Chapter 1: Izuku

Chapter Text

As stared dazedly up at the fading evening sky, Izuku was beginning to question whether or not he was capable of existing in public spaces without encountering nonsense.

He was also incredibly fed up with the exponential growth of aforementioned nonsense encounters when he was out with Kacchan.

Grocery shopping shouldn't be challenging, in his opinion. He longed to be able to walk off the UA campus, get the obnoxiously long list of groceries settled, and trek back onto campus without redefining the term 'problem child.'

"Deku!" Katsuki's voice echoed through the now-empty street. Izuku lifted his head, squinting through the pulsing headache behind his eyes.

Kacchan was standing above a spindly woman, his boot on her lower back as he gestured aggressively to something. "Phone," he clarified with a growl. "Police. Call them."

With a groan, Izuku hauled himself to his feet and staggered forward. He collapsed to his knees, dragged his bag onto his lap and fumbled around in it for his phone.

"Sometime today, Deku," Katsuki growled.

"I'm workin' on it," Izuku snapped. His vision swam as he grabbed the phone with shaking hands. He hissed as a flash of pain stung his shoulder.

He quickly dialed the number, and muttered the situation as best as he could.

"I understood absolutely none of that, sir," the woman on the other end said gently. "I did hear the word 'villain' though. Is there a villain?"

Izuku affirmed this with a hum. He tried to give the address to the woman, but after three failed attempts he was ready to throw the small device against the wall. Lightning raced across his skin, adding to the already pulsing headache behind his eyes.

"Just gimme it," Katsuki groaned. He gestured for the phone.

Izuku couldn't even bring himself to be humiliated as he crawled on all fours toward Katsuki. He offered the phone up, shaking as something very wrong sent stabbing pains throughout his upper arm and shoulder.

And then it got even worse.

A light flared as his fingertips met the skin of Katsuki's palms, and a burst of pressure sent him flying back into the same brick wall he'd hit in the first place.

Izuku blacked out as soon as his head hit the wall.

~

When he awoke again, Izuku immediately recognized the smell of antiseptic and starched linens. Bright, fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, making him quickly shut his eyes and groan in protest.

It was a far deeper sound than he was expecting, though.

He frowned. He sucked in a large breath of air as he braced himself for the usual aches and pains when he sat up, and then held it when they didn't come.

Nothing flared under his skin, nor through his left hip or recently injured shoulder. No lower back pains came, and Izuku was forced to breathe a sigh of confused relief when his vision started to swim again.

He forced his eyes open, blinking in the harsh light. Then, he fumbled for his phone. Or any of his belongings, really.

He jumped as soon as he reached forward. Sparks popped under his fingertips, singeing the blankets beneath his palm. His far less scarred than usual palm. He made a confused noise as he leaned back against the bed, staring at his hands- unmarred by jagged lines of scar tissue and long, misshapen fingers. He stared at them as he tried to summon a part of One for All as he normally would, but was met by the sight of crackling explosions instead of the green lightning he was accustomed to.

He fumbled for his phone, which he located on the stand beside the bed he awoke in, and quickly opened the camera from the lock screen.

The lock screen that depicted swirls of deep, olive green and brilliant orange instead of the selfie he took last holiday season of Ochako, Tenya, Shouto, Tsu and himself.

"Fuck."

In the lens of the camera, staring with wide eyes back at him was the face of Katsuki Bakugou. Wide, bewildered crimson eyes and unruly blond hair stared back at him. Izuku raised his hands to touch his cheeks. He watched as Katsuki did the same.

Izuku let out a startled, horrified laugh, and watched as Katsuki did the same. He slapped a hand over his mouth, and saw Katsuki do exactly the fucking same.

"DEKU, YOU FUCK!" His own voice, unusually angry and still as tinny as ever echoed in Recovery Girl's nearly empty office.

He jumped as the curtain swung back to reveal his face, seething angry and nearly frothing at the mouth.

"Kacchan?"

"YES IT'S FUCKING ME, YOU ASSHOLE! WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK DID YOU DO?!" His voice cracked on the last syllable.

"I-I didn't…I don't," he fumbled for the words in that deep, raspy voice.

Recovery Girl poked her head through the doorway at the end of the room. "Thank you for so thoroughly alerting me when you woke up, Midoriya," she sighed. "Though, I'm assuming by that unseemly language that you've definitely been hit by that villain's quirk."

Izuku's eyes widened as he exclaimed, "The villain! Where did-?"

"Safely sitting in police custody," she said, quickly. "I think I'm going to need Aizawa for this one."

Izuku watched his own face morph into a scowl he knew all too well, as his now-rough voice said, "I don't want-"

"You don't want his help, I know," Recovery Girl sighed. "I've heard it all before. Just..stay put, Mid-" She paused. "Baku- Oh for pete's sake just sit down."

She left with a sigh.

Izuku stared at…Katsuki, he supposed. Katsuki sat down in the bed, as instructed, with a huff.

A bolt of fear ran through him, as he spluttered: "don't use your- uh, my quirk!"

"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock," Katsuki replied. He crossed his arms and flopped back onto the bed. He hissed, clutching at his sore right hip.

"I strained it last week, just try not to twist it anything drastically, or anything," said Izuku.

Katsuki huffed and crossed his arms.

They sat in suffocating silence for way too many minutes for Izuku's comfort before Recovery Girl re-entered the room, Aizawa in tow.

"I've been given a brief on the villain's quirk. Is there anyone else who it would be pertinent to explain this to?" Recovery Girl raised an eyebrow at Aizawa.

"Maybe All Might?" Izuku tried to keep his voice level. He failed in this engagement.

"Stop fucking with my voice, Deku," Bakugou hissed.

"Stop using mine to curse, Kacchan," Izuku responded without hesitation. He narrowed his eyes as Katsuki snarled at him.

"Gods, enough. Both of you," Aizawa sighed. He turned to Recovery Girl and said, "I'll fill in All Might later. It's 10 o'clock at night and I have patrol in two hours. Please just give us the details and we'll figure it out later."

Recovery Girl nodded and explained: "The quirk lasts for 24 to 48 hours, depending on the stamina of its subjects. Your minds are switched to the other's body, and you will experience everything through their mind."

"Do we have any memories or personality traits from the other person's mind?" Izuku tried to open his phone but frowned when his passcode didn't work. Wordlessly, he held out the phone and waved it at Katsuki. Promptly, Katsuki switched the phones between them.

Izuku opened his notes app, and hovered his fingers over the keyboard.

"No, nothing of the sort," Recovery Girl replied. "Your minds are completely your own. You might have a few mannerisms out of reflex, but that might be more obvious than usual due to the…nature of your relationship." She quickly glanced between the two, then shook her head and turned to Aizawa. "Shouta, just keep an eye out for any signs of switching back, and contact me when it does happen, please. They'll likely pass out again in the process."

"So, what? We're just supposed to go about our days as if we were the other person?" Katsuki scoffed. "Fat chance."

"You can choose to tell the class," Aizawa began, "or you can look at it as an exercise. Like practice for deep cover."

Izuku snorted. "I'm sorry, Mr. Aizawa, but I don't think I'll be doing that. As much as I would love the extra practice."

Aizawa nodded and continued, "that's understandable. You can also choose to be excused from your last classes tomorrow, if you need to. I'm sure the situation is rather tiring, if not completely disorienting."

"That's an understatement," Katsuki scoffed. "I'm not a pu-loser, though. I'm not skipped and you're definitely not skipping, either."

Aizawa sighed. "It's not skipping, Bakugou. You're in a difficult situation. You would be excused and it's illogical to believe anyone would think differently of you if you chose to stay in your room."

"We wouldn't have to clean?" Izuku tilted his head. "So it's not detention?"

"Why would I give you detention for apprehending a villain?"

Izuku shrugged and made a noncommittal noise. "Making trouble, I guess?"

Aizawa rubbed the bridge of his nose and seemed to elect to ignore before continuing, "since it's not detention, you would use the day as a means to recuperate. And potentially keep yourselves in a controlled environment for when the quirk wears off."

"Fine," said Bakugou. "Whatever. I'll decide if I wanna skip in the morning. I just want to go to bed right now."

"Normally, I would make a joke about you being an old man in disguise, but sleeping at a relatively normal hour seems very appealing right now," Izuku reasoned. He winced as he asked, "is everyone else still awake?"

"Only the usual suspects," replied Aizawa. "Ashido, Kaminari, Sero, and Kirishima, last I checked. They were a bit concerned when you didn't return on time. I couldn't convince them to leave it alone. I would assume they're waiting for the two of you."

Katsuki groaned and laid back on the bed again.

"I can manage to explain to them, Kacchan," Izuku said. "Let's just go."

Aizawa nodded. "Get going. I'll be right behind you. I have a few more questions for Recovery Girl about the switch back."

Izuku tilted his head, and asked, "shouldn't we know as well?"

Aizawa shook his head, and responded, "it's unimportant, really. Get going."

"Move it, nerd," Bakugou ordered. He grabbed Izuku's- his own (?)-wrist and dragged the other boy out the doors.

Once in the hallway, Katsuki asked as they walked: "does he know?"

Izuku stumbled for a moment, and whispered, "know what?"

"You're not that dumb, are you?"

Izuku kept his gaze firmly on the ground. He counted the lines between tiles as he walked.

"I keep it managed on my own," Izuku muttered. "He doesn't need to know."

Katsuki scanned Izuku with narrowed green eyes.

He scoffed. "Whatever."

~

The walk back to the dorm was painfully silent. Izuku managed to only stumble over Katsuki's steel toed boots twice on the entire walk back.

After the second time, he groaned and said, "why do you wear these stupid boots, anyway?! Are you gonna kick a wall down or something?"

"You're asking me about footwear choices?" Katsuki lifted a foot mid-stride and waved it back and forth. "With these monstrosities?"

"You know exactly why I wear them, Kacchan," Izuku sighed.

Katsuki hummed as he climbed the steps to the front doors of Heights Alliance. He paused with one hand on the handle.

Izuku carefully maneuvered up the stairs. "What are you waiting for?"

"Are we telling the idiots or no?"

"I forgot about that," Izuku replied. "On one hand, we could just avoid them entirely and go up to our rooms without saying anything but they'd definitely think it's weird coming from me. You, not so much. Pretty in character for you, actually. But on the other hand, it might be better to just tell them really quickly and be done with it or we could just wait for Aizawa to get back out here or we could-"

Katsuki groaned and pushed the door open. It slammed against the wall, startling the four people playing Mario Kart on the couch. Four heads whipped toward the doors.

"You're back!" Kaminari jumped the couch. "What took you guys so long?!"

"Yeah!" Mina stood and turned around, hands placed firmly on her hips as she forced a stern frown. "I wanna know just what-"

Katsuki, in Izuku's voice, cut her off. "Deku and I got hit with some stupid villain's quirk when we took 'em down. I'm Bakugou. That's Deku. I'm tired, and I'm going to bed. Ask Deku if you have any more shitty questions."

Then, in Izuku's body, he stalked toward the stairs and slammed the door open.

Izuku sighed. "What he said. I'm assuming you do have questions, though."

"Did you have to fight the villain?" Ashido jumped the couch and bolted toward him. "Are you really Midoriya?"

Izuku forced a smile, and replied, "yep. And that was Kacchan. We didn't really fight her so much as just sort of- subdued her. Kacchan spotted her and got her restrained pretty quick. She's in custody, though."

"Can I just tell you how creepy it is to see you smile? I mean…you're Bakugou," Kaminari whispered.

Izuku simply replied, "as I just told you, I'm not Kacchan. I'm Midoriya."

"You're also probably real tired too," Kirishima cut in, "so why don't we save some questions for tomorrow. I'm assuming it's a sort of drawn out thing, right?"

"It always is," Izuku groaned, "but yeah. I think sleep would do me some good right now. Apparently, the switch takes up a lot of stamina."

"Totally get you, Midoribro," Kirishima assured him with a smile. "Get some rest."

"G'night dude," Sero said. "See ya in the morning!" He gave a mock salute, and shoveled Ashido and Kaminari back toward the couch.

"Good night," Midoriya replied over his shoulder. He trudged up the stairs, made his way to his bedroom, and passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow.