Double Life

Chapter 5

Naturally, the moment she was okay, Izuku had to know all the new ins and outs of her quirk.

"What did you dream about? What's it like? Did you realize you were dreaming? Why'd you ask about Bakugou first thing when you woke up? Did you dream about him too? What did you mean by I wasn't real? Does your neck itch when you think about it or just constantly after a dream? Do you think it reflects on your subconscious? How deep? Is it lucid dreaming like your mom's? Was there math anywhere?"

And, like usual, just a look was enough for him to realize he'd just word deluged her and he snapped his jaw close.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

Juvi, after a moment of debate, figured it wouldn't hurt to tell her best friend. That's what friends were for, right?

Yet it was difficult, nigh impossible, to fully explain twenty-four-years of experience, even as it finally fuzzed to the background of her mind. She was still Jubilee, but Juvi's thoughts and experiences were at the forefront.

Izuku fidgeted as she spoke until she stuffed his journal and a pen into his hand, to which he took to with fervor. It somehow made it easier for her to speak.

"I think the name 'Double Life' makes more sense for my quirk than 'Mathmatical Dreams,' but I don't really think I should tell anyone about it for now, so you don't either."

He paused abruptly, tilting his head. "Why don't you want anyone to know?"

She looked at him for a moment longer, biting her lip, before sliding in the final memories--what she had actually dreamed about last night.

"Because you were in that dream," she said softly. "Future you."

"But it was a dream."

She looked down at her hands. "I don't think it was a dream. It's..." Even now, she could feel that sense of being too big for her body, of being misplaced, of having the senses of someone else. She could smell the fabric softener on Jubilee's sheets. She could taste the apple chips her brother had brought. She could feel the acidic worry at the bottom of her stomach for her sister.

Twenty-four years weighed like lead on her skin.

"Maybe this is the dream," she said quietly.

He reached over to squeeze her hand.

"Didn't you say your mom had to go to therapy for her quirk because it made her get confused with what was reality? Maybe you should go."

"Maybe you're right..." she said, even as the older half of herself rejected it, because you couldn't trust adults. The moment it got hard, they left you high and dry. But Juvi had no such qualms. Juvi still believed Mommy and Daddy could make it better, and what was Jubilee to say when it was about quirks?

The smell of burnt sugar abruptly came to her nose. Both her and Izuku stiffened.

Around the corner to their hide-out on the school roof appeared Bakugou, hands in his pockets, shoulders hung back and mouth pinched.

"Whaddya know, it's the quirkless duo."

"Oo, they making out?" cawed one of his two lackeys, while the other just chuckled.

Even as Izuku hunched his shoulders, Juvi glared. The adult inside of her, having watched an entire two seasons of older Bakugou suicide baiting and fighting her best friend, glowered.

Instead of her usual reply that she DID have a quirk, or when she was particularly frustrated by a wordless scream, she said, venom thick on her tongue, "Oh look, it's the quirk-worshiping bully with an inferiority complex."

The lackeys went quiet.

Bakugou went still.

"What did you just say?" he said.

"Honestly, I feel bad for you," she continued. "You live in a world where your self-worth depends on something you can't control, like having a useful quirk or not. You've probably realized that, without a quirk, you're just an angry dickbag villain compared to Zuku."

His hands popped out of his pockets, palms up, sparking with fireworks.

"Bitch, you're dead."

Juvi blinked and Zuku was between her and Bakugou.

"No!" She threw herself forward.

Just to get a faceful of Zuku as he was shoved back into her by popping hands.

Zuku's weight knocked the wind out of her. She could smell his uniform burning.

Bakugou hauled him off.

"Out of the way, Deku, she's mine."

"Don't touch her!"

A fist at the front of her uniform lifted her up. Black stars popped in her vision as she struggled for breath. The smell of burning sugar and cotton burned her nose.

"You're weak," he hissed. "Weak and useless, just like him."

"Let go of me! Don't hurt her! Please! Stop it!"

Juvi's lungs finally snapped open and she took a loud suck of air, just to get a lungful of her own shirt's smoke and cough.

Bakugou dropped her just to kick her in the thigh.

Then stomped away.

"Wait! Bakugou!"

"Aren't you going to finish?"

The cronies let go of a struggling Izuku to run after him.

Izuku dropped by her side.

"Juchaan! Your chest, is it hurt? Here," he pushed her on her side. "Don't fight it, try to breathe slowly."

"'M fine," she wheezed. It was nothing compared to what Izuku had to deal with before she'd come into the picture. No. She'd been in the picture for years. It was nothing compared to what he'd had to deal with in the anime.

"I'm sorry I couldn't stop him." His voice warbled. "You're right, I'm weak. I should work out. All I do is whine and dream."

While she couldn't argue with that, she didn't like him depreciating himself either.

"You were ganged up on," she managed to get out. "And you can just get stronger."

He wouldn't look at her, but he didn't take his hand off her side either. She appreciated the contact. He flinched when she put her hand over his in thanks.

"I'll tell the teachers. They might not listen to you, but I'm their precious mathematician. And you can always start today. In fact," she hesitated. "It might be best that you do."

If her dream really wasn't a lie, his future might depend on it.

He sniffed. "Okay."

"Oh, Zuku, are you crying?"

Another sniff. "No."

She sat up and hugged him anyway.

"Just so you know, I think you were really heroic. You were ready to protect me even though you were weak, that's so brave."

He let out a low whine.

She blinked hard, refusing to be a sympathetic cryer, and gave him an extra hard squeeze.

"You're good, Zuku. You're good. And Bakugou knows it too, that's why he picks on you. It isn't because you're useless and weak. It's because he wishes you were."

"That doesn't make any sense," he croaked.

"It will when you're older."