Titans (A BakuDeku Kaiju AU)

Roses

The ceiling was inky black, broken by the moonlight outside and the plastic stars that glowed in the dark. Izuku couldn't remember when those glow stars were put there, but it served as a good place to start with what the 4-year-old was about to do. Closing the curtains of his windows, and making sure that his mother was asleep, he locked the door and sitting under the cover of his blankets. He brought up his palm and concentrated. Nothing happened. He made a frustrated noise.

"Ok, let's try again," he mumbled. He brought up the image of the glowing plastic stars, trying to focus. Imagining the soft green glow, not piercing like a torchlight, trying to grasp that energy from before. He felt it build up under his skin, slowly and calmly.

'A bit more,' he thought, eyes closed and focusing on the feeling in his palms. He felt it stirring more and more, like water filing a cup. He let it build a bit more, trying to reach the edge but not to overspill. But he quickly loses control, and the energy rushes out of him like the water of a fire hydrant. The sensation of it pulsing outwards made him open his eyes. The dark space of his blanket was now lit with white light. He quickly let go of the energy and the light disappeared.

"Still can't get it," he groaned in frustration, letting himself fall unto the mattress.

It had been two weeks since his quirk revealed itself. Two weeks of him celebrating and playing with Kacchan. Two weeks of him realizing that all he could do was turn into a walking light bulb. And two weeks of him trying to find a way to make it useful, practicing with his light. He wanted to show people how cool his quirk was. And that was the time that Kacchan scheduled for them to reveal their quirks.

"Two weeks Izu!" he had told him. "Two weeks to practice our new quirks. Let's show those extras how cool we are."

Izuku agreed, because he wanted to be just as cool as Kacchan wanted him to be. And Kacchan believed in him to be cool. So he practiced every day. He managed to make his light come easily. The problem was the intensity of his light.

"It's too bright honey," his mother had told him when he tried after they got home from the picnic. "You can accidentally blind someone if you're not careful."

Now Izuku didn't want that. A hero that blinded people wasn't gonna be a big help. While blinding the bad guy could help, it wouldn't do to blind the people he was gonna be saving. So he had been trying to see if he could make the light be less intense. Two weeks later, he still hadn't made any progress. Well, maybe a little progress.

He sighed as he lifted a finger, letting his power flow, a small glow coming from the tip. He waved the finger around, trying to make patterns in the streaks it left on his eyes. He then put a bit more energy into it. The glow became a full stream of light, the size of his finger tip. He waved the beam around, like playing with a flashlight. He tried to make the energy spread, out of his fingers and into his hand, trying to make the beam bigger and brighter. His small finger light faded and a glow started to appear on his palms. But when he tried to make it into a full beam, the glow vanished.

"Why can't I get this?" he asked himself out loud. He lifted his head from the bed before thumping it back down. Dragging the covers of himself, he decided to drink a glass of water before sleeping, already out of bed, when the door opened. He froze in his tracks as his mother peeked through the gap.

"Izuku? Why are you still awake?" she sleepily mumbled. He gave her an awkward smile. "I was gonna drink some water?" he tried to excuse. His mother just stared at him, blinking slowly, and Izuku realized that his mother seemed too exhausted to even be awake yet.

"Mama, why you awake so early?"

She stretched her arms above her head, yawning "I heard the TV was on and thought you were sneaking off to watch hero videos again."