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“That was stupid” Aizawa comments lethargically, his droning voice and active criticism makes Izuku halt.
His bright chartreuse eyes tangent from their original trajectory for the exit in compliance with his teacher addressing him.
“I’m sorry?” Izuku inquires incredulously, doubt flooding his already discouraged mindset.
What did he do this time..?
“What you did during the training exercise.” Aizawa evaluates monotonously, yet still it causes Izuku to cease with anxious, self loathing thoughts.
Taking Izuku’s stunned silence into acknowledgement, Aizawa prioritises getting his point across as opposed to giving Izuku a moment and then competently giving him constructive feedback.
Except he doesn’t do the latter.
Then again what adult in his life ever has.
“You threw yourself head first into an unknown environment. You burdened your whole team” his judgement is blatant and Izuku feels wretched.
He tries to explain himself.
“I had to-“ Izuku splutters disbelievingly, “it was a timed hostage situation and I accordingly assessed the space beforehand for extra precaution so I—“
His validating rambles are abruptly cut off by his teacher, who once again vilifies his performance.
He disparages Izukus explanation, irrespective of the logical point the boy was making.
“Just listen Midoriya,” his teacher starts up again “I’m trying to give you advice, you always rush into battle and honestly I think it’s immature and irrational.” Aizawa huffs annoyedly “If you want to be a hero you need to stop doing whatever you want whenever you want.”
perturbed and in a state of clear disarray, Izuku remains silent.
Why bother? He asks himself. It’s not like he’ll listen anyways.
It’s not like he’s wrong…
Izuku continues to stand by and just absorb any other critiques Aizawa has to offer.
“That was stupid” Izuku’s shoulders hunch at the reminiscent phrase.
It’s a similitude of the events that had played out just a few days prior with Aizawa sensei.
Looking up, he’s forced to make direct eye contact with vibrant blue pupils.
Not too long ago, the colour used to bring him a warm comfort instead of a harsh onslaught of… different emotions.
The most prominent one being fear.
An unwelcome unease of what he could’ve possibly done, then of what All might could possibly do.
Between maintaining his tasking schedule and giving what little time he has to other things like hanging out with his friends, Izuku’s barely had a run in with the man recently.
“….What was?” Izuku’s brief curiosity overshadows his pooling regret.
Does he even want to know?
“What you did during the training exercise” All might allows himself to further his scrutinising while Izuku contemplates whether Aizawa and All might conspired about this beforehand.
The situations being so scarily similar is what put Izuku off.
Inquisitively, Izuku slightly tilts his head in an acknowledging mannerism.
“You held back. Your first mode of action should’ve been to go straight for the villain and attack him before he could cause anymore damage or hurt anyone else”
Izuku wants to scream.
“I couldn’t have” Izuku breathes, a silent plead for even a moment of consideration shows itself through a glint in his eyes.
“It was a hostage situation, the building was going to collapse! If I hadn’t taken the time to assess the situation before rushing in then I’d be endangering not only myself but then also all the people held captive and any other civilians in the building—“
“Just stop” All might disrupts his rambles with disgruntlement. “Listen to me young Midoriya—“
All might’s endless judgements are droned out by Izuku’s genuine discombobulation.
Encapsulated, All might had rambled on about something to do with living up to the potential of his power.
If he’s capable of doing it, then just do it.
It made no damn sense.
Yet Izuku stood by and took it anyways.
In addition, Izuku had least expected to find even a shred of comfort in Dabi of all people.
He didn’t know what had set him off, but one second he’d been simply going for an early jog.
The morning sunlight poured down onto the cold, sleeping city through any cracks in the clouds it could find.
It was perfect.
The careful wind flow perfectly contrasted his steadily warming body temperature.
With every step, he released a perfectly timed breath and with every passing minute he allowed him to relax ever so slightly more.
It was perfect.
His sun kissed skin glistened with a light sheen of sweat.
The silent tranquility of the environment offered as a momentary safe haven.
Key word; momentary.
His perfect little bubble was rudely interrupted when he tripped over something —an empty bottle… of alcohol?— protruding from an adjacent, desolate alleyway.
Izuku doesn’t know why that was his breaking point, he just knows that it was.
His building momentum had sent the glass bottle reeling forward straight into the corner wall of the alley.
A few shattered pieces had found themself embedded into the skin of Izukus already scarred calves and knees.
He’d painfully stumbled forward into the wall and his arms had instinctively shot up to avoid getting concussed by the threat of his head slamming straight into the rock solid bricks.
He hissed lightly, more in surprise than pain, before a new emotion was suddenly presenting itself through him.
His clenching grasp, his evident tremor, and the suppressed quivering of his pursed lips.
The first sob racked his body painfully, opening the floodgates for the rest to come through.
He bent forward, his head hanging stiffly in an exhausting defeat.
Once again, it’s him versus the world.
He’s not exactly winning.
“Kid?”
It’s not an inscrutable voice, yet it’s not a reassuring one either.
Izuku straightens up with a small, quick intake of air.
Glancing over towards the alley’s viscera, a pair of gleaming ice blue eyes are staring back into his equally as bright, green ones.
Izukus stumbling back with a stuttered gasp, Dabi’s approach is much slower.
Almost as if it was attempting to emanate an unthreatening aura.
“Hey calm down” his scratchy voice calls out warily, a precautionary faltering in his movements is evident as Izuku himself pauses.
“Despite what you think, I’m not here to hurt you” he scoffs, as if severely insulted at the simple prospect of him even laying a finger on Izuku.
“I don’t hurt kids.” He adds, unsettled by Izuku’s cowering frame.
The boy’s usually a confident, striving hero.
He’s never been so.. disconcerted?
Izuku’s just trying to face his lingering disorientation head on.
The voice telling him to attack versus the voice telling him to think before doing so.
All might versus Aizawa.
Yet above all, Izukus instructed contempt is at an internal battle with his heart lead search for solace.
For some reason he can’t fathom, Dabi seems awfully huggable. You know, beneath the whole rough exterior and brutal murderer thing.
And it just so happens that Izuku could really use a hug right now.
Thankfully, his rational side takes the helms, and he’s decidedly settled on staying in place with a steady glare aimed at the villain.
Dabi sighs, before sitting down and leaning back against the wall of the alley.
“You don’t have to believe me, but if you do come around then you should know I’ve got steady hands”
Noticing Izukus clear confusion, a semi-judging look on his face, Dabi adds on “you know, the kind that’s good for bandaging lacerations” and Izuku’s suddenly reminded of the perpetrator behind the dull ache in his legs that’d he’d instinctively pushed to the back of his mind.
Recovery girl had warned him about injuring himself in anymore ‘silly’ ways after the last time he’d gone to her with a torn ACL after an incredibly straining training session with All Might.
Izuku himself wasn’t bad at healing his own wounds, quite the opposite actually considering how frequently he had to do it.
Yet for some reason, he glanced over the olders face analytically before deciding on his fate.
“…You’re sure?” His voice is soft but firm, trying to mask his perplexity induced state.
It’s how he found himself getting carefully patched up by a villain of all people.
Him, a hero.
Oh god this looked really bad, and yet despite that, Izuku couldn’t find it in himself to care all that much.
As the two lightly conversed back and forth, Izuku was somewhat delighted to find himself relieved from any condemnation.
Nothing indicating any harsh scrutiny or unwanted criticism was warranted from the man.
It brought some sort of wondrous serenity to Izukus tempestuous reality.
“Dabi” Izuku eventually addressed the man tiredly, leaning back against the wall beside him.
The marred man would marginally tilt his head to spare the boy a questioning glance, simultaneously humming in curiosity at the boys changed demeanour.
“Can I ask you something?”
It’s the gracious acceptance that not even his own teachers could offer that discomposes Izuku.
“It’s a heroism question, I know it’s weird to ask you but I want to” Dabi perks up slightly at the prospect of Izuku asking him a question about heroics.
It’s at Dabis reassurance that Izuku garners the confidence to explain to him the timeline of recent events that occurred.
Going into detail about the training exercises then the aftermath concerning the way the teachers had censure him for the way he’d handled the situations.
The constant draining criticism no matter what he did.
He just wanted an opinion.
“What do I do?” Izuku finishes astray, all the contradictory directions only putting him further off and he was, to put it simply, lost.
By the time he’s finished, Dabi is glowering at nothing in particular as he looks off absentmindedly.
Izuku would ask him what he was thinking had he not already done so.
“Honestly?” Dabi starts rhetorically, redirecting his gaze back to Izuku.
“Don’t listen to either of them kid” he suggests and Izuku lets out an attentive breath, as if the man’s words were absolutely riveting.
“You can’t choose between one or the other, not all situations have the same circumstances, it just simply wouldn’t work” he analyses genuinely, gently guiding the boy.
“Sometimes a situation might not call for either of them at all” he adds considerately before completely turning to Izuku.
“Do what you think is best, you hear me?” He continues and Izuku’s breath hitches “you acted completely correct in both circumstances so don’t let anyone tell you how to act, ok kid? Listen to your gut”
Izuku’s completely focused on Dabi, as if he’s come to a revolutionary conclusion.
“That doesn’t mean don’t let people help you, it just means don’t let them step all over you. Especially when you know what you did was what was right. Don’t ever let anyone make you doubt yourself again”
Izuku can’t help the surge of warmth that travels through him, bundling straight into his head as he basically melts at Dabis words.
Taking Dabis advice, he listens to his gut.
Surging forward, the man is startled by the sudden weight compiled in his arms as Izukus own arms are wrapped tightly around him.
Sometimes, a hug is all someone needs.
Izukus gesture is reciprocated by the man who’d always needed it.
After that, Izuku begins to learn what it’s like to stand up for himself and what he believes in.
Dabi begins to learn what it’s like to feel a warmth that isn’t the scorching heat of his own traitorous flames burning his body.
And if the two ‘coincidentally’ just happen to see each other a couple more times after that incident, then it’s no one’s business but their own.