Sadly, Deku being unfamiliar with the debriefing officers didn't mean that they weren't familiar with him. He winced as a particularly thick file hit the desk and a surly man sat down across from him. The second officer remained quiet, and seemingly uninterested.

"Izuku Midoriya, eh? I've heard of you. Thorn in the department's side." The officer's eyes narrowed. "Now here you are. Fresh out of the hospital. I guess you're supposed to tell me why, aren't you?"

Deku swallowed. His guts felt like they were going through a washing machine. Leaving the heroes out of the interview was definitely a bad idea. Asking his mom to let him do it alone was pointless, too. It's not like she hadn't already heard what happened. She may have given the officer an earful, though, and Deku didn't need the trouble. When had he begun thinking of having his mom's help as being troublesome…?

The story came out slowly. Little noises and notes from the officer made him so nervous it was hard for him to continue. After almost a half hour Deku finished telling the tale. He licked his lips as the officer continued making notes for a while, then answered a few more direct questions.

"All right. Well, I'm glad you're doing all right. Sounds like a hell of a time. Go ahead." The surly officer continued making his notes. Deku's jaw worked for a minute or two without anything actually happening before the officer noticed and raised an eyebrow. "Is something the matter?"

"I… Uh, I'm s-surprised… Y-you're not yelling at me…" The officer sighed and dug his thumbs into his eyes.

"Midoriya, I'll be honest. I don't like you." Deku blinked in surprise. The officer continued. "You get involved in too much crime to be a coincidence, but you're always helping people. Plus, after reading your file and the extensive background work done while you were an applicant, I don't blame the others for calling you a liability. It's like you just can't learn how to take care of yourself."

Deku nodded. All these things were normal. Officers treated him that way constantly. This particular officer sighed, as if knowing all of that didn't do him any good.

"But this time… You actually managed to save two civilians. No matter what the police think, you were a hero for a moment there." The officer's eyes focused into an intense glare. "I'm not indulging your stupid fantasy about being a hero. Personally, I'd throw you in jail for obstruction if I caught you on half of the things that are in this damn file. I don't like you. But at the end of the day, you haven't rolled across my radar before and I don't have time to deal with you."

Deku nodded and left the room, moving without much thought. The officer's words had put his mind in a fog and left him without direction. Inko noticed his mood and left him to it, choosing to escort him out of the hospital and get them moving toward home.

The train ride was particularly harsh. Memories of the sludge incident opened up like freshly broken scabs. He clutched at his mother's hand and gripped it till she had to unclench his fingers. Only when they were in the apartment did he come back to reality. Inko sent him to the shower and then to bed.


Ochako was worried. More so, probably, than she should have been. It had only been three days since Deku's incident and discharge. A rational part of her brain kept telling that he was probably fine. The police wouldn't have done anything harsh or out of line in the debriefing room.

Right?

Todoroki, Mina and Kirishima had didn't understand. They passed it off when she told them she hadn't heard from him in a few days, as if that was something people did normally. Maybe it was something they did normally. Deku wasn't exactly normal.


Deku grabbed wildly for his phone when it started ringing. The light burned his eyes, but he opened it anyways and looked.

Uraraka-san (Uravity)

The time made him blink and claw at the sleep infesting his eyes.

"…Uraraka-san…?"


He sounded bad.

"Eh, Deku-kun? Did I wake you up?"

"I think so. Sorry, I know it's still early in the evening. What's up?"

"I, um… I was worried. I haven't heard from you in a few days." Ochako chewed her lip. "Not since you were debriefed."

"Oh. I'm sorry for worrying you, Uraraka-san. I should have let you know I was okay."

"It went okay then?"

"I… I think so. I told them what happened. They didn't yell at me." He sighed.

"Deku-kun, are you feeling all right?" Ochako's cheeks burned, just a little. Asking something so forward was out of her nature. Deku was too skittish for things like that. But… leaving things be made her feel even worse.

"…I really made you worry. I'm sorry, Uraraka-san. I'm okay."

"I'm glad." Silence came through the phone line like static. "Eh, if you have time, maybe we could all have lunch sometime this week?"

"Will you have the time? I mean, with work…"

"Of course! It'll be okay!"

"Th-then I'd like that… I need to properly thank you all for coming to my hospital room, too."

"You don't need to thank us! Well I don't know about the others, but I was making sure you were okay after that attack. It' natural to visit your friends, isn't it?"

"Eh, y-yeah! Y-you're right. B-but I'd still like to thank you all somehow…"

"We'll talk about that later." Ochako giggled. She could practically see his red face on the other end of the line.

"Mmhmm! I'll talk to you soon, Uraraka-san."

"Good night, Deku-kun!"


The line went dead, but Deku smiled anyways. Uraraka always left him feeling a little floaty. Maybe it was being friends with someone or being friends with a girl. Sometimes he wondered if it had anything to do with her being a Hero. No matter the reason, he enjoyed it. He enjoyed talking to her. For a moment he chuckled.

Maybe she's using her quirk on me… Tuning all my problems weightless like this.

They agreed to lunch on a Wednesday. Deku was shocked when he arrived and found Todoroki waiting at the table.

"Ah, eh, T-Todoroki-sama…" Todoroki paled at the stuttered introduction.

"Please, Midoriya, there's no need for that. We're friends, aren't we?" Deku clenched his fists and swallowed.

"Um… Y-yeah. Sorry, you- I was surprised, to see you here this soon I mean." Todoroki took a seat and looked at him.

"I wanted to talk to you. You seem like the kind who would get here early." Deku wasn't sure what to make of that. He wasn't even sure why Todoroki's eyes made him feel so exposed. Only people who'd known him back in school made him feel the same.

"W-what did you want to talk to me about?"

"…Your scars." Deku froze. He pictured himself running for the exits, making some kind of excuse to skip lunch and just deleting his contact list. It wouldn't be the first time he'd done that to someone. With everything that happened, he'd forgotten who'd found him during the attack on the mall.

No wonder he felt so exposed.

"I'm sorry. My bluntness is probably not the best way to go about this, but I don't know you well enough." Deku met Todoroki's gaze despite the ice seeping through his gut. Forced himself to meet Todoroki's gaze, and put some steel in his own spine.

"I… Y-you're right… B-but- I'll do my best." Todoroki nodded.

"What happened?" Deku rolled that around in his head.

Uraraka was kindhearted. She knew how nervous he was and didn't ever ask questions he didn't like. He'd known that she was trying to help him, not help him with anything but help help him instead. Why had he expected the other heroes to do the same? Uraraka was nice. Probably too nice to him, actually. It wasn't like he deserved it.

Stop. He flinched. The logical part of his brain dug up everything he knew about Todoroki, trying to formulate a response.

"If it's not something you want to talk about, then don't."

Deku's brain short circuited.

"W-what?" Todoroki leaned back in his chair.

"I'm curious about you. Uraraka speaks highly of you, and even though you couldn't fight back you threw yourself at a villain. But being curious doesn't mean I want you to be uncomfortable." Todoroki's eyes wandered the restaurant. Deku sighed in relief when those eyes left him alone for a moment. "I meant what I said in the hospital. We could be good friends I think."

His eyes returned to Deku.

"If I'm right… I think you and I may be able to relate to one another pretty well." Deku stared back at Todoroki. His mind was empty, as if a villain had leapt up out of the ground and begun wreaking havoc. There was no way he could possibly think straight after hearing…

"Y-you're talking about Endeavor, aren't you?"

Todoroki didn't go cold, or glare. Nothing about him changed. His gaze remained painfully level.

"You say that like you know something others don't." A little bit a twitch formed above his right eye. Deku's eyes widened.

"I-It's not like that. B-but I- eh, there are a few… theories."

"Really?" Deku laughed. It wasn't the same as with Uraraka. Laughing with Todoroki was like laughing at a bad joke. At one of his own jokes.

"There's no way you haven't seen them." Todoroki was quiet for a few minutes.

"If you'd ever like to talk, I'm open to it." Deku could hear something in his voice. Not curiosity or anger. He wasn't sure what Todoroki was feeling, honestly, but there were hints here and there of something underneath the façade he wore.

"Have you ever talked to the others in your class about it?" It was hard not to grin at the shock on Todoroki's face, even if it was only momentary. Deku hated people acting with that kind of still-faced bullshit. Heroes did it all the time. Most of them, anyways. All the wrong ones. Todoroki blinked a few times, then looked at the table between them.

"No. Not all of them. Only one."

"Yaoyorozu-sama, right?" Todoroki's expression turned dark when he looked up. Deku met it easily, now that he could see Todoroki's real face. "I'm a hero fan, Todoroki-san. I know a lot about you all. Not personally, but I've seen footage and interviews and such. There's a lot out there on the internet."

"That… Is no one's business but ours."

"You're right." They stared off for a few moments. "Uraraka-san has been trying to… to help me. She only became friends with me for that. But… I don't want to stop being her friend. Uraraka-san is really nice to me."

"What does that…"

"You weren't the only one who saw my scars, were you?" Todoroki shook his head slowly. Understanding seeped into his eyes. It seemed all the emotions that weren't passionate showed around his eyes. How Ironic. "Uraraka-san doesn't ask questions like that because she's afraid I'll stop being her friend and she won't be able to help me. But… you're right. You and I may be able to understand one another.

"I'd like to be friends with you all. I'm not good at having friends. Talking about things like that… about my problems… It may help me overcome them. And I think that would make Uraraka-san happy. Plus, it would mean that you all could come to me too, if you had things you wanted to talk about. I'd really, really… like that…" Deku sighed and ran a hand through his curls. "Maybe this is all too much. I asked about your class because I wondered if you'd told them about your past, too."

"You wanted to see how they may take it." Todoroki stated. Deku nodded.

"I'm not exactly comfortable just… talking about it." Todoroki scoffed.

"I can tell." A wry smile creased his face. "You're pretty good under pressure though. Your stutter is gone."

"Yeah…" Deku laughed. "I don't know that's about."

"I have a guess or two." Todoroki's smile changed from wry to small and, dare Deku say, fond? "I think I'm beginning to see what Uraraka sees in you, Midoriya."

Deku smiled. He knew that had to be a compliment.