Puppet Master

Izuku, Meet the Kirishimas.

Izuku bounced his knee nervously as he sat at his usual table with Mary Lou. He didn't like this. Not one bit. He didn't want to be here. He could see Eraserhead at a table further off playing civilian with Shinsou. Present Mic was at a different one too. Izuku recognized Marco there as well. He had given Izuku a few... words... of encouragement.

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'Don't take no junk from anyone, kid. You don't like 'em, you don't gotta go with them, k?'

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His heart pounded against his chest painfully.

They weren't even here yet! Why was he getting so riled up? It's not li- *Ring Ring* He jumped as the sound of the bakery's bell. Izuku glanced up. His heart stopped. They were here.

The main candidate for where Izuku would go: The Kirishima's.

Mary Lou gently squeezed his hand under the table as she waved with the other. "Over here!" The two adults and their kid came over.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Takakawa," the man, Mr. Kirishima, greeted.

"Good afternoon, ma'am." That was the kid from the talk show. He saw it on the file last night and the voice matched up. The woman smiled. "You must be Izuku." She held out her hand. Izuku flinched. He stared at the hand. He knew it wasn't forming but he could almost visualize the string reaching out to her. She slowly retracted her hand. The three sat down.

"Yes, this is Izuku," she gestured to Izuku. "He's a bit timid." The woman waved it off. "That's alright."

Izuku scanned over each and every inch of the people in front of him. He stopped when he made eye-contact with their black-haired son's red eyes. The kid grinned. He had sharp teeth. Izuku just stared.

He gave a thumbs up.

Izuku kept staring.

"So Izuku," his eyes instantly changed targets to the Tall man with short black hair, "this is our son, Eijiro Kirishima." The boy grinned again. "Hi!" Izuku took a sharp inhale and let it out, body shaking. Breathe. One-Two-Three. "U- um..." The man chuckled. "How about you two go and talk amongst yourselves? Don't want the adults buggin' ya." Izuku glanced over at Mary Lou. She gave his hand another reassuring squeeze.

"A- alright!" Kirishima piped. "There's a free table over there!" Izuku stood slowly. His legs felt like jelly. Breathe. One-Two-Tw- No. One-Three- NO. BREATHE! He followed the taller boy to an empty table. Izuku glanced over at Shinsou. The boy held up his phone.

'Marshmallow,' he mouthed. Izuku almost chuckled but his attention was drawn by the scratching of a chair against the floor as Kirishima sat down. OneTwoThreeOneTwoThreeOneTwoThree.

Izuku sat down across from the boy.

Silence. Then...

"Sorry," Izuku jumped when the boy suddenly spoke, "I'm not really good at this." Izuku glanced up. The boy scratched the back of his head. "B- But I remember you from the talk show! That was you right?" Present Mic was sitting at the table behind Kirishima. He leaned over into Izuku's line of sight and gave him a thumbs up. Right. They are here. Eraserhead is a hero. Mic is a hero. Marco is a red light thug. These people can't hurt me with them here. They can't. They can't. They can't. Izuku gripped his pants and nodded.

"That's so cool! You got to meet Present Mic in person!" Oh if only he knew. "What is he like?" The boy quickly switched to yes or no questions though.

"Is he really that loud in person?" Nod.

"Did you meet Screamo?" Nod.

"Did you go in the sound booth?" Shake.