Work Text:
It wasn't any special day, no special occasions, nothing. Izuku was on his way to the support course, his costume had taken some damage from the day's training -- three guesses whodunit, it starts with a B and ends in akugo. Tomorrow was supposed to be an even harder training, supposedly involving class 1-B, so Izuku wanted his costume fixed as soon as possible.
He wasn't the only one going to support to get something fixed, Uraraka and Iida were there as well. Uraraka finally wanted to get rid of the heels and Iida was having some trouble with his helmet, something about the padding was off.
As they were walking to the support classroom, they heard odd sounds coming from within. Odd as in sounds they weren't used to hearing coming from the support course, like Powerloader laughing.
"Now that's a sound you don't hear a lot from him!" Uraraka said, looking confused. "I wonder what that's about!"
Just as she finished her sentence, the door opened with a crash, smoke coming out from it and Hatsume right with it, grinning madly at them.
"Hey, Hatsume! We wanted to fix things with our costumes?" Izuku said with an awkward smile, bracing himself. He liked Hatsume well enough, but she was always incredibly energetic and that could be overwhelming if one wasn't prepared for it.
Hatsume grinned even wider. "Coming right up! You don't happen to be interested in any upgrades, do you? Cause I have some amazing new babies just for you that I think you'd love!"
"Oh! Uh, I'll look at them later, if that's OK? I just wanted to get my costume fixed today."
Hatsume pouted a bit but then shrugged her shoulders. "Anyway, come on in, you can show me what's wrong! You two as well!!"
She practically dragged Izuku in by the arm towards her workstation. There were people at the front of the classroom that Izuku didn't recognise, a middle-aged looking man and a girl around his age, maybe a year younger, and, when he looked, both Iida and Uraraka didn't seem to recognise them either. So he decided to ask.
"Hey, Hatsume, who are those people?" He subtly nodded towards the strangers. Hatsume shrugged.
"That guy is apparently an old friend of Powerloader-sensei's and I think that's the guy's daughter. She's interested in support but it was weird."
"Weird? How do you mean?" Uraraka asked.
"I told her I'll look forward to having her in the support course next year, but she just looked all sad and said it wasn't likely to happen. I asked why, if she's any good she'd make it in no problem! But she said it's not about skill. Not with her. I didn't get it, but that's when I heard you guys coming so I didn't ask further." Hatsume shrugged, though she was clearly unhappy with what she explained.
Izuku wondered briefly about what the girl could have meant, and he turned to look at her, only to find her staring at him in disbelief. Her gaze flicking up and down from his face to his-
To his shoes?
...
Oh...
To his shoes.
His gaze flicked down to hers and- yes, that's what he feared. She was wearing the same kind of shoes he was. Red shoes. Quirkless people's shoes.
She was quirkless.
A few moments later, she stormed towards him, eyes wide and frantic.
"What course are you in?" She asked, sounding almost hysterical.
"Heroics."
"But you're-" like me, went unsaid, but not unheard.
"Not anymore." He looked apologetic. "I'm sorry." And he meant it.
"But how?" She looked so lost and it hurt Izuku to the core. "Do you have...?" Her gaze briefly, but pointedly flicked down, at his shoes.
"I do! And I was. Yes, I was. But..."
"But how did you-"
"Gifted. It was given to me," He hurried to explain. If anyone could understand, it was someone who was like he had been.
She paused. There was hope in her eyes. "That's possible?"
"There was only one. I'm sorry."
The hope vanishes from her eyes. "Oh. Oh..." her gaze hits the floor. "Well... I mean... I'm happy for you." And he could tell she meant it. "I'm sorry, but... I just don't have any hope of getting where you are... I mean, I don't want to be a hero, but..."
"You wanna get into support, right? You know they changed the rules two years ago?"
She scoffed. "You and I both know schools only do that to seem inclusive. There's no way they'd take me."
"UA is so much different from other schools," He reassured patiently.
She quirked a brow. "Would they have taken you without..."
Izuku's eyes widened a fraction before he looked to the side, contemplative. Would UA have taken him when he was still quirkless? He knew that he wouldn't have made it past the physical portion of the entrance exam without a quirk, but...
"Gen Ed. They would have put me there." He nodded. "I could- We could talk to Nedzu if you want?"
She looked surprised. "He knows?"
Izuku nodded. "Him and a few others."
She looked like she thought it over, the thought not seeming pleasant at all, but after a half minute of consideration, she nodded.
"Okay. We can do that. I- uh-" Suddenly realising that everyone is staring at her and Izuku in bewilderment, she blushed and scratched the back of her head. "I heard you needed your costume fixed, so I'll let you get to it... we'll stick around for a while, so once you're done, we could go?"
Izuku nodded with a reassuring smile, which seemed to calm her down. She smiled back and went back to her father, deflecting and ignoring his confused comments and questions. There was both hope and determination in her eyes.
Izuku turned back to his friends, startling backwards at how they were staring at him. They looked absolutely bewildered and confused. Uraraka spoke up first.
"What was that about?" She asked.
"You two barely spoke in full sentences, and yet you seemed to understand each other's implied meanings perfectly!" Iida looked almost disturbed.
"Didn't you say you didn't know her?" Hatsume asked, cocking her head to one side.
Izuku blushed in embarrassment. They had probably looked like mad people the way they had talked. But that was just the thing. They had perfectly understood each other, in more ways than one.
His friends, though he cared for them deeply, would never understand this about him. He wanted to explain to them so desperately, but he knew it would be for naught. So he waved it off, not that they looked anywhere near convinced, but they did drop the subject.
It saddened him, sometimes, that he could never make them understand this about him.
Izuku would forever, deep down, remain a quirkless person. There had just been too many experiences for him not to have taken them and build with them his core personality, his self. Being quirkless was a part of him, always, even if it was no longer the case, technically. He still wore those shoes, he still had the extra toe joint.
Biologically speaking, he was still quirkless. And that's just forever going to be like that. He knew what it was like to be in her type of shoes, literally, and she knew what it was like in his. She, and any other quirkless person, could and would immediately understand this about him.
She knew now that his quirk wasn't his. He barely had to tell her, because she knew he was quirkless, biologically, and coming to the conclusion that his quirk wasn't his own was barely a few steps away. The quirkless community would always know this about him. They would know, the moment they saw his shoes. And they would understand.
They would understand. They would be jealous, but they would also be happy for him, because one of their own has managed to get a quirk, to get what was, essentially, a ticket out of quirkless discrimination. And they would be happy he didn't have to suffer it anymore. And they would know they would be able to count on him to be their voice, to be kind to them.
Because, while quirkless people weren't treated well, they would make damn well sure they treated each other well.