A mysterious voice comes bearing a gift of the future to you.
"Hands filled with kindness
come from those you'd least expect,
just like Izuku's."
"You've been doing nothing but reciting haikus about that boy all day, (Name)," Shinsou sighed. He turned his attention back to his book as you busily typed away at your phone.
"Unruly green hair,
Warmth hidden in his cold eyes,
he's Midoriya," you recited, giving a satisfied smile and typing it down once more. Shinsou exchanged glances with Magne, who just shrugged.
"A breathtaking sight,
Midoriya Izuku
he stands in the moonlight."
"That one is 6 syllables," Magne pointed out without hesitation. You clicked your tongue in annoyance.
"Standing in the moonlight- ah, thats 6 syllables too..." You furiously hit the backspace.
"In moonlight he stands," Magne offered, and penned down something. You grinned and thanked her, typing it out and turning off your phone, happily skipping off to consult Kurogiri about your newfound haikus.
"Hey Shinsou, how long more before Midoriya decides that he doesn't have to treat (Name) like a baby anymore?" Magne tapped her pen against her head. Shinsou 'mmm'ed, flipping his page.
"Midoriya's forever the mother bird type, once you're under his wing you can never get out. Almost every newbie had to fight for their independence from being Midoriya's 'disciple'," Shinsou flipped his page once more, before flipping back after realizing he absorbed nothing that he had read.
"Ah well, I hope he doesn't get overprotective of (Name)... the only one who tolerates and likes having him dominating, is that like a kink or something?" Magne wrote down what she just said, putting a large circled question mark beside it.
"We've gotten too attached," the two chuckled in unison.
...
You let your head lazily loll off the side of the pillow, not quite remembering the dream you just had. Again.
The next few days were spent with you being hidden away in Midoriya's room. There was some 'please get out and interact with people' intent beneath a few words, but other than that he was pretty neutral about sharing his room, seeing as you didn't attempt to escape or beat him up.
People entered the room occasionally, All Might would drop in a few words of advice, sometimes Toga would burst in with news and Dabi just communicated with nods and vocal noises, occasionally a few sentences. Midoriya told you he would give you a few days to think about it, but a few days weren't enough for you. You needed a year, maybe two.
"How about I bring you around first?" He suggested. "You've done nothing but loiter in my room like a hikkikomori."
You scratched your cheek in hesitation. Meet the villains? The ones who attempted to kill you just to keep you here? You looked into Midoriya's eyes. His sea-green irises seemingly absorbed you into them, cushioning your fall while wrapping around your throat. The silence suddenly felt suffocating.
"...Sure."
Midoriya made a small sound from the back of his throat and looked down, mumbling something like "that was easy" and clipped the collar onto your neck.
He adjusted the collar slightly, and you flinched, biting down on your lip to stop from complaining.
"Sorry, but I wasn't supposed to take this out. Please tolerate rewearing it," he removed his hands and took a step back. His lips parted a little, and you braced yourself.
"Act like a good kid, accept any and all drinks from Kurogiri, don't piss off Tomura, hold a proper conversation with Shinsou, respect Sensei, don't try to kick All Might, don't bring up heroes around Todoroki unless he mentions them first..."
You looked at him as he continued to mutter. His fingers anxiously tapped against his chin.
The infamous Midoriya-mutter, as always. The words shot out of his mouth like a machine gun as he went on and on about the villains. Even with all the new information overwhelming you, you weren't sure if you really were prepared.
You didn't know if you could handle seeing Sensei, the one who abandoned you, Shinsou, the one who basically made you do his bidding, Tomura, the guy who abused you, and...
All Might... was it really him?
You swallowed.
"Alright, alright, I got it. Just act like i've been convinced by you, right?" You cut him off, nervously fidgeting with your wristcuffs. Midoriya nodded and stood up, brushing his pants and pulling his gloves on. He inhaled, and turned to you.
You were paralyzed for a moment. His eyes seemed to drill right into your skulls. You held your hand down to prevent yourself from reaching towards his face.
Midoriya's eyes flickered for a moment. "Please don't die."
Before you could respond, he opened the door and you were thrown into the world outside of the room. A cool breeze hit your face and he sped through the corridors, while you rushed to keep up with him.
You fell into a steady pace behind him as you drifted away into your own thoughts. You recognized the boy with purple hair, maybe you'd seen him somewhere before. School? A villain in... UA?
You blinked once, and then touched your chin lightly.
Dabi was not much older than you either, definitely under 30. He was a decent person, and only his looks gave away the fact that he was a villain. If he didn't have the scars, he would look just like a normal person you'd past on the street.
And Midoriya... he's roughly the same age as you, yet he's been in the Villain Alliance for... much more longer. But he was still a teenager, no more different from you.
"We're here," a voice spoke up. You realized you'd been clutching at his jacket at an attempt to not fall behind and quickly released your grasp.
You stepped aside to see that the inside of the bar was empty, save for a guy in a full-body suit. His hands moved as he took down bottles and seemingly pasted something on them, and then rearranging them as if he was the bartender.
Midoriya placed a hand on your head. "What do you want to drink?"
You didn't reply for a second- your eyes were fixated on the bloodstains on the ground, the very same spot where Sensei had picked you up. You bit down on the inside of your cheeks.
"Apple juice, please," you eventually responded, your eyes snapping back to Midoriya's face. He nodded and pulled back the chair, causing a cringeworthy scraping noise to echo throughout the dead silent building.
A black mist formed behind the counter as you two took your seat, and Kurogiri stepped out. Midoriya removed his gloves and held out two fingers.
"Apple juice and a sprite would be great, thanks."
You let your eyes roam around the bar and latch onto interesting details. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything much that was worth noting. You turned your attention back to the counter where you watched the masked man pass Kurogiri a bottle of apple juice.
Out of the corner of your eye, you spotted the impressive array of wine, champagne and beer stocked up on the shelves. You lifted your finger to point at a pastel-coloured pink champagne.
"I didn't expect you guys to have alcoh-"
Midoriya slammed your hand down on the table so hard you swore you broke a bone.
"No."
You retracted your hand and held it with your other hand, rubbing it lightly. Even though the slam wasn't that forceful, the wooden counter was still very hard.
"Midoriya doesn't like drinking very much, we gave him pretty bad experiences," Kurogiri turned around and placed a glass of apple juice and a sprite in front of you two. Midoriya tilted his head and gave an incredulous glare towards Kurogiri.
"Bad experiences? Todoroki almost killed Himiko!"
Kurogiri turned back to the bar. "Yes, thats what I meant."
You blinked and muttered an apology, drinking your juice. The flavour suddenly turned incredibly bitter and puckery in your mouth, and you forced yourself to swallow it, feeling it burn on the way down your throat.
"Blegh, why does it taste so weird?" You stuck your tongue out and looked at the drink. Kurogiri looked slightly offended and Midoriya kicked your leg. You looked at the guy at the bar, before directing your gaze to his hands where he was sticking apple juice labels onto bottles that were not apple juice.
Realization pretty much hit you like a truck.
"You little-" You began to cough heavily, gripping onto the edge of the counter. Midoriya turned his attention towards you, before he took your drink and sniffed it, expression darkening and turning to the guy who had a sly grin on his face.
"Maybe you shouldn't have pulled that prank on me huh, Midoriya? Ah, but I enjoyed your prank you know~~" He seemingly flipped personality mid-sentence and stopped whatever he was doing.
Angered, Midoriya took the drink and poured it onto the ground, hurtling the cup towards the guy who caught it with ease.
"You're an asshole, Twice! I thought we made peace," he growled, finishing his sprite and slamming the glass onto the table.
"Watch my cups! Those things don't come for free!"
"Peace indeed, I'll never be satisfied by a handshake! But I hope we'll be happy after this...!" Twice recklessly set the bottle on the counter, and the bottle fell over, plunging towards the floor. Kurogiri caught it just in time and set it on the shelves.
"You two, those are my drinks!"
Midoriya grabbed his cup, raising it above his head. His arms seemingly flashed and crackled like lightning for a moment, and just as he began to throw it, Kurogiri's voice overpowered their rage.
"That's ENOUGH! Stop fooling around with these glass cups and bottles! Take this elsewhere, or you're all going to pay for the mess you make!"
Midoriya huffed and set the cup down on the corner of the counter, and you reached out and pushed it away from the edge. Kurogiri nodded at you as thanks.
Twice rolled his eyes and murmured "Party pooper..." before he slid another glass over, this time with a weird colour mix of lavender and green, and snickered, leaving the bar. Upon seeing the disconcerting mixture, another cough escaped your lips and your head spun.
Midoriya gently lifted the cup to your lips, tilting your hesd up and making you down the drink. Kurogiri shook his head at the immaturity of the situation and went back to relabelling the bottles with a marker and masking tape. Soon enough, the red flushed out of your face and you breathed deeply.
"That was some strong stuff, damn," you looked at the wet spot on the floor where Midoriya emptied your... mystery drink. Your eyes trailed off to Midoriya's empty glass, and looked at him gently patting his hands down with a tissue. He hoisted you until you were leanung against the bartop for support and cautiously released his grip on you. Kurogiri slid a cup of water over to you, and you thankfully took it.
Just as the water went down your throat, you stopped swallowing and let the water overflow out of your mouth and spill all over yourself. You instinctively lurched forward, coughing once more. Midoriya worriedly turned his head towards you.
It wasn't that long ago since you broke one of Kurogiri's precious cup, and it wasn't that long ago that you refused to accept water from him either.
You didn't take their food because you were cautious of them, but now even when Twice pulled that trick on you, you still wouldn't hesitate to accept anything from them.
You placed the cup onto the counter and tried to brush off the water stains on your outfit- but you couldn't suppress the smile creeping onto your face.
Placing your head on the counter, you began to laugh. It started off as a small giggle, before bubbling up into full blown maniacal laughter. Your hands went up to your neck and you grabbed your collar, unclipping it from the spot that Midoriya had purposefully loosened. You fell off your stool and continued to laugh.
Childish, immature, that was all how they were acting.
You expected villains to constantly sit at tables and discuss their plans for destroying the future. You expected them to hate each other, only working together because they had a common goal. You expected the villains to be... villains.
Instead, you got a boy your age arguing with a man almost twice his age, and a weird black mist guy scolding them like he was their mother.
What else did society drill into you? What else did... your father... implant into your head?
They treat villains with such violence, but they were all still humans nonetheless.
You began to laugh so hard that your stomach was hurting. Was it from the adrenaline that you might've died fron the drink, or was it just the sheer absurdity of the situation?
"W-What did Twice do this time?" Midoriya knelt on the ground and placed his hands on your shoulders. Tears were streaming down your cheeks until you ran out of breath, gasping for air.
"I'm-I'm okay," you wheezed out, pressing the crown of your head onto Midoriya's chest. You could feel his heartbeat against your skull, and it made you feel warm inside. "This is a horrible decision, I'm stupid, I'm impulsive, I'm reckless, I'm stupid, I suck, I..."
You lifted your head to meet the confused gaze of Midoriya, the boy you saw crying that very day.
The boy who didn't want to become a villain.
Midoriya, the boy who had his hands unwillingly dirtied, the same boy who you swore to save. Your hands gently grasped his own, and you placed your cheek against the back of his hand. Midoriya tensed up.
Maybe he didn't have to find you to be saved.
Maybe you just had to find him.
"I want to join you."