I do not own anything. Still wish I would, though.
Chapter 2 – Coming to terms
Izuku's walk home was long and awkward. Not only was he wearing tattered and burned clothes, but parts of his body randomly reformed into as what he had dubbed his 'elemental state of being'. They would stay in that state for varying amounts of time, no matter how hard he focused on it. He had no control over it.
He really was not bothered by it too much now if he was to be honest with himself. He was far too emotionally drained by today's events to really care.
"Well, at least it keeps me warm. Not like the tatters I'm wearing will do that." Were Izuku's thoughts as he looked at what was left of his sleeves.
It took him a good two hours of constant manoeuvring around the city to reach the apartment building he and his mother called home. He knew she most likely was worried sick about him. While he did not know how long he was atop the skyscraper, he knew it had to have been several hours into the next day.
And he had been expected to be home sometime around noon the previous day. In short: He was way beyond being just late.
He slowly ascended the staircase and made his way towards their apartment.
Izuku closed his eyes and took a deep breath, readying himself for what he knew was to come. Hoping for the best, he turned the key and opened the apartment door.
Inko Midoriya was many things. A loving mother, honest and truthful, and the only person to have ever really cared about Izuku. But she was not particularly emotionally stable.
So, it was no surprise to Izuku, when It took his mother all but three seconds to envelop him in a tearful hug.
"Oh I-Izuku! You are s-save! I was so worried! A-after what I heard about Katsuki being attacked by a villain, I was s-so worried when you didn't come home last night!" Inko sobbed into what remained of his clothes.
Izuku started to slowly pat her back, trying to comfort her as best as he could. Which, looking at his life as a social outcast so far, turned out to be rather lacking and awkward. He never was comforted himself. Only belittled. Or laughed at. Or worse.
"Mom, it's ok. I'm fine." Izuku tried to assure her, while still awkwardly patting her back, in what he thought of an encouraging way. He quickly thought about just omitting what had happened to him, like he always had in the past, when he came home burned or bruised from his most recent bout with his friends.
But where he once felt guilty and obligated to keep everyone happy, to not worry or get into trouble on his account, he now only felt the strong desire to do right by people. To do right by himself. Which was weird enough in and of itself. At least for Izuku, who usually was just as emotional as his mother. And never really considered himself to be deserving of anything.
"Mom, look at me. I'm fine!" Izuku took her by the shoulder and pushed her back a little. That turned out to be the wrong move to make. Apparently, his mother had not really noticed, or seen the state he was in before. Now however, her tearful eyes widened, as she took him in completely.
"Izuku! My baby, wh-what happened to you?! Where does it hurt? Do we need to go to a doctor?" She started to frantically check every part of his body she could reach, for injuries. She abruptly stopped when she lifted the bottom of his burned shirt and saw his abdomen. Which was currently in its elemental state. Evermoving blue and white bolts of electricity.
"Mom, please listen to me. I'm ok!" Izuku quickly grabbed her wrist and moved a couple steps back. The electricity did not hurt him. But after what he had done to the doorknob, he was not so sure if it was safe for others to touch him now. Especially since he could not control it yet.
"I know I don't look like it right now. But I AM fine. As to what happened to me…. That's a bit more difficult to explain." Izuku sighed. This was going to take a while. And if he was unable to get his mother to calm down, it would be damn near impossible to get anything done.
But after another ten minutes of Izuku reassuring his mother while trying to stay at a safe distance away from her, and her tearfully calling the police to tell them that he came home, they were finally able to sit down at the kitchen table where Izuku began to explain what had happened to him.
He started with his most recent encounter with Bakugo, telling her everything about from what had been done to him physically and emotionally. When he told her about Bakugos advice regarding him gaining a quirk by throwing himself off a rooftop, Inko broke down again.
He thought about taking a break to try and console his crying mother right then, but Izuku was resolved to get it all out into the open now.
So, he kept talking. About his encounter with the sludge villain and his meeting with All Might afterwards and how the man had swiftly and cruelly shot his dreams and ambitions down. About how he had felt afterwards, sitting on the ledge of the skyscraper amidst the storm. About how he got hit by a lightning strike and how he discovered his new abilities soon afterwards.
When he finally got to the end of his story, he stood up and walked over to the other side of the table to crouch down next to Inko.
"I know there is a lot I just dumped on you mom and I know we need to talk about it more, but I had a really long day, and I am beyond being just exhausted. Is it okay with you if we pick up from here tomorrow? I just want to head to bed now and sleep."
"Of course, sweety. That's alright."
Izuku nodded and stiffly made his way towards his room. He walked in and silently closed the door behind him and sighed. He was greeted by close to a hundred smiling faces of All Might.
To him, the smile almost seemed mocking now. It used to be a comforting smile that encouraged him to dream on. To let himself believe that he too could become a hero. Regardless of his quirk or lack thereof.
But he could see past the façade now. Past the lies. Izuku sighed and closed his eyes while he leaned back on the door. This stuff had to go. He would not be able to rest otherwise.
It took Izuku longer than he would like to admit to anyone to remove every All Might memorabilia and poster he owned. He stashed all of it in an unused closet. It would not do to just throw it all away. No matter how much he would like to do just that, or even better, burn them all, they were worth quite a lot of money and it would be better to hold on to them and sell them later.
His room was now basically empty, apart from his bed, the desk and chair, as well as two lamps, nothing of note had survived his purge. He would have to make do without a bed sheet as well. The thought of sleeping in a bed covered by All Might's face send a shiver down his spine. And not in a good way.
He thought about taking a shower first, but quickly dismissed the idea and settled on simply removing what remained of his clothes, letting them fall where he stood, and slipped into bed clad only in his boxers. Which thankfully were no All Might merchandise. They were in his colours, though. Red, blue and gold. He supressed a sigh.
His last conscious thought before finally drifting off to sleep was something that he would really have to think more carefully about in the future.
"I hope I don't set my bed on fire, while I sleep…"
Inko meanwhile slowly but forcefully pulled herself from the emotional downward spiral she had been in for the last 24 hours in general and the last hour specifically.
Everything that had happened to her sweet Izuku seemed almost too despicable and absurd to be true. But it had to be. He would never lie about something like that.
Even trough all her guilt she felt amazed that Izuku had held on to his dreams for so long. Especially under the newly revealed circumstances. He had not backed down. Not given an inch. It was admirable that he had not broken earlier. But she had had no part in it. Quite the contrary. She had been the first person to deny him his dream. His own mother.
She had never gotten over what she told him after the doctor visit ten years ago. She had felt so guilty for not giving him a quirk and was so caught up in her own emotions, that all logical reasoning had escaped her back then. That would have to change. She promised to herself and Izuku. Whatever would happen from now on, she would do everything she could to support him in achieving his dreams. No matter if they had changed or not.
But while she was relieved that Izuku was back and at least seemed to be physically well, she could not stop herself from being concerned about his emotional and mental wellbeing. No one lived through all that and came out unscathed.
And he had changed. In the span of 24 hours, he had changed dramatically. And he did not seem to have noticed it yet himself.
Where he just yesterday would have been an emotional, stuttering mess, especially when faced with her own outbursts. He now had just comforted her. It had been unskilled and awkward, but he persisted, nonetheless.
And throughout the retelling of his story, he had not once stuttered and had held eye contact with her, no matter how much it must have hurt him to relive what he had told her.
The worst change however was, that he did not smile. Not at all.
No awkward smile to try and reassure her of his wellbeing. No happy smile when he talked about his newfound quirk. Nothing.
And it was scaring her. Izuku had ALWAYS smiled. No matter the situation.
It was not like his face had been void of emotion either. Quite the contrary. She had been able to clearly see all the hurt and pain he had felt when talking about Katsuki and All Might. And some not-so-subtle disgust when talking about the latter.
But it seemed like somewhere between Katsuki and his meeting with the pro hero, Izuku had lost a part of himself. Had lost his smile. And it hurt her like nothing had ever before. Especially considering her own part in it.
Izuku woke up to the sun shining brightly, illuminating his room. He guessed it had to be around mid-day. Without his now packed away All Might clock he had no way of confirming it. The school day would be over by now as well. So, there was no point in hurriedly getting ready to leave.
"Looks like mom let me sleep in and skip school."
He breathed in and out deeply and stared at the ceiling. Had yesterday really happened? Yes. If the lack of his hero merchandise was the first hint, the raw power he felt all through his body was a dead giveaway.
There was much to do. He thought. He would need to study and experiment with his quirk. The other applicants for the hero schools had close to a decade of time to get used to and train their quirk. He would have all but eleven months to get into fighting shape. It would be tough, but if pretenders like All Might and others like him could become powerful, so could he. And he would become a true hero.
Izuku stood up, grabbed a change of clothes and made his way towards the bathroom. The hallway was empty and the flat was clouded in silence.
"Looks like mom went out for the day." Izuku murmured while making his way towards the flats little bathroom that he shared with his mother. He dropped his clothes on a bathroom cabinet next to the sink.
He stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide as he caught his image in the mirror hanging right above it. Countless white and red scars made their way all over his upper body, having their starting point right at his sternum and flowing downward. Like an intricate tattoo they showed the way the electricity took in his body. He turned his left shoulder around to have a look at his back, where he was originally hit by the lightning bolt. And sure enough, he found a red and white circle right where his spine connected with his skull; with small fissure like scars arching outwards.
"Well, this isn't so bad. They don't hurt and actually look kind of cool!" Izuku mumbled while tracing some of the bigger scars on the left part of his chest.
He turned fully and turned the water on in the shower. He removed the last piece of clothing he had on and started to make his way into the shower when a sudden thought made him once again freeze in place.
"I'm either MADE of or parts of me turn into electricity. Would the water hurt me? Could it short circuit me and leave me incapacitated? Could it KILL me?! Shit! This is bad!", Izuku stumbled backwards away from the flowing water as if he were burned.
He took a couple deep breaths to steady himself.
"Ok. Yesterday I was laying on that roof for who knows how many hours. And it was raining heavily for at least the beginning after I was hit by lightning. So, thinking logically, water should not have any effect on me. Right? But I do not know if parts of me changed into its electrical state of being while I was unconscious. And if it only affects me when I am changed. And when I woke up and started to notice it, the rain had already stopped and while I was still wet, that does not necessarily mean anything…"
Izuku stopped his mumbling when he realised that there was no way around testing it. And now was as good a time as any.
He carefully reached forward with his right hand. Which was currently unchanged. He readied himself and put it into the water stream.
Nothing happened.
He sighed in relieve. Water was not his ultimate enemy just yet. The only problem remaining now, was that he did not know how water would affect him in his elemental state; and that he currently had no way of stopping parts of him fluctuating between the two states. He would eventually have to test how water did affect him in that state, but he figured he should not be alone for that part.
Izuku sighed and carefully reached around the stream to turn the water off again. He would have to settle for lick and a promise for now.
The whole process of slowly and carefully washing himself with a washcloth was rather idiotic. Even more so when it took him more than half an hour to do it. Washing your own back while trying to keep watch of any signs of electricity was rather awkward. But at least he felt somewhat clean again. It would not do to get his fresh set of clothes dirty so soon. He did not really own a lot right now. At least no All Might unrelated ones. He would have to go shopping very soon.
A soft knock at the door pulled him out of his musings.
"Izuku? Are you alri.. is everything okay in there?" Inko stopped herself from asking if he was alright. She knew he wasn't.
His mom had apparently come back.
"Yeah, mom. Everything is fine. I'll be out in a minute."
"Ok. I bought takeout. You must be hungry, right?"
'You have no idea, mom. I'm starving. Thanks.' Was Izuku's reply as he opened the bathroom door and was faced with the shaky looking smile of his mother.
"I brought Katsudon. Your favourite." Inko was looking at Izuku hopefully, looking to get a smile out of him. But all he did was look at her, nod and thank her, before moving around her and making his way towards the kitchen.
She sighed. She knew it wouldn't work. But she had still hoped to see Izuku's smile. She fought against the tears that started to well up in her eyes.
"No! I won't break down again. There is too much we must do and talk about. I can not keep breaking down! I will be there for him!"
Inko shook her head to clear her mind and followed Izuku. Yes. There was much to do. And she would be there every step of the way. For Izuku.
