Small noises of laughter and childish screams echoed in a young man's head. Green eyes matched with equally eccentric hair, the boy glanced at the T.V. standing in the middle of his family's living room. It had been a normal morning when Izuku Midoriya had stood frozen as he recounted the events of the past. One moment clearly standing out amongst the rest.
As his thoughts seems to trail away from him a warm willed woman poked her head through the doorway.
"Izuku? Are you not heading out? Can you pick up some milk on your way home?" Inko, his mother, had spoken in rapid succession.
"Huh? Oh, yeah mom, I can stop by the store…" He replied trailing off yet again, softly without any noise he left the house.
In that cold moment there was only the audible click of the front door shutting close. And with that click Inko let out a sigh. Her son had been acting strange lately, it was apparent to her that it was because of school. She suspected he was being bullied at his high school, but due to his previous optimistic and carefree demeanor, she had laid off on pressing him for more information. But now… She couldn't help but feel rolls of dread pouring off her son.
||Break||
The high school was bustling with the typical noise for career day. Enter Izuku, he had always been quirkless and was known for his cowardly tendencies in the class, however, lately he had been changing in a way that put everyone off. It was a feeling that was hard to describe. The class' classic scapegoat was seemingly untouchable. One subtle glance from the boy and andy laughter would stop. The casual teasing which usually spread in the morning like wild fire was smothered out before it could even start.
The only way to describe it was that their trash of a Deku didn't react towards anything anymore. Even the current Izuku could remember how it was like in the past: pathetic.
"Hey Deku, do you still think you can become a hero?"
"Oh my god, as if you can become a hero without a quirk! What a loser."
"Trash."
The teasing crumbled away Izuku's already non-existent self-confidence. He would grit his teeth as his agony grew, always wanting to speak out, but the thought of being beat to a bloody pulp served as a reminder to him to shut up. He still had scars from the decade prior of being Kacchan's test dummy. He still developed burn marks and bruises, but as long as he smiled, no one thought it was too bad. No one thought that Izu- Deku had actually been harmed.
'Fake it til' you make it'
Yeah… Soon he would show them all!
The only thing that the current attitude of Izuku that seemed to match the previous Deku was his precious cache of notebooks. Still to that day he carried around Journal #13. Writing down his notes and speculations of heroes was still his quirk. Too bad that words shared two different meanings, because no matter what, Izuku had no power.
It was only when a loud-mouthed somebody bursted through the door that the atmosphere lightened; Bakugou, the flame for brains, explosive asshole. And with that, class continued on.
The teacher had entered the room and class soon began.
"You guys are all third years now!" With a flick of the wrist, the teacher slammed a pile of career forms onto his podium,"It's time to start thinking seriously about your futures!"
Izuku barely looked up from his written notes before the teacher exploded from his rumbling mass into a carefree expression of careless undertones.
"I would hand out these future career forms but… I assume you all want to be heroes!" and with that the class exploded.
Izuku couldn't help but flinch. Even with his strange behavior lately, he was still the same Deku that he always was. Nothing could change that.
Exploding in the background as always was Bakugou and his loud mouth antics. Izuku merely scowled away at the scene as his childhood friend showed off in front of other, trying to be his arrogant self as usual.
Izuku had tried to tune out the nonsense that Kacchan was boasting. It was just another day with the same exact morning. He took a breath and continued his notes. On his way to school he had witnessed a new hero making their debut. While he lost himself in his daydreams of the future while waiting for signs of his quirk, the room's atmosphere changed with the Teacher's simple words.
"You're also going for U.A. too, right Midoriya?"
Without the time of a breath, Bakugou had turned around and slammed his fist onto Izuku's desk.
"Are you kidding me?!" he screamed in ridicule, grabbing at Izuku's collar.
"And you think you can rub shoulders with me?!" he grunted out venomously as his eyebrows knit into furrowed arches.
Maniacal smiles seemed to only surround the two as people teased Izuku for his stupidity. It had been a long time since they could so openly mock the poor kid. All their insecurities, all of their anxieties that they once held close to them were nothing if they could push all their frustrations onto the loser of a kid.
Izuku tried to defend himself and calm down the wild Bakugou.
"Wa-Wait no, Kacchan! I wasn't saying that I could compete with you! Not at all! I mean it."
With a quick scurry, Izuku had managed to get out of Bakugou's grasp and crawled backwards towards the wall, "It's just been my dream… There's no harm in trying…"
Haughty laughter surrounded him. Every person he saw only seemed to mock him by exposing their quirks.
"Pffft, he wouldn't even last a day…"
"TRY?! TRY WHAT!? THE ENTRANCE EXAM!?" Bakugou began to fume. Gas began to build up in the room, steam pouring off of hands as Izuku began to shrink back in fear. He didn't want another fight.
"YOU'RE TAKING THE EXAM TO JUST 'TRY'?!" Bakugou growled out, "What can you even do?"
||Break||
The crowds had fades as the class went on. It was the end of the day when Izuku was scrolling through his phone, a rare smile on his face as he read up on new hero incidents. However, the smile would be quickly be wiped off his face as Bakugou approached him.
"We ain't done here, Deku."
In a mere second Bakugou snatched away Izuku's notebook as the poor boy pleaded for its return. In a cruel smirk Bakugou exerted entergy onto the book in between his hands. With a threatening boom the room shook. The book was burnt into a crisp block of damaged pages.
"Why..?!" Izuku could only ask pitifully.
"Hmph. The best of heroes out there, well… They showed signs of greatness even as students. I'll be the first and only hero from this crappy public middle school! The first to win the honor of becoming a student at U.A. High. Guess that I'm just a perfectionist."
Casualties thus tossed aside, Bakugou chucked the burnt notebook out the window without a glance. Taking large steps towards the cowering boy, Bakugou grinned.
"In other words… Don't you dare get into U.A., Nerd."
Patting his shoulder with a small amount of force, Izuku could feel the waves of heat rolling off of Bakugou's hands. He could only release a shaky breath as the group of bullies mocked him as they left the door way.
"So typical, c'mon say something."
"He can't say anything. He's so lame. Even as a third year… He still can't face reality."
Bakugou chirped in with a content smile, "You wanna be a hero so bad? I've got a time-saving idea for you. If you think you'll have a quirk in your next life… go take a swan dive off the roof."
Normally, Izuku would be mad. He would be furious to the point where he would attack his old friend. But today, it was the worse of all occurrences.
"Go kill yourself. No one wants you here anyway. Poor little baby, can't even stand up for himself without getting hurt. Fucking coward."
Tears flowed silently down his cheeks as Izuku struggled to match Bakugou's gaze. Silence beckoned in the room as the blonde monster taunted him.
"..."
"Ok…" with that Izuku shoved past Bakugou in as small shaken breaths could be heard from his body as he walked towards the stairs.
"Hey! Where the fuck do you think you're going?!" Bakugou mercilessly growled out after being lightly shoved, "fucking come back here!"
||Break||
Something had been off about Izuku this morning but Katsuki hadn't thought anything of it. After all, Deku was Deku. He was a stupid little bastard who couldn't fend for himself. The green haired nincompoop was a brash idiot with no talent, no quirk and no skill. Become a hero? What bullshit.
Obviously Katsuki would say words that held malicious intent without any thought of consequence. In that very moment he thought that Deku had finally grown a spine, that he might have been asking for a new beating. But then he just walked off.
"Hey! Where the fuck do you think you're going?!" Bakugou mercilessly growled out after being lightly shoved, "fucking come back here!"
His eyes screamed in shades of crimson as he witnessed Deku walk up the staircase to the roof. It couldn't be that he was taking his words seriously, right? No way…
Fuck.
"Deku where the fuck are you going?" no response.
"OI! DON'T PLAY WITH ME YOU LITTLE SHIT!" no response. Bakugo followed quickly behind but it felt as if Izuku had left him on a completely different level.
||Break||