Chapter Text
Bang!
The guards turn towards the noise with surprise. No creature here has ever broken out of captivity before!
Bang!
They raise their spears as the noise gets closer. Their hair stands on end. Swallowing her fear, the leader shouts, “Fgie nwyfo gyrogsod! Py zyg wog sux ofnibo!”
BANG!!
Before anyone can respond, the door breaks open. A furry creature with large cuffs covering his hands towers before them, his tail whipping about.
“Yag yq xe jie!” He growls. The guards shoot as he charges forward, blue beams of light threatening to shave his pelt clean off. Where most would retreat he quickly dodges, dropping to all fours, jumping to the wall and bounding back off. As his right foot lands ice shoots across the floor. The leader and two other guards jump in time to escape, but the rest are frozen up to their shoulders.
The two guards charge at his sides, one with the spear and the other with their spiked tail. When the smaller one shoots he angles his hands so the beam destroys the cuffs. The spiked one attacks but he leans back so their tail knocks the spear out of the other’s hands, and he takes that moment to freeze the former in place. Turning to the now defenseless one he let’s frost cover his right hand, looming over them as they raise their fists.
A sound from down the hall makes him turn his ear. He jumps back as a net shoots past, catching on the guard’s arms and taking them down to the floor.
“Gypydyvu!” He turns to the source of the noise where the leader stands at the end of the hall, her right arm behind her back. She had pulled that last move on him many times before. “Bwoifo fgizp pyjz! Eya py zyg siho gy py gsuf!”
His brow furrows at her words. With how long the two have known each other, he thought she would’ve known better. He walks forward, highly wary of her hidden hand. “Eya py zyg azpodfgizp. Iz iddizrop xidduiro gydo xe qixuwe ibidg! U nizzyg wog gsig sibboz gy izeyzo owfo!”
“Eya ido zyg eyad qigsod!” She shouts, making him flinch back. Her arm is still behind her. “Siho qiugs uz eyadfowq. Eya juww zyg xivo gso fixo xufgivof!”
He swallows and resumes his pace. “Eiyeydyla, U nizzyg givo gsig dufv.”
Her black eyes soften for a moment before she closes them, shaking her head. “Fy mo ug,” she responds.
He lets frost crawl over his fur—ready for another fight—until she pulls a pair of high-tech jet boots. The sight surprises him and he drops his guard, walking forward the rest of the way. He looks back to her with confusion written on his face.
“Gsuf uf hode pizrodyaf mag...” She pauses and tilts her head, the appendage on top waving with the motion, “U jizg eya gy mo sibbe. U ix gdafguzr eya. Uq fyxogsuzr ryof jdyzr u ix nyxuzr gy quzp eya, ryg ug?”
“Eiyeydyla,” he breathes out the name of his old friend. Smiling gently, he takes the boots from her. “Gsizv eya!”
“Gso nwyfofg okug uf pyjz gso siww izp gy gso dursg,” the limb on her head points behind her with urgency and she places a hand on his shoulder. “Zyj, sadde!” He nods and rushes past her.
As he runs down the hall he inspects what she made for him. The boots themselves are an expensive model that's good for long distance travel, with jet activating gloves that connect wirelessly. However, they were clearly made in a rush. They don't have the proper landing gear and might break after one use. He'll have to be very careful about where he decides to live.
He turns right at the very end of the hallway to see an exit, the window revealing the cold vacuum of space. Feeling eager, he presses the button to open the hatch right when he gets to it. He realizes his mistake a split second too late and feels himself being sucked out of the ship.
“Fsug!” he shouts right before grabbing the edge of the opening to keep himself from flying out into space. Looking behind him, he sees he let go of his new gear in a panic. He stretches his left arm out to grab them again before quickly climbing the side of the ship with his right arm and both legs. He grabs on to any divot and ledge he can find before he reaches the ladder. With the bars sticking out the way they are he can easily wrap his tail around it. As uncomfortable as it is, it frees his hands and feet and keeps him from floating out into the unknown.
He quickly puts the first boot on his right foot. When his heel presses down on the insole, a mechanism clamps down on his leg in order to keep from flying off during space travel. It’s not comfortable either, but clearly his friend knew what she was doing. He repeats with the left then unhooks the gloves from their sides.
He looks out to the stars as he slips the right glove on. Realizing he has no clue where to go, his heart beats faster in his chest. There’s thousands of planets out there and not all of them have any life to speak of. Even if they did, there’s a chance that any intelligent life he runs into won’t take kindly to him. They could capture him, send him back home or worse. He needs to make sure to find a planet with a food source, little to no intelligent life, and that’s so insignificant that his father wouldn’t look for him there. There’s also the problem of making sure he doesn’t get too close to any black holes along the way, among other things.
A loud jingling noise brings him back from his thoughts and he looks down to the communicator on his wrist. He had almost forgotten that his father made him wear it so they could easily talk whenever needed, not that he ever actually used it. He knows he should ignore it. Things will go smoothly if he just leaves as soon as he can.
He answers anyway.
“ Fsyagy! ” the voice booms as an angry creature stares from the screen.
“Sowwy, eyad xitofge,” he responds mockingly. A selfish part of him can’t help but want to rile up the bastard one last time.
“ Py zyg gye jugs xo! U siho mooz gywp gsig eya ofnibop, ” the other argues, flames raging along his fur. “ If bduzno, eya siho paguof gy absywp. Zyj givo dofbyzfumuwuge qyd eyad vuzrpyx izp ROG MINV UZ EYAD NOWW! ”
The creature scoffs back. “Uq eya nido fy xans imyag dofbyzfumuwuguof, syj imyag eya ingaiwwe givo nido yq eyad vuzrpyx? U juww zyg wog i sebyndugo wuvo eya qydno xo gy nwoiz ab eyad xoffof!” He removes the communicator as his father continues raving at him. He settles the man with one last look before saying, “Qanv eya!”
He curls his fingers around the device and squeezes. A moment later he lets go and the device has become misshapen, warped and melted to an unsalvageable state. He stares off into space as his tail unwraps from the ladder. Even if he’s still worried about where he might end up, it doesn’t matter. He just has to get away.
Once he slips the other glove on his left hand, the buttons on his palms light up a bright pink color. Looking down to the boots, the divots that line them are lit up with the same shade. Now that he’s all geared up, this moment feels all the more real. There’s a soft rumble in his throat as he tries to calm himself down. A few moments later he takes the plunge. His fingers press the buttons on his palms and the jets roar to life. In just a flash of light, he’s gone.
*******
Bing!
“ Thank you for coming to Lunch’s Rush ! I’ll be glad to take your order whenever you’re ready. ”
Midoriya Izuku is so tired. He had to get up at six today just to make sure he got to work on time, and he’s been stuck on drive-thru for his entire shift. He hates drive-thru.
On the other end of the line, a man speaks up. “ Yeah, could I get uh...a Special Snipe burger? ” Izuku cringes inwardly. It’s actually called “Snipe’s Special”, but hardly anyone ever gets it right.
He stops making drinks for a moment to turn the mic on his headset on. Plastering on a smile and raising his pitch he politely asks, “I’m sorry, can you please give me one moment?”
“ Woah! ” the customer exclaims. Izuku knows exactly what’s coming next. “ Your voice changed! ”
He rolls his eyes at the typical response. “Yes sir!” he agrees, voice as animated as before. When asked what happened to the first person he simply responds, “That first one was a recording.” Then laughter erupts over the speaker. It sounds like there are multiple guys in the car rather than one. Great. He’s about to ask for a moment once again before he hears another voice enter.
“ Damn, that girl’s voice is hot! ”
Izuku freezes. The voice of the recording is very deep, belonging to a man who worked there before Izuku was hired, and no one else had spoken to them so Izuku can only assume they’re talking about his voice . He clenches a fist as the rest of the car adds their agreement. The only reason he raises his pitch so much is to make sure he doesn’t sound bored out of his mind while taking any orders. ‘Just because the voice is high, doesn’t mean it’s automatically a girl’s, damn it! ’ he muses to himself.
The group tries to order again before Izuku once again asks them for a second. When he finally gets a breather, he turns off the mic and pulls out a drink carrier. He quickly snaps the lids onto all the cups before placing them inside and carrying to the window, sliding that open with his elbow.
“Sorry about the wait! Here are all your drinks,” he smiles. After the family at the window gets their drinks, he grabs some straws to hand to them as well. Then he grabs the card left at the register and the first receipt that printed. He hands those back as well, then takes the restaurant copy. He places that in a clipboard and grabs his pen from his pocket. “Also, since your order was over 2500 yen and you paid with a card, I’m going to need a signature right here!” he cheerfully adds while pointing to the line at the bottom of the receipt.
“...You need ID and a signature?” the customer glares at him. Izuku can feel the anxiety pumping through his veins. “But I paid with a debit card!”
He looks back to the register where he can see the bright red “credit card” button on the screen. They don’t have a specific option for debit cards but they work all the same, no price difference or anything. This is just how he was taught to collect for orders. Turning back to the customer, he explains, “Yes sir, but as I said earlier, our registers don’t have a separate section for debit cards. We just have to run it as a card, so-”
The man sighs and roughly grabs the clipboard and pen. He angrily draws a line where the signature should be and hands them back to Izuku. With a single glance he can see that the paper nearly ripped from that. “Thank you,” he replies, shoving the pen back in his pocket and stuffing the receipt under the drawer, “I’ll have your order ready in just a few minutes, okay?”
The man just hums, so Izuku shuts the window once again. Taking a deep breath, he pushes his anger down and turns the mic back on. “Alright, I’m sorry about the wait. What can I get for you?”
He’s been working at this job for almost three years now. He’s become familiar with all the rules and how stupid some people can be, but it does nothing to ease his troubles. He’s only been there for so long because nobody seems to want to publish his comic series! It’s been his dream since he was little and first started reading UA comics, but no matter how hard he tries to make it the best series ever, it’s just never good enough. He needs this job if he wants to survive until he gets his big break.
He takes care of the orders—basically on autopilot at this point—as he thinks to himself. This would be much less aggravating if he had someone else to suffer with him. Working with Shinsou was always nice, since he was the only shift leader he could joke about murdering their boss with and wouldn’t get in trouble for it. Working with his roommate was also great, but she had classes to go to so they hardly ever worked together. Unfortunately for him, the only other person who could help him take orders—another shift leader—went on her break earlier, so he’s alone to deal with everything except cooking for now.
He hears the front door open and tenses up. It’s always a nightmare to deal with drive-thru and dine-in orders by himself. When he looks to the front however, he sees a familiar head of dark blue hair walk in. The wall of a man stiffly waves to him as he heads up to the counter.
“Hi Iida-kun,” Izuku breathes a sigh of relief, “I’ll be with ya in just a second, kay?”
“Take your time, Midoriya-kun! I’m in no rush!” he cheerfully replies.
Izuku smiles at the other before heading back over to the window and setting the drinks by the register. ‘At least I don’t have to deal with idiots all day,’ he thinks before opening the window.
“Hey there,” he greets, his voice low and comfortable after seeing his friend, “that’s 1279 yen.”
“Hey dude, uh...” the customer tries to look behind him before continuing, “where’s that girl from earlier?” Izuku screams internally while the other men in the car snicker.
“That was me,” he responds, completely monotone.
All the men stare at him for a moment before the driver shakes his head. “Come on bro, you’re fuckin with us, right?”
Izuku takes another deep breath and plasters a smile on his face once again. This time using his customer service voice, he says, “That’ll be 1279 yen, please!” Their faces all go pale and the driver stares a moment before actually handing him the money. “Thank you!”
He shoves the money in the drawer with an exasperated sigh. Even if Izuku was a girl, he didn’t want to deal with stuff like this. He hands back the change and receipt and tells them their order will be ready in a few minutes.
“So, Iida-kun,” he says, walking up to the counter where his friend waits for him, “do you actually wanna order something this time or...”
“No thank you. Just a glass for water will suit my fancy,” he answers.
“Of course,” Izuku breathes out. He grabs a small plastic cup and hands it over to the other. Iida walks over to the beverage bar and clicks the small blue button for water while Izuku just watches him. “You having a race sometime soon?”
“Not yet, but you can never be too prepared!” the man replies before taking a sip of his drink. Izuku only shrugs in response and takes a peek behind him to see the food is almost ready. “By the way,” Iida continues, “did you end up changing your availability? I came by the day before yesterday and you weren’t here, even though you were last Tuesday.”
Izuku pinches the bridge of his nose. “Iida-kun, for the last time, if you wanna see me just text me and I’ll tell you when I’m here. Better yet, just come over to my house! Ochako would love to see you too, y’know.”
“Midoriya! Order’s ready!” a voice calls from behind the warmer. Izuku jumps and quickly bags everything before walking back to the window and handing out the order. Luckily, he hasn’t gotten any more orders yet, so he walks back to the counter where Iida patiently waits.
“Well, I don’t think your other roommate would enjoy my presence so much, but I haven’t seen Uraraka-kun in a while,” the man mumbles aloud his eyes on his cup. His eyebrows raise before looking back to Izuku. “You two are doing alright, yes? Things aren’t weird after...”
Izuku nods sagely and laces his fingers together, his arms leaning on the counter. “We’re good, Iida-kun. We both wanted this, and we didn’t really find what we were looking for in each other. Oh! And you didn’t hear it from me but,” he lowers his volume a tad despite no other customers being around, “I think she’s been trying to ask Asui-san out recently, with how often she’s been studying with her.”
Iida nods back at him. “That’s good. I was hoping you were both alright because...well, I wanted some advice and I didn’t want to make things awkward for you!”
Izuku tilts his head. “What’d you need?”
Iida takes a deep breath before shouting, “I WOULD LIKE TO ASK HANTA TO MARRY ME!!”
“HUH?!?” Izuku jumps back, nearly falling over. “Wha-! I-Iida-kun! We’re only in our twenties! You and Sero-kun only got together seven months ago! It’s way too early for that!”
“I know that! I just care about him so much, and with how often I’m training or racing we don’t get to spend as much time together as I’d like.” Iida rubs the back of his neck, somehow looking very small. “I fear he doesn’t realize just how important he is to me.”
“That doesn’t mean you should ask him to marry you!!!” he shouts, his hands flying to his hair. “There are other ways to show that you care about him without being so extreme!” Izuku drags his hands back down his face before pressing them together in front of his nose. “Look, just come over sometime. I’d be happy to help you when I’m not already-”
Bing!
Hearing the bell go off makes him pause and he closes his eyes as the recording starts once more. “...busy,” he angrily finishes.
Iida nods decisively, “Of course. Thank you, Midoriya-kun!” he says before quickly downing the rest of his water. “I’ll message you later so the three of us can discuss this!”
With a single chop of a wave, he heads out the door. If Izuku is glad for one thing today, it’s that the dine-in area was so dead slow that he could at least talk to his friend and tell him how crazy he is.
Over the headset a woman says, “ Hi, could I get one of your new Beyond Burgers? ”
He turns on the mic and starts to ask, “Sorry, did you mean the Ul-”
“ With no cheese and extra pickles? ”
He takes a moment to see if she has anything else to say, while simultaneously trying to calm himself down. “I’m sorry, did you mean one of the Ultra Burgers?”
“ Yeah. ”
“Alright. Was tha-”
“ Small combo. With onion rings and a chocolate shake. ”
Izuku clenches his fist again. God , he hates drive-thru.
*******
When Izuku gets home, the first thing he does is flop on the couch and moan into the cushion.
“Welcome home, Deku-kun!” he hears from down the hallway. He groans again in response as he hears footsteps pitter his way. If there’s one thing he doesn’t like about the house, it’s that they have tile floors for the living room and hall. It makes the house feel especially cold during winter.
He feels a hand gently ruffle his green curls. Raising his face and plopping back down on his chin, he looks to see a head of brown hair staring back down at him. “Rough day?”
“What else is new,” he responds. His hands raise so his fingers can rub at his temples. “I wanna throw myself off the nearest cliff.”
“Can’t. Ya gotta pay rent,” she quips. His hands flop back on the couch and he closes his eyes as he juts his lip out in a pout. The girl pokes him twice before speaking again. “You wanna talk about it?”
He grimaces and shakes his head. “Later, I’m too exhausted right now.”
A moment passes before fingers scratch his head. He opens his eyes again to look at his friend, a gentle smile on her face. “Wanna watch some Cardcaptor Sakura?”
He nods. She stands to go turn on the TV as Izuku adjusts his position, sitting on the couch instead. “Thanks Ochako.”
The two of them get through at least three episodes together before their other roommate, Bakugou, comes home. He groans at the fact that they’re watching the same show for the fifth time and complains that the theme song is starting to get stuck in his head. When Izuku points out that Bakugou watched it and actually liked it, he screams back “That doesn’t mean I wanna watch it twice every god damn year!” before heading into the kitchen.
They finish one more episode before Izuku’s ready to rant about his day. He starts off with how he spilled coffee on his hand that morning and tries to ignore Bakugou laughing at him from the other room. He talks about how his shift leader, Takeyama, left for her 30 minute break and came back forty-eight minutes later, as well as her constantly heading to the back and leaving him alone up front and complaining about the huge line of customers when she finally returned. Uraraka listens intently as he goes on about the customers who interrupted him, the ones with little to no patience, the ones who took a wrong turn, the ones who only ordered a drink and should’ve just come inside and so on.
He lets out a sigh when he finishes and Uraraka rubs his shoulder. “That sounds super annoying.”
“It was!” he whines, leaning into her touch. “I wish you could’ve come in today. It would’ve been much more bearable if you were there.”
She backs up a bit and raises her hands in front of her. “Sorry Deku-kun, but I got other things to prepare for. I don’t wanna work in retail forever.”
“Neither do I!” he throws back, “It’s not my fault that nobody wants to publish my comic.”
“No,” Bakugou’s voice calls from the kitchen, “It’s your fault because your comic sucks.” Izuku whines in indignation and calls the other rude.
“I mean, I wouldn’t say it sucks ,” Uraraka adds, making Izuku whip his head back to her, “but I kinda get why nobody seems to like it.”
“You too, Ochako?” he asks, disheartened.
“Hey, your story’s good! The idea of superheroes in a world where everyone has weird abilities is really interesting , and I think it could be really great! It’s just, uh...how do I put this...” she takes a moment before snapping her fingers and pointing to him.
“It’s like, you’re really good at connecting with people, right? You’ve always been nervous and a little awkward, but you managed to make a bunch of friends despite all that!” Bakugou steps into the living room as she speaks, carrying two bento boxes. She gets quieter and gestures behind her, “Hell, even King Explosion Murder over there is kinda your friend.”
“I heard that, Round Face,” he growls, but she brushes him off with a wave of her hand.
“But for some reason,” she continues, “it’s like you won’t let your readers get close with your characters. Like, I know you understand people really well Deku-kun, but the people in your story don’t seem entirely real. It doesn’t seem like there’s much to them other than what we’re shown up front, and there’s nothing that makes me want to actually, y’know, get to know them. It’s really hard to want to keep reading because of that.”
Izuku leans forward, his arms resting on his thighs and hands clasped together. He never really thought of himself like that before, but she’s right that he’s made quite a few friends since he got into high school and a few more after he graduated. What she doesn’t know is that flaw of his goes deeper than she mentioned. How could she know though? Izuku hadn’t even realized his own habits had been bleeding into his characters. “Then,” he starts, somehow more nervous than before, “what do you think I should do? To fix them?”
Uraraka lets out a laugh. “I don’t know anything about character development. I’m trying to get off this hunk o’ rock!”
“Speaking of which,” Bakugou interrupts from behind, tapping Uraraka’s head with one of the boxes, “if you still want a ride to your study session tonight, we better leave now or I’m gonna be late to warm ups and won’t do well in my tournament.”
Uraraka jumps from her seat and apologizes before rushing to the hallway. “Oh?” Izuku calls after her, a teasing lilt to his voice, “Going to Tsuyu-chan’s again?”
“SHUT UP!” she yells, the door of her room slamming behind her.
Izuku chuckles to himself at that, but his mind quickly spirals back to their conversation from before. He just can’t let it go. How after all this time this thing he did to try and protect himself had been ingrained into him. Like muscle memory, he just did it on instinct without a single thought, even though there was no need for it anymore.
“Oh god , shut up,” Bakugou snarls. Izuku turns his head to see the other glaring at him. Had he said that out loud? “Yeah, genius . Ugh, it’s barely been a week since your last mutter-spree. If you got something to say, just say it.”
Right. Izuku still hadn’t kicked that habit as well. His hand raises to his hair, fingers winding into his green curls. “I was just wondering about what she said earlier. Y’know, about my comic? It’s just...w-was that what you were thinking too?”
Bakugou’s eyebrows furrow and he turns away with a sigh. He crosses his arms and, for a moment, Izuku thinks he’s not going to answer. The other had always been very selective about handing out help. He looks to the side and tugs on his hair. “I’ve heard that when people create characters of their own,” he starts, causing Izuku to look back in surprise, “they have a tendency to project some of their own traits onto them, whether they realize it or not. But giving the same trait to everyone has gotta be the dullest shit I’ve ever seen.”
“I see...then, what do you think I should do, Kacchan?”
“I ain’t tellin’ you! What’s the point if you don’t figure it out for yourself? Just fix it quickly so you can get paid more and get out of my house!” he barks at Izuku. Bakugou stomps towards the hallway before turning back to him. “That reminds me, I need the rent by the end of next week, so pull money out before you forget.”
The other heads down the hall and Izuku lets himself fall back against the couch, his neck and arms going limp. He stares up at the ceiling—his thoughts about to wander again—when he hears a sudden bang, followed by a shout and Uraraka apologizing. He lifts his head again to see her speed-walking down the hall, her lips pressed together in a line. Bakugou emerges soon after, holding his face and glaring between his fingers.
“DON’T FLING YOUR DOOR OPEN LIKE THAT, DUMBASS! YOU COULD’VE BROKEN MY NOSE, AND I HAVE AN AUDITION TOMORROW!” he screams.
Izuku looks back to Uraraka to see a grimace on her face. “I said I’m sor-...wait,” she pauses and sends a confused look to the blonde. “If you’re boxing tonight, isn’t that gonna affect your audition tomorrow?”
Bakugou raises his head high, a smirk on his face, “Not as long as I win,” he proudly states before glaring at her again, “which I might not be able to if I’m late .” She smiles meekly at him before heading to the door and putting her shoes on. She turns her head to Izuku for a moment.
“Hey Deku-kun, I won’t be home for dinner since I’m staying over at Tsuyu-chan’s tonight-” he smirks and takes a breath, but Uraraka heads him off with a “ Don’t ,” before he can say anything, “so just, don’t forget to eat somethin’ tonight, okay?”
He nods, before his head pops straight up and swivels to Bakugou. “Wait, are you both staying out tonight?”
“Yeah. Eijirou’s coming to my match and since his place is closer to the ring, I’ll be staying over there,” he responds. Her hand on the doorknob, Uraraka supplies that he just misses his boyfriend. Bakugou raises his hand to her, his forefinger and thumb only a centimeter apart. “I am this close, Round Face.”
She only snickers at him, and Izuku gives a small smile to the two of them. “Alright then. You guys have a good night,” he says, waving to his friends.
Uraraka opens the door and waves back. “See you tomorrow, Deku-kun!” she calls and heads out.
“Remember to turn off the AC before bed,” Bakugou reminds him before shutting the door and locking it.
Just like that, the house is quiet. Izuku is alone.
On one hand, he’s glad to see his friends going out and taking control of their lives. Uraraka is doing her best at school so she can be an astronaut. Asui is also at school so she can be a marine biologist. Iida is a well-known track runner who’s already won several medals. Bakugou has three jobs, being a musical artist—specializing in, but not limited to rap—an actor and a boxing champion. Each and every one of them is on their way to or already doing amazing things.
On the other hand, he can’t help but feel a little jealous. Izuku spent the majority of his life being seen as small and worthless. People hardly wanted to talk to him or pay attention to him, and when they did it was never for a good reason. But he was just a kid then, so it wasn’t like it mattered all that much. As he’s gotten older though, it’s started to weigh on him more. When everyone around him started to pick up the pace and achieve great things, he started to feel left behind. Unlike them, he couldn’t surpass his limits. He couldn’t let go of the past. It felt like no one really wanted him around.
He slaps his hands against his cheeks and hops off the couch. ’Whether or not that’s true,’ he tells himself, ’I can’t expect anything to change by moping around all day!’ He heads down the hall to the second door on the left into his room.
The room is dark as he opens the door, but he barely notices a faint green glow coming from the ceiling. Looking up, he catches sight of stars, circles, and other seemingly random shapes stuck there. They’re fairly cheap space themed glow-in-the-dark stickers that he’d bought a year ago.
He’d given them to Uraraka when they were dating, and she stuck them in his room since she’d been spending most nights with him. He’d forgotten to give them back after they broke up.
Izuku sighs and turns on the light. He climbs onto his bed and tries to keep his feet steady as he stands on the mattress. With his arm stretched up he can just barely touch the edge of one sticker and start to peel it off. When the adhesive completely loses hold, he nearly drops it on his face, letting out an awkward yelp. He manages to catch it then carefully squats down and sets the sticker on his nightstand.
He thinks about how it went down as he continues his work. What he told Iida this morning hadn’t been a lie. Their break up was something they both wanted, and there were no hard feelings after the fact. That doesn’t mean Izuku didn’t cry about it later, but that’s not the point. There was no fight or affair or anything dramatic like that to drive them apart. They simply agreed that they’d be better as friends and left it at that. For Izuku however, that wasn’t the only part of it.
Uraraka is amazing. She’s sweet, caring, determined, passionate, kind, persistent, and all around a great person.
She’s very pretty too, but Izuku also finds a lot of people pretty.
He’d known all these things for years now. She was the kind of person whose smile could brighten up your day, but now Izuku thinks that he put too much faith in that ability of hers. That’s not to say he didn’t try to support her whenever he could as well, but he’s had too many days where he felt empty and didn’t want to exist anymore. He’s had so many times where he could barely force himself out of bed, and he’d neglected eating so often that his roommates felt the need to
remind
him when left alone now.
Izuku’s had some very bad days, and a part of him thinks he tried to rely on Uraraka to fix him. It wasn’t right. That kind of problem isn’t something one can fix with a hug and a kiss, not to mention that wasn’t fair to her. She had more important things to do than take care of his sorry ass. Thus, he confessed that he thought they’d be better as friends. He loved her enough to acknowledge he wasn’t the best for her.
Recalling what his roommates said earlier though, he wonders if that was why she’d agreed with his decision. Hardly anyone knew about his past and how he got to where he is today. Bakugou knew, but he was also there for most of it. Izuku hadn’t told anyone else, not even Uraraka. She tried her best to help him on his worst days, but he never let her in. He never let her know what was actually wrong, just that he was tired and lonely. Maybe Uraraka felt they weren’t as close as she wanted, so when the opportunity presented itself, she broke it off.
Well he can’t really know unless he asks her, but there’s no way he’s doing that.
When the last sticker is removed, he sets it down with the rest and steps off of his bed. He’ll give them back to his friend tomorrow...probably.
The rest of the night is fairly uneventful. He tries to fix the problems with his characters mentioned earlier, but he spends one hour coming up with nothing and another one playing Sudoku on his phone. After that, he remembers Uraraka telling him to eat and settles for some instant ramen. He eats while trying to work once more, which still ends up fruitless. He doesn’t have to work tomorrow, but he feels useless with how little he’s getting done. So, Izuku goes to bed at 9:27 pm.
He dreams of lightning, shadows, heroes, villains, and a life that isn’t his.
*******
Izuku doesn’t recall what noise woke him up that night, but his ears are too focused on the rustling and the pitter of feet to let him fall asleep again. He groans and lazily lifts himself out of bed only to shiver at the cold. He must’ve forgotten to turn off the air conditioner.
He wraps one of his blankets around his shoulders before heading down the hall. He blindly searches for the thermostat with his hands. When he manages to feel it, Izuku turns the AC off and sighs, hoping Bakugou doesn’t find out and scold him.
He looks down the hall to see light from the fridge reflecting on the tile floor. Izuku grimaces. ‘That’s probably one of them now.’
Normally, he would just head back to bed and not try to bother them. He feels a little miffed though, that they said they’d be out all night and then came home without even sending him a text. Izuku trudges down the hallway with his eyes closed. He knows the house well enough by now that he doesn’t need to look to know where to go.
“I didn’t leave any leftovers since you both said you wouldn’t be home,” he drawls. His eyes open a crack as he continues. “If ya got kicked out or something, couldn’t you at least given me a war-”
His eyes pop wide open. Neither of his roommates are in the kitchen. Hell, Izuku doesn’t know what’s in the kitchen.
“...ning,” he quietly finishes.
The creature is crouched in front of the fridge, the light illuminating it’s long and colorful fur. The dark red is scattered against the pure white and pale peach, making it pop. It’s left side is dark, cast in shadow. Izuku can see how the skin is marred around it’s left eye, the fur probably burned clean off. It’s ears on each side of it’s head flick about, almost nervously. It’s tail does the same, the long fur swishing about before it hides behind the cloak it wears. The creature is thin and sort of resembles a cat, but it’s also very tall and frightening.
Izuku can’t quite tell if it has hands or paws or some weird combination of both, but in them the creature holds the package of shredded cheese that he and his friends bought a few days ago. He looks back up towards it’s face to see it’s cheeks slightly puffed out. It takes a moment to swallow what it has eaten—presumably the cheese—before opening its mouth and showing its sharp teeth. It’s voice deep and smooth, the creature before Izuku finally makes a sound:
“Sowwy?”
Izuku cannot believe what he’s witnessing.
He keeps opening his mouth to say something and then closing it, like a fish in water. He’s still trying to process what’s happening when the creature rises and, oh yeah, it’s really tall. It placatingly holds out a paw-like hand—it’s pads and claws on full display—as it speaks once more.
“U ibywyrulo qyd madfguzr uzgy eyad syxo, mag u pofbodigowe zoopop fyxogsuzr gy oig iqgod...xe wyzr tyadzoe.” The sounds the creature is making throw Izuku for a loop. Before it sounded as though it was apologizing in a cutesy manner, but now he has no idea what to make of it’s noises! “U juww woiho zyj, fy tafg qydrog u jif sodo.”
“I-I uh, I can’t, I mean I d-don’t, you’re, uh...” Izuku stutters. The creature tilts its head to one side, almost in confusion. Then it’s eyes blow wide for a moment, before its ears tilt down and it shakes its head.
“Yq nyadfo, eya nizzyg...” it says before letting out a sigh. Its hand-looking thing comes up to pinch the bridge of its nose and it mutters, “Pixz ug.”
It takes a step towards Izuku and he flinches, dropping his blanket. As it continues he begins to back up and wave his hands frantically in front of himself. “Wait. W-wait a sec! Back! I-I-I’M NOT FOOD!”
“U raoff u siho gy vuff eya,” it speaks once more, not faltering in its pace. Izuku’s back rams into the wall and he almost loses his footing. The creature stops right in front of him and grabs his shoulder. He’s about to scream, but the ice cold pads against his lips stop him from doing so. He looks back up to the creature in fear. “Niwx pyjz. Ug juww mo yhod uz i xyxozg.”
His hands scramble at the wall, hoping to find anything he can use to defend himself, but they find nothing. It’s face leans down towards his own. Izuku shuts his eyes and prays this is all just a freaky nightmare he’s about to wake up from. He’s not about to get his face bitten off by some unidentified creature. He’s gonna wake up in his own warm bed and continue on with his uneventful life! He’s definitely not going to die here!
Then he feels fuzzy lips against his own.
...
What ?
His eyes open again only to see the blur of red and white centimeters away from his face. The whiskers on the creature's cheeks just barely tickle his face. Where their lips meet feels weird, warm on Izuku’s right, cold on his left and all around fuzzy. ‘What is happening?!’ he thinks.
The creature backs away and takes a breath. Izuku’s about to freak out when the creature drawls, “I said I apologize for bursting into your home, but I desperately needed something to eat after my long journey,” and Izuku shuts right up again. First this thing was speaking absolute gibberish, but now can understand his language perfectly fine? What ? “I will leave now, so just forget I was here.”
It swiftly turns around and walks away, leaving Izuku flabbergasted. “I...uh...what are... what ?” He can barely form a complete sentence. The creature looks back to him from the sink, climbing atop the counter.
“I am fairly sure you understood me this time. Listen, just do not mention this to anyone, and we will not have a problem, got it?” It glares at him with intense eyes. Izuku nods dumbly, and the creature quickly opens the window above the faucet and jumps through.
He’s left alone once again, his brain still not catching up with the events that have unfolded. The only thing his mind will let him take note of is that the kitchen looks bad.
His feet dragging across the tile, Izuku walks towards the fridge. He grabs the bag of cheese that was left on the floor and closes it, stuffing it back into it’s drawer. A shiver crawls up his spine before he shuts the door and steps toward the sink. When he gets there he tries to close the window one...two... three times , but fails to do so. Instead, he decides to tell the others that something’s wrong with it when they get home. Picking up his blanket, he shuffles back to his room.
This’ll all probably make sense in the morning.