Chapter Text
Ever since he’d been born Midoryia had been a quiet kid. He never cried, never screamed and eventually, the doctors realized why. He was born with a mutant quirk that was with him since birth. It was an unfortunate quirk that stopped him from sleeping, yet he could still feel tired. This quirk also let him transfer the sleep deprivation to someone else with a simple touch. They would, unfortunately, receive the full effects of however long he’d been awake without already touching someone while he would “awaken” as all of his senses would come back to him.
This touch-based monstrosity of a quirk is why, currently, he’s covered head to toe in as much clothing as he can get his filthy homeless hands on. He has a mismatched pair of gloves he stole from the lost and found at the shelter three streets over, an overcoat a dying man gave to him, jeans ripped from a dead yakuza member, near neon red shoes stolen from a department store closeout sale, and a mask that covered the lower half of his face from a nice lady who said he looked cold. It was a suspicious outfit, but thankfully easily explained by the cold as shit weather that had rolled in recently.
Now, as to why he’s homeless, well now, that’s a level four friend backstory which currently, his squatting buddy, Dabi, is the only one privy to. However, all of his giant ass issues had nothing on the aforementioned cold as shit weather. It was currently about negative eighteen Celcius and Izuku was about ready to throw hands with God if it meant that he could get to the store and buy instant ramen without losing a nose to frostbite.
“Why did I bet against the moron with literal staples holding his face in place in poker? I bet those stupid things hold his face in one position.” Izuku grumbled as he entered the 24-hour convenience store.
Rounding a corner, he spotted the wonderful packets of life-saving ramen. In a stroke of luck, said cheap packets were also on sale. Unfortunately, they were also nearly out and a man with the most greasy and scraggly looking black hair was about to take the last few. Groaning, Izuku walked slowly up to the man and subtly removed his gloves. Then, reaching around the man at about the same time, he brushed hands with the man as they moved to the same packet.
The results were almost instantaneous, the man’s knees gave out at the exact instance Izuku’s entire being lightened. Stunned for three seconds as all of Izuku’s senses came back to him, uninhibited by the lingering sleep deprivation, the man’s head hit the tiled floor with a resounding crack.
Jumping Izuku grabbed the remaining packets from the shelf (enough to last him and Dabi a few days until the next match) and booked it to the cash register where a mildly concerned employee looked at the panicked boy.
“Hey listen, I didn’t mean to since my quirk’s constantly active, but I accidentally sent a man into a sleep coma for a hot second. I didn’t think out hands touched, but they did, and well, he’s probably going to need someone to pick him up.” Izuku motioned to the aisle behind him. “I’ll write down about how long he’s gonna be out here is that okay?”
The cashier nodded and began rifling through the register for a paper and then an accidental quirk use number. Once he’d found both, the employee handed the boy a paper to write on and dialed the number. After a short conversation, the employee hung up, nodded at Izuku and helped him check out. Izuku walked out of the store feeling a little guilty as he tugged his gloves back on carefully, but he supposed it didn’t matter, after all, food was food and who was he to get in the way of a hungry and bitter Dabi.
Walking down the abandoned street Izuku hummed a few tunes he could remember from his childhood home. After a few minutes, he found the dank (ha) alleyway he needed and clambered up the fire escape into a decrepit building only used by the rats and his friend.
“Hey bitch, guess who got the ramen on sale?” Izuku called as he squeezed through the window.
“No way!” An older teen whipped around the corner from the bathroom. “Does that mean we have money to spend?”
Izuku’s grin was feral as he held up the ten extra stolen bucks. “Yup!”
Dabi grinned back and ripped a scared hand back through his dyed black hair. “We have to go wild. Decorate this place up a little”
He turned to the living room and pointed at a wall that was falling apart to reveal another room on the other side. “Maybe a poster.”
Then he moved to the door at the end of the hallway and tapped a hole. “Some ducktape.”
Then he moved to the ratty old couch with more holes than swiss cheese. “Or a blanket. Our options are endless. ”
“Dope, but for now, hook up that microwave and grab a water bottle, I wanna feast .” Izuku placed the bag on a counter. “By the way, watch out for a dude with scraggly black hair. I knocked him out, and I don’t wanna be jumped by someone again. Last time was bad enough, but you know I can’t react too well to the awake people.”
“Sounds fair,” Dabi was popping open a bottle as he opened the microwave they had managed to rig for actual use. “Not the getting jumped part, but the looking out part.”
“Right right,” Izuku pulled himself up onto the island in the center of the room and folded his legs underneath him. He bounced his knees as he watched the cup of instant life round for the third time in the cooker.
Maybe it was something in the methodic way the stupid cup would continue to turn in the microwave, or the way Dabi, for as cold as his body was, always seemed warm. But Izuku Midoriya wouldn’t have his life anyway else. He enjoyed this simple way of living.
Still, though, this peaceful time cannot last, after all, give me a hero and I will show you a tragedy.