Chapter Text
Izuku hooks his foot in the grate and swings himself up over the fence, One for All coursing through him at a measly 2% to make the movements smooth and easy. A smile quirks the corner of his lips as he takes off down the alley way. This training exercise was a piece of cake so far. Not that he would take any of the exercises they did for granted, no, he wanted to be the best hero he could be, but today he felt on top of the world.
Peaking around the corner, Izuku taps his com-link to speak to his teammates.
“In position,” he murmurs softly.
“Roger,” an equally quiet voice replies.
The small smile from earlier curls his lips further as Izuku pads forward. Luck must be on his side this mission, not a single enemy had caught on to his plan yet. He might make it out of this exercise with a near perfect score.
A quick shuffle towards the building across from him and Izuku is under a window ledge, back to the wall and wood of the ledge brushing his mop of curls.
“Now!” he whisper-shouts over his com.
The snap-crackle of Kaminari’s quirk alerts Izuku to the beginnings of his plan. Shouts echo from the building at his back and the trample of feet signals the movement of people inside toward the front doors.
Next comes a loud bang as Yamomo rockets a cannonball through the backset of doors, splitting the attention of their enemies.
“Damn Deku!” Comes the familiar screech as Bakugou searches for Izuku. As predicted, the angry blonde only has eyes for Izuku and it’s throwing the mission again.
Izuku grins widely and quickly twists around to pull himself through the window, dropping down into a roll to slip behind the crates he had scoped out from the roof above. He taps harshly three times on his coms unit to let his team know that he’s in and to keep the distraction up, relying on their pre-agreed signals to convey how well the situation was going.
Leaning slightly to the left, Izuku’s eyes flit around the abandoned warehouse, looking for the last of the enemies hiding the hostage. All Might sits in the center of the room with his hands tied behind him in a chair, blonde strands of hair hanging in his face as red blood drips down his chin. He looks no worse than usual, even with the blood. Izuku’s gaze flicks over the guard that they left with him. Shinsou. Hand-to-hand combat it is.
Izuku creeps forward and uses a few more box towers to hide his presence until he’s 10 feet behind Shinsou. Rolling through the ball of his foot, Izuku keeps his steps quiet as he steps into the open, attempting to get just a few feet closer before the other boy notices him.
Unfortunately, Aizawa has beaten situational awareness into all of them and Shinsou is already whipping around, capture scarf unfurling towards Izuku. Also thanks to Aizawa, Izuku is intimately aware of the movements of the scarf and is able to bring his arm up to let the weapon wrap around his forearm.
Shinsou is grinning maniacally behind his voice modulator, Izuku can see the crinkle of his eyes at the corner. Since transferring in, he and Shinsou have gotten pretty close. They work on hand-to-hand combat together fairly often, while also training black whip and Shinsou’s capture weapon together.
“Come on now, Izu,” Shinsou taunts lightly, knowing he’s not going to get a response, “This isn’t the fairest of matchups now.”
Izuku doesn’t let the other boy speak anymore, sealing his lips shut and launching himself at Shinsou while yanking the arm wrapped in the capture weapon towards his body. He needs to get in close, out of range of the wraps that Shinsou could create with his weapon and quickly.
Shinsou knows this move though, and has already planted his heels and countered his weight to Midoriya’s quick movement.
“Tsk, tsk, unoriginal,” Shinsou deadpans.
The burn of his quirk rolls through him and Izuku fires One for All to 15%, pushing off the ground and into the air while angling his body horizontally. He reels himself in lightning quick with the capture scarf, his feet hitting Shinsou square in the chest and sending the lavender boy flying across the cavernous space.
Shinsou is already up and sprinting, debris falling off his dark uniform as he whips his weapon out again, aiming for Midoriya’s torso.
“Fucking rude,” Shinsou grumbles as he drops lower into a fighting stance, ready to brace for the weight of the brick house that Izuku is.
Izuku has to force himself not to giggle as Shinsou comes running back at him, this time running at Shinsou as well and dropping into a baseball slide as soon as he sees the gray material heading his way. His head just brushes under the rough scarf, the whip-snap! echoing in his ears as he pops up into Shinsou’s personal space. The crackle and hum of excess energy from his quirk warms the space between the two further as Izuku throws a quirk-enhanced punch at Shinsou’s nose, which the other boy is quick to block. From there the two grapple, nearly matched in skill now from how often they spar.
After much back and forth, Izuku gains the upper hand and finally flips Shinsou over his shoulder, quickly straddling the boy and slapping the practice handcuffs on him. He gently pats Shinsou’s head, letting his fingers scratch the other boy's scalp for just a quick moment before getting up. He knows not to respond still, that Shinsou could snag him in his quirk and force the end of the match pretty quickly.
Izuku motions to All Might, showing that he’s going to untie him and the two are going to go out the way he came. The sounds of battle on either side of him alert him that his two partners are still keeping Kacchan and Sero occupied. He taps twice on his comlink to alert the others that he has All Might and is moving on to the next phase of the plan.
With practiced hands, Izuku checks their hostage over for injuries before untying his hands. He signals to All Might to stay quiet with a finger over his lips before motioning if he can stand with a questioning look on his face. All Might nods and stands to tower over Izuku. Izuku puts a hand to the former hero’s mid-back and points to the window he came in through. All Might rapidly shakes his head no, indicating that he was not ok with this.
Izuku has to hold in the sigh that wants to escape at the hero’s refusal. It would have made it too easy if he had agreed wouldn’t it? He ushers his mentor over to the pile of boxes, crouching down slightly.
“Change of plans,” he murmurs quietly to All Might, “You’re going to stay right here. I’m going to blow a hole through the wall, which might attract some attention to us, then I’m going to pick you up and power us out of here. My hops can be a bit uncomfortable, fair warning, but you’re doing great so far. I’m going to get you out of here and everything is going to be alright because I am here.”
All Might smiles softly, a slight bit of pride shining in his eyes as he nods to agree to the plan.
With a deep breath, Izuku steps away from the pile of boxes. He has to settle the hammering of his heart against his ribs again from seeing that expression on his mentor’s face. It doesn’t matter how often he sees it now, it feels like the first time after the slime villain every time.
Izuku readies his fist, 10% of One for All pulsing through him, “Not too much,” he reminds himself. He could take the whole building down if he’s not careful. A smile spreads across his face again as he sends a rush of wind and power at the wall in front of him in an easy punch.
The wall crumples like tinfoil before fully collapsing in on itself, leaving a gaping hole from floor to ceiling about 10 feet wide. Alright, well maybe 10% was too much for that. Izuku shrugs to himself before rushing back to All Might, sweeping the tall man off his feet and launching himself out of the freshly made exit.
25% of One for All courses through him as he leaps across the fake city, All Might clinging to him and whooping at the rush of wind. Izuku is grinning alongside him, small laughs escaping him at his mentor’s excitement.
Izuku lands at the exit point of Ground Gamma, the pavement cracking slightly under his feet from the force.
“Hero’s Win!” Rings across the stadium in Nezu’s cheery tone as Izuku gently sets All Might back on his feet.
A large hand claps on his shoulder and Izuku looks up to the beaming grin of the former number one hero.
“Young Midoriya, your plan worked flawlessly. And don’t say it was a joint effort, I know that it was your plan from the simplicity yet effectiveness of it.”
Izuku can feel the flush of his cheeks heating at the compliment. All Might didn’t say these types of things when others were around, only when it was the two of them, but each time he did Izuku nearly fainted with embarrassment. He still couldn’t handle praise, even after almost an entire year of receiving positive reinforcement. Too used to the negatives that came with being quirkless.
“T-thanks, All Might,” he stammers softly, one hand reaching to rub the back of his neck.
The rest of the class is walking out of the city now, Shinsou rubbing at his wrists as Kaminari helps him out of the handcuffs, Yamomo leaning on Sero slightly as they laugh together, and Kacchan stomping angrily at his loss as usual.
“DEKU!” Katsuki roars as he comes barreling at Izuku for the third time that day.
Izuku rolls his eyes and braces himself, widening his stance slightly so he can take the full impact of an annoyed Kacchan.
Their relationship isn’t perfect now, more rivals than friends, but it’s something. He knows that Kacchan isn’t going to set an explosion off in his face for this loss, just grab him by the front of the shirt and shake him a bit.
And Kacchan does exactly that.
Izuku laughs lightly as Katsuki curls a hand in his hero costume and tries to yank him up onto his toes, ranting into his face as he shakes him slightly. His words are as harsh as always, but the connotation of them is much different. They’re criticisms of the fights and the plan, things that Izuku could have done differently instead of just insults and belittlement. It’s Kacchan’s way of telling him that he did well.
All Might finally pats Katsuki on the back and urges him to release Izuku.
“Young Bakugou, I see you’re as passionate as usual. You put up a great fight against Young Yayorouzu, but you must be focused on who you are fighting and not looking for Young Midoriya during trainings like this. Each team did excellent, but leaving just one person to guard a hostage in the middle of the floor left you vulnerable to attack. Villains, great fighting but some strategy and villainous thinking might have helped to get the win. Try that next time we run an exercise like this.”
All six of them have now circled around All Might, listening to him as he gives his remarks on the fights, waiting for Aizawa to call them back for the next group to run through the exercise. They’d receive their homeroom teacher’s notes the next morning during actual homeroom, so he wasn’t here to give his notes.
All Might claps his hands together and motions for the group to head back to the waiting room, following behind the young heroes with his hands clasped behind his back.
Izuku hip-checks Shinsou and gives him a sly grin as the other boy slings an arm around his shoulders.
“Hey,” Izuku starts, “that was a great fight. Though, I hate not getting to talk to you like we do when we spar quirkless.”
Shinsou bops him on the top of the head with the hand that’s been dangling around his neck. “You destroyed me again, but you did great keeping me fighting so I couldn’t even get a taunt in. I’ll do better next time. Maybe we should start sparing with quirks? I feel like I could use more practice and you’re so stupid strong when you use your quirk. If I could fight you that way, I bet I could fight anyone.”
“No way! Give yourself some credit Toshi, you were amazing with your capture weapon. It looked like Aizawa fighting out there!”
A soft blush creeps up to color the highs of Shinsou’s cheekbones at that statement.
“But yes, we can start practicing that way if you want. It’d be great for both of us!” Izuku pumps his free hand in the air, excited to start new exercises with his friend.
Denki huffs and leans up to poke Hitoshi in the cheek.
“Hey, I’m the one who’s supposed to make you blush!” he pouts good-heartedly before turning to Izuku, “Mido, could you help me with some of the homework tonight? Bakugou and Kiri have their bro workout tonight, so he can’t help me and Hito can barely stand me while doing my homework.”
“Just one of the things I love about you dear,” Hitoshi murmurs and kisses the top of Denki’s head.
Kaminari swats gently at his boyfriend before looking over at Midoriya again with big puppy eyes.
“Of course Kami,” Izuku smiles gently, “I’d be happy to. Meet me in the common rooms after we hit the showers?”
Denki nods and gives him a thumbs up. Izuku beams at the two boys before slipping out from underneath Shinsou’s arm and starting to jog backward while looking at the two of them.
“See you then!” he calls back and turns around to take notes on Uraraka’s match like she asked.
---
After running through a few cool-down stretches, Izuku curled up in the corner of the observation room to watch Uraraka, Tsu, and Iida’s match. The three of them were paired against Todoroki, Tokoyami, and Sato. An interesting match-up that could really go either way if each team was smart with their strategy.
Izuku scribbles furiously in his notebook, hand flying across the page as he watches the battle play out on the large screens in front of him. A low rumble of muttering comes from him, so common with his writing that his classmates no longer noticed it.
Well, except for maybe their sensei.
Aizawa occasionally glanced back from where he sat in the observation chair, bundled in his garish yellow sleeping bag. His eyes flicked to Izuku, down to his notebook, and back up to the kid’s face before turning back to the fights.
Too engrossed in his notes, Izuku didn’t see how his sensei was looking at him.
---
A shower and a fresh pair of clothes do wonders for Izuku’s adrenaline crash. Post-battle training normally puts him into a deep nap, keeping him asleep until dinner starts, which then forces him to stay up late doing homework and makes him tired the next day. It’s been a pretty relentless cycle lately, so he’s been doing his best to break it. Which is part of the reason why he wanted to meet with Uraraka and then Kaminari before dinner rather than later.
He traipses into the dining room, swinging his yellow backpack carefully by one strap as he settles into one of the dining chairs. Not even a minute later, Uraraka is sliding into the chair next to him.
“Hi, Deku!” She greets. Her cheeks are a bit pinker than normal from her shower and water is still dripping onto her t-shirt from the ends of her hair. She looks relaxed, at ease around Izuku.
It still surprises him that there are people who willingly want to be around him. For so long he felt like a disease, this putrid stain on society, based on the way he was treated by those around him. His classmates avoided him like the plague, literally stating that you could catch his quirklessness. This is ridiculous, especially for middle schoolers, but he wasn’t about to point that out. Here at UA, he only felt that way once when he had a nasty cold, and only because no one else wanted to get sick in the dorms.
He wonders what would happen if his new classmates found out about his quirkless status. If they would still treat him the same. What would have happened if he had gotten into UA without One for All at all. If they would want to be his friend without a quirk. He hopes that it would be the same, that they would still love him just as much as they say they do, but he knows how the quirkless are viewed. Maybe one day he’ll tell them. One day.
A shoulder bumping into him shakes him out of the small reverie. Uraraka is looking at him with that knowing look, so used to seeing him lost in his own head.
“Sorry,” Izuku mutters, “I’ve been so tired after battle simulations lately I’m having trouble concentrating.”
He quickly pulls his current analysis notebook from his backpack and slaps it on the table between them.
“Shall we get started?” He grins at her.
“Are you sure, Deku? We could go over this later when you’re less tired. I don’t want you to over-exert yourself!” Uraraka’s hands come up like she’s going to worry over him, as if she could personally expel his tiredness with the adorable pads of zero gravity fingers.
“I’m fine, Ocha. I’m really trying to get myself on a better sleep schedule and not sleep right after class. It’s going to be rough for a bit, but I-I’ll be totally fine!”
Ochako looks him over critically one last time before shrugging.
“Alright, if you say so.”
Izuku gives her one of his signature smiles, albeit one slightly tinged with tiredness, as he turns back to his journal.
“Alright,” he starts while flipping to the page from the battle simulations today, “so I saw the way you three strategized. While it was effective, I feel like there were a few ways that it could have gone very wrong very quickly, or ways that could have saved you some energy. I liked the way that you floated Tenya up the building, but he really might have done better on the front lines. I know he’s working on his stealth, but he’s just not generally suited for it. Plus you need someone there for if you get damaged, know what I mean? I know that we talked about your weaknesses last month. By the way, did you talk to support about something to protect your hands? I think it would be good because I did say that your biggest weakness would be if someone broke both your hands irreparably-”
“Woah dude,” Izuku nearly startles out of his seat when a book is slammed down on the table across from him as Kaminari and Shinsou sit down at the table.
“Ah sorry, I was rambling again wasn’t I? Ocha asked for me to look for the weakness in her plans during the simulation today and if I saw any improvements from when we went over her pages in my journal.”
“Pages?” Denki replies curiously.
“U-um yeah, I have pages on everyone in the class. I just wasn’t sure if anyone wanted to see them, you know? I’ve heard it’s creepy before.”
“Deku helped me so much! He pointed out how easy it would be to incapacitate me if someone got to my hands quickly enough!” Uraraka points out cheerfully.
Denki looks a little green as he switches back and forth between Uraraka and Izuku with a strange look on his face. He starts to look a little afraid, like what he’s hearing isn’t very reassuring, but there is some curiosity mixed in as well.
“Could I… see mine, maybe?” He asks in a small voice.
Izuku excitedly hops out of his seat and bounds up the stairs to his room. He uses Full Cowling to make it quick, returning back to the table in barely thirty seconds. Placing it gently in the middle of the table, Izuku flips to Kaminari’s page that he had done at the beginning of the year. He had updated it not that long ago, careful to add how much farther Kaminari could push his quirk without short-circuiting and how his voltage had increased too.
Kaminari took it silently, no funny remarks for once, pulling it so it rested between him and Shinsou. His eyes skipped down the page, taking in the massive amounts of information.
“Wow Mido! These ideas are so great! Human taser? Running electricity and upping my hand-to-hand? Personal escrima sticks to use as weapons and grounding rods? I should really talk to Aizawa and support about a few of these. Oh but this section, well-”
Kaminari’s babbling stops suddenly, his eyes widening as he reaches the back of the second page.
“H-how… how did you know these things about me?” he says quietly.
Izuku, whose chest had slowly been filling with pride at seeing how excited Kaminari was, immediately deflated. The electric blonde must have reached the weaknesses section.
Izuku didn’t get the information in his notebooks from anywhere, they were just observations he made. He had spent so long having to read people’s body language down to the most minute detail, that he had used those skills to improve his analyses. He could infer things about people that most people missed. Small signs that added up to certain situations. Like how Denki was trans and his parents weren’t happy about it, for example. Which is most likely what Denki was reading.
Shinsou’s face is pale next to his boyfriend. He’s staring at Izuku with something that looks like a mix of awe and fear. He knows that Denki hasn’t told anyone outside of himself about his gender at birth. His hand slowly reaches out and grips Denki’s under the table, squeezing tightly to remind him that he’s still there.
“W-well…” Izuku starts, not sure how to explain.
“I haven’t told anyone some of these things,” Denki says, desperation coloring his tone.
“I-I know Kami-”
“Don’t call me that,”
“What? No, Kaminari, I would never show anyone else your pages. I would never share anything that you didn’t want. I-I only noticed because- because- I don’t know! I’m just good at reading people. I’ve been doing analysis my whole life, since I could write pretty much. I mean my first book-”
“No, Midoriya, this… this is personal. I-I have to go.”
Kaminari jumps from the table and scrambles to the staircase, Shinsou following close behind him.
The use of his first name stings as Izuku stares blankly at the wall. His heart is aching again, the familiar burn of rejection settling into his bones.
“ I would never…” he whispers.
Ochako, who had been silently watching the exchange, placed a hesitant hand on Izuku’s shoulder.
“Deku, I’m sure Kami’s just shocked seeing his weaknesses pointed out like that. I mean, I know it was shocking for me to see it for the first time. He’ll be better after he’s had some time to digest the information, I’m sure of it.”
Izuku nods numbly, pulling his notebooks close to his chest.
“I’m going to go… up to my room.” He mumbles and escapes up the same stairs Kaminari had just used.