Work Text:
Ari - 6
I just want to have friends.
He declared when he entered the hero course that he wasn't here to make friends. And at the time that was perfectly true. He just wanted to overcome his father, defy him completely by fulfilling his dream of becoming a hero with only her ice.
However, the words “It's your power!” … they resonated with him. Midoriya’s actions resonated with him. And he started longing to make a connection with someone. It was a deep ache and longing, something weighing on his chest. He's not sure how he hadn't noticed it before. He supposed he'd simply been too focused on his spite.
However, people were hard. He didn't understand them. How to talk to them. How to be friends with them. How to make friends in the first place. Sure, he was eating with Midoriya, Uraraka, Iida, and Asui now, but while they chatted, he didn't know what to say.
Honestly, Shouto didn't even know what friends did or what their purpose was or how they acted. He didn't know what it meant to be friends with someone, even though he longed to connect with someone. Up until this point, his only goal had been to spite his father, fulfill his dream while still denying his father the thing he wanted most.
Wanting something more was foreign to him. And he didn't know what to do with it.
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When Midoriya sent out that text during internships, Shouto didn't hesitate. When he saw Iida on the ground, he didn't hesitate. This was what he was born for. To save people in need. Idiot classmates and civilians included.
Shouto was pretty sure they were friends then. At least he thought. He wasn't sure when people really became friends though, versus simply acquaintances or associates or classmates. Was there some kind of official declaration or something? Once you became friends with someone, were you supposed to act differently or…? Shouto had no clue. He didn't know who to ask either. Should he ask Midoriya or would that just be awkward? He supposed a normal person would ask their parents or maybe their siblings, but he didn't think his father had any friends nor would he want Shouto to have any. As for Fuyumi and Natsuo, Shouto honestly didn't have much of a relationship with them because of his father.
Shouto scowled. That man ruined everything for him.
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Things only continued getting more complicated from there.
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Hitoshi was there to be a hero, other people be damned. Even after entering the hero course, he expected more reactions like Ojirou’s to his Quirk. But the green-haired boy’s enthusiasm and welcoming attitude seemed catching, much to Hitoshi’s surprise.
He had a difficult time connecting with people initially. They were all so… friendly. He couldn't relate to them at all.
Todoroki was… different. He stuck close to Midoriya and was standoffish. Hitoshi doubted he'd gone through any serious hardship or discrimination like Hitoshi.
Of course Hitoshi had to take that back when he accused Hitoshi of being Aizawa-sensei, Present Mic, and Midnight’s secret love child of all things. Seriously, who even comes up with stuff like that?
But somehow that made Todoroki feel more relatable. Hitoshi enjoyed sifting through niche forums and reading various conspiracy theories and laughing at them. So sometimes, he found himself sitting next to Todoroki during lunch and quietly mentioning an outlandish conspiracy theory he'd read online, which set the other boy off into a tangent on how the conspiracy theory could be entirely true and what facts supported it.
It never failed to amuse Hitoshi.
And every time after Hitoshi started a “conversation” with Todoroki, Hitoshi saw the boy slowly becoming more comfortable. And not just with him either, but everyone else in the class.
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Hitoshi still wanted to be a hero more than anything else. He still wouldn't let anyone get in his way now that he'd enter the hero course at UA. He still wasn't there to make friends of all things. But… maybe making friends wasn't such a bad thing after all, Hitoshi thought as he sat on a swing next to Shouto (yes, he was Shouto now), while the other boy rambled about how Hawks and Tokoyami absolutely had to be related.
Honestly, it's the first time Hitoshi’s ever had friends and… it's refreshing. None of the hero students were anything like what he had assumed. Well, other than Bakugo, but there was still depth to him that Hitoshi hadn't expected.
Beside him, Shouto fell silent, perhaps feeling the quiet mood that had fallen over Hitoshi.
“Hitoshi, what are you thinking?”
“Just that… I think all along I just wanted to have friends and not have people scared of me because of what I could do with my Quirk. I pushed everyone away because I didn't believe anyone could truly want to be my friend… but one can't help what one's heart longs for.”
Shouto is quiet too, before he responds softly. “Yeah… I never knew what having friends was like before Midoriya and it still took me a while before I figured out what friends are supposed to do and what it's supposed to be like. I'm not sure if ‘having friends’ is really something I wanted all along but had been in denial about, but… I just wanted someone to actually support me and care for me the way my mother once did before… everything got too much for her. I just wanted…” Shouto trailed off, eyes fixed on the ground.
Now normally this is where there would be a heart-breaking, tear infested emotional scene. But for all their vulnerability in this moment, neither Hitoshi or Shouto were the type to actually break down in tears where others could see them.
So instead they silently sat next to each on other on swings, commiserating and empathizing with the other because while they had two entirely different childhoods, they weren't so dissimilar after all.
They had both just wanted friends all along. And now they had them.