#Izuku being best boy and looking like he CARED about poor sparkly boy | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

saikostories · 4 years ago

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MHA - Dreamless Nightmare pt2

“No way,” Denki sputtered as he wheezed, choking on his own laughter while mindlessly hitting Kirishima on the back.

“Dude there’s- There’s no way!”

His pure hysterical joy was infectious and the rest of the class couldn’t help the slight chuckles and amused smiles that came with the sight before them.

“I- Don’t make fun of him, it’s a very manly thing to be scared of! Kinda?” Kirishima tried and failed to stay serious as he too fell victim to the explosive laughs that accidentally ended up covering Sero in a flurry of spit.

“This isn’t real! This can’t be-” Mina fell off the couch in a mess of breathless giggles that had Momo and Jirou needing to harden their resolve in attempting to suppress their own bottled up laughter.

Tsuyu was hiding her face in her hands, avoiding the scene in futile attempts to not laugh at a classmate.

Even Todoroki and Tokoyami, two of the most stone-faced students, were chuckling under their breath.

Bakugo was sitting in a backyard.

The grass was beautifully kept and the picket fence in the background was freshly painted a clean white that dazzled under the sun and, under any other circumstance, would’ve been blinding if not for the anger that drew everyone’s attention to the centre of the yard.

Kacchan sat in a chair that was five times too small, arms crossed with sheer rage making his eyes twitch as a sparkly blue cone-shaped party hat looked out of place on his head.

Toddlers sat scattered around him gathered about a present covered table, drooling as they laughed and babbled things none of them could hear.

There weren’t any adults in sight, and it almost looked as if Bakugo was in charge of the kids which made the ridiculous set-up even more hilarious.

Izuku hid a smile while Uraraka was turning red with the amount of effort she gave while trying to hold in her laughter.

Kacchan suddenly yelled something at the window that fell on deaf ears and one kid started crying sending the whole class into a wild frenzy of laughter.

At this point even All Might was laughing at the odd spectacle.

Holding up his hand to silence his students he pressed the button as everyone hopelessly tried stifling their amusement.

Instantly they were met with the incoherent sounds of children rambling and light hearted giggling, the one kid who started crying had stopped and was now using a crayon to colour on Bakugo’s shirt.

All Might cleared his throat as the class shushed the remaining few who were still laughing, “Young Bakugo?” His voice wavered and everyone could hear the undertones of struggle as their own teacher was giving it his all not to laugh, “Is there a problem?”

It was as if a timer went off and with a twitch of his eye Bakugo blew up, throwing the birthday hat on the ground with so much force that the thing dented as he stood up physically smoking with anger.

The poor kid who was innocently doodling on his shirt was knocked backwards with the sheer intensity of the sudden movement and sent to the ground a sprawling mess as Bakugo exploded.

“FUCK YEAH THERE’S A FUCKING PROBLEM!” He screamed, his entire face a fuming mass of pure anger.

“The damn machine is fucking broken! I’m not scared of this shit!”

“Who the hell would be scared of these snot nosed shitty brats!” Kacchan snarled as the kids, like a domino effect, all started wailing and sobbing at the top of their lungs.

“Shit! They’re so fucking loud!” He shouted while covering his ears in futile attempts to distance himself from the onslaught of children’s cries.

Izuku grinned, a distant feeling of nostalgia bloomed at the sight, “Kacchan never does change does he?” He unknowingly said out loud and Bakugo exploded yet again.

“What the hell did you say Deku!? I heard that you shit!” He screamed as his hands popped with loud mini explosions that seemed to terrify the kids more.

“You think this is funny don’t you! You all think this is funny!”

“Now Bakugo my boy,” All Might interrupted, knowing that if he didn’t cut them off then an obvious fight would break out, “The program hasn’t made any mistakes yet and I doubt it has this time.”

Kacchan clicked his tongue ready to argue why that was pure bullshit, but before he could All Might hastily continued, “Being scared of something doesn’t necessarily mean you’re terrified. Having a fear can also be something that you would never want to experience, and in this case the thing you don’t want to experience is dealing with toddlers.”

Bakugo seemed to accept All Might’s explanation like a punch in the face as he begrudgingly pulled up his miniature chair and sat back down.

The kids had settled down by now, most of them sniffling loudly while going back to the activities they were before his episode.

The only one who hadn’t was the kid from before, who sat on the grass sobbing quietly with a broken green crayon in his hands.

It was clear to everyone that Bakugo didn’t know what the hell to do. He looked like a fish out of water with the awkward way he sat and his gaze that shifted between each kid like they were some kind of foreign entity.

Izuku knew what would happen next, Kacchan wasn’t good with children, or anyone for that matter. He didn’t have the gentle personality or patience that was needed to handle them and when Kacchan didn’t know what to do he got defensive.

And well.. When he got defensive.

People get hurt, usually unintentionally but still.

He knew Kacchan wouldn’t hurt the kids outright but..

A frown formed on Midoriya’s face as his eyebrows furrowed. There was no way he’d be caring and comfort them, or even try playing with them, he was way too prideful for that.

That meant he’d have to do something to get them to like him?

Anything a normal child would do was immediately out of the question. Even talking wouldn’t work because Kacchan would just end up cursing the kids out and scaring them further.

Maybe entertaining them?

But his quirk wasn’t the safest, or the most child friendly.

It would’ve been helpful if he could attach his explosions onto things and make them blow up, but he could only cause current explosions.

Unless..

Suddenly Izuku had an idea, there wasn’t a one hundred percent guarantee that Kacchan could do it, but it was the best option he had!

Wait.

His face suddenly fell flat as he was struck in the head with a sudden reality.

The only problem was, Kacchan would never agree if it was him to suggest it..

Uraraka gave Deku a side glance, quietly watching the way his face would suddenly go from confused thought, to wide-eyed excitement as he realised something, then to stupefied frustration as whatever it was he realised came with some sort of catch.

“Hey Deku,” she whispered nudging him with her elbow breaking his concentration and causing him to look at her like a deer caught in headlights.

“Ah, sorry was I mumbling again?”

“No you’re fine, you realised something didn’t you?”

Izuku nodded, a concerned look in his eyes as he gave a half smile, “I think so, but Kacchan wouldn’t listen to me.”

He laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head as he suppressed the urge to suddenly yawn.

All this thinking was wearing him out.

“Then how about you ask someone who he would listen to?” Iida jumped in and Izuku felt a little bad at momentarily forgetting he was there.

In his defence, he was forgetting a lot of things today, like how simple and obvious Tenya’s idea was.

It was such a basic conclusion that Midoriya was a little ashamed he didn’t think of it sooner.

“Yeah! I think that’ll work!” He thanked Iida and quickly turned around to the Bakugo couch.

He quietly waved over Kirishima, trying to catch the redhead’s attention as Eijiro paused to gesture to where Kacchan furiously sat.

Their eyes met and Izuku gave him a pleasant smile, but Kirishima seemed to think he was just saying a hello and waved back before turning to Kaminari and continuing their conversation.

His hand was still mid-air and he cringed so hard that he suddenly didn’t feel tired anymore as he facepalmed while subconsciously wishing he could go back to the five seconds when he didn’t do something that awkward.

‘I don’t know how much more embarrassment I can take today,’ Izuku muttered to himself without much thought as he mentally tallied up all the awful moments that would haunt him for eternity.

“Hey Midoriya dude? You okay? You wanted to see me right?” Kirishima’s voice dragged him from of his little moment of internal death and he looked up confused.

Todoroki sat in the background giving a thumbs up with his expressionless face and Midoriya gave a silent thanks to his friend while internally promising to take him to eat soba once the lesson was over.

“Oh, yeah, okay I have an idea to help Kacchan,” He said, all embarrassment gone as he stood up ready to plan.

“So, he doesn’t really like me very much-”

“That’s an understatement.”

“Sero! You can’t just say that!”

“Well it’s not like it isn’t true.”

“-He doesn’t like me very much,” Izuku reiterated, ignoring the side conversation that started up.

“But he’s friends with you so he’ll at least consider what you have to say versus completely ignoring or doing the opposite of what I’d suggest.”

Kirishima nodded his head along, “Okay I get it, you want me to tell him what you want to, I’ll be like your carrying pigeon!”

Izuku shook his head before pausing to think and giving him a nod, “Well yes, but I was also wondering if you could give him tips about kids? I do have a plan, but maybe you’d be able to convince him so we won’t need it?”

It was a hopeless idea, but hey if anyone could get Kacchan to bottle up his pride it was Kirishima so it was worth a shot?

The mere idea of suggesting kid-like things to Bakugo was immediately shot down as Eijiro deadpanned, a look of dumb helpless confusion practically emitting from him, “I don’t know anything about kids?”

“Wait what do you mean? Don’t you have a bunch of siblings?” Izuku cocked his head, he could have sworn that Kirishima came from a big family?

“Well yeah, but I lived with them, I don’t know how to play with any random kid?”

“Okay okay, so just I guess,” Izuku felt like he was all scrambled up and at a loss, “Alright let’s just go with your carrying pigeon idea, I’ll write down what to say and you can just tell Kacchan?”

Kirishima pumped his fist in the air with a big grin showcasing his sharp teeth, “All right! Let’s help Bakubro!” He laughed jokingly as Kacchan simultaneously pushed a kid away so violently that the poor girl fell over like a tumbleweed.

Quickly Midoriya got Momo to make a sheet of paper and he scribbled so fast that you could practically see a thin line of smoke trailing off the pencil.

“Iida could you hold down the microphone?” He asked after finishing his plans, “I don’t want to accidentally slip up.”

Tenya jumped up with a happy smile at being asked to help again and bounded over, awaiting further instructions.

“Okay Kirishima?”

“Yup I’m ready!”

“I’ll hold the notebook up so you can see it, Iida thanks for your help, you can start now.”

The class watched, anticipating how quickly things would go sour. The same students who made bets on All Might’s fear started a new round with how long it would take him to figure out that it was Deku’s idea and not Kirishima’s.

Jirou personally thought he’d be too dense to ever realise.

All Might had a grin as he watched from the sidelines, he knew this wasn’t the most action packed exercise or even the most interesting lesson, but it made him proud to see his students overcoming these problems even if it wasn’t something like fighting a villian or saving the world.

“Ah-” Kirishima cleared his throat, catching Kacchan’s attention as his head snapped up, “Hey Bakugo, how’re you doing?” He said lamely and they could hear Kaminari choke as he tried not to laugh at how awful that intro was.

“Fucking fine, what does it look like!?” Kacchan glared at the window where he thought Kirishima was and Izuku mentally sighed again.

“Now what do you want I’m busy!?”

'Busy at not knowing what to do,’ Izuku thought thinking of the ten minutes spent watching Kacchan just sit awkwardly.

“Yeah sorry, okay look I’ve got a plan-”

Bakugo interrupted with a suspicious tilt of his head as one of his eyebrows raised in disbelief.

“You? You have a plan?” He asked with heavy sarcasm weighing down his words.

“Yeah I can come up with plans too you know!”

Kirishima huffed with so much authority that Bakugo actually looked as if he believed it, even some of their classmates had to remind themselves that Eijiro was only pretending.

Izuku couldn’t help the small smile from pulling up the corners of his mouth in excitement, this was actually going to work!

“Okay Shitty Hair let’s hear it.”

“Hey my hair’s not-!”

“I said let’s fucking hear it!”

“Okay okay, so you’ve gotta entertain the kids right?”

“I don’t fucking know you tell me!?”

Kirishima ignored him and continued, squinting at the jumbled up words that Midoriya was holding up.

“So how about you.. Er.. Blow stuff up for them?”

Izuku hastily shook his head at Eijiro’s attempt at paraphrasing and pointed at a crudely drawn diagram with wide eyes as he wordlessly mouthed something that Kirishima couldn’t exactly understand.

“Wait wait! No that’s not what I meant! Uhh- Okay, no you have to blow up, Wait? Dude is that a tree?”

Izuku sighed in defeat as the class broke their momentary vow of silence and laughed at Kirishima’s amazing acting.

“Hey dumbass?” Kacchan asked with a seriousness that chilled the entire room silencing the exchange of bets that went on in the back.

Kirishima looked as if he were a kid caught with his hand in a cookie jar as he nervously cleared his voice, “Yeah? Bakugo buddy?” He asked, his voice cracking slightly giving away the obvious guilt of lying.

“You wanna tell me your plan again?” Kacchan put all emphasis on, 'your,’ and any thought that maybe they’d get away with it was completely and utterly blown to bits.

“Uh yeah, it’s umm, well it’s actually for Deku to tell his plan!”

And with that Kirishima backed off as he gave an apologetic smile to the helpless Izuku whom he just threw into the lion’s den.

He admitted it wasn’t exactly the most manly thing to do so before he went back to his seat he gave a heavy sigh, “Look Bakugo, I know you don’t like him, but at least hear him out, it’s a good plan.”

“Put the fucking nerd on.”

Kirishima frowned and tried his best to say sorry as quietly as he could before walking back to the couch to watch this train wreck unfold.

“I can hear you Kacchan,” Izuku said, his voice unwavering.

“I want it known that I didn’t fucking ask for your help, I don’t need your help. I never have. Never will.”

Midoriya held back a sigh and took that as his willingness to listen.

“Okay look, you’ve got to entertain these kids but your quirk is way too loud for them- It’ll just end up scaring them and making your situation ten times worse.”

Kacchan grunted in agreement but remained quiet.

“But kids love explosions, like fireworks, they love the destruction and you can use that. Find something small like an acorn or stick, it doesn’t matter as long as you can make it disintegrate with your quirk.”

“Coat it in your palm’s nitroglycerin and flick the object in the air as hard as you can, you’ve got to be careful and make sure you send it flying with a lot of force so it won’t blow up in your face. The speed should delay the explosion just enough to have it explode in a distance that won’t scare the kids.”

Izuku finished quickly, he’d said everything so fast that it left him breathless and dizzy.

Everyone was silent for a moment, the only sounds were the chattering of the children as they ran around the table blissfully unaware of the discussion at hand.

The tension was unbearable and the entire atmosphere held it’s breath for what Bakugo was going to say next.

Seconds ticked by until Kacchan’s frown grew more defined and he let out an angry sigh.

“I’ll do it.”

“But not because you fucking suggested it, it’s because I don’t have anything better to do.” He growled as he stood up and stretched his legs.

Izuku had an unbelievably happy grin plastered to his face, Kacchan didn’t shut him down immediately, in fact he listened to him!

He felt a proud feeling take root in his chest, his standing with Kacchan had clearly improved. He’d never be close enough to be actual friends, but this was at least a step forward in that direction.

Both him and Iida returned to the floor as they watched Bakugo eye the sobbing kid’s broken crayon.

Within seconds Kacchan snatched it away making the kid cry even more with the aggressiveness of his action, but Bakugo paid him no attention.

Holding the crayon tightly he eyed the window with a glare and mouthed something they couldn’t hear. Though with the way his mouth moved it almost looked like he said his name..

'He’s probably threatening me again,’ Izuku thought as he watched Kacchan throw the pieces into the air. As soon as they left his hand the crayons suddenly exploded in miniature bursts that rained down green wax which caught the sun’s light and made it look like sparkles fell from the sky.

The kids all stopped and watched with wide eyed amazement as the sparkle shower dusted them and it looked like they cheered as Kacchan smirked and grabbed a handful of crayons, throwing them one by one into the air.

Red and orange pieces of wax exploded like golden rain and a great big grin pulled up the corners of his mouth as he stood in the glittering remnants.

The kid who’d fallen before raised his arms up at Kacchan as if asking to be picked up and Izuku fet his stomach sink.

Kacchan was definitely going to yell at the kid..

But to his surprise without a second though he was placed on his shoulders.

Again another crayon was thrown and the children all looked as if they were having the time of their life with how excitedly they jumped up and down, clapping as the purple wax coloured their already messy clothing.

The kid on Kacchan’s shoulders reached his tiny hands towards a flake of blue and as his fingers touched the wax snowflake the entire scene dissolved and Bakugo was left standing in the concrete room with confused shock.

All Might pressed down the microphone with a wistful look on his face as if he’d just seen something from a dream, “Great job Bakugo my boy! You conquered your fear in more ways than one! I’m very proud of you!”

Bakugo huffed but it was clear he enjoyed the praise as he silently walked through the door and back into the waiting room.

“One word about any of that and I’ll send you all to fucking Mars,” he threatened the whole class but there was no real heat to the threat as he took his seat back on the couch’s arm.

“Because it’s too difficult to choose, I’ll let Young Bakugo here decide who goes next!” All Might laughed as everyone eyed Kacchan with sudden piqued interest.

“Sero.”

“Wait what!? Why!? I don’t want to go next!” Sero complained as Kaminari and Kirishima both laughed at him.

“I heard you laughing,” Kacchan replied with an evil smirk.

“Yeah well everyone was!”

“I heard you laugh more.”

“That doesn’t make sense!”

“Tough shit, you’re going.”

Sero’s arguments fell on deaf ears as he begrudgingly got up, Kirishima gave him a comforting pat on the back as he smiled an evil toothy grin.

“Better you than me!” He laughed as a sudden menacing presence popped up beside him causing him to freeze.

“Actually, I was going to have a friendly chat with you next.” Bakugo cracked his knuckles as Eijiro paled, a look of joking terror flashing across his face.

Sero smirked while he made his way through the sea of classmates, laughing at Kirishima’s own nervous chuckling.

“Better you than me~”

***

Everything felt cold.

It was a chill that made him shiver into the freezing feeling, craving an escape from that heavy claustrophobic heat that made him feel so weak and tired.

His head felt fuzzy and feverish, and the strange cool was comforting even though it was such an intense sharpness against his heated skin.

It was like..

It was like he was chasing something he couldn’t see, something that he couldn’t grasp, he didn’t have a clue what it was except it was right in front of him.

Actually, he didn’t even know if it was in front of him at all!?

It was so dark he couldn’t see, but that feeling, that awful feeling of fear consumed him, chasing him, or was he chasing it?

He wasn’t sure..

Unknowingly he groaned, shifting into the cold as if it were the only thing keeping him alive.

The only thing keeping him sane as he relaxed into it.

“〱A? H?”

There was something there, something with him in the static fuzz that felt clearer than the rest.

“YI*ŒL-”

It felt as if he could reach out and just about.. If his arms were just an inch longer.

“..%-~*”

Almost.

’Please!’ He whispered out, begging the- Whoever it was, whatever it was, to just let him catch it. To let him see.

Some gut feeling told him that if he reached it- If he just got a little closer- Then-

“JW SB BA-#!”

Izuku jolted awake, gasping as a loud explosion echoed off the walls rattling his already aching head.

Whatever dream he had faded away nearly instantly and he was left with a gaping empty feeling as he blinked in confusion.

“Where?” He mumbled, sleep still heavy in his thoughts as the terror of being forced awake subsided to feeling like a distant memory, and he relaxed back into the cushions comfortably.

'Wait…’ He thought, a slow realisation dawning in his foggy head, 'Cushions?’

“You fell asleep halfway through Sero’s fight, we thought you would be more comfortable here.”

“Oh,” Izuku muttered again as if it was the simplest explaination ever. Closing his eyes he sighed into the cold feeling, resting his forehead against the icy fabric mindlessly grabbing at it to pull that comforting coldness closer.

“Thanks Tod'roki,” He slurred, rubbing his face along the cold, craving the relief it gave as the unbearable heat fell away a little bit more with the movement.

“You’re welcome.”

A second passed, Midoriya was silent as, like a distorted jigsaw puzzle that a kindergartener was trying to put together, everything started clicking.

His eyes suddenly flew open in an embarrassment that was so overwhelming that, 'Embarassment,’ was too light of a word, and without moving he looked around trying to get a grasp on what happened.

Most students were sitting or standing around chatting, across the room Kacchan and Kirishima were teamed up against Sero and Kaminari in an intense foosball match that probably was the reason he woke up with how enraged and into the game Kacchan was getting.

He couldn’t see the training room without turning his head, but he heard some of his classmates cheering on whoever was in there.

Everything was normal..

At least..

Until he looked over and saw he was hugging Todoroki’s arm as if he were some kind of expressionless stuffed teddy bear.

He already knew when he connected the dots moments ago.. But it was a million times more real when he saw his own fingers intertwined in Shoto’s uniform, his arm interlinking with his own as his head rested in the crook of Todoroki’s elbow comfortably.

It was as if the sudden scene caused him to shut down internally as steam practically flew out of his ears.

Izuku’s face flushed ten shades of red as he jumped up, jerking his arm away and holding both hands raised in a gesture of innocence as he leaned so far away that he lost his balance and fell backwards onto the empty side of the couch.

“I- I” He stuttered, biting his own tongue as he felt a heat so overwhelming the room spun together in shapes of warped colours.

Everything was moving so fast that he didn’t even have time to fully grasp his situation as he tried regaining control of his own voice.

“Sorry, I’m so sorry,” Midoriya finally managed to get out so quickly that it was practically incomprehensible.

Todoroki just stared at him, his usually unreadable expression broken by a small eyebrow raise that was mostly hidden behind his bangs.

“It’s fine, are you alright?” He asked equally as monotoned as his concerned gaze.

Izuku cleared his throat, suddenly painfully self-aware at how awkwardly stupid he was being. Shoto hadn’t moved a muscle as he flung himself away, acting as though he were the plague.

It just startled him, well, actually it was a huge shock to find himself all cuddled up to Todoroki.

“I’m uh, fine,” he gave an awkward laugh as he picked himself off from the couch, pausing for a minute as the room slowly stopped spinning, and sat back down. Though it wasn’t even a fraction of how close he was before.

“Sorry.. I didn’t mean to freak out,” Izuku scratched the back of his head awkwardly, his face still a flushed mess.

Shoto’s stare hadn’t wavered a second while Midoriya was settling down, which only unnerved him more.

“That’s alright, are you sure you’re fine?”

Izuku gave a quick nod, the heat in his cheeks burning into his forced smile.

“Yeah I’m good, but uh, would you mind telling me how I got here? I don’t remember anything after Sero opened that casket and found a mummy?” He laughed again, a bit more naturally now with the vague memory of Sero standing face to face with a wrapped up mummy.

Shoto turned away after a bit of a pause, it was as if he was searching Izuku’s face for something and Midoriya felt even more awkward.

'It’s like he can see right through me,’ he thought as he shifted a bit on the couch. The last thing he needed right now was for someone to find out about him being sick.

He generally didn’t know at first with the excitement of the morning, and any sluggishness he did feel, any uncomfortableness, he just thought it was sleep deprivation and ignored it.

But now his head suddenly pounded as if a hammer was hitting him repeatedly and he felt so flushed that he generally wanted to forgo his pride and cling back onto Todoroki’s arm again.

Finally Shoto let out a sigh, it was quiet but Izuku still heard him and it only fuelled that unsettling sickening feeling that Todoroki knew.

Turning away he looked towards the window, it looked like Jirou was doing the exercise, but he couldn’t exactly be sure?

“You started dozing off,” Todoroki started without warning and it startled Izuku from his thoughts as he unconsciously turned to look at Shoto despite himself.

“You couldn’t keep your head up, so when All Might said everyone didn’t have to watch so intensely we moved you to the couch, Bakugo left when Kirishima dragged him to play games over there.”

He made a gesture with his head towards the foosball table.

At the moment Kaminari and Sero were losing miserably as Kirishima effortlessly blocked an oncoming attack, sending the ball straight to Kaminari. Unfortunately Denki thought he was blocking it but actually turned the wrong players and knocked the ball directly into his own goal, earning him an evil all mighty grin from Kacchan and a exasperated look from Sero. He was just guessing, but it seemed like that hadn’t been the first time Denki did that.

“Wait? What do you mean, 'we?’ And hold on how long was I asleep? And how did I- well, I mean, how did I end up, you know? Using you as a- I guess.. A pillow?” Anxiety flooded his veins making him jittery as he rubbed at the back of his palms absentmindedly.

God this was so awkward.. At least Shoto had such a straightforward air about him that eased his embarrassment just a little. If Todoroki was just as awkward as he was- He almost shuttered at the thought.

“Iida was going to move you, but I offered to help since you were sweating. I didn’t have anything to do until my turn and you looked uncomfortable,” again Shoto looked at him with that knowing stare and Izuku had to look away out of guilt.

'He knows something, is it the dreams? Did I say something? Does he know I’m sick?’ Thoughts flitted across his mind so quickly that he almost didn’t hear Shoto with how intensely he was obsessing over it.

“You slept through everyone aside Jirou’s currently, and Kaminari’s-” Izuku blanked, a look of stunned shame crossing his face and he looked down at his hands mortified.

“I missed the whole training exercise,” he muttered, a heavy feeling pulling down on him as he felt completely miserable.

'This isn’t any different than missing class,’ Izuku thought bitterly as he felt a wetness glazing over his eyes. A flash of pathetic anger consumed him in a split-second and he rubbed at his stupid eyes roughly.

'Why am I like this!?’ He thought, that heart wrenching anger directed solely at himself as a gloom overtook him.

'Everything was going so well! I felt fine!’

'I hadn’t fallen asleep in class all week!’

'I don’t even remember crashing! Why did it have to be now?’

'So much-,’ the sudden memory of Kacchan’s door last night plagued him in that short moment of thinking and Izuku felt a million times worse, ’-for handling it better..’

'It would’ve been better if I just did-’

A coldness shocked him from his thoughts and he looked with wide eyes as Todoroki stared him down again, his hand brushing the hair from his forehead as if checking his temperature.

“Did your fever return?” He asked and Izuku froze.

“Fever? What fever? I don’t have a fever I feel fine!” He laughed as he begrudgingly pushed Shoto’s hand aside, the sharp cold felt so nice and he hated to give that up, but he had to ignore this.

If he didn’t, and All Might found out..

His heart clenched at the mental image of his disappointed face, that was one thing he could not handle.

Shoto just gave him that same look that made Izuku’s paranoia skyrocket.

“Okay.”

They were silent again which only made Midoriya die inside with the amount of awkwardness he felt.

Trying to avoid the situation he turned towards where Jirou was standing in front of what looked like a bowl.

It seemed she was standing outside a door at night, it looked like some run down house with the way the porch light flickered as moths flew around menacingly.

He couldn’t see too much since so many people were watching, but he did notice that she hadn’t moved since he last glanced over.

Uraraka was currently at the mic giving some advice that he hadn’t heard but a snippet of, something about it being okay? And he swore he heard her say candy but that couldn’t be right?

In an instant Jirou’s hand shot out as an ear piercing shriek blasted through the room followed by electronic cackling.

Ashido and Kaminari locked eyes and immediately burst out laughing, snickering as an unbelievably embarrassed Jirou stalked back into the room as the door whooshed open, her arms crossed as she glared daggers into everyone- Especially Denki.

“Was that?” Izuku questioned, trying to figure out what he just saw.

“Was that one of those Halloween bowls? The ones that scare you when you reach out to get the candy?” The only reason he even was able to figure that out was because of the lack lustre Halloween decorations strung out throughout the scene and the muffled music that played faintly in the background.

“Yeah.”

…

'Come on Shoto! You’re my best friend and all, but you’ve gotta give me more to work with than that!’ He thought hopelessly as they were plunged into another awkward pause of silence.

Izuku half wondered if Todoroki was maybe.. Pouting? Or at least was being quieter than usual because he didn’t admit to being sick? Or something? Maybe he actually did offend him when he pulled away so quickly!? He didn’t mean to! He was still only half awake and-

All the worrying he was doing only made him feel sick as he sat in silence.

“S-” He paused his face reddening again as he felt the whiplash of embarrassment from stuttering, “Sorry, I know you were just trying to help, I didn’t mean to jump like that.” He couldn’t meet Shoto’s eyes, knowing that his friend was looking at him so intensely that he could physically feel it.

“It’s fine. It didn’t bother me.”

A simple answer for a simple person.

“I- Well I just want to thank you, I’m not sick I-” Before he could come up with a good enough lie, Uraraka bounded over with such a happy smile that it shut down whatever he was going to say.

“Deku you’re up! That’s great! We were starting to get worried!” She beamed as Iida followed from behind with an equally happy atmosphere.

“Good afternoon! Did you have a good nap?”

Izuku smiled widely, “Yeah! I don’t know why I was so tired!” He laughed as he felt that same intense staring boring into him and he knew it was Shoto again.

“That’s alright! I sometimes feel like that too!” Uraraka laughed as she bounced onto the couch, her hair fluffing upwards as she sunk into the cushions happily.

Iida gave a stark nod as he sat in between Todoroki and himself, something which Izuku was secretly glad for, “I don’t usually feel that way in class, but I understand most students normally do,” he said with a shrug and Izuku smiled, more so from the relief of them interrupting his and Shoto’s conversation than anything else.

If he was left just a little while longer with him..

Midoriya felt a shiver run down his spine at the thought, knowing he would’ve had to admit to being sick, or at least, admit to whatever it was that Shoto knew about.

A small part of him was terrified that he knew about his nightmares.. But that was impossible, he wasn’t usually a sleep talker and even if he was it wasn’t like he’d say anything to make anyone worry?

Yeah! It couldn’t be that!

“Deku are you alright? You don’t look so good?”

Midoriya tensed up, a look of fear crossing his face for a split second as he regained his composure and smiled a wide, horribly noticeable, fake smile, “Yup! I’m fine just a bit tired is all, you know how naps are!” He laughed again and even though all three of his friends gave him a look, they chose not to press it.

“Anyways what did I miss? Sorry I slept through your training Uraraka, how’d it go?” He added, a guilty feeling lodging in the pit of his stomach as he watched Kaminari say something to Jirou that caused him to get punched in the arm.

“That’s fine! We were right, my fear was a ghost!” She grinned triumphantly as she huffed with pride, “I remembered what you said about them not being able to touch you so I just stood there with my eyes closed and it eventually went away all on its own! It was awesome!”

Izuku tried to match her enthusiasm but it was hard, despite his nap he was still painfully worn out. The only difference was that now he had a bit of a boost to keep him going.

“That’s great! So what happened after Sero?”

“Quite a lot actually,” Iida pushed up his glasses as he got ready to summarise practically the entire day, “Kirishima went after Sero, he was afraid of chickens, Aoyama had a bad hair day, Uraraka went next, you know how that went-”

“Then Tsuyu! She had a ghost too!” Uraraka interrupted, an excited sparkle in her eyes as she grinned, “Only her ghost looked way scarier than mine! It was all disfigured and gross looking, there wasn’t any blood though but it was still scary!”

Before she could continue, All Might called out from where he stood off to the side, “Kaminari will be going now, then Young Midoriya and we’ll be done for the day!”

An excited cheer resonated from the students as they grinned, some voicing out their elaborate excursions for the rest of the day, and some just wanting to go back to their rooms and do nothing.

“Wow, how long did the training take?” Izuku questioned as the chatter died down.

“Surprisingly not long at all!” Uraraka beamed again, a happy aura radiating from her, “Actually we haven’t even gone to lunch yet! Everyone was really quick, some people only took seconds like Todoroki! He had this creepy looking doll and without even thinking about it he hugged it, he was out faster than it took him to enter the room! You should’ve seen the look on his face it was terrifying! He must’ve been super motivated to get back here!”

The sickening feeling returned as sweat perspired on Izuku’s forehead from sheer nervousness, though his fever probably didn’t help.

He had this empty feeling rolling around in his stomach from the disappointment of knowing he missed all of this.

It felt like a generally fun training exercise, everyone was having so much fun and laughing, playing games, enjoying seeing and helping each other.

And he fell asleep.

'What if I take up too much time?’ The thought suddenly crossed his mind with the feeling of tainted milk as it was like he was dropped from a building.

'What if I’m the longest time out of everyones?’

'Everyone’s so excited to get done and have a free day..’

'I don’t even know my fear- How can I hope to fight it?’

With each thought his stomach dropped more and more making his skin itch with the sudden stress he felt with being last.

“This hasn’t happened before,” he thought with a frown as he took hold of his hand, gripping it so tightly that his knuckles turned white, 'I’ve never been this scared of a training exercise before? Why am I so scared, what am I even so scared of!?’ It was a pathetic thought that he hadn’t realised he’d voiced out loud with his unconscious muttering.

“Okay that’s it.” Uraraka put her hands over Izuku’s, causing him to jolt with the sudden warmth.

“Wha?” He paused, a shaking smile returning to his face as he suddenly returned to reality.

“Izuku you need to go to recovery girl!” She huffed loudly and pointed with a fierceness that left him speechless.

“You’ve been out of it all day! Actually no. You’ve been out of it all week! You look awful,” he winced but she continued without stopping, “You’re sick aren’t you? Your face is so flushed and you’re shaking! We’ve all noticed it but hoped you’d go on your own, or at least would tell us about it! And now you just mumbled about something never happening before!? Izuku Midoriya we are your friends, you can talk to us!” She poked him in the chest, trying to get it through his thick skull that he didn’t have to shoulder everything on his own.

Izuku’s mouth felt bone dry, his tongue too heavy to even refute as he looked between her, Iida, and Todoroki, each of them having a look that backed her up.

“Please,” she begged and Izuku had to look away with the amount of guilt he felt, “We’re worried about you. We’ve all felt horrible seeing you like this and knowing you’d just lie to us about being fine.”

“You’re our friend,” Shoto added, reiterating what Uraraka had said before with the slightest smile, but it was enough to make Izuku chuckle, his anxiety slowly disappearing as his breathing relaxed.

“I- well,” he paused as he felt a sudden surge of warmth. It wasn’t at all like the sickly heat he experienced earlier, it was calm and comforting, and it made him smile. “I think you’re right, I’ll go talk to All Might about it,” He felt a relief at the thought, it was strange, he was trying so hard to keep going and felt awful, but the minute he accepted he needed a break it was like the weight was lifted off his shoulders.

Uraraka breathed a sigh of relief, like a mother having just won a painful argument with her exhaustingly stubborn toddler, “Good, you could make up the exercise sometime else, you need sleep!” She added as Iida also nodded, “You can’t do everything, it’s good to take a step back every once and awhile.”

Uraraka aggressively agreed as Izuku stood up, a sudden rush of black clouded his vision and he shook his head with a smile as he stretched, working the sleep away from his arms.

Before he could even take a step forward a coldness gripped his arm preventing him from going anywhere as he looked back, Shoto’s eyes made him nervous as his friend stared at him with a seriousness that made the light cold on his wrist all the more chilling.

“Are you okay.”

His mouth moved, whispering the words so even though Iida and Uraraka, as close as they were, couldn’t hear.

Izuku’s blood ran ice cold, his eyes wide as he felt his heartbeat suddenly quicken with the realisation that Todoroki knew.

He didn’t know how, but he knew.

A second passed, Midoriya was in a cold-sweat of shock, not knowing how to respond. He couldn’t tell them, he couldn’t say he was having nightmares like some elementary school kid!

He was going to become a pro hero!

He couldn’t have nightmares!

Plus they were his friends, his precious friends, it wasn’t like they could help him with this when he couldn’t even remember a single nightmare. It would only make them feel worried and he didn’t want that.

“Thanks but I’m fine!” He grinned, putting his heart into the smile as Shoto released his grip on his arm, seemingly satisfied with the answer.

As Izuku turned away rubbing the spot where Todoroki held his arm as if he could see it, he heard Uraraka behind him.

“What was that all about?”

“Nothing.”

He breathed a sigh of relief, if Shoto knew (which Izuku was just about near positive he did) he wasn’t going to say anything.

The sound of electricity hummed through the air and Izuku’s focus was drawn to the training room. Everyone had grouped around the window with the growing excitement and cheers of the second to last student.

Kaminari was flailing around, electricity emitting all around him in a low buzz as his strange dance caused a flurry of laughter to emit from the spectators.

Somewhere along the line the students had placed a paperweight on the button so they wouldn’t have to keep holding it down.

“They did that during Tokoyami’s run, he was after Tsuyu,” Iida spoke up from the couch, Izuku hadn’t gotten but a couple of steps before he got distracted with Denki’s exercise.

“Oh, I guess I’ll sit and watch and then talk to All Might,” he said with an awkward laugh as he sat back down on the couch.

“Did everyone keep the speakers on?” He asked as he watched Kaminari fail to stomp on a very agile spider.

“Yeah, we found it was easier and most people were super curious! It’s so strange when you’re actually in there, if you don’t remember where you came in from it’s so easy to get disoriented!” Uraraka grinned before continuing, “So Tokoyami’s turn came and originally he wanted the speakers off, and his fear was trying to solve one of those puzzle cubes-”

“A Rubik cube?�� He added and without missing a beat Uraraka responded.

“Yup! That’s the one! Anyways he had to solve that but of course he didn’t know how, so he actually needed help but couldn’t contact anyone and it took like twenty minutes before everyone noticed!” She laughed again and Izuku gave a grin at the thought.

“So how’d he solve it?”

“Well Momo knew the trick to it so she replicated her own to follow along, but it was so funny trying to get Tokoyami to find the window! He couldn’t remember where he came in from so we were all trying to direct him and it was like a giant game of Marco Polo!”

Midoriya couldn’t help but feel that twang in his heart from the regret of missing this. It sounded so fun, at the very least he got to see Iida and Kacchan so he couldn’t be too upset, but still.. He missed so much in the span of several hours that it couldn’t help but hurt.

“I’m actually quite surprised you didn’t wake up,” Iida added once Uraraka had finished her rant, “Bakugo had blown up several times, when you first fell asleep he went off and nearly started a fight with Todoroki, had All Might not stepped in and reminded them of the delicate control panels they probably would’ve destroyed the room.”

Shoto and Uraraka shot him a look that went right through Izuku as a flash of guilt flickered in his eyes.

“Oh well.. That’s just Kacchan!” He laughed but that didn’t disguise the disgusted feeling he had with himself.

“Wait Izu-” Uraraka was cut off when a physically smoking Kaminari pridefully burst through the door, a tired but exceedingly happy look on his face as he gave a thumbs up.

“I didn’t burn out this time!” He shouted and was nearly knocked over as Kirishima and Sero flung themselves on him, just as happy as he was that he didn’t fry himself silly.

Bakugo just scoffed and said something that was drowned out by the sea of cheers.

Izuku felt his anxiety flare up, feeling sick again as All Might quieted the excitement, “Great job Kaminari my boy! You’ve managed to regulate yourself without it leaving you incapacitated!”

“Now settle down!” He called, looking at Ashido who was picking on Denki again, “We have one more student and then all of you can take a day off!”

Before giving them time to cheer All Might gestured to a nerve wracked Midoriya, who went pale with all eyes on him. He felt more flustered than anything before when he was going to talk with his mentor.

Uraraka gave him a comforting look that screamed, 'Go on, tell him,’ as he shifted uncomfortably.

“Actually, um,” he started, a shy look crossing his face, “Would it be alright if I made up the exercise?” He wanted to avoid giving the details of why, hoping that maybe All Might would somehow allow him to get out of it without questioning his reasons, even though it sounded so unbelievably lame and his face flushed up in embarrassment.

When he looked up All Might’s eyes had softened tremendously and he was smiling a comforting smile.

“Yes that’s more than all right! I’m proud of you for knowing your limita-”

“What a fucking Hero you’re going to be!” A voice spoke up amongst the supportive eyes of his classmates that made Izuku visibly frown.

“Hey Bakugo lay off he’s worn out.”

“Fuck you Shitty Hair! We’re all fucking worn out! Why the hell does Deku over here get special treatment!? We’re the ones pulling through and he’s wimping out at the last second!”

“Bakugo!” All Might called trying to silence him but Kacchan was in such a heated rage he didn’t even care.

“It’s fucking pathetic! He slept through the whole thing like a damn baby, we were the ones who had to wait! And now he’s suddenly not going to do it anymore!?”

A slow thin frost had covered part of the room as the air dropped several degrees, “And? What’s so bad about that.” Shoto asked without even caring for an answer as someone somewhere whispered a, 'Not again,’ as Bakugo turned on the couch with a fury.

“WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SA-”

“STOP IT!”

Deku exploded, standing up from the couch, his fists balled tightly to his sides as a drop of sweat rolled down his face with each huff of breath he gave.

It silenced every single person in that room.

“Young Midoriya?” All Might questioned after he gave a bit of a hesitant cough.

Izuku no longer felt dizzy, he may have still felt overwhelmed by heat, but that didn’t matter as long as he could survive it. What did matter was that Kacchan was right and he knew it, he was wrong to be swayed, and he was wrong to think he was due a break.

Heroes don’t take breaks.

“Kacchan’s right,” he said with determination as his eyes steeled while still looking down, “Everyone’s tired, everyone’s exhausted, it’s wrong for me to ask to make up the exam-”

Protests erupted from his classmates but that didn’t stop him, even though the worried looks from his friends made him feel a pang of guilt he continued.

“I’m doing the exercise.” He said with such determination that All Might had to sigh as a sad look crossed his face.

“All right, but Midoriya,” Izuku looked up meeting his teacher’s gaze, “Don’t overdo it.”

With a silent nod he pushed past the crowd of classmates, feeling all of their stares on his back as he breathed in deeply, closing his eyes as he pushed his feeling of fear deep down.

'It’ll be alright. No one had anything bad, no one got any villains, no one got anything scary, it’s only been lighthearted! It’s suppose to be funny!’ He tried comforting himself but he didn’t find any real comfort in his thoughts.

“You got this Deku!” Uraraka called out, standing up on the couch to make herself even louder and a wave of encouragement followed him as he gave a quick look back, a smile on his face as he looked right at Kacchan, “Thank you,” he wholeheartedly grinned, his eyes sunken in from exhaustion, as he stepped into the blank room.

If it weren’t for Kacchan, he’d have let himself do something he would’ve regretted. Being the only one to not complete a training exercise just because he was tired? That wasn’t the makings of a good hero at all.

As the door shut behind him his classmates all looked through the window with worry.

“He’s going to be fine right?” Momo asked with a strange look on her face.

“Of course! This is Deku we’re talking about! He’s awesome!” Kaminari grinned as the whole room seemed to relax.

“Yeah- Yeah! You’re right he can do anything!

"His fear’s probably talking to a hot girl or something!” Mineta jumped with a huff and even though no one was a real fan for his jokes, it did lighten the mood tremendously.

“If it’s fucking Deku it’s going to be some lame shit like butterflies,” Bakugo suddenly spoke up with an evil half smirk as he stalked over to the other empty couch and flopped down taking over the whole seat.

“He’s scared of fucking everything, this’ll be a breeze,” he said as he shifted around making himself comfortable.

“You shouldn’t have said what you did though,” Tsuyu croaked, voicing what practically everyone was thinking.

Bakugo blinked, the whole class- Even All Might, expecting him to blow up or yell at Tsu, but he just turned around avoiding her.

“Fucking mind your own business,” he muttered before going silent.

“Man this atmosphere is heeAavy!” Ashido’s sudden voice wavered, singsonging the word as she snaked through the crowd of people, a maniacal grin on her face that made all but Jirou and Momo wary.

“Say Denki!” She called with a laugh and Kaminari looked at her as if she held a bomb in her hands.

“Wait Ashido I don’t think it’s a good idea to do this now?” Jirou muttered but Ashido payed her no mind.

“What are you up to you kitchen killing alien?” Denki questioned giving her a side eye as Mina fainted innocence.

“Hey now my cooking is great! I’m not scared of cooking whatsoever! The computer just got it sooo wrong!” She grinned as several people who were drawn to her spectacle rolled their eyes.

“Actually I wanted to show you something?~ As a thank you for, 'Cheering,’ me on during my turn!~” She hummed as Kaminari sweat dropped.

He knew she was planning something, even without Kirishima whispering in his ear about how she obviously had something up her sleeve, but he didn’t know what..

“Minnaa come onnn,” He elongated the words for as dramatic of an effect as he could muster, “I was joking!~ Joking! You’re an awesome Uh- Water boiler! Yeah! You boil the best water!”

Ashido waved a finger in his face making a, 'Nuh-uh,’ sound as her grin widened and she held out her hand, “Here! Take it!~”

With suspicious eyes Denki put his hands out, cupping them under Mina’s without thinking as his curiosity outweighed the thought he probably shouldn’t’ve done that.

“His name’s Fuzzy! He likes warm hugs and long walks on the beach!~”

It was then Kaminari connected the dots far too late as Ashido dropped an ugly, huge, evil looking brown tarantula into his hands.

His shriek wasn’t nearly as loud as the sound of his electricity uncontrollably sounding off, his friends around him flung themselves out of the way as a field of lightning threatened to electrocute them.

Flinging the spider as far as he could, he stumbled over his feet falling back on the one thing that they had all sworn they’d be careful around.

His hand connected with the panels in slow motion, no one had time to do anything as a metallic shrieking noise filled the entire room as Kaminari’s own electricity was being forcibly drawn from his body.

He screamed as the tech blared loud beeps and alarms that were drowned out in the horrific blends of noise that overwhelmed the room as the panels were being overloaded with power.

Students were blown away unable to say anything with the force of the electric pulses, and All Might could do nothing except shield nearby students as electrified pieces of shrapnel flew off the panels in randomised bursts of explosions.

In the haze of noise no one heard the small, 'Computer star-’ that was drowned out as the thunderous conglomerate of high pitched static exploded.

The lights hummed with power as one by one they shattered, raining glass down on everyone as they screamed.

Plunged into darkness the only thing they could see was the illumination of Denki being used as a living light bulb before suddenly with another loud popping noise even that light went out and Kaminari crumpled onto the floor with a loud thud.

The sudden silence left ringing in their ears as the tornado of noise came to a stop.

“Wha-” Uraraka coughed, the burnt smell of melted rubber and other unknown mechanical substances charred together filling the room with the hissing smoke that emitted from the panels.

“What happened?” Someone else finished her thought but in the pitch black dark no one could exactly tell who it was.

“It’s all right! Everyone, everything’s all right! I am here! Yaoyorozu, can you create something to light up the room for us?” All Might called out in the dark, startling students with his loud booming voice that seemed to come from nowhere.

After several minutes of shuffling silence a dim light illuminated Momo’s face as she held up a lantern.

“Is everyone okay?” She asked without knowing what answer she even expected, the lantern she managed to produce didn’t have much light to it. If she stretched out her hand and still held the lantern she would lose sight of it even though it was still so close.

“Hey Todoroki?” She called and received a quiet, 'Yes?’ From somewhere across the room.

“If I make some candles would you be able to light them?” She questioned knowing the lantern wouldn’t be bright enough to light the whole room even if she made a hundred.

A sudden quiet fwoosh of noise later and Shoto was faintly visible in the flickering orange light of his flame. He only ignited his finger, just barely enough so that he could be seen on the other side of the room.

“Yes I can do that, if you can throw the candles over to me I’ll start lighting them.”

“Okay great! Hold on guys I’ll have some lights made soon.”

“Alright, now just what the fuck was all that!?” Bakugo yelled immediately from where he’d been forcibly thrown off the couch in the confusion.

“Calm down everyone! Let’s let Miss Yaoyorozu create more light sources while we assess our situation!” All Might shouted with a clap, “First off I will call out each of your names and please give an indication of your situation!”

“Aoyama?”

“Beautifully present,” there was a muffled up cough before the voice sounded off again, “Oh and I’m doing just great, my hair got charred and I’m covered in dust but I’m just fine.”

He sounded annoyed but no one interrupted as All Might went through the roll call one by one, everyone miraculously without any severe injuries, until getting to the very last name that everyone was internally worried about.

“Kaminari?”

Silence, it was an awfully painful silence that scared All Might to his core as he cleared his throat and tried again.

“Denki Kaminari? Are you alright?”

Again there was no response and as much as All Might wanted to walk around and check on all the students personally, without much light there was the concern of stepping on students. With the shattered glass everywhere even if he did only lightly step on anyone, it could still do damage.

“Den- Denki?” A shaking voice questioned in the dark and it was clear by the guilt ridden worry that it was Ashido.

“Hey fucking sparky, you’re wasting our time say something you idiot.”

“Well he’s not gonna want to say anything with you yelling at him like that.”

“Shut up tape face or I’ll blow you fucking sky high!”

“That wasn’t me!”

“Wait shut up!” Jirou yelled silencing their banter as something in the dark shifted, and with it she heard another fainter noise that she only barely managed to pick up.

Several seconds passed and-

“Yee~”

The whole room breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Oh thank god I thought you finally kicked it,” Jirou muttered feeling the exhaustion of worry give way.

“Ah he’s fried again!” Kirishima chuckled as they received another half hearted, 'Yee,’ noise.

“Fucking shitty sparky ass if you were awake say something sooner!”

“Awe Baku you really do care~”

“Fucking hell! Who said that!? Sero was it you!?”

“NO! Why do you always think it’s me!?”

“All right! That’s enough!” All Might sounded off silencing the batter that sparked off, “It seems like everyone is here except Midoriya, we’ll have to try to contact him once we get everything in order. Yaoyorozu how many light sources have you managed to make?”

“I have a handful of stick candles right now, I’ll try to make more but for now it’ll have to work,” she said as she gather up her candles, “Todoroki I’m going to try throwing them at you, sorry if I hit you.”

“You won’t hit me.”

With a nod that no one could see, Momo threw the first candle, trying to be as gentle as she could while still getting it to the other side of the room.

A smacking sound of something hitting flesh echoed throughout the quiet room as the slight light coming from Todoroki jolted and went out.

“Um, Todoroki are you alright? That sounded like it hurt?” Uraraka asked, ignoring the fact that Bakugo was hysterically cackling away in his little dark corner.

“..Yes I’m alright.” His voice came after a heavy pause and even with lacking any emotion, everyone could hear the embarrassment.

Without wasting a second he lit the candle, the wick sparkling and sizzling as the flame came to life engulfing the darkness around Shoto in a brilliant light.

“Whoa I can see his whole body! You can even see the mark where he got hit wit- Oh wait that’s just his scar.” Someone somewhere said in amazement and despite the awkwardness everyone had to admit they were right.

The candle light was really bright, even for an ordinary candle it was still strange the way it glowed white instead of a yellow or orange like Todoroki’s flame.

“I used magnesium in the wicks when I made them, it takes a little longer but they’ll burn brighter and won’t blow out easily.”

“Actually it’s what trick candles are made of. It’s why you can’t blow them out and they relight themselves, because the magnesium is very flammable the embers from the wick burn an-”

“Did we fucking ask for the science lesson!? Just make the damn candles already, I don’t want that fucking half and half to be the only thing I can see!” Bakugo shouted in annoyance as several more candles were being transferred over and lit.

“So what happened?” Someone questioned after a pregnant pause, and that same, shaky pitchy voice suddenly spoke up.

“I’m,” the voice cracked, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for- I just wanted.. I don’t know I-”

“It’s quite alright Miss Ashido, you didn’t mean any harm,” All Might’s voice held a comforting tone to it, as though he were patting her on the back.

“Kaminari didn’t mean to set the panels off either, it was an accident that I’m responsible for.”

“I’m just glad that none of you are hurt!” He laughed, Ashido’s sniffling being drowned out by the loud noise.

“I hate to be that guy,” a quiet voice spoke up once he was done, “But I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to keep control of my quirk..”

“It’s alright Tokoyami, I’ll have the room lit, just hang on,” Momo already had half the room lightened up, but it was really draining her.

At least with the strength of the candles she didn’t have to make too many, but the pressure was intense.

Students were laying everywhere on the ground, it looked like a hurricane had swept through with the glittering of the glass and slight cuts that littered 1-A being suddenly brought to light.

Though no one had any serious injuries, they had a huge amount of small paper-cut like scrapes from the glass and it made them all look like they went through some kind of vengeful blender.

“Alright! Everyone can move again, be careful with the glass of course and try tending to yours, and others, cuts as much as possible! I’ll find out what exactly happened, but we might be here awhile since the building’s put us in lockdown!”

“Lockdown!? What!” Shouts of protest went around like wildfire as students groaned in frustration.

“Well there goes our party plans.. Hey All Might how long is lockdown anyways?”

All Might gave a thought as he started carefully making his way to the panels, the room being just fully light enough to see everything.

“Well, it could vary depending on the damage, it might be half an hour, or it could be four!” He laughed as the students all groaned again.

“What about Deku?” Uraraka asked worriedly as she picked herself off from the ground and dusted the shards of glass and dust off.

“What about him?” Bakugo scoffed, intercepting the question that was clearly meant for their teacher.

“The shitty nerd is fine! He has that entire room to himself while I’m stuck with you fucking extras! He’s living the dream! I bet he’s laughing his fucking face off right now tha-”

“Um Kacchan what’re you doing here?” The sudden voice came out of nowhere, crystal clear, cutting off Bakugo’s words like a knife.

***

Izuku’s brows furrowed, scrunching his features together and a strong sense of something lodged in the pit of his stomach as he shifted the weight between his feet nervously.

When he’d stepped into the room everything was fine- Normal even. Or at least as normal as he expected?

It was exactly as Uraraka had said, the room was so large and so disorienting with how blank it was that he actually felt lost amongst the space.

When he turned he couldn’t see into the room even though he knew there was a window there, and even the door was covered up by concrete wall.

He’d waited to start the training, not wanting to interrupt the conversations that flared up in the other room. Plus, a little piece of him was enjoying hearing the banter and jokes.

Then suddenly everything went wrong.

A thunderous distorted buzz filled every empty corner in a hissing vibration that was so loud it drowned out his voice as he had to cover his ears in pathetic attempts to block out the horrific noise.

The lights flickered above him before popping out one by one leaving him engulfed in darkness as the noise sounded a loud shrieking explosion before plunging him into a sudden silence that left a shrill ringing in his ears.

'What?’ He questioned in his thoughts, still rubbing at his ears as he waited for his hearing to return to him, 'What was that?’

'Did something happen to everyone? Are they alright?’

'Nobody’s said anything?’

It was true, after the- Whatever that was, there hadn’t been a word from anyone in the other room. All Might hadn’t explained anything, no background noise, no chatter or fighting, it was like he was cut off from the rest of his class and it was unsettling.

That’s when he turned around facing where he thought the window was.

His eyes adjusted to the dark slowly, his whole body stiffening as he came to the sudden realisation he wasn’t alone.

There was a darker outlined silhouette of a person causing a jolt of fear to flood his veins strictly from that feeling of being so sure he was alone.

Bakugo stood unmoving in front of him, his arms crossed as he stared Izuku down with the coldest gaze he’d ever seen.

The silence between them was unnerving and made that sickening feeling of wrongness all the more unbearable.

“Um Kacchan,”

Izuku cleared his throat, cringing at how his voice cracked making his frazzled nerves all the more obvious.

“What’re you doing here?”

Silence.

Not a word was uttered and Izuku’s confusion festered inside of him making his stomach churn.

One second passed.

Two.

An entire minute.

He might have been more comfortable if someone else was with him, but the fact that it was just Kacchan staring him down in the near pitch black room made him feel unbelievably nervous.

Where was everyone else?

What happened to the power?

Where was Uraraka? Iida? Todoroki? Anyone?

Where was All Mi-

“You need to just shut up you quirk-fucking-less Deku.”

Bakugo suddenly snarled with such hatful disgust that it made Izuku visibly wince despite himself.

“What? Kacchan? I don’t?-”

“I said FUCKING SHUT UP!”

He felt the bile rise to his throat and his heartbeat quicken.

The shock from the sudden ear splitting yell echoed around the room vibrating his chest like he’d been at the front row of a concert and Izuku couldn’t help but begin to feel a sinking feeling.

“Wait, I don’t understand, Kacchan what’s going on?”

“Don’t call me that.”

“What?”

“You don’t have the fucking right to call me that you worthless Deku.”

The Bakugo in front of him spat his nickname as though it were more bitter than poison as he took steps towards Izuku, sizing him up with a gaze that- Had Midoriya not known who Bakugo was, he would have described as completely villainous.

Each step Kacchan took closer to him, Izuku matched by stepping backwards until he could no longer run away from the glowing spite that bore down on him.

“It’s your fucking fault.”

It was a gravely whisper that only made him more confused as Kacchan grabbed him by his shirt and pressed him hard against the concrete wall.

“What ar-”

“WHY DON’T YOU EVER JUST SHUT UP!” Bakugo exploded with sudden uncontrollable power and shoved Deku into the wall, his head banging against the concrete causing tears to well in his shaky eyes.

“IT’S YOUR FUCKING FAULT HE’S DEAD!”

Despite the situation a fear other than that of the feral Kacchan slapped him in the face.

“Whose dead?” He questioned but Izuku’s only response was his own voice bouncing off the walls making his anxiety grow ten fold.

“What happened? Kacchan talk to me!”

“Please, I won’t know if you don’t tell me!”

Again, there wasn’t a sound from Kacchan. His fingers which clutched the wrinkled uniform pressed down on his skin with such a harshness that Izuku knew bruises were forming with each elongated second.

But what unnerved him the most was how deathly cold Kacchan’s hands were, he could feel the chill seeping it’s way past the fabric making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

“I know we aren’t friends,” His voice was quiet but held a sharpness to it that gave him the strength to finally meet Bakugo’s resenting glare, “I know we’re nothing close, to you we aren’t even classmates. I’m just another extra, I know that, but that doesn’t mean I think of you the same way.”

“I don’t know what’s going on, or why you’re acting like this, but just talk to me! I can help!”

Izuku put his own feverish hands on Bakugo’s, suppressing the urge to wince as the icy touch spread through his body, and for a second, for a split second, he thought he’d gotten through to him.

Kacchan’s expression had relaxed, he felt warmer in more ways than one, and Midoriya gave a smile as if trying to show that everything was okay despite his cluelessness.

The next thing Izuku knew he was seeing blurs as the room flew by and he collided with the floor, bouncing and rolling several feet before finally stopping.

The wind was completely ripped from his lungs and he lay gasping for breath, his gaze was hazy but he still managed to see Kacchan standing above him with a look of disgust.

“You’re a fucking disgrace. Don’t you dare think you can just act like nothing happened.”

“ 'I can help!’ ” He mocked, his eyes radiating a sadistic venom as he made a wild hand gesture.

“That’s just like you. Typical fucking Deku. You never know when to just fucking stop.”

“You’ve helped enough.”

If Izuku was going to say anything he didn’t have the chance before Kacchan kicked him hard square in the leg and he had to hold back the urge to keep from crying out.

“All Might’s dead because of you.”

Despite every fibre of his being that screamed this was wrong, that something just wasn’t adding up, that everything was moving way too quick, that one sentence alone made his face pale and his heart stop.

“What- ” His head was racing a hundred miles a minute as he tried processing that single sentence.

“What do you mean? Kacchan what do you mean All Might’s dead!”

“What.-” He stressed helplessly tugging on Kacchan’s pants leg in some desperate plea to make him explain. “-Happened!”

Kacchan looked down on him and with a disgusted scoff he kicked Izuku away, not nearly as hard as his first kick to his leg, but rough enough so that Izuku was sent sprawling again.

“It’s exactly fucking that. He’s dead. You took his quirk.”

Midoriya took on a ghostly look, his attempt at pulling himself up was thwarted by guilt that froze him in his tracks. He didn’t know if Kacchan meant what he thought he did but-..

There was no way he could know?

Kacchan didn’t bat an eye at Izuku as he crouched down to meet the teary faced statue in front of him.

“While you were halled up here fucking sitting on your ass, a fucking villain got in and cut the power.”

“He couldn’t do a damn thing because of you!”

Izuku- He couldn’t believe it.

It shouldn’t be possible, it had to be fake, it had to be a lie.

But it all felt so real that he had to fight back the nauseating acidic feeling that steadily rose up his throat.

He couldn’t.

He just couldn’t believe it.

But this was Kacchan, he wouldn’t lie about something like this!

Kacchan loved All Might just as much as he did!

So it had to be true but it just couldn’t!

“You’re-” His voice quivered and he hadn’t realised he was crying until he felt the tears fall off his chin as he looked up at a face that stared back with murder.

“You’re wrong! All Might wouldn’t just die! He can’t!” Izuku screamed back, his voice breaking as that sickening nausea rose in his scream and he banged his fist down on the floor as if punching Kacchan’s words.

He didn’t even wince as one of his fingers snapped, bending upwards at an eerily unnatural angle.

“I don’t know what happened but he’s not dead!” Shakily he rose to his feet, his body audibly cracking with the effort.

“He-”

“Then go see him for yourself.”

This voice wasn’t the same. It wasn’t as angry or hateful, it was familiar but held a coldness to it that Izuku hadn’t ever heard before and he looked up with wide eyes.

Iida was standing there, behind Kacchan. His face might’ve been masked by his glasses but Midoriya could still feel a revulsion stronger than disgust radiating from his friend.

“Iida? What are- what’s going on? What happened to All Might? This isn’t true? Right!?”

Izuku hadn’t realised he’d gotten up in his shock, but he took a slow inching step forward, ignoring the glares from Kacchan and reached out for Iida only to see his friend back away.

“You should know. You killed him after all.”

Izuku clutched at his heart as if gripping the distorted fabric of his shirt would keep his chest from feeling like it was about to collapse in on itself.

Seeing Iida look at him like that, hearing how distant he sounded, it hurt.

“I stuck around you in case I needed to do the right thing, I knew you were trouble since day one.”

Izuku wanted to interrupt him.

He wanted to shake Iida and beg him to stop acting so cold, to call his name with that happy sparkle he had and joke around like they normally did, but he stood in frozen disbelief unable to muster any kind of voice.

“The minute I saw you during the entrance exams I knew you weren’t a hero. Someone like you, with your quirk, you were bound to get someone killed.”

“And you did.”

“I should’ve killed you when I had the chance, maybe then-” Iida’s hands were clenched into tight fists as he spoke, “Maybe then All Might would still be alive. His power would’ve returned. Instead of being stuck with someone like you.”

“I thought,” Deku’s voice was too quiet, it quivered with the sharp pounding of his quickening heartbeat, “I thought we were friends? Iida this..”

His head was spinning and he felt lost in his own words.

“This isn’t like you! What happened!”

“I get that you blame me but we can figure out what’s going on! This isn’t normal this- If our friendship meant anything at all, then please, just talk to me!”

He locked eyes with him and felt a déjà-vu surge of hope, maybe, just maybe Tenya was just taking out his grief on him like Kacchan? Maybe he’d come to his senses and realise what he was saying!?

If anyone could be reasoned with it was him.

The pain Izuku felt on his cheek didn’t even compare to the stabbing realisation that turned his entire body ridged. Iida- No his friend, his best friend, slapped him so hard that it left a red mark on his tear streaked face.

“Did you really think I’d be friends with someone as worthless as you.” Iida stated in such a calm and collective manner that it was devastating.

He couldn’t stop the chocking sob that broke through his resolve. He couldn’t stop the small quaking tremors that racketed his body.

Why!

Why did it hurt so much..

He’d had his dreams snatched away from him, he’d been bullied and beaten, he’d broken his bones countless of times, but not one of those moments hurt as badly as this did now. Nothing compared to this god awful sinking that pressed his insides down, enveloping his entire body in a throb that just.. Wouldn’t go away.

“Izuku? Are you okay?”

He looked up to see Uraraka staring at him with a gentleness that felt like an ice cold bath on a drunken night. It was like something cleared and it made him want to hug her and never let her go.

Bakugo and Iida might hate him, but she never would.

That just wasn’t who she was.

He felt a calmness settle his nerves and he shook his head trying to clear his thoughts.

Izuku smiled as he wiped his eyes, “Thanks Uraraka, sorry I- ” He paused as he closed his eyes taking a deep breath before continuing, “I don’t know what happened, I know they don’t mean it, Kacchan is Kacchan but Iida.. I didn’t think he’d.. You guys are my first friends you know? And, I don’t even know what happened?”

His entire being radiated a sad happiness that made his smile seem almost heartbreaking.

Uraraka was like a rock to him, she was the first person to ever help him, the only person who ever reached out a hand to someone like him, the only normality out of this whole messed up misunderstanding.

Again, that hope, that cruel and stupid hope that kept popping up even though these stupid, stupid situations kept repeating, made him feel calm.

The small fleeting moment of peace he had, that feeling of, 'I’m going to be okay,’ it plummeted quicker than it appeared when, to his horror, he saw Uraraka’s pleasantness contort into a sadistic grimace.

“You’re kidding right? You really believed that? Why would I care if you were okay after what you’d done?”

His smile was wiped from his face and the deception left him with a hollow feeling he’d never experienced before.

“I don’t understand- Why? What’s going on?” Izuku’s voice was so small as he watched in a transe like horror as Uraraka spun around the room as if she were dancing.

“Why!? Because you were stronger than me! Did you really think anyone would be friends with you for any other reason? Grow up Deku!”

The stress in his nickname made Izuku wince and he had another moment of déjà-vu.

This felt almost like middle school.

This felt like when Kacchan bullied him, except so much worse that it made him want to shut his eyes and never open them.

But, he wasn’t powerless anymore like he was back then. He could fight back. He could..

The mere idea of raising a fist to either Iida or Uraraka felt so utterly wrong. Just thinking of the possibility made him experience another wave of nausea and he hated himself for even realising he could fight them.

That idea was far more sickening than hearing anything they could ever say to him.

A loud snap startled him out of his thoughts and Uraraka grinned in his face, she was so close that if he leaned forward their noses would be touching.

“Deku~ 'You can do anything!’ Did you really honestly believe that crap? Jeez I must be a better actor than I thought!”

The Uraraka before him leaned back and laughed a laugh that pierced his already sunken heart, but it was such a hollowed out feeling.

Even though it hurt so bad, his eyes were dry with the overwhelming disbelief of it all.

“Shitty Deku, you can’t do anything other than getting in the way. You couldn’t even save me.”

Bakugo’s sudden voice made Izuku’s head snap towards the sound and he stood staring as a match like fire of anger burned the bitterness on his tongue like fuel.

How could Kacchan say something like that? He knew better than anyone that he risked everything to save him!

“What? Expecting a thanks for your, 'Rescue Mission,’ if you were fucking quicker I wouldn’t have needed to be rescued in the first fucking place! If you weren’t going to take being a hero seriously then why’d you even enter U.A!?”

And just with one sentence, with one god awful look from Kacchan, that confidence he had was snuffed out.

His determined expression fell flat.

That..

That was true..

The sudden surge of conviction he had dissolved as he realised that Kacchan was right.

If he had only been quicker, if he only reached him sooner. He might’ve..

“You’re a monster, a demon. Monsters can’t be heroes.”

“I’m not- ” A sudden sob caught in his throat that surprised him but he forced it down, “I’m not a monster!”

His fists were held tightly to his sides, his head looking down at the concrete floor as if wishing he’d turn invisible.

Maybe if he wasn’t so tired, maybe he’d have been able to handle what they were saying better? Maybe he wouldn’t have reacted with such weakness?

Maybe he’d have realised that something wasn’t right.

That the burning he felt engulfing him wasn’t normal.

That people kept showing up from nowhere.

That-

Everyone seemed to know what he was thinking.

“You are.”

This voice was new and Izuku looked up to find Todoroki staring back at him with a seemingly expressionless face, but his eyes burned with a quiet rage that made both of them seem almost red.

At that moment he felt his heart sink even further to the point he felt his knees almost buckle.

Not-

Not him.

Todoroki was like a brother, they’d helped each other out so much.. He cared for him so much..

“Your strength is evil. It hurts everything and everyone around it. It shouldn’t exist.”

It felt useless to deny it but still Midoriya had to. He.. He knew his power was dangerous, but that didn’t make it evil! That didn’t make him evil!

All Might went through the same thing!

“That’s not true! I just need to train more! I’m going to become a hero!”

“And how many people have to get hurt, how many people have to die until you make it?”

Izuku whirled his head around so quick it nearly gave him whiplash as he stared at Kirishima with another pang to his chest.

He shouldn’t have been surprised! But he couldn’t help the disappointment from eating away at him.

“You’re so selfish!”

Again he turned his head back to see Mineta looking up at him with an accusatory gaze of hatred.

“Mineta? But you tried cheering me up earlier? You’re my friend!”

He knew it was pointless but.. Still..

Mineta looked offended as he huffed in annoyance and crossed his arms angrily.

“Yeah right! I only did that because you’re so annoying when you’re sad! You sit right in front of me! I don’t want to see that!”

Izuku couldn’t handle what was happening anymore.

Every word that came out of his friends mouths hurt, every time they looked at him, every glare, every scoff, stung his chest and rattled him despite it all.

“You should’ve taken my advice.”

Bakugou had stayed quiet, but now he spoke up with an uncharacteristic coldness that confused Izuku as he looked from the scuffed up concrete and locked eyes with him.

“Kacchan what-”

“You should’ve taken a nose dive when you had the chance.”

An eerie calmness overtook him as tears suddenly started falling noiselessly down his face and dripping onto the concrete like ghostly shines in the darkened light.

“I don’t care what you all say,” his hands were clenched to the point his knuckles turned white, his broke finger the only one not balled up.

“You’re my friends!” His shout met with empty air as his entire class had surrounded him. Each person looking at him with mixtures of disgust and rage.

There wasn’t a single friendly face in his 1-A class. Not one.

“Do you know what All Might said before he died?”

It was Kaminari that spoke up and Izuku couldn’t help that bitter feeling of betrayal from creeping in. He helped Kaminari study often, they laughed together, played games together, he stayed up late helping him.

But here he was.

Looking at him just like all the others.

“He said his biggest regret was meeting you. You were his greatest failure.”

The world stopped.

Izuku felt like he was falling.

Maybe he was? He wasn’t aware anymore.

His tears stopped from the sheer weight of knowing that they were right.

It shouldn’t have bothered him.. It wasn’t like All Might said it to his face, he had no reason to believe them except-

They were his friends, and he knew they weren’t lying.

“Someone like you doesn’t deserve to live.”

In the haze of his shock Izuku didn’t hear Tokoyami, he didn’t even register what other cruel things were thrown at him.

He didn’t even feel the first punch until it landed with his jaw and sent him flying backwards, Kirishima’s smug face happily proud of himself as his sharp teeth grinned a happy smile.

Despite everything he heard, everything he saw, Deku didn’t want to give up.

The laughter, the games, late nights in the dorm, study sessions, parties, these were his friends. They were his precious family.

He rubbed his cheek, groaning as he rose to his feet dizzily, “You’re all my friends, I don’t want to fight you.”

His stubborn conviction settling his resolve as he felt clear headed again, no matter what happened they would always be his family, even if he was never anything to them.

Gingerly Izuku rubbed away a smudge of blood from his split lip and his eyes shone with an empowering confidence.

“I won’t fight you.”

A piercing scream tore its way from his lips as his arm felt an intense burning sensation that brought him to his knees from the sheer pain of it as ringing bounced through his skull.

“I’m not your fucking friend.”

Izuku’s mouth frothed with a mixture of blood and spit from where he bit his lip and he clutched the useless arm that hung loosely by his side desperately as he regained composure and stood once more.

This was different than spar fighting, this was different than all those exam fights because this time there wasn’t a purpose. This wasn’t to get better, this was real.

There was a real intent to hurt, to kill, emitting from each one of them.

“Please-” he spat his voice begging, pleading them to hear him, “Please if our friendship meant anything, even if this is all true and you all hate me, if there was ever a time when we really did laugh together, even for a second, then please don’t do this. I’ll- I don’t know what I’ll do, I’ll drop out. I’ll give up on being a hero, just please don’t do this!”

“You won’t become heroes if you do! The school will expel you!”

His voice shook with the sudden power in which he shouted. There was never a single moment, standing there with one arm useless, that he thought he should fight them.

He could never turn One For All on his friends, even if they tried killing him.

The thought of Kacchan never being the hero long ago they once dreamed he’d be, of Kirishima not being able to follow the footsteps of his idle, of Iida not living up to his legacy, of Uraraka not making her parents proud like she hoped- Even though they already were proud.

Those thoughts were strangely worse than the pain he felt.

“And here he goes with that stupid self sacrificing attitude, Jeez! It’s pathetic!” Uraraka sent a chip of what looked like the floor hurtling towards him and he managed to dodge, but the sudden effort made him trip over his own feet and he fell to the floor with a thud.

He cried out as his damaged arm met the ground harshly and a sudden soft chill grazed the right side of his face causing him to look up in hazy confusion, “Todor-”

Izuku screamed, a guttural pained scream that bounced off the walls of the room filling it with the sound of his agony.

He clawed at where Todoroki burnt his face, trying to put out the flames that burned into his skin.

A handprint, Shoto’s handprint, was seared into his flesh like a brand.

“Wasn’t it you who said I should use this?”

Izuku felt like he couldn’t cry anymore, but still several tears stung his face.

He couldn’t open his right eye, but he stared up at Todoroki with betrayal and.. And something else..

“There we go! Hey guys I think he’s finally getting it!”

He screamed again, his entire body contorting as electricity shot up and down his spine, his back arching uncontrollably.

A punch collided with his stomach knocking him a few feet over, he couldn’t see who it was but it didn’t matter. Izuku was left gasping, spitting blood onto the floor as he rolled over, unable to move.

“I won’t- I won’t fight you guys, I don’t want to hurt you.”

He winced before the pole collided with his damaged leg, knowing the blow was coming before even seeing it.

There was an audible crack that sent him into a flurry of tortured screams.

The onslaught of attacks stopped and Izuku opened his eyes hoping that maybe everyone finally came to their senses..

Or at least were done.

Instead of his class he saw someone else hovering above him like an angel.

It was a sight that made his chest tighten with longing as he stared as if seeing a ghost.

“Mo-” He gasped wordlessly as a coughing fit made his lungs fill with a burning itch that sent him sputtering. It took him several minutes before he was able to breathe again, blood traced his lips and he heaved a big gasp of air before looking at his mother with greedy hopeful eyes.

“Mom?” He croaked, finally able to get her name out as he looked up with a childish desperation.

He watched her kneel down besides him, gently she brushed the hair away from his wounded eye and a heaving sob made his entire body tremble as he shook.

He couldn’t get up, he couldn’t move his arms, he had no strength to stand, and the fact he wasn’t able to do something as simple as hugging his own mom hurt him as he lay pathetically on the ground struggling to breathe with how hard he was crying.

“Mom I-” Izuku looked at her unable to get a sentence out with how badly he was trembling.

He didn’t care about how unreal it was, or how the same thing happened with his classmates, and how quickly that happy feeling had been ripped away again and again each time someone showed up.

He just wanted his mom.

“Oh Izuku,” the pity that filled her voice only made him feel worse inside. That wasn’t what he wanted her to say. He didn’t want her to feel sorry for him, he wanted her to hug him, he wanted to feel his mom’s warmth and know that everything- Every god awful thing that happened today was just a sick dream.

His face melted into his mother’s hands as she cradled his cheek and he shut his eyes, he didn’t care that her hand felt so cold, he was exhausted from his own outburst. His body ached, he hurt so badly, and not just physically.

He wanted a hug so desperately, he wanted to just go home already..

“You realise it don’t you?” Her voice was gentle and soft like a butterfly’s wings and despite the confusing context, Izuku found himself taking comfort in her quiet voice.

He opened his eye, looking up at her with a questioning stare that said more than his voice could.

“That none-”

The pounding in his heart picked up again and he gasped as her icy nails sunk into his face, clawing at his skin until red welts dotted his cheek.

“None of this-”

His eyes widened in sheer terror, unlike any that he’d ever experienced, as he begged his mom to let go in the way his tears mixed with the blood that started to bleed in ugly splotches down his face.

“Would have happened if it weren’t for you!” She screamed at him, a voice he never heard before, it was horrific, it was worse than any curse or cruel thing Bakugo- or any of his friends said.

“MY HUSBAND’S GONE BECAUSE OF YOU!”

There wasn’t anything he could do as Izuku struggled to breathe under his mother’s iron grip. He couldn’t ask her why, he couldn’t question what she meant, he couldn’t even push her away as she began to strangle him.

Izuku could only sit there and listen as uncontrollable tremors racketed his body and his breathing hitched into hyperventilating.

“If it weren’t for you he’d still be here!” Her voice was a hysteric mixture of pure disgust that was both distraught and angry.

“And then you want to be a hero!? You’re quirkless! You were a worthless child since I brought you back from the hospital!”

“Too weak to even stand up for yourself!”

“Worthless!”

“A good for nothing Deku!”

She spat, and he flinched as though he’d been struck as her nails dug further into his neck.

“I should’ve abandoned you long ago- You’ve been nothing but trouble!”

“Having to be a mother to a horrible son like you!”

“I wish I’d died instead.”

At that she flung him away, and this time Izuku Midoriya did not get up.

He didn’t even try to protect himself when she slammed him into the floor.

The world was a daze, he couldn’t feel anything anymore he couldn’t even breathe as he gasped, the pressure gone from his throat.

He felt so detached, it was like he wasn’t even here.

There was a ringing in his ear from the impact and something wet was on his face but he didn’t know if it was tears or blood anymore.

It took him several minutes just to regain control of the spasming in his chest. His sobs choked him as he gasped into the ground, unaware of the spit that flew as he struggled to do something as simple as breathe.

His mom’s voice echoed in the base of his skull as his pitiful cries slowed to empty gasps and he laid pathetically on the concrete.

Izuku didn’t know how long he had been laying there.

He couldn’t think anymore, if he did his chest tightened and his head throbbed with the pain that hammered in his heart.

As if he held the weight of the world on his shoulders, Izuku painfully turned his head sideways, shifting awkwardly as he no longer felt the need to suppress the urge to cry out and spat blood as his body twitched from the pain.

His breathing slowed to nothing as he stared blankly at the wall, expressionless save for his shaking eyes.

He didn’t know if it was the concussion that made him hallucinate or if he had gone so utterly insane that he imagined it, but he saw All Might in front of him now.

Only he was bloodied.

His body had deep cuts littering all over him and his right arm was torn off from the shoulder, bone exposed jagged and awkwardly, spilling blood everywhere.

He was hunched over in on himself, clutching his stomach as if in his last moment he tried stopping his own innards from spilling everywhere from the gaping slash that ran from shoulder to hip exposing the eerie whiteness of his ribs.

The blood dripping from his opened mouth in a thick line pooled at his knee, and his eyes stared at him widely with a lifelessness that was unsettling even in the dark lighting.

It was as if he was saying, 'You did this to me.’

He could hear it.

Everywhere around him.

He could hear their voices circling him, suffocating him, strangling him as if they physically stood around blaming him.

Izuku could hear his own heartbeat in his ears, his ragged breathing had peaked and he couldn’t even register where he was anymore.

“Stop it.”

'Who said that?’ He wondered as he looked around without seeing, it felt as if he should know, but something was in the way.

“Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.”

'It sounded kind of familiar? But why was it so far away?’ There wasn’t anyone around him, so there shouldn’t have been a voice.

“Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.”

All at once it was like Izuku had been hit with a truck. He could feel every ounce of pain that choked him. His broken arm, the ribs that poked his lungs, the throbbing of his burn, every bruise and scrape all returned to him and the ringing vanished as quick as it came and instead enveloped him in a screaming he didn’t realise was his own.

He screamed, pulling at his own hair as the unbearable pain consumed his voice in each increasingly loud, 'Stop It,’ that uttered past his lips.

Izuku’s agonising scream bounced off the walls seeming to return to him, mocking him, as his own heartbreak became too much for him to handle.

“Stop it. Stop it. . stopitSTOPITSTOPITSTOPITSTOP!”

A blinding flash of white-

And then suddenly.

The screaming stopped.

It was quiet.

It was so utterly quiet that if you dropped a single hair you’d be able to hear it when it met the floor.

Izuku lay still on the ground, sprawled out in an unnatural pose that screamed louder than his own desperate cries- That something was terribly wrong.

His eyes were closed and for once since he stepped into the cement hell of a building, for once since he woke up in a scrambled mess, he looked unsettlingly peaceful.

The only eerie thing other than the silence that deafened the tormented room, was the fact that Izuku’s chest was not moving.

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