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“Dekiru! Wait up!” Katsuki called from where he was jumping into his outdoor shoes hastily at his locker and tossing his indoor shoes in the cubby.
Izuku didn’t turn to acknowledge his friend but he did stop walking away and stepped to the side so the crowd of his peers and other students wouldn’t be tempted to plow him over. He held his dark green backpack close to him by the straps, making sure no one would try to use it against him like they did a week ago, and bounced lightly on his toes, glancing down at his black tennis shoes to ignore the whispers coming from his classmates as they passed him.
For all that Izuku did his best not to hate, the other students seemed just fine with trying to test that limit of his. They all seemed to try and find a reason to go out of their way to try and bother Izuku whenever he does anyone closely related to breathing in their direction.
Except Katsuki.
Even though the loud blonde with all his bright-smiling glory was notorious for surrounding himself with people he considered ‘the best of the best,’ he still voluntarily hung out with Izuku and went so far as to spend nearly all of his free time with Izuku. It was weird to notice that Katsuki didn’t pity Izuku or see him as inferior (and Izuku could tell - the other boy, for all his genius, is a terrible liar) and it was even odder to see that Katsuki would regularly ditch the followers he got after his quirk developed as soon as he hit four just to say hi to Izuku.
Izuku Midoriya. The boy who is currently presumed to be Quirkless. All because he was on the brink of his eighth birthday with no signs of a quirk activating even though everyone is well aware that most quirks come in between the ages of four and eight. The boy who still wants to be a hero alongside his friend, even if he doesn’t end up with a fancy quirk like the rest of the population.
The boy who was still considered as the best contender to become a hero-duo with Katuski, according to the other boy.
And it was weird. All of it was. The fact that Katsuki had heard someone calling Izuku ‘Deku’ (a terribly boring nickname his classmates seemed to be proud of) sometime when they were younger and immediately took to calling Izuku ‘Dekiru’ since he thought that was another way to read the kanji in his name and liked it. The fact that Katsuki would only unintentionally insult others when they couldn’t figure out what they were doing wrong and would also laugh with Izuku before actually helping him understand what their English sensei was trying to make them write out. The fact that Katsuki still saw Izuku as an equal, despite their differences.
So obviously Izuku would wait for his bright friend, even though he so badly just wanted to go home and sit down at the dinner table with his mother, talk about their days, snuggle up together to watch some hero movie or show, and then go to bed.
A warm and perpetually clammy hand gripping his shoulder brought Izuku out of his thoughts. He looked up slightly to see Katsuki grinning brightly at him.
“I wanna go to the store across the street so we can get snacks for this weekend! You in?” Katsuki said confidently, digging in his pants pocket to (presumably) find the money he had been given for their outing.
Izuku just nodded in response and started walking out of the school, Katsuki right at his side. As soon as they were on the main street, Katsuki walked closer to Izuku and he let himself sigh once he noticed the boy’s eyes dart around, finding a target.
“Lady with the bright pink hair. Kinda old.” Katsuki said, grinning slightly as he pointed towards the woman in question.
Izuku just hummed approvingly with his choice and tilted his head closer to Katsuki as he thought out loud. “Mental quirk. I’d say it has something to do with eye contact, since she’s using expensive eye-drops right now. It affects her sleep schedule, but it’s not insomnia. What do you think?” Izuku looked over to see a concentrated look on his friend’s face, a slight furrow in his eyebrows.
“I think it’s a subtle quirk, maybe passive or just has no control over it. Something small but useful, like color matching since her nails and hair are the same color.” Katsuki said, nodding a bit to himself.
Izuku let himself slow down their walking pace, already accustomed to this process, and watched Katsuki walk confidently over to the lady they had just been talking about. He watched them talk for a bit before Katsuki beamed towards her and started his trek back to Izuku.
He let himself grin when Katsuki’s bright smile dropped off his face and was replaced with a pout. Katsuki just came up to him and lightly batted at his shoulder before huffing.
“She said her quirk is information intake,” Katsuki grumbled while Izuku slowly let a smirk come to rest on his face. “She reads through stuff at a fast pace basically, so I guess you were right.”
Izuku let himself snicker at the dejected look on Katsuki’s face before he turned his attention towards the crowd, looking for a new target.
They played this game two more times (Izuku winning two out of three - the average for their games like this) before they came to the convenience store. The two boys waltzed in and moved quickly towards the chips and candy aisle. They quickly grabbed each other’s preferred snacks with ease before moving onto the drinks, in the back of the store.
As soon as they did that though, a panicked yelp came from the front of the store.
“I said, put the money in the bag, now.” A low, impatient voice rang out, accompanied by a clicking of metal.
Izuku let himself look over to his friend, only to find him slightly crouched and moving up the aisles to get a look at what was happening. And Izuku didn’t want his friend to do that. To get so close to danger by himself. So, his only logical option was to follow the blonde, also in a crouched position.
They both reached the edge of the shelving and peeked out from behind their impromptu shield. Izuku’s eyes went wide as Katsuki’s narrowed once they saw a big, buff man pointing a gun at the terrified cashier.
He immediately went into analysis mode, noting how the villain seemed to tilt his weapon every time the cashier twitched or moved around, keeping it trained on her chest whenever the man could. He also kept his entire focus on the cashier, which indicated that the man had a quirk that most likely affected his line of sight. Could be an accuracy quirk but Izuku is leaning more towards a sight enhancing quirk. Which means-
“I said now!” The man screamed, stepping closer to the counter separating him and the cashier, who was trembling so badly that some of the money seemed to fall out and on the floor.
Izuku felt himself growing angry at the man. Who does he think he is, trying to focus all of his hurt and issues onto this worker, who probably didn’t even own the store? As Izuku thought more about how much he wanted the man to just be out of his hair and away from Katsuki and this cashier, the shadows seemed to move.
Well, move wasn’t the right word for it. The man’s large shadow was literally surrounding him, swirling around in different levels of darkness and cutting off his eyesight. Maybe even the rest of his senses too.
Izuku stared wide-eyed at the development. He knew he wasn’t wrong about his assessment of the man’s quirk, since he was acting disoriented by the turn of events, so obviously this wasn’t the man’s quirk at work. His eyes darted to Katsuki, who was also watching the scene with mixed emotions.
Izuku knew Katsuki was a rule-follower and would never use his quirk publicly, even if he wanted to stop a villain like right now. He, in all honesty, would’ve rather sent out an alert asking for hero-assistance to the store faster than he would try to resolve the situation on his own.
Almost immediately after Izuku thought that, a newly debuted hero (Shīrudo - he thinks his hero name is) came in and quickly grabbed the man, roughly disarming him before taking him out of the store, presumably for the police to start putting handcuffs on him. The shadows didn’t stop surrounding him during this process, although they weren’t as dark as they used to be.
Izuku felt himself growing tired and crouched even further down as he held his head in his hands. He hadn’t done anything and this whole interaction was enough to make him want to sleep for a week.
“Dekiru.” Katsuki said from somewhere in front of him. Izuku just groaned as he felt a headache coming on and shook his head lightly at the other boy when he tried to remove Izuku’s head from his hands.
Distantly, he could hear the hero calling out to the person using their shadow quirk over the chatter coming from outside, most likely a hero-watching crowd, wanting to see if there was any action going on and asking for them to stop using their quirk now that the situation was under control.
“Zuku,” Katsuki called out again, hands coming to grip Izuku’s wrists. “The shadows are around you too.”
Izuku just lifted his head from his hands, although he did nothing to pull himself from his friend’s grip, and looked around to see that Katsuki was right. The darkness seemed to fall around him. It wasn’t swirling as restlessly as it was around the villain but sluggishly. As if those shadows were content around him. He felt his eyebrows furrow as he looked out beyond the darkness and met his friend’s wide, red eyes.
And then it dawned on him. This could be his quirk. Izuku didn’t know what he was doing but he closed his eyes and turned his hands so he could grip Katsuki’s wrists, since that seemed like the right thing to do.
Izuku let himself think, knowing he was probably mumbling all of this out loud anyway so he didn’t worry about Katsuki not understanding the situation. The shadows only moved when Izuku thought about the man leaving them alone. Maybe it was emotion-based? Izuku let himself think about going over to Katsuki’s house this weekend and the new All Might movie that they were going to watch together. He thought about his mother’s cooking and the dinner he would be enjoying with her once he got back home after this.
Izuku opened his eyes, disappointment filling him once he realized the shadows didn’t move from their position. He just huffed at himself and glared at the ground. He instinctively felt out inside of him to find what was different. He gasped as he felt it; the pulling and tugging that was coming from within him.
With newfound determination, Izuku shut his eyes again and pushed with everything that he could against the pulling. Time seemed stuck in this moment, with Izuku stuck in a limbo of pushing and pulling shadows. Soon enough, a soft gasp came from his side and he blinked his eyes open, finally being able to see the clear face of his friend in front of him.
“Was that?” Katsuki began to ask before he shook his head at himself, obviously coming to the same conclusion that Izuku had.
That was Izuku’s very own quirk. Sure, he knew the statistics but he had also lived his life without one for so long that he didn’t think he’d ever get one. He knew the doctor that diagnosed him when he was younger had been denounced for using outdated practices but he had always thought that there might be some truth to his pinky-toe joint theory.
“Young man!” A voice boomed, sounding confident. Izuku and Katsuki both looked over to see the hero walking over to them, a slight frown in place. “I understand you wanted to help but you are not to be using your quirk without a license! Both of you will need to come with me!”
Izuku frowned as Katsuki scoffed. “Why?” His friend asked, defensive.
“We need you two to do interviews with our detective of course!” He said, overly loud.
Izuku just sent a disbelieving look towards his friend before looking back at the hero. “You want to interview two minors by themselves?” Izuku snorted as Katsuki asked his question, pointedly looking at the hero like he was the stupidest human he had seen today.
The hero just shrugged and beckoned them over, still adamant with getting them to come with him.
Izuku just smiled and said, “I think we’re okay but thanks. We have to get home now.”
The hero obviously didn’t want them to leave but both boys were stubborn in their own right and walked over to the cashier, slightly raising their snacks up and tilting their heads. As if that was a proper way to ask if they could still pay for the food before they left.
To their surprise and pleasure, the cashier just nodded and started scanning the items, as if this was a normal Tuesday afternoon for them. For all Izuku knew, it could be. Katsuki dug out the money he had been given as the cashier kindly told them the total. He placed his money in the tray as Izuku walked around to grab their two bags of snacks and candies, mildly disappointed that they didn’t grab any drinks.
And then Katsuki and Izuku waltzed out the front door, ignoring the hero's insistent cries for them to come back and speak with the detective. They ducked and weaved throughout the crowd, grinning to each other when the crowd took that moment to surge forward and start pestering the new hero, not giving him any breathing room.
All the way home, the two boys were talking excitedly about Izuku’s quirk. What kind of limitations would he have, how was it activated, did he subconsciously pull on the shadows without even realizing it, can he move shadows or manipulate them as well. Any and all discussions and questions that the two boys could’ve had were written down in Izuku’s old notebook as they talked about what they’d been testing this weekend.
Since Katsuki had a forest in the back of his yard, it was technically considered private property and they could enjoy their time practicing their quirks in peace. It excited Izuku to be able to have a quirk of his own to practice, rather than handing over his notes and ideas to Katsuki and forcing the other boy through a million and one different tests.
And both boys excitedly broke the news to Inko, with Izuku pulling a shadow around him to prove it while his mother cried and hugged the life out of the both of them. She practically lit up when Izuku told her about the tugging sensation that followed his quirk and cried even harder when he hesitantly suggested that he got a more specified telekinesis quirk, just like her.
During the following days, Izuku was taken to a different doctor’s office and went through the motions of dealing with the quirk registration on top of quirk counseling paperwork with his mother. They were both overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things they needed to do, all because of his late bloomer status. Apparently, late bloomers deal with nearly twice the amount of counseling sessions and control classes since they tend to cause more…destructive accidents.
He completely ignored his classmates and teachers once he got back to school, not bothering to tell anyone about his quirk status other than the principal and his secretary. And obviously Katsuki knew but the other boy also thought it would be amusing to watch the class never understand how much power actually belonged to Izuku.
Because the quirk doctor had named his quirk something called Umbrakinesis. Her explanation plus their own research on top of experimenting with the quirk had led them to the conclusion that he could manipulate and control both darkness and shadows. When he concentrated for long enough, he could even make the shadows a physical barrier, completely unmovable unless someone (ahem Katsuki ahem) had a light based quirk, which could weaken the physical strength of his shadows and affect how dark they would be.
The more Izuku thought about it, the more it fit. His friend had always been bright and confident which was reflected through the fascinating explosions that came from the palms of his hands. And Izuku had always been the more jaded one, the one that thrived with long research projects when he could work the night away.
Which meant he wasn’t confused about the stark difference with their quirks.
Katsuki was a little more than upset though.
“But how will we be a hero duo when our quirks bring out our weaknesses?” His friend grumbled to himself.
Izuku just rolled his eyes at the dramatics and turned his notebook so his friend could read it. “We need to think about this logically, Kats. You can work in front of everyone and defeat big villains while I work at night to defeat villains and save people.”
Katsuki furrowed his eyebrows and grunted, looking exceptionally disgruntled for an eight year old. “But we wouldn’t work together.”
Izuku let himself sigh, just so he wouldn’t laugh at his friend’s dramatics. “That’s very true but think of it this way; Now we can both be number one heroes. I’ll be the night number one hero and you’ll be the day number one hero.”
Katsuki hummed to himself before he looked Izuku up and down. “Okay, deal. But you’re going to need to come over to my house so we can train together. Ma won’t let me get weights yet but I think I’ll be able to get some for my next birthday! And by the time we enter UA, we’ll be ready to crush any extra that tries to compete with us!”
Izuku huffed out a laugh and grinned a bit, excited with the idea of becoming a strong hero right alongside Katsuki.
It sounded like a great time.
OMAKE: First Day At UA ft. One (1) Aizawa Shouta
“Hurry up, Nerd!”
Izuku sighed and frustratingly groaned at the same time as he flew around his room and stuffed everything he could possibly need inside his dark green book bag. “Coming!” He shouted back, only to placate his bright idiot for a second.
Quickly enough, Izuku finished jumping into his dress pants and threw his tie around his neck, not bothering with the damned thing until he could get Kats to take care of it for him. He stumbled out of his bedroom and flicked his wrist, prompting a few shadows to close his bedroom door as he worked his zipper up. This was so not the day for his pants to be uncooperative with him.
Still hopping, Izuku heard Kats sigh and pouted as he looked up from his point of struggle. He ignored his mother’s laughter and continued to give Kats puppy eyes until he just grumbled to himself, wiped his palms on his blazer and walked over so he could help Izuku out. Once Kats was focused on his task, Izuku just grinned and winked towards his mother, who gasped and chuckled as she made her way back in the kitchen.
Of course, his Kats wasn’t stupid and therefore decided he was done trying to help Izuku since he knew what Inko’s reaction meant. Izuku just pouted, knowing he wouldn’t get back in Katsuki’s good graces soon enough for his tie to be tied correctly.
Making their way into the kitchen, Izuku gave his mother a goodbye kiss and waited as Kats did the same, let her fuss over their uniforms and proudly wish them a ten minutes long goodbye (apparently Kats won their bet by forty-five seconds and it seemed Izuku owed him a date - his mother took longer than he expected to wish them well - something he’ll remember for next time) and then walked out the door and towards the train station.
Both boys still played their analyzing game, though they didn’t have enough time to stop and ask their subjects of temporary interest about their quirks and whatnot. Izuku had just enough time to win over Kat’s heart once again by bringing him a water and a protein bar as a quick brunch, since Izuku bet that they would have to do something physical since they made it into the Heroics course and had no time to slouch off. And because of that, Izuku got to walk into class 1-A with a beautifully tied tie resting around his neck.
Izuku pointedly ignored the fact that Kats opted to forego his tie this morning and slouched his pants. If he wanted to play the ‘bad boy/delinquent’ role once again, Izuku won’t stop him (he might tease him a bit though).
They weren’t the first ones in the classroom. One boy sat in the far corner staring out the windows, half of his hair white and the other half red. A girl sat next to him, looking down at a book (hopefully her own) and glanced up only to smile shyly at them before going back to her reading. A girl with headphone jacks and a boy with a black bolt in his hair were teasing each other about something that seemed to have happened a few weeks ago.
Kats bumped Izuku’s shoulder to knock him out of his musings and he hummed gratefully as he walked towards their desks. Thankfully, it seemed as though they were getting their seat numbers based on their last names, which meant Izuku would get to sit right behind Kats once again.
Like usual, Izuku stuffed his book bag underneath his desk and sat with his arms crossed and head resting on his left elbow. All the while, Kats plopped into his seat, crossed his feet and propped them up on his desk while he leaned his head back to drop the back of his head on Izuku’s right elbow.
They enjoyed approximately 10 seconds of quiet time together before a loud voice startled them out of their mutual day-dreaming session.
“Get your feet off of your desk and show this academy some respect at once!”
Izuku buried his head into his elbow and groaned as Kats huffed and cracked his eyes open to look at whoever decided to disturb them. “Eh? Why do you feel the need to scream right now? It’s early and some people are trying to have a quiet morning.”
The other voice spluttered and Izuku bemoaned his ability to rest before school, since that seems to have been taken away from him now. “I just - You can’t - Fine. Let’s start over. My name is Iida Tenya, from Somei Private Academy! Pleased to meet you!”
Izuku snorted to himself and felt Kats turn his head to address him. “Hey, Dekiru? Somei is that rich-kid school, right? Where did that one stuck-up elitist come from? Was it Somei as well?”
Izuku hummed to himself and knocked his head back and forth as he thought about it. “I think so.” Izuku lifted his head and almost snickered at the offended expression marring the other boy's face right then. He looked the other boy (was it Iida?) up and down before dropping his head back onto his elbow and nodded. “Yeah, this guy had the same posture and everything. Must be their ‘thing’ yah know?”
Izuku listened to Katsuki hum to himself and agree with him as Izuku buried his face back into his elbow and ignoring whatever Iida was yelling about now. Katsuki let out an exaggerated sigh and started tapping his foot at one point, most likely holding himself back since he knew the teacher was due any minute now. And if there was one thing Katsuki would always value, it would be time. He does not mess around when someone gives him a specific time to be somewhere and they aren't there either.
Izuku let himself tug at his fingers as he let his forehead rest on his cool desk, sighing with pleasure. He really hopes he doesn’t have to deal with a stupid teacher and a smart-mouth Katsuki again this year. He could only hold in so many laughs before he was bound to chuckle in the face of his teacher.
“IT’S YOU!” A girl screamed and Izuku cringed at the sound. He really hopes people can meet each other without feeling the need to scream out who they know. Suddenly, Katsuki tensed and a second later, someone was tapping Izuku’s shoulder.
…Izuku is going to figure out how to melt into the shadows one of these days, he can promise that.
Sighing, Izuku lifted his head and squinted his eyes, blinking away the bright spots dancing in his vision. This is the reason he hates resting at school; his eyes never enjoy the transitions he puts them through. Once the blob of a person started forming into a girl with a brown bob and a permanent blush, Izuku tilted his head a bit, trying to figure out where he knew her from.
“Hello?” He questioned, looking at the girl intensely. She wasn’t ringing too many bells but Izuku has always been terrible with names unless he could manage to figure out Katsuki’s nickname for them.
“Hey!” The girl cheered, not at all put-off by the ‘please let me sleep until I’m dead’ aura he was putting out. How wonderful. “I just realized, you’re the guy that saved me, right? The guy that defeated the zero pointer with some black thing?”
Ohhhh. Now he remembers her. She had been trapped underneath some rubble so Izuku solidified a few shadows and shot them towards the Zero Pointer’s foot, cutting it off and letting it bury itself into the side of a building, two blocks away from where the girl and Izuku were. Once that was over, he lifted her out from the rubble, dropped her off at Recovery Girl’s nurse station and stumbled back towards the locker bay area where he knew Kats would be waiting for him.
“That would be me I suppose. Nice to see you again.” Izuku said. He kicked the back of Katsuki’s chair lightly when he felt the boy try to suppress a chuckle. Izuku is painfully aware that he doesn’t have the best social skills in the world. He doesn’t need to be reminded of that every damn time.
“Well, I’m Uraraka Ochako!” She said with a bright grin. “It’s great to properly meet you!”
Izuku went to answer her (and finally give her his freaking name) when a deep voice from over by the doorway announced, “If you’re all here to make friends then I suggest you find another career.”
Everyone quieted down and looked around, trying to find where the person was speaking from. Apprehensively, Izuku looked up and breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed nothing was above him from inside the vents. He would’ve had a heart attack if that was the case.
Katsuki shot up and sat at his desk like a normal person, prompting Izuku to do the same. Once he did, he could finally see what made Kats so weirded out; a bright yellow… thing was inching across the floor towards the teacher’s podium as the class watched it.
Much quicker than Izuku would’ve expected, the thing stood up from behind the podium and revealed its face. It took out a jelly pouch, opened it, drank the whole thing in one go, sighed heavily like it couldn’t believe its position in life and then zipped itself down.
…Wait a damn minute.
Izuku gaped in horror as the giant caterpillar- yellow demon thing unzipped itself from its gaudy confines and revealed themselves to be a…man?
“It took you all eight seconds to calm down and shut up. That will not be acceptable if you all want to become heroes.” The man? sighed again and looked around the room as he dug a hand into his sleeping bag and pulled out some gym uniforms. “I am Aizawa Shouta, your homeroom teacher for the year. Change into these and meet me in the field outside in ten minutes. Hurry up.”
The guy that was bothering Izuku and Katsuki earlier seemed to want to say someone but shut his mouth as soon as Aizawa-sensei flashed his eyes red and stalked out the door, leaving them to fend for themselves.
He felt a bit…off when Aizawa-sensei’s eyes flashed red and glared in their direction. Like he had lost something? No, no. It was more disorienting than that. More like he had lost the ability to do something. As if he couldn’t play with the shadows or the darkness if he tried.
As if he had just been rendered essentially…Quirkless…
“ Holy fuck.” Izuku whispered, putting all of his feelings behind that one sentence.
Kats looked at him weird and shook his arm violently. Izuku just gaped some more and started glancing between Kats and the door that their new homeroom teacher just strutted out of.
“What’s going on nerd?” Kats asked with narrowed eyes. “It better be important or I’m going to drag you for trying to waste our time on the first day.”
Izuku just opened and closed his mouth a few times before swallowing and looking at Kats again. “ That was - holy shit - I think that was the Eraserhead, Kats.”
Izuku hardly registered Kats mouth falling open as well and glanced back towards the door, feeling a terrible sense of foreboding overcome him as his classmates scurried around them, hastily grabbing gym uniforms and racing out the door.
This was going to be one hell of a year.