Dinner at Katsuki's was an interesting affair. Izuku had wanted to leave almost the entire time but had stuck it out until the meal was over and Shoto was the one to suggest they head back to their apartment. He couldn't help but be a little proud that he hadn't bailed early.

"Why are you... bouncing?" Shoto asked the next morning in between sips of his coffee.

Izuku had entered their kitchen nearly skipping from excitement. Being still wasn't even a thought that occurred to him as he poured coffee into his own mug while shifting on his feet. "First day of classes, it's kind of a big deal, Sho."

"It's school."

"You need to romanticize your life more," Izuku said with a pointed look as he brought his mug to his lips. Seconds later it was held a foot away from him as he sucked on his now burnt lip.

"I'll get right on that," Shoto said with a barely-there smile. Izuku would have missed it if he hadn't grown up with him. "As soon as you learn patience."

Izuku hummed as he cautiously took another small sip. "Patience only succeeds in making you happily waste your life, I'll pass."

"And mom says I'm the cynical one," Shoto mumbled before pushing himself away from the counter and heading toward the fridge. "What classes do you have today?" he asked while pulling out a carton of eggs. Might as well make breakfast if they were both up already.

"Just my multimedia one," Izuku said with a shrug. "Nothing fancy."

Shoto nodded along while pulling out a pan and setting up his station. "When does that start?"

"Nine."

"Iz... it's eight fifty."

"I know," Izuku said with a huff. "It's a five-minute walk to campus and I'm about to leave."

Why am I making breakfast then? Shoto wondered as he looked at the frying pan in his hand before putting it away. If it was just going to be him, he'd eat cereal or something. There was no reason to go through all the effort of cooking.

"And you know exactly what room the class is held in and how to get there?" he asked over his shoulder.

"Oh.... um, not really?"

Shoto released a long drawn-out sigh at his words. Izuku was an overthinker to a fault, except for when he managed to miss a very important key detail, which happened more often than not. "What's the room number?"

"Uh...." Izuku trailed off as he started digging through his bag for his schedule. He wasn't sure why he hadn't thought to find his classrooms ahead of time, but now he just felt like an idiot. Of course, the rooms wouldn't be as easy to find on the large college campus as they had been at all the small high schools he'd attended.

He freed his schedule from the stacks of papers and supplies in his bag with a small gasp. "It is... two forty-six."

"Front doors, take a left to the end of the hall and then it's the first door on the right," Shoto spouted off almost instantly.

Izuku blinked between his schedule and his brother. "I am so jealous of that photographic memory shit," he grumbled.

Shoto laughed into his mug, a soft and soothing sound. "You would have taken over the world already if you had it."

"Exactly!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Izuku found his classroom with two minutes to spare. The teacher was already seated at their desk in the front of the room, but hadn't started their lecture for the day yet. He let out a relieved sigh while glancing around the room for an open seat.

While searching, he spotted a familiar face. Shinsou was apparently in the same class as him, seated in the back row and slouched in his chair as if he were ready to go back to sleep. Izuku silently wondered if he'd slept at all.

He ignored his brother's friend and instead opted for an empty spot in the middle row. He reasoned that it wouldn't make him look too eager while also not making him out to be a slacker. It was quite literally the middle ground.

Unfortunately for him, the class drug on for an hour. He should have expected it really, the first day of a new class was always the most boring. There were rules and a syllabus to go over, and then the teacher would sit and talk about how challenging the coming year would be and blah blah blah. Izuku stopped listening after the first ten minutes.

When the class finally came to a close, Izuku lingered behind while looking over the coursework. He couldn't bring himself to listen to the teacher drone on about it, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to be prepared. All and all, he thought it looked vaguely easy.

He started for the door, his nose still buried in the syllabus when he bumped into another student.

"Oh shit, sorry," Izuku mumbled, finally looking up.

He was met with the sight of Shinsou looking down at him with a raised brow and lidded eyes. He looked seconds away from falling asleep standing up.

"Oh, it's you," Izuku exclaimed, his eyes widening slightly. Not only had he caused a scene at dinner last night (okay so maybe a few scenes), but now he was barreling into him in the halls. Embarrassed didn't even begin to cover it. "Uh, sorry. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

"Don't worry about it," he said with the slightest tilt of his head. "It might be a good idea to not read while you're walking though."

Izuku awkwardly laughed as he shoved the papers in his hand into the pocket of his sweatshirt. "Uh, yeah, you're probably right."

Shinsou shook his head, his lips just barely turned up in a smile. "Good luck."

"Thanks?" Izuku muttered to Shinsou's back as he walked down the hall into the sea of students.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"How was it?" Shoto asked from the couch when Izuku entered their apartment.

He slung his bag onto the counter as he beelined for the open spot next to his brother. "Boring," he complained with a huff.

Shoto nodded, tucking his legs under himself to give Izuku more room. "It was the first day, it'll be like that all week."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Izuku said as he melted into the cushions of their sofa. He was dreading the rest of his classes already. "Oh, your friend Shinsou's in my media class," he added as an afterthought as he remembered running into him.

"I wouldn't count on him for study help," Shoto said with an air of amusement in his voice. "He'll probably end up sleeping through every lecture."

"Wasn't planning on it anyway. No offense, but I don't think I'll mesh with your friends," Izuku explained while scrunching his face at the thought. It wasn't that they were bad people, he actually really liked Ashido and Kaminari was hilarious, but they weren't his crowd.

He'd been a loner nerd for most of his life. He kept his head down and focused on school. Of course, that all went out the window after his mom died. Going off the deep end wasn't an exaggeration when it came to Izuku's last year of high school. He was honestly a little surprised he managed to graduate on time and get accepted to a good college.

Now, he was devoted to getting his life back on track. He'd had his little crisis and it was time to return to the real world. That meant not being buddies with his older brothers' stoner friends.

Okay, maybe being friends with Ashido was fine, but that was as much slack as Izuku would give himself.

Shoto raised a brow at Izuku's statement. "I think you'd mesh too well, actually."

Izuku tilted his head as he looked up at his brother, intent on changing the subject. "Should I be honored that you and Kacchan surrounded yourselves with people you knew I'd like?"

"No," Shoto said while using a hand to push Izuku's head away from him. "We just like the same kind of people."

"You just couldn't stand to let me think your love for me influenced your choice of friends."

"Nope."

Ofc Izuku's a little fuck up who has trauma and does drugs. This is the only version of him I'll write now. I am him and he is me.