Izuku Midoriya was getting a little tired of waking up in hospital rooms. It was an interesting sort of thing the first time, but after his third experience of such an awakening he had come to regard it as a little cliche. The very fact that he considered waking up in a hospital room a common, uninteresting event was perhaps a sign of his waning mental health, but he didn't exactly mind that much. His head wasn't pounding this time, at least, though it did feel a little fuzzy. He thanked the world for the little blessings in life and raised his head, blinking slowly.
The room was white, obviously, though the window was actually open. The sun was shining outside; he figured it was likely mid-morning, though the room lacked a clock with which to check. He raised his arms over his head and let out a yawn, only to pause when he only felt his left arm actually respond to the command to stretch. He turned his head that way, stared at the empty space where there was meant to be a functional, healthy (if scarred and battered) human arm, and let out a quiet sigh of surprise.
He didn't scream, because this time he could remember. He could remember sacrificing his arm, twice. First to break free, and then again to block Shigaraki's attack. Then he remembered putting his opposite hand and forearm through Shigaraki's abdomen until they emerged from the back, feeling the villain's heartbeat stop. He stared at his left hand and, for a moment, he could see the blood dripping from his fingertips, his arm stained crimson up to the elbow. Then… nothing. Just his arm, banded with scars with slightly crooked fingers. He closed his eyes and shook his head, willing himself to stop thinking about this.
The tears in his eyes weren't really there, he told himself. He had nothing to feel guilty about. Shigaraki was a monster, the world was better off without him. Izuku was better off without him, Himiko too.
The name made him blink. Himiko. Where was she? Was she safe? What about the twins?
"Hello?" he called, realizing now that he was quite alone.
It took a long moment before the door opened and a tall, thin woman stepped inside; her white hair cut in a short Uraraka-esque bob, pale grey eyes and a white nurse's uniform made her look half a ghost, but the smile on her face was as lively as those eyes as she stepped inside, clutching a clipboard to her chest. She looked him up and down, smiling even wider.
"Deku, you're awake!" she declared, sounding quite pleased with the fact. "Oh, and so soon too! We were worried you'd be out for days, but here you are! Oh, this is… I'm so sorry, where are my manners?"
She blushed, and offered him a hand to shake. Her right hand, which he stared at for a moment and automatically went to take before remembering. She winced, switching hands, and he took the left. She had a firm handshake, a strong grip, surprising for someone so thin.
"I'm Nurse Reiko." she introduced herself with a bow of the head. "You're in the Musutafu Regional Hospital. You were brought in late last night, with various injuries, but Doctor Baoko used his Quirk to hasten your recovery. I'm sure you must have questions…"
"Where is Himiko Toga?" Izuku asked, almost the moment she finished her sentence, and she started a little at his suddenness before taking a breath and nodding.
"Oh, she's… she's currently in intensive care, under police guard." the nurse replied, nodding. "She was in bad shape when you were brought in, and Doctor Baoko had already used his Quirk to its limit. Don't worry, though; she's being kept sedated, so she won't be able to…"
"Can I see her?"
Nurse Reiko paused for a moment in response, her eyes widening before she glanced at her clipboard. She didn't seem to be forthcoming with an answer, so Izuku leaned back a little in his bed.
"It's okay if I can't," he reassured her, putting on a gentle smile that slowly faded as he continued. "But… I carried her out of that mess. I need to know I didn't… I didn't mess anything else up."
She raised an eyebrow at that, before looking down at her clipboard again and reading for a moment. She also reached out into the empty air beside her, hand sitting open. A pen floated up from behind her and into her outstretched hand, and she jotted something down quickly before looking back up at him.
"I'll see what the Detective has to say, but… well, you are the Hero who captured her, so it should be okay." she said, and now it was Izuku's turn to blink.
"Captured?" he repeated, and she nodded.
"She was legally in your custody when Death Arms arrived at the scene." she explained, looking a little confused as well. "That makes her your capture. Your legal first, I'm told, so… congratulations!"
She even clapped a little, clipboard and pen floating in front of her for a moment. Izuku felt something odd inside him then, a touch of anger. But… why? Why was he upset by this? He had captured her, technically speaking. She… she wasn't a villain, but she had been. Or she was, as far as the law was concerned. Or… he shook his head. This was too much at the moment. He touched his only remaining hand to his face, a phantom pain sparking in the other arm for a moment as he tried to move it and making him wince.
"Is… is there anybody from U.A here?" he asked, and she giggled a little.
"Actually, there's five students downstairs, and a teacher." she replied. "And two babies! They've been waiting for you to wake up. Would you like to have them sent up?"
Izuku nodded, lacking the energy to say anything more. All this coping and emotional self-realization was quite tiring, he decided. He wasn't too fond of it at the moment, and it was giving him a headache anyways. Nurse Reiko smiled and walked out of the room, closing the door gently behind her without touching it. He thought about who would have come to visit. The five students… Iida and Uraraka for sure, and the other three were probably Tokoyami, Todoroki and Kacchan. And of course, the twins.
Holy shit he was a father.
The thought came like a lightning bolt. He had been tacitly aware of it ever since reading the letter from Stain, but to actually acknowledge it… Shigaraki was gone. He and Himiko and the twins were safe from him now. All his anger and rage towards the League of Villain's leader had vanished in the wake of his death. Now all Izuku felt was a gnawing sense of trepidation slowly building in his gut. He was a father now. He had barely even known his own father, and now he had two children of his own. What was he supposed to do?
He had about three minutes to panic about all of that, before the door swung open again . There was a moment or so of silence as Kacchan stood in the doorframe, wearing a t-shirt with a stylized skull on the front and cradling a tiny bundle of fabric in his arms. The expression on his face was something unfamiliar, a mix of fear, relief and joy, actual joy. He stared for a long moment, the two locking eyes, before Kacchan shook his head and walked deeper inside the room, his face settling into a much more familiar expression of general agitation. Then the bundle in his arms shifted and cooed softly, and Izuku was left stunned as Kacchan looked down, smiled fondly and shushed the baby gently.
"Hey nerd." he said, before Izuku heard the door swing the rest of the way open and he heard the slow, almost cautious gait of Todoroki and Tokoyami. The former was holding another small bundle, clearly favouring his left side as his right arm was wrapped up in bandages. He looked at Izuku, before glancing down at the baby. Then he looked back up at Izuku and nodded once as if in affirmation.
"She does have your hair." he declared, before looking at Tokoyami. "I told you."
"Midoriya's hair is not that fluffy." Tokoyami retorted, shaking his head resolutely. "I owe you nothing, for you are still incorrect."
Izuku watched as the two bickered for another moment, before Kacchan settled down in the chair beside the bed. Izuku watched him as he sat down, holding the child in his arms with a strangely delicate manner. It was strange to see Kacchan, the most abrasive person he'd ever known, walking on metaphorical eggshells.
"Will you two quit your bickering and give the nerd his fu-freaking kid?" Izuku's eyes went wide, and when Kacchan saw he scowled menacingly. "Not a word, Deku. Not a goSH-darn word."
Izuku laughed. He couldn't help it; the sound of Kacchan, of Katsuki Bakugou himself, deliberately stopping himself from swearing… it was like listening to some sort of parody cartoon of some kind. He turned to Todoroki and Tokoyami, the former simply looking at him with that usual calm expression and the latter hiding his beak behind a hand. Todoroki took a step closer, and then slowly reached out, his other hand coming up to help him hold the child better as he held that tiny form out towards Izuku.
Izuku reached out with his one arm, and Todoroki winced and gently placed the little pink bundle in Izuku's lap. Izuku took a deep breath and then, setting aside his fear, looked down.
The baby in his lap had his hair, he realized, a tuft of green sprouting from its head. But then it yawned, tiny face deforming a little with the gesture, and opened its eyes. They were a rich, golden shade of yellow, like a darker version of Himiko's own orbs. It stared up at him, and ever so slowly he reached out to gently cradle its head in his hand. It cooed at him, and he smiled down at her.
"Hi there…" he spoke, hesitantly. "I'm Izuku. Your… your father."
Something twitched under the pink of the blankets, pushing it aside, and for a minute he thought she was reaching for him with its hand, before a tiny fleshy tendril emerged from within the folds of the blanket and slowly wrapped around his wrist. He stared with wide eyes, before looking up Todoroki. The heterochromatic boy just shrugged.
"Your daughter." he said, as if introducing two friends at some kind of dinner party.
Izuku stared down at this tiny form in his lap, another tendril sliding out beside the first and wrapping around his wrist as well. He twisted himself a little, finding out quickly that picking up a baby with a single arm was quite difficult. Todoroki reached forward as if to help but his arm was intercepted by Kacchan's hand grabbing at his wrist, the blonde shaking his head.
"Let him do it." he whispered.
Izuku held his daughter in his arm, her head nestled into the crook of his elbow and two of her tendrils wrapped around his forearm, and she pressed her face against his chest and let out a soft sound of delight before her eyes closed. She was so warm, each of those little tendrils like a tiny line of heat hugging the scars on his arm. Izuku shuddered with absolute joy, his smile growing even larger, before he looked at Kacchan.
"And that's…" he looked at the baby in Kacchan's lap, and the blonde grinned.
"Your son." he said, pulling back the blankets a little to reveal a few thin strands of golden blonde hair and green eyes slowly blinking at the sight of Izuku. "You think you can handle him too, Deku?"
Izuku looked at the stump of his right arm and swallowed, before shaking his head.
"I got to hold her first," he said, looking down at his daughter, who had drifted into sleep, slowly breathing, green hair contrasting harshly with the pale blue fabric of his hospital gown. "Himiko should get to hold him first."
He could almost feel the temperature in the room drop. In fact, he could feel it drop, Todoroki unconsciously activating his Quirk. Tokoyami's eyes flared, and his shadow twisted into a very different shape for a moment until it resumed its usual shape. Kacchan was the one who reacted the least, just staring at Izuku with piercing red eyes for a long time. Izuku met his gaze, a little confused.
"What?" he asked, and Kacchan's expression turned from one of befuddlement to an agitated frown.
"The fuck are you using her first name for?" he asked, voice a low growl. "Deku, are you feeling okay?"
"I'm…" Izuku looked at the right side of his body. "I mean, I've been better, but… I feel alright, I guess. I think I'm still processing everything. Is that… what's wrong?"
All three of them stared at him for an uncomfortably long period of time, Kacchan's gaze the harshest. Izuku realized then what was happening; they didn't know. They didn't know anything that had happened in that bunker, the revelations, Himiko's torture, her assistance in his escape, his oath to her. He opened his mouth to explain, but before he could say anything the door swung open again.
Iida entered the room, one hand raised and the beginnings of a shouted greeting on his lips, before Dark Shadow surged into being and wrapped one arm around his face, a clawed hand covering Iida's mouth. Iida choked on his own words, staggering at the sudden attack, before Tokoyami, Todoroki and Kacchan all shushed him at the same time.
"His daughter's asleep, four-eyes." Kacchan hissed. "Stay quiet or I'll kill you myself."
Iida's eyes wandered over to Izuku, who nodded towards the slumbering baby in his lap, and his eyes went wide behind his glasses before he bowed his head. His shouted apology was fortunately muffled by the still-present Dark Shadow, and Iida's look of shame after that made Izuku wince just a little. Then Iida straightened up, closed his eyes for a moment, and was knocked off balance again when Uraraka charged inside the room. She came to screeching halt when she saw Izuku with his daughter in his lap, one hand coming up her face to muffle a squeak of delight at the sight. Izuku smiled at her, before feeling the baby stir and looking down to adjust her slightly.
"Names." he murmured. "You'll need names… Himiko should have her say."
The room was still quiet but once again the mood seemed to dip. Izuku said nothing; he was too happy to let his friends' consternation affect his mood. He was alive, Himiko was alive, their children were safe, Shigaraki was gone and could never hurt any of them again. He knew he was missing an arm and would likely begin feeling the ramifications of that in a while, but for now… for now he just couldn't care. Seeing his daughter, his daughter slumbering in his lap with a tiny smile on her face?
What was a missing arm in the face of the joy he could feel surging up inside him?
He sat there in silence for a time, head bowed and eyes half-lidded, before looking up at Kacchan.
"The nurse said one of the teachers was here too." he said, voice low. "Is… did Aizawa-Sensei make it?"
Tokoyami's shadow twisted again, and Todoroki very deliberately made his way to the window and stared out at the city below. Poor Uraraka looked like she was on the brink of tears, and Iida visibly repressed something, an expression that seemed worryingly similar to the look in his eye when someone mentioned Stain in his presence. Izuku saw it, and he sighed when he understood.
"That's a no, then…" he said. "I… even though I… I didn't think he'd… I was hoping…"
He held his daughter a little tighter, and then felt a hand touch down on the bandaged stump of his right shoulder, holding him gently. He looked at Kacchan, who seemed almost as grief-stricken as him for a moment before he shook his head.
"He said he was proud of us." Kacchan said, before looking at the others in the room. "All of us. So don't go moping around on his behalf, he'd just get pi-ticked off and tell us we were being irrational or some shi-stuff."
"Listening to you trying not to curse is an almost dreamlike experience," Tokoyami opined suddenly, as his shadow settled down into a more natural shape. "And I am quite glad I get to experience it."
"Shut up, birdbrain." Kacchan shot back, and like that the tension in the room was defused.
"He would appreciate us moving on." Todoroki agreed, nodding slowly. "The best way to honour his memory would be to live up to his expectations of us, prove his faith was not unfounded."
Honouring his memory. Izuku looked at his son then, an idea coming to mind, and he filed it away for later. He looked down at his daughter, who had begun to stir again while Kacchan spoke, and gently rocked her a little with his arm until she settled back down. He heard Uraraka suppress another squeak, and smiled. His mind began to wander again, but it kept coming back to Aizawa. The man who had given his life so Izuku could save his son and daughter. Their mentor, teacher, guardian and, in spite of his own deliberately grouchy and detached nature, their friend.
"If Aizawa-sensei is gone," he wondered aloud. "Who's going to be our homeroom teacher?"
"That'd be me." a new voice, pitched with a curious (and familiar) affectation of an American accent, interjected from the door. "Hope y'all don't mind my fashionable lateness. Thought I might give y'all a chance to have your moment."
Snipe ambled into the room, though Izuku saw that his iconic gasmask wasn't on his face. Black hair tied in at least a dozen braids fell down onto his shoulders, and Izuku blinked when he saw the black leather eyepatch covering a presumably non-functioning left eye. His right eye was a dark brown shade, with a hint of delight somewhere inside his gaze. Snipe winked at him when he saw Izuku's eyes wander, standing tall in the doorway and leaning against the doorframe with his hands in his pockets.
"Gotta say though, you're looking pretty well put-together." he said. "All of you. And I figure you're pretty darn right about Aizawa; he was a grouch, but he cared about all of y'all, even the ones he spent most of his free time grumbling about. He'll be missed…"
Snipe bowed his head for a moment, before continuing.
"But that don't mean we can't keep on keepin' on," he declared. "So I'll be takin' over in teachin' y'all how to be heroes, and here's hopin' I can live up to his example."
The conversation took a quieter turn for a while, Tokoyami questioning Izuku on how long he would be hospital bound (Izuku explaining that he wasn't sure but he presumed he had at least another day, given his prior experiences), Kacchan asking him what he was going to name the kids (Izuku just smiled knowingly, much to the blonde's consternation) and finally Snipe reassuring Iida that Izuku would in fact not be expelled from the Hero Course for losing an arm.
"I'll just have to work twenty-five percent harder," Izuku assured his friend, which made Kacchan stifle his own laughter to avoid waking the twins. "And… are you still in contact with Hatsume Mei, by any chance?"
Iida pulled a… strange face, his head jerking to one side as if to hide his expression, and Uraraka leaned in to stage-whisper the truth to Izuku, one hand cupped to the side of her mouth and a massive grin on her face.
"They eat lunch together on Wednesdays and Fridays." she told him, making Iida turn an even deeper shade of red and begin helplessly stammering in denial. Izuku just smiled.
"Do you think you could ask her to talk to me?" he asked, and a certain realization seemed to dawn on Iida in that moment; he and everybody else in the room.
"Midoriya, I feel it is my duty as your friend to remind you that roughly eighty-percent of her projects end up exploding." Iida warned, looking at him with all traces of embarrassment gone from his face. "If you are thinking what I believe you are thinking…"
Snipe, meanwhile, had a thoughtful look on his face and his chin tucked between finger and thumb, slowly nodding. Todoroki looked… concerned, Tokoyami looked confused and Uraraka was clearly thinking about the whole idea, though she didn't exactly look as though she approved.
"I know." Izuku replied. "But if anybody can do it…"
"Power Loader would be a safer option, y'know," Snipe interjected.
"Mei can work wonders with machines," Izuku shook his head. "Power Loader's good with support gear, but if anybody can build something like this…"
"I'm feeling a little left out over here, Deku," Kacchan snapped. "What the fu-flip are you all talking about?"
Izuku looked at his oldest friend and smiled. He knew it was probably an ugly, fearsome smile, the sort of smile that you smiled when you were trying to strike fear into somebody's heart, but it was his smile and he didn't really care if it looked fearsome.
"I'm going to need two hands again some day, Kacchan." he said. "Why not get started as soon as possible?"