You had just sat down to snuggle with your pooch when an alarm rang throughout your house. You sighed, sadly pushing your dog off your lap and onto the couch so you could get into your superhero gear. "Location?" you shouted. The automated response told you the address and you left the house to go kick this bad guy's butt.
You were a pro hero, maybe not in the top 10 but still up there, not that anyone really knew who you were. You hoped one day you'd be one of the greats so you didn't have to work a crummy fast food job, but for now you were happy to get any chance thrown in your lap to prove yourself.
When you arrived you saw another hero already reaching for the door. That was fine, you'd have someone to vouch for your greatness then. Until they spotted you coming and turned.
"Oh great," you both said at the same time. It was Aizawa Shouta, the Erasure hero. If there was one person you could say with confidence was the exact opposite of you, it was him. He thought the whole fame and fortune part of hero work was stupid, like there was no point to living a happy debt-free life. He also didn't care for long drawn-out fights, which was fine, except then nobody saw how great you were at being a hero. He even had cat hairs on his shirt (and everyone knows dog and cat lovers don't mix)!
"Let's just get this over with," he grumbled, putting his goggles on and throwing open the building door. You entertained the idea of leaving but figured that'd make you look worse than just sucking it up, so you followed him. The first floor was empty so you advanced to the next, then the next.
Suddenly you froze. You tried to move your foot. Nothing. You tried to look around, to tell Aizawa something was wrong, but you couldn't. From what you could see the floor was crowded with desks and chairs, a run of the mill office, so the villain must have a paralysis quirk and was hiding somewhere.
"Keep up (Y/N)," Aizawa grunted, glancing back at you before starting the next flight of stairs. He was leaving! As soon as he was out of sight a dark figure approached, toying with a scalpel.
"You're going to be fun to dissect." He grinned. You fought the paralysis but you didn't move a muscle. Why couldn't Eraser Face be useful for once?! Then the scalpel was wacked out of the villain's hand by a scarf and you could move again. The villain turned to glare at him. "You."
"Me," Aizawa replied boredly and wrapped him up in his scarf.
"Why'd you just walk off?" you shouted, crossing your arms. "Aren't you supposed to work with other heroes? Oh wait, that's right, you work alone."
"I was working with you: you were the bait."
"You used me as bait?!" You marched up to him, hands in fists.
"Can we not do this right-" He froze. It was miniscule but Aizawa turned just slightly to look at you and stopped erasing the villain's quirk. The villain glared at Aizawa as he backed away, not taking his eyes off the hero.
"He needs to keep his eyes on us to freeze us. Heh, sounds like you Eraserhead. You long last cousins or something?" You rose a brow at him and you swore his lip twitched. "Fine, I'll get him." You tried to use your quirk, flexibility (like Helen from The Incredibles), but when it didn't work, you remembered Aizawa was looking at you. What a hindrance. You stepped out of his view and stretched your legs to look over the cubicles. You froze.
Aizawa ran past you. "You need to focus! We need to keep moving so we know when he's using his quirk on us." He barely got the words out before he froze mid-jump. He landed on your outstretched hand, then you froze and he was off again. You barely got a step before freezing, then becoming free, then freezing. He must be switching his gaze between you two constantly. How annoying. Getting an idea, you shrunk down to mouse size and scampered around the desks. The sound of a chair falling over caught your attention and you saw Eraserhead flat on his face. You held back a snicker and searched for the villain, knowing he had to be nearby. This had to be the worst game of hide-and-seek you'd ever played.
"Where'd you go, hero?" he spat the word. Now knowing where he was, you followed his voice to a cubicle his head was barely peeking over. You slowly grew back to your normal height and tried to wrap your arm around his eyes, but completely forgot the fact that that would freeze you. The villain cackled at your lack of foresight, tutting under his breath. "And you call yourself a hero." Then you could move and wrapped your arm around his eyes, using your other arm to bind his ankles and wrists.
"Yes, in fact, I do," you retorted. You looked up at Eraserhead and nodded. He sighed and removed his goggles to moisturize his eyes.
"You take care of talking to the police." He replaced his goggles and headed for the door.
"Wait, you're not gonna help me?" He didn't want any credit?
"He's in capable hands." Was that a compliment? Or was he saying the villain wasn't a threat? Your eyes narrowed.
"I sure hope you're not thinking I'll make a fool of myself."
"Why would I think that?" He sounded genuinely confused and it threw you off.
"Well, you know, you're soooo much better than me so you must think I'm no good and that you'd rather die than be seen with me or, ya know, something." The villain snickered and you tightened your grip, then started backing up. "But it's fine, I don't need you, I'll just-" You tripped over a rolly chair and released the villain in an attempt to stop your fall. You froze.
"I've got you both in my sight! You can't do anything now, heroes!" the villain cried, probably throwing his hands up in the air as he cackled. Eraserhead didn't cut off his quirk fast enough. Now you're screwed. "What shall I do with you? I can't have you following me, that's for sure, but my scalpel is out of sight. Hmm...." He blinked. You turned just as Aizawa erased his quirk. "Oh poop." He took off running and Aizawa just missed him with his scarf. The villain jumped out of the open window and you didn't stop to think leaping after him wasn't the best idea. You blocked Eraserhead's view of him, meaning he was free to freeze you. Terror filled you as he grabbed you, intending to use you as a cushion to land on.
Abruptly a scarf wrapped around you and the villain slipped off, plummeting to the pavement below. You couldn't move so you couldn't look away from the mark he became on the sidewalk. You vomited and Aizawa let you hang there until you emptied your stomach. Once done he pulled you back inside, a stern look on his face.
"That was foolish. You need to think before you leap." As nice as it was to know he cared, you weren't taken to being treated like a kid.
"I knew what I was doing. It's my job as a hero to stop criminals like him and I was doing it, unlike somebody who leaves their partners the short end of the stick." You crossed your arms. "Besides, I don't need you bossing me around, I'm not your student."
"If I wasn't there you would've taken his place on the sidewalk." He pointed out the window, his hair rising. You'd never seen him anything but bored.
"Well now I know not to go jumping out of windows, you don't need to spell it out for me!" you shouted, getting in his face. "I'm tired of everyone thinking I'm too young, too inexperienced, too...too low rank to handle criminals! So what I'm not in the top 10?!"
"Is that all this is to you? A way to become famous?"
"That's all being a hero is! You need the spotlight to be on you to succeed, and I'm trying so, so hard but..." You hastily wiped your eyes, hoping he didn't notice how emotional you were getting. "I never do good enough." His hair fell.
"Come on." He headed toward the stairs. You took a second to get your emotions under wraps again before following.
"What are we doing?"
"You've got to tell the press about how you beat up the villain single-handedly, and then you and I are going to go villain hunting."
You stopped and crossed your arms. "And why would I do that?"
"You want to be a pro hero, don't you?" He turned and lifted his goggles to look you in the eyes. You nodded. "Then let me help you."
"I don't need-" He cut you off with a look. "Why are you being nice to me? I thought we mutually hated each other, ya know, rivals or whatever?"
"You hate me, I never said I hated you."
You huffed. "You don't have to say it out loud, it's obvious." He replaced his goggles.
"Are you taking my help or not?"
"I guess."
"Good. I see the media waiting, go brag." He stopped and let you walk past him. You mumbled something. "What?"
"I said thanks for saving me back there, no need to rub my nose in how good you are." You couldn't look at him. You knew he was better than you'd ever be, and you hated him for it.
"Hey, kid."
You whirled around."I'm not-" You stopped. He was smiling.
"I couldn't have defeated that villain without you. Good job." Was it hot in here or was that just you?
"Um, yeah, thanks, I've gotta- yeah." You turned quickly and headed out into the frenzy of reporters.