Chapter Text
At the young age of 4, a small green-haired boy, known by the name Midoriya Izuku, learned an important lesson; not all men are created equal.
He'd walked home with burn marks and a teary-eyed expression from the process of learning that lesson.
When he turned 5, he awakened his quirk, which gave him a migraine almost immediately, it was a sort of bug quirk if the antennas had anything to show for. He started hearing voices, they said things like "I found food" and "Danger" yet, Izuku paid no mind to them.
At first, he didn't think much of it and proceeded to trudge to the living room to notify his mother how much his head hurt. Yep, that decision led to a trip to the quirk doctor's office; Apparently, his quirk is to transform into whatever bug his mind is most focused on at the moment. "Insectoid" is what the young boy named his quirk. At least, that is what is on his record, which isn't entirely wrong, but the quirk has more to do with communicating with insects through the use of pheromones and vibrations in the air than simple transformations.
To say Inko was worried is an understatement. She's terrified of what people at school or even on the streets might do to her boy.
When they arrived home Izuku almost immediately started a conversation with a nearby moth to test his quirk a bit, causing Inko to smirk a little before walking to the kitchen to begin cooking.
Izuku decided to sprint to his room (after attempting to fly with his newly created moth wings.) to write in the nearest empty composition notebook about his quirk after his conversation with the moth was completed. He noticed his vision get significantly worse after the transformation was completed. "I can't write about my quirk like this." he thought to himself while deciding, to try and focus on a green blur by the window seal. Upon doing this action, his senses improved, and now that he could see, he could write but first, he looked through the window to identify the 'green blur" as a praying mantis. Now obviously his writing wasn't the best, but it was decent to Izuku as he scribbled in messy kanji details about his quirk and things he hears from insects.
"Izuku, dinner's ready!" his mother called from the dining room."Coming!" Izuku called back cheerfully. The first thing he noticed before shuffling to the kitchen was the smell, he immediately identified it as katsudon, yet it seemed stronger than usual, he pondered how strong the average insect's sense of smell is.
It took Inko a little while to figure out his quirk is about communication rather than transformation. She couldn't help but notice the way his facial expression seemed to change when paying attention to an insect.
Instead of immediately calling the quirk doctor, Inko decided to ask the younger Midoriya if he wanted to update his record, and taught him about facial expressions, micro-expressions, and, body language.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~Time skip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Over the years, Izuku has become more reserved, he no longer blindly followed people with eyes practically glowing with admiration. Middle school is fun (meant to be sarcastic), who wouldn't love to open your very vandalized locker each morning to find a couple of death-threat letters and another spider one of Katsuki's lackeys caught as if it was the most brilliant joke ever, and for the 100th time it's not, it's just annoying. Sometimes when his bullies are feeling especially cruel, they'd kill a bug and place its corpse on his desk with a note. The content of the note varies from 'sorry I killed your brothers' to 'look it's you after you fail to be a hero' Midoriya doesn't like classes much either, hiding homework so it doesn't get torn and scrubbing marker off his desk each morning isn't exactly appealing.
His teachers aren't even nice to him, they jump at every opportunity they have (or don't have) to put Izuku in detention. Even walking through the hallway is hell for Izuku, and Katsuki likes to look for him just to "squish him like the bug he is." Izuku looks forward to any free time he can get, a lot of which is spent conversing with insects along with analyzing behaviors and quirks alike, if he isn't doing either, then he's usually studying any subject his grades might have slipped on.
Most days are like this, Izuku's just grateful that he'd thought about what Katsuki would do if he found Izukus' analysis notebooks and gave them two different titles: his quirk analysis notebook is named 'maths' and his behavior notebook is named 'science.' He has actual study notebooks of course, but he can tell the difference between his analysis notebooks and his study notebooks by the ink used on the cover. He used two different brands of permanent markers to ensure Izuku is the only person who can tell the difference without opening the notebooks.
---
Of course, bullying causes injuries, injuries that Inko notices when he comes home. Izuku always tries to make an excuse so his bullies don't get in trouble but, Inko knows Izuku well, she knows he's trying to cover for someone she just doesn't know who yet. Inko taught Izuku how to treat wounds properly, before carefully hugging him to ensure she doesn't aggravate any wounds.
Inko especially knows Izuku's being bullied when he asks if someone like him can possibly be a hero. She told him he can be anything he wants to be and no one could stop him. Izuku looked doubtful at first, but then he leaned into his mother's shoulder and started tearing up. Izuku seemed to trust his mother a bit more after that.