Takes place post-Kamino sometime, but if you're anime only don't worry. There's not really any spoilers.

"Todoroki-kun," Izuku begins, and then stops, not knowing how to continue.

Todoroki stirs and turns towards him, expression as neutral as ever but eyes carrying a curious glint. "Yes, Midoroya?"

"T-there's something I want to tell you. I-it's not something anyone really knows about. Kacchan is the only other person I've told and it's cuz…well, we've known each other for so long so I thought I had to explain but you…" he pauses and inhales deeply. "I want to tell you."

Todoroki's brow furrows slightly. "What is it?"

"Um." Izuku watches as the wind stirs Todoroki's hair, strands of red intermingling with white. The other boy's eyes are distracting, intent and strong and beautiful, but Izuku pushes through and completes his sentence.

"I was born Quirkless."'

There is a moment of silence. Todoroki's gaze is unsettling and impossible to read.

"But you have a quirk," he points out eventually, and Izuku fidgets uncomfortably.

"Uh, yeah. I have a quirk. Now. But I didn't used to."

Todoroki is frowning, and Izuku finds he doesn't like seeing that expression on his friend's lips, especially not when it's directed at him. "That doesn't make sense," says Todoroki flatly, and Izuku has to agree that no, it doesn't make sense.

"I know. It's...sort of a long story."

"Then tell it to me."

Izuku thinks of All Might's stern gaze, tone brooking no argument as he instructs Izuku to keep the nature of his quirk secret at all costs. He thinks of the note of reprimand in All Might's voice when he'd given Kacchan not so much as a morsel of the truth.

"I...can't."

"Midoriya." Todoroki shifts closer, moving his face so close that Izuku can feel his breath against the bridge of his nose and mismatched eyes staring intensely into his. "Do you trust me?"

"What?" splutters Izuku, scooting backwards as subtly as he can. "Of course!"

"Then tell me."

Izuku sighs. He'd initiated this, he knows. He should have expected that Todoroki would want to know the whole of the matter. And yet to trust Todoroki with his secret feels, in turn, like a betrayal of All Might's trust in him.

But Todoroki is watching him with his cool, steady eyes, and Todoroki is asking him for his trust.

(Half a year ago, in a deserted hallway, Todoroki spilled his life secrets to a boy he barely knew. He spoke of his pain and his turmoil, and he had declared war. He'd handed Izuku his trust even as he drew the battlelines, and now that trust has been strengthened by flame and metal into a bond that is unbreakable.)

When All Might had given him his power, he'd also given him his secrets. But it's his secret too, now, and it is his decision whether or not to share it.

Izuku inhales deeply and turns his head to meet Todoroki's gaze.

"Okay," he says, shaky but resolved. "Okay."

The door of the café opens and a barista walks out, heading towards their table. She smiles as she places their mugs down, silky ears twitching amidst her nest of blue curls. Izuku returns the smile and thanks her.

After she leaves, Izuku glances back at his friend. Steam rises from the coffee cups between them and Todoroki is still watching him, still waiting, and so Izuku begins.

"Half a year ago you asked me what my connection was to All Might," he says, "and I told you there was none. That was a lie."

"I know," says Todoroki.

Izuku nods; of course Todoroki knows. It had been obvious even then, and the lie had been a half-hearted, fragile thing.

"Just over a year ago, I almost died. A villain got me. And All Might saved me. I followed him to a rooftop where I discovered a truth about his appearance. I looked up to him a lot. I think everyone knows that. So I asked him the question that had been burning in my mind for my whole life: could I be a hero, even though I was Quirkless?"

Izuku takes another breath. His chest feels tight, and he finds himself swallowing around a lump of emotion. That part of his life is over now, but it lingers in his memories. Even now, with his life and dreams laid out before him, it hurts to think of how his hopes were nearly shattered and his dreams nearly destroyed.

"He said no. He said it was too dangerous, for a Quirkless boy to become a hero."

Todoroki's brow furrows. He opens his mouth, as if to speak, but no sound comes out. One of his hands moves just slightly to the side so that their fingers are brushing. Izuku pretends not to notice and forges onwards.

"I was devastated. My hero had told me I could not become what I wanted to be, simply because of how I was born. But a few minutes later, as I was walking home, I stumbled across the villain that had tried to kill me. He'd escaped, and now he had another captive.

"The captive was Kacchan. I recognized him almost immediately. He was fighting back, and the whole street was on fire because of it, but it wasn't enough. He was losing, and there was no way he would last much longer. Because of the flames, the local heroes couldn't get in close enough to save him, and all I knew was that he needed help. Before I knew it, I was running."

"You saved him?" asks Todoroki, and Izuku is stunned at the faith the other boy has in his abilities, even at a time when he had been completely powerless.

"No," he says, and watches Todoroki's eyes narrow in confusion. "But I distracted the villain long enough that All Might could. In the end, we both made it out safe, and the villain was recaptured and handed over to the police.

"Later, as I was walking home, I came across All Might again." Izuku smiles, the memory fond; a pivotal moment in his life, forever engraved into his mind. "And he told me that I could become a hero."

"Even without a quirk?" asks Todoroki softly, and Izuku shakes his head.

"No. He told me—" a pause, here, because this was the part that he wasn't supposed to share. This is the secret that had been entrusted to him by the man he cared for so much.

"His quirk is one that can be passed on," says Izuku eventually. "And he gave it to me, to be his successor."

There's more to the tale; much more, in fact. There is training, and trusting, and bonding. There is breaking and healing, there are stumbles are recoveries. But for now, this is where Izuku ends it; with All Might's inheritance in his hands for the very first time.

"So that's how," murmurs Todoroki simply, and then is silent.

They stay like that for a while. Cars pass by on the street, pedestrians dashing about and shouting to each other. The bell jingles in the door of the café as people come and go. Commotion surrounds them, but at this small table with its sun-stained green umbrella, it is as if the world around them has ceased to exist.

It has been almost a quarter of an hour before one of them speaks again.

"Thank you," says Todoroki quietly.

"For what?"

"For trusting me."

Quiet again, but this time the pause has lost its tension. Izuku watches Todoroki's overgrown bangs flutter around his face with each exhalation of breath. He inspects the curl of his friend's eyelashes and the glimmer of his eyes in the late afternoon sunlight: one the blue of an icy lake, the other the shimmering gray of silver.

There have been many moments in Izuku's life that he will always remember; the confirmation of his Quirklessness, the tears on his mother's face as she held him tight and whispered apologies into his ear. He will always remember Kacchan's jeers, and All Might's smile on that old footage of his debut.

A moment of destruction: when All Might turned away, dismissive and broken. You cannot be a hero without a Quirk.

A moment of exhilaration: when All Might reached out a large, skeletal hand and offered his secrets. You can be a hero, he said, with this Quirk that I give.

There have been many moments that have shaped Izuku into the person he is now.

There will be many more.

And here, now, as Todoroki starts the speak again, Izuku knows that this is one of those moments, even before the words leave Todoroki's lips.

"Izuku," says Todoroki, and Izuku finds he likes the sound of his given name on the other boy's tongue. "For the record, I think All Might was wrong."

Unexpected. Violently unexpected. Izuku frowns; All Might is never wrong. He can't be. Not about this, not about trusting him and giving him a Quirk, not about handing him the chance to be a hero.

"W-what?"

"You didn't need a Quirk, however much you wanted one." Todoroki's hand moves to grasp his, and Izuku flushes beet red. He wonders if Todoroki can feel the rapid pulse of his heart.

"You didn't need a Quirk because I think, even without one, you would be a hero." He pauses, making sure Izuku's gaze is locked against his.

"I think you were a hero from the day you were born."

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