: bullying, homophobia/transphobia (slurs), violence, mild panic attack (briefly described)

***

On Izuku's first day of school, he's nervous. Everyone dresses at the very last second, but they look stylish and Izuku can't help but smirk as they walk their way to the campus. His friends are attractive, and given the stares they receive from bystanders making their way down the street, everyone else knows so too.

None of them being too fond of school, they arrive at the nick of time, and even then it's only because it was Izuku's first day and Ezra was insistent that they at least bother coming on time for Izuku's first day. Unsurprisingly, they had flaked most of the month since school began, and were on the route of suspension if they kept the behaviour up.

The principal is an old woman with thinning hair, a sugary smile and something just a hardline away from sinister. Aside from Vi, none of his friend group was rich. Hence, the school they attended wasn't the most prestigious. The judgmental glint in the old hag's eyes reminds Izuku of Aldera with less prejudice.

"Glad to see you bothered to show up," she spits, her voice filtered with sugar and honey. Ugh, she's gross.

"You make it sound like I'm late you old crow," Izuku retaliates, relishing in the way the principal's eyes narrow.

"Should've known he was as gross as your shit gang when I saw him walking through the gates with Frosty and Fuck the Police," she nods to Xee and Zeke.

"You gonna get started on the tour or whatever the fuck I'm here for or are you going to keep shitting on my friends and boyfriends?"

The principal sighs, "listen brat, I'll give you a quick rundown. I don't care what happens in school as long as you got reasoning behind it and the police aren't involved. You pass or fail, it's on you. This school isn't known for being the best with the most prestigious students anyways," she thrusts a few papers into his hand, "here's your schedule, locker number and a map of the school. If the teacher's ask, I've given you all an hour to tour him seeing as you already know him. With that, I'm gone."

And she leaves.

"She's a character," Izuku decides, "gives me chaotic neutral energy."

Ai nods, "that's about right."

The tour is as expected. Boring as fuck. It takes them 50 minutes to get around the whole school and this time it's Vi nagging about how important it is Izuku knows his way around the damn place if he planned on finishing the next two and some years of high school there. She's right, but it's still fucking boring.

"We're done!" Ai exclaims, clapping their hands dramatically.

"Fucking finally," Izuku slumps against Zeke, "that was horrifying."

"You're incredibly dramatic," Xee scoffs, wrapping an arm around Ezekial's shoulder.

"Off to class we go," Aviva interjects before Izuku can pout about being mistreated, "what do you have for red?"

Izuku looks at his colour-coded schedule. It follows a four-day cycle, each colour representing a class. He shares most of his classes with his friends, who by chance were all apart of his homeroom, excluding their electives. Izuku has Music with Valeria and Creative Writing on his own.

"Music," Izuku hums, his lips pulling at the ends, "it's been a while since I've picked up the guitar."

"Why?" Zeke frowns, "you love music."

Izuku looks down, "I was convinced it would derail me from pursuing heroics," he scoffs, "which is stupid considering my old classmate was just as much a music fanatic if not more. Thinking about it now, I really should have dropped All Might the day I met him on that damned roof."

"Izuku what roof?" Ai raises their eyebrow, tone serious.

Izuku's eyes snap wide open and he blinks owlishly.

Shit, he never told them about the first meeting, just that it happened and he manifested a quirk after. He didn't lie, per se, simply kept some information to himself. All for good reason too. He slumps. There's no point in not telling them now, he supposes. Besides, it was burdening to keep that godforsaken secret to himself, especially after letting it slip to Kacchan that it was passed down to him from the former symbol of peace.

"I first met All Might on my way back from school. Katsuki was being a whiny bitch," he hears Ezra and Aviva chuckle, "and said some stupid shit that had me thinking. I took the longue route and was attacked by this ugly ass tar villain thing. Long story short, All Might saved me, took me to a rooftop after I clung to him like a koala, told me I couldn't be a hero and then bounced."

Zeke stiffens under his touch, "what a bastard."

Izuku snorts, "Understatement of the fucking century. He decided to say 'fuck it' and impulsively handed me his sentient quirk. Broke a shit ton of bones, was bullied, he realised his decision was fucking brash as hell and took it back."

Xee growls, "I'll scare him so bad he'll be shitting the bed for weeks."

Izuku lifts his arm and grazes his cheeks gently, chuckling. Xee leans into the touch, the anger in his eyes fading ever so slightly.

"We never need to go near him, so we never have to worry about him. Now let's go, we have class."

"Fuck Home Ec," Xee mumbles.

"Come on, Zuki, music class is great because the teacher is super chill and lets the students play whatever instruments they please."

Izuku beams, pulling away from his boyfriends and waving at them before following Valeria down the hall.

"How're you and Vi?" He asks as they make their way. It's still a few minutes before homeroom ends, but Izuku figures it'd be pointless to show up to homeroom now.

"Oh she's so cute," Val smiles, "when they asked me out I was so shocked, though I'm sure you remember that."

Izuku puffs, "you got a nosebleed after slamming your head into the door frame, which, by the way, why were you wearing Aviva's platforms. You want to stand at 6'5?"

Val blushes a light pink, "not the point. I'm just glad she asked me out, I would not have done it myself."

"We know? Your bitch-ass literally complained to me every second you got."

She crosses her arms, "don't use that tone with me. You make it sound like you didn't wail about how it was so unfair you had to move because of Xee and Zeke. I still don't get why y'all didn't do long distance."

"I'm glad we didn't, considering I winded up agreeing to date Katsuki unintentionally."

"How did he take the break up, by the way?"

They are at the classroom door, and Izuku pushes on it as he answers, head turned to Valeria. The bell signalling the end of homeroom rings as the door slammed shut.

"I don't know. I broke up with him over the phone, spent the night at Shinso's dorm, woke up extra fucking early to speak to Aizawa, left back to Shinso's dorm until everyone had to be in class, went to my dorm, packed and left. I was afraid if he came near me I'd panic and take it back or disassociate and subconsciously get my self into more shit."

Valeria hums before quiet coughing interrupts them.

"Nice to see you showed up, Valeria," the teacher smiles, "is this the new student?"

Izuku nods and offers a hand, "Izuku Midoriya."

"Mr Dally," he shakes his hand, "what instruments do you play, Izuku?"

He's short, shorter than Izuku who stands at just below 5'6, but he's buff from what Izuku can see, similar to how he looked before he going out with Katsuki (the stress of the relationship threw him into old habits of skipping meals, following his mum's passing, where he had starved himself for a little over a week), and his eyes are narrow and far apart, a grey almost light enough to be mistaken for white. His skin is dark, contracting his tousling white hair, falling to his hips in thick coils.

He radiates warmth like a heater, however, has an endearingly comforting presence.

"I play the guitar, electric preferably."

He claps, "great, why don't you take a seat with Valeria and introduce yourself once everyone arrives."

Izuku smiles kindly before making his way to the back of the class, following Valeria. She silently gestures to the few guitars strung on the wall, all looking worse for wair. A few acoustic, beige and wooden, chipped and stained. The electric guitars are in not much better shape, a few with broken strings and charred wood.

He pouts, "I think I'm gonna bring my own guitar next time."

"That's what most students do anyway. No one's even sure why the school bothers with the music programme considering they haven't renewed the instruments since forever and a century ago."

"Does that mean the amp is fucked too?"

Val pats his shoulder sympathetically, "sorry hun, but I'm sure you already had an idea that this school wasn't it."

Izuku slumps into a chair, "damn."

***

"I don't know if I like or hate the food they serve here," Izuku takes another bite out of his grotesquely oily pizza, "I can practically feel the fat clogging my arteries."

Ezekial is to his right and Xael is to his left. They sit in the cafeteria on a faraway table where the lights flicker continuously. It feels greasy, but so far, everything in the school felt that way. Izuku nearly forgot how unclean schools in America tended to be in comparison to Japan.

Even Aldera, a school that saw laws as guidelines rather than rules to follow, was always impeccably clean (save for the words scratched into the wood of his desk).

"Better than nothing," Ai shrugs, plopping a soggy fry into their mouth.

Izuku nods, remembering days where food was a reward for excellent behaviour and not something he needed to survive.

"'Suppose," he takes another bite before setting his pizza down and cuddling into Xael, "I take it you guys aren't friends with others."

Ezra snorts, "what makes you say that, Izu? Is it the glares sent our way or how people actively avoid us in class?"

"Actually it's more when a guy approached me and offered me a seat with his friends as if offering me a favour. It's a little surprising, I'd at least think Valeria would have something going for her."

Valeria blinks, "funny, Zuki."

"Zuki it's not that we're pariah per se, it's more like we're...unapproachable," Aviva steals a fry off of Ai's tray, receiving a smack on the hand in return, "it's better this way anyhow."

"Can't argue with that."

Izuku doesn't like crowds, they fuel his anxiety and leave him feeling suspicious of every action. He takes a while to trust, which is a big reason as to why he never offered 1-A his socials despite being well acquainted with them. Shinso, and later on Denki, were rare exceptions of people who made him feel validated.

"Oh fuck," Zeke whispers under his breath. Izuku looks up at him, wrapping a free arm around his waist and pulling him in closer, ignoring his little startle of surprise.

"What's wrong?"

"Some people at this school really don't like us," he presses himself further into Izuku, "and one of those shit eaters are approaching our table right now."

Izuku looks away to where Zeke was staring and low and behold a guy towering at maybe 6'1 is walking over. A girl and another guy are beside him, both just as tall with the same smug smirks on their faces. Izuku doesn't like them.

"You have to be shitting with me," Ezra mutters, dropping his burger and glaring at his tray. He flinches violently when the three people stop at their table, the girl slamming her hand against the plastic. When she pulls away, there are little indents, like gravel pressed itself and melted into the plastic.

Her quirk, Izuku thinks.

"So you got a new one, huh?" Her voice is squeaky, almost toddler-like, and entirely juxtaposing to the biker chick aesthetic she has going on.

He feels Zeke stiffen straight and Xee wrap an arm around his waist tightly. Izuku raises an eyebrow.

New one? Were they referring to him?

"Get the fuck out of here," Ezra growls.

"What you going to do about it, girlie?" The 6'1 guy snarks. Ezra hops out of his chair, Aviva at his side. His eyes are angry, his jaw locked, and Aviva shakes in place, the only thing grounding her being Valeria's arm wrapped tightly around her wrist.

"I'm not a girl you walking pile of donkey shit."

"If you don't have a dick, you're a fucking girl."

Izuku let's go of his boyfriend and stands up abruptly, startling them. They look up him questioningly but he merely steps out and rounds the corner so he's meeting the guy's gaze. Ezra is known for his temper, his bruised knuckles, suspensions and detentions the few times the teachers bother to intervene. Izuku has no reputation, and after being away from his friends for so long, being driven into the confines of morality and lawful good over the years, they were a little scared to see how he'd react.

A small chill run's up everyone's spine, and Xee catches the beginning of frost slowly icing the tips of Izuku's fingers.

"Can you fucking leave?" His voice is cold, monotoned and harsh. His words are articulate, a light accent to his pronunciation as a consequence of years of living in Japan. His eyes look dull, his stance threatening. The guy looks down at him and snarls.

"What? You a fag like the rest of your group?" He looks down, "a slut in a skirt?"

"I'll knock your fucking teeth in you disgusting cunt on two legs," he seethes, grabbing the guy by the shirt and pulling him so they meet eye to eye. His hand is cold, numbingly so, and his lips curl as the smirk on the guy's face drops with the temperature where Izuku's hand meets his skin.

"Get the fuck off of him!" The guy to his right yells, only to be stopped by Ezra, who practically jumps onto him, tackling him to the ground.

"Oi!" the girl yells, but Aviva is already on the move, stance offensive and she swings at her side. Izuku almost snorts at the mental image, 5'2 Aviva King fighting a girl who easily stands at 5'10 and beating the shit out of her. He doesn't look to confirm his imagination, keeping his gaze trained on the guy before him. His skin is going paler by the second and Izuku revels in the terror in his eyes.

It comes as a shock when that look is replaced by something confident and a heavy fist is smashed into his face. He let's go abruptly, touching his nose with ice-cold fingers. They're wet, and he tastes metal on his upper lip.

Without thinking, Izuku is running for the guy, fists raised and swinging deliberately. The guy is sloppy in comparisons to someone who trained nearly 7 months to be a pro-hero at one of the most prestigious school's in Japan. It's fists meeting fists and Izuku hears grunting to his right and left where Ezra and Aviva are handling their own. He's distantly aware of the students chanting 'fight' like some cliche film from the 2000s and doesn't pause to think why his other friends haven't intervened yet.

The sound of a whistle breaks them apart and Izuku lands one strong hit to the guy's chest.

"All of you quit it!" The shrill voice of the principal breaks through the chanting.

Izuku stops to look around and has to do a double-take when he sees Xee and Zeke standing over an unconscious girl, Val holding a guy in a headlock, and Ai with fists raised, facing a guy and a girl.

Other shit heads, no wonder they couldn't intervene.

She looks at them, bloodied and bruised and panting and angry, and sighs through her nose.

"Since it's your first day and these guys are known for being dipshits I'm letting it slide. I see it happen on school grounds again and it's a months detention."

Izuku's scowl deepens but a warm hand on his shoulder keeps him from snapping. Instead, he pushes his sleeve back and wipes the blood on his face with the back of his hand. He grunts along with the others, some nodding, some whispering 'yes'.

She nods to 6'1, who, much to Izuku's joy, is sporting an already bruising eye and a busted lip, "get your friends to the infirmary, Kyle, they look worse for wear than the other lot and I'd be damned if I let you students go together."

Then she walks away, just like this morning.

"This ain't over, skank," he grits, eyes narrowing at Izuku's friend group like they murdered his mother, "y'all faggots are gonna see the shit I'm about to send you, especially you princess," he points at Ezra.

Ezra is about to pounce when Izuku grabs him by the hoodie.

"Go pick up your friends, Miles," he rolls his eyes and walks out, Ezra in his grip and Xael resting his arm on his shoulder. He's sure his friends are by him. He hears 6'1 yell out, 'it's Kyle-,' before the doors are swinging shut behind him.

The second they turn the corner, Izuku bolts down the hall and into the bathroom, frantic footsteps following him. His heart is beating way too loud, way too fucking loud.

He puts his hand over his ears and slumps against the tiled wall. That was way too much, he always forgot himself whenever he as angry.

A head rests on his back and arms grip his shoulders. It's silent for a few minutes as Izuku catches his breath. When he can hear the voices whispering reassuring nothings over the sound of his heart, he peels his eyes open.

His friends look down to him, concerned and proud.

"We sure fucked those guys up, huh?" Ezra smirks. Izuku laughs, it's a little hollow, but it brings a soft smile to everyone's faces.

"Next time they try and talk to you, I'll freeze them over."

"They forbid quirk use within school premises, it's one of the few things that can lead to expulsion."

Izuku shrugs, "my quirk is unregistered."

Ai laughs, "it's good to have you back."

Izuku feels fingers intertwine with his hands and smiles, "I know."

***

Word Count: 3155