Cold Instinct || Vigilante Deku

ⁿᵒ.4

- For Old Times' Sake -

•

His green eyes met the light that crept into the room through the curtains. Trying to rub the sleep off of his eyelids, he paused. This wasn't his room. The memories from last night –at least he hoped that was last night– made their back in. Oh, hot damn, this was such a shit show.

Izuku tried to sit up and spotted his yellow backpack sitting in the corner of Katsuki's room, but the blond was nowhere to be seen. A sigh of relief escaped his cracked lips. Then his eyes drifted to the window, the curtains were closed, but the light that snuck inside was unbearable with the state he was in.

He held onto the edge of the bed and slowly situated himself on his feet. Sharp pains hit from every angle of his pale and bruised body. He cursed at his excuse of a father internally.

He had to get out of here.

Just as he was about to reach for the scratched-up backpack, the door opened. Revealing Katsuki himself.

"And what the fuck do you think you are doing on your feet?"

"Umm... Mornin'?"

Izuku flinched slightly as the blond stepped forward to lead him back to the bed that's when Katsuki stopped. Izuku's breath hitched. He tried to mentally reassure himself that after last night... Katsuki wouldn't hurt him. So he just held onto the wall, not trusting himself with how overly sensitive he is to sensory and touch at the moment.

"Why did you actually bring me here, Kacchan?" He asked almost immediately, pissed off and grateful at the same time with this unfamiliar feeling of irritation bubbling up in his chest.

"I'm gonna be number one and if I can't save a fucking stray then what am I even doing, huh? Now the real question: Why were you bleeding on the streets in the middle of the night?" Katsuki replies, expecting Izuku to explain himself, as he steps closer and closer, leaving Izuku no room to escape he can see the way his lips trembled but the cold gaze on his face doesn't shift one bit. He's terrified but he won't let Katsuki see that.

"W-Well—"

"KATSUKI! YOU BRAT, I'VE BEEN CALLING YOU FOR BREAKFAST WHAT ARE YOU... I-Izuku..?" Mitsuki stood on the doorway, then ran towards the injured boy; she knelt, pushing Katsuki away to take a better look at the smaller boy's face, her breath hitched.

"What happened to your face..?! Oh God, who did this? You brat! You better talk if you know anything!—" she was in clear distress, goodness she couldn't even remember the last time she'd seen the boy.

"I don't fucking know, he was just gonna tell me of you hadn't barged in, you old hag!" 

"Wait... these burns on your neck... Hisashi did this, right? How long has he been back for?! I'm gonna rip his throat out!" Izuku flinched at the mention of his father's name, and gulped, hard. 

Mitsuki knew.

She knew.

'She fucking knows, what do I do..? No one can know..! He'll kill me, he'll kill mom.'

Katsuki stepped back. Hisashi was Deku's dad, right? So he's fucking abusive... but Izuku did have random bruises since elementary. How messed up was that..?

"I-Its not like that... he is back but he wouldn't do t-this, Auntie Mitsuki. I just ran into some guys who I don't get along with well and um.. this is so embarrassing... they just beat me up real bad and Kacchan found me. I should probably go now, mom must be worried sick—" Izuku rambled on and on, lying through his teeth without hesitation..  if it meant that his mom would be safe then it was worth it but Mitsuki cut him off, gently resting her hand over his knee,

"At least stay for breakfast, yeah? For old times sake, Izuku-kun." The blonde smiles sweetly, the care and the genuineness visible in her red eyes, Izuku can only nod as they head downstairs to the kitchen for breakfast.

He feels relieved Katsuki didn't push for answers after Auntie Mitsuki came and dragged them to the kitchen but as they walked, he could feel the blond's eyes burning his back from behind.

—

"You barely ate, Izuku-kun..." Mitsuki said, a sad smile printed on her face as she spoke.

"I, um, don't usually eat breakfast, sorry." Izuku said as he put his chopsticks down and continued, "I really appreciate it Auntie Mitsuki. But I should go now, my mom is probably worried sick even though I called, you know how she is." He laughed dryly, looking for any excuse to leave.

He didn't like the fact that Katsuki wouldn't let go of whatever happened and he knew.

He knew Katsuki didn't believe what he'd told Mitsuki.

"Alright then, I won't insist any longer. You should stop by more often! Feels like it's been ages since I last saw you!"

She tried to lighten up the mood as she  wished Masaru was here as well to back her up, of all days he has to go to work early.

—

Izuku wandered around for the rest of the day, spending minutes followed by hours at the park by the beach, exhausted.

As the sun kissed its last goodbye, the green haired boy found himself running from rooftop to rooftop, helping a few people along the way, he stumbled and fell, slowing down his fall by barely reaching his hand forward to grab a pipe.

He still fell on his butt, sure but that was fine at least he didn't fall on his damn face. Then he registered the crack he'd been barely able to hear and it hit him.

His phone was in his back pocket.

'Fuck, it's broken..!'

He got himself together and managed to get up.

It was getting late, well early actually,  for work at least... he needed a place to sleep for a bit, he couldn't fight with how messed up his body was right now.

Izuku slid up, back to a rooftop, through the fire escape attached to the building across the one he had fallen over from. He felt so tired... both mentally and physically.

He just wanted his mom, he wanted to be with her in his room like old times... watching All Might videos and reading comics together...

'You're not a kid anymore, Izuku.'

'You need to be better to be able to get her out of there and put that basterd behind bars for good.'

Izuku sat down, out of breath for some reason, 'What gives?!'... he rest over at the said rooftop but jerked up once again. Immediately getting down to check out what had happened.

As soon as he was back on the ground, as he was lost in his head, before he could react, Izuku felt something around his ankle and looked down at his feet in the heat of the moment as he found it hard to breathe,

"What the—" he muttered but before he could say anything else, he was hanging upside down from what he made out to be a railing.

"Ahg!!"

"For the record, I haven't broken any laws!!"

"Do I look like a hero to you, kid?"