance? Everyone else does,” Yagi says. For one terrible minute he wonders if Aizawa may be homeless. It would certainly explain a few things. But Yamada denies this.
“Nah, he’s just a private dude,” He says. “Pulled some strings, got his address off-file. It’s not like you have your actual home address on file, either.”
“That is true, I suppose. But there is… Miles of fame between Eraserhead and I,” Yagi says, wincing apologetically as he says it. It’s true but he feels bad for saying it.
“I wouldn’t worry about it too much. It’s not like you guys hang out or anything,” Yamada replies bluntly.
“I know, I’m just curious,” Yagi says. It comes out a bit more defensive than he intends, though Yamada doesn’t pick up on this as he swivels back in his desk chair.
“How are your lesson plans coming?” He asks, scribbling down his own in an obnoxious glitter pen.
Yagi stares at his notecards. “Just fine, yours?”
“Pretty good! My comprehension tests are gonna be so fun this year. I’ve got a great line-up of songs for the kids,” Yamada says cheerfully.
Yagi is sure it’s the same five English songs Yamada had on rotation for several hours the previous week and groans internally. His English is good, but the lyrics were garbled and rather stupid for his tastes, not that he would ever say anything about it. He makes a point of not judging, but he’s impressed by how trite some of Yamada’s song selections are.
Yagi goes to bed hoping to have better luck with Aizawa over the next week. With Yamada on his side, maybe he can get a few pointers for interaction. Maybe invite him out with Yamada as a social buffer. He falls asleep satisfied with this plan of attack. As soon as he awakens, he’ll try to subtly press Yamada for details on Aizawa’s personal life and habits, and then eventually win him over at least as a friendly coworker rather than a cold, awkward one.
Little does he know that coworker is perched on his roof, great silvery wings creating a barrier against the fine rain.
As Yagi drifts off, Midoriya is still awake. It’s late, and he should be asleep, but his mind is racing a million miles per minute. He tries to regulate himself by updating his hero notes on his teachers and making sure to add entries on his classmates, but he feels wired, like he could explode, or at least vibrate hard enough to shatter glass. He always feels intensely, but this is different. He drops the pen as his hands begin to spark green and red. He just about leaps out of his desk chair, panicked, trying to flap the sparks out of his hands to no avail.
“Are you okay, sweetie?” His mom’s voice drifts down the hall.
“I’m fine! Just dropped my notebook!” Midoriya calls back, willing himself to relax. He takes several shaky breaths, watching the lights die down slowly but surely. Eventually his hands look normal again, though they ache, and he lays down in bed, heart racing. Eventually he’s going to need to create an entry for himself too, but he feels there’s so much more to learn before he can even begin to write things down. He falls asleep soon, fitfully, dreaming of a dark black and green figure with glowing eyes. Buildings burn behind them, crumpling in the heat. The figure looks Midoriya straight into his soul.
He wakes up to his alarm drenched in sweat.