What Makes a Hero

43

Izuku stared at most of the class from where he stood with a defeated look along with five others

"E-everyone... I'm looking forward to hearing your stories of how fun camp was" Mina said between sobs.

Izuku refused to look up from the ground as his other classmates tried to cheer them up to no avail. The other five had been looking forward to going to the camping trip that was promised to the passing students.

Everyone was silenced by the class door slamming open, revealing their teacher.

Izuku winced at the sight of his teacher. After the final exams were finished, Aizawa had been the silent treatment as his own form of 'punishment' to him. Izuku knows that Aizawa treating him with kindness after such a big loss would've eaten at him from the inside since the change would've been so drastic from the league's response to failure, but even being ignored barely did anything to settle the dread building up.

"Once the bell rings you should all be in your seats," Aizawa barked.

In seconds, the class went to their assigned seats and quietly waited for Aizawa to walk to his podium. Once content with the silence, Aizawa spoke up again.

"Morning. Unfortunately, there were some of you who didn't pass the exams, so when it comes to the training camp in the woods..."

The six failed lowered their heads in shame for being called out.

"Everyone is going!"

There was a beat of silence as the class started at their teacher's horrifying attempt at a smile. Then the group cheered in relief.

Izuku glanced at his classmates from the corner of his eyes before lowering his head further. The thought of missing out on the camp trio was the only reason they were sad, but now that the five know that they're going, no one cares about what grade they got, unlike Izuku.

The rest of the class passed by in a blur as Izuku thought over the normal consequences of losing a fight and trying to talk to Midoriya again. The other had barely fronted much less spoke to anyone after Izuku snapped at him, and it was concerning.

"Deku, School is over, let's go before the extras try to pull us into shopping with them."

Izuku huffed and turned off his contacts "you're the last person I want to talk to right now."

"Are you mad that you lost? I wasn't going to throw a match just to protect your feelings. Everyone loses, move on"

Izuku mustered the best glare he could and hoped it was either aimed at the blond or somewhere where he could get the hint.

"I assumed you of all people would know how bad a loss is for me, but I should've known better since you couldn't even remember me telling you that I was a nomu" Izuku quietly hissed hoping that the others wouldn't hear. If he was lucky enough, the class would forget about what they heard too.

"You barely came out of a meltdown when you told me that, I thought you were just hysterical!" Bakugo snapped back, sparks popping from frustration.

Izuku scowled at Bakugo trying to find words to spit back at him, but they were interrupted by another voice.

"Hey Midoriya," Izuku jumped and pulled away from the sudden hand on his shoulder "the class was planning to go shopping later, would you like to join?" Kirishima slowly rested his hand back on Izuku's shoulder and lead him away from a fuming Bakugo.

"Just... Leave me alone, Kacchan" Midoriya blinked to turn on his contacts and stared at the floor in defeat. Things were falling apart around him too fast, and he barely had time to fix one thing. All Midoriya wanted right now was a break, some time to stop everything and collect himself.

"Sorry about that man, you two were about to go into personal territory and the whole class was staring" Kirishima awkwardly turned away "mostly because you guys were yelling, but also because...well..."

"...They heard Shinso say I was a nomu..." Midoriya finished for him.

Kirishima sighed "yea... I... They're still coming to terms with it" Kirishima's face changed to regret as he immediately backtracked himself, "n-not that we think it's true! Shinsou's always had something against you" he waved his arms out in front of him "and even if it is, we're still your friends! You're still Midoriya to us"

The corners of Midoriya's mouth turned into a small smile before falling, "it's true, I am a nomu."

There was a stretch of silence making Midoriya cringe as he waited for a response.

"Well, if you think about it, it kind of makes sense."

"Kaminari" Kirishima forced through gritted teeth.

Kaminari moved from behind Midoriya to his left with his usual smile "No no! Not in a bad way...ish" the electric boy shook his head. "Midoriya not only worked with the villain's leader but shows up with, how many, five? Five quirks!" Kaminari says.

Midoriya stared at the boy confused, "six"

"Six quirks!" Kaminari corrects, "and another hint was the fact that he didn't know memes, it all makes sense!"

A pink arm hit Kaminari's head from behind him earning a yelp from the blond. "I'm sorry about that Midoriya, Kaminari only has one brain cell" Mina sighed "still, Kirishima is right, while I can't speak for the whole class, we still see you as our clueless Puppy, Midoriya."

Midoriya took a deep breath before nodding at Mina with a forced smile, "Thank you guys, I just wish I would've been able to tell you about it on better terms."

"Don't mention it, that was unmanly of Shinsou to out you like that!" Kirishima raised a fist and shook his head in disappointment at, what Midoriya assumes, Shinsou.

"Yea, what he said," Kaminari draped his arm around Midoriya's shoulders "fuck shinso."

"Fuck shinso!" Sero joined in from behind the group stating everyone, "come one Midoriya, join us."

"I- I don't really curse much" he nervously laughed.

Sero gave him a confused look, "But you didn't hesitate to curse during the fight?"

"Or when you first fought Shinso" Kaminari added.

"Maybe he only swears when he's mad or fighting!" Mina suggested.

Midoriya nervously nodded "Yea...something like that.."

_____

Short chapter because I just realize that I somehow forgot to plan out the mall and pool chapter?? So there might be a delay for the next few chapters.