Bakugo knew he was a dick.
A jackass. A jerk. A dumbass. Whatever the hell people called him. It was all true.
It wasn't that big of a deal for him until he had a realization when the villains kidnap him. They saw more potential for him as a villain than normal people seeing him as a hero. He was thankful that Eraserhead had stood up for him to be a hero, but it felt like nobody really thought him to be an actual hero.
They just see a great quirk that can be used, and not him as an actual person. Even when he was young, he got excused for whatever he did just because his quirk was perfect for heroics.
He started to get help with therapy after the kidnapping ordeal made him have bad night terrors. Night after night, he had horrible nightmares taunting him while he slept. Nightmares where he was still trapped with the villains that were going to turn him into a Nomu since he didn't want to become one of them willingly. Nightmares where he was on the podium in the sports festival where it would switch to the villains having them in their grasp. It got even worse when he started to have bad dreams about his own classmates turning on him and calling him a villain when all he could do was sit back and watch them disappear. With his first therapy session, he got instructed to go to anger management classes to try to help him.
In the beginning, he thought he was the best of the best, better than anyone in his whole life until he got to UA. And found out something important. He wasn't special. He wasn't the better than anyone when he showed up.
He wasn't someone important there, he was just another trainee. People had better quirks, better personalities, and more potential. He was just an angry bomb that didn't want to make any friends.
He was silently thankful that Kirishima made the first move to befriending him. And with Kirishima, the rest of the named 'Bakusquad' formed. And he was thankful. The rest of his class grew to tolerate him and at least talk to him like a normal person.
But no matter how much he made headway into getting better with his feelings. Guilt from the past always made their way into his eyes.
Midoriya Izuku
Deku
The first friend he ever made and the only friend he ever regretted losing.
He made his life hell! And what for?
When he was younger, he saw Izuku reaching out to him to help him up was him calling Bakugo weak. So he just wanted to make Izuku feel weak next to him. He wanted to make Izuku fit into a place that was away from him and his future life as a hero. Izuku made it difficult since he always saw past all the shit he put him through. He tried each and every day to push him away only for Izuku to come running back to him. It didn't matter if he traveled another kid, Izuku would be there to stand between them to try and coerce Bakugo to stop it. It went on for several years. He never really felt truly bad or upset at what he was doing since he convinced himself that he was actually helping Izuku because he was going to get killed as a pro hero.
Until that one day. That one day that he told Izuku to jump off the roof and wish for a quirk in the next life.
He wished he could take it back ever since the words left his mouth. After that day, Izuku grew more disinterested in everything they did in class. He referred to him as Bakugo and not Kacchan. That made him feel something, but he hid it back behind a grimace. Somehow he saw Izuku at the entrance exam for UA and felt betrayed and confused about why he was there. He felt anger at seeing him in the top scores with rescue points. But utter confusion when he didn't see him in the same class. Maybe he was in a different hero class?
He asked Mr. Aizawa about it since he scored high enough in the written and got enough points. That alone shocked him. What made Izuku give up trying to go to UA? Until he heard from his homeroom teacher that he was accepted into the General Education class, but refused the offer.
"They didn't accept him into the hero class?" Bakugo asked in confusion to his new homeroom teacher. It was after they all had their quirk assessments done. "Why not? He had enough points to get in."
"From what I saw he was reckless, but he had the potential to be something great if he trained properly. But most teachers saw it as dangerous to include him into hero type work. I was actually one of the only ones to stick up for the kid. The principal offered him a spot on the General Education course. So I thought that the kid could transfer in, but the kid declined the offer," Eraserhead said in a bored tone with a slight irritation in his voice when he recounted that not, any pro heroes stood up for the teen.
UA didn't accept Izuku because he was quirkless? Were they kidding?! Didn't Izuku actually say that they were accepting quirkless students? So what? Does even that rule have a limitation?
When he heard that, he had two lines of thoughts going across his mind.
'Hah, at least I don't have to deal with him or have him get in my way,' He thought first which was followed by another stream of thoughts.
'Izuku would be a great hero! He proved himself in the exam! How the hell couldn't they see the image of a true hero he was trying to become? Why couldn't they see that Izuku was the hero he couldn't be?! Didn't they see that Izuku had more potential to be a hero without a quirk than he did? WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY THINKING?!'
But ever since the discovery of Izuku not following his dreams became known to him. And he never got to apologize for what he said.
The guilt grew heavy in his stomach and the disbelief formed many insecurities in his mind. Nightmares of Izuku becoming a villain out of the hatred. Nights filled with memories of him and Izuku playing as children, only to end on a vision of Izuku committing suicide. Nightmares of him being the one to push him off the roof while Izuku smiled while he fell towards the ground.
It got a little better with time from the help of therapy and the Bakusquad following him around. He tried to open himself up more to his peers. He spent time with friends who saw him as equal and not superior to them. Bakugo trained with many others that he respected, and even gave them pointers on how to fight better. He talked with classmates who just saw his personality and not his quirk which was much different than the followers he had in the past.
It grew better, but the guilt kept eating him inside. It wasn't until his last therapy session when he learned how to try and fix things.
He knew Izuku could be a hero. And that should be proven to everyone who didn't see him as he did. He knows Izuku can be great. Deku is not his name, not anymore.
He is Izuku. And he will be a hero if Katsuki has anything to say about it.
*
Izuku was stuck staring straight ahead of him with a customer smile etched into his face. He really wished that being a barista didn't have to come with can-I-speak-to-your-manager Karen every single day. Same soccer mom haircut, but different lady each time. Complaining from coupons and gift cards to how he had a visible nose piercing. Fuck you, Karen, I will keep my nose ring thank you very much.
But he did like the creativity of trying to come up with new drinks. His boss allowed him and the other workers to try to make their own custom drink to add to the menu. Last month, Jen made a mint white chocolate latte that stole the boss lady's heart from a single taste. It sold very fast too! So he tried to come up with unique tastes to try to balance out the very sweet menu items they had.
Right now he was experimenting with dark chocolate flavor Italian roast topped with strawberry slices and crushed almonds. He was working on it a lot since each test was just a bit too bitter, but it was coming along great.
The day was very slow since the morning rush was an hour ago. He stood at his place at the cash and thinking about any other combinations he could make with fruits when a stranger in a dark blue shirt walked in with a black cloth face mask obscuring their bottom features. He was wearing a beanie that hid his hair, but Izuku could spot a few white strands escaping.
"Can I have coffee?" The stranger asked while his eyes surveyed the bright menu above his head.
Midoriya looked up, "Sure, sir. What do you want?"
The stranger calmly said, "Oh, don't call me sir and I don't really like sweet things. Can you give me something less sweet?
"Most of our menu is sweet," Izuku replied before he remembered his own experiment, "But I'm working on a new bittersweet drink. Do you want to try?"
The stranger nodded after a moment, "Sure."
Izuku whipped up the coffee with the right amount of measurements and finished it off with a little bop of whipped cream. "Here you go."
"Thanks," The man said before taking a sip. "This is very good. Thank you. Did you say you made it?"
"Yes, I did make it. Just a new recipe I have been working on. I'm still testing it the kinks of it" He replied to the man.
"I think it's delicious. You should make more," The man stated honestly while his eyes darted to Izuku's name tag. "...Midoriya-Kun."
After the man paid and since it was still slow in the shop, Izuku continued to talk to the man for about twenty minutes. He didn't see the color of his eyes because of the tinted glasses he wore, but his words were sincere while engaged in conversation. He even got him to laugh while talking about one crazy professor he had back in college. He didn't know exactly what led him to talk about pro heroes with the man, but the stranger brought up Shouto.
The man asked before sipping the last bit of his coffee, "What do you think of him?"
"Oh! I think he is really cool, but it looks like he is struggling when dealing with quirk overuse with his right side." Izuku stated, fixing up the napkin dispenser near the register.
"What do you mean?" The man questioned.
"I know he uses his fire side when dealing with emergencies, but he doesn't use it to its full potential. I mean, he uses it to thaw out the ice he makes, but he doesn't use it on himself that much to prolong his work as a pro hero. It's more like he only uses it to thaw himself out if he absolutely has to instead of using it regularly to stop himself from freezing up. If he just used both of them more regularly, he could really do more amazing things." Izuku answered.
"How could he? That's his father's quirk. He mentioned it before and from the many news outlets, he shows disdain for his father. So why would he use his quirk if he doesn't like his father," The stranger asked in confusion with a slightly bitter tone to his voice
Izuku laughed shortly and replied, "I know. Who wouldn't hate Endeavor? He is a burning trash bag dick." The man let out a snort at that. "But his dad shouldn't stop him from using his fire side."
"Why not? It's the old man's quirk after all," The man responded begrudgingly.
"What? No, it isn't! Shouto's quirk is his own power. His fire is his own to use, not anyone else's. It's his quirk, not his father's. His quirk isn't Hellflame, his quirk is Half Cold Half Hot." Izuku explained in confidence. "Do you get what I mean?"
The man grew silent. Izuku turned around to clean a napkin off the nearby table before he heard the man curse. He turned back around to see the man patting down his left arm. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I'm better now. Thanks to you," the stranger responded with an oddly serene tone. Izuku shrugged it off while the man stood from his chair.
"I guess I better get going to work. I have an afternoon shift to get ready for. I'll see you later, Midoriya," The man walked off.
"Wait. Hold up. I didn't get your name," Izuku stated to the retreating back of the stranger.
"You will find out soon enough," They answered before closing the door to the cafe.
Leaving Izuku to question whatever just happened.
Down the street, the man pulled off the glasses to reveal heterochromatic eyes. Their scar on the left side only half shown since the face mask obscured the bottom half.
He will have to come to visit for another coffee when he has the time.
*
Izuku was tired of his cashier job.
He groaned before crashing face-first in his bed, his face being cushioned by a fluffy dragon plushie his mom had sewn for him when he went off for college. Thankfully, he hadn't seen Bakugo that day, but he had a feeling that he won't leave him alone anytime soon.
His phone buzzed when he just started to get comfortable. He sighed before picking it up to see who had messaged him at 10:00 at night.
Unknown Number: Hey Izuku.
What? Who the hell—?
Unknown Number: Be a hero. Do it.
That little bitch. How the hell did he get my number?
...
Wait, isn't it past his set curfew?