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Izuku was never ashamed of his scars. For him, they were a representation of what he endured and what he has done. They are a sign of the strong.
He just didn‘t think that others would react that strongly, seeing the scars littering his body
---
Izuku opens the door to their apartment with a yawn.
As soon as he woke up with Hanako and her mother and saw his mother's endless calls and messages, he rushed back home.
The bandages rub uncomfortably against his skin, his movements being restricted. He probably should head to the shower and redo them, he can already feel them unfolding.
"Izuku, is that you?", Inko calls out and Izuku gives himself a moment before answering.
"Who else?"
Instantly his mother comes running down the hallway, looking him up and down with worried eyes.
"You didn't answer any of my calls or messages. What happened?", she asks as he pulls off his shoes and settles into the slippers.
He rubs his eyes and stifles another yawn.
"I had to play hero for the Red District", he murmurs, throwing his keys and his phone on their little table.
"You are hurt", it sounds more like a statement than a question and he sees her glancing at the bandages peeking out.
"Yes"
His mother sighs, rubbing her temple.
"Go clean up and then come and let me help apply the bandages"
He nods and grabs his replacement clothes since he is wearing an old t-shirt from one of the residents of the Red District.
He peels himself off the clothes, carefully unwrapping his body, sighing when he sees the extent of the damage to his skin. His back, shoulders, and arms are full of red, sensitive patches. At least they seemed to have cooled his wounds with wet compressions before applying the lotion and wrapping them up. He winces as he washes himself clean with cold water, before putting on his clothes, taking his t-shirt with him.
He heads into their living room, seeing the first aid kit already opened and supplies spread out on their couch table. He sits down in front of their coach, waiting for his mother.
Despite his cool shower, Izuku is close to nodding off but he jolts when he hears a soft gasp.
He twirls around, seeing his mother in the door frame with a glass of water, her hands barely trembling. Her eyes drift from his wounds to his eyes and they hold eye contact for a few seconds before she breaks it up and sets down the water on the table, taking place behind Izuku.
She silently starts applying burn lotion and Izuku tries his best to not hiss at every touch.
Only when she starts loosely bandaging the burns, she speaks up.
"This is going to scar"
"I know"
A sigh.
"Was it at least worth it?"
"Always"
—-
Shinsou watches him with concerned eyes.
"Are you okay?"
Izuku startles as he is broken out of his thoughts.
He nods, noting that Shinsou already finished changing into his sports uniform.
"Let's hurry up, I think the sports festival starts soon", Shinsou says and Izuku just hums.
He pulls his t-shirt over his head, neatly folding it. He is just about to pull off his pants when Shinsou's voice interrupts his humming.
"Midoriya", his voice sounds shaky.
He turns to the sick-looking purpled-haired boy and raises an eyebrow.
"You look you have seen a ghost", Izuku teases with a smirk but frowns when Shinsou just keeps staring at him with a pale face.
Izuku looks down at himself confused. Everything seems normal. There's his scar from being stabbed into the gut and his burn scars-
Of course, his burn scars.
He never saw them because Izuku was always finished before the rest of the class even stepped into the lockers.
"I'm safe at home", Izuku comments, breaking Shinsou out of his stupor, "I got these because of my own stupidity - although some may see it as heroicness"
"Stupidity?", Shinsou repeats with an ill face
"It wasn't a punishment", Izuku explains with a sigh, putting on the sports uniform, "Playing hero is dangerous"
Shinsou knits his eyebrow and opens his mouth, probably to argue, but Izuku slips on his jacket and shakes his head.
"Not now Shinsou. Let's go, the Sports Festival won't wait for us"
Shinsou's jaw locks closed and he nods mutely, although he glares at him with an expression that practically screams 'We will talk about this later'
Izuku rolls his eyes but smiles
"Let's go knock the heroes in training from their podiums"
—
Izuku sinks into the hot spring with a sigh, letting his head rest on the edge. He lets his eyes fall shut, resting for a bit.
He blinks when Kouta sinks into the water next to him, his head just barely resting above water. Izuku smiles at him and laughs softly when he pouts up at him.
He gives him a head pat and ruffles his hair, which makes the younger boy squeak and swat away his hand out of reach. Kouta shakes his head, water splashing everywhere. Izuku chuckles as the boy sulks, his wet hair pressed against his scalp. It's weird seeing him without his signature head.
Izuku looks up at the sky, glancing at the stars, but he gets startled out of his thoughts by a tap on his right arm.
He turns and sees Kouta hesitantly looking up at him. He tilts his head, giving the boy time to figure out what he wants to say.
Kouta gnaws on his bottom lip, before opening his mouth.
"Your scars" Izuku startles. "What happened?"
Izuku pushes himself off the edge, turning his back to the dark-haired boy.
He can feel his gaze on him as he observes the extent of the burn scars, the smaller ones easily overseen and forgotten.
"I saved a little girl around your age out of a burning house", Izuku explains, "That was around 2 years ago"
Izuku never regretted it.
"Can", Kouta starts, a tremble in his voice "Can I touch them?"
Izuku nods and suppresses a flinch as Kouta's cold hands trace the outlines of the scars covering his back, traveling to his shoulders and to the sides of his arms.
"Why aren't you a hero?", Kouta whispers softly, barely audible, but Izuku doesn't answer since he has the feeling he wasn't supposed to hear him.
Instead, he just smiles a bit sadly, before forcing a smile on his face and turning around, splashing the younger boy with water.
"Hey!", Kouta complains but splashes him back, a smile forming on his lips.
---
Izuku steps out of the bathroom, a towel bound around his hips, his hair dripping wet from the shower.
„Thanks for letting me use your shower, Kats“
The addressed only grunts from where he is sitting at his desk, studying.
They had met up in his dorm room after getting the confirmation that Katsuki got the work-study at Nighteye’s agency.
Izuku turns his back to the blonde, searching in his closet for replacement clothes.
"STOP DRIPPING OVER MY WHOLE ROOM YOU ASS... hole", Katsuki trails off with a distressed sound.
"You okay?", Izuku asks with amusement evident in his voice, still messing through Katsuki's clothes.
"When did you get...", Katsuki starts and Izuku slightly turns around, seeing him pointing at his back with a pained expression, "That"
Oh, he's talking about his burn scars.
"I don't need a 2 years late lecture", Izuku evades, offering as little information as possible.
Katsuki sighs audibly.
"I'm going to call Auntie if you don't tell me"
Izuku glares at the blond-haired boy.
"You wouldn't dare"
"Are you sure?"
Izuku groans and tightens the towel around his hips before settling on Katsuki's bed.
„When you live near the Red District, you see a lot of shit. There is a reason I gave the League a chance. They are no different than them, broken just for being different“
Izuku lets out a bitter laugh.
„I saw a woman being molested by a hero when I was 6“, Izuku drops his head into his hands, water drops running down his forearms, „A hero. Could you believe it? I had to tear down all my merch because his smile reminded me of All Might“
Katsuki looks pale and sick.
„That‘s why you stopped talking about heroes“, he says more to himself than to Izuku, but he nods nevertheless.
"Around 2 years ago, I stumbled across a burning building", Izuku explains, "Apparently Endeavour hunted a villain across the Red District. He didn't even care that he was leaving a trail of destruction behind. It was just the Red District right?"
Izuku shakes his head with a sigh.
"We had a lot of luck that only one old apartment building caught on fire. The rest were empty-standing buildings or ruins", Izuku continues, "By the time I arrived, almost over half of the residents were out. But there were still 5 missing persons not accounted for"
Izuku leans back, falling with his back on Katsuki's bed, and covers his eyes with his arm.
"3 of them were old and therefore not able to move easily. Thankfully they were on the bottom row of the apartments. I was able to help them quickly. The fourth one was a young mother. She was on the third floor. While I was helping her out, the building exploded. We were almost catapulted out of the windows"
Izuku squeezes his eyes shut.
"When we were out, I didn't know if I would make another trip. The smoke was already too thick, my lungs were hurting and I had no idea where the last missing person was. But Ayuki told me that her child was still in there. I just couldn't leave her", Izuku gulps, "So I ran back in and saved her"
Katsuki stares at burns on the side of his arms.
"And you shielded her from the flames"
Izuku gives him a bitter smile.
"I never regretted it"
---
Letting the League find out was never planned. But like always fate has prepared something else.
Izuku groans as he inspects his shirt.
"Himi, that shirt was new", Izuku complains as he pulls at the now ruined shirt full of blood from Himiko's drink.
The girl just pouts and moves to hug him as an apology, but Izuku stands up and she lands face-first into the coach where he was just sitting a few seconds prior.
Izuku sighs loudly and tugs off his shirt over his head, ignoring the snickers from Touya and Tomura, calling out to the latter.
"Can I borrow a hoodie?"
Several things happen at once.
A knife flies barely past his cheek, embedding itself into the wall, way off-center from the All Might picture which poses as their target and Shuichi gives Izuku a stiff smile.
Tomura throws his controller into the air and it lands on Himiko‘s head who lets out a yelp as her head gets pushed into the coach again.
Dabi curses loudly, his drink slipping out of his hand, thankfully landing safely on the bar counter, although the contents being spilled.
Jin and Atsuhiro pause in their game of cards, their faces turning pale.
Kurogori is the only one who doesn‘t stop in his tracks, cleaning a glass, although his eyes glow and his smokey hair flickers for a second.
Izuku raises an eye at their reactions.
„You all react like I just asked you to kill someone“, Izuku jokes, „Wait, bad analogy. You all react like I just accepted being the former number one‘s successor“
Izuku frowns when nobody answers or reacts, just continues staring at him in badly concealed horror.
„Did I accept being All Might‘s successor?“
Still no reaction.
„Okay can someone please tell me what the hell is going on or did I suddenly manifest a time-freezing quirk or what?“
Izuku crosses his arms and taps his left foot impatiently.
Kurogori clears his throat.
„It’s most certainly because of your… wide range of scars“
Izuku winces.
No wonder he can feel Dabi‘s scathing gaze on his skin and Tomura and the rest still haven’t let out a single sound.
He forgot that he had never shown them his scars before, despite the fact that they have been so much around each other ever since they rescued Eri.
The little girl was thankfully in bed right now.
Dabi looks murderous and vivid and Izuku is glad the black-haired man‘s glass is laying on the counter or else he might have shattered it with how hard he was clenching his fists. He is grinding his teeth and he can see blood dripping from his fingers.
„Dabi“, Izuku calls out worriedly, but the man doesn‘t react.
„Dabi!“, he tries again, more urgently when he sees flickers of blue flames.
„Touya!“
The flames die out and Dabi drops his fists, blood flowing from the half-crescent wounds on the inside of his hands.
Izuku goes to sit in front of him - quickly washing his hands before - Kurogori already prepping up a First Aid Kit on the counter and demands the man to hold out his hands. He does so but doesn't look Izuku in his eyes. He takes his left hand into his and starts pressing gauze on the wound. He continues treating the injury while he starts to talk, quietly.
„You may not know, but I live near the Red District. I grew up watching terrible things happen, from rape to gang wars“, Izuku says, cleaning out Dabi‘s wound with a wet cloth, „ Back when I still wanted to be a hero, I tried to help, but nobody took an 8-year-old seriously. I could be glad when I wasn‘t maimed on the spot“
Izuku starts bandaging the wound.
„It just so happens, that when I turned 12, two years after I gave up on being a hero, I stumbled across a burning building“, Izuku explains and takes Dabi's other hand.
„And I guess I‘ll always be a hero-bleeding self-sacrificial idiot at heart“
He gives them a bright, but sad smile.
—-
A hand catches his right wrist, just as he wants to stand up and head to the coach.
Izuku turns to Eri and tilts his head.
"Can you stay?", her voice is small but Izuku hears her and gives her a bright smile and nods.
He crawls under the covers and squeezes Eri to his chest.
He presses a kiss to her head before slowly falling asleep.
He wakes up in the middle of the night and sits up with bleary eyes, noticing that Eri isn't next to him anymore.
He sees her sitting at the window, the moonlight falling on her thin arms, which are covered in fine, white scars. She is stroking her scars, her eyes dull. Izuku thinks she looks beautiful
"Eri", he whispers softly and her head snaps to him and he can see her trying to hide her scars.
Izuku shifts so he is at the end of the bed, barely a few steps from the girl away.
"Don't hide your scars. They are a sign that you are strong", Izuku pleads, resisting hugging her and stroking her hair, "You are beautiful"
Eri's eyes fill with tears.
"Really?"
Izuku takes off his shirt, turning so the moonlight reveals his burn scars.
"I'm strong ain't I?"
He looks over his head and sees her nodding, her libs wobbling and he sits straight again, opening his arms.
Eri takes off in a run and throws herself into his arms.
---
Izuku groans as he looks at the acid eating through his sports jacket and slides it off before it can reach his skin.
He disdainfully looks at his ruined jacket before noticing that the acid reached his tank top and was nipping at his skin.
"Those fucking heroes in training and their poor control", he complains, as he has to get rid of his tank top as well.
"Izuku", Hitoshi's nervous voice reaches his ears.
"What?", he snaps and looks at the purple-haired teen, flag in hand.
"You just revealed your scars to the whole nation. Congratulations Nerd", Katsuki explains with an eye roll and just now Izuku notices how quiet it has become and how many students look at him in shock. He can see Todoroki reaching up to his scar.
Izuku curses.
How come he always forgets how people will react to his scars? He has just gotten so used to people knowing about them, that they didn't blink an eye when he was walking around without a top.
Ashido had managed to get the drop on Izuku while he was defending their flags - he was on a team with Katsuki and Hitoshi. Katsuki had won the first qualifier this time around and both Hitoshi and Izuku were more than ready to accept the challenge of being teammates with the blonde.
Izuku knew he should have sat out the Second Year Sports Festival.
"Got nothing better to look at?", Izuku barks out and grinds his teeth.
These scars don't make them weak. They are a sign that he managed to save 5 people and dozen others - even the stab and knife scars, he was proud to wear them.
"Come on, let's show them that they are right to be afraid of us", Izuku growls out and mirrors the grins Hitoshi and Katsuki wear. They don't know what will hit them.
Izuku's team won the second round by miles, obliterating their opponents.