A Wallflower's Thorns

19

Izuku waits until after school to go to the address scribbled on the note. He packed a spare set of clothes in his backpack this morning. The Yuuei uniform is too distinct, and he’s pretty sure Twice doesn’t know he’s Wallflower or Midoriya Izuku. He avoids the All Might hoodie - the memories of dark rooms and haunting voices are bad enough he can’t even look at the piece of clothing for long. Instead, he picks out a nondescript black sweatshirt. The hood is a tad too tight, but that just means none of Izuku’s hair will poke out on accident. Izuku pops into a public bathroom and gets changed before setting off. 

 

It’s the more dilapidated part of town that he finds himself in. Old concrete and older residents, skin leathered by blue-collar days in the sun and general age. No one shoots him any weird looks, no one even bothers to spare him more than a glance. He doesn’t even have Notice me Not on, it’s just their way. 

 

The address leads him to an apartment complex. Izuku stakes it out for all of thirty minutes before he determines it’s safe enough to take the stairs up. Room 453, the furthest door down the hall of the fourth floor, looks abandoned at first glance. Then again, so do all of these doors. Some are so weathered he could push on one and it would crumble into mulch. At least rent would be cheap, Izuku thinks to himself. 

 

He stands at the door, staring. Now or never, Izuku, come on, it’s just a door. Hiding a guy who is clearly unstable. Who has Izuku’s hat. 

 

There’s a crash behind the door when Izuku musters up enough courage to knock. Izuku bites his lip and debates the pros and cons of turning Notice me Not on as the sounds continue, clutter being moved to the side as the person behind the door comes closer and closer. He runs out of time when the door swings open and Izuku is greeted by a woman he can say with confidence he’s never seen before in his life. 

 

The lady seems put together enough, with unremarkable features and no real outward appearance other than generic dark hair and dark eyes. She perks up when her eyes land on Izuku. “Oh! You’re here!” She looks over her shoulder yelling, “Hey! The kid from the alley’s here for his hat!” Then she just, melts down into the floor as a puddle of...mud? It looks like mud, and Izuku’s not going to squat down to get a better look at it. 

 

A familiar mask pops out from a hallway in the apartment. “Oh hey, you’re here!” Then, deeper - almost faux-baritone, really - he says, “You’re dumb as a sack of bricks, kid.” Given Izuku’s recent adventures, he doesn’t even disagree. “Sorry about the mud thing. Part of the Quirk, y’know? I used to make a lot more, then…nevermind.” he perks back up like a daisy on red-bull. “Stay there for a sec! I got your hat somewhere around here.” Then he’s gone again, rifting through what sounds like a mountain of trash. 

 

Izuku takes in what he can see of the apartment. Empty instant food packets, beer bottles, food wrappers, the place is a mess. Mom would put her foot down and make him clean up his room before it got a quarter of this bad. There are other odd patches of the mud-like substance over the floor, dried up and crusted. The smoke alarm is hanging by wires, the light in the living room flickers every three or four seconds, and Izuku can’t feel any air conditioning.