On Hitoshi's first day in the Midoriya household, the three of them went shopping for thingamabobs that could spice up his room. He didn't quite understand why they'd waste money on him like that, but obediently pointed to a few cat-themed and heroes-themed things, like a cute paw print night lamp to put on a wall, and Red Riot clock. What, he didn't like just All Might, like a certain All Might freak he was getting to know.

On Hitoshi's second day in the Midoriya household he got registered in a local school and went shopping again for a new uniform and books since the school had a slightly different curriculum and dress code. For the rest of the time he was left alone. Unless you count Midoriya-san knocking on his door to let him know that a meal is ready. It was… nice, eating meals together. Nothing very unusual, but both Midoriya-san and her son tried to include him in their conversations which was, well, weird, but appreciated. He wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. For some unknown reason they weren't afraid of his quirk. He wasn't going to make them change their mind.

On days three to five, nothing eventful happened. He joined Midoriyas in the living room to watch tv—mostly hero news, ate with them, and even played a console game with Midoriya-kun. It was… all weirdly normal.

On day six he had an important realisation. He had yet to see Midoriya-kun use his quirk or even talk about it.

On day seven he learnt exactly why.

It was finally time to go to school, his grace period ending as all the documents were signed and the class became ready to accept his transfer. He wasn't looking forward to it. It would end up being the same thing as always, people learning his quirk and trying to get him punished for things they did, or trying to get him to use his quirk for their gain.

The only upside was that he was in the same class as Midoriya-kun. Weirdly, during this week of his unending chatting and mumbling about this and that (more often than not heroes and their quirks) he got used to his presence, and even started… tolerating it would be a wrong word, but craving was too strong. He just enjoyed the broccoli-like guy. He was funny, mostly non-judgmental, and crazy about heroes, especially All Might. It was hard not to like him.

Or maybe not as hard, he realised as he stepped into the classroom next to him. People cast curious glances at him, being a new person and all, but no one, not a single person greeted Midoriya-kun. That was passive hostility at its finest. Midoriya-kun did a quick job of unpacking and sat at his desk, while Hitoshi leaned on it, keeping up a small conversation.

And then someone else entered the classroom. Midoriya-kun went quiet immediately, and a few 'Hi's and 'Hello's could be heard from the class as the newcomer stepped closer.

"H-Hi Kacchan," Midoriya-kun stammered and went silent immediately after, gulping soundlessly.

"Deku." the blonde greeted(?) back. "Who's that? Did you get a friend?" His words were almost normal, but his tone was swimming in vitriol. Hitoshi instinctively planted himself a little firmer at the desk, almost becoming a barrier between the blonde and Midoriya-kun. That was the tone of a bully. "Can't believe you found someone who's not afraid to catch your disease."

"It-it's n-not a—"

"Shut up you quirkless fuck."

Oh.

Oh.

That made… a lot of sense actually. A lot of sense. The passive hostility of the class, lack of talking about own quirk but idealising others' ones, this bully calling him a deku of all things…

"Name's Shinsou Hitoshi, I'm a transfer," he interjected before the blonde could say anything more. "I would say nice to meet you, but frankly that would be a lie."

The blonde bristled, as if implying his presence was anything less than a delight was upsetting him.

"The fuck you are, why wouldn't our teacher tell us about you?" The blonde crossed his arms and looked at him expectantly, like he one-upped him somehow and wanted to see him admit defeat.

Well no luck.

"You know, usually when a person introduces themself, it's a custom to introduce yourself back," he said, putting on his 'lazy' tone. Slugging through words was sure going to upset Pristine-kun.

"I don't need to tell you my name. You're just some lying creep that will be kicked out of the classroom when the teacher arrives," the bastard confidently stated.

Hitoshi almost wanted to laugh, if not for the fact that he could feel the whole desk trembling alongside Midoriya.

"Very well then, let's wait for that, shall we?" he chuckled theatrically and cleared his throat after. The blonde squinted at him and balled his fists. Oh no, no, no, he would not be getting hit on his first day of school. He turned slightly towards Midoriya-kun, still keeping an eye on the blonde, and went back to talking about whatever it was that they talked about before the bully arrived. Midoriya stayed silent, but started nodding when appropriate.

The blonde scoffed, but continued on his path to his own desk. Thank Kami.

Soon enough the class filled out and the teacher, Umeda-san, introduced him properly and told him to sit in the back. He spared one look at Midoriya-kun then another at the blonde bitch. The first was still looking a little panicked, the second looked furious. Well, this was something to deal with later. For now he had to unpack that Midoriya was quirkless.

He wondered why no one told him. Were they scared he was going to do something? Say something wrong? Were they scared he'd do something to Midoriya-kun? It made him feel a little hurt… On the other hand he could completely understand wanting to keep his status a secret. It was better to keep someone guessing than admit one was quirkless. It was like a born-in curse. Quirkless people had the lowest employment rates as 'less developed' humans, which was bullshit. Quirkless people also had the highest suicide rate, as the most bullied group in education settings.

Okay, now he felt a little stupid for feeling bitter about it. Of course they didn't tell him. They were waiting for him to appreciate Midoriya-kun for who he was before putting that label on him.

Well, luckily for everyone involved he liked the green sprout. He'd have to just test him on one little thing and if he passed he had no reason to assume they wouldn't be friends. He'd just have to find a decent time frame to test him…

The lessons passed uneventfully. No one called on him to answer, as was usual (the teachers were aware what quirk he had. of course), and the workload wasn't too hard. The maths was the hardest, he just couldn't quite get it on the first try. But oh well, Midoriya-san had bought him the textbooks on time so he'd be able to rehash the knowledge.

What was interesting came after the lessons. His chance to strike! The moment the last teacher dismissed class, he packed in record speed and waltzed over to Midoriya-kun as fast as his legs allowed. A few heads turned and the blonde bitch halted his steps from where he was walking towards Midoriya. Hah, he judged it good.

"Oi, Midoriya-kun~" He sing-sang loudly, "Know any good hang-out spots around here?" From the corner of his eye he kept a lookout for the blonde bitch, but thankfully he didn't seem in a mood to advance at the moment after being interrupted mid-step.

"Oh, um, yes? Kinda? I mean—" Midoriya-kun started stuttering up a storm of half-baked syllables and Hitoshi laughed good naturedly. Unfortunately that made the boy shut up. Shit, wrong move.

"Let's go there today, shall we? I wanna talk," he stated, this time making Midoriya-kun a little stressed on purpose.

Apparently too stressed because the boy just froze completely. Hitoshi mentally sighed. Aw man, this was going to take a lot of work…

"Pack up, pack up, I wanna go somewhere that has ice-cream!" He leaned on the desk as some of his new classmates approached. Uh oh. He smelled trouble. Maybe his tactic of being loud and unabashed worked on getting the blonde bitch off Midoriya-kun's case, but it attracted unwanted attention.

"Yo! Name's Takaki Mitsuo," a boy with triangle-shaped shells for hair came up to him with a sly smile. "Why don't you hang out with our group, Shinsou?" His expression was wolfish and entirely unpleasant. Hitoshi had to stop himself from instinctually saying 'no' straight to his face. "Instead of hanging out with this quirkless loser." Oh now he was trying to pick a fight.

Hitoshi used his most nonchalant smile and stopped leaning on the desk to face the boy fully. Another fucking bully. He carefully reminded himself to open up with words, not his fist. Not that he was very good at punching. Still.

"How about you let me choose whether my family is considered a loser or not," he said smugly. There were gasps. The triangle guy stepped back. Hitoshi turned to Midoriya-kun and smiled. "Come on, let's go."

Inside his head a newly constant stream of 'what the fuck what the fuck what the fu-' started playing. WHY did he say that? What if Midoriya-kun said something about them not being an actual family? Sure, he was his foster family, but that was a technicality.

Midoriya's eyes shone brightly for a second with unshed tears, and then he picked up his backpack and stood up unevenly. Hitoshi took it as a sign to move the fuck out of the classroom, and thankfully Midoriya-kun followed him at a close distance. They left the school at record speed, and only then the green haired boy caught up properly and fell in steps with him, looking at him bewildered.

"I, um… We should, uh, we should take a turn here so we can get to the ice-cream parlour," he eventually said through a great deal of stuttering, pointing at a street Hitoshi didn't recognise. He just nodded and followed.

Soon enough they were in the parlour with their orders placed for some fancy, albeit pretty cheap, sundaes. Midoriya-kun was nervously looking at him, barely hiding a smile, and he was staring right back, feeling a nervous grin creep onto his face in return.

Surprisingly Midoriya was the first to break the silence.

"You stood up for me," he said, his voice shaky. "You didn't have to."

"Are you kidding? That guy was… Ugh. What's his name anyway?" he smoothly deflected before a blush could creep onto his face with how Midoriya was staring at him with amazement. He didn't deserve it, he didn't do anything out of the ordinary. He was trying to save his own ass as much as the other guy's.

"Kacchan," Midoriya said, completely seriously, then blinked and shook his head. "Er, Bakugou Katsuki." Well, that made more sense, except,

"Why do you call him that… cutesy nickname?" he asked, genuinely confused. The guy was clearly up to no good, and he called him a quirkless loser. And now that he thought about it, he also called him 'Deku', whatever that meant. A doll… Hm. Well clearly that wasn't meant as a compliment.

"We're childhood friends! I mean, uh, force of habit?" he backtracked, but the first answer rang in the air. Hitoshi knew he thought it was true. Something that Midoriya-kun wholeheartedly believed. The guy was too honest for his own good, so with Hitoshi's quirk it would immediately pull an answer out of him. And oh Kami did this bring more questions than answers to the table.

"Oooooh kaaaay…" They got saved from awkward silence by the waitress giving them their respective sundaes. Hitoshi dug in to avoid looking at Midoriya for a second. From the corner of his eye he saw the boy do the same.

And then the cold caught up to them.

"Agh! Brain freeze!" They both complained at the same time, then realised what happened and laughed.

"Man, we're in sync today," Hitoshi said through his giggles.

"Maybe… because we're family?"

That made Hitoshi freeze. He looked up at Midoriya who was staring at him wide-eyed.

"You're not… mad I said that?"

"Why would I be mad?" he asked earnestly. "We are now… right?"

Hitoshi could only stare at him for a moment, before he grinned, feeling something settle in his soul.

"Yeah!"

Maybe he would stay in this family for longer than a few months.

He completely forgot about wanting to test the boy. It was unnecessary anyway.