Chapter Text
“Stay down, Ears!” Yelled a spiky, ash-blond-haired 6-year-old with explosions coming from his hands. He stood above a girl, around the same age, with short, black hair and long earlobes that each had an audio jack on the end. She also had dirt and ash all over her.
"Hey!" Yelled a green-haired boy, the same age, who ran over and in between the two. He faced the blonde. "Kacchan! Stop this...or...I'll have to...stop you!" He said, shaking in fear and striking a fighting stance.
"Deku…" the blonde growled. "You useless piece of crap! Go home, or you're next!"
"I won't!" Deku replied as he ran toward the blonde, as he usually did these days. This was a common occurrence. The blonde, Katsuki Bakugo, often bullied other kids, and Izuku Midoriya came to their aid, usually getting beat up in their place as they ran away. Izuku had been taking martial arts classes at the suggestion of his father, and he had gained an iota of confidence from it.
Izuku rushed Bakugo, who responded with a right hook, which threw Izuku to the ground and had him groaning in pain. Izuku got up, however, and rushed Bakugo again.
"You never know when to give up!" Bakugo responded this time with an explosion-powered downward punch that sent Izuku to Bakugo's feet. Bakugo began to walk toward the girl, who was staring at the altercation, still dazed from her pummeling.
Izuku grabbed Bakugo's ankle to prevent him from going toward the girl. Bakugo continued walking, not even bothering to kick Izuku's hand off, but suddenly, he fell forward and slammed onto the ground. He looked back at Izuku with fury, which turned to shock, and then fear when he realized his foot was still planted on the ground, detached from his leg.
Bakugo rolled over and noticed something attaching his foot to his leg. Surrounding the place where his foot was detached was a zipper. The zipper continued off of the ankle and all the way to another zipper which was on the bottom of his lower leg.
"What the hell?!" Bakugo screamed as he sat up and tried to zip the foot back onto his leg. As he did that, Izuku got up and walked over to the girl, grabbing her hand and helping her up. She came out of her daze and the two ran away from the blonde bully. When Izuku was out of Bakugo's sight, his foot reattached and the zipper disappeared. He stared at it for a while, before screaming, "Deku!" At the top of his lungs.
As soon as Izuku thought they were far enough away, he stopped, and the girl stopped with him.
“Alright, I think we got away,” he said.
"Yeah...thank you!" She said, looking away. He smiled.
"Heroes save people. And the smile on your face is worth it." He said. She blushed brightly, noticing that she was, in fact, smiling. However, she couldn't stop.
"So why did you let that guy beat you up if you had a quirk like that?" She asked. Izuku began mumbling and looking like he was staring past everything. "Uh…" she said, before snapping her fingers in front of his face. He came out of his trance before jumping into the air and yelling,
"I have a quirk! I have a quirk now!"
"Wait, you didn't have a quirk and you still tried to save me?" The girl asked, incredulously. Izuku blushed and looked to the ground. "That's so cool!"
“Kyoka!” Yelled a voice that was familiar to the girl.
“Dad! I’m over here!” The girl yelled.
Kyotoku was worried beyond belief.
“Dear, relax, Kyoka’s a smart girl, she wouldnt wander off too far.”
“Mika, she’s only six! What if someone kidnapped her or worse!” Kyotoku rebutted. “Kyoka! Kyoka!”
“Dad! I’m over here!” He heard, causing him to speed over to the sound of her voice. Mika shook her head and followed him. Kyotoku finally found his daughter and picked her up, hugging her in a vice grip.
“Dad! Cant…Breathe!” Kyoka said. Kyotoku Let her down.
“We told you to be back by…” Kyotoku then noticed the dirt and scuff marks all over her clothes, and even on her arms. “Kyoka what happened!?” He then noticed Izuku and began to think at 100 miles a minute. “Did you do this to her!?”
“No, dad, he saved me!” He looked at his daughter, who had an angry look on her face, and at Izuku, who had similar scuffs and even some burns.
“Oh…” He then bowed to the boy. “Thank you for saving my daughter! Wait, what did he save you from.” He asked her.
“Some blonde jerk who had explodey hands.” she said, shivering at the memory.
“Izuku!” Yelled Inko Midoriya. She walked over to the group. “Izuku what happened? Was it Katsuki again?” Izuku nodded, sadly. “You’re too heroic, Izuku.” She shook her head before turning to the two adults. “Hello, who are you?” She asked.
“Oh, I’m Mika Jiro, and this is Kyotoku, my husband. We were just thanking your son for saving my daughter. I take it you know the delinquent who did this to them?” Inko looked down, before teking the group to a bench nearby and telling the couple about Katsuki Bakugo and how he was treated in comparison to Izuku. “That’s horrible! Izuku is still a person, quirk or no quirk! Those damn teachers should be arrested!”
“Unfortunately, there’s not a lot we can do. No one wants to bother with a quirkless boy, not even the police.”
“But he has a quirk!” Yelled Kyoka, who had been playing tag with Izuku.
“Oh, yeah!” Izuku said, before trying to activate his quirk. He succeeded by touching the ground and creating a zipper on it. It unzipped, showing a swirling vortex inside.
“Whoa!” The Jiros were in awe. Inko, on the other hand, was crying.
‘Izuku…He can accomplish his dream now…I have to support him…no matter how scared it makes me!’ Inko thought as Kyoka and Izuku began to try things with his new quirk.
From then on, The Jiros and the Midoriyas became close, but none closer than Izuku and Kyoka. They meant a lot to each other, especially after Kyoka named Izuku’s quirk.
“Hmm.” Izuku said, hanging out with Kyoka a few weeks after they met. He had his new notebook in one hand and a pencil in the other, which he was tapping his chin with.
“Whatcha doing?” Kyoka asked him.
“I still can’t come up with a name for my quirk! All the ones I think of are so boring.” Kyoka looked at the page he was looking at, and she agreed, all the names were quite boring. Suddenly, she remembered something she found in her dad’s music collection. She grabbed Izuku’s hand. “Come with me!” They ran out of her room and down the stairs and finally to Kyotoku. “Dad! What was that record with the zipper on it?”
“How do you know about that?” He asked, narrowing his eyes. She blushed and looked away. “You looked through my records? Kyoka, I’m so happy you’re interested in the classics!” He said, excitedly. “The album was by The Rolling Stones, it was called Sticky Fingers!”
“Yes! That’s what you should name your quirk, ‘Zuku!”
“Cool! Thank you, Mr. Jiro!”
“You should be thanking Kyoka, it was her idea.” Kyoka was soon embarrassed by the number of thanks she got from Izuku.
Over the years they helped each other grow in more ways than one. Emotionally, of course, they became more confident in themselves and each other. Also, physically, not only helping each other in many activities like martial arts but also their quirk training flourished more and more as they got older. Izuku learned many uses for his zippers, from storing things in walls and floors to using them to walk through walls. The best of all was his way of defending himself from Bakugo, by unzipping parts of his body off of him, like the first time he ever used his quirk.
Kyoka’s quirk grew as well, as she learned to create different frequencies, and even make short bursts of strong sound from her jacks by regulating her heartbeat. She even learned how to temporarily cause strong headaches and nausea, and to direct it in only one direction with rigged speakers. They grew closer over the years, Mika and Inko often joking (maybe) about them being a couple, to their embarrassment and Kyotoku’s anguish.
At age seven, Kyoka transferred to Aldera Elementary School. At age eight, Katsuki stopped openly trying to attack them due to their ability to fight back. At age ten, the duo had at gained incredible proficiency with multiple martial arts. At age twelve, the two vowed to open their own Hero Agency. It wasn’t until age thirteen that life truly began to change.
“I’m not saying it's better than Bohemian Rhapsody, I’m just saying Hammer To Fall is underrated,” Izuku said to the rocker girl as they lounged around in the Midoriya living room.
“Yeah, it’s pretty good, but it's no Killer Queen, I’ll tell you that.” Inko came into the house and greeted them, before calling Izuku over to help with dinner.
“So, when are you gonna ask her out?” He nearly dropped the plate he was about to put on the table.
“Wh- what are you talking about?” he whisper-yelled.
“Oh, come on, Izuku, you know you like her. And if you think she doesn’t like you, then you haven’t been paying enough attention.”
“Mom, it’s not like that. She’s my best friend.”
“You’ve practically already been a couple for a few years now. Don’t think I don’t catch you and her sleeping on the couch and cuddling.” Izuku’s face was nearly on fire. “I’m your mother, Izuku, I notice these things.”
“I just…I don’t want to ruin things between us. What if it doesn't work out?” His face still burned.
“Izuku, you want to be a hero. That life is full of risky situations.”
“She’s my only friend.”
“Izuku, just think about it. Plus even if something goes wrong, you two are too close to let your connection end.” Izuku realized she was right. He nodded before waving Kyoka over for dinner.
After eating, the two sat in comfortable silence in Izuku’s room, Izuku in his chair, reading, and Kyoka listening to music on his bed. They sat there until Kyoka spoke up.
“Well, what is it?”
“What?” Izuku asked.
“You’ve been staring at me. You think you’re being sneaky but I’ve been around you long enough to hear your heartbeat speed up when I move to get my drink or something. What’s up, do I have something on my face?”
“Well, you do have that red makeup.” He said, referring to the red, tear-shaped marks she liked to paint on her cheeks every now and then.
“Smartass. Dude, just tell me.”
“I…I…”
“You like me.” Izuku looked at her in shock. “You seem to forget that my quirk gives me super hearing. You and your mom weren’t exactly quiet.” Izuku looked down. With a red face.
“She probably planned that…” He mumbled.
“Dude, it’s alright. I like you too.” Izuku looked at her and her face was nearly as red as his. “So now that we got that out of the way…should we go out or something? I’m not really sure how this stuff works. I mean, I really don’t see why we should be doing anything different.” she admitted.
“What do you mean?” Izuku asked.
“Well, your mom was kind of right, we act like a couple already, we just sorta did what we were comfortable with. So, why don’t we just keep doing what we’re comfortable with?”
“Right…do what feels natural…” Izuku agreed. The day went on as it had been, only Izuku and Kyoka were practically attached at the hip. Well, even more so than usual. Inko decided to wait a few days before embarrassing them about it. They deserved it.