Viridian: The Green Guide

Chapter 54: Gratitude

Izuku was quiet and Inko hated that she didn't know whether that was normal for him or not. Her Izuku, the one she remembered from when he was little, before he was diagnosed and everything went wrong, that Izuku was always talking. He was always rambling about something or another, usually heroes, and had this spark in his eye that Inko loved, but over the years things had changed. It was so gradual that she had hardly noticed, but looking back now it was obvious that he'd stopped rambling as much. Instead of talking for hours without hardly breathing, he would ramble for a few minutes, then clamp down and apologize for annoying her. Instead of that sparkle...

Inko never wanted to repeat seeing him as empty as he had looked when she picked him up from that school with a broken arm.

Getting him out had helped...some. He'd thrived in his new classes, blowing through them like they were nothing and there had even been some times when he'd rambled to her without immediately shutting down. His new friend had helped too. Inko still hadn't actually met Kaminari, but she was hoping that Izuku would be confident enough to bring him home someday soon. At this point, Inko probably knew just as much about Kaminari's quirk as the boy himself did!

Quirks were one of the few things Inko had noticed that would reliably bring Izuku out of his shell, which was why it was so heartbreaking that Izuku was being so quiet today. He would normally be fascinated with a quirk-related challenge like this, but today he had only given short answers, and then only when Inko asked him a question, and he hadn't started rambling even once. Inko hated it.

Izuku pulled at the sleeves of his new Eraserhead hoodie again. He had spent most of the short time since Inko had pulled him out of his room playing with the string or the sleeves, and any other day she would have been tempted to giggle and take a picture of the way he had cocooned himself inside it. Alright, she was still tempted, but if Izuku found the hoodie comforting, Inko was sure she'd have plenty of other chances to fill her camera roll. She was curious as to why, if Izuku had specially ordered the hoodie, he hadn't gotten the correct size. The hoodie practically swamped him, almost like whoever made it had thought he was a few years older than he was, but it made it easier for him to disappear into the fabric, which seemed to be exactly what he needed right now, so Inko wasn't going to question him on it. She was just grateful that he had found something to comfort him, even if what he found was just a hoodie. If he would just trust her enough to tell her what was wrong...

Inko shook her head and finished tying a ribbon around the cookies. It was going to take time to rebuild Izuku's trust in adults after what his old school had put him through and forcing him to confide in her would probably do more harm than good at this point, especially since she still haven't managed to get Izuku to open up about the details of how his teachers treated him. The best thing she could do for her baby was be patient and give him plenty of opportunities to come to her. Why was being a parent so hard?

Inko forced a small smile and turned to Izuku, "Ready to go?"

Izuku nodded quietly and stood. Inko's eyes widened in surprise when she realized he was moving to take off his hoodie and she hurried to stop him, "Why don't you leave that on? It's a bit chilly outside. It's just hero merch, right? It's nothing to be embarrassed about, even if Eraserhead isn't as popular."

Izuku looked at her strangely and shrugged, but left the hoodie on, which Inko decided to count as a win. She had no idea why he'd tried taking it off to leave, but she wasn't about to let him leave behind the one comfort item that seemed to be anchoring him though...whatever he was going through. And she wasn't lying! Lots of kids wore hero merch, and if anyone had a right to wear merch from lesser-known heroes, it was Izuku. He'd been learning everything he could about them since he was a baby!