Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

  Midoriya Izuku had to learn about a lot of hard things at a very young age. His father had left him and his mother just after his third birthday, leaving nothing but a note behind in his absence. Without his income and with a fresh broken heart, Midoriya Inko had struggled to find jobs anywhere she could. Unfortunately, since she had gotten pregnant with Izuku at seventeen years old and was only twenty at the time of Hisashi’s departure, for most jobs she either wasn’t old enough, or didn’t have enough experience. 

   They went through their meager savings rather quickly, draining the entire account after only two months. Raising a toddler was expensive, even one as skinny and quiet as Izuku. Knowing she had to take care of her son, Inko had done the only thing left to do; she began selling herself. At first, she’d been picky about who she turned tricks for, only choosing men who were willing to pay her admittedly high prices. As Izuku got older and began learning to take care of himself, Inko began to let herself go. She turned tricks for any man who would have her, even lowering her prices to that of every other prostitute on the street, trusting her young age and alluring body to get her through the nights. 

   By four and a half years old, Izuku had learned to basically take care of himself. His mother slept all day and worked all night, and although he was too young to truly understand what she did for a living, she knew that when she came home, she was often cranky and smelled funny. He’d learned quickly that he would be yelled at if he woke her up to help him get ready for the day, so he began teaching himself how to make breakfast, how to dress himself, and how to gather his preschool supplies. He always walked with his best friend, Kacchan, to the preschool down the road, so at least that remained normal. Kacchan was a loud, bold little kid, but Izuku didn’t mind him. He’d developed his quirk before anyone else in their class, and boy was it a cool one! He could make explosions from his hands, and he always smelled really sweet, like caramel and woodsmoke. 

    Every day his explosions got bigger, but at the same time, so did his ego. Izuku was officially the last kid in their preschool to get his quirk before long, and Kacchan was beginning to get restless. The other kids began teasing Izuku, calling him quirkless, even though he knew it couldn’t be true. He wasn’t quirkless, he was going to be the greatest hero the world had ever seen, right along Kacchan! He had already been taking care of himself for months now, which not even Kacchan could do. Auntie Mitsuki, his mommy’s best friend, still tied Kacchan’s shoelaces for him. 

   It took very little time for Mitsuki to catch onto Inko’s neglect. She’d caught Izuku bragging about being able to tie his own shoes, watching as her bratty son huffed and puffed about the one thing Izuku had beat him at. She’d gotten to her knees and praised Izuku’s sloppy bows on his shoes, asking him if Inko had taught him to do that. He’d told her proudly that he’d taught himself, since his mommy spent most of her day sleeping. He told Mitsuki that he bathed, fed, clothed and tucked himself in. Since his mommy worked all night, he had to, after all. 

    Mitsuki called Inko later that day. Izuku wasn’t allowed to talk to Kacchan outside of school after that. 

   A few months later the incident happened, and then suddenly, Kacchan didn’t even speak to him when he was at school. Izuku honestly couldn’t say he blamed the boy. After all, who wanted to hang around the blind freak? 

    (x)

  Izuku jolted awake to the sound of glass breaking, a cold sheen of sweat over his skin. He could hear muffled laughter and whispers from the living room, despite being tucked away in his bed. Not for the first time, he groaned at his quirk, squeezing his unseeing eyes shut as if it would somehow help deafen him a bit. 

   It didn’t work. The sounds of kissing and the moaning of that night’s client still reached Izuku’s ten year-old ears, much to his dismay. Even though he was still young, he was no longer disillusioned to what Inko did to put food on the table. After all, the woman was the talk of the town, and one of the main reasons Izuku was bullied relentlessly. That was what happened to the kids of the town whores, especially when those kids were disabled, like Izuku was. In a quirk-filled society, it was very, very rare for anyone to have lasting disabilities, and when they did, it was something like a missing limb, or paralysis. Izuku was the only blind person for hundreds of thousands of miles. He would know, he’d checked. 

    The man downstairs was moaning loudly now, enough that Izuku probably would have been able to hear him even without his quirk. In another universe, there might have been a version of him that would give anything to have a quirk. In this universe, half of the time Izuku wanted nothing more than to smother his quirk away. He called his quirk “ Sensory Overload, ” since it made four of his five senses heightened beyond belief. Even from the other side of the house, Izuku could hear the heartbeats of his mother and her client from where they stood near the front door. He could smell the air conditioning circling through their home, as well as his mother’s natural scent mixed with the cheap cologne the man with her was wearing. He could feel every vibration his breathing made against his sheets on his bed. The only one of his four working senses that didn’t constantly give him trouble was his sense of taste. He still found it useful in its own way, since he could usually taste every ingredient in a food item and thus could recreate it in his own home if he so wished. 

    If he and his mother had enough money, he would probably spend all of his time in the kitchen. Unfortunately, these days Inko was taking next-to-nothing for her work. If Hisashi hadn’t already paid off their house before he’d left them seven years before, Izuku would have worried about how they would afford to keep living there. As it was, they were only barely able to scrape by every month with their water, electric and utility bills. They had less than fifty dollars a week to spend on food, less than two-hundred dollars a month, if they were lucky. Oftentimes these days, Inko would perform her services for any drugs her clients were willing to share with her. She was high off her rocker more often than she was sober. It broke Izuku’s heart to watch his beautiful mother descend into madness, but there was nothing he could do about it. She was too far gone. 

    He blinked sightlessly at his bedroom ceiling, inhaling and exhaling with a small noise. He often joked that actions like this were as good as echolocation, what with his senses. He may not have been able to see with his eyes, but with how good his hearing and sense of touch were, he could feel the minute vibrations in the air from everyday things, and could hear sounds bouncing off of objects easily enough. He was still well and truly blind, of course; he hardly remembered what people looked like, much less what the colours of the world looked like, but when he was in everyday life, he used those two senses to get by. He hardly ever used his walking stick these days, especially since the kids at his elementary school were rather fond of stealing it and hiding it in increasingly hard-to-reach places. 

   Right after the accident that had blinded him, Kacchan had been decent enough to try and stop these incidents. Now, so many years later, the boy didn’t bother to try anymore. Izuku wasn’t worth that to him. 

   Right after the accident, everyone had been so sure that it was Katsuki’s fault that Izuku had gone blind. A massive explosion gone wrong had knocked Izuku off of his feet, and he’d cracked his head against the ground so hard he hadn’t woken up for five whole hours. He remembered that when he had woken up, he was no longer able to see anything but darkness. However, where his vision lacked, everything else was cranked up from zero to one-hundred. The hospital he resided in was so ear-piercingly loud. He could hear what seemed like thousands of heartbeats, so much breathing, so much chatter . He’d begun screaming, but even that was painful enough that he’d soon stopped. 

   Eventually the doctors figured out that Izuku’s concussion had nothing to do with his blindness, but rather it was his quirk that had done it. Why the stupid thing had decided to enhance four senses and take the fifth one away, Izuku had no idea , but he couldn’t exactly change it. 

    Listening to the man downstairs orgasm, he wondered for the umpteenth time in his young life if he would be better off running away from home. Or maybe something less drastic, like gouging out his own eardrums…? 

   Luckily, as he waited to hear the shuffling from downstairs, it was evident that all the man needed was the blowjob. He paid his mother the agreed amount and left quickly after that. Inko didn’t even bother to trudge up the stairs to bed, but rather plopped down onto the couch and promptly passed out. Her heart was beating fast enough that Izuku knew she was still high. 

   He sat up in his bed and let out a low hum, using his quirk to “see” where his nightstand was next to him. He could feel the low vibration bouncing back at him, giving him an approximate shape of his entire room. He reached to his nightstand and picked up his charging cell phone, tapping the home button three times. 

    “ Six twenty-seven am,” the automated voice echoed from the device. Great. Of course he’d been woken up right before his alarm was set to go off. Izuku resisted the urge to chuck the thing across the room, instead simply reaching for the noise-cancelling headphones also on his nightstand, slipping them over his ears. The only sounds he could hear now were his own breathing and heartbeat. He began getting ready for the day, only slipping the headphones back off of his head before he made his way downstairs. His mother’s heartbeat had slowed down a bit, and from her even breathing, she was most likely asleep. He didn’t wake her, only grabbing a slice of bread from their pantry for breakfast before he tugged his sneakers on and left the house. 

   When his quirk had first developed six years ago, he’d had to wear the noise-cancelling headphones every single time he left the house. The world had been so loud that he got a splitting headache constantly. Eventually, he forced himself to get used to it. He wasn’t naive enough to think that he could still be a hero, what with his impairment, but he also knew that he wasn’t ever going to give up hope at a happy life one day. He had to start somewhere, and getting used to his new world was that start. 

   These days, it was somewhat easy to tune it all out. The endless noises of the world were enough to lead him through obstacles with his “echolocation,” which was really rather handy. It was easy for him to avoid people, buildings, animals, trees, etc with this part of his quirk (think the way Toph sees in that old show, Avatar: The Last Airbender). Really the only thing he couldn’t see were the facial features and expressions of the people around him, or colours for things like streetlights or other defining things. 

   The life he led wasn’t so bad. Sure, he had to take care of himself and his addict, prostitute mother, and sure, he often had the seediest guys imaginable invading his home, but he also wasn’t an invalid. He took martial arts classes after school on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, using his quirk to “see” the moves his opponents made. He was the best in his class. 

   Yes, it was true that Izuku may never be a hero. But he wasn’t going to be just another nobody, either. He refused to be someone who faded into the background. 

Chapter Text

      By barely fifteen years old, Izuku had graduated from the teen martial arts program and into the adult program, and then to the point where he was beating the instructors. It was easy for him to learn how to read the heartbeats of his opponents against them, to see how they were going to move. How to use his superior hearing against them to sense how they were going to shift, how they were going to attack. People tended to underestimate him because of his blindness, and while it pissed him off, it also gave him an advantage. Oftentimes, when a new student would come into class, his instructors would pit him against them first-thing. It was like some sort of twisted initiation into the class, entertainment for all. Izuku didn’t mind it- he liked putting the cocky ones in their place. 

   Still, his blindness and quirk didn’t make him invincible. He came to school with more bruises every day, and had been approached by his teachers multiple times about his “situation at home.” Everyone knew what his mother did for a living, and while it was nice to think that they would do something about it if he asked, he knew that everything they did was bare minimum effort. After all, they didn’t know anything about the things that Inko did to him in the dead of night, once in a blue moon. 

    The teachers weren’t the only ones concerned about his bruises. Even though Izuku didn’t have any proof, he knew exactly who was following him to the martial arts studio after school most days. Even though Kacchan never came inside, Izuku knew that the blond knew what he was up to. A part of Izuku wanted Katsuki to come in, to see what he’d been able to accomplish all by himself. He paid for classes by staying behind every day to clean up, and by telling stealing money from Inko when she passed out on the couch, high as a fucking kite. The classes were probably more expensive than the owner made him pay, but considering Izuku let himself get beaten for at least a few hits before he turned the tables every time a newbie joined their course, he didn’t feel too bad about that. He was practically an employee. 

   Katsuki didn’t see it that way. After only a few weeks of stalking Izuku to the studio, he finally confronted the greenet in the middle of their lunch hour. Izuku didn’t really have any friends at Aldera Junior High, so he tended to spend the half an hour they got for lunch inside of the school library, tucked away into the very back tables, sneaking a sandwich. Apparently, none of the librarians found a blind kid in a library suspicious. 

   “Deku,” Katsuki said, sitting down at the table across from Izuku. The blond’s heartbeat was quicker than usual, despite his deceptively calm tone. Izuku wondered if he even knew that Izuku could hear that well. “We need to talk.” 

   “I suppose so,” Izuku said, setting down his sandwich. “Is this about why you’ve been stalking me after school for the past three weeks?” 

   He didn’t have to see to know that Katsuki looked surprised. “How did you-” 

  “You seem to forget that even though I can’t see, I know things because of my quirk,” Izuku cut in. “I know that you’re wearing a smaller uniform than usual today, because there isn’t as much fabric swishing around as usual. I know that you were in a rush this morning because one of your shoes is untied, which normally you would never let happen. I know you’re leaning off to the right in your chair, because you can’t for the life of you sit in a chair correctly, what’s up with that?” 

   Katsuki was quiet for so long that Izuku was beginning to wonder if he’d fallen asleep, somehow, despite his heartbeat not being nearly steady enough for that. After what felt like hours, Kacchan spoke again. “Just… exactly how does your quirk work?” 

   Izuku scowled. “Why are you here, Kacchan? We aren’t friends. You made that perfectly clear.” 

   Katsuki straightened in his chair. The outline of the vibrations in the air around him showed that he was still somewhat slumped over, like he was leaning closer to Izuku. Sure enough, his voice was lowered when he spoke. “Why the fuck have you been going to a studio? Are you fucking dumb or something? They’re beating your ass, there.” 

   Izuku snorted. “I can promise you, they’re not.” 

  “You’re fucking covered in bruises!” Kacchan snapped. “You come to school every day with  more and more of them. What the fuck is going on?”
  Izuku titled his head to the side, thinking over what he should say next. Eventually, his decision was clear. “Come with me.” 

   “Excuse me?”
  “Come inside of the place for once, and you can see for yourself what’s happening,” Midoriya said slowly, although he knew he was testing Kacchan’s patience. He may not be the impulsive little kid he’d once been, but he was still quite the firecracker. He got it from Auntie Mitsuki, no doubt. 

  “Fine, I will,” Kacchan snarled, shooting up from his chair. “Fucking wait for me outside the gate after school, shitnerd.” 

   As the boy stomped off, Izuku couldn’t help but shout something sarcastic after him. “Nice talking to you too, Kacchan!” 

    (x)

   “Izuku!” Midoriya’s favourite instructor, Chiki-san, waved at him. He could tell from her voice that she was grinning at him. “You’re a bit late today, huh?” Her body turned slightly, no doubt catching sight of Katsuki’s brooding figure behind him. “Oh! You… you brought someone?” She sounded surprised. “I didn’t know you had any friends, kid.” 

   “Fuck you,” Izuku murmured, toeing his shoes off at the door, picking them up so he could walk across the mats to the lockers across the gym. He skillfully avoided the sparring sessions going on around him, ducking this way and that as limbs went flying out. Katsuki was following him, barely managing to dodge the same people. Izuku couldn’t help but smirk to himself. Kacchan was always one of the ones who underestimated him because of his blindness. He didn’t seem to realize that Izuku wasn’t truly blind. He just saw in a different way than others. 

   He made it to the men’s locker room at the back, taking the key out of number forty-seven, the locker he usually used. He stuffed his shoes and backpack into the thing, not hesitating the strip out of his uniform so he could get into his gym clothes. He heard Katsuki’s heartbeat spike for a moment before the blond turned his body away from Izuku’s. Midoriya took a moment to marvel at the fact that even the great Bakugou Katsuki could get embarrassed, but decided against saying anything to the explosive boy. He didn’t feel much like dodging explosions today. 

   Once his uniform was safely folded back into his backpack, he tapped on Katsuki’s shoulder to get his attention. “You ready to see what I do here?” 

   “I’m already fucking confused,” Kacchan admitted, but still followed Izuku back out to the mats. The adult class was warming up, the other sparring partners having cleared out to make room. Izuku gestured for Katsuki to stand off to the side, already recognizing one too many bodies within the adult class. 

   “Alright,” Chiki-san said, clapping her hands to get everyone’s attention. “We have a new student joining us today… and also a random observer, I guess?” Her face turned towards Izuku questioningly, and Izuku could only shrug. He didn’t know what to call Kacchan, either. “Well, alright then. Takamura-san, please step forward and introduce yourself.” 

   A body, a bit bigger than Izuku with a calm heartbeat and breathing pattern, stepped up next to Chiki, bowing a bit at the rest of them. “Hello, my name is Takamura Hitachi. I’m a 1st-dan black belt in aikido and was hoping I could learn to grow here, given the advertisement for a 2nd-dan black belt and a 3rd-dan in the same studio. Please take care of me.” 

   Chiki smiled at him and gestured for him to get back in line. “Well, as I’m sure you’ve realized, you’re standing in the most advanced class in the studio. Almost everyone here is a 1st-dan black belt. I am the highest ranking instructor in the studio, at a 2nd-dan black belt.” 

  “Wait, then who’s the 3rd-dan?” Takamura asked abruptly. Izuku hid his own smile as Chiki ignored him. 

  “Who would like to spar with Takamura-kun so that we can get a good assessment of his skill?” 

  Everyone knew the drill by now and stayed quiet. Izuku pretended to be shy, shuffling his feet a bit as he finally stepped forward. “I’ll do it, Chiki-sensei.” 

  He could practically feel Chiki’s mischievous grin in the air. “Perfect, Midoriya-kun. Thank you for volunteering.” 

   Izuku slowly shuffled along to the closest sparring mat, his quirk letting him know that Takamura was following him. Yet another perk of his quirk- he had 360-degree vision at all times. Izuku was purposefully playing up his blindness, bumping into the mat and stumbling a little before catching himself. When he turned to face Takamura for the customary starting bow, he fixed his gaze well above the boy’s head. It didn’t take him long to make the connection as he whipped to face Chiki-sensei. 

   “Wait! You’re having me spar against a blind kid? Are you crazy?” 

  Chiki crossed her arms. “You don’t think you can beat him?” 

  “ Beat him? I’ll maim him! Why is he even in this class?” 

  Well. If he wouldn’t bow, Izuku would start for him. He charged forward, hearing Takamura’s heartbeat and adrenaline spike seconds before Izuku knocked him onto his back. The breath left him in a rush, letting Izuku return to his starting position. 

   Takamura got to his feet after recovering, still wheezing a bit. “What did you do that for?” 

  “If you’re going to be a pussy, then drop out of the class,” Izuku said stiffly. “Otherwise, I suggest you take me seriously.” 

  “Fucking fine,” Takamura snarled. “Just remember that you asked for it.” 

  Needless to say, Izuku fucking destroyed him. By the time Chiki called for the spar to end, Izuku had a few new bruises on his arms and legs, but Takamura would probably be walking funny for weeks. And sitting strangely. And breathing wrong. 

   “Takamura-kun,” Chiki said, reaching over to pull the man to his feet. “You’ve just met the holder of the 3rd-dan black belt, Midoriya Izuku. He’s the highest ranking person for miles.” 

   Izuku tried not to preen under her praise, but it was hard. She was the woman who’d taught him everything he knew for five years. His quirk gave him a great advantage over those he fought, and Chiki had often said that he was a natural. It had taken him a lot of hard work and discipline to surpass her. 

   Izuku stepped away from the class and pulled Kacchan off to the side of the studio, out of hearing range of the normal people. Izuku tried to tune out the excess noises while he focused on Katsuki. Luckily he had plenty of practice. “So? Did that satisfy your curiosity?” 

   “You… you’re the highest ranking aikido master in Musutafu,” Katsuki said. He was quite obviously flabbergasted. “How? How the fuck did you surpass me so easily without me even noticing?” 

   “Since when have you ever noticed me?” Midoriya asked. 

  “I’ve always noticed you.” Katsuki sounded resigned. “You’re my biggest competition in getting into U.A., you fucking nerd. Don’t pretend you didn’t know that.” 

   “I’m not applying to U.A.,” Izuku said automatically. “I can’t be a hero, Kacchan. I’m blind, or did you forget?” 

   “Um, you just kicked the ass of a grown man in there,” Bakugou reminded him. “You’re the highest ranking aikido master in all of Musutafu, and you’re fifteen . Are you fucking insane?” 

   “That’s all just because of my quirk,” Izuku explained. “None of them are using their quirks against me, anyway. It’s a controlled practice. In the real world, with supervillains who would use their quirks against me even though I’m blind, I wouldn’t stand a chance and you know it. Why are you even pushing this if you want to beat me so bad?” 

   “Because you not even fucking trying is worse!” Bakugou snapped. “I know what I did to you, okay? I get that I can’t ever take it back, but I won’t stand by and watch you give up on your dream because of something, I fucking did!” 

   Just like that, all of the tension left Izuku’s body, replaced with apprehension. He picked his words carefully, not wanting to antagonize Kacchan further only to push him farther away. “Kacchan… what are you talking about? What did you do?” 

   The bitter laugh the volatile blond let out sent a pang of hurt through Izuku. “Don’t play dumb, Deku. I fucking blinded you.” 

   A cold feeling settled in Izuku’s body, his mind transporting itself back to the day his quirk had manifested. They’d been four years old, months after Katsuki’s explosions had appeared. He had the strongest, coolest quirk in their class and he loved to show it off, especially to their small friend group. Tsubasa and Rito were at the park with the two of them after school, all of them watching as Katsuki practiced making his explosions bigger and bigger. 

   Izuku remembered the feeling of smoke against his dry eyes, and the bright splashes of colour here and there. The green of the trees in the background, the bright red of the jungle gym that he was sitting on. The flashes of orange and yellow that Kacchan’s explosions brought, and the bright red eyes settled on pale skin and ash blond hair. Even back then, Kacchan had been beautiful. He was blinding all by himself. 

    Izuku remembered calling out to Katsuki that he should stop making the explosions before he hurt himself. He remembered Katsuki’s hands becoming blistered with burns, and the overwhelming scent of caramel becoming tinged with burned flesh. He could remember the sheer outrage on Katsuki’s face at the suggestion of Izuku trying to control him, and he could remember the ear-splitting shriek of the explosion detonating right next to Izuku’s small body. 

   He’d gotten second degree burns all along his right side, and had tumbled right off the jungle gym, hitting the ground hard enough that he knocked himself out. When he’d woken up, he’d been blind, plus a quirk, and minus a best friend. Katsuki had never approached Izuku again. 

   “Kacchan… all this time, you thought that it was your fault?” Izuku was horrified. The guilt that Katsuki must have felt would have been overwhelming if it was Izuku. He’d held onto it for eleven years, without saying anything to Izuku about it? 

   “It was my fault!” Katsuki snarled. “ I set off the explosion, because of my goddamn temper! I’m the reason you can’t see, I’m the reason you think you’ll never be a hero!” 

  “No, you’re not,” Izuku said before he could stop himself to think. Bakugou shook his head violently, taking a step away from Izuku. 

   “Don’t fucking lie to me,” he said. 

  “I’m not lying,” Izuku promised him. “Kacchan, listen to me. Your explosion didn’t blind me, my quirk did. Sure, the explosion was what jump started the thing, but I was always going to end up this way. My quirk is called ‘ Sensory Overload,’ which basically means that all of my senses are heightened to a frankly ridiculous degree. I can hear your heartbeat. I can hear the heartbeats of everyone in this room, in the next room, in the entire building. When people shift, talk, breathe , I can hear it. My sense of touch is so sensitive that I can literally feel the vibrations in the air from every tiny sound. It bounces off of big objects, things like people, so I can sense where they are. I can’t see you, the little details like your scowling or your eyes, but I know that you’ve grown more muscular over the past two years. I know you’re about five foot nine now, and your hair is just as spiky and dumb as ever. I know that Chiki-sensei over there has turned her body towards us and is likely trying to read my lips or something equally ridiculous.” 

   He sensed Katsuki turned, checking that Izuku was right. He let out a harsh exhale of air, like he’d been holding his breath ever since Izuku said his blindness wasn’t his fault. Midoriya decided to keep going, to keep explaining, because Katsuki deserved to know. 

   “I can never tell which one is worse- my sense of smell or my hearing. On one hand, my hearing makes it so much easier to get around. But I can also hear every time the neighbors argue, and every time my mother brings a guy home.” He grimaced at those particular memories. He tended to tuck them away into his “never think about again” folders in his mind. “My sense of smell, though. God, it has no use at all. Everyone has a very distinct scent, something about the pheromones in their body or some shit. The problem is that so, so many people in Japan have no idea what deodorant is.” 

   Finally, Kacchan let out a sharp laugh. It sounded suspiciously damp, like he was holding back tears. “...You really mean it? I… I didn’t do anything?” 

  “Oh no, you definitely did,” Izuku said. “I got second degree burns all over my right arm, dude. I still have the scars!”
  “You’ll live,” Katsuki deadpanned, not sounding guilty at all. Izuku narrowed his eyes critically even though it didn’t do shit. 

   “Are you like, horrifically scarred from your own explosions or something? Do my scars give you a sense of peace because at least you’re not the only ugly one? You sicko.” 

   “No, you fucking nerd, did you forget my skin secrets glycerin? I can’t get scars,” he snapped. “Scars just won’t hinder you from becoming a hero, so I don’t care.” 

 “I’m not applying for U.A., I said that already,” Izuku said tiredly. 

 “Why the fuck not? I don’t want to beat you just because you didn’t fucking try in the first place.”

  “This isn’t about you!” Midoriya couldn’t help but yell. “This is about me, alright?” 

  “Can you honestly fucking tell me with a straight face that you don’t want to be a hero, Deku?” 

  The question had Izuku pausing. Perhaps if it were anyone but Kacchan asking, he would have been able to answer ‘no’ without hesitation. But it was Kacchan asking, and even though they hadn’t had a real conversation in eleven years, even though he let the other kids in their class through the years bully Izuku, he could still remember what they used to be. Back when they drew future hero costumes with each other, when they admired All Might and talked about hero names. 

  “I don’t know,” Izuku found himself saying. “I just… I don’t know, okay? Can you not push me about it? Third year only just started, I don’t have to worry about it for a while.”

  “You, Deku, don’t want to plan something out a million years beforehand?” Katsuki said sarcastically. “Whatever. I expect an answer before the entrance exams.” He began to walk away, towards the front of the studio. He’d never put his shoes in a locker, and was apparently still holding them in his hands. Before he got too far, he turned back around to face Izuku. “For what it’s worth, I really do think of you as a rival. And if I think you could be a hero, then you better fucking believe that you could. I’m never wrong.” 

    The words were… oddly comforting. Izuku simply nodded at him, and Katsuki took his leave. He had a lot to think about. 

Chapter Text

   Izuku woke in the dead of night to the sound of someone bumping into his bedroom door. He stiffened, staying still as he heard the door creak open. Normally he locked the damn thing, but since his mother hadn’t yet returned from the streets by the time he went to bed at midnight, he’d figured that he wouldn’t need to that night.

   Apparently he was wrong. It was her slight silhouette that filled the doorway, and her staccato heartbeat that filled the air between them as she crept closer. His own heartbeat quickened as he wondered what kind of night this was; if she was about to kiss his forehead goodnight and apologize for being a bad mother, as she did on her sober nights, or if something more sinister was afoot. Given the uneven beat of her pulse, she was most likely high. The stench of semen and smoke filled the air around her, so at least he knew she really had been turning tricks before she got home. He would have to wait until she passed out later that morning to check through her cash and set aside enough for groceries before she spent it all on drugs. 

   “Izu?” Her voice cut through the silence. He pretended to still be asleep, praying the movement of his eyes beneath his lids didn’t give him away. His mother sat down at the edge of his bed, reaching out a hand to shakily push his hair back from his forehead. For a moment, he let himself relax, thinking that tonight was a good night. 

   Then her hand trailed down to his cheek, down his throat, and even lower to his chest. His breath caught and he abandoned his pretense of being asleep, sitting upright in bed. 

  “Mom-” he tried, but her hand on his chest shoved him back down. His breath left him, fear paralyzing him as her quirk began to pull at his skin cells, creating open wounds on his wrists and upper arms. He froze, squeezing his eyes shut. Inko hummed under her breath, trailing her hand down his abdomen to stroke at his abs. Martial arts gave him a fairly developed body, and while normally he enjoyed feeling his own progress beneath his hands, he despised it at moments like these. Because Inko liked to feel it, too. 

   “Shhh,” she hushed him. “It will be quicker if you don’t fight.” 

   That was never true. No matter what he did, it was always torturously long. Once, when he tried to push her away, he’d asked her why she did what she did to him. She had used her quirk to uproot three of his fingernails while she answered. 

  ‘ Because I just want to feel good because I want to,’ she’d told him. 

  Apparently, it didn’t matter if he wanted to or not. 

  So he did as he was told and stayed down, taking deep, shuddering breaths through his mouth while she pushed his sleeping shirt up to his armpits and pulled his pants and boxers down to his thighs. He thought through his most recent spar with Chiki-sensei, cataloguing her newest moves in his mind over and over again. How should he retaliate next time? What was the precursor in her movements before she’d done them? 

    Fifteen minutes later, Inko left him alone in his room, his clothes and bedding rumpled and his face damp with his own tears. Izuku liked to think of himself as a good person, someone who didn’t hold grudges or emotions inside of him for too long. He’d forgiven Katsuki for ignoring him all of those years, after all. When she wasn’t high, Izuku forgave Inko for the things she did while inebriated. After all, it wasn’t really her that was doing those things. It was the crack, or the heroin, or whatever her drug of choice was at the moment. 

    And then there were these few moments, right after she violated him, where he could feel nothing but sheer hatred for her. The intensity of it scared him every time, but at the same time, he couldn’t blame himself. Midoriya Inko may not be a villain in the eyes of the city, but she was most definitely a villain in her own home. 

    The next morning, Izuku was lagging behind. His mother had passed out in her room after she’d left his, and he looted through her skintight dress for the cash she’d made the night before. He pilfered his fair share and left the rest for her, hoping she was too off her rocker last night to remember exactly how much she’d made. If she hadn’t figured out he was stealing for all these years though, then he doubted he would have much trouble now. 

   On his way to school, there was some sort of villain fight going on a few streets over, with a few new heroes. He could sense their heartbeats and knew the fight would be ending soon, so he didn’t stick around. Even from four blocks away, he could hear the violent noise as some giant growing lady stomped her foot down and sent a clear image of the scene to him. He actually stumbled in his footsteps and paused for a few moments. She’d just crushed an entire city street with one of her feet. Did she have no care of the damage of the streets?

   “Oi, Deku!” Kacchan’s voice echoed over the street. He stayed put, turning to face the blond as he approached. “What the fuck are you doing just standing in the middle of the sidewalk?” 

   “That fight,” Izuku said, gesturing in its general direction. “A woman just grew from less than a meter to fifty meters tall . She crushed the entire street with one foot.” 

   “You could see that from this far away?” Katsuki looked over his shoulder, although he wouldn’t be able to see even the top of the woman’s head over the multiple blocks of buildings in his way. 

   “It was loud ,” Izuku grumbled, huffing and pulling his backpack farther up his shoulders. “We’re going to be late to class.” 

   “Fuck you,” Kacchan said, but still walked next to Izuku instead of in front of him like normal. The boy’s heart wasn’t beating quite as slow as it normally did, like he was anxious or something. Even though they’d had their talk a week before, Katsuki always seemed to breathe a little harder and act a little jittery around him. Izuku figured he just had no idea how to actually be a friend, considering his last friend had been Izuku, eleven years before. Everyone else had always been more like cronies than actual friends. 

   “Are you nervous?” Izuku asked point-blank. 

  “Why the fuck would I be nervous?” Even Kacchan had to know that he sounded defensive. Midoriya grinned mischievously, entering the school and approaching his assigned shoe locker. 

  “Because now that we’re friends, you don’t know how to act around me?” Izuku toed off his outside shoes, opening his locker to grab his school shoes. Katsuki scoffed at him. 

  “We’re not fucking friends .”

  “We’re totally friends.” 

  “Your shoes are fucking stupid!” Katsuki snapped, ripping open his own locker a few feet down from Izuku’s. He paused, looking down at the shoes he was putting in his locker. 

   “What’s wrong with my shoes?” He asked. 

  “They’re bright fucking red,” Katsuki snarled. “They look ridiculous.” 

  “Ah,” Izuku said. “Thank you Kacchan, I really do care about the colour of the shoes I can’t even see. You’ve really opened my eyes.” 

   “Fuck you,” Katsuki muttered, more half-hearted than viscous. 

   After school, Katsuki and Izuku went their separate ways. Kacchan was going home, and Izuku was going to the studio to help teach a class of kids. Chiki had asked him for help, and in exchange he wouldn’t have to pay for the next month of training. Even though he had nothing left to learn, it was still fun to spar with the classes he sat in on. Izuku took the shortcut to the studio, one that went underneath an underpass where transient people tended to sleep around this time of day. It was so silent on that side of town that he tended to use his walking stick, at least until he was spit back out into the bustling city. 

    This time, he could hear noises coming from… below him ? He froze, cocking his head to try and listen. Sure enough, it sounded like a heartbeat and panting from underneath the ground. Izuku had barely a second to register that there must be a sewer system beneath him before the sewer grate behind him burst open, the noise bringing the world around him back into focus. He cried out, his hand tightening around his stick as his mind’s eye tried to register who- or rather, what- had just come out of the sewer. 

   “He’s catching up to me,” the thing mumbled, slamming the manhole cover back over its hole. “I can’t believe I was so careless…!” 

   Izuku stumbled back, realizing that the big wobbly thing must be some sort of villain. The thing heard him and whirled around, its jello-like body wobbling threateningly. 

   “Ah, a perfect sized meat suit right here for the taking? It must be fate!” The thing started forward with a yell, enveloping Izuku in its liquid body impossibly fast. Izuku tried to scream, only for his mouth to be filled with sour tasting liquid. He brought his arms up to try and claw at the sludge, but it was to no avail. The thing began pushing its sludge through his every orifice; his nostrils, his mouth, his ears, even his eyes. He was suffocating in every possible meaning of the word, his mind beginning to swim with the lack of oxygen. 

   “Don’t struggle,” the thing whispered to him. “It will only hurt for about forty-five seconds before you fall unconscious and I can take you over.”

  ‘ No, no, no!’ Izuku’s mind screamed, all of his senses slipping into overdrive with his desperation. Without thinking, his hand reacted and hefted up his walking cane, flipping it so that he held it at the very base before he rammed it into the slime monster’s face. The thing screamed, releasing Izuku instantly. The boy fell to his knees, sucking in painful lungfuls of air. The villain was still screaming, so Izuku could sense that his stick was still sticking out of the monster’s eye . Izuku had stabbed it right through the eye. 

   Nausea rolled through his stomach at the outline in his mind, his senses increasing again. He could smell the rotting garbage and glue scent of the villain, the dust from underneath the bridge, even the stink of the sewers from the brief moment the grate had been opened. And then suddenly, there was a new smell. A new person. It smelled like blood and saliva and lemons, oddly enough, and the surprise of it was nearly enough to knock Izuku over. 

   The new person appeared at the mouth of the overpass, and although he hadn’t been able to see the outline with his own eyes since before he went blind, the shape of the man was unmistakable. The words that he spoke in the next instant only confirmed Izuku’s suspicions. 

   “HAVE NO FEAR, CITIZEN, FOR I AM HERE!” All Might yelled out, seconds before he let loose a punch so forceful that it blew the slime monster to pieces. Izuku's walking cane was blown away, outside of the overpass somewhere. The sheer pressure of the punch was the last straw, letting Izuku slip into sweet unconsciousness. 

   (x)

  “-OUNG MAN? YOUNG MAN!” Something was tapping on Izuku’s cheek. His sense of touch was so sensitive that it felt more like getting punched in the face than the light taps he was sure the stranger was using, but still Izuku couldn’t help but jerk away from it with a groan. The man pulled his hand away and Izuku opened his eyes, his quirk quiet for a moment. His heartbeat mixed with the stranger’s, along with the man’s booming voice, was enough for his quirk to find the outlines of the man. 

  “YOU HAD ME WORRIED, YOUNG MAN!” All Might cried, booming with laughter. Izuku winced, surveying the hero’s form. His breathing and heartbeat were oddly strained, like he was continuously holding his breath and straining himself. Midoriya sat up, rubbing his head, looking around. He had been laying on his yellow backpack like a pillow and his walking cane was nowhere in sight. He exhaled, letting out a low hum to use his quirk to find it. He was able to see its outline in the bushes on the outside of the underpass, and he was also able to see two two-liter bottles filled with something . 

   “A-All Might?” Izuku asked, looking back up at the man’s towering form. “Um… can you do me a favor?” 

   “I HAVE ALREADY SIGNED YOUR NOTEBOOK, MY BOY!” All Might declared. “I’M AFRAID I MUST BE GOING NOW!” 

   “W-wait!” Izuku cried, waving his hands out in front of him. “I need my walking cane!” 

  All Might froze, his form turning his head to stare at Izuku. “You… are you blind?” 

  “Yes,” Izuku said softly, forcing himself to get to his feet. “That villain… I used my cane to stab it in the eye, and when you punched it went flying. Can you help me find it?” 

  All Might seemed hesitant, which kind of pissed Izuku off. After all, he was the one who sent his cane flying in the first place. Finally, the hero spoke. “Y-yes, I’ll help you find it.” And then suddenly, steam filled the air. Izuku startled backwards a step and began coughing, waving his hand in front of his face. 

   “All Might?!” He cried out. The steam dissipated, revealing… not All Might. The man looked about as tall as the hero, but he was so much skinnier than the man that it was truly worrying. His hair held a similar shape, except instead of All Might’s twin spikes, his own bangs hung long, well past his shoulders. Izuku opened his mouth to ask who this person was and where All Might had gone, before his other senses kicked in and he frowned. This person had the same irregular heartbeat and breathing patterns as All Might, and he held the same scent of blood, saliva and lemons. Izuku’s brain was working overtime trying to reason it to himself, and meanwhile the skinny man (All Might??) was giving an explanation. 

   “Ha, that was odd! I have no idea what that was! Anyway, did you see where your cane may have landed?” 

   Izuku stayed silent and waited for All Might to realize what he just said. Because this man was All Might, he was sure of it now. They had the same voice, with the same gravelly undertones and everything. Something had happened to make All Might deflate like a balloon, and clearly he was using Izuku’s blindness to an advantage to try and hide it. Far be it from him to let All Might know that he’d actually seen what had just happened. 

  “OH! Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!” All Might began waving his hands around, as if Izuku could see it. Midoriya also noticed that his voice was no longer booming loud, but more like a regular person now. “Ahem- this is awkward. Oh, I think I see it in the bushes over there!” He did in fact see Izuku’s cane in the bushes, and retrieved it. “Well, I really should be going now young man. I must deliver the villain to the authorities.” 

   Suddenly, Katsuki’s face flashed in Izuku’s mind. ‘ I believe that you can be a hero.’

  “All Might?” Izuku said softly. All Might turned from collecting the villain to face Izuku again. 

  “Yes?” 

  “Do… do you think I can be a hero, even though I’m blind?” 

  Izuku didn’t really know what he was thinking, Perhaps he thought that, since All Might was such a public presence, he might tell anyone who asked that yes, they could be a hero. Of course, that wasn’t realistic. All Might was a protector, a hero. That included protecting others from themselves. 

   “A blind hero…?” All Might questioned. “I’m sorry my boy, I simply don’t think it’s possible. You would be a liability in the field, since sight is such a big part of hero work. Perhaps you can get some other job, like teaching the next generation.” 

  Izuku closed his mouth, nodding his head once to acknowledge All Might’s words. The hero didn’t say anything more before he stuffed the two liter bottles into his pockets and ambled off in the opposite direction of where Izuku needed to go. The greenet watched his outline until it was out of sight before he let out a breath and sat down, right next to his backpack that was still on the ground. 

  ‘ All Might doesn’t think I can be a hero,’ Izuku thought to himself, hugging his knees to his chest. Although it was the answer he’d gotten from most people when he asked, for some reason it hurt more that All Might had said it. Perhaps some part of Izuku still secretly wanted to be a hero? 

   ‘ Fuck him,’ another part of him hissed out of the blue. ‘ I can be a fucking hero even without my sight. I’m the one who incompacitated that villain after all! What does he know, he didn’t even wait to make sure I was actually blind before he revealed what is obviously supposed to be a secret!’ 

   Izuku shot to his feet again, grabbing his backpack and slinging it over his shoulder. He marched out from the underpass, and when he got to the main road, instead of turning left towards his martial arts studio, he turned right, towards his neighborhood. It took him ten minutes to get to his destination, and when he did he didn’t hesitate before knocking on the door. Thirty seconds later, a familiar heartbeat approached and the door was ripped open. 

    “Deku?” Kacchan said, probably scowling. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

   “I’m going to get into U.A.,” he declared. Katsuki’s heart stuttered for a moment before slowing once again. Izuku could hear the grin in his voice when he spoke again. 

  “Damn right you are,” he agreed. “I’ll see you there, you fucking nerd, and I’ll become the number one hero.” 

  “We’ll see,” Izuku taunted, turning around to head back to his house. “We’ll see.” 

Chapter Text

   Izuku stepped up to the giant walkway between U.A.’s gates and the front door of the school, chewing on his lower lip nervously. He’d spent the last ten months training harder than he ever had before, even when he’d been working towards his 3rd-dan black belt in aikido. Chiki had started joking that if there was such a thing as a 4th-dan, Izuku would definitely have earned it by then. He had started kicking Chiki’s ass every time they sparred now. He’d been training his quirk to recognize the signs of the human body language even more as well, and it had actually turned out rather well. He was basically a human lie detector, since he could hear people’s heartbeats, and had taught himself to recognize the changes for different things. He’d attuned his sense of smell to individual people as well, able to recognize almost everyone he came into contact with before they even got within twenty feet of him. It had freaked Kacchan out the first time he’d done it. 

   Katsuki shoved at Izuku’s shoulder to get him walking again. “Don’t freak out now, shitty nerd. You’re taking this goddamn exam.” 

   “I never said I wasn’t!” Izuku squawked. “God, stop bullying me! Can’t you see I’m blind?” 

   “If you’re blind, I’m a fucking girl,” Katsuku snorted. “Get moving or I’ll leave you behind.” 

  “I am legally blind,” Izuku mumbled, but still moved forward once more. The two of them had made it halfway to the door before Izuku fucked up and tripped over a brick in his path. His arms windmilled to try and catch him, but it was too late. He was falling face-first into the brick path beneath his feet. 

   And then suddenly, he wasn’t. Objectively, he’d been able to see/sense the girl walking next to him and Katsuki, but he hadn’t paid attention to her until that moment. She’d slapped her hand to his back and then, suddenly, he wasn’t falling anymore. He was floating , at least three feet off of the ground. He wiggled in the air, trying to get back onto his feet. Katsuki growled in warning at the girl, waving a hand at her. “Oi, Round Face! Put him fucking down!” 

  “Round-” The girl seemed flustered. “My face is not round! I was just trying to help!” She grabbed Izuku’s arm and put him on his feet before touching her fingers together. “Release.” His weight returned to him just like that. He whirled to properly face her, knowing that he probably seemed like an overexcited puppy. 

   “Oh my god, that quirk is so cool! Does it have to do with gravity, or just negating a person’s general mass? Does it work on non-living objects? Does it have to do with your hands, or is that just a thing that you do to seem flashy?” 

   “Oi, shut the fuck up Deku, we have somewhere to be!” Katsuki grabbed Izuku by the shoulder and shoved him forward again, forcing him to walk away from the girl. 

  “Kacchan, I was talking!” Izuku whined. He turned over his shoulder and looked at the girl’s outline. “Thank you for catching me!” 

   “No problem!” She waved at him and he turned back around. He was lucky that his 360 vision meant he never had to watch where he was going. 

   “Suck up,” Katsuki muttered. Izuku raised an eyebrow at him. 

  “Why would I be sucking up to her?” 

  “Cuz’ she’s a pretty girl,” Katsuki snapped, “and you’re a fucking virgin.” 

  Izuku couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t even know where to start with that. You’re a virgin too, for one. Second, I can’t fucking see Kacchan, how would I know if she was pretty or not? Third, I’d react exactly the same to a pretty boy , so fuck you.” 

   “Wow, two whole f-words. You kiss your mother with that mouth?” Katsuki teased. Every happy part of Izuku shut down immediately. 

  ( ‘don’t fight it, just let me do this,’ inko whispered in his ear, her lips brushing over his. ‘shhhh. be a good boy.’)

   “Whoa, what the fuck just happened?” Katsuki paused in his steps. 

  Izuku shook himself out of the memory, pushing away the hurt in his chest. “Nothing. Let’s just go.” 

   For once, Kacchan listened to him, following Izuku up the steps to the school so they could take the written exam. Izuku had to go to a separate room to take the exam verbally, but before they parted ways, Katsuki clapped a hand on his shoulder. “You’d better fucking pass Deku. I’ll murder you if you fuck this up.” 

   “Always so encouraging,” Midoriya muttered. “You’ll do great Kacchan, so I won’t say anything.” 

  “Smart choice.” 

  Izuku found the conference room where he would be taking his test. He could hear a single heartbeat inside, oddly slow in rhythm, almost like whoever it was was sleeping. Izuku frowned and knocked on the door before opening it. The form inside didn’t move, although the smell of fabric softened and energy drinks hit Izuku like a truck. Seriously, it smelled like energy drinks was all the guy lived on. Midoriya stepped closer to the unmoving form, listening intently to his heartbeat. He didn’t wake, even as Midoriya gathered the courage to reach out and poke his cheek. 

   “Um… sir?” He asked. “Sir, hello! Can you wake up please?” 

  Suddenly, the man’s heartbeat jackknifed and he sat up straight, causing Izuku to yelp and stumble backwards. He would have landed on his ass had it not been for the long piece of fabric that shot out of nowhere, catching him around the middle and yanking him back onto his feet. “Who are you and why are you here?” The man snapped. 

   “Um…” Was he serious? “I’m Midoriya Izuku? I’m the blind kid you’re supposed to be administering the test to?” 

   The man was quiet for a moment before he spoke again. “Sit down, then.” 

  ‘ Oh-kaaaaay.’ Izuku sat on the nearest chair, feeling it rock backwards with his weight. He was aware of the older man staring at him, most likely gauging his sightless eyes for something or other. Some people found his unfocused eyes creepy, while others shamelessly stared like they were interesting. Somehow, Izuku got the feeling that the man was neither of these things. 

   “Are you ready to begin the test, Midoriya Izuku?” 

  Izuku jolted, sitting up straighter. “Um. Yes, sir!” 

  “Fine.” He pulled a stack of papers and a pen out of thin air, causing Izuku to blink in confusion. Maybe it was his quirk…? “We will get started right away. I hope you’re ready, kid.” 

   Izuku was. 

    (x)

   Sitting in the massive auditorium after his test was a little disconcerting. He had finished the written exam in an hour and a half, leaving another hour and a half for him to sit and wait for the rest of the kids to finish. Izuku was aware that he was considered pretty smart, especially since he’d gone blind. He spent a lot of his time listening to audiobooks and getting his hands on any braille books he could find since there wasn’t much else he could do to occupy his time. He didn’t have any friends, and he pretty much spent all of his time either in the studio or hiding from his mother in his room. He had an encrypted file folder on his phone that he used to record hero notes for himself, just for the hell of it, but it wasn’t the same as writing it all down. He could remember when he was little and how pleased he was when he would write down an analysis of a hero he loved. 

   No use dwelling on that. Besides, the door to the massive auditorium banged open ten minutes after he sat down. Izuku recognized the slouched posture and heartbeat immediately, and he wasn’t surprised. Kacchan was a true genius, so of course he would finish his test early like Izuku. Izuku probably just had an advantage because his test was being read aloud to him instead of him having to focus on writing and reading. 

   He heard Kacchan scoff the moment he laid eyes on Izuku. “‘Course you finished early, you fucking nerd.” The blond stomped his way up to the row Izuku had put himself in, settling into the seat beside the greenet. Izuku resisted the urge to giggle to himself, keeping his face a carefully blank mask. 

   “I’m sure it’s just because mine was an oral test,” Izuku said smoothly. Katsuki’s fist raised to lightly punch Izuku’s upper arm. 

  “Don’t fucking patronize me,” he snapped. Izuku couldn’t help but laugh that time. 

  The next hour and a half went by somewhat quickly, and soon enough, every last test taker was in their seat, all of them practically vibrating with nerves. Present Mic himself was standing at the front of the stage, ready to give them their instructions. 

   Izuku obviously couldn’t see any of the diagrams, so Katsuki had to lean over and describe them to him in a low murmur. It was actually rather helpful, and Izuku didn’t think anyone minded until a rather loud, tall boy interrupted Present Mic with a question about the so-called “zero pointers.” 

   “And you there, in the back!” The boy, who wore glasses and had neatly combed hair, pointed back at Katsuki and Izuku. Given the slight movement of shadows, Izuku realized that a light was now shining on him and Katsuki. 

  “Us?” Izuku asked, pointing to himself. 

   “Yes, you! You both have been whispering throughout the entire lesson, it’s distracting to the rest of us!” 

   Izuku felt horrified, his face turning red from the embarrassment. Kacchan had never been one for sitting quietly and taking it, so he of course had to leap to his feet to defend himself. “He’s blind you fucking idiot, I’m describing the robots to him!” 

   A low rumble worked through the crowd as they all made comments on Izuku’s blindness, most of them wondering if his quirk helped him see. The standing boy was one of the only ones who didn’t ask about that, instead gasping out his horror. “You’re blind? It isn’t safe for you to participate in this exam, much less to be a hero! You should leave the premises immediately!” 

   “He’s gonna score higher than you , motherfucker,” Katsuki hissed. Izuku got to his feet, placing a hand on Kacchan’s shoulder. He made a point to look directly at where the boy’s outline was standing, up right where his glasses jutted out from his face.   

   “I can take care of myself,” Izuku said evenly. “I’m not totally blind, although I’d rather be blind than ignorant.” He sat back down while Katsuki, as well as most of the room’s occupants, barked out laughter. 

   “Suck on that, bitch!” Izuku watched Katsuki’s outline flip off the boy with both hands before he settled back into his seat, still cackling. Kacchan always found it unbelievably hilarious when Izuku stood up for himself and his blindness. 

   “Well, that was eventful!” Present Mic said cheerily. “Participant, please retake your seat so that we may continue.” 

   The kid sat. By the time they were all released to go to their battle grounds, Katsuki was already grumbling about not being able to go to the same battle center as Izuku. Apparently he wanted to “kick his ass,” but when Izuku told him that that wasn’t what this test was for, the guy had simply sent sparks into Izuku’s face. They were harmless, but it was still a dick move. 

   When Izuku began stretching out in front of Battle Center B, he tuned his hearing in to the people surrounding him, listening for any sign of what their plans might be. A few of them had a similar mumbling problem to him, but as he scanned through the crowd, he caught wind of a familiar voice. 

  “Alright, I just need to lighten up my clothes so I can be quicker…” she was saying, more to herself than anyone around her. Izuku brightened a bit, recognizing both her and her silhouette as the girl who had caught him when he’d tripped earlier. He hadn’t gotten to really properly thank her for that, so he began picking his way through the crowd towards her. Before he could make it more than a few steps, the familiar outline of the boy from the auditorium stepped in front of him. 

   “It’s you, the blind boy from inside,” the bigger guy said, moving to push his glasses up his nose. “As I stated inside, I really think this test is too dangerous for someone like you!” 

   “And as I said inside, go fuck yourself,” Izuku snarked. 

  “Why I- I’m simply trying to-” the boy began to stutter. 

  “I don’t care,” Izuku said simply. ‘ God, I need to spend less time with Kacchan.’ “I’m trying to go speak to my friend, so if you could get out of my way, that would be amazing.” 

   Before the kid could say anything back to Izuku, Present Mic’s voice sounded out from somewhere above them all, on top of what Izuku could feel was some sort of tower. ‘ Man, this guy is amazing for my echolocation.’ 

  “I HOPE YOU’RE ALL READY TO GOOOOOO!” The man cried. “SO GO, GO, GO!” 

  The sound of the gates creaking open startled the kids ambling around Izuku, but Izuku had the advantage of being friends with Kacchan. The guy was constantly jumping out at Izuku or randomly attacking him to “test his reflexes.” Because of this, he darted into the compound before any of the others had a chance to blink. 

   The whirring of machines drowned out Present Mic telling the rest of them to go, bringing Izuku’s attention to the task at hand. He could hear the robots all over the place, like a map in his head with little dots. He thanked his quirk for the millionth time, running down an alleyway that was barely visible from the main street. There were four robots of different shapes at the other end, using their treads to go back and forth as if they were patrolling. Izuku closed his eyes (although that was pretty useless) and concentrated, using the mechanisms inside of the robot’s noises to figure out where was weakest within them. To Izuku’s utter shock, he realized that there were small buttons directly underneath the guns that the robots held; given that all the wires led to those buttons on each robot, it appeared they were quite literally “off” buttons. 

  ‘ No fucking way it’s this easy,’ Izuku thought to himself. Deciding he would never know if he didn’t act, he jumped out from the alleyway and slid next to the first robot, catching it by surprise as he slid his hand underneath the nozzle of its gun and pressed the button. The whirring sound within the robot stopped, the thing sagging into stillness as it powered itself down. Judging from the shape of it, Izuku guessed that it was most likely a three-pointer robot. Two of the others were one-pointers, and one was a two-pointer. Izuku watched as the outlines of the robots swung towards him, their robotic voices declaring threats as they rushed towards him. 

   He had never been happier for his aikido training than he was at that moment. It gave him the flexibility he needed to duck between the flailing robotic limbs that they lunged at him, swiftly turning each of them off with a bit of difficulty. One of them had smacked him pretty hard in the ribs and it became harder to breathe, but he kept going. He had seven points now. 

   He followed this method throughout the majority of the exam, finding secluded robots that other participants weren’t already destroying and turning them off, counting silently in his head. He also came across more than a few of his competitors in a state of peril, either about to be beaned by a robotic limb, or about to be crushed by falling quirk debris. It really was a dangerous test. Izuku had only barely made it in time to save those five kids! Most of them seemed pretty grateful, but one with a snotty voice declared that he “didn’t need the quirk of a blind kid!” before running off. Whatever that meant. 

   By the time the zero pointer showed up, Izuku had mentally counted about thirty-seven points in his head. It was more than some of the kids around him were declaring, but he also heard that rude kid from the auditorium saying that he had over forty points. Izuku couldn’t help wanting to beat that guy’s score, and he entirely planned on it too! The zero pointer was distracting, sure, but that didn’t mean Izuku couldn’t get more points while everyone else was running. 

   Except he heard her scream. 

  He knew immediately that it was the nice girl from the front, as he’d heard her voice twice now and thus could recognize it. His feet moved without thinking, forcing him to run against the grain and towards where he could see the outline of the girl trapped beneath a pile of rubble that the zero pointer had created. She seemed weak as she tried to reach around herself, but she just couldn’t do it. She collapsed once more, crying to herself and begging for someone to help her. How these so-called “hero prospects” could just run right past her was beyond Izuku. He was either going to get her out of there, or he would die right next to her so she didn’t have to be alone. 

   When he fell to his knees at her side, the zero pointer was probably thirty seconds from crushing them. Present Mic began to count down from sixty, as apparently there was only a minute left of the exam. Any hope of the exam being stopped before the zero-pointer got to them was crushed at that point, and Izuku knew he needed to think fast to get the girl out of there. 

   “Please help me,” she whimpered, reaching out to grab hold of his hand. Izuku hushed her, clucking his tongue. 

    “I’ll get you out of here,” he soothed, opening up his senses to look around him without taking his eyes off of her. About twenty feet away there was a large pipe laying in the wreckage. More small pieces of debris fell around them, but Izuku’s quirk made it easy to calculate the trajectory of where they were going to land as he dodged through them, grabbing the pipe. It was heavier than he expected, at least sixty pounds of solid metal, but thankfully all of his training made it easy for him to bring it to the girl. The zero-pointer was twenty seconds from crushing them. 

   “When I lift this off of you, you need to bring yourself out of the rubble!” He yelled to the girl. 

  “Got it!” She yelled back, bracing her hands on the ground in a way that would make it easier for her to drag herself away. 

   “Three! Two! One!” He jammed the pipe underneath the rubble, using it as a lever by forcing all of his strength on the end he gripped. The force of it wrenched the debris off of the girl’s leg, and she used the few precious seconds to get out from the rubble. The zero-pointer was ten seconds from them, so Izuku didn’t waste any time in dropping the debris, scooping the girl up and bolting. As they went, more debris fell around them. The girl reached out to some of the bigger pieces and touched them, causing them to float in the air before dropping a few seconds later. ‘ So cool!’  

   Izuku ducked in the alleyway of a building just as the robot’s foot stomped down in the road where they’d been, large enough to take up the entire street. The ground shook with the force, and Izuku curled his body around the girl to shield her from the dust and smaller rubble pieces that fell around them. 

   “Are you okay?” He asked her, trying to judge where her eyes were on her outline. 

  “Thank you so much,” she sobbed, clinging to his arms like a scared child. He supposed that’s what she was. “Thank you, thank you!” 

   “Of course,” he soothed her, gently prying her fingernails from his skin. He had his fair share of cuts and bruises, and his ribs still ached considerably from earlier in the test, but the important thing was that neither of them had been crushed. “It’s what any hero would do.” 

   “Apparently, not any hero,” she muttered, obviously bitter about being left behind by all of their other competitors. “You didn’t have to save me, but you did.” 

   He opened his mouth to answer, but then a blaring sound rocked through his body, causing him to wince. 

  “AAAAAND THE TEST IS OVER! IF ANY OF YOU ARE INJURED, PLEASE FIND RECOVERY GIRL IN THE MAIN STREET BEFORE EXITING THE EXAM! YOUR RESULTS WILL BE MAILED TO YOU IN A WEEK!” Present Mic cheered one last time before falling silent. ‘ Gods, that man is good for my quirk.’  

   “We should find Recovery Girl,” Izuku told the girl. “What’s your name?” 

  “Uraraka Ochako,” she sniffled, struggling to stand on her own. Izuku helped her to her feet, slinging her arm around his shoulder so she wouldn’t have to put weight on the ankle that had been pinned by the giant piece of building. “What’s yours?” 

  “Midoriya Izuku,” he answered. “Nice to meet you. I wish it could be under better circumstances.” 

   She laughed shakily, and the two of them made their way towards the main street. Sure enough, there was a crowd of kids surrounding a rather short woman whose outline was familiar to Izuku. It was the pro-hero Recovery Girl, in the flesh. His little fanboy heart fluttered, but he forced it to calm down in order to be professional. 

   He led Uraraka to the crowd, pushing them both through the spectators to get to the small line that had gathered around the woman. Her lips stretched comically to kiss those of them who were hurt, and then she sent them on their way with instructions to rest and eat some energy gummies. Soon enough, he and Uraraka were at the front of the line. 

   “Where are you hurt?” Recovery Girl asked Uraraka. 

  “My ankle…” the girl said shyly. “I was pinned under rubble.” 

  Recovery Girl scoffed, tapping her syringe-shaped can against the ground. “I keep telling Nedzu that this test is too dangerous! One of these days, someone is going to get seriously hurt.” She huffed and puffed, but still healed Uraraka, passing her some energy gummies. The girl practically collapsed into Izuku’s arms from exhaustion, causing him to grunt and bear the brunt of her weight.

  “Just lay her on the ground, sweetie,” Recovery Girl instructed. “I’ll get a stretcher to take her to the infirmary until she wakes up.” 

   “If you’re sure,” Izuku said, lowering Uraraka to the ground. The kids around them were whispering, and even though Izuku tried to blur it with his quirk, he could still hear that the majority of them were commenting on his blindness and how he’d rushed toward the zero-pointer regardless of it. They were trying to speculate how powerful his quirk must be if he felt confident doing that. 

   “And you, sonny?” Recovery Girl asked. “Are you hurt?” 

  “Yeah, kind of,” he said shyly. Recovery Girl stepped up to him, touching her lips to his forehead. “Broken ribs,” she said, and sure enough, Izuku began to actually feel his ribs knitting together. Gods, his quirk was weird. “Scrapes, bruises…” the woman paused. “You’re blind?” 

   “You can feel that with your quirk?” He asked. 

  “I can tell from the clouds in your eyes,” Recovery Girl answered. “It’s very faint over your pupils, but it’s there.”

   “Yes, I’m blind,” Izuku answered. “But I’m perfectly capable of being here, and being a hero! I scored thirty-seven points without any help!” 

   “I never said you couldn’t,” the older woman said gently. “Here, take some energy gummies. They should last you until you can make it home to rest.”

   He took them and thanked her, rushing away towards the exit of the battle ground before he could embarrass himself in front of any more pro-heroes. By the time he made it to the front of U.A.’s gates, Kacchan was already standing there, shifting from foot to foot like he was nervous. When he spotted Izuku, his outline sagged for a moment before he straightened up again, trying to cover it up. “Shithead, where the fuck have you been? The test ended fifteen minutes ago!” 

  “Sorry Kacchan, I had to save this girl from being crushed by a zero-pointer, and then Recovery Girl had to heal her ankle and apparently I broke some ribs, but it’s healed now.” To make a point, he popped one of the energy gummies in his mouth. 

   “Of course you would find some way to get hurt,” Katsuki muttered. He began walking towards the train station that would lead back to their neighborhood. Izuku followed behind dutifully. 

   “That’s not fair, I saved someone,” he whined. Katsuki only reached out and ruffled Izuku’s fluffy curls, curling his fingers in the mass for a moment before he let go. 

  “Whatever you say, nerd. How many points did you get?” 

  “I don’t exactly know,” Izuku confessed. “I lost count around thirty-seven, but I think I accidentally got a few more after that.” 

   “I got seventy-seven,” Bakugou boasted. Izuku knew he was bragging, but he couldn’t help but feel dazzled anyway. 

  “ Whoa. That’s a lot of points!” Worry began to creep inside of his chest. “Do you think everyone scored that high? If more people scored like that, then there’s no way I’ll make it in. Gods, I should have tried harder, maybe actually destroyed the robots…” 

  Katsuki guided Izuku into swiping his train card as he muttered to himself, pushing the boy through the turnstiles. “What do you mean ‘actually destroy’ them? How did you get your points?” 

   “I pressed the off switch,” Izuku replied. Katsuki turned around to stare at him incredulously. 

  “The off switch,” he deadpanned. “There was a fucking off switch ? How the fuck did you know that?” 

   “I used my quirk to feel the vibrations from within the machine. All of the wires were connecting to a small button directly underneath all of their guns. It wasn’t hard.” He shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. Katsuki shook his head, although Izuku could tell he was kind of proud. 

   “Only you,” he told him before shoving him onto the train that would take them home. Izuku scoffed at him as he stepped in. 

  “Would you stop shoving me? I’m blind, asshole!” 

  That got a few looks from the people around them, most of them seeming concerned that Katsuki was shoving around a blind kid. Izuku couldn’t help but snicker, not needing to see to know that Kacchan had probably turned bright red from embarrassment. 

  “You’re not fucking blind!” He shouted, cuffing the side of Izuku’s head. 

  “I totally am,” Izuku corrected him. “Considering the fact I have no idea what you look like, I’d call that blind.” 

   “You know what I look like, you weren’t always blind.” 

  “Um, I don’t know if you know this, but people look different at fifteen years old than four years old. Besides, I haven’t ‘seen’ you in eleven years. I hardly remember what I look like, much less what you look like.” 

  “You look like a fucking nerd. There, now you know.” The train began to pull away from the station, causing the two of them to jostle. Katsuki reached out and caught Izuku’s elbow, making sure he stayed steady. He didn’t let go for the rest of the train ride. 

   Izuku smiled to himself. No matter how much Katsuki teased and blustered, Izuku knew that he worried about his well being. It was kind of nice to experience. Now, all he needed to do was pray that he made it into U.A. with the boy…

Chapter Text

   Izuku was on edge for the entire week before the letter pertaining to his entrance exam results came. He fidgeted in class, annoying the shit out of his teachers, and even Kacchan when the two of them did homework in the park after school. Kacchan seemed to realize that Izuku was keen on avoiding home, even though he never questioned him on it. That was one thing that Izuku loved about Katsuki- he minded his own business until you made it his business. Izuku wished he could be like that sometimes. 

   The day he got the letter, his mother wasn’t home. She’d probably gone out to the streets to start working early, which was fine by him. The only problem with it was that he had no one to read the results of the letter to him, and he highly doubted U.A. would be proactive enough to put it in braille. Izuku opened the letter at the kitchen counter anyway, and was shocked to find a small, disc-like object falling into his palm. With that one touch, the thing appeared to activate, and suddenly a familiar booming voice was shaking Izuku to his core. 

  “HELLO, YOUNG MIDORIYA! IT IS ME, ALL MIGHT, HERE WITH YOUR ENTRANCE EXAM RESULTS!” Izuku nearly fell on his ass from the surprise, but managed to grab hold of the counter before it happened. All Might kept speaking, as the thing was obviously a recording. His voice had lost a bit of its volume, so at least the man wasn’t screaming at Izuku anymore. “Well! You scored forty villain points on the exam! That is just five points over a passing score, so congratulations, young Midoriya!”

   Izuku felt his eyes well up with tears. He’d done it? He’d really gotten into U.A.? He resisted the urge to dance around screaming at the top of his lungs; at least, until the projection stopped and All Might quit speaking. 

   “Not to mention the secret points in the exam!” All Might sounded conspiratorial when he said this, almost like he was winking. “See, there was a true test of a hero hidden within the exam. You showed the aptitude of a real hero, my boy! Despite your blindness, you went out of your way to save those of your competitors who were in danger. Because of your bravery, you have been awarded thirty-five rescue points! That puts you at a staggering seventy-five points, in second place in the practical exam. Now, there was an anomaly within the written exam…” 

   Izuku’s heart sank. Since his exam had to be orally taken, had something gone wrong? Had the man who’d given him the exam got his answers wrong? Izuku thought for sure that he’d aced the thing, especially since he’d finished so early! Was it possible that he’d passed the practical exam and not the written exam? 

   “You have gotten the highest score ever received on the written exam!” All Might himself sounded just as flabbergasted as Izuku felt. ‘ What, because I’m blind I can’t be smart?’ “The previous high score was twenty years ago, by my own hero sidekick, Sir Nighteye! He had scored a ninety-three percent on the exam, having gotten seventy questions wrong out of one-thousand. You, young Midoriya, did not miss a single question. You have received the only one-hundred percent in U.A. history.” 

   ‘ They have got to be shitting me. Is this some sort of sick joke?’ Izuku resisted the urge to look around for Ashton Kutcher, even though he could sense that there were no heartbeats in the house with him. Sure enough, All Might said his last piece. 

  “Welcome to your academia,” he grinned. There was a beeping noise, and Izuku realized that the projection must have ended. He sank to the ground, his overwhelmed tears finally beginning to fall. ‘ I made it in. Me, a blind kid, really made it into the best hero school in the country!’ He reached for his phone, using his thumbprint to unlock it. “Call Kacchan,” he said into the speaker, practically shaking from the excitement. The device rang four times before finally, Katsuki’s gruff voice sounded throughout the kitchen. The boy didn’t even bother with a greeting, just jumping straight into it. 

   “ You got in, ” he said, sounding oddly… proud? Izuku’s chest warmed at the thought that Kacchan might actually be proud of him. He tried to make sure his voice didn’t shake as he spoke back. 

   “How did you know?” He sniffled. ‘ Whoops.’

  “ Are you fucking crying? ” Katsuki sounded exasperated, but there was no real heat behind his words. “ Didn’t you get a projection? They didn’t describe to you what was on it or anything ?” 

  “You got a projection too?” Now that surprised him. 

  “ Guess it wasn’t special for you ,” Katsuki grumbled. “ Throughout the video they showed who got the top scores on the written exams and the practical exam. I got first place in the practical, obviously. But I saw your name in second place. Seventy-five points. Not bad, Deku .” 

   Izuku’s chest fluttered at the praise. It wasn’t often that anyone told him that he was doing a good job, but hearing it from his childhood friend was somehow a thousand times better. “Thanks! Did you see what I got on the written exam?” 

  “ No, I actually wasn’t paying attention at that part ,” Katsuki confessed. “ I just listened to All Might tell me my own score. Why? You didn’t fucking fail, did you ?” 

  “Of course I didn’t fail!” Izuku cried. “What do you take me for, an extra ?” 

  “ Don’t fucking mock me if you want to live to see U.A. ,” Katsuki warned. 

  “Alright, alright! Brace yourself for this Kacchan, it’s pretty cool.” Midoriya took a deep breath, suddenly nervous to tell Katsuki that he’d done better than the blond on the written exams. “I… I got the highest score in U.A. history.” 

   The line was dead silent for so long, that Izuku worried that Katsuki had hung up. Just as Izuku was beginning to panic, Kacchan spoke again. 

  “ How the fuck did you manage that, you fucking nerd?” Was it Izuku’s imagination, or did Kacchan sound… gleeful? “ I knew you weren’t totally useless. So, what was the final score? I got a ninety-one.” 

   “I got a one-hundred,” Izuku squeaked. 

  “ What? How the fuck- you didn’t miss any of the one-thousand fucking questions? Not even the math? You fucking suck at math!” 

    “I do not suck! And I’ve been studying a lot recently, okay? I… I don’t sleep well most nights.” He didn’t want to admit to Kacchan that he didn’t sleep well because he was constantly either having nightmares, or was kept up by his mother because of his super-hearing. He’d learned to run on little-to-no sleep, and while it may not have been healthy, it was doable. 

   (And honestly, his nightmares weren’t really nightmares so much as… memories. He really wasn’t going to tell Kacchan about those.)

   “ Yeah, I’ve noticed,” Katsuki said dryly. “ You’ve been looking like a fucking panda recently. Go the fuck to sleep instead of studying so hard now, alright? If those dark circles aren’t gone by Monday then I’m kicking your godamn ass, do you hear me?”

  “Kacchan, are you worried about me?” Izuku cooed. 

  “ Fuck off and die!” Katsuki hissed. Izuku opened his mouth to joke about Katsuki being a tsundere, when suddenly, his front door’s handle began to rattle. He practically jumped out of his skin, gasping into the phone receiver while he whipped around to face the door. He could ‘see’ it from the kitchen, and was able to register two heartbeats outside; one was the familiar form of his mother, slumped over the arm of a large, intimidating man. The man was trying to fit a key inside of the door, trying first the deadbolt and then the smaller lock on the actual knob. 

  “ Deku? What’s wrong? What happened?” Katsuki demanded. Izuku swallowed hard, his voice trembling as he scrambled off of the kitchen floor and to his feet. 

   “U-um- I have to g-go Kacchan, I’ll call you l-later if I can.” 

  “ Wait, Dek-” Izuku hung up on him and stepped out into the front area the same moment the door swung open. The outline of the man carrying his mother came into the house, not noticing him as he led the woman to the couch near the door, dropping her unceremoniously down without a care for her comfort. Izuku cleared his throat, announcing himself to the man. He was at least six and a half feet tall, if not more, with a physique that rivaled Endeavor’s. The sight of him had Izuku’s heart racing uncomfortably in his chest, something like dread filling his stomach. 

   The man turned to face Izuku, mirth in his voice as he crossed his arms. “Well, well, well. The whore has a son, huh?” Izuku watched the man’s head tip in a way that suggested he was dragging his eyes over every inch of Izuku’s body. The goosebumps that shivered over the smaller male only confirmed his theory. Vaguely, Midoriya could feel his phone buzzing in his pocket- probably Kacchan trying to call him back- but he ignored it in favor of keeping his focus on the stranger invading his home. 

  “Who are you?” he demanded, wishing on everything that he could be as intimidating as the man in front of him. While it was true that Izuku was the highest level of aikido master that there could be, facing a man who had an entire foot and at least two hundred pounds of muscle on him would be hard. Especially since he didn’t know what the man’s quirk was. 

   “I’m your mom’s pimp,” the guy sneered at Izuku. “I’m the one who puts food on your goddamn table, so maybe treat me with a little bit of respect, boy .” He stepped closer to Izuku, forcing the greenet to step away from him. He chuckled, amused at Izuku’s antics. “You’re a pretty one, aren’t you? Just like your mother.” 

   “Please leave,” Izuku said firmly. “I can take care of her from here.” 

  “Oh, I’m not here to take care of her,” the man chuckled. “My name is Takahama Nao, and your mother owes me some money. I don’t suppose you could help me with that?” 

   “I can’t,” Izuku said. “I’m not even in high school yet. I don’t have a job.” ‘ I’m blind,’ he considered saying, although something held him back from it. He didn’t want this man- Takahama- to know any of his weaknesses. Something told him that he would regret it. 

   “That’s alright,” Takahama purred. “Like I said, you’re pretty. I think you could repay me in… other ways.” His voice dripped with suggestion, and when he stepped even closer to Izuku, terror threaded through his veins. 

   ( ‘Shhh… just stay still and let mommy do this… I need you to make me feel again, Izu…)

   Before he even knew what he was doing, he was bolting out of the living room and into his own room. He wasted no time in slamming the door behind him, locking in only a split second before Takahama reached it and tried the knob. 

   “You think this flimsy piece of wood is gonna keep me out?” He yelled, banging his fists against the door. The vibration of the sound allowed him to ‘see’ through the wood, watching Takahama trying to break through the door. Izuku scrambled to go through his usual measures he used to keep his mother out- using all of his muscles to shove his heavy dresser in front of the door. He had no idea how long the piece of furniture would keep the man out, so he wasted no time in rushing around his room to grab some essentials. He grabbed his school bag and his uniform, shoving his phone charger into his backpack before running to his window, where the fire escape to the apartment was located. Takahama was now trying to kick down the door, the dresser moving a few inches with every kick. 

   By the time the door burst open, Izuku was long gone. 

    (x)

   Katsuki couldn’t help but feel nervous. Deku hadn’t sounded right on the phone when he’d hung up on him, and then he wouldn’t answer his calls after that. The blond paced through his bedroom, running his hands through his messy blond spikes as he contemplated what he should do. He could go to Midoriya's apartment, but what if he only made the situation worse? Besides, Katsuki was pretty sure he knew what was going on; everyone in their section of town knew what Midoriya Inko did for a living. Katsuki remembered once, a few months ago, when Izuku had accidentally let it slip that sometimes his mother would come home high out of her mind. That’s probably all it was… right? 

   Just when Katsuki was deciding that he should go find Deku, his mother knocked on his bedroom door. “What, hag?” He yelled, already looking for his wallet to take with him. His mother opened the door with a scowl on her face, crossing her arms over her chest. 

   “Don’t call your mother a hag, you fucking brat!” Her expression melted into one of pure glee then. “You have a visitor, Katsuki. Be fucking nice to him, or I’ll rip your balls off and feed them to you.” She stepped out of the way and then suddenly, there Deku was. 

   His clothes were rumpled, like he’d gotten dressed in a hurry, or had fallen down or something. His face was deathly pale despite its usually tan pallor, causing his freckles to stand out comically against his face. His eyes were abnormally sightless, like for once he really was completely blind. Katsuki could remember a time before Izuku’s quirk had developed, when the boy’s eyes had been a bright emerald green. Now they were a dull green-grey, with an ever-so-slight grey cloud over his pupils. One definitely wouldn’t know he was blind at first glance, but would probably guess it soon enough from the way he was always just slightly off with his eye contact. His lips were red and shiny, like he’d been biting them, and his eyes were red-rimmed like he’d been crying. 

   To his mom, who hadn’t seen Deku in person much lately, he probably looked like a normal kid. But Katsuki knew better than that. 

   “Be good,” Mitsuki sing-songed, closing the door behind her after Deku stepped inside. 

  “What’s wrong?” Katsuki asked, moving to grip Deku by his biceps. The boy tried to crack a fake-ass smile, shaking his head slightly. Katsuki could feel him trembling beneath his fingertips. 

  “Nothing, I just… I was wondering if I could stay the night?” 

  Katsuki narrowed his eyes. He was man enough these days to admit to himself that Deku was probably his best friend, and he would be damned if he let his best friend suffer through whatever was going on alone. “I’ll let you stay over if you tell me what happened.” 

   Izuku looked like he wanted to protest, but seemed to lose his nerve, because he slumped over within a few moments. “My mom… she came home with a guy towards the end of our call. She was passed out… I think she was high. The guy just rubbed me the wrong way and I didn’t want to be there, okay?” 

  “She just told some rando guy where she lived, knowing you’d be home?” Katsuki asked incredulously. 

   “It wasn’t the first time,” Deku mumbled, his hands reaching up to clutch at the straps of his backpack that he was still wearing. “But this guy was apparently her pimp. He just… he was kind of scary and I didn’t want to stay there anymore.” He looked up at Katsuki with big, pleading eyes. “Is that enough? Will you let me stay?” 

  Bakugou had to resist the urge to yank Deku into the tightest hug known to man. ‘ When was the last time this kid has been hugged, I wonder?’ He resisted the urge, clearing his throat and nodding. “Yes, you can stay. Did you bring pajamas?” 

   “No…” Izuku hung his head. “Just my uniform for tomorrow.” 

  “That’s fine, you can borrow some of mine,” Katsuki waved the kid off. “Do you wanna take a shower before bed?” 

   “Kacchan… it’s eight thirty,” Deku finally smiled for the first time since he’d gotten there, which may or may not have been what Katsuki was going for ( What? You can’t prove shit).  

  “My house, my rules, you fucking loser,” Katsuki snapped. He marched over to his dresser drawers, yanking open the bottom drawer where he kept some of his old clothes that fit him kind of tightly. He pulled out a stretched out black t-shirt and an old pair of grey sweatpants, tossing them at Deku’s head. Deku squeaked and tried to catch them, although the shirt just covered his head. He pulled it off and scowled at Katsuki, who only grinned in response even though Izuku couldn’t see it. 

   “Don’t you smirk at me, Kacchan,” Izuku said. “I don’t need to see to know you’re doing it. I’ll tell auntie you’re bullying me!”
  Katsuki’s smile dropped. “You wouldn’t dare.” 

  “Try me,” Izuku said. The two had a staring contest until Bakugou finally relented. 

  “Go shower shithead. We’re going to sleep when you get back whether you like it or not.” 

  Izuku smiled at him again, shaking his head. “Whatever you say, Kacchan.” He left the room, padding across the hall to the bathroom, gently shutting the door behind him. Soon enough, Katsuki heard the shower turn on, so he turned back around and started making his bed. He figured it was big enough for the two of them to share, since Katsuki tended to starfish out when he slept and preferred more space to do so. He wasn’t even alone for five minutes before his mother poked her head in the room with a smirk on her face. 

   “Sooooo,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows. “Izukkun is sleeping over, huh?” 

  “Shut the fuck up!” Katsuki snarled, his hands sparking even as his face burned. “God, you’re so fucking weird!” 

  “I can ask your father to bring you some condoms~” she said. 

  “Get out of my room or I swear I’ll blow up this seasons design plans!” Katsuki yelled. 

   “Do that and your ass is out on the street,” Mitsuki snarked. “Don’t think I won’t adopt Izuku instead of you, brat!” 

   “You can’t. Dad would cry,” Katsuki said smugly. 

  Mitsuki narrowed her eyes at him. “...Touche. Watch your fucking back, brat.” Even with the sneered words, the older woman came into the room and buried a hand in Katsuki’s hair, leaning forward to press a loving kiss to his forehead. Katsuki let his eyes flutter closed at the contact, breathing in the scent of burned caramel that his mother gave off. The glycerin of his quirk was a lot stronger than his, since his own quirk had a small concentration of nitrogen throughout his entire body, even if his hands were the only parts of him with high enough nitrogen levels to combust. He would probably never admit it to her, but Mitsuki was a great mother. She allowed him to take his anger out on her, but still hugged and kissed him anyway. For the second time that night, Katsuki couldn’t help but wonder when the last time Izuku got motherly affection was. 

   “Is he doing okay?” Mitsuki murmured into his hair. Katsuki stuffed his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants before he did something embarrassing, like hug her back. 

   “No,” Katsuki said honestly, “but I’ll protect him.” 

  His mother pulled away and smiled at him, a genuine one this time. She ruffled his hair and stepped away from him. “I never doubted you would, Katsuki. Make sure he’s comfortable before you just shove him into bed, would you?” 

  “Whatever,” the teenager muttered, already turning back to his bed to fluff up his pillows. As the door to his room began to close, he had the overwhelming urge to tell her something else. “Mom?” 

  “Yes?” He didn’t turn around, although he was sure she could tell he was blushing because of the pink tips of his ears. 

  “I… love you,” he grumbled. 

  She was silent for a minute before she spoke again. “I love you too, baby.” She closed the door and left him alone. Katsuki went back to getting ready for bed, his raging blush staying on his face for the rest of the night. 

Chapter Text

   The first day at U.A. highschool began like any other day. Izuku met Kacchan out in front of Izuku’s apartment complex, from which they went to the train station where they would take a twenty minute ride to the U.A. building. Katsuki had to guide Izuku through the turnstiles and swipe his card for him, since he couldn’t see where he needed to go, but the blond didn’t complain. Izuku would learn the way soon enough, like he always did. 

   As the two of them walked from the train station, Izuku got steadily more and more nervous. He was aware that he was babbling incessantly to Katsuki to try to take his mind off of his nerves, mostly because he could feel the volatile teenager bristling with every passing moment. Still, it was only when Izuku began to worry about his own restrictions that Katsuki put a stop to his antics. 

   “I just hope I don’t get bullied for being blind again,” Izuku muttered, tapping his hand against his thigh as he spoke. “I mean, who’s ever heard of a blind hero? I’ll probably get expelled on the first day. Oh gods, they’re going to realize they made a mistake letting me in-” 

   “Oi, Deku! Shut the fuck up for a second, would you?” Katsuki snapped, reaching over to grip Izuku’s wrist. They both halted in their tracks, ignoring the looks from the students passing around them, towards the front of U.A.’s gates merely twenty feet away. “They’re not going to expel you because you’re blind. They let you in, didn’t they? So all you have to do is not fucking suck and you’ll be fine. Don’t forget that you got second place behind me. You’re my best friend, and I’m not fucking friends with losers.” 

   Izuku couldn’t help the fluttering that rose in his chest. “You think I’m your best friend?” 

  He listened as Katsuki’s heart began to pound harder and faster, signifying that he was probably blushing up a storm. “Sh-shut the fuck up! Don’t flatter yourself, you damn nerd!” The guy pushed away from Izuku and began stomping onto campus, leaving Izuku behind. Izuku giggled, allowing himself to compose his feelings before he started after his friend. 

    Katsuki still waited for Izuku by the doors, since Izuku wouldn’t be able to see the signs that told them where they needed to go by himself. He trusted Kacchan to lead them the right way, opening his senses to study the mass of students around him. Picking up snippets of conversation, he mentally catalogued who seemed to be first years, second years and third years. As he and Katsuki started up a flight of stairs to one of the U.A. buildings’ many floors, they passed a group of second year students who were whispering about a certain teacher. 

   “I mean, I feel bad for them,” a girl confessed, her voice a low whisper. “They gave Aizawa-sensei a full class again this year! Remember when he expelled his entire class on the first day?” 

   “Yeah,” a boy told her, equally as nervous. “I’m so glad we got put in Class B. I doubt they’ll last a single day.” 

   “I don’t know, I’ll give them a week,” a new girl said, shrugging her shoulders. “They’re hero students, after all. They can’t all suck like the last class.” 

   Nerves began to bustle inside of Izuku’s chest, causing his breathing to quicken. He and Katsuki fell out of range of the group’s conversation, too many voices in between him and them now. Up ahead, Izuku could see a massive doorway with a sign over it, the voices and heartbeats of about fifteen people inside of the walls. Somehow without being able to see the sign, Izuku knew that this was the doorway for their class; Class 1-A, first year hero course. 

   Sure enough, Katsuki stopped in front of the door and put his hand on the handle, ready to slide it open. He looked at Izuku first, checking out his mental state. “You ready, nerd? Not gonna have a fuckin’ panic attack or anything?” 

   “I’m good,” Izuku squeaked unconvincingly. Katsuki snorted, his fingers twitching on the handle. 

   “Yeah, you sound fine,” he snickered, but still slid the door open with a ‘bang!’ A few people turned their heads to look at them, but their interest was lost pretty quickly when they went back to their conversations. Izuku turned his head to look around even though he didn’t really need to (force of habit), taking catalogue of his new classmates. Most everyone was speaking to someone, except three people towards the back of the class; one of them looked normal without mutations, in the second row from the far side of the room, in the last seat. He had his arms crossed and was looking out the window with what appeared to be disinterest, like he didn’t want to be there. The two others both had odd-shaped heads, one of them with a long, pointed nose and spikes for hair? The other with some sort of rock formation-like head. Oh well, who was he to judge. 

   “C’mon Deku, seating chart put us next to each other,” Katsuki said, grabbing Izuku’s wrist to lead him over to the farthest row from the door, closest to the wall of windows. Katsuki pushed Izuku down onto the third seat from the front, Katsuki sitting directly in front of him. In front of Katsuki was a girl whose outline was oddly… wrong. It wasn’t as intense as the others in the room, but it was still there. Almost like it was muted? Whatever, he supposed it didn’t matter. 

   Suddenly, the door to the classroom slid open, and a familiar outline stepped inside. It was the rude boy from the entrance exam, the one who kept doubting Izuku because of his blindness. Izuku could tell the moment the boy remembered him, because his posture stiffened in surprise. 

   “It’s you both, from the entrance exam!” His voice boomed, practically echoing through the room. The chatter fell silent, all bodies turning to Bakugou and Izuku’s area of the room. The boy came towards them, one of his hands chopping violently in the air. “You, there! You shouldn’t put your feet up on the desk! It is disrespectful to the pro-hero alumni who occupied the desks before you!” 

   Katsuki blinked at the guy, then turned around to Izuku. “Is he fucking serious?” 

  The boy sputtered, seemingly outraged. “I- you- there is no need to use such coarse language! What is your name?” 

   “Bakugou Katsuki,” Kacchan said dryly. “Fuck you.” 

  “Kacchan!” Izuku hissed, blushing a bit at the boy’s antics. He could practically feel the amusement radiating from the blond. He enjoyed pissing people like the entrance exam boy off, especially if it embarrassed Izuku. 

   “And you! What is your name?” 

  “His name is Deku, and you can do us a favor and leave us the fuck alone, Glasses,” Katsuki said. 

  “My name is Iida Tenya! I am from Somei Private Academy,” he informed Katsuki.

  “Now you’ve done it,” Izuku sighed, putting his forehead down on the desk. He would have closed his eyes if it would have done anything. 

   “What?” The boy, with weird shaped elbows, whispered from directly to Izuku’s right. 

  “Hah? So you think because you went to some fancy school you’re better than us?” Katsuki brought his feet down from the desk and screeched his chair back, getting in Iida’s face. “Think again, motherfucker. I’m going to be the top hero at this place, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.” 

    Before Iida could say anything back, the classroom door opened and revealed yet another familiar outline. It was the nice girl from the exam, the one Izuku had saved. Izuku perked up, turning to look at her happily. 

  “It’s you, with the strange eyes from the entrance exam!” The girl waved happily, bounding over to him like an excited puppy. Izuku stood up to nod at her, beaming in happiness. “I’m so glad you made it in! Midoriya-kun, right?” 

   “Yes, Uraraka-san?” He questioned. She wiggled with happiness. 

   “You remember!” 

  “Of course, you helped save me,” Izuku gushed. 

  “Oh no, you saved me, ” Uraraka gushed right back. “I would have been crushed if it weren’t for you!” 

   “Oh, but all of that rubble totally would have gotten us if it weren’t for you!” 

  “Yes, but-”

  “Oh my gods , shut the fuck up,” Katsuki groaned. “We get it, you’re fucking in love with each other.”

   Deku blushed, and from the quickening of Uraraka’s pulse, she did too. ‘ What? Why would Kacchan say something like that? Doesn’t he know that the only one I feel about that way is-’ 

   ‘Wait. What. The. Fuck.’  

  Izuku was sure that his sudden existential crisis is showing on his face, but luckily he’s saved when some sort of… slug-like creature begins rolling down the hallway like a pencil rolling down a sloped surface. Izuku turns towards the door, hearing the creature muttering to himself about “annoying teenagers” and “another trouble class.” 

   “Deku? What’s wrong?” Katsuki demanded, reaching over to grip Izuku’s shoulder. Izuku continued to stare at the closed classroom door, wrinkling his nose a bit.

   “There’s a… slug?” He said, cocking his head. 

  “A slug?” Uraraka sounded confused, and Izuku couldn’t blame her. He was confused as fuck by it too. 

   Some sort of scarf thing came out of the slug and wrapped around the door handle. Izuku yelped, flinching backwards half a second before the door slid open. The others around him flinched at the noise, everyone turning to the door. The slug creature began to speak , the scarf thing retracting into his body. 

   “If you’re here to socialize, you might as well leave now,” the creature said. “I’m Aizawa Shouta, your homeroom teacher.” 

   ‘ I feel bad for them. They have Aizawa-sensei a full class again this year! Remember when he expelled his entire class on the first day?’  

   Izuku paled considerably. This slug creature had expelled the entirety of last year’s Class 1-A? 

   “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Katsuki hissed in Izuku’s ear, always one for knowing when something was wrong. Seriously, it was impossible to pull one over on the guy. Then again, it worked both ways. Izuku always knew when something was up with Kacchan, too. 

   “There are bags with gym uniforms tailored to your sizes underneath your assigned seats,” Aizawa continued, reaching into his… body?... to pull out one of these articles. “You have fifteen minutes to put them on and meet me at Ground Gamma or you’re all expelled.”

   “Expelled?” A short boy that sat directly behind Izuku squealed. “Does he mean that?”  

  “He expelled his entire class on the first day last year,” Izuku told the class, reaching underneath his desk to grab the small bag that apparently held his gym uniform. “So yes, I think he means it.” 

   Everyone was silent for a moment, considering Izuku’s words. Then there was a mad rush fro everyone to grab their clothes and run to the locker rooms. 

   Izuku got his clothes on in seven minutes, with a little help from Kacchan so that they weren’t inside out. A few other boys finished along with them, following Katsuki’s lead as he went to find a campus map that hung on the walls in every corridor of the school. Soon enough, he’d led the rest of the stragglers out to Ground Gamma, where a man was already standing waiting for them. 

   “Where’s Aizawa-sensei?” Izuku asked, narrowing his eyes at the newcomer’s outline. 

  “What are you talking about? He’s right there!” Uraraka said, popping up at his side, gesturing at the man. Izuku blinked, reaching up to rub his eyes as if they had anything to do with his sight. No, the man wasn’t a slug anymore. He was standing up on two feet. His quirk…? 

   “Guess Deku didn’t recognize him without the sleeping bag ,” Katsuki said with emphasis. 

  ‘ Ah, a sleeping bag! That makes more sense,’ Izuku thought to himself. ‘ Although, why was he inching through the halls in a sleeping back instead of just walking…? Surely walking would have actually expended less energy.’  

   “You’re muttering again, you fucking freak,” Kacchan snarked, knocking shoulders with Izuku. On his other side, Uraraka gasped, sounding offended. Izuku quickly laughed, trying to wordlessly let her know that he didn’t care about Kacchan’s language. It was how Kacchan showed his affection, after all. 

  Well. And his annoyance. And his hatred, his dislike, his general contentedness- yeah, he was a surprisingly complicated guy. 

   “Alright, now that you’re all here,” the teacher said, getting everyone’s attention again. “As you can see, we are currently in an industrial district zone, called Ground Gamma. We will use this area to test all of your quirks today, so I hope you’re all prepared. You’re in a hero school, after all.” 

  “We get to use our quirks?” A girl a few feet away from Izuku said excitedly. She had odd protrusions that poked out of the top of her head, like little horns from fluffy hair. 

  “That’s so cool!” A massive boy said from next to her. 

  “This is gonna be so fun!” The girl with the strange outline cheered, pumping her fist. 

  “Fun, huh?” Aizawa said, practically radiating a scowl. “Do you think rescuing dying civilians is going to be ‘fun’? You think that shouldering the lives and responsibilities of hundreds of people at once will be fun?” He shook his head. “Fine. Whoever gets last place in our activity will be automatically expelled.” 

   “What?!” The collective class voice gasped, sounding outraged. 

  “Excellent,” Katsuki smirked, cracking his knuckles.

  “He can’t do that!” a boy with a tail in the back of the crowd cried. 

  “Yes he can, didn’t you hear that kid earlier? He expelled an entire class last year,” a girl with a big ponytail said. 

   “I did,” Aizawa said, cutting into their panic. “And don’t think I won’t do it to you. I don’t waste time with those who show no potential. Do your best and you won’t have to worry about it.” 

   Izuku narrowed his eyes. His teacher’s heartbeat didn’t necessarily beat like he was telling a lie , but it definitely showed more stress than if he’d been telling the complete truth. Perhaps he was speaking in half-truths? But what would that mean? Was someone getting expelled or not? 

   “The activity we will be doing today will be conducted in four groups of five,” Aizawa declared. “In these groups of five, there will be one person who stays behind at the entrance. The other four people are then given five minutes to get as deep into the grounds as possible, before they will then be forced to hide from their seeker. You can indeed run and fight your seeker if they find you, but if they wrap you in capture tape, then you are automatically out.” 

   “Glorified hide and go seek?” A boy with spiky hair said. 

  “Essentially,” the teacher answered. 

   “Mother fucker ,” Katsuki hissed. Izuku couldn’t help but grin at the boy’s side, knowing exactly why he had sneered that expletive. It was because Izuku had a really, really big advantage in this sort of test. As in, there was no possible way he could lose. 

   “Have something to say, Bakugou?” Aizawa asked, apparently having already memorized all of their names. 

   “Just that I hope to the gods these teams are randomized,” he told Aizawa, crossing his fingers. “And that the seekers are randomized too.” 

  “They are not,” Aizawa said with a grin. “It appears that Bakugou already knows who one of the seekers is going to be.” 

   “Yes!” Izuku pumped his fist, reaching out to punch Kacchan’s upper arm. “I can’t wait to annihilate you!” 

   “Is this what I’m like?” Katsuki asked, wrinkling his nose. “I don’t like it. Change back.” 

  “I’m confused,” Uraraka said timidly. “Why are you so excited? It is because of your quirk?” 

   “Yes, it is,” Izuku said, looking to Aizawa for permission to speak. When the older man didn’t say anything, he figured it was alright to continue. “My quirk is called ‘ Sensory Overload.’ Basically, four of my five senses are enhanced so much that it’s kind of annoying. For instance, I can hear all of your heartbeats, I can smell each individual bath product you all are using- by the way, there’s way too much Axe- and so on and so forth.” 

   “Only four of the five senses?” Someone in the back asked. They appeared to have six arms. “Which sense isn’t enhanced?” 

   Izuku turned and grinned at the guy. “Now, why would I tell you that?” 

   “Alright, that’s enough,” Aizawa sighed, lifting his wrist to most likely check his watch. “Team one will consist of Midoriya Izuku, the seeker, Bakugou Katsuki, Jirou Kyouka, Kaminari Denki, and Yaoyorozu Momo. Everyone else, follow me to the observation deck where we will watch the five of these heathens compete. When you hear the timer, the four of you who are hiders will need to run into the area and hide. When the timer sounds again, Midoriya, you will be allowed to enter the arena. Good luck to you all.” 

   “Wait! How are points being based?” Izuku asked. Aizawa turned back.

  “For the seekers, they are based on how you use your quirk to find the hiders, and how many hiders you are able to find within the fifteen minutes period you’re allotted. For the hiders, they will be judged based on how well they use their quirk to hide, and how long they are able to stay out of reach of the seekers.” The man turned back, waving all the rest of the kids with him towards a tower-like area directly next to the entrance to the industrial area. Izuku smirked to himself, turning back to the rest of his established team. He didn’t need to see to know that Kacchan was glaring at him, his fingers tapping a rhythm against his crossed arms. One of the girls who stayed with them, who had strange protrusions coming from her ears on her outline, cleared her throat to speak. 

   “So angry guy,” she spoke. “What do we do to counteract this guy?”

  Bakugou grumbled at the nickname, but still answered. “We can’t. We just need to stay as far away from him as possible.”

   “Should we really be discussing this right in front of him?” The ponytailed girl asked nervously. 

  “Doesn’t matter how far we get, he’ll hear us anyway,” Bakugou answered. “His range is fucking insane, just like him.” 

   “That’s comforting,” the only other boy in their group muttered. “At least we know his hearing is one of his advanced senses.” 

   “You gonna tattle on me, Kacchan?” Izuku asked his blond friend. He didn’t clarify what he was talking about, but he was sure his friend had gotten the message; ‘are you going to tell them I’m blind?’  

   “...Let’s let them figure it out,” Katsuki answered Izuku. Izuku smiled at him at the same time a loud alarm blared, quickly followed by Aizawa-sensei’s voice. 

   “Hiders, you have five minutes,” the man spoke. “Enter the arena now.”

  “Good luck!” Izuku chirped to his classmates, waving them off. Katsuki flipped him off, but still used his explosive quirk to propel himself up and over the obstacles of the course. The other hiders screamed, the one with the ear protrusions crunching in on herself with hands over her ears. ‘ Interesting. Another hearing quirk?’ They didn’t lag long, running into the field and spreading out in different directions. They were making so much noise, especially with Kacchan’s explosions, that they were practically mapping out the entire area in Izuku’s mind with his echolocation. Kacchan probably knew he was doing so, which could only mean one thing; he was planning on fighting Izuku as soon as the greenet found him. 

   Well, that was fine. He’d just have to go for the others first. 

   Five minutes later, another alarm blared. “Midoriya, your turn,” the teacher called, sounding mildly interested in what Izuku was going to do. He, Iida and Katsuki were the only ones in the class who knew that he was blind. Why Iida hadn’t exposed him yet, Izuku wasn’t sure, but he also wasn’t complaining. He wanted to see how long it would take the others to realize. 

    He launched himself into the industrial zone, honing in on the closest moving shape; the boy. He appeared to be crouched beneath a wall of some sort, peering through a crack within the building out onto the main street. Izuku shook his head, already targeting him as easy prey. He purposefully passed in front of the crack, making sure the guy saw him leaving. He then quietly circled back around, entering the building from one of the back doors. Creeping into the first floor room the boy was hiding in, he made sure to make his steps and breath silent. Perks of a sensory quirk, he knew how to avoid his own quirk. 

   He was on the guy before he even knew he was being stalked, leaping forwards to tackle him to the ground. The guy screamed, freezing up in shock, giving Izuku the perfect opportunity to pull out one of his four rolls of capture tape to wrap around the guy. His skin prickled dangerously the moment he was done with the tape. Instinctively, he got off of the boy and jumped up onto one of the nearby empty crates, just barely avoiding the stream of electricity the boy let off into the ground. 

   “Kaminari Denki has been captured,” Aizawa said over the loudspeaker. “Please return to the viewing area, Kaminari.” 

   “Aw, man,” the boy, Kaminari, whined. Izuku got down from his crate and smiled at the boy. 

  “Nice quirk,” he said honestly. “Hope you can get yourself out of there, because I sense two more nearby. See you later!” 

   Without another word, Izuku left the room, tiptoeing back out of the building and into the back alleyway. He hadn’t been lying about sensing the other two; the two girls, who must have been Yaoyorozu Momo and Jirou Kyouka. The girl with the ear protrusions (hearing quirk?) was leading the other girl around, the protrusions stretching and curling around like sentient vines. She appeared to be plugging them in, to the ground and the the walls they passed, probably listening for Izuku’s heartbeat. Well then, he would just have to be quick about this. 

   Quick he was. He pulled the same move with them that he had with the boy, sneaking up behind them. He realized pretty quickly that the taller of the two girls was wearing big shoes that made her steps virtually silent, and had given some sort of large coat to the other girl that made her smell like… nothing. ‘ Clever,’ he thought, stalking them in their steps closer and closer. ‘ So the taller girl has some sort of supplying quirk, if she got those from nothing… she’s the most dangerous. I need to separate them to have a chance.’

   Thinking quickly, he reached down and palmed a stone, tossing it into the air a few times to gauge its weight. Deciding it was good enough, he pulled his arm back and chucked the stone as hard as he could. It clanged a few alleyways down, causing the girl with the hearing quirk to jolt, her ear protrusions twitching and arcing towards the noise. 

   “I think I heard him,” she whispered to the taller girl behind her. “A few alleyways down. Are we fighting or running, Yaomomo?” 

   ‘ Cute nickname,’ Izuku thought to himself, stepping silently out from his hiding space. With both girls’ backs to him, it was almost comically easy to send a well-placed karate chop to the nerve in the taller girl’s neck, causing her knees to crumple automatically as she lost consciousness. Izuku was back in his hiding place just behind the wall before the girl even fell, forcing the hearing girl to whirl around with a gasp. 

   “Yaomomo?” She said, falling to her own knees at her side. “Oh gods, what happened?” She reached to shake her friend’s unconscious body, fingers fluttering to take her place. She was so distracted that she didn’t even notice Izuku creeping up behind her, sending the same chop to the same pressure point as her friend. She crumpled like paper, landing on top of Yaoyorozu’s body. Izuku chuckled, shrugging to himself while pulling out two rolls of capture tape. Soon enough they were both wrapped up, and would probably be dead to the world for the next ten minutes or so. Mentally cataloguing the time, Izuku estimated that there were probably about seven minutes left of his allotted fifteen minutes. That wasn’t too bad, especially considering Kacchan was already bounding across the cityscape towards Izuku’s location- probably looking for a fight. 

   “Yaoyorozu Momo and Jirou Kyouka have been captured,” Aizawa said grimly over the loudspeaker. “Next time Midoriya, please make sure they’re conscious and can leave the field themselves.” 

   “ Fucking shitty ass nerd,” Izuku heard Katsuki cursing. He was probably a few hundred yards away now, swinging off of protruding metal pipes and jumping from rooftop to rooftop. He wasn’t bothering to quiet himself anymore, which let Izuku know that he really was anticipating a fight. Izuku and Katsuki had sparred many times in preparation for the U.A., which let them both know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. In a hand-to-hand battle, Izuku could kick Katsuki’s ass easily. But if they were using quirks, then Katsuki had the obvious advantage. There was no way the blond would fight the greenet quirkless when they had been given explicit permission, so the only other option Izuku had was to somehow try to outsmart Kacchan. He knew Kacchan better than anyone in the world, and he knew how the guy thought. He would be looking for a quick win; since Izuku had proved himself smart enough to knock out the other three competitors in eight minutes flat, then he would want to prove himself stronger simply from beating Izuku swiftly. 

   ‘ I can work with that,’ Izuku thought to himself, jumping out of the alleyway with the bodies and into the next one. If he could just lure Kacchan into a different building, get him into an enclosed space where his quirk would be limited… 

   There were five minutes left on the clock by the time Kacchan entered the building, calling out for Izuku from where he was on the first floor. “I know you’re in here, Deku!” He yelled, beginning to look for a staircase. “Why don’t you come on out and get your last points, huh?” 

   “Because I’m not you, and I won’t fall for things like that because of my boosted pride!”Izuku called back from the third floor, standing at the very end of the hallway. He hoped that his voice carried far enough for Kacchan to hear him, but given by the round of explosions and yelling from the first floor, he’d definitely heard Izuku. Moments later, the floor thirty feet in front of Izuku burst open, Kacchan rocketing right through. He whirled around, seeing Izuku standing right by the window at the end of their hallway. 

   “I got you now, Deku,” Katsuki smirked, side-stepping the hole he created and marching forward. Izuku smirked right back at him, putting his hands up in a fighting position. 

   “We both know I could kick your ass, Kacchan,” he taunted.  

   “I’m not falling for that Deku. Despite what you might think, my pride doesn’t stretch that far.” Izuku couldn’t see the broad smile on Katsuki’s face, but then again, he didn’t need to to know that it was there. “I can kick your fucking ass using my quirk, and that’s what I’m going to do!” He raised up one of his arms, the large, melon-shaped things on his forearms aimed right at Izuku. The boy’s nose twitched, his eyes widening as he caught the overwhelmingly strong smell of nitroglycerin from within the gauntlet. Katsuki let out a vicious laugh. “Ah, you smelled it, didn’t you? That’s right, these grenades stockpile my quirk when I’m not using it. I’ve been using a lot of sweat running around this city, Deku…”    

   ‘ That’s why he was running around!’ Izuku thought to himself, panic beginning to spike. He’d expected explosions to be able to go through with his plan, but something like this was not in the works. ‘ No, no! Don’t panic. Stay with the plan, it will still work.’  

   “Bakugou!” Aizawa’s voice came over the loudspeaker angrily. “Do not use that gauntlet on Midoriya, you could kill him!” 

   “It won’t kill him if he dodges!” Katsuki yelled back, his other hand raising to the pin on the side of the gauntlet. Izuku dove forward just as the explosion began, bracing a hand on the underside of the gauntlet to aim it at the floors of the building above them. Katsuki was so surprised at Izuku diving towards him rather than away that he only stood there, watching as his massive explosion disintegrated the stone of the building all the way up and through the roof. 

    Izuku’s ears were ringing from the sheer volume of the blast, but he still used Katsuki’s distraction against him, wielding his last roll of capture tape and wrapping it around his wrist. 

    “Bakugou Katsuki has been captured,” Aizawa’s voice said over the loudspeaker. “Midoriya Izuku wins the exercise.” 

   Kacchan whipped his head to face Izuku, eyes wide with shock. As Izuku watched, the blond began gesticulating wildly, like he usually did when he was yelling. Yet all Izuku could hear was the intense ringing in his ears. Blackness began to seep over what little vision Izuku had left, his body beginning to feel like it was floating. Vaguely, he registered that his senses were beginning some sort of emergency shutdown, but he had already passed out cold before he could try to warn Kacchan. 

    (x)

    He’d been bleeding from his ears.

   Katsuki sat inside the viewing room with the rest of the extras, numb to the world as he thought about Deku and the look on his face right before he’d passed out. His ears had both been bleeding , and his already slightly off eyes had been unfocused. Katsuki had never been more afraid in his life than when the smaller boy’s knees had crumpled and he’d collapsed like a stone right in front of him. Luckily, he’d caught the little shit before he could do something stupid like give himself a concussion, but unluckily, his new teacher was a fucking bastard and didn’t allow Katsuki to wait at Deku’s bedside so he could personally smack him into next week when he woke up. Was he a fucking idiot , jumping straight at that massive explosion? 

    “Pst, yo!” someone said, waving a hand in front of Katsuki’s face. Bakugou blinked, turning to scowl at the offender. Currently, the five that were in their exercise, was that glasses bitch from the entrance exam, the boy with a tail, that bird looking motherfucker, the silent guy with a rock head, and the fucking toddler with purple balls for hair. The person who had a fucking death wish was the guy with spiky red hair. Behind him, most of the class was watching Katsuki like they were waiting for something. 

   “What, Shitty Hair?” he demanded, smacking the boy’s hand away. He blinked at Bakugou with wide eyes. 

   “Shitty Hair?” He questioned. “My name is Kirishima Eijirou, dude! You’re Bakugou Katsuki, right?”

   “What of it?” Katsuki sneered. 

   “Your fight was really cool!” Someone interrupted. Both boys looked to face some bitch with black eyes and pink skin, who was grinning at Katsuki like he was the best thing since sliced bread. “I mean, you totally got your ass kicked, but that explosion was massive !”
    “Oi, shut the fuck up! You try beating Deku in a fight, why don’t you?” Katsuki hissed. 

   “He’s really that good, then?” The ponytailed bitch who’d been in their group asked quietly, reaching around her neck to twist her ponytail nervously. Bakugou could practically taste the insecurity on her. When she’d offered to make him silencing boots and camouflage capes with her quirk right off the bat, Katsuki had learned that she had a massively powerful quirk; it could probably even rival his own. She seemed smart, too, and yet she was feeling insecure about Deku beating her? 

   Well, she probably should be. Lord knew Deku made Katsuki feel insecure every single day. 

  “Yeah, he’s that good,” Katsuki told them all. “He scored a one hundred percent on the entrance exam.” 

   The dead silence that fell around them was almost comical, especially when that electrified boy began sputtering. “He scored one thousand questions correctly? How the hell?” 

   “Don’t fucking ask me, he came like that,” Katsuki snapped. “Now, if we’re all done talking about my best friend, don’t fucking talk to me anymore.” 

   “Is he just your friend?” Floaty-bitch-that-was-obsessed-with-Deku asked, raising an eyebrow suggestively. Bakugou took a moment to look her over, contemplating the best way to dispose of her body without being caught. 

   “And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?” He asked. 

  “Just that you both have cute nicknames for each other, and even though you seem really grumpy and unapproachable, you had no problem talking him up to us like a proud boyfriend,” the earjack bitch said, twirling a jack around her finger. Katsuki was aware that a blush began raging on his face, but he pushed through it like he usually did, thankful that none of these questions had come out while Deku was in the room. The last thing Katsuki needed was Deku picking up on the blond’s… feelings for him. It was probably Katsuki’s biggest secret. 

   The first time he realized he was gay, he was six years old. He’d been walking through town with his mother, holding her hand and grumbling while she weaved in and out of shops, when they passed a couple on the street. It was two men, giggling and nuzzling each other lovingly the way his own parents would sometimes. He remembered his jaw dropping at the sight of them, his heart picking up speed as he stared. A flash of emerald green curls and bright smiles waved over his mind, but it was gone as quickly as it had come. His mother had turned to tell him something, pausing in her tracks while she looked at whatever her son was staring at. 

  “ Ugh . That’s disgusting,” she muttered, yanking on Katsuki’s hand to force him to move along. “Can’t they keep that in private so the rest of us don’t have to see it?” 

   Katsuki was six years old when he found out that being gay was wrong, and he shouldn’t have feelings for other boys the way he did. Or rather, boys plural wasn’t the right word. It was just one boy; the boy he ignored, the boy he’d blinded . Deku was everything Katsuki wished he himself could be, and everything he never could be. Katsuki couldn’t help but kind of hate him for it. 

   “He’s not my boyfriend, you fucking freaks!” Katsuki snarled, a little louder than he’d meant to. Aizawa, sitting in a chair at the front of the control room, closest to the screens, turned in his chair to glare at his new class. 

   “All of you should be paying attention to your classmates,” he snapped at them, causing them all to face forwards quickly. Katsuki faced forward once more, pretending that his cheeks weren’t burning bright red as badly as he suspected. Sometimes, Deku would make some comment on how Katsuki’s heart rate would pick up, asking if he was nervous. The fucking idiot was so oblivious it wasn’t even funny anymore, although Bakugou couldn’t help but be glad for it. He had no idea what he would do if it ever got out that he was gay. Knowing his mother’s fiery personality, she would probably kick him out of the house. His father, as kind as he was, was too weak to ever stand up to Mitsuki and would probably let it happen. The thought calmed Katsuki’s blush, his stomach twisting in uncomfortable fear. 

   Whatever. As long as he kept his fucking feelings to himself, it wouldn’t matter. After all, Deku would never feel that way about him. 

Chapter Text

    Mitsuki Bakugou liked to think of herself as a good mother. She was understanding of Katsuki’s terrible attitude (after all, she had the same one), she let him rage and scream at her when he needed it so that he could be a normal, functioning human in society without blowing his top. She hugged and kissed him when he needed it, she even supported his little crush on Izuku! Izuku was such a kind young man, he balanced Katsuki out so well. Mitsuki could remember back in college when Inko had been her roommate, back while she was still dating Masaru. Masaru had been the one to introduce Hisashi to Inko, and soon enough, they got married. When the two of them got pregnant at the same time, it was like a dream come true. Their kids could be best friends, just like them! 

   And they were. At least, up until Hisashi left Inko and Izuku, thus beginning Inko’s descent into darkness. The woman had fallen into a deep depression, and by the time Mitsuki realized what exactly Inko was doing in order to keep food on the table for herself and her son, it was too late. The woman had shut her out. So Mitsuki did all she could do; she watched over Izuku from afar, forcing Katsuki to give her progress reports whenever he could. Mitsuki loved Izuku like he was her own son, and with the way Katsuki was practically obsessed with him, he might as well be. Lord knows that Inko was too far gone to be any sort of mother to him. If Mitsuki was a less loyal person, she may have even fought to get custody of the boy, as his godmother. 

   But she was loyal, and she didn’t want to destroy Inko like that. Besides, Izuku never complained of abuse, and he never showed up with bruises. That was a good sign… right? 

    This was all running through Mitsuki’s mind as she ran to do her errands before Katsuki got home from his first day at U.A.. Considering how close the two boys had been as of late, she could bet that Izuku was going to be with him until he was forced to go home. Every time the poor boy walked out her door, something deep inside of Mitsuki begged her to make him stay… 

    As Mitsuki passed the marketplace, she spotted a teenage boy with a teenage girl, nuzzling each other and giggling like school children. They were kissing and petting each other in barely legal places, causing her to wrinkle her nose. ‘ Gods, I wish they would just keep that shit at home… disgusting,’ she thought to herself. ‘ Thank goodness my son isn’t like that.’  

     (x)

    “You’re a fucking idiot,” Katsuki said for the umpteenth time as he led Izuku to his front door. Izuku scowled even harder than he had after the first time, crossing his arms over his chest like a pouting child. 

   “I get it already! It was a bad idea to jump towards your explosion!”
  “You blew out your fucking eardrums, Deku!” Kacchan yelled, throwing open the front door so hard that it banged against the wall inside. He didn’t seem to care, marching into the front of the house to toe his shoes off at the genkan. Izuku followed his lead, keeping quiet as Katsuki repeated his rampage for the third time since leaving U.A.’s gates. “You blew out your eardrums! You could have had permanent hearing damage! What would you have done if that made you blind and deaf, huh?! You wouldn’t be able to be a hero without two of your fucking five senses!” 

   “I thought you were the one who always insisted I’m not really blind,” Izuku mumbled, gently closing the front door after them. He turned around to follow Katsuki further into the house, only to run right into the blond’s broad chest. Katsuki’s sixteenth birthday had just passed, but even so, Izuku couldn’t help but think that the guy had a body that far surpassed a sixteen year old. Even if Izuku couldn’t see more than the general outline, what he could see was frankly ridiculous. He had thick biceps, broad shoulders, large pecs, a tiny waist that even his Auntie was jealous of, and long legs for days . The guy had modeled for his own parents’ high-end fashion company more than a few times for some extra cash, and it was easy to see why. 

   “Whoa,” Izuku said, trying to step away from his friend. His back hit the wall of the front hallway, making it futile, especially when Kacchan only stepped further into him to pin him against said wall. 

   “This isn’t a fucking joke,” he said, his voice low and dark. “If you’d lost your hearing, you wouldn’t be able to fucking ‘see’ anymore. You’re the one who said it was like echolocation or some shit. That’s two important senses that a person can’t live on their own without. Do you think I want to take care of you for the rest of your damn life?” 

   Izuku got ready to shoot insults back at his friend- seriously, he knew that he’d fucked up, couldn’t Kacchan just let it go already?- but then the volatile boy’s last sentence registered in his mind. Izuku couldn’t help but grin. “Aw Kacchan, you would take care of me?” He batted his lashes for good measure. Sure enough, Katsuki’s heart rate spiked in a way that usually meant he was blushing (if Auntie Mitsuki was to be believed). Katsuki pushed off of the wall and away from him, obviously flustered. 

   “Sh-shut the fuck up! That’s not what I meant!” He yelled. 

   “Oi, you fucking brat!” Mitsuki’s voice cried, her footfalls thumping down the stairs until she appeared in front of the two of them. She put her hands on her hips, her body language confrontational even though Izuku knew that wasn’t what she meant. “Stop yelling in my goddamn house, wouldn’t you?” 

   “Pot, kettle,” Katsuki sneered, but kept his voice low. No matter how much they argued, Kacchan still ultimately respected his mother. It was hard not to respect a woman like that. 

  “Hello Izukkun,” Auntie said sweetly, turning towards him with what Izuku could assume was a smile. “How was your first day at school?” She held out one arm for him to slip under, ruffling his hair good naturedly while she led them to the kitchen. 

   “Hey hag! You’re not even gonna ask your own goddamn son first?” Katsuki stomped after them with his hands in his pockets, although he didn’t sound genuinely upset. Izuku always got the strangest feeling that Katsuki was pleased whenever Mitsuki doted on him more than her own son. Sometimes Midoriya couldn’t help but wonder if the two of them knew more than they were letting on, but he usually shook those thoughts away. After all, if they knew what Inko was doing to him, they wouldn’t let it continue… right? 

   “Shut the fuck up Katsuki,” Mitsuki said. She pushed Izuku to sit down at the table, Katsuki following suite in the seat next to him. “Both of you stay still while I make you a snack.” 

   “Thanks auntie,” Izuku said cheerfully, shaking the sad thoughts away. “School was great! We did a quirk assessment test and I totally aced it!” 

   “Good for you!” Mitsuki said. “I hope you kicked my bratty son’s ass.” 

  “Hey!” 

  “I did,” Izuku smirked. 

  “You’re on thin fucking ice, Deku,” Katsuki growled, his hands beginning to spark threateningly. Izuku waved him off, turning his attention back to his auntie. 

   “He’s mad that I beat him,” he told the older woman as she dug through the fridge. 

   “No, I’m fucking pissed because he ran head-on into one of my explosions that nearly leveled the fucking building!” ‘ Oops. Probably shouldn’t have teased him.’  

   Mitsuki turned around, putting her hands on her hips again, although this time it was aimed at Midoriya. “Did you run into one of Katsuki’s explosions knowingly , young man?” 

   Izuku wilted like a dying flower, reaching up to play with one of his curls. “...Maybe.” 

   “He blew his fucking eardrums out,” Katsuki grumbled. 

   “Izuku!” Mitsuki said sharply. When she didn’t use any honorifics, Izuku knew he was in trouble. “You could have gotten seriously hurt! Why would you do that?” 

   “I just wanted to prove that I’m not weak just because I’m blind,” Izuku protested. He sat back in his seat, kicking his legs like a petulant toddler. “Neither of you would understand.” 

   He didn’t need vision to know that Kacchan and Mitsuki were exchanging looks. 

  “They don’t even know you’re blind yet, Deku,” Katsuki finally said. 

  “That one with the glasses does! Iida-kun!” Izuku frowned. “He’s already tried to get me to drop out twice.” 

   “Well that’s his fucking business, isn’t it?” Mitsuki declared. She set a plate of assorted fruits and crackers down in between the boys, letting it clatter menacingly. “Don’t you ever hurt yourself to prove that you’re worth something, Midoriya Izuku. You shouldn’t have to prove what everyone should already know.” 

   Just like that, Izuku’s heart was filled to the brim with love. He loved the Bakugou family with everything he had; so much so that it physically hurt him sometimes. It choked him up at times like these, causing unshed tears to shine in his eyes like he was still a baby who cried at everything. He reached out and stuffed an apple slice in his mouth, ducking his head to try and cover it up. Of course it didn’t work, since he was practically an open book, but when Kacchan buried his hand in Izuku’s fluffy hair, it was more consoling than harsh. 

  Yeah. This was where Izuku belonged. 

    (x)

   All of that happiness was ripped away from him later that night. His mother had been out of the house for most of the night, so Izuku thought he was safe. Ever since her pimp had basically kicked down his door to get in, it hadn’t been lockable anymore, and Izuku just didn’t have the energy to push his dresser in front of it every single night. Plus if he did it too much, then the downstairs neighbors would complain. 

   Perhaps that was his mistake. He should have known that the day was too good to be true to end without something ruining it. He woke up from his sleep just before midnight, not even having to open his eyes to ‘see’ the outline of his mother hovering just inside of his doorway. The stench of semen, sweat and alcohol roved off of her in waves, causing him to gag hard enough that bile rose into his mouth. He swallowed it back down, sitting up in his bed quickly. Inko was on him in a moment, pushing at his shoulders to lay him back down. 

   “Sh, sh, sh,” she hushed him, trying to keep her voice soothing. The smell coming off of her was so bad that Izuku had to breathe through his mouth, and even then, he could practically taste it all on his tongue. His quirk was seriously a curse sometimes. “It’s alright, Izuku… mommy’s here.” 

   “Mom, please don’t do this,” Izuku whimpered, reaching up to try and rip her hands off of him. Her demeanor seemed to change within an instant, the air around them becoming charged with malice. Even so, Inko’s voice was teary and sad when she spoke. 

   “Don’t you love me, Izuku?” She whispered, reaching to stroke a hand lovingly over his cheek. He began to feel tears drip onto his shirt, and he flinched with every one of them. She didn’t seem to care, continuing to speak to him. “Don’t you care that I do all of this for you? Don’t you care that your mother turned herself into a whore to take care of you ?” 

   “I-” Izuku swallowed thickly, his own eyes beginning to brim with terrified tears. “I’m s-sorry-” 

  “You should be,” Inko muttered. “You owe me, Izuku. Don’t you want me to feel loved every once in a while? Do you not love me anymore, is that it?” 

   “Of course I love you,” Izuku told her. Every time he said it, it felt more and more like a lie. 

  “Thank you baby,” she told him, sitting up so she could sling a leg over his lap, straddling him. Her hands reached underneath his sleep shirt, her sharp fingernails digging into his chest, dragging down his torso hard enough to make him flinch. Every touch was like singeing fire through his skin cells, his quirk only heightening his own disgust for himself. 

  ‘ Weak. You’re weak. You can’t even push her off,’ a voice inside of his head said even as his tears fell down his cheeks. His mother’s hands dipped below the waistband of his boxers, and he squeezed his eyes shut, praying for it to be over soon. ‘ You can never be a hero like this. Heroes are supposed to be pure and good, not filthy and weak .’  

   “Don’t…” Izuku croaked, reaching up to push his mother off of him. In the next moment, his wrists began to burn, her quirk working on his skin cells, ripping chunks of them off at once like some sort of friction burn. Izuku yelped, immediately putting his hands back flat on his bed on either side of his body. Inko hummed her approval, scooching backwards so that she sat on her son’s lap. 

   “Good boy,” she said, taking him out of his boxers. “Just stay still for mommy…” 

   And he did. This time, for some reason, he couldn’t take himself away to some other place. He couldn’t consider new moves in aikido to use against Chiki-san, he couldn’t think about complicated math problems. He didn’t want to think of U.A., terrified that thinking of it would somehow tarnish it during an act like this. For the same reason, he refused to think of Kacchan, or Kacchan’s family. Instead, he lived through every excruciating moment, up until the door closed behind his mother once more, leaving him alone with rumpled clothes covered in filth. 

    He didn’t sleep for the rest of the night. 

    (x)

   “You look like shit,” Katsuki told Deku when they met at the stop sign between Bakugou’s house and Midoriya’s apartment complex. It was the truth- Izuku had dark circles under his eyes that rivaled their hobo of a teacher’s, although his were puffy and red like he’d spent hours crying. His uniform was rumpled, like he’d only half-assed putting it on, or like he’d given up halfway through. Even his usually fluffy green curls were wilted, like he hadn’t bothered to run his fingers through them like normal. It wasn’t a good look for the boy. 

   “Thanks,” he said softly, ducking his head to try to walk ahead of Katsuki. Startled at the lack of a rebuttal, Katsuki quickened his pace to catch up to his friend.

   “Oi! What the fuck is wrong with you, huh?” He reached out to touch Deku’s shoulder, but the way the boy violently flinched away from his hand made him freeze. Deku had never flinched like that from Katsuki. From their middle school classmates? Yes. From strangers? Sure. From Katsuki ? Never. It sent a pang of hurt through Katsuki’s heart, although he knew he had no right to feel that way. 

   “Don’t worry about it,” Deku mumbled, not seeming to realize his behavior had just stopped Bakugou in his tracks. “I just didn’t sleep much last night.” 

   That kickstarted the older boy again, and he caught up to Deku’s quick steps once more. “Is it your mom? Did that… guy come over again?” 

   Izuku’s mouth twitched like he was contemplating scowling, but ultimately decided it took too much energy. “No. Just leave me alone about it, okay? I’m not feeling well.”

   Alright. Even Katsuki knew when it was time to back off, even if he really, really didn’t want to. “Alright Deku. Are you excited for class today? I heard that every other day we’ll have a hero training course with fucking All Might . Doesn’t that sound cool?” 

   “Yeah. Cool.” Deku couldn’t have sounded less enthused than if Katsuki had just declared they would be watching paint dry for the next few hours. 

  ‘ Something is definitely wrong,’ he thought to himself, deciding that staying silent for the rest of the walk would be best. The last thing he wanted was to say the wrong thing, or lose his temper, and force Deku to start ignoring him for the rest of the day. If it were anyone else, then he wouldn’t even bother to try and stay on their good side, but Deku wasn’t just anyone. He was… he was Katsuki’s Deku , okay? After everything, he deserved a little special treatment. 

   By the time they made it to U.A.’s gates, Deku seemed to not be closing in on himself much anymore. He was still quieter than usual, not mumbling to himself at all, but at least he didn’t look like he was on the verge of tears. The swelling around his eyes had gone down, although the dark circles hadn’t magically disappeared. If Katsuki was being honest with himself, they’d been there for a long, long time now. 

   “Hey, Deku-kun!” A familiar bubbly voice called just as they crossed the threshold into the school. Both boys turned, catching sight of Uraraka Ochako waving them down, running to catch up to them. She was a bit of a chubby girl, clearly a bit out of shape, so by the time she reached them she was panting heavily and sweating a bit. Katsuki wrinkled his nose, although it was admittedly more out of petty jealousy than true disgust. If he wasn’t gay as hell, he’d probably find Round Face cute, too. 

   “Ah, Uraraka-san?” Deku said, cocking his head. A small, forced smile made its way onto his face, but Round Face didn’t know him well enough yet to know that it wasn’t genuine. She simply beamed at him, not yet knowing that he was blind and thus couldn’t see her fucking smile. Katsuki was actually looking forward to the day that the extras all found out that Deku technically couldn’t see. “Um… Deku?” 

   “Yeah! That’s your name, right?” The girl rocked back on her heels, tapping her fingers against her chin. “It’s what this grouch has been calling you.” 

   “Don’t think I won’t punt you into the sun, you fucking chipmunk,” Katsuki spat. Round Face scowled at him. 

   “I will float you into the stratosphere, Baka- gou.” 

   “Hmph,” Katsuki said, raising an eyebrow. It had been a long time since anyone felt confident enough to stand up to him- anyone besides Deku, that is. Deku didn’t count, though. The bastard never had any sense of self-preservation. 

   Uraraka seemed to take Katsuki’s conceding as the compliment it was, sending him a genuine smile before beginning to walk up the steps with Deku in tow. Bakugou followed them, keeping to Deku’s other side with his head turned forward like he didn’t care what the two were talking about. (Yes, he was listening. What of it?) 

   “How was your morning? You look tired,” Uraraka told the boy, sounding concerned. Katsuki immediately wanted to face-palm. If there was one thing one should never do if they were concerned about Deku, it was ask him what was wrong. No, no. One should always skirt around the subject until he accidentally says what’s wrong all by himself, like he was the one who came up with the idea in the first place. Otherwise, he would just-

   “Nothing! I’m fine, maybe a little tired,” he laughed awkwardly. 

   -lie his way through it. Katsuki reached out and gently steered his friend in the right direction, since Uraraka didn’t know that he couldn’t see the maps directing the students to their classrooms. If the brunette found anything weird in this, she didn’t say so, instead just keeping her gaze fixed on Deku. 

   “I see,” she said, biting her lower lip. “You should try to get some more sleep, Deku-kun!” 

  “Ah, right,” Izuku muttered. “I’m sorry, but you keep calling me that. Deku isn’t actually my name, it’s just something Kacchan has called me for a while. My name is Izuku.” 

   “Oh!” Chipmunk Cheeks looked startled, like it wasn’t the dumbest idea ever to basically name a child ‘bitchass.’ “I kind of like Deku, though. It sounds like Dekiru , you know, the word for ‘you can do it!’” 

   “It means useless,” Katsuki deadpanned, stopping them all just outside 1-A’s classroom door. It was wide open today, and the students who were all inside were chatting with each other, talking about the previous day’s quirk assessment test. 

   Uraraka shot him another dirty look. “Don’t listen to him, Deku-kun. Um, do you mind if I call you that?” 

   “You can call me whatever you want, Uraraka-san,” Izuku said breezily. He entered the classroom, making his way to his desk all the way across the room. Cheeks’ entire face went bright red, her eyes blinking rapidly as she watched Deku’s retreating back. Katsuki sighed loudly, reaching out to clap Uraraka’s back a little harder than necessary. 

   “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it,” he told the brunette, shaking his head. He followed Deku across the room, steadily ignoring his classmates until he slid into his desk. Almost as soon as he got comfortable, students began surrounding his and Midoriya’s desks, accosting them with questions. Shitty Hair was at the lead of the pack, with Pikachu and that Alien bitch right behind him. 

   “So, Midoriya-kun!” Shitty Hair said, slipping easily into the desk directly to Izuku’s right. The guy who usually occupied it, with the weird shaped elbows, noticed his desk being taken from his spot across the room and immediately made his way over to see what was going on. “I think I’ve figured out your quirk!” 

   “Oh you have, have you?” Izuku hummed, beginning to dig through that garishly yellow backpack for a textbook. They were all in braille, as far as Katsuki knew, so it would only be a matter of time before one of the extras noticed that the boy using them.    

   “Yeah! You said only four of your five senses are enhanced, right?” Shitty Hair asked. 

   “That is what I said,” Izuku confirmed. Clearly he was only half listening. ‘ I’m so proud.’  

   “It’s your sense of taste that isn’t enhanced, right?” A shark-like grin broke out across the redhead’s face. Katsuki grimaced at the sight of those teeth. “Cuz’ that would make the most sense. Taste is practically useless in a hero’s life.” 

   “Yes, but all quirks weren’t made with heroes in mind,” Izuku reminded Kirishima. 

  “That’s what I said!” Alien bitch piped up, leaning across Izuku’s desk. Katsuki snarled at the girl, causing her to back off, although she stayed close like the pest she was. “I think it’s your sense of touch that isn’t enhanced. Did I get it right?” 

   “Wrong again,” Izuku told them. Pikachu cocked his head, looking confused. 

   “Then it has to be your sense of smell, since you can obviously see and hear.” 

   Izuku looked straight at Katsuki and quirked an eyebrow, his expression saying it all. ‘ Really? Is it really this hard to guess?’  

   ‘ Apparently so,’ Katsuki thought back, even though Deku couldn’t read any expressions back. Instead, Katsuki spoke out loud. “What makes you extras think that Deku would tell you the truth, anyway? That would just give you an advantage over him.” 

   “Ooooh, he’s right,” Pikachu said, nodding conspiratorially. “Good thinking, Kacchan.” 

   “ Hah?! ” Katsuki cried, his palms bursting with explosions as he screeched his desk chair back. “Don’t call me that, fuckface!” 

   “Okay, okay! I knew it was private~” the boy winked, wiggling back to his chair the next row over. 

   Deku broke out into laughter, a true smile on his face for the first time that day. Katsuki’s explosions instantly died down, his thundering pulse calming as tension he hadn’t even realized was there relaxed at the sound of the laughter. When Deku was upset, it was like the entire world went dark. It disturbed him. 

   Classes went by like normal, with all of their teachers introducing themselves to the class. Deku was practically having an aneurysm with each one from the seat behind Katsuki, occasionally grabbing the blond’s shoulders to lean in and whisper facts about whatever teacher was in front of them. Each time, Izuku would make a comment about how he knew Katsuki was excited too, because of the way his blood pressure kept rising. Right. Not because his crush was continuing to get up close and personal with his sensitive ears, not at all . Fucking shitty-ass oblivious Deku. By the time their last class of the day came, Deku was chattering about who he thought their heroics studies teacher might be. Aizawa had left the room in search of coffee, dragging his sleeping bag behind him. 

   “I wonder if it’s going to be a well-known hero, like someone in the top ten? Although I can’t imagine someone in the top ten being free enough to teach a high school class! But then again, Present Mic and Midnight are in the top twenty, and they’re both teachers…” 

    “That’s because they’re both popular enough that they can get away with it,” the boy with the weird elbows who sat next to Deku chimed in. Personally, Katsuki was annoyed that he’d butted into their conversation, but Deku didn’t seem to mind, simply turning to their classmate with a wide grin. 

   “Right? I know Present Mic has his radio show, so he’s really popular because of that.” Deku looked at Katsuki, his eyes just ever-so-slightly too high when he tried to make eye contact. “Is Midnight-sensei really that scandalous?” 

   “Did you see what she was wearing earlier?” Sero cut in, seeming surprised that Izuku would even ask that. Katsuki couldn’t help but snort at the irony of the sentence, hiding his feral grin behind one of his hands. Deku frowned, obviously hearing Katsuki because of his quirk, even though his eardrums were still healing up from the day before. 

   “It was pretty tight,” Izuku relented, since that was the only part of Midnight he’d been able to “see.” 

   “Tight doesn’t even begin to cover it,” the boy sitting behind Izuku with a slight lisp said, practically drooling. Bakugou had been disgusted with the boy since he’d leered at all the girls of the class from the first moment he saw them, and he only kept proving himself to be a little sleazebag. 

   “Fuck off, no one was talking to you,” Katsuki said to the midget. The guy had the gaul to look offended. 

   “Oh come on, you had to think she was hot, too,” he prodded, leaning forwards and up into Deku’s business to try and get closer to Katsuki. Deku wrinkled his nose, his eyes going a bit wide as he apparently got a whiff of whatever Mineta smelled like. Deku had told Katsuki once that his enhanced smelling was more of a curse than a blessing, and considering what the guy looked like he got up to in his free time, he did not envy the greenet. 

   “I really didn’t,” he answered stiffly. Something seemed to dawn on Mineta, because he began to grin. 

   “Ooooh. You're one of those ,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows and dropping back down into his seat. “I see how it is.” 

    “One of what?” Deku asked, looking at Katsuki. Even Sero nodded like he understood, which only made Bakugou’s face burn, panic setting in. 

   “I am not gay!” He snarled, slamming his sparking palm onto his desk. “Fuck you guys!” 

   Deku looked hurt, biting his lower lip. “Is… is there something wrong with being gay?” 

  “Yeah, is there?” The girl with the earlobes said from her seat next to Katsuki. She’d given him major lesbian vibes from the first second he saw her, and given the amused look she was sporting, she no doubt had sensed that he was gay as well. 

   “Of course there isn’t,” he growled, more for Deku’s benefit than hers. “I’m just not, alright? So let’s drop it.” 

   Izuku opened his mouth, whether to protest or agree, he didn’t know. Before he could get so much as a word in edgewise, he paused, cocking his head to the side and fixing his eyes on the door. They widened considerably, his jaw unhinging itself in surprise. “All Might?” 

   “Huh?” Sero asked, looking at the door. Only a few seconds later, the door slammed itself open, a familiar silhouette and booming voice launching into the room and scaring the bejesus out of half of the class. 

   “I AAAAAAAMMM- COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!” The guy boomed, letting out a hearty laugh loud enough to make Katsuki’s ears ring. The explosive boy grinned, unable to believe that fucking All Might was one of his teachers. Sure that Deku was freaking out as well, he twisted in his seat to get a load of the look on his face- only to freeze when he saw the look that was actually there. Deku’s sun kissed face was pale, even worse than it had been that morning when Katsuki had picked him up at the stop sign. His jaw was still open, and his hands were gripping the sides of the desk so hard his knuckles turned white. He looked the opposite of excited- in fact, he looked horrified.  

    “What-” Katsuki began, but was interrupted by All Might beginning to explain their plan for the day. Apparently, since Aizawa had already given them a bit of a test the day before, all they were going to do was sit around in a circle and introduce themselves before explaining their quirks and what they could do to the rest of their classmates. It sounded boring, but then again, Katsuki was kind of glad there wouldn’t be another physical activity today. Not when Deku was acting so weird. 

    By the time they all got their chairs into a big circle, Aizawa was back in the room with a mug of coffee, leaning up against his desk with critical eyes watching All Might’s every move. Bakugou didn’t think he’d ever seen someone not like All Might, so seeing his homeroom teacher’s disdain for the man was a bit hard to believe. Still, he elected to ignore it in favour of leaning over to his left, where Deku had situated his desk in the big circle. “What the fuck is up with you?” He hissed, waiting for All Might to get them all to settle down so they could begin. 

   “N-nothing,” Izuku stuttered, clearly lying. Katsuki growled warningly, reaching over to flick Deku’s forehead. The greenet whined, rubbing at the irritated spot. “Just… don’t worry about it, alright? I’ll tell you after school.” 

   “Fine,” Katsuki huffed, crossing his arms and leaning back into his chair. “Don’t fucking lie to me again. I may not be able to hear your heartbeat, but I’ll know.” 

   “Yeah, yeah,” Izuku muttered, propping his chin on his fist, pouting like a little kid. It would have been adorable if Katsuki was pissed at the guy. (Maybe it was adorable anyway.)

   “Who would like to start us off?” All Might asked, looking around the circle from his place on the outskirts. He appeared to be avoiding Aizawa-sensei as best he could, and yet his eyes kept flicking to… Deku? Katsuki’s suspicion only grew bigger with every connection of All Might’s glowing blue eyes to Deku’s hunched form. 

   “Ooh! Ooh! I’ll go!” The pink-skinned bitch from the day before cheered, raising out of her chair to wave her hand in the air. She stayed standing, placing her hands on her hips as she spoke. “My name is Ashido Mina, and my quirk is called ‘ Acid !’ My skin secretes acid that I can direct however I want! I can change how acidic it is depending on what I want, so sometimes it can be more like gel, and sometimes it can burn through concrete, so watch out!” 

    It went clockwise after that, with Katsuki and Deku being towards the end of the group. Even Bakugou could admit that some of the extras’ quirks were pretty strong; like Floaty Girl could float up to two tons of objects? What the fuck ? And that half-and-half bastard with the ice and fire quirk? That creation bitch with the ponytail? They were all pretty powerful. Still, Katsuki knew better than to underestimate the others because of their seemingly “weak” quirks. After all, no one would look at Deku’s quirk and think that it was hero material, and yet here he was, already in the top percentages of the class. 

   “My name is Kirishima Eijirou, and my quirk is called ‘ Hardening,’ ” the redhead next to Katsuki said, flashing a “hardened” forearm at them all in demonstration. He turned to smile at Katsuki, catching the boy off-guard. “I can harden my entire body for a long period of time, which means I’m a perfect match against you . Don’t get too cocky!” He sat back down with a smirk, gesturing for Katsuki to get up and take his turn. The blond growled, shooting out of his chair. 

   “I’m Bakugou Katsuki. My quirk is called ‘ Explosion.’ My entire body secretes glycerin from my pores, but my hands also sweat nitrogen. That means my hands are covered in fucking nitroglycerin, the most tempromental and flammable explosive in the world . It’s also very fucking poisonous to injest, cuz’ breathing in pure nitrogen isn’t a good fucking idea. So basically, ‘don’t get too cocky,’” he snapped, quoting Kirishima’s last words before sitting back down. Everyone stared at him with wide, terrified eyes, making Katsuki smirk and lean back in his chair once more. Deku let his forehead thump on his desk, closing his eyes with a sigh so loud that Katsuki wondered if the next classroom over could hear it. 

   “Kacchan, you’re making it impossible to make friends,” the greenet whined, shaking his head back and forth on the desk. 

   “Good,” he snarled, reaching over to tug on Izuku’s curls. The boy’s hand shot up and caught Katsuki’s wrist without looking up, since obviously he didn’t need to. He still raised his head and glared, grey-green eyes narrowing. “It’s your fucking turn, Deku.” 

    “So vulgar,” Floaty girl snickered, waving cheekily at Katsuki when he gnashed his teeth at her. 

   “U-um,” Deku said, standing up slowly. “My name is Midoriya Izuku-” 

  “Wait, your name isn’t Deku?” the boy who’d introduced himself as Kaminari Denki asked, looking surprised. Deku reached down and knocked the back of Katsuki’s head. 

   “Hey!” 

  “Stop telling people my name is ‘useless’!” Deku snapped. Looking back at them all, he smiled apologetically. “No, that’s just a nickname Kacchan calls me. Feel free to call him Kacchan. All the time, if possible.”

   “Do not call me ‘Kacchan’ if you want to live,” Katsuki told them all. 

   “Anyway, my name is Midoriya Izuku, and my quirk is called ‘ Sensory Overload,’ ” he explained. “Basically, four of my five senses are enhanced to the point where I can do little things, like hear all of your heartbeats, smell your individual scents, that kind of thing.” 

   “Which one of your senses is the one not enhanced?” the invisible girl asked. 

   Katsuki opened his mouth to tell them to shut the fuck up, because no one else got that many questions, but it was fucking All Might who ruined it all by opening his big fat mouth. “Midoriya is blind, aren’t you my boy?” 

   Bakugou could swear that the class could hear a fucking pin drop. Then it all exploded into a whirl of noise. 

   “Oh my gods, he’s blind ?” 

   “Is that safe?” 

  “No way he’s blind, All Might has to be wrong! After everything he did yesterday?” 

   “He totally kicked our asses!” 

  “Should he really be in the hero course if he’s blind?” 

  “HEY!” Deku cried, causing all of them to cease fire and turn to face him. “Thank you for your concern, but I assure you, I’m not totally blind. I use my other senses to help me see. My sense of touch is so strong that I can feel things like the sound waves in the air bouncing off of each of your bodies, and the items in the room. I can also hear well enough to gauge where you all are, so there’s that. Think of it like that old t.v. show, Avatar: The Last Airbender. I can ‘see’ like that blind girl can. I just can’t see your faces, or colours, or anything like that.” 

   “How many fingers am I holding up?” Sero immediately asked, holding out three fingers. 

  “Three,” Izuku said dryly. 

   “Whoa,” Sero whispered. “He’s telling the truth, guys.” 

  “Why would he lie, dumbass?” Earphone girl said, rolling her eyes. Ah, Katsuki knew he liked her. 

   “I still do not believe it is safe for you to participate in this course, nor is it safe for you to one day become a hero!” Iida said, chopping one of his hands like some sort of robot. All eyes turned to him, fury sparking in Katsuki’s chest at the sound of his annoying-ass voice. 

   “In all honesty, I have to agree with Young Iida,” All Might of all people said, at least having the decency to sound apologetic about it. “This is a very dangerous profession, and I fear that without full use of all of your senses, you may end up hurt, or worse.” 

   Katsuki expected Deku to break down, look hurt, cry, something. Instead, he looked All Might in the eye (or, as close as he could get) and stared at him for a few moments. Then he spoke. 

   “I know your secret, All Might,” he declared, raising an eyebrow. “Does that help convince you?”

   Aizawa-sensei choked on his coffee in the back of the room, although it sounded less like shock and more like a laugh to Bakugou’s ears. Intrigue filled the room at Midoriya’s words, all of them glancing at each other, but knowing better than to ask what the secret was right in front of the man himself. Katsuki could have sworn that All Might’s smile faltered for a beat before beaming back at full wattage a few moments later. 

   “Perhaps we should talk about that later, Young Midoriya!” He sounded overly-cheerful about it, and just like that, they were forced to move on. The last people to go were the guy with the tail and the frog girl, and by the time they finished, the school bell was ringing, signalling the end of school. Everyone moved their desks back to their original rows, and although Katsuki followed suit, he kept his eyes on Deku’s form the entire time. He seemed stiff, his shoulders tense and his mouth set in a hard line. Katsuki had never seen Deku look that pissed off before, and it was honestly kind of turning him on. Given the looks Earjacks and Shitty Hair kept shooting at him, they knew exactly what he was thinking. He made sure to flip them both off before he grabbed his back and waited for Deku by the classroom door. 

   None of the extras stopped them to ask stupid questions like Deku had been expecting, which Katsuki was glad for. Their walk to the train station was silent, and Katsuki kept it that way until they were almost all the way to the Bakugou residence. When they paused at the stop sign they met at every morning, the blond turned to his friend and frowned. “Alright, spill. What the fuck was all of that about?” 

   All of the tension in Deku’s body fell in an instant, like he was just waiting to hear Katsuki’s voice before he could let it all go. He hung his head, shaking it back and forth like he was clearing his thoughts. After a few moments, he gestured for them to keep walking. “I… I met All Might, about ten months ago.” 

   Bakugou swore his heart stopped beating. He actually tripped over nothing in the road, craning his neck to look down at Izuku’s embarrassed face. “Fucking what ? Why the fuck wouldn’t you tell me that?” 

   “I didn’t want you to get pissed at him! I know how much you look up to him,” Izuku said back, his voice suspiciously squeaky. 

   “And why would I be pissed at him, huh?” Bakugou was aware he was practically growling the words, but he didn’t care. 

   “Because… he saved me from a villain attack,” Deku confessed. “And then he told me that I couldn’t be a hero. That I should be a teacher or something.” 

   “He said that?” Katsuki gaped, stopping in his tracks right on the edge of his own front yard. “He actually told you that you couldn’t be a hero? Why the fuck didn’t you say anything! I would have kicked his goddamn ass into next week!” 

   “That’s why I didn’t say anything!” Izuku cried, waving his hands around. “You love him Kacchan! I didn’t want to ruin that because of me.” 

   “ He ruined it, not you,” Katsuki snapped. “Look at you, Deku. You got into U.A. all by yourself, and not only that, you got the highest score of all time. That’s even higher than whatever the fuck All Might got, now isn’t it?” 

   “I guess…” 

  “Fuck that old man if he thinks you can’t be a hero just because you can’t see,” Katsuki said. “Seriously, I hope he chokes on a cock.” 

   “Kacchan!” Deku barked out a laugh, which was exactly what Katsuki was waiting for. The older boy slung an arm around Deku’s shoulders, leading the both of them through the small gates at the front of the Bakugou’s yard and towards the front door. 

   “We’ll prove him wrong, Deku,” Katsuki promised once they got through the front door. “Just you wait and see.” 

   “I believe you, Kacchan,” Izuku said softly. Katsuki knew that he meant it, too. 

   Unfortunately, he forgot to ask about whatever it was that All Might’s secret was. He also never got around to asking why Deku had come to school in a terrible, quiet mood. Maybe if he had asked, then things would have turned out different from then on.

Chapter Text

      It was sort of an unwritten rule that if Inko snuck into Izuku’s bedroom, then he didn’t have to worry about it again for at least a week. Because of this, the night of their second day at school, Izuku didn’t bother to lock his door. Around three o’clock in the morning, he heard the thing creak open on its well-worn hinges, causing him to jerk awake from his restless sleep. He sat up immediately, his body already beginning to kick into fight-or-flight, but as he calmed down a fraction, he realized something. Yes, the overwhelming scent of semen and sweat still filled the air around his mother, but her heart wasn’t beating overly quickly, adrenaline spiking in a way that could only mean she was high. 

    She was sober, and from the sniffling coming from her, she was crying. 

   “Oh Izuku,” she sobbed, coming to the bed to throw herself into her son’s arms. “Izuku, my baby. I’m so, so sorry for what I did to you.” 

   Tears filled Izuku’s eyes at this small glimpse at who his mother could have been. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, burying his face in the crook of her neck like he was a toddler again. “Mom,” he croaked back. 

   “My baby, my poor baby,” Inko whimpered, running her fingers through his hair, brushing out the knots in his curls soothingly. “I’m such a terrible mother, oh gods. I’m so sorry. Thank you for taking care of me baby. I don’t deserve you.” 

   “Don’t say that,” Izuku said back, his heart sinking at her words. When she was sober, it was like Midoriya Inko was an entirely different person. Izuku tended to think of her in such a way as well, finding it was easier to love her if he separated her two states of being in his mind. “I love you so much, mom. Please don’t cry.” 

   “I d-don’t deserve y-you,” Inko wailed, tightening her grip around him. “My amazing little boy, so strong and brave. I would do anything for you.” 

   Izuku knew better than to take this statement seriously. One of the first times she’d said it, Izuku had begged her to stop doing drugs. She had taken him seriously and had tried to stop- she’d made it a week through withdrawals before she hit him so hard that his cheekbone fractured in a fit of rage. She’d left the house and gotten high later that night, and he’d never asked her to quit again. No matter how much he missed when she was sober. It was rarer and rarer these days; pretty soon, Izuku knew that the mother he once knew would be gone forever. 

   “I know,” he whispered back to her, hot tears falling silently into the shoulder of her skimpy dress. “I know.” 

    When he woke up the next morning curled up in his mother’s arms like a child again, he tucked her into his sheets and got dressed for school, planting a small kiss on her hairline before he left the apartment. It was hard to leave her, knowing that by the time he got home she would already be gone to the drugs again- that he probably wouldn’t see his sober mother for another few months- but he also knew that he wasn’t in middle school anymore, and he couldn’t skip classes just because his mom needed him. It was only his third day of high school, for Christ’s sake. So he left, meeting Kacchan at their usual stop sign with a bittersweet attitude. If Kacchan noticed anything wrong with Izuku, he didn’t say anything, just walking silently beside him all the way until they walked up U.A.’s gates. 

    Izuku could sense an unusual amount of bodies the moment the two of them were within earshot, his entire body stiffening. From the questions and camera flashes, he could guess that the people crowding before the school gates were…

   “Reporters?” He muttered aloud, causing Katsuki to pause in his steps. 

   “What did you say? Reporters?” The blond turned his head, squinting to try and see the massive crowd that blocked their entry into the school. Izuku could hear that other students were struggling just to get into the school, all of them being accosted by the adults swarming around them. His protective instincts went up immediately, and he broke into a run towards the building. 

   “What’s it like having All Might as one of your teachers?” A woman was saying, shoving her handheld microphone into a young man’s face. The boy wrinkled his nose, eyes flickering nervously from the microphone to the gates just out of his reach. 

   “I don’t know, alright? I’m in General Studies, he isn’t my teacher,” the boy said. “Can you let me through now, please?”

    Izuku got in between them before the reporter could reply, narrowing his eyes in the general direction of her face. “ Back. Up. You are not permitted on this campus.” 

   Kacchan appeared at Izuku’s side, raising one of his hands into the air. Knowing what he was doing, Izuku reached up to plug his ears, barely making it in time to avoid the sound of the bone-rattling explosion the blond let out. All of the reporters and students stopped, even the two teachers standing guard at the gates of the school freezing in their activity of trying to get their students on campus. Izuku took the distraction, stepping forward so he was more towards the center of the crowd. 

   “Everyone, listen up!” He yelled, projecting his voice so they could all hear him clearly. “You are in violation of the private property guidelines of U.A. Academy! If you do not cease bothering the enrolled students and trespassing on school grounds immediately, then you will be prosecuted, and could receive up to 100,000 yen in fines, or six months in jail time!”

   When no one moved, Katsuki snorted and translated. “Back the fuck up and leave us alone, or you’ll be sorry!” 

    All of the reporters seemed to take this to heart, backing away from the school gates and leaving the students they’d trapped alone. All except the one woman and her cameraman in front of Izuku, Katsuki and the student they were protecting. She snorted at Izuku, crossing her arms in front of her haughtily. 

   “You can’t do that,” she sneered at him. “I know my rights, and we aren’t trespassing onto U.A. property so long as we don’t cross that gate.” She pointed to the gate in question, where Izuku could now recognize the two teachers guarding it as Aizawa-sensei and Present Mic. Both of them were simply watching it all go down, although Izuku wasn’t sure if it was because they didn’t want to abandon their post, or because they wanted to see how Izuku would handle it. Given Aizawa was a part of the equation, he was going to guess that it was the latter. 

   “Actually, you are,” Izuku declared. He gestured to the curb sidewalk, of which the woman and her cameraman were clearly on. “Once you get down onto the tar, you will be on city property.” He himself stepped up onto the curb, putting himself only an inch taller than the small woman. Bakugou followed his lead, already towering over Izuku by another four inches. “Right at this moment? You’re trespassing in accordance with U.A. 's emergency lockdown rules.” 

    “He really sounds like he knows what he’s talking about, don’t you think?” The student behind Izuku asked. The reporter opened her mouth, but then suddenly, all of the tension in her body went slack. Izuku was so startled that he took a step back, knocking into the guy’s chest. He didn’t startle, instead speaking to the woman calmly. “Take your camera and leave school grounds. Drive away until you reach home.” 

   And shockingly enough, the woman listened. She gestured for the camera guy to follow her, cutting through the crowd of reporters and down to her news van without so much as a glance backwards. Kacchan whistled lowly, crossing his own arms before turning to the tall boy behind them. “Damm. That’s some quirk you got there.” 

   “That was your quirk?” Izuku asked, elation sparking inside of his chest. “That was so cool! Is it a brainwashing quirk? That would be so useful in the hero course! I can’t believe you’re only in Gen Ed with a quirk like that!” 

    “Yeah well, it wasn’t for a lack of trying,” the boy huffed. “The exam isn’t super friendly towards people without offensive-type quirks. I bet you destroyed a fuck ton of robots, didn’t you?” He sneered the question out like he knew the answer, obviously a bit prejudiced against them for getting into the course when he didn’t. Izuku took great pleasure in bursting his bubble.

   “Kacchan did,” he said, gesturing at the posturing blond beside him. “But I just used their off switch.” 

    “Their… off switch ?” The boy sounded oddly strangled. Katsuki barked out a laugh, but it was cut off by their homeroom teacher’s voice. 

   “Alright, class is starting soon,” he drawled. “The three of you, get in here before you’re late.” 

  “Yes, sir,” Midoriya nodded, grabbing Katsuki’s hand and dragging him through the gates. Present Mic lifted an arm and shot Izuku a thumbs-up for his quick thinking. 

   “Alright, alright, I’m going you dumb nerd!” Katsuki ripped his arm from Izuku’s grip, straightening out his blazer. “Jesus, you have a fucking grip of death.” 

   “Sorry Kacchan,” Izuku said sweetly. “Can you please lead me to class? I promise I’ll remember by tomorrow.” 

   “That’s a fucking lie,” Kacchan snorted, but ambled off down the hallway at a nice pace all the same. 

   By the time they made it to the classroom, everyone else was already there. One of the girls who was a bit shorter, with some sort of protrusions off of the top of her curly hair, appeared to be in the middle of a story, with one of the oddly-shaped boys off to her side. 

   “-then he just yelled at them to go away! It was awesome!” The girl cheered, pumping her fist. When she heard the door open, she turned to them, bouncing a bit on the balls of her feet. If Izuku recognized the smell of guava shampoo and something slightly acidic correctly, then this girl was Ashido Mina. “Hey, there they are! I was just telling everyone how you guys made all the reporters back off a few minutes ago!” 

   “It was really cool,” a quiet voice muttered, not loud enough for anyone other than Izuku, and maybe Jirou, to hear. Given his quietness and the odd shape of his head, it was probably Kouda Koji.  

   “Yeah well, we didn’t do it for you,” Katsuki snarked, ambling off towards his desk on the other side of the door. 

   “Yes we did,” Izuku contradicted happily. His spirits had been up ever since this morning, even though he knew it was the last time he would see the woman he truly considered his mother for a long time. Because at least he had gotten to see her again. “And you’re welcome, Ashido-san, Kouda-kun.” 

   “Oh! Then there’s that!” The girl bounded over to him, getting right up into his personal space. “If you’re blind, then how did you know it was me, huh?” 

   “U-um,” Izuku said, blinking rapidly. “B-because of your…?” He gestured to the top of his own head. 

   “My horns?” Ashido asked. “You can see them?” 

  “Well, no,” Izuku chuckled. “I can sense them. It’s like echolocation, remember?” 

  “Right, right!” Ashido said. “That’s super cool, Midori-kun!” 

   “It’s Midoriya,” Izuku corrected her gently. She laughed, slinging her arm around his shoulders benevolently. “

   “I know that, silly! I just think Midori is a cute nickname, especially because green is like, your signature,” she said. 

   “It is?” Izuku asked. 

  “Yeah! Your hair is green, the uniform has a bunch of green in it! Your eyes are kind of greyish green,” another girl, the one with the strange outline, said, getting out of her seat in front of Kacchan’s to come over to him. “It’s super cute, Ashido-san!” 

   “I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Izuku cut in before Ashido could respond. “Your outline is all strange, almost… translucent? Is it your quirk?” 

   The girl gasped. “You can see me?” 

  “Again, no,” Izuku muttered. “I can sense you. Just your outline. Why, is that weird?” 

  “She’s invisible, Deku,” Kacchan called from across the room. 

  “Oh!” Izuku blushed. “Sorry, I didn’t know.” 

  “It’s alright, it’s super cool that you can sense me,” she said, winking. 

   “Right. So no one else knows you have five legs?” Izuku joked. 

  “ What ?” The girls in the room shrieked. Hagakure, if Izuku remembered correctly, laughed out loud. 

    “He’s messing with you guys, I don’t have five legs,” she chuckled. “Good one though!” 

   “Alright, everyone in your seats,” Aizawa said, appearing in the doorway. Izuku had heard him coming down the hall, but no one else had, and a few of the class jumped in their seats, their heartbeats accelerating considerably. He couldn’t help but smile to himself while he went to sit down, biting his lower lip to hold back a laugh. 

    Aizawa crossed the room to the front side of his desk, leaning against it to survey them all. “We have something very important to discuss today.” He sounded so serious that Izuku’s own heart rate spiked, nerves amping up within him. Everyone leaned forward in anticipation. “You must choose a Class President.” 

   “That’s so normal!” The boy next to Izuku, Sero, scoffed. 

   “Oh! I want to be class rep!” Hagakure yelped, jumping out of her chair to wave an arm in the air. 

   “No, I want to be class rep!” The boy that smelled like ozone cried. 

   “I want to do it too!” The short boy behind Izuku said, wiggling in his seat. “Think of all the ladies I could get…” 

   “I would also like to be the president,” the girl at the end of Izuku’s row said shyly, raising her hand. 

   “Everyone!” Iida boomed, getting out of his chair to karate chop the air. “I believe that doing things the American way, with a democracy, would be our best option!” He turned to their teacher, who was already crawling into his sleeping bag. “Would that suffice, Aizawa-sensei?” 

  “I don’t care how you do it, just wake me up when you’ve decided,” the man yawned, zipping himself up with finality. 

   “Everyone, let us get out a sheet of paper and something to write with so that we can vote!” Iida declared. 

   “Is this really the best idea? We barely know each other,” the boy with the tail, Ojirou, said. 

  “Yeah, won’t we all just vote for ourselves?” Jirou asked, twirling an earjack around her finger. 

  “That is precisely why it’s our best option! Whoever gets more than one vote will be our clear winner!” Iida got out a pen and clicked it. “I will count up the votes and write them on the board once we are all finished!” 

   “Um, Iida-kun?” Izuku asked, raising one of his hands. 

  “Yes, Midoriya-kun?” 

  “He can’t write, you fucking idiot,” Katsuki snorted. 

  “Oh! Well, I- I just- I didn’t think-” Iida was clearly flustered. Izuku reached forward and smacked the back of Katsuki’s head, scowling at him. Katsuki hissed like a pissed-off cat at the action, but didn’t otherwise retaliate. 

   “I was going to say that I don’t have any paper or a pen,” he told the bespectacled classmate. “Obviously Kacchan is going to write my vote for me.”

   “I got you, Midoriya-kun,” Jirou said. “I’ll write your vote for you too, if you want.” 

  “Thanks, Jirou-san,” Izuku said, relieved. 

   “Alright then! Once everyone is finished, please place your vote on Aizawa-sensei’s desk!” Iida clapped his hands. Jirou got out of her seat and stood next to Izuku’s desk. Katsuki growled at her. 

   “I can fucking do it, Earlobes,” he snapped. Jirou didn’t seem impressed with his display, her voice displaying the smirk she must have had on her face. 

   “Well, I don’t know if I trust you with Midoriya-kun’s vote,” she said. “You might sabotage it or something.” She turned back to Izuku. “Who are you voting for, anyway?” 

   “Um, I was thinking Yaoyorozu-san?” Izuku said nervously. “She’s a recommendation student and she has an amazing quirk. She had a good strategy when I fought you both, so I just…” 

   “You don’t need to explain it to me,” Jirou said. “I’m voting for her too.” 

   A few minutes later, everyone had voted. Aoyama got up with Iida to count the votes, just so everyone knew it was fair, the sound of chalk scraping filling the room. Izuku would have to rely on everyone else’s reactions to know who had won, but he was fine with that. After all, it’s not like anyone would vote for-

   “The winner is Midoriya-kun!” Aoyama declared, throwing his hands in the air dramatically. “He received six votes!” 

   “ Me ?” Izuku squawked, blinking rapidly. “ Six votes? But-” 

   “Gee Deku, wonder who could have voted for you?” Kacchan asked, sounding way too amused to be innocent. 

   “ You ,” Izuku hissed. “You voted for me? Why?!” 

  “Because your reaction is fucking hilarious,” Katsuki said. 

   “I voted for you, too!” Ashido said from across the room, waving her hand. “You were super cool outside when you stood up to the reporters!” 

   “I voted for you as well,” a quiet voice in the back said. It was Kouda-kun, who had also been outside. 

   “I voted for you,” Uraraka said shyly. “You seem smart, and you saved my life. You dominated the quirk tests on the first day!”

   “That’s why I voted for you too, dude!” Ozone boy, Kaminari, said with a thumbs-up at him.

  “And me,” Yaoyorozu said from the back of the room. “You were the clear choice.” 

  “Yaoyorozu and Iida also tied for votes,” Aoyama said cheerily, “They both got three votes. Midori-kun, I suggest that you pick who you would like to be your vice~” 

   “M-me?” Izuku paused. “Well, I voted for Yaoyorozu-san, so obviously I choose her.” 

  “Thank you, Midoriya-kun,” the girl said, sounding glad. “I will do my best as your partner.”

  “Now that that’s decided, we can get on with class,” the lump in the sleeping bag said, turning over so he was facing them all. This time, even Izuku cried out in surprise. 

    (x)

   By lunchtime, Deku appeared to still be in shock. It would have been fucking hilarious if it wasn’t so annoying . Why couldn’t the guy ever just accept that people liked him? He was a nice kid, he looked out for others, and he was a fucking badass. What wasn’t there to like? 

   Still, as he and Katsuki sat down at the lunch table they had used for the last two days, he was still muttering to himself about why he could have possibly been voted into office. It had gotten fucking annoying after the first ten minutes of him doing it, and Katsuki had enough. 

   “Deku!” He blew up, banging his chopsticks on the table. “How am I supposed to enjoy my fucking curry if you won’t shut the fuck up, huh?!” 

   “Sorry Kacchan,” Izuku whined, face planting onto the table, just barely missing his meat bun with his forehead. “I just don’t get it! Class Reps need sight to do certain things, don’t they?” 

   “Then it’s a good thing Ponytail can see,” Katsuki said easily, taking a bite of his spicy curry. No one made curry like his mother, that was for sure. It was hot enough to cause him to begin to sweat, the taste of it on his upper lip sweet against the spice. 

    “Kacchan, I’m serious,” Deku snapped. “I get that you voted for me as a joke or something, but I really don’t think I can do this!”
  “Oi shithead,” Katsuki said, putting his chopsticks down. “I did not vote for you as a fucking joke, alright? I voted for you because I genuinely thought it would be a good idea. People fucking like you for whatever goddamn reason, and I think you need the confidence boost. Are you happy now?” 

    Deku blinked at him like he was the batshit insane one out of the duo. “You… you really think I can do it?” 

   “Fucking obviously,” he said. “Now shut up so I can eat my fucking lunch, would you?” He moved to dig back into his meal when suddenly, an earsplitting ringing began to sound throughout the lunch room. Deku screamed, his hands fluttering up to cover his ears, his eyes squeezing shut like it would help to block out the noise. Students were beginning to run from the room, some of them screaming and crying while they trampled all over each other. Katsuki stood up, realizing that Deku was incapacitated and probably wouldn’t be able to move. He heard Round Face ask a third-year at the table next to them what was going on, to which the guy said that the alarm meant someone had broken into the school. 

    Katsuki hooked his arms underneath Deku’s armpits, dragging him out of the seat before he ducked underneath the table, bringing the greenet with him. Once underneath, the noise was at least a little bit muted. The blond didn’t hesitate to shrug off his blazer, grabbing Deku’s head to bring one of his ears flush against his chest. He used his blazer to press against his other ear, wincing as the alarm hurt even his own, not quirk-enhanced hearing. Deku relaxed against him as the alarm wasn’t a problem anymore, pressing further into Katsuki’s chest. His heart was thundering, both from Deku being this close to him, and from the anxiety of the situation. Knowing that Izuku was probably listening to it beat for comfort did something to his stomach that he didn’t want to think about. 

     And then suddenly, the alarm shut off. There was yelling within the hallway, but the lunchroom was empty besides them. Deku’s eyes popped open and he leaned away from Katsuki, those green-grey eyes fluttering while he got his bearings again. Katsuki put his blazer back on, opening his mouth to ask if Deku was okay before the guy put a hand up to shut him up. Had it been anyone else, Bakugou probably would have bitten the fucking hand clean off, but since it was the love of his life, the explosive boy supposed he would let the kid keep his hand for now. 

    “I can hear someone,” Izuku said, his brow furrowing. “Someone who… doesn’t belong here.” 

   “Huh? What the fuck are you talking about, dumb nerd?” 

   “They’re right down the hall, in the opposite direction that the students are in,” Deku said, moving to get out from under the table. Katsuki scrambled to follow, watching his childhood friend tilt his head like a dog to try and hear better. “They’re going through a bunch of… cabinets? Files? Something like that. They’re… scratching their neck pretty hard. I can smell the blood all the way from over here.” He wrinkled his nose. “Blood and… rot . I don’t recognize it.” 

   “We should find Aizawa-sensei,” Katsuki said firmly. “Whoever that is, you’re right. They don’t belong here.” Because while Izuku couldn’t have memorized the entirety of the student body by only the third day of school, Katsuki trusted the guy’s instincts more than he probably trusted his own. If he said that this person didn’t belong at U.A., then Katsuki was damn well going to listen. 

    Izuku suddenly flinched, his eyes going wide. “They’re gone!” 

   “What? What do you mean they’re gone?” Katsuki demanded. 

   “They just disappeared into thin air! They’re not there anymore!” Deku didn’t wait for Katsuki before he was bolting out of the cafeteria, the doors banging behind him. Bakugou cursed and followed him, keeping pace until they reached the end of the now-empty hallway, stopping in front of a room. Izuku reached out to try the handle, but it was locked, the doorknob not moving an inch. 

   “What room is this, Kacchan?” The younger male demanded, looking up at the sign above the door that he couldn’t read. Katsuki followed his eyes, his entire body going cold when he registered what room they were standing in front of. 

   “The File Room,” he told Izuku. They stared at each other for a moment, letting the implications of a break-in in such a room wash over them like an ice bath. U.A. was an affluent place in society, with some of the world’s greatest heroes having started their career there, All Might included. Who knows what could be kept in a room like that? 

   “Forget Aizawa-sensei, we’re going to Principal Nedzu,” Bakugou said. Deku only nodded, gesturing for Katsuki to lead the way, as the only one who could read the maps posted on the walls and follow the signs to the creature’s office. 

Chapter Text

   “It’s fucking bullshit is what I’m saying!” Kacchan sneered, kicking at a pebble in his way as they walked down the road towards his house. Izuku had been listening to him rant and rage over the principal’s response to their claim ever since they’d returned from his office, and since he wasn’t saying anything new, Izuku allowed his mind to wander. 

    “Without more proof, I’m afraid I simply can’t do anything,” the creature in Izuku’s memory said. “ We don’t know what this supposed figure might have stolen, so the best we can do it be on our guard.”

    Izuku remembered the tense stance of their homeroom teacher, who’d been present during their meeting. He’d approached Izuku and Kacchan after the door to the office closed behind the three of them, begrudgingly thanking them for bringing the incident to the teachers before gossiping to their classmates. He asked for them to keep what they’d seen quiet, so as not to cause any sort of panic, and the pair of them had agreed. After all, no matter how frustrating it was, Principal Nedzu was right. There was no way to know what the person in the file room had been looking for, or if they’d found what they’d been rummaging around for. There was no proof about what had happened except in Izuku’s mind, so really nothing could be done. 

    When he’d tried to bring this point up to Kacchan, the blond had only snapped even harder at him. He learned to keep his mouth shut until the volatile teen tired himself out. 

    “ Gods , sometimes I hate the system,” he snarled, stomping through the small gate that led to his home, holding it open to allow Izuku through. Izuku went past him to hold open the front door, closing it behind the two of them before toeing his sneakers off at the genkan, placing them neatly next to Kacchan’s outside shoes. 

    “It’s like the principal said, all we can really do is be on our guard,” Izuku told his friend. “Besides, we have a lot of homework. Can we work on that, please?” 

   Katsuki grumbled, but still led Izuku up the stairs to his bedroom, where he pulled out the worksheets they’d received. They’d worked out a system a long time ago where they would do both of their worksheets at the same time, working out the problems together so that Katsuki could write down both his and Izuku’s answers on their respective sheets. Before he and Katsuki had become friends again, Izuku had been forced to stay later at school so that a teacher could write down his homework for him. He hadn’t minded at the time since it meant all the more time he didn’t have to be home, but he definitely preferred staying at the Bakugou residence with Kacchan to awkwardly hanging out with one of his teachers after school hours. He always felt… weird when he was alone with adults. He didn’t trust them not to hurt him, especially with the way his mother treated him when they were alone. 

   ( a slick tongue against his sensitive skin, a tight, filthy heat around his nether region, the sound of his mother’s moans and the way her quirk pulled taught on his skin cells, causing blood to rise on his chest and abdomen whenever he struggled against her hold)

    “Oi, where the fuck did you go?” Bakugou asked, waving a hand in front of Izuku’s face. The younger boy snapped out of his haze, blinking rapidly. A smart remark about waving a hand in front of a blind kid’s face was on the tip of his tongue, but before he could open his mouth, Kacchan was speaking again. “Don’t give me some fucking lie, alright? I’m smarter than that. What’s actually been going on with you?” 

    Izuku’s skin began to prickle with cold, his fingers and toes going numb with anxiety. His voice was shaky when he spoke again, immediately letting Katsuki know he was fibbing. “I- I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

    “Don’t play dumb, Deku!” The blond pounded his fist against the small table they worked on their homework on, making Izuku flinch. He didn’t seem to notice, just continuing to yell at him. “You’re always spacing off, and when I call you out on it, you look like I just kicked a puppy right in front of you! You act super fucking weird some mornings, and you won’t look at me sometimes, like you’re fucking afraid of me. I’m not a goddamn idiot, so just tell me what’s been going on.” 

    Izuku tried to swallow around the lump in his throat, but he only succeeded in making himself feel like he was suffocating. He scrambled to his feet, ignoring the numbness in his legs. He began gathering up his open notebooks, shoving them haphazardly into his backpack at his side. He didn’t bother trying to differentiate between the papers and notebooks that were in between him and Katsuki, leaving them there, knowing that Katsuki would bring them all to school the next morning no matter how pissed he was at him. “I- I have to go. Don’t follow me, Kacchan.” 

   “Deku, don’t run from me!” The blond got to his feet as well, but it was already too late. Izuku bolted out of his bedroom, ignoring his Auntie when she called out to him from the kitchen, asking where he was going in such a rush. He sprinted the entire way down the street until he reached his looming apartment building, the anxiety in his chest pooling into adrenaline. He didn’t bother with the rickety elevator once inside, instead using the stairs all the way up to his apartment floor. His hands were shaking so badly that he dropped his keys twice before he was able to unlock the door to rush inside and slam it behind him. He dropped his backpack just inside the door, not bothering to take off his shoes before he stumbled to the bathroom, turning on the lights and turning the faucets as cold as they could go. He dunked his head under the water, yelping at the chill that shocked up and down his body. However, sure enough, his pounding heart began to calm, his trembling turning from anxiety into shivering from the cold. Once he was sure he was okay enough to come up, he turned off the water and lifted his head. 

    His fluffy curls matted against his forehead, the water running down his face, mixing with the tears he couldn’t help but let fall. Looking back, he wasn’t sure if his panic attack was caused by the memory of his mother, or Kacchan’s sudden questioning. He wasn’t sure if it mattered either way. The adrenaline faded from his body, his shivering increasing as the collar of his school uniform soaked into his skin from the water dripping all over everything. Despite that, he kept staring down at his sink, the outline seeming to fade in and out of existence as his focus shifted to and away from it. 

    (“please stop,” izuku whispered, his fingernails digging into his palms. his mother’s nails raked down over his chest, over the wounds her quirk had already caused. he screamed, tears prickling his eyes even as she shushed him, trying to soothe the bone-deep ache in his soul from her actions. he was filthy, he was disgusting, he was no better than she was -)

     Izuku’s nails gripped into the edges of the sink, his fingertips bumping against something, causing it to clatter onto the tile floor. He flinched, looking down at the object that had a vaguely familiar shape. He knelt, realizing he’d broken it when it fell. It was the razor he used to shave the bit of scruff he’d begun developing on his face. It was one of those single-bladed ones that were supposed to be good for the skin, the kind that came with packs of multiple blades that he could change out. When he’d dropped it, the blade had come out of its holder and clattered to the ground. 

    With shaking fingers, Izuku reached for it, memories of whispered words between the girls at his middle school wafting over his consciousness. He remembered the way they spoke about one girl in particular who apparently had scars all over her thighs when she changed in the locker rooms. He remembered the way they giggled at her pain, how they called her mean names both behind her back and to her face. Izuku had tried to befriend her once, but even she knew better than to associate with the blind social outcast. She’d disappeared off the face of the earth one day, and no one had spoken about her again. Izuku had his suspicions about what had happened to her. 

    Picking up the blade, he swallowed around the dryness in his mouth, biting his lower lip. Could he really do something like she had? Was it possible that it would help keep his thoughts and fucking nightmares/memories away from him in the daylight hours? Just the very prospect of the possibility was enough to have him scrambling out of his uniform pants, plopping onto the ground with his back against the wall. 

    While it was true that if Katsuki had asked sooner, he might have been able to stop Izuku’s downward descent, it was also true that that day was not the day to confront him. All it did was hurt Izuku more than help him. 

    (x)

   Katsuki hadn’t spoken to Deku in a week. He was fucking pissed that the kid didn’t trust him with whatever was going on. When he’d confronted the guy at the stop sign the day after he’d bolted out of his house like his pants were on fire, he’d had the nerve to lie through his teeth at Katsuki, claiming he was fine and he’d overreacted from nothing. Bakugou was so pissed that he left Izuku at the stop sign and didn’t speak to him. 

    He knew that he should go up to Izuku and have a calm, rational conversation with him about whatever was bugging the guy, but at the same time, he didn’t know if he could. He remembered the panicked, frantic look on the greenet’s face right before he ran, and the way the expression terrified Katsuki. Whatever was happening to Deku terrified him. 

    He was a coward. He and Deku both were, for running from whatever was happening, and yet Katsuki still wanted Deku to make the first move. If asking the boy what was going on one more time was going to set him off the way it had, then he didn’t want to ask. 

    That was his mistake. 

  “Today we will be taking a field trip,” Aizawa-sensei droned from the front of the room, crossing his arms over his chest with a bored expression on his face. “We will be practicing rescue training at a facility all the way across campus, about twenty minutes away by bus. I expect you all to be on your best behavior.” He reached into his capture weapon and pulled out a familair fob, pressing the big button that let their hero costumes jut out from their hiding places in the wall. They’d been given their costumes the week before, and Katsuk was proud to say that both his and Deku’s were fucking awesome. He was the one who’d designed them, after all, and the support course hadn’t disappointed. He had massive grenade-shaped gauntlets on his arms, black cargo pants, multiple pouches on his hips for supplies, grenades filled with small amounts of his nitroglycerin sweat, and best of all, what would one day become his signature; a black tank-top that showed off his muscled arms with a large orange ‘x’ over the front. Deku’s costume had been made to show of the guy’s muscles he’d gotten from his extensive aikido training in the form of a skin-tight green jumpsuit with black lines that curled over his biceps and made square shapes on his obliques. He had a silver mask that could be used to filter out things like smoke or any sort of dangerous gas-like quirk like Midnight’s, fingerless black gloves that wouldn’t inhibit his sense of touch, black braces on his shins to protect his bones from bruising from his marital arts, and his signature, stupid-ass red shoes covered in iron soles. 

    It sucked that Deku would never get to see what his costume looked like, but he’d been excited when Katsuki described it to him while designing it. Now, he silently got out of his seat after everyone else had already gotten their cases, walking out of the classroom and towards the changing room without even a glance in Katsuki’s direction. Katsuki followed at the back of the group, one of his hands in his pocket, the other swinging the case at his side perhaps a bit harder than was truly necessary. Before he knew, the redheaded weirdo who’d been following him around since the first day appeared at his side. 

   “Hey Bakugou-kun!” He said, flashing a shark-toothed grin. “Are you excited for rescue training? I wonder what the facility is going to look like!” 

    Katsuki only grunted in response, hoping the guy would get the memo that he didn’t want to be bothered. No such luck, of course. 

    “I bet it’ll be super manly,” he nodded. Whatever the fuck that meant. Then he cocked his head like a confused puppy, standing up on his tip-toes to see over the crowd of students ambling into the locker rooms at the end of the hall. “Still not speaking to Midoriya-kun?” 

    Anger ripped through Katsuki’s chest like a fire. “That’s none of your goddamn business!” 

   “Whoa, hey, no worries!” Shitty Hair chuckled, raising his hands in surrender. He entered the locker room, the two of them the last ones inside. The boys were all in the midst of changing, chatting to each other excitedly about what their hero training might entail. Deku was at his usual locker, his shirt already off while he tugged his pants down his legs, folding them neatly. Since they’d already established their lockers, Katsuki had no choice but to take the one at Deku’s side, although neither of them acknowledged each other. At least, not until the person on Deku’s left side spoke. 

    “Yo, Midoriya-kun! That’s one nasty looking wound on your leg!” Tape Face said, pointing at Izuku’s thigh. Katsuki looked down, the sight of a four inch wide, startlingly deep cut on Deku’s leg causing him to freeze with his shirt halfway down his shoulders. Deku’s cheeks were heating up to a bright pink that rivalled Alien Queen’s skin, a nervous laugh filtering out of his mouth. 

   “Oh, y-yeah. Must have gotten it during training the other day.”

   “Hope it doesn’t hurt too bad,” Sero chuckled, going back to pulling on his costume. Deku exhaled, tension leaving his shoulders before he bent over his case and pulled out his costume. Katsuki looked away to finish up changing, but his mind was already racing with what he’d just seen. He knew for a fact that Deku hadn’t gotten that wound during training the other day, because he’d been sparring against that tail fucker, who didn’t have any sort of sharpness in his costume. The guy had been amazed that Musutafu’s highest ranking aikido master was his classmate, and the two of them had gotten to chatting after Deku kicked his fucking ass. It had made Katsuki jealous enough that he voluntarily started a conversation with Shitty Hair to get his mind off of it. 

   So if he hadn’t received the wound during class… then where had he gotten it?

    (x)

     Iida had tried his best to organize the class before they piled onto the bus, despite the fact that it probably should have been either Izuku or Yaomomo’s job. Since Izuku could sense the interior of the bus with his quirk, he held Yaoyorozu back from helping Iida, whispering to her that the layout of the bus was completely different than Iida was organizing them all. Yaomomo apparently found this funny and did nothing to step in, giggling along with the rest of the class when Aizawa opened the doors and ordered them all to pile on haphazardly. 

    The conversation on the bus was interesting, as everyone speculated about what they’d be doing and who their favorite pro-heroes were. It was only when they began discussing their quirks that Izuku really tuned in to listen. 

    “If we’re talking in terms of strength, then obviously Todoroki-kun and Bakugou-kun are the way to go,” Kirishima was saying from next to Izuku, pumping his fist in solidarity. “They’re both powerhouses, definitely top student material!” 

     “You have a pretty amazing quirk too, Kirishima-kun,” Izuku told the spiky haired boy, smiling softly at the startled noise he made in the back of his throat from the compliment. “I mean, Kacchan is strong, sure, but your quirk is a perfect repellent against his. Besides, since Todoroki-kun refuses to use his left side, then he’s his own repellent.” Perhaps he said this a bit bitterly and a bit too loud to try to hide it from the two-toned boy, but could he really be blamed? People like Todoroki were born with the perfect quirks, and yet they refused to use half of it for no reason? If Izuku refused to use half of his quirk, he would either be completely blind and helpless, or he would never be able to enjoy food ever again. 

   “You really think my quirk is cool?” The boy beamed at Izuku, even though he couldn’t see it. 

   “Of course,” Izuku nodded. That was when Yaomomo spoke up, giving her input on the situation. 

   “Personally, I think Midoriya-kun has the most powerful quirk of us all,” she admitted. All eyes turned to her, the entire bus falling silent. Even Izuku was stunned, stammering out a response. 

   “W-what? Yaomomo-san, if anyone does, it’s you! You’re brilliant, and a recommendation student. You’re very versatile!”
    “Perhaps, but my quirk takes time and energy,” she replied. “Yours has no energy limit. Given what you’ve told me over the past week and a half, you’re also basically a human lie detector.” 

    Izuku blushed. He couldn’t remember if he had told the class that already, but given a few of their reactions, if he had then they’d forgotten. 

   “You can recognize all of us by our scents alone, if not by the few tics we have, like our heart rhythms and the sound of our voices,” the tall girl continued, “and you’re unbelievably smart. You’re kind, and have the strangest yet most effective strategies. I would truly fear you if you were ever my enemy.” 

    “But he’s blind,” Kaminari said doubtfully. 

   “That doesn’t fucking matter,” Kacchan snapped, his body automatically coming to Izuku’s defense after years of practice. Izuku could tell he hadn’t meant to speak, but then again, the blond was never one to back down. “Deku has probably already figured out how to fucking eliminate us all by now. He’s got these audio notes on basically ever pro-hero in files on his phone, and you bet your asses you’re all in there already.” 

   “Is that true? Are we in your notes?” Ashido asked, sounding more excited than offended. Izuku blushed, cursing Kacchan under his breath for exposing him. 

   “Y-you are,” he said. “I hope that’s alright?” 

   “That’s so cool!” Satou clapped his massive hands. “So, what did you come up with to defeat me, then?” 

   “Um… temporarily or permanently?” 

   The question sobered the group, apparently not having understood what exactly Katsuki had meant when he’d said “eliminate.” Satou cleared his throat though, pushing on with the conversation. “Both, I guess?” 

   “Well, in order to incapacitate you temporarily, I would use your size and strength against you,” Izuku said. “You’re big and have a lot of brute force, but you’re also pretty slow because of that. I would simply evade you and attack until your sugar levels ran dry before attacking your pressure points to either knock you out or leave your muscles limp for up to thirty minutes. If I wanted to defeat you permanently…” he trailed off, clearing his throat. “Well, I would make sure you couldn’t use your quirk?” 

    “What? How, kero ?” Asui asked. 

  “It’s… graphic,” Izuku cleared his throat. “Don’t worry about it.” 

  “He’d either rip out your tongue or stuff you full of cholesterol,” Katsuki said blandly. Izuku whipped his head to face the boy, hissing at him. 

    “Kacchan, knock it off!” He snapped. 

   “They asked, didn’t they?” Katsuki snapped right back, lifting out of his seat a bit by grabbing onto the handrail in front of the double seat he and Jirou occupied. “Since your quirk most likely causes your arteries to be fucking huge because of the sugar you consume, he would either rip out your tongue so you could no longer consume the sugar, or he would stuff you so full of cholesterol that your arteries would ultimately get so clogged that the sugar couldn’t get through. You’d most likely either never be able to use your quirk again or you’d have a heart attack.” 

    “Shut up, Katsuki !” Izuku yelled, causing even Aizawa-sensei to flinch from where he’d been resting his eyes, although his heart rate said he’d been wide awake. Bakugou himself reared back like he’d been slapped at the sound of his given name, his grip on the handrail tightening. 

    “Don’t coddle them, Deku,” he sneered. “You’re smarter than them, more cunning than them. You may be a hero, but don’t ever let them underestimate you.” 

     “Um… is anyone else kind of turned on?” Ashido joked, fanning herself. Both boys turned to her in shock, breaking the tension in the bus, making them all laugh. Iida’s face was bright red, although for once, he didn’t say anything about their behavior. 

    “What the hell, Ashido-chan?” Hagakure laughed. 

   “What? Knowing that Midori-kun could probably pin me down and destroy me?” She pretended to swoon. “Take me, I’m yours!”  

   “She’s winking at you,” Uraraka giggled at Izuku’s other side, her heart pounding in a way that suggested she was blushing at the girl’s vulgarity. Izuku knew the feeling, sure he was doing an amazing cosplay of a strawberry with how red his face was. 

    “That’s enough,” Aizawa drawled, standing from his seat to grab one of the hand holds above his head. Right on cue, the bus began to slow down, pulling up in front of a massive, dome-like structure. “We’re here. I expect you all to respect the other teacher that you will be meeting today. Get off the bus in a single-file line and gather around the teacher in front of the doors.” 

    They all scrambled to comply, Izuku’s mind automatically reaching out to activate his senses on the lone figure standing in front of the massive doors to the building they’d parked in front of. All he could make out was that the hero was bulky and had an odd-shaped head, almost like an egg of some sort. He could hear Kaminari and Sero speaking as they got off the bus right in front of him, Kaminari making some comment about how the place looked just like Universal Studios, Japan. 

    “Hello my new students!” The familiar, slightly robotic voice of one of Izuku’s favorite heroes called to them as they gathered in a half circle. Izuku gasped, almost not hearing Uraraka gushing at his side. 

    “Oh my god, it’s the Space Hero: No.13!” she stage-whispered. “They’re like, my favorite hero!” 

    “I’m sure Aizawa-kun has already explained to you all that you will be embarking on a rescue training mission all day today,” Thirteen was saying, waving their arms around emphatically. “So I would like to welcome you all to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, also known as the USJ!” 

    “Just like Universal Studios Japan,” Sero smirked to Kaminari. Thirteen led them all inside of the massive building. Izuku had expected to not be able to sense the entire building given that all of the noise was going to be focused at the top of the stairs that led down to the plaza and thus the rest of the building, but he was surprised to find that there were quite a lot of people all around all of the simulations. Thirteen was already speaking, something about quirks and their dangers, but Izuku was focusing on the sinking feeling of dread in his chest. From what he could ‘see,’ there were a multitude of “zones” inside of the building; the Flood Zone, the Mountain Zone, the Fire Zone, the Ruins Zone, the Landslide Zone, and the Downpour zone. Each zone appeared to have between ten and fifteen people there, just… waiting.  

    Katsuki must have noticed something was off with Izuku, because he got over himself and came to stand next to him, not even bothering to lower his voice when he spoke. “Deku? What’s going on?”
    “Bakugou,” Aizawa-sensei said irritably, probably scowling at Katsuki. The blond didn’t look away from Izuku, holding up his hand to silence their teacher. Any other day Izuku might have laughed at the blatant dismissal of a man that so obviously deserved massive amounts of respect, but today was not any other day. 

    “Deku?” Kacchan prompted. Izuku’s senses were beginning to get overwhelmed from all of the noise that all of those people were making, his ‘vision’ swimming. He reached out to clutch at one of Katsuki’s biceps, inhaling and exhaling slowly to try and stave off his panic. 

    “Why are there so many people here?” He asked, panting. Instantly, Aizawa and Thirteen tensed, going on guard. 

   “What are you talking about, Midoriya?” Aizawa demanded. “The only people here are you classmates.”

   “No,” Izuku stuttered, gesturing to the wide expanse they could see from the entrance of the place. “There’s at least one hundred people here.” 

    There was an electrical sounding noise, and then his classmates were crying out. The fountain down in the center of the plaza below shorted out, stopping its flow for a few moments before a large, swirling thing began to appear. From the swirling thing, Izuku could sense at least another forty people beginning to emerge. 

    “Villains!” Thirteen cried, throwing their arms out like a shield over the few students standing close to them. Aizawa was on alert instantly, pulling his costume goggles over his face and readying his capture weapon. 

    “Thirteen, protect the students!” He cried, readying to jump down the steps towards the people in the plaza. The swirling thing disappeared, some strange outline of a man taking its place right behind a small, thing looking man with odd protrusions all over his limbs, and a large hulking creature the likes of Izuku had never seen before. Something inside of him told him that these three were the main crew and should be regarded as the most dangerous. 

    “Well, well, well,” the man in the middle with the protrusions rasped, one of his hand reaching up to scratch at his neck hard enough to draw the tang of copper into the air. “Looks like the cat’s out of the bag, isn’t it, Kurogiri?” 

    “I suppose so, Shigaraki Tomura,” the man with the strange outline said, bowing his head. Even though Izuku couldn’t see, the tingle of goosebumps over his flesh let him know that the man called Shigaraki had locked his eyes on him. 

    “You ruined our little surprise, you brat,” he snarled. 

   “Is this a part of the exercise…?” Kirishima asked, stepping forward to get a closer look at whatever was happening. Bakugou reached and grabbed the scruff of the boy’s neck. 

    “No you fucking idiot, those are real villains!” he hissed. 

   “Make for the exit!” Aizawa growled at them. “I’ll hold them off. Kaminari, try to contact the main campus!” 

   “I can’t, something’s blocking the reception!” He yelped. 

   “Must be someone’s quirk,” Izuku mumbled, shaking his head violently to try and get all of the noise out of his brain. He was still holding onto Kacchan for dear life, although the volatile boy didn’t seem to want to push him away. 

    “Keep trying Pikachu!” He told the other boy. Kaminari nodded and went to work fiddling with his headset. 

    “Sensei, your quirk was only made for three or less villains!” Izuku called to his teacher. Aizawa turned back to them, his voice grave and heart thundering with adrenaline when he responded. 

   “I wouldn’t be much of a hero if I was a one-trick pony. Get the other students to the exit, Midoriya!” With that, he leaped down into the fray of villains in the central plaza, leaving twenty of his terrified students behind. 

Chapter Text

    “Head for the doors!” Thirteen yelled, urging some of Izuku’s classmates back. Izuku was frozen, his mind so filled with an overload of his senses that it had little room for thoughts. It was like his mind was trying to hyperfocus on every area in the large dome, able to see the tiniest bit of rubble in the Ruins Zone and the small drop of water in the Flood Zone. Katsuki had to be the one to shove him forward, leading him away from where their teacher was fighting against the surplus over villains in the plaza below. Some part of Izuku raged at the thought of being led away from the battle, of leaving their teacher behind. He couldn’t help but rip out of Katsuki’s grip, shoving through the crowd until he was sprinting towards the top of the stairs. 

    “Deku!” Kacchan screamed, his voice sounding more terrified than Izuku had ever heard it. Still he didn’t deter from his path, taking the stairs two at a time so he could get to his teacher. ‘ He’s going to die if I don’t get there, he’s going to die, he’s going to die!’  

     “Bakugou, we have to go!” A familiar voice said from the top of the entryway, where Katsuki was apparently trying to go after Deku. 

    “I’m not just fucking leaving him!” Kacchan snapped back, but then suddenly one of the three leaders blipped out of existence. Izuku stumbled on the last three stairs, moving his head to scan the area even though he technically didn’t need to. Then his classmates at the top of the stairs began to scream, and he knew where the man had gone. 

      (x)

   ‘ Deku, what the fuck are you doing?’ Katsuki cursed to himself, beginning to sprint after his childhood friend towards his mad rush for death. Kirishima caught him just before he reached the stairs, hardening his arms against Katsuki’s mad assault to try and get him to let him go. 

    “Bakugou, we have to go!” The redhead said, sounding frantic and afraid. Rage colored Katsuki’s vision at the prospect of leaving Izuku behind with these fucking villains. Deku could take care of himself, he knew that, but against all of them ? The odds were astronomically small. 

   “I’m not just fucking leaving him!” Katsuki’s voice was oddly hysterical as he ripped out of the hardening user’s arms. Before he could rush after the boy, a large, dark apparition appeared in front of him and Kirishima, blocking their eyesight of what could be going on down below. It was the wispy man who’d created the portal that got the villains into the dome in the first place, except this time he’d expanded his body so that it was a dark cloud of mist. 

    “I’m afraid I cannot let any of you leave,” he said, his voice lightly accented with something Katsuki couldn’t identify. Even he had the good sense to step back, leading Kirishima with him before he got into a fighting stance. “You see, we are the League of Villains, and it is our mission to defeat All Might. We were led to believe that he would be here today, but since it appears he is not…” the mist grew in size, the yellow eyes of the man narrowing with maliciousness. “...It appears we will have to kill some children to get him here. You will be distributed across the area and tortured until your death.” 

    “Not on my fucking watch!” Katsuki snapped, lunging for the man. Kirishima was hot on his heels, yelling out something. The man’s yellow eyes widened a fraction before his mist warped, leaving a gaping hole for the two of them to fall out the other side of.

    “Well, that was close,” he muttered before suddenly, the mist swallowed him and Kirishima whole.

     (x)

    Shigaraki Tomura surveyed the area, talking to himself. “All Might was supposed to be here… why isn’t he here, Noumu? Our entire plan is ruined!” 

    He narrowed his cold red eyes at where the pro-hero Eraserhead was beating the cannon fodder they had brought with them. He had many more levels than Tomura had been expecting, which surprised him. He supposed it didn’t matter, since he had Noumu, who was definitely final boss material. Eraserhead wouldn’t be able to erase all of Noumu’s quirks, if he was able to even erase any of them. It was a shame that Sensei wouldn’t have a use for the man’s quirk… Tomura was rather impressed with him. He would have been fun to keep as a pet… 

    A flash of green appeared in the corner of Tomura’s eye, and he whipped around to face it. One of the children, the boy who’d been at the front of the pack, the one who had exposed them , had made it to the base of the stairs and was watching his teacher battle the low-grade villains Tomura had brought. He sneered at the boy, although he didn’t seem to even register than Tomura was looking at him. Tomura cocked his head, studying the boy up and down. He appeared muscular in his skin-tight suit, although his hair was rather messy and unkempt, like there was no one to tell him to smooth down his hair before he left the house. No matter how long Tomura stared at him, he didn’t seem to acknowledge him at all, instead keeping his eyes focused solely on Eraserhead’s battle. 

    And then suddenly he flinched, whirling around the stare up the stairs he’d just ran down. Kurogiri’s mist had expanded itself large enough that Tomura could see it from where he was down by the fountain, although there was significantly less screaming than before. ‘ Good, he distributed the little brats correctly.’  

    The boy turned back around, his entire body turning in a circle, stopping briefly at each zone within the USJ. Tomura raised his eyebrows. Was it possible the boy knew that his friends had been taken to the zones, despite the impossibility of him being able to hear what was going on from the base of the stairs? Unless… he had some sort of hearing quirk? When Shigaraki had scanned Class 1-A’s files, he could remember seeing that three students had quirks that had to do with hearing, two boys and a girl. Perhaps this was one of those boys. 

    “Intriguing,” he muttered to himself, reaching up to scratch at his neck. Something about this boy didn’t make sense to him. Like his XP count might be higher than he was letting on. “Noumu. Bring him to me.” He pointed at the green kid. In a flash the Noumu was gone from his side, shoving through the cannon fodder villains until he appeared at the brat’s side. The kid flinched at Noumu’s sudden appearance, his body instinctively moving into an extensive, complicated kick. His leg connected with the Noumu’s stomach hard enough that if it had been on a normal man, Shigaraki was sure it would have incompacitated them. Given the Noumu’s shock absorption quirk, however, it didn’t move even an inch. The creature reached down and grabbed the boy around the middle with both hands, lifting him into the air before bounding back across the battlefield to bring Tomura his prize. 

    (x)

   Izuku’s heart thudded in his chest, adrenaline running like a drug through his veins as the giant creature’s grip around his middle tightened. He could feel his ribs cracking against the pressure, making breathing that much harder. He clenched his teeth, holding back a scream so he could dig his fingernails into the creature’s hands. It didn’t appear to affect it in the slightest, letting Izuku know that there was something seriously wrong with it. 

     “Ah, thank you Noumu,” a gruff, raspy voice said as the thing- the Noumu- stopped moving. The man with all of the protrusions over his body bowed his head slightly to Izuku, although the teenager got the impression that it was more mocking than respectful. “Hello, little hero .” 

     “Hello, worthless fuck,” Izuku snapped back. ‘ Geez, I’ve got to stop hanging out with Kacchan so much.’  

    The man didn’t appear phased by Izuku’s harsh words, only humming low in his throat while he stepped forward. Izuku struggled against the Noumu’s hold, something inside of him instinctively telling him that he did not want this villain anywhere near him. It was no use, and the man came close to Izuku’s face. “My name is Shigaraki Tomura. Can I ask yours, challenger?” 

   ‘ Challenger?’ Izuku thought, gritting his teeth. “Go to hell.” 

    “Hm,” Shigaraki said. “Noumu?” 

   The Noumu’s grip around Izuku’s middle tightened until he felt like he was being crushed. Izuku couldn’t help the blood-curdling scream that ripped from his throat, feeling blood beginning to bubble up his throat and through his lips. His broken ribs had most definitely punctured something inside of him, much to his dismay. The pain of it was only intensified by his quirk, causing tears to drip down his face despite the humiliation of it. Shigaraki clucked his tongue, leaning in until Izuku could smell the scent of rot and decay leaking from the man’s pores. 

    “Let’s try this again,” he purred, one of his hands reaching up to scratch harshly at his neck, despite the protrusions coming from the area. “What. Is. Your. Name?” 

   “Midoriya Izuku,” he hissed out, coughing around the blood in his mouth. “Why are you doing this?” 

   “Why, he asks?” Shigaraki rubbed his hands together. “Is it time for the final boss’s monologue already?” 

   “Dude, what the hell is wrong with you? Why are you talking in video games? What are you, thirteen?” 

    “I am twenty years old, you petulant child,” the villain snapped. Izuku blinked at him, surprised. 

    “You’re telling me you’re only four years older than me?” 

   “Does it matter ? You’re boring me,” Shigaraki said. “We are here because All Might was supposed to be here, but for some reason he isn’t. Why is that?” 

    “I didn’t even know he was supposed to be here,” Izuku snarled, holding back from screaming every time he spoke. That wasn’t entirely true, he supposed- he could vaguely remember Aizawa-sensei asking Thirteen something about All Might while he’d been distracted with Thirteen’s presence- but he wasn’t about to admit that to the man in front of him. The villain appeared to buy it, because he didn’t ask the Noumu to hurt Izuku anymore. 

    “We’ve heard rumours of All Might growing weaker,” the man said instead, the scratching at his skin getting harsher and harsher with every second. “We are here to kill him while he’s weak.” 

    A flash of the day All Might saved him from the sludge villain came to mind, and the way the man’s outline had changed into something entirely different. The way steam had risen from his body, how his heart rhythm had been that of a sick person rather than the well-built hero he was supposed to be. The way he’d reacted to Izuku saying that he “knew his secret” also came to mind. Too late, Izuku realized he wasn’t schooling his expression, and he quickly tried to wipe the look off of his face. 

   “Noumu, it appears that the boy knows something about what we’re talking about,” Shigaraki said, a smirk in his voice. “Would you like to share with the class, young hero?”

    Izuku grit his teeth, realizing that in order to get out of this, he would have to play his trump card. He hadn’t wanted to expose this to any villains at all in his hero career if he could help it, but here he was not even two weeks into his first year in high school, already about to confess his secret to his very first villain. “I have no idea what you could be talking about.” 

    The man sneered, his voice growing angry. “Noumu-!” 

   “Because I’m blind, you sick freak!” Izuku cried out, beating his fists against the Noumu’s. Shigaraki froze, his heart stuttering a bit in his chest. He hadn’t put the pieces together himself, as it turned out, if the caution in his tone said anything.

    “You’re lying to me,” he hissed. “A blind kid can’t get into the hero course.” 

   “They can if they have a sensory quirk,” Izuku admitted. “I can hear your heartbeat, Shigaraki Tomura. I can tell that you’re nervous to be here. I can tell that you’ve been watching Aizawa-sensei defeat your villain friends behind me, and you don’t like how it’s going.” 

   “You-” 

   “Would you like to know something else?” Izuku cut in. “I may not be able to see, but I can hear pretty damn well. I can hear my classmates fighting for their lives all around this place, and you know what?” He leaned in closer to Shigaraki’s face, the Noumu’s height making their faces parallel to each other. “They’re winning . That means you’re losing. Not much of a final boss if a bunch of teenagers can defeat you, is it?” 

    “Noumu!” Shigaraki screamed, and Midoriya prepared to be crushed by the hulking creature holding him hostage. “Let him go!” 

   Suddenly the tightness around his torso disappeared, and Izuku crumpled to the ground, landing hard on his knees. It jarred his bones hard enough that he began hacking up more blood, his broken ribs piercing something inside of him even harder than they had been before. It didn’t take a genius to realize that he was internally bleeding. If he wanted to make it out of this alive, then he didn’t have long before he would succumb to the pain. 

    “He’s mine ,” Shigaraki said, crouching down so he could look Izuku in the eyes again. “Prepare yourself, little hero. Your pathetic quirk has nothing against mine.” He reached out with his hand, his fingers coming right toward Izuku’s face. 

    (x)

   “Fucking shit!” Katsuki hissed, exploding the last villain out of his face and halfway across the fire zone. Kirishima was already staring at the central plaza, waving Katsuki over so that they could both see what was going on. That massive fucking bird thing had Deku in it’s grasp, holding him face-to-face with the guy covered in rotting hands. Deku appeared fine for the moment, the two of them only speaking to each other, but if Katsuki knew Deku at all, then that wouldn’t last long. 

    “We should make sure everyone else is alright,” Kirishima said, sounding nervous. 

   “I have to go for Deku,” Katsuki spat, beginning to make his way towards the central plaza. Kirishima yelped and followed him, tugging on one of his grenade bracers to try and stop him. 

   “Bro, as much as I respect you and Midori-bro’s bromance, that’s way too dangerous! We should make sure everyone else is alive, since we can see he’s okay for now!” 

    Katsuki snarled at the redhead, baring his teeth at him in warning. “ Fuck. Off. If I know Deku at all, which I do , then he’s about to piss that guy off really fucking bad . He’s not gonna make it out of there without my help! If you want to go check on the rest of the extras, then be my fucking guest! Otherwise, follow me and stay fucking quiet!” He twisted in his tracks and stomped back down the path towards the central plaza, already planning his attack in his mind as he went. He could hear Kirishima cursing and muttering behind him before the sound of footsteps accompanied it. 

    “Wait for me!” Shitty Hair said. Katsuki smirked to himself. 

     (x)

    Todoroki Shouto froze over the villain’s mouth, deciding he didn’t care if they got hypothermia or not. It would serve them right, choosing the path of villainy and all. When he turned around, he surveyed the horizon, trying to see if he could see any of his other classmates. The Landslide Zone was somewhat far away from the rest of the zones, taking place on the mountain structure and all. He knew that on the other side of the mountain was the Mountain Zone, but he figure it would take too long to hike all of that way when he wasn’t even sure if anyone was trapped there. He was within eyesight of the central plaza however, even though it was far enough away that he couldn’t hear anything that was going on. He could see that his homeroom teacher was fighting against quite a lot of villains, and that out of the forty he’d gone to take on, there were only about five left. 

    The man was impressive, Shouto would give him that. It was a shame he’d decided to be an underground hero, when he probably could have made it into the top ranks if he so pleased. Aizawa Shouta was not a creature for the spotlight though, that much was shown from his fierce love for sleep and energy drinks. 

    Besides his teacher, Shouto could also vaguely see that the large, bird-like creature was holding something small and green in his grasp. With some squinting, Todoroki was shocked to find that it was his blind classmate, Midoriya Izuku. Midoriya was somewhat of a mystery to him if he was being frank. He showed all of the characteristics of someone who should be weak- he was rather small, he was blind , he didn’t have a particularly powerful quirk to speak of. Despite all of this, Yaoyorozu Momo herself had admitted that she considered him the most powerful one in their class. Hearing her reasoning, Todoroki actually found himself agreeing that Midoriya was probably at least in the top five students. Todoroki had grown up alongside Iida Tenya and Yaoyorozu Momo, since the Yaoyorozu family were quite rich and powerful and often sponsored Endeavor’s agency, and the Iida family came from a long line of heroes. Thus he knew that Tenya could be a bit hard to reason with at times, what with his “stickler for the rules” personality. He also knew that Yaomomo was brilliant, and if she told you something was correct, nine times out of ten she was right. 

     Both of them appeared to have a begrudging respect for Midoriya. That made him dangerous in Shouto’s eyes. He was competition that he would have to prove himself against if he wanted to prove to his father that he would become number one without using that bastard’s quirk. If he couldn’t beat a blind kid, then what did that make him? 

    He caught sight of a blur of red and orange heading towards the central plaza, and Shouto realized that it was one of his other rivals, Bakugou Katsuki, walking alongside the red haired one that he couldn’t remember the name of. They were heading towards the central plaza, likely to try and face the main villains themselves. Well then, this would be a good test. Shouto got himself together and started along the path after them.

     (x)

    Aizawa Shouta was absolutely done with his fucking students. He’d specifically ordered them all to get to the exits, and what did his Problem Student do? That’s right, he went down into the fight all alone . If they all got out of this alive, Shouta was going to maim that fucking kid. 

    Surprisingly, Shouta had faith that no matter what happened, Midoriya Izuku was smart enough to get himself out of it. He was the one who had given the kid the oral version of the written exam after all. He’d been the one who continuously got more and more shocked as the kid got each and every question correct. He had expected him to hesitate, to get at least one wrong, but no dice. The kid was basically a genius, and the fact that his previous schools had ignored it simply because of his vision impairment was almost criminal. 

    Shouta smacked down the very last one of the weakass villains, he paused in order to catch his breath, only to be frozen in place as he heard Midoriya began to scream. It wasn’t like the scream he’d let out before, when that giant creature had been crushing him in his fist. No, that scream had been something bone-chilling and had given Shouta a mini heart attack. This scream? This scream was like nothing he had ever heard before. This scream was pure anguish. It was torture, it was so horrifying that he knew he would be hearing it in his nightmares for the rest of his days. It was the kind of sound that only escaped an animal that knew it was about to die, the kind of sound that should never, ever leave the lips of a child. 

    Shouta whipped his head up to find that the villain covered in hands had gripped his student’s right arm in one of his hands, and to Shouta’s horror, Midoriya’s arm was crumbling into pieces. His instincts kicked in and he activated his quirk, ceasing the disintegration of Midoriya’s arm. It took a few moments before either of the two realized what had happened, and Shigaraki was the first one to gain his senses. He turned towards Aizawa, dropping Midoriya’s arm. The boy collapsed into a ball, his blood beginning to stain the pavement of the USJ red. 

    “Very cool, Eraserhead,” the villain who had been called “Shigaraki” said, clapping his hands sardonically. “I’ve always admired your work of course, but I never thought you would be powerful enough to defeat forty of my cannon fodder. I shouldn’t underestimate one of the key players, I suppose.” The man’s smirk dropped into a cold look. “Noumu, grab him.” 

    “No!” Izuku screamed, reaching out his good arm towards Shouta. Before the older hero could so much as flinch, his arm was being twisted behind his back. He let out a cry of pain as his elbow was snapped by the rough motion, the Noumu’s other hand lacing itself in his hair. He barely had a moment to breathe before his face was being crushed into the concrete below him. 

    (x)

    “We have to do something!” Tsuyu said, her eyes wide on the situation at hand. “They’re going to be killed!”

   “Are you crazy?!” Mineta yelled, reaching up to grab hold of Tsuyu’s arm to hold her in place. They’d been able to incapacitate the villains in the flood zone with his sticky balls while she swam them to safety, and now they stood at the very edge of the plaza, still knee deep in the water. “ We’ll get killed if we go out there!” 

    “We have to try, kero !” Tsuyu narrowed her eyes to assess the situation. She caught sight of movement next to her and only barely held back a scream as three of her classmates dropped down silently into the water beside her. Kirishima held up a hand and placed it over her mouth, bring a finger to his lips. Bakugou sneered at her before looking back at the plaza, his eyes flashing with fury. Tsuyu had a moment to remember that he and Midoriya were apparently best friends, even though they appeared to have been fighting over the past week. Fighting or not, it couldn’t have been fun to see one’s best friend being tortured the way Midoriya had just been. Todoroki was the last student to join them, just his presence in the water making it a few degrees colder. 

    “What’s the plan, then?” The boy asked, sounding almost bored. Bakugou didn’t flinch at his voice, only hummed for a moment. Tsuyu pushed Kirishima’s hand away from her face, to which he shrugged apologetically and turned back to Bakugou. 

    “We shouldn’t do anything, are you listening to me?” Mineta whispered. “We will be m-u-r-d-e-r-e-d! That spells murdered!” 

     “If you wanna be a fucking coward, be my guest grape face,” Bakugou snapped. “The rest of us are going to actually act like the heroes we’re trying to be to save my best friend.” 

    “So manly,” Kirishima agreed. 

    “I trust you to lead us, Bakugou-chan, kero, ” Asui agreed. Bakugou gave her a dirty look for tacking on the girly honorific, but otherwise he didn’t say anything. Pretty much the entire class had accepted it as one of her weird little quirks, like her ribbiting. 

     “Alright, so here’s what we’re going to do,” the blond teenager finally said, leaning in closer so that he could speak to all of them. 

     (x)

    “Aizawa… sensei….” Izuku croaked, black dots swimming in his vision. The ground was vibrating every thirty seconds or so, and Izuku felt nauseous knowing that it was the impact of his teacher’s skull against the ground. Shigaraki had his back to Izuku as he monologued to the pro-hero, ranting about how the hero society was just as villaneous as the true villains, or something equally idiotic. Izuku’s senses were fading in and out of focus, but he was still able to make out the exact moment that Iida made it out of the building. Thirteen was down, and Shouji was injured up above, but when he opened his ears to the rest of the facility, he found the rest of his classmates were all either in the process of defeating the villains, or had already defeated them and were now making their way back to the central plaza. 

    That meant Izuku had very little time to act. He was only able to push himself up onto one knew before the apparition man appeared next to Shigaraki’s side, startling him so badly that he almost fell back over. 

    “Shigaraki Tomura,” the apparition man said gravely. “One of the students was able to escape the facility. What should we do?” 

    “You imbecile!” Shigaraki sneered, resuming the scratching on his throat. Seriously, the guy was drawing blood from how hard he was scratching, it couldn’t be healthy. Izuku shakily got his other leg under him, keeping low to the ground. He turned his head towards where he had heard his classmates planning their attack against the three villains, staring at Katsuki’s familiar form, willing him to turn and look at Izuku. After a few precious moments, he did, his heart skipping  a beat when he saw that Izuku was standing again. 

   “Deku, can you hear me?” The boy said softly. Izuku nodded to him minutely, holding up his good arm. He kept his bad one tucked close to his torso, also trying to keep from jostling his cracked and broken ribs as much as possible. He was forced to take shallower and shallower breaths every passing second, and he was dangerously close to falling unconscious. He knew he needed to execute his plan before any of the rest of their classmates got to the plaza. If any more of them came, he would have to worry about protecting them rather than taking care of the villains. At least with Kacchan here, he knew he didn’t need to worry about Kirishima, Asui, Mineta or Todoroki. Kacchan couldn’t protect eighteen students, though. 

    “Did you hear our plan?” Katsuki asked. Izuku nodded again, pointing to the Noumu. Katsuki’s pulse quickened as he got angry, making Izuku resist the urge to roll his eyes. “No. No . Deku, are you fucking insane? That thing crushed you, you can’t take it head on! Out of the question, just leave this to us!” 

    Izuku shook his head and looked away from the group of them, tiptoeing his way closer to where the Noumu was still holding their teacher by his hair. Aizawa’s heart was alternating between beating quickly and slowing down to a glacial place; he was also in critical condition. He would need a hospital soon, almost as bad as Izuku, or else neither of them would make it out of there alive. He could only pray that Iida made it to the rest of their teachers in time to get them out of there. 

     “Hey ugly!” Katsuki’s voice screamed from across the plaza, resounding explosions following his voice. Shigaraki and who the villain had called “Kurogiri” turned towards the noise, Kurogiri immediately getting pinned by an enraged Bakugou. Kirishima tackled Shigaraki, throwing him across the plaza so hard that a few of his protrusions fell off of his body. Katsuki began cackling about how he’d known Kurogiri had a corperial body, but Izuku wasn’t listening, his gaze staying fixed on the Noumu. He’d figured out that the thing was basically useless without a master, and with Mineta currently screaming and chucking the sticky balls that apparently made up his hair at Shigaraki, thus pinning him to the ground, Izuku knew it was immobile for the moment. 

    Todoroki’s ice began to erupt out of the ground, encasing the Noumu even though it wasn’t necessary. He ran over to Izuku’s side, Asui hot on his heels to begin peeling Aizawa from the creature’s meaty hands. “Midoriya! Are you alright?” 

    “Make… me… an icicle,” Izuku panted at the boy, holding out his free hand. Todoroki’s heart was racing in his chest despite his cool and composed demeanor, letting Izuku know that he was actually just as terrified as the rest of them. 

    “What? Midoriya-” he tried to say, reaching out to touch Izuku. Izuku snarled at him like an animal, taking a page out of Kacchan’s Book of Intimidation™. 

   “Make me a fucking icicle, Todoroki-kun! A sharp one!” The yelling only caused fresh blood to pool inside of his mouth, but he spit it out onto the ground like tobacco. Todoroki held out his right palm, something cylindrical and sharp appearing out of the middle. He detached the thing and held it out for Izuku warily. 

    “What are you going to do with it?” he asked. 

   Izuku took it, testing its weight in his hand before he closed the distance between himself and the Noumu. He closed his eyes, opening his senses and using all of the noise to sharpen his ‘vision.’ He could see the sharpness of a few footholds in the ice, so he tucked the sharp icicle in between his injured, bleeding arm and his mangled torso, using his free hand and legs to hoist his body up to the top of the Noumu. Asui finally got their teacher free, wrapping her tongue around his body to leap away from them before she paused at the sight of him. 

    “Midoriya-chan, what are you doing?” She asked him, seeming torn between getting Aizawa away from the immediate danger or helping Izuku. Izuku grit his teeth against the waves of pain in his body, squeezing his eyes shut tighter to try and stave it off. 

    He finally made it up to the Noumu’s shoulders, bracing one of his knees against them before wielding the icicle in his good hand, raising it up over the Noumu’s head. He’d heard in Kacchan’s plan to the rest of them that they should “ignore the bird-fuck with the exposed brain” while he was still struggling to get to his feet. Well, if it really had an exposed brain, then that made his job all the easier. 

    At the same moment he moved to bring the icicle down into the motionless Noumu’s head, Shigaraki’s shrill voice broke out over the courtyard. “Noumu!” 

    The monster flinched, reacting to its master’s voice. It was too late though, as Izuku brought the sharp object down into its brain. The creature’s entire form shuddered from head to toe, an inhuman screech barking out of its mouth before it went limp in the ice. The movement tumbled Izuku from his careful perch on its shoulders, sending him careening towards the ground. He barely had a moment to brace himself for the pain of hitting the ground before he was caught in midair by a person with hard arms and an exposed chest. 

    “Midoriya-kun!” Kirishima said, gently lowering Izuku to the ground. Izuku’s ribs jostled him so much that he could practically feel the hole in his lungs tearing open wider, making him gasp loudly from the sheer agony of it. His senses all shut down one by one, starting with his sense of touch and ending with his hearing. The last thing he heard was the doors to the USJ slamming open, the thunderous sound of All Might’s voice sending him into sweet unconsciousness. 

Chapter Text

    Aizawa Shouta jerked awake with a groan, the deep ache behind his eyes growing even more intense with the sudden motion. He could hear something loud beeping in the same room with him, although when he opened his eyes, he found that there appeared to be some kind of cloth covering them. His heart wouldn’t stop pounding in his chest, his very first thought being about the students he had left behind in the USJ. Had his students made it out alive? The last thing he remembered was trying to get to Midoriya Izuku when his arm was being disintegrated by that villain with all of the severed hands covering his body. 

    “Whoa, Shouta!” the familiar voice of Shouta’s husband said from somewhere to his right. Gentle hands pressed against his shoulders, forcing him to ease back onto the fluffy pillows behind him. Knowing that Hizashi was there helped Shouta’s heart rate slow, and subsequently also the loud beeping in the room. Now that he was a bit more coherent, it was obvious to him that he was in a hospital room. ‘ So the USJ is over? Where are my kids?’  

    “The students,” Eraserhead croaked, his voice sounding hoarse from lack of proper hydration. Hizashi shushed him, taking his hands away to place something hard and cool in Shouta’s hand. It was a cup, with a straw that he used to greedily suck down the water provided to him. 

   “Your students are alive,” Hizashi explained, settling back into his chair from the sounds of it. 

   “Are any of them hurt?” Shouta asked before sucking down the last of his water. Hizashi was suspiciously silent for a moment too long, causing Shouta to panic. Somehow, he knew without the blond man having to say anything who exactly was hurt. “Midoriya Izuku. He’s… he’s alive?” 

   “He’s alive,” Present Mic reassured. “He’s a tough little listener, I’ll give him that. That villain with the hands, Shigaraki Tomura, used his quirk called ‘ Disintegration’ to disintegrate the top of Midoriya’s right arm all the way down to the bone. Luckily with Recovery Girl’s help and a few reconstructive surgeons, he’ll end up having a full recovery. He also sustained multiple fractures to his ribs, two of which ended up piercing his left lung. If we hadn’t arrived when we had, then he probably would have drowned in his own blood. He was pretty damn close as it was.”    

    Aizawa closed his eyes against the bandages, finally letting the tension bleed out of his shoulders. “But everyone else is okay?” 

    “Nothing more than some cuts and bruises,” Hizashi assured. “You did a good job, Shou.” 

   “I couldn’t protect him,” Eraserhead said, more to himself than to his husband. 

   “No, because according to the kid himself, you were busy taking on forty-three villains all by yourself,” Mic snapped back. “Which is your new record by the way!” 

    Shouta couldn’t help but smirk at that, before Mic’s words registered in his mind. “Wait, the kid is awake? How long have I been out?” 

   “About twenty hours,” Hizashi admitted. “The kid woke up two hours ago and gave his statement about what happened to the police. His classmates are really worried about him, and that loud Bakugou kid won’t leave his side.” 

    “They’re best friends,” Shouta said tiredly, rubbing at his forehead. His face twinged with pain, reminding him of the injuries he himself had sustained. He didn’t ask about them yet, too eager to go check on his students himself. He began to get himself out of the hospital bed, ignoring the pounding of blood in his head when he suddenly stood. “What room is he in?” 

   “What? You can’t just get up and leave!” Present Mic squawked, but Shouta was having none of it. He reached for the I.V. they’d put in his arm, pinching the skin right around the needle to carefully extract it before he tossed it onto his bed. He reached up and tore off the bandages on his face, blinking against the harsh hospital lighting. Hizashi was just staring at him with an exasperated look on his face, knowing by their sixth year in marriage that it really was just best to follow Shouta and make sure he didn’t further injure himself than to try to stop him in the first place. 

    Shouta made it down the hall before his husband caught up to him, grumbling before he took his arm to lead him to Midoriya’s room. The whole time, Shouta’s heart pounded heavily in his chest. What if Midoriya actually wasn’t okay, and Hizashi had just been lying to placate Shouta? Not that Shouta thought he would do that, but what if? 

    The door to the boy’s hospital room was open when they got there. Shouta didn’t hesitate to burst into the place, startling the two occupants of the room; Bakugou and Midoriya. There were Get Well cards and present strewn all around the room, each of them obviously from the members of Class 1-A and their parents. Bakugou was glaring daggers at Shouta and Hizashi’s arrival, clearly upset that the two of them had interrupted Izuku’s care, but Shouta couldn’t bring himself to tear his eyes away from his Problem Child. The greenet was staring at him, and although Shouta knew he couldn’t see him, somehow he could tell that the boy desperately wanted to. Probably to check him for injuries, the same way the black haired man was doing to him. 

    “Aizawa-sensei?” Midoriya said, his voice sounding rough and broken. All of the tension left Shouta’s shoulders at the sound of his voice, even though he was mentally taking inventory of the boy. He had a serious bandage on his right arm, extending all the way up to his shoulder. He was shirtless, but his torso was wrapped in bandages as well. The right side of his face was bruised and scraped like he’d been thrown against gravel, and his left ankle was propped on a pillow at the foot of his bed, wrapped up like it had been sprained. His head was also wrapped with bandages spotted in red, both in the front and the back. The poor kid had clearly been through the wringer while Aizawa was stupid enough to get distracted. 

    “Midoriya,” he breathed, pushing every ounce of relief he felt into that single word. Present Mic grabbed one of his arms, slinging it around his shoulders to keep him steady on his feet when he wobbled. “If you weren’t so beat up, I would be kicking your ass right now for defying my orders.” 

     Had it been any of his other students, they either would have acted ashamed or scared of him. Midoriya had never been like the others though, and proved it more when he laughed at Shouta’s threat. “No, you wouldn’t,” he chuckled. 

    “You don’t know that,” Shouta snapped. 

   “I can hear your heartbeat Sensei, I know when you’re lying,” Midoriya grinned cheekily. Shouta couldn’t help the embarrassed blush that rose to his cheeks, glad for once that Midoriya couldn’t see. The smirk Bakugou was giving him was bad enough. 

   “Whatever. I’m… I’m glad you’re alright, Problem Child.” He cleared his throat and fixed his eyes on both Bakugou and Midoriya. “If you ever defy my orders again, I won’t hesitate to expel you on the spot. Do I make myself clear?” 

    Bakugou looked at Midoriya, probably checking for the presence of a lie. When Midoriya nodded back to him, Katsuki sighed and nodded his assent. “It won’t happen again, Sensei.” 

    “It better not,” the dark haired man grumbled. “Bakugou, why don’t you walk me back to my room while Present Mic keeps Midoriya company.” 

    Bakugou eyed his teacher contemplatively before finally getting up from his chair. Hizashi gently took Shouta’s arm off of his shoulders and filled the freshly vacated seat, already starting to chatter up a storm at poor Midoriya. Bakugou held out his elbow for Shouta to hold onto while he helped him back down the hall to his room. He didn’t ask where it was, which let Aizawa know that the blond had already visited him while he was unconscious. The thought made him smile. 

    “I couldn’t help but notice that Midoriya’s mom was nowhere to be found,” Shouta said suddenly, halfway to his room already. Bakugou’s footsteps faltered before resuming quickly, Shouta’s statement clearly having caught him off guard. 

    “How do you know she isn’t just out doing something?” He asked, just as nonchalantly as Shouta had spoken. 

    “Because I doubt you’ve left Midoriya’s side since he arrived here, right?” At the boy’s begrudging nod, he continued. “That’s the same reaction any mother would have had to her son having a near-death experience. And yet Midoriya-san is nowhere to be seen.”

    Bakugou helped Aizawa back into his hospital bed, one of his explosive hands hovering over the nurse call light for the man’s I.V. to be put back in. “What exactly are you asking me, Sensei?” 

    Aizawa rolled his eyes at the evasiveness, but then again, he expected nothing less. The nurse hurried into the room, clucking her tongue when she saw what Shouta had done to the I.V.. She replaced the needle with the speed of a slug, missing Shouta’s vein three times before she finally inserted the needle into his arm correctly. Both men watched her leave before Shouta bothered to speak his question. 

    “I’m asking why she wasn’t with her son today,” he said. Bakugou’s brow furrowed and he sunk into the chair at Aizawa’s bedside, surprising the older hero. He hadn’t expected this conversation to turn serious enough that Bakugou would feel the need to sit down, but that’s clearly where this was heading. 

    “Auntie… Auntie used to be one of my favorite people in the world,” Bakugou began, his red eyes becoming far away as he remembered his memories. “She was kind, and pretty, and always smelled like cookies. Deku and I used to vy for her attention because we both loved her so much. That was before Deku’s quirk came in… before he went blind. By the time he was four, his father left and he lost his sight, and became unbelievably sensitive to the world because of his new quirk. Smells, touching, hearing, all of it was nearly unbearable to him for such a long time. Auntie wasn’t handling her new, fragile son well, not when her husband and main source of income had just left them both. 

    “I don’t know why she felt she couldn’t just get a normal job; maybe she thought she wouldn’t be able to get one, or maybe she tried and I just didn’t know. Whatever the case was, Deku and I had a falling out right around the time his quirk developed, and I didn’t see Auntie’s descent. The word on the street was that she started selling her body for money. Since the apartment they live in was already paid off, at least the two of them didn’t have to worry about that. 

    “Pretty soon, Deku started coming to school with bruises and weird moods. Sometimes he would be on top of the world, blabbering to anyone who would listen about how he loved his mom and missed her when she was away, or something like that, and then other times, he would come to school looking like… well, like his dad had left again or some shit. It’s hard to explain, but we all knew that the rumours were true soon enough. Auntie had started prostituting herself for cash, but since there was no concrete proof, no one could do anything about it. 

     “Deku and I didn’t get close again for a while. When we finally started talking, he opened up to me a little bit more. He would complain sometimes about how he could smell everything, and I mean everything . He knew when his mom had just come home from ‘work,’ and how many guys she’d serviced because he could smell their fuckin’ spunk, or something like that. God, I can’t even imagine. Anyway, he started admitting to me that Auntie’s been doing drugs, like hard drugs. She’s almost always high, and if she’s not, then she’s crashing so hard she passes the fuck out. Deku’s been basically taking care of himself since he was little. It’s probably why he has a hero complex now, because he had to be his own parent and he doesn’t want anyone else to have to go through that, or some shit. I don’t know. 

    “Not too long ago, we were talking on the phone when he started acting really weird. He hung up on me, and I just got this… bad feeling, you know? I was so fucking worried about him that I almost just went over there, but then suddenly my mom’s knocking on my fucking door, telling me that Deku’s here and he’s gonna sleep over. He’s shaking and crying like nobody’s business, and he won’t tell me the full story of what happened. He just said his mom’s scary pimp had come over and freaked him out until he ran away. My mom came back in and forced him to get in the shower before she started making fun of me until he came back in. 

     “That’s basically all I know. He hasn’t really confided in me since then.” 

   Shouta sat back against his pillows, taking the whole story in. Midoriya’s mother was a druggie prostitute who most likely abused her son, whether it be psychologically or physically, if these ‘bruises’ said anything about it. Shouta had been able to tell from day one that there was something off about Midoriya, and now that he knew the backstory, it was so obvious to him. He showed classic signs of parental abuse; yielding to authority sometimes, but other times completely disregarding it if he felt that his opinion was better. The lack of self-confidence, but getting offended when anyone else questioned his capabilities. His absolute shock that any of his classmates would like him enough to vote him as their class president. 

     “I see,” Shouta told Bakugou, realizing that the boy was waiting for some kind of answer. “Thank you for filling me in, Bakugou-kun. I’ll… I’ll see what I can find out about Midoriya’s situation. Don’t worry, I won’t tell him you told me.” 

    “Thanks, I guess,” Bakugou grumbled, getting out of the seat next to Shouta’s bed. “...Get better soon, or whatever.” 

    And with that, he was gone, most likely back into Midoriya’s hospital room. Shouta sagged into his pillows and closed his eyes, wondering what on earth he was going to do about his Problem Student. 

Chapter Text

       Just like Izuku suspected, by the time he was released from the hospital to go back home, his mother hadn’t noticed he was even missing. She hadn’t visited him once in the hospital, even though Kacchan had said he’d called her multiple times. Even Auntie Mitsuki and Uncle Masaru had visited, asking each time where Inko was. He lied each time they asked. He trusted Kacchan not to say anything, since he hadn’t said anything to them so far. 

   Stumbling into his apartment felt almost surreal, since he’d been stuck in the hospital for days. The USJ incident had taken place on a Thursday, and given the attack, Class 1-A had been given Friday off. Now it was Sunday, and Izuku was exhausted, although he knew he’d have to go to school the next day. Not all of him was completely healed yet, as he still had enough cuts, bruises and aches to incapacitate him, but nothing was life-threatening anymore. He counted that as a plus. Recovery Girl had given an order that he rest up for the next two or three weeks until he was completely healed, lest he rip open the internal stitches holding him together. 

     The apartment was empty, just as Izuku expected. It was late in the afternoon, bordering on evening, so his mother had most likely gone to the streets to look for johns. Izuku made his way to the bathroom, stripping all of his clothes off quickly so he could hop in the shower. Hospital showers just did not do it for him. There were always nurses standing right outside the door in case you fell over or something, and if that wasn’t enough, the door had to be open at all times. Needless to say, Izuku was glad to shower at home. 

    He took his time scrubbing himself down, cursing his quirk for making all of his bruises and cuts so sensitive to the touch. It took him a good forty minutes to clean himself thoroughly until he couldn’t smell the stale antiseptic of the hospital, but by the time he got out, he already felt a hundred times better. He couldn’t sense anyone else in the apartment yet, so he didn’t bother putting clothes on before he walked back to his bedroom. Digging through his drawers, he reached for the section of his dresser where he kept his white t-shirts, then to his drawer where he kept his boxers and pajama bottoms. Izuku didn’t have many clothes, so at least he knew that everything would match regardless of if it was in the right place or not. He’d bought all of his clothing with this thought in mind. 

     After he dressed himself, he went about caring for his wounds, applying ointment and reapplying the bandages he’d taken off before showering. The nurses had shown him specifically how to do it, since he’d let them know that his mother wasn’t often home and he’d have to do them all by himself. It wasn’t technically a lie, since Inko would be incapacitated whenever she was home, anyway. 

     Hours later, when Izuku was tucked into his bed, just barely drowsing off, he heard the sound of the front door knob being jiggled. He was out of his bed in an instant, creeping down the hallway and closer to the front entrance so he could use his quirk to assess what was happening outside of the door. He recognized the familiar outline of his mother, slumped in the arms of an equally familiar man, tall with wide muscles. Izuku froze at the sight of him. Something about this man sent Izuku’s confidence and fighting training running away, the exact opposite of how he’d been during the USJ attack. Unfortunately, he was so frozen in shock and fear that he didn’t think to get out of eyesight before the pimp was able to unlock the front door. 

    The man’s eyes locked on Izuku’s almost immediately. Izuku may not have been able to see it, but he could somehow feel the man’s heavy gaze light a weight over all of his skin. Goosebumps erupted all over him, but he knew better than to turn and run to his room. The last time he’d done that, he’d been forced to climb out the window to get to Kacchan’s house, and when he’d come back, his bedroom door had been kicked in and his dresser had been knocked over from when Izuku had used it as a barricade. His door was still broken, so the point where he had to use his dresser almost every night to keep his mother out. 

    “Hello, you,” the pimp smirked, hauling his mother’s unconscious body to the couch so he could dump her there. Izuku took a shaky step back, but it was all the chance he had before the pimp had turned back around. “I’ve been looking all over for you, Greenie . Where you been?” 

   ‘ Greenie. Midori,’ Izuku thought to himself dully. ‘ Didn’t Ashido-san call me that…?’

   “W-why do you n-need me?” He questioned, trying to keep his voice from shaking but failing. ‘ This is ridiculous. I can face down villains and take the beating of a lifetime, but I’m scared of this man? In my own home?’  

     The pimp inched his way closer to Izuku until he was a few paces away. He reached out one of his big, meaty hands, caressing the side of Izuku’s face. Izuku turned his head away, shivering in disgust from the sensation of his skin crawling. The pimp laughed at him, but still reached out to grip Izuku’s jaw tightly. Midoriya stared at him wide-eyed, studying the man’s outline as best he could. He smelled like cigarette smoke, body odor and his mother’s perfume. It was enough to make bile rise in Izuku’s mouth. 

     “Your mama owes me some money, kid,” the pimp declared, taking his hand away. “You got the money she owes me?” 

    “N-no!” Izuku shook his head, feeling even sicker. He had been taking money for groceries from his mother for a long time, but never in a million years did he think that it was meant to go to someone else. If this pimp found out that Izuku was technically stealing from him, there was no telling what he would do. 

    The pimp laughed at the look on Izuku face, reaching out to thread his fingers through his curls. He gripped tight on the strands, making Izuku cry out and reach up to try and get the offending digits off. It was useless however, because no matter how strong Izuku was, or how well-trained he was, the man wouldn’t be letting go of him anytime soon. 

    “Don’t worry, bunny, I believe you,” he cooed, raking his blunt fingernails over Izuku’s scalp. “But that doesn’t solve my problem. What can you do for me to pay me back, hm?” 

    “I- I-” Izuku began to stutter, not knowing what he could possibly say to get himself out of the situation. And then suddenly, the pimp let go of him, stepping backwards to make his way back to the door. 

    “I’m sure I’ll think of something, cutie,” he called back to Izuku. “I expect you to answer when I call, got it?” He didn’t bother to wait for Izuku to answer before he was gone. 

    The moment the door closed behind the man Izuku collapsed, sucking in gasping breaths of air. He was vaguely aware he was having a panic attack, of which he seemed to be having more and more of lately. He scrambled up off of the hallway ground, turning to bolt into his bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him. He knew his mother was most likely conked out until well after he left for school the next morning, but the little piece of interference between him and her made him feel just a tiny bit safer. 

    Through his panic, Midoriya was still able to locate what had been able to get him through his last panic attack; the single-bladed razor he used to shave his face when he needed it. He didn’t hesitate to unhook the single blade from its metal casing, rubbing the pad of his thumb over the sharp edge. He fell to the ground with his back pressed against the bathtub, wiggling out of his pajama pants until the entirety of his thighs were exposed. He ran the fingers of his free hand over the skin of his right thigh, pausing over the large scar that Recovery Girl had healed, mistakenly thinking the wound had happened during the USJ battle. Something about the puffy skin sparked a sense of pride within Izuku, as twisted as it was. It was like a declaration that he’d made it through his last panic attack. 

    So he took a deep breath and poised the blade just underneath the previous wound, prepared to do whatever it took to get through this one. 

Chapter Text

      Shouta made eye contact with Katsuki, despite him looking through all of the bandages Recovery Girl had forced him to put back on his face. Bakugou seemed to know that Shouta was looking at him, because he merely shook his head once. 

    Midoriya had been acting strangely ever since he stepped into the classroom, and the older blond boy didn’t know why. Shouta didn’t know much about the two’s relationship- just that they’d known each other since they could remember, and they were best friends- but something about Izuku’s silence about his own well-being didn’t strike Shouta as uncommon . In fact, the kid seemed pretty damn determined to keep all of his secrets to himself, whatever those secrets might be. Given what Bakugou had admitted to him when they’d spoken at the hospital, Aizawa didn’t like it one bit. From the look on Bakugou’s face, he didn’t like it either. 

   “Alright class, I have two announcements to make,” Shouta drawled, keeping his usual bored tone. The class snapped to attention from when they’d no doubt been gossiping about Aizawa’s appearance, and whether or not he should be in school with all he had been through. “First of all, some of you may have noticed, but your classmate Mineta Minoru has dropped out of school,” he declared, gesturing to the desk behind Midoriya’s. The greenet didn’t move a muscle, almost like he hadn’t heard Aizawa at all. There were various mutterings across the room, all ranging from “thank goodness” and “good riddance,” but not much else. “The next announcement is more serious. Although the USJ attack has ended, it is not the only battle you will have to face.” 

   “What else is there?” Sero asked, slamming his hands on his desk exasperatedly. 

   “More villains?” Ashido asked, glancing around the room in a panic. Aizawa rolled his eyes, praying to any god that would listen to give him strength. ‘ Of course. This is a hero school, but we’re going to purposefully sic villains on you. That makes sense.’

   “The U.A. Annual Sports Festival,” he announced. That finally got a reaction from Midoriya, the boy’s head snapping up so he could look at Shouta with wide, sightless eyes. The dark haired man resisted the urge to pump his fist in the air, knowing it would just make him look silly for no reason. 

    He spent the rest of his class period explaining the merits of the Sports Festival, and how it was the perfect opportunity for all of them to get onto pro-heroes’ radar. All of the students were beginning to look more and more excited, including Izuku. It made what Aizawa had to do all the worse, considering the festival had finally drawn the boy out from his shell. As the bell rang signalling a five-minute break before Present Mic’s class, Shouta leaned against his desk and cleared his throat. “Midoriya, can you come speak with me for a moment?” 

    Shouta didn’t miss the panicked look Bakugou sent him. The kid probably thought that he was going to snitch on what they’d talked about in the hospital, but that wasn’t what was on Aizawa’s mind. Midoriya got out of his seat, walking up to Aizawa at the front of the class. He kept his head down, and although Aizawa normally would have admonished a student for being careless while walking, it wasn’t as if Midoriya really needed his eyes to “see.” 

    “Yes, Sensei?” 

   “I wanted to speak with you about the upcoming Sports Festival,” Shouta said, leaning forwards so he could lower his voice. He knew that Shouji and Jirou were no doubt listening in, the nosy-ass kids that they were, but there wasn’t much he could do about that without blatantly erasing their quirks. “I’ve decided to pull you out of the running.” 

    Just like that, every hint of Izuku’s shy, quiet demeanor vanished. The boy’s grey-green eyes sparked with fury, his hands clenching so tightly at his sides that Shouta could have sworn he heard his knuckles crack. “Are you not letting me compete because I’m blind ?” The words were said with so much venom that someone could have told him that Bakugou was the one who was actually speaking, and he would have believed them. 

    “ No ,” Aizawa said firmly. “I’m taking you out because Recovery Girl doesn’t want you over-exerting yourself, because even though it’s two weeks from now, neither of us will be at one-hundred percent by then. I don’t need you freshly healing just to beat up and get beat up, again .” 

   That at least made Izuku relax, although it was a close thing. Shouta’s own muscles eased, his crossed arms loosening until they dropped down into the pockets of his sweatpants. “I… I see. What should I do during the festival, then?” 

    ‘ Ah, the fun part.’ Shouta smirked, although he knew Izuku couldn’t see it. “How would you like to analyze the whole thing in front of all of Japan?”

     (x)

    Todoroki Shouto closed the door to his bedroom, locking it behind him before he fell back onto his bed. Staring up at his blank ceiling, he thought over everything he had been told over the course of the day. The school would be holding its usual Sports Festival despite the USJ attack, which was good news for him. His father would be watching every second of that festival, and it was Todoroki’s chance to prove to the man that he didn’t need his stupid fire quirk to win everything. 

    He’d been hoping his father would see Midoriya in the festival, so he could perhaps realize that even something as detrimental as blindness wasn’t a handicap, but according to what Jirou and Shoji had overheard, Midoriya wouldn’t be participating in the festival. In the end, Shouto supposed it didn’t matter. 

    No. What did matter was what Shouta had seen in the changing rooms towards the end of the day. Izuku had been forced to just sit on the sidelines during gym because his injuries were still tender, but he’d also been told to change into his gym uniform like the rest of them. Shouto had ended up at a locker right next to the smaller boy’s, by pure luck. When Shouta had bent down to pull up his pants, Midoriya had stood on his tiptoes to reach something on the top shelf of his locker. His boxers had ridden up, and there Shouto had seen them. The cuts and scars that only a child who felt immeasurable pain would have. Shouto knew because his older sister had the same scars on her wrists, and he had a few on his own hips, although he had never taken to the habit like Midoriya clearly had. 

    A quick glance around the room showed that no one else had seen the slip, probably because it had happened literally right in front of Shouto’s face and had only lasted a moment. Still, now the youngest Todoroki had no idea what to do with the information he’d been given. He already suspected that Midoriya Izuku was going through something similar to Todoroki, but to see him hurting himself was something else entirely. Did he have any right to approach the boy about his self-harm? They hadn’t spoken much at all over the short time they’d been at school, although Shouto had worried about him when it seemed he might die mere moments after defeating the Noumu creature. 

     Even if he did approach Midoriya, would the boy even listen to him?

   He turned from his back onto his right side, curling up into the fetal position before he squeezed his eyes tightly. ‘ I wish mom were here. She would know what to do.’

    (x)

    “It sucks you can’t compete,” Kacchan said, his hands stuffed in his pockets. Even though they’d made up after their fight, it still seemed like Kacchan was afraid to piss Izuku off. It was really weird to see, since Katsuki had never backed off from antagonizing him before, but then again, he’d never almost had to watch Izuku get murdered right in front of him. “I mean, I really wanted to kick your ass in front of all of Japan.” 

    Izuku snorted as he packed up his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder. He ignored the dull ache in his bones from the movements, holding back his wincing. He was used to hiding his pain at that point in his life, but that didn’t mean it didn’t still hurt like a bitch. Ever since Aizawa had announced the Sports Festival the day before, Class 1-A had been more pumped than Izuku had ever seen them. Quietly, he sometimes wondered if it would be such a good idea to have such a huge event right after villains tried to kill his entire class, but he trusted that U.A. knew what they were doing. After Aizawa had told Izuku he couldn’t compete, he’d admittedly been disappointed, but he was also looking forward to watching the entire festival from the Commentator's Box along with Aizawa-sensei and Present Mic-sensei. “Watching” being the operative word, of course. 

    “It’ll be okay,” Izuku told his best friend, gesturing for the blond to walk ahead of him towards the classroom door. “I get to completely trash you on live t.v., and you can’t even call me names back! It sounds like a win to me.” 

   “Ha, ha,” Katsuki said dryly, reaching the classroom door before anyone else did. He slid the thing open before he stumbled back a step, his eyes wide. The boy turned to Deku with a hiss. “Why didn’t you tell me a bunch of extras were crowding the door?!” 

    “I wasn’t paying attention!” Izuku claimed, pressing a hand to his chest where his heart was trying to escape. It wasn’t often that someone was able to sneak up on Izuku, but he supposed he’d been a little out-of-sorts ever since his mother’s pimp threatened to “come back for him” to collect on Inko’s debt. Izuku had no idea if the man was even telling the truth about said debt, or if he was lying out of his ass to get Midoriya to do whatever he wanted. Either way, he was stuck between a rock and a hard place, being in no position to refuse the man anything. 

    “Who are you?” Kaminari asked, stepping up right behind Katsuki and Izuku. The smaller boy refocused his senses on the teenagers crowding the door, recognizing one of the boys who stood at the very front of the pack. 

    “Hey, it’s you!” He said, cutting off what Kacchan was about to say. “From the other day, right? You made that reporter go away!” Katsuki cocked his head, crossing his arms over his chest with a grunt. It was as good as saying he recognized the boy, too. 

    “I’m surprised you remembered me,” the boy said, shrugging. He was pretty tall, at least six or seven inches taller than Izuku himself, which admittedly wasn’t saying much. His form stopped at the top of what appeared to be wavy hair, although he couldn’t tell if the hair was adding to his height, or if he really was that tall. “My name is Shinsou Hitoshi. We’ve all come to see our competition for the Sports Festival, since your class has been in the news lately because of the villain attack.” He turned away from Izuku, scanning over the rest of his classmates who gathered around the open door. “I must admit, I don’t see much.” 

    Everyone bristled at the same time, but Kacchan was the first to speak. “Oi, you’re not allowed to say that when you weren’t there to see what we survived!” 

    “From what I’ve heard, you all let the blind kid save you at the USJ!” A new voice sneered, pushing to the front of the pack. Izuku stiffened up at being called out, focusing on the new threat. He was shorter than Shinsou and Kacchan but taller than Izuku, but for the life of him Izuku couldn’t remember who he was. 

   “Do I know you?” Izuku asked blankly. The newcomer began sputtering, sounding offended while the rest of Izuku’s class burst into laughter from behind them. 

   “Midori-kun, he’s from Class 1-B,” Ashido giggled, placing her hand on his shoulder from behind him. “His name is Monoma Neito. Do you remember?” 

    In truth, now that she’d said it, Izuku vaguely remembered crossing paths with him once. He had a terribly good memory, so he tended to remember most people he’d met at least once, which meant that he knew Monoma had a quirk that could copy other people’s quirks with just one touch. Izuku almost wished he would try so that he could go blind like Izuku was. 

    “No,” Izuku lied, feigning a frown. “Are you sure he’s not in some other class? Something about him just doesn’t seem very heroic to me.” 

    Kacchan sucked in a breath next to him, hissing it out. “Ohhh shit. Deku doesn’t like you. Good luck.” 

    Even Shinsou had to laugh, although he tried to smother it with a hand over his mouth. Monoma began sputtering yet again, but a girl with a side ponytail came up behind him, her right hand enlarging at least twenty times its original size before she karate chopped him in the back of the neck. Her he remembered as Kendou Itsuka, a kind girl with a pretty strange but useful quirk. She bowed to their class, grabbing hold of Monoma’s unconscious body before it could hit the floor. “I apologize for his actions. I hope he hasn’t offended you too badly.”

    “No problem!” Mina chirped, squeezing Izuku’s shoulder affectionately. It would never cease to amaze the greenet how quickly the twenty (well, nineteen now) of them had gotten close. “I think he’s going to be feeling that burn for a long time.” 

    “Thank you, Kendou-san,” Izuku told her. Monoma seemed to spark back to life at that. 

   “You remember her but not me?” He squeaked, continuing to yell as the girl dragged him down the hall. With the show over, Shinsou faced them all again, turning his seriousness back on. 

   “We just wanted to let you know that, with one of your classmates gone, there’s now room in the Hero Course for one new member,” he told them. “If someone from a different course wins the Sports Festival, they will be granted a transfer.”

    “Are you saying you’re going to win?” Katsuki asked, the scent of nitroglycerin beginning to thicken as his emotions played into his quirk. It was probably something only Izuku could smell, unless Shoji had turned all of his hands into noses for whatever reason. 

     “I’m saying I’m going to beat you ,” Shinsou sneered right back. “Best of luck to you, Class 1-A. Don’t underestimate the rest of us.” With that, Shinsou and his entire class dispersed from the doorway, trickling down the hall towards the doors of the school. Class A took a moment to let the situation sink in before Uraraka thrust her fist in the air. 

    “I don’t know about you guys, but these threats are getting me pumped !” She playfully punched the air a few times, the aura around her growing dark with competition. “I can’t wait to beat all of their asses!” 

    Katsuki outright laughed, holding out a hand for Uraraka to slap. “I knew I hated you the least, Pink Cheeks.” 

    She seemed to take that as the compliment it was, slapping Katsuki’s hand with what Izuku assumed was a grin. Turning to Izuku, she held out her own fist for him to bump. “I’m going to win the Festival for you Deku-kun, to say thank you for saving all of our lives at the USJ!” 

    “No, I’m going to win as a thank you,” Kaminari smirked, slapping Izuku’s back a few times. He didn’t seem to realize that Izuku couldn’t compete because he was recovering from grievous injuries , but Midoriya supposed he would let it slide this once. Just like that, the rest of Class A began declaring their determination to win for Izuku’s sake, forcing affection for them to claw up his throat for the second time that day. They all started down the hall so they could make their ways home, Katsuki practically glued to Izuku’s side. When no one was paying attention anymore, too busy roughhousing and threatening each other, he leaned down so that his hot breath ghosted Izuku’s ear. 

    “Don’t worry, Deku. I’ll be the one winning that festival for you.” 

   Butterflies erupted in Izuku’s chest, but he squashed them down immediately. ‘ Don’t you even dare , Izuku.’ “Oh yeah?” He said, struggling to keep his voice even. “Wanna bet on that?” 

    “What are we betting?” Katsuki asked, sounding intrigued. They made it outside of the building, waving goodbye to their classmates as they all went their separate ways. 

    “Winner gets to make the loser do something embarrassing,” Izuku declared. “I’m betting that you’ll get your ass kicked in the festival. Deal?” 

    Izuku didn’t need working eyes to know that his best friend was smirking. “Deal.” 

Chapter Text

   The day of the Sports Festival came sooner than Izuku had anticipated. Over two weeks had gone by since the pimp had stopped by his home, and yet he still hadn’t heard anything from the man. On the bright side, he’d gotten no late-night visits from his mother either, which was a plus. Still, he couldn’t shake the sinking feeling that all of this was building up to something terrible. He was losing sleep waiting for the other shoe to drop, and his thighs and hips had gained more cuts and scars than he’d ever meant to inflict on himself. It was pure luck that no one had noticed them in the changing rooms, since he was never sure anymore if he’d kept them well underneath his boxers. 

    Even if no one had noticed his self-inflicted wounds, they had noticed his lack of sleep. He was tentatively allowed to resume his training with the rest of the class, although he was told to take it easy and was only allowed to participate in one sparring session a day rather than multiple, like his classmates. He didn’t like being left behind, but he also figured that he had years of experience with hand-to-hand on everyone, especially since he seemed to kick all of their asses, quirks or no quirks. He hadn’t fought the true powerhouses of 1-A yet though; Yaoyorozu Momo and Todoroki Shouto. He was pretty sure that Aizawa and All Might were avoiding pairing Izuku with them, Aizawa because of his wounds and All Might because of his stupid fucking prejudice. 

    All Might had been tip-toeing around Izuku from the moment he’d looked the man in the eyes and declared he knew his biggest secret. Midoriya was shocked that he hadn’t approached him about keeping it quiet yet, but perhaps he thought Izuku was bluffing, or something. He supposed if the special behavior got too much worse, he could talk to All Might about it, but for now he would keep his mouth shut. 

     While Aizawa seemed to be keeping a close eye on his health, the man had nothing on Uraraka and Kacchan. The two of them were like clucking mother hens, teaming together to force Izuku to eat well during lunch, ask him how long he’d slept the night before, and demand they get together during breaks to check his homework. He had never thought that Uraraka would fit into his friendship with Kacchan as seamlessly as she did, but then there she was, like she’d just appeared one day and refused to leave. Most of the time Izuku didn’t mind it, but when they were both bugging him, he tended to snap at them to get them to leave him alone. 

     “Seriously you guys, I’m just going up to the sound booth!” He snapped at them, waving his hands around. Class 1-A was standing in one of the locker rooms in the stadium, anxiously waiting for the Sports Festival to begin. Kacchan and Uraraka had cornered him almost immediately, demanding to know why his under-eye circles were so pronounced that day. “I promise I won’t trip and break my neck walking that far, alright?”

    Uraraka’s shoulders drooped, her heart rate increasing just a tad. That meant that he’d hurt her feelings, which immediately made him feel like the biggest dick in the world (and Kacchan was standing right next to them!). “We just want to make sure you’re okay, Deku-kun. You went through something really, really scary at the USJ. We… we all thought you were going to die right there! If that was traumatic for us , I can’t even begin to imagine how bad it must be for you.” 

    Kacchan nodded his head at her side, although he didn’t say anything. Izuku knew him well enough to know that he was struggling not to bite right back at him for hurting Uraraka’s feelings. The blond had gotten oddly protective over the girl, and if Izuku was being honest, it was beginning to terrify him.

    He had no sort of claim over Katsuki, and he knew that. In all honesty, Bakugou was most likely straight, and if what he’d teased Izuku about on the first day of school was true, then Uraraka was a rather cute girl. She was kind, strong and spirited; exactly Katsuki’s type (or, what Izuku assumed his type would be). It wasn’t like Izuku ever really thought he’d have a chance with Katsuki, but he supposed he was hoping to put it off for as long as humanly possible. Of course it was selfish of him to wish Katsuki would stay alone just so Izuku wouldn’t have to watch him be with someone else.

     “I’m sorry Uraraka-san,” he sighed, reaching to rub the tension away from the bridge of his nose. “I’m just really high-strung right now, but I promise it’s not from the USJ attack. I’m not traumatized or anything, okay? I would gladly die for you and the others if it meant you all made it out alive.” 

    “Midoriiiiiiiii!” A shrill voice came from behind the three of them. Izuku had barely half a second to turn before both Hagakure and Ashido’s shapes flung themselves on him, catching the attention of the entire class. He caught them both, stumbling a few steps with a harsh breath, although either of the teary-eyed girls seemed to care that they’d almost killed him. Ashido was the one who had spoken, and when she lifted her face from his chest, he could smell the saltwater of her tears. “That’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said!”

   Hagakure nodded frantically, her hands gripping the shirt of his gym uniform like he would run away if she let go. “Don’t you dare try to die for us, Midoriya-kun! You’re too precious!” 

     ‘ Wow, I’m doing a pretty awesome strawberry cosplay right now,’ he thought to himself, blood rushing in his ears so loudly that he could barely hear Katsuki snapping at the girls to “get the fuck off of him.” In all of the chatter, with Uraraka and Katsuki plucking the teenagers off of their friend, no one but Izuku noticed Todoroki pushing off of the wall across the room to approach him. Izuku turned to meet him halfway, his blush dying into a curious expression. 

   “Todoroki-kun?” He asked, ignoring as the rest of the sounds in the room died. Todoroki’s heart rate was skyrocketing like crazy, although his body language didn’t seem any different than usual. ‘Interesting.’  

    “Midoriya,” Todoroki said, foregoing honorifics, as per usual. “Although you’re not competing in the festival today, I just wanted to let you know that objectively, I think I’m stronger than you.” 

    “Hey, Todoroki-kun-” Kirishima tried to cut in, but one look from Todoroki shut him up. 

    “I agree with Yaoyorozu in thinking that you might have been my biggest competition, although I might have overlooked you before,” Todoroki continued. “The way you killed the Noumu at the USJ… I’ve never seen anything like that.” Todoroki’s heart rate paused before raising once more, as his anxiety spiked. “I think… I think you and I are the same, in ways you don’t yet know. You see, I refuse to use the power that my father gave me because I hate him.” He looked down, raising his left hand so he could stare at it. “I need to win this festival to prove to him that I don’t need him. I believe that’s something you could understand.”

    It was as if Todoroki had encased Izuku in ice, what with the way his words affected Izuku. ‘ He knows. Oh god, he knows. How does he know? What does he know? And more importantly… him, too?’  

    “If you’re saying what I think you’re saying,” Izuku said slowly, searching Todoroki’s silhouette for any answers. “Then you’re wrong. I don’t hate anyone the way you clearly hate your father.” 

   Todoroki seemed flabbergasted. “You… you don’t? How ?” 

   “Is anyone else majorly confused,” Sero stage whispered, leaning towards Jirou to see if she was, as well. The girl waved her hand at him, shushing him harshly so that she wouldn’t miss a thing. If Izuku wasn’t so focused on Todoroki, he might have smiled. 

    “It doesn’t matter how, or why,” Izuku admitted. “What matters is that you realize your power is your own , not his. You always speak as though he’s still in possession of it, like it isn’t a part of you . I’m telling you right now Todoroki-kun, I would give anything to have your power.” He lifted a hand and gestured to him. “I may not act like it, but the truth of the matter is, I’m blind . I have no idea what you, or anyone else in this room look like. Someone told me the other day that Principal Nedzu is an animal , and I had no idea. I’m only blind because my quirks says I am, but I would trade it in a heartbeat if it meant I could have even half of yours.” 

    Todoroki was quiet for a moment before he nodded. “I see we will not agree on this. Regardless, I hope you will be watching me closely, Midoriya. I’m going to win today, not just for me, but for you, too. I want to prove something to the people we have in common.” 

     Izuku felt his heart squeeze at the statement, and he couldn’t help but feel sad. ‘ Todoroki-kun…’  

    “Oi, fuckface!” Kacchan said, completely obliterating the moment. “Don’t get all cocky thinking you can beat us, alright? If you want to prove something, you gotta go through me , first!” 

    “Yeah!” Uraraka cheered, punching the air. The energy around both her and Kacchan grew competitively dark, both of them firing each other up like a couple of self-winding toys. Izuku sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose yet again. 

    “I have to go before they announce everyone,” he sighed. “Good luck to everyone!” 

   He left to the deafening cheers of his class, a smile on his face. The smile fell rather quickly after he remembered everything Todoroki had just admitted to him in front of all of their clueless classmates. ‘ So… Endeavor is abusing Todoroki-kun. I wonder how long it’s been going on? Uraraka says he has a big burn scar on his face… did Endeavor do that? What should I do about this information? Should I tell someone? No, he didn’t tell anyone about my mother, if he does know what he thinks he knows.’  

      He made it up to the sound booth in record time, knocking on the door once before entering. Inside of the booth was rather small, with three chairs set up directly in front of the sound board. Present Mic was on the far right, waving at Izuku. Aizawa-sensei was in the middle, leaving the last chair for Midoriya. He sat in it happily, rubbing his hands together excitedly. It was so loud down below that he was able to get a clear view of everything that was happening, from the birds picking at the popcorn to the toddler all the way across the stadium who had dropped his toy. Midnight was standing on top of some sort of stage in the middle of the arena, her fingers tapping on her left ear seconds before her voice filled the sound box. 

    “ You ready to announce everyone, Mic?” She asked. 

   “Ready, Freddy!” Present Mic said back, pressing a red button. “AAAAAATTENTION EVERYONE! WE WILL NOW BE ANNOUNCING ALL OF THE CLASSES PARTICIPATING IN THE FIRST YEAR SPORTS FESTIVAL!” 

     The clapping and roaring from below was loud enough to make Izuku wince, reaching up to plug his ears. Aizawa, whose face was still covered in bandages for the next two days, held out his hand to Izuku, palm up. “Here, they’re ear plugs. You should still be able to hear enough, but with this one-” he gestured to Present Mic, who was introducing the classes as they walked onto the field, “-it’s always best to have some on-hand.” 

   Izuku took them gratefully, shoving them into his ears. They muffled everything just enough that he was distracted by every little thing in the arena, instead focusing solely on the incoming classes and nothing else. He relaxed, shooting a smile at his teacher. “Thanks, Aizawa-sensei.” 

    “AND NOW, A MESSAGE FROM OUR DEAR HERO, MIDNIGHT!” Present Mic yelled. He pushed a button on the sound board, letting Midnight take over. Shooting two thumbs up at Izuku, he nodded enthusiastically. “Pretty cool, right?” 

    Izuku nodded. “Yeah, it actually is. I’m a little sad I won’t be able to participate, but I’m also glad I have such a great view of everything.” He pulled out his phone and put it up to his face. “Open Recording App.” 

    “ Opening Recording App,” the broken, robotic voice said from his cell phone. Izuku looked up, quirking an eyebrow at his teachers. 

   “Do you mind if I record this for my analysis notes?” 

   “You keep analysis notes?” Mic asked, sounding genuinely interested. Izuku broke out into a grin. 

   “I’ll have to show them to you, sometime. I have enough to fill about fifteen notebooks, if Kacchan is to be believed.” 

    From there, the festival went on. Kacchan gave the shittest speech on planet earth, declaring that he was going to win no matter what without giving any encouragement to anyone else. After that, Midnight spun a “randomized” wheel, landing on an obstacle course for the first activity of the day. Aizawa and Present Mic let him know immediately that everything had been pre-planned ahead of time, which was pretty much what Izuku had already guessed. 

     Mic allowed Izuku to analyze those running through the obstacle course over the intercom, cutting him off when he rambled too much or got too off-track. The race was neck-and-neck, with either Todoroki, Kacchan or Uraraka at the head of the pack the entire time. Izuku was also pleasantly surprised to find that Shinsou Hitoshi, the General Education student, was one of the last forty-two to make it into the second round. 

    Bakugou ended up winning one-million points, with Todoroki coming in second and Uraraka coming in third. The next course was a cavalry battle, in which all of the forty-two remaining contestants would have to split up into groups of four in order to defend the person with the headband. 

    “Todoroki-kun’s going to win this,” Izuku said to himself when Present Mic had taken over the intercom. Aizawa merely glanced at him, raising an eyebrow. 

    “Oh? Why do you say that?” 

    Izuku shrugged her shoulders, leaning closer to the sound board so he could speak directly into his phone’s speakers. “While Kacchan is amazing when he’s competing by himself, he doesn’t do very well in teamwork situations. He has the tendency to forget to tell other people what he’s about to do, and it messes everyone up.” Izuku smiled to himself. “That’s probably my fault, to be honest. Kacchan and I always know what the other is going to do before they do it, so he likes to think that everyone else can do the same thing.” 

    “And you think Todoroki is better at teamwork?” Aizawa asked curiously. 

   “Oh no, they’re both absolutely abysmal,” Izuku waved a hand dismissively. “But Todoroki-kun has a massive goal to achieve by winning this thing, whereas Kacchan just wants to prove himself. Todoroki-kun… he has a lot more to lose.” Izuku fell quiet, his heart hurting for the other boy. He had no idea what Endeavor might do to him if he lost the festival, and it scared him. Perhaps it would be best if he told his teachers…? But if he did, then Todoroki would no doubt tell on him right back. They would both be stuck, if that were to happen, unable to help each other at all. 

   “More to lose?” Present Mic cut in, apparently having stopped talking while Midnight allowed all the teams to get into their positions around the arena. Izuku glanced up to find both men staring at him, both of their body language forcibly relaxed while their hearts displayed adrenaline. Clearly, they knew that Izuku was hiding something. 

    He looked away from them. “Look, the match is about to start!” It was a weak subject change, but it worked all the same. Present Mic turned on his own microphone as well as Aizawa and Izuku’s allowing all three of them to pick apart the competition. It began with all of the teams rushing at Kacchan’s, with Kacchan evading all of them with ease. He’d chosen good horses in Ashido, Kirishima and Sero, surprisingly enough, and even seemed to be communicating with them. There was one team towards the outskirts that went around to the others and began plucking off headbands, adding onto their own stack more and more. After a few minutes everyone seemed to realize that going after Kacchan was pointless with all of his firepower, going to Team Monoma’s strategy of stealing unsuspecting teams’ headbands right off of their heads. 

     The only team that didn’t give up on Kacchan was Team Todoroki. They appeared to be planning something nearly the entire time they went around the field, locking targets on very specific other teams that either Kaminari or Yaomomo’s quirk could defeat with ease. They were in second place, with Kacchan still in first and Team Monoma in third. Fourth place switched in and out repeatedly, but according to Aizawa, Team Shinsou made its way onto the board more than a few times. Izuku found himself hoping for Shinsou to make it into the third round. He was intrigued by the brainwasher, and truly thought he had what it took to be in the Hero Course. His quirk was certainly tailored for it. 

     In the end, Todoroki did win the cavalry battle. Kacchan pulled through in second place, with Team Tetsutetsu pulling through in third, and Team Shinsou getting fourth. There was a lunch break in between the second and third rounds, so Izuku bid his goodbyes to the men in the sound booth and started off for the cafeteria to find his friends. Most of the sixteen who moved on into the next round were from Class 1-A, and he couldn’t have been prouder of them, especially since all of Class 1-A had made it into the second round, at the very least. 

    Entering the cafeteria, he could immediately sense Kacchan and Uraraka towards the middle of the room, sitting with Shinsou at a table. Uraraka, Tokoyami and a girl named Hatsume had been on Shinsou’s team, all of them pulling tricky moves to get up to fourth place. Izuku started for their table with a bright smile on his face. “You guys did amazing!” He cried the moment he was in earshot. Uraraka bounced out of her seat and flung herself into his arms, trying to pick him up and spin him around but failing without the use of her quirk. 

    “Thank you!” She cried right back, letting him go to push him into the chair next to Shinsou and across from Kacchan. “Shinsou-kun was so amazing, his quirk is so useful! Did you know he can brainwash people?” 

    “I did,” Izuku nodded, pulling out his phone to bring up his recording app. “In fact, do you mind if I ask you a few questions about that?” 

   “Say no,” Katsuki deadpanned, stabbing into his bowl of curry bitterly. “He’ll talk your goddamn ear off with quirk theories.” 

     Shinsou looked between the three of them, bewildered. Clearly, he’d never had friends with as much character as Izuku and his gang. “Um… maybe later, when I’m not eating?” 

   “Oh right, right!” Izuku waved the guy off, putting his phone away. “So, I have a question. Does Testutetsu-kun actually look exactly like Kirishima-kun, or is it just his silhouette?” 

    Uraraka slammed her hands on the table enthusiastically. “I swear to god their twins, right Bakugou-kun?” 

    Izuku didn’t need working eyes to know Katsuki was rolling his eyes- he could hear it in his tone. “Tetsutetsu turns into metal, not rock, and his hair is all white instead of red, like Shitty Hair’s. He also has freakishly long eyelashes.” 

   “So wait,” Shinsou cut in, looking at Izuku. “You’re really blind? That wasn’t something that other kid made up?” 

     Izuku cringed a bit, scratching the back of his head. “Um… yeah, I’m actually blind. I can see a little bit of things because of my quirk- think of it like echolocation! I can hear the way sound bounces off of objects, and feel the vibrations in the air, if that makes sense.” 

    “Why, is that a fucking problem?” All eyes turned to the speaker, with Kacchan most of all looking astonished. Uraraka herself seemed surprised she’d said it, her hands slapping to cover her mouth. “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I just said that!” She pointed an accusing finger at Katsuki. “This is your fault, you- you delinquent!” 

    “ My fault? No one told you to cuss like a fucking sailor, Round Face!” 

   They began bickering, to which Shinsou rolled his eyes and leaned closer to Izuku. “I don’t mind that you’re blind, by the way. It would be pretty hypocritical of me.” 

    “Hypocritical?” Izuku asked, reaching out to steal Uraraka’s water bottle. He hadn’t gotten himself any food or drink, since Present Mic had been giving out snacks in the sound booth since the start of the festival. 

    “You know, since my quirk…” the boy trailed off. “It’s kind of a villain’s quirk.” 

   “Huh?” Izuku cocked his head. “There was a villain with your quirk? I’ve never heard of them.” 

   “No, I mean my quirk has the potential to be a really good villain quirk,” Shinsou explained. “You know, since I can force people to do things they don’t want to do?” 

    “Okay…?” Izuku shrugged. “But that’s so useful as a hero! You can just force a villain to surrender and save hundreds, if not thousands of lives! You can calm down panicking civilians, encourage anxious team members, get secrets out of informants. It sounds like the perfect hero quirk, to me!” 

    Shinsou’s heart began to beat especially hard, pumping blood in a way that told Izuku he was blushing. Katsuki and Uraraka had gone silent up until then, until Uraraka sighed. “Another one to join the club, I see.” 

   Kacchan nodded solemnly, but Izuku was confused. “Huh? What club?” 

   Before he could demand answers, another body appeared out of the crowd, heading towards their table. Izuku perked up, turning in his seat to face the newcomer. Todoroki Shouto stopped directly behind Izuku’s chair, seeming nervous. “Can I speak to you privately, Midoriya?” 

    Izuku had a feeling he knew what this was about, so he stood out of his chair. “Sure, I know a place.” Looking back at his friends, he waved at them. “If I’m not back by the time lunch is over, then good luck to you all.” He winked at Shinsou. “I hope to see you in class.” 

   Shinsou’s heart spiked again, but Izuku ignored it this way since he was already walking away with Todoroki in tow. He led the boy to a deserted part of the arena, into one of the tunnels that led from a waiting room to the stadium. His quirk told him there was no one around to hear his conversation. Once he was sure they were alone, he nodded at Todoroki. “Alright, what did you want to speak to me about?” 

    Todoroki took a deep, shaky breath, holding up his left hand. “Have you ever heard of Quirk Marriages?” 

      (x)

   Explaining his story to Midoriya wasn’t as hard as Shouto had thought it would be. Getting that little bit of confirmation that the two of them were going through the same thing earlier, when he had confronted Midoriya, made telling it all once more easier. It was nice knowing he wasn’t going to be judged for being weak, and to know that Midoriya wasn’t going to tell anyone, either. By the time he was finished explaining how he’d gotten his scar, and how he’d ended up with a mentally disabled mother and a dead older brother, Midoriya had tears shining in his eyes. Those eyes… they did something to Shouto. They were sightless, which was obvious if one looked closely, and yet they were so… expressive . It was like he didn’t bother to try and hide his emotions. Shouto couldn’t help but wonder if Midoriya even knew he was displaying them so openly. 

    “Todoroki-kun…” the boy said softly, reaching up to press the back of his hand to his mouth. “That’s an awful story. I’m so unbelievably sorry that you went through that.” 

    “Now you know why I need to win without using my father’s quirk,” Todoroki said. He remembered telling Izuku that they wouldn’t be able to agree in the end, but now he hoped desperately that the boy would understand why he needed to do this. Shouto wasn’t even sure why he needed Midoriya as an ally- perhaps it was because he’d been alone for so long, that the prospect of a friend who could understand him was just too great to pass up. He was technically only a child, after all, even if he felt hundreds of years old, sometimes. 

   “I understand your reasoning, Todoroki-kun, but I don’t agree with it,” Midoriya said softly. “I think by not using your quirk, you’re giving your father too much power.” 

    ‘ Well, that was new.’ “Why do you say that?” Shouto asked. 

   “Because you’re limiting yourself in order to prove something to him!” Izuku threw his hands up like it should have been obvious. “It’s not his power, Todoroki-kun, it’s yours ! I understand he did terrible things to you, your oldest brother and your mother, but goddamnit, don’t you want to prove that you’re better than him?”

    “That’s what I’m trying to do!” Shouto was beginning to get frustrated, and clearly Midoriya was, too. 

    “No, you’re not,” Midoriya declared. “You’re proving that you’re too weak to show him that he doesn’t own you, or that power of yours. Are you really going to let him control you for the rest of your life? What about when you’re finally a hero? Are you going to let people die if it means not using your power? What if you and I are partners one day? Would you let me die to prove something to your father?” 

    “Shut up!” Todoroki snarled, heat sparking all along his left side. “You don’t know what you’re talking about! I don’t know why I ever thought you would!” 

    “I don’t know why either,” Midoriya said softly, his anger deflating. “You and I haven’t gone through the same thing after all. I’m glad that we haven’t.” 

    That surprised Shouto enough to calm him down. “So… I was wrong, then? But I was so sure…” 

    “You’re not wrong,” Izuku said hurriedly. “I… my mother does abuse me, but not like your father abused your family.” 

     “I don’t understand,” Shouto said, confusion furling inside of him. “She… emotionally abuses you? But I’ve seen bruises…” 

    Izuku winced at that, clearly hoping that nobody had noticed the few bruises that decorated his tanned skin from time to time. “I don’t really think you want to hear my story, Todoroki-kun.” 

    “I do,” Shouto said, and oddly enough, he meant it. “Help me understand you better. I want to know why… why you’re so good , if you’ve been through something like I have. I want to know why I can’t be like you.” 

    “It’s not a nice story,” Izuku warned. Shouto laughed dryly. 

   “Mine wasn’t a walk in the park, exactly,” he said. Midoriya didn’t laugh along with him.

     (x)

   Izuku didn’t give the other teenager too many details. He didn’t need to hear them to know just how bad it was for Izuku at the moment, especially considering the guillotine hovering over his head, courtesy of the pimp. By the time he was finished explaining, Todoroki’s heartbeat had sped up and slowed down so many times, Izuku genuinely wondered if the boy had a heart attack or a stroke of some sort. His dead silence for a full thirty seconds after Izuku was done speaking didn’t help the matter, either. 

    “Your…” he finally croaked, clearly his throat. The boy’s hands were trembling at his sides. “Your mother has been… r-raping you?” 

    Izuku winced at the word. He’d always hated the harshness of it, and the dirty way it made him feel whenever it was used. “If that’s the word you want to use, then yes.” 

    “Oh my god,” Todoroki muttered. “Midoriya, this- this is so much worse than what Endeavor has been doing to me! You need to tell someone about this immediately .” 

   “What?” Izuku’s jaw dropped. “No! I can’t tell anyone, are you crazy?”

   “I’ll even go with you,” Todoroki said, reaching out to snag Izuku’s wrist so he could start dragging him out of the tunnels. “We can tell Aizawa-sensei, he’s probably our best bet.” 

    “Todoroki-kun, stop !” Izuku ripped his hand out of Todoroki’s reach. “I’m not telling anyone!”

   “Midoriya,” Todoroki said. “This is… this is bigger than I ever imagined. I just thought one of your parents was slapping you around like mine. I never… I never imagined…” 

    “You can’t tell anyone,” Izuku said quickly, panic beginning to rise in his throat. “If you tell anyone, I’ll tell them everything you told me about your father, I swear to god I will.” 

    “What?” Now Todoroki had the nerve to sound betrayed. “Why would you do that?” 

  “ Why ?” Izuku shook his head. “Because she may be a druggie and a prostitute, but she’s still my mother , Todoroki!”

    “She’s raping you!” Todoroki yelled back. “You’re hurting yourself because of it! I’ve seen the scars!” 

   Izuku stepped backwards, his breath coming out quicker than usual. He was already verging on a panic attack, for the first time since the pimp had visited him. His body began to tremble, chills washing over him and focusing on his fingers and toes. His quirk’s vision began to go blurry, his senses becoming muddled with the sheer force of his anxiety. “You- you’ve s-seen-”

   “Midoriya?” Todoroki’s voice sounded far away, his silhouette looking wonky, as if a toddler had drawn it. Izuku collapsed onto his ass, bracing himself against the ground with his hands, trying to suck in breaths. Todoroki crouched in front of him, placing his hands on Izuku’s knees. “Midoriya, what’s happening? What do I do?” 

    “P-Panic- at-tt-a-ck-k,” Izuku stuttered, tears filling up his eyes. No matter how many times this happened, he never failed to be terrified that he was going to suffocate. The despair that filled him was almost enough for him to wish for it to finally happen. 

    “Breathe,” Todoroki said, grabbing one of Izuku’s hands. He pressed it to his own chest, exaggeratedly inhaling and exhaling as a guide for Izuku. It was a familiar tactic that Kacchan had employed on more than one occasion. Just the thought of Kacchan was enough to help bring Izuku back down. ‘ Kacchan. Kacchan is safe. Kacchan will keep me safe.’ “Good. Keep going Izuku, you can do it.” 

    By the time he’d calmed down, there couldn’t have been more than five minutes left of their lunch hour. He could already hear the stadium filling back up with guests, but even so, neither he nor Todoroki moved a muscle. Izuku pulled his hand away from the boy’s chest (even it was half cold and half hot, directly split down the middle. How insane was that?!) to place back in his own lap. Todoroki watched him for a moment before he sighed. “I… I won’t tell them.” 

   Izuku snapped his head up hopefully. “You won’t? Really?” 

  “I know I would be upset if you told anyone about my situation, so I won’t tell the teachers about it,” Todoroki promised. “I give you my word.” 

   “Thank you,” Izuku said, finally able to breathe easier. “Thank you, that… that really means a lot to me.” 

   “ But ,” Todoroki said sharply. “I want you to seriously consider telling them yourself, alright? This isn’t something to take lightly, as I’m sure you know. I… I don’t want to see something happen to you.” 

    Izuku swallowed hard, nodding his head. “Only if you consider the same, alright?” 

   “ Attention all students participating in the third round,” Present Mic’s voice came over the loudspeaker system. “ Please return to the main area where your pair-ups will be displayed. Also, Midoriya Izuku, get your butt back to the sound booth before Eraserhead goes to look for you.”  

    Izuku winced. “Yikes. We’d better go.” Todoroki stood up, holding out a hand for Izuku to take. He helped the smaller boy to his feet, staying by his side as they walked back towards the main area. Just before they entered the room with the other students, Izuku paused and gave a small smile to the other boy. “Good luck out there, Todoroki-kun. Don’t forget what I told you about your quirk.” 

    Todoroki cocked his head at Izuku, giving a tentative smile back. “After that ordeal? I think you can call me Shouto, Izuku.” 

    Izuku couldn’t help it- he laughed at Shouto’s blatant informality. “Alright then. Good luck, Shouto.” 

Chapter Text

    Kacchan ended up winning the Sports Festival. 

   In the end, Shouto and Tokoyami had a fight for second place, in which Shouto panicked and accidentally used his fire quirk. It wasn’t long, but it was enough for him to beat Dark Shadow with his weakness against light. By the time he battled Kacchan, he was already too afraid to use his fire again, which only pissed Katsuki off. The blond had to be restrained during the acceptance of the medals which wasn’t fun for anyone to see, least of all Izuku. Despite all of Katsuki’s grumbling and groaning about it being a “half-assed win,” Izuku still let him know time and time again that he was proud of him for winning. Katsuki had smirked at him the last time Izuku said it, when the two of them sat in Katsuki’s room, where Katsuki was playing a video game and Izuku was reading a braille book he’d left at the Bakugou residence. 

    “You know, I won our little bet,” he boasted, putting his controller down. Izuku looked up from his book, confused for half a second before he remembered what his friend was talking about. He took the book off of his lap and closed it, setting it off to the side. 

    “Right, I forgot about that,” he said, smiling. “So, what horribly embarrassing thing are you going to make me do, then? Only wear boxers to class tomorrow? Make blind jokes all day to see how uncomfortable everyone will get?” 

    “That’s a good one,” Katsuki said, pointing at Izuku. “I’m definitely remembering that for next time.” 

   “I shouldn’t be giving you ideas,” Izuku muttered. Katsuki shook his head with a chuckle, reaching down to pat the spot on the bed next to him. Izuku slowly stood from his spot at Katsuki’s desk, making his way to the blond. “I feel like I’m about to get murdered. If you do it, make sure you don’t clean up the blood so Auntie will kill you right after me.” 

    “Ha, ha,” Katsuki sneered, grabbing Izuku’s wrist when he was in reaching distance to yank him down onto the bed. Izuku stumbled and hit the bed at an odd angle, his hands reaching to grab at Katsuki’s shoulders so he wouldn’t fall completely over. He laughed at the boy’s antics, not realizing just how close he and Kacchan had gotten until he registered the sound of Katsuki’s heartbeat picking up pace. He turned his face up, so close to Kacchan that the tips of their noses just barely brushed against each other’s. Izuku swallowed hard, his grip on the other boy’s shoulders subconsciously tightening. Katsuki let the hand not on his wrist flutter to Izuku’s waist, settling there like it was the most natural thing in the world. Izuku knew he must have looked like a deer in headlights from the way Katsuki chuckled. 

    “You said I get to pick my prize, right?” he asked, voice lower and gruffer than Izuku had ever heard it. The sound of it sent sparks down the smaller boy’s spine, pooling heat into his stomach. He instinctively licked his lips, leaning just the tiniest bit closer to Katsuki. Never in his life had he wished for his sight more than in that moment. He wanted so badly to see what kind of expression his best friend was making. He’d always known that Kacchan was handsome- beautiful even, if the whispers of their past and current classmates were to be believed- but just once, he wanted to see it for himself. 

    “What-” Izuku’s voice was embarrassingly squeaky, so he cleared his throat and tried again. “Wh-what do you want?” 

     Katsuki hummed low in his throat, gently brushing his nose over Izuku’s in his quest to lean closer. In the next second their lips connected, dry and smooth against each other in the gentlest of kisses. It was far from Izuku’s first kiss, and yet it was nothing like the other kisses he’d shared before. Warmth spread from the pit of his stomach throughout his entire body, all the way down to his toes. His body moved on it’s own, his lips pressing harder into Katsuki’s in an effort to kiss him back. Not one to be outdone, Katsuki pulled away for a brief second to take a breath before he was back, prying open Izuku’s lips with his own so he could swipe his tongue over Izuku’s. Somehow even the boy’s saliva tasted sweet, with just the slightest hint of glycerin. It made Izuku want to keep kissing him forever. 

     Unfortunately it only took about ten more seconds until they had to breathe again, breaking apart from each other to suck in air. Izuku’s eyes fluttered open (when had he shut them?) although technically the whole time he’d still been able to “see.” 

    In the next moment, Katsuki was shoving away from him, scrambling across the room like Izuku was on fire. Izuku could only blink at the space he’d been, slowly turning to see what the fuck crawled up Kacchan’s ass. The blond’s heart rate was just as fast as it had been while they were kissing, but different now. Instead of excitement, it was clear he was panicking. 

    “Are you okay, Kacchan?” Izuku asked softly, not wanting to scare the blond into exploding. The older boy nodded mechanically, wetting his lips before he spoke. 

     “I… I think I need a minute to… process this. Can you just… go?” 

   Izuku didn’t bother to feel hurt by the statement. In all honesty he needed to process what had just happened as well, and he knew that when something big changed in Kacchan’s life, he preferred to be alone so that he wouldn’t accidentally do or say something that he didn't mean. Izuku respected him for being strong enough to ask for time alone, so he simply nodded and hopped off the bed, locating his bag near Katsuki’s desk. “Alright Kacchan. Just… text me to let me know you’re okay?” 

   The blond nodded, staring down at the ground. He didn’t bother to walk Izuku to the front door. 

    It was a good end to a good day, in Izuku’s opinion, even if it had its ups and downs. 

   Or at least it would have been, had the day ended there. 

   It was ten o’clock in the evening by the time Izuku made it home, stumbling through his front door like a drunk person due to his exhaustion and giddiness. He was so distracted that he didn’t immediately notice the strange presence in his house; at least, not until it was too late. 

    “Ah, so there’s the little celebrity,” a deep, rumbling voice purred, causing chills to scrape down Izuku’s spine in a split-second. He froze where he stood at the entrance to the kitchen, his mission to find a bottle of water forgotten. The familiar, towering form of the pimp stood up from where he’d been sitting on the couch, still and silent. Izuku’s mother was nowhere in sight, although there was another heartbeat and silhouette sitting on the couch near where the pimp had been. 

    “W-what are you doing here?” Izuku demanded, sounding braver than he felt. The pimp laughed, although there was nothing humorous about the sound. 

    “Oh, you remember me, don’t you?” He stepped closer to Izuku, graceful and silent like some sort of predator. “I’m Takahama, your mother’s pimp. Don’t you remember when I told you I would be back for my payment?” 

    “I don’t have any money to give you,” Izuku said, backing himself up against the archway of his kitchen. Takahama was on him in seconds, a hand at the base of his throat, the other braced far above Izuku’s head due to their height difference. Takahama sounded amused when he spoke next, his chuckling cutting through the tension in the room like glass. 

    “Oh, we’re not here for money,” he snickered. “Kamata, how about you come help me over here?” 

     The other man stood from his place on the couch, walking casually over to the two of them like Takahama wasn’t on the verge of choking the life out of Izuku. Even if Izuku couldn’t see it, he swore he could feel the stranger’s gaze rake up and down his body. “You were right, Takahama-san. He is delicious.” 

    “Fuck you,” Izuku spat instinctively, a spark of rebellion lighting inside of him. He thought of Kacchan, and how hard the boy would fight before he would allow himself to be captured. Izuku began to wiggle against Takahama’s hand, reaching up with both hands to dig his nails into the man’s skin. His grip on Midoriya’s throat tightened until his airway was restricted, as was the blood flow to his brain. Izuku began to gasp, clawing at the man’s hand even harder than before in his desperation to get out of the situation. 

    “Now, Kamata,” Takahama said, his voice cold. Izuku watched as Kamata reached out, pressing his pointer finger to Izuku’s left temple. Just like that, all of the energy left inside of him drained like a lean in a damn. He slumped back against the wall, his hands dropping to his sides without even enough energy to keep them up. His head lolled to the side, causing Takahama to chuckle and let him go, catching Izuku under the armpits so he wouldn’t fall to the ground. Within seconds the large man dragged Izuku’s body to the couch, heels dragging on the ground like a scene from a horror movie. “Kamata, that quirk of yours is really useful, isn’t it?” 

    “I should think so,” Kamata snickered, watching Takahama dump Izuku on the couch, face up. Takahama stood back and looked at Izuku, placing his hands on his hips contemplatively. Kamata put a hand to his chin, looking between Izuku’s helpless body and Takahama. “So, do I get to use him now? You received my electronic payment earlier, didn’t you?” 

   Takahama gestured at Izuku before crossing his arms. “Go ahead, you know the rules. I’m pretty sure the kid is a virgin, but use a condom anyway so there’s no mess when I take him after you.” 

   Izuku sucked in a breath, eyes going wide at their words. ‘ No. God, please no. Haven’t I been through enough already? Don’t do this to me, please don’t do this to me!’ He was sure if he had the energy, he would be screaming and crying. As it was, he barely had the energy to inhale and exhale. 

    That meant he wasn’t strong enough to push Kamata’s hands away from him when he stripped Izuku of the gym uniform he’d been wearing since the Sports Festival earlier that day. He didn’t have the energy to scream out when Kamata slicked up two of his fingers, shoving them roughly inside of Izuku with little to no gentleness. Izuku couldn’t even cry over the next ten minutes as Kamata had his way with him, using him like some sort of sex doll instead of the helpless teenage boy he was. 

    He could do nothing but sit there as Kamata got off of him, panting and laughing at the look on Izuku’s face as Takahama straddled him, unbuckling his belt to take his own turn. 

    He could do nothing but lay on his side, even long after the two men were gone, his ass sore and filled with fluids he didn’t even want to think about. Kamata had been forced to use protection, but Takahama didn’t appear to have the same conviction about himself. Izuku’s last thought before he drifted into unconsciousness was him wondering if he’d received a sexually transmitted disease from the interaction. 

     (x)

    Deku didn’t come to school. 

   Katsuki hadn’t bothered to wait for him at the stop sign that morning, wanting every spare minute alone before he would have to face Deku again. He couldn’t believe that the two of them had kissed the day before. Not only that, but Deku had kissed him back. And seemed to like it. Katsuki wondered if he’d done the right thing in sending Deku away instead of talking it out with him, but in the end he knew it was probably for the best. Katsuki wasn’t the kind of guy who could process intense emotions in one sitting; he did better toughing it all out when no one was watching, which Izuku seemed to understand. 

    That’s why the boy’s absence confused Katsuki. He had thought the nerd knew why Katsuki needed to be alone, so then… why wasn’t he at school? Surely he wasn’t avoiding Katsuki… right? 

    Right?

Chapter Text

  It took Midoriya Inko longer than it usually did to stumble home from her last client. In her defense, she was high as a kite trying to navigate her way home, although she supposed it didn’t really matter. She wasn’t expecting anything to be wrong when she got home. 

    Of course this would be the one case where something terrible happened. 

    She trudged her way up seven flights of stairs in the early hours of the morning to make it to the floor of her apartment, reaching into her bra to try and fish out her key. Her hazy green eyes fixed on a neon-yellow sticky note stuck just beneath the peephole, right at her eye-level. 

     ‘ Consider your debt paid.’

    Inko tilted her head, combing through her mind to try to figure out what the note could mean. She reached out a hand to touch the piece of paper, but was shocked to find the door pushing open with even that light of a touch. She froze, a cold sweat washing over her like a tidal wave. She had never sobered up quicker than in that moment. ‘ Takahama. I owed him money… he has an unhealthy obsession with my son.’

   ‘My son. My son.’  

   She shoved her way inside of the house, throwing her high heels off at the entryway, not even bothering to shut the door behind her. She darted into the living room, flipping on the light switches to look around. She was fully prepared to run into Izuku’s room, praying to herself that he would be asleep, perhaps with the door barricaded like it sometimes was. Instead, she caught sight of her little boy’s form slumped over on the couch, his normally sunkissed skin deathly pale. 

    His pants were tossed on the ground, his underwear nowhere to be seen. Sticky white liquid had dried against the inside of his thighs, and Inko covered her mouth to hold back a horrified scream. She had never moved faster than in that moment, dropping to her knees at her son’s side in hopes that he was still alive. ‘ Please, please, please let him be alive. I won’t ever ask for anything ever again, just please …’ “Izuku?” Her voice trembled as she pressed two fingers against his neck, searching for a pulse. Her own heartbeat was so thunderous that she couldn’t hear or feel anything over the sound of it, but after a few moments of concentrating, she finally felt it. A slow, steady beat beneath her fingers. 

   She sobbed out in relief, tears overflowing from her eyes. She could practically feel what tiny part of her heart was left intact shattering at the sight of her poor baby laid out on the couch like some afterthought , not like the child he was. She was disgusted with herself for wanting to murder the man who had done this to him when she knew that she was no better. ‘ Oh god… what have I done?’  

    “What have I done?” she whispered to herself, sinking back to sit on her heels numbly. She started down at her hands in her lap, her vision blurring with her own tears. They were the same hands she had used multiple times to pin her son down while she fucked him. The same hands she’d used to hold him as a baby, the same hands she’d used to brush through his unruly curls as a toddler. The same hands she used to aid her quirk to hurt him when he tried to fight against her advances. 

     It was like in that moment, the bough broke down. Every emotion she’d been shoving down inside of her since Hisashi left them, every unpleasant thought and feeling she’d shoved down with drugs, sex and alcohol, it all came spilling out of her like a tidal wave. So she did the only thing she could think of to let it all out. 

    She opened her mouth, and she screamed. 

     (x)

    Bakugou Mitsuki ran down the halls of the hospital, eyes searching for any familiar face she could find. She’d been roused from a dead sleep by her phone ringing, the sound thankfully not waking her husband, who slept like the dead. She’d been annoyed when she checked the time, finding it was past six o’clock in the morning. She’d contemplated not answering it, but when she’d seen the caller I.D., she changed her mind. 

    Musutafu General Hospital had called her at six oh-seven am, informing her that a boy by the name of Midoriya Izuku had her listed as his emergency contact, and she needed to come down to the hospital immediately. She hadn’t even bothered to wake her husband before she grabbed her wallet, shoes and car keys and headed out the door. 

    Now she was there, running down the hall of the third floor like the woman at the ground floor had told her to. Following the blue line painted on the ground, she finally came across the nurses’ station where one young woman appeared to be struggling to stay awake. Mitsuki slammed her hands against the counter, panting both from the dead sprint she’d been in and from the panic she was feeling. The poor nurse startled awake from her doze, sitting up with wide eyes at Mitsuki. 

    “I got a call about a boy named Midoriya Izuku,” the blond woman explained, swallowing hard around the lump in her throat. “Is he here? Is he okay? What happened?” 

    “Ma’am, please calm down,” the nurse said, holding up a hand. “Can you confirm your identity for me before I tell you anything?”

   “I’m Bakugou Mitsuki,” Mitsuki said, irritated despite knowing the nurse was only doing her job. The woman’s face softened as she stood, coming around the desk in order to lead Mitsuki down the hall, towards a separate section of patient rooms. 

   “Right this way ma’am,” the woman said. “Midoriya-kun was admitted around five-forty this morning, after neighbors heard screaming coming from his apartment. They found his mother sitting at his side, going through what appeared to be a drug-related breakdown. They took Midoriya-san to the police station before the ambulance brought Midoriya-kun here, due to the… injuries they found on site.”

    “Injuries? What injuries?” Mitsuki demanded as the two of them stopped in front of a door. The nurse gave her an apologetic look, taking a step away from her. 

    “I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to say. I’ll go fetch his doctor for you. Feel free to head on inside, although I’m not sure if he will wake up anytime soon. It appears he was drugged by some sort of quirk before coming into our care.” 

    A train could have crashed through the room and Mitsuki wouldn’t have known it. She stared down at the handle of the door for longer than was probably sane, and yet she just couldn’t bring herself to open it. Somewhere deep inside, she’d always wondered if one day Inko was going to snap and hurt Izuku, but with the way Katsuki was constantly raving about the boy, she would have sworn on everything that Izuku would be the victor in any battle between the mother and son. Yet here he was, helpless and alone inside of that hospital room. 

    The thought of the boy she considered a son being alone and in pain was enough to push Mitsuki into opening the door, grateful for its silent hinges as she tiptoed inside. Izuku was laying down flat on the bed, his face pale and gaunt, like he hadn’t eaten in weeks. She’d seen him no less than eight hours ago, right before he’d left their home at ten p.m. after coming over in the aftermath of the Sports Festival, and yet he looked like a completely different person from back then. 

    She pressed the back of her hand to her mouth, taking a tentative step towards the boy. With another, and then another, she found herself at his bedside, sinking into the chair directly to his right. She instinctively reached out for his right hand, lacing her much smaller fingers into his. When had he gotten so big? Looking at him laying there, however pale and sickly he seemed, it was still obvious that the boy was packed with muscle. How was it possible that little Midoriya Inko could do something to him that would leave him in a state like this?

    ‘ It appears he was drugged by some sort of quirk before coming into our care,’ the voice of the nurse floated through Mitsuki’s mind. She paused, surveying the boy once more. Inko didn’t have a quirk that could drug people. So if it wasn’t her that did this… who was it? 

    There was a soft knock on the door. Mitsuki turned, making eye contact with a short, plump woman who was apparently Izuku’’s doctor. The woman smiled at her, stepping inside of the room, a clipboard hugged to her chest. “Hello there, I’m Doctor Tayama. I assume you’re Bakugou-san?” 

    “That’s me,” Mitsuki said, standing up. She was suddenly aware that she was still wearing an old, stretched out t-shirt and pajama bottoms, her blonde spikes pushed all around from her strange sleeping position. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to care about that when little Izuku was laying in a hospital bed not even a foot away from her. “Please, can you… can you tell me what happened to him?” 

     “Perhaps you should sit down,” Doctor Tayama said, gesturing for Mitsuki to do just that. Mitsuki sank back into her seat numbly, watching Doctor Tayama turn to shut the door. “Bakugou-san, I’m sure this is going to be a very difficult time for you, so I won’t beat around the bush. Law officials arrived at the Midoriya residence to find Midoriya Inko on her knees, screaming and rocking back and forth. Midoriya Izuku appeared to be passed out, and showed sign of sexual assault.” 

    Mitsuki’s gasp was so loud it probably could have been heard from the nurses’ station. She was honestly shocked that Izuku didn’t jerk awake at the sound of it, given that quirk of his, but one glance over at him showed he was just as dead to the world as before. She looked back at the doctor, gesturing for her to continue. The woman nodded, consulting her clipboard before she continued. 

    “We also found scars that show proof of past abuse from Midoriya Inko’s quirk, and a myriad of self-inflicted scars on his hips and thighs dating back anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. We’ve treated the ones that we could, since a few of them needed stitches, but the others we have to let organically heal.” 

    “Oh my god,” Mitsuki breathed. She was glad the doctor had told her to sit down, since she couldn’t imagine being able to stand on her own right now. Doctor Tayama allowed her a moment to let it all sink in, standing up to leave her alone with the news. She left the clipboard behind, clipped to Midoriya’s bed, so that Mitsuki could review it if she wanted. 

   Mitsuki hardly noticed her leaving, contemplating all of the information she’d just been given. ‘ Inko has been using her quirk to hurt Izuku. Izuku was raped last night. He’s been cutting himself . How could I not have seen this?’  

    “Don’t beat yourself up over it,” a scratchy voice broke through her thoughts. She jumped, whirling to face the boy in the hospital bed. He smiled sadly at her, coughing a bit as he forced himself to sit up. She jumped out of her seat and hovered over him worriedly, hands outstretched to support him should he need it. He waved her away, reaching behind him to fluffy up his pillows. He seemed to wince with every movement he made, but when he finally settled down, he seemed calm again. 

    “Izuku-kun,” Mitsuki said, feeling her eyes fill up with tears. She was a Bakugou though, and wouldn’t show weakness when someone else needed her to be strong. She held back her tears, forcing them away so she could grip onto Izuku’s hand that was closest to her. “You should have told me what was going on. I would have helped you, you know.” 

    Izuku looked away from her, staring down at his lap. She knew he could still “see” her even if he wasn’t looking directly at her, so she let him feel the comfort of pretending. “I… I just didn’t want to get her in trouble.” 

    “Izuku,” Mitsuki said, tightening her grip on his hand. “She’s been abusing you. That is never, ever okay, even if she is your mother. How long has this been going on?” 

    Izuku bit his lower lip. “She’s… she’s been using her quirk on me since I was about seven, but she didn’t start raping me until after that.” 

     Mitsuki didn’t think it was possible to be any more shocked than she’d been when the doctor had informed her of Izuku’s injuries, but in that moment it was as if time itself froze. Every muscle in her body stiffened, her heart thundering so hard in her chest she wondered if she was having a panic attack. Izuku’s head snapped up to look at her instinctively, his hand squeezing hers as some sort of reassurance. The boy’s heart monitor was beginning to beep faster as anxiety overtook him. 

    “You didn’t know that part,” he guessed, more of a statement than a question. Mitsuki shook her head, and this time, she couldn’t stop the tears from falling. She didn’t bother to say anything, as she didn’t think she had any words to say, anyway. Instead, she stood up from her chair and pressed her hands on Izuku’s side, pushing him farther over on the bed so she could crawl in with him. There, she pulled him into her chest like he was a toddler again and held him there, the way a real mother should. 

    They cried on one another until sleep and exhaustion pulled them under. 

      (x)

    Katsuki opened the door after a long day of school to see his father’s panicked face, the man looking more anxious than Katsuki had seen in a long, long time. It put him on high alert in an instant, slamming into the house so quickly that he almost headbutted the older man. Masaru moved out of the way quickly, not bothering to wait for Katsuki’s apology before he began speaking. “Did your mother tell you where she was going last night?” 

    “What?” Katsuki asked, confused.  “What are you talking about? The hag isn’t here?” 

    “The house alarm says the garage door opened at six this morning,” Masaru explained, “but I’ve called and texted her and she won’t answer. I have this terrible feeling that something is really, really wrong.” 

    Katsuki reached for his cell phone, plugged in on his nightstand, clicking his screen on. He didn’t have any notifications. “Did you check her location?” 

   Masaru furrowed his brow, looking confused. “What do you mean? I can do that?” 

   Katsuki rolled his eyes. “Yeah, if you have someone in your contact list, they’re usually automatically sharing their location with you.” He turned his phone screen to his father so he could watch as Katsuki pulled up his map. “Look, see? She’s… at…” 

   Both men stared down at the device. It said that Bakugou Mitsuki was sitting at the Musutafu General Hospital, her smiling icon right next to Deku’s. Both of them were at the hospital for some reason, and considering his mother had left in a hurry that morning and Deku hadn’t been at school that day, Katsuki had a pretty clear guess as to why. Neither he nor his father bothered to say anything before they both ran out of the entryway, scrambling to get their shit together so they could take Masaru’s car to the hospital. 

     It took fifteen excruciatingly long minutes to get there. By the time they got here it was just past five o’clock in the evening, when visiting hours were just beginning to end. Asking the woman at the front desk, they were directed to the third floor nurses’ station, which both men practically sprinted to. By the time they got there Masaru was out of breath, but Katsuki with his vigorous hero training had barely broken a sweat. There was only one nurse at the station, and she appeared to be packing up her stuff for the end of a long shift. She glanced up when she noticed Katsuki and his father standing there, jolting a bit when she laid eyes on Katsuki. “Oh! You must be the other Bakugous!” 

   Masaru stepped forward, pushing his glasses up his nose. “Yes, that’s us. I assume you’ve met my wife?” 

   “Yes, she came in for Midoriya Izuku at the beginning of my shift,” the nurse said kindly. She looked back at Katsuki, cocking her head to the side. “Wow, you look just like your mother.” 

   “So I’ve heard,” Katsuki deadpanned. “Where the fuck are they, then?” 

   Masaru was so stressed he didn’t even bother to correct Katsuki for his coarse language, only staring at the nurse with wide, pleading eyes. The woman seemed to startle back into motion, leading them down the hallway until they paused in front of room 305. “Here you both are. Last time I checked in on them they were both asleep, so please try not to startle them. I’ll go find out when Doctor Tayama will be back.” 

    She left them alone in front of the door, allowing Katsuki to turn the handle and burst inside. There on the twin-sized hospital bed, his mother lay with Deku curled up in her side, both of them looking like they’d been crying all night long. Deku was the one tucked under the covers, dressed in a paper-thin hospital gown, while Katsuki’s mother still wore her pajamas with a snore strip over the bridge of her nose. Masaru sighed in relief seeing his wife and godson were alright, but Katsuki wasn’t quite convinced to relax yet. He stomped over to the bed, completely ignoring the nurse’s advice about not startling them. 

    “Oi, Deku!” Katsuki reached down and pushed at Deku’s arm, shaking him and subsequently his mother awake. “What the fuck are you two doing here, huh?!” 

    Mitsuki was the first to blink away, squirting her crismon eyes at Katsuki. “Katsuki? What are you doing here?” She looked around the room, spotting her husband standing by the doorway. “Baby? What’s going on?” 

    “You tell us!” Katsuki snapped, reaching down to pinch Izuku. “Oi, shithead! Rise and fucking shine!” 

    “Kacchan,” Izuku moaned, snuggling deeper into Mitsuki’s side. “S’ the weekend.”

   Katsuki snorted, crossing his arms. “It’s Monday, you missed school.” 

   Just like that the boy shot up, his eyes wide. When he realized exactly where he was, he gave Katsuki what could only be described as a murderous glare. “It’s late Kacchan. Why am I awake?” 

    “Um, I don’t know dipshit, maybe tell me why you’re in the fucking hospital first?” Katsuki gestured around wildly. “What the fuck happened, hah? You weren’t at school today and now you’re here!” 

   “Don’t yell at him Katsuki,” Mitsuki warned, although her tone was without its usual bite. Katsuki paused, taking a good look at his mother. Due to her quirk, ‘ Glycerin,’ her skin had always been just as smooth and flawless as his. She didn’t look a day over twenty-five, despite being two decades older than that. Yet now, Katsuki could have sworn he spotted dark circles under her eyes and wrinkles around her brow. Masaru came up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder, also fixing his eyes on his wife. 

    “I think you should tell us what’s going on, Mitsuki,” he said quietly. Katsuki’s mother opened her mouth to answer, but Deku raised up a hand, a silent signal for her to keep quiet. The blonde woman complied, watching Deku brace himself to say whatever it was he needed to. 

    “I was brought here this morning because…” Unseeing grey-green eyes raised to meet ruby, sucking Katsuki in like they were miniature black holes. “Because my mom’s pimp broke into my house last night and waited for me to get home.” 

   ‘ He just threatened me a little, okay? Can we drop it now?’ Izuku’s voice from months before swam through Katsuki’s head, a memory of the day that Izuku ran to Katsuki’s house after abruptly hanging up the phone.

    “My mom owed him some money, so he brought one of his friends to our apartment and… well, they both raped me.” Deku looked away from Katsuki, back down at his own lap. Mitsuki’s hand travelled to hold one of Izuku’s, their fingers lacing together in a symbol of strength. Katsuki couldn’t do much more than gape, astonished. 

    “Oh my god,” Masaru said, a pretty valid echo of Katsuki’s own thoughts. 

   “That’s not everything,” Deku said, his voice cracking a bit. “My mom… she’s been using her quirk to hurt me for a while now, both physically and… and sexually. This morning, when she found me after those men left… it was like something shattered. She started screaming loud enough to wake the neighbors, and they called the police.” Katsuki could see tears streaming down Deku’s face now, although he wasn’t making any noise as he cried. It broke his heart a bit to realize that Deku had practice in crying silently. “The doctors found out I’ve been c-cutting myself. I figured I should tell you before they do.” 

   Katsuki’s legs gave out beneath him, Masaru too late to stop him from hitting the ground hard. He was vaguely aware of his parents and Deku making worried noises above him, but the entire world sounded so far away that he paid them no mind. ‘ Auntie has been abusing Deku. She’s been… raping him. Deku was raped by his mom’s pimp last night. Deku’s been cutting himself. How the fuck could I not have seen it? How could I not have noticed?’  

   “Kacchan?” A warm hand touched Katsuki’s leg through his school pants, concerned but unseeing eyes roving over his face. Deku had jumped out of the bed like a dumbass, giving Bakugou a full view of his body due to his paper-thin hospital gown. From the way he was crouching in front of Bakugou, the older boy could indeed see bandages wrapping around Izuku’s thighs, as well as bruises on his legs and wrists. His neck was discoloured, like someone had tried to strangle him, and his eyes were tinged pink from his continuous crying. His wrists were also exposed, and for the first time, Katsuki looked and really saw them. There were strange scars covering his arms, like small sections of friction burns, almost. ‘ Auntie’s quirk. She’s the one that did this.’  

    “Don’t,” Katsuki said shakily, brushing Deku’s hands away. “Don’t touch me, I don’t deserve it.” 

    “Kacchan,” Izuku said, his voice full of pity. It only angered Katsuki even more, causing him to quickly scoot away from his friend. 

    “Don’t! I knew something was going on, I knew it, but I didn’t say anything! God, I even told Aizawa-sensei, but we were too late! I can’t believe I was so fucking stupid! ” 

    Izuku’s face looked horrified. “You told Aizawa-sensei? When?” 

   “After he noticed your fucking mom didn’t visit you in the hospital after the USJ!” Katsuki reached up to lace his hands through his hair, trying to control his frantic breathing. “That was just sign two-hundred eighty-six, wasn’t it? I was so naive.” 

    “Kacchan, I’m going to need you to look at me,” Izuku said. Katsuki did as he was told, forcing back tears even though Izuku wouldn’t be able to see them. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but this isn’t about you. This is about me, and what I hid. All on my own. If I didn’t want you to know, then you weren’t going to know . The sooner you accept that the better.” 

     Katsuki swallowed over the lump in his throat, nodding. Deku was right of course- this wasn’t about him and his failures, not by a long shot. For the next who-knew-how-long, it would all be about Deku. About letting Deku heal, about getting him the help he needed, and about giving Auntie Inko the justice she deserved. Katsuki forced himself to stand up, holding a hand out for Deku. “Get the fuck off the ground, you stupid shithead! The first rule of being in the hospital is not getting out of your fucking hospital bed!” 

    For a moment, Izuku’s face stayed in its careful blank mask, and Katsuki wondered if he’d gone the wrong direction. Then the boy’s expression broke into a slow smile, eyes shining as he took Katsuki’s hand. Just like every time before then, the touch sent a fluttering feeling all over Katsuki, settling into his stomach like usual. “Alright, Kacchan. Help me back to bed, then.” 

    Yeah, this wasn’t about Katsuki not being able to help Izuku. This was going to be about all of them helping Izuku now . For now, that was the only thing that mattered. 

Chapter Text

    Midoriya Inko was charged with life in prison without possibility of parole. She would be going to a special psychiatric prison where she could get the help she so clearly deserved. When Izuku heard about her sentence, he wasn’t sure if he should be happy or sad. On one hand, his abuser was going to be locked up for good- he would never have to see her again if he didn’t want to. On the other hand, it was his mother they were talking about. Ever since he was little, he’d been taking care of her, whether it be helping her inside after a long night of working the streets, or leaving out food for her to eat when she woke out of her drug-filled haze after he went to school. Not having her there anymore would be strange. Not living in their apartment anymore would be strange. 

    In light of the recent changes, U.A. decided to move ahead with a dorm system they had been planning ever since the attack on the USJ. All Might seemed to think that the attack held a greater motive than met the eye, and apparently Principal Nedzu agreed. It was decided that Izuku would stay in the dorms for the entirety of the school year, but would live with the Bakugou family during the breaks from school. They didn’t legally adopt Izuku because the boy asked them not to. He was fine with being their unofficial charge, because secretly, he hated the thought of being legally related to Kacchan. It may have been a dumb or shallow reason, but it made sense in his sixteen year old, messed-up mind, alright? 

    Speaking of Kacchan, he had been so supportive during the entire process. When Auntie Mitsuki and Uncle Masaru found out the extent of what Izuku’s life had been like since his father left, they had been determined to show Izuku what parental treatment was supposed to be like. They showered him in tight hugs and forehead kisses, and eventually, he even stopped flinching away when one of them reached out to touch him. 

    ( Once, Mitsuki had entered the room he shared with Katsuki while the dorms were still being built. It was the middle of the night, and something inside of her told her to check on the boy she considered her second son. He was wide awake in his bed, face turned towards the door as if his unseeing eyes could actually see her. He’d made the most pathetic whimpering noise that Mitsuki had ever heard, and only then did she remember what the silhouette of a grown woman in his bedroom door in the middle of the night had meant to him up until then. ) 

    The dorms were created, and oddly enough, Izuku had never felt safer. He had his own room that no one else had access to, made of thick wood that was impossible to break down. He was put on the second floor, closest to the ground to where he could jump off of his balcony to run away from danger if he truly needed to, while also having the least amount of floor mates (only Tokoyami and Aoyama). He was on the most protected campus in all of Japan, with other hero dorms on either side of their building, and his homeroom teacher only a phone call away if he needed him. 

    It was an odd feeling, being safe. It still took Izuku a few months until he could sleep soundly, especially considering his internships and the incident with Iida, Todoroki and Stain. Interning with Iida at the Manual agency to keep an eye on him had been a good idea, as it turned out, because he was able to find his friend just before the boy was murdered by the infamous vigilante. 

    Iida sort of grew on him, after that. 

   Although Class 1-A didn’t know exactly what happened to Izuku, they knew that he had been removed from his household because his mother was arrested. Her case didn’t go on public record since Izuku was a minor, which meant that they couldn’t just google her and find all of the information on what she had been charged with. He’d gotten the occasional insensitive question right after he came back to school, but after one of Kacchan’s famous threats, everyone seemed to realize that Izuku’s situation was more serious than they could ever know. It was one of the few times Izuku was glad for Katsuki’s abrasiveness. 

    Izuku would like to say that he never hurt himself again either, but that would be a lie. There had been plenty of times that Katsuki found marks or scars on his body and the two fought about them, but as time went on, Izuku began to come to the boy before he acted on his feelings. Oftentimes, the two of them would spar until the urge to hurt himself passed, and Izuku couldn’t be more grateful to his friend. 

    While his life was far from perfect after the incident, especially with the influx of villain attacks that his class received later that year, Izuku could say for the first time in a long, long time that he was safe, and that he was happy. They were two emotions he would never take for granted again. 

   END