Midoriya Izuku is born like any other baby, screaming and wailing his little lungs out. Normal.

Except that something slides in on the first breath he ever takes. No one sees it, no one could even be able to see it, but it does, and it merges with the boy's entire being, imbeds itself into his very soul, and he goes abruptly silent.

It also happens the moment the nurses give him to his mother to hold, so they just attribute his sudden quietness to that. Still normal, if a bit odd.

Wrong.

Inko's son is 12 years old, full of life, and hardworking. Very, very hardworking.

He comes skidding into the kitchen, and gasps violently when he catches her putting away clean dishes.

"Mom!" he yells, horrified, "I forgot to wash my plate! I will now proceed to run through the whole neighbourhood on my fingers to make up for my mistake!"

"Izuku, you really don't need t-" he runs back out, and she hears their front door open then slam closed. And he's already gone, she thinks with exasperated fondness.

She dries her hands, and goes to sit down on a chair with a sigh.

Inko really doesn't know where he got his obsessive drive or his strange… training methods, from, but ever since he was old enough to, he always had this desire to, to prove himself, be the strongest he could be, and even the news about his status as quirkless didn't hinder him any.

It just made him even more determined.

"I am sorry to inform you, Mrs. Midoriya, but your son is quirkless."

Inko took a shuddering breath, her eyes burning, and turned to look at her son, expecting a crestfallen face and shattered dreams.

This is not what she found.

"Yosh! I will just have to work harder than anybody to go toe to toe with the strongest of quirks!" He declares, eyes blazing with fire. "Do not worry, Mom! For it has been done before, and I can do it again!"

Done before? The tears are gone now, replaced with apprehension, and a need to tell him to stop, stop now, don't try, you'll only get hurt if you do.

She begins to say it, to try to quell his rapidly growing ambition if only to keep her baby boy safe-

But he doesn't give her the time to, and with a little hurt in his voice, he says, "I will do it! I will be a genius of hard work, and there is not anything, anybody can do to stop me!"

And her son, who was already so athletic, more so than anyone else his age, redoubled his efforts.

Jogging around the neighborhood became running across the city on his hands, push ups were done on one finger at a time, sometimes she found him practicing some kicks and maneuvers in their backyard that who knows he even learned from- and dozens and dozens of other ways to make himself faster, stronger, better, that at times she couldn't even keep up with.

Sometimes he worked himself to exhaustion, until he couldn't even move, and that's when she got worried.

"Izuku, I know you want to improve, but- but this is too much." She tells him, when she finds him like that, one day. "You can't keep doing this! Training until you can't stand is not healthy for you, and it worries me!"

He's laying on the couch with his hair shadowing his eyes, and he hasn't moved from that position since he came back home.

Or, he hasn't moved until now.

"I have to!" he bursts out, sitting up. It is the first time he raises his voice at her, and she stares on, shocked. "I will never achieve anything if I do not give it more than my all!

"No one believes I can do it, not even you believe so, but I will never give up! I learned better than that a long time ago!" His hair moves out of his face and- He's crying. Oh, Izuku.

Inko feels ashamed, at that moment. Ashamed of herself, because she couldn't bring herself to believe in her own son, to support him, And what kind of mother does that make me?

She tries to wipe her own suddenly overflowing tears, but finds that she can't, so she reaches out and enveloppes him in a hug.

"I'm so sorry, Izuku!"

They sit like that, both crying their eyes out on the couch, and oh, they're definitely mother and son.

When they both calm down enough, she pulls back to look him in the eyes, and tells him, voice wobbling but with underlying steel in it "Pro- promise me, Izuku, promise me you'll take better care of yourself. Ignoring your limits will only hurt you more in the end, and the last thing I want for you is to get hurt." Even if I unintentionally did that before, she doesn't say, but not again. Never again.

He starts to protest, but he knows that she won't be moved. "I promise."

She hears the door opening again. Oh, he's back.

He's slightly winded, but otherwise looks the same as, hm, 3 minutes ago?

"I think you finished it faster than before, dear." she remarks.

He lets out a boisterous laugh, which, on a 12 year old, sounds adorable, and she lets out a small giggle too. "You noticed? It is indeed true! I have finished it 17 seconds earlier than last month, and I endeavor to up it to 30 seconds the next!"

"I know you can do it!", she tells him, and she really does.

He positively glows at that, and he strikes his favorite pose, extending a thumbs up and winking up at her with a grin, "Thank you, Mom!"

A regular day at the Midoriya household, really.