mha sick fics (angst)

pool day (no ship)

TW: self harm

Inspired by nothing except for the fact that I remembered my scars existed and also the really sad bkdk fic I came up with that inspired me to remember that my scars existed. Isn't it so exciting that I haven't thought about sh in so long I stopped adknowledging them? (Yes it is, 4 months and 15 days clean babyyyy, and the time between relapses is so significantly longer than it used to be so even if that doesn't seem like it's THAT long, I've done the main climbing out of it now I hope. Knock on wood 🪵 🤛 🪵 🤛 🪵 🤛)
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Izuku was sitting at his desk in the 1A classroom as Aizawa stood in front, scribbling things on the whiteboard about upcoming physical exams they were required to pass to gain eligibility to compete in the sports festival (which as hero students, they were required to compete in, and pass the exams, it was part of their grade). Nothing was bothering Izuku too much, in fact he was excited, until Aizawa mentioned swimming exams.

Swimming.

Izuku hated swimming. He hated swimming so much. Well, it was less the act of swimming and more what he had to do to get in the water: take off his shirt. Usually, he swam with a swim shirt, but when they did swim tests, Izuku was required to wear the UA swim uniform: shorter than usual swim trunks.

He knew it was all purposeful, to reduce drag in the water so they could get more accurate times and swim easier, but Izuku despised it.

It wouldn't be a big deal if he didn't have thick self harm scars decorating the sides of his torso and the undersides of his forearms. In the moment he did them, he wasn't thinking as far ahead as swim day. Now they'd been healed for nearly a year, and they had to do their swim evals, and the light bands were going to reveal everything he'd gotten so good at hiding.

In every other circumstance he had to expose himself, he had a reasonable (and often purposeful) solution. During training, he wore compression sleeves over his forearms. The compression encourages blood flow to his arms, allowing him to heal his injuries faster and strengthen as he trained. An added bonus was that his self harm scars were hidden.

In the locker room, he always slipped them on before taking off his blazer. That, or he would change in a stall instead of our with everyone else.

He got a few weird comments about it, but he'd rather say he was self conscious of his body than admit he took a pencil sharpener to half his body.

No one really knew about his self harm, and he wanted to keep it that way.

After class, Izuku stayed behind instead of going to lunch.

Aizawa was at the front, busy erasing the whiteboard. The chatter of their rambunctious, hungry classmates was fading as they crowded down the hall to the cafeteria.

"Mr. Aizawa?" Izuku asked, his voice quieter than usual.

The teacher turned, "yes?"

"Is there any way we can wear our personal swimsuits instead of the school provided ones?" He asked.

Aizawa took a breath, "there's like a whole code about it, it's been a thing since I went to school, trust me I didn't want to wear it either, but it becomes a bonding experience."

"So we can't bring our own...?" Izuku asked wearily.

"You can bring it, but you can't wear it." Aizawa said, turning back to the board to continue erasing.

"What if I wore the bottoms, but wore a swim top with it. Would that be okay?" Izuku asked hesitantly.

"I'm sorry, Midoriya. Unless it's quirk related, the rules don't change. Trust me, you'll be fine. Everyone is going to be equally as uncomfortable as you. They aren't even that short." Aizawa said, distracted as he opened a new whiteboard marker and began writing something else.