Chapter Text
Izuku has known for as long as he can remember that a person's quirk could out right decide what kind of life you're going to live . Just like how somebody with an electrical quirk couldn’t go swimming unless they wanted to fry everyone else in the pool , quirks dictated the actions of everyone controlling the way in which they lived their lives. Knowing this he has always wondered what his own quirk would end up being . Looking back on it now , it should have been a cause for worry but he never felt that way . He stayed blindly faithful to the idea that he would be blessed with the perfect ability providing him with exactly what he needed to be a hero .
But this never happened for him.
He heard a loud bang before it fizzled out, but the impact seemed to delay as seconds later he felt his legs being blown out from beneath him and his whole side violently crashing into the floor.
Looking up he almost couldn’t recognise the person staring back at him . His eyes held such passionate disgust as they bore into him , as if he was an insect . Only now did he start to comprehend the burning sensation along his arm from where the boy's quirk has been directed .
He didn’t know what he was going to tell his mom about this , she was worried enough as it is and was already suffering under all the guilt she felt from having to crush izukus dreams . If she found out he was being bullied due to the fact it may very well push her over the edge .
For a second he had forgotten where he was so lost in thought but he was brought back by the loud cackling bellowing from kacchans lackeys . They were choking on how hard they were laughing , some hunched over , others clutching their stomachs from the pain in their abdomens .
“He’s so pathetic it’s unbelievable “ one spewed .
“As if he wasn’t bad before but now he’s quirkless, man this is perfect “ another one added .
“He looks so stupid laying there ,covered in dirt just like a mutt, “ one of them scoffed .
Kacchan broke away from the others and started towards where he was laid on the floor until he was partially standing right over him .
“Who the hell do you think you are parading around saying you're going to be a hero , how dare you even insinuate we’re in the same league. I’m the only one who has a quirk worthy of surpassing all might , so why would you think you’d have any chance at that when you don’t even have a quirk to begin with “. The boy fumed at him ,seemingly getting angrier the more time passed .
“I’m going to make you regret ever thinking u could stand up against me “
At the age of four izuku learned a very important lesson . Not all men are created equal . Some are born destined to be heroes and others , well just aren’t and the fact he didn’t even have a quirk to begin with meant that his future , his hopes and dreams didn’t even deserve a second thought .
He has this lesson beaten into him throughout his whole childhood and sadly enough he didn’t mean figuratively .
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
If I ever try and stay up again past nine i need to be shot , izuku thought as he sat curling in on himself while gently cradling his head between his hands . He could feel his headache pulsating with his fingers as he tried to rest his mind and bring some sort of relief from the pain .
“Izuku how are u not more excited , we’re literally on a plane to nerd central why aren’t u jumping for joy “ Mei said as she messily hurled herself into the seat next to him .
As much as he loved his best friend he was seriously considering battering her for raising her voice so loudly. Usually he didn’t mind , it didn’t take much time for him to become accustomed with her large personality as he himself was probably just as bad for going on long tangents about anything hero related. They were two sides of the same coin really and he was eternally grateful for being sent such a wonderful best friend. He wouldn’t trade her for the world .
But right now if he had the mental capacity to, he'd grab her and throw her off the plane .
“Ugh “ he groaned under his breath as the pounding sensation stayed constant.
“This is your own fault ya know how many times have I told you to stop staying up till four watching hero fights , it’s not like there going to disappear the next morning when u wake up , you can analyze them then “ Mei stated condescendingly with a big grin pulled on her face which screamed I told u so . He lifted his head from his hands and gave her a deadpan look
“This is coming from the one I caught last week Monday half dead over in her bedroom from staying up all weekend to work on her ‘babies’”
Mei quickly turned her head away in embarrassment looking to the plane aisle , trying to hide away from the intensity of his glare “well that’s a completely different situation “ she mumbled out as a weak defense.
“Uh huh “
“Oh shut up you , go back to being a ball you were more polite that way “
“Gladly “ he signed as he regained his previous position and once again began trying to mitigate the pain behind his eyes .
She was right though, he shouldn’t have stayed up so late knowing the time he had to be at the airport by the next morning was a stupid decision on his part but he couldn’t help it . He loved the feeling of adrenaline he got when he watched live streamed hero fights , the feeling of need , urgency and excitement was unmatched . He also got to see and talk with others who were also witnessing the fight . He was a part of many different online communities which talked about all things hero related. It was a place he could freely talk about all of the analysis he had built up over the years in his notebook collection, rather than letting his hard work sit and catch dust .
But by far the best thing about his online presence is that nobody knew who he was . He couldn’t be reprimanded for being quirkless or judged. He was genuinely appreciated for what he posted . He would wait to check his blog every time that there was a new fight and the response was almost overwhelming to him . Maybe that was the real reason why he was always losing sleep to analyze these fights , trying to combat his immense fear of letting the people around him down .
This always seemed to be a problem for him , this sense of responsibility that he held for those who weren’t of his concern. It caused him a lot of trouble but it wasn’t something in his control. Especially considering the fact he still felt any sense of responsibility towards his own tormentor .
Izuku squeezed his eyes tight to try and stop this train of thought , he promised himself to at least try to stop worrying about kacchan. He didn’t deserve it.
He felt a hand grasp his shoulder .
“Mei “ he spat out probably more viciously than needed but he hadn’t the patience to deal with it anymore .
But when he looked up to scowl at her he saw her holding out a small plastic cup containing some pink and white pills and a water bottle in her other hand .
“If you take these they should knock you right out until we touch down on the island and then you can stop acting like a grump “. she giggled at him, sticking out her tongue at him and pushing the two into his hands . “ and start being nicer to me “.
“Are you Jesus ?”
“No , but I’m definitely your savior bitch “
“I love you so much “
“Yeah , yeah who doesn’t I’m great now shut up and take my drugs “
He compiled without much prompting, quickly downing the meds she has given him and the effects were almost instantaneous.
He felt the pain behind his eyes melt away and suddenly he felt like he was floating on a cloud or maybe something else soft . What else would be soft like a cloud ? Cotton candy was pretty fluffy; it would be annoyingly sticky to lay on top of . Maybe like a sheep ? Their wool was really soft. wait are clouds even soft , there fundamentally just water vapor so wouldn’t it just be all wet If u were laying on a clou-
“Mei what the hell did you just give me “
“I don’t know what you're talking about zuku, just sit back and let my babies work their magic “ . She placed her hand into his chest and shoved it into the back of his chair .
“Hold on a minute babies!?”- “shhhhhhh just go to sleep “
He was about to argue with her about how she should stop consenting to using his body as a sacrifice for the ‘sake of science’ but he found he didn’t have the energy to retort back at her. As he was giving into the black static of sleep his mind began to drift back to how he’d even ended up here with Mei in the first place .
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
Just as Izuku was about to be entering middle school , Aldera junior high specifically, there was an incident with some bullies which pushed his mother to her breaking point .
He was always suffering under the constant tyranny of his classmates ; kacchan may have been the one who led everything happening but that didn’t exclude the rest of the student body . He would come home every day with a new bruise, arms black and blue but it wasn’t the pain which bothered him ( he actually found the repeated abuse seemed to cause his pain tolerance to sky rocket - little wins am I right ? ) , it was having to hide this from his mother which was the most difficult.
Those moments where she would go to hug him and he’d have to keep a straight face as she unintentionally dug into his skin , causing his pain to increase ten fold ,but he refused to tense up. He didn’t want his mother to believe that he was uncomfortable with the physical contact , he has loved his mothers hugs since he was a child , they made him feel safe .
But one day he messed up by letting one of his tormentors access his face . Whenever he was being bullied he would usually use his book to cover his face from the attacks but on this day kacchan had set his book on fire after seeing it on his desk earlier. So when he came later to beat his ass , one of his blows ended up scorching his cheek . Not that he knew this , it seems his high pain tolerance wasn’t such a blessing after all Because when he walked into his home with a nasty red burn mark on his face his mother went ballistic.
As calm of a woman inko midoriya was, she would not stand for anyone laying their hands on her baby .She sat him down to help him clean up his face and consequently found his other wounds which seemed to cause her to break completely as she began sobbing her heart out . Izuku tried to comfort her as best he could but he just ended up crying as bad as she was . The guilt of having kept this to himself but also the fact that now he had upset his mother to such an extent was just too much .
That night they both sat bundled up on a sofa together , eating ice cream straight out of the tub while they watched some silly movies and by the very next morning izuku had been pulled from aldera and moved to a school in the next time over from where he lived . It was further away then where he was going to go but it was overall a much better school. He had to beg his mother in order to keep her from reporting his bullies and getting his auntie Mitsuki to sue the school which you’d think would be an issue considering her son was the main perpetrator but the more he thought about it she’d definitely still go through with it.
He has to take a fancy acceptance exam but it wasn’t much of an issue for him . School was pretty easy for him not to brag but he didn’t hold much interest in a lot of what he did , he didn’t find it challenging enough. His new school seemed to pick up on this pretty quickly as well and he ended up in some weird advancement program where he ended up meeting his best friend in the whole world . He made the mistake of showing a hint of interest in what she was doing and was abruptly caught up in the world wind known as mei hatsume and he began to have fun in school for the first time ever .
The two of them would spend hours in the school labs together izuku giving mei detailed explanations on hero’s physical state and their quirks which she used to mock up potential support items which may be of use .
And then just a month ago they announced that everyone in the advancement program was getting taken on a trip to I-island , the home for the most advanced technology in Japan and lots of other countries. So when they both went out about this they reacted as any normal person would with Mei screaming at the top of her lungs and izuku sobbing like a baby , both of which raised some questions for their teachers and classmates.
However, having seen the chaos that those two got up to on a daily basis they decided the best thing they could do was ignore it , nobody wanted to cross them . Some getting chills at the memory of what Mei did to the one person who she caught mocking midoriya for his quirklessness.
The poor boy was never seen again .
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
The next thing izuku knew he felt someone gently shaking his arm to wake him .
“Come on zuku you need to wake up, we're finally here “.
He quickly rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, yawning “ I’m up , I’m up, can you stop shaking me now “.
Mei stood up and started grabbing her bags and izuku began doing the same . He reached down towards his feet to pick up his smaller backpack containing things he had originally intended to use as entertainment for while he was on the plane but it seemed to have just been a waste of his time . He continued packing up until he saw something out of the corner of his eye .
“AAAAAHH what IS THAT !” He cried scrambling out of the chair into the aisle where Mei had been standing and he started clinging onto her like a koala.
“What got u screaming bloody murder “ she looked around the plane in confusion for what could have caused her best friend to react that way .
“ ummm well I , I saw a spider “ .
“Are you serious “
“deadly “
“ your such a baby jez what are we going to do with you , how is it you can handle watching a villain fight irl where you could actually be under danger but the moment you see something fifty times smaller than you I find you screaming like a little bitch “
“I can’t help it and for your information it’s a very normal fear - who isn’t afraid of spiders “
“Me “
“Shut up “
“ tough , MAN UP IZUKU MIDORIYA! “ she shouted out while dragging him off the plane .
I can’t stand spiders , he thought, shaking his head to himself .