Chapter Text
Izuku waved his friends off when the first break of the day arrived, and went to meet All Might in one of the staff break rooms that they normally used for private conversations.
He ran into his dad on the way there and got a passing hair ruffle as they passed each other down the hall.
He was grinning by the time that he opened the door to see All Might in the room.
“Good to see you, young Midoriya! Please, come sit. I made tea.”
Izuku smiled gratefully as he sat down across from All Might and picked up the delightfully warm cup.
He gave himself a moment to bask in the presence of a man he had loved dearly. He owed his life to this man, in more ways than one, and Izuku could never pay him back, even with what was essentially a second chance at life.
He looked up to see All Might smiling fondly, and a little bit sadly at him. “I owe you just as much, please do not fret over a debt that has been repaid many times over.”
Ah, Izuku had been mumbling. He simply gave the man a small smile that encompassed too many emotions to really identify, before shaking his head to stop the sad thoughts. He took another sip of tea before initiating the conversation.
“I assume you’ve figured out there’s more to One for All than what we initially thought.”
All Might coughed lightly. “Well, the other quirks make it quite clear that we were missing the full story,” He leaned forward, “however, it was something else that caught my attention.”
Izuku nodded, and gestured for him to continue.
“You mentioned knowing that quirks leave… vestiges of previous users behind during the first meeting. Of course, you were speaking in the context of All for One and young Shigaraki, but I assume there wasn’t that much of a leap between passing All for One and One for All.”
Izuku nodded again. “You’re right.” He met All Might’s hopeful eyes. “At first, there wasn’t much, but they began to communicate to me when I was unconscious, and later, could appear to me when I was awake. They helped me master each of their individual quirks.”
“I see… stockpiling quirks as well as power then? And that allowed for the vestiges?”
“Yeah.”
All Might shifted slightly. “Did you…” He trailed off, but Izuku sent his mentor a gentle look, knowing what he wanted to hear.
“Yes. I met Shimura-san. Her smile is lovely.”
All Might beamed. “I couldn’t agree more.” He softened slightly. “I am so glad that you got to meet her, and she, you. There is no doubt in my mind that she would have absolutely loved you.”
Izuku felt warm at the praise. “She was very kind to me.” His eyebrows dropped slightly. “She struggled with a lot of guilt though, being aware of Shigaraki’s heritage.”
All Might let out a shuddering breath at the reminder of what All for One had done to his master’s family. “Right.”
Izuku watched him shake his head, and waited for him to take another sip of tea. All Might lowered the cup from his mouth and cradled it in his hands.
“In that same meeting… you were also very specific about One for All’s form to Aizawa. Did something happen?” He hedged uncertainly, clearly trying his best to not trigger any bad memories for Izuku in the case that something did.
Izuku gently placed his tea cup on the table, and looked unseeingly to the side, his mind taking him to memories from a year and a half ago.
His brain flashed images of a punch that flashed rainbow with the lights of the previous users of one for all, and images of a cracked body that refused to go down without a fight.
He recalled weaving in and out of sound blasts, and being saved from instant death at the last second through a swirling portal. He recalled a twinge of fear as a gray scarf entered his peripherals, from someone who was in no condition to join the dangerous battle.
He remembered new determination, and feeling like his limbs were on fire, the vestige’s very wills becoming raw power as Shigaraki and the last heroes clashed in one final, devastating blow.
Dust.
And then there were two.
As Izuku slowly came back to the present moment he slowly shook his head, before realising he was meant to be nodding. “No, uh, yes, I mean.” He felt his lips wobble.
He fully returned to see All Might’s concerned expression. Izuku sniffed and wiped his eyes. “Sorry.” He breathed. “Give me a moment.”
While Izuku struggled to get his tears under control, All Might softly, albeit hesitantly circled the coffee table. He wrapped his long arms around the boy, gently so that he could pull away if he wanted to. Izuku sank into the hold instead, and All Might’s arms tightened.
“Sorry… that was just a really… day. It was a day.”
All Might loosened his hold to let Izuku pull back and wipe his eyes. “I can imagine, my boy.”
“I have their quirks still, but the vestiges as people… they’re gone.”
All Might continued to hold Izuku for a while. In the silence his thoughts strayed to his old sidekick.
An unchangeable future, huh?
Izuku missed the next class, and All Might stayed by his side the whole hour, even as the light returned to his eyes, and they chattered aimlessly about the funnier experiences with One for All and its vestiges.
All Might would be here for his boy, past, present and future.
~~~~~~
Shota had been worried when he heard that Izuku didn’t show up to a class (and there was something to be said for the warm feeling he felt on the principle of being told that, not as a homeroom teacher, but as the parent the other UA staff now saw him as).
When he remembered that All Might wanted to talk, it didn’t take much to realise that some of the worst memories were pulled to the forefront of Izuku’s mind in HD quality.
He didn’t let his mind linger on it, as he tried to disregard the tugging grief that seemed to remain eternally in his chest.
What his mind did linger on, was the wellbeing of his child, who he was unable to go and comfort due to his work. Honestly, he would ditch his class in a heartbeat to go help his kid but… All Might had it handled. Sometimes, you didn’t need someone who understood. Sometimes, you needed someone to stand strong, and hold you while your foundations crumbled so that you could rebuild them, instead of crumbling together in one giant heap of debris.
Plus, he only found out during the lunch break, after Izuku had already recovered, and attended a separate class. So it was fine.
Though, he was currently the most distracted he’d ever been in a class, and the third years looked at him worriedly as he trailed off in the middle of a sentence every now and then as his thoughts strayed, memories and worries lending their way to a dangerous mindset of catastrophising.
Luckily, it was the last class of the day, because Shota wasn’t sure how much longer he could go without seeing his damn kid.
With an awkward jolt, he suddenly remembered that this was one of the days he stayed behind after school to train Shinso.
Nooooo.
Listen, he was all for getting Shinso into the hero course. He knew from experience that Shinso would make a damn good one. He almost pouted to himself. He just wanted to be with his kid. Was that too much to ask?
…He should totally get Izuku to join Shinso.
Yes, it was foolproof. Izuku would be able to help Shinso learn some more specialised techniques, after all…
Shota paused. The class was too silent, even for doing the worksheets he’d handed out after giving up on lecturing. He looked up.
“Eraserhead mumbles?!”
Goddamnit.
“He has a kid?!”
Fuck.
The bell to end the day went, and Shota was out of the room before the third years could even blink.
He had problems to avoid and a kid to hug.