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Hitoshi, along with the rest of 1-A sat in their dorm's common room. They technically had a few more minutes of hero training left, but Shouta broke his leg, and All Might dismissed them early. Shouta had seemed annoyed at him for that.
The class was trying to puzzle out why it happened. All he did was pull a landing from a few feet. That wouldn't break a leg unless someone had incredibly bad bones. Or maybe if they were Midoriya.
"I found something!" Mina called out. "He could have osteoporosis."
"All he eats are those vitamin pouches," Bakugou said. "There's no way he'd have a calcium deficiency."
Hitoshi nodded. Even at home, he'd default to them if he didn't feel like cooking or Hizashi wasn't there to berate him for it. It was a habit that Hitoshi himself had developed after being adopted.
"Do you think Sensei has a tumor, or some type of cancer?" Midoriya said hesitantly. Still, all eyes turned to him.
"What?" Hitoshi said.
"Nothing else makes sense. He's otherwise healthy, and not old enough to have lost a significant amount of bone density." Midoriya looked sick even thinking about it, as did the rest of the class.
Uraraka rung her hands. "Are you sure, Deku?"
Midoriya just helplessly shrugged.
"Sensei will get better!" Kirishima said. "He hasn't had any other symptoms, so the cancer will be caught early."
"Yes," Iida agreed. "This may have been a good thing!"
Hitoshi didn't say anything, instead electing to stare into his lap. He did agree it was better if they found out sooner rather than later, but at the same time, he wished it had never happened. Wished someone would come up with something else, so he could be in denial.
A few hours passed before anyone came to inform them of Shouta's condition. Midnight had guaranteed them he was alright, and not to worry about him having the cast on for the next few days, reminding them Recovery Girl was out for the week. She had laughed and told them the only reason he hadn't informed them himself was due to Hizashi insisting he not walk on a broken leg.
That satisfied at least half of the class, but the others, Hitoshi includes, weren't as sure. After all, it wasn't as if Shouta would tell his students, his hell class, he was sick through a proxy.
But at the same time, he would tell them if something was seriously wrong. It would be illogical not too, so Hitoshi bit his lip and nodded along with the others.
He was able to stomp his worry away, and lock it behind a door he was all too familiar with for the rest of the evening, but only while his classmates surrounded him.
Later that night, while he laid in his bed, everything he tried desperately to push away hit him full force. It wasn't surprising. Alone in the dark was the best place for unwanted thoughts to ambush a person. That didn't mean Hitoshi had to like it.
He rolled over, squeezing his eyes shut. It would be okay.
But would it really?
How many times had a similar thought burned him?
Hitoshi hadn't even realized he'd stood up, sleep forgotten in lieu of the way panic seized his heart. He pulled on a pair of house shoes, and began towards the teacher's dorms.
Once he was in front of his adopted fathers' door, he froze. Sure, they had told him he could come to them if he ever needed anything, if he ever wanted anything, or even if he just couldn't sleep and wanted company.
He could count on one hand how many times he'd woken one of them up for something on purpose. He had accidently woke one or both of them up with a nightmare quite a few times, but that was different. They had specifically been listening for him. They had been the ones to knock on his door.
He stood there for a long time, debating if interrupting their much needed sleep was an acceptable trade off for his peace of mind.
Finally, he worked up the courage to knock.
It wasn't long before the door creaked open, Hizashi clad in nothing but underwear and a t-shirt.
He rubbed his eyes, looking out the door. He dropped his hand, a look of worry crossing his face. "Hitoshi, what's wrong?"
Shinsou opened his mouth to speak before clamping it back shut. His gaze fell to the floor. "Is Shouta okay?" He finally asked.
"Oh, oh. Kid," Hizashi whispered, placing a hand on his shoulder to lead him inside. "I promise you, Shouta's fine. He's up if you want to see him."
Shinsou nodded, and took a shaky breath. "Please."
He did his best to focus on the hand Hizashi kept on his back as they walked towards the bedroom. The tight feeling in his chest didn't let up until he saw Shouta setting up in bed.
"Hitoshi?" Shouta's eyebrows were furrowed. He moved to get up, but Hizashi shot him a look.
"Do you have cancer?" Hitoshi blurted out.
"What?" Shouta and Hizashi said in unison.
Hitoshi bit his lip. "The way you broke your leg..." He trailed off for a moment. "We, uh, the class and I, didn't think it made sense, so we looked it up. The only thing that made any sense was you having a tumor. Cancer..."
He didn't realize how tight his hand was gripping his arm until Hizashi gently removed it. He sat him down by Shouta and then sat down on Hitoshi's other side.
"I don't have cancer," Shouta said, looking Hitoshi in the eyes. He nodded towards his leg. "This is just a hazard of the job."
Hitoshi frowned. "I don't understand. You've pulled hundreds of harder landings without anything happening."
"Exactly. Hundreds," Shouta said. "My bones have stress fractures through them, as do most heroes."
"Although," Hizashi said, giving his husband a look. "They don't tend to progress into a full break. That only happens to people who don't take breaks, and refuse to listen to doctors when they tell them to take a moment to breath."
"That's merely suggestions."
"Mhm. Sure."
Hitoshi let out a relieved breath, burying his head in his hands. "So you were okay this whole time. I'm sorry, I was being dumb."
"You were working with limited information and came to a conclusion that made sense at the time. That isn't the same as being dumb."
That didn't necessarily make Hitoshi feel less foolish for his assumptions, but he still nodded.
"I'll inform the rest of the class that I'm not dying tomorrow," Shouta said.
At some point, Hizashi put an arm around Hitoshi and Shouta, squishing the three together. Hitoshi's head found itself on Shouta's shoulder. He blinked slowly, barely awake as Shouta carded his hand through his hair.
"I'm glad you're okay, Dad," Hitoshi murmured.
"Me too, kid."