Chapter Text
My name is Izuku Midoriya.
And this is the story of how I became the world’s one and only Spider-Man.
I was bitten by a radioactive spider from Silkwood Research Institute, and ever since then, I’ve had strange abilities like shooting webs out of my wrists, insane strength, better reflexes, climbing on walls and ceilings, and the list goes on.
Many say my quirk is ‘normal.’ Many say it’s ‘lethal.’ However, to me, it’s not much of a quirk at all.
I couldn’t call it a blessing, nor a curse. I’d call it much more of a dream, if anything.
Back in middle school, I got heavily bullied by a boy named Katsuki Bakugou. The same boy whom I lived with. After my mom, Inko Midoriya, passed away, I had nowhere else to go but to my ‘aunt’ Mitsuki’s house: Mitsuki, the mother of Katsuki.
And, to my surprise, I hardly saw Kacchan. He was always either training or making out with some girl in a random parking lot.
I used to always look up to him. I idolized him. But I shortly realized those whom you idolize are human—and never the perfect image you create of them in your mind.
I spent so long trying to catch up to Kacchan that I ignored the possibility that he was the one who needed to catch up with himself.
Kacchan was flawed, and in no way was Izuku saying he wasn’t as well. The difference was, Kacchan was so ahead of himself, always trying to prove he could move forward, that he didn’t even realize what he was leaving behind.
Maybe the image I had of him became so poisoned by his actions that I was getting ahead of myself as well, without giving it a second thought. I made the same mistake I did when I admired him, only viewing the Kacchan I knew in my mind, and not the real one.
“Oi, Deku.”
Izuku flinched, coming back to reality. He had been working on a part for his suit and wasn’t expecting anyone to bother him. He quickly stuffed his mask into his laundry bin while the footsteps got louder and louder outside his door.
As the door opened, Izuku was greeted by a blonde who burst in without knocking.
“You’re not even gonna knock? What if I was changing?” Izuku flushed red.
Katsuki rolled his eyes and complained. It looked as if he had something to say, but after one second, his face changed and went back to its nonchalant expression.
“I have a girl coming over. Don’t bother me,” Katsuki said while slamming the door, only for it to open again a second later. “Just stay in your room. I’d rather her not ask any questions.”
Izuku blinked. “Questions?”
Kacchan paused, waiting a minute before answering.
“About you.”
Oh.
About me.
I think Kacchan saw my face drop because he slammed the door without any explanation.
He tends to do that. Anytime it looks like I took something to heart, he runs away. He’s never been the type to be able to handle emotions.
It’s not like Izuku should care, but he did. If he yelled at Izuku instead, it would have hurt less than receiving a simple ‘about you’ to a question he shouldn’t have asked.
Izuku wanted a relationship with Katsuki, but he never found the right way to even talk to him. Katsuki was so stubborn that he never listened to what Izuku had to say, almost like he only existed when Bakugou wanted him to do something for his own benefit—like staying in his room so none of Kacchan’s chicks asked questions about him.
Not like it was a bad thing. Kacchan just thought he was better than everyone else.
Beep. Beep. Beep!
Izuku whipped his head toward his plugged-in phone. A notification popped up about a villain who had taken someone hostage for a bargain.
“Great. My phone only reached 10%.”
He sighed while grabbing his phone off the charger and pulling his mask down before opening the window.
‘Auntie shouldn’t realize I’m gone. It’s 9 p.m., and she typically never bothers me,’ he thought before jumping out of his window.
While swinging from building to building, he checked the location of the kidnapping and slowly put his phone back into his pocket.
After spotting the victim, he analyzed the situation. She looked young, with short brown hair and big eyes. Typically, in Tokyo, whether you have a quirk or not, it’s hard to fight back with the new invention of quirk stabilizers. They didn’t totally get rid of quirks, just for a day or so depending on blood type.
For Izuku, however, they never worked on him. Why? He doesn’t think much about it and concludes that it’s because he doesn’t technically have a quirk, more of an ability.
But that’s besides the point.
He swung down into the situation, ready to save the girl. And now that he had a better look at her, he recognized her. She went to UA. She was in the Sports Festival a while back. Her quirk had something to do with levitating with the touch of her fingers or something.
Ending the fight with a bloody nose and a lot of bruises, he knew covering them up would be a pain. But everyone in the Katsuki household just figured he got bullied. Which was sad. Not even Mitsuki believed he could hold his own, which was frustrating.
Limping back into his window, he undressed and took care of his wounds, attempting to make them look like they didn’t even exist—which never worked.
After showering and getting ready for bed, Izuku assumed it was safe to leave his room because it was 11 p.m. on a school night, and either the girl had left or she had spent the night and they were both asleep.
Izuku couldn’t say he wasn’t surprised, because the Kacchan he knew never tended to get close with anyone, let alone with the intention of a relationship. But he figured it was just a one-night-stand type of situation.
At night was the only time he could wash his suit. If he did it in the morning, someone would undoubtedly see it and ask questions. And he wasn’t willing or able to give them the answer to any of them.
While putting his suit in the wash, he heard footsteps coming down the creaky stairs.
“Deku?” a familiar voice called.
Shit.
Izuku slowly turned around with the sound of floorboards creaking, the slight smell of sweat trickling off his cheeks.
Kacchan.
Just the person he wanted to see.
“Sorry! I had to do laundry and was so caught up on work that I couldn’t do it earlier! And I hadn’t eaten dinner yet and figured that you were either asleep or she spent—”
“Relax. She left.”
Izuku let out a sigh of relief. He didn’t really care what Bakugou thought, because after all, this was his home too. But he’d rather not go through the trouble of arguing with him.
“Why are you up so late?” Izuku breathed.
“Needed water. How about you? And why is your face more fucked up than it usually looks?”
Izuku felt a lump form in his throat.
‘I totally forgot that I had scars all over my face from earlier.’
Quickly thinking of something to say without sounding extremely suspicious, he blurted out, “I was, uhm, testing out some… science stuff.”
He quickly regretted his answer. He forgot how bad he was at lying.
“And thanks, Kacchan. How ‘fucked up’ my face is shouldn’t concern you.”
“Right, shitnerd,” Bakugou said while filling up a cup of water, then turned away without another word and walked back up to his room.
Weird.
He actually had a conversation with him. Not like it was anything new, but the form of the conversation was. Kacchan usually came off a lot more stern and difficult. But he was probably just tired as well and wasn’t in the mood to argue.
But why was he acting so different now despite that?
The next morning, Izuku got up, unfortunately. He was in excruciating pain everywhere, but it wasn’t like he didn’t wake up like that every morning.
At the breakfast table, the news was playing in the living room.
“Masaru! What did I say about TV during breakfast?!”
Mitsuki slapped him on the back of the head.
“Spider-Man fought another villain last night!! This is stuff we need to know so we are more aware,” Masaru explained while shaking in fear from getting hit again.
Mitsuki rolled her eyes and sat down.
“Who cares about Spider-Man anyway? It’s not like he’s the one and only hero,” Bakugou growled.
“He’s one of the only efficient masked heroes, Bakugo. Don’t you want to know who he is?” Masaru replied.
Well, this was uncomfortable.
Izuku was already a bad liar as is, but to have them talking about him at the table without even knowing it was so much harder. How could he hide the weird look on his face and his uncomfortable body language?
“Doesn’t matter to me. I bet I could beat him in a fight, and I’m not a masked hero. He’s probably just hiding from the fact that he would get bashed if people knew his identity for being such an ass superhero,” Kacchan barked.
But as soon as Masaru was about to reply, Izuku had already scarfed down his food and stood up in an attempt to get away from this conversation.
As soon as he stood up, he shook the table, and everyone stared up at him.
“Are you okay, Izuku?” Mitsuki asked politely.
She was usually more of a friend than a parent, but to Izuku, she was more soft-spoken, knowing his past. Which irritated Izuku even more. He wanted to be treated equally and not as some weak boy whose parents died, leaving him hopeless.
“Yeah… sorry. I just—”
“Just what? Are you uncomfortable with our conversation?” Bakugou spoke up.
“What!? No! What? Why would you even as—”
“Joking. Unless you have something to hide, Deku. Or is it that you don’t like talking about heroes because you’ll never be one?”
“Katsuki!” Mitsuki yelled.
Deku just laughed and put his plate in the sink, breathing heavily but trying not to show it.
Quickly walking out the door, he knew he looked suspicious, but he knew they would never think he was Spider-Man. They didn’t even think he could defend himself. And, as Kacchan said, he’d never be a hero like him, or even one at all.
At the lab, he did research on quirks and their ability to transfer. Every test they had done, every single spider had died. Which didn’t make sense, considering how he had gotten bitten and turned into some walking spider-human, or however you wanted to put it.
He could never tell anyone that he was Spider-Man, and if he did, he would without a doubt get taken in for experimentation. The lab always talked about Spider-Man, and their objective was to find out how Spider-Man became Spider-Man.
Their main question?
Was it a quirk he was born with, or was it something else?
Izuku planned on leaving this research institute a long time ago, once they started questioning the masked hero. He couldn’t afford to get caught. If he did, who knows what would go down?
Before going home, he decided to do a patrol around Tokyo.
And he wished he hadn’t.
Because just as he swung onto a building to observe, a voice came from behind him.
“You took my spot. I’m patrolling here. Are you blind?”
Izuku took a hard swallow and turned around.
He could only guess who it was, and he had an idea.
A tall blonde with a black, red, and orange suit hovered over the ledge where the spider sat.
Damn it.
Talking would definitely make it obvious that Spider-Man was Izuku Midoriya. So, in an attempt to lower his voice, he stated, “Oh, I didn’t see you. I don’t think we have ever met, have we?”
“So you’re blind?”
Of course Kacchan says that. What else was he expecting?
“No, just focused.”
“Why do you wear a mask? What’s the point? There are so many heroes that one hiding their face won’t do much.”
“I don’t see why I would have to tell you that,” Izuku snapped back.
Usually, he’s not this mean… but he’s already obvious with his voice. He can’t have the same personality as the boy Katsuki lived with, or else he’d just be asking to get caught.
“Right—well, I personally have my own beliefs as to why you hide yo—”
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Bakugou gets interrupted by Izuku’s phone buzzing for a villain watch. And just a mile away, there was a sight of a crashed truck, with quirk stabilizers falling out from the side.
“Fuck! You distracted me!” Bakugou yelled as he saw smoke coming from the side of them, not too far away.
“What? Are you blind?”
Izuku used Kacchan’s words against him.
Kacchan just chuckled at this before jumping off the building and toward the scene of the crash, Izuku following shortly after.
But as soon as they got there, the truck driver and all the cargo were gone.
Katsuki and Izuku, already messed up from not paying attention to what was going on around them, immediately took off into the air in an attempt to find the villain.
And as soon as they spotted him, they lunged forward and both sprang into action.
As soon as they got there, the citizens were running, and without a second thought, Izuku swung down in an attempt to save them. Grabbing them with his webs, he flew them somewhere safe.
And as he went for the last person in need of saving, his foot got stabbed by a metal bar.
He let out a yelp.
Shit, shit, shit.
What do I do!?
The woman was terrified as she saw her only hope get stabbed and launched to the ground, and she knew he wouldn’t make it to her in time.
“Bakugou!!”
Izuku yelled in hopes that he could save her, but right when he yelled, Bakugou was already on it.
He didn’t wanna get up. He wanted to stay on that ground forever. The cold concrete felt so much better than having to feel the pain of being stabbed in the area he needed to walk.
But before he could give it a second thought, he got pulled to his feet by the blonde.
“Stop slacking. I know you’re hurt, but the people here need us.”
And that was not what he was expecting.
Not from Kacchan.
The more time that went on, the more he realized Kacchan’s heart had gotten softer in his subtle ways.
Or maybe that was just for Spider-Man, and not Izuku himself.
Now that he thinks more on it, he thinks it was most likely the past the two had that made Katsuki seem like he hated him.
And as he pulled the bar out of his foot, he screamed in pain. But he had to suck it up and continue to fight.
No matter how hard it was, he had to do it for the city of Tokyo.
It was much easier to take down the villain with someone by his side, but he knew Kacchan would never admit that.
And after getting stabbed in the foot with a metal bar from the villain’s levitation quirk, being smashed into a building while trying to save someone, and having multiple bruises around his body, he was finally done.
And he had to admit, he loved fighting to save people.
But he sure as hell hated the aftermath.
By the time they were done, Katsuki and Izuku just exchanged a look.
“I don’t recall telling you my name?” Bakugou questioned.
And the green-masked boy flew away, attached to a building, without another word.
It was already 8 p.m., and the boy knew he had to get home to avoid questions.
So he came in through the window because he knew for a fact that he would get scolded for why he was so bloody coming through the front door.
And after getting stabbed, he couldn’t say it was easy to walk. So he was gonna avoid walking as much as he could, especially in front of anyone.
And yet again, as he was fixing up his torn-up suit after cleaning himself up, their footsteps came close to his door.
And in a moment of panic, he threw the suit into the corner of the ceiling, glued down by his webs.
Whoever was about to come through the door would hopefully just stand by the frame and not come in to see the other side of the wall.
However, this time, there was a knock.
“Come in.”
And to his surprise, it was Kacchan.
Lately, the blonde wasn’t so harsh. Just a small difference, though. Just enough for him to tell.
“My mom just wanted me to tell you that food was packaged downstairs. She made curry.”
Still fully dressed in his hero suit.
“Oh, okay. Thank y—”
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Izuku froze and quickly silenced his phone.
But he knew it was too late.
He looked up at Kacchan and wasn’t expecting to see him so wide-eyed.
“What was that?” he questioned.
“Uhm… nothing. My alarm to take my vitamins.”
Ugh, I’m so bad at lying.
“Vitamins? At 8:30 p.m.? Aren’t you supposed to take those in the morning?”
“Uhm, no! Research at the institute says it’s better to take them at night!!”
“Right…”
Izuku’s face was hot. He knew it.
His phone went off like that when he was talking to him as Spider-Man. There’s no way he didn’t know.
And just as he was about to say something, Kacchan turned away.
As he was about to close the door, he had a troubled look on his face.
Izuku thought he would say something. Something genuine.
Instead, he heard words that he’d be overthinking for weeks.
“…Don’t get hurt, you idiot.”