The Emerald Prince

Chapter 47: Testing times

Todoroki ignored All Might after his first sentence and examined field gamma.
It was a steam punk jungle of piping, railings and concrete, spreading a mile square, with a central pillar rising above it all, on which the class stood.

Finding nothing to further hold his interest in the landscape, he allowed some of what All Might was saying to register in his mind, whilst he examined his classmates.
It seemed they'd be holding an agility assessing race, in groups of five. Each would be sent to a start point equidistant from each other and the main pillar, and race to rescue All Might - posing as the least convincing civilian ever - at the centre.

Ashido, Kaminari, Hagakure and Uraraka were positively bouncing in excitement, though he couldn't see why. Excepting Ashido and maybe Uraraka, none of them had a quirk that would help them at all. Kirishima looked solemn and resolute, matching Shoji and Bakugou in solemn anticipation.

He caught Jiro talking with Momo, their bodies and faces slightly more within each other's personal space than you'd expect. Neither tended to be that inconsiderate and there was plenty of space, so he puzzled over why they they chose to be so close. He shrugged it off and continued his examination.

Also watching the two girls was Ojiro and Koda, the blond laughing at something the gentled giant had signed to him that Todoroki didn't catch. And then there was Izuku.
...and Shinsou.

The indigo haired teen had clearly also said something funny, since the greenette was chuckling, bouncing on the balls of his feet with poorly contained excitement.

Cute.

He was frankly relieved. When Izuku had come back from Hosu, he'd told the full story to both him and Aizawa, and once Aizawa finished grumbling, hugging his son and had reluctantly left for work, Izuku had come over and asked for a hug.

Not that he was complaining, even if his heart behaved weirdly and it made his left side harder to control when they hugged... but Izuku had never held onto him so tightly before.
He'd been worried about him, but it seemed he was okay. The rabbit incident... appeared to have helped.

All Might sorted them into teams based off their degree of advantage in the task, quirks included, making it strange Izuku was sorted with the top group since his quirk could barely help him. Todoroki was in the last group with Bakugou, put last because they knew perfect well he'd freeze the entirety of field Gamma to win.

"Now, Young Aizawa, I request that you do not use your ranged ability!" Exclaimed All Might, smiling widely.
"Sure." Sighed Izuku, his excitement fading. "Sir, please can you stop calling me Young Aizawa? It makes me feel uncomfortable."
You could hear a pin drop in the silence that that statement elicited.
All Might painted another genial smile over his shock, "of course, but why?"

The greenette's eyebrow twitched. "You mean to say, you don't know why a strange man in his forties, calling a teenager he doesn't know well like that, doesn't have similar vibes to calling me my boy, or baby boy... it makes me very uncomfortable... though perhaps I'm over sensitive," he tilted his head, "but please humour me, sensei?"

All Might opened and closed his mouth a few times, and eventually Izuku got bored of watching him and left to find his mark, giving a brief good luck to his fellow competitors: Oijiro, Iida, Ashido and Sero before he disappeared, though his excitement had dissipated, the teen giving off a don't-touch-me-if-you-want-to-keep-your-hands vibe.

Izuku eyed the terrain, and did some stretches in preparation.
At the klaxon, he scaled up to the roof of the nearest building and sped across the tops, balancing on piping as if he'd been doing parkour since birth.
On catching sight of Sero, he deactivated the teen's quirk, timing it so the guy would land safely.

Leaping with ease, though slower since he had to watch Sero and rely on his peripheral vision to navigate, he eventually over took the raven haired teen, moving his focus to Ojiro, causing him to fall to the ground, then Iida who tripped over.

Ashido who'd had the good fortune to be on the opposite side to Izuku made it to All Might first though. Surfing on acid had to be one of the coolest things Izuku had ever seen.

After the matches concluded, they changed and returned to their classroom...only to hear about final exams.
They had to pass them or else they wouldn't be able to go to the summer training camp afterward, and would have summer school... which was a serious danger for quite a few of his classmates.

Whilst everyone was ranting and panicking, Izuku was writing up his exam timetable.
Then Bakugou shifted in his seat and turned to look at him with a serious expression.
"Kacchan?" He felt a twinge of nerves.
The blond swallowed.
"My- my parents want to see you and formally apologise for all the shit I put you through that they were in denial about." He murmured under his breath.

Izuku grimaced internally. To be polite he'd have to go, but there was a 100% chance Auntie Mitsuki would ask about... her. And frankly he'd dealt with it terribly with Rei-san. Todoroki definitely suspected something.
That said, the time with Rei had been by surprise. If he psyched himself up enough it should be fine?

He smiled with a mixture of seriousness and reassuring friendliness he thought the request deserved, "sure!"

———

Psyching himself up wasn't working.

Izuku was already starting to struggle breathing and he hadn't even left his damn room.
The knock on the door surprised him so much he nearly fell over.
"Come in!"
He grimaced, he'd spoken slightly too loudly.

Aizawa raised his eyebrows at him, as he came through the door.
"Not okay?" He asked, settling on the bed.
"I'm- no... not really." Izuku sat beside him, slumping slightly.
Aizawa sighed, and rubbed gentle circles on his back. "If you tell me, maybe I could help. I, uh, think dads are supposed to do that."
The greenette was too nervous to smile at that, he just stared at the carpet because he didn't think he could look at his dad. "Kaachan's mum... she knew mine from their school days. She'll ask and... and I don't think I can handle it.

Arms pulled him up, and he forced his eyes away from the floor, Aizawa was smiling reassuringly - or as best as he could. It was pretty scary, but Izuku loved it.
"You'll be okay. Want me to come with?"
Izuku smiled slightly, "they want to make a formal apology... it might be a little awkward in front of Bakugou's teacher..."
The hero sighed, "that's true. Come with me."
The teacher rose, and Izuku hesitantly followed him out the room and down to the hallway.

Aizawa took his capture scarf from the coat rack, and gently placed it over Izuku's head, to wrap snugly about his shoulders.
"Will that help?"
Enveloped in the familiar reassuring smell of cats, coffee and a hint of BO, Izuku felt his entire body relax. "Yes!"
"Good," replied the hero gruffly. "Otherwise that would've been very awkward."
Izuku laughed inspite of his nerves, and Aizawa smiled in relief.
When he recovered though, a frown returned to his son's face. "But what do I tell them!"
"The same lie you told me." Replied the teacher nonchalantly.
"I know but-" the greenette froze like a deer in headlights. "Wait- you knew?"
Aizawa patted him on the head, ruffling the green curls affectionately, "I'm not an idiot. But they clearly are, so it'll work."
"Oh.." Izuku flushed with embarrassment. "I'm sorry..."
"Don't be. You never have to tell me the truth if you don't want to." The hero removed his keys with practised ease from under a sleeping cat and headed to the door, pulling on a coat. "Now let's go, I'll give you a lift there on my way to pick up problem child 2 from the hospital, and you can call me anytime if you need rescuing."

"Is Shinsou problem child 1?" Asked Izuku, recovering a little and following his father out into the open air.
"No, you are." Deadpanned Aizawa, "He has no problems."
Izuku pouted. "Suppose you wouldn't count caffeine addictions or insomnia as problems."
"They aren't bad habits if you're good at them." Replied Aizawa, unlocking the car.
Izuku snorted.