Shattered Dreams

What We Do In The Archive Room

Izuku wiggled his fingers with a painful wince, before taking off running to get to UA before he was officially late.

He really had hoped to get more sleep before his alarm clock woke him up...!!
The ringing had scared the shit out of him and, before he could even register, he had unwillingly smashed it to pieces.

Now his hand hurt.
And his first period was a mock exam.

As he headed for UA at top speed, to say he was thinking was an understatement — his brain was literally boiling.
Processing, analyzing, calculating, trying to come up with any plausible hypothesis on a relationship between All Might and Endeavor.

Better think step by step.

The little he did know for sure was, both of them had studied at UA.
It was common knowledge; their name on the top of the list of UA alumni contributed a great deal to the school's undisputed first place in the national ranking of hero academies. The "Plus Ultra" motto was often associated with All Might, and although the tracks of Endeavor's time at UA were more discrete (probably due to the massive controversy that had been sticking to his image for the last two decades), he was present among the framed pictures of the most accomplished UA students on the wall of Headmaster Nezu's office.

However, Izuku had no way of knowing if they had met back then-

Hold on, maybe there was.
During the chase for All For One, he had heard Gran Torino call Endeavor "Todoroki".

Although the Flame Hero's identity wasn't a secret, nobody in their right mind would even think of calling him by his name. Also, Gran Torino had taught at UA for less than a year to train All Might after his mentor had been killed.
And Izuku was pretty sure UA had fewer classes back then, since Quirks weren't as common as now. Which meant that Gran Torino probably used to be Endeavor's teache-

The green-haired teen snapped out of his thoughts and held back a curse as he suddenly tripped over his undone shoelace-

...And froze in a 45 degree angle above the floor.

- Deku-kun, hurry up, the test with Aizawa-sensei is today!

- Ah, Uraraka-san! Thanks! Izuku panted, letting out a relieved sigh.
- Kaijō!

As gravity came back, the brunette grabbed her friend's wrist to help him back up and smiled.
- You're welcome!~ Do your best!

He gave her a thumbs up — which instantly reminded him of how much his right hand hurt.
- S-Sure! he promised, as he held back a wince.

(Right now he was highly doubting he'd be able to focus on anything, though!)

~

Shōto relaxed as he spotted Izuku entering the classroom after Ochako.
Looking down in shame, the latters hurried to their assigned seats under Eraser Head's expressionless gaze.
(The fire and ice wielder was sincerely starting to wonder just what he did in his spare time that left him so tired.)

- Next time I'll lock the door at 8.26, the pro hero sighed. Both of you will get expelled, and you'll hand me back your temporary hero license.

- Aaah!! We're SO SORRY sensei, it won't happen again!!

Shōto then noticed Izuku's hand was unusually red (well, not so unusually, knowing Izuku).
The latter felt his boyfriend's eyes on him and shot him his most convincing smile.

(And the older teen wondered, in plain sincerity, how come the room had suddenly lit up.)

- Sensei! Before the test begins I would like to make a claim!
- Go ahead, if it takes less than a minute, Eraser Head mumbled.