The Serpent in the Garden - [todoshindeku] - Villain Izuku

Chapter Nine

   Shinsou had always known there was something strange about his friend. From the very beginning he had been weirdly secretive, which clashed distinctly with his open, friendly personality. He had quickly become a steadfast, unwaveringly supportive part of Shinsou's life from the moment he had asked him, a virtual stranger, to join him in training to become a hero. But then why did he always feel as if there was a huge piece of the puzzle that was Izuku that was still unknown to him — or maybe even more?

Maybe it was all the cleverly evaded questions, the calls and visits to people he never mentioned apart from when Shinsou himself brought them up, or maybe even the other boy's ease in which he navigated life, strangely independent even for an only kid of a single mother, skipping school on a whim and unafraid to go off on his own at all hours of the night, as if he knew what he was doing and was completely assured that he would be safe whilst doing it — or could defend himself if anything happened.

His home life seemed normal enough however; almost too normal. He lived with his mother in a small downtown apartment, went to a public junior high school, and had a perfectly normal dream to someday become a pro hero. If Shinsou hadn't learned to trust his instincts so much, due to some unsavoury incidents at his previous school, he would just be tempted to shrug it all off. But he couldn't shake the niggling feeling that there was something that his best friend wasn't telling him.

He sighed, adjusting his schoolbag shoulder straps as the automated voice in the train peppily announced the next stop. He wanted to confront Izuku, his usually carefully buried trust issues whisperings at him urgently at him to demand the truth. But if he did so, wouldn't that make him the world's biggest hypocrite? The other, more bitter voice inside of him sniggered, reminding him of all the things he still hadn't told Izuku, either. Namely, his quirk.

Oh, yes, he knew that he should have told Izuku at the beginning, when they'd first met, or, at least, after a few days, but he hadn't, so now he was left with the consequences of the reluctance of his past self, constantly stalling on telling his friend about himself because the longer he left it, and the closer they grew, the harder it became to tell him — the more Shinsou couldn't bare the thought of Izuku leaving because of how fucked up his quirk was. Who would want to willingly be friends with someone who could literally control you? What if he thought that all along Shinsou had been controlling him to be his friend?

What if, what if...

It was all what ifs.

And then there was the added... problem. Yes, Izuku may be mysterious and maybe a little strange, but he was the first person since he'd discovered his quirk that had wanted to be around him, to be his friend. And he was also a genuinely kind, supportive person, if obnoxiously sarcastic and with a slightly mischievous sense of humour. But then again, so did Shinsou.

Well, the point was, up until this point he had always thought of himself as incapable of love, in the romantic sense. He had never experienced it before, not even the fleeting aesthetic attraction to a fellow classmate or peer. There was a word for that, others that were like him, and he had eventually grown to accept that that was how he was, had even grown to enjoy it, in a way. Observing the romantic relations between his fellow students, love, he had deduced, was messy and unnecessary.

But then, of course, Izuku had come along, and now Shinsou was beginning to suspect that maybe he had just never met Izuku.

He felt, distantly, that he should be feeling happy about this turn of events, but the only thing he could really think was that it was a total disaster. Quite a big one, actually.

Stepping off the train, he ran a hand over his face, groaning. Beside him, an older woman shot him a concerned glance, and Shinsou returned the look with a sheepish one — he hadn't meant to be so loud.