Chapter Text
“Suffice to say Ms. Midoriya, your son is never going to have an active Quirk factor.”
That statement from the doctor crushed Izuku. His hopes. His dreams. Everything. The conversation happening between the doctor and his mother became dull and slurred, merely background noise.
Izuku doesn't know how long he was like that, but he somehow ended up back home at the family computer, watching All Might’s debut on repeat. He heard something behind him, likely the door. Swiveling around in the chair, he stared at his mom through tear-clouded vision, her face contorted with sadness. “C-Can I be a hero too, Mom?”, he squeaked out, “Can I be just like All Might?”
Her eyes flashed with something Izuku couldn't quite recognize before she quickly made her way across the room to him.
“Oh, Izuku… I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”
She kept talking, but Izuku had already stopped listening, his tears flowing harder than before. He felt his Mom’s arms around his small frame, but they just weren’t as warm as they used to be.
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Being Quirkless, as Izuku realized, isn’t really all that bad. At least, it isn’t when you don’t attract any attention to yourself like he did today. Currently, his most zealous tormenter was right up in his face in an alley on the way home from school. Katsuki Bakugou, or Kacchan, as Izuku used to call him, had cornered him with his gang of followers after school, and dragged him here.
“Who the hell are you trying to fool Deku? Teach said that you were still planning on going to UA after high school, what the fuck is that about?”
Katsuki’s words didn't hurt as much as they used to, but the small explosions coming from his palms sure do.
“You will never be able to go there you Quirkless loser, get that through your thick skull for once in your damn life!”, he screamed, shoving him to the ground with an explosion. Izuku was seeing stars, but at this point just taking the hit and staying quiet would probably appease the Explosion user enough to leave him be.
“Heh, and stay down!”, one of the cronies following Katsuki yelled, before quickly following behind their leader.
Staying down sounds pretty good right now to Izuku, alas, he had to get home before his mother worried. Leaning upward with a grunt, Izuku picked up his charred backpack from the ground next to him, and slowly got to his feet.
“Damn, that's gonna be hard to explain to Mom,” Izuku mumbled, brushing some excess ash from his shoulder where Katsuki had grabbed him. As he finally got the will to walk back towards the main street however, he heard a distinct click. Looking up, he saw a man just taller than him, his face hidden by his hoodie and bandana.
“Give me your wallet kid, just make this quick and easy...” the man ordered, raising the gun he had in his slightly higher, ”Do it. Now.”
Now, Izuku was certifiably afraid. This wasn't some bully or jerk, this guy was armed and probably couldn't care too much about hurting a kid. “O-ok sir, one moment, please…”
Shakily, but slowly, Izuku reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He held it in front of him, the man swiping it from his hand before slowly backing up.
“Now stay there for a few minutes, don't need you calling for some help now, do we?” the man asked, his grip tightening on the pistol.
Izuku nodded quickly, beads of sweat rolling down his face from the early fall heat. The man grunted and put the gun in his hoodie pocket before turning quickly and jogging away.
The moment the man was gone, Izuku collapsed back onto the ground, taking deep breaths. All that was left in the alley now was Izuku, but his body was running on high alert, blood rushing to his ears. He could see people walking back and forth at the exit of the alley, not a single one noticed the lone boy on the ground. And so, in true Midoriya fashion, he cried.
Through sniffling breaths, Izuku pulled out his phone and sent a text to his Mom that he would be home late, saying he had gotten detoured by a bad car accident.
‘Holy crap, my heart is beating so hard I think it might break my ribs. Why is it only me who has the absolute worst luck?!’
After a moment of gathering his courage, he carefully made his way to the entrance of the alley, looking around to see if he was being watched.
The street wasn't all that busy, only a few cars passing every few seconds with moderate amounts of people walking on the sidewalks. The late afternoon sun was already behind a few of the taller buildings housing shops and apartments. The man in the hoodie was nowhere to be found, however, already long gone.
Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, Izuku decided to begin the arduous trek home. To be fair, it was only about a twenty-minute walk from school to home and was just under halfway there. Now that his adrenaline from being mugged at gunpoint wore off, he was beginning to realize just how tired he was.
He figured that he might as well go to bed right after dinner tonight. Well, hopefully, he can.
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“Izuku sweetie, are you ok? Did you get hurt?”
The moment he was inside and had his shoes off, Inko was all over him.
“I’m fine mom, please, just a bit tired. That accident made me take the long way home.” He said with a half-hearted chuckle, hugging his Mom to calm her down before letting her go.
Inko was worried sick when Izuku texted her. He is almost never home late, and with such a bad excuse as a ‘bad car accident’, there had to be something wrong. Looking him up and down, she could clearly tell that he was completely exhausted, and had some dirt and grime on his pants.
“Izuku dear, was Katsuki bothering you again?” she asked, but the worry now had a bit of anger mixed in.
Izuku was quick to start vigorously waving his arms around with wide eyes, a large amount of ‘No’s’ and ‘Not him’s’ mixed in.
She sighed before her mind registered what he had said, “Wait, what do you mean, not him? Is someone else bothering you?”
Izuku froze, and this time Inko could see clear as day that something was wrong. She bored into him, trying to imagine what it could be. He was clearly pondering something until he finally broke, his eyes becoming glossy.
Izuku mumbled something but seeing that she couldn't hear him, decided to speak up to a volume louder than a whisper, “I… I got mugged at gunpoint, Mom.”
Inko was speechless, her mind wrapping around what her baby boy just said. That moment lasted about two seconds before she was bawling, crushing her precious son in her arms.
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After several minutes of Izuku trying to bring his panicking mother back to Earth, she finally calmed down enough to have them both go and sit down. He told her everything that happened in the alley minus the parts that had Katsuki and his group in them.
“Why didn't you call the police?!” she uttered, tears still running down her face.
“The police wouldn't have been able to do anything, the guy was long gone and to be honest I was freaking out a bit too much for me to catch what his face looked like... though it doesn't help that he had it hidden behind a bandana.”
She sat in silence for a moment, wiping her face clear of tears. She added the used tissue to the almost full garbage bin, which she had been steadily filling over the last few minutes.
His mom looked at him, her eyes looking into his own, “Izuku, all that matters is that you are ok… I just… I just don't know what I would do if you had gotten hurt.”
Izuku smiled softly and brought his mother into a deep hug. He spoke, just loud enough for her to hear, “You mean the world to me too Mom… and I promise to avoid situations like that as best I can.”
After the warm embrace, Inko went about plating the chicken katsu that she finished just prior to Izuku’s arrival. For the first time since Izuku got home, he felt completely at peace, the only sounds coming from the two members of the Midoriya household enjoying their dinner. With every bite he took of his mother’s wonderful cooking, the heaviness of his eyelids only grew.
Izuku fought valiantly, but he realized he was fighting a losing battle when he ended up trying to eat a small bite of chicken just to drop it and shove a chopstick up his nostril.
He needed sleep. Thankfully, his mom quietly got up, and began packing up Izuku’s leftovers in a Tupperware container with a soft, ”Go ahead and get some rest…”
His body complied by activating his bedtime routine on autopilot. He brushed his teeth, changed, and could immediately get some sleep. No worries in his mind, only the final thought that tomorrow was a weekend.
Well, that and the fact that Tupperware was still in use somehow after 200 years...
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Izuku, to say the least, was cursing his luck. He kept waking in a cold sweat, the only dreams coming to him were vivid images of the masked man and his gun, pointing straight at him. Every detail of the sleek black pistol coming to mind...
He tossed and turned, almost like a fever dream. At some point during the night however, Izuku felt his phone jamming into his stomach. Reaching down with his hand, he mentally reminded himself to set his phone somewhere other than on the bed. When he went to grab the source of his irritation, however, it didn't feel like a phone.
He tugged once, twice, even three times. It just wouldn’t move. In fact, his side felt like it was being pulled by his hand, when he was most assuredly holding something that was hard and likely plastic. He decided, admittedly badly due to a lack of awareness, to yank on the offending object as hard as he could, giving him a nice jolt of pain up his side of his troubles.
Finally achieving some semblance of awareness due to the shock of pain, he looked down to see that there was something moderately rectangular in shape sticking out of his side.
His eyes widened, however, as he shot his other hand out to turn on his desk lamp, giving some light to the pitch black room. Barely holding back a scream of terror, he realized that he was holding the grip to a gun.
Izuku shot out of bed, trying to fiddle with the foreign object currently protruding from his stomach. His analytical mind suddenly kicked into overdrive, completely ignoring any sleeplessness he was feeling at the moment.
“The grip looks like itsfusedwithmybodybuthowcomeitiseventheretobeginwithandwhydidn’tIno…”
“Izuku?” his mother grumbled, standing in the doorway and rubbing her eyes, adjusting to the bright light coming from his desk lamp.
“Honey it’s three in the morning whaaa-,” she began to ask, but stopped as her eyes grew wider and wider, focusing on the object currently fused with Izuku’s side, “What is that?”
The two Midoriya’s looked at each other, completely silent and admittedly still processing what in the world was even happening.
Izuku breathed in a deep breath before slowly uttering, “Mom, don't freak out, but I think this might be my Quirk.”
Blink.
“Your what?”
“My Quirk.”
It took every ounce of energy Izuku had to be able to rush forward to catch his fainting mother before she collided with the cruel, unforgiving floor.
After dropping her off on the bed, Izuku came to the realization that he might have almost shot himself.
Unlike his mother however, there was nobody around that was able to catch him.