Chapter Text
Izuku has a new consensus. Hospitals are boring. He chooses to focus on that fact rather than the fact that he's actually in a hospital surrounded by authority figures, all people who could easily hurt him while he was down and injured.
Izuku absolutely hated any sort of hospital or doctors office but unfortunately, Yamada was very strict with him staying until the doctor's released him. Aizawa tried to follow that mindset too, telling Izuku he needed to stay put, but he only got an earful from his partner about his own self care. While Izuku was stuck here in this overwhelming place, Aizawa had taken it upon himself to check out of the hospital a mere two days after waking up from his own major injuries. Izuku could hear the argument between the two adults from behind his own door loud and clear after Aizawa had just walked into the room. Only yesterday did Yamada finally let him walk around the halls of the hospital. He took advantage of it eagerly and simply strolled the halls. He wouldn't talk to anyone, barely even looked at anyone. He just… needed to get out of that room. He'd been locked in a room before, he didn't need to repeat the process. To relive those memories.
That was four days ago. He was only supposed to have one more day here before he was released to go home and rest there. But even then he wasn’t allowed to do anything besides walking all week before being allowed back into his general classes. He was off of his heroic training classes for much longer than a week. All in all, too much resting, not enough moving. It was like an itch under his skin begging him to go for a run. He wanted to so badly. Yamada would kill him though. So instead he goes to find snacks.
When he wandered the halls he made it a mission to find different things. One time he found every single place to get food here. Every vending machine and cafeteria. There was a vending machine a few floors down that had some good snacks, it was the one he went to today. He stared at the bag of chips as it fell into the slot below and he bent down to reach in and grab it. He nearly stepped into somebody when he turned around. "Sor- Todoroki?" Izuku stares at his classmate with wide eyes, "What are you doing here? Did something happen?"
The dual haired boy turns fully to face the other and returns the stare blankly, "No. I'm visiting my mother. She's on this floor. I wasn't expecting you to be here though."
Izuku shrugs and opens the bag of chips, "Well I mean I did get my ribs crushed. I had to be fixed one way or another."
"I didn't mean here in general." Todoroki was hard to get a read on. Just Izuku's kind of person, "I was talking about this floor. It's the long term psychiatric floor."
"Oh." Izuku opens his mouth before closing it and holding his snack up, "I needed to stretch. So I got food."
Something in the other boy's eyes brightens. Maybe Izuku is seeing things. "You like those? My brother calls me crazy for liking them. I also give my sister a migraine when I ask for them."
Izuku blinks before offering the bag out, "Do you want some? My doctors would probably faint if they saw me eat the whole bag."
Todoroki slowly reaches out and takes one. Izuku does the same and they start walking the way Todoroki had already been going. "How is everything back at the dorms? Has Katsuki blown anything up?"
Todoroki glances over, "Nearly. Kaminari almost got the direct hit from him but Shinsou stopped it before it actually hit him. He’s been even more temperamental since you ended up here. Makes me wonder. People have been asking about you."
Izuku felt his thoughts cloud. He knew that his class had overheard some things that they shouldn't have. He was hoping that maybe Katsuki or Shinsou had drifted them away from any opinions or thoughts they'd have on the situation. Todoroki wasn't only telling him simply what was going on, it was his own silent warning. Izuku looks away from the taller boy, "I figured as much. I didn't exactly leave on good terms."
Todoroki hums, "How much longer until you'll be back?"
"I'll be released from here tomorrow. I don't know when or even if I'll be back to class." Yamada has been going on rants for the past few days about how ‘Izuku has gone through enough already goddamnit!’. Izuku was beginning to think that the option of returning wasn’t going to be presented to him.
"Is it because of what happened with the villains?"
Izuku sighs heavily, "Yes."
Todoroki is silent through the next crowd of people they walk through and speaks quietly once they pass, "I understand what it's like to be raised by a father who doesn't care."
Izuku narrows his gaze and hisses under his breath, "He does more than not care about you."
Todoroki doesn't seem surprised that Izuku made a comment like that. He also didn't seem surprised that Izuku seemed to know about Endeavor’s abuse, which he does but he's never said it to the boy. Todoroki seemed to have a set image of Izuku in his head, clearly he did his own research on Izuku and possibly even Dragon. "True. I suppose that means I understand what happened even more." He stops outside of a door and Izuku pauses too, "What I'm trying to say, is that even if everyone else panics or has a bad reaction to you revealing what happened-"
Izuku cuts him off quickly, "Who said I was going to tell them?"
Todoroki gives him a look, "You act like you don't care, but you do. You'll tell them because you know if you don't it will be worse. Besides, we both know a lot of them already have some idea of what happened. Even if everyone else reacts badly, know that I will stand behind you. I understand you, at least partially." Todoroki turns away and touches the doorknob, "You have people in your corner even if you don't think you do."
Izuku watches him slip into the room and watches the door close behind him. Izuku bites his cheek and turns back towards the stairs to his own hall. Seeing Todoroki here wasn’t planned, and Izuku wasn’t sure how to feel about seeing the boy here. He hadn’t even seen Katsuki or his parents. Tomorrow.
Izuku sighs and walks up the stairs heavily. The halls are buzzing with people now that it’s the height of visiting hours and that only makes Izuku curl in on himself even more. His shoulder slides against the wall as he avoids the people walking beside him.
“Izuku! I was wondering where you went kiddo!” Izuku looks up at the sound of Yamada’s voice.
Aizawa is standing next to him sucking on a jelly packet. Izuku scoffs at the sight of the hero covered in white bandages still, “I see you’re still a mummy.”
Aizawa manages to glare, “Shut it, broccoli boy."
Izuku shrugs, "As dazzling as ever I see."
Yamada chuckles and follows Izuku into the hospital room. The three each find a spot to sit in the room. "I saw Todoroki here."
Aizawa raises an unimpressed eyebrow, "Yeah? Is the brat finally getting his eyes checked out?"
Izuku tilts his head, "What do you mean?"
"His depth perception is crap." Aizawa shrugs and dodges Yamada's swat, “I was going to refer him to the old lady soon if he didn’t go himself. If I had to guess, that burn probably caused some degree of blindness.”
Izuku nods shortly in agreement. He had been coming to the same conclusion as Aizawa. Hizashi sputters, "Sho! You can't just call your class brats!"
Aizawa sighs and opens another jelly packet, "Why not. It's the truth."
Izuku nods in agreement, "We really are."
Yamada groans and sinks in their seat, "You're corrupting the child now."
"Hate to break it to you," Izuku mutters, "But I was already corrupted."
"Our entire family is corrupted." Aizawa mumbles.
Yamada looks at him sharply, "I'm not!"
Izuku holds in a small laugh as Aizawa returns a flat look, "You were friends with Oboro in school, you are very much so corrupted. Let alone you still being friends with Nem.”
“So are you!” Yamada points at Aizawa with a look of betrayal, “My own husband calling me corrupted. I can’t stand this! Blasphemy I tell you! ”
A grin splits across Izuku’s face as he laughs. The dramatic cries of Yamada go silent almost simultaneously and Izuku freezes and looks at them. Yamada is meeting that stare boldly with their mouth hanging open in surprise. Izuku ducks his head quickly and sits further back on the bed. He should have known better. It wasn’t his conversation to barge in on.
He barely hears Yamada start talking before Aizawa cuts them off, “How are your injuries, kid?”
“They’re fine.” Izuku mutters. They aren’t. You liar.
“Any pain from your walk?” Aizawa pushes against the little piece of information that Izuku provided.
Izuku shakes his head, “No. Everything’s fine.”
There’s a moment of silence before Aizawa sighs, “What shut you down? Was it their english?”
Izuku flinches back as the man shifts to lean over his knees. He keeps his eyes angled down. This has happened before. There was a time that Izuku sat in on one of Dragon’s meetings and he’d said something during their discussion.
“— they said that too. The vigi is just too damn sneaky, I tell ya. I was chasing ‘im for a whole damn city length before— poof!— gone.” The woman was waving her drink around sloppily, the bourbon sloshing over the sides onto the ground.
Dragon looks on with a distasteful look but says nothing, “And his quirk? I’ve heard mixed things about it and I want a definite answer to send Atlas after him.”
The woman huffs, “I got some fuckin’ sense that he’s trickin’ the officials about it. All I seen was a smoke screen that covered the whole street. It wasn’t fog, I’ll tell you that much. It was almost wet .”
“Was it mist?” Izuku doesn’t register his own gravely voice as it moves through his mask.
Dragon’s head turns slightly towards Izuku but otherwise he doesn’t show any signs of hearing him. The woman lazily turns her gaze to Izuku who is currently Atlas. She looks him up and down before a grin draws her lips up, “So he speaks. I thought you was mute for a minute there. But yeah, I suppose you could say it was mist. Why?”
“There’s—“ Izuku pushes off the wall but is instantly cut off by his father.
“So mist then? Atlas knows ways to counter that. Thank you, Amnesty, for your time. Please see yourself out of my building before you’ve outstayed your welcome.”
The woman— a vigilante Izuku came to know as Amnesty— frowned but slunk to her feet. “Aight then. See ya’ around, Dragon. And more of you, Atlas.”
The woman was gone quickly and silently. Izuku stared after her a moment before stepping forward to place his open notebook on his father’s desk, “I’ve seen this vigilante around before. I think his quirk—“
His cheek stings when skin hits skin. He stares wide eyed to his left where his head was turned to. He slowly turns to look at Dragon. The man is standing from his chair, face red and smoke flooding from the curls of his mouth. The notebook is on the floor in front of Izuku, flipped closed. “How fucking dare you! You were meant to observe, not speak. When I asked you here, it was to listen to Amnesty and make notes about Kumotta. That wasn’t your conversation to join, unless I speak to you directly, stay out of it. Are we clear?”
Izuku forces his hands to stop shaking at his sides, “Yes.”
The desk trembles when Dragon’s hands slam onto the wood, “Are we fucking clear?”
“Yes sir!” Izuku bites out loudly, “We’re clear.”
“Good. Go make an analysis on Kumotta, I expect it tomorrow morning.”
Izuku blinks the wetness away and out of his eyes when he reaches to grab his notebook at his feet, “Yes sir.”
“—Izuku? Kiddo, can you tell me where you are right now? Can you hear me, baby?”
Izuku blinks and light floods the once dark room, but he’s not in his fathers dark office anymore. He’s somewhere else, somewhere in between. “You're at the hospital. Me and Aizawa are still with you. Izuku?”
“The… I’m not there. I’m at the hospital.” Izuku forces his breathing to soften and slow. When had it picked up?
“Can I touch you?” Izuku somehow knows it was Yamada who asked.
There’s a hand brushing on his cheeks. He must have nodded because he looks up to meet red eyes. Yamada is staring back with soft eyes, “Hey listener. You back with us?”
Izuku sniffs and nods, “Yeah.”
Yamada offers a small smile, “What happened there? Do you need to talk about it? I’m sorry for triggering one of your sensors by reacting like that. I just don’t think I’ve seen you smile really.”
“I shouldn’t have done that.” Izuku shrinks away from the hand resting on his knee. The hand moves instantly, “It wasn’t my conversation.”
Aizawa shifts in his seat. It was enough that Izuku notices, Aizawa probably made sure not to spook him. “If we were talking with you in the room it’s only logical for you to join. If we didn’t want you to, we wouldn’t have had that conversation in front of you. Simple as that. Besides, Hizashi was almost certainly trying to drag you into it.”
Izuku looks down at his hands, “You weren’t addressing me. I should have stayed quiet.”
“Well perfect!” Yamada says with a lot more volume than they had a few minutes ago, “I’ll just have to ask you directly then, huh? Works for me if it works for you. What Shouta says stands, listener. If the conversation is happening around you, you're more than welcome to join in. Your voice is needed and very welcomed.”
Izuku draws in a shaky breath. “Okay.”
“Okay then!” Yamada grins, “You should smile more. You have a very lovely smile, not nearly as creepy as some of Sho’s and Hitoshi’s.”
Shouta groans and Izuku watches in amusement as their light bickering starts up again.