Content warning:

Self deprication, mentions of a panic attack, general apathy

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Once he made it inside his house, Izuku took off his uniform and set it aside. He needed to repair the hand sized hole in the shoulder after Bakugo's 'taunt' earlier.

Izuku let his thoughts wander. "I should do a full check. It hurt pretty bad and stupid All-Might didn't check to see if I got injuries from the villian." Izuku walked to the bathroom and checked his shoulder in the mirror, fully expecting a deep burn,...

...only to find a patch of redness signifying raw flesh and nothing else.

Needless to say he was shocked. "It definitely should have left a burn or something! Why is almost nothing here?!" Izuku shouted to himself in complete and utter disbelief and promptly quieted down when he remembers they live in an apartment.

That did not, however, keep him from trying to solve the enigma at hand. "There is no way that didn't leave a serious burn!"

Izuku poked it. A sharp spike of pain went through his shoulder at the touch. "Ouch!"

Izuku let himself think while he checked for other injuries, "The only way that I would be left with no burn would be either Bakugo controlling his heat so it didn't hurt, which is the opposite of what he did, or..."

Izuku pauses mid-way through bandaid application to his leg, "Wait a goddamn second."

Izuku is hit with an old memory from when he was a kid.

"Mommy, what's your quirk?"

"Mine is low-level telekinesis, and, since I know you're going to ask, your father's was fire breath."

"That's so cool, Mommy!"

"What if..." 'No. I gave up on that idea long ago.' "but maybe..."

The feeling in his stomach got worse. "There's no hurt in trying is there?"

----

That afternoon, Izuku spent his time experimenting. He had ideas on what his quirk might be, if he had one, since he was little. For all he knew, he had a self healing quirk, which was highly unlikely.

In fact, most of his ideas were unlikely, seeing as how they would have shown up earlier or had some previous effect, but there was one he had hope in.

Pyrokinesis.

If pyrokinesis was anything like his mom's telekinesis, then there was a mental element involved. The only way he was going to know for sure was if he tested it.

Izuku opened the kitchen junk drawer. It was full of old pencils, miscellaneous kitchen devices, coins, and various other knick-knacks. There must be matches or something he can use, he remembers putting emergency candles in here.

After digging for a while, Izuku finds a lighter, a surprisingly nice one, at the back of the drawer to use.

Izuku ran through the scenario again in his head, focusing on his own reaction and pushing past anything Bakugo said.

'I remember being desperate to keep the heat away... Maybe that is what activated it...'

Izuku studied the design of the lighter in lieu of pursuing his task, it was one of those high quality, pre-quirk era brands that never closed down. The company shifted to providing fire based support items. 'This is stupid.' Izuku thinks as he flicks the lighter open and stares at the flame. "No hurt in trying I guess..."

At first, Izuku didn't really know what to do. He tried mentally urging the flame like a pet, that didn't work very well. He felt ridiculous.

Not wanting to give up yet, Izuku thought through his initial encounter with Bakugo again, and he tried a different approach.

He tried to think of the pushing the flame with his mind, visualizing in his head what it would look like, festering that feeling of absolute want and desire that he had, and that was when he saw a reaction.

The flame bent sideways. A ninety degree angle.

Izuku's heart stopped. 'This isn't possible. No no no no n-'

The flame returned to normal then went out, and he realized that he had blown it out with his hyperventilating.

Izuku was able to bend the flame with thought alone.

For a while Izuku just sat there, staring at the candle. 'I have a quirk. A quirk. The fu-'

He pinched himself. "Ow. Guess this isn't a dream then.."

'of all the things the universe could possibly do, it chose this? ... It's official. There is no god.'

He sat there for a while, having an existential crisis, or a possible panic attack (he wasn't sure), while staring at the candle. Eventually, he got up and tried again, just to see if it was real and he wasn't imagining things.

On his third attempt, he imagined picking the fire up, and he broke the fire away from the candle without it dissipating into thin air.

"HOLY SHIT!" Izuku fell out of his chair, not expecting for the small, marble-sized ball of flame to come rushing at his face. The ball of fire disappeared in his surprise.

He didn't try again after that, too afraid what it really meant for his conscious.

His suspicions were more or less correct and he had a massive headache to boot. He was mentally wasted.

As he plopped on his bed, he could only think one thing. "Life hates me and this is the proof."

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AN:

Thanks for reading Chapter 5!

Feedback is appreciated!

Updates on weekends and when I feel like posting.