*Warning*: this chapter contains a panic attack, it will be marked by the same marker as the last warning (*). It only lasts about two paragraphs but some of the pretenses may be triggering in of themselves. Please note that it is based on my own experiences with panic attacks and might not line up with yours. Thank you, and be safe -♡
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Izuku liked to think things would get better, that someday Kacchan would notice how he hurt izuku, and they would be friends again.
He knew it wasn't likely, he knew, he just needed something to hold on to.
But Izuku knew it was only a wish, he wouldn't dare utter it aloud, but he knew deep down that Katsuki wasn't going to just change his very personality, who he was as a human, because of some random revelation. But he still held on to those hopes.
It was getting harder though, Kacchan and his lackeys were getting worse and worse. It wasn't long until their half-hearted jabs turned into insults, their love taps into genuine one-sided fights (read: beatings).
But Izuku could handle it, after all, he was a big boy now, eight whole years old. A few bumps and bruises couldn't hurt that much.
But, they did, a lot. No, that was wrong, it's not so much the physical blows that hurt (though they did hurt, especially from the kids with strength quirks), but their words felt like knives in his heart.
Over the next two years, izuku was starting to find himself lying in bed, unable able to sleep as the pain was too much. His classmates' words hung over his head in sick mockery of a mobile. It felt suffocating. Well, it might have been their words, it also might have been the anxiety or his cracked rib.
One night he got so worked up that he couldn't physically stay still, so he didn't. He spent the rest of the night stretching, doing minor workouts, anything to keep his body moving, it hurt less then.
It became somewhat of a nightly routine. He was quickly learning that one perk of his quirk is that he didn't need to sleep as much as the average person, he would only have about 8 hours of sleep a week and function completely fine. In fact, he found he felt uncomfortable whenever he slept longer than 14 hours a week.
His nightly stretching went on for two years before he started to feel too confined in his room at night. He longed to stretch his wings to fly-
'Fly?' He thought, 'Can I even fly?'
As strange as it may sound, he barely ever had his wings out. Though, was it really all that strange? His wings were a subconscious source of pride, and the thought of people making fun of them, or worse, touching them or worse, hurting them, made him want to cry and lash out at the same time.
But still, he had wings, and it had never occurred to him that he could fly? Like, never? Izuku sighed as he leaned on the window sill.
He took a breath of the fresh air and enjoyed the cool night breeze. He fluttered his wings absentmindedly. When a stray gust of wind blew into his room, and along with his wings, he gasped.
'Fly. Fly, we need to feel the air in our wings' A part of him said it was different than his typical monolog voice, it was softer, and it seemed to flow as the air itself did.
And Izuku couldn't help but feel inclined to do as the voice said. But he didn't know how to do that. He frowned in thought. Where does one start when trying to learn to fly?
His thoughts immediately went to heroes that fly. There was of course Ryukyu, but there was a newer hero. Their name slipped his mind, 'perhaps Hawk?' Though their name aside, they had wings, wings like his.
Okay, so they weren't like his, but they were feathery and they were a part of them even in a humanoid form. That was close enough, right?...
Oh well, that's where he was going to start.
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Izuku had concluded a few things over the past two years.
One, flying was easier said than done, and he had to do a lot of wing muscle building. Two, he was able to shift his wings from fully transparent to fully feathered, and when in his feathered form the tips of his wings both looked like crystal, but also were as hard as it. Three, that Hawks was a really freaking cool hero.
Four, heroes kinda sucked, like a lot. There are so many clips of people literally dying and the fully licensed heroes are just standing there, doing nothing.
Five, quirk discrimination is far too common, and it's not just limited to people who don't have quirks, but also extends to people who have "evil", Mutant, or weak quirks.
And six(this I'd the biggest one as it had become the most of a problem.), he wanted to show people his wings. As time went by, he was finding it harder to repress the urge to show off his pret- his wings.
That same part of him that kept pushing for him to fly was now also pushing him to show off his wings, to make people stare, show off how good he was flying.
'What the hell is wrong with you? I can't even fly' Izuku thought in a mixture of agitation and exasperation.
'Nothing." It said back coolly as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Izuku choked on his saliva. 'You can hear me?' he thought back in question (and if that isn't the weirdest thing, asking a question in your mind and expecting an answer)
'Yes, much like how you can hear me.' It answered back in the same airy tone.
'Nope! I'm not doing this today' izuku thought as he went back to his stretching.
The voice made a "hmn" sound before going quiet.
"Okay, that was most definitely not normal..." he whispered to himself.
Izuku allowed himself a long, deep breath(read, sigh), before putting his funny attention back to his stretching and wing exercises.
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'Right, so this is it. I'm officially in Junior High School. Maybe this year will be different, there are, after all, new students...Right?', those were Izuku's thoughts at the start of the year. It is my unfortunate duty to inform you, that his expectations were anything but reality.
Izuku's school year kicked off with a terrible start. For starters, he discovered that "Kacchan" had followed him from elementary, and was already capturing the attention of just about every student in the school.
And with him, he also brought his most loyal friends(if you could even call them that will the amount of power difference), as well as the rumors of Izuku's quirk, or lack of one.
When Izuku had arrived at school, Katsuki had already had half the school made aware of his presumed "quirklessness".
And what's more, is that now he wasn't dealing with children, but young teenagers who were both harsher with their words, but also more physically capable than 10-12-year-olds.
It's safe to say that that meant he was coming home with more and more bruises, cuts, and burns.
It was getting increasingly difficult to hide them from Inko as well. Inko was an observant woman, and Izuku knew that. He also knew that she was aware something wasn't quite right with him, even if she didn't know what exactly it was.
And after one particularly rough day, he just collapsed on the genkan.
Inko, hearing the thud from the living room, quickly came running into the room, only to find her baby collapsed and crying.
She was startled and wasted no time crouching on the floor and gathering him up in her arms. She just sat there and stroked his back as he continued to cry. She knew that he was in no condition to explain why he was so devastated, so she didn't seek an explanation, just comforted her hurt child.
As she did this, she couldn't stop herself from thinking about how similar this felt to when Hisashi had attacked Izuku. Her breath hitched as she realized she hadn't seen Izuku cry in forever, not since the start of elementary.
But, that couldn't be right, she is well aware of how much Midoriyas' cried and knew that the legacy had continued to Izuku.
"Baby?" She said softly through her tears that had started to fall without her permission. "Are you okay? Like really okay, honey?" She asked tentatively, as if he would shatter it she spoke any louder.
Izuku sniffles into her neck, before checking out, "Yeah, mom, I'm fine. I just had a stressful day at school.
Inko could tell he wasn't telling her the entire truth but didn't push it. She knew if she did, there was a possibility that Izuku would never come to her when he needed help.
Inko would just do her best to be there whenever Izuku needed her. It's all she could do.
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Izuku felt horrible lying to his mother, but he just couldn't bring himself to admit it.
He knew that, logically, she wouldn't react badly, but there was a part of him that just couldn't accept that. It went against all that had been said to him in the last eight years.
He couldn't sleep that night, (even though it was his sleep night as it was the Friday, the only time we're he felt safe sleeping as he didn't have to go to school the next day or the day after that) his mind was simultaneously guiltily him for lying and for causing his mother to worry more because of him not telling her why he broke down.
The thoughts kept getting louder and louder until they were screaming. He couldn't get them to stop, no matter how much he tried, it felt as if they screeched even louder the more he tried to silence them. It soon became unbearable.
"Please," he begged the voices, " stop, I can't-" his breathing picked up, " I can't, please stop, I-" his voice caught in his throat and he was unable to speak anymore.
(*)
He sobbed as his head began pounding and he struggled to get air into his lungs. It felt like he was drowning. He was so caught up in his suffering that he didn't even notice when the voices changed from his own to his classmates', his teachers', Kacchan's, and Inko's.
Tears were streaming down his face, dripping all over himself and his pillow, but he couldn't be bothered with that. He was too focused on trying to keep breathing when suddenly it stopped.
(*)
He felt a light breeze against his skin, followed by feathers.
'Feathers? But I'm not in my-'
He looked over to see his wings brushing against if arm. He wasn't moving them so how were they-
'Hush child, your safe now' that same foreign voice from his thoughts called out. It had more emotion now, it sounded almost concerned.
Izuku couldn't help but relax at the voice. It felt so familiar but familiar in a Deja Vu kind of way.
Izuku felt his eyelids start to droop and soon he was fast asleep.
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Izuku felt that same breeze again. 'But no, that couldn't be right, he was asleep. Wait, how did he know that? He never realized he was asleep before. What had changed, was he hit by a quirk or some-"
An airy chuckle drew him out of his thoughts. He looked around the hazy field for a moment ('when had he gotten there?') before his eyes landed on a figure.
They were glowing white, much like how angles are often depicted as doing. They wore a kimono-like garment that seemed to blend into the ground itself. Their hair was almost white with how blonde it was, he couldn't tell where exactly ended or how long it was, it seemed to flow into nothingness. Their eyes were mostly covered by their hair(?), but golden tracks ran up their cheeks to where their eyes would be.
But most shocking was their wings. They were just like his, just bigger. Though that made sense as the being towered over him. 'Towered over him? Oh, he was now right next to them.'
That same airy chuckle filled his ears, "Welcome, child." The being called out. Their voice seemed to come from everywhere but was strongest from them. Despite that, however, it wasn't loud or imposing, but gentle and kind.
"Who are you?" Izuku asked while looking up at the being. He only noticed now the unnatural amount of calm he felt, it was like his anxiety never existed in the first place.
"Who am I?" They seemed to ask themselves more than him, "I am many things, and I am known by many names, but in short, I am the one responsible for the "quirks" of your world."
Izuku felt a flicker of mellowed shock, but it was gone just as soon as it came. "Why am I here? And where exactly is here?"
"You are in the Ever-Plains, the place where deities meet with mortals." They answered easily, "And you are here because of me. The reason I brought you here-" They went silent.
"The reason why you brought me here?" He pressed as politely as one could.
"I- I'm not entirely sure, child." They seemed perplexed by the simple idea of being unsure. "Though I would expect it has something to do with those." They brought a gentle hand to his wings.
He shivered at the contact, his wings seemed to hum under their touch.
The being drew a gently sharp breath in (how that was possible, Izuku would never know).
They stood stalk still for a moment, before fore saying, "It appears we'll be having a chat with Lady Fate sometime soon..." they trailed off.
"But that time, however, is not now. No. Now it's time for you to rest." They said before pulling him close to them.
They gently wrapped their arms around him and lifted him. He felt a wave of exhaustion hit him and just like that, he was out for the second time
(2395 words)
Hello, loves! This one was a long one. It was actually going to be two chapters, but I decided against that because I didn't want to give you only 900 or so words as a chapter, as I dont like short chapters. It's just one of my personal pet peeves. But that aside, it wasn't my original plan to have Mx. Quirk-Deity in this, but I got to writing and couldn't help myself. So, sorry if you hate that. Don't murder me pls -♡