UA's Immortal Teacher

Part 54

Around 200 years ago...

Izuku tapped a pencil thoughtfully against his chin, staring down at an article recently done by a progressive individual that wanted more laws and protections in place for those with quirks. They would post them online anonymously, and they had great theories and ideas for how to accomplish a lot of what they wanted done.

But that didn't stop their articles from being taken down almost immediately after they were posted on the grounds of being 'dangerous' and 'not realistic'. Still, the author didn't give up trying, and Izuku always did his best to read them before they went away. He had to stay away from the comments, though. Only about 1% of them were actually anything of substance, and the rest were a bunch of slurs and offensive statements that felt like barbs cutting through his skin. It just wasn't worth it.

He heard three knocks in a distinct pattern on the door, and he smiled to himself as Yoichi walked in. Recently, Aki had been incredibly busy doing things with his business and since the semester was winding down for Yoichi he had been coming over a lot more. Izuku suspected that while his younger neighbor might enjoy the time away from his overbearing brother, he had gottne used to constantly having someone else around. And it was always a pleasure to see him, so he didn't mind at all.

"Hey," Yoichi called out from where he was taking off his shoes and putting on the guest slippers. "Mind if I come over for a bit?"

"You're always welcome over here, Yoichi." Izuku rolled his eyes playfully at the teen, closing the article. He had just finished reading it, anyway. "Aki away again?"

Yoichi plopped down next to Izuku on the sofa, sighing softly. "Yeah. He's been act-" He cut himself off. Izuku tried not to read too much into it. His life experiences had always made him overly suspicious and his neighbors had always been secretive. This was normal. "Just... yeah. It's kind of nice not to have a helicopter parent for once."

Izuku laughed softly. "That why you chose to live in the dorms during the school week?"

Yoichi groaned, throwing a hand dramatically over his eyes. "Ugh. Yes and a thousand reasons more. I almost wish I could stay there the entire week, but it's kinda nice to be able to go home on the weekends."

Izuku nodded sympathetically. "It is good to have a bit of separation sometimes. I took all of my classes online, so I didn't really have that. All I did was walk over to my computer and do the work assigned." He sighed wistfully. In truth, he really didn't care that much that he didn't really go to college, but he couldn't help the nagging feeling that he had missed out on something.

"You planning on eating dinner here?" Izuku asked, already thinking about what to make.

"If it's not too much trouble," Yoichi replies. Izuku smiles at him, heaving himself off the couch and making his way into the kitchen.

"Not at all. You know you're always fine to come over here, no matter what." He hums thoughtlessly as he measures out ingredients.

"Do you want any help with that?"

"No, I've got it. I don't even need to change the serving size for what I was planning tonight. Anything interesting happen to you lately?"

Yoichi was silent for a moment. "I... I guess something happened. At least I think it did? Maybe it wasn't lately and I just realized it lately? I don't know."

Izuku turned to him, amused. "Just what did you realize?"

Yoichi wasn't making eye contact with him. It was horribly obvious when he was being evasive or when he was lying, but this time it was clear he wanted to say something. Izuku just had to listen.