Trust Falls

For a Taste of your Whiskey, I'll give you some advice

Midoriya Izuku was nothing like Shouta expected.

Sure, he was expecting to be met with a traumatized teenager. It wasn't anything outside of his normal scope of operations. Hell, he dealt with 20 traumatized kids on a daily basis. He hadn't thought that this was going to be any different.

And he couldn't have proved himself more wrong if he'd tried, at this point.

What kid had to beg someone not to tell their parents that they were alive?

What kid tried to take their own life at such a young age?

"I'm done with this. Choose a different subject." Izuku had intoned, voice so blank and controlled that it almost broke Shouta's heart. How did an almost 16 year old even know how to mask their emotions this well?

Sighing, Shouta nodded and glanced back down at his list of questions. There were a lot more that he needed to mark out for the moment since this line of questioning was doing nothing more than losing him the trust he needed to build with the kid.

"Okay. How comfortable are you with hand to hand combat? I know you're good with your knives, which I have by the way and might give back depending on how you do this week."

The kid blinked at him, surprised and more than a little confused if the way he'd uncurled from his ball just a little to peer at the hero over his knees was any indication.

"I....am okay with hand to hand, I guess, but I've kinda built my skills more towards talking my way out of situations and analysis?" He mumbled, fingers twisting at the fabric of his pants again, brows furrowed over his eyes. "I guess the answer is I know enough to keep me alive?"

Shouta hummed, marking it down and tapping his pen against the paper as he thought. He'd have to train the kid himself if he wanted him to be able to take over that part of the lessons, then. It was do-able at the very least.

"I'll need a sample of your analysis before I make any decisions on that, one way or the other, but I'm sure Nezu will cover that with you during his lessons." He nodded a little to himself before marking something else down on the paper. By this point he could feel the confusion practically rolling off of the teen across from him.

"Uh...okay? What's this all about?" Shouta lifted his gaze from where he was scribbling out the beginnings of a lesson plan and let his lips pull up into a grin.

"Did you think 'protecting the students from Shigaraki' meant you were going to sit at the back of the classroom all day and do nothing? No. I need help getting these kids to the point where they can protect themselves and you're going to help me." Shouta pointed the pen at the teen, holding back his laugh at the completely bewildered look on Izuku's face. "In the meantime, we're not going to neglect your education, either. So you'll be having private lessons with Nezu in the mornings while the hero course has their core classes."

It was a testament to how smart the kid already was, though, that he didn't seem to flinch. Instead, one of his hands came up to cover his mouth as he started to mumble a little.

The kid's grades in that first year of middle school had been nothing to sneeze at but for him to have survived the way he had, there had to be some brain power behind those green eyes. Not many people could make a survivable way in the world on information trading alone and from what he and Nezu were able to dig up, the kid had been doing pretty well for himself.

Not that he should have had to learn that particular skill set in the first place but Shouta was going to give credit where credit was due.

"All Might teaches Heroics, though, doesn't he? Why would you have me teach things that he obviously can?"

The question snapped Shouta out of his thoughts and he refocused, meeting the kids' gaze steadily. If his brow twitched a little in annoyance at the mention of the former number one here, then that was his business.

Because honestly? His kids were far behind where they needed to be right now because of that idiot.

"You would be a sort of teaching assistant for him when he has other things to attend to." Which happened often and left his lesson plans thin and not up to Shouta's standards. Something he'd brought to Nezu over and over again.