Izuku was a lonely kid. You'd expect that of a quirkless boy, right? Between being bullied and studying to be a pro hero, he didn't really have time for 'friends.' The only time he willingly had time to himself was before bed, where he'd doomscroll on Tiktok before going to bed, waking up the next morning, rinse and repeat.
It was an average day of middle school. Same students, same teachers, same piece of shit that was Katsuki Bakugo. Izuku trembled as he showed off his explosions, always 'accidently' hitting him with it as his friends laughed. Katsuki shoved him to the ground, stepping on him to make sure he couldn't get up. Izuku gritted his teeth. Katsuki leaned in and whispered something in his ear as the others jeered and insulted him.
"Why don't you do us all a favour and take a swan dive off the roof, hmn? It not like you have any friends that would miss you."
After constant bullying, you'd think a child as frail as Izuku would conform to his bullying, almost accept it. Except, what ended up happening was almost the opposite. Izuku turned over and pushed Katsuki off him and then brushed himself off. He was, well, tired. He was too fucking pissed off to care, and was too fucking tired to continue the cycle. "God, can't you leave me alone for one day?" He hissed. The blonde haired boy's eyes twitched and he smirked. He walked over to him and "Aww, little deku wants me to leave him alone-"
The bullied boy clenched his fists and scrambled to pick up his notebook off the ground, the edges being burnt ever so slightly, but still crumpling under his touch. He held it so tight it basically latched onto him, suffocating himself. He was afraid that Katsuki would snatch it away again. Holding his notes close to his heart, he walked away and headed back home.
Avoiding questions was always hard. He knew it would break his mom's heart if she ever found out. Poor Inko always had a delicate, pure heart. Too pure. She's too forgiving, too trusting. Learning that the boy who was supposed to be her son's best friend was bullying him would be like ripping her guts out and watching her bleed. It was a fact that Izuku could never let his mother find out about.
No matter the questions, he always avoided it. He'd shove his journals to the bottom of his allmight-themed backpack so she wouldn't see the damage done and always wear his school's jacket before coming home so she wouldn't notice the bruises, the scratches and the awful, charred skin that kept trying to heal but was never given enough time to do so.
This night was specifically hard. He was exhausted from school, and when his mom found realized that he was hanging on by a thread, she would do anything to help him. That means she would pester him about it, again and again, before she would sigh and do her classic "I'm always here if you need it, Izuku." It's always her using his real name that hurts.
He would figure out an excuse, no matter how absurd. It always trailed back to one specific excuse; "I'm just tired." This would lead him to either skip or awkwardly eat dinner, brush his teeth, change into his allmight pajamas which he learned to love again, grab his newly charged phone and curl up under a thick pile of blankets.
The blankets was like his own personal bubble- free from the outside world. But the outside world has a way of wearing down on you. Four words were playing in his head on loop like a broken, crappy ebay record- "You have no friends." He tried denying it, he had friends. But not...real friends. And certainely not a lot of them.
The boy's tiktok page suddenly granted him a miracle; it was a boy, looking for mutuals on tiktok. Slide after slide just showed more and more things that piqued his interest; the other boy was also an all might fan who played super smash bros, Minecraft and omori- he liked similar tv shows and were in the same age range.
The green haired boy eagerly typed "MOOTS??" in the comments and hit send. He then followed the stranger. Mere seconds later, he was followed back. "YEAH OFC" was replied.
They started texting in tiktok chat. It was awkward.
Allmightl0vr = Izuku, blastedbra1ns420 = stranger
**this is the start of your chat with blastedbra1ns420**
Allmightl0vr: HEEYY!!
Blastedbrains420: HEY!
Allmightl0vr: nice to meet u!!
Blastedbrains420: u too lmfao
They started rambling and talking on and on about their interests, specifically about allmight. The stranger talked about how he had to hide his allmight obsessions because his friends would think it was 'cringe.'
Allmightl0vr: that's so unfair wth
Allmightl0vr: they obvi don't understand the vision
Blastedbrains420: HELLPP real
Hours passed as they kept on talking- it was as if they had just 'clicked.' Like two pieces of a puzzle, they fit perfectly for eachother. It wasn't until a few hours later that they realized they didn't know eachother's names.
Blastedbrains420: hey I didn't catch your name??
Allmightl0vr: I don't remember throwing it lmfao
Blastedbrains420: loll no rly tho?
Izuku paused. He sure as fuck was not telling this random guy online his real name. But it could also be his first friend. He thought for a bit and answered.
Allmightl0vr: Zuku
Blastedbrains420: Zuku??
Allmightl0vr: yeah lol why
Blastedbrains420: nvm. Call me kat
Allmightl0vr: ...that's obvi short for something
Blastedbrains420: don't ask
Allmightl0vr: fineee
The rest of the night, the boys kept talking. They each rambled on about games they found interesting, character backstories, even random dilemmas when they didn't know what to talk about, that slowly merged back into a normal conversation.
But nothing about these boy's bond is normal.
Nothing about it ever will be.
And there's no way to tell when they'll find out.
YOU ARE READING
Digital Dreams and Unlucky Love - katsuki x izuku
Fanfiction**repost from my ao3!** Izuku, as a lonely child, decided to make an online friend back in middle school, when he was being bullied by Katsuki Bakugo. As they grow older and Izuku gets accepted into UA, their bond is still strong as ever. Little do...
