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Everything started on a normal day. Izuku had just gotten home from another day of getting beaten up and taught things he already knew. He had taken a bag of sunflower seeds out onto his balcony and was munching sadly when he saw a large, black bird.
“Hey bird...friend. How’re you doing?” The bird stared at him and cocked his head. “Cool, not a shapeshifter or something quirk-y, good to know.” The bird hopped a few steps closer, focus trained on his handful of seeds. “Want some? I’ve got enough to share.”
Izuku grabbed some seeds and held out the offering. After a moment of hesitation, the creature began to join him in his munching.
“You seem a lot happier than I am right now.” The crow tilted his head again and Midoriya continued. “I have had a terrible day, which was part of a terrible week, which was part of a terrible year.” Midoriya sighed and the crow cawed softly. “Everyone hates me, which I bet you can understand. People probably don’t like you very much, always trying to steal someone’s food.” Midoriya added as his new friend ate more of the sunflower seeds. The crow just stared at him, as if he was saying ‘try and stop me’. Midoriya laughed and continued to talk.
“Everyone at school is mean to me. They think that, just because I’m quirkless, I’ll never amount to anything and should just die! But I know I’ll get into UA. I won’t let a quirk, or the lack of one, define me.” The green-haired kid looked back over to the bird to see it staring at him. “You just want the seeds don’t you.” At the statement the crow leaped forwards and grabbed a beak full of seeds from Midoriya’s hand.
“Izuku! Can you come inside please? It’s too cold out there for you!” Inko yelled from inside the house, and Midoriya sighed.
“Even my mom thinks I’m fragile.” Midoriya bemoaned to the crow and the bird just tilted its head. “Well, I’ll just leave some of these out for you,” he said while pointing to the sunflower seeds. The crow hopped around a bit and Midoriya smiled. Quickly, the boy grabbed a handful of seeds and placed them down on the balcony. The crow immediately leaped towards the offering and began to scarf them down.
“See you later crow friend.” With that, Midoriya entered the apartment and closed the door behind him.
____
The next day Izuku dragged himself home, his legs feeling like they were on fire, but Bakugou had only given him second degree burns this time. On his way to the burn kit, Midoriya passed the balcony door and noticed that two crows were sitting on the railing outside.
“Huh, you came back.” Midoriya flipped around and hobbled over to the kitchen instead of getting the burn kit. The green-haired kid grabbed the bag of sunflower seeds from where he put it last time and made his way back over to the balcony.
“Hey guys,” he said as he opened the door to the balcony, “I’m glad to see you came back. I didn’t really expect it, but I guess this means only humans don’t want to be my friends.” The crows squawked in reply and one of them moved towards the bag of seeds.
“Alright alright, you just want me for the sunflower seeds. I see how it is.” The smile in his voice betrayed his true feelings on the situation though and Midoriya happily opened the bag, took out a handful of sunflower seeds and tossed them towards the black birds. One of them chirped in thanks and both began to gobble down the treats.
“Y’know, I think you guys might be my first friends. Though some might not really consider this to be a friendship seeing as you’re birds, we can’t communicate, and also you’re using me but I’ll take what I can get.” Midoriya laughed and both crows stopped what they were doing to stare at him. Once they were certain that no one was in immediate danger the avians began to eat again.
After a few more handfuls, but not too many because Midoriya did want to save some for himself, Izuku decided that it was time for him to go. “Sorry guys, but I have to go now. My mom’s going to be home soon and I have to treat my burns.” Both crows noticed that the bag was being closed and looked at the middle schooler in confusion. “Yeah, Bakugou’s an ass but it isn’t like I can really do anything about it.” The birds' look of confusion didn’t change and Midoriya chose to believe that was because of his story and not the disappearance of their food. “Have I not told you about him? Bakugou Katsuki, the bane of my existence and bully of ten years. He’s the one that gave me these burns.” Izuku patted his leg and immediately regretted it. “Anyway, if you ever see him please bite his hand or something.”
With that, Midoriya got up from the ground and re-entered his house with the bag of seeds, much to the disappointment of the black birds outside.
_____
“Five of you! Wow, I’m getting pretty popular.” Midoriya joked from his spot on the ground. All five crows were perched on the railing above him and it honestly kind of looked like he was being out on trial, with the crows as the judges. It was… vaguely intimidating. “Well almighty crow council, it is possible to bribe you with sunflower seeds so you don’t plan my death? Actually, how many sunflower seeds would it take to make you plan Bakugou’s death instead.” The crows just stared at him. “Nevermind, that’s not very heroic is it. Even if I can’t be a hero, I should act as heroic as possible, which means I should stop withholding you sunflower seeds! Here ya guys go!” Midoriya grabbed a handful of seeds and threw them onto the ground as is normal.
In an instant all five birds hopped onto the ground and began to devour the sunflower seeds. Two of them even chirped in appreciation and it brought a smile to Midoriya’s face.
“Well, even if I can’t be a hero the normal way, I can at least do this for you. It-it’s nice to do something positive, even if it’s just feeding random birds. This is probably the closest thing to being a hero I’ll ever accomplish, which, y’know, sucks, but oh well.” The crows don’t even look up at his statement, too focused on eating more seeds than the competitors.
“Aha! If I can’t be a hero then I should lead a crow therapy company! Talking to you guys has been really nice and if it works for me then it should work for other people! Well, other than the fact that you’re crows and you can’t talk back or give advice. So, it would mostly be a ranting to crows company which probably wouldn’t get as much love, but who knows. I could become a millionaire.”
SQUAWK! A crow screeched at Midoriya and the boy broke out of his thoughts.
“Geez, have you run out of food already. You guys are going to bleed me dry with how much you eat. Welp, it’s a small price to pay for friendship.” Izuku commented as he threw out another handful.
“Izuku! I thought we discussed that you can’t stay outside too long! It’s too cold for you!” Inko called from inside the apartment.
“It’s forty degrees.” Midoriya snarled under his breath, but he began to pack up the bag of seeds anyway. “See you guys tomorrow,” he called while opening the door. One of the crows squawked in reply and Izuku left them to finish the remaining seeds he left out there.
____
“Izuku?! Why is there an army of crows on our balcony?” Inko screeched from deeper inside the apartment.
...what?! Midoriya raced out of his room, ignoring the not finished homework he was leaving on his desk, and into the room leading to the balcony. Sure enough, more than a dozen crows were perched somewhere near his balcony.
“Izuku what have you been doing?! I was fine with you feeding a few crows, but this is too many! Do something to get rid of them!” Inko demanded and Midoriya nodded. Slowly, he opened the door to the balcony and stepped outside.
“Hey guys, I..I can’t feed all of you. I’m sorry. So, uh, please go somewhere else. Sorry.” Quickly, the boy rushed back inside, closed the door, and shut the curtains.
____
“I thought we talked about getting rid of the crows!” Inko burst into Midoriya’s bedroom.
“Uh, we did. I didn’t feed them and told them to go away. There wasn’t much else I could do.” Izuku responded.
“Well they’re still here so try something else!” His mother seemed almost frantic so Midoriya left his room and made his way to the balcony.
“We talked about this guys. No more sunflower seeds. My mom will get mad and I don’t want any of you to be hurt, so please leave.” Midoriya begged the multitude of crows and none of them seemed moved by his words. Instead, one crow jumped up towards his feet and dropped a pencil.
“Wh-why did you just give me a pencil. I don’t need a pencil, well, that’s not to say I don’t appreciate it, I also somehow lose them, but I didn’t ask for one.” The crow seemed unamused by Midoriya’s word vomit and instead cocked its head and looked like it was waiting for something.
“Oh, OH! You’re trying to give me that so I feed you!” The crow just stared deeper into the boy with its beady eyes. “Sure, why not. This is a working economy, currency in exchange for goods and services and all that.”
Midoriya whipped around and got the sunflower seeds from where his mom tried to hide it. He then reemerged into the outside world and tossed a small handful of seeds to the bird. “There you go, congratulations. Now I have to go so my mom doesn’t kill me. Bye!”
____
“Okay, so we have a deal. You pay me with random items, I give you seeds.” Midoriya declared to the smaller group of birds, each carrying something. As he spoke another bird flew to join the group, carrying a kitchen knife. Midoriya felt vaguely threatened for the entire rest of the evening.
____
“What do you think you’re doing shitty Deku!?” Bakugou snarled. Midoriya tried to hide the screen of his phone from sight, but it was too late. “Watching hero battles huh? You still think you can be a hero?! Don’t you remember, you’re a useless, quirkless, Deku.” Midoriya frantically backed away from the taller boy while also looking for escape routes.
“N-no Kacchan, t-that wa-wasn’t why I w-was watching tha-that. I-i’m just int-interested is all.” Midoriya stuttered and the snarl grew on his bully’s face.
“Like I’d believe that you shit nerd!” Bakugou growled. Faster than Midoriya could react Bakugou’s hand lit up with an explosion and he was swinging it towards the smaller boy. However, right before it could hit something rammed into the blonde’s side. “Ow, what the fuck!”
Katsuki spun around and behind him was a wall of crows. “Crows. Why are there fucking crows here!?” Midoriya’s eyes widened in realization and he started to sprint away from his bully.
“Where do you think you’re going shitty Deku?!” Bakugou moved to follow him, but was startled to a stop by a wave of screeching black blocking his way. “Why the fuck are some dumbass crows protecting you?!” Bakugou screamed and Midoriya took that as a sign to run faster. Soon, he was hidden in the crowd of people on a busy street far far away from Bakugou.
The crows got extra food that night.
~*~
Extra:
“Hey Bakugou, are you afraid of birds by any chance?” Ashido asked and Midoriya looked up from his book in surprise.
“No, why would I be afraid of birds Raccoon Eyes?” Katsuki snarled, but Mina just laughed in response.
“Because you keep looking back at the crow perched by the window!” Midoriya’s eyes widened in surprise and he looped to his left. Sitting on the windowsill next to him was indeed a crow.
“I can’t believe they even followed me here.” Midoriya whispered under his breath, but also made a mental note to bring some sunflower seeds with him to school tomorrow.
“When it flew up you even flinched, kero.” Asui added to Ashido’s statement and Bakugou whipped around to face her.
“I did not! Why would I care about a stupid bird!?” Bakugou screamed and Midoriya felt like it was time to speak up.
“Oh, um, that’s my fault. In an accident last year my crow friends thought that he was attacking me,” Midoriya lied, “and stopped him. I guess Kacchan has been a little wary of them ever since.”
“THAT WAS YOU?!?!” Koda and Tokoyami both screeched in surprise.
“Uh, yes?” Midoriya answered.
“You are the crow god.” Tokoyami replied.
“Uh, no?”
“The crows see you as one of their own.”
“Oh, um, that’s nice.”
“What a mad bouquet of darkness.”
“Thank you?”