Before my heart gives out (My hero academia)

Dealing with the devil

The forest blurs around him as his senses hone in on the figure running towards them. Aizawa.

His feet skid across the dirt as he halts his sprint, boots catching on the pebbles and plants that adorn the woodland floor. It's enough to stop his momentum just as they're about to crash into Eraserhead.

The man seemed startled at their sudden appearance, capture weapon floating around him threateningly before it falls back onto his shoulders. Having recognized the lack of threat.

He doesn't seem surprised to see them. Not even blinking twice at the vigilante's sudden intrusion on a classified training camp. Taking a step back, Izuku keeps his head bowed down, hood falling over his eyes as he angles his face away from the unwanted moonlight.

"Eraserhead, I can explain later, but first you have to take Kota," Shadow says, wanting to convey his urgency, they were running out of time. "The villains are after one of your students."

"Shadow-" Izuku doesn't let the man speak, however, electing to deposit the child into the hero's arms instead. His body already moving to sprint in the opposite direction. A familiar explosive heat signature already appearing in his mind's eye. "With my senses, I can find them better, I can get to them faster."

"Shadow." Aizawa's voice is firmer now, tone hard and serious. Izuku ignores him once again.

"You have let me do this, just take Kota to safety." He knows he sounds panicked, he kind of is. His body aches, feeling like one giant bruise. His head pounding, probably a concussion from the hits he took earlier, but he knows he could do this. He needed to.

He's halfway out of the clearing when he hears Aizawa speak again. This time he doesn't ignore it. He can't.

"Izuku." The name is uttered quietly. Softer than Izuku's ever heard Aizawa speak before. Nonetheless, the word seems to echo around them. Ringing in the following silence, like a distant siren call.

His blood runs cold as if someone plunged him into icy water. A heavy, thick feeling settling in his guts as slowly moves to face the man again. "W-what...?" His head is still stubbornly facing the ground. Despite the apparent uselessness of the move.

"It's you, isn't it?" The man's voice holds an emotion that fills the air to the brim. A heavy sense of guilt washing over him as he practically feels the hurt in the man's tone. "It's been you all along."

"I don't—H-how?" He asks instead. Because damn it, he was careful, he made sure not to leave any hint. Not to give anything away. So how? He never wanted to hurt the man before him. The man that gave him something he never dared to have. The man who gave him a home.

"Ragdoll." Oh. Ohh. He didn't even think about the possibility. It seems he wasn't as careful as he thought. He realizes with a cold kind of detachment. "She-" Aizawa seems to steel himself, body tensing as if he was bracing himself for something. "She said you were sick—that you were dying." The man's voice cracks as he says the last words and suddenly Izuku's eyes seem to burn.

That's why he never wanted him to know. That's exactly why damnit. He never wanted this to happen.

"I'm sorry." I'm sorry for not telling, I'm sorry for lying. I'm sorry for hurting you. "I- I never meant to-" His voice breaks, a shuddering breath drawing itself from his lungs unsolicited. "I never wanted to hurt you."

Aizawa doesn't say anything to that. He just stares at him for a few seconds. Slowly, as if in slow motion, the man sets Kota on the ground and marches towards Shadow.

He does his best to stand his ground, body instinctively hunching in on itself in anticipation. To what? He doesn't know. Aizawa is surely angry at him, angry at Izuku for deceiving him and taking advantage of his kindness. Angry he ever cared for someone with so many secrets. So many lies.