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Izuku always knew he had a strange sense of humor. Most of his childhood was spent scouring the deep depths of the internet investing himself in pre-quirk era things (When he wasn't obsessing over heroes, of course), and with that, came the discovery of videos that were practically ancient called Vines. He'd tried joking about them a few times with his mother and the occasional other people he interacted with, but no one ever understood what he was talking about, so he just gave up eventually.
Which is why, during his second year, when he made an offhand comment to his new friend and classmate in the U.A. hero course, Shinsou Hitoshi, he was not expecting Hitoshi to fire back at him with understanding of the reference he'd unconsciously made.
"Shinsou you burnt chicken nugget, what did you do with the homework I let you borrow last night? I need it for class today."
"You know what, Midoriya, I may look like a burnt chicken nugget but I still love myself. It's in my dorm on my desk, I'll hand it to you before we leave."
Izuku blinked owlishly at Hitoshi. "Oh my god. You understood that reference. Where... How ?"
Hitoshi shrugged. "YouTube rabbit hole, I guess. I don't have a life. Vines are fucking hysterical."
There was a silent pause, and both of them stared at one another. "We're best friends now."
"Okay," Hitoshi shrugged again.
"We're going to make Vine references all the time."
"Okay," he repeated.
"Good."
"Good."
And thus, a best friendship was born.
Their classmates had no idea how to deal with them and their strange humor, and that knowledge only fueled Izuku and Hitoshi further into their chaos.
For example, several of their friends were in the common room watching them argue with rapt attention over Izuku trying to get Hitoshi to actually sleep for once so he would be properly rested for training and not look like he was constantly on the verge of collapse. "Hitoshi, you need to sleep!"
"I'll sleep when I'm dead, Izuku. Insomnia's a bitch like that."
"Not sleeping is even more of a bitch!"
Hitoshi looked Izuku dead in the eyes. "How do you know what's good for me?"
"That's my OPINION!"
Kaminari whistled low. "Poor Shinsou. Midoriya's really gonna get on his ass if he doesn't listen."
Izuku and Hitoshi stared each other down, blinking at each other, before Hitoshi relented. "Fine. I can attempt to sleep, but I'm not promising shit."
"Good enough for me."
Iida chopped his hand in front of him in agreement with Izuku. "We need to be respectable U.A. students! We all need a good night's rest so no one falls asleep in classes, Shinsou-kun!
Hitoshi laughed. "Hahaha. I do that."
Their classmates, confused, watched as Iida spluttered for a good response and how Izuku doubled over with laughter for a reason none of them knew or understood. "Two for one!"
He and Hitoshi high-fived.
The two unexpectedly discovered another person who got their dumbassery a week later. Izuku had fallen from a couple stories high during training at Ground Beta and had broken his arm trying to catch his fall, and when he offhandedly said the first thing that came to mind, and after Hitoshi's unperturbed response, the two discovered that their own homeroom teacher understood Vine references.
"Mother trucker, dude. That hurt like a butt cheek on a stick," Izuku stared at his purple and bruised skin.
Hitoshi kicked his thigh, which was thankfully unbroken. "Watch your profanity."
And to both of their surprise, their teacher, instead of scolding Izuku for breaking another bone, muffled a snort behind his hand and sent them both to Recovery Girl for the healer to deal with Izuku's yet again broken bones.
Recovery Girl spent a long time lecturing Izuku when he'd walked in with Hitoshi sporting a broken arm, and Izuku wasn't even fazed when he was bonked over the head with her cane for his recklessness.
And after she'd done her thing and let Izuku rest on one of the beds in her office, Hitoshi sat next to Izuku and chuckled to himself. "You know what, I'm gonna say it."
"What?"
"I don't care that you broke your elbow."
Izuku lost it, laughing so hard he choked on his own breath and his face turned red from coughing. Recovery Girl was more concerned about Hitoshi's words than Izuku's loss of the ability to breathe.
Izuku loved eating lunch with his friends every day. Especially since Hitoshi started joining them once he was placed in the Hero Course. Even though they all lived together now, it was nice to just have something normal like a lunch in the cafeteria with his friends.
But that didn't mean that since it was something normal, he wanted it to be boring.
Hitoshi was sitting across from him, as he usually did, but it was clear to see that he once again hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. Face-down on the table, nose smushed into the surface, which looked incredibly uncomfortable but somehow Hitoshi didn't seem to mind it at all. Maybe he was just that tired.
Izuku looked at the clock over the cafeteria doors and nudged Hitoshi's leg under the table. "'Toshi, wake up. Lunch is gonna end soon and you haven't eaten anything."
The head on the table raised for a few millimetres before thunking back down again. "Sorry, I fell asleep while I was waiting on you to make me a sandwich."
All of their friends' conversations stopped and they looked like they were a mixture of confused and amused. Conmused? Amfused? Whatever.
Izuku only rolled his eyes and flipped him a subtle middle finger, though Hitoshi wouldn't see it since his head was once more down on the table. "Go back to sleep. And starve."
Iida opened his mouth to speak, probably scold them both for being unseemly and rude and not having proper attitudes of honorable U.A. students, but both Hitoshi and Izuku snorted at the same time from the shared joke.
Everyone was silent as Hitoshi finally sat up and took Izuku's lunch tray after Izuku had pushed it toward him. They fist-bumped.
Izuku was in the kitchen when he was approached by two of his classmates. Kirishima and Todoroki stood in front of him with odd looks on their faces, and Izuku slowly set down his snack. "Alright, who died and what color do I wear to the funeral?"
"No one's dead!" Kirishima quickly assured him. "It's just..."
"Shinsou's on the couch and he's sad and no one knows why," Todoroki said flatly. "We need you to cheer him up."
Izuku nodded. "Okay."
The two followed closely behind him as he made his way to the common room and stopped a bit of a distance away, whereas Izuku stopped right in front of a slumped over Hitoshi.
The bags under his red-rimmed eyes were more horrid than usual, a few sniffles here and there even though he wasn't crying.
Izuku's feet on the floor in front of his eyes drew his attention and he looked up. Izuku pointed his finger in Hitoshi's face.
"I love you biiitch."
Hitoshi let out a watery chuckle, but smiled, and Izuku counted that as a win, so he kept going.
"I ain't gon' never stop loving you..."
Another sniffle.
"...biiiiiitch."
Hitoshi finally laughed and rubbed at his eyes tiredly. "Thanks, 'Zuku."
"Bro, how the hell did that work?" Kirishima muttered to Todoroki.
Todoroki blinked. "I have no idea."
Their chaos didn't stop in simply breaks between classes, sometimes they were in class, too.
Hitoshi was trying to listen to Present Mic talk in the front of the classroom, which usually wasn't hard. You know, considering. He's Present Mic.
But he had been cursed to sit right behind Izuku, who barely stopped mumbling on a good day.
Like, seriously? He was just trying to get through conjugating verbs and tell the difference between simple past and past participle. English was so fucking confusing all the time, and Hitoshi hated it. It gave him migraines.
And there Izuku sat, in front of Hitoshi with his legs shifted into a position that had to be uncomfortable, mumbling while scribbling into his notebook, and Hitoshi couldn't focus for shit because of it. He didn't know how Bakugou hadn't blown his own eardrums out yet.
The moment Izuku's head turned slightly to the right, so his face was visible to Hitoshi, he struck.
Silence fell over the class as Present Mic stopped talking, and he looked like he was about to march Hitoshi down to Nedzu's office, before Izuku rubbed at his jaw with an obviously fake groan. Hitoshi didn't hit him that hard. Just a little friendly punch!
"Aw, fuck," Izuku glared at Hitoshi playfully. "I can't believe you've done this."
Hitoshi snorted. "Stop mumbling so much, I was trying to pay attention. Your droning puts me to sleep."
"Sorry, 'Toshi, I'll try harder!"
Kicking out his foot to hit Izuku's leg, Hitoshi gave his best friend a grin. "You're fine. No hard feelings for the punch?"
"Oh, it's fine. I got to make a reference out of it, at least."
"True. Sorry for interrupting, Mic-sensei. You can continue now, no fight is breaking out. We're cool."
Present Mic sighed, walking back to the front of the room now that the situation had been resolved, and muttered to himself. "There's two more Shouta's..."
Yeah, Hitoshi decided, friendship was fun sometimes.