A Wallflower's Thorns

2. Bloom

If you ever ask Izuku what hell is, he'll say the beach.

Not the beach that everyone thinks of - with pure sand and waves lapping gently at the shores. No, his beach has towering piles of junk, the stench of rotting wood, and the overhanging threat of tetanus pretty much everywhere.

All Might had told him that cleaning up the beach was excellent training for One for All, and Izuku did notice that he was gaining muscle mass, but that didn't stop him from hating that strip of sand with every ounce of his being.

If there's one benefit to any of it, Izuku decides that it's the seagulls. A lot of them lost their homes when trash started to wash up on the shores, and Izuku feels no small amount of triumph when he sees the birds exploring the few clean patches of sand he had created.

It's a weekend today, meaning that Izuku arrives at the beach at seven in the morning. He stretches for ten minutes and gets to work. He starts with a fridge he'd been in the middle of moving the day before. The junk is twenty feet from it's original position, but Izuku still needs to move it a hundred more. He's at the ten foot marker when he spots a familiar head of blond hair.

"All Might!" Izuku says, stopping his progress and standing straight. "What are you doing here so early?"

All Might blinks, the effect of notice-me-not dissolving. "Ah, there you are." He says, waving as he comes closer. "I could ask you the same thing, my boy, don't you have friends to hang out with?"

"Well..." Izuku begins, drawing the word out as he avoids eye contact. "I don't really have many of those - I don't have any, actually."

The silence that comes from the hero makes Izuku want to dig a hole and hide in it. "And why's that?"

Izuku wants to gesture to himself and demand "Have you seen me?" But at this point he just wants to drop the matter. "I never really clicked with any of them, I guess." Not a lie, but not the truth.

All Might hums, "Well, you're not alone. Back in my school days it took me a while to find friends."

"But you're..." Izuku struggles to find a fitting word, "you!"

At that, All Might barks out a laugh. "I wasn't number one hero from the start, my boy. I had my share of screw-ups and mishaps." He leans in close, like he's about to share a secret, "To be honest, I never made any real friends until high school - but the ones I made are still my friends to this day." He pats Izuku's shoulder, Izuku stomps on the urge to leap three feet in the air. "You'll find your group, my boy, just give it a bit more time."

Izuku doubts it. He can't even muster a hello to his teacher on good days, how was he supposed to make any friends like that? He's awkward, he's shy, he never says anything. He was going to be the outcast the rest of his life. He doesn't say this aloud, he just smiles and nods like he agrees.

He spends a solid five hours on the beach today, and he makes pretty good progress, too. The fridge is moved, so are a few old couches whose wood is already halfway rotten. A new path of sand is visible, at least twenty by twenty feet. Izuku feels pretty proud of himself every time he looks at it.

All Might claps his hands when Izuku finishes moving the last piece of furniture. "Good job, my boy. That's it for today."