Broken Smile of the Lost Child [MHA fanfic Rewrite]

Chapter 4: Through the Fire

Dread began to bury itself into them, plating its roots deep in their cores and growing heavier by the second; utter terror at discovering the harsh truth squeezed their hearts in an unforgiving grip and their throats constricted into tight knots that refused to loosen.

"Where's Auntie M?"

It was Katsuki. He was the one who chose to bite the bullet they were both about to take.

"Mom, where's Auntie M?" he asked again, voice cracking and he fisted the bed sheets so tight, the wrinkles could've been permanently imprinted.

"Where's Auntie Inko, dad? She's....she's ok, right? Is she in another room? She.....she's just hurt, right? Right?" Tsuya asked her dad, her voice quivering as much as her lips; words tumbling out of desperate hope more than anything; her body trembling and god, she felt so small, she felt so fragile, she-

She looked ready to shatter.

"WHERE THE FU$K IS AUNTIE M?!" Katsuki found himself yelling, the rawness in his own voice once again scraping his throat as he found himself surging forward, his hands gripping onto his mother's shoulders in a desperate death grip, his one visible eye desperate and begging- pleading that he was wrong and that at least that one aspect of that hellish experience was a nightmare that didn't come true-

Mitsuki glanced at Masaru. She did that a lot in her life. He was always the level-headed one when she lost her cool; he was always the calm one; he was the collected sane one that kept their family afloat all the time. She always looked to him when she didn't know what to do.

This time, he had no reply.

(And who would? How does one tell their already scarred child, already cracked and ready to break that they've lost a part of their world because life decided to be cruel to them of all people?)

She looked at Seiki. After Masaru, he was the second man she trusted the most.

He looked back, biting his lip. That gesture spelled three words.

I don't know.

(Mitsuki liked to speak her mind. She never hesitated to spout out what she wanted to say and never regretted it if someone heard it.

(Looking back, she would forever regret the words she said to Katsuki that day.)

"I'm so sorry, Katsuki." She choked out and suddenly, she couldn't keep it in anymore because fu$k it all to he!l, she just lost her best friend who was her sister in all but blood.

Silence.

Thick, heavy, taut as a bowstring ready to snap at any moment from the unyielding tension. A silence that spoke a thousand words none could ever utter themselves.

Katsuki's face was.....blank. So was Tsuya's, actually. They were just.....blank. Not stoic per se but blank, like a whiteboard's surface thoroughly cleaned with soap and water.

Katsuki didn't know what to feel. It was so overwhelming it consumed his entire body to the point he felt a heavy sense of numbness as the weight of what his mother implied settled inside the hole it's created for itself.

Too many feelings were coursing through him- it was too much, everything faded away, noises became incoherent as though he was submerged underwater; a painfully cold numbness was spreading down to his fingertips despite how his fingers twitched, itching to blow something up as sparks crackled; his body trembled like an autumn leaf and he suddenly felt cold and vulnerable as though he was standing there naked and powerless; oxygen became a scarce source he was struggling to obtain and his entire insides felt like they were being utterly mutilated.