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If anyone had asked Hizashi how he was feeling on this night, he would have said absolutely thrilled.
They’re two years out of UA, Shouta and himself, and not once have they shared a single patrol, their schedules and visibility as heroes branching off down two different paths. It doesn’t hurt Hizashi anymore, not when he sees how fulfilled Shouta’s shadowed and secretive workload makes him feel. He doesn’t talk about it much, but Hizashi knows. Even with the silence Hizashi can see it in the soft set of his mouth, the lines of his posture; Shouta is happy. Hizashi couldn’t want for anything more.
Except to share a damn patrol for once in their lives.
Was he really asking much of the universe? He doesn’t think so, and he knows he’s right when it finally happens, said two years after they’ve graduated. He’s aware it takes a lot for underground agencies to work alongside anyone in the public eye, taking a chance they usually deem unnecessary, but this mission had turned out bigger than they all first thought, a drug bust with multiple circles and drop times all apparently happening at once.
They needed manpower. And Hizashi had never been happier to deliver.
So, if anyone had asked him what he was feeling at the beginning of the night, hopped up on adrenaline and the warmth of the man he absolutely knows he’s in love with beside him, he would have said absolutely thrilled.
He can’t say he would feel the same now.
“Ah-!” Shouta’s cry echoes, ragged and cut off prematurely as Hizashi sees his body disappear behind the roof of a building he isn’t reaching fast enough.
“Sho-- Eraser!”
Hizashi is running, in pursuit of one of the men who had been at the scene when the heroes descended on the old, decrepit house, the fighting breaking out almost immediately. Shouta had seen the guy first, but the weather eye Hizashi kept on his best friend alerted him when the man had fled and Shouta had given chase without a word to the other heroes. Deciding immediately that they would be having words about such an action, Hizashi had followed, feeling that his own backup was better than none.
He watched as Shouta leapt over buildings and swung from gutters, trying to keep up on his own toothpick legs. His lungs had just started burning unbearably when he saw Shouta disappear. He doesn’t even think twice of abandoning the chase to turn to where he saw Shouta disappear, and that might be a problem he’s going to have to deal with later--definitely going to be a problem once his boss hears about it--but he really just doesn’t care about all that.
Not when Shouta needs him.
“Eraser, where are you,” Hizashi calls into the darkness of the alley he decides must be where he lost Shouta, puddles of white reflecting back at him from the overhead street lights hitting leftover puddles from an earlier rainstorm. He doesn’t hear an answer.
His movements become more frantic, eyes squinting to see clearly, coming up on a commercial dumpster that, now looking closer, has a sizeable dent in the plastic lid--
A small moan sounds out from just beyond the receptacle.
“Sho!” he says breathlessly as he rounds the corner in haste, uncaring of his unprofessionalism; Shouta would have his head for it, but that can wait for another time. Assuming there will be another time-- No Hizashi, stop it!
He doesn’t know what to expect when he finally lays eyes on a dark lump, a body, with grey material pooled softly in erratic loops around it. Shouta is on all fours with forehead to the ground, hands fisted on the cracked concrete while his back heaves in controlled breaths, up and down with rhythmic pulls. As Hizashi draws closer, taking a knee to be at the same level as Shouta, he notices he was slightly wrong, however.
One arm alone takes Shouta’s weight, while the other lies limp, sagging slightly at the shoulder as Shouta clearly tries to continue to get up to his feet. As soon as he puts pressure on it, however, a sharp gasp escapes him and his face pinches in pain.
“Don’t move Sho, don’t-- Help is coming.” He’s making that up. Help isn’t coming, the others don’t even know they left!
“It’s just--” Shouta pants, tilting his head up to look into Hizashi’s eyes for the first time, and Hizashi can see the sweat on his skin. Whether it be from pain or exertion though, he isn’t sure. “My shoulder...wrenched it out of place somehow. That’s never happened before…” Shouta trails off, sounding as much aggravated as hurt. Hizashi eyes the capture weapon, left to its own devices on the wet ground. Shouta must feel like he’s been betrayed by the one thing that is meant to assist him in his near-quirkless fighting style. It feels heavy on Hizashi’s chest to think about it.
Suddenly, a thought occurs to him. “Do you think it’s just dislocated, Sho? They taught us how to fix that, remember, you just need two people for it!” He says excitedly. He can help! And Shouta won’t have to wait around in tremendous amounts of pain for other ‘help’ that isn’t coming. Hizashi’s eyes are wide with a silent plea, let me do this, come on--
“Yea...yea alright,” Shouta answers, accepting Hizashi’s hand to help him sit against the brick wall behind them, knees tucked to his chest, one falling to the side in his exhaustion. His head thunks back loudly against the brick, and Hizashi winces at the sound. Shouta is done with all of this, he can tell; Hizashi will try to be fast.
“Alright so...I think...elbow at ninety degrees, right?” Hizashi questions, drawing a look of put-upon ire from Shouta. He raises a dark eyebrow.
“Are you equipped to deal with this or not, Mic?” Hizashi smiles at the use of his hero name. He follows it up with a wink.
“Probably not.”
He remembers it all, mostly. Elbow at ninety degrees, very little pressure needed, a slow twist with wrist guided towards the back of the patient--
And with an unsettling crack and one final grunt from Shouta, the joint slides back into place. Hizashi’s face alights with uncontained surprise. “I can’t believe that worked!”
For all that Shouta looks unamused, the stark lack of pain relaxes his features as he looks up at Hizashi who has spread his arms akimbo in his elation. “So happy to have put my shoulder in your capable hands, Mic. Your confidence in yourself is staggering.” A wry grin tugs at one side of his face. It does something weird to Hizashi’s stomach to see.
“Yea, well, I paid attention to some things in class. Give me a little credit, Sho.” He offers his hand for Shouta to grab onto as he pulls him up from the ground. Shouta stumbles a little before steadying himself. He looks at Hizashi from underneath sweat matted bangs.
“I guess it wouldn’t really be our MO if everything went perfect on our first patrol, would it? Good first time, huh?” he says sarcastically in his signature dry tone.
Hizashi’s answering grin stretches across his face. “Wouldn’t trade it for the world, Eraser.”