The new school year had barely even started when tragedy strikes. The attack on the USJ comes as a shock (naturally) to the public, but also to the teachers of UA. The school and heroes are accused of being incompetent; their critics believing an attack shouldn't have been possible in the first place, while others thinking that the teachers should have been prepared regardless. The students involved had acted quickly and appropriately to get out of harm's way, but it was also due to their teachers suffering severe injuries because they made sure to take the brunt of everything to protect their charges.

The same night, after the students are cleared of any possible injuries and sent home, Hizashi wastes no time in going to the hospital. He should have been allowed to come earlier since he was Shouta's emergency contact, thus his proxy, but the principal had been adamant is placing the erasure hero's class under his watch to ensure that they were fine physically speaking.

He is given all sorts of bad news regarding possible long term effects from Shouta's injuries but claim that they won't know anything for sure until he wakes up and opens his eyes.

When the doctors finally leave him alone, he's unable to hold back a few tears. Hizashi is trying so hard not to break down as he sits in the dimly lit hospital room, waiting for Shouta to wake up. He couldn't allow himself to completely break down as he'd been told that it was possible for the unconscious man to hear him. The last thing he wants is for his best friend to hear him crying and being unable to do anything to comfort him.

All he can think about is how much pain Shouta had to have been in while he was still conscious. It makes the voice hero queasy as he remembers the sight of his friend's limp body being whisked. His face bloodied and his arms broken and twisted in ways that shouldn't have been possible.

Hizashi removes his speaker from around his neck, twisting it to either side to stretch out the confined muscles. He also takes off his jacket, trying to get as comfortable as possible since he was going to be here all night. The voice hero was far too exhausted for having done the bare minimum to help with defeating the remaining villains and then checking over Shouta's students. But he'd been thinking about the erasure hero's condition the entire time and had to keep his own emotions in check.

The blond curls up into the large chair at Shouta's bedside, pulling a spare blanket over himself, when he hears a soft knock at the room door. Yagi steps inside, his blue eyes dull as he tries to give Hizashi a comforting smile. Oh god, Yagi. How had the man not even crossed his mind once throughout the afternoon? The voice hero sniffles and makes room for the other blond to share the seat with him.

The man says nothing as he walks across the room to join Hizashi, his eyes downcast, unable to look at the bandaged man wired to a few machines. "How is he holding up?" Yagi whispers as he settles on the front half of the rather large chair, his back to Hizashi. He's purposely keeping space between the two of them.

"You don't have to whisper. It actually might help him wake up if he hears us," Hizashi says, his voice scratchy. Yagi grabs a bottle of water and hands it to the voice hero. Hizashi downs most of the bottle. "He's stable, for now," he sobs, "the doctor's said there was a lot of damage to his orbital floor. We won't know if he can see until he wakes up."

"I'm so sorry, Yamada. This is all my fault," he sighs.

Hizashi reaches forward, squeezing the man's shoulder. "No one blames you, Yagi. You had no idea-"

"I should have been there," he growls, " I knew what my limit was and I knew that I..." he pauses and takes a deep breath. "I was supposed to be there with Aizawa and Thirteen. Your best friend is lying here, barely hanging on. Yamada, you can't sit here and tell me-"

Unable to listen to him blame himself anymore, Hizashi wraps both arms around the number one hero and pulls the man back against him. "I can and I will," he whispers, his voice shaky. "This attack wasn't just you. We all should have expected something like this," he stresses.

Yagi holds onto the arm wrapped around his shoulders and breaks down. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry," he croaks.

Hizashi holds him, smoothing a hand through his hair, not knowing if the repeated apology is for him or the unconscious man beside the two blonds. Hizashi wants to let go and cry so bad but he can't. He can't, because right now Yagi is the one that needs to be comforted and told that everything will be okay, and Hizashi is more than happy to be the man to do that.

As Shouta's medical proxy, Hizashi is able to stay the night with him, but before Yagi has to leave he invites him over to Shouta's place to clean up a bit since the erasure hero won't be able to do so once he's discharged. He knows that it's probably a little early to be thinking about getting his friend ready to go home, but Hizashi also knows that once he's awake he'll want to be out of the hospital as soon as possible.

Yagi agrees to help and Hizashi thinks that he looks eager because those blue eyes shine a little brighter at the invitation. For the first time since getting news of the attack, Hizashi smiles up at the taller man and tells Yagi that he'll text him Shouta's address so he can meet him there.

Shouta comes to sometime in the middle of the night, thrashing about and waking Hizashi. The blond jumps onto the bed with him and wraps his arms around his shoulders to keep from struggling and causing more harm to himself.

"Shouta, babe, focus on my voice," he directs with a cool tone. "Breath for me. Slow breaths, Shouta."

"Hi-ashi?" he stutters.

"I'm here. I've got you."

"St-students?"

"They're all fine. Safe with their families in fact," Hizashi assures him.

The blond holds him until he's able to get his breathing under control. Aizawa Shouta doesn't cry but Hizashi knows that the broken hiccups he hears from him as he gently lays him back down are just that.

Once he has Shouta on his back again, Hizashi steps away to get some water for him, talking the entire time. He tells him that his class got out just fine, that no one was injured. It was the truth for the most part as Midoriya had his wounds treated by Recovery Girl and was able walk from the school without help. With the bandages over his eyes he can't see, but he assures him that the doctor is coming so that they can look him over.

The pair is told that he won't have use of his arms for at least six weeks. And while Shouta is able to see, though barely, it's very likely that the use of his quirk will suffer. The doctor doesn't stay for long, after giving Shouta something for the pain until Recovery Girl arrives in the morning. The medicine makes him groggy, but Hizashi stays with him the whole time. Talking gently, keeping him grounded and focused on just him until his eyes fall shut.

The blond moves back to the chair and sends a quick text to Yagi, letting him know that Shouta had woken up and opened his eyes. He sets his phone down, surprised when it vibrates a couple seconds later.

(Yagi 4:22) that's wonderful Yamada... i think i might be able to sleep now

(Me 4:23) You've been up this whole time?!

(Yagi 4:25) yes...

Hizashi smiles at the screen then glances over at Shouta. He'd not thanked Yagi for stopping by earlier. It meant a lot that he thought to stop by after the day he must have had because even though Hizashi had been the one comforting him it really had done wonders for his emotional state. Caring for others distracted him and calmed him down. Hizashi was thankful for that even though the other blond was unaware of what he'd done for him.

(Me 4:28) Thank you for coming... it meant a lot to me that you visited.

(Yagi 4:29) I should be thanking you. I still feel like this is my fault but... you really helped calm me down.

A few tears slip down his cheeks. It means the world to him right now to know that he was able to be of help to at least one person after the day's events.

(Me 4:31) We should get some sleep. We'll meet at Shouta's place this afternoon.

(Yagi 4:32) sleep well


Hizashi is exhausted the following afternoon but tries his best to put on a smile when Yagi knocks on Shouta's door, though the other blond doesn't look like he rested very much himself. The voice hero takes the grocery bags that he'd brought with him and shows Yagi inside. He'd called Hizashi before leaving his own place, suggesting the idea that they prepare enough meals to last Shouta and he a few days so that he had one less thing to worry about during his recovery.

Hizashi is very appreciative that he'd come up with the idea because while he was able to cook pretty decently, just knowing that he wasn't going to have to worry about what to feed his best friend while he took care of everything else for him eased his stress just that much. Hizashi watches Yagi get to work in the kitchen while picks up around Shouta's bare apartment. The erasure hero's cat takes a liking to the man in the kitchen, to which Yagi can only chuckle at.

"If he gets to be a handful, let me know and I'll feed him," Hizashi says as he folds the few towels that he'd put through the wash when he'd arrived.

"He? A calico?" he questions.

"Yep! Shouta rescued him two and half years ago and just couldn't let him go."

"He's a sweet thing isn't he?" the taller man coos, pausing in his cutting of various vegetables to look down at the feline rubbing against his legs.

"Sorin's got a personality of his own, that's for sure," Hizashi scoffs.

"You don't like him?"

"I'm just not too big on animals," he shrugs, "but I like Sorin well enough. Probably cause I'm over a lot.."

"Oh?"

Hizashi glares at the back of Yagi's head before heading down the hall to put away the laundry. If he didn't know any better, he'd think that the man in Shouta's kitchen was trying to get some juicy information on his best friend. He returns to the kitchen and hops onto an empty counter by the fridge.

"You're nosy, Yagi," he teases causing the man to blush.

"I-I was only asking. I didn't mean anything by it," Yagi stammers.

"Calm down... I was only teasing," he laughs. "Besides, you're not the first to assume that there's something between Shouta and I."

"Isn't there?" he inquires.

"Well, he's my best friend. Has been for the last fifteen years," Hizashi explains. "He and I... we're all we have left."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know," he apologizes.

"What about you, All Might, don't you have any friends or family to speak of?"

The taller man's shoulders slump forward at the question. Hizashi cocks his head to the side and his smile falls at Yagi's silence as he remembers what he'd said about his mentor.

"It's just me here," he says softly.

"Oh," Hizashi sighs. He jumps off the counter and walks over to stand at the stove beside him. He nudges Yagi who looks down at him, smiling as brightly as he can manage. "I know it's probably not much, but you have me right?"

Hizashi's breath stills when Yagi's eyes widen a bit at his question, then fall shut when that genuine smile graces his face and he nods in agreement. The shorter blond quickly looks away and focuses on hiding the blush that he can feel creeping up on him, deciding to distract himself by smelling the food, though he has to lean closer to Yagi to do that.

Hizashi asks him where he learned to cook and Yagi tells him more about the handful of years he spent in the US before his debut. He doesn't tell Hizashi much, but the voice hero is happy to have the chance to learn a few more things that very few probably know about him. It's obvious that he's withholding many things still, such as the identity of his mentor and exactly why he went to the US in the first place. But that's okay for now.

The two make plans to make more food over the weekend to keep things as easy as possible for Hizashi. Yagi also says that he can help care for Aizawa for the day so that the voice hero can get some rest. He wasn't trying to suggest that Aizawa would be a handful for Hizashi or that he wasn't capable of caring for the man, just that he knew what it was like to be in Aizawa's position.

Hizashi doesn't pry, knowing that if it was something Yagi wanted to talk about, then he would in his own time.

Two days in the hospital was all the time Shouta could handle. Recovery Girl had started monitoring him the morning after he'd woken up so in addition to the doctors taking care of him, he'd received a couple treatments from her and was discharged from the hospital. Before Hizashi had even finished signing the outpatient paperwork, Shouta was already trying to leave the building.

The two are silent the entire commute home to Shouta's apartment, the dark-haired man exhausted from the combination of his numerous medications and Recovery Girl's treatment. Sorin wastes no time in greeting his human when Shouta steps through the front door. Hizashi watches his friend walk to the living room and settle on the couch, the cat curling onto his lap as he does so.

"Are you hungry?" the blond asks before walking back to the bedroom where he drops a duffle of his clothing at the foot of the bed.

When he goes back out to Shouta, the man is sitting there with his cat purring away contentedly. Hizashi smiles sadly and goes to the kitchen to warm up some of what he and Yagi had made the previous day. Hizashi doesn't think that Shouta should be returning to the school so soon, but as expected his friend fought him on that point and demanded that he be allowed to go back once classes resumed.

No matter how Hizashi looked at it, allowing him to go back was the best option for monitoring his recovery as he couldn't be away from school for too long and Shouta couldn't be left at home by himself all day. So the dark-haired man would get what he wanted and resume teaching tomorrow morning with the rest of them.

Tonight though, Hizashi was going to dote on his friend and make sure that he was as comfortable as his injuries would allow.

He sits beside Shouta on the couch and shoos away the cat, jostling the tired man.

"You didn't need to cook," Shouta groans as he tries to turn and face Hizashi.

The blond holds a spoonful of chicken and rice in front of him. "Yagi came over yesterday and helped me out by doing some meal prep for the week," he says as Shouta takes the bite of food. "You know that he thinks this whole thing is his fault."

"In a way it is," he responds dryly after swallowing the food. "But he's also an idiot for thinking that he could have done anything to prevent the attack.

Hizashi gives Shouta another bite and thinks about his words. He was right. In a way, the presence of All Might at UA is what caused the villains to attack the school. But even if he'd known about the attack, what really could he have done differently? He liked Yagi as a person, a peer and even as a hero. But Hizashi agreed with Shouta that All Might was often too reckless in his work.

"So, he offered to come over?" Shouta asks after another bite.

Hizashi raises an eyebrow at him then takes a bite himself. It wasn't like Shouta to be overly interested in Yagi's affairs if they didn't concern teaching.

"He came to see you while you were still out," Hizashi says. Shouta's eyes widen at the statement. "I invited him to help out. It seemed to make him feel better."

"Really..."

"Yep!" the voice hero chirps. "He'll be back over the weekend so we can make some more food for the week." Hizashi watches a slight smile appear on Shouta's face; something not even he sees gets to see often.

"I'll have to thank him for wanting to help," Shouta comments, "I don't need you taking on more than you can handle, Hizashi."

"You don't need to worry about me, Shouta," he says and holds another spoonful out to the man. "I'll be okay. You know that."

"Until you're not," Shouta quips and takes the bite.

"Let's just finish dinner so we can shower, okay?" Hizashi jeers. Shouta falls silent and eats a few more bites before he's finished.

After Hizashi cleans up the one dish, he leads his friend to the bathroom where he gently undresses him. Sometimes the blond hated that Shouta knew him so well, because that meant someone was able to see through the emotional wall that he kept around him. Though he had to remind himself that if Shouta wasn't able to see through him, then something was really wrong between them.

He directs Shouta to stand under the running water and then joins him a moment later. Bathing with him is nothing new as they'd seen one another nude more times than he could count over the years. Shouta leans back against Hizashi and hums in contentment as he lathers shampoo into his hair. The blond smiles at the gesture.

"I'm sorry I snapped earlier," Hizashi says meekly when Shouta turns around so that he can rinse the man's hair.

"I do notice things, Hizashi. I know how you cope and deal with emotional stress," he sighs out.

Hizashi's hands fall to his side and he stares down into Shouta's eyes. He'd done so well not to have a breakdown. He'd been strong the entire time for his friend so that he wouldn't worry him, but those tired eyes knew too much about him and they easily broke down everything he tried so hard to keep up.

"Y-you have no i-idea how scared I was," he stutters. The shorter man steps toward him, the plastic bags that are taped over his casts sticking to Hizashi's skin. "Wha-"

"Kiss me."

Shouta's words are simple and direct, but his eyes are full of emotion. His eyes never reveal how he's feeling in the moment, but right now he's unable to hide behind that usual tired glare of his.

Hizashi brings a hand up to Shouta's face, his thumb sliding over the new scar under his eye before he leans in to meet his lips in a languid kiss. He never gets to kiss him like this but he's being allowed to and it hurts his heart. As their tongues dance around the other, Hizashi hopes that maybe, just maybe Shouta needs this kiss just as much as he does.