Izuku grumbled as he pushed a fridge across the loose, shifting sands, grumbling in annoyance at the blurry smudges around him that his vibration sense was barely able to make out.

He hated sand. It was too loose and shifty, it muted and sometimes outright interfered with his seismic-sense.

Which was probably why All-Might had him moving trash on the beach, forcing him to adapt to one of his weaker points.

It'd been a week since that fateful day with the sludge villain, and for the most part, things had gotten better; his mother no longer required him to be herded around by Katsuki and even allowed him to work out with All Might (introduced to her as Toshinori Yagi) so long as he was home before sundown, something Yagi also helped him with.

"Come on Young Midoriya!" The cheerful, boasting voice of the number one hero boomed from the top of the fridge, "it's getting pretty comfy atop this thing!"

Oh how Izuku wished he could send the smug asshole flying with a stomp of his foot, but last time he did that he only got a plume of sand to choke himself with, "it'd be easier if your skinny butt wasn't on it." He snarked, throwing his shoulder into the fridge and grinning when All-Might almost toppled over.

"Hey! I bulked up this year!" The man objected as he finally jumped off the fridge and deflated, "Besides, more weight is good, earth is an element of substance right? So the more muscle you get behind your movements the better!"

"My fighting style is pretty fluid." He reminded the man, sitting down against the fridge, letting his head fall back, "but I get it, I need muscle."

"And this place is the best for it!" Yagi cheered, throwing his arms wide, "just look at it!"

"Oh yeah, really impressive." He snarked dryly, causing the man to sweatdrop.

"Sorry." He coughed awkwardly, "this beach is full of trash, from bags to things like this fridge, the shifting sands force you to use muscles you haven't to stabilize yourself-"

"-and it makes me concentrate more on Vibration Sense." Izuku muttered begrudgingly.

"T-t-that is also a reason I chose this place!" All-Might laughed, sweating a bit when the boy tilted his head towards him.

"I can't tell if you're lying or not." He said, "it's harder to pay attention to your heartbeat from here."

"Y-you can tell when people are lying?' Toshinori asked in surprise.

"Sort of, heartbeats are one of the easiest vibrations to pick up on, and most people's hearts speed up when they're lying."

"I wonder if that's how Naomasa's quirk works." Yagi wondered out loud before shrugging, "something to ask him later, there's another reason I'm having you clean this beach, can you guess why?"

"Is it because the place is an eye sore?" Izuku asked boredly, picking at his teeth.

"...sort of, this beach used to be beautiful, but the tides bring in trash from the ocean, and people began dumping things here making it worse; as heroes there's always a thought that fighting villains is our only job, but serving the public is the name of the game! And what better service for a young wannabe to deliver than to clean this beach before the entrance exam!"

Izuku nodded slowly, " I get what you're going for." He said as he stood back up, "but I need to train my quirk too, learning how to bend the sand would be cool, but I still need to refine what I already got.:

"Right you are! I was hoping to get Pixie Bob in on this, but they're working an earthquake disaster in LA, so that was off the table."

"I have a trainer…technically a trainer." Izuku amended.

Toshinori raised an eyebrow, "I'd love to meet them." He said with a smile, "do you think you could call them?"

Izuku thought about it, then shook his head, "while I'm sure I could, I don't think the city would be too happy about it…you can come with me tomorrow if you want, mom wanted to meet her too."

"I think that can be arranged, now, let's get you home. The sun's almost down.

Izuku nodded and whistled, almost immediately Acorn was jumping over trash mounds to his side, yapping as Toshinori helped guide him back to steady earth.

"Do you want a ride home young Midoriya?" He asked.

"Nah, we can walk." Izuku said, bowing a bit, "thanks for the offer, same time tomorrow at Mustafu National Park?"

Toshinori blinked, "I'll be there, but why there?"

"You'll see, later Toshi!" With that Ixuku took off, Acorn at his side.

Toshinori chuckled as he began walking to his car, "weird kid."

Wvwvw

Inko Midoriya was a worrier; it was in her very nature, it had reached its peak when her son was born blind and she'd doubled down on her fears, leading to her almost fully alienating her son.

Now she was supportive of him and his dream to be a hero, no more kiddie gloves, no more worry from Inko.

At least that's what she promised him, she'd always worry about her baby boy; but she could definitely pull back on her coddling and let him live with minimal showing of just how worried she truly was.

And her son was testing that by leading her and his new teacher Toshinori Yagi into the forest he'd been lost in as a kid.

"Are you sure your teacher is here Izuku?" Inko asked worriedly, looking around in slight fear.

"I'm sure she is mom, trust me." He said as he easily wove between the trees, no doubt having been out here many times before.

Inko smiled, doing her best to sound genuine, "alright honey."

Yagi was looking around with a hum, "looks like we're coming up on a wall." He muttered.

"Ah, the Great Wall of Izuku." Inko teased her son, making him blush.

"It's not my fault they didn't fix a fence with holes big enough for a blind kid to walk through." He grumbled.

"Wait, this wall's here because of you?" Yagi asked in surprise.

"He got lost when he was younger,and he got pretty deep into the forest before the heroes found him. Because of the search the city put the wall in to make sure it wouldn't happen to anyone else." She sighed in exasperation as, with a stomp and push of his hand, a cave opened up under the wall, "though I see it doesn't stop my son."

Izuku grinned cheekily back at his mom as he slid down into the tunnel and back up, "it's not too far from the clearing from here." He reassured them, taking off at a run, "Stay at the edge and don't come out until I call."

Toshinori tilted his head "why-" but the boy was already gone, the two adults shared a look but they slowed down as they reached a rocky clearing Izuku had talked about; the boy waved at them, then cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "HAMA!"

A few moments later a rumbling filled the air, Toshi tensed, ready to call on One For All immediately; only for his concentration to slip from him as a nearby hill opened up and a Badger Mole cane lumbering out of the opening.

The giant prehistoric beast trilled and squeaked happily as it seemed to sniff the boy all over before bringing its head up, aiming it suspiciously towards the adults.

"It's alright Hama!" Izuku reassured, "It's my mom and trainer!" He signaled them over, "slow! She's not used to people other than me."

"Izuku-" Inko breathed out, she hadn't looked away from the wondrous creature since it had appeared. She thought her knees would give out but Toshinori steadied her; helping her walk forward.

As she got closer she held her hand out. The giant beast moved its head a bit, sniffing the air until it seemed to taste their scents, the feelers around its nose poking and prodding the both of them before it licked Inko and gave a warm trill as it bumped Toshinori, who gave a full bellied laugh.

"You never make it boring, eh Midoriya my boy?" Toshinori asked through chuckles, "I can see why you don't need my help with quirk training; they say Badger Moles had quirks before we even knew what quirks were."

"A Badger Mole." Inko whispered in disbelief, "my son found a Badger Mole-the night you got lost?" She questioned her son, who chuckled sheepishly.

"Yeah, Hama found me crying at the bottom of this hill, she showed me how to sense the vibration of the earth with my feet; and when I showed her my quirk she almost immediately showed me how to use it right." Izuku patted the animals flank fondly, a rumbling purr shook the area, making Inko chuckle wetly, a Giant beast had been there for her son more than she had; and she couldn't help the slight bit of odd jealousy at the fondness in her son's voice. But then Hama licked her cheek again; nuzzling her and making her give a more genuine chuckle. "How about you show us what you can do?" Inko suggested to her son, "I would love to see you use your quirk."

Izuku smiled broadly, "of course! Come on Hama! Let's play!"

Izuku moved faster than Inko had ever seen before. His faux-shoes were off and he was pulling a soccer ball from a hollowed out tree, "this is something I came up with to help my reaction time and to help predict attacks that I won't be able to fully sense" He explained as Hama seemed to perk up, eyes fully trained on the soccer ball. "You may want to go back to the edge of the clearing."

"W-what is this exercise Izuku?" Inko asked fretfully as she and Toshinroi quickly ran for the forest's edge.

Izuku grinned as he dropped the soccer ball and kicked the ground, a short pillar rocketing the ball straight at Hama, who stomped her foot and raised three pillars that the ball bounced between before being ramped back towards Izuku who stopped it with a quick rock wall, "Rock Ball!"

WVWVW

Toshinori watched in awe as Izuku weaved back and forth across the field, creating pillars, ramps and walls to block, deflect and shoot the ball back towards Hama, who was standing firm, her paws flexing and pounding the ground to almost mirror Izuku's moves.

"This is amazing." Inko whispered, causing Toshinori to look at her, the mother was watching her son's movements with pride and love.

And guilt.

Toshinori looked ahead, shifting a bit, "the best thing you can do is support him." he said.

Inko looked at him in surprise, then let her shoulders fall a bit as she looked away, "I spent so long ignoring him and treating him like glass." she mumbled, "just supporting him doesn't feel like enough."

Toshinori hummed, "true, it doesn't, but I promise you it does more for him than anything." he gave her a bright smile, "don't worry, he's a bright and talented kid, he'll make it far in the industry."

"That's not what I'm worried about." she mumbled.

Toshinroi chuckled, "yeah, he's a scrapper, he might get injured…but you know he'll be as careful as he can."

Inko smiled, "I know…you're right." she sat up straighter, "i'll support him no matter what!"

"Heh, that's great-" the rest of Toshinori's words were cut off as a frayed volleyball slammed into his chest, bowling him over.

"Sorry!" Izuku called frantically as he ran over, "ball got away from me!"

WVWVW

It had taken a few months for the school to fully adjust to Izuku's sudden change in character.

They'd gotten a pretty good measure on just how fed up Izuku was with his lot in life when one of Bakugo's Cronies had tried to steal Izuku's recorder only to be pinned to the wall by several slates of tile.

"I'm done being a kicking post for you jackasses." he'd declared, blind eyes glaring at nothing as he pointed a finger at the whole class but really was aimed at the back wall, "You got a problem with that then I'll see you after class."

That had led to a few afternoons of finding well-known bullies buried neck deep in the ground or fused into the wall as if the hard concrete had melted around them. Twice heroes had been called to 'deal with an unruly teen using his quirk indiscriminately." Only for the school to be reprimanded when video showed Izuku using his quirk only in self defense. No mention was made about the declaration that had led to the fights. Only that Izuku hadn't made a move until he'd been blatantly attacked.

By now no one really tried to mess with him. Leaving Izuku to happily revel in mundane things like peacefully eating his lunch in the lunchroom as opposed to his desk or under the watchful eye of Kacchan, who himself had kept a low profile since the Sludge villain incident and the subsequent fight between the two.

Though, Izuku knew it wouldn't last, which is why he wasn't surprised when Bakugo, five months after their last scuffle, roughly pulled him away from his usual route to the beach;though he was surprised at the direction the blond was taking, "where are we going?" Izuku asked as they delved deeper into downtown Shizouka.

"Shut it nerd." Bakugo growled.

Izuku sighed in frustration and stopped. His feet actually sinking into the concrete and stopping Bakugo dead in his tracks. "I'm not going anywhere until you use your words and tell me what's going on?" Izuku said pointedly, grinning when he felt Bakugo dig his feet into the ground, trying to force the young earthbender to move, "yeah, that's not how that works bomb boy, either use your words or I'm going home."

"You little fucker-we're going to fight!" Bakugo finally snapped, his palms crackling a little bit, making Izuku blink as Acorn popped his head out of his hoodie, staring at Bakugo in incredulity in a way his owner couldn't.

"I'd have thought you'd take me to the park for something like that." Izuku said pointedly, "downtowns a little on the nose don't you think?"

"Stupid little-there's a quirk gym that lets people use their quirks in sparring matches." he gritted out through clenched teeth, "I got an hour booked and we're gonna show who's the strongest right now!"

Izuku blinked, then sighed, running a hand through his hair, "Fine." he grumbled, walking forward and past Bakugo, "let's get this over with."

" That's it? No arguing?" bakugo asked, quickly taking the lead since he knew where they were going.

"I've only been training against Hama, I need experience fighting people who aren't giant badger mole earth movers." Izuku muttered. Focusing to try and feel the gym they would be using.

It wasn't too hard to find it.

It was a large complex, he could sense two floors ringing a giant empty pit, at least sixty meters wide if his seismic sense was right, the front doors creaked a bit as Bakugo pushed them open, the smell of sweat, Iron, and a slightly worrying tinge of blood filled the air. Large, muscular men moved between the outlines of bulky workout equipment that lined the walls. Directly in front of them was a wide counter, three people sitting behind it.

"Good evening, welcome too-oh! Bakugo!" a chirpy, bubbly voice cheered, obviously happy to see the bombastic blonde, "you here for your hour in the pitch?"

"Of course I am Round cheeks!" Bakugo snapped, shoving his hands in his pockets as he spoke with the bubbly girl in front of them, Izuku tilted his head as his companion's heart quickened at her voice, "it clear?"

"yep!" she cheered, stepping around the counter, Izuku distractedly followed Bakugo absentmindedly, noting the smell of Mochi that filled the air for a moment as she walked past, "no one's used it all day so it's pretty level! Who's your friend?"

"The nerds not my friend." bakugo griped, making Izuku scoff.

"I'm hurt." he said dryly, "how will I ever go on without your friendship?"

The girl giggled and Izuku smirked as he felt Bakugo bristle, "i'm Uraraka Ochako," she said, holding her hand out, Izuku saved from trying to find her hand as she noticed Acorn, "oh my gosh! You have a dog!"

"Yep!" Izuku cheered, unzipping his sweater and allowing Acorn to jump out of his comfortable nest and into the girls awaiting arms, "his name is Acorn! Mightiest of them all!"

"The Mightiest Acorn!" Ochako laughed as she cuddled the happy puppy, "I'm not sure about our policy on pets, but I'm sure we can make an exception for this cutie!"

"Luckily you don't have to worry about that, he's a service dog." izuku said nonchalantly.

" a service dog? Why-oh!" Uraraka exclaimed, Acorn landing nimbly on his feet as the girl gasped, "i'm so sorry, I didn't notice-'

"-That Acorn's the bestest, most amazing dog in the world?" izuku asked, ignoring her embarrassment, "it's okay, he doesn't hold a grudge."

"I'm glad!" Uraraka giggled, "so what's your-"

"Oi Deku!"

Izuku cocked his head, noting that bakugo had moved to a door a few feet away, opening up into the pit he'd noted before, now able to tell it was closer to eighty meters in diameter than sixty. "You gonna keep flirting with round cheeks or you gonna fight?"

Izuku smirked at the sudden increase in heart rate from Uraraka, as well as the tone of jealousy he heard in Bakugo's tone, "yeah,yeah I'm coming," Izuku griped back, "watch acorn for me?"

"Of course Deku!" the girl cheered as Acorn jumped into her arms once more.

Izuku's lip twitched a bit, "it's Izuku, or Midoriya if that's too personal." he said, following Bakugo into the pit before she could respond, he was pleasantly surprised at the rocky soil he stepped into, "so, you actually talk to her? Or have you just been pining after her when she's not looking?" he asked as he began noting boulders and ridges in the relatively flat area.

"The fuck?" Bakugo snapped out in surprise, the stutter in his heartbeat almost making Izuku laugh, "I don't like that round cheeked nerd!"

"Fun fact: I can sense your heartbeat through vibrations in the earth." izuku revealed, his grin widening when he felt the jump in heart rate, "as simple as I can say: I can tell when you're lying."

A decent sized explosion had Izuku falling into a ready stance, palms facing himself, feet shoulder length apart and planted firmly on the rocky terrain, loosely facing Bakugo, his own hands ready at his side, no doubt smoking after that initial explosion, "you're not getting into my head Deku." he snapped.

"Oooh, your heart rate really jumped." Izuku sneered, counting down in his head,
"You must really like-"

"BOOM!"

8-9-10- Izuku thought as he stomped his foot, a rock wall sprouting up a split second before bakugo's explosion could touch him, eleven-twelve-with a twist of his hand a shove of his right hand Bakugo was suddenly rocketing away, a band of hard pressed rock around his arms.

"I can't see." he said, taking measured steps around Bakugo as he thrashed against his bindings, "but that doesn't mean I didn't watch you Bakugo; you never raised a hand against me, but you fought half our class. and there's a rhythm many can't see; movements and ticks that even you can't feel yourself make,The twitch of muscle that gives away what you're going to do." A stomp and a sharp rap of his wrist against the pillar that sprouted up sent a decent sized boulder into Bakugo's chest just as the boy broke free and lunged for him. With a flick of his wrist and a twirl of both hands, Izuku tried to sink Bakugo into the ground; an ear shattering explosion disrupted his plan and forced him to roll away, escaping a fireball of concussive force as he slammed his fist into the ground, jutting out a pillar that caught Bakugo in the gut before he could bring his other hand around, a twist of his hand dislodging the rock and a thrust of his palm sending it and bakugo flying back once more. "In other words: I can see you, Bakugo."

"You think your shitty tricks will save you deku!" Bakugo snapped, another explosion filling the air, this time Izuku leapt back, ears pricked and nose flaring as the minute ripples of vibrations coursing through his limbs let him know that bakugo was airborne.

The sharp sting of burning caramel had Izuku throwing his hand up in slight panic, a wall of earth raising to catch bakugo's explosion last minute; the hastily erected barrier shattering under the barrage but allowing Izuku to duck under the worse of it, fists punching into the ground and jutting out two pillars of rock, the grunt of pain from Bakugo let Izuku know he'd hit him; and the acrid smell of burning cloth letting him know that bakugo had at least scored a glancing blow.

With a grunt Izuku launched himself in the air, for a moment his sense's left him, leaving him in the dark for a heartbeat before 'sight' came rushing back as he slammed fists and feet into the ground, sending a ripple of earth expanding out from his point of impact.

He'd only been able to turn around before an explosion ignited against his chest, sending him flying back into the wall of the pit. Driving the air from his lungs as he slowly sank to the ground.

"You might be able to predict my movements based on those shitty vibrations." bakugo sneered as he advanced on the recovering Izuku, "but that leaves you open to a change in tempo! Shitty nerd, you think I went all out on the first hit?you idiot!"

With a slightly feral grin Izuku suddenly seemed to dive down into the earth, he could feel bakugo stiffen and bring his guard up, glaring about as he tried to figure out where Izuku would come back up.

He whirled around as he heard the earth rumble, thinking Izuku was coming out from behind him, only for him to re-emerge where he'd dove, now covered in a suit of rocks, with a grunt he drove both fists into bakugo's back, staggering him and leaving him open to the shelf of earth that Izuku slammed into his side, sending him tumbling across the arena.

He could feel people watching them now, burly men and women pointing and talking to each other as they watched the two teens go head to head, "you wimping out on me, Kacchan?" Izuku taunted as he swept the earth off his body, falling into his ready stance once more.

Bakugo snarled, "I'm just getting started, you shitty deku!"

One hour later.

Izuku could barely move.

The arena-that had once been mostly flat-was now littered in broken pillars, scorched rock walls and blackened boulders of varying size, in its center were the two combatants; both scraped and bruised, splayed out on the ground.

"You're…still not…shit, deku." bakugo growled out, glaring up at the roof as he fought to get his breathing under control.

"Keep...telling yourself…that…" Izuku panted, he really wanted to launch the boy, but he could barely make a fist, much less call on his quirk.

'You guys were awesome!"

Izuku rolled over into a cross-legged sit as Uraraka walked in from the entrance, Acorn barking and yipping as he ran over to Izuku. "I don't think I've never seen that kind of fight here! Usually it's just sparring, but you guys really fought it out!"

"Bakugo only really knows how to blow things up." Izuku quipped as he ruffled the pups hair, grinning at the low growl that came from the still downed pomeranian. "And I can throw a rock pretty good. Glad we were entertaining."

"More than entertaining." she reassured as she tried to help bakugo up, only for him to push her off as he got to his feet.

"I'm fine." he grumbled, turning to give Izuku a glare he couldn't see, "you got lucky, but next time-"

"-next time will be UA." Izuku interrupted, jumping to his feet. Acorn settled into his jacket, "I think we got a good measure on where we stand, besides, I got my usual training that I skipped out on today; and I know you probably got your own that you ignored."

"He usually works out with Tekai." Uraraka pointed out helpfully. "They like to lift weights on-"

"Shut it round cheeks!" Bakugo snapped.

Uraraka quirked an eyebrow at him and Izuku shifted a bit nervously. Bakugo began to sweat at her unimpressed stare and the charged silence that followed his outburst.

"Was that appropriate?" she finally asked. Her voice a dangerous monotone.

"...no." he grumbled,

"Glad you could tell!" Uraraka's demeanor immediately shifted back to her usual bubbly personality, "Remember that for next time or I'll send you into space!" and with that she happily skipped back out of the room.

"That was terrifying." Izuku muttered as he slowly limped to Bakugo's side.

"She's all talk." Bakugo said distractedly, eyes not leaving Uraraka until she was out of sight.

"I could feel her heartbeat, stone cold serious." Izuku said gravely, "your girlfriend's scary."

A tic mark sprouted on Bakugo's temple as he whirled on Izuku, "SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!"

"But you want her to be." Izuku said dismissively as he began shuffling out, "your heart picked up when she gave you that glare."

Bakugo's face flushed, he knew anything he said would be turned on him by the blunt earthbender, and he didn't feel like trying to justify himself, he pointedly tried to ignore Uraraka as they walked out, missing the blush and glance she gave him as they walked out.