Izuku gave a disappointed sigh as he proved himself right and was ready to graduate that Thursday. At least he could get registered for his structural engineering degree on the same day and he had a nice conversation with Elmo Vespa. Izuku also passed on some notebooks with quirk analysis to the young man trusting he would be the only one that could read them with the cipher he'd made.

It was made in the height of Izuku's paranoia, randomly picking five symbols from Japanese, Russian, French, and numbers and reassigned them a numerical value that was further translated to an English letter then wrote them in a word scramble style, and feeling that wasn't enough he would reassigned what symbols meant what letter with every page.

Most would definitely call that overkill... but most people didn't have to fear All For One was going to come out of nowhere and probably kill them, and the last thing Izuku wanted was his notes on his students' quirks getting into the wrong hands.

Elmo Vespa was one of the only other people who knew the code by heart, a choice Izuku had made after his talk with Raven since he needed others that could should he pass away.

Izuku also registered for a qualification in JSL so he could "officially" translate for people and hoping it would be an additional distraction that would keep him from burning through his course work even if he was already fluent in JSL and ASL.

Izuku headed home expecting to have his mom gush over him as he framed another degree onto the wall and maybe hang out with his friends since after his work they'd all be out of school for the day, that would probably be fun he couldn't help smiling at the thought.

Walking home for the day Izuku found the distance very short compared to all the distances he traveled for work now, and Izuku paused to marvel at the sheer novelty of the fact he was doing over a hundred things he never dreamed he could ever possibly do, then shook his head and continued on home knowing he'd worry his mom if he was late.

Opening the door to the apartment Izuku was about to call out a greeting but jumped when multiple people yelled "Surprise!"

There standing in front of him was Ochaco-Chan, Mezo-Kun, Awa-Kun, along with his mom and the Bakugou's "Congrats on making it for fourteen years now brat." Auntie Mitsuchan laughed and Izuku eyes went wide as he realized what day it was.

"I completely forgot about my birthday!" Izuku groaned into his hands, no wonder his students were acting so weird and being more insistent with their gifts.

Auntie Mitsuchan's laughter bellowed now while everyone else looked fondly exasperated, well Awa-Kun huffed bemused "Considering all the stuff you do I'm surprised you have the time to do anything other than pass out." Awa-Kun joked wrapping an arm around Izuku's shoulders and dragging him further inside.

Izuku's eyes searched for a hoped seventh figure to appear and couldn't help feeling a twinge in his heart when he couldn't find a second blonde there but he didn't let it show and instead asked how they had gotten his friends there before him.

The party itself was a lovely memory he'd be sure to cherish, normally at his birthdays the only guests he'd have were the Bakugous but they tried to make up for the lack of people attending by getting him a ton of presents and it was one of the few times Kacchan would be nice to him.

Now though he had his friends to play games with and Ochaco-Chan made sure to cheer him on as he tried to beat Awa-Kun on the new hero-themed racing game Auntie Mitsuchan got him, and things got intense as he taught his friends how to play poker and almost lost all the candy he got when it came down to just him and Mezo-Kun.

The cake was great like always and the Bakugous got him some great looking notebook sets and commissioned pair of goggles that looked just like Eraserhead's and doubled as sunglasses so he could wear them everywhere, his mom had gotten some textbooks for chemistry so he could learn that incase it was different from science and biology.

But when Ochaco-Chan passed him a small box he was surprised and conflicted "Ochaco-Chan you didn't have to-" he tried to say feeling bad since he knew how tight her family's money situation was.

"I know but we all wanted to get you something Izu-Kun." Ochaco-Chan replied cutting him off and waving him just to open it.

Izuku opened the box and found an old piece of paper with a bunch of doodles folded up inside of it and Ochaco-Chan's hand-writing on it, Izuku blinked staring at the paper with his head tilted then looked to Ochaco-Chan who was slightly nervous.

"I know it's not much, but this was one of my old training plans that I had in my folder when we first bumped into each other on the train... I thought you might like it, you know like as a memento from how we first met." Ochaco-Chan explained twiddling her thumbs.

Izuku glanced back at the paper and realized he did think the paper was familiar and smiled as he read over some of the things Ochaco-Chan wrote and his smile got wider as his thumb ran over a doodle, it was a nice gift and he was sure it would look right at home along with the other drawings he got from his students.

"Thank you Ochaco-Chan, I love it." Izuku told her quickly pulling out a plastic sleeve to place the paper in.

Mezo-Kun approached him and Izuku got the feeling that all of his friends were going to give him something and wouldn't take no for an answer. Mezo-Kun's gift was a fair bit larger than Ochaco-Chan's and Izuku was worried about how much Mezo-Kun might have spent on whatever he got him.

Looking inside the box Izuku nearly squealed and immediately pulled out the patterned poncho and tossed it on rushing over to the bathroom to see what it looked like on him.

The fabric was incredibly soft and plush, the inside an off white of some kind and the outside was a swirl of pre-quirk patterns he knew from a few game series he recommended to Iguchi-San, and the dark green colors blended well with the few pops of red and orange.

It was more like a cape as it almost reached his knees but that just meant he'd be able to wear it even as he grew bigger.

"Did your mom make this? It must of taken months Mezo-Kun." Izuku commented as he left the bathroom and noticed Mezo-Kun nervously rubbed the back of his neck.

"I... made it actually." Mezo-Kun shyly admitted "Mom helped me dye it, showed me how the patterns worked, and gave me the silk for it but I made it." Mezo-Kun explained turning one of his secondary limbs that looked almost like his mom's hands.

Izuku's eyes widened and he looked down at the poncho with a new sort of awe.

"I will never let anything happen to this and wear it to every formal meeting I ever attend." Izuku declared, flustering Mezo-Kun slightly.

"Geeze, I feel kind of embarrassed about how lame my gift is now." Awa-Kun mentioned as he handed Izuku a box that was only slightly bigger than the box Izuku's new goggles came in.

"I'm sure whatever you got is wonderful-" Izuku said only to gasp when he saw what was inside.

A bandanna that was signed by the Bull-Hide hero Snipe, it wasn't anything incredibly special or particularly rare but he liked Snipe as a hero, when he first started learning to shoot with the Vespas they told him Snipe was actually the best example of guns in heroics.

He had the lowest kill rate and was a paragon of gun safety that practiced what he preached about gun safety laws no matter the situation.

"You have something signed by Snipe!" Izuku cheerfully asked as he examined the signature.

"Yeah, he was at a hero-con back when I was, fuck seven I think? And I was just getting as many of these bandannas signed as I could and I'd never seen a cowboy hero before so I had to get his you know." Awa-Kun answered.

"This is from his buckshot era!? Awa-Kun that makes this is one of Snipe's rarest collectors items, he only signed a few things then because he had only just came out of the underground scene!" Izuku informed clutching it to his chest remembering the hero-con Awa-Kun was talking about.

"Well damn, I didn't know that but I'm glad you like it so much Zuri." Awa-Kun replied with a shrug and grin, only to stumble slightly as Izuku hugged him.

"This is the best birthday ever!" Izuku exclaimed.

The party didn't last long after that since his friends would need to get home and had school tomorrow so Izuku wasn't too disappointed and gave each of them a hug before they left with his mom.

Izuku got to work cleaning up then retired to his room planning to put Awa-Kun's gift in its own box so it wouldn't be damaged but paused when he saw something on his desk.

A simple white envelope sat on his desk with a small box on top of it to keep it in place.

Immediately Izuku knew exactly who must have left it and rushed over to open the envelope and began reading it.

Dear Izuku

I have no idea how to start this shit but I think it's about damn time I reached out.

I miss seeing you but I don't think either of us can handle meeting in person without me losing my crap, and I'm not sure if I ever will be ready to see you again.

And a big reason for that is because I know what you're going to say as soon as we would.

This is probably going to go over your head but I do not under any circumstances want you to say you forgive me.

I've come to terms with what our friendship became and I'm trying to become someone better than that unstable nuclear bastard that tormented you.

And don't you dare say I wasn't Izuku.

I want to see you again but until we both stop gaslighting ourselves about how bad our shit got and I can get my brain in order we can't.

It would be bad for you and for me.

Hell I'm not even sure if I can handle writing letters with you regularly but I haven't seen you for nearly three years and I fucking miss you, you damn nerd.

The hag says you're happy and that you've made some friends for once, and I... I'm trying to be happy for you because you deserve people who can fucking tell you how great you are without all the bullshit attached.

I'm trying to be friends with a couple kids I met at my new school and I don't think I'm screwing up too badly since they haven't gone running for the hills despite knowing what I did to you.

You'd lose your shit if actually met them, Potty would love you though and give you a fuck ton of marbles.

Here's hoping we can get our crap together one day Izuku.

P.S. Hope the present I left on top ain't complete shit, the hag only had a couple pics of your friends.

Izuku's mouth felt dry when he finished reading the letter and his first instinct was to grab his phone and opened his contacts to search for Kacchan's and he was about to hit the call button before another part of him slapped him across the face.

Because he was just about to do exactly what Kacchan asked him not to and he couldn't help feeling like a hypocrite since this was a blackhole he warned Setsuno about falling into.

Kacchan had risked reaching out despite not knowing if he was mentally ready or not to reopen communication between them and what was he going to do? Bombard him with how much he didn't hate him and insist he wasn't a horrible person, the one thing that Kacchan had explicitly asked him not to do.

And realizing this made the already present ache deep in his ribcage feel all so much worse because Kacchan was right.

He and Kacchan weren't ready to see each other again and were barely able to speak to each other indirectly via mail despite how much they both wanted to be back into each other's lives.

He wanted all of his friends to meet Kacchan and share all the stories he had of his students with Kacchan.

He hadn't thought of it with everything else going on in his life but now that he looked back it felt like less like three years and more like multiple decades since he last caught a glance of Kacchan in the flesh.

And in all that time he hadn't ever tried to acknowledge his relationship with Kacchan had changed, he still thought he Kacchan were pretty good friends and they were both just taking a break from being beside each other and they would just continue being friends again.

But that... could never happen, because they weren't friends and they hadn't been friends for years, long before his mom found out and they stopped seeing each other.

A thought- no a fact that just out right hurt.

Izuku nearly jumped out of his skin when something wet landed on his arm and one hand quickly reached up to his face, and really Izuku didn't know why he was surprised to feel himself crying after how emotional he had become over Kacchan's letter.

He took a deep shaky breath and let his head rest on his chair as he decided to do something that should have happened years ago... and he let himself grieve for a few minutes over their broken relationship which probably died a long time ago.

By the time he got a hold of himself Izuku's chest still felt like it had been caved in and he still had some tears falling from his face but he couldn't leave himself in this pit and placed the letter away in a drawer, then he spotted the innocent looking box that had been on top of the letter.

"Right, Kacchan gave me a gift... " Izuku muttered and carefully picked up the box, pulling the ribbon loose and taking off the lid.

Inside was a total of five little clay figures similar to the first two he gave Izuku.

The first looked like Mezo-Kun did when they went to the zoo together, another was Ochaco-Chan also in winter gear, and the third was sort of like Awa-Kun but was the least defined of the five.

The last two weren't familiar to him at all, both were bird-headed and slotted together with the second being different from the all the others as it was mainly a solid color other than the two large white eyes and it sat on top of a marble.

Izuku swallowed thickly as he stared at all these figures and carefully placed them next to the first two he got from Kacchan.

*Kacchan is trying his best to meet me halfway, and he's doing everything he can to get into a better mental place... I should be doing the same.* Izuku thought as he gently picked up the figure of Kacchan.

*And I should probably start like Kacchan did by coming to terms with how bad our friendship really was, in an objective fashion... this is going to take a while.* Izuku thought with a weary sigh, knowing he wasn't a paragon of mental health.

At least he could comfort himself with the fact the relationship between himself and Kacchan wasn't so irreparably broken that Kacchan never wanted to see him again or thought they should never try to be friends again.

And that his desire to reconnect wasn't so one sided as he feared, a thought that made his chest feel just a touch lighter.