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Izuku made it...he was finally going to UA, his dream school.
He didn't really think he would make it in.
but opening that letter all alone in his room
seeing nezu pop up letting him know that he had made it into class 1-A
he cried and for the first time in a while it was because he was happy.
The first day of school however all that joy was gone, replaced with worries about what UA would be like, would the teachers still ignore him because he was quirkless?
No he wouldn't think like that, not here, he had to stay positive.
He just needed to be positive and everything else would work out.
Outside of the door to his classroom he hesitated with his hand on the door.
He could already hear the familiar pops of Kacchan’s quirk.
He just had to stay positive…
Luckily the blond ignored him, for now, as their teacher, the underground hero Eraserhead, walked in.
Izuku refrained from reaching for his notebook when the teacher introduced himself since he didn't want to be seen as weird on the first day.
Then he announced they were doing quirk assessments, and something twisted in Izuku's stomach, that familiar feeling of dread returning.
The same one he'd get when his past teachers would keep him from playing with the other kids, claiming he would get hurt.
But UA wasn't like that, it was going to be fine.
Until it wasn't fine.
He had gotten last despite his best efforts to keep up, and Aizawa expelled him.
The teacher, no, the hero he admired for so long, that he looked up to for fighting quirkless, expelled him on his first day.
Izuku went home feeling more hollow than ever he couldn't even find the effort to cry, all of that time training, all of that time he spent hiding bruises with only the hope that UA would be better, all crushed.
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To say class 1-A was confused would be an understatement, a rat (their principal apparently) had walked in at the end of their class announcing that they already were being given a test. This test consisted of hiding one of their classmates from their home room teacher along with convincing the rest of the staff that the student belonged in their class.
This test was apparently to see how well they could work together along with seeing how they tackle challenges they would face in the real world like escorting important figures who were being targeted and their ability to hold up under pressure.
They all looked to each other trying to figure out if this was real which in fact it was.
"Principal Nezu, not to say I doubt your judgement but are you sure it is best to do this on our first days here?" Yaoyorozu spoke up for the class, speaking the question the others were too scared to ask from the rat.
"Of course it is! The first day is the best to do this since your teacher presented me with the perfect opportunity to put this plan into action by expelling your fellow classmate" the rat introduced to them as Nezu said with as close to a grin as its features would allow.
Well they couldn't deny that with one of their classmates expelled it would definitely make it a challenge for them to hide said classmate from their teachers.
"If there are no more questions I'll leave you all to strategize, and don't worry I made sure to email your classmate to ensure he would arrive after homeroom so you guys have a fair shot at hiding him from Aizawa" with that the rat- the principal jumped off the podium he had been standing on to talk to them, seeming to disappear behind it, making the already weird situation weirder.
The class looked to Yaoyorozu to take the lead since she had been the one to speak up earlier.
"Well I think we should make a plan then" the girl announced simply folding her hands in front of her as she looked over her new classmates looking for anything she could use to aid them in their task.
"Yes I think it is in our interest to figure out a way to put our skills together" a different person spoke up this time a blue haired boy with glasses that Yaoyorozu remembered was named Iida. The two of them together had everyone properly introduce themselves since their home room teacher and now enemy for the duration of this assignment, had neglected to make them do any ice breakers.
After they all introduced themselves and told the class their main skill that could help with the assignment Yaoyorozu started to make a plan.
"It seems the main thing we must do for the time being is make sure that none of the other teachers realize the green kid is not still in our class" she decided, now that they had all gotten over the surprise of the sudden assignment they had found a file that contained the details of their assignment along with some basic information on the target- oh um their classmate.
The other students nodded along with her deduction, all having gotten a copy of the file, courtesy of Yaoyorozu quirk.
Once the others agreed to her plan the black haired girl turned to the floating clothes that said her name was Hagakure, "I think your quirk would be the best suited for replacing the teachers seating charts with ones that include Midoriya."
"Of course, invis girl is on the case" She exclaimed in response, her clothes moving in a way that suggested she was striking a pose of some sort but it was hard to tell without being able to physically see her.
Yaoyorozu just smiled glad her energetic classmate was up to the task then she turned to Iida to present her next job, "Iida I think it's best you be the one to handle matters regarding our teachers, we will most likely need access to things like the teachers lounge and other restricted areas, so it would make the most sense for you to be the one to ask for such things"
The boy seemed more than happy to help with this, claiming that he will, "do my best to fulfill the role you have put upon me!" While moving his hand in a chopping motion.
With the major roles distributed and promises to make further plans tomorrow since most of them had to start heading home due to how late it had gotten, everyone said their goodbyes as well as given Yaoyorozu their phone numbers so they could set up meeting places and times.
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Izuku woke up feeling worse than ever, he not only got expelled from his dream school on the first day but he also couldn't even tell anyone, making his already empty house feel emptyer.
He went through his routine as normal trying his best to not to think about the day before, or how his eyes burned from crying, or how he was still in his uniform for a school he wasn't going to anymore since he was expelled, he just wanted to stop thinking about it all, so he did and let his brain run on auto-pilot since he felt like if he actually took a moment to think about just anything right now, he would crumble.
It was only when he was in front of the doors to his class just missing home room that he finally started thinking about what he was doing, and oh, oh he was at UA.
He was not supposed to be here, he was expelled but no one stopped him. If anything it felt like he was still supposed to be there.
Izuku paused at the door, he wasn't supposed to be here, he knew that, but then why was he still allowed past the gates, and honestly what did he have to lose? he was already in the school and it's not like he would see Aizawa since he was too late to make it to home room, so maybe, just maybe, he could stay a little longer.
"Hey little listener, running late huh? Well come on wouldn't want to have to mark you late from my class" a cheerful voice behind him cut through his thoughts turning to face the voice he was met with the signature blond in leather present mic.
With a stuttered greeting he hurried into his class only to realize he didn't have a desk, right he was expelled and in a school like UA it would probably make sense they worked quickly in erasing him from the school.
But then a pink girl who thought he heard Aizawa call Ashido during the quirk assessment, stood up with a dramatic sigh, "Sero this seat sucks swap with me" the girl exclaimed loudly.
Ashido was the only one to realize it, being a gossip girl herself she realized they need to make the greenet blend in as much as possible so none of the teachers would mention him to Aizawa, so a student not having a desk, that's prime gossip and needed to be fixed immediately.
Once she swapped desks with Sero she whispered her plan to the student around her and soon enough everyone was switching seats a girl with purple hair pulling Izuku into the chaos claiming, "you look calm enough, come on I don't want to have to sit next to anyone obnoxious"
Once the class finally settled down they ended up with Izuku in the back corner surrounded by Jiro, Tokoyami, and Yaoyorozu. The louder of the class was placed up front and they had Aoyama be the one without a desk.
When Mic walked into the room there was a tell tail sign of confusion on his face in the way his eyebrows pulled together and his eyes traced over the class like he could tell something was off.
"Mon o mi, Aizawa sensei should have left a note, but earlier bakugo destroyed one of the desks leaving us one short for the day" Aoyama informed the teacher pointing to a note that had been carefully forged earlier by Uraraka the only one who was able to replicate their tired teachers handwriting.
Luckily Mic believed them, sadly Izuku did not believe this, he knew there was supposed to be one less desk, even though it's believable that Kacchan would explode his desk out of spite he knew that if that was true then there would be two missing desks.
He knew he wasn't supposed to be there
Why were they covering for him?
The rest of the class seemed to have noticed the confused glances thrown their way because the purple haired girl next to him winked. Now he was sure something was going on, but what?
Before he could voice his confusion Mic started class quickly doing attendance, surprisingly still having Izuku's name on his list (the handy work of Hagakure swapping some papers) and then Mic moved forward with class like normal.
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Bakugo didn't know what to think after Deku got into UA bakugo had to admit the nerd was worth at least something even if he wasn't happy about it, but then he was expelled and well he should have been glad, should have been happy the nerd was out of his life
But he wasn't.
Bakugo hated that, hated how his world shifted on its axis like Deku was the one thing keeping it balanced, he just needed to get used to it he told himself.
And then the damn rat told the class about their assignment and just maybe he was a little relieved the nerd wasn't out of his life permanently, just a little.
Now he had to help the nerd, it was a frustrating turn of events but he could deal with anything, he was the best after all.
They were just going to lunch when he saw Aizawa sensei walking down the hall. He knew the man would see Deku and then they would all fail the assignment.
So he acted without thinking and grabbed the back of the shorter boy's shirt pulling him into the nearest closet shutting the door behind them, and he held his hand over the other boy's mouth to ensure he would yell and reveal their location.
Finally deciding it was clear he removed his hand from the nerds mouth.
"What is your problem Bakugo?" Deku scoffed, having the nerves to scowl at him.
"Since when did you talk back?" He responded looking down at the other boy using his height to his advantage, getting surprised when the other didn't immediately back down.
"No you don't get to talk to me about changing, you went from trying to beat the shit out of me every day to pretending like we're friends? Seriously, what are you trying to gain from this!?" Deku yelled, it was the first time Bakugo ever heard the other so much as raise his voice nevermind yell at the blonde.
"Seriously, I'm the one who changed? Maybe I just grew up, maybe you should give it a try." He scoffed for once in his life not yelling.
"Oh because your sooo fucking mature huh, Katsuki Bakugo the most mature person in the fucking world" Deku was clearly pissed, Bakugo couldn't figure out why, he hadn't done anything to the other boy recently, nothing that should have caused him to blow up now of all times.
"Seriously what's up with you, I haven't done anything and you're yelling at me" Bakugo hated how stupid that sounded but he was actually confused.
"You think you haven't done anything?" Deku laughed his hands shaking with pure rage, "oh so all those burns, the scars, the insults, telling me to fucking kill myself, none of that was you right?" Deku scoffed, a smile stretching across his face in a way that made Bakugo take a step back.
"Yeah so what, I did all of that, in fucking middle school" He said because it really did feel like nothing to him, sure he wasn't the nicest to the other boy but he just needed to toughen up.
"You know what, I don't know what I was expecting, fuck you Bakugo, don't bother acting nice to me anymore I don't need you to like me." The nerd shoved past him, opening the door and walking out, leaving a stunned bakugo in his wake.
He messed up, he knew that much, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out where he messed up, clearly he had done something, crossed some line, why are emotions so confusing?
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Izuku was pissed, how dare he sit there and say he didn't do anything? After all he did to Izuku he had the nerve so say he did nothing?!
Izuku wanted to yell, after so long just staying quiet and taking it he wanted to scream his lungs out, and somehow he was so tired at the same time.
He was just glad he could avoid the rest of his class. That's what he did, he never liked socializing anyway so he grabbed his lunch from the cafeteria and walked out to find a place to eat.
After a bit of walking he came across one of his classmates, Yaoyorozu if he remembered correctly. The girl was sitting on the stairs with a lunch box in her lap, a ham sandwich in her hands.
"Midoriya, would you like to join me?" The girl asked, seeming to notice his staring, Izuku nodded and took a seat next to her ducking his head.
"I-izuku is fine" he muttered, Midoriya was his mothers name, and well he would rather not think of her at the moment. Luckily the other girl easily agreed to the request.
"Izuku it is then." She said, taking a bite from her sandwich, Izuku looked down at his own lunch not feeling all too hungry but forcing himself to take a few bites, the chicken and rice only making him feel slightly nauseous.
They continued like that for a bit, silently eating, until Yaoyorozu broke the silence.
"Is there something on your mind, you seem distracted" She asked her voice not feeling invasive, or pitying, and Izuku was glad for that
"Me and kach- um Bakugo got into a fight, we um never really got along in the past, but this time, this time it just was worse I guess?" He looked over to her nervously, not sure how to phrase his sentence.
"This fight was worse? In what way?" The girl tilted her head waiting for Izuku to continue.
"I, I don't know? Normally nothing changes after we fight, we always pretend nothing happened and move on, but I don't want to move on this time." He felt a little more sure of his words, all of his pent up emotions from the years of dealing with Bakugo finally coming to a bottle neck.
"You don't want to forgive him," she clarified, earning a nod from the boy. "Then you don't have to forgive him, from what I'm hearing he has not done anything that shows he has changed."
Izuku froze at her words, it wasn't something he had thought about in the past, he was always the one who was expected to move on, to be the better person, never did he consider he didn't have to be the better person.
"B-but all the things I'm upset about happened so long ago, shouldn't I be over it by now?" He asked, not ready to acknowledge that his feelings weren't as stupid as he thought they were, as he had been told over and over again that they were childish.
"Time isn't an apology, and this still impacts your life, he is still causing you pain, you are not the one responsible for his actions" the girl was done with her sandwich now and was turned to face him, her eyes didn't hold pity or sympathy, she said those words like they were basic facts.
And yet Izuku had never heard or thought anything like it, maybe just maybe she was right, maybe he could allow himself to feel angry, to feel hurt, to feel any of these emotions he had been pushing down for so long.
"You can move on from his actions when you feel like it's right, you don't have to move on immediately but don't let his mistakes ruin your life." She continued sensing he wasn't in a talking mood. "And if you ever need someone to talk to I'm willing to sit here as long as you need."
A smile made its way into his face and for once it was genuine, "thanks, I'll keep that in mind." He said earning a smile back from the girl
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Bakugo was still trying to figure out where he messed up in the interaction with deku when he made it to the cafeteria, taking a seat next to the red head he could somewhat tolerate.
"Hey bakubro, what's up?" The other beamed a toothy grin on full display.
"Got into a fight with Deku, fucking pissed him off or something." He grumbled looking down at his tray.
Kirishima frowned, head tilting to the side with a chicken strip in his hand, "don't you always fight?" The red head asked.
Bakugo scoffed, "of course we always fight, but the nerd never gets mad, normally he just apologizes and gets over it" he took a bite of his noodles the food burning his tongue helping to quiet the thoughts in his head.
This only seemed to confuse the other more, "Why would Mido be the one to apologize? Your always the one yelling at him, hell id be a bit annoyed as well, I don't know how he didn't get mad at you sooner"
Bakugo froze chopsticks stopped still with another bite of noodles ready. Why was he on the nerds side? Why was everyone on that damn nerds side ever since he got to this damn school, back in aldera everyone agreed with him. Always.
"The fuck does the nerd have to complain about, I yell at everyone, it's not my fault he's fucking weak." He scoffed out taking a bite harshly, more so than he normally would.
The other boy was far more casual, still chewing his chicken tender as he spoke, "well dude you're kinda an asshole to him, a guy can only be so forgiving till they break." The boy finished swallowing his tender, taking another bite.
Bakugo thought about that for a moment, he didn't break Deku, the nerd was always just too weak.
It's not bakugos fault, it's not his fault the nerd was always burned, he just needed to learn to fight.
It's not his fault everyone always insults the nerd, he just needs to stop being such a weakling.
It's not his fault the nerd had to spend his after school time hiding from Bakugo and his friends, hell he doesn't even bully the nerd like that anymore.
No he never bullied the nerd, that- that wasn't a thing he was just putting him in his place.
Bakugo is not a bully, he's not, he's a hero, he's going to be the best hero, number one.
He can't be a bully.
He felt a nudge on his shoulder breaking him from his thoughts, he finally was aware of his surroundings again, oh he had dropped his chopsticks. Fuck he really was getting weaker.
"Hey bro, bro, are you here, dude say something!" A slightly panicked voice rang out and bakugo brushed the hand off his shoulder scoffing at the voice's concern.
"I'm fucking fine" he said getting up grabbing his tray walking to the trash and throwing the rest of his lunch away, walking out of the lunch room ignoring tne concerned voice of Kirishima$.
Bakugo fucked up.
He needed to...to apologize.
Only this once.
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Bakugo was able to catch Izuku before their next class and he grabbed his arm much gentler than he would any other time, to get his attention. The other boy was clearly not happy to see him but didn't pull away.
"Look Dek-Izuku, I- fuck-I was a jerk to you in middle school." He started earning a surprised look from izuku.
"I really should have realized it earlier, I just didn't want to fall behind, I wanted to have everything, and I ended up giving up our friendship in the process." He hated this Bakugo hated being this vulnerable, hated having to actually say these things out loud.
But he hated Izuku hating him much more.
"Look what I'm trying to say is I'm sorry, I'm sorry for all the bullshit I put you through before." He forced out, finally saying what he was avoiding all this time.
"You're sorry? I um I don't forgive you, not yet." Bakugo froze at his words, the nerd- no Izuku always forgave him, he always brushed things off. Then again he was also always alone, always beat up, maybe just maybe Bakugo deserved this.
"One day I might forgive you but I need to know you mean it first" the ending makes Bakugo relax slightly. It was something he didn't know he needed to hear, Izuku would forgive him, not now but eventually, and that was fine, he just had to wait.
Izuku had to wait four years for an apology so Bakugo could wait as long as it takes to be forgiven.
"Right then um we should get to the changing rooms, to get into our costumes" he said changing the topic earning a soft smile from the other boy.
"Yeah let's go" Izuku started walking, Bakugo staying next to him instead of walking ahead like normal, things finally felt like they should have been, Izuku and Bakugo. Not bully and victim, but two hero students, that one day would be friends again.
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The class made their way to their heroics class after changing, Momo was silently celebrating how far they've been able to get with hiding Midoriya, with how they were going they would be able to hide him all day. But she wouldn't say that out loud since she knew the second it would all go wrong.
"Let's go guys, we made it, only two more classes and we're done!" Kirishima practically yelled to the class, his toothy grin a sharp contrast to the despair on Momo's. Just two more classes, hopefully she was wrong about things going wrong, afterall she knew karma and luck were all just lies to excuse things going wrong, right?
"Oh shit guys Aizawas in the training room!" Mina shouted in a panic.
Of course he is, Momo really needs to stop pretending things will work out.
Quickly the class surrounded Izuku, Denki throwing his jacket from his costume over the boy. Sadly this only drew the attention of their tired teacher.
"What are you problem children up to?" The teacher asked walking twords them, the kids in response trying even harder to hide their green haired classmate.
"We're doing nothing sir" Momo spoke up knowing none of her other classmates would be able to stay calm enough to be believable.
"Well if that's the case get on to the battle grounds and stop wasting time" the teacher gave each one of them a stern look waiting for them to move.
They all started walking, staying around Izuku trying, and failing, to be subtle. Aizawa took a step closer, reaching into the crowd grabbing the jacket from Izuku's head without warning.
"And who exactly is this?" Aizawa looked at them with a flat look, holding the jacket up as proof of their guilt. Quickly a few students moved in front of the other boy, some of the others even going as far as to try and tackle the teacher.
They were so close to victory, so long as Aizawa didn't report to nezu about the extra students they were fine.
Momo was trying to control the class when she heard a sharp yelp amongst the chaos and suddenly everything was still, she slowly turned her head locking eyes with a guilty looking Denki holding their unconscious classmate.
"One of you tell me what the hell is going on?" Aizawa, now annoyed at his class, barked out waiting for a reply.
Momo took a step forward. "I think we have some explaining to do."
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Izuku woke up in an all white room he didn't recognize, the lights were too bright and his head felt like it was going to spit open. The more he looked around he slowly put together that he was in the nurses office, and he could hear people chatting around him in hushed voices.
When he finally sat up a person next to him put a hand to his chest gently pushing him back down.
"It's best for you to not sit up yet, you got electrocuted by one of your classmates" a deep voice spoke up, Izuku put a name to a quirk and a certain blond came to mind. Right Denki was the one who was trying to hide him. He should have expected something like this to happen.
"Well I suppose it's time to end this little test." A high pitched voice said, one Izuku didn't recognize.
Izuku looked around this time actually taking in the people that surrounded him, there was Aizawa, the one person he was supposed to be hiding from, Momo, surprisingly the only of his classmates that were in the room, and a rat?
"Hello there Midorya$ it's nice to finally get a chance to meet you despite the less than great situation, Im Nezu your principal" the rat creature said.
"Um it's nice to meet you too, um sir" Izuku wasn't sure exactly how to respond but he knew he had to say something.
"Now that we got introductions out of the way, we need to discuss what's going to happen with you" Aizawa interrupted from his spot next to Momo.
"He's going to join back in with your class of course, afterall they did manage to pass the test." Nezu exclaimed, causing the tired teacher to sigh.
"W-what um what test?" Izuku was very confused, a test? Since when was he a part of a test?
Momo also seemed confused but not by the principal's words but instead Izuku's.
"Did you not know about the assignment we all got? I thought nezu sent you an email informing you about it, you did still come to school after all." Her words only confused Izuku more.
the class got a test and apparently Izuku was supposed to have been emailed about it.
"I um I never got any emails" Izuku said, ears flushed slightly in embarrassment, if he had just checked his email all this could have been avoided.
"Well isn't that a surprise, I'm glad you still showed up otherwise everything would have been ruined" the principal laughed, a glance silencing the others who would most likely have questioned why the boy still showed up, why he stayed if he had no idea about the little test the rat had set up.
"Yes it seems so" the teacher was too tired to question his boss and was smart enough to know not to dig into it if he wanted to keep his job, and probably his life knowing the rat.
"Well with that being said, welcome to UA Izuku Midorya!" The rats' words hit Izuku harder than they should have, because this time I really was going to be permanent.
Izuku made it... he was finally going to UA his dream school for real this time.