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By the time Class 1-A was in the middle of their second year, now Class 2-A, they’d all been thoroughly traumatized. Different groups of them had been through different things, while the whole of them had been through other things. The USJ and their first year summer camp had bonded them all irrevocably, but then there were separate missions, like the Stain Incident, or when five students had gone to rescue Bakugou at Kamino Ward, or when four of them fought Overhaul in order to save Eri.
And yet out of all of them, it was a known fact that Midoriya Izuku had been through the most. He’d been personally targeted by most of the villains they’d faced, had been on more secret missions than the rest of them, and had other things he “wasn’t allowed to talk about,” even when he would come back to the dorms in casts and bandages. Through it all though, he never wavered. His smile was always in place, unless he was crying about something meaningless like a character death on T.V.. It was simply assumed that Midoriya didn’t get upset, or if he did, he just didn’t show it.
It made the class feel like they could come to him with any of their problems. If he could shoulder so much on his own, then surely he could teach them how to do it as well? And he did . He was good at giving advice, good at pushing his friends to do their best, good at solving conflicts between classmates and couples. He was the sun of Class A, the rest of the students being his planets. They were all perfectly happy as that, too.
And yet somehow, Class 2-A always forgot how dangerous Izuku could be.
(x)
Kirishima Eijirou sat in the Heights Alliance common room with most of his other classmates, setting up the television for their weekly movie night. The only two who weren’t present yet were the Twin Stars of Class A, Midoriya Izuku and Bakugou Katsuki. The two boys were constantly training, and didn’t seem to know the meaning of the word “break.” Aizawa had once tried to put them on probation to force them to relax, but all it had ended with was a splintered table, scorch marks on the wall, and the two boys going at it like cats and dogs. Needless to say, none of the staff had ever tried it again.
“Does anyone know when they’ll be back, kero ?” Asui asked from where she knelt next to Satou. It was their turn to pick the two movies they would watch that night, and they were trying to decide what two movies would go well together for some kind of theme. Instinctively, everyone turned to look at Kirishima and Uraraka, who sat next to each other. After Midoriya and Bakugou made up in the middle of their first year, the two boys had gotten impossibly close. It was clear they were hiding something between them, something they wouldn’t tell either of their best friends. Kirishima and Uraraka had just sort of gravitated towards each other, since they were always thrown together by Izuku and Katsuki. Now, they’d been dating for nearly eight months, and Eijirou couldn’t be happier.
“Any minute now,” Uraraka said cheerfully, cuddling in closer to Eijirou’s side in a way that still made his heart race. “I told Deku-kun he had to be back by seven-thirty so we could start.”
Before anyone else could answer, the doors to Heights Alliance banged open, the boys themselves stumbling through in their usual storm of personalities. When Eijirou had first met him, he’d thought that Midoriya was just a shy, sweet kid who wanted to help people. Sometimes he was those things, but when he was with Bakugou? Well, then he became the most stubborn motherfucker out there. It often led to arguments between them, like the one that was apparently going on right at that moment.
“It’s fucking weird, Deku!” Katsuki snapped, kicking his combat boots off of his feet, finding his cubby with his house slippers. Deku bent to unlace his red sneakers, glaring at his childhood friend with a viciousness he would never show anyone else.
“Well, I didn’t ask you, Kacchan!” Deku snapped right back, practically throwing his shoes at his cubby before he retrieved his own house slippers.
“You don’t see how this could be a major security risk ?” Katsuki asked, crossing his arms. Katsuki glanced around, and sure enough, everyone was watching the two boys fight. Whatever this one was about, it seemed to be pretty bad.
“No one’s going to steal them!” Izuku said, throwing his hands in the air. “Besides, I only carry one with me at a time! The rest are locked in a box hidden in my room!”
“Oh yeah? I bet I can guess the code to that box right now,” Katsuki snarled. Izuku raised an eyebrow, cocking a hip sassily.
“Oh really? Go for it,” he sniffed.
“Letters or numbers?”
“Numbers, four of them,” he said.
“0704,” Katsuki said easily. Izuku cocked his head to the side like a confused dog.
“What, you really think I would be so gullible as to use my mom’s birthday?”
“So what, then it’s All Might’s birthday?”
“No! Stop trying to guess already!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Sero said, shooting up from where he’d been sitting in one of the armchairs towards the edge of the room. He held out his hands placatingly, only flinching slightly when two pairs of angry eyes turned to him. “What are you guys fighting about this time?”
“Deku’s stupid notebooks,” Katsuki hissed. “Did you know he’s been writing about ways to defeat us in those?”
“Don’t flatter yourself Kacchan, I write that about everyone,” Izuku said. Sero looked around the room uneasily, meeting eyes with each of the other seventeen classmates.
“Um,” he said slowly. “You don’t really write about ways to defeat us… right?”
“He does,” Katsuki said, scowling at his childhood friend. “And he keeps them all in a locked box in his room.”
“It’s a metal, quirk-proof safe actually,” Izuku corrected, turning to smile apologetically at Sero. “Don’t worry about it Sero-kun, I write all of my notebooks in code, anyway.”
“Yeah, I code that’s easy to translate!”
“That’s a bold-faced lie!” Izuku gasped, whirling back to Katsuki to point at his chest. “You only know the code because we made it up together when we were seven!”
“Yeah, a couple of seven year olds made it up!”
“I can’t tell whether that’s smart or stupid,” Eijirou whispered to his girlfriend, who giggled.
“Kacchan, we’re both certified geniuses, ” Izuku snapped. “Even as seven year-olds. Besides, I had Aizawa-sensei try to crack the code and he couldn’t.”
“Hold on a minute there!” Ashido said, waving her hand in the air. All eyes turned to her, but she kept her slow, mischievous smile on the two boys. “Am I the only one who wants to know what Midori-kun wrote?”
“I… am curious, as well,” Iida said, pushing his glasses up his nose.
“Yeah, I’d like to know,” Shinsou said, raising his hand like a student in class. Everyone else began to chatter, throwing out ideas on how to defeat each other like they didn’t do it nearly every day for school. Izuku was getting redder by the second, his shoulders beginning to hunch around his ears.
“Yeah Deku , why don’t you tell them?” Katsuki asked, although his tone was distinctly mocking. Izuku shot him a dark look, but it got the attention of everyone around. Eijirou waited for the greenet to say something, but when he didn’t, Katsuki snorted and did for him. “You really want to know how he would defeat you all?”
“That is what we asked,” Kaminari said.
“Kacchan,” Izuku said, but Katsuki held up a hand to shut him up.
“ Permanently ,” he said. Everyone paused, confused.
“What?” Ejirou couldn’t help but ask, sitting up straighter. “What does that mean?”
“I mean ,” Katsuki said, rolling his eyes like they were the stupid ones. “You really want to know how Deku would defeat you all permanently ?”
Instead of the chatter from before, the room stayed dead silent. Eijirou glanced around nervously, but it appears he hadn’t been the only one who hadn’t expected that. It appeared that Tokoyami was the bravest, because he raised his hand slowly. “I indeed would like to know.”
Bakugou’s grin was sharp. “Let me see if I remember correctly.” He mimed tapping his chin, although he clearly knew what the answer was already.
“Kacchan,” Izuku whined, reaching out to pull on his friend’s sleeve. “You’re gonna make them uncomfortable!”
“Oh, that’s right!” Katsuki snapped his fingers before he pointed at Tokoyami. “He would use a fucking photon laser to physically cut Dark Shadow out of you, thus causing him to die.”
Tokoyami’s beak opened like he was about to say something, but it clacked shut just as quickly. Dark Shadow appeared, peeking over his master’s shoulder like a scared child.
“What the fuck?” Shinsou looked floored. “That’s so… specific ?”
“Oh, he’d rip out your voice box,” Katsuki said easily. Shinsou pursed his lips, shrugging.
“Yeah, seems legit.”
“Alright, that’s enough!” Izuku crossed his arms over his chest. “Tell you what Kacchan. If you can guess the safe’s password, I’ll let you destroy them all.”
Katsuki’s smile was slow and genuine. It was kind of amazing to see, given the way it seemed to light up the blond’s entire face. Really, he was quite handsome when he wasn’t scowling as hard as he could. “Oh, is that so? Do you swear on All Might himself?”
“Sure,” Izuku rolled his eyes. “But you’re never going to guess it.”
“... 0715?”
“ My birthday? You do realize I’m a genius, right?”
“Is anyone else a little turned on?” Hagakure said, flapping a gloved hand in front of her invisible face. Jirou burst out laughing, practically falling off the couch she was sharing with Yaomomo.
“What?” She gasped, wiping at her eyes.
“Well, it’s kind of sexy to know Midoriya-kun could destroy me,” Hagakure shrugged overdramatically. When Izuku looked at her with wide eyes, she made a loud kissing noise. “Oh yeah baby, I’m talking about you.”
Izuku’s face turned an interesting shade of red. Simultaneously, Katsuki’s face became stormy with what Kirishima assumed to be jealousy. It was a bit of a running joke between the class that, since Izuku was the only one who didn’t know that Bakugou was madly in love with him, they would all see how long it would take to make the blond storm off in a fit of jealousy. Plus, it was insanely fun to rile up Deku until his freckles disappeared under his blushing.
“Oh, who are you kidding?” Ojiro’s tail wagged slightly as he shifted in his seat. “Midoriya-kun’s too nice to be a villain of any kind!”
“Duh, that’s why he’s in the hero course,” Shoji said.
“Don’t villains have to have tragic backstories, anyway?” Ashido asked, twirling a pink curl around one of her fingers.
“I’m sure it’s not a requirement ,” Uraraka laughed, brushing a hand over Eijirou’s arm softly. “But yeah, I think most of them do.”
“Hey, I’ve had a pretty hard life!” Izuku said, almost sounding offended that they were saying he couldn’t be a villain. Eijirou couldn’t help but laugh at that.
“ You , Mr. Sunshine?” He shook his head. “Yeah, right.”
“How would any of you know?” Izuku pouted, crossing his arms. “None of you even knew me until a year and a half ago!”
“Guys,” Katsuki said, his voice dripping with warning. Everyone ignored him, continuing on with teasing Izuku.
“Oh yeah big guy? What’s one one of your tragic bullet points,” Shinsou smirked. “Lay it on us.”
Izuku lifted his eyes to the ceiling like he was thinking. “Well, should we go chronologically? Because if so, then it would probably be when I was about four and my mother said I could never be a hero because I was too fragile.” That shut them all up. Apparently though, Izuku wasn’t done yet, because he snapped his fingers and looked back at them with a triumphant smile. “Or no, it would probably be when my dad left us both for dead after he found out his son would most likely be quirkless!”
“Dude,” Sero breathed, blinking a few times like he was trying to wake up from a dream. “That’s… heavy .”
“Wait, I never got this part,” Shinsou said, as the newest member of the class. “So, you’ve said before your quirk developed late. How late did it develop?”
“God, you’re gonna get Iida started again,” Ashido mumbled, standing up so she could grab one of the water bottles that littered the coffee table for movie night preparation.
“I developed it within the last minute or so of the entrance exam,” Izuku explained, sounding shy once again. Shinsou’s eyes practically bulged out of his head, and for once Eijirou couldn’t blame him. When he’d first heard, he had the same reaction.
“The U.A. entrance exam?” He sputtered. “How did you not die ?”
“I ask myself that every day,” Iida muttered under his breath, looking cross. Todoroki looked amused, nudging his friend’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry, what was that, Mr. Hosu Incident?”
Iida shot him a scathing look, but no one paid the boys any attention. Izuku was already awkwardly laughing to try and break the tension in the air, rubbing the back of his neck in that shifty way he did. “Well- I mean, everyone thought I was quirkless up until then. It was why my mom said I could never be a hero, you know? Oh, and that’s also why I was bullied my whole life.”
At that, Katsuki looked away, towards the ground. Kirishima felt empathy build in his throat, causing him to clear it. “You… you were bullied, too?”
“Oh yeah,” Izuku said, waving his hand like it wasn’t a big deal. Kirishima didn’t know how he could treat it like that, when he himself still struggled with it every day. “I mean, nobody likes Quirkless people. I got death threats on the daily ever since I was little.”
“Oh my god , that’s awful!” Yaomomo covered her mouth with a dainty hand. Jirou patted her girlfriend’s leg comfortingly, although she looked just as upset. “When you were just a kid?”
“Yeah,” Izuku said. “Most quirkless people don’t make it past twenty years old. They’re either trafficked, murdered or commit suicide. I think a few of my teachers over the years had bets on which one I would be.”
“ What ?” Tokoyami asked. “That’s one of the most vile things I’ve ever had the misfortune of hearing, and I used to share a wall with Mineta.” Aoyama and Midoriya, who had also been on Mineta’s floor for almost a year, shuddered too.
“It wasn’t that bad,” Izuku shrugged his shoulders. “I mean, my mom still loved me at least, and Kacchan never let the kids beat me up when he could help it.”
Katsuki’s head whipped back up so fast, Eijirou was surprised he didn’t break his neck. “What? You knew about that this whole time?!”
“Was it supposed to be a secret?” Izuku awkwardly laughed. “I never did thank you for that. You probably saved me a lot of broken bones.”
“They broke your bones?” Uraraka’s voice was small and hurt. Again, Izuku didn’t seem to notice the gravity of what he was saying when he answered her casually.
“Oh yeah. My nose is all crooked from all the times it was broken,” he chuckled. “Let’s just say Recovery Girl was not happy with my medical record even when I first arrived.”
“Deku, I think that’s enough,” Katsuki said.
“Hm?” The green-eyed teen met his classmate’s gazes, and finally seemed to realize how upset his words were making them. His eyes went wide, his pink mouth dropping open. “Are you guys okay? Was it something I said?”
“Um, yeah ,” Jirou said. “They treated you so horribly!”
“Oh,” Izuku said, his shoulders relaxing. “Well, that was just my life. But I got a quirk, and I made all my first friends in you guys!”
“You didn’t have any friends ?” Uraraka sounded strangled. Izuku beamed at her.
“You were my first friend besides Kacchan!”
Eijirou thought that maybe that was supposed to make Uraraka feel better, but it obviously made her feel one thousand times worse, because she turned and buried her head in his chest. He reached up to stroke through her soft hair, giving Izuku a sad look when the boy looked lost. “Dude, that’s all really sad.”
“We should go upstairs,” Katsuki told Izuku, reaching out to push at his shoulder. The boy stumbled a bit, grumbling at his childhood friend, but still started towards the staircase. Since Izuku’s room was only on the second floor, they didn’t take the elevator. When the two boys were out of earshot, Ashido spoke again, trying to break the tension.
“ Well . We should really, really be glad that Midori-kun didn’t turn out to be a villain.”
The rest of them laughed nervously, but deep inside, they knew how true her words were. Midoriya Izuku would have made a terrifying villain.