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Chapter Text

   Bakugou Katsuki had grown up with Midoriya Izuku, with the little nerd following him around constantly. He’d always tried to keep him at arms length, just like his mother demanded, in fear that the boy would figure out the Bakugou family secret. Even as a little brat, the kid was far too smart for his own good. 

    But if there was one thing the little human could never know about Katsuki, it was that he was decidedly not human. The Bakugous came from a long line of werewolves, dating back hundreds of years. Everyone married into the Bakugou name, even Katsuki’s father Masaru. While the Bakugous were mostly pure-blooded werewolves, Masaru’s family was muddled with human blood. Still, Mitsuki had loved him so much that she married him anyway, resulting in Katsuki’s birth. Subsequently, he was one of the most powerful werewolves to roam the earth.

    He’d learned how to control his shift from a young age, although his mother always fretted over him losing control in front of Deku. Katsuki never understood why - he was shitty Deku!- but still, the matriarch insisted upon it. Later in life, Katsuki would realize exactly why she’d been so anal about it. 

     Deku was Katsuki’s mate, despite his human status. When the green-eyed fucker was around, Katsuki’s wolf went absolutely bonkers, like it was tearing at the confines of his skin to try and get to the smaller teen. It was sickening, and Katsuki loved hated every second of it. While Katsuki figured that Deku wouldn’t take his supernatural status the wrong way, he was still hesitant about telling him. After all, any human who knew about the supernatural world would immediately be in danger. First rule of fight club, and all of that. 

    There was one thing the blond hadn’t bet on, unfortunately, and that was that the entirety of their hero classroom at U.A. would be made up of supernatural creatures, with Deku being the only human in class. There were two half-humans however; Satou was half human, half sasquatch, and Kouda was half human and half dryad. 

    There was one other half-breed in Class A, who coincidentally was the only other person in class who had as prestigious a name as Bakugou. Todoroki, whose father was a vampire, and whose mother was a chimera. He’d been the only sibling born as a perfect blend of both bloodlines, and with a perfect quirk to match. 

    The rest of the class were a mix of things. Yaomomo, for instance, was a succubus. Shinsou was a ghoul, hence his general appearance and lack of sleep, and Kirishima was a gargoyle. A lot of their quirks were simply mutations of their supernatural genes, but some of them, like Katsuki, had quirks that had nothing to do with their species. Katsuki considered himself lucky in that regard; he couldn’t imagine trying to be a hero with any quirk other than his own. 

    In their first year, Katsuki had made the entire class promise him that they would never tell Deku about their real identities. He wanted the human to stay safe for as long as he possibly could. 

    (x)

     Midoriya Izuku was definitely not human. It amused him that the entirety of his class thought that he was, but he supposed he understood. Usually, supernatural creatures came with a kind of sixth-sense that allowed them to detect other non-humans, but no one in his class seemed to be able to figure out what he was. 

    He figured it was probably because he was one of the last of his kind. Ever since his father died when he was three, he hadn’t met or even heard of any other of his species in the entire world. He’d searched documents and secret online forums, only to be met with nothing. He’d met Kacchan when he was four, and he’d used his superior sense of smell to figure out that he was a werewolf. He’d waited for months and months for Kacchan to figure out his own supernatural status, to no avail. 

    One day he went to his mother and begged her to let him tell Kacchan what he was, only for the woman to freak out and sit him down to explain why he couldn’t do that. Because he was the last known of his species, it meant that there would be an even bigger target on his back. His father had been murdered by other creatures who were afraid of the power he held, and Inko didn’t want the same thing to happen to her son. She drilled it into his mind that if he told anyone , it would mean certain death. 

    He’d spent his entire childhood pretending that he was human, hiding his non-human powers for fear that they would give his species away. When it became time for him to develop a quirk, he was of course quirkless. His father had been much, much older than quirks, as their species tended to live well past human lifespans. Izuku had asked his mother to please let him use one of his attributes as a quirk, but she’d shut him down, telling him again that it was too dangerous. So, not only did he have to grow up as a human , but he also had to grow up quirkless. 

     He was seen as weak and helpless by the rest of the world all throughout his childhood. It was almost laughable. If anything, he was perhaps the most dangerous living thing in the entire world. The only problem was that he could never, ever tell anyone. 

    Despite him and Kacchan growing apart as kids, Kacchan continued to subtly scent-mark him so that he didn’t smell human. Perhaps it was Izuku's own possessiveness that gave it new meaning, but he'd always seen it as a sign that they could be friends again one day. Now, Izuku wasn’t even sure if he had known that he was doing it, but it had helped to keep more predatorial supernaturals away from him. And, when he finally made it into U.A., it also helped to mask his true species from every other supernatural in the classroom. As he and his classmates grew closer, Izuku began to realize that perhaps it wouldn’t be so dangerous for him to reveal himself. If there was any group of people that he knew he could trust without a shadow of a doubt, it was his eighteen new friends. 

     This time, he didn’t bother to ask his mother. She would never understand the bond that tethered people when they’d fought in a war together, with their lives on the line at every second of every day. Besides, he’d already decided that he wasn’t going to simply tell any of his friends what he was. No, no, it would be much more interesting to see if they could figure it out. Plus, it was kind of funny to watch them run around and act human. 

     One

    Class 3-A had too many close calls with almost revealing themselves to Deku. It all began at the end of their first year, when Ojiro was standing in the dorm kitchen late at night, browsing the refrigerator for a midnight snack. Usually he wasn’t one of the class night owls, so he had no idea that he could run into one of the three usual suspects. Of course, one of these was Deku. 

   “Ojiro-kun?” A voice said from directly behind Ojiro. The boy startled, feeling his inner kitsune rile up inside of him. He had a brief flash of multiple tails behind him before he reigned in his control and turned around. Midoriya had cocked his head to the side, blinking over and over again. 

    “Midoriya-kun, you scared me!” Mashirao said, raising a hand over his rapidly-beating heart. He waited a moment, wondering if Midoriya had seen his slip-up with his true form. He wasn’t quite at his full nine-tailed power, currently only at five tails. Midoriya only reached up to rub at his eyes before he shook his head with a laugh. 

   “Sorry, I haven’t slept in a while,” he apologized, smiling softly at his friend. “I didn’t mean to startle you.” 

    “Don’t worry about it,” Mashirao said, relaxing a bit. Midoriya must have thought what he saw was caused by his lack of sleep. Ojiro had lucked out, although Bakugou would most likely be pissed at him. He decided that it would be better not to mention this little mishap to the explosive blond. Ever since he and Midoriya had their fight in the middle of the night at Ground Beta, he’d become even more protective over the younger teen. 

    “What are you doing awake?” Midoriya asked. Ojiro sighed, reaching up to rub at his eyes. It was just past one in the morning, and it was a school night. 

    “Don’t know,” he confessed. “I just couldn’t get to sleep, so I was looking for something to snack on.” 

   Midoriya brightened at this. “I have a pack of oreos hidden in my room! Would you like some?” 

   Ojiro’s stomach grumbled at the thought of the delicious treat, and he nodded quickly. “Yes, that would be amazing!” 

    Midoriya’s smile was bright enough to make him squint, and he began to chatter about nothing in particular as they made the trek to his room. There, they sat on Izuku’s bed and talked about both nothing and everything. Ojiro told him about his home life, and how he missed his parents and siblings. Izuku confessed that he didn’t sleep much because of horrible nightmares due to all of the villain incidents he had been a part of, and Mashirao felt something inside of him squeeze a little at the admission. Midoriya Izuku was the light of their class, the glue that kept them all together. He didn’t deserve to be hurting like that. 

    Around three a.m., Ojiro began to yawn repeatedly. Midoriya’s soft smile accompanied his words that coaxed him to go back to his room to get some rest before school would begin in four hours. The kitsune spirit did just that, his brain a mess of thoughts about everything Izuku had told him. The two of them had never really been close, and the boy was beginning to regret that. Truly, he was an amazing boy and hero. Definitely someone to look up to. He fell asleep wondering about Midoriya’s reaction if he found out that the entirety of his class was made up of supernatural creatures. 

    Izuku fell asleep smirking to himself, remembering the flash of the little kitsune’s tails in the kitchen. 

      Two

    The next incident was, of course, the fault of the self-proclaimed Bakusquad. It was in the beginning of their second year, just after they’d gotten Midoriya back when he’d run away to become a vigilante for four whole months. They were the scariest months of most of their lives, not knowing if their friend was alive or dead. When he’d come back to U.A., he had even more scars covering his body, showing what he’d gone through in the months he’d been away. 

   Most of them tried not to think about it, focusing all of their energy on trying to get Midoriya’s smile back on his face. Thus, the movie night that gathered the entire class into the common room, debating on what movie they should put on. Eventually, they settled on a Disney movie, because before the teen’s disappearing act, Midoriya had loved them. Kirishima strong-armed them all into putting on the Hunchback of Notre-Dame , as he found the movie pretty ironic. Everyone had snickered a bit when he suggested it, but they agreed to watch it. 

    Every time one of the gargoyles would come on screen, the Bakusquad would nudge the redhead and make passing jokes and comments. They didn’t realize how damning they were being until Midoriya spoke up halfway through the movie. 

   “What’s with all the gargoyle jokes?” he asked, his voice ringing clear through the air despite the noise. Ever since he’d gotten back, he hadn’t spoken as much as he used to. Whenever he did, everyone made sure to pay attention. 

   Now, they were all freezing in place, shooting glances at each other, and then at Bakugou, who was glaring at them all with his ruby eyes burning with fury. Ashido forced a laugh, reaching over to pat Kirishima on his spiky head. “Oh, you know. Because of his quirk! It kind of makes him turn to stone, right?” 

    Midoriya looked at Kirishima, studying him. The now-shorter boy held his breath until Deku nodded his head, a tiny smile quirking at the edge of his lips. “Yeah, I can see it.” 

   The rest of the class tittered with laughter, some of it sounding on edge, some of it relieved. Bakugou relaxed a bit onto the couch, crossing his arms over his chest. After that, they all went back to watching the movie silently. The Bakusquad didn’t make any more gargoyle jokes, although the temptation was definitely there. None of them would risk the wrath of Bakugou Katsuki though. 

    Three

   Later into their second year, Todoroki made the next mistake. Being half vampire on his father’s side, and half chimera on his mother’s, he didn’t have as much as a need for blood. He also aged normally, although odds were if he drank human blood more often, he would stop aging. As it was, he didn’t much like drinking human blood, because he hated the way it tasted. Supernatural blood on the other hand, kept him going for a lot longer, and he had no limit to a supply with nearly all of his classmates and friends being supernatural. Even so, he relegated himself to only drinking blood once a month, just enough to keep his cravings from going haywire and sending him into bloodlust. 

    He was lounging in his bedroom, sipping on some of Kaminari’s blood- as a thunderbird, his had a bit of a strange kick to it, but was still good- when there was a knock on his dorm room’s door. He put his drink on his nightstand, also laying the action manga Sero had lent to him on his bed. He got up and answered the door, a bit surprised to find Midoriya on the other side. Usually at this time of day, the boy was either training with All Might and Bakugou, or having a mandatory therapy session with Hound Dog. 

    He smiled at Todoroki with a bright grin. He’d been growing as of late, and now stood about an inch taller than the younger man. It was a bit unsettling to be perfectly frank, since most of Class 2-A had assumed he would be pretty short for a while. Apparently, he was a late bloomer in all things. 

    “Hey, Shouto-kun! Can I come in?” He asked, gesturing to the room beyond. Their friend group had been using given names for a while now, and yet it still surprised Todoroki when Izuku used it. In his daze, he stepped back and let Izuku into the room without thinking. 

    The now-taller boy went straight to his desk to sit down, spying the glass of red liquid on Shouto’s desk. He sat on the desk chair and pointed to it, raising a questioning eyebrow. “What are you drinking?” 

    Shouto couldn’t help it; he panicked. He rushed over to the nightstand and snatched the glass off of it, nearly splashing some of it onto his hands in his haste. Izuku lurched backward, clearly not expecting the other man’s sudden movement. “It’s- it’s strawberry fruit punch! Please, don’t touch it.” 

    Izuku relaxed a little bit, chuckling. “Shouto-kun, I’m not going to die if I touch strawberries. I just can’t drink it.” 

    Izuku had a pretty severe allergy to strawberries. Apparently, he and Bakugou had found that out the hard way when they were young and picked some wild strawberries from a bush near their home. Midoriya had such a bad reaction that he had to be hospitalized because of it. Once, in the beginning of their first year, Iida made the mistake of making Izuku pancakes with strawberry jelly on top when the boy was sick. Bakugou had caught him in the act and nearly exploded the entire kitchen with his fury. 

    The blond was protective of his little human. It was both simultaneously hilarious, and kind of sad. Todoroki tried not to think about it too much. 

   “Sorry,” the vampire muttered, gently setting the drink down on the far edge of his desk, just out of Izuku’s reach. “I don’t really know how allergies work.” 

     In this day and age, only quirkless individuals had food allergies. The rest of the population had become evolved enough to no longer have them. At first, before any of them had known about Izuku’s quirk, it had confused them all when he told them about it, but by the end of their first year, they understood. A lot of things about their friend made sense when he’d left the letters for them all to find explaining the origins of his quirk. 

    “It’s alright,” Izuku said, beaming up at him again. “I was just hoping we could hang out, if that’s alright with you?” 

   “Of course,” Shouto said easily, sending one last longing look at the half-empty glass of blood. He wouldn’t risk drinking it in front of Izuku, even though he thought he had covered for himself pretty well. It just felt weird to do it in front of the human. “What would you like to do?” 

     Four

    Honestly, it was a miracle that Kaminari hadn’t exposed them all sooner. He didn’t have the best control over his bird-form, in much the same way he didn’t have much over his quirk. Usually he only slipped up in his shape-shifting if he was really upset about something, and since he had trained himself to be a pretty happy guy over the years, he hadn’t slipped up in a while. 

    What with the intense coursework and villain attacks that came with being in the U.A. hero course, Denki’s happy-to-a-fault nature had begun slipping. The worst of it was at its peak during the war, especially when Midoriya had disappeared seemingly off the face of the earth. The entire class was worried about the human the entire four months he’d been away, but the Bakusquad found themselves especially stressed. That was, of course, because of their very explosive werewolf friend, who without his Deku had basically begun climbing the walls. 

   (Over more than one full moon, the fully-shifted wolf would lock himself in Midoriya’s old dorm room to bask in his fading scent to try and calm himself. No one in class was brave enough to ever mention it to his face.) 

     Now that the war was over and Midoriya was back, Kaminari had kind of expected his nerves and emotions to go back to normal as well. Of course, he hadn’t accounted for one thing in particular; Midoriya’s unfailing kindness. His thunderbird side absolutely despised the rain, and tended to get rather restless when there was a particularly bad storm happening. He usually kept himself locked in his dorm room during these times, just in case he accidentally shifted. Usually, nobody in class would bug him because they knew what he was going through. They all had their own weaknesses after all, and they knew that it was embarrassing to have them seen by others. 

     Unfortunately, Midoriya had always been the type to worry about his friends and check in on them. Kaminari had been locked in his room for about three hours, one of which he’d been shifted into his thunderbird form, when there was a knock on his door. His bird form was so large that it took up practically all of the space on the ground in between his bed, desk and door, leaving his tail toward the balcony and his head near the door. He’d been on the verge of sleep when he heard the gentle knock, but immediately perked away when he realized who was on the other side of the door. 

    “Kaminari-kun?” Midoriya called through the wood. “I was just checking to see if you’re doing okay… Sero-kun told me you don’t like storms much.” 

    In his mind, Denki cursed the stupid tsuchigumo for his big mouth, panic filling him. He didn’t exactly have the same vocal chords in this form as he did in his human form, and given the ferocity of the pounding rain outside, he was struggling quite a bit to shift back into his human form. 

     Through the panic, he heard Deku’s knock once more, this time a bit louder. “Kaminari-kun, are you in there?” 

     Denki closed his eyes and focused, envisioning his human body down to every last hair on his head. After a few moments of painful, bone-cracking shifting, he jumped up from the floor and grabbed a pair of sweatpants off of his desk chair. He jumped into them, practically stumbling into the door in his haste to answer it. He ripped it open with a forced smile, wincing slightly when thunder rumbled from outside. One might think that, due to his name, he would enjoy storms. If they were light showers, he usually did enjoy them. But when the rains outside were heavy enough to cause a good amount of flooding in the streets, it became a bit too much for him. 

    In early mythology, thunderbirds had been known to protect humans from underwater races that meant to cause them harm. Many of Kaminari’s ancestors had been forcefully drowned by their foes, which gave the rest of their offspring a healthy dose of dislike for bodies of water. Kaminari couldn’t even get in a swimming pool. Hot springs really depended on his mood that day, or if he had a good enough excuse to not join in on the fun. 

    “Hi, Midoriya!” He said with forced cheer, tilting his head up to look at his towering friend. His growth spurt had shot him up to around six foot one, whereas Kaminari had stayed at a modest five foot ten. “Sorry, I was, uh- I was sleeping!” 

    Midoriya cocked his head at him, glancing into the room beyond him. “Through this racket?” 

    Kaminari bit his lower lip. “I… I had headphones in!” 

    “But… you heard me knocking?” 

    ‘ Are you fucking serious?’ Kaminari couldn’t help but think. He chose to ignore Midoriya’s question, instead asking one of his own. “What are you doing here? Not that I don’t appreciate a visit from my bro, of course!” 

    Deku didn’t look at him, instead focused on something on the ground in Kaminari’s room. “What’s that? Is that… a feather?” 

     Kaminari turned his head to look, seeing what his friend was seeing. There, on the ground right next to his bed, was a golden feather. Perhaps if it were the size of a normal feather, like the ones that crested around his head, then he could have brushed it off. Unfortunately, it was one of the massive feathers from his giant wingspan, making it nearly three feet in length. He slowly turned back to meet Izuku’s eyes. The taller boy was looking down at him questioningly while Denki’s brain fired on all cylinders, struggling to come up with an explanation. 

   “Right, it’s… it’s not real!” He rushed to explain. “You know how Mina is always finding weird things on ebay and buying them? Well, she found that and gave it to me because… because it looks like my hair!” 

    Indeed, the feather was the same golden colour as Kaminari’s hair. It even had black edges to each hair of the feather, like the lightning streak in the blond’s hair. Denki held his breath while he waited for Midoriya’s verdict on his frankly ridiculous answer. It was true that Mina did buy very strange things on ebay, and she did tend to give said things to some of her friends. As a pixie, she had a proclivity for finding weird odds and ends that she just had to have. 

    Midoriya’s lips quirked up into a sly smile, like he knew something that Denki didn’t. Even so, he nodded his head once. “I see. Well, I just wanted to see how you were doing. Sorry for waking you up.” 

    Kaminari nodded, perhaps a bit too vigorously. “Sure, no problem! Thanks for checking on me, dude. You’re a real one.” He held out a thumbs up while he closed his door, locking it behind him. He listened as Midoriya’s footsteps faded away. He barely had a moment to sink into his own crushing sense of relief before his shift overtook him once more. 

    Five

      The next to screw up and nearly expose herself was Uraraka. As a witch, she had a secret stash of ritual items hidden around her room, as well as random herbs and ingredients she kept in a box in her closet. She liked to practice her magic during her free time to try and up her strength as much as she could, just like she did with her quirk. She had recently been testing out creating charms, approaching her classmates to ask if she could try out her magic on them. This week, Asui had agreed to be her test subject. She’d asked Uraraka if she could create a focusing charm to help her study for a test they would have in a few days. The charm would only have to last until the test, which made it easier for Uraraka to create. Long-lasting charms were still a bit beyond her skillset, but that was alright. It was why she was practicing, after all. 

     She had her entire ritual area set up on her studying table in the middle of her room, with her ceremonial candles, mortar and pestle, miniature cauldron, spellbook and various herbs and ingredients scattered about. She was creating a potion for Tsuyu to drink, as they were generally the best for letting the charm run its course. They had been working on the tonic for hours at that point, and Ochako lost track of time. 

     Really, it was her own fault for forgetting her plans with Deku. Around five o’clock in the evening, there was a sharp knock on her door, startling both her and Tsu out of their careful reading of Ochako’s Book of Shadows. The two girls stared at each other with wide eyes, only growing wider when Deku’s voice called through the door. 

    “Ochako? Are you in there?” 

    “ Shit!” Uraraka cursed, leaping to her feet. Asui jumped up as well, gathering as many of the ritual items in her arms as she could. Uraraka joined her, both of them rushing to Ochako’s closet to dump everything in there where it would be hidden from sight. 

    “Just a second! I- I’m getting dressed!” Ochako called, her voice high with anxiety. Deku called back his acknowledgment, which at least gave them a bit of time. They successfully dumped everything in Uraraka’s closet, slamming the doors closed. With one last sweep around the room, Asui ran to open the door. Deku was standing out there with his hands in his pockets, smiling at the girls. 

    He looked at Ochako and his smile fell just a bit. “Weren’t you wearing that earlier?” 

   “What?” Ochako asked, just before her fib popped back into her head. “Oh! Y-yeah, I was. I was just, um. Putting a bra on!” 

    Izuku huffed out a laugh, shaking his head. “Alright then. Are you ready to study?” 

   “Sure, sure! Come on in,” Ochako said, waving him inside. Deku met Asui’s eyes and smiled kindly. 

    “Do you want to join us, Tsu?” 

   “No thank you, kero ,” Asui croaked, edging past him to leave the room. “I have things to do. We’ll finish our project another time, Ochako-chan. Goodbye, Deku-chan.” With that, she fled the scene. 

    Deku closed the door behind her with a small smile. “I’ll never get used to the girly honorific,” he mumbled. “So, ready to binge this series?” 

    “Absolutely,” Uraraka smiled, her heartbeat finally settling back into a normal range. The two of them settled on Ochako’s bed, side by side against the headboard. They positioned Deku’s laptop half on her lap and half on his, so they could each see the screen properly. The documentary Deku was talking about was about old-school rescue heroes. They were both interested in it, since Ochako herself wanted to be a rescue hero, and Deku was just generally intrigued by heroes. 

     Around forty-five minutes into the viewing, Deku reached up to rub at his arms. “Do you have an extra blanket or something?” 

    Ochako shook her head distractedly. “No, sorry. But I think I still have one of your hoodies in here somewhere.” 

    Deku shrugged and shifted the laptop completely to her, standing up. He stretched for a moment before he shuffled over to her dresser, opening a few drawers in search for his missing hoodie. When he didn’t find it in there, he turned toward the closet. 

    Ochako remembered what was hiding there just in time. She leaped to her feet, rushing past him to slam her hands against her closet doors. “Ah! Um, it's a mess in there right now! Please don’t look!” 

    Deku looked startled at her haste, letting out a nervous laugh. “Uh, okay…? Should I just grab one from my room?” 

   “That would probably be best,” Ochako said weakly. Deku nodded his head and exited the room, heading to his own to get something to keep him warm. Ochako watched him go with bated breath, not fully relaxing until she vaguely heard the elevator ding, closing its doors behind the male. 

    She exhaled heavily once she was sure he wasn’t coming back, easing off of her closet doors. That had been way, way too close. None of her other classmates had been so close to being caught before, yet this was the third or so time for her! She just kept forgetting that her best friend was human. Geez, if Bakugou ever found out how close she’d been to exposing them all, he would murder her. 

Chapter Text

        Six

  Jirou liked to think that she had pretty good control over her supernatural abilities. As the daughter of a poltergeist, she had the dangerous habit of turning transparent or throwing stuff around rooms when she was startled or upset. Considering her wanting to be a hero, this wasn’t exactly good. Over her years at U.A., she’d thankfully learned rather quickly how to hide her true nature when in the presence of the humans at her school. 

    Some of her classmates had helped to train her in those first few months, although only when Midoriya wasn’t around. Midoriya was damn lucky that he was so likable, or else there was no doubt that many of their classmates would hold a grudge against him for having to hide their true natures when he was around. Coming into Class 1-A and finding the room full of supernatural creatures, Jirou had never been more astounded. Supernaturals only took up about eighteen percent of the population, although it was true that many of them became heroes due to their extra abilities. 

    She’d nearly cried with happiness and had planned on talking to them all after school ended, but to her despair, there was in fact one human in their class. His scent had been masked by Katsuki’s werewolf pheromones, fooling most of them. Bakugou had to spread the word throughout the entire day that Midoriya was human. For the first couple of weeks, Jirou had disliked him for taking away what could have been her only safe space away from home. 

     But then the USJ happened, and she saw how hard he’d fought to keep them all alive, and she was hooked. Apparently, the rest of them were too. Her friendship with Midoriya, which had only grown especially after he’d run away from them and come back, was what led her into his dorm room to begin with. He’d asked her to make him a mix of song recommendations for him to listen to while studying. She’d made it and then invited herself over to study along with him, given that he spoke some of the best English in class, behind only Kaminari of all people. He’d readily agreed. 

    Ever since All Might’s death at the end of the war against All for One, the shrine in Izuku’s room had been torn down. Jirou had hated the thing from the first time she’d seen it in their first year, from the sheer nerd-dom and tackiness of it. After it seemed to disappear without a trace though, she was a little sad. It was like saying goodbye to that sweet, heroic boy who’d been untouched by the war yet to come. With that came Jirou having to accept that there was also a part of herself that had died sometime in the many hours and days of combat. 

    That was why she was surprised to see a singular All Might figurine on one of his bookshelves, seemingly worn down with age and use. Her curious nature took over, and she needed to stretch her legs anyway, so she made her way over to the shelf to get a closer look. Sure enough, the brightly coloured paint that had once coated the figurine was covered in scratches and faded with age, like most toys did. Just behind the action figure was a shelf of notebooks, much like the ones Midoriya had been writing in for as long as she’d known him. 

    She still didn’t know what possessed her to pick one up. All she knew was that one moment, she was staring down at the first page of what appeared to be an extremely detailed analysis of a hero who had debuted last year, and the next Midorya was snatching the notebook out of her hands with a hard expression on his face. 

    “Don’t touch that,” he told her sternly. She was so startled by his sudden proximity and anger that she couldn’t help herself. Maybe it was because of the ease and comfort she often found herself feeling around Midoriya, or maybe she was just having an off day. No matter the reason, a few of the notebooks on the shelf to their right came flying out of their places, nearly hitting both of the teens. They both yelped and ducked out of the way as the journals hit the ground at their feet. Once they were sure it was over, they looked at each other. Midoriya looked shocked, like he couldn’t believe that just happened, but Jirou’s face was closer to a look of panic. 

    “What was that ?” Midoriya asked, crouching down to pick up one of the notebooks. Jirou scrambled to follow, reaching out to help him before his words from before flashed into her mind. She met his eyes once more, seeing the warning look in them. She quickly stood up straight again and just let him do the rest. 

    “Maybe you have a ghost,” she told him weakly. Midoriya chuckled at the joke, although he didn’t understand the sheer irony of it. Jirou spent the rest of the study session completely focused on making sure her abilities didn’t backfire again. 

     She didn’t notice Midoriya sitting across from her, the irony of her joke totally not lost on him, still amusing even hours after it had been told. 

     Seven

      Sero had become accustomed to certain chores around the Class 2-A dorms. For instances, every Friday he and Kaminari would vacuum the entire building, while Iida and Satou washed the windows and did the dusting. One every other Wednesday, he and Hagakure would prepare food for everyone in their class so they could all eat together. 

    Besides these chores on the official chores list, which had been provided by Iida, he also had the unofficial job of getting rid of any spiders that may invade the building. As a tsuchigumo, he could communicate with the spiders and simply order them to leave the building. Besides, he was the only one in the building who wasn’t afraid of them in the slightest. 

     While everyone else knew the reasoning behind Sero’s job as the bug handler, Hanta sometimes forgot that Midoriya didn’t know his true nature. The incident in the common room in November of their second year was very nearly a disaster situation. Sero, Ashido and a few members of the Dekusquad were all hanging out in the common room, each of them doing one thing or another. Ashido, Midoriya and Uraraka were playing some sort of card game, while Asui, Todoroki, Iida and Sero played against each other in Mario Kart. Asui was the undefeated champion, so others in class were always trying to dethrone her. 

     Hanta  was mere moments away from kicking Asui’s ass and declaring himself the king when his concentration broke. Uraraka’s shrill screech broke the air, causing him to tilt his controller to the side and ultimately roll over the edge of rainbow road. Asui zoomed past the finish line in his stead, keeping her crown as queen of Mario Kart. 

    Sero whipped around to yell at Uraraka, only to be cut off by Uraraka pointing at the ceiling in the corner of the room. “It’s a spider! Sero-kun, Sero-kun, please get it!” 

    Everyone in the room immediately turned to look in the corner, a few of them recoiling away from the bug. Hanta rolled his eyes and hit the pause button on the game, getting up from his seat. He mosied over to the corner and stuck his hand out, pressing two fingers out against the wall. He then narrowed his eyes at the arachnid and communicated with it, ordering it to come down to his fingers and climb on. After a few seconds, the spider agreed, crawling down the wall to perch on Hanta’’s hand. 

     “Whoa! How did you do that?” Izuku asked, his voice filled with awe. It was like every muscle in Hanta’s body tightened, sending him into an immediate fit of panic. He turned around slowly, struggling to come up with a viable excuse. 

    “I- Uh…” He stuttered, trailing off. Ashido spoke for him, piping up from the coffee table where they were playing their card game. 

    “There’s just something about Hanta’s pheromones that seems to attract spiders!” She squeaked out. “P-Pretty weird, right?” 

    Midoriya wrinkled his nose, causing Sero to wince. Midoriya was far too smart to fall for something like that , wasn’t her? They all seemed to hold their breath while the taller teen deliberated this information. After what felt like hours, he nodded his head once and picked up his cards. “Alright, if you say so.” 

     Hanta let out a breath of relief, looking at Ashido. She winked at him before she too picked up her cards. Hanta took the opportunity to leave the room, heading to the front doors of the building to let the spider outside. That was seriously a close one. 

    Eight

    Yaoyorozu Momo had been born beautiful. Not to toot her own horn, but it was simply the truth. It was only to be expected having a succubus for a mother and an incubus for a father, though. They were enchanting creatures, meant to lure their human victims in before they had sex with them. Momo was simply a product of them. By the time she was in ten, she began developing breasts, and by the time she was thirteen, she was getting hit on by boys and men who were much, much older than her. 

     It was disgusting to think back on, but it was also just what she had to deal with. She couldn’t exactly be mad at the humans around her for falling under her spell. It was exactly what she was designed for, after all. 

     She had gotten so used to it in fact, that by the time they were over halfway through with their second year, she got hit on while she was grocery shopping for the dorms. Now that the war was over and their class no longer had an active threat hanging down over them, they were allowed outside of U.A. with a bit more leeway than before. 

     Unfortunately for everyone involved, Midoriya just so happened to be the person to accompany her that day. Yaomomo had been standing in the produce aisle looking at the variety of berries they had available when the man approached her. He might have been average-looking normally, but with his untidy appearance and the lecherous look in his eye, he was quite unattractive. 

    “Hey pretty girl,” he said, tossing a wink her way. “What’s a gorgeous girl like you doing outside all alone?” 

    Yaomomo’s eyes widened, horrified at his implication. Despite her being a hero in training, it was like all of her confidence left her in that instant. She had never felt more unsafe in her life, barring her experiences fighting in a war against villains. 

    “I’m not alone,” she said cooly, ducking her head to avoid his eyes. Right after he’d finished speaking, his beady grey eyes had narrowed in on her breasts. They weren’t particularly exposed in her outfit- she just wore a casual outfit of a blouse and pants- but she may as well have been naked under that stare of his. 

    “Really? I don’t see anyone here with you,” he challenged her. 

    Yaomomo risked another look at him just in time to watch big, gnarled fingers tap the creep’s shoulder. He turned around, having to tilt his head back in order to stare up at Midoriya’s tall frame. His growth spurt had shocked them all, especially since it had really taken place during the four months he’d been away from U.A.. When they’d tracked him and found that he was now just over six feet tall, they’d all been absolutely floored. 

    Now, with his height and the massive amounts of muscle from Midoriya’s vigorous training, mixed with the hardness that only battle could put into a person’s eyes, made him quite the intimidating specimen. The man’s eyes widened at the sight of Yaomomo’s classmate. Just seeing him made Yaomomo’s own confidence raise. She was being ridiculous- she was a hero in training! There was nothing this man could try that she wouldn’t have already seen before. 

       “S-Sorry!” He stammered out before bolting away from the scene. The two students watched him until hsi form left their line of sight before they looked at each other with smiles. At that moment, Yaomomo found herself wanting to kiss him. Midoriya was the kind of person who made her feel safe and strong just from being in the same room . She was sure that many of their classmates had the same thoughts about him that she did. Most of the time she thought of him platonically anyway. 

    Suddenly, to her surprise, Midoriya’s eyes slipped into a more half-lidded state, his pupils dialating a considerable amount. The look could only be described as “bedroom eyes.” When he began to lean forward a moment later, Yaomomo understood what was going on. She didn’t hesitate to break her gaze with him, staring down at the fruit in front of her while chanting numbers quietly under her breath. 

    A moment later, she felt Izuku slip out of her thrawl, no doubt confused as to his sudden change and re-change in his own feelings for her. Guilt pricked at her chest for her accidental use of supernatural powers on her friend, especially when he’d just gotten through with protecting her. 

     “Weird,” she heard the boy mutter, before seeming to shrug it off. “Did you find what you were looking for?” 

    Yaomomo shook her head. With all of the excitement, she’d hardly had the chance. “No. Let’s move on to the next item, shall we?” 

    Nine

     Iida Tenya hadn’t slipped once in the year and a half he’d known Izuku, despite the many times he’d nearly caught himself before he gave anything away. Although he’d heard about many of his classmates fucking up before, he never would have thought that he would joint he ranks. He’d always considered himself much more careful than that, which in and of itself should have let him know that eventually, his luck would run out. 

     It was January, and it was still snowing pretty badly outside of the dorns. For most students, this meant curling up in their cozy rooms to keep away from the bitter cold, but for Tenya, it was an opportunity. As a shifter, a direct descendant of the mythical horse Arion, his urge to shift into his other form and just run was nearly overwhelming. With the blanket of snow and ice coating the majority of the campus, if he went deep enough into the four square mile campus, which was filled with dorm buildings, gyms and battlegrounds, then he could undoubtedly shift forms and run like the wind without being seen. 

     It would be so easy, if only Midoriya would let him leave the dorms . 

    “Tenya, it’s too dangerous ,” the boy snapped, keeping hold of Tenya’s arm as he tried to go out the door. He was dressed in gym gear, his cover being that he wanted to head to one of the gyms on campus. The snow outside was quickly approaching blizzard territory, so really he could understand Izuku’s worry. He didn’t know that Tenya had supernatural blood running through his veins, and just shifting would warm him up considerably. 

    That didn’t make it any less annoying . 

    “Izuku, it will be fine,” Tenya insisted, pushing his glasses up his face. The irritated look on the older boy’s face didn’t fade even with Tenya’s words. 

    Desperation was beginning to grip Tenya, his horse side begging to be let out. For the first time in years, he was genuinely afraid that he would lose control and shift right there. He felt a familiar tingling around his throat, a scarily good horse snicked leaving his vocal chords. He managed to smother it with a well-placed cough, bringing his fist up to his mouth. Something about the look of fear in Iida’s eyes must have signalled to Izuku that this was important, because he let go of Tenya’s bicep suddenly. The blue-haired man raised his eyebrows at the other’s sudden acquiescence, but gratefully backed up toward the doors. 

    “I’ll be back soon,” Iida promised his friend, slipping his shoes onto his feet. “I’ll run the whole way to the gym. I know the path, it will be fine. It’s just a little snow.” 

    Izuku frowned, but didn’t otherwise argue. Iida took his out, leaving Heights Alliance with a breath of relief. With the prospect of shifting just on the horizon, Tenya’s horse side quieted down a bit, no longer panicked with the threat of foiled plans. Instead of walking down the path towards the nearest gym building, Iida instead turned to the left and headed for the small patch of woods just along the edge of U.A.’s far walls. There was less of a chance to be seen there.  

    Inside, Izuku stared after his friends’ retreating back, a thoughtful look on his face. 

    Ten

       As a ghoul, Shinsou Hitoshi had to deal with lots of… weird cravings. His ancestors had been known for devouring human flesh, and especially loving to disembowel their victims in order to eat their organs. A long time ago however, the “moral code” of ghouls changed so that they no longer consumed humans. Now, with so many generations having gone completely without tasting human entrails, those who did partake in this macabre craving tended to lose their minds to the sensation of finally consuming what they’d always wanted. They often had to be put down by the rest of the supernatural community before their secrets were revealed to the world. 

    Hitoshi had these cravings like any other teenage ghoul, but his moral code was perhaps one of the strongest there was. He would never, ever eat humans, even after the way he’d been mistreated and abused by them when he’d fallen into the foster care system. After all, he’d been adopted by two of his teachers at U.A., Aizawa Shouta and Yamada Hizashi. While Yamada was indeed a supernatural creature (he was banshee, as was clear by the mutation to his quirk), Aizawa-sensei was as human as they came. He knew about the supernatural community and had been clearly marked by his husband, keeping him safe from attacks and scorn from the supernatural community, but both Shinsou and Present Mic still felt a fierce protectiveness over him. 

    That protectiveness had also shifted to Midoriya Izuku, who’d become one of his closest friends after he’d joined Class 1-A just after summer camp. Mineta Minoru, the classmate who had been before him, had been expelled for trying to peek into the women’s baths during the trip. 

    Even before then, Shinsou had felt a connection with Midoriya. When they fought during the Sports Festival, Hitoshi had been spouting bullshit about how the other boy didn’t know anything about the adversity he’d faced due to his quirk, having been born with a powerful quirk himself. 

    By the end of the round, he’d seen the look on Midoriya’s face, and had instantly known how wrong he was. By the time Izuku ran away from U.A. after their first big battle with the League of Villains, he fully understood the depth of the deep-seated hatred Midoriya had experienced throughout his entire childhood because of his quirklessness. One for All had been a shock to all of them, although it made sense, fitting in with the fact that Midoriya had constantly been destroying his bones, and had developed new quirks out of nowhere. 

    Four months without the human around had made Hitoshi’s skin itch. He had been thoroughly marked by all of their classmates, practically screaming to any passing supernaturals that he was taken . Without him around, they’d all been particularly antsy. For Hitoshi, this antsiness had translated into a horrible, gnawing need for human organs. Upset by his cravings, he’d run panicked to his adoptive parents. They’d come up with a solution that had been used by other ghouls dealing with his same problems for generations. 

     Instead of eating human organs, he began eating the hearts of animals. He’d tried cows, goats and pigs, finding that the pig hearts seemed to satisfy his cravings the best, given how anatomically close they were to human hearts. Even after Midoriya returned to the dorms and the war ended however, Shinsou didn’t stop eating the pig hearts. It wasn’t necessarily often that he did, probably only once every few months or so, so he hadn’t really worried about being caught before. 

    His own complacency was his first mistake. He usually received a pig heart a few days before his cravings would crest, and until he couldn’t stand it anymore, he would keep them in a wrapped box in the fridge of the dorm kitchen. Midoriya wasn’t the type to snoop through other people’s food, so he’d never been concerned about the open placement. 

    What he hadn’t accounted for was Midoriya’s new, unconventional sleeping habits. Ever since he’d returned from his vigilante days, he’d begun having horrible nightmares about his four months living on the streets. He’d had to spend every minute of every day and night on a knife’s edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Shinsou understood, having spent a long time in the foster system with the same mentality. 

    One night, around three o’clock in the morning, his need for the heart spiked into something he could no longer ignore. He’d gotten out of bed and made his way down to the dorm kitchens, opening the fridge with sleepy eyes. He pulled out his wrapped bento and carried it to the kitchen counter, carefully untying the cloth knot around the box. When he opened it, the scent of the heart made the hunger in his stomach grow exponentially. He lifted the heart out of the box and brought it to his lips, taking a large bite. 

    He almost groaned at the taste, allowing his eyes to slip close in ecstasy. Seriously, it was like taking ecstasy, that was how much he’d absolutely needed it. 

    “Um… what are you doing?” 

    Hitoshi nearly choked on his meal, his eyes shooting up to peer into the darkness. Just past the other side of the kitchen counter, sitting at the dining table a mere seven or so feet away, Izuku was sitting in the dark, seemingly sipping on some hot drink. The lights in the kitchen had been dimmed low, like they usually were late into the night. They were never completely turned off, just in case someone, like Shinsou or Izuku, needed to use the kitchen. That meant that Izuku could clearly see what exactly Hitoshi had just eaten. 

    He swallowed hard, feeling the piece of the heart slip down his throat. He looked down at the item in his hand, before quickly looking back up to Midoriya. If he had been paying more attention, he might have seen the way Midoriya’s eyes seemed almost bioluminescent in the dark, trained right on him. 

   “Uh…” Hitoshi said, stalling as he looked all around the kitchen. “It’s- it’s jello! Right, Kaminari made it earlier as a joke and I just really wanted it.” He laughed awkwardly. Midoriya tilted his head to the side just a bit, studying Hitoshi like a specimen under a microscope. 

    “Alright,” he said after a few torturous seconds of silence. “Can I try some?” 

   “No!” Shinsou blurted, clutching the heart to his chest. Midoriya jerked back, clearly startled by his volume and tone. Hitoshi immediately felt bad and tried to cover his reaction. “I’m sorry Midoriya, but it's strawberry flavoured. Otherwise I would totally share.” 

    Izuku smiled the tiniest bit and nodded. “Don’t worry about it.” He stood up, grabbing his mug to deposit it in the sink next to Hitoshi. As he got close, his expression changed. His nose wrinkled a bit and his eyes widened just a tad. He rushed to dump his mug in the sink before he backed away from Hitoshi with an apologetic smile. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

    “Sure,” Hitoshi nodded, waiting until the boy was completely out of his sight before he took another bite of the heart. The temptation was too great. 

    It was only as he was washing out the bento box to give back to his dads that he realized the air smelled slightly of blood and tissue. He frowned, scrubbing harder at the plastic in his hands. It was lucky that Midoriya didn’t have his supernatural senses, or he absolutely would have smelled that the heart was not gelatin. 

Chapter Text

    Eleven

    Honestly, Ashido was surprised that more people hadn’t guessed that she was a pixie. Seriously, her skin was pink. Pink! What did that have to do with having an acid quirk? She even had little horns . 

    Well, whatever. Even if her complexion didn’t give it away, she thought for sure that her behaviour would. She acted exactly like a typical pixie; she loved shiny and weird things, she enjoyed playing practical jokes on her friends, and she was always, always down to get into some mischievous shit. Hell, she was even in the hero course! Everyone knew that pixies absolutely hated anything dark and evil. That definitely included villains. 

    She thought that if anyone were to guess what she was, then it would be Midoriya Izuku. The boy’s analysis powers were seriously otherworldly. His level of cunning as well, and the way he would ruthlessly take down his opponents. If their first battles at U.A. weren’t an indication of this, then his later ones in the midst of war certainly were. It was awe inspiring, although she really shouldn’t have expected any less of his species. 

    Oh yes, Mina absolutely knew that Izuku wasn’t human. She wasn’t sure why she was the only one, especially since Bakugou had known him since they were toddlers, but whatever. She could tell that Izuku loved messing with the rest of their classmates, and who was she to stop the fun? 

    After all, she was a pixie. She really did love mischievous plans and practical jokes. 

    Twelve

    It was pretty easy for Hagakure Tooru to hide her true nature from Midoriya. She was invisible, so she had more freedom than her other classmates did. She didn’t have to worry about accidentally letting a transformation loose like Iida or Ojiro, she didn’t have to hide odd habits like Bakugou or Kaminari, and best of all, nobody seemed to take a second glance at her overly bubbly personality. 

    See, as a will-o-the-wisp, her entire thing was that she was filled with hope. If she concentrated, she could also infuse those that she touched with hope. She’d had to do it so many times in that final battle against Shigaraki that she’d been nearly knocked out cold by the end. But it worked . The heroes won, and Tooru liked to think that at least a little bit of that victory was because of her. 

     In fact, she was so comfortable with her position as a pretty much un-revealable participant of Class 2-A, that she had panicked hard when Midoriya practically accused her. They were having their usual Friday night movie night, and it was Tooru’s turn to pick the movie. She’d, of course, picked Brave , another Disney movie. A lot of their classmates liked to pick movies that had their respective creatures associated in some way; hence, Kirishima and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Ashido enjoyed the Tinkerbell movies, and Uraraka had always been partial to Hocus Pocus , no matter the time of year. It was funny to see how your own species was represented in media, that was all. 

    Still, Hagakure never would have guessed that Midoriya, who was sitting on the couch directly facing the flat screen television bolted to the wall, would look at her during the scene in which Merida chases the wisps through the Scottish highlands. 

    “They kind of remind me of you,” Izuku said with a perfectly straight face. Hagakure, who was sitting on the couch to his left with her legs thrown over Ojiro’s lap, sat bolt-upright so fast that she got a crick in her neck. 

    “What ?” She cried, her voice much louder than she’d meant it to be. Instantly all eyes were on her, any focus on the movie ripped away. Midoriya was staring at her like she was insane, probably wondering why she was overreacting so much. 

    “I didn’t mean it in a bad way,” he apologized, gifting her with a small smile. “I just meant they’re… you know, cute .” Hagakure only had a moment to freak out about what that meant before he continued speaking. “They have those cute little voices, and they’re meant to inspire hope, right? I don’t know, I guess I just thought of you. They’re even kind of transparent.” 

    Tooru was now gripping Ojiro’s arm with all of her might, her fingernails digging into his skin. Ojiro subtly moved his own hand to cover hers, squeezing it once to try and calm her down. “That’s a very kind thing to say, Midoriya-kun.” 

    “R-Right,” Hagakure stammered. “Sorry, I was just… surprised.” 

   “Sorry for the confusion,” Izuku said, turning back to the movie. Despite the passing of the awkward moment, Tooru didn’t remove her hand from her boyfriend’s arm until the end credits rolled on the screen. She didn’t remember a single minute. 

     Thirteen

      It was no secret that Kouda Kouji liked plants. He was especially partial to trees, given the fact that his mother was a nymph. She’d been guarding her own bonsai tree for fifty years now. It still wasn’t any bigger than three feet tall, but it was impressive nonetheless. When moving into the U.A. dorms, Kouji had asked Aizawa-sensei if he could plant a small garden around the side of the building. The tired man had nodded his agreement, even if he was half asleep at the time. Whatever, he would take what he could get. 

    He was standing outside now, watering the flowers he’d planted months before. They were finally beginning to bloom, causing warmth to grow in his chest. Since he was only half nymph, his life force was tied to his mother’s tree. As long as the tree was safe, so were the two of them. Needless to say, Kouji’s father protected that tree with his life . 

    The thought of his father made him smile sadly to himself. He hadn’t seen him in over a month now. He only went home every other weekend, and the past two weekends he’d been there, his father had been wrapped up with work. They had plans to see each other this weekend to make up for it, so he was at least excited for that. 

    “What are you doing out here?” 

    Kouda turned around, smiling shyly at Midoriya. He was standing a good distance away from the garden with his hands in his pockets, looking at all of the flowers and budding vegetable bushes with a soft expression. Kouda realized then that although he’d often seen Midoriya look at his garden, he’d never thought to ask if Midoriya wanted to help him with it. 

    “Do you want to help?” He asked quietly, fixing his gaze somewhere around the other boy’s collarbone. Despite everything they’d been through, Kouda still had a bit of a hard time with eye contact. He was still getting used to trying to raise his voice, most days. 

    “Oh, no!” Midoriya blurted, holding his hands out in a placating gesture. He immediately shoved them back in his pockets and took a step back. “Despite the hair, I actually have the opposite of a green thumb. Seriously, you don’t want me anywhere near your plants.” 

    Kouji raised an eyebrow at the other teen’s sudden vehemence. Why would Midoriya always seem so interested in the garden if he had such a strong dislike for being near plants? Izuku seemed to read the question on his face, because his tense posture slumped back into relaxation. 

    “I just… I don’t want to hurt any of your plants,” Midoriya informed him. He looked over the garden, his eyes fixing on a particularly large bush he’d been growing for quite some time. “I mean, I know they’re special to you.” 

    The emphasis was suspicious, to say the least. If Kouji didn’t know any better, he would think that Midoriya was implying that his life plant was in this garden. As if he would ever leave it out to the elements like this with little to no protection. 

    ‘ And the fact that Midoriya doesn’t know what you are ,’ Kouji’s brain reminded him. He shook his head to clear away the silly thoughts, instead nodding to his friend to let him know that he had understood. 

    “Thank you for being so cautious,” he said. “If you ever decide to join me, you’re always welcome to. I trust you, Midoriya.” 

    He turned back around and crouched, running his fingers over some of the dying leaves on a few of his zucchini plants. He could have sworn that, as Midoriya walked away, he whispered something under his breath. 

   “Yeah, well, you probably shouldn’t.” 

     Fourteen

    Seemingly unlike his classmates, Satou Rikidou had been struggling with his identity for as long as he could remember. His great-grandfather had been Bigfoot- yes, that Bigfoot- and ever since his death, the men of the family had been carrying on the legend. Rikidou’s great-grandfather had been active up until around twenty years after the beginning of quirks, in which his grandfather had taken over for the next seventy years. Sasquatch tended to live slightly longer lifespans than humans, mostly making it to anywhere from one-hundred to one-hundred and thirty years old. After his grandfather’s death, Satou’s father had been the active legend-carrier. 

    Up until hunters shot and killed him when Satou was just a baby. 

    After his father’s death, Rikidou’s mother had been obsessive about him keeping his identity a secret, at least until he could decide for himself if he wanted to carry on the myth or not. 

    That was the problem, though. Rikidou didn’t know what he wanted to do. It was tiring, having to shave every inch of his body every single day. It seemed that no matter what, when he showered in the morning before school and shaved, by the end of the day his hair would reappear. Did he really want to do this for the rest of his life? Should he just follow in his ancestors’ footsteps and live in the woods, where he could truly be himself? 

    He’d been born in a cabin in the woods, and had lived there until he was six years old, when his dad had been killed. After that, he’d been uprooted from the only life he’d known, taken to a big city where there were so many people. Sasquatch weren’t built for city life- they lived off of the land, fending for themselves in wooded areas. It was deeply ingrained in their DNA, and yet the more Satou lived in Musutafu, the more he wanted to stay. 

    He wanted to do something his father hadn’t been able to do. He wanted to help people, not just become something they would catch a glimpse of one day and be called crazy for believing it. He wanted to be known as something more than a legend that didn’t really have anything to do with him . 

     He sat in the common room around nine o’clock in the evening, his laptop on his lap. He’d been trying to work on an essay that was due in their art history class in a few days, but his thoughts had pulled him under again. Seemingly without knowing, his fingers had typed in his family’s moniker. He’d been flicking through random, blurry pictures of Bigfoot for over an hour now, his eyes hardly focusing on each one he passed. 

    He was so lost in thought that he didn’t even notice Midoriya coming up behind him until the other boy was already speaking. He was now the third tallest in class, only behind Shouji’s six-foot-two, and Satou’s six-four. Given his increase in size, it really shouldn’t have been possible for him to sneak up on anyone . 

    “Bigfoot, huh?” 

    Rikidou flinched, turning his head to look at the boy behind him. He was leaning his arms against the back of the couch, squinting down at the screen in Rikidou’s lap. Satou had to smother the sudden urge to slam the laptop lid closed, embarrassed at being caught in such a vulnerable moment. He looked around the common room, unsurprised to find it otherwise empty. It was a school night after all, and they had hero training the next day. Almost everyone had retired to their rooms to finish up homework and relax hours ago. 

    “Yeah,” Rikidou admitted, looking down at his screen again. The picture was taken with night vision, showing only what appeared to be a tall, dark smudge in between the neon green lights of the trees. Almost all of these pictures were false sightings, with only a few of the really old ones being actual pictures of Rikidou’s great-grandfather and grandfather. He had seen none of his dad so far. 

    “Do you believe in him?” Midoriya asked. Rikidou was confused for a moment, wondering why Midoriya would be asking if he believed in his own father. He cursed himself when he remembered that no, Midoriya was just human, and he did not know what Satou was. 

    “Do you?” Rikidou asked, deflecting the attention off of himself. 

    Midoriya tilted his head a bit, looking up at the ceiling thoughtfully. “I’m not sure. I think two hundred years ago, before quirks, I wouldn’t have believed in him at all. But nowadays? I’ve certainly seen more than a few quirks that resemble Sasquatch.” 

    Rikidou nodded. He’d seen plenty of his own just walking around Japan. He couldn’t imagine how many there were in the entire world. He was about to respond when Midoriya spoke again, surprising him. 

    “I still think it’s pretty cool,” he said off-handedly. He was now staring at the picture on the screen, a small smile on his lips. “Imagine if there really was someone hundreds of years ago who was as big and strong as a Sasquatch. I think it must have been incredibly cool, almost like a quirk.” He reached down and squeezed Satou’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, though. You’re big and strong too, and you have an amazing quirk to match. Whatever you do with your life, no matter how many people you do or don’t save, you will always be something special.” 

    With that, he turned around and walked away. Rikidou stared after him, flabbergasted. How was it that Midoriya always seemed to know exactly what to say? 

    Fifteen

    The fae were no laughing matter. With the constant push-and-pull of both the Seelie court and the Unseelie court, Aoyama Yuuga had grown rather tired of being caught in the middle. The majority of the fae lived in Europe, with the Unseelie Court residing right in the heart of France. To this day Yuuga didn’t know all of the details, just that something bad had happened when he was a baby that had caused his family to run away from France. They’d come to Japan, where other escaped Unseelie fae had fled years earlier, in order to live in refuge with them. Aoyama saw the children of these other fae as his own cousins, his only connection to the world he’d been forced to leave behind at only a year old. 

    Was it wrong of him to want to return to the faerie kingdom? The Unseelies were known for being somewhat nasty, as they were the fae who enjoyed drawing unsuspecting humans into their realm to be trapped for eternity. They found the humans struggling and begging to go home to be amusing. 

    Yuuga didn’t want that. He would never want that, and yet he couldn’t seem to keep his innermost self from wanting to go back. As time went on and the desire only grew deeper, he began to question his own morals. Did the fact that he wanted to go back mean that he was evil at heart, too? His parents had left everything behind to give him his best chance in the world, and he wanted to go back ? If he did, he would have to leave his family and all of his new friends behind. He would never be allowed to see them again.

    Eventually, the stress got to be too much, and Yuuga did what he always seemed to do when he couldn’t handle his own thoughts. He searched for the class’s resident human, the only person he could trust to tell him the truth as gently as possible. That was how he found himself standing outside of Midoriya’s dorm around midnight toward the end of their second year, only a few weeks from finals. He hesitated to knock, not wanting to disturb the other teen when he might be in the midst of studying. Despite their structured schedules during the day, Midoriya was always a wild card for what he might be doing at night. He could either be passed out from right after dinner until his alarm went off the next morning, or he could be awake for up to three days at a time. 

    (Usually if this was the case however, Bakugou would strong-arm Midoriya into bed as soon as class let out. Yuuga knew better than to draw attention to the obvious caring behaviour, for fear of having his beautiful shining face blown off.) 

     Just as the blond had decided to turn around and head back to his room, Midoriya’s door opened. The boy himself looked down at Aoyama, not seeming surprised at all to see him there. “Are you alright?” Midoriya asked him, genuine concern in his eyes. “You’ve just been standing here for almost twenty minutes, now.” 

    Yuuga couldn’t help the scarlet blush that coated his cheeks. “You knew I was here?” 

    “Your feet blocked the light from under the door,” Izuku explained. He held the door open wider, stepping aside. “If you want to talk, you’re more than welcome. You know that.” 

    Relief washed over the smaller boy, and he hurried into the room. Izuku closed the door behind him and leaned against it, waiting for Yuuga to speak. It took the fae more than a few minutes to gather his courage to ask the one question that had been rolling around in his mind. 

    “Midoriya-kun, do you think I’m evil?” 

    When nothing but silence met him, Aoyama’s violet gaze raised to meet green. Midoriya was studying him, seeming to memorize the planes and dips of his face. Aoyama had a brief moment where he wished he could glamour himself before he shook the thought away. He hadn’t glamoured himself in a long time, since most supernatural creatures could look past it if they tried hard enough. There was just no point when he was surrounded by those who could see through it. Even if Midoriya was human, Yuuga had always gotten the uncanny feeling that he would be able to see through it, too. 

    “Well,” Izuku said slowly, articulating his thoughts carefully. “I suppose that depends on your definition of evil.” When he didn’t say anything else, Yuuga knew he was being prompted. 

    “Someone who wants to hurt others,” he declared decisively. Izuku raised his eyebrows. 

   “ Do you want to hurt others?” 

   “No, of course not!” Yuuga cried. Then he lowered his head to stare at the ground. “Not intentionally, anyway. I have… I have inclinations that would definitely hurt some people.” 

    “Well, don’t we all?” Midoriya snorted. Aoyama jerked his head up to stare at him, mouth agape. 

    “ Et tu , Midoriya-kun?” 

    Midoriya’s smile grew to be teasing. “Everyone does, Aoyama-kun. It’s a natural part of life. Pretty much no matter what we do, what we choose, we’ll be risking hurting others. Sometimes it’s for the good of everyone else, or sometimes it’s completely selfish. Sometimes, it can be a mix of both.” He crossed his arms over his chest, his brow furrowing. He began to mutter immediately, making Yuuga smile. “I mean, when I left, it was definitely a mix of both.” 

    “How so?” The blond asked, needing to know the answer for some reason. Midoriya had been his shining example of a hero ever since their entrance exams. As the years went by, he only grew more into this spotlight in Aoyama’s mind. Often, Yuuga found that when he was nervous or afraid, he would ask himself one question. ‘ What would Midoriya do?’ He knew for a fact that he wasn’t the only one in class to do this. Most of the Dekusquad and Bakugou, being the others that he knew of. 

     “Well,” Izuku began, taking a deep breath. Nobody really talked much about the time that Midoriya had been away from U.A., too hurt by the memories of long, sleepless nights and endless worry. Midoriya himself didn’t talk about it either, probably haunted by everything he’d seen and done in that time. “I left because I genuinely wanted to protect you all. After Kacchan…” he trailed off, clearing his throat. Yuuga filled in the lines. After Bakugou had sacrificed himself to save Izuku, everything had changed. It was always like that with the Twin Stars of Class A. If something happened to one of them, it affected both of them. It was a wonder that neither of them had figured out the other’s feelings by now.  

    “After Kacchan, I realized that it wasn’t safe for anyone if I stayed at U.A.,” Izuku continued. “Shigaraki was targeting me because of One for All , and it wasn’t fair of me to put everyone else in danger. But I suppose… I was also punishing myself for letting Kacchan get hurt.” He tipped his head down, allowing his messy curls to shadow his eyes from sight. 

    Yuuga understood. Both Midoriya and Bakugou were quite similar in that they both felt things deeply. Regret, fear, anger. Especially if it pertained to the other. No doubt Midoriya had been absolutely crushed by Bakugou’s near-death experience, especially since it was the second time he’d nearly lost Bakugou to the League of Villains. 

    “I understand,” Yuuga said, breaking through Izuku’s thoughts. “Thank you for sharing that with me, Midoriya-kun. I think it helped to answer my question.” 

     Midoriya lifted his head, a sad smile on his face. “I’m glad.” He stepped away from the door and opened it again, allowing Yuuga to leave the room, the pep back in his step. He watched as Aoyama crossed the hall to the door directly across from his. As Yuuga opened the door, he heard Midoriya call his name again. He turned, waiting. Midoriya looked embarrassed as he reached up to rub his hand up the back of his curls. “Would you mind keeping what I told you to yourself?” 

    “Of course, mon amie . I promise.” 

    Izuku’s eyes flashed a bit, like he was surprised. Then he simply nodded and closed his door, leaving Aoyama in the dim glow of his room lights. The blond locked himself away again, replaying those last few moments in his mind. There was no reason for Midoriya to look surprised at his promise. After all, he couldn’t have known that to the fae, a broken promise meant death. He didn’t know Yuuga was fae, after all. 

Chapter Text

      Sixteen

    Asui Tsuyu had been there for so many close calls now that she figured it was only a matter of time before she had one of her own. She was proven right only a few weeks into their third year at U.A.. As one of the last people standing to yet almost reveal themselves, she actually felt pretty good about herself. Not many people knew this about her, but she was actually a very competitive person. That possibly had something to do with her species. 

     Her mother was the daughter of the Egyption goddess Heqet, a frog-headed goddess who was known for fertility. Unfortunately for Tsuyu’s mother, Heqet hadn’t stuck around long after her birth, now that quirks were around and there wasn’t any need to hide her offsprings’ frog features. Tsu’s mother had grown up with only a father, and had always been heartbroken about her own mother’s abandonment of her from practically the moment she was born. This had developed into a need to do great things in order to get Heqet’s attention. 

     The cycle was repeated when Tsu and her siblings were born. Their father was a direct descendant of the Loveland Frog, a humanoid frog who’d lived in Ohio many years before. This had given both Tsuyu and all of her siblings complete frog features and frog quirks. Their mother was such a hard worker, the CFO of a major corporation that distributed water to the entirety of Musutafu. In her quest to do great things to get Heqet’s attention, she’d inadvertently created the exact same situation that she’d struggled with so much. 

    Now, Tsu and her siblings constantly tried to one-up each other, doing better and greater things to get their mother’s attention. It was pretty much the reason Asui had decided to be a hero. Now in her third year at U.A., she was beginning to question her own intentions. Was she doing this for the right reasons? Did she even want to be a hero, or was she just trying to become the greatest? 

    No, she did want to be a hero. During the war in their first and second years, she’d saved too many civilians to count. She’d fought against the League of Villains on multiple occasions, and eventually, she’d aided in their defeat. The feeling she’d gotten knowing that they had won, and protected the innocents of Japan… Yes, she liked that feeling. She wanted to do the best work possible. But was even that tainted with more selfish motivations? 

     It was beginning to give her a headache. It was why, when Izuku walked up to their usual lunch table, carrying a tray of food, she gestured for him to sit in the empty seat next to her. The only people at their table so far were Kaminari and Todoroki, who were talking quietly about their English homework. Izuku usually sat in between Bakugou and Uraraka, but today, Asui could use the distraction. 

    “Hey Izuku-chan, come sit with me today,” she told him, smiling. Izuku raised an eyebrow at her, but came to sit on her left, anyway. Once they were comfortably situated, Izuku smiled at her. 

    “What’s up, Tsu?” It had taken a while, but eventually Izuku had gotten comfortable using her nickname. Now that they were in the beginning of their third year, they were more like a family than ever. Thinking of family made Tsuyu’s heart squeeze all over again. She must have made some kind of face, because Izuku’s relaxed look shifted into one of concern. “Tsu? You alright?” 

    “I’m fine, I’m fine,” the girl said, waving her hand. She picked up her water bottle and took a swig, occupying her mouth while she figured out what to say. “I’m just… I’m having some family troubles.” 

    “How so?” Midoriya questioned, breaking his disposable chopsticks in half so he could dig into his katsudon. Asui sighed and poked at her salad, propping her cheek on her hand. 

    “Just issues with my mom. She’s pretty absent, you know.”

    “I remember,” Izuku said gently. “Do you want to talk about it?” 

    Asui debated this question. When she glanced around the lunch table, she found Iida and Todoroki in their usual places on the other end. When she glanced around, she found Katsuki, Kirishima and Ochako still in line. It appeared that Kaminari, Sero and Ashido were going to be sitting at Shinsou’s table today. 

    She met Izuku’s eyes again and pressed her lips together. “I just… my siblings and I are constantly competing for her attention, and it doesn’t feel good. It was how she grew up, kero, always trying to impress her mother, and now she’s doing the same thing to us. I don’t want this to continue for the rest of our lives.” 

     Izuku nodded, not answering her right away. Tsuyu was pleased that he seemed to be seriously thinking about his answer, instead of just offering her meaningless platitudes. She ate a bite of her salad while she waited. Finally, Izuku met her eyes again, his gaze a mix of soft and determined. 

    “Honestly, my advice would be to just tell her that. If she grew up the way she’s currently raising you, there’s no way she was happy. Living your life constantly competing to someone’s attention is no way to live.” He glanced across the cafeteria, where Katsuki was currently paying for his curry. “It nearly destroyed Kacchan and I.” When he looked back at her, the determination was back. “She needs to know how much she’s hurting you. And if for some reason that doesn’t work, then you just need to teach your siblings not to be that way, before it’s too late.” 

     Asui nodded, breaking his gaze. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. At least if I tell her and nothing changes, I’ll know that I tried to fix it.” She smiled at Izuku. As always, his advice was perfect. “Thank you, Izuku-chan, kero .” 

     He beamed. “I’m glad I could help.” 

    Just then, a tray clattered on the table next to Izuku. They both looked up to find Bakugou staring down at them with a scowl. “What’s with the seat change?” 

    Izuku glanced at Asui, before turning back to the blond. “Nothing, just wanted to talk to Tsu-chan about some homework.” 

     Tsu was relieved that he didn’t say anything about their conversation. Katsuki shrugged and plopped down into the chair. Kirishima and Uraraka approached the table, not missing a beat as they slid into the other empty seats around the table. Asui resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Seriously, recently Bakugou’s mating instinct was so obvious. 

     Izuku reached over to his water bottle, taking a swig out of it. When he placed it back down, Katsuki reached for it. “Mind if I take some?” 

     Izuku’s hand shot out so quickly that Tsuyu didn’t even see it. He grabbed the water bottle out of Bakugou’s hands and hugged it to his chest, his eyes a bit wide with what looked to be panic. Both Asui and Bakugou stared at him like he was insane. When Izuku looked between them, he seemed to realize what exactly he’d done, because he placed the water bottle gently back on the table in front of him. “S-Sorry, I, uh… I think I’m beginning to get sick. I don’t want you to catch it.” 

    Bakugou and Tsu exchanged a glance with each other before Asui  nodded her head. Bakugou sighed and rolled his eyes at Izuku. “Alright, well, you don’t have to be such a spaz about it, damn.” 

    Izuku shot him a shaky smile, placing his water on his other side, out of Katsuki’s reach. Asui was then struck with the realization that Izuku always did that- kept his drinks out of reach of others. 

    How odd. Maybe he had a problem with germs. 

     Seventeen

    Shouji Mezo had once lived a peaceful life. Before U.A., his routine consisted of going to school, stopping by the gym for some weight training, and then heading home to do his homework. He didn’t have very many friends, due to the apparently scary nature of his mouth, but that was okay. He had one or two people who helped him get through school. Since he was so big, not many kids dared to pick on him anyway. 

    What they didn’t know was that Mezo would never harm them, anyway. It was against supernatural law to harm a human for a selfish reason, and unfortunately, there was only one other supernatural creature in his entire school, two grades behind him. That was why coming to U.A. was such a shock. Having an entire classroom full of supernatural creatures was practically unheard of. As Shouji began to realize that a few of his teachers were also supernaturals, and so were many of the other assortment of heroes they met, he understood why he’d met so many of them at once. Supernatural creatures had a knack for hero work. Not only that, but their positions as heroes acted as kind of a safety guard for the still-maturing supernatural population. As long as plenty of supernaturals became heroes, should they ever get found out, there was a line of protection all around. 

     It was instinct, Mezo thought. Instinct had made him want to become a hero, if at least so the younger gegenees would be able to see what they too could become. Still, unlike his classmates, he’d never been concerned about being found out by the only human in class. The gegenees were an ancient race of six-armed giants that became known in the ancient Greek times. With no real extra powers besides his strength, nobody had any reason to think that he might be something other than a kid with a strange quirk. 

     But that didn’t stop his heart from skipping a beat when he heard Midoriya’s voice one night when he was reading in the common room. Midoriya had been sitting on the couch watching a documentary or something. Shouji had expected him to be up, which was why he was down here in the first place. He’d just woken from an unsettling dream about the war that they’d fought in. It hadn’t quite been a nightmare- more just a memory of the stress and crippling fear he’d felt when fighting for his life over and over again. It was enough to leave him unsettled though. So, he’d picked up the book he’d been reading over the past few days, and he traipsed down to the common room.

    When Midoriya saw him, he merely smiled and looked back to the tv. This wasn’t the first time someone had done this with Midoriya, and they’d all sort of come up with an unspoken system. If you wanted to talk about it, then bring it up first. If not, just sit quietly with him until you felt better. It was a good system. 

    Mezo’s eyes were just starting to get heavy, the words swimming on his book page, when Midoriya said the last thing he’d ever expected him to say. 

    “Hey, that’s interesting. Gegenees . Reminds me of you!” 

    Shouji froze, glancing up at the tv. Apparently, Midoriya was watching a documentary on the works of Homer; aka, the texts that had exposed Mezo’s species to the world. Izuku looked away from the tv to catch his reaction, so Mezo arranged his face into a look of indifference. 

    “Cool,” he managed to choke out. Midoriya smiled before he went back to the documentary. By now Mezo was sweating bullets, so he stood up and headed back to his room as casually as he possibly could. 

     Eighteen

       Tokoyami Fumikage was growing more and more exhausted every day. 

     When he was merely four years old, something had happened to him. As a tengu, he was essentially a species of yokai, aka a species of demon. He wasn’t a particularly strong yokai, as tengu weren’t usually used for anything other than inconveniences and things like plagues. Species like the oni were the ones people really had to worry about. 

     Oni, and the soul-suckers like Dark Shadow. Dark Shadow had latched onto Fumikage’s soul when he was a child, and ever since then, Fumikage had been fighting him. Usually they were on pretty friendly terms, given that soul-suckers easily grew attached to those whom they caught in their web. Still, during the nighttime, Dark Shadow’s energy would become more restless. He’d gotten more and more wild as Tokoyami grew up, until eventually that night at summer camp, he’d seemed to snap. He’d taken over Fumikage’s body, and ever since then, he’d wanted a taste of more of that freedom. 

    Fumikage used his own demonic powers to suppress Dark Shadow as much as he could, and with little inventions like night lights, it was relatively easy to do so. But some nights, like tonight, it seemed like nothing would calm his symbiote down. The creature was making noise, struggling to take out the lights in the room while Fumikage focused solely on keeping him still. 

    He must have been making more noise than he’d meant to, because soon enough, there was a gentle knock on his door. Dark Shadow took the opportunity to try and get to the door, dragging Fumikage with him. Once the door was open, he knew why. 

    Dark Shadow had always loved the human in their class, for some reason or another. Usually he was attracted to anyone powerful, and to be fair, Izuku had one of the most powerful quirks Fumikage had ever seen. Privately, the tengu thought that Midoriya had more-so won over the other demon with his personality and head scratches. 

    “Midoriya,” Fumikage said, sagging a bit in relief. “I’m sorry, was I making noise?” 

    Midoriya locked eyes with Dark Shadow, immediately forcing his features into calm relaxation. Already, the shorter boy could feel his charge relax into their bond. “Don’t worry about it,” Midoriya said in a soft voice. “I could tell this guy needed a little help to calm down.” 

    “Please, come in,” Tokoyami said, stepping aside. Dark Shadow moved as well, allowing Izuku into the room before they stretched to curl around his shoulders like a cat. Midoriya reached up to pet his head, walking over to Tokoyami’s bed to ease himself down. While Fumikage wouldn’t necessarily call this a usual occurrence, it had definitely happened enough over the past few years for Izuku to know what to do. 

     They ended up having a sleepover, lying side by side on Fumikage’s bed. The tengu could already see Bakugou’s scowl when he smelled him all over his little human, but he couldn’t bring himself to care at the moment. By the time three a.m. rolled around, Dark Shadow was calm enough that he could finally get some sleep. 

    When he woke up the next morning to  get ready for school, Midoriya was already gone. He woke up hours earlier than most of them did, in order to get a run and shower in before breakfast was served. This too was part of their unofficial routine. Dark Shadow didn’t make an appearance as Fumikage sleepily went about his morning routine. He would have to remember to do something to thank Midoriya for his kindness. He couldn’t have gotten much sleep the night before, what with his early schedule. 

     Tokoyami tried not to think about the fact that, this time next year, he would no longer be living in the same dorm as Midoriya, and would thus be left all alone for these attacks. 

Chapter Text

    Back to the beginning…

    Midoriya Izuku was sitting in the kitchen, sipping on his glass of water, contemplating his life when suddenly, a dark figure stumbled into the kitchen. Izuku blinked as the figure he now recognized as Ojiro opened up the fridge, squinting his sleepy eyes into the sudden light. Izuku threw a glance to his right, seeing from the clock on the stove that yes, it was still the middle of the night. Ojiro bent a bit at the waist to peer into the lower contents of the fridge, and Izuku smirked to himself. Clearly, the kitsune had no idea that he wasn’t alone. 

    “Ojiro-kun?” 

    Ojiro flinched like he’d been struck by lightning, whirling around to face Izuku with a deer-in-headlights look. Behind him, the rest of his tails materialized into existence for a moment before disappearing just as quickly. Izuku blinked, a bit surprised at the other boy’s lapse in control. 

   “Midoriya-kun, you scared me!” Ojiro said, placing a hand over his heart. His expression twisted into one of caution, seemingly waiting to see if he’d seen anything. Izuku decided to let him off easy, blinking a few more times before he reached up to rub at his eyes. 

    “Sorry, I haven’t slept in awhile,” he apologized, smiling when his friend finally relaxed. “I didn’t mean to startle you.” 

    “Don’t worry about it,” Ojiro soothed, relaxing even further. Midoriya decided changing the subject would probably be best. 

    “What are you doing awake?” 

    “Don’t know. I couldn’t sleep, so I was looking for something to eat.” 

    Izuku’s heart softened a bit. He didn’t know if Ojiro was being affected by the same nightmares as the rest of their classmates, but he was willing to guess that might be the problem. “I have a package of oreos in my room. Do you want some?” 

    The kitsune smiled, perking up a bit. “Yes, that would be amazing.” 

    The two boys spent the next few hours talking about everything under the sun, until around three a.m. when Ojiro finally felt tired enough to go to sleep. When Izuku laid back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling, he considered everything that had happened this evening. 

    He hadn’t expected one of his classmates to slip up with their true form, but now that he was thinking about it, they seemed to have a lot of close calls around him. An idea began to form in his mind, and the more he thought about it, the better it sounded. After all, who was to say he couldn’t mess with them a little bit? He had to entertain himself somehow. 

     (x)

    The next opportunity came up just after Izuku’s return to U.A.. He still wasn’t feeling one-hundred percent yet, mostly sitting stiffly and quietly when surrounded by his friends. Kacchan was practically glued to his side these days, and tonight was no exception. Their class had decided that Friday nights were now mandatory bonding nights, aka “movie nights” in which one of them would pick a movie and they would all have to watch it together. 

    Kirishima picked The Hunchback of Notre-Dame , which wasn’t a shocker when one considered his species. The rest of the class seemed equally as amused, as throughout the movie, the Bakusquad began making gargoyle jokes and puns aimed at their gargoyle friend. It was like they’d completely forgotten that Izuku was there- all except for Kacchan, who got stiffer and stiffer with every joke. 

    Izuku decided to put the blond out of his misery and draw attention to it. So, he cleared his throat, gaining the attention of the entire room in a heartbeat. Lately, none of them wanted to miss anything he had to say. “What’s with all the gargoyle jokes?” 

    He could practically hear the fury buzzing in Kacchan’s head as the room fell silent, the class exchanging nervous looks as they panicked about what they should say. It was Ashido that finally laughed, sounding strangled. “Oh, you know, because of his quirk! It makes him turn to stone, like them.” 

    A few of the others tittered their agreement. Izuku wondered just how stupid they thought he was, but he was too emotionally exhausted to deal with it. Instead of calling them out, he merely shrugged and sank back into the couch cushions, soaking up Kacchan and Uraraka’s warmth on either side of him. Those were things he’d missed in the four months he’d been living on the streets- warmth, comfort and safety. “Yeah, I can see it.” 

    It was like the entire room let out a collective sigh of relief. Kacchan forced himself to relax as well, his jaw clenching like he was physically biting his tongue to keep from lashing out. Izuku couldn’t help the tiny smile that rose to his face. Yeah, that was something he’d missed, too. 

     (x)

    Izuku stopped in front of Todoroki’s dorm room door, tilting his head to the side at the ever-so-slight smell from inside. He couldn’t quite place it immediately, so he shook his head, figuring it was nothing. Brushing it off, he raised his fist to knock on the door. A few moments later, the door opened, revealing his friend. 

    Shouto’s eyes widened when they landed on him, his mouth falling open the tiniest bit. He then clicked his jaw closed and straightened to his full height, now inches shorter than Izuku himself. (And wasn’t that the weirdest thing about coming back to U.A.- the sudden height advantage he’d had on almost all of his classmates.) 

     When Shouto didn’t say anything, Izuku smiled at him serenely. “Hi, Shouto-kun. Can I come in?” 

    Shouto’s bi-coloured eyes briefly flicked into the room behind him before he stepped back, letting the other in. Izuku stepped inside, his eyes instantly landing on the desk next to Shouto’s bed. The strange scent in the air clicked in his mind, and his feet instinctively bringing him closer to the source. There on the desk was a half-full glass of blood, the coppery scent mixed with the distinct smell of what he thought to be ozone. ‘ So, Kaminari’s blood, then. Why did he let me in here if he was drinking this?’

    Izuku pointed to the glass. “What are you drinking?” 

   Shouto moved so quickly that he had to have been using a bit of his vampiric speed. He grabbed the glass off of the desk, holding it closer to his chest in his need to get it away from the older boy. Izuku couldn’t help but flinch back at the sudden movement. “It’s- It’s strawberry fruit punch! Please, don’t touch it.” 

    Izuku released the tension in his shoulders, smirking a bit. “Shouto, I’m not going to die if I touch strawberries, I just can’t eat them.” ‘ Otherwise I will definitely throw them up. Reptiles can’t eat strawberries.’  

   “Sorry,” Shouto apologized, putting the drink down as far from Izuku as it could get. “I don’t know how allergies work.” 

    Even if the other didn’t know it, Izuku heard the subtext underneath the words. ‘ I don’t know how human allergies work.’ The green-haired boy resisted the urge to grin like the cat that ate the canary. Oh, little did the other know. Even with the suppression, some of the smile still escaped him. He hoped it looked less shit-eating and more warm and open. “It’s okay. I was hoping we could hang out for a bit, if that’s okay?” 

   “Of course,” Shouto said. “What would you like to do?” 

     (x)

    Izuku searched his desk for his math notebook, cursing to himself when he didn’t find it in the third pass over his room. The thunder rolled outside, the storm raging on as hard as it had been for the last few hours. He realized with a start that his notebook hadn’t been misplaced, but rather he’d lent it out to Kaminari the day before. He bemoaned the fact that he was going to have to leave his room, but forced himself to get off his ass and do it anyway. It had been a couple of months since he’d come back, but the PTSD from the constant state of vigilance he’d been in when living on the streets hadn’t quite left him yet. With the war still going on, he couldn’t let himself slip up for a moment. 

    Right when he got off the elevator onto Kaminari’s floor, Izuku remembered one very important fact about the guy he was about to visit. Kaminari was a thunderbird, and thunderbirds hated water and flooding. He bit back a curse but forced himself to continue on. He might as well check on his friend while he was here, just to make sure he was doing alright. 

    He knocked on the door as gently as he could so as not to startle the creature inside. “Kaminari-kun? I’m just checking to see if you’re okay.” He realized when the words left his lips that he, as a supposed human, would have no reason to know about Denki’s problem with water, so he tacked on a quick “Sero told me you don’t really like storms.” 

    There was a soft thumping noise from inside, followed by something large and heavy hitting something else. Izuku frowned, knocking one more time. “Kaminari-kun, are you in there?” 

     A second later, the door was ripped open, exposing a panting, flushed Kaminari. His eyes were a little wild, making Izuku wince a bit. “Hi Midoriya!” He said with forced cheer. “Sorry, I was, uh, sleeping!” 

    Izuku raised an eyebrow at the uncreative response. It was frankly a little insulting that his friends took him for an imbecile, so despite himself, Izuku couldn’t help from giving the blond a hard time. “In this racket?” 

    He could practically see the sweatdrop on Kaminari’s temple. “I, uh, had headphones in.” 

    “But… you heard me knocking?” 

    Izuku watched Denki’s eye twitch, his expression tightening into one of irritation. “So, what are you doing here? Not that I don’t appreciate a visit from my bro!” 

    HIs face said that he absolutely did not appreciate it. Izuku made himself look away so he wouldn’t laugh, his eyes immediately zeroing in on one specific object on the ground. He furrowed his brow in false confusion. “Is that a feather?” 

    Kaminari turned to look, spying the three foot long black-and-gold feather that indeed sat at the edge of his bed. From there on he spouted the biggest crock of bullshit that Midoriya had ever heard, which was really saying something considering the lies that Kacchan had come up with over the years to explain away his werewolf traits. Something about Ashido buying it on ebay as a joke present or something. 

    By this point, Izuku could practically see the smaller boy’s skin ripping with the need to transform back, so he decided to cut the poor guy loose. He’d been scared enough, and hopefully, he’d come up with some better lies in the future. After all, there would be actual humans he’d have to deceive someday. Without further fanfare, they said their goodbyes. Just after the door closed, the distinct sound of a very heavy object collapsing back onto the floor practically rattled the entire ground. Izuku rolled his eyes up to the ceiling and prayed for strength. Subtle, this class was not. Really, they needed this practice. His meddling was practically a gift to them. 

    (And he may or may not enjoy watching them squirm a bit. It wasn’t very heroic, but it sure was funny. Maybe Kacchan was rubbing off on him after all.)

    (x)

    When Izuku knocked on Ochako’s door, he could practically taste the scent of magic on his tongue. His friend had almost certainly forgotten that they had plans today, but that was alright. Izuku was willing to wait as he knocked on her door, announcing himself and his intentions for being there. His keen hearing was able to pick up on the sounds of Uraraka and what sounded like Asui scrambling to get things hidden away from him. Not that it would really matter; Ochako was rather careless with where she left her witchy things, and Izuku had seen a great many of them in the time they’d known each other. 

    When Ochako opened the door, the smile on her face was forced. Izuku glanced down at her clothes and found that her excuse for the delay had been false. And, well. How was she supposed to learn if Izuku didn’t teach her? 

    “Weren’t you wearing that earlier?” He asked, lifting an eyebrow. Uraraka looked down at herself, now realizing her state. She cleared her throat and looked away from him. 

    “Oh, yeah, I was. I was just, um. Putting a bra on!” She snapped her fingers, a clear sign that she thought she had thought up a convincing lie. 

    “Alright then, are you ready to study?” Izuku asked. Ochako ushered him inside, still seeming a bit panicky about “almost getting found out.” Tsu declined the invitation to join them, practically running out of the room. 

   Later on, Izuku felt chilly and asked Ochako for something to warm him up. When he didn’t find any of his hoodies in her dresser, he turned to her closet and started for it. The closer he got, the thicker the scent of magic became. He was nearly at the doors by the time Ochako remembered herself and ushered him out of the room to grab one of his hoodies from his own room. He smirked to himself in the elevator all the way back to his floor. 

   (x)

     Jirou had invited herself to come and study with Izuku, not that he minded. He enjoyed any quality time he could get with any of his classmates, even the ones he wasn’t as close with. Jirou, being an unofficial member of the Bakusquad, was a person he spent more time with than some of the others, like Shouji for instance, so their studying session was more comfortable than awkward. 

   Or it was , until she got up and stretched. She seemed to catch sight of the only action figure left in his room, because she headed toward the bookshelf that housed all of his notebooks to take a closer look at it. He went back to studying, only looking up again when he heard the crinkle of pages flipping. When he looked back up at her, the poltergeist had taken one of his notebooks down and was flipping through it. 

    Normally Izuku wouldn’t have minded one of his friends looking through the notebooks- he trusted them enough to be careful with the information he’d amassed- but of course, Jirou had chosen the one notebook that was half hero analysis, and half analysis of the various supernatural creatures in their class. Within seconds he’d shot out of his seat and went to her, snatching it out of her hands. 

    “Don’t touch that,” he said, his voice hard and cold. Jirou was startled enough at his sudden appearance at her side that she lost control of her powers. Seconds later, his notebooks seemed to fly off of the shelf, scattering on the ground around them. Jirou yelped and ducked, covering her head with her hands until the onslaught was over. Izuku stared at her, surprised at her lapse of control. It seemed that the more comfortable the class got with him, the more and more they forgot that he was “human.” More entertainment for him. 

   “What was that ?” Izuku asked, blinking at her stupidly. She looked pale, her skin flashing between translucence and opaqueness. It appeared she didn’t notice that, either. 

    “Maybe you have a ghost,” she said weakly. 

    Izuku had to hold back a smile for the rest of the study session, appreciating her joke. 

    (x)

      A few members of the Bakusquad and Dekusquad were hanging out in the common room, doing different things when Uraraka suddenly shrieked in fear. Everyone jumped at the intrusion of noise, turning to stare at her with wide eyes. She didn’t acknowledge any of them, instead keeping her eyes fixed on a point near the ceiling. 

   “It’s a spider! Sero-kun, Sero-kun, get it!” She wailed, pointing up on the wall near them. Sero sighed and stood up from his place on the couch, pausing his game of Mario Kart. Tsu was smiling smugly at his back, clearly having beaten him yet again. The tsuchigumo went over to the wall and placed two fingers underneath where the spider was, staring at it hard. After a few moments of hesitation, the spider crawled down to his positioned fingers, resting comfortably on them. Sero turned to go to the Heights Alliance doors, but Izuku just couldn’t help himself. 

    “Whoa! How did you do that?” He asked. 

    The rest of the class looked at each other, their expressions clearly panicked. Sero looked between Izuku and the rest of them, floundering for an answer. “I, uh…” 

     It was Ashido who piped up. “It’s just something about Sero’s pheromones! It attracts spiders!” 

    Izuku looked at her with a deadpanned expression. Seriously, it’s like they weren’t even trying anymore. The last thing he wanted was to look like a dumbass who believed something like that, but he also didn’t want to unnecessarily expose any of them. 

    He sighed, shaking his head a bit. “I guess that makes sense.” 

    Ashido winked at Sero as he walked out of the room, before looking at Izuku and winking at him, too. He was briefly surprised, and wondered just how much the pixie suspected about him. Oh well. That was trouble for another time. 

    (x)

    It was Izuku and Yaomomo’s turn to go grocery shopping. Ever since the war had ended and the constant villain attacks had stopped, Class A was allowed to leave the dorms more and more often, which was ultimately relieving for all of them. None of them liked being cooped up on campus, and most of them took whatever opportunities they could to leave, even now that their freedom had come back to them. 

    Once they reached the store, Yaomomo went to the produce aisle to find a few items on their list while Izuku headed to the dairy section. He didn’t think anything of leaving the succubus alone, although perhaps he should have. Having grabbed milk, butter and yogurt, he headed back to where he’d last seen the black-haired girl, only to find a little shrimp of a man bothering her. She looked uncomfortable, and perhaps even a little scared at being harassed. As beautiful and entrancing as she was, it probably happened to her often, as unfair as that prospect was. 

    As Izuku got closer, he caught the tail-end of the conversation between the lecherous foe and his classmate. “I’m not alone,” Yaomomo said defensively, turning her face away to try and get the man to leave her alone. 

   The oaf smirked, his hand moving like he was going to try and touch her. “Really? I don’t see anyone here with you.” 

     Ah, yes. It was moments like these that Izuku was glad for the sudden growth spurt he’d endured during his time away from U.A.. He got up right behind the man and tapped him on the shoulder with two fingers before he crossed his arms, ensuring that his (frankly massive) biceps were on full display. It was hilarious to watch the man turn, and almost in slow-motion, take in the entirety of Izuku’s domineering display. From his height, to his impressive musculature, to the multitude of scars that were showcased in his short-sleeved shirt, he knew that he made a somewhat scary picture, especially when he wasn’t smiling. 

    Izuku watched as the man’s face paled, the blood completely draining from his face. Izuku allowed his mouth to open a bit so that he could bask in the scent of acrid fear that wafted off of the leech in waves. “Uh! S-Sorry!” He stuttered, before he ran away with his metaphorical tail between his legs. Izuku watched him go with narrowed eyes, not looking back at his classmate until the guy had disappeared behind another set of shelves on the other side of the produce section. 

   However, when he made eye contact with Yaomomo, it was to find those dark depths slightly glowing with appreciation. A sort of haze overcame his mind, and he became entranced in the depths of her eyes. Her beautiful, magnificent eyes… 

    He hadn’t even realized he was leaning in until Yaomomo broke the eye contact and began to count to ten under her breath. When she reached for a packet of grapes and began to studiously inspect them, her thrall finally broke. Izuku blinked, surprised that he was even susceptible to her powers of seduction. 

   “Weird,” he muttered to himself, shaking his head. He cleared his throat and hoped that she wouldn’t make a big deal out of it. “Did you find what you needed?” 

    “Nope,” Yaomomo said, looking back up at him with a smile. “Let’s move on to the next item, shall we?” 

    (x)

     It was during one of the worst blizzards in Japan’s recent history that Iida almost exposed himself to Izuku. The green-eyed man had been relaxing on the couch when Iida came into the room dressed in workout attire, clearly raring to go outside. Izuku had found himself off the couch and by his friend’s side in a moment, worry for the boy clenching at his heart. 

    He reached and grabbed Tenya’s bicep, trying to keep him in place. He of course knew that Tenya wasn’t human, but supernatural or not, it couldn’t be safe for him to go out in a storm like this. He would have thought Tenya would realize that, but apparently that wasn’t the case. 

   “Tenya, it isn’t safe, ” Izuku said for the umpteenth time, stressing the last word to try and get through to his friend. 

   “Izuku, it will be fine,” Iida said, once again trying to tug out of his hold. Izuku’s irritation didn’t fade with the assurance, just as it hadn’t the last few times he’d said it. When Izuku still didn’t let go of his arm, something strange happened. 

   Tenya’s nose and mouth began to elongate, like he was going to shift right there and then. A distinctly horse-like noise escaped from his mouth, although the blue-haired man tried to smother it with a cough. Surprised, Izuku instinctively let go of his bicep, taking a step away from him. Tenya was right on the edge of shifting, and Izuku got the distinct impression that if he didn’t let him go, then he was going to do it right here in the common room. 

   Now free from Izuku’s inescapable hold, Tenya took a step back, towards the door of Heights Alliance. “I know the way. I’ll be back soon,” he said, still trying to calm Izuku’s nerves. Izuku merely nodded once, acknowledging the words. Once Tenya was out the door, Izuku went to one of the windows near the entrance, watching as Tenya completely disregarded the path and instead set off towards the small forest that bordered U.A.’s south side. 

    Izuku couldn’t help but feel bad that he’d kept his friend away from the shift he clearly desperately needed. He shook his head and backed away from the window. It would be best if Tenya didn’t look back and realize that Izuku had seen him disregard the beaten path. 

    (x)

    It was another boring sleepless night, and Izuku was feeling restless. He’d decided to go down to the kitchen to make himself a mug of hot tea, and had been sitting at one of the island barstools when the other resident insomniac ambled into the room. He didn’t appear to notice Izuku sitting there, because when he opened the fridge and dug into one of the containers inside, he pulled out what was clearly some sort of bloody heart. Izuku watched with rapt attention as Shinsou put the heart to his mouth and took a big bite, groaning in satisfaction as the blood exploded onto his tongue. 

   Izuku cleared his throat, alerting his friend to his presence. It was comical the way Shinsou froze and slowly turned towards him, a resigned expression already on his face. Izuku held back a smile and put down his lukewarm mug, tilting his head to the side like a confused dog. “Um… what are you doing?” 

    Shinsou swallowed his bite of the heart, although a trail of blood still dribbled down from the corner of his mouth. His eyes flickered frantically from side to side, like he was looking for some sort of escape from the situation. “Uh… It’s- It’s jello! Right, Kaminari made it earlier as a joke, and I just really wanted it for some reason!” He forced laughter, holding the heart closer to his chest, like he could hide it from Izuku’s prying eyes. 

   Izuku actually had to bite his lip to keep from clarifying the bullshit response. “Oh, really? Can I have some?” 

   “No!” Shinsou cried, taking a step away as if Izuku was reaching out to take it from his hands. “I mean- no, you can’t. It’s strawberry flavoured, otherwise I would totally share.” He laughed again, sounding even more strangled this time. 

    “Don’t worry about it.” Izuku resisted the urge to roll his eyes, getting up from his seat with his mug in hand. If Shinsou was going to partake in his strange eating habits out in the open, the least he could do was leave him alone to do it. As he passed by Shinsou to get to the sink, the scent of blood and gore filled his senses. He wrinkled his nose a bit and held his breath, dumping his drink in the sink. When he turned back around, it was his turn to force a smile. He hoped it was more believable than Shinsou’s. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

    “Sure,” Shinsou nodded, looking like a bobblehead. Izuku got out of there quickly, the scent of stale copper practically burned into his nostrils. How the ghoul could stand eating something like that was totally beyond him. Perhaps, once all of this pretending was over, he could hold a meeting with all of them about their truly terrible excuses. 

    (x)

       It was getting toward the end of their second year when Izuku decided it was time to tease his classmates again. It was Friday night, aka movie night, and this time is was Hagakure’s turn to pick the movie. Like many of their classmates before her, she’d picked a movie with her own species featured in it- Pixar’s Brave . She was sitting on one of the loveseats with her boyfriend Ojiro, enraptured in the movie. 

    When the part of the movie with the willo-the-wisps came up, Izuku tilted his head and narrowed his eyes at the screen. “They kind of remind me of you, Hagakure-chan,” he said, being sure to keep a straight face. 

   The way Hagakure immediately sat ramrod straight would have been a dead giveaway, had she not immediately shouted at him. “What?!” 

    He looked at her, blinking in surprise at her vehement denial. The rest of the class was looking back and forth between them, a few of them appearing nervous that he was once again right on the money. Really with all of these hints he was dropping, he was surprised none of them had figured out that he knew yet. “I didn’t mean it in a bad way,” he said, smiling softly. “I just meant they’re, you know, cute .” When that didn’t seem to settle her, he continued. “They have those cute little voices, and they’re meant to inspire hope, right? I don’t know, I guess I just thought of you. They’re even kind of transparent!” 

    Ojiro moved his hand to cover where Hagakure’s was on his arm. The smile he gave Izuku appeared a bit strangled. “That’s very kind of you to say, Midoriya-kun.” 

   “R-Right,” Hagakure squeaked, sounding out of breath. “Sorry, I was just… surprised.” 

   ‘ I’ll bet you were,’ Izuku thought. Out loud, he apologized to her. “Sorry for the confusion.” With that, he looked back at the screen. He could swear that none of the class relaxed for the rest of the movie. With any luck, they would stop picking things that would ultimately expose them to the only supposed human in the room.  

    (x)

      The weather outside was nice, so Izuku decided to go for a short walk. When he exited Heights Alliance, he was surprised to find that he wasn’t alone in partaking in the weather. Kouda Kouji was out tending to his garden, watering his plants and picking the dead leaves off of a few of them. Izuku found himself drawn to the garden, walking up until he was a few feet away from the beginning of it. Kouda heard him draw close and looked up, smiling at him happily. 

   The dryad looked at home tending to his plants, more at ease than Izuku thought he’d ever seen him. Seeing the boy so happy made Izuku himself relax a bit, although he didn’t dare get any closer. He had no idea if Kouda kept his life plant out here where he could keep an eye on it, or if he kept it somewhere safer. The last thing he wanted to do was anything that might cause his quiet classmate any harm. 

   “What are you doing out here?” He asked, eyes scanning over the plants. It was mostly shrubs and flowers, with the occasional herb bush here or there. 

    Kouda didn’t answer, instead smiling shyly at him and holding his watering can out toward him. “Do you want to help?” 

    Izuku took a step back, taking his hands out of his pockets to hold them up like he was surrendering. “Oh, no!” He took another step back, shoving his hands back in his pockets. “Despite the hair, I don’t really have a green thumb. Seriously, you don’t want me anywhere near your plants.” With his luck, he would end up breathing on them and killing them. His species was known for that, after all. 

   When Kouda raised an eyebrow at him suspiciously, Izuku felt the need to explain himself. He forced himself to relax, looking down at the ground. “I just… I don’t want to hurt any of your plants.” He looked them over one last time. “I know they’re… special to you.” 

    It was as much a hint as any, and from the way Kouda’s eyebrow twitched, Izuku thought he might have picked up on his emphasis on the word “special.” He didn’t say anything though, instead nodding once to put Midoriya more at ease. 

   “Well, if you ever want to join me, you’re more than welcome.” His soft smile grew a bit. “I trust you, Midoriya.” 

   He went back to tending to his plants. Izuku turned away, unable to keep from muttering a reply as he walked away from the garden. 

   “Yeah, well. You probably shouldn’t.” 

    (x)

    When Izuku sat down at lunch next to Asui, he could tell that something was going on with her. Not only did she have a strange, sour expression on her face, but she almost never asked him to sit next to her, knowing that Uraraka and Kacchan liked to sit with him. 

    They ended up talking about her family, and the pressures that she and her siblings felt to try and get her mother’s affection and attention. By the time they finished speaking she seemed in much better spirits, so Izuku hoped that he was able to ease her mind at least a little bit. 

    Kacchan ended up taking the empty seat next to him, like he usually did. He and Kacchan had gotten much closer after the war had finally ended, and there was some sort of unspoken rule among their classmates that Kacchan always got the seat next to him. It made him feel all warm and gooey inside. 

   “What’s with the seating change?” Kacchan complained, plopping his tray of curry down on the table. Izuku glanced at Asui before looking back at his childhood friend with an easy smile. 

   “I just wanted to talk to Tsu about the homework,” he said easily. Kirishima and Uraraka took their seats across the table without missing a beat, wrapped up in their own conversation about something or other. 

   Kacchan shrugged at his answer, watching as Izuku lifted his water bottle to his lips to take a swig. When he put it down, the blond began to reach for it. “Mind if I take some?” 

    Izuku panicked. He snatched the bottle up before Katsuki could even touch it, hugging it to his chest protectively. Izuku had learned early on to never share any of his drinks with anyone, because when he wasn’t completely focused on it, a deadly venom secreted itself into his saliva. If ingested, it could kill a person within ten seconds.
  “Don’t!” He said, louder than he’d meant to. The table fell to a hush around them, all of their friends turning to look at Izuku with strange expressions. He cleared his throat, his hand tightening on his water bottle hard enough to make the plastic creak. “Sorry, I… I think I might be getting sick. I don’t want you to catch anything.” 

   Kacchan nodded at him, not paying his strange behavior any mind. Izuku gently set his bottle back down on the table, on the other side so that Katsuki couldn’t mistake it for his own and accidentally drink from it. He caught Tsu’s eyes again, seeing suspicion in her deep black irises. After a moment she seemed to shake it off and chalk it up to one of his weird “human” things. 

   Well, at least he’d evaded suspicion once again. 

    (x)

      It was the middle of the night, and Izuku was watching a boring documentary when Shouji came downstairs, a book in hand. The masked teenager nodded once at Izuku and settled on the other end of the couch from him, opening up his book to begin reading. He didn’t say anything, so neither did Izuku. There was a sort of unspoken rule between their classmates that, if they wanted to talk about their nightmares with Izuku, then they should bring it up first. If they just wanted some company after being woken up, then they could come and find him. 

    About an hour passed by quickly, and by sheer coincidence, the documentary that Izuku was watching began talking about Shouji’s species. Izuku had specifically chosen it to learn a bit more about the gegenees , since he couldn’t exactly ask Shouji any questions he might have. When he turned to the six-armed boy, it was to find his eyes slipping open and closed as he dozed. Well, might as well wake him up a bit. 

   “Hey, that’s interesting. Gegenees. Kind of like you.” 

   Shouji immediately sat up straight, looking at Izuku like a deer in headlights. When he realized that Izuku was talking about the documentary, he relaxed, but only a bit. Izuku watched as the boy swallowed hard, muttering out a small “cool” before he fell silent again. A minute later, he got off the couch and practically ran back up to his room. Izuku turned his attention back to the tv with a shit-eating grin on his face. ‘ Too easy.’  

Chapter Text

     Izuku

    Midoriya Izuku had been thinking a lot recently about the situation he was in. He’d spent the last few years bonding into a tight-knit family with the members of Class A, and despite his mother’s warnings ringing in his ears, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he should tell them already. He’d spent the last few years purposefully ruffling their feathers, catching them off guard with his private jokes about their species. 

    But he was getting tired of everyone tip-toeing around him because they were sure he was human. For once, he just wanted everyone to be themselves with him, and him with them. He wanted to able to explain to Kacchan that nobody should drink after him, just in case some of his venom escaped into the cup. He wanted to apologize to Kouda for not being able to go near his garden for fear of his breath killing the plants within. He wanted to sit with Ochako and help her with her new spells, or run as fast as he could along with Iida when the man was shifted. He wanted to be able to sit with Kaminari during thunderstorms to comfort him when he needed it. 

    So, he’d decided to tell his classmates what he was. Even so, that didn’t mean he couldn’t have a little fun first. 

     It was movie night in the dorms, and everyone was gathered together, waiting for Izuku to choose a movie. He’d been thinking about this a lot, and he’d decided on one specific movie. A movie that had one of his species as a focal point. 

     He turned and presented the movie to the class with a smile on his face. “Let’s watch this!” 

    Sero blinked at him in surprise. “Really? You don’t even want to watch the first one?” 

   “No, I like this one better,” Izuku said, turning back around to pop the movie into the disc player. “Besides, we all know what happens in the first one.”

    “That’s true,” Uraraka shrugged, settling into the couch deeper. “ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a classic regardless.” 

    Izuku finished setting the movie up and went back to the couch, settling in between Kacchan and Uraraka. They were the usual suspects at his side, as his two very-best friends. A younger Izuku would absolutely panic at the thought of Kacchan once again becoming his best friend, and the thought made him smile to himself. 

    The movie was as good as it always was. Izuku spent pretty much the entire movie engrossed, wondering which of his ancestors’ myths had been chosen as the inspiration for the creature on the screen. 

     Towards the end of the movie, when Harry went into the Chamber of Secrets to find Ginny, Izuku spoke out loud to his classmates around him. “Did you know that basilisks were said to breathe fire?” 

    “Really?” Kirishima asked, humming. “That’s interesting.” 

    “ Great ,” Todoroki grumbled. Izuku rolled his eyes at his friend, smiling at him when he rolled his eyes back. 

    “Don’t knock it. My father could breathe fire, you know.” 

    “You don’t talk about him much,” Ojiro said, fine with interrupting a movie they’d all seen many times. 

    “I don’t really remember him,” Izuku shrugged. It wasn’t strictly true- Izuku could remember his smile, and the happiness he felt whenever Hisashi had played with him. He could remember listening to stories about his grandfather, and other tales passed down through generations. He remembered his father teaching him about his basilisk abilities, as well as helping to teach him how to control them. When he was younger, he’d been strapped with a pair of glasses. As he got old enough to figure out how to do it, he switched to contact lenses, like his dad. Now, he never took them out unless he was just about to fall asleep, and he put them back in as soon as he woke up in the morning. 

     The room fell quiet at his statement, focusing back on the movie. At other points, Izuku would point out other basilisk lore. “Did you know basilisk’s breath was said to kill plants?” When Harry was injected with the venom: “That’s unrealistic. Basilisk venom kills in under ten seconds.” At the end of the movie, when Harry and Ron met up with a freshly un-petrified Hermione, Izuku mumbled under his breath, “At least they got the time limit right.” 

    When the credits began to roll, Katsuki reached over and flicked Izuku in the temple. “Deku, what the fuck was with all the basilisk talk, huh? I was trying to watch a movie!” 

    “Ow, Kacchan!” Izuku huffed, rubbing his head. “I just thought it was interesting, geez.” 

    “It was interesting, kero ,” Asui said. “How did you know about all of it?” 

    “Just heard it through the grapevine, I guess,” Izuku said casually. He found his gaze attracted across the room, where Ashido was covering her mouth, like she was trying to hold back a laugh. He only had a moment to wonder what that could mean before Katsuki was speaking again. 

    “Yeah, whatever, I’m tired as fuck.” 

    Everyone began to stretch, some of them heading for the kitchen for snacks before they headed up to bed. Izuku’s own exhaustion grew and he yawned, reaching up to rub his eyes. He hadn’t been sleeping well lately, and it was really starting to catch up to him. 

   “Hey, Midoriya, do you want one too?” Kaminari asked, apparently expecting Izuku to know what he was talking about. The taller boy sighed and lifted his gaze to apologize for not paying attention, when suddenly, a sort of glaze seemed to fall over Kaminari’s eyes. Every part of his body froze in place, one of his hands slightly outstretched to Izuku like he was about to tap on his shoulder. 

    Izuku froze too, jerking his head to look down at his hands. One of his contact lenses was stuck to his finger, having escaped from his eye when he’d rubbed at it. He swore loudly and leaped to his feet, turning his back to his classmates so he wouldn’t petrify one of them, too. He heard those in the room turn around and exclaim loudly when they realized that Kaminari seemed to be frozen in place. 

    “Dude, what are you doing?” Kirishima asked, stepping back toward his friend. Izuku tilted his head back to try and force his dry contact back into his eye, but it was no use. By the time the entire class was back in the room, surrounding Kaminari in worry, Izuku had dropped the contact lens on the ground. 

    “Deku, what the fuck are you doing?” Katsuki barked from behind him. Izuku slapped a hand over his eye and whirled around, looking at his childhood friend. Katsuki seemed to immediately realize that something was wrong, because his entire body tensed up in anticipation. “What’s going on? What’s wrong with your eye?” 

    “Deku-kun, what happened to Kaminari?” Uraraka cried, rushing toward him. He took a few stumbling steps back, holding out his free hand to stop her. She paused, blinking at him in surprise. 

    “Don’t come any closer,” Izuku said, looking down at the ground. He couldn’t see his lost contact lens anywhere. 

    “Midoriya, tell us what’s going on!” Sero cried, his hands still on Kaminari’s shoulders. 

    Izuku bit his lower lip, his heartbeat pounding in his chest. Yes, he’d wanted to tell his friends that he wasn’t human, but this wasn’t how he wanted to do it! When he looked at each other their scared and concerned faces though, he knew he had to tel them the truth. 

    “Shit,” he muttered, letting his outstretched hand fall to his side. “So, I have a confession to make.” 

    “What kind of confession?” Kacchan asked, his words slow like he didn’t really want to know the answer. 

      Izuku opened and closed his mouth, unsure of how to go about it. Should he just get it out there and say it, or should he try and explain a little bit first? The former didn’t seem like the best option, so he decided on the latter. “I wanted to tell you guys, but you have to understand how dangerous it is for me. I’m not like all of you, not really . The rules are different for me, and ever since my dad was murdered, my mom has been making me swear to never tell anyone for my own safety, but I really love you guys and I wanted to tell you- but not like this , I swear I didn’t do this on purpose-” 

    “Deku!” Katsuki snapped, breaking off Izuku’s rant. “What the fuck are you talking about, huh?” 

    Izuku swallowed hard. “Well, I’m not exactly… human. I know you all think I am, and I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I really didn’t have any other choice. You have to understand that for my kind, it’s unbelievably dangerous-” 

    “ Stop,” Katsuki commanded, raising a hand between them. He was breathing harder than normal, like he’d just finished a workout. “What the fuck do you mean you’re not human?” 

    Izuku took a moment to look at each of them. Almost all of them looked as shocked as Katsuki, with the only exception being Ashido. She just looked intrigued, like she’d known all along. Perhaps she had; the fae were tricky like that. Izuku briefly closed his eyes, still holding one hand over his eye to block out its petrifying capabilities. When he opened them again, he made eye contact with Kacchan. “I’m a basilisk.” 

    The room stayed silent for a few moments while the class processed his words. Finally it was Kirishima who spoke, sounding shaken. “That’s- that’s impossible. The last basilisk died years ago. I remember the announcement of extinction!” 

    “Said the gargoyle,” Izuku said dryly, unable to keep the snap out of his voice. Kirishima flinched back like he was wounded, but whether that be from Izuku’s tone or his knowledge of Kirishima’s species, he didn’t know. Regardless, Izuku immediately felt guilty. It wasn’t Kirishima’s fault. He didn’t know how insensitive he was being about Izuku’s father’s murder.  

   “My father was killed fourteen years ago by hunters that feared his power,” Izuku explained, trying to look at each of them again. He wanted them all to understand why he had hidden it for so many years. “I was only four at the time. He’d made it a point to hide my existence from anyone who might come sniffing around, in case something like that happened to me.” 

   “Wait,” Jirou said, blinking rapidly. “You’re saying- you’re saying you knew this entire time that we weren’t human? You knew, and you lied anyway?” She sounded hurt. She had a right to be, he knew. 

   Deku looked at her, then at Kaminari’s still-petrified form. “To be frank? I didn’t trust you yet.” His voice was cold and clinical rather than understanding. “I didn’t know if any of you would want me dead for what I was, not to mention if any of you ever slipped, it could mean not only my death, but the extinction of an entire species .” 

   “Even after the war?” Todoroki said quietly. “Even then, you didn’t trust us?” 

    Izuku’s heart clenched. He took a second to bend down and feel for his contact lens, tired of using his hand to shield his eye. When he found it, he tilted his head back to the ceiling and forced it into his eye, blinking a bunch of times to try and wet it again. Once he was sure it was secure, he stood back up and shoved his hands in his pockets. 

   “I’m going to say something, and I need you all to not get offended.” When none of them said anything, he continued. This time, he kept his eyes on Kacchan. “To be honest, I’m more powerful than all of you.” 

   Katsuki’s face immediately started turning red as he opened his mouth to argue, but Izuku put a stop to it. He activated One for All , allowing the green lightning to cover his skin. As soon as the scent of ozone hit the air, a static sort of feeling washed over his classmates, making every hair on their bodies stand on end. More than half of them shivered at the feeling, one or two taking an automatic step back. 

    Izuku allowed his quirk to drop, sighing. “I can breathe fire. If I look at someone without my contacts in for a few seconds , they’ll be petrified for more than forty-eight hours. If I look at them longer than that, then they’ll be petrified forever .” He approached Kaminari, waving a hand in front of his face. “Right now, Kaminari-kun is fully conscious. He can think, see, smell, feel everything.” A few of them gasped softly, but Izuku wasn’t done. “If I hadn’t looked away when I did, he would be stuck like this for eternity. Never dying, but never being able to move or speak again.” 

    He stepped back, opening his mouth. He allowed plumes of smoke to gather, along with a small flame. When he exhaled, the flame shot out a few feet in front of him, making those at the front of the pack of his classmates take a few steps back. “I can do that, and my breath alone can cause any plants around me to shrivel up and die. They would poison the soil around them so that nothing more could grow there for one thousand more years.” He made eye contact with Kouda, who looked horrified. 

   “I’m impossibly fast and incredibly strong, even without my quirk. My saliva secretes a deadly poison that, if I don’t concentrate on not secreting, could kill a fully grown man in less than ten seconds.” He opened his mouth a little wider, showcasing his teeth. His canines were sharper than they usually were, resembling the delicately deadly fangs of a reptile. He closed his mouth and inhaled slowly, pushing through his nerves. He knew he was scaring his classmates, but he needed them to know , goddamnit. 

   “My sense of smell is incredible. And, on top of all of this…” He activated Float , levitating a few feet off of the ground. He sat criss-cross, releasing Black Whip from his chest. A few tendrils peeked out shyly. When he lifted a hand, Smokescreen began to flow out of his fingertips. He shut it off after a few seconds, along with Black Whip . He released Float too, landing on the ground with a thud. “I also have One for All . Multiple quirks. Multiple powers just from my species.” 

    He could really see it now- the fear on their faces. The way they were slowly realizing that, if Izuku ever turned to the dark side, there would be no stopping him. “Do you get it yet? That fear you’re feeling?” He looked down at the ground, a little embarrassed. “That same fear is what killed my father, and he didn’t even have a quirk. It was people afraid of all that he could do that killed him.” When he looked up again, it was with a humourless smile. “I may very well be the most powerful thing in existence, and that’s not arrogance. If anyone ever found out, it could very well mean my death, and the death of my mother.” 

   “Is your mother a basilisk, too?” Ojiro asked. 

    Izuku smiled. “No, basilisks can only be men.” 

   “What, so you’re only half?” Uraraka squeaked. Izuku shook his head.

   “No, basilisks also have dominant DNA. No matter what or who they breed with, their children will always be full-blooded males.” His smile fell, a more desperate look on his face. “Do you get it now? Not only do I hold One for All , but I’m the very last of my species. It is imperative that I survive.” 

   “Fucking fine way of showing it!” Bakugou spat. “All the risks you put yourself through!” 

   Izuku met his childhood friend’s angry eyes. “Yeah, well. I knew I could do it.” 

   Katsuki scoffed, and without another word, turned around and headed for the staircase towards the back of the building. Izuku watched him go, waiting until he was out of earshot until he spoke to his classmates. “Thank you for listening,” he said quietly. “I trust you all, and I wanted you to know. I’ll be back soon to check on Kaminari-kun.” He didn’t wait for them to protest, just went after Kacchan before he could lock himself in his dorm room. 

    (x)

    *One Year Earlier*

   Deku was back . Deku was back, and it was the first full moon Katsuki had to endure since his return home. He’d spent the last four full moons in the nerd’s room, trying to calm his wolf with his mate’s scent, and now he was having to go cold-turkey. It was harder now that Deku was in close proximity, now that his wolf could get to him without risking the discovery of the supernatural world. 

   It was driving him crazy . His wolf wanted nothing more than to be comforted by their mate, to know for certain that he was really home safe and sound, but Katsuki couldn’t . He couldn’t reveal himself to Deku, a human, not if he wanted to continue keeping him safe. It was taking all the strength he had to reign in his wolf side and not break through his dorm room’s door to run to his mate, only two floors below him. 

    His shift that night was the most painful thing he’d ever had to endure, which included being stabbed by All for One’s shitty spikes. He could smell a few of his packmates outside of his door, taking turns guarding it to make sure that Bakugou didn’t manage an escape, should his self control fail. He appreciated the gesture, even though he wouldn’t fail. He couldn’t . It was the worst full moon he’d ever had. 

   When he awoke the next morning in human form, it was to find all of his furniture scratched, broken or both. His walls were clawed up from where the wolf had struggled to get out, and his pillows had all been clawed/chewed through, exposing feathers and stuffing. But he had done it. 

*Present*

   Katsuki stomped up the stairs, his mind whirling with the new information he’d been given. This entire time, this entire time , Deku hadn’t been human! All of the work Katsuki put in to keep him safe was for nothing . Deku had- Deku had been looking down on him all this time, just last Katsuki had suspected. He’d thought that Katsuki couldn’t handle it, wasn’t trustworthy with something this big. 

   And Katsuki couldn’t blame him! He’d been spending most of their formative years pushing Deku away and ignoring him, at first not understanding the constant need to be around him, and then just completely disregarding him once he knew the reason. Deku had scared him, and Katsuki hadn’t known how to handle that. 

   ‘ To be frank, I didn’t trust you.’ 

   ‘ I didn’t trust you.’

   Katsuki angrily wiped the dampness away from his cheeks, ashamed at his body’s automatic reaction to his feelings. Of course after all of this time, Deku was still the only person that could pull them out of him. 

   “Kacchan!” A familiar voice called behind him, quickly followed by footsteps coming up the stairs behind him. Katsuki paused in place, clenching his fists at his sides so as not to let any sparks off. The blond whirled around, facing his mate with a scowl. The green-haired boy paused a few steps below him, not even winded from bolting up a flight and a half of stairs at full speed. Katsuki supposed he didn’t have to hide his inhumanness, now. Seeing it only made the open wound tear wider. 

    The two of them stared at each other, each taking in the other’s expression. When Deku recognized the redness around Katsuki’s eyes, his expression grew slightly panicked. “You’re crying,” he said dumbly, like he couldn’t believe it. 

   Katsuki turned his face away, like he could hide it. “Just leave me alone Deku.” 

   Izuku moved up one step, freezing again when an involuntary growl slipped out of the blond. “Kacchan…” 

    “I don’t need your pity!” Katsuki snarled, meeting his eyes again. “I get it, alright? You probably knew the whole time, didn’t you? You were trying to let me off easy, letting me think that you were human so that you wouldn’t reject me!” 

   Deku blinked rapidly, too fucking dense to read between the lines. Katsuki didn’t wait for him to put it together, turning around to start back up the stairs. 

   “It’s fine,” he called behind him. His hand tightened on the staircase railing. “Go back to your shitty friends. I’m sure they have questions.” 

    “Kacchan,” Izuku said, sounding bewildered. A few moments later a hand clamped around Katsuki’s bicep, forcibly turning him back to face Deku. They had reached the fourth floor landing, with Katsuki standing on it and Izuku a few steps below him. Like this, Katsuki was taller than him again. The door on their left led to the boy’s dorms, and the one on the right into the girls. 

    This time, Katsuki refused to let his tears fall. “ What ?!” 

    Izuku stared back at him with an odd expression on his face. “Kacchan, I don’t know what you think is happening here, but there’s a reason I didn’t tell you what I am.” 

    Katsuki tried to get out of Deku’s grip, but the boy didn’t release him. He even tightened his fingers, hard enough that the explosive teen was sure there would be bruises in the morning. “I read you loud and clear. Let me fucking go already!” 

   “I don’t think you do,” Deku said, ducking to try and catch his eye again. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about, but Kacchan… basilisks… they mate for life.” 

    That made Katsuki freeze. He lifted angry, tear-filled eyes to his childhood friend, waiting silently for the boy to continue. Izuku’s eyes looked to the left, like he was thinking of what to say next. “Basilisks mate for life,” he said again, gently this time. “And I knew from the moment we met that you were mine.” 

    He continued to speak, rambling in that Deku way that he never could drop when he was around Katsuki. The war had changed him so that he no longer did it in public- not unless he feels completely safe- but when he was alone with Katsuki, it was just as bad a habit as it had always been. Katsuki wasn’t really listening, to focused on the bomb that Izuku had just dropped on him. ‘ Basilisks mate for life. I knew from the moment I met you that you were mine.’  

   “But you hated me,” Izuku was saying, seeming to wind down from his mini-rant. He had a bittersweet smile on his face from the memory. “I knew that if I told you what I was, eventually you would figure out the rest of it too. I was afraid- I was afraid that you would make it your personal mission to stay away from me.” He paused, then chuckled. “Well, more than you already did.” 

   “Deku,” Katsuki said. His own voice was quiet, not a hint of emotions anywhere to be heard. Deku shut up, looking at him expectantly, a bit of worry in his eyes. Like he was afraid Katsuki was going to reject him or something. “What am I?” 

    The question seemed to catch the taller man off guard. “Um… What?”

   Katsuki shrugged off the hold on his bicep, taking a step down so that he and Deku were at equal height. They were practically chest-to-chest, staring into each other’s eyes. “You heard me. What. Am. I?” 

    Izuku seemed to flounder for a moment before he found his words. “You’re- you’re a werewolf. An Alpha.” 

   Katsuki nodded slowly, inhaling as he did. Now that he was really looking for it, he could detect the different facets of Izuku’s scent that he had never considered before. Past the pre-mating scent Katsuki had been rubbing on him for years, he smelled like campfire smoke and wet stones, as well as something bitter and musky he couldn’t really place. ‘ His venom,’ his mind supplied for him. He didn’t smell like any supernatural creature Katsuki had ever smelled before, probably because he was the very last of his kind. Katsuki drank in his scent greedily, enjoying the way it mixed with his own. 

    “Wolves mate for life too, you absolute fucking bafoon.” Deku’s eyes widened a bit like he had never considered this before, but Katsuki was already moving, grabbing the front of Deku’s shirt in his fist like he was about to take his lunch money or something. 

    Then, he pressed forward and kissed the ever-loving shit out of him. For a moment Deku stayed perfectly still, like he’d petrified himself. Katsuki freaked out for a second before slowly, surely , Deku leaned into him tentatively. He would have been perfectly content to keep kissing the nerd until he passed the fuck out, but the shithead broke out of the hold after only a few seconds. 

   “Kacchan, venom,” he whispered, looking into his eyes again. For the first time, Katsuki noticed the small blue-ish circles around his irises, signifying the contact lenses he wore. He couldn’t believe he’d never noticed them before. 

    “In case it wasn’t clear, you’re my mate,” Katsuki said. He didn’t let go of his hold on Deku’s shirt. “So you’re going to have to learn how to control that. Got it?” 

    Izuku’s beaming smile was enough to melt any of the anger he still felt. They would still have to deal with it later, and Katsuki would probably never agree with what he’d done, but it was a start. 

   “Okay,” Deku said. His expression was disgustingly soft. “I’ll work on it.” 

   Katsuki nodded, glancing past Deku, back down the stairs. “You should probably go back. I’m sure the extras are freaking out without you there to answer some questions.” 

    Izuku reached up, gently untangling Katsuki’s hand from his shirt. Once it was back down at their sides, he laced their fingers together smoothly. “You come too, okay? You might want to hear some of the answers.” 

    (x)

    “I’m sorry,” Uraraka said, speaking for the first time since Deku had run out of the room. “I think I’m having a mental breakdown.” 

    “Same,” Kirishima muttered. He brushed past her, standing right in front of Kaminari’s petrified form. “Kaminari, buddy? Don’t worry, Midori-bro will be back soon. Hopefully he can cure you or something…” 

    “Didn’t he say it lasts forty-eight hours?” Todoroki said, coming up next to him. Eijirou nodded, shrugging his shoulders. 

   “Well, I don’t know how basilisks work, do you?” 

    “Touche.” 

    “A basilisk,” Satou said. “A basilisk , in our class .” 

    “More like the basilisk, kero ,” Tsuyu croaked. “He really is the last one. No one to help him, to guide him… nothing.” 

    Everyone fell quiet for a moment, processing this. When Jirou spoke, her voice broke a bit with emotion. “I can’t believe he didn’t trust us enough.” 

   “But he did, didn’t he?” Kouda said timidly. “I mean, he just told us.” 

   “Yeah, only because he petrified Kaminari-kun!” 

   “But he was dropping hints before that,” Uraraka said loyally. “All throughout the movie, he was giving us hints! He wanted to tell us.”

    “It’s still not cool,” Sero grumbled, falling back onto one of the couches. He crossed his arms like a petulant child. “Letting us think he was human, having us run around like headless chickens trying to cover up what we were.” 

    “To be fair,” Yaomomo began, “He never did say he was human. And he never did say that we were, either.” 

    “While technically true, he still lied,” Iida said, pushing up his glasses. “All of us have nearly exposed ourselves at some point, and he never let us know that he knew.” 

    “Do you really blame him, though?” Shinsou asked. All eyes turned to him, and the insomniac shrugged. “Can you imagine it? Being the very last of your kind, knowing that the only other companion you had in the world was murdered by people, simply because of what he was? And on top of that, he grew up quirkless . He had all of these powers he could have passed off as a quirk, but he didn’t. I can’t imagine how that must have felt, knowing he could change all of the quirkism he received.” 

    “His father had a fire-breathing quirk,” Todoroki said. “Or at least, he pretended to. It must have been how he was found out.” 

     “He was right,” Aoyama said, sitting gingerly on the couch beside Sero. “When he explained everything he could do, how powerful he is… I was afraid of him. I am afraid.” 

     “Not only can he do all of that, but he’s wicked smart,” Hagakure replied. “If he ever turned into a villain, he could destroy Japan as we know it. He could be worse than All for One, if he really wanted.” 

   “Are you hearing  yourselves?” Uraraka demanded hotly. “This is Deku you’re talking about! He doesn’t have an evil bone in his body! He’s saved all of your lives, our lives, on more than one occasion! He would never go dark, no matter what happened! Hell, his father was murdered by misguided people who feared him. If he wanted to, he could hunt them down for what they did. But he hasn’t . He wouldn’t.” She huffed. 

    “Uraraka is right,” Kirishima said. “We have nothing to be afraid of. Midori-bro would never hurt us.” 

     “That’s not what I’m angry about!” Jirou cried, throwing her hands in the air. “When I first got to this school, I was so excited that I wouldn’t have to hide who I truly was, for the first time ever. Then he made it so I had to.” She hugged herself miserably. 

    “Jirou-san, you had that anyway,” Shouji defended. When Jirou looked up at him, he continued. “Come on, you guys! How many times had Midoriya been there for you when you had nightmares, or just any passing concerns at all? How many times has he listened to your darkest fears and comforted you? How many times have you told him something you would never tell anyone else, simply because you knew he wouldn’t judge you? And you’re angry because, what, you couldn’t make shit fly across the room in front of him?” 

    Jirou looked away guiltily, as did a few others. Shouji shook his head, disappointed in them. “After everything he’s done for us, you don’t think he was entitled for a few years to make sure that we wouldn’t rat him out and get him and his mother killed? Really?” 

    “You have a point, Shouji, but so does Jirou,” Iida said diplomatically. “But can any of us really pass judgment? Would any of us do it any differently, if we were in his shoes?” 

    They allowed that comment to settle in, thinking it over. Uraraka shook her head first. “I probably never would have told you guys, if it were me. Sorry, but I wouldn’t. I just… I couldn’t risk it.” 

   “Me, either,” Todoroki sighed. A few more of them agreed, while others simply looked pensive. 

    Kirishima figured it was time to settle this. “Everyone, just try to keep an open mind when he comes back, alright? Remember how he literally saved Japan .” He gave a few of them the stink eye to hammer his point in. 

     “Well, there’s no need to bring that into it,” Deku said from the doorway. They all turned to him, surprised. He stepped further into the room, dragging Bakugou behind him by the hand. Oh, was Eijirou going to talk to him about that later. “Hello, everyone. Thank you for waiting patiently.” He glanced back at Bakugou, who was looking at him with a softer expression than Eijirou had ever seen on him. “I guess… I’m here to answer any questions you might have.” 

    To his credit, Todoroki jumped right in. “Can you shift?” 

   Izuku stepped closer, still pulling Katsuki behind him. Still he didn’t approach the group of them too close, like he wasn’t sure if he would still be welcome. The thought of that made Eijirou admittedly sad. “Yes, I can. I haven’t done it since my father died, though.” 

    “Why?” Shinsou asked. 

   “ How ?” Iida questioned. 

    “My other form is too big now,” Izuku explained. “It’s about twenty-six feet long; I probably wouldn’t even fit in my dorm room. It would make me a bigger target, and it’s pretty hard to hide. I never had someplace safe enough where I could do it.” He scratched the back of his head, looking down at the ground. “ Gods, I probably need to shed my skin so badly.” 

    “How come none of us could sense what you were?” Uraraka asked. Supernatural creatures had a sort of detecting system within them that had evolved over time, allowing them to sense when other creatures were around. It was a protection kind of thing. 

   Izuku smiled. “You did!” When they all stared at him blankly, he explained. “Come on, you have to remember all the times you all exposed yourselves to me without thinking. It’s because you felt safe being around me, despite me being ‘human.’” 

   “Every time you all what ?” Bakugou barked. Eijirou winced. 

   “Yeah, Midoriya? We didn’t tell him about that.” 

   “Oops,” Izuku said, glancing between them and his mate. “It’s okay Kacchan, it’s not like I was in any real danger!” 

   “Yeah, but they didn’t know that!” Katsuki snapped. “I give you fuckers one job…” 

    “Well, we all instinctively knew it was safe, so it’s fine!” Uraraka said, gesturing to Izuku. “He just said so!” 

   “Right, because Deku knows everything?” Katsuki said. A moment later, he sighed. “Don’t answer that.” 

     The tension in the room broke, many of them laughing at the joke. From then on the questions were more easy-going, mainly asking about the extent of his abilities and more questions about what his childhood was like. The rest of the class explained that the reason they all thought they felt so safe with him was because he smelled so much like a certain alpha werewolf, which made Izuku grin brightly enough to make Tokoyami squint. 

    There were still unresolved feelings to work through, but by the time the day was over and they all settled into bed, they felt much better about it. The truth was out now; Izuku was the last basilisk on Earth. Class 3-A knew that, without a doubt, they would take his secret to their graves, or die trying. After all, like Kirishima said, it was the least they could do. 

    *omake*

    Aizawa Shouta flopped down on his bed, feeling his bones creak beneath him threateningly. He held back a groan, not wanting to wake his husband, who was asleep next to him. He had only just gotten off of patrol. It was four o’clock in the morning, leaving him three hours to get to sleep before he would have to be awake to teach a class. If he got in forty-five minutes during the kids’ lunch hour, and another five hours after school had ended, then he could probably be refreshed enough to do it all again tomorrow… 

    He allowed his eyes to slip closed. A few seconds later, his phone began to ring, causing his eyes to snap open. He held back a snarl and looked at the screen, seeing Midoriya Izuku’s name. Had it been literally any other student he might have ignored it, but Midoriya had a certain proclivity for getting into trouble. With a sigh, Aizawa answered the phone. 

    “What?” he snapped. At his side, Hizashi rolled over and blinked blearily, still lost in the throes of sleep. As Shouta listened to what his student had to say, his face drained of color. He sat up completely, horrified. “What do you mean you petrified Kaminari?!”