Heavy breathing was all he could hear. It echoed in his mind, the only sound present within his dreamland. Izuku's body was full of a sensation that felt familiar, yet so unknown. The thing he could link it too, was the sensation of when he first used One For All, but it felt as though that was being undone. He felt hot and cold at the same time, and although he was sure he'd fallen asleep in his bed, the faint sight of the city faded into view, like he was laying on the floor, looking up at the sky.
It was in ruins. Buildings were destroyed and there were scattered plumes of smoke towering up to the dark sky. What was going on? Was this a dream?
"Now, it's your turn... Young Midoriya..." The voice of All Might resonated in his ears, echoing in and out like the voice of a stereotypical phantom.
"The flames of One For All... That remained in me, are dying. It is up to you now- my successor, to take the torch, and carry it into a new future..."
What was he talking about? The flames of One For All that remained in him were dying? The sensation from before was growing even stronger, like One For All was being sucked from his body. It was then, that a hand reached up onto view, but the hand was not one that belong to Midoriya. It was frail and boney, shaking as he reached up to the sky and clenched a fist. He recognised it instantly as All Might's. It was unmistakable.
"Now... It's your turn..." His voice was growing weaker, and the hand fell back out of view.
The scene within his mind was fading, and as soon as it had fell to black, Izuku felt himself jolt awake. The greenette sat bolt upright, gasping for breath and staring into the darkness of his room with wide eyes.
What the hell was that! He yelled at himself, wiping his sweaty forehead and brushing his fringe back with his fingers. Sure enough, he was still in his bed; still dressed in his pyjama bottoms with Mina peacefully sleeping at his side, her shirt twisted in an awkward way from her fidgeting and her underwear on show.
Izuku let out a groan and a sigh, dragging his hand down his face and pulling his knees up to his chest, resting his head on them.
"Mmmmnhh... Midori? What... What time is it?" Mina asked between long stretch, forcing her arm between the gap of his legs and his stomach and hugging herself to him.
"Are... Are you okay?" She asked softly, opening his eyes and seeing his clearly troubled face for the first time.
"Y-Yeah... I'm sorry, I just had a bad dream..." A guilty feeling Izuku responded, shaking his head and resting his head back on his knees?
"Aww, baby..." The Acid Quirk user cooed, pushing herself up onto her knees, smiling at him through her incredibly messy hair as she allowed herself another satisfying stretch.
"You're soaking wet..." She added softly, already sounding more awake after lifting her hand to his face, tracing his cheek with her thumb. "Come on... Let's go clean you up, you can't sleep like that." Mina instructed softly, manoeuvring her legs off the side of the bed before pushing herself to her feet.
"Sorry for waking you up..." Izuku muttered, following her lead and getting up out of bed as she adjusted her panties and her shirt with sounds of relief.
"Mm-mh, no, shut up." She ordered, taking his hand in hers as she grabbed her phone from his desk, and turned on the torch so they could navigate through the dark home.
"The bathrooms that way..." Izuku chuckled sheepishly as a still drowsy Mina quickly corrected the direction they were headed, leading him through the halls and into the dark bathroom.
"I'm not turning the light on, we'll go blind." Mina stated as she slid the door to the bathroom across, and the two headed inside. Izuku closed the door behind them as Mina took her hand from his, setting her phone down on the edge of the empty bath with the torch facing up, illuminating the room in a dim blue light.
"Come on, sit down." She instructed softly, pointing to the stool in the corner of the room as she grabbed a bowl from beside the bath, and a flannel from the top of the towel rack. As Izuku retrieved the stool, and dragged it toward centre of the bathroom, Mina carefully began filling the bowl with a mix of hot and cold water, dropping the flannel into it before making her way over after a few seconds.
"Take your PJ bottoms off, they'll get wet." She requested with a small sweet grin.
"They'll be alright-..."
"Come on, I won't cop any cheeky feels, I promise." Mina joked with a quiet giggle. Izuku let out a sigh before getting up, pulling off his pyjama bottoms and folding them over his arm, setting them on a shelf beside the sink before returning to the stool. He heard Mina mutter something under her breath, but he couldn't make out what it was. However, by the way she was looking him up and down, it was probably something inappropriate.
"What happened then? What was this bad dream about?" She asked softly, removing the flannel from the bowl and ringing it out, before gently placing it on Izuku's back and beginning to wipe his body down.
"I... I don't really know. I-I think I was... All Might." He started, relaxing as Mina's soft hands carefully held him, and she tenderly traced his back with the damp cloth.
"You were All Might? That sounds pretty cool to me." She commented in the pause Izuku had unintentionally provided by revising the dream.
"It would be, but... I think he was hurt? He was... W-Well... I was laying on my back in the city, staring up at the sky. It all looked destroyed, and it felt like my Quirk was being taken from me. Then I heard All Might's voice. He said something like 'the flames of One For All are dying', and that it was my turn to 'carry the torch into a brighter future', or something like that..." Izuku explained, being sure to keep his voice quiet as to not wake his mother.
Considering how recent the dream was, it was very hazy in his tired mind. He couldn't quite remember it in vivid detail, but he was pretty sure that what he had said just then was quite close. Mina was silent, still wiping her boyfriend down with careful hands as she pondered what to say.
"It sounds to me like stress it getting to you. I know you very well at this point, and I can tell when you're stressed. You've got a lot of pressure on you, and you don't help yourself by applying even more. I think you're just driving yourself crazy." Mina responded finally, her gentle voice serenading his ears as he allowed her to tend to him.
"I-... It could be..." Izuku said with a sigh. "But something about the feeling I had was really strange. It was the same as when I was first given One For All, but the other way around. It's what I imagine dying to feel like... All the sounds got muffled, and it felt like my body was sinking into nothing..." Izuku elaborated upon the feeling further. Mina's movements on his back stopped, and he could hear her swallowing saliva in the silent bathroom.
"That's... Dark..." She muttered, before continuing to clean him up. "I don't know hun, it really does sound like stress to me. You're putting way to much pressure on yourself, I think. Then again, I also think that some dreams do have meaning, so I'm not really sure what to tell you." Mina was clearly trying her best to help him feel better, but it was also obvious that she wasn't sure what to say.
"W-What if something really has happened to him, Mina. You know about his injury, and that he had to pass on One For All because his body is getting weaker. What if..." Izuku stammered, anxiety beginning to flood his stomach.
"What if he's really not okay..." He added finally. Mina didn't say anything in response, but set the flannel down in the water bowl, before making her way around him and crouching in front of him.
"Stop panicking." She instructed, before gently pulling him into a kiss. It lasted a few seconds before she pulled away, holding her head in her hand and smiling happily at him.
"I'm sure everything is okay." She added softly, kissing him once more before moving around him again, and picking the flannel up out of the bowl.
Something about the dream felt too real to ignore. It was not a feeling he could describe, but there was something deep within his being that was panicking at the subtle red flags of this event. He believed Mina when she said it could be stress, because he was indeed very stressed, but she was never going to understand quite what it was he was feeling, even if he wanted her too. No-one would understand, accept All Might.
He would see him tomorrow. They would go back to U.A, and return to their classes, and he would be able to clear this up with All Might in person. Perhaps it was a similar situation to when he had seen the apparitions during the Sports Festival?
What was the point in making silly assumptions like that? He was a nightmare for overthinking things, but this felt like something that shouldn't be ignored. He just needed to relax, and enjoy his and Mina's time together before returning to school.
"You feelin' better?" Mina whispered suddenly, startling the greenette from his thoughts.
"Y-Yeah, a little bit. Thank you, Mina." Izuku replied as she, again, moved around Izuku and started wiping down his front.
"Oh. I can do that-."
"No, I will." Mina cut him off again, firing him a grin as she continued her cleaning. Izuku let out a defeated sigh and straightened his posture so she had easier access to his front.
"I kinda miss the dorm..." Mina changed the subject, obviously to try and take her partners mind off what was troubling him.
"Me too, I miss everyone there. It feels weird being away from them after spending so much time with them these last few months." Izuku agreed, letting out a sigh and rolling his head back, relaxing and smiling at the ceiling.
"Still, it's been fun having time just to us. This is technically the only time we've spend together without anyone else around." Mina cooed, gently rubbing her hand up from Izuku's knee to his hip with a chuckle. Startled but the action Izuku jumped, recoiling a little bit before a chuckle escaped his lips.
"S-Sorry, I don't know why that still makes me nervous." He responded, genuinely apologetic. Mina shook her head, resting her hand on his leg and cocking her head sweetly.
"'Cause you're a shy lil' baby." She giggled. "Maybe we could work on those nerves? We should make the most of our time alone, doncha agree?" She flirted, repeating the action up his leg, dropping the flannel to the floor and creeping closer to him, their noses almost touching.
"I-I do, but what is my mother needs to use the bathroom? I-I'm not sure if this is a good idea..." Izuku stammered nervous, although by the way he had pulled her even closer, it was safe to assume he really did agree with the idea.
"So let's go back to your room then. Nowhere more private than there, right?" She whispered, raising her eyebrows at him in a flirty manner, before getting to her feet with the bowl of water, walking over to the sink, and emptying it. Izuku stared after her, his stomach filled with new anxiety. It wasn't that he didn't want to be more intimate with Mina, but he really didn't feel like now was the best time for it.
"Well... Obviously nothing has to happen if you don't want it to. I know it might be a bad time right now..." Mina spoke up again, looking over her shoulder at him.
"Huh? N-No, I do want stuff to happen. I want us to be more... I-Intimate... But I don't know if I can focus right now... I feel sickly nervous..." Izuku responded softly, trying to smile at her, but only managing an awkward and shaky grin at best.
"Well, if you do, just make a move, I won't mind." She grinned, grabbing her phone and taking his hand as she headed back over, before leading him out of the bathroom, and back to his room. He'd feel like an idiot not to capitalise on this situation, but this wasn't the time; He didn't have the mental capacity for that sort of thing in this moment.
This dream didn't feel like a dream, or rather, a nightmare at all. It felt like a warning, and Izuku knew better than to gloss over these gut feelings after all he'd been through. Just what had happened tonight?
Izuku woke the next morning to see Mina, sitting upright in bed staring down at her phone with a stark, absent expression. She looked like she had seen a ghost, her mouth slightly agape as she looked over whatever was on her screen.
"Mmmh... Mina?" Izuku started softly, rubbing his eyes and stretching. "Are you alright?"
Mina jolted a little, startled from her trance, and pressed her phone to her chest.
"M-Midori... Ummm... J-Just, check your phone..." Mina said, shaking her head and grabbing his phone from the sideboard, handing it to him.
"What?" He stated simply, staring at her as he took his phone, and turned it on. The screen was flooded with notifications from both the news, and the Class 1-A group chat, which caught his eye first.
'Uraraka: Does Deku know...' Was the first thing he read. His stomach dropped upon reading that single notification, and just as he unlocked his phone, the screen changed to show an incoming call from an unknown number. He tapped the answer button before bringing it up to his ear.
"Midoriya? It's Aizawa." The Erasure Quirk user's voice met his ear instantly.
"Aizawa? I just checked my phone, it's flooded with messages and new alerts. What happened? Izuku asked all at once, his tired brain still trying to catch up with everything that was going on.
"It's all Might. I need you to come by the Hospital as soon as possible. If Ashido is there, bring her too." He instructed.
Izuku's mind fell immediately blank, and his hand fell to his side. It was a warning... He knew it...
He didn't bother hearing anything else Aizawa had to say, hanging up the phone and placing it back onto the bedside table before getting up out of bed.
Izuku? Honey?" Mina asked softly.
"We're going to the Hospital..." Izuku stated quietly. He didn't look at Mina as he grabbed his pyjama shirt and pulled it on.
"Okay." Mina replied. There was no way she was going to let him go alone, not if what the news said was true. From what she'd seen in her time with him, Izuku wasn't great and sharing his stresses with others, so this time she was going to be sure she was there so he had no choice but to share it with her.
Izuku, although very clearly agitated, patiently waited for Mina to dress and ready herself before the two of him left his room, and headed for the door. With term two starting up tomorrow, this was not the way she was expecting to spend it.
"Izuku? Ashido? You two are up early." Inko spoke up, startling the two. It was then, after looking the two over, that she realised something had happened and her cheery face fell.
"What happened?" She asked, concern clear on her face.
"Something's happened to All Might..." Izuku muttered, continuing to the door and resting his hand upon the handle.
"Oh? What's is it darling?" Inko asked, starting in their direction.
"What's what I'm going to find out... I'm sorry, mum... I've got to go..." Izuku sniffed, before pulling the front door open.
"Stop, I will go with you. I'm not going to let you go alone." Inko stated sternly, maroon red cardigan from the back of the kitchen chair.
"Are you sure... I'm not sure what condition he is in..." Izuku responded quietly.
"I want to be there for you. What I might see doesn't matter. Besides, I don't think hearing about some of the injuries you've dealt with will be lesser than this. Come on, let's go." She explained with a confident smile, ruffling her sons hair as she took her handbag from the hook beside the door, and led Mina and Izuku out into the cool morning air.
Mina audibly shivered, wrapping herself in her arms as they started down the stairs to the Taxi Stop, but Izuku didn't feel it at all. He knew last night was more than just a bad dream. Did this mean he lost against All For One? It would be stupid of him to say that he could have changed this outcome if he was there. He was far to weak, and still did not have even close to enough combat experience to have helped, but even so. He couldn't help but feel All Might's misfortune had come about because of him. It was a selfish way to think...
"Midori, stop. I know exactly what you're thinking." Mina perked up. Izuku didn't response with anything but a sigh, looking at the floor as they made their way to the bus stop beginning their, what felt like an eternal wait, for the bus to the Hospital.
A/N: Hello everyone. I apologise for this very short chapter, but I really wanted to just get it posted and give you all something to read that would keep your interest peaked. The next chapter will be larger and fuller, and with my motivation for writing returning, the wait shouldn't be as drawn out. The continued support this story has received is overwhelming, and I cannot express my appreciation enough. Thank you all for reading, and I hope you will stick around for more. See you soon!