Earlier
Hizashi didn't even try to and go back to sleep knowing it would just be pointless, instead he made himself a cup of tea and camped out on the couch in the living room, the TV tuned into the news channel with the volume on low.
It would be hours before he heard anything but he still needed to see just in case.
He knew why he hadn't been selected for the raid, his quirk wasn't suited to the tight corridors of the Shie Hassaikai compound, and so he wasn't bitter. He also couldn't help but feel proud of the fact that Shouta had finally been called up for a large scale operation organised by the commission. It was about time they stopped being so ableist.
Hizashi sighed, casting a hand through his hair.
They were going to be okay.
They had to be.
The press first hit the scene a few minutes shy of the roof caving in. After that the channel he was watching had sent a helicopter up but were being kept within a certain proximity. They got their answer as to why shortly after.
Everything seemed to happen at once as Hizashi recognised every face emerging through the smoke clouds, but one in particular caught his eye.
Zuku was fighting Overhaul, alone.
No, there was a girl on his back.
Was that Eri?
The fight seemed to last for a millennium.
After far too long of a wait he finally caught sight of Hitoshi and what he saw worried him deeply. The kid looked a mess with dried blood covering his face but he seemed to be focused purely on hiding Eri, who was now in his arms, away from the reporters and photographers swarming the exterior of the compound.
The shot ended after the two of them climbed into the back of an ambulance, a paramedic quickly closing the doors after they were inside.
Hizashi grabbed his phone hoping to reach Shouta, but it just rang out.
It was the same story for the rest of them.
He could barely sit still as this point, wishing that he'd asked ahead to find out which hospital they would be taken to. He tried to keep his breathing calm as he continued the long waiting game.
Half an hour later and he still couldn't get through to anyone.
They were surely at the hospital by now which was probably why none of the calls he attempted were connecting.
They also wouldn't connect if they were-
No.
He couldn't think like that; not when he hadn't seen any sign of...
His phone began to vibrate beside him and Hizashi couldn't have answered it quicker.
"Zashi?"
A sob broke from his lips as he clamped a hand over his mouth, tears trickling down his cheeks.
"Shou."
The bliss of that moment had been short-lived the second Shouta mentioned Hitoshi's decline, the voice hero sprinting out of the house and over to the hospital. He'd bumped into Eiichi in the corridor before he was wrangled into a waiting room by one of the nurses and told to wait, her reasoning be that his husband was already being difficult about sitting still for his stitches.
It would have been nice if Shouta had mentioned the fact that he'd been stabbed on the phone but apparently that wasn't important enough information to share.
He knew exactly why he was difficult though, his husband clearly desperate to get back to their son as fast as possible, therefore more than willing to label his own injuries as simply trivial. But he could wait five minutes and Shouta needed those damn stitches the stupid idiot!
"Shou!"
Finally allowed in the room he rushed the distance between himself and his husband.
"Zashi…" The far too small voice that replied only hurt his heart more as he gently wrapped his arms around the erasure hero being sure not to disturb the stitches. "We need to find Toshi."
"And we will, but you need to give yourself some time for the stitches to-"
But Shouta was already up and off the bed heading for the door.
"I'm fine, now show me how to get to him…"
It was clear from his husband's expression how much he hated situations like this. Moments were he truly felt blind like being unable to locate his son without someone being there to take him to him.
"Please?"
"Okay, we'll go, but you need to take it slow."
Hizashi took a breath as he reached for his husband's hand, interlinking their fingers with a squeeze as they made their way down the corridor towards the room their son had been assigned upon admission.
The problem was.
"He's not here."
The room was empty.
Shouta's eyes widened.
"What?!"
There were signs that he'd been there previously in that the sheets were thrown back and numerous wires were hanging loose down the side of the bed, but Hitoshi was long gone.
"He's gone to find Nighteye." Shouta's voiced with a sigh.
"What happened to Nighteye?"
"SIR NO!"
"Master Shinsou!"
Arriving at a corridor of utter chaos Hizashi couldn't halt his husband's sprint away from him, quickly seeing exactly what had spurred it.
Shouta caught Hitoshi before he could fall.
"Woah, woah, woah. I've got you. I've got you, Toshi."
Their son's eyes were blown wide as he seemed to be lost in… something. He looked to the room just shy and saw Mirio sobbing over…
Oh god no.
Zuku was there too, as was All Might, and Nighteye's husband.
Nighteye was…
"Dad…"
Toshi's tone was overwhelmingly ladened in sadness, and fear, and desperation as he whimpered the name, so much so that it tore at Hizashi's chest just hearing their son sounding so broken.
"I'm never letting you fall again, okay?"
Hitoshi threw himself against Shouta, tears streaming down his cheeks as he did so.
"You're okay… you're okay, Tosh." Hizashi closed the gap between him and his family, cooing softly as he raised a hand to rest it on Hitoshi's cheek, pressing a kiss to the crown of his head in an action he hoped would be grounding and familiar. "Dad and Papa are here, it's okay."
"I'm so sorry… I'm really sorry." Their son sobbed.
"Shhh, shhh, shhh…" He tried to hush those unwarranted apologies. "Just breathe, it's okay, everything's going to be okay, Toshi."
He watched as Shouta tightened his hold on their son, pulling him even closer in his embrace, his whole body shaking.
Hizashi took a breath before wrapping his arms around them both.
"We're going to be okay."
Recovery Girl really hadn't been pleased when she'd arrived back at Nighteye's room to find not only Mirio out of bed despite the cast on his foot, but Hitoshi in the corridor too.
"That boy's lung collapsed he should not be out of bed!"
She shook her head.
"I swear you heroes are a bad influence, do you know how much pain he's ignoring right now, it's a miracle he's even still on his feet, Hitoshi what were you thinking?"
The question was rhetorical though because she knew exactly why.
Hitoshi hadn't been happy with the arrangement but Hizashi had lifted their son into a carry to get him back to his room. He had to stop his husband from doing it, reminding him that he was stabbed earlier and had stitches in that would definitely rip under carrying that kind of weight.
He hadn't been too happy but tough shit.
Chiyo had left them be after that, walking off to no doubt shoo Mirio back into his own room.
Hitoshi looked small on the bed as he sat with his knees pulled to his chest just crying, little hiccupping sobs the only sound in the room.
"Why-."
They both turned as their son spoke up.
"Why can't I save anyone?"
Hizashi sighed.
"Toshi…"
But Shouta jumped in instead.
"You saved Eri."
Hitoshi scoffed.
"No I didn't, Mirio saved her, he lost his damn quirk for it, and Zuku did the rest while I was lying there doing nothing!"
It was hard to tell is Toshi was sad or angry, or maybe it was a mixture of both, he was grieving after all.
"I was useless!" Their son screamed his throat raw.
"Hey, listen to me." Shouta took hold of Hitoshi's hands despite the teen's best efforts to dislodge the grip. "Listen to me!" His tone was firm.
He finally looked up.
"I never want to hear you talk about yourself like that, you were as much a part of the success of that raid as anyone else and don't you dare diminish the fact that I know that little girl was partly saved by you because Hizashi saw the news report. You were shielding her from the press so that they wouldn't do to her what they did to you at Kamino with that photo, right? So tell me again how you're a worthless hero that didn't save Eri after you gave yourself a brain haemorrhage from overusing your quirk and suffered a collapsed lung!"
It was rare for Shouta to raise his voice like that but Hizashi wasn't surprised in that moment. It wasn't out of anger, or an intent to make Hitoshi feel bad, it was the words their son needed so desperately to hear; the ones his own brain wouldn't be telling him.
Hitoshi didn't say a word as he picked at the sheets on the bed, head downcast.
"Sir. Nighteye's dead…" Came possibly the weakest voice he'd ever heard from their son and it was truly heart-breaking.
"Yes he is." Shouta nodded.
"He really cared about me."
He watched his husband's lip wobble as he forced himself to stay strong.
"He did; he knew you were going to be a great hero so he wanted to help you as much as he could."
"I just feel empty."
Hizashi took a seat on the other side of the bed and gently took Hitoshi's hands in his own.
"And that's okay, it's completely natural."
There was a slightly longer patch of silence before their son spoke up once again.
"I made a promise to Sir. Nighteye's husband that I'd look after him… I didn't do that either."
Shouta placed a hand on Toshi's cheek.
"Nighteye knows you did everything you could; Eiichi will too. We all knew the risks when we signed up for the raid, there's nothing more to it than that."
"Okay."
Hizashi adjusted the pillows.
"You need to get some sleep, Tosh; you're still recovering from a major procedure."
"I don't know if I can."
It was hard not to see the shakes in their son's hands.
"We're going to be right here, okay?" Shouta reassured, feeling around for a seat beside the bed and eventually finding it.
"We're not going anywhere, Toshi." Hizashi nodded in accompaniment. "So just rest."
Hitoshi leaned back against the pillows.
"Is Eri okay?"
"She's perfect so stop worrying and close your eyes." Shouta teased.
A soft, small smile came to their son's face.
"I'm glad."
And he was asleep five minutes later.
