Chapter Text
As the night bled into morning, Izuku found that he hadn't slept that night. He had talked to someone. Someone who accepted his quirklessness. Who had offered to help to achieve his dream, and a girl no less! He remembered the look of determination in her eyes. The way her finger pressed against his forehead. The boy felt his cheeks begin to burn and pressed his palms against his face. Turning over, he could feel hope swirling in his chest that had long been plagued with despair. It felt like his dream could actually be possible! Pulling his All Might themed covers over his head, he tried to force his body to relax. He couldn't become a hero if he was tired.
Neru had gotten up earlier than usual. She quickly checked on Eri and Teto. Teto had given up her bed for the younger girl deciding to sleep on their spare futon in her room. When Dabi had begun to live with the girls they had offered him the futon but he had declined it stating that 'we preferred sleeping on couches.'
It was on odd decision, but none of them were ones to judge.
Making her way into the kitchen, Neru rummaged through their cupboards. Thanks to Teto losing their food after the villain attack they were running out of supplies. Grumbling under her breath she pulled out a pan of bread and put two slices in the toaster.
As the blonde waited for her bread to be toasted, she decided to brush her hair. Grabbing a random hairbrush she began to untangle the knots in her comedically long hair. She really needed to get a haircut. Her brows furrowed as she came across an especially stubborn knot. Gritting her teeth she cursed underneath her breath. "Oh fuck you..." she hissed at her hair.
In her frustration she didn't notice Dabi waking up. He was staring at her with some amount of amusement. Deciding to break the silence, he spoke up. "Need some help there?"
Neru jolted at the sudden words. The teen spun around and if looks could kill, Dabi would be dead ten times over. The girl's face began to redden with embarrassment. "How long have you been awake?!" She whisper-shouted, obviously embarrassed to be caught cursing at her hair.
"Long enough to see you struggling. Need help?"
Neru rolled her eyes at this. "I'm fine, thanks."
Neru glared at Dabi before her toast popped. The girl turned her attention back to her now crisped bread. Grabbing her toast she began to eat it without any toppings. No butter, no ham, no jelly and peanut butter. Just pure bread. Teto would be proud of her.
"So," Dabi propped his arms over the back of the couch." "Why are you up so early in the morning? Eight in the morning isn't your usual time to get up."
Neru let out a small exhale from her nose as she chewed on the dry toast. "I'm planning to meet up with that kid. The boy who wants to be a hero." She explained, her voice curt.
Dabi thought for a moment. "Mind if I come with? I don't have anything planned for today. Besides..." the young adult shuddered. "I do not want to hear Miku talk about Petscop..."
"Oh yeah that's one hell of a rant." Neru nodded, remembering the slide shows that Miku had presented the two girls. "But no. I had to train my body to handle my quirk. I'm sure it's no different from how quirkless people deal with training." Neru seemed awfully sure of herself. Dabi on the other hand, was not impressed.
"Have you ever been in an actual fight before?"
"I've been in a couple. I usually just witsand a couple of powerful hits and then I punch the attacker."
There was a silence between the two before Dabi spoke again.
"You have no idea what you're doing, do you?"
"Oh fuck off."
It was a nice, sunny day. The perfect day to train. Neru sat on one side of the bench while Dabi sat on the other, waiting for Izuku. Eventually Neru had given up brushing her hair and just wrangled her hair into a bun. She was ashamed to admit that she needed Dabi's assistance for it.
The girl was glaring at her phone as if it had personally offended her. Dabi glanced over at the girl's screen and realised that she was watching low quality Roblox memes. When Neru noticed that he was watching her phone, she glared at the older male. "What?"
Dabi put his hands up in a placating gesture. "Nothing. I'm not one to judge people for their hobbies."
Neru scoffed. "Honestly, I don't know why I let you tag along. I bet you only rely on your fire quirk."
Dabi flexed his fingers. "I mean, you're not entirely wrong, but when I was younger I was given training. Out of the two of us, I'm pretty sure I'm the one with most combat experience."
"Training by who?"
"Does it really matter?"
Neru just rolled her eyes. At this point she was just trying to annoy him into leaving. She did not want to be associated with this man. Unfortunately, Miku, Teto and hell even Eri liked him! She was stuck with the pyromaniac. Letting her eyes wander, she scanned over the park, specifically looking at the shoes.
Quirkless people needed custom shoes thanks to their extra toe joint. It sucked that quirkless people had a big red calling card to be discriminated against, but that's just how society worked.
Then, she spotted the shoes she was looking for, fluffy green hair accompanying it.
When Neru spotted the freckled boy, her eyes lit up slightly. "Yo! Izuku! Over here!" She waved to catch the boys attention. There was an obvious change in the girl's disposition. All the tension in her shoulders seemingly relaxed.
When Neru spotted the blonde girl, his green eyes also lit up. A small blush dusted his face. The boy ran over to the girl sitting on the bench. "Hi Neru!" The boy had a smile that could rival All Might's, Dabi immediately noticed.
When the green haired boy noticed the older male, her looked much more anxious. "Oh um... who are you..?"
"I'm Neru's older bother, Dabi."
Izuku blinked. "You didn't mention that you had an older brother."
"I didn't think I needed to..." Neru grit her teeth in annoyance. "But yes, this is Akita Dabi. Dabi, this is Midoriya Izuku." Neru introduced the two, Izuku giving a small bow.
Dabi grinned, realising that he had the perfect opportunity to mess with the girl. "Y'know, she kept on talking about you last night. Talking about how she was doing to make sure that you would be the first quirkless hero-"
Dabi was cut off by a quick jab to the gut. "Shut. The hell. Up." Neru sad with an agitated smile. That was the first time the girl had actually physically struck the older male.
"Worth it," Dabi coughed out as he clutched his gut, removing from the attack. Even Neru's base strength wasn't something to scoff at. She was surprisingly strong even without her quirk. That only cemented the idea in Izuku's head that Neru was the female Kacchan.
Neru let out a sigh before standing up. "Alright. You ready for your training?" Neru questioned the green haired boy. Izuku nodded enthusiastically. "Yes ma'am!"
Neru nodded, a determined smile before she began to examine the boy. "How exactly is your core?"
Izuku blinked before rubbing the back of his head. "Not the best..."
"Then that's what we'll begin with," the girl pointed to the earth beneath them. "Do a plank for thirty seconds."
Izuku's face paled slightly. "A plank...?"
"Yes. First, we need to strengthen your core. If you neglect that, than you might as well give up."
The green haired boy gulped before slowly getting onto his hands and knees.
"Straighten your back. You need to stay as still as possible."
Dabi had to admit, she knew the basics. That was good at least. The older boy occasionally gave tips to Neru if she got something wrong. She would just roll her eyes but adjust if needed.
Izuku on the other hand, felt like he was going through utter hell. He had never been the most physically active person. The most exercise that he had done was in P.E, and even then it was mainly trying to survive Kacchan.
He could feel his stamina rapidly decreasing as he began to do push ups. He had pushed himself until he collapsed onto the grass beneath him.
"I... I can't do anything more..." the boy exclaimed as he caught his breath. The boy felt as if his lungs were on fire. It was an extremely uncomfortable feeling. Sweat covered the boys forehead and back.
"Ten minutes," Neru noted. "Not bad, but we'll definitely have to work on your stamina..." Neru folded her arms before thinking. "Does your mother do yoga?" The girl questioned.
Izuku rolled onto his back. "Yeah? Why..?"
Neru clapped her hands. "Perfect! You should join her!"
That made Izuku stammer. "W-what?!"
"Yoga helps with helping stamina and it should help loosen up your muscles," the blonde girl explained. "Listen, it's either that or running up steep hills." Izuku could only let out a groan at this.
Dabi couldn't help but be amused at the spectacle in front of him. The pyro couldn't help but be taken back to his own training with Enji. That, was hell. He was at least thankful that Neru was going easy on the boy.
Standing up, Dabi began to make his way to a nearby cafe. "I'm going to buy some water for you, okay?" Dabi called out.
Neru was, reasonable happy with that. "Thanks!" She called out to the young adult. She wasn't smiling, but there was some gratitude in her voice.
They were going to be in the long term for this training. Whether Izuku could survive was yet to be seen.
The whole day as absolute torture for Izuku. After resting for about thirty minutes, Neru had chased him around the park with a sharp stick for fifteen minutes, intending to increase his endurance.
After that whole ordeal, Dabi began to teach him how to punch properly. He had been extremely critical and had even knocked him down a couple times but by the end of the training session, Izuku had managed to leave a punch on Dabi.
To be fair, Dabi had been in an argument with Neru about the best way to punch someone but Dabi had been proud of him for landing a punch nonetheless.
By the time Neru had decided that he had done enough exercise for the day Izuku felt like every single one of his cells were on fire. He had never exercised so much in his life.
Both Neru and Dabi looked down at the green haired boy. "You did good, y'know?" She tried to encourage the boy.
Izuku kept on panting as he laid on the ground. "Thanks..."
"You're probably going to hurt in the morning," Dabi exclaimed out loud. "I'd recommend going to the pool tomorrow. Going to and from the sauna to the cool pool should help."
Neru blinked. "Wait that actually works?"
"Yeah, I don't know the exact science but it supposedly helps muscles."
As Dabi and Neru were talking about the best way to help with muscles, Izuku lifted his shaking hands up. "Help..."
Neru had ended up carrying Izuku back to his apartment due to him not being able to walk. It had been a productive day at least. Izuku had learnt a lot but would definitely be needing a rest day after the intense workout. Inko had greeted Neru and Dabi once they had bought Izuku home and had insisted that they should stay for dinner. When the two had politely declined her invitation, she had sent them off with a hearty amount of curry.
"The guy who trained you must have been pretty competent," Neru broke the silence, admitting defeat to herself. Dabi knew what he was doing.
Dabi could only hum as his grip on the curry tightened. "Yeah. I would consider him to be Satan but he at least knew his combat knowledge."
Neru's eyes almost bulged. "Did All for One train you??" The girl hissed out.
Dabi's head snapped towards the younger girl. "No! How do you even know about him?"
"Miku. She can't keep her trap shut about her friend."
"Ah. That makes sense." Dabi let out a sigh.
"Wait... how do you know about him? He isn't exactly well known unless you're..." Neru's voice trailed off as she examined the older a male.
"A villain?" Dabi finished her sentence. "Well, you don't exactly end up covered in scars without a couple of stories." The man gestured to his face and arms.
Neru could only let out a small sigh. "Well, we're not ones to judge..." the girl chuckled slightly. "Do you seriously think we got a decent apartment without doing a couple of shady things?"
The two fell into a silence before Neru let out an exasperated sigh. "If you don't do anything to incriminate us, then I can live with that knowledge."
Dabi shrugged. "Sure. I'm fine with that."
The two headed back two their apartment with Neru hating Dabi a little bit less.