Chapter Text
” People say teenagers think they're immortal, and I agree with that. But I think there's a difference between thinking you're immortal and knowing you can survive. Thinking you're immortal leads to arrogance, thinking you deserve the best. Surviving means having the worst thrown at you and being able to continue on despite that. It means striving for what you want most, even when it seems our of your reach, even when everything is working against you.”
Like soft waves that turn into a tsunami, change is inevitable.
He remembers the world before he was born. Soft and warm until a blinding light came and sucked him out of the only place he has ever known.
He was born to a loving mother, a woman whose soul is pure as holy water. The light in her was brighter than the first light he's seen, and when she caressed his tiny curls, he could see it. The moment he looked into her eyes, he knew she was an angel.
Inko wasn’t like the rest. She was patient, kind, and loving, an example of what a good mother should be.
Now his father on the other hand, well he wasn’t there. He was a space next to Inko in the family picture which Mitsuki, her best friend from college, filled.
Hisashi, a name he eventually found out, was overseas in the military for three years, only coming back to Japan for a month before he was stationed somewhere else.
During that time he got nineteen-year-old Inko pregnant.
He kissed her and promised her that he would be back but as time went by the trace of his presence disintegrated.
Seven-year-old him didn’t even question why every kid had someone they could call a dad while he didn’t.
A man in one of those school portrait photos that show your family. Nor, did he even know what a father was supposed to be like.
His mind carried everything back to Inko who would walk him around, feed him, cry with him, and listen to him babble about superheroes.
The role of the father was played by her, so he never learned what it was like having another guy in the house.
But on July 6, he finally saw his dad.
In a casket.
The man didn’t die from getting shot or being exploded into tiny chunks.
He didn’t die for his country, no, he died from alcohol poisoning.
A really shitty way to go if you asked Izuku.
And when he saw the face of his father lying there in a red, solid box, with his curly blond hair and freckles, he looked at it in disgust.
He poked at it. He touched the raw soft skin and felt the lack of warmth from the body. He felt the veins and dented bones and he wondered what was so special about having a dad and what he found out was-
There was nothing. Izuku didn’t feel anything for this stranger.
Maybe a pang of sympathy but his mind couldn’t register it at the time.
He was just the same as he had always been...dead to him.
Eventually, Izuku was shown pictures of living Hisashi with his mom when his military buddies sent them photos, but-
They looked so odd. He never smiled in any of them and he looked the total opposite of his mother.
His aura just screamed cynical and gloomy.
The only photo they have of his father smiling was when he was dressed in his olive military outfit posing for the camera.
His smile was so bright. Izuku resembled him a lot.
His cheeks filled up his whole face and his hand was in a peace sign. While in the background you can see someone’s brains in the sky, splattering on the ground, and a dead corpse bleeding out next to his feet.
And for a moment Izuku thought maybe he was better off not knowing who his father really was.
However, as he got older he finally found the purpose of having a dad.
He was supposed to be there when Izuku had no idea what the hell to do.
Because Inko couldn't understand the feelings and the emotions Izuku was going through. What he was.
Izuku was eight when he saw true love, a heart glow between a man and a woman around December.
They were crossing the street and when they made eye contact their heart glowed a bright yellow and neon pink.
Everyone squealed at the spectacle. Their chest illuminated the city street.
And it would've been amazing if the girl's boyfriend wasn’t standing right next to her and punched her soulmate in the face.
Soulmates are people who were fated to be with each other for eternity. They are connected by love and when they find each other, their heart glows.
Izuku can’t give the details but, it’s supposed to be something liberating and beautiful, but in reality, it made life more complicated.
Because there is no warning or information when finding your soulmate. No timer, no string, no name, picture, address, credit card. Nothing.
Your heart just chooses a certain time to glow, even when you have known the person for years your heart can still glow for them.
But sometimes.. if you are really meant for each other your body might give you tiny signs, but it’s different for everyone.
Either way, the universe sucks for doing this to us. They could’ve made it easy but instead, we are stuck with this unknown question of, “Who is going to be my soulmate?” For who knows how long.
Izuku was young he asked his mom if she had a soulmate but she just shook her head and smiled.
“ Your dad met his soulmate after he got me pregnant, I never found mine, but don’t worry Izuku you will find your soulmate I’m sure of it and even if you don’t you will find someone who will love you just as much” She smiled while patting his curls down.
Looking at this generation itself.
We might’ve not been as radical as the past ones, who rebelled against the killing of same-sex soulmates and soulmates who were from different ethnicities but, at least now 43% of people find their soulmate before they hit 21.
So of course, he is excited to find his soulmate. A pretty girl who loves superhero comics and video games.
But, as his body changed once he reached twelve and found out what his body could do he realized…
Nothing on a girl seemed attractive at all.
But with guys well... it was different.
And finding that information at such an awkward time in your life is one of the most embarrassing things in the world.
Especially when get invited to an all-guy sleepovers and all they do is talk about girls, while he sat there uncomfortably trying hard to be like the rest.
Having to play along because that’s what guys do, that’s what boys do at least.
Sit in a circle all by themselves and watch porn together, while he pretended he was enjoying it, hiding the fact that he was completely uncomfortable.
And yeah he could come out and say he was different, that he wasn’t attracted to girls even though they were soft and pretty.
But even though, same-sex soulmates were more accepted. It doesn’t mean that words and phrases like ‘ homo’ or ‘ faggot’ didn’t come out of people’s mouths once and a while.
Most of the time it was his friends or bullies who just didn’t know at the time what being gay is like and they still don’t know. They just deal with the unnormalized standard as ‘ weird’.
They see Izuku’s round face and big eyes and automatically assume at the age of eight that he looks too gay or feminine.
Sometimes Izuku would catch himself doing it too, just to fit in, So he doesn’t end up being bullied for the rest of his life or jumping off a roof because he couldn’t handle the harassment any longer.
But, it didn't even matter in the end. He was still outed and being one of the only gay kids at your school is extremely difficult.
As time moves on and he keeps growing, he is still trying to find the reasons why all of this is happening to him.
Like he knows all of this has to happen for a reason. He’s not a bad person at all.
Nevertheless, his questions were never answered.
And he started to realize growing up fucking sucks, especially when people leave you and life suddenly moves past and he can’t keep up.
He's just stuck there trying to pick up the pieces of the broken memories, but he couldn't anymore.
So he had to let it fall into the abyss, and all he's left with are thoughts of...
‘I should’ve just stayed in that Goddamn womb.’
FRIDAY, 11:20
He shaded the drawing carefully gripping the thick, wooden pencil as it slides across the page. The lines curving and straighten as he glides with the sharp tip of the utensil. The soft pop music plays in his ears, making Izuku nod his head to the beat.
He was all alone in the empty classroom, but not for long as hands landed on his shoulders, making him jump and turn around.
He sighed as he saw his friends behind him.
"Uraraka don’t sneak up on me like that!” He whines.
“ Sorry Izuku , but you’re just so easy to scare.” She sits down next to him along with Tsuyu and Iida.
One seat was missing. He looked at the group in confusion.
“ Where's Todoroki?” He asks.
“ Oh! He said the football team is having some type of meeting because of the fights that are being broken out in the field.” She said as she handed him half of her sandwich. He thanks her and bit into it.
“ It’s so ridiculous how these men can’t handle themselves. They are an absolute disgrace to this school ” Iida says using his hand motions for emphasis.
“ Yeah, but you know U.A. is never going to suspend any of their precious football players.” Tsuyu points out.
They all hum in agreement. U.A. is the most expensive school in the country. Mostly fit for rich people.
He, Tsuyu, and Uraraka got to go to the school thanks to their high marks on the entrance exams and scholarships but others sometimes paid their way in.
The biggest priority for U.A is football. They rarely lose a championship. Football stadiums are enormous and the bleachers were filled up with students trying to watch the game.
But, with those facts, virtually anyone could get away with anything.
Even though U.A. is a really good school, anyone who is rich, on the football team, or even a cheerleader can get away with anything and that’s about 70% of the school’s population.
So these students, of course, built a system to recognize who’s on top. Whoever’s on top rules everything.
They were the alphas and whoever’s on the bottom well, they get chewed up and spat out, and guess who’s on the bottom?
“ Sup faggot!” A student yells inside the classroom, laughing with his friends.
“ Hey! “ Uraraka shouts, standing up , hands immediately in a fist.
“ It’s okay Uraraka, I’m fine. Really” he smiles.
She clicks her tongue and sits back down.
Being a gay, poor, scrawny nerd didn’t help with his status. It also didn’t help that he was his punching bag.
“ I’m so done with this school! Thank god we are finally seniors! We only got one more year of hell and we’re out of here” Uraraka shouts merrily.
“ Cheers to that.” Tsuyu agreed and she chugged down her soda.
Lunch went on fast and soon the bell rang again. Everyone packed up their stuff and headed to their own class.
“ See you later Izuku," Uraraka shouts.
He waves at her and opens his notebook again plugging in his earphones.
He got lost in his drawing. It’s a hard one, something he spent ages on. The piece featured a Greek goddess. Her vast wings and 3-D figure stretched across the page. He painted the background a beautiful sunset creating contrast between her and the sky.
He started to shade in the curves when he suddenly felt splashes of water land all over him and his drawing. He gasped in shock, unable to move as the liquid drips down to his jeans.
He turns his head up and looks to see beady, malicious red eyes staring down at him while Izuku’s bright, green eyes widen.
‘ Oh shit’
Izuku yelped when Katsuki grabbed his collar, lifted him up.
“ That best friend of yours tried to pick a fight with me yesterday in the gym” He snarls in his face.
”S he's lucky she had to four-eyed bastard with her," Katsuki growls.
"Because I'm not afraid to put a bitch in her place."
“ I suggest you be careful about what you fucking say to your friends, before I beat each and every one of their asses." Katsuki snarled.
"Got it!”
He nods and Katsuki throws him onto the floor harshly, glaring at him one more time before stomping away.
Izuku groaned feeling his soaked clothing.
He got up, looking at his wet notebook. The drawing was now completely ruined. He pouts and stuffs the wet picture into his backpack.
He then took off his hoodie and put it over his jeans, patting it, hoping that it would be dry by the end of the day.
He held back his anger trying not to show he was upset by Katsuki's actions, but it was hard.
Katsuki could barely let him breathe in peace without harassing him.
Suddenly he spotted a familiar dual-colored boy in the corner of his eye walking into the classroom.
Izuku quickly puts on his acting face, pretending everything was alright so his friend didn’t hate to worry.
Todoroki sits down tiredly.
“Long day,” Izuku asks in concern.
Todoroki gives him one of his ghost smiles.
“ Oh, you have no idea.”
“ Uraraka said you guys had to go to a meeting, What happened?”
“ It was stupid, they just talked about the importance of not putting your hands on each other, ” Todoroki sighs.
“It’s the eleventh accident this year and they still haven't really done anything except act like nothing happened so no football player gets in trouble, it's just absurd.”
Izuku watched as Todoroki ranted about how he hated his teammates.
The boy is rich, filthy rich in fact, His father is the Deputy Prime Minister of the whole country.
He is also on the football team but, he is still considered to be at the bottom because of how he acted during freshman year.
He shut every single person out and didn't talk to anyone until one day he sat next to Izuku.
Izuku still doesn't know why Todoroki decided that he was the one person he would talk to, but hey fewer people to bully him so he'll take it.
But eventually, he started opening up.
Todoroki just didn't know how to communicate with others. He didn't know what was considered right and wrong sometimes.
Todoroki never explained why he grew up like that and Izuku never pressured only tried to make him adapt.
Of course, that made the boy's ranking plummet when people saw them hanging out together, but he wasn't worried.
” Hey, look on the bright side. At least by being on the football team, you get free donuts!” he smiled
Todoroki showed no expression ” Do you want a donut Midoriya?”
Izuku looked at him with his big puppy eyes ” Please! I forgot to make my lunch so I've been living off of Uraraka’s vegan sandwich, which by the way just tastes like sadness!”
Todoroki burst out into giggles which made Izuku laugh too. It was good to have people he could count on.
Todoroki was easily one of his best friends even though people do not see it that way People assume things, knowing it was wrong and they do it on purpose to get a rise out of them.
“ Awww look at the two homos, getting along~,” Kaminari says as he walks in and sees the two boys.
“ Wow, It looks like someone finally took it up the ass. Did you have fun Deku?” Mina taunts, looking smug.
The classroom burst out into laughter as he turned red from embarrassment and Todoroki glared at the duo.
’ I want to curl up and die
His eyes wandered, unable to look at anyone but unfortunately caught Katsuki's heated glare, he shivered quickly turned his head, and looked out the window.
His relationship with Katsuki was nice at first.
Their mothers have been friends for ages.
So at every chance, Katsuki and Izuku would hang out with each other. Katsuki always had his back when it came to bullies who would pick on him because he was too sensitive and Izuku would always admire him, but then he started feeling things for his best friend and tried to confess to him when he was 14.
He thought even though Katsuki might've been straight he would still be accepting but Izuku was wrong.
“ Kacchan I love you!” He exclaimed.
The other boy snorted “ Stop playing around Deku.” he said while throwing his football in the air.
“ I’m serious Kacchan, “ he says “I really, really love you” he tries again.
Katsuki dropped his football and looked into Izuku’s eyes.
“ Seriously Deku, What the hell are you trying to say?” Katsuki said, worried.
“ I love you Kacchan” Izuku bowed, cheeks extremely red.
Katsuki, however, pushed him to the ground and looked at him with absolute resentment.
“ What the fuck is wrong with you! Are you saying you’re a godamn homo!”
“ Wait Kacchan listen-“
“ That’s sick deku, but I should’ve known.
“Dammit! I should’ve listened to everyone!”
Izuku gasped, tears coming out of him.
“ You are so fucking disgusting”
He sniffles at the memories. Ever since then, Katsuki told everyone. Made up lies about himself and everyone believed him. Izuku thought if he made it into U.A. everything would change, but it didn’t.
Katsuki being the captain of the football team and being extremely well off only made his status skyrocket.
Every single person listened to him and he made his life a living hell.
He could do what he wanted especially beat him up in the locker rooms after school without any repercussions.
He was the biggest reason for how he ended up like this bullied every single day by people who don’t even really know him.
“ Don’t listen to them,” Todoroki whispers.
Izuku nods his head and smiles at the boy's dual-colored eyes.
“ Thanks,”
After the lesson, the bell finally rang. He said his goodbyes to Todoroki and launched himself out of the room, and zoomed down the hallway.
He accidentally bumped into people who gave some nasty remarks but right now Izuku didn’t care, he just wanted to hurry up and get out of there.
He unhooked his old bicycle from the rack and pedaled as fast as he could to the large blue and white store. He burst through the front door and ran to the staff room.
Seeing that no one was there he pumped his fist in the air but was too caught up to realize the door slammed open and hit his back. He groaned as he stumbled to the hard floor.
“ Oh Izuku, I’m so sorry! “ Uraraka says as she reaches her hand to pull him up.
“ It’s okay, as long as you know I got here first!” He smiles brightly. Uraraka concern immediately disappeared as it turned into bitterness.
“ Shut up ” she says jokingly.
“ You try running around the whole football team!” She yells
It was a little game they played. Whoever got there first gets free food from the loser.
He laughed at Uraraka’s remarks and went inside the boy's bathroom to change into his navy blue t-shirt. When he came out he saw her with Mirio waiting for him.
“ Well I see that you both are excited to come to work today.” the blond says. Referencing their race.
“ Sorry, Mirio it’s just been a long week.”
The older boy laughs, ” It’s no problem, go restock some food on aisle six”.
“ Yes sir, ” Uraraka and Izuku said at the exact time and walked into the back of the store to get the cart of food.
Both of them got jobs in the middle of their freshman year. Uraraka, because of college expenses and Highschool things and him to help his mom and buy new art supplies.
Mirio and his co-worker Nejire were the managers. Even though they were slightly older than them, they were still very respected.
He and Uraraka were quickly putting away the food when a buzzing sound came out of Uraraka's pocket. She checked the message and sighed angrily.
“ God I hate Mina,” she says angrily.
“ What happened?” he asks.
“ She wants me to go out and buy drugs for her again. It’s so annoying.”
“ I don’t get why you say yes every single time isn’t this like the eighth time? and it’s not like you're going somewhere completely safe,” Izuku argues while restocking the soups.
“ It’s because if I don’t she will go running to my aunt and tell her some stupid, fake sob story then my aunt will tell my mom and since everyone thinks she’s a perfect person, I will get in trouble.”
Uraraka moves over to work on the next shelf,” It’s happened before and I got grounded for a week, the worst experience of my life.”
“Oh yeah, that’s sucks,” Izuku agrees
“ Ugh! I just wish I could live my life peacefully without people like her getting in the way.”
He nods “ Same, but with Katauki. He’s been doing a lot lately. “
Uraraka pockets her phone and helps Izuku again. “ Speaking of Katsuki when the hell are you gonna put that psycho in his place.” she points out
“ Uh, when I don’t get severely beaten for it,” He replies
“ And speaking of that, please don’t threaten him.” he continues.
Uraraka sighed again,” but, he’s so awful to you Izuku, and for stuff that happened over like four years ago.”
“Yeah I know,” he says
“ But that doesn’t even matter anymore because I’m a senior now and I only have to spend eight more months with him.”
“ Fucking finally,” Uraraka says as she spreads her arms out like a bird.
” I can't wait to be free.”
He giggles picking two drinks off of the shelf and hands one to her.
“ To almost being free .”
“ To almost being free”
They both drank the refreshing bubbly drink, relaxing in the cold grocery store.
“That’s coming out of your paycheck!” Mirio yells.
The teens giggle as they hurriedly drink their sodas.
“ Hey did you know Monoma is having a Halloween party?” She says
“ I thought you despised that guy?”
“ Oh, everyone despises him, but he throws sick parties in that giant mansion of his.“ she clarified throwing away her empty bottle.
“ I think we should go.”
Izuku raises his eyebrow.
“You've never been interested in parties before, why now?”
“ Just want to do something fun or crazy before we leave high school you know. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to, I just want to make a suggestion.” she grabbed a box of cereal and put it on the shelf.
“ But, it would mean the world if you did. ”
He shrugs his shoulders and continues restocking the shelves.
After his five-hour shift, he ate some food with his co-workers and pedaled home.
When he unlocked and opened the door. He saw his mom on the couch sleeping right in front of him. He smiles kisses her on the forehead and puts all of the dishes away.
She must have worked hard at the hospital today. He yawned and grabbed a blanket to put on her.
When he finally gets to his room he collapses after the long day.
But apparently, the universe does not want to give him a break.
He wiggled underneath the sheets anxiously unable to fall asleep due to his heart beating abnormally fast. He sighed got a drink of water from the kitchen and went back into his room.
He opened up his windows breathing in the fresh air and stared at the bright sky filled with stars.
Everything was so blue and beautiful, and so far away. It felt weird, how Izuku was only just a small kid in a city, in Japan.
After looking at them for a while he felt tired and went back to bed, but while he was asleep his chest felt warm, and a soft blue emitted from him.
Izuku didn’t feel it or even realize what was happening at that moment.
This was the last time Izuku's life was even close to normal because, in the next few days, it would change forever.