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Like a great number of things in Izuku’s life, everything started with his desire to be helpful.
So when Izuku, fresh from another day in the hell that is middle school, finds yet another late notice stuffed hastily in the bill drawer in the kitchen, the first thing Izuku thinks is that he needs to do something.
His mom already works more hours than she should in order to make ends meet. The added burden of constantly having to do things like pay for replacement uniforms and textbooks or restocking the first aid kit weekly is really beginning to cut into what little bit of extra money there is in the house.
So, to Izuku, the logical next step is that he needs to get a job.
Only Izuku knows that’s going to be easier said than done. For one Izuku’s only in his first year of middle school. No one is going to hire him to do more than maybe walk their dog. Which would be some money yes but nowhere near the kind of income Izuku knows he needs to start pulling in to help ease the burden on his mom.
Then there’s the even more damning fact that he’s quirkless. So even dog walking or tutoring or any other odd jobs he might be able to find are going to dry up as soon as anyone finds out about his quirk status.
And everyone always seem to find out.
So with those options firmly crossed out, Izuku does the next logical thing.
He turns to the internet.
The one positive to having a mother who works overtime on a constant basis is the fact that he’s had unrestricted and basically unmonitored internet access since he was eight years old. The fact that he’s had a non-existent social life for even longer than that just means that he’s gotten very very familiar with how things work online.
By this point, Izuku feels confident in saying that there’s very little online he hasn’t seen or at least heard of in some shape or form.
So Izuku knows that if he digs deep enough there’s got to be some kind of job online he can take that won’t care that he’s young and quirkless.
All Izuku has to do is find it.
~~~
Come to find out Izuku doesn’t have to dig all that deep after all.
Even if the job he ends up with is far from … conventional.
~~~
Izuku’s nervous about his new side job, of course he is.
But, well …
The first time he checks his new online account and sees the amount of yen he’s already managed to earn?
All of those nerves disappear right out the window.
He’s made enough money to not only buy another set of uniforms for himself but he’ll also be able to cover their weekly grocery bill all on his own.
If Izuku manages to hit the shops at the right time and takes his coupon book then there might even be a little bit left over.
This, Izuku can’t help but think gleefully, is the best idea I’ve ever had.
~~~
When Inko comes home that next afternoon, exhaustion weighing down her shoulders and deepening the lines around her mouth, to Izuku humming and cheerfully putting away groceries she’s speechless.
“Izu, baby, w-what …” Inko blinks at him in confusion, more than aware that she hadn’t laid out the grocery money for the week before she left for work. Mainly because she’d still been trying to figure out how to make what little she had left stretch that far.
Things had been so much harder since Hisashi had stopped sending in money a few years back and all of the savings she’d put away back then have finally run dry.
“I bought all the groceries and ordered a new uniform,” Izuku tells her, already moving towards the rice cooker to set it running with deft movements. “Even managed to get one of the brands that are supposed to be more damage resistant so it should last longer.”
“H-how?” Inko asks faintly. “Baby, the money …?”
“I got a job!” Izuku practically chirps at her, all beaming smiles and chubby cheeks, as he moves across the kitchen to grab her by the hand.
“A job?” Inko lets herself be led to the kitchen table where a cup of her favorite, and honestly more than a bit expensive by their budget’s standards, jasmine tea is already steaming away. She honestly feels as if someone could knock her over with a feather at this point.
“Yeah!” Izuku nods at her, face set in that familiar determined expression of his. “It pays pretty well so I’m gonna help out from now on. So don’t worry so much, okay? I’m here.”
Inko, of course, immediately bursts into tears.
~~~
It takes Izuku a while to calm his mom down that night even if he’s not sure why, exactly, she’s crying so hard.
Still, Izuku keeps up with his new work, brushing off Inko’s questions about what this job of his is with simple and careful redirections.
When asked he tells her he’s doing a few odd jobs around the neighborhood and that he’s found a safe place to sell his analysis work in online forums or even that he’s signed up for a tutoring service online.
Small, mostly believable things that won’t make her worry or question too much.
And, more importantly, he's able to keep stuffing money into her wallet or just buying groceries and paying smaller bills behind her back so she can’t refuse his help.
It's a system he gleefully exploits.
The first time Izuku’s able to afford to buy a piece of semi-rare All Might merch on his own he cries just a bit.
He cries even harder when Inko’s able to take an entire weekend off work for the first time in what feels like years.
~~~
Time passes, Izuku eventually meets All Might and finally starts on his journey towards achieving his dream.
But he also keeps up with his job the entire time and the money keeps rolling in.
For once all areas of his life seem to be going pretty well.
~~~
Which means, of course, that eventually something has to give.
~~~
For all of the different, and oftentimes horrifying, ways Izuku has imagined the truth about his side job finally being discovered, he can honestly say this particular scenario wasn't the one he saw sitting at the top of the charts.
And yet, here he is.
Here, of course, being in the middle of the street, mid-villain fight.
Or if he's being more accurate about the parts that are really sticking out to him: mid-villain fight in front of his homeroom teacher, a half dozen of his classmates, numerous other pro heroes and police officers, and the little girl strapped to his back.
Izuku had always kind of imagined that he'd forget to close his laptop one day instead. Or that his mom would walk in on him setting up a shoot one day despite him being meticulous about making sure she's out of the house and well away before he ever even thinks about pulling out his gear.
He'd only ever briefly entertained admittedly nonsensical and wildly sleep-deprived thoughts about this particular scenario happening.
And yet, here he is.
Izuku's honestly not sure how, exactly, he'd managed to lose his shoes in the battle. Hell, up until roughly ten seconds ago he hadn't really even noticed all that much or been all that inclined to care.
All he'd been focused on was protecting Eri and kicking Overhaul into the next calendar year. Most everything else, including his lost shoes and destroyed socks, hadn't seemed anywhere near as urgent as those two issues.
But he's absolutely noticing and caring now.
Izuku is absolutely going to hunt down whichever one of his ancestors it was that pissed off a luck-kami or caused someone to curse their entire family line to "live in interesting times" and set their gravestone on fire.
Because divine retribution or an ancient curse has to be the reason why he's in this position.
"It is you, isn't it, Yamikumo?" Overhaul rasps in his direction, expression twisted in what looks a lot like some horrible form of almost starstruck confusion.
"Aa-hh," Izuku sputters out a broken sound, mind still not fully willing to accept what Overhaul saying that name to him has to mean.
"It has to be," Overhaul keeps on, eyes fever bright. "You're even wearing the white polish I sent you."
That statement's enough to snap Izuku's mind back into focus. Because that means …
"Mr. Clean!?" Izuku squawks out the username of one of his best and most loyal customers.
And, much to his ever-mounting horror, Overhauls' face practically lights up.
"Yes!" The villain practically crows despite the fact that Izuku still has him pinned to the ground, one bare heel digging mercilessly into his collarbone.
But then, Izuku can't help but think just a bit hysterically, given all that's just been revealed, he's probably enjoying that part of this entire situation.
"I'd recognize those beautiful toes of yours anywhere," Overhaul keeps going, one clearly broken and disfigured hand coming up to pet the top of Izuku's foot gently. "But how? I don't understand, Yamikumo. You're supposed to be quir-"
Izuku knows exactly what Overhaul is about to announce so he does the only rational thing he can do in this situation.
He shifts his weight and brings his other bare foot down heel first against Overhaul's temple.
The villain collapses the rest of the way onto the rubble beneath him, finally, blessedly, unconscious.
"Problem Child," hearing Aizawa-sensei's voice from so close behind him, and not to mention the obvious confusion in it, sends a shaft of pure dread straight down Izuku's spine. "What the actual fuck?"
By this point, Izuku thinks as the edges of his vision begin to blacken, passing out is basically self-defense.