"You should come to my house after school."

Izuku hadn't planned the invitation, or at least hadn't planned to ask without apologizing first, but he did nothing to try to pull the words back. The last thing he wanted was for his friend to think the invitation wasn't genuine. Shinsou didn't speak, staring at Izuku in shock, and frankly Izuku didn't blame him. They hadn't spoken since Shinsou used his quirk on him the day before, and the first thing Izuku did was invite him over without warning.

When Izuku had dragged Shinsou away after his friend had released him from his quirk's control, Izuku had been sure that that would be sign that Shinsou had been looking for. The proof that Izuku wasn't afraid of him or what he could do. Instead Shinsou had refused to talk to him and had gone straight to his seat without a word. Izuku had watched him from across the room, his heart stopping as he noticed the way Shinsou's hands shook long after class had resumed.

Asking Shinsou to use his quirk on him, Izuku realized, might not have been the best idea.

Izuku had gone home at the end of the day feeling sick for making the situation worse, and his mother, ever observant, noticed the moment he wanted in the door.

"Oh, Izuku," she said, frowning at him from her desk in the living room. "What happened?"

Looking down, Izuku dropped his bag to the floor. "I made a friend at school," he said simply.

Inko's brow furrowed. She wanted to be happy that Izuku was adjusting to his new school, was making new friends, but the expression on his face as he kicked at the floor with his socked foot didn't match the excitement she expected his words to bring. "Did your new friend hurt your feelings?"

"Worse!" Izuku said softly, dropping down on the sofa with his back turned to Inko. "I think I hurt his feelings. Pushed him too far. And now he won't talk to me."

The desk's chair scraped against the floor as Inko stood, moving to sit beside her son. Izuku fiddled with the straps on his backpack in his lap, not looking as she placed an arm around his shoulders. "Do you want to tell me about it? Maybe I can help you find a way to fix things."

"His name is Shinsou Hitoshi and...I thought that maybe Kacchan and his friends were just the exception, you know?" Izuku said finally. "I know that being quirkless isn't common anymore, but I had gone into school the first day, and no one said anything bad about it. No one acted like it was a big deal. And then I found out why."

Izuku trailed off again, taking a shaky breath, and Inko reached to calm the hand that pulled at the frayed strings on his bag as he tried to gather his words. "They hated him, Mom. He's got a really cool quirk perfect for being a pro hero, but people are jealous. They called him a future villain just because his quirk is a kind of mind control. Doesn't matter that he's never used his quirk on his classmates on purpose, or that he wants to go to Yuuei to be a hero. I thought they actually liked me, but really they just wanted to use me against Shinsou. Like hey, even the quirkless kid is better than you. That sort of thing."

Inko felt a surge of anger for the child she had never met. She had had a lot talk with the school about their policy on bullying before she enrolled Izuku, but if something like this was going on it seemed like another visit to the school would be in order. "And what did you do?"

"They tried to tell me about all of these awful things he had supposedly done. Why I needed to avoid him because all he would ever end of being was a villain." Izuku's chuckle sounded watery. "So I went and talked to him. Asked him to be my friend. And he looked so surprised, Mom, like he couldn't believe that anyone would want to talk to him."

"That poor boy," Inko said. "I can't believe that school allowed that to happen."

Izuku shrugged. "From what I gathered from Shinsou, they never say anything bad to him when a teacher is around. It's just at break when no one else can hear, or before classes start when the teacher isn't there yet. Shinsou won't tell anyone about it either."

"Well it sounds like a good thing you two are friends then," Inko said, running her fingers through Izuku's hair. He leaned in to the touch as she continued. "But you said you thought you had hurt his feelings?"

"It was dumb. He didn't seem to think I meant it when I said I wanted to be his friend, and he kept acting like I would turn on him as soon as he used his quirk. There's this kid in our class who kept saying that I was only talking to Shinsou because he had used his quirk on me before someone could warn me. So I asked Shinsou to use it to prove that I really wanted to be his friend. In front of everyone."

"And now he's worried that you'll hold that against him, even though you told him to?" Inko asked. If the boy had been bullied for using his quirk as harshly as Izuku had been by Bakugou and his gang, she could see why he would have thought that. Izuku had offered something that Shinsou Hitoshi probably desperately wanted and then immediately put him in a position he had associated with loss.

Izuku nodded. "I didn't think about what that would do to him. I just wanted to find a way to prove that I meant what I said, but I pushed too far. He wouldn't talk to me the rest of the day, and I could see him shaking and- How do I fix this?" He cried. "I didn't mean to hurt him."

"You need to tell him exactly what you told me," Inko said finally. "Explain to him what you were trying to do, but make sure to apologize. I know you meant well, but in situations like this intentions don't change the fact that his feelings were hurt." She smoothed his hair from his face, wiping at the tears that had started to fall as he sniffled. "Listen to what he has to say, and I'm sure the two of you will be able to move past this. Make sure to bring him by one day too. I'd love to meet him."

And so Izuku had planned to do just that. Shinsou had arrived at school just as the bell rang, but Izuku promised himself that he would talk to him at break. He had followed his friend to his usual spot outside, had planned to apologize the moment he had settled on the ground beside him, but when he saw the hesitance in Shinsou's movements, the way that he wouldn't quite meet his eyes, the words had tumbled out before he could stop them.

"What?" Shinsou asked finally, looking away from Izuku again to where the rest of their classmates milled about.

"I meant to apologize first," Izuku said quickly. "For yesterday. It wasn't fair of me to put you in that position. I wanted to show you that I was your friend, no matter what, but I didn't stop to think about how you would feel about it." Izuku looked down at his hands, pulling on the sleeves of his jacket. "I'm really sorry, Shinsou-kun. I never meant to make you uncomfortable, and… If you want to, I would really like it if you could come to my house after school."

Silence.

"Shinsou-kun?" Izuku looked up to find Shinsou staring at him. "Are you okay?"

"You really want me to come over?"

Now it was Izuku's turn to be confused. "Yes? I thought maybe we could work on our homework for a little while, and I want to show you this new All Might figure I got. Oh! And my mom said she wants to meet you! I'm sure she'll go all out if you can come, so maybe you could stay for dinner too, and-"

"You really aren't mad?" Shinsou asked, the words a whisper.

"I told you, Shinsou-kun. I'm your friend. Your quirk is amazing, and one day you're going to be a great hero." Izuku said. "I hope that you'll be able to trust me when I say that soon."

Just like that, Izuku was frozen, the feeling of calm mindlessness that he had experience the day before coming over him once again. It ended just as quickly, and Izuku watched, eyes wide, as Shinsou leaned forward, waiting to see what Izuku would do. They stared at each other for a minute before the corner of Izuku's mouth twitched, and they both busted out laughing.

The sound drew the yard's attention their way, but the two boys paid them no mind. "So do you want to come?"

Shinsou's answering smile was soft. "Yes. I think I would. And Midoriya?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

AN: So not Hitoshi and Inko's meeting, but I decided this needed to be addressed first. Inko will definitely meet her new son next update, I promise!

Thanks to everyone who commented on the last chapter!