Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

1.

A month before the beginning of the school year, you attend an orientation meeting for U.A. staff. It's Friday evening. You bundle up to stave off winter's sharp teeth, wear comfortable shoes, and regret every choice you've ever made by the time you reach the ID scanner. 

What if he sees you like this? 

In clothes? Dressed like a normal person and not a spandex-clad purveyor of violence and media hype? Scandalous.

In all honesty, you don't want to go to this. You don't want to be at this meeting. You don't want to risk confronting All Might. You don't want this job.

You don't want to be surrounded by Heroes.

"You must be our new nurse." A sultry voice sets the hair on the back of your neck on end. As you're opening the door, the dominatrix Hero Midnight slinks around you. Rather than her infamous costume, she wears office attire. Her expression, however, is suggestive enough to cloak her entire being in a veneer of sexuality. She slips her fingers between yours on the handle, wrests control from your grasp, ushers you inside on her arm. You are so surprised by her audacity, you don't even think to refuse. Not thinking is a dangerous habit. "Don't worry. I can be surprisingly gentle. I won't press any of our precious, young charges too hard… for your sake, of course."

"I'm- I'm sorry, what?"

"No, I'm sorry. I know to take things slower with a new, pretty face. I should introduce myself properly. Nemuri Kayama." She nudges her designer glasses down her nose, looks you over. "I'm a Heroics teacher, but I also cover Art History and fill any other needs I come across. What I meant to say earlier is, I intend to push my students to their limits this and every year. It will be nice having another helping hand around." She smirks and releases your hand, which you foolishly realize she's had since the door handle. "Especially one with such pretty fingers."

You try to think of words and come up blank. In the past, you've been stuck between a Hero and a hard place and truly, blindly panicked. This feels a bit like that. 

"Midnight, I hate to ruin your fun, but we're trying to keep the new staff this time. Do you really want to begin another year with one of those long, uncomfortable HR meetings?" Vlad King is recognizable outside of his professional attire by his teeth, his groomed hair, his posture and imposing build. Like you, he is dressed for comfort and warmth. He glances at you, gives you a knowing smile. "Don't mind her. She just gets… excited."

Midnight giggles, then winds her way past both of you to the group of waiting staff members. It's a smaller group than you expected, but suspect there are late arrivals to come. Vlad King joins them, leaving you to hover on the outskirts and feign social bravery.

Seeing these people all in one place, all functional, is surreal. You've met most of them before in a one-sided sense. In hospitals, sedated and unconscious, as support during surgeries. In waiting rooms, desperate for news on operations, able to see you only by the function you perform when all their mind is focused on a dying friend. Ectoplasm catches your gaze again and again. All too clearly you can bring yourself back to being briefed on the status of his leg, his chances of recovery, the real fear of a good man bleeding out in the ambulance. His prosthetics seem to be in good condition. 

You've seen their insides more than you've heard their voices, that's for sure.

A spastic wave from Present Mic and the laughter that proceeds it draws you in. He gestures to you, coughs into his fist, and croaks, "Welcome!"

You float over to investigate. A Hero with a voice quirk and no voice was a deceptively bad sign. Was he sick? Was it overwork? Had he injured his vocal cords? "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! I'm doing great! Excited to be here, jazzed to meet you. You're Anodyne, right?" He laughs, which breaks into a dry fit. "I know everybody else, so you must be."

"You sound like a dying toad," says Cementoss. "Maybe you should go home?"

"Nahhh." He shrugs. "It's going to be a super short meeting. After all, we only have two new staff members."

You. And All Might.

Grand.

"Hon, please take this," you say as you hand Present Mic some pity.

"Huh? What's this, purse candy?"

"It's a cough drop."

His friends laugh at his expense again, with Midnight chiming in, "She's not even on the clock yet, Hizashi."

The doors fly open amidst the gruff call, "Let's get this over with." Everyone present turns to witness the new arrival, who locks the door behind him, and therefore must be the last arrival. You don't know this man. He's dressed in dark colors, hunches as he walks, but there's a nimbleness. He's faster than he appears.

You smother your internal alarm bells. Everyone who looks like a nighttime prowler is not here to string you up with wire. 

He stands before the group, which you've somehow ended up in the center of, and addresses you all at once. Sort of. He is talking directly to you and pretending not to. "I'm Eraserhead. Vlad and I are co-Heads of the Heroics Department. I'm the one who's been saddled with hosting this meet-and-greet, and because we're doing this my way, we're just going to call it quits here. This is pointless."

"Wow," wheezes Hizashi. "Really professional, Sho."

"… What the fuck happened to you?"

"Police raid. Don't worry about it. It's daytime stuff, you wouldn't know about it." Present Mic grins, as does Midnight. Eraserhead does not share their enthusiasm.

He directs his attention to you. "I already heard everything I need to know from Nedzu. You're a former student, right? You already know where everything is. If you do get lost for some reason, there are maps of labeled classrooms and utility closets all over. You'd have to be an idiot not to notice them."

"And yet, every year," mutters Snipe. "There will be a freshman."

"Sometimes a few freshmen," adds Power Loader.

Eraserhead holds his hand up to silence the banter and get back to the point. "The only thing I need to do is give you this handbook. It contains basic rules and procedures. Know them. If we're ever in crisis, it would be pretty fucking embarrassing for a nurse not to know what to do."

"Sho, chill."

"It also contains a directory with phone numbers and emails. It's online too, so if you somehow lose this and can't get your hands on one of the billion copies I made, go to the school's private site and figure things out yourself. As for scheduling, classes don't begin for students for another month-and-a-half, but certain staff members have to appear for routine drills and things that don't involve the nursing staff. Basically, for the next month you're getting paid to wait around and read the rule book." He folds his hands back into the warmth of his pants pockets, takes a stiff breath, and shakes his head. "That's it. Everybody go back to your lives."

"Hey, wait! We've only got half our new people here. What about All Might?"

"Unfortunately, All Might will not be attending. He called to let me know about twenty minutes ago. Which is fine, because we're already done here."

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

The words escape you before you realize what you've done. Everyone, all of your new coworkers and peers, stare at you in various stages of awe and confusion. It's too late to hold your peace so you let your little gripe loose into the world. "The one person who needs to be oriented more than anybody else in the world, and he skips the mandatory orientation."

For a moment, nobody says anything. Maybe they don't know what to say. But you notice Eraserhead forcing back a smile and he finally, mercifully, takes the pressure from your lungs. "I agree. Let's hope this doesn't set the tone for all of our involvements with the Symbol of Peace." And as quickly as he spares you the group ire, he leaves through the doors that lock automatically behind him, and bows out.

The others turn back to each other, but you get the sense somebody will ask you about your problem with All Might. And you can't handle that. Not right now. Maybe never. "Well everyone, it's been lovely seeing you again. See you next month?" You dismiss yourself in an awful hurry.

"… Did she say ' again' ? Have any of you ever met her before?"

"I don't think so?"

You feel like the biggest idiot the world ever manufactured.

2.

"Come on, Young Midoriya! You've almost got it!"

The broken car lurches, the rope taut, the wheels grinding against sand rather than rolling. It's moving. Inch by inch, just barely, he's certain. 

The rope snaps. Midoriya yelps. He falls in a heap of seaweed, and then yells out again, this time in disgust. 

All Might sighs. Perhaps if he hadn't been standing on the hood of the car shouting encouragements, their line would have survived. "Well, kid, that was the last one. We either have to buy you more rope, or go without it." He looks at the ocean, pondering both the time of day and season. It's growing late. "At this rate, it might be more sensible not to bother. I can't say with any certainty it's made it easier for you to move these things. We might just be making more trash for the trash piles."

After he gets the ocean plants off his skin, Midoriya remains sitting on the ground. His bottom lip bends tightly downward. 

"What's the matter, kid? You didn't hurt yourself, did you?"

"No, it's just…" He looks at the beach, all that stretches out before him.

He doesn't need to say it. All Might understands.

It's too much.

The task is mostly done, but it is not minuscule. The months he spent cleaning amount to many neat, recycle-ready sections and heaps. Low-rung agencies love to send their least combat capable Heroes on tasks like directing the pickup of debris, so getting it off the beach later would be far easier and well out of his young hands. It's everything that comes before that daunts him now. The wall he needs to scale is massive, the height is perilous, the strength required is unfathomable. 

But there is no other way to do the impossible than to commit, drive through opposition, press on.

If Midoriya cannot even move this small, man-made mountain, how will he be able to move all the others All Might knows will spring up before him?

Before he can think of something worthwhile and encouraging to say, a call like the sweetest terror breaks through Toshinori's mind. F/N L/N is at the beach entrance, waving, shouting Midoriya's name as she approaches with that smile. That smile he never thought he'd see again.

He has to hide.

Back into the car, diving through a back window. He curls on the ground in front of the seat. "Young Midoriya, don't let her see me." He fiddles with the lean of the seats, accidentally dropping one on his head in his attempt at disguise. "Politely ask her to leave, ok?"

"I'll just talk to her really fast. I promise I'll be right back."

"No, just ask her to leave! Midoriya? Young Midoriya, please!"

He knows better than to strain himself using his powerful form for mundane reasons. He needs to save his strength for villains and dangers. But he can't help himself. He contorts into a horrible, uncomfortable position to take advantage of his keen hearing and eavesdrop on Midoriya's conversation with F/N.

"I thought I might find you out here," she says. "Hard at work, I see. And still not a trainer in sight."

Shit!

"He's around here somewhere." Bless Midoriya's heart, he's ready to lie about it this time. "Hey, it's kind of late. Are you okay being out here? Do you want me to walk you home?" As much as Midoriya needed the workout and some advice, Toshinori was all too willing to let him get rid of F/N by playing the gentleman role. She would be safe that way, to boot. Though he couldn't imagine why his little apprentice was so concerned about a woman Toshinori distinctly remembered as shaming a serial villain into turning himself into the police. 

"I'm fine, darling, and not so frail that I need to be guarded every day. More to the point, I came out here to bring you these. Ta-da!" 

"Whoa! Ha, thanks." Toshinori strains himself to peek through a rusty hole where once was a window. He sees Midoriya pulling on a pair of thick work gloves.

"Those are the same brand I wore when I was in Hero training. They're fire resistant, warm, and also come with excellent wrist support."

He flexes his fingers in them. "Really, thank you so much! I appreciate it. Um…" Midoriya glances back at the car where his mentor is hiding, causing Toshinori a fright cough that blasts blood everywhere. On his shirt. His face. In his hair. Shit. "Um! So! I…" Midoriya turns away, but he settles back into a coiled, uneasy silence. "Never mind."

"What's up? You worried about entrance exams?"

"… Yeah."

She doesn't say anything for a while, but Toshinori knows that pause. He knows the way she switches her tone. She says, "Worried about your recycling project?" in a way that really means, "Worried you're going to fail at everything and die horribly?"

Midoriya sighs. "Yeah."

A nod. Another deep breath. And then she asks, "Are you going to try your hardest?"

"Yes."

"Give it everything you've got?"

"Yes, of course!"

"And if the worst should happen, and you don't make it in time, or you don't make the cut, is the world going to end?"

He doesn't respond to that one. Not right away. After consideration and with sorrow, he finally answers her. "No."

"And if the world doesn't end, do you get to stand up and try again?"

"… Yes?"

"Yes," she confirms. "The planet keeps spinning. There is no single path to becoming a Hero, just like there's no one way to traverse the globe. You can get there by any route that works for you, and you'll still be at your destination."

Midoriya rolls her suggestion around in his head for all of a moment before his tone shifts to determination and brightness. "Thank you. I'll try to keep that in mind if things go bad. Right now, I think I'd still like to just throw everything I have at this challenge. I can get through it this time. I can. I'm so close already."

Her voice is ripe with pride. "Spoken like a true fan of All Might."

"Me?! What would give you that idea?!"

"The shoes, the hoodie, your backpack, your cell phone cover."

"Oh."

"Your shirt, your belt, your phone charm."

"Oh-- okay."

"Your smile."

Somehow, Toshinori feels like she's found him hiding and punched him in the gut. But no. His secret is secure. She's none the wiser. And maybe, if F/N approves, his instinct to choose Midoriya as his successor wasn't that far off the mark. 

"I can see your mind and heart are set, which means you're well on your way. You've got this, Izuku Midoriya."

"Tha--"

"You don't need to keep thanking me."

"Sorry."

She chuckles and again looks at the ocean from the beach. For the first time in ages, the dock is accessible and safe. The fish are coming back. Plants are growing beyond the sandy swell. "This old place can still dazzle with some hard work, huh? You've put a lot of love into this project. I'm impressed. So, let me take my turn on the pleasantry-go-round. Thank you for doing this, young man."

3.

"We need to stop meeting like this."

"What do you mean? You weren't stuck this time."

"No," you say and hand him a packet of tissues. You've got bandaids ready for him, too, but there are no open wounds today. It's just bruises. It's a hell of a black eye. "I mean about you crying."

"I didn't this time!"

"You totally did, but okay…" You turn his hand over to examine all his fingers. He winces when you bend his pinky. "It's not broken, but we should probably hang out for a while anyway." You shake your head. That's not what you meant. "Because of my breath. Because you'll heal from breathing around me. Because… cut that out!"

He has the biggest, dumbest grin. If he was a dog, he'd be one of those big, yellow, excitable ones that launch themselves off the end of a dock at the first sight of water.

"So… What do you want to do? Sneak up to the roof again?"

"Probably not. I don't want to get you in trouble." He puts his uniform jacket back on. It's funny. You thought he was a gangly, skinny mess when you first met him, but Toshinori has muscle developing. It seems like his strength and physicality haven't caught up with one another yet. But hey, that's puberty. "Why are we always hanging out in the school?"

"Because where else would we be?"

"No, I mean… I know why I'm here. I'm doing extra study to catch up with the rest of the class."

"Right."

"And you're here mostly out of inconvenience."

"Also right."

"But, you haven't been stuck floating since you started wearing weights. Which means you don't really have a reason to be here."

"Uhh…"

"You're not just… waiting around… to spend time with me… are you, L/N?"

"Uhhhh…!" You start to sweat.

The truth is complicated. You've fallen into a comfortable routine where you stay at school too long, sometimes well after even Toshinori goes home. You listen to music on the roof. You play tennis with the wall of the supply shed. You tried swimming, but the lights turn off automatically and things got… spooky . You're more at home lurking around the U.A. campus than you ever could be at home. Eventually, though, you do go back to your house most nights. And you spend the whole time wishing you were at school. Even though your only friend there or in the world is some loser who's probably going to get bullied into dropping out by his own teacher. 

Toshinori has become a highlight of your day. You try to ignore him passing notes to you and gesturing all through the school day, which makes things pleasantly stupid. He's a clown. He wants to make you smile. Or, he's clueless and doesn't mind the world laughing about it. You're not sure how bright he really is yet.

Rather than admit he's your friend, let alone your best friend, you shrug. "Who can say?"

You do have to admit this, though. He's got a handsome smile. If he ever grows into his face or brushes his hair, he might be a real heartthrob. "Do you want to go to the beach?"

"Why the beach?"

"Because the beach is great! It's warm, there's plenty of room, the wind is nice."

"Yeah but like… sharks, bro."

His laughter takes him by surprise. He tries to stop himself but ends up snorting. "Sharks?"

"Pretty sure there are whole movies about the beach being like, the one place you have to worry about those. So maybe not?"

"No, L/N, trust me, the beach is great. You don't even have to go in the water. And either way, I promise I will fight off any sharks that might threaten you." His heroic pose and flex are undercut by that darkening black eye. He pats you on the back to encourage you toward the door. He's heart-set on this. It looks like you're going. So much for rooftop karaoke. "Also, a boat would be another place to worry about sharks, would it not?"

"It's not gonna be on an exam, Toshi. You don't have to ' um, actually ' me about sea creatures."

4.

Girly drinks in a can, the nectar of gods. You would be more wary of the alcohol content, but this is a drinking-to-numb kind of night. The sooner you forget you've signed your soul away, the better. You rest with your back against the ceiling, your phone in your hands and in a case that loops around your wrist. You've dropped too many of these suckers to use anything less. In your other hand, a newly empty can of fuzzy navel. You aim, intending to drop it in a perfect tower, right on top of the others.

Your phone rings, startling you and ruining everything. The entire tower collapses, clink clank, clink clank , and stray droplets of alcohol spill on the carpet.

"Fuck it," you groan. "That's a job for Sober Me." You check your phone, which keeps ringing. It's a few seconds after ten. A weird time for calls.

Might Agency.

You snort to yourself and pick up the receiver. "Is it still cold and flu season?" Or maybe they've got a new public health message this month.

"Uh… I think it is, yeah…" The voice on the other end of the line is not automated. It is baritone, and strained, and deeply confused. "Hi, F/N."

Your blood runs cold, runs backward, runs out your feet and drips down to Hell. It's him. It's All Might. It's Toshinori.

A hundred years of angry, sad, ashamed, fearful words bombard you from within. All the things you thought you would say when the day finally came, everything you prepared, and re-prepared, un-prepared--it jams up at the back of your throat. None of it comes out. An eon apart, and all you can say is, "Hi."

"This is, um… This is All Might, calling from--"

"I know," you say, quiet but sharp. It stops him. "How did you get my number?"

"The U.A. Staff Directory."

Dead air. 

You can't imagine what he looks like talking to you. You hear him but you can barely imagine his voice. The person talking to you doesn't sound like Toshinori and he certainly doesn't sound like All Might. He sounds like a man doing an impression of himself.

Is he waiting for you to say something? "Are you still there?" you ask, hoping for static.

"I am. I… I am here, Miss L/N, to thank you for accepting a position at U.A.! It does our school honor to have an esteemed--"

"Why are you calling me?"

"A-an esteemed Hero like yourself at hand to safeguard the Heroes of tomorrow! No doubt, any and every young Hero would be grateful for your support. That U.A. managed to snag your application first is--"

"Why are you really calling me?"

"…"

He called you not to talk to you. Just to sit there, silent, waiting, and force you to do the same. Why?

Maybe it's the drinks talking, but you shouldn't fool yourself. You know exactly why he's calling. "Does the Might Agency's leader have a professional objection to working with me?"

"No! No, that isn't it."

"Is the agency proposing I withdraw from my contract?"

"No, F/N, this is… The Might Agency states no official involvement or opinion, this is just a conversation between the two of us as people."

"Then I'm going to need you to put away the cartoon voice and talk to me like an adult."

It's quiet. He clears his throat. There's coughing. A lot of coughing. 

Damn. Did you have to be so mean to him? Recovery Girl basically suggested he was dying, right? Stop being a bitch to an old, dying man. What's wrong with you?

"Toshi. Do you have a problem with me working at U.A.?"

He breathes. He waits, but you aren't sure what for. "No," he says at last.

"Okay," you reply. "Then I'll see you bright and early on Monday morning."

He hangs up first.