Archive of Our Own ^beta

The common room was full of light chatter and laughter as everyone tried to make the most out of the Sunday before school. Sitting amongst the playing and gossiping was Izuku, scribbling in his notebook and mumbling like there was no tomorrow. Shinsou sat beside him on the couch, head leaning back in a way the seemed uncomfortable as he dozed softly.

"Yo Mido-bro, what are you writing?"

Kirishima's question was enough to break the teens concentration and he looked up alarmingly fast.

"Oh my Gods yeah! You're always writing in there! What is it, juicy gossip?! Spill!"

The pink girl scooted closer to him and stared intensely. The rest of the class seemed to take that as an invitation and began to crowd around Izuku, asking him questions about the contents of his notebook and accidentally waking Shinsou.

"C'mon dude, show us what you wrote!"

"Yeah, I bet it's really interesting Deku!"

"I too am curious Midoriya!"

"I bet it's all about heroes, ribbit."

Everyone got quiet as the boy in question began to stammer out a respone.

"I don't know you guys, it's not anything important, really! Honestly it's not even that good, just a bit of random thoughts on paper! I don't think you guys would really be interested in-"

"FOR FUCKS SAKE SHOW US THE GODDAMN NOTEBOOK DEKU!"

Izuku let out a small squeak and squeezed his eyes closed, thrusting the notebook out for anyone to grab. It was snatched from him almost immediately and he tensed even more once he heard the sound of pages turning.

"Oh, that's my name, lemme see!"

There was rustling before Uraraka began reading aloud.

Uraraka Ochaco | Uravity

Quirk: Zero Gravity - Making contact with all five fingers (5 point contact) allows her to cancel the gravity on an object and make it float. Contact does not hve to be prolonged. To release she touches the pads of her fingers together.

Other: She learned martial arts under Pro-Hero Gunhead (Vol. 6 Pg 42) 

Weaknesses: Hands. An easy target and the source of her quirk. Just breaking them won't be enough if she can still move. Have to sever at least one finger. At most the entire hand. It'll be difficult to get close enough to do this without her using her quirk. At this point you just have to be a better fighter. Her stance is alright, but she leaves herself open very frequently when trying to use her quirk mid-fight. She can only use her quirk so much before she starts feeling sick. Use that. Bringing a weapon into play would put her at a large disadvantage.

The room was silent as everyone took in the information. Uraraka's face had dropped as soon as she began reading the weaknesses and most everyone else's did the same. Izuku felt anxiety spike in his chest as everyone turned to him.

"That was... something!"

Everyone nodded as they continued to stare at Izuku. The boy wanted to hide from the looks they were giving him and began to slowly sink into the couch.

"This was a bust."

Everyone switched their gazes to Shinsou as the boy stood up from the couch and began to walk away.

"Midoriya, help me with this homework won't you?"

The boy jumped up, gave the class a shaky smile, and darted after the indigo haired boy.

Once they were out of range, the rest of the teens began flipping through the notebook again.

The next morning, Izuku sat at his desk contemplating what he did wrong. His classmates, his friends had been avoiding him all morning. 'Hello's were mumbled and followed by a quick getaway. Questions were answered with mumbles and then he was ignored afterwards. 

Upon walking into class, no one crowded his desk to talk before class began. No one besides Shinsou even looked at him really. It was driving him crazy. He didn't know what he did to make them start hating him but he'd fix it. Maybe it was the mumbling, they finally got fed up. Maybe they thought he was too plain. Whatever the issue was, he swore he would change.

He'd be better.

Midnight loved kids. She loved how innocent and impressionable they were. Made them easy to teach. She loved how gossipy they were and how they thought little things were the end of the world. That's why she loved lunch time. It gave her a reason to walk around and listen to drama between her students and see what stupid thing they deluded themselves into believing.

But this gossip?

This made her feel some type of way.

"It's so freaky! There's no reason for him to have a journal full of information on how our quirks function!"

"Hagakure's right."

"I'm not saying that she's wrong, just that it's crazy to assume that he's working with villains based on a little journal!"

"But you saw how violent some of the entries were Sero! And he's got like, fourteen other journals just like that one! You can't tell me that he's not just a little nutjob in the making!"

"Hagakure!"

The girl hmphed

"I'm just saying, don't jump to conclusions, you know? Midoriya's journal was a little strange, but that doesn't make him the traitor!"

Midnight had heard enough. She made her way to the teachers lounge unnoticed by the three teens. Upon arriving, she pushed the door open as dramatically as she could.

"OI NEMUri!"

Beside Mic, Eraser mumbled something about loud birds that made the former snort.

"I have some shit to tell ya'll that'll rock your worlds."

There was silence for a few moments before a large sigh left Eraser and he said "I swear, this better not be a sex thing."

"Shinsou, why do you hang out with me?"

The indigo haired boy stared for a few seconds before letting out a grunt that sounded like it was meant to be a question.

"I mean, everyone else has started avoiding me and even the teachers don't really like me. So why do you hang out with me?"

The boy continued to stare for around a minute before he sighed loudly.

"Because you're the only person in this place that I think is worth my time. Because I know what it's like to go through what you're going through right now and I know that this shit is terrible to go through when it's just you against the world."

The two teens spent the rest of the night doing nothing but laying in Shinsou's bed, pressed shoulder to shoulder with fingers intertwined and music twinkling softly in the background.

"Oh I forgot my pens! Shinsou do you have something I could borrow?!"

The teen shook his head minutely from its resting place on his desk.

"Ah Kacchan-"

The teen growled at him.

"Okay... Sero, do you maybe have a pencil I can borrow?"

The black haired boy quirked a brow at him before saying no, hostility painting his being.

"O-Okay. Well does anyone have a pencil or pen or something?"

There was a loud exaggerated sigh from diagonally ahead of him. Izuku held his breath.

"Are you really so fucking useless that you can't even bring your own shit? How are you supposed to be a hero and you can't even remember something so damn simple? Gods you're fucking worthless, Deku."

The breath Izuku let out was shaky. He didn't know that Jirou could be so mean. Then again, he supposed it was easy to be mean to him, useless, worthless Deku. 

Before he knew it, he was mumbling an apology and stumbling to the restroom, Shinsou hot on his heels and glaring at the class.

He could feel his heart beating in his chest, hard enough to break his ribcage. His eyes stung and his lungs burned like they were on fire as he tried to simply breathe. He clutched at his chest, his beating heart not slowing down and the heat overtaking him. He could hear Shinsou talking to him but his ears were full of water, making everything sound like white noise. 

The anxiety sat in his chest beside his heart, pulsing just as hard and he wondered if this feeling alone was enough to kill him. The panic sat at the base of his throat, choking him and every sound besides his sobs. His eyes watered until tears spilled over, the water in his ears leaving with them.

"-need you to breathe, c'mon Izuku."

He whimpered and rotated his torso to see the boy better.

"Toshi. H-hurts."

Hitoshi grimaced. "I know sweetheart but you're doing so good. Can I touch you? You mind if I touch you baby?"

He recieved a nod and audibly sighed in relief as he began to adjust their position. Hitoshi manuvered them until he was leaning against the wall with Izuku between his legs, back to chest with his hand resting over the shorter's heart.

"Alright darling, you feel me? Can you feel my hand over your heart? Okay and can you feel your back on my chest? Amazing darling, now I need you to breathe with me. You feel when I inhale and when I exhale, yeah? I need you to do what I'm doing, can you try that?"

Izuku nodded and threw his hands up to cover Hitoshi's. He let his body sag against Hitoshi's and did his best to just breathe.

"There you go honey, you're doing amazing. Just breathe. You're okay here, safe with me love. Just need you to breathe."

Hitoshi's repepition and praise made everything easy and in a few minutes Izuku was calm, twisting in the latter's lap to rest his head in the crook of Hitoshi's neck and wrap his arms around his waist. They hugged in silence before Izuku gathered the courage to speak.

"It was like middle school all over again. Back then, everyone hated me. I was everyone's stress relief, they'd come to me to take out their frustration. Rip up my homework, maim me, call me useless. Worthless. Deku."

Hitoshi almost flinched at the venom that coated the name.

"Wait, what do you mean they maimed you?"

The shorter teen sighed before leaning back and beginning to undress himslef. Hitoshi could only watch as the blazer hit the ground and the tie was loosened. Buttons came undone and his mouth dropped.

Izuku's torso was littered with brun scars, raised slashes and pin-pricks. He shivered as cold fingers slid up his chest to sit over a hand-shaped scar.

"Why?"

The smile that graced the freckled face in front of him made Hitoshi want to cry.

"Because I'm quirkless."

During lunch, Izuku was basically in Hitoshi's lap in an effort to try and ignore the stares and the whispers.

During lunch, an override key was used to enter Midoriya Izuku's dorm room.

During lunch, five cameras and mics were hidden inside.

During lunch, a team skimmed through all fifteen notebooks.

And during lunch, a lot of minds were made up.

7.) -3x-32=-2(5-4x)

Distribute the two, rewrite the equation.

-3x-32=-10+8x

Add three to both sides. Rewrite the equation

-3x+3x-32=-10+8x+3x

-32=-10+11x

Add ten to both sides

-32+10=-10+10+11x

-22=11x

Divide both sides by 11

(-22/11)=(11x/11)

x=-2

Gods, Izuku was so glad that this quiz was just review. It's not that it was difficult, just that it was so tedious. He wished he had a calculator the did everything for him-.

There was a knock on the classroom door.

"Sorry to bother you Ectoplasm."

He waved the officers off.

"Midoriya Izuku, is he here?"

The boy meeped and stood up slowly. The two officers footsteps sounded like thunder as they marched towards him.

"Midoriya Izuku-"

The taller officer pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

"You are under arrest for-"

And just like that, he was drifting. All that registered to him was the pain of his arms being yanked behind him, his wrists bending and cuffs tightening and tearing his skin. He could hear Hitoshi yelling behind him as he was shoved towards the door, banging into every desk and being pushed into the doorframe.

Ouch.

Izuku didn't return to himself until he was violently forced into a metal chair, being pushed in a way that made him bang his head on the tabke's corner. A sharp gasp left him a his forehead began to throb and his right hand was uncuffed. 

The relief at the absence of the cutting metal was short lived as the officer yanked his left arm hard enough to nearly send him flying out of his seat. When he was cuffed to the table, he let out a low whine.

Instead of putting the cuff arond the bar, they re-cuffed his hand to the bar. The cuff was digging into the wound that had already been made and Gods did it hurt.

Izuku was momentarily distracted from the pain when a familiar face popped in through a crack in the door.

"Officers. Detective Tsukauchi says that he won't be able to make it for at least 45 minutes, an hour at the latest. He advises that we wait so that he can get an accurate reading with his quirk. I think it's better to just get it over with."

Izuku could feel his body began to shake with disbelief as he listened to the man he trusted the most, his own mentor, speak like everything was normal and Izuku wasn't just arrested in the middle of a maths quiz.

"A- All Might?"

The boy flinched when the former hero's eyes lost any warmth the may have held as he turned to look at him. The blonde decided to simply ignore him, bowing to the two officers in the room and exiting.

His vision of the door was blocked by the shorter officer who stood with their hands on their hips and a menacing look on their face.

"Midoriya Izuku. That is your name, correct?"

"Yes, Officer."

"Tell me Midoriya, what do you do in your spare time?

"I don't know, I- I guess I just study and talk to my friends- I mean friend."

"Just one friend?"

He nodded softly.

"Hmm. Interesting."

"Tell me Midoriya, do you ever journal?"

"J-Journal?"

They gave him blank stares.

He gulped.

"I write sometimes. They're ususally analyses."

"Ah! What do you analyze kid?"

"Usually quirks, I guess. I think they're interesting."

A small hum.

The taller officer rested his weight on the table-top.

"Why? Why quirks? What's so cool about them?"

"Um... well, my quirk didn't manifest until just recently, so I would look at other people's quirks."

"Hmm. Did you ever want them? The quirks? Since you were quirkless, I mean. How did you end up with a qurk so late anyways?"

"S-Sometimes, maybe? A-And I guess my body just wasn't ready for it. I trained for about 10 months for my quirk to activate and even then it broke all my bones."

The two officers stared at him, sizing him up, making him feel so, so small.

"Bullshit."

Izuku whipped his head up.

"Excuse me, Sir?"

"Bull-shit. There's no way you just magically get a quirk because you got buff. How'd you get the quirk. 'D you make a deal, is that it? You get a quirk and they get information? When did you first meet them Midoriya?"

His brows furrowed with confusion and his leg began to bounce.

"Sir, I'm afraid I don't understand. Who is they? Why... why am I here?"

"You know... I really depise liars. So tell us straight up Midoriya and I'll try and stay nice. Why are you working with them? Selling out your classmates? Was your deal long term?"

"Working with who? I swear I don't know what's-"

"THE LEAGUE!"

For Izuku, time stopped.

What the fuck?

"I'm not working with the The League!"

And thats when they started to hit him.

This part of the interrogation went on for almost an hour, Izuku's screaming and panting being recorded for the duration. During, he was asked the same questions, over and over, worded differently each time. Trying to get him to slip. To crack. To break. His wrists were bleeding steadily due to the cuffs and he could feel his eye swollen shut and the pain of various cuts on his face.

Officer Short (he never got their names) was in the middle of yelling a question at him when the door to the room flew open, making everyone go still.

"What the hell is going on here?!"

The two officers looked at each other. Then at Izuku. Then back to the door.

"... Interrogation."

"YEAH NO SHIT! But did I not say wait until I got here?! What you're doing in unjust and not to mention illegal! He is a child, his parent was not made aware he was here, he hasn't even got something that could begin to resemble a lawyer! What the hell were you thinking?!"

"We just wanted to-"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU WANTED! Oh my gods, get out of my sight before I fucking lose it."

The two officers walked out of the room slowly, giving Izuku dirty looks all the way. When they made it to the door, he was pretty sure he heard two slaps. When they finally left, Tsukauchi entered the room, eyes widening at the sight of a crying, bruised and bleeding sixteen year old.

"Oh kid... okay...."

The detective bent down to a squat and began to look through a ring of keys, muttering to himself all the while.

"Are you gonna uncuff me?"

Izuku's voice was quiet and shaky, delicate and frightened. It made Tsukauchi's heart break.

"Yeah kid. You're bleeding pretty bad ya'know." 

"...Why? Apparently I deserve it, being a traitor and all."

"Well... even if you were the traitor, which I'm sure you're not, you're still a kid."

And with that, there was a click and the cuff on his wrist was off, followed soon by the second. Tsukauchi examined his wrists before gently holding Izuku's hand in his own.

"Alright kid, just so you can get out of here, I'm gonna ask you a few questions. Is that okay? My quirk is Lie Detector and I'm gonna be using that right now so that I'll know straight away if you're telling the truth. It'll only take five minutes and then... we can go get you patched up and then get something to eat. How does ice cream sound?"

Izuku slipped him a small nervous smile and whispered an ok, asked if they could bring Shinsou, and they were set.

"Alright kid, I'm gonna ask you a few question just to get a feel for you. We'll start easy and get to the harder ones as we go, m'kay?"

A nod.

"Okay, first question: What's your name?"

"M-Midoriya Izuku."

"True. How old are you Midoriya?"

"Sixteen. Call me Izuku."

"Alright Izuku. True. What's your mothers full name and phone number?"

"Midoriya Inko. (XXX)XXX-XXXX"

"True. Alright we're gonna get into a few of the harder questions, m'kay?"

 Another nod.

"Alright. You're doing amazing kid. Do you journal Izuku?"

"Yes Sir."

"True, and what do you journal about?"

"I analyze people's quirks in my free time."

"True. Why do you analyze quirks?"

"They're interesting... it makes me feel safe."

"Hmm. True. Safe how? Safe from what?"

"W-Well I didn't get my quirk until I was fifteen, so for most of my life I was bullied. Severely bullied for being... quirkless. I would take note of their quirks so I knew how to protect myself and I guess it just... became habit?"

"...Truth. This is off topic so you don't have to answer it, but what do you mean by severely? How bad was it?"

There was silence for a few moments before Izuku cleared his throat and spoke again.

"Bad. It was bad. The more powerful their quirks were, the more they wanted to hurt me. I have a lot of burn scars and cuts, a lot of bumps that'll never go away because of all the poking around they'd do. One kid had a quirk to elongate his fingers. He would stick his fingers in my mouth and make them longer just to laugh at the sounds I made while choking. 

And the teachers never did anything. Whenever something happened in front of them, the good teachers turned away and pretend it wasn't happening. The bad ones would crack jokes and laugh with the kids. And if I ever tried to fight back, the fun was over and I was in the principal's office because I started it. If they weren't hurting me or laughing, they were ignoring me. I was so lonely all the time. Everyone would go days at a time pretending I didn't exist because quirkless people don't deserve to live. They'd 'quarantine' me because they didn't want to catch my disease. So yeah I'd say it was a pretty shit experience."

At the end Izuku was left panting, face red with blood and anger, fingers clenched hard enough to make his hands shake.

"... Truth. We'll talk more about that another day and see if we can't get that school shut down. In the meantime, just a few more qustions, okay?"

Nod again.

"Alright, so you analyze quirks just in case you have to defend yourself against bullying like you experienced in middle school, correct?"

"Yes Sir."

"Alright, so those journals are the only reason you're here. People thought your notes were dangerous and that you may be giving villains information about your classmates' and other heroes' quirks. So once we get these last few question out of the way, we're golden kid. You ready."

Nod.

"Alright, did you write those analyses with malicious and/or villainous intent?"

"No."

"True. Did you ever give those analyses to villains for free, in exchange for something, or were paid or coerced to?"

"No Sir."

"True. Alright last question kid, then ice cream. Are you the U.A. traitor?"

"No."

"True. Gods kid what did they do to you?"

And Izuku broke down. The detective was quick to gather the boy up in a hug, and he made sure to stay keep the hug going as long as Izuku needed it.

"Okay lets go get you fixed up."

Izuku sat in Tsukauchi's desk chair, rotating it lightly as he played with his fingers and the detective looked for any bandages he had. When he finally popped up, Tsukauchi banged his head on the bottom of the table and yelped, making Izuku giggle softly.

"Laughing at my pain, how dare you kid."

Izuku kept giggling.

"Alright you little giggle-box, I only have Sanrio bandaids."

They stared at each other in silence.

"I want all the Cinnamonroll and Keroppi you have."

Tsukauchi's face fell and he started mumbling something about children and greedy vultures. Izuku just laughed.

Once Izuku was decked out in blue and green bandages, they were ready to go get Hitoshi.

As soon as Hitoshi and Izuku saw each other, they were both booking it down the hall towards each other. Izuku jumped into the taller boy's arms and threw his arms around his neck with his legs wrapped around his best friend's waist. Hitoshi immediately grasped the underside of Izuku's thigh and threw his free arm around the boy's shoulder.

"Zuku..."

"Toshi. Let's go get ice cream."

Izuku withdrew from the crook of the indigo-haired boy's neck to look him in the eyes. The latter took in Izuku's current state and was about to speak out but just sighed and shook his head.

"Who's paying?"

"The detective!"

Hitoshi looked down the hall Izuku came down and finally noticed the tall man in a tan trenchcoat.

"...Alright. Lets break his fucking wallet."

Izuku gasped.

"Toshi no!"

"Hitoshi yes."

And with that the teens made their way back down the hallway toward to detective.

"Alright so, we already got you excused Shinsou. Unfortunately I won't be able to stay for ice cream because I do have work to do regarding what happened today, so I'll just take you guys to get it and bring you back to the dorms. 'S that okay?"

Izuku pouted and nodded.

"It's your money detective, I'll take what I can get."

"Hitoshi!"

The two teens sat cuddled up on the common room couch, trading their last few spoonfuls of ice cream.

"I still don't understand why you got Birthday Cake. 36 flavors to choose from and you went with Birthday Cake."

"It was blue! And it has little pieces of cake in it! You're eating it so be quiet! Plus you got Cappucino Chunky Chocolate! You're so typical."

"Coffee is a godsend don't come for me. Plus, you're eating it so be quiet."

Izuku made a scandalized face and whipped around to face Hitoshi, making the boy laugh at how offended Izuku looked at having his own words used against him. Unfortunately the teen still had ice cream in his mouth, so he ended up choking which only made him cackle harder.

"Oh my Gods Hitoshi!"

Izuku began patting his back rapidly. No, not patting, beating the fuck out of. Hitoshi was pretty sure the boy was using One For All which only made him laugh even harder. It took two more minutes for the boys to settle down.

They laid together, body to body, Izuku's head tucked under Hitoshi's chin. He was listening to the taller boy's heartbeat as they cuddled. With the quiet, Izuku was left with his thoughts, his memories of what had happened just 45 minutes ago. He could feel the helplessness rising back up within him and couldn't help the tears the started to escape him.

"Zuku?"

He sucked in a shaky breath and let out a loud sob on the exhale.

"Oh, darling. Let's go to your room okay?" Hitoshi did his best to manuver himself from between Izuku and the couch so that he could carry the smaller teen.

By the time they made it to Izuku's room, the boy was bawling. Hitoshi could tell that it wasn't panic or anxiety this time, just sadness. A broken heart. So he decided he'd do whatever it took to make it better. He laid Izuku down in his bed and climbed in next to him, arms immediately cradling him. At first, he just held him, played with his hair, pressed gentle kisses onto his skin. But then he started to sing.

"Just close your eyes,

The sun is going down.

You'll be alright,

No one can hurt you now.

Come morning light,

You and I'll be safe and sound."