Izuku smiled to himself as he watched the day tick over on his phone. "Happy Birthday to me…"
Sitting on the bar's roof, Izuku was still contemplating going out on a patrol for the night. On one hand, he didn't take nights off often and he would have been better rested for his birthday party later that day but on the other was the simple fact that he was too awake to just stay home.
And wasn't that a weird thought. With the revelation of his father's situation, he and his mother had more or less moved out of their apartment to live with him. Well technically Izuku was living at the bar and not with his parents but given that he dad had only modified a single room studio apartment for himself that was more or less necessary. At least living at the bar as well meant that Kurogiri only had to warp between two points for all of them to spend time together as a family.
They still owned their old place which was a given with the entire complex belonging to his father but until it was closer to time for Izuku to start at UA, there was no real hurry to start changing things in the apartment so that his Dad could move back in.
As he continued to ponder the changes in his life, a crash from a few alleyways over caught his attention. "Looks like I am going out for a bit after all." He flipped up the hood on the hoodie that he had stolen from Tomura and leapt into action. As he got closer he started to see flashes of a strange blue light and heard a pained scream.
Arriving at the lip of a roof next to the alley in question, he quickly took in the scene. Five men, one teenage girl. One heavily scarred man, the source of the blue light, stood between her and the other four. Another man on the ground, trying to put out the flames dancing over his upper body. Another, lay bleeding out from a large gash to his side likely caused by the blade in the girl's hand. "I said fuck off! We aren't buying the shit you're selling."
"Awe don't be such a killjoy Dabi. They can stick around to play if they wanna." Izuku watched with mild fascination as she licked the blood off the blade. Probably a blood based Quirk then.
"Let's get the fuck out of here, they are not worth it!" Before Izuku was forced to cut in, the two apparent former aggressors that were still standing, grabbed their friends and started hauling ass out of the alley.
Weird. Izuku had assumed that since his Quirk had wanted him here, it would have been to help break up the fight. "Hey, you enjoying the show or something?"
Izuku turned his attention back to the pair as the guy flipped him off. Feeling the urge to go say hello, he dropped down into the alley. "Sorry, I would have helped but I was a few roofs over when the scuffle started. The two of you had it handled by the time I got here."
The guy's eyes widened as he seemed to get a good look at Izuku. "You're even younger than Himiko."
"Hey you're right! What is a cute boy like you doing out this late?"
Izuku felt himself shrugging. "I'm a vigilante so this is the middle of my day normally."
The man, Dabi presumably, gave him an odd look. "You are a vigilante?"
Izuku nodded as the problem seemed to dawn on him as to why the guy was confused. "Yeah. It's my night off so I'm not in costume. I also normally patrol in Musutafu so I doubt you would have seen me around anyways."
The blonde girl, presumably Himiko, tilted her head with what probably would have been an unnerving fanged grin for anyone else. Yeah, definitely a blood Quirk. "That is pretty far from here. What brings you to our neck of the woods?"
Izuku pointed back over his shoulder in the direction of the bar. "My family owns the bar just over there. I hang out there on my nights off with my older brother. You want to come hang out?"
Dabi was giving him a concerned look. "As nice of an offer as that is, shouldn't you be worried about bringing a couple of obvious Villains back to where your family is?"
Izuku snorted. "That would be a concern, yes, if my father and brother weren't classified as Villains themselves. My brother is trying to start an official group called the League of Villains to overthrow Hero society as we know it. We have booze and blood if you guys want it."
The girl basically threw herself at Izuku at that last point. "You guys have blood?"
Izuku nodded, arms full of blonde. "Yeah, 'Giri keeps some stocked at the bar for customers with blood based Quirks like yours. When was the last time you had a proper drink?"
"She drained a guy three weeks ago and is on the run for it." Dabi patted Himiko on the head as her posture sagged at the thought.
"Mommy and Daddy say that drinking blood is gross and that I should be able to keep myself from doing it but it is just so good~ and red is such a pretty~ color. Everyone looks so nice painted in it!"
Izuku grimaced. "That sucks, no pun intended but what your parents were doing to you was very illegal. People with blood based quirks like yours need to consume blood in order to function. Come on, you guys don't have to stick around but I am not going to let you go on your way so long as you are literally starving."
Dabi gave a reluctant nod. "Thanks kid. I wasn't even sure where to begin looking for blood for her. We only met a few days ago."
Izuku flashed him a grin. "Glad to hear you realized what the problem was at least." He then gestured for them to follow and lead the way back to the bar by way of the streets. The trio earned a few looks as they entered, not really surprising given that two were very clearly under age, but the patrons didn't visit the bar due to being upstanding citizens so collectively decided that it was not their problem and resumed drinking. Kurogiri gave Izuku a very clear look of confusion as to his coming back in by way of the front door and waved him over.
"I thought you were on the roof?"
Izuku grinned and waved the question off. "Oh, I was but my new friends weren't so I had to lead them in the door like a civilized person. Himiko here needs blood bad." He tugged the grinning girl in front of him.
Kurogiri raised a hand and warped a blood pouch from the back fridge to the bar top in front of them. It hadn't even fully hit the counter before it was in her hands being sucked dry like it had been a juice pouch. "Oh dear." When the second was devoured just as quickly he gave Izuku a look that despite the fact he didn't have a human face clearly read as his Uncle Shouta's "why must you do this to me Problem Child" face. "Just take her to the fridge. I expect an explanation after we close."
Izuku gave the man an apologetic smile. "Can do! Come on Himiko. Dabi, you can follow if you want."
The man snorted. "Like I am going to let her out of my sight."
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
When Tomura wandered into the kitchen at half past 2 in the morning, he was not expecting to find his brother and two strangers sprawled out over the floor in front of one of the fridges, surrounded by empty blood packs. The girl was completely passed out half on and half off of Izuku's lap, blood drying on the corners of her mouth. The other guy was still just as awake as Izuku and was now staring at him questioning.
As he started scratching at his neck, Tomura found a fidget cube nearly beaming him in the head. Instinctively his hand shot forward to catch it but his hand closed around a fist full of dust instead. "Hey Tomura!"
"Hey Greenie. Why are you hanging out with strangers in our kitchen? Does Kurogiri know you brought them back here?"
"After Himiko downed two blood packs in a few seconds he just sent us back here to grab more ourselves. Dabi tagged along to make sure she was okay."
Tomura gave a puzzled nod as he tallied up the amount of blood the one girl had evidently drunk all by herself. "You realize she drank like 7 liters of blood right? That is more blood than in your average human body."
Izuku gave an excited nod at that. "It was so cool! Her body apparently processes the blood almost instantly for her Quirk to turn it into energy for her transformations!"
"Quiet, you'll wake her." The look of absolute ice that the man gave was promptly ignored by his brother.
"Anyways, this is Dabi. He hates Endeavor as much as you hate All Might. You should take him out with you when you go on your vandalism sprees."
Tomura gave his brother a look at that. "I don't need your help to find friends."
Izuku shook his head. "I know that. I was just thinking of him joining up with your League."
Dabi nodded. "If what the kid says is true about how you plan on operating then it sounds up my alley. While I don't have anything against All Might myself, I am hardly a fan."
Tomura studied the burnt man before shrugging. "Given this has mostly been a two man operation up until now, I can hardly say no. I'll make sure we hit Endeavor shit more often I guess." Walking past them to open the fridge for his original goal that brought him to the kitchen, he pulled out one of his energy drinks. "So is the vamp chick interested or is she just here to eat?"
Izuku shrugged. "No idea. She has been starving for long enough that she snapped and murdered someone just to eat so who knows what she is really like normally."
Tomura froze with his drink half raised to his mouth to stare at his brother dumbfounded. "Izuku, are you telling me you let someone you know has murdered before fall asleep on you?"
Izuku had the nerve to just shrug. "I mean you have fallen asleep on me before. I don't really see the difference between your Quirk accident and hers."
Dabi, the asshole laughed at that. "Damn kid, that was savage."
Tomura sighed and messaged his forehead. "I'm not the one explaining this to Mom."
Wait.
Shit.
By the time Tomura realized the slip, Izuku had lit up. "You called her Mom!"
Blushing Tomura covered his face. "Shut up."
Dabi looked between the two of them, obviously confused. "I feel like I am missing something."
"Tomura is adopted so he has never called our Mom Mom before." Izuku turned his face of weaponizable sunshine back to his brother. "Now it is like we are a normal family."
"You seem to be forgetting the fact that none of your family could really be considered normal."
Tomura found himself glaring at a clearly exasperated looking Kurogiri standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the bar. "Like you can talk."
The Nomu walked over to ruffle his hair. "I believe Inko made it rather clear that I am included in that count whether I wish to be or not." He turned his attention downward to the trio on the floor. "Did she really drink all of that?"
Dabi rolled his eyes. "Well the rest of us sure didn't drink any."
Kurogiri sighed. "I see why you brought her back with you, Izuku. Do the two of you have someplace you are staying?"
Dabi shook his head. "I have an old building where I have been keeping my stuff but I have been needing to find a new one."
"We have a few spare rooms and a shower if you need it. Tomura, do you mind if they take a few changes of clothes to wear?"
Tomura found himself shrugging. "You ask as if Izuku hasn't been stealing from my closet."
"Then that is settled for tonight at least. Come on, let's get you all to bed."
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Shinso Hitoshi: hypothetically speaking, would snipe be able to teach me how to use a gun without telling on me?
Nedzu: That depends on a number of factors.
Are you planning on having one added to your Hero costume?
Shinso Hitoshi: let's say i already have one…
Nedzu: Really?
I must admit to being curious as to how you came upon such an item without either of your guardians knowing.
Did you get it from All for One then?
Shinso Hitoshi: ?!?!
Nedzu: Your family seems to have forgotten that I am in the #1 Zero chat, not that I hadn't already known about Midoriya Hisashi's alter ego.
Shinso Hitoshi: oh i guess i should have figured you knew what was going on but yeah the gun sort of came from him
technically it was my birthday present from someone else
i am not going to get in trouble for telling you this right?
Nedzu: Oh no of course not.
I can't wait to see everyone's reactions when you use it for the first time in front of everyone during the entrance exams.
I presume that is why you have it?
Shinso Hitoshi: yeah, izu said i should look into a support item for dealing with things my quirk did not work on in our group chat and kats apparently thought I was taking too long to decide on something
so lessons?
Nedzu: I'll see about setting something up to get you your firearms license.
Just remember to register your gun as your support item for the exam with the correct forms and I will see about keeping Aizawa, Yamada and Kayama from seeing the form until afterwards.
Does Midoriya or the others wish to join the lessons as well?
Shinso Hitoshi: hold on
let me ask
Hitoshi switched tabs in the Herochat app to the group chat.
It Probably Was Izuku's Fault
Coffee Is My Lifeblood: anyone else want gun lessons at ua?
I Feel So Attacked Right Now: Bold of you to assume I need to go to UA to learn
Can't Catch These Hands: You could have asked me if you needed lessons.
I don't use a gun myself because my Quirk makes it impractical but Father made sure I knew the basics.
Coffee Is My Lifeblood: i wanted to learn through the legal channels so i don't get arrested
unlike some people here, i don't want to break the law
I Feel So Attacked Right Now: That's fair I guess
I don't plan on using guns normally myself so I don't see the point in trying to get licensed before the optional class in 3rd year heroics
Hitoshi switched back to the private messages.
Shinso Hitoshi: izu says he's good for now
it is too late for tenya or kats to still be up so I will have to wait to hear back from them
Nedzu: That is understandable.
I will pass your request along in the morning to Snipe before joining you all at the bar for the party.
Shinso Hitoshi: sweet
Hitoshi yawned to himself as he checked the time. A little after 3am. Stretching, he opened his bedroom door and headed to the kitchen to heat up second-dinner for Shouta and Tsukauchi when they got home. Because of everyone's messed up internal clocks under one roof, not everyone ate at the same time as one another. Since Hitoshi had found he generally didn't get to sleep at night until around the time Shouta finished his patrol, he had started to warm up food for the pair before heading to bed so they would eat something before passing out themselves.
He was just portioning out the two bowls of soup when the front door opened to let the two men in. In all the craziness that was the mental adjustments that came with both Shouta and Hizashi dating and the revelation of All for One being a member of the family, Tsukauchi had ended up taking over Shouta's old bedroom after he had moved his meager personal possessions in with Hizashi's. Hitoshi was not one hundred percent sure how he felt about the man since he mostly only saw him in passing but he had to admit, the detective was looking significantly better than he had been when he had been living alone.
"You don't need to wait up for us to come home, Hitoshi."
Hitoshi shrugged. "It isn't that much later then I would have stayed up anyways. At least this way it feels like there is a reason to still be awake."
"Has Izuku gone to bed yet? He still stays up on nights he doesn't go out right?"
Hitoshi shook his head. "He and Tomura were still up when I came out here a few minutes ago."
Tsukauchi sighed. "Hisashi says he is going to tell them to go to bed now."
Shouta grimaced slightly but didn't comment. That was another of the things that they had been forced to get used to. It seemed that unless Tsukauchi took the empathy Quirk that caused the mental connection between him and Hisashi, the connection was most likely permanent. Despite not being particularly happy about the new arrangement, Tsukauchi was firm in his current refusal to take the Quirk. Given that he felt he had enough issues dealing with the drawbacks of always knowing when someone was lying to him, the idea that he wouldn't be about to block their emotions either really did not appeal to him. As he had said, the Supervillain in his brain was the lesser evil.
Hitoshi yawned. "Well I'm going to go pass out now. See you guys when the sun is out. Night Dad. Detective."
"Goodnight Hitoshi."
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Shouta smiled to himself as his son walked back to his room, clearly not realizing what he had just said.
"So Dad huh?"
Shouta gave Naomasa a half hearted glare. "Don't you dare."
The man held his hands up in surrender. "I just thought it was cute. I am just glad the kid trusts you enough to consider calling you that, even half asleep. He has been through a lot of change over the past few months."
Shouta sighed. "We all have."
"That is true I suppose." Naomasa sighed. "At least now all of the cards are on the table. Hopefully in a few months everything will have settled into a new normal."
"Hopefully."
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
As Tensei looked up at the building, he couldn't help but wonder how it was that a 15-year-old ended up celebrating their birthday in a bar of all places. It was not like he was complaining since he would rather spend his day off in one normally anyways but the sight of his younger brother leading the way into the establishment was endlessly amusing to him.
As the pair pushed past the door, he noted the sign taped to the exterior of the bar being closed for a private engagement for the day. Tensei heard the party before they reached the stairway landing that the bar was on. "That totally counted!"
"No way! It didn't stick for at least 5 seconds!"
"It totally did too!"
Pushing the last set of doors open, he and Tenya found a pair of twenty something looking guys holding knives standing in front of a dartboard with the top two heroes crudely taped to it. At the bar sat the birthday boy in question beside a blonde girl who looked to be roughly around his and Tenya's age who both watched the argument with clear amusement painted on their faces. Oddly enough, all four of them were wearing matching sets of black hoodies and sweatpants. Tenya took one look at what was going on, sighed rather dramatically, and walked past the two men to Izuku and the girl. "I see you and Tomura have made some new friends."
Tensei watched Izuku brighten. "This is Himiko and that over there is Dabi. I ran into them last night. They are homeless so Kurogiri is letting them stay here until Dabi can afford to rent themselves a proper place."
"Hiya! It is nice to meet another one of Izuku's friends!"
Tenya gave the girl a smile. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Himiko. My name is Iida Tenya but feel free to call me Tenya. I suspect things might become confusing if you were to refer to my brother and I both by our family names." Tenya gestured back to Tensei who suddenly realized he was just standing awkwardly in the doorway so quickly entered the rest of the way. "This is my older brother Tensei of course."
"It is a pleasure to meet you both. Obviously I've heard plenty about you Izuku from both my brother and Shouta but I will always be glad to see my little brother making more friends."
Izuku opened his mouth to respond before snapping it closed and chucking a knife that had been sitting beside him in the direction of his brother and friend. Tensei found his head snapping to follow it on reflex. The two men, who had apparently been too caught up arguing to register anything else, were frozen with the black haired man's hand on fire inches from the chest of the cyan haired man who's palm was nearly touching the face of the other. The knife was buried in the wall in such a way that it was clear that Izuku had thrown it between the two of them. "Knock it off! Tomura, you are not killing Dabi over a stupid knife throwing contest. Dabi, I am not going to let you set my brother on fire!"
The pair slowly separated, muttering apologies. The cyan haired one, noticing him and Tenya, picked up a glove from the floor that he had apparently pulled off in the heat of the moment to wander over. "I wasn't going to kill him."
"Sure you weren't, Tomura-nii." Izuku shook his head. "Why don't you go help Mom and 'Giri while you calm down?"
Dabi, by process of elimination, huffed and shoved his hands in his pockets before walking out the front door. "I'm going to go get my stuff. Keep an eye on Himiko for me, would you?" He was gone before any of them could respond, brushing quickly past Sir Nighteye coming in the door. Sir gave the younger man a questioning look but made no attempt to stop him.
"Did I miss something?" Sir gave the knife embedded in the wall and then Izuku a very clear look of "It was you that threw that wasn't it?"
Izuku just gave his uncle a sheepish grin. "Dabi, the guy who just left, and Tomura were fighting. It was the fastest way to get them to stop from killing one another."
Sir pinched his brow and sighed. "I'll add knife throwing as something you are instinctively good at because of your Quirk to the list."
That made Tensei's brows shoot up. "I thought you were Quirkless?"
Izuku grinned as Sir sighed. "Izuku registers as Quirkless according to all the medical tests so he is legally speaking. Unfortunately the reality is that his Quirk is a passive precognitive one which is basically impossible to prove."
Tensei had to take a moment for that to register. "Shit that must be frustrating."
Izuku shrugged. "It has its pros and cons. The best thing about it though is that I can never be tried as a vigilante. There is a massive loophole in the law that says you can't be one if you don't have a Quirk."
Tensei nodded at that. "Yeah, you would be surprised how many people get out of vigilantism charges because they never used their Quirk in the fight they would have been charged for."
Tenya snorted at that. "I suspect Izuku could give you a list breaking all of it down. You know he is Loki right?"
"Oh that is why Shouta has started referring to you almost exclusively as Problem Child."
---MiM-MiM-MiM---
Kurogiri was not stress baking. He really wasn't. Even if the third tray's worth of cupcakes might say otherwise.
And the platter of cookies.
And the cake.
He was perfectly fine. He did not want to spend the day hiding up on his rooftop failing to get drunk instead of dealing with seeing his friends he missed so much it hurt.
He wasn't the Hero student Loud Cloud.
He wasn't Shirakumo.
He was Kurogiri.
He was still Oboro.
"Hey are you okay?" It took longer than he would have liked to register that he was sitting, curled up on his kitchen floor with a hand on his shoulder. He didn't even have to look to know who the hand belonged to. The Voice Hero's voice was his most identifiable trait after all.
"Not really."
Hizashi fell into a seated position on the floor next to him. "Looked like you were having a panic attack. Those always are no fun. You want to talk about it?"
Before he could think to stop himself, he found the words escaping from his hidden mouth. "It was more of an identity crisis. What would you do if one day you woke up and the person looking back at you in the mirror wasn't you anymore?"
Hizashi blinked, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling. "That depends. Do my friends and family still know it's me?"
"They think you are dead because by all rights you should be."
"Is there anything keeping me from clearing that mistake up?"
Kurogiri found himself pulling his legs up tighter to his chest. "Just yourself."
Hizashi rubbed his hand over his shoulder. "Are you scared of how they will react?"
"Yes." With a crack in his voice as he spoke that last word, Kurogiri found himself crying for the first time since he had first woken up after his death.
Without any hesitation Hizashi had pulled him into a tight hug. "It's okay. I've got you." For the first time in years, Kurogiri found himself grounded well enough to easily pull his Quirk back under his skin. As Hizashi began to release him, the other man took a sharp breath. "Oboro?"
"Hey Hizashi." Oboro reached up to wipe away the tears on his scarred cheeks. "Long time no see."