Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hizashi didn’t play around when it came to planning out training regimens; they sat down at the kitchen table with Shouta and Izuku to plan out the kid’s future-pro-training plans armed with with notebooks and lists and diet plan info and an honest-to-god chart that they’d been keeping track of the boy’s self defense lessons with. That least one was just for fun, to be fair, because Hizashi enjoyed tracking statistics for damn near anything, but it was something Izuku highly appreciated.

Far be it from him not to love a good statistic.

“Kami, Zash, was all this really necessary?” Shouta stared at the monster overtaking the kitchen table now. He was obviously all in for doing this right, but this was… a lot.  And he taught a heroics homeroom.

“What?” Hizashi, who’d previously looked pleased with themself and excited, glanced at their husband with confusion overtaking their expression. “It’s all my notes, I like to be prepared. You know that.”

“Yeah I know, but…” but there was a difference between being prepared and… being terrifying. He didn’t want to say that out loud though, not when Nedzu could potentially be listening, so he shook his head and regrouped. “The good news is we know exactly where your skills are after two years of self defense training.” Shouta spoke first, leaning over to grab a blank notebook from the stack. “What we really need to do is adapt from general self-defense to offense, work on your stamina,” Shouta said, like Izuku wasn’t already practically the energizer bunny, “balance, and flexibility.

“Now, you’re probably always going to be small.” He continued. “That just is what it is, but that just means you need to be faster and smarter than your opposition. You’ve already got the smarts,” Shouta reached over to ruffle his son’s green curls, “but by the time the entrance exam rolls around I’ll have you faster than me.”

“I can be faster than you?” Izuku’s eyes went wide, because Shouta was terrifyingly fast.

“Problem child,” Shouta grinned, one of the lesser unhinged feral ones, “by the time we’re done with you, you’re going to be better than us.” Hizashi nodded in agreement, because that was their goal with all their students.

They just hoped the world was ready by the time Izuku finally graduated and they set him loose on the streets.

There were a lot of things that Izuku did after that, most of which he wasn’t doing alone after about a week or so because what ten year old wouldn’t see those things as cool? Plus, where one of the friend group went, usually at least two went with them- minimum.

He did yoga with Hizashi most mornings while Shouta got some bonding time in over tap dance on the others (and the underground pro refused to be embarrassed about that- it was damn useful as a pro, which of them could run across telephone pole wires Oboro?). Izuku wasn’t that enthused about tap dance at the start, but when he asked if he could just wear the noise canceling headphones Shouta realized it was a sensory issue, not a ‘ten year old doesn’t want to do the thing’ issue. He just took the actual hard bits that made the noise and took them off the shoes; problem solved.

Both boys also spent a lot of time at UA, especially Izuku with the personal student lessons, so they made great use of the gyms when they were available. Sometimes it was the bigger student gyms when there were no students using them, but most of the time it was the teacher only gym hidden under the main building both for privacy and ease of access reasons.

It was common knowledge that the greenette developed his own set of parkour skills while invisible to everyone but Hitoshi and, as the whole endangered bird incident made abundantly clear, he never let those skills get rusty. (Benkei’s tree houses were a wonderful little hideaway for the boys, but climbing trees in general was both a useful and fun past time for Izuku. Also the adults freaked out on him less when he climbed a tree versus a building.)

Shouta wanted to polish those skills, but Hizashi put his foot down on the under taking Izuku into the cityscapes before he was sure the kid had a solid grasp on the basics. The voice pro knew it was more or less an unfounded concern- Shouta would never let Izuku go splat, get a little bruised and battered so he could actually learn yes, but not go splat- but as mom he felt he was entitled to one (1) unreasonable concern.

“Really?” Izuku wasn’t that impressed with the argument, but Shouta just nodded, already forming another point of attack. If he couldn’t take Izuku up a building yet, he’d just take him rock climbing. Kaina even had a membership that let her take guests at a pro-only gym that had a better rock wall setup than UA did, and she’d been practically begging to be let in on training her precious little nephew.

“I just can’t believe our precious baby boy is growing up!” She dramatically (and loudly) cried once Shouta and Izuku were actually able to meet her at the gym, squishing Izuku’s cheeks together (they were such prime real estate, she just couldn’t not) as she rocked back on her heels. “Didn’t I make you promise to stop growing on me? Every time I turn around I feel like you and Toshi have sprouted up another six inches!”

“Our?” Shouta raised an eyebrow at his mentor-turned-friend’s antics.

“No.” Izuku answered flatly at the same time, voice somewhat distorted by his aunt’s continued fussing though he hadn’t made any attempts to physically disengage her (yet). “Auntie Kaina, you’re embarrassing me.” Behind him, Hitoshi, Shoto, and Toru (the ones with the availability and permission to join them that afternoon) all snickered at his plight.

“That’s the point green bean, keep up.” Kaina finally released Izuku’s face. “We’re training you to be a pro hero now, you’re gonna have to learn how to avoid situations like this moving forward.”

“There’s more than one way to do that, I hope you realize.” Izuku raised an eyebrow. He knew she meant physical escape, but she and Shouta weren’t his only teachers and Nedzu would be so disappointed in him if he didn’t employ any of the chimera’s lessons. “Don’t forget, I’ve got photos of you crying with your face shoved into Dum-E’s belly, your girlfriend’s phone number, and access to the UA teacher group chat.”

“No, you don’t.” Shouta immediately frowned, a new fear creeping down his spine. “Not the teacher chat, at least.” He was one hundred percent checking the participants in the chat asap, because if the rat let his son have access to the level of bad decision making that went on in that chat when he was still so impressionable, they were going to have words. (It wasn’t about the impressionability, it was about the embarrassing stuff Shouta didn’t want Izuku knowing about.)

“Then why do I know about the sleepy kitten contest?” Izuku asked his dad with an angelic smile, referencing the contest the teachers were having that was basically catching Shouta sleeping in the most random or seemingly uncomfortable places possible. Hizashi didn’t watch their phone the closest when they were cleaning, but Izuku wasn’t going to share that factoid and cut himself off from the golden goose.

The question was followed by silence from Kaina and Shouta and a continued, potentially heavier, snickering that wasn’t aimed at Izuku any more.

“...that’s brutal, kiddo, but I respect it.” Kaina eventually found her words again. “Now, who wants to go learn how to climb rocks!”

That question was met by cheering from the small horde of ten year olds, who Kaina promptly led further into the gym. She left Shouta to his little existential break down by the water fountains where they’d previously been standing, unconcerned. (Aka wanting to make sure they got enough distance for her to ask what the sleepy kitten competition was.)

Izuku was going to make a terrifying pro when he grew up, she was convinced of it. The entire group was.

Chapter Text

Eventually, Hizashi was convinced Izuku knew and understood the actual safety rules of going Up On Tall Things and Shouta was finally allowed to take him up into the cityscapes on campus. Not the actual city at night mind you, not yet, Izuku was still only ten. Hizashi’s (again somewhat arbitrary, but nobody argued with Mom) rule was eleven. When the boys were eleven, Shouta could take them out for runs on actual city rooftops.

(Hitoshi tried to claim bragging rights that he turned eleven first, but Shouta just reminded him that with their schedules and patrols, he wasn’t going to be able to take them out until after Izuku’s birthday anyways because both he and Hizashi wanted to be there for the first run. They were parents, they could be sentimental like that if they wanted to.

Izuku also almost pointed out that he had no idea why Hizashi was so adamant about them and rooftops when that’s where Shouta found them to begin with, but Hitoshi saw it coming and kicked him in the ankle before he could.)

“Are you happy now?” He asked instead with an exhilarated grin when they finally got back to the house.

“To spend time with you baby bean?” Hizashi asked, roping the grinning eleven year old into a bear hug. “Always.”

“Do you see why I like the window now?” Shouta asked, trying to keep the plaintiveness out of his voice.

“No. It was stupid then and it’s stupid now.” Izuku told him point blank, because Shouta still left the window open when it was ‘good fall weather’ outside.

Shouta just pouted (even if he insisted he didn’t) and walked away, grumbling something about seeing if he’d move forward with his other plans then.

He did, because of course he did. It was far too entertaining not to.

In his and Nedzu’s opinions, Izuku had enough hand to hand, strategy, and parkour fighting to be let loose in one of the cityscapes to hunt test that year’s 1A students.

It.

Was.

Phenomenal.

They made a whole thing of it, because everyone wanted to watch from the observation room with popcorn and beverages of choice. The exercise was done after school officially let out and it was technically for bonus points and the students didn’t have to show up. However, Shouta weighted the bonus points to the degree that every single one was there regardless.

Honestly that should’ve been their first clue something was deeply wrong, and Shouta was legitimately disappointed only five of them seemed to sniff out the logical ruse. Still, he led them out to some random spot in the middle of the cityscape before yeeting himself up to the top of one of the rooftops with only the briefest of instructions.

To survive, they needed to make it back to the front gate. Run.

Only the five ran in time, leaving the rest to shriek when Izuku nailed one of them in the back of the head with a paint gun. They were absolutely unprepared for his lack of fucks and hunger for chaos; even with the head start and the safety of numbers, all of them fell to the green haired demon four years younger than them.

It’s actually what cemented him becoming a school cryptid, because the initial groups knew Izuku was attached to Shouta and Hizashi, but as they graduated out of UA that knowledge would fall by the wayside. Keigo and Touya’s class graduated the year before, after all, the actual initial class was long gone.

Eventually the rest of the gremlin horde would join Izuku in his little hunts, but the real fun would come when select third years were allowed to hunt Izuku and co in return. By the time that happened, those students had fallen prey to Izuku for years and they ready to give as good as they got. Izuku enjoyed every moment of it.

(Not the class that Shouta expelled though. Shouta was pissed by the time the quirk assessment ended that year and instead of letting them go home early, he had them face off against Izu during his personal lessons with the rat. Anyone he physically touched got expelled. The hunt didn’t even last five minutes, and that was only because Izuku picked up on the blatant quirkism and decided to play with his food.)

Izuku’s favorite part of hero training was that he finally got his knife back. He was twelve by then and it’d been four years since the whole almost abduction at the zoo incident, and no matter how much he claimed he (mostly) behaved, he was never allowed to carry knives again. Sure, Shouta and Hizashi got him other self defense tools so he could feel safe/like he could protect himself if he needed to, but it just wasn’t the same.

Shouta and Hizashi each gifted Izuku and Hitoshi knives at the same time, one from each of them. They were good ones too, one pen knife like the one Izuku lost and one throwing knife each, both perfectly weighted. Hitoshi was fine with that, he didn’t need a hundred knives lying around. Izuku had been asking about his knife for years by that point though.

So Snipe and Kaina each got him a knife too, like the good chaos uncle/aunt duo they were. Nemuri, Oboro and Nao, Nedzu, and Anan were on their heels, Nedzu with an entire set, so in the span of a week Izuku went from no knives to a baker’s dozen.

He was over the moon. Enji would never share it, but he was deeply terrified on a level that unnerved him specifically because he knew Izuku was a good kid and he knew he shouldn’t be concerned at all. But… he’d never forgotten how odd- not skittish but not warm either, just observing and… waiting- Izuku had been in the beginning. The day Izuku stabbed the goon that tried to take him the top rated pro realized he’d been in the kid’s sights for whatever reason he wasn’t going to ask about.

And what was worse- Enji was pretty sure Izuku, even at eight years old, could’ve actually managed stabbing him. Even without his quirk.

Still, Enji had long since proven he was trustworthy in whatever way that looked like for the eight year old at the time, so he knew he was safe. That didn’t stop it from making Enji instinctively nervous knowing Izuku could have another knife on him at any time now. He was pretty sure it was the way Izuku still watched people when he first met them; the preteen knew better than to stab at this point, but that observation period hadn’t ever fully gone away.

It didn’t matter; Izuku was practically his nephew and even though it was still waaaaaay to early to tell for sure, the dad thought there was a decent chance the greenette might become his son in law one day. He actually paid attention to his kids (no matter what some of the press might try to claim, the vultures), and if Shoto didn’t have a puppy crush on his ‘best friend’ Enji would eat his hat.

It was obvious he didn’t even recognize his own feelings though, and besides twelve was far too young to even think about dating. There was every chance the crush would go away or that any other number of things would happen in the next few years to change things, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that Enji was only slightly unnerved and he’d never let it affect him anyways.

He was safe. Anyone who ever threatened that kid or his friends in the future? Well that was their problem to deal with.

Chapter Text

Nedzu made his own adjustments to his plans with Izuku’s decision to become a pro hero. There was an entire ✨world✨ of things he could teach the young prodigy now- and make no mistake, as far as Nedzu was concerned that’s exactly what Izuku was.

The chimera’s morality could best be described as grey and he knew that, and if the kit decided to go dark side at any point he’d be following right along behind with the rest of the family, but one thing was clear. If Shouta hadn’t found the boys when he did, they would’ve eventually become a problem for the entire country. Izuku was too clever, still had his own questionable ideas of how the world worked from how long he’d essentially been on his own, and had learned at too young an age that his first priority was to do everything he could to survive.

A few years of stability and a loving family/support system wasn’t going to be enough to erase what that’d already done to his psyche. If it’d been allowed to continue? Izuku would have burned the system that hurt him and his brother to the ground, Nedzu was certain of it, and as much as he might’ve enjoyed watching the flames dance he was glad the boys had been saved that continued pain.

So he tailored his lessons to Izuku’s altruistic plans with a few world domination skills thrown in. Nedzu would ensure Izuku was prepared for any and everything, but he wouldn’t tarnish the kit’s heart of gold or break his trust like that.

It didn’t escape his notice that Izuku, under all the other interests (a main one of which was still animals), was fascinated by how machines and tools got put together. Not enough to change career paths of course, but enough that it was something Nedzu could indulge when the kit finally got old enough Higari greenlit him having access to the support course after classes let out for the day.

That ended up being shortly after Izuku got his knives back. Higari loved the kid as much as any of the other aunts and uncles of course, that went without saying, but he also knew how much of a problem child (as Shouta so fondly called him) Izuku could be and the engineer was firm on there being no shenanigans in his workshop. Not when everyone’s physical safety was on the line. But if his parents deemed him responsible enough for sharp weaponry, who was he to argue?

Fortunately for him, Izuku hadn’t ever been interested in causing chaos in the shop itself (with what he made, maybe, but not in the shop). Unfortunately for him, he started giving Izuku private-ish lessons after school when Hatsume Sakura was a first year.

She came from a long line of engineers and costumers and was not only more than happy to carry on the family tradition, she arguably already knew more than Higari’s third years did. She also took one look at Izuku and decided that the feral green demon of UA was going to be her adorable little kohai. Izuku reminded Sakura of her little sister, what was she supposed to do? Leave him to fend for himself in the cold, cruel halls of UA high school? Absolutely not.

Higari was just relieved he had another set of semi-responsible eyes on Izuku, at that point not even from concerns about Izuku’s maturity. Higari didn’t want to be the one facing Hizashi if his nephew got hurt under his watch and Sakura was already tired of dealing with her little sister’s explosions at home; she wasn’t interested in dealing with that many interruptions at school too.

She introduced Izuku to her girlfriend too, because Sakura liked to stay in the shop for as long as Higari kept them open after classes let out (again in an effort to avoid her sister’s explosions despite the fact the school workshop wasn’t as tailored to her needs as the workshop at home) and Himiko liked to spend time with her girlfriend. They weren’t expecting Izuku to already know who Himiko was.

“Oh! It’s you again!” He practically lit up when he saw the blonde haired teenager step into the shop the first time.

“Uh… hi?” Himiko glanced at Sakura in confusion. “I don’t think we’ve- oh!” The long, green hair was semi iconic, so it only took her a few moments to connect him to the kid that’d been lost with her temporarily that one time her dad took her to the aquarium. “You’re the kid from the MARC! With Gang Orca!”

“Do you know what’s happening?” Higari asked Nedzu, behind the trio.

“Not a clue, but I do believe we’re about to find out.” Nedzu chittered at him.

“Babe?” Sakura asked, taking a moment to fix her long, pink hair that’d been falling out of it’s ponytail if they weren’t going to be actively working on anything for the foreseeable future.

“Dad took me to the aquarium for some sort of hero fundraiser thing one time and I got separated from them.” Himiko informed Sakura (and Nedzu and Higari) before gesturing at Izuku. “He was lost too, but I don’t think I ever got your name.” She turned to the twelve year old.

“Yamazawa Izuku, and yeah, Sakamata’s awesome.” Izuku grinned. He’d been a Sea Buddy thanks to the pro until he aged out of the program, but he was on more than good enough terms with Sakamata and the rest of the facility that he already had a standing invitation to help with the program as an assistant when he turned sixteen, and he'd been unofficially helping out for a few years too.  He loved the MARC. “I was glad to see you got adopted though!”

“...how did you know I’m adopted?” Himiko went from ‘oh hey, I know you!’ to extreme ‘why the hell do you know that’ skepticism fast enough to give her whiplash, but she didn’t talk about her past to just anyone. Sakura was basically the only one of her friends at the school that knew even some of the story, Himiko had had too many people turn on her too many times for her to play it as anything but close to the vest.

It was a simple but unfortunately common story- her quirk came in, scared her parents, and she abruptly found herself surrendered to a system that refused to see her as anything but a villain. Unlike Hitoshi though, she hadn’t had a poltergeist appear before her like an avenging angel (other than the one time she clearly didn’t know about). She had to take things into her own hands and run to the streets until Best Jeanist saved her and managed to earn her trust.

“Ah, right.” Izuku froze, realization that he’d gotten caught up in the moment and dropped more information than he really meant to hitting him. He may inherently trust all the school staff and be a bit more open with (certain parts of) his past than most people expected, but that didn’t mean everyone else was the same way. At least it was just the five of them though, and no other random students staying late that day. “Let’s just say I might understand how much of a di-jerk certain store owners might be.”

“What does that mean?” Himiko narrowed her eyes on Izuku, no less suspicious than he had before. Izuku just sighed and let himself pop out of perception for just a moment before popping right back in.

“I might’ve stolen some water and snacks for you at one point.” Izuku muttered quietly. “I checked where you went after and you’d already moved on, but I always wondered if you were safe.” Sakura’s eyes went wide at that, connecting the dots with what she knew of Himiko’s backstory. She didn’t like what that meant for either her girlfriend or her new kohai.

“That was you?” Himiko’s eyes widened too, but in surprise. “But you’re tiny!” By tiny she meant even younger than she was, but Izuku scowled at the comment regardless. “You’re safe now, right?” She glanced between him and the adults still at Higari’s desk.

“Oh, yeah.” Izuku waved away her concern. “We’ve been good for a long time, you don’t have to worry about us anymore.”

“We’ve?” Himiko and Sakura asked simultaneously.

“Hahaha, yeah.” Izuku grimaced, because he was still so bad at socializing. “So how much of the tragic backstory do you actually want to get into tonight?”

The answer was more than Himiko would’ve been expecting, but she and Izuku both ended up explaining a lot of their backstories that afternoon to Sakura, Higari and Nedzu listening in in case they were needed but making themselves scarce to at least give the illusion of privacy.

By the end of the afternoon Izuku had two sempais instead of one, because Himiko would take a bullet for this kid and she fucking meant it. Izuku wasn’t really sure what to do with sempais, but he figured it couldn’t be much more different than his older cousin Keigo and his boyfriend Touya. That part didn’t really matter though, Izuku was already factoring the girls into some of the plans he was formulating with Nedzu that were more or less practicing stealth to troll UA.

It was gonna be a fun time, he was sure of it.