Izuku is, for once, a tiny bit excited for school. It’s only a little bit, not enough to chase away the looming fear the very thought of school brings but enough that he doesn’t feel like he’s going to throw up any second.
He’s going to see Hitoshi again! He wants to see him. He hasn’t had a friend in so long, he hopes he doesn’t mess it up.
He hopes Hitoshi still wants to be his friend, what if he decided he didn’t want to be friends? Izuku couldn’t stand that.
He was so nice yesterday and Izuku wants to be friends so badly.
He wants to meet Hitoshi’s cat and he wants to do all sorts of things together. He isn’t quite sure what friends do anymore, they’re both much older now than Izuku was when he had his first friend.
Izuku doesn’t think Hitoshi is like Kacchan, at least, he hopes not.
-
He’s early, Izuku hates being early. There’s so many more opportunities to get hurt. It’s almost as bad as being late.
Izuku looks up at the building warily and, upon seeing several larger kids walk by, decides it’s ok if he waits until closer to the bell ringing.
He didn’t get the chance to see much outside the school yesterday so he decides to explore a little to pass the time.
Most of it is pretty standard, there’s a small playground with a couple slides and a swing set. There’s a few trees around the yard and a teacher chewing someone out for trying to climb one.
Izuku doesn’t want to be anywhere near that so he ducks around the back, hoping to find a back entrance he can try.
He startles upon realizing he isn’t alone, almost crashing into a girl with long green hair staring intently into a half empty bucket of water.
“S-sorry, I d-didn’t see y-you.”
She turns to him and tilts her head in seeming interest, a finger to her chin.
“You’re new.” She makes a slightly odd sound at the end, almost like a croak. Maybe it’s part of her quirk? She does look like she might have some mutation traits. Izuku will have to figure it out sometime, maybe an amphibian?
“Y-yeah, um, Y-Yamada Izuku. I’m in 6-C.”
“I’m Asui Tsuyu, 6-B. It’s nice to meet you Yamada-chan.” She bows slightly in acknowledgement.
“Y-yeah, nice to m-meet you too.”
Izuku turns to leave, hoping to escape before she says anything else but pauses. He said he would be brave.
Izuku wants to be brave.
He wants to have friends and he doesn’t want to be scared when strangers talk to him.
She probably isn’t going to hurt him and there probably isn’t enough time before class for it anyway.
He steels himself and turns backs, fiddling with his sleeves.
“Um, w-what are you d-doing? I-if you don’t m-mind me asking.”
She turns back to the bucket and points.
“There’s a frog stuck in the bucket. I’m trying to catch him.”
“W-why are you doing th-that?” He leans over, hoping it isn’t a trap to get him soaked and sees that, yes, there is a frog stuck in the bucket. He doesn’t know very much about frogs but this one does seem very stuck.
“Frogs can drown if they get stuck, I don’t want him to drown.”
“Oh, c-can I h-help?”
“Sure, he keeps swimming away from me but maybe if we both try we’ll catch him.”
“Ok.”
It takes a few tries and his sleeves get a little wet but eventually Izuku finds his hands lightly cupping a struggling, wiggling frog.
“Ah, I-I got him As-Asui-san!”
“That’s great Yamada-chan, he should be ok if we let him go on the grass.”
“A-alright,” they watch the frog hop away together and Izuku grimaces at his dripping hands. “H-he was p-pretty slimy.”
Asui reaches into her bag and digs around, eventually presenting him with a wet wipe.
“Um, th-thanks.”
“You're welcome Yamada-chan, thank you for helping me catch him.”
Before Izuku can come up with a response he's startled by the warning bell and with a quick bow of farewell, races to get to his class on time.
Hitoshi’s head snaps up when he makes it with just seconds to spare and dashes as quietly as he can into his chair.
He turns and quietly hisses, “where were you?”
Izuku nervously glances at the teacher approaching the front and shrugs. He’ll tell Hitoshi later.
-
They don’t eat on the roof again, Hitoshi shows him an out of the way nook he likes to eat at instead.
Izuku is ecstatic to have so much of his trust already!
They settle in as comfortably as they can on the ground and eat. Yamada-san left him another note that makes him blush, he's so nice. After they’ve finished their conversation turns to heroes.
“Do you have a favorite hero, Izuku?”
“Um, I-I like P-Present Mic. He’s r-really n-nice. What a-about you Hitoshi?” He deflects in hopes he won't have to elaborate on why he thinks Present Mic is 'nice.'
He looks almost embarrassed, sheepishly rubbing at the back of his neck. He shouldn’t be embarrassed! Izuku is sure whoever Hitoshi likes is a great hero! “I don’t-he’s kind of underground. You might not have heard of him.”
“That’s ok! I love h-hearing about new h-heroes!”
“Alright, his name’s Eraserhead.”
“Really!?”
“Yeah…”
“He’s really cool t-too! And nice!”
“You know about him?”
Izuku nods his head fervently, Aizawa-san is great!
“Yeah! I l-like his capture weapon! It’s so c-cool!”
“I wish I knew how it works, is he the only one who can use it? Like, I heard rumors his quirk makes his hair kinda float.”
Izuku thinks back to Aizawa-san explaining it to him with a smug story about Yamada-san getting himself stuck in a tree trying to use it. “I don’t th-think so! Do you want one H-Hitoshi? I think you would l-look r-really cool! It could help with your q-quirk, since it isn’t very offensive on its o-own!”
“You really think so?”
“Of c-course, I think you’ll be a great hero!”
“Oh..." Hitoshi blushes in quiet happiness. "Well, I think you would be too…”
“W-what?” Izuku isn't sure he heard that right.
“I mean, only if you want to.”
“Y-you mean it? Even though,” he swallows and whispers “even though I’m q-quirkless?”
“I don’t know much about what makes a good hero but I think, if you tried, maybe you could do it.”
Izuku almost can’t believe it, he can’t help the tears building in his eyes. He can tell Hitoshi is panicking but he can’t bring himself to try and reassure him. He beams and it feels like some weight he didn’t even know was there has been taken off his back. His secret little dream that he’s held only in the most guarded places in his mind, someone, someone actually thinks he might be able to do it.
It’s all he’s ever wanted, for someone to tell him he isn’t delusional, that it might be possible.
“Um, are you, did I say something wrong?”
“No, I j-just, n-no one’s ever s-said that b-before.”
“Oh, it’s a good thing though, right?”
“Y-yeah," Izuku wipes at his tears with his sleeve. "it’s good. Thank you.”
-
Izuku sits against a tree after school and waits. Apparently Yamada-san is going to be a little late. Izuku could probably walk home by himself, it isn’t too far, but they’d agreed to be extra careful until whoever is after him is caught.
So he waits. Hitoshi left as soon as school was out and Izuku doesn’t want to be a bother so he sits by himself and hopes no one notices him.
“Are your parents late, Yamada-chan?”
Izuku startles and feels himself blushing at the word “parents” before focusing on the person in front of him.
“Asui-san! Um, yeah, j-just a few m-minutes I g-guess.” He shrugs.
“I can keep you company if you want?”
“Y-you don’t have t-to!”
“I want to, I think Samidare wants to play around for a few minutes anyway.”
“O-ok.” They fall into silence as Asui sits down next to him. She gives him plenty of space, which is really thoughtful. “Um, w-who’s Samidare?”
“My little brother, he’s over there.”
Izuku follows her gaze to a little boy a few years behind them running around with a couple other kids his age.
“Do you have any siblings Yamada-chan?”
“Um, no, it’s j-just me.”
“I have two, my little sister’s still a baby.”
“D-do you like having s-siblings? Oh, wait, I-I’m sorry, th-that-”
“It’s ok, Yamada-chan. I love them a lot.”
“Oh, that’s good.” He sighs and starts picking at the grass in front of him as he scrambles desperately for something else to say, he’s having a hard time reading her expression. “D-do you look for f-frogs very o-often?”
“Usually just after it rains, they get stuck and I don’t want them to drown, even if they are just frogs like everyone says.”
“T-that’s very k-kind of you Asui-san. I wish m-more people were like th-that.”
She gives his a considering look, at least, he thinks it’s considering. “Thank you Yamada-chan.”
“Y-you're welcome,” he sees a streak of yellow at the gates out of the corner of his eye and stands to meet Yamada-san. “T-thank you for staying with m-me. I-I should go.”
“See you tomorrow Yamada-chan.”
“Y-yeah!”
Izuku finds he doesn’t mind the thought of that at all.