Chapter Text
Just my fucking luck, he thought to himself.
Shouta should have seen it coming, honestly. He was trained for this exact thing, had impressed upon his students the importance of keeping an eye out even when things seemed normal. It was a shock, for him.
Literally. A shock that hit his leg while he was leaping from a fire escape. The pain was overshadowed by the fear that he'd miss the roof he was heading for. If he were to plummet from such a height, he might wind up with something broken. He tried to keep his focus on the ledge past the bright pain, neared the roof, and-
And then the roof was gone.
"Are you okay, sir?" Pushing himself off the... ground, Shouta looked up to see his student, Todoroki, watching him.
He didn't have Todoroki with him ten seconds ago. He did, however, have Midoriya Izuku along for a training exercise.
"Where did they go?" There was no concern or worry in Todoroki's eyes, which was odd. Sure the kid hid his feelings well, but fear wasn't so easily masked.
"Who, Mr. Aizawa?"
"Midoriya, and a villain," he bit out while tensing his leg, checking their surroundings. They were still in the city, but it looked worse off than before. The building he'd been about to jump onto had been leveled into an abandoned plot between two run down shops. Gone, just like that. How...?
There were bright red shoes peaking around a foul smelling dumpster.
"Kid!" Todoroki followed him, one hand raised in flame. He almost never used his flames, but it was a good sign so he ignored it.
Izuku was propped against the wall, eyes shut and mouth open very slightly.
"Shit, kid!" Without a word Todoroki watched as he pulled Izuku up. He lightly tapped his face in the hopes that he was just asleep. "Midoriya, wake up."
"You know him," Todoroki asked, voice void of emotion.
"What?" Taking a better look at his student, Shouta froze. Something had been off and now he realized what. Todoroki would never look at his precious friend- the boy who'd broken him out of his shell- with such disdain.
"Who are you," he growled out, wrapping an arm around his son and jumping back. "What did you do to him?"
"I didn't do anything to him," the boy defended, the first real flicker of emotion crossing his face. Fear.
"Something wrong here?" Shouta was caught off guard by that voice he knew so well. Hizashi was coming down the fire escape. He'd come with to make sure that if they got into trouble it wouldn't be Shouta trying to mediate between protecting Izuku and fighting off a villain. "What happened?"
"Watch out, that isn't Todoroki!" His dear friend and husband looked over at Todoroki, and then the child in his arms. Why was he not panicking? Their kid was unconscious, he would normally be freaking out. "Restrain him, Zashi, I'm taking Midoriya to see Chiyo."
"What the fuck did you just call me?" Shouta’s whole body felt cold. A quick double check assured him he hadn't been literally frozen, but it certainly felt like he had. Hizashi, taking that tone with him? It was almost unheard of.
"Zashi? What's wrong?" He kept a tight hold on Midoriya as he stood up, getting as far as one step forward when his friend took one step back, dropping into a hostile stance. "What the hell are you doing?! He's hurt, stop messing around!"
"Who are you?" Both him and Todoroki were watching him carefully, cautiously.
"It's me! What the hell is wrong with you? We don't have time for this! Our son is hurt, and I got hit with some sort of quirk up there, we need to-"
"Our WHAT?!" Hizashi was staring at him with wide eyed now and looked completely confused and concerned. As if Shouta had started speaking total nonsense. Meanwhile, it was the two of them who'd began to act out of character.
"Our... Hizashi, what year is it?" Glancing at their student, his husband took a well meaning step forward, hands raised as though Shouta were some sort of wild animal. "Don't come any closer. I think... I think I got hit with a time quirk."
"Are you from the future or the past," he asked, now concerned. Looked at Todoroki, and his obvious stand off nature, he knew he couldn't be from the past few months.
"Future, probably. Maybe, I'm not sure. Todoroki, do you not recognize Midoriya at all?" His student leaned in, studying Midoriya closely.
"No." That simply wasn't possible. Even if he were from the past, or future, or whenever, Todoroki and Midoriya joined his class on the same day. He'd know him.
"Hizashi... Do you recognize him?" His chest felt tight as his husband, the man who'd insisted on day two of Izuku's first year at UA that they look into his home life, the man who all but begged a judge for custody of this problem child and cried for days when it couldn't be done, blinked down at him now.
"I don't think I've ever seen him before." If possible, his chest only hurt worse.
"This isn't a normal time quirk. Even if this were the past you'd know him anywhere. Zashi, is there a villain in the area? Maybe one who can transport people between timelines?"
"Why do you keep calling me that?" Although he was becoming increasingly pissed off that they weren't helping at all, he did wonder why Hizashi looked so coldly at him.
"Because that's your name? Please, I don't have time for this. Do you have your phone on you? Call Nezu, tell him what's happening?" And for the love of fuck stop staring at me as if you don't know me. It was unnerving to have eyes usually so full of love suddenly full of distrust and mild dislike.
"Sho..." Flinching once, Shouta looked down at Izuku. He didn't know what to expect, but the flood of recognition and calmness in his kid's face helped him relax.
"It's me. I've got you kid, don't worry." Cradling him just a bit closer, one hand running through messy green curls, he could have wept in relief. "I'm going to get you home, okay?"
"Who are you and what have you done with Eraserhead?!" Hizashi was downright screeching, but the usual playfulness of his tone was gone. "The Aizawa I know would never look at someone like that," he accused.
"What the hell are you talking about? And why are you calling me that," he snapped back, head starting to throb.
"Uh, because you don't let anyone call you anything else," Todoroki deadpanned, twitching back slightly when he turned his glare on him. "You barely tolerate people calling you anything but your hero name."
"I hardly apply that rule to my husband, brat." Hizashi choked and moved back from him again, even further now.
"We aren't married," he whispered. "We aren't married and I have never once in my life called you by your given name since you chewed me out back in school."
It was Shouta's turn to be caught off guard, because that wasn't right. Sure he'd pushed Hizashi away at first, but the lovable idiot never gave up. Not once. That just wasn't like him. It'd taken him barely a week to knock Shouta's walls down, throughout which he'd been a ray of sunshine in a life of empty bleakness.
"I- This isn't right."
Thirty minutes later Shouta found himself sitting with his colleagues in Nezu's office, holding his kid close to his side in the wide chair. They'd tried to take Midoriya from him at some point, but he made it very clear if they touched him Shouta would end them. These weren't his friends. This wasn't his world.
Or that was the working theory, at least.
"So," Nezu said, trying to break some of the post explanation tension. He'd given them all a rundown of what he knew so far, as well as the things that didn't add up. In this world, he was still a teacher, a complete hardass- Hizashi's phrasing- but had no family or friends. None they knew about, at least. He and Hizashi never married, never took in a kid together. When he'd almost broken down at finding that out, Hizashi was torn between not coming anywhere near him and reaching out several times.
His hand never quite found the shoulder it'd rested on so many times before.
"How do we go home," he asked, glancing down as Izuku pulled on his shirt to hide in it further. After he'd woken up he'd been a little out of it, but he was definitely Shouta's Izuku. He'd tried talking to Todoroki, but the boy had shut him out completely. While that had clearly hurt him, he'd only cried a little bit before turning to Hizashi, who'd been distant from his as well. After that, he'd taken to hiding away. For once, he seemed content in letting Shouta protect him.
"I'm not sure. This is certainly an interesting predicament, wouldn't you agree?" Shouta did not agree. It wasn't interesting, it was terrifying. These people were similar to his, in a few ways- enough to lull him into some warped sense of security before he reminded himself just what was going on. But there was just enough off about them to strike him as wrong.
"We can't stay here. If you're Aizawa is in my world he could hurt someone, we need to go back immediately." If that bastard said something to Hizashi...
"He isn't some villain," Hizashi said with a snort. "Well, he acts like one, but he means well. I think. Just doesn't like people."
"He sounds like you, dad," Izuku murmured, drawing a few gasps around the room.
"He speaks," Nemuri gasped. Izuku immediately went silent, curling up smaller and shaking. "Oh don't be like that! We won't hurt you."
"He's just shy," Shouta explained, glaring her down until he felt Izuku shift enough to be looking up at him.
"Am not," he hissed up.
"Sure kid, whatever you say." The others were quiet and watched him with blatant shock and horror.
"This doesn't seem real. Aizawa doesn't know how to smile." Was he smiling? Fuck.
"Oh! It seems I've just received an email about the Midoriya Izuku of our world." Nezu leaned towards his computer screen, grin growing smaller and smaller until he pulled away, turning the whole thing off. The silence that filled the next few seconds was thick and heavy, choking him. "There is no Midoriya Izuku in this world."
"What? I don't exist here?" That would explain why he wasn't enrolled at UA. Nothing would stand between this kid and becoming a hero.
"Not anymore. He committed suicide four months ago." Shouta was certain he had heard that wrong, and then he was certain he was processing it wrong. When it finally made sense, when he could look past the disbelief and shock, he noticed Izuku only looked sad, but not surprised. Why was that more concerning than finding out his son was dead in this horrible world?
"Oh..." Izuku whispered, and the tears from earlier had stopped. "Did he... Do you know if he jump off the roof of his middle school?"
"Yes." Nodding, he laid his head against Shouta's chest and took deep shaky breaths, eyes staring into nothing.
"Hey, hey, are you alright?" Sitting up a bit, he tugged at the back of Izuku's shirt, pulling him upright. "What's going on, talk to me."
"I just- it's just weird. I didn't think I would do that, no matter what. I mean, I thought about it, a lot." That was definitely something he'd touch on later, when they were back in their world. Hizashi needed to know, and he'd have to once more pry into Izuku's past and private life. As if the first time and the court case hadn't been enough. "I really did it..."
"You didn't." Nezu spoke with complete finality. "You clearly saw that there was hope, and continued to live despite the obvious pain you were in. This world is clearly different than yours, and the people in it just as different. We are not our counterparts."
"But-"
"Kid, you were stronger than him. You survived, pulled yourself through and made it into UA. You didn't do that, that's what matters." Nodding with a small jerk, Izuku once more was starting to cry.
"He's so emotional. It's kind of cute," Hizashi said, and Shouta went completely stiff.
He just cries so easily, Sho! It's cute, in a way... Makes me wanna hug him and never leg go.
"Is he... crying?" Flinching back, Shouta swiped at his eyes furiously. Izuku leaned into him, wrapping his arms around his middle and pointedly not making eye contact.
"I'm fine," he assured him, trapping him in with his elbow and placing his hand in his curly hair once more to trap him there. The last thing he needed was Izuku seeing him break down. The contact was grounding for him, in a way. It reminded him he didn't have time for tears, not yet.
"I think these two are probably exhausted. We don't know how long they'll be here so I suggest letting them rest." Nezu let them stay in the teacher's lounge. It wasn't perfect, certainly wouldn't do if they were going to be stuck here for much longer, but it worked for the time being. A few hours rest.
As soon as he saw the couch he sprawled out on it, not surprised when Izuku shoved himself between him and the back of the couch in what little space there was in search of the warmest and safest place in this unusual world.
"Holy shit he's a little Aizawa," Nemuri whispered, and he vaguely heard Hizashi agree. He ignored them in favor of rolling over and protectively curling around Izuku. He didn't know what to do in this situation. They needed to go home. They needed to go back to Hizashi and their friends, their family.
Shouta wished he knew what to do.