I Never Saw Myself Here When I Was Little (But Needs Must....)

by StrayCatRunning

Summary:

Izuku always wanted to be a hero, but with his quirk and his record, there really was NO WAY he'd be let into a hero school!

Or:

Homeless, on the streets, a quirk he loves yet has blighted his life, Izuku finally finds something it really is good for.

Or:

Underage prostitution in the sex industry is always a problem, so Shouta heads undercover yet again to find and help them be redirected into more age appropriate placements.

Absolutely nothing wrong with being a sex worker, it pays just as well as any other job, but no under agers allowed!!!

Or:

Blankly staring at his phone, Shouta's only thought was, How bloody fast they'd LOST his kid!!!

And how fast he and his family were gonna find him again!

Notes:

This went totally in directions I was not expecting, so it's not dark, full of pain, and plenty of hurt the way the idea should have gone and instead is mostly Izuku being really smart and a heaping helping of comfort! lol

I love it when that happens! :D

 

_______________________________

If you’d asked twelve year old Midoriya Izuku where he’d be at fifteen, going on sixteen, he’d have said HERO SCHOOL!!!

 

He’d not even have hesitated.

 

And if the one asking said “BZZZAAAAP NO, pick again!” in a million years he’d never ever have guessed underage prostitute!

 

Like, nope, never ever woulda guessed it.

 

But looking at the street, coming alive in the dusk as the fairy lights and lanterns were lit, and customers began appearing in ones and twos and even small groups, it still baffled him how it’d come to this!

 

Yes, his quirk was mental - as in a purely mental power and insane - but it would work in heroics, he and Kacchan’d worked out many ways to do it when they were younger and still friends.

 

And he was light framed and never did grow into his father's inches but so what, Gran Torino’d hardly come up to Izuku’s clavicle bone, so being short didn't matter in heroics!

 

Plus he was smart, fast, had been practicing self defence for years, parkour and gymnastics as well, so he’d been ready.

 

At twelve he’d felt so ready.

 

But then, he should have said no, but Kacchan loved Izuku’s quirk, Fantasy they’d called it, full body immersion illusions of one's deepest desire or wish in the moment Izuku used it on someone.

 

So when Kacchan had a bad day, of course Izuku did it when “DO Your Quirk, shitting hell, just, gimme your best shot!”

 

The rigid stance of anyone under his power was familiar, Kacchan’d been under hundreds, maybe even thousands of times, but something was different this time, and a sudden spreading wetness at his crotch as he blinked back to awareness, a sudden flaming face, a full body heaving gagging rejection of the quirk vision AND of Izuku was a shock.

 

If that’d been all, it might not have been so bad but Kacchan ran home, told his parents, and the first of many sexual assault charges was leveled against Izuku.

 

Because while it was the first, Kacchan, who became Katsuki, who became Bakugou, who finally became an entitled bag of super dicks, told his other friends, who told their friends, and then the entire school knew.

 

Midoriya Izuku shoved sick fantasies into your head if he so much as looked at you and you couldn't escape until they ran their course.

 

It wasn't true in any singular respect, other than the running of their course bit, but that didn't seem to matter.

 

His own mother believed it was touch based, which is why he’d been told at six “No baby, you are super big now, and big boys don’t need hugs anymore!”

 

The fact was that no purely mental quirk was touch based, or vision based, but that didn't matter, from that moment on in school Izuku was blamed repeatedly for sick fantasies no one could prove, Bakugou hated him, his aunt and uncle wouldn't even be in the same room as him, and his mother spent more time at work than she did at home.

 

Yes, Izuku could activate his quirk via sight, and via touch, and via proximity but his research alone, based upon hundreds of YEARS of actual scientists working on it, proved that his was a field of perception activation quirk.

 

Just like all mental quirks were.

 

Touch and sight were easier though, and people were lazy, so just like the stupid extra toe joint theory, those too refused to die, and Izuku was the one to suffer.

 

He had to sit in the back facing the wall rather than the board, wasn't allowed to talk to anyone, and when it finally came time to apply to his chosen hero schools, he was turned down for all of them.

 

Even UA.

 

Sexual assault charges, even if they didn't stick, put him firmly onto the blacklist category, even Aldera High School, which should have automatically accepted him as simply moving up a grade, refused him.

 

Aaaaand all of that was bad enough to be dealing with at fifteen, but then his mother pointed to the door one spring day and said, “Get out.”

 

Not looking at him, just, pointing, and he’d tried running to his room, tried to lock himself in, but…

 

His room was empty.

 

Bare.

 

Even the door was gone.

 

Heart broken he just…..

 

Left.

***

A few homeless shelters later, a LOT of walking, blank minded zomby meanderings really but a few weeks later and he was talking to a Night Walker and….

 

Now here he was, under age prostitute.

 

‘Funny thing, life.’ he thought as he watched Natasha take a duo into her place, they were sure to enjoy her, and her place was aces. Izuku hoped to have something that good one day.

 

When he got old enough to actually be a prostitute, that is. Legal age was eighteen, but he’d found a totally awesome loophole and was exploiting it for all he was worth, while making enough to eat, and hiding his homelessness with rabid care.

 

Always clean, always dressed nice, always looking cheerful and happy and chatty, cause no one who looked like he did could ever live under a bridge!

 

Right at the very edge of the Night District, made up to look much older than he was, he didn't have a small little “office” like the other Walkers did who’s street bordered the mid tier Walkers who bordered the High class Walkers, the entire district like concentric circles with the best of the best in the middle.

 

So far down the walker social ladder as to hardly even count as a walker, here on the fringe of the fringe, but they all got the clients too poor or too cheap to pay for better, and everyone dreamed of moving up, through skill or luck, of getting not a single office but a double, or triple, or maybe one day reaching suite level and beyond.

 

Sweet suite.

 

Laughing as he watched a dirty masc pause and appraise him, barking out, “How much for a quickie?” and Izuku sighed, “I’m sorry Sama, I don’t do quickies, I do fantasies, they take a bit of time.  If you're in a hurry Pedro,” - who Izuku hated, so deserved a nasty dirty thing like this - “is five doors that a way, he’s fantastic at them!”

 

Keeping his voice low, and pleasing, he wilted when the masc asked, “Fantasies?”

 

“Yes Sama, my quirk lets you experience a full body sensation of any fantasy you are currently thinking of, I charge the minimum rate, you must have the cash in your hand as I activate my quirk, I can NOT control what you see and experience, bad trips do happen I am sorry to say, that is why I am so cheap.”

 

“Gimme!”

 

Gesturing to his alley, simply a space where once had lived bins and crates, Izuku said, "Right this way.”

****

 

If anyone had asked Aizawa Shouta at sixteen where he’d be today at thirty one, in no way shape or form would he have guessed Underage Night Walker Investigations, yet here he was.

 

Chosen not because of his history, or his training, or his skills, or his quirk.

 

No, he’d been chosen because of his LOOKS, and not because he looked good, but that he was very skilled at looking bad.

 

Homeless.

 

Down on his luck.

 

They’d been at it for eight weeks, starting in the middle where the upmarket walkers plied their trade and now, here he was, on the very outskirts where they had indeed found what they were looking for.

 

Because Night Waking was an industry, like any other, and had industry standards that must be met and maintained to keep the standards of service safe, sane, and consensual.

 

Underage walkers had no place in the business, not until they hit the legal age, and Shouta himself would have set that at twenty at the earliest, twenty five would have been better, but who asked someone like him for advice on how the world should work.

 

Well, his students did, but that was another entire kettle of fish, and he was not going there right now, because right now he was watching a transaction that not only broke the rules because of the CLEAR age violation, but this kid didn't even have what were euphemistically called offices, tiny single rooms lining the street, individualized by each tenant, some of them pretty or quaint and all of them clean, by gods was the place clean, you could probably eat off the ground and be totally safe.

 

No, this kid just led a filthy stinking masc to an alley, and that was being generous, it was more just a space forgotten between buildings, and then, as Shouta managed to get a better view, used a quirk on him.

 

Clearly, as the man stiffened up and froze for an easy eight minutes while the kid took the cash in the man's hand, watched him with casual interest as he tucked it away, and when the man started to move simply took him gently by the elbow and ushered him back to the side walk, saying “Go home, be careful, and be kind to yourself and to others.”

 

The kid looked, just for a moment, so very sad before pasting a big smile on his face, chatting with a group of people passing, and Shouta had two choices, see what the quirk was, or simply mark the area, send in the photos already taken, and move on.

 

But, he was hungry so took option three, finding food and coffee, because this kid wasn’t going anywhere any time soon.

****

 

Cuffed to a table, Izuku resolutely remained calm.

 

Arrested for underage prostitution he may be, but he’d researched this subject with an obsessive nature few now even knew he had, and he was ready when three people walked in.

 

Easily spotting the cop, the social worker, and the attorney intern, not making any kind of mental bar-jokes at all, Izuku sighed. At least give him a challenge.

 

“Midoriya Izuku, you have been arrested and charged with underage prostitution, you may refute the charges, be remanded into custody to await trial, or you may accept the sentence and be remanded into care, as investigation into your situation reveals no home address, how do you plead?”

 

Letting his face fall into a careful mask of confusion, Izuku said, “I beg your pardon, you think I did what?”

 

Because the description of what they were charging him with required touch with sexual intent, and he didn't touch anyone, certainly not like that.

 

Yes, he did touch their elbow to send them away, but that was not sexual contact under any law books description, at all, he was simply letting someone enjoy the effects of his quirk, and taking a gift payment for it, which was not illegal in any way.

 

Because he was on private property when he did it, the alley cubby-hole alcove space was owned by both buildings that edged it, and you didn't need permission to use a quirk on private property.

 

Yes, he could be charged by the owners for trespass, but why would they, neither one knew they owned the damned space.

 

Smiling inside he let the first tear fall, “Yes, I don’t have a home address cause my mama kicked me out, she doesn't like me any more, says I’m bad, but all I was doing - ”

 

Good thing they'd given him a drink, talk talk talk did tend to dry him out!

 

“ -  of course you can do an exam down there, I’m intersex, like,” waving at himself, “I know I look masc and I am, I am a boy,” unable to stop the words he did not laugh them out but only just, “a real boy but my bits are totally fem, like, boy body and girly bits so you can tell I’m a virgin, never had sex, a simple physical exam will do it but I’ll submit to a quirked exam too, or a truth quirk, I did not have sex with anyone, not for money, not for free, I can't believe you’d think, oh gods, that you’d think…”

 

And he was bawling his eyes out, using the memory of being kicked out of his home to generate the water works.

 

Seemed the pain of that moment had some use after all.

 

Being given into care was totally different to being remanded into care, and he wiped his face of tears, drank the new bottle of water offered, and went with the nice case worker he’d been assigned, knowing how easy it was going to be to escape.

 

No ankle bracelet, no trackers, no quirk stoppers, because he was GIVEN into care.

 

Head and shoulders drooping he sighed, cause he’d have to find somewhere new to earn money now, and it was so much work to find a null space to do it in, but he’d found one, he’d find another, it was just a matter of time.

***

 

The care home was just as bad as he’d expected.

 

His record was an open book, so they knew what he could do, what he’d been accused of doing, and how he’d been making a living for a solid year, it was no wonder he was propositioned inside of twelve hours.

 

A small surprise to have food rationed and ransomed to force him to do it though, so he’d recorded it, recorded him begging not to have too, to please not hurt him, and then used his quirk and took the time to simply….

 

Run away.

 

He did send the recording to his social worker, along with the terse message, “See, this is why!”

 

Curling up in his nest like bed, hidden under the bridge, listening to the trains thundering overhead he only cried a little bit, cause it’d gone exactly as he’d predicted, which was sad but pretty normal by now.

****

 

Shouta would admit he was a bit of a remora sometimes, latching onto people and not letting go, a trait even he thought had given mixed results in his life, and with his new class was turning up all kinds of things needing to be fixed, but why he’d latched onto green curls and tragic eyes hiding behind a bright bright smile was a mystery he’d like solved now.

 

As would the location of said sad eyes, because, “You what?”

 

And the timid voice continued to spew bad news, “Yes, I am sorry to say he was… frightened while in care and has run away, we are looking for him with all our resources and of course will inform you, as a possible guardian, of his condition when we do locate him, please do not worry we will - ”

 

Tuning them out, Shouta’d only put his name forwards as a foster situation because he thought the kid might need an interim placement until they found him a permanent one, and knew with the kids record of both that quirk and full history this might happen, he was just incredulous at the speed of it, “You lost him in less than TWELVE HOURS!?!”

 

Heads were turning all over the staff room but he didn't care, invoking his hero activation he got himself on the case, and all pertinent information to be emailed to him within an hour and slammed the phone down, blindly accepting the coffee that was handed to him, scalding his mouth as he gulped it down.

 

“Soooooo,” the only present roommate and best friend and reason to not kill people most days said carefully, “care to tune us all in?”

 

Which is how a single homeless kid came to have not just social services - overworked, under funded, sure to fail - searching for him, but twenty one pro heroes, all of them now fully invested when they didn't find him end of day one.

 

Or day two even.

 

Day three was a bit ridiculous and Shouta called a halt in the early morning, did the walk of shame to the big solid doors, and told Nezu all about it.

 

Because yes, he knew his boss knew all about it anyway, but it made it official.

 

They all failed, now it was Rat Gods turn.

 

***

Thank gods for savings.

 

He'd spent almost nothing living as he did, so had plenty for food while he used his ten favorite disguises to roam the edges of the Walker district, looking for locations to ping into his map, and then later to look up in the city records of ownership.

 

Three weeks it’d taken, a painfully long time, but he’d found not one, but seven.

 

Only one of which he actually liked, the last one, so he’d sighed in relief, kept the rest for the next time this happened, adjusted his wig, mourned his now shaven off curls but green hair was a dead give away and hair under a wig, especially if you were going to be forced to wear them for a few years, was stupid, and Social Services would be looking for him, trying to save him, green curls and all.

 

Save him.

 

Yeah, like that was gonna happen.

 

He’d wanted to be a hero once, now he just wanted to make a living.

 

Dressed today as the fem he so was NOT, curly golden hair, fake breasts cause he may be girl at crotch and pelvis level - which reminded him as he pondered it all, he'd be needing period blockers again soon - but he was visibly masc on top so jelly breasties in a lacy cleavage producer it was, he sat and kicked his feet as he read a book, waiting for the first nibble of interest, cause he’d put on a hat veil combo to go with his summer dress, and looked, even if he said it himself, very nice!

***

 

It was no wonder his teachers had failed, Nezu thought as he watched his prize on cameras throughout the city, they were looking for a child hiding from the world, not a predator learning to use it.

 

Such a beautiful kitten, all teeth and spite hiding behind an innocent visage.

 

The time spent to rewrite his filter programs was well spent, because he’d lost an entire YEAR with this treasure, and he smiled as he sent Shouta and Hizashi to collect him, Oboro working a case keeping him from joining them just yet but he'd be there soon enough.

 

Looking today like a child out doing the shopping, fem again for the disguise, Nezu settled in to watch, because if he was right about their pragmatic nature the kitten would come quietly, but if he resisted it was going to be interesting indeed.

****

Izuku gave himself two days off a week, rather than the usual three, and today he was using a bit of his sparse funds - it took time to rebuild his clientele after all, and for his old one to find him again, especially in disguise as he now was - to do the weekly snacks shopping.

 

He’d already signed up to a totally new gym, as well as a new dojo, because he had to keep fit, his mental health depended on it, this time he’d treated himself to a dance studio as well.

 

No home meant no home bills which meant he could spend money as he wanted too, and this made him happy, so he did it.

 

Which made today snack day, as well as his fourth dance class, which he was looking forward to hugely.

 

So much so that he missed the kicking off of what he’d look back at and cringe, because he had street smarts, he should not have missed a gang of twenty in position to do a smash and grab of market stall money boxes, or the two heroes headed HIS WAY!!!

 

Instead he was imagining the cha cha, and how his skirt would feel as he did the steps, and only looked up at the first scream and crashing sound and was suddenly in the middle of some serious shit.

 

Crowds, children, old people, vulnerable and delicate and the stampede was about to hit and in an instant Izuku did the only thing he could think of.

 

Because using his quirk just once in a day used to tired him, but he’d spent a full year using it freely now, learning it, stretching and exercising it so now he knelt down, braced so as to not fall and hurt himself, and focused on the theoretical use he'd never actually tried, and shoved his quirk out as a bubble, the market wasn't that big, less than a hundred stalls, less than a thousand people, and Izuku didn't have to get them all, just the power players, because his quirk gave him access to emotions.

 

It was why he blocked himself from clients, he did NOT want to feel what they were feeling, cause ewwwww nasty!

 

Quirk blanketing the area now though he simply grabbed all the powerful emotions, the surging panic and adrilyn and protective rage and gave them the full treatment.

 

Thirty five in total, frozen in his quirk, and he did try to get away, to use the long moment of people staring at the frozen villains, but then law enforcement poured in, half a dozen heroes joining in, and Izuku was once again certain to be in cuffs and chained to a table in the police station awaiting the usual trifecta of power, so running would only make it worse.

 

Self-defense, Izuku knew loads about that too, was ready with facts and figures already primed and ready to go.

 

His head hurt though, like his bones had toothache and were trying to stamp it out like someone would stamp out a fire, very strange, ten out of ten would not recommend, and he was thirsty and tired and the world spun like a slow top and he was flying, light and easy and free and then, nothing at all.

****

Nezu’d found him.

 

Well, of course he had.

 

On their way to pick the kid up, easily spotting him, also spotting the riot about to happen, Nezu barking on their coms and they switched to hero mode and then….

 

The kid was tiny, just little bittle, and Shouta scooped him up and danced in circles and blew a raspberry into his neck just to grin at the squealing giggles and then Hizashi was there and they were at the beach, playing in the sand and all of class A was there too now, tiny like his little one, their little one, and heat baked into his bones and he had Izuku on his hip and was stirring the dinner as Hizashi slid his hands around them both, humming a much loved song as he kissed Shouta’s neck, kissed Oboro’s ear as he too leaned into the hug, and both of them kissed tiny fluffy Izuku and then….

 

Like a swiftly fading dream, reality returned and his little one was a teen aged not prostitute yet not far off it collapsed upon the ground and Shouta was off and running, but the stampede that was threatened had, during the vision or dream or hallucination, petered out fully, leaving emergency services to mop up and corral it all.

 

****

 

Hizashi’d seen the danger, followed Nezu’s directions on his first target, a crowded packed square was not his quirks friend, so letting himself be directed by the smartest person around was just pure self defence when -

 

He heard laughter, and he smiled at Shouta laying on the ground, blanket under him sun faded, tiny green haired toddler held up at full arms reach and being swept through the air, and then they were all on clouds, him resting back against Oboro’s chest, his legs wrapped around Shouta’s waist as tiny green haired kidling stood, held securely as he danced his tiny pink piggies and gasped Wheeeees and squealed with giggles as Obs dipped and lifted the cloud and he leaned back for a hot kiss, sliding tongue into sweet mouth, and then leaned forwards for Shouta to do the same as baby pointed dramatically forwards and yelled “Fasta daddys fasta!!!”

 

It seemed to last forever, and be over in an instant, and Nezu was yelling in his ears, Shouta had their kid safe, Loud Cloud was on containment, Hizashi directed to the only pocket of fighting that had managed to start but was swiftly dealt with and all the while, he wondered, was it a dream or vision or simply a desperate hope.

 

Because he’d loved his two best friends for a long time, but now he'd suddenly realized it wasn't just love for friends, he wanted more!

 

Family, because yes they lived together, but the memory of those kisses lingered, and hope was a terrible thing.

*****

The last time Izuku’d woken to the sounds and smells of a medical anywhere kind of place was when he’d tried to use his quirk on five people at school, self defence, and woken up with broken ribs, concussion, and arrested yet again for sexual assault, even if he’d managed to prove it was them attacking him, but just like always, it hadn't mattered.

 

He’d only managed go grab and hold three, the other two curb stomped his ass, and he lay in confusion now as to what'd happened.

 

The fading light and a crinkle of a snack pack of something gave him the clues he needed, and he hissed, all over pain and thirst and he was being lifted and held and given blessed blessed water and not let drink too fast.

 

Let to have plenty though, so that was nice, and then he was settled down again, something something pain meds something and he drifted away again on clouds of lavender.

 

***

 

“So,” Hizashi looked at the two other people in the room, both of them watching him settle the kid back into the bed, “who wants to go first on the quirk-hit visions, me or Shouta?”

 

Looking at Shouta frozen like a deer in the headlights, Hizashi laughed and said “Me first it is!”

 

Giving it to them both, knowing Nezu was observing and taking it down for his report later, Hizashi watched their reactions closely.

 

“So, we were what, like a family?”

 

Oboro, a mind so sharp behind his happy go lucky facade yet hardly anyone ever spotted it, “Yep!” Hizashi replied aaaaand wait for it…. “Why was the kid a toddler then?”

 

“Second chances,” Shouta said softly, “he was tiny in my one too.”

 

“Yeah, my best guess was second chances too, because you were both younger as well, because I just realized we have wasted years not fucking like rabbits, and the kid should have had a good childhood, been loved, and we’d have done it right.”

 

“Go on," Hizashi insisted, "tell us yours too Shouta.”

 

Other than the drifting from place to place, Shouta’s was eerily similar to Hizashi’s, and Obs said it for them all, “I bet mine'd be the same.”

 

“So, the kids' quirk isn't just sexual then.”

 

“No,” a hoarse voice from the bed, “it’s not.”

 

Looking over the kid had an arm thrown across his eyes, and a mouth down turned in pain, “It gives a full body immersive and realistic vision of what you are focused upon at the time, so yes, sexual if the punter is looking for a Walker to make them feel good, but in that situation in the square you were both focused on me, and each other, or at least I’m guessing that's it.”

 

“Not sure though," the kid hissed, "sounds right, figure it out yourselves but keep it down, fuck my head hurts.”

 

“Yeah,” Hizashi said softly, “the meds work for most of your pain but you strained a mental quirk, it’s gonna hurt.”

 

“Here, this always helps Shouta.”  Taking the hot mask he always carried from his pocket he snapped the activator and eased the kids arm down, putting the mask in place across squinched shut eyes and the gasp of relief was music to their ears.

 

***

 

Watching their new foster son sleep, talking about their newly awakened interest in being more than just friends because Oboro was all like “Hell YES!!!” it was only fitting to roll their eyes when Nezu came in radiating smugness.

 

Even better when he said, “Right, I have set a few things in motion, I hope you don't mind.”

 

Nezu-speak for: “I did this now deal with it or die horribly by my claws!”

 

“Your apartment is currently being packed up and moved onto campus, yes Shouta I am sorry it means a longer commute to your patrol district, but the conveniences to teaching should outweigh that or at least balance it out a bit.”

 

“The five bedroom third floor apartment, yes Oboro, the one with the rooftop garden that you have been drooling over is the one I’m putting the four of you into.”

 

“Your new foster son has easily passed the emergency out in the real world entrance exam requirements with his save in the market, well done him, and we will get him a few placement tests but I’m suspecting he will be a combination student like the three of you were in your time, under myself for education and teachers assistant to anyone I think will advance him the best until we see where he is happiest.”

 

“Certainly medical, and support should interest him, but I suspect he’d be of help in the physical training area as well because he is surprisingly well trained in several disciplines of defence.”

 

A tiny happy giggle as he rubbed his paws together, “Oh yes, a treasure indeed!”

 

Watching their boss make happy feet over their foster placement was cute enough, but it got even better the next day when Izuku woke up enough to actually see who was in the room with him and damned near had a stroke.

 

Hero nerd? Totally confirmed!