Rise Again

Things were starting to look up.

Izuku was spending more time in the dorms with Eri, both socializing with the 1-A class as the days passed and the cultural festival moved closer. The two had also begun to separate slightly, but only a little bit.

Eri could now go into an adjourning room to do a task or activity without freaking out about Izuku not being there and Izuku would be perfectly fine as long as he could hear her. The classroom was the hardest part for both of them as the teachers decided it was time to really start separating them, if only for just a little bit, reuniting the two at lunch and then at the end of the day.

Eri spent her time during Izuku's classes with one of the teachers or Nedzu, going over schoolwork and catching her up with all that she had missed.

Izuku concentrated on working on his own assignments he had missed and making sure he got all current work done as well.

After classes they would head to the student dorms with his classmates and there they would work on homework or just hangout with the other teens. They were all intent on working Eri through all Disney movies, Pixar, and cartoons that they could think of. The girls would also go over and teach the little girl all female things whenever they could, which included makeup, hairstyles, and fashion. Izuku was more than happy to let them do that as he lacked a sense of style and he had very limited knowledge in hair.

It also helped that the class had also come together to start on their cultural festival presentation, which was apparently a concert.

Aizawa-sensei had thankfully excused Izuku from the concert with an understanding nod, relieving a heavy weight that Izuku hadn't known he had been carrying since hearing about the festival. Instead he would be accompanying Eri and Mirio around the festival and showing the little girl all sorts of things.

His class could handle the convert without him, he was sure of it.

Which they were working on now, in fact.

Jiro, Tokoyami, Yaomomo, Kaminari, and Bakugou are all in the common area with their instruments, practicing the song that the singer had created. Izuku was happy to see them improving the song continuously, especially after Jiro had come up to him asking for help with her notes and thoughts.

Eri was working with Ashido to learn the dance moves that the others were practicing. She wasn't smiling just yet but you could see the excitement in her eyes as she followed the steps that the pink hero student was laying down for her.

Izuku was set off to the side with the stage crew as they went over ideas to make things sparkle even more. There was even a suggestion of using Aoyama as a disco ball, but there were concerns since the only other one besides Izuku himself, that would be strong enough to pull him would be Sato, but with the minimization of intelligence with his intake of sugar worried them.

"How about we just not do it then. No offence Sato, but we just don't want to have to worry about you dropping Aoyama by accident." Sero explained with an easy smile.

"Nah, that's fine. I might've increased my sugar intake without affecting my intelligence, but even I'm a little hesitant with that idea. I wouldn't want to lose my grip or something." He agreed easily with a ruffle of his hair.

'How about you have Aoyama blow up a piece of ice to turn it into snow?' Izuku suggested after tapping Kouda's shoulder to get his attention. 'Then you can have Todoroki and Kirishima run along ice roads over top to help create even more snow.'

"That's not a bad idea." Kirishima said as he thought it over. "I could use hardening to make the snow dust as Todoroki makes it snow on the other side. Hey Aoyama! I have a question for ya!" He called over to where the blonde was practicing his dancing with the group.

"Oh?" He called back as he made his way.

Izuku could only smile as the group talked and conspired, trying to come up with a time to practice it all. Things were going well and he could tell that the concert would go off without a hitch.

"Break time you guys!" Ashido cried out, yelling out louder to the band that was still messing with several cords. "HEY, MUSIC HEADS! TAKE A BREAK!" Ashido gave a grin as the group stopped. "Sato has cupcakes in the kitchen and there's water and juice there too!" She explained to everyone.

"Cupcakes?" Eri questioned before turning to Izuku with wide pleading eyes. "Can I have one." She put a finger to her trembling lip, still so very terrified to ask for anything, but confident enough in Izuku to do so anyways.

The green haired teen looked at the clock, taking in the fact that it was just twenty past four and it would soon be dinner, but already knowing he couldn't say no. He turned back to her and nodded as he held up one finger.

Eri gave a nod before rushing towards the kitchen to get a cupcake, Izuku looking back down where he held a notebook of all the ideas that the stage crew was having, sorting out the ones that could work and ones that wouldn't.

The scream shattered the peace and sent Izuku flying over the couch and to the kitchen.

There he stared as little Eri screamed with tears running down her face, hands held against her chest as she cowered against the corner she had sequestered herself to. Izuku's head whipped around the room to try and figure out what had set the little girl off, only to catch sight of Tokoyami, Aoyama, and Iida quickly exiting the room, the class president and cheese connoisseur blocking Tokoyami from the little girl's view.

"Eri, it's okay." Ochako was speaking over the little girl's cries. Her, Mina, Tsu, and Yaomomo were all crouched around the little girl, trying to get her to calm down. "It was only Tokoyami!"

"He's a big softy! I promise!" Mina tried to reassure. "He just looks a little scary because of his plumage!"

"He's super nice and his quirk, Dark Shadow, is awesome too." Tsu added on. "Neither would hurt a fly."

"Come now, don't cry, here, have a bunny." Yaomomo coaxed as she pulled a green bunny from her stomach and held it out to the distressed child. "Come on now, there's no need to cry."

"It was only Tokoyami, why is she crying?" Jiro groused as she covered her ears, Shoji had pulled in all of his extra ears and covered his main ones as well, but you could tell Jiro was the most effected. "It's not like she hasn't seen him before."

"I think he snuck up on her by accident." Sato said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "It gave her a shock."

"Doesn't mean she needs to be bawling like this." The singer stated as she turned to leave, only to shrink into herself as she came face to face with a furious looking Bakugou.

"If you think that, then get the fuck out now Earlobes!" He snarled at her before brushing by her and heading straight for the still crying little girl. Izuku startled at that and finally started to move forward too, unsure of what to expect from the blonde even as they moved closer towards each other. "Back the fuck up now!" He snarled at the girls, startling them as he came up behind them.

"What the hell Bakugou!" Ochako snarled back even as Mina, Tsu, and Yaomomo moved away from Eri. "We're trying to help her calm down!"

"Not by crowding her you ain't!" He snapped back as he got between her and the girl, pushing forwards and making her back away. "You don't need to be crowding someone whose having a fucking panic attack, asshole!"

"Like you would know anything about that!" The gravity girl shoved her face up into his face, neither backing down even as Eri continued to cry and Izuku slowly and carefully moved over to the little girl. "You've caused more panic attacks for other people I bet! You're nothing more than a beast!"

"That doesn't mean you fucking get in another person's face!" He snapped back. "And what the fuck would you know about any of that! You don't know nothing about me you stupid bitch!"

"Uraraka, you need to back off." Mina said as she put her hand on the girl's shoulder. "You really don't know anything about Bakugou." She was hoping to diffuse the situation, showing that she was on Bakugou's side but that she was more than willing to speak with Uraraka as well.

"I don't believe it!" Said girl stated, stamping her foot.

Izuku could only shake his head as the two stood snarling at one another as he came to kneel in front of Eri. He carefully reached forward, with just a finger, and settled it against one of the girl's instead. He waited until she opened her eyes to stare at him as she moved her fingers forward to wrap around the one. He gave her a smile as she started quieting her cries, hiccupping and using her free hand to rub at her eyes.

"Look, if we calm her down and then just bring Tokoyami back into the room, we can show her that he's not a bad guy!" Uraraka said as she waved a hand around.

"I mean, if we're careful about it, it could work." Momo agreed as she had a finger against her chin in thought. "We'd have to go really slowly and make sure Tokoyami looks as unthreatening as possible."

"If we have Midori help out too, maybe even get Mirio-senpai to come in as well, that could make it even better!" Mina agreed with a small smile on her face.

Izuku frowned at the girls and some of the guys that were agreeing with them. That wasn't how you were supposed to help with fears. You can't just force a victim to face their fear if they weren't ready. There was a reason why Izuku was almost always across the room away from Tokoyami when he and Eri were in the student dorms. He made sure that he never forced the little girl go anywhere near the other teen, even Izuku flinched from his friend when he wasn't expecting him, all because of his beak.

But forcing Eri to face that fear wasn't going to help.

They were lucky her quirk didn't react this time, but if they tried to force this, then it was very likely someone was going to get hurt.

"Are you fucking morons?" Izuku's head snapped up to Bakugou, brows furrowed as he wondered what the teen would say. "The fuck you trying to do? Scare the living shit out of her?"

"We're trying to help her Bakugou, something you know nothing about." Uraraka frowned as she crossed her arms. "Facing a fear can help a person overcome them, I'm sure you know something as simple as that."

"I also know that forcing someone to face a fear could cause them to go into a shitty meltdown, round cheeks! You don't force someone to do something just because you think it'll help!" He sent a crimson look over to where Izuku was now standing with Eri standing behind him, keeping a grip on his finger. "That could just make things fucking shittier than before. You can't force people to do whatever the fuck you want, even if you think its for this own shitty good."

"But we won't know until we try!" Uraraka just wasn't giving up, and part of it was probably because it was Bakugou standing against it, at least that's what Izuku thought. The girl had been nothing but full of hate towards Bakugou since she had found out how he treated her friend, even during class it was starting to get irritating. Always fighting against the exact opposite of Bakugou just because.

"I think Bakubro is right though." Kirishima spoke up as he went to stand with his friend, Mina moving over to stand with him too, while Momo stood next to Uraraka, Tsu, and Jiro still. Sato decided he wasn't going to join either side and stood away with Shouji. "We can't force her to do something, that's exactly what Shie Hassaikai did in the first place."

"But we're trying to help her and Tokoyami." Momo said as she looked towards the doorway where their birdlike classmate had disappeared. "If she can't get over her fear, it'll just continue hurting Tokoyami too."

"Which isn't either of their faults." Mina frowned. "I know it hurts him, but he also knows it's got nothing to do with him as a person. This was an accident and we can't blame either of them for it." She waved her hands in the air trying to clear the air out of the bad vibes she was feeling.

"We can't just let them hurt like this though! We have to do something to help them heal and recover from this! Especially Eri, since she got hurt so bad!" Uraraka continued with her cheeks going pink in frustration. She only wanted to help, to help Eri feel better, to help Tokoyami feel better, and to make the class feel whole again.

"You can't fucking force it!" Bakugou snarled as he glared at the girl.

"Oh shut up Bakugou! No one wants an abuser's opinion on something like this!" She snapped right back.

Watching Bakugou flinch back at that was the final straw for Izuku. He just couldn't allow this to continue even though he loved his friends, this was going too far.

"Shut up!" He tried to yell, except coming out more gravely and low due to how long it had been since he had talked.

Didn't seem to matter though because Jiro and Shouji instantly turning to him caught everyone else's attention. "Nii-chan?" Eri questioned as she looked up at the suddenly furious look on the other's face.

"Uraraka, I…." He stopped and coughed as everyone turned to him, now completely quiet in the kitchen. "I appreciate that you worry and care about me." He sent her a glare as his hands shook slightly with how angry he felt. "But you do not get to treat Bakugou like that, that's rude and disrespectful."

"That's what he deserves though!" She shot back with a shake of her head. "He's a bully and an abuser! He's done nothing to prove that he isn't!"

"Except he has!" Mina stepped in with fists clenched tightly. "He's been nothing but helpful when we ask for help on homework!"

"He's been really supportive and gives great suggestions while we're working on our song." Jiro pointed out as well. "Not to mention he's actually been constructive during our practice."

"Like that matters when all he does is yell and shout at the rest of us! He just called me Round Cheeks instead of my name! I've told him a million times what my name is!" She shouts as she stood her ground.

"He's trying!" Kirishima shouted back, brows furrowed and fists clenched like everyone else in the room. "You can't just ignore all the effort he's putting into getting better!"

"It's not like someone can actually change who they are!" Uraraka's face was full on red now. "He'll always be an abuser and nothing is ever going to change that! Especially after everything he's done to Deku! I'll never forgive him for that."

That was when Bakugou actually stepped back and turned away, moving to walk away from the group and argument. Izuku could see sweat dripping from his clenched fists and with how his head was bowed, the greenette was sure that the other was hiding hurt or anger on his face.

Instead of confronting Uraraka, he was walking away.

He was walking away when he was being slighted and put down.

That was something that Izuku had never seen the blonde do before.

He always screamed, yelled, threw punches, and set off explosions whenever he was insulted. He fought back and insulted back and didn't let anything slide, because Bakugou was the best and he had to make sure everyone knew that. Walking away, even though he was angry or hurt, it just didn't happen.

"You don't get to make that decision!" Izuku shouted the best he could, all attention back on him, as he watched Bakugou leave the kitchen and into the living room. "You aren't the one he hurt the most! You aren't the one who gets to decided what he can or can't do! You aren't the one who decides if he can change or not!"

"That's not what I meant…." His friend looked at him hurt, like he had slapped her.

"Sure, maybe calling you Round Cheeks hurt, but he's done nothing but show you respect otherwise! HE's one of the few guys that actually takes you serious during class and doesn't hold back! So why are you saying he can't change? Why are you calling him an abuser when he has never actually hurt you!?"

"Because he hurt you! That's all the reasoning I need to hate him and make sure he never tries to hurt you again!" She gave him a pleading look, hand reaching out towards him.

"Except you don't get to treat him like that! I don't like it and I don't agree with it! You know that! I've told you that and Todoroki, both! I've explained that to you!" His throat was starting to hurt and he coughed a few times before continuing. "You don't get to act like Bakugou just because of the way he treated me! Get over yourself!"

"But he hurt you!" She screamed right back, tears beginning to bead in the corner of her eyes.

"Yeah! ME! NOT YOU!" He could taste copper in the back of his throat but he ignored it. "It was me he hurt! Not you! You didn't get burned! You didn't get belittled! You didn't get beaten and ganged up on! IT Was never you….." His voice began to give out and the taste of copper strengthened. "You have….no right…."

"Alright, okay, how about we get you a glass of water Midoriya." Momo said as she stepped forward, holding her hands out between the two. "You've got a little bit of blood there." She pointed at his lip.

Izuku raised a hand and wiped said lip, looking at the little smear there. He shook his head as he turned and picked Eri up into his arms. "I'm going to the teachers dorms. I'm done here." He whispered out as he took off with the little girl, snatching a cupcake up as they passed them and handing it to her.

"Wait, Deku, I'm sorry." Uraraka followed the teen, trying to get him to stay and talk to her. "Come on, let's just talk this out! I'm sorry I said that but…." She continued on, going as far as to follow him to the teachers dorm.

Izuku ignored her all the way to the teachers' dorms, hoping she would stop and leave him alone, but she followed him all the way.

Thankfully, Aizawa-sensei was just about to enter the building when he stopped and watched the two with a raised brow. Izuku gave his sensei a look as he walked by him and into the building, Uraraka trying to follow but was stopped by their sensei.

He didn't bother looking back or at the other teachers in the common room as he went up to his rooms. He needed time and all he wanted was to just be left alone with only Eri for company.

RA

"Sensei! Please! I need to talk with Deku!" She exclaimed as she tried to work around the Pro, trying to get to her friend. "I messed up and I need to make it right!"

"Except it doesn't look like he wants to talk right now." He stated as he kept his place in front of the door. "You'd think him ignoring you all the way here would give you a hint, but really Uraraka, do you not know how to respect someone's boundaries?" He raised a brow at her embarrassed look. "I also know you students had been questioning why Bakugou hadn't been moved into the teachers' dorms, can you guess why now?"

The teen gave pouty look as she shook her head. "But…."

"But nothing. You kids don't understand when someone has had enough without them shouting in your face. Bakugou and state when he's had enough and will let you know, not to mention that he's more than capable of ignoring those trying to make him do something he doesn't want to. Midoriya doesn't do that, have you noticed that? He lets you all get into his space even when he's uncomfortable, and he'd never refuse you entry to his area." He nodded towards the door behind him. "That's why I put him in the teachers' dorms. He can actually get away and get a break from you if he needs to. He gets space that he very dearly needs, even when you don't want to give it to him."

Uraraka looked at the ground and dug her toe into the ground as she thought that over. "I didn't mean to be rude sensei."

"I know, but like I said, a lot of you kids don't understand boundaries. I put Midoriya in here to give him safe space and a chance to build those boundaries. You need to learn to start respecting them." He gave a sigh as he rubbed at his forehead. "Look, go back to your dorm and think hard about how you want to keep your friend, because the behavior I saw could mean you very well could lose him if you aren't careful." With that, he turned and entered the building, leaving behind a very unsure student.

RA

"You should just ignore her Bakugou." Mina said as she tried to reassure her friend, shouting over the sound of his drums. "She doesn't know you or the work you've put into getting better!"

The blonde huffed and shook his head before focusing again on the drums. It wasn't the first time someone had said something horrible about him, especially since he had started at U.A. where it seemed like everything he did made him look like a villain.

He still remembered he news where they had accused him off possibly joining the League of Villains, not even Aizawa's claim of him doing nothing of the sort stopped some of the students from whispering in the hallways. So many of them believed he was the traitor or a possible villain.

It was irritating.

And to have Round Cheeks….Uraraka say that nothing he did was going to make him better or change about him, that had hit pretty hard.

Especially since she could be right. There was a chance he wasn't changing, but was only just hiding who he really was. Was he really not changing, was he just going to jump backwards and hurt anyone around him again. Make them all feel horrible and leave more scars on more people.

Pink hands grabbed one of his wrists, stopping him from beating on the dumbs. He shot her a harsh glare, but the glare she was sending him told him that she wasn't' letting him go anytime soon. In fact, her hands tightened on his wrists. "Listen to me Katsuki." She stated, catching his full attention as she used his full name for the first time.

He stared into her eyes for a long moment before giving a huff and lowering his other hand, giving her his full attention.

She nodded as she released him and straightened up. "Look, I know it sucked when Uraraka said all of that stuff, but you can't take it to heart. She's just angry and doesn't think you got what you deserved." She explained calmly.

"The fuck is it any business to her in the first place?" He gave a low growl, trying to turn the hurt into anger. He thought the two of them had built a type of respect between each other, but he should've known better the moment her and IcyHot had attacked him that one day.

"She's friends with Midori, she cares about him a lot, and takes any slight to him personally. Kinda like how Kirishima and I are always fighting for you when you get insulted." She explained with a shrug of her shoulders. "That doesn't give her the right to say any of those things, but that's the reasoning behind it. You just need to ignore it because not of it is true."

"But what if it is?" He snarled as he stood up from his drums. "What if I'm not changing? What if I'm just fucking acting like I'm changing and all I'm doing is damn well hiding it? The fuck am I going to do if I hurt a shitty extra again? For no shitty reason?" He threw his hands in the air, fighting against the impulse to set explosions off as the sweat gathered in his palms from his agitation.

"That! That right there tells me you aren't!" Mina exclaimed as she pointed at him. "That you're worried about going back to that person! That's what's going to stop you from going back to that person!"

"What the fuck does that mean?" He groused as he wiped his hands off with a special cloth that would neutralize the nitroglycerin.

"It means that you don't want to go back to the person you were in middle school. You're scared of going back to that person cause you realize that that person was in the wrong." She explained excitedly as she began to bounce on her toes. "That means you don't want to hurt anyone anymore, not like that at least."

HE fell silent at that, unsure of what to think about that. He was hoping that it was true though, because that meant he was changing and maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't always be a bully. That one day, he would actually deserve to be a hero student, and deserve to be a hero.

But more importantly, maybe one day he would deserve Izuku's forgiveness.

RA

A.N. I'm so incredibly tired of fucking assholes that have decided I am doing nothing but catering to Bakugou. No, what I'm doing is giving him a chance to change and grow. HE's a fucking child! In the manga and in most fanfics, he's a child! And in my OPINION, every child should be given a chance to change.

But more importantly, this is MY OPINION! This is MY CHOICE! You guys don't get to make my choices and you don't get to tell me what to do or how to treat people. I get to make MY OWN CHOICES! MY CHOICE! MY OPINION! MY STORY! If you don't like it, then don't read it! It's as simple as that!

If you cannot make your opinions known as an adult and resort to vulgar words and behavior, I'll just delete you and you can fuck off at that point. I'll return horrible treatment with horrible treatment, just like you're asking for, because apparently that makes everything alright.

So here's the thing. You guys don't know my, you don't know what I've been through, or my thought process on how to get pass my own trauma. I don't tell you people how to deal with shit, cause I don't know you or your circumstances, and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you what to do. Because that's not of my business at the end of the day. IT's not! You get to make your own choices and decisions and form your own opinions! That's your right!
What's not your right is trying to shove those opinions down other peoples' throats just because you're offended. Get over yourselves.