A/N: Feel free to share with me your ideas on how you want the story to progress. While there's no guarantee I will incorporate the idea(s), having you guys share your thoughts with me has led me to think of different/new ideas for this story that I ended up utilizing at certain moments in the story anyway. So don't feel afraid to share your wishes for how you want the story to progress! It definitely helps my writing muse.

Also, I've gotten PMs that some of you want a love triangle between Todoroki/Deku/Kacchan. If I'm going to be honest—the story is supposed to be already reaching its end. It was never meant to be a grand fic of epic proportions, it was just meant to dabble a bit into Izuku's and Katsuki's childhood, only from the lense of fem!deku. Likewise, Shouto was never meant to make an appearance in this fic. That being said, after you guys brought him up, it got me thinking, and I'm starting to really dig the idea of Todoroki coming into the picture to stir things up, if only for a bit. That being said—no promises. I still gotta piece together in my mind how that whole encounter/plotline would play out, and if I find that I don't know how I'll work it into the story, I'll discard the whole idea altogether. In any case, feel free to keep sending me ideas! And maybe something will stick. :P

Anyway—Hope you enjoy this chapter!


Izuku is ten years old the day Katsuki decides to beat her up for the first time.

"Izuku! What on earth happened to you?" Inko exclaims as she rushes to her daughter's side.

"I was playing basketball with the boys and they hit me really hard with the ball accidentally a couple times... It's no big deal."

"Izuku. Your arms are bruised and you have a black eye. Those sort of injuries don't just come accidentally."

"Well, I guess to me, they just do," Izuku snaps, and places her backpack near the doorway. She exhales. The memories from today start to replay in her mind.

"Why are you being so mean?" Izuku asks. You're making him cry, Kacchan! If you keep on hurting him, uh… I'll, uh… I'll stop you myself!"

Katsuki stares at Izuku before chuckling.

"You wanna pretend to be a Hero? You don't stand a chance without a quirk. Deku."

Izuku shuts her eyes and turns away from the gaze of her mother.

He's been making her life a living hell since the second grade, with his constant insults and rallying the whole grade against her. He even got all of them to start calling her Deku at some point, too.

But today, he crossed all boundaries.

"Just… drop it, Mom, okay? I told you what happened and that's all there is to it."


"Inko-san told me at work today that Izuku-chan got hurt really badly playing basketball yesterday." Mitsuki brings up casually during dinner.

Katsuki nearly breaks his chopsticks upon hearing the news.

Nearly.

So. Deku didn't snitch on me. He smirks.

She's smart. Because if she did, I would have killed her.

"Katsuki, why are you smiling? This isn't a laughing matter!"

"Sorry, I remembered something funny that happened at school, that's why." He replies as he props a piece of chicken into his mouth. "Anyway, I haven't hung out with Dek— er, Izuku, since the second grade, Mom, so I don't really get why you feel the need to tell me this. So she got a little hurt playing basketball. I don't see how that relates to me."

Mitsuki scoffs.

"I thought it was worth letting you know. She was your closest friend back in the second grade, after all."

"Well, that was then. Now we hardly even speak to each other." Well, that's a bit a of lie. They do still talk, but it's only when Katsuki decides to pick on her. But Mitsuki doesn't need to know that information.

Mitsuki frowns. "What drove you two apart? You two were inseparable throughout most of the second grade."

Oh, gee, Mom. He doesn't know. Maybe Izuku being extra baggage is what drove them apart. Maybe it's the fact that instead of helping reach his full potential, all Izuku's ever done is drag him down.

Maybe it's the fact that despite her being completely useless, she still thinks she's better than him.

Scratch that, she's not completely useless. God, beating her up yesterday after a long time of wanting to do so was just so. Exhilarating. Having her writhe beneath him, watching the color fade from his eyes as she lost consciousness.

It was like a dream out of heaven.

While she'll never be useful in the way Izuku wants to be, she'll at least be useful as a good punching bag from here on out.


A week passes, and Izuku decides to do something incredibly bold by her standards.

Katsuki is off minding his own business, practicing basketball by himself, when Izuku decides to pop up uninvited and nab the ball from him.

Katsuki's eyes narrow. "Give me the ball, nerd." He says threateningly.

"I want you to stop harassing me, Kacchan." She says without missing a beat.

Katsuki's caught off-guard by how vehement her tone is. His shock doesn't last for long, though. He laughs.

"Acting a bit high and mighty, now are we, Deku? Especially considering the beating you took last week."

It's funny.

This is the sort of reaction he wanted from her from the beginning. The exact reason why he started teasing her, all the way back in the second grade.

But now, all it's doing is pissing him off.

"I've had it with you calling me Deku. I've had it with you teasing me all the time. So let's make a deal. Let's fight. Just you, and me. If I win, I want you to stop being such a cold-hearted bully. And if you win, well. The reward is up to you."

"What did you just call me?" He snarls. "I'm not a cold-hearted bully, you damn loser. People like you think I am because you've never won a real fight."

Out of all the things she decides to do next— she smirks. A particularly smug one, at that.

"I remember beating you at that chokehold match, the first day we met. And I remember you cried like a baby afterwards."

If murder weren't illegal, he would have slaughtered her right then and there.

He pushes her to the ground.

"You want a fight, Deku? You got one."


Izuku doesn't know what exactly prompted her to get in a fight with Katsuki that day.

She should have just told on him for all the times he's treated her like garbage.

But she knows that if she did, Katsuki wouldn't stop his bullying. He'd only get back at her when the next opportunity presented itself.

So, she figured that if she got into a fight with him, one on one, she could give him a taste of his own medicine, while putting an end to his tyranny.

But as she lays on the ground, staring at the sky, nose bleeding and body bruised, all she thinks about is how this might not have been such a great idea after all.


"How was school today, Katsuki?" Mitsuki asks.

Katsuki grunts as he takes off his shoes.

"Fine," he mumbles.

"That's all you ever say, Katsuki," his mother groans, "Come on. Give me a little more than that."

Well, if he's going to be completely honest, aside from the boring lectures he had to sit through at school, today was better than fine. He beat the snot out of worthless Izuku and then got a pretty decent reward out of it.

"I want you to give me your limited edition All Might figure." He told her without the slightest hint of remorse when the fight was over.

The whole idea of Izuku taking him on in a fight was just downright hilarious from the get-go, and one he knew would end in failure. But he rolled with it, because he never backs down from these sort of challenges out of principle.

Not to mention because she pissed him the hell off.

And now look at what she did. She only got herself hurt and now she has to give him her limited edition All Might figure.

A toy he's fully aware means the world to her.

But it's her own fault. If she wanted to keep it, she shouldn't have played with fire. Or at least, in this case, with explosions.

"Katsuki, I'm talking to you!" His mother barks and grabs him by the ear.

"Agh!" He swats her hand away. "Dammit you old hag, nothing that great happened at school today! So leave me alone!"


Izuku cries as she wills herself to fall asleep that night.

Katsuki… why and when did you become so cruel?

She misses the days when they were still friends. When they could play games together for hours on end.

The days when Katsuki didn't bully her any chance he got.

But the more time passes, the more those days seem out of reach.

She turns on the light, walks on over to her drawer and pulls out her old sketchbook from the second grade.

Aside from the drawings she has of All Might and sketches of her future Hero costume, there are drawings she has of her and Katsuki dressed as Heroes.

She rips those drawings out of her sketchbook, walks over to her trash can, and throws them away.