Izuku couldn't wait and was practically sprinting from the seaport after he got off the boat because that morning he had gotten word from Joseph, the guy he had left in charge running of the new farm that he had finally acquired five little lambs, their five mothers, and a pair of rams that he could meet now that they were settled, something he really wanted to do since he admittedly also had a soft spot for sheep mainly due to his mom's love for them.
He was just about to reach the train station when someone called out "Oi Deku!" and Izuku stopped on his heel and then turned on a dime, there leaning a truck was Setsuno looking marketably better than when he met the blonde last week "Setsuno-San!" Izuku cried dashing over and hugging the guy "Christ kid, it has only been a week." Setsuno said with an amused huff as he hugged the kid back.
"And I missed you." Izuku countered hugging the guy tighter "We texted every night since then." Setsuno pointed out making Izuku pout back at him though the blonde just chuckled roughly ruffling his curls.
Setsuno while a recent and very last-minute addition to the staff of Izuku's farm but he was greatly appreciated him when Setsuno ultimately decided he just couldn't kill himself and Izuku offered him a job with room and board as a farmhand, given how Izuku found him he traded numbers with Setsuno and would text him time from time and the conversions were pretty deep since Setsuno allowed him to talk about something never could before.
His thoughts on suicide and his past attempt were things he had bound in plastic wrap and buried as deep as he possible could since he knew no one in his life could ever know without freaking out, with Setsuno however he could talk about it unafraid of any form of judgement or attempts to comfort him about being in such a dark place, instead Setsuno gave him an open platform to express his thoughts and be met with an equal point of view since Setsuno had also considered doing that.
People can bond over suicidal thoughts and actions pretty well if how attached he had become over Setsuno was anything to go by, then again he could just get incredibly attached to anyone that gives him positive attention... it was probably the latter but Setsuno had to be just as attention-starved because Setsuno was attached to him as well.
"Figured you'd want to get there as fast you can, so get in Deku." Setsuno commented pointing to the truck and Izuku rapidly nodded his head "Yes! Thank you, Setsuno-San." Izuku told the blonde as he rushed around to jump into the passenger side "No problem boss man, had to pick up some things for the farm anyways." Setsuno replied brushing it off.
The truck was large enough that it could be used for Юрий-сан to comfortably lay in the back and had quite a few attachments that Izuku had no clue what they could be for, though given the rough mountain like terrain they had to drive through Izuku wasn't all too surprised and just bobbed his head along to the station Setsuno had set the radio to.
Neither of them felt the pressing urge to fill the silence with speech and Izuku had a pleasant ride up to the farm enjoying the scenery he usually couldn't see from the train, and of course since he was watching the world go by he could see when they were pulling up to the farm and was giddy, fully ready to pet and interact with his new sheep.
A rail thin man with a possum quirk by the gates repairing a pole had noticed them and opened the gate for them, Izuku beamed at him and waved as they passed and he got one back from the man in return, then like a truly unruly child Izuku didn't wait a single second and jumped out of the truck as soon as Setsuno turned the engine off and rushed off to where he remembered the barn was.
Joseph, a rather ill-looking and scruffy man stood by a water pump with two buckets had, of course noticed when Izuku approached "Hey Deku, did Uno bring you up?" Joseph wheezed and Izuku stopped nodding "Yeah, I'm sorry for being so wound up but, sheep." he told the man getting a breathless laugh that would've sounded mirthless to anyone else, but Izuku knew it was only sounded like that because of Joseph's quirk.
"I should've known you'd be like this once I told you. C'mon, I was just about to fill their water trough." Joseph said grabbing the buckets and able to carry them since his sickly look was just that, a look.
Not needing any more prompting Izuku dutifully followed Joseph and nearly burst from the seams when the sheep's' paddock was in sight and he could see five different white and black sheep standing by the fence with the rest dotted around the enclosure "Remember not to grab the babies' horns, they're too fragile." Joseph reminded him opening up the gate to the paddock allowing Izuku to finally get to play with the sheep.
Carefully Izuku approached one of the sheep that didn't have a lamb beside it and held his hand out to the animal, the sheep's ears wiggled and it shook it's head before stepping closer and butting their head against his hand, the sheep's wool was coarser then one would expect but that was fine, one of his workers here could make things softer with their quirk which was why Izuku hadn't cared about how soft the wool itself was.
Izuku smiled and started petting the sheep in earnest and scratched behind the sheep's ears which the animal seemed to appreciate significantly given it pressed even closer to Izuku for more.
"Geeze Deku, you could've at least waited for me to get out of the car before you ditched me." Setsuno teasingly commented walking over with a pail of green leaves "But sheep." Izuku playfully whined but got back to petting when the sheep butted their head against his hands.
"Well, if you would've waited, I'd have shown you there was a way to get them all to come over to ya Deku." Setsuno explained before he took a whistle blew it in two short bursts while holding up the pail, all the adult sheep turned to Setsuno and seconds later they were all moving towards them "Here, they love this comfrey stuff." Setsuno told Izuku offering him a handful of the leaves.
Taking it Izuku offered one to his current companion and feed them by hand which got him a pleased meh from said sheep, and of course spent the next few minutes fawning over small herd and he felt comfortable to sit with them surrounding him, though as much as he wanted to Izuku reframed from petting the lambs since he wasn't sure he had bonded with the ewes enough to feel safe trying to do that just yet.
But there was this feeling that had been nagging at him since Setsuno had come into the paddock, the blonde was being oddly quiet and Setsuno's nose scrunched up as different emotions passed over his face, Setsuno let his head hang with a sigh before he turning to Izuku "Listen Deku," Setsuno said and Izuku suspected he knew what the blonde wanted to say.
"You want to leave, don't you?" Izuku guessed catching the blonde off-guard "I, yeah... was I that obvious?" Setsuno asked sitting next to Izuku.
Izuku, a little disheartened at being right, shook his head "No, but it wasn't that big of a leap to assume." Izuku explained forcing himself not to focus on anything but the sheep he was petting.
Setsuno sighed again running a hand through his hair "It ain't because of you Deku, you've been good, like really good to me. Letting me stay here and even paying me despite me know fuck all about farming but I just... fuck." Setsuno said struggling to find the right words.
"Don't want to push your problems off on me and want to try and stand on your own feet for once?" Izuku reasoned out and Setsuno scoffed "You just love to take the words right out of my mouth don't you Deku?" the blonde sassed back and Izuku shrugged.
"It's just kind of easy to slip back into the headspace I used to be in, I mean, I've spent so much of my life kind of sitting on the edge that it's hard to remember a time I'm not there anymore, even now it's hard... " Izuku admitted a touch morose, he often struggled with self-care, specifically in the fact where he probably got more hurt than he needed to when he was helping his students.
"If you want to leave then I won't stop you Setsuno, but your still in a pretty unbalanced place mentally speaking, so you should be careful about your future relationships." Izuku advised.
Setsuno scoffed "Yeah, I ain't going to be rushing back into any romances, learned my lesson there." Setsuno promised just a little bitterly "That's not what I mean Setsuno, one of the hardest things I had to learn once I got help was not falling into in an unhealthy relationship with anyone, not just with a romantic partner." Izuku clarified and Setsuno's eyes narrowed from his confusion.
"People whom survived abusive relationships are statistically more vulnerable to fall into another abusive relationship since their self-esteem and mental strength has already been torn down by someone else, something that makes it very easy to fall into another bad relationship, romantic or platonic." Izuku elaborated turning fully to Setsuno.
"If I had to put in into prospective think of it like this Setsuno; a man leaves his wife because she was cheating on him, physically abusive, forced him to do all the work, and took all his money. That man meets another woman that makes him do all the work and takes most of his money but that's okay because she doesn't hit him or sleep around like his last wife." Izuku laid out for Setsuno.
"That man settles for a woman that is still abusive but not as abusive because in his mind what counts as normal in a relationship is far from everyone else's. Me for instance as a quirkless person would be lucky to live to see my twenty-first birthday as an international average due to quirkism, which is an objectively horrifying fact since in Switzerland it's proven that quirkless people can and do live just as long as quirked people." Izuku commented off-handedly throwing in some quirkless trivia since the stats there was always good for comparison.
"I've personally struggled with this, there are a lot of things that someone could do to me, and I wouldn't care about it when most people would be enraged. You could right now, punch me in the face and break my nose and I would not care at all because my standards are low, if you did that three years ago then I would've apologize to you because back then because I didn't have any standards period." Izuku confessed turning his hand over and glancing over the skin that was slightly lighter due to the burn from Dabi back in April.
Izuku let out a deep exhale "Sorry for trauma dumping Setsuno, but I just want you to be aware of the risks and be careful when you leave since it would be very easy for someone to take advantage of you because their 'not that bad.'" Izuku said finishing off his rant with his hands reaching out for the sheep that had just laid it's head in his lap.
Setsuno shook his head "Nah, it's not that bad... well, a bit wordy maybe but I appreciate you being concerned over me Deku." Setsuno replied rubbing the back of his neck "And I'll try to keep that in mind, okay kid?" Setsuno told Izuku softly bumping Izuku's side with his elbow.
Relieved Izuku exhaled feeling a massive weight off his shoulders "Thank you Setsuno, I'll get some things put together for you so you don't have to start from rock bottom again, would helping you find a place be too much?" Izuku asked and Setsuno huffed bemused.
"Yeah, just a bit... I'll take a ticket to the main island though." Setsuno compromised "You'll have more opportunities there." Izuku mused with a nod "Maybe, if you can find some decent jobs you might be able to get out of the red within ten years." Izuku encouraged and Setsuno had a tight smile "That's the hope." the blonde responded.
"You can always come back here, or to any of my properties for that matter if things don't work out, Setsuno." Izuku promised and Setsuno's smile turned soft "Thanks Deku." Setsuno muttered just loud enough for him to hear and Izuku beamed at him, then Izuku continued to pet the sheep around him.
The breed of sheep I chose for Izuku's farm is called Valais blacknose sheep, a breed I chose because they more adapt at living in cold mountain areas and would be able to survive the area better.