Although izuku will definitely ask to train, randomly insisting on fighting is katsuki's thing. So when katsuki is woken up in the middle of the night to izuku demanding him to fight, katsuki already knows. The walk to the training ground is silent. They fight in the same mock street they used in first year.
Izuku uses the last of his embers playing hero with his best friend. It's a night that ends in tears.
A night that also ends in aizawa and all might coming to get them after a while, because they also just know. Coming back to the third year dorms everybody's awake and there's breakfast set out to pick at. There's more tears. It still hasn't been said yet. The entire third year heroic course skips the day, as class b joins later in the still early hours. (They take a extended weekend, the school has no grounds to punish them for this, they sent those kids to war after all.)
Those kids pile in the common room. With izuku in the center, katsuki on his left. Matching scars and matching fucked up hands and all. Towards the end of their break everyone's laughing between the tears. A few toasts have been made, and everyone's ready to change the future. It still hasn't been said.
Midoryia Izuku retires as a professional hero before graduating. His dream dies before ever really starting.
While on medical/mental health leave from physical training, he checks out the younger years. He offers tutoring after the school day, which always end in with hand-to-hand combat practice. Katsuki's already asked, all might and his mother question him at dinner one night, tenya and uraraka open up the conversation, he can't bring himself to answer. It hasn't been said.
What will he do now? What can he do, if he's not a hero like all might?
Midoryia Izuku still graduates at the top of the hero class. He helps all his classmates continue training, helps them set up agencies, tutors kids in quirk control back at UA.
His first official offer is a job with the new program of quirk acceptance, that helps little kids get a handle on dangerous abilities and gets everyone the help needed when facing discrimination.
The second offer is all might and nedzu insisting he take on a more permanent position as a homeroom teacher in the heroics department.
The third offer puts a professional title on everything he's done since childhood. He's the most sought after quirk analyst, often called in for opinions on team building or new villains.
He's busy. But it's better this way and better than any alternative.
The fourth and final life changing offer given to him, is in the form of the super suit katsuki gives him. He's taken on a few too many "sidekick" jobs, or analysis jobs, and honestly some house calls for kids with put of control quirks get messy. He's been back to being happy for a while.
But after his first shift? It's different, his eyes are lit up and bright. A smile that's not cracking. He's exhausted, but so ready to wake up and go again. This night? It ends with many UA alumni, piled into izuku's apartment in celebration of a dream coming back to life. Many more friends slipped in later to join the sleepover.
That next morning starts with aizawa, and all might, stumbling into an impromptu alumni reunion. To congratulate their lifelong student and colleague. Toasts are made with mixed match hero coffee cups, everybody's ready to go back to changing the future.
