Waiting for the rainbow
Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia
Summary: Midoriya Izuku is young, small and pretty and she had no idea what to do when her teacher reached out and touched her like that.
Or Midoriya gets assaulted at a young age, and it changes nothing and at the same time everything. Fem!Midoriya
Warning: insinuation of sexual assault!
Chapter 1
Midoriya Inko chooses the neighbourhood because of its cheaper prices and peaceful nature, far away from the famous hero-school on the other side of the city which makes Musutafu famous. Additionally, there was a small park which included a playground close by the small apartment she was interested in, and a local middle-school, Aldera Junior High, surrounded with high walls.
So, Midoriya Inko chooses to live in a neighbourhood with the occasional graffiti-clad walls and silent streets, and here, bright, little Midoriya Izumi grows up.
.
Aldera Junior High is a derelict public school and with just too little funds to actually care about that. The children are all from the peaceful neighbourhood, destined to live in average houses with average jobs. The chances of them doing something actually special in their future is close to none, and so the school does not even bother. Or maybe it's vice versa. It does not matter much either way.
When Izumi is old enough, she goes to the school with careful hope for anything really, which is crushed not even two weeks in. You see, Izuku is quirkless. In addition, she is shy, frail and a cry-baby. She does not make new friends, especially not with her childhood-friend Kacchan's obvious dislike for her bleeding over to the other kids, and future prospects… Well, her best options are to marry rich (as if) or do something which includes a lot of brain and close to no social interactions.
(She was never going to be a hero. Hahaha, she didn't actually mean that, right?)
No, her teacher had told her she may have potential in the medical field or engineering if she worked hard. If anything, between her mean classmates and the blatant discrimination in the school, Izumi at least likes her teacher.
Still… Izumi just- She just doesn't want to go in either of those fields.
(No, Izumi has always known what she wants.
Izumi wants to be a hero.)
.
When Izumi is twelve, for the first time in forever, something of note happens in her neighbourhood. It's a small thing. Just a peep in the big picture. On November the 13th, a teacher of Aldera Junior High gets arrested for sexually assaulting a student.
The students are shocked, his colleagues are appalled, and the parents are horrified. No one had seen it coming, but, of course, one Asa Sakuro, an English-teacher who declared loudly to anyone who would listen that she apparently 'knew all along he was bad business!'
The media talks about it for a whole week. The articles all emphasize that even though the assaulted student stays anonymous for privacy reasons, she has everyone's sympathies and support. After a week, a new story makes the headline and the assault is old news.
Of course, the neighbourhood doesn't forget as easily. The people talk and point when she appears again after a week because the students know perfectly well who the victim was and sometimes kids talk even more than adults.
When Izumi is twelve, her world gets shaken up and turned upside down and everything falls apart.
(Her mother cries and hugs her and all Izumi feels is cold as her handshake and but no tears seem to come.)
.
Her mom has asked her to go. As had been advised. It's only a few sessions, she had said, just to be sure. Izuku hadn't wanted to.
''Nothing truly even happened, mom. He didn't- It's fine. I'm fine.''
Now, she's sitting in front of a therapist again. This one is her second one. The first one had looked nice and he had smiled at her sweetly when they had shaken hands. Izuku had refused to go to him again.
This one is called Dr Asari Saionji. He was intimidatingly big, with arms bigger than her head and a scowly face. The first time Izuku they had a session alone, Izuku had panicked and frozen up.
His office was almost entirely glass, with heavy blinds hanging in front of some of selected the windows, presumably for privacy. But the therapist had stood up and opened all the blinds in the office. Izuku had been able to her mom then, sitting in the waiting room, and managed to calm down. Her mom had waved at her.
Now, she's able to sit with the man without having all the blinds open, even if most of them still are when she comes in. She finds the angry features of the man strangely comforting. They didn't give the illusion of comfort and kindness like-
Besides, they remind her of Kacchan.
It helped that the man was straightforward. They had had a long (awkward) talk about boundaries and he never crossed one with her after it. He always asked if what he was doing okay and made sure to stay put in his chair during their sessions.
(Laying boundaries had been weird. It felt rude, melodramatic and unnatural, but… Well, secretly Izumi has to admit she's glad they are there.)
She refuses to talk about her homeroom teacher or what happened. All, she tells him is that they're exaggerating the issue. Because they are. It hadn't been that bad. Nothing actually happened after all. It had never actually gone that far. No matter what her mom and the therapist say, she doesn't want to make a bigger deal out of it than it is.
The man says it's okay to be freaked out by it, says it's okay to remember the touches and hate them, says just because something worse could've happened, doesn't mean it isn't bad on its own, says it isn't weird to freeze up around others now or to shake when someone lays her hand on her shoulder.
Izuku doesn't really believe him.
Besides, it isn't as if the last was new. She did that before too. Just-… less.
She clenches her fist around her arm, nails digging into her skin.
Only a few sessions.
They get a new homeroom teacher. A woman.
Izumi avoids her like the plague.
When the woman asks her to stay behind, she tells Izumi she has heard of her situation. She gives her sympathies and tells her Izumi can come to her for anything she needs. Izumi tastes vomit and answers as curtly and reassuring as she can. The woman looks doubting but lets her go. Izumi shakes the whole way home.
Sometimes her mother stares at her.
She always looks so sad and guilty when she does, and Izumi can't help but feel guilty.
Her mother reassures Izumi and helps her and loves her. She bundles her up and makes her tea after nightmares, she gives Izumi's hand when Izumi feels nervous and she works so hard already.
Izumi can't help but think that maybe if she had been better, her mother would be happier.
The first time Kacchan acknowledges her again after what happened is seven weeks after the… incident. She's made him angry again. She doesn't know how, but that never makes a difference.
They're alone and she's apologizing for something and his hands are crackling and there's an ugly glower on his face. He comes closer and her back hits stone and his crackling hand hits the wall next to her ear and Izuku panics.
Objectively, they've been in this pose a thousand times. Kacchan rages and his hand crackle and he hisses and spits and the worst that happens is that Kacchan gets a little too close and small burns appear on her shoulder or arms.
Izuku knowns this. It has happened often enough, and unless he's really angry, she knows that if she just keeps quiet and apologizes a few times Kacchan will stomp off without doing anything.
It's scary but it isn't new. She never actually fights him off, doesn't dare to, and if she did dare, she probably couldn't.
That day she fights like she has never done before.
Because the figure comes closer and closer and her back hits the blackboard. She's frozen and he's smiling at her so gently and his hand reach up and-
She scratches and kicks and bites and slaps and fight off the hands like the devil possesses her. Her breaths come short and her eyesight is blurry with tears and memories and she's doesn't care because she never wants him to touch her again-
She doesn't know how she ends up home in her mother's arms again. When she asks her mother, she tells her it was Kacchan. Izuku doesn't really know how to feel about that.
(Kacchan never pins her against a wall again.)
.
Her next session with her therapist, she cries.
Ugly, loud, filthy sobbing. It still feels awkward and stupid, but she talks about her teacher (Nagai-sensei, he was called Nagai-sensei, Nagai-sensei, Nagai-sensei-) and how he'd been nice and how he'd cared. She talks about him never caring that she was quirkless and trusting him and him telling her that she should become a doctor or an engineer. And as she talks the words begin to come faster and more and she can't stop.
She talks how somehow, she hadn't been able to get loose of his grip, how at first, she hadn't even dared to say no, how she convinced herself he wasn't doing that, shame coiling in her gut. She tells the therapist how he'd smiled at her and how he'd grabbed once, and then another day again and-
She talks about shaking and freezing when someone lays a hand on her shoulder and knowing it wasn't like that but not being able to stop herself. She talks of waking up at night tangled in her sheets with the sounds of her clothes ripping ringing in her ears. The fingers pressing in her skin and his smell, she isn't able to wash it off no matter how much she scrubs.
Her therapist nods as she talks and listens and he's rough around the edges but reassuring and he asks questions instead of answering them, and Izuku has never felt so grateful for it. So, she talks and cries and the session ends up way longer than scheduled, but when it's over she's still hiccupping and sniffling.
When she's let out of his office, he carefully touches her for the first time. He proudly, gently ruffles her hair and Izuku doesn't flinch away.
.
Her mother cries when she sees her red, puffy eyes and hears her sniffs.
Thank god, she murmurs, and Izuku doesn't really understand but she accepts the hug, burying her face in her mother's shoulder.
She doesn't notice Asari-sensei grinning softly and exchanging a look with her mother over her head.
(When she thinks back on it, she will remember that this is her first time that her mother sees her crying after her teacher assaulted her.)
.
(''I love your hair, Midoriya-chan. It looks nice today. You should let it loose more often.'' Soft fingers caress the top of her head for only a few seconds, and Izumi glows. It isn't often that she's complimented by anyone besides her mother.
''Thank you, sensei!''
She lets her hair down almost every day after.)
Izumi cuts her hair.
Even though she can only remember having long hair, it's not a hard decision.
The girls at school giggle and the boys scoff. But they don't say it to her face. Not after the incident.
She knows it isn't girly, cute, not attractive. Izumi does not mind that. She thinks she rather not be attractive at all.
Inko smiles when she compliments the now short locks. (Her mother doesn't really understand but at the same time she really does.)
.
Her sessions with Asari-sensei become less.
She still has them, but her mother has allowed them to become only once in a week, and then once in a fortnight.
It feels like progress.
.
A few months later she's walking to the grocery store and she sees a pretty teenage girl becoming uncomfortable when an older man puts his hand on her arm. In seconds a group of, presumably, her friends interfere and pull the pretty girl away, giving the man suspicious and disgusted looks.
She doesn't know what bothers her the most about it. The man and his actions, the uncomfortable acceptance from the girl, or the sudden, immediate interference of the other girls. (If she had had.. friends, would it have been different? Would it have stopped earlier, before-?)
She barely registers moving inside the store, staring at the products and grabbing the ones her mom had asked for. Someone brushes behind her as they move passed her in the aisle and Izuku flinches so harshly she drops her bag.
And suddenly her shoulders hunch and her teeth grind.
It's unfair. It's so unfair.
Why did this happen to her? Why was it always her?! Quirkless, a girl, cry-baby and now assaulted. Weak fucking cry-baby.
(She can still hear Kacchan laughing when she told him she wanted to be a hero.)
Why wasn't she stronger? Why couldn't she be like Kacchan and just scream and hurt and demand?
(Was it because she was a girl? Did all the girls have to deal with men like him? Just like that girl from before? Just smile and endure and wait for help.
She doesn't want that. Wasn't there any other way?)
She feels disgusting, weak, angry, furious, raging and melodramatic.
(''You're not being dramatic,'' Asari-sensei frowns, soothes. ''It's a natural response to the stress you've been put through.''
Izumi doesn't answer.
''If others acted this way, would you think them dramatic?'' Asari-sensei pushes. No. No, Izumi wouldn't, but that was a whole different thing, wasn't it?)
Her hands clench and there's a fire under her skin that won't leave.
''-ittle Miss? Are you alright? I'm sorry for bumping into you.'' A hoarse voice says causing Izumi to snap out of her thoughts.
Izumi quickly apologizes and tries to reassure the elderly lady, but she won't have it. And Izumi ends up with a bag of sweets as an apology. In return, Izumi insists on carrying the bag full of groceries from the woman to her address. It's only a small detour.
''Do you have a lot on your mind, little lady?'' The lady asks her, only now Izumi notices her yellow and crooked teeth and bright purple dress, greying hair pinned up in perfect buns. The lady hunches a bit of age. Her back bowed but strangely strong still.
Izumi shrugs in answer, wilts.
''Is it boy trouble?'' The woman presses teasingly and Izumi tenses.
Well, she could- Carefully, she braces herself and asks the woman, hoping she isn't being rude or too familiar, ''Say, oba-san, what do you do when a boy wants something you don't want to give?''
The woman frowns, suddenly looking bothered. ''Oh, that kind of trouble already? Saa, but you're so young, little lady. You shouldn't have to worry about that yet.''
That isn't really an answer but Izumi nods anyway. ''Ah, thank you.''
''Now, now, don't be so hasty.'' The woman tuts. ''There're three steps, little lady. First, you've got to refuse, doesn't matter what the boy wants or if he has any 'right' to get it, if it's yours to give then it's yours to refuse. That's very important, little lady.'' Izumi nods slowly.
''Now, the second- '' The woman continuous, waving a finger in her face. ''The second rule is that you've got to refuse with your words, voice and body.'' Izumi opens her mouth to interrupt but the woman doesn't let her. ''Ah, ah, so impatient. Let me explain first. I don't mean necessarily in a violent kind of way, but in a communicative way. Refuse and refuse proudly. Don't make your voice too soft or coy, don't look away, don't say no but allow the boy to do it anyway.''
She gives Izumi a sharp prod in her shoulder. ''Don't hunch! It makes you look like an easy target! You have to stand strong and proud and make your body language and voice refuse as much as your words!''
Izumi flinches away a bit, feeling intimidated but strangely enraptured by the old lady and her words.
''Then what's the last rule?'' Izumi asks when no further words seem to keep coming from the lady.
''Well, little lady, when a boy still does not listen after the first two rules, the only answer is to raise your knee as hard as you can in their special place.''
It takes a second for Izumi to take that in and then she gapes at the cackling woman beside her, who waves her cane around and says meaningfully, still giggling ''And if your knee is not a possibility, well there are always other options!''
When they arrive at the lady's house, Izumi gets her bag of sweets and two bars of chocolate in spite of her protest. In exchange, Izumi offers to help her with her shopping more often and invites her for dinner at her preference.
As the woman waves her goodbye, she calls out ''Good luck, little lady, and don't let those boys get you down!''
As Izumi continuous home, she thinks that maybe if she had been stronger, she would've been able to stop that man. If she had said no with her words, voice and body, if she hadn't been so weak, she probably wouldn't even have been affected by his fucking lies. Maybe wouldn't even have been approached.
None of the other girls had been touched like her by him.
She clenches her fingers into fists again, feeling her nails biting into her palms.
She wants to punch, and she wants to kick and she wants to hurt.
She never wants to be an easy target again.
.
When she comes home, she screams at her mom. She screams at the world and she screams at herself.
Then she holes herself up into her room for the whole day.
.
Her mother tries to get her out again the next morning. Her voice is tired and stressed and hurt and cracking and pleading, making Izuku fill to the brim with guilt. It makes her even angrier because she has the right to be angry after what happened. She knows it's bad to take it out on her mother, and that she doesn't deserve even half of her anger, but there's no one else.
She just wants to hurt, slam, smash, squeeze, bash-
She gets out five minutes later with a false smile and a real apology.
Her mother doesn't cry but Izumi knows it's only because she's trying to stay strong for her.
.
Her anger (fear) stays, but it becomes less. The rest slowly changes into determination.
Izumi asks to join a self-defence class a week later. Her mother isn't sure about it, not liking the violence but also seeing the good in her baby feeling safer.
In the end, Izumi talks with Asari-sensei, who supports it and Inko agrees.
The course lasts three months. Izumi slams, she punches, she kicks and she bashes.
It isn't enough.
She decides to take on kickboxing.
It's better but just not quite enough.
Only two months later BJJ joins the mix.
Only once, Asari-sensei warns her not to let her anger rule her and Izumi almost snorts.
She isn't Kacchan.
Her mother brushes her sweaty hair out of Izumi's face, tears falling down her cheeks.
''Oh, Izumi'' She sighs.
Izumi laughs breathlessly, still exhilarated by the last person she had fought in the tournament. A bit of blood dribbles down her chin, a tooth feels a bit wobbly. ''Did you see that, mom? Did you see-?!''
Her mom chuckles. ''Yes, yes, I saw.''
''I came in the top three, mom! In a mixed tournament, I-!'' She gasps.
''Yes, yes, you did, honey.'' Her mom says.
Izumi turns to the golden cup displayed, then to the silver one. That one was hers.
She wasn't quite there yet.
But...
''Oh, honey,'' Her mother sighs again, reassuring and so, so proud. ''You're going to take over the world, honey.''
And Izumi blushes, splutters and laughs, because, yes, yes, she will.
.
(She's still nervous. She stutters, mumbles and cries. She's still quirkless.
But it's better now. She isn't- She's still weak, but less.
She can say no when she has to.
And she's on her way to becoming strong. Even- even without quirk.
She's not- She won't be an easy target now.)
.
Her last session with Asari-sensei is three months after that. He tells her she can always call him when she needs him, and she cries and thanks him for his help.
He's the first one she hugs besides her mother after her teacher had assaulted her.
.
She does call him again and again the next years and he always helps her.
They invite him over for dinner sometimes.
It's nice.
It's years later when Kacchan corners her for the first time in forever after her teacher tells about her plans to aim for UA.
Izumi doesn't freak out. She has had too many spars to still freak out about a being crowded, cornered. Kacchan could have body-pinned her, and she would have been able to deal with it, break out of it.
So, when Kacchan screams at her, Izumi doesn't hunch or cry or accept.
(Izumi remembers oba-san's words well, has repeated them in her head again and again until they formed her world. She remembers them when she punches teeth in or when blood spill from her nose. She remembers them when she walks to school and when she analyses heroes. She remembers them when she works on her homework and when she looks people in the eyes. She's never going to forget them.)
She waits until he falls silent and Izumi says No with her words, voice and body, and all the fire she has blazing in her blood.
No, because it's hers to refuse and she won't let these boys get her down.
One way or another, she's going to try and become a hero.
She gets attacked by the Sludge Villain.
She has trained for months and months and the moment she gets engulfed by the slime she's helpless. She can't get free and there's a sticky liquid choking her and it's going down and down even as she tries to claw at it and turns her head this and that way, but nothing helps.
'That's it then.' Her mind says, 'This is how I'm going to die.' Her vision blackens and surges. She thinks she may hear an exclamation, but it isn't clear through the static in her ears.
There's a blow of wind and she falls on the ground. There's still liquid inside her throat and she's coughing and gagging and can't breathe but she tries to scramble away anyway. When the hand touches her, she lashes out, but it doesn't move at all.
Tears blur her eyes and then her stomach protests and flairs and she's throwing up.
When she comes up again, there's someone crouching before her. ''Careful, kid- '' They're saying, ''Come on breath with me.'' And he begins to count. One, two, three, four, five, in. One, two, three, four, five, and out. And repeat.
Izumi's vision slowly clears and-
''All Might?''
It is All Might. Big and bright and amazing.
I've just thrown up in front of All Might, she thinks hysterically. Her clothes are a mess and her skirt has ridden up far too high and there's probably saliva and vomit on her face and she's being a cry-baby again and she's going to die, this is so embarrassing, it's All Might, oh my god-
''Woah, kid. Slow breaths.'' He says and Izuku blinks and closes her eyes and tries to calm down again.
When she finally calms down, All Might apologizes to her for getting her mixed up in his Villain-hunt. He stands up and helps her up and he's so cool. He gives Izumi her notebook, and it's signed. She has All Might's autograph. There's even a personalised message with her actual name. This is the best moment of her life. She can die happy now.
And then, it suddenly goes so fast.
She clings to his legs as he jumps away and there's another man who is All Might but not and there's a horrible twisting wound in his stomach and he's spitting blood. Then, he tells her she can't be a hero and he's gone.
Izuku stands on that roof for a long time. Still and frozen.
Her mind whispers 'Well, he isn't wrong. You couldn't fight him off and he wasn't using his quirk at all-'
There's the taste of vomit in her mouth and Izuku doesn't know if it's from before or just-
She tells the voice in her head to shut up and forces her hand to let go of her other arm. There are small half-moons lightly bleeding left in her bicep. She sighs. She had promised her mother she would try to stop that (again). She just doesn't notice when she starts squeezing.
She needs to get home. Her mother would worry. She can- She can fall apart when she's home.
.
Only she doesn't go home.
Because Kacchan is in the middle of the streets, trying to fight off the Sludge Villain -But All Might captured him, how -? It's my fault? They're surrounded by others. Heroes, civilians but no one is doing anything. Kacchan is screaming and struggling and no one is helping.
He turns to her and Izuku knows that even if Kacchan hadn't saved her on that day, it wouldn't have mattered because his eyes are crying and screaming for help and her legs move on their own.
.
All Might saves them both.
Afterwards, the heroes all scold her for her carelessness and praise Kacchan for his bravery. When they're let go Kacchan screams at her that he didn't need her help and tells her she's quirkless and useless and then stomps away ̶ Nothing new there.
… He's not wrong either.
She's tired and feels sick but Kacchan is all right and she forces her feet to begin to move back home. She feels a sombre, bitter smile curl her lips.
Kacchan is really right. She really wasn't able to do anything, even with her one and a half year of training. Maybe… Maybe it's better if she focuses on a more realistic future from now. She doesn't want to be an engineer, or a doctor because it reminds her too much of her previous teacher, but maybe something else-
''I'M HERE!''
Izuku squeaks.
All Might zooms on the road. He's saying something about reporters, but in mid-word, he coughs blood and deflates into his skinny body. Izuku has to bite her lip to stop herself from squeaking again.
But this is nice, she can apologize for all the trouble she caused now.
''Kid.'' All Might interrupts her thoughts. ''I've come to thank you and revise what I said earlier… I also have a proposal.''
''Huh?''
''Without you.. If I hadn't heard your story.. I'd have been nothing but fake muscles and insincerity! So, thank you!'' All Might says, and that doesn't make any sense.
''Fake muscles?'' She mumbles and then she hastens to answer ''But.. No. I mean, it was all my fault from the start! I'm so sorry for all the troubles I caused you! I got in your way… even though I'm quirkless I dared to ask if- ''
''Exactly!'' All Might exclaims. ''Of all the people at the scene, it was only you, timid and quirkless, who acted! You spurred me into action!''
Izuku blinks and she feels like she's missed several scenes of a movie she's watching. What is he saying? It seems as if her heart is beginning to beat louder and louder as All Might continuous.
''Most of the top heroes show signs of greatness even as children. Many claim that their bodies simply moved before they could think! That's what happened to you back there, wasn't it?!''
Tears begin to gather in Izumi's eyes.
''YES, YOU CAN BE A HERO!"
.
What follows sounds like a fairy tale, if Izuku is being honest. It's weird and unbelievable but this is All Might. In a nutshell, All Might can transfer his quirk. Izuku is still not really able to wrap her head around it. How is it possible? And why her? But when All Might asks her to be his successor there's really no other answer.
''Yes… I-I accept!''
All Might asks to meet with her two days after on the Dagobah beach. It's- It's a thing.
They had exchanged phone numbers, and when he asked her to meet with her- Well, Izumi trusts All Might. Of course, she trusts All Might. It's All Might.
But as she stares at the floor from her bedroom, she thinks 'All Might wants to make me his successor!' as much as 'I'm meeting with a stranger, in a strange place and I have no idea what will happen or who will be there.'
(Because Izumi had made the words stranger danger just as much hers as the words from Oba-san. Not that her teacher had been a stranger. Maybe that was what terrified her the most.)
Because if All Might will actually train her himself- Izumi knows All Might. She knows every detail from his exact height to weight, to his favourite movie and food. She has been his fan since day number one. But… She doesn't actually know All Might.
And Izumi thinks she can't actually do this. She grabs her phone and bites her lip. She types something, removes it, then types again and removes it again.
'What if All Might thinks I'm nit-picking too much. What if he won't want me as a successor anymore?' Izumi thinks she'd rather do anything to be trained by All Might. She stares at her phone for a while and lays it down again.
It doesn't matter. It's All Might. It'll be alright.
.
She wakes up the next day and she trusts All Might still, of course. But…
(She had trusted him too and look where that got her.)
(She makes sure to keep her phone on her and tell her mom what time she'll be home. Then she runs out before her mother can ask her where she's going.)
.
In the end, only All Might is there and the only thing he does is force her to drag garbage across the beach. It's very heavy and the hot weather doesn't help but All Might explains she need to build up more muscle mass for the quirk and that it would make him happy to be able to see the beach again without the heaps of trash.
She's very glad she's already built up some muscle from the martial-arts classes she follows. She can't imagine dragging these heaps of metal with the sticks she had before as arms. Sure, what she had now wasn't impressive by any means, but at least there was something.
One of the first things she notices that first training is that All Might is big and heavy. Intimidatingly big, in fact. She hadn't noticed their first meeting, with the rush of everything, but now she notices it every time he moves, especially when he's in his hero form. His hand could easily span her entire torso then, and in his true form, he towers over her with at least three heads.
But Midoriya finds she doesn't… It doesn't distress her.
Still, at the end of the morning, she's nervously fiddling and still can't look All Might in the eyes.
And she is cautious.
But All Might isn't perfect like Nagai-sensei. He's rough around the edges and Izumi.. really likes that. He sighs a lot, makes jokes and encourages her. Sometimes he even stammers and flaps around. It's scary and weird to casually interact with her idol, but it gets better as time goes on.
She shouldn't be suspicious of him; this is All Might after all.
(It doesn't stop her from flinching when big hands move too quickly and tensing when the smiles get just a tinge too gentle. Doesn't stop her from having a phone on her always. Just three presses on the home-button and her mom gets an emergency call. Doesn't stop her from looking from any signs. )
But All Might seems very aware of her limits and boundaries. His eyes never stray. He is very respectful of her personal space and only ever touches her to help her with her training.
Izumi is very glad about it.
(Somewhere in the second week, All Might crouches down before her and asks what's wrong. It's only after some needling that Izumi finally admits she would like to tell her mother about her outings. She rushes out that she doesn't even have to tell her mother about his secret, just about a 'trainer' who has taken her under his wing and the place where they train. She would even be able to refer it to her martial-arts interest, instead of her ambition to become a hero.
All Might blinks surprised and he hesitates for only a bit before agreeing.
When Izumi tells her, Inko doesn't like it and wants to meet him. Izumi understands.
It's a week later when Izumi brings up the courage to ask All Might for dinner. When she convinces him, it's another week later, but Izumi doesn't think she's ever felt anything more surreal than the moment they were having dinner at their home with All Might in his true form as guest.
Her mother still isn't sure about the man, but later that night, she tells Izumi she trusts Izumi's judgement and Izumi has never felt so thankful. They both end up crying again.)
The months that follow are hard.
All Might's training is tough, and it feels as if school has suddenly decided to up the work-load. She works night and days and her muscles tremble as her head feels like cotton because of all the information stuffed in it in a short time.
In the end, Izumi even ends up being scolded for overdoing it.
But then, she finally ready. It's a Saturday morning and the entire beach is empty. Months ago, you couldn't even see the ocean. There was trash laying as far as you could see. Now, she's standing on the last bit of trash, sweat dripping and still breathing heavy and the sun is still rising, spreading sunlight over the empty beach.
She did this.
She did this.
And she's going to do more.
.
That day she receives All Might's quirk.
She still has two weeks to go before the exams. It's just going to have to be enough.
She's going to be a hero.
Notes:
1.I'm not an expert on therapy.. From what I know and my experience everything what I wrote is fairly accurate. The only thing which is a bit trippy is inviting your therapist to come over for dinner, but I learned that therapy can be a lot less formal than you may think (at least what I thought), especially with kids who flourish more with relationships like that. Still, can't guarantee it will be realistic to you guys tho. If you've feedback, tell me. I'll check it out.
2. In japan they also call doctors sensei… I wasn't sure if that also included psychologists, but apparently, it is so.
3. Izumi victim-blames herself in here, and that's very bad. Please don't think that I condone that, that it's even acceptable and please don't do it to yourself.
Thanks for reading my story and please leave a review!
kisses!
