Archive of Our Own ^beta

“I’m telling you, Sensei, Shou just doesn’t like tea!”

Nedzu scoffed at his student. “Nonsense, Hizashi-kun, I just haven’t found one that fits his pallet yet. There is a tea blend for everyone, and I will not rest until I find one Shouta-kun will appreciate.”

Hizashi-kun shook his head in amusement. “If you say so,” he laughed.

“I’ve done some extra research, Hizashi-kun, and Yuanyang tea is a popular drink in Hong Kong that combines the flavor of both coffee and tea into one deliciously powerful energy-giving drink! I fully think that Shouta-kun will like this one,” Nedzu insisted.

“If you’ve already done the research and you know what you want to get,” Hizashi-kun scratched his head, “why are you bringing me?”

And that was a fair question. Nedzu had barged into the apartment Hizashi-kun shared with his husband Shouta-kun at 8 in the morning and told Hizashi-kun he was going to be accompanying him out today. His blond student had been a good sport about it, but his darker haired student wouldn’t stop glaring at him.

“As you know, Hizashi-kun, caffeine is poisonous to me. I will not be able to judge the tea myself. That is where you come in. You will need to taste it and pick which brand I get.”

Hizashi-kun let out a defeated sigh and said, “I’m not going to be much help there, Sensei. I love tea! I’ll agree to probably any brand you pick out, and then Shouta will end up tossing me out the window when he finds out I picked it!”

“Be that as it may, that is your job for today,” Nedzu said with finality, causing Hizashi-kun to chuckle again.

Hizashi-kun had just taken a breath to speak, but no words came out. He blinked in confusion for a few moments before his eyes narrowed and he looked around. Nedzu could also tell something was wrong – no one was speaking at all, when moments earlier the street had been full of casual conversations.

“HA!” came a voice from behind them. Both Nedzu and Hizashi-kun turned to look, as did pretty much everyone on the street. “I’ve taken your precious Voice, Present Mic!”

Nedzu couldn’t help but let loose a snort of amusement and gently nudge Hizashi-kun’s leg towards the villain. If this idiot honestly thought that one of Nedzu’s personal students relied on their quirk to fight, they were in for a rude awakening. Hizashi-kun cracked his knuckles and smiled brightly at the villain, stepping forward.

~*~*~*~

Izuku was bored. He had been sitting at home all weekend, working on analysis by watching the news stations, but he had run out of new material. The only fights that had been televised the past few days had been either Endeavor, Best Jeanist, or All Might. Now, yes, Izuku had watched them and analyzed them, but they were just the same old thing as always. There was no new information to be had – not even the villains they had been up against had been interesting.

So here he was, out on the town hoping to run into a hero fight that involved someone outside of the Top Ten.

As Izuku was walking down the street, he stopped to gape like a fish. That’s Present Mic! Izuku had never seen him in person before! Oh, he’s talking to someone, who—Nedzu?! This must be his lucky day! Izuku pulled out his notebook, thinking about approaching them and asking for an autograph. Would they think he’s weird? Creepy?

I mean, it’s Present Mic! People approach him for autographs all the time, right?

Just as Izuku had made up his mind to approach the two heroes, Present Mic’s demeanor changed and he started looking around for something. Oh, no, did he realize that someone like him was going to try to talk to him? Stupid, stupid!  A quirkless failure like him doesn’t deserve the right to—

“HA! I’ve taken your precious Voice, Present Mic!”

. . . Okay, maybe he hadn’t been looking for the quirkless loser after all.

But what’s with this villain? He took Present Mic’s Voice? Why? Didn’t this guy know that one of Present Mic’s signature moves, his DJ Punch, didn’t have anything to do with his quirk? In fact, Present Mic was the highest ranking Limelight hero who relied the least on their quirk. Approximately 87% of his fights were mostly quirkless, and the 13% where he did use his quirk, he used it sparingly. This villain was about to be in for a quick thrashing if he thought that simply nullifying Present Mic’s quirk would cause the hero to lose.

Izuku opened up his notebook to start taking notes on the fight that was very clearly about to happen.

~*~*~*~

Nedzu was often times proud of his students but watching them fight in person was always an experience. Because of the fact that Shouta-kun’s fights were usually in the middle of the night, Nedzu was very rarely able to watch in person, but Hizashi-kun patrolled during the day.

The villain’s quirk seemed to take away a person’s ability to speak, if the crowd of bystanders silently cheering was anything to go on, so in theory, he’d be the perfect counter for Hizashi-kun.

‘I’m sorry, did my punch dislocate your jaw?’

Nedzu snorted as Hizashi-kun taunted the villain in sign, made even more amusing by the fact that his punch had distracted the villain enough to where he was no longer using his quirk. It didn’t matter to Hizashi – he had started the fight without his quirk, and he was going to finish it without it.

“—I knew JSL, it looks like he’s taunting him, would make sense, idiot thought he could take Mic if he couldn’t use his quirk –”

Nedzu looked away from Hizashi’s fight to see a young teenager muttering while writing in a notebook. Once the villain’s quirk had stopped effecting the crowd, the boy had started muttering, leading Nedzu to believe that he had been muttering the entire time, just unable to vocalize it. Nedzu scooted closer to him to listen more, since it seemed the boy was analyzing Hizashi’s fighting style.

“—style looks similar to underground hero, would make sense, they went to school together, think they have matching knives, I’ve seen them—”

Yes, Hizashi-kun and Shouta-kun did have matching knives, Nedzu had given them to the both of them when they had graduated. Shouta-kun used his often, but Hizashi-kun only used his when he was working on an Underground case. When had this boy been able to see Hizashi-kun’s knife? Let alone when and where and how would he have been able to see Shouta-kun?

“—he’s not using his quirk, is it because it’s too crowded? he can’t? people are talking again, I’m sure he can use it now, his control is amazing, he wouldn’t hurt bystanders on accident, lowest casualty rate of any Limelight hero, oh, he’s teasing the villain!—”

Nedzu had reached the young man’s side and was about to try to get his attention when an onlooker was jostled and lost their balance, tipping over and landing on both Nedzu and the teenager. “Shit, I’m sorry, you two!” the middle-aged woman said, picking herself up.

“It’s no problem, miss. Are you alright?” Nedzu asked as he looked her over for any injuries.

“Oh, I’m fine!” she laughed and walked away.

Nedzu turned his attention back to the boy. “And you?”

The green-eyed teen just nodded at him wide-eyed, muttered something that sounded like an apology, and then took off, so quickly that Nedzu wasn’t sure if that was a quirk or not. He shrugged and turned his attention back to Hizashi-kun’s fight. He had just pulled out his cuffs and was about to finish the fight.

They’ll be able to get back to tea shopping soon.

~*~*~*~

Izuku ran all the way back home in a mild panic. He had fallen on top of Nedzu! THE NEDZU!

That was not how his first impression was supposed to go! Oh no, what if he remembers him, and when he tries to apply for UA in a few years he’s turned away because he’s just some useless freak who almost crushed the hero by falling on him?!

Then what’ll he do? UA is the only High School in the prefecture that accepts quirkless students like him, if Nedzu rejects his application, he won’t be able to attend High School! Not even the online schools accepted quirkless students once you get past Middle School, Izuku had checked! UA is his only hope!

“Stupid, stupid!” Izuku berated himself, pulling on his hair. “I saw Nedzu in the crowd, why did I forget he was there just because Present Mic was fighting?! I’m such an idiot!” Tears were gathering in his eyes as he sat in the corner of his room, feeling a panic attack coming.

Sure enough, his heart started racing, and the room was spinning, even though he was curled in a ball, his breath coming in fast and uneven bursts. He just wanted someone to hold him and tell him everything was going to be alright, but no one was coming for him. No one had held him since he was four, and he was going to die alone, scared and unloved.

Izuku didn’t know how much time had passed since he got home, but he managed to pull himself together eventually and go to the front room. There was no way he was going to be going back outside today.

~*~*~*~

Izuku woke up to the sound of a slight vibration and he scrunched his nose in annoyance. He was trying to sleep, and this vibration wasn’t his alarm, so it needed to politely screw off. Izuku rolled over in bed, pulling his covers over his head. When that didn’t do anything to help, he flicked his ears and tail, growling lowly in the back of his throat.

. . . Wait.

Flicked his ears? And TAIL!?

Izuku scurried from under the covers and reached up to touch where he had felt his ears on the top of his head, then looked at his hands, finding furry white paws tipped in sharp claws instead. Slowly, he reached behind him and felt a long tail.

He couldn’t help it. He screamed.

~*~*~*~

“BEEP BEEP BEEP!!! I AM HERE!!!” Nedzu’s eyes opened instantly, and he sat up. That was not his alarm!

“BEEP BEEP BEEP!!! I AM HERE!!!” Looking around the room, Nedzu could see that the walls were covered in hand drawn, custom, hero merch from multiple heroes. Yes, there was some All Might, Present Mic, Gang Orca, but there were also a few Underground Heroes represented on the walls, heroes he knew for a fact didn’t have any merch. “BEEP BEEP BEEP!!! I AM HERE!!!” That rendering of Eraserhead in charcoal was very well done.

“BEEP BEEP BEEP!!! I AM HERE!!!” Nedzu turned to the sound of the alarm and reached for the phone that was making the noise, noticing while he turned off the alarm that he appeared to be in the body of a human. Interesting.

Nedzu pulled the blankets back and attempted to stand up, feeling quite off balance without his tail for a few moments, but he quickly adjusted. He wandered around the bedroom he was in and soon located a mirror. “Oh? It’sh da booy frromm yeshterday.” He frowned. “Let’sh try tat againn.” Nedzu moved his tongue in the new mouth, quite unused to these teeth. “It’s the boy from yeshterday. Yes. Ter. Day. Yesterday. There, much better,” he nodded to himself.

Looking back in the mirror, Nedzu realized that the body he was in seemed to be somewhere between 12 and 14. “This will be quite a shituat—situation – for anyone to deal with, let alone a child. Hmm.” Nedzu picked up the boy’s phone once again and was glad to see the boy did not have a password lock on his phone – it would have been annoying to have to hack into a child’s phone so early in the morning.

Dialing a number and waiting for the person on the other side to pick up, Nedzu continued to explore the room. He was hoping to find the boy’s name somewhere. Did he have a school bag? If so, it must not be in the bedroom.

The call went to voicemail, so Nedzu disconnected the call and redialed. He was expecting to have to repeat this at least once more before the call connected.

Moving to the closet, Nedzu found a black gakuran, which narrowed the school options significantly. There were only three middle schools in Mustufu that used black gakurans – Aldera, Coruscant, and Dantooine.

The call clicked over to voicemail again, so Nedzu disconnected and redialed the number. This time it went to voicemail after a single ring, causing Nedzu to sigh. Opening up a new text message, he wrote, ‘Stop trying to look up this number, Shouta-kun, and simply answer my call.’ Then he called again.

This time the call was answered.

“It is too damn early in the morning for you to be playing mind games with me, Sensei,” Shouta-kun grumbled.

“Hmm, well it is a good thing this is not a mind game, Sout—hmm, this mouth is such an inconvenience - Shouta-kun,” Nedzu said.

Shouta-kun was silent for a few moments, processing what Nedzu had just said, and the voice he had said it with. “If this is not a mind game,” he started, “and that is not your normal voice. . . “ He paused, almost as if he didn’t want to finish that sentence.

“Yes, Shouta-kun, I have swapped bodies with someone. I do not know who, yet, but I am currently in a child’s body. I believe they are around 12 or 13 years old. I need you to go to my home and see if the boy is there, and if he is okay. It must be quite a shock for him to wake up in a strange body, and since I had difficulties in speaking at first due to the unfamiliar mouth, I would not be surprised if he also is having difficulties.”

Shouta-kun groaned in annoyance, but Nedzu heard him getting up to do as asked.

“When you get to the boy, please call me back on this number. I want to ensure that the boy is doing alright, and I am sure there will be questions on how to function in a body such as mine. Ah ha!” Nedzu had located a row of notebooks along a shelf, and they had the boy’s name on the front cover. “I believe the boy’s name is Midoriya Izuku.”

Shouta-kun sighed again. “Sensei, have you informed the kid’s parents yet?”

“Not yet, no, I’m more concerned with the boy’s well-being. Once we know he is okay, I will let the parents know.” Nedzu had begun flipping through the notebook he had pulled down. “You do still remember the access code to the door, correct?”

“Yes, Sensei. Give me about fifteen minutes,” Shouta-kun grumbled, disconnecting the call.

Nedzu placed the phone on the desk and pulled down a few more of the notebooks. It seemed he had at least fifteen minutes to peruse this young man’s work before he was introduced to him, and Nedzu was going to take full advantage of this time.

~*~*~*~

Stupid Rat-sensei. Doesn’t he know Shouta doesn’t wake up until after Hizashi is done with the bathroom? There’s no coffee made until after Hizashi is done, there’s no breakfast, either, and Hizashi will give him that disappointed look if he grabs a jelly pouch again. “Zashi,” Shouta said as he opened the door to the bathroom. “The rat called, apparently he swapped bodies with a kid. Or something.”

Hizashi poked his head out from behind the shower curtain. “Oh no, I hope the kid is okay!”

“He doesn’t know yet, he asked me to go to his place to check up on the kid. If I’m not back in time for homeroom, can you poke your head in on my class? I will need to get coffee before I deal with those incompetents.”

Hizashi snorted and nodded his head. Going back behind the curtain, he added, “Waking up in Nedzu’s body will be traumatizing enough, please don’t scare this kid even more.”

“Yeah, yeah. See you later.”

“Love you, Shou!” Hizashi called out before Shouta closed the bathroom door.

Shouta’s tiny grin didn’t fade until after he had put his boots on and stepped out of the apartment. Shouta took to the rooftops, quickly making his way to the Rat’s apartment, and in less than ten minutes he was punching in the code to unlock his teacher’s door.

Nedzu had a different code set up for each person who had access to his living space, and each code would only work if that specific person was entering it. The security system was advanced enough to be able to read the DNA of the person entering their code and determine who it was, and the code was only to let the system know that they were not being coerced into breaking into the place. Without the code, the door would still open, but would alert a few different heroes and law enforcement officers that someone was breaking into Nedzu’s home and potentially had a hostage.

Shouta opened the door and stepped in, kicking off his boots. “Hey, kid?” he called out, exploring the front room.

It looked the same as the last time Shouta had been here, a few decorative pieces of art for visitors to appreciate on the upper half of the walls, while anything practical and actually used was on the lower half of the walls. There was no television, but the bookshelves were full of everything from technical manuals to fantasy stories, biographies and historical texts sharing space with science fiction and horror.

The carpet and furniture were all white, and Shouta remembered thinking it was a power move from his sensei the first time he visited, until he got up from the sofa with short white fur clinging to his black pants.

Shouta started down the hall, looking in the rooms as he passed, and had to stop short. Inside one room was a. . . well. Shouta didn’t want to call it a hamster wheel, but it was a hamster wheel. “That’s new,” he muttered to himself. Looks like Shuzenji-san finally got the Rat to sit still long enough to have a health checkup. She must have gotten on his case about how sedentary his lifestyle was. With a shrug, Shouta continued on to the bedroom.

He knocked on the door. “Kid? You okay in there?” Shouta heard something that sounded like a mix between a whine and a squeak, and knocked on the door again. “Kid, I’m coming in.”

When he opened the door, Shouta was met with the sight of his sensei curled into a ball in the corner of the room, rocking himself back and forth, clearly in the middle of a panic attack.

~*~*~*~

Izuku was a lot of things, but an idiot was not one of them. It hadn’t taken him long at all to realize he had somehow swapped bodies with someone else, and the fact that he was in the body of a white and furry animal, while dressed in clothes and with an alarm clock next to his bed? Yeah, he had swapped bodies with Nedzu.

WITH THE NEDZU!!

And if he was in NEDZU’S body, then that meant that NEDZU was in IZUKU’S body!

Izuku knew he wasn’t speaking actual words, but that didn’t matter, Nedzu was already going to reject his application for High School, but now it was going to be so much worse! After all, there was always the possibility that he just wouldn’t have remembered that Izuku had tripped and fallen on him, but NOW?! Now he was going to know just how useless Izuku was!

He was going to find out that Izuku was so pathetic that his parents left, that he’s quirkless, that he’s an idiot who can’t even get passing grades in school.

Izuku was starting to feel faint and distantly realized he was breathing too fast, and that his heart was beating a staccato in his chest, and were his claws leaving scratches in his arms? He tried to release his grip, but only held on tighter when he realized that he was so worthless he was even hurting the body of the hero he was in right now.

His thoughts came and went so quickly he couldn’t pin any one down, feelings of fear, anxiety, worthlessness, all battling within him for dominance.

“-id, -n y- -- m-?”

He didn’t know how long he was sitting there, but what did it really matter? His life was going to be over after this, everyone would know how stupid he was, and then—

Izuku’s mind screeched to a halt at the most amazing sensation he had ever felt. Someone was. . . petting him? Distantly, Izuku could hear someone speaking, and after a few moments his words became clear. “That’s it, kid, you’re safe. No one’s going to hurt you.” The man had pulled Izuku onto his lap and was scratching behind his ears with one hand, and rubbing his back with the other.

“Has he started breathing calmly yet, Shouta-kun?” Who was that? They sounded almost like. . . almost like him?

“Yeah, it’s working, Sensei,” the man said, his voice a deep rumble in his chest, sending comforting vibrations through Izuku’s body, further calming him down.

“That’s good.” Yeah, that voice was definitely Izuku’s voice. Which meant, that must be Nedzu talking, right? Izuku whined, and nuzzled his head further into the man who was holding him. “Hello young man,” the voice that was almost definitely Nedzu said. “I’m sure you’re concerned about what happened, and you most likely have questions. Well, fear not, I will answer as many as I can.”

Izuku blinked and looked up. He couldn’t see himself, so where was his voice coming from? Oh, there was a cell phone on the ground next to them, he must be on speaker.

“Firstly, my name is Nedzu, and it appears as though the two of us have swapped bodies. I am not sure how long this will last, but I am willing to help you keep up appearances if that is what you wish to do, however you will unfortunately not be able to do the same for me. That’s perfectly fine, however, I didn’t have anything pressing to do, and I have two wonderful personal students who are quite capable of handling anything that does come up in the meantime.”

“Capable doesn’t mean willing,” the man muttered, so quietly Izuku wasn’t sure the phone picked it up.

“Quiet, Shouta-kun,” Nedzu admonished. “I may not have heard you, but knowing you as well as I do, I know you said something.” The man - Shouta-kun? – snorted in amusement. “Now, I am fairly certain your name is Midoriya Izuku. Please nod or shake your head to confirm.”

Izuku hesitated, but then nodded. “He nodded yes, Sensei,” the man relayed.

“Thank you. It is nice to meet you, Midoriya-kun. The man with you is my student, Aizawa Shouta. He will be taking care of you while you are in my body, unless you would like to come home to your parents?”

Izuku shook his head no. He doesn’t know when his mom will come home, and he doesn’t want to be alone right now. He opened his mouth and tried to speak, but what came out couldn’t even be, generously, called words.

“He shook his head again.”

“Understandable. Midoriya-kun, please relax. It sounds as though you are trying to speak and not faring very well. That is perfectly understandable, expected, in fact. It took me a few moments to figure out how to speak through a human mouth, so please don’t be hard on yourself if you are unable to speak right away.”

Izuku narrowed his eyes at the phone. He already knew he was making a poor impression on Nedzu and this Aizawa person, but he didn’t want them to think he was too stupid to figure out how to talk, too. So, taking a deep breath, he tried again.

“I-I c-cann d-d-do i-i-it-t,” he managed to stutter out.

“Oh, very good!” Nedzu cheered and clapped. “That’s very impressive! My mouth isn’t designed to be able to use spoken language. If I didn’t know any better, I’d suspect you of having an intellect quirk!”

Oh, no, he already knew Izuku was quirkless?! How?! How did he find out?

“Hey, kid, you’re okay, no need to get panicky again.” Aizawa had stopped scratching behind his ear earlier, but now resumed, trying to get Izuku calm again.

“I-i-I’mm o-o-ok-k-kayy,” Izuku whispered.

“Midoriya-kun, since you appear to be able to speak, I must ask you this. Do your parents work night shifts?” Nedzu questioned.

“N-no.”

“I see. It seems I am the only one here right now. I had attempted to locate someone who might be able to talk you down from your earlier panic attack. Do you know when your parents might be home? Or would it be easier to call them to explain what has occurred?”

“I-i-it’s j-jussst m-my m-m-om.”

“How can I get ahold of her?” Nedzu asked again.

Izuku was silent, but slowly shook his head. He didn’t know. She never answered her phone for him when she disappeared, sometimes she didn’t even bring it with her.

“He’s shaking his head again,” Aizawa supplied.

There was a pause on the other side before Nedzu said, “I see. Well. Would you like for me to keep up appearances for you at school, Midoriya-kun? And if so, can you please provide the information on which class and seat number you are in?”

“I-I go-o t-to Al-alderra, i-I’m in 2-B, ssseat f-fifteen,” came his whispered reply. “But!” He snapped his head up, suddenly realizing something. “You d-don’tt ne-ed to go!” If he goes to the school, he’ll be treated as though he’s quirkless! He doesn’t want to make THE NEDZU have to deal with all that!

“Nonsense! I’ll make sure you have plenty of notes to review for when we are returned to our original bodies.” Izuku could practically hear the smile in his voice and winced.

“W-well, i-I am sor-ry for t-the da-ay you’re ab-bout to have.”

Both Nedzu and Aizawa were quiet at that, and Izuku looked up nervously at Aizawa. “Hey, kid, it’s okay. I’m sure Nedzu will be just fine. You don’t have to worry about anything,” he scratched his ears while saying. “And if he does have any issues, he can call me, or another hero, and we’ll take care of him.”

Izuku nodded before his words fully registered. ‘Another Hero.’

Izuku looked up at Aizawa again and this time he recognized who he was. “Y-you’re E-e-eraserrhead!”

Aizawa blinked at him in shock for a moment before he nodded. “Yeah, kid, I am. I’m surprised you recognized me.”

On the other side of the phone, Nedzu could be heard laughing. “Oh, Shouta-kun, you should see this boy’s bedroom! There is a magnificent rendering of you in charcoal, it is almost as if it was a photograph! The artist did a fantastic job on this!”

If Izuku could blush, he would be bright red right now. Instead, he covered his face with his paws, wishing the earth would open up and swallow him. “I-i d-drew i-i-i-i-it,” he muttered.

Nedzu clapped again. “How wonderful! Shouta-kun, we will need to introduce Midoriya-kun to Nemuri-chan soon, yes? They will likely have plenty to talk about in terms of art.” He paused a moment, as if he was waiting for an answer, but Aizawa only nodded his head. “Good,” Nedzu continued, as though he had seen Aizawa’s reaction. “Well, I must be going now if I plan to make it to your school on time for homeroom. I do hope you have a good day today, Midoriya-kun, and we will speak again later!”

And with that, Nedzu disconnected the call.

Aizawa let Izuku sit there on his lap for a while longer, continuing to pet him, before finally saying, “Well, kid, it seems you have a few choices for today. You can go back to sleep while I stay in the front room just in case you need me for anything, or you can get dressed and we can go to UA. I do technically have a class to teach, but I can easily get someone to cover for me if you don’t feel up to going.”

~*~*~*~

This was weird. This was most likely the weirdest thing he’s ever had to do, and he’s done some weird stuff over the years, (Like that one time he had gone to the police station after playing with his cats for a bit. He hadn’t realized he had catnip on his arm, but Officer Tamakawa certainly did. His cats were jealous for a week, thinking he was playing with another cat, just because he came home covered in orange fur.) But helping a kid get dressed and ready for the day while in the body of his sensei/father figure was just so weird.

Not to mention a little heartbreaking to find out his sensei had more scars than just the one over his eye.

How Nedzu managed to still care about humans really amazed Shouta sometimes. He knew just how poorly his sensei had been treated and would not blame him in the slightest if he decided to turn villain one day. Hell, Shouta would probably join him, if he was being totally honest.

But that was neither here nor there.

Shouta winced slightly as the kid tripped again. “Hey, I’m sure it’s hard to walk when you’re a lot shorter than you’re used to, so if you want, I can carry you?” he offered.

Midoriya lowered his head in embarrassment, but nodded. “Y-yess p-p-ple-ase.”

Shouta reached down and picked the kid up easily. “Here, you can ride on my shoulder. Nedzu likes to sit here, or even burrowing under my scarf to spy on students or staff when he’s feeling bored.”

Shouta could swear the kid smiled at that. “I-it issn’t b-bein-g s-sma-ll that iss hard. B-balllenc-ing withh a t-tail iss hard.”

“Huh. I would have thought the tail would be subconscious in helping you balance.” Shouta shrugged with his free shoulder. “Well, you can definitely stay here all day if you want to, or you can spend your time in the teacher’s lounge with some of the other staff.” The kid shook his head and almost clung to Shouta’s head. He mumbled something that Shouta couldn’t quite make out. “Hey, kid, it’s okay, but I couldn’t quite make out what you said that time. Can you try it again?”

Shouta felt the kid take a breath and then repeated himself. “I-I d-don’t-t l-like n-neww peo-ple, b-but I d-don’t w-want t-to b-be alo-one.”

“Oh, kid.” Shouta reached up and scratched him behind the ears again. “You don’t have to meet new people if you don’t want to. Here, I’ll show you how Nedzu hides in my scarf, that way no one will be able to see you unless you want them to, and you’ll be with me the whole time. Does that sound okay?”

Midoriya nodded, so Shouta rearranged his scarf to hide the kid while they were on the way to UA.

Taking out his phone, Shouta wrote up a quick email to the rest of the teachers, explaining that there had been a quirk accident involving Nedzu, and he had swapped bodies with a young teenager. If anyone sees Nedzu, keep in mind that he is not actually Nedzu, but a scared child. Shouta included the boy’s name, and that he would be sticking to Shouta the whole day, so be quiet around him today.

He wasn’t sure his email would work with everyone. Hizashi would still be his usual loud self, but maybe Vlad wouldn’t try to antagonize him today. A man can dream, right?

It didn’t take too long to get to UA, since Nedzu’s apartment was only a few minutes away from the school, but Shouta was well and truly late for Homeroom. Deciding that since he was already late, what’s a few more minutes, he stopped at the Teacher’s Lounge to make some coffee before heading to his class. He had missed homeroom, but he was only about five minutes late for his first Law class of the day. Shouta was sure that at least one of the students would notice Midoriya in his scarf, but the real question was, would anyone mention him?

No one noticed during the first class of the day, but during the second class, Midoriya had let his tail relax and one of the second years had noticed it. He shut up as soon as Shouta gave him a Look, though. In his third class, Midoriya must have started to get comfortable, because he started to mutter quickly and quietly, Shouta only able to understand every other word, but impressed with the insight he seemed to have on the topic at hand.

He'd have to see about maybe getting the kid some lessons with the Rat once they were back to normal. Nedzu had been complaining about not having a personal student to teach, since both he and Hizashi had graduated to only receiving lessons when they mess up or request extra lessons. (It had been almost seven months since Shouta’s last lesson, while Hizashi had reached 6 months.)

By the time lunch had finally come around, Midoriya seemed to have relaxed enough to start to get curious. He had poked his head out of the scarf once they had reached the Teacher’s Lounge, and was staring around at the other teachers with excitement.

“Hey Shou!” Hizashi called out to him, waving him over. “I brought you lunch, and you’re gonna eat it today.”

Shouta snorted. Normally, he’d just hide away in his classroom with maybe a jelly pouch and his sleeping bag, but this kid will probably be hungry. He hadn’t been up for eating this morning, still really nervous about being in a different body and probably a little bit nervous about Shouta, but now that he’d relaxed a bit, maybe he would be willing to eat. Shouta had sent Lunch Rush a message before his last class ended, so there was a small plate of meat next to Hizashi for the kid.

“So, kid,” Shouta said as he sat across from his husband. “This is Yamada Hizashi, and he has made it his personal mission to keep me fed, I guess. He’s loud as f- uh, loud as heck, but he’s harmless.” Shouta grinned slightly when the kid raised a paw and waved a shy hello.

“He’s so cute!” Hizashi squealed. “How can someone in Nedzu’s body be so adorable?!”

Midoriya ducked back into the scarf in embarrassment, causing both Zashi and Shouta to chuckle. “Come on, kid, you need to eat something,” Shouta prompted, moving his scarf a bit so he could see the kid’s face again. “You didn’t eat anything in the morning, and I know Nedzu needs to eat a few times a day to maintain his health. So come on.”

The kid hesitantly climbed out of Shouta’s scarf, but instead of sitting next to him, he made himself comfortable on his lap. Shouta glanced at Hizashi and rolled his eyes when he saw that he had both hands over his mouth to try to prevent himself from squealing again at how adorable the kid was.

Shouta picked up the plate of raw rabbit and brought it closer to the kid. “Here you go, Midoriya.”

Midoriya lightly poked a piece of the meat and whined. “I-itt’s r-raaw,” he managed to stutter out. “Whyy i-ss it-t r-ra?”

“Nedzu explained once to me that there’s something in the cooking process that alters the proteins in meat that makes it more difficult for his body to process. He says the stomachache isn’t worth the effort of making sure any human around him isn’t creeped out. He rarely eats in front of others who aren’t staff here at UA,” Hizashi explained.

The kid scrunched up his nose at the meat. “Iss t-t-th-there an-nyth-ing elsse h-he can-n eat?”

Shouta could see the confusion in Hizashi’s eyes and he assumed that he hadn’t been able to understand the kid’s words this time. “Sorry, Midoriya. Nedzu won’t be straight forward with what kind of animal he is, but he has mentioned that he’s not able to eat grains like most other smaller mammals. He could eat other types of raw meats, I suppose, but I think rabbit is his favorite.”

Midoriya made another face, but picked up a piece of rabbit and popped it in his mouth.

“Little Listener, I have a question for you, but if you don’t want to answer, that’s totally fine!” Hizashi waited for the kid to nod his head before he continued. “I am noticing that you have a fairly pronounced stutter right now, and I’m wondering if that’s because you’re nervous about being around so many new people – which is totally okay – or if it’s something to do with not being used to talking through a mouth like Nedzu’s?”

“U-uhm. B-bothh?”

Hizashi’s smile lit up the room. “That’s totally fair! And how about this? I’m done with all my classes for the rest of the day, so if you want, you can hang with me until Shouta’s ready to go home and I can help you with some vocal exercises! I’m sure they’ll help you get used to speaking better! I don’t know how long you and Sensei will be swapped, but it’ll be a lot easier to communicate with others if your stutter is a little less prominent.”

Midoriya smiled and nodded eagerly. “Pl-plea-sse!”

~*~*~*~

Nedzu had to say, the most difficult part about being in a new body wasn’t the extreme height difference, nor was it the way Midoriya’s mouth made speaking so much different from what he was used to. It wasn’t even using fingers that had a lot more dexterity than his own paws were used to. No, it was getting used to the boy’s quirk.

He seemed to have some sort of vision enhancement quirk, letting Nedzu zoom in on whatever he was focusing on as if he was using a pair of binoculars. He had examined his new eyes in the bathroom mirror before he left the apartment for the day, but there was no visual evidence of any kind of quirk. This was likely a mutation, so the boy has probably had this vision his whole life.

And after he made that realization, he noticed that he had never turned on a single light in the apartment, but could still see perfectly. So, some sort of dark-vision, as well? This at least explained how the drawings in the boy’s room could be so detailed, especially for heroes like Shouta-kun. The boy must have seen him in person, and with this quirk of his, could see him up close.

All that to say, Nedzu had no issues at all seeing the seven red spider lilies on the desk that was assigned to Midoriya Izuku, although he wished he hadn’t seen them.

Nedzu slowly walked to the desk, double-checking that this was truly the boy’s desk, before he sat down. Is this why Izuku-kun had apologized for the day he was going to have?

“Ha, did you see Deku’s face? I knew if we put more than one flower it’d hit him harder!” A group of students on the other side of the room started giggling.

Deku? As in useless? Nedzu could only assume they were talking about Izuku-kun, as the word ‘deku’ had been scratched into the desk a few times, along with other insults, such as null, geneless, and loser. But that didn’t make sense to him. Those slurs and insults were used primarily for the quirkless population, and Izuku-kun wasn’t quirk—wait. There was no physical indication to his vision quirk, even though it was a mutation.

Did he think he was quirkless?

That would explain a few of the questions Nedzu had, honestly. He had been wondering why a child this age would have so many scars. He knew the statistics, and these flowers showed that this poor boy was on his way to being just another addition to those statistics.

Well. Not if Nedzu had anything to say about it.

~*~*~*~

Nedzu had been quiet all day, not sure how exactly Izuku-kun would have been acting, but that didn’t prevent the teachers and other classmates from harassing him. One teacher had asked him a question regarding the schoolwork, and then accused him of cheating when he gave the correct answer. Nedzu was confused for a second, how could he have been cheating?

But, well, he wasn’t actually Midoriya Izuku, so perhaps this is a question the boy wouldn’t normally know the answer to?

At least, that had been his thoughts until a test from the week prior was returned. The grade was a 56%, with a comment – “No unevolved shit should be able to get even this high a grade” – and when Nedzu looked at the answers, he saw that they were all correct.

While all of those were enough alone to make his fur stand on end – if he had fur in this body – the real kicker had to be the bullying, and lack of response from the teachers.

Nedzu had been tripped, pushed, teased, taunted, his backpack emptied, an assignment ripped up, and a pencil snapped. All while still in class, with the teacher watching, and nothing was done to stop it.

Nedzu flipped to a blank section in the notebook he was using to take Midoriya’s school notes and decided he was going to start planning the destruction of this school. Because make no mistake, Nedzu was going to rain down hellfire on this school for their treatment of a student, and it didn’t matter if they thought the boy was quirkless or not, there is no acceptable excuse for any of this.

Just as he was getting to the second page in the notebook, he was rudely interrupted by someone snatching the notebook out from under his hands.

“What kind of stupid stalker notes are you writing now, Deku?” a blond kid asked. Nedzu was pretty sure that his name was Bakugou. The kid started reading the notes but couldn't make any sense of it since it was all in code. “What kind of stupid language is this? This doesn't make any sense,” he sneered.

“Of course it doesn't make any sense to you, it isn't meant for you,” Nedzu replied.

“Don't you get snippy with me, Deku!” the kid snarled at him as he shoved Nedzu to the floor. “You seem to have forgotten what your place is in this class. Maybe it's about time I show you again,” the boy grinned darkly at Nedzu.

Nedzu really shouldn’t be surprised at this point to see that the teacher was in the classroom, holding a hand in front of their mouth to muffle their laughter. This was, after all, the third teacher today to not only tolerate, but find amusement in the torment that was being served to him.

“Fucking answer me, Deku!” The blond screamed at him as he punched him in the stomach. Nedzu was too busy coughing to make a reply, but that didn’t stop the blond from grabbing him by the hair and pulling him up. “Look here, you quirkless freak, it doesn’t matter how many useless stalker notes you write, you’ll never become a hero, and you’ll never get into UA! You need a quirk to be able to make anything of yourself.”

Nedzu blinked up at him. Did Izuku-kun want to be a hero? From the notebooks he had read through this morning, he would have assumed the boy wanted to go into the field of analysis, but that level of analysis would definitely be a benefit for him if heroics was his goal.

As if he hadn’t noticed Nedzu’s thought tangent, Bakugou continued. “You know, I have some advice for you, if you really want to get a quirk so badly! You can take a swan dive off the roof and pray for a quirk in your next life!”

Everyone in the room had burst into laughter at that. “Ha! Good one, Bakugou!” Nedzu couldn’t believe it, that had been said by the teacher!

The students all filed out of the class after that, and Nedzu stiffly put everything back into the backpack he had been using, while his thoughts raced. How could anyone think this kind of treatment was okay? And how did that boy think that he’d ever manage to become a hero with an attitude like that?

Well, there were heroes like that, he supposed, Endeavor and Death Arms, to name just two of them, but the vast majority of heroes knew that you were supposed to help people, make them feel safe around you, not try to bait them into suicide!

So lost in his thoughts, Nedzu had let his awareness slip – in his defense, most of his situational awareness was dependent upon his superior hearing, which he didn’t have currently – and was taken completely by surprise when one of the kids from earlier used his elongated fingers quirk to grab him and throw him into an open supply closet.

The door was quickly slammed shut, locking him inside. “Have fun in there, Deku!” the kid taunted as he walked away, leaving Nedzu to figure out how to escape.

Nedzu closed his eyes in annoyance and just breathed. He’s gone through much worse than this before, but that was at the hands of scientists who were determined to see just how far they could push him before he broke. This boy, though? Nedzu didn’t want to know how far this boy had been pushed, if today’s events were better or worse than he typically had to put up with.

But it doesn’t matter, this boy will not have to deal with this ever again. Nedzu silently promises that he will raze this school to the ground, get the teachers arrested, black marks put on the records of all these delinquent students, maybe even some time in jail for the worst ones, like that Bakugou.

Opening his eyes and with a plan in mind, Nedzu started looking around the closet. His first order of business was going to be getting out of this closet. He didn’t want to have to call Shouta-kun just yet to get him out, having a hero show up to free the school’s ‘quirkless student’ would give away too much of the plan, but if there wasn’t anything in this closet Nedzu could use, he would.

Fortunately, or unfortunately as the case may be, it seemed that Izuku-kun had been locked in this closet enough times to where he had created an emergency stash of sorts. Nedzu had located a few granola bars, two bottles of water, and a set of lockpicks. He smiled sadly as he picked up the lockpicks. The fact that this boy had felt the need to prepare for this situation showed Nedzu that Izuku-kun would make a fine hero, and that he had chosen to learn lockpicking? He would be a fantastic Underground Hero.

Nedzu had read about the correct way to use lockpicks in the past, but never actually used them himself – his paws made the use of traditional lockpicks impossible – so it took him longer than he felt it should have to let himself out of the closet. He carefully put the lockpicks back where he had found them, and settled his backpack back on his shoulders and made his way back to the apartment.

Today had been very informative.

~*~*~*~

Shouta was glad he had left Midoriya with Hizashi after lunch, since word had apparently gotten around to the students that Shouta had Nedzu with him for his classes. While no one had called him out on it, the atmosphere in the class had been extremely tense, with each student worried the rat was going to pop up out of his scarf at any moment.

It was only made worst when Shouta took off his scarf, claiming he was a little warm. He was just barely able to contain his sadistic grin at the students glancing in every direction, at every vent, even under a few desks all looking for Nedzu.

While it had been highly amusing for Shouta, he was sure the kid would have been highly uncomfortable in the situation.

He would have to figure out what to do for tomorrow, assuming the kid was still in the wrong body.

“We’re going to stop at the rat’s apartment to pick up some things for you,” Shouta said casually to the kid while he was once again riding on Shouta’s shoulder. “We’re going to get some clothes for tomorrow, as well as some sleep clothes, and his toothbrush and toothpaste.”

Midoriya nodded at him and said in a much clearer voice from earlier, “Okay.”

Shouta reached up and pet the kid’s head a few times and then asked, “How did you manage with Hizashi?”

Midoriya had been leaning into Shouta’s hand, so it took a moment for him to realize he had been asked a question. “Oh, i-it was fine. He helped me a l-lot. I, um, I do stutter a l-lot normally, though,” he amended.

“I can tell there is a huge difference,” Shouta encouraged, and gave the kid a smile. “Maybe with a little more one-on-one time with Hizashi, you’ll even manage to reduce that part of your stutter.”

“Maybe,” he agreed, nodding his head. As if a stray thought hit the kid, he suddenly ducked his head and burrowed into Shouta’s scarf again. “T-that i-is, if h-he would w-want to spend m-more t-time w-with me.”

This kid. This damn kid. He needs to spend so much more time with Zashi. And Shouta needs to spend some . . . quality time . . . with whoever decided to give this kid such low self-esteem. “Kid, I can promise you this now, Hizashi adores you, and would gladly spend all the time in the world with you.”

Midoriya poked his head out from under his scarf. “Are you s-sure?”

“Absolutely,” Shouta replied without a hint of hesitance. “Now, let’s get you some clothes.” They had arrived at Nedzu’s apartment, and Shouta entered his code to let them inside.

~*~*~*~

Today had been the weirdest day of Izuku’s life. Like, ever!

And the weirdest part wasn’t even waking up in the body of NEDZU! No, it was spending the whole day with two of his favorite heroes, Eraserhead and Present Mic! And now he was going to be going home with them!

. . . well, with Aizawa. He was pretty sure he lived with Yamada, though, probably married to him, actually. Izuku had spent the whole morning super close to Aizawa, and he knew that he had become familiar to his scent, but when he had left at the end of lunch, he could swear he still smelled him on Yamada. And he knew Yamada was married, since he spoke about his spouse a few times over the years on his radio show, so either he was married to Aizawa, or they were having an affair. Those were the only conclusions Izuku could come up with.

But anyways, they both seemed to like him! Granted, they didn’t know he was quirkless yet, so that was sure to change. Wait, they didn’t know, right? Nedzu was sure to have realized by now that Izuku was quirkless, wouldn’t he have told Aizawa by now? So why was he still being so nice to him?

Aizawa had tried to get Izuku’s input on the clothes he was going to be wearing tonight and tomorrow, but Izuku had been so lost in thought he didn’t really pay any attention, just pointed. He hoped what he pointed to didn’t look too bad.

“Question for you, kid,” Aizawa asked suddenly, as they were going up the stairs to his apartment. “How do you feel about cats?”

Izuku tilted his head. That’s not what he was expecting. “Cats?”

“Mhm, small, furry, adorable little bastards. I’ve got two of them,” he admitted with a grin. “I forgot to mention them earlier, but their names are Shiro and Kuro. I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out which is which.”

White and Black? Who names their cats White and Black? ‘Aizawa, apparently,’ Izuku thought to himself with a giggle.

~*~*~*~

Shouta breathed out a little sigh of relief when he heard the kid’s giggles. Midoriya had fallen quiet while on the way to the rat’s home, and he was worried about him. Had he done or said something to put the kid off?

But talking about his furry bastards always worked.

He was curious if Midoriya would be able to figure out which cat was which. To date, no one had ever been able to figure out which cat was which when they first met them, not even Hizashi or Nedzu.

Shouta pulled his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door. “Here we are, kid.” He reached up to help the kid off his shoulder and closed the door with his foot. “Not sure where the furry bastards are, but they’ll probably find us as I show you around.”

Midoriya followed him to the guest room, where they both quickly realized that the bed was a little too high for him. “Huh,” Shouta muttered. “Well, I guess we can bring in a chair or something to help you get up there? Wait here, I’ll grab something.”

When the kid nodded, Shouta left the room in search of a stool. He knew they had one, Hizashi kept a slow-cooker on top of the cupboards in the kitchen for his special hot chocolate he liked to make in the winter, but Shouta had no idea where the stool was. He had been searching for almost five minutes when he finally gave up and called Hizashi.

Who sent him to voicemail.

A few seconds later, though, he sent him a text saying he’s in the middle of an interview for the show, and to give him a minute.

Shouta kept searching while he waited for Zashi to call back. He had looked in the pantry, in the gap between the fridge and the wall, the cabinet under the sink, everywhere that made sense in the kitchen. He thought he remembered Zashi going to the bedroom for the stool once, so he even searched there, under the bed, under the dresser, behind the dresser, in the closet, the bathroom, under the bathroom sink, and he still couldn’t find it.

Shouta was not pouting by the time Zashi called him back, honest.

“Hey babe, what’s up? You never call while I’m at the station.”

Shouta huffed out an annoyed breath. “Where do you keep the stool? I can’t find it anywhere. The bed in the guest room is too tall for Midoriya, and I don’t want to bring in a chair.”

“Oh, yeah, I keep it under the dresser in the bedroom,” Zashi said easily.

“I checked under the dresser. It’s not there.”

“Yes, it is, I just used it last week.”

“Zashi. I’m in the bedroom right now, looking under the dresser, it’s not there.”

“Are you in OUR bedroom? Because I keep it in the GUEST bedroom.”

Shouta growled at him and hung up. He’ll send a thank you text after he gets the kid settled.

He walked back to the guest room where he had left Midoriya and paused when he saw him petting Shiro. “You’re such a sweet little baby, aren’t you?” he cooed to the cat. “Yes, you are!” Shouta couldn’t help but smile at the scene, especially when Kuro slipped into the room to join his sister.

“Oh, hello there!” the kid exclaimed when he saw Kuro join them. “I can see why you said their names would be ob-obvious,” Midoriya said with a giggle as Kuro shoved his sister aside to get at the new person’s attention. “You are a little attention seeker, aren’t you, Kuro?”

Shouta snorted. “Yeah, he is, but that one’s Kuro, Shiro is--. . . wait a second. You called him Kuro?”

Midoriya blinked up at him. “Yes? Did I get it wrong?” He tilted his head to the side. “After spending the day with you, I came to realize that you l-like misleading people, so I figured there w-was no way you would name a black cat Kuro and a white cat Shiro, so you must have named the black one Shiro and the white one Kuro.”

This kid. Shouta couldn’t keep the insane grin off his face if he tried. “Not even Nedzu realized that the first time he met the cats, but you did. Congrats, kid.” He walked over to the dresser, ruffling the kid’s head as he passed, and pulled the stool out from underneath. “Yeah, I found them under a dumpster one night while it was raining and brought them home. I’m assuming they’re from the same litter.” He unfolded the stool and placed it near the head of the bed. “You got their names perfectly, by the way, even my reasoning for naming them.”

Midoriya’s smile was small, but brighter than anything he had ever seen from his sensei’s face. ‘This is my kid, now,’ he thought to himself before quickly backtracking. ‘No! He’s already got a home, his parents are going to be worried about him. Speaking of parents, actually…’

“Hey, kid, what’s a good number to call your parents? I know Nedzu’s going to explain everything when he gets back to your place, and I’m sure your parents will want to speak to you.”

Instantly, Midoriya’s smile vanished. “My mom doesn’t answer her phone, normally, and she didn’t take it with her this time.”

“What do you mean?” Shouta asked. This was starting to sound a little bit like neglect. Please say this isn’t a case of neglect. When he didn’t answer, Shouta tried a different tactic. “How about this. We can put this off for a little while, and I can show you the rest of the apartment.”

Midoriya sighed in relief and nodded. “When will Yamada come home?”

Shouta blinked in surprise. “Zashi told you we were married? He usually lets me decide on if I’m going to tell someone or not.”

“W-well, no, he didn’t,” Midoriya interjected. “He’s mentioned on his radio show a few times over the years that he was married, and I could still smell you once you left after l-lunch, s-so I t-thought. . . “

Shouta ruffled the kid’s head again. “You thought right. We’ve been married for, shit, almost eight years now?”

“Oh, good!” the kid grinned up at him. “With how strong the scent of you on him and him on you was, I was worried you might be having an affair together if you weren’t married!”

Shouta couldn’t help but snort at that. “Come on kid, I’ll show you around. Zashi should be home in about two hours.”

Midoriya nodded and followed Shouta around the apartment as he showed him where the laundry room was (“Not like I expect you to be able to use the washer and dryer as you are right now.”) and where Shouta’s bedroom was (“In case you need Zashi for anything tonight. I’ll be going out on patrol about two hours after Zashi comes home.”).

They settled in the front room shortly after, and Shouta decided to wait for Zashi to get home before broaching the subject of calling Midoriya’s parents again. Instead, he decided they could watch a movie or something, and Midoriya picked out a documentary about the history of Underground Heroics. It’s one that the rat had him watch when he was deciding on going the route of Underground when he was fifteen, it detailed the evolution of the old Vigilantes from the dawn of quirks and how society realized they were needed and eventually incorporated into their own division of heroics.

Not something Shouta would expect out of a kid.

But then again, Shouta had to remind himself that this kid was a teenager. He kept forgetting because of how adorable he acted, and with Nedzu being so small, it just added to the perception of youth clinging to the kid.

As they settled in to watch the show, Midoriya managed to work his way under Shouta’s arm, never once letting his attention waver from the television. Shouta tightened his grip on the kid but frowned. There were a few red flags that this kid’s behavior were throwing up for Shouta, and he didn’t like what he was seeing.

Becoming clingy. Becoming withdrawn, depressed, or anxious. Displaying obsessive behaviors. Finding it hard to concentrate or take part in activities. These were just a few of the signs of neglect Shouta had seen from this kid, and he’s only known Midoriya for one day. Did he have more indicators? Only time would tell.

Shouta somehow managed to fall asleep while watching the documentary, and the sounds of Hizashi in the kitchen humming along to a song playing quietly on the radio woke him up. No, wait, that was the kid squirming to try to get up without waking him. Shouta lifted his arm to release the kid who gave him a sheepish grin and scurried into the kitchen to greet Hizashi.

Grinning slightly himself, Shouta got up from the couch to give his husband his own greeting and ask how the interview had gone. Hizashi normally recorded his interviews days in advance of the show the interview would be used on, and while he’ll tell Shouta if it went well or not, he’s never told Shouta who the interview is with. He doesn’t want to spoil the show, after all.

“Did you as-ask him my question?” Midoriya was sitting on the counter, clearly having Hizashi’s help to get up there, with his tail swaying excitedly behind him and his feet kicking back and forth.

“I did!” Hizashi laughed. “He said he’d have to get back to me on that one, since he’d never thought to measure it.”

Shouta could swear he saw little stars in the kid’s eyes at that, and huffed out a laugh. “Oh, you told him who your mystery interview was with?” he joked as he walked up to Hizashi and kissed him on the cheek.

“Of course, I did!” Zashi replied with a wink. “He’s cuter than you are.”

“Rude. Valid, but rude.”

Hizashi snorted at him. “Can you set the table, Shou? Dinner’s almost done.”

Shouta hummed an affirmation and pulled out the plates and started setting them on the table. He heard Midoriya ask sadly if he had to eat raw meat again, to which Hizashi said yes to. He felt bad for the kid – raw meat wasn’t something anyone really should enjoy, and the kid was no exception.

As the three sat at the table and started eating, Hizashi asked, “How are you doing, being in Nedzu’s body? I can tell you’ve improved in your speaking a lot, even just since this afternoon!”

Midoriya grinned slightly at him. “Yeah, i-it was a little difficult at first, b-but I think I’ve gotten used to it? But,” he paused for a moment, unsure how to continue. “Um. I think the hardest part isn’t the s-speaking, or being so small, it’s the vision?”

Shouta and Hizashi glanced at each other in confusion. “The vision?”

“Mhm. I know that most animals supposedly don’t see as well as humans, b-but I didn’t think it’d be this much of a difference.”

“Sensei’s never seemed to have weak vision,” Hizashi mused aloud.

With a snort, Shouta added, “You really think he’d openly admit to a weakness out loud? Even to one of us?”

“Hmm, I suppose that’s true. Besides, we’re not exactly the best people to judge eyesight from.”

Hizashi was extremely near-sighted, his glasses being required to enable him to see, whereas Shouta’s quirk naturally enhanced his vision to be almost twice as good as a normal person’s. They had always assumed that their rat-sensei had normal, regular vision.

“Maybe I’ll suggest to the rat he should get glasses when I call him later tonight?” Shouta joked.

Before Hizashi could reply anymore than a snort, Midoriya spoke up. “Why do you call him a rat?” He looked down at himself. “I’m pretty sure he’s either a mink or a stoat.”

Hizashi started giggling at that. “That’s the same guess me and Shou came up with, but since Nedzu-sensei refuses to confirm or deny his species, Shouta started referring to him as a rat, and Sensei won’t correct him.”

Shrugging, Shouta added, “If he doesn’t want to be called a rat, then he needs to confirm or deny what species he is when a guess is made.”

Midoriya nodded, the explanation making sense to him. “T-that’s fair.”

Dammit, if this kid doesn’t have a loving home, Shouta really is going to keep him. He understands Shouta and his sense of humor. “Hey, kid. After dinner, wanna try to get ahold of your parents? I’m sure they’re worried about you by now.”

It was as if a light had been snuffed out, the kid’s expression darkened so fast. “No. My d-dad left when I was four, a-after. . .  after. And my m-mom started drinking and going out more and more often.” In a whisper, he added, “She’s sometimes gone for days, or even weeks at a time. She didn’t bring her phone with her when she left this time.”

‘DIBS!’ Shouta mentally shouted. Clearly, the kid’s mom didn’t want him, and here Shouta was, actively wanting this kid.

He looked up to Hizashi, trying to convey how much he wanted to keep this kid when he met his husband’s identical look. Hizashi was giving him the puppy eyes, showing that he also wanted to keep the kid. When they realized they both had the same look they turned back to Midoriya.

“Well, Midoriya,” Hizashi started, “you are welcome to stay here for as long as you want. Even once you are returned back to your own body, we’ll keep a room open for you. Does that sound okay with you?”

The boy’s entire face lit back up at that. “R-really? Even though I’m—” Just as quickly as he lit up, he shut back down as he stopped himself from finishing his sentence with his paws covering his mouth.

Shouta raised an eyebrow. “Even though you’re…. what?”

“Q-quirkless,” he whispered, so quietly Shouta almost didn’t hear him. From the look Hizashi gave him, it had been too quiet for him, and he was counting on the context clues Shouta would give to understand and prevent having to ask Midoriya to repeat himself.

“Midoriya, can you look at me?” Shouta asked. When the boy had raised his eyes to meet Shouta’s, he continued. “It doesn’t matter to either one of us that you’re quirkless. Yes, Zashi has a powerful quirk, but it’s so strong, it’s more a hazard in the field than a benefit sometimes. And look at who he married. All my quirk does is neutralize the quirks of others. No one knows better than we do that a quirk is nothing more than a tool.”

Shouta pushed himself back from the table a little and motioned for the kid to come over, and Midoriya quickly scampered onto his lap again and clung tightly to his shirt. “You are a smart kid, Midoriya, and you being quirkless? That doesn’t mean anything.” Shouta hugged the boy tightly. “We will gladly take care of you whenever you need it. Even if all you want is just to spend some time with us and have dinner, you will always be welcome here. Understand?”

Midoriya nodded his head, and Shouta was sure that if he could cry in the rat’s body, he’d be crying.

~*~*~*~

Nedzu was not looking forward to going to school today. If today was going to be anything like yesterday, though, he was ready. While on the way back to the apartment yesterday, Nedzu had made a stop at an electronics store and bought a small camera with audio recording capabilities. He had been able to enter his own banking information, so he hadn’t put a dent in Izuku-kun’s financials, which is good, since he did not skimp on the quality of the camera.

He would be using this footage to arrest the teachers and students that dared to act the way they did yesterday.

One of the things that had upset Nedzu the most was the fact that the boy’s parents still hadn’t come home.

In his investigation of the apartment yesterday, he had come to the conclusion that the boy most likely only had his mother to live with. There had been no evidence of an older male living there, not even one who occasionally stayed the night. So the boy’s only family was his mother, and she clearly didn’t care enough about her son to come home.

After Nedzu shuts down that school, he’s coming for the boy’s mother.

He was glad he had sent Shouta-kun to take care of the boy. Shouta-kun and Hizashi-kun had been talking about adopting a child for a few years now, and had gotten their emergency foster licenses specifically to prepare for the possibility of finding a child in need of a home, and Nedzu was certain that Izuku-kun would be well received by the couple. And if they decided not to keep the boy, well, Nedzu would have to adopt him. The boy’s mind was incredible, and Nedzu was going to be offering him a position as his newest personal student.

But first he had to get through another day at this school.

~*~*~*~

The day had started out just like the day before, with red spider lilies on the desk, being tripped in the halls, and teased for something that was completely inaccurate. But this time, Nedzu had it all on camera.

Lunch time had rolled around and Nedzu decided he didn’t feel like hazarding the cafeteria again, so he stayed in the classroom and pulled out a new notebook to continue his plans on Izuku-kun’s education once they were returned to their original bodies. He had perused the boy’s analysis notebooks again last night and the biggest thing he needed to work on was organizing his thoughts into a proper format for easier presentation. Unless those notebooks were not meant to be seen by others, in which case he would need to work on coding them.

Nedzu’s thoughts were interrupted by a hand grabbing him by the arm. He looked up and cursed his human hearing as he stared into the deep red eyes of Bakugou.

“You thought you could ignore my advice, Deku? And then, what, hide out in the classroom?” he sneered.

“Advice?” Nedzu asked. He didn’t remember—wait, did he mean when he said to jump off a roof? “That wasn’t advice!” Nedzu countered, affronted.

“Are you talking aback to me, you useless freak?!” He gripped Nedzu’s arm tighter, with small pops crackling from his hand, and dragged him out of the chair. “Maybe I need to teach you a lesson, huh?”

“Yeah!” called a few of the followers the boy had. “Teach this freak where his place is!”

No sooner had he said that then Nedzu was pushed to the ground and Bakugou kicked him. After that first kick, Nedzu hunched into himself to try to protect as much of the boy as he could. He would definitely be brushing up on his self-defense skills when he got back to normal, because this was pathetic. He is a pro hero, but he can’t even protect himself from a few middle school bullies?

He’s going to need to visit Chiyo-san when he goes to UA tomorrow. He’s got enough evidence to not need to come back to this school in the morning – he’ll spend the day on Wednesday compiling his evidence and get a team together for the take down on Thursday, Friday at the latest.

Nedzu was brought out of his thoughts by a hand once again grabbing him by the arm. “Since you clearly didn’t understand the instructions yesterday,” Bakugou spat at him, “I think I’ll help you figure it out!” He started to drag Nedzu towards the window as another boy started to open it.

“W-wait, what are you doing?!” Surely they aren’t about to throw him out the window? They can’t possibly be going that far!

“What does it look like, Deku?” the blond grinned viciously.

Oh, no. No, no, no, Nedzu was not going to let them throw Izuku-kun out the window! Nedzu started fighting back, scratching and kicking at the boy who was holding him, not getting very far at all and getting more and more frustrated. With a final growl, Nedzu managed to get his teeth into the boy’s hand and bit down, hard.

Bakugou screamed and let him go. Not willing to see what would happen if he stayed, Nedzu ran out the classroom, managing to grab his notebook and backpack in one quick move as he was dashing out the door.

He heard the other boys chasing after him, but there was no way he was going to stop, not until he knew he’d be safe.

~*~*~*~

Nedzu slammed the door shut behind him and locked it. Today had been too close for comfort. Did Izuku-kun really live like this every day? The boy was so much stronger than anyone he had ever met, to be able to continue on like this, presumably all alone since Nedzu still hadn’t seen nor heard from the boy’s mother.

After kicking off his shoes, Nedzu made his way to Izuku-kun’s room and removed his shirt, wincing as he took a look at his new injuries. He gently poked at some of the bruises, wondering if he should go to see Chiyo-san today, or if he could wait for morning. It didn’t seem as though anything was broken, so he decided to monitor and wait.

In the meantime, he had some video footage to compile.

~*~*~*~

Izuku had been in this body for three days now, and while he was getting used to it, having a tail was still really weird. He kept tripping and overbalancing, but Shouta (he had insisted Izuku could call him that, something about it being weird having Nedzu calling him Aizawa) never complained about carrying him around.

Izuku was really enjoying his time with Shouta and Hizashi (he had also insisted Izuku call him by his given name) and he was worried about how he was going to react when he finally went back to his original body. He knew the pair had said he’d always be welcome in their home, but he wasn’t too sure if they really meant that or if it was just because he was in Nedzu’s body. Izuku was determined to soak up as much of this . . . parental affection . . . that he could while it lasted.

Part of soaking up the parental affection was going to UA with Shouta carrying him on his shoulder, snuggled comfortably in the man’s capture scarf, as they chat about whatever topic came to mind. Currently, their topic was coffee.

“I’m not a teenage girl, I can drink my coffee hot,” Shouta grumped out with a grin betraying his good mood.

Izuku sighed in faux annoyance. “I’m not saying you’re a teenage girl, Shouta! What I’m saying is hot – or even warm – drinks stimulate a sense of safety and comfort in a person, and a byproduct of that feeling is a desire for sleep!”

Shouta snorted. “I’m not buying it.”

“Okay, well, when a person can’t sleep, what do they drink? Warm milk. When someone wakes up with a nightmare, they get hot chocolate. Stressed? Hot tea. So why is it so novel of an idea for hot coffee to be the equivalent of hot chocolate for you? That’s why you’re always so sleepy!” he finished, throwing his hands up in the air.

“There’s enough caffeine in my drinks to wake the dead,” Shouta countered.

“Obviously not,” Izuku shot back, poking Shouta’s face. “These eyebags are Gucci.”

Shouta swatted Izuku’s paw away. “Leave me and my Gucci eyebags alone, Problem Child.”

Izuku giggled at the fondness in the nickname, but he wasn’t going to give up his point just yet. “For just one day, try iced coffee instead of hot. Just to see if you can feel a difference. Please?”

Shouta raised an eyebrow at him. “That look doesn’t work on that face.”

With a pout, Izuku started swishing his tail. “Just wait until I’m back in my normal body, I have these big green eyes that can tear up on command and my green hair hangs down into my face, perfect for giving puppy eyes.”

Shouta chuckled and ruffled Izuku’s head. “Kinda like that kid over there?” he asked, gesturing at the front gate of UA where a boy with green hair was leaning against the wall, looking at his phone.

“Oh. T-that’s me?” Izuku said uncertainly. “But if I’m here, then that means…”

Shouta nodded and as they got closer to the boy, called out to him. “Sensei, is that you?”

The green-haired kid looked up at them with a calculating glint in his eyes. “Shouta-kun, I need you to grant me access to the school. I am in need of my office, and despite having built the security from the ground up, I am unable to hack in and grant myself access.”

Nodding again, Shouta snorted. “Guess that means it’s doing its job perfectly.” He walked up to the keypad and entered his code. The security on the UA gates was similar to the security on Nedzu’s apartment – if you had an ID badge, you were free to come and go at will, but if you wanted to bring a guest, they needed to be admitted by one of Nedzu’s personal students. No exceptions. Only Shouta and Hizashi were able to admit a guest to the school.

“Yes, yes, my security system is nearly flawless, I know. That doesn’t make it any less of an annoyance right now. I have been trying to hack into it for the past half an hour while waiting for you to arrive,” Nedzu huffed.

“I don’t know what you were expecting to have happen even if you managed to hack in. The system on your office makes this one look like child’s play.”

Nedzu opened his mouth to counter the point but then apparently decided to admit Shouta was correct. So instead, he turned his attention to Izuku. “Hello, Izuku-kun! It is nice to meet you in person!”

Izuku let out a tiny ‘eep’ and ducked into Shouta’s scarf at the sudden attention. He hesitantly poked his head back out and waved at Nedzu. “Hello.”

“Oh, you’re absolutely adorable.” Nedzu said that as if he was commenting on the weather, and Izuku was sure he was blushing scarlet under the fur. “I am going to be needing your assistance soon. Will that be an issue?”

“Um, no?” What could he possibly be able to do to help Nedzu?

“Fantastic! My first stop is to see Chiyo-san, but then we can go to my office—”

Shouta stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “You need to see Chiyo? Are you hurt?”

“Mhm,” he confirmed. “Izuku-kun’s school is absolutely abysmal, and it will not be standing come next week.” Nedzu glanced back to Izuku. “After you unlock my office, I will need your testimony to go along with the evidence I recorded yesterday.”

Izuku nodded sheepishly and burrowed back into Shouta’s scarf. He refused to so much as poke his head out the entire time they were at the infirmary.

~*~*~*~

Shouta was sitting in his usual armchair in the rat’s office, trying not to let the pure rage show on his face as the boy who will be his son sits on his lap and tells him and the rat every detail about his daily life as a quirkless kid.

He knew Izuku had downplayed the relationship he had with his mother the other day, but he didn’t realize that in the past year, he had only seen his mother three times! She would come home sporadically while he was at school and leave groceries in the fridge and the cupboards, but she’d be gone again before he got home from school.

And school, how had he managed to survive school this whole time? Shouta tightened his hold on the kid in his lap, thankful that he had managed to survive up to now, and adamant that he wouldn’t let anything like this happen to his kid again.

“But. . . Kacchan’s my best friend. . . “ he whispered brokenly. “Why would he. . . “

“I’m so sorry, Izuku-kun, but if he’s a friend, I would hate to see an enemy,” Nedzu said sadly.

“He… he really tried to throw me out a window?”

Nedzu nodded sadly. “I had to bite him to get free.”

Midoriya turned so he could bury his face into Shouta’s chest, so Shouta wrapped one arm around him protectively while petting his head with the other hand. Certain that Midoriya couldn’t see his expression, Shouta looked up at Nedzu only to see a look of equal rage on his face.

After letting Midoriya sit like that for a few minutes, Nedzu schooled his features back to neutrality and continued the conversation. “Izuku-kun, may I ask a question?” The boy on Shouta’s lap nodded and faced Nedzu again. “Why does everyone call you quirkless?”

Midoriya blinked blankly at him and said in the most deadpan voice Shouta had ever heard come out of the rat’s mouth, “Because I’m quirkless.”

Nedzu tilted his head at that. “But you’re not.”

“. . . what?”

“I said, you’re not quirkless. You have a mutation quirk I’ve been honestly a little bit annoyed with for the past few days. I’m surprised you’ve never noticed it, but if you were born with it, I suppose it might be as natural to you as having a tail is to me,” he amended.

“I don’t. . . I don’t understand,” Midoriya whispered. “I have the extra toe joint, I can’t do anything other people can’t, I don’t look any different, and green hair doesn’t count as a mutation. What are you talking about?”

Shouta sucked in a deep breath in realization. “Your vision.”

Midoriya looked over his shoulder back to Shouta. “What do you mean?”

“You mentioned on Monday that Nedzu’s vision was terrible, me and Zashi just accepted it because as you said, some animals have different vision from humans and since the rat won’t tell us what animal he is, we don’t know if his vision is worse or not.” He looked up at Nedzu. “It’s his vision, isn’t it?”

Midoriya looked back at Nedzu in time to see him nod his head. “Yes. He is able to magnify his vision several times, as if looking through binoculars, and there is a night vision aspect to it as well. There may be even more, but I haven’t been focused on learning about what his quirk can do, rather I’ve been trying to keep it stable.”

“But. . . can’t everyone do that?” the kid whispered again.

Nedzu got up and walked to the window, motioning for Shouta and Midoriya to follow. “Tell me, how many students are out on training field Delta?”

Midoriya looked out the window at the various fields – from this vantage point, only fields Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta were visible. “Delta is that one,” Shouta pointed to Midoriya.

“Thanks,” he mumbled, trying to see the students. “Um. I don’t know, I can’t see that far.”

“Shouta-kun?” Nedzu asked.

Shouta sighed. “It looks like seven, but because I know Delta has options for up to two training dummies to be set up, I’m going to say there’s only five.”

Nedzu nodded. “The students only have one of the training dummies set up today. There are six students, four boys and two girls. Two blonds, two brunets, one boy with dark purple hair, and one of the girls has bright blue hair.”

Midoriya nodded. “Shouldn’t everyone be able to see that from here, though? I mean, Shouta can see that there are people there.”

“No, Izuku-kun. With Shouta-kun’s quirk also being a mutation in his eyes, he has enhanced vision. It’s not as good as your vision is, but it is far superior to an average person. Hizashi-kun’s vision is on par with my own.”

“So. . .  this is normal vision?” Midoriya asked. “But it’s so. . . How do you see at night? How do you know when someone is raising their temperature to activate their quirk? How do you see when someone goes off the visible—Oh.” Midoriya blinked and looked down at the floor. “Oh, I just heard myself.”

Nedzu blinked at him. “You can see when people raise their temperatures or go off the visible spectrum?”

Midoriya nodded. “My dad had a fire breathing quirk, and I could always see when he was about to breathe fire because the temperature in his throat would rapidly increase, it would give me a few seconds to run.”

“Those would be very useful abilities for a hero to have,” Nedzu said speculatively. “Have you ever considered becoming a hero?”

Midoriya scrunched up his nose, as if disgusted with the idea. “No, I want to be an analyst. I hate how everyone always thinks I want to be a hero just because I want to go to UA. This is the only school in the prefecture that accepts the quirkless, it’s not like I have any other choice!”

“Well,” Shouta muttered into the kid’s ear. “You actually do have other choices, at least now.”

He blinked in shock. “Oh. I guess I do? Huh.” He stared at the middle distance for a few seconds before shaking his head. “UA is still the best option.”

“I am glad you think so,” Nedzu grinned. “I have been looking through your analysis notebooks, and I am very impressed. Tell me, Izuku-kun, have you had any tutoring on your analysis? Or are you self-taught?”

“Um, self-taught?” he answered.

“I thought as much. I couldn’t see much in the way of structure or organization in the layout, both things that would have been pivotal in tutoring. That won’t be too difficult to teach, though. The hardest thing to teach when it comes to analysis is training the mind to see things in a certain way – and that is not something I will need to worry about with you.”

Shouta narrowed his eyes and glared at the rat in human skin. He was talking as if he had decided to take Midoriya on as a personal student. Not that Shouta would be opposed to that, the kid is smart as fuck, but he should at least ask him before he starts making plans.

“Izuku-kun, your school will no longer be operational by next week, so you will need a new place of study. I would like to offer you a place as my personal student.” Well, shit, guess the rat is going to ask after all. “If you choose not to accept, I will assist you in finding another school, but I would greatly prefer taking you on myself.”

“B-but, you don’t r-really know me?” Midoriya stuttered out.

“Kid, he’s been pretending to be you for two days now,” Shouta reminded him. “For someone like the rat, that’s more than enough time to learn all he needs in order to make an offer like this.”

“Oh.” Midoriya looked up at Shouta. “Do you think I should accept?”

Shouta tightened his grip on the kid slightly. “You know, there’s a reason both me and Hizashi call him ‘Sensei,’ and it’s not because he’s our boss. We were both his personal students when we were younger. He is a demanding teacher, but you couldn’t ask for a better one. You will learn so much from him, things you could never learn elsewhere. Plus, since you said you want to be an analyst, he could easily teach you ways to improve.” Shouta scratched the kid behind the ears. “Yeah, I think you should accept. Just promise me one thing?”

Midoriya tilted his head in curiosity.

“Don’t overthrow the government until you’re at least sixteen.”

“Stop spoiling my fun, Shouta-kun,” Nedzu joked with a grin as Midoriya giggled.

Midoriya looked back to Nedzu and nodded. “If you’re sure you want me as a student, then okay. I’ll accept.”

Nedzu clapped happily. “Fantastic! I have been working on a syllabus for you since yesterday.”

~*~*~*~

Nedzu had dismissed Shouta-kun and Izuku-kun before lunch, having gotten all of the information needed from Izuku-kun and wanting to give him a chance to relax and calm down again, while also putting together the final draft of the takedown plan for Aldera Middle School.

Just as Nedzu picked up his phone to start dialing numbers to organize the takedown, he heard another phone ringing. He put down the receiver for the office phone and pulled out the cell phone that belonged to Izuku-kun. He had never given it back.

He looked at the number and recognized it as belonging to Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa of the Musutafu Police Department. “Greetings, Detective! Am I a dog? A bear? A mouse? None of the above, I’m currently a teenage human! What can I do for you?”

“What? Nedzu? Is this Midoriya Izuku’s phone?” the detective asked.

“Yes, it is,” he confirmed. “There was an accident recently, and Izuku-kun and myself have swapped bodies. We don’t know any other details yet, but I have uncovered some issues in Izuku-kun’s life that I want to correct. If we have not returned to normal by the time I am finished correcting these issues, I will be reaching out to locate some assistance.”

“I see,” Tsukauchi-san replied. “Is it safe to assume you know where the boy is?”

“Of course! He’s been sticking close to Shouta-kun primarily, but can also be found with Hizashi-kun when Shouta-kun goes on patrol. May I ask what business you have with Izuku-kun?”

The detective sighed in defeat. “A few days ago, I came across the body of a woman. It took us a few days to ID her, since she had likely had her purse stolen, but we finally figured out her identity this morning. Midoriya Inko.”

Nedzu was quiet for a moment before he muttered, “At least that’s a valid reason for not returning home.”

“What was that?” Detective Tsukauchi asked.

“I highly suggest informing Izuku-kun of this in person,” Nedzu said, ignoring the detective’s question. “If you want to come to UA, I can introduce you to him. How does 3pm sound?”

~*~*~*~

One of the things Shouta disliked most about the rat was his constant desire to throw off whatever plans Shouta may have had. Today, for instance, he had planned to go grocery shopping with the kid, restock on his jelly pouches and maybe get some snacks the kid might like for when he was back to normal. But instead, he’s got to attend a meeting with someone. At least he was told to bring Midoriya along with him, so he didn’t have to leave the kid with Snipe or. . . Nemuri.

Don’t get him wrong, Shouta loved her like a sister. And like any good sister, she made him want to shove her head-first into the nearest woodchipper at least three times a day. He wouldn’t trust her with a child if his life depended on it, and he’s got no clue how she managed to get a job as an actual teacher.

As Shouta opened the door to his sensei’s office, he noticed that Naomasa was there. His steps faltered for half a step before he continued into the office. If Masa was there, and he was told to bring Midoriya, then this meeting was for him, not Shouta. Going over all the details of his abuse at school with Nedzu should have been enough, there’s no reason Naomasa would need to be involved, so this was another matter entirely. Did it have something to do with the boy’s mother?

“Masa, good to see you,” Shouta greeted.

“Shouta. I wish I was here under more cheerful circumstances.” He stood up. “May I assume you’re Midoriya Izuku?” he directed to the kid on Shouta’s shoulder. Midoriya only nodded, so Naomasa continued. “My name is Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa, and I work for the Musutufu Police Department.”

“Nice to meet you?” Midoriya said quietly.

“Come sit down,” Nedzu gestured to the couches, and Shouta sat across from Naomasa and pulled the kid from his shoulder onto his lap.

Midoriya started playing with Shouta’s fingers, and hesitantly asked, “Did something happen to my mom?”

Naomasa’s eyes widened slightly, but he nodded in confirmation. “Yes, I’m sorry to tell you this, Midoriya-kun, but we found your mother’s body Wednesday evening. It took us a few days to ID her.”

He nodded sadly. “She doesn’t stay gone this long, normally. She’s always back in time to pay the rent. It was due on Friday, but she hadn’t come home yet. Every day that passed, I was more and more certain she either decided I wasn’t worth the effort anymore, or that something happened.”

“Oh kid,” Shouta breathed, and adjusted his hold on the boy to more of a hug.

Midoriya raised his paws up to his face, as if he was going to wipe away tears but then stopped. “Huh… I guess I can’t cry?” he whispered, voice cracking.

“Izuku-kun,” Nedzu quietly interjected, “whatever you need right now, we will assist you with. At least until we are back to normal, you can stay with Shouta-kun, and we will figure out where to go afterwards—”

“No.” Shouta blinked, not expecting himself to say that, but continued anyways. “No. I have a foster license, and so does Hizashi. We’ll keep him. Even after you both return to normal, Midoriya can stay with us.”

The kid looked up at him with a devastated look that had no place on Nedzu’s face. “Are you sure? No one else has ever wanted me, why do you?”

“I just do,” Shouta replied honestly. “All kids deserve a home, a family that cares about them, loves them, wants to protect them. And from the first time I saw you, curled into a ball, clearly mid-panic attack, I’ve wanted to take care of you. So, unless you decide you don’t want to stay with me and Zashi, you’re my kid now.”

Midoriya turned around and clung to Shouta tightly, Shouta holding him just as tightly. The two of them sat there for a few moments, before Midoriya finally nodded. “Okay. On one condition.”

“Anything, kiddo.”

“Call me Izuku?”

“Alright, Izuku.”

~*~*~*~

Shouta-kun, Hizashi-kun, and Izuku-kun had spent the rest of the day on Wednesday filling out paperwork to make Izuku-kun’s fostering with Shouta-kun and Hizashi-kun final, and then Thursday at home, with Izuku-kun grieving over the loss of his mother. Nedzu had spent that time sorting out the necessities and the non-essentials from Izuku-kun’s apartment. The landlord had come by and informed him that he had until the end of the month to be out, so Nedzu wasn’t worried about not having time to bring Izuku-kun back and determine what he wanted to keep.

The last thing Nedzu had to do was finalize the raid for Aldera Middle School. He had asked, and both Shotua-kun and Izuku-kun had agreed to go with him.

So, here they were, at 9 in the morning on Friday, with a few dozen officers and five heroes, all taking their orders from Nedzu, who was still in the body of Izuku-kun, while Izuku-kun was balanced on Nedzu’s shoulder.

~*~*~*~

There was a commotion in front of the school, and Katsuki, just like everyone else, was curious about what was going on. He had seen who he thought was Present Mic for a moment, his signature hairstyle towering above the officers as they started for the entrance of the school.

Katsuki couldn’t help but chuckle darkly at whoever fucked up enough to get a hero like Present Mic to show up. He wondered which of the teachers it was and what they must have done. Maybe it was that freak in the science lab? Rumor had it he was cooking up some sort of drugs. Or maybe it was the history teacher? He had been really handsy with a few of the girls, and one of them left the school recently. Katsuki heard a rumor she was pregnant, but he hadn’t believed it. Maybe it was true?

The door to the classroom opened and in walked Present Mic, two officers, some homeless looking bastard, and – “Deku?!” The quirkless fuck was standing next to Present Mic, all calm as can be, as if he hadn’t bitten the absolute shit out of Katsuki’s hand the other day.

Deku pointed at Katsuki. “Aside from the Teacher, that boy there is to be collected.”

“Sure thing, Sensei,” Present Mic nodded with a grin and approached Katsuki.

“Careful with him,” the rat-looking creature on Deku’s shoulder squeaked out. “Kacchan’s quirk lets him make explosions from his hands.”

“Who the fuck do you think you are to call me that?!” Katsuki demanded, stepping away from Present Mic. “And why the fuck are you after me?!”

The creature on Deku’s shoulder lowered his head, almost sadly, but Deku calmly said, “Izuku-kun has informed me of everything you’ve done to him over the years, and since I experienced your actions firsthand, I am apt to believe him.”

“Deku told you. . . wait. You aren’t Deku? Who the fuck are you, then?!”

“I am Nedzu, Principal of UA. And you, Bakugou Katsuki, will never be attending my school. Should you be released from jail before you graduate from High School, you will have a black mark on your record that will prevent you from ever attending a Hero School.”

“You can’t fucking do that to me!” Katsuki screamed at the not-Deku. “Deku’s just some quirkless fucking bastard, no one cares about him or about what happens to him!”

Present Mic had finally grabbed Katsuki by the arm and brought his hands behind his back. Katsuki tried to use his quirk, but nothing happened. What happened to his quirk?! He looked around desperately, trying to find out what was going on, only to see the homeless extra glaring at him with glowing red eyes while his hair floated around him. The man’s eyes and hair returned to normal as soon as Present Mic put handcuffs on him.

“You’re wrong,” Present Mic said. “About all of it, but mainly that no one would care. I care.” He pointed to the homeless guy. “He cares.” He pointed to Deku. “He also cares. Midoriya Izuku has people who care about him, people who want to see him happy and healthy.”

As Present Mic escorted Katsuki out the classroom, the homeless extra added, “Oh. He’s also not quirkless, and never has been.”

Katsuki’s rage-filled screams echoed throughout the school as he, a few other students, most of the teachers, and even the principal, were loaded up into squad cars.

~*~*~*~

Izuku was sitting on the arm of the couch, next to Hizashi, playing with his blond hair absently as he processed the events of the day.

Kacchan had been arrested. His homeroom teacher had been arrested. The science teacher, history teacher, math teacher, and half a dozen other teachers had all been arrested. Everyone who had ever treated him like he was sub-human was now in jail.

He didn’t know how to feel about that, honestly. He knew that he should feel relieved that he was safe, happy he was getting justice, maybe a little sad that his best friend – no, both Nedzu and Shouta said that Kacchan wasn’t his friend – that his former friend was never going to be able to achieve his dream. But honestly? All Izuku felt was numb.

Don’t get him wrong, he was happy that he was going to be safe, getting justice, all of that other stuff. But it was also tempered by the fact that he had lost his mother. She might not have been the best mother, but she was still his. He was going to be getting a new family, in Shouta and Hizashi, and he was happy about that, happy that they wanted to keep him, but he didn’t think they’d ever be able to replace her.

Did he want them to replace her?

He knew they were going to be better than she was, they had already proven that. They had brought out a laptop and ordered new things for his bedroom – a new bed set, shelves, dresser, desk, chair, Hizashi even tried to get him to pick out decorations, only backing down when he was reminded that Izuku had a lot of hand-drawn posters already. His mom had never done things like that. Everything he had, she had gotten from a thrift store, whether it was bedding, clothes, or furniture. Aside from school uniforms and school supplies, Izuku had never had anything new.

His mother had rarely spent time with him, not since he turned nine and had proven he could cook for himself. She went out every week, for days at a time, and would usually come home smelling like alcohol, ignoring his very existence to just pass out in her room. Most recently, when she came home, it was while he was sleeping, and she’d stay just long enough to get groceries, leave a little bit of money on the table for him to buy whatever he might need, and be gone again by the time he came home from school. In comparison, he’s barely been able to go an hour without either Shouta or Hizashi acknowledging him, with little scratches behind the ear, head pats, a quick grin, constant hugs, or even-

“Hey kiddo, you doing okay? You’re really quiet and seem lost in thought. Anything you want to share?” Hizashi interrupted his thoughts, just proving Izuku’s point. They are aware of him, of his moods, and they care.

Izuku let himself fall forward and hug Hizashi. “I’m okay,” he said with a nod. “Just trying to process the day.”

Hizashi hummed as he hugged Izuku and started rubbing his back. “Yeah, today must have been hard. If you want to talk about it, you know I’m here, and so is Shouta. Or, if you don’t want to talk about it with us, we can set up sessions with Ryo – sorry, Hound Dog – and he can help you sort out your feelings.”

Izuku nodded. He could definitely get used to this whole. . . being cared about. . . thing.

~*~*~*~

Nedzu blinked open his eyes and twitched his ears. “Oh, dear. This is not where I fell asleep,” he muttered and sat up. He glanced down at himself, pleased to see he was back in his own body and grinned.

Hopping out of the bed he was in, he quickly got dressed in the clothes that Izuku-kun had graciously laid out the night before. Once he was dressed, he opened the door to the room he was in and walked down the hallway to Shouta-kun and Hizashi-kun’s bedroom. “Wake up, Shouta-kun! I need you to go collect Izuku-kun!” Nedzu called out cheerily.

Nedzu had to quickly dodge a thrown pillow as Shouta-kun sat up. “It is five in the fucking morning, you rat bastard! I just fell asleep!” Shouta-kun snarled at him.

“Yes, yes, very sad. You have five minutes to get ready before I hotwire your car and drive myself to collect my newest student.”

~*~*~*~

Izuku yawned and rolled over in bed, blinking slowly. This. . . was not the room he was expecting to wake up in. He sat up, noticing he had fingers again. “At least this time I know what to expect?” he mumbled.

Izuku recognized he was in Nedzu’s home once again, so he wasn’t going to panic. He looked to see what time it was, and seeing it was just past 5am, winced. Shouta wouldn’t be happy if he called him right now. He’ll wait a few hours and then call Hizashi.

With that plan in mind, Izuku went to the kitchen to get himself a glass of water and see if there was any food that wasn’t raw meat he could make for breakfast.

There wasn’t anything in the refrigerator he’d be willing to eat, but on the countertop, there was a box of granola bars. With a shrug, and knowing that Nedzu wouldn’t be able to eat them anyways, he opened one and took it and the glass of water to the counter.

He had just taken the first bite of his granola bar when he heard Shouta’s irritable grumbles on the other side of the front door. “Why the fuck couldn’t you have dragged Hizashi out here at ass o’clock in the morning? Why did it have to be me?”

Izuku glanced at the time again, noting that it was only 5:15. He winced at that, knowing that when Shouta patrolled on Friday nights, he didn’t get home until about 3:30. Mix in his insomnia, and he probably hasn’t slept yet.

The door opened and Nedzu walked in, grinning brightly at Izuku. “Ah, Izuku-kun! Good morning! I had hoped you’d be awake!”

Izuku nodded. “Yeah, good morning.” He looked at Shouta who was still glaring at Nedzu, attempting to eviscerate him with his glare alone. With a small smile, Izuku walked up to him and hugged him. “I’d say good morning, but I don’t think you see much good in mornings.”

Shouta sighed out in defeat and wrapped his arms around Izuku. “It’ll be a good morning when I manage to finally get to sleep,” he grumped. “Speaking of, you ready to go home, kid?”

Izuku nodded and looked up at Shouta with a grin. “Yeah! Let’s go home!”

~*~*~*~

Name: Ootori Arisa

Age: 47

Quirk: Bring Me Justice

Quirk Details: When two people who meet the requirements are touched at the same time, User is able to connect the two people in some way. Current known methods: telepathic communication, proximity limitation, body swapping. Requirements for activation: one person is experiencing a grave injustice, and the other is able to help. Effects last until the injustice the first is experiencing has been resolved.

Nedzu read the file, remembering that day five years ago when he had gone shopping with Hizashi-kun for a birthday present for Shouta-kun. He did remember that a woman had tripped and fallen on him as he was trying to listen in to Izuku-kun’s analysis of the fight. He should send her a thank you card. He likely never would have met the boy if it hadn’t been for her.

Izuku-kun’s mind was a wonderful thing, and after studying with Nedzu for five years, the boy he had come to think of as his grandpup had graduated top of his class from the Support Course, and already had seven different offers from various Support Companies as a quirk analyst.

The door to Nedzu’s office opened and Izuku-kun’s head popped in. “Hey Jii-chan, Papa wants to know if you’re coming to dinner tonight? Dad is hoping you say no, Toshi’s hoping you say yes. He loves watching Dad’s reactions to your daily dose of chaos.”

Nedzu cackled. “Of course, I’m coming to dinner!”

He really had to, after all. He was 97.4% certain that Izuku-kun’s boyfriend, Shinsou Hitoshi, was going to be asking his grandpup to marry him tonight, and Nedzu had a lovely shovel talk prepared for just such an occasion.