Tenko walked along the street as usual. He was trying to find a place to stay overnight. A safe place where it was a little less cold.
Of course, his actual hope was to find someone who would help him out of this cold, lifeless place. However, his hope was lessening as the days went on. People would jump away and pretty much escape whenever he looked them in the eye. He would've liked to say that he was used to it, but whenever that happened, his little heart broke.
Was this his fate? Was he going to live on the streets until he died of cold or hunger? Where were the heroes? Why wasn't someone there to hold his hands and help him?
His eyes grew tearful as he thought about his hands. Everything he touched turned into dust. Cruelly, he wouldn't be able to hold the hand of the person who saved him, if there was a person like that in the first place.
His chest tightened upon realizing that the streets had emptied up. It was nighttime already and he still hadn't found a good place.
Tenko looked around. The streets looked so empty. He never thought that he would miss his home. His home, where he had constantly felt like he was being strangled, where he was forced to sleep outside sometimes.
The streets were so miserable that they made home look good. His breath hitched as he remembered his mom, sister, and grandparents. He missed mom so much now, he missed her scent, her hugs, her meals…
What about Hana? He remembered getting angry at her for selling him out to his father. If she suddenly appeared in front of him, he would hug and swear to never let go again.
He clenched his jaw as his father came to his mind. His father who had hit him, made him sleep outside, and chided him constantly whenever he talked about heroes.
However, no matter how much he disliked his father, remembering him turning into dust nearly made him puke anyway. Not that there was much to puke.
His mouth salivated as the cookies of his grandpa and grandma came to his mind. They were so delicious and sweet…
Tenko suddenly crashed into someone as he reminisced about the cookies. He turned his head towards the person's face and readied himself for an escape.
The weird thing was, the escape or look of fear never came. The man had a friendly face and curly green hair that was barely at neck-length.
Most importantly, there was no fear or disgust in his face. The man looked at Tenko gently as he tried to speak. Unfortunately, he couldn't even do that. The man finally decided to speak.
"Hey there little guy! What're you doing outside when it's so late?" he asked gently. His voice was so soft. There was no anger, no fear; just curiosity and gentleness.
Tenko gurgled some more and scratched his neck as he tried to tell the man he couldn't speak.
The green-haired guy's face looked understanding. "Oh. I see, you can't speak huh? Do you want some water?" he asked.
Tenko nodded rapidly. Water sounded so good now. The man smiled as he pulled a water bottle from the pocket of his trench coat.
Tenko opened his hands and showed them to the man as he shook his head. The man looked confused.
Tenko looked around him and saw a nearly empty garbage bin. He took a crumpled paper from it and showed the guy how his hand turned it into dust.
"I see, so this is your quirk, huh? Let me try something," the green-haired man said as he took one of his gloves off. Tenko thought he was going to give it to him to wear so he showed his five fingers and shook his head.
The guy didn't even seem to hear him as he ripped off two fingers from the glove.
"Now, fold your two fingers from the hand you want to use okay? Let's see if this works," he mumbled the last part to himself. Tenko couldn't understand this guy. Why was he so adamant about helping him?
He did as the man wanted anyway and watched as the guy made him wear the gloves. To his amazement, the glove didn't turn into dust.
"Now, let's try this again," the guy said as he gave Tenko the water bottle, which he opened. "Don't drink too much or you will get stomach aches okay? My name is Izuku by the way," Izuku introduced himself.
Izuku huh? It fit the man. Tenko thought about the man's name as he took his first gulp of normal water in a while. It tasted heavenly and left him gasping for breath when he finished drinking it. He looked at the water bottle, it was amazingly almost empty. Tenko had never drunk this much at once! Not even at home.
Tenko looked at the man once again and discovered that Izuku was preparing the other glove for Tenko.
His eyes filled with tears as he grabbed Izuku's hand and spoke for the first time in weeks. "T-thank you… so much…" he was able to say as his throat screamed in pain. Izuku simply smiled and played with Tenko's hair. His hand felt nice, warm, and light.
"You've been through a lot, haven't you? Come on, time to wear the other glove. Sorry if these gloves are too big. I'll buy you new ones the first chance I've got, okay?" he said. Tenko froze as Izuku made him wear the other glove.
"Y-you'll stay with me?" he asked. He couldn't believe this. Had he found his hero?
Izuku crouched near Tenko's eye level as he answered his question. "Yeah, I think so. You look like you need help. Wanna live with me? I promise I'll take care of you and will never… Oops!" Izuku couldn't complete his sentence as Tenko jumped at him suddenly and started crying on his shoulder as he hugged Izuku tightly.
He wanted to thank the older man but couldn't as sobs filled his mouth. Tenko felt Izuku's embrace a few moments later. One thing he noticed was how Izuku was warm, warm like his mother's and sister's hugs. He was warm, unlike his father.
They embraced for a few minutes as Izuku waited for Tenko to calm down.
After his sobs calmed down Izuku stood on his feet and offered his hand to the child he didn't even know the name of.
Izuku's smile was incredibly bright as he offered his hand. "Come on, let's go—"
"My name is T-Tenko," Tenko said, cutting in as he accepted the hand he was offered.
Tenko had dreamed of this moment since his fall to the streets. He had always added detail after detail to his dreams, yet they never had felt perfect as Izuku's hand around his hand.
Tenko felt like he was going home while walking to Izuku's house for the first time.