Disclaimers: I do not own Hero academia.

Shouto's POV

Shouto's life filled with love and happiness ended when he was four.

He'd used to imagine whether his quirk manifest as a ice quirk like his mum or a fire quirk like some of his siblings and his father.

When his quirk manifested, he was filled with wonders, but those wonders ended when the training regime started.

It was unfair.

Why must he be the only one to train while his other siblings were allowed to play outside.

His father called playing 'useless past times,' but Shouto was filled with jealousy every time he saw his brothers and sister run and laugh as they played tag.

He complained, and he wailed yet those actions only resulted in harsher training, ending with him emptying his stomach and his mother crying near his side as she embraced his tired body.

Heroes shouldn't make people cry, they should stop people from crying.

Sometimes Shouto wondered if all heroes were like his dad, who was hailed as the No.2 hero of Japan. Did all heroes lead a double life? One which exudes confidence and care outside but was filled with petty jealousy and cruelty at the core.

Shouto would be devastated if that was the case. He was a big fan of All-Might and he really would not know what to do if All-Might actually had a personality similar to his father.

His parents were arguing about his education.

It was not a normal occurrence. His mum normally did not argue or fight against his father's decision, at least not this strongly.

Perhaps in was her vehemence, going to heights as declaring divorce if her demand was not followed that shocked him into grumpily agreeing.

So Shouto found himself at the kindergarten's entrance, filled with tens of other children.

"Be good Shouto," She said, waving to him as he walked into the playground.

Shouto felt awkward and nervous be in a place with so many people he didn't know, the feeling grew worse after his mother left. He felt as if he was left in the wilderness.

Everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves, playing and showing their quirks to one another.

Shouto truly wanted to join, but he was also very afraid. He'd never had a friend before, and making one seemed to be such a difficult thing. He remembered the judging glances as other children pointed their fingers at him, talking about how his bi-coloured hair was a strange sight. Would these people find him strange as well? If they refuse his friendship, Shouto believed he might even cry.

His worries resulted in him hiding alone in a corner, creating flecks of ice and fire via his quirk to cure his boredom.

His listless glance wondered to find a newcomer at the kindergarten. His hair was the most vibrant shade of green that Shouto had ever seen, and in his right hand was the recently released All Might action figure, the one he'd seen on television but couldn't buy – as whilst his father was an adult, his jealousy was that of a child – causing all All Might's merchandises to be banned from his house.

Shouto looked at the action figure with much longing. He wanted to hold it and press the belt on the figure so that he could hear All Might's famous line.

When the boy noticed his gaze, Shouto turned away to hide his face in embarrassment, but it was too late and the boy was walking towards him.

"Hi, I'm Izuku." The boy-Izuku said, smiling, his face shining brightly like a warm sunny day.

"Shouto." He whispered, feeling uncertain how he should reply to such warmth.

"So Shouto. Do you like All Might?" Izuku said, holding out the action figure in his hand.

Shouto couldn't help but smile widely as he nodded.

Taking the offered doll, he pressed on the belt.

"It's fine now, for I am here!" Izuku bellowed the same words that came out of All Might's doll and Shouto couldn't help but laugh.

It was rather amazing how fast they became friends.

Perhaps it was the warmth and sincerity in Izuku's words that drawn him in, or perhaps it was the genuine care in Izuku's eyes when he learnt of Shouto's training that pulled him. Either way, to Shouto, Izuku was mesmerizing.

Izuku also had an encyclopediac knowledge of heroes and their quirks, and they spent most of their naptime class chatting about it, often resulting in them being told off by the teachers for disturbing other children who were trying to sleep.

Shouto supposed that Izuku's house being next door played an important role in deepening their friendship as well, considering how Shouto visited Izuku almost every day.

Like how he was ringing the door now.

He supposed the Midoriyas were outside today, seeing that no one was coming out and Mrs. Midoriya car was nowhere to be seen.

However, as he was leaving, he saw the Mrs. Midoriya car arriving.

Izuku came out of the passenger's seat, his crestfallen expression immediately telling Shouto that something was wrong.

He immediately ran to his Izuku and embraced him in a tight hug. There was only one thing that could make his Izuku brim with tears.

"Shou-chan… The doctor said I don't have a quirk." It went unsaid that that Izuku thought he couldn't be a hero anymore.

It was hard to be a hero in a world where the majority of the population were born with special powers – there were no quirkless heroes.

Yet with the arguments from his ingrained logic, Shouto desperately believed if someone could be a hero without a quirk, it was Izuku. Power was a measure of heroics, yet there were things more important. Kindness and willingness to help were much more important factors in heroics to Shouto's eyes, and Izuku had limitless amount of those qualities.

"It's okay Izuku, you can still be a hero, I'll punch the shit out of anyone who says you can't." Shouto wouldn't let anyone hurt Izuku on his watch.

"Shou-chan. You said a bad word." Izuku chided.

"Ehhh – my father says it all the time." His reply caused Izuku to start laughing while they were hugging.

"Thank you Shouto-kun." He heard Mrs. Midoriya whispered as she came over and hugged them both.

Izuku chatted endlessly as they walked home from school, and Shouto was beyond glad that Izuku returned to his cheerful quickly after his visit to the horrible doctor.

He waved goodbye to Izuku they arrived at the Midoriya's household, then ran to his house.

He heard his mother's voice, as he neared the kitchen.

"Sometimes, Shouto's left side looks very unsightly to me." His mum said, and Shouto felt he might suddenly stop breathing. His chest hurts and he could feel tears brimming in his eyes. Why was his mother, his greatest source of comfort saying such a thing?

He wanted to run, wanted to pretend he hadn't heard the conversation, yet his legs failed him.

"Mum," he whispered. The sound caused his mum to turn, her eyes filled with anger, desperation, embarrassment and pain.

Shouto wanted to run, but the look on his mum's face paralyzed him.

She walked over to him, eyes crazed, gripped him by the shoulder and poured boiling water down the left side of his face.

Everything seemed to slow down, the water seemed to take forever before reaching his face.

He thought of his kind mum and her once kind eyes, then he thought of his kind friend, wishing he was here to make things better.

He screamed as the boiling water scorched his face and everything went black.

Shouto desperately wished that it had all been a dream.

Yet, if it was, the nightmare did not end.

He awoke to his father's stern face as he lay on the hospital bed. In a menacing voice, he told Shouto that he won't be seeing his mum anymore, that she had placed in a hospital for the mentally ill.

He tired himself to sleep screaming, shouting and crying at his father.

He was woken by Izuku's crying voice, he hated seeing his friend cry. Reaching out his hand, he patted his friend's head to calm him down, but when Izuku realized he was awoke, he immediately pulled Shouto into a hug.

Izuku's warmth in contrast to all that occurred was too much and Shouto couldn't help but start crying in Izuku's arms.

Words of what happened slowly flowed out his lips as he calmed down enough for human speech, and Izuku listened with rapt attention then gave him all the consoling he needed.

"Shou-chan, that's easy. You can live me us" Izuku said after Shouto told him how he didn't want to be like his father and did not want to live with him anymore.

But such a solution was too impractical right?

Apparently, it wasn't.

Izuku said things to Mrs. Midoriya which caused her to gasp and ran over to give him a hug.

The two then said something to the doctor and nurse in charge of him, and caused them to send him great pitying looks and before he knew it, Shouto was out of the hospital and was in the Midoriya's household having dinner.

But of course, things were not that easy.

The door burst opened with a loud bang and his father stormed inside the house, demanding Shouto to return with him.

His father still controlled his life and there was nothing he could do. Him staying here would only trouble Izuku and Mrs. Midoriya further, Shouto resolved himself to the inevitability.

Yet as he was about to move, Izuku's hand grabbed his and pulled him to hide behind Mrs. Midoriya. His friend was glaring at his father with fiercest look that Shouto had ever seen from Izuku. At that moment, he felt hope and as Mrs. Midoriya continued to speak, that hope grew.

Mrs. Midoriya invoked her invisible judicial authority and her powers of connections and it scared his father into leaving. His father, who always got what he wanted, was forced to retreat by words alone. At that moment, Mrs. Midoriya couldn't have been more heroic.

Time flies when you're happy or so the saying goes and Shouto's time soared.

He couldn't seem to imagine a day without Izuku anymore, he needed Izuku's warm protection and hoped that he could give Izuku the same security.

Yet despite his efforts, the name calling and bullying seemed worse as Izuku grew older. Shouto stopped all physical pains, but he knew emotional pains were the hardest to deal with.

It wasn't as if all quirks made people stronger. The boy with the turtle shell attached to his back had no right to call Izuku names, not when his quirk made him slower and more useless than the average person, yet standards says quirkless people were weaker than those with quirks.

The worst case was during Tokyo national museum, when Izuku's kindness got him in trouble – again.

When the blonde boy was going to punch Izuku, something dark in Shouto blazed. If the teachers had not stopped them from fighting, Shouto might have even used his fire side from the anger – the side he'd kept unused for so long.

It was then that Shouto decided that if Izuku's dream were to come true, he would need actual combat training, for as intelligent as Izuku was, villains were not going to fall by Izuku's shouting.

There were lots of combat classes brochures that his father sent – as he couldn't train Shouto personally anymore, and they were quite useful in this instance.

Izuku refused at first, but when the phrase 'don't you want to be a hero' popped up, he couldn't help but agree to the aikido and other martial art classes Shouto suggested.

The bullying came to a halt when another boy, whose name Shouto couldn't care less about, tried to attack Shouto, only to be thrown on his back. That satisfied Shouto to no end, even though Izuku chided him that wishing harm on others was not a heroic thought.

And as much as Shouto admired Izuku's tenacity towards heroics, he wished that Izuku could reduce his recklessness to a bare minimum, if only to stop Shouto's heart from overbeating.

But nooo. Izuku had to help another boy in their class who couldn't swim, when he was swept away by a sudden large wave. He swam to the floating ring that the boy lost, put it on him and pushed him back near the shore where teachers were running to help.

Another large wave approached and Shouto started running.

A crash resonated as the wave broke, swallowing Izuku and Shouto.

In desperation, he tried to find Izuku. Somehow within the darkness of the seas, their hands connected, and using all his strength, Shouto pulled Izuku near.

When his head finally got out of the water, he realized Izuku was unconscious and they were pulled away quite far from the beach. The nearest land being a small island and rainclouds were approaching.

Quickly making his decision, Shouto formed an ice pathway from where they were to the island. Struggling, he pushed Izuku onto the ice before climbing up onto it.

He was incredibly tired, but luckily, Izuku was light. And using what was left of his strength, he lifted Izuku onto his back and hurried to the island's beach, desperate as he heard Izuku made troubled breathing noises.

Shouto laid Izuku on the beach, and in desperation, Shouto pumped Izuku's chest, tears falling at the thought that anything might happen to Izuku.

When Izuku's eyes opened, and the green haired boy started coughing out seawater, Shouto was beyond relieved.

He couldn't imagine what he would do, if something happened to Izuku. Izuku who was always so kind, warm and filled with heroism.

In that instant, reasonable approach disappeared as he slammed his lips to Izuku's. It was not a good kiss – Shouto was certain, but it was one filled with desperation, need, desire and fear and at that moments, words could not describe the emotions that bubbled through him.

Pulling Izuku into an embrace, he hoped Izuku understood his feelings. "You're such an idiot, Izuku." Was all he could manage then.

He would chide Izuku more about his reckless behavior, but the rain started falling and coconut trees were rather useless in shielding them from the downpour.

Izuku was shivering, and Shouto thought about his fire side, something he had not thought about in a long long time.

It was a mark that bonded him to his father, a remembrance of what happened with his mum and Shouto never wanted to use it again. But if he were to be a hero, using it would be necessary, especially if he wanted to protect Izuku.

Izuku who was always so kind to him, Izuku who was always there in times of pain and in times of happiness.

Izuku who Shouto wouldn't mind using his fire side for.

He used it to warm himself and Izuku, and when Izuku realized what he'd done, the smile Shouto received from him was a priceless one.

After their trip, Shouto had not yet confirmed with Izuku about the things that occurred, about Shouto's feeling towards Izuku. Perhaps it was his own cowardice, in fear that Izuku might reject him – and rejection from Izuku was something he couldn't take.

Shouto was slowly building up his courage, yet the day after they returned from the Okinawa trip, the slime villain attack happened – and Izuku seemed to leave home early in the morning and only return late at night.

A rebellious part of his mind whispered that Izuku was avoiding him, that Izuku wouldn't want anything to do with someone like Shouto. And try as he might to disagree, he hadn't talked much with Izuku lately.

But the event that occurred in Okinawa along with the villain attack at least taught Shouto one thing. That life was fragile, and within moments, there are possibilities that the ones you love might be gone.

He thought about his mother, his kind mother who he should've forgiven long ago.

Shouto didn't know how long he stood in front of his mother's room.

He took a deep breath for courage, knocked and entered.

It was a small en suite room, but it was pristinely kept. His mum sat near the window, turning as he entered, revealing surprise.

"S-Shouto." She said, eyes widened. Her surprise made him guilty, he should've come long ago, no matter what she did, she was one of the few people who truly loved him.

"Sorry… Sorry that I never visited. Sorry that I didn't come sooner." He muttered, face facing the floor.

He only realized his mum had stood up only when he had been pulled into a hug, he could feel the warm moisture on his shoulder.

"Oh Shouto." She said through her tears. "I'm the one who should be saying sorry. For never taking you away from that man, for never taking actions, for only watching because I was scared what he would do."

"No. Mum, It wasn't your fault. It wasn't your fault" He said as he hugged her back, telling her how much he'd missed her through their embrace.

Once they got passed the tears, his mum was as warm, witty, kind and funny as ever.

She'd apparently heard how he was now living with the Midoriyas from his siblings, but even they did not know the details of how it truly happened. And his mum laughed herself to tears and he told him how Mrs. Midoriya used her connections to the judicial court to force his father out of the house.

"You truly love him don't you? That boy Izuku." She said, startling him. Shouto had not even mentioned to her about his feelings for Izuku.

"H-how." He asked, a little distressed by her knowing.

"It's the way your eyes shine a little brighter when mentioning him and the way your lips curve upward when you seem to think of him," She replied knowingly.

"And you don't mind that it's a he?" His questioned caused his mum to giggle.

"I don't think I'm in any position to judge people on their preferences and choices, seeing that I married your father. I know I was pressured, it in the end, it was my choice to marry him."

Since she not knew what was happening, Shouto decided to tell her everything, including his dilemma about what had been happening recently.

"I think he might be angry at me for kissing him without his consent. Or maybe he doesn't want to stay with me anymore."

His mum laughed at his words, and Shouto sent her a betrayed look.

"Now that's the silliest thing you've said. From everything you've told me, Izuku doesn't seem like someone who'll avoid problems, he seems like someone who'll face it head on. Besides, you said you two were still talking normally on your way back to Tokyo, right?" He nodded.

"Are you sure that this isn't some misunderstanding on your part?" She asked and it made a lot of sense. He supposed he had been avoiding Izuku as he was building up courage. Then Izuku was always home lately, and was asleep so quickly as well.

She was right. His Izuku wouldn't escape a problem, he would always tackle it head on.

"Thank you, mum. I'll be back." He said, giving her another hug.

"Bring him to see me when you start dating okay?" She said, giggling as she saw the blush on his face.

He resorted to waking up at 4am to catch Izuku as he was about the leave the house.

Deep down, he knew Izuku would never hurt him, but actually confronting the problems and his own feelings still made him nervous.

It was a big misunderstanding like his mum said. And when Izuku returned his kiss, Shouto thought he was the happiest man in the world.

Initially, Izuku seemed hesitant about what was happening but in the end, he decided to tell Shouto everything – "We're boyfriends now, and lovers shouldn't have secrets," were the exact words Izuku said and it filled Shouto's stomach with butterflies.

Shouto could not have been more surprised to know All-Might quirk was a quirk that could be transferred between individuals. He was less surprise that Izuku would be the next inheritor, after all, he knew no one else more heroic than Izuku.

He decided to follow his boyfriend to the beach, seeing his worried expression as he mumbled how All-Might might be angry about him spilling secrets.

But it turned out that All-Might was as heroic on the inside as he was on the outside. And before he knew it, Shouto was also inducted into the training schedule.

Izuku lied on the ground beside Shouto. The sun was setting, but to Shouto, it meant a new dawn was approaching.

His hand intertwined with Izuku's and the soft squeeze he received told him that Izuku felt the same.

"Shou-chan. We'll be real heroes soon." Izuku said.

"We will." Shouto reaffirmed.

And when there were, nothing was going to stop them. They were better when they're together. After all, when they're together, Shouto was certain that they were invicible.

I love them both so muchhh 3

Love you too :)