When I next woke I was staring up at a white ceiling through heavy eyes. My head felt heavy, and I turned my head to look around. I was in a bed. To my right was a white bedside table and a window with its curtains drawn. Turning my head the other way slowly I saw another matching white bedside with a lamb and some other items on it. On the wall was two doors, one led to a bathroom, the other looked to be a wardrobe.

"Oh, you're awake?" came a cheerful voice and I tried to sit up, the covers slipping off before a hand touched my bare chest and pushed me back down. I was too sore and tried to resist. Her face appeared over me. Pale with freckles over her nose. Her hair was black and straight and cut above her shoulders, her eyes a deep blue and her smile was warm.

"Don't sit up yet" she told me with a smile before she pulled away and I turned my head to follow her as she went into the bathroom. She left the door open, and she squatted down to open up the door to her washing machine and pulled the damp clothes out and shoved them into the drier and turned it on. My mind still felt heavy and clouded and it only just dawned on my that she had touched my bare chest, which meant my clothes were gone. I didn't have the energy to lift my head or blanket to look but using my hand for a quick feel I felt I was still wearing underwear at least, though, they felt big on me.

"Are you hungry?" she asked as she came back to the bedside. I just looked up at her with heavy feverish eyes. I didn't feel hungry, but I knew I hadn't eaten. My stomach answered her with a growl and her smile grew, flashing white teeth.
"I'm already making something. It won't be long now" she told me and leaned forward again to touch my head. Her smile faded to a crooked frown before she left for the bathroom again, this time coming back with a damp hand towel and puting it across my forehead and then disappeared out of my sight. She didn't walk away. She was just gone. I closed my eyes. Maybe I was losing it from the fever.

She woke me up, I don't know how much later, with a bowl in her hand and another warm smile. She put the bowl down and collected up the pillows on the bed to pile together and helped shift me up to lean against them. It hurt, but I bared it in silence. My head felt heavy, and it was a struggle to not let it fall forward. A battle I was losing. She leaned past me and adjusted the pillows, a gentle hand titling my head back to rest against the top pillow comfortably. Moving left my chest bare and I shivered. I had been sweating and now the air made me feel cold.

She had made soup and offered it to me. When I only looked at it, she smiled warmly, and she held the spoon to my lips. Somewhere under all the fog in my head I felt foolish and thought I should have been embarrassed, but part of me also felt warm and comforted despite my situation. I accepted what she made, and she never stopped smiling warmly. Her eyes seemed to sparkle from it.

After that she pulled back the covers and I shivered against the sudden chill. My leg had been bandaged and she left the room. She reappeared in the kitchen and reached for something on the counter. I took in the rest of the room. At the end of the double bed there was a space wide enough to walk through to reach the other side of the bed. The back of a grey two seater couch faced the end of the bed with a coffee table and tv across from it and a floor lamp and second window on its right. Off to the left was a small kitchen with an island bench and stools separating it from the living space and it branched off onto what I assumed was the entry way.

An instant later she was back beside the bed and perched herself on it beside my thigh. She carefully reached out to it, which was fine, but then she gently tried to bend my knee and I closed my eyes against the pain but let her do it. When I opened my eyes again she shot me an apologetic look with a small smile and then started to unwrap the bandages. What was underneath made me nauseous. It looked moist and discolored and angry, and it smelt, but she had no reaction to it. The burn took up the left half of my thigh, stretching from above my knee to my upper thigh.

She looked it over without touching it and then reached into the bag she had brough back with her. She drew out some gauze before shooting another apologetic look then dabbed at the burn, trying to remove the excess moisture that I took to be puss. I hissed between my teeth and closed my eyes together, turning my head away and clenching my fists at the pain, but she worked on unfazed. She pulled out some kind of ointment or cream next because once she was done with that she gently spread something wet over the burn and although the touch hurt enough to make me struggle to not flinch away, the cream was cold and soothing and as soon as she wasn't touching me anymore it felt better. She placed fresh gauze over it lightly and wrapped it in fresh bandage. I opened my eyes again to watch as she got off of the bed and came around to the other side

She repeated a similar process on my upper right arm where the bullet had grazed me and replaced the bandages there too. Any other minor injuries I had sustained from the glass would have scabbed over long before she found me, and she didn't bother with any of them.

"You're lucky I know some first aid," she spoke up with a warm smile as she packed away her items, "though a hospital could help you more than I can" she looked up at me with her deep blue eyes and I found it hard to believe that she could be happy about some stranger in her home. In her….bed? And where were my clothes. I gazed around slowly, but I didn't see anything.

"Your clothes are in the drier," she spoke up as she got up from the bed, "I hope you don't mind but I had to take them off to clean and I gave you a bath too. You probably don't remember that though. You were pretty out of it yesterday" despite how exhausted I felt, I felt my face grow hotter, if she noticed, she didn't point it out.
"Your shorts are ruined though. Luckily I had some of my brothers old clothes round. You can thank him for the underwear" she shot me a wide smile and I didn't think my face could get any hotter. I must have dozed off again because I didn't remember anything after that.

I woke again to the sound of a door closing and lifted my head. I had fallen asleep against the mound of pillows, so I was still sitting up slightly, but the blanket had been lifted and tucked in at my shoulders. The place was dark except for a light being flicked on in the kitchen. I saw the young woman walk in carrying shopping bags and dumping them on the counter. Her head was tilted to her shoulder as she spoke into a phone.

"Can you just tell her I won't be in for a few days?" she spoke, "personal reasons," she answered some unknown question, "Thank you. I'll make it up to you. Thanks again" she hung up with a sigh and put the phone down on the bench before she looked my way and when she saw my eyes were open she broke into a smile and came my way.

"You're awake again?" she beamed, "Good. What would you like for dinner?" I only looked at her with my brow creased with confusion. How was she so happy about this.
"Did you want soup again?" she asked, her smile dropping a little as she thought, "you haven't talked at all. Is your throat sore?" I still looked to her with skeptical confusion, but I bobbed my head at her and her smile came back.

"That's fine, I'll make soup then. I got you some medicine too." she moved back the kitchen and I closed my eyes with a heavy sigh. My fever felt less sever and I dozed off to her humming away as she cooked.

She woke me when she was done and fed me again which I still felt embarrassed about, but my arms still felt heavy by my sides. After that I needed the toilet, and I didn't know how to bring that up and I didn't want to bother her with it so while she was in the kitchen cleaning and singing quietly to herself I tried to swing my legs off the bed which wasn't as easy as I had hoped. I managed to get into a position of sitting on the edge of the bed. My body shivered without the covers and the effort of moving had already left me panting and my arms on either side of me felt like the only thing keeping me upright.

I glared across to the bathroom door way, but I feared the pain I would feel putting weigh on my left leg and I sat there for a long while trying to steel myself to make the move when in the blink of an eye, the woman was in front of me, blocking the view of the bathroom door. I didn't have the energy to be shocked or flinch, my head was starting to swim again already from being upright, but she didn't scold me.

"You need the bathroom?" she asked, "you should have just said" she stopped to correct herself, "we'll figure out a system for that. Here" she offered both her hands to me, and I just stared at them blankly.
"I wont stand there and watch you go," I looked up to see her rolling her eyes at me, "at least let me help get you there and back" she said, and I reached one shaky hand forward to take hers. I would have given her both if I didn't need it to stay upright and once she had a firm grip on one, I lifted the other. She helped pull me up to stand and I leaned on her to keep the weight off of my leg. She shifted herself to be on my left with an arm around me, so my left leg didn't have to touch the ground and all but holding it up took effort and made it hurt, so I let it half drag behind us as she walked me to the bathroom. It was a miracle the loose underwear didn't fall down.

She led me past the washing machine and drier to the toilet that was beside the sink and lifted the seat with her foot before turning me to sit down on it.

"I'm sure you can mange to get your own underwear off," she smirked down at me, "can you make noise at least if you need me?" she asked more seriously. I didn't know how loud of a noise I could manage with my throat, but at worst I could smack something, so I nodded, and she smiled and left, sliding the bathroom door closed behind her. It was a struggle, but I managed, and the sink was close enough that I could wash my hands without having to stand, although twisting my body to do so made my arm protest. I didn't want to use my damaged throat yet, so I smacked a hand against the sink and the woman reappeared to help me back to the bed.

Once I was back in it sitting up and she had pulled the covers up on me again she sat on the edge to my left and smiled.

"Just so you know, since you'll be here a while, my names Miko Saramura but you can just call me Miko" she beamed, "I'm nineteen and this is my place," she gestured to the room around us, "but it's just me here, and well, you too now I guess. Can you talk at all?" she asked, looking to me expectantly. I raised a shaky hand to my throat in reply and shook my head.
"Can you write?" she asked, and I nodded, and she disappeared only to come back with a notebook and pen in hand. She handed them to me with a smile.
"Tell me about yourself" she asked, and I took the items tentatively and stared down at them. I scribbled down some stuff for her, though my hand writing was shakier and messier than normal.

I'm Izuku.
I'm seventeen.
My throat is still recovering from an injury, so I can't talk yet.

I knew the police knew about me and I didn't want her getting dragged into any kind of trouble for helping me, so I left out my family name.

"You in some kind of trouble?" she asked with a more serious expression, though her eyes were curious and concerned, "is there a reason you didn't want to go to the hospital?" I lowered my eyes and nodded.

"You don't want to talk about it?" she asked, and I nodded again, and she sighed.

"Well, that's fine" she smiled brightly again, "as long as you're not some nasty pervert" she laughed, and I cringed. I wasn't but if the police knew about me up here, maybe there had been something on the news about me. I doubted it, since the school would want to keep things as private as possible, but I hadn't been watching so I couldn't know for sure.

"Something bad happen?" she asked, her smile fading and her blue eyes flooding with concern again, "you were crying when I first brought you here" her expression was warm and comforting.

Yes. Something bad had happened. My mum had been killed and I had tried to keep it from my mind as much as possible. In the state I was in at the moment, I knew dwelling on it would hurt too much when I couldn't get up and do anything about it like hunt down my brother, but I felt guilty trying to keep her from my mind. I turned my head away from Miko and she sighed, but it was with understanding.

"You lost someone" she guessed gently, and I clenched my jaw. My eyes were growing wet despite myself, "I lost someone too recently" she spoke up and I lifted my face slowly and looked back to her. For the first time since meeting her, her eyes looked sad, but she still wore a small warm smile and she looked down at the covers.

"You should rest" she said, perking up again and got up. She left the notebook and pen with me and shifted the pillows around for me to lay down. She turned off all the lights except the floor lamp by the couch which gave off a soft warm yellow light and settled on the couch with a laptop. She looked content and I went back to looking up at the ceiling until sleep took me.

My fever got worse. I don't know how many days passed under its weight. I don't recall much. Cold clothes on my forehead, medicine, soup, shivers, sweating, cold, hot, panting, a bath, Miko humming, nightmares, bandages being unwrapped then wrapped again. Days passed in a haze until it broke and finally my body didn't feel so heavy anymore. My body still ached and keeping my eyes open were an effort, but I finally felt my head clear and like I was properly awake again.

Miko greeted me with her usual warm bright smile when I woke as she was busy fixing her hair. She had taken days off of work to take care of me and was finally having to go back. She plucked the hair tie from between her teeth and pulled back her short hair, tying it back.

"I'll be back later tonight," she announced as she walked around the apartment, gathering her things and sticking them in a bag, "there's food in the fridge and I got you a toothbrush in the bathroom, I've put some pain killers and a bottle of water on the bedside, oh and these" she came back and bent down to retrieve something from the floor beside the bed, lifting them up to show me. Crutches.

"So you can get around on your own" she smiled brightly and propped them up against the wall by the bedside table, "ah, I also got this for you," she picked up an item from the bedside and waved it at me as I lay on in the bed still. It was a mobile phone, "so if you need to text me, you can" she put it back down and I shook my head at her. Her smile softened.

"It's alright. I didn't buy it for you. I already had it lying around. There's no passcode on it anymore and my numbers already in there" she leaned forward, touching a hand to my head. She continued to smile, but her eyes looked pained.
"I'll see you later" she beamed and went to leave, and I was left alone in a strangers apartment in a strange city. I leaned my head back and sighed. She was nice and I appreciated everything she had done for me so far, but I struggled to understand why she was so welcoming to a stranger off the street.

There wasn't an awful lot to do without her around, or even with her around too. I spent most of the hours sleeping and used the crutches once to go the toilet. It was a struggle, but it felt good to be somewhat independent again. I briefly recalled water when I had been at the height of my fever and it felt like I must have bathed or had a shower at some point, which meant Miko would have helped, a thought that made me scrunch up my face with embarrassment, but luckily, I didn't remember it. I longed for a long hot bath right about now, but if I got stuck there…that would be embarrassing too.

I still didn't feel up for eating so I tried to distract myself from thinking of horrible memories by formulating a list of question for Miko that I wrote down on the notebook she had left beside the bed for me.

What do you do for work?

How did you know how to take care of me?

Why did you listen to me about not calling an ambulance?

Why did you bring me here?

Did you buy those crutches just for me?

Aren't you uncomfortable having a stranger in your house?

Where have you been sleeping if I'm in the bed?
Please let me move to the couch so you can have your bed back.

Why don't you ever push me for answers?

How are you so trusting?

How can you smile so much with me around?

Do you have any family?

You said you lost someone too

I didn't finish the last one. I felt my own pain and grief swell up inside me and overwhelm me and I cried for so long, the page of the notebook curling up around its's edges and warping from the amount of tears that fell on it. I tore out the page and scrunched it up before putting it back on the bedside and writing something else.

Thank you for everything you've done for me, but I can't stay.

I felt exhausted from crying and put the notebook and pencil back on the bedside and laid back down to sleep some more.

I felt fingers brush through my hair, pushing it away from my forehead and I felt like a child again with my head resting on my mums lap while we watched tv and I would doze off while she played with my hair. I almost felt myself smile when it died away. My mum was dead. She would never touch my hair again. I would never hug her again. I wanted to see her again, but when I tried to picture her, I only saw her beaten discolored face. Dead.

My eyes shot open and Miko's hand pulled away. I blinked tears away and lifted my eyes to her as she perched on the edge of the bed. She smiled down to me warmly, her deep blue eyes sad.

"Bad dream?" she asked, and I moved to sit up. She held her hands out to support me if needed, but I managed. My arm and leg still protested, but it was easier than before now that my fever had lifted. I didn't look to her, and I didn't answer.

"I already had them by the way," she spoke again, "the crutches" she added, and I realized she had read my screwed up note. I didn't feel awake enough to feel embarrassed about that. I saw the crumpled paper in her hands as she looked down at it, still smiling gently.

"To answer your other questions," she waved the paper my way and her smile grew as she faced me, "I work as a vet nurse, so I know some stuff, but a lot of the knowledge came from my brother too. He was learning to be an actual nurse, so I used to red a lot of his text books when he left them laying around" she laughed through her nose at the memory.

"As for everything else," she lowered the paper, "your last name is Midoriya, right?" my eyes grew a little wider and my breath caught, but after staring at her for a second longer I bobbed my head. Her warm smile grew.
"I already knew who you were before you told me," she admitted, "you've been on the news," she explained, "they've said some pretty terrible things about you, you know" her eyes didn't meet mine, "and I know about your mum too. I'm sorry" her gaze lifted to mine apologetically and then dropped again.

"I don't believe it though, the things they've been saying about you. I mean, look at you" she almost laughed, but not in a mocking way, "I just can't see it. And the injuries you have, well, I couldn't just leave you there like that" her gaze was warm, and she looked to me like she was asking for forgiveness for keeping it all from me, but there was nothing to forgive. I hung my head with a long breath and then lifted my gaze to meet hers again. I offered her my own small gentle smile and shook my head at her. Her smile grew, spreading to her eyes.

"And if your were like that," she waved a fist at me playfully, "I can defend myself" she beamed. I could feel my own smile reach my eyes for the first time in a what felt like a long time.

"Your other questions, my brother, you kind of remind me of him," her smile grew more shy, "I guess that's why I felt safe enough to bring you here and why I like having you around" she lowered her gaze again like she was embarrassed before flicking them back to me. I didn't exactly know what to do with that information, but I smiled back to her, and she got up, asking me what I wanted for dinner, but she was already walking to the kitchen before I could write anything down, not that I had any requests anyway. She was caring for me and I wouldn't dare complain about anything she made. I just smiled to myself while she hummed away in the kitchen.

Day to day life with Miko became a routine. She would get up in the morning, get ready for work, make omelets for breakfast (she would put one aside for me in the fridge if I didn't wake in time) and make sure everything I may need was within arms reach before she left for the day.

I would spend most of my time alone catching up on sleep or hum to myself to try to strengthen my throat again. When I felt up for it I would pace around the apartment on the crutches, gently starting to put weight on my left leg again. It would hurt a lot, but I tried to bear with it for small periods at a time and by the time I got back to the bed I would be panting from the pain and effort. I could manage to bath and shower on my own, but I would do my best to keep my left leg out of the way, the hot water making it burn again and it was a painful hassle to dry afterwards. I could clean it and apply the cream and rewrap it all on my own, but it was still gruesome to look at and painful to touch and move. The wound on my arm was fairing much better and had scabbed over nicely, no doubt it would leave a scar too.

When I got really bored I would pick through the few books Miko had in the TV unit. It was an ordeal to get down to read the spines and once I was down I would stay there, laying on the floor as I read the backs of them till I found something worth reading and would begin the ordeal of getting back up and taking it back to the couch or bed to read and I would try to read sections out loud to work my throat again, but no words came out, only rasping sounds.

I felt guilty for using Miko's bed and much to my surprise (when I was no longer so feverish to not notice) that she had been sleeping on the other side of the bed since day one. When I had first realized I had written many notes saying that I would take the couch, but she politely refused and one night when I had waited for her to fall asleep and sneakily moved myself, very painfully and slowly, to the couch, I had woken to find her asleep leaning against it. After that I didn't bother moving myself again. She never touched me while we slept, always keeping an adequate distance between us, but it was a comfort to know that when I woke from a nightmare, that she was there, and I guessed that was part of her reasoning behind it. I had nightmares most nights.

When Miko returned from work, she would ask me about my day, scold me for not eating lunch and sometimes breakfast too, she would listen to music in the shower and hummed along and make something for dinner and would always make me eat it. I wouldn't have to ask her about how her day way as she would give me a full report on it while she helped exercise my leg, which consisted of my lying flat on my back and her bending, moving and pushing against my left leg. It was painful enough to bring tears to my eyes, but she reminded me often how important it was for the skin to not be so tight from lack of use when it healed, especially if I was still going to be a hero, or so she said.

After how my name had been dragged through the dirt (I had googled myself) I didn't know how I could go back to trying to become a hero. My only hope would be to catch my brother and have him admit to everything. Catching him would be one thing. Making him confess to the police was another. Not to mention the burning hatred I felt for him inside. If I caught him, I would probably snap his neck. That thought alone was enough to tell me that even if my leg were fine, I wasn't ready to go after him. If I did kill him. I could never clear my name.

Miko had a day off of work and left me with a sandwich before she headed out for a bit. I glared at the food after she left. I just didn't feel as hungry these days and eating started to feel like a chore, but by leaving the plate of food beside me, I knew she expected it gone by the time she got back or I would be in for another scolding, or maybe this time she'd shove it down my throat. Me not eating and bringing up sleeping on the couch so far were the only things that seemed to annoy her so with a heavy sigh I took my first bite. It was delicious and fresh, but food these days just didn't seem to sit right with me and swallowing still wasn't the most comfortable thing, though it hurt far less than trying to talk did.

When Miko returned she was in front of the couch where I had moved myself to with a book in an instant with bags in her hand and an excited smile. My brows creased at her with concern. My guess, she had just bought me something that would only make me feel more guilty for being here.

As much as I knew that I couldn't stay here for risk of endangering her, I also couldn't leave until I could put weight on my leg so every time she went out of her way to do something for me, I felt bad for it.

She deposited the bag beside me on the couch and stepped back with a pleased grin, waiting for me to look inside. I gave her one last frown before she waved my concerns away and pointed to the bag and I riffled through it, pulling out items of clothing.

Since my fever broke, she had offered my old shirt back along with pants and shirts and underwear and socks that her brother had left behind. It was all a size too big for me, underwear included, but I made do with a belt and since I never left the apartment, it didn't really matter much. I had pretty much accepted at this point that Miko had seen me naked more than once. A thought I tried to steer away from every time it came to mind.

Inside the bag was underwear and shirts and pants and more, all in my size and as much as I appreciated it I looked back up to her with a sincere but concerned expression. I didn't want her spending money on me. She laughed away my look.

"Don't be like that" she waved a hand at me with a bright smile that made her blue eyes disappear, "I got them second hand, so technically I'm recycling, and they didn't cost much at all, so no frowning allowed" she pointed at me firmly, "oh, except the underwear. They're new" I let out a sigh and finally smiled to her with appreciation and hoped it conveyed my thanks. She returned the smile before her eyes drifted to the empty plate on the coffee table and she stepped forward to pick it up, bringing a hand over to ruffle my hair and shot me a mocking 'good boy'. My smile dropped and I frowned at her again which only made her laugh as she walked away.

"I got you this too" she called from the kitchen and threw something small my way. Despite my leg being injured, the rest of my reflexes were fine and even though she didn't throw straight, I caught it easily by shooting my right arm out to catch it. The bullet wound barely hurt now. I brought the little plastic container to my face to read it. It was some kind of medicine. What it did, I wasn't sure, but I knew from the sound of it that it contained pills. I looked over to her.

"Their steroids" I frowned at her, "not like that," she waved a hand dismissively at me again, "their for your throat. It will help with the pain heaps and make it easier for you to practice talking again. The more you talk, the faster you'll get the hang of it again" she beamed over at me before turning to rummage through the fridge to start making our next meal. I tilted my head back to stare up at the ceiling as Miko started humming away to herself while she worked.

I appreciated Miko, I really did, and as happy as she seemed to have me here, I would have to leave soon. Whenever she wasn't around I tried to spend more and more time putting weight on my leg and stretching it. The sooner it got better, the sooner I could leave and Miko would be safe from anyone who came looking for me. I didn't want her getting caught up in my mess.

A/N: Apologies in advance! As of tomorrow I am back to work as usual after my wonderful week off (I miss it already) so I may only be posting a chapter or two per week now so I'm very sorry for those hanging out for more. More will come!