Work Text:
Izuku bit his tongue as he brushed the last strand of hair into place. It had taken an entire bottle of gel, but after two hours of pushing and tugging his tangled mess of hair had finally been tamed. There was nothing significant about today for him to wake up earlier than he usually did to do his hair, but the young teen wanted to show people that he knew how to keep up his appearance, despite what the state of his tie told them. With a satisfied sigh, he put his hairbrush down and finished getting ready for school, grateful that the shirt of his school uniform didn’t have to be pulled over his head and risk losing the perfection he’d worked so hard to achieve. Izuku took one last look at his reflection and flashed a smile before exiting his dorm room.
"Bonjour!" Aoyama exclaimed as the greenette entered the hallway. He posed and smiled at his green-haired friend. Then blinked. "I see you've done... something to your hair," Midoriya smiled with pride and the Frenchman moved, almost in a trance, toward the other boy. He raised his hand to the green hair and pulled some hair so it was sticking straight up on Izuku’s head. Izuku’s smile fell and he looked at Aoyama, bewildered, as the blond nodded and started heading towards the elevator.
Izuku frowned as the eccentric boy walked away and tried to fix what the other had done for a few seconds before giving up. At least his hair was still mostly done.
"What did you do?" Shinsou said from behind the shorter boy. Izuku jumped, spinning on his heels to face his neighbor.
"I don't know," The greenette said, turning back to the elevator. "Aoyama just-"
"No," The insomniac interrupted, bringing Izuku’s attention back to him. "What did you do with your hair?"
"Oh!" Izuku smiled again. "I fixed t so it wouldn't be all over the place!" He paused, hoping for some form of congratulations. What he got was a deep, unwavering frown.
Shinsou stared Izuku down, lifting his hand, and gently petted the other's green curls, slightly messing them up, and went on his way. Midoriya frowned again and started trying to fix it as he followed the taller teen down the hall and towards the elevator.
He was so focused on his hair that he walked into Tokoyami, who'd just exited his own room.
"Ah! Sorry!" He apologized. Tokoyami nodded at the boy, then his attention was almost pulled towards the non-messy hair. Feeling a little concerned for his locks (which had taken him an hour to get them where he wanted them and an additional hour to get them to stay there) Izuku backed away from his classmate.
"Dark Shadow," Tokoyami called his familiar but gave no further instruction. Unfortunately for Izuku, he didn’t need to.
"On it!" Dark Shadow emerged from Tokoyami’s midsection and ran a shadowy clawed hand through the greenette’s hair before retreating. Once again, Izuku frowned and watched another friend head downstairs. He followed slowly, feeling a little betrayed and silently hoping the rest of his classmates would leave him (and his hair) alone.
( Spoiler: They didn't )
When he entered the common area, he was swarmed by Kaminari, Hagakure, Ashido, and Sero, each ruffling his hair even further as they each commented on how odd he looked without the wild forest of curls he’d been born with. When the four of them parted, Jirou approached him with Yaoyorozu and Asui. They didn't mess his hair up, but they each tentatively patted his head and told them in a roundabout way that he didn’t need to change himself to make other people happy. Which was nice, but he hadn’t done his hair for them or anyone else. It was for himself. And, after all, it was just hair. What was so wrong with it looking different for one day?
Izuku shrunk in on himself as he wondered why his friends were acting so strangely before heading out of the dorm and towards the main UA building. Not really having anywhere to run off to (without missing classes), Izuku could only groan in displeasure as Shouji gently tugged at his hair while Satou poked his fingers through the curls to bring their usual definition back.
Entering the building, Izuku quickly changed his shoes, trying to get to class as soon as possible. He was stopped, of course, by an out of breath Uraraka (who'd been running late because she'd stayed up late studying). She was a good friend who spoke her mind, although sometimes she was less than tactful, so when she saw what her friend looked like, she laughed.
"Why does you're hair look like that?" She asked while ruffling his curls even further, seemingly oblivious to the squawk of horror her actions caused.
"Because people keep doing that to it," The boy grumbled and tried to fix his hair, knowing that there was no way it looked as good as it had when he’d left his room and wondering if maybe he should’ve woken up earlier and just gone to class before anyone was even up. Uraraka just chuckled and went ahead to the 1-A classroom.
Ojirou, Kouda, and Todoroki were passing him in the halls when Ojirou's tail swiped at the greenette's hair. Kouda ran his hand through the green head and mumbled something about there being a rat in it before rushing to class.
Todoroki just stared at the other boy and said with a frown that matched the one Shinsou had earlier, "I don't like this," before pushing some of the other's hair down over his forehead so it was slightly hidden beneath the familiar green.
Finally arriving in his classroom, Izuku tried to get to his seat as fast as possible, but his hair was once again messed with as he passed Kirishima, the redhead’s hands moving on their own to join with the ritual his classmates had unwittingly started.
He sat down on his seat and looked at the clock. One minute and Aizawa would arrive, saying something about how they should already be in their seats. He tried to fix his hair again, thinking that as soon as their homeroom teacher arrived no one else would dare to mess with it.
Bakugou looked over his shoulder at his childhood friend and scoffed.
"The hell are you doing, Deku?" he asked, scornfully.
"I'm fixing my hair, Kacchan," Izuku frowned at the explosive teen. "People keep messing it up,"
In response, the blond aggressively tousled the green hair, eliciting an indignant cry from the other boy.
Thirty seconds until class.
Iida moved to the front of the room to tell his classmates to head to their seats. The class president glanced at Midoriya and took the long way to his desk just so he could to pat his friend's curls. Whether he meant to or not, the action further ruined the hair Izuku had been so proud of before leaving his room.
"Morning," Aizawa entered and the greenette breathed a sigh of relief. His hair would be safe now.
Aizawa turned to Midoriya.
The room was silent.
The pro hero sighed in a way that only the truly tired can, walked up to his problem child, looked him dead in the eye, and ruffled his hair.
"Hey!" Izuku cried, hands flying up to his cover his hair in a futile attempt to save his hard work, but the damage was already done. His hair looked like its usual chaotic mess.
"Don't do that again, Problem Child,"
The rest of the day, his classmates went out of their way to make his hair look even worse than normal.
Izuku never did his hair again.