Heroes, Vigilantes, and Villains

Chapter five

In the morning I woke up to a dull beeping noise that sounded like my alarm clock going off. But the noise was too quiet... it felt so much farther away than it should've. When I opened my eyes, a wave of pain took over my body, large enough to cause a groan to escape my lips. It was the first time in a long time that pain had any effect on me. Everything felt hot, but I couldn't find the energy to move the sheets off of me.

I don't know when the door opened, or when the beeping noise finally stopped for good. I just felt the cool hand touch my forehead before quickly pulling back. I tried to move from the bed, knowing that I had to get to school, but something pushed me back down before I could even pull the sheets away from my skin.

It sounded like someone mumbled something, but I couldn't tell what.

There was an odd sound as the world became dark again, the blinds closing, maybe. Something cool was laid on my head, the sensation soothing enough to draw me back to sleep

—-

When I woke up again, evening light was drifting into my room. I groaned slightly, sitting up and throwing the sheets off of me, only to replace them with my hoodie. Everything felt slow and groggy. Heavy. It was as if life was moving in slow motion around me.

Stumbling out of my room, I grasped on desperately to the walls around me. Everything was spinning slightly as I tried to move, but that small bit of spinning was enough to make me almost collapse on the ground beneath me.

"Ah, Izuku!" My mother screamed in shock, rushing towards me. Her face was laden with concern for some reason. "You shouldn't be out of bed! How are you feeling?"

I blanched back from the sudden loud noise, everything had been so quiet up till now. I took a moment to consider the question, really it wasn't a hard one to answer.

"Like crap," I decided. The answer was crued, sure, but I really didn't have the energy to worry too much about being polite right now.

My mother laughed lightly, finding my response seemingly amusing somehow. Really it was strange for me to speak without a filter like this, so it must have been an entertaining surprise for her. "Why don't we walk you to the couch? I'll make you some soup after."

I nodded and let myself be led to the couch and a tv remote be shoved into my hands. My mother banged around in the kitchen while I tried to find a decent show to watch. Almost everything in this day and age was centered around heroes, even foreign dramas' main characters were normally playing the role of one. It wasn't exactly what I was hoping to see right now. In the end, I settled on a movie about a criminal stealing a former scientist's suit and becoming a hero. It was a pre quirk movie, so the quality was off, but it worked. Really, it was an interesting thing to watch. All of the man's powers came from technology, none of it was power that he was born with.

I wonder... what it would be like... to be a hero like that...

The soup was nice and soothing as I drank it down. It was the soup that mom always makes for me when I manage to get sick. Though more times than not, it was me avoiding school than actually being sick. Instead of sitting down and watching the movie with me like I'd hoped she would, my mother retreated back into the kitchen, returning a few minutes later with a small plate of cookies.

"Here," she said, placing them down on the seat next to me. "They're fresh from the oven. I was planning on bringing some to the Bakugo's tomorrow and check in on Katsuki to see how he's been doing since the... incident."

I noticed that she said incident instead of attack. It was as if she made it seem smaller than it was, it would hurt her less to think about it. I looked at her, seeing her obvious worry, not just for me but for Bakugo as well. "Why don't you go now? It's still early and they're pretty close by," I suggested. It would be nice to release some of the building worry for her if I can.