Heroes, Vigilantes, and Villains

Chapter three

The next few days were a lot of the same. Bakugo's friends would find new ways to make sure that I knew that I was below them, seemingly believing that if they missed a chance I would forget. The blond himself didn't join in, he didn't say anything to me after the incident either, only glancing at the clearly seen bandages on my neck. I don't know why he was acting differently, but I don't question it. It wasn't my place to do so after all.

When I got home, I would do my homework before checking the hero merchandise shop online to see if any of it had sold yet. When I saw that something had finally sold, I'd box it up and fill out the mailing information needed. My plan was to take all of the piling up boxes down to the post office tomorrow since it's a Saturday and I had the time.

I got up early the next day and went down there, carrying a stack of boxes taller than myself, though one of them was just packing envelopes. When I got home, I went to the computer, I'd forgotten to check it before heading out but it was still early enough that I could manage another trip if needed. Instead of the PC turning on when I booted the computer up, the thing made an angry noise and smoke started coming out of it like we were in a speakeasy. The monitor appeared fine, but there was no way that a simple reset would save the computer itself. The computer was old, older than me even, it really wasn't a sunrise that it messed up like this.I looked down at the smoking contraption, wondering if I should just sell it for scrapes or take it to a repair shop, but both options seemed too expensive in the end. We just didn't have the money to buy a new computer or have the current one fixed.

Getting on my phone, I went into the search engine and tried to find out what was wrong with the computer. Through some searching, I found out that the motherboard had most likely started smoking due to an electrical shortage caused by errant residue. I looked up videos on how to fix it, watching one hour long one after another. By the time that my mom came home and came into my room to check on me, I was already covered in grease and computer parts strewn across my previously clean room. The place smelled like smoke, but... well, I wouldn't say that I was happy, more like interested. Content.

"Izuku," she yelled, exasperated. Her eyes darted around the room, looking over every part of the mess. I guess it does look pretty bad from an outsider's perspective. "What's all this?"

"Well... I got home from the post office and-"

"Post office," she cut in, giving me a questioning look, not understanding.

"Yeah... I sold some of the hero merch online, so I needed to ship it." I explained, but the look on her face didn't disappear.

Had I not told her that I was going?

"Sold? Why would you do that? You loved all of that stuff."

Oh... so I didn't tell her about it at all... I'd come up with a decent cover story, about outgrowing it all but... I guess I never told her.

I looked away from her. I couldn't bear the look on her face. "I couldn't stand to look at it anymore," I explained before looking back at her. "It hurt too much. Constant reminders..."

My mother had an inscrutable look on her face, but it broke as tears began to well up and fall from her eyes in a small stream. She rushed forward to hug me, but drew short when she seemed to remember all of the grease and muck on me and the things around me.

"I'm sorry I yelled," she apologized. My mother glanced around the room again. "But what about all of this?" She waved her arms around, gesturing at the mess that I've made of my floor. It really did seem to look worse the longer that I stared at it.

I explained about the incident with the computer smoking when I tried to turn it on. "So I thought that maybe I could try and fix it... and here we are." I told her sullenly.