Their time in Class A feels like ages ago. Years passed in the blink of an eye, and yet those lessons which had been incessantly drilled into their heads - vigorously and at times without mercy - would never be forgotten. When they're all Pros and in the field, they hang off of Aizawa's every word, even when they know that on some level, when he's on the scene, they're equals, they really aren't. Eraserhead's older and will always be wiser and no one will convince them otherwise.
Heroics is a matter of life and death, after all, and Aizawa drilled into them to always choose life. To always, always, find a way to live. You can't save anyone if you're dead, and if you don't fight to live, then other people will be forced to save you.
Or, at least, that was the lesson some people had to learn.
They'd all learned the hard way that Deku was a bit too self-sacrificial for comfort.
As a class, they'd learned why, of course. And while neither Deku nor Bakugo had explained their relationship, together they had enough brain cells to figure it out. And if, sometimes, the self- sacrificing was a matter of self worth (as if it weren't that all the time) then they'd resolutely decided to stop at nothing to prove to their favorite green bean that he well and truly has worth. Worth beyond lives saved, beyond smiles offered, beyond a quirk gained.
It was their third year with a new Big Three - an unsurprising Big Three - and many pros were already vying for the entire class. Aizawa knew their time together was running out, and he made sure each lesson was carefully planned, something meant to prolong their dangerous lives.
"Fallen buildings-" he'd begun, as stoic as always but something buried beneath, something not quite left in the rubble and rebar of a rainy day, but manageable all the same. He pulled up image after image. Fallen houses, buildings, towers in cities, all surrounded by running, fearful civilians, all smoking and unstable, "are not a joke. While you are heroes-" he'd begun calling them that, heroes, because he would never betray their growth after the war and even before then, "you are not invincible. Buildings are more than structures civilians get trapped under. They have components to them. They are made of beams and concrete and rebar and slabs that weigh more than you can hold."
And then he paused, a careful moment as thoughts flitted through his head, before slowly, he set the clicker down on his podium. He placed both hands on the old wood, leaning against it (perhaps to take the pressure off his ever-aching leg, severed and healed but still new enough to be painful) and he sighed. Heavily.
He'd scanned the room with bloodshot eyes, dark hair a curtain over his cheeks as he met each gaze one by one, demanding their attention as if he hadn't already earned it.
"I will say this, and I will say it once. " They sat stock still, watching and waiting with bated breath.
And then those steel eyes landed on a familiar blob of green.
Midoriya met the stare dead-on, curious, but even his pencil had stopped its incessant scratching against paper. He leaned back a bit, head tilting but no part of him naive or confused.
He'd grown plenty ( too much, Aizawa says to anyone who will listen, they all grew too quickly ), and ever since Shigaraki's defeat the entire world already viewed him as a pro without the license.
If there's anyone in the class who takes Aizawa's lessons seriously and without trusting the 'what- if' of it all, as if they weren't just scenarios to be dreamt of, it was Midoriya.
"If - and when I say if, I mean in the slim chance that there is a scenario that calls for this and nothing else - if you are ever in a situation where a building has fallen, or is falling, or anything within that category of instability, no one - and I mean no one - other than Deku is ever permitted to attempt to hold it up. That would be illogical and idiotic. Am I understood?"
They could see in his eyes that he didn't want to say that. Could see in the rising tension of Midoriya's shoulders that he knew what that meant to Aizawa, for him to say to his self-sacrificial Problem Child that he'd have explicit - albeit restricted - permission to attempt a terrifying feat that should scare him.
And he said Deku. Not Midoriya, but Deku, a Pro Hero and only him as a fully-fledged Pro.
Afterwards, when he's repeated that no, Sato nor Shoji and not even Tokoyami with Dark Shadow should attempt it, Aizawa asks Midoriya to stay after class. They know it's to make sure the lesson has stuck as it should, to make sure he doesn't take it as permission to run into any falling building as if he could hold it effortlessly. No one mentions it, not to Deku, at least.
However, they do decide that perhaps Deku shouldn't be alone at a scene like that, not without someone from their class. Knowing him, it would take a long time to tame that self-sacrificial streak.
It's a nice day out, which is a godsend in a lot of ways, but any day is a day for villains to wreak havoc and this one's no different.
" Dynamight! "
Peppered explosions flash above the street, drowning out some of the screaming. Three booms and
he's spun around, a snarl ripping from his throat as he snaps out a hand.
His arm stings on impact, body jolting for a second at the weight, palm hot and tingling from his quirk but his fingers wrap around that thick wrist. Two more explosions and they're spinning with a momentum only he controls.
Three-
Two-
"DIE!" He shouts as he whips Deku like a missile. Deku shoots across the sky with a burning trail of green, lightning arching off of him as he slams into the mutant villain, a battle cry of his own tearing from gritted teeth.
Dynamight hits the ground. Hard. He rolls across the street, costume tearing where it isn't padded, a burn searing across his cheek when he finally gets his feet under him, skidding across the concrete for an extra few meters.
He spits out a wad of blood, the metallic tang staining his teeth as he bares them once more.
Sweat's dripping in his eyes and as he tries to blink it away, he catches only the blurry movement of that supernova toppling the villain over.
Sometimes it makes him angry, watching Deku bulldoze through both villains and ranks, but other times he can't help but be impressed, witnessing the pure power that Deku employs so flawlessly (especially when he's angry. Now that's a sight Katsuki would pay to see again.)
The villain tries to stay up but between Deku's quirk and Dynamight's launch, it stands no chance. And then one of those monstrous hands, clawed with glistening talons - he'd chosen Godzilla as his
villain name and how fucking fitting - slams into a building.
There's screaming. The building shakes.
Deku hits again , and the villain howls in agony.
And Dynamight watches, helpless, as it's talons dig into the side of the structure until cracks are crawling up it's side, and people are still running out of it how the fuck were they not evacuated?
Another hit, another howl, and the hand crunches the corner of the building, squeezing into a fist before he finally falls, the street fracturing beneath his weight.
But it's not game over, and when Deku finally stands from atop the villain, hair matted to his forehead, costume torn and red blotches staining his side from where those claws must have caught him, he's quick to find Dynamight.
And then he sees the building.
They're moving at the same time. The cops and firetrucks and all the things are already there, and when Deku sees personnel that can deal with the downed villain, they begin running towards the perimeter of the building.
There's a crowd of people, most being held back by caution tape. The entire block had to be evacuated thanks to the size of the villain but this was one of the few buildings that wasn't done yet; it wasn't in the initial zone.
God damned-
"Fuckin' shit," Dynamight seethes as him and Deku look up the structure.
It's not the tallest building in the area but it's up there, and the crack's still growing. Deku doesn't even mention his language.
One of his hands is to his side, the white of his glove staining red, but it's slow enough that Bakugo doesn't waste the effort, not when he sees Deku's jaw tensed in something other than pain. There's a concentration to his face that he's seen often enough to know that the injury is a later issue.
They should leave it to the professionals, they really, really should.
"My baby, where-"
And that's the moment that Bakugo realizes they're not going to, because Deku's already snapped
his neck back, looking to find the frantic mother behind the yellow tape. And there are two others with her.
"They'd be together, it's fine-"
"No, no, they'd be here, they know the drill-"
"I can't- if they're not- we need to-"
One of them is freaking out, a nervous, hysteric mess, the other two are trying to calm her, voices of reason in her ears that she isn't quite hearing.
Deku crosses the distance in long strides, quick to grab an officer on the way and interrogate him. "Have you found any children?" He asks, quick and concise. Bakugo's right behind him, eyes not straying far from the building.
"There are kids?"
A heavy pit forms in their stomachs at the words, both heroes meeting each other's eyes. "Deku, don't-"
Deku makes it to the mothers and Bakugo curses under his breath.
The building trembles.
One of the women, one of the ones trying to stay calm (she has a single horn in the center of her head, Deku can't help but note, a mutation, no doubt-) chokes on a sob. The hysteric one shouts in a strangled scream.
"Hello? Ma'am? How many children are there?" Deku asks as politely as he can with the urgency of it all. The officer's also there, eyes flitting over the women, quick to access the situation. He turns to his shoulder, offering some privacy as he speaks into the channel.
The calmest one brightens when she sees Deku, eyes alight with hope and Bakugo curses, again, before racing away to grab another officer.
"Four. My daughter, Hana, her son, Kaede, and Izumi's two children, Daisuke and Asahi." Deku almost lets the relief fill him at how level-headed she is. But, for now, as the building trembles again and he hears Dynamight shout something at someone, he just nods.
"Do you have any idea of where they could be?"
"H-here, they'd be here- " the woman with the horn says, the one who's son is Kaede, and Deku
will be damned if he doesn't keep track of that.
"They'll be together. They like to explore the building. We come here every week to hang out and- and we always let the kids wander. Th-they-" she stutters, eyes fluttering closed for a moment as she breathes, before opening again, dark eyes harder and more determined than before, "they've found a way into the stairwell, I know. They're smart kids, though. They probably think it's an earthquake, so, so maybe Hana decided to drag them into a closet. If they were under a table, someone would have grabbed them."
Deku offers her a small smile. It's not his victory one, not one for the post-rescue, but the soft one that Uraraka had once said always brought them comfort. Brought hope and peace and everything
in between.
The one that, without saying so, tells them that it's gonna be okay.
He lands a heavy hand - not the glove with blood on it - one her shoulder, and he thanks her.
The other's on his comm as he turns around.
"Dynamight-"
"Deku, I swear to GOD-"
"There are four kids. One of the mom's thinks they're in a closet, and if they're not on the ground floor, they're close to it."
From the distance, Bakugo makes sure he flips the bird high enough for Deku to see. He also turns back to the officers, barking something aggressive at them.
Deku recognizes the way he flexes his hands, helping his gloves absorb the sweat and also betraying any sort of anxiety of the situation. For how much Deku annoys Katsuki, he knows the explosive hero will always have his back.
By the time Deku's made it to the chunk of personnel, one of Bakugo's hands is on a map and he's deliberately pointing at a few areas.
"These are your closets." His other hand goes up to his ear and, rather aggressively, yanks off his comm. He shoves it roughly into Deku's chest with enough force to make the hero stumble
"You need-"
"I have my backup, and so do you. You store that thing somewhere so if something goes wrong,
you have a way to contact us, are we clear? "
In another situation, Izuku might poke fun at him for worrying. Instead, he just takes the comm and
nods. Dynamight fixes his backup to his ear, presses it, and Deku nods when he hears the test. "Good. Now, if you do anything stupid- "
"I'll let you know in advance. Let me know if they're out before me."
And then Deku goes in.
Being in the building is different. Every vibration forces him to stabilize, every creak makes his head snap to find it. A broken bulb sends sparks raining down.
And it's... vacant. Terrifyingly empty, chairs toppled over, a table with a broken leg, food and papers scattered everywhere. It's the sort of scene you only see after a villain.
And then he spots a large crack slowly making its way across the ceiling.
A beam groans somewhere, the sound of creaking, bending, whining metal prevalent in the dark building.
The ground floor is something like a cafeteria. He can hear a fryer sizzling in one of the
restaurants, silverware rattling with every shake.
The building's coming down, it's only a matter of time.
He takes another careful step and lets the voice in his ear direct him. His eyes never stay on anything for long.
The building trembles and Deku pauses, waiting for it to settle.
It does.
"Hana?" His voice echoes. No response.
The first area's empty, the closests bare except for cleaning supplies. Some spilled over chemicals has Deku shutting the door quickly, a hand readjusting his mask.
(He hopes the kids aren't stuck somewhere with chemicals, aren't slowly suffocating with burning lungs.)
"Daisuke?"
The next closet is empty, too. He's making his way through, around stairs and further away from the entrance (he hopes they're on the ground floor, hopes they haven't somehow gotten trapped in the stairwell.)
As the building shakes again, it shifts with the distinct groan of metal.
In the comm, he catches the unmistakable sound of Katsuki shouting with a staticy, distant crackle.
"Kaede? Can you hear me?" The further back he goes, the darker it gets, busted lights and glass littering the ground, crunching beneath metal soles.
He stops.
The voice in his ear tells him where to go but he doesn't heed it. Instead, he steadies himself, knees bending as he gets a bit closer to the ground.
Some rubble rains down and rolls across the floor.
He scans the ground. Dark shadows are streaking across it, everything a tinge too gray, a bit too still, the shadows deep and dark enough to hide a cluster of kids.
They aren't under any of the tables.
The officer asks if he's checked the closet. He doesn't respond. Just continues on, eyes low, careful, breaths soft and ears straining to hear anything beyond the groans of the building.
He could've sworn he heard something. The officer speaks into the comm, again.
"Hello? Deku, can you hear me? Did you check the closet on the right? Are you even there? Hello? Hero Deku?" Katsuki snarls and the amount of officers looking at him, some in anger and some with fear, is enough to make another spark pop in his palm.
He's sweaty, way too sweaty in the heat, and it makes his skin itch and prickle and these extras need to fucking STOP-
"Deku, I need a response-"
"Gimme that-" Katsuki growls a bit too harshly, probably, and snaps the comm back before holding it right in front of his mouth.
"Deku, if you don't respond to me in five fucking seconds, I swear to God, I'm gonna- "
The building shakes.
And then it groans and Bakugo can just tell. He can tell just like everyone else can as they take one, two, three steps back, and even though they're a fair distance from the building, the way it screeches and whines and groans is telling. From a distance, Katsuki watches, mortified, as it doesn't steady.
It bends.
And then it breaks.
He watches how the windows explode and glass rains down, feels even from a distance how it trembles, tremors shaking the ground where they stand. A few officers stumble.
Katsuki braces himself against the hood of the cruiser, eyes wide and not leaving the building. He expected something loud and hideous to screech from it.
Instead, it just falls. The side with the crack goes first, hard and fast, rubble raining down in too-big chunks, crashing into the ground, the skeleton of the building showing for only a second before it falls too.
It's loud, it's thunderous. It shakes everything around it and distantly Katsuki hears someone yell to get down! Now!
Dynamight doesn't obey. Just watches as it concaves into itself as if the cracks from that villain had traveled throughout the entire lower-half of the building.
Deku didn't say it had, didn't mention that-
Of course he fucking didn't.
"DEK-"
He doesn't get the word out before the streets are filled with smoke and ash, people screaming as they're overtaken by the cloud, their cries almost loud enough to bury the crashing of the building before them.
Katsuki coughs, choking on the debris, eyes stinging as he tries to keep them open as if he might possibly see something. Anything.
He doesn't take his thumb away from the button.
Hana wakes up with a splitting headache, something pounding in her temples and aching behind
her eyes and she can't help but sob. Her chest hurts, her lungs hurt, her throat hurts. The back of her head hurts, too, hot and pulsing and she tries to get up, she does, but it hurts, it hurts so much and she-
" -ku- "
Something's crackling beside her. It's glitching in and out and she focuses on it, because it's new,
it's confusing, and it's right by her ear. So, she opens her eyes.
Her vision's assaulted with green, bright and toxic and it makes her eyes hurt more so she's quick to shut them with another cry, another sob. She wants to curl up but moving makes her nauseous, like water's just sloshing around in her stomach and she- she-
Oh my god she's gonna throw up, she-
"Sorry about that." The words are whispered, gentle and calm, unlike the green light that had assaulted her vision. "I can't really turn my quirk off right now." He sounds... sad. Guilty, or something. So, slowly, she cracks her eyes open again.
It still hurts, still makes something behind her eyes ache, but it isn't awful. She blinks a few times, trying to adjust, and when she finally does-
She screams.
It ricochets off the walls - walls? - of the small area. It's dark, but with the crackle of faux- lightening, she sees concrete, sees the counter they'd hunkered behind - stay here, we'll stay here, it's just an earthquake, we'll be fine - sees warped pieces of metal and-
-and Deku.
Deku, bowed above them like Atlas himself, back hunched forward slightly, holding a slab of concrete that's big enough to cover them and then some. His palms are flat against it, helping to brace the weight, and she can see how his muscles flex beneath his hero costume, knees bent and legs sturdy.
He's smiling at her, but even she can tell it's strained.
She gapes at him anyway because he's smiling, and he's holding- holding what?
The building?
No way.
Around her, the others groan, whining like she had, some of them crying. Asahi sobs and Kaede grumbles as he scrubs his face.
Oh, her scream. She must have woken them. She turns apologetically towards Deku but he just offers her another effortless smile.
"Would you mind helping them wake up?" She doesn't, she doesn't mind one bit.
"You're Hana, right?" She pauses at that, and for a moment, as she stares at him and meets vibrant, glowing eyes, she doesn't hurt.
"Y-yeah!"
"Nice to meet you, Hana. I'm Deku."
"I- I know, you're one of my favorite heroes." They're whispering, which feels a little weird since she's already shaking some of the others awake - not harshly, of course, if she'd been shaken awake she probably would have thrown up - but they try to stay quiet anyway.
Below her, Daisuke groans and rolls. And then he winces.
"Urgh," he sounds like he's gagging and Hana panics, hands hovering over him, but he settles after a moment.
His face is screwed up, pinched in pain and all other sorts of things.
And he's dirty. They're all dirty, even Deku, covered in grime and dust and all sorts of things.
She wipes at his face anyway. He's one of the younger ones, she's supposed to take care of him, so she tries to wipe some of the white grime off his cheeks.
It just smears.
And, for a moment, she feels like crying. Her lip trembles and her nose tingles and-
"Hey, Hana?" She looks back to Deku, lips jutted forward in a pout, but she listens.
He's still smiling.
"You see that comm, right by you?" She looks over and it's still squeaking, static breaking through more often than not, and-
Oh. Yeah. It's a comm, Deku needs it. "Could you put it in my ear for me?"
She obeys. She crawls forward; the space isn't that big, not big enough for her to stand, but enough to scrape her knees as she gets closer to him.
But, she hesitates, because the air around Deku is alive. It smells weird as if, were a flame to spark, the building would go with it, and the lightning jumping around him is scary. What if it-
"It's okay, it's just for show," Deku says, and then he smiles, "might make your hair stand up, though. It's a neat party trick."
That makes her laugh (it hurts, makes her cough, too. Her throat is dry but when Deku looks guilty at that, looks like, if he weren't holding up that slab, he would have comforted her, she makes sure to smile right back at him), and then she places the comm in his ear.
"Oh, could you flip that little switch- yes, perfect, thank you, Hana. Now just, take care of the others, would you, please? Make sure they wake up?"
(She doesn't think about the wording, doesn't question it as she works on getting the others to stir, but later she will, and she'll wonder what Deku might have done if they hadn't all woken up.)
As Hana works and the others groan, she lets the soothing voice of Deku fill the air (and when some of them wake up panicked, she just makes sure they see that it's Deku, that Deku's their savior, and they calm right down.)
"Hey, Kacchan-"
"Yes, yes I'm fine. I found them."
"We're- we're in the food court, towards the back. It's-"
"WcDonalds, that's where we..." Again, that smile, and it makes something in Hana's chest loosen.
"The WcDonalds."
Something loud happens on the other end, loud enough for Hana to hear. Deku just winces at it, something odd tugging at his lip, almost apologetic but not quite.
"Yes, I'm fine, I'm-"
"Is that Deku?" Asahi whispers none-too-loudly and it brings Deku to a halt. He scans their little area, poorly lit-up by his quirk, and finds four dirty faces staring back at him. Small faces smudged with dirt, wide eyes glistening with tears.
"Are any of you hurt?" They shake their heads. "How are your heads? Any headaches? Nausea?" They look at each other.
Hana nods, as does Daisuke.
"Okay. I don't want you two moving a whole lot," he says, and when his eyes flick to the side, they turn to look at each other. "I think Hana and Daisuke might have concussions, but I can't really..." The other side's quieter this time.
Hana pauses at that and tentatively feels the back of her head. At first, it's fine, her hair's tangled but it's not-
She winces, a bright, sharp pain shoots through her skull and she whimpers, the world spinning for a second, sloshing together and her fingers come back wet with-
"Hey. Hey, you're okay, it's fine." She looks up at Deku.
She resolutely doesn't look at her fingers, just wipes whatever that is on her pants.
Deku will take care of them. He will.
The building groans, again (it has been for a long, long time, making creepy noises that you're only supposed to hear in horror movies or when it gets late at night, and never that loud ).
Daisuke sobs, curling into himself. Kaede looks at the space, hands feeling the jagged concrete around them.
"We're gonna die, aren't we," he asks, and his voice sounds so detached that if those weren't the words he'd spoken, that would have been scary enough.
Instead, Daisuke and Asahi sob, Asahi curling more into himself, and Daisuke looking so lost, so scared.
Hana just looks to Deku, helpless and hopeful, eyes burning at the rim because if-
"No," Deku says, firm and confident, and it has Asahi and Daisuke unfurling from their bundles, looking up at him with wide eyes. "No, you're not gonna die."
Kaede just stares at Deku, and then he turns with a huff.
Hana can see how his eyes shine in the green light and his cheeks puff up.
She doesn't mention it.
"Are you hurt, Deku?" She asks. He blinks at the question - and maybe to get a bit of the stinging sweat out of his eyes - before smiling.
"That's not something you need to worry about."
She doesn't like that. She doesn't like that one bit. But while he's the source of light, it means the shadows across his body are dark, deep lines that spasm, too irregular to see much of anything.
The building trembles again, and this time, Deku grunts. It's a low sound, something he tries to bite back with gritted teeth, but Hana watches how his legs tremble in their bent form, one of his knees shaking for half a second before steadying, and she watches how his fingers dig into the slab above him, gouging deep lines into the concrete.
She wonders, jaw dropping, how much a building weighs. Her mom would know; she's super smart. She hopes to be as smart as her one day.
"Kacchan, I'm not-"
Something crackles loudly on the other side. It sounds like one of those words she's not allowed to say.
Blindly, she reaches for Kaede's hand, fingers scrambling across the dirty ground and knocking away bits of rubble.
Trembling, dirty fingers find hers and squeeze.
Katsuki is two seconds away from blowing the building up.
There are tons of people in the area, pulling rubble, shouting orders, and three mothers, three mothers and now one husband (and that better be the only husband because if there are others and they're taking their sweet ol' time, Katsuki might have to spend some time in jail for punching a civilian. )
But he still has the comm and an officer at his side ready to relay any important information. All he knows is where they are and that Deku, somehow, found all four kids in time.
"Dynamight!" Katsuki can't help how his body relaxes at that voice, can't help how the tense, pinched muscle on the back of his neck loosens as he turns to see Red Riot and Uravity and Eraserhead.
Of course Eraserhead would come. Even with a few gray hairs - some of which he undoubtedly gave the man - he's still on the field. Will probably stay on the field for as long as he can.
"Status update."
When he hears that, he almost doesn't mind that Eraserhead is taking charge.
It had taken way too long for Deku to respond after the building had collapsed, and he'd rather die than admit he'd gotten a bit frantic, cursing and screaming into the comm, the officers around him both afraid of him and ready to offer their condolences.
They could all go fuck themselves.
"There are four kids in the building," Katsuki says and he witnesses how Aizawa drops, just a bit, and looks for a hint of green in the rescue efforts. He'd known that Deku and Dynamight were patrolling together.
Uravity and Red Riot just look on, brows furrowed with worry.
"Deku found them before it collapsed. He's in there now, with them, and we have confirmation that they're all alive. Two of the kids have concussions, but I don't know what injuries Deku sustained. I know he got hit by that Lizard Fuck before going in there, so at the very least he has a tear in his left side."
At most... fuck, at most Deku could be holding up a building with a broken bone.
And he would, wouldn't he? Because that's what they all know about him. It's why only he could ever be trusted to do something so absurd. Because, sure, there are other heroes with strength quirks, and even Dark Shadow might be able to hold a candle to it, but how many of them would be able to hold it for as long as needed, be it ten minutes or an hour?
Fucking Deku would and that's the only garauntee they have.
"Let me talk to him."
Katsuki hesitates for half a second, fingers curling around the comm, but Eraserhead doesn't push. He just waits, one of his brows cocking as Katsuki huffs and drops the device in the waiting hand.
Because, sure, he and Deku are a duo of sorts, and with enough cursing and teeth-pulling efforts, he'd get the information needed.
Aizawa, though? That man has a sort of chokehold on Deku that's weaseled its way past the self- sacrificial streak.
"Deku, Eraserhead here."
Katsuki tries to ignore the tightness in his chest when he practically feels the sigh on the other end.
Of course Aizawa would make Deku feel better, that just makes sense (but damn if it doesn't make Katsuki feel just that much more helpless, that much more useless. )
Red Riot says something about joining the efforts in removing rubble. Uravity goes with him. Katsuki stays.
"Don't worry, we're gonna get you and the kids out." Katsuki had said that, but he knows it's different, coming from Aizawa.
He thinks that's bullshit but he knows.
(It'd be different for him, too. There's something soothing about that sure tone, something believable even if it were just a logical ruse.)
"On a scale of one to ten, ten being you've broken your back and one being you could keep going for another five hours, where are you?"
And fuck if Katsuki doesn't hold his breath when Aizawa finishes talking.
Because it's not a small building, it really, really isn't, and he doesn't have eyes on Deku; none of them do. He could be in any situation and the only thing they know is that he's somehow protecting four kids and is stubborn enough to keep doing it.
Deku almost cries when he hears Aizawa's voice.
He doesn't, of course, because those kids are staring at him and they are way too perceptive, but
it's a near thing. He has to clear his throat and force the smile to stay.
He's... he's aching. Everywhere. His head's pulsing and he's trying to up his quirk usage by small enough increments so the kids don't notice.
He doesn't really want to think of what percent he's at but the kids have had to close their eyes thanks to the brightness.
Another shift above him has him fighting back a wheeze, his arms shaking. He feels his knees shake, too, threatening to buckle.
(He hopes the kids don't see the blood. He can feel it, though, something wet on his head, the wound in his side still working through his costume. And the back of his thigh, not that he can check, and not that he can really tell what it is beneath the adrenaline and the pain of his upper back, or really, his back in general, but something's wrong. Something's burning.)
His muscles strain against it all, black whip trying to stabilize the edge of the slab, but with each uping of power he's had to dial that back, just a tad. He can feel bruises on his arms from where it's pushing back.
He's never held so many tons of anything and his chest feels constricted under the weight of it all. It had collapsed suddenly. He'd heard it as he'd spotted the kids, and he'd lurched forward as
they'd begun to scream.
He didn't really have the time to prepare himself, not as he'd snapped blackwhip out to make sure all the kids were close enough in a worst-case scenario.
The slab that landed on his back had slammed into him, nearly knocking the air out of him and making him buckle then and there.
Instead, he'd already had his hands up and his quirk on, ready to brace for whatever would hit.
His back hasn't stopped aching and his bones feel like they're grinding against each other, in a slow, sure decline.
Another minor shake and he can feel how his feet sink into the ground, just a bit, but his body trembles with the force of it.
A dribble of sweat - and God does he hope it's sweat and not blood - gets in his eye. It stings and he tries to shake it off.
Instead, the back of his head and his right shoulder explodes with sharp agony, black spots dotting his vision.
He drops his chin to his chest with a weak chuckle (a forced chuckle, far enough away from a wheeze, a grunt or a painful whine, buried well enough that the kids won't notice.)
"Deku, are you okay?"
"I'm just fine, don't you worry," he says with a smile.
It feels easy to pull across his face, and maybe that's because it's for kids, because they deserve to feel safe, but he can feel his spine ache as the building presses harder, each vertebrae fighting to bend, to break.
And he can't.
(The fire in his thigh shoots a sharp pain up his leg, nerves slowly piercing, pulsing with a pain
that's getting harder to ignore.)
He grits his teeth and releases a strained, forced breath from his nose.
"On a scale of one to ten, ten being you've broken your back and one being you could keep going for another five hours, where are you?"
Deku really takes a moment, trying to assess between the weight bearing down on his shoulders and the agony there, the pain in his leg, and the overall feeling of being crushed. It's hard, to say the least.
"I-" he bites his lip as something sharp twinges and shifts in the muscle of his shoulder, the slab pressing down on something though he isn't sure what. "Y'know, I'll go with... seven? Eight?"
Ten was a broken back, eight... eight could be impaled, assuming that's what's wrong with his leg. It's familiar, growing numb only from being ignored but every movement sends something sharp up his body that only an intrusion could do. And he can feel there's something off with his shoulder, though he's afraid to know just what.
The adrenaline will keep him going.
(He's a little tired, though. Breathing's getting harder, though he's trying not to pant. The kids are scared enough as is.)
Someone curses on the other side.
He isn't sure if it's Aizawa or Kacchan.
"Eight? For what?"
He smiles at Asahi, the little kid who'd been two seconds away from a panic attack is now looking up at him, curious and still just as terrified.
Deku smiles.
"Eight out of ten for how long I can hold this, buddy. I think those are pretty good odds, don't you?"
Deku sounds strained, sounds like he's in pain and fighting not to show it. He's probably convinced the children, Shota thinks, but he knows this kid. Knows this hero. And he knows that if Deku sounds like he's in pain, then this is serious.
It doesn't help that he gave an eight out of ten.
"Dynamight, I need an estimate on how long they'll take."
"On it."
Bakugo's gone in a single explosion and Shota watches, jaw flexing as he turns back to the comm. "Dynamight mentioned a wound on your side from the villain."
"Yeah, Godzilla was pretty tricky, but he didn't get my shoulder or leg, so that's good." The next couple of things Deku says are clearly for the children, so Shota tunes him out, instead turning to the officer beside him.
"Deku's injured his side, leg, and shoulder. I'm assuming one of them is broken but I'm not certain which. Probably the shoulder."
The officer nods before turning to his own device.
"Deku-"
"FUCK!"
The shout catches him off guard and he looks up, eyes wide because Bakugo doesn't sound angry. He sounds scared.
The ground trembles, and for a moment, hope blossoms in Hana's chest, because that must mean the heroes are coming! They must be coming to get them, and soon they'll be free and safe.
Only, when she looks to Deku's face, expecting to see one of his reassuring smiles and hear his comforting words, his eyes are screwed shut, teeth gritted and-
-is that blood on his forehead (no, no, it can't be, he wasn't hurt earlier, it must be a trick of the light. He's Deku, he's-)
The ground trembles, again, and a rock rolls on the ground.
Hana thinks, for a moment, that that's not normal.
And then everything shakes.
She falls forward, barely catching herself on the ground, and her palms burn on impact, head pulsing and stomach rolling.
Someone's screaming, she can't tell who. It might be her again.
Everything's moving, shaking, and above them she can hear the rubble shifting, heavy, scraping sounds of concrete rubbing against each other, the whine of metal bending.
It's grating against her ears, deafening until she can't hear anything else, can't feel anything else other than the oppressiveness, as if the weight were on her shoulders and not-
Deku!
She snaps to attention, and the sight gets seared into her mind, figuratively and otherwise, but for the pain it blooms behind her eyes, she can't look away.
Deku's a supernova. He's burning bright, flashes of green sparking off his skin and red glowing underneath, all thrumming with life and energy. She can taste it in the air, can feel the warmth, how her cheeks flush from the proximity and her hairs stand on end with each spark.
She can't tear her eyes away. From the movement around her, she can tell the others are much the same.
Even Asahi stopped screaming, stuck in awe because Deku looks ethereal. Looks powerful. They're mesmerized as lightning arches off his arms and bounds around the space (distracted, distracted and ignorant and in awe of pure power yet unaware of why so much is being exerted.) They watch how his fingers gouge lines into the slab above him and metal soles sink a little further into the floor below.
He's not saying anything, not smiling, either. Instead, he just continues to grit his teeth. Hana can see in the harsh line of his jaw how his muscles flex. She watches sweat roll down his temple and dampen his costume. Watches how it mixes with the blood at his hairline and runs watery pink lines down his cheeks and over his freckles.
He grunts, a low, hoarse sound in the back of his throat, and they can feel how the slab above them shifts, just a little, and they watch how he strains to hold it, legs tense and shaking.
Hana's mouth goes dry as she looks, really looks, and sees his arms trembling, too.
She can't tell if the building's shaking anymore, can't really decide if that matters, because Deku's still gritting his teeth, still tense and straining and panting through his nose, desperate to seem fine when she knows he isn't.
She wonders what the shaking was.
She wonders how long a person can hold tons of concrete. If anyone could do it, it would be Deku, but still, how long?
Kaede gasps and Hana jolts at the sound, before falling, again, as something else shifts. She curls into herself, curbing the nausea for just a little longer, headache a tight, pulsing band around her head.
When she looks back up, one of Deku's knees has fallen, just a bit. He's panting louder now. It's wheezing from his throat, tight and desperate and he's still shaking.
Typically, he settles by now.
A hand, firm and trembling, finds its way into her own and squeezes.
Hana squeezes back.
"-ku!"
Hana, distractedly, feeling far too lightheaded and nerves thrumming with more than excess energy, sweeps her gaze to find that staticy voice.
The comm had fallen again, rolling with each tremor.
She picks it up ( ignoring how bad her hands are shaking and how the first time her fingers curl around it, she drops it.)
Hana holds it near her ear.
"Deku! Are you there? Can you hear me?"
Her mouth's dry when she responds. "H-hello?"
The person on the other end pauses for a short moment, long enough for a shiver of something to shoot down her spine and make her almost drop it again.
She bites her bottom lip, scraping at it with a shuddered inhale.
"Hello. Who's this?"
"M-my name is Han-Hana."
"Nice to meet you, Hana. I'm Eraserhead."
"H-hello, Eraserhead."
" We're gonna get you out soon. How's Deku."
Looking back at him, seeing those still trembling arms, hearing grunts and pants and how his face is screwed up in more than concentration, that bead of bloody-sweat dripping from his chin, it makes her eyes sting.
Lips wobbling, she answers, "Not good, Eraserhead."
A beat of silence.
She tastes salt on her tongue, grimy and dirty and metallic and salty.
Hana sobs.
"Hana, it's okay. We're almost there, I promise. When we get in there, I need you kids to trust us, okay?"
Something shifts to her left. Kaede snaps to attention. Daisuke stutters.
Asahi hasn't looked away from Deku (Asahi looks pale, sick in the toxic green light. She hopes
they're okay; they need to be okay.)
"Eraserhead," she whispers, voice so small and broken that she just cries harder, "I'm scared."
Shota grits his teeth, watching how heroes are desperately creating a tunnel to the group. In the background, Bakugo's making sure the villain stays down. In the commotion of the collapse, the villain had been left to the wayside.
A villain of that size, however, wasn't easy to properly subdue, and since it was abandoned so more officers could aid in the relief efforts, the villain had no difficulty getting back up.
From there, it was easy to target the location of the hero that took it down.
When Bakugo returns to his side, Aizawa's already talking to Hana. A bubble of pride grows in his chest no matter how much he tries to stifle it.
Of course Deku ran in the building. "Eraserhead, what-"
"Eraserhead?" Shota raises a hand and Bakugo shuts his mouth, a snarl on his lips but he waits. "I'm scared."
Shota takes a slow, steadying breath, eyes fluttering closed for a brief, vulnerable moment. He wonders just how bad Deku must look for her to sound this scared.
"Ready?" Someone calls in the distance.
"They're coming through now, kid. You'll be alright."
"Wha-what about Deku? He's-"
"Don't worry about him. Deku's strong. You're doing great." The sniffle on the other side's muffled, crackling thanks to the depth but no less heard.
"Three-"
"Get out of the way, kid." A whispered okay greets him.
"Two!"
Bakugo breaks across the field and is there in a second, standing at the ready, Aizawa running after him.
"ONE!"
Deku honestly can't tell what's happening anymore. Once those tremors had started up and the building had-
Well, it's all become a mix of color and pain. Something's wrong with his back, his shoulder, all of it becoming this wall of pressure and hurt. Someone might be screaming, someone might be crying- hell, it might even be him (he hopes not, he really hopes not, but his throathurts and aches something terrible.) He could feel his muscles tear, his quirk up to a percentage he hadn't wanted to do so close to the kids, and the throbbing in his leg's grown too hot to ignore.
Fuck, he grits his teeth, a distinct mettalic taste flooding his tongue, molars aching, fuck.
He tries to distract himself, and, for the pulsing in his head and the feeling of his bones bending
(breaking? he hopes not, he can't tell- ) and creaking with every move, he cracks open an eye. It's blurry, distorted by the toxic green and-
"Three-"
-he can't really tell what's happening, though the kids look scared-
"Two!"
-they're crying, a few of them looking at him. He hopes he doesn't look too bad but he can't breathe -
"ONE!"
-he just wants to collapse.
The wall bursts inward and Deku's heart stutters, a terrified gasp shaking his chest as his other eye flings open.
It hurts, his headache sharpening at the flood of white light, shadows streaking across his vision where it isn't spotting.
He pants, hard, and warmth pools in his mouth.
Someone's talking, he's sure of it but it's a wall of sound, bouncing around his head as a little more than some odd, muffled concoction. His vision's swimming, the world swaying.
He digs his fingers into the slab (something breaks. A finger? A nail? The slab?)
A kid screams, another's crying, harder, this time, and it pierces through that wall.
He tilts his head a bit, tries to get a read on the room, but he just can't.
Are they okay? Is everything fine? What's happening?
If his head would stop spinning for one second-
"Deku!"
Hearing that coarse, angry tone is like a breath of fresh air.
Deku almost relaxes, and then something sharp in his back twinges, pinching, fierce and bright with pain and he shudders, a hiccup of aching muscles and-
"I need you to trust me, okay?"
He nods, he nods because he can't do much else and he's so tired he doesn't really know what else to do.
(His leg throbs, dull, almost, but steady and burning. ) If this were a hallucination, it's a pretty damn good one. "On the count of three, I need you to drop your quirk." No, the kids-
"The kids are fine, we got them out. On the count of three, I need you to drop it, okay. If you don't, Eraserhead will."
Eraserhead? He's-
"I'm here, Problem Child. Ready?"
No- he grits his teeth, jaw aching at the strain.
"F'ckn'," he pants, something dribbles past his lips, a metallic tang on the back of his teeth, "re'dy."
He misses one (there's been too much counting.) "Two."
He grits his teeth, fingers flexing in the concrete. "Three!"
The absence of his quirk is jarring. His muscles spasm at the loss, body twitching, both too hot and too cold and so empty.
A whine pools in the back of his throat as the pain hits, as if the quirk took the adrenaline with it and he sags.
For a short, terrifying moment, he isn't sure the building won't crush them all, but when strong arms catch him and they aren't immediately buried under tons of concrete, he lets his muscles loosen just a tad more (he tries for the first decent breath in who knows how long. His ribs ache against it, his throat burns, and he wonders if something's more than bruised.)
Someone grumbles beside him. It sounds something like a complaint about his weight, but he doesn't say anything, just lets his head loll onto a shoulder. He can feel his muscles continue to spasm. Someone's shouting nearby, people are counting, and Deku gets an eerie sense of weightlessness (lightheaded, that's-)
Something touches his leg. The pain's fierce, blinding and sharp and- He passes out.
The media has a field day when Dynamight carries Deku out from the rubble. They catch images of the families sobbing, children huddled within a bundle of parents before being taken to ambulances with shock blankets around their shoulders, but their attention stays on Deku.
Deku who's covered in dirt and grime, costume torn and stained with blacks, reds and browns. Ever-smiling Deku who's too exhausted to offer them little more than a limp-handed peace sign.
It makes the crowd scream.
They don't see much, not as much as they'd like (although it wasn't like they were going to get an
interview or anything.) Dynamight has Deku in the ambulance as quickly as possible.
It bends under their collective weight.
The moment Deku's out of view, cameras are snapping every picture they might need and then
they're off.
The headlines flood with Deku, all images of him bloody and tired. Some detail how heavy the building is, some discuss the injuries they'd only had seconds to see, some critique the hero for attempting the feat. That doesn't go well, not with the public and not with the other heroes, but it happens.
Deku's asleep for all of it.
Katsuki doesn't think he'll ever like hospitals. They smell like antiseptic, and the incessant beeping has almost driven him insane on multiple occasions.
And seldom when he's the one in the bed.
For how bright and clean the room is, the nerd's friends have surely taken it upon themselves to make it colorful. There are cards scattered on every available surface, a bouquet of flowers from someone, probably his mom but that's debatable since Katsuki knows she left a card elsewhere, and, for some reason, someone - probably Icy Hot - thought Deku needed another All Might plush.
It's over the top, but at least it isn't the same as always.
Deku woke up a few times, never aware enough to do more than grunt and press into his pillow, drooling out of the corner of his mouth, but the doctors said it was good he'd woken at all.
Katsuki's about to make sure he doesn't fall asleep again if this keeps going (he's been there for days. His friends keep telling him to take a break, that he doesn't need to stay, but patrolling without Deku is different. They're partners. And, anyway, Deku's the sort of idiot that would try to immediately discharge himself if he could.)
Katsuki or Aizawa need to be there , just in case.
A grunt from the bed makes Katsuki look up.
And then there's a long, steady inhale.
Green eyes open slowly - he's used to the drill by now - and while they're a little hazy, they trail from the ceiling to the monitor and, finally, to Bakugo.
"You awake for good this time?" Katsuki gruffly asks. Izuku snorts at that, a short thing that's too weak for comfort.
He feels... odd, the sort of strange detachedness that comes from being on too many pain meds and too much sleep. His eyelids droop and he lets his head roll to the side so he can properly look at Katsuki.
"How l'ng?" His tongue's heavy, he muses, and smacks his lips a few times, trying to get used to how thick it feels in his mouth.
Katsuki snorts.
"Three days. They've had you hopped up on so many pain meds, I wasn't sure you'd recognize me when you woke up." Izuku just chuckles at that, a tired, weak gesture, but it's the most him he's been in days and Katsuki can't help but relax when he sees it.
As Izuku's eyes narrow, Katsuki already knows what he's gonna ask.
"The kids are fine." He points his chin and Izuku slowly follows it, eyes drifting over the absurd amount of gifts and - is that an All Might plush? Does he not have that one? - the colors start to blend together, but he finds what he's looking for.
Settled on a table, all by itself (and probably why most gifts are fighting for space in the room) is a set of cards quite unlike the rest.
They're on colorful construction paper, images from crayons and colored pencils and eloquent, adult writing visible even from where Izuku's laying. There's even a balloon floating above, a Get Well Soon! shining brightly on it.
"You're in the hero wing, so they couldn't really come to see you. The kids have been... distraught."
Izuku's face scrunches at that (and it takes way too much energy, makes his next breath heavy in his chest until he sinks a little deeper into the pillow) and he whines.
"They're fine nerd, just upset. They'll get over it, and the quicker you get better, the quicker you can see them," Katsuki says, crossing his arms with a huff.
When he looks back, there's something in his eyes Izuku can't quite place, not with how hazy the world's gotten. He tries to ask but it sounds like a mumble, even to his own ears.
As he falls asleep, he hears Katsuki curse. "Shit, I was supposed to call the nurse."
When Deku finally gets discharged (after a week, and that's a long time for a limelight hero, especially one as resilient as Deku,) he's met with a crowd of reporters.
Somehow, they'd gotten a tip that he'd be let out today. He doesn't really mind it, though.
He needed that week. With the pain meds and his muscles being absolutely shot, the mandatory bed rest was a godsend, but he'd also like to get the media's questions out of the way, especially when they're so inevitable. They stare at him like sharks, hungry for anything.
A few of them are familiar. A lot of them, actually.
He is Hero Deku, after all, and he's known as the sort of polite hero that can't really say no to questions after a fight (he's gotten in trouble for that. A lot, actually, between Dynamight being his typical screaming self and any medical professionals scolding him for not immediately getting treatment.)
One of his arms is in a sling, a bandage around his thigh, hidden beneath sweatpants. Cameras flash in front of him and he smiles, his other hand offering a half wave. "Hero Deku, Hero Deku!"
"Tell us, did you know the building was-"
"Is it true you broke your-"
"Hero Deku, did you not properly subdue-"
"ONE AT A TIME YOU DAMN PIRANHAS! "
Oh, yes, Katsuki decided to be there when he was discharged.
(He didn't say why, and Izuku didn't ask; it would go the same both ways. He'd also demanded to be there when the doctor finally gave Izuku a status update, a rundown of injuries and the healing process, and Katsuki had gruffly demanded for a copy of what he should and shouldn't be permitted to do in the meantime.
It made Izuku sigh, but when Katsuki goes into what Denki calls 'Mama Bear Mode,' it's better to just let it happen. After all, 'bear' is in there for a reason.)
Deku smiles, thanks the pomeranian, and turns to one of those familiar faces.
"Hasegawa?" She blinks at him, and then she smiles, journal raising in her hands.
"Hero Deku." She bites back her smile a bit (overly excited, for a moment, because she'd only interviewed him once and he remembered her name? He recognized her on sight? ) "Is it true you continued to hold that building with a broken shoulder?"
Well, to start off, Deku, you have a fractured scapula. Honestly, we're surprised you managed for so long, although I assume it caused great pain any time you moved-
"Ah, yes," Deku says with a sheepish grin, one hand going up to the back of his neck. The other reporters work, scribbling furiously before their hands shoot up. "Tanaka?"
Tanaka clears his throat and pointedly ignores the use of his name (or tries to, at least, but he can't help the red flush across his cheeks,) "Is it true you were not only injured from you fight with Godzilla, but that you, in the rubble, got impaled?"
Deku smiles at the question and nods. "Yes, that is true, though there wasn't anything life threatening."
-piece of rebar got in the back of your left thigh, a few inches deep but it didn't hit anything major. You were lucky for that.
Deku then finds a reporter he hadn't worked with before, and he just politely nods to them. They perk up, look around, and settle with a smug grin.
"Hero Deku, did you not properly subdue the villain Godzilla before-"
"DEKUUUU!" The scream carries, shrill and sharp enough to make them all pause (Deku's grateful for it. He knows he subdued Godzilla, but hearing that it got back up would, in the eyes of the media, reflect poorly on him and Dynamight and he did not want to deal with that just yet.)
Izuku perks up at the familiar voice and plenty of reporters catch the sunshine smile that breaks across his face.
Soon, little bodies are making their way through the crowd, forcing themselves past the adults. Behind, four mothers and a father (Bakugo sneers when he sees one of them) are apologetic but doing just the same.
" Deku! " The shout's muffled with a sob, and Deku, slowly, carefully and more than aware of his injuries, lowers to the ground with his arm extended.
They don't slam into him, rather, when they break through the line of adults, they stumble to a halt.
Deku hadn't really seen the kids, not clean, at least, and not in good lightning.
Hana looks just like her mom, with a glossy curtain of dark hair and dark eyes compressed with a
smile. Her cheeks are glowing red, flushed bright and only getting redder as her eyes gloss over. "Come 'ere," Izuku says softly, hand lowering as he smiles at her.
Hana sobs, and then she stumbles towards him, practically falling into him. She scrambles, fingers digging into his sleeves, tightening in the fabric on his back and burying her face in the crook of his neck.
He soothes her with a soft voice, his free hand running over her head, a soft, gentle pet. Then he turns to the boys.
Kaede has a mutation of sorts with tiny horns poking from shaggy hair. Izuku only knows which one he is because he's half turned away from him. There are tears in his inky eyes.
He reminds Izuku of Kota, especially with how the thin tail at his back shakes when Deku calls out to him.
When Kaede looks up at him, he scans Deku up and down before sagging and, with more tears in his eyes, tells Deku that he's glad he's okay.
The beaming smile Izuku sends him makes the kid look away again (Izuku almost laughs, almost snorts, almost coos at how utterly precious he is, but he doesn't.)
And then there's Daisuke and Asahi. Asahi's holding tight to their older brother, knuckles red and tears streaming down dark cheeks. Daisuke doesn't look much better but he can't very well bury himself in Asahi's side.
Slowly, Izuku lowers his good knee to the ground, eyes not straying far from the siblings.
"Come on." Hana shifts when she hears that, a reddened eye peeking out from Deku's shoulder. With a sniffle, she reaches out as well.
Asahi goes first, big tears rolling down their cheeks as they duck between Hana and Deku, burrowing into Deku's chest and twisting their fingers in the fabric of his shirt.
Izuku starts to feel a wet patch soak through the shirt (it's Katsuki's shirt, anyways, he'll let him deal with the mess).
Awkwardly, he reaches around to rub at the kids back before the others join.
By the time their parents arrive, they're a tangle of limbs centered mostly around Deku's uninjured side, the sling left untouched. He's whispering reassurances into their ears, rubbing at their backs and running gentle, scarred fingers through their hair, praising their bravery and calling them good kids.
It's a domestic scene that the reporters don't dare interrupt, not when they see the serene smile on the hero's face.
Deku's seen with children a lot; they like to stop him on the street to take pictures and touch the
ears of his costume, and it's always a precious sight. He always softens for them, always talks to them, answers any questions they have and asks them about their favorite hobbies or heroes. He loves when they give him cards or fanart, or ask him to sign their DEKU! gear.
He doesn't fluster with kids the way he does with adults.
So, the reporters take a picture or two, but they know they won't get his attention again. Most of them leave, some of them linger, watching on with warm eyes and heavy hearts.
"Deku." He looks up, fingers delicately getting tangles out of Hana's hair, Kaede's tail wrapped around his upper arm.
His mother fights back a smile at the sight and meets her wife's gaze. "Thank you," she says thickly, a tight smile stretching across her face.
Deku scans the parents. The husband and wife, his arm around her shoulders, and the two wives with tightly held hands, eyes not straying far from the little tsundere. Hiding behind them with tears in her eyes is Izumi, or at least that's the name Izuku remembers. Her skin's darker than either of her boys, and she's alone, although Hana's mother's holding her hand.
(Behind Deku, Katsuki glares lightly at Kaede's other mother. He hadn't seen her at the scene, but he'll give her the benefit of the doubt. For now, at least. Even he wouldn't ruin this moment.)
He talks with the parents for a bit. There's a lot of crying, a mix of gratitude and unneeded apologies, and, at the tailend, when the kids have grown tired with dehydrated headaches and burning eyes, he signs everything the parents had brought and tells them to stop by the agency any time (especially during the next couple of weeks; he'll be bored, he says with a well-meaning wink.)
When he sends the kids off, he does so with a smile (and he stays down, one knee on the floor, Bakugo lightly pressing his legs to his back), and he waves until they're out of sight.
As Katsuki helps him stand (and his thigh throbs as he does so), he wonders if any of those kids don't have a quirk. Wonders about those parents and children and hopes, deeply and desperately, that they're the sort of people he's been fighting for since before he got a quirk.
He hopes they'll visit, too. Hopes they'll entertain him with their favorite heroes (who, for all of them, is him, but he doesn't know that just yet and he'll get flustered over it) and he wants to talk to them about the future. He hopes that, if any of them are thinking of UA or any hero school, that they'll let him help them.
He has a soft spot for that group of strong, unique, good kids (he has a soft spot for any kid, really, but them especially.)
And, if, a year or so down the line, Kaede - of all the kids - texts him saying the Takahashi siblings want to see him, he does. And if he makes it to the park and sees Daisuke with a comforting hand on his sibling's shoulder, a confident yet worried smile on his face, Izuku offers them privacy until they notice him.
And, if Asahi walks up to him without their brother, fingers twisting in the hem of their shirt but head up as they ask, voice trembling and hopeful but also scared, if someone without a quirk can be a hero, well, no one needs to know Deku's voice was a little thick when he said yes.