"Well, hello, pretty boy." 

Izuku faintly smiled at the robotic voice calling out to him. He'd spotted Eijirou, dressed up in his Red outfit, from the rooftop of a building down the street. Todoroki had split off from him early on in the patrol, taking the opposite side of their route so they could cover more ground. Izuku thought it was a lame excuse to get as far from him as possible, but he wasn't complaining. 

"You gotta stop with all the nicknames, they're starting to get excessive," Izuku said, scanning the streets for any sign of Katsuki or other villains. When his search came up empty, he turned back to Eijirou. "Thought I'd stop and say hi, seeing as you two were gone before I got back." 

"I love that you're finally admitting to looking for us, but you gotta stop showing up on your patrols," Eijirou said, and Izuku knew he was frowning under the mask. "Someone's gonna notice eventually." 

"Or," Izuku took a step forward, "I could throw you through a wall and make it look like a fight rather than you flirting with me." 

In a flash, Izuku was spun around, one arm twisted behind his back, and his chest pushed against the wall of the building they had been standing next to. He rolled his eyes at the position, mentally scolding himself for not seeing it coming. 

"I don't think you have it in you, little hero," Eijirou tutted, a small, static-filled chuckle leaving his mask. 

"You're indestructible," Izuku said, testing the strength of the hold on his wrist. He found that it wasn't nearly as tight as he knew Eijirou was capable of. Holy shit, was the villain trying to spar with him? "I can throw you around as much as I want and not worry about you getting hurt." 

He twisted his body, breaking out of the hold with ease. Eijirou still had a grip on his wrist, so Izuku used it to his advantage, grabbing his arm and throwing the redhead over his shoulder. Eijirou landed on the sidewalk with a grunt, a few minor cracks forming under him. 

"That was uncalled for," the villain grumbled as Izuku smiled down at him. 

"Awe, want me to kiss it better?" he offered, holding a hand out to help Eijirou to his feet. 

The stunned villain didn't take it, just staring up at him. "Whoa," he mumbled, almost too quietly for Izuku to hear. 

"What?" he asked, his brows furrowed in concern. Had he actually hurt him? He didn't think he'd used that much force, and the other man had plenty of time to activate his quirk. 

"You've never flirted back before," Eijirou said, the awe in his voice discernible even through the modifier he wore. 

"Oh," Izuku said, his voice raising an octave as he felt his face start to heat up. Damn him and his easy blushing. 

Eijirou shook his head, his red hair shaking slightly with the movement. He grabbed onto Izuku's hand, letting the hero haul him to his feet for only a moment before he swiped one of his legs out and knocked Izuku off balance. He tumbled to the ground, Eijirou landing on top of him and pinning his hands down above him. 

"Do you always get this distracted while fighting villains, or am I just special?" he teased, thoroughly enjoying how bright red Izuku had become with their change of positions. 

Before Izuku could respond, Eijirou jolted in place, his mask nearly slipping off with the movement. "Holy shit, that's cold!" he shouted. 

Izuku glanced to the side, seeing Todoroki absolutely seething a few feet away and a trail of ice leading from the hero to the villain on top of him. Eijirou was now frozen in place by at least two inches of ice that covered his entire body. "Did I forget to mention I was patrolling with Shoto?" he asked with a small smile, using Todoroki's hero name. "Don't worry, I'll tend to your wounds later," he promised before powering up his quirk and shifting his legs to kick the frozen villain off of him. He had to make it look believable for Todoroki. He really didn't want to get questioned after this fight. 

He jumped to his own feet, Todoroki quickly rushing to his side. He did a once over before determining that Izuku wasn't visibly injured. "Are you okay?" he asked in a rush, eyes glancing over to where Eijirou was brushing himself off and standing. 

"Fine, he just snuck up on me," Izuku lied quickly. "Thanks for that, by the way." 

"No problem," Todoroki said with a nod. "We should call for backup; this guy doesn't go down easy or work alone." 

Of course, Izuku already knew that. He doubted Katsuki would be making an appearance, though, he was too recognizable to their old class. Izuku realized now that it was probably the reason Zero and Red had always steered clear of his old classmates. 

Before he could say anything, something burst from a side building, scattering bricks and dust in its wake. What could only be described as a massive creature appeared next to Red, the villain patting its giant leg like a pet. The thing had to be a few dozen feet tall, easily reaching the second floor of the neighboring buildings as its giant maw opened to reveal rows and rows of razor-sharp teeth. 

"Sorry, little hero!" Red shouted down the road to Izuku. "You didn't think all those nomu died with the League, did you?" 

"Holy shit," Izuku breathed, his eyes wide as he took in the sight of the canine-like beast in front of him. 

"This is Shoto," he heard Todoroki saying, one finger pressed to his ear to activate their intercoms. "Requesting back up on Fourth Avenue. It's a nomu." 

"Catch you boys later!" Red called as he started to retreat down the opposite side of the road, safely behind the nomu he controlled. "Keep 'em busy, bud." 

"This is gonna hurt," Izuku whined, crouching down and hauling One For All to the surface. 

Todoroki rolled his shoulders back, stomping one foot down and sending a glacier toward the beast in an attempt to knock it off balance before they charged in. "Best to get it over with, then." 

"Yeah, yeah," he sighed. "Here we fucking go." 

In a flash of green light, he shot straight up into the sky and hurtled back down, slamming his heel right into the skull of the creature before him. From his past experiences with nomu, he figured taking out the brain would be the only sure way to get rid of the thing. 

The massive beast crumpled to the ground, twitching for a second before stilling. Izuku blinked, not even panting from the effort. He heard Todoroki running to him from behind, stopping just at his side. 

"That was too easy, right?" Izuku asked, his eyes not leaving the beast for a second. He didn't trust that it was down, not after one hit. 

"Definitely," Todoroki confirmed, just as the orange eyes of the nomu snapped open, and it released an ear-splitting howl. 

Todoroki grabbed Izuku by the arm, pulling him back as his other hand shot a concentrated stream of burning fire at the nomu's eyes. "Told you," he said with a grunt. 

"Yeah, yeah," Izuku huffed. "I'll get its legs; you crush its brain?" 

"Agreed." 

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

The fight was more complicated than Izuku had first thought because when was it not? The nomu had to have some sort of intelligence, seeing as the thing was basically tap dancing at one point to avoid Black Whip getting around all four of its legs at once. It took a lot of patience and strategizing from him and Todoroki, but eventually, they brought it down. It definitely had nothing to do with the fact Sero had shown up and confused the nomu as two heroes wildly swung around it to go for its legs. 

"I thought we were done with these things after high school," Sero complained, giving the defeated nomu a swift kick in the leg out of frustration. "Never seen one this big." 

"Red was the one controlling it," Todoroki stated with a frown, his arms crossed over his chest as he looked at the nomu. "Do we have any records of him working with the League before they were taken down?" 

"Probably not," Sero sighed, glancing over to Izuku, who was crouched down in front of the monster's mouth to inspect its teeth. They looked frighteningly similar to Eijirou's. 

"Deku," the dark-haired pro called. "You handled most of the League stuff. Do you remember anyone like Red hanging around?" 

Izuku shook his head mutely, reaching out a hand and lightly tracing over the teeth. He remembered that nomu were created from the dead bodies of quirk users. If his hunch was correct and this nomu had Eijirou's quirk, had his group somehow found a way to create nomu without someone dying? If that was the case... it didn't bode well for the heroes. 

"Red didn't pop up on our radar until a few years after the League was abolished," Izuku stated as he rose to his feet, moving over to his colleges. "We know everyone who was involved, and we got them. I don't know how he got his hands on a nomu, but I don't think he was hanging around the League of Villains to do it." 

"Worth checking into, though, right?" Sero asked. "Didn't a few survive? They gotta still be locked up." 

"Spinner and Compress," Izuku confirmed with a nod. "We can have someone question them, see if there's anything there." 

Todoroki hummed, his eyes raking over the dead nomu in front of them. "Sounds like a plan." 

Sorry this chapter was so late in the day. My friend came over and helped me deep clean my house because dudes it was bad. Depression rooms aint got nothing on my depression house. Also, my cis straight boyfriend is having an incredibly hard time accepting the fact that I'm a dude and have been for our entire relationship, so that trans au I mentioned before is probably gonna happen sooner than expected lolz.