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

|13| A Place To Call (Temporary) Home

"Midoriya. Why aren't you eating." It wasn't even a question. Izuku bit his lip and looked to the floor like he always did when faced with an uncomfortable question. Shouta asked again. "Midoriya. It's unhealthy and you know it. Why aren't you eating?" Now it was a question. Izuku didn't want to answer but he didn't want to make one of the only two people who held real conversations with him mad.

Izuku sighed and played with his bandages fingers. "I wasn't hungry. And it is really gross. I didn't want to throw up when I can't even reach a trash can without someone to carry me." The last part came out a bit sassy, but Izuku didn't care. He was so sick of being treated like glass. Aizawa and Mic didn't show it, but Izuku just knew they thought he was weak and traumatized. He was fine.

Aizawa sighed. "Tell you what. You eat as much of this as you can, and I'll sneak up some real food from the cafe downstairs. Sound good?" Izuku lit up at the thought of real food and making his teacher happy, proud even. He would do his best to finish the entire plate!

Of course, the teacher seemed to read his mind. How did they do that? "Don't push yourself. I won't be happy if you end up puking it back out because you forced yourself to eat. That's not a healthy or effective way to deal with an eating disorder." Izuku blinked. Did he have an eating disorder? He did forget eat a lot... and almost never ate more than a few bites at lunch which always ended up making his stomach churn. He always gave Mom all of his food. Maybe he did have some kind of eating disorder.

But Izuku took it in stride. If this was how to make his teacher and literal hero proud, then he'd do it! If he felt too queasy, he'd put the plate down and try again later. Izuku picked up the plate of stale food and began to pick up small pieces with his plastic fork, slowly chewing the flavorless food. Aizawa passed the time with random questions in between bites, to which Izuku answered with enthusiasm.

At around a quarter of the small plate having been eaten, Izuku felt his stomach churn and rumble. It cramped slightly and Izuku set the plate down on his lap. Shouta took the hint and placed the food back on the bedside table. He patted Izuku's arm. "Good job kid. That's probably more than you've eaten in a while." And when Izuku glanced to the food, he realized it was the most he'd eaten in a single since.... since when? A few months ago?

Izuku felt a lot prouder of himself than he did before. He smiled softly and glanced to the window. The smile immediately fell. Shouta noticed.

"Hey kid. There something bothering you?" Izuku hesitantly nodded. Shouta sighed and grabbed his chin, turning Izuku's face in his direction.

"Then tell me. What's up?" Izuku sighed and looked down to his lap, quite literally twiddling his thumbs.

"I just.... I told you that I had to get this house in a really crappy and rundown neighborhood?" Shouta nodded. "Well, there were four other kids there. I just.... they wanted to be heroes really badly and they don't have any real education and they don't have any luxuries at all. They're homeless and I was wondering if you or Present Mic could help them?"

Izuku looked to Shouta pleadingly, and he cursed his weakness to puppy dog eyes. He blames it on Eri. He sighed and looked up at Izuku.

"Alright. What do they look like and what's their location?" Izuku blinked, as if he hadn't expected the pro hero to actually help them. Shouta would be addressing the trust issues later down the line.

Izuku looked out the window and back to the teacher. "Well... they're all in their last year of junior high, and have really tattered clothes. There's Ochana Kerosena. She's about my height, with orange and black hair that's almost always tied back in a messy ponytail. Dark red eyes. She has kerosene constantly dripping from her eyes and they look like tears. They evaporate when they hit the ground." Shouta was rather appalled by the odd eye thing.