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It starts small.
So small that no one, not even Izuku, is really aware it's happening.
It’s a regular Tuesday morning when Izuku walks into homeroom, wishing he could’ve stolen a few more minutes of sleep after a late night snack run with his friends. Despite also running out late with him, Uraraka looks up as fresh as ever and gives Izuku a hesitant wave when he enters.
Blinking away the tiredness in his eyes, Izuku smiles and waves back. Once he’s seated at his desk he lays out his materials just the way he likes them, notebook open to a new page and freshly sharpened pencil settled on top. Once that’s completed, he leans forward in his chair to greet Bakugou.
“Morning Kacch–! Ah!”
Izuku flinches back as shards of wooden pencil scatter across the desk space between them. Bakugou sits frozen in his seat, shoulders tensed to a painful-looking degree as the remains of the pencil are clenched in his fist.
“W–What the hell, nerd?!” Bakugou growls. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!”
“Sorry, Kacchan! I didn’t mean to! Here, let me get you a new pencil–” Izuku doesn’t hesitate, grabbing the pencil off the top of his notebook. He hands it to Bakugou who accepts it silently, twisting back around in his chair to face the front of the classroom.
Izuku watches as something twists in his stomach, feeling awful that he startled him so badly. He does his best to swallow the feeling down, vowing to make it up to Bakugou later.
The first warning bell rings a few moments later, shortly followed by Shinsou’s entrance. Shinsou makes his way over with his head down, looking as tired as Izuku feels after joining them last night. As Shinsou passes by his desk, Izuku gives him a small wave and watches as his friend blinks down at him in surprise.
“O–Oh. Hey, Midoriya,” Shinsou greets as he slings his backpack by the strap onto the ground and slides into his chair.
“Hey yourself,” he says. “You ready for Mic’s test today?”
Shinsou blinks. After a moment or so of staring at each other, he nods slowly. “Yeah. Um. Are you?”
The awkwardness is palpable. Before Izuku can think of a way to cleave through it, the final bell rings, and the entire room quiets. Shinsou stares forward, and Izuku pauses to watch him. His face is stiller than stone, and his gaze pointedly refuses to meet Izuku’s.
He’s likely just tired. Maybe they shouldn’t have let him join the snack run last night, and let him catch up on his sleep. Izuku almost wishes he’d chosen more sleep, himself.
“Alright,” Present Mic shouts from the doorway, mug of coffee in hand. “You’ll be taking your test in pairs today! Help each other out, yeah? I’ll list everyone’s partners on the board!”
Out of the corner of his eye, Izuku spots several of his classmates hurriedly flipping through their textbooks and notes, no doubt feeling panicked and unprepared.
He almost envies them, to an extent. On top of staying up late last night, he’d gotten up early this morning just to study. If he’d known they’d have a review period, however short, he may not have bothered.
“Alriiight,” Present Mic spins around, twirling a stick of chalk between his fingers. “Go sit next to your partners, and I’ll pass out your tests! Good luck.”
“Oh, Shinsou-kun! It looks like we’re partners,” Izuku says, pointing at the board. Shinsou glances between Izuku and his open textbook with a small frown. “It’s okay, I studied this morning. We can do this!”
“Right,” Shinsou says. His voice is flatter than usual, and his posture stiffer. Mirroring the behavior of his other classmates, Izuku shifts his desk closer to Shinsou’s so they can work together. It’s been a long time since he’s done a partner quiz, but he’s confident that he and Shinsou will do amazing!
“Oh, crap! Do you have a pencil…? I think I just gave my last one to Kacchan,” Izuku peers into his backpack, grimacing. “Or, you could do the writing…? Up to you, Shinsou-kun!”
“Here,” he says, rolling a pen across his desk. “Just give it back when you’re done, okay?”
The pen rolls towards the edge, and Izuku, still bent over his backpack, isn’t able to grab it before it falls in the space between the two desks. Shinsou stiffens, then leans down to grab it.
“Oh, no, I can get it,” Izuku says, brushing his fingers against Shinsou’s as they reach down in tandem. While Izuku grabs the pen, however, Shinsou flinches back, clutching his hand.
“Midoriya, Shinsou, your test,” Present Mic says, dropping a small packet of paper on Izuku’s desk. “You okay there, kiddo?”
“F–fine,” Shinsou grits out. “I don’t… I’m fine.”
Izuku hits his head on the desk as he sits up, and Shinsou nearly falls out of his chair.
“Midoriya–”
“I’m okay,” he says, and immediately slips under Shinsou’s control. Shinsou stares, eyes wide and, no, fearful? What’s going on?
“S–stay back,” he whispers, still clutching his hand. Present Mic is rushing back to their joined desks, ushering Shinsou out of his seat and gently pushing him out into the hall.
“Where’s your class reps?” he hisses from the doorway. “Oh, jeez. Todoroki, you take care of Midoriya. I’ll send another teacher down in a minute, yeah?”
A moment later, Izuku is broken out of Shinsou’s brainwashing by Todoroki’s hand on his shoulder. He blinks rapidly, looking around the room. Sixteen pairs of eyes turn back towards their papers, with Kacchan – who looks at him like he’s possessed – and Todoroki being the only exceptions.
“Um,” he starts, not knowing why he even needs to be taken care of, let alone how to fix whatever’s going on around him. He can’t decide which of the ten questions swirling around his head he wants to answer, so his brain settles on none of them. Instead, he stares wide eyed at Todoroki, entreatingly, hoping that somehow his friend will have the answer to what the hell is going on.
Which, inexplicably, he does.
“Midoriya, I think you might be cursed,” he says, voice lowered to a hushed whisper. Normally, Izuku would laugh at his absurdity, but not now that it makes real sense. “There is a dark aura around you.”
“A dark aura? Can you see something?” Izuku asks, clutching the bottom of his chair. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“No, nothing physical,” Todoroki clarifies, “but I can sense it. I feel… afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“Of you.” He averts his eyes. “Being in your presence.”
“But what about me is scary?” If he can narrow it down, maybe he can fix whatever it is so everyone will stop treating him like he’s the devil.
“I don’t know. It’s just you.” He looked back up again, and now Izuku can see the pain in his eyes. Like a caged animal that knows it’s about to be slaughtered but can’t fight back for the life of it.
He swallows. “Everyone else has been avoiding me all day,” he says. “But you’re talking to me like normal. Why? Does the curse not affect you as much?”
Todoroki’s voice lowers even more, until Izuku can barely hear it. “I have known a lot of fear in my life, and I did not often have the chance to flee, so I can stand here with you and talk. But talking to you feels like…” He frowns, and ducks his head, ashamed of his reaction. “Like talking to him. Like it did back then.”
Izuku doesn’t need to ask who he is. “I’m so sorry, Todoroki,” he says, eyes glazing. “You don’t have to stay with me if it makes you feel like that.”
“But Present Mic said–”
“I don’t need someone to watch over me.” He laughs a little, despite himself. “If anything, it’s everyone else who needs to be cared for right now. I feel fine, I promise. And the teachers will help me with whatever’s going on, and I’ll be back to normal. It can’t last forever, right?”
Todoroki hesitates once more, then returns to his seat beside Iida, practically running there. The class rep looks back at him once, just for a second, and then turns away again just as quickly. Izuku feels his heart sink into his stomach.
Curses don’t exist, so then what’s causing all of this? He thinks about everyone's reactions again, especially Shinsou’s, and grits his teeth. A quirk. There’s no other possibility.
-
Aizawa takes Izuku from class to Recovery Girl. The older woman directs him to isolate in his room for the time being while the teachers attempt to figure out what quirk he was hit with, what with the status of whatever quirk affecting him (and his classmates) being too much of a risk to expose to the rest of the student body of Yuuei.
So after being ushered into his room, Izuku sits and wonders what he can spend his time on while essentially in quarantine. He spends what would’ve been class time catching up on his homework and reviewing the materials his teachers had last given them, but now that he’s done Izuku is lost on what he should do.
It’s just more fun to do things with his classmates.
Izuku ponders what he could spend the next few hours doing when a knock sounds at the door. It’s soft, and a voice follows.
“Deku?”
It’s Ochako. His friend! Outside of his door! The door that he really shouldn’t open.
“Hey!” Izuku responds back eagerly. Too eagerly. “Er– wait, you really shouldn’t be here!”
“...I know. Aizawa–sensei told us what happened. They think you got hit by a quirk?”
Izuku nods before realizing that she can’t, in fact, see him. “Yeah. A fear inducing quirk, or at least that’s their theory.”
He hears Uraraka hum thoughtfully on the other side of the door. Briefly, he wishes he could open it just to see her face. He could use a friendly face right now. Izuku’s desire not to scare her wins out, though, and he keeps the door firmly closed. He feels bad enough about scaring Bakugou, Shinsou, and Todoroki already.
“Could it have happened last night, when we went on that snack run? Oh Deku, I’m so sorry! How could we not have seen you get hit by a quirk?!” Uraraka gasps, horrified.
“It’s not your fault!” Izuku hurries to reassure her. In no way is what happened his friends’ fault, and he needs to make sure they know that. “Don’t place this blame on yourself. It’s– It belongs to whoever did this to me. Never to you.”
Uraraka sniffles on the other side of the door. “Deku…”
“Don’t worry about me, please. Dekiru, right? I can handle this!” Izuku musters up the brightest voice he can, placing his hand against the door. Right now, it’s the closest he can get to his friend.
“Yeah, alright,” Uraraka sniffles again, but this time Izuku can hear a fond uptick in her voice. He smiles at the sound of it. “Hey, wait. You said a fear-inducing quirk, right?”
Izuku tilts his head. Where is she going with this? “W–well, yeah? Everyone who went with us last night has been acting all panicked and afraid of me since this morning. It probably took awhile for the effects to take hold after first contact.”
“But I’m talking to you right now, and I was with you last night. Why aren’t I afraid?”
Oh.
That’s… That’s odd.
“Maybe it’s worn off?” Izuku guesses. It’s a shot in the dark, but he can’t help the hopeful buzz in his chest. Is it really over already?
“Can you test it, maybe? Try opening the door?”
Izuku shouldn’t. He really shouldn’t.
“...yeah, alright.”
The door creaks open and Izuku peers out cautiously. His eyes roam over the hallway before meeting Uraraka’s from behind the door when she–
She shrieks.
Izuku flinches backwards and slams the door shut, a bit harder than he intends to, but he barely notices it over the pounding in his chest and the ringing in his ears from his friend’s screams. Please, he thinks desperately. Make it stop.
“W–wait, Deku!” Uraraka pants from outside the door, rapping her hands against the wood. “I didn’t mean to– I don’t know why–”
“Go away, Uraraka,” Izuku grits out, blinking away the tears that threaten to quickly spill over. “Please.”
“Deku, come on–”
“I said go away. I don’t want to hurt you again.”
Izuku doesn’t wait to hear her response. He crawls into his bed and pulls the covers over his head, waiting for the sound of her knocks to fade.
A single buzz sounds from his phone. Tiredly, he looks to see what it is.
Uraraka ✰
I’m so sorry, Deku.
We’ll find a way to fix this, I promise.
Setting the phone down, Izuku finally lets himself cry.
-
Izuku isn’t sure how much time passes between Uraraka leaving and a new tentative knock at his door. He presses his face further into his pillow and waits for whoever it is to leave, not willing to risk frightening another one of his friends, but another knock comes a few moments later.
“Midoriya, we’ve come to bring you your dinner!”
That’s Iida calling for him. But… “We?”
“We’ve also come to apologize. Can’t forget that part,” Shinsou (?!) adds.
“Open the door already, Deku!” Bakugou grunts, and that voice gets him to actually sit up.
“Just– Just leave it at the door! I’ll get it later!” Izuku tells them. He hopes they’ll listen to him, but he doubts it.
“Midoriya, I will knock this door down. Don’t think I won’t,” Todoroki informs him plainly. Izuku makes a strangled sound of frustration. Don’t they get it? They shouldn’t want to be around him, at least not until after he’s sure the effects of the quirk have passed.
And yet, his friends won’t leave. Izuku isn’t sure whether to be touched or horrified. He supposes they won’t go until he gives them what they want, so he begrudgingly slips out from beneath the covers to open the door.
“Please, guys–” Izuku starts to say before his brain stops working. Uraraka, Iida, Shinsou, Bakugou and Todoroki all stand before him wearing what appear to be… blindfolds? “What… what is this?”
Uraraka answers him first. “When we talked earlier, I realized the quirk had to be visual! I wasn’t scared when I couldn’t see you. See?” She gestures blindly to the group. “We’re all fine!”
Izuku tries to respond, but all that comes out is a formless “wha-heh?”
“I know your jaw’s on the floor, nerd. Pick it up and take the damn food,” Bakugou crosses his arms over his chest and Izuku bursts into tears all over again.
“Oh, here we go. Look what you did, Bakugou,” Shinsou sighs.
“You… You did this all for me? Even af–after everything?”
Todoroki frowns, tilting his head in confusion. “Of course we did. It wasn’t your fault we were afraid. Why would we continue to avoid you?”
“You guys,” Izuku blubbers. He throws himself at them, trying to encircle as many of his friends as possible in his arms. He just about manages it. “I love you!”
His friends hug him right back, some more eagerly than others, and Izuku vibrates in the presence of so many wonderful people. They did this all for him?
“I’m just here to prove I’m not afraid of nothin’! Quit your whining!” Bakugou snaps, but he doesn’t pull away from the hug. Blindfolded as he is, Iida shakes his head disapprovingly.
“Don’t lie, Bakugou. You were just as concerned as the rest of us, if I remember correctly.”
Izuku pulls away just in time to avoid getting blasted to pieces, but it does nothing to tamper the smile on his face.
He really has the best friends in the world.