' Italics ' (distorted) = The Speech = Language that monsters, mythical creatures/beings use. Also what Izuku uses to cast magic/spells,etc)

" Normal " = Human speech

Chapter 1

Izuku had always known he was different. The youngest memory he had of that visceral difference was during his first trip to the park cradled gently in his Mama's arms. Izuku grinned up at the beautiful figures of the trees and they grinned back at him.

The tall willow tree in the middle of the park noticed him when he puttered towards her and gave her trunk a big hug. She introduced herself as Orphile and when she laughed, her hair flowed and whipped in the wind like waves. She was the tree...and at the same time, she was not.

Orphile smiled and gave his head a gentle pat when he asked her what she was. In a voice like the fresh blossom of spring, she said that she was very old and she existed here since the beginning of life. Izuku's brow furrowed in confusion. Then, something landed on his hair, and when Izuku reached up, his fingers met the soft petals of a pretty pink flower. He smiled up at his new friend and thanked her for the gift before he clumsily stumbled over his own feet.

Izuku sat there and talked with the limited vocabulary his three-year old mind was capable of. Somehow, Orphile seemed to understand all the things he could not say.

His Mama wandered over a while later and asked him who he was talking to. Izuku introduced her to Orphile but when Mama gave him a blank look, followed by a hasty smile that looked too tight to be real, Izuku understood.

Izuku understood that no one could see what he could see.

He saw and also understood that Orphile and the nice tree-ladies didn't have any friends to talk to, so he turned around and pressed a tight hug into his new friend's legs and promised to come visit regularly. Promised that she didn't have to be lonely anymore. Orphile chuckled and gave him a soft, warm hug that felt just like one of his Mama's hugs. Izuku sunk into it and waved goodbye before he was picked up and carried home.

Izuku was five when he met his first human friend. He was five when the sounds of a fight reached his ears and lured him from his sanctuary under the bridge. On the edge of the ledge leading down to the river, there was a boy with spiky blond hair and red eyes as fierce as molten lava up against a group of larger boys who looked slightly older than the Boy With Fire In His Soul.

The sight dragged something that burned and screeched from within him, and before he was even aware of it, he was marching up the grassy slope. In a blink of an eye, Izuku was standing in front of The Boy With Fire In His Soul with arms spread wide like an eagle and shaking bravado running through his limbs.

Although the older boys were tougher and their hits were more painful than anything he had experienced before, Izuku stood his ground. He kicked and scratched and used all the techniques Orphile and the nice, quiet Darkness-Claw-Creature-that-lived-under-beds taught him until they gave up and ran away.

In the silence of the aftermath, Izuku turned around and gave his new friend a manic, wild grin. That was the first time Izuku discovered that humans weren't always cruel. That day he found out that one other human could accept a strange, bumbling boy with too much wild knowledge and ancient eyes that were tinged with inhuman wisdom.

That was the first time Izuku spoke to someone human other than his Mama and it felt like freedom. It felt like the world suddenly opened at his feet. The cold wariness that wrapped around his heart loosened and everything looked just a little brighter.

Izuku was six when he realized that the two worlds didn't mix.

Izuku was six when he realized that no matter what he said, adults would nod with those twisted-funny-fake-smiles and other children would sneer and snicker at him behind his back. He was six when he realized that words were as painful as physical wounds. The words creep-freak liar liarliarliarfake liar- trailed behind him like a blanket of doom and, some days it felt like he was carrying the weight of a two-tonne truck on his back. Even with Kacchan's staunch friendship and prickly protectiveness, Izuku was still frequently attacked by bullies who carried their fragile egos on their shoulders like medals of valor.

Izuku was six and in the same class as Kacchan when he found out why the Other-side didn't mix with the human world. Izuku was in class when –for the first time- he met a being that decided to live in society disguised as a human. Instead of a round, smooth human face that greeted the class, Izuku saw a large two-meter tall creature with an anorexic, nearly-skeletal frame when his teacher stepped in the door.

On top of its head, there was a bush of flowers that flowed in the air like hair, and instead of possessing normal eyes there was nothing but obsidian, shimmery pools of darkness. Izuku checked to see if Kacchan saw the flowers that showered the ground until the whole floor was engulfed in invisible purple petals, but as usual, nobody noticed anything out of the ordinary.

Izuku made sure that all his classmates and Kacchan were asleep during the class' afternoon nap before he snuck out of his blanket. Izuku tiptoed towards Ms. Kanama and lightly tugged on her sleeve. She turned around and he leaned towards her and whispered: 'Your eyes look like the sea at night and I think your flowers are so pretty!'

Izuku saw the dark-obsidian pools of her eyes widen before a wide, lopsided smile stretched across her skeletal face from ear to ear. Her voice was like the ocean waves crashing against the sand as she thanked him and told him that her name was Kanama-fanvela-lin and that she was a night-walker. After that, she asked him if he was scared of her. Izuku giggled and declared that she was silly for having that thought because all he saw was the swirling ocean in her eyes and the glint of desert-flowers on her skin. All he saw was the beauty of the night coalesced into a form with a soothing aura that made Izuku think of stars and churning nebulas.

The smile that Ms. Kanama gave him was tinged with amusement, but her overwhelming relief washed over him and stole his breath away. No matter how far humanity had come in accepting people with DNA mutations called Quirks, the ability to truly accept and understand beings and creatures that were as old as the Earth itself was still impossible.

The Other-side had different rules, and humans were still too young a species to understand how the world truly worked, so these beings hid. Blending in and living several human lifetimes -always protecting and watching over humanity- but never really part of it.

These beings were folklore. Tales of the supernatural used to scare naughty children.

They were the unexplained sightings. A trick of the eye to some. Invisible friends and guardian angels to others.

But, although they're rare, there are also some beings who have decided to live in the human world as humans with 'a quirk'.

That was the first time Izuku understood why there was a divide. Why his classmates treated him like he was made wrong. It was because they were scared of everything new and alien. Scared of anything unknown and unseen, and outside of the 'norm'.

And Izuku, with his tiny little six-year-old heart, vowed that he would use his gift to heal. To help.

Izuku was seven when he first felt paralyzing terror.

The attack came out of nowhere. One minute Izuku and Kacchan were walking down the stone-paved, beaten path back from school, and the next minute there was an electrician's van barreling down the street. Before Izuku could react, the van's door slammed open and two pairs of arms reached out of the darkness and grabbed them. They landed on the floor of the van with a heavy thunk that Izuku could feel all the way down his spine.

The shock paralyzed him. Izuku could do nothing but curl his palms over his head when the hulking, towering man straddled him and pinned his arms down.

On the other hand, Kacchan was screaming and spitting from the top of his lungs. Izuku was insanely proud but he was also terrified for his friend. If Kacchan got hurt, he didn't know how he would react. Didn't know if the wild, coiling creature in his chest would stay docile.

Izuku struggled against the man's weight and froze completely when he heard Kacchan cry out in pain. He swung his head around in desperation and saw the attacker pressing a gun into Kacchan's cheeks.

"Stop screaming or your fucking friend's gonna get shot!" The man who held Kacchan down gestured towards his companion and the next thing Izuku felt was a chloroform-filled cloth pressing against his nose and mouth. He gasped and reached out desperately towards Kacchan. Hot, salty tear tracks raced down his cheeks. All Izuku could feel was the hands around his throat and the suffocating scratchiness of the cloth against his nose, muffling his terrified whimpers.

Just as the black spots exploding across his vision grew and his struggles weakened, there was a loud deafening bang that rocked the car. The man who held Kacchan down was suddenly flung violently out of the back of the car and on to the road. The force of the explosion blew out the back of the van and Izuku stared at the sight of his bleeding, burnt friend in awe.

The car skidded to an abrupt stop and the man who was strangling Izuku careened forward. His body hit the dashboard with a thump that left spider-web cracks in the glass. The driver immediately turned around, aimed a gun at them and fired off three rounds. The only thing that Izuku felt was utter dread as the bullets raced past him and headed towards Kacchan's vulnerable body.

No-nonono- don't let it hurt Kacchan- Kacchan will die- nonononono-NO!

The creature that was trapped in his chest roared in agony and the next thing Izuku felt inside his mind was a pop. Something inside of him burst out.

The bullets hit a wall and stopped in mid-air an inch away from Kacchan's chest. The air in front of Kacchan swirled and in the middle of that vortex of pressure, a body started to materialize. The wispy, translucent form of a familiar friend appeared with the mercilessness of an avenging angel.

His friend, Nelu, reached a hand towards him and Izuku felt himself being lifted into the air. He frantically searched for Kacchan in the ensuing chaos and was relieved when he saw his feisty friend gently being picked up and hoisted towards him.

As soon as Kacchan was in his reach, Izuku dragged his friend over and desperately clung to his shoulders. Izuku muffled his sobs against Kacchan's throat and sunk his senses into his friend's familiar yet slightly burnt smell of cinder and tangy oranges until his hands stopped shaking and his stomach stopped heaving.

"Deku! Oi deku, I'm fine! I'm ok, dummmy."

Kacchan's voice was hoarse from smoke and tainted with pain, but the tone was gruff and soothing and so Kacchan that it brought forth another round of tears. Izuku sniffled and snuggled against his blond friend until the screams that tore through the air stopped and the trembles that shook his limbs died down.

He only perked up and turned around when he heard Kacchan snarl out a warning.

"Stay back! What the hell are you anyways-?!"

There was a tinkle of laughter in the air. The sigh and huff of the wind before Nelu answered.

"I a͖m̲̯̣̖ Nelu. I̘z̪̠u̖̘ͅk̟̙̱u̪͔̲̼'s͓̲̹͇ fr̘͈͖i̜end, y̻o̙̳̳͔̝̜u̮͈͔̬n͔g̠̦̖̜ͅ oṉ͓̥̻̘e͚̺͔ͅ ."

Izuku reached out towards Nelu and a curl of wind danced along in his skin in a familiar, warm greeting, however, Kacchan's soft yelp made Izuku whip around in panic. Izuku's hands hovered over Kacchan's head like an aimless, lost bird whilst Kacchan pressed his bright-red, burnt palms against his ears.

'What the fuck! God- What the hell was that!" Izuku stared up at Nelu in distress but instead of a reply, the air nymph pressed a finger towards his lips and then pointed to Kacchan's ears. Then, Nelu pressed two tendrils of air against Kacchan's ears and hands before the nymph spoke.

"The w̝̥o̥̖̳̩̟͈̗rd̙͖̳s͍̙̲̭͕ ̝͈͇̯oͅf̪̼̳̱ the Other-side a̩̘̥̲̝͍̲re͙ n̙͈o̘̙̠ț̖ suitable for human ears. I apologize fo̗̪̣̪̤̻̙r͉̳͓ my̼͎ carelessness, child. Now, c̬̗͇̮̼͍ͅan y̻̳̫̦̫o̮̞͇͈̥u̟̖̞ h̻̪̲̦e̠̜͈̰̤ar ṃ͓e̼̲͇͔̤̹?"

There was a wealth of distrust and vivid suspicion in every line on Kacchan's body but he didn't try to blast Nelu away or violently scream at the air nymph, so Izuku took that as a win.

"I a͖m̲̯̣̖ an air nymph. Nelu i̬̮̹̯̜s͖̭̳̤̹͉̫ m̗̼̣y̯͍̠̹̣ͅ n̬̖̪̤͍̭a̳̣ͅm̤̼e. Nice t̞͈̟̠o̯̙̟̗͔͉ͅ meet ỵ̫͇̳̜ọ̗͇̠̣u, human c̬͍̖̘̞̦̝h̰i̖͎̫̘ld̙̮̙̬̣͖̮. Friend o̠f ̭̭̞͓̳̲̳t̪̬̬h̖̗̝͕̩e̙̖̳ little Spark."

From the corner of his eyes, Izuku saw Kacchan give him an inscrutable look but he paid it little attention. Instead, he wanted to know if his friends could help him heal Kacchan and was delighted when Nelu gave his green hair an affectionate ruffle and a nod.

"Of c̹̮̩o̦͍͔͍u̲r͍͇̮͔̲͕s̼͉̜e̙͖, little Izuku. We a̩l̪̩̯l̘̞̠͍̦ felt t͇̹̘̩̜̹̖he blast of energy y̹͎o̜̖ͅu̙͈̣̘͎ released and came as͍͕ fast as͍͕ w͍̩e͈̖͕̭͙ could. Congratulations, y̹͎o̜̖ͅu͍̱̤͇̜̱r̞ magic h̰͓̱as̪̹̻ awakened."

Another one of Nelu's tendrils of power enveloped Izuku's hand and guided it until his small palm was placed on the skin where Kacchan's heart is. The pulse thumping underneath his palm was mesmerizing and hypnotic, and he didn't notice that he was copying the warm, tingling sensation from Nelu until the skin under his hand pulsed with green-tinted light.

Kacchan grunted and when Izuku snapped his head up in distress, the look of unexpected wonder that stained Kacchan's face was so foreign…so strange that Izuku suddenly lost his focus. The light dulled and immediately died down.

Izuku gave his hand an irritated frown.

"Kacchan. I'm sorry...um- did-did it hurt?"

Kacchan shook his head, brought his hands up into the air and all the air in Izuku's lungs left in a whoosh when he saw the completely healed, unblemished skin of Kacchan's arms.

"No. It felt...warm." Kacchan's reply was filled with confusion and Izuku watched his friend struggle to find the words to describe his...wow-his magic (he had magic now?!).

"That's great, Kacchan! You're not hurt anymore." The relief that flooded his body from tip to toe was staggering and he pitched forwards into Kacchan's arms. The only thing that anchored him was the feeling of Kacchan's smooth, pale skin under his palms.

"W̮͖̮͉el͓l͖͈͈͖̘͖ done, li̫̹t͖̦t̠̤̜͈̯̗le̟̠̣̰̹ b̗̗̥̭ṷ̙͈̖͈͍̝nn̥y̞͍."

Izuku squeezed his eyes shut when Nelu's presence wrapped around him and dried away his tears. With a wobbly smile and overwhelming gratitude running through his veins, he gave Nelu a croaky, barely-audible: "Th̬̦an̝̻̰͓͎̯k you, you̠͇͇͉ saved Kacch̪a̗̱̼̤̬̭̹n."

"N̠̤̞o͔̫͇w͍̯ rest, young on͕̦̖̱̹e̱͖͓͓s. I͖̗̪̻͖ h̯̣̪̜̠e̗͇̰a̳̹̬̘͇͕̮r̟ heroes a̩̱̻ṇ̮̘ͅd͓̰̲ police c͕͇̲̦̹̰̙o͕͓mi̝̦̫͕͇͉ͅn̝̙g̫͖͈͙ this wa̜̱̰y."

With that, Nelu enveloped Izuku in another toasty hug and dropped a tender kiss on his forehead before the air nymph vanished into a whirlpool of cool, autumn wind.

The quiet between them didn't last long before the police and heroes swooped in and they were carted off, on an ambulance, with orange blankets around their shoulders. The ambulance arrived at the hospital at breakneck speeds, and then they were, once again, sucked into a whirlpool of flurried activity.

The next thing Izuku was aware of were white walls and sterile sheets and Kacchan plastered against his side. Without warning, the door opened with a bang and two women steamrolled into the doctor's office with the power and force that only mothers were capable of.

"Izuku! Oh god, you're alright. You're alright." Izuku felt his Mama's shaky, panting breaths fan against his hair and peeked at Kacchan and Mrs. Bakugou from the corner of his eyes.

Izuku smiled, placed both palms on his Mama's wet cheeks and patted them gently. He fervently hoped that his Mama would stop feeling so scared and worried for him. He was ok. He had Kacchan. He had Nelu. He had Orphile and so many Other friends, but the words sat like a lump of coal in his diaphragm and he found it so hard to speak and say what he wanted without using The Speech. It was easier to depend on the words that shaped dimensions and rendered reality into putty. The only limitation of The Speech was as powerful as a person's imagination and as unstable and all-encompassing as the breadth and width of your wildest dreams. There was no limit in The Speech. Most of the time, Izuku found it so hard to use human words because it made everything feel smaller, duller and as limited as a gilded cage, but it was easier with Kacchan and his Mama. Although, day by day, it was slowly getting harder and harder to talk to anyone else except Kacchan, so -in desperation- he slid his friend a pleading look and hoped that Kacchan could talk to his Mama for him.

His blonde friend gave his mother a disgruntled hug and a long-suffering sigh before he turned around and gave Izuku a flat, unimpressed look. Izuku pouted and leaned sideways to grasp Kacchan's hand. The blonde boy huffed and rolled his eyes so hard that Izuku was afraid that Kacchan's eyeballs were in imminent danger of popping out.

"Auntie Midoriya, the dumbass said that he's fine so you shouldn't worry too much. He-"

Kacchan glanced back at him with a raised eyebrow and Izuku gave him an enthusiastic nod.

"He doesn't want to see you so sad and worried."

There was a choked gasp from his Mama and he grinned up at her with all the love he could manage.

"Thank you, Katsuki-chan. You have such a sweet boy, Mistuki-chan."

Izuku saw Mrs. Bakugou smirk down at Kacchan before she gave his golden locks a messy, affectionate ruffle.

"Well, this little spitfire here is a true marshmallow on the inside. Don't let all this grumpiness fool ya."

Izuku giggled at a spluttering, outraged Kacchan and held his hands up towards his Mama as soon as he felt the doctor's presence walking towards them. His Mama chuckled at the Bakugou family's antics and picked him up.

Izuku settled in his Mama's arms. With a sniffly sigh, he rested his head against his Mama's soft shoulders and allowed the scent of fresh grass and rolling rain to wash over him like Nelu's flitting wind-like cuddles. He settled in and watched as Kacchan struggled in Mrs. Bakugou's arms. Watched as the white upside-down spiders that clung to the ceiling tussled and chittered to one another. Izuku giggled and gave them a shy, little wave when two dog-sized spiders fell to the ground in front of the examination bed. Two pairs of eight red, beady eyes blinked at him in astonishment before each of them raised up a leg and mechanically waved at him.

Izuku was so engrossed with the sight of the upside-down spiders and their excited whispers that he didn't notice the doctor who entered the room until the doc ran a finger across the clasps of the bandage that encircled his sprained wrist.

Izuku jumped and nearly smacked his Mama with his forehead. He huffed and poked his Mama's cheek just to make sure that she was ok before he turned towards the doctor and inspected him. The doctor looked like he was in his mid-30s with circle glasses that made his eyes round as an owl's and long, flowing black locks that were tied haphazardly in a bun. Izuku glanced at the blue-ish grey tendrils that pulsated around the doctor and focused on the tiny glimmers of ghostly fins until his green eyes could pick out the minuscule, translucent-ghostly schools of fish that swam around the doctor.

"Well, it looks like Izuku-kun sustained minimal superficial injuries. On the other hand, Katsuki-kun is completely unscathed. That's a miracle because the force of Katsuki-kun's awakened quirk could have caused severe second-degree burns, maybe even third-degree burns."

Mrs. Bakugou sighed in relief and ruffled Kacchan's hair again at the news.

"Thank you, Doctor Hanse. Wait, Katsuki's quirk manifested?"

Doctor Hanse glanced at his clipboard before he gave Mrs. Bakugou a nod and a reassuring smile.

"Yes, Mrs. Bakugou. We ran some DNA tests and the Quirkologist that ran both of the boys' tests confirmed that your son's fire-based quirk has been activated. The test coupled with the fact that Katsuki-kun doesn't have an extra toe joint confirms that his quirk is powerful and very present."

Izuku shot Kacchan a blinding, elated grin. Kacchan scoffed at him but the red tint that dusted his friend's cheeks made Izuku's chest flutter, however that fluttering, pleasant feeling diminished when his Mama asked the doctor about his DNA test.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Midoriya but your son is quirkless. There's no indication of the Q-gene present in his DNA and the presence of an extra toe joint confirms the results. I'm so sorry, M'am."

When his Mama thanked the doctor, Izuku heard deep sorrow intermingled with disappointment and dashed-hopes, and his chest tightened in agony. So, the moment his Mama placed him on the ground, Izuku scrambled out the door.

He was never interested in quirks and how restrictive they seemed, but everyone else around him only cared about quirks. It made every social interaction feel like a chore and it made him feel like he was an outsider. A stranger regulated to the sidelines. A mismatched soul.

The thoughts swirled in his head like a jumbled mix of patch-worked negativity, so Izuku pushed his feet faster. Faster and faster until it felt like he had outrun the crushing feeling of not belonging here. Until he outran the disappointment and the people that wanted to force him into a 'normal' human mold.

He ran and ran. Ran until his feet grew tired. Ran until it twinged with the same ache that pervaded his chest. The trees that sat in the hospital's garden beckoned to him and Izuku ran straight for their shaded sanctuaries. He collapsed against the trunk of a large oak tree with autumn-orange-yellow leaves and a napping tree dryad at its core. Izuku sighed and curled a stiff, achy arm around his miserable, coiling stomach.

"Deku! Wha-What the hell?!" Izuku jumped, heart beating a million miles a minute, and only relaxed when he realized that it was Kacchan who had run after him.

There was a heavy groan from his blonde friend before Izuku felt a line of bodily warmth lean against him. Kacchan didn't say anything and Izuku was grateful for the silence. Grateful for the soul Song that permeated every crack and crevice of the Earth. He couldn't even remember a time when he couldn't hear it. It was his constant. His rock and anchor when things were scary or dark.

So Izuku sat there with Kacchan and listened to The Soul Song until his heart felt steady again. Until his palms stopped sweating and the air in his lungs started feeling light again. Then, Izuku licked his dry lips, cleared his throat, and waited for his voice box to remember how to shape the sounds of human language.

"Do-Do you hate me now, Kacchan?"

There was a heavy sigh and the sound of a palm against a face from the boy beside him.

"No, you idiot."

Kacchan's next words were serious and soft. It was like the skirting vulnerability of a dangerous predator.

"Maybe I might've hated you in another universe for not having a quirk. But in this world, I don't. I don't because I saw- fuck, I don't know what I saw today...but I understood. I understood that there were things other than humans with quirks. There were things out there that I could learn from, so no. No, I don't fucking hate you, Deku."

Izuku hummed in content because he didn't need the world to accept him. He just needed his important people.

"Mhm—Ok. Love you. Thank you, Kacchan." Izuku wrapped a hand around his friend's wrist and shuffled over until he laid his head on Kacchan's shoulders.