Borderline

UA

"Izuku, Izuku, wake up."

Izuku sits up with a groan, rubbing his eyes before he looks up at his twin brother, who sits on the floor beside his futon, a worried look on his face. The two would be identical, but where Shouto is fairly tall with red and white split hair, Izuku is a few inches shorter and his hair is dyed a dark green, it's natural color being red, just like Shouto’s left side. Not to mention, Shouto had a scar that covered a good portion of the left side of his face. It wasn't that Izuku didn't have any scars of his own, but none quite as noticeable.

Out of the two, Shouto had always been favored by their father, not that that was particularly a good thing, considering the brutal training the man put him through. Izuku had been dubbed unworthy once his quirk came in, seeing as it was only half of what Shouto's was, not that that made much of a difference, considering his brother's refusal to use the quirk he had inherited from their father. So where Shouto was being trained by their father to surpass All Might, Izuku was ignored, unless their father decided he was getting in the way, in which case he would vent his anger out on him. This happened a lot more frequently than Izuku would have liked, but he'd rather it be him than Shouto.

"Come on, get dressed. Father won't be happy if we're late," Shouto said, breaking him out of his thoughts before he left the room, closing the door behind him. Izuku sighed, pushing himself to his feet and going to get his uniform from the closet.

Today was their first day at UA. Yes, despite their father claiming Izuku unworthy of even being a part of the family, they had both gotten into UA's hero course on recommendation.

When Izuku walks into the living room, Shouto is already waiting for him by the door. The journey to school is rather quiet, that is until Izuku's anxiety kicks in and he starts thinking about all the people he would be around. He wanted to go to UA and become a hero so he could help people. Whether it was saving them from villains or saving kids in situations like the one he and Shouto had been forced into, but he didn't want to deal with all of the publicity. Maybe he should have picked a different school, one that wasn't constantly in the spotlight, but that would have meant he would've been separated from Shouto and he didn't think he could handle that.

Izuku is suddenly pulled out of his dazed panic when Shouto carefully places a hand on his shoulder, making him flinch slightly. "Izuku, listen to me. Everything will be fine," he states, his tone firm, like he completely believes it.

"But what if-"

"It will be fine," Shouto repeats, cutting off his argument, "you know how I know?"

"H-how?" Izuku asks, voice shaking slightly.

"Because you're strong; the strongest person I know. I don't know anyone else who could go through what dad puts you through and still be able to go through everyday life like you do. I know I wouldn't be able to, because my training with him is nothing compared to what he's done to you, Izuku. And he won't be here. You don't have to look over your shoulder all the time and worry that he might take something out on you," Shouto said, giving him a small, sad smile.

“Thanks, Shouto,” Izuku muttered quietly once he had calmed down again. He honestly didn’t know what he would do without his brother, as he was the only thing keeping Izuku sane most of the time.

***

The moment Shouto swung the door open, Izuku tensed. There were two people inside who were arguing, one of which wore glasses and the other had spiky, ash blonde hair. The one with glasses was yelling at the other to take his feet off the desk in front of him, obviously angering the blonde, who yelled right back. Izuku suppressed the urge to cover his ears and half hid behind Shouto as a couple of the other students turned towards them.

“Hey, aren’t you Endeavor’s youngest son?” asked a boy with spiky red hair as he came toward the door, obviously referring to Shouto, seeing as most people didn’t even know Izuku existed.

“Ah, well. No, actually,” Shouto said, then at the boys confused look he continued, “er, I mean, I am Endeavor’s son, but I’m actually not the youngest.” He then stepped slightly to the side, revealing Izuku, who shot him a glare. “This is my brother, Izuku, he’s actually the youngest.”

Izuku shot Shouto an incredulous look. “Shouto, we’re twins,” he reminded him.

“Yeah, well. I was born first,” Shouto says, giving him a shit eating grin, making Izuku roll his eyes, exasperated.

“Wait, I thought Endeavor only had three kids,” the redhead suddenly said, confusion seeping into his voice and Izuku has to stop himself from flinching at the obvious fact that nobody knows about Touya, almost like he doesn't exist at all.

“Yeah,” one of the others said, “and I mean, I can’t see your face very well, but from what I can see, you don’t look anything like Endeavor.”

“Yeah, most people don’t know about me,” Izuku stated quietly before looking up from the floor, so they could see his face more clearly, “as for my appearance, I dye my hair.”

“Oh, wow,” said a boy with yellow hair, looking back and forth between the two brothers, “you two have, like, the same face.”

“So,” said the redhead, looking at Izuku, “what’s your natural hair color?”

“Oh, um. It’s red,” Izuku replied quietly. He was getting overwhelmed with all of the questions. He was starting to feel like he was being interrogated.

“Oh, cool!” the boy said. He was practically yelling at this point and Izuku flinched. “I’m Kirishima, by-”

“Would you mind keeping your voice down, please,” Shouto suddenly cut him off in the usual monotone he used with everyone who wasn’t Izuku or their siblings, “Izuku is very...sensitive to loud noises.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Kirishima said at a much more normal volume.

“Uh, i-” just then the teacher came into the room telling them to take their seats and cutting off the conversation.