Chapter Text
Hagakure Tooru squished her face in the palm of her hand as she stared out the front window of her grandmother's home. It had been three days since her parents had abandoned her on Grandma's doorstep to go on their dream vacation, and she was so bored she thought she might actually be able to die of it. Her grandma was nice enough, but she was old and liked to do old person things like knit and eat prunes. (Gross) She was almost 5 years old! She needed something to do!. It was this thought that compelled her to stomp in the kitchen and declare her desire to go to the park just as her Grandmother was about to lay down for her afternoon nap.
Startled her grandmother put on a doting smile and patted her head as if she was a cat instead of a child before proceeding to her room. Utterly betrayed she stomped her foot and pouted as the elderly woman shut the door behind her. Why couldn't she hear her? It wasn't until years later that Tooru would realize that Grandma had turned her hearing aids off because of her incessant chattering during those first three days. This was good though. If her grandmother hadn't ignored her, she would never have had the anger induced courage to make use of her quirk to sneak out to the park behind the house. She would have never met Izuku.
...
Izuku was not having a good day. His mom was sick and had asked Baugou's mom to take him to the park so she could have a nap. Izuku was a big boy! He could have helped his mom but with his dad away, there was no way for him to work the stove to make her the eggs she loved. ( He had discovered this by trial and error that very morning hence the gentle but firm push out the door as his mother blew her nose into a tissue after cleaning the eggs up from the floor.)
Three months ago Izuku would have loved going to the park with Kaachan and his mom, but three months ago they had all been blissfully unaware that he was doomed to be quirkless for the rest of his life. When Izuku had told kaachan what the doctor said his name had somehow changed from Zu-chan to Deku, and he had been delegated to the group's barely tolerated tag-a-long. Kaachan had been getting meaner and meaner and blaming it all on Izuku. As it was, the moment the boys got to the park, Izuku was promptly ditched during a game of hide and seek as Kaachan ran off to play with his other friends while snickering about losing the deku. After 5 minutes or so Izuku peeked out of his hiding place and saw kaachan happily swinging from the jungle gym with two of their classmates. Obviously, he had forgotten all about Deku. Izuku tried not to let it get to him, he really did; but the tears rolled down his cheeks as he returned to his hiding spot and tried to hide the hurt. He knew Kaachan would just make fun of him for crying if he was found this way.
"Are you all right?" A girl's voice said. Izuku sat up straight and looked around in surprise. Had someone come to look for him after all? Looking around the boy saw nothing, and promptly put his head down on his knees. He felt a small hand begin to pat his back as the voice came again, "Momma says it's okay to cry when you are sad, but it's better to try to fix what's wrong. Why are you sad?"
Izuku looked up again. Even though he couldn't see anyone, he knew they were there. He felt them throw their arms across his shoulders and lean into his side. Deciding to trust the voice he answered,"Kaachan is mean to me because I don't have a quirk. He picks on me and calls me names and today he even forgot he was playing with me. We used to be best friends! I just want to play with him again!"
"Well, that's not nice!" The voice came again. "Why don't you just make new friends?"
"Kaachan is the most popular kid in the neighborhood, and he has a great quirk so everyone follows him around."
"Hmm," The voice said as if they were thinking really hard. "Well, I don't want to follow him around. I'll play with you! My name is Tooru!"
"Really?" Izuku asked in a wobbly voice.
"Of course!" Tooru said pulling the crying boy to his feet. "Let's play tag! Oh wait, I forgot my clothes! Look here!" The girl said and a nearby branch started to float in the air. "This will let you know where I am, now it will be fair!" Izuku smiled brightly, uncaring of whether or not this invisible girl was a figment of his imagination or a real person. He finally had someone to play with that didn't care about his quirklessness.
...
Inko was glad that her son had found a new friend. Although she was curious as to why Mitsuki had claimed that the boy had been playing by himself the entire time he was at the park. He hadn't stopped talking about his new friend and claimed that he met her there every time he went. He was about to start kindergarten, he was probably too old for an imaginary friend, but if no one else could see the girl, she couldn't think anything else. It broke her heart that her child was so lonely that he was starting to make up imaginary friends. She hadn't been able to give him a quirk that would support his aspirations of becoming a hero, but somehow, that hope had stayed in his heart. She was terrified of what his future had in store if he could not achieve that dream.
...
Katsuki could tell that Izuku had gotten happier lately. That wasn't right. He should be feeling guilty and upset for lying to him. They were best friends they were supposed to be heroes together; but that stupid deku didn't have a quirk. Everyone knows, you can't be a hero without a quirk! He was just trying to get the nerd to stop dreaming. His mom told him to look out for Izuku. That was just what he was doing. Weaklings should know that they were weak, and the only way to prove that Deku was weak was to prove that he was stronger that him and anyone else. Now he had a stupid imaginary friend, and that just wasn't going to fly. Not only was he weak, but now he was crazy too! He couldn't remember why he was friends with the kid in the first place. Not anymore. If he knew one thing, it was that crazy kids didn't belong on his playground.
The next time he saw Izuku talking to thin air on the playground he made his stand. "DEKU!" he roared. If there was one thing he learned from his mom, it was that being loud got you attention. "STOP TALKING TO YOUR IMAGINARY FRIEND AND GET OVER HERE!" He said as he popped some mini explosions on his hands. Izuku looked surprised that Katsuki had even remembered him.
"Oh," Izuku said turning his bright smile at the angry child. "Kaachan! Guess what? Tooru and I were just going to meet her Grandma, do you want to come?"
"Do I look stupid or crazy to you?" Kaachan growled at Izuku's confused face. "I ain't going to meet up with your imaginary friend's Grandma, and neither are you! You know that imaginary friends are fake right? They don't have relatives that real people can meet." Katsuki said, pleased with himself. He knew that Deku was at least smart enough to see the sense in that statement.
"But Tooru's real! She just has an invisibility quirk!" Izuku said as if it was the most believeable thing in the world.
"Then why can't I hear her?" Katsuki asked with a smirk as the rest of the kids on the playground came to see what all the fuss was about.
...
Tooru was so mad. If she hadn't lost her voice that morning from drinking her juice the wrong way she would totally would have yelled in that stupid blonde boys face. Honestly, why would anyone ever be mean to Zu-chan! As it was, she couldn't get close enough to the boy to touch him without getting burned by his quirk that was going off randomly as he talked with Izuku; who was doing his best to explain her current predicament.
...
Izuku knew that anything he said would sound like an excuse to Kaachan, but he also knew that heroes always spoke the truth. He answered Bakugou's questions even as the group of children that surrounded them became larger and began jeering at him and his answers. He signaled to Tooru to escape while there was still room to maneouver through the crowd, but instead she took his hand as he parried Bakugou's increasingly rude and loud questions. He knew that eventually Bakugou would resort to punching just as he always did when he was frustrated. He tensed as the boy prepared to lunge with the entire crowd cheering him on. Izuku knew that if he dodged, Tooru would get hit so he took the punch instead as he pulled Tooru behind him.
...
Bakugou couldn't believe the nerve of this nerd. He kept lying and glancing to the side as if there really was a person there. He even protected the imaginary person as if he was a real hero. Bakugous eyes widened as his fist connected with Izuku's face. Izuku managed to stay on his feet and looked at Bakugou with a determined look on his face. "Just because you don't believe me doesn't mean she isn't real!" Izuku yelled back at his old friend. Katsuki was enraged. He hit Izuku again with his left fist. Izuku looked back at him with a determined glare. "Hitting me will hurt me, but it doesn't make you right!" Izuku said as he once again stood tall. Katsuki saw red. How DARE HE!!!! He was making Katsuki feel like a villain. He was making Katsuki hurt him by not telling the truth. it was his fault, HIS FAULT! HIS FAULT! Katsuki opened the palm of his hand and instinctively detonated a small explosion into Izuku's chest blowing him back into the crowd. The group of children that had been watching the fight quickly became horrified at the sight of blood on the quirkless boy's chest. They screamed and went to grab parents. When Katsuki realized what he had done, he stared at his hands in horror until his mother came and pulled him away, leaving him to his mother's carefully practiced hands.
...
Inko thanked every God she knew for the medical knowledge she had acquired as a nurse as she took care of Izuku's wounds. Luckily the detonation hadn't done too much damage. There would be a scar, but beyond breaking the skin and knocking the air out of his lungs, Katsuki's blast hadn't done too much damage. Inko breathed a sigh of releif as she picked her small child up and called a nearby hospital to give him a once over just in case.
As she made the phone call she felt a tug at her cardigan and heard some faint sniffles. She looked down and saw nothing but paused as she heard a faint whisper. "Will Zu-chan be okay?" A girl's voice said. Inko's heart leaped as she realized that Izuku's imaginary friend was not only real, but that she had probably been there through the entire ordeal. She knelt down and held out her free arm as Izuku shifted his head to look at the space the girl was most likely in. Inko felt the girl wrap her arms around them and asked her if she was alright. She felt the girl nod her head, and then told the girl, that Izuku would be alright, and that they would come to the park tomorrow so she could see him and make sure he was alright. She felt the small girl nod and then they left.
...
Tooru felt guilty that she wasn't able to make sure Izuku was alright before her parents took her home. She hadn't realized how fast the summer had passed while she was playing with Zuchan. She just hoped she would be able to meet him again one day.
...
Years later Midoriya Tooru and her husband Izuku would laugh at the fact that they had met again at the UA entrance exams. Of course Izuku was the only one to notice not only Uraraka, but also a girl with an invisibility quirk in the rubble beneath the giant zero pointer then proceed to take it down with a handmade EMP bomb he had salvaged from other examinee's broken robots. They would reflect on their hectic first year and the dramatic way All Might had been forced into retirement. They would reminisce about their shared undercover missions and marvel at their beautiful children as they grew up and started their own families. They would eventually be buried together under a tombstone that read, "It all started with an imaginary friend."