Archive of Our Own

Some kids get absorbed into a friend group by day three. Some kids don't, and everyone just decides that's not their problem to fix.

This is a series of one-shots built on the same simple premise: what if someone actually noticed. What if the kid nobody sits near, the kid everyone's already written a verdict for, got picked by exactly the right person on exactly the right day — before the isolation had time to calcify into something permanent. No dramatic reveals, no arcs about "learning" someone isn't scary or isn't worthless. Just kids doing the unglamorous, unremarkable work of paying attention, and it being enough.

Each fic stands alone. Read in any order.

okay so putting these two together made me realize I have apparently been writing the SAME FIC with different casts it's always some version of "kid falls through every crack the adults/peers around them created, and then ONE person just decides not to look away" and I think I'm contractually obligated to keep doing this forever now

"bad math" is shinsou clocking deku and refusing to do the math where three-against-one or under-a-bridge-while-everyone-has-a-spare-room comes out as acceptable. "that's not the version that happened" is deku doing the exact same thing for himiko, just with a notebook and a terrifying amount of hero-analysis energy instead of a deadpan voice. same bones, different skin, and honestly? I'm never gonna get tired of writing it

the throughline I didn't even plan until I sat back and looked at both of these side by side: nobody in these fics gets rescued with a speech. it's always small and unglamorous — a location for lunch, a kid sitting on the edge of a desk, a katsudon dinner instead of an interrogation. I think that's just what I believe rescue actually looks like, in practice, when it's real

if you're picking up on the himiko/izuku sibling agenda from fic 2, yes, that's permanent, I'm not sorry, more of that energy is absolutely coming back in this series eventually

anyway will probably keep adding to this whenever the brainworm produces a new victim/beloved blorbo combo, so. subscribe if you want to get suckered into whatever's next 💜