Chapter 48: Hospital Check!!!

Eraser couldn't take this.

He was standing outside of the E.R. waiting for Izuku to get out of surgery. The doctors said that he was in pretty critical condition and that they would do their best, but that there wasn't a guarantee that he would make it through. But Izuku was stronger than that, he wouldn't let some surgery take him out. If he did, he knew that the hero would tease him about it for years.

He'll be fine…he's going to be fine…

He's strong…he doesn't want to die-

He doesn't want to die.

So much had happened that night. The camp was attacked, and the heroes jumped into action immediately, doing everything in their power to work as fast as possible. Of course, it took some yelling and threatening on Eraser's part for them to actually get a move on, but it happened and that's all that mattered.

Nezu tried to keep him on the sidelines to handle the media and throw the villains off their trail, but it was going to be a cold day in hell before Shouta didn't do absolutely everything he could to save his kids.

He went to the second sight with team B, team A going to where Yaoyorozu's tracker took them, and immediately found Hitoshi and Bakugou. They also surprisingly found a few members of the Shie Hisaaki which made absolutely zero sense, but he had bigger things to worry about at the moment than try to figure all of that out.

Shigaraki made a comment about some master and the vigilante, and All Might took off without further hesitation while the villain and a few of his lackies escaped through one of Kurogiri's portals.

Way too concerned about his last kid, he turned from the escaping villains and took off to follow All Might. It took him a while and when he did, that's when he found Izuku in the back of the paramedic van.

Now they were at the hospital, everything only happening in the span of a few hours that felt like an eternity in hell.

Hitoshi and Bakugou were both in the hospital as well, the two of them with very minimal injuries thankfully, and All Might was there somewhere as well.

Shouta was too busy with Izuku to really be paying attention, but he did know that the number one hero had beaten that "master" or whatever, and that his true form was broadcast for the world to see.

He would go check up on the guy, but Izuku took top priority at the moment.

The surgery took a few hours. Shouta was forced to go sit in the waiting room and was given routine updates on how the boy was doing as it went on. He waited and waited, the feeling that he was going to cry never quite leaving him, no matter how much he tried to push it down.

Hizashi joined him not too long after he was forced to sit down. Tsukauchi and Emi came as well, all of them just sitting quietly with Shouta, comforting him and whispering encouragements to him every once in a while.

Bakugou's parents had come through at one point, but he wasn't able to greet them properly. Thankfully, Hizashi stepped in for him and directed them to their son's room, before he came back to sit by Shouta, rubbing his arm that rested on his knee and held his head up every now and again.

As he waited, the hero couldn't stop the conversation him and the boy had had while in that ambulance from replaying in his head over and over.

The kid…thought of him like a father…he trusted him, and cared about him…

It was a relief to hear, but also kind of stressful. Shouta wasn't a father, he didn't know how to be one, especially not for suicidal teenage vigilantes, but as Hizashi would claim, he had been doing it for months. The only difference now, what that it was out in the open.

So, where did he go from here?

Hizashi broke away a few times to go visit Hitoshi. The boy was alright, and Eraser couldn't be more thankful. He wanted to go see him, he really did, but he just couldn't bring himself to leave. What if Izuku needed him, or what if-

That always happened when Shouta tried to think too hard about anything. Hizashi explained the situation and it took all of his strength to hold Hitoshi down so that he didn't get up and storm into the surgery room to where his best friend was.

He understood and told Hizashi to tell Shouta that Izuku was going to be fine and to keep him updated or else he'd get up and see what was happening for himself. Mic complied and returned to Eraser whispering something about how terrifying these kids were or something.

His friends stayed with him the entire time, only leaving to use the bathroom, grab him food, and to check on the students and pros in the hospital. They made sure that Shouta ate and drank while he was waiting even though they practically had to force him to do so.

After what felt like an eternity a doctor came up to the group and announced that the procedure went well and that Izuku was okay and resting in a hospital room. Shouta immediately jumped up and demanded to be told which one to which Hizashi had to force him back into his seat so that the poor doctor could continue to explain.

"The surgery, while it was successful, was also very hard on the boy's body. He was already weak when he came in and so he'll be out for at least a few hours. At the moment, we're only allowing family in to see him."

Eraser jumped up again causing his friend to sigh loudly, "I'm his dad."

"Now he says it…" Hizashi commented as he rubbed his eyes in frustration.

"From what I can see from his chart, the boy doesn't have any-"

"I'm his adopted father. He doesn't have any living relatives, so I took him in.'

The doctor looked back at his chart and then to Eraser with a grimace, "According to our records, Izuku Minori doesn't even exist."

"I'm the pro hero Eraserhead. He's been staying with me for months on the low because I am an underground hero and cannot risk the exposure, that's why your records wouldn't say anything."

"But that doesn't explain the tests we-"

"Listen. If you do not let me in to see that kid, I am going to get in there myself and I can promise you don't want to see me when I'm pissed off."

"Shouta-"

"I understand. Right this way Eraserhead." The doctor went to grab one of the nurses and told her to show him to Izuku's room since she was already on her way there.

He hated acting this way, but he had to see his kid. He had to see for himself that he was okay. "Zashi, keep an eye on Hitoshi and make sure that he stays in his room. Use Emi and Tsuki to help if needed, just please make sure that he stays in bed and rests, I can only handle so much right now."

"You got it. Make sure Izuku is okay for us, kay?"

Shouta gave his friend a brief nod before disappearing down the hall with the nurse. She led him to a room with a closed door and what looked to be like a full chart sitting in the holder on the wall. He grimaced slightly at that, so many papers and notes couldn't be good…

No. No, bad Shouta, you can't think like that. He's fine. He's good, and you're about to see just how okay his is.

The nurse turned back to him, waiting for him to be ready to go in and opened the door once he gave her a nod and took a deep breath. The door creaked open as she slowly pushed it forward and the hero braced himself for the worst.

They entered the room and were met with three other nurses fussing over a hospital bed and chastising someone. Eraser was only confused for a split second before one of them moved and he caught a glimpse of his problem child arguing with a red-faced nurse over the IV in his arm.

"Problem child…" He sighed as he stepped forward. All four heads turned to him, and the three nurses took a step back so that Shouta could properly see Izuku. "Aren't you supposed to be half-dead or something?"

The kid froze in his attempt to mess with the tube hanging out of his skin and stared wide-eyed at the hero. The room remained silent for a few moments, everyone waiting for his reaction, for him to just do something, but he just continued to gawk.

"Umm, Izuku?" Shouta reached his hand out to try to lightly shake the boy back to consciousness but pulled it back immediately when he saw tears begin to gather in his kid's eyes. "Izuku? What's wrong? Are you in pain? What can I do? Tell me what I can do to-"

The boy's sniffling cut him off and he quickly wiped at his face with the heel of his palm. "No, no, everything's fine, it's just…"

"Just what? You can tell me, I'm right here…oof-"

Eraser let out a surprised grunt when a small body crashed into his own and held on for dear life. The nurses fretted over the boy moving so suddenly, but Shouta ignored them and wrapped his arms around Izuku's frail frame tightly, but not too tight in fear that the boy would shatter.

He let out his own sob as he clutched the fabric of his hospital gown and took a step forward so that Izuku wasn't reaching so far to hug him. "Hey, it's okay…it's okay," He whispered as he moved one hand up to rub the back of the boy's head. "We're okay, you're safe and everything's going to be fine now."

"I'm-" Izuku let out in a choked sob, "I'm so sorry…"

"Shh, it's okay. Listen to me, you're okay, we're both okay now, okay?"

"I thought-I thought I was going to-"

Shouta tightened his grip on the boy and shushed him as he continued to try and comfort him. "Don't think like that. You're okay, you're here, you're alive…everything's fine."

"When I saw you-wait…Toshi!" The boy broke from the hero's hold and looked around frantically at the nurses that stood behind Eraser. "Where's Hitoshi? And Katsuki, are they okay? Are they-"

"Hey, hey," Shouta grabbed the boy's shoulders and coaxed him back onto the bed in an attempt to calm him down, "They're fine. Neither were hurt too badly and they're healing in other rooms in the hospital."

The tension in his body seemingly evaporated as he allowed himself to sink back into the pillows of his hospital bed and let out a sigh of relief. "Okay…okay, that's good…"

"Let's focus on you for now; how are you feeling?"

"Like death warmed over."

Shouta had to hold back the laugh that tried to escape him at his kid's nonchalant attitude. "Can you um, can you tell me about what happened?"

This was dangerous waters, Shouta knew that. The boy had just been through probably the most traumatic thing in his life-and that was saying something-and he had only just woken up from the multiple surgeries he had to undergo just to stay alive.

He was asking a lot of him, but he was strong.

The boy's attitude immediately shifted and the mood in the room dropped so drastically Shouta could practically feel the unease coming from the nurses behind him. He turned to look at them, trying his best to look as non-intimidating as he could, "Could you do what you need to do and then give us a minute please?"

Each of them flinched slightly at the question and then got to work on a very irritated looking Izuku. They checked his vitals, readjusted the IV he had moved in his arm, took a look at his wounds and stitches that they were afraid he had torn when he hugged the hero, but he hadn't, and finally gave him some more pain medication and left after telling Shouta he had maybe five minutes before the boy would be out again. He thought that he had also caught one of them saying how he shouldn't even be awake right now under their breath but elected to ignore it.

He nodded as they filtered out and turned back to the boy, trying to keep his face as unbothered as possible for his sake. "So-"

"What do you want to know?" Izuku's tone was cold and hard, sounding almost identical to when he had first found him dead. Just sounding so hurt and broken, it tore at Shouta's heart to hear him like that again, but he knew he had to suck it up and get through this. Like a band aid, just get it over with and then he could deal with the healing, right?

"What happened after you got kidnapped?"

Izuku closed his eyes and took a deep breath before staring straight ahead and recounting what had happened with zero emotion.

He told him about how he was separated from the other two and taken to a place where they tested his quirk to it's very limit before dumping him at All For One's feet. Shouta had to completely school his face as the boy spoke even though all he wanted to do was scream and cry over what had happened to his kid. He spoke about it so coldly…but he could only imagine the pain of going through that torture must've been like.

He then went on about how All For One took his quirk and tried to kill him before Gran Torino saved him and brought him to the paramedics.

The story made Shouta want to throw up, but he composed himself as his kid talked and stuck it out until the very end. The whole situation reminded him a bit too much of when Kumo died, and he and Hizashi had to explain what had happened. It was one of the hardest things he had ever done, and he shut down just like Izuku. He just wanted the pain to go away and so he simply stopped feeling.

It worked for a bit, but eventually all of those emotions catch up to you and by then the dam has cracked and it's only a matter of time before you're overtaken by the tsunami you had been pushing off for so long.

He couldn't let Izuku do that, he wouldn't. He needed to get Hizashi and Hitoshi in here to talk to him, he needed the people in his life more than ever right now.

A thought popped up in Shouta's head and suddenly his right pocket felt impossibly heavier than it had a moment ago.

Izuku had left his phone behind before the classes went to play capture the flag and so Shouta had kept it for the boy expecting that he'd want it when he woke up. He reached into his pocket and slowly brought the device out, seeing that the pain meds were starting to pull Izuku under again.

"Hey, uh…I thought you might want this. The class has been worried sick about you and so your messages have been blowing up and I had to put it on silent. I'm going to go visit Hitoshi, text me when you wake up, okay?"

The boy nodded slightly, not even attempting to look at the hero. With a sigh, Eraser laid the phone of the bedside table and left the room, his heart somehow heavier than when he entered.

Luckily, dreams evaded Izuku in his medically induced sleep. He didn't even want to think of the nightmares he'd have to relive, so he was very thankful for the emptiness his frequent naps brought. Eraser left and he passed out soon after. He wasn't sure how long he was asleep for, but when he woke up it was one in the morning and Izuku didn't feel better in the slightest.

His entire body ached, and his limbs felt as if they were being chained down by anchors. His mind wasn't totally there either. He took note of how groggy he felt and the fuzziness that occupied his thoughts and shook his head in an attempt to clear his head but just ended up giving himself a headache instead.

He let out a groan before turning over and spotting his phone on the table beside the hospital bed.

He picked up the way too heavy phone and turned it on only to be met with texts upon texts from Denki and Kiri asking if he was okay and a whole bunch of texts from unknown numbers asking the same thing and letting him know that they were here for him.

Someone must've given the class his number, he thought. It was nice, to have people care enough to check up on you, he supposed, even if they amount of notifications he had were slightly annoying.

It looked like Toshi had gotten his phone back as well and was awake if the text he sent followed by a game of eight-ball was any indication. Izuku pulled up the game the two boys had started and sent it back after absolutely crushing his friend, and also sent him a text letting him know that he was awake and okay.

He went down the line of unknown texts, trying to decipher who was who just from the encouraging words or lack-there-of they sent. He was able to deduce a few, but honestly, all of the texts looked the same and his headache was only getting worse, so he decided to give Eraser a call letting him know that he was awake and request some more pain medication before a certain text from an unknown number caught his eye.

The message was very different from the others he had received. There were no apologies, no well-wishes or words of encouragement. There was only one simple sentence. Four words that made his blood run cold.

Unknown Number:

I need your help.