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It was about 10 minutes before class started when Jiro walked in. A good majority of the class had already gathered to discuss homework and gossip but they stopped as soon as they saw Jiro. She had her phone in her hand and looked distressed.
Yaoyorozu spoke up as she walked to her, “Jiro? Are you alright?
That’s all it took for the dam to break. Her legs dropped from under her as she fell to the ground like a puppet with snapped strings. A few choking sobs were all that could be heard from her limp body.
The rest of the class rushed to her hugging and trying to comfort their normally stoic friend.
“What happened Jiro?”
“You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to. But we’re all here to listen if you need us to.” Yaoyorozu whispered.
“No- i-it’s fine.” She hiccuped out before taking a shaky breath in an attempt to calm herself. “It’s just- I got a call from my mom- And-” She dissolved into sobs again.
“It’s fine. Take your time.” Yaoyorozu continued as she rubbed soft circles into the girl's back. Everyone hung back and waited for Jiro to speak.
“Well- My little brother is quirkless.” The sobs had stopped for the most part although she still wrung her hands in clear despair. “...Was quirkless.”
There was a sharp intake of breath as the class realized the implications of her words. Aizawa had walked over to see what was happening and had a clear view of Uraraka pressing her hands to her mouth, Izuku freezing in surprise, and Bakugou looking on with a distressed expression.
Aizawa felt bad for the child. He wasn’t surprised though. Quirkless children had the highest rate of suicide compared to any other minority. He had fought tooth and nail to use his limited influence to promote quirkless tolerance but to no avail. The world would always have its scapegoats and for now the quirkless were the obvious choice.
“We- we knew he was being bullied but… he had switched schools 4 times! The system wouldn’t work with us and we didn’t know what to do… My family- they found him this morning,” Her voice trembled.
“I’m so sorry,” Yaoyorozu muttered hugging the girl. “I’m so so sorry.”
The rest of the class offered their condolences. Even Bakugou offered a small “Sorry for your loss.”
Then Aizawa noticed something strange. Midoriya hadn’t said a word. He was shaking slightly and grasping at the hem of his shirt. He turned abruptly and Aizawa saw a frantic expression of agitation on his face as he started to hurriedly make for the door.
He was stopped as Bakugou grabbed his wrist and pulled him back. “Deku-” He started, a strange look of worry making him scrunch his eyebrows.
“Shut up!” Midoriya snapped uncharacteristically drawing the attention of the rest of the class. “I’m leaving.”
“What’s the matter Midoriya?” Kirishima asked from Jiro’s side.
Midoriya ignored him.
Bakugou looked unsure. “Deku I-”
He was cut off as Midoriya laughed a shaky little laugh before looking right back at Bakugou. “‘Sorry for your loss’?! Really?! I guess you only care if you don’t know the person, huh?!”
“What the hell Deku?!” Bakugou’s anger returned, burning away the concern he had shone only moments before. “You know I didn’t mean it that way!”
“Oh no… you DEFINITELY didn’t mean it that way.” Midoriya sneered sarcastically before dropping his voice to a venomous growl. “What does it matter though? Who knows? Maybe he’ll be born with a quirk in his next life.”
There was a roar as the class exploded in outrage.
“Why would you SAY that Midoriya!”
“That’s not cool man!”
“Midoriya!”
Aizawa himself was in shock as he watched Bakugou draw back his arm from Midoriya’s wrist as if he’d been burned. It was only because he was so near that he caught the rest of the whispered conversation over the noise of Jiro bawling and half the class trying to calm her down while the other half yelled at Midoriya.
“I never should have said that.” Bakugou said quietly.
“No. You shouldn’t have.”
“I didn’t mean it.”
“See that’s the worst little bit. I think you did.”
Bakugou recoiled and raised his voice a little bit. “I didn’t, damn it! And you didn’t do it anyways so who cares!”
There was a hot anger Aizawa had never seen before on Midoriya’s face. “You have NO IDEA HOW CLOSE I CAME! I WAS GOING TO!” He let out a scream of frustration oblivious to the pain on Bakugou’s face. “That night! If it wasn’t for the sludge villain I would have-” He realized the whole class was looking at him and huffed angrily. “Well. What’s done is done. At least I’m not useless anymore, huh?” He then walked out of the class leaving complete silence broken only by the cries of Jiro and the shaking breaths of Bakugou.
-
Aizawa didn’t even look back as he strode to and then out the door, only pausing to shoot a text to Mic. Mic would be able to handle the situation he had just left even better than Aizawa himself would. Besides, he had a problem child to find.
He found Midoriya huddled on the floor of the bathroom. His expression was blank as he rubbed anxious circles over his wrist, not even acknowledging Aizawa as he slid to the floor next to him.
It was probably five minutes later when he finally spoke his voice cracking while his eyes stayed dry. “I’m sorry, you know.” Another long pause. “I didn’t mean to hurt Jiro.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“I-I don’t know.” Another lengthy pause. “I don’t know if you knew but I’m actually a late bloomer. And so we actually thought I was quirkless for the first 14 years of my life…”
Aizawa’s heart winced in sympathy. As someone with a so-called villains quirk he was all too familiar with quirk discrimination. And yet he knew he’d never had it as bad as those born quirkless.
“And so I know what her brother went through. I got so many death threats just for not having a quirk. People telling me what a waste of oxygen I was, how I’d be more useful in death than I ever would be in life. ” Midoriya had started talking and now he couldn’t stop. “I was beat up more times than I could count those days. I guess the pain tolerance has actually come in handy now… But it was like they hated me just for EXISTING. The teachers kept telling me it was my fault and after a while I started to believe them. And as painful as it was I got used to it. Until…”
Aizawa waited patiently for him to continue noting the sheen his eyes now had.
“Someone told me- told me ‘If you want to be a hero so bad take a swan dive off this roof and hope for a quirk in your next life.’” He laughed bitterly. “That's the funny thing you know. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard it, not by a long shot. It’s just- well I was really naive back then and for some reason I thought the person was my friend. I guess I just didn’t have much experience with real friends. I didn’t realize-”
“Bakugou,” Aizawa cut in as soon as he connected the dots.
Midoriya smiled sourly. “Yeah. Bakugou.” It was the first time Aizawa had heard him call him that instead of Kacchan. “I’ve gotten better at accepting my worth. I've been working through stuff, and it helps that I have friends- REAL friends now. But hearing about her brother was like hearing what could have been and I realized I’m not as over it as I thought.”
“It’s okay to still be affected. These things take time,” Aizawa said softly. “It’s hard. Healing.” There was a level of sympathy that made Midoriya realize he knew exactly what he was talking about and it warmed his heart enough to make it open just a bit more.
“I- I was going to do it that day. I’d had a plan since I was 11 and I was finally going to do it. And then I was attacked by a villain and I couldn’t breathe and I remember thinking; this is it. But it wasn’t.”
“What changed your mind?”
“I met All Might. He saved me in ways he’ll never know.”
They both sat in silence for a moment, neither knowing what to say.
“I should probably apologize to Jiro.”
“Give it a few days. She’s going to be in a rough state for a while, it will be better to let her cool down.”
Silence once more. Then, “Sensei? Thank you,” Aizawa only hummed noncommittally. “It- it helped. Talking about it.”
“I’ll always be here if you need to talk kid.” He turned and saw a smile on Midoriya’s lips. It was a genuine one this time. Aizawa’s heart broke just a bit more. He promised himself that he would fight even harder to fix the world that had promoted such hate towards this child.
“Anytime kid.” And Aizawa wrapped his arms around the child as Midoriya cried quietly into his shoulder. “Anytime.”