His spine hurt from being slammed against the whiteboard. The heat emitting from Bakugou's hand foreshadowed the agony of the appendage on his shoulder. Izuku wanted to cry.

'Can't I just have this one thing?'

The teacher had outed his application to Yuuei in front of the whole class. Izuku had tried to get out of the building as soon as the bell rang, but Bakugou has grabbed the loose armstrap of his bag and dragged him into an empty classroom.

His notebook went out the window.

Izuku's shoulder hurt and he wanted to scream, but screaming would mean teachers. Teachers brought detention, and he didn't want to spend more time here than he had to.

"Useless Dekus like you don't belong next to the likes of me, got it?!" Bakugou snarled, "All you would be is a liability on the field! Stay out of my way and out of Yuuei!"

The burning feeling of his shoulder spiked and he could see smoke.

A running mantra of 'Get it off. Get it off! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!' swam through Izuku's head.

Izuku didn't scream even though he wanted to. Instead, he started breathing deep and slow to try and keep his composure. The Midoriya tears^tm were really working against him.

Bakugou seemed a little unnerved by his reaction, and he leaned away, taking the hand with him. The boy headed to the door followed by his band of unwanted lackies that Izuku didn't even notice before now.

When he reached the door frame, Bakugou turned back to Izuku.

"You know, if you want to be a hero so bad, then your only chance is to take a swan dive off the roof and hope for a quirk in your next life." And the boy left with the lackies chuckling as they followed.

Izuku slowly slid down the wall till he hit the floor, heart breaking under shattered hopes.

----

Izuku only has a vague understanding of what happened across the next hour. It could be equated to a kind of shock.

He exited the school and retrieved his soggy, burnt notebook from the fountain, cursing. He put it in the front pocket of his backpack, careful not to rest the strap on his stinging shoulder.

He had started to make his way home and he decided to take the quicker route under the overpass. Then, he couldn't breathe. He was wet, and slimy, and suffocating. For all that he fought, the world faded to black.

Izuku came to with someone lightly slapping his face. Then he was on a roof top and his favorite hero, his idol, his reason to hope answered his question.

"No, I don't....."

Izuku didn't hear much after that. All Might left and now Izuku's dreams matched his heart. Shoes rubbing the raised edge of the roof, Izuku simply stood in shock. He stayed like that for a little while, until his utter bafflement from the audacity and the unfairness and the pain washed over him.

"So that's it.... There's really no..." Izuku's breath hitched, and he coughed up a glob of slime.

In an effort to save himself from what just happened, Izuku's thoughts went back to Bakugou.

"Who does he think he is?" Izuku couldn't help but wonder out loud, "What if I actually did it, huh? What would he say then?" The sinking feeling in his stomach doesn't lessen and he can feel an impending headache coming on.

'Be realistic'

He looks down off the roof. It's a quiet street with almost no foot traffic. No one to find him if he-

No.

Izuku takes a solid three steps back from the edge. He made a pact with himself years ago for this very thing.

No killing yourself because your mother wouldn't be able to take it.

Inko Midoriya is the picture example of a loving, doting mother. Izuku was the only person she had left after his father died in a villain attack overseas, and he would not leave her to grieve alone and destitute. She had enough to worry about as it is.

So, retreating further into his own mind, Izuku turned around and knocked on the locked roof access door.

----

A loud thump resonated through through the roof, and plaster dust cascaded into Shinsou Hitoshi's face.

Taking the early warning for what it was, Hitoshi grabbed his bag and headed towards his window, quietly sliding it open.

Shinsou Hitoshi is not exactly a good example for a law abiding citizen. Don't get him wrong! He doesn't kidnap kids or sell drugs or anything like that.

He just doesn't....exist legally as far as he knows.

To be fair, it's not like he had the foresight to steal his legal documents from his shitty foster parents before running away.

It's not like the police care about kids like him. One less villain for them to deal with. For all they know, he's missing and presumed dead.

Hitoshi has been squatting in this building for a year now. In fact, he has quite the nice set up for someone homeless.

His small 'house' consists of four rooms: a bedroom with a window to the fire escape, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. The water was never turned off, probably by mistake, so it was much better than some of his previous arrangements.

Along with a futon, camping stove, and suitcase, Hitoshi's got a clunky small generator from a second hand store to charge his devices and power a mini fridge he found at that trash beach.

He bought a couple of small, cheap cloud cameras for some home surveillance, only a few of which have audio but it's better than nothing.

The ceiling creaks again and more dust falls.

Hitoshi grabs his phone and taps his cracked screen to start recording from the cameras just in case as he watches the door camera.

Hitoshi was ready to run if that was what it came to. He refused to be sent back there just because he was too attached to a place.

The sounds stop after a while, and Hitoshi almost thinks who ever was there left when he sees someone shuffle to the access door and he hears a faint knock.

It's a kid.

And by Kami does he look like he's been through some shit.

"Fuck it" Hitoshi decides, and he backs away from the window to head towards the door.

----

Upon seeing the other boy up close, Hitoshi could say with full certainty that no one could possibly top the level of "I have had a very bad day, please don't perceive me" energy he was giving off.

He almost looked despondent. He was covered in some sort of bad smelling slime that could possibly be dangerous for whatever injury was hiding under that singed shoulder.

What Hitoshi noticed the most though was the kid's eyes. They were the eyes of someone who almost had nothing left, no one and nothing to live for, holding on by a thread. It is because of this that Hitoshi held back on his questioning.

After a moment of them staring at eachother, Hitoshi raised an eyebrow and angled his body to allow room past him. "You wanted in."

The boy nodded and hesitated slightly before quickly entering. Hitoshi guided the boy down the stairs.

"I haven't seen you around here before."

The boy gave a noncommittal hum. They walked in silence a little longer before Hitoshi continued. "You have got to be called something."

The boy flinched, and Hitoshi cursed himself for being the cause.

"Midoriya. Midoriya Izuku." Midoriya's voice was so quiet that Hitoshi almost didn't hear him.

"Well, Midoriya. You should come by again sometime. Preferably after a shower."

At that, some color returned to Midoriya's paled face and Hitoshi could see the beginnings of a shy or embarrassed smile that told Hitoshi he had succeeded.

Hitoshi didn't need to know more than that for now. No need to ask what happened on that roof top; although, Hitoshi had a feeling he knew. He could just watch the recording later. He was just glad he could pull the other boy out of his head, just for a second.