Chapter Text
It wasn't until he was thirteen years old that Midoriya realised there were more people in the public eye that were quirkless than most thought. He couldn't say he was surprised, with how quirkless people were treater nowadays, especially in the heroics side of things.
The first hero he discovered that lacked a quirk was Midnight.
In all honesty, Midnight really didn't mean to mislead people in the beginning.
She really thought that the gas dispensers around her wrist were noticeable enough for people to identify them as a support item. It wasn't until her fifth arrest that she realised they all thought it was her quirk; the quirk she didn't have.
She'd laughed and decided to go along with it, for shits and giggles. Twelve years later, and nobody had figured it out. Not until she met a hyperactive teenager with far too much free time.
Nemuri was just trying to get home when she encountered 'the child'. He ran out in front of her, a notebook tucked under one arm and a pen held tight in the other hand.
"Wait! Wait! Mrs. Midnight-San!" He cried, hand outstretched.
She shrugged, it's just one kid, he can't be that much trouble, right?
"Sure!" She crouched down to the teenager's level. "What's up, kiddo?"
"I've been analysing your fights, and I just wanted to ask you something! It won't take long, I promise!"
Nemuri mentally prepared for any inappropriate questions that might be asked and planned out reasonable responses.
"Are you actually quirkless or do you just hide your actual quirk?" His eyes were wide, brimming with innocence and honesty and Nemuri nearly lost her balance with surprise.
"Pardon?" She choked out, begging to have misheard.
"Well, a-all the kids at school say I can't be a hero because I don't have a quirk, but I noticed that your original bracelets were bulkier, and that's where your mist comes from." He stopped to take a breath.
"Then I noticed that everybody that's been close to you has smelled a really sweet scent, which wouldn't make sense if it was your quirk, so it only really makes sense if you wear really heavy perfume."
Nemuri blinked. Never in her thirty two years of life-
"And if that's not part of your quirk, logically neither would the anesthetic part, and if I had to guess I'd say it was sevoflurane. A-am I right?" His personality one-eightied, from confident to timid as he shifted his feet anxiously.
Nemuri gaped wordlessly, brain frozen as she desperately attempted to respond.
"Kid, I- That’s spot on. You're a fuc- damn genius, shorty." She gave him a wide grin.
"I can't wait to teach you at UA, kiddo." She ruffled his hair, stood up and walked off, successfully hiding the shake in her step. She hoped she wasn't around when Nezu discovered him..
When Midoriya first saw Hawks, he knew something was a little bit sketchy. Of course, he was right.
Keigo was perfectly fine with his quirklessness. His parents on the other hand, less so. They'd chucked him away the second they found out he wasn't special and the hero commission had picked him up.
They saw him as expendable at first, trained him to die to the moment until they decided to use him as a test subject for the first prototype of mechanical wings. It was the first time he'd even been attached to an object in his life.
The red shine awakened something in him; his favourite colour in the form of freedom. From then on he was only referred to as Hawks.
Keigo whistled, kicking a rock lazily as he waltzed across the rooftop. His tune faded to silence when he caught sight of a teenager banging on the roof access door desperately. He frowned and allowed his wings to unfold, gliding to the lower rooftop with practiced ease.
"What'cha doing, kid?" He drawled, kicking his feet playfully.
The teenager, most likely in middle school, froze, slowly turning to face the winged hero.
"H-hawks?" He stuttered, eyes widening in surprise.
He grinned widely, "The one and only!"
The student gaped,snapping out of it to grab a tattered notebook from the inside of his blazer, a pen already in his other hand.
"I've been meaning to ask you something, it will only take a second if you say yes, of course I perfectly understand if you don't want to, I'm just some kid you don't even know, and-"
Keigo cut him off, "Go for it, kiddo. Ask away."
The boy hesitated for a mere second before opening his mouth to speak.
"I noticed a while ago that you only work alone and I was wondering if it's because you're actually quirkless?"
Keigo blinked, once, twice.
"I-in my mind it makes sense, because the hero commission really isn't known for being progressive, so they probably wouldn't want to waste backup on you due to their bigotry, and I'm really, really sorry if you're not quirkless, but your wings reflect too much light to be actual feathers and that means they're a support item," He paused, inhaled deeply, and continued.
"And all, and I mean all the kids at my school say that support items are useless and it's the quirk that matters, but if you're quirkless, that means I could still be a hero, right?"
Keigo looked into his viridian irises, which at some point in the last five minutes had transformed into puppy dog eyes because he couldn't say no to a face like that.
He smiled and replied honestly.
"Of course you can, kiddo. Let's get you to a safer level right now, though." And without warning Keigo picked the teenager up and circled the building, slowly declining in height until Midoriya’s feet grazed the ground.
Keigo hovered for a second before giving the student a wide grin.
"See you around, kiddo!" He called over his shoulder as he flew away.
Midoriya stood there, mouth open, processing what had just happened for a second or two before clicking his pen and frantically scrawling what he'd learnt about the hero in his notebook, ignoring the way the nib dragged on the wet paper, the lump in his throat fading and the autograph from All Might still decorating the page before.