November.

"Out." The man waved him off, this was his second interview today and they both failed spectacularly. Not thanks to his resume or background, oh no. The only noticeable accolade he had was his grades in highschool, which were superb, his inventions as well were decent for a person of his age. He'd been denied access to universities and jobs alike, his stammering demeanor didn't help.

But ultimately it was because he was quirkless.

And so with a sigh, one Izuku Midoriya exited the workplace and began his trek home once again. One would think he was depressed, but they would be wrong. Izuku had long ago come to terms with his status and his place in the world, 4 years ago in fact when he attempted the UA entrance exams, of course he failed those exams; of course he did. His old childhood friend was right, Izuku hadn't heard from him since he went to UA, passing with flying colors.

"Useless…""Deku."

His entire life was like this, fail, try, fail, try, fail, try… It was a pointless endeavour.

The man shook his head, tired of relapsing back into his past. He could pity himself with past memories all he wanted, but he had to keep trying, for her.

Stepping through the doorway, Izuku took off his jacket and laid it over the sofa. Taking a seat on the sofa, he sprawled his body over the coach to relieve his tension. He was a scrawny sickly thing, pale and colorless, he'd tried to gain muscle mass before but with the funds from his father lessening every year, and Izuku's absurdly high metabolism, they simply couldn't afford it.

"Izuku?" Her voice shook him out of it, he brightened as the image of Inko Midoriya filled his vision, a thin woman just like her son, the past years of surgery clearly taking its toll on her body. The stress lines clear as day on her equally pale face, age had shown itself.

"Hey mom." She smiled at him, placing a hand on his shoulder. Izuku let out a breath, looking away.

"How did it go?" It wasn't really a question.

"Denied again." A squeeze, she wasn't angry.

"Oh honey, it's okay, the state agreed to Increase my welfare fun-" A sudden burst of anger, Izuku slammed his fist on the side of the sofa.

"Darnit mom, we can't live like leeches!" She shook her head and attempted to sooth him, the Midoriya matriarch patted his arm and ignored his frustration.

"I know, but what else can we do? Nobody will hire us sweetie, I'm too old and too weak and you're…" She didn't finish that sentence when Izuku looked away. Biting her lips, she suddenly kneeled down and took his hand in her own.

"Honey, please look at me." He did.

She smiled, "You have an amazing mind, and you're really wasting it away applying for retail and jobs that won't use you well, just so you can stay locally." He opened his mouth to argue but she shushed him.

"Listen, tomorrow there is a job fair at one of David Shields' expos in Tokyo, go there and show off your genius instead of wasting it here." Izuku widened his eyes, standing upright instantly and looking at his mom incredulously.

"What about you Mom? I'll be so far away and what about the commute? And what if they see I'm quirkless and deny me again? And even then my invention isn't that amazing I haven't even fini-" She tugged him back down by the hand and sat next to him, silencing his muttering with a gentle squeeze.

"Oh dear boy, I'll go live with Mitsuki. They've already invited me to live with them as a sort of maid a few weeks ago, those two are incredibly successful now that little Katsuki made it big as a hero." Izuku gulped, his former friend had definitely made a splash, he was already a pro hero with his own agency and breached the top 10 months after graduating, faster than anyone in history. His hero name: Ground Zero.

"Yea, yea, maybe…" she had complete faith in him, his inventions. Maybe it was time to move on from his apartment, to move on from Musustafu?

Later that night he was scrolling on his phone, checking for details on the expo in Tokyo. Applicants would put forth their ideas on new inventions and those who were approved would get an apprenticeship and full access to lab equipment and machinery to make their inventions possible, maybe… it could work.

Clicking on an old video with David Shield, Izuku watched as the younger form of the genius inventor wiped off ash and dust. Chuckling, he looked to the camera, "I may have just failed, but you know what? Failure is the essence of an inventor, and any one of us can experience it, mental quirk or not. Genius is genius, and it takes discipline to realize that." The man smiled at the camera, the video ending. Izuku didn't touch his phone for a moment, letting the device turn off with it reflecting his face through it.

'Failure before success is the essence of an inventor, and any one of us can experience it, mental quirk or not.' it felt like those words were directed solely at him, his inventions commonly dismissed due to him lacking an intelligence enhancing quirk. But Shield was different, many of his greatest inventors were quirkless, including his very own daughter.

He resolved right then and there, this was his best shot…

Once upon a time he wanted to be a hero, and this?

This was the next best thing.

Holding tightly onto the train handle, Izuku looked around in awe as the vehicle exited a tunnel. Tokyo was a lot brighter than Musustafu, a lot larger too, buildings stretched over the horizon and drowned out all vision. Izuku smiled from his view of the subway, the bustling city may have intimidated him but nothing could stop him now. It seemed life was finally looking up for him. If he could land a place at Shield industries then he would definitely be able to afford to take care of himself and his mom, and maybe someone special...

He shook his head, 'Not possible, nobody would want a quirkless.' And other quirkless were increasingly rare, so it was pointless.

Gritting his teeth, Izuku ignored his thoughts and focused on the positives. His smile returned for a small second, he lurched slightly as the train stopped and let on a new set of passengers. But then, he saw something, someone.

The most beautiful girl he'd ever seen just walked into the cart, yellow golden hair that draped down her body like an expensive garment, glasses that added to her charm, a mature womanly body that drew lecherous looks from older men on the train. She wore jeans and a simple white blouse that gave her a friendly look, Izuku felt his cheeks heat up as he lingered on her numbly. She just seemed so much more energetic and happy than everyone else, definitely a foreigner, was she a tourist? He gulped as the woman stopped right next to him and took a handle, she was a few inches shorter than his 5'9 height. But she definitely filled out more than he did, making him seem smaller.

The green haired man tried to keep his composure, but he could smell her natural fragrance like smell and it was driving him crazy standing right next to her. One side of him demanded he talk to her, to flirt, but a much larger part of him ran entirely by anxiety overruled that pretty easily. He was an unshaven scraggy man with skinny arms and pale skin, not to mention he was quirkless, she probably detested even standing next to someone like him.

Interrupting his thoughts, the train lurched to a stop and since his hands loosened, he went crashing forward slightly into the woman next to him much to his horror. The green haired man quickly apologized after turning beet red, his body instantly returning to a rim rod stance, tightly holding his handle. He looked everywhere but to the woman beside him.

Much to his surprise, the blonde haired beauty was giggling at him, like he'd done something funny.

She spoke with a slight accent, "I suppose that's one way to break the ice huh?" He froze, his skin going somehow paler.

'Oh no, I hope she doesn't think I'm trying to hit on her.' He turned his body half way and his sight flicked from her to the floor repeadetly, her grin growing and growing as he fumbled over his words.

"O-oh uh I'm sorry I lost grip of my h-handle. I didn't mean to hit you and uh yeah I'll just be quiet." He turned away once again, face beet red and his heart blasting in his ears, Izuku felt a sweat come on. The woman found his antics amusing, her sapphire blue eyes trailing over him unbeknownst to the man in question.

She shrugged, "Hey, it saves me the trouble from breaking it myself, I get a bit of anxiety myself!" The bubbly voice shocked Izuku out of his mini panic attack, his brows furrowing as he turned fully.

He spoke up without a stutter, "Why would you feel anxious? I mean you're…" he trailed off, stopping himself from speaking and adjusting his collar with a slight flush.

She blushed slightly too, "Haha, you're sweet. You know I wanted to ask you something when I spotted you originally but I didn't want to come off as weird haha…" She awkwardly laughed, blinked twice as the blonde beauty before him spoke like a regular person and not a goddess. Maybe he'd been too assumptious? She didn't seem to be too confident in herself either.

"W-what did you want to ask?" He barely managed to get out while looking into those beautiful eyes of hers, his face permanently flushed. His eyes followed her free hand as it slowly rose up, his eyebrows furrowing slightly.

Pat, pat.

His mind went blank suddenly, the blond woman hummed questioningly as she patted his green locks. Ignoring the stares and whispers around them, Izuku was in a state of shock, his eyes had rolled back.

"Is this a result of a quirk or…?" The unnaturally fluffy green hair had intrigued her to no end and she wanted to know, unfortunately for Izuku, this level of culturally insensitive touching caused him to pass out.

Thud.

"H-hey! Are you okay?" The last thing he heard before unconsciousness took him was the strange girl's voice, who the heck just pats someone head like that?

(A/n: Welcome to my new heavy AU project, looking for a beta.)