Chapter Text
Katsuki glanced up as Deku walked in just before the bell rang, scowling at the smile on the nerd’s face. “Oi, Deku. What’s got you so happy, you useless freak?”
The nerd just smiled even wider. “Have a little patience, Kacchan. I’ve got a surprise for you.”
Katsuki’s scowl deepened, but he didn’t say anything. The nerd walked past him and sat down in his seat, that smug grin never leaving his face. He’d better not be planning something fucking stupid. The other extras started filing into the room, exchanging confused glances at the grin on Deku’s face. After a few minutes, the bell rang right as Teach walked in, doing a double-take at Deku’s expression.
After going through the morning announcements, Teach finally broke. “Midoriya. Care to share with the class what’s got you in such a good mood?”
Everyone turned to stare at him, and Deku opened his mouth. Before he could get a word in, Fingers scoffed and said, “Bet you his mom finally got a clue and ditched him.”
Katsuki immediately rounded on him. “Shut up!”
Fingers didn’t even look a fucking bit remorseful as he said, “What? It’s the truth. He’s only dragging her down by existing.”
Suddenly, there was a sword at Fingers’ throat. Katsuki heard Deku say, “You know, it’s not polite to interrupt someone.”
The classroom went utterly silent. Slowly, Katsuki turned around, eyes widening at the sight of the instantly recognizable hat on the nerd’s head. Deku removed the sword from Fingers’ neck and laid it on his desk, before leaning back in his chair with a smug grin on his face. “As I was going to say before Yubi so rudely interrupted, I’m in a good mood because my Quirk finally came in.”
There was silence, before the classroom erupted into laughter. Teach chuckled, “Good one, Midoriya. Never took you to be the comedic type!”
The smile faded from Deku’s face, and he sat upright. “I’m not joking, sir. Why would I joke about having a Quirk when I haven’t made jokes in the past eight years?”
Fingers laughed. “C’mon, Deku! Everybody knows that if you don’t get a Quirk when you’re four, you don’t get a Quirk at all!”
Katsuki scoffed. “Bullshit. Don’t you remember science class last year, dumbass? There’s plenty of people who get their Quirks later than four years old. You’ve got late bloomers, where it just shows up late, or people with obscure activation requirements that don’t find them until years later. Remember the article about that one kid in Portugal? He didn’t realize he had a speed Quirk until he ate a pineapple for the first time when he was ten. Deku finding his Quirk when he’s twelve isn’t that far-fetched.”
Deku nodded. “Exactly. In my case, it was because I hadn’t played a video game until last week. My Quirk? The ability to store items from games I’ve played and manifest them at will.”
Teach stopped laughing. “Midoriya, stop this prank right now. I don’t know where you got your hands on a sword, but trying to pass it off as a Quirk is in no way funny. The principal has already seen your diagnosis from when you were four. Put away the sword and stop terrorizing your classmates.”
Deku tilted his head, and Katsuki went pale. That was the head tilt Auntie did whenever she was about to verbally rip someone to shreds. “Terrorizing, sir? You mean like how my classmates have been terrorizing me ever since I was declared Quirkless? Oh, and for the record, that’s a false diagnosis. If you’d bothered to check with the school nurse, sir, you’d have realized that I had an appointment with Miwakeru Mimoto yesterday, and she verified that I do, indeed, have a Quirk.”
Teach scowled. “Enough lying, Midoriya. You and I both know that the esteemed Miwakeru Mimoto would never see a Quirkless freak like you. Now put the sword away and apologize to your classmates before I give you detention.”
Suddenly, the classroom door slammed open. Teach went pale as he recognized the woman who had just walked into the room. Deku’s eyes widened. “Miwakeru-san! I wasn’t expecting to see you here!”
The woman smiled softly. “And I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to be here today either, Midoriya-kun. Unfortunately, when I called your school’s nurse this morning to confirm she had received my analysis, she told me, and I quote, ‘Don’t worry, I went ahead and tossed out that forged report. I’ll see to it that the offending student is properly disciplined.’ Naturally, I was quite irritated.” She turned to the teacher and scowled. “Sadly, I see that it isn’t just the nurse with a problem. Honestly, accusing one of my patients of lying, just because they were believed to be Quirkless? Frankly, sir, you disgust me.”
Suddenly, the intercoms crackled to life, and the voice that came on over the speakers wasn’t one that Katsuki recognized. “Attention, students of Aldera Junior High. Due to suspicions of Quirk discrimination, this school will be closed for the foreseeable future. Please proceed to the front entrance so that you can be picked up by your parents. Students that live within walking distance of this school are allowed to go home.”
The classroom devolved into chaos, and Katsuki looked over at Deku, but the nerd looked just as surprised as him. Humming, Katsuki stood up and grabbed his bag, before looking back at the other boy. “Meet me outside in a few minutes. We need to talk.” Let’s see if that spine is a one-time thing or a permanent fixture.
Izuku frowned as he walked out of the front entrance of the school, noticing Katsuki standing by himself a few meters away. Walking forward, he crossed his arms and said, “I’m surprised. Where’s your posse?”
Katsuki scoffed. “Those extras? They tried hanging here, but I told ‘em to shove off. This is just between the two of us.”
Izuku hummed. “So. Is this gonna be a ‘talk’ like the first day of school, or are we actually gonna talk?”
Katsuki scoffed. “Well, you finally stood up for yourself, so I can’t be too mad at you.”
Suddenly, everything clicked. “You’re kidding. All of the beatings, all of the insults, all of the burns, and it was because you wanted me to stand up for myself?!”
Katsuki raised an eyebrow. “Duh. You didn’t know that?”
“NO!” The blonde physically leaned back at the sudden shout. “I thought you hated me, Katsuki! I thought you wanted me to give up on being a hero!”
Katsuki’s face paled. “You… Really?”
“Yes! You never once made me think that you were being in any way supportive!”
Katsuki stared at him for a second. “But… I thought it was obvious. I mean, Mom always yells at me to get my ass in gear. That’s how you encourage someone, right?”
Izuku sighed. “No. Your family is a weird outlier that I’m not even gonna try and tackle right now. But I had no clue you were trying to get me to stand up for myself, and I thought you were genuinely trying to make me give up on my dream.”
Katsuki slammed a palm into his face. “Now you tell me. God, I feel like such a dumbass.”
Izuku snorted. “Now you know what it’s like. You wanna know why I chose Kirby for my first game? It was because I was convinced that a ‘stupid Deku’ would only be good at an easy game. You seriously messed up my self-confidence, Katsuki.”
Katsuki sighed and leaned back against the building, staring up at the clouds passing by overhead. “Fuck, you’re right. Can’t believe I ever thought you were looking down on me for claiming you’d be a hero. It sounded to me like you were gonna try and be a hero without putting in any work, like you could just go out and do the same things as real heroes without any effort. And that thought pissed me off.”
Izuku chuckled. “Well, you do have a point there.” He gestured at his thin frame. “I mean, can you see this scrawny mess going out there and saving people?”
Katsuki scoffed. “No way in hell.”
Izuku smirked. “Yeah.” They stood there in silence for a bit. “...So.” Izuku stuck his hand out. “Wanna try being friends again, Katsuki?”
The blonde snorted and grabbed Izuku’s hand, pulling himself upright from his leaning position. “Sure thing, Izuku.”
Shouta grunted as he watched the two students walk off in the same direction away from the school. “Hmph. Guess he’s got more potential than I first thought.”
Mimoto leaned over and stared out the window in the direction of the two kids. “Who, Izuku-kun?”
Shouta shook his head. “No, the Bakugou brat.”
Mimoto frowned. “Yeah, Gazou had told me about the still-healing burn on the kid’s shoulder, and given the research I’d put in before coming here today, I was expecting the brat to just be a hateful jerk. But, turns out he’s just a misguided kid who didn’t realize his ‘encouragement’ was coming off as hateful. Who knew?”
Shouta shrugged, before turning towards her. “So, what’d you find on their servers?”
She winced. “A lot, and none of it good.” She tapped away at the keys on her laptop, bringing up a folder of video clips. She hit a few more keys, uploading the files to a USB. She pulled it out of the laptop and held it out to Shouta. “Bring that to the Rat God. He’s not gonna like what’s on it, but it’s necessary for the investigation. I went ahead and took out the clips of Bakugou and Midoriya, but everything else is intact.”
Shouta took the USB, stashing it in one of his belt pouches. “Dare I ask what’s there?”
Mimoto sighed and leaned back in her chair. “Teachers assigning Midoriya extra homework on account of his Quirk status, students with ‘weak’ or ‘villainous’ Quirks being given detention for just being near fights without being part of them, other students beating Midoriya up in the hallways, footage of the students openly using their Quirks inside and outside of classes, teachers giving Midoriya detention for coming into class with a destroyed uniform or other minor ‘offenses’, students with ‘heroic Quirks’ being given barely a slap on the wrist for serious offenses, students knocking Midoriya’s lunch tray out of his hands, the list goes on.”
Shouta raised an eyebrow. “School’s only been in session for about a month. How do you have so much footage on Midoriya?”
She sighed. “The teachers take every opportunity they have to make a pariah out of him. And apparently, they find several opportunities, every day. Not even an hour goes by in the footage before a student pushes Midoriya around or a teacher gives him detention for some arbitrary reason. It turns my stomach just thinking about it.”
Shouta scowled. “Mine too. I’m setting Nedzu on these scum as soon as possible. I trust that you and the police can wrap things up here?”
The woman smirked and threw up a mock salute. “Yes, sir, Eraserhead, sir. Don’t you worry about a thing, we’ve got this covered.”
Shouta snorted and lightly ruffled the shorter woman’s hair. “Alright. By the way, Mic’s hoping you’ll stop by sometime later for dinner. For reasons I can’t fathom, he likes to have you around.”
Mimoto giggled. “Go on, cousin. Get that footage to your boss and go back home to your loving husband and three cats.”
Shouta rolled his eyes. “Four, actually. I found another stray on patrol the other day.”
Mom glanced up as Izuku and Katsuki walked into the apartment, her eyes red and puffy from crying. “You didn’t tell me it was this bad, sweetie.”
Izuku winced. “Sorry, mom. It’s been so long, it’s a bad habit to downplay things. I’ll try and work on it.”
She sighed. “Well, so long as you’re trying to be better.” She noticed Katsuki standing back by the door, and her eyes widened. “Oh, Katsuki! It’s nice to have you over!”
Katsuki cringed and rubbed at his arm. “Probably not as nice as it used to be, but it’s my own fault.”
Mom frowned. “Yes, I had my suspicions, but I wasn’t willing to act unless Izuku specifically told me that it was a problem.”
Izuku cringed and rubbed at the back of his neck guiltily. Katsuki sighed and crossed his arms. “Honestly, I’d have preferred it if you’d given me a lecture earlier. Turns out the whole thing was a miscommunication on both sides, though mostly on my part. I already apologized like five times on the walk over from school, but I’m not expecting to be called Kacchan again anytime soon.”
Mom smiled softly. “As long as you know what you did wrong and are working to fix it. Speaking of doing things wrong…” She turned to Izuku. “I haven’t been fully honest with you. The Switch that I gave you is actually the one that I got from my father. I thought you would appreciate having something you could call your own, and I didn’t want you to think that you were just borrowing it from me.”
Izuku smiled softly. “I don’t blame you. Honestly, if you hadn’t done that, I probably would’ve refused to play on it at all, thinking that I’d be taking something from you if I did.”
Katsuki cleared his throat. “Well, if we’re good for now, I’m gonna head home. I’ve still gotta explain myself to the hag and the old man. But hey, maybe now you can start playing against someone.”
Izuku grinned. “I think I’d like that.”
Mom chuckled. “Oh, already discounting your mother as a potential player two, hmm? I’ll have you know, I currently have a streak of 25 wins against Mitsuki in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Actually, I think she still has a few controllers sitting around the house, just in case I decide to invite her over for another session. Goodness, it’s been years since the last one.”
Katsuki snorted. “I’ll let her know that you’re getting back into gaming. Heck, I might even pick it up myself. Train my hand-eye coordination and reflexes and stuff like that.”
Izuku smiled. “I look forward to finally kicking your butt at something.”