Fear. Fear is something that Izuku had come to know very well, he had never gone a day without being afraid of everything around him. The slightest of sounds were able to set him off, yet when Katsuki introduced himself, he didn't feel scared.

"We're gonna be friends" those are the words he said to him, he asked no questions, he didn't fear him, he wasn't disgusted by him, he held a lot of fire in the words he spoke to him, but none of it burned him. He stated that they were gonna be friends like it was a fact of life. Just as Rain Falls and flowers Bloom, they were going to become friends.

Izuku had never felt such certainty, such conviction, such head strongness in anyone ever before. The other things he said, about being the next number one hero and that he would have to get prepared because he wasn't going to let an extra be his friend, all of it was laced in self confidence and arrogance but under that tough shell, Izuku understood something that no one else in the room did, maybe not even Katsuki himself.

He understood that what he said wasn't a warning, it was a declaration. It was a promise that he would stick to Izuku's side. That was why he didn't feel fear, that was why he felt safe around his new friend.

But even if Katsuki introduced Izuku to friendship, showing his face was something he wasn't as willing to do. When the blond had asked for him to show him his face, Izuku was bewildered. Why? Why would he want to see his face? Why would he ask him to do something he despises so much? Weren't they supposed to be friends?

He closed himself off, turning away from his new friend in protest. He would get nothing from him, he told himself. But in his flurry of thoughts, he thought about what his friend might have meant.

"if we're going to be friends, then we're gonna watch heroes on television together." Katsuki didn't care about watching tv, they were playing with hero action figures just fine not too long ago, what he wanted behind his juvenile request was to see his face because they were gonna be friends, and you need to have trust in your friends. Izuku needed to trust Katsuki to not think of him as a monster after seeing his face, they needed to have this kind of trust if they were ever going to really become friends.

And so after steeling his resolve, he willingly chose to let someone other than his own mother see his face for the first time in his life.

To Katsuki, the moment must have been short, but to Izuku time slowed to a crawl. After removing his mask and sunglasses from his face, he first felt the cool breeze from the A/C caressing his face, making him shiver.

After that, the fear set in. He had never let himself be in the same room as someone when his face wasn't covered. Even when his mom was in the same room as him, he would prefer to have his coverings on to mitigate the fear he felt, so to have his face laid bare while in the same room as someone he had only known for a short while made his heartrate skyrocket.

But he needed to push through, he needed to do this for his friend and so he forced himself to turn around and face Katsuki.

As he was turning around, getting closer and closer to facing the young blond, he started hearing voices, first as whispers warning him against what he was doing. Then, the whispers became louder and louder until eventually they were all yelling at him to stop, begging for him to not show his face and to turn back around.

But, the young greenette didn't back down. "I won't listen to you, i have to do this!" He told the voices inside his head, now with tears running down his face, and with one final push, he faced Katsuki Bakugou.

There are no words to describe the utter terror Izuku felt when his friend's gaze met his, he felt as though the world around him was shattering and all that was left was him and that awful, awful staring directed towards him.

It was his turn to beg, to plead. He called out to the voices, asking them, begging them to bring him back, to make it stop but the voices laid silent. After a while, however, something new appeared, something that Izuku had never felt before in his life, something that was Burning and tearing at his very insides.

Anger, pure white-hot anger. The voices then came back, but no longer were they talking to Izuku. Now, all they did was scream, they started screaming louder and louder and louder until it reached a deafening degree. Izuku, becoming angrier and angrier by the second was about to let out his own scream to try to quiet the voices down but right before he could, a voice barely more audible than a whisper rung out to him.

"Sna... th... uck... out... of... it..."

What was it trying to say? The voice
was getting louder, eventually he could make out the words being said, a slurry of insults and demands to stop freaking out.

He wondered to himself who this voice was that was overtaking the screaming ones but before he could question its origin any further he was shaken out of his stupor by an explosive fist connecting with his jaw.

He blinked a couple times, his senses now coming back to him and he could now see Katsuki gripping him by his collar and shaking him

"WILL YOU STOP FREAKING OUT YOU BIG FUCKING COWARD I DIDN'T EVEN FLINCH!"

His memory then came back to him what, Katsuki had asked to see his face and Izuku agreed to let him see... it.

Before Katsuki could further berate his friend, Izuku open his mouth up as wide as he could, let out a loud screech and with all the remaining anger he had, he hit his friend in his face, making him fly across the room and into a wall. Now with the blond's eyes off of him, Izuku scurried to get his mask and sunglasses off of the floor and back on his face before getting into the fetal position and loudly crying to himself.

Inko and Mitsuki had heard the loud commotion coming from where their sons were playing and so hurried into the room to check on the two boys, both of them were horrified at what they saw and each individually went to check on their children. Inko tended to her son's healing but still charred and cooked skin and Mitsuki tended to her own son, who was now bleeding from his mouth, a tooth had apparently been knocked out by the greenette strike.

"It's ok honey, it's ok. Shhhh, Everything's all right." Inko said, trying to calm her son down who was now clinging to her.

"I-I'm so sorry!" Izuku said, through sobs and hiccups.

''KATSUKI! KATSUKI, YOU BRAT, TALK TO ME DAMNIT!'' Mitsuki yelled while shaking her injured son.

''S-stop shaking me, you old hag!'' Katsuki said groggily while sitting up.

Now with his vision back, Katsuki turned towards Inko and Izuku, who were both hugging each other now, Inko comforting Izuku and Izuku loudly repeating how sorry he was over and over again, and smirked. After getting up and stumbling a bit despite the protest of his mother, he went up to the green haired duo, pulled Izuku off of his mother, the former shrinking and shielding his face with his hands while sobbing and stared at him.

''P-Please stop looking at me, i-I didn't mean to hit you.'' Izuku said while peeking from behind his fingers.

Katsuki kept his harsh glare on Izuku before snickering

''it worked.''

All three people present in the room with Katsuki were confused. What had worked? What had he done?

"W-what?" Izuku stuttered out.

"You're so fucking scared of people seeing your face that you can't do anything. I saw your face, did the world end?"

"W-well no, but-"

"But nothing! You're not gonna die if somebody looks at you, so stop being such a fucking cowar-"

Before he could finish his sentence, however, Katsuki was struck on the top of his head by his mom's balled fist.

"SO YOU'RE THE ONE WHO MADE THIS HAPPEN! AND STOP INSULTING IZUKU, YOU PROBLEM CHILD!"

"BUT I'M RIGHT! HOW IS HE GONNA FUNCTION IF HE'S SCARED OF HIS OWN FUCKING SHADOW!" Katsuki replies while rubbing the top of his head.

"SHUT UP!" Mitsuki yelled to her child.

"I'm so sorry Katsuki made you show your face to him, dear! we need to go to the doctor to get his wound checked out and after that we'll go home and he'll be grounded for a week." She said to Izuku, glaring at Katsuki at the end of her sentence.

"Come on, Katsuki, we're leaving."

"Oh come on! We just fucking got here!"

Mitsuki hit Katsuki in the head again

"LANGUAGE!"

Both of the Midoriyas stood still in Izuku's room, still shocked at the unfolding of events that they had just witnessed.

Before Inko could speak up to Izuku, however, the young boy ran out of the room to the bakugous who were just going out the door.

"U-um, auntie Mitsuki?" Izuku asked hesitantly, causing Mitsuki to turn back around

"Hm? Yes dear?"

"A-after Katsuki's not grounded anymore, could we see each other again? I want to watch hero stuff on tv with him!"

Mitsuki was surprised at the greenette's newfound conviction but gave back a warm smile anyway.

"Of course, Izuku, i'm sure Katsuki would be glad to see you again after he's learned his lesson."

Izuku smiled under mask

"Thank you auntie! Oh, and sorry again for hitting you, Katsuki. I promise i won't do it again."

Katsuki scoffed at folded his arms

"Don't worry about it, i promised i'd let you anyway. I just didn't expect you to have a damn strength quirk."

"A strength quirk?"

"Yeah, a strength quirk. There's no way in hell your skinny arms could break my tooth no matter how well you throw a punch, it must a part of your weird quirk."

Izuku paused and started thinking to himself, had he really hit him that hard? He couldn't really tell how much strength he put into his punch, he was to scared and angry to register it, was this really a part of his quirk? Did he get stronger when people looked at his face? If so, he wouldn't be able to get much use out of it, there's no way in hell he was gonna let random people look at his face so he could get a little stronger.

Before he knew it, he started muttering his thoughts out loud, to both of the blonds' discomfort.

"Um, Izuku, you're muttering." Mitsuki said, trying to get Izuku out of his trance.

"Huh? Oh! Sorry, i didn't know i was thinking out loud." Izuku said while rubbing his head in embarrassment before getting serious again and bowing in front of the bakugous

"Thank you for coming, i can't wait to see you again, Katsuki!"

"Hm, you better be serious when you say you want to watch tv together, when i come back we're watching an all might marathon!"

"I look forward to it, see you next week!" Izuku said after laughing joyfully, earning a scoff from Katsuki

"Yeah, whatever."

And with that the bakugous got into their car and left. After watching them leave, Izuku turned to his mother who had joined him shortly after he said goodbye and asked her: "hey mom, could you schedule another appointment with Mr. Sugimoto?"

"Why? Your cheek's fine now, are you feeling sick?" Inko asked worriedly, crouching down to get a better look at Izuku

"No, i'm fine, mom, it's just i'd like to talk to him about my quirk, that's all. After Katsuki looked at my face something... happened. It felt really painful and i heard voices screaming at me, Katsuki pulled me out of it but i got scared and so i hit him really hard when i came back to my senses so he would stop looking at me. I hit him harder than i thought i was able to, so i was wondering if maybe it's a part of my quirk."

Inko gasped and hugged her son.

"Oh honey, that sounds horrible. Don't worry, i'll call him and we'll get an appointment as soon as he's available."

"Thanks mom!" Izuku said while pulling away from the hug "Oh, and thank you for getting me to meet Katsuki. He's a bit intense, but i feel less scared around him."

"You're welcome, Izuku, anything for you." Inko responded with a smile.

Izuku, wanting to express his appreciation, pulled down his mask, placed a kiss on Inko's cheek and then returned to hugging her, enjoying his mother's calming embrace.

"I love you mom."

"I love you too, honey." She said, embracing her son tighter, "Now, i'm getting hungry. How about i get some food started for us, hm?"

Izuku gasped then uttered a "Yes please!" Before detaching himself from his mother and running back inside.

Inko sighed while looking at her son run back inside, it was the happiest she'd ever seen him, it brought a tear to her eye.

"No, no. Now's not the time for that, i've got a meal to cook."

Wiping her tears away, she got up and walked back into her house.