Tea In A Bar

Chapter 1: "Nope"

Izuku was tired.

He had always been tired in a way since he was little. There was always that weight on his mind that made it hard to breathe, hard to move. But he always pushed through it, trying to lift his head and look at others with a smile even though all he got were glares and snarls of disgust in return.

He would try to smile even though his skin pulled uncomfortably at burns and new cuts he got from school. He'd smile at his mom when she asked him how was his day, even though he knew he would have to go to the bathroom and change a bandage or two. Even though, that day at school he found another red spider lily waiting for him at his desk.

He smiled at All Might, even though he could throw up from the phantom sensation of the sludge going down his throat. He smiled as All Might had left him on the roof and as he leaned a bit too far off the railing before noticing the explosions from afar.

He smiled after being scolded for saving Bakugou, and he smiled when All Might told him he could become a hero.

But even then, he was just so tired.

___

When he got into UA, he felt like the weight had been lifted somewhat, and it wasn't hard to smile anymore. But slowly and surely, its presence became more obvious. Izuku found himself waking up to that same feeling as before.

But he still smiled and no one could tell the difference.

Even when he was treated for his injuries with Stain, he smiled at Iida and Todoroki in the hospital. But all he really wanted to do was yell at the police, maybe yell at Iida some more, and tell Gran Torino to stop fucking hitting him with a cane.

But he didn't. Instead, he was polite to the police, apologized, and closed his eyes to sleep that never really came. His mom, of course, was working as usual. Ever since he went to UA she started taking on more shifts and spending time outside the house. Izuku didn't really notice though.

For a long time, his relationship with his mom had become more distant. He still loved her but over the years it came to the feeling that someone has towards a distant family member that only visited every few years. He wouldn't be surprised to learn that she felt the same way. She still fed him and gave him enough money for an allowance and to get food when she wasn't home though. But he knew that he wouldn't really understand or experience how Kirishima would talk about what he and his moms did over the weekend.

So it was no surprise that, yet again, he had to go buy some canned soup or maybe a microwave dinner when he got a text from his mom saying she would be on a business trip for the next two weeks and that there were no groceries at home.

He wasn't going to buy groceries so late at night but he was still hungry so he made his way to a convenience store.

The cashier didn't even give him a second glance, already used to seeing him come at odd hours. Izuku went down the aisles, got two cans of soup, a notebook, and a new pen. At one point he thought he saw someone he recognized watching him but when he looked there was no one there. So he paid and walked out of the store.

It had only been a few seconds that he was walking down the dimly lit sidewalk when everything went black and he felt the familiar sensation of the warp from USJ.

When he could see light again, he saw that he was inside a lit bar and that he was in front of Shigaraki. He gave a quick glance around the room and saw Kurogiri along with some other people (probably villains or not, who knows).

Izuku didn't really have the energy to say anything else but, "Oh."

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When they had warped the green-haired hero student to the bar, they were ready for a fight or to at least have to knock him out. They remembered how he had fought during the sports festival and it wasn't a secret that he had managed to take down Stain who 'approved' of him.