Work Text:
Izuku was– okay, admittedly, he was hiding.
The day after the incident with Aizawa he asked to go home to calm down, which was in his defence, true. He calmed down as he watched the ceremony and he calmed down as he worked the night shift afterwards… Then he was calm on Saturday as he helped clean up the ceremony, helped out at the bakery, made some food for the newer kids, cleaned the graffiti off of their more well known safe zones, the decoys they call them. He was calm as he strolled down the alleys to the place he calls home to get a hopefully good, warm night’s sleep.
And now it’s Sunday and he may not be the most calm.
You see, Aizawa gave him the weekend off, and now it’s the end of the weekend and he doesn’t know how to explain himself.
How does he tell Aizawa why he knew the body would be there?
How does he explain how he knew the kid?
God, at least Izuku knows there won’t be an investigation, even if sometimes he wishes there was, he saw Aizawa hand the case off to a Chain, not that he knew of course. Guess he didn't have to worry about lying to any cops this time around.
Chains were, well, they were a word the community had been using for decades, especially in the past few years. Chains were the ones who were in power, the cops, heroes, government officials, even teachers who would ‘imprison’, and restrict the rights of the quirkless, slowly cutting them out of society like the gristle on a piece of meat, thrown to the dogs.
But anyway, Izuku was not calm. He knows he has to go back to UA, but he feels so safe. I mean, right now he’s in the Scarab, it’s an old building, a bit broken down, the wood creaks when the wind blows too hard and it gets ice cold in the winters, but it’s big and it’s owned by the daughter of one of the quirkless elders. It is safe. He’s sitting in the middle of the Scarab, near their newly repaired fireplace (that was a lot of brick carrying last month) teaching the kids how to sew. Cindy, the 4 year old girl with beautiful curly blond hair and golden eyes was picking out the colours for everyone to practice with from their scrap bin while Izuku taught the 9 year old twins, one with blue eyes and grey hair and the other grey hair and blue eyes, and the 8 year old who hadn’t yet mentioned her name, how to sew purse-string sutures.
He hates that the kids should learn this, but hey, it can fix their clothes and if something goes wrong, works wonders on the more gaping of wounds if they need to.
He knows he has to go back to UA, but he feels so safe, the Scarab was one of the first places he was brought to when he learnt of the community, it was the first good night sleep he’d had in years. It was the first night he went to bed with dry eyes and a soft blanket in months. It had been the first time he felt at home since his diagnosis.
UA just isn’t the same, sure his friends are great and he knows that Aizawa cares about them, all of their teachers do, but no one there understands. No one there knows why he hides his books, why he keeps a stash of food in his go bag, HECK, none of them have a go bag! Apart from maybe Shinsou, he thinks he's seen a worn down duffle in the back of his closet once. They look at his scars and see recklessness with his own quirk that he can barely control, but his people, his people see the hurt inflicted by others, they see the cuts given to himself to have even an ounce of control. His people see him, quirk and no, he’s more than Deku whether meant the way Uraraka does, or Kacchan it doesn’t matter. HE’S NOT A WOODEN DOLL!
When wood is carved, it splinters and shatters.
When his flesh was carved from the bone, he stitched it back on.
Wood has been separated from the tree, left to rot.
He’s got a whole forest with him now!
A doll is made to be played with and bent to your whims.
Izuku is stronger now.
And, yeah, he should go back to UA, the kids keep asking how his hero training is going. The whole community is ecstatic that he’ll one day be in the ranking, someone in the same red shoes as them, someone with the same scars and the same hope for later. Just a boy who used to sleep in the Scarab, to the boy who’ll one day save the lives of everyone, no matter what they’ve been given in life, no matter how society saves them. Izuku will be the Lotus, the hero that grows even when its environment is against it. Izuku will go from a Deku to the strongest flower in a bouquet of them.
And with that he left the kids to their practice, slinging his bag over his shoulders and checking the trains back to UA, this was where he was meant to be, but sometimes you have to leave your safety to truly flourish. As he walked he sprayed on some deodorant and bought some black dahlias from the local shopkeep. It had to look like his mother gave him something from his weekend with her.
Lotus will save his people, one stitch at a time.