Izuku woke up in a hospital. He hated hospitals. He had been at a hospital when he found out he was quirkless. He had been at a hospital when his mother decided to ship him away. He had been at a hospital when he woke up after he got his scar.

Now that he thought about it, this injury would probably also scar.

"Ugh," He groaned, throwing his head back onto the pillows, only to be met with a painful throbbing in his chest as he shifted. "Okay, no moving. I can do that."

There was a knock on the door before his friends came in, all three of them. Their faces lit up at the sight of him awake, even if he was in pain from moving. They didn't hug him as they surged forward, being mindful of his injury, but Noriko gently bumped his shoulder with her fist. It caused a dull throb in his chest, but he would live.

"You made us so worried, Mido. Noriko here just about died when she found out what happened. We had to hold her back from rushing to see you in surgery." Billy joked, sitting down next to his legs on the bed, Idie taking the other side as Noriko slouched in the plastic chair next to the bed, a glare pointed at Billy and a pout on her lip. It was as if he had just betrayed her utmost trust.

"I'm glad to know you care, Nori-chan." Izuku joked, knowing he wouldn't get punished if he was severely injured.

"We were all worried, Izuku. You're so reckless sometimes." Idie admonished, giving him a look that only a disappointed mother could pull off. Despite not being the oldest, she still somehow managed to be the mom of their group.

Izuku smiled at her words, knowing that she had probably been pacing the halls waiting for him. If anything she probably blamed herself for not being there for him. After all, she had been protecting the students. That was her job, and seeing as none of them had gotten in his way, she had done it well.

"You were protecting the students, it's not your fault." He assured her with a hand on hers.

"Yeah, this reckless little shit just decided that he had to sacrifice himself to defeat Lady Deathstrike. It's not your fault he's such a self-sacrificing idiot." Noriko assured, trying her best not to sound like she cared and failing miserably.

"Hey, I wasn't supposed to get injured. It just so happened to be that I reacted a second too late. I'm not dead, right?" He defended himself.

"You know, not dying is a pretty low bar to set for yourself." Billy said, "Maybe it should be not almost dying. Now there's a challenge for you, Mido."

They continued to talk until there was another knock at the door and Katsuki walked in, holding a vase with a few flowers in it. He looked guilty of something, but Izuku couldn't quite tell what yet.

"Um, we'll leave you two here to talk for a bit," Idie whispered to him, making sure Katsuki heard as she dragged Billy and Noriko out into the hallway, despite their arguments.

"Hello, Bakugou. What brings you here?" Katsuki's face just twisted up with anger before smoothing out.

"That's not what you call me, Izuku. You've never fucking called me that."

Izuku felt the sharp intake of breath, but didn't quite process that he had actually done it. Katsuki knew who he was. He would believe that a kid got his quirk just a few years late, right? Right?

"Kacchan," Izuku finally whispered, "How did you figure it out? I mean, quite a bit has changed." He gestured to his scar, then to his wings that sat uncomfortably beneath him. He felt the sudden urge to preen them, but that could wait.

"The villain you took down, Lady Deathstrike or whatever the fuck her name was, I heard her say it before you passed out." He paused before speaking again, "Fucking shocked me, too."

Izuku just nodded as he remembered her words to him as Katsuki set down the flowers. Lily of the Valley. One of Izuku's favorites from when he was a kid. They would grow at the base of one of the trees near Katsuki's house. He would always stop on his way back from his friend's house to pick a few to add to his vase at home. How had he remembered?

"Why didn't you tell me? Why did you even leave? Auntie just said that you went to live with your dad in America. She never explained why."

And there was his bad luck rearing it's ugly head. Of course he couldn't just stick to the basic lie of how he got his quirk a few years late. No, that didn't explain why he left without even a word of parting to his friend. If he could even be called that at the time.

"We didn't exactly have the best relationship back then, what with you pushing me around for not having a quirk." Izuku almost felt bad about the way the boy's head fell and his eyes dulled a bit as he remembered. "And we hadn't seen each other in so long, I didn't see a reason to tell you."

"Why did you even leave?" Katsuki repeated his earlier question, not meeting Izuku's eyes, and the boy actually felt bad this time.

"Mom took me to the doctor the day that I left. I hadn't gotten my quirk yet, so she wanted to know if something had gone wrong. I didn't have a quirk." He held up his hand to silence Katsuki before he could interrupt, "Yes, I'm sure. I have two joints in my pinky toe. Mom sent me to America because the quirkless are more accepted there. Their ratio is closer to forty percent quirkless. I even had a few friends who were quirkless in my class.

"When I was nine, there was an incident that occurred and my powers showed up. I have a gene called the X-Gene. It's not a quirk. The X-Gene is known as a mutation. They work similar to the way quirks do, but their evolution occurred earlier than the quirk gene did. But quirks are dominant, so only quirkless individuals with the X-Gene actually mutate. Not a lot of people know about it because it's such a small population, and you can't tell anyone about it either. Oya, Surge, and Wiccan are all Mutants as well."

"What about the school you went to? You said you all went to school together. If, er, mutants are really as rare as you're implying, the chances you all know each other seem pretty fucking slim."

"We all go to a school specifically for mutants. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Too long of a name if you ask me, but I wasn't around when it was named, so I don't get a say. The, um, principal has a machine that he can use to locate Mutants around the globe. He found Idie all the way in Nigeria." He explained, getting a vague feeling this was what Xavier felt like every time he explained things to new mutants.

It was silent for a while before Katsuki finally spoke up, breaking the quiet that had settled peacefully over them.

"So, have you seen your mom since you came back. I know she misses you."

"I still haven't forgiven her for shipping me off to Connecticut. I know it's petty and she had her reasons, but I just can't face her yet."

Katsuki nodded, seeming like he understood, but Izuku knew he didn't. His life had been perfect. Even if his mom yelled at him, she really did care. It wasn't like she had much of an option with a bullheaded kid like Katsuki to raise. He had a perfect quirk that appeared at the perfect age.

"How long have you been a hero?"

The question shocked Izuku. It was almost as if he was openly caring, which wasn't something Izuku thought he would ever associate with the brash boy who yelled and snapped even at his own friends. It was just his brand of caring. It was the way his mother had raised him, and it was the only way he knew, so what was this calmness?

"I got my license at eleven, but they didn't actually start letting me do stuff until a year after that. Not to say that I didn't actually do hero stuff, they just didn't give me or Bi- er, Wiccan any assignments until then."

He hummed in thought, and their conversation moved on to other topics. Katsuki asked mostly about life in America, and how things were different. Izuku asked about how much everything had changed and how UA had been so far. It was surprisingly nice to actually be able to talk to his old friend for the first time in years.

Maybe, just maybe, everything would turn out okay.

---

Ayyy, that's the end. Holy shit I can't believe I finished this. It's not as long as I was hoping, but I'm not one to drag things on (or at least I try not to), so this is it.

Lily of the Valley symbolize that you want to leave the troubled past behind, let the water flow under the bridge, and make a fresh start.

I almost wrote another chapter about how they got a permanent team for 1-A, and Izuku was too injured to stay anyway, so they went back to America, but it would have just been a short chapter that didn't really need to be there.

The next chapter will just be info about the four of them and their powers in case you didn't read up on their links that I provided in the notes. You'll still need those for their backstories and stuff, but I'll give them again in the next chapter.

Thank you for reading this far. I love you all so much.