Chapter Text
Izuku went to cat cafes on the regular, maybe once or twice a fortnight. It was a way for him to escape reality and spill his guts to a cat. It was nice it felt...safe. After a few times of going there he noticed someone who looked like a very sleep deprived homeless man he logically assumed he was a regular and didn't really pay him mind. But after a good few sessions at the café, he quickly realised that holy shit that’s eraserhead! of course usually people wouldn’t know who he was he is a under ground hero after all but he’d had a few run ins with the pro… well more like walking trying to calm his racing mind at night, seeing him on the top of a roof, going on an internet rabbit hole and fan-boying over who he is. I mean what pro hero fights quirkless!? Though Izuku never confronted the man because what if he wasn’t the pro and Izuku was just insane or what if he doesn’t want to be publicly recognised. So Izuku kept to himself, and kept his routine of breaking down crying when talking to cats, while he drank his very hot chocolate. Eventually Eraserhead(?) started noticing Izuku, giving him a look which he couldn’t quite understand, and then returning to playing with cats and drinking a coffee.
Sometimes Izuku sobbed to the cats about how his home life was absolutely miserable, being treated like glass, then getting guilt tripped constantly and reprimanded for ‘egging Katsuki on’ when Izuku hadn’t done a thing. Or how Kacchan would beat him to shit and suicide bate him and leave spider lilies on his desk. Is izuku just being dramatic? Yes. Does Izuku does feel a tad pathetic for talking to cats about his problems? Once again, yes. But they don’t judge or treat him differently for being quirkless so it was nice, and a plus was they had amazing hot chocolate and the employees didn’t care that he had emotional breakdowns and talked to the cats they just looked at him with a look of pity and let him be. It was pretty therapeutic for Izuku honestly.
Izuku’s 15th birthday came around and despite his mother being a of a hard to deal with person and to be around, she still got him a small birthday present, and this year it was a pink hello kitty hoodie and it was oh, so comfy. Izuku loved it so much and started going to the cat café wearing it majority of the time. Hiding in it when everything got too much. Becoming a regular was good because that meant he knew the employees names (though he didn't know that purple haired baristas names...they refused to interact with him), and they knew his name (though behind his back they called him ‘that one hoodie boy.’) Not all of his visits were therapy sessions, his pouring his heart out to cats, of course sometimes he’d write in his notebooks about random heroes analysis and muttering quietly but made sure to always avoid doing his Eraserhead page in the case he is actually Eraserhead because that’d be embarrassing for him to see his little hobby, which is extremely creepy and embarrassing like yes Kacchan is a shitty person but he is right about some things for example his hobby is creepy, and the world would be better off without him… but it doesn’t mean he can crush all his hopes and dreams and hurt him relentlessly but he could never tell him that, he’s just a weak, worthless deku anyway. But he enjoyed some other things at the café, play with the kitty cats, give the cats a lot of cuddles and attention, doing homework, relentlessly scrolling on hero forums or sometimes when his phone died and the cats didn't want attention he would do people watching. The cat café was a safe place that felt more like home than his actual house sometimes.
To put it simply Izuku had the worst day ever, Katsuki had destroyed one of his notebooks. His newest and most detailed volume so far if he's being honest, his analysis has gotten so much better in a short time, he made a massive jump from focusing on their strategy's to focusing on what they can do to get better. He had been distraught walking out of the Aldera Middle School building, feeling like his world was falling to pieces. He walked home, going at an uncomfortable pace, stuck somewhere between fast and small steps. He heard a squelchy sound and then an overwhelmingly pungent smell of that disgusting slime. It choked down his throat, sliding down violently. After that Izuku doesn't really remember, he knows he passed out, felt himself fading which was an experience Izuku thought he'd never have to experience. He woke up to All Might standing over him about to slap him again, which felt like a punch each time. From there... well he fan-boyed, got told he'll never be a hero and to be more realistic, and left on a roof top coughing up sewage mixed with blood and mucus. He did consider taking Kacchans advice when he got breaks from coughing fits. The coughing got so bad, he was struggling to catch his breath so he took himself to an urgent care to get anti-biotics. After a few days of pretending he was fine, he started to get better, meaning he could go back to the café, which meant another crying session was due.
By the time the entrance exam rolled around Izuku was set on proving Small Might wrong. Of course he was nervous because he didn't have a quirk, but he did have seven and a half years of Jujitsu under his belt. He had started to take martial arts classes when he was 7 after pleading his mom, using the argument that 'He's quirkless so therefore needs to have some way to defend himself. It did take a month of pleading till she got sick of it and caved. Another perk was that he was good at strategic thinking, as anyone can see from his notebooks. So yeah I’ll probably fail the exam but I've got the general studies course as a back up s-so it’ll be fine yup 100% undoubtedly fine.
This was not fine. Izuku had done pretty okay, he had at least just over 20 battle points, it was hard and exhausting but the adrenaline kept him running. He had grabbed a pipe and was bashing the weak points of the robots as best he can, but then came the zero pointer. The girl with the gravity quirk, Uraraka…I think? I heard her talking this blue haired boy with the engine quirk got trapped under rubble and the zero pointer, that Present Mic had just passed over like it was some easy peasy lemon fucking squeezy thing to beat! So now while everyone is running away he was stupidly sprinting towards the robot trying to come up with a plan, anything. And he resorts wedging a pipe in one of the joints of the robot giving time for him to get gravity girl out and away. Pretty good thinking Izu, though i could have done it better. Maybe came up with a different plan.
Once he gets to the cat cafe after the exam he kinda feels like crying because he knows he didn’t pass the hero course exam, he only got 20 something points. I mean he knows he probably got into general studies but he wants to be a hero not some kid who just has it on his resume that he got into the general studies course. He sits at his usual table since there isn’t many people here apart from a few of the usuals (e.g. Eraserhead(?), an old lady and some scruffy college student having a study session.) Izuku honestly feels like shit, this is the closest he’s come to being a hero and he had to fuck it over. He picks up one of the floppy cats, holding it to his chest, as tears run down his face. 5 cats surround him as he cries silently and he starts to calm down focusing on the weight of the hello kitty hoodie, and the cats curling around him makes him remembers he’s safe, he’s okay. He slowly calms down and focuses on watching hero videos while doing analysis for said hero (Pro hero: Thirteen) and muttering up a storm. He begins sipping at a hot chocolate that lights a spark in his chest and then spreads like a wild fire and soon enough he finds himself giggling at the cats antics and he feels good, he feels safe.
When the letter finally comes he doesn’t want to be at the apartment seeing as the apartment hasn't felt safe ever since he got the diagnoses. So logically he decides to go to the café, no one cares what he does there. When he gets there it’s completely empty aside from 2 employees, it makes sense it is eleven at night, he sits himself down at a table and opens his letter that reads:
Dear, Izuku Midoriya
Congratulations on getting into the hero course! You’re in class 1-A! Your homeroom teacher will be Aizawa Shouta. You completed the exam with 22 combat points and 60 rescue points, ranking you N#1 in the scoreboard. The disk has more information regarding your schooling.
Kind regards, Am I a cat, dog or a bear, your principle, your Overlord, Nedzu!. Please contact me if you have any further queries.
Holy shit! Izuku is freaking out he’s in the hero course and he bursts out into happy tears and laughter. He presses play on the disk and as soon as he sees Small Dick but Might-y Smash, he pauses the projector before it can start speaking bullshit and says relatively loudly “Eww All Might.” He somehow didn’t notice Eraserhead come in and hear what he said. To make it worse he snorted and then promptly tried to hide his smile and stifle a laugh into his capture weapon. And Izuku goes bright fucking red. And he immediately turns off the projection and he just slinked under the table hiding his face which earns an incredulous look from a worker and another snort of laughter from Eraserhead. Just fucking great of course he needs to be made fun of at midnight, and by Eraserhead no less, his now favourite hero! He was deemed the favourite by having a quirkless fighting style and being a cat person. Look can't he have stupid reasons for liking certain heroes?. But he is ecstatic, he, little quirkless deku got in the hero course and was the N#1 on the leaderboard with 82 points! Izuku springs up from his space under the table and grabs one of his note books out to start planning excitedly but then his stomach drops nausea hitting him in the gut “No no no this can’t be happening, no my mom, shit, she’ll take me out the hero course and I’ll be stuck in her glass cage forever…” tears drip down his face but he gets a shitty idea. “W-well if she doesn’t know I’m in the hero course she won’t pull me out… I’m now Izuku Midoriya who is 100% from general studies and definitely isn’t in hero studies, my mom definitely won’t find out I’m in the hero course.” He muttered quietly still sniffling a little, sure he's trying to convince himself but its his only option at this point. “Shit! Okay what am I gonna do, Kacchan is gonna be pissed I bet him… oh well better except my inevitable death by explosions.” He chirps...he probably shouldn't be okay with that but he can unearth that at a different point He picks up a cat and and puts it in his arms and sips blank faced at his hot chocolate while his hands shake. "I mean I can run pretty fast, I could probably get away if I don’t freeze up.” He mumbles to the cat.
Operation dodge Katsuki Bakugo is a go.