Izuku and Ochako were homeless. Izuku had run away from home after failing the UA entrance exam, not willing to give up his dream and go to a 'normal' school. Ochako couldn't bring herself to face her parents after they had worked so hard to rent an apartment near UA for her. She had also failed the exam. They had exchanged numbers after they left the exam, neither had much hope after they were nearly crushed by a zero pointer. Izuku had barely gotten her out in time. It earned him a few rescue points, but obviously not enough to pass. They drifted from alley to alley buying food from the small amount of under the counter quirk work Ochako could get.
One day though, a little girl ran into them while they were sleeping the day away in a cool alley.
"Help." Was all the girl said.
It was enough, the two took one look at the masked man following the girl and bolted. Ochako using her quirk on the girl and Izuku carrying her. They ran and ran, then they kept running. By nightfall they were on the other side of Tokyo. Settling between some garbage bins near a restaurant exhaust, they finally spoke to the terrified child.
"What's your name?" Ochako asks softly, holding the girls left hand as she sat on both their laps.
"Eri." The girl answers.
"Hi Eri, my name is Izu and this is Chako." Izuku says softly.
"Hi." Eri says.
"You will be safe with us Eri." Ochako says.
"But the bad man will find you and hurt you." Eri says with a shaky voice.
"Not if we keep running." Izuku says confidently.
"You can't run forever." Eri says.
"Why not?" Ochako asks.
"You get tired." Eri explains.
"Then we will find a way to run without getting tired." Izuku says with a smile.
"That's impossible." Eri explains.
"We will find a way. We promise." Ochako answers. "But now we need to eat and sleep."
And so they secure some food the restaurant had thrown out and share their humble meal before falling into a restless sleep.
Over the next few weeks the runaways traveled south, heading for the warmer climates as fall began to creep in. They learned from a kind old quirkless man that the heroes were looking for them as the kidnappers of a little girl. Apparently the bad man's depravity had no limits, calling the cops to find a girl he abused. But Izuku and Ochako had a plan, one they had been thinking about for a long time.
A pre-quirk oil tanker had ran aground a long time ago, its cargo had been removed and the wreck abandoned. Over the next hundred years it had come unstuck and now floated amongst the strange tidal eddies of Japan's south eastern bays. Somehow the mud and silt that crashed aboard had allowed life to flourish. It was rumored that fruit trees had grown as well. It looked like the ideal home for the brave homeless trio.
After another week of travel they arrived on the coast and spotted the hulk. A local fisherwoman explained that it was far from any naval traffic and deemed not worth the risk to move.
They soon found an abandoned boat, and using Ochako's quirk to keep them from sinking, Izuku brought them to the island. They brought the entire boat onboard and quickly began exploring. It was a massive ship, longer than anything used in the modern post-quirk isolationist world. From bow to bridge was covered in greenery, it was everything they expected and soon they were full of fruit and sleeping better than any of them had in a long time.
Five years later:
It had been a lot of work, but the paradise, as they called the ship was their permanent home. It still drifted in the same tidal eddies, but over the years they had fixed most of the leaks and built an aft castle on top of the bridge to serve as a home. They only entered the ship to patrol for leaks and during storms. Little Eri's quirk had proven to be a lifesaver, she rewound the trees to give them an endless supply of fruit. Some of the more durable plants were woven into nets for fishing and tarps for catching rainwater. There only visitor was that old fisherwoman, who brought the few necessities and scrap she found in exchange for some fruit. It was a simple life, but it was safe and it was free. The soon to be four of them appreciated that.
AN: a bit of a strange idea that came to me after reading about yet another person growing depressed and feeling helpless. I feel the same often and sometimes I wish I could escape to a simpler world, one where I don't have to meet society's expectations and can just watch the world go by. Stay strong everyone, and maybe one day the world will be a better place.
P.S. I wrote this while out of it on Pfizer vaccine, not really sure what I intended anymore, but I'll post it.