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Midoriya Izuku was diagnosed quirkless at age 5 and diagnosed with autism at age 8. Midoriya never really hated either if he was being honest, he hated the world and he hated the ableism that propagated in it.
This was primarily because of how people treated him because of speech impediments.
His speech therapist had eventually recommended an aac device when he was 11 but after his bullies had destroyed his first one at school only a week after he’d got it, it was decided he’d use one at home and when out with his mum but not at school. He could mask his speech impediments well enough even if it did hurt his throat a little.
This habit didn't change when he entered UA. He just didn’t bring it to class and instead stumbled along in conversation with his classmates.
The rest of 1-A didn’t make fun of him for it or say anything about it except a few off-colour comments and some things from Mineta but Mineta eventually got expelled. Shinso replaced Mineta but Shinso didn’t talk much at all and when he did it was with Uraraka about cats or Aizawa about whatever it is they talked about.
So, on the morning he was supposed to leave for the dorms, Midoriya was panicked.
His mum helped him calm down and helped him figure out which of his disability aids and aacs he was going to take.
He took his tablet and phone, of course, but he also took one of his com cards and his more robust binder. He also took his earbuds, his infinity cube, a stress ball, a weighted vest, his compression socks and gloves, and his cane.
The vest had a cartoon All Might embroidered into the back of it courtesy of his mum.
On the commute to UA Midoriya walked with his cane — something he also couldn’t recall ever taking to school so it was gonna be another thing to explain. He kept it loosely in his hand as he sat on the train though. He did have his compression socks on but he didn’t want to risk having any problems before he unpacked. About halfway through the commute he ended up having to put on his earbuds since the train got a bit too loud.
Once he got to the campus he walked with his backpack and suitcase and made his way to the gates.
There was Uraraka walking with Todoroki and Jiro, floating luggage trailing behind them as they walked ( including a suspicious amount of boxes with Todoroki’s name on them ).
“Hi, Ochako, Shoto, Jiro” he greeted them as he walked over.
“Hi, Midoriya!” Uraraka said cheerily. “Do you want me to float yours too? It's great quirk training! It might get too much but yours is only one so I think it’ll be fine”
Midoriya looked relieved, “thanks, Ochako, it’s been a bit hard walking with it”
“It’s no problem. I’m trying to up my limit!”
They started walking and he noticed Jiro and Todoroki looking at him oddly, Uraraka seemed too focused on keeping their stuff up and following them.
“Hey, Midoriya, can I ask you a question?” Jiro said hesitantly.
“Yea?”
“Did you get injured? I’ve never seen you use a cane before” She paused, “not that it’s a bad thing, that’s a really cool cane”
She was right about it looking cool. It was ergonomic and black with mostly All Might stickers on it ( some disability stuff ), placed a bit under the handle was an All Might keychain.
“Actually, I’ve had pain and tremors since the sports festival, I just don’t really bring my cane to school a lot”
Todoroki raised an eyebrow and Uraraka paused from honing in on her quirk to interject, “you shouldn’t overexert yourself!”
“It’s fine, really, it’s not really that bad, I just use the cane for extra balance,” he was frantically waving around his free hand as he said it.
After a long argument they eventually agreed and the 4 finally reached the dorm entrance where Kaminari, Shinso, and Kirishima were talking, with Kirishima trying to carry all three of their stuff up at once and Kaminari egging him on.
Kirishima noticed them approaching and put down the boxes he was holding so he could excitedly wave at them.
“Midbro! Todoroki! Kyoka! Uraraka! Hey!” He yelled out every word and stretched the Y on the ‘hey’.
After greetings they decided it was rude to make Uraraka and Kirishima carry everything up even if they really wanted to. They had 10 boxes — 4 of which were Todoroki's, 2 of which were Kirishima’s, and everyone else sans Midoriya and Uraraka had 1 each. They also had a suitcase or duffle for each of them. That made 17 things they’d need to take up.
They eventually agreed to have Kirishima take up his own boxes in the elevator since they were the heaviest and Uraraka took up Todoroki’s boxes up the stairs with her quirk.
Midoriya took up Kaminari’s box since it was the lightest, Todoroki took up two of the boxes and Kirishima’s duffle, and the rest of them divided the rest between them with Todoroki and Midoriya coming back down to help after dropping off the stuff off.
Midoriya used the elevator the whole time but he was still really tired by the end.
“That was a lot…” he muttered.
“What?” Someone asked, he couldn’t tell who and he wasn’t sure if they didn’t hear or didn’t understand.
“Oh. That was a lot” he tried to say it louder and emphasize each syllable and it didn’t fully work but they seemed to get the gist.
———
Todoroki ended up having to unpack by himself since none of the other six were on his floor. Everyone else got pretty lucky and ended up with a pair on each floor so they decided each pair would help each other pack. Jiro with Kaminari, Uraraka with Kirishima, and Midoriya with Shinso.
Midoriya wasn’t as close with Shinso as Uraraka was but most of 1-A was close enough with Shinso that Shinso was comfortable talking with them and even asking them questions. The two were gonna try to figure out how everyone else was dividing things up but they instead decided to do one room at a time with Midoriya’s first.
The rooms were plain to start with: a desk, bed, and a dresser.
He could vaguely remember a request form for customisations and extra furniture, he didn’t actually fill it out.
Once Midoriya’s suitcase was open on the floor they started unpacking. They started taking out all Midoriya’s All Might merch and putting it on the desk, on the dresser, and up on the walls.
“Is this an All Might curtain? Is half this thing All Might merch?” Shinso said as he pulled out an All Might branded curtain.
“Some of it’s clothes”
“Uh-huh, and these notebooks?”
“I’m serious!” Midoriya moved on from unpacking his merch to unpacking his clothes for emphasis.
Midoriya would’ve loved to say that was the only thing Shinso questioned but Shinso managed to get to Midoriya's backpack before he could be told otherwise.
“What’s this? It doesn’t look like school work” Shinso said as he held up Midoriya’s aac binder.
“It’s… umm… well…” Midoriya dissolved into indecipherable mumbles.
He took a deep breath, “It’s an aac binder, I just… umm… talking properly’s really hard and it hurts my throat… so…”
“Is that why your mumblings don’t make sense? Jiro’s been complaining that it hurts her head a little cause she can’t process it”
“It’s that bad..?” Shinso shrugged.
The rest of the night was a bit awkward and the two ended up finishing up both rooms silently.
———
The entire class eventually gathered in the common room to go over rules with Iida and Yaomomo.
- Any non-student and non-staff visitors should get approval from Aizawa and a visitor’s pass before coming to UA.
- Students should keep common areas, especially the floors, clean and free of clutter.
- Quiet hours are between 8pm and 6am, noise should be kept minimal during this time.
- Students should be careful not to waste water, electricity, or other such utilities.
- The use of quirks in the dorm while allowed is heavily discouraged and any damage resulting from quirk use will be punished accordingly.
- Flammables like candles are not allowed with exceptions made for religious or spiritual purposes, those who qualify for this exception should apply with Aizawa and have such items approved by Aizawa.
- Students should dispose of rubbish appropriately and in the correct bins.
Those were the rules set by the school. What they wanted to go over was student made rules and also base student info, the student made ones wouldn’t be enforced as strictly as the school made ones but they were still rules so they were still supposed to be followed.
After they’d gone through all of it Midoriya asked Iida to call everyone’s attention again.
“Everyone! I’m sure we’re all eager to get back to our rooms but Midoriya has something to say!”
“Thanks, Iida”
Midoriya pulled out his phone and pulled up his text-to-speech app. He already had the whole speech prepared and he could’ve done it without aac but he wanted to make sure it was clear.
“I know everyone here hasn’t seen me use disability aids or aac before so I know this’ll be an adjustment. So we’re all on the same page; aac is augmentative and alternative communication, it’s things like the app I’m using on my phone right now, cards with pictures and/or text on them, and more. I can talk but it’s painful so I’d rather not do it all the time. Since we’re all living together you’ll likely see me use my disability aids and aac a lot. It’s still me talking and it’s not lesser than my regular speech so I’d like you all not to comment on it when I use it. Any questions?”
Midoriya could see Kouda perk up early into the speech and try to say something after it ended but it came out too quiet.
“Kouda’s asking if he’d also be able to use aac”
“Yea, I don’t see why not,” Midoriya said while nodding.
Overall it actually went well with Midoriya agreeing to talk to Kouda and Shinso about what aacs they might like.
It was nice…