Glass Heart

Glass Heart - Chapter Sixty-Two

Shoto stared at Izuku absentmindedly, as class continued on, thinking in his head about what Dabi said to him - insinuating Izuku feels the same way as he does. Was Dabi right? Does Izuku really feel that way about him?

He sighed, leaning back into his chair, not paying attention to the class at all. His mind raced with ideas and plans on how he could confess his feelings to Izuku - should he buy flowers? Chocolates? Maybe something more sentimental, like a notebook? No, not a plain notebook, Izuku could get those easy...

"Aizawa, are you even paying attention?!" The teacher yelled, causing Izuku to flinch and stare back up at her. Shoto - who had been watching Izuku this entire time and knew he was paying attention to the class - glanced back up, confused. If anything, he should be the one being yelled at.

"Y - Yes, I am?" Izuku replied hesitantly, not sure what sparked the sudden change in her personality towards him.

"Well I don't believe you." She stalked up to him. "I have trouble believing liars."

"W - What do you... mean?" He asked quietly, afraid to know the answer.

"What I mean is, I went to your previous school by coincidence, and mentioned you were in my class and how smart you were with your quirk!" She yelled. With each word, Izuku shrank further into his seat, eyes wide with fear. Unconsciously, frost coated Shoto's arm, in preparation for a fight. Hitoshi tensed up as well, and even Katsuki seemed more annoyed than normal by her words.

"My... my quirk?" Izuku squeaked, realising where this was going.

"Yes, your quirk. Or rather - your non-existent one."

It suddenly became so quiet you could hear Izuku's breathing - if he was breathing. Shoto reached over under the shared desk, and took hold of Izuku's hand, which was clenched into a fist in fear. Once he felt Shoto's hand, his own gradually relaxed, until he was able to hold Shoto's hand in comfort.

And then the class started to yell.

"Quirkless? I didn't realise kids nowadays even were still quirkless!"

"I knew something was wrong with that Aizawa kid."

"You won't catch me talking to him again."

"What if it's contagious?"

"Everyone SHUT THE HELL UP!" Katsuki screamed, jumping from his chair, and landing solidly on his desk. Everyone's eyes turned to him, he continued his speech. "Izuku shouldn't be defined by his quirk, you bastards! Izuku is Izuku, the same kid you met months ago! The fact he doesn't have a quirk shouldn't change the opinion of him you had from the start of the year!"

The teacher's eye turned to Katsuki. "Bakugou... are you actually defending him, against me? He was acting out in class! He deserves detention for a week at least-!"

"Oh yeah? And me standing on school property, screaming at you and the other kids, and telling you to fuck right off doesn't result in me getting at least the same - if not worse - punishment as him, a kid who actually did nothing wrong? Yeah, maybe go ahead and shove that quirkiest bullshit up your-"

"Kacchan!" Izuku squeaked out, embarrassed by the obvious implications of what Katsuki was about to say. Shoto noted Izuku seemed a lot more relaxed now and was starting to inch back towards the desk. Shoto gently rubbed circles on Izuku's back in comfort, glancing upwards at Katsuki who was engaged in a heated battle against their teacher.

His lips lifted slightly upwards.

Maybe Katsuki wasn't so bad after all.

---TimeSkip---

Shoto had found it - the perfect place. It was fairly cliché, but in a few weeks hopefully it should be ready for his confession. That gave him plenty of time to find a gift for Izuku, and then the rest of the time could be spent practising, because Shoto was not going to mess this up!

He sighed and turned away from the small area of the field, trying to find Izuku and Hitoshi - lunch was almost over, they were probably concerned about where he was. He had been quite vague when he left at the start of lunch, since he didn't want to explain to Izuku he was trying to find a place to confess to him. That'd be an awkward conversation.

"Izuku? Hitoshi?" He called. No response. Shoto sighed. "Katsuki?"

No response again. Huh. That's strange.

Shoto ran back inside the school and started searching around. He didn't find Hitoshi, Katsuki or Izuku, but he did find a student in the nurse's office with a bloody nose - he was just glad it wasn't Izuku.

He sighed and turned to leave.

"You're Izuku's friend, right?" The kid asked. "Izuku had always been so kind to me, can you help him?"

The kid seemed upset - desperate almost. Shoto felt chills run down his spine - and not just because of his quirk. "What... what do you mean?" He asked. "I'll do my best to help, but I need you to explain everything."

"Izuku's quirkless... the news spread throughout the school, and when it got to my class, one of the students - an older brother of one of the students from your class - got annoyed Izuku was interacting with his brother while quirkless. He... he said he would make Izuku pay! I... I tried to persuade him not to, but..." The kid covered his face with his hands, getting blood from his nose on his palms, and sobbed.

Shoto wanted to ask how the kid was somehow older than he was even though the kid looked... well, like a kid, but he had his priorities. "You're doing great kid. Where's Izuku?"

"In... In the janitor's closet. They said they were going to... going to lock him in there."

Shoto froze. "Izuku... Izuku is claustrophobic." He muttered, mostly to himself, before he jumped up and sprinted out of the office, Izuku being the only thing on his mind. That... and making the people who decided to hurt Izuku suffer.

Hi everyone!

So EVERYONE has been asking me about this 'box' I illuded to in previous chapters, well... now you're gonna find out what it is!... In the next chapter XD

But it has something to do with why Izuku is claustrophobic. He's always been claustrophobic in my fic, I just never really had a way to bring it up? So... yeah, now you all know! In chapter sixty two... I'm such a great author XD

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading. I made it to 200 followers I'm so happy! And also, this book has almost - probably will by tomorrow morning - hit 50K! Which is absolutely incredible, I'd never have imagined one of my books ever hitting that milestone. Thank you all for all your incredible support.

With that, I'm gonna get back to writing chapters haha. I'll see you guys again soon.

But for now...

Peachy out! 😊