Chapter Text
Izuku is born mute.
He remembers that much. He remembers struggling to communicate with the other kids because he couldn’t speak and none of them knew sign language. Remembers being mocked because he couldn’t talk and going home in tears as he soundlessly voices his frustrated sadness because he just wants to be normal as his mother hums and pets his curls.
His quirk doesn’t come in at four like everyone else and for a while there, they think he’s quirkless which just adds a whole different pattern to his torments as the other kids find new ways to make fun of him: worthless, defective, quirkless…Deku.
He’s six the first time he speaks only…it’s not his voice that comes out. His mother had been talking on the phone and Izuku had wanted a cookie but she wasn’t paying attention and can’t see him signing at her and it just…comes out…his mother’s voice comes out of his throat.
Needless to say, they’re both shocked, his mother hanging up quickly to look at him. After a few more tries, it happens again and Izuku bursts into tears because he’s talking but it’s not even his voice. He stole his mother’s voice.
They go to a quirk specialist the next day and after many extensive tests and Izuku nervously demonstrating his new ability, even stealing the doctor’s voice, they soon quickly narrow down what his quirk is. A quirk councilor confirms it after a few more sessions and they soon have a name for his quirk: Voice Box.
Izuku doesn’t have a voice. The doctors confirmed it already after many tests. His vocal cords never developed right when he was still in his mother and so he can’t actually physically speak. Instead, his quirk allows him to copy other people’s voices he’s heard and reuse them as his own voice. He can even copy sounds, which is pretty cool. The doctors patiently explain that he doesn’t steal people’s voices. They can still talk with their voice, even after he copies it.
Of course, his classmates don’t see it that way. Voice Thief and Voice Stealer becomes the new chants they throw at him after his new quirk is announced to his class, Izuku using a voice he heard on TV to speak quietly. It usually goes three ways when it comes to others and his quirk: they either refuse to speak to him thinking he can steal their voices, they try to get him to mimic sounds like he’s some parrot on display for their amusement, or they lash out at him for stealing their voice even though that’s not how his quirk works at all.
Izuku soon learns over the years it’s better to remain silent than to engage with any of them, refusing to speak unless he absolutely has to and getting away with signing when he can. He does play around with his quirk at home though when his mother’s away at work.
He quickly learns that he can copy any sound. If it makes a sound, he can recreate it. He remembers every sound, too. He can recall exactly the way a jar of pickles pops open when its seal is broken like he’s just heard it, or the way Kacchan’s explosions pop like pop rocks in your mouth when he’s uses his quirk, though they’ve gotten louder here recently. He can also throw his voice, making a sound appear to be coming from somewhere else without opening his mouth which means he technically doesn’t even need to move his mouth to speak but that makes people even more uncomfortable so he still does it.
It takes a bit of practice, but he soon learns to make new sounds he’s never heard. Mixing voices and sounds in interesting ways and he eventually finds a mix of voices he likes and wants to use as ‘his’ voice, what he’d wanted his voice to sound like when he was younger before his quirk came in.
By the time elementary ends, Izuku has a good grasp on his quirk and no friends, but that’s okay. His first day of middle school dawns as he expects with Kacchan being the center of attention and everyone avoiding talking to him as the others warn those who don’t know about his quirk.
Four days later, a late arrival is introduced to class. Izuku perks up a bit because new people are interesting with new voices to study. The young teen that comes into class has a head full of messy purple hair, stony purple eyes and the shadow of bruises across his face.
Yodoru-sensei introduces him as Shinso Hitoshi who had suddenly changed schools right at the start of the semester and it’s why he was starting so late. Yodoru-sensei makes him reveal his quirk, despite the obvious discomfort at doing so and the class grows quiet with a few mutterings as he tells them: Brainwashing.
Nervous eyes watch Shinso as he walks to his seat, the boy ignoring them with shoulders hunched. Izuku sends him a little wave but if he sees it, he doesn’t react and then the class is forced to look ahead as Yodoru-sensei starts the announcements.
Lunch comes around and Izuku looks around for Shinso but doesn’t see him at first until he spots a head of purple hair heading down the hall away from the cafeteria. Taking his tray, Izuku silently follows, no one looking his way and it takes a few minutes to find Shinso sitting outside near the wall under a tree.
Izuku shuffles his feet as he gets closer and Shinso looks up with a glare at Izuku, as if waiting for Izuku to make fun of him or something. “H-Hi, Shinso-san…um can I join you?” Izuku asks nervously.
Shinso stares at him for a long moment before huffing and looking away with a shrug, “Not like I can stop you,” he grumbles and oh, he has a really nice voice, low and soothing, with a bit of a hum to it that makes Izuku want to see if he can recreate it.
Izuku sits with space between them and notices Shinso doesn’t have any food. “D-Do you want to share?” Izuku offers.
“No thank you,” Shinso huffs, pulling an apple out of his pocket and taking a bite and Izuku nods, taking a bite of his own food.
They don’t see one of their classmates come up until she’s standing over them with a derisive smirk on her face. “Oh look, the Voice Stealer’s made a friend. Guess even future villains want friends,” she mocks with a laugh before walking off and Izuku can feel his hands tremble as he stares down at his food, the bite he just took feeling like a lump of lead in his stomach.
Shinso, when Izuku peeks up at him, is staring at him with a contemplative look on his face. “Why did she call you that…Voice Stealer?” he asks curiously but Izuku doesn’t hear any trace of fear in his voice.
Izuku sighs, setting his chopsticks aside on his tray that’s on his lap. “Because of my quirk,” Izuku admits softly. “I can copy voices,” Izuku explains, using the girl’s voice that just left them.
Shinso blinks in surprise. “That’s pretty cool,” he admits. “Why do they call you Voice Stealer though?” he asks.
Izuku fidgets with his fingers. “Because technically I was born without a voice, I’m mute. My vocal cords didn’t develop right and before my quirk came in, I was mute. I can only talk using my quirk and only using other people’s voices,” Izuku admits quietly.
“Oh,” Shinso says softly and Izuku waits for him to get up and walk away. Finally, he speaks up, “Can you do mine?” he asks.
Izuku jerks his head up in surprise and sees him grinning. “I can do yours,” Izuku says with Shinso’s voice and frowns because that hum he heard in Shinso’s voice isn’t there. “Is your quirk voice based?” Izuku asks in his regular voice.
Shinso flinches a bit and then nods. “If you respond to a question, I can brainwash you,” he admits softly.
“That’s pretty cool too,” Izuku says with a grin. “I think I can hear it in your voice,” he admits softly, “like this little hum just in hearing range,” Izuku explains excitedly and Shinso blinks in surprise.
“You’re not afraid of me brainwashing you?” he asks in shock.
“You’re not afraid of me ‘stealing’ your voice, why should I be afraid of you brainwashing me?” Izuku asks and cocks his head to the side. “I happen to think it’s an awesome quirk.”
Shinso looks down with a slight flush on his cheeks but Izuku can see a bit of a smile. “Thanks, yours is awesome too,” he mutters. “My foster dad would just love your quirk. He’s got a voice based quirk too,” he adds.
“Really, that’s cool,” Izuku says excitedly and they soon get lost in conversation, only interrupted by the bell ringing for the end of lunch. That afternoon, Izuku goes home with a smile on his face and a brand new friend’s number in his phone.