Chapter Text
Midoriya Inko was proud to be the mother of a quirkless child. Or at least that is what she told Izuku and anyone who commented on his quirk status. She insisted that she loved him unconditionally and would always be there for him. So far she’s kept that promise.
He remembers that day at the doctor's office all those years ago, where one x-ray ruined everything. How was he to become a hero without a quirk? How was he to follow his dream to save people with a smile-- like All Might? How was he to amount to anything with genetics that placed him evolutionary behind 80% of the population? His mother told him to let go of his dream to be a hero; not only because he was quirkless but because he was ill.
Inko was not proud to be the mother of a chronically ill child. Or at least that is what Izuku gathered from the fact that she insisted he hides it at all cost. He does not remember when he started taking the medicine. Just that he must take them every day or he would become very ill. His life depended on it. His mother was rarely stern with him. She didn't really need to be; Izuku was a naturally well-behaved child. She was always very stern about her rule that he always take his meds and never tell anyone that he was ill. As he got older he figured that she didn't want people to think he fell into the stereotype that quirkless people were weak and fragile.
She had no problem sharing his quirk status with others, but not even the Bakugos were supposed to know about his illness. To be fair she should have known that he would have let it slip to the youngest Bakugo sometime in grade school.
He had a rare genetic disorder that mostly existed in quirkless people. An autoimmune disorder that attacks his cerebral and spinal fluid. She never really told him what it was called exactly. She didn’t think he needed the added stress of being able to research it himself. Especially because it was so well managed now. When he was young, before they got it under control with meds, he would apparently have seizures and other neurological symptoms. He had become very very ill with influenza and spent two weeks in the hospital back when he was too young to remember. His immune system was unable to fight the common flu.
Izuku doesn't remember much about his illness. Just that his mother's love and determination to get him help is the reason that it is so well controlled. Even so, with all the fancy medications she is able to get for him from the Good Doctor, the only one that would treat a quirkless person, she still believed him too sick to become a hero.
Imagine her surprise when he gets into UA with a newly manifested quirk that is so powerful it breaks his body in the process. Izuku was going to be a hero!
=
I am here! I am here! I am here!
Izuku rolls over in bed, reaching over to his nightstand to turn off his phone alarm. It didn’t actually wake him up. He had been lying in bed away since 4 am alternating between staring at the ceiling and trying to fall back to sleep. His brain far too excited about his first day at UA. Mind racing with the possibilities of what his first day might hold.
Throwing his comforter off himself, he makes his way over to his uniform hanging on the hook by his closet. He’s not even sleepy despite his lack thereof. He pulls on his brand new uniform and pads across the hall to his bathroom.
After washing his face and brushing his teeth, he looks at himself in the mirror. He can’t believe it. He’s actually wearing a UA uniform. He’s wearing it because he’s getting ready to leave for school. At UA. He is a student at UA! He’s in the class 1-A hero course!
“Izuku! Come down for breakfast,” his mother calls from down the hall in the kitchen. He then realizes that he can smell grilled fish wafting through the apartment. She made me a fancy breakfast. Maybe she’s in a better mood today.
With one last glance in the mirror, he stops by his room for his favorite bright yellow backpack, shoving his beloved notebook into it, and makes his way to the kitchen.
“Izuku, sweetly don’t run in the house. I promise you’re not running late” she chided him lightly with an amused smile on her face. He smiles and apologizes as he slips into his usual chair at the kitchen table.
“I made you a special breakfast to help you fuel up for your first day.” She places a plate of steamed rice and grilled fish in front of him. With a ruffle of his veridian curls, she turns to retrieve a glass of green tea for him.
“Itatakimas” he exclaims with a little bow and digs in. Izuku doesn't get home-cooked breakfast all that often. His mom usually takes the morning shifts at the hospital as a nurse practitioner. She likes to be able to get home in the afternoons to make him dinner. That is also the time that she makes sure he takes his medicine with his meal. One of the side effects is brain fog and they decided early on in his treatment that it would be better not to take them right before class. He had to keep his grades up if he wanted to get into a good high school; hero or otherwise.
After finishing his meal, Izuku rushes to the door to begin putting on his bright red tennis shoes.
“Baby, are you sure you don't want me to drive you? I know you said Katsuki wasn't talking to you right now. I don't want you to have to walk to school by yourself,” his mom makes her way over to him at the door.
His face falls as he is reminded that his acceptance into UA was a bittersweet one. His best friend hadn't talked to him since the entrance exam. “ no. I'm ok mom. It's only one train ride. I don't even have to make a transfer. I'll be fine. I can commute on my own. I won't get lonely I’ll be too busy reading the hero news about All Might’s job at UA, ” he stands up and plasters on a smile for her.
“Ok if you are sure.” she pauses for a moment and glances off contemplatively. She wrings her hands together as she lets out a sigh. “I know you are excited to be training to become a hero,”
And there it is .
I knew she hadn't let it go, she never does.
Face falling yet again. Shoulders dropping. He knew this conversation would come up again before his first day. He almost thought he was simply being pessimistic. His mom not having brought it up in weeks.
“I am so very proud that you have proven yourself. And I'm grateful you finally got your quirk and that you are going to the best school possible to teach you how to control it.” another pause as she reaches down to take his hands in each of her own. “But I am so very worried that your body will simply not be able to handle the strain of heroism. I know that's why Katsuki is upset. He's just worried about you. And I am too. You are still growing and we don't know how the manifestation of your quirk or even how aging will affect your health.”
She looks so sad, her signature tears welling up in her eyes. You’d think after over a decade working at a hospital shed kick that habit, but she still has an affinity for tears where Izuku is involved.
“ Mom, we talked about this,” Izuku all but huffs out. Pulling his hands from her hold. Glancing to the side to avoid looking at her face. He absently rubs his backpack strap between his fingers in an effort to calm his nerves. “ I made it into the hero course. I was medically cleared by Recovery Girl. I have to at least try and do good by this opportunity UA has given me. To be a hero like I’ve always wanted” he tries yet again to stress how important his dream was to him. Going as far as to look her directly in her eyes trying to portray his conviction.
His mom has never understood why Izuku wanted to be a hero so badly. Couldn’t understand why he would risk further exasperating his illness for the sake of saving others on the front lines. He doesn’t blame her; logically understands why she rather Izuku find a nice cushy office job. She even offered to get him classes for coding or quirk analysis, so he could help people without risking his health. In all honesty, he was going to go that route had he not met All might under that bridge all those months ago. He had resigned to the fact that he would have to help others from the sidelines. Thought he would learn to be fulfilled in that line of work. Hell, he thought he'd actually be pretty good at it. But that was never his dream and now he has a powerful quirk he could use to fulfill that dream. He couldn’t squander it just because he might get sicker.
Plus his illness has been well controlled for years. Why are the odds he has a flair-up after all this time?
“I know, but I only worry like this because I love you more than anything in the world. You are my world and I can’t bear for you to get sick again,” she’s crying now. Dabbing away her big crocodile tears with the edge of her pink sweater sleeve.
Izuku pulls her into a tight hug. She grips tightly to him. “I know, and I love you too. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me to get me healthy. I still have to at least try. Give it everything I’ve got. Because that’s what a Heros does,” he pulls back to look her in the face. “ Plus Ultra!“ he exclaims and gives a little fist pump.
“I promise that if it starts significantly harming my health. I’ll reconsider. Okay?” He gives her a small earnest smile.
“Okay, as long as you promise”
“I promise”
=
Oh God, Kachan is really mad at me.
Izuku has never seen this type of quiet cold anger in his best friend before. Kachan is brash and loud and always speaks his mind no matter how abrasive it might be. If he is mad at you, he makes sure that you know it. Izuku was used to Kachan’s loud, explosive anger. To the point that it hardly even worried him anymore. It rolled off his back because he knew that his childhood friend didn't often mean it. Kachan might be short-tempered, but he was logical and got over things quickie. Especially when it concerns Izuku. Even if it might come across to outsiders that Kachan was always angry with him, he hardly ever was. At the very most he got annoyed with Izuku. He just expressed his annoyance a bit more abrasive than most so it could come across as anger.
But Izuku had never seen Kachan this cold with him.
When Uraraka came up to introduce herself to Izuku, Kachan had noticed him enter the doorway. Stopped arguing with, who Izuku now knew was Iida, and looked Izuku right in the face. Kachan turned up his head with a tch and quietly ignored the class until Aizawa- Sensei rolled up in his yellow sleeping bag.
And because the universe just loved to make Izuku’s life harder, he has to walk right by the explosive teen on the way to his desk which happens to be the one right behind Kachan’s. His childhood friend didn't no much as look at him as he quickly shuffled past him.
This is suffocating
=
He broke his finger. He broke his finger and Kachan is yelling at him. He broke his finger and his homeroom teacher is Pro Hero Eraserhead! He broke his finger and he didn't break his arm. He didn't incapacitate himself. He was able to direct One For All into the desired limb and avoid destroying his entire arm. He broke his finger and Aizawa- Sensei looks mildly impressed.
“You bastard! You lier!” Kachan’s muffled screams filter through the material of Aizawa- Sensei’s capture weapon.
“Stop using your damn quirk, I have dry eye,” his teacher hardly struggles against the frantic pulling the blonde does in an effort to reach his target. His childhood best friend. Who, Izuku now realizes, at least appears to have lied to him about his quirk status their entire lives.
Kachan was not at all understanding when Izuku came to school the day after his quirkless diagnosis. He was angry and resentful towards Izuku at first. Mad because he believed that their dreams of being a hero duo were over. He stopped playing with Izuku that day.
But then the bullying started. Some of the other kids decided that Izuku would be a great practice dummy for their shiny new quirks. At first, Kachan laughed along with them as his friend cried his signature tears. Then Izuku looked Kachan right in the eyes and said, “Is this something All Might would do? Hurt innocent people with his quirk? You are not being very heroic Bakugo”
Something clicked in Kachan that day because after that he made it his mission to protect Izuku from anyone who would try and hurt him. Even though he no longer believed Isuku could be a hero, Kachan still wanted to bring him up alongside him at the top of the hero charts as his personal analyst.
This was even more solidified in Kachans mind when Izuku let it slip that he was ill a few years later. Kachan really didn't want Izuku to try to be a quirkless hero after that. Believing him too fragile for front lines work. Not for his quirklessness though. Oddly enough, Kachan never outright used quirklessness as a reason Izuku shouldn't try for heroics. Ir always came back to the illness. To the meds and the possible flair-ups and the risk of hospital stays. If he got really sick he wouldn't even be able to train anyways. Part of Izuku knew it was because Kachan never actually believed that a hero school would let a quirkless kid in the hero course. Kachan didn't feel the need to actively shoot down Izuku’s dreams. Izuku just learned not to bring it up. It would only upset Kachan and he’d be alone again. Izuku was just happy enough to still have his best friend by his side. Even if he didn't believe in his dream.
So imagine Kachans surprise when they both got acceptance letters to class 1-A. Kachan all but begged Izuku to reconsider. Head filled with Antie Inko’s explanations of why it would be life-threatening to do something as physically and mentally strenuous as hero work. Kachan had convinced himself that Izuku becoming a hero was a death sentence in more ways than one.
But that's not why Kachan was so explosively mad now. Gone was the cold quiet anger and resentment for Izuku “unnecessarily” risking his health; replaced with white-hot rage that apparently Izuku has a quirk and somehow his best friend didn't know.
The rage rolling off of his best friend was palpable. The entire class gave the teen a wide birth as he stormed to the locker rooms. Uraraka hung back a bit as Izuku let more distance grom between himself and the blonde.
“You okay? He seems really mad at you. You know him right?” she cautiously asks. Looking a little concerned for Izuku’s safety.
“I thought I said you were dismissed”
“EEP!” both teens jump about a foot in the air and turn to see their homeroom teacher standing right behind them.
“Sorry, we were just about to leave!” Izuku rushes out as he and Uraraka give a bit of a bow.
“I don't know what your relationship with Bakugo is, but I hope it won't be interfering with either of your studies You let me know if he acts out again. Unauthorized quirk use, especially on a classmate, is grounds for expulsion.” he looks almost bored as he explains such a devastating consequence to a stunned Izuku.
“NO, no, no! It's fine! Really! Kachan would never hurt me on purpose! He was just…” Izuku trails off and looks over his teacher's shoulder at nothing in particular. Avoiding his tired onyx eyes.
Uraraka takes this as her cue to leave. “I’ll be at the front of the school, we should walk to the train station together, mkay?” she smiles earnestly at him.
“Oh, I gotta go see Recovery Girl. I don't know how long that will take. I don't want you waiting on me. How about tomorrow?” he gives her an unsure smile. Unused to people wanting to meet up with him at all.
“Oh right, I forgot! No problem, ill see you tomorrow, Deku! Hope you feel better” she gives him a bright smile.
“Have a good day Aizawa- Sensei!” she chirps with a little bow and turns on her heels to head to the locker rooms.
“He really doesn't mean it Aizawa-Sensei. He's just a little mad at me right now. We’ve been best friends since we were babies so he’s never really hurt me. We are just in a bit of a fight right now.” Izuku starts scratching at the crook of his elbow trying to easy the frustration he is feeling. “I guess we have had some kind of miscommunication.” he stars hard at his teachers worn black boots. “ if you could call it that” he mumbles under his breath.
He is really picking at his skin now. Peeling off the old scab that was not too far off from being healed. Calloused fingers gently tap the top of his hand that is taring into his elbow. Startled, Izuku looks up at the dark-haired teacher’s face.
“Even if it is a miscommunication, he shouldn't act out in violence over it. If you really believe he is not a danger to you then I will take your word for it but if he lashes out at you again I will have to suspend him.” His gruff voice sounds genuine somehow and Izuku is a bit taken aback that a teacher is so concerned for him. Teachers are never concerned for Izuku.
“If he is truly your friend he should be willing to talk civilly with you to clear things up, right? It is only logical to use your words first. Especially considering the history you two have”. With that, Aizawa-Sensei turns to walk over to the corner Izuku vaguely remembers seeing All Might hiding behind during the quirk assessment.
“Go change, see Recovery Girl, and head home, Midoriya,” he calls over his shoulder. Slinking off to do who knows what.
What a weird teacher