Third person pov

"I don't know." Toshinori glanced off to the side nervously. Recovery Girl had interrupted the blond man's lunch with Midoriya to drag him off to Nezu's office so they could all talk about the elephant in the room. That elephant being Atlantis' amazing quirk and the fact that it could possibly fix Toshinori's glaring issue. Replacing missing organs was a stretch of course, but that didn't mean he couldn't heal the spiraling scar on his torso, among other issues. "What if he finds out I'm All Might?"

"Based on the information I've gathered during his time in the building, I honestly believe it's safe to say he has no idea who All Might is to begin with!" Nezu chirped. He kept a close eye on all new members of UA's staff, but he'd been paying special attention to Atlantis since the man's arrival. The man has literally no past. There was no trace of him! It should've been impossible, but the fact that Nezu of all creatures couldn't find anything... it was beyond frustrating. Nezu liked to know as much as possible at all times. Especially concerning people in his school! Yet he couldn't get a single thing on Atlantis. Not even so much as a breadcrumb. 

"I have to agree with him there. I'm surprised the boy knows his own name." Recovery Girl sighed. "I'd meant to request an MRI while we were at the hospital, but I was too distracted by the reach of his quirk and forgot. It's a shame. I'm quite convinced he hurt himself on his way to save Aizawa and simply healed the damage, possibly tacking himself with some form of amnesia. If that is the case, Aizawa hadn't come to me about it, and Atlantis certainly hasn't mentioned it. It's entirely odd."

Toshinori didn't really know what to say. How did he respond to news like this? He should've been happy. Excited! Overjoyed, in fact! That would be the natural human response. He just... he couldn't muster it up. He felt numb with shock and disbelief. Despite what he was being told, he still didn't believe that this was a possibility. He just couldn't wrap his head around it. He'd been told time after time by professionals across the globe that there was nothing that could be done. Toshinori had grieved for his own death before it even happened, resigned to the fact that his time was going to get cut short. 

"You should at the very least let him assess the issue." Nezu hummed. Recovery Girl nodded in agreement. 

"I...." Toshinori trailed off. He thought hard about his life, and about all the people that counted on All Might to uphold peace and bring hope. That was an important part of who he was, but what about himself as a person? He'd let people down-- even lost his best friend to this injury. He had no good excuse to say no. He wasn't sure he could bring himself not to try, even. Not with Young Midoriya counting on him and looking up to him. Though he'd never admit it out loud, he was starting to see the boy in a more familial sense. Their student-mentor relationship had morphed into something else entirely, and Toshinori wanted to be here to watch Izuku learn and grow. "I'll do it, then. What would it hurt?"

Recovery Girl and Nezu's smiles were a bit too wide to be comforting. Toshinori took a deep breath and told himself not to get his hopes up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hitoshi trotted off to find Atlantis and Mr. Aizawa after class, feeling relatively upbeat. Even his classmates had noticed the shift in his attitude; though, most were still too afraid to talk to him. It was still the beginning of the school year after all, and they didn't know him. Not well enough to know that he'd never use his quirk on them without their permission. They'd probably remain afraid of him. That was okay. He understood the fear that was there and wasn't mad at them for it. Besides, he had Atlantis back now! What more did he need?

He was hesitant in peeking into the teacher workroom, his eyes searching for his cousin. He found the merman sitting on a couch next to Present Mic, whose eyes were narrowed in suspicion. He was seemingly being interrogated. Hitoshi's eyes drifted over to Aizawa. The man was finishing something up on the computer, but the tired teen could see the way the man's eye was twitching. He clearly wasn't digging the game of twenty questions going on between his coworker and his husband.

"What's his favorite food?" Mic asked, his tone full of suspicion. Atlantis didn't seem to notice the hostility being shown to him. He sat there with a bright smile, blissfully unaware. Perhaps that was for the best. Hitoshi crossed his arms over his chest awkwardly, lingering in the door. He was sort of curious to see how this would pan out. 

"Mic, you can't ask him that. It took us years to figure out what his favorite food is." Midnight sighed. Hitoshi rose an eyebrow. They were probably pretty close friends with Mr. Aizawa then. It made sense, seeing as they'd gone to school together. Hitoshi had seen the first Sports Festival Mr. Aizawa was in on youtube, and the two followed. He just hadn't realized he was close with both Present Mic and Midnight. It seemed like an odd dynamic, but then again, Aizawa had married Atlantis. Who was basically a ball of sunshine. Case rested. 

"He knows what it is." Aizawa grumbled, not looking away from his computer screen. "He asked me the day after we met."

"Yes! He likes the 'All-American cheeseburger, medium rare, with extra lettuce, two tomatoes, four pickles, mayo, ketchup, onions, and a fried egg.'" Atlantis listed off. Mic's lips parted in surprise. Most people assumed it was those jelly packets the underground hero ate, but this guy had actually found out what it was and memorized the way he liked it? Where did Shota find this guy, and where could Mic get one? "With waffle fries."

Aizawa snorted. Midnight blinked a few times. She... wasn't expecting that. Mic clearly wasn't either. He looked sort of like he'd just been run over with a truck, looking between Aizawa and Atlantis like he couldn't quite understand what was going on. Hitoshi shook his head. Merfolk had exceptional memories. Anything Aizawa had even so much as mentioned was stored away in Atlantis' brain, he was sure. The merman was an excellent listener. 

Aizawa felt nervous, but he had to get this done. He was applying for custody of Hitoshi, but to do that there were a lot of channels he had to go through and a lot of things he had to fill out. That was fine. It wasn't particularly hard, just somewhat time-consuming. Which meant Hizashi had plenty of time to harass Atlantis. Through their bond, Shota could feel that his husband didn't actually mind. He didn't even realize he was being interrogated, it seemed. Shota found that quite amusing. He was still getting used to their new connection, but he was finding it quite comforting. 

"Alright, alright. I have to give you that one." Mic gathered his bearings, leaning back in his seat. Atlantis smiled politely at him. "But riddle me this. Do you know Shota's secret obsession? No one knows his secret obsession. Not anyone but Nemuri and I, and we found out purely by mistake."

"That's a good one." Midnight noted. Aizawa snorted, turning his head to the side to try and hide it. Atlantis looked confused. Hitoshi thought about it. He thought back to Mr. Aizawa's apartment. There hadn't been much decor, but the decor that was up was centered around the ocean and around... well, around merfolk. Based on how interested Aizawa had shown himself to be in their culture in the short time Hitoshi had really been acquainted with him, it was safe to assume Mer were his secret obsession. Which was horribly ironic. Perhaps that's why he'd become so taken with Atlantis. 

"Oh, I'm not sure." Atlantis' brows furrowed hard. Aizawa snorted again, this time louder. Even Hitoshi thought it was sort of funny. Atlantis had no idea that he was literally the answer to the question. God, Hitoshi had missed his cousin.

"You know this one, Atlantis." Hitoshi drawled, making his presence known. Midnight and Mic both jumped slightly, but Shota and Atlantis had clearly known he was there. That, or they simply weren't startled by his entrance. One of the two. "Think about it. It's a lot more obvious than you think."

Atlantis stared at him for a second. Hitoshi stared back. He would've looked away, but he was afraid of meeting the gaze of Present Mic or possibly Midnight. They were looking at him like he'd just stepped out of a portal from another world. Was something on his face? Should he have just waited? He had never been the most patient person on the planet, and his legs honestly hurt from standing in the same place without moving while they all talked. Perhaps just giving them a little stretch and keeping quiet would've been the better move.

"Wait, you mean merfolk!" Atlantis blinked, turning to beam at Mic. "Yes! I do know about that!"

The blonde turned away from Hitoshi to instead stare back at Atlantis. Midnight burst out laughing at the nonchalance of it all. Aizawa hid his own chuckle with a cough.

Aizawa wrapped up rather quickly after that. Any questions about Hitoshi or why he was even here were curbed by Atlantis, surprisingly. He was the master of responding to questions with questions of his own, which Mic wasn't the best at replying to coherently. He got distracted too easily to stay on track, and Midnight wasn't one to get into other people's business. She let them leave peacefully, giving a moderately flirtatious wink and a smile that Atlantis cheerfully responded to with a boisterous wave of his own. 

Aizawa was relieved to leave, honestly. He felt guilty excluding his friends from such a key point of his life, but he wasn't sure if he could tell them. This was big. If it got out somehow, even just by mistake, there's no telling what would happen to Atlantis. The merman was afraid of harpoons for a reason. Now, that obviously wasn't going to be happening on land, but who knows how people would react if it got out that he wasn't all human. That being said... the pro heroes Gang Orca and Selkie weren't exactly human either. Maybe it would be fine? He wanted to get Atlantis properly settled in before he even began to think about it.

"Any reason in particular they were grilling Atlantis?" Hitoshi questioned as they all made for the front entrance. Aizawa sighed, squeezing Atlantis' hand almost in apology. The merman didn't seem too bothered by the questions he'd been essentially forced to answer. If anything, he was upbeat and positive. Hitoshi was glad Atlantis hadn't lost his spunk. Or maybe he had. Either way, Hitoshi was glad he had it now. It was like he hadn't changed a bit. The familiarity was something he hadn't realized how much he needed and missed.

"They're curious." Shota sighed, glancing away as his cheeks reddened. He was embarrassed to an extent. Not by his friends and certainly not by Atlantis, but rather by himself. "I didn't really... tell them about him. He just showed up unexpectedly and healed me, and then I proposed."

Hitoshi almost tripped.

"You what?" Hitoshi obviously had been the one to initiate the marriage for them, but he hadn't heard the proposal story. He'd heard how they'd met and some of the stuff they'd done before Atlantis found the pendant that gave him legs, but nothing past that really. "You mean he came and healed you, and you just proposed to him?"

"Right when I woke up," Aizawa admitted, clearing his throat. Atlantis laughed. 

"I didn't even know what marrying meant then, but I said yes anyway!" Atlantis chirped, smiling. "I was crying a lot. I was afraid he'd be mad."

Shota scoffed and rolled his eyes as though the thought were ludicrous. Hitoshi was almost tempted to ask if they'd be going on a honeymoon, wink-wink nudge-nudge, but he didn't get the chance. Recovery Girl and Nezu appeared out of nowhere. Literally, they just popped up. The school nurse came from the left, and the principal from the right. Aizawa tensed almost immediately, stopping in his tracks. This, of course, caused the two merfolk accompanying him to also halt. Atlantis blinked down at the short pair curiously, but Shota's eyes were steel. Hitoshi had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Did they know? Had Hitoshi somehow given them away? That was one of his biggest fears. Even just the thought of saying it out loud made him shiver. He wouldn't ever want to put one of his own in danger.

"Good evening, my wonderful colleagues! I'm sorry to bother you on this fine evening. I'm sure you're raring to get home." Nezu smiled politely. "I'm afraid we have something of the utmost importance to ask Atlantis. You see, we need him to assess an injury."

"An injury?" Atlantis questioned cluelessly, but Shota already knew. The expressions Nezu and Recovery Girl said it all. This was about All Might.

Aizawa had expected it. He'd maybe even feared it a little. Recovery Girl taking Atlantis to the hospital realistically should've been the first sign. They were testing his quirk to see if he was a good replacement for Recovery Girl. Shota knew he was. He knew that Atlantis' power was derived from a force of nature that was beyond what probably even Nezu could comprehend. It was only natural that they'd notice, and with All Might on the staff this year, it made sense that they'd connected two and two. Aizawa had just thought maybe they'd have a little more time. He'd hoped. 

"Shinso." Aizawa didn't peel his eyes away from Nezu, his face tight and void of any sort of emotion. He almost wondered if Nezu could hear his heart pounding. How good were his ears? He fished his keys out of his pocket with ease. "We'll meet you back at the apartment. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen."

Hitoshi hesitantly took the keys, glancing nervously at his cousin and then the principal. Atlantis could feel Shota's fear and nerves through their fresh bond, and his smile had faded from his face and been replaced with an expression full of all the emotions Aizawa was doing his best to hide. Nezu watched Hitoshi go with curious, gleaming eyes. He was full of questions that would have to be reserved for another time. All Might was their current priority, after all!

They all waited until Hitoshi was gone. Atlantis watched the boy go timidly, clutching his husband's hand harder than he intended to. Why was there so much tension? Who was injured, and why were they smiling so widely? The bond between he and Shota was fluctuating like crazy. Going practically off the charts with how everywhere it was. There was some curiosity-- like Shota was wondering about something-- but there was also a lot of anxiety and nerves. He definitely knew what they were talking about. Atlantis felt horribly out of the loop on this one.

Hitoshi's figure disappeared out the front gate of the school some minutes later, and Recovery Girl stepped forward.

"Atlantis, dear." She started, voice happy. Atlantis glanced at Shota, sweating. "Do you remember that lanky blonde man that was at the meeting you attended?"

"Y...Yeah?" Atlantis blinked, scooting closer to Shota. Aizawa wrapped an arm around his shoulders, glaring flatly. The underground hero didn't say a word.

"Well, I've got some great news then!" Nezu clapped his paws together. "You see, he happens to be gravely injured and has been for years, and we're afraid his time is finally running out. That's not the great part. What's good is that we do believe you can help him!"

Atlantis wanted to feel happy, but the weight of Shota's fear made him think this was going to go sideways somehow. The pendant around his neck thrummed, reassuring him and urging him forward. It was soothing enough that Atlantis still had to smile. He liked to help. He wanted to! It felt right. He hadn't been here on land long, but he wasn't sure he had it in him to turn anyone who really needed help away.

"O-Okay!" Atlantis squeezed Shota's hand and took a deep breath. "Take me to him!"