Brittle things just break

Chapter 1 - Ghosts of our past

Midoriya hated being ignored.

There had been times, in elementary and middle school, where for a whole week, people seemed to forget he existed.

Bakugou didn't blow him up. Classmates didn't talk about his uselessness. Teacher's didn't call his name during the roll call. His mother never made breakfast for him, or said good night, or asked about his day.

He would honestly have preferred if people called him out. Called out for being weak, quirkless, useless. Bakugou blowing him up, leaving red, angry burns on his arms. His teacher bonking him on the head every time he mentioned he wanted to be a hero.

Being ignored made him feel like a ghost. Like he was so worthless, he didn't even deserve to exist.

But it always happened. One week, three or four times a year. It was inevitable. Even knowing it was some kind of sick prank, and his mother was probably overworked to the point where she just collapsed outright on the couch, did not make him feel any better about himself.

It never happened again once he stepped into UA. Bakugou yelled at him every day, Kirishima and Kaminari patted him on the back, Mineta asked him of his opinion of girls, Ojiro, Yaoyorozu and Jiro smiled at him, Hagakure tried to sneak up on him, forgetting she was wearing a uniform. Asui, Uraraka and Iida chatted with him, Sero and Ashido told him jokes, Shoji, Sato and Koda nodded at him, Dark Shadow liked to play with his hair until Tokoyami told him leave Midoriya alone, Aoyoma winked at him, and he made small talk with Todoroki.

And he didn't expect it to happen anymore.

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Midoriya bumped into someone on his way to school. They were staying in the dorms at school, but he had spent the weekend at home with his mother. He needed to get back to UA before lessons began. Iida was really, really strict about being half an hour early to everything.

"Oh! Hey! I didn't see you there!" The teen turned, "Oh, Midoriya!"

"Uh... hi?" Midoriya sheepishly replied, not expecting it to be an old classmate, "I haven't... um... seen you since middle school."

"Yeah. Well, it's been nice seeing you around. I need to get to school!"

"Ah! I'm going to miss my train! Bye!"

The two teenagers parted ways, and Midoriya started running to the train station, and didn't hear the teen chuckling behind his back.

Midoriya finally made it through the gates of UA, and fished his phone out of his pocket to dial his mother. She had wanted a notice when he arrived at school, just to make sure he made it there safe and sound.

"Hey, Mom?" Midoriya spoke into the phone, when he heard the sound of it being picked up.

"Hello? Who is this?!"

Midoriya blanched. His mother had his contact saved on her phone! There was no way she wouldn't know who he was. Maybe her phone was glitched or something.

"Mom? It's me. Midoriya Izuku."

"Hello? If you're not going to say something, I'm going to hang up?"

"Mom!? Wait, Mom!"

She hung up.

Midoriya stared at his phone, like it was haunted, then he shook his head.

No. This happened before. There were several instances where his mother had to work overtime, and for an entire week she practically forgot he existed. When the torturous week finally ended, they both deduced that it was from overworkm and Midoriya didn't blame her too much.