Crossing The Tracks, Falling Down The Cracks
Series Metadata
Listing Series
-
Lace Them Up Tight (Lips Locked, Loose) by Otaku6337 for Emily_Elizabeth_Fowl
Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
16 Jun 2021
Tags
Summary
Izuku gets caught up in a villain attack on an already-bad day (grey laces and grey skies, because he's fighting to feel anything other than exhaustion and frustration, to feel the right side of alive) and ends up getting to school late, fortunately not overly injured.But that doesn't mean that he wasn't affected by a Quirk, nor that said Quirk can't wreak havoc with his heart and mind. Luckily Aizawa is there to try and help.
Series
- Part 70 of Ota's One-Shot Wonders
- Part 67 of Ota's BNHA Fic Stuff
- Part 15 of Fics From The Trenches ( ⓛ ω ⓛ *)
- Part 1 of Crossing The Tracks, Falling Down The Cracks
-
Present Your Past, Heart White-Laced (Prove That You're More Than A Sum Of Your Parts) by Otaku6337 for Neztune
Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
02 Jul 2021
Tags
Summary
Izuku was a Quirkless person (useless, Deku, Lace) long, long before he was a hero student. It moulded his life, shaped his words and mind and heart, and even if it's been a literal decade of hellish moments and blurred-out weeks, he still doesn't entirely hate it. It made him Izuku after all.But one thing he does hate (and oh, how he hates it, how he loathes it with bared teeth and trembling fingers, bent-steel spine and laces pulled tight) is the treatment of people like him. He hates how the world itself hates.
Maybe, in his own way, he can begin to change one tiny corner of that world, a single room filled with those who will one day have society at their fingertips. There's nothing stronger than a butterfly's wings after all.
It would be nice if the reveal didn't include a breakdown though.
(Another fic for my Quirkless community series - canon-compliant this time, but with the simple change of one class presentation gone wrong.)
Series
- Part 82 of Ota's One-Shot Wonders
- Part 79 of Ota's BNHA Fic Stuff
- Part 25 of Fics From The Trenches ( ⓛ ω ⓛ *)
- Part 2 of Crossing The Tracks, Falling Down The Cracks
-
Ground-Bound Expectations (Rise Above Them, Laced Amongst The Ugly, Bloody Stars) by Otaku6337 for Emily_Elizabeth_Fowl
Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
12 Jul 2021
Tags
Summary
They both sit there in silence for a long minute, Aizawa counting each of the kid's breaths (nineteen of them, nineteen more miniscule choices to stay alive) the whole time. But then the hero grows weary of it, and even more weary of how utterly blank the kid looks, sorrow rounding their shoulders and melancholy carving their shaking bones, apathy curling his toes against the ledge, so he speaks up once more,
"You didn't expect me to actually do that, did you?"~~~
"If you're Quirkless, or a Lace, prove them all wrong and do it smiling. Spite doesn't have to be pretty."
~~~~(You guys know my vibe of rooftop Dadzawa by now ^^; Enjoy!!)
Series
- Part 97 of Ota's One-Shot Wonders
- Part 93 of Ota's BNHA Fic Stuff
- Part 38 of Fics From The Trenches ( ⓛ ω ⓛ *)
- Part 3 of Crossing The Tracks, Falling Down The Cracks
-
Knotted Laces, Knotted Hair, Knotted Heart by Otaku6337
Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
04 Oct 2021
Tags
Summary
In many universes, Midoriya Izuku never gets a Quirk.This universe, too, is one of those. He fights and falls and tries again, clawing his way out from the hellhole that was Aldera, and manages, by virtue of intelligence alone, he's sure, to get into UA. Of course, General Education isn't what he wants. It's good, one of the best general education courses in the entire country with a variety of career paths, even for someone Quirkless, but it's not what he wants. No, Izuku wants to be a hero.
But how is he meant to be a hero when he can't even save himself?
~~~
Aizawa is far from oblivious. He's seen "the Quirkless kid" around the school, and whilst they seem like a Problem Child, they seem like one with a good heart. So when he sees them taking nothing short of abuse, there's no chance he won't step in.
(Another piece for my Laces worldbuilding series, to go with the knot Inktober prompt!)
Series
- Part 121 of Ota's One-Shot Wonders
- Part 118 of Ota's BNHA Fic Stuff
- Part 5 of Spilling Ink All Over The Place (Ota's External Events)
- Part 4 of Crossing The Tracks, Falling Down The Cracks
-
A Facsimile And Fool And Fake, Kept Together By Pale Laces And Forced Smiles by Otaku6337
Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
24 Oct 2021
Tags
Summary
Izuku has long-since felt like he was dying, losing parts of himself and unworthy of so much, nothing more than a facsimile and fool and fake, daring to dream for things far beyond what a Deku like him should be allowed to have.But perhaps here and now, with his boyfriends and friends and class, he might be able to grow past his trauma. He might be able to feel safe enough to tell them of what he's gone through over the years.
He might even be supported and loved by them despite it all.
(This does include my laces worldbuilding, but it's pretty insignificant in terms of fic comprehension!)
Series
- Part 136 of Ota's One-Shot Wonders
- Part 134 of Ota's BNHA Fic Stuff
- Part 22 of Spilling Ink All Over The Place (Ota's External Events)
- Part 5 of Crossing The Tracks, Falling Down The Cracks
-
The Soul Of Shila (Of A Snake And Lace And Hero) by Otaku6337
Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
20 Nov 2021
Tags
Summary
There are villains here, modern day monsters, and they are threatening his friends, his teachers, their very lives. And Izuku will not stand for that. Nor will Shila. (They were born to be a hero, together; people might look down upon Izuku for being a Quirkless Lace, and fear him for the snake that has coiled around him since the day he was deemed useless, but they will never try to do anything but save people.)The silver scales that ring Izuku's wrist flash in the light and when he speaks it is not words but rather with air and anger and absolute fear.
~~~(A soul animal vibe for another take on the USJ!)
Series
- Part 143 of Ota's One-Shot Wonders
- Part 142 of Ota's BNHA Fic Stuff
- Part 26 of Spilling Ink All Over The Place (Ota's External Events)
- Part 6 of Crossing The Tracks, Falling Down The Cracks
-
Something Other In His Bones by Otaku6337
Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
21 May 2022
Tags
Summary
Izuku is Quirkless. He always has been, and always will be, Quirkless. No matter what the man and his monsters do to him. (The man, too, is a monster, even though he has eyes that are a pretty shade of blue and he has no blackened skin. Even though he looks so, so normal at first, even though he can look kind before he gets too close-)He stares down at his red shoes (he's been wearing his white laces for so long that they are grey-brown now, and one end is red-) and waits. Listens. He had no choice in coming here, he never does, and maybe he doesn't want to be here but he also doesn't want-
"Izuku-kun, dear boy, look at me." Izuku wants to, he really does (he knows what will happen if he doesn't, and that reality is worse, but he still finds himself frozen still, ice and ash all he can taste-), but he can barely breathe, let alone move.
The hand curling under his chin is deceptively gentle, until the moment it tightens.
~~~
Izuku doesn't like that the man is using him as an experiment, that he is being given Quirks that he has to analyse, to pick and pull apart and explain to the man. But he doesn't have a choice. Not if he wants his family to be okay.
Series
- Part 186 of Ota's BNHA Fic Stuff
- Part 3 of Ota Makes Bad Things Happen (✿◡‿◡)
- Part 7 of Crossing The Tracks, Falling Down The Cracks
- Part 1 of His Bones (Growing Past What Carves Itself Into His Being)
- Part 7 of Ota’s Medium+ Multichapter Fics
-
Knotted Laces, Bared Teeth, Clenched Fists by Otaku6337
Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
19 Jun 2022
Tags
Summary
Izuku has joined 1-A, because he fought damn hard to get in, and he isn't sure if he can trust Aizawa-sensei, but at least he's here now, whether he's a Lace or not.But, of course, history does not simply evaporate with time, and sometime such things are dangerous.
---
Izuku drags in a single deeper breath, can't quell his own shuddering, and lets his gaze only linger very, very briefly over the man to instead focus back on Bakugou (on the threat-), keeping that awareness of his new classmates too. He can't afford not to.
(Izuku still isn't safe. His body and mind are blaring it at him, and he believes them whole-heartedly, because he is the Quirkless Lace of his class, and even Aizawa surely would not put him above his actual class, not when they are all Tracks at worst, if not outright Perfs who are destined for something great, for the exact opposite of the bloody mess that Izuku, hero or not, will always be destined for-)
---
A follow-up fic of sorts for an earlier Laces fic of mine: Knotted Laces, Knotted Hair, Knotted Heart
Series
- Part 205 of Ota's One-Shot Wonders
- Part 203 of Ota's BNHA Fic Stuff
- Part 11 of Ota Does Some Vibes For The Equinox And Solstice
- Part 8 of Crossing The Tracks, Falling Down The Cracks
-
Red-Bloomed Petals, Red-Cast Sunsets, Red-stained Laces (The Shades Of His Past, Present, Future) by Otaku6337
Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
26 Jul 2022
Tags
Summary
Momo didn't mean to find out. She truly, genuinely didn't.But there were the flowers, and the blogpost, and just how Izuku is, oh-so kind and insecure and bold all at once, and it was impossible not to put the pieces together, in that moment.
It's okay though. Or, well, she mourns the suffering he must have gone through, the horrors he must know, but it won't change how she feels about her friend. No matter what.
~~~
The flowers are flat and dry and there's a lot of them. Dozens, Momo thinks, looking at them all, many of them hanging in bunches from the ceiling, bound together in shoelaces, of all things.
The sunset casts them all in blood and fire, their shadows stark where they are thrust upon the walls.
"Midoriya-kun, I- I don't think I was meant to see this."
Series
- Part 217 of Ota's One-Shot Wonders
- Part 215 of Ota's BNHA Fic Stuff
- Part 9 of Crossing The Tracks, Falling Down The Cracks
-
When The Edges Begin To Fray (When There Is Blood On His Laces No Longer) by Otaku6337
Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
11 Sep 2022
Tags
Summary
Izuku doesn't like it when he gets ugly feelings, so he shoves it away along with so many other bad things, stuffing it into the box in the back of his mind that he can ignore, even if it sometimes makes his limbs distant and his mind empty.Except the box has to break apart one day.
At least Aizawa-sensei is there to try and assure Izuku that there are other ways to cope, that he isn't bad just for not always being perfect. At least Aizawa-sensei is there to give him hope.
Series
- Part 231 of Ota's One-Shot Wonders
- Part 225 of Ota's BNHA Fic Stuff
- Part 29 of Spilling Ink All Over The Place (Ota's External Events)
- Part 10 of Crossing The Tracks, Falling Down The Cracks
-
How The Weight Of Those Shoes Hangs Like A Noose by Otaku6337
Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
06 Oct 2022
Tags
Summary
Shouta picks up his Problem Child’s shoes, and a realisation hits him, a thing of fear as bone-shuddering pale as the Laces he has so often seen on rooftops.Izuku was born Quirkless. And now far, far too much makes sense.
(A fic for my server’s autumn equinox writing challenge!!)
Series
- Part 229 of Ota's One-Shot Wonders
- Part 228 of Ota's BNHA Fic Stuff
- Part 15 of Ota Does Some Vibes For The Equinox And Solstice
- Part 11 of Crossing The Tracks, Falling Down The Cracks
-
Wandering, Laces Coming Loose, Hope Gathering In The Frayed Edges (Bearing His Teeth, Balling His Fists) by Otaku6337
Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
30 Nov 2022
Tags
Summary
Izuku is frustrated, honestly. It's just infuriating when there's a damn good reason Izuku came in the top five of their entire year in the Sports Festival, yet somehow it seems like Class 1-B have forgotten about that entirely, at least judging by how one of the class is laughing to hear that Izuku is Quirkless.Often, now, it just has him angry, has rage shattering into his veins, mind going eerily calm despite the adrenaline, ready to draw blood, to do whatever he has to prove himself, to win in a way that will allow him to save people. (It's all he damn wants for his life, but the world is making it so, so hard for him to have even a fraction of hope for exactly that-)
~~~
Within five minutes he has them both tied up, with his phone pressed to one ear, chattering with Seiko-san, giving his location and how many people he's tied up and how there's lots of drugs on the floor but they're not labelled or anything.
"Should've known it would be you, Problem Child."
"Sensei," he greets, tone calm despite how his heart is double-time beating, sharp against his breastbone to match the dig of his nails into his palms.
Series
- Part 253 of Ota's One-Shot Wonders
- Part 246 of Ota's BNHA Fic Stuff
- Part 12 of Crossing The Tracks, Falling Down The Cracks
- Part 22 of Izu Goes Around Beating People Up For Fun (well not quite but he's a vigilante and I wrote it)
-
Track That Chance Down (Hope Laced Together, The Future Bright) by Otaku6337
Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga)
24 Feb 2023
Tags
Summary
Izuku is a Quirkless, a Lace, but that doesn't stop him from wanting to be a hero, from working tirelessly towards that.But he can only make so much progress by himself, he knows. And asking a hero to mentor him is worth a try, particularly when Miruko is briefly in his area.
~~~
Her head tilts then, the tiniest shift that is almost hidden by how one of her ears swivels, falling back slightly. Her eyes are bright, sharp. And she might be the Rabbit Hero, but Izuku spends an aborted breath feeling very much like prey, watched too-closely by a predator.
But that's the point, isn't it? Miruko, despite people's expectations, despite the Quirkist comments she has faced, the discrimination, has bared her teeth and proven them all wrong.
That's what Izuku wants.
Series
- Part 270 of Ota's One-Shot Wonders
- Part 259 of Ota's BNHA Fic Stuff
- Part 13 of Crossing The Tracks, Falling Down The Cracks
-
Distant Heat, Familiar Warmth by Otaku6337
Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga)
05 Mar 2023
Tags
Summary
Still though, he can't help but flinch away, even just a little, from the aching memories of it, from how he can nigh-on feel the hands on his skin, the heat and the cutting and the crushing-"Are you okay, Izuku?" The words are low, a smooth sort of softness to them in that way that is so characteristic of Shouto, and without so much as a thought he is curling into his boyfriend's side, murmuring that he's fine, thank you, even though he suspects Shouto can fully tell that it's a half-truth at best.
(I was revisiting some of my old series and decided to write another shadow one, on a whim of Tododeku and Izu having a bit of a bad time - you know I love writing that hurt/comfort vibe~)
Series
- Part 278 of Ota's One-Shot Wonders
- Part 264 of Ota's BNHA Fic Stuff
- Part 6 of Shadows Aren't Always Dark (They Are Home And Dangerous And All The Things In Between)
- Part 14 of Crossing The Tracks, Falling Down The Cracks
-
How Much Her Joy Means To Him, To Both Of Them by Otaku6337
Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga)
23 Apr 2023
Tags
Summary
Wherein Eri wants to be just like her Deku-nii, and Izuku could not be more flattered and delighted (and admittedly bemused) by that, and will support her in whatever she wants.Until it comes to wanting shoes like his. Because Izuku is a Lace, truly, and he never wants her to face the hatred that being recognised as Quirkless always brought him.
~~~
Izuku is entirely unsurprised when, about three seconds after Aizawa-sensei walking into the flat that evening, Eri is already running over to him. She gets scooped up, and Izuku would have to be blind to miss the hint of a soft smile on the hero's face.
Aizawa-sensei really is soft on Eri. Izuku doesn't blame him.
(Izuku doesn't really process it, although perhaps he will one day, but half of the reason he can notice that expression is because it lingers when Aizawa looks at him, the hero just as fond of him as of Eri.
That isn't a realisation for today, admittedly, but the warmth of it is already settling in between Izuku's ribs, whether he notices it or not.)Series
- Part 291 of Ota's One-Shot Wonders
- Part 274 of Ota's BNHA Fic Stuff
- Part 15 of Crossing The Tracks, Falling Down The Cracks
-
What Is One More Scar (When He Has So Much Of Himself Still To Tear Apart?) by Otaku6337
Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga)
10 Jul 2023
Tags
Summary
Izuku is a Lace, but he hasn't let that stop him from getting into the Heroics course, nor from saving whoever he can so far, nor from working as hard as he can to stay in that privileged position.Even though it means he keeps on losing more and more pieces of himself, a freckle one day and the feeling in one of his little fingers the next. It's worth it, if he can save even one more person.
(It still hurts though.)
Series
- Part 307 of Ota's One-Shot Wonders
- Part 285 of Ota's BNHA Fic Stuff
- Part 16 of Crossing The Tracks, Falling Down The Cracks