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The rain beat heavily down upon the windows, a present repetitive beat that drowned out into white noise the longer one listened to it. The storm had come on suddenly, starting with heavy winds before it whipped into a downpour in good time. Further off in the distance were the faint rumbles of thunder, and brief flashes of pale, silent lightning lighting up the night.
The common room was dark, save for the occasional lightning strike illuminating it for scant seconds. A small figure sat in that darkness, pressed into an arm of the couch for comfort, entirely lost in thought as he stared absently at his scarred hands. The drone of the raindrops on the windows had let his mind wander, though his mind had hardly ever needed cause to wander, and he was entirely unaware of anything else that might have gone on. Despite his usual hypervigilance as of late, he had allowed himself to let his guard down for a little while to just dwell on things.
“You’re supposed to be in your room sleeping.”
A voice suddenly spoke up, and Izuku snapped back to sudden awareness of everything around him with a startled “GYAH!” and a flinch. He scrambled to his feet, looking around with a sudden tension to his body language, only to let it relax when his eyes fell on a familiar figure. “Oh. Ida, it’s you.” He breathed a sigh of relief, but didn’t let himself sit back down, the tension not quite leaving him.
“Shouldn’t you be in your room sleeping too?” There was a note of curiosity to his voice as he spoke quietly to the other boy.
Ida shook his head, making a serious face as he pushed his glasses up his nose slightly. “Of course not. As class rep it’s my duty to make sure everyone is following curfew, especially after everything that happened recently.” He gestured slightly as he spoke, before his face fell slightly. “Of course I- I’m sure you’ve learned your lesson and don’t plan on doing anything like breaking curfew to fight Bakugo again.” His tone was more awkward at that, not really wanting to offend one of his closest friends, even if he was absolutely still sore at him for doing something that might damage the reputation of the entire class.
The smaller boy made a face at that, looking away sheepishly. “I-I...of course not. I didn’t even want to do it the first time. Or….I didn’t plan to anyways. It’s complicated.” He focused his gaze on the floor, shame welling up in his chest. Of course, it had been a bad thing to do, and a complicated situation that he couldn’t really explain to anyone. Not that he felt he had to justify himself to Iida. After everything they had been through he thought he probably understood that there was more to it than what he was able to say.
He had to hope he understood anyway. Keeping secrets from the people closest to him wasn’t a good feeling, even if it was to protect himself and All Might. Maybe one day….
“I understand.” Tenya’s words were spoken dutifully. He didn’t like that he knew Izuku was keeping secrets from him, it wasn’t a good feeling. In a way it made him feel that the other boy didn’t trust him, but he knew from experience that wasn’t true at all. “What are you still doing up? You know your education will suffer if you don’t get enough sleep right?” He gestured concernedly, but there was no real conviction in the scolding- more a sense of concern.
“Oh I was. I just couldn’t sleep, and I can’t hear the rain as well in my room. I thought if I just sat here and zoned out enough I could sleep, but…” He shook his head. “I don’t think it’s working. I just can’t stop thinking about everything that’s happened recently.” He frowned, finally lifting his gaze again to look at Iida.
“I...understand.” The taller boy’s expression had become grim, and he sighed softly. “It’s unprecedented, the amount of catastrophes we’ve become involved with. The world is changing around us, and we just have to keep moving forward. It’s a lot of expectation to put on us while we’re trying to deal with what’s happened to us.”
“Yeah.” Izuku frowned. “I just keep thinking about everything I’ve done. If I could have done something different along the way to stop some of this from happening to the others. If maybe I could have just prevented it all.” He blamed himself, in a way, for their misfortune, feeling that there had to have been some way he could have overcome any of the prior situations to make sure no one else had to get involved.
Silence hung over the room for a long while, broken at first only by the rumbling of thunder in the distance. A brighter flash of lightning illuminated the room, and for a moment Izuku could swear there was deep worry etched across Iida’s face, before it was suddenly dark again and he wasn’t sure what he had seen really.
“It’s not your responsibility to save everyone. It’s not your fault, that so much happened.” His words were firm, filled with genuine conviction in the truth contained within. “I know I’ve judged you somewhat harshly for your decisions in the past- many of them have been reckless, but.” Iida struggled with the words for a moment. “Irresponsible as they may have been, I won’t deny you’ve saved a lot of people’s lives, and that has to count for something. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
Tenya was quiet again for a few moments before continuing. “I won’t tell you to go back to your room tonight, even if you’re breaking curfew. Can I sit with you for awhile?”
The words had touched Izuku, but the question had caught him off guard. For a long stretch of seconds all he could do was stare, trying to process the question properly. Finally, he nodded, before realizing it was dark. “O-oh, yes. Sure.” He stammered out nervously, finally letting himself settle back onto the couch.
A few moments later he felt the couch shift as Tenya sat down. Once more silence overcame them for a long time. The taller boy wasn’t sure how much time had passed, seconds or minutes or longer, but finally he spoke up again, this time in a softer voice tinged with something like a fond affection. “I can’t promise I won’t continue to judge you sometimes for reckless behavior but….I think you’re going to be an amazing hero some day, Midoriya.”
His words were met with silence, broken only by a faint sound from Izuku. Moments later, he felt movement on the couch, and then suddenly a slight weight pressing against him. The sound became clearer- a faint snoring coming from the smaller boy, who was now leaned gently against him, finally fast asleep.
Tenya couldn’t help but smile faintly.