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“Hey, Midoriya, we're ready to head over to the gym. You mentioned yesterday that you might want to come along is that still...a...thing...”
Iida trailed off as he took in his friend's room. It was dark, the lights were off and the blinds were drawn tight. He took a step inside and wondered for a moment if Midoriya had already left and he had just missed him in the halls somehow. If that was the case he'd have to get on Midoriya for leaving his door unlocked.
Then he saw the way the desk chair and dresser were pulled away from the walls and that there were blankets, sheets and towels strewn all over the place. All Might merchandise had been knocked out of their carefully, agonized on for hours, spots almost without a second glance. A spike of worry shot down his spine. Midoriya was a typical teenage boy so his room was never spotless but this was out of character even for him. Had a villain gotten in the room and caused a struggle? True they'd have to get by the outside security and the dorm security and the extra security Mr. Aizawa had undoubtedly put up around the dorms as well. But even so there was always an outside chance especially where Midoriya and his trouble making skill were involved.
“Midoriya?” he called out a gain, his voice much tighter and sharper this time.
“I'm here,” came a muffled reply from a far corner of the room.
Iida reached over and turned on the light. With light illuminating the room he could see that the mess he'd taken for a struggle against a villain was actually a carefully constructed sort of chaos. There was no mistaking the way the blankets had been tugged up and around the moved objects into a vague tent like shape. Midoriya had pushed the bed back and if Iida was correct his voice was coming from the area of the room the moved object had revealed.
“You guys should go without me. I...I'm just going to stay here and...die for a while...”
Iida's frown grew only deeper at the sound of his friend's voice trailing off with a tired sounding sigh. He'd known Midoriya long enough to know when he was having a bad day and this was definitely a “bad day” kind of voice. He thought over the events of the day. Midoriya had tripped on the way to classes gotten his uniform dirty and had to go back to the dorms to change into his spare one which made him late for first period which had put him directly to the top of Mr. Aizawa's radar. Anyone in class could tell you that being on the top of that meant that your day was going to be a rough one, it was even worse for Midoriya who was pretty much always near the top of that radar even when he hadn't done anything at all.
Mr. Aizawa had called out Midoriya on all sorts of things as the day progressed. From questions in class where Midoriya didn't have his hand up for, for shuffling in right on time after lunch, for poor form during their face offs in All Might's Heroics class he was helping to monitor that had ended up with Midoriya getting hurt. Still this wasn't really a new thing for Midoriya. And despite getting called out when he hadn't been asking to he'd gotten every question asked of him correct, had technically been on time after lunch (though it was cutting it pretty close) and though he'd ended up with a sprained wrist at least it wasn't actual broken bones this time! All in all just getting a day of being on Mr. Aizawa's hit list wasn't enough to 'cause his friend to be in such a poor mood. He'd gone through far worse then that and emerged from them all with a smile on his face even if it was a shaky one. So what had happened during the times that Iida hadn't been with his friend to bring this one.
He ran a hand through his hair and contemplated what to do. Midoriya's response made it seem like he wanted to be left alone so on one hand Iida felt that he should respect that. On the other hand he was class rep and one of the other students was clearly not in a good place mentally, it was his duty to figure out what was wrong so that he could try to fix it and make sure it didn't happen again. Even more then that this was Midoriya his friend, his best friend, the person who would be by his side in an instant if he was in trouble or just having a bad day. There really wasn't any other decision to be made.
He removed his house slippers and walked closer to what he thought was the entrance to the tent. He peered inside. Midoriya was pressed tightly into the corner of the room revealed by the bed being moved. The large All Might Plush Iida knew normally stayed in the closet for fear that the other students, or the man himself, might see it clutched in his arms. A single green eye peered at him it was tinged in red and Iida knew his friend had been crying.
“This is quite the impressive tent you've constructed,” he said in a gentle tone.
“Blanket fort,” came the muffled response as Midoriya pressed his face back into the stuffed All Might.
“Hmmm?” Iida asked as he glanced at the “walls” of the tent trying to determine if it would collapse if more then one person came into it. It seemed as structurally sound as something made out of blankets and sheets could be.
“It's uhm...a blanket fort...” Midoriya supplied after a moment. “My mom used to make them for me when...when I had a bad day.”
Any remaining doubt that Iida might have been feeling disappeared at his friend's admission of it being a bad day and the sound of his voice as he said it. He dropped to his knees and inched into the blanket fort just a bit before pausing and eyeing Midoriya seriously.
“Is it okay if I come in?” he asked in what he hoped was a voice that conveyed that he only wanted to help but that if Midoriya truthfully told him to leave he would do so.
“Yeah...uh...okay...”
Iida started at him for a long moment trying to see if there was any bit of that response that could translate into him actually wanting Iida to leave. Then he pressed forward into the tent. He trusted Midoriya to tell him no if he truly meant no. He kept crawling, mindful of how tall he was and how low the top of the fort was, until he was sitting next to Midoriya in his spot in the corner. Their legs entwined together as they settled into there being two in the tight space instead of one. Silence stretched between them more tense then Iida would like as Midoriya picked at the stuffed animal on his lap.
“You want to talk about?” he asked after a moment.
Midoriya was silent for a long moment and then he shrugged his shoulders. “Not really much to talk about...just...a bad day...”
Iida shifted slightly at his friend's non answer so that their shoulders bumped up against each other. “You don't have to talk about if if you don't want to,” he reassured his friend. “But I am here if you want to.”
Midoriya sighed again and leaned his head so it was resting against Iida's shoulder. “I ran into Ka...Bakugou on the way back from the nurses office. He...well...he was himself.”
“Did he hurt you?” Iida said an edge sliding into his voice.
He, Todoroki and Uraraka had all compared notes one time on the bits and pieces that Midoriya had shared with them individually about his history with Bakugou and while there were still lots of blank spaces the picture it drew was not a good one. He felt Midoriya freeze slightly at his side and inwardly cursed himself Midoriya had never outright admitted or even implied to HIM that the other boy had hurt him in the past so it wouldn't take much of a jump of logic for his smart brain to figure out his friends must be discussing things behind his back. Iida took a careful breath and then tired the only thing he could think of to try and ease the creeping tensions growing between them.
“As Class Representative I cannot allow such things to happen,” he said in the most bombastic and over the top voice he could drag up.
His tactic worked and Midoriya chuckled softly and the tension bubble forming between them popped back into a slightly more comfortable silence.
“No he didn't...hurt me,” Midoriya said. “He just yelled at me about being an idiot for a really long time and picked at some things that...just aren't serious but it still...just hurt I guess...and I just felt like I was ten years old again and...it was a really long day and I just don't want to deal with any of it.”
Iida hummed softly. He definitely understood where his friend was coming from. Sometimes when you're not having a good day to start with things just pile up and even if they weren't the worst thing in the world they still bothered you. Still he made a mental note to remind Bakugou of treading on people's boundaries. He shuffled a bit closer to Midoriya to share some more warmth when the sound of the door opening cut through the silence.
“Hey guys, where are....oh!...”
Moments later Uraraka's head poked underneath the tent. She took one look at Midoriya's still forlorn face and shuffled inside. There was no space on the wall next to them so she crawled over both sets of their legs and settled with her back against the window on the adjoining wall and slid her own legs so that they rested between both of theirs. She reached over and ruffled both of their hairs and pulled out her phone and began tapping on it. Moments later the door opened and closed again and Todoroki's confused face peered in. He hesitated for a long time though it was clear from the flickering expression on his face that he wanted to join them. Iida could hazard that he'd probably never seen a blanket fort before much, less been inside one, which was intensely sad. Midoriya shifted his plush and patted their conjoined legs.
“It's okay, there's room for one more,” he said with a gentle smile. Even when in the depths of teenage despair he still was thinking of others.
Truthfully there probably wasn't really room for four teenagers under the fort but Todoroki took to the invite quickly sliding in to join them. There wasn't enough space for him to sit and add his own legs to their leg pile so instead he grabbed a pillow placed it in the the middle of the pile and laid down. Midoriya reached out and ran his fingers through the hair mixing the middle strands together in a messy cloud.
“So what are we doing?” Todoroki asked quietly.
His eyes sliding shut as Midoriya scratched blunt fingernails against his scalp and Karakul's foot rubbed against his shoulder. Iida reached over and pulled her closer so that she was resting comfortably against him and he could see the Youtube video of cats on skateboards that she was watching.
“I don't know about the rest of you but I don't want to deal with anything for the rest of the night,” Midoriya said. “I am taking a holiday from dealing. Happily vacationing in the land of not coping.”
“That is such a mood,” Uraraka said in a tired voice.
“Pretty much my motto for dealing with every day of my life,” Todoroki answered.
“I have days like that myself,” Iida admitted. “I think we could all use a break for the rest of the night.”
Then he held his fist out feeling a bit silly as it hung there in the air. He'd seen Kirishima and his friends do something similar one time and for some reason it seemed appropriate to do it now. Uraraka was the first to place her curled fist against his. Then Midoriya lifted his hand from Todoroki's hair to knock his against their touching hands and Todoroki's upside down fist clinked against them shortly after. Iida felt that strange squeeze in his heart again and was incredibly thankful when Uraraka interrupted anything embarrassing he might have second into the silence.
“Oh I found the cutest kitten cam live stream the other day? You guys want to see it?”
“Cute uninterrupted kittens?” Midoriya asked with a grin that actually managed to touch his eyes. “Is there any answer other then no?”
Uraraka grinned back at him and shifted over so that her phone would be visible to all of them once Todoroki turned over and settled down onto his stomach. She found the stream among her favorites and switched it on happy to discover that the kittens were awake and playing among themselves.
A soft quiet feeling descended over the group as they watched the kittens together mostly in a comfortable silence. Iida could feel any worries he'd had throughout the day dissolving around him as he watched both the kittens and his friends. Every once in a while he moved to shuffle his three friends a bit closer to him and made a mental note to talk to Aizawa about perhaps getting everyone in class into a counseling session in the near future. They had them often after big events but all of them could probably benefit from them a bit more often.
For now though he could take on the weight of keeping them safe.
* * *
The End