Is That a Knife?!
The apartment was small and smelled like mildew. The main room was packed, with a bed pushed into the farthest corner and a kitchen pressed close to the door. There were two spots for storage, a nightstand that sat snuggly between the bed and the gray walls, and a dresser directly to the right of the front door. Izuku quietly stepped into the bathroom, trying to ignore the landlord and her cigarette. The sink was a little cracked but there aren't any leaks and the shower head’s barely hanging onto the wall. The toilet is an odd rectangular shape with a trash can and a stack of toilet paper set on the floor to the right of it. ‘Okay, pros and cons.’ Izuku begins mentally going through everything he sees ‘Pros are uh, no rats and there's a window, the rent is iffy but doable. Cons? Okay, cons. There isn't a kitchen sink and there is barely any floor space, but they have a dresser!’ Swiveling to face the landlord he asks
“Does the furniture come with the apartment?”
The landlord smiles at him, smoke seeping out of her mouth while she talks.
“If you like the furniture it's all yours, kid. It’ll raise the downpayment by 10,000 yen though.”
She tilts her head slightly when she says kid and Izuku thinks that's supposed to mean something, but he’s not quite sure what that something is. The lady leads him out the door, her dark blue hair floating around the hall possessively.
“You think you’re gonna take it?”She says, pausing at the yellow desk in front of the entrance.
“Yeah, I’ll just need a week to get the money, how much is the downpayment again?” Izuku is proud that his voice didn't shake and that he’s currently managing to keep eye contact will the tall woman.
“33 thousand yen.” Her voice sounds pleased and her floating hair is slowly curling around her arms as she shoos him out.
_______________
Next order of business was finding a job, something shady enough not to question his age, but not shady enough to get him killed. The first stop was the grocery store. The doors are squeaky and the painted sign is fading, making it read ‘Yoshi Market’ instead of ‘Yoshio Market.’
The store has 12 aisles in total and there's one cash register at the front with a pissy-looking teenager standing behind it. Izuku walks over to him quickly, eyeing the rest of the store for any customers. ‘It's 13:00 on a Saturday, shouldn't there be more than two people?’ Deciding to keep his questions as quiet as possible he smiles at the scowling teenager.
“Hi! I heard your hiring, I’d like to apply!” Izuku says, trying to make his voice sound a little deeper than it is.
“How old are you?” He responds slowly, shifting into a blank expression.
“I’m 16” The lie feels weird on his tongue, he hates lying. Will he have to do this a lot? Wait crap, what if they search up his name?
The teen raises his eyebrows suspiciously but nonetheless, he still turns around and waves Izuku to walk into a separate room. The room is small, there's a desk in the corner that has knock-off soda bottles littered around it and a metal fold-out chair with a blanket laid over it in the other corner. The lady at the desk smiles up at him, gold teeth shining in the dull light.
“He's here for hiring Kawashima-sama.” The teen lightly bows as he speaks.
“I see! Come, come, let me look at your pretty face” She says, eyes bright and smile wide. Her smile is confident, kind of like how Auntie-Mitsukis looks.
Walking over carefully he lets a soft smile adorn his face as tracks the women's hands. She’s scribbling out neat lines on a form he can't quite tell the purpose of.
“Hello, Senpai,” he says, trying to keep his tone deep and serious. Like an adult voice, Izuku, you need to seem older. You are older.’
“Y’know kid, this store tends to look for people who can handle their own, like adults, or strong teenagers like Okano over here!” She waves over at him nearly swatting his shoulder. “There have been a lot of shoplifters and thieves over here, especially since those heroes ran off last year. Plus Okano and I have been holding down the fort and having more employees is expensive. Thanks for thinking about applying to our shop though!” She spits out the word hero like it's poison. “Don't even know why the hiring thing was up, did I forget to take it down?” Kawashima’s last sentence is quiet, almost too quiet for Izuku to hear. She continues on her with her speech about expenses and Okano. Bowing deeply he takes his dismissal and begins toward his next stop.
- Baggage (grocery store at xxxx St.)
- Custodian (^)
- Stock clerk (^)
__________
He’s about ready to give up. The person at the motel just looked oddly at him and shook their head, not even listening to Izuku's question. That wasn't as bad as the coffee shop though, the shift manager came out and sat down at a table with him, and went through the whole hiring process before glancing at his shoes and scowling. Usually, people didn't recognize the quirkless shoe design but she did. *She immediately shoved him out, grumbling about ‘a waste of oxygen’ and ‘why hasn't this one killed himself yet, that other one was already dead before junior high.’ He’s heard every single comment she made before but they still stung, especially now.*
The sky was getting darker and darker but Izuku just kept walking. He didn’t want to see Mom’s apartment, didn't want to see the lack of furniture and personalization. His backpack was heavy, it was beginning to tire him out and he didn't know where to go, or where to stop he had nowhere to go or stop. ‘Stupid stupid stupid. What the hell was I thinking? No one wants me, not my Mom, not my Dad, not Kacchan. Why on earth would some random employer want me? Stupid fu- holy cow is that a body??’ He stops in front of one of the thinner alleys, listening as the figure groans and shifts, and ‘Holy fuck, is that blood? That's blood. That is b l o o d.’ He pulls up his hood and begins walking over toward the injured person without even thinking about it.
“Uhm, are you okay?” Izuku pauses as he reassesses the situation and- “Sorry that's a stupid question, is it okay if I help you? Ah- let me call the hospital.”
With another groan, the man turns toward him giving him a sharp glare. His eyes are bright blue and he's wearing a weird trench coat with one of those medical masks. The most noticeable thing about the man was the literal knife in his left leg.
“You can fuck off. I’m fine. And don't you dare call the fucking medics.” The man's voice is scratchy and rough and he sounds exhausted.
Izuku can’t just leave him like this! The wound isn't fatal. It isn't near any arteries or anything but still, it's a stab wound!
“Okay, okay fine! No hospital. But please, I'm begging you, let me see, I can help.” Izuku pauses, taking a shaky breath to ease his panic. “I have a first aid kit in my backpack.”
As Izuku carefully steps forward, the man looks at him suspiciously, clearly weighing his options. They stare at each other for what feels like minutes and Izuku is itching to pull out gauze and alcohol. ‘I mean, he is sitting next to a pile of trash, the chance of infection is practically 100.’
“Ugh, fine. No hospitals and no fucking questions.” The man says, finally. ‘I think I might just start calling him trench coat because I mean, who wears a damn trench coat in July?’
As soon as the words leave trenchcoat guy Izuku rushes forward and starts fumbling with his bag. He carefully cuts the jeans around the wound and starts wiping everything down with alcohol wipes, he knows it would be better to actually wash his hands, but shockingly, this random ass alley doesn't have a sink. ‘I’ve never been stabbed, how do I do this? Is it the same as deep cuts? Just treat it the same as really deep cuts, itll be fine’ Trenchcoat man hisses as he pulls the knife out, its gushing blood and fuck, thats a lot of blood. Izuku grabs a handful of gauze and carefully lays it out and starts putting pressure on it. ‘This won't need stitches, it'll heal in two weeks I think.’ Grabbing the alcohol bottle he pours it over the wound. The Trenchcoat man practically screams, biting his lip to keep him from yelping. ‘This isn't as good as water, god why can't we just teleport to a bathroom or something’ He starts putting the weird ointment he took from Mom's office on his leg and quickly pats the skin around it dry, hoping it will make the gauze stick for a little longer.
“Okay, hopefully that will last. You dont look like you need stitches, don't do anything stupid for the next couple of weeks and try to change the bandages every once in a while” Izuku sits back and starts wiping down all his equipment again before putting it back in the case. Now that he has the time to actually process anything but the stab wound he sees the staples and purple scarring under the man's eyes, there are matching patches on the part of his leg Izuku can see, ‘what the hell causes that kind of scarring? It looks brutal’
“You done staring? Wait, fuck. I owe you a favor now don't I?” The man sighs.
“A favor?” Izuku responds.
“Yeah dumbass, I dont have any damn money to give you so ill do something for you instead, to repay my dept to you or whatever those fuckers say.” He draws out his words, shifting his head to look at Izuku again.
It's a far-fetched idea, Izuku knows it's just hopeful thinking and that he should just shut his mouth, but he asks anyway.
“I need a decent paying job.”
Raising his eyebrows The man in a trenchcoat responds “Aren’t you a little too young for a job, brat?”
“Maybe, but I still need one.” Izuku replies ‘Why does he have to stall? Why can't he just say it to me straight??’
“You would have to be careful, guys a psycho, but he runs this shitty bar farther south, its for like criminals, villians, and crap but you sound desperate and he doesnt give to fucks about age.” Trenchcoat man pauses, staring at Izuku like he is releasing a huge secret. “I can’t show you where it is unless you swear to keep your mouth shut. I dont mean a fucking pinky promise, I mean he will kill you if you blab. And it won't be quick.”
All Izuku could do was stare back. Villains?! A bar?! ‘No one else will take me. I just have to keep quiet and watch my morales right? Serving fucking coffee to villians doesnt make you one… right?’
“Kid, I need an answer. I don't have all day. '' Trenchcoat man says cutting off Izuku's thoughts. His voice is agitated and ‘Oh I need to answer.’
“Sure” Izuku forgets to make his voice deeper and compared to how he sounded five minutes ago, he sounds like a baby deer. Great.
“Boom, now I don't owe you shit. Come on, i’ll take you there now.” He starts walking off, limping carefully so he doesn't mess with his bandages.
“Wait, Now?!” ‘now? It's almost curfew!’ Izuku takes a deep breath and starts following the man, trying not to have a heart attack when he realizes he's following a strange older man to a random place. Trenchcoat man just hums and keeps walking, he's fast even when he's injured.
“Y’know, brat, you’re really stupid, I mean following a stranger to a bar? Top ten easiest ways to get molested.” The Trenchcoat man says, his voice a mix of amusement and something else Izuku can't identify.
“It's not like I have anything to lose.” The words come out before Izuku can even process them, they add to the weight that's slowly been building in his stomach since he saw his Mom. Trenchcoat man doesn't respond, it's hard to tell whether he didn't hear Izuku or he's ignoring Izuku. Nonetheless, they keep walking seemingly to nowhere. After probably about fifteen minutes Izuku realizes ‘I don't know where I am. I won't have time to go back before curfew!’
“I can hear you thinking.” Trenchcoat man interrupts his panicking. Izuku decides it's already too late to panic now. So the walk continues, whether it takes two more minutes or an hour to reach the inconspicuous building is debatable.
All it is is a wooden door in an alley with brick walls, Izuku's 80% sure he's getting kidnapped. As soon as the trenchcoat man pushes the door open he's assaulted by noise. There isn't any music, like he expects at a bar ‘wait am I going to work at a bar?? I’m thirteen!’ Instead it's full of voices, the loudest being an exciting squealing voice talking about.. Knives? Izuku walks up the steps with the trenchcoat man and enters the low-lit room.
“Dabi! Man, you haven't been here in forever!” One man says, Izuku thinks the man has a lizard quirk.
“Awww, Dabi! You brought us some cutie! Let me see his pretty face. "A girl with blond space buns and yellow eyes runs up to Izuku and starts squeezing his cheeks. “Dabi!! He’s just adorable! Imagine how pretty he would be covered in blood! I want to see his blood, let me…” The blonde continues speaking about stabbing him and Izuku decides its best to zone it out.
He inspects his surroundings, there are six other people sitting around the room. There's a person standing behind the bar, wearing a suit and their body is a purple mist with bright yellow eyes. There are three people sitting on the stools in front of the bar, the man who looks like a lizard, a woman with sunglasses and red hair, and someone wearing a gray and black mask with white spots for the eyes. In one of the red booths there's a person with light blue hair and a cracking neck. He's talking to another person at the booth who has a tophat and a mask with geometric patterns. The blonde one drags him over to the booth introducing herself as Toga and the other two as Mr. Compress and Shigaraki. ‘Everyones using a fake name, i’ll need one too right? Deku? No. Zuku? No to close to my actual name. Brat? That's just stupid, sure that's what Dabi calls me but I don't want to be known as brat. Rabbit? Yeah, I'll go with Rabbit, Mom and Dad used to always tell me I look like a rabbit.’
He doesn't know when he zoned but a scratchy voice brings him back to reality.
“Dabi says you’re here to work with Kurogiri. What should we call you?” The man's smile stretches out a little farther than it should and he looks at Izuku with an almost psychotic stare.
“Rabbit.”