Chapter Text
Naito was walking his sister, Mio, home from the quirkless support group the hospital in their area runs. Well almost hospital he supposed considering they aren’t entirely legal. The quirkless population in Japan isn’t treated the best and one of the largest things young quirkless people often have to come to terms with is that they likely won’t make it to thirty.
Mio is part of a program that includes a support group designed to help the young quirkless population deal with these things. Of course the government doesn’t like providing support like that for the quirkless, meaning the hospital has to hire some technically unqualified people to run the ground.
She was telling him about what they’d been discussing when a man stepped out of an alleyway, he looks scary and threatening. He has tattoos around his neck and Naito thinks he can see a star that’s thin and spreads out at the sides, it’s similar to a snow flake.
That is the well known symbol of hatred towards the quirkless. How had he known? They were always careful about letting Mio tell people that she was quirkless.
But if he was watching the quirkless support group then he would probably see that Mio is quirkless. And Naito isn’t gonna pretend that he looks exactly intimidating, so this guy probably thought Mio would be an easy victim. What a dick.
When the guy steps forward Naito and Mio he instinctively pulls Mio behind him. “You should leave her now, you can just tell whoever asks that you tried to stop me and failed,” who does this guy think he is?
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Izuku is starting to get annoyed with Dabi and his need to watch Izuku at all times. Izuku isn’t a child that needs protection. “Hey, kid! Wait up,” Izuku was just about to leave for patrol when Dabi (why did Izuku let him live with him?) grabbed his shoulder.
Izuku turns to see Dabi literally heaving. Oh, right! He’d gone out today. Izuku had let him know what time he patrols. Dabi had probably rushed home to try and stop Izuku from going out.
Izuku looks at Dabi’s concerned face and loses it. Izuku is sick of Dabi being in his space, even if it is just concern for Izuku. So, naturally, Izuku has a totally normal reaction to this. He screams at Dabi. “Fuck off! I like my patrols! Do you hate me? Do you want me miserable? Whatever, I’m going on patrol. Don’t follow me and don’t expect me home tonight.”
Izuku know rationally that he’s being mean. He knows but he doesn’t care right now. He storms out of his home and starts wondering around the city.
Eventually he comes across a kitten and of course that’s the thing to bring him out of his funk. He’s now aware that he’s in an alleyway, he’s also aware of the quiet whimpering coming from the exit of the alleyway.
Peaking his head out Izuku sees a young girl with long blonde hair, it’s braided. She’s who’s crying. There’s a boy who’s taller than her who’s fighting a guy who’s much taller than the young girl. Oh! It’s free food guy! What was his name? Something like Monoma.
Izuku thinks he recognises the large guy that he’s fighting. When he was younger he wasn’t really careful about telling people about his lack of a quirk and that resulted in more than one instance of beatings and ridicule. Really he’s just (un)lucky that no one managed to kill him in doing so.
Izuku can’t just let him hurt either of these people, grabbing his stupid fucking pole and started the electricity to run through it. And hit the pole over the guys head.
The guy fell, twitching and unconscious. Izuku started at the guy then turned to the two Monoma’s awkwardly. “Uh, oops?” The little girl giggles wetly while the boy who Izuku realises he’s been assuming is her brother hugs her comfortingly.
Izuku pauses and looks at the entrance of the alleyway where the cat had been. The cat thankfully is still near, in fact they are rubbing their head against Izuku’s leg. Oh, that makes a lot more sense.
Izuku crouches down and picks the cat up. He hears an excited gasp and looks back at the two. The young girl is bouncing on her toes in her brothers (?) hold. He moves closer and crouches to her hight and offers up the cat for pats.
The girl is very gentle when petting the cat. Izuku decides he needs to talk to them. “So, um, you know why that guy wanted to attack you two?”
Please no one be quirkless, please no one be quirkless please no one be quirkless! Izuku loves the quirkless community, he’s part of it! But it’s incredibly difficult living like a quirkless person.
He’s pretty sure it’s the girl who’s quirkless because she freezes at the question, halting the petting of the cat who’s purring in Izuku’s hand. Izuku hears the boy sigh. Before the boy can either give some bullshit lie of an answer (the smart thing, really) or tell Izuku the truth Izuku continues.
“Y’know I’m actually quirkless,” He stage whispers at the girl, like he’s sharing a secret. The girl looks so excited that it makes Izuku smile behind the mask. “You’re a quirkless hero?” The question is asked with a hint of astonishment and Izuku startles when he realises what the girl thinks.
“Oh, um, I’m actually a vigilante,” judging from the way the girls face twists in confusion Izuku assumes she doesn’t know what a vigilante is. “I’m basically a hero without a special license to be one, it’s illegal so don’t follow my footsteps.”
The girl does not look dissuaded much to Izuku worry. Her brother is staring at him, Izuku can feel it. He should probably say something but he doesn’t know what until, “Can I have a photo with you?”
Izuku blanks for a moment before slowly nodding and putting the cat in his hands down and letting her dictate the position of the two. “Can you please pick me up?” Izuku obliges, because he is, unfortunately, a sucker for kids.
Her brother snickers, grabbing his phone and pointing it at Izuku and the girl. When he’s done Izuku carefully puts the girl down. She looks sad when her brother calls her back over to him to continue their way home.
This is the sad part of being quirkless (excluding the general oppression, obviously), the loneliness. Being quirkless is inherently lonely, the quirkless are minorities and it’s difficult to live knowing that no matter how much anyone try’s, they will never understand what it’s like.
With a sigh Izuku calls out, “wait!” When they stop walking and turn back to Izuku he pulls his hood and mask down.
“Holy crap! You’re starving boy!” Izuku startles at that looking at the brother confused. The boy at least looks sheepish at his outburst. “We met like a month ago? You helped me pick up my groceries even though you looked like shi- crap.”
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In the end Izuku got a cat! And the boy’s phone number and promised to text him when he gets a chance. Does Izuku have a phone? Of course he doesn’t, don’t be silly.
Izuku is dreading going home but he sort of has to. So he manages to get home without any problems and walks into the building. “Dabi! I’m home!” He yells in the doorway peaking into the pseudo living room where Dabi usually is. Izuku sees the back of his head and immediately starts his sales pitch for the cat.
“Okay, so, I know we can’t really afford a cat with the limited food supply and stuff, but-“ Izuku looked up to make sure he was listening to what Izuku had to say.
See, two important things to note is that, one, Izuku is stupid as fuck, and two, that Izuku’s life sucks. Because when Izuku looks up he sees not Dabi - or well not just Dabi - but also pro hero hawks. Naked. Both of them are naked.
“Kid! I’m so sorry this is not the time-“ Izuku doesn’t want to be here actually. “Nope. I’m not doing this today,” Izuku practically sprints out the room, kitten held to his chest.