Chapter Text
The week leading up to the entrance exam, Deku hobbled around school like a fucking zombie. They had finished all of their final exams, and now were simply working on turning in applications for high schools around the area. Katsuki didn’t bother listing schools other than U.A., and despite what everyone thought he should do, he knew that Deku had only listed U.A. as well. The weirdo was still trying his best to get into the hero course, no matter how many odds were stacked against him. Before, Katsuki had been fucking pissed off because Deku always preached about being a hero, but never did anything about it. He didn’t train, he didn’t learn to fight, he didn’t even eat healthy. Ever since that day when he saw Deku with his shirt off, though? He was wondering just how much he had missed when it came to Deku working toward his dream.
He was interested to see.
What he wasn’t interested in seeing was Deku acting like someone had killed his fucking grandmother. Katsuki knew it couldn’t be something like that though, because Auntie Inko’s parents died when she was in college, and his father’s family were shitty enough that they split the same time he did. He also didn’t have any pets, nor any friends that Katsuki knew of. Katsuki’s final guess would have been his grades on the final, but those grades were made public for the entire school to see, since they were posted in the hallways. Katsuki had gotten first in the school, as always, and as always, Deku had gotten second, only a few points behind Katsuki. Everyone else in the piece of shit place was so mediocre that the third place scorer was a good thirty points behind Deku.
With all of these options ruled out, Katsuki really couldn’t guess what Deku’s deal was. Perhaps if they were closer he would have gotten the courage to ask, but no matter what he’d realized about himself in the ten months since Deku saved his life (and yes, he could admit to that now,) he hadn’t made any effort to fix his and Izuku’s broken relationship. He was regretting that now, especially since they would be going to different high schools.
Maybe… maybe this was Katsuki’s last chance to fix things before it was too late. If he was going to apologize though, it wasn’t going to be some half-assed thing he decided on because Deku was in a weird mood. He was going to go home and really think about what he wanted to say.
(x)
“Are you ready to receive One for All?”
Izuku stared up at his mentor, his first emotion in nearly a week flooding him. He was excited . He was hopeful about his future, but especially about his future as a hero. With All Might’s help, he really could do this.
“Yes,” Izuku breathed, swallowing hard. “But- but will receiving it make it so that you can’t transform anymore?”
All Might shook his head with a small smile. “No, the power inside of me is already dying out. I believe that I will be able to drag out it’s death for a long while after I pass it down to you.” His face grew more serious as his eyes fixed on Izuku’s. “It would be a shame if Japan lost its number one hero because of you, wouldn’t it?”
Izuku’s blood ran cold, and he hoped it didn’t show on his face. The truth was, he had been debating telling someone what All Might had done to him, but he came back to a similar conclusion every time. He needed All Might to give him One for All, and to train him. His mother needed All Might’s money so that she could live a life where she wasn’t running herself into the ground. All of Japan needed All Might because without him, who knew what could happen to society? Izuku refused to be the person who brought down All Might. He didn’t have it in himself to be responsible for the deaths it would undoubtedly cause when chaos ran through the streets. He didn’t think he’d survive it.
“Yeah,” he finally said, lowering his head a bit. He and All Might had met at Dagobah beach, the place that started it all. It was fitting that the last of Izuku’s illusions should die here. “How… will it be transferred?”
“Through DNA,” All Might explained. Izuku looked up with a furrowed brow, dread already beginning to pit in his stomach.
“Like… a hair, or something?”
All Might laughed, but the sound didn’t seem quite real to Izuku. “That would only work if the hair had a hair follicle attached to it, and there’s no guarantee of that. No, I think we can think of a much more… fun way, don’t you?” He casually reached up to grab the back of Izuku’s neck, squeezing it a bit. “Why don’t we head to those bathrooms over there and talk it over in private?”
Izuku briefly considered diving into the ocean to drown himself, but ultimately he knew All Might would probably jump in after him. The fact that in some twisted way the blond man actually cared about him was almost worse than the alternative. It made it easier for Izuku to lie to himself that everything was fine.
Instead, he allowed himself to be led away, down the beach and toward the rickety old bathroom built directly on the sand, right next to the tide wall. They probably hadn’t been cleaned in years, given the entire beach had been overtaken with trash until Izuku cleaned it all up, but Izuku was almost glad for the distraction. It helped him focus on something else when All Might pushed him down to his knees and pried his mouth open. The stench of filth and rotting human excrement burned itself into Izuku’s mind, along with the bitter, choking feeling of having someone else’s cock shoved down his throat without his own permission. The passage of time didn’t matter in that bathroom, and neither did the aches and pains in Izuku’s body. He didn’t hurt as badly as he had the morning he woke up after All Might’s first… assault, but the bruises the man had left on his body were still healing. Now he could add scraped knees and an aching jaw to the list.
By the time All Might finished down his throat, the sun was beginning to set. He sent Izuku home with another envelope full of cash, and a filthy kiss that forced tears from Izuku’s eyes. It was that moment he knew that he was well and truly stuck in this. He would likely die before he escaped All Might’s clutches. The greenet walked home, thinking that All Might deserved the title “Number One” for the complete opposite side of the war.
(x)
“De-” Katsuki cleared his throat and started over. “ Izuku . We’re going to be graduating middle school soon, and I just… I didn’t want to leave us as we are. I’ve been so unbelievably shitty to you throughout middle school, and even though we still talked in elementary school, we haven’t been true friends in a long time. It was all my fault of course; I was, no, I am an angry and vengeful person. I’ve been trying to work on myself lately, and I just thought you should know that you had a big part in that. You made me realize…” he trailed off, clearing his throat. “Well. You made me realize that I don’t want to be like this. I don’t want to be this.” He gestured to himself vaguely.
“So I’m just going to say it. I’m so fucking sorry for everything I put you through. I’m not asking for your forgiveness because honestly, I don’t deserve it and never will. What I’ve said and done is unforgivable. I just ask that you recognize the fact that I truly mean it, and that… I’m going to become the number one hero. I want you to watch me do it. I think if I know you’re watching, I’ll try harder. Or something.”
Katsuki stared at himself in his bathroom mirror, groaning. “That was stupid . Jesus Christ, who knew fucking apologizing could be so goddamn hard?!”
“Is that what you’ve been doing for an hour?” His mother’s voice broke through his thoughts. He whirled around and glared at the old hag, lifting his hands to let off a few sparklers.
“You were fucking eavesdropping, you old hag?”
“Not until the last five minutes,” Mitsuki snickered, putting her hands on her hips. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’ve decided to apologize to sweet Izu-kun. He was always my favorite of your little friends.”
“Yeah, because you’re disgustingly in love with his mother,” Katsuki scoffed. Mitsuki huffed and touched a hand to her heart.
“It is not my fault she’s so fucking perfect,” she snapped. “It’s also not my fault you were a little shit to your Midoriya.” She smirked when she saw Katsuki’s entire face flush red.
“He’s not my-!”
“Can we please stop screaming?” Katsuki’s father’s voice called from the upstairs hallway. “I have a migraine and you both aren’t helping.”
Both of the volatile blondes quieted down. Masaru’s migraines were very painful for him, and as much as his mother may annoy him, Katsuki had a soft spot for his dad. Mitsuki did too, given he was her husband, and she too quieted down. When she looked back at Katsuki, she was smiling. “For what it’s worth, you were onto something there. Ultimately, all he really needs to know is that you’re sorry and you mean it. He’s a Midoriya- they have a tolerance for Bakugous.” She reached out and ruffled his blond spikes, but before he could throw a hissy fit, she was gone.
He slammed the bathroom door closed and looked back in the mirror, his expression turning neutral again when he looked at himself. ‘ Just say sorry, huh? Sorry mom, but it’s not that easy. You have no idea what I’ve done.’
He just knew he would spend the rest of his life making up for it.
(x)
The entrance exams were chaotic, to say the least. Izuku was sat next to Bakugou for the written portion, likely because they went to the same middle school, and because they had similarly high scores, so they weren’t likely to cheat off of each other. Izuku was fairly confident in his abilities in that regard.
It was the practical exam score he was worried about. The very first time he powered up his quirk, he broke his arm killing a single-point robot. The rest of the test he ran around like a headless chicken, trying to figure out how to control his quirk. In the end, he didn’t get any more points, but he did end up saving the life of the kind girl who had stopped him from tripping at the beginning of the day. He hadn’t caught her name after Recovery Girl healed them both. Now, a week later, Izuku lived every day in suspense. His mother thankfully understood and didn’t try to force him to speak or function like a normal human. She didn’t even make him go to his middle school graduation ceremony.
On the last day of waiting, Izuku was absolutely floored to wake up to a text from a contact he hadn’t used in a long, long time.
Kacchan: we need to talk. meet me at the park at nine tonight.
Izuku wasn’t quite sure how to respond, so he sent a simple “ok” and left it at that. He had no idea what Kacchan could possibly want to talk to him about, except maybe to check up on the situation with Yamato. He’d been so preoccupied lately that Midoriya had nearly forgotten about the bully who had pushed him down the stairs, but considering the guy was getting expelled and went to every class whining and crying about it, Izuku couldn’t quite forget.
At eight fifty-three am, an hour and seven minutes after Kacchan had texted him, Izuku received his U.A. acceptance letter. He’d gotten one villain point, but sixty rescue points for saving the brunette girl from the zero pointer. Izuku couldn’t have been more shocked at the result, but at the same time he was deliriously happy. He was one step closer to achieving his life-long dream of being a hero! Kacchan had even texted him for the first time in years, which was a minor miracle in itself. Maybe… maybe things were finally looking up.
(x)
Katsuki had texted Izuku a few hours before he got his U.A. acceptance letter. Or should he say hologram . After seeing the leaderboards in said hologram, the boy was beginning to rethink his stance on apologizing to his childhood friend. By the time nine o’clock rolled around, he was fuming, having ruminated on his anger all day. Deku was as punctual as ever, which was to say he only barely made it in time to not be considered late. He was out of breath like he’d sprinted the whole way there.
“Kacchan!” He yelped, sweating a little from his sprint. “I’m here. What did you want to talk about?”
Katsuki crossed his arms as an incentive to not literally explode. “That doesn’t matter anymore. What does matter is that you fucking lied to me.”
Deku had the audacity to frown as if he was confused. “I don’t understand. What did I lie about?”
“I saw the U.A. leaderboards Deku! You have a goddamn quirk , don’t you? There’s no way you could get so many points without one!”
Katsuki could swear he actually watched all of the blood leave the dark haired boy’s face. “I… I…”
“That confirms it,” Bakugou sneered. “You lied to me for our entire fucking lives . Why the hell did you do that, you damn nerd? You didn’t fucking trust me?”
“Kacchan, that’s not it!” Deku stepped closer to Katsuki, who instinctively stepped away to keep distance between them. The closer Deku got to him, the harder it would be for him to think. He needed to keep his wits about him in the situation, but he also refused to give up too much ground. He didn’t want to look like a coward. “My quirk… it manifested late, alright? I didn’t even know I had it until right before the entrance exam!”
Katsuki’s rage sky-rocketed. “You’re so fucking full of it! I can’t believe you kept this from me!”
Deku’s jaw dropped a little. “You can’t believe it? And why the hell not, Kacchan? You’ve bullied me ever since you found out I didn’t have a quirk when we were four. Four ! That’s almost twelve years!” Izuku threw his hands in the air, exasperated. “And you ‘can’t believe’ that I would keep a secret from you?” Those emerald green eyes narrowed, and he took another step forward. This time, Katsuki didn’t move. “Well news flash Kacchan. My life doesn’t revolve around you. I have secrets that nobody, not even you , know.”
Bakugou’s fists clenched from where they were stuffed just underneath his armpits. He was itching to burn off the excess nitroglycerin, but knew better than to do it so close to his body. He may not be able to get burned by the explosions, but he certainly could get a fucking limb blown off from the force. “I didn’t fucking bully you back then. That only started in middle school.”
Deku looked between both of the blond’s eyes. “You truly believe that, don’t you?” He let out a wry laugh that only twisted Katsuki’s heart more. “You can be as mad as you want, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m telling the truth. If you don’t believe me, that’s fine. I guess I’ll see you at U.A..” With that, he turned on his heel and walked away from Katsuki. It was like Bakugou’s anger melted off of him with every step Deku took, only fading completely once Deku was out of sight. Instead, shame filled his chest. It wasn’t a feeling he was familiar with.
‘ Why did I get so fucking angry ?’ Katsuki thought, sinking down onto one of the old swings. He held up his hands in front of him, setting off sparklers to burn off the sweat that had gathered there. ‘ Was I seriously mad that I didn’t know him as well as I thought? He’s right, we aren’t friends. He wasn’t entitled to tell me shit.’
Unfortunately, the problem with emotions was that they weren’t always rational.
(x)
Izuku held onto the straps of his backpack as he wandered down the halls of U.A., searching every doorway’s nameplate for the famed Class 1-A. He’d been put in the best hero class in the school, and every time he thought about it his heart fluttered. He was here. He was really here , and with any luck, he would fit in here. He had a new quirk, a fresh start, and best of all, an escape from All Might. Izuku had trouble telling the man ‘no’ when he asked for… favours from him, because in all honesty, he knew that the man deserved them. After everything the man did for not only Izuku, but for all of Japan , Izuku could go to his house every few days and suck him off, or let him fuck the teen.
He shook those thoughts out of his head, only to realize he’d arrived at the correct classroom. The door was massive , clearly meant to accommodate quirks that made students giant. He swallowed hard and stared at the door, ignoring the dull roar of the hallway behind him to focus on the murmuring from inside of the room. He was about to walk into his classroom for the first time. He was about to meet his classmates for the first time. When he opened the door, he would be meeting people who might become his friends for life.
He took a deep breath and opened the door.
The chattering in the room died down a bit as everyone in the classroom got a good look at the newcomer, but after a second, they went back to their hushed introductions and conversations. Izuku was immediately drawn to his childhood friend, who was glaring at the tall boy who had scolded Izuku multiple times during the entrance exam. He was waving his arms robotically, and he appeared to be telling Katsuki off. Izuku winced in sympathy, especially when Katsuki took his feet off of the desk only to slam them down on the ground, in prime position to get in the bespectacled boy’s face.
“What, you think you’re fucking better than me, Four-eyes? Let me guess, you went to private school, didn’t you?”
Katsuki’s loudness snagged the attention of everyone in the classroom. Izuku glanced at the chalkboard and realized that the seating chart sat him directly behind Kacchan. ‘ Great. ’ The well-groomed boy straightened up a hair, pushing his glasses up further.
“I went to Somhei Academy,” he answered. “It’s a highly prestigious middle school-”
“I don’t give a fuck,” Katsuki snarled. “Jesus, who shoved a goddamn tree up you ass?’
“Kacchan!” Izuku hissed, rushing forward to insert himself into the team. “If you don’t stop bullying him, you could get kicked out!”
“Yeah? You want me to bully you instead, De-ku ?”
Izuku resisted the urge to sigh. He hated it when Kacchan dragged out his nickname like that. “No, Ka-cchan ,” he taunted, pulling the same stunt as Katsuki. The blond’s smug smirk tightened, although the red-eyed boy didn’t let it fall. “I just don’t want to see you waste your potential by getting expelled on the first day of school.”
“What makes you think I’d take advice from liars ?”
Before Izuku could come up with a smart retort (like punching Katsuki in his smug little face,) the door to the classroom slid open again. Izuku turned to glance at the door, and he quickly forgot about his little spat with Kacchan. Standing in the doorway was the cute brunette girl that Izuku had saved from the zero-pointer, and from the way she was grinning at him, she remembered him too. The two of them scurried toward each other, meeting halfway in the middle of the room.
“It’s you!” the brunette squealed. “You saved me from the zero pointer! That was so cool of you!”
Izuku laughed a bit, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. “It was nothing, really…”
The girl’s smile softened a bit. “I tried to give you some of my points, but they wouldn’t let me. I saw on the hologram though, you got way more points than you thought you did!”
“Yeah, that was a nice surprise,” Izuku agreed. “I totally thought I failed the practical exam.”
“Oi, shitty Deku,” Katsuki’s voice said from right behind him. Izuku flinched and whirled around, putting a hand to his chest. At some point Katsuki had stood up from his desk and approached the two of them, his hands shoved in his uniform pockets. He was scowling at the brunette girl, who was staring right back at him curiously. “Who the fuck is this? What does she mean you saved her from that big-ass robot?”
“I thought I recognized you!” The robotic boy from earlier joined their little group, now focused on Izuku. “You’re the boy who ran toward the zero pointer!” He pushed up his glasses. “Of course, if I had known you could get points from rescuing, I too would have gone to save the girl.”
The brunette now had a scowl to rival Katsuki’s, glaring at the blue haired boy. “Well, that was kind of the point, wasn’t it? To see who was truly a hero?”
Izuku blinked at the girl, and Katsuki choked on a laugh from just over his shoulder. The robotic boy opened and closed his mouth like a fish, but he didn’t get the chance to defend himself, because the door to the classroom slid open again. Everyone in the room turned to stare as a man wrapped up in a bright yellow sleeping bag inched his way into the room like a worm. He looked exhausted if the bags under his eyes said anything, and before he even opened his mouth to speak, he had pulled an energy juice pouch from within the sleeping bag. He drank the whole thing in the seconds flat before he crushed it in his fist and shoved it back in his sleeping bag.
“If you’re only here to socialize, you might as well leave now,” the man drawled. “This is the hero course, and if you stay, you will be expected to take it seriously . My name is Aizawa Shouta, and I’m your homeroom teacher.”
“He’s a teacher ?” someone whispered from within the room, but otherwise, it was silent. The man didn’t so much as glance toward the voice. He unzipped his sleeping bag a bit and pulled what looked like a uniform out of its depths, holding it up for them all to see.
“Underneath your assigned seats are bags that hold gym clothes designed to fit the measurements the school had you send in. Meet me at Ground Gamma in fifteen minutes. Don’t be late.” He dropped the uniform on the ground and zipped himself up all the way in his sleeping bag, disappearing from sight. The class stared at him for a moment before they slowly began grabbing the uniforms from under their chairs, making their way out of the room to head to the first floor. U.A. was made up of four stories and four buildings, all connected by sky-bridges. On the first floor of every tower were different changing rooms and indoor gyms. The second floor of the pillars held the first year classes, all separated by the courses- the hero courses had one pillar, the general education and support department held another, the management department had the third, and the last pillar went to the business course. The third floor had the second year classrooms, and the fourth and last floor went to the third years. The sky-towers made it easy for the teachers to get from building to building, and for students as well.
“He’s kind of weird,” the brunette girl whispered to Izuku once they had both exited the classroom. Kacchan was lagging right behind them. Although he was undoubtedly still pissed at Izuku, they were also familiar with each other. They’d spent basically their entire lives in each other’s orbit, and that comfort didn’t go away just because they were pissed at each other. If it did, then they would have begun ignoring each other a long, long time ago.
“I’m Uraraka Ochako by the way,” she introduced herself. “And you’re… Deku?” she glanced at Katsuki behind them, who stared back at her blankly.
“No, that’s not my name!” Izuku hurried to explain. “That’s just what Kacchan calls me. My real name is Midoriya Izuku. It’s nice to officially meet you.”
“Oh,” Uraraka said, tilting her head. “I kind of like Deku, you know? It sounds like Dekiru , like ‘you can do it!’ It’s cute!”
“It means fucking useless,” Katsuki deadpanned. Izuku flung out a fist and punched Katsuki in the stomach, forcing the blond to double over and wheeze. Izuku rolled his eyes and smiled at Uraraka like he hadn’t just hit another classmate.
“Feel free to call him Kacchan. All the time, if possible. He loves it.”
“Do- do not fucking- call me that,” Katsuki hissed, trying to catch his breath. “Deku, you’re fucking dead .”
“Whatever, Kacchan!”
“Ohhh-kay,” a new voice said from behind them. All three of them turned to face the newcomer before they began their trek down the stairs. The boy had spiky red hair and a shark-toothed smile when he grinned at them. “Clearly the two of you have some history, huh? I’m Kirishima Eijirou!”
“Nice to meet you,” Uraraka said, blushing a little bit. Izuku nodded his agreement, returning the boy’s full-watt smile.
“Yeah. I like your hair.”
“His hair is fucking shitty,” Katsuki grumbled, crossing his arms. Kirishima wrinkled his nose, pointing at Katsuki’s blond, spiky mess.
“My hair’s not that different from yours!”
“Fuck off already! Do not call me ‘Kacchan’ if you want to live. My name is Bakugou Katsuki, and you fucking call me that or else.”
“Alright, alright!” Kirishima laughed. “Bakugou-san it is! By the way, I hope you guys know where you’re going, because I’m pretty sure the entire class is just following you.”
Sure enough, when Izuku and Katsuki looked over their shoulders, the class was staring back at them. At the same time, the boys spoke over each other. “There was a map in the student handbook.” “Why didn’t they memorize the fucking map, huh?” They looked at each other for a moment before Katsuki clucked his tongue and looked away. Izuku shrugged at the strange looks Kirishima and Uraraka gave him.
They all got to the bottom of the stairs, where Izuku and Katsuki led them to the separate boys’ and girls’ locker rooms at the end of the first hallway. Their group split into two as the corresponding genders filed into each room, no longer watching the “Deku and Kacchan” show. Izuku was a bit embarrassed that so many of them had been watching him and Kacchan so closely for so long, but he supposed it only made sense. Kacchan was a force to be reckoned with, and his volume was pretty much unmatched. Chances were that if he was speaking, you were listening.
Each boy picked a random locker in the room and began changing out of their uniforms. It didn’t escape Izuku’s notice that, once again, Katsuki picked a locker next to his. Kirishima went ahead and chose the locker on Katsuki’s other side, while a short boy with purple balls for hair picked the locker on Izuku’s other side. They all got changed quickly, before they filed out of the locker rooms and began following Izuku and Katsuki towards Ground Gamma, which was located outside of the building.
When they got there, they found their teacher standing there, sans his sleeping bag. The moment Izuku saw him he was struck with a sense of deja vu, like he’d seen the man somewhere before. He shook his head and let it go when he began to speak, explaining the rules for the quirk assessment test they were about to take.
(x)
“I got last?” the invisible girl cried out. Izuku bit his lip and looked up at the holographic screen that displayed all of their results. He prided himself on his memory, so he took the time to memorize each of his classmates’ names. First place had gone to the girl with the ponytail and the frankly awesome quirk. Second place went to the boy who was freaking Endeavour’s son, holy shit! Kacchan had gotten third, and he didn’t look too happy about it. Izuku had scored towards the bottom of the pack, ahead of Jirou Kyouka, the girl with the earphone jacks, Kaminari Denki, the boy with the electricity quirk, Mineta Minoru, the boy with the purple balls for hair, and Hagakure Tooru, who had gotten last place. All of the ones towards the bottom had at least one test they excelled in, with Jirou and Izuku’s being the ball throw, as Jirou had used sound waves to create a boom that burst her ball across the field. Kaminari Denki had used his electric quirk to short out the circuit of the grip test machine, freezing it in place higher than what his actual strength was. Mineta had done very well at the side-to-side steps, but Hagakure didn’t have a quirk that would help her in any of the tests.
“I don’t want to get expelled!”
Aizawa-sensei simply watched the girl as she began to cry (or at least, Izuku assumed she was, given the sounds she was making). The rest of the class looked uncomfortable, but were clearly afraid of pissing off the man who had threatened to expel them all. They might have been afraid, but Izuku had never been one to not stand up for someone that needed it. He approached the invisible girl’s side and grabbed the shoulder of her uniform, looking at his teacher with hard eyes.
“I don’t think you should expel Hagakure-san,” he told the man, lifting his chin defiantly. Aizawa raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Oh? And why is that? She got last place, didn’t she?”
“She did,” Izuku agreed. Hagakure began to cry harder, so he squeezed her shoulder to try to get her to quiet down. Don’t show weakness. It will let him know he’s hurting you. “But her quirk would be absolutely amazing for an underground hero. You would know, wouldn’t you Eraserhead-san? She may not have a quirk that would help her in these tests, but imagine how helpful she would be for stealth missions? It would be idiotic to expel her when she has so much potential as a hero.”
“Deku,” Katsuki hissed under his breath, a few feet away. Izuku winced a bit but didn’t back down. It was probably stupid of him to call his teacher “idiotic,” but he wasn’t just going to stand there while Hagakure cried. He wasn’t going to let an adult hurt a vulnerable teenager, not like-
“I agree,” Aizawa-sensei said. “Hagakure, you may continue on in the hero course.” He turned his eyes on Izuku, allowing his quirk to activate for a moment, flashing them red. “You, Midoriya Izuku, are lucky you made such good points. I won’t hesitate to expel you the next time you call me names.”
“Yes, sensei,” Izuku nodded, bowing his head in respect. “Thank you.”
“Everyone, head to the locker rooms. You have twenty minutes to take showers and change back into your uniforms before lunch begins. I suggest you don’t dawdle, or all of the good food will be gone.” The older man began ambling back towards the U.A. building without looking back. Without his teacher’s eyes on him anymore, all of the tension bled out of Izuku. He dropped his hand from Hagakure’s shoulder, but he hardly had a moment to think about what he’d just done before the girl flung herself into his arms.
“Thank you!” She gasped, squeezing him tightly. Izuku blinked down at the place Hagakure’s eyes would be, his arms out on his sides to avoid touching her. His heart began to beat a bit quicker at the feeling of someone touching him, and not in a good way. His thoughts flashed back to All Might, his phantom touch crawling its way underneath his skin. ‘ No. I’m safe from All Might here. I’m safe, and she’s not him. Don’t freak out on the first day of school.’ “I can’t believe you stood up for me!”
“It was really cool,” the boy with the tape quirk, Sero Hanta, nodded. “I totally wasn’t brave enough to say anything to him.”
“I-it was nothing,” Izuku stuttered, slowly reaching to awkwardly pat Hagakure on the back. “Um… I just told the truth?”
Hagakure pulled back and sniffed, reaching up and invisible hand to wipe at her invisible face. “You really think I have the potential to become a great underground hero?”
Izuku lit up at the question. Quirk analysis was his jam , even if he hadn’t been doing it recently due to his… extracurriculars with All Might. “Oh yeah! I mean, your invisibility is perfect for stealth missions, or stakeouts! You could literally walk right into the middle of a villain situation, or a drug ring, or anything of the sort, and get all of the information needed in order to take them down! Not only that, but with the right amount of equipment, you cou- hey!”
A hand clapped itself over Izuku’s mouth. Given the sweet taste of the skin against his open mouth, it wasn’t hard to guess who had shut him up. “Jesus Deku, give them a break before you curse their ears with your nerdy-ass questions!” He began dragging Izuku back towards the school building, muttering under his breath. Izuku wiggled his way out from under Katsuki’s hand, frowning at the boy. His finger throbbed a bit from the break he’d forced onto himself, and he could hear Kacchan’s angry mumbling about it. Clearly, he was picking up on a few of Izuku’s habits.
“I thought you were mad at me,” he sniffed, a bit pettily. Kacchan glanced back at him, his expression not quite as murderous as it had been before. He looked down at Izuku’s hand with the broken finger, which was clenched in a fist. It was irritating the appendage, but something about the pain grounded Izuku. He had a clear head for the first time in a while.
“I am,” the blond admitted. “I’m fucking pissed at you, but…” he looked behind them, not at their classmates but at the field where they’d just taken their test. “Even if you did lie to me, I guess I can see why you did it. A power like that, when you were so young…” he shook his head, looking down at the ground. “It would have destroyed you.”
Izuku softened, biting his lower lip. He wanted nothing more than to tell Kacchan the truth- not only about where he’d gotten his quirk, but about everything , consequences be damned- but he knew better. Just because he had some strange connection to Kacchan didn’t change his circumstances. He still owed All Might a lot for training him and giving him his quirk. He still needed the money if he wanted his mother to live a happier, stress-free life. Japan still needed their Number One Hero.
“Thanks for understanding,” Izuku said instead of saying anything else. “But I didn’t lie to you. My quirk only appeared after I began training. I think… I think it manifested because my younger body couldn’t handle it. You’re right, it would have destroyed me from the inside-out.” ‘ That’s what All Might said, at least. After using it a few times, I’m inclined to agree.’
Katsuki narrowed his eyes at Izuku, pushing open the door to the school that led right into the boy’s locker room. “...Somehow, I don’t think that’s true.” He grinned wolfishly at Izuku. “But don’t worry, Deku. I’ll find out what you’re hiding from me, whether you want me to or not.” He stalked off towards the showers, stopping at his locker to grab his uniform as he went. Izuku stood near the entrance of the locker room, watching the rest of his classmates file in to do the same thing.
‘ Oh, Kacchan,’ he thought to himself miserably. ‘ That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.’