The Flap of a Butterfly's Wings

Memories And Nightmares

    Maintaining a three year-old personality was hard. Harder than he thought it would be.

    He wasn't like the other kids at school, and that seemed to scare them. Or at least weird them out to the point where they wouldn't talk to him. Izuku didn't mind though, he had Kacchan and Inko and that was all he needed. It's not like he didn't try, because he did -it seemed to make his mom happier-, but he was older, and he always had this tired aura around him. The kids noticed this; They were more observant than the adults, knew that he wasn't normal. Izuku tried desperately to find his old welcoming, friendly presence from his past life and on his really, really good days, it did come out if not only a little dimmer.

    The adults never paid any mind to it after getting to know him (as much as he would let them. He wouldn't take any chances). They always ruled his introverted, slightly anxiety induced, personality to his incredibly high IQ. He tried his best to hide his intelligence at school in order to stay in the same grade and not intimidate the other students even further, but it was getting hard. School had just started for him again and he was already smarter than his past self. Not that he would ever believe it, though. No matter how many compliments Izuku got, it was never enough. He was never enough. He felt like he was lacking something that he had before, something that was missing from him.

    He just couldn't remember.

    The day he turned three he had begged his mom to let him join martial arts. As many styles as possible. He needed to gain muscle and surpass his skill from the last timeline; it wasn't enough from the last time.

        Inko had been unsure -she hated the thought of her baby getting hurt, but once she saw the pure determination in her son's eyes, she just couldn't find it in herself to say no.

    The teachers had been astounded by the pure skill Izuku had already possessed. He did everything they asked him to do, and if he couldn't do it the first time, he would keep on doing it until he mastered it. Two months in, and he was on the top level on multiple different styles and had took a special place in the hearts of his teachers. The sheer determination of the kid amazed the teachers and worried them at the same time.

    "Are you sure you don't want to take a break?" Asked Asa-Sensei, the judo teacher.

    "I... I'm sure." The panting didn't really convince the teacher, but she let it slide. He had been at it for hours without taking a break and she didn't want him to pass out from exhaustion.

        Turns out, that's exactly what had happened. It nearly gave Asa a heart attack and she -along with his other teachers- would force him to take breaks from that point on.

    It was scary how quickly the kid had wiggled into everyone's hearts.

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    "Kacchan?" The whole day Izuku was a bundle of nerves. They were outside in the park and were admiring Katsuki's quirk. It had manifested a few months ago, and tomorrow Izuku will be going to the doctor to see why his quirk was late.

    Of course, he already knew the answer.

    "Yeah, nerd?" Bakugou asked while looking away from his palms that were cackling with sparks.

    "Let's say I was diagnosed as quirkless. Would you and I still be friends?" He had been dreading this the entire day, but Izuku had to ask. He needed too.

    Kacchan drew in a breath, shocked at the question. For what seemed like forever they sat on the grass in silence. "You're not going to be quirkless, Izu. We're going to be the most powerful hero duo, remember? I'll be number one and you'll be number two, just like we talked about." This was all he needed for his question to be answered. He should've known that it was going to be the same, that Kacchan would think of him as useless and eventually push him away.