Arduous

Chapter IX

The night seemed suspiciously serene. It didn't sit right with Izuku.

The moment Takemichi's eyes shut, breathing even, Izuku looked at the sleeping Takemichi fondly. Removing the strand of hair from Takemichi's face, Izuku's scarred hand gently caressed the ravenette's cheek.

"I can feel it," Izuku whispered to himself. "I can feel things are not going to go well"

Burying his head onto the pillow beside Takemichi, Izuku sighed tiredly.

"Be strong, Micchan"

The images where the bleeding Takemichi reaching for him appeared in his mind. Izuku immediately sprung up from his lying position, shaking his head violently as if it could get rid of the thoughts.

Sighing once again, Izuku looked at the peacefully sleeping Takemichi again before heading out of the room to wash his face in the bathroom. He walked away, unaware that someone unknown, a guy, walked into the room after some distance Izuku put between him and the room.

The unknown guy walked into the room, heading straight to the blissfully unaware ravenette. He just stared at the sleeping ravenette blankly, his hands clenched tightly on his sides.

Because of him. Because of the unconscious figure in front of him, all of his plans were wasted. He used to think this kid wasn't a threat to his plan but how wrong was he?

After a little while of staring, his hands slowly approached the unconscious figure. More accurately, approaching Takemichi's neck. With both of his hands on Takemichi's neck, the unknown guy's eyes blew wide, bloodshot. Even if the guy put his hands on Takemichi's neck, he could never put any pressure on them. Reattaching his hands from Takemichi's neck, the guy sighed, messing with his own hair.

"Hanagaki Takemichi" The guy watched as Takemichi mumbled something incoherent in his sleep, a dumb smile on his lips. "Fool"

With that, the guy turned around on his heel, heading out of the room. While he walked through the hallway, he walked past the green-haired kid who was seemingly lost in his thought.

'Midoriya Izuku'

After some kind of safe distance, Izuku turned to look behind him, watching the guy's retreating back. Called it his instinct but his inner feelings had been warning him about the guy who just walked past him.

Walking hurriedly to Takemichi's hospital room, he quickly took a seat beside the bed before checking on Takemichi. When he saw there was no injury, he sighed in relief. His instinct might be wrong and the unknown guy who walked past him might be a completely innocent bystander. However, he couldn't shake the feeling that the guy was dangerous.

 
'Who is that?'

_______________________

Two weeks and Takemichi already had been permitted to go home. The day he got discharged, he paid no mind that no one came to accompany him except Izuku.

Although he was taken by surprise when the moment he stepped into his house with Izuku not far behind, various colours of confetti were exploding in front of him.

"...huh?"

"Happy discharged!"

"What?" Takemichi stood at the entrance of his house with a bewildered face.

"Come on, Takemitchy! We got to celebrate your discharge!" Mikey said triumphantly, clinging to Takemichi's left side while rubbing his cheek and Takemichi's together. "Take out the cake!"