This story was inspired by many things. First of all, there were all those moments when Midoriya is visibly uncomfortable by people being too close to him. Secondly, now we have a Provisional License Exam Arc in the anime, and there is a character who obviously has unhealthy obsession with Deku. Finally, there are all those instances of female fans being creepy towards male celebrities, especially that one woman who sent Finn Wolfhard tweet how she would date him if he was a bit older and he was visibly uncomfortable with it.
So I decided to write fic which deals a bit with a subject of creepy fans. It's not very deep, I admit. I decided to put aside the age of consent in Japan and focus on the mere idea of fans not respecting boundries. And, of course, I don't want to diminish the instances of male fans being creepy twoards female celebrities. I only want to highlight certain problem that also happens.
I may write a follow-up story.
Anyway, please review.
Too cute for his own good
Izuku often had problems with personal space. That is – his problem was that many people didn't respect his personal space and were too damn close for his liking.
It all started with Kacchan. Kacchan had a nasty habit of standing in front of Izuku, mere inches from his face, and using his quirk for intimidation. He also had this creepy smile that almost indicated bloodlust or love for destruction. After a whole elementary, middle and high school years of this type of bullying, anybody who would come too close to Izuku, would instigate similar reaction – nervousness, discomfort, sometimes even fear.
Then there was a slime villain who tried to use Izuku's body for escape. This experience was even worse, since the villain was trying to enter his victim's body by pouring his essence into boy's mouth. Of course, Midoriya was struggling as much as he was able to… but he was just a quirkless kid, all alone with a monster that tried to violate his body. He was getting weaker with each second and soon the only thought on his mind was that he was going to die a horrible death of suffocation.
Thankfully All Might was there and he saved Izuku with one punch. And the villain's attack on a boy wasn't the craziest part of that day.
When he was preparing for UA's entrance exams, he mustered some courage to tell Kacchan off, while being pinned to the wall by his bully, but on a day of the exams, Izuku faced a new challenges. First, he met a girl. She was really nice and friendly, and since he never really chatted with any girl before, he was trying to find right words as she was talking to him. She left and he barely said anything (in fact, he haven't spoken once), but it was a beginning of a beautiful friendship.
But as much as he liked Uraraka; and as much as he was looking forward to talk with her each day in UA, sometimes she was too close to him for his liking. It wasn't entirely her fault, since Izuku never told her about Kacchan's bullying or about a slime villain. He preferred to leave his sad past behind him since now he had actual friends who didn't look down on him. And to be frank, after some time she stopped coming so close to him, probably noticing his discomfort.
Of course, in the line of work they were trained for in UA, it was obvious that close encounters with people who meant them harm were inevitable. Izuku had to expect that, at some point, an enemy might come near boy and attack him. In fact, many villains liked when their victims were squirming in discomfort; they liked to look their opponents in the eyes, leaving no personal space whatsoever. Izuku suspected that he will experience something like that during one of his future battles.
He would never suspect that during shopping in the mall, he will encounter Shigaraki Tomura; and that the young leader of League of Villains will take him hostage so easily. Izuku knew what Shigaraki's quirk could do. It was bad enough that the villain was holding his long, cold fingers around Midoriya's throat, but the mere thought that he was only one finger away from disintegration was making this situation ten times worse. Izuku had to talk with Shigaraki; answer his questions, hoping that one wrong reply won't make him mad enough to kill his hostage and people in the mall. And when Uraraka found them; when she realized that her friend is held against his will by a Shigaraki, Izuku knew he had to defuse the situation. And so he said that it was okay; that there was nothing to be alarmed about. In the end, Shigaraki let go of him and left, and Uraraka called the police.
They couldn't find him. Izuku helped as much as he could, but in the back of his head there was still the memory of Shigaraki's fingers around his throat. It was the most creepy sensation of his life so far. Nothing he ever experienced – not even the slime villain, Hero Killer Stain and Kacchan! – could compare to the utter creepiness and sense of helplessness in that few minutes in the mall.
The next time someone was uncomfortably close to him (and it wasn't in the battle) was in the workshop of Support Class. He wanted to get some modification for his hero costume, something that could help him take some burden off his arms, when he would use One For All. Soon Iida and Uraraka (who also wanted to ask for modifications for their costumes) joined him. They were going to talk with Power Loader and just come in few days to get their new suits. For better or worse, Mei Hatsume was there too, as loud and as enthusiastic as during the Sports Festival. And once she blew off the doorway to Development Studio, she landed on top of Izuku. That, in of itself, wasn't the worst part (even if Midoriya did have hard time getting over this embarrassing moment). Oh, the worst part came later.
Hatsume listened to three students of Class 1-A and she was quick to give them some of her "babies". It was a pretty embarrassing disaster for the most part… but there was a moment when she grabbed Izuku from behind and started to feel his muscles. It was like a sudden attack and sent so many signals of danger in his mind… yet he didn't push her away, he was frozen on the spot, until she let go of him. And if the sensation of her hands running through his body without his consent weren't enough, she was also making comments about his muscles, which made him even more uncomfortable.
There was also this one girl from Provisional License Exam… Of course, he quickly realized that everybody from other schools will try to attack Class 1-A, since Sports Festival gave them advantage of intel on UA students' fighting abilities… and really, everybody were going to use all the dirty tricks they knew to pass. So maybe he shouldn't feel so creeped out, when she pinned him to the ground… But there was just something unsettling in her – the way she was smiling at him, the way she wanted to talk with him, the way she looked at him… Everything seemed to scream at him: "Danger, danger, danger!"
It turned out it was one of League of Villains in disguise, specifically – Toga Himiko, who also attacked Uraraka and Tsui during League's attack on training camp. Izuku remembered how at some point she gave him this crazy smile, and when he learned about her being on Provisional License Exam, it all made so much sense: she had obsession about him. And this thought didn't make him feel better one bit.
Soon Deku realized that he actually had fans. Ever since Sports Festival he started to be recognized on the streets but it was only much, much later when it finally downed on him that people found him adorable.
There was this one crazy thing that happened to him one day. He was shopping with his mom and they separated to cover more ground. He was just looking at the cabbages, when suddenly a woman approached him. She seemed to be in her late twenties and she was really tall. Mineta would probably make a comment about her boobs and butt, but Midotiya didn't think about it at all. His previous experience made him awry of people suddenly coming his way.
"Oh my, nobody will believe me!" She said and stopped right in front of the boy. "You're Deku!"
"Yes, ma'am, I am." He replied sheepishly. "But I'm not on duty now."
"Can I have a selfie?"
Izuku thought about the reply for a moment, wondering if it one selfie could be used by League of Villains.
"Well, I guess so…" Was his response.
The woman didn't wait any longer. She drew her cellphone out of her purse, turn on the camera and embraced Izuku with one hand. She was so close, their cheeks were touching each other, and Izuku tried really hard to not be freaked out by it. Instead, he put up his best smile and waited for photo to be taken. The woman did at least three of them, before she finally closed the camera. She moved away a little, but only to whisper to his ear:
"You know, you're too cute for your own good. If I had more time, I would fuck you so hard, you would see stars."
Izuku's eyes widened after hearing that. The woman gave him seductive look and hit his butt, before she finally move away.
"I-I don't think it's appropriate behavior, ma'am." He said, looking after her.
She stopped and turned to him.
"Like you wouldn't like it, kid."
She left him with the sensation of discomfort and creepiness.
Maybe if Mineta was there, he would say something about Midoriya being lucky for getting so much attention from a grown, busty woman… But he didn't feel lucky. Maybe there was something wrong with him; maybe he had some kind of issues, due to his experiences with Kacchan and slime monster. Needless to say, his personal space was crossed once again and the whole experience made him uncomfortable.
He didn't tell his mom what happened (even though, she could sense something wasn't right). He deliberated if he should tell his classmates, but he was afraid what would be their reaction. Either way, he felt like he should tell someone. Get this out of his chest and seek an advice.
In the end, he decided to tell All Might.
"There's nothing wrong with you, young Midoriya." His mentor said, instantly making Izuku feel a lot better.
They were sitting in the office. Izuku asked for private conversation as soon as he spotted All Might in the corridor, and the retired hero, of course, was happy to obliged.
"This happens to almost every hero." The Symbol of Peace went on. "Once a hero gets popular, suddenly people want to touch them, have selfies with them, get autographs… We're almost like idols in that regard. It is only natural that a popular hero gets fans."
"Oh, I see." Izuku replied.
He remembered Kouta's new red shoes that were matching his own and Izuku smiled to his thoughts.
"But it also means that we get the attention from people who take being a fan too far." All Might continued, bringing his student back to reality. "Sadly, creepy fans are a thing. I, as a Symbol of Peace, had my fair share of those."
Izuku looked at his mentor with surprise, but then he realized he probably shouldn't be surprised at all.
"I remember ," All Might began, leaning closer towards his student. "there was this woman who was sending me messages." He smiled bitterly. "At first, they were rather harmless messages of appreciation. 'Good work, all Might!', 'You're great, All Might!'" He stopped smiling. "But after some time they started to be… less innocent. She started to graphically describe the sex she was going to have with me. She was regularly telling me how sexy are some parts of my body, especially… you know…" He coughed meaningfully and pointed at his pants. "And at some point she even started sending me nudes."
Izuku listened to this story with growing sensation of sickness in his stomach. He could only imagine how creeped out his idol had to be in this situation. And probably if someone found out about those messages and come to the wrong conclusions, All Might could be in a big trouble.
"I've asked her multiple times to stop doing that" All Might continued. "but she acted like I hurt her feelings; that I was basically saying she's ugly. Then she called me a buzzkill, who couldn't take a joke and doesn't know what fun is. And, of course, there were some people in my office who thought that I either should get used to crazy fangirls, or feel lucky, because a woman was basically throwing herself at my feet. But the way I saw it, it was a harassment."
Like you wouldn't like it, kid…
Izuku clenched his fists.
"And what did you do?" Izuku asked and looked at his mentor.
"Tsukauchi helped me open a case against her and the court gave her restraining order. Still," All Might smiled sadly. "other heroes have at least one story of a fan who went too far. Someone actually got a snip of President Mic's hair. And Midnight gets attention from creeps almost all the time."
Well, Izuku remembered when he stumbled upon villain fight, where Mount Lady showed up. He remembered bunch of men taking pictures of her in a compromising position. Even in age of heroes, there were perverts out there. Hell, Mineta was a class pervert and he was often going too far to see some nudity.
Strangely enough, imagining male fans sending creepy messages, touching heroines in an inappropriate way and giving them all this unwanted attention seemed to be more believable than female fans doing all those things to male heroes. Even though Izuku himself was touched without his consent more than once, some part of him thought men just didn't have this problem; that what happened to him probably wasn't as big of a deal as he suspected.
"Some people don't understand consent." All Might concluded. "No matter the gender."
Izuku thought about his mentor's words for a moment. He thought about Toga from League of Villains showing unhealthy obsession with him. He thought about Mei touching him so suddenly to feel his muscles. He thought about the latest incident in the shop.
You know, you're too cute for your own good…
And then he thought that All Might was right.
"Anyway," The retired hero stood up. "how are you feeling now?"
Izuku looked at him, a bit taken aback by this question.
"Oh…" He started. After a short moment of self-reflection, he replied: "I guess, it's good to know that I'm not weird for feeling this way." He smiled sheepishly and then gave a soft sigh. "And it's good to be able to talk about it with someone. I was worried that if I tell somebody, they will laugh at me."
"Unfortunately that happens too." All Might replied with serious look. "But I think you can trust your friends. After all, chances are they probably experienced something like that already."
Maybe he will… eventually. For now he was happy with the fact that at least All Might knew.