The class was sparring together in groups when it happened.

Todoroki and Izuku had been placed together, and neither were really holding back. Todoroki respected Izuku enough to know he wasn't weak, and Izuku respected Todoroki enough to know the other wouldn't appreciate him holding back.

Todoroki ducked under Izuku's swipe, taking a sharp jab at the other's leg. Izuku yelped, and Todoroki's eyes widened as he watched the limb bend backwards.

CRUUUUNNNNCCCHH!!

The graphic sound of bones crunching like dried leaves drew 1-A's attention like moths to a flame, right towards the green-haired boy.

Izuku steadied himself, looking down at his right leg like he was surprised that it had made that sound. Todoroki's flame-covered punch had managed to burn away the cloth hiding his leg. It was black and blue, the veins nearly bursting, bloodied up to the point where everyone could see the bone. His femur had cracked, spearing itself through the remaining muscle and tissue separating it from the outside air. The limb was twisted completely backwards, meaning the boy had to have broken his knee cap on purpose so that nobody would notice and he could stand straight.

Understandably, 1-A panicked.

"Oh my god Midoriya!" Uraraka instantly ran to the other, followed closely by Aizawa. The rest of the class let out indiscernible screeches before rushing back to the smaller boy as well. Some had to pause to puke up their guts, still unused to gore.

"What are you guys so panicked about?!" Izuku yelled as Aizawa picked him up with the help of Uraraka's quirk. He was completely used to injuries like this, his pain tolerance freakishly high.

"Midoriya, if you haven't noticed, your leg is severely injured! Why did you not tell me about this?" Aizawa scolded as he rushed the other to Recovery Girl, Izuku shrugged.

"It didn't hurt all that much, and I didn't want to bother anybody…"

"Fucking Deku! When the fuck did you get this injured?!" Bakugou screeched, palms firing off miniature explosions while his crimson eyes searched around for any villains that could've injured the other so badly.

Izuku shrugged, "Well, my first sparring partner was Ashido; her acid burned away a lot of my flesh and my first pant leg, so I went and got a replacement pair of pants before anybody noticed," Ashido's eyes widened in horror as she stared at the burned flesh of her classmate.

"then I sparred with Sero, and his tape caught my leg just right and it ripped out of socket and twisted when he pulled." Sero felt bile rise up in his throat as he stared at the injury as well.

"And at that point my leg had gone numb, so I just stomped down while switching to spar with Todoroki and broke my knee so that I could bend my leg forwards and nobody would notice I was injured."

Ashido, Sero, and Todoroki both looked beyond horrified—as did the rest of 1-A. Since when could Izuku withstand such painful injuries?! How long had he been hiding things like this from them? How often did he get this severely injured and they never noticed? How often did they injure him and didn't notice?

When the class of 1-A was left out in the hallway while Aizawa rushed Izuku into Recovery Girl, the Deku-Protection Squad began.

Izuku had no idea what was going on.

This morning alone, Tokoyami had scolded him and forced him to sleep an extra half hour, Bakugou and Sato had cooked him breakfast and pastries, Shoji and Mineta had fetched his hero journal, his shoes, and the homework he had accidently left in his room, and Uraraka had floated him in the air so that he didn't have to physically walk anywhere. When Izuku had reached out for a blanket because he was cold, Todoroki instantly used his Quirk to heat up the entire room. Jiro played Izuku's favorite music, Kirishima carried Izuku whenever Uraraka needed a break, and Kaminari had turned himself into a living phone charger so that Izuku didn't have to move himself 3 feet to use the outlet. Iida was helping Izuku with his homework by taking his pencil refusing to let the other write, Yuga was teaching Sato and Bakugou new French baking recipes to bring to Izuku, and Ashido was carrying every medicine she could fit in her pockets in case Izuku complained about something as small as a headache. Asui and Koda had surrounded Izuku with fluffy kittens and bunnies and puppies. Ojiro was using his tail to prop up Izuku's casted-leg. If Izuku needed a drink or to reach for something close by, Sero was the first one up on his feet to get it. If Izuku needed a pencil sharpener or an eraser, Yaoyorozu just grew it from her body. Hagakure was the everyman—doing anything that needed doing.

The teachers at the school were just as bad—Aizawa zapped away Izuku's Quirk the second he walked into the room just so that he didn't use it at all. Present Mic kept his voice quiet the entire day. All Might refused to let Izuku do anything, later scolding him for injuring himself so badly. Cementoss reworked the chair Izuku was sitting in so it was more comfortable. Midnight just gave Izuku her desk chair, which was soft and cushioned.

Bakugou didn't lose his temper once that day. Todoroki continued to be Izuku's portable space heater and AC. Nobody let Izuku do anything by himself—he had to physically fight to keep Kaminari from coming to the bathroom with him.

"I'm not sure why they're coddling me so much!!" Izuku confessed to Shinso later that day, the purple-haired boy giving a glance at his casted foot before glancing out into the hallway where the entire class of 1-A was panicking because they couldn't find Izuku.

"Midoriya?" Izuku looked back at Shinso, responding instantly.

"Yes?" He felt Shinso invade him mind like a rush of water, shocked that the other was using his Quirk.

"Stop tapping your injured foot before you injure it more." Shinso stood up and manually propped Izuku's foot up on a chair before releasing the other. Izuku only weakly glared.

"They recruited you too, didn't they?"

Shinso shrugged and smiled, ducking out his head into the hallway.

"He's in here, you know."

Izuku couldn't help but feel a little betrayed, even as he smiled when his classmates immediately rushed in with over a thousand worries and questions.

When his cast had come off, the panicked attention had lessened a little bit. The class still coddled him like he was made of cracked-glass, but Izuku couldn't help but smile at their antics. At least he knew they cared.