Trigger warning: Mentions of a abusive relationship and abuse.

*Shota's POV* 

I noticed that Izuku wasn't as happy as he used to me at the beginning of his second year. He talked about his friends less and came home earlier than he did at the start of his first year. I tried asking him about it but he just said that Kyoka and Katsuki were busy. I wanted to reach out and help him and I tried to but it wasn't really helping. My heart ached at the desolate look on his face every time he came home, I wanted to see that joy-filled smile that he used to constantly wear as a child. He only seemed to be happy when he was with either me, Hizashi, Emi or Kayama. Otherwise, he had a constant frown on his face. Most of Izuku's time was dedicated to training for the entrance exam. Every day he would go to the beach and train before coming home and feverishly studying. It broke my heart to see the boy I had taken in for 6 years work himself so hard.

I noticed that after about a month of school starting again that Izuku was acting more skittish. He jumped if somebody raised their voice and flinched when somebody moved too fast. It worried me deeply. I had hoped to never see my son in such a depressed state. I tried speaking with Izu about my suspicions of bullying, but he always brushed me off or reassured me that it was nothing and I was imagining things. I spoke to his school about my suspicions and they promised to keep an eye on him, but my gut told me they were lying, and I always trust my gut. 

*Izuku's POV*

"Stay down you freak!" Kim spat at me as she kicked my stomach. I was curled into a tight ball in a vain attempt to protect myself from Kim's violent kicks which caused pain to surge through my body.  "OI! You're not kicking hard enough!" Osoro snapped before taking Kim's place and booting me aggressively in the back. I cried out in pain. Tears streamed down my face in rivers and pooled into puddles beneath my face. I had no idea why Kim and Yuri decided to bully me, they had no reason to. I was nothing but nice to them whenever they tagged along with Kyoka. Osoro was probably bullying me to get revenge, despite the fact that I had gotten him suspended years before. I couldn't even tell anybody. Kim and Yuri were friends with Kyoka so I doubted whether she would believe me and both girls were related to our incredibly corrupt headmaster. Osoro would get off as well because he had a powerful quirk and teachers didn't want to damage his chances at getting into a good hero course. So basically, I was fucked. "Learn your place, scum!" Yuri hissed before spitting on my face and stalking off with my other tormenters in tow.

I kept my head down for the majority of the year. I didn't draw any attention to myself in an attempt to make the target on my back even just a fraction smaller. My strategy didn't work. My bullies pursued me relentlessly. They picked at every aspect of my life and used it against me. I got good grades so that must mean I'm a nerd. My mum was dead and my dad was in prison so it must mean I'm unlovable. I never showed off my quirk so it must be weak (Osoro always avoided my quirk, he knew I wasn't weak in that aspect). In fact, my whole class started teasing me about my mum's death. It seemed surreal, you only got bullied for things concerning family member death in stories. It was an easy plot point for an author or screenwriter. But it seemed as if my life was straight out of a book because unrealistic things happened with every step I took forward.

I trudged solemnly down the corridor, my leg dragged behind me slightly because Osoro and Kim had just jumped me. Nothing can compare to the pain of being hurt and beaten in a supposedly safe place. I had felt the same pain as a child and was in no rush to experience it again, and yet there I was. "Life can't get much worse." I murmured to myself, ya know like an idiot. Everybody knows that if you say stuff like that, you'll end up jinxing yourself. "I-i-i'm sorry Akashi. I promise I didn't look at him." I heard a familiar voice cry in pain. Not able to keep my nose out of other people's business, I inched around the corner and peeked at the scene in front of me. My stomach dropped. Before me, Kyoka stood with her back pressed against the wall. She was caged between Akashi's arms, her face was the picture of fear. Her expression reminded me of painful memories. She looked exactly like my mum. Akashi's fist slammed into the wall beside Kyoka' s head, causing her to flinch. "You slut! I know you've been looking at girls! What are you, gay?" Akashi hissed venomously. Kyoka spoke at whirlwind speed. She assured her dickhead 'boyfriend' that she wasn't gay and she loved him. The fear in my friend's eyes flipped a switch in me. No matter how distant we had become, I couldn't stand by and watch this happen. Screw having a perfect record, other people's safety came first.

"Let go of her!" I shouted at Akashi as I rounded the corner, my hands were balled into fists and my eyes were alight with anger. Akashi looked scared for a second when he saw someone was coming around the corner, but once he noticed it was me, he sneered and turned back to Kyoka. "Fuck off you runt. Can't you see that I'm busy?" He sneered pretentiously. Usually, I would be deterred by someone speaking to me with an aggressive tone, but seeing Kyoka in that situation, all of my logic flew out of the window. I had to save her. 

" I said let go of her! Are you hard of hearing!" I snarked back, walking towards the pair with purpose in my step, despite the fact that every step was agony on my twisted ankle. I could see the fear in Kyoka's eyes, she shook her head subtly. She looked as if she wanted to stop me, but I couldn't just stand by and watch her be controlled and abused, relationships were about love and trust, not fear and jealousy. "Look, just step off man. What I do to my girlfriend doesn't concern you." Akashi hissed, turning his entire body towards me in acknowledgement. I looked behind him and signalled for Kyoka to run away, I didn't want her getting hurt anymore. Now that I was closer to her, I could see the faint bruises on her cheeks and finger marks around her neck. The sight of my once silently intimidating friend in such a vulnerable state caused me to snap. And once Izuku Aizawa-Midoriya snaps, you're in trouble.

"This doesn't concern you Midoriya. Fuck off and cry in a corner." Akashi hissed as he unclenched his hands from fists and stood with his palms facing me. "Not going to happen." I asseverated, crouching low. Akashi growled lowly before activating his quirk and shooting a beam of light from his hand. Akashi's quirk concentrated light which touched him into energy which was searing hot. I quickly rolled out of the way and looked back to see the wall with a smoking crater in it. My head whipped back around to see a smirking Akashi. The look in his eyes dared me to fight back, he clearly thought that his display of power would scare me. As if. "Oh, I'm so scared." I sneered sarcastically. Akashi faltered slightly after seeing that I wasn't scared, he regained his composure after a second and raised his hands again. However, this time, I didn't give him the chance. 

I launched myself forward, transforming silently mid-jump. When I landed, I was no longer human, but a fearsome lion. Akashi's face paled dramatically as I growled menacingly at him, his knees knocked together and his outstretched hands trembled slightly. I hadn't even done anything and he was already pissing himself. I mean that literally, with my keen sense of smell, the strong smell of urine penetrated my nose. I stepped forwards ready to hit him with my paw or something similar, but it seemed I didn't have to because he let out a high pitched scream, which reminded me of Hizashi's quirk, and high tailed it out of there. I stared at his retreating back in confusion. After a minute, I snorted and shook my head. He was a disgusting human being. I looked up at Kyoka, who was curled up in a ball on the floor. Her entire body shook as she sobbed endlessly. I transformed back into a human as I took a seat on the floor beside her and pulled her into one of my famous hugs. It had been too long since I had held my friends in my arms. "I'm here. He's gone now. I won't ever let him hurt you." I whispered in a hushed voice as I stroked her indigo hair. It took a while, but she finally calmed down enough for her to hiccup out an unnecessary apology. "I'm so s-s-sorry Izu. I-i-i should h-h-have just done what he s-said." she hiccuped, I held her tighter and continued to stroke her head. I was going to protect her with my life. 

Kyoka officially broke up with Asashi the next day, she was trembling as she did so, but was really brave. I could see in Akashi's eyes that he wanted to say or do something, but my looming (even if I was short) presence behind Kyoka deterred him. He limited himself to scoffing at Kyoka, proclaiming she was ugly anyway and stalking off. Kyoka's eyes filled with tears at her ex's words. She hung her head and began to trudge away, I could feel how desolate she was
"Hey, Kyoka. It's the end of school now, right? Come to my house, we can watch films and eat ice-cream, get your mind off that..." I looked around to check nobody else was present, "bastard" I whispered. Kyoka giggled slightly and wiped away the few tears which had begun to leak from her eyes. "That sounds great, Izu." She rasped. We began to walk towards my house, catching up quietly between ourselves.

"They what!" Kyoka screamed indignantly slamming her spoon into her bowl. I silently thanked the fact that my dad was still at UA, if he'd have been home, he probably would have scolded Kyoka for damaging the crockery. "Don't worry about it Kyoka, you had your own problems, I couldn't expect you to know," I replied casually as I brought a full spoon full of ice-cream to my lips and savoured the taste of salted caramel. "But still..." Kyoka mumbled as she mixed her chocolate ice-cream around the bowl, "I should have noticed that you looked more upset. I'm your best friend, aren't I?" Kyoka whispered, dismayed and clearly beating herself up. I put aside my delicious dessert and took Kyoka's hands into my own. She looked up into my eyes in bemusement, "Kyoka. I in no way blame you for what your friends decided to do to me. You don't control Yuri or Kim. I don't blame you, ok?" I asked, staring deeply into her amethyst eyes, reassuring her that she was innocent. "Ok." she whispered.

Kyoka and I regained our friendship more every day. She joined me in my training sessions, making it a lot easier for me since I had someone to spar with. Kyoka ended her friendship with Yuri and Kim, at first, they opposed and tried to force her to stay but she wasn't having any of it. She punched them both in the face and walked away with my cheers of encouragement accompanying her. Even though Kyoka was my close friend again, I was still bullied by my class. They teased me relentlessly and by the end of the year, I had given up even trying to fight back.

2 weeks before the end of school, Kacchan and I had an... altercation. I had been sat in class, minding my own business when Kacchan came marching up to my desk and slammed his hand down, causing me to start in surprise. "Oh, hi Kacchan." I smiled up at him, but my smile faltered when I saw the unadulterated rage plastered onto his face. "What's the matter?" I asked cautiously, I didn't want to provoke him, lest I be the target of his anger. Kacchan's smouldering eyes never left my face as he growled animistically. "Somebody told me you've been talking shit behind my back." Kacchan hissed, his eyes were dilated in pure rage, I gulped knowing that the outcome of whatever was happening was not going to be good. I opened my mouth to defend myself but I was rudely cut off by Kacchan. "SHUT IT! I SWEAR IZUKU IF YOU'VE BEEN CHATTING SHIT! AKASHI SAID YOU'VE HURT KYOKA ASWELL! THIS WON'T END WELL FOR YOU!" Kacchan roared in my face. I wiped the spit which had landed on my face away and looked up at Kacchan in shock. "What?".

I'm sorry I put Kyoka through that 😭. She is one of my favourite characters (I say one of because I have roughly 10 favourite characters, my friends say that you can't have 10 favourite characters but oh well). Also thanks for the support from all of you, I know I've gotten a few comments saying I don't need to thank you but I'm still going to. Irl I thank people for things I do, so I clearly have a problem. Talking about comments, I really enjoy reading the comments on this story. Especially the random vine references. And that chant for Erasermic. Those comments looked like they took a lot of effort.

Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope you have a lovely day wherever you are.