●~Not All There Anymore~● |BEING REWRITTEN|

|13| A Place To Call (Temporary) Home

Izuku carefully lifted up a single shaking finger and lightly brushed it against the bird's head. It didn't seem to notice or care as it kept pecking at the grains of rice. Izuku softly smiled and lifted his finger again, this time going from the bird's head to it's back.

The light blue feathers were soft and warm, and Izuku found himself falling into a rhythm of petting the small animal. He didn't notice he was smiling much wider than he had before in the last two days.

"I'll call you Sammy. And you'll be a girl, even though I don't know your gender. Actually, is it okay if you don't have a gender? I wouldn't want to assume. But I'll still call you Sammy. Okay Sammy?" Izuku breathed out, finding himself rambling to the bird. As he found the rice grains running out, he reached back over to the food tray and slid another handful into his palm.

Sammy happily continued pecking at the food. Izuku smiled and settled back into the back rest of the bed. "You know, you're the third visitor I've had since I was in here. About twenty other people are coming soon. They're my classmates, you know. I wanna see Kacchan first though. Kacchan is my childhood best friend. He's kind of mean, and a bit egotistical, but I really like him. He's super nice to me, even though he didn't used to be. Oh, did I tell you he had red eyes? Red is my favorite color. It's the color of apples, and sunsets, although sunsets are orange too. Hey, do you like sunsets? I'd like to think animals like sunsets."

Izuku continued to rant and ramble on to an animal that probably didn't understand a word he was saying, jumping from one topic to the next. Soon enough it went from the bird eating rice to hopping around Izuku's arms and thighs, which led to the telling of how he lost them. Sammy hopped around the bed all through his rambling and eventually came back up to his palms, eating more of the still stale rice.

Very, very stale. Not even any salt. Bleh.

Izuku continued to softly smile through it all, petting the small creature up and down it's spine.

He didn't want it to end. He was happy sitting here, petting a surprisingly docile and trusting bird. It was quiet (and cold) the room was calming and plain (and terrifying and nerve racking) the outside world was beautiful and hummed lowly with noise (it meant freedom, freedom that he wanted). And of course, all of this meant that it had to end.

A nurse knocked on the door, startling Sammy out of Izuku's palm and causing her to flee back out the open window. Izuku wanted to cry. Instead, he sighed.

"Come in," came his tired voice. He was almost shocked at how monotonous it sounded. The door opened to reveal a kind looking nurse with her blonde and light brown hair pulled into a bun. Her blue eyes sparkled, and Izuku liked her. She was quiet and nice, and didn't try to make him eat the food the hospital made. Nice.

The nurse stepped into the room, her small flats making next to zero noise. "Hello, Midoriya-kun." Izuku waved at her in response. She smiled and pulled up the clipboard that every nurse in the hospital carried.

"I just came in to tell you that you have quite a few visitors today, and that Aizawa-kun and Yamada-kun will be here as well. Is that alright with you today, or should I ask them to come back another day?" Izuku smiled at her. She was so kind and reminded him too much of his mother. But no matter how much he wanted to hate the kind nurse that visited, the kind nurse that was too much like his kind mother, he couldn't. So he chose to appreciate her presence instead.

Izuku blinked, realizing he had zoned out. He did that a lot now. There were so many thoughts. So much everything and nothing swirling in his brain and banging off the walls and pounding into his head. Too much everything and nothing.