7Okay I love dance AU so much, but kno G, so I never really write full fics for it. If anyone has good recs for Dance AU for this (or KHR) HIT ME UP PLEASE. ALSO: I was debating making this a Fem Izuku, or a Twin fic an I settled on BOTH so FemIzuku (Izumi) is Deku's twin. It's also a two shot glimpse.
If Izumi had to pinpoint the moment that she discovered she loved dance, she'd look back and grin. She'd been flipping through the channels on the television, looking for something to watch when her normal show had been delayed.
The colorful dresses had caught her eye.
They had been so beautiful.
That was what had made her stop, that flash of color. She'd stayed because they had mesmerized her. The way the partners had moved, their movements in synch, and the trust in each other. The entire conversation she had seen in that moment, her eyes wide and staring at the dancers.
Look at me!
Their thoughts had screamed at her, through the television.
Over here! Look at me!
She'd been unsure where to direct her eyes, flitting around the dance floor as the broadcast played out. And then she'd heard something different.
Look at us!
Her eyes had been pulled to the dance pair on the right, number 15 she remembered, and they had stayed. This was a pair that knew each other, danced with their partner rather than being lead in the conventional sense.
She remembered the woman had had her eyes closed.
She was ten years old, and her entire world view shifted.
She'd jerked to her feet, eyes wide and awed, and she had rushed to her mother. "I wanna learn to dance!" she'd rushed to share with her mom, who had been cooking in the kitchen. "Please. Mom, I want to learn!"
She would never know, that the pure shining happy awe in her eyes when she'd gestured sharply, flailing her hands in an energetic way so unlike herself, had been the thing to sway her mother's response into a positive one. She would never see herself in that moment through the eyes of her family.
Izuku had watched his twin sister freeze in front of the television, watched her eyes, normally half-mast, sharp with intelligence, and generally bored, open wide. Watched her eyes light up in a way he had never seen, her entire body reacting to sight in front of her, how she had leaned towards the screen like she could get closer. How her body had swayed with the music, the wide smile on her face, he had seen her come alive in a way he hadn't realized was missing.
So it was no surprise he had joined her in the kitchen, his green eyes shining with determination as he declared:
"I want to learn with her Mom!"
He would learn, he would help put a smile like that on her face, for as long as he drew breath into his lungs.
And to a mother, who had seen the sharp intelligence in her children's eyes, who had watched them be shunned for their minds, their differences…A mother who had seen her twins withdraw from most of the world in response to their treatment, watched light and warmth darken and cool…
When her twins rushed into the kitchen, her daughter lit up and gesturing wildly trying to describe why she absolutely had to learn to dance, and her son standing straight, meeting her eyes, and his own shining with a will she hadn't seen in him for years…
Well of course she agreed with them.
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At fourteen, Izuku and Izumi had made some changes.
Izuku found he had fallen in love with dance on his own. He had joined for his sister, but he stayed, because dancing…It brought his brain alive in a way that challenged him. He adored the fight, the way he had to work for every form, every movement, every dance. It wasn't easy for him, in the way most things were. He had to put effort into it, actual thought and work.
He stayed because it made him…it made him feel alive.
Izumi found that she had been right to ask to learn. She loved, thrived, in the dance world. She couldn't put it into words, how it made her feel. Every movement, every wordless conversation she had with her dance partners. The give and take of partner dance, the trust built in every stumble and fall, every bruise, every time she ended up gasping for breath, because she had pushed herself to the very limit and then beyond it.
They were fourteen, and they had been offered a place in Yuuei Dance Academy.
Every single failure, every moment she and Izuku had clawed their way up from the bottom, worked, struggled, to be where they stood…
It had been worth it.
She stared down at the Acceptance Letter, and she let her head fall back to stare upwards, tears rushing down her face, and the largest smile she could physically manage stretched from ear to ear. She laughed breathlessly, turning sharply to her brother, who held his own letter, his hands shaking.
She rushed for him and he turned, responding to her as he always had on the dance floor, easily catching her rushing form and bleeding the momentum away into a spin.
"We did it, Izu!"
His shocked face bled away, lighting up as he laughed back, his reply bright and thrilled "We did it Mi-chan!"
"We're going to Yuuei Academy!"
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The idea behind UA was for the best dancers of Japan- and exceptional transfer or exchange students, though those were rare- to be pulled into one place. It was meant to expand on the dancers' skills both as a solo and partner dancer. It pulled in pairs from across the nation, and it made them better. The Academy was known for producing World-Class dancers, that would travel around the world competing.
They would be broken into classes, and rotate partners. It was meant to build a level of trust between the classmates, as the class a person was assigned to was their class their entire stay at UA. They would mix classes of course, while practicing, and for various events throughout the year, but the main bulk of the work was done with the class the person was assigned.
Classes were chosen by the entrance exams, when they had danced competitively to earn their place. They were assigned based on the judges- each World-Class dancers on their own- choices, of who they thought had the best chances of containing 'Perfect Pairs'. Should their choices prove wrong over their course of the year, there was a chance of people rotating out of their class and into another, searching for that partner.
The main goal as they rotated partners, was to find what was known as the Perfect Pair. Everyone had a partner that made the other shine. Made them better. In UA, the best of Japan gathered in one place.
The Perfect Pair, was a partnership of equals. A partnership that made it so the pair made each other shine over just one or the other. A perfect balance, the half that made a whole.
Izumi was thrilled for the chance, as she stared at her assigned classroom and teacher.
Class 1-A, led by Aizawa-sensei. The professional circles knew him as 'The Eraser' for his ability to pull all the attention of the room onto himself and his partner, 'erasing' the other dancers from the Judges sight.
Izumi jittered in her seat, her grin hurting her cheeks it was so wide.
She couldn't wait!