When he was younger―so much younger (younger, more naïve, more hopeful, more stupid), he used to play in fields. They scatteted around his backyard before Dad had to move to the city for his job. Running away, talking to the darkness that stuck to his side like a friend he would never rid himself of. Squawking at the top of slides and running amongst flowers. His mother would talk with her own best friend to pass the time.

He wanted to give it a name, but being the uncreative child he was called it Dark Shadow and dubbed himself: Emperor of the Night.

Then he started going to school in the city, he didn't like it. Teachers are as cruel as kids, glaring and calling him out a lot more than they did anyone else. (It was mostly Dark Shadows fault, he didn't know when to be quiet for the life of him.)

"Freaks only friend is his quirk. What a loser." He'd learnt that the teachers and students alike didn't like him at worst and ignored him at best. There was one girl with a deer mutation and they got along until she went to a different elementary school.

Spitting blood was something he'd gotten disturbingly used to over the years, his father said that at least, with a sad trill, it would get better one day―and his mother's best friend―her own shadow, unstuck from the ground and wrapped around him.

Dark Shadow said they were all jerks, that Fumikage was way better than any of those other non-mutant, discriminate, assholes. Mom and Dad agreed whole heartedly, Dad opened his beak in that way of a smile and Mom and her shadow―Kaze―preened him. Dad helped her and he could feel the skin under his feathers turning red. So he took that to heart and ignored everyone.

Dark Shadow was still a problem, but he'd learnt to silence him with head pats. (The cooing and chirps never stopped, but his quirk counciler seemed pleased with his progress―however little it was. Dark Shadow learnt to stay quiet under the teachers that hated him most.)

Then he'd gotten into Yuuei! In 1-A of all places, the top hero course in the country―in the top five of the world. It made him happy, Dark Shadow with chirping and he couldn't help but copy back.

He'd met tons of people―and even some other mutant-quirk users. Dark Shadow seemed pleased, chirping indefinitely. (At that point Dark Shadow learnt that speaking in class would only get him in trouble, so he only helped him in English.)

There was no way Aizawa-sensei would tolerate not having his quirk under control. He knew that glare―he knows not to trust. Not to let himself chirp or trill around his classmates. He's trained himself out of the things get could control, just like his father. Because he's gotten used to choking up blood and trembling in the dark; he's gotten used to the fear that swirls in his gut when the sun sets and the stars spill out like a painting on the night sky.

He's glad he's grown up, things were so much worse than when he was a kid.

_

Izuku walks down the steps with a shaking smile. His eyes are downcast and drowsy, but he's so grateful and he needs to show it. That was the first time he woke up without screaming. The nightmares didn't come back; Kacchan wasn't there, and he was just floating on clouds. So he wants to thank Tomura because none of this would have happened if he didn't want to talk with Izuku.

The wood creaks under his feet. Tomura and Ochako and Natsuo are sitting by the countertop. Tomura is drinking apple juice, Izuku knows because Tomura doesn't like the bitter taste of alcohol on his tongue―the burning in his throat and the drowsiness of being a drunkard. Ochako has a mug of either coffee or hot chocolate or maybe mocha. Natsuo has a clear cup of ice water, it has something to do with his quirk, probably.

Ochako turns first. Her oak eyes widening in surprise, then cheerfully (it'll be gone when she knows that he's a stupid, useless, Deku―).

"Izuku! I am the bearer of good news!" Her hands shake in a mockery of sarcasm. Tilting her lips for her teeth to peek through.

"H-huh?"

(He's not going to get to apologize―to thank Tomura and then he's never going to do it again. Izuku's going to freeze over because he's an ungrateful, stupid, Deku. Stupid, stupid, stupid.)

She chuckles into her hand, then she blows into her hot chocolate/coffee/mocha, and steam pours off the rim of her cup. Her pinkies are held out, just like Tomura, so her gravity quirk also happens by touch. Izuku wishes he had his notebook and nothing else- well, maybe a pencil or a pen. (Or steady, steady, steady hands because his are always shaking. Because Kacchan is mad and he's never held back―pop, crackle, boom―and the bone snapped.)

"I have a girlfriend. She's the most adorable thing on the planet and I love her."

"I-is it T-t-t-tsuyu?" Izuku doesn't want to assume, but Ochako looks at him and she glows.

"She said you can call her Tsu, Izuku!"

There is a hitch in the conversation, Izuku twidles his thumbs. He doesn't want to disturb anyone and Ochako was right. She did say to call her Tsu. It's just that he's never really had a nickname for anyone other than Kacchan and―he really doesn't want to remember Kacchan. Because Kacchan is the bad kind of fire, the kind that burns and burns and hurts, and Izuku really doesn't want to remember. 

Sparks dance on the left of his vision and he feels like he's back at Junior High again. His ears still ring. He just makes his eyes less scared even though the fear is crawling up his spine and drilling into his head.

"Yes, it is her! She's the best, and nobody can steal her from me―none of you make her straight! Ya' hear!?"

Natsuo is the first to speak up, he waves his hand in front of his face and doesn't hesitate to repeat what he's said at least a thousand times.

"I'm gay―"

What does surprise them, though, is Tomura's follow up.

"Biromatic Asexual, according to Google."

Silence drifts from the cold outside, it leaves something chilled and warm in their souls. Ochako smiles, about to say something supportive, but Natsuo beats her with his own words. Hands wrapping around Tomura's head as an older brothers would (as an older brother once had, maybe).

"What in the hot fuck, Tomu'! You just dropped a bomb!"

"Natsuo, you came out by jumping off of a chair screaming 'I'm gay', don't tell me that I dropped a bomb―"

Izuku just smiles at their banter. 

"What about you, 'Zuku? Are you as straight as an uncooked noodle? A half-cooked noodle? Or a fully cooked noodle? Or are you like Tomu-chan here who has become one with the water?" Natsuo jumps in, diverting the attention somewhere else.

"I―I uh, I- I d-don't know? I'm s-sorry?"

"'S all right 'Zuku!" Ochako says, her full support on display.

"Yeah, everyone finds out differently. So, anyway. I started blasting―"

Everything just falls into comfort after that. Izuku feels himself smile, catching his feelings, he engraves this memory to his heart and covers the marrings on his soul with their smiles.