Chapter 9

'Thoughts'

Flashback/TV/Phone/Texts

Quirks

Izuku slowly opened his eyes before quickly shutting them. It was too bright. It was all to bright. Even when he shut his eyelids he could still see the light. So he grabbed the pillow his head was resting on and covered his head with it.

"Zuzu! You're awake!" A familiar cheery voice yelled in excitement.

Ignoring his now very noticeable headache, he shot up from the bed, letting the pillow fall off the bed and hit the floor. The light that was previously hurting his eyes was ignored.

Ochako was sitting in a chair against a wall in the room, looking at him with a big smile on her face. After getting over his initial shock he noticed that he was not in his room and Ochako was not in his room either.

"What… happened?" Izuku said as he put a hand to his head as the other pushed him up so he could sit up fully.

"Well, we won the exercise, but then you passed out after you and Bakugo fought." Ochako explained before getting up and walking to the door. "I'll go tell Recovery Girl you're awake."

"Ok, thank you." Izuku thanked as Ochako waved goodbye and left.

Izuku pushed himself up higher so he could lean against the bed frame. He was usually never this tired after he fought against Bakugo. Hell, they must've fought hundreds of times by now, but what was different this time?

He flinched as his head pulsed again. Wait, now he remembered. Bakugo was actually able to hit him this time. But was one hit really enough to take him out?

Well, Bakugo hit him twice but the point still stands.

He couldn't dodge forever. He could dodge for hours on end, but if someone could distract him like Bakugo than land a hit he'd be beaten.

And he was pretty sure that villains didn't lessen their hits like Bakugo did.

Recovery Girls entry snapped him out of his own thoughts. She began listing off his minor injuries and said he needed to be more careful. That's he's lucky that is was just exhaustion and not a concussion.

Soon after, Izuku was cleared to leave and so he did. He put on his uniform and walked back to his classroom.

(Class 1-A)

Izuku opened the door to class 1-A and immediately all eyes were on him. Immediately he was surrounded by a bunch of his classmates.

"That was so cool!"

"Your fight was even flashier than myself."

"I'm glad you're ok Zuzu!"

"Your prowess in battle is very impressive Midoriya."

"I didn't expect that outcome. You are full of surprises Midoriya.

"Your fight with Bakubro was so manly!"

Izuku has already turtleheaded himself in his shirt during everyone surrounding him, but poked his head out a little when he heard the last part.

"Bakubro?" Izuku asked. "How are you still alive? Bakugo should have killed you by now."

"Shut it mosshead!" The blonde yelled out as he stalked up to Izuku, with a… towel in his hand?

"Why do you have a…" Izuku was interrupted as Bakugo started hitting him with it.

"DON'T! WHACK DO THAT! WHACK AGAIN!" Bakugo yelled as he whacked Izuku over the head.

"OW, I deserved that. OW I deserved that too." Bakugo whacked him one more time before Izuku caught the towel. "OW! YOU'RE PUSHING YOUR LUCK PISS HAIR!"

Bakugo yanked the towel back and grunted. "Don't fall asleep after a fight next time and I won't have too."

"See Iida!" Ochako said happily. "Bakugo does care!"

"Indeed."

"I DO NOT!"

The entire class was already laughing at Izuku getting assaulted with a towel, but this made most of them double over in laughter.

(Later)

Izuku sighed as he closed the door to his home behind him and walked to the bathroom. While he already felt a lot better than earlier, he also felt insanely tired. His already horrible sleep schedule combined with exhaustion from a fight AND Recovery Girls quirk had him barely standing.

Luckily, hiding things is his specialty.

Maybe a nice warm shower would wake him up long enough to finish his homework, then maybe he could get some sleep.

His phone buzzed just as he was taking off his shirt. He checked it and saw it was a text from Ochako.

Hey Izuku! Just wanted to make sure your ok. You seemed really tired after the battle training, but you were acting fine. So i just want to ass if youre ok

Izuku raised an eyebrow as he read the spelling error.

Ask* Ughhh, I hate my keyboard! :(

Izuku started to uncontrollably laugh. Just imagining Ochako frown like the little emoji and scream 'no' at her phone was a really funny mental image.

He sent a text back.

Im fine, just a lil tired. Im bout to hop in the shower then get started on my homework

Soon after he hit send, Ochako sent another message.

Ok, just checking. And I need to get started too! Talk to you later Zuzu

Izuku smiled at the nickname she gave him. While he couldn't smile like that in public, lest Bakugo see and make the rest of Izuku's day hell.

U 2, see ya

With the message sent, Izuku put down his phone and stripped off the rest of his clothes before he started the shower.

Today was fun.

(1:46 AM)

"Your fault."

"Failure."

"She left you on purpose."

"She hates you."

"Everyone hates you."

"You're all to blame."

"STOOOP!" Izuku screamed as he bolted out of bed, sweat dripping his forehead.

He could barely see, everything was too much. His chest was raising and falling with every desperate breathe. With each breathe he slowly felt it get harder, soon finding that he couldn't breathe.

Why couldn't he breathe?

What's wrong? Why couldn't he breathe?!

Izuku began panicking, grabbing and clawing at his chest in a futile attempt to regain the ability to breathe.

Suddenly, everything stopped. He could breathe again. He could see straight. Everything was normal.

Izuku was still catching his breath with he noticed that his quirk was active. Everything in his room was floating. He slowly lowered everything down, making sure not to break anything. But something fell out from his dresser.

Instead of just using his quirk to put it away, he felt the urge to get up to get it. And so he did.

He put his bare feet on the carpeted floor and slowly walked to the fallen object. As he was getting closer and closer, he could make out the shape of it.

As he got closer he realized it was a stuffed animal. Once he stood in front of the little toy, he remembered what it was.

It was a yellow stuffed elephant. It's torso was covered in little multi colored strips that poked out. Polka dotted coloring was on its hands, feet, and ears. Izuku reaches down and grabbed it and immediately felt the strips on the front part of the torso. They were so soft and silky. It felt so comforting.

He remembered now.

He got this when he was a kid, three-ish. Mom got it for him. He named it Eli, it was around the time he was first learning how to say animal names. He forgot he had it in his dresser.

"Eli huh?" Inko said with a soft smile. "Well, Eli here can keep you from being lonely when Mama isn't around, ok?"

As Izuku finished thinking about the memory, he realized he'd been crying, feeling tears flow down his cheeks and to his chin. Gently hugging the now names Eli, Izuku turned and walked to his bed, pulling the blanket over him.

Izuku slept with no nightmares nor dreams the rest of the night, a completely undisturbed dead sleep. Some may find this kind of sleep not to be satisfying. Izuku just welcomed it with no argument.

He was sure he had a test tomorrow… or was it today?

(UA High School, Lunch)

Everything was just white noise. During classes he was barely able to keep up, only enough to take notes and look like he was paying attention. They had to do a voting thing for a class president? Izuku put Iida's name down, laid his head on the table, and rested his eyes.

When lunch rolled around he skipped grabbing a tray and just walked to his table. He might be hungry, but he just wanted to rest.

He laid his head down and closed his eyes. A few minutes passed and he still hasn't fell asleep, only being successful at resting his eyes. A few more minutes and Uraraka, Iida, and Bakugo sat down.

"Hey Zu-oh." Ochako cut herself off by covering her own mouth. "Is he sleeping?"

Iida messed with his glasses. "I do not think so. It is very loud in here for someone to even think to themselves properly."

"Weed head's not asleep." Bakugo growled. "What he is doing is not eating."

" 'm not hungry." Izuku said into the table.

Bakugo grabbed Izuku by them back of his collar and lifted him up. "Yes you are, now come on and go get your fuckin lunch." Bakugo ordered before dragging him to the line.

Izuku waited a short while before he got his food. He walked over to the table again and began eating. Iida and Bakugo were arguing about eating etiquette or something when Uraraka turned to him.

"Hey um, Izuku?" Ochako asked.

Izuku swallowed a mouthful of food before turned to her. "Yeah?"

"Are you ok?" Ochako asked, looking worried.

"U-Um." Izuku stuttered, not expecting it.

As luck would have it, a very loud alarm rang out, scaring the students in the lunchroom.

"What in the name of shit fuck is going on!?" Bakugo roared above the alarm.

Izuku was covering his ears with his hands. "Not sure, but it must be important!"

"I know why!" Iida yelled, like almost every time he spoke, but ten times louder. "This alarm rings when there is an intruder on campus!"

"Then shouldn't we leave!?" Ochako shouted.

Bakugo turned to her. "You wanna go out there and get crushed, go right ahead!?"

Izuku looked around to try to find any staff or pro but only saw out a nearby window. He saw Eraserhead and Present Mic talking to some news reporters.

"Guys!" Izuku shouted to get his friends attention. "It's just some reporters!"

"We need to tell everyone!" Iida spoke.

"But how?!" Ochako yelled back. "Everyone's too loud!"

"I got an idea!" Izuku shouted before he turned to Bakugo. "SUKI! TELL THEM TO BE QUIET!"

"SHUUUUUUUT UUUUUUUP!" Bakugo raged, more at Izuku than the crowd.

The entire horde of students stopped their panicking as they all turned to the noise that was louder than the alarms.

Quick on his feet, no pun intended, Iida took over from there. "EVERYONE! DO NOT PANIC! THE MEDIA WERE SOMEHOW ABLE TO SNEAK INTO THE SCHOOL! WE ARE IN NO DANGER! NOW PLEASE CALM DOWN AND WALK IN A ORDERLY MANNER!"

Iida finished as he started to huff. Everyone immediately calmed down and began walking, starting conversations and joking about the false alarm.

Izuku was rubbing his ears in pain. "Jesus Tapdancing Christ Iida. That was louder than Katsuki. And I called him the S word."

"Damn right you called me the fucking S word." Bakugo growled.

Iida looked embarrassed. "A-Apologizes. I didn't mean to hurt your ears."

"It's cool dude." Izuku yawned as he put his hands in his pockets and began walking away. "Let's start heading to the evacuation site with everyone else, Aizawa won't be able to get us in trouble if we come in a large pack."

Bakugo followed after him. "Doubt it. Pink eye would expel the entire school."

Ochako hurried after them. "Do you think the principal would let that happen?"

Iida was already ahead of everyone using his mastered speed walked technique. "I would hope not. That would leave a huge blemish on the schools reputation for punishing the students for the schools lack of security."

"I'd still think he'd do it." Izuku shrugged.

"Probably." The three others all responded in unison.

And even after this entire situation, Ochako never forgot her question, but sadly couldn't find another opening to ask again.

AN: Hey guys. So uh… yeah this is long overdue and way to short compared to the wait. Sorry. Also, I have a little rant I need to get off my chest, but if you don't want to see it the skip to the next paragraph.

I've been reading fanfics about a lot of things in my absence. And there's this on little thing that's been aggravating me off. Character Dialogue (CD). Sounds simple right? It should be. But some people can't get it right. They can right extremely descriptive chapters, 5,000 words long, and an amazing plot that can make an enjoyable read. But then they don't make the character speak like how they do in the canon material. And I'm not talking about OOC's. For example, making football meathead say "Wow, that was extremely confusing" or "I don't understand Mother" or "That's a false statement" I shit you not people actually make meathead characters who get negative F's in English speak like that. And I hate it with every fiber of my useless existence. Why why WHYYYY DELILAH! *ahem* Sorry about that. Anyway, while some may not care for it, or find it funny, it just throws off an entire story for me. And I'm going to say it right now before anyone else can. Yes, I'm 99% sure I've done this exact thing I've just bitched about. BUT, I've changed the way I write CD and the way characters interact.

With that over with, I'd like to thank the people who are putting up with me. I'm sorry I can't write chapters fast enough for you all, and honestly I don't deserve the attention I have on my other story. I didn't even think it through beforehand and it got way out of hand. BUT BUT BUT, I'm never canceling these stories. I can not, will not allow myself to do that. I've seen so many stories just left alone. Never to be finished. I won't let my stories become apart of that. Manly because of you guys and girls + all the people in between.

Thank you all so very much for reading and reviewing, it helps a lot. And now, I'll say again till next time. Welp, Ash Out.