Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When one feels love, one feels as if they are finally alive.

When one experiences hate, one remembers why they need love.

A body hits the floor with a sicking crunch, it bounces up from the shock but it was dead long before it was kissed by the earth.

The blood vessels ruptured about 100 km up, their organs were already torn apart before they knew what it felt to fly.

Love is never so easy to keep in your heart, it floods like the heat from a car but as soon as the window is opened it is snuffed out.

hate will stick to your mind like a tumor, small in size but affective nonetheless, it displaces you just enough that you will forever know it, even when it is not aggravated.

A small boy has yet to know what this all means, but soon it will collapse on to him like dead weight.

It will push the air from his lungs and warmth from his heart and in the end he shall never know peace.

Even when he believes in the hope of the sky and faith in the strongest of the weak.

For God is not here walking among us, and he who trys to save every soul is damned to fail.

Be it by faith, be it by luck, be it by the will of the lord of the unrecognizable, it shall pass that his soul is not to be spared.

Nobody will catch him.

The beeping of a heart monitor is what stirs the mind of that boy, a horrible pressure on his small head.

He dares not open his eye for he fears they will pop out from the stress.

He feels a hand on his, larger then his own, it is soft and kind and holds him as if he is the most precious thing imaginable.

It is his mother's hand, that he is certain, but he feels no cold from where her ring should be, confusion twists in his mind.

He reaches out to the hand again, thus time being met with both and a surprised cry.

"Oh izuku thank god your ok! Oh my baby." She said clutching him to herself.

He didn't know why she should be crying, he was fine so he could only assume that she was in pain.

"M-ah" He tried, his voice was dry and cracked, she brought a straw to his face and he sipped gratefully.

"mama?" He said now clearly, he heard a choked sob and wished the pain in his head to go away if for only a moment so he could open his eye.

With great pain he cracked his right eye open and panic set in, darkness, not full darkness mind you, but enough to make his stomach flip in fear, as if two dark board were glued to the top and bottom of his eye.

Thankfully his eye did not pop out when it was opened, the pressure was still there but was becoming slightly less.

The light he could see, but the room was where the real trouble began, he saw shapes but couldn't focus in on them no matter how hard he tried, as if he was squinting at all times.

He willed himself to open his other eye, complete darkness, fear rose in his chest and he pulled one of his hands from his mother's death grip as she was talking to someone else in the room.

He touched his face and found a large bandages on his right eye, with a relieved breath he started pulling it off only to be stopped by the person his mother was conversing with.

"Woah sport, I know that's probably uncomfortable but you gotta keep that one on," the man said in a kind voice, "my names Dr.S.scorfa, but you can call me scott, you took a bit of a fall and hurt your head but you're gonna be just fine."

Izuku looked up at the man and could make out a bit of his face, he moved his head slightly to get all of it.

He seemed to have a animal type quirk as he looked quite like a wild boar, with tusks, a large nose and furry disposition.

"He looks kind." He thought.

The doctor, noticing his strategy and looked concerned before putting on a smile again.

"Hey kid are you havin a bit of trouble seeing me?" He said as he bent down to be eye level, studying him intently.

Izuku nodded slightly.

The doctor nodded thoughtfully, "can you tell me what you do see?" He said.

Izuku opened his mouth to respond, "everythings...blurry, and it's dark on the sides." He said simply, "I don't know what I see in my other eye."

Dr. Scott looked concerned as he nodded, "but you can still see some light and shapes?"

He nodded.

"Ok that's good, thank you," he said and put a fuzzy hand on his shoulder for a moment, "you did very well."

He turned to inko, signaling to her to walk out with her for a moment.

Izuku wondered what they were gonna talk about, and if it was about him, he hoped he could still write in his heros journal.

He laid back turning his face to the door, positioning his eye to focus on the fuzzy blob that he assumed was the door.

Outside the door Dr. Scott spoke to inko in a calm and level tone, "your sons eyes may to be more damaged then we initially thought when you brought him in, but we won't know more until the neurologist can get a look at him."

Inko nodded with tears in her eyes that she refused to let fall, he spoke again, "but I've made it a point in my career to never claim I know something I only suspect so don't loose hope, he's a strong kid." He smiled and bid her goodbye.

She walked back in and greeted izuku, "hi baby," she touched her hand to his cheek, "how are you feeling?"

He grabbed her hand and nuzzled into it, "m-head hurts."

"Oh I'm sorry," she said as she rubbed his back lightly, "I'll ask the nurse but they gave you a dose a few minutes before you woke up, it should kick in soon but I can get you an ice pack."

She got up and went to ask about the items, izuku laid back down and closed his eye, he tried to calm himself but he simply couldn't, he wanted to see, he wanted to walk around, he wanted to fall asleep and wake up to realize that this was all a terrible dream.

It wasn't, and izuku cried.

After the specialist checked him out it was determined that his right eye was not beyond repair, the fact that he could see at all was a miracle in itself.

His left eye was another story, a sad one at that.

When he had fallen, he learned that he had hit a very sharp rock, it then burrowed itself into his left eye, when the doctors took it out they found that it had completely destroyed the eyeballs and socket.

In the end there was no way to re-attach anything because there was nothing that could be saved.

Over the next few months he had a total of three surgery's, two to reconstruct his face to the best of their abilities and one to put his leg back into place, as it had also gotten injured in the fall.

He then had four months of physical therapy to help his leg heal, they said it would have taken longer but because he was younger his body was able to adjust quicker.

But only so much could be done as he had not been immediately found after the fall, they didn't know how long it had been but they estimated he had laid there for two to four hours.

It was during school hours so inko only started to worry when he hadn't come home and at that point he was already like that for hours.

So even though he made a full recovery and could walk most of the time he would still need a mobility aid most of the time and deal with chronic pain for the rest of his life.

His good eye was almost fully functioning with only a slight blur after which could be corrected with prescription glasses.

When izuku was finally permitted to take the bandage off for good he found a hollow socket and was more intrigued then scared, it didn't hurt anymore thanks to the healing quirk that one of the nurses had.

Her name was Miss, Miriam she had a strong healing quirk that pretty much pushed the internal clock of the body and sedated it at the same time, the drawback was that if it was used to much on a person they could age to fast and die.

Also if the patient had anything else in them that could be harmful, say a tumor, it would speed up the process of it growing, but only if it was already in the body.

If a person was going to have a tumor growing in their head in a year but it wasn't already growing, her quirk wouldn't start it up.

So even though it was a very powerful quirk it was rarely used as the patient had to be basically 100 percent healthy already to avoid any mistakes.

But the older nurses had years of experience with her quirk and though she was gruff she was not unkind.

His recovery was sped up a whole two weeks before they had estimated and izuku was grateful, especially because when he was having his treatments she had allowed him to ask her as many questions as his heart desired.

The first six pages of his is brand new hero notebook was full to the brim with facts, questions and theories.

The nurse would rarely smile but was very kind, she picked him up when he was to tired to walk back to his room and would listen to his rambling when inko couldn't be spared from her job.

Which wasn't often, after the accident inko practically lived at the hospital, she slept in the hospital chair next to his bed most nights, the staff let her take showers and most of the time she went straight to work and back to the hospital.

Throughout the next several months she lived through a suitcase or from clothing that aunt mitsuki would bring.
On those days, she'd bring katsuki to hang out, which was a welcome reprise from the lonely white halls.

Thought he couldn't play as enthusiastically or as long as he used to katsuki was his same explosive self and together they took it in strides.

The first time katsuki and his mom were allowed to visit izuku, the bandage on his eye was already off and he was unsure whether he should cover it up.

When he asked his mom for a eyepatch or sunglasses to cover it up she nodded and walked out, then he could hear her crying through the door.

He was given a plain black one from his mom that a nurse had given her.

He sat with the eyepatch in his hand and to his surprise he was reluctant to put it on, it was uncomfortable, the material was itchy and he didn't like how the elastic felt.

Inko said it was just temporary and promised to get him a better quality one soon, she also mentioned the option of a fake eye which piqued his interest.

a nevertheless he sat in his bed with the black patch on his eye and cane propped up on the side of his bed, eagerly awaiting his visitors.

Chapter Text

The bakugos got off the elevator and walked down the hall, mitsuki holding a vase of all might themed flowers that katsuki had insisted they brought, a suitcase of fresh clothes for inko and a basket of orange's.

katsuki holding in his small hands a much to heavy box stubbornly, he had carried it all the way from the bus stop to here and he was determined to be the one to give it to his dumbass friend.

He was angry at izuku for being so clumsy and scaring auntie inko and himself so bad, when he saw him he'd give him a piece of his mind.

He was angry that his mom wouldn't tell him anything that happened other then "he fell and got hurt" he wasn't a baby! He wanted to know what happened to his friend.

He was also angry at the stupid doctors for not letting him see him cuz of some stupid reasons like 'recovery' he'd heal way faster if katsuki was their to play with him, he was sure of it.

But he was here now and he'd kill any stupid nurse that tried to take him away.

He then had to stop and catch his breath because the stupid box of stupid dekus nerd stuff was heavy.

Then they were right outside the door and mitsuki turned to her son and crouched down to his eye level.

"Katsuki, I just want you to know that izuku is going to look... different," she started, "I just want you to be prepared and try not to bring to much attention to it." She said as she patted his head.

"Yeah yeah he hit his head or whatever, " katsuki though, "she's been saying this since we walked into the hospital, how different could he be?"

He just nodded and she smiled at him lightly, she then got up and opened the door.

A beat.

Then katsuki took in the sight of his best friend, he sat in the white hospital bed that looked so uncomfortable and stiff.

He had a eyepatch and a plethora of scrapes and bruises, he didn't look like someone who had falled.

He looked like someone who had gotten beaten within an inch of his life and then thrown of a flight of stairs.

But despite all of that, the moment there eyes locked the green haired idiot smiled so widely he thought his mouth might rip in two.

And despite his desire to yell and give him a piece of his mind he felt himself drop the box and run to him.

He jumped onto the bed and held him fiercely, before he could even think to yell his eyes started bubbling and he put all his strength into not letting his quirk go off.

Izuku blinked in surprise, they hadn't hugged like this since kacchan got his quirk, it had been years.

His hands hovered over katsuki's shaking back for a moment before hugging him back and buried his face into his shoulder crying.

It was odd crying out of only one eye, but he figured he'd get used to it some day, he felt a well of discomfort fill up inside him.

After what felt like hours but way likely only a few moments they let go and katsuki sniffed and rubbed his eyes aggressively.

He sat in front of izuku crisscross and stared at him as he wiped his own tears away.

"Why do you have that on?" He said with the same bite in his voice that he always had.

Izuku froze slightly and stayed silent for a moment before saying, "my eye just got injured so I need this on, just until it's better." He said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

Katsuki looked at him with obvious doubts in his eyes, "you're lying." He said plainly.

Mitsuki materialized beside him in an instant and smacked him upside the head, "What did we JUST talk about before we walked in here katsuki!!??"

"BUT HE'S LYING AND I WANNA KNOW WHY!!" he said as he held his head and glared at her.

Inko was up in an instant and trying to deescalate the situation, "maybe you two could go get us all a snack from the commissary." She said as she grabbed a few yen from her purse.

"We already have orange." Katsuki said, and was immediately ignored.

"I'm not taking your money inko, if anyone's gonna pay for snacks it's me!" Mitsuki said passively as she pushed her hand away.

They started to bicker and katsuki sat closer to izuku who was just sitting and enjoying the normalcy.

He hadn't realized how much he missed seeing his mom get irritated, through out this whole journey he saw him mom become more tired and depressed.

Inko didn't want him to worry when he was already trying to recover but she didn't need to say anything, he knew.

It had started when he was declared quirkless and after years of fighting, couples therapy, space, and finally, him taking a job overseas.

It was obvious that the divorce was final as she was no longer wearing her ring.

But in that moment she seemed almost the same as she was before, happy.

"I'm not leaving." Katsuki yelled over the two adults bickering, they stopped instantly.

Mitsuki turned with a angry smile "the hell your not." She said quietly.

Katsuki linked his arm with izuku and stared down his mother unblinking, "I'm. Not. Leaving."

Mitsuki looked like she might send katsuki straight to the second hospital bed in that moment before izuku spoke up, "I want him to stay!" He said.

He held their arms together tighter and looked to his mother who looked nervously at him, he nodded at her and she smiled lightly.

She turned to mitsuki and put a hand on her shoulder, "let's go get some snacks for the boys, ok?" The fiery blonde looked at inko and sighed.

"You boys better behave or so help me." She said as she walked out, staring mostly at katsuki.

After the door closed the two boys looked at each other and smiled, katsuki jumped off the bed and grabbed the box, pulling it up to the bed, he stood at the base of the bed and hauled it up with great effort.

He almost got it up but the wight of the box was to much to bare and he started wobbling, just before he fell he felt two small hands pulling the box up.

Izuku got it the rest of the way onto the bed and held out his hand for katsuki to clime up.

Katsuki hesitated, opting to climb up on his own instead, izuku's smile faded slightly but he turned his attention to the box now.

He felt the discomfort pooling again, he hated feeling so fragile.

Katsuki motioned for him to open the box, which he did.

It was a few things from his room, his all might comforter and pillows, his favorite figurine, a few posters, his all might nightlight and a few more fresh notebooks

Izuku almost cried again.

After that they spent the rest of the time decorating his room, when their mothers got back they were able to help them put the posters up.

Then they spent the rest of the day drawing and writing, they talked about what kind of heros they wanted to be.

Katsuki tried desperately to get izuku to join in but he was less enthusiastic then he used to be.

They took a break to eat the snacks that their mom's had bought and afterwards izuku was feeling antsy, he shifted in his seat and katsuki noticed, "hey mom, can we go outside and play?"

Mitsuki looked to inko who in turn looked at izuku who nodded with pleading eyes, or well eye.

Reluctantly she agreed but only if someone went out with them, just then miss, Miriam walked in to take izuku out for his daily walk, usually those walks did not include going outside but with two pares of pleading eyes on her she cracked and agreed.

"But you must take your cane dear." She said in her low deep voice, reluctantly he agreed and grabbed the cane that was leaning on the side of the bed, it was grey and boring but it did alleviate the pressure on his leg.

It had a straight handle and a cuff that went up his arm, to make it easier for him to hold in his child hands.

He held it and let his wight fall onto it naturally.

Katsuki looked at him with wide eyes, "you hurt your leg too?"

Izuku looked down, seemingly with guilt, "ah... yeah,"

"I thought you were all better." He said.

"Well.. I am but," he chose his words slowly, "it was to hurt to fix all the way so... I'll need this for the rest of my life." He smiled tiredly.

He expected anger, yelling, maybe even a few explosions but all he got was silence.

"...kacchan?"

That seemed to break him out of his trance, "is your eye really gonna be better?" He asked.

Katsuki was always to smart for his own good.

Izuku looked at him and sighed a sigh that no one that young should have to, "no" He said, he turned around and walked out, not waiting for katsuki to follow.

Eventually he did follow, he didn't need to go far as izuku hadn't ever been fast, and this sure hadn't helped him.

"Izuku wait." Katsuki yelled, catching up to him almost instantly, "i-..." The words caught in his throat.

Katsuki may have been smarter then the average ten year old but he was still very inexperienced in the art of feeling.

"I'm not getting better." Izuku said turning to look at him, "I will never get better, THIS is the best it gets!"

The discomfort flooded in like a tidal wave and sent his nerve into a spiral in his stomach.

His eye started watering and he choked out a sob, "I can't- I-"He said with a breaking voice, "I can't even cry properly."

"What do you mean?" Katsuki asked as he walked over to izuku.

"I- ...didn't want to scare you" He said as he looked over to katsuki, concern written all over his face, "I didn't want you to hate me more."

And katsuki's world shattered.

Chapter Text

"What am I doing?" Katsuki though, "why am I mad at him, why do I feel so bad?"

He was confused, when had he become a bad person? He looked at the green haired boy who he had felt nothing but hatred for only a few months ago and for what?

He blinked back tears, when had he started crying?

Izuku was his best friend, when had that stopped, and why?

He wanted to be a hero, he'd always wanted to be a hero, with izuku, they were gonna be a duo, and save so many people but then-
Then izuku didn't get a quirk, and all the plans they had made were shattered.

And then izuku got hurt, and now his spirit was shattered.

"It's my fault," he realized with horror, his small body shaking as he unraveled his heart, "I'm the villain."

He walked over and sat down next to izuku, unsure how to comfort him, unsure how to start again.

It was so natural in his hospital room, they just hugged and they drew and suddenly they were friends again, running around the woods, catching bugs, enjoying each others company, simple as that.

They didn't have to think, didn't have to talk, could it really ever be like that again?

Could it be saved?

It was his fault, he decided, if they were still friends maybe he'd have been with katsuki that day.

He wouldn't have fell.

He would have been fine

Maybe he'd be smiling right now, maybe he would run and see and cry.

maybe they'd have been heros together if he'd- if he'd- maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybeifyouweren'tsuchafuckingmistake-cchan, kacchan! KACCHAN!

he gasped looking around only to find izuku shaking him in the shoulders, "wha- I"

"Are you OK" He asked in a serious tone, one that he'd never heard from him before.

He looked at the face of the boy he hated, it was scratched up and tired, if he tried he could see where they had stiched him up.

In the face of his old friend, he saw someone he realized he never really knew.

Someone he never tried to know.

His eye was duller then he remembered, he reached up to touch the eyepatch and izuku flinched away.

They sat in silence.

After a moment he sputtered out a small "yeah I'm fine." As he wiped away any remaining tears.

Izuku blinked with concern, "I'll go get auntie mitsuki-" he stood up.

"Don't! I'm fine." He said as he jumped up after him, grabbing his sleeve.

"No you aren't, you were crying!" Izuku said, turning to look at him.

And then katsuki felt suddenly more fed up with him then he ever had before, "WHY DO YOU CARE!? IM SO AWFUL TO YOU ALL THE TIME!!" he yelled, fresh tears streaming down his face, "WHY DO YOU STILL CARE!?"

izuku looked shocked, then his eye narrowed, "YOU'RE MY FRIEND THATS WHY, YOU WERE MEAN TO ME AND I HATED IT," he started, "BUT YOU HATED IT TOO RIGHT!?" Katsuki's eyes went wide.

Izuku had never yelled at him.

"you were mean to me because I don't have a quirk, and you were sad because we couldn't be heros together." He said, tears welling up in his eye, "I didn't ask to be born quirkless, I didn't ask to be hurt so badly, I have every reason to hate you." his eye shown bright, not like when he was younger, with the rich green of the forest.

No now it shown lighter, stronger, the light in his eye had to fight and claw and sacrifice to stay in it, and now nothing was going to take it away.

Nothing could.

Then izuku smiled, "well I forgive you, there it's done."

"WHAT!? I was a asshole! It can't just be done!" Izuku chose to ignore him, "hey wait!"

"I'm going to the garden to take a walk, come on kacchan, well I'm still feeling strong enough." He said and got up.

"You can't just forgive me and be done with it!" Katsuki said as he also got up.

"Hey you were the one that was mean to me," izuku said, which made katsuki flinch, "So I think I can do whatever I want."

"But-" "that includes forgiving you, now please help me navigate, I'm half blind and I've never been this way before." He held out his arm, which katsuki took with an extra amount of care.

Together they walked out to the garden.

Miss Miriam stood behind the corner of the hallway, she was conflicted, on one hand she wanted to scoop that boy up and take him back to his room so that nothing would ever harm that sweet boy again.

On the other she felt what they said was important and needed to be said.

As it sat izuku midoriya was one of the kindest most genuine patients miriam had ever taken care of, and for the first time since she met him, he got upset, he yelled.

And she couldn't be more happy.

After she was sure they were already down another hallway, she walked out of her hiding spot to catch up with them.

Chapter Text

The week that izuku was finally permitted to go home was the worst.

He may have been healed but he was still very shaken up and the elevator ride was less then comfortable.

He was still on pain medication but that would only go so far.

The nights that he would shoot up in bed in a cold sweat, clutching his leg in agony, they were getting to be to much to bare.

Inko was practically living in his room at night, comforting him the best way she knew how.

After they got settled inko was finally able to take some time off of her job to help him readjust, and they started the delicate process of finding a new normal.

Izuku still used the eyepatch, his mom always seemed more on edge when it was off so despite how uncomfortable it was, he kept it on for all but sleeping and bathing.

He also got a pair of glasses to correct the sight of his still working eye, they were normal glasses except only one of the lenses were prescription.

Izuku was adverse to going out but found it easer when katsuki would visit, which he did almost every day after school.

They mostly walked to the park to play, draw, talk and anything else katsuki could think of to make izuku laugh.

Then after he started feeling tired they went back, where inko usually had snacks prepared.

But one day was especially exciting for them.

They had walked to the park like normal and spent the day playing, as izuku was taking a break under the shade of a tree, he heard a small squeak coming from a bush.

Izuku was intrigued and leaned over the bush, he pushed the leafs away with his hand and found a shaking ball of fur.

A cat, full grown but terribly thin, it was caught off guard by the sudden movement and became instantly violent, it's fur stood on end and it hissed.

Izuku admittedly wasn't very smart in those next few moments, he reached to it, hoping to to pet it, it slashed at him, izuku lost his balance and fell into the bush further, causing the cat to bite and scratche him more.

Izuku held his hand and cried out in pain, katsuki, who was previously picking up rocks for a game of tic-tac-toe, dropped the rocks instantly and ran over.

"IZUKU ARE YOU OK!?" He yelled out, panic set in.

"IM FINE KACCHAN," He called out, holding his hand out to stop him, "come slowly, you'll scare him."

Katsuki curiosity walked over to them, taking out a wet wipe and band-aid.

He started making a habit of bringing them with him on their outings, as izuku had always been accident prone and now even more so.

After the cuts and bites were taken care of he turned his head to see a tabby cat in far worse shape.

It's back leg was bent in an unnatural way and it was panting heavily, izuku was already taking his jacket off to wrap it so it couldn't scratch them again.

He got up as quickly as he could and wrapped it up, handing it to katsuki who gave a understanding nod, together they walked to the nearest vet, which was thankfully not far at all.

They walked into the office and a young women with what seemed like a rabbit and parrot hybrid quirk, greeted them with a smile before becoming very serious when she saw the enraged cat.

She thanked them and took it to the back, then another women, one who seemed to be entirely made of moss, asked them some questions.

"First off, thank you to for bringing your friend in, that was very brave," she smiled and katsuki smiled smugly, izuku blushed at the praise.

"Second, I'll need your guardians contact," they gave each other a puzzled look. "You have a few bites and scratches from your friend, we don't know if he has any diseases and we don't want you getting sick so I'd like a number."

Izuku nodded in understanding and gave her inkos number, who was already running out the door.

The guilt izuku felt after he saw his mom run in out of breath with only one shoe and one slipper on was almost to much to bare.

She ran forward and grabbed both of them in a hug, he felt her trembling hand on his back and swore he'd never scare her again.

That was of course not true but that as it always is, is how life plays out, but for this moment izuku wishes nothing but to never scare his mother again.

In the end the cat was free of anything that could hurt izuku and after they set the leg and gave him a good bath and a meal they asked the midoriyas if they'd be open to fostering him until he was healthy.

Needless to say izuku was thrilled, inko was less then ecstatic but seeing how happy her son was, was all it took to convince her.

Katsuki was also excited but tried his best to hide it.

And there was also an inexplicable change in izuku now that there was something to care for, he was more willing to get up, eat, walk, in his cat filled excitement he even forgot his eyepatch ones, katsuki jumped slightly at the sight but kept quiet as he felt this was important.

After he got home that time, he glanced at his reflection and gasped.

He hadn't put it on, no no no nononononononnonononononono-

But... kacchan hadn't said anything, had he not noticed?

He looked at himself again, no he definitely noticed, he just didn't say anything.

He didn't act differently towards izuku, he had the same aggressive edge he always had, granted it had mellowed out over the last few weeks.

And izuku realized something, something he was to scared to even let himself think up until now.

For the first time in months, he'd felt normal, comfortable, content.

Happy.

He didn't want to put it back on, it was a physical manifestation of his fear and his lies.

Izuku had lied, to his mom, to kacchan, to himself.

He didn't feel more comfortable with it on, he just didn't want to be more pitied then he already was.

First people pitied him for being quirkless, then they were just annoyed that he was still alive.

Now with his cane, limp and eye, he was all but bursting into flames from the all the staring.

In a world where anyone on the street could look like anything from your wildest dreams you'd think they'd learn to mind their business.

At this point he was more annoyed then scared, all the torment, the whispers, the bullying, it had cut into his soul and tore him down.

Day by day, moment by moment.

But now he was just tired and angry, if people are going to underestimate him for the rest of his life then he'd live it the way he wanted to.

He walked into the kitchen where his mom was, she noticed him instantly.

"Hi honey, did katsuki not come back with you today?" She said, then she saw his eye and her eyes widened slightly, it was a small reaction, one she hoped he didn't catch.

He did.

And suddenly he almost lost his nerve, but if kacchan could act normally then maybe he didn't have to hide.

He walked up to his mom, who's expression was instantly full of love and concern, as it always was.

"I- ..." He started, his mouth suddenly quivering, "I don't- want to wear it anymore." He finished quickly, to scared to look her in the eyes.

Her expression softened and she looked as if she would cry, she held out her arms for him, which he excepted and fell into a tight hug.

"Of course baby, you never have to wear that again," she spoke into his hair,

"But... it scares you," He said into her shirt, "I thought you hated it."

She felt as though she'd been stabbed in the gut, "what kind of mother have I been?" She thought, "the one thing he should never have to doubt is me."

Her tears fell onto his cheeks, "look at me."

"Wha-?"

"Please sweetheart."

He looked up, finally meeting her gaze for the first time in what felt like years.

"You are perfect, you're my baby" she said with a watery smile, she held his face, the face of the child she raised, "I grew you in my body, i held you in my arms, you are my strength, I will never hate you and there is nothing I wouldn't do to keep you safe."

At this point you'd think the apartment would be flooded but alas it was not.

Yet.

She continued, "you don't ever have to cover your eye up, and if anyone gives you grief about it," she paused and became very serious.

"You sock them right in the nose." Izuku's eye widened in surprise, tears pricking up already.

Then he smiled and nodded.

Chapter Text

Middle school was hard for izuku, but having katsuki with him made it far easier.

He didn't even want to think about what would happen if he'd been abandoned to the judgmental stares of his peers.

He was already disabled in their eyes because of his quirklessness so to be physically disabled on top of that was basically begging them to annihilate him.

Thankfully katsuki was quick to beat the stuffing out of anyone who tried anything on him and when katsuki wasn't there inkos words helped him to hold his own.

this was one of those days, as katsuki was out from a cold, he'd managed to hide it from his parents long enough to get to the midoriya home but izuku noticed his labored breathing and insisted he went home.

With threat of calling his mother of course, when they got to the bakugo home they were met with anger and concern.

If katsuki wasn't almost dead on his feet izuku was convinced mitsuki would have beat the spikes out of his hair for trying to go to school when he was so sick.

Instead she helped him up to his bed with all the gentle care a mother has as she scolded his ear off.

After he was given some medicine and finally let himself fall asleep izuku promise to come visit after school and made his way to school alone.

He just barely got their before the bell rang and smiled in victory, sitting in his usual seat he propped his cane up between his legs, it was a trick he learned from years of classmates trying to grab it from him.

He'd never understand why they were so insistent on making his life harder when they all looked up to kacchan so much and he spent most of his day circling izuku like a guard dog.

Izuku was relatively good in school, he soaked up knowledge at a incredible speed and if he learned something it wasn't often that he'd forget it.

Even so, for the most part he didn't try much in school, he liked to learn but no matter how well he did, his teacher refused to mark his score the highest, despite the fact that it very often was.

They mostly chocked it up to some bullshit reasons they pulled out of their ass in the moment, "you used pencils, that's unprofessional. This word is to advanced for you, you shouldn't be using it. This essay is to well done, you obviously didn't write it."

And every time despite his or katsuki's argument, he was dismissed as a know-it-all who couldn't comprehend that he could be wrong.

Izuku knows he should have told his mom about it, katsuki made it clear that if he didn't at some point, he would.

But he felt like it wasn't worth it to make her more stressed out then she already was, the doctor visits, physical therapy and pain was already to much for her to handle.

And he could see the emotional stress his mother was under, she wouldn't hesitate to switch him to another school if he asked but he was fine here.

People didn't pick on him as much as grade school and he was almost done with it anyway, it all just seemed like to much trouble for somthing that'd be over by next year.

It's not like he planned to go to high school anyway, katsuki was still adamant that they go to UA together but izuku's plan was to just take online classes and get his GED so he could start online college courses and get a respectable job.

He didn't tell his plan to katsuki, he figured he'd just take the test for general studies, get denied and use his "backup plan"

He was knocked out of his thoughts with a piece of rolled up paper to his head from a classmate as he realized the teacher had been calling him.

"Sorry what was the question?" He said anxiously.

"I won't repeat myself, you know what I asked midoriya, you're just choosing to ignore me," the teacher said as his face got red, "if you won't answer I'll be forced to send you to the principal."

Izuku was dumbfounded, "I didn't hear what you said, I'm not lying."

"No you don't get a pass just because you have a 'disability' you need to learn that you wont be coddled in the real world, now go to the principal." He said as he pointed to the door.

'Coddled? When have you ever coddled me!?" Izuku thought as he got up and walked out the door, it wasn't worth fighting, and it never ended well when he did.

He walk slowly to the office, he could have gone faster but he wasn't exactly excited to be berated again.

So he took his sweet time, if they wanted to keep making his day harder then he'd do the same.

After he got to the office about fifteen minutes after he was supposed to he was sat down and laid into about respect for his teacher and how he needed to be above his ailments and not make them anyone else's problems.

Real fun stuff.

Izuku mostly tuned it out but tried to look at least a little sorry.

He was given a warning and sent back to class.

After school was out he started making his way to katsuki's house to see how he was doing, he was on the phone with his mom to say just that when a group of boys from his class walked up to him.

Izuku noticed how one of them started overtaking him only to stop in front of him and sighed, and stopped walking.

"Hey mom I'm almost there, I'll see you in a bit, love you." He said as he hung up the phone and stuffed it in his pocket.

"What, didn't want your mommy hearing you get beat up?" One of them said.

"Yeah now that kacchan~ isn't here today you don't have anyone to hide behind."

"Why do you care about me? You all liked kacchan a lot in gade school," izuku asked, the only emotion on his face was a slight annoyance, "and he's my friend so why get him upset?"

He felt a hand grab him.

"Because he was cool before you got hurt," another one said, "he knew how to put you in your place but now he's just lame!"

The two boys held him in place.

The last one piped in, "And quiet, we gotta remind him who you are."

"He developed empathy asshole, somthing you never quite got the hang of, Ōkina ha-" Izuku said as he felt a fist make contact with his cheek before he could finish the sentence.
"SHUT IT." Ōkina ha said, anger bubbling up, he hit him again, this time hitting him square in the nose, his fake eye that he had in at the time loosened and fell out with his glasses.

Izuku spat out blood, "You still hit like a bitch." He said smiling.

He was egging it on, he knew that but what was he supposed to do? They were gonna beat him anyway so why shouldn't he give them a better reason to be pissed.

It was a nasty habit that he was having a harder and harder time breaking as he grew.

It wasn't his fault he couldn't keep his mouth shut, it just kinda spilled out like when he was taking his notes.

And before he knew it he was getting punched, completely unfair.

He had been so mellow when he was a kid, where did it all go wrong, when had he started picking fights?

He wanted to continue this train of thought but unfortunately he was in the middle of said fight.

"LISTEN TO ME YOU FUCKING WORTHLESS-" He kicked him in the stomach, "-QUIRKLESS CRIPPLE!"

Izuku coughed and felt a sharp pain in his side, "you really shouldn't skip leg day, arms aren't everything unless you want to look like a cartoon-" another kick, this one made him gasp for air.

Yeah somthing was definitely broken.

He had gotten into fights before but he'd never gotten a injury he couldn't talk his mother down from, and he really didn't want to change school again.

One of the other kids grabbed the toothy boys shoulders, "hey if you hurt him to bad we'll get in trouble!" He said as he looked around frantically.

The boy breathed heavily, waying the prose and cons before turning and starting to walk away.

THUNK

A small rock hit his head and right as he turned the only thing he saw was a three inch thick math book coming rapidly towards his face and everything went black.

Izuku lost his footing and fell back onto the ground his leg hitting the concrete painfully.

One of the boys tried to wake him up and the other ran at izuku, grabbing a handful of his hair with his long fingers.

Izuku grabbed his waterbottle from his spilled bag and smashed the hard plastic into his face with as much force as he could.

The boy staggered back slightly and let go of his hair, izuku took the opportunity to grab his collar and headbutted him.

He sputtered and grabbed izukus wrist but before his could put strength behind it izuku smashed his head against his own again.

He dropped.

Izuku dropped to his knees and breathed heavily looking around, the pain in his side was getting more noticeable by the second.

He saw the last boy standing, indecisiveness pouring out of him.

Izuku grabbed his bag and gathered all his things into it and got up, he saw his glasses, they were cracked, izuku sighed in defeat, he was almost legally blind without them.

Thankfully he knows these streets and could make it to the bakugos and his own house no problem.

He walked slowly to where his cane had been thrown, he picked it up and looked back at the boy.

"Well? Are you going to put me in my place?" He asked him, the boy sighed and shook his head, izuku reached into his bag and pulled out a box of bandage and disinfectant and set them beside him.

Izuku took his phone out and checked the time, "ah I'm late, kacchan will be mad." He felt his cheek puff from the punch and his head started to throb.

"I'll stop and get him somthing good to eat as an apology," he decided grab a bag of cinnamon candy for auntie as well.

"Maybe auntie mitsuki will let me go home without telling mom I'm all banged up..."

...which would never happen but a guy could hope.

He walked into a small corner store and grabbed the candy, a bag of honey drops, an electrolyte drink and a bag spicy chips if he was feeling up to eating.

The cashier gave him an odd look when he went up to pay but they didn't comment on it.

He also went into the stores bathroom to try his best to clean up, he knew the swelling on his cheek would give him away but their was no point in being covered in dirt as well.

He looked at himself, he wasn't wearing the eyepatch, he didn't feel the need these days, when he started school again, he got his first prosthetic eye.

They color matched it to his original eye as closely as possible and for awhile he wore that but after a kid had pushed him off his seat, causing him to fall directly on his face and for the eye to fall out.

He looked up at his classmates and one of the boys screamed.

The one that pushed him looked to him then to the eye, izuku went to grab it but the boy was there first, he grabbed it and dangled it just out of reach, all the while making vomiting sounds.

Katsuki jumped up with murder in his eyes but izuku was faster, he grabbed his cane and slammed it into the boys stomach as hard as he could.

The boy yelled out and fell to the floor clutching his stomach, izuku grabbed his eye from his hand and stuffed it into his pocket.

In the end the both izuku and the kid got suspended which katsuki was more angry about then izuku was.

When inko found out she pulled him from that school immediately and the bakugo's did the same, with only a small amount of complaints from katsuki, as he hadn't gotten a chance to pound the kid himself.

But sadly the eye itself was damaged, when they got a replacement izuku decided instead of a replica he wanted something fun.

He looked through a book that the office and found a hero themed section.

He ran to his mom, who was chatting with the reception and excitedly showed her the all might prosthetic they had.

He might have all but given up on being a hero but his love for all things hero, including but not limited to all might, was as bright and strong as ever.

The eye in question was red yellow and blue in streaks around the iris.

Sadly he hadn't been able to find it when he gathered his things, but he had a backup he kept with him, he took it out of its container and popped it into his eye socket.

It was a plain white eye without a pupil and was just ment to hold him over so he didn't get anything in his socket as he couldn't close it.

After he cleaned himself up he walked out of the bathroom and passed the register.

He smiled at the cashier, who in turn gave a slightly confused smiled and wave as he walked out.