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The day Izuku discovered All Might’s horrific habit of calling when he could so easily just text him was probably one of the most embarrassing days of his life.
So far, it had been an average, typical day. He’d been training on Dagobah Beach with All Might virtually every day for about a month now—and he was only now coming to terms with the idea that he was on talking terms with All Might. All Might! The Number One Pro Hero!
It was one of his guilty desires come true!
Izuku was in his final lesson of the day, mathematics, and he was eager to get back to working hard on the beach after school, Plus Ultra style! But his good mood was abruptly crushed when, while slaving away at a worksheet, his phone began to ring on full blast; cheesy All Might ringtone and all.
Here was the issue: Gushiken-sensei—their mathematics teacher—was strict. Strict to a fault. He had no patience for foolish teenagers messing around, especially if they were on their phones. Everyone despised him for his aggressive confiscation practices and aversion to technology. Unfortunately for Gushiken-sensei, many students devised the idea to exploit the excuse that their phone was ringing so that they could step out of class to ‘answer’ it—although instead they wandered around the school to skip class and use it. So, he established his infamous Ringing Phone policy: whenever a student’s phone rings in class, they must answer it in front of everyone. On speaker. This made for more than a few hilarious situations.
Fortunately, this rule had never been an issue for Izuku. Very few people had his phone number, and the only person who ever did call him—his mother—knew better than to call her son while he was still at school. An advantage to being a social pariah, if you will.
Well, now it’s an issue.
Which begged the question: who was calling Izuku in the middle of class?
He froze, pen hovering over a half-finished equation, begging for his phone to just shut up. Maybe if Izuku prayed and begged enough in his brain—the call would just disappear…
Perhaps it was from one of those spam callers? What if someone died and his mother was calling him to let him know? Even worse… What if his mother died and whoever found her is phoning him to let him know? Izuku pursed his lips. No! His mother is not dead! Hopefully—
“Midoriya.”
Izuku glanced up, meeting Gushiken-sensei’s eyes, silently pleading with him to spare his soul.
“Yes Sensei?” He squeaked, hunched over his desk. His phone continued to ring, lending credence to his spam caller theory…
“You know the drill. Phone out. Speaker. Chop chop.”
A handful of snickers rose from his classmates as Izuku shot up, fumbling to pull out his phone, sweat beading on his brow from anxiety. There were so many people staring at him! And the class had been so quiet! At least this’d be quick—he’d just be able to confirm it was a spam caller and get back to his worksheet…
Wait.
Izuku rubbed his eyes, squinting hard to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. It… It couldn’t be…
All Might was calling him.
His mouth went slack, cheeks flaring. There was no way! All Might had given him his phone number for communication—but he had never called Izuku! This was the most wonderful day of his life! His eyes welled up with grateful tears. This was so—ah! He had to raise a hand up to cover his watery grin. His heart was about to burst!
The All Might was calling him.
And then his stomach dropped.
The All Might was calling him in Gushiken-sensei’s mathematics class.
Izuku went pale. It wasn’t like he could decline! First and foremost: it was All Might. Second: everyone was watching—waiting for him. Third: Gushiken-sensei was staring him down with a death glare that was going to make him piss his pants.
“Midoriya.”
Oh god. Oh god . Well, here went nothing! He just had to pray with all of his might that All Might didn’t reveal any sensitive information. Talking of which—why was he calling Izuku in the first place? Was it serious?
Izuku held his breath, and accepted the call, pressing his phone up to his ear. On speaker.
“Young Midoriya!”
Izuku yelped, yanking his phone away from his poor, poor ears as All Might’s incredibly recognisable—and loud—voice boomed ruthlessly through his speakers. He was just almost deafened!
“There is no fucking way.” Ito-kun muttered in the corner.
He coughed awkwardly, steeling against the scrutinising gawking of his classmates before returning his phone back to his ears, lowering the volume just a bit.
“Yes! Um! Here! Hello!” Izuku babbled at far too high a volume, before adding: in a strained whisper, “All Might…”
Before anyone could comment on that in particular, All Might spoke again.
“My boy!” Izuku flushed. “Did I catch you at a bad time?”
Izuku took a look around. His classmates were all sitting there with open disbelief and confusion: transfixed, silent. Gushiken-sensei appeared similarly—probably storing this moment in his brain in order to win the trophy for the best teacher gossip of the year. All in all, there were approximately thirty people listening into this conversation, which almost certainly made this a bad time.
“No! No! Not at all!” Izuku blurted—despite that—waving a hand around wildly as if All Might could actually see him. “Just—um. Why did you call me? I mean—not that I don’t want you to call me! Just, what did you want to talk to me about? Um. Is it important?” He laughed stiffly, wobbly and nervous.
In response to his bumbling, All Might chuckled his trademark mighty chortle, and Izuku could just melt in pure mortification.
“Well, it is pretty important! I just needed to tell you that I won’t be at Dagobah with you today, sadly. It’s nothing to worry about—but I can’t miss out on this mission.” A staticky sigh could be heard on the other end of the line. “I tried my best to get them to postpone it, but even my status can’t get me what I want sometimes!”
If it was even possible, Izuku bloomed an even deeper red, down his neck and below his collar.
“You—you didn’t have to do that! Really!” He squealed.
“I know! I just didn’t want to miss out, my boy! Just don’t take this as an excuse to skip out on training!”
“I’d never!” Izuku proclaimed, shuffling on his feet.
“You do know what to do on your own, don’t you?” All Might scolded playfully.
“I know what to do, don’t worry about me, really!” He itched at his lip. All Might was really acting like a doting parent right now, wasn’t he? “Just, um. You know, you could’ve texted me about this—instead of calling me! Not that I’m upset about you calling me—no! It’s just—if you’re calling me it makes it seem like it’s really urgent, you know? Sending a message is a bit more convenient…”
Another boisterous laugh echoed out of his phone.
“Well, you know me, I’m getting old. I was never too good with technology; wasn’t my style… But, I’ll make sure to keep that in mind, Young Midoriya! I’ll be off now!”
“Okay! Okay!” Izuku smiled bashfully. “Goodbye All Might!”
“Goodbye Young Midoriya!”
Izuku removed his phone from his ears and hung up, exhaling in relief—and with that, he was once again reminded of where exactly he was.
The entire class remained wholly, deathly silent. Half of his classmates’ jaws were on the floor, eyes blown wide with shock, sickly pale. Given the circumstances… It was, after all, an understandable reaction. How else should someone behave when the shrimpy Quirkless kid just had a casual conversation with All Might? Izuku knew that if he was the one watching—he would surely instantaneously combust. How was he ever supposed to look any of his classmates in the eyes ever again?
“Did that really just happen, or was it a collective hallucination?” Kimura-san inquired, breaking the tension.
Izuku was still standing, shivering nervously behind his desk. Biting his lower lip, he slipped his phone back into his pocket. His gaze darted around the room, assessing the harm, and he quickly knew what he had to do: damage control. Turning around to face the entire classroom from the front, Izuku took a deep breath in.
“No one will ever believe you.” And he sat down, immediately back to scribbling on his worksheet.
That could’ve gone… worse. Actually—it could’ve gone far worse. God forbid if All Might had begun rambling about One for All. If that happened, would the class have to sign an NDA form? Izuku shuddered at the thought. As for his peers… Eventually they’d likely convince themselves that he’d hired some All Might voice actor to pre-record a phone call. It wasn’t too far-fetched an idea—Izuku didn’t own the title of Aldera’s Largest Fanboy for nothing! For that, he was minutely thankful.
At least Kacchan was away for a dentist appointment. Who knows what he would’ve done?