Izuku and Katsuki continued to see each other and became good friends, although Katsuki's rude attitude sometimes begged to differ. True to his word, Izuku watched hero media on his tv for the first time in his life with Katsuki when his grounding was over. He did have to mentally prepare to do so before Katsuki arrived at his house, but he pulled through and actually started to enjoy himself and eventually forgot about his fear. The first time Izuku saw a clip of all might, he then and there understood Katsuki's outrage at him not knowing about him. All might truly was like no other; his smile, his laugh, his strength, he was absolutely the coolest. Izuku instantly became a fanboy and started collecting all of the allmight merchandise he could get his little hands on, brightening up his once dreary room. His allmight obsession eventually transformed into an obsession with everything hero related, in a world where he felt afraid of nearly everything, they made him think that he didn't need to be so scared. The two boys continued this ritual throughout their childhood, they'd meet up every so often to watch the newest hero's debuts and freshest allmight clips. At some point, Katsuki realized that while they would watch the television, Izuku would often scribble quickly in a notebook while muttering to himself quietly.

''Hey! Izuku, what the fuck are you doing with that notebook?''

''Huh? Oh, well I've decided something, Kachann.'' Izuku had started calling his friend by this nickname, Katsuki on the other hand had not been able to come up with one to call Izuku he liked enough to stick with.

''Huh, so you finally got the balls to take action on something? Ok, what is it?''

Izuku took a breath in then out and continued: ''I've decided, Kachann, that I want to be a hero! If I'm gonna be a hero, I thought it'd be smart to start analyzing quirks now so it'll be easier for me later on''

Katsuki chuckled

''About time you got around to it! You've got to be the only damn one in our grade that didn't want to be a hero up until now. Well, you better watch yourself because I'M gonna be the next number one hero!''

''oh, uh, well that won't be a problem, I want to be a support hero.''

Katsuki froze in place, his face cartoonishly stricken white in bewilderment. After a moment, he ran up to Izuku, grabbed his collar, and then started shaking him.

''WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN SUPPORT HERO?!''

Izuku, starting to get dizzy, sputtered out: ''W-WELL I'D BE NO GOOD IN A FIGHT SO I THOUGHT THAT I'D BE MORE USEFUL AS A SUPPORT HERO!''

Katsuki let go of Izuku, who landed on his butt, and continued to yell at him

''NO GOOD IN A FIGHT? YOU'RE QUIRK'S MOST USEFUL IN A FIGHT YOU DIPSHIT!''

Izuku scooted away from his friend and spoke in a softer tone while looking away, trying to calm the situation down.

''W-well yeah, but I don't have the confidence to fight as allmight does. I'm not as scared as I used to be since you introduced me to heroes but I haven't got half the courage I need to actually save people. I'd be more useful helping the heroes that do the saving.''

Katsuki sighed in frustration, walked up to Izuku, and held out his hand so he could grab it and get pulled up. After getting him up, Katsuki grabbed Izuku's shoulder and looked directly into the lens of his sunglasses, making the greenette in question shrink back in fear.

''Listen here, Izuku! People like you and me can't squander our quirks being fucking support heroes. Now, what I'm about to tell you, I'll only ever tell you once, if you ever tell anybody I told you what I'm about to say, I'll deny it, got it?!''

Izuku stood still for a short while, processing what his friend had just told him and how he should respond.

''um, ok. I-I mean, yeah I got it.''

Katsuki closed his eyes and took in a deep breath.

''you've got a strong ass quirk, Izuku, so don't you dare let your fear control you, got it?! If you do, I'll never forgive you!''

Izuku was surprised, to say the least, he liked Katsuki and he liked playing with him but even he saw how much of a hothead he could be. He didn't know if he could remember a single time when Kachann had ever actually complimented him. If anything, he had only ever complimented himself, always boasting about how strong his quirk was and still is and how he would become the next big-shot hero. So, for Katsuki to say something nice to him for a change was a jarring experience for Izuku.

''promise me now Izuku, promise me that when we're older we'll both aim to be the next number 1 hero!'' Katsuki said while jostling Izuku in his grip

Shaken out of his train of thought by his friend's demand, Izuku grabbed onto Katsuki's arm with newfound vigor, stopping his friend's shouting as he stared at the arm now on his own.

''I promise on my life, Kachann, I'll get over my fear and we'll both aim for number 1!'' Izuku said, now with a louder volume and a fiery resolve in his voice.

Katsuki didn't respond, which made Izuku start to sweat. Had he said something wrong? Izuku faced away from the blond and started to apologize but before he could finish his sentence, Katsuki put his arm around Izuku's neck, forming a deadlock, and brought it down so he could give him a noogie.

''BAHAHA, YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT YOU FUCKING NERD! ANYTHING ELSE AND I REALLY WOULD'VE KILLED YOU!''

''OW OW OW! YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T DO THAT AGAIN, KACHANN!''

''WELL I LIED, WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT?''

''MOOOOOOOOM''

The years came and went, both Izuku and Katsuki were now 14 years old and students at Aldera Junior High. Inko had been right to be worried, school had been a painful drag for Izuku. Predictably, Izuku had made no friends in kindergarten, Katsuki was the only kid who would play and hang out with him. When he entered kindergarten, Izuku was able to function only if he was left alone and not much attention was brought to him, the teachers had been made aware of his condition and they in turn informed Izuku's other classmates on how to interact with him before he was introduced to the class. Unfortunately, there would still be times when one person too many glanced or stared at Izuku, sending him into a fit of incoherent sobs and babbles about being starred at, forcing the teacher to have to pull Izuku away from the class to calm him down.

Luckily, through more therapy sessions with Dr. Sugimoto and experience, Izuku was able to learn how to better manage his fear and by the time he entered Aldera, his breakdowns became few and far between as long as the medical mask and sunglasses that now donned his face nearly 24/7 hid it from the world around him. This, however, did nothing to help his social life. Izuku's pale and thin looks as well as his long bony fingers, which were the only part of him that was not hidden under clothing or facial wear and were often compared to creepy crooked tree branches, made people feel uncomfortable and as a result, no one would ever try to approach him. The reputation of his breakdowns that carried over to Aldera via the people that used to be in Izuku's classes did nothing to help settle people's distaste for him either.

Katsuki, having spent considerable time with Izuku during their childhoods, did not mind how Izuku looked, and his face coverings had become normal to him. This, like in kindergarten, made Katsuki Izuku's only friend at school, and unfortunately, that fact did not come without any downsides for Katsuki. Everybody in their class had steered clear of him too merely based on his relationship with the ''creepy green-haired shy guy''. This avoidance of him had made Katsuki quite bitter toward his classmates, he didn't think they were even in the same league as him so who were they to neglect his existence? Everybody in kindergarten had praised him and his quirk when he first developed it, so were they trying to insult him? Were they trying to insinuate that he wasn't worth their time? This bitterness kept growing within Katsuki, causing him to get into numerous verbal and physical fights with other students. Izuku would always try to pull his friend away when he started fights, to convince him that they weren't worth the trouble, but Katsuki rarely listened to Izuku's voice of reason. Izuku was far more passive than his friend, even when his classmates had started avoiding him less and started getting meaner and meaner, often making fun of the way he looked, he never talked back or tried to retaliate, he only cowered away from them and would ask them to leave him alone or to stop looking at him, often Katsuki would have to intervene and threaten them to fuck off before he blasted them to pieces. After defending him, however, Katsuki would always chastise Izuku for not standing up for himself, stating that if he ever wanted to save anybody, he was going to have to learn how to save himself first and that until then, he had no chance at all at becoming a hero. They wouldn't talk to each other much for a while after such an incident

Izuku never rose his hand or his voice towards his classmates, not once. Even though Izuku had spent a considerable amount of time in therapy with Dr. Sugimoto, he was still petrified at the possibility of someone mistakenly viewing his face and so, he never fought back in fear that it might escalate the situation and allow his bullies to see his face uncovered, on purpose or not.

And so the cycle went, Izuku would stick to Katsuki or himself, he would eventually be bothered by one of his classmates trying to get a rise out of him, most of the time his classmate with a quirk that gave him wings and another one with a quirk that allowed him to extend his fingers would work together to pester him, strength in numbers, Izuku had guessed, Izuku would plead with them to leave him alone and to not stare at him, his bullies wouldn't let up, and then either Katsuki would threaten them and they'd start a fight or Izuku would take his bullies' punishment until they got bored and left him alone once more.

This cycle had become routine for Izuku, day in and day out, a routine he never dared to try to break. Unfortunately, that routine would come to be broken on what would be the worst day of Izuku's life.

Izuku woke up in a cold sweat, he had the nightmare again. For a while now, about a year he'd say, he had been having a recurring nightmare every few nights. It would always start with him lost in a thick white fog and with the sound of someone crying in the distance. The sobbing would sound high-pitched, similar to that of a young child, he would move through the fog, somehow getting closer to the crying no matter what direction he took. Eventually, he would reach a clearing, the ground there was reflective like a calm pond and the sky was stark white, he would often look down to see his face's reflection but would turn away, ashamed at the way he looked. After that, he would move on to the middle of the clearing where a tall dead oak tree awaited him, he could hear that the crying originated from behind the tree and so he would try to walk around it to see who it was that was crying to satisfy his curiosity, but every time he did, the world would suddenly fade to a deep gray and the voices he would often hear would start whispering unintelligible things to him before devolving into cries, yelps, and screams. After a moment, the voices would all suddenly go silent and he would notice that the crying had stopped too, then, whoever was crying would let out a piercing yell which would knock Izuku onto his backside. Completely terrified, he would quickly scramble to get up, turn around and run as fast as he possibly could away from the clearing, the thing's yelling getting weaker and weaker as he got further. After a long time, Izuku would collapse onto the ground, exhausted, but then he would hear the yelling faintly, this time accompanied by loud thumping footsteps, getting closer and closer to him. Izuku would try to scurry away from whatever was coming but each time it was no use, the thing would get closer and closer to him, and then...

He would wake up.

It was the same thing time and time again, the nightmare would often make him lose sleep and as a result, he'd be tired and groggy the entire rest of his day. Luckily, it seemed as if this time the nightmare had woken him up on time, and so, after wiping the sweat off of his forehead, Izuku sat up on his bed, wiped the tiredness out of his eyes, turned his alarm off, and got off of his bed. After getting up, Izuku grabbed his sunglasses off of his dresser, a new mask out of a disposable medical mask box that he had set next to where he would usually put his sunglasses and put both of them on, it was the very first thing he would do every morning when getting up, he refused to leave his room without them.

After putting on his school uniform, Izuku went to his door, unlocked it, unhooked the latch that had been screwed onto it, and then finally walked out of his room to go to the bathroom and do his morning routine. After freshening himself up, Izuku walked out to the kitchen to see his mom still in her pajamas, making breakfast.

''Hi, mom. What are you making?''

''Oh, good morning, honey! I'm making the usual, rice, miso soup, and boiled vegetables.''

''Well, it smells good. Though I won't be having much, I'm not that hungry.''

Inko frowned and put her hand on her hip.

''Izuku... you're never that hungry because of your quirk and you know that. Not being bothered by pain is good and all but that means you can ignore what your body tells you it needs! You need to eat a square breakfast every day.''

Izuku groaned softly.

''but mom.'' Izuku said, in a whine, ''no matter what I eat my body stays the way it is, do I really have to eat so much? It's always a drag.''

''yes, Izuku, food doesn't change your body but nothing about your body makes sense! I don't want you to take the chance of not eating a lot and it making your condition worse! Remember what Dr. Sugimoto said, better...''

Izuku cut his mom off before she could continue

''safe than sorry. Yeah, I know he's right, It just gets tiring after a while.''

''I know it's hard for you, but please put as much effort into it as you can, ok? I care for you so much and I would hate to see you sick because you undereat.''

''I know mom, thank you. Ok, I'll get a bowl of each, please.''

''Good, I'll get it for you.''

Inko made Izuku's breakfast, handed it to him, and then sat across from him on the table to eat her breakfast.

''so, did you sleep well? Did you have that nightmare again? It's been a couple of days since the last one you had.''

''uh, yeah, to both I mean. I had the dream again, but luckily it didn't wake me up in the middle of the night like last time, it woke me up right on time, right as my alarm was ringing. It makes me feel good, you know? Like, maybe today's gonna be a lucky day!''

Inko chuckled and smiled at her son.

''I'm sure it will be, Izuku.''

Izuku finished his breakfast, went to the vestibule to put his shoes on, and then finally left his house for school. Arriving at Aldera high's entrance, Izuku slightly shrunk and shuddered at the glances and stares he would get from some of the people who would pass, the occasional whispering after seeing him also wasn't appreciated. That's how it was every day for him, he hated his reputation, maybe if he had more friends, he'd seem more normal and then people wouldn't stare at him so much. Yet again, that would mean he would have to deal with people staring at him for long periods, he had been able to learn how to not freak out when people would do so thanks to his doctor, but it still felt nowhere near comfortable when someone did. the only stares he felt comfortable under were Katsuki's, his mom's, doctor Sugimoto's, and his auntie Mitsuki's.

After a bit of walking, Izuku entered his classroom and spotted his friend Katsuki sitting at his desk with his feet thrown on top of it, seemingly in thought. Izuku admired Katsuki quite a bit, he had always felt safe around him, Katsuki was strong and the most determined person Izuku had ever seen, with him around, although he could be quite crass and mean, he didn't feel as scared as he was otherwise. He didn't think he matched up to him, really, his quirk was strong, for sure, and regeneration is quite useful, there wasn't any wound Izuku had ever gotten that he didn't heal from in a few minutes, but Katsuki's quirk was simply far more offensive than his. He thought that he might've had a chance if the ''strength boost'' part of his quirk ended up being real, but it wasn't. Izuku had gotten an appointment with doctor Sugimoto in his childhood to see if he did get stronger when people saw his face, but it didn't end up happening. They tested it out, Izuku allowed Sugimoto to look at his face for a few seconds, but no dice, his strength didn't change a single bit while under his doctor's gaze and Izuku didn't feel comfortable allowing him to view his face any longer than they did in the test, so they didn't take it any further, they determined that what must've happened was that, after Katsuki viewed his face, Izuku was so stricken with fear that he had a rush of adrenaline that gave him hysteric strength. So all Izuku had was regeneration and high pain tolerance, sure he could get hurt and survive it, but if he went up against a tough villain, he wouldn't be able to do anything to help at all.

Katsuki could, his proficiency with his quirk and how fast he had acquired it was truly remarkable, even to Izuku it was quite amazing, and he had a front-row seat to his progression. Often, Katsuki would ask his friend to spar with him, he liked fighting with Izuku because he could push the limits of his quirk since any damage Izuku could ignore and allow his quirk to heal, although admittedly the duo did go too far on some occasions, more than once, which is already more times than anybody should in their entire life, they had to scramble to find a way to hide the fact that Izuku had a gaping hole in both his shirt and his lower belly region. Both of them were heavily scolded and grounded by their respective moms each time they would pull such a stunt.

Reaching his friend's desk, Izuku spoke up to greet Katsuki.

''Good morning Kachann, how are you today?''

Snapping himself out of his train of thought, he greeted Izuku back.

''huh? Oh, hey Izuku, I'm good, I guess. These fucking extras are still throwing me dirty looks and it's starting to piss me off.''

Izuku sweatdropped

''you always say that... you should just let it go, they'll have to stop eventually.''

Katsuki scoffed, slammed his feet back to the ground, and raised his voice

''To hell with that! I'll teach them to stay in their fucking league, those lame excuses for future hero wannabes!''

Izuku sighed, he knew Katsuki was riling himself up and he'd probably get into a fight with someone who didn't appreciate his harsh words soon if he continued.

''Uh, anyways! How was your...'' Izuku vocally paused for a moment, extending his pronunciation, trying to think of what to say to take Katsuki's attention away so he wouldn't cause a scuffle.

''Sleep! How was your sleep?''

Katsuki, shaken out of his potential rant, looked at his friend quizzically

''My sleep? Why would you want to know that out of nowhere?''

Izuku stammered

''Well you see, it's just, well, I had that nightmare again last night but it didn't wake me up in the middle of the night so I was able to get a good night's rest and I wanted to know if you slept well too.''

Katsuki hummed in acknowledgment and then leaned back in his chair once again with his eyes closed, his arms supporting his head.

''Right, it's been a while since you've had one of those, I was wondering when it was gonna happen again. You need to get that fixed, you won't be able to study well and become a hero if you can't get a good night's fucking rest regularly!''

Izuku chuckled

''Believe me, I'm trying, Katsuki, I've talked about it a lot with my doctor and we're trying to find a way to make them stop but so far nothing's worked.''

Katsuki opened his eyes and gave Izuku a hard glare

''Well, try harder! If your grades drop because of your damn cowardice, I'm gonna kick your ass!''

Izuku internally sighed to himself, it wasn't because he was a coward that he'd been having that nightmare. He'd always been scared and he's had plenty of nightmares before, of course, and yet he's never had a recurring one until recently. The one he had been having was different, most notably its reoccurrence, of course, but it was more so because he couldn't understand it. Most of the time he knew what his nightmares related to, whether it be something that scared him during the day or his phobia, the worst ones always were when he would dream of people looking at his face judgmentally, without him being able to do anything to stop them, but this one he couldn't tell where it came from. He'd never seen the place he would dream of, it felt exceedingly abstract, the type of tree, he had never seen. The fogginess of it, the person who was behind the tree, it was all a mystery to him, it just started appearing one day without reason or cause. He'd told himself that it was probably his condition that was at fault for giving him these nightmares, but its nature didn't allow him to conclusively know if that was true, so the mystery remained.

Before the two friends could continue their talk, they heard the bell sounding at the start of the school day. Pushing his sunglasses back into place on his nose, Izuku told Katsuki that he had to sit down for class and that they'd talk some more during their break, after which he walked to his desk and did so, waiting for their teacher to finally arrive and start the class.

Before long, the class had ended and after that, lunch, until finally the last class of the day had ended and Izuku sat alone in the classroom after most students had already left. Izuku was quickly scrolling through his phone, hopping from news article to news article and from video to video, he had missed a villain attack that morning and wanted to get any information he could get his hands on about this new up-and-coming hero, Mt. Lady, and her quirk so he could write it down into his 13th ''quirk analysis for the future'' book. He had already cursed his phobia when he had learned that he had missed out on the battle between the villain and the gigantification quirked hero that happened on the path one would normally take to get from his home to his school, he had always opted to use lesser-known paths, ducking into alleyways and taking detours, to get to school as to limit the number of people that would have a chance to look at him on his way to school.

Knowing that catching up on the event and writing all of his analysis down would take a while, Izuku had told Katsuki not to wait for him, that he would hang around a while longer after school to finish his analysis before he went home, and so Izuku sat there alone in the empty classroom, scribbling down onto his notebook until he was interrupted by a hand smashing down onto his desk. Jolting up, Izuku saw his two most persistent tormentors smiling venomously down at him like hyenas.

''Hey Midoriya, funny seeing you here!'' the one to the left said mockingly, ''how about we have a little talk?''

The one to the right snickered.

''Yeah, I think that's a good idea!''