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Shouto doesn’t really consider himself a lucky person. Sure, he has a good Quirk, but that Quirk comes at the cost of his father seeing him as an object to take him down, and Shouto isn’t really a fan of being treated like an object.
Generally, he keeps to himself, masking whatever he sees with indifference, and goes on living.
Well, life will always, at one point, he learns, come back to bite you in the ass for something you never did.
In Shouto’s case, that comes in the form of a green-haired boy called Midoriya Izuku.
Shouto meets him one day during a walk in the park - one of the times he’s not supervised by his father - and it isn’t so much as meeting him, more like tripping over the guy’s body after mistaking his green hair and clothes for a plant.
It’s not really one of Shouto’s best moments.
The guy, thankfully, doesn’t seem that irritated, laughing it off when Shouto apologizes, explains that that’s unfortunately not the only time that’s happened, and offers for Shouto to sit beside him.
Yeah, definitely not really one of his normal days.
They sit there in silence - as companionable as it can be, anyways - until the boy - about his age, Shouto guesses - seems to start, turning to him with wide green eyes.
‘What’s your name, by the way?’
Shouto turns to face the boy, who’s looking at him curiously, so unlike other people who seem to scrutinize him under the weight of their stares.
As if he hasn’t noticed, the boy continues, ‘You can call me Deku.’
Shouto raises an eyebrow. Useless?
The other boy seems to read his mind - or maybe he’s used to this - and laughs a bit, ‘It’s a nickname,’ he explains, eyes sparkling under the sudden light of the sun.
Shouto nods, replying with, ‘Shouto’ a few seconds later.
Deku nods, smiling at him as they fall into silence, until he seems to fidget, glancing to Shouto and back again like he wants to ask him something but he’s too nervous to do so.
Shouto’s patient enough that Deku finally cracks a few minutes later, turning back to him with a sort of apologetic smile.
‘If you don’t mind me asking,’ Deku starts, ‘what’s your Quirk?’
Shouto freezes for just a few milliseconds - he thinks Deku doesn’t notice, though - before replying, ‘Half-hot half-cold. I produce ice from my right side and fire from my left side.’
Deku nods excitedly, hair bouncing as he asks again, ‘Could you show me?’
Shouto tilts his head to the side, but before he can reply, Deku’s stuttering out apologies and ‘I’m sorry it’s none of my business’ and looking like he’s going to hit himself for being a moron.
‘Deku.’
He stops, eyes wide and cheeks slightly pink as Shouto tries to say something not weird and reassuring at the same time, but he can’t find anything to say, so he just opens both of his palms and activates his Quirk.
Deku watches as the small flame hovers above Shouto’s hand, eyes flicking back and forth from the flames to the small fractals of ice over Shouto’s right palm.
It’s sort of calming to watch him.
Deku shakes his head, laughing a bit, as he draws back, and explains to Shouto, ‘One of my friends has a Quirk similar to yours.’
‘What’re they like?’ Shouto asks, not even registering the words until they’ve left his mouth.
Deku looks like he’s thinking, and he cheerfully answers, ‘He’s really nice. He’s kind of an asshole but once he’s warmed up to you he’s really caring.’
Shouto nods, closing his palms and letting the flames splutter out, just as Deku’s watch lights up with a small hologram.
‘Hey,’ the person says, and though Shouto can’t really see from the angle he’s in, the voice definitely sounds fond, ‘Where are you?’
‘In the park,’ Deku says, ‘I met someone, and we’ve been talking. Wanna meet him?’
There’s a moment of silence, before the voice answers, ‘No, it’s fine. Say hi to him for me though. You still up for this evening?’
Deku nods.
The hologram switches off, and Deku turns to Shouto, brushing off his pants and offering a hand to Shouto.
‘I have to go,’ he says, pulling Shouto up with him. ‘But I’ll see you around?’
Shouto nods - surprised, though he doesn’t really show it - and watches the boy jog off and disappear around the corner of the street.
Definitely not a really normal day.
Shouto doesn’t see him again for a couple of weeks, and during that time he’s left to wonder about Deku.
He’s nice, though he seems to get flustered really easily, and he seems like the kind of person that won’t really judge you and probably bake you some cookies if you needed him.
On another one of his off days - his father had been surprisingly relenting, when Shouto requested one - Shouto, donning an old jean jacket and a cap, - a poorly-made disguise - walks into his favorite coffee shop, requesting his normal order.
At this point, he’s a regular, and the cashier smiles at him as he walks over to the corner seat that nobody really notices.
Shouto sighs, pulling out his phone to pass the time as the quiet chatter of the store lulls him into a sense of security.
‘Hey.’
Shouto’s head whips up, eyes wide as he finger stills in his screen.
Deku’s in front of him, sporting a bright smile.
It takes Shouto a few seconds to respond, but he finally settles on saying, ‘Hi. Do you want to sit?’
Deku’s grin only gets wider - if that’s possible - and he sits down in front of Shouto, handing him his cup of coffee.
‘Thank you.’
Deku nods, munching on his own food - bread rolls? - and seems perfectly content on just staying like that, gazing somewhere behind him.
‘What’s your Quirk?’
The question comes out unexpectedly out of him, and Shouto doesn’t miss the way Deku stills, smile dropping from his face as he stops chewing.
There’s a few moments of silence, during which Shouto manages to hopefully ignore the awkwardness between them, and Deku finally swallows, and says, voice devoid of all emotion, ‘I’m Quirkless.’
Oh.
‘I’m sorry for assuming,’ Shouto says, because he doesn’t really know what else to say.
‘It’s fine,’ Izuku shrugs it off, smiling again, though there’s a tinge of sadness that hasn’t been there before, ‘I’m used to it.’
‘You shouldn’t be.’
His reply startles both himself and Deku as the latter looks at him with something akin to relief and happiness.
Deku huffs out a short laugh, and says, ‘I’m glad you’re not condemning me for being Quirkless.’
‘It’s a moral thing,’ Shouto says, leaning back into the chair, ‘A person is a person.’
Deku smiles a real smile at him, and Shouto mumbles, ‘I’d rather be Quirkless anyways.’
Apparently he’s not as quiet as he means to be, because Deku tilts his head to the side, eyes growing wide with surprise and shock.
However, even though he doesn’t ask anything more, Shouto elaborates for him. Shouto doesn’t really know why he’s telling Deku all this, but his gut tells him that Deku’s trustworthy.
‘My father wants a child to surpass him and take his place, so he had me and my siblings. I was the most powerful, so he worked me to become the best.
‘My mother hated him. It got so bad that she threw a boiling pot at my face - it’s how I got this scar - ‘ Shouto brings a hand up to briefly touch the scarred skin - ‘and my mother was put into a mental institute after.’
Deku nods, eyes flashing in sympathy as Shouto spits out the next words bitterly, ‘I hated my father ever since.’
There’s a moment of silence, in which Deku finishes his food, and finally, he looks Shouto, square in the eye - he thinks Deku might look more intimidating if not for the fact that there’s a ketchup stain on his lower lip - and says, ‘You probably don’t need my advice but I’ll say this.’
Deku takes a deep breath, planting his hands on the table as he says, ‘You are your own hero. Your Quirk is yours. Does you father control your Quirk?’
When Shouto shakes his head, Deku continues, ‘No, so you can do what you want. You can be a hero. Live up to his expectations, but do it on your own terms. Visit your mother. Just because she did that doesn’t mean she doesn’t love you. Go against your father. I know it’s easier said than done, but you can try to do things that you father has to accept because he doesn’t want to look bad in front of the media.’
Shouto nods, almost stricken, and watches as Deku smiles brightly. ‘After all,’ he laughs, ‘I’m Quirkless, so I can’t be a hero, so I try to help out any way I can.’
Shouto nods again, and all he can say, without his voice choking up, ‘Thank you.’
Deku grins, laughs, and offers to meet him up again sometime.
And they go like that, for the next couple of weeks, Shouto and Deku meet up, Shouto doing the best he can in his practice sessions so that he father will let him off early.
Shouto learns things about Deku too; that he’s living with a friend, and that Deku’s not going to high school because he feels like he needs a break.
‘I’m going to UA.’
Deku chuckles, ‘I expected that. Recommendation?’
Shouto feels like he’s being egoistic when he nods, but Deku simply says, ‘An old classmate of mine is going there.’
‘Is he good?’
‘Yeah,’ Deku says, almost excitedly, ‘I looked up to him a lot. He has a really powerful Quirk, and I really admired him when I was younger. But then he got a Quirk and I didn’t, so he started bullying me.’
There’s a tiny pause, and Shouto says, ‘Must be a shitty person.’
Deku laughs, leaning forward and explaining, ‘He’s wanted to be the number one hero since we were kids. When he got a Quirk and I didn’t, it just cemented the fact that he’s better than me.’
Shouto frowns, but Deku looks at him in a way that says he doesn’t really want to talk about it.
He drops the subject, and there’s a comfortable silence between them in which Shouto thinks about Deku and how much he’s - surprisingly - come to trust the guy in just a few weeks.
He also wonders why Deku hasn’t brought up Endeavor in conversation, given Shouto just basically admitted that he was being abused by his dad. It’s unlikely that Deku hasn’t figured it out, what with the way that his eyes seem to dart around, catching and latching onto anything he can find, hungry for information.
‘Hey,’ Shouto says suddenly, making Deku jump, ‘I visited my mom.’
Deku smiles at him - sweet, genuine, and Shouto would’ve thought that his Quirk was to melt someone’s heart with just a smile. ‘How did it go?’
‘Pretty well. We just talked and caught up, I guess.’
Deku nods, and Shouto isn’t going to tell him that he actually cried after seeing his mom after so long.
‘Do you want to follow?’ Shouto finally asks, ‘The next time I visit my mom, I mean.’
Deku smiles wide at him, and nods excitedly, ‘I’d be honored.’
Shouto lets the corner of his mouth quirk up.
‘This way,’ Shouto directs Deku.
Deku nods, simultaneously looking excited and like a scared rabbit. It’s kind of endearing.
Shouto takes a breath as they stop in front of his mother’s door - after all, it’s been only one time - before he raises his hand and knocks on the door.
There’s a faint ‘Come in’ and Shouto pushes the door gently, stepping into the air-conditioned room with Deku silently following after him.
‘Mom,’ Shouto greets.
‘Shouto,’ his mother says, soft smile gracing her lips, then cocks her head a bit to the side, ‘Who’s this?’
Deku’s shut the door behind him, and Shouto thinks he looks like a baby deer as he hurries to introduce himself.
‘I’m Deku, ma’am.’
Shouto’s mother laughs, and beckons him closer, ‘You’re the boy Shouto’s told me about.’
She talks with fondness in her voice, as if she’s also known Deku for a long time, which - honestly could be possible, given Deku can make anyone feel happy just by smiling at them. Shouto doesn’t know how his childhood friend-slash-enemy can hate him.
‘Thank you.’
Deku blushes, sitting beside Shouto on the bed while his mom sits on the chair at her desk. ‘It was nothing,’ he protests, ‘I just gave Shouto-kun some advice and he decided to follow it. It’s all on him, really.’
‘But if you hadn’t said it, I wouldn’t have done anything,’ Shouto says, smiling slightly at how Deku seems so flustered under the praise.
His mother laughs, soft and light, and redirects the conversation to Deku. ‘So, dear, what school are you going to go to?’
‘Oh, um,’ Deku blushes and rubs the back of his neck, ‘I’m taking a gap year, so I’m just staying at home and doing random stuff.’
Shouto’s mother smiles at Shouto, and even though it’s been so long, he can still understand the message in her eyes.
You made a good choice.
‘Fight me.’
Deku says it so suddenly, so out of the blue that Shouto has to blink and turn his head to the boy sitting on the park bench next to him, ice-cream almost forgotten in his hand.
‘Huh?’
‘Fight me,’ Deku says again, smiling a bit, as if he knows something that Shouto doesn’t.
‘Why?’
‘I’ve been taking fighting classes over a year. I want to know how good I am.’
‘Okay.’
Now it’s Deku’s turn to look surprised, eyes wide and mouth slightly open as he stares at Shouto. ‘You aren’t going to refuse?’
‘No? Why would I?’
‘Because,’ Deku pauses, seeming to think something over, ‘I’m Quirkless?’
Shouto shakes his head, ‘I already told you, people’s worth aren’t measured by their Quirks.’
Shouto expects some thankful words, and the like, but he doesn’t expect Deku to start crying.
What.
Help.
He can’t do this.
‘Uh, are you okay?’ Shouto asks hesitantly, but Deku looks up at him with big, round eyes.
‘I’m just - I’m just really happy,’ he blubbers, ‘That’s one of the nicest things anyone’s ever said to me.’
Shouto’s at a loss for words. ‘Uh, sorry.’
‘Don’t be!’ Deku says, producing a tissue out of nowhere, and proceeding to wipe his face, ‘I just emotional really quickly, I’m sorry.’
Out of habit, Shouto says, ‘Don’t be.’
Deku laughs a bit at that, and Shouto wonders how weird they might look to a passing person. Him, with his slightly emotionless expression and Deku with tears and a smile on his face.
They make quite a pair, Shouto concludes, then proceeds to ask Deku where he’d like to meet for the fight - for the lack of a better word.
Deku tells him the location - a patch of flat land on the outskirts of the city - and Shouto makes it there, albeit a bit early.
Deku does show up a few minutes later, waving to Shouto as he drops a duffel bag onto the ground. ‘You’re going to fight in that?’
Shouto nods, eyes roving over Deku in his dark sleeveless shirt and dark pants. Shouto’s almost in the same attire - t-shirt and pants that he usually uses to practice.
Deku’s shirt says shirt.
Ha ha.
‘Do I use my Quirk?’ Shouto says, going opposite of Deku to stand a few good feet away from him.
‘Not at first,’ Deku says, looking bashful, ‘You can use it once I get more accustomed to fighting you, I guess.’
Shouto nods, letting a moment of silence fall onto them as they both look each other in the eye.
Then he flies forwards, Deku coming to meet him halfway - his reaction time is good, Shouto notes, throwing a punch, only to have it blocked and returned.
Deku’s above average, that’s for sure, the way he seems to analyze everything, and how he seems to store at Shouto’s weak spots only a couple minutes into the fight.
They keep going like that for a moment, accessing each other’s abilities and keeping the fight a bit mild. This isn’t the limit of Deku’s abilities, Shouto notes, just as Deku suddenly backs away.
‘Use you Quirk!’
Shouto starts, but regains momentum easily, shooting his first bolt of ice from his right hand.
Deku dodges easily enough, swinging a blow at him which Shouto manages to dodge. He shoots a small wall of ice, blowing Deku back a bit, but the other boy manages easily enough by hopping onto the block of ice and jumping down.
The guy’s good, Shouto thinks yet again as they clash, Deku using his strength to blow Shouto back a little.
‘Use your Quirk!’
Shouto starts, barely managing to dodge before he sends another wall of ice, quickly lowering himself and jabbing Deku in the side.
Though it catches him off-guard, Deku rolls away, and turns to look at him, arms defensive and eyes wide, full of determination. ‘Use your fire!’ He screams, as Shouto sends wave after wave of ice at him.
‘It’s your Quirk, Shouto!’
Shouto doesn’t want to think. He and Deku lunge at each other, and Deku looks like he’s waning, but still so full of determination.
‘Your father doesn’t control you!’
For a Quirkless guy, Deku’s strength is really good, and both Shouto and Deku are driven away by Shouto’s ice.
There’s a second of silence between them, breathing haggard and wavering as they stare at each other, dead in the eyes. Deku stares, and Shouto shivers at the feeling of Deku staring into his very soul, accessing and filing away every fact and exploring every inch of his mind with deadly precision.
Shouto doesn’t even realize he’s doing it until there’s a familiar warmth over the left side of his body.
Looking down at himself, Shouto takes in the way flames lick over his arm and clothes, and it reminds him so much of his father he wants to stop using it.
It’s your Quirk.
Shouto looks up to see Deku, grin on his face, eyes wide in admiration as he stares at Shouto, lighting up like an excited child who’s gotten his favorite toy. It looks a little manic, honestly, and there’s a glint in Deku’s eyes that Shouto hasn’t seen before.
Deku looks at his face, and smiles.
Shouto returns the sentiment.
‘I’m glad,’ Deku tells him, when they’re both lying on the grass and tired inside and out.
Shouto hums, looking up at the passing clouds overhead, ignoring the way the field is lit up with random shards of ice. It’ll all melt anyways.
Courtesy of him, Deku had received multiple burn scars - which Shouto had honesty felt bad about - mainly on his arms and one side of his face.
‘You used your Quirk,’ Deku says, and Shouto sees from the corner of his eyes that he’s turned his head around a bit to look at him. ‘Hey, can you promise me something?’
‘Depends.’
Deku laughs a bit. ‘Don’t feel bad about having a Quirk, okay? It’s way worse when you don’t have one, trust me.’ Great. Now Shouto feels bad.
‘And use your Quirk,’ he continues, ‘It’s no use having a Quirk and using half of it.’
There’s a moment of silence between then, in which Shouto creates a thin layer of ice under them too stave off the incoming heat, and Deku turns back to stare up at the sky.
‘I can’t promise,’ Shouto finally says, turning his head around to look at Deku, ‘but I’ll try.’
Deku grins at him, and says, ‘Thank you.’
Everything’s quiet, for several moment, and Shouto closes his eyes, and he’s on the verge of falling asleep when there’s a rustling by his side.
Shouto opens his eyes, seeing Deku stand up, and offer a hand. ‘Well, I have to go back now.’
He takes the offered hand, standing up and brushing himself off, frowning a bit at the small burn holes in his shirt.
‘Hey,’ Deku says, and Shouto looks at him.
Deku puts a hand on his shoulder, and tells him, ‘Hey, it’s okay if you don’t save a lot of people, or even be a hero. It’s okay if you only save one person, and it’s okay if that one person is you.’
Deku smiles at him, and Shouto’s never felt so grateful to a person his whole life.
He walks away, carrying his bag and waving to him as he jogs off.
Shouto stays in the field for another half an hour.
Shouto officially declares Bakugo Katsuki a dick.
He hasn’t really spoken to the guy, but Bakugo is loud, brash and annoying, picking fights without any reason. Honestly, the only thing that’s keeping him in the hero course is his Quirk.
Deku would’ve made a better hero, Shouto thinks.
They keep on meeting up from time to time, though even those decrease as Deku says he’s busy planning something.
Shouto doesn’t question it, content to have him as a friend, spending some afternoons with him and fighting hand-to-hand with him on some other free days.
Time passes by.
Yelling.
Panic. Chaos.
There’s a villain attack at USJ.
Shouto’s grouped with the others, Thirteen trying to shield them all. Through the corner of his eye, he sees a familiar shade of green.
His eyes follow it without permission.
Everything fades away, white noise blurring in the back of his mind as two emerald green eyes stare back at him.
He’s a villain?