Chapter Text
Izuku needed to dye his hair. The first day of school was tomorrow, and hell if he was going to put sticky blue gel in his hair every day before school on top of contacts and covering up his freckles.
He got up out of bed and got changed for the day. Today, he’s wearing a black hoodie and black pants. He didn’t mean to look emo, it’s just the most comfortable and would help him blend in with the crowd. He already looked plain, so he didn’t feel the need to wear a mask.
However, just as he was about to walk through the door, Kurogiri stopped him.
“Izuku, where are you going?” He raised an eyebrow that wasn’t visible through the mist, but Izuku could hear it in his tone.
“To the, um, the mall. I need to dye my hair. Don’t want anyone to recognize me, haha!” It was an awkward laugh, and brought an uncomfortable silence that went on for too long. After an eternity, Kurogiri finally spoke up.
“You need to wear a mask. Someone could recognize you in a crowded place like a mall. Tell me which one you’re going to, I can warp you nearby and give you some money for the dye.”
“The one near Aldera. I-I mean, I would assume you know where that is, uh because… um. Yeah.”
“Yes, I do. Hold on just a moment, I’ll grab you your things.” Kurogiri opened a portal which he proceeded to put his arm through, brought out a small bag, and handed it to Izuku, along with a mask. He swung it over his shoulder and put on the mask (unwillingly) and stepped through the portal Kurogiri made him.
Izuku was met immediately with the too-bright sun, and he had to sit down for a while to give his eyes the time to adjust.
It’s too loud. The voices from conversations he wasn’t a part of were stabbing at his ear like bees protecting honey.
It’s too loud and the sun’s too bright and it’s way too warm and the air isn’t working, and he can’t breathe and - why can’t he breathe?
He’s too lost in his own head to notice a scrawny man put his hand on Izuku’s shoulder.
“Young man, are you alright?”
And that voice, he knew. That voice, he despised. That voice, the one that had played over and over again in his head ever since that fateful day, had spoken to him again.
Before he could stop himself, Izuku threw the hand off of him and started running. He couldn’t deal with this right now, he just couldn’t. But he wasn’t alone in running across the mall; All Might was running after him.
“Young man, where are your parents? I didn’t mean to startle you, and - where’d you go?”
Izuku had run into the nearest clothing store he could see and went into a dressing room. If he waited in here for a while, he could probably either wait until he gave up looking for him, or call Kurogiri to warp him out.
He reached into his pocket to grab his phone. It wasn’t there. Okay, no big deal, it was probably in his bag, then. He went to go reach for it, and-
It wasn’t there.
He left the bag.
He left the bag with All Might.
Fuck.
He was about to spiral into another panic attack when there was a knock on his door.
“Excuse me, young man? I believe you left your bag. The lady at the front told me you ran in here.”
Shit. Fuck. Shit. What do I do?
He reached out to touch the handle. His hand was shaking. He couldn’t do this. God, he was so stupid.
He paused, took a deep breath, and tried again. He could do this.
His hand made it to the handle this time. He opened the door.
“Ah, so it is you! I’m glad I didn’t knock on someone’s door for no reason. I got worried when I heard the silence.” All Might was in his “deflated” form, as Izuku liked to call it, and was scratching the back of his head like he was embarrassed.
Nope. Nope, he couldn’t do this, he took it all back, he couldn’t face the man who shattered his dreams, not now, not here. Again, All Might was acting like he had done nothing wrong. Bullshit.
But he still needed to get his hair dye, so he would have to save his growing anxiety attack for later.
He walked up to All Might and snatched the bag from him, mumbling a harsh “thanks.” He didn’t mean it, and he was pretty sure the man could tell, but he didn’t care. He needed to get out of here.
He was about to turn the corner to leave the dressing rooms when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Again.
“Don’t touch me! You’re not a hero, so stop acting like one! I’m fine!”
He ran away again - but this time he was more aware, ducking into an alleyway for a while to wait out All Might and make sure he was nowhere around. After he was confident enough time had passed, he rejoined the crowd and made his way to the pharmacy to buy a couple boxes of hair dye.
He grabbed the bluest hair dye he could find and bought several boxes of it. Hopefully his eye contacts would come in time, too. He really needed to make sure nobody recognized him.
The pharmacy also had a beauty section, and while he’d definitely get weird looks for staying in it too long, it was a good opportunity to buy something to cover up his freckles.
A quick google search told him to buy concealer, because his freckles sort of looked like four moles in a diamond pattern. It had always been peculiar to him, the shape that his freckles took. They’d been there for as long as he could remember, too, and he was pretty sure that freckles were not supposed to be symmetrical.
But he was getting distracted. He got various shades of concealer from the shelves, because he wasn’t sure which would match him the best, and it didn’t look like there was a tester for any of them.
But that was all he needed, so he checked out and called Kurogiri to warp him back.
“How was your first outside excursion by yourself, Izuku?” Kurogiri asked.
“Hell.” Izuku started to head up to his room, but then added, “I’ll talk to you about it later, okay?”
“Of course, Izuku.”
Izuku stepped into the bathroom with one of his least favorite shirts on, gloves, and the hair dye in a bottle, ready to be used. It was messy, and he may or may not have stained the bathtub when washing it out, but his hair was most definitely blue! Well, actually, it was more of a teal, because apparently his hair rejected some of the blue, but whatever. It wasn’t green anymore, and that’s all that mattered.
Yes, he was exhausted after the horrible day he’d had, and yes, he was tired from dying his hair, but he still needed to figure out which shade of foundation fit him the best. He’d really procrastinated this way too much.
And wasn’t it just his luck? The shade that matched him the best - almost perfectly, actually, just a little too warm toned - was the last one he tried. Whatever, though, at least one worked.
He came down for some food and asked Kurogiri if his red eye contacts had come yet. Kurogiri said he’d put it in Izuku’s room. He ate his dinner, and went to his room for a final check of everything he needed.
He grabbed the nearest notebook and a pencil, and wrote down everything he had, and everything he might need for school.
What I have:
- Uniform
- Backup uniform
- 7 notebooks
- Extra analysis notebook
- Pencils
- Pens
- Highlighters
- 7 folders
- Water bottle
- New backpack
- Foundation bottle (for re-application during school)
What I still need:
- Pencil sharpener
- Band-Aids
- Hair ties (?)
That was good enough, right? The stuff he didn’t have wasn’t exactly urgent to get. He could go a couple days without them. He was tired, anyway.
He changed into his pajamas, slipped under his covers, and closed his eyes. He was going to Yuuei tomorrow.