Need You (ShinDeku)

Ch. 64 - Fair

A/N: I'm really not a fan of this chapter. It doesn't feel quite right to me, but I'm not about to completely rewrite this thing and I don't think I'll be satisfied otherwise, so I guess I'll just have to deal with it. Oh well, woe is me.
Have fun reading!

Izuku POV

"U-Uraraka! Are you alright?" I flailed my arms around nervously, finding myself visually checking her for any injuries. It's been about a week since the incident where she was attacked and I was taken and I was already reassured that she was alright, but I found myself worrying for the sweet friend who tried to give me her entrance exam points before she knew me, who cared enough to cry in relief when I came back to school in one piece the first time. She was really my first friend since Kacchan, and I couldn't bear the thought of her getting hurt because of me.

"What do you mean?" She gave me a worried look. "Did someone say I was injured or something?" I noticed she took note of my search for wounds.

"W-well because Toga- she, you got hurt because she was trying to get to me. They said you were okay but- I heard she knocked you out and, and you could have gotten a concussion or something and those can be really serious and-"

"Oh Deku," her voice was quiet, and her eyes welled up with tears. "I'm fine. It's you who we're all worried about! If anything, I should be apologizing for letting that little bi-"

"Uraraka!" Iida scolded.

"-villain beat me. She- she caught me completely off guard, looking like some random second year in the business course that wanted to beat me up for no reason. Next time I won't let villains use me to hurt my friends." She stood there for a moment, seemingly holding her breath, before the damn broke.

She cried loudly, walking up and bringing me into a hug. She wrapped her arms loosely around my head, pulling it to lean against her chest as she cried. I wrapped my own arms around her waist, hugging her back. This is the real Uraraka. No villain could fake her this well.

"I'm so mad that I let that happen, it was so stupid, there was barely even a fight before I got knocked out, and I couldn't protect you." I could tell hot angry tears ran down her face when they landed in my hair, and her whole body was tense for a while as she spoke. I felt as the anger faded to sadness when she relaxed her hold, letting out a sob.

"We're so sorry, we're all sorry that we let this happen again!" The rest of the class seems to join in in a chorus of upset 'yeah's and apologies.

My heart squeezed, thinking about whether they would take all of this back a few minutes from now when I told them I could no longer use my quirk.

"P-please don't cry, Uraraka. I'm just happy that all of you are safe." She pulled away and I flashed the class a blindingly genuine smile. There was a beat of silence.

"Aww man, Midobro, we missed you so much!" A teary-eyed Kirishima spoke up.

"We're so happy you're back!"

"We missed seeing that smile!"

"It's so good to have you back, man!"

Could these people really turn against me because of the hand I was dealt in life? Could such bright, caring teens turn to me with eyes filled with disgust?

I know one of them could. Spiky blond hair and angry red eyes came to mind.

"So Midoriya, kero. We know it's not much, but we wanted to welcome you back to class, so we got doughnuts, kero." I jumped as the sound of Tsu's voice directed me out of my thoughts, breath catching in my throat for a second. If that had been Uraraka's voice I would have freaked just then, remembering all the times I was in a barely conscious state when she—fake Uraraka—suddenly seemed to appear in that room out of nowhere.