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Izuku stopped asking when he was going home after a year of being in the facility.
The nurses, as blunt as they were, would never tell him when, or even if he was going home. Very rarely did he ever get an answer, and Izuku had learned to accept that it was probably better that he was here.
Izuku didn’t like the facility, or what little he saw of it. The greenette wasn’t allowed to leave his room, but that was assuming he had the energy to do that most days.
Only knowing the gray walls made him feel despondent and alone. Those walls unfortunately being the only comfort he had, other than the cold nurses who’d shove quirk suppressants and food through the feeding tube in his stomach.
Izuku didn’t like the tube, but the suppressants make it hard to keep anything down. The boy, in his young age, could recall the first couple weeks of trying to eat actual food when he began to take them, only to throw the meals back up. It was after a month of this that the facility installed a feeding tube, and since it was inserted, Izuku couldn’t remember the last time that he had a real meal.
Although he was a long-time resident of the facility, the greenette didn’t have much in his room.
Like any room, his bed took up a large corner. A small closet of clothes that only had few options for clothing, and a box of old toys and craft supplies were all the belongings to his name. To the facility, it seemed that there was no point for much else.
The days always felt long and unchanging.
The routine was simple and predictable for the boy until one day something unexpected happened. Unlike the cold nurses, a new warm person, completely foreign to Izuku, came to his room one day.
Knock Knock Knock
After 3 solid knocks, the door wavered, still shut, before opening. A man, tall and spindly, came through it. His hair was a bright yellow and his eyes were a soft blue. His clothes were ill-fitted and Izuku had no idea what to make of him.
“Can I come in?” the man asked, seemingly unsure of himself. Izuku stared at him, still frozen in shock. The boy decided against his possible better judgment to let him in.
"Okay.”
The man walked in, closing the door behind him before getting down and sitting next to Izuku. It almost startled the child, and part of him wanted to tell the strange man to back away as Izuku looked down at his drawing, and up at the man in front of him.
“What are you drawing?” He asked, peering over at Izuku’s drawing.
“A cat... I think.” The greenette mumbled,
The stranger snorted and Izuku looked up, furrowing his eyebrows. The stranger looked amused, which only deepened Izuku’s confusion. What was so funny? Why was he so amused at his cat?
“What’s wrong with my cat?” Izuku questioned.
“Nothing. I’ve just never seen one with so many eyes.”
“Well...my cats get lots of eyes so they can see everything… Your cats must be weird mister.”
“Why are my cats weird? I haven’t shown you how I draw cats, kid.”
“Because I told you...duh”
Izuku huffs before standing up and grabs the stranger a piece of paper and some crayons from his craft box and places them in front of the stranger.
“Draw a cat then if they’re not weird.” He commands
The man takes the paper, his eyes still filled with strange amusement, and the two start drawing. He draws what looks like a cat, but compared to Izuku’s 5-eyed one, his cat has only two. Izuku relished mocking the fact that he was in fact, right, about the man’s cat being weird.
After drawing pictures for what felt like hours, one of the nurses came into the room, and let the man know that it was time for him to leave, causing Izuku to frown. He actually liked his strange man, even if his cats were super weird, and Izuku felt very sad at the idea of his new friend leaving and possibly not coming back. So as the stranger-turned-new-friend got up, Izuku scrambled to his feet as well, grabbing the man’s long pant leg and tugging insistently to make him look down.
“Hey excuse me? Are you gonna...come back maybe?” Izuku’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment as the blond looked down at him and gave him a soft smile.
“Do you want me to?”
Izuku didn’t know what to say. Truly he was gobsmacked. Nobody has ever asked him what he wanted in a long time, and in response to the question, he looked down sheepishly.
“I guess. I gotta show you how to draw a cat right!”
The man’s smile widened, and he laughed at Izuku’s comment about the cat.
“Well okay then!”
Izuku found out that the stranger’s name was Toshinori Yagi, and just like he promised that fateful day, he came back. Yagi would always come back for Izuku, and at some point, the boy knew that he didn’t have to ask, but the older man would always assure him. He even gave Izuku a calendar with dates and stickers so that Izuku could know exactly when Toshinori-san would return.
During these visits, Izuku would learn a lot about the kind man. Like he gave good hugs, told the coolest stories, and he could read . That last thing utterly blew the child’s mind since Izuku himself didn’t actually know how to read. However, those were things Izuku would remember on the good days he visited.
On the bad days, Izuku liked when Toshinori~san would hold him because he was too tired from the quirk suppressants to really move and play. His long arms wrapped around Izuku as he would whisper nothing but love and sympathy for how terrible he was feeling. The best thing that Yagi would tell him though was that he was right there with him.
“Izuku my boy! I am here!”
Mr. Toshinori called into the room, and in response Izuku bounced excitedly from his spot on his bed, clambering over his own legs to the blond. His limbs crashing into Toshinori, and the older man grabbed the boy swinging him around jovially before tossing him onto the bed along with a satchel bag that spilled onto the bed with Izuku.
Giggling uncontrollably as the older man down on the bed next to him, the boy noticed that a wrapped square-like objected slipping from the satchel. Izuku crawled and grabbed the mysterious thing, before holding it up to Toshinori.
“What is this?” He asked, curiosity filling his mind as he examined the objected. The wrapping paper was a combination of red, white, blue, and yellow. Toshinori smiled wide before gesturing to Izuku.
“It’s for you, kiddo. Tear off the wrapping and find out what’s inside if you want to know so bad huh?”
With the permission of Toshinori, Izuku tore the wrapping off the object excitedly, the older man beaming with pride. Tearing the wrapping paper off in little bits, Izuku would realize...that it was a book! The front page was smooth with pastel almost tye-dyed rainbow colors, with green lettering on it. Izuku could recognize that the first word on the cover was his name. The boy wondered if that meant that this book was personally made for him, but he wasn’t particularly sure since he didn’t know what the other word was.
“Mr. Toshinori, what does this say?” Izuku asked, eyebrows furrowing as his little mind tried to piece together what exactly the book said.
“ Pictures , Izuku . It says Pictures for Izuku .” Toshinori confirmed.
“You got me a picture book! W-Why?!” He shrieked, almost tossing the book in shock. Why would the blond do that! Toshinori chuckled.
“Don’t you remember kiddo?” Toshinori pulled Izuku close and held the book in front of the two of them.
“We always talk about my adventures when I’m away and the places I go. You always look so interested in what’s outside of here...So, I got a book made of pictures I took for you. They’re from my travels.”
Izuku’s little eyes widen, staring at the book with wonder. Looking at Toshinori again, before looking back down at the book. Toshinori watched as Izuku carefully opened the book. His little fingers turning the first page as if it would tear with the slightest tug.
The two went through each individual photo. Toshinori telling Izuku where and when he took each photo. Izuku beaming as he turned each page. This continued until Izuku stopped on a bright yellow page. Izuku gasped loudly in amazement, pointing at the page in question.
“T-Toshinori what are those?!” He shrieked. Oh, he loved this page. Toshinori smiled.
“Those are sunflowers, Izuku. They’re big tall flowers that grow big when they get a lot of light. Oh let me tell you! My teacher used to have a garden full of them at her house. I loved her garden, but the sunflowers were my favorite.”
Toshinori smiled wistfully. Izuku pointed again at the sunflowers.
“I like those! They look like you!”
Toshinori sputtered, shocked at the child’s bold statement.
“No, I don’t!”
“Yes!” Izuku insistent boldly, the two playfully bantering about the blond’s likeness to the bright flowers.
After a while, they settled from bantering (aka Toshinori gave into Izuku’s insistence much to his own dismay), and the older man smiled while looked at Izuku before taking the book and pointing to the sunflowers.
“What If...I took you to see Sunflowers one day?”
Izuku’s head tilted, and curiosity filling his eyes. How would he do that? Izuku wondered. Frowning at the blond Izuku remembered where exactly he was.
“Mr. Toshinori...I’m not allowed to leave my room! It’s the rules.” He remarked as the older man shook his head.
“That wasn’t the question kiddo. Listen...Forget the rules, and answer me honestly... Would you wanna go to see the sunflowers with me?”
Izuku thought really hard. He wanted to see the sunflowers! He knows he does. Something in his mind was just holding him back. Toshinori watched and heard the little mutters of the boy considering if he truly wanted to see the mystical flowers. It wasn’t long before Izuku looked up smiling and gave the blond his answer.
“Yes! I, uh, would like to see the sunflowers if there were no rules.”
Toshinori smiled.
It was a long time after this conversation that Izuku would leave the facility. In all honesty, Izuku didn’t even remember it by the time Toshinori came to his room with a big suitcase telling him that he was leaving. Not only that he was leaving, but that Izuku would be coming to stay with him from that point on.
Izuku’s entire world changed that day. The small boy had his tube removed, and went completely off quirk suppressants the week before he left the facility. The boy remembered how excited he was to leave… to go somewhere that would feel more like home.
The first place that they went was Toshinori’s house and the best way to describe it was just…warm. The sun touched literally everything in the house, and it was so different from the cold facility. There were so many days where Izuku would just lay on the couch in the living room or on the porch so that he could bask in the sun's rays.
It was like this for weeks. The two learning to live with each other full time. The highs and lows made it worth it though, and one-day Toshinori told Izuku that he had a surprise for him. The two driving farther than they ever had before, to an old-looking townhome all the way in Hosu.
The older man grabbed a key from his pocket and they stepped into the house. It looked… alone. Dust lightly coating the furniture. However, they passed all of that to go to the back of the townhome. Izuku loudly gasping in delight as he recalled his favorite picture in the book Toshinori had given him.
“Sunflowers!!!”