Work Text:
Midoriya Izuku was born quirkless.
——
Midoriya Izuku was a cheerful, kind boy. Even at the young age of three, with his limited vocabulary, he always tried to cheer his mother whenever she was sad. Always hugging her when she would stare at the family photo with that desperate expression. That little detail never changed. Not even after the doctor's appointment on Izuku's forth birthday. Not after the mean things his playmates at kindergarten would yell. Not after the pitying looks the caretakers would throw at him. He still kissed his mother's cheek after a hard day at work, still helped her however he could around the house when she would come home tired.
Izuku always cared about his mother, from the moment he saw her for the first time to the moment he died. He never could have hated her, not even if he tried.
Midoriya Inko loved her son dearly. That never changed, not after her husband left, not after that fateful doctor's appointment, not ever. Because Inko knew that Izuku was the only family she has left, just like she is the only family Izuku has. She loved how Izuku would always try and cheer her up after a bad day, how he had a special smile just for her.
Inko isn't the observat type, but even she would notice the slight limp in her son's steps. The purple-green-ish spots that Izuku would try to cover, the star-shaped marks on his back that he would say are "just an accident, mama, nothing too serious".
At first she believed him. Or, that's what she was telling herself, because deep in her heart she knew they weren't just accidents, but she hoped with all her might that with time her son would stop coming home with that betrayed look in his eyes, that strained smile that he would put so she wouldn't worry, or the slightly burned uniform. That she would stop hearing her son—her beautiful, kind, wonderful son—crying almost every night. That the world would stop torturing her Izuku, and therefore her.
𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝.
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Midoriya Izuku is quirkless. Always was, always will be.
——
Izuku considered himself a good person. After all, you need to be a good person to be a hero, right? So Izuku never complained when the other kids didn't want to play with him, they probably wanted to play with their friends!
He never complained when Kacchan stopped playing with him, Izuku was probably boring anyway! He never complained when Kacchan and the other would use their quirks on him, they just wanted to train! But Izuku couldn't not complain, couldn't just stand and watch when other kids were being hurt. That's just how Izuku is.
That's how Izuku realized that people valued quirks over anything else. When Izuku put himself between Kacchan and that collapsed boy on the playground sand.
That's when he was first called a quirkless freak.
Because until that moment, they just avoided him mostly. But of course, they couldn't keep avoiding him if he kept getting in their way.
So he didn't get in their way.
He kept his head low, didn't talk in class, didn't bother his classmates with stupid questions like "wanna be friends?"
Apart from when he tried to defend someone from bullies, he was mostly ignored.
And that was okay, really!
As long as he had his mom, everything would be okay. Because even after the doctor's appointment, she never left him. Even after they were told he would never have a quirk, she was never mean to him. And when her co-workers would send pitying glances when they thought she wasn't looking, or her boss kept giving her more work than the other employees, or when the money weren't enough, she would call him to the living room, with hot cocoas already on the coffee table, and the TV ready with an old Ghibli movie, she would embrace him in a warm hug, cover them in cozy blankets and fluffy plushies, and as she combs her gentle hands through his curly hair, they both knew that everything would be alright. Because when they're together, nothing bad can happen, Inko would make sure of that.
——
Inko cherished her son with all her love. She couldn't imagine a world without her Izuku. That's why she couldn't understand what the officer was saying over the phone. Her son couldn't be dead! Yes, Izuku could be reckless at times and get hurt, yes,he liked watched hero fight even though they were dangerous, but he promised her he would be safe, and Izuku never breaks his promises. The officer sure wasn't serious, he's probably new and doesn't know how his job works, surely Izuku just fainted. It would be first time, seeing as no matter how much Inko would assure him she has enough food and money, he still refused to eat sometimes, so he was a little anemic. But still, her son fainting means he could be hurt! She couldn't waste time talking to a confused officer over the phone, she needs to be Izuku when he wakes up!
Inko surely needed her eyes verified by a doctor, because the boy in front her wasn't Izuku.
Izuku wasn't bleeding severely from his head and torso.
He didn't have crimson-dark hair covering his closed eyes and his tear-stained cheeks. Her Izuku wasn't being raised from the blood-stained concrete onto the carrier and put into an ambulance.
Her Izuku wasn't laying lifeless on a hospital bed in a dark room. Her Izuku wasn't.dead.
He couldn't be.
Because if he was, she didn't know how she could continue.
She didn't know how she could live on without her precious Izuku.
And she didn't want to find out how life without her only family would be.
Because without her family, without her Izuku, she would be all alone.
Because accepting that her Izuku was gone meant accepting that the light from her life, her happiness is gone, that he's gone and never coming back.
——
Izuku was happy. Yes, he was treated as less than garbage, and yes, he didn't have any friends. Yes, the teaches and most adults couldn't suffer him, and yes, he was coming home everyday with a new set of bruises, but he had his mom. His kind, loving, caring mom that wouldn't ever abandon him. And if he had his mom, he was happy, because he knew that every beating, every hurtful word, every hour of detention that he got because of something that wasn't hai fault, he would come home to his mother's leftovers from yesterday night's dinner, and he would make his homework and wait patiently for when his mother would come home and he would help her with groceries, and she would notice how he would favor his left hand when putting the cans in the cabinets, that he would slightly limp when walking to kitchen to make her some tea, and she would treat his wounds, give him a warm hug, and help him with what homework he has left.
And he would be happy, because he knows how annoying he could get sometimes. He knows he's a burden, and that he shouldn't have been born in the first place, but she still stayed. She still come some every day, and cooks him dinner, and wakes him up every morning with a lovely breakfast. Because she had the chance to leave, just like his father did, but she stayed. And he couldn't ask for a better mother.
So when the teacher told the whole class that he wanted to apply for UA, and when Bakugou exploded his desk and pinned him to the wall, he didn't complain. Because he didn't want to get in trouble and be late for when his mother got home. He shut his mouth, kept his head low, and got over it.
Just like he got over his classmates' taunts and teases. Over the pushes and trips and shoulder-checks. Over all the mornings he came to school to a desk full of vulgar words and carvings, or the occasional red spider lily he would find sitting there peacefully.
So today, just like any other day, he got over it.
He got over Bakugou throwing his notebook through the window, right into the Koi pound.
He got over Bakugou telling him to "hope for a while in the next life and take swan dive off the roof of the building".
He got over the panic and helplessness of being suffocated. Of feeling the cold, slimy substance go down his throat and mouth and nose and enter his lungs. Of not being able to breath and feel your consciousness slipping away. Of seeing your life pass before your eyes. Of closing your eyes and thinking you're never going to open them again.
Hell, he even got over his idol telling him he'll never be a hero. Somehow.
But when that explosion made him fall backwards from the edge and back on the roof, when he saw that because of him, because of his useless self and his annoying needs the villain that All Might save him from was attacking Kacchan and it was all his fault, he couldn't get over it.
So he did something.
Something stupid, and reckless, and that his mom would never approve of.
Something that got him killed.
But at least Kacchan was fine, even if Izuku wasn't. At least Kacchan could become a hero, even if Izuku wouldn't. At least Kacchan was alive and breathing, even if Izuku wasn't.
Because in the end, Izuku saved him.
Him, the quirkless loser, saved Kacchan! Mom would be so happy for him!
Mom could finally be happy, without him.
Without him, everyone could be happy.
So he, in turn, died happy.
——
𝐌𝐢𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐲𝐚 𝐈𝐳𝐮𝐤𝐮 𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐤𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬.