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... ._ .._. .
The forest is dark, and Tsuyu can barely see enough to weave around trees, desperate to make it to her destination. Her footsteps are too loud, twigs snapping under her feet. She’s not fast enough, never fast enough. She’s being chased, she knows, but that’s not what concerns her. She needs to make it to the clearing, needs to find her friends, needs to make sure they’re all safe. Screams echo through the forest. She doesn’t make it in time. By the time she arrives, the portals are gone, and her friends with them. She can’t even pay attention as the person chasing her catches up, dry fingers wrapping around her neck. She’s too lost in her own despair.
Tsuyu forces her eyes open as soon as the dream ends, heart pounding. She pulls her knees up to her chest, burying her face in them and muffling her own tears. After a few minutes, once her heart is calmed down enough to move, she slips out of bed and slowly opens her door. All of the class makes sure their hinges won’t creak, part of their paranoid precautions. She takes the stairs down to the common room, not willing to stand in place long enough to take the elevator. Once she reaches the kitchen, she sees that the light is already on. She peeks around the corner, seeing Midoriya putting a mug in the microwave. He turns around when he feels her gaze, and she moves more clearly into the light. He relaxes when he recognizes her, giving her a strained smile. She can see dried tear tracks on his face, and knows he also woke up from a nightmare. It’s a common occurrence in the dorms, and it’s an open secret among Class 1A that all of them suffer from nightmares. It’s one of the reasons why there is a strict rule against disturbing anyone that is napping unless there is active danger–none of the class has a good sleep schedule anymore.
“I’m making tea, would you like any?” Midoriya’s voice is soft, not breaking the gentle atmosphere that the middle of the night always carries. Tsuyu nods, and Midoriya begins preparing another mug, grabbing the chamomile tea and honey–most of the class knows how everyone likes their tea by now. Tsuyu perches on a chair behind Midoriya, watching as his slightly trembling hands go through the motions of making tea. When he finishes, he sets her mug down in front of her and sits across from her, hands wrapping around his mug and gaze distant. Tsuyu sips her tea–made how she likes it. She can’t deny that seeing Midoriya safe helps soothe some of her anxiety from her nightmare.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asks. Midoriya’s gaze snaps back to her. She doesn’t need to elaborate.
“It was the USJ,” he says after a moment. Tsuyu takes another drink of her tea instead of responding, letting her friend sort out his thoughts.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” he says. Tsuyu thinks about how her anxiety was helped by seeing Midoriya safe.
“You can always come over to my room to make sure, if it helps,” she says. His eyes flick up to hers, but he doesn’t respond. Tsuyu finishes her tea and thanks him for it. Before she can go back to her room, he finally speaks again.
“You’re sure?”
“Anytime.” There’s a moment of silence, but Tsuyu stays where she is, seeing that Midoriya has something more to say.
“You…you, too.”
Ochako didn’t really mean to wake anyone up. Honestly, she wasn’t thinking very clearly, mind clouded by panic and fear from her dream. As soon as she opens Iida’s door, though, he’s shooting up in bed. She lets out a surprised squeak.
“It’s just me!” she whisper-yells. He relaxes at her voice.
“Uraraka…you scared me.”
“I’m sorry. I just needed to make sure you were okay…I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
“It’s quite alright.” His voice is softer now.
“That’s…that’s all I needed. Goodnight, Iida.”
“Goodnight, Uraraka.”
It doesn’t take long for the habit to spread to all of Class 1A. Several times a night, someone will wake up, go to a friend’s room to ensure they are alright, and in turn wake their friend up. Everyone assures each other that they don’t mind, but sleep schedules are suffering in the entire class, more than they were before. In the end, it’s Izuku who comes up with the idea.
The whole class is sitting in the common rooms, talking to each other or doing their own tasks. Eventually, the conversation turns to sleep schedules, since no one in the class has a healthy one anymore.
“Well, what if we came up with a code or something?” Izuku suggests. Most of the class is paying attention to the conversation now. A few heads tilt in confusion.
“I mean, we learned about Pavlov recently, right?” he clarifies. “It’s like that. Maybe a knocking code. At first, we’ll wake up, but when we recognize the knocking code, we’ll know that it’s a friend, and we’re still safe, and we can go back to sleep. Eventually, maybe we won’t wake up at all when we hear the code.”
“That’s a pretty cool idea,” Kirishima agrees. “What would the code be, though?”
“What about Morse code?” Tsuyu suggests, remembering her time working with Selkie and Sirius on her internship.
“Maybe the Morse code for ‘safe’?” Momo suggests. The class readily agrees, the few of them that already know Morse code demonstrating the code to the others.
... ._ .._. .
It took Todoroki a moment to realize that someone was knocking in Morse code at his door. It took him a moment longer to realize that it was the code that the class had created a few days ago. Deeming the visit to be unimportant, he closed his eyes again and fell back asleep, not even hearing his friend opening his door.
Denki remembered to grab the sticky note off his bedside table before he left his room, eyes squinting in the dark as he stood outside Bakugo’s room. He knocked the pattern on the door. He was sure the rhythm was off, but he hoped the message got across. Denki opened the door, seeing a red eye glare at him heatlessly before burying itself back into the pillows. He released a sigh of relief, closing the door quietly behind himself.
It didn’t take long for the class to recognize the code by heart. Their sleep schedules improved, and everyone felt better.
The mission had been going well up until the building collapsed. Now, Izuku was holding an entire building up with aching arms while he waited for the rescue team to make it to them. His eyes were squeezed shut, teeth clenched against the pain. There was blood running down the side of his face from where rubble had hit him, and he was desperately trying to stay awake. There were civilians trapped in the building with him. Green sparks danced around his body. The rubble shifted, and he bit back a cry as more weight settled on his arms and shoulders. A child was crying behind him, but he couldn’t muster the strength to comfort them, too focused on holding the building up.
Izuku didn’t know how long it took for something to change. He didn’t even notice when the weight lifted from his arms and shoulders. He could hear someone talking to him, but he couldn’t focus on their words enough to understand. His quirk was still activated. A repeated mantra of I have to protect them, I can’t let go was the only thought in his mind. The voices around him got louder, but he couldn’t waste the energy to listen. A hand settled on his shoulder. Fingers tapped out a pattern. It took him a few minutes to recognize it, but when he did, he finally opened his eyes.
... ._ .._. . Safe.
The pattern repeated. When he managed to turn off his quirk and open his eyes, he was greeted with the kind brown eyes of Ochako.
“It’s okay. Eveyone is okay. You don’t have to protect anyone.” He slumped down, his friend’s strong arms wrapping around him and carefully lowering the two of them to the ground. He buried his head in her shoulder. She tapped out the pattern on his back.
“Everyone is safe.”