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Chapter Text

Izuku Midoriya has been friends with Katsuki Bakugou for as long as he can remember.

Although his mother says he has the memory of an elephant, Izuku doesn’t really recall when exactly the two met. He just knows that his mother and Kacchan’s mother knew each other from high school or something, and so naturally, Izuku and Kacchan would become friends.

Right?

Well, their relationship started out that way, Izuku thinks. When he first met the ash-haired boy, Kacchan still had that same sour glare he always dons, but he was also more receptive to meeting Izuku. Of course, that was back when Izuku was still Izuku. When Kacchan found out that Izuku didn’t have a quirk, Izuku suddenly became Deku.

Stupid, useless, quirkless Deku.

Izuku doesn’t know why, but he still followed Kacchan after that. Maybe it was because he didn’t know who else to follow and didn’t really have any other friends, but Izuku thinks it was because of Kacchan’s quirk.

Kacchan was incredibly powerful. He could make explosions from the sweat on his palms, almost like magic. He truly had enough strength to become a world-class hero, just like All Might. Admittedly, Izuku was very jealous, but he was also in utter awe. He knew how he looked like whenever he gaped at Kacchan: wide-eyed, jaw-dropped, and breathless.

Looking back on it, Izuku thinks that Kacchan enjoyed the attention that a quirkless Deku gave him. That’s probably why the blond boy still let Izuku follow him around along with his mindless group of lackeys.

But then, one day as he sat in the embrace of a dark room, his face only illuminated by the light of All Might videos, his mother came in. He was trembling, shaking, shivering with self-loathing much too intense for an eight year old, and tears ran down his face like small streams of stinging acid.

Inko walked into the open room tentatively. “Izuku…?”

When she received no response, the green-haired woman took more steps forward until she saw her only son’s depressed emotional state, clearly written across his face with harsh, unforgiving tears.

“Oh, Izuku,” her voice cracked, filled with anguish. She fell to her knees and turned the boy towards her, cupping his face.

Izuku could barely respond, the despair threatening to crush his small, innocent heart prematurely. After a few moments, he managed to choke out between sobs, “Will I ever have a quirk? Will I ever be a hero, mom?”

He desperately wanted to hear the words that no one would ever tell him, the declaration that he felt he had been waiting for his entire life: ‘Yes, you too can be a hero!’ When he thought about the words, they were always galvanizing, and always in All Might’s lively voice. He wanted to be a hero so goddamned much, but here he was quirkless—

“I’m sorry, Izuku,” his mother whimpered before pulling her son in for an embrace. His shaking and trembling eventually stopped, as did Inko’s gentle sobs. Eventually, Izuku’s small arms snaked up to wrap around his mother, clutching her as tightly as he possibly could. Even if he didn’t have a quirk, he still had her. Even if he didn’t have a quirk, he would still try to protect her. He never wanted to see his mother cry again, especially not over him. Maybe he could be a hero, even if it was just to his mother.

Inko pulled back, still at eye-level with her son.

“I have a surprise for you, sweetie,” she said, her voice still watery from crying.

Izuku didn’t know if he was in the mood for surprises, but he smiled anyways. He didn’t want to cry anymore. His eyes felt too tired. So instead, he just nodded.

His mother had led him downstairs, back into the living room, covering his eyes theatrically. His interest was piqued now, and he tried to look around her firm hands which only elicited laughter from Inko.

“Can I open my eyes now?”

Inko removed her hands. “Yes you can.”

His bright green eyes flickered open as he immediately took in his surroundings. In the middle of the living room, there was a small box covered by a soft red blanket.

He turned around to his mother, asking silently for permission. When she nodded, softly smiling once more, he walked towards the box and knelt down, pulling off the blanket gently.

Oh.

Izuku Midoriya came face to face with two bright red eyes.

“A rabbit,” he breathed.

It had bright golden fur and was fluffier than any of the dolls that Izuku had when he was younger. In fact, it seemed to be 90% fluff and 10% actual rabbit, so much so that Izuku couldn’t help but crack a grin. The best part, however, was its ears. It looked like All Might’s signature hair style with his gravity-defying bangs!

Izuku turned towards his mother who was smiling just as wide as he was, and he realized that she probably thought the same thing when she got the rabbit for him.

“I know you’ve been having a little trouble making friends, so I brought you one,” she said.

Izuku reached into the cage steadily, petting the rabbit. It felt as soft as it looked, and if Izuku had to describe it, he would say that it felt the inside of a freshly roasted s’more but even fluffier. If he knew any better, he would say that it looked like the rabbit was staring right at him, regarding him considerably with those crimson eyes.

Inko sat down next to Izuku as well, although her gaze was more focused on her son than the rabbit.

“What do you want to name him?”

He didn’t hesitate to give his answer. “Little Might!”

Izuku’s mother laughed at that, a gentle sound that could compare to the tinkling of bells.

“I like it.”

“That’s an interesting choice.”

The second voice jarred Izuku for a moment. What?

He looked around, the smile dropped from his face, instead replaced by a confused expression. Of course, no one else was in the room. Just himself, his mother, and…

And Little Might.

Izuku whipped his head back towards the rabbit, looking at it in awe. Did it just…? Or was he imagining things?

“Izuku, honey, are you alright?”

“Mom, did you hear that?”

A pause. “Hear what?” There was worry in her voice.

“ … Nothing.” Maybe I’m just hearing things.

Izuku reached for Little Might, holding him up carefully. He grinned again, trying to expel the silly thoughts from his mind.

“After all, there’s no way you just talked to me!”

“I did though!”

Izuku positively screeched, almost dropping the rabbit in the process.

He managed to place it down on the ground, before getting up and backing away.

“Izuku, what is it?” There was alarm in Inko’s voice now, as she too looked around as if to find what invisible force was ailing her son.

Words were lost to Izuku, however. He stumbled and stuttered over his speech, still trying to get over the sheer ridiculousness of the situation. Was he going crazy? Talking to animals was impossible, right?

Right?

Neglecting to answer his worried mother, Izuku swallowed nervously before steeling his resolve. He stepped forward, towards the rabbit, before kneeling down cautiously in front of it.

“Can you understand me?” He breathed, just barely audible. A part of him felt silly for even trying to talk to an animal, but he needed to know. He needed to know if he could do the impossible.

No response.

Izuku let out a sigh. So he was just imagining it—

“Yeah, I can!” Little Might rumbled softly.

A sharp intake of breath, and a barely there gasp. This was it. He thought it was crazy, but— but this has to be it.

And so, little Izuku Midoriya turned towards his mother with the most breathtakingly relieved sunny smile.

“I know what my quirk is.”

…

Even so, he knew it wasn’t a powerful quirk. He was very grateful for it, grateful not to be completely quirkless, and animals made great friends. Somewhere along the line, he started hanging out with Kacchan and his lackeys a little less, and started spending more time exploring the woods near his house alone, talking to the birds and the fish in the stream and even the little insects. They all had interesting stories, and most importantly, once they found out that Izuku could understand them, they all seemed to relax around him.

That wasn’t to say that Izuku didn’t spend any time with Kacchan anymore. He still did, envious of the powerful quirk that the blond had quite literally right at his fingertips, and he never corrected the other boy when he called Izuku a “stupid quirkless Deku.” He didn’t really want Kacchan to find out about his quirk, lest he be bullied more for it. He can already hear the insults.

“Did you hear about his quirk? He can talk to animals! Lame!”

“Wow, Deku, who do you think you are? Snow White?”

“You really are useless, aren’t you?

Izuku shuddered at the thoughts. So he decided to keep his quirk a secret. Besides, it’s not like talking to animals would ever help him become a hero.

Despite this, Izuku couldn’t help himself from trying. That’s when he realized the difference between himself and Kacchan. Even though Kacchan wanted to be a hero too, he was fine with hurting people in the process. He was okay with abusing those who were weaker than him, laughing and mocking them until they cried.

And so, in the small park they had played in together for years, Izuku finds himself standing in front of that child. He doesn’t know who it is, but he does know that Kacchan and his lackeys have decided to pick on him today because he was “too shy and too wussy”. He reminded Izuku of himself.

The green-haired boy puts his shaking arms up in a pathetic rendition of a defensive karate-like pose. Kacchan sneered.

“Stupid Deku, what do you think you’re trying to do?”

“Y-you can’t hurt him, Kacchan. It’s n-not fair!” He hated how scared his voice sounded.

In that moment, he watched Kacchan’s expression turn from an ugly sneer into an even more terrifying grin.

He thought that Kacchan acts kind of like a wounded animal. When someone that he had under his thumb tries to go against him, tries to go against the grain, he lashes out at them. Whether it’s from the hurt of rejection or the utter anger of being left behind, Kacchan lashes out violently.

Izuku thinks he kind of understands. In fact, he can even sympathize with Kacchan a little.

But he has no time to wonder about that because, ouch, Kacchan’s fist had just connected with his face.

That’s definitely going to leave a bruise.

…

Middle school wasn’t any better than elementary.

Of course, Kacchan was still top dog in class. Even though he didn’t have many friends, he still vocally expressed his extreme disdain of Izuku, going as far as to curse out his name in the middle of class. Since no one wanted to get on Kacchan’s bad side, Izuku’s entire class seemed to be against him at times.

Like now.

The teacher had just asked every student where they wanted to go for high school, and Izuku had stupidly answered the question truthfully.

“Yuuei!”

Mistake.

Almost immediately, the class broke out into laughter.

“You? Going to Yuuei? Don’t make me laugh.”

“Aren’t you quirkless? You can’t be serious!”

Even the teacher seemed to disapprove. “Midoriya, please be reasonable.”

Tears threatened to form at the corner of his eyes, but he pinched himself under his desk to stop them from flowing over. After all, he was used to this— no one had ever thought he could make it as a hero. He knew that following a dream that he could never truly attain would only lead to unhappiness. He knew he was walking a path destined for failure, but that still didn’t stop him. He had tried to give up before, but the gut-wrenching depression that threatened to overtake him was too much to handle. Izuku decided he’d rather die trying to become a hero than give up.

After all, what was the point of living life if he wasn’t going to continue trying to achieve his dreams? Even if it was a fruitless effort, Izuku had to try. He had to shed the name “useless Deku,” the one that plagued his life. And so he never stopped thinking about the future, never stopped thinking about the heroes that he saw everyday on television. Even now, out on his desk, he had a notebook filled with his own notes and sketches of heroes and their quirks. He made it his job to know as much as he could about heroes.

As the laughter settled down in the classroom, Izuku realized that there was one person who didn’t laugh at all. No, he didn’t even crack a smirk, which terrified Izuku all the more.

Kacchan.

Kacchan was seething with rage. Izuku gulped.

At the end of class, Izuku wished he gathered his belongings quicker. Instead of being able to make his hasty escape, Kacchan cornered him in the classroom. With no one around, not even the teacher, Izuku knew he was in for a rough time.

“What makes you think that you can come to Yuuei?” the question was uncharacteristically quiet, but Izuku could practically feel the red hot anger seeping in through the cracks of Kacchan’s sentence. He tried to think happy thoughts, tried to think of his mother, tried to think of Little Might, but no thought was powerful enough to shake off the all-consuming fear that Izuku often felt in front of his childhood friend.

“I just,” Izuku squeaked as Kacchan’s sneer deepened, “I want to be a hero.”

Izuku half-expected Kacchan to laugh, but the ash-haired boy didn’t. Rather, he gripped Izuku by the collar, constricting his throat cruelly, unforgivingly.

“I’m going to be the first one from this stupid-ass school to get into Yuuei, fucking Deku! You, on the other hand,” his grip tightened, “will never be anything more than a useless Deku.”

There were many things that Izuku wanted to reply to that. He wanted to say that his own prospective acceptive into Yuuei does not affect Kacchan’s, that he could shape his own future and become more than a “useless Deku,” that he had the power to do so with his own hands, that his dreams should not matter to Kacchan— but he didn’t.

Kacchan released his death-grip before roughly shoving Izuku down. The green-haired boy landed on his behind, dropping his backpack, but not before smashing his elbows into the unforgiving linoleum floor. He painstakingly crossed his arms to rub at the offending area, knowing that tell-tale bruises would form there.

Sighing, he picked himself back up to reach for his backpack, but before Izuku could, he saw Kacchan picking up a notebook that had fallen out of it.

His hero notebook.

Izuku’s heart plummeted down into his stomach, broiling in a vat of acid. He felt like puking. He knew what was coming next.

“Kacchan, no—”

“Losers like you won’t be needing this next year,” Kacchan growled, cruel amusement evident in his voice. He stalked over to the side of the room where the window was wide open.

The tears that had prickled at Izuku’s eyes earlier were now threatening to fall once more. Why wouldn’t Kacchan just leave him alone?

“Please, stop!”

Ignoring his desperate words, the blond boy threw the book out the window and out of sight.

Izuku fell to his knees. All those months of hard work going into painstakingly accurate diagrams and extensive notes, and Kacchan had just plucked it out of Izuku’s possession and thrown it away like trash. He had shit all over Izuku’s dreams from the very beginning and only continued to do so. Izuku felt hopeless. Maybe he really wasn’t meant to be a hero after all. He couldn’t even defend himself against his childhood friend.

Kacchan left the classroom, but not before sniffing and declaring, “that’ll make you think twice before you try to apply for Yuuei.”

And then he left.

Izuku was alone.

Wiping the salty tears that were now streaming steadily from his eyes, he picked himself up and grabbed his backpack. He stood there, in the middle of that desolate classroom, trying to fight the empty feeling in his stomach that threatened to eat him alive. The one that he had been fighting constantly since he could remember. It was a tough battle, but he had come out the victor every time so far. Even though he had a few close calls, he never surrendered to the emptiness within him.

Today was no different.

And so, he walked outside of the classroom to find his book, before he realized that his classroom’s window was right above the school’s fountain.

Damn it.

His brisk walk turned into a desperate run until he made it to the fountain, panting. Immediately, he rolled up his sleeves and his trousers, dropping his backpack on the ground next to the fountain and stepping in. He waded for about five minutes, his desperation rising steadily by the second.

Where was it?

He hears the sound of laughter from outside the fountain. Chagrin lights his face red as he realizes that a student must have caught him wading around in the water like a weirdo. He raises his face to see who it is, but he although there are a few people in the courtyard, none are paying too much attention to him.

Izuku returns to his task of finding the notebook, only to be interrupted once more by the familiar laughter. Annoyed, he looks around again, but no one is there.

He lets out a harsh sigh before stepping out of the pool of water, sitting on the edge of the fountain.

“Well? Did you find it?”

The green-haired boy looks down and comes face to face with a black cat.

Oh. He’s seen this cat here before, seen him hang around the school a lot.

“My notebook?”

“Well, yeah, what else would I be talking about?” the cat meowed. Izuku thinks that if cats could smirk, this one would be doing so right now.

Miffed, Izuku mumbles sheepishly, “No.”

The cat laughs some more, only ticking Izuku off some more.

“What are you laughing at?”

The cat looks at him, mirth dancing in his bright green eyes. “You see, the crows that were sitting on top of this fountain were very startled by a certain something falling from the sky. I hate birds, the pretentious heathens, so I thought it was fucking hilarious.”

At that moment, one of the said crows flies past them overhead, screeching, “fuck off!” to which the cat only laughs.

Izuku looked down at the cat. “Did you happen to see where the notebook fell?”

The cat licked its paw nonchalantly. “Oh yeah, it fell near that bush right behind you.”

Izuku turned around, immediately heading towards the bush in question, until— lo and behold— he found the notebook! It was scratched and dirtied, but it was in a hell of a better condition that it would have been had it fallen into the fountain. A small flare of hope alights within Izuku’s heart once more. Maybe this was a sign. Maybe Kacchan’s sentiments weren’t right after all.

“Why don’t you ever stand up to that man?”

Izuku is quiet before responding, “I don’t know. I guess I’m not strong enough.”

The cat scoffs. “You’ll just have to get stronger then, right?”

Before Izuku can respond, the cat leisurely pads away, not caring for an answer. Izuku has a feeling that he hasn’t seen the last of that cat.

As Izuku ponders over the cat’s words, he thinks he hears a few students around him say, “was he just talking to that cat?”

…

And now there’s fear in his eyes.

The police is trying to separate the crowd of civilians away from the ruthless sludge villain, but goddamn it, Kacchan is in there. The sludge monster is fucking suffocating him, and through his tear-blurred eyes, Izuku can see it.

He can see the fear inside of Kacchan’s round eyes, and he looks like he’s asking Izuku for help.

But what can Izuku do? His quirk is useless, useless Deku, and he doesn’t even know how to fight, fucking Deku, and he doesn’t know what to do—

He tries to clear his mind. He tries, because for once, Kacchan is more scared than he is right now. For once, it’s his turn to be strong, because Kacchan isn’t breathing anymore. Because Kacchan can’t get any oxygen right now, because the sludge villain is constricting him, constricting a teenager without a second thought.

Izuku may not have a powerful quirk, and he may not even have any weapons, but he has his backpack.

So he made a split second decision. He pushed past the police and ran, he ran like his life depended on it, and he slipped his backpack off in the process. He flings it out like a deadly projectile, managing to land it smack in the eye of the villain. The sludge villain flinches and roars out, releasing its grip on Kacchan so that he can wheeze in a breath of air.

He’s still breathing. He’s still alive.

Good.

Except now, the villain had its sights set on Izuku. Izuku, who had just enraged the villain, was standing face to face with the sludge monster, and he was completely unarmed.

He can almost hear that aggravating cat again, he can hear it laughing. “You sure did it now, kid. What can I say? Curiosity killed the cat.”

As the monster lashes out at him, he catches Kacchan’s horrified expression before everything becomes fuzzy. Blurry. Black.

And then All Might saves them.

Chapter Text

The next months pass by in a mighty whirlwind.

If someone had told Izuku that he would go from having one barely useful quirk to having two, he would have laughed. And then cried.

But that was the position he was in now. After the whole sludge villain incident, All Might had revealed his true identity to Izuku as Toshinori Yagi and somehow transferred his quirk onto the boy. The following months consisted of Izuku absolutely training his ass off, getting into shape and more importantly getting into Yuuei. Although Kacchan seemed to hate him even more after he had gotten into the prestigious hero school (“you lied about having a quirk, fucking Deku”), Izuku was happier than he had ever been before.

He was going to be a hero. He was going to be like All Might, and he even had All Might’s support.

However, receiving a new quirk didn’t negate his old one in the least. In fact, Izuku thinks that his new quirk might have gotten even more powerful. Usually he was the one who initiated conversations with the animals, but now he found that more and more often, the animals were the ones who were starting to talk to him. Some of the animals from his old school started following him too, such as the cat and the crow. Those two were constantly bickering in front of Izuku, and it was a constant struggle trying not to let his classmates catch him talking to them.

Once, Uraraka actually caught him talking to them.

“I’m telling you kid, fish is the way to go!”

Izuku sighed in exasperation. “We had fish last night, and also I’m on a strict diet! I can’t eat what I want everyday. Scratch that, I can’t eat what YOU want everyday. Why am I even listening to you anyways?”

The cat growled. “You don’t like… worms, do you?”

“What the hell? Of course I don’t! Where is this coming from.”

“Oh good, I thought you were siding with that damn crow. He likes worms a lot, the heathen.”

“I mean, he is a bird.”

“Are you insinuating that every bird likes worms?” The crow chooses this moment to flutter onto Izuku’s shoulder, causing the boy to flinch before sighing in exasperation once more. “Because I’ll have you know that not ALL bird—”

“Oh, not this again,” the cat muttered, pausing to lick its paw.

“Guys, can we have one conversation where you two aren’t arguing?”

“Deku, are you talking to that cat? Wait, is that a crow on your shoulder?”

Izuku froze. Slowly, as if in a horror movie, he turned around to come face to face with one Ochako Uraraka. Shit.

“Um…” He answered eloquently.

But to his utter surprise, the gravity-manipulator just giggled. Evidently, she had just written off Izuku’s actions as a part of his increasingly odd, yet endearing personality. Soon, Izuku joined her laughter, although his had more nervous undertones to it.

“That is so cute!” she simply gushed, and leaned down to pick up the cat.

“Hey, tell this woman to get off of me!” The cat yowled, but of course, Uraraka could not understand it.

“I think he’s saying that he likes you,” Izuku smiled, giving the cat a shit-eating grin from behind his friend’s back.

At least Uraraka had simply laughed his quirk off, not thinking twice about it. She probably didn’t even know that he could actually understand the animals, he supposes.

But other than that one moment, his classmates never caught him talking to animals. His original quirk was a safe, innocuous secret.

And now, by some feat of bad luck, he had made it to the USJ where the villains had infiltrated and ambushed Class 1-A.

Izuku hoped he would survive this one.

…

The one villain with the weird transporting powers had managed to warp them to the flood zone of the USJ.

For a brief moment, Izuku wonders how cool it would be to have that villain’s quirk, but quickly brushes aside those kinds of thoughts. That’s the kind of mentality that the old Deku would have had, agonizing over others’ quirks and wishing them upon himself; the new Deku had “One for All” and he was going to become a world class hero.

Shaking his steadily pounding head, he got up and took in his surroundings.

He was on a boat of some sort. There was water surrounding him everywhere, the water being placid and seemingly safe. On closer inspection, however, he saw the ripples created by the villains lurking in their depths. There was no other way to escape than by wading through the water.

Well, shit.

Izuku looked around to see if there was anything else that could help him get out of this mess, get back to Aizawa-sensei to help him with the fight. Before he can explore the boat, someone grabs him from behind.

“Aaaaugh!”

Before Izuku can whip around to attack his assailant, he relaxes at hearing the familiar scream.

“Mineta?” Izuku turns around, only to see a trembling short boy with the trademark sticky balls on his head.

“I-I-Izuku!” He whimpers out, “What are we going to do?”

“Don’t panic Mineta, we can’t panic! It’ll only make things worse,” Izuku says frantically, trying to calm down his fellow classmate. He knows that if Mineta starts to panic too much, Izuku might panic as well. What can he say? He’s a sympathetic panicker.

“I agree with Izuku, ribbit.”

Asui reveals herself from behind Izuku, who feels much more relieved to see the frog girl than he was when he discovered Mineta’s presence.

Asui puts her webbed hand on Izuku’s shoulder. “We need to think of a plan, ribbit. The villains are all in the water, but if we don’t do something soon, ribbit, they’ll surely come out after us.”

“Come after us?” Mineta echoed in a gratingly high-pitched squeak. “We can’t do anything to defend ourselves! Hell, I can’t even swim!”

“Those balls on your head look like they can float, ribbit.”

“Are you willing to take the chance?!”

“Yes.”

Mineta looked towards Izuku for sympathy, realizing that he was loathe to get any from the apathetic frog girl. However, Izuku was already mumbling to himself as he did when his brain kicked into overdrive, when he had to think of a solution to a problem and quick.

“If we create a sort of diversion for the villains, we can definitely get out of here… but how do we use our quirks to get out of here? Asui’s good at swimming, but clearly Mineta’s at a disadvantage here…”

“Hey! You know we can hear you right?” Mineta squawked indignantly. “Besides, we have no options! We can’t do anything here, we’re fucking screwed!”

“Stop being so negative, ribbit. Try thinking of a plan instead of blindly panicking, please.”

Mineta grumbled at being admonished by Asui, but a part of Izuku worried over the short boy’s words. What if they really couldn’t do anything? What if there was no solution? Maybe they were just waiting there like sitting ducks for the villains to eventually try to climb up this boat, waiting for their own demise. Izuku can feel the bile threaten to rise in his stomach, and oh n—

That’s when a tongue shoots out.

“Aaaaaargh!” Mineta screams again, clutching and his head and ripping out the black spheres wildly.

Dodging the now flying projectiles, Izuku tries to see the source of the tongue, knowing for sure that it wasn’t Asui because gross.

“Mineta, stop!” He manages to yell out, jumping out of the way of another sticky black ball.

“Get it off me!”

“Got it,” Asui deadpans.

Mineta and Izuku both stop running around. They blink and look at the thing in Asui’s outstretched palm.

A frog.

“Oh my,” Izuku breathes.

Mineta’s face flushes red, and he tries to regain his composure, stammering out, “hey, guys, we don’t need to tell the rest of the class that I got spooked by a toad, okay? Okay? Hey, let’s make a deal—”

“It’s a frog, not a toad, ribbit.”

“Yeah, yeah, potato potatoh.”

But Izuku isn’t listening to Asui and Mineta. Instead he’s listening to the frantic muffled ribbits of the frog before him.

“Mmggh, get thishh off ‘uh me!”

The words are slurred, no doubt because the frog’s long pink tongue is still attached to one of the adhesive balls.

“Um, Mineta,” Izuku calls out, “I think it wants you to remove the ball. Can you do that?”

Mineta blinks but complies.

As if it were a bungee cord, the frog’s tongue whips back into its mouth with a satisfactory smack. Izuku reaches out his hand, which the frog obliges to jump onto from Asui’s palm.

“I thought it would be tasty,” the frog croaks out, clearly miffed.

Izuku smiles. “Tasty…?”

Asui gives him a weird stare as he echoes the frog, and for a moment he think his quirk has been found out. But then again, Asui always has a weird stare, so Izuku alleviates his worries with that.

“Yeah, tasty,” the frog continues, “but no! It was just incredibly sticky. Man, I thought I’d be stuck to it forever. Can you imagine that?”

An idea strikes Izuku faster than Iida’s jet engines can propel him.

“Guys, I know what we have to do!”

He puts the frog down, and pulls Asui and Mineta into a group huddle, relaying his plan to them.

Asui nods, although Mineta looks less certain.

“Are you sure this will work?” The smaller boy asks.

Izuku is sure he can come up with false words and sugarcoat how their plan is going to go swimmingly, but he finds that he can’t. Moreover, he knows that he does not want to, so instead he simply says, “I sure hope so.”

In the end, Mineta’s worries are assuaged.

Izuku jumps off of the ship and unleashes his Delaware Smash onto the water’s surface, causing the water to spread out in mighty ripples. Mineta then uses his quirk to stick all the villains together with the adhesive balls, and the three manage to get out of that situation quickly.

As they walk out of the flood zone, Asui smiles at Izuku.

“You’re impressive, Izuku.”

“Thanks, Asui.”

“Call me Tsuyu, ribbit.”

…

Aizawa Shouta has been severely injured.

Izuku hopes to God that he never has to see his teacher this way again. He is disheveled, limping, bleeding from every limb possible and definitely has multiple broken bones. The green-haired boy can even see his fucking muscle from his shattered elbow.

It’s fucking unfair.

The villains outnumber Aizawa, and Izuku knows that he cannot hold them off much longer.

Their only reprieve is that Iida managed to escape the USJ, running away at top speeds to get help.

The thing is, the villains seem to know this too.

Kurogiri, the one who had warped the villains into the USJ in the first place, shows up in front of the villain with the many hands— Shigaraki. He tells him that Thirteen had been defeated, but one of the students escaped.

So Shigaraki takes one look at Izuku, Asui, and Mineta. And he decides to take down the “Symbol of Peace’s pride” a notch.

Izuku doesn’t know what he means by this, but as the gray-haired villain lunges for Asui, he realizes. It happens in slow motion, the calloused pale hand reaching for his friend’s face, and Izuku can do nothing but stare as his heart plummets into oblivion, as Asui is about to meet her own untimely death, as he is about to watch her get murdered right in front of himself.

Izuku can do nothing.

But, if there’s one thing that he knows about heroes, it’s that they always show up in the nick of time.

Aizawa’s bandages whip out, wrapping around Shigaraki, nullifying his quirk before he can lay his hands on the frog girl.

And then All Might shows up to save the day, and Izuku can already feel the tears freely flowing down his face. His hero is here, and everything is going to be alright. He knows it, by the smile on All Might’s face, even though All Might himself is slowly deteriorating into a husk of what he once was, he knows that everything is going to be alright.

After all, that is the power of the world’s number one hero. Being able to calm people with just a smile is what really makes All Might the best, Izuku thinks.

The rest of the fight is a blur, but at one point, Izuku remembers stumbling over to Asui’s side. They both lean against each other, exhausted with the day’s events already. Izuku is just so damn tired, he’s already used his quirk too much today. His right hand is broken and slowly numbing, as he completely shattered it when using “One for All.”

He doesn’t remember much what happens after that, feeling himself drift in and out of consciousness. He supposes Asui isn’t doing much better than he is.

Soon, Thirteen shows up and tries to suck away Kurogiri and Shiragaki.

Izuku smiles.

It’s finally over.

But then Kurogiri looks at Izuku and Asui, a dark expression overtaking his face.

Izuku’s blood runs cold.

Before Thirteen can use “Black Hole” on the two villains, Kurogiri uses his warp quirk.

Kurogiri and Shigaraki are gone.

The villains are all gone, along with Izuku and Asui.

Chapter Text

Colors filter in through his eyelids, but he’s barely there.

They’re in a basement of some sort, Izuku thinks. The warp had been a messy one and his bruised ribs could testify to that. Vaguely, he wishes he were more lucid to be able to take in his surroundings, but he isn’t. Instead, there is a constant pounding in his head, one that’s volume is only paralleled by the erratic noise of blood rushing through his ears.

Everything is happening too much, comes the jumbled, almost incoherent thought.

Through the conglomeration of noises that he hears, two manage to penetrate the aggravating haze.

“W-What just happened, Kurogiri?”

“I only had enough power to warp us here. It’s because I had to warp those two as well…”

Izuku barely catches the next words.

“They’ll make useful hostages, but we’ll have to wait for backup to help us get back to the main base.”

The velvety sheet of darkness overtakes him once more.

…

Izuku wakes up.

His head feels much better now, but sadly, he could not say the same about his body. He can feel the ropes around his hands and body, tying him to a support pillar. It felt like a truck had hit him square in the chest and that the impact had traveled all the way into his ribcage. His bones felt creaky like an old man’s, and he really could use some more rest. Izuku doesn’t know how long he had been knocked out for, but he knew he would have to sleep for days after this to regain some semblance of stamina.

Letting out a pained sigh, his bright round green eyes scan the room, taking in his surroundings.

They’re in a dank, watery basement. The only light source is a window located at a side of the room, but even the window looks dilapidated. Izuku can practically smell the mildew in this room, and the air feels thick with moisture just thinking about it. Other than that, the basement was pretty empty, save for support beams and such.

“You’d think that the villain alliance’d be able to afford a nicer place,” he muttered to himself, feeling a twinge of annoyance at the situation they’d gotten into.

Where’s Asui?

He looked around the room frantically, a sinking feeling settling in his stomach. Where is she? Did the villains decide to separate them?

“Oh my, ribbit.”

Izuku jolted at voice. Craning his head backwards, he saw Asui— they had just tied her to the opposite side of the pillar. Her back was facing Izuku, but if they twisted their hips enough (Izuku felt a satisfying crack as he turned around), they could meet each other’s eyes.

He let out a sigh of relief. “Thank God you’re alright, Asui.”

“Call me Tsuyu, Izuku.”

Somehow, that elicited a laugh out of Izuku, before he quieted down, remembering their current position.

“How are we going to get out of this situation, ribbit? Especially with your hand like that.”

Her round eyes darted down to Izuku’s right hand, which was still crumpled and useless. It was an angry red now, but he couldn’t feel it at all.

Well, shit.

“They’re not stupid enough to leave us alone here, they’re probably still in the building. In fact, they’re definitely come back for us soon, and they’re coming with backup! I don’t know how we’ll get out of this one,” his breath came quicker and quicker with every panicked word, his voice raising in pitch.

He’s trying deperately to think of a plan, but suddenly he’s back at USJ on that damn ship again and he’s alone, there’s no Asui or Mineta to help him, it’s just himself and his quirk that he can barely control—

“Izuku! Calm yourself,” Asui said, her deadpan voice completely devoid of panic.

He didn’t know if it was the fact that the frog girl was at ease or if it was the firmness in her voice, but he did. He took a few breaths, separated himself from the situation, and waited for his heartbeat to mellow out.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

“Are you okay?” Concern tinged her voice.

“I’m fine, I think. Asui, how are you so levelheaded right now? I’m about to freak out,” Izuku admitted openly.

“I believe in you. I believe in your abilities, ribbit.”

Oh.

Although he couldn’t see her face completely, he knew the expression she was making right now. That same unnerving, uncanny, unblinking face where she seemed to stare straight into his soul.

“T-thank you,” Izuku croaked out, suddenly feeling dryness in his throat.

“Of course, Izuku,” he could practically hear the smile in her unwavering voice, “now it’s my turn to have an idea.”

Izuku is about to ask her what she means by that, but he doesn’t have to. Not a second later, Asui shoots out her tongue and reaches for the dilapidated window that he had spotted earlier. Carefully, she wrapped the pink appendage around the handle of the window, skillfully flicking the lock to the “unlocked” position. She then proceeded to actually open the window.

Slowly retracting her tongue back into her mouth, Asui smacked her lips quietly, clearly not enjoying the taste of dirty window on her lips.

“Nice job,” Izuku breathed, feeling a small glimmer of hope. “Now what?”

“Now, call for help.”

She said it so simply, as if it were the obvious answer.

Izuku, on the other hand, was not catching on.

“I’m sorry, what? Call for help? What good will that do?”

“You know what I mean, ribbit! Call one of your animals!”

What. The. Hell.

A thousand thoughts carousel through Izuku’s head, confusing and varying degrees of panic accompanying each and every one of them.

How does she know? Have I not been discreet enough? I must have misjudged the way I’ve been acting around people! Maybe she’s not the only one who knows, hell, maybe everyone knows about my quirk—

“Izuku, you’re mumbling to yourself again.”

Izuku spluttered, completely dumbstruck.

“I’m sorry, I’m just having a hard time wrapping my head around— I mean, what gives you the impression that I know how to talk to animals? Honestly, I—”

His weak attempts to diver Asui were pathetic even in his own mind. Even so, the frog girl answers him.

“Back at the USJ, ribbit, I saw you talking to the frog. I thought you were just being you, ribbit, but then I realized you were actually holding a conversation with him.”

Izuku is silent for a moment. Then he asks, “how did you come to that realization?”

There is mirth in her answer. “Izuku, my quirk makes me very similar to a frog. Therefore, I am able to communicate with frogs, ribbit, so I understood everything it was saying.”

Well, there goes my secret, Izuku supposes.

But he can’t focus on that now. Asui has already done her part, so now he has to help them get out of here.

“All right, I guess,” he says under his breath, feeling silly for what he is about to do. “Um, is there anyone out there who’s willing to help us out?”

He tries to say it as loud as he can without drawing the attention of the villains who trapped them here in the first place.

No response.

“Try a little louder,” Asui suggests.

Izuku complies. “Please, help us!”

Still, no response.

Thud!

Ice shoots through his veins at the offending noise. It presumably came from upstairs, from one of the villains.

“Oh shit,” Izuku curses, “Asui, the window!”

The series of thuds gets louder and louder until they hear a door open. In the nick of time, Asui manages to gently close the window with her tongue before retracting it at lightning speed.

Step, step, step.

As the footsteps down the stairs get closer, Izuku closes his eyes and slumps over, trying to mimic the position he was in before he had woken up. He hopes that Asui is doing the same, but he has no time to worry about her because he can feel the new presence that had just entered the room.

The villain stalks into the room, walking closer and closer to the Yuuei students. Izuku struggles to maintain his composure, to relax every muscle in his face so that the villain cannot see the panic coursing through his veins at the speed of light. Even though he cannot see the villain, he can tell who it is.

Shigaraki, the grey-haired villain with the overabundance of hands. His mere presence in the room makes the aura in the small basement menacing, and Izuku thinks that he would love to burst out crying right now.

But he can’t, because their lives depend on it. So he doesn’t.

“Shigaraki!” the voice sounds far away, and Izuku knows it’s Kurogiri’s, calling down from the floor above them. “Did you hear something?”

There is agonizing silence after the question, and the green-haired boy can clearly hear his heart beating in his ears, he can feel it throbbing in his very finger tips.

Then finally, a response.

“No,” Shigaraki growls out lowly, before turning around to slowly stalk back up the stairs. Izuku just barely hears him mutter, “how much more time until damn backup arrives, these kids are giving me a fucking headache already.”

Then the basement door slams shut.

Izuku lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, feeling returning to three of his four limbs immediately.

So clearly, the villains’ backup hadn’t arrived yet. That was their one reprieve.

The green-haired hero blinks his eyes open and tries to turn back towards Asui.

“Do you think we should try again?”

He waits for a response, but the only thing that greets him is a hapless silence and a faint, almost inaudible tapping noise.

“Asui?”

“Izuku, look at the window.”

The window?

He cranes his head towards the window once more, realizing where the tapping noise from coming from. Behind the dirtied window, their saving grace stood tall and proud, rapping on the glass with its tiny little paws.

It was a squirrel.

Izuku had never been more happy in his life to see a squirrel.

Asui opened the window with her tongue once more, allowing the squirrel to hop down and make its way towards the two students.

“Hey! Hi,” Izuku whispered, plastering on his brightest, most unassuming smile possible, “Do you think you can help us, little guy?”

The brown creature sniffed its nose at him twice, twitching its whiskers. Then it scampered closer to the two, standing right in front of Izuku’s outstretched legs.

“Um… hello?”

“Okay, yes, hello, hi, I can help! I am very good at helping, y’know, you chose the best animal at your service to help you with this! My, my, I’m just taking a good look at that rope you got there on you, it’s some pretty heavy duty stuff! I mean, that’s not to say that I can’t bite through it, but it will require some amount of effort—”

The squirrel’s incessant twittering flooded out as if Izuku had inadvertently broken the dam holding back his words.

“I know it’ll be hard,” Izuku said quickly, trying to get out of their bonds as fast as possible, “but we’ll um… we’ll give you something in return!”

His could feel the rusty cogs whirring in his brain, and by the glint in the squirrel’s beady little eyes, he knew that he had its attention.

“Something in return?” It squeaked, “I could definitely use a little something in return, if y’know what I mean. It’s just, it’s been such a rough month this past winter and I haven’t been this hungry since like yesterday, and—”

“Nuts!” Izuku all but cried, “We’ll get you nuts. As many nuts as you can eat, I swear we’ll give it all to you.”

Never in a million years did Izuku think he would be tied up in a villain’s basement, his hand out of commission and his only way of getting out being bribing a squirrel with food to convince it to save them.

“Did you say… as many as I can eat?”

“Yes, I did say that,” the desperation was probably clear in Izuku’s voice, but he didn’t let a thing as measly as pride stop him from getting himself and Asui out of there. “Now can you please help us out here?”

The squirrel bobbed its head in affirmation, and got to work on the ropes, chewing through them faster than Izuku had chewed through last month’s allowance (he had spent it all on All Might apparel, of course).

As soon as his hands are freed, he gets to work with his left hand, trying to pull the ropes constricting his body off. After a few moments of fruitless tugging, he manages to rip them off with one hand, and turns to help Asui.

Soon, the two are freed, and with not a moment to spare left. Izuku picks up their tiny furred savior and places him gently in his pants pocket, before giving Asui a hand (literally, only a single hand) with climbing up the window. She, in turn, lifts him through the small exit using her tongue.

Although exhaustion threatened to overtake Izuku at any given moment, he knew they had to act fast, lest the villains realize that their captives were gone. Their surroundings are just pure woods, and as Asui leads the way into the bushy undergrowth depths, Izuku can’t help but let his thoughts wander. He knows that they couldn’t have gotten too far from Yuuei, because of what Kurogiri had said about not having enough power to teleport them that far. However, he didn’t recognize their surroundings at all, and prospects were looking pretty bleak.

After another fifteen minutes of walking around aimlessly, Izuku’s blood pressure rising with every step, Asui finally stops them.

“I don’t have a single clue where we are, ribbit.”

Izuku sighs. “Yeah, you and me both.”

He looks down at his pants pocket, where the squirrel has been leisurely riding along, dozing off.

“Hey, you don’t happen to know the way out of these woods, do you?”

The squirrel startled at being addressed, before replying, “Nope, no, I just stay in this here forest, I haven’t ever left in my life, y’see this is the greatest adventure I’ve had so far I suppo—”

“Alright, thanks for that.”

The two continue to walk, tensions high. Although they were out of the fire, they might be thrown back into the frying pan if the villains managed to catch up with them.

Izuku was stopped from taking another step by a webbed hand.

“Do you hear that, Izuku?”

He looked at her, into her wide black unwavering eyes that were now completely and utterly still. His ears strained to make out any noise, but the only thing he could hear was the blood rushing through his head, throbbing.

“No,” he whispered. A pricky feeling attacked his left arm, and he wondered how much time it would take before his right arm completely deteriorated if he didn’t get Recovery Girl’s help soon.

The green-haired boy is about to push forward through the woods, but he freezes.

Rustle, rustle.

The bushes behind him are moving, someone’s following them, they have no time to hide, no time to run, someone’s going to find them—

“Hello, naughty children.”

Izuku didn’t know it was possible to experience heart attacks as a result of sheer relief, but he thinks that he just did. As soon as those iconically sardonic words fell upon his ear, he knew who— or rather, what it was.

And goddamn it all if he hadn’t been more excited in his life to see a cat.

Emerging from the bushes behind them with all the grace of Victorian-era royalty, the black cat that had followed Izuku all throughout his school years made its debut. A little above the cat, gliding along smoothly, is the same jet-black crow that always argued with the cat.

Izuku makes a noise that’s somewhere between a wheeze and a strangled sob. This is his life now.

“How the fuck did you find us? How. Just. How?”

“Well,” the cat says, licking its paw as if this were just another day in the Daily Life Of Cat, “the crow’s buddies over here told him that they saw some goons drag you into a creepy building. I supposed that this would make an interesting trip, and have nothing better to do, so lo and behold, we found you!”

“You had nothing better to do…” Izuku echoes like a broken record player.

“Actually, I’m missing Cricket Thursday. Y’know, there’s a human that likes to put out dead crickets on his windowsill, and boy oh boy,” the crow, well, crows.

“Izuku, do they know the way home, ribbit?” Asui prompts, reminding Izuku again that not everyone was practically a Dr. Dolittle.

“Tell froppy over there that we’ll lead the way,” the cat purred.

“I’ll lead the way,” the crow interjects, puffing out its chest proudly.

Izuku sighed, gesturing the bickering duo to walk ahead of them.

They had a long day ahead of them.

…

Uraraka sat in the hallway outside of Recovery Girl’s nursing station, twiddling her thumbs nervously.

It had been three hours since all the Class 1-A students had arrived back to Yuuei from the USJ, and many of the students had been sequestered into Recovery Girl’s care. Most of them were alright, save for Aizawa-sensei who was still not conscious yet, but there still was the glaring problem that had been plaguing Uraraka since Shigaraki and Kurogiri had warped away.

Two of their students were still missing.

She can feel the stress piling on her shoulders, causing moisture to form at the corner of her eyes, but no, she would not let herself cry damn it, not when Asui and Deku were surely facing worse horrors than any of the Class 1-A students were right now.

Her thoughts are interrupted by a strong, firm yet gentle palm on her shoulder. Tenya Iida.

“Do not worry, Uraraka. Midoriya is strong. He and Asui will be okay, I just know it.” The slight tremble in his otherwise usually stoic, calculating voice gave him away.

The brunette wiped her eyes, and got up, using Iida’s proffered arm as a support. She promised herself she wouldn’t cry. After all, if Iida could be strong, then she could too.

Even so, she couldn’t help asking in a small voice, “aren’t you worried too, Iida?”

There is a slight pause before he responded, equally quiet, “of course I am. But worrying will get us nowhere.”

At that moment, Kirishima stumbled out of Recovery Girl’s room, topless and bandaged all over. Uraraka and Iida looked at him expectantly.

“So Recovery Girl is just finishing up with most of the injuries, and most of us are free to go home now. There’s still no update on how Aizawa-sensei is doing, but you guys should probably leave now.” After noticing the immensely worried expression on the brunette’s face, he cleared his throat and added, “Unless, of course, you want to wait for someone. Which, I will be doing too.”

Uraraka sighed. “Who else is still being treated at this point?”

“Oh, just Bakugou,” the red-haired boy said nonchalantly, “he’s not too badly hurt at all and insisted to be treated last.”

Uraraka simply nodded. She didn’t exactly like the explosive ash-haired boy, as he was rather terrible to his so called “childhood friend”. She honestly didn’t understand how he could act that way to Deku. How could someone bully such a pure and innocent face like that? Now that Deku was gone, she entertained the thought of Bakugou being secretly really worried about the green-haired boy.

No, even that seems too far-fetched, Uraraka shook off the thought.

“Hey guys, can we get a little help here?”

I must be going crazy, I feel like I can hear Deku right now…

“Fucking hell,” Kirishima gasped, catching Uraraka’s attention. The red-haired boy was gaping at something down the hall, so she turned around to see what was so surprising.

Her own chocolate-brown eyes widened in shock.

Stumbling down the hall was Deku and Asui, supporting each other’s weights clumsily, bruised and bloodied and oh God, was Deku’s arm broken?

Immediately, she and Iida run to meet their two classmates, stopping just barely from barreling into them.

“W-what happened?” Uraraka squeaked out, her voice getting louder and louder with worry, “Oh my god, how did you guys even make it back here? We thought they took you away for good, holy shit!”

Deku had the nerve to shoot her a wobbly smile, as if he were trying to reassure her that everything was fine. She almost thought that she would burst out crying right then and there, pride be damned.

“They, uh, they did take us away… but we, we got away.” His words were staggered, as if it hurt just to spit them out. “We can tell you where one of their hideouts is, but they’re probably long gone— oh,” Deku stumbles half-consciously right into Iida’s ready arms. He’s cradling his right arm and mumbling incoherent garbles of words, spiking Uraraka’s anxiety up another notch.

The brunette turns to Asui, who reached out and clutched at Uraraka’s shoulder for support.

“Asui?” She says tentatively, waiting to see if her friend would be able to respond properly.

Another shockwave hits her as Asui uncharacteristically giggles. It sounded not unlike the croaking of baby frogs, but had a much more human twist to it. Later, she would admit silently to herself that it was probably one of the cutest noises she had ever heard.

“We just, ribbit, we were saved by a… a… a squirrel.”

She laughs even more, and when Deku starts laughing from his comfortable position in Iida’s strong arms, Uraraka knows she’s officially entered the twilight zone.

“We owe him nuts, man. Nuts!” He practically cackles.

Uraraka looks up at Iida, whose normally calm face has finally broken. Sweat droplets pool at his temple, and his glasses-adorned eyes are fraught with utter panic.

“I do not understand what is being said,” he says, although it comes out more a question than a statement.

As Uraraka is about to drag Asui along with Iida and Deku into Recovery Girl’s room, that was when shit really hit the fun.

As in, that’s what one Katsuki Bakugou was released form Recovery Girl’s care, stomping out of the room not unlike a horseman of the Apocalypse. His laser-sharp eyes targeted Deku, widened for a fraction of a second with surprise at seeing his fellow classmate alright, and then they narrowed back into angry slits.

He stomped towards Uraraka and Iida. The brunette could practically taste his angry emotions, his aggressive aura palpable in the air.

Pointing at Deku, who was still quietly giggling their class president’s arms, he roared with all the might of a lion, “shitty Deku, where the fuck have you been? Fucking nerd, do you know how much it would fucking suck if I had to go home and tell your mom you were dead? How stupid are you?”

His raging never seemed to tire, and he only seemed to be irritated by the duo’s incessant unnerving mirth. What was so damn funny about the situation?

However, Bakugou is not deprived of an answer.

At the same time, Asui and Deku snort out, “squirrel!”

At that moment, a squirrel pokes its head out of Deku’s pants pocket.

Bakugou stares at the little creature, with its chubby cheeks and stupidly adorable grin. Then he looks back at Deku and Asui, who have finally passed out, down for the count. Then he looks back at the squirrel.

“What. The. Fuck.”

Chapter Text

Ever since he came to Yuuei, Izuku had been embarking on more and more adventures. However, as he soon realized, what defined adventures wasn’t the grandioseness of it or the amount of recognition that he achieved for it— no, adventures had a very loose definition.

Going to the grocery store and being able to successfully look the cashier in the eye as he made his payment was a successful adventure. Apprehending the most wanted criminals in Tokyo was also another successful adventure. Even though they were both on different scales of intensity, they were still successful adventures.

And so, as Izuku enjoyed his lazy Saturday, he came face to face with another unexpected adventure.

Crossing the road.

He had just been out on a quick brisk walk, enjoying the warm sun, before he made it to the quaint road that he always passed on the way to school and back home. Not a lot of cars passed this road, and so it was pretty safe to walk on. Apparently, Izuku wasn’t the only one who knew that.

In the middle of the road, a tortoise about as big as Izuku’s head was attempting to cross.

Izuku couldn’t help the grin that came to his face. There was such a determined look on the animal’s face, but it was moving so damn slow!

So, he walked across the road until he made it to the tortoise’s side. Then, he matched the incredibly laconic pace of the animal beside him.

They walked in silence for about five minutes, only having passed three inches, before the tortoise finally snapped at him.

“What do you want, young’un?” The raspy, old voice came out.

Young’un? That’s a new one.

“Nothing, you just looked like you needed a walking buddy.” He had a teasing lilt to his voice, enjoying the amusing old tortoise.

“Are you mocking me? Didn’t they ever teach you humans to respect your elders…” he trailed off before stopping his walking, wheezing, and continuing.

Izuku crouched down and sat right next to the brownish animal.

“I do respect my elders! That is why I’m here to offer you help.”

The tortoise had the gall to cough out a laugh at the hero. “Help? What can you possible help me with?”

“Well, I can help you cross the road!”

“Help with crossing the road? Boy, in my day we didn’t have humans help us cross the road. We fought, tooth and nail, to get to wherever we needed to get.”

Izuku mmhm-ed noncommittally, his eyes twinkling with mirth.

“Bet you didn’t have humans who could talk to animals either, did you?”

The tortoise halted its incredibly slow march once more, craning its wrinkled leathery neck slowly to look at Izuku straight in the eye.

“You think mighty high of yourself, don’t you, young’un?”

Izuku ignored the jab at him, instead opting to ask, “say, you haven’t ever heard the story of the tortoise and the hare, have you?”

“Hares? I hate them, the darned creatures are so bloody self-righteous! Let me tell you about a hare that I met back in the day,” the tortoise started, phasing off into a story that Izuku listened to with rapt ears.

The tortoise was just about to reach the end of his story, before the tell-tale sound of an engine interrupted. A car was about to cross their storytelling road.

“Always an interruption,” the tortoise grumbled. “I think I’ll take you up on that whole carrying me across the road thing now.”

“You got it!”

And so, as Izuku headed home holding the elderly tortoise carefully in his toned arms, he came to the end of another adventure.

Chapter Text

After the USJ incident, Izuku’s hectic life had died down a little.

Recovery Girl had given Izuku an earful about his broken hand, lecturing him about how it was a “close call” and how if he didn’t want to respect the sanctity of his own healthy body, he should stop coming to her. Izuku knew she meant well, so he just smiled and promised that he would try better next time. The police had investigated into where the villains had taken Izuku and Asui (they were impressed how well Izuku remembered the route, but little did they know that Izuku was simply following the cat and the crow again). However, as Izuku had predicted, their hideout was devoid of all life and abandoned.

After that, there were no more significant encounters with the villains. Everything was at peace for a brief moment, and even Inko’s intense worry over Izuku’s kidnapping (“you can be a hero but you have to put your own safety first!”) died down.

And then the sports festival rolled around.

That’s when Izuku realized he was probably going to break his promise to Recovery Girl. Yikes.

The human cavalry battle was intense, and although Izuku didn’t end up nabbing the million points band, having lost to Todoroki’s team, he was overjoyed with tears that Uraraka, Tokoyami, and the newly met Mei Hatsume stuck by his side through the entire ordeal. Tokoyami had managed to steal a 615 point headband while Izuku was dealing with Todoroki, learning first hand how much the fire-and-ice wielder was a force to reckon.

That had put Team Midoriya at fourth place. They were going to advance to the final individual fighting event.

Izuku absolutely couldn’t wait.

As he’s walking to the stands to watch some of the other matches before his own, he’s whistling some anime theme song tune to himself, and thinking of what strategy he’s going to use. He knows he’s about to go about against a General Department student named Shinsou Hitoshi, but didn’t know much about him. Of course, his nerves were threatening to drown him in anxiety, but if he could just keep whistling, maybe he could ignore it—

“Midoriya.”

At the cold familiar voice, Izuku let out a surprised squeak and jumped about what could have been three feet in the air. He turned around, trying to locate the source of the voice, realizing that it was none other than the Shouto Todoroki.

The man of the hour.

“Oh, h-hi Todoroki,” Izuku tried to plaster on a wobbly smile, composing himself.

The icy-eyed boy simply nodded his greeting, staring at Izuku with intent.

Feeling not unlike a zoo animal being scrutinized under the gaze of a scientist, Izuku cleared his throat awkwardly. “So, you uh, did really well in the human cavalry battle. Your quirk is really cool.”

He doesn’t say it, but Todoroki’s left side fire quirk actually reminds him a lot of his own father. Although he’d never seen Todoroki use his quirk (not to mention he has no memory of his father), Izuku’s mother had told him that Hisashi Midoriya had a fire breather quirk. He knows it’s ridiculous, but sometimes Izuku wonders if Todoroki’s personality was similar to his father’s. Cold, calculating, distant.

Not that Izuku would know.

“Thank you,” Todoroki states, allowing silence to envelop the two like an uncomfortable blanket.

“So, um, did you want to talk about something?”

“It’s about you actually,” he started, never wavering in his eye contact. Absentmindedly, Izuku thinks he could lose himself in his dual-colored eyes. He had heard girls in class talk about how beautiful Todoroki’s heterochromia was, and up close, he had to agree…

“Are you All Might’s illegitimate son?”

The question was blunt, out of the blue, and completely genuine.

Izuku’s jaw dropped. The usual incessant stream of thoughts that always plagued his brain ceased, leaving complete and utter silence.

And then the hurricane hit.

“What? No! Why would you think that, I don’t even look like him! Wait, do I look like him? Wait, Todoroki—” He continues to flail about, waving his arms everywhere like a hot mess.

Todoroki isn’t at all fazed by Izuku’s verbal stumbling. “It’s your quirk. I have noticed that it seems very similar to All Might’s quirk, and I was just wondering. Forgive me if I overstepped my bounds.”

Izuku shook his head rapidly, feeling his neck start to cramp. “No, not at all, it’s fine!” He laughed it off, trying to hide the spike in his anxiety because oh my God, Todoroki knew there was a connection between his quirk and All Might’s!

The taller boy opens his mouth, presumably to ask another question, but Izuku doesn’t hear it.

Instead, a chorus of faint screams reaches his ears.

“Mother!”

It sounds like a group of little children are lost, but the call is so faint that Izuku barely knows if he really heard it or not. Maybe it was a trick of the wind.

“Midoriya?”

Izuku’s attention is snapped back to Todoroki, who is now looking at him with a questioning expression. Pink swims across Izuku’s cheeks as he realized that he hadn’t heard a word of what Todoroki had just said.

“I-I’m sorry, Todoroki, could you repeat that?”

“Sure, I—”

“Mommy!”

It’s faint, but he definitely heard it this time. Izuku whips around, but there’s no one else around them. It’s just Todoroki and Izuku, and in any other circumstance the green-haired boy would think that he was losing it, but he knows what he heard.

“Did you hear that?” He asks, his voice distant to even himself.

“Hear what?” There is suspicion in Todoroki’s voice.

“The children, the one calling out for their mother…” he trails off, realizing that he must sound absolutely crazy to his fellow student. He dares a peek at Todoroki’s face.

The strongest boy in their class is regarding him with a guarded expression. Izuku can’t tell what in God’s green Earth he was thinking, and he hopes that he didn’t just ruin their chance at a potential friendship—

“Mom!”

Izuku turns away from Todoroki again, making a mental note to apologize to Todoroki later for being so erratic in his behavior. He runs towards the source of the faint, desperate screams, passing a few other Class 1-A members on the way.

Finally, he makes it to a tree in the corner of Yuuei’s campus. It’s branches extend far out above his head, as if the plant were lazily stretching, and the grass was exceedingly tall in this corner. If one weren’t looking too hard, they would think that there was nothing special about this quaint little part of Yuuei’s campus, but Izuku knew better.

He knelt down and got on all fours, crawling forward quietly until he was close to the base of the tree. The screams were getting louder now, and Izuku had a good idea of what was making the noise.

Parting the tall grass gently, he gasped in awe at the sight before him.

Five adorable puppies were squirming, pawing at each other, their eyes squeezed shut. Their tiny snouts lifted in the air, trying to sniff and see who the new incomer was, before they lost interest and continued desperately kneading each other with their small, tiny paws.

Izuku thought he was going to cry.

Listening closer, he heard more of what they were yelping out.

It was different variations of “Mother” and “Hungry”.

“Midoriya, what the hell are you doing?”

Izuku turned around, still kneeling on the ground, only to look up to one breathless Todoroki. Todoroki had apparently been in hot pursuit of Izuku after he had run off with no warning. There was slight annoyance evident within his words but mostly, Izuku detected his curiosity.

Well, here’s my chance to get closer to him, I suppose, Izuku thought sardonically.

“Sorry, Todoroki! It’s just,” he gestures to the puppies, who are currently making Izuku’s heart bleed out with their desperate whines, “we need to find their mom!”

Todoroki stares at Izuku. When Izuku doesn’t clarify or say “sike,” he stares some more.

“We need to find their mom.” He echoes in complete deadpan.

Izuku winces at the boy’s less-than-amused response, but he simply nods, waiting for Todoroki’s reaction with bated breath.

To his utter surprise (and excitement), the taller boy sighs exasperatedly, and simply says, “I guess we have some time to spare before the next match starts up.”

Izuku feels a grin split his face into rays of sunshine, and he stands up purposefully.

“All right, let’s split up! We’ll be able to cover land quicker that way. If either of us finds anything, just text the other. I think I have your phone number.”

Todoroki nods in assent and Izuku shoots him a thumbs up, still keeping that goofy smile on his face.

He runs off in the opposite direction of Todoroki, determined to find the puppies’ mother before the fighting matches began.

If I were a mother looking for food for my hungry pups, where would I be? The question floated around in Izuku’s head, nagging at him like an incessant child.

Maybe… in the garden?

The school’s garden was very well-kept by their resident garden-keeper. Izuku had met him a few times and he was a kind man, although he was still very thorough. He had some sort of “green-thumb” quirk, and he had a deep pride in his work. Thinking about it, Izuku realizes that he probably wouldn’t let a dog steal any of the fresh vegetables he grew there everyday. After all, the school uses his vegetables in their cafeteria food daily, which is part of what makes their meals so hearty.

Even so, Izuku scours the garden as quick as he can. He looks under every shrub, calls out for the dog in every way he can think of, tries to see if there are any pawprints, but after ten minutes, he realizes he’s getting nowhere.

And the first battle starts in around fifteen minutes, I have to wrap this up quickly.

“So you still mumble when you think, don’t you?”

A familiar voice interrupts his thoughts rudely, and he looks down to see the black cat accompanied by the crow.

He narrows his eye at the duo, knowing how much of a troublemaker they both were. Just last week, his mother had berated him for leaving the bathtub tap switched on until the water flooded onto the floor, leaving their bathroom disgusting and mildewy for a week. He denied that he did it, and later he found out that the cat and the crow had conspired to do it “for science”. He still had no clue what they meant by that.

“What are you two doing here? I don’t have time for your shenanagin—”

“Yeah, uh, we got a problem here,” the crow caws quickly.

Another problem? The animals of Yuuei just were not having a good day today, were they?

Torn between finding the puppies’ mother and helping his two friends, he groaned before relenting. “Alright, fine, just lead the way. Quickly!”

The cat nods, and sets a brisk pace, heading towards the back of the high school.

When they make it to their destination, Izuku doesn’t know exactly what he’s supposed to be looking at.

In the back of the school, there isn’t much. There’s a dumpster that the school uses to throw away all their waste, and there’s a backdoor that leads to the school’s basement and another door that acts as an emergency exit, but other than that, the area seems devoid of problems.

“All I see is a dumpster. What’s the problem here?” He looks at the animal duo suspiciously, wondering if this was another one of their “for science” moments that would inevitably land him in trouble.

The cat is uncharacteristically silent, but still pads forward to the other side of the dumpster, the one that Izuku cannot see from his angle. Curiosity piqued, the green-haired boy followed the cat, eyes widening when he saw what the cat had been gesturing towards.

“Oh my,” he breathed, “this is a problem.”

Lodged between the dumpster and the back wall of the school was a rather scrawny dog with a dirtied golden pelt and thinning fur. It’s head was stuck on the inner side of the large steel trash containment unit, leaving only its barely moving tail and hind legs visible.

He could hear it whimpering, fear surely saturating the air around it.

The crow, perched up on top of the dumpster, looked down at the trapped animal sadly.

“She says she got stuck here looking for food. Me an’ the cat tried pushing the dump outta the way, but we got nothin’”.

The green-haired hero nodded solemnly. “Thanks for telling me, guys, I’ll handle it from here.”

Izuku pulled out his phone, quickly tapping out a text to Todoroki.

Found her. Meet me by the dumpster at the back of the school.

As he’s waiting for the dual-haired boy to show up, he kneels down next to the dog, stroking its back soothingly, trying to reduce its trembles. He coos reassuring words to the animal, promising it that he’ll help it, that she’ll get to see her children soon.

Not five minutes passed before Todoroki showed up. Izuku gestured him over to where he was kneeling.

“You found her— oh,” Todoroki said as he spotted the poor dog stuck behind the dumpster.

Izuku gets up, facing the boy who was now eyeing the crow on top of the dumpster who was unabashedly staring back at Todoroki.

“Yeah, I think I can move the dumpster out of the way. Can you just hold the dog please? Make sure she doesn’t move or panic, or she could hurt herself even more.”

Todoroki looks briefly surprised that Izuku would entrust him with such a task, before nodding and kneeling down to take Izuku’s position. The dog stiffens as she senses someone else’s hand about to touch her fur, and she growls threateningly.

Izuku leans over her, and shushes her comfortingly.

“Don’t worry, he’s a friend, he’s just here to help you, I promise.”

As if on command, the bristling dog relaxes, its previous defensive growls turning into weak whimpers again. Izuku looks at Todoroki, and almost laughs at the expression on his face. He looks lost, worried, as if he had accidentally kicked the dog and was now trying to make up for it.

“Go ahead, Todoroki,” he says, encouraging.

Todoroki nods, and clutches gently at the dog, firmly holding it into place. He looks Izuku to signal once more that he’s ready.

“Are you going to use your qui—”

Before he can even finish the question, Izuku has already placed both palms into the side of the dumpster and pushed it out of the way with an ear-grating screech.

Todoroki blinks.

“Did you just…” it’s his turn to be at a loss for words. The dumpster was completely full to the brim with trash and it looked like it would take at least three fully grown men to move it. But here, Izuku just placed his palms into the steel— there were hand-shaped indents in the metal now— and pushed it aside like it was nothing.

He didn’t even use his quirk.

Izuku catches Todoroki staring at him in disbelief, red quickly crawling up the green-haired hero’s face, blossoming across his cheeks in a brilliant blush. Todoroki just barely stops himself from gaping.

“I, uh,” he quickly stutters out, trying to offer an explanation, “I worked out a lot. Y’know, before I got accepted into Yuuei. It’s just, uh, I can’t really rely on my quirk for a lot, so I had to become strong.”

He laughed self-consciously, rubbing the back of his head with one hand. “Sorry, that was kind of a lame explanation.”

Todoroki is silent for a moment, getting more and more confused by the boy with every passing minute. At first, he just seemed like a normal student with an admittedly extraordinary quirk, but now… now he was starting to look like a formidable opponent. Someone who Todoroki would enjoy fighting against.

“Oh man,” Izuku says, suddenly dropping to his knees next to Todoroki, who was still holding onto the shivering dog, “it looks like she has a cold. Look at her!”

Todoroki did. The dog was trembling, letting out pitiful cries and sniffles. It was clearly weak from exhaustion and if he looked closely enough, he could see the faint outline of its ribs. It was malnourished and sick, that much was obvious.

At that moment, a cat behind them started meowing.

“She’s been stuck here for a day and a half, and not gonna lie, it’s pretty damp and cold behind this, well, dump. Kid, I’d say her prospects aren’t looking too good.”

Izuku looked at the cat, regarding its meows before nodding slightly in acknowledgement. He then turned to Todoroki purposefully. The two are at eye level and at close proximity. Izuku can see the rise and fall of his classmate’s chest, the way that his sleeves hugged at his toned arms just right, and most of all he could get a closer look at those dual-colored eyes, the way that they seemed to hold the stars and a world of hurt within their brilliant depths—

“Can you warm her up?”

Todoroki blinks at him. “What?”

“With your heat quirk? Can you warm her up?”

Big emerald doe eyes blink at him, that encouraging atmosphere still surrounding him. Izuku is unconditionally kind, Todoroki realizes, and he wonders what game the green-haired student is playing at. How could he ask him to use his quirk so nonchalantly, as if it were the most normal thing in the world? How did it find it within himself to do that?

But, something inside him doesn’t want to disappoint the other boy. Does Izuku have this effect on everyone?

He really is a force to be reckoned with, Todoroki thinks.

However, Todoroki doesn’t admit that aloud. Instead, he says quietly, “I don’t know if I can control it.” Shame laces his words, and he wishes he were back on stage, back where the only thing that people could see was the mask that he wore to hide this fear of using his own damn quirk.

But Izuku doesn’t seem to find him the lesser person whatsoever for his words. Rather, he nods as if he can sympathize with Todoroki, and the fire and ice wielder thinks back to the time at the USJ where Izuku broke his entire arm from just using his quirk. So he couldn’t control his quirk properly either.

Izuku startles Todoroki by grabbing his hand boldly, interlocking his fingers with his own.

The green-haired boy beams from dimple to dimple. Todoroki thinks he can count each and every one of those freckles if given the chance.

“Try warming my hand first to practice. I’ll tell you if it’s getting too hot!”

Todoroki stares for what must be the fifth time that day.

Realization hits Izuku as he registers the brashness of his own actions. Immediately, he retracts his hand back to his side, laughing awkwardly. Todoroki can sense the nervousness and embarrassment rolling off of his fellow student in waves. It was rather endearing.

“Sorry, I didn’t meant to be that presumptuous, Todoroki— oh,” Izuku’s frantic words are cut off as Todoroki gently takes his hand once more.

Todoroki catches Izuku’s bright green gaze once more.

He smiles.

It’s a small, barely there smile, but it’s still a smile.

And now he’s falling, Izuku Midoriya is falling into those infinite pools of stormy grey and icy blue, and he never wants to leave, he thinks he could stay there forever—

“Is that good?”

Izuku blinks out of his fantastical thoughts, back into reality. There is a comforting warmth in his hand, as if he had been holding onto a cup of coffee for a while.

“Y-yeah,” he breathed, before talking louder, “yeah, that’s perfect!”

Todoroki smiles again, and Izuku can hear himself screaming internally. The dual-haired boy embraced the dog, and oh my lord, he looked so adorable hugging the animal, and the dog starts rumbling happily, signaling the success of Todoroki’s quirk.

It woofs, and cranes its head to lick Todoroki’s face, leaving sticky slobber over the boy’s cheek and an absolutely adorable dumbfounded expression on his face.

Izuku bursts into laughter.

“She’s saying thank you,” he huffs between laughs, wiping away some tears that had formed at the corner of his eyes.

Todoroki wipes the spittle away, grumbling something along the lines of “that’s one way to say thanks,” but he continues petting the dog, whose tail is now thumping against the ground happily.

Loudspeaker feedback interrupts their relaxed atmosphere, and Todoroki is reminded why they’re here again.

“Oh, I think it’s almost time for the fights to start.” Izuku glances at the cat behind him who seems to share a knowing nod with the boy. “Come on, let’s head to the stadium.”

He reaches out a hand to Todoroki, who takes it and stands up.

“The dog?” Todoroki questions, as the two make their way to their impending competition.

“Don’t worry about her,” Izuku says, “I have some friends who will lead her back to her pups.”

Todoroki is about to ask him what he means by that, but then they’re about to enter the stadium, so he lets it go.

Before the two part, Izuku looks at him, hesitating before finally saying, “oh, and um. Just trust me when I say All Might isn’t my dad. I mean, I never actually knew my dad, and my mom doesn’t really talk about him either, so I don’t ask.” He pauses for a moment, considering the weight of his words before adding, “I’m more than lucky to have my mother, honestly.”

He smiles again at Todoroki, before walking away.

Todoroki doesn’t know what answer he had been expecting from the boy when he had first asked him about his parentage, but it hadn’t been that.

The fire and ice wielder watches Izuku’s back as he makes it to the stage for his first battle.

It isn’t until later that he realizes that he just used his heat quirk for the first time in a long time.

…

Izuku has never felt more alive than when he was fighting.

He had just beaten Shinsou Hitoshi, who had made a rather formidable opponent. His mind-control quirk was undoubtedly terrifying but also incredibly amazing, and Izuku had no qualms telling him to his face that he truly believed that Shinsou would make a grade-A hero one day. Shinsou smirked, thanking him.

He tried his best to console Uraraka when Kacchan had beat her, but she seemed to be putting on a painful mask of happiness. He didn’t want to hurt her anymore by pushing the matter, and secretly hoped that he himself didn’t have to fight Kacchan.

But then, he’s matched up with Shouto Todoroki.

Izuku can’t ignore the electric thrill that runs through his heart when he sees their names paired up on the board, but he also can’t shake the anxiety that always follows him around.

He tries his best to quell it, thinking good thoughts as he makes his way to the stage.

Good thoughts, think of All Might, think of Little Might. Wait, did I remember to refill Little Might’s water today? Oh my God, wait— no, of course I did, I would never forget!

His meek attempts at trying to calm himself down were interrupted as he walked into a solid wall of muscle, stumbling back a few steps.

Chagrin heated his cheeks, and he looked up, already apologizing profusely.

“I am so sorry, mister…” Making eye contact with the daunting man before him, Izuku recognizes him as none other than Endeavor, the second best hero, only bested by All Might himself.

Todoroki’s father.

Endeavor holds out his palm to stop Izuku’s stream of apologies.

“So you are the young Izuku Midoriya that I’ve been hearing about, hm?”

Izuku has no coherent response to that, so instead he just nods.

“You,” Endeavor’s eyes narrow into cold, calculating slits, “you have a quirk that cal rival All Might’s.”

Discomfort courses through Izuku, and suddenly, he wants to be anywhere but near the number two hero.

He simply nods, and tries to pass the taller man, but he is stopped roughly as a calloused hand tightly grips his shoulder. He just barely holds back a flinch.

“I hope you do your best not to give Shouto a disgraceful match.”

Something inside of Izuku snaps.

“I’m not All Might, and most importantly, Shouto isn’t you.” He spits out the last word, rage coursing through his declaration as he shakes off Endeavor’s choking grip.

Endeavor regards him for a terrifyingly silent moment, before growling out, “Listen, you insolent boy, I’ll have you know that my son— AH!” His words devolve into an embarrassing yelp of pain.

He and Izuku both look down at his ankle, which was currently being used as an impromptu scratching post by a certain black cat.

Endeavor grunts angrily, reeling back his foot to kick the cat away, but before he can do so, Izuku frantically yells, “stop!”

He scoops up the cat in his arms in one swift motion, just barely missing the toe of Endeavor’s shoe.

When the hero looks at him questioningly, menacingly, Izuku lamely explains, “he’s uh, my cat. Sorry about that.”

Endeavor merely grunts again, before muttering, “this isn’t over.” He stalks away angrily, and Izuku lets out a sigh of relief before looking at the cat currently lazing in his arms, raising a single eyebrow.

“What do you think you were doing?”

“He seemed like a jerk, and I specialize in sharpening my claws on jerks like him.”

Izuku let out an exasperated sigh before cracking a tired grin. “Well, you’re right about one thing. He is a jerk.”

The cat seemed rather proud of itself.

“Say, kid.”

“Yeah?”

“Did you just adopt me?”

“ … I suppose I did.”

…

Izuku is at his wits end, adrenaline pumping through his veins, spreading to every single crevice of his body.

He loves the feeling, but also feels sheer frustration because Todoroki hasn’t even used his full power yet. The boy just refused to use his damn quirk, and Izuku knew it wasn’t any of his business, but he still hated it.

“I just don’t understand,” Izuku yells out over the noises of their clashing quirks, “how you can even think that you can be Number One,” he dodges another ice attack, “if you won’t even fucking use your full strength.”

If Todoroki is fazed by Izuku’s cursing, he doesn’t show it. Rather, he instead grits out, “I can’t use his quirk! Do you know h—”

“I don’t give a shit!” Izuku interrupts him angrily, trying to punch the dual-haired boy and failing, “Your power belongs to you and only you. Stop calling it ‘Endeavor’s quirk’ and start calling it your quirk. You,” he screams out as he lunges in for another attack, “are not your father!”

Both parties separate after clashing, breathing heavily, emotions running high.

Izuku is about to power up “One for All” again before he sees it.

A spark of red from Todoroki’s left side.

In an instead, his scarred side is ablaze in a brilliant fiery show, and Izuku can feel the heat emanating from the strong flames.

“I… I want to be a hero too.”

Todoroki smiles and Izuku feels a surge of pride wash through his chest.

Izuku points at Todoroki, and grins despite feeling bruised and bloodied. “Then this fight has just begun!”

…

In the end Izuku loses the match and his fingers are broken, but he’s really damn happy, so it doesn’t matter. He’s collapsed, out of bounds, and he hears Shouto running up to him but then the boy is interrupted by his father. He hears some words along the lines of “proud you’ve finally embraced your quirk” and “follow in my footsteps” and he hopes that Shouto gets out that situation.

But then he’s floating, so he can’t hear the Todorokis anymore.

When he wakes up, he’s in Recovery Girl’s office, staring at that disappointed face. He winces.

“Sorry…?” He croaks out, but it comes out as a question.

Recovery Girl sighs in utter exasperation.

“You promised to be more careful with your quirk, Izuku.”

“Yeah, I know, I’m really sorry.”

She shot him a disapproving glare. “You’ll have to go through surgery for your fingers”.

It was Izuku’s turn to sigh. His mother was going to be so worried when he came home.

He nodded his consent. “Do what you need to do. I’m in your care.”

…

When Izuku gets out of surgery, many of his friends are there to greet him. He sees Iida, Uraraka, Asui, and even Tokoyami. They fuss over him, especially Uraraka and Iida, but other than the nasty scars on his hand (the ones that he secretly like), he’s fine.

They drag him back into the stands where he gets to see Todoroki’s match with none other than Kacchan.

Todoroki is holding himself well against Kacchan, and if he didn’t know any better, Izuku would have bet completely on Todoroki’ winning.

However, the dual-haired boy still wasn’t using the entire extent of his power. Izuku doesn’t know what possesses him, but he gets to his feet and starts yelling encouragement to Todoroki, telling him to “give it his all”. Later, he blushes at his own bold actions.

In the end, Kacchan wins, but Izuku knows that Kacchan won’t be satisfied with those results. Especially not when Todoroki only half-assed the match, neglecting to use his fire power for the most part.

Either way, Izuku doesn’t stick around for the award ceremony. He has a job to do.

…

Shouto Todoroki doesn’t see the familiar fuzzball of green hair at the awards ceremony, but he has a good idea of where he’ll be.

As he walks, he replays the awards ceremony in his mind. The less-than-satisfied expression of his father as he received the second-place medal was one of his favorite parts of today.

Soon, he makes it to his destination. Lo and behold, Izuku is there, sitting at the base of the tree and laughing as puppies crawl over him, in front of the dog whom they had just saved. Next to him are a cat and a crow for some reason.

Was Midoriya some sort of Snow White? He humors the fleeting thought briefly before reaching out to tap Izuku’s shoulder.

The green-haired boy lets out an endearingly startled yelp, and cranes his head around to face Todoroki. Immediately, his surprised expression turns into a smile.

“Ah, Todoroki!”

“Sorry for scaring you.”

“No, no, it’s completely fine.” Izuku laughs, and Todoroki thinks he’d like to hear more of that noise.

“I didn’t see you at the awards ceremony.”

“Yeah, I was checking up on this very happy family over here,” he accentuates his words by rubbing the ears of one of the puppies who in turn squeals excitedly.

The mother barks at him, and Deku mumbles in the way that Todoroki had seen him do often.

He just barely manages to catch the words, “She trust you, She’s thanking you again, inviting you to hold her pups.”

Izuku beams at Todoroki, and Todoroki takes the invitation to sit down next to the boy. The smaller boy holds his hand out, and Todoroki takes it, curiosity alight.

Izuku guides his hand gently and they both pet one of the puppies, who absolutely melts under their touch. Todoroki smiles again. He thinks that he can’t remember the last day he smiled this much.

Soon, another golden-furred puppy butts its head into Todoroki’s palm.

Izuku lets out a giggle, and the noise it pure and not unlike the chiming of Christmas bells. “He’s jealous. I think he want’s you to pet him,” he squeezes Todoroki’s hand meaningfully before letting go.

The cat meows from next to Izuku, and Izuku looks at the animal.

“Wow, half-and-half over there is blushing something fierce,” he purrs out, a teasing lilt clear as day.

“He liiiiikes you,” the crow chimes in, and Izuku can feel his heart constricting just a little.

“Shut up guys!” he hisses in mortification, before realizing that he had just said that out loud. He looks at Todoroki who has confusion written all across his face, and tries to clarify, “No, no, not you! I just— er, I was just talking to myself.”

Nice going, Casanova, he kicks himself mentally.

If Todoroki noticed anything weird however, he didn’t comment on it. Instead, he hesitates before saying, “Midoriya?”

Izuku meets his gaze. It’s no longer cold or calculating, but warm and still ever-infinite.

“Thank you for today. It’s the first time in a long that time that I’ve truly used my fire power for myself. It felt… good.”

Izuku grinned. “You have no idea how glad I am to hear that,” he blusters, a red hue to his face betraying his emotions.

Something behind Todoroki catches Izuku’s attention, his eyes widening and lips parting in awe.

“Is that… a black rabbit?”

And just like, the green-haired boy is running after the black rabbit, yelling something about how he’s never seen one of this color before.

As Todoroki watches Izuku’s receding figure, he lets out a laugh, continuing to pet the puppies who are all vying for his attention now.

Shouto Todoroki thought Izuku Midoriya was a rather peculiar human, but he soon decided that he was a very likable one.

He glances at the cat off-handedly, and swears that it huffed in exasperation.

Chapter Text

When Izuku imagined being a hero, he thought that everyday would be a whirlwind of responsibility.

Responsibility didn’t scare him, of course. He was actually looking forward to the day that he officially became a pro-hero, the day that he could save innocent people everyday while carrying on All Might’s legacy.

So, he had received a nasty shock back to reality when he woke up, feeling as if Death itself had kissed him on the forehead. A hammer was pounding relentlessly on the inside of his skull, and he wondered what it felt like to be able to breath properly again. His hands felt clammy, and his eyes burned.

Overall, Izuku was having a pretty bad day.

In the comforting darkness of his room, a bright light shines obnoxiously. Izuku groans and reaches over for his phone.

New Message from Class 1-A Rules Group Text

Iida: Midoriya are you skipping school today? As your friend, I do not want to say this, but as your Class President, I will have to report you.

Iida: Please tell me you’re not skipping.

Uraraka: lay off, iida!!!! deku r u ok???

Kirishima: no WAY, izuku’s playing hooky and we’re all stuck here on a friday? that’s fucking messed up

Kacchan: there’s no way fucking deku is skipping, fuck all of you fuckheads

Kirishima: i mean sure im down

Kacchan: what

Yaoyorozu: what

Kirishima: what

Mineta: wow, that’s pretty gay

Uraraka: okay but you wouldnt know whats gay if it hit you in the face, youre as straight as they come

Mineta: … touché

Izuku: Hey guys, I’m not skipping I swear!

Kacchan: yeah, that’s exactly what i told ALL of you shitheads

Izuku: I’m sick but don’t worry about me, I’ll get better soon ٩(⁎❛ᴗ❛⁎)۶

Shouto: Did you just use an emoticon?

Izuku: … haha yeah I guess I did! I use them a lot (｡◕‿◕｡)

Shouto has left the group message

Izuku: wait what? Was it something I said?

Yaoyorozu: Shouto is currently clutching at his heart. We think that he may or may not be having a heart attack.

Asui: Izuku I’m coming over. Bringing nuts

Izuku: Oh you don’t have to do that, Asui!!!

Iida: No, Midoriya, Asui is right. In fact we’ll all come over to keep you company.

Kirishima: So we ARE skipping school

Iida: No, we’ll go AFTER school!

Izuku let out a huffy laugh before devolving into coughs. He lay his phone back on his side table, vision going fuzzy again as exhaustion drove him slowly but surely back to sleep.

…

It’s about three in the afternoon when he hears the doorbell ring for the first time.

He had woken up just two hours ago, and now he was sitting in the middle of his room, leaning against the side of his bed. Izuku tried to do something productive like learning more about the heroes out there, but everytime he tried to think, his brain just seemed to wander away from him.

So instead, he just stayed there in his dimly lit room, wondering how it was like to feel alive again. His melancholy thoughts were interrupted as he hears a knock on his bedroom door.

“Come in,” he rasps, cursing how it felt like he were swallowing chainsaws with every word.

Asui walks into his room, and true to her word, she is holding a bag of nuts.

“Izuku your mom let me in— wow.” She takes in her surroundings, eyes widening at the state of her friend’s room.

It wasn’t that it was messy or anything, it was just so incredibly Izuku. All Might posters lined the walls, and by the crinkled edges and faded colors, Asui could tell that they were pretty old and well-cherished. Other than that, there were shelves filled with hero-themed story books and Izuku’s own notebooks, no doubt detailing the quirks of other heroes to an extensive degree. There was also a neat desk to the side of Izuku’s bed, which was in the far corner of the room. Nothing out of the ordinary.

What really caught Asui’s eyes was, well… the animals.

It was almost as if Izuku had decided to adopt every single animal he had come across. The only one that had a cage was this bright-eyed golden bunny with iconic ears that reminded Asui of All Might himself.

Other than that, every other animal seemed to occupy whatever space they could. There was a tortoise that seemed to be dozing on a pile of clothing near the door, a frog sitting right on top of the desk as stoic as possible (Asui almost mistook it for an eccentrically fashioned paperweight), fish in a fishtank that was also on top of Izuku’s desk, two lizards climbing up the bookshelves, a cat currently dozing on the bed lazily, and a dog with its puppies, climbing over Izuku’s lap like there was no tomorrow. That wasn’t all, though— on closer inspection, there was a nest with a crow right outside of Izuku’s open window, next to his bed.

“Wow,” Asui repeats herself. She drops the bag of nuts in her surprise, and immediately, a squirrel (the very same squirrel that helped them out of the USJ kidnapping incident) shot out from under the bed, and lunged for the food.

Izuku just laughs, before the laughs devolve into pitiful coughing. He grabs a tissue from a nearby tissue box, sneezes into it, then throws the offending tissue into a small trashcan that is already filled to the brim.

Asui takes a seat next to her friend, taking care to mind the puppies that were excitedly rampaging over Izuku excitedly.

“So, ribbit, you adopt animals?”

Izuku tries to laugh again, but the sound is like nails grating on sandpaper. “I think we kind of adopt each other. I guess that sounds weird but like, they just come and go whenever they want to. They tell me pretty funny stories too.”

Asui just nods. She startles briefly as one of the puppies yelps and tugs at her fingers gently with its teeth. The frog girl looks to Izuku questioningly.

He beams at her, that familiar sunshiney grin that Asui knows the entirety of Class 1-A has come to relax around.

“She wants you to pet her. I think she likes your hands. They’re soft,” he adds, looking at them.

Asui flushes uncharacteristically, before rubbing behind the furry creature’s ear. With every passing second, its tail seems to wag at a faster and faster rate.

“You know, ribbit, you’ll have to tell them about your quirk Izuku.” The unspoken how else are you going to explain this is apparent.

Izuku sighs, and there is a resigned mood about him. “Yeah, I know. I just… I know.”

Asui wraps her arm around his shoulder. She wasn’t the best with words, but she hoped that Izuku knew that she would do her best to support her friend.

The green haired boy smiles and leans into her.

…

Soon enough, Uraraka, Iida, and Mina Ashido show up along with Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, and Mineta.

They are undoubtedly surprised about how Izuku is surrounded by his own personal mini pet store, which Izuku supposes was to be expected.

“Woah, there are so many animals! I feel like I’m in a zoo!” Uraraka squeals, immediately getting down on all fours to pet the puppies who are even more excited to see her.

Iida seems tense, not knowing what to do with himself. Izuku finds it rather endearing, their class president who was always so formal and intelligent, being at a loss for words and fidgeting like a boy at his first high school dance. He gestures his friend over, sitting the tall, well built boy down and without further ado, reaches for the black cat dozing on his bed and plops him into Iida’s waiting lap.

Iida seems as if he is about to spontaneously combust, not knowing where to keep his hands or if he was supposed breathe when there was an animal on his person, and oh my god, was Iida’s face going blue? Izuku tugged at his arm frantically, reminding the older boy that yes, he can (and should) breathe.

Todoroki also sits down near Uraraka and Asui, rubbing the mother dog’s head. The golden-furred dog seemed to remember the dual-haired boy as well, as it licked the side of his cheek once more, causing Todoroki to grumble good-naturedly. He clearly had a soft spot for this one, Izuku notes silently.

Mineta, however, was not having a good time.

The frog that had been quietly residing on his desk had suddenly shot out his tongue, attaching the pink appendage to one of the adhesive balls on the short boy’s head.

Mineta let out a comedically high-pitched scream, before running around the room, causing the puppies to yelp excitedly. At that moment, the squirrel runs up Yaoyorozu’s shoulder, who is currently quaking with laughter at Mineta’s plight.

The squirrel chatters eagerly, squeaking something frantically.

“I’m sorry, what’s that?” Yaoyorozu says with a gentle smile. Izuku hopes to see his class’s vice president act like this more often.

“He’s saying he wants you to feed him some food.” Izuku gestures to the bag of nuts that Asui had brought.

“Ooh, how do you know?” Mina squeals, “are you like, the animal whisperer or something?” there’s a joking lilt to her voice, but Izuku tenses because she’s not that far off the money.

Izuku turns to Asui who gives him a brief, meaningful look.

Taking a deep breath, he steadies himself and clears his throat. “Actually guys, I have to tell you something about my quirk. It’s—”

But before he can finish, Kacchan and Kirishima stroll in his room without having bothered to knock (classic Kacchan), followed by Kaminari and Tokoyami.

Izuku swallows the sudden lump that had formed in his throat, feeling every single regret he had ever experienced in his life resurface spontaneously.

“Oh, hi Kacchan,” he wheedles meekly as the ash-haired boy stomps into his room with all the grace of a bull in a china shop.

“Yeah, listen Deku, you stupid fucking nerd, I got dragged along by this asswad,” he gestures to Kirishima who waves hello to Izuku jovially, “to come here to see you, so don’t expect any condolences from me!”

“Condolences? Who taught you that five-dollar word?” Todoroki deadpans.

“Why you—” Bakugou is about to dive fist-first into a fight with the dual-quirked boy, but thankfully, Tokoyami and Kaminari hold him back.

“Say, uh, Midoriya, why are there so many animals in here? Not that I’m not digging it,” Kaminari asks.

“That crow is staring at me.” Tokoyami says, clearly unnerved by the black bird that, as Izuku turned around to look outside his window, was indeed staring at him.

“Wait, wait! Let Deku finish what he was saying first,” Uraraka gushes, looking at the green-haired boy with wide warm brown eyes, “what were you saying about your quirk again?”

Izuku feels like he’s stuck between a rock and a sharp place because on one hand, now was the perfect time to tell his friends about his quirk and stop living a lie, but on the other hand Kacchan was there and he doesn’t think he wants to experience death by explosion today. After all, he just knows that his childhood friend would immediately spill over with rage as soon as he found out Izuku hadn’t mentioned that he’s had a quirk the entire time since they were children, and he can’t even defend himself because he’s sick, damn it.

Before Izuku can explain himself, however, Inko Midoriya decides to poke her head into the room, flashing his classmates a smile even brighter than his own.

“Hello everyone! I made dinner and you all are invited to jo— oh Izuku, have you been talking to all these animals again? Listen, I know your quirk allows you to make conversation with these little guys, but please, don’t adopt too many!”

His mother turns her attention away from scolding Izuku back to his friends. “Anyways, come downstairs soon!”

Inko closes the door, not knowing that she had just signed her own son’s death warrant.

The entire room has gone stark silent, save for the silent trills, purrs, and rumbles from the animals.

“Talking to…” Iida trails off, cogs clearly turning in his analytical brain.

“ … animals?” Ochako finishes.

“That’s just…” Todoroki starts, clearly putting some of his own puzzle pieces together as well.

“That’s just so fucking adorable.” Kaminari declares.

To Izuku’s surprise, the entire room bursts out in assent.

“Holy shit though, it all makes sense now!” Mineta says, “the whole frog thing?”

“Oh my God, Deku, can you get any more adorable?” Mina Ashido all but squeals.

“This quirk honestly suits you so well,” Yaoyorozu agrees.

It feels as if a weight had been lifted off of Izuku’s shoulders. All of his friends were accepting him for his quirk, not making fun of him or shunning him for concealing the truth. In hindsight, he should have realized that his friends would stick by his side, but even so, he was incredibly happy—

A dark aura was behind him, interrupting the swelling warmth within his body.

“You fucking liar,” Kacchan seethes, his voice riddled with rage, before he all out screams, “FUCKING DEKU, YOU’VE HAD A FUCKING QUIRK THIS ENTIRE GODDAMN TIME YOU—”

Izuku is half considering jumping out the window and hoping for the best, before Kacchan’s rants are cut off into a uncharacteristic yelp as he fell down onto his bottom.

He looks down at his childhood friend’s ankle, which the boy was now clutching in pain.

“That’ll teach you young’uns, makin’ such a goddamn racket,” comes a raspy, aged voice.

The elderly tortoise had just bitten Kacchan’s ankle.

Izuku bursts out into loud, raucous laughter, punctuated by a few coughs here and there.

He can’t help it; he is fever riddled, gross and sweaty and exhausted, and he was just saved from dying a gruesome explosive death by a cantankerous old tortoise.

So he laughs and laughs until the rest of the class laughs with him.

Soon, they have all devolved to teary piles of mirth, and Izuku thinks that he might’ve have even seen a small smile on Kacchan’s face.

Life was pretty okay, and as far as quirks go, Izuku thinks he rather likes his.

Chapter Text

Soon everyone leaves Izuku’s house, but one person remains.

Shouto Todoroki sits next to Izuku, so close that Izuku is suddenly hyperaware of everything about the other boy. He can feel the warmth of his skin, see the twinkle in his eyes, just barely make out the subtle smile he has as he pets the puppies. Izuku drinks in the view as much as he can in his illness-raddled state, because he doesn’t know when he’ll get a chance to do so again and by God, he hopes he’ll get to do it again.

After all, Shouto Todoroki was a beautiful enigma wrapped in layers of mystery that Izuku wanted to unravel slowly, piece by piece until he was bare only for Izuku’s eyes. After all, Izuku always did like a good mystery, and he couldn’t resist one as breathtaking as the boy before him.

“Izuku?”

The green-haired boy feels his heart skip a beat as he sees those perfectly pink lips form his name. His name, his given name.

“Y-yeah?”

Shouto leans in, and Izuku thinks he hears the wedding bells ringing, the chorus singing, and he knows that he is utterly and completely fucked.

But he’s a deer in headlights, he’s completely frozen still by the intensity of those magnificently dual-colored eyes, and he can feel himself falling, falling, falling…

He’s so close now, his lips are a millimeter away from the shell of Izuku’s ear and holy shit, Izuku can feel the electrifying warmth of Shouto’s breaths and suddenly there are no more animals around them, there is no more room, there is nothing— because there is only Izuku and Shouto, Shouto and Izuku and Izuku can barely think. For once in his life, he’s completely silent, there’s no incessant erratic mumbling and no half-coherent thoughts fluttering through his mind like a frantic butterfly.

Izuku’s thoughts are at rest, and he is calm. Yet all at once, every cell in his body has been ultra-charged, he is alight with sensitivity and awareness of his surroundings. He is an open wire, his nerves bursting at the seams, and Shouto is the sole reason.

Shouto’s words are barely there, but Izuku hears them. He grasps onto each and every syllable like they were his only reprieve left.

“You’re blushing, Izuku.”

There’s a smirk on Shouto’s face, and Izuku lets out a little gasp. He can feel the blood rush to his face at Shouto’s teasing words, and he knows he’s stumbling, letting out a stream of garbled incoherent words. Somehow, Shouto’s grin only seems to widen at Izuku’s flustered reaction.

As if he thinks Izuku is cute, or something.

Izuku swallows his words, painfully aware of the lack of distance between the two. He’s never seen Shouto this relaxed before, and his classmate seems to be completely in his own element. Behind all the layers of embarrassment and attraction Izuku was drowning in, he felt a twinge of pride for his friend— he had come a long way from the self-conscious, lost boy he had been at the sports festival.

Izuku likes to think that he himself had come a long way since the sports festival too.

Bracing himself as if he were in the middle of the fight of his life, Izuku strengthens his resolve.

“Yeah, but I think you’re blushing a little too.”

His counter is full of confidence and Shouto’s smirk only deepens.

“Maybe I am, Izuku,” he makes it a point to emphasize Izuku’s given name and the green-haired boy absolutely cannot move his eyes away from Shouto’s lips. He’s fixated on them, and he knows that Shouto has probably noticed it by now. After all, Izuku never really was that good at hiding his emotions.

So fuck it, Izuku thinks with abandon. And with that, he leans forward, smashing his lips none-too-gracefully against Shouto’s.

And goddamn it all if Shouto’s lips aren’t the softest thing he’s ever felt.

The kiss starts out wild and inexperienced, lopsided and rather one-sided. Shouto’s eyes are widened in pure, unadulterated surprise and Izuku wonders if he’s messed it all up for one brief fleeting moment of panic, but then Shouto relaxes into it.

It’s like he’s thrown a rope into the heavens and latched onto his own personal star, Izuku thinks. He tugs and tugs and now the star is on Earth, right in front of him.

As Shouto relaxes, his hands snake up Izuku’s body, starting at his hips and leaving a burning trail as they make their way up to his cheeks. He takes the reigns and Izuku lets him because oh God, their mouths are working each other like there’s no tomorrow and Izuku thinks he could taste Shouto all day long if the other would let him. He tastes like the sound of nature: pure, golden sunshine, fresh rain, and the exhilarating thrill of life coursing through him as they both connect.

After an eternity, they break apart but Izuku can still feel Shouto’s lips on his own, he can still feel the warmth of their bodies as they clutched at each other.

Shouto is heavily breathing now, his cheeks flushed a tell-tale red and eyes lidded with what could only be perceived as lust.

“Izuku,” Shouto breathes huskily.

Unfortunately for him, that’s when all of Izuku Midoriya’s many many anxieties and worries decide to hit him with all the force of a runaway bus.

Izuku jerks away, his eyes darting to anywhere other than Shouto’s mismatched ones.

“I-I uh, oh my god, I can’t believe I just did that!” He all but screams, beginning to mumble to himself rapidly again, “I’m still sick, how irresponsible can I get? Oh my god, Shouto I am so sorry if I get you sick! Shit, I can’t believe what I was thinking—”

He is cut off again by Shouto’s hands firmly cupping his cheeks.

His hands are calloused, strong, and gentle. They’re a fighter’s hands for sure, but Izuku thinks that they are also perfect hands for holding.

“Izuku,” the fire and ice wielder begins softly, “you called me Shouto.”

Izuku blinks. He supposes he did. He hadn’t even noticed calling the boy by his given name. At some point “Todoroki” had become “Shouto”. He doesn’t remember when the change happened, but it felt seamless and natural.

“Y-yeah, I guess I did.”

Shouto smiles once more, and Izuku feels a little fire ignite in his heart. The dual-haired boy takes his hands ever so tenderly, bringing them to his chest. Izuku’s eyes widen as he feels Shouto’s quirk warming his being, and to his sick body, it feels like utter heaven.

Shouto leans in this time, and Izuku is ready.

“I like it when you call me that,” he beams, and Izuku thinks that if he holds the sun in his smile, then Shouto must hold the moon because Izuku is floored.

“You’re gorgeous,” Izuku blurts out, absolutely red with chagrin.

“As are you,” Shouto returns evenly.

Before Izuku can bluster out another word, Shouto shuts him up with another kiss.

As he ignores the knowing coos and whoops of the animals around him, Izuku feels just right.

In fact, Izuku feels like he’s at home.