Chapter Text
“-Shinsou!”
Something was wrong. His ribs hurt. Every breath felt like oxygen was being dragged kicking and screaming from his lungs.
“Wake up!”
There was an annoying ringing sound in his ears. It whined and squealed, sending a flare of pain into his head. He squeezed his eyes tighter, hoping the dark would drown out the noise.
But there was another sound breaking through the ringing. Something sharp. Something strict. Something calling his name.
“Shinsou! Come on, kid. Open your eyes. I need you to wake up.”
He wanted to listen. The voice was familiar. It brought a sense of safety with it. He yearned for that voice.
It sounded like Aizawa. Aizawa was calling for him. He needed to go. Wanted to. He wanted the warmth, the pride, the strength Aizawa gave him.
But all he got was pain. Gut-wrenching pain that left him spinning.
And if being in the state of hovering between consciousness and unconscious was this painful, he didn’t want clarity.
Instead, he let himself sink.
“Hitoshi!”
His name. Aizawa had only said his name once before. It was a slip of the tongue; Aizawa looked just as surprised to have said it as Shinsou was to hear it. Aizawa never brought it up again, nor did he say it again. And Shinsou never mentioned how much love he felt hearing his name said without scorn.
And now Aizawa was saying it again. Hitoshi. Hitoshi.
“Hitoshi!”
Shinsou groaned as he opened his eyes.
“That’s it, kid. You with me?”
Shinsou blinked and found the world upside down.
“W’a…” It was dark. He could barely see.
“Are you hurt?”
“Mmh.” All Shinsou knew was hurt. And everything did. His head ragged worse than any of his migraines. He knew from personal experience what bruised ribs felt like, and it hurt to breathe. His nose pulsed like it was broken and was sharp with the smell of iron. His arm was twisted like it was tangled in something.
“Kid?”
“Everything,” Shinsou murmured.
“Specifics.”
Shinsou groaned, and wanted to close his eyes and let the pain melt away. But he knew Aizawa would wake him up. That he couldn’t sleep. No matter what, he couldn’t fall asleep.
“My head.” Shinsou gasped as his head sent a rippling wave of pain straight through his brain. “My ribs hurt. I don’t think anything’s broken. Mmh maybe my nose.”
“Are you bleeding?”
“Nose.”
“Okay. That’s good. Now, can you reach your seatbelt?”
Oh. They were driving. Well, Aizawa was driving. They were coming back from something important. Something life-changing. He couldn’t remember what. It was on the tip of his tongue, but all he could taste was blood.
“Hitoshi, come on, kid. I need you to focus.”
If he could remember, maybe he could figure out what had happened; Why they were upside down in the car. Why they were bleeding, hurt. And why there was the sound of far away shouting and baying hounds.
“Hitoshi!”
Something was in his pocket. He reached for it and flipped it over in his hand, and in the tiniest of light, he saw his own face looking back at him.
“Mindjack!”
Shinsou blinked. He had just finished the provisional licensing exam. He had passed. He was officially a provisional hero.
“‘Zawa?” Shinsou groaned.
“Yeah, kid. It’s me. I need you to focus. And quick.”
Shinsou couldn’t help but frown. They were driving home. Something crashed into them. Road accidents happened all the time.
“Why?”
And then he heard the shouting. It was getting louder. The stream of a flashlight flew over the car, blinding him.
“I found them!”
Help had found them.
“Hey-!” Shinsou called out, craning his neck in search of the flashlights.
“Stop!” Aizawa snapped so viciously that Shinsou froze. “That’s not help.”
“…what?”
Aizawa hissed as he shifted, pushing against the steering wheel. When Shinsou looked, he couldn’t see Aizawa’s legs underneath the crumpled metal.
“Sensei…where…your legs?” Shinsou blinked, trying to focus on where the dark was concealing Aizawa’s lower half.
“I’m trapped.” Aizawa pushed again, struggling to free himself. “Can you get out?”
Shinsou felt along the seatbelt.
“Yeah.”
“Okay. You need to run. As soon as you get free, run and don’t stop.”
Shinsou wrinkled his nose. Why would he run? Help was right there.
“Shinsou, that’s not help,” Aizawa said. “They ran us off the road.”
It didn’t make sense. They were in the middle of nowhere. Why would they be attacked?
“Shinsou, are you listening to me?” Aizawa barked.
“Run and don’t look back.” He repeated.
“Good.” Aizawa turned his head as a flash of light blinded them both. “Now go.”
Shinsou unclipped the seatbelt, slamming down onto the roof of the car with a startled yelp. He crawled towards Aizawa and tugged on his seatbelt.
“I told you to run!” Aizawa growled, shoving at Shinsou’s hands.
“I’m not leaving you!” Shinsou yanked at Aizawa’s legs from where they were crushed under the metal skeleton of the car. Aizawa yelled, his teeth gritted together as he clawed at Shinsou’s wrists.
“That’s an order,” Aizawa growled, a bead of sweat rolling down his nose, his eyes twinged in pain.
“No.”
“ Hitoshi .”
Shinsou trembled as a beam of light blinded him again. The voices were getting closer.
“Go.”
Aizawa’s legs almost seemed to vanish under the broken dashboard, lost in the darkness. But Shinsou could feel them under his palm. He could feel the hot, stickiness of blood soaking through Aizawa’s trousers.
He tugged again, wincing as Aizawa hissed in pain, his head thrown back into the car seat, his knuckles white as he grappled onto Shinsou’s shirt.
“S-stop,” Aizawa croaked, panting when Shinsou finally let go. He cracked open a bloodshot eye before twisting to face the advancing lights.
They were running out of time.
“Hitoshi, please,” Aizawa begged, shoving him away. “Run.”
There was no way to pull Aizawa’s leg free. Not without causing Aizawa too much pain.
“Sensei.”
“It’s oka-.”
Aizawa’s eyes glazed over.
“Sorry,” Shinsou mumbled as he adjusted his grip on Aizawa’s leg.
They’d been working on his quirk for the last semester. Testing its limits. Discovering new ways to control people.
It was pain that allowed people to break from his quirk.
But this time, Shinsou focused on the tether that connected him to Aizawa’s mind. He kept it tight, looping it around his own mind, once, twice, trice.
He wasn’t going to let go.
“Pull your legs free.”
Aizawa’s legs jerked. Shinsou helped, wrapping his hands around Aizawa’s calf and yanked. He could feel the heat of Aizawa’s blood trickle over his fingers.
“Come on,” Shinsou grunted, almost falling backwards as Aizawa’s leg popped free. He wiped the sweat from his brow, smearing blood across his forehead. “Pull the other one free.”
Aizawa’s face screwed up tight as he moved his other leg. Sweat rolled down his face as a pained groan rumbled from his chest.
Shinsou held onto the link between their minds. It felt like it was searing through his brain, the string he imagined when using his quirk cutting through him like a wire pulled too tight.
But despite the pain, Shinsou twisted it around his metaphorical fingers. He wasn’t going to let go.
And with a strangled cry, Aizawa’s leg broke free. Something cracked. He heard the crunch of bones as Aizawa fell back against the seat.
He needed to wrap it. He needed time to make sure the broken shards of bone didn’t tear through the muscle. His stomach rolled as he ran a hand down Aizawa’s leg, praying that nothing had pierced through the skin.
All he was met with was blood. There was so much. Too much.
His stomach rolled again.
“Grab the kid first!” A voice ordered. A voice far too close. It seemed to shake Shinsou’s ribs. It took him a second to realise his entire body was trembling.
Shinsou wheezed between the solid blocks in his lungs as he shifted backwards. “Follow me.”
Thankfully, the door on his side wasn’t crushed like Aizawa’s side of the car. With a solid kick, it swung open before falling off, landing with a deafening thud.
Shinsou crawled out of the car, Aizawa right behind him. He rolled onto the forest floor, the leaves damp against his hero uniform. They turned to mush under his fingers as he pushed himself up onto his feet.
But as he turned, all he saw was darkness. He knew there was a forest in front of him, dense with trees. He’d seen how thick the forest was when they drove past it in the morning. It looked like something out of a fantasy movie.
Now it resembled a horror movie.
But behind him, the lights were closing in.
He didn’t know what to do.
“Sensei?” Shinsou turned to Aizawa and cut the link between them.
Aizawa instantly curled over himself, his hands coming to cradle his leg, a low death moan slipping from him.
“Sensei, they’re coming,” Shinsou whispered, despite their attackers already knowing where they were.
Aizawa unfurled from his hunch position, panting, and grabbed at Shinsou, dragging him closer. The look in his eyes was something Shinsou had never seen before. There was something almost animalistic about them, his pupils blown wide, swallowing the dark browns of his irises.
“We run,” Aizawa growled as he took a painful step forward. Shinsou wrapped Aizawa’s arm around his shoulder, bracing as his teacher leaned against him. “Go.”
Shinsou held onto Aizawa as they plunged into the forest.
He couldn’t see a single thing in front of him. His shoulder clipped against a tree, pain erupting down his arm as he focused on keeping his footing. The forest floor sloped into a steep hill, throwing Shinsou’s balance off-key as he ran.
Aizawa’s weight dragged at him with each step, but he held on, his hand shaking from where it fisted into Aizawa’s shirt. He clung on tighter.
They were going to make it. They were going-.
“There!” A voice shouted behind them, and something cracked close to Shinsou’s head, tree bark splintering into his face. Shinsou screamed, shoving himself away from the tree, almost stumbling over his feet, the wet leaves slick under his boots.
“Focus!” Aizawa snapped, hauling Shinsou upright, pushing him forward. “Keep running!”
Shinsou nodded, despite there being no way Aizawa could see him.
And there was no way either of them could see when the ground vanished from under their feet. Shinsou felt his stomach drop first, and then the world seemed to shift. Aizawa twisted in his grasp, but Shinsou didn’t let go. His fingers strained against the hold, threatening to snap as they tangled in Aizawa’s shirt.
And then they slammed back down, rolling and sliding down the banking.
Shinsou lay there as something freezing seeped into his uniform. It burned, but he couldn’t move. They couldn’t have fallen far, possibly not even a few feet, but Shisnou felt his rib ache and spasm as he struggled to swallow a mouthful of air.
“Up!” Aizawa ordered next to him, his voice loud in his ear before he felt hands on him, tugging at him. “Get up!”
A strangled noise escaped him as he forced himself onto wobbly feet.
“Can you swim?” Aizawa asked, his voice urgent.
Shinsou nodded quickly, forgetting that the world was still dark.
“Shinsou!”
“Yes!” Shinsou yelped.
“We have to cross,” Aizawa said, sliding into Shinsou’s space, looping an arm around his waist and guiding them into the river.
The rush of water rose around his waist as they waded through. Instantly, his teeth began to chatter as the freezing current seemed to wrap around his bones.
To the side of him, he heard Aizawa suck in a sharp breath, wheezing as he curled his fist around Shinsou’s shirt.
The river swelled until it was lapping at their chests, the cold stealing their breaths away with each step. Aizawa slowed, his movement careful as he limped, the sediment clinging to their boots, sucking them into the muddy riverbed, threatening to drown them with one unlucky step.
“Almost there,” Aizawa whispered next to him, his own teeth chattering as he tugged Shinsou along.
The bank was only a handful of steps away when a beacon of light hit the surface of the water, inches from where they stood.
“Any sign of them?” A voice called out behind them.
Shinsou froze, but Aizawa wrenched them forward, all but shoving them both onto the bank, where Shinsou’s boot went straight through the mud, the earth almost swallowing him, slurping around his knee, locking it into place.
He had no time to brace himself as he fell face-first into the mud. He heard Aizawa hiss as he was dragged down with him.
The light hovered on the lip of the river, lingering for a second before inching towards where Shinsou lay. He watched, his stomach pooling with dread as the light climbed up the length of his legs, and curled around his fluttering chest before blinding him.
“I found them!”
“Move!” Aizawa ordered. And Shinsou yanked his leg, yelling as it popped free with an audible burp of air pressure and mud. He felt Aizawa’s hand haul him up by the scruff of his capture weapon, pulling him back onto his feet. “Move, Hitoshi!”
He sprinted with everything he had.
Another gunshot fired to their left. He jumped, his heart in his throat, but he kept running. If he stopped- no there wasn’t an option to stop. He felt his mind frazzle at the idea like an electric shock through his entire body.
He’d never been so scared in his life.
“This way,” Aizawa hissed, tugging Shinsou in a new direction. He didn’t argue, he didn’t think he could speak even if he wanted to. He let Aizawa drag him along, stumbling as he clutched onto his teacher’s shirt. “Now down.”
Aizawa all but shoved him onto his stomach, pushing until Shinsou lay flat against the forest floor. He tried to scramble back onto his feet, but Aizawa wrestled him down, almost lying on top of him.
A distressed whimper escaped from him as he froze, burying his fingers into the hard dirt.
“Easy,” Aizawa whispered into his ear. “Breathe.”
Shinsou didn’t even realise that his breaths were coming in panicked pants, his chest aching with each inhale.
In. Out. In. Out.
He was going to be sick.
Several beams of light broke through the trees.
Aizawa’s hand stayed squarely on his back, keeping him pinned to the ground.
Shinsou wanted to squeeze close his eyes. He didn’t want to see the lights crawl closer. But he couldn’t look away. He wondered if this was how deer felt when crossing the road, only to be struck with the flash of car lights, frozen as they could do nothing but watch as their deaths came hurtling towards them.
A beam of light filtered above them.
Shinsou’s entire body jerked, his legs sliding apart as he fought to get onto his knees, fighting against Aizawa’s weight. But Aizawa was bigger than him, stronger, slamming Shinsou back onto the ground.
“Not yet,” Aizawa said, his voice calm. The earlier strictness and panic gone.
The lights grew closer. Shinsou could hear their footsteps over the drumming of his heartbeat inside his head.
Incredulously, against his own words, Aizawa moved, keeping one hand on Shinsou’s back as he shifted onto his knees. Shinsou could just see his silhouette in the dark. There was something in his hand. He reached back, his arm stretching behind him before shooting forward.
Nothing happened.
And then-.
Thomp.
The lights snapped towards the noise.
“There they are!” A voice yelled out, and Shinsou almost bolted. But once again, Aizawa kept him steady.
“Wait,” he whispered, his focus sharp on the retreating lights.
The villains chased the rock Aizawa had thrown deep into the forest. Quiet fell upon them. Aizawa waited still. His body locked tightly. Shinsou felt his fingers dig into his spine. But he couldn’t find the words to tell him it hurt.
He just lay there, fighting the swirl inside his stomach. Waiting for the villains to realise their mistake and turn back.
But the forest remained quiet.
“ Now ,” Aizawa ordered, jumping back onto his feet. Shinsou was up at the sound of his voice, looping Aizawa’s arm back around his shoulders as they sprinted into the forest.
Thick black trees loomed over them as they ascended up into the mountains. He could feel the sharp rocks poke into his boots, the soles ripped and torn from running. But he didn’t stop.
Together, they burst into a clearing, where the trees grew sparse. The tree line broke away in the form of a circle, allowing a sliver of moonlight to gather on the patch of grass. And something metallic.
“There,” Aizawa said, limping towards the object.
It was a hunting blind. A place for hunters to hide from their quarry before taking the shot. Shinsou almost laughed at the irony. And would’ve if Aizawa wasn’t already wrestling to open the door.
“Sensei, what are you doing?” Shinsou asked, backing away from the blind. “We can’t stop.”
The door opened with a resounding crack.
Shinsou whirled around, expecting to see the lights. But the forest was dark behind them.
“In,” Aizaw ordered.
“Sensei, we need to run.”
“Now, Hitoshi.”
But Shinsou stood there, shaking so hard his knees were hurting. He wanted to listen to Aizawa. He’d spent his entire life obeying orders from strict and injustice fosters. Following Aizawa was easy.
Well, it was supposed to be.
“Sensei, please,” Shinsou begged, taking another step back.
A strange expression crossed Aizawa’s face before the man strode forward on uneven strides and snatched Shinsou by his capture weapon, dragging him into the blind. Shinsou had no choice but to stumble after him, almost falling when Aizawa threw him inside.
“They’ll find us,” Shinsou urged, whirling around to find Aizawa closing the door. He tried to step around him, but Aizawa grabbed at his wrist, pulling him away. “Sensei, we need to keep going!”
Aizawa pushed him back until Shinsou’s shoulders hit the wall.
“Sensei, please.” Shinsou bucked against him. Aizawa gave a moment of leverage before slamming him against the wall.
“Stop this,” Aizawa hissed, his large hands moving to curl around Shinsou’s shoulders. Shinsou shoved against him only to be shaken. “Hitoshi!”
“Sensei-.”
And in a daring move, Aizawa raised his hands to cup Shinsou’s face. Shinsou froze, his eyes widening in search of Aizawa’s face. He could just make out the bridge of his nose and a few loose curls from the moonlight slipping in through the window.
“Breathe.”
Shinsou couldn’t.
“Try again.”
It hurt to breathe. Didn’t he understand that? It hurt. There wasn’t enough room in his lungs.
“And again. Copy me.”
Aizawa brought Shinsou’s hand to his chest and took an exaggerated breath. Shinsou felt the way Aizawa’s ribs expanded under his palm. Shinsou mimicked a deep breath.
“Good. Again.”
His eyes began to burn as his breath stuttered.
“Slow. Nice and slow, kid.”
Shinsou squeezed his eyes tight as he focused on the way Aizawa’s chest rose and fell. It was, in that moment, the only important thing. If Aizawa was with him, then everything would be okay. Nothing could break down that door without getting past Aizawa.
And yet, he could still feel his hand trembling over Aizawa’s sternum.
“I feel sick,” Shinsou mumbled, his fingers curling into Aizawa’s shirt.
“That’s okay. Deep breaths. It’s just the shock.”
Shinsou nodded as he took another breath. And then another. And another until the lightheaded feeling seemed to vanish.
“Sorry,” Shinsou sniffled as he opened his eyes. But instead of seeing Aizawa watching him with that intense mother-hen expression he was used to during training whenever he got hurt, he saw the man with his own eyes closed, his expression wrinkled in pain. “Sensei?”
Dark tired eyes opened and stared at him.
“Help me sit,” he said, bending at his knees.
“They’ll find us.” Shinsou tried one last time, his fingers coming up to hold onto Aizawa’s wrists.
“They will,” Aizawa agreed, and Shinsou felt a chill run up his spine at the honesty. “But we can’t keep running. We could be running in circles. It’s best we wait until dawn.”
Shinsou swallowed hard against the news.
“Whatever happens, I’ll be with you,” Aizawa promised, and Shinsou’s eyes filled at the conviction. “Now help me down.”
Once seated, Shinsou couldn’t help but lean into Aziawa’s steady presence and warmth, especially when he wrapped an arm around Shinsou’s shoulder.
Shinsou glanced at Aizawa’s leg, watching as the blood glistened in the moonlight. He felt his chest grow tight again. That is until Aizawa’s hand cupped the back of his head and turned his face away and almost into the man’s shoulder.
It felt silly to be terrified. He was training to be a hero. Throwing himself into danger was going to be his job.
And yet, he leaned further into Aizawa.
“Try to rest, kid.”
“What if the villains come when we’re asleep?” Shinsou asked, wincing at how weak his voice sounded.
“I’ll stay awake,” Aizawa said, his voice softer than Shinsou had ever heard it before.
“All night?”
“All night.”
