(How To)Forgive and Forget

Care(Can Be Shown In Many Ways) Pt.2

As Izuku is reading over his notebook for the dozenth time tonight, his phone rings. He frowns, confused.

That isn't the ringtone for the League.

Actually, it sounds like his normal phone's ringtone.

Are Shouto or Hitoshi calling me?

He sighs and grabs it, checking the screen.

Mom.

He pauses, staring at the phone blankly.

Why is she calling me?

She hadn't even bothered to text him after the first week he'd moved into the dorms, and now she was calling him?

He shakes his head.

Don't be ungrateful. She raised you, she fed you and she took care of you even though you came out wrong.

He hits accept.

"Izuku! Baby! How are you? I got a call from your teacher a while ago, and I was so worried! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Are the other kids being nice to you?"

It feels like he's been thrown back into his elementary school days, back when she'd ask him dozens of questions when he got home about what things were like and he'd have to lie to keep her from crying. He can already feel a smile sliding onto his face, despite the odd emptiness in his chest.

"Hi Mom. Everything is fine."

A loud gasp from the other side of the phone makes him wince and nearly pull the phone away from his ear.

"Oh! You're finally talking! I'm so glad, I thought you might've started doing that attention seeking thing you did back in middle school."

She laughs airily, and he grips the pencil in his hand tightly, his own smile becoming strained.

"Anyway, I was just calling to check up on you. You really worried me when you left for weeks, then came back with that horrid tattoo and all of those terrible scars! Honestly, why would you hide that kind of thing from me? I'm your mother!"

He presses his lips together.

Because you saw the bloody tissues and missing alcohol and pain medication and didn't say anything. Because you restocked the bandaids and gauze in the bathroom cabinet instead of calling the school and suing them.

Izuku closes his eyes.

Stop it. You know there wasn't anything she could do. She was alone after Hisashi left with a kid to take care of. Even if I wasn't Quirkless, I would've had a tough time.

"Sorry, I just didn't want you to worry."

I didn't want to watch you cry yourself to sleep while hugging me too tight and then go back to ignoring me until I told you how miserable I was again.

He can hear her tearing up on the other side of the line, and it makes his skin crawl with discomfort.

"Oh, you're such a good son! Who could've raised you to be so polite and sensitive?"

A pause. He knows what he needs to say, though the words feel like tar on his tongue.

"You did."

Colors flicker around him, casting his scarred hands in pretty lights. He doesn't try to stop it, all of his attention on the woman on the other side of the phone.

"You're too nice, darling! Anyway, I came back from a date—he was very nice, but a little too nice, if you know what I mean. He paid for everything, and even got me a bouquet! Very easy on the eyes, too. What was I saying? Oh! Right, I came back from my date, and I was going through the mail when I found a letter from a courthouse saying something about Section 803 of the Quirkless Act of 2XXX."