Chapter Text
“And…begin!”
Class 1-A sprang forward on their teacher’s mark, feet pounding against dirt as they braved the obstacle course. Katsuki and Shoto easily took the lead, with Iida and Shoji not far behind. At the first obstacle, scaling a small cliff built by Cementoss, Uraraka and Asui surged ahead of the boys, Uraraka’s weightlessness and Asui’s tongue propelling them over the cliff with ease.
As they continued to run, now coming upon a minefield (courtesy of Powerloader and Hatsume) that curved through a wooded section of the training area, Ashido skated by effortlessly, tailed by three figures swinging through the trees: Sero with his tape, Shinso with his scarf and Izuku with his support gauntlets.
The others were catching up fast, the last stretch of the course a straight shot to their teacher. Izuku, Shinso, Katsuki and Shoto were all pushing themselves, determined to come in first, when a red blur shot past all of them, kicking up a trail of dirt.
“What the hell was that?!” Katsuki barked, coughing. Next to him, Izuku pulled his goggles down to keep the dirt out of his eyes. When the four reached the end, they saw Momo lounging on a red motorcycle, a matching helmet resting on her hip.
“Oh wow, you figured it out, Momo!” Izuku exclaimed, grinning at his friend.
The tall girl returned the smile, looking just a bit smug. “Yep! Mei helped me with understanding the particulars on the engine, and after some practice it was fairly simple to create.”
The others joined them, some grumbling about cheating, but most congratulating the girl.
Aizawa checked his stopwatch: eight minutes, he was impressed.
“That was terrible,” he chose to say instead, his face impassive as always. “I hope you plan on performing better for the provisional exam, otherwise we may not let you take it at all.”
It had been roughly two weeks since since All For One’s defeat, and the campus had been on lockdown since then. The hero students continued their training, despite it technically being summer break, working hard to prepare for the upcoming exam. Earning their provisional licenses would open the door for possible work studies during the fall semester, as well as make them semi-pros in the eyes of the Hero Commission.
Something that, naturally, had UA’s faculty a bit wary.
Students like Hagakure, Iida and Koda still managed to be cowed by their teacher’s threats, but the rest had learned when the man was serious and when he wasn’t, for the most part.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Aizawa!” Kaminari chirped, his eyes glimmering behind blond bangs. “We’re totally gonna nail it!”
Aizawa gave him a nasty smile. “We’ll see. Everyone take five, then meet me at Gym Gamma.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Once they’d reconvened, Aizawa told the students they’d be developing their signature moves over the next few days, with Cementoss, Ectoplasm and Midnight aiding them.
“Having a signature move in your back pocket could mean the difference between passing the provisional exam and failing it,” the teacher informed them, his expression bored. “We want to see you push the usefulness of your quirks into many different areas: combat, rescue, mobility… you should have at least one or two prepared before the week is over.”
Ectoplasm and his clones aided most of the students, while Aizawa trained with Shinso and Midnight trained with Izuku.
“Aizawa tells me you’ve increased the range and duration of your mist attack,” the woman mentioned, cracking her neck. “That’s a good start, but I wanna see something a little more impressive than that.”
Izuku nodded, readying his stance. “I have an idea I’d like to try, if you wouldn’t mind releasing your pheromones.”
Midnight blinked, before shrugging. She tore off a chunk of her sleeve, activating her quirk and sending her pheromone cloud over to the boy. Izuku countered with his mist, concentrating as pink met purple. The two gases swirled about the area, before Midnight’s attack was completely converted to Izuku’s shimmering mist.
“Interesting,” the hero muttered, her blue eyes trained on the mist. “I’m guessing because my pheromones are an extension of my biology, you were able to manipulate them?”
The greenette nodded. “I know more about your quirk than I do the others’ because of all the extra training I did with you, but my guess is I could have similar effects with some of my classmates’ quirks as well.”
“Ah, you mean like Sero’s tape or Ashido’s acid.”
“Yes, but probably not Iida’s engines,” he replied, remembering Ingenium and his inability to heal his engines, “or Todoroki’s ice or Momo’s creations. I think the closer the quirk is to anatomy or a bodily response, like sweat or hair or skin, the more likely I can manipulate it.”
“And what of Dark Shadow?” Tokoyami asked, the boy having heard their conversation as he passed the two. “It is a part of me, but I don’t believe it to have organic properties.”
Izuku hummed, tilting his head. “Could you summon it for me?”
The other boy obliged, summoning the spectral bird. Izuku blew his mist at it, which seemed to agitate the creature, but nothing else happened.
“Interesting,” he muttered. He knew his mist was weaker than direct contact, so it could be reasoned that he’d need to put his lips on certain quirk extensions to have an effect. Izuku drew closer. Dark Shadow eyed him warily, but he leaned forward anyways, planting a kiss on the creature’s beak. It was solid enough for the freckled boy’s lips to make contact and, once he’d activated his quirk, the bird shot back into Tokoyami.
“Fascinating,” the healer breathed, scrambling to grab his notebook and write down the results of the experiment. “Dark Shadow must be biologically linked to you, Tokoyami; that means I can use my quirk on you just by using it on Dark Shadow!”
He looked up to smile at his friend, only to find the other boy face down on the gym floor. Midnight was cackling.
“I guess I put a little too much power into it,” he muttered, moving to wake him.
“Leave him there Midoriya,” Midnight insisted, putting her fists up. “We’ve worked on your special move, now let’s work on your fighting style.”
He gulped, but readied his stance, his eyes gleaming.
The training was grueling, most of class 1-A exhausted by the time Aizawa called it a day.
“Remember, it’s unusual for first years to take the exam, so you’ll be up against older students with more training and experience than you currently have. We’re working you hard now so you won’t be completely crushed by the other schools later.”
There were a few nervous glances exchanged, but most of the students looked determined, as well as excited.
“Yes, sir!”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Back in the dorms, Izuku and the rest of the Study Buddies were discussing their training progress.
“I’ve been successful in extending Reciproburst’s duration time,” Iida told them, sipping his orange juice. “But unfortunately, it still takes far too long for my engines to cool down.”
“You should swing by the Support studio, maybe Hatsume can help,” Izuku suggested, looking up from his notebook. “I’m going in tomorrow to update my costume.”
“Ooh! Finally gonna go with my crop top suggestion, Izu?” Came Ashido’s teasing voice from the kitchen, Katsuki shooting her a glare. “We’ll have a new R-rated Hero in no time!”
“No one gets to see Deku in skimpy clothes but me,” he growled, ignoring the heated look Shoto aimed at him.
“I’m still shooting for ‘PG Hero,’ Mina,” the greenette insisted, his cheeks pink.
Momo gave him a sly grin. “Well, PG-13 wouldn’t hurt…”
Izuku ignored her, excusing himself to get washed up for dinner. He’d made it to his room’s floor when Shoto cornered him.
“Izuku…” The dual toned boy muttered, leaning in as Izuku’s back hit the wall. “We have something very important to discuss.”
The healer’s cheeks burned at the taller boy’s proximity. He was still figuring out the nature of his relationship with Shoto, as well as with Katsuki. They were limited in what they could do, given the school’s lockdown, but he’d had lunch dates with both of them on separate occasions, and would always be cuddled up with one or the other during the class sleepovers.
In many respects, it almost felt like things were the same as they’d always been except in moments like these, where Katsuki or Shoto would get him alone just long enough to remind him of their intentions.
“W-what is it, Shoto?” He asked, smiling nervously.
“I want a nickname.”
Izuku blinked. “Huh?”
“A nickname,” Shoto continued, his expression determined. “I’ve enjoyed you using my first name, but you’ve begun calling many of our classmates by their first names. Shinso isn’t even romantically involved with you, yet you call him ‘Toshi.’ And then there’s Bakugo…”
“But I gave Kaachan that nickname when we were six,” Izuku pointed out. “It wasn’t exactly a romantic gesture.”
“It speaks to how close the two of you are,” the taller boy insisted, leaning in closer. “And you and I have become so close recently…”
Izuku was having a hard time thinking with his very handsome, not-quite-but-almost boyfriend pressed against him, muttering lowly in his ear. “O-okay, so what should I call you?”
“I leave that up to you, just make sure it’s sincere.”
The greenette quirked a brow. “You know, you don’t have a nickname for me, either.”
“I do, actually: Bunny.”
Izuku balked. “Bunny?!”
Shoto nodded, his face splitting into a wide grin. “Bunnies are small, nimble and quick. They have fluffy hair like you do, and they’ve got a strong kick.”
He brushed their noses together, causing the healer to let out a small squeak. “But the biggest reason is your cute little nose. You scrunch it up when you’re annoyed or confused, and it looks just like when Koda’s bunny starts twitching its nose.”
Shoto stepped back, and Izuku felt like he could finally breathe again. “I want that nickname soon, Bunny.”
Izuku watched him go, his stomach in knots. While either boys’ mere presence was enough to fluster the greenette, he found it especially embarrassing whenever Shoto would wax poetic about him, or Katsuki would very bluntly tell him how cute he was.
Later that night, after everyone had eaten, Izuku came to sit next to Shoto on the couch, his cheeks pink. “I’ve given it some thought, and… well, what about ‘Shochan?’”
It wasn’t the most creative nickname, and perhaps even a little juvenile, but the freckled boy had noticed how grumpy Shoto would get when he would say ‘Kaachan,’ so perhaps a similar nickname would suffice.
Shoto cocked his head, thinking for a moment, before turning to call out to Katsuki at the dining table. “Bakugo, Izuku wants to call me ‘Shochan,’ what do you think?”
“DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE, DEKU!”
“I love it,” he confirmed, kissing the shorter boy’s temple and wrapping an arm around his waist.
Izuku felt his face heat up as Katsuki kept yelling and the rest of his classmates giggled.
“Guys, look! They’re talking about All Might on TV again,” Sero called out, turning up the volume.
All eyes turned to the television, a picture of the smiling hero on the screen as two news anchors discussed the topic.
“It’s becoming increasingly obvious that the number one hero’s ‘temporary’ recovery is becoming a semi-retirement,” a man with glasses and two small horns commented, eyes flitting to his co-anchor. “And subsequently, the crime rate has increased from nine percent to twelve percent in just a few short weeks! Tell me, where are the other pro heroes? Are they on vacation? Did they vanish? Or, is it that they’re so used to letting All might pick up the slack, they don’t actually know how to handle a crisis?”
The other anchor nodded, her red hair gleaming under the studio lights. “Let’s not forget, the pro hero Ingenium is also still on medical leave after being attacked by the hero killer Stain; it seems that the pro hero numbers are dwindling, leaving us with fewer protectors than ever.”
“Those idiots,” Katsuki snarled, leaning over the couch. “All Might took down the biggest criminal in Japan, and they still wanna bitch about him?”
“They have a point,” Uraraka commented. “The pros are getting their butts kicked out there, and Stain got a bunch of criminals pumped up and out on the streets.”
“Even so, small time thugs only constitute a serious threat when in great numbers,” Iida pointed out, his eyes fierce after hearing his brother mentioned. “Two pro heroes in recovery shouldn’t have led to such chaos.”
“It’s probably more related to the League of Villains,” Asui piped up from her spot on the opposite couch. “They’ve been connected to every major attack that’s happened in the last few months, so naturally they’ve become a big inspiration to all kinds of crooks.”
Izuku frowned, tuning out the conversation. The League of Villains…
He hadn’t spent much time with the group, only twenty-four hours or so, but it was enough for him to gauge how they operated, for the most part. All For One was the man behind it all, but he left most of the decision making to Shigaraki, the official leader. Shigaraki was dangerous and unstable, but also a half decent tactician. He’d managed to organize two separate attacks on UA, one of which would have resulted in Aizawa’s death, had Izuku not intervened. They hadn’t met their goal that first attack, but had succeeded in the second by appealing to the healer’s humanity and concern for his friends. In fact, it seemed that no one was mortally wounded for the sake of triggering Izuku’s protective instincts, and it had worked.
The greenette understood that he had only just managed to narrowly escape the villains, and that they hadn’t yet given up reacquiring him. It was possible that, even with a provisional license, Nezu wouldn’t allow him to participate in a work study out of fear of something happening to him.
He shook his head; he’d worry about that after he passed the exam.