Song: Gravity - EDEN
Weeks passed and I made good progress. I no longer needed crutches to get around which was good. My leg still ached when I used it without stretching first or if I used it too much but each day I could stand on it a little longer. My voice too was coming back stronger. I had since run out of the steroid pills Miko had gotten me and they had really helped to wipe away the pain and allowing me to talk again and strengthen my throat. Now I could talk almost normally again, though I did my best to keep my words limited and answers short as using my voice too much did start to make my throat sore at the end of the day but just like my leg, I was noticing the improvement every day.
While my progress made me feel almost whole again in a sense and independent, it made Miko unhappy. She would encourage me while I stretched and practiced, but from time to time I would catch a sad expression on her face as she watched me move about again and I felt an ache in my chest when ever she looked at me like that. It was almost time for me to leave and we both knew it.
The time I had left living with Miko was coming to an end and I wanted to be able to repay her in some way for her kindness, but I was still confined to the apartment so there wasn't much I could do for her which was frustrating so I did as much for her around the apartment as I could. I tidied and cleaned and cooked when there was enough ingredients lying around. I would do the laundry too and at first it had felt so weird and wrong to be handling a woman's underwear, but after a few red faces, I got over it. Hard to keep being flustered by those kinds of things when I saw them every day. Miko had a horrible habit of leaving her discarded clothes on the bathroom floor so I had come across more woman's underwear than I could throw a stick at and these days I just grumbled at her while I picked it all up and put everything in the wash basket. More than once she had also walked around the apartment in nothing more than her underwear which had caused a minor panic, but now I just threw a towel at her with annoyance. It was what I imagined living with an older sister was like and there was something kind of warming about that.
"Watcha thinking about?" she asked me with a smile as she leaned against the kitchen counter while I used the stove top. I had gotten carried away with my own thoughts and paused in my stirring.
"I," I hesitated for a moment but pushed myself on, "I think it's time for me to leave" I replied to her, focusing all my attention to the contents of the pot. I didn't want to see the hurt on her face.
"You don't have to" she responded in a whisper after a moment had passed. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
"I can't stay," I told her calmly, "the longer I'm here the more danger I'm putting you in," I finally turned my face to her, and I could see my own sad expression reflected in her own. I turned the stove off.
"I've already stayed too long" considering how hard I was being pursued before Miko found me I was still surprised that no one had discovered me here, but I suppose I had never stepped outside and Miko didn't open the curtains at all, and Miko's quirk would have played a large part in that. Her quirk would be the only way she could have moved me without being seen or tracked on cameras. I stopped stirring the pot and put the wooden spoon down over it.
I was trying to steel myself while her blue eyes shimmered with tears and her lips trembled. I felt terrible for making her so sad and I could feel my own eyes growing wet just looking at her.
"When?" she asked in a whisper.
"Tonight" I whispered back. I had no reason to whisper, but to say it any louder felt too painful. At my answer she pushed off of the counter and disappeared. From behind me I heard the front door slam closed a moment later and I let my shoulders drop and I wiped away my tears before they could fall. I was doing the right thing, no matter how much it hurt, I had to leave for her sake. Miko had taken such good care of me, and I felt genuinely welcome living with her for the past month and a half.
I poured the stew I had made into a container to put in the fridge and busied myself by gathering the few items I had around her apartment which only consisted of clothes and the toothbrush, even her hairbrush we had shared so aside from those few items I had nothing else to carry and I packed them away into a paper shopping bag and placed it by the door. The idea of leaving without saying a proper farewell created a heavy feeling in my stomach so I turned back and sat on the edge of her bed and picked up the pencil and notebook that still lived there, flicking through all of the pages I had written on when I hadn't be able to talk and started to write out a note to her. In the note I thanked her for all she had done for me and told her I wouldn't forget her and that I would miss her and I could feel myself tearing up again just writing the words and I had to stop and try to make myself strong again, reminding myself that I was leaving to protect her.
I heard the gentle click of the front door opening and I threw the notebook and pencil to the bed beside me and stood, my heart racing with a different kind of fear. I was afraid to face her. Afraid of seeing her hurt again. I had lingered because I had decided half way through writing that leaving a note just didn't feel like enough and I had procrastinated with my writing because I hoped to see her again, to say goodbye properly but now that I was faced with it, I was scared.
Miko came around the corner and her blue eyes locked to mine. She was carrying a backpack by her side and tossed it my way. I caught it with surprise and slowly dropped it on the bed beside me and looked back to her. I could see she was holding back tears and I opened and closed my mouth a few times while I tried to find the words.
"You can leave if you really want to!" Miko spoke up first, her voice raised as her tears broke free. She glared at me like she was furious at me for hurting her, but her lips shook, and her eyes cried, and it took the effect away, but it hurt all the same.
"And you can run if you feel you have to!" she closed her eyes, her hands fists at her sides as she leaned her face forward. She didn't lift her head to look at me and I turned my own face away, irritated by the familiar wetness in my eyes again and I tried to blink the tears away.
"Why do you have to leave at all?" she asked in a whisper, and I lifted my eyes to her again to find her already looking to me with a sad expression.
"I don't want to risk-" I began
"Shouldn't I get a say in that!" she spat back with emotion, I blanched, "why is it that you just get to decide to leave my life like your time here was nothing?" despite her yelling, her anger, she was crying as she glared at me, demanding an answer.
"It's not nothing" I answered, my own voice rising a pitch. I didn't want her thinking that.
"Then what?" she cried back.
"I want to keep you safe!" my voice rose in desperation for her to understand.
"And leaving's the only way to do that?" she shot back with a determined wet face.
"Yes!" I yelled back to her the moment she had asked the question. She sniffled and stared at me for a long time. My throat protested from the outburst.
"You're an idiot" she hissed back, and I couldn't think of anything to say to that as I still wrestled with my own tears, "You're a hero aren't you," she spoke up quietly, "so why are you running?" I took a deep breath to calm myself again.
"I'm not running" I replied much calmer and quieter than before.
"Then why are you leaving?" she asked, and I closed my eyes. It felt like the conversation, or argument which was starting to feel more accurate, had gone full circle.
"I don't want someone hurting you because of me" I replied softly.
"There's more ways of protecting someone than just running away" she responded, and I opened my eyes again to face her.
"I'm not some useless girl who can't take care of herself" she sniffed with a small pout. If it were Kacchan, I could almost hear him daring Miko to come at him, to prove she wasn't useless, to challenge her but this exchange had drained me, and my throat was starting to ache more with the familiar tightness of holding back tears and yelling, and I didn't want to argue or hurt her anymore because doing so hurt me too. In such a small amount of time, being with her every day, she had quickly grown to be someone important to me and I knew she felt the same.
"What do you want me to do Miko?" I asked with a lower voice, letting my exhaustion through.
"I want you to stay" I shook my head, "then let me come with you" I sighed with a small smile but shook my head again. I wasn't going to let her drop her life just because she didn't want to let me go. I would never be that selfish.
"Then teach me to fight and defend myself" she spoke up with more certainty and determination and when I looked into her blue eyes there was a fire burning there, "make it so I could be a hero too. Make me strong like you," she stepped closer, "show me how to be strong enough that you don't have to worry about me anymore" she stepped closer as she spoke till she was face to face with me where she was only a centimeter taller than my current height. In less than a year I would most likely be taller than her. Miko stared into my eyes with a determined glare while I still tried to catch up with everything she had just said.
"What?" I breathed quietly and she stood straighter, making that extra centimeter work hard.
"Teach me to defend myself then. I already know how to get out of a bad situation so teach me how to defend myself if I can't. Then you can't use that lame excuse anymore" she glared down at me.
"It's not that simple" I sputtered out.
"Why, because your leg still isn't all better?" she shot back fiercely, "I know it still bothers you, so why would it be any better out there" I frowned back at her.
"What are you even going to do if you leave Izuku?" she pushed, "What's your plan? You gonna run back to your school? You gonna go after the bad people? What?"
"I don't know yet!" I shot back; I lowered my eyes. I couldn't match her anymore, "I haven't figured that out yet" I added quietly.
"Then why leave now?" she asked more gently, "Stay and we can figure this out together" I lifted my gaze to hers again, "Train me and we can both get stronger together. If some bad guys come, I'll get us out of trouble. We can protect each other. Or does the idea of leaving me not hurt you?" she asked sadly.
But the truth was that it did hurt. The thought of leaving her created a chasm in my stomach and made me feel like breathing was suddenly hard to do. Miko had filled a void in me that I hadn't known had been there all these years. A void I had pushed away and buried. I had tried to fill that hole with my mum's affection and love and later years, with the comfort of friends, but I had lost all of that and the void inside me felt like it was going to swallow me without Miko to fill it and keep me whole. To me her apartment felt like a home, and she felt like the family I lacked. She was pushy and caring and irritating at times, but underneath it all was a warmth that made me feel complete.
"Alright" I replied and dared to give her a small smile, but the moment the word left my lips she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly and I lifted my arms to embrace her back. She pulled away, wiping away her tears and smiled and in her eyes I could see how happy she was in that moment, and I felt a tension inside me melt away too.
Miko pushed me back towards the backpack on the bed, her eyes letting me know how eager she was for me to open it up. I gave her a skeptical look over my shoulder and she waved me on. She knew well by now how I felt about her buying me things. I had thought she had thrown the bag at me as part of an angry farewell but when I reached inside I felt several items and pulled them all out.
A toothbrush travel case.
Black hair dye.
Black framed glasses.
A wallet.
And black compression sleeves of various sizes.
I looked back at her and she smiled warmly. She had offered it as a farewell gift in the worst case that I wouldn't stay and finally my own teary dam broke, and I ended up crying at the items she had brought me. I was reminded again of how much she cared for me and how much she meant to me.
With all of the sadness and tension gone the night very quickly melted back into a normal evening. Miko reheated the stew for us to have and I tried on the compression sleeves on my old burn on my right arm and the new larger one on my left thigh. The arm sleeve covered from the top of my upper arm to above my elbow much like my old one I wore at school and the thigh one stopped just below my knee. It was a relief to have them on, especially if Miko expected me to train and exercise with her and I figured that's where the other items came into play.
After dinner Miko excitedly insisted on doing my hair right then and there and I let her. She cut my hair back to under two inches long, yet it maintained its messy nature and she dyed it black, rubbing at my scalp a bit too enthusiastically while she massaged in the dye and later rinsed it out of my hair and eyebrows. I grumbled and complained at her, but she took no mind of my complaining with a smile. For extra measure she added black tint to my eyelashes which was an experience that kept me flinching every time she brought that stick near my eye, and she laughed as me constant blinking made a mess.
Despite it all I fell asleep that night feeling more whole than I had any of the days before. It was the first night she had slept close enough beside me to be touching.
The next day she was off of work and excitably told me about a gym a couple blocks away that she wanted me to train her at as she had heard that it had an area for boxing and sparring on top of the usual gym equipment. I looked at her skeptically through the reflection in the bathroom mirror. I wasn't feeling super confident about my new look hiding who I was. She must have read my frown like an open book because she ducked out of the room and came back with the glasses and wallet. She slipped the glasses over my face and as I blinked into my reflection I could only imagine Kacchan laughing at how extra nerdy I looked. She opened the wallet and handed it to me to look inside to find an ID card inside.
The person in the photo looked so much like I did right now that I glanced up to the mirror and back again. The only difference I could see was the person in the photo had slightly longer, straighter hair and if I looked real close, blue eyes. The young man in the photo had freckles across his nose and cheeks like Miko and myself and wore similar glasses to the ones sitting on my nose now. The name on the card read Izuki Saramura. I turned to face Miko properly this time rather than through the mirror and looked at her for an explanation.
"It's my brother's" she said with a soft smile, "I just had the name and year of birth changed by someone who can make IDs" she said almost shyly, and I glanced down at the photo on the ID again. I could defiantly see the family resemblance.
"Izuki?" I asked gently and her smile warmed.
"I figured it was similar enough to your actual name that you'd still respond automatically if I called it out," her smile widened, pleased with her handy work, "look, you spell it like this, with the kanji for fountain and bright. Seemed fitting for you" she beamed, and it was infectious, and I couldn't help but to smile back.
"What's your brothers actual name?" I asked out of curiosity.
"Akio" she replied brightly and turned to leave the bathroom and I smiled warmly to myself. Her brothers name meant bright.
I had already put on my compression sleeves and was dressed, and I followed Miko out of the apartment for the first time. My first time outside for over a month and a half. Miko had never been one to open the curtains in her place and I hadn't either, but I had peeked out more than once to at least get my bearings.
Miko lived in a city, which one, I didn't know, but most of the buildings surrounding hers were also multistory apartment complexes with stores at street level. I followed her out of the front door and into an open walkway and down four flights of stairs to the street below. By the time we were down there I already had to stop and rest. Walking on level ground was one thing, but so many steps was something my tight scarred leg was no longer used to, even after doing my stretches. Miko was understanding and patient enough to give me a few minutes before she helped me back to my feet with a happy smile and led the way down the street some more to the gym she wanted to visit.
We both signed up for memberships and Miko paid the fees for both of us, giving me another stab of guilt, and in we went. I had been nervous using the fake ID with Akio's picture, but the clerk paid no mind of it and waved us in. Only once inside did I realize how sloppy and unprepared I had been coming here. No towel. No water bottle. I frowned to myself.
"Don't worry about it," chimed Miko, "we won't get that hard into it yet anyway. I think you need to master stairs again first before you start showing me how to punch and kick" she shot me an amused smirk and I pushed against her with my shoulder, making her snicker. She had been right though. Those steps had really defeated me, and I cursed them internally. I would conquer those stairs. I had felt like I was close to my old self back on my leg in the apartment, but it turned out I was far from it. For the hour we were there I just showed Miko some basic stances and tips, correcting her position and how she held her fists when I needed to, and she followed my lead on some basic arm work since my leg wasn't ready for anything strenuous yet. After the hour was done I felt more exhausted than Miko looked, and it was infuriating how far back I had gone being inside for so long, but it gave me a renewed sense of determination to get back to where I was before.
Miko went back to work for the rest for the week and I continued working around the apartment, strengthening my throat by listening to music on Akio's old phone and trying to sing along while I worked and made an effort to conquer those flights of stairs. At first I my leg would be aching, and I would be sweating after making it down but eventually that stretched out till only happening after I had made it back up and after a week I could make it up and down easily and was only working on picking up the pace slowly. After three weeks I could run up and down them like nothing was ever wrong with my leg which left me feeling pleased at my progress. I went to the gym most mornings after Miko went to work to work on the rest of my body some more and would return in the evenings with Miko to train her more in self-defense which she was passionate about.
We started to take turns cooking meals and she would send me on errands like grocery shopping to keep me busy through the day. Miko brought back some medical books on muscles from the library for me to read through to better understand the damage to my thigh because although I could move almost like normal, sometimes a wrong move could send me to the ground or make me freeze up. Unfortunately the damage at this point was most likely permanent without surgery so it was something I would have to learn to live with like my limited arms when it came to using One For All.
As far as quirks went, Miko understood mine to be a strength enhancing quirk which I didn't correct her one and hers was a teleportation quirk which I had known from the beginning judging from how she disappeared and reappeared through the apartment, but there were limitations to it. Miko could only teleport herself as long as she could see where she was going. If she was in a room without windows, her quirk couldn't work and teleporting with passengers often caused them to feel nauseous, something I had learnt one night in her apartment when I had been so eager to experience it I had felt light headed and sick just from her jumping me from one side of the apartment to the other. Miko said that with practice my body would get accustomed to it to a degree and so when I was feeling up to feeling my stomach turn we would practice that so my body could get used to it. I will admit that more than once I lost my lunch after several consecutive jumps.
Miko came home from work one evening with the biggest grin on her face yet and her blue eyes sparkling in a way that made me nervous.
"What is it?" I dared to ask as she beamed at me, a plastic bag tucked behind her.
"Let's go on a date" her eyes were wide with excitement.
"A date?" I asked with surprise as she practically skipped into the kitchen where I had been drying dishes.
"Yeah a date" I looked at her skeptically and she rolled her eyes back at me, "people can go on dates without having to be a couple you know" she scoffed back
"I-I know that" I shot back, and she smirked at me with another eye roll.
"Well come on then" she spoke and held a hand out to me.
"Right now?" I stepped back with my hands raised, "I'm not ready. Let me change at least" I said but she had already grabbed my hand in hers and was leading me to the window. My eyes were growing wider as I realized her method of travel. She hung the plastic bag on the wrist of her spare hand and opened the curtains to reveal the city lights in the night.
"We can take the stairs" I pointed out franticly.
"Nope" she smiled back and a second later we were outside, falling.
Miko had jumped us up into the night sky far above the apartment building and although I didn't scream out, my heart was still in my throat as we were free falling towards the roofs below us. When my wide eyes met Miko, she was beamed back at me, and I felt a part of me relax. As long as we our hands were connected I would go wherever she went.
A sickening second later we stumbled across the concrete roof of Miko's apartment building or at least, I stumbled and rolled across the surface as she jumped us there while she landed neatly on her feet. I got up and glared back at her from over my shoulder, but she only chuckled at me. I dusted myself off of loose grit and came back to her to see that she had already set up a blanket on the roof previously and she sat down on it like a picnic blanket, and I sat down beside her. She pulled Chinese takeaway from her bag and handed me a pair of chopsticks and it turned out to be a nice date. My first date ever overall, romantic or not.
We talked and laughed, Miko about work and her colleagues and me about other books I had been reading from the library or new recipes I wanted to try to make. Hearing her talk about the people she worked with only reminded me of how much I missed my class and friends. Even Mr. Aizawa I missed not to mention Kacchan, All Might and of course my mum. But I wasn't going to let those thoughts sour the night, so I did my best to push them all away.
After a brief moment of relaxed silence passed staring up and the mostly starless night sky Miko reached into a pocket and pulled out a small item handing it to me. I glared back at her knowing it was another gift.
"You know I don't like it when you buy me things" I reminded her sternly.
"Last one I promise" she smiled, and I doubted it, but I opened her small gift anyway, finding wireless ear buds inside a smooth case. I gaped up at her. I knew good quality ones weren't cheap. Just like the fake ID. Just like the compression sleeves.
"I noticed you made a playlist on my music streaming app, " she smiled, "and I've heard you singing quietly to yourself around the place"
"I've been trying to improve my throat" I admitted down at the item in my hand.
"I know," she nudged me with her shoulder playfully, "and not having to deal with tangled wires will help" she beamed, and I nudged her back with an affectionate smile. I placed the gift down between us and her smile faded away, knowing I had something to say.
"I've been thinking I should maybe get a job" I told her while keeping my gaze out on the surrounding city.
"What?" she squeaked with surprise.
"I feel bad you have to pay for everything" I replied with another nudge, "I want to help more" and when I faced her she was smiling and her eyes shining with tears. I knew what she was thinking without her saying it. She figured that me getting a job and wanting to help pay for things meant I intended to stay longer which of course made her happy.
The truth was that I still hadn't decided what to do yet about my situation. Although I hadn't seen anything suspicious around it still only felt like a matter of time before I was discovered. If I had to run again, I would need money. Money to get around, money to support Miko, money to pay her back for everything she has done for me.
As far as future plans went, I felt lost. I wanted to go after my brother, but he was obviously working with others and it was dangerous to charge after him without knowing who he was affiliated with, plus he was probably expecting me to come after him and it would no doubt be a trap ready to spring the moment I got close to him. He had always been cold and calculated, always a step ahead of me growing up. I thought of returning to school. Chances were high that my brother had been found out after all this time and had either been captured or got away. My bets were on him getting away and if I returned to school, that was an obvious place to keep an eye out for me at so either I wouldn't even get close without having villains on top of me or I would be putting everyone else at risk by returning.
Either way, for now, I was content to stay with Miko until I figured out a solid plan but admittedly it just felt like my mind was running around in circles, unable to come up with some alternative that wasn't certain to end in failure.
A/N: Don't fret! Back to Bakugo's POV next chapter and things start to heat up again :3