Chapter Text
Izuku did not look like the common kids, even in a world with all kinds of quirks and mutations, there were very few people with such a…different appearance. To start, he was always a big kid, even as a baby. July 15th was the day a very unique baby came into the world, poor Inko Midoriya had to push this absolute unit of a child for 12 hours straight, and when she finally saw her kid for the first time, all that she could think about was how adorable and precious her baby boy was, despite the doctors’ uneasy glances.
It wasn't unheard of for a kid to be born with a mutation, hell, half of the world population had some kind of quirk that came with a physical altercation, but it wasn't every day that a kid was born looking like their face was made out of shadows with two big round eyes, and to top it off not even crying. To say it was hard examining Izuku's face was an understatement, because he looked like he had no mouth, not until mother and son were embraced for the first time and the baby opened a ginormous mouth and made a sound that could only be described as breathing through a radio.
Besides all the awkwardness with the dad and medical staff, Izuku arrived healthy, and Inko was over the moon with her firstborn despite being exhausted after popping out a jumbo sized kid for twelve hours straight with no c-section. Some people are really crazy. Anyone hearing about Izuku's birth tale would feel immense sympathy towards his mother.
Inko's best friend for life, Mitsuki Bakugou, was there to greet her favorite girlie and new niece, after all, girls supporting girls, am I right? Even though she already had her firstborn to look after, she couldn't miss being one of the first people to see little Izuku. She was quite shocked to see him through the nursery's glasses, but kinda relieved that there wouldn't be any possibility of mistaking that child for another, and after seeing how happy Inko was, Mitsuki felt the same warmth of seeing her little one for the first time too, even if it was only three months ago.
Katsuki and Izuku were raised together, practically attached by the hips, after all, their mothers’ were best friends. Little Izuku was very different from other kids, he was always the tallest amongst them, and also the kindest one, though most kids wouldn't know that at a first glance since their first response was to scream and run away, but that wasn't a problem for Katsuki, or Kacchan, as Izuku called him on his journals, because the explosive one didn't care about appearances, he only wanted to play with his best friend, ride on his back to enjoy the view from above, and talk about heroes. The extras could cry him a river for all he cares, Zuku was the centre of his world, and so was Kacchan to his world, and even as kids, Katsuki would not hesitate to defend his friend from mean kids. If others were mean, he was going to be meaner, after all, he was the best in everything. He felt the need to protect his friend from the world, he knew it would be hard for Izuku, even a kid could see that being different wasn't easy, especially after witnessing Zuku's parents argue while he was over to play, and that ending in Hisashi Midoriya saying:
“I can't understand how you think of that child as normal!”
“Of course he is normal! Izuku is your kid too! Why do you speak so ill of your own son?!”
“Are you even sure he is MY son??? I don't have any freaks like that in my family, and as long as I know, neither does yours!”
“How DARE you imply something like that! I can't believe you called our son a freak! He is just a child! Our child!!!”
“He IS a freak and he is NOT my son- ah you know what? I'm done with all of this bullcrap…”
“LANGUAGE! What do you even mean ‘done’?!”
“Done means DONE, Inko. I am leaving whether you like it or not, you can lie all you want, but we both know how that kid will turn out. He gives me the creeps.”
“YEAH YOU'RE LEAVING OKAY, PACK YOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW BECAUSE NO ONE SPEAKS OF MY BABY LIKE THAT!!!”
The rest of this disaster ended up in Auntie Inko crying while that bastard of a man left without a single look of remorse in his face. Izuku and Katsuki were left speechless, the adults had forgotten that there were children in the house. Poor Inko was mortified seeing that the two had witnessed such a scene, all she could do was hug them and cry while apologising for making them see such an ugly argument, reinforcing that none of what Hisashi had said was true, and that she loved them no matter what, even though Katsuki was just caught up in the middle of the shooting. Explaining the situation to Mitsuki and Masaru was hard for her, but the couple was nothing but supportive for Inko and furious with Hisashi, that incident only brought them all closer since now Inko was a single mother of a mutant kid. The children didn't get the whole situation, it was so confusing, was Zuku's dad gone? To where? Is it even possible for a kid to not have a dad? Were all questions going through young Katsuki's mind, and when he looked at Izuku for answers, that was the first time he couldn't understand what the boy was thinking, he was still as a stone, only moving along with Kats, not making any gesture, not looking at anything in particular, just…a void. If things were hard to understand for Kacchan, imagine how Zuku's head was. How do you even process all the feelings that come with your dad leaving when you're just 5 years old? All the things he said before that, what did half of these things even mean? How could his dad not be his dad? Didn't he see they had the same freckles and puffy hair? Oh poor kids, too young to get a grasp of the complexities of life while in the middle of family chaos. At first it was really hard to adapt to this new lifestyle, but the Midoriyas were resilient and they had full support from the Bakugous. But said resilience and support couldn't do much against society's harsh treatment towards mutant kids. Good thing Zuku had Kacchan.
Understanding Izuku could be hard from an outsider's perspective, because the kid wasn't able to talk, well, not like ‘regular’ people could. It's not that he was mute or anything, but the sounds he made were really hard to understand since most of it sounded like static and white noise, if you heard any word it would be through immense effort and it would still sound very very muffled, and to top that, a kid's speech is already kinda hard to understand since they don't know how to use words properly yet. If you chose to ignore the tall child's gurgles and decided to learn his body language you would have a better chance of succeeding, after some time and observation anyone would be able to understand the basic meaning of what Midoriya wanted to communicate just by his gestures. If body language isn't your cup of tea, you could always ask him to write down something, the kid was very very smart and learned to read and write earlier than average children, maybe out of necessity too. To top it off, Izuku knew mild sign language, but rarely used it since not many people in his life knew sign language, and the ones that did (Kacchan, his mom, auntie and uncle) didn't need it since they could understand him just fine.
His classmates and teachers got past the communication problems easily if they were open to Izuku. But getting to understand his mannerisms and quirk was another thing, because the kid's quirk made him able to disappear from your sight without even a sound the moment you get distracted, and he had a habit of reappearing right next to you when you least expected it, not that it was intentionally to spook his peers. It scared the life out of anyone who wasn't used to him, and at the very least unsettled those who were a bit closer to him, possibly an effect of his quirk too, or just the fact that as a toddler, Izuku had the height of a full grown average japanese adult (though ‘average’ is a questionable term for a world like theirs), a big mouth locked in a big smile with way more than 32 teeth, and long, very long arms and hands. He had to live crawling through most spaces because not many institutions had ceilings that went above 8 feet tall, they usually stopped a little past 6-7 feet. It goes unsaid that he had developed back pain from a really young age, had to always sit at the end of his classrooms, no desk was big enough for him, and schools did little to adapt to his needs, and also that most common items like pens and water bottles looked very small on his hands, and so his fine motor coordination was very sharp, since he had to write holding the pen at the ends of his fingers . He also had the habit of muttering a lot, which sounded like muffled whispers, because even though the green bean couldn't talk the common language, his thoughts were too many to keep inside a single head, and it could be very distracting to see a figure as tall as an adult (or taller) with a face covered in shadows, a big permanent smile with lots of teeth, whispering something next to you.
Yeah, poor innocent Izuku had no idea as to how much he spooked his colleagues, he was just a nerdy kid who loved heroes, and didn't like seeing people get hurt. You could be as scared as you wanted of him, but it never stopped him from being the first to go to someone's rescue when things went south, even if it was just a scraped knee on a playground or a kitten stuck on a tree. Izuku didn't think much when these things happened, he just saw someone in trouble and the next thing you know he is already there to help, despite the terrified screams of whoever needs his help. He did feel hurt seeing how people reacted to him, what is it to him that makes him so different? Maybe they didn't like his hair? Were his clothes weird? He didn't understand, he was just trying to help, why was that lady that let her hairpin fall calling the police? The Musutafu Police Station became used to the calls about him, they even included a file about Izuku in their rookie training, why, you say? Because too many misunderstandings happened with the poor kid, many times he was mistaken as a villain, and now they had learned that Izuku was as harmless as a puppy and anyone that doubted that would have to face the wrath of a lady with green hair and her much scarier and definitely dangerous blonde best friend.
Well, besides all that, Izuku had a great life. He was an optimist to say the least, always with a big smile on his face, loads of notebooks about his so beloved heroes, his lovely mother, his cool auntie, his kind uncle, and his best friend in the entire world, Kacchan. They walked the streets like the world was theirs to claim, at least Katsuki did, Izuku just enjoyed following his light wherever he went. Was he dependent on Bakugou? Yeah, a little bit. But hey, he couldn't help that they grew together and Kacchan was the only one willing to talk to him.
Izuku enjoyed watching everyone from afar, he really wished he could make more friends, but nothing he did worked, and it's not like many people would approach the school's scariest duo, his looks were a big factor but Kacchan's personality was an even bigger reason to not approach them. But the tall kid just thought that there were other reasons, maybe he just said the wrong words, other people were so complex…
But it was not like him to give up! Izuku thought as he was eating his breakfast during a common morning, sat on his adapted chair with his All Might cereal still on his All Might jumbo sized pajamas. Inko was washing some dishes when the doorbell rang.
“Izuku, sweetie, can you get that for me?”
“...”
Opening the door, Izuku saw with no surprise his best friend.
“...”
“Sup, nerd. Are you seriously still in your fucking pajamas at this time?”
“-_- … “
“Don't give me that look, we are going to be late for classes, so get your ass out of the doorframe and go change”
Izuku rolls his eyes and crawls upstairs to his room while Katsuki takes in the familiar place, a house that holds many of his childhood memories. His auntie notices the boy's presence and smiles warmly.
“Good morning, Katsuki! I am so grateful for you to come pick up Izuku everyday, you are such a sweetheart!”
Flustered, Katsuki doesn't know how to respond to such kindness. Inko has always been very different from the old hag, and he knew that for ages, but it never made him used to such warmth.
“Damnit auntie, I am not picking him up! The nerd just gets easily distracted all the time, someone gotta save his ass!”
Chuckling, the woman just shrugs him off.
“Whatever you say, dear. Just stay out of trouble, you two!”
With that said, Katsuki turned around and saw Izuku right next to him, already dressed and with his backpack in hand. Anyone else would be jump scared by someone silently appearing next to you, but blasty was already used to his friend's way of messing around.
“Have a good day, boys! Izuku, don't forget to eat your lunch!”
“:)”
“Whatever, let's go, Zuku”
The bigger one waved to his mom as they exited the house, excited to put his plan of making friends in action. First he would choose one of the most approachable students from his class, then he would greet them, say something about the weather, ask them if they saw that a new All Might limited edition Silver Era comic book was about to be released next month, they would talk about heroes, then he would ask what were their plans for the future, then talk about previsions this year's UA Sports Festival, then about festival food, then he would ask what kind of food they liked, if they preferred sour flavours or sweet flavours, then-
“Quit fucking muttering Zuku! I can't even hear my own thoughts when you're up there chit chatting with your imaginary friends!”
“>:^”
“Whatever, why the hell are you so obsessed with making friends with those extras? It's not like we will ever see them again when we enter UA High!”
“...”
“Why- no, I don't have any plans of seeing any of those extras again, bruh.”
“...”
“Those are not my fucking friends, they're just two weaklings who hang around me, I don't give a damn about where they're going after graduation!”
“...?”
“Now you're just pissing me off again”
“...”
“Will you shut the-”
Their playful back and forth was interrupted as they came across a hoard of people blocking the way. Katsuki was about to shout at everyone to get out of their way when they saw that a villain with some kind of gigantification quirk was attacking. And right there on the scene were Death Arms and Kamui Woods!!!
“!!!!!!!” Izuku was pulling at Kacchan’s shit and pointing energetically at the battle.
“Yeah, Zuku, I know, Kamui Woods and Death Arms!” Said Katsuki trying to mask his enthusiasm with his demeaning tone. Luckly, Izuku could see through his tough guy facade.
The tall one was about to make a snarky comment to his friend when the arrival of a new hero made everyone watch in surprise. Right then and there, was a woman that also had a gigantification quirk, making her first big entrance. The boys stopped bantering and were about to start nerding out with each other when a wave of photographers came trying to get the scoop of that heroine's debut. Izuku could only register her name, Mt. Lady, as Kacchan started dragging him back to their path towards school. They were going to be late, and this was no good for his perfect record.
_____________________
Class was boring, but not to the two best students in the whole school, after all, one really enjoyed studying and the other enjoyed being the best. That day the teacher talked about future plans with the class, and congratulated Izuku and Katsuki on their appliance to UA. Although the educator didn't like Bakugou that much, the same couldn't be said for his bff, most of the school staff liked Midoriya, he was polite, smart and kind. But not that his classmates could see it much, it was hard to approach the duo.
During break, Izuku wanted to put his plan into action. He scanned the room for a group of receptive looking colleagues, and set his goal on a table with two girls and three guys talking with much enthusiasm.
Alright Izuku Midoriya, this is your chance to make some friends! Go on, slowly approach them. The guide on how to make friends said it is important to not go running up to people because it can cause alarm. So first get up, you can do this, you can do this! …….why can't I get up from my desk? God, I'm shaking, I'm sweaty…no! It's going to be okay! It's okay to be nervous, one step at a time. Common, Izuku, you can't rely on Kacchan to be your only friend for life, he went to the restroom, now is your chance to go to people without him scaring off anyone first! Yeah, let 's get up. Oh, they're already looking at me, is there something on my face? No, stop being paranoid, just go to them and talk as you recited. Why are they making these faces? Is it appropriate to make a joke right now or something? They say humor eases a person into becoming your friend, yeah, let's crack a joke…a joke about what exactly? Huuuhhhhh…… oh! The chicken joke, that one is a classic…
His group of classmates sat terrified as the gigantic kid stared at them intently, was he trying to say something?
“°₩~|£♧~♧|♤°¥~》▪︎”
“H-huh?” One of the girls let escape her sound of confusion.
“+[÷•₩|-\¥*!Đ¡Đ!@#Þĥə)(×Ĉ]-[|ĈƏŋ♧°♡`ÇŔ0$$+÷><ÞĤƏ@*Ř0Æа○■○?”
“Wha-what didja say???” One of the boys asked, both terrified and curious.
“+[÷•₩|-\¥*!Đ¡Đ!@#Þĥə)(×Ĉ]-[|ĈƏŋ♧°♡`ÇŔ0$$+÷><ÞĤƏ@*Ř0Æа○■○?”
“Why did the…why did the chicken cross the road? Is that what you said?”
Izuku slowly bounced his head up and down, a yes.
“Ugh…I- we don't know?”
“°◇○♡|¥~£|€`₩°£\[!÷&’n₩~₩\♧°[×÷^@[!#^”
“Midoriya, I'm so so sooo very sorry, but I just remembered I have to get something at the class next door”
“Oh- oh right! Yeah, I'm going to get a soda, Haibara, you coming with me?”
“S-sure bro, sorry Midoriya”
“I gotta talk with the teacher about my…my career plans!”
“Me too, Saeko, le-let's go together. See you around, Midoriya!”
And just like that, the group of students scattered around with their belongings and began their departure. Leaving a disappointed Izuku with the rest of his now weary classmates trying to find excuses to go elsewhere or to look busy enough. It's not that they actively disliked Midoriya, he was just…too different, too big, and scary, not that any of them would say it out loud while they were under the same roof as Katsuki Bakugou. But the thought remained across the class.
Weirdo
Ugh, he gives me the creeps
Really, how does this guy think he will become a hero? His looks alone will get agencies miles away from him
Please, don't come near me
Freak
I wish I was in a normal classroom
When Katsuki returned to class, it was mostly empty except for Izuku. He still stood there, outside his desk and looking out the window, always muttering. It wasn't uncommon to find him like this, but the blonde's senses were telling him that something was wrong. Classes were about as done for the day, excluding club activities, so Katsuki said:
“Wanna ditch this place and go to the arcade? I'm starting to get loser coochies from hanging around all of these extras”
“...”
“I'm not being mean if it's the truth, who cares if it's mean? Pack up your things quicky, I won't wait for you”
And after some minutes of getting all his stuff together, Izuku crawled through the classroom door and found Kacchan waiting outside for him. The blonde could declare that he didn't care over and over again, but Zuku knew that under all that grumpyness was a good person.
They left the school yards and went on their journey towards the arcade, ready to spend tons of money in claw machines to get the new Thirteen plushies that came out. Even after being a bit shaken from his failure, Izuku quickly cheered up while enjoying playing games with his friend. Kacchan was not a person who expressed through words, but through actions.