Chapter Text
When Izuku was three he met his best friend.
His mother had a best friend that he hadn’t met yet, but then they moved to live down the road from them and he finally met them.
He was told to call mom’s best friend Auntie Mitsuki, and her husband Uncle Masaru.
Their kid’s name was Katsuki. He called him Kat.
Kat called him Izzy.
Kat was always energetic and loud. Izuku loved it though.
Izuku was a bit lethargic, quiet, and introverted. He was the opposite of Kat, really.
Somehow though, Kat took a liking to him too.
The first time they met they went to a park near their homes. Kat had seen him, clinging to his mother, hiding behind her and ran up to him. He had grabbed his hand and dragged him over to the swingset.
From that day onward, it was Izzy and Kat.
Their moms kept them close, then sent them to the same kindergarten. It didn’t take long for the other kids to pick on Izuku. They pushed him over and pulled his hair, he hated his hair, it was too long.
Kat always came to his rescue when he could though. Kat would shove them away or pull their hair, then help him.
He loved Kat.
A thing that the world around them decided was important were quirks. Which were like superpowers that most people had, instead of that one special character in a story.
He thought they were cool, but didn’t care as much as everyone else seemed to. He thought, if he wasn’t weird before, then that is what made him weird. Others looked at him funny when he just shrugged when they asked about what quirk he’d want, if he was excited or not.
That’s ok though. There’s nothing wrong with being weird, Kat had told him before. He believes Kat.
Soon the other kids started turning four and the excitement about quirks grew. People usually started getting quirks around the age of four. They can come early or late or even from birth, but the majority of people get their quirks around the age of four. Superpowered children didn’t sound good to Izuku, even at the age of four he had an odd feeling about it.
Kat was the first to get his quirk. It was pretty, Izuku thought back then. His quirk was Explosion, but at the time it was more like sparks.
Everyone praised him on his quirk, telling him he would be an awesome hero but he always just scoffed and walked back to Izuku. He didn’t tend to care for most people's opinions. He always said that Izuku’s opinion was worth more than theirs. He said that Izuku, Auntie Mitsuki, Uncle Masaru, and Moms opinions were the only ones that mattered.
Izuku didn’t have a Dad, he had died before he was born is what he was told. That was when he learned that dying meant that a person would go to sleep and could never wake up. That a person would go away and never come back to you, because they can’t. Izuku likes to think that if he did have a Dad, Kat would like him too and value his opinion.
Kat had gotten his quirk while he and Izuku were watching cartoons, something made him angry and suddenly the hand that was in Izuku’s was sparking. Izuku had yelped and Kat had jumped back in freight before looking at his hands that were still sparking and gasping. He called for Auntie and she patched Izuku’s hand up while talking with Kat about his quirk. Izuku wasn’t hurt that bad, the sparks weren’t strong, but it did scar, he thought it was ok though. Kat loved his quirk, but he was upset he had hurt him. Izuku just shrugged and hugged him at the time.
All the kids at kindergarten tried to follow him around, which irritated him, because they only started doing that when he got his quirk. Kat stuck with Izuku.
Soon other kids were getting their quirks. Soon Izuku turned four. Soon the kids with flashier quirks started to pick on the kids with less flashy quirks. Izuku, not having a quirk at all yet, was picked on more than he already was. Kat was still his protector though.
Soon Mom had started getting nervous. She asked every morning he woke up and every day he got home from kindergarten or Kats house, if he had gotten his quirk yet. Izuku would always answer no. Every day she would get more nervous.
Eventually she took him to a quirk doctor. The doctor had creeped him out a bit.
The doctor had taken a few tests and said, “Yeah, she’s quirkless.”
Mom didn’t look happy about that. She had sent him to his room when they got home. She made him eat dinner in his room that night.
The next day they went to Kat's place. They were sent off to play but they weren’t far enough away to not hear Mom sobbing about how he didn’t have a quirk, how she didn’t know what to do with him now. About how he wasn’t good enough and wasn’t what she wanted.
Tears had dripped from Izuku’s eyes at the time and Kat had wrapped his arms around him.
They heard Auntie and Uncle get upset with Mom about what she was doing. They heard them argue and they ran and hid in Kat's room, cuddled close together. Izuku had sobbed. It was the first time that Kat had seen him cry.
He hadn’t thought being quirkless was a bad thing, but his mother clearly did.
Kat told him that he didn’t care though, which after hearing his mother, was a relief.
Kat hugged him until they both fell asleep.
Soon they got to primary school. The kids started to get meaner and the teachers were less caring. They didn’t care when someone in class decided to be mean to Izuku. Soon Izuku learned all of it was because he was quirkless.
Kat protected him when he could, but wasn’t always able to. Sometimes they were put into different classes and it was always worse when they were.
Then they were in middle school and it was awful, Izuku lost all respect he ever had for adults. Not including Auntie and Uncle.
Kat wasn't in the same class as him and the kids tripped and punched him as much as they could and drew on his desk and wrote awful things.
He hadn’t said anything, but the teacher thought it would be funny to put a muzzle on him. The other kids thought it was hilarious. Izuku hated it, but knew it would be worse if he fought it. The muzzle scarred his face.
Kat wasn’t happy when he found out. Neither were Auntie or Uncle, but they knew that if they made a complaint nothing would happen, primary school didn’t do anything about the bullying when they had complained.
Mom didn’t care. She hadn't cared much about him since that doctor's visit. He only upset her if he tried to talk to her. She never tried to do anything about what he went through at school.
Sometimes he got held up at school, unable to get to Kat in time, and he’d be beaten up. He has some small scars from when bullies caught him.
Kat always found him and patched him up, they’d spend those nights in his room, cuddling and watching movies.
One day he noticed his chest wasn’t as flat as usual and he felt upset about it. He had chopped his hair off at the beginning of middle school because he hated the length. He also hated when he was called a girl and people used she/her for him. When he thought about that, he had searched what that meant.
The next day he came out to Kat as trans and told him his pronouns were He/They, and that his name was Izuku.
Kat had hugged him, and Izuku felt very happy when he heard his name said by his best friend. He told Auntie and Uncle and they accepted him too. Mom… wasn’t so supportive though. Not that she ever was about anything.
Then their last year of middle school came.