Chapter Text
It was a quiet night, the first one in a while actually. Izuku had decided to take a break on a nearby rooftop before she headed home, taking a moment to appreciate the beauty of the sunrise. He’d been seeing more of them lately with how long their patrols were getting. Maybe Touya had a point about her needing to sleep more. The golden hues of light had just began to filter over the buildings of Musutafu, hitting their shoes at just the right angle to make them sparkle as bright as the day they’d been bought. The happy memories of his mother and father helping him find the right shoe size (only slightly dampened by the fact that there was only one brand for the quirkless, and the disgusted looks the employee kept shooting him) and laughing when they could finally get one that fit just right flitted before her eyes, when suddenly the feeling of a tight cloth binding his arms to their sides shot her out of it. They immediately tried to shuffle his arms to grab the knife she knew was right there in his pocket when a gruff voice spoke behind him.
”Kid, what are you doing up here?”
Izuku just laughed. Of course it was everyone’s favorite nighttime (could it still be called that?) city stalker, Eraserhead. The tall person loomed over her, their glare apparent even as Izuku tried to crane his neck around to catch better sight of them.
”Morning ‘Raser!” Izuku replied, the chippy voice making him sound even younger than she already did, which might not have been a good thing, considering they were just fourteen (way too young to be doing vigilante work if Eraserhead got any say in it) and already sounded incredibly young. “Mind giving me some of that coffee I know you’re planning to get on your way back home to ‘Zashi?”
Since the first time the two had met, almost three years ago at this point (damn it’s been a long time), they had gotten to know each other very well, the eraser hero (who kept trying to get him to call him Shouta) eventually giving up quite a bit about themself in an attempt to convince him to do the same. Only sort of worked, but because of this she had learned that they were nonbinary (and used they/them pronouns, no matter what the small online fandom they had said, because those people were really fucking transphobic), married to Present Mike, and had two kids (Eri and Hitoshi, the latter of whom was apparently Izuku’s age), both adopted. They’d long ago offered to let Izuku join the family after learning how both his mom and dad had died in a car accident a few years prior, leading to her getting kicked out since the landlord didn’t want such a “useless waste of space” on his land, but Izuku had declined, saying that they were perfectly happy where they were. It wasn’t even a lie, at least not anymore. After his papa had adopted him, Touya, and ‘Himi, everything had gotten so much better. They finally all had a roof over their heads and food every day (without having to steal it for the first time in years), and just because ‘Ten was happy in the mess that was the home he and ‘Boro shared, doesn’t mean that they had to be. Calling that place a heap of trash was an understatement. Although in return they’d learned lots about Izuku as well. While Izuku hadn’t shared anything (or even a huge amount of information), she’d eventually caved and said a little about himself as well. They’d told Eraserhead their pronouns (no, it doesn’t seem like a lot, but after months of refusing to give any information, ‘Raser had treated it like a massive breakthrough), shared some happy memories about their parents when Eraser asked (probably to find out if he was homeless, which they were admittedly at the time), which had eventually led them to sharing about how her parents had died (and Eraserhead’s offer to take them in).
Eraser’s blunt response startled him out of their thoughts. “No. Caffeine isn’t healthy for growing children,”
“But ‘Raser!” Izuku put on her most whiny voice, trying to be as whiny and childlike as possible, because if they couldn’t get coffee out of them, he was at least going to annoy the heck out of them.
”No. I know your tactics, Forrest.”
”Awwww… pretty please?” Izuku turned to them, making puppy eyes under her mask, even if no one could see it because of the lenses they’d put in specifically to keep people from seeing his eyes and using that to track her down.
”No. I’m not going to scare my favorite barista, the only one who knows how to do coffee right-“
”I thought you didn’t care about how coffee was made, just as long as it’s coffee,”
The eraser hero gave her a glare and sighed. “Just because I’ll drink any coffee doesn’t mean that I’m unable to appreciate a well made one. Plus ‘Zashi cares. Extremely much. Probably because she can only take so much sugar in her coffee, too much and she’ll complain, too little and she’ll complain” Izuku giggled at his statement.
”Also, think you can let me go now?” Izuku had almost forgotten about the scarf wrapped around her torso with the friendly banter they had going, but had been reminded of it when ‘Raser put their head in their hands and Izuku got a second to assess the situation again (force of habit from too many people who wanted to “prank” him throughout his middle school years). “While it’s fun to have our little back and forth, I’d much prefer to be free, thank you very much.”
”Nope, I finally got you in my capture scarf-“
”You’ve had me in it before.” Izuku deadpanned.
”Yes, but this time it’s different, because we’re actually going to the station and getting you charged.”
Izuku gasped, mock offended. ”I thought you loved me Eraserhead! Trying to get me arrested, was everything we had together a lie?!”
”I do kid, but you need to get back home, and if you don’t have one, because lets face it, you’re way too good at lying and could’ve just made something up, you’re coming home with me.”
Izuku ignored them, choosing to press on with her overly dramatic act. “Betrayed…” they said as the clutched their hands to his heart while making the most over the top pose possible in her current situation. “By the person I trusted the most?!” That was a bit of an overstatement, because he definitely trusted papa, ‘Himi, Touya, ‘Ten, and ‘Boro more than ‘Raser, but they didn’t have to know that.
”Kid, how much longer do I have to sit here and watch your theatrics. No matter how long you keep this up for, we still have to head to the police.”
Izuku continued to ignore them in favor of continuing the performance. “Woe is me, woe!!!” Eraserhead watched on, and with the look on their face you’d think they were being forced to watch some great horror (which Izuku’s acting kind of was). After a couple more lines, Izuku finally got tired of it, glancing over at Eraser and finally catching a glimpse of the expression on their face, which only served to make her laugh and eventually even the normally expressionless pro had to quirk up their lips into a smile. Having finally achieved his goal of making the eraser hero laugh, they gave in.
“Fine…” Eraser just sighed again (how many times is that now?), picked Izuku up bridle carry style, and started parkouring across rooftops to bring Izuku to Musutafu Police Department.