Chapter Text
Izuku didn’t pay all that much attention to his classmates- aside from Kacchan. Sure Izuku knew their names and had their quirks memorized but none of them had any particular stand out qualities- which by the way is very impressive in a superhuman society.
They all made fun of him for being different, but Izuku liked to think that they were all just the same. They all talked about the same stuff, they looked similar, dressed similar.
If Izuku squinted his eyes and looked at the kids on the playground they kind of looked like how they acted- a monolithic meat blob.
So when a new student transferred into his class he didn’t care that much. New students tended to follow the social norms of their new peers in order to fit in and make friends in a new and uncomfortable space. Therefore, this new kid was probably going to fall into the pattern of making fun of him for being quirkless.
Then the rumors started.
Izuku had been sitting at his desk during lunch when someone said something about quirkless people. Izuku, anticipating a backhanded comment about himself, tried to block out the conversation. But his ears perked up when he heard that they weren’t talking about him, but the new student.
“But Chiyo said that he’s quirkless!” “How would she know?” Whispered the other girl, her hand cupped against her cheek, “well her dad could have a copy of the class file!”
By the time the next sentence had been uttered Izuku had stopped listening, ‘another quirkless kid?!’ He couldn’t believe it! After years of being the only quirkless person in the entire school there would finally be someone who would understand. Izuku had long given up on trying to explain quirkless problems to anyone else, they just didn’t understand.
Because of that disconnect, it caused people to not want to be around him… it hurt. He was different- that was all.
Izuku became hyper focused on the idea of meeting the new kid. He wrote down a plan of action inside one of his notebooks and rehearsed his lines while standing at the mirror, “Hi Shinso! My name is Midoriya Izuku, we’re in the same class together and I was wondering if we could be friends.”
Izuku spent the rest of the day staring awkwardly at Shinso from across the room. ‘I wonder what kinds of heroes he likes? Maybe he likes All Might!!’ Izuku liked that thought, ‘Maybe we could go to the zoo together!’ Izuku liked the zoo.
When the bell rang at the end of the day Izuku was the third person out of the door. He got to the genkan and quickly shook off his shoes to exchange them for his outdoor ones. ‘I gotta get home and practice my introduction!!’
Izuku rushed out the front door of the school, as he was leaving he saw his quirkless comrade get inside a black car. ‘He has a car?’ Thought Izuku, ‘Oh gosh what if he’s rich? What if- what if he’s one of those people who purposely inbreed so they don’t get quirks??’ That thought hadn’t crossed his mind before, but seeing the other kid get into a car put a constant loop of worries into his head.
Izuku spent the night worrying about whether the other kid would accept his proposal or not- he really didn’t want to tell the other kid that they should be friends because of their quirklessness, it felt a bit desperate…
“Hey kid I don’t know, let’s be friends because we’re both quirkless losers!”
So when Izuku watched Hitoshi shove past some bushes on the far end of the playground during recess, the kid decided that this was his chance.
‘Now or never!’ He thought to himself, despite knowing fully well that he would have plenty of other chances to engage with the other kid.
Izuku snuck over to the bushes and pushed himself into the bushes as well.
He just stared at the other kid for a minute.
“Um… I- I’m quirkless too! Can we be friends?”
A crisp silence enveloped the two boys for a couple of seconds.
Izuku had prepared himself for rejection, and yet to his surprise the purple haired boy responded with a small, “Ok.”
Izuku’s eyes lit up with joy! His heart felt like he had just finished running a marathon, both it and his mind were going 200 miles an hour. Izuku struggled to get words out of his mouth as he said, “um! Ah! I’m Midoriya Izuku! I- I like heroes and All Might and writing and drawing!” He had begun bouncing on his toes with excitement, “do you have a favorite hero?”
But the other boy shrugged but answered “All Might.” In a quiet voice.