Chapter Text
Izuku was having a pretty shitty day, if he would say so himself.
It started out alright, his mother coming in and waking him up to go to school about an hour too early, since she leaves for work before he leaves for school, leaving him some time to refine some of his analysis in one of his notebooks about this cool hero that fought mainly Quirkless called… 'Eraserhead,' he thinks it was.
Personally, Izuku thinks ‘Blank Stare’ would have been a better hero name, but who is he to judge? His nickname means useless.
Not that he'd ever take a notebook on Underground heroes to school. They're underground for a reason.
Granted, getting woken up at six in the morning isn't his favourite thing to do, but it could have been worse.
He could have been woken up by explosions. He's never fallen asleep in class since that happened.
He honestly thinks he jinxed himself with the decent morning. It got a lot worse quite quickly.
After getting told to jump off a roof (thanks, Kacchan..), almost getting killed by a person made of sludge (who knew suffocation was such a bad way to go?), getting his dreams crushed (even All Might thinks he's useless..), and saving the person who told him to kill himself all in the same day? (from the sludge villain when nobody else was helping. Couldn't they see that Kacchan couldn't breathe? Didn't they know how much that hurt?! All it took was a book! A book and the villain was stopped! And they thought
he
was the useless one..)
Yeah, Izuku isn't having a good day anymore.
He's not sure he's had a truly good day in years, now that he's thinking about it.
And isn't that concerning? He's only in his last year of middle school! Shouldn't he be out, doing stuff with his friends?
Not like anybody has tried to be his friend since he was diagnosed...
But it's fine! He has his notebooks and his mother to keep him company!
He ignores the voice in his head screaming for a friend. They don’t even have to be a good one. Just somebody new to talk to. He loves his mom, truly, but he can tell what she's about to say or do before even she does.
Heaving a sigh, Izuku gets a good stretch in before pulling his chair up closer to his desk, bound and determined to find anything and everything on this new-to-him Underground hero he can find.
I should learn to hack.
Startled out of the rest of his thoughts by that one, Izuku takes a deep breath, holding it in for four seconds, before letting it out.
No, Izuku. That’s illegal, and then you really can’t be a hero.. not that you’ve had much luck so far.
He shakes his head, dispelling the thought for now. Now, to get to analyzing, he’s waited all day for this.
—-
Izuku wakes up to a horrible crick in his neck. He guesses that’s what he gets for falling asleep at his desk. One of the only good things about being Quirkless was that his joints could pop. For some reason, the Quirked couldn’t do that, they lost the ability in evolution.
(They also lost the ability to produce adrenaline..)
Sucks to be them, Izuku has heard his classmates complain that their neck, back, or fingers hurt in a way that would be completely cured if they could pop. They might have gained superpowers, but they lost the ability to pop their joints.
(And produce adrenaline.. did the Quirk gene take over..?)
Izuku doesn’t think that’s a very fair trade
(not at all, the adrenaline is too precious to him)
, but there’s nothing he can do about it.
(He doesn’t think he wants to do anything about it, anyways..)
Tilting his head and pulling slightly, Izuku feels his neck pop, and the crick all but disappears. Almost melting into his chair, Izuku takes a deep breath in, then releases it slowly. It’s a good way to calm down, in his opinion.
“Izuku! Dinner!”
Huffing in fond annoyance, Izuku stands upright, finally getting a full-body stretch before walking to the living room on quiet feet, too quiet for a normal person. He ends up sneaking up on his mom, who thankfully didn’t do anything other than jump slightly.
“Oh, Izuku, you scared me! I didn’t expect you to already be here,” Inko Midoriya said, smiling slightly. Izuku knows that’s a lie, and that she knew he would come immediately but didn’t want to make him feel bad for being so quiet. It’s appreciated, but unnecessary. Even so, he gives a meek smile as an apology, along with a tight hug.
After dinner, Izuku helps his mom wash up, even with her insisting that she can do it alone. He likes to feel useful, however, so he gives the excuse that they can do it faster when they do it together. It isn’t a lie, so Inko doesn’t think anything of it. Izuku is quietly grateful for that.
..He can’t sleep. No matter what he tries, Izuku can’t manage to fall asleep. It’s two in the morning, so he gives up trying to fall asleep and sits upright, his legs dangling off the side of his bed. As .. useful as being Quirkless is.. he hates insomnia. Quirked people can get it, too, but it’s significantly more uncommon. Slowly getting up to make sure the floorboards don’t creak, Izuku walks over to his desk, and, more importantly, his computer. He sits down in his chair and pulls up his search engine.. he just needs to check something.
Izuku pulls back from his computer, eyes glazed over. He.. can’t be a vigilante. Legally, at least. The laws specifically state that vigilantism is using one’s Quirk to do a hero’s job without a license. And, well, Izuku doesn’t have a Quirk. What he does have, however, is a determination to help people, a drive that not very many people have that he’s met.
Now all he needs to do is figure out how to convince his mom to get him into.. something. It shouldn’t be too hard. He pushes back from the desk and goes to lie down.
Izuku goes to sleep, already planning how to convince his mom as quickly as possible.