Chapter Text
A trembling hand held up the flashdrive. His hands were so sweaty that the little piece of tech kept nearly sliding off his fingers, so he gripped it tightly. His heart beating fast, eyebrows stressed across his forehead, curly green hair falling over his eyes as he stared down at it. This thing. It has all the answers to the questions he had when he first started asking them.
There was no time for relief, it only confirmed his fears.
“Midoriya?” A voice reluctantly called out. Green eyes quickly looked up, snapped out of his trance. He quickly hid the object behind his back. He was completely at a loss, but he knew he couldn’t let anyone know he had it. Especially not one of his closest friends.
“Ah, hi, Todoroki! Didn’t see you there, ha…” Izuku Midoriya trailed off, a false smile wobbling with nerves.
Shouto Todoroki, in his cream colored sweater and two toned hair stood staring at his friend of 4 years with slight worry in his eyes. He was the quiet and observant type, so Izuku could feel himself start forming more sweat. He couldn’t risk getting his dear friend involved. He couldn’t risk anyone at all. “Are you okay? You don’t look so good.” Todoroki’s monotone voice remained steady, but you could hear the concern in it.
Izuku tried to fix his face. “Yeah! I’m good, I just feel a little sick. I think I might be coming down with something, I’m just going to run to the restroom real quick. Thank you for checking up on me!”
Todoroki’s eyes looked full of suspicion, but he was nice enough not to push it. Instead, he just let out a small sigh, “Alright, but if you need to talk to someone about it, you can always talk to me.”
Izuku felt his heart squeeze in his chest. He always had the best of friends, even when he wasn’t the best one to them. He felt he didn’t deserve them. “Thank you, Todoroki. I promise I will.”
He turned around and sped to the bathroom, feeling Todoroki's eyes on him as he left.
Izuku heard his shoes squeak against the polished ground of the building. Billions of dollars were invested into everything to do with this company. Izuku had taken a while to learn the ups and downs and not get lost after a while. He clutched the harddrive in his hand even tighter.
“Midoriya!” A loud and proper voice called out to him from a distance. Izuku nearly whined and cried out at the same time. He didn’t have time for this!
Izuku turned to his co-worker with a small strained smile, hopefully one that didn’t give away how much of a rush he was in at the moment. He had to leave and he had to leave fast, before anyone caught onto the fact that he had done something he absolutely wasn't supposed to. In his defense, you aren’t supposed to hire someone to invent a password and then expect them to never use it if they find out they have to.
“Hey, Iida, look I don’t feel so good so I think I’m just going to go home early today.”
Iida stood upright, pushed his glasses further up his nose and furrowed his eyebrows. “That’s no good at all. An employee of this company should always make sure to take care of themselves so they can remain at peak health at all times! This is why I told you to not overwork yourself on those projects!”
Izuku chuckled nervously. “Hah, yeah, I’ll get better at that. Anyway, I should go-”
“Actually, our supervisor told me that the boss wants to see you immediately,” Iida told him.
Izuku’s blood went cold. Did his boss know he had the harddrive? No, he couldn’t. Izuku had made sure to cover his tracks well when entering the computer system. He had been especially careful going around the system’s firewall. He hadn’t failed to notice how suspicious it was that they had multiple ways to keep their own employees out of the system they're supposed to be working for. Especially when they bragged about full transparency.
Was he not careful enough?
There was no time to ponder over it, because two men dressed in black suits appeared around him along with a raspy, cold voice that sent shivers down his spine.
“Midoriya, how nice of you to show up to our meeting early,” Shigaraki Tomura, CEO of Shimura Corporations stood tall in front of him. “Unfortunately, I’m not too fond of having important discussions down in the lobby where everyone can hear. You know I like my privacy. Why don’t we move this up to somewhere more secluded?”
Midoriya felt his lips starting to tremble and bit his lip to stop it. He looked straight into his boss’s slack red eyes, feeling the power emitting from them, and nodded.
Shigaraki gave a dry smile and tilted his head. Follow me. Shigaraki led the way and Izuku followed, very aware of the two big men walking close behind them.
Billions of dollars of investment put into this building showed in the many halls and stairs they went through. It was a corporation that received funding from just about anyone with enough money to end world hunger. One of the most prominent places to work in. Just interning here was something to be in awe about. Or at least it was, before Izuku had turned around and technically betrayed the very company he had dreamed about working in since he was a kid.
After a few more turns filled with grey walls, grey floor and white lighting, they arrived at a room at the end of the hallway. Izuku, having hidden the flashdrive under his sleeve, knew he couldn't attempt to hide it in a pocket or a more safe place within himself. The big men behind him would surely see it if he did.
Shigaraki walked into the room and headed for the biggest chair, furthest from the door. He didn’t bother to sit. Instead he turned around, placing his hands in the pockets of his light grey slacks and heaving a heavy sigh. Those eyes of his hadn’t changed. They remained hooded and intense, while not showing any sign of any emotion behind them.
Izuku gulped.
“So, Izuku. You’ve worked at our company for a few years now.” Shigaraki stated, pulling one hand out of his pocket and resting it on the chair he is standing next to. “So you know what our values consist of, right?”
Izuku can feel what’s coming. Can feel it like his heart memorizes the pumping of his blood. He knows what is coming next, and he feels completely helpless to stop it. He’s been discovered and now hundreds of people will die and continue dying, all because he wasn’t careful enough.
No, he won’t let more people die. If Izuku Midoriya is going to die, he will make sure he dies trying.
Shigaraki continued, “You know what honesty means to us at Shimura Corporations. We all tell the truth to each other here, no secrets and no lies,” he lifted the cracked corners of his mouth in what seems to be his version of a smile. His eyes seemed uninterested, though his voice was tense.
Izuku swallowed. "O-Of course, sir."
Shigaraki's gaze bore into Izuku's. "So tell me, Midoriya Izuku, what were you doing breaching our security system less than an hour ago?"
Izuku was having trouble breathing, but he thought he might as well go ahead and nail his coffin shut. He would not play this evil man’s game.
He spun around and kneed one of the big men in the balls. When the other one sprang into action, Izuku ducked under the arms thrown out to grab him and sprinted out of the room. He could hear Shigaraki barking orders at people, but he focused on getting himself out of the maze of halls he learned to memorize two years ago. He could hear the two men running after him, but upon reaching the top of the stairs, with a view of the lobby, there were definitely more than two men after him.
Heading towards the stairs, he could see three more men dressed in black suits running towards him and the two men he had escaped from the meeting room coming up from behind him.
He scrambled to beat them to the top of the stairs and started down, skipping a few at a time. While going down the steps, Izuku was yelping out apologies at the people he was having to weasel through. Doing this while trying not to trip down three levels of staircases was a lot harder than it seemed.
He leaped down the last few steps onto the main floor, kept his pace and sprinted to the door. Izuku risked a look behind him and saw everyone staring along with about 6 or 8 people dressed in all black chasing after him. Izuku decided not to look behind him anymore.
He crashed against the door in a hurry to open it, ran out of the building and into the city. Into the city and into the influx of people. Everywhere he went, people stared irritatedly. Izuku tried his best to move between everyone.
“Sorry! Excuse me! Sorry!”
Izuku pushed his legs to run faster once he heard all the steps matching his pace. These men were after him, and they were fast.
That’s fine, Izuku liked to think he was quite fast, too.
Things around him started blurring with the speed of his sprint. His hand tight around the harddrive, feeling it dig into his palm. His forest green hair flying around with his movement.
He needed to lose them. If he tired out before them, they’d catch up to him and do who-knows-what to him and his loved ones.
Izuku felt a lightbulb brighten in his mind. Okay, bad idea but let's do it.
Hidden between two brick buildings, deep in an alley, there sat a six-foot-four lump of slumped shoulders and sharp blonde hair in a bar stool. He frequented the small bar that he knew criminals frequented, too.
Considering the job he had just decided to retire early from, he knew he had no room to judge the people he sat beside.
A glass filled with a strong liquid was placed in front of him. “Hey, no need to look so sad, you know I give you an unfair discount on every drink you get.”
The blonde haired man grunted and rasped out a low, “I didn’t ask you for shit, Bird-Man.”
Rody leaned his arms across his side of the bar table and let the corners of his mouth slide up. “Yeah, but to be honest, you look like you need it so you should be saying thank you.”
The blonde man’s eyes flashed dangerously. He didn’t owe anyone anything and he usually made that clear. He and Rody had known each other for a few months now and to be honest, he was actually grateful for Rody’s kind gesture, even if he didn’t like thinking about it. ‘Thank you’ wasn’t in his vocabulary. Never has been, never will be.
Katsuki Bakugo scoffed, “Fuck off.” He knew Rody was just messing around. Most of Rody’s pastime was used managing the bar and learning to mess with people’s heads. Katsuki respected it, because it wasn’t something Rody had learned on purpose. He learned it to protect his loved ones. Something he gathered being here the past few months. Rody hadn’t opened up about it, but neither had Katsuki. It was a mutual agreement to not talk about their pasts and personal lives, no matter how much Rody sometimes tried to slither in a question about Katsuki’s. He came here to drink and that was it.
Rody shrugged and started cleaning some of the unoccupied glasses. “Drinking won’t wash your sorrows away.” The pink bird on his shoulder chirped in agreement.
Katsuki decided to ignore him. He was hoping the alcohol would bring him an early death, but that was no one’s business but his own. He reached for the drink in front of him.
A few streets away from the bar, Izuku runs into incoming traffic.
The cars closest to him screech to a stop and the others beep their horns at him. Izuku’s pace doesn’t let up. He runs down the middle of the road, through the middle of all the cars.
He tenses his thighs as much as he can and then suddenly skirts to the other side of the road, ducking in between people and into an alley. He can see the people in black still running after him and it looks like they aren't going to be giving up anytime soon. Izuku gasps for air while ducking into multiple alleys and continuing to sprint down them. At this point, he’s got no idea where he’s going, but he’s hoping he can find a place to hide in. Running forever won’t work.
He goes into more alleys, now far enough from the main street that it’s more quiet. It makes it easier to hear his own gasps of breath and the stomps a few alleys behind him. He sees a door hidden in between brick walls and runs straight for it.
He slams the door open and skirts to a stop. Looking around, it is obvious he startled everyone inside, now glaring at Izuku as if expecting him to be a possible threat. People eating and drinking either at tables or at the bar. Izuku’s chest is heaving, but he doesn’t have time to get comfortable. He runs towards the bar. The brown-haired bartender jumps, startled. His pink bird leaping off his shoulder in surprise, too.
Izuku jumps up, kicks off the wall next to the bar, and leaps over it, tumbling right onto the floor and onto his shoulder, knocking a few glass cups down in the process. Izuku tries desperately not to groan in pain.
“What the hell?” The brown-haired bartender exclaims, his bird flapping his wings above his head.
Izuku looks up from the floor while clutching his shoulder and tries to give a smile.
Suddenly, the door to the bar slams open and Izuku, from the floor, hears the heavy footsteps walk in. He can see the bartender snap his head towards the entrance.
People dressed in black suits? In a bar filled with people who take illegal jobs all the time? Not going to fly here. They look like they work for important people.
The bartender says loudly, “Break anything and you pay for it,” causing Shigaraki’s men to look at him. One of the people dressed in black steps forward. “We’re looking for a green haired man. Short and stubby. Have you seen him?”
Izuku, still laid out on the floor behind the bar, scrunches his eyebrows and slightly pouts. Short and stubby?
He then sees the bartender’s hand inching towards one of the cupboards under the bar table. With his head still looking at the men, his hand is speaking a completely different language. He opens the cupboard door and points his finger towards the inside of it with the same hand that's holding it open. Izuku understands.
He army-crawls inside as quietly as he can.
“Nope, haven’t seen any green haired fella. Care to take your leave now? Unfortunately, you can only stay if you’re going to buy a drink. That’s the policy.” The bartender continued, voice sounding unbothered, despite having the person of interest right under him.
Shigaraki’s men looked at each other and slid out the door, one by one. Making sure to look around one last time before they left to keep searching. Once they were gone, Izuku heard a tap on the cupboard door before it suddenly opened and light brown eyes appeared. “Hey, they’re gone so you can come out now.”
Izuku looked up at him, mouth slightly open and nodded, moving his body out of the tight space.
He stood up at his full height, not much according to the people chasing him, and sighed heavily. His shoulders were nearly up to his shoulders in an apologetic manner. “Thank you so much, you really saved me there.” Izuku’s voice was meek and he wasn’t looking the bartender in the eyes. He decided to look down instead.
“It’s really no problem! I’ve got a slight issue with people who think they can push people around, so they were bound to be kicked out anyway.” The bartender said.
Izuku looked up into his eyes and said, “still, you really saved my life so thank you again, ah…” he trailed off.
“Rody.” The bartender said. “Rody Soul.”
Izuku smiled, eyes nearly crinkling shut from the force of his smile, “Thank you for being my hero, Rody!”
Rody seemed to nearly choke. Hero? No one had ever called him that before. He chuckled nervously, “Eh, again, it’s no problem.”
They both smiled at each other before their bodies felt goosebumps. They turned and jumped.
There’s only one person seated at the bar table. Also dressed in black, with soft looking spiky blond hair. His sharp gaze fixed on Izuku.
Is he trying to kill me with his eyes? Izuku thought frantically. Or is he one of Shigaraki's men working undercover? No, there’s no way shigaraki could’ve predicted that he would run into this bar and if he did, he couldn’t have known when it would’ve happened. If anything this looks like a regular, terrifying stranger. Quickly looking around the entire bar, though, it looked like everyone in here was a terrifying type of person. Plenty of men, women and others were sitting at tables, existing in a very intimidating way. Why are Rody and the blonde man staring at me? Am I mumbling again?
“Yes, you’re fucking mumbling, nerd. Get it together.” The blond snapped. Rody flashed a look at him before turning to Izuku. “Yeah, but you seem like you do that a lot so, you know, no judgment.”
Izuku awkwardly smiled and looked away. “Anyway, I should get going-”
Rody holds up a hand, “Hold on, now. You haven’t paid me back.”
Izuku furrowed his eyebrows. Paid him back? For what?
“For what?” Izuku said out loud.
“For saving you. Don’t you think you should give something back in exchange for my secrecy?” Rody said, tilting his head and smiling.
Izuku felt his heart drop. He didn’t have any money and he couldn’t go back to his apartment lest he accidentally gets his roommate involved in his mess. Out of the side of his eye, he could see the blonde man glaring at Rody. He didn’t seem to like where this was going.
Izuku felt his breath catch. “Ah, well, I don’t have any money on me right now. Can we figure out a payment plan?”
Rody shook his head. “I don’t mean that type of payment.”
The blonde glared even more harshly. Izuku looked nervously between them. “Um, I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean…” he trailed off.
Rody kept his smile, “why don't you tell me what exactly you did that had a group of people in fine-looking suits bursting into my bar because they were after you, yeah?”
It was clear that Rody was looking for two answers in one, but Izuku didn’t know what exactly it was that he was looking for. Izuku had never seen him before and he had helped him out, so it couldn’t be too bad of an idea to trust him a little. He had no idea where to go or who to ask for help from. Going back home would be a death wish and talking to someone he knew would be putting them in danger. Looking around the bar, people here seemed like they’d betray each other for money, but at least it didn’t seem like they’d sell him out for fun. He had nothing to lose here, even though he had everything to lose.
“They were after this.” He held up his hand with the flashdrive. He could see and feel the blonde looking intently at him, though he didn’t move or say anything. “This thing can save thousands of people’s lives, and they want me dead for it.”
Both Rody and the blonde stared.