Aizawa POV:
You know that feeling where you're confident about something and don't need to ask for help and all that good stuff? The feeling where you're so confident in being confident that you forget your confidence may just come from a place of confidence and not actual skill?
Because Shouta sure as hell does now.
He had been sure they wouldn't need to get a driver. How hard could driving in America be? He'd once given a driving lesson to Mina and he could have sworn that was the scariest thing he'd experience on the road; the girl had informed him after they got on the highway that she wasn't totally positive how to tell her left from her right. That and the fact that she panicked and accidentally disintegrated the emergency break was enough to give him a heart attack.
And yet, he here was, incredibly stressed once again as he pulled out onto the main highway. Everything on the road was flipped, people driving on the right side and nobody even using their turn signal. He'd seen the guy in front of him cut across three lanes like a ripoff Indian Jones starring in Raiders of The Lost Drivers Licence.
It might have helped if a child wasn't his main navigator. Iida had taken the passenger seat and was now holding a map that Shouta was ninety percent sure was upside down as he tried to figure out what exit to take.
Shouta held the wheel on their very shiny and very expensive rental car in a death grip, inching the car along at five miles below the minimum speed limit and cringing as cars sped by on his left.
"Mr.Aizawa, I can drive," Todoroki offered, making eye contact with him through the rearview mirror.
"Absolutely not," Shouta gritted out. Todoroki had just gotten to the point where every one-on-one fight wasn't a new character development catalyst, there was no way that boy was getting anywhere near the wheel.
"Wait. You guys get to drive?" Izuku asked, perking up from where he'd been distracted talking to Uraraka. "Why don't I get to drive?"
Shouta didn't bother answering that.
He got a few blissful moments of peace before Izuku asked, "Seriously. Why can't I? If Todoroki gets to drive I should too." His voice was rather indignant.
Beginning to get a headache, Shouta had to remind himself Izuku had yet to see the full chaotic danger that followed him around. Possibly, the worst thing that had happened recently was when Izuku had asked Kaminari to show him how his quirk worked. Still, it was better to not give the boy hope. "No," he sighed.
"Please?"
"No."
Izuku huffed loudly enough for Shouta to hear and slouched back in his seat. Quiet whispers could be heard from Todoroki about how he'd let Izuku drive his car if he wanted- very brave of him considering Shouta would personally disassemble the car piece by piece before he let that disaster happen. Self-reminder: do not leave those two alone together.
As they continued to drive the car grew more silent. Three exits later he glanced back to find Uraraka sounds asleep, leaning against Izuku like her own personal pillow, while Izuku did the same to Todoroki. He smiled, whispering to Iida to talk more quietly so they wouldn't wake the others up. He'd never admit to it, but seeing Izuku start to trust his friends again and let down his walls was endearing. The change had been a lot for all of them, but Shouta was very relieved to see things were slowly calming down.
The peace was short-lived when he found out he had to merge.
---
Getting off the highway was equivalent to sitting down after a long day or hearing blissful silence after his co-workers finally stopped talking. Instant and glorious relief.
Turning into the little suburb was even better considering there was little to no traffic. That and that they'd figured out how to turn his phone into a GPS and he no longer missed every other turn.
Iida had also begun to doze, leaving Shouta to his thoughts as they rolled down the slightly uneven street. It reminded him of when he was younger before all the roads had been revamped and stricken of personality. The little potholes and grass peaking into the paved edges were what gave the roads character-made them distinct.
It was overcast, the sun just barely peeking out from behind flowing clouds and dotting sections of the street in a golden glow. For some reason that in itself was comforting too. Not the chaos of a sudden rainstorm but also not the obnoxious brightness of a clear sky. It filled him with a sense of calm he should most definitely not be entitled to, and yet, he found himself relaxing, sinking into the smooth leather seat as the tension bled from him.
The houses started to grow further and further apart until he pulled into a little driveway leading up to a dead end. The phone was yelling at him that he'd "REACHED DESTINATION-REACHED DESTINATION" but he was doubtful. The woman they'd been tracking down had practically erased her existence. The only thing he'd been able to get was this address. But the house looked like a knock-off Steven Spielberg house with a short white-picket fence wrapping around a cheerful yellow home; not what one would expect from someone in hiding.
He shut off the engine, turning in his seat before saying, "Wake up. We're here."
Todoroki and Uraraka both started to open their eyes but Izuku was out cold. He said it again more loudly, waking Iida.
With a put-upon sigh, he got out of the car and opened the back door. He'd already had to deal with Izuku's morning grumpiness once this morning and wasn't about to relive the experience. "Izuku get up," he said, leaning against the car impatiently.
Uraraka sent him an apologetic look before slipping past him and joining Iida by the front of the car, apparently, she too knew the struggles of sleepy problem child. He wondered if he'd been like this in the dorms or if he just saved his difficultness for whenever he was in a ten-foot radius of Shouta.
Todoroki nudged the kid, whispering that they were here.
Izuku's face scrunched, giving away that he was already awake, before he leaned all his weight on the other boy again, completely ignoring Shouta.
"I know you can hear me, it's time to get up," Shouta said.
"Time for you to get up," Izuku mumbled.
Izuku was forcibly carried out of the car.
---
They knocked on the door.
Nothing.
Tried again.
Nothing.
Shouta was about to knock for a third time when he heard a sudden shout coming from inside that sounded urgent. Wasting no time, he quickly busted down the door and rushed in.
When breaking into someone's home, it's hard to say you expect to see something. You never really know what's going to happen. Still, the combination of the neighborhood plus the cutesy house would usually leave one to believe whoever lived here was a civilized individual.
He certainly didn't expect to see an elderly woman swinging a wooden chair over her head and smashing it against a man's back. The man, dressed in all black like one of those cartoon robbers, tried to reach for something he couldn't see but the woman raised her polished weapon with a loud, "Take that you little trouble maker! How dare you try to steal from a poor defenseless old woman?!" before hitting him again.
"We have to help her!" Izuku whispered from somewhere behind him.
Shouta immediately activated his quirk so the problem child wouldn't pull another quirk injury number. "Stay behind me," Shouta ordered but it was too late.
Izuku lunged forward, avoiding Shouta's arm when he tried to tug him back.
That- he should have expected. Izuku was like the walking embodiment of 'act first ask questions later' except in his case the 'act' was somehow discovering the only criminal in a hundred-mile radius of them and then asking them to fight while he psychoanalyzes them. It's not that Izuku isn't smart- he's scarily smart actually- he just chooses to use that intelligence at random times.
This was not one of those times.
Shouta rushed after him, ducking to avoid the chair the woman still had raised above her head like the next Simba and trying to get between what must have been a robber and the kid. Izuku was a blur, even without his quirk, kicking the gun Shouta had just now seen out of the criminal's hands.
In a flurry of limbs, Izuku was shoved back, hitting the opposing wall hard as the criminal tried to get his weapon back.
Something he'd never felt before washed over him, invading his mind and limbs in a white fury. Shouta was a man of few emotions. Human connections and all that shit flew right past him, he'd never felt the need. But this kid, someone with such a pure heart that was doing his best, he couldn't watch this kid get hurt again.
He slung his hand out, part of the capture weapon wrapping tight around his palm with the other shooting forward and connecting with the man, with a hard tug the weapon wound all the way around his waist. Using the forward momentum to his advantage, Shouta pushed his weight forward, slamming the other to the ground with a hard thud.
"You have five seconds to tell me what's going on here before I don't bother making a call to the police," he warned, anger contorting his voice to one much lower. He could hardly control it. He hadn't even known he had the ability to feel so strongly about something.
"I just needed money! I wasn't gonna hurt her!" the man exclaimed, the muscles in his back tensing as Shouta kept him down.
"But you have no problem hurting a child," Shouta hissed, looking back to where he'd seen Izuku fly backward into the wall. His friends were there, kneeling next to him and Todoroki laying a hand on his arm. A thin sheet of ice crept over his skin, encasing the arm like the world's fanciest ice pack. Damnit, Izuku was already injured and it had been less than 24 hours in America.
The old woman stood to one side, chair forgotten, looking like she was at a loss for what to do. Her long silvery hair a mess of tangles around her face and her pale pink sweater torn.
"It was an accident!" the man grunted, his cheek pushing against the floorboards. "Please don't call the cops."
Accident his ass. Shouta tightened the capture weapon again in warning before taking a long breath. He kept telling himself to calm down, he dealt with people like this all the time back home. Maybe it was just because they were in an unfamiliar place that he'd felt such a strong reaction, he must have subconsciously already been on edge.
"Iida call the police. Uraraka make sure the home's resident is okay. Izuku stay right where you are," Shouta said, trying to maintain some semblance of calm. He would have told Todoroki to go to but he knew the student too well to even try.
Before the accident, they had always been all worried for each other. Izuku seemed to show he cared but fighting Todoroki and yelling at him that he was a good person. Todoroki just lingered, always, like a shadow. It was a wonder they even got along seeing how different they were to one another, but Shouta was relieved they did. He'd already had to endure the constant Bakugo and Izuku "rivalry", he couldn't handle another.
After he'd tied the criminal to one of the home's support pillars, Shouta settled down in the kitchen chair that had previously been used as a weapon, the woman sitting at the table across from him looking quite proud of herself. She'd apparently brushed Uraraka's concern aside completely, insisting on talking with Shouta.
"So I'm assuming there was a reason you broke down my door that doesn't have to do with him?" she asked, nodding her head at the pitiful man caught in his capture weapon.
He leaned back, the edges of the chair digging against his skin. "Yes. My name is Shouta Aizawa, I work with U.A. highschool. Those are my students," he explained, pointing to the four of them that were crowded together at the other end of the table.
The woman's eyes lit up when he mentioned U.A., her whole posture changing as she leaned forward in enthusiasm. "Hero students I presume? How exciting. Your school has been on the news quite a lot recently. Although I'm still a bit confused as to what brought you here."
"We-" Iida started, but Shouta raised a hand, cutting him off.
"We heard of a quirk user that has the ability to restore memories. The only thing I could find was this address when researching the individual. You wouldn't happen to know of anyone with that power?"
She leaned back then, expression doing a one-eighty as her brows knitted together and the corners of her mouth turned down. Bringing a wrinkled hand up to brush the loose hair from her face, she looked at all of them more carefully, eyes narrowed. "What makes you think I know?"
Well if Shouta wasn't sure before he was now, this woman had to be the person they'd been looking for. "We are coming on behalf of a student from U.A., they need someone who can restore their memories in full," Shouta said, leaving out the part about Izuku being that person. The fewer people who knew the better. "If the individual wishes, we will keep their identity a secret. The only information we have as of right now is this address. Any help would be greatly appreciated."
Not looking convinced she asked, "Can I see some I.D.?"
He gladly complied, fishing the hero license out of his wallet. Granted- the man in the photo looked a lot nicer than he did, but it was proof none the same.
She took it from him, eyes hungrily scanning over the information. A minute later the frown had lessened and she handed back the license. "Eraserhead, yes I think I've heard your name before somewhere," she mused.
That was most definitely not true. You'd have to do deep research to find anything on him- but for the sake of pleasantries, he just nodded his head.
"But that doesn't mean I can just help you. I have responsibilities too and if word got out-" she shook her head, face becoming grim. "Well it just can't is all."
"I can assure you it won't. This is purely for the sake of one of our students," Shouta confirmed, looking pointedly at the four children at the table. "Todoroki, make a wall of ice around the criminal to make a sound block."
Doing as he said, the student rose, hand outstretched as familiar icy blueness shot up through his fingertips. With a burst of cool air, ice climbed up, forming a round dome around the absolutely petrified man. He shifted his weight, turning to the others when he was done with a little smile that Shouta thought meant Todoroki was proud. "Thought" because he could never be too sure if human emotions were something the kid experienced.
"This is cool, I've never gotten to be in on a secret before," Todoroki said, looking from Izuku back to the table. He obviously didn't understand this woman was barely agreeing to tell them in the first place and that his commentary was not helping.
A muffled voice came through the ice, "Read the room man."
More ice was promptly added.
Thankfully, the woman chuckled, seeming a little more at ease. "This secret is a little more complicated than most," she admitted, hands folding together in her lap. "I know you all must think I have a memory quirk, I'm sorry to disappoint you but I don't. The truth I only know one person with that type of ability, and she hasn't publically used it in years. She was mixed up in some illegal quirk usage mess and is currently off the grid. You can see why I can't just tell you her name and all."
"So why would she list this as her address?" Shouta asked.
"Because I'm her mother."
That left everyone in the room shocked.
But apparently not shocked silent.
There was a muffled cough before Izuku spoke up in a small voice, "I know we are in the middle of a top-secret thing but I can feel my bone moving in my arm and I don't think it's supposed to do that."