While both boys wanted to go by quickly, neither of them were able to fall asleep. Izuku was worrying about whether or not Katsuki was going to like his designs or not. Katsuki on the other hand was wondering what Izuku wanted to tell him.
The two spent most of the night thinking about it, and barely got a wink of sleep. Even if they hadn't slept well, they ended up waking up earlier than normal, getting ready for the day. Izuku made sure he grabbed his notebook as always, checking his designs to make sure they were as perfect as he could make them. Izuku wanted the blond to be impressed, after all.
~~~~
After getting ready, he left his room, made himself some breakfast, and started to imagine how cool Katsuki would be as a hero, saving people and defeating villains. Even though he knew the chance of him becoming a hero was slim, the greenette still liked to think about the two of them fighting villains alongside each other as hero partners.
Izuku got lost in his thoughts, whether it be imagining Katsuki or the both of them fighting villains. He spent so much time in his head he hadn't realised that it was time to start heading to school. The greenette was reminded when his thoughts were interrupted by a loud knocking on the door, startling him. He opened the door to see Katsuki standing in front of him in their school uniform as always.
"Hold on a quick second, gotta grab my bag," Izuku said walking over to where he had left out his backpack the night earlier, making sure that he had everything one last time. "Bye, mom!" Izuku called, closing the door and starting his walk to school with Katsuki.
"Hey Deku, what did you want to show me?" Katsuki asked as they started their way to school. Izuku was still pretty nervous about showing Katsuki his design. So, to try to calm his nerves, he came up with an excuse to give him some time.
"At lunch, I can show you properly so we'll talk about it then," he replied, an awkward smile on his face. The two continued making their way onto the campus, in an awkward silence, neither of them knowing what to talk about.
~~~~
Unfortunately for Izuku, the time between the start of the school day to lunch flew by in an instant meaning he didn't get time to deal with those nerves of his, the tightness in his stomach growing as he knew the time was approaching.
Before exiting the classroom, Izuku made sure to grab his notebook, looking down at it one last time, sighing, and heading out to walk with Katsuki. The two of them grabbed their food and sat down. Due to the sheer nervousness that Izuku was feeling, he didn't talk much, focussing on his food. He knew that the time was coming which didn't help his nerves at all. Grabbing his notebook, he placed it on the table in front of him, moving his finished plate aside.
"So Kacchan, you know how I had something to show you?" he asked. Katsuki took his focus off of his food, looking at Izuku before nodding, taking another bite of his food afterward. Izuku took one last deep breath before starting his great big speech about Katsuki's hero costume.
"So, you know how you were talking about how I should try for the support course instead of being a hero? Well.. even though you won't be able to change my mind that easily on being a hero, I did look into it and try it out. I've known you for a long time, and I thought that maybe I could try designing something like a support item for you first," Izuku took a breath and continued, the nervousness in his voice lessening as he continued to talk.
"I ended up going a little overboard and while I started with just a support item, it ended up as a whole costume. Due to your explosive personality and love to make explosions, I started by trying to think up ways that allow you to make even bigger explosions than before. Though they are clunky and a little big, they will store excess nitroglicerin produced that once full, you can ignite at will. I thought that they wouldn't be super practical with all of you moving around the battlefield and all, so I recommend making them with light materials." Katsuki, now ignoring his food, listened intently, staring at the sketches and scribbles on the notebook page. Izuku continued to speak, his conversation with the blond turning into him muttering the rest.
"I thought that the costume in a grenade style would work overall with the orange and black. It's a nice contrast to your hair color and it compliments your eyes. I also know that you don't really like the cold and that it hinders your explosions, so I made sure to make the winter version extra warm." Izuku kept rambling on and on about all kinds of parts. Izuku was excited to show what he had come up with.
Izuku looked up to see Kacchan looking at the notebook and then backed up at him. "How long have you been working on this for?" He asked.
"Um.....w-well I spent 3 months on it. I know it's not super impressive but I hope you like it." The gut feeling he had earlier returned, making Izuku nervous once more. Instead of mocking him, Katsuki complimented the work.
"Well I think this is pretty impressive for only 3 months, I mean look at the details here. Good job," he said, ruffling the greenette curly hair, looking at him with a smirk. Izuku sighed in relief, happy that Katsuki actually liked the designs, his face heating up ever so slightly as he met the blond's confident gaze. Since Izuku had taken up most of their lunch period with rambling about the design, lunch ended shortly after.
~~~~
When school ended, Izuku and Katsuki started their walk home. Once the two were about a third way there Izuku noticed movement from the corner of his eye. Izuku stopped walking, looking around only to see an empty alleyway.
That's weird I could've sworn I saw something, he thought looking back towards Katsuki.
"Kacchan, I'm gonna go check on something real quick, wait for me alright?" Katsuki nodded as Izuku walked towards the alleyway. The greenette walked around, trying to find the source of the movement he'd seen, leading himself into a tunnel. Finding nothing, he decided that he was just seeing things and turned around to head back to Katsuki.
However, before he could exit the tunnel, Izuku was being suffocated by something he couldn't see. He tried to scream for Katsuki to help but the liquid-like monster had his mouth completely covered. Izuku's vision started to blacken from the lack of oxygen as he thought that right there would be where he died. Shortly after there was a strong gust of wind as Izuku was pushed out of the monster.
~~~~
Izuku woke up rubbing his likely bruised head looking around to see what happened. He looked up to see All Might holding up soda bottles that were filled with what he figured was the monster. Izuku stood there in complete shock, the only thing he could do was bow time and time again, thanking the hero repeatedly.
Wanting an autograph from his favorite hero, he grabbed his notebook once more walking over to where All Might was. "All Might can you sign my-" Izuku said nervously as he opened up his notebook. "Uwahh you already did! Thank you!" Izuku was finally meeting his idol All Might. Izuku noticed that he was about to take off so he instinctively grabbed onto one of All Might's pant legs.
All Might looked behind him, noticing the imbalance of weight. Looking back, he saw Izuku screaming.
"Shit," he mumbled under his breath. Panicked, All Might looked around to find the closest rooftop to land on. He found one and landed. "What the hell were you thinking kid? You could've gotten yourself killed," All Might said sternly to Izuku.
"I-I'm sorry but I really needed to ask you something." the greenette said, looking down at the ground and fiddling with his fingers. All Might sighed, the question shouldn't be that hard right?
"Go ahead. Ask away."
Izuku looked up at the hero once more, a hopeful glint in his eyes, "Can I be a hero even without a quirk? I'm just some ordinary quirkless kid. Can I ever hope to be someone as great as you?" These words struck All Might hard reminding him of himself. He shook his head, ridding himself of the memories.
C'mon, you have to be practical. You already have a successor, All Might thought to himself, thinking of what he should respond with.
"I'm sorry but you can't become a hero," he said before jumping off the building and going back to what he was doing, turning in that villain. Digging around his pockets he couldn't find the bottles filled with the sludge villain.
"Damn it," he said, starting his search for the bottles.
~~~~
Izuku just stood there, tears starting to overflow his eyes, tears pouring out of them. All Might had just told him he couldn't be a hero. All Might of all people, his idol, the number 1 hero told him he couldn't be one. With a sniffle, Izuku started to make his way back to where Katsuki was probably still waiting for him.
Katsuki had patiently waited for Izuku to return, which the greenette never did. Getting worried, Katsuki started to look at where Izuku had been. He had been looking all over the area for around 15 minutes but there was no sign of him anywhere. Out of frustration he kicked one of the littered bottles that had been on the floor. The bottle twisted open and Katsuki was attacked by a dark green sludge villain.
The sludge jolted towards Katsuki trying to envelop his body like he had failed at with Izuku. Throwing explosions left and right, he tried to get free, struggling and failing to escape the liquid-like villain's grasp.
Watching Katsuki's every move the villain finally spoke up, "You'll make a good vessel." Katsuki kept struggling as more and more people crowded around him. Due to the villain's ability to recover from the blasts quickly, he started to get the upper hand as Katsuki started to grow tired. As time progressed only Katsuki's upper head was visible.
This is it, Katsuki thought.
~~~~
As Izuku continued down the long staircase he heard an explosion. He started to run down the stairs in hopes of seeing heroes in action, he'd never let the opportunity to add more to his notebook go to waste. Even though All Might had just said that he couldn't be a hero, documenting heroes' information would always be a hobby of his.
The closer he got, the more crowded the streets became. The greenette saw smoke and some fire, hearing gasps from the crowd as he tried to get closer, trying to see what was going on. Izuku started to make his way through the crowd hearing people murmur to one another.
Once he got close enough to finally see it, he too - like most of the crowd - gasped in shock. There was moving green sludge that looked a lot like a failed, thrown-away slime project. Looking closer, he realized that was the monster that had attacked him. Izuku saw multiple heroes trying to attack the fluid-like villain. Looking around once more he saw fire which the villain couldn't have done and neither could any of the heroes, none of their quirks would've fit the scenario.
The greenette heard another loud explosion. Izuku put his focus on the villain once more as he saw a boy around his age try to escape its grasp. Izuku recognized the boy immediately, the spikey blond hair, explosion quirk, and red eyes didn't make it difficult for him to know who it was. There was no doubt that it was Katsuki.
Izuku stood there in shock looking as pleading eyes met with his own. The next thing he knew, he was running toward Katsuki. Izuku knew that he wouldn't be much help to the situation, and honestly, he didn't know why he was running. His body had acted before his brain.
Too late to go back now, Izuku thought, trying to find some way of being helpful in the situation. Grabbing his backpack, he threw it at the villain, his notebook poking the villain's eye. Some of the sludge receded, allowing Katsuki to gasp for air as Izuku tried to grab the sludge.
~~~~
All Might walked around the area trying to find the bottled-up sludge villain. He heard an explosion go off and ditched looking around, he couldn't leave anyone in danger. Of course, the villain was the cause of this as he saw the green sludge trying to suffocate another boy around the same age as the greenette he had met earlier. All Might's power had all been used up right after talking with Izuku, meaning that he was unable to transform into All Might, the symbol of peace.
All the hero could do was just stand there, hoping that other heroes that could fight the villain would come. None came, however, and everyone was worried about the boy's fate. He looked at Katsuki, who, at this point was growing exhausted, losing to the villain. His face was full of distress as the blond started to get engulfed in the dark green sludge.
As the situation continued on, All Might turned around to leave, not wanting to feel worse. Hearing everyone around him gasp made him turn back around to see a familiar kid, run toward the villain. It was that quirkless kid who wanted to be a hero that he had met earlier. That same timid cowardly kid was doing all he could to try and free the blond boy.
All Might felt pathetic, there he was, worried about his power usage while this kid who had no powers at all was running trying to save someone. All Might himself wasn't even going by the hero motto, plus ultra.
Come on, you have to go help them. Now two lives are at stake and you can't let them die, they're only kids and they have so much to live for, he thought, painfully transforming into his hero form. He ran toward the villain knowing he had to hurry things up before he turned back into his skeleton-like appearance.
All might hit the villain with just a single punch, sending sludge flying everywhere. Somehow he had turned the weather from sunny to cloudy, rain threatening to start pouring. He looked back at the two boys he had saved. They looked slightly dizzy from the impact of his punch, but there were no severe injuries so all was well. Knowing he would de-transform soon, he leaped away in order to avoid being interrogated by reporters.
Staying in the vicinity, All Might kept an eye on the little green-haired fanboy he had met before; he was a suitable candidate for One For All, after all. All Might tried to talk to him but the other kid from earlier was walking him home. All Might tried to follow the two but, once they turned the corner they were no longer visible and the hero lost track of them.
~~~~
After Katsuki was saved by All Might, and Izuku was scolded for running into danger like that, the two walked home together.
"I was really worried about you, damn nerd. Who knows what had happened to you when you left." Izuku giggled a little, happy that Katsuki had been worried about him. Both of them started to talk about what had happened with the sludge villain, Izuku left out the fact that he had met All Might. They returned home quickly and right before Izuku walked into his apartment and closed the door, Izuku spoke,
"Hey Kacchan, I think that I'm gonna do engineering instead of being a hero." Then, he walked inside, closing the door to his apartment. Katsuki did a silent cheer, he no longer had to worry about the greenette. As he walked away happily, part of his brain started to question the action, but the blond ignored it and continued on, focussing on the victory.
After the sludge villain attack, both boys became even closer. They would spend their time spending time with each other. Whether that was doing homework together or going out places, the two's relationship continued to grow. This would continue for about 2 months until the day the two were looking forward to came, the last day of school. It meant that their promotion ceremony would be later that day night.