Chapter Text
Izuku is perched on the ledge of a rooftop that overlooks the sleeping city of Musutafu. He winces with every sway of movement the breeze brings, as the feeling of exhaustion sinks deep into his bones.
He desperately needs sleep, but he has a meeting scheduled conveniently right after his very long very grueling night shift.
Normally after he has overnight patrol, he barely makes it out of his uniform before collapsing on his bed. So the inconvenience of having such an important meeting scheduled right now, was causing him to feel not so symbol-of-hope-like. He was honestly wasting time just sitting on this rooftop, but he was desperately trying to shake the sour mood he was in.
He couldn’t skip the meeting even if he wanted to because it was due time he went on an actual mission.
Being assigned an official government mission a couple times a year was like jury duty for the top 20 heroes. With Deku being the number one hero, it is a miracle that he’d been able to avoid it for an entire year.
Izuku had no idea what the mission was for, where it was located, or why he was even chosen in the first place. His managing agent, Bhaduri Advika, was more tight-lipped than she usually is about the whole thing. She manages all of his non-hero related obligations which, Izuku had learned early on in his debut when he couldn’t afford any help at all, is an absurd amount of responsibilities.
Izuku had focused so hard on the saving the world aspect of being a hero that he hadn't realized all the classes at UA he had worked so hard to ace, were actually applicable to the real world. Who knew Present Mic’s 4 hour lectures about pro-hero insurance were actually something he needed to worry about and worry he did. The moment he ranked in the top 50 and was making slightly more than a livable wage, he hired Advika.
Izuku first met Advika when she was hired as an intern at Endeavor’s agency. Despite her mature demeanor she was also 23 like Deku. She has a personality analysis quirk that is activated with uninterrupted eye contact. Izuku was immediately drawn to her abilities ever since she was assigned to practice her quirk on him and the other work-study students as an assignment for her business school. Advika had to build plan on how she would manage them as heroes. She got highest score on Izuku’s and cornered Izuku afterwards to tell him just that. She had a very intense manner about her that often scared people off but Izuku found her confidence comforting.
“I would be the perfect agent for you. You will need me once you graduate.” She said unblinking, analyzing Izuku’s reaction to her statement.
Izuku is 18 at the time and more worried about passing his licensure exams than getting an agent. But nonetheless, he was still flattered by her desire to work with him. He smiled shyly, rubbing the back of his neck, eyes pointed at the ceiling in an effort to avoid rejecting her outright,
“I would love that but I honestly wouldn’t be able to pay you very well…” Deku trails off when he feels a tug on his sleeve. He looks down shrinking back a little as he sees how much Advika has leaned in attempt to get his gaze back.
“I don’t want to work for you while you’re broke. Get good and then call me.” Izuku barely has a moment to nod his head before she makes an affirming noise before turning on her heel and walking away. She throws a grin back over her shoulder,
“I’m looking forward to work with the future number one Hero, Deku-San.”
He had been stuck with the tiny, intense, stoic woman ever since. She has a talent of giving Izuku more relief to his anxiety than any of his many medications.
Her method is to never tell him too much information about any of his non hero obligations. Sometimes, she wouldn’t tell him anything at all.
If he had an interview, he was told to dress professionally and where to show up. If he had to explain to an insurance committee why he needed to level a building on top of a villain, he was informed of the meeting right before he entered the conference room. Advika’s quirk gives her the advantage of knowing Izuku better than he knows himself and has a good understanding of how he works best. She realized that when he had no time to overthink, he did better in professional settings.
Staying true to her methods, Advika hadn’t given him a lick of information about this morning's meeting. She didn't even tell him about it in person, just pinned it in his calendar, which was very unlike her. when he confronted her about it in the office last week, he realized she had been avoiding him. Her brown skin flushed uncharacteristically as she struggled to maintain eye contact. After a moment she seems to gain some confidence and starts to stare at him unblinking.
“Just be there at 0700 Deku-san.” With that she takes a deep breath, smoothes her hands on her blazer and turns on her heel. Deku can do nothing but attempt to pry for more details over the sounds of her kitten heels clicking down the hall, ignoring him as if he hadn’t uttered a word.
He would have found her behavior rude if he didn’t trust her with his life.
So in her attempt to ease his anxiety, instead he felt it grow like an unwanted parasite in his belly.
Izuku shakes his head, curls flying in attempt to clear his head. He puts his hands on hips letting his head hang and takes a deep sigh. He rolls his head side to side hearing the satisfying crunch of his aching bones and regards the waking city in front of him. Crackles of green lighting are flowing over his skin, highlighting his peripheral vision, and takes a step off the ledge summoning black whip on his descent.
**********
Izuku walks through the obscenely large glass doors of what once was the headquarters of the hero commission. Heroes would meet here as a common ground, away from their agencies, where high profile government cases were delegated and reported. It serves the same purpose now minus the corruption and it’s now called The Musutafu United Society for Protection of Public Safety. Or MUSPPS for short. Or “must piss” according to Kaminari Denki.
As Izuku heads inside for the first time in a year, he notices that the layout is still the same as when he was sixteen. Back then, he had barely managed to survive the war and was in front of the commission demanding for them to change their ways.
The building still had that smell of way too much metal architecture and glass that Izuku hates but hey, at least they weren’t exploiting gifted kids anymore.
He steps into the elevator and the impending doom of anxiety settles in a hot flash over his skin. He feels the beginning signs of danger sense starting to prickle the hairs on his arms almost as if the quirk was getting a feel of the situation. The elevator dings as he reaches the top floor where all the boardroom meetings are held.
Izuku tries not to feel uneasy by the emptiness of the hallways and chalks it up to the early hour.
He starts to dissect all the reasons why Advika is being so cagey.
1. It’s a need to know case and she’s bound to an unforgiving NDA.
Which is a believable excuse. It’s happened before. Izuku hadn’t noticed he was being stalked for a month by a villain that Shinsou Hitoshi had been tracking for a year. Deku was the absolute last person to know about it and it was disclosed to him by Advika. Deku thought once he became the number one hero, he’d have top level clearance only for him to find out that the managing agent of the number one hero has even higher clearance than the Prime Minister, himself.
2. This meeting is requiring him to do a media appearance.
Izuku is a good hero. One of the best even. He’s smart, resourceful, and kind. He’s worked himself to the bone and has grown to acknowledge and be proud of these qualities he has. But when it comes to media training, he is hopeless. He despises the cameras and nearly jumps out of his skin every time he sees a flash and a mic in his face.
This particular theory is really bumming him out as he stalks down the endless hallway. He finally reaches the last door where the big red sign stating RM 2409 meeting soon to be in progress is blinking on an offensively bright monitor next to the doorframe
His fingertips brush the doorknob and danger sense lights up like a cat struck by lightning. Izuku is then hit with the third possibility. He’s moving before he can stop himself, denial on the tip of his tongue, because Advika would never do that to him…
But his train of thought is cut off as he opens the door with a little more force than he intended. He stumbles in and immediately locks eyes with the scarlet red ones already trained on him. Sitting in the center of the table facing the door (a habit of paranoia that Izuku shares with the man) chin in his hands looking bored until he registers who's coming through the door. He stands up so fast his chair goes flying back, his eyes going wide, hands popping with small explosions dancing over his fingertips.
“Izuku?!?! What the fuck?”
Green light flares over his skin in an embarrassing display of his shock and he slams the door back closed. Izuku puts his back to the door ignoring the yelling that was immediately snuffed out once the sound proof barrier was sealed in place. The third possibility drops like a cold bucket of water over him.
3. Bakugou Katsuki