Post Vitam

Chapter 27

Izuku lay in bed listening to the ruckus that was accompanied with morning time in the group home. The past month of living here had been so easy for him comparatively. Back in his childhood home he lived in fear of flying knives, being choked with his mother's quirk. He hated small spaces because of the hall closet she would lock him in to starve. It was the first time in his life that coming home from school was something he actually looked forward to. 

Izuku never particularly enjoyed going to school, he loved learning and analyzing but having to deal with other kids? That part about school he loathed. It used to be he would find solace in knowing his main tormentor and bully was only following his plan to give him a quirk. 

Now however he believed his bully just enjoyed it. Bakugo hadn't made any effort to reach out to Izuku at all. Worse still Izuku had to acknowledge to himself that he's always loved Bakugo. Bakugo however was dating the transfer student Hannah... She loved to make it clear to everyone with ears and eyes that Bakugo was hers.

Izuku wasn't in the mood today face school so he lay there until inevitably someone would come drag him out of bed. Robby was running through the house with his speed quirk knocking on all the doors to wake everyone up. The twins were already downstairs so when Robby came knocking a second and then third time Izuku let annoyance take him over. 

"If you knock one more time Robby I'm shoving those knuckles so deep up your ass you can tickle your brain!" The door creaked open with a cautious Robby peeking his head around it...

"Come on dude get up Miss is going to have my head if everyone isn't up yet..." He pleaded with Izuku.

"Don't care." Izuku turned over in bed and hid under the covers. Robby groaned "I tried. Time to go get Viktor.." Before Robby even started to leave Izuku threw off the covers and sat up.

"DON'T YOU DARE!" he hissed at Robby

Viktor had discovered where Izuku was actually ticklish and everyone knew it was easy to threaten Izuku with it to get him to do things. Robby giggled at how quick that worked. "Well get up then already dude..."

Izuku sighed and fell back down on the bed. "Can't I stay home today? I hate that place" 

"We all do dude, school sucks but we still have to go mainly so Miss won't bite off our heads.." Robby seemed genuinely so scared of that, like it was a real possibility. Izuku sighed yet again and rolled out of bed and slogged half heartedly to the dresser. 

"Be down in a second" Robby rushed away making the door slam from the sudden wind. Izuku stroked the door... "There there, I'm sure he didn't mean to slam you. Thank you for not breaking from all this abuse" Izuku caught himself and laughed to himself for being so silly. 

Though if he was honest this particular door had been slammed closed and open on multiple occasions in just his short time being there. It amazed him how it was still working. Izuku had dressed and was just finished brushing his teeth when suddenly Kaito came barging into the bathroom Kenji in tow holding his forehead. 

A stray frisbee had given him a nick just above his left eyebrow. Izuku knew from experience that even though there was a lot of blood it wasn't serious. Certain parts of the face likes to be dramatic he remembers thinking to himself often. He thought they were in the bathroom to get a band-aid for his cut but he was shocked when Kaito made a similar cut on his eyebrow. 

Izuku knew he had no place to judge given his history but he at least knew cutting yourself isn't a "normal" thing to do. Izuku tried his best to not sound accusatory when he spoke up "Why'd you do that Kaito?"

The twins looked at him and spoke together. "Because of that! You knew who I was. We have to stay the same..." They almost seemed desperate in their tone. Izuku looked at them with concern and didn't want to upset them. The fact was he's been able to tell them apart for a while now.

Maybe it's because he shared a room with them or it was he actually treated them like different people. In the end Izuku decided to be honest with them. He hated when adults would try to dumb things down around him. "Oh okay guys. It's probably because we spend so much time together or me sharing the room. I've been able to tell who is who for like the last two weeks."

The twins looked at each other concerned so Izuku carried on. "Guys I can see it bothers you so I'm not going to go around telling people who is who constantly. There's probably a good reason why you don't want others to know. I'm not gonna force it out of you..." Izuku paused and held both twins shoulders.

"It's just that, you guys know it's ok to not be so identical right? Neither of you will stop caring about the other if you have a little independence right?" Izuku could see he was making them think about things and possibly remember things they'd rather forget.

"I'm not gonna force you guys or anything." Izuku hugged both of them at the same time. "Let's clean you guys up and go grab breakfast." The twins had tears in their eyes but neither spoke only nodded. Izuku cleaned up the cuts and the twins even managed to choose different cartoon characters for their band-aids. 

Izuku and the twins made it to the table for the last round of food so they had at least something to eat. The usual chaos was raging as they and other stragglers ate. One of the boys Izuku still hadn't even talked to complained about still being hungry, he could be seen heading to the kitchen to scavenge for stray bacon. 

Breakfast was done and the house was lining up in the foyer for inspection by the Miss. Izuku made sure his tie was at least on, he never cared how it looked personally. Others however always nagged at him so he was fidgeting with it. The chaos was always simmering with whispers and teasing between the boys as they waited. Izuku saw Ash trying to pull down Viktor's pants again after the Miss had passed them. He smiled to himself.

The comfort of routine had vanished. A loud bang and screams filled the air. Izuku suddenly saw white. Next thing he knew his eyes were burning, unable to make anything out. He was on the floor for some reason. His ears were ringing. His lungs felt like they were being stabbed and as he breathed he coughed and spat what tasted like blood to him. 

The ringing in his ears lessened first, he tried to get up but realized to his horror that the arm he wanted to prop himself up with wasn't there. In its place was a mangled stump of flesh with a bone protruding bleeding heavily. 

The white smoke and dust was clearing in earnest now and he managed to get a look at himself properly. Izuku was back in the dining hall laying on the broken table and the debris of the two walls he was flung through. He was missing his right arm and a chunk of that shoulder too. His right foot was blown in half. He felt how cold his face was and didn't want to even know how he looked right now. Anyone else probably have been killed to be thrown like that he thought to himself... His eyes went wide remembering the twins and then all of his friends and housemates. 

He turned his head slowly to the left of where the twins would've been standing before what he now assumes was the explosion. Nobody. Just his blood and debris. He hoped that meant they are ok. He called out "Is there anyone there? Are you guys okay?! Someone please answer me!!!"

Izuku could hear someone getting closer and called out again. "Hello?! Yes! I'm in here? Are you guys still alive?!" It wasn't the Miss or housemates but instead a tall put together looking man stepped over the debris. He made his way to Izuku and kneeled to look him in the eyes. Looking into those eyes Izuku knew they felt familiar. Perhaps it was the clothes that threw him off but it took him longer than it should've to figure out who this man was.

"Doctor Connelly?!"