Izuku Midoriya had spent the better part of the past hour sitting in the end seat of one of the many couches littering the common area of the class A-1 dormitory, his head resting in the crook of his arm as he leaned over sleepily on the arm rest. His eyes stared half-lidded at the large TV mounted on the opposite wall, the final inning of a major-league baseball game playing out on the massive screen. Izuku wasn't terribly interested in the outcome of the game, if he was being honest. He'd always been more of a soccer fan anyway. Of course, that didn't mean there weren't others present that were quite a bit more invested.

"C'mon, Yamada! This guy can't hit the broad side of a barn! Pitch it straight over the plate and strike his ass out!" came Kirishima's impassioned cries from the seat just next to Midoriya's, though his speech came out a bit muddled from being locked in a tight headlock, his cheek pressed firmly against Bakugo's chest.

"Fuck that shit! Yamada couldn't pitch his way out of a paper bag! Fuckin' kill that bastard, Rekishiyoma!" the explosive teen bellowed out, almost seeming unaware of how he was crushing his friend's skull between his bicep and pec.

"Jeez, chill out, guys. It's only a game…" Kaminari commented from a safe distance over on one of the other couches, but he was more or less ignored by the two warring hot-heads.

Midoriya couldn't help but smile lightly at the commotion, even though it was the only thing keeping him from drifting off to sleep right there. Kacchan finally seemed to be opening up a little, even if it only seemed to be when Kirishima was present. At least it kept him from brooding all day up in his room. Izuku could be thankful for small victories, at the very least.

Not surprisingly, all of the noise from the common room meant that the sound of the main door opening went mostly unnoticed by all. It was only when Uraraka's startled voice squeaked out that anyone realized that someone had entered the building.

"A-All Might! Wh-what brings you out here so late, sir?"

Midoriya sat bolt upright upon hearing that, not a trace of sleep in his eyes. All Might was there?!

"Oh, it's nothing really. I just stopped by to drop something off. Is young Midoriya around, by any chance?"

Izuku's eyes seemed to widen still when he heard the gentle voice of his mentor drift into the common room. It really was him. But why? If he needed to talk about something that couldn't wait until morning he'd usually send his successor a text to meet him out in the park. Why show up at the dorms like this? Before his classmate could take so much as a step to come get him, Midoriya had already vaulted over the back of the couch and was in front of All Might in an instant.

"Wh-whoah there, kid. Put the brakes on a little, would ya? There's no emergency, so just relax," the skeletal man assured with a peremptory hand raised, clearly a bit startled by his student's urgency. Midoriya couldn't help but blink up at him in confusion.

"There isn't? Then… Why'd you come all the way out here so late? Isn't your apartment like a twenty-minute walk from the school?"

"Oh my god, you know where his apartment is? You're such a fanboy…"

Midoriya tried his best to ignore the teasing comment and subsequent giggling from Ashido somewhere behind him, though he couldn't stop the embarrassed blush that spread across his cheeks because of it. All Might was kind enough not to bring attention to it, merely holding up the small box he'd carried in his off hand. Izuku's brows furrowed in confusion as he stared at it. If he didn't know any better, he'd say he recognized the cloth it was wrapped in…

"Your mother wanted me to drop this off for you. She's worried you're not getting enough to eat in the evenings now that you're here in the dorms," All Might explained with what could only be described as a bashful grin, a hand moving up to rub nervously at the back of his neck. He then passed the wrapped box to the young teen, at which point Midoriya could very distinctly smell the comforting scent of his mom's cooking emanating from within. A bento box?

"All Might… How did you even get—?"

But before he could complete his thought, the commotion in the common room seemed to explode into even more noise.

"Hell yeah! That's five thousand yen you owe me, Bakugo!"

"Oh, fuck you!"

Midoriya allowed himself to be distracted by his classmates' spirited back and forth in that moment, and All Might seized on the opportunity to make his escape.

"Well, that's all. See you in class tomorrow!" he said rather quickly, turning on his heel and practically dashing out the door before the young teen had the chance to pick up their conversation from a moment ago.

The instant the door closed behind All Might, Midoriya suddenly found himself smack in the middle of a crowd of teenagers. His classmates had restrained themselves while their teacher was there, but now that he'd gone they all gathered round, each of them staring at the boy with some variation of suspicion on their faces. Izuku could already feel himself starting to break out in a cold sweat, the scrutinizing stares from all of his fellow students boring into him like so many little drill bits.

"U-uhhh… Wh-what's up, guys..?" he managed to stammer out eventually, trying his best to put on a smile to mask his nervousness but failing miserably. Sure enough, they saw through him in an instant.

"Don't you 'what's up, guys' us! You know exactly what's up!" Kaminari retorted immediately. "Since when does the number one hero—"

"'Former number one hero,'" Yaoyorozu corrected softly.

"Whatever! Since when does All Might play 'Uber Eats' for you?"

"And with your mother's cooking, no less! Très scandale!" Aoyama chimed in with his usual dramatic flair.

"I-I don't know! Th-this is the first time he's ever done this kind of thing!" Midoriya shot back defensively, truly at a loss for how to explain such an occurrence away. Hell, he was still trying to wrap his head around it himself.

"Oh, come on, you guys. Isn't it obvious?"

The whole group seemed to freeze in dread at the voice that interjected, the distinct slurring of the s's serving as a dead giveaway for the sort of suggestion that was about to be made. Sure enough, all eyes turned to stare down at the diminutive form of Mineta, a sleazy grin already plastered across his face. Finally, once all eyes were on him, he delivered his 'brilliant' conclusion.

"All Might's banging Midoriya's mom."

All the color seemed to drain from Midoriya's complexion in that moment, his body going rigid with shock. Whether it was because such a thought was so unexpected or so disturbing, he wasn't sure. Luckily, though Izuku found himself unable to utter more than an incoherent little squeak every now and then, many of his classmates stepped in to scold the little pervert on his behalf.

"Oh my god, stop being gross, Mineta!"

"Yeah, that's completely uncalled for!"

"Ya don't joke about a friend's mom like that, dude! S'just wrong!"

This likely would have continued for some time into the night, but thankfully the class's voice of reason rose up above the commotion. What he had to say, however, startled everyone present.

"Mineta is right!"

That statement brought all conversation in the room to a grinding halt in an instant, and Midoriya could have thought his classmates would get whiplash from how quickly they turned their heads to stare incredulously at the source. Sure enough, when he looked himself, there was the steadfast Iida staring back with his usual stern expression.

"I'm sorry… You wanna run that by us one more time..?" Ashido asked finally, clearly just as unsure as everyone else that she'd heard their class representative correctly. To his credit, even with everyone staring at him like he'd gone mad, Iida remained composed and logical in his response.

"What I mean is, whether it's true or not, some people will clearly jump to that kind of conclusion," he replied, making a not-at-all-subtle chopping motion with his hand in Mineta's general direction. "For the record, I think Aoyama's right, too."

Aoyama's already sparkling expression seemed to light up even further at the mention of his name. He touched a hand delicately to his chest, replying with a coy "Moi?"

"What do you mean, Iida?" Uraraka asked, clearly not following his train of thought.

"Just think about it. If rumors like this get started, it could cause a full-blown scandal! Do you know what the media would do if they heard that one of U.A. High's teachers – All Might himself, no less! – was having an affair with one of the students' parents? If you thought they were brutal before with all the villain attacks on the school, just you wait until they sink their teeth into something truly salacious! I don't think even Principal Nezu could talk his way out of that one!"

"A-and then All Might's reputation will be ruined!" Midoriya finally chimed in, the thought of his mentor's legacy as the Symbol of Peace being torn to shreds finally stirring him back to life.

"Dude, that's what you're worried about right now? What about your mom?" Kirishima interjected, raising an eyebrow at his classmate's reaction. Izuku's face was covered in a fresh hue of pink blush as he was reminded of that little detail of the story.

"Th-that's not… I-I mean, they're not… I-it's not true, okay!" he blurted out finally after a few false starts.

"How do you know for sure, though?" Asui interjected in her usual matter-of-fact manner. "Do you have any other explanation for all this?"

"W-well… N-no, but…" Izuku trailed off a bit in his reply, unsure how to counter that argument. All this drama from a stupid bento box. He wasn't sure he could even eat it after everything that had been discussed that night.

"Alright, well… If nothing else, we've got a hypothesis. Now all we can do is test it out to see if it's true or not," Yaoyorozu suggested, finally gathering the confidence to offer her thoughts on the matter. Izuku could only blink up at her in mild confusion.

"'Test it out'? How do you propose we do something like that?" he asked cautiously, unsure if he wanted to know the answer to that question or not. Yaoyorozu delivered her reply with a playful grin.

"A good, old-fashioned stake-out, of course!"

Over the next few days, the students of class 1-A spent their evenings meticulously planning for their big stake-out, which mostly consisted of Midoriya being coaxed into revealing the addresses of both his and All Might's apartments and finding likely routes between the two. Finally, the weekend arrived, and with it the night of the much-anticipated investigation. The students all dressed in their least-flashy street clothes, aiming to be as inconspicuous as possible as they headed out into the evening.

U.A. High was more or less halfway between where All Might lived and Midoriya's apartment, so they split up into small groups of two or three each and scattered around the area. Izuku himself was paired off with Uraraka, and the two of them headed out to the park where All Might was known to go jogging. They hid just past the tree line, back where the light from the streetlamps couldn't quite reach.

"Oh man, this is so stupid…" Izuku whimpered out mostly to himself. "What are we doing spying on All Might? I feel like such a creep…"

"Yeah, I know what you mean. It feels so wrong prying into our teacher's private life like this…" Uraraka agreed, her unease clear in her voice. "Though it must be worse for you. I mean, technically your spying on both him and your mom."

Midoriya flinched visibly at that, his features going a bit pale. Dammit, he'd just managed to block out that particular detail from his mind! Reminding him of it wasn't going to make this any easier!

"S-sorry! Th-that was pretty stupid to bring up, huh?" she stammered out after noticing how flustered Izuku had become. He shook his head, partly to let her know it was fine, but mostly to shake some sense into himself.

"N-no, it's fine. I-I really shouldn't be avoiding the subject like this… I-it's kinda the whole reason we're doing this, after all…"

Uraraka gave him a small nod of her head, though the look of mild concern never left her face.

"Yeah, but what if it ends up being true? Have you thought about what you're gonna do about it?"

"'D-do about it'…?" Midoriya repeated in utter confusion.

"Yeah, think about it! If All Might and your mom have a thing going on, depending how serious it gets, he could end up being your stepdad!"

In that moment, one could be forgiven for thinking that Izuku had been shot square in his chest. A hand clutched at his heart as he braced himself against a tree, his pupils shrinking into near nothingness. All Might? His stepdad?! The mere thought of it seemed to stop his heart and choke his breathing. He'd never really known his real father growing up, and he would be lying if he said he'd never fantasized about his hero being his dad as a kid, but he never imagined it would really—

'Hey, Midoriya! Uraraka!'

Izuku nearly jumped clean out of his skin when Jirou's voice crackled to life in his ear. God, he'd forgotten about the earpieces that Yaoyorozu had made for them to keep in contact with one another. Once he got his heartrate down to an acceptable level, he was able to listen to the rest of the message.

'We've spotted All Might and he's headed your way. Be ready and report to the next group when he moves out of your sight.'

Midoriya swallowed hard at the lump that had gathered in his throat. Alright, this was it. nothing to panic about. They just had to keep their target in their sights and stay hidden. Simple, right? He peeked around the trunk of the tree he'd been hiding behind, quickly spotting the tall, lanky silhouette of a man as he walked casually down the paved park path. Once he passed under one of the street lamps, Izuku noticed that he wasn't wearing his usual athletic sweats that he typically wore on his evening jogs through this area. Instead, All Might wore a rather nice light gray suit, a pink dress shirt underneath, though he didn't wear a tie like he tended to do at school. He even seemed to have made an effort at taming the wild golden frizz that was his hair.

Izuku couldn't stop his cheeks from heating up at the implications of his mentor's style of dress. Why did he look like he was dressed up for a… for a… for a date?! No, it couldn't be… Maybe he was just going to meet some of the other teachers for a night out with his coworkers. Sure, that could be it! Then again… if that was the case, he'd be heading downtown somewhere. There wasn't anywhere in the area for them to meet up here.

The young hero's sense of dread only worsened when All Might took a seat on one of the park benches nearby. He just sat there for a long while doing little more than tapping his fingers rhythmically on one of his bony knees. Was he waiting for someone? That thought sparked another in Izuku's mind, and he quickly tapped a button on his earpiece.

"Hey, have any of you guys over on the west side of the school seen a short lady with black hair walking towards the park?" he whispered just loud enough for the mic to pick him up. Reports back began streaming in a moment later.

'Nah, no one like that where we are.'

'All clear here.'

'None of us have seen your fucking mom, idiot!'

'Alright, who's bright idea was it to give Bakugo an earpiece?'

Midoriya let out a small sigh of relief at that. Well, at the very least it didn't look like his mother was coming to meet All Might in the park. If that was the case, then who was he there to meet? Soon enough, Jirou's voice sounded in his earpiece once more.

'Hey, all of the east side groups have relocated to around the park. Any status updates on All Might?'

"No, he's just been sitting there," Midoriya replied. Of course, no sooner than he'd said that did All Might pull his phone from his pocket and, after a few quick taps on the screen, hold it up to his ear. "W-wait, it looks like he's calling someone. Jirou, can you..?"

'I'm on it.'

There was a brief moment of static on the group's earpieces as their classmate wired her earphone jacks to transmit what she picked up through the ground. Once it cleared, All Might's voice came over the line, apparently picked up mid-sentence.

'—really sorry, but it looks like I'm not going to make it… Yeah, I know. I hate having to cancel plans like this… I'll make it up to you, I promise…'

"Hey, Jirou, I can't hear who he's talking to. Can you turn up the volume at all?" Uraraka asked softly, holding a hand to her earpiece and listening very intently.

'Sorry, it's too quiet for me to hear from this distance. He must have pretty good hearing himself, 'cause he's got the volume on his phone turned way down low.'

Midoriya cursed silently under his breath at that. Dammit, if only they could find out who All Might was talking to, they could put this whole thing to rest once and for all! As it stood, all they could do was sit there and hope he said something to indicate who might be on the other line.

'Yeah, that seems to be the case, just like we discussed the other day… Yeah, I know. I'll be careful… Hey, c'mon, I might not have my Quirk anymore, but I still know how to take care of myself. Besides, I'm pretty sure I know who it is… Heh heh, yeah, okay, I'll do that. See you later.'

After that, All Might hung up and slipped his phone back into his pants pocket. The retired hero then hefted himself up off the bench, stretching out his back with a few satisfying pops before slipping his hands into jacket pockets.

"And as for you kids, you'd better head back to your dorms before another teacher catches you out after curfew! I really don't want to have to report this to Principal Nezu!"

Both Midoriya and Uraraka froze when All Might suddenly raised his voice loud enough so that he could be heard all throughout that section of the park. There was no way… How could he have known they were all out there watching him? Was that why he stopped in the park and canceled his plans before they could see where he was going? That seemed impossible! But sure enough, when Izuku chanced another glance around the edge of the tree, he found that a pair of bright blue eyes were staring right back at him from shadowy sockets. The young hero's breath caught in his throat. Shit, he really did know they were there!

Rather than coming to confront them face-to-face, however, All Might merely ended up giving them a dismissive wave of his hand before starting down the path back towards his apartment once more.

"Aww, man! Talk about a complete mission fail!" Kaminari bemoaned once they made their way into the common room of their dorm once more, flopping face-first onto one of the couches there. "We should have known it would have been impossible to sneak up on someone like All Might! The guy's probably had people tailing him since he debuted as a hero!"

"He has always been pretty good at dodging the paparazzi when he doesn't want to be in the public eye," Yaoyorozu offered, resting her chin between her thumb and forefinger thoughtfully. "But he can't hide in his true form now that everyone knows what he really looks like. If he's seeing someone, he probably doesn't want to get them mixed up in all that drama, no matter who they end up being."

"Gahh, what a waste of my goddamn time!" Bakugo roared out as he stormed up the stairs towards his room. "Coulda just gone up and fucking asked one of them who they're banging for all the good it did! At least then it would have saved me having to lurk around town all night with you assholes!"

At that, Iida's eyes seemed to light up behind his glasses.

"Of course! The direct approach! Why didn't we think of that sooner? Thank you for your suggestion, Bakugo! This might just get us an answer!" he called that last bit up the stairs after the explosive teen, to which they heard a slightly muffled "I don't fucking care!" shouted back at him from the next floor up.

All of a sudden, Midoriya felt the scrutinizing stares of his entire class on him once more. He froze, flashing them all a nervous smile as he looked around at all of them.

"U-uhh… S-so, what now, guys..?" he asked, already knowing that he wasn't going to like the answer.

"Now," Iida began, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose until the glare on the lenses completely obscured his eyes. "You're going to go get the answer out of one of them yourself."

"M-me?!"

"Yeah, you! Who else could it be?!" Ashido retorted immediately, setting her hands on her hips as she glared into him with her alien eyes. "She's your mom, and you're closer to All Might than any of us! If anyone has a chance of getting answers, it's you!"

Midoriya took another long glance around the room, but alas the look on each of their faces read the same; he wouldn't be allowed to back out of this one.

"Ah, jeez…"

It took a few days' convincing, but eventually Midoriya found himself standing in front of his apartment door, debating with himself whether he really wanted to do this. Asking his own mother something like this… It just struck him as intensely wrong. Still, his classmates weren't going to leave him alone until he came back with an answer, and he'd be lying if he said there wasn't some part of him that wanted to know, so…

He unlocked the front door and tentatively poked his head inside. The apartment was exactly as he'd left it, right down to the All-Might-style door sign displaying his name on his old room. He didn't know why, but that at least made him smile a bit.

"Hey, mom? You up?" he called out as he took off his shoes and made his way inside. He'd come before school, so it was still pretty early. It wouldn't have been unreasonable for her to still be asleep. After not getting an answer, he made his way over to her bedroom door and gave it a soft knock. It took a moment, but soon enough the door opened, and he was greeted by his mother's surprised face.

"I-Izuku! What are you doing here, sweetie? Don't you have school soon?" she asked, a look of mild concern appearing on her face as it always did when something involved her son. Midoriya noticed that she made no effort to block his view into the bedroom, and she was wearing her usual comfy pajamas. All in all, there didn't seem to be anything out of place that he could see. Of course, now that he thought that, he felt utterly embarrassed for thinking he would find it any other way.

"Y-yeah, but I just thought I'd stop by and see how you were doing. Living at the dorms is fun and all, but I do kinda miss you sometimes…"

At that, his mother beamed a gentle smile up at him.

"Oh, honey, you don't have to worry about me. You've got enough on your plate as it is with school. I only wish you'd let me know you were coming over. I could have made you breakfast!"

To that, Midoriya shook his head.

"That's alright. I can't stay long anyway. I'm just glad you're doing okay."

He left shortly after that, never having gathered up the courage to ask his mother the one question he'd come to have answered in the first place. No, that wasn't quite right. He didn't need to ask her. Not anymore. That serene smile on her face had told him everything he needed to know.

Inko Midoriya had waited until she heard the sound of the front door being closed and locked by her son before finally letting out a sigh of relief. Well, that certainly was a close one, wasn't it? Once she was sure the coast was clear, she went back into her bedroom and closed the door behind her.

"Alright, Toshi, it's safe to come out now," she called out softly, at which point the door to her closet slid open from the inside. A rather flustered-looking All Might, clad in little more than a pair of pajama pants that were far too short for his lanky legs, had to duck his head to keep from hitting it on his way out.

"Having to hide away in a lady's closet like some sort of teenage deviant… How shameful this must look…" the former hero grumbled out as he sat himself on the end of her bed, hiding his face in the palms of his hands. Inko let out a small giggle before settling herself on the bed next to him.

"Hey, at least he couldn't have kicked you out like my father would have back in the day," she teased lightly, after which she could see that she'd pulled a smile out of him even through those hands he tried to hide his embarrassment behind. All Might eventually dropped them to rest on his knees, though his head still hung low.

"Young Midoriya's a smart boy. He's going to figure it out eventually. Hell, he probably already suspects something like this, if the other night is anything to go by – in which case his whole damn homeroom class must be in on it. God, how I ever managed to keep my true form a secret for all these years is beyond me…"

Inko let out a small sigh, reaching over to All Might's hand and threading her fingers between his own.

"Well, if that's the case… Maybe it's best if he finds out from you directly."

All Might's head perked up in surprise at that, and soon she found his sunken blue eyes staring down at her as though to ask if she was serious.

"A-are you sure you're okay with that? I mean, he's your son. Wouldn't I be imposing if I..?"

She shook her head, giving his hand a gentle, reassuring squeeze.

"Toshi, I told you already that you're the light of his life. You couldn't impose on him if you tried. Like you said, he's a smart boy. We won't be able to keep this a secret from him forever. If you think he can handle it, then I think you should tell him."

At that, much of the tension wound up in All Might's shoulders seemed to relax away, and he leaned down to give Inko's soft cheek a kiss.

"He's a very lucky boy to have a mother like you."

"Not as lucky as he is to have a hero like you," she replied before returning the gesture on one of his hollow cheeks. She then raised her free hand, using her telekinesis to float his clothes over from where they'd been folded neatly on top of the dresser near the door. "Now you should hurry up and get dressed. You're going to be late for school too, you know."

"O-oh shit, is it that late already?!" he said, snatching his clothes from where they floated in mid-air. Inko watched with no shortage of amusement as he rushed to get dressed, stopping only to give her one last quick kiss goodbye before running out the door.

Midoriya found himself sitting at his desk up in his room for the third night in a row, idly flicking his pencil back and forth with his fingers as he stared blankly down at his half-finished homework. He'd been more or less avoiding his classmates ever since he'd come back from his mother's place empty-handed. He knew it wouldn't be like this forever. Everyone would forget about the whole thing soon enough. There would be a test, or some crisis, or something to distract everyone from it and he could move on with his life.

Suddenly, Midoriya was pulled from his thoughts when a loud buzz rattled across his desk. He let out a small yelp of surprise, looking down to see his phone's screen light up with a new notification. He'd gotten a text message… From All Might?!

"'Meet me outside. We need to talk.' Ah, jeez… I wonder what it could be this time…" he groaned out under his breath as he read over the message. Normally he'd be excited to get a message from his mentor, but 'we need to talk' was never something you wanted to hear in any context. Even so, Izuku quickly got dressed and hurried downstairs.

"Izuku? Where are you going? Isn't it kinda late?" Uraraka asked as she saw her classmate jog down the stairs. Izuku didn't pause as he passed the girl by on his way to the door.

"I-I know. I'm just stepping outside for a minute," he explained hastily, heading out the door before she could get a reply in. Once outside, he found All Might standing out there wearing his usual yellow pinstriped suit. He flashed the boy a small smile when he saw him.

"Hey, kid," he greeted before his smile started to fade a bit. "So, uhh… This isn't gonna be easy for either of us to talk about, but…"

"It's about you and my mom. I know."

All Might stared down at his young successor for a moment, a shocked look on his face. Then, his expression softened a bit, and he let out a sigh. He'd said it before; Midoriya was a smart boy. He should have known he'd catch on quick.

"Alright, I guess I should be grateful that I don't have to explain that part…" the former hero grumbled mostly to himself, scratching at the back of his head. "You should know that I never planned for it to happen. I don't want you thinking that I took advantage of you being my successor to get involved with your mother. I'd never do something like that. It just… Sort of happened, y'know? I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. We didn't know how you'd take it, and neither of us wanted something like this to interfere with your studies."

"It's okay, really," Izuku replied, giving his mentor a reassuring smile. "I'm fine with whatever you've got going on with my mom. I mean, I'll admit I was a little freaked out about the idea at first, but then I went home to see her the other day, and… Well, she just seemed a lot happier than the last time I saw her. I don't know if it's because she's finally got someone to be with again after all these years, or if getting to know you made her worry less about me being here at U.A., but… Whatever it is, if being with you makes her happy, then I'm happy about it, too."

All Might couldn't help but beam a proud smile down at the boy. After hearing how maturely Midoriya handled the whole situation, he wasn't sure why he'd gotten so worried in the first place. He brought a hand down on top of the boy's head, playfully ruffling his wild curls.

"You're a good kid, you know that?"

Of course, the touching moment between the two wasn't meant to last, as the peanut gallery that had gathered up in Jirou's room found that they couldn't hold themselves back any longer.

"Oh my god, for real?! That little perv Mineta was right?!"

"Hey! Watch who you're calling a perv!"

"Jeez, I thought Midoriya would be more freaked out about this! How you gonna just be cool with a guy gettin' with your mom like that, bro?!"

"You realize this does nothing to disprove my 'Midoriya is All Might's love-child' theory, right?"

Upon hearing his students all shouting such commentary from the open window above, All Might couldn't help but cover his eyes with his hand in a futile effort to hide the flustered red tint on his gaunt face. God, how embarrassing… The news was bound to spread to the whole school at this rate!

"Alright, that's enough out of all of you."

Both Midoriya and All Might jumped in surprise when they heard the tired yet oddly commanding voice call out to the group upstairs. As soon as they looked, the two of them spotted Shota Aizawa just as he made his way around the corner of the building towards them. All Might himself froze when he saw his fellow teacher approaching, Eraser Head's piercing eyes zeroing in on him in particular.

"I'm making a new rule," Aizawa called out to the students above, though his eyes never left All Might. "What happens in class 1-A, stays in class 1-A. If I hear one more word of this, either from you lot or from any other person in the school, I'm expelling all of you. Got it?"

"Y-yes, Mr. Aizawa!" came the collective reply from above.

"Good. Now get back to your rooms. Don't you guys have homework to do or something?"

With that, they heard the vague shuffling of several teens rushing out of one room and dispersing down the hall. Aizawa's gaze then shifted slightly to rest on the young teen standing next to All Might.

"That includes you, Midoriya."

"R-right!" Izuku stammered out in response. He snuck a sideways glance up at All Might before doing as he was told and running back into the dorm.

Once he was sure his students had all gone to their respective rooms, Aizawa returned his imposing stare up to All Might again.

"It's always something with you, isn't it?" he grumbled out with an exasperated sigh. All Might replied with a nervous chuckle, looking away as he rubbed at the back of his neck.

"I-I don't do it on purpose, you know…"

"Oh, I know. It's just in your nature to grab the spotlight with everything you do, whether you intend to or not. Honestly, I really don't care who you involve yourself with. I just wish you'd stop making my job harder in the process…"

"S-sorry… I'll try to make sure the school doesn't get dragged into my business this time…" All Might replied, bowing slightly out of habit as he apologized. Aizawa merely rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, and you've done a great job of that so far, haven't you?" he scolded mildly, to which he could see All Might deflate a bit. He let out another sigh. "But it looks like we've nipped the problem in the bud for now. Hopefully your new lady friend can get you to tone down that obnoxious habit of yours."

And with that, Aizawa turned to head back towards his apartment. All Might couldn't help but blink in confusion.

"Wait… That's it? You're not going to report this to Principal Nezu? You could get yourself in trouble if he finds out you've been keeping something like this from him…" he pointed out, his concern for his colleague overriding his concern for himself. At that, Aizawa stopped dead in his tracks. Slowly, he turned to look back at the retired hero, that rare, unsettling grin of his suddenly plastered across his face.

"Dear God, you actually think he doesn't know already…"