Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Working the front desk was the only thing he was really doing here. He was here to learn, so he could help people! Instead he’s doing an internship with people who avoid him most of the time, and only really working reception. He’s talked to the head counsellor a couple of times and she seems the nicest one here, however she’s usually super busy and today was no exception.

There were a couple people still waiting, most of them were very young considering adults usually didn’t go to quirk counselling regardless of whether they needed it or not. What caught his eye however was a girl, a girl with white hair and a horn who was looking down at her lap. Most kids are excited to be here, to learn more about their quirk, but she looked scared.

Seeing that there was no one to really serve, he grabbed a lollipop from the bowl on the reception desk and carefully made his way over. The man next to him watched him as he got closer, which was to be expected. If this man was her father then he probably wouldn’t want random strangers and such talking to his daughter. Luckily he does work here, even if he only has a week left, and his job is to help where he can.

“Hey.” Midoriya spoke softly, kneeling down to just below her eye level. “Are you feeling nervous?”

The girl doesn’t speak or look up, but she does nod. It’s a small nod, but he sees it.

“That’s ok. I was nervous too.”

The girl looks at him confused.

“You see, everyone who has a quirk will get an appointment at some point. But there’s nothing to worry about, they’re here to help you understand your quirk better. It’ll all be fine.”

The girl doesn’t look convinced and looks back down at her lap. Midoriya holds out the lollipop to her.

“Here, this might help cheer you up.”

She looks up to see the candy in the boy’s hand. She looks to her father for approval, who gently nods at her. She lets out a small smile and gently takes the candy.

“Thank you..”

“You’re welcome. Just remember, there’s nothing to be scared of. I’m sure your dad can protect you if need be.”

The girl looked a little better but still nervous. Midoriya didn’t want to push anything so he stood back up and walked back to the reception desk. The other receptionist, Akiyama Yuki, was still chewing on bubblegum as she watched him sit next to her.

“That’s not your job.” She states, not really caring either way.

“I know.” Midoriya sighed.

After a moment the head counsellor, Nishiyama Futaba, came out from her office and called out. “Aizawa Eri.”

The horned girl and the gruff looking man get up from their seats and follow Nishiyama to her office. Hopefully she’d be able to help them, though sometimes he’s had to chase up patients when they’ve left to give tips that they all seem to forget. Nishiyama is the most competent of the counsellors here, and yet sometimes she seems to miss easy things. Though his quirk may help with that a bit, it's also the same reason why they don’t trust him. No one trusts him once they know his quirk.

A couple minutes in he hears a commotion, or rather he senses it. It’s coming from Nishiyama’s office. He sighs, he wants to go over and help but they’ve already told him he shouldn’t be in their offices without permission. He’s tried to help loads of patients, but they all think he’s not experienced enough for it. How is he meant to get experience if they won’t let him try!

He was going to leave it be, but he watched the man carry his daughter out and she looked so sad. He couldn’t just leave it like that. Luckily it was his lunch break, so he let Akiyama know he was going out and headed off.

He almost gave up searching until he saw the girl with her father at the nearby park. Most kids would run around and play in a place like this, but she seemed content sitting on the grass and looking at the equipment from afar.

He approaches with a wave. “Hi!”

They both turn to him, the man eyeing him suspiciously. He doesn’t need his quirk to know what he’s thinking.

“Hi.” The girl greeted softly, he almost didn’t hear her.

“I assume the appointment didn’t go very well.”

She shook her head.

“Do you know why it didn’t go well?”

She looked up at him and nodded.

“Do you want to tell me why?”

The man stepped a little closer, obviously protective of his daughter, Midoriya just smiled at him with the most reassuring smile he could.

“I…” The girl starts, fiddling with the hem of her dress. “My quirk is a curse.”

Her father looks at the girl softly, a frown threatening to form.

“Why do you think that?” Midoriya asked, sitting down in front of her.

“Cause it hurts people.”

“Well, any quirk can hurt people. Do you want to hurt people?”

Eri shook her head vigorously. “No!”

“Then I don’t think you’re a bad person, and I definitely don’t think your quirk is a curse.”

“How? You don’t even know what it is?”

“Then, why don’t you tell me?”

The father stayed close but made no move to interfere, plus Midoriya was sure he was curious as to how he’d handle this. The father did look familiar though, he wonders why.

“It’s called Rewind.” She says after a moment's silence. “It allows me to rewind people.”

Theories immediately started popping up in Midoriya’s head. “Interesting.” He looks around and spots a flower. It had been pulled out of the ground, probably by some kid, and wasn’t looking too good. He went over and grabbed the flower.

“How about we try something Eri.” He sits back down in front of her. “Why don’t you try and rewind this flower?”

The girl is hesitant, but she takes the flower from his hand. “Why?” She asks with a cute little head tilt.

“Because if my hunch is correct, I think I can help.”

She seemed curious, but didn’t quite believe him just yet. That was ok, sometimes these things took time.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to, Eri.” Midoriya didn’t want to force this poor girl to use her quirk if she was uncomfortable with it, but he at least wanted to try and help.

The girl nodded, and held out the flower in both her hands. Her eyes squeezed shut and her tongue poked out the side of her mouth. Midoriya looked over to her father to see he was finding this just as cute as he was. He did.

Energy flowed through her hands to the flower and it started to rewind. More specifically, it looked like it got younger. A reverse in state of sorts. And the flower continued to reverse and shrink till it disappeared. Tears started to fall from Eri’s face as her quirk slowly dissipated, though that was probably due to her fathers now red eyes. Wait… red eyes? You don’t mean? He’ll ask those questions later. Time to focus, Izuku!

“I killed it.” The girl sniffed.

“That’s ok.” Midoriya spoke softly. “The plant looked quite old anyway, and I was expecting you to do that.”

“You were?” Eri wiped her tears on her sleeve.

“Yeah. Now tell me, how did that feel? This could be important to helping your quirk.”

“It felt like… rushing water. Like when you turn on the tap!”

“I see…” Midoriya grabs another flower and gives it to the girl. “Ok, I want you to do the same thing again, but this time I want you to focus on the feeling. If you can, try to stop it.”

Eri reached out to the flower, but hesitated. “I…” Tears were still in her eyes.

“You don't have to, Eri. However this might surprise you.” Izuku didn't use his quirk often, at least not on purpose. Yet seeing this girl cry, Midoriya wanted to help ease her worries. So he did. He reached out with his mind, softly connecting with Eri’s and gently pushing feelings of calm and warmth forward. Eri’s tears got less and less as she started to feel better, better enough to grab the flower from his hands.

She wiped her eyes with her sleeve before speaking. “Was… that your quirk?” She asked.

“A part of it.” He smiled. “I can tell you and your father all about it later, if you want. But first, how about we try this one more time.”

Eri thinks about it for a second, before nodding. She pulls the flower close and lets her energy flow from her once more, and the flower gets younger and younger. As the flower shrinks and a seed takes its place, the energy stops. Midoriya quickly glances at her father, who he assumes is Eraserhead, to see his shocked expression. No red eyes. He smiles.

“I…” Eri beams with tears rolling down her cheeks, getting slightly overwhelmed. “I did it.” She whispered.

“Yeah, you did.”

“H-how?” She looked up at him.

“Well, how do you feel?”

“Better.” She smiles as she looks down at the seed.

“I don't know about your situation, but I think you have quirk build-up.”

“Quirk build-up?” Eraserhead is now speaking up. “What do you mean?”

“Well, when someone doesn't use their quirk a lot.” As he talks, his hands move with him. He loves talking about quirks. “Then you get quirk buildup. All that energy is stored with nowhere to go, and it has to be released somewhere. Especially with emitter quirks like Eri’s. So when she tries to use it, she can't control it and it bursts out. All she needs to do is continue using her quirk. That way the build up will be less and less, until it disappears. It'll also help with her control. I assume she can use her quirk on all living things, so start with plants. Once the buildup is gone, then maybe she can start practicing on animals and bugs.”

“So… I can control it?”

“Of course you can.” He smiles at her. “How about we plant that seed? Then the flower will grow again.”

She nods, determined as she goes to find a nice patch of nearby grass.

“How?” Eraserhead asked.

“She's like me, at least in a way.”

The man looks at him questioningly.

“Don't worry too much about it, Eraserhead.” He winks at the man. He pulls out a piece of paper and a pen from his jacket pocket, and scribbles something down before handing it to him. “My name and number. I doubt you'll need to contact me again, but just in case. It's there.”

“What is your quirk?” Eraserhead didn't put much stock in quirks, but did the boy have a quirk that helped him with analysis? Or was he just that good? Sue him, he was curious.

“You have my name, hero. I'm sure you can find out.” He waves to the man as he leaves, going back to the office he works in.

Chapter Text

Eri couldn’t stop talking about Midoriya. It was nice, previously she hadn’t talked as much. She’d keep to herself and wouldn’t speak unless spoken too. She was also using her quirk more often, which was something they’d struggled to get her to do before. There were still struggles, but now she wasn’t wiping everything she tried to use it on out of existence. In fact, she was getting a lot better at stopping her quirk. However the issue now was, how can she gain more control? To reverse for a specific amount? If she rewinds a plant, how much control does she have on how far? Nezu seemed to have the same questions as Aizawa, so they were sitting in his office.

“This Midoriya. Did you get any information on him?” Nezu leaned forward on his desk.

“Not much.” Aizawa sighed. “I know his quirk, his name, and his age. I didn’t dig much deeper than that.”

“Why?”

“Cause he’s a kid. I may be curious, but I don’t want to invade his privacy.”

“Yet you looked up his quirk.” The rat smirked.

“Well technically he invited me to.”

“Oh! He did, did he?”

Aizawa nods. “I was curious if his quirk was something that helped him analyse quirks, and my hunch was wrong. He’s a telepath.”

“A telepath?”

“Yeah.” Aizawa fiddles with one end of his capture scarf. “Yet there seems to be more to it than that.”

“Oh! You must be talking about what Eri said.”

He nods. “Yeah. He helped her feel calm.”

“It is an interesting quirk.” Nezu takes a sip of his tea, smiling all the while. “Even though we don’t know much about the boy, his influence on Eri is profound.”

“She’s doing a lot better.” Aizawa agreed. “Yet she still lacks control.”

“Well, that’s only fair! We don’t really know everything her quirk entails.”

“It’d be nice to find out.”

Nezu puts a paw to his chin in thought, before picking up the piece of paper Aizawa gave to him days earlier. “Then maybe, we should call in an expert.”

“As much as the kid helped, he’s still a kid. Not only does he still have school, who knows how much more he can help.”

“You think he’s inexperienced?”

Aizawa nods. “He’s clever, that’s for sure. He’ll be great at what he does, but he’s still learning. We can’t expect a kid to pick up our slack.”

“Perhaps not, Aizawa. But we can give him experience!”

Aizawa raised his eyebrow at the rat as he dialled the boy’s number into his phone. It only took two rings for him to answer.

“Hello?” A nervous voice came through.

“Hello there, Midoriya! My name is Nezu, I’m calling from U.A!”

A gasp was heard on the other end. “Y-You’re Principal Nezu! The p-principal of U.A!”

“The one and only!” The rat smiled, happy he was being recognised. “Eraserhead gave me your number after we met, and we thought we could ask for your help!”

“Only if you’re free, kid. We don’t want to take you away from your studies.” Aizawa added.

“Oh! That won’t be a problem, I… I’m pretty up to date. Anyway! I assume this is about Eri?”

Aizawa nods, even though the boy can’t see it. “She’s made a lot of progress, however she still lacks control. We don’t know much about her quirk, so we’re not sure how to help.”

“But you think I can?”

“Not only are you a talented analyst, from what I’ve heard.” Nezu jumped in. “But your quirk might also be able to help!”

“No.” The response was sharp, immediate.

“No?” Aizawa asked, hoping for clarification.

“I… I can’t do that to her. I don’t know what she’s been through, but her surface thoughts… I don’t want to make her worse.”

“No worries, Midoriya!” Nezu continued, almost like he hadn’t noticed the sudden tension. “We could still use your expertise regardless! Plus, I am a little curious myself.”

“Curious? About what?”

“Well about your analysis of course!”

A small relieved sigh was heard from the other end, so small they almost missed it. “Alright, when can I see her?”

“How about tomorrow?” Nezu asked. “We can hammer out any details later, but we’d like to have this appointment at U.A.”

“I have no issue with that, I was only interning at that place for a couple weeks. My last day was yesterday, so I’m pretty free right now.”

“Perfect! I shall text you later!” Nezu beamed.

“Later.” The kid said and then hung up the call.

The next day, Midoriya enters through the gates of U.A. Eraserhead was there waiting for him, and once they met the man escorted him to Nezu’s office, picking up a visitor's pass on the way there. They didn’t talk much, though Midoriya wasn’t taking it as a bad sign. They must know his quirk by now, so if they were going to be quirkist about it they already would have. At least, he hoped they would. They're surface thoughts hadn't been projected towards his quirk so he should be in the clear, though he can sense their curiosity.

“She’s in here.” Eraserhead motioned to the office door in front of them. There was a golden nameplate stuck on it that read ‘Nezu’, who knew if it was real gold.

The boy nods and opens the door, a smile immediately graces his face when he sees the girl. He pretends not to notice the principal for now, he had quite the intimidating presence. That, and he wasn’t getting a whole lot of surface thoughts from him. He hadn’t experienced that before, although it could be because he was a quirked animal and not a human.

“Hi Eri!” He pulled his focus to the girl. “How have you been?”

“Good!” She raised her arms in a sort of victory pose, it was adorable. “I haven’t been making things disappear!”

“That’s amazing!” Midoriya gasped a little, making his reactions a little bigger for her, as he bent down to her eye level. “I’m glad you’ve gotten better with your quirk. Now, I’ve been told that you don’t know exactly how to work with your quirk.”

“I know it can make things smaller or make them disappear.” Eri stated as she fiddled with the hem of her red dress. “But, I don’t know how to make things smaller.”

“That’s a good point, Eri. Shall we find out today?”

Eri nods, determined.

“Great! So, I have something I want you to try.” Midoriya opens his bag and brings out a small bundle of flowers. “I got these on the way here.” He takes one flower from the bundle and puts it on Nezu’s desk. “So I want you to try and rewind this flower, however you’re not allowed to touch the flower.”

“I can’t… touch the flower?”

He nods. “Yup! You can hover your hands over it if it helps you focus, but you’re not allowed to touch it.” He gives her a reassuring smile. “Give it a go! I think you’ll surprise yourself.”

Eri hesitates a second, before reaching out her hands. Her tongue sticks out in concentration, but nothing happens. She starts to look a little worried, but Midoriya motions for her to continue. So she squeezes her eyes shut and continues to focus. Nothing seems to happen. Aizawa goes to interrupt, but Midoriya stops him and motions to her horn. It’s small, but there’s energy surrounding it, and it’s slowly getting bigger. It flows out and spreads down her arms and towards her hands, and Midoriya motions everyone to get back as it starts to encompass her. The energy tickles out and just barely touches the flower as it starts to rewind. This rewind however is slower then it was when she touched it, it only gets faster the more energy is put in. And even then it was still much slower.

After a moment she stops, the energy dissipating from her quirk. She looks exhausted. “Did… Did I do it?”

Midoriya beams at her. “Yes, you did. I’m sure you felt it. But the energy came out of your horn, and spread around you, and eventually touched the flower. This means you can use your quirk at range, and if you practice more you could also rewind multiple things at once!”

Eri looks panicked. “Did anyone get hurt?”

Midoriya shook his head. “No, everyone’s fine. I told them to move back.”

She sighs in relief, her lack of energy keeping up with her as she starts to sway. Aizawa picks her up and she leans into him, falling asleep soon after.

“Fascinating.” Nezu comments as he studies the flower. “How did you know?”

“I didn’t.” Midoriya turns his attention to the rat. “I just guessed. I’m sure you all have also seen her horn has gotten smaller.”

Nazu nods. “Yes! We believe it’s stored up energy from her quirk.”

“I agree with you.” Midoriya nods back. “Her energy is built up in her horn, the bigger it is the more energy she has stored up. Though, that also makes it a lot harder to control as the effects of her quirk will be stronger. I don’t think the horn will ever disappear, but it being a smaller size means she’ll have more control but less energy to work with. You saw how slow the rewind was? It’s because she had to let the energy flow through her and project it outwards, and as she hasn’t practiced this we don’t know how much control she has when she projects that energy outward. But the rewind process won’t start until that energy hits something it can rewind. Hence, it’s slower as lots of energy has already been expelled in trying to reach out to the flower. If she wanted to make sure she didn’t rewind multiple things at once, then she’d need to be able to control the trajectory of her energy. Easier said than done.”

Nezu nods along, his smile growing. “And as the energy will rewind anything it hits, the control she’ll have in this instance is over the energy itself.”

Midoriya nods. “I’d still get her to practice on plants for now. When she’s ready, we can look at animals and bugs. Animals are a lot more complex, so that’d be good practice. Bugs would also help with control as they have shorter lifespans. It’d be a lot easier to erase a bug out of existence, so it’d help her practice control of the energy her quirk produces.”

Nezu beams. “Thank you for all your help, Midoriya. This has been very enlightening!”

“Well, if that’s all.” Midoriya goes to pack his things.

“I was thinking we could chat before you leave!” Nezu interrupts him. “Eri may be asleep for a while, and I’m sure she’ll want to see you off!”

Midoriya stood there, bag in hand, contemplating just running out the door. However he doesn’t. Might as well stay a little bit longer, just for Eri.

“Ok. Let’s talk.”

Chapter Text

“Tea?” Nezu offers as he pours himself a cup.

“Sure. Thank you.” Midoriya takes the cup the principal gave him after pouring his own, he didn’t want to stay here too long but he assumed the quirked animal wouldn’t let him leave so soon.

“So, I’m sure you know why I asked to speak with you.”

Midoriya nods. “To an extent. I try not to peek into other people’s minds, but I could at least feel your curiosity.”

“Interesting.” Nezu’s eyes sparkled. “Can you hear my thoughts now?”

“If I tried to, I probably could. Surface thoughts I usually don’t need to try and hear, but you seem to have fewer than I’m used to. I assume it’s because you’re a quirked animal and not a human.”

“So you can read animals' minds?”

Midoriya nods, taking a sip of the tea in front of him. It was delicious. “To an extent. It’s more feelings than thoughts, considering most animals don’t have the same capacity for thoughts as humans do. Unlike you, of course.”

“So very interesting.” Nezu leans forward on his chair. “There’s so much more I could ask! Alas, I do have something I want to discuss.”

“It’s about Eri, right?”

Nezu grins, it was slightly unsettling. He was definitely enjoying this. “Yes. More specifically, I wanted to talk about how you’ve managed to help her. We haven’t been able to help her during her time here, though I must admit we never managed to get her to use her quirk much.”

Midoriya takes another sip, using the small gap in conversation to gather his thoughts. He wasn’t intimidated in the slightest, and anyone who said otherwise was lying. Definitely lying. “It can be… difficult to get someone to use their quirk if there’s trauma bound to it. I didn’t want to go prying, but her surface thoughts weren’t… they weren’t happy, to say the least.”

“Is there anything we can do to help her?”

“We already are, you already are.” Midoriya cringes after he gets the words out, like he’s reacting to something only he could hear. “And yes, I heard that. No, I refuse to use my quirk to help. It could do more harm than good.”

Nezu tilts his head curiously at the boy. “Why would that be? I must confess, I don’t know a lot about how your quirk works. It’s not just reading people’s thoughts though, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Midoriya nods, moving his gaze to his lap. His hands grabbing at the fabric of his jeans. “If I were to try and read her memories, she’d also experience those memories right along with me. Now, I can also alter thoughts and memories to an extent. Like I can influence someone to make me a cup of tea by altering their thoughts, but that doesn’t mean they’ll listen to the influence. I can alter memories, but if they see contradictions to that memory they can start to remember what the original memories were." He sighs, taking a moment before continuing. "I’m not about to rummage in a young girl's head to alter memories so she remembers less of her trauma, and if she were to end up realising those memories were fake that might end up doing more harm than good. And if I were to try and read her memories so I had a better idea of what I was working with, to see what trauma is affecting her and her quirk usage, then she’d have to relive those moments. I will not do that to her.”

Nezu takes a bit to let the information soak in before replying. “That does sound disadvantageous. No matter, we can always help fill you in as much as we can.”

Midoriya glances up in shock. “You’d tell me? Surely there’s rules against that.”

Nezu nods. “Yes, there are some things we aren’t at liberty to talk about. However, if you were to agree to help with Eri’s quirk counselling then we’d have a very good reason to divulge this information.”

“But I’m not a licensed practitioner. I don’t think I could legally take over Eri’s case, at least not fully.”

“But you could, as an advisory role. So if you were to be interning with the organisation handling Eri’s sessions, then you’d be able to have access to said information to help her.”

“I’m not interning at Nishiyama's anymore though. I was only there for a couple weeks while I studied.”

“Oh, we’ve decided to keep Eri’s case internal. Seeing Nishiyama was more of an… experiment.”

“Experiment?” Midoriya eyed the principal with a confused expression.

“Yes! We wanted to see if Eri would make more progress in a more public setting, to see if working with the heroes that rescued her was making her more uneasy when it came to quirk training and such. Obviously, it didn’t make much of a difference. Well, not until she met you.”

Midoriya fiddled with his now empty cup of tea. “I just knew I needed the right approach. I had the advantage of hearing what was going on in her previous appointment.”

“Yes, I heard it didn’t go well.”

Midoriya sighed. “Nishiyama is a great counsellor, but she tends to get a little in her own head sometimes. She’ll miss obvious things cause her mind is too busy running off in another direction. I wanted to make sure I was focused on Eri, more than whatever theories I could think of in the moment.”

“Even more reason to have you help!”

“But I’m not interning with anyone, how would that work?”

“Well you do online school, right?”

“...I’m not even going to ask how you know that, but yes I do.”

“A degree in quirk studies, academically you seem to be quite ahead of your peers. It’s quite the achievement.” Nezu takes a sip of tea. “So I’m sure we can make an exception with how young you are, and have you intern under Hound Dog! He is already assigned to her case, and if you were to intern with him then you could help us both in Eri’s quirk counselling sessions.”

Midoriya was stunned, entirely unsure of what to say. “I… why?”

“Because you have potential Midoriya, I wouldn’t be offering this opportunity if you didn’t. You’re a very intelligent young man who Eri has grown close to, someone she can trust. And in such a short amount of time too! Not only that, but you want to help, an admirable quality. And as a teacher, it is my job to grow the potential I see in my students!”

"B-But.. . I'm not one of your students..."

"Not yet." The principal grinned.

Midoriya didn't say anything else, not trusting his voice to stay steady, so he just nodded hoping that conveyed all he needed to. It seemed to, because Nezu’s grin brightened significantly.

“So I take it, you'll accept?”

“I-I’ll have to talk to my Mum first, but… I c-can’t see myself refusing this opportunity."

“Perfect!” Nezu grabbed a card and handed it to the boy. “Contact me once you’ve talked with your mother, and we can make arrangements from there. Now then, how about we go and see Eri before you leave.”

Midoriya smiles, grabbing his yellow bag covered in hero pins as he stands. “Yeah, sounds good.”

Chapter Text

“Mum! I’m home!” Midoriya kicked his shoes off and hung up his coat. The scent of a home cooked meal wafted throughout the apartment and the boy did his best not to drool.

“Welcome home, baby!” His Mum rushed over and crushed him in a hug. She could sense her happiness from here, though she did seem a touch worried. 'He's been gone for a while.' The thought projected from her mind, which she knew he probably heard as she sheepishly looked up at him. He gets it though so instead he just sends a reassuring smile her way, which draws a small smile out of her. Midoriya sees that as a success. “So, how did it go?” She asked as she finally took a step back.

“Well, Eri is doing great. I honestly can’t believe they invited me over for her, but she wanted to see me again.”

“And what did they say?”

“While I was there with Eri, Nezu said he wanted to talk with me. We had a chat, and… well... He offered me an internship at U.A..”

His Mum looked at him wide eyed. “At U.A?!”

He nodded. “Yeah. I’d be interning under Hound Dog, still continuing my online school! But… I’ll get to gain some experience at U.A while I help Eri.”

"Well I hope you accepted!"

"Yeah, I did. Said I'd talk with you before officially accepting, but I'd never say no to that."

“Oh… I’m so proud of you!” She rushes forward to hug him again, happy tears streaming down her face.

His own eyes welled up with tears as he looked down at her. “Thanks Mum.”

They stayed there for a moment, enjoying each other's company and basking in the warm feelings. Midoriya more so, since he was feeling his Mums as well as his own. Pride and love surged out from her which Midoriya left a wide smile growing on his face, he could only hug her tighter as the positivity threatened to overwhelm a bit. His Mum eventually pulled back with a smile, and wandered back to the kitchen with a pep in her step.

“We have dinner ready soon, make sure to freshen up!”

“Ok, thanks Mum.”

He went upstairs and showered before changing into more comfortable clothes, his mind buzzing with activity as usual. He usually tried not to pay much attention to surface thoughts so he didn’t invade anyone's privacy, but all he could really do was try not to listen. He’d gotten pretty good at it, but some people’s thoughts were louder than others. Especially the telltale angry thoughts coming from a couple doors down. They really needed couples therapy. Midoriya sighed, but then a smile graced his face as he felt a familiar warmth from next door. Mrs Fujikawa only recently had a baby, and the couple were there with the baby now. Feeling the warmth radiate from that apartment he nodded to himself.

He put his dirty clothes in the basket and walked back towards the kitchen. Mum had already set up the table and had just started dishing up. The smell of curry filled the house with a pleasant aroma. He got some drinks ready for the two of them as his Mum finished serving and they both sat down for a nice family dinner.

The next day he was again outside the gates of U.A, having been instructed to see Nezu as soon as he got in. Students were walking in at this time too, rushing to get to class, and he could hear the thoughts of exams and school work. One student was lamenting about not having done their homework for today and was mentally making a list of who would be most likely to give him notes in his class. Midoriya didn't like his odds. He walked into the building and tried to avoid the familiar angry thoughts he felt from the entrance, curtesy of a very familiar blonde. He sighed as he quickly dashed through the entrance. It didn’t take him long but he eventually got to Nezu’s office and knocked on the door, not too surprised at the feeling of two presences behind the door.

“Come in!” He called out from inside.

The boy opened the door to see Nezu sitting at his desk with a smile and a cup of tea in hand. Next to him was a hulking figure, which could only belong to Hound Dog. Midoriya had never met the man, but his surface thoughts seemed to be a lot more gentler than his outward appearance would suggest.

“Take a seat.” Nezu motioned towards the empty chair opposite him, which Midoriya took.

As he sat down, Hound Dog extended his hand in greeting. “I’m Inui Ryo, but most know me as Hound Dog. I work as a guidance counselor here at U.A.”

“Pleasure to meet you.” Midoriya shook his hand.

“So!” Nezu clapped his hands together, the excitement clearly getting to him. Though Midoriya wasn’t quite sure why he was so excited. “During your internship here you’ll be working with Hound Dog, which means you’ll have the opportunity to work with our students as well as Eri! Of course, Eri will be your main priority however you may find it interesting to sit in on sessions that Hound Dog has with our students.” Nezu takes some papers from his desk drawer and puts them on the table. “This is the contract for your internship here, feel free to read through everything.”

Midoriya nodded as he took the papers and read through all of them. His eyes stopped as he saw something that surprised him. “I.. I’m getting paid for this?”

Nezu nods. “Yup. We thought it was only fair.”

“B-But you don’t need to.”

“It may not be a requirement, however we are taking you away from your studies. No matter how ahead you may be. You’ll also only be required a couple days a week, but if you wish to come in more to use the resources here you can. We are also all here to help with your studies if needs be!”

“W-Why?”

“Because you are a student after all, a bright young student! It is our job as teachers to help students just like you.”

“I..” Midoriya took a moment to gather himself, trying not to cry. “Th-thank you.”

“It’s no issue at all. All we need is for you to sign the contract." Nezu motions to the papers in the boys hands. "Take as much time as you need to read it, and then we can show you where you’ll be working.”

Midoriya took a moment to reread the contract and then signed it. He'd be an idiot not too, especially with how much they were paying him. Though he was ready to agree for the experience alone, and to help Eri.

Nezu accepted the signed papers with a smile. “I’ll let Hound Dog take it from here.” The quirked animal motioned towards the tall hero.

“If you’ll follow me.” Hound Dog said with a smile as he led Midoriya to where he’d be working for the foreseeable future.

It was… a cosier office than he imagined, though he wasn’t sure what he was imagining. It had a big desk in the center of the office with a big chair for Hound Dog and a small sofa opposite. The walls were painted a nice warm blue, and next to the desk a smaller one had been set up.

“This will be your desk for the time being. We can move things around if needs be, but I assume you’ll be with Eri when you're not shadowing any sessions with me. I assume it goes without saying that anything students say here cannot be said to anyone else unless we deem it necessary.”

Midoriya nods. “This won’t be the first appointment I’ve shadowed.” Hound Dog smiles at the boy with a vicious looking smile, and yet Midoriya can tell that he bears no ill will. He’s genuinely happy and honestly a lot softer than he’d imagined. He held out his hand to the hero. “I look forward to working with you.”

“As do I.” He shook the boy's hand.

Chapter Text

“Izuku!” Eri called out as she rushed over. Midoriya bent down and picked her up, spinning around the giggling child. They’d been doing these appointments for a couple weeks now, and she’d gotten so much better with her quirk. Gaining a lot more control over the energy she emitted, which in turn allowed her more control over how much and how long she rewound things for. She still struggled a little, but the progress she's made was amazing and Midoriya couldn't be prouder of her.

“How are you today, Eri?” He smiled at the girl.

“I’m good!” She wiggled around a little, and Midoriya took that as a sign to put her down. She rushed to her dads side, who'd come with her, and brought over a plant. “Yuki is good too!”

“That’s very good, Eri.” He knelt down to her height and took a look at the plant. Yuki is a sunflower Midoriya got Eri while out one day, and thought it’d be a good exercise to get her to take care of it. Not only will it help teach responsibility, which she probably doesn’t need much help in, but more importantly it helped with her quirk control.

“How about we try something new today.” Midoriya walked further into the empty gym. This is where Eri usually had quirk counselling. They could use the office when Hound Dog isn’t seeing a student, however she preferred to be in the gym. They weren’t too sure why, but Midoriya assumed it was because the office made her feel a little uncomfortable. He doesn’t want to think much about why.

“What are we doing today?” Eri looked up at him with a curious head tilt.

“I thought we could move on to something a little more difficult than plants.” He reaches behind him and opens a cage he had brought in. Slowly and carefully he brought out a bunny in his arms.

Eri immediately rushed over with stars in her eyes, but made no move to touch the animal. “They’re so cute.” She whispered as she watched the bunny who was very comfortable in Midoriya’s arms.

“This bunny had a bit of a fall recently.” Midoriya repositioned the bunny carefully to show their bandaged up leg. “She’ll be fine, but she won’t be healed for a bit. I was wondering if you wanted to try using your quirk on her.”

Eri immediately took a step back. “B-But what if I hurt her?”

“I have full confidence in you, you’ve been doing so well.” Midoriya put his free hand on her shoulder. “And Eraserhead will be here to stop you if needs be, but I don’t think you’ll need him to.

“You don’t?” She looked up at him, clearly not convinced.

“I know you’ll be fine. However, you don’t need to. Only if you're comfortable.”

After a while, Eri gave a determined nod and reached out her hands. “I’ll do it!”

“Then come over here.” He went over to the middle of the empty gym and put the bunny on the ground. “Whenever you’re ready.” He stood up and moved back a bit to give them some space.

She stood by the bunny for a moment before turning to Midoriya. “What’s her name?”

“Snowball. Her name is Snowball.”

“Because she’s white?”

He nods with a smile. “Yes, I think so.”

Eri nods as she slowly approaches the bunny, who was currently chilling on the floor. “Hi Snowball.” Eri whispers as she sits down next to the bunny. “I’m here to help you.” Eraserhead didn’t dare take his eyes away as Eri slowly reached her hand out and touched the bunny, the girl herself was shaking slightly.

“You’ve got this.” Midoriya spoke up as he put his index and middle fingers of his left hand to his forehead, concentrating on Eri’s mind and sending calm thoughts her way. The girl's hand slowly stops shaking as a small smile grows on her face.

She turns to Midoriya. “Thank you.”

“You’ve got this.”

Eri turned back to the bunny with a determined face, closed her eyes and concentrated on the bunny in front of her. The energy slowly trickled out her horn and onto her hand, then the energy pooled around the bunny who looked a little startled at the energy surrounding her but then suddenly calmed down. The energy continued to pour and the bandaged leg started to move, and as the bunny hoped away Eri managed to slow the trickle to a complete stop.

“I… I did it.” Eri whispered to herself as tears pooled in her eyes.

“You did, I told you could.” Midoriya smiled at her, keeping an eye on the bunny slowly exploring the empty gym.

Eri rushed over to Midoriya who picked her up. “Thank you.” She hugged him as close as she could.

“It was all you, Eri. You’ve done so well.”

They stayed like that for a while until Eri fell asleep, then Midoriya handed her to Eraserhead.

“Did you keep the bunny there?” He asked.

The boy shook his head. “I kept her calm, but I can’t command her to stay. Just do what I can to help influence her, though I knew once her leg was healed she’d try to hop away. She’s a curious one.”

“You can read her mind?”

“Animals are difficult as they don’t think like us, it’s more that I get emotions that I can read or influence. And she is definitely feeling curious.”

They both watched the bunny zoom around the gym with a pep in her step, they thought she’d have tired out by now but she had more energy than ever. It looked like she’d be like this for a while.

“...How do we get her back in the cage?”

Midoriya smiled at him. “The old fashioned way.” He took a carrot out of his bag and went to try and catch the hopping bunny, which took a lot longer than he liked.