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Midoriya Izuku had had a rough Middle School life to say the least. The first year had been plagued with the undeniable fact that his childhood friend, the amazingly talented if not arrogant, Bakugo Katsuki was no longer interested in being his friend. It hadn’t been a sudden thing, unfortunately, because even if Izuku still valued their friendship, that feeling hadn’t been mutual. Though it seemed that when they moved to Aldera Middle School, it was the end of any good relationship they had previously had.
The second year had been worse, because his only friend (a not-Kacchan one, but a shy boy he had met in Middle School) transferred to another school, and all the bullies seemed to suddenly be aware of his existence. Though his third year had had a rough start, and Kacchan had gone from yelling at him to ignoring him entirely, it had somehow been worth the hardships of the first two years, when he was given the opportunity to be a hero and have All Might as his personal coach. So whenever Izuku thought back to his Middle School years, he chose to remember that third year.
It was therefore a little while, before he recognized the little group of boys coming towards him, Uraraka and Iida. Class 1-A were attempting another shopping day at the mall, hoping that it wouldn’t be interrupted by a villain this time. They had all split into smaller groups, though this time Izuku was not completely abandoned, but accompanied by his two friends. They’d been debating where to go next, when a group approached them.
“Can we assist you?” Iida had asked in his usual manner, always ready to help people, while Izuku had wondered why they looked familiar. It wasn’t until they guy, who seemed to be the leader, spoke that it dawned on him.
“We just thought we recognized curlyhead over there,” he smiled, making Izuku’s heart beat a little faster as he recognized them, “What’s up, Midoriya, long time no see.”
For all intents and purposes, they sounded friendly enough, so his friends didn’t catch on, but Izuku knew that no matter how nice they sounded, they had no good intentions whatsoever. How many times had they not approached him with a smile, and then proceeded to push him into a pond, or sometimes just throw him into whatever trash happened to be lying around. He’d lost not a few possessions to them, either stolen or destoryed. And though Izuku was tougher now, the sight of them brought him back to those forgotten Middle School years.
“Deku-kun,” Uraraka said concerned when he didn’t answer, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Uraraka-san,” he smiled, her voice momentarily snapping him out of it, “I was just shocked to see them here. They’re a year older than us, so I haven’t seen them in a long time.” He hoped that whatever he had said made sense, but a look of concern washed over her. She wasn’t so easily fooled.
The leader (Izuku had never bothered to remember their names) stepped closer to Izuku, who did his best to stand his ground. If he backed away now, he wouldn’t forgive himself. It was in the moment that he had stepped close enough to Izuku to touch him that his friends sensed that something was wrong, and put up a guard. As Izuku saw them tense, he sent them a smile, reassuring them that he was fine, and they didn’t move, even if they were clearly still on edge.
“I think you should leave,” Uraraka warned, even though her tone stayed sweet. Perhaps it was because they didn’t know who she was and didn’t know that she could wreck them in an instant, but none of them even flinched at her warning.
“We just wanted to catch up,” the leader smiled, and Uraraka narrowed her eyes in the way she did when she seized up an enemy. The only thing saving the group of thugs was the discipline of the heroes, and their awareness that they couldn’t simply start fights with anyone they encountered. The thugs, however, had no such discipline, and the leader lifted his arm, as if trying to grab Izuku. And Izuku had a moment of panic. He could move out of the way, but he didn’t want to cower away from someone who was clearly weaker than him, but he didn’t want this person to touch him. He closed his eyes shut, anticipating the hand that never came.
As he opened his eyes again, the bully was blocked from his view by the back of someone familiar. Kacchan’s hand was holding the bully’s arm in place, making it impossible for him to touch Izuku, though his attention was no longer on him. No, he was staring Kacchan directly in his eyes, malice clear in his expression. Kacchan pushed his arm away as he let go of him, but continued to shield Izuku.
“Get lost,” he warned, and the bully’s expression wavered for a second, but he stood his ground.
Uraraka and Iida had both moved to Izuku’s side, making sure he was okay, while Kacchan stood between the two groups. And Izuku calmed down, suddenly feeling a weird sense of deja-vu. In his repressed Middle School memories were glimpses of that same back shielding him from harm.
“Or what?” The bully challenged, “You’ll blow us up?”
“Oh, so you remember me?” Kacchan spat back, and though Izuku couldn’t see it, he could easily imagine Kacchan’s cocky smile, “Then you should remember that you don’t stand a chance. Get lost. I won’t say it again.”
Uraraka tugged at Izuku’s sleeve, gaining his attention, and pointed around them. A small crowd had gathered around them, silently watching as the scene unfolded, a few were even filming the encounter.
“We should-” Iida began, but whatever he was about to suggest was cut off, when one of the leader’s lackeys suddenly bolted towards Kacchan, the nails of his fingers sharpening into something like sharp daggers.
Izuku felt Uraraka move beside him, but he held her back, “Let Kacchan handle it,” he said confidently, and she relaxed, standing back to observe Kacchan deal with the situation.
The lackey charged forward, but with no formal training, Kacchan didn’t have to work hard to both dodge him and push him off balance, making him stumble unceremoniously to the ground. The action seemed to piss the leader off, as he aimed a punch straight at Kacchan’s face. Kacchan didn’t even bother to dodge that one, but merely grabbed the bully’s wrist, effectively stopping the motion, while also keeping the attacker in place, as he easily overpowered him. The bully flinched as Kacchan clearly gripped his wrist harder, and pushed him backwards, making him fall as well. The remaining lackeys didn’t even dare to move.
Kacchan didn’t say another word to them, he merely stared them down until the all eventually scrambled, running from the scene as fast as they could. Kacchan then turned to face the crowd, giving them a look that told them that the show was over, and that they could all get lost as well.
Kacchan’s expression softened slightly as he turned towards the trio, his eyes landing on Izuku, “You can stand up for yourself, you know,” he growled, and Izuku opened his mouth to speak, but didn’t quite know what to say. Thankfully, Uraraka took the reins.
“We should meet up with the others,” she exclaimed, taking Izuku by the wrist and began to walk towards the promised meet up spot, while Iida and Kacchan followed behind them.
“Were you not with with Kirishima-kun and the others?” Iida asked Kacchan, and Izuku couldn’t help but listen in to the conversation.
“What’s it to you?” Kacchan dismissed angrily. As if Izuku should have expected anything else.
“If I remember correctly, your group was at the other side of the mall,” Iida said cryptically, and Izuku heard Kacchan click his tongue in frustration.
“I just happened to see those fucks walking in your direction,” Kacchan growled just loud enough for Izuku to hear it. Iida didn’t ask another question as they continued forward.
When they all met up again, Kacchan naturally found his little group of friends, who immediately demanded to know why on earth he had suddenly left them. Naturally, he refused to answer, and they eventually found a restaurant that was big enough to fit all of them. They were all sat around a long table that was clearly meant for a little fewer than twenty, so it all got a little cramped. Izuku was sat between Uraraka and Iida who refused to leave his side, while Kacchan sat directly in front of him, pointedly not looking at Izuku at all.
“You two have been getting along better lately,” Uraraka whispered in his ear, likely not wanting Kacchan to overhear, “Is that why Bakugo-kun helped you?”
Izuku looked over to his childhood friend, who had started up a conversation with Kirishima about something. Izuku looked at him, and remembered that no matter how distant they had become, if Kacchan had found Izuku being picked on by others, he had always stepped in and either solved the situation by glaring angrily at people, or by winning a fight. Unlike today, however, Kacchan would then proceed to tell Izuku that it was his fault that he got picked on because he was too weak. But still, he always stood up for him.
“He’s used to it,” Izuku mumbled back, trying to stop himself from smiling too much.
“Oi, Bakugo!” Kaminari suddenly exclaimed, gaining the attention from every single person around the table, despite the only person separating him and Kacchan was Kirishima, “You can’t just run off to do heroic stuff and not tell us about it!”
“Wait, what is happening?” Ashido questioned, looking at Kaminari from the other side of Kacchan, who seemed annoyed at being in the middle (literally) of a conversation.
“There’s a video- wait, I’ll send it to you,” Kaminari said, and began tapping away on his phone. Within a minute, every phone not on silent made a noise, meaning that Kaminari had sent the video to everyone in the class. The only one who didn’t immediately reach for their phone, or lean in close to someone who had been a little quicker than them, was Kacchan, who merely looked displeased with the entire situation.
Izuku was sharing his phone with Uraraka and Iida and played the video. It began as the bully had moved closer to Izuku after Uraraka’s warning, and this time, Izuku not only got to see the way both Uraraka and Iida’s eyes screamed murder when he had lifted his hands, but in the moment Izuku had closed his eyes, Kacchan had appeared out of nowhere.
The way the video was angled allowed Izuku to actually look at Kacchan’s face, and it became clear to him that the thugs must have been particularly dumb. Kacchan’s face screamed hostility, and those idiots had been dumb enough to pick a fight with him. Despite his obvious discontent, Kacchan had handled the situation well, never once engaging or initiating the fight. Every single one of his moves had been self defense, his only attack having been the silent warning in his eyes. Behind him, Izuku found that while Uraraka and Iida had looked on as if they were ready to fight anyone who got too close, Izuku himself had merely looked on in awe. Did he always look at Kacchan like that?
The whole class finished the video around the same time, all eyes going to Kacchan who tried his best not to look at anyone. It probably helped a little that he was being shaken vigorously by Kirishima who was going on about how manly it was to stand up to bullies and all that.
And Izuku smiled softly at his childhood friend, because this was why he never gave up on him and forgave him so easily. No matter how far apart they grew, Kacchan had always had his back. Even if he had said and done things, Izuku wouldn’t usually stand for, for Kacchan he would make an exception. When it came to Kacchan, Izuku could smile and keep looking at him until his brilliance threatened to blind him.