His palms sweat uncontrollably. And it hurt.

Katsuki groaned and shifted in his chair, pushing his elbows down on his desk firmly. Izuku, who sat next to him, was quick to notice his visibly uncomfortable friend. Despite how much pain he appeared to be in, he refused to raise his hand and excuse himself. He remained quiet aside from the slight squeak in his desk every few moments from pressing down on it.

Izuku wanted to help him but there was nothing that could be done at the moment. It was the final exam of the semester. They had both studied hard for it, knowing that this was the last year of middle school. He had just finished, but he could not tell how far Katsuki had to go before his hands started to ache.

He knew he had almost no reason to worry for his friend's welfare. Katsuki was always violently independent. He even at times considered himself superior in their friendship due to his study skills and virtually higher scores than Izuku in everything they did together.

Sometimes people would tell Izuku that it's a toxic friendship, being in the shadow of someone so full of themselves. And maybe they were right. But Katsuki was Izuku's first friend when he and his mother moved into the neighborhood. From the day they met, they were close friends with similar dreams of the future. But Katsuki had an ambition that outgrew everyone else's, including, at least he thought, his friend Izuku. But the truth was that Izuku was simply more humble and gentle about it. Katsuki was always loud and aggressive and competitive.

Despite Katsuki allowing his superiority complex to take control, Izuku stayed his friend. It could be much worse after all. But the bottom line was simply that Izuku was bad at making friends. Always has been.

Finally, Katsuki put his pencil down and swung up his hand. "I need to use the restroom..." He announced loud enough only for the teacher to hear, which was loud enough for the entire classroom.

Their teacher sighed before snatching the test paper from Katsuki, excusing him in the process.

It almost felt completely useless however since the bell rang not thirty seconds after he rushed out the door.

Izuku found his chance and chased after him. Fearing that his friend may need his help, he decided to follow curiously. But wondering if it could be private issues, he refrained from calling after him or letting him know at all that he was being followed.

The blonde haired boy walked quickly into the closest boy's bathroom and slammed a stall door shut behind. Groaning from the pain of his aching hands, he sat down on the toilet seat and rocked.

Suddenly, the bathroom door opened for another person. Izuku burst inside then immediately ran out of things to do. He recognized his friend's shoes under the stall barrier and backed away. "Um... Kacchan?" He asked.

Katsuki was so startled by Izuku's voice, his hands...sparked. He looked down and noticed the sweat drops on his hands started to pop and spark brightly.

"Agh! Go away, Izuku!" He shouted.

"Kacchan? Kacchan, are you okay?!" Izuku asked worriedly.

"Just leave me alone, I'm fine!" Katsuki blurted out. His hands looked like they were catching fire now as the sparks and pops grew louder and bigger.

Izuku heard the noises and grew more afraid. "Kacchan, what is that?"

"I said leave me ALONE!" Katsuki threw his hands at the door, and as he did so, the stall door blasted off of its hinges and smashed two sinks and mirrors to porcelain chunks, broken shards, and exposed metal pipes.

Izuku's eyes grew big as he watched this unfold from in front of the stall next door.

Katsuki's hands felt relief and his breathing slowed down. He then stood up and marched out, barely making eye contact with his childhood friend for more than a millisecond.

The timid friend with curly green hair suddenly snapped out of his stupor and ran after Katsuki out the door and through the halls until their chase ended up out the front doors of the school and down the street.

Izuku held on tightly to his backpack. Question after question jumped in his mind to ask his friend once he caught up.

Meanwhile, Katsuki continued to run and let more explosions blast from his palms randomly to his right and left in open spaces. He didn't care about anything at the moment but to get away. He knew that Izuku was chasing him and that his explosions couldn't possibly be missed by anyone on that street, but all he knew to do was to run. And so he ran, ignoring his friend and everything else.

"Hey! Mutant!"

Katsuki felt tears burning in his eyes but he didn't stop.

Suddenly Izuku tackled into him and grabbed him from behind.

"Kacchan! We need to get out of here!" He shouted.

Katsuki turned, grabbing Izuku's collar, and dragging him down a nearby alleyway.

Before anything else, he pressed his green-haired friend's back into the brick wall.

"I told you to leave me alone, you idiot! Why can't you ever listen to me?!" The blonde haired boy hissed.

Izuku sighed. He was terrified in this moment because Katsuki had him up against the wall, holding open his hand very threateningly. "Katsuki, maybe I can be a bit clingy, but can you blame me this time?! You have a Quirk!"

Katsuki exhaled loudly dropping his hand.

"When did this start happening?" Izuku began to ask.

"I'm still not going to talk right now." He sighed. "I'm just gonna go home and take a nap." He let go of his friend and backed off.

"Kacchan, wait!"

"No, Izuku! I don't care how much you love this kind of stuff, you have no idea what this means for me." Katsuki said.

They both knew how much of a comic book nerd Izuku was. How influential mutants such as the X-Men have been and All Might here in Japan. They were basically superheroes! And Izuku always dreamed of having such incredible powers to help the completely helpless. If there was ever a time for them to gain powers, it was now, in their teen years.

And the irony that it was Katsuki who developed a Quirk instead of himself.

"Let me just ask you how long you've had this." Izuku pleaded.

After a moment, turned away from his friend's face, Katsuki turned his head. "I don't know. Last night I just keep sweating and sweating in bed and today it just turned into that... I had to let it out because it hurt me!"

"Hey mutant."

The two friends twisted around to find three young men probably in their late teens or early twenties, and covered in loose clothing, tattoos, and cigarette smoke.

"What gives you the right to start showing off your kamikaze powers in our town?" The leader asked with a huge green mohawk down the center of his scalp.

One of them slipped into his fingers a butterfly knife, and the other revealed a big metal bat.

"You got powers too, freckles?" The one holding the bat asked, pointing the tip toward Izuku.

"No." Izuku said. And yet, he stepped between the gang and his friend. "But I won't let you mess with him."

"Izuku, what are you doing?!" Katsuki growled. "These punks want a fight then I'll give them one!"

"Your powers just started! You're not ready to take on three guys at once!"

Katsuki's eyes narrowed angrily. If there was one thing he hated most of all, it was being told he wasn't ready for something. Limitation itself.

He marched forward and shoved the green-haired boy out of the way.

Izuku was thrown away so harshly, he lost balance and fell over.

Before Katsuki was about to blast the gang, something blocked out the sun before crashing in the very middle of the confrontation.

"Haha! Mind if I 'drop in'?!"

Izuku's eyes grew even bigger than before.

The tall, muscular figure turned his attention on the gang. "You boys might want to beat it. I'll take it from here."

Izuku's mouth opened wide and spat out. "It's-"

"All Might!" All three members of the street gang shouted like a war cry before charging at him.

"Why do they always start with violence?" The figure asked. He grabbed the bat with speeds unnoticeable by human eyes, swinging it around lightly, and yet knocking all three on their backs with three loud thuds.

Knowing the gang was instantly out of the fight, All Might turned back around toward Katsuki and Izuku.

"Greetings, young heroes!" He said with a large dentist-approved smile.