Ticked Off [Boku No Hero Academia]

1: USJ

On the morning of the day Izuku knew they'd visit the USJ, he made sure to text All Might to meet up with him at Dagoba Municipal Beach Park before school. They stood on the clean sand, staring out over the glittering waves in a content silence. It had been a while since he had last met up with his mentor in his timeline, and seeing him looking a decade younger brought a smile to his face.

"Not that I don't enjoy spending time with you, Young Midoriya, but might I ask what we're doing here?" Toshinori asked, glancing down at his successor, still looming over the boy even in his emaciated form, with gangly limbs, hollow cheeks, and his blond hair a scraggly mess.

Izuku looked up, stuck with the sudden reminder of how small he used to be as a teenager. "O-oh, um... I just wanted to... uh... Everyone needs some time to relax, don't they? And the beach is always a nice place to go, so- um... I thought it would be... peaceful..."

The Pro Hero was clearly trying not to grin, his mouth twitching and his blue gaze alight with mirth. "Well, you're certainly right about that. You really restored this place to its former glory, my boy."

Although the beach clean was both a distant memory and a recent event, he could still feel a phantom ache in his muscles as he recalled the gruelling training he went through to get to where he was, lugging along tyres and dragging fridges through the sand. "I'm glad. People seem to like it here."

"Hm." Toshinori was silent for a moment, crossing his skinny arms over his baggy white t-shirt. "The way you use your power has changed a lot since the entrance exam: it's remarkable. How did you learn to harness it so quickly?"

"I- I guess, I just, I- well," he stumbled over his words again, making a complete fool of himself, as usual. "Aizawa-sensei got me thinking about things differently, and I guess... I guess something just clicked, and, uh... I just really want to prove to everyone that I can be great, so..."

His mentor's eyes glimmered a proud blue. "You don't need to prove anything to me, my boy."

Tears sprung to Izuku's emerald eyes at the overwhelmingly genuine words that took him off guard. He buried his face in the crook of his elbow, frantically wiping at his damp cheeks with the sleeve of his grey school blazer. Toshinori chuckled lowly, muttering something about a crybaby, before he tangled his fingers in the boy's hair and gently ruffled the curly locks. Izuku found himself leaning into the touch, peeking over his damp sleeve to stare happily up at his idol. It was only a short-lived moment of sweetness, but he already knew he was going to cherish it for as long as he could remember.

On impulse, he slipped his phone from his pocket, leaning against his mentor's bony side and raising the device to take a picture. Toshinori looked confused for a moment before grinning, lifting a skinny hand behind Izuku's head to give him bunny ears, causing the boy to laugh just as he took the picture. He continued to giggle even as they pulled apart, allowing him to skim through his gallery and immediately set the photo as his phone wallpaper.