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All it took was one time travel quirk to unravel his whole life.
Izuku was simply washing dishes in his apartment when the younger version of himself materialized next to him out of thin air. He shrieked, dropping the glass he was holding as the other boy tumbled to the floor in a blur of green.
“Whaaaa-chan!!” the other Izuku yelped as he landed unceremoniously. Older Izuku immediately made a mental note to call him “Deku” just to avoid confusion.
“Are you okay?” he asked, hoping the young hero hadn't fallen on the shards of glass from the cup he'd dropped. Izuku crouched down, pro hero instincts taking over despite the weirdness of the situation.
“Yeah, I—”
And when he looked up, Izuku immediately knew from when this Deku was. His hair was freshly cut from surgery, his cheek held an angry scar that hadn't yet whitened from age, and his eyes bore a slightly haunted expression that took years of therapy for Izuku to fully remove.
Yes, this Deku was sixteen, and he had just fought the biggest battle of his life. He'd just lost One For All. And goodness, he was so young. Izuku had forgotten how young they all were when they'd witnessed the horrors of war.
“Woah! You're me!” Deku exclaimed, still breathing hard from wherever he'd just come from. “I guess this is how the villain's quirk works. Amazing!”
“You were hit by a quirk?” Izuku asked, helping the boy to his feet.
“Yeah! I was fighting this villain with Kacchan–”
Izuku flinched at his childhood friend's nickname.
“—and then he used his time travel quirk on me!”
“So, if you're me from the past, why don't I remember this encounter?” Izuku pondered, his mind already racing with various theories that were momentarily distracting.
“Ah, according to the report, I won't remember any of this. As far as I know, it only lasts a few hours at most, and then I'll teleport back to the past! Or… the present, for me. I wonder if I'll reappear in the same place? Or a different one? Will I appear at the dorms? Is Kacchan okay? Oh man, I wish it'd wear off quicker! He probably needs backup—”
“Deku,” Izuku said gently, a little surprised at how disorienting his own rambling sounded reflected back at him.
“Oh, sorry! So I'm Deku and you're Izuku?”
“Yeah, I thought that'd work to avoid confusion.”
“Me too! I guess that makes sense we'd think the same, since we're the same person after all. Ugh, but I'm so worried about Kacchan! He's alive in your time, right?!”
Izuku was concerned about messing up the past, but knowing the kid wouldn't remember anything anyway, he decided easing his fear was more important.
“Yes, he's alive.”
Deku peered at him quizzically.
“Why'd you say it like that?”
“Hmm? It's nothing! He's fine! I wouldn't lie about that. Let's get you cleaned up, huh? It's the least I can do.”
He could tell Deku wasn't convinced, but he let it slide for the moment.
“You don't have to! I'm the one who just crashed your apartment! Sorry about your cup.”
“Ah, no worries! This is really cool, actually.”
“Isn't it?!”
The two chatted amicably for quite a while as Izuku patched up Deku's wounds and they discussed things he certainly wouldn't remember but still found fascinating.
“So you're telling me you teach at U.A.?! That's so amazing! Gosh, I can't imagine,” Deku gushed, a few tears filling his eyes. Izuku nodded in confirmation, warmth and pride blossoming in his chest. The feeling turned to icy shame two seconds later when Deku tilted his head innocently and asked, “So… how do we handle being quirkless again?”
Izuku startled slightly, the gravity of the question catching him off guard. Deku grimaced.
“Not good, huh?”
“No, no, it's not that! I just, uh…”
He had no idea where to start. Izuku didn't want to lie to himself, but he knew the truth would sting the boy's bright hopes a little. Perhaps he could just omit some of the sadder secrets his future held in store.
“Well, we are still quirkless.”
A resigned sigh.
“But… we are a hero.”
Deku blinked in surprise, his green eyes comically wide. Man, Izuku finally understood why his friends teased him about having saucers for eyes.
“Wha–?! How is that possible?! I'm so– you… WHAT?!”
And this was the part where Izuku had to tread very, very carefully.
“A suit,” he said with a small smile. “Like the one All Might used in the war. It actually gives us a simulation of all the quirks we had with One For All again!”
Deku was practically about to combust from excitement, but was trying to keep it together. Did he not want to seem uncool in front of himself? He was starting to see why Katsuki teased him for being a dork.
“That's– that's— oh, that's incredible. How? Why?!”
“It was…”
Izuku's heart clenched painfully as the memories came flooding back.
“...a gift, funded by our classmates.”
Deku's face fell in confusion.
“Why do you seem sad? That's the best gift anyone could ever give us!”
Izuku remained silent, biting his lip and gripping his knee with one hand.
Kacchan.
Kacchan had been at the heart of that suit. They hadn't talked much since he and Ochako began dating.
Since he turned down the offer to join Katsuki's agency.
He didn't think Katsuki was mad at him. Well honestly, he didn't know. It wasn't as if he held the suit over Izuku’s head or anything, but their conversations were professional and polite, never straying to personal feelings like they used to.
He didn't really know why.
“Um,” Izuku replied, desperately trying to dig his way out of this hole.
“Kacchan made it, didn't he?”
Izuku turned to look at himself, stunned at his own perceptiveness.
“How did you–”
“The only person who would do something so thoughtful for us is Kacchan. He knows how badly we wanted to be a hero,” Deku replied, his eyes twinkling as he gave a tender smile.
“I mean, everyone helped, but… yeah, he did the most.”
Deku studied Izuku's face with curiosity.
“Why don't you say his name?”
“What?”
“Why don't you say Kacchan?”
“I do!”
“You haven't the whole time I've been here, and I know that's an annoying habit of ours.”
Izuku stared at his shoes, unsure of how to respond. Saying Kacchan felt too intimate for what they were now. Somehow, their relationship was different even from when they were in middle school.
“What happened, Izuku? I deserve to know.”
“Nothing serious, just—”
“Was it a fight? Because you know we fight with Kacchan all the time, but we always work it out! Just go talk to him!”
“I can't.”
“I thought you said he was ok? That he was alive?”
“He is alive and perfectly healthy! It's just… we don't have that kind of relationship anymore. I don't know why.”
Deku looked at him incredulously, a mixture of shock and anger on his face.
“You don't know why?”
“No, not at all. It started about six months ago, when I told him I wouldn't work at his agency.”
“You told him WHAT?!” Deku shrieked.
“Woah, woah! Calm down! I just have responsibilities as a teacher now, and my schedule's busier than ever with Ochako and everything—”
“What does Uraraka-san have to do with this?! You rejected him?! After he gave you the suit?!”
“I didn't reject him, ok? That's harsh! I just told him it wouldn't work!”
“Yeah, that sounds like rejection!”
Deku was standing now, his hands in his shaved hair. Strangely, he looked even worse than when he arrived.
“I have other priorities! I love teaching and I have a good life with Ochako!”
“With OCHAKO?!” he yelled, something… rabid sparking in his eyes that Izuku hadn't seen in himself since the end of the war. “And you don't know why you don't talk?!”
“Like you said, she doesn't have anything to do with this!”
“Sure she DOES!” Deku shouted, gesturing around wildly with his hands. Freshly rewound hands.
“I don't understand.”
“I don't either! I never thought I'd grow up to be a coward!”
A hot flash of anger shot through Izuku.
“What are you talking about?!”
“Oh, don't act like you don't know! Kacchan helps make you a suit that lets you be a hero again, like you always wanted, and then you don't become hero partners with him?! In what world is that okay with you?!”
“It's just not feasible–”
“That's such bullshit! I just saved the world, anything's feasible! Anything for Kacchan! HE DIED FOR YOU! His heart stopped beating for a minute straight! Shigaraki had him by the throat—”
Deku paced around the room, one hand in his hair while the other yanked on the edge of his cape.
“Let's just calm down–”
“HELL NO! I'm not living in this messed up future! The LOVE OF YOUR LIFE asked you to be his hero partner, and you said no?! For Uraraka?!”
“BECAUSE I WAS SCARED!” Izuku snapped, rising to his feet and glaring down at his younger self, his heart aching. “I was scared of failing, ok?! I was scared to be a hero again and I was scared to confess to Kacchan!”
“So you just gave up? Settled for safe and comfortable?”
Izuku sank back down on the couch, covering his eyes with his hands. He never expected to hear a lecture from himself of all people.
“That's not what All Might would do,” Deku said coldly, huffing as he turned his back to Izuku. “You're a disappointment.”
And that, that broke Izuku. Hearing his innermost thoughts be spitefully spat back out at him from a more genuine version of himself, before he got weak and afraid. Hadn't he known that this wasn't what he really wanted all along? How long was he going to allow himself to live a lie?
“I know,” he said quietly, beginning to sob. “I f****** know, ok?! I'm a disappointment! Nothing turned out how I wanted it to, and– and Kacchan probably hates me! Not to mention I'm stringing along Ochako just so I can feel better about myself!”
Deku sat down beside him, placing a tentative hand on his back.
“I think I know why I got sent here now.”
Izuku glanced up at the boy through his tears and saw a kind face, a face that was aching to help. Izuku knew he wore that mask for civilians, but he'd never realized just how calming his own presence could be.
“The report said the quirk would send you to a moment in the future that served as a kind of checkpoint, a point where your life was altered. I think I'm supposed to set you, us, back on course. Tell me, Izuku, what did you feel when you saw Kacchan's body?”
Izuku recalled the traumatic memory that he'd pushed away for so long. Kacchan's mangled body splayed across the muddy battlefield, scarlet blood oozing from his mouth, his eyes glassy. He allowed himself to feel the insurmountable grief, and the pure rage.
“I was… so angry. Angry enough to burn the world to the ground.”
“Exactly. Mirio had to calm you down, remember? That's how out of control you were. Why was that?”
“Because… Because I–”
“Because he killed the most important person in the world to you. Because he killed the one you love.”
Izuku let out a choked sob, tucking his knees into his chest.
“You love Kacchan. You never feel anything as intensely as you do for him.”
“I— I love him,” Izuku finally managed to get out in between hiccups. “So much.”
“Right! So no matter what you have to do, you have to talk to him. He's your Symbol of Victory, remember? You're supposed to be heroes together. It's what the two of you always wanted: to be a pair greater than All Might!”
Izuku absorbed the words of wisdom from his own mouth, allowing the pain and regret from the last few years to seep deep into his bones, down into his very being.
He loved Kacchan. That was a fundamental truth to his existence. The sun is bright, the sky is blue, and Izuku loves Kacchan.
“I think my time's almost up,” Deku said suddenly, and Izuku noticed his form begin to flicker. “One last question.”
“What is it?”
“Why don't I tell Kacchan all this sooner?”
Izuku let out a sorrowful laugh.
“I honestly don't know. I guess you also have your own fear to work through. Good luck, Deku. I'm gonna make things right for you.”
And then Deku smiled, a bit of his boyish vigor returning to him.
“Great! Because if my future's not with Kacchan, then I don't want it!”
A second later, the boy was gone, back to his own timeline and his own Kacchan.
Now, as painful as it was going to be, Izuku knew he had to sort things out in his present. He had to make a future he was proud of and live the way he wanted. He couldn't just be an onlooker in his own story.
That wasn't an epilogue for a hero!