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The rain had been falling since sunset, not a storm nor drizzle either. Just the steady sound of water hitting windows and pavements. The sky was dark blue, mostly covered by grey clouds, looming over Izuku who stood on the narrow balcony barefoot, the tiles cold under his feet, and didn't move even as the rain worked its way through his hair and down the back of his shirt. It was easier out here. Or maybe it wasn't easier so much as quieter, the sounds of the rain taking the place of his thoughts but settling a deep-rooted grief in his chest.
He doesn't like the rain.
The balcony door slid open behind him. He didn't need to turn to know who it was.
"You're going to catch a cold."
Aizawa's voice came flat as ever. A beat later, Izuku was startled when he felt something settle over his shoulders: a towel, tugged snug at the collar without ceremony, Aizawa's hand resting there just long enough to make sure it stayed.
"I'll be fine." Izuku managed a small laugh, reaching up to hold the towel close. "I just needed some air."
And was he a liar? Standing under the rain didn't provide him air. If anything, it knocked the air out of his chest, making it unbearably tight.
Aizawa didn't answer right away. He just stood there, the rain filling the space between them, and Izuku felt just a little bit that he could tell Aizawa of his grief.
"Didn't take you for someone who likes standing in the rain," his guardian said eventually.
And isn't that a good point to go from?
"I don't. Not really."
He considered what to say after that.
"It's just... it brings back memories. Sad memories."
"Mhm."
Izuku exhaled, watching the rain needle the puddles below. His eyes stung and his throat tightened. He very much wanted to get some weight off his shoulders.
"I always go home from school on feet. I mean, I used to." He kept his eyes pointedly at some random point on the pavement outside. "Even on rainy days. But there was this day; it was grey outside, rain was heavy, nearly no one was on the streets, and all the other kids had a parent pick them from school."
He swallowed the lump in his throat before continuing,
"I just thought that, you know, just for this time, if... Mom could come pick me too. I called her, but she... umm... she didn't want to bother, in not the very nicest way."
At this point he couldn't fight the tears anymore.
"So... yeah. I know it's stupid—"
"Stop."
And if he flinched a little, he prayed Aizawa didn't notice.
"Nothing in what you said is stupid." A pause, and then, gentler than Izuku had braced for: "You were a kid. It was a big deal. Honestly, it is still a big deal. It wasn't about the pickup itself; it was about something deeper. It was about being taken care of, and that's not stupid."
Izuku blinked hard. The rain and the warm tears blurred together at the corner of his eyes, and he didn't trust himself to say anything, so he didn't.
Aizawa didn't fill the silence either. He just shifted half a step closer, shoulder nearly brushing Izuku's, solid and unmoving, like he intended to out-wait the rain itself if that's what it took.
It was the closeness, more than anything, that finally loosened something in Izuku's chest.
"I don't like the rain," he admitted, barely above the sound of it falling.
"Noted." No lecture. No pity. Just that, and the quiet after it.
Then, before he'd really decided to ask it — "Are you? A rain person, I mean."
Something in Aizawa's expression shifted, so subtle that anyone wouldn't notice, but clear enough that Izuku did. He considered it for a second, watching the same blurred street Izuku had been watching all night.
"Some days, I feel kinda rainy," he said.
Izuku huffed out something that was almost a laugh, surprised into it. Aizawa's hand found the back of his neck, brief and grounding, before steering him toward the door.
"Inside," he said. "Before you actually do catch something. You just recovered from a nasty one."
Izuku went, the towel still around his shoulders, Aizawa's hand not quite leaving until they were both through the door. They continued their night in front of the TV, sipping on hot chocolate and snacking on some cookies until they both went to bed.
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It was still raining the next day—low grey sky, the air heavy as students spilled out through U.A.'s gates.
Izuku has been walking back home sometimes recently, when Aizawa has training with Shinsou. It wasn't a big walk home, but it was surely heavy in Izuku's heart. Finding there is no use for staying longer, he opened his umbrella and shouldered his bag and braced for the walk home, already resigned to it.
He stepped past the gates and stopped.
Aizawa was there, unimpressed as always, one umbrella up over his head, while he definitely was supposed to be in gym Gamma at that moment.
"Um... Sensei?" Izuku cocked his head, confused about why his guardian was out of the UA grounds right then.
"C'mon, problem child. I'm driving you home." Said like it was the most normal thing in the world.
"What?! Um... Sorry. I mean... Aren't you supposed to be training with Shinsou-kun right now?"
"I told him to warm up until I come back, and he can wait for an extra 20 minutes anyway. Now come on, get in the car."
And he did. He got in the car. His guardian's car. His guardian who picked him up on a rainy day.