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Izuku’s never gone to a mall with friends before. Mostly because he didn’t really have any friends who would want to do that. Or any friends, period, really.
So when Ashido had suggested they go to a mall as a group, he had been understandably excited.
There were scenarios running through his head, brief flashes of expectations; How he would browse the clothing store with Ashido, or visit a stationery shop with Iida, check out the hero merchandise with Tsuyu, maybe even go have some soba with Uraraka…
He hadn’t been expecting them all to split right after entering the mall. Was that how all the mall trips went? Maybe it was; Izuku was hardly an expert. Still, he was rather disappointed.
When he felt a hand sneaking around his neck, he assumed it was one of his friends coming back to stay with him.
Jumping off of that assumption, Izuku turned around, hugging the person tightly.
(They were tall. And probably a boy. Was this Iida?)
“I’m so glad you came back,” he said, before grabbing his classmate's arm and dragging him towards the closest shop that looked interesting. “Come on, I wanna get a new notebook!”
It was a bit weird that the other person didn’t say anything yet, but Izuku was not going to say that and make them realize that no, they didn’t really want to be there with him.
So he kept chattering, trying to not let the other person get a word in edgewise. If they could talk, they might tell him to shut up.
Izuku just wanted to pretend his friends wanted to be at the mall with him for a little while.
This stance was why, when he finally looked up at his classmate some fifteen minutes later, he found out that it wasn’t any of his classmates.
It was an almost-stranger whom Izuku had only seen once before. When he was leading an attack against his class at the USJ.
His face paling rapidly, Izuku froze, staring at Shigaraki.
The villain was standing next to him, one hand scratching at his neck lazily, the other -- the one which Izuku linked their elbows through -- stuck into the pocket of his hoodie.
Oh god, Izuku had hugged a villain.
“You were saying about the different binding types?” Shigaraki prompted.
Izuku very quickly decided he didn’t really care if Shigaraki was a villain. He didn’t hurt anyone at the mall yet, and as long as Izuku kept him occupied, he couldn’t hurt anyone outside of the mall, either.
And he listened to Izuku’s rambling.
Izuku happily continued his impromptu lecture.
***
He took Shigaraki with him through almost all the shops -- he skipped the ones with obnoxious hero merch displays, just to be careful -- and eventually, they ended up at the food court, ice cream in hands.
Izuku continued talking about everything and anything. Shigaraki would occasionally ask a question -- nothing about heroes or UA, nothing Izuku would feel conflicted about answering -- and Izuku was genuinely enjoying himself.
But all good things had to come to an end. This one was no different.
“Hey, Dek- IS THAT THE USJ VILLAIN?” Came the voice of one Uraraka Ochako, approaching them from the side.
Shigaraki tensed next to him.
“Nope!” Izuku laughed nervously. “He looks kind of similar but no, that’s my-” She wouldn’t believe a sibling, Izuku already told her he was an only child. “-my cousin. Shi-mura. Shimura.”
“Shimura Tenko,” Shigaraki corroborated far too easily, raiding his hand in greeting and altogether making a very convincing show of pretending he didn’t know who Uraraka was.
Then again, did they really see each other back at the USJ? Izuku couldn’t remember.
“Ah…” Uraraka trailed off. “You know, I just remembered I forgot to buy… Something. See you in a while, Deku!”
She left rather quickly. Izuku sighed, swirling his spoon around in the remains of his ice cream.
“I think she might try to call someone,” he said, finally unlinking his elbow from Shigaraki’s. “Might be safer if you left now.”
“Hm,” Shigaraki didn’t move an inch, focused entirely on his own bowl of ice cream. “In a minute. I’m pretty sure there’s a chocolate chip somewhere in this bit.”
Izuku snorted. Priorities.
Shigaraki hurt a lot of people back at the USJ, but... this version Shigaraki was a dork who cared more about video games than anything else, to the point where he spent solid ten minutes in the Game Stop ranting about the mechanics changes between two versions of a game and selling it so well, at least three people bought a copy as they passed by, Izuku included.
He couldn’t really understand. Were both of those sides the real Shigaraki? Was one just a mask? If so, which one?
“No, but seriously,” Izuku nudged him with his elbow. “If you get caught, we won’t be able to play that Moreright game you got me to buy.”
“I wouldn’t get caught,” Shigaraki sniffed, nose in the air.
“...If you hurt anyone in the process of not getting caught, I wouldn’t play it with you on a principle.”
Shigaraki clutched his bowl, turning it to dust in an instant -- thankfully, it was a single use paper one, and not a glass one they would need to replace -- carefully avoiding the bits of ice cream which survived it.
“Fine, I’m going, I’m going,” he said, getting up. Izuku followed suit, wanting to leave the food court. “You have my number, call me when you’re free to play.”
“Yup!” He nodded.
Shigaraki paused briefly at the gate separating the tables from the main walkway. “That thing you said. About not playing if I hurt people. …Is it any people, or…”
“Absolutely,” Izuku looked up at him, face serious. “Like, of course genuine accidents or self-defense don’t count, but if I know you’ve hurt someone for fun or something, I’m not playing.”
He was done being a doormat to people he considered friends (cough Kacchan cough) and setting hard boundaries with a villain seemed like a decent start.
….Oh god what was he doing?
Shigaraki nodded, seeming deep in thought. “See ya, Midoriya.” He called, walking away leisurely.
“See ya,” Izuku called back.
…Well, so that was the first friend he made which didn’t go to the same school as Izuku. What even was his life?