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KATSUKI
The weirdness with Deku started on a Monday after a boring weekend of study interspersed with video games, quirks, hero stalking and exercise. When Katsuki arrived at the school gate, he found Deku sitting on the ground next to the fence, staring at him creepily.
The look in his eyes was kind of familiar. It was the same look that Katsuki hadn't been able to knock off his face since they were kids, but… More. Like he knew Katsuki, could peer inside his head, play around with his innards and rearrange them to his liking, and he was enjoying it.
Katsuki stopped in front of Izuku, who tilted his head up at him with a smile. “Kacchan!” he said, and his right arm twitched like he was suppressing a reflex.
Katsuki glowered down at him. Izuku didn't cry, he didn't look away, he was staring at Katsuki… almost like he was smiling at a favorite pet. It made Katsuki want to kick him.
He slammed his foot into the brickwork near Deku’s head, about to demand what the hell he was planning, when the nerd grabbed his leg and knocked him off balance with his twiggy arms. Katsuki had to use his quirk to stop himself from braining himself on the pavement. Instead, he ended up painfully in his arse.
Where the hell had that come from?
For a moment, he was in shock at what had happened.
“Aaah! I'm sorry Kacchan, I didn't mean to!”
“Shut the fuck up , shitnerd.” He needed to up his game, and fast, if the nerd was capable of this. Humiliation lit a fire inside him. Other people were no doubt watching this exchange, and he got to his feet. Sure enough, a loose ring of onlookers had formed, probably looking for a fight.
And Deku didn't look like he was going to back down.
Well, Katsuki wasn't any performing monkey. He pushed scoffed at them all, and stalked towards class.
The weirdness continued when Deku scored horribly in the daily quiz, ending up at the bottom of the class instead of his usual near-top spot. Katsuki decided he was relieved. If he was going to get into UA, he didn't have time to work out what was up with Izuku.
… Even if it bugged him how the fucker never bowed his head, no matter how much Katsuki yelled.
INKO
Inko let herself in to her small apartment and locked the door behind her. A few footsteps alerted her to the arrival of her son as he swooped into the room, hugged her, and grabbed the grocery trolley from her before she could do more than return the hug. She smiled, feeling slightly bemused as he disappeared into the kitchen to put them away.
As a single parent of highly private fourteen-year-old, she had felt out of touch with his development for a long time now. She didn't have a single idea what was going through her child's head and what he was going through, and perhaps that was inevitable, but wasn't this all too soon?
She followed him into the kitchen and began putting away the dried goods.
“I can do it, mum,” Izuku protested lightly.
“Hmm? Thank you, but let your mother do her duty, alright?” she asked. She wasn't quite ready to stop being his mother… and it felt like he was slipping away from her.
For all that he had suddenly become a lot more affectionate in the last month, for all that she had seen more of him, he seemed more distant than ever.
It was hard to meet Izuku's eyes. Even when he looked at her, he seemed elsewhere. Had something happened at school? The solemnity he'd often have was completely unlike the way he'd reacted when the other children had begun to bully him, and it was the only thing stopping her from pulling him from school.
IZUKU
Izuku was walking through UA’s halls for the first time again. It was amazing. Everyone looked so tiny! Even Kacchan looked adorable! He’d been so patient, waiting to see his old friends again. Maybe they'd become friends even faster this time?
The memory of walking in on Tenya and Kacchan’s argument as he entered the room was seared into his mind. At the time, it had been horrifying. And yet three years later, he'd count both confrontational loudmouth argument-mongers among his closest friends.
He grinned. Thank God for Ochako. She knew how to beat a hasty retreat when the two drew Shouto into their quarrels.
He missed them. He missed his Kacchan. He missed his Ochako. But maybe he'd see them again one day soon.
He listened out for arguing voices as he approached his old classroom door. And indeed he heard them. And then he stopped.
The sounds were all wrong. He reviewed the memory -- It had been Tenya and Kacchan arguing that day, hadn't it? -- and yet he couldn't hear either voice now.
He cracked the door open.
“YOUR ATTITUDE REEKS OF THE DARKNESS YOU CLAIM TO HAVE MASTERED.”
“YOU SEE A MIRROR, AND I HAVE NO PITY FOR YOUR TAINTED SOUL.”
What. What the.
Through the door crack, Tokoyami could be seen sitting on his desk, just about vibrating with anger. In the seat before him, Shiozaki was turned towards him with fury lighting her eyes. Izuku stepped through.
“Um. This is class 1A, right?” he asked.
“Yes,” said Tokoyami.
“Unfortunately,” groused Shiozaki.
He'd known that things were happening differently. He'd taken out a few robots with One For All, after all, before knocking the zero-pointer away from a student who, on second glance, hadn't been Ochako like he'd thought.
But this.
Monoma Neito entered the room, followed by Kacchan.
He'd never imagined this.
Izuku held onto the nearest desk for dear life and tried his best not to pass out from shock. A different Class 1A?
He felt tears come to his eyes. Perhaps, despite everything, the past was truly beyond his grasp.