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Izuku woke up bleary eyed and dazed, feeling like he slept on a bed of nails rather than a queen sized mattress.
So, overall, a normal morning.
Ever since his little visit with the previous holders of One for All, Izuku hasn’t exactly had the best sleep schedule. Every night greeted him with memories and flashbacks of the vestiges lives. Some were nice, like the seventh´s first memory of flying. But since most of the vestiges lives consisted of being on the run from All for One and his followers, most were nightmares.
Izuku shuddered as he thought of his latest dream.
Hey, at least I slept through the night this time! He tried to think positively.
Izuku turned over in bed and checked the time on his clock. It read 6:08 A.M. He had at least an hour before he needed to get ready, and another before he needed to leave for school. But hey, it never hurt anyone to get ready early! Izuku thought back on last nights dream.
Yeah, no way I’m going back to sleep after that one.
Izuku yawned and rolled over to the edge of the bed. He pulled on his slippers (All Might themed of course) and shuffled to his bathroom. Izuku rubbed the sleep from his eyes and turned on the light. He grabbed his toothbrush and looked in the mirror.
The toothbrush clattered to the floor but Izuku couldn’t hear it because all of his attention was now turned towards what he saw .
Izuku’s hair had turned white .
Izuku’s jaw dropped and his heart started racing frantically, chasing away any sleepiness he had left. He ran a scarred hand through his hair. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened again, hoping it was just his imagination. He flipped the light on and off, praying it was a trick of the light.
Maybe it’s dye or something! Maybe i’ve been pranked!
Following that rather hopeless train of thought Izuku turned on the faucet and dunked his head under. He looked in the mirror and yet again, nothing changed. Head dripping water and soaking his pajamas, he decided to call the smartest and most reliable person he knew.
His mom answered the facetime call on the third ring.
Inko Midoriya was wearing her scrubs and seemingly walking to the hospital she worked out. Izuku could hear the hustle and bustle of the city from her side even though she was wearing headphones. Face pinched in a slightly worried expression, she asked,
“Izuku, honey, is everything all right? You don’t need to be awake for another hour,”
Izuku kept his face out of frame as he answered, “Mom, I kind of have a problem and I need your help,” He could hear the anxiety in his own voice and see the worry spread on his mothers.
“Izuku, what kind of problem,” His mother said, her voice slightly stern.
“Oh, well I went to bed, woke up this morning, looked in the mirror and saw this!” Izuku tilted the screen up so his mom could see his face, and the most recent addition to his appearance, his white hair.
Izku’s mother’s expression changed from worry to shock in a second, her mouth hung open in a small ‘o’.
“-and I don’t even know how it happened! I went to bed, woke up and BAM! White hair! I’ve never heard of this ever happening to someone! Who goes completely white overnight! I’ve heard of some people finding white strands now and then but for it all to turn white in seven hours definitely isn’t normal…. ” Izuku broke off into incomprehensible mumbles, slightly forgetting that he was on the phone with his mother until he looked back at her face, and her expression had morphed into something else entirely.
She was smiling sadly. Her eyes were glazed over with small tears, and she looked like she was remembering something.
“Mom? Are you okay” Izuku asked worridly.
Mama Midoriya sniffed and said with a small laugh, “Yes, yes of course I’m alright honey. Its just…” she hesitated.
“..you look so much like your father,”
“My… father?” Izuku hesitantly asked, not wanting to cross a line. Izuku didn’t know much about his father, just that he left soon after Izuku was diagnosed quirkless. Izuku tried asking about him before, but it would only make his mom sad, so he wrote him off as a quirkist deadbeat. For his mom to start the conversation about his father was extremely strange.
Inko wiped a small tear from her eye. “Every day I catch you looking and acting more and more like him. You have his curls, his freckles…” she paused for a second. “Everyone always says you look just like me, but in reality your so much like him. You probably dont remember this, but you two loved to analyze heroes together, and play hero’s and villains together. He would always do the funniest monologues,” She said with a small laugh.
“I see him in you whenever you see an interesting quirk, or whenever you smile,” His mother is smiling now, and he knows shes not looking at him now, but at the past when they were still a small happy family.
“While we were still dating, I asked your father about his white hair. He said that for some reason it runs in his family to go white seemingly overnight in their teenage years. Theres nothing to worry about sweetheart,” His mother finished off, a happy expression on her face or the first time after talking about her father.
Suddenly, her face changed from soft reminiscing to a questioning look.
“Izuku…do you remember what your father looks like?”
After receiving that plunder of knowledge, Izuku wasn’t sure he was able to respond. This is the most his mom talked about his deadbeat for a dad ever .
Izuku bit his lip. “Sorry mom, I really don’t” He was telling the truth, he really was. Ever since he came to the conclusion that his dad left because he couldn’t handle having a quirkless kid for a son, Izuku shoved all his memories of the man into a deep dark corner of his mind, and now he can barely remember the guy.
His mother bowed her head. Izuku thought that she looked… disappointed at herself.
When she spoke again her voice was filled with regret. “I should have told you more about him. Just because our relationship may have not…worked out” Izuku’s mother said ‘worked out’ as if was painful to say. “...you still deserved to know about the man, and what he was like. I should have told you…” His mom drifted off, her voice getting too quiet to complete the sentence.
“Oh, mom no! No no don’t worry its okay!” Izuku’s arms flailed around, almost dropping the phone, in an effort to comfort his mom.
Inko took a deep breath and he could see the determination in her eyes. “Well, for now on I’m gonna try to do better. I have to go sweetie, but I’ll send you a picture of him when I’m on my lunch. I’m sure I have one in my camera roll,”
“Oh, okay mom! Thanks for helping me! Love you!”
Izukus mother gave another sad smile. “Love you too sweetheart! Have a good day!” She said as she hung up.
Izuku put down his phone on the sink, and tried to process all the information he was just given. Before he could do that, he came to a shocking revelation.
‘I have to go to school looking like this’
-----------
“Maybe a hat? I have a few All Might ones, two Silver age and one Bronze age…but what if I get them dirty using them today…they cost so much….I suppose it would be out of character for me to wear a hat, since I’ve never worn one before…it might only draw more suspicion…but what am I going to do…” Izuku mumbled as he paced his room.
Finally, he decided that wearing a hat would only delay the inevitable.
I mean, in a age full of quirks is white hair really that big of a deal? Izuku thought to himself.
So, with a heavy heart and three limited edition All Might hats tucked away back to where they were supposed to be, Izuku walked out of his dorm and down the hall to face the music.
-----------------------------------------
And so, as the natural order of the world enstates, chaos ensued.
Izuku could hear Kamanari, Uraraka and Kirishima talking animatedly in the kitchen. So, while they were distracted Izuku tried to stealthily sneak in and steal an apple.
Izuku’s morning was going great, so of course he had to trip on his untied shoelace and fall on the floor. Announcing his presence to everyone.
He heard a commotion of people behind him, rushing to help him up. Izuku grabbed Kirishima’s hand and hoisted himself up, keeping his head low.
“Dude, that was a bit of a fal-” Kirishima was cut off as soon as he caught sight of his hair.
His eyes went wide and everybody went silent. Izuku could feel his face heating up and thought he was going to die of embarrassment until Kirishima exclaimed,
“Bro! You should’ve told me you dyed your hair! I would have helped!”
Izuku blinked twice.
That was not the reaction he had been expecting.
“Yeah Deku! When’d you have time to dye it? We were training until, like, ten o’clock last night!” Uraraka said bubbly.
“No hate dude, but why white? I mean it looks nice and all but thats a weird color to dye your hair,” Kaminari asked.
“Uhm, well guys, you see the thing is…” Izuku stammered.
They were all staring at him wide eyed, making this way harder than it needed to be.
“IwenttobedlastnightandeverythingwasnormalbutIkindofwokeupthismorningand myhairturnedwhiteovernight,” Izuku said in one breath.
It got really quiet again.
Kaminari broke the silence with a “Huh?”
Izuku nodded his head, too embarrassed to get words out.
“Is that even possible?” Uraraka asked.
“I called my mom this morning and apparently it's normal in my dad's side of the family to go fully white overnight for whatever reason,” Izuku answered, face feeling hot.
Kaminari let out a low whistle.
“Damn bro. Your genetics are wack. I think it looks neat either way. See ya in class!” And with that he patted Izuku's shoulder, grabbed a pear from the bowl on the table, and left the kitchen.
“Bakugou, you should go to the kitchen. I think there's something in there that you’ll find interesting!” Izuku faintly heard Kaminari say before the door to the kitchen closed.
‘Alrighty then’ Izuku thought to himself.
“I'm with Kaminari on this one bro. That is really weird. But it suits you!” Kirishima said, obvious that he was trying to cheer Izuku up.
“Yeah it does! You kind of look like one of those wishing flowers!” Uraraka complimented. At least, Izuku thinks thats a compliment.
Izuku blushed under all of the praise.
“W-well thanks gu-” Izuku was cut off by the sound of a door being kicked open, and it wasn’t hard for Izuku to guess by whom.
Izuku turned to face the door and found Kacchan staring at him with his mouth slightly hanging open. After a half a second he went back to his normal moody face though.
Kacchan scoffed and said, “Your hair looks shittier than normal,”
“Wel-” Izuku tried to explain but was cut off with Kacchan forcibly walking past him and saying over his shoulder, “I don’t give a damn why you decided to dye your ugly ass hair. Leave me alone,”
With that sentiment he grabbed a protein shake from the fridge and left the kitchen.
Uraraka and said, “Well he’s as peachy as ever,” Izuku couldn’t have agreed more.
------
The rest of his class had more or less the same reactions when they caught sight of Izuku’s hair, and the same dumbfounded look on their faces when he told them the reason why.
This was with the exception of Todoroki, of course. When Izuku sat down at their table for breakfast he looked at his hair, then stared him dead in the eye and said,
“White hair huh?”
Izuku nodded, unsure of what else to do.
Todoroki hummed in response and pulled out a notebook from who knows where.
“Interesting…” He said quietly while writing something down in said notebook.
Izuku shuddered.
-------
Morning classes came and went with nothing more than giving Izuku a strange look each class. Izuku was grateful for this, because he was exhausted from having to explain his hair situation. The peace went on until Izuku’s last period before lunch.
It was a relatively uneventful class, Ectoplasm was droning on about the importance of the quadratic formula, when he saw two strands of yellow hair in the doorway.
All Might knocked on the door then entered the room, holding his lunch box in one hand.
“Sorry to interrupt Ectoplasm but I needed to ask Young Midoiya if he wanted to have lunch with-” All might glances at Izuku and stops his sentence.
Izuku had seen his mentor scared three times in his life. One was when he woke up to All Might’s worried face after almost blowing his arm off during the sports festival. The second was at Kamino, when he was facing All for One.
The third was now, as All Might stared at Izuku.
Then, All Might launched into a coughing fit.
Izuku was up and by his mentors side in seconds, with a bit of help from One for All.
“All Might! Are you okay?” Izuku asked frantically, trying to find a handkerchief.
“I’m….fine….my boy” All Might wheezed out, glancing at him again and still looking startled. The coughing fit ended and Izuku tried to say something but All might cut him off with a pat to his shoulders.
“I’ll see you at lunch,” All Might said then ran out of the classroom.
Izuku, dazed and confused, walked back to his desk, sat down, and tried to process whatever could have made All Might so scared.
-----
Class ended not long after that and Izuku ran to the normal meeting place. He opened the door and All Might was already there, nursing what looked to be like a third glass of tea so far.
Izuku sat down on the opposite couch and tried to ask All Might why he looked so scared earlier, but his mentor beat him to the punch.
“My boy, I must apologize for the commotion in class earlier. I was just a little… surprised about your change in hair color,”
Izuku blinked twice.
“Is that what that was all about? Thank goodness, I was worried something was wrong,” Izuku took a breath of relief.
He could feel All Might's eyes on him, trying to ask the obvious question.
“Well, I didn’t dye it for starters,” Izuku said.
All Mights brows furrowed.
“Huh?”
Izuku vaguely thought that Todoroki should question if Kamanari was All Might’s secret love child, but that was a question for a different day.
“Well you see All Might, I woke up this morning and bam! White hair!” Izuku tried to explain.
All Might looked even more confused for a second, then his expression morphed to concern.
“My boy, if the hero course is getting too stressfu-”
“No, no, no it’s nothing like that!” Izuku exclaimed.
“I was thinking the same thing, so I called my mom and we figured out a logical explanation for all of this. Apparently in my dad’s side it’s normal to go white seemingly overnight in the teenage years. There’s nothing to worry about, I promise!” Izuku explained.
All Might leaned back in his chair, looking less stressed than before.
“Well that makes a lot more sense,” He stated. All Might closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, his expression changed once more to something that looked, questioning?
All Might rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
“My boy, I never wanted to pry, but where exactly is your father? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to of course,” All Might asked.
“Oh. He’s a deadbeat that left when I didn’t manifest a quirk. I haven’t seen him since I was four and I don’t remember him all that much,” Izuku answered nonchalantly.
All Might's eyes went wide.
“My boy, I’m sorry to hear that. But I hope you know that that man is undeserving of such a smart, kind, and caring boy. I couldn’t ask for a better successor,” All Might answered proudly.
Izuku’s entire face flushed, and it must of been a trick of the light but Izuku swore he could see All Might’s face turn a little red as well.
“Thats so kind of you to say All Mig-” Izuku was interrupted by his phone going off.
“Sorry, I think it’s my mom, do you mind if I check my phone?” Izuku asked.
“Not at all my boy,” All Might answered.
Izuku looked down at his phone and was right about who was texting. He opened the text from his mom and saw that she had sent what looked to be a really old photo.
On the left was his mom, looking very young and happy, holding himself when he was about two. He had to agree with everyone, in this picture he looked like his mothers clone.
Izuku looked to the right and sucked in a breath. It was his dad. He had white curly hair such like himself. Izuku and his dad’s smile was identical. And if Izuku let himself look closely he could see a few freckles on the mans cheeks.
Of course there was the obvious differences, like the fact that the man looked almost seven feet tall, which Izuku was anything but. And the fact that his father had blaring red eyes, and huge contrast to his and his mother’s green.
His dad had an arm wrapped around his mom, and they looked like such a happy family.
Izuku stared at the picture for some time, only snapping out of it when All Might said,
“My boy? Is everything alright?”
Izuku almost dropped his phone he was so startled.
“Y-yeah everything is fine! My mom just sent a picture of my dad. I forgot what he looked like, so…”
All Might nodded in understanding.
“Here, you can see it if you want,” Izuku said, handing the phone over to All Might.
“Very well my boy!” All Might said taking the phone.
All Might looked at the image and went extremely pale.
Izuku went over to All Might’s couch to point out the people in the picture, completely unaware of the death grip his mentor had on his phone and the terrified look in his eyes.
Izuku pointed to his mom
“On the left is my mom holding me when I was about two, give or take,” Izuku explained.
All Might got even paler, somehow.
Izuku pointed to his dad.
“And on the right is…my father,”
All Might looked frantically at the picture, then at Izuku, and fainted.
———
Somewhere, in the depths of the most secure prison on earth, All for One feels happy for some reason.