Fic Prompts: Free Day Thursday
Tenko was up to something. He may have thought he was being subtle, but it was starting to be almost embarrassingly obvious that something was afoot.
At first, Izuku had thought it might be quirk related, and just let him be. Having a half finished AFO copy came with troubles of its own. Sometimes, when Tenko was at capacity for quirk storage, he had to isolate a little bit. Hana had explained it as his body trying so hard to offload one of the six quirks that he had to make sure he didnt accidentally give a random student something they didn't need.
But...when Tenko was having quirk problems, usually he told Izuku, or All Might, or Nana, or Hana. Whatever was going on now, he seemed to be spending all his time down in the Support Course workrooms. Ochako had reported that she saw him stealing Melissa from her Support Gear debates with Hatsume Mei to help him with something. Melissa had seemed to know exactly what he meant.
"I guess it wouldn't seem so weird if he wasn't avoiding me," Izuku admitted to Tenya after the third week of Tenko Weirdness. "I don't think I made him mad, because he still grins at me when he sees me, and not like Kacchan smiles because Kacchan smiles kinda like chimpanzees do it means he's about to attack but I didn't learn that until I was like eight but that doesn't matter because we're not talking about Kacchan we're talking about Tenko and-"
Tenya waved a hand stiffly to get Izuku's attention before he could spiral into too much worry. He offered a reassuring smile.
"I wouldn't worry too much. Perhaps he is merely very busy right now. Whatever he's working on in Support, he may not want you or anyone else not involved to know about it until he's satisfied with the end result."
Izuku fidgeted. "Yeah...I guess you're right. I just got used to him wanting to hang out after school."
"He and Hana quite serious about their involvement in your life, I think," Tenya mused, "It reminds me of my older brother sometimes. I'm sure when he has time, he'll be able to talk again."
The first person to directly confirm that something was weird was, as it happened, All Might. Izuku found him standing in the hallway with an odd expression on his face. Tenko was already to the stairs, snickering faintly.
"Was that Tenko?" Izuku asked, coming to stand next to his mentor.
"Uh-huh," Toshinori said, a little distracted. He shook his head. "That boy's up to something."
Izuku blinked. "You think so, too?"
With a helpless gesture, Toshinori answered, "Well, he told me to my face, "I'm up to something", so that's a pretty good indicator I'd say. He seems proud of it, whatever the something is."
Tenko had a weird sense of humor.
The second person to directly confirm his suspicions was Hana. She'd just come off a patrol -- she hated having to start over at sidekick level when she didn't know any of the local heroes -- and had caught Tenko sneaking out of the dorms. Her loud "And where are you going?" had drawn Izuku and Ochako's attention away from dish duty to see "Izuku's weird cousin" halfway out the first floor window.
"I'm going to Nunya," Tenko had answered.
"Oh gimme a break," Hana scoffed, just as Ochako had innocently asked "Nunya?"
"Nunya business!" Tenko hooted gleefully, and vanished out the window.
Hana had shaken her head in annoyance and flopped down on the couch. "Brat couldn't be more suspicious if he'd put on a trenchcoat and started playing the Pink Panther theme everywhere he went."
It wasn't until the middle of the month that Izuku finally found out what his "cousin" had been doing. With all the training and preparations, Izuku had sort of forgotten that his birthday was so close. Somewhere in the back of his mind, sure, he knew he was going to be sixteen very very soon. But it didn't register to him as particularly important. Nobody would really notice except maybe All Might. Same as always.
Until he couldn't get out of his dorm room on the weekend of the 15th, because someone had strung red, white, and blue streamers from one side of the door frame to the other. The tape holding them in place was definitely Sero's, but Izuku was fairly certain the glittery banners looked like something Aoyama would make.
The glitter that got stuck in his hair all but confirmed Aoyama's involvement.
Was it a prank? Izuku couldn't think of anything that would have warranted the beginning of a prank war. Aizawa hated those.
When he got downstairs, he found about half of his classmates waiting for him with expectant grins.
"Happy birthday, Deku!" Ochako yelled, startling him.
"You guys...actually remembered what day that is?" Izuku sputtered when he managed to find his voice.
"Uh, we've only been plotting for like, weeks," Kaminari scoffed, "I don't forget stuff that quickly!"
Tenya took off his glasses and looked apologetic. "I hope you can excuse the way I deliberately withheld information from you," he said solemnly, "I was asked not to spoil the surprise."
Shouto looked as confused as Izuku. "I didn't know if I was supposed to say anything. I don't know how these things work."
It took some effort not to flood the room with tears. Tears were still shed, but a more human amount. Ochako and Hagakure all but dragged Izuku to one of the couches in front of the television, clearly excited.
"We told Mr. Aizawa we wanted to do something for your birthday, so he said we could have a party if we didn't make a mess!" Hagakure explained. "We don't have cake yet, but that's cuz Sato wants to go shopping first because somebody ate all the frosting."
Tokoyami glared from the kitchen. "I will not be blamed for things that Dark Shadow allegedly did when I was sleeping."
"Mmmmm, frosting!" Dark Shadow crowed, completely unrepentant.
"You are a disgrace," Tokoyami told his quirk.
Izuku couldn't help but laugh. Sometimes, Dark Shadow was a menace.
"So cake has to wait, and some presents can wait until cake," Toshinori said as he came to sit down on an adjacent couch, "But Melissa and Tenko didn't want to wait to give you their gift."
Izuku was floored. His friends not only remembered his birthday, they wanted to give him a gift?! He vowed to find out exactly what they wanted for their birthdays so he could repay their kindness someday.
"Is this why you keep sneaking off to Support?" Izuku asked before he could stop himself.
Tenko looked enormously pleased with himself. "Yes! Sneaky birthday business was underway." He dug through the pockets of his trenchcoat and came up with a game box. It looked like one of the Final Fantasy games that Izuku owned, but with a slightly different box cover.
"Fair warning," Tenko said as he handed the box to Izuku, "Melissa and I definitely voided this thing's warranty with the kind of mods we squeezed in there. So this is a one of a kind copy."
Melissa made a face from where she sat with Nana. "I just did the mechanical parts. He did all the programming."
Clearly, they meant for him to try it out right then and there. It took a moment to find the controller and get the tv set up, but soon enough the title screen for Final Fantasy XII came up. An option had been added to the menu in font that didn't quite match saying, "Costumes Mod".
He didn't quite know what to expect when he chose it. But then a screen full of every costume All Might had ever worn appeared. Some were locked, suggesting there were actually quests or tasks he would have to complete to get them. The ones available fit every character except Fran, though admittedly some characters looked better in the costumes than others.
Izuku turned to stare at Tenko. "You...made this?"
The Shigaraki doppelganger smirked. "You should see my other mods. I made one when I was in high school where you can make the whole party cactuars. Totally broke the cutscenes." He drooped slightly. "Of course, that mod when up in smoke with the rest of my timeline, but I could probably recreate it eventually."
He leaned over the back of the couch to tousle Izuku's hair. "Happy birthday, squirt."
Tenko pulled away and glanced at his hand. "What the- is that glitter?"
Aoyama looked away and whistled innocently.
