"Is it hard not being able to use your quirk?"
Midoriya was sitting on the school's roof, eating his lunch. It was a place he usually spent his time, mostly because it was the only place Kacchan didn't think to look, but it wasn't until a few months ago that another person joined him.
Taking a sip from his juice box, he glanced down at his notebook. It was laying open, with his pen in the crease of the two pages to hold its spot, which had a drawing of a small girl with short choppy hair and a stoic expression. The top of the page was titled "Snow Angel", and Midoriya had gone through the trouble of decorating it with snowflakes.
"Not really," came a soft voice. Midoriya glanced up and looked towards the edge of the building, where a girl sat with her legs dangling off the side of the building. She only had on a white blouse and pleated skirt despite the slight chill in the air, and her white hair met with her jawline harshly, as if she had cut it herself. A while ago, she had told him it had been long, but she decided to cut it all off when she entered middle school. "Is it hard not having a quirk?"
The question took Midoriya aback, but he wasn't surprised with it. Over the months they had spent up here, side by side, he had grown accustomed to Higumo's abrupt personality and brash questions. He rocked back on his heels for a moment before he spoke.
"Yeah," he admitted. "It is. It's really hard."
Higumo paused in her leg swinging and looked over her shoulder, ocean blue eyes bearing into Midoriya's dark brown ones. A beat of silence passed and a nervous sweat broke out over Midoriya's skin.
"It's ironic," Higumo said. "You want to so badly be a hero, but you're useless in any situation that would require one."
Her tone was indifferent, but the words themselves were harsh enough to make Midoriya flinch. He looked down at the ground as his lungs filled with a painful breath. She was right, of course. If there's one thing he learned about her, it was that she was almost always right, no matter the situation. Nibbling on the end of his straw, he looked back up at Higumo, only to see that she had returned to staring out over the horizon.
"You're like me." She said after a long while, breaking the silence between them. Midoriya blinked in surprise at her statement. She had never expressed any desire to be a hero before now, and for her to cast aside her desire so easily, like it was trash, made him angry. He sighed and climbed to his feet. His juice box was long empty, and he tossed it into the trash can a few feet away. One shaky breath and two steps was all it took to reach her, and once he did, his hand hovered over her shoulder. Higumo had told him that when she was younger, her body temperature was cold enough to freeze water just by touching it, and although she had learned to control it over the years, she was still frigid to the touch.
"Don't talk like that," he said. He ignored his discomfort and gripped her shoulder in a reassuring manner. The cold seeped through the fabric of her shirt and into his hand, and he resisted the urge to pull away from her. "You may not think your quirk is all that great, but I'm sure it's awesome! So what if you can't use it now! Until you can use it to save lives, you can just be a stationary hero!"
It wasn't until the words were out of his mouth did Midoriya realize how lame it sounded. He yelped quietly and released Higumo's shoulder, an embarrassed blush spanning the length of his freckled covered cheeks.
"Stationary hero?" Higumo asked, looking up at Midoriya. Her blue eyes were curious and brimmed with amusement, and there was a silent laugh in her voice. She stood up, a rare smile on her face as she took Midoriya by the hand and led him back to his things. Her hand was cold, but Midoriya was more overwhelmed with the fact that a girl was holding his hand. A strange noise that sounded a lot like a strangled cat escaped his throat, but he quickly shut his gaping mouth to avoid any other involuntary sounds.
"You can be one too, then."
Midoriya blinked and stared at her, shocked that she had made such a bold comment. "Huh?"
"Izuku Midoriya," she stated with authority ringing in her voice. "You are talentless, plain looking, and pretty much useless in every scenario. But even if you don't have a quirk, you have more drive and ambitious than anybody else here, and I believe that one day, you will be a hero."

###
The next day was warmer than before, and Midoriya woke up to his mother shaking his shoulder, attempting to rouse him from his slumber. Once she saw that his eyes were open, she squealed happily and ran over to the window and yanked open the curtains. Amber sunshine filled the previously dark room, and Midoriya squinted at the sudden change of lighting.
"Mom?"
"Get up, Midoriya!" She said darkly, her eyes brimming with a strange cocktail of panic and joy. "There's a girl here."
The fact that she said it so seriously was enough to catch Midoriya off guard. It had to be Higumo, because that was the only person it could be. He yelped out loud and fumbled in his sheets, attempting to free his legs, but the fabric that had wrapped around his ankles was a force to be reckoned with, and he ultimately went tumbling to the floor, half of his body hanging out of bed. His mother screeched and pulled him up, then rushed over to the closet and pulled out some clothes.
"Get dressed!" She said as she hurried out of his room. "I need to entertain your girlfriend before she gets tired of waiting and leaves!"
"She's not my-" Midoriya shouted after her but got cut off as his bedroom door slammed shut. With a scowl, he rubbed his tired eyes and looked over at the clothes his mother had picked out. A pair of black slacks and a formal shirt and jacket were tossed over the back of his computer chair, and Midoriya felt himself groan. Shuffling over to his closet, he pulled out his usual outfit -a green and white track suit- and got dressed hurriedly. Throwing open his bedroom door and taking a step out into the hallway, he was acutely aware of voices coming from the kitchen.
"So how long have you two known each other?"
"Not long. We met by accident, really."
"True love is no accident!"
Midoriya felt a mortified blush creep onto his face as he rushed into the kitchen before his mother could say anything else crippling to his already sullied reputation.

Higumo was sitting at the bar, nursing a cup of tea between her hands. Her eyes had tilted back towards Midoriya at his rather loud entrance, and the first thing he noticed was the bruise that spanned the length of her left cheekbone. It looked recent, and it looked painful. If Higumo knew about Midoriya's curiosity, she didn't say anything, and instead turned back to his mother. A pleasant smile was on her lips, but the corner's twitched, and Midoriya could tell it was forced.
"Thank you for the tea, but Midoriya and I have to go now."

"Oh, you're welcome! Please come back anytime! Don't be shy!"
Higumo slid out of the bar stool and walked straight for the front door, then turned her head to look at Midoriya. She jerked her chin, motioning him to follow her, and he swallowed thickly. Waving goodbye to his mother, he chased after her, a worried expression on his face.
Once they were outside, Higumo let out an impatient sigh, tilting her head away from Midoriya, who gawked at her. She appeared to be watching something at the corner of the street, and he followed her line of sight only to see empty space.
"Your mom is nice." Higumo said, and Midoriya snapped.
"What happened!?" He demanded, positioning himself in front of her so that they made eye contact. From here, he could see that she had much more than bruise. There were scratches along her neck and her hairline was spotted with dried blood. "You look like you got hit with a bus!"
"I tried being a hero," she said simply. "It didn't work."