A Grey Thin Line

12

Izuku gets his hero costume the night before job shadowing begins. He unboxes it and physically cringes at how green it is. Mom makes him walk around the living room in costume, cooing as Izuku’s face gets hotter and hotter. He is grateful she made him wear it, though, because he can already feel the differences from Seamstress’ Kuroko suit. The new one is comfortable but you’d never get him to admit it under the pain of death. Seamstress will hunt him down. The fact she admitted to shooting a man’s dick off has...more to do with it than he likes to say.

The suit’s comfortable, made with quality materials and tailored to his form, but it feels impersonal. The people who sewed it together have no idea who’s going to wear it beyond a name and face. They don’t know where to make the fabric looser to accommodate his fighting style, or to put dozens of pockets for things ranging from snacks to smoke bombs. Seamstress does. After the initial misunderstanding that left him sleep deprived and a bundle of nerves, Seamstress demanded the suit back every other week to do “maintenance”. Izuku knows the truth: Kuroda dumped like, five pages worth of notes about the suit on her and she’s been updating it with the more realistic modifications.

Izuku swears up and down, her suit has protected him just as much as Kuroda’s training. Wearing this suit feels wrong in comparison. Maybe he can get Seamstress to update this one, too? One look at this thing and she’d wrench it from him anyways, so it can’t hurt.

He’s still thinking about it when he meets Aizawa at the school gates the next day. It clings to the edges of his mind as his teacher takes him to the hero office, explaining paperwork and protocol and at least a dozen other things boring enough to make you cry. Underground Heroes handle most of the paperwork themselves, they don’t have the luxury (or the pay) for an army of secretaries and desk jockeys. Aizawa only stops because he can see Izuku getting ready to launch himself out the window. He makes Izuku suit up and they head out

Being on the roof, the familiar pressure of a helmet on his head, Izuku can almost pretend nothing’s changed. Then Aizawa moves in his peripheral and reality rudely crashes back around him. The whole thing is bittersweet. He’s back on the streets, but it’s not the same. No more interrupting drug deals or kicking would-be muggers to the curb. No, Izuku has to watch from the sidelines now, waiting for permission like some fucked up parody of a K9 unit. Most of the heroes think he’s half-feral anyways, it’s not much of a stretch. 

They do a few patrol routes starting from downtown and heading outwards. Izuku’s got some personal complaints against structured patrol routes, but he’ll hold his tongue for a few days, see if Aizawa changes it up. Despite popular belief, he is capable of such a thing.

The suit isn’t all that breathable. Izuku can feel a sweat clinging to the insides of his suit. Yet another tally against this godforsaken thing. Seamstress is gonna toss this thing out and she has his full support. Maybe Dabi can set it on fire--

Oh...right, Dabi’s not here anymore. He didn’t even leave a number to call, the dick. He’s probably in touch with Seamstress, but asking her isn’t going to go anywhere. Besides, she’s got her hands full with the whole Eri shitshow.

Don’t get him wrong, Eri is the furthest thing from a problem, but her situation is a pain in the ass. On the legal front, barring any delays she’ll be a ward of Seamstress in about two days.

Is Seamstress’ real name on those papers? Logically, yes, but there's a stubborn image in Izuku’s head of her signing everything as “Seamstress” and that’s not going away any time soon.

Their public persona for her is steadily coming together. It took a few trials, but they’ve established that her horn does not register pain, so filing it down just became an option. Hats and beanies are now a must-have accessory, Izuku knows Seamstress is planning on buying several of each.