Puppet Master

April 27th

April 27th, 2:34 AM

"AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Eijiro shot straight up in the middle of the night to a blood-curling scream. He immediately threw off his blankets and shot to the door where he could already see his parents coming down the hallway. It was almost a procedure.

It had been a month since Izuku came to live with them and about two or three times a week, the boy in question would have night terrors. This was one of the sadly most common ones. Eijiro would wake up to a scream and see Izuku practically having a spasm in his bed as he fought off whatever he assumed was attacking him. Mom and Dad would be quick to come over and attempt to calm him down.

Other occurrences were Eijiro waking up in the middle of the night needing to use the bathroom and finding Izuku sitting straight up like he had done when he first moved in or Izuku curled into a ball silently whimpering and crying.

Eijiro watched with a pained heart as Izuku shot up swinging his arm. Dad had, after the first incident, since learned to duck. Izuku practically threw himself across the bed and off of it, cowering into the corner of the room, eyes blown wide. It must have been a particularly bad nightmare.

Dad slowly approached the shaking boy, boy low and submissive with his hands up.

"It's okay," he cooed. "It's just me. No one is going to hurt you."

Eijiro always felt so useless at these moments. He always wanted to help but he never knew how and he couldn't very well leave Izuku like that. Especially not when he was spasming like he was. He could hurt himself if it got bad enough.

So Eijiro watched. Dad somehow got close enough to draw Izuku into his arms. Izuku was shaking so harshly that Eijiro could see Dad's arms vibrating with the force of the SCREAMS Izuku was letting out.

His heart broke with every single one.

"Ei..." Eijiro turned to see his mom waving him out of the room. He followed her into the kitchen where she began making tea to help calm Izuku's nerves. "I think," she began slowly, "that they are getting worse..."

Eijiro hung his head. "B- but Izuku seems so normal during the day. He's even talking more when he isn't at school!" he whisper-yelled.

Mom let out a small sigh. "I know but I don't know what is causing his nightmares to be this bad recently." Eijiro bit his lip.

They were all tired. Izuku had woken up screaming every night this week and it was Thursday.

"I think it's stress, honestly," Mom spoke up. "Has anything been happening at school lately?" Eijiro shook his head. "Not that I know of."

She stirred the cup of warm tea. "He can't process it..."

Eijiro lifted an eyebrow. "Process what?"

"Safety."

Eijiro swallowed thickly at the solemness of that word. Of what it meant. Or more of, what it implied about Izuku's mind.

"He's trying," Mom sighed, "but fear comes so naturally to him it's almost like it's his second home."

Eijiro looked back toward the hallway. "Safety...?"

"It'll be fine," Mom said, ruffling Eijiro's hair. "He has only been here a month. I am sure that even if he never stops having nightmares the number of them will surely decrease. Izuku just needs time to get used to it more than others."

"What does that mean?" Eijiro didn't like the way Mom worded that.

Mom looked down at him. "It's nothing, dear. It just means that Izuku needs a little bit of extra help."