Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hitoshi can still remember the first time he met The Reluctant Sidekick- capitalized because it’s not just a description, it’s also his fucking villain name. Guy even has it embroidered on the back of his hooded black cape in calligraphy, in a shade of green so bright it matches his eyes.

Hitoshi is of course too smart to fall for the obvious ploy.
He may be a newer graduate than most but he’s smart enough to see a trick coming miles away.

No one would name themselves The Reluctant Sidekick– much less wear said name with pride– if it weren’t for some long con or secret angle. Probably an attempt to garner sympathy should they ever be arrested. Either way The Reluctant Sidekick dresses all in black– down to the face paint mask design around his eyes– sticking out like a sore thumb from amongst the infamous Dragon’s Hoard who all wear their boss’s colors of red and gold.
Dragon himself has been known to scowl and rage and ramp up his aggression and property damage whenever in The Reluctant Sidekick’s company which is probably why Hitoshi starts running into Reluctant on less obvious heists.

Hitoshi may have needed to shorten The Reluctant Sidekick’s moniker to something he was willing to write over and over again while filling out reports but Reluctant is by no means a nickname and said sidekick is still a villain.

Nothing will change Hitoshi’s mind about that.

And then Tuesday comes, bringing with it The Gun Incident.

It starts out as a normal attempted bank heist, and the fact that Hitoshi knows enough about bank heists to say that makes him crave another coffee. He can’t wait till his required rotation with nighttime heroes is up and he officially gets the greenlight to go underground on his own. Though maybe he should be grateful there’s a system in place to ease graduates into it instead of just dumping them into the deep end without a support system.

Aizawa is definitely laughing at his pain but at least he hasn’t rescinded his offer to work together once Hitoshi makes it for real.
Though maybe he will if Hitoshi doesn’t stop this heist!

Five villains in total, all from The Dragon’s Hoard, though thankfully Dragon himself hasn’t deemed to make an appearance. It’s the usual B team crowd: Ox, Vulture, Rocky, Vixen, and of course, The Reluctant Sidekick himself.
Ox is the brawn who knocked down the wall leading to the vault so they can plunder.
Rocky is their usual offense but today he’s playing to his strengths– pun intended– and helping Vixen and Ox with the loot.
Vulture’s wings are flared wide, blocking Hitoshi’s gaze from the hostages, an honestly smart move from the usually dumb villain.
Reluctant is leaning against the wall next to him, twirling a gun around his finger. He’s not actively helping, but his passive stance screams boredom and Hitoshi knows how dangerous bored villains can get. They need to get in there, now!

Ghost Cape nods at him, motioning with her fingers at the large window. Hitoshi grins.

It’s a simple matter to loop his capture scarf around a pole and pull it taut. As soon as he sees Ghost Cape poised at the front entrance he jumps, swinging his feet out to smash the window with his armored boots. He enters with a mighty crash, flipping once in midair to dislodge his scarf and disperse his momentum.

All eyes are on him, just like he planned and he strikes a pose for added flair right as Ghost Cape makes it inside and tackles Vulture.

Reluctant stares at him, green eyes wide behind the paint, gun now firmly in his grip.

Hitoshi runs through his options. He can try to get Reluctant to answer him, snag him with his quirk. But Hitoshi will admit his repertoire is mainly comprised of insults so maybe pulling out one of those when he’s staring down a gun isn’t the smartest move. What else is there though? Flirt?

Hitoshi stiffens. Where did that idea even come from? Sure Reluctant looks around his age and wears that cape very well and yes his eyes are just– no. Nope nope nope, Hitoshi would rather get shot than finish that train of thought, thank you very much.

Reluctant turns slightly, eyes sliding to the left and it's an old trick and Hitoshi should know better but he can’t resist the distraction and so he glances over as well.

It’s Vixen, striding over with purpose, her feline grace helping her avoid the fighting almost elegantly as she beelines for Hitoshi and his silent staredown with Reluctant.

Well, that settles it, Hitoshi has no time to waste!

He turns back, opening his mouth to let loose a cheesy, “You come here often?” eyebrows already lifting suggestively and–

And then Reluctant lifts the gun and pulls the trigger.

The shot goes wide, missing Hitoshi entirely to ping off Vulture’s outstretched hand as it was about to fling Hitoshi’s current boss out the window. Vulture lets out a pained shriek and drops the hero, immediately taking a kick to the face that knocks him flat.

“Ah shit.” Reluctant states utterly deadpan, dry tone putting even Aizawa’s to shame, “knew I should have gotten my head injury checked out.”

Hitoshi thinks Reluctant’s eyes look just fine but then, he is a villain. Lying is old hat to scum like them and a possible concussion is the oldest excuse in the book for bad aim.

Vixen pinches the bridge of her nose. “Ku I swear to fuck if you get us arrested–”

Reluctant waves his arms agitatedly, “I wouldn’t do that, we had a deal!”

The villainess gives Reluctant– apparently nicknamed Ku by the team and damn they must hate his name too if even they’ve given him an alternative– a pointed look at where Ghost Cape is now cuffing the unconscious Vulture.

“Hey come on, he broke my number one rule! I had to!”

“Ku your father–”

“Would you look at the time!” Reluctant-Ku yelps, slamming his hand down on a watch-like contraption on his wrist. “It’s time to go!”

The lights go dead and when they blink on a moment later the villains are gone along with their half filled trolley of money bags.

Damn villains.

Hitoshi gets a clap on the back for successfully distracting Reluctant from the hostages so Moonlight could get them all out and Hitoshi nods and puffs up his chest and takes the full credit offered him and wisely keeps the fact that he hadn’t noticed shit going on during said standoff to himself.

At his temporary desk in the nighttime agency he wonders though. About Reluctant-Ku and his number one rule and his father.

He doesn’t learn anything more about either until The Elevator Incident.

Hitoshi’s working with Manual this week, which is cool because Manual is a very chill dude, a self proclaimed normal guy, a totally average person who is definitely not self deprecating in his hero name, nope.

Hitoshi likes working with him honestly but since Manual works on the edge of daylight and nighttime heroics he sometimes starts working before Hitoshi even gets to the office and then Hitoshi needs to change and catch up as fast as he can or he’ll feel like shit for missing the action.

Like right now.

Dragon’s Hoard has hit Hiro Works, a company that designs and manufactures support gear for heroes and even has a department in the basement where heroes can drop off costumes in need of repair discreetly.
It’s this department that Dragon’s Hoard has targeted and if this damn elevator would just show up Hitoshi could– he jabs at the button again, harshly, and is finally rewarded with the ding of the arriving elevator.

He’s just stepped inside when a voice shouts, “Hold the elevator!” and Hitoshi is so stunned at the unexpectedness of Reluctant Ku flying down the hallway as fast as his legs can carry him that he forgets to jab the ‘door close’ button before the villain can skid inside.

The doors slide closed and the elevator starts moving.

Silence.

Dead silence.

The elevator music trills in the background and Hitoshi resists the urge to clear his throat and shuffle his feet just to break the silence.

Reluctant Ku has no such qualms.

“Hey! Winter costume, right? Looks good!”

Hitoshi blinks.

“The fur trim in the boots really suits and it's subtle but elegant and adds just the splash of color you need. Those full gloves go over your regular fingerless ones right? So you can take them off easily when you're fighting indoors and still have the ones made for your capture scarf on underneath? Very nice, I approve.”

“...thanks?”

Ku beams at him brightly before looking down to tap away at his watch.

Hitoshi briefly considers tackling the guy and placing him under arrest but honestly he’s only got the one pair of cuffs and he can see Ku’s gun sitting on his belt and without knowing what his quirk is it's too risky to antagonize him when right now there’s relative peace in this enclosed space.

Instead he finds himself speaking.

“Don’t suppose you’d be willing to tell me what you guys are here for?”

He’s not expecting an answer. Someone who knows him well enough to tell his winter and summer costumes apart on sight definitely knows what his quirk is. Not to mention the question itself.

His jaw drops and he stares in shock as Ku replies, focus still wholly on his watch. “Classes ran late so I had to practically run here just to make it but if I had to guess they’re probably here for Lord Nitro’s costume. The gauntlets to be specific.” He waves a hand airily and rolls his eyes, “Dragon’s got these ideas about adapting it to spray nitroglycerin or flammable liquids to complement his fire quirk and I kept telling him that it’s not the same at all because Ka–”

He cuts off with what sounds to Hitoshi like a forced cough, hand flying to his mouth before dropping to rub at his throat. “Um, anyway. I just think it’s stupid but considering his plans and the timing and the fact that Lord Nitro was seen today in his winter getup and he always drops off his costume to be properly cleaned when he changes since his volatile quirk would become unstable if residue was left to build up, it just makes the most sense that that’s what they’re here for.”

“I see,” Hitoshi says slowly, wondering if he should have allowed Ku to keep going or if he should have grabbed him with his quirk and used him as leverage. Then again, Dragon seems to barely tolerate Ku as it is. Would he even give anything up or stop fighting just to save Ku?

There’s only one way to find out.

Hitoshi can’t believe he’s actually doing this as he opens his mouth and jokingly says, “Any chance you’d let me take you hostage?”

Ku pauses, tapping at his watch and giving the top of the device a half turn before finally looking up. His eyes are even brighter and wider up close.

“He’ll be mad but I’m fire resistant so make sure to keep me in front of you.”

And that.

Hitoshi doesn’t even know what to say to that.

So he says nothing, grabbing hold of Ku’s mind and riding the elevator the rest of the way down in silence.

Chapter Text

Hitoshi types up his report in silence.

Grabbed The Reluctant Sidekick with my quirk

and Hitoshi is definitely not reverting to the villain’s full name because he realized he’d been referring to him as Ku in his head, nope.

and waited behind him as the elevator descended in case one of the villains caught sight of us. I had my knife out just in case I needed to fight and my capture weapon was loosely wrapped around him in a parody of a restraining hold should he be knocked free of my control as well as to facilitate the illusion that he was merely captured and not under the effects of a quirk. The scene when the elevator doors slid open was

chaos honestly but Hitoshi can’t exactly say that on the report. He backspaces a bit and tries again.

When the doors opened I saw Dragon fighting with Manual while his new baby intern Water Hose

Damn can’t call him that in an official report.

while his intern Water Hose focused on putting out the fires around him. Vixen was once again present, this time alongside her sister Viper and they fully utilized their animal reflexes to dodge any attack Arrowhead was firing at them. The doors opened with a loud ding, immediately ruining any element of surprise but as far as I could see my arrival with the captured Reluctant Sidekick had two immediate results. Vixen froze and was finally hit by Arrowhead, only saved from a major injury by Viper yanking her down. Dragon

Hm. How to put this. Because damn Dragon had immediately opened fire, pun intended, and while that made Hitoshi’s distraction worthwhile in the sense that Manual was able to get the drop on him it also begged the question of why exactly Ku The Reluctant Sidekick is a member of the Dragon’s Hoard at all if the boss hates him so much.
Maybe Vixen brought him in since she seems to be more attached to him than anyone else Hitoshi has seen thus far?
Either way,

Dragon let his guard down to attack me and Manual was able to get a hit in. This did not result in a capture unfortunately but whatever their objective, they were forced to retreat without achieving it.

Hitoshi knows of course what their objective was, assuming Reluctant had been telling the truth about Bakugou’s guantlets, but he also knows that if he asserts it as fact in an official capacity on the word of a single villain who basically handed himself over as bait, well. He’s not looking for a lecture on misplaced trust and naivety in the field. He didn’t get the sense that he was being lied to but it’s not something he can prove so it’s better to just leave it out. In any case Dragon isn’t stupid enough to try again so there’s no harm done in keeping it to himself.
Now where was he?

Around that time, The Reluctant Sidekick’s watch let out a beep like that of a timer and delivered a shock to the villain’s wrist, freeing him from my control. I wasn’t prepared for it and he was able to escape with the others.

And man doesn’t that still rankle. The fact that Ku– THE RELUCTANT SIDEKICK– had taken the time to set the timer before responding to Hitoshi in the first place meant he hadn’t trusted that Hitoshi would let him go afterward. Never mind that Hitoshi himself hadn’t been sure in the moment what to do or not, but somehow the thought that he would have arrested the guy after he’d given up both information as well as allowed himself to be used as a fire shield doesn’t sit well with him.

Hitoshi almost gets the feeling that the villain would have protected him from Dragon’s fire whether he was brainwashed or not, otherwise why offer the fact that he’s fireproof? He could have played possum allowing Hitoshi to think he had a hostage only for Dragon’s attack to immediately take him out of play. But Reluctant didn’t do that. He didn’t play along for the sake of a ploy and he didn’t ignore Hitoshi either. He agreed to be leveraged and even warned Hitoshi about Dragon’s trigger happy attack and told him to use his body as a shield.

Hitoshi still doesn’t know what to make of it all. But he’s starting to think that the time Reluctant turned on Vulture at the bank was because the villain was about to critically injure Ghost Cape by throwing the hero out a two story window.
It just doesn't make sense.

But the fact that Reluctant felt he needed to make arrangements for his escape instead of trusting the hero he helped to be honorable and let him go after?

That doesn’t sit well with Hitoshi at all.

***

Hitoshi doesn’t see The Reluctant Sidekick for a while after that.

This fact barely registers to him though. It’s not something he thinks about. He definitely doesn’t search the news or underground chatter for updates. Nope. He doesn’t do any of that at all and definitely not on a daily basis.

He’s doing his rotation with Midnight when he finally meets him again.

This of course leads to what Hitoshi likes to call The Phone Incident.

It’s not much of an incident honestly, barely a blip on the radar compared to the incidents previous, namely The Gun and The Elevator, but it’s an occurrence that baffles Hitoshi as much as the others did so he’s going to count it dammit even if the only one keeping count is himself.

It goes like this.
Hitoshi is once again having a standoff with The Reluctant Sidekick while somewhere in the background Midnight and Nightlight are fighting… whoever Reluctant was guarding the vehicle for, Hitoshi wasn’t exactly paying attention.

The silence is oppressive this time, heavy with something, but before Hitoshi can say anything, bring up The Elevator Incident or the nasty fall he saw Reluctant take on the news clips yesterday, something unexpected happens.

A phone rings.

Reluctant shifts in place, a light flush crawling up the parts of his face left visible under the paint around his eyes but he makes no move to answer it and continues to say nothing.

The phone keeps ringing.

“Aren't you going to answer that?” Hitoshi teases, shit eating grin pulling at his lips unbidden.

Reluctant scowls and glares, adjusting his grip on the gun, but making no move to answer either the phone or Hitoshi’s question.

A pity honestly. Hitoshi feels disappointment curl in his gut. Because of the wrench in his plans to brainwash Reluctant of course, no other reason at all.

“You can get it, I don’t mind.” he tries again, but his heart isn’t in it and Reluctant makes a face like he can somehow tell.

“You’d like that wouldn’t you,” the villain suddenly snaps, fingers of his free hand dancing agitatedly over a hidden pocket in the lining of his cape, “want me distracted so you can arrest me, want me to accidentally let some personal details slip. Well no dice!” He lifts the gun slightly and glares down the barrel. “Back away slowly and don’t try anything funny!”

Hitoshi tilts his head. There’s a niggling suspicion in the back of his mind as he remembers the last time they did this. Reluctant could have killed or injured him back then but the only shot he’d fired that night was the one that saved Ghost Cape.
And Hitoshi suddenly needs answers to the puzzle that is The Reluctant Sidekick Ku and he has an idea of how to get it.

He takes a step forward.

“Hey! No! Back up right now I mean it!”

Hitoshi does not back up, Hitoshi instead keeps moving forward even as Reluctant starts gesticulating with the weapon in his hand and threatening to shoot.

“I’m warning you, if you don’t leave right now I’ll–”

Hitoshi’s chest bumps the gun and he slowly settles a hand on it to push it away. “You’ll what?”

If looks could kill Hitoshi would be dead right now.
Then again if Reluctant couldn’t even kill him with a gun, his death glare is probably just as empty of a threat.

The phone rings again as the two of them stare each other down, so close Hitoshi can make out the number of lashes on Ku’s eyes and the smattering of freckles not hidden by the face paint.

“You gonna get that?” he breathes, stirring the villain’s hood with his exhale.

Ku shudders and turns slightly to pull out his phone, making no move to reclaim his weapon.
Hitoshi smirks. Bingo.

“What?” Ku’s voice sounds washed out, drained from all energy and emotion as he brings the phone to his ear.

Hitoshi is just weighing his options and thinking about how to proceed when the villain flinches at whatever he’s just heard and life comes rushing back to his voice as he yells, “What do you mean she never turned it in???”

Hitoshi is close enough to hear hysterical babbling coming from the device but too far to make out what’s being said.

“But it’s worth half our grade! I stayed up till five in the morning every night for three whole weeks! We worked on it for months!”

Hitoshi frowns as more babbling ensues.

“It was literally her job! It was the only thing we expected her to do!”

Ku starts pacing, seemingly uncaring that he’s left his weapon behind in Hitoshi’s grip.

“I don’t care about her stupid boyfriend! I care about my hard work going to waste because of someone else’s ineptitude! If she was going to screw us over she shouldn't have volunteered to hand it in!”

Hitoshi shuffles his feet and clears his throat but Ku keeps right on going.

“I know that was the easiest job we could give her! It just doesn’t help when she can’t even do that!”

The gun in his hand winks at him in the moonlight and Hitoshi blinks at it before throwing up a mental ‘oh what the heck’ and starting an inspection of the custom designs. They’re quite intricate and handmade too if the way they perfectly complement Ku’s outfit is anything to go by. He almost wants to check the barrel, see how fancy the bullets are but that would be pushing his luck. All he needs is to accidentally leave his fingerprints on the bullets and mess up some future crime scene.
Damn this freakishly warm night and his decision to leave his winter gloves at home.

“Okay okay here’s what we’re going to do. You call the office and have them corroborate our story with her attendance records. If she really did just up and leave then her absences will back us up. I’ve got the first drafts still saved on my laptop somewhere. I’m at work right now but we can meet up and get it…” Ku’s eyes widen as he seems to suddenly remember Hitoshi and their current situation.

Hitoshi waves at him cheerily.
It’s the hand holding the gun because of course it is.

“...I have to call you back.”

Ku hangs up and Hitoshi grins. “Trouble in paradise?” he laughs.

Ku takes a deep breath, pinches the bridge of his nose and visibly counts to ten before deflating. “I will pay you cash money to let me leave right now.”

“Is that so?” Hitoshi could just take control of the villain now that he seems to actually be responding but there’s a deal on the table and Hitoshi isn’t stupid enough to turn it down without hearing the terms.
That’s his story and he’s sticking to it.

“Give me the gun. I need to go right now but if you… if you show me that I can trust you then I’ll… I’ll give you Dragon.”

Hitoshi blinks, hand holding the gun falling slack at his side. “You’ll… what?”

“Dragon. His hoard, his hideout, his safehouses, everything. Just let me go.”

Ku reaches out to take his weapon back and Hitoshi doesn’t try to stop him.

It’s only after the villain is long gone that Hitoshi notices Ku left his phone in Hitoshi’s hand.

Chapter Text

It’s been a long night and Hitoshi all but falls into the shower after finally being dismissed. He’s so exhausted he almost falls asleep right then and there but the mystery of the phone waiting on his desk is just too much to ignore.

He’s sitting on the couch just holding it, staring it down as if to will it into coming alive with his very mind when suddenly it does.

Hitoshi is so surprised he drops it with a loud “shit!” that he hopes didn’t wake his neighbors.

The phone ignores his turmoil and continues its merry ringing. If Hitoshi didn’t know better he’d think the plastic bastard was mocking him.

“Hello?”

Silence and maybe it’s the lateness of the hour but it suddenly occurs to Hitoshi that there’s probably no answer because he’d phrased his greeting as a question and he’s so fucking tired of people ignoring him like he doesn’t know when to brainwash someone and when to refrain and if The Reluctant Sidekick really thinks Hitoshi would grab him now with an insurmountable distance between them when the villain had promised to cough up his boss– as if the odds of him actually remaining brainwashed for the entire trip aren’t miniscule as fuck and Hitoshi doesn’t know better than to jeapordize their deal by trying to–

“You didn’t try to unlock it.” Ku’s voice comes through in a rush, a tinge of awe behind his words, clearly oblivious to the outburst Hitoshi was about to let loose. “You left it out of your report.”

“You saw my report?” Hitoshi’s response is automatic and he’s stupidly proud of the way he manages to keep both his former flare of anger as well as his current confusion out of it.
Let it not be said that Shinsou ‘Deadpan’ Hitoshi can be taken off guard by a measly breach of privacy.

“Oh, yeah, I hacked it. You should honestly tell your bosses about it, the security was child's play.”

And quite frankly, the suggestion is so at odds with what Hitoshi thinks of villains, so at odds with what Hitoshi has always thought about Ku that he has to sit down.

‘Of course you would say that’ he thinks and does not say as he grips the stolen phone tight.

His voice when he next speaks is hushed and almost reverent. “So does this mean you trust me now?”

Ku takes his time responding and Hitoshi holds his breath as it finally sinks in how much getting a positive response right now means to him.

“Midoriya Izuku,” the villain finally says, sounding as tired as Hitoshi feels, “start your search there.”

The call disconnects and Hitoshi is only mildly surprised when the phone in his hand starts smoking.

Midoriya Izuku it is.

***

First thing the next morning as soon as Hitoshi gets home from his frankly uneventful night of patrol he downs the double espresso he picked up on the way back and stares down his laptop.

Is he really doing this?

Yes. Yes he is.

Slowly he types the name into the boosted database he gets access to with his license.

He hesitates briefly before backspacing his login information and inputting Eraserhead’s instead. You never know the level of scrutiny a newer recruit’s searches will get. And it’s not like anyone knows he memorized Aizawa’s license number and password the one time his teacher was too tired to block his screen in third year.

Hitoshi’s finger hovers over the enter key and he braces himself before finally pressing it.

Whatever he was expecting it’s not… this.

There’s no larger than life pyromaniac, no offshore bank accounts, not much of anything honestly.

Instead the top results are a couple student ID card’s from middle school, high school and college and it’s this last one that gives Hitoshi pause. Because the college ID… is current.

Hitoshi takes in the tired face, the halfhearted smile, the dark bags under the bright green eyes that Hitoshi would recognize anywhere even without that ridiculous excuse of a mask.

It hits him all at once in a rush.

Ku.
Izuku.
A college student who’s built like a compact wall of muscle but doesn’t play any sports.

“Classes ran late so I had to practically run here just to make it”

“But it’s worth half our grade!

“Holy shit,” Hitoshi murmurs, leaning forward to get a closer look. It’s obvious now that he’s looking for it but it doesn’t explain why Ku gave him this name when he’d promised to hand over his–

“Hey come on, he broke my number one rule! I had to!”
“Ku your father–”

Hitoshi’s eyes widen and he clicks to the main profile with a gasp.

Midoriya Izuku
Quirk: NA

Mother: Inko Midoriya (deceased)
Quirk: Pull

Father: Hisashi Midoriya
Quirk: Fire Breath

Hitoshi’s breath catches in his throat. Dragon.

Now that he knows where to actually look it doesn’t take much digging into Midoriya Hisashi to strike gold. Here are the accounts he was expecting, along with real estate properties and even a sprawling family estate and this is it, this must be the list of safe houses and bases Ku had promised him.

He keeps going down the rabbit hole and discovers that Midoriya Hisashi also owns a business, a security company to be exact, full of freelance bodyguards for hire who all just so happen to match long known members of the Dragon’s Hoard.

Hitoshi swallows and takes a gulp of coffee, wide eyes still scanning his screen in amazement.
This is.
This is brilliant and crazy and no wonder they were never able to trace anything or get any leads! A fake security firm gives all its employees alibis and a legal looking day job and even a steady paycheck– all above board! And all Midoriya Hisashi had to do to keep up the ruse was create fake job requests on ‘working nights’ and then pay himself and his business through his own offshore accounts, thus effectively laundering all the stolen money!

Hitoshi leans back in his chair, hands pressed to his face as he tries to process just how smartly this villain played the game. The Dragon’s Hoard has been untouchable for years, since long before Hitoshi even applied to UA.
This. This is huge. It’s so big Hitoshi is at a loss for how to proceed.

First thing’s first though, he needs to somehow let Ku know he got the message. And maybe somehow convey one of his own. Something that says he gets it now, the whole Reluctant Sidekick thing, this was his dad and his mom was gone, and he’d needed to do whatever he could to survive with his morality as intact as possible.

“he broke my number one rule” Ku had said way back at the bank heist when he betrayed a fellow villain for almost hurting a hero. And Hitoshi hadn’t gotten it back then, hadn’t even thought it possible, had barely entertained the thought at all before dismissing it as illogical.
But just a couple nights ago he walked right up to Ku regardless of the weapon the villain had aimed his way and nothing had happened.

The Reluctant Sidekick was a literal description all along and Ku had just wanted to make sure every hero he came across knew it.

***

HItoshi settles for flowers in the end because why the fuck not. It’s discrete, it’s anonymous and it’s the only means of contacting Ku that won’t scream secret agent levels of communication bullshit at first glance.

He even has them delivered right to Ku’s dorm room because, hey, it was right there on his student ID, what was Hitoshi supposed to do, not use it?

The card he sends with it is simple and straightforward, something earnest while also vague enough it could be from anyone.

thanks for your help

So of course Ku sends him one back, a gaudy purple arrangement, handed over by messenger right outside his latest agency of the week and the card attached makes Hitoshi laugh.

don’t mention it, no really

It amuses him so much that he spends his entire patrol smiling.

That’s his story and he’s sticking to it.

Chapter Text

It honestly should have occurred to Hitoshi that Aizawa was the type of guy to search things while half asleep and then double check his history once properly awake in case the results of his memories were just a dream.

It did not however occur to Hitoshi until the next night when a capture scarf snags him by the waist and yanks him into an alley where a bored looking Aizawa holds up his phone with a familiar search pulled up and in the driest tone Hitoshi has ever heard says, “what’s this?”

This was the point where Hitoshi should have come clean.
So naturally he did not.

“That’s a phone Sensei.”

Aizawa does not rise to the bait, merely arching an unimpressed eyebrow. “If you’re going to use my account to do background checks on your boyfriend the least you can do is delete the history afterward.”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” Hitoshi splutters before groaning at how easily he’d fallen for Aizawa’s trap.

‘don’t mention it, no really’ Ku had written and here Hitoshi is, so stupid at covering his tracks that he’s left with no choice but to come clean.
Though maybe he doesn’t need to give up everything.

“Midoriya Izuku is Dragon’s son. I got the name from a villain I’ve encountered a few times, The Reluctant Sidekick. Turns out he’s as reluctant as the moniker implies and he gave me the name of Dragon’s son as a sign of good faith. It’s actually great that you found out because I wasn’t sure what to do with the info now that I’ve verified it.”

“And you didn’t call me immediately because?”

Hitoshi widens his eyes and pastes his most innocent expression on his face. “I didn’t want to wake you.”

Aizawa doesn’t buy it, not for a minute but he does thankfully take control of the situation and he even lets Hitoshi join the task force he’s putting together to bust the Hoard which is a great mercy considering the breach of trust and we’re going to talk about this at length once we’ve dealt with the villains Hitoshi.

Hitoshi nods and bows and then sneaks off to send another bouquet of flowers.

things are going so well I think I’m almost ready to meet your Dad

Hitoshi has maybe decided that the boyfriend cover story suits his needs perfectly and has therefore fully embraced it.

Ku must be on the same page though because his responding bouquet is the grandest one yet and the card reads

Would you like to come for dinner tonight?

in the fanciest calligraphy known to man.

Hitoshi’s responding grin is so feral he accidentally scares Midnight’s intern.

***

The sun has set and it’s time to go.

Hitoshi has managed to convince Aizawa to put him on the team raiding the Midoriya family home. Call him naive but there’s something about Ku’s note specifying dinner that makes him feel that’s the place he wants to be. There are multiple teams hitting the various holdings and properties simultaneously tonight and Aizawa had given him a sharp look and questioned why Hitoshi preferred that to Midoriya Hisashi’s place of business but Hitoshi just can’t explain it.

Well, that’s not entirely true. He could explain if he wanted to but somehow even the thought of verbalizing how he feels about catching Ku in his civilian life and keeping him out of the line of fire— possibly literal if Dragon finds out what his son has done— while heroes finally arrest his father has his stomach twisting uncomfortably.

And there’s maybe a small part of Hitoshi– downright microscopic mind you– that just wants to be the person that sets Ku free.

So here he is, sneaking silently up the walls on a quest for an unlocked window to climb into the house through. Somewhere on the other side of the frankly opulent two story Eraserhead is making his own way inside.

Hitoshi takes a deep breath as he squeezes inside and tries not to think of the stupid flower he’d grabbed off the latest bouquet that’s tucked into a pocket of his pants.
He doesn’t even know why he brought it, it’s not like Ku won’t recognize him on sight. He didn’t need a sign of their correspondence, doesn’t need proof of their agreement. And yet, a part of him just couldn’t resist.

Hitoshi stalks along the hallway carefully, keeping to the shadows the way Aizawa taught him way back in first year.
There’s a crash from somewhere below him, a muted shout of pain in a somewhat familiar voice and Hitoshi needs to force himself not to break out into a run. Stick to the plan Hitoshi. Ku is tough and smart, he’ll be fine.

The stairs leading down are carpeted and Hitoshi creeps his way down as silently as he can.

He comes upon a dining room, five place settings laid out on the table and not a scrap of food in sight.

The occupants of the room are too busy watching Midoriya Hisashi, aka the villain Dragon, slap the face of someone tied to one of the chairs.
A very familiar someone with a head of green hair, bright green eyes and a sweatshirt that Hitoshi realizes is an amateur cosplay of his hero costume.

“Say that again Izuku, I dare you.”

The three other villains shuffle awkwardly but don’t intervene and Hitoshi takes a minute to back into the corner of the room and carefully snap pictures with his phone to send to Aizawa. None of the villains are wearing their costumes but Hitoshi has spent enough time staring at photos of the top brass of both the security firm as well as Dragon’s Hoard to recognize Viper, Ox and Rocky. It’s weird that Vixen isn’t here considering how high up she is but then again she clearly has a soft spot for Ku making it immediately obvious why she’s been excluded tonight.

“I said, you can force me to come along but you can’t make me hurt people.”

Dragon backhands him, Ku’s head snapping sharply to the side. “I’m not asking you to hurt people! I haven’t asked you to hurt people in years! I’ve long accepted that your gun is just for show, you useless child! I still expect you to do your fucking job!”

“I won’t help with a kidnapping! If you didn’t want me setting the kid free then you shouldn’t have left me alone with—“

Dragon’s fist impacts Ku’s face so hard the chair tips over. Viper twitches as if fighting an instinct to go help and Hitoshi makes a mental note to go easy on her.

“Of course you would say that, you ungrateful brat! I’ve had just about enough of you!”

The villain growls, snatching a knife from one of the staged place settings and crouching down with a sneer. “Any last words Izuku?”

Ku lifts his face and meets his father’s gaze, eyes flashing with defiance. “All things must eventually come to an end, it's how we face that ending that matters.”

Dragon’s expression twists and he grabs his son’s face and squeezes “And what exactly is that supposed to mean?” he hisses, seemingly oblivious to the smoke trailing from his mouth.

Ku remains stoic even as his father’s claws dig into his cheeks hard enough to draw blood. “It means, there was only ever one reason I let you force me into this. I kept a log and collected evidence for every single crime the Dragon’s Hoard committed. You have a tell when you’ve reached the limit of your patience so before coming home today I sent all of it to a hero I trust, along with the location of the base and all of your safe houses. They’ll be here any minute.”

Hitoshi can’t wait any longer and takes that as his cue, snagging Rocky with his capture scarf and spinning on one heel to send the villain crashing into Ox. “Actually,” he drawls in as bland a tone as he can muster, “you’ll find we’re already here.”

He can fight Ku on the semantics of his “log” and “evidence” literally being just a search of his own name later. For now though, he’s got a hoard to help take down.

***

Hitoshi’s not sure exactly how much time has passed but the four villains have been arrested and Dragon’s ‘definitely innocent son who is just a college student and nothing else’ is being treated in the back of an ambulance.

Aizawa pats Hitoshi on the shoulder before walking away to make some calls and check in with the other teams and Hitoshi casually sidles up to Midoriya Izuku and waits till the paramedics let him leave.

Reluctant— Ku— Midoriya smiles at him, the motion pulling at the dressings on his face as he does. “Persuasion. My hero.”

Hitoshi smirks. “Nice sweatshirt K— Midoriya.”

The former reluctant sidekick flushes red, hunching into his shock blanket. “He didn’t give me time to change.”

Hitoshi grins. “Uh huh. Sure.”

“It’s the truth! And um. I’d prefer if you called me Izuku.”

Hitoshi starts waggling his eyebrows suggestively and Izuku shoves him lightly with a groan. “Don’t make it weird. I just. Haven’t been called Izuku by anyone besides him in... a long time.”

His tone turns melancholy, gaze going far away and so Hitoshi shatters the moment the only way he knows how.

“I gotta ask, why the face paint? You actually in college because the alternative was clown school?”

Izuku laughs, snapped out of his memories by the absurdity of the question and when he immediately responds, Hitoshi feels something in his chest grow warm.

“He was always threatening to steal my mask before a job so I’d have to take the fall and drop out of college. It was just a threat obviously since incriminating me would just lead back to him but it still made me nervous so I needed to make my mask nonremovable. It’s a fancy expensive brand made for hero movies so it doesn’t wash off that easily. I carry special wipes in my cape.”

“I see,” Hitoshi nods sagely. “You’ll have to show me next time.”

Izuku’s face falls slightly. “Uh. I mean. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but. I’m kind of out of a job right now.”

“So? You never wanted to be a villain anyway right? And it’s not like you’d need a license to become a hero considering your…” Hitoshi waves a hand vaguely and quickly moves on in case it’s a sore topic. “You’d just need a permit for the weapon obviously but I went to UA. I know a guy.”

Izuku’s eyes water and he swipes at them with the edge of the blanket before visibly brightening.
“I mean, I guess I could come work for you if you’re offering,” Izuku grins cheekily, “that way I can keep my name.”

Hitoshi snorts. “Please, there’s nothing reluctant about you.”

Izuku smiles at him then and it’s so soft and thankful that Hitoshi has to look away.

“I guess not. Not anymore.”

“Persuasion and The Sidekick. I like the sound of that.”

“What about The Sidekick and his boyfriend?” Izuku asks carefully, face flushing red.

Hitoshi grins, pulling that damn crumpled flower from his pocket and handing it to Izuku with a flourish. “That. Sounds even better.”