weary travelers.

LUCKY NUMBER THIRTEEN

"I got caught under rubble- an' then this guy with engine legs saved me an' then whoosh. It was like a comic book! He was so cool!"

She keeps talking and he absorbs all she says with a grin. His scribbling has gone rigid, fingers stiff. It really is cool, he thinks with the awe of a child, not the child-but-not that he was, an innocent, naïve child.

He hesitates to meet her eyes, brown and full of life. He is afraid that for a moment it will all die out, that she'll sneer at him and laugh and tell him that her friendship was all some stupid joke. That she'll kick him down, or send him flying to the sun because he's a Deku, and he really doesn't deserve her.

(But that is only for a moment.)

"S-so, d-d-d'ya think you g-got i-in?"

"I don't really know, Midoriya. Maybe, maybe not. I mean, my Ma and Pa already got me this apartment a year ago so I could familiarize myself with the route, y'know? We ain't the richest or nothin' like that, but we got each other. Same thing for you, Midoriya! I'll be here for ya' if ya' even need anythin'."

"Th-th-thank y-you, Uraraka-chan!"

"I said you can drop the formalities, Midoriya! We're friends after all!" Her laugh may have been the most pleasant thing he's ever heard, despite it being rough and callous.

She is like the sun, and he wants nothing more than to bask in her light. He knows that once she is gone the night will return and frost will claw into his bones and it will steal the life from his eyes. He doesn't want to forget how to smile. Not again. Not ever again. He doesn't want to taste color or stare at his hands, tracing burns and cuts with his not-right fingers and sinking into drooping bones.

The night is inevitable, though. He tries to forget the sound of his screams and the feeling of smoke in his lungs. He tries to remember how to breathe because he's been hyperventilating since he was five. (The heat of an explosion of his shoulder―).

_

A month into the new year, he's in an elitist school an hour ride away from home. It's on the rich side of town (city?), but he can do this, even if the uniform on him feels wrong, even if he knows he isn't supposed to live this long (the statistics for quirkless kids making it past middle school was near zero). He was always good at analyzing what was so terrible about himself.

(Because there was nothing good to look at, the voice in his head is back again, it jeers suspiciously like Kacchan.)

He doesn't get bullied here, nobody knows he's quirkless yet. Someday, he knows, they'll all find out. They're smart, but for now, he sticks with his one upperclassman. If he gets close to everyone, they'll know faster, then they'll hurt him with what they know because he's a liar and useless and quirkless. They'll hurt him because he's a Deku.

So for now he'll stick around Todoroki Natsuo until the white-haired man leaves him to go to college next year. Then he'll be alone again but he'd rather not think about that.

They talk at lunch, Izuku Midoriya rambles about how cool All Might is, Todoroki-san says that he thinks All Might is cool, too, but he hates Endeavor. Izuku never brings up the flaming hero after that. He doesn't want to make his only school friend hate him.

Todoroki-san talks about his family a lot, he says that his sister is the best and that their little brother is a recluse that they never really see― because of our bastard father ―but they still love him to bits, and that his older brother, the oldest, was the best guy he knew before he died. They would play soccer and Touya would lose every time, 'cuz he was small and he overheated easily.

It's around that time Izuku's phone lets out a small vibration, it buzzes in his pocket and his face warms. Todoroki-san said it was fine if he checked that it didn't bother him at all.

UWUraraka: We're at USJ 13 is so cool i swtg

Todoroki-san asks who it is.

"My neighbor g-goes t-to Y-y-yuuei, sh-she's really c-cool!"

"Yeah, my little brother goes there too, my father forced him."

Izuku Midoriya looks at his thighs and twists his fingers around each other, they fit like puzzle pieces forced together. Once he separates them there will be a snap, like when Kacchan pushed him down the stairs when he was young and naïve; when he was a child-but-not. He didn't mean to, he swears. Not then and not now. He didn't mean to offend anyone, please, don't go. He's really―

"S-s-sorry,"

"Why do you always apologies for things you don't have control over, Midoriya? It's not like you did what my father did, I'm just pissed at him." Todoroki-san points with his chopsticks, rice scrunched at the tip.

"B-but I-I-I know th-the pain. I haven't s-s-seen my d-dad s-since I w-was s-s-six- or- or sev-seven."

Todoroki-san looks at him with pity, Izuku hates it. Izuku hides in his neck, retracting like a turtle. It feels like it got colder, and he isn't sure if that was just him or if Todoroki-san was getting angry. Whenever he got angry he'd breathe out fog and ice would chill around him.

He doesn't want anyone to get angry on his behalf (that would be selfish).

"Man, dad's suck ass!"

"Not so loud, Todoroki-san," Izuku waves his hands in front of his red face. His ears burn, and Todoroki-san laughs. His eyes are silvery with life and his grin stretches across his being like wildfire.

"Natsuo."

"What?"

"You can call me Natsuo, we just bonded over our shitty dads!"

Izuku's face went red and warm, again. He scratches his neck even though Tomura says it's a terrible habit. But Tomura does it too, the hypocrite!

"Th-th-th-th-then y-y-y-you c-c-can c-call m-me Izu-Izuku!"

"Alright then, Izuku, the bell's about to ring, so my free periods up, and your lunch break's over." Natsuo salutes and grabs his backpack. He eats his last bit of rice and shoves his bento into his backpack.

Izuku Midoriya has never been this happy, his ears are red and the scar on his left side aches and stings, but he feels the best he's ever felt. His lips are chapped with cuts and bites but he splits them anyway and smiles from behind Natsuo. Suddenly, he's glad he didn't apply for Yuuei, because then he'd never meet Natsuo, and Natsuo is great!

Natsuo is better than Kacchan ever was. (Izuku thinks he's been smiling more lately. Izuku looks at the sun and it doesn't ache at his gut or burn his skin. His bones don't feel wrong twisted and gnarled, he finally feels whole.)