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ibelieveinahappilyeverafter · 6 years ago

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Villainous Heroics - Chapter 15

Woo! This took so much longer than I wanted it to where midterms hit hard. Here we are, though, with Chapter 15. There's three more chapters left after this, so the story will be wrapping up shortly. Don't despair, however! I have "end game" drabbles planned for this series as well as two spin-offs that deal with mind sharing and body swapping. That's right, readers, we are FAR from done!

Enjoy!

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Summary: Eraserhead is an underground hero who is constantly busy and doesn’t have time to be dealing with new villains - even if they aren’t all that villainous and make the night interesting.

Present Mic is the latest up-and-coming villain in the world and he has a point to prove to everyone out there - as long as he doesn’t keep getting distracted by Eraserhead.

Aizawa Shota is someone who soon learns that there is more to someone than the mask they show to the world - especially when it comes to playing heroes and villains.

Yamada Hizashi learns that there is more to heroics and villainy than he could have ever thought - especially in a world where some heroes still care about those lost in the shadows.

(Inspired and dedicated to corndog-patrol’s Villain!Mic AU on Tumblr.)

<<First/Chapter>> <<Last Chapter>> <<Next Chapter>>

Chapter Fifteen

Halfheartedly scribbling a thumbs-up on Ashido’s latest test paper where she had achieved a low B, Shouta glanced at his phone as it started vibrating for the fifteenth time that hour. Considering his contact list was five names long, he could safely narrow it down to the only person who would find the need to text multiple messages in a row instead of confining her words into a single text box like a sane person.

‘Eraser!!!’ ‘When were you going to tell me that Present Mic was a hero?!?!?!’ ‘He just saved me and my sidekick a bunch of trouble!!!’ ‘He’s so great too!!!’ ‘He’s really a SCREAM!!’ ‘Lol but no seriously when were you going to tell me??’ ‘ERASER HE HELPED BANDAGE MY SIDEKICKS ARM AND GAVE HER A PIECE OF CANDY’ ‘IT WASN’T POISONED CANDY EITHER’ ‘OI ERASER CAN YOU HEAR ME???’ ‘He told me to tell you hi by the way he’s so cute’ ‘Really tho is he licensed?? When did that happen??’ ‘Ah he’s leaving now but seriously check the news it’ll probably be on there.’ ‘Did you delete my number again?? It’s me!! Ms Joke!! Your fiance!!’ ‘erASER’ ‘Tell Nem I said hi’

Exhausting. Joke was utterly exhausting and Shouta regretted every day that he hadn’t killed Nemuri for giving her his number. Moving to turn his phone off, Shouta frowned as it started ringing with an annoying American song that Nemuri had chosen for herself years ago. He almost let it go to voicemail before he decided he didn’t want to deal with her in person.

“What do you want, Nemuri?” Shouta answered, pushing himself up from where he had been working at the kotatsu for the past few hours. It was really showing he hadn’t moved in a while, he mused.

“I thought you said Present Mic wasn’t a vigilante?” Right. Joke had been talking about a fight that Present Mic had showed up to help out on.

“He wasn’t last time I saw him. What happened?” Shouta shuffled to the kitchen, smiling softly as he deftly avoided Jelly’s playful jumps and nudges against his ankles.

“Joke and that new sidekick of hers, Bullseye, were having some problems with a mutation quirk villain. Some sort of large animal with a lot of teeth and not that good at laughing.”

“Not good for Joke,” Shouta muttered, frowning as he checked his coffee pot, wrinkling his nose at the cold dregs left behind. He’d need to brew some more.

“No, not good for Joke. They were waiting for backup when your vigilante came on the scene and took care of the guy. Five minutes and he was down.”

“Sounds about right. Why are you calling me, then?” Flicking his phone to be on speaker, Shouta started a fresh pot, eying Jelly’s food bowl. He could probably give her at least another half scoop for the night.

“Because you said he was still a villain last time we talked!” Snorting at that, Shouta picked his phone back up, collapsing at the kitchen table.

“He probably still thinks he is.” Really, though… Yamada hadn’t been a villain for a very long time. After their talk the other night at the man’s apartment, Shouta was almost certain that Yamada had never been a villain. He was far too kind for that.

“He keeps saving people! That’s the opposite of a villain!” Stifling a laugh against his fist, Shouta listened to Nemuri’s ranting and complaining as he kept an ear out for the quiet sounds of a happy cat and a brewing coffee pot and thought about the ‘villain’ that was Present Mic, or, rather, the hero that was Present Mic. Shouta had a feeling that this wouldn’t be the last they heard of the new vigilante and hero.

Two weeks later proved him more right than he was expecting. In two weeks Present Mic had teamed up with Nemuri for a raid that had gotten out of control, aided Kamui Woods with a building evacuation during a fire, bonded scarily well with Mt. Lady during a bomb threat, and had even managed to work together with Endeavour of all people. Although, Shouta had heard from Nemuri that Endeavour's ears had been ringing for a few days afterwards.

All in all, Present Mic was finally making an impact like he had wanted to, turning the spotlight on him and making sure the media, and by extension their world of heroes and villains, knew just who he was. And yet, here he was, hiding away on the top of a roof like he was scared of being seen.

Landing on the edge of the roof lightly, Shouta hid a sigh in the wraps of his binding cloth as he stepped forward, letting his footsteps be heard. He knew Yamada knew it was him when the man didn’t even tense or look back. Not sure what to say, Shouta finally settled on something that he at least knew would get a response. “How goes the day, hero?”

The laugh was dry and brittle, an inch away from snapping as much as Yamada was. The man still responded, though, tilting his head to look back at him, “Shouldn’t it be night?”

“Probably,” Shouta said softly as he gave a twitch of a smile at Yamada before moving to take a seat beside him, still marveling on how a man as loud and outspoken as Present Mic had such a common name. Then again, after speaking with him in his civilian life, he supposed it made more sense. Yamada Hizashi seemed scared to speak louder than a whisper. “You know, typically heroes stick around to do the paperwork that comes with the work you’ve been doing.”

“It’s a good thing I’m not a hero, then.” The words were clipped, short, and to the point. Shouta believed them as much as Yamada seemed to. “I know what you’re going to say and I’m not changing my mind. I’m not… I’m not some hero.”

“No,” Shouta finally sighed, looking down over the city that spread out around them. From the building they were on it felt like they could see their entire world awash in cool blacks and bright neon lights. “You’re not.” Shouta hated how, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yamada relax. “But you could be.”

For once, Yamada didn’t have a quick response or a sharp denial ready. Instead he looked towards the night sky, hints of stars just barely peeking past the light pollution of the night. Silence settled around them, but Shouta noticed it wasn’t a comfortable silence. It wasn’t upsetting, to any degree, but… there was tension.

Shouta finally sighed, fingertips curling around the sleeve edge of Yamada’s leather jacket, giving it a light tug. The man didn’t move, but Shouta knew he had his attention as he asked, “What are you doing, Mic?”

“I… thought I could help. People, good people, were at the risk of getting hurt on all those occasions. I thought… I don’t know. I thought maybe I could at least make sure no one died. I thought I could help-”

“You did help.” Did he really not see that? After all of this, did he really not see that he was doing good? “Joke told me how you helped her and her new sidekick. It could have been a lot worse. Nemuri won’t stop bugging me to get your phone number for her, half the other pros thought you were a new hero, and Endeavour is still absolutely pissed - which, if you ask me, is always the mark of a good hero.”

His last line, just like he had hoped, had Yamada giving a startled laugh. Tension seemed to drain out of both of them, Shouta feeling a shoulder press against his own. He didn’t move away. Instead, he sat calmly, relaxing at the swath of warmth until he heard Yamada suck in a shaking breath, “I’m supposed to be the villain, Eraser.” Eraser? Ah, right. Yamada didn’t know that Shouta knew who he was - both parts of him.

“Is that what you really think? Or is that what you’ve been told to think?” Because Shouta had a theory that Yamada wasn’t a villain by choice. He had started all of this to help people in his own way, after all. A man like that could never be a villain. “You keep saying your quirk was dangerous… Who told you that?”

Just as he suspected. Yamada was tense against his side once more, wound up and tightly coiled as if ready to cut his losses and run. It was almost cute that Yamada thought Shouta would ever let him leave. Maybe that wasn’t the right question to ask, though. Maybe the better question…

“Why have you been helping the pros, Mic?” If he was so dead set on being a villain, why help? “A villain would have taken advantage and taken them all down. You stopped and helped. Why?”

It felt like an eternity, but finally, finally, Yamada let out a shaking, wobbling sigh. It was a sound that was a step above a sob and Shouta wasn’t sure how to feel about the fact that he wanted nothing more than to draw Yamada over and hug him. He was getting too soft.

“Mic.” Biting his lip, Shouta pushed his embarrassment aside and slowly moved a hand up, freezing for a few seconds before setting his fingertips against Yamada’s cheek and carefully pressing until he had the man finally looking at him. Yamada looked like he was shaking to pieces and Shouta didn’t stop to think before he pressed his palm against Yamada’s cheek, thumb rubbing against soft, smooth skin. “Why are you helping, Mic?”

There was a single moment where Shouta thought Yamada would jerk away and bolt. That moment passed, however, and Shouta shivered as he felt Yamada completely relax and lean into his touch as if he was starved for it. Distracted as he was, Shouta almost missed the words Mic said next.

“Someone important to me told me that I could be a hero.” The words were whisper soft - a secret that he knew Shouta would protect. “I think he might have been right.”

Shouta had never lied. He knew that Yamada Hizashi could be a great hero, but that didn’t mean he could ignore the truth. Yamada had grown up on rough streets and knew how to fight both with and without his quirk - which was powerful on its own. He hadn’t been trained as a pro, though.

There were some pros that didn’t go to a school specialized in hero training, yes, but that meant they usually served out internships and acted as sidekicks until they had the knowledge and experience they needed to go forward. Some sidekicks spent over a decade learning from pros, and even a new pro had the force of an agency behind them. Hell, Shouta himself worked for an agency and he was underground.

Yamada had none of that. He had no idea what the common strategies or signals were, he had never been trained to keep calm in mentally taxing situations, and he no doubt had only ever interacted with panicking civilians briefly. There was also the fact that he had never been trained to deal with real villains.

Present Mic fought thugs and gangs and kept the streets safer, but he didn’t deal with smuggling rings, quirk black markets, and hostage threats. Present Mic should never have been near a raid for an underground market that dealt in trading children with promising and powerful quirks. It was too dangerous - for him and everyone else involved in the scene.

It was all well and good to call him a hero, but that did not make him a pro. At best he was a vigilante and at worst he was an idiot who was trying to get himself killed.

“Mic!” The busy and upscale neighborhood (which hadn’t that been terrifying to know this was all taking place in somewhere considered safe) was filled with nosy civilians, handcuffed villains, crying and screaming children, and the wailing of sirens. Shouta could barely hear himself think in the mess, but he knew Yamada could hear him. Yamada always heard him. “You are not just walking off after all of that! You can barely walk!”

This raid had been dangerous from the start, but, as was the case these days, they had underestimated their opponents. While all the children had been rescued and were still alive and breathing, Yamada and half of the smugglers had almost died when the man had brought down the building to keep them from escaping. Shouta himself had barely gotten out and it had taken over an hour to dig everyone out. Yamada had been lucky that he was still alive!

“You could’ve died from a stunt like that! Are you even listening to me?!” Yamada was bruised, bleeding, and limping, his glasses having been cracked during the initial crumbling of the building.

“So what if I die? You wouldn’t care. I’m a villain - and a piss poor one at that.” Yamada had spun around to meet his approach, fist clenched around his broken sunglasses as he stared at Shouta with tear-filled eyes. Shouta wasn’t sure if it was the tears that made it feel like the breath was knocked out of him or the fact that Yamada had just said those words so casually. No… he had said them so bitterly. “I give it my all and you still hate me!”

Shouta had failed. If Yamada thought that he hated him after all that had happened, then he had well and truly failed in everything. Yamada looked close to even more tears, voice sounding so defeated as he muttered, “At least let me sulk in peace.”

Shouta was moving before he was even fully aware of it, catching Yamada by the lapels of that stupid leather jacket of his and tugging him close and keeping him from running away. His fingers had gone white with how tight his grip was, but he paid it no mind, instead entirely wrapped up in how their foreheads bumped together, Shouta hearing the hitch in Yamada’s breaths as he slammed his eyes shut, unwilling or unable to meet Shouta’s own gaze. It hurt more than he thought it would. There were a million words he could say, but words had never been Shouta’s strong point, and all he could get out was, “I don’t hate you.”

“So what is it?” Yamada was quick with words like always, but his voice shook as if expecting the fall that was about to come. “What’s wrong with me?” Shouta was so tired of Yamada thinking he was worthless. He was tired of Yamada thinking that Shouta would ever let him fall. “Why all the rejections?”

Shouta was bad with words. He always had been. There had been a hundred situations where Shouta had destroyed or ruined something because he had said the wrong words. He was determined to not let that happen with this man. So instead of words that would fumble and fall flat, Shouta tightened his grip on Yamada’s jacket before pushing himself forward, lips slotting themselves against ones that were chapped and dry. The silly man probably bit his lip every moment he grew nervous.

For a moment the lips against his were still and unmoving and Shouta felt his heart drop. There was no way he had read all of this wrong. Present Mic had flirted from the start, but Yamada Hizashi had stared at him with eyes that were filled with the same emotion Shouta had constantly been feeling around him.

When he felt hands curl into his jumpsuit and pull him closer, lips pressing hard and messy against his, Shouta realized he shouldn’t have even bothered to worry.

Pulling back, because even a moment like this needed a few words, Shouta bit his lip as he looked at Yamada’s face, still bruised and dirty from the raid, but flushed with pink and holding wide green eyes that practically shone.

“If I hated you,” Shouta near whispered, “I wouldn’t have bothered putting up with all of your stupid hijinks.”

“Oh!” The exclamation was quirk strong, Shouta not giving Yamada the chance to apologize before he was pressing forward again, lips finding Yamada’s as if it was the easiest thing in the world. Yamada didn’t hesitate, this time.

Shouta would be lying if he said he hadn’t pictured this moment before. He tried not to, but when the thoughts slipped in they usually revolved around adrenaline and something fast and rough and more about actions than words. This… wasn’t.

The kiss stayed hard for only a moment before Shouta felt hands cupping his cheeks, calloused fingers resting against him and a rough thumb pressing into the scar under his eye, dragging against it like he had after the USJ incident.

Shouta wanted to know those hands. He wanted to know each dip and curve and he wanted to know what had caused each scar and callous. Shouta could spend hours kissing his way across each inch of skin, giving the man all the contact and attention he had so obviously been starved of.

He had to have been starved of touch. It was in the way Yamada clung to him like he was afraid Shouta would pull away and never return. It was in how he pushed forward with the same amount of force he pushed back, arching into the hand that Shouta had pressed against the back of his head, keeping him close.

It wasn’t rough and fast and hard, though. It may have started like that, but Shouta was becoming lost far too quickly as Yamada curled into him like he belonged there, lips moving slowly and assuredly against his, a hint of teeth pressing against his own lower lip that had Shouta shivering and fighting back any sort of noise. Yamada didn’t have the same concern, a low, soft moan leaving him when Shouta’s fingers dug against the man’s scalp.

Slowly remembering that they were in the middle of a raid scene and they were both sore and injured, Shouta carefully pulled back, almost going right back when he saw Yamada staring at him with a flushed and dazed expression.

“Come on, hero,” Shouta mumbled, indulging enough to let himself press his lips to the edge of Yamada’s jaw, skin smooth and soft as he returned the favor from so long ago and flicked at the skin with the tip of his tongue. The noise Yamada gave had Shouta swallowing roughly as he pulled away again. “Let’s get you patched up.”

“Promise not to let go?” Yamada’s voice was rough and low and nothing at all like the smooth, high tones he had as Present Mic. It had Shouta tightening his grip more than he thought possible.

“I won’t.”

“How hard would it be to have an adult get a pro hero license?” Shouta kept his expression perfectly blank and even, laid back as ever as he watched Nemuri cycle through at least eight different expressions in the middle of the staff room. When her face finally settled on a sharp smirk, though, Shouta wondered how fast he could get away.

“This is for Present Mic, I take it?” Nemuri’s voice was a purr and Shouta hated her. He still gave a single, sharp nod, however. “Well, well, it looks like my little Shou-chan finally found love! Ah, they grow up so fast!”

Shouta kept silent and, by the time he realized his mistake, it was too late. Nemuri was staring at him with sharp, narrowed eyes. Shouta stared back evenly, trying not to show any fear. She could no doubt sense it.

“Shou-chan,” Nemuri cooed, voice light and sweet and containing all the horrors of the world. “When I said you found love, that’s usually when you correct me and tell me how wrong I am.” Right. There were many ways to do this.

“There’s no use in correcting you when you aren’t wrong.” In hindsight, Shouta should have expected the squeal. “Are you going to help me with this or not?”

“Of course I am!” As usual, Nemuri didn’t seem put off by his sharp voice and sharper glare at all. “Oh you’ll have to tell me all about it. Did you two finally admit to your feelings?”

“Sure.” In truth, there hadn’t been much time. The raid had been a few nights ago and Yamada had been absolutely exhausted after having an EMT on the scene use a minor healing quirk on the worst of his injuries. Shouta had followed to make sure he got home alright, but they hadn’t had a chance to talk about… what had happened. Yamada had whispered that he would see him soon, though, before leaving, and that was more than enough. “Here’s the paperwork I’ve managed to gather so far.”

“You can leave it all to me, Shou-chan!” Nemuri grabbed the paperwork, near spinning in circles she looked so happy. Shouta had the urge to tie her up and shove her away in a closet for a few days. “I’ve witnessed a true miracle! Not only is my sweet Shouta in love, but his feelings are returned!”

“You’re lucky I still need you alive.” Shouta hated to admit it, but Nemuri was far better with loopholes and paperwork than he was. Besides, this was important. He wanted to have all the paperwork ready when he finally sat Yamada down and truly talked to him about all of this. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I have things to do.”

“Right, right, go train your secret love child,” Nemuri waved off, suddenly pausing and going completely still. Shouta was already reaching for his binding cloth as Nemuri looked at him with wide eyes. “Does Mic know you have a son?”

“I am going to skin you alive and feed you to my cat,” Shouta hissed, refusing to admit any heat in his cheeks. “I do not have a son.”

“Yet.” Turning on his heel, he decided that ignoring Nemuri was the best thing he could do. “Boo, no fun. I’ll get the paperwork to you later!”

Pausing at the door, Shouta glanced back and gave a small nod before deciding that he could be cruel, too. “Mic and Shinsou have already met. He seemed delighted that I ‘had a son.’” With that, Shouta left the lounge and closed the door, smiling a little to himself as Nemuri’s pleas and whines for more information.

Heading to the indoor gym he had been spending most of his afternoons in, Shouta peeked his head in and smiled to himself as he saw Shinsou going through his warm-up routine, focused intently as he moved through his stretches. The kid had come far since that first fight in the festival and Shouta knew without a doubt that he would make it into the hero course.

“I know you’re there, Sensei.” Kid was getting more observational, too. Shouta hated how stupidly proud that made him. “It’s creepy when you just watch, you know.”

“It’s my job to watch.” Striding into the room and over to his student, Shouta helped him to his feet, noticing the look. “You have two minutes.” It had taken months to get Shinsou relaxed enough to talk with him honestly and openly. It had then taken a few minutes to realize he had made a horrible mistake. Once Shinsou was comfortable enough to talk, he didn’t stop. Shouta almost wanted to throw him in a room with Yamada and see which one ran out of words first.

“The new hero Present Mic, huh?” Shinsou had a large grin on his face, Shouta placing a hand on the teen’s head and gently tipping his head down towards the ground. All it did was cause laughter. “Is he still saying he’s a villain?”

“Not for much longer.” Not if Shouta had anything to say about it, at least. “He was never much of a villain to begin with, anyways.”

“I thought he was that night when I first met him.” Oh? That was news to him. “He came striding in like he was one of them and the guys who had me cornered started talking about how he was always fighting against Eraserhead.”

“Well, they weren’t wrong,” Shouta snorted, nudging Shinsou along. “Come on. Second set of stretches.”

“I don’t think I was afraid of him even when I heard that, though.” Shinsou kept talking even as he began the next set of stretches, Shouta shucking off his capture weapon and joining him. “He was glaring, but he was glaring at the one that was holding that muzzle-”

“Muzzle?” Shouta stumbled out of his own stretch, eyes snapping to Shinsou. He silently conceded to Nemuri that he might have grown a touch attached when he had the immediate urge to check the kid over and make sure he was alright after an event that had happened months ago.

“Oh, I didn’t tell you that part?” Shinsou blinked, looking entirely nonplussed. “They were talking about how I’d fetch a nice price.” The fact he could say that with such a detached tone had Shouta feeling even more worry. He didn’t much like it. “He played them all, though. Present Mic.”

“Let me guess. He got rid of the muzzle and then screamed at them until they passed out?” Because he remembered the state those men had been in when Shouta had come across the scene.

“He took the muzzle and fooled them into thinking that he was helping and that he was going to put it on me himself,” Shinsou recounted, tongue poking out as he focused on a pose he always had problems with. Shouta was nudging him into the correct position almost absently, Shinsou flashing him a smile. “He had them all fooled even as he dropped that muzzle and put his headphones on me instead.”

“That sounds like him,” Shouta snorted, remembering that night clearly, now, and how Yamada had been without his headphones when Shouta had found him. “He’s not all that intimidating once you see that stupid smile of his.”

“Yeah. He had me hide behind the dumpster and reassured me the whole time. He made it seem like he was on their side right until he took them down.” Shinsou stood up from his stretch, entering a more relaxed one as he stretched his arms up, a small crack coming from his back. “He’s a pretty amazing hero when you think about it.”

“Vigilante, you mean?” Shouta glanced down to see Shinsou’s smile, wide and honest as he shook his head.

“No. I meant hero.” Shinsou laughed as Shouta rolled his eyes, fighting to hide a smile. Shinsou was right, though. Yamada truly was an amazing hero. A hero that… deserved to know the truth.

Next time. Next time they spoke, Shouta would tell Present Mic he knew exactly who he was and he and Yamada Hizashi could sit down and figure things out. It wasn’t going to be easy - not by any stretch of the imagination - but Shouta had a good feeling about where it was going to go from here.

It was time for Aizawa Shouta and Yamada Hizashi to be more than just Eraserhead and Present Mic.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #erasermic #villain!mic #corndog-patrol #villainous heroics

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