These Dreams Are Fragile, Please Handle Them with Care

Izuku couldn't believe he'd just said that. That he'd just blurted out his dreams out like that.

All his life, whenever he told someone, it had always ended in pain. No matter who they were, they would make it clear that they didn't think he stood a chance. Whether it be with a sneer, a laugh or an apology, everyone made it clear that it was a pointless pipe dream.

There has never been a quirkless hero and there never would be. And it most certainly wouldn't be some useless Deku like him.

And the more important the person was to Izuku, the more it had always hurt to hear them say it.

So, since moving, he hadn't said a word; hadn't told anyone. He'd planned to keep his dream to himself as long as possible.

And now he'd blown it. He'd just told Shinsou and now he'd have to hear another person say it. Tell him it was impossible.

"You want to be a hero?" Shinsou asked, surprised.

Might as well get this over with. Izuku took a shaky breath and decided if he was going to admit it, he might as well live up to it, seeing as his goal of becoming a hero was one of the few things he really clung to; one of the only ones that he refused to yield on. "More than anything."

After a few beats of unbearable silence, Izuku kept talking, keeping his eyes focused to the ground as he did so, not wanting to face the rejection of his dream again by yet another person who had come to matter to him. "It's w-why I run to hero fights and rescues as often as I c-can. I know that having a quirk is important b-but I'm hoping that if I build on my analysis skills, it c-could m-m-maybe make up for n-n-not having one. And even though quirkless kids are currently forbidden from the hero courses, there's a rule UA is talking about overturning that would let me have a chance. It's meant for making it easier for people like you but it would apply to me, too." He tensed, bracing himself. "And I'm n-n-not about to j-j-just give up, n-no m-matter what anyone says."

He didn't even realize that he was trembling until Shinsou put a hand on his shoulder. He still refused to raise his head, too fearful of what he'd see. Disgust? Pity? Would Shinsou find it funny? He didn't think he could handle that again.

"Damn Midoriya, you almost sound like you plucked the thoughts from my head and I'm the one with the mind quirk." At that statement, Izuku finally lifted his head. The taller boy didn't look any of the ways that Izuku expected. Instead, he saw hurt and frustration.

"W-w-what?"

"I want to be a hero and have to hear everyone tell me it's impossible, that I'm a villain and that's all I'll ever be."

When he glanced down, two green eyes stared up at him, almost seeming to glow with their own light. "People tell you that you can't be a hero because of your quirk?"

"Yeah, everyone who finds out," he replied.

"But that's crazy!" Izuku declared, unable to wrap his mind around the idea that absolutely no one could see that. "With your quirk, you could fill one of the niches most lacking in heroics. It's like, the greatest quirk I've seen for peaceful resolutions to almost any situation. There's so many uses for it. And not just for the main incidents, like villains or out of control quirks. Because of how soothing your quirk is…"

"Soothing?"

Izuku nodded, "can you imagine how great it would be for calming down people if they're scared or angry or hurt? Its not a smile like All Might but, you would use your quirk as a gentle, grounding technique to reassure people that they're okay, too. Do you know how few quirks could be effective at both strong enough de-escalating most attacks and gentle enough to reassure victims."

Shinsou looked down at the other boy. "Are you just saying that or do you really believe it?"

Izuku rubbed his eyes and said, "I have notes on it. Application wise, you probably have the one of the quirks that's most like Eraserhead, except it has an extra activation requirement but could be even more effective than his once the conditions are met. I could show you if you want?"

Hitoshi blinked, surprised at the other boy's shift in mood.

Shift in subject, he realized.

And looking back on their conversations, Hitoshi recognized that this wasn't the first time Midoriya had pushed the conversation away. Whenever he started focusing on some clue to the other's negative experiences, they would quickly be talking about something else. Midoriya didn't talk to be open. He talked to hide.

It was something Hitoshi desperately wanted to talk about, too. No one had ever called his quirk anything but villainous or evil. Sure, Izuku had said he didn't see it that way before, but the way he'd just described it…

But if he left Izuku's declaration of wanting to be a hero unaddressed, it would be an elephant in the room whenever they were together.

So, Hitoshi fell silent for a moment, trying to think of what to say so Midoriya wouldn't just bury his own hurt under a mountain of words.

Unfortunately, Midoriya took this entirely the wrong way, his excitement melting away to teary eyed terror as he said, "W-we don't have to look at my notes. I… I won't even bring it up again."

"Izuku…" he tried to interrupt, foregoing the other boy's surname altogether.

"Please don't hate me," Midoriya begged in agonizing desperation.

"Izuku…"

"I'm sorry! Please, I don't want to be alone again. I…"

Hitoshi pulled Midoriya into a full hug, tears building up at the corners of his own eyes as he declared, "I'm not leaving you!"

At which point, the other boy let out a cry and started sobbing into his shirt, trembling as he did so.

"I'm not leaving you," he repeated as the sobbing continued. He heard footsteps in the hall, undoubtedly Mrs. Midoriya checking in. Her footsteps quickly receded, for which he was grateful. "I'm staying right here," he added, "and I definitely don't hate you. Especially not for being the first person to tell me I could be a hero and mean it."

Hitoshi could feel Midoriya tremble in his grip, head wedged under his chin as he sobbed and clung to his shirt.

Hitoshi's tears didn't escape the confines of his eyes but they sat on the verge, stinging as he refused to push his own emotions down the way he usually would. He held tight to the first person to say he could be a hero, even as he was breaking down because he'd never heard the words himself.

"Even if I do think you might be crazy for calling Brainwash gentle."

"It is though." Midoriya mumbled into his shirt, causing Hitoshi to chuckle at the fact that it was that part of his statement the other boy chose to refute. Until he suddenly wondered if the other boy had chosen to ignore the mock insult or actually thought he was insane.

Maybe they both were. Everyone else seemed to think so. But Midoriya just seemed to take it all quietly, letting the insults roll off his back and pretending not to notice the tracks they left behind as he pushed on. Pushing through the pain and concentrating on quietly pushing through.

Hitoshi didn't know how the other boy did it. Because unlike Midoriya, Hitoshi wasn't just desperate and hurt. He was angry.

Angry at everyone for disdaining them and pushing them to this state just because they wanted to rise above the labels that had been so carelessly slapped onto them. Why did they get treated like trash when the heartless monsters who tried to break them were freely welcomed to experience the warmth and happiness they were denied?

And finally, words to say to Izuku finally came to Hitoshi. "If you really believe that people are so wrong about me, how can you even begin to think they'd be better at judging you?"

Midoriya's arms squeezed him even tighter as they clung to each other. Almost too quietly to hear, he asked, "Y-you mean that?"

"How about we show them they're wrong?" Hitoshi found the words flowing out of him. "Let's do it together." He realized that those words weren't just for Midoriya but for himself as well.

He was so tired of being alone in this.

Hitoshi continued, "We can work together and help each other."

"D-do you really think that I can be a hero?" Midoriya asked seriously and Hitoshi found himself caught in the most intense stare he'd ever experienced as Midoriya's eyes seemed to dissect his very soul in search for nonexistent deceit.

Hitoshi found himself answering the query honestly. "I don't even know if I can make it, Izuku, and I know that your odds are worse than mine. But I know we'll have a better chance together than we'd ever have on our own."

Midoriya relinquished his grip as he stared directly at Shinsou's chest, lips moving silently at a million miles an hour before coming to a halt. The boy drew himself tall, clearly having come to a decision of his own.

He locked eyes with Shinsou again, with a gaze that had somehow become even more piercing than before, contagious determination overflowing as he declared, "Let's do it."

Hitoshi released a breath he hadn't even realized he'd been holding.

Then Midoriya walked across the room and started rifling through his bedside desk, pulling out a set of three tiny notebooks bound in clear plastic. He was about half way through viciously tearing it off when Hitoshi considered whether he was right in his original assumption that other wasn't as angry as him. Or if he was just expressing it in a very different way.

Hitoshi wasn't given much time to think on it. Midoriya turned back to him, a pen in one hand and one of the notebooks the other, leaving the remaining two on the desk, crushing the mangled, twisted remains of their shiny wrapper beneath them. He finally looked up at Hitoshi again, eyes still holding that new gleam of purpose in them.

Yeah, he wasn't the only one who was angry as well as hurting.

They didn't get any homework done before he had to head home for the night.

And that was alright, because Hitoshi had considered what he'd gained was well worth the annoyance of falling a day behind in his school work.

The rest of the evening before Shinsou had to go home was spent planning. At first, they'd tried coming up with ways to help each other but that quickly changed into stepping back and taking a look at what they had to do and what steps the could take, which ultimately meant that they would have to do a lot of research.

They decided to ask mom if Shinsou could spend the night this weekend, both so they could compare notes for what they'd find between now and then and so that Izuku could cover proper hero watching with Shinsou. Izuku actually planned to go further than that but he'd wait to discuss it with everything else.

Izuku had added his idea to the diligently taken notes he'd built up as they parsed out what they would look into. Honestly, Izuku wasn't sure that they'd even find anything over the next few days but he couldn't afford to take the chance of missing something.

After all, he wasn't the only one depending on his work now.

Shinsou may not have said that he thought Izuku could make it but this time it was different than when anyone else expressed their doubts. Shinsou saw himself as in the same boat as Izuku, facing rejection from everyone else, even if—as he said—it wasn't on the same level.

So, Izuku came to a decision. One he refused to tell Shinsou out of fear for the other boy's reaction because he was sure the indigo haired boy wouldn't like it. If it turned out to be impossible for both of them to make it, Izuku would do everything he could to make sure that at least Shinsou did.

Izuku knew that, of the two of them, Shinsou could save so many more people. Although he would probably never show up on the charts, he had the capability of being one of the greatest heroes ever. Izuku smiled at the thought.

And he'd do everything he could to help make that a reality and maybe even make it into heroics himself along the way.

Izuku even suspected that he might be able to live with giving up on his dream for himself, if he could carry the knowledge that he helped someone else make it. But for now, he'd push himself alongside Shinsou and do his best, for both of their sakes.

This Chapter's a little on the short side but I felt that the scene was important enough to warrant its own. It's a sort of the wrap up for the whole first arc of just building a friendship between the two. Now I have a base to build off of and am looking forward to getting into future stuff I have planned for this story. In all honesty, it would probably be more accurate to say that the first part of this story was made for this chapter. I had it almost done before I had even started on most of what you read so far and just had to make some minor adjustments.

Both of these characters deserved to have a friend, even though they didn't really have one throughout their childhood. Shinsou arguably still doesn't have one in the series, although that's because he can still avoid Izuku due to being in a completely different class and separate training (once they have more contact, every time he states "I'm not here to make friends," Midoriya will magically forget the word 'not' in that statement. Todoroki will no doubt understand exactly how Shinsou feels in that regard.

I honestly think that the best way for Izuku to push himself, sadly, is by placing someone else's needs before his own and pushing himself to help them. Shinsou is playing the role of that catalyst, here.

So, the next chapter will actually be a preview of the collection of cut scenes for this story: 'Unnoticed and Underestimated Unposted', which is to this as 'Shattered Centers Scenes off the Cutting Room Floor' is to 'Shattered Centers.'