The Shadowed Light

Chapter 38 - The Dark Blue Sky

Warning: mentions of suicide, alcohol use and divorce. Small reference to mental disabilities and child abuse as well. Please be careful.

You know how everyone has a prefrontal cortex in their brain to make rational decisions?
Well, Izuku doesn't think he has that.

Because right now, as he jumps from roof to roof with a small smile under his mask as the sun rises slowly, the stupidity but at the same time smartness of his thoughts scare him.
It's like he has finally reached the moment in his life when his brain goes from "you probably shouldn't do that" to "what the hell, let's see what happens."

And so Izuku kept jumping, even though it was now about 5 am and he really should be hiding and not jumping around in broad day light.

Izuku had the perfect plan. Well, at least it was perfect in his head.
He's going to talk to Aizawa, and he's going to talk to him now.

As Izuku was entering the more crowded parts of the city, something suddenly appeared in the corner of his view that caught his immediate attention.
Izuku's head snapped to the tall unit block, but more specifically on that small figure at the top that probably shouldn't be there.

Immediately Izuku pivoted on his foot and sprinted towards that building, jumping onto the roof as fast as he can, just in time to clasp his hand over the girls wrist and pull her back onto the roof.

Yeah, Aizawas meeting will have to be postponed.

"Hey! Watch out!" Izuku yelled, pulling the girl back. But he didn't manage to balance himself and so they went tumbling back over the small railing and onto the concrete open area.
When Izuku gathered himself together again, he sat up, then helped the girl sit up as well.

She then snapped her head to him, and Izuku was shocked by what he saw. Besides the swollen red eyes and puffy cheeks from obviously crying, Izuku could clearly see the anger, sadness and just overall mad pain on her face.
"What the actual fuck do you think you're doing?!" She yelled at him with a rough voice, tears rolling down her cheeks again despite her voice being filled with anger.

Izuku didn't say anything. Didn't even hesitate.
He just grabbed the small girl who couldn't even be 12, and pulled her into a hug. A comfortable hug.

It was silent for a second, before the girl snapped.
A heart wrenching cry was released from the very bottom of her soul. She collapsed onto Izuku, arms tightening the hug as she cried and yelled into his shoulder.
Izuku sat there, hugging the girl closer to himself, listening to the wailing of the pre-teen. He gritted his teeth as an unbearable feeling of guilt rose up in his chest. He couldn't cry now - he needed to be strong for her.
The amount of pain and suffering Izuku heard from the girls yelling and crying was enough to break his heart into pieces. She was saying something, yelling incoherent words, but even though Izuku didn't understand anything, he could feel the emotions in every single one of them. Heart broken emotions. Anger filled emotions. Just emotions.

And so for the next many minutes Izuku just sat there, comforting the girl as she cried, hugging her as if he knew her, when really she was a total stranger.
Though just by these overflowing emotions in the girl they had already connected.

Finally the girl calmed down. Izuku knew she hardly had any strength, so he lifted her up gently and helped her sit down next to him.
She stared at the ground for a bit as they sat in comfortable silence.
After a few more minutes Izuku looked away into the horizon.

"If you ever feel worthless.." Izuku smiled slightly, "remember, you were once the quickest sperm cell."

There was silence for a moment before Izuku heard a small snort from the girl and when he looked over he proudly saw that their was a tiny but still visible smile on her face.
Izuku smiled at that.
"I know I'm a total stranger but.. you mind giving me your name?" Izuku asked carefully, glancing at the girl then back at the floor.