Zuku ended up staying the night and camped out on the floor with the spare futon. Hitoshi found that sleep came pretty easily after basically passing out from exhaustion thanks to everything that had happened in the last few days. His dreams focused on one topic and one topic alone though. Touya.
Sat at the island in the kitchen the next morning Hitoshi was practically staring at his phone, willing his friend to reply but to so far no avail.
Hizashi placed a bowl of cereal down in front of him.
"I'm not hungry."
"You need to eat."
He sighed but reluctantly did have a few spoonfuls before slumping down on the countertop.
"Something up little listener?"
"Touya hasn't replied to me and I'm getting a little worried."
Hizashi didn't look overly pleased.
"Hitoshi Aizawa you were told you were no longer to interfere with any of this, the police and the pros are handling it."
"But-."
"No but's, your texts could put him into danger or worse, his situation is a difficult one which is why it's best left to the people who do this kind of thing for a living. You'll help your friend more by staying off your phone; a bit of distraction will do you good."
"Okay."
"Now talking of distractions, I could use some help-."
A knock at the door caught Hitoshi's attention. He turned back to Hizashi with a guilty expression after having not heard the end of his sentence.
"Someone's at the door." He supplied, the noise having been too quiet for his hearing aids to stand any chance of picking it up. "One sec."
Heading into the hallway he opened the door to find Shoto.
"Hey, do you think we could talk for a bit?"
"Uhh…" He turned to Hizashi seeking permission.
Hizashi nodded.
"You can always help me out later."
"Then yes." Hitoshi offered with a smile. "Come in, we can talk in my room."
"Thanks." Shoto nodded before following him inside.
Hitoshi took a seat on the bed, inviting his friend to join him.
"Katsuki and Zuku are out getting groceries with Shouta so we have some peace." He smirked. "I think I know what you wanna' talk about."
"Is Touya really alive?" Shoto asked quietly.
"I was texting him a few days ago so to my best knowledge yeah. He hasn't replied since but I think that's more down to him trying to keep a low profile and not let the League know he's been sending messages."
"All this time and we had no idea!" Todoroki growled. "And he was there that night in Kamino, I should have seen him."
"Shoto, Touya was already at the facility when I got there and had been for a few years. If I wasn't even two at the time then the two of us wouldn't even have been alive back when he was taken. You can't punish yourself for not recognising someone you've never seen before."
"I've seen pictures! My house has a damn memorial to him. I could have done something to help him."
"I'm not going to let you sit here and beat yourself into the ground, I mean this when I say there was nothing you could have done back there. Nothing. Not without either getting yourself killed, Touya killed, me and Kacchan killed, or any of our friends killed. Kamino was a fucking shit show that we barely made it out of. I'm down an eye but I'll take that any day over someone I love or care about being dead."
Hitoshi exhaled deeply.
"Touya is smart, there's a reason he's survived like sixteen-years of that crap. When I was back at the facility I was able to see how the new dynamic worked. They were calling him 'Dabi' which could only mean they saw him as a member. He's playing them at their own game to stay alive and it's working. Your brother is an amazing, strong, selfless person and he's going to make it out of this don't you worry. I'll kick his ass myself if he doesn't."
Shoto smirked before a small smile came to his face.
"You're really close to him."
"He was all I had for over thirteen-years, and like I said, I was so young back then that I'd never known anyone before him. Touya was a big brother and a parental figure all rolled into one and he was always there for me. I owe him more than I will ever be able to repay and I would've been dead fifty times over if it weren't for Touya."
Hitoshi came to rest a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"I've had more than my fair share of him over the years so now it's your turn. As much of an asshole Endeavour is, I have no doubt in my mind that he will stop at nothing to bring him home to you guys." He paused. "Touya is going to be free but as someone with a little experience in all this, he's going to need his family to help him."
Shoto's eyes were filled with unshed tears that he fought back before nodding.
"Any tips?"
Hitoshi smiled.
"Be patient, don't raise your voice, and don't crowd him; coming back into society after so little time spent in it is hard. As much as I wish there was, there's no quick fix to any of this stuff, it's been three months since I was first with them and I still sometimes forget that I'm actually free. And everything is alien at first, I found the amount of food that you're just allowed to eat when you feel like it real strange and then I could barely eat any of it without feeling really sick afterwards, and sleeping is still something I struggle with. Not to go into anything but it's just a given that he's going to have nightmares, and he's gonna' be scared of his own shadow until he starts to feel safer. When I first got out I thought that someone would grab me at any second, I still do sometimes when I'm having a bad day. Again, you're just going to have to be patient with him but you'll probably work out his triggers and stuff pretty quickly and then know how best to avoid them."
"Thank you for this, it sounds bad to say but I'm glad he did have someone in there with him. And thank you for telling us in the first place, I'm going to get to see my big brother and I never thought I would ever have the chance to do that."
"No don't worry about it, I agree. Touya and I kept each other going, so leaving him in there on his own really made me feel like crap for a long time, not knowing if he was still alive or not."
"You both survived, that's not something to be taken lightly, it's a real achievement."
"I'll celebrate when Touya is back with us."
Shoto nodded.
"I need to go and finish some homework Ectoplasm set us but I really do appreciate this, sorry for being a downer."
Hitoshi shook his head.
"You're going to be fine, Shoto, I promise."
He smiled.
"I'll see you around."
"See ya'."
