𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 ; 𝐛𝐧𝐡𝐚 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

chapter four: together again

"i missed you," you admit, looking forward rather than at him. your cheeks are tinted a pink hue. you are glad you are wearing a mask, one of the perks of wearing one is being able to hide your expression.

"i missed you too.." midoriya gives you a shy smile. his heart is practically beating against his chest, "is it okay for me to ask..why you left?"

you nod hesitantly and answer him, "i had some family problems. my grandma fell ill and i had to be there for her. my grandma lived far from my middle school so my family thought it was best if i transferred to a different school close to where she lived. i'm sorry for leaving so suddenly.."

you'd think after lying countless of times you'd get use to the heavy weight of guilt dragging you down. midoriya nods understandingly and apologizes for bringing up bad memories. you dismiss him and talk about other things that are trivial with him as you both continue to walk.

now that midoriya and you are in front of his apartment you feel slightly nervous to meet his mother. you don't know why. maybe you're just afraid of what she thinks of you. the two of you did meet back then and she was very kind. part of you is afraid that her view of you has changed after you left midoriya without a proper explanation.

midoriya unlocks the door and opens it wide enough for you to enter. you take a few steps in and look around. it still looks the same with just a few minor differences.

"izuku, how w-" midoriya's mother freezes when her eyes land on you. timidly, you bow to her, "mrs. midoriya, it's nice to see you a-"  arms wrap around you, pulling you into a bone crushing hug.

"why are you being so formal? call me inko! i've missed you so much, dear and so has izuku! he was so sad when you left, i didn't know what to do to cheer him up. let's forget about the past though, i'm so happy you are here now," inko babbled out. you hug back, slowly trying to understand what she just said.

she isn't mad at you like you thought, of course she isn't, she's midoriya's mom. one of the kindest people you know. why did you even think she'd hate you for something so small?

"mom, you are hurting her," midoriya steps in when noticing how tightly inko is holding you. inko takes a few seconds to collect herself before pulling away, a wide smile on her face and a few tears staining her cheeks.

"i'm sorry, i got a little carried away. do settle in, make yourself at home."

you take your shoes off and place them on the shoe rack, midoriya following. he leads you to his room and opens the door, letting you enter first. it's been years since you've been in it and it hasn't changed like the rest of the apartment. the few changes you notice are the additional all might posters and figurines decorating the room.

midoriya takes a seat on his bed and pats the spot next to him. you take the spot and think of any sort of topic to talk about that didn't involve you.

"how were things after i left?"

"e-everything was fine. nothing really happened.." midoriya answers while fidgeting with his fingers and avoiding eye contact. it was obvious that he was lying. should you confront him? no. you shouldn't. you lied to him many times and he has never pried. most likely from not even knowing you lied but still. he didn't pry, so neither would you.

"how did your first day go yesterday? i wasn't there because some travel problems occurred."

"it went well. i made a lot of friends surprisingly. we had to do a quirk assessment test and i didn't do so well. aizawa gave us quite a scare when he said the lowest ranking student would get expelled. in the end he admitted to lying about expelling anyone. i bet if you were there you'd rank in the top five." midoriya smiles fondly at you, his subtle compliment taking you back.

"why do you think that?"

"your quirk gives you a lot of advantages. there's many things you could do with it. the tests we had to do wouldn't even be hard for you." he explains. you know he is probably right but don't say anything further. if you admit he's right you would sound narcissistic. you opted to just humming in response.

"do you still have that notebook? the hero analysis one?" your question seems to light midoriya's face up. he practically leaps off his bed and to his desk, grabbing a tattered looking notebook and returning to his previous seat.

"i'm surprised you even remember it." he hands you the notebook and you take it gingerly, not wanting to possibly tear the already damaged notebook. parts of the notebook was singed and slightly wrinkled.

"what happened to it?" midoriya's face scrunches up in pain as he recalls what had happened to his notebook. you really wish you had stayed a little longer to protect him, "i can fix it if you want."

midoriya shakes his head, "no, no, it's fine. i don't want you wasting your energy on something so small." this time it was your turn to shake your head.

"i won't lose any energy from doing something so simple, don't worry so much izuku." you reassure him. the both of you have your eyes trained on the notebook and within a few short seconds, the notebook is fixed. you hand it to izuku and he takes it, looking it over and flipping through all the pages in disbelieve. his eyes begin to water and he looks back at you, a big genuine smile spreads across his face.

"can i h-hug you?" his innocent question nearly made your heart explode. the smile on your face was starting to hurt your cheeks.

"you don't need to ask for a hug dummy, come here." you wrap your arms around him and run your hands through his soft curly hair. he returns the hug, his tears leaving a stain on your uniform.

"t-thank you, this r-really means a lot to me."

"i know."

a sharp headache strikes you and your ears start to ring. you close your eyes and when you open them again all your senses come back to you at once. you weren't in izuku's arms, in his apartment. instead you stood a few feet away from where the u.a. gates were supposed to be. it was only a pile of rubble now. a bunch of news reporters walk over the disintegrated pieces and hound aizawa and present mic.

when you close your eyes and open them again the scene changes. you are in this dome like building with all sorts of environments. near a fountain, many villains emerge from this black void. the class is in the middle of trying to run for the exit.

"(y/n)? are you okay?" you snap your eyes open at the sound of izuku's voice. he's holding you by your shoulders with a worried look written all over his face, "you were frozen.."

"i'm fine, sorry for worrying you. i'm just tired.." how many times have you lied to him now? you can't tell him the things you just saw in your vision, it would scare him to death. "i think i'm going to go home before it gets late."

"i'll walk you home."