Chapter Text
When Shouta’s phone buzzed against his hip, he almost ignored it. There was enough to worry about right now that he didn’t need to be distracted by whatever meme had been dropped into the teacher group chat.
He was in the middle of prepping the work study students for whatever this operation was going to entail. For better or worse this was going to be their first ever professional mission and he had to make sure they were prepared. The villain attacks of the past year had shown them a little of what situations like this were like but he very much doubted they’d be one hundred percent okay in this situation.
His phone, though, wasn’t going to let him ignore it as it morphed into the insistent vibrations that indicated an incoming phone call. Something in the pit of his stomach twisted and he forced himself to not panic by taking a deep breath as he unclipped his phone.
Uraraka, Asui, and Kirishima watched him with nervous eyes, already tense from the task ahead of them.
Phone calls, especially right now, did not bode well.
Peeking at the displayed name, he sighed and lifted the phone to his ear.
“Izuku. I assume you heard about the Overhaul mission?” He intoned, watching the way the teens in front of him relaxed minutely.
Something in the chuckle his son gave, though, made Aizawa’s spine straighten and his chest tighten. The teen had been in Overhaul’s area, tailing Mirio for Nezu earlier in the day. Had something happened?
“Uh, yeah, you could say that.”
“Good, head back home and don’t engage. With him rampaging like he is, there’s too many commission lap dogs around for my liking. I know you’re in the area but it’s too risky.” There was no wiggle room in that order, right? If needed, he could have Nezu send the teen the same message before the teen got any bright ideas about how he could help.
Izuku didn’t say anything and down the line he could hear another male voice, tone raised enough that Shouta could very clearly tell that it was Dabi and he was agitated. But that didn’t make sense, the last he’d heard Dabi was hiding out in their old safe house just in case there was enough of the League to seek revenge. And Izuku was adamant that the man not get into any more trouble so he wouldn’t have brought him with him to tail Mirio.
So if Izuku was already back in the general area of home, why was he calling?
“Izuku.” His own tone now was warning, mind racing to figure out exactly why his warning bells were going off. “Do not get involved in this. Overhaul is growing increasingly unstable and anyone that gets in the way of him finding his asset is in danger.”
His stomach sank down into his shoes when Dabi’s hysterical laughter reached down the connection followed by the nervous chuckle Izuku let out.
“It’s a little too late for that, I think.” The teen’s voice was contrite, at least, as he plowed forward past the hysterical noise his partner in crime was making in the background. “Since, you know, I have his asset and all.”
“....I’m going to need you to repeat that, problem child.”
“His asset. It’s a little girl named Eri. I have her and we’re holed up in a safe house.”
Shouta closed his eyes and forced himself not to react outwardly, knowing that the three students in front of him were watching him carefully. After a beat, he pulled his phone away from his ear and regarded his students with as flat of a stare as he could manage.
“Check in with your work study mentors for next steps. I have to take care of something.” He intoned, trying to ignore the knowing look Uraraka and Kirishima were giving him.
He was sure that the moment he turned his back the student group chat was going to be blown up with speculation of what the hell Izuku had gotten himself into now. He could also already anticipate the headache of his husband and Bakugo blowing up his phone looking for answers.
There was silence on the other end of the phone when he put it back to his ear, just some general background noise to let him know that the teen was still on the line. As he strode back to the meeting room, he tried to comfort himself with the knowledge that while Izuku was involved with this mess he was, physically, far away from the epicenter. No one aside from Izuku and Dabi knew the location of the safe house and it would take anyone trying to trace Izuku’s cell phone longer than it was worth it to hack through all of the things Nezu had put into place to keep it virtually untraceable.
By the time Overhaul or his people were able to get the info they needed to find the teen, the raid would already be in motion and Shouta would be damned if he let the man anywhere near his son. Or the little girl that he was referring to as an asset.
By the time he threw open the door to the conference room, his heartbeat was back under control and he was in business mode again. It would be too risky to be in ‘Dad’ mode around these heroes if this was going to play out the way he thought it would. Thank god he was paranoid enough that he had put Izuku’s contact name as ‘Problem Child’ instead of his name.
He was going to have to, once again, trust that Izuku knew what he was doing.
Fatgum and Nighteye were standing nearby when Shouta walked in and he beelined to them first, stopping and waiting till both of their eyes were on him before holding out his phone and tapping the screen to turn on the speakerphone.
“Tell Fatgum and Nighteye what you just told me.”
The two heroes eyed him suspiciously for a moment before Izuku began to speak again, the teen sliding into his ‘business’ voice as Hizashi dubbed it. It made his voice sound older, just a bit, but it wouldn’t be enough to throw anyone off the scent for long.
“I have Overhaul’s asset.” The statement was simple enough to gain the attention of the other two heroes and loud enough for the other heroes and sidekicks in the room to begin crowding closer.
“And who exactly are you?” Nighteye intoned, the line of his brows flattening as he frowned at the phone.
“Not important at the moment. I have his asset and it’s a little girl, at most six years old. She’s covered in bandages and I believe he’s been experimenting on her.” Shouta could feel the energy in the room shift at the words. None of the heroes in the room liked the implications of what it meant if the thing that Overhaul had been killing people over was a child.
“Bring her to us. The address is-”
“Not happening.”
Izuku’s tone was short and angry as he cut through whatever Nighteye was saying. Shouta could hear the tiny way the teen’s voice shook, undetectable to anyone who didn’t know the kid, and bit back a groan. However long the kid had been with him, Izuku had already decided his course of action. And whatever that was, he wasn’t going to be swayed from it.
It didn’t help that Nighteye was the one running this operation, either. If there was anyone in the world that Izuku was going to distrust on principle it was going to be All Might’s former sidekick. They’d have a better shot of getting him to kiss Shigaraki than him listening to Nighteye.
“I trust exactly one of you in that room, maybe two. I’ve heard good things about Fatgum.” The bewildered look on said hero’s face almost made Shouta laugh. Almost. “But I do not trust you, sir, not to take her and use her as bait or something else drastic if you think it’ll help you win. She stays put with me and you’ll let me know when your raid is complete.”
“How do we even know that the girl exists and you’re not just distracting us?” Fatgum asked, shooting Shouta a searching look. The man looked like a teddy bear but he wasn’t a fool.
“I sent Eraserhead a photo to prove her existence.”
Shouta’s eyebrows raised, mind going back to the first round of buzzing his phone went through before the teen called him. Quickly, he navigated away from the call and was very careful to not let the other heroes see the screen as he did so and pulled up the picture that was sitting in his inbox.
Swallowing, he held the picture out for the other heroes to see. There was a little girl, approximately six as Izuku had described. She was fast asleep on someone’s chest, the face obscured but anyone who knew the teen could tell it was Izuku. The handprint scar that was peeking out from the neckline of his shirt was a dead giveaway.
Her long silver hair was pulled out of her face into a ponytail and she looked tiny wrapped up in the giant black hoodie she was using as a blanket. From her position he could just barely make out the bandages peeking out from the sleeve of the borrowed hoodie on her arms. His mind cataloged the fact that Dabi must have taken the picture as he watched the other heroes take in the picture and the caption across it.
‘Overhaul can’t have her back.’
Pulling his phone away, Shouta rubbed at his forehead and briefly wondered if the universe put this chaos in Izuku’s path for laughs or if the boy himself was attracting it on purpose. Things had been quiet since the Provisional License exams and he’d hoped they could get back on track now that things were calm.
“Young Man, this is not a joke. You will bring that girl to the proper authorities and we will handle it from here.” Shouta blinked himself back into the conversation and fought back a wince at Nighteye’s tone. It wasn’t the man’s fault that he didn’t know the reasoning for why Izuku automatically disliked him but he wasn’t helping his case in the slightest.
“Yeah, no. I don’t think I’ll be doing that but nice try.”
“We don’t even know who you are, how can we know that you’re capable of protecting her properly? I’m afraid I can’t take just Eraserhead’s word on this.”
Movement to his left drew Shouta’s attention away from the circular conversation Nighteye was currently engaging in. Mirio was standing on the edge of the small group that had gathered around them, closer to his mentor and was staring at the phone with a puzzled expression that reminded Shouta of a confused puppy. It took the older hero a moment to figure out what he was confused about and when he did, a chill went down his spine.
The blonde lifted his gaze from the phone, blue eyes piercing Shouta in place. Out of all of the work study students that were in the room, Mirio was probably the only one of them that would recognize Izuku’s voice from the day that the big three had come to visit 1A. Izuku would have had a thorough conversation with him afterward about his quirk, wouldn’t he? And even if it wasn’t about his quirk, it would have been to apologize for the way it probably seemed like the entire class was trying to murder him.
Mirio was also one of the only people who would absolutely open his mouth about recognizing the other teen’s voice. Any of the 1A students would have known the exact reason why they needed to keep their information to themselves. Extensive lessons in information gathering and the importance of not giving away your hand too early with Izuku had drilled that message home to them early on.
“Wait. Sir, I think I recognize his voice.” Whether the teen meant it to be or not, his voice was loud and would easily carry down the line to Izuku. “ Aren’t you-?”
“Ah Ah Ah, LeMillion. I think we all need to keep our secrets to ourselves, right? Who knows what I might be prompted to say if you tell on me~!” Izuku cut the other teen off, probably having recognized the exact problem Shouta had as the hero student began to speak. And while his tone was singsongy, it still held the lightest hint of a threat. One that Shouta knew the teen would absolutely turn into a promise.
Whatever he was alluding to was enough to have the older teen’s mouth snap shut. Curiously, though, Shouta caught the panicked look he sent Nighteye’s way and the answering shake of the hero’s head that silenced the teen.
“This conversation is not over by a long shot but we need to adjust around this new intel. Will you at least give me a name I can call you in the briefings or how I can contact you?” Nighteye said stiffly, adjusting his glasses. Trust was not going to be easily won on either side, Shouta could already tell.
“Eraserhead is the only one that will be contacting me, I can promise you that.” There was a pause at the other end of the line and Shouta had to wonder what exactly was going through his son’s mind. And what exactly he was using to muffle the expletives Dabi was surely dying to let out at his next statement.
“But call me Deku, if you must.”