Why Us?

He's my what??

Izumi is waiting for Midoriya outside the school like usual when she hears loud explosions followed by Midoriya's hero notes landing in the pond. She rushes up to his classroom, despite him always wanting her to stay away from there. Only to find him on the ground with a group of students surrounding him. The leader of the group blasts Midoriya with his quirk and Midoriya yelps in pain.

Without thinking, Izumi rushes forward and acts as a barrier, unable to do much else in the lack of time between the leader's attacks and her friend's growing pain. 

"Stop it! You're hurting him!"

The boy only hesitates for a moment, shaking his left arm before hitting Izumi hard in the stomach with a large explosion and she falls forward, coughing.

"It's the quirkless girl from the other class!" One of the kids laughs.

"Useless extras!! Why don't you take a swan dive off the roof and pray for a quirk in your next life?!" the explosive boy yells at Izumi.

Izumi winces as her inner forearm starts tingling and glowing. She stops glaring at the boy to look at her arm, only to see the boy's words now permanently etched onto her skin.

She looks up at the boy to see that he's frozen in place, cradling his left arm. His friends start snickering as Midoriya pulls Izumi to her feet, realizing what just happened by the fading glow on Izumi's arm.

Suddenly, the boy lunges at Izumi again, using his strongest explosion to send her flying backward into the wall. She screams out as her skin burns but he doesn't let up as he yells in her face:

"I will never accept a quirkless loser like you as my soulmate!!"

All of a sudden it's quiet again and the boy is walking away, sending death stares at his lackeys as if daring them to laugh again. Izumi holds back her tears until they're gone and the door has been slammed shut behind them. Midoriya is shaking, still frozen in place by what his 'friend' just did to Izumi.

"I'm sorry, Izumi. I'm so sorry. I tried to keep you away from Kacchan and I- I didn't think he'd be your soulmate and..." Midoriya trails off, noticing the blood on the girl's tattered clothes.

"It's not your fault, 'Zuku. You couldn't have controlled his reaction," Izumi whispers, staring at the words etched on her wrist.

When her tears dry, Midoriya silently leads her to his locker so he can grab a first aid kit and a spare shirt. Izumi keeps glancing at her wrist blankly as he takes her away from prying eyes- to an abandoned playground. He patches her up, wincing at the burns all over her stomach and waist. Izumi doesn't even flinch when he disinfects the area and Midoriya frowns, worried about his friend.

They sit in the abandoned playground, Midoriya waiting for Izumi to say anything to show she's okay. Eventually, she breaks down crying.

"You have to promise me something, Izuku," she chokes out.

"Anything," Midoriya answers, offering her a wobbly smile as he fights back his own tears.

"You can't ever tell my mum about my soulmate. Or yours. I... I don't want them to worry, I can just ignore him and pretend he's not my soulmate." Izumi sniffles, covering the words on her wrist with her other hand as she stares at the greenette.

"I promise..." He fidgets with the first aid kit, unsure what to do now.

An idea pops into his head and after discarding the destroyed shirt, Midoriya leads his friend to the mall. He smiles, hurrying to the store he needs to go to.

"Be right back, I know what'll cheer you up!" Midoriya announces, making Izumi wait at a nearby bench.

He buys a thick green bracelet decorated with lightning designs before grabbing Izumi's favorite ice cream. 

"Thanks," she mutters, accepting the gifts.

Midoriya smiles weakly and helps put the bracelet on while Izumi quietly starts eating her ice cream. 

"I'm sorry," he starts, "None of this would have happened if I had given up on Kacchan when he started bullying me. But... I wanted to keep being his friend and hope he'd go back to the way he was. And that got you hurt because-"

Izumi shakes her head and sticks her ice cream in the boy's mouth to silence him.

"You couldn't have known what would happen. You did try to keep me separated from your Kacchan even if you didn't notice it, keeping me away from your classroom, never having me around whenever your aunt Mitsuki and her family came over... and you can't force him to want a quirkless nobody like me," Izumi's hand ghosts over her injured side, "It just shows his true colors and that not all soulmates are meant to be... like my mum and her soulmate..."

"Let's... just go home, okay?"