Chapter Text
There’s a lot of things Izuku isn’t, he’s known that from the moment he exited that doctors office. When you’re quirkless, you learn quickly how to hold your tongue, keep your head down, and walk away with any dignity you can spare.
Maybe that made him weak, maybe that made him spineless, but he’s alive. There’s not a lot you can do against real life super humans; tenacity is your best friend. You‘ll need a lot of that when you’re a student at Aldera Junior High.
So when Izuku gets pushed into the wall with rough hands he doesn’t say a word.
It’s usual for him, the hallways are thin and his presence might as well be as demanding as a wet floor sign, but the bricks are hard and the sudden movement makes his head spin.
“My bad, Midoriya, I gotta run!” and it’s not malicious, he’s a nice guy, but Izuku can’t help the contempt that pools into his gaze and the way he grips the straps of his big yellow backpack. Nobody else is getting tossed around like this and he knows it, they know it, the teachers know it, his mom knows it, but what can be done.
Nobody cares about the quirkless kid.
—-
This stupid book just won’t fit in his bag. He hates how the information is divided, it’d be so much more efficient to just split the book into units instead of wasting time making hardback copies.
“Let me handle that for ya’” Comes a sneering voice from the door
Izuku determinedly keeps his gaze fixed on the book. maybe if he turns it diagonally? or maybe he can just try and carry it by his side.
“I said” Kacchan drawls, venom seeping into his voice, “Let me handle it.”
Heat rises to his cheeks, biting his lip, “I- I got it, Kacchan, it’s oka-“
A hand slams on top of the textbook, crunching all his loose papers and supplies. Izuku screwed his face into a nasty grimace, wincing at the state of his analysis notebook wedged between it and the rough canvas.
“There, it fits.” the blonde announced, looking to one of his lackeys he brought along for approval, “You should thank me, I don’t know what you’d do without me”
There’s a bout of silence, Kacchan takes a few steps closer, “Don’t ignore me.”
“Y’think you’re better than us? always muttering like you know something we don’t.” He’s hovering around him like a vulture, waiting for him to slip up. “We’re all just little ants below the mighty Deku, right?”
“You-“ Izuku’s voice comes out high and strained, “Y-You know that’s not true” he tries to pry out the notebook from under the textbook when Kacchan suddenly claps him on the shoulder roughly.
He tries not to flinch but the effort is in vain.
“If y’feel like that, don’t hide it! i’m sure everyone would love to follow the quirkless kid from Shizuoka around, and that’s what you want too, right?”
He’s just trying to rile him up, Izuku knows that. He wants to disappear into the floorboards but Kacchan just won’t let him; he’s backed into a corner and he can’t leave until he’s allowed to. It’s humiliating.
“Hell, why not try it, see how fast it takes for someone to pound you into the concrete”
And he’s heard this speech a million times, Kacchan’s animosity has already been well established; but something inside Izuku feels shifted today. He stares down at his crumpled papers and how his bag is stained with dirt and the inside is covered with dust from all the ways he’s been terrorised by the other kids and it makes all of Izuku’s bones feel out of place. There’s a pounding in his ears and his face is warm and he wants to leave but he can’t.
And when he looks up to see Kacchan smiling down at him there’s nothing rational inside of him anymore.
Izuku punches Bakugou.
He punches him.
Izuku tackles him to the floor, grabbing his wrist and punches him in the face. To his benefit Bakugou’s surprise gave him a second of leverage before he’s punched back and it hurts but he can’t bring himself to care.
There’s a yelp from somewhere in the classroom and he can vaguely hear rapid footsteps descending down the hallway.
There’s tears streaming down his face as he pulls at that stupid hair and shoves at his face, and he’s pushing Izuku off but he’s such a tornado of flailing punches and kicks that it’s hard to keep him away. He gets kicked harshly into one of the desks, his arms and legs getting entangled in the metal and sending his head spinning, Bakugou sends it away and punches him again in the face
He scratches at his face with his bitten nails and desperately claws at him trying not to get pinned down, somewhere deep, deep down inside of Izuku he wants to tear him apart. Bakugou steps on his wrist and he hisses, rolling over to get the weight off, he screams and just starts wailing on him.
“Fuck you! Fuck you!!” he throws a chair blindly, it slides across the floor creating big banging sounds, “I fucking hate you!” he tears at his own blazer, then face and hair as that proves ineffective.
And he doesn’t mean it but with the amount of white-hot anger coursing through him he might as well.
Bakugou punches him in the gut, sending him toppling over as an explosion goes off right by his head. The ringing in his ear sends him reeling and he staggers bleary eyed towards the humanoid shape in front of him. He only grabs onto his collar before an administrator comes in and pulls them apart. Izuku can vaguely hear shouting before he promptly passes out.