The Serpent in the Garden - [todoshindeku] - Villain Izuku

Chapter Fourteen

A/N

Last real chapter boys :( the next one is like half chapter half notes, cause I never finished it, and then the rest'll be notes. You don't have to read the notes, but I'll post it anyways in case some of y'all are interested.

   The rest of the week went by embarrassingly normal. Izuku had known logically that the school had other things besides beating people up on the curriculum, but he hadn't fully realised that the fighting lessons or whatever would only be once or twice a week, with exceptions such as field trips and the like. Sitting through hours of English and mathematics while knowing that he could be doing something much more interesting was nothing short of excruciating. He wasn't the top of the class, sure, but he definitely knew most of what was being taught already. And being in a class being taught by a pro hero was interesting at first, for perhaps the first ten minutes, but it had quickly become mind-numbingly underwhelming.

Lunch was slightly better, he supposed. The school even had a pro hero working as the cafeteria chef, which was funny until he caught Izuku pocketing an extra drink from the display.

The food was good. Annoyingly good. Shinsou never shut up about it, which would have been endearing but it got to such a level Izuku found himself subtly checking the food for drugs or something. Iida had whacked him over the head when he saw him doing that, though. Apparently it was disrespectful to presume your food's been spiked by a pro hero.

Oh, yeah — that was happening too. He hadn't quite meant it to happen, but then again he hadn't exactly stopped it. Hagakure he'd been hoping, expecting even, to join their group in school. A little clique with big mouths and even bigger secrets. What he hadn't been expecting was for Iida and Uraraka to be a part of that group. Sure, they didn't exactly fit the criteria, unless the bouncy girl and strict, uptight boy had bigger things going on than just overdue homework and overdue rent, but they somehow fitted in. Iida kept them in line, and Uraraka kept the conversation going, and despite the fact they were here to become actual heroes, Izuku begrudgingly found himself warming up to them.

Eventually, however, Friday finally rolled around, time slowing to molasses as the day crawled by. Izuku had, embarrassingly, almost forgotten about the quirk he couldn't use. Because that was the thing, he couldn't use it, its presence so meaningless in his everyday routine, so easy to forget, despite the impact it had had upon his life. It had simply slipped his mind, at least until Uraraka had excitedly asked during lunch, over a bowl of steaming ramen, if he hoped they would be using their quirks for the upcoming hero lesson.

"Oh." He said. Then, "Oh. I should— I need to go."

His friends looked up, a mix of concern and confusion on their faces as he stood abruptly and shouldered his backpack, shoving his bento in Shinsou's direction before walking out. He spared the boy a brief I'll tell you later look, but didn't linger further than that, already hurrying towards the stairwell.

He needed to talk to Aizawa. He didn't want to, hardly liked the guy since the disaster of the aptitude test, but this was for something bigger than a stupid grudge. Because what use was any of this if he couldn't use his quirk?

He knocked on the door to the teacher's lounge, self-consciously picking at the hem of his uniform as he waited for someone to answer. Someone did, eventually, footsteps heavy as they muttered something about swore the door wasn't locked last time I checked, damnit. The doorknob rattled and then the sleep lined face of his homeroom teacher was peering out at him, face lifting from normal irritation to curious irritation when his eyes fell on Izuku.

"Midoriya-kun." He greeted, opening the door wider so he could step out and close it behind him. "Do you need something?"

Izuku really didn't want to be there. Couldn't stand being around the man for longer than necessary without Shinsou there to ground him. The revolution wasn't anywhere near the same as he felt towards All Might, but it sat there in the bottom of his gut, festering every time the man looked at his friend. He decided to cut straight to the chase.