Two Men, One City, and a Piñata

Volume one

On a warm August night lzuku Midoriya began his walk back to his dorm. He imagined that he liked the atmosphere of Drake University more than he really felt, as the stress of moving blunted any enthusiasm he might've had previously.

His knees were beginning to hurt. Midoriya still hadn't gotten used to living without the added strength of All For One. Everyone had trouble adapting to a life without quirks, ever since the bombs dropped.

"Watch where your walking asshole!"

While in his trance of fatigue Midoriya had been unaware of pedestrian passing by and jarred against him.

The familiarity of the man's voice struck him. It brought back memories; memories that stung. "B-Bakugo?"

"Pfft!!! Deku?? Huh I thought I heard that you were enrolled here."

"Oh u-uhh yeah..." Midoriya said barely able to let the words tumble out. He had been caught off his guard and couldn't fully register what was going on.

"Good to see your just as feeble as ever." Bakugo's harsh words shook Midoriya.

"Well I-" He was barely able to get out a word before Bakugo interjected.

"Well maybe I'll see your sorry ass around campus."

"I g-guess so.."

Midoriya completed his walk home in shame and unlocked his apartment to the dark empty living room entrance. In his room he tossed his books next to a laundry basket and slammed his body into the mattress that laid on the floor, just as he did night upon night before.

As the autumn leaves went from drifting down as a golden yellow, to raining with fiery orange, Midoriya sluggishly dragged himself to the first class of the new term. Drake University offering a course in Human Geology was one of the factors that drew him into enrolling, second only to the false belief that the university was founded by the renowned Canadian rapper of the same name.

As Midoriya entered the lecture room, a short few minutes early to class, he noticed that a reality he had loosely speculated upon, but disregarded weeks before, had come true; Bakugo was in the same Geology class. Stunned with the revelation, he continued starring at Bakugo from just aside the left entrance as other students passed by and funneled into the several dozen seats.

"Please be seated class." The professor's cheerful request snapped Midoriya out of his haze.

In the time he was hesitating the selection for seats had become very limited. As Midoriya began moving towards one of the seats near the door, another student set down their bag in that place. He resorted to shuffling past peoples chairs to reach one of the vacant seats left in the second row.

Bakugo was sitting in this row and the open chairs were the two on his right. Midoriya chose the one further from him. He knew that he had the strength to sit adjacent to his old rival and didn't want to seem timid for trying to distance himself, but Midoriya still justified the choice to himself; rationalizing that sitting in the closer one to where he started walking was the obvious choice to any observer. Bakugo gave it no thought as he barely noticed his presence.

"Welcome class, I am Professor Buttrey and I welcome you all to Human Geology..."
Deku started to tune out his teachers introduction. He knew he would hear the same routine in classes later that day.

The professor began handing out textbooks, and as the stack moved around Bakugo took one from the tall but gradually depleting tower and pushed the rest through the clear space on the desk for Deku to do the same. Bakugo placed his copy into a book bag, and from what Deku could see, next to a far thicker book titled "Tanakh the Holy Scriptures".