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Shouta has been keeping an eye on Midoriya Izuku from day one. The kid has a dangerously self-destructive quirk that he's only just begun to reel in, and while Shouta sees great potential in him, he also recognizes how easy it would be for this kid to hurt himself and others.
But he's never been afraid of the kid, just afraid for him.
So when Midoriya walks into class ten minutes late with that look in his eyes, Shouta takes notice.
He chides the problem child for his tardiness and continues with the lesson. Midoriya smiles sheepishly and pulls out his notes, continuing where they left off from last class.
Shouta puts it out of his mind. The kid probably slept in late, or had a bad morning.
He decides to keep an even closer eye on the kid when it happens again.
This time, he comes back to the dorms an hour past curfew, fervently apologizing for his mistake.
"I lost track of time," he says. "When I realized how late it was, I came back immediately! Please don't give me detention, Sensei."
Because this is the first offense of this particular type, he doesn't. But he starts to watch.
He notices how Midoriya asks to go off campus at least once a week, and how he begins studying in his room instead of with his friends in the common room.
He notices the way he smells of blood sometimes, a thick and familiar stench that he doesn't ever acknowledge.
He notices that Midoriya isn't turning in most of his work, and what he does submit is either late, incomplete, or just entirely incorrect.
(He has his suspicions. It wouldn't be the first time a student hurt themself, and especially not this particular student. But he'd never done it on purpose, not as far as Shouta knows.)
Shouta writes it all down in an email that he sends to Nezu and the guidance counselor. The kid is pulled out of class the next day and returns an hour later.
(The guidance counselor found scars on his arms, but not the type Shouta was expecting. Just the old ones from when he broke himself over and over with that awful power.)
"I'm sorry if I worried you," he says after class that day. All the other students have left, but Midoriya stays.
"All of you kids worry me," he says.
"No, but… they didn't tell me who reported it, but I know it was you. You've been keeping an eye on, on me, haven't you?"
And there's something not quite right in the way he's looking at Shouta. At first glance, there's remorse, and worry, but those eyes are predatory. Like he's scanning Shouta for a weakness, waiting to find something to pounce on.
"It was me," Shouta rubs at his elbows. "I was worried, but it appears I misread the signs."
(Midoriya should know that Shouta's keeping an eye on him. They've talked about it before, on the kid's sleepness nights.)
Midoriya studies him for another moment, and then shrugs. "Okay."
He leaves, backpack slung on one shoulder.
Shouta stares, and begins drafting another email.
(He deletes it. He doesn't know what he's seeing anymore, and he was wrong the last time anyway.)
They're setting up for movie night and Midoriya isn't back from the store yet.
"I want my popcorn," Mina whines. "What's taking him so long?!"
Shouta doesn't comment, but pulls up the location of Midoriya's phone. It says it's two blocks away, at the grocery store.
(Like it's said the past three times.)
"Can't we just start without him?" Kaminari asks. "He'll understand, right? We've got to stay ahead of curfew…"
"But it's a Friday night," Uraraka argues. "Curfew is extended, we can wait a little longer."
Kaminari groans, but flops on the couch diligently.
"Ten more minutes," he grumbles, "and then I'm starting the movie."
"That's disrespectful," Iida yells, chopping his hand through the air. "We should wait for our fellow classmate!"
Shouta watches in subdued amusement, glancing down at the tracker.
He's moving closer to UA now, after half an hour at the store. Shouta figures he'll be back before Kaminari's ten minute ultimatum, so he doesn't bother letting anyone know.
(True enough, Midoriya hops through the front doors about five minutes later, bags of snacks in hand.
Shouta doesn't comment on the drops of blood on the kid's knee: he probably just scraped it up on the walk.)
He decides something really is wrong when Midoriya asks about All Might.
Specifically, where All Might is.
(He doesn't tell him for several reasons. The first and most important being that Midoriya should know. It was his idea that All Might take a vacation, and he even suggested I-Island so his mentor could talk to his old friend.)
"I really need to speak to him, and he just won't answer his phone!"
(Thank God that Yagi is clueless when it comes to technology.)
"Kid, he'll be back soon. What do you need him for?"
"Uh, I wanted to, to talk to him about my quirk," he says quickly, but it sounds almost like a question. "It's pretty important."
And it's at that moment that something clicks.
He hasn't seen Midoriya use his infuriatingly confusing quirk in the past two weeks, nor has Shouta had to use his quirk on his student.
(With All Might's power gone, they've cut down on practical training until they can rework the schedules for the first years' teachers. Midoriya had protested this every chance he got until two weeks ago, when he finally gave it up.)
Two weeks ago, he and Uraraka had been caught in a fight between two drunkards on their way to the mall, and Uraraka had been knocked out and carried home by Midoriya.
Uraraka hadn't even remembered the fight, though she had several bruises up and down her arms.
Midoriya, on the other hand, had been pristine. He said that he called the police, and brought Uraraka straight back to UA in case she needed Recovery Girl.
Shouta swallows, feeds the kid an empty lie about All Might being in the hospital, and ushers him out of his office.
And when he's alone, he sits and thinks for a moment.
Then he picks up his phone and calls All Might, telling him to stay on I-Island for another week.
Something is wrong with Midoriya. And if he doesn't get to the bottom of it, the lives of his colleagues and students may be in danger.
It takes another week for anything to happen, and when it does, Shouta is glad that he'd notified Nezu of the kid's strange behavior.
(There are more teachers on patrol around the Heights Alliance building, especially when the kids aren't in class. They're all keeping tabs on the problem child, and Shouta is both glad and horrified that it makes a difference in the end.)
He's with the kids for another movie night, and Midoriya has just come back from the store with more snacks in his arms.
They've all situated themselves on the many couches and chairs, facing the large TV on the wall. Shouta is sitting in the kitchen, grading the english essays his husband is supposed to give back to his students the next morning.
Kirishima turns off all the lights, leaving the room in a movie theater-like state and Shouta blinks at the brightness of his laptop.
And as the opening credits okay, the window in the common room shatters into a million pieces.
The children are screaming, and Momo passes out flashlights as the movie is paused.
Shouta is standing over the familiar figure crouched on the floor, breath frozen in his lungs as he realizes the implications of his appearance.
Green lightning fizzles out as Midoriya Izuku stands, his broken hands balled into fists at his sides. He glares across the room at his double.
"You," he growls.
"W-what is this?!" the false Midoriya gasps. Shouta does what he should have done weeks ago.
He activates erasure and watches his student melt into someone else.
Toga Himiko stands surrounded by his students, a (now) very ill-fitted UA uniform hanging off her frame.
She laughs, and laughs and laughs.
Within moments she's wrapped in tape, and ice, and every single person in the room is staring at her with confusion and terror and rage.
Except one.
Midoriya Izuku - the real, genuine Midoriya Izuku - steps forward, energy shooting from his skin in the form of green lightning.
"Izu-chan," she sing, and he decks her in the face.
"Ah," he gasps, pulling back his shaking fist. His thumbs are dark purple, bruised and shattered.
(But why? What did he do? Shouta knows his control is better than that now.)
"This is so annoying!" Toga slurs a moment later, flexing her jaw. "I was so close! All Might was going to die, and it was going to be so beautiful! You can be such a bother sometimes, Izu-chan."
"Iida, call the police," Izuku says.
"No need," Shouta interrupts. "They're on their way."
Izuku nods. He stares at Toga for a moment, then flops on the recently vacated couch.
"W-what happened to your hands?" Kaminari gasps, as if finally noticing the injury. "That looks bad!"
"It is bad," Shouta agrees. "What happened, Midoriya?"
"They had quirk cancelling handcuffs," Izuku groans. "I had to break my thumb to get out. Like Aizawa-sensei taught us."
(And the kid is right but Shouta almost wishes he didn't do it. Rather, he wishes the kid never had to.)
"I wondered why you'd been acting strange," Tsu says after a moment. "I should've known, kero. I've never seen you so graceless."
"I'm not graceless!" Toga protests, until a strip of tape flies over her mouth.
"You were acting like Kami-kun," Jiro agrees. "I didn't want to be rude, so I didn't say anything about it…"
The class slowly pipes up one by one with agreements, mentioning all the things that they'd noticed were off.
And by the time the police come, Izuku is fast asleep, snuggled by twenty very protective heroes.
(Yes, twenty. Shouta doesn't usually do hug piles, but this is a special occasion.)