Morphine is a hell of a drug to be on. Aoi had slept the rest of the night for the most part peacefully. She had odd dreams filled with random colours and objects. But it was far better than the pain of being awake. Though she could always tell when the drug was wearing off between doses as the pain in her body would force her back to the waking world. As much as she hated it. But luckily it never lasted long. Izuku was always at her side and happy to call for a nurse a little after she would wake up, that was how the first real day she could recall went. Could have been worse. At least she was not in constant pain. Though she may not have welcomed the miracle medicine if she knew about how loose her lips become before she would be taken away to the world of her dreams.
She was completely unaware that she had not only told Izuku she loved him, but had also admitted she found him cute and funny on multiple occurrence's. Whether it was the pain or the drugs that kept her mind so blissfully foggy and unaware she may never know. She also was unaware that it was the third day after she had first woken up when she heard another voice accompanying Izuku's as she awoke.
She could hear Izuku, she could never not notice him. Kind of hard to forget his voice after all. But the stranger's voice was one she did not know. It was softer and more quietly spoken. Male too. It was almost a little odd hearing a guy talk so quietly and even stutter at times. Clearly the stranger seemed shy. Even her sleep rattled mind could make that out as she slowly blinked her eyes to take in the sight of the quickly growing familiar hospital room. Slowly she looked over to see Izuku standing in the open door, the body of the stranger was standing out in the hall apparently out of her view.
Her muscles still ached but it was quickly apparent that she could now breath without being stabbed in the chest. Her sore muscles though screamed for her to move a little. She had been laying in the same spot for far too long it seemed. And her body was now upset with her. She carefully placed her arms on the bed beside her as she very carefully started to push herself up wanting to sit up. Still pain shot through multiple spots of her body. Her chest still hurt, but at least it wasn't a burning fire. The muscles in her arms shook, not wanting to strain so much to support her own basic weight. She did not even try to hold her groan in the mild pain.
It seemed the noise she made was enough to draw the attention of the two men who had been talking. Izuku was quick to ditch his conversation as he turned and quickly started to walk towards her.
"Hold on. Don't move too much," was the soft words that filled her ears as she felt his large palm against her back. It was warm and much welcoming as she sighed softly and welcomed the large scared hands to help her sit up and allow her to be able to sit up now in the bed and the pillows behind her where even fluffed as she never even heard the other man enter the room from the hall.
"Thanks Midoriya," she nearly wheezed out. Her throat felt dry and raw. She did not even notice the discomfort till she spoke. Her head had felt so fuzzy every other time she had been awake, she barely even remembered those times now as she sat up. A pale smallish hand held up a cup of water to her.
"Thanks," She said softly happily, taking the cup of water from the hand. Looking up she was greeted with a shy purple haired man who had looked away from her. He refused to meet her gaze as he looked away, a blush covered his cheeks, nose and even seemed to be traveling up his elvish looking ears. He was fairly tall and lanky. Almost as tall as Midoriya but barely half as wide. Although he was on the more lanky side it was easy to tell with a simple glance at his calloused hand and strong forearm he was most likely a hero as well.
"How are you feeling?" Midoriya asked, pulling her gaze away from the man who stood before her to look over at the large green haired man as she took a sip of water.
"Better. I am still stiff and sore. But I can breathe now and do not hurt nearly as bad," She admitted before taking another sip of water. She was trying desperately not to just chug the entire little cup. But she did not want to upset her empty stomach by doing that.
"That's good to hear. I had to have Amajiki here bring Eri's out to heal you up. But had to wait for the hospital to decide you were stable enough for her to try and rewind your injuries. You had a lot of broken bones. You broke two ribs, you had a fracture to your L1 vertebrae, three broken fingers, and well a number of other injuries as well. But the doctors wanted to make sure you were stable and that your back injury had not done any really bad damage," Okay Izuku may have regretted listing off just some of the injuries he had been told she had. The second he had mentioned her back and had to bite his tongue to not say the doctors wanted to make sure she was not paralyzed. That had been a rough time. But luckily even when she was asleep apparently her feet were ticklish and the slight touch had her toes move and her foot jolting. She may have nearly kicked a doctor in the face but Izuku was not about to tell her that. No he was just watching the panic and fear wash over her as he cures himself for opening his mouth.
"But it's okay. Your injuries were not as bad as we all feared and Eri's was given the clear to heal you. She actually just finished a little while ago. I did not think you would wake up so fast. Oh by the way, this is Amajiki Tamaki. He was one of my upper classmates back at UA. He and his boyfriend Mario run an agency together. They had Eri working with them when I made the call for her help. He offered to bring her down to the hospital from Osaka," Surely the man would have continued his ramble about the other man who was now introduced to her and who remained silent as Izuku rambled on using the other man as an excuse to change the conversation.
"Midoriya you're rambling again. Pause, breathe and shut up for a minute," She said no actual bite to her words as she looked over at the man who was flashing her an innocent smile and rubbing the back of his head with a simple oops escaping his lips. Now she turned her attention to the man who had been standing silently the entire time, his finger fiddling with the edge of his shirt. Aww poor baby looked like he did not want to be here right now. And even though Izuku had said he was older it did not stop her from oddly wanting to reach out and randomly hug the poor guy.
"It is nice to meet you Amajiki. My name is Sugahara Aoi," She said, watching the poor man only blush more, nodding his head to her before finally speaking up.
"Well I am sure Eri is waiting in the lobby for me. I best get back to the agency," Was the farewell they were given before the poor man nearly ran from the hospital room as both Izuku and Aoi called out a simple thanks and bye.
"He does not like people or attention huh?" Aoi asked out loud as she finished the water that was in the glass before looking down into the empty glass, kind of sad before it was scooped out of her hands. Izuku chuckled as he just exchanged the glass of water she had been holding for a water bottle he had originally grabbed for himself.
"Is it really that easy to tell? Amajiki has always been pretty shy. He always has struggled with his shyness. Even when he was part of the big three at UA and was one of the strongest students he was still always antisocial and shy," Izuku had said as he helped her take the cap off of the bottle of water before she started to quickly take small sips at it.
"Of course. I almost thought he was going to have enough willpower to get the floor to open up and swallow him whole with how hard he was looking at the floor," Aoi said with a light giggle though that caused pain to shoot threw her which had her wince and whine softly. That made the relaxed look on Izuku's face fall.
"Careful. Eri was able to heal the worst of your injuries but there was a lot of damage. She was not able to heal everything perfectly in one session," he said, stepping as close to her and the bed as he could, looking incredibly worried. A large hand had moved to rest between her shoulder blades. The touch was gentle, which was almost funny considering how the hand itself was large, calloused and scarred. The hands of someone who fought with his fists a good bit. And yet his touch could be so light and his hands were warm.
"It's okay. The pain is not that bad," she said softly. Which was true. Compared to when she had been tied to that damn chair and tortured. This mild pain was easily bearable. Though still annoying that she had to be careful. And it seemed Izuku had the same thought as her as his face fell even further. He had gone from someone kicked his puppy to someone having killed it now. He looked on the boarder of tears.
"I'm so sorry," he said softly. Aoi hesitated for a split second unsure if she should try to force a smile but decided against it.
"It's okay. It was my own stupidity that got me noticed," she said softly fully prepared to blame herself. She knew Izuku would draw eyes. She knew all alone this had been a risk of getting to know him. Of being out in public with him.
"What? No it's my fault. They were clearly after me and the hero's who came to rescue you," she had to look away from him as she watched tears starting to run down his face. She sighed softly.
"Why don't we both agree we made mistakes. Nothing can be done about it now. More so what will happen next? Did you arrest everyone?" She asked not wanting to linger on the memories nor watch Izuku cry as he also blamed himself.
"But," he never even got to finish his complaint and desire to only blame himself as he watched her hard brown eyes glared over at him. The look on her face told him she was not going to listen to any more talk about him wanting to take the blame. It was like when he tried to pay her for her help all over again.
"Well most of the criminals that were present at the raid were arrested. But Arakawa Shinta escaped. He was not present when the raid went down," Midoriya was talking though the name was not one she recognized. And it seemed the confused look on the man's face told him she did not know who he was talking about.
"Uhm he was the man believed to be behind the kidnapping and everything that happened. He's a man in his early thirties. He had light hair, about 180 centimeters tall. It's hard to say what colour his eyes are, he keeps them almost closed most of the time," Izuku was going off describing a man she knew far too well for her liking.
"They're light brown. Also he's not the boss. He works for someone else. But he is important. He was one of the men that broke into my house and kidnapped me," she interrupted Izuku's description no longer needing to hear anything else about the man that had tortured her.
"So you do know him. What else can you tell us about him?" Izuku asked, his face growing serious. This was Deku she was now speaking with.
"He spoke to me a few times. Not a lot. But when I first woke up in that room he was there. Simply doing a stupid monologue. He told me his boss had noticed that you and Todoroki had walked me home that one night. They assumed we were all close. They wanted you to try and come for me. Tried to claim they had some ambush planned. Though it seemed you did not just rush in alone like an idiot, they much not have expected you would stay on track and plan out a raid and get help," she could not help the small smirk as she enjoyed the thought of how much the villain's must be pissed their stupid plan did not work.
"Was there anything else he said?" Deku asked. It was a rather interesting sight. To see that even though Izuku was clearly exhausted he still did not hesitate to slip into his hero persona and work. She wondered if he was even aware he almost had two different sides to him.
"Not really. Most of it was useless nonsense. I never even learned his name till just now," she said not wanting to discuss the mental torture that Arakawa had put her through. She did not wish to think about how she was painfully aware Izuku could only do so much to protect her. The underworld did not fear hero's like they did their own members. Fearing being arrested was not the same fear as dying. Dabi had truly been her protector even if he had not meant to be. The fear of being burned alive for crossing him had been enough to keep her safe. But that was no longer a fear of those who wished to hurt her.
She could tell Deku was giving her an odd look. He did not believe her that what else was said was useless. But maybe he was smart enough to realize that what was said may be more sensitive than what he had otherwise said to her.
"Okay," he said softly, pulling his hand away from her back slowly.
"This is still good information. We were under the assumption he was the leader, but we were wrong. This will change things a little," Deku said, already pulling his cell phone from his pocket as he swiftly ran his fingers across the screen in what she can only assume was a message to most likely a group chat if he was smart.
"You look rough. You should head home. Get some good sleep. And shower," she said softly, scrunching her nose well one or most likely both of them smelled.
"I am fine," he said ignoring the fact she had made a face when she commented he needed a shower. She was right. He really did need to go home. Eat, sleep and shower. But he did not want to leave her.
"If what you said is correct then there is a lot more risk to you than we first anticipated. I can't leave you alone," Deku said, still in hero mode. Though she had a feeling this would be an argument no matter what.
"Then have someone come baby sit me for a few hours," she growled through gritted teeth. She really just wanted to yell at him to leave. Why was he so worried about her when he was killing himself with exhaustion.
"Are you sure you're okay with someone coming and watching you for a few hours?" Izuku asked softly, well aware the poor woman did not like hero's and he was going to force her to spend a few hours with one. But Izuku really did need to make a run home even if he did not get any sleep. New clothes for both of them would be
"Don't treat me like a baby. I can deal for a few hours without you idiot," She grumbled with her arms gently crossed over her chest.
"S..sorry I did not mean to imply that you're being childish or anything," Izuku said, waving his hands in front of his growing red face. And just like that Deku was gone and Izuku was back.
"It is fine. I am alive and clearly will survive. Now it's time you spend a little bit of time dealing with yourself. You won't be any help if you're sleep deprived and starving," She pointed out having no issues giving a bit of a low blow to his pride as a hero.
"Okay. Let me see who I can find to come guard you while I go home," Izuku said, pulling his cell phone from his pants pocket. With that Izuku headed out of the room and she assumed he was now calling a friend or two in an attempt to get someone to come watch her so he could leave the hospital.
Aoi sighed softly once the room became quiet and it was only her left. She did not know why he cared so much. She was in a public hospital. She should surely be safe in such a place. Then again she thought the same thing of her own home. And look how that turned out. Maybe Deku was right. She was not safe. And that had her heart racing as she struggled to push back the feel of panic that was clawing at her body. Stupid panic attacks. It was not till a cold drink was thrust into her face that she raised her shaky hands to grab the bottle of water that Izuku had apparently returned with.
"Thanks," She said barely audibly as she almost struggled to get the cap off the bottle. She did have to admit though her mouth and throat were feeling incredibly dry as she wasted no time downing nearly half the bottle of water. The cup of water she had earlier had not been enough. With that the two fell into a simple silence, it was not too awkward at least. Leaving the bottle of water beside her on the bed she found herself slowly and carefully laying back into the bed thanks to Izuku's help. Even though she had slept most of the last few days away her tired body still cried out for more sleep. And Izuku did not try to keep her awake with conversation as she found her eyes drifting closed into a light sleep. Though it did not last long enough.
At some point even still in a sleepy state she could hear the soft knock at the door gently woke her. But she did not yet want to get up. She wished to just go back to sleep. But the sound of hushed voices was making it hard. Even though she could not make out what they were saying she was still drawn to the voices. Both familiar to her. But she oddly in her half asleep state could not figure out who the other voice was other than Izuku. Trying to force her eyes open she realized the two bodies were out in the hall and the open door of the room was the only reason she could hear them at all. Oh well she did not have the energy to think about it too hard as she tried to roll over wanting to get into a new position and go back to sleep even as she heard the barely audible footsteps in the room head to the chair that sat by her bed.
"I know you're awake," Came a voice that had her entire body stiffen up. She knew that voice. And it was a voice she wished she never heard again. It was Todoroki Shoto.
"What do you want?" She could not help the growl in her voice as she pried her eyes open to glance over at the man who sat in the seat Izuku had earlier been occupying. Those dual coloured eyes seemed to be studying her before he spoke up again.
"Nothing," He said after a rather long pause. She looked at him skeptically before slowly closing her eyes and trying to once again drift to sleep. She did not want to be awake with this man being her guard. But now her heart was beating adrenaline through her body and sleep would not come easily as she decided to carefully roll over and have her back facing the man as she instead attempted to ignore his presence as she tried to go back to sleep.
