Chapter Text
Stain had been impressed, if not a little weirded out, by the kid that had knocked on his door at an ungodly hour of the morning. It took guts to go searching for a serial killer in the dark, it really did. And the kid had had that look in his eye… a look of determination coupled with desperation. He had copious amounts of sheer intelligence and practicality, and just one look in that crazy notebook was enough to show that he was observant and analytical. The only thing he was lacking was any semblance of physicality, but that could be fixed. All of that would serve him well as a hero, if he could get there.
But as sad as it was, the kid was right. No pro hero would ever train a quirkless nobody with an unattainable dream of being a hero. Stain really was his only option.
That’s really what caught his eye about the kid. He wasn’t trying to be a hero for the money, or the fame-- he could get that somewhere else, in a profession less biased towards quirks. He wanted to be a hero to be a hero , and he was willing to jump hoops and bounds to get there. He was willing to tear down the entire structure of hero society just to be someone who saved people with a smile.
Stain could already tell where the kid’s ambition was going to lead him. The world would hate the kid for trying to be a quirkless hero, for trying to be special . It was inevitable. The kid would try to not let it get to him, he’d ignore it for as long as he could. But eventually he would reach a breaking point.
Stain knew because he’d been there. He’d once been a kid with an unattainable dream too, because he had a villain’s quirk , and how could he possibly be a hero if he needed to eat people’s blood to use his quirk? He’d struggled and fought against society, but it was hard being one against all, and he’d lost that battle. That’s when he’d started to realize what was wrong with society and hero culture. Surely, if someone wants to save people, they should be accepted into the hero community without question. But because of the flashy nature of the hero world, and the popularity problems, and the government sponsorship, Stain couldn’t ever have been a hero. He knew that now. So instead, he’d launched himself into trying to change the hero community, to make it embrace people who wanted to be heroes because they wanted to save people, like he once had.
He’d been in this kid’s position before. He’d seen the hating eyes and he’d fought against them. But even Stain had snapped, and inevitably this kid would too.
And when he did, well. Stain would rather have all that anger on his side.
Stain lurked outside the kid’s school, waiting for him to show his face. He was hiding in the shadows of buildings, on the fire escape, but it was hard escaping prying eyes and he couldn’t watch all corners of the school at once. He hoped the kid would have some common sense and stay away from the front entrance, but he honestly didn’t know how good the kid was at situational analysis.
It was taking too long. The kid was either dead in there or he was getting beaten up, and Stain didn’t like those options at all. He was starting to prepare plans to break in and extract him, when he heard light footsteps behind him.
He whipped his head around, drawing a knife. It was just the kid, curly green hair falling into his freckled face. He looked like he’d been close to tears for quite some time, and he was holding his shoulder oddly.
And now he was vaguely panicked, since Stain was pointing a knife at him.“Um… Stain-sensei?”
Surprised and impressed that the kid had gotten so close, and had had the foresight to go around the back way, Stain stared for a moment before dropping down to the ground, tucking the knife away. “Don’t add the honorific, it’s just Stain,” he said, looking the kid over again. Something was definitely wrong with his arm.
Choosing to ignore that fact right now, Stain slipped down the alley, smirking when he heard the kid padding after him. He definitely had a lot to learn about stealth, but he was keeping up with Stain reasonably well, which was a good sign.
When they were far enough away from the school that Stain was back in his comfort zone, Stain abruptly turned around and grabbed the kid’s shoulder.
The kid gave a sharp intake of breath, tearing up.
“That’s what I thought,” Stain said sharply. “What happened, who did it, and where do they live?”
“Um-m,” the kid looked somewhere between terrified and desperate. “I fell into the lockers at school and--”
“Don’t give me that crap,” Stain scolded, pointing at the shoulder of the kid’s uniform. It was hard to tell with the dark color of his uniform, but the fabric was a little rough there, like it had been scorched. “You were burned.”
The kid gave the ground a resigned frown. “They were just trying to tell me that I couldn’t be a hero.”
“Still haven’t answered the questions.”
He sighed, eyes flickering up to meet Stain’s. “W-well, that’s because I don’t want to,” he said.
Stain opened his mouth to demand an answer, when he caught the look in the kid’s eye. There was pain, sure, but behind that pain he had a determined protection brewing. The kid wasn’t going to tell Stain anything, because he was trying to save the people that hurt him. He was trying to protect his bullies.
If that wasn’t something a true hero would do, Stain didn’t know what was.
“Fine,” he said shortly, grabbing the front of the kid’s shirt. The kid looked terrified again, but Stain just pulled the shoulder of his uniform off and looked at the mark on his shoulder. It had a small second degree burn just above his collarbone, like someone had cupped their hand over his shoulder and let out a contained explosion. It wasn’t too bad, and even if Stain wasn’t trying to avoid hospitals, he still probably wouldn’t make the kid go to one. Still, it needed treatment, and Stain hadn’t found a new home to commandeer for the day.
Plus, the kid looked absolutely dead on his feet. Stain hadn’t thought about how little sleep the kid must have gotten the night before, but now that the evidence was sitting right in front of him, he had to admit that the kid was clearly tired.
“Are your parents home?” Stain asked finally, letting go of the kid’s uniform. The kid’s hand drifted up to hold his shoulder.
Looking confused, the kid shook his head. “My dad is… gone… and my mom’s at a business meeting.”
“You’re going to sneak me into your house,” Stain said decisively.
The kid took a step back, eyes narrowed. “I am not going to do that,” he said firmly.
If he hadn’t been annoyed with the kid for not accepting help when he clearly needed it, Stain might have been impressed. The kid was a fast learner, and he already understood Stain’s lesson that one shouldn’t just blindly trust people. “You are going to do that,” Stain said, “and I’m going to fix your shoulder.”
The kid didn’t move, still watching Stain suspiciously. “Could you just tell me how to do it myself?” he asked at last, relaxing a little.
Sighing, Stain gave the kid step by step instructions on how to deal with his burns. The kid whipped out a notebook halfway through Stain’s spiel and took fast notes, pencil practically flying across the page. When Stain had finished, and dismissed him, the kid gave him a short little bow and scurried off, stuffing his notebook in his bag as he went.
Stain was half-tempted to tail the kid anyway, but he supposed there was a level of trust he was supposed to keep with the kid, and that meant he couldn’t stalk him, as much as he wanted to. Instead, he went on a hunt for a hero to kill. He did need to keep up appearances, after all.
The next day, Stain was waiting for the kid in a different alley and found himself surprised when the kid managed to sneak up on him again, this time making it even closer than the day before. Either Stain was losing his touch, or the kid was getting better. Either way, it was impressive.
Stain did another quick look over the kid and then nodded when he could see that the kid had managed to avoid getting bullied today.
“Shoulder,” he said gruffly, holding out a hand to push the uniform out of the way. The kid pulled the uniform down off his shoulder, letting Stain look at his work.
It was neatly bandaged-- neatly enough that Stain could tell it wasn’t the kid’s first time.
“I wasn’t going to bandage it but I was worried my uniform would irritate it,” the kid said, pulling his uniform back up over his arm. “I washed it out with cold water for a really long time, like you said, and then I kept it cool, so it’s not swelling very much.”
Stain made a noncommittal sound and then started down the alley, planning out a route.
“Um, Stain-sensei? I mean, Stain?” the kid asked hesitantly, not following him. Stain stopped and looked over his shoulder, frowning. The kid looked nervous and apologetic, like he had something to say and was worried Stain would be mad.
“I was just rem-remembering that you don’t like, um, working in the daytime much,” the kid said, shuffling his feet a little. “And then-- well, I was wondering if you, um, wanted to start meeting at night?” His body curved in on itself, like he was expecting to get hit.
Stain wasn’t going to hit him.
“You’re right, that’s very observant,” he said, nodding. The kid looked relieved, letting his shoulders relax a little. “How about tomorrow, instead of meeting here, you meet me at the skate park at 10:00. Then we can work on your balance and start learning how to jump from high things.”
The kid nodded a few times, clearly excited. “Okay!” he started after Stain, radiating with energy. “So what are we going to do today?”
Stain wasn’t really used to being around bubbly teenagers. Any teenagers he’d met were usually put up with society and ready to murder someone. This was… not that. It was kind of nice, actually. Just might take a while to get used to.
“You are going to follow me around and I’m going to lose you.”
The kid nodded, a determined look in his eye, and Stain slipped off, vanishing into the shadows. After taking a halting step in the direction Stain had just gone in, the kid gave the alleyway a despairing look. “How did you do that?” he asked the empty alleyway.
Stain had to keep himself from snorting out a laugh as he dropped down from the fire escape. “Let’s try again.”
Nodding again, the kid narrowed his eyes, focusing them on Stain.
Stain jumped off, trying to lose his tail, but the kid learned quickly and wasn’t about to lose him again, not without a fight. He managed to keep up with Stain for a full minute before losing him again, and when Stain went back for him, he found the kid sitting in the middle of the alleyway, notebook in front of him, muttering as his pencil skimmed the page.
“Seems to be using the shadows to his advantage, harder in the daylight, I bet, but not impossible, keeps his body lower to the ground so it’s more out of eyeline. Uses height to his advantage, sometimes jumping and climbing the fire escapes and more than once used dumpsters to get up higher, although I do wonder how he does that without making noise…” he kept going, muttering out all of Stain’s tactics, and Stain watched, grinning.
Two hours later, the kid managed to follow Stain for fifteen minutes without losing him once, even climbing a fire escape with his wimpy noodle arms at one point.
Stain decided that was enough for the day when he realized the kid had been doing all of this with a backpack which was probably full of homework he had yet to do.
After thanking Stain a million times, which was an odd experience to say the least, the kid vanished, using Stain’s own stealth techniques to lose him.
He really did learn quickly.