After that first conversation, Izuku didn't see Tsukauchi again until several years later.

He had looked so concerned, standing there on the Midoriyas' porch after their conversation was over and it was time for him to leave.

He and Inko had decided that, barring any other major developments in Toshi's condition (or more specifically, one particular development that no one wanted to voice aloud), it would probably be better for him to not have any more contact with them to avoid arousing any suspicion.

He stalled for a moment, wringing his hands helplessly in front of him and seeming to consider his words. Finally, he leaned forward to look Izuku in the eye and said, "You stay out of trouble, you hear?"

"Yes sir," replied Izuku obediently.

"And if you ever need me for anything, don't hesitate to call me, alright? Your mom has my phone number."

"Yes sir."

"And when you-"

"Enough!" interrupted Inko with a helpless laugh. "My nine-year-old son is not going into a battlefield anytime soon, Tsukauchi-san, so don't you worry your pretty little head. We've done just fine by ourselves until now, and we'll do just fine after this too. Now shoo."

Tsukauchi laughingly accepted his defeat at her words, and after a few apologies, finally excused himself.

Thanks to Tsukauchi's visit, Izuku was feeling a lot better than he had earlier, but it had still been quite an exhausting day for him, so after a quick dinner, his mother shooed him off to bed.

The next day was a quiet one and although it bothered Izuku to not know what was going on with Toshi, in this particular situation no news was good news, so he tried to go about his day as normal.

By day three, Izuku was starting to regret turning down Tsukauchi's offer. His mother had told him that he would have to go back to school in a few days, and he was not looking forward to seeing his classmates and teachers again after what had happened earlier that week.

Having a definitive sign that Toshi's condition was getting better would at least give him one less thing to worry about.

And then, finally, on day four, a sign.

In wobbly, rough characters scrawled across Izuku's palm, 'Sorry.'

Gasping at the sight, Izuku immediately dropped the pencil he had been using to write hero notes in his notebook, and immediately went rifling through his pencil case to find a marker so he could reply.

Finding a purple marker, he replied in a rushed scrawl, 'TOSHI!'

'It must have been scary. Are you okay?'

'Me!?' demanded Izuku, hoping his indignation got through properly in response to that frankly ridiculous question. 'What about you!?'

The reply took longer this time, and just as Izuku was starting to get worried, the words started forming.

'Getting better. Hard to find privacy. Too many nurses around :('

That explained the delay in response then. Izuku frowned.

'Be careful. Rest.'

The response was just a messy drawn thumbs up, prompting an eyeroll, and then a few seconds later, Toshi's half of the conversation was wiped away.

Izuku followed suit, using a wet wipe to clean away his side of the conversation, lest any particularly nosey nurses caught sight of the damning evidence of their bond.

And so the conversations went, on and off, over the next few days before Izuku had to go back to school, in the short free moments Toshi could grab in between various tests and surgeries and many, many naps.

'Tsukauchi-san is nice.'

'I think you left a good impression. He won't stop talking about what a good kid you are. I think he's trying to make me jealous.'

'Jealous?'

'Because he got to see you before I did.'

'Haha! He sounds like a good friend.'

'One of the best.'

'! The bruises on my fingers are gone!'

'Recovery Girl came around. The surgeries are taking most of my stamina, but I have enough for little bursts of healing.'

'That's good! Do you know when you can leave?'

'Soon, I hope :( I have a job to get back to.'

'Workaholic.'

'We're going to my favourite restaurant for my birthday. I'm looking forward to it!'

'Are you inviting any of your friends?'

'No, just family.'

'That includes me, right?'

Izuku laughed loudly at the unexpected joke, causing is mother to look up curiously from her book.

"Just Toshi being silly," Izuku told her, already writing out his response.

'Of course :D'

'When?'

This brought Izuku up short, baffling him.

'What?' he asked, wondering where Toshi was taking this joke.

'When is the party?'

Izuku stared at the words for a long moment, feeling something like unease stir in his gut.

…Was he serious?

This wasn't like Toshi; he never asked Izuku for specific details about his life.

'? Everything okay?'

Now that Izuku looked closer, the hand-writing looked…off.

And then realization came crashing over him like a wave, and he felt a chill travel down his spine.

Lunging for the pack of wet wipes on the coffee table, Izuku quickly ripped one out and started rubbing at the skin of his arms with a frantic energy that had his mother putting her book aside and asking worriedly, "Izuku? What's wrong?"

Izuku kept scrubbing at his skin, panicked tears prickling at the corners of his eyes.

And in the end, his mother had to grab his hand to stop him from rubbing his skin raw. By then, his side of the conversation had been completely cleaned away, and all that was left were Toshi's words.

His mother looked down at the bits of dialogue in confusion, obviously not understanding.

Now that Izuku knew what to look for, he could see where Toshi had likely fallen asleep, and the writing had changed from his messy scrawl.

Izuku pointed to the fifth from last message.

"That's not Toshi."