Ugh. Why are some of the worst villains the forbidden heartthrobs? *Cough*-Overhaul you fucking lunatic bastard-*Cough* BUT at least there is also Tamaki #TheCutestEver #MirioTamaki4Life
Warnings: Depression, but nothing too triggering I don't think (Let me know if I'm wrong AF).
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What Heroes Would Choose
Chapter 10
Midoriya spent the better part of the morning talking himself through what would likely go down at lunch. Should he sit with Ochaco and Iida as usual? Would Todoroki join like he always did? Would Bakugo break his usual seating arrangement? Should he try to ask Shinso if he wanted to eat with them like he had before his kidnapping?
There were so many factors that he needed to consider. The most important goal for him right now was to pass as normal so that he could get people to stop looking at him like he was broken. Maybe if they didn't think so, he wouldn't either.
As soon as the bell rang, he gave his thigh another quick rub, repressing the hiss he wanted to let out. He quickly pulled himself together right after, observing his classmates to gauge how he should act. Tenya and Uraraka clearly wanted to eat with him, but he wasn't so sure about Shoto and Katsuki.
They were getting up much more slowly than everyone else, discreetly flickering their eyes between each other and him. He bit the inside of his lip, chewing on it in thought. Finally, he turned and walked to the friends that hadn't ignored him, figuring that they'd follow if they wanted to.
"I'm really excited for Lunch Rush's food… It's been a really long time!" Midoriya stated, patting his stomach for emphasis and giving his best fake smile.
"Ah yes. Please, allow me to pay for your lunch today!" Iida chirped, he and Ochaco walking ahead.
Once they turned their backs Midoriya let his smile warp into a light scowl. Tenya was just trying to be kind but to him, it was like twisting the knife in his still very open wounds. He didn't turn to see if Bakugo and Todoroki were following him out, too irritated to care.
Shinso, however, was a slightly different story. He was waiting for their group as they exited the classroom, zeroing in on Midoriya. To everyone else, he just looked tired and bored like always, but Izuku could see the disapproval in his eyes, clearly upset by being ignored.
Deku gave another guilty smile and waved him over. "Hey, Iida, Ochaco… I'll meet you all in the cafeteria okay?"
They looked at him suspiciously but nodded and headed off. Midoriya was a little aware of Bakugo and Todoroki doing the same thing as they finally exited the room and walked by them. He turned his full attention to Shinso and waited patiently.
"You've been ignoring my texts and blowing off hang out times…" Hitoshi stated bluntly, waving his phone around.
"Sorry! I just got really caught up in getting better and then my mom was always throwing fits over me coming back to school and potentially moving into the dorms again… it just got really overwhelming and I had to deal with it, you know?" Izuku explained. He hoped Shinso wouldn't be able to tell that he was half lying. At least part of it was true, but that wasn't the actual reason that he'd been ignoring him so he felt a little slimy.
"Do you think I'm an idiot, Izuku?"
Nope. Midoriya wasn't that lucky as usual… He felt his stomach fall from the unusually impatient and icy tone in Shinso's voice, the hurt look in his purple orbs. But once again, that guilt started changing into anger.
"What right does he have to get onto me for not wanting to hang out? I never confronted him whenever he would blow me off before the attack… Maybe I didn't want to do shit and I'm not a captive anymore so I shouldn't have to! This is ridiculous!" he thought angrily.
Midoriya sniffled roughly, crossing his arms over his chest tightly. "An idiot? No. But turning out to be just like everyone else? Yes. You promised me that you'd let me work through things on my own if that's what I wanted so, just back off. I don't need someone else hovering over me!"
With that, he turned on his heel and stomped off to the bathroom, wanting more release before rejoining Iida and Ochaco. The last thing he needed was them piling on if they picked up on how pissed he was.
Shinso stared after him with his jaw hanging slack. He didn't think Izuku was even capable of being that harsh with someone, much less him. Upsetting the smaller teen certainly hadn't been his intention, but the outburst was enough to make his worry over the radio silence justified.
Shinso was quick to find Bakugo and Todoroki in the cafeteria directly following his 'talk' with Izuku, hurrying over without pause when Iida and Ochaco tried to flag him down to ask where Izuku had gone to.
"We need to talk… In private." He stated plainly, adding the second part when Bakugo opened his mouth to speak.
"Abandoned park by Deku and I's house?" the blonde offered, straightening up for the first time in months.
Shinso nodded in approval, knocking his knuckles on the table before sauntering off. "Five O'clock Saturday… Don't be late."
"What do you think he wants to talk to us about?" Todoroki questioned quietly.
Bakugo gave his best nonchalant shrug and finished drying his hair before walking over to sit on his bed, swatting at Todoroki's arm as he passed his desk. "Who knows what goes on in that insomniacs brain? And quit picking at your nails… It's weird seeing you all agitated and shit."
"I'm nervous, Katsuki… This is no different than when you squeeze your wrist—actually, it is because this isn't hurting me."
Todoroki stood and moved to sit beside Bakugo, gently grasping the bruised limb he'd been referring to as proof. He grimaced at how swollen it was, figuring it probably hurt almost as bad as it looked. "Eventually, you're going to break the bone entirely if you keep this up… Here, let me ice it for you."
Bakugo rolled his eyes but let a gentle smile tug on his lips, pliantly allowing Todoroki to rub his frosted hand over the abused flesh. "You're uh… you're pretty good at that—er, uh… taking care of people, I mean."
"I'd hope so," Todoroki hummed with slight amusement. "I've had plenty of practice tending to you the past couple of months."
The blonde scoffed and used his free hand to flick at Todoroki's shoulder, smirking when it earned a hiss of pain. "Oh, I'm sorry Icy-Hot… Did you dislocate something climbing up on that fucking high horse?"
Todoroki sent frost up his own shoulder and chuckled despite the continued throbbing sensation. In actuality, his arm had flown out of the socket when one of Bakugo's explosions had burst through his ice and a chunk had smacked into him.
"Are you ever going to call me something other than Icy-Hot or Peppermint?" Todoroki asked after a time.
"Tsk, what? Like Shoto or some shit?" Bakugo chuckled, though he felt a twinge of guilt moments later when the dual user shrugged and went back to what he was doing. "Hey…" Bakugo continued with a gentle edge to his voice. "Do you—Is that—Can I call you Shoto?"
"I call you Katsuki now… It seems only fair for you to be allowed to use my given name." Todoroki responded quietly.
"Well yeah, but…" Bakugo started, pulling his partially iced hand away from Todoroki so that he could grip the boy's shoulders and force him to turn fully. "I'm asking if you want me to…"
Todoroki remained quiet for several tense moments, but eventually lowered his eyes and nodded. The action only increased Bakugo's sense of fault, now realizing Izuku had probably been the only person that Todoroki had been close enough with to even consider using first names—it was a big deal to him.
He let go of Todoroki and twisted around, readjusting his pillow and bedding before returning his attention to the dual user. "Alright, Shoto… I'm tired so get your ass over here."
"…Uh… What?"
"I said it's late and my arm hurts so you're going to crash here and keep the swelling down tonight," Bakugo stated, this time with far more conviction and confidence in his voice. He practically dragged Todoroki up before throwing the covers over them and turning out the light, laying down with a loud huff.
"Are you sure you are alright with me staying here?" Todoroki questioned nervously. "Whenever I spend the night, I have my sleeping mat and—"
"Shoto…" Bakugo interrupted as he tangled the fingers of his injured hand into Todoroki's right. "Shut up."
Even in the dark, the blonde could see Todoroki's lips twitching up into another smile, this one still hesitant but larger than previous ones. He relaxed as frost crept up his wrist.
Midoriya was exhausted the next morning in every sense of the word. He'd struggled to sleep the night before as he usually did… only this time it was only partially due to the nightmares he continued to have about his captivity.
What had kept him even more awake was the 'incidents' he'd had the day prior. He'd felt anger before and knew that it was a normal and healthy reaction to specific situations, but yesterday… That wasn't just anger he'd experienced, it was hate.
It was a sickening bitterness that didn't go away once he'd calmed down or even after he'd gotten home and away from the people causing it. No, if anything, Midoriya felt even more irrational animosity building towards everyone, especially himself as the minutes ticked by into hours.
He wanted to have Shinso go out of his way to spend time with him since he'd worked so hard to bring him out of his self-imposed shell. He wanted to have friends take interest in his well-being and give small gestures of care after spending nearly a decade as an invalid. He wanted Bakugo and Todoroki to step in and save him from the waking nightmare he was currently in.
He wanted that, didn't he? So why was he so upset that it was finally happening?
The two-fold question plagued his mind, consuming the entirety of his thought process until the moment Aizawa pulled him aside before class to bench him from hero training. On Monday, they'd simply had a lecture about some specific aspect of 'Search and Rescue', but today they were supposed to be doing more quirk training—He was supposed to be training.
"What?" he questioned almost numbly, gazing up at his teacher in confusion.
Aizawa rubbed his forehead with exasperation. "I asked if you wanted to watch the practical portion of today's classes from an observing room or if you'd prefer to watch in person with me. Surely someone told you that you haven't been cleared for—"
"But I feel fine, Mr. Aizawa!" Midoriya stated anxiously. He resisted the urge to open and close his now sweaty palms, but tears were quickly threatening to form in his wide eyes. "I—"
"Young Midoriya!" All Might called as he jogged over, effectively stopping his pupil from almost losing his temper in the middle of the crowded hall. The teen looked up at the previous OFA user hopefully, sure that he would understand his desperate need to train and get back to normal.
"Good, you're here…" Aizawa drawled even though his tone didn't allude to him being pleased at all. "I was just telling Midoriya about the restrictions placed on his return to classes since someone didn't get around to it yet."
The blonde's guilt was palpable, his bloody cough obviously more of a deflection than an actual need to clear his airway of the crimson fluid. "Er—right, so, young Midoriya… Recovery Girl believes it would be best for you to simply observe for the time being… you know, let your body heal a bit more before pushing it to the maximum as you have a tendency to do! Besides, you're still taking your suppression medication, aren't you?"
"There it is again…this feeling…" Midoriya thought once his mind returned from an almost blank despondency. "I understand what he's saying but it makes me so… so…"
"R-right!" he responded, forcing a smile despite losing the battle against tearing up. "I'll just— I can just watch from the observing room…"
Midoriya could hear the start of something dying in All Might's throat as he turned and began walking to his chair, his chest searing with more disappointment and scorn than he thought he could fathom. The whispers from his classmates as he weaved through the desks made his heart hurt even more so, head barely managing to stay up with the shame he felt.
"Y-you, um…"
Midoriya raised his downcast eyes when he heard Todoroki's timid voice, a whisper in the back of his mind wondering if he'd ever heard the teen sound so nervous before. He could see Bakugo's head turned ever so slightly over his shoulder, covertly listening and watching through his peripheral as Todoroki squirmed some.
Midoriya twisted in his chair after mentally confirming that Bakugo was entirely too invested in whatever it was Todoroki was trying to say, giving the dual user his attention even though a growing part of him didn't think he should.
"You can come train at my home—if you want to, that is." Todoroki finally managed, keeping his voice low so that Aizawa wouldn't overhear. He held his breath slightly, mismatched eyes flickering between his desk and the back of Bakugo's head several times before finally meeting Midoriya's.
There had been many expressions in those beautiful, almost constantly teary orbs before, but this time, Todoroki was met with utter emptiness. Everything about Midoriya's face was blank for several heart-pounding moments.
"I… I can't, but thanks anyway, Shoto. All Might's right, I can't really do anything until I stop taking my medicine." He eventually responded in a low mumble. "I can't do anything anymore… I really am broken…"
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Ah yes, we're getting into the next stage of the cycle: ANGER.
I think we can all agree that sometimes the people who almost never truly get angry can probably end up being the ones that REALLY get angry when it finally happens so, get ready readers.
Leave me a comment! I love to hear what you all are thinking while reading my works!