The thing with hopes and dreams is that every so often they get crushed.
…is what Hitoshi thinks as he looks at the admittance list of his new middle school alongside Midoriya-kun.
What makes him think that? Well, Bakugou is in their class, and not to be dramatic but the idea of spending another three years in the same class as him makes Hitoshi see red.
'Calm,' Midoriya-kun thinks at him, 'I can feel your turmoil.' Hitoshi sighs. Yeah, Midoriya-kun is probably right. There's no need to get angry. They just have to… survive it. Three more years of survival. Great.
Ugh! No. No, he will not censor his emotions for anyone's sake. He's allowed to feel angry at this fate's injustice.
"Kacchan has been in the same group as me since pre-school," Midoriya-kun says in a half-whisper. "It's not that surprising, just…" He eyes people around them and finishes in his mind '...disappointing.'
'Yeah…' Hitoshi sighed another time and pulled an arm around Midoriya-kun's shoulders. "Let's get back home and tell Midoriya-san where we placed."
Midoriya-kun nodded and relaxed under his touch, and Hitoshi tried very hard to not let the wave of warmth in his heart make its way towards him. Either he succeeded or Midoriya-kun wasn't feeling like pointing it out. It was weird, physical contact. He never had much of it growing up, and now he was… well… he was feeling safe enough to seek it out, and Midoriya-kun was very receptive to it. The boy also hugged him from time to time, more and more often whenever anything that 'required' (in his words) a hug came up.
Even simple things like helping with the dinner, doing dishes, or helping with cleaning were met with kind words of praise, ruffling his hair, or a hand on his shoulder from Midoriya-san…
Midoriyas were touchy. Hitoshi didn't mind very much. Rather, he very much didn't mind. He liked it even. And so he was making an effort to initiate touch with Midoriya-kun whenever he felt like it, and he was slowly working up the courage to hug Midoriya-san one day.
One day. He wasn't ready yet. He was feeling embarrassed just thinking about it.
Speaking of embarrassments… they run into one on their way home.
Bakugou slouches when he sees them, eyes narrowing and watching them like a hawk. Hitoshi holds his gaze, eyes hard and blank. Bakugou keeps silent, but doesn't stop staring.
Midoriya-kun draws into himself, as if trying to disappear. Hitoshi starts rubbing slow circles into his back.
Bakugou scoffs when he notices, but he passes them without a word spoken.
It takes another few minutes for Midoriya-kun to relax and for them to continue home.
Hitoshi feels… dismayed. The fucker doesn't even have to do anything but exist and Midoriya-kun just dims. He hates that. He wishes he could remove the reaction, somehow prevent it from ever forming in the boy. But what's passed has passed. They just have to work on the present and future.
Yeah, future…
Future brings some changes.
Hitoshi's birthday passes with quiet celebration, so does Izuku's. It's just them and Midoriya-san. Neither of them has friends. Only each other.
Vacation passes by with consistent training. Soon they can stay fused for almost an hour and fuse from across the beach. It's something, they feel like if they practised some more they could beat records. But that's for later.
With great reluctance Hitoshi tries distance force fusing and it works. He just thanks Kami that their mind reading developed before this. At least getting consent is easier.
Midoriya-kun still can't force-fuse but Hitoshi thinks that's for the better, really. He looks too pure to muster up any malicious intent anyway.
…unlike him.
The dark thoughts still plague him from time to time but… well, he feels like he's got more control with all the training he's doing with Midoriya-kun, so he can combat those thoughts. At least a little.
But then the school year starts and… ugh.
Bakugou, somehow, becomes even more insufferable. Because he starts loudly boasting about how he'll become a hero and they won't. Because they're useless. "There are two Dekus now," Bakugou says at some point and Hitoshi counts his breaths to attempt to suppress the urge to sock him in the jaw and see how he'd like that.
He needs to stay calm, he can't get in trouble.
He pours his frustrations out during fusing. Sometimes they don't get to be Diana on the first try. Sometimes they're the disjointed fusion. But they stop fearing it after it happens for the third time. They know how to unfuse from it, and, weirdly, it's easier to process their emotions like this. Midoriya-kun's helplessness and fear, Hitoshi's anger. They name themselves Joukan—emotion. It's… not pleasant, but useful.
More time passes gruelingly slow and fast as hell at the same time. Bakugou boasts, they try to ignore him, the teachers… they seem to like Bakugou, favour him, they don't mind when he uses his quirk in class, they don't mind when he yells and taunts. They also refuse to speak to Hitoshi. He's never called on in class, he's barely acknowledged during roll call.
It's infuriating, it's demeaning, it's… just sad. They don't see him as a person, they see him as a quirk, and it hurts.
The next time they fuse they're Joukan. No surprise there. But another try yields somehow an even weirder result. They're— She's… She's Diana. But she feels taller and there are additional appendages on her, she's pretty sure. She glances at herself and finds two sets of arms.
"What the hell…" she whispers to herself. She flexes. The arms work. "Holy shit!" She finds the nearest big heap of trash and climbs it effortlessly, mainly depending on the strength of her arms. It works out perfectly.
She can't wait to show Mamadoriya.
Mamadoriya, predictably, gasps and cries and says she's so proud of the three of them and oh do they want to attend a fusing school? Do they even need it? Do they want to take the fusion masters exam?
She's a little confused until Mamadoriya clarifies, clearly they're showing a specialisation of power multiplication!
When that sinks in they unfuse, rather violently, and Midoriya-san looks at them worriedly.
"I'm, uh, I'm pretty sure my specialisation is…" Hitoshi tries, he really tries, but he doesn't want to lose what he worked for, doesn't want Midoriya-san to look at him differently. "...something different," he finishes lamely. The woman doesn't press, just looks at Midoriya-kun.
"Mine's empathy fusion like I— like Diana told you, but… hey, some people have double specialisations. It's rare but they exist," he mutters, deep in thought, finger on his chin. "Or maybe it's Diana's specialisation! She is her own person!"
Hitoshi nods, happy to accept the proposition. He'd rather not think about his specialisation at the moment.
He doesn't want to lose this family. He doesn't want to lose Midoriya-kun. Something in his heart pangs at the thought. He doesn't think about it too hard though. He doesn't want to lose anything he's achieved.
Midoriya-san does end up signing them up for fusion school.
But that's a tale for another day.