Izuku shifted uncomfortably against the wall of a dark alley way. The sound of cats fighting and cars driving past made him anxious. He shivered against the cold night air that smelled of trash and grime.
He hated it.
He didn't really understand why he was even there. Mommy didn't love him anymore and told him not to come back so he left. It had only been a week and his red shirt was already covered in dirt. Some old man was fighting him for food earlier and left him with an aching scratch on his arm that was bleeding for a while. Mommy wasn't there to kiss it better anymore so he just held it painfully.
At least he got the apple so he had something to show for it.
It still wasn't enough to cure his grumbling stomach, though. That begged to question of what he was going to eat next? And when would it be? He was still a four year old boy with no money. He remembered that Mommy had told him that people get jobs and do work for money.
Where would he get a job and how?
That was his last thought before he drifted off to sleep that night to the cats fighting and cars driving.
___________________________________
Shouta Aizawa walked down the street with his groceries in hand. Stupid cockatoo forgot to get the ingredients for dinner so Shouta had to go out and do it himself.
He decided to have Hizashi make a simple chicken and teriyaki stir fry. Hizashi always liked to make extra for leftovers in case they didn't feel like cooking one night so he bought all the needed ingredients and headed back home without a second thought. That was until he felt someone following him. It was the middle of the day and there were other people around but he felt eyes on him.
Shouta stopped and turned around quickly. A small squeak was heard as something small darted into an alleyway. Standing there for a second he turned around and kept walking, the feeling of eyes following with him.
Why would someone want to follow him? He hadn't done anything that might catch the eye of any unsavory characters. He was an underground hero for a reason, he didn't have any real opposing enemies other than the creeps that stalked alleys at three in the morning.
Had a villain decided to get revenge on him for catching a relative? Unlikely, he didn't have his name on the media often, he tried to stay away from the media and press as much as possible.
Shouta stopped once more when he was closer to his front door and turned again just in time to see a face dart behind a different alleyway wall. Whoever was following him was short and very bad at hiding. "Who's there? Come out right now!"
A small hand peeked out along with the face of a small child. He didn't look older than eight years old. Shouta immediately softened up his posture to look less threatening and calmed his voice. "Did you need help?"
He blinked up at Shouta and softly shook his head. He kneeled down and beckoned the child to come out, dropping the groceries on the ground beside him. The boy bit his lip and inched out of the alleyway. Shouta could see him entirely now, a red shirt and brown shorts that looked way too small covered in dirt and blood. He had curly green hair that looked completely black due to the grime and grease. Small cuts lined his arms and legs, some even looked like animal bites.
Big tired green eyes looked down at the ground in embarrassment for being caught while his hands played with the hem of his shirt. There were dirt smudges on his cheeks that covered an array of freckles.
Shouta beckoned him to come closer once more and the child hesitantly padded over on dirty bare feet. He stopped in front of him while still looking down at the ground.
No wait.
The kid wasn't looking at the ground this time, but at the contents inside the grocery bags.
"Were you following me?" Shouta asked patiently.
A small nod was what he got in return.
"Why?" Shouta suspected he already knew but wanted to make sure.
The boy bit his lip again before pointing at his bags. He was hungry. "Where are your parents?"
He shifted on his feet uncomfortably. "Didn't want me..." He heard him whisper. Abandoned. Shouta internally groaned. He supposed he could call Tsukauchi about this later after he got this kid taken care of.
Shouta sighed and put a hand out for the kid. "I'm a pro hero. I can help you. Why don't you come with me and I can get you something to eat."
The boy's eyes widened in shock before he nodded to the sound of getting food. Shouta took his small skinny hand and began the rest of the walk home. Walking through the threshold of the front door, he persuaded the kid through as well.
"Babe? Are you home?" Hizashi's voice sounded throughout the apartment. The boy folded into himself and withdrew, scared. He cursed his husband's loud tendencies before replying.
"Yeah. I'm gonna need some help with this."
Shouta put the grocery bags on the counter after pulling off his boots and replacing them with his slippers. Hizashi walked into the room wearing a band shirt and cargo shorts. His hair was down and pulled into a half bun with a different pair of sunglasses hanging on his face. He saw the little boy and looked to Shouta. "Whose this little guy?" Hizashi kneeled down in front of the boy whose eyes were wide with surprise.
"Present Mic," He whispered in awe to himself.
Hizashi startled, "Huh! You got good eyes, Little Listener! Where did you come from?"
Shouta kneeled down and whispered in his ear, "Abandoned. Thought we'd clean him up before calling Tsukauchi."
Hizashi looked up at him in surprise before looking back at the kid. He smiled and put his hand out for him the shake. "You can call me Yamada. Do you mind telling me your name?"
The little boy looked at Hizashi's hand like it were an offering from god and took it with his small boney one. "Izuku."
"Surname?"
"I... Don't remember. I'm sorry," He began tearing up.
"Hey, hey. It's okay. You don't have to be sorry, it's not your fault," Hizashi comforted. Shouta didn't really know what to do. He wasn't the best at comforting people, especially distressed children.
Hizashi led him into the apartment where he gave him some smaller clothes that they'd outgrown. They'd still be enormous on Izuku but it was better than the clothes he was wearing before. They let Izuku into the bathroom to take a bath and said to come out when he was done.
"So what happened, Shou? You just went out to get groceries," Hizashi asked while starting dinner for three.
"He was following me home. I think he wanted the food in the bags. He looks really thin, it's worrying," Shouta sat down at the counter and leaned on his elbows. "What do you think will happen to him? He said his parents abandoned him so he obviously can't go back to them."
"Tsukauchi might have to put him in the system. If no one wants him then that might be a problem. You should call him right now while Izuku is in the bath."
"Yeah, you're right," Shouta said as he pulled out his phone. He dialed the number and just as expected, the man answered within the first few rings.
"Eraserhead? You don't normally call me in the middle of the day," Tsukauchi said. The sound of him drinking coffee was heard from the other line.
"There's an issue I ran into while grocery shopping. It wasn't a villain, but a little kid. He's been abandoned. I took him back home with me and he's taking a bath now. Thought I should call you," He said.
"Did you catch his name? Or how old he is?" Tsukauchi said as typing from his computer came through.
"His name is Izuku. Said he doesn't remember his last name, though. I didn't ask but he looks about eight, maybe nine." Shouta shifted in the hard wooden counter stool.
"Quirk?"
"Didn't ask. But it must be part of the reason he was abandoned."
More typing was heard from the other side of the line as Tsukauchi tried looking for the kids identity. "There are a few Izuku's in Musutafu but only one that's been reported missing. Cute kid from the picture. Midoriya Izuku. Quirkless. Went missing about four years ago when he was four, right after he was diagnosed."
Shouta felt his heart break a little at that. Someone really abandoned such a small and adorable child just because he didn't have a Quirk. What a twisted world they lived in.
He knew the mortality rate for Quirkless children and how fewer and fewer are born each year. Most of them died before making it to high school from being thrown to the streets or getting abused. It was a sad truth that some people just don't see Quirkless the same.
Shouta himself had been abused in his youth for having a "weak Quirk". Although, he knew that Quirkless had it much worse than him.
"He would be about eight years old by now. Lucky you found him. Everyone thought he was dead," Tsukauchi's voice brought him out of his thoughts. "Strange enough, it wasn't his mother who reported him missing. A Mitsuki Bakugo filed a missing persons report after being called that he was gone."
That was strange.
Why would a whole other person report Izuku missing? Likely because his mother didn't really care.
He shoved that detail aside for now and focused on what the detective was saying. "You going to come by later? I'm sure there could be charges placed against the mother for child abandonment."
"I'll stop by sometime tomorrow, if that's alright with you. I'm kinda swamped with work at the moment but the moment I can, I'll come pick him up off your hands."
"What do you think will happen to him?" Shouta asked curiously.
"Well I'd have to guess that he'd go into the foster system. We can keep an eye on him once in a while to make sure he won't get abused, if it makes you feel better."
"Thank you," Shouta saw his husband whisper something to him. "Mic says hi by the way."
"Alright," He could practically hear the smile. "Tell him I said hello as well. I'll see you two tomorrow. Bye."
"Goodbye."
He hung up the phone as Hizashi put a plate of stir fry and rice in front of him. That was the moment that a small head peeked out from behind the wall of the hallway. Shy green eyes looked at the food hungrily.
"Hello there Little Listener!~" Hizashi cooed. "Do you want some food?"
He waved a smaller plate of stir fry before placing it on the counter in front of the bar stool next to Shouta. Izuku nodded before slowly coming out from behind the wall. He was wearing the shirt that had been offered to him; a black band tee that went down to his knees like a dress, and black joggers shorts that were many sizes too big. His hair was wet and dripping with bath water and his face had been cleaned to show cheeks sprinkled with freckles.
Shouta could still see the small cuts, bruises, and incisions on his pale skin. It looked like the kid had been in a cat fight or something. He helped the small child onto the stool where he then picked up the offered chopsticks.
Hizashi walked off, probably to get the first aid kit to treat Izuku's injuries. "Did you have a nice bath?" He asked.
Izuku looked up at him and nodded while smiling. A bit of teriyaki sauce stuck to the side of his face while he chewed. "You have sauce on your cheek." Izuku's eyes widened and he immediately looked around until he found the napkins. He pulled one out and wiped both sides of his face.
Okay.
That was cute.
First aid kit in hand, Hizashi walked back into the room and turned the boy's chair towards him where he kneeled down and began to treat Izuku's cuts. One of them (that Shouta was right in assuming was an animal bite) needed to be wrapped in bandages after being disinfected.
Shouta found it strange that the boy was so silent. While he did look at both Hizashi and him in awe, he didn't ask any questions or anything close as to what Hizashi said little kids did when they found him on patrol. His eyes brimmed with intelligence and questions that were otherwise unheard.
For a child it could've just been that he was shy, but they were heroes. Little kids weren't usually shy when it came to talking to heroes.
He decided to brush it off. They were stuck with the kid for the night anyway, maybe he'd be better by tomorrow. "So Izuku, where do you live?" Hizashi asked.
"I don't know," He shrugged. "I would stay in t-the dark places at night t-to hide."
"Dark places?" Hizashi asked.
"Hide from what?" Shouta asked right after.
"In the places between buildings," Izuku answered Hizashi. So he slept in alleyways. But why was he avoiding why he was hiding.
"What were you hiding from, Izuku?" He asked again.
Izuku bit his lip a little and looked down. "The purple misty man. He has yellow eyes that glow and wears a fancy suit. He doesn't talk to me but I see him sometimes. I don't like him. He's scary. Just standing there. Sometimes it's like he's trying to get me to follow him but I don't wanna. I don't wanna go with him," He said in a small voice as tears pricked his eyes.
Shouta felt his blood go cold a little. It wasn't rare for abandoned children to get kidnapped while on the streets. If that's what was going to happen, then he was glad he found this kid when he did, especially since this child had no way of defending himself.
"So he never spoke to you?" Hizashi asked and reached a hand up to wipe Izuku's tears.
Izuku shook his head and looked back down at the floor. "Am I in trouble?"
"Not at all, kid. We just want to keep you safe," Shouta said. And it was true. Shouta wanted to keep him safe from whoever was following him.
Hizashi started making light conversation with the small child while Shouta set up the couch for Izuku.
They gave him a pad and pen to draw with because they didn't have anything else to occupy him with. What they didn't expect was that when Hizashi went to check on him, he saw a full blown analysis of himself.
It was so detailed that he just had to show Shouta. "Do you do analysis a lot, Izuku?" He asked.
"I usually use napkins with pens from restaurants or libraries. But they usually don't let me take the pens with me," Izuku said shyly.
"What do you do with the analysis?" Shouta asked. The analysis on Hizashi was very detailed. He wondered if the other analysis were this accurate and were heroes too.
Izuku looked at him innocently, "I just leave them. They don't let me take the pens so I don't think they want me to take the paper either."
"Were your other analysis of heroes too?"
"I do anyone. Some of them are just people, others are heroes. I've done villains too," Izuku said.
"That's very nice, Izuku. We're going to have someone come by tomorrow to see you. Is that alright?" He waited for Izuku to nod. "He's going to come tomorrow and talk to you more about the purple mist man. And then talk about your mother."
Izuku flinched at the mention of his mother. Shouta suspected there might be more than child abandonment at play here.
Hizashi finally decided it was time for Izuku to go to bed and tucked him in on the couch where he grabbed one of the smaller plush pillows and hugged it in his sleep. Adorable.
Both heroes walked back to their own room and closed the door silently. "He's so cute. How could anyone give that up?" Hizashi asked as he laid down next to his husband.
"I don't know. But we shouldn't get attached. Tsukauchi is going to pick him up tomorrow after questioning him. He said he might go into the foster system and that we can keep an eye on him to make sure he isn't in an abusive homing environment," Shouta said.
"Good. I want to keep an eye on him. He's smart. Freakishly smart, especially for an eight year old boy," Hizashi said.
"That's true. He is a smart kid," Shouta admitted. "But this can all wait for tomorrow. Now it's time for bed."
"Can't agree more."
"Goodnight, Shou~"
"Night, Zashi."
Shouta closed his eyes and let all the stress from that day fade as he slipped away into the dark corners of his mid for rest.
Words would not be able to later express his fear and anxiety when he came to later check on Izuku and found the blankets and pillows strewn on the floor with the boy in question gone from the house.
Not a trace was left of him.
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God first chapters are hard.
Not hard as the second one but still.
This took a while to write, I'm drained. Chapters will be posted on Sundays, just so you know.
I hope you like this cuz I'm not sure I do, but I know my mind will drive me crazy if I don't write it.
So here we go.
Buckle up! This is going to be one hell of an angsty ride!
Thanks for Reading!
~Care-chan
(3033 words)