Archive of Our Own

Every attempt at breathing shakes Rody’s very own core.

It’s so difficult to raise his chest for another intake of air, as if someone were pinning him forcefully to the ground. This couldn't be further from the truth actually.

Deku cradled him carefully in his lap.

Rody would admit that the firm flesh below his head was much more comfortable than the hard, cold, wet ground. Everything was wet actually; his hip pouring blood and painting the ground surrounding his body, his face marked by tears, the blood pricking the corners of his lips. And the never ending drip of Deku’s blood and tears onto his face.

His head hurt a lot. It was difficult to work it out beyond the whiteness clouding his mind. 

He felt a strong hand wipe the sweat out of his forehead.

When he failed to take all the air he needed, he got desperate. The sensation of not having enough air in his lungs terrified him, he tried to complain, to ask for help, but the words sounded so small, weak even to his own ears. This scared him further .

“'S fine,” he heard somewhere too far away. Then something soft pressed against his face.

He opened his eyes, or tried to, his eyelids were so heavy. More heavy than all those times he would neglect sleep so he could work more, work harder…

Through his slitted eyes he saw Deku’s face. Blood dripped from his hair, but he smiled softly, looking at Rody with bright but dazed eyes. He leaned in and left another soft kiss on Rody’s face.

“Calm down,” he whispered brokenly. All the fight had left him at that point. He was tired, they were tired.

The cold still pierced through Rody’s slit up skin, leaving behind a disgusting and agonising sensation. Blood, his blood he noted numbly, still soaked the floor under him. He felt like screaming, but his throat felt weirdly scratchy, wet, with metal tasting bitter on his tongue. And his leg faced a sharp, intense pain that he didn’t recognize. 

After they both cried with laughter he felt like he was going to cry in despair now.

Deku’s lips found his forehead this time, and soft, non understandable words were said.

Rody didn’t know exactly why his friend was kissing him, but he didn’t care at the moment. The pain was too much for caring about this.

Every second that passed made things seem darker, feel colder, he felt like he was going to die.

Hissing painfully when Deku jolted him lightly, Rody would certainly scream at him if he had it in him.

“Rody, please,” the voice came thick, scared. “Don't sleep. Sleep is dangerous.”

Rody couldn't even begin to fathom why, so he just ignored him.

The pain was exhausting him out. His head was light, but his body was very heavy. Breathing through his mouth made him feel like choking, but breathing through his nose didn’t seem like enough.

“Breath slowly,” he heard in the distance. “Please, Rody.”

After a second he breathed slowly, assuming this was what his foreign friend meant.

But it didn’t help much, his eyes kept closing.

And as everything got even darker, he felt something soft on his mouth.

———

The lightness behind his eyelids told him it was time to get away from dreamland and get to work. So he woke up slowly, feeling dizzy and dry throated.

The first thing he noticed was that the bed was cold, there were no warm bodies pressed against him. This made him sit up in alarm, then hiss painfully by the intense pain on his whole body.

The second thing he noticed was that this wasn’t his bedroom.

“Hello,” a boy with bicolored hair greeted him, laying on the hospital bed on the other side of the room. “Good afternoon, you’ve slept for quite a while,” he noted.

———

After making a fuss that ended up waking Deku and the blond angry hero up, Rody was able to use the bicolored hair guy’s — he had a weird name, but he said that Rody could call him Shouto if it was easier — phone to call Stan. This time the old man did follow Rody’s pledge to talk to his siblings and bring them to the hospital.

The silence afterwards was awkward, Rody figured it was because of the scene he made, swearing and threatening to get out of his room if someone didn’t let him talk to his family now , but Rody didn’t care.

Deku, though, seemed to do.

“So,” he cleared his throat, not quite looking Rody in the face. Damn, did he really mess things up? He didn’t really care much about the other two hero kids that he didn't know, but Deku was already a dear friend of his, he didn’t want to lose his friendship. “It’s been too long since you woke up, Rody?”

“Not really,” he replied, Pino chirped and flew right to Deku’s pretty curls of hair. It was too warm of a greeting. Rody knew that he found his friend kind of… charming, ever since their talk in the cave. But this was too much, Pino should tone down a note.

“If he had woken up earlier, we would too,” the blond guy retorted gruffly. “Does he seem like a fucking subtle guy to you?”

He certainly said that because of Rody’s frantic yelling earlier, so he pretended not to care, but Pino displayed his embarrassment on top of Deku’s hair, turning all red and small.

“I understand him, being so far away from his family for so long was rough,” Deku said firmly, and Rody felt grateful for the defence.

The blond guy scoffed, but he didn’t say anything else.

Shouto watched them quietly.

———

Some time later, an old heroine came up to help their healing. Rody didn’t know her, so Deku filled in the details: healing quirk, works at his school, came all the way from Japan just to help them.

Rody would have appreciated more details before being kissed, but if it was for healing, then fine. 

“I’m sorry…” Deku apologised, voice low and flushing to the tip of his ears, gazing down.

Rody frowned softly. “Hey, it’s cool, man. Don’t worry too much.” Deku merely hummed, still shrunk on himself, so Pino jumped a little on his head to try to distract him out of this gloomy state.

While the old lady heroine was helping the other two guys, the door opened hastily.

“Rody!!”

He perked up, and before he could register it two kids jumped at him. He tried to contain a hiss.

“Roro, Lala…” he murmured, holding his siblings close. The pain on his ribs, his hip and his leg was ignorable if it was caused by the heaviness of his siblings, the physical manifestation of their love and care for him.

They felt warm in his arms, he didn’t like their shaking though, nor their crying.

“Hey, hey,” he cooed, pulling them a little away so he could look at their faces. “I’m here, okay? No need to cry now.”

“Pino is crying,” Roro pointed out. And sure, Pino really was crying, cuddling up to Lala’s neck as if she feared the little girl would disappear any second now.

“Yeah, she is, “— He caressed his brother’s hair—” But I'm not.” Roro sniffled, looking at Rody’s with such fear in his eyes that Rody’s heart broke.

Roro hugged him again, and even if it jostled Rody’s — now more healed — wound a bit, he said nothing. He merely hugged his sobbing brother back.

Lala got into the hug too, now more calmer than before as Rody drew soothing circles on her back. But Roro was still a mess. Rody felt like crying too now. He was afraid this would happen.

Roro took his disappearance too hard.

He was still a kid when their father left them — was kidnapped, his mind corrected —, and he felt his abandonment, hard. He cried for weeks, and for the last few years he seems to have been dealing better with his absence by pretending nothing was missing in their little broken house.

Rody's heart ached for him. He wished he could help him, but he didn't know how.

So he just held his siblings close, whispering sweet words.

The heroes on the scene observed quietly, awkwardly feeling like they just came unprompted in an intimate moment.

The sound of the door opening and closing made his siblings take a step back, realising there were other people in the room.

"Who are they?" Lala asked curiously, Roro curled in on himself.

Rody wiped her wet face before answering. "These are the hero kids I've tagged along with."

"Hero?" Lala frowned. Hearing that, Roro straightened up, looking at them with red, wet but suspicious eyes.

"Hey," Deku voiced, as soft as ever. Lala waved weakly. "What are your names?"

Oh right, he never told Deku the name of his siblings.

Lala looked up at her older brother, and he nodded. Roro still held him close, sniffling softly, at this moment he seemed much younger than what he really was.

"My name's Lala," she said, getting comfortable on her brother's side. Rody felt like screaming, but he only adjusted her softly. "This is my brother Roro, and my brother Rody. " She pointed.

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" He smiled brightly. "Rody told me a lot about you, ah! My name is Deku, by the way."

"Deku? What a funny name…"

"It's my hero name."

Roro looked up at Rody, slightly confused. "Rody," he whispered, voice still a little thick. "Is he good?"

Rody nodded. Pino flew from Lala's to Roro's shoulder, nuzzling his neck from there in a show of comfort.

"He's a cool guy," he whispered back. Lala looked at them.

"My name's Shouto Todoroki, your brother said Shouto was easier to remember though."

"Sh- Shouto?" Lala tried the name, the boy in question nodded.

"And that's Katsuki Bakugou, your brother said Bakugou was easier to pronounce, although he pronounces it weirdly." Bakugou snickered when he heard that.

"Hey!" But even Deku chuckled so he didn't have a defence. "Even you, Deku? You wound me, hero, I thought we were friends."

Deku flushed slightly, "We are, I'm sorry. But the way you pronounce his name is funny. You say it like Bakugu ." He tried to stifle a laugh.

Rody deflated, "Man…"

"How do you should say it?" Lala asked, frowning a little.

"Bakugou." Shouto explained.

"Bakug… Bakugo…u? Bakugou," she tried slowly.

"Atta girl," Bakugou smiled, surprisingly not in a way that seemed mean.

———

They all told the kids what happened during the days Rody was missing — although Rody omitted every too harsh detail of injury (and also his betrayal), thankfully Deku, the angel that he always is, seemed to understand and played down Rody's injuries.

"Your brother is a little bit hurt, but he will get better soon, right Rody?"

"Of course, just look at me," Rody grinned. Lala smiled a wide grin, totally convinced. Roro on the other side, just laid on his brother's side, quiet. Rody hoped he would believe him and not get worried.

"Wow, Rody!" Lala exclaimed, enchanted. "You were so cool! Wait, you're not lying, are you? She raised her eyebrow, crossing her arms. Her expression screamed explain yourself, lad and Rody chuckled.

"What? No, I'm not! Why would you think that I would lie!" Because he did it several times, when they would ask him how his day was. But they didn't know he was lying.

"Because Roro says you always exaggerate things!"

Rody gasped, "What?"

"See?" Roro smiled for the first time. "You prove my point."

"Hey," and yet he couldn't contain his smile at seeing his little brother feeling better. "That was a slip, lemme try again."

"No! I'm gon' ask Deku." She got up, walking to the bed beside them and jumping on it. "Is it true that Rody was very cool?"

Deku smiled, placing Lala on the border where she wouldn't jostle his injuries. He held her back the whole time, so she wouldn't fall.

"Yes, he was the coolest!" Rody ignored the way his stomach fluttered lightly at that. Pino shyly pushed her head against the pillow. "He was like a real hero yesterday!"

"Right right," Rody interrupted. "But why would you believe him and not me? Your own brother who loves you so much and you betray me!" He clutched at his chest, as if it was hurting unbearably. The real pain though was on his hip, the rest of his body only hurted very faintly thanks to the painkillers.

"Because you lied to me saying that I will get sick if I go to play right after lunch!" She spoke matter of factly.

"But that's not a lie, you could get sick if you moved so much with a full stomach," Rody tried to convince. "That's why you should wait a few minutes."

"I don't think so."

"Why?"

"Uh, no reason!"

Rody narrowed his eyes at her.

"No reason, huh?"

Deku chuckled again.

"Fuck, it's impossible to sleep like this." Bakugou acted as if he was going to throw the pillow at Deku, but changed his mind when he saw Lala there.

"Kacchan!!" Deku sounded horrified. "There's children here!!" He covered Lala's ears, she blinked twice at him.

"Oh shit…!"

"Kacchan!"

Roro sighed while Rody laughed, by his peripheral vision he could see Shouto smiling softly. He was really a quiet guy, huh, sometimes Rody forgot he even was in the room.

"It's fine, Deku," he assured. "They know what bad words are and that they shouldn't say them." Living the marginalised life they did, it was inevitable for them to not end up hearing swears. People swore on a daily basis on the slums, sometimes the kids would hear them, also there was rude graffiti in some places. This definitely wasn't the type of ambient he wished his siblings were living in, but there was nothing he could do, except instruct them to be better.

"I see," Deku contemplated. “Well, in that case you should give them a good example, Rody.”

“He does!” Lala exclaimed, proudly. “Rody never swears! He says it’s rude!”

At that the three foreign boys looked at each other. None of them seemed to know how to answer.

Rody only gave them a toothy grin.

A beat.

“How the fuck do you do it?”

“What?”

“How do you not swear in f-...” Bakugou bit back. “How do you not swear?”

“Oh,” Shouto started. “I think he wants some tips to be able to talk with Eri. Aizawa-Sensei prohibited him from getting close to her unless he-...”

“Shut up, Icy Hot!” Bakugou snarked. “You don’t know shit about me.”

“Who is Eri?” Lala asked, totally unfazed by Bakugou's attitude. But Roro continued glued to his brother's side.

“She’s this little girl we saved a while ago!” Deku smiled widely. 

“What?” That picked up even Roro’s interest. “How?”

Deku’s eyes found Rody’s briefly, an silent question being made. Rody nodded.

“Okay, so that’s how it happened…”

———

Rody didn't know exactly how, but at some point Roro was able to leave his side and go sit in Deku's bed.

Both kids listened to the hero's tales in wonder. Later they asked Shouto and Bakugou if they had similar stories to tell.

Bakugou told them about how he (and Deku, Shouto added) saved an Island called Nabu.

Shouto offered to tell them the story of his life, but Deku shot it down. He said it probably wasn't a good idea, which made Rody curious.

At last, the kids wanted to tell their own stories; several tales of mundane things, that time when a small wild animal entered their house when Rody was distracted and he pushed it out with a broom.

"He was so brave! He looked like a warrior with a sword!" Roro clasped his hands, as if Rody had shooed a lion away, and not just a little skunk.

That time when Roro's kite got stuck in a tree and he climbed it to get it back, but wasn't able to get down alone and Lala called Rody to help.

"My brother is somewhat of a hero himself," she smiled smugly.

"Lala!" Roro flushed. "Stop telling people about this!"

That time when Rody took them to a small river nearby and Lala picked up different flowers from the usual.

"What were the flowers like?" Deku smiled, eyes full of attention, like the information was crucial.

"Mhm." Lala glanced at the ceiling. "Blue and yellow, they looked a little like stars."

"Wow," Deku sighed in awe, as if he could actually see the flowers.

Honestly, Rody felt a little embarrassed, all of those were such common things. So different from everything he and Deku went through, surely so different from Deku's adventures.

And yet Deku listened with such attention, his eyes focused on the kids and his hands gently holding their backs. He would ask something from time to time, with that kind, sweet tone of voice that was starting to make Pino blush and hide in Rody's hair.

———

"Can you show us your quirk?" Roro asked.

"My quirk?" Deku lifted his brow, surprised. He acted like this was the first time someone asked him to do it. "Uh, a little bit." He raised his hand up to his chest level. "I shouldn't use much of it now because of my injuries, but I can try."

Rody looked over, a little concerned. By the state Deku was in after the fight, the best would be to not use his flashy quirk at all… Actually, once they had started to laugh, Rody's memories became a little muggy, it was hard to discern what was true and what he could have hallucinated, and still he remembered crystal clear that Deku was in a truly bad condition, bleeding a lot. Then again, that could be his own blood… He truly doesn't remember much.

Better to think it was both their blood, he would get worried if it was the blood of only one person. (There was a lot of it after all.) 

Something sparkled in the corner of his eye, bringing him back to the present.

"Wow!" Lala exclaimed, the green lights glowed on her face like fireflies.

"So this makes you super strong? Cool!" Roro smiled.

"Yeah! Actually this reinforces all of my physical abilities," he clarified.

"That seems really useful," Roro noted. "But it feels a little jarring, weird. Physically, I mean."

"Jarring?" Lala raised an eyebrow. "I don't think so."

"For real?" he pursed his lips, confused. Deku chuckled.

"Don't worry, Roro. Sometimes my quirk is weird, it's no wonder it unsettled you a bit."

"Show them Blackwhip, Midoriya." Shouto chimed in. "I'm sure they will like it."

"Oh, right!" The sparks faded, but were promptly substituted by small glowing black tentacles.

"Wow!!" Both children choired.

"I can use those as extensions of my body," he explained, extending one of them enough to pat each kid on the head. They both followed the movement carefully, going a little cross eyed when Blackwhip touched their hair.

"This is really cool," Lala whispered, fascinated, as Blackwhip slowly dissipated in the air as if it was smoke.

"Just what is your quirk?"

"It's called Superpower, it's an energy stockpiling quirk that…"

Rody smiled softly at them, he could feel Pino's smile even before he saw her take flight to perch on Deku's fluffy hair. Well, at least he theorised it was fluffy, it sure seemed to be.

"What about you?" Roro twisted his torso so he could look at the other hero students on the other side of the room. Lala simply turned around, depositing her whole attention on them.

"About us?" Shouto blinked.

"He means our quirks, dumbass!" Bakugou quipped. "My quirk is called Explosion, pretty self explanatory, huh?" he held his palm up, smirking as small explosions popped off. "Take this small demonstration."

Lala jumped from the bed and ran to see it up close. "Whoah, it's so cool!"

"It looks like fireworks…!"

Bakugou grinned, not disguising the way he relished the attention.

Shouto nodded at his friend, "And my quirk is called half-hot half-cold." He held both hands up in demonstration, freezing one and lightening the other in fire. Lala promptly got closer to him, crawling up the bed.

"Lala, be careful not to hurt him." Rody warned. Lala blinked at him, before a lopsided grin not unlike one of his own appeared on her face.

"It's fine, Rody! I'm always careful."

"She's not hurting me," Shouto stated, voice flat. As if the notion of him getting hurt was ridiculous. Rody would raise a brow at him if he didn't know this wasn't what Shouto meant at all, this was just how he spoke all the time.

"Don't you want to see Todoroki-kun's quirk up close, Roro?" Deku patted the small boy's back amicably. Roro hummed, tilting his head a bit as he thought it over.

As Shouto did a few tricks with his quirk, Roro made up his mind and jumped from the back, stopping right beside his sister.

"I learned how to do these tricks a few weeks ago so I could pass my hero provisional licence exam," Shouto explained, moving his hands a bit.

"Wow!"

"That's… That's how they evaluate you guys?" Roro frowned, trying to decide if he settled his expression on confusion or disappointment. Rody could very well understand the sentiment. What was the importance of knowing a few small tricks with your quirk when you were supposed to be fighting villains out there?

"It depends," Shouto started. "The exams tend to be different every year. My first exam was basically a game of chase and catch, we were all pinned against one another in a competition to see who would pass the first step, the second step was a rescue mission of a natural disaster situation, along with dealing with a villain attack." Now this all seemed much more logical to Rody. "But Bakugou and I failed this exam…"

"Hey, dipshit!!" Bakugou barked, as if Shouto just disclosed a secret between the two of them.

"...So we had to do a second test, which involved taking care of a bunch of children," he finished, as if he couldn't hear Bakugou seething.

Confused, Rody murmured "Children…?" 

"Well, I guess it makes sense?"

"How so?" Lala looked up at her brother.

"I mean, supposedly heroes gotta be good with kids right?" He shrugged.

"You are totally right, Roro!" Deku beamed. "It's to test their capabilities in dealing with civilians, children to be more precise."

Roro looked at Lala, smiling softly, "Did'ja understand?"

"Yeah, I think so." She tilted her head slightly.

"Good job, kiddo," Rody complimented from his side of the room, both children perked up at listening to their brother's voice after some time. "It seems like you're getting the hang of this whole heroing thing."

Roro, maybe for the first time, gave a wide sincere grin.

———

After dinner — if they could call the bland hospital food dinner — Rody had to swallow something bitter: having his siblings being taken away from him.

Visitation time was over, Roro and Lala couldn't stay the night over at the hospital. Rody had to kiss them farewell on their little foreheads, brushing their soft hair calmly with his fingers as both kids cling to him and complain. At the end though, they were always cooperative and understanding kids.

He only hoped the nurse wouldn't think it was a weird reaction for children whom got to go home to a house with parents, nor that they would find it weird that no adult waited for them outside — Stan dropped them off earlier, but he was long gone by now and Rody doubted he would have thought about coming back, he didn't asked it from him after all.

(Although he was sure Stan would have come to pick them up if he asked. The man could be cooperative at helping him with the kids if he wasn't very annoyed at Rody.)

Rody couldn't have the hospital staff finding out the kids were going back to an empty house, to make dinner to themself and sleep alone through the whole night.

He didn't work out to take care of them for so many years just to lose them now. 

Thankfully, luck seemed to be on his side. The children went home, and no nurse batted an eye at them.

Still, Rody chewed on his lips. He already missed them, he worried about them. They could take care of themselves, they did just this those last few days, but still, Rody couldn't avoid the look of melancholy guilt that Pino wore when she looked back at him.

Bakugou was finally able to take a nap, his babysitter task finally over.

Shouto was as quiet as always, seeming napping off by accident while still sitting up.

And Deku got back to his awkward quiet phase.

And that was so weird, they both worked out really well before. Rody would have thought they would be chatting amicably just like all the nights they spent by each other's sides.

But well, maybe their friendship was always meant to be a small time thing. Just like his stay in Otheon.

———

" Rody ?"

The flickering sound from his imagination forced itself out of his head and onto his ear.

"Rody?" The whispering was so soft that it took a while for Rody to convince himself it was real.

"Mhm…" he grunted, voice raspy. "W-what?"

"Shhh, the others are still asleep," he cautioned, still too soft to be properly heard. In fact, Rody wasn't sure how he could hear it until it dawned on him that the voice was too close.

With no little amount of effort he opened his eyes, and immediately brought his hands to wipe the remnants of sleep.

"Deku?" he murmured, Pino getting up on top of his hair, cooing confusedly while her eyes were still shut tight and feathers all ruffled up from the sudden awakening. "S'up?"

Deku averted his eyes, curly hair all frizzy and messed up but not in the wildly untamed way it was when he just woke up. The small darkened circles under his eyes confirmed that he didn't sleep today.

He awkwardly stepped back to get space between him and Rody. He had bursted Rody's personal space bubble, but honestly the boy didn't mind.

"I need to talk to you. It's important." Rody frowned, Pino shrinking down in worryness.

"Is there something wrong?"

"...Can we go outside? I don't want to risk my friends listening up to us." Rody blinked, eyes slowly darting to where Shouto slept straight up, as silent and pretty as he always was. On his side was Bakugou's bed, where he slept calmy, snoring a low, stuck on his throat, sound.

"...Sure," he agreed hesitantly. His eyes trailed off to his legs, covered by the thin sheet of the hospital and, thankfully, still a little numb from all the medicine. "I don't think I'm able to get up though," he noted, then narrowed his eyes at Deku. "Neither should ya…"

A small smile graced Deku's features at that, and only then Rody felt the heaviness that a non smiley Deku left on him those last few hours.

He got up, straightening up his light blue hospital gown. His arms were all bandaged up, just like his forehead. Rody wondered if it felt as sweaty there for Deku as it did for him. Deku had considerably less hair than Rody, but he doubted it would lessen the discomfort of having cloth wrapped up your head.

"It's fine. I can help you, we are not going far."

Before Rody could ask anything, Deku put one hand on his shoulder and the other on his hip and waited patiently for his confirmation.

"I… It's fine." He could feel Pino's blush when the bird jumped to the top of his head.

Deku slowly, carefully picked Rody up and carried him calmly out of their hospital room.

Rody was very grateful for the serum and painkillers he took before sleeping, otherwise this would hurt like a bitch. In Deku's defence, he was being cautious enough while holding him up close, in his accusation though, maybe it's not a good idea to carry around the patient with a perforated torso, broken leg and probably a concussion?

He frowned, "Are we even allowed to leave our room?" He could feel Deku's muscles tensing up against him.

"Uh…"

"Yeah, don't say anything," Rody sighed dramatically. "Honestly, the messes you put me in… How the hell am I the criminal in this relationship?"

Deku hummed, the sound too gloomy for his liking.

Pino chirped worriedly, so Rody put up his best nonchalant smirk "Hey, man, I'm only joking, ya know it right?"

"Yes, Rody." He stopped, and placed Rody carefully on a little lounge chair down a glass window.

He noticed Deku brought them to the end of the corridor. The place was empty and silent, honestly it was a little creepy. If it weren't for Deku's presence, Rody would have declared that he hated hospitals right this instant.

Trying to run away from the image of the lighted up bland corridor, he looked outside of the window, his height thankfully coming in hand for him to not worry about not getting a good vision — in fact, even Deku could look outside, being able to rest his chin in the window's stool.

Pino perched on the stool and pressed her face against the window's glass, observing intensely the lack of life on the streets outside, the cold buildings in the horizon and trees that looked so unsettling under artificial lights and out of the warm light of the sun.

Rody could recognize subconsciously that Pino's high interest in the dead street was due to his lack of will in talking to Deku. He was curious, for real, but his friend (?) has been acting a little differently today, and now he wakes him up in the middle of the night with some we need to talk bullshit, Rody got nervous okay!?

This, though, seemed to fly over Deku's head.

"Well…" His voice was still quiet, although not as much as when they were in their room.

Not being able to run — damn he couldn't even if he truly tried — Rody turned to look at him. Immediately Deku's lips thinned up in a firm line and he looked the other way.

Then he noticed it, the avoidance of eye contact, the lack of casual talk, the pinch between his eyebrows, the fidgeting in his hands, the large shoulders shrunk down as if to make himself even smaller, his eyes...

His whole composure screamed guilt. 

Suddenly, Rody was able to breathe a little easier. Whatever Deku was going to throw at him, as bad as it could be, wasn't malicious in any way. Of course, his friend didn't want to hurt him.

He leaned forward slightly, "Well?" he instigated, using his responsible older brother voice.

"I couldn't sleep today," he started, and Rody blinked, surprised it did work out to get Deku out of his shell. (He had found out, while pressing a little too much with his joking, that Deku could summon quite the firm authority voice if needed, and it worked wonders on his stupid ass, so he didn't truly expect Deku to be swayed by his own tone of voice.) "Every time I felt like I was drifting off, I would be pulled from my sleep."

"By what?" Rody raised a brow, and looked at Pino for a second, she looked back at him. It couldn't be that Pino was waking him up, right? They both always slept at the same time.

"By myself…" He looked at Rody. "I… Would think back to something I did and feel restless with guilt, something I did to you."

"To me?" Rody frowned. Deku's emerald eyes searched him up and down, Rody didn't know what he was looking up, but he felt self conscious all the same. "What is it?" He looked back at Pino, if only to not look at his friend. "Guilt… Is it because of my wounds? Because if that's so, fuck off, I hurt myself on my own ya don't need'a worry about that."

Deku's face became even more solemn. 

"No, I uh…" he scratched the back of his head. "It's not that. I see you don't remember it, I thought so."

Rody waited patiently, but Pino restless chirps clued Deku in that the boy wanted to know what this was all about as soon as possible.

"When we were together in the humanise quartel, bleeding in, I got really scared… You were losing a lot of blood, I thought you would…" he trailed off, but Rody could guess what he meant. His heart squeezed with fear. Just how bad his wounds were to scare a hero kid? "I should keep a cool head to deal with those sorts of things, but I guess…" his feet tapped the ground restlessly, making the sound of his nervousness reverberate in Rody's ears. "That I was really out of it, from the injuries and blood loss I mean, and also… I got really scared about losing you."

Rody felt his heart expanding once again, and Pino's feathers ruffled up again. Losing me?

The seconds ticked by until Deku hesitantly opened his mouth again, "A-and, I kissed you…" came in a broken, embarrassed whisper.

At that Rody frowned, trying to summon his memories back. Everything from the prior day was muggy, hard to decipher.

"You kissed me?" he repeated, emotionless.

A dreamlike sensation of something soft touching his face came through.

He remembered the confusion he felt when he noticed his friend was kissing him, but couldn't muster enough energy to understand the reason why he did it.

And then, when everything was black and his pain spiked the sharpest it could, this sensation came back, this time to his lips.

"Ahh…" He mouthed, and Deku's eyes averted from Pino's silentstruck form to Rody's. "I see, I see…" He rubbed his neck, feeling a little out of place. "I remember it now, a little. Honestly, if you hadn't said anything I would've thought I had dreamed that."

"I'm really, really sorry, Rody." He bowed. "I was really out of it, otherwise I would never have kissed you without your permission."

Before the pain of rejection could register through, the rest of the phrase came in.

"Huh?" So with my permission, you would have kissed me?

"I could not stop thinking about this, I felt guilty all the time, disgusted for betraying your trust like this." He clasped his hands together, firmly, as if bracing himself for something. "I needed to talk about this with you, and properly apologise, otherwise I wouldn't be able to sleep."

Rody stopped to really take Deku in.

When they talked in the cave, Rody noticed that Deku was someone… different. Something about him just clicked right to Rody at that moment.

And now he believed more than ever that Deku was a good person, someone special.

Maybe his standards were low, but he didn't know any person who would feel guilty about kissing someone without their consent, more so to not be able to sleep over this!

In fact, stealing kisses on the very first date was very common in his country. He hadn't stopped to think about how this counted as an unconsented kiss until now.

He blinked, wetting his lips as he observed Deku shrink onto himself at the lack of answer.

The boy who was so good and attentive to his siblings, and protected him even though he was a criminal, thief, who stole a case and fucked up his reputation in a foreign country while he was in an important mission.

The boy who said he would never kiss him without his permission .

Pino tweeted giddily, hiding herself behind her wings and jumping.

"It's fine, Deku." He took his eyes off Pino's sudden weird attitude. "I don't care about this."

"What? Really?" he was always so open, Rody could almost touch his disbelief.

"Yeah, for real."

"So you still want to be friends with me?" Rody had to bite back a laugh. 

"Wh- Of course, dude!" He patted Deku's shoulder twice for emphasis.

"But… I kissed you without your consent. Are you sure you're okay with that?" He furrowed his brow. "Just like, it's fine and forget about it? "

"Hm, yeah, I mean, I don't truly care, I don't remember much of it. And I wouldn't break our friendship over this even if this bothered me, I would just need a little time to forgive you."

"Ah," Deku breathed, relieved.

"But…" He held one finger up, a lopsided grin drawing itself on his face. Deku looked at him worriedly, even though Rody's expression was surely playful enough. "I wouldn't simply say that it's fine to forget about it, ya know, it was my first kiss, hero."

Horror drew itself through Deku's face. "What!?" he says loudly, then winces as the sound echoes.

Thankfully, the hospital did resemble an abandoned building right now — Rody still wasn't all comfortable with that actually, at least the lights were on and weren't flickering. Although if they were, there was no broken leg that could impede Rody from running away.

"I'm so sorry!" he hissed as if he had to speak through a physical pain, truly looking heartbroken. "God, I'm really sorry! Now it makes me feel even worse, I just…! I thought for sure it wasn't your first, I mean, you're such a handsome guy, surely a lot of people have already wanted to kiss you right? But nobody did kiss you, crap, and certainly this was a personal option of yours right? I mean who wouldn't agree to kiss you if you wanted to kiss them? And then it was me that ripped off your special moment, without your permission." His hands dragged through his face, scrunching up the baby fat on his freckled cheeks. "I feel like an idiot…I'm…"

"Hey man." Rody touched his shoulder again to pull him out of his monologue. "Don't sweat it…" Now this was it , he played his cards for this. "I mean, I can forget that first kiss if you give me another first kiss, one that I can actually remember." He couldn't lay his foot over his kneel, so he opted to just draping his arm on the stool of the window and putting up his best lazy, aloof smile. Pino, however, was buzzing with anxious energy.

Deku stopped still. It seemed like the words were able to silence even his thoughts.

His monolid roundish eyes widened just a fraction, eyebrows pulled up slightly, and lips parted enough to reveal a little of his front teeth.

He looked like Rody just told him that the sky was green and the seas were yellow.

Rody felt a tad of sweat forming in the back of his neck, and it wasn't because of his long hair.

Maybe this was a bad idea?

"You…" Deku started, and not only was his head empty, it seemed like his lungs were too since he had to almost hack the word out. "I mean," he cleared his throat. "You want me to kiss you?"

"I think it's a nice way of redeeming yourself, dontcha think?" And this was a nice way of avoiding directly saying he wanted to kiss his friend.

But it didn't work out. It turned out his smooth talk could only go so far, "So this means you want to kiss me." Slowly a dumb little smile appeared on his stupid little face, and Rody, flushing to the tip of his ears, noticed that maybe it wouldn't be so bad to just admit it out loud.

"Yeah…" he stammered. And while he was at it… "You're a good friend, Deku. And the more that I got to know you, the more I felt like you're a great person. And especially after today, I feel like it wouldn't be bad to be by your side. If you know what I mean," he added awkwardly, he never took himself to be a romantic guy, and he never thought about ever making a romantic speech or something.

"Oh…" Rody feared that if he spoke a little more Deku's smile would reach his ears. "Oh, I need to say something right?" he giggled, and Rody absolutely basked in the new, sweet, airy sound. "You're so cool, Rody! You're one of the coolest people I ever met, and you're not even a pro hero, or studying to be one, so this says a lot. I guess I've been growing feelings for you for a while, but I was too afraid to speak them up. Especially after my stunt yesterday…" he scratched the back of his head. "So I'm really glad to see you somewhat correspond to my feelings… Is this even the right word to say?" he muttered the last part, and Rody laughed a little. Deku smiled back at him, doubly so when Pino took flight to perch on his shoulder, nuzzling his neck.

"So," Rody cleared his throat. "About that kiss…" he remembered, showing a toothy grin when Deku perked up.

Deku cupped up Rody's face, and he could feel his warmth through the bandaged hands, so he sighed contentedly. Deku's eyes were so soft, looking at him with such admiration that Rody felt like he didn't deserve it, but he knew that if he voiced it he would get a lecture back.

Rody was the one that closed the gap between them, immediately wincing when their teeth clashed painfully.

"Fuck, I'm sorry…" he muttered, embarassed at his careless mistake for overexcitedness. But Deku only chuckled, still blushing slightly. "Let's try again."

"Rody," he chuckled again. "Pino is… Well…" Rody frowned. "Trying to kiss me I guess."

His eyes dropped to where Pino sat on Deku's shoulder, bickering softly at his exposed neck, and embarrassment flushed all over him.

"Shit! Pino, don't do this!" he picked her up, putting her on his own shoulder. "Damn this lack of pockets…" he whispered while Deku looked at them, amused.

"Don't worry, that's actually very interesting!"

"Dontcha try to analyse my quirk now, hero."

"I'll not, I'm mostly happy that you want to kiss me this much."

Flustered, Rody groaned.

"Right right, let's get at it, 'kay?"

Smiling wildly, Deku pulled him in and brought their lips together.

His whole skin pricked up in pleasure at the familiar and yet foreign sensation of Deku's soft lips pressed against his own.

Fuck, he could totally get used to it.

———

After a few minutes, a nurse found them and lectured them about recklessly leaving their room when they definitely shouldn't.

So at the end of things, Deku, no, Izuku, did drag his ass to another mess.

But well, he did get a boyfriend out of this, so he couldn't be mad.