41

At this point, Hitoshi had just accepted that confusion was his default emotion. Being kidnapped and practically adopted by two kids his own age who turned out to be mad scientist gremlins had thrown him for a loop, sure, but that was nothing in comparison to whatever this situation was. At least he had confirmation that he'd made it into the hero course, but going home with his teachers who may or may not be waiting for him to go off the rails was not what he'd had in mind when he'd woken up yesterday. 

He had the sneaking suspicion that Eraserhead hadn't been planning on it either. Sure, he hid his surprise well, but Hitoshi had seen the brief flash of surprise and maybe panic that had passed over his face before he managed to hide it. He didn't know why it hurt so much that Eraserhead was scared of him. Everyone was, so this shouldn't be any different, but in the few times they'd interacted in the past, Hitoshi hadn't noticed any hesitence to talk to him, but from his obvious panic and what Nedzu and told his former foster parents, they were doing this to make sure that he didn't get tempted to switch sides. It hurt to know that, except for Mei and Izuku, UA really wasn't that different after all. 

Hitoshi straightened his tie and pushed those thoughts from his mind. He could get through this. He always did. It was just a matter of fading into the background and not talking more than he had to. As long as he behaved, Eraserhead wouldn't have any reason to kick him out of his house and by extension probably the hero course as well. No pressure. 

Despite the fact that he knew this was just a precautionary arrangement, it was still trippy to leave his room and see Eraserhead and Present Mic sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast. It was like running into his teachers at the grocery store, but worse. Present Mic grinned as he came into the room, practically bouncing in his seat with excess energy, "Hey there little listener! How'd you sleep?"

Hitoshi shrugged and Eraserhead slapped Mic upside the head, probably to shut him up so he wouldn't encourage Hitoshi to say anything, "Don't be so loud, Zashi, the kid just woke up. Besides, it'd be a miracle if he slept at all with the way you snore."

"Hey!" Mic squawked.

Hitoshi chuckled despite himself, then froze. Laughing didn't really count for his quirk, but did his teachers know that? Would they get angry at him? He looked up hesitantly, only to see Eraserhead smiling like he'd won something and Mic shaking his head in amusement. Ok, so they were glad he'd laughed at their joke, and he wasn't going to get in trouble for laughing. Good to know. 

"Do you want any breakfast?" Eraserhead asked, frowning when Hitoshi shook his head. "Are you sure? We're having omelettes, but we can make you something else if you'd like?"

Hitoshi just shook his head again. He didn't want to cause any trouble on his first day and he never really got hungry until later anyway. There was always lunch and Izuku had a stash of snacks in his room for emergencies anyway. He was fine. 

Eraserhead sighed heavily, while Mic looked worried and Hitoshi had the sinking feeling he'd done something wrong, but it was too late to take back his decision, so he just adjusted his backpack and waited for them to say something else. Was he supposed to walk to school or wait to leave with them? What was the protocol when you were living with your teachers?

After another minute or two of heavy silence, Mic stood up and took his plate to the sink, "Alright, you ready to go little listener?"

Hitoshi nodded as Eraserhead stood and grabbed his keys, "Let's go then. It's your first day in the hero course, so it's gonna be a long day. Your new classmates are a bunch of annoying brats, but you're used to dealing with Powerloader's gremlins, so it'll be nothing new."

Hitoshi snickered. It was always funny to see how the teachers reacted to Mei and Izuku. It was almost funnier than seeing the student's reactions, which was also hilarious. Eraserhead had seemed to support the two during the sports festival, so maybe living here wouldn't be too bad, even if they were just waiting for him to mess up and turn villain. As long as he respected Hitoshi's friends, that was the important part. 

Mic talked the entire drive to UA and Hitoshi was almost tempted to ask him a question just to get him to shut up. Eraserhead nodded along and made interested hums at all the right places, but obviously wasn't fully listening to what Mic was saying. The weird part was that Mic seemed to know that and was totally fine with it. It was like the two had this silent agreement that Mic could talk as much as he wanted about everything under the sun and Eraserhead would just be there. He could see Mei and Izuku doing that too, but they would probably have to take turns as the listener, otherwise neither of them would ever shut up. 

When they got to the school, Mic kissed Eraserhead on the cheek, which surprised Hitoshi even though they lived together, and left toward the general education part of the building. Hitoshi almost followed him out of habit, only to find himself being yanked back by Eraserhead's capture weapon around his waist. 

When he turned back, Eraserhead was just raising an amused eyebrow at him, "Just where do you think you're going? You're in the hero course now, or did you forget?"

"I…" Hitoshi slammed his mouth shut. Just because he was at UA didn't mean he was welcome to speak. This guy was still suspicious of him. 

He glanced up at Eraser hesitantly, but to his surprise, instead of getting angry, Eraserhead's face had softened into something like pity or maybe understanding, "You know you're always allowed to talk here, right? No one's going to force you, of course, but neither Mic nor I are ever going to punish you for talking. You're going to be a hero with that quirk, so it would be illogical to restrict your usage of it. Do I make myself clear?"

Hitoshi nodded again and Eraserhead just sighed and started walking toward 1A. It was a nice sentiment, but it could also be a trap. It didn't seem very hero like to bait him like that, but then again, Eraserhead was infamous for his logical ruses, so it was better to stay on the safe side for now. 

Eraserhead paused for a moment when they reached the door to 1A. "By the way, you didn't ever actually write those apology letters your foster father wanted you to, did you?"

Hitoshi nodded, confused. They were tucked away in this bag, and he wasn't looking forward to delivering them, but he was glad he'd actually written them, if Eraser was asking. But then again, that also meant that he couldn't just conveniently forget to deliver them or anything. 

"Ugh, rip them up." Eraserhead scowled and Hitoshi did a double take. "Or have Hatsume explode them or something. I don't care."

Before Hitoshi could even react to that, much less process, Eraserhead pushed open the door and walked into the classroom. Hitoshi's eyes widened as he took in the chaos happening in the class and then widened even more when everyone just stopped the moment they saw Eraserhead open the door. 

"Good Morning brats." Eraserhead announced. "Good job on the sports festival, but don't get too cozy, your torture is just beginning. Shinso, you're in the empty seat. Let's get started."

His initial judgement of the man had definitely been correct. He was even scarier than Izuku.

"And yeah, I heard he was totally creeping on some of the third years over the break." Mina shuddered. "I almost wish there hadn't been an empty seat so you could have kicked him out, Shinso!"

Hitoshi wasn't quite sure how he'd ended up walking to lunch with a group of students from 1A, but as soon as class ended, Uraraka had pretty much immediately grabbed his hand and started dragging him along, most of the girls from the class falling into pace and filling the air with gossip. He was starting to relax a little more now that he wasn't around Eraser...well, Aizawa, who considering his instructions about the letters might not actually be judging him? Still, he didn't want to mess up his chances now that he was finally in the hero course, so it was better to err on the side of caution, at least around the hero course students. 

"Yeah, Mineta's pretty bad." Jiro laughed. "But at least...what the actual…?!"

He practically ran into Jiro's back as she stopped suddenly in the middle of the hall. He looked to see what had shocked her and somehow wasn't really surprised to see Mei and Izuku hanging from the ceiling, dust in their hair as they grinned at them, "Extra-Credit-Kun! You made it in!"

His classmates, with the exception of Uraraka, gaped at them and a couple looked around in confusion trying to figure out who they were talking about. Izuku took a breath to say something else, onto to sneeze violently, which wouldn't have been nearly as bad if he'd actually been hanging onto anything. Instead he probably would have fallen out of the ceiling if Uraraka hadn't removed his gravity in time. 

"Thank Uraraka!" Izuku smiled brightly, still upside down as Mei started dragging him back up into the ceiling and Uraraka returned his gravity. "Hitoshi, you have to see this! It's so cool!"

Hitoshi was just trying not to laugh as both Mei and Izuku reached down, grabbing one arm each and just pulled him up into the ceiling. He tried to imagine how this must look to anyone who wasn't familiar with his kidnappers, and that just made him laugh harder. 

He pulled himself up the rest of the way into the ceiling and Izuku started shaking dust from his hair as Mei poked her head back down into the hallway, "Don't worry, we'll return him after lunch!"

"Just make sure he's back in time for class!" Uraraka's voice echoed with laughter. "Have fun and don't kill him before he can be a hero!"

Hitoshi's shoulders shook in laughter as Mei slammed the secret panel closed, cutting off the sound of his classmates freaking out as he turned to his kidnappers, "So…? What did you want to show me?"

"We got into the tunnels!" Mei's eyes were wide and he could see the crosshairs in her eyes zooming in and out as she looked behind him and took in every detail. 

Hitoshi just chuckled, "I can see that."

"It took so long!" Izuku rambled. "Every single door is locked with a different puzzle and we haven't even found all of them. Most of the doors out are also locked, which was kinda fun. We've been here since yesterday."

"What?" Hitoshi crawled after them. He didn't know if all the tunnels were this small, but it wasn't really a problem for Mei and Izuku since they were pretty short. "Did you even sleep?"

"Not important." Mei waved a hand dismissively. "We've been exploring! These tunnels lead everywhere! We can get to all the labs, even after hours, not to mention the practice grounds and the classrooms, the staff areas…"

"But that's not even the best part!" Izuku interrupted. "Obviously, not many people ever find them, so some of the tunnels are pretty dusty, but Nedzu did design them to be explored! There's even...oh, here we are!" 

Hitoshi panicked slightly as Mei and Izuku literally just fell and disappeared. He moved forward more slowly and screamed when he realized that one of the floor panels was actually a hologram. He hit the floor with a small oof and rubbed his head as he looked around and found...a nest? A half dozen blankets were spread out across the floor and more were folded against the walls. There was a mini-fridge and a cupboard that Mei was pulling cookies out of. Izuku poked his cheek and held out a take-out container from Lunch Rush.

"Is...is this where you guys slept?" Hitoshi asked, taking the food. "I mean, more power to you, but is it comfortable?"

Izuku shrugged, "Some of the others are more so, but this one's more central and it has the fridge."

"Got it." Hitoshi nodded and took a bite of his lunch. Yeah, confusion was definitely just his life now, but honestly, he wouldn't have it any other way.