To Be a Hero (Boku no Hero Academia x Reader)

❦ Forty Four

Recap: Busy days are ahead of you with the internships coming upon you, but you need to finish up some loose ends before you can head out of U.A for your studies. With some encouraging (?) words with Bakugo and heartfelt conversations with Todoroki, to a surprise Shinso's mentorship with Aizawa who's dragging you along for the ride, deciding for your upcoming hero internship with Midoriya in the USJ, meeting the mysterious Pokemon that you'll need to discuss with your boss, and an argument against an emotional Iida set on his sights on the Hero Killer: Stain, you have a big storm ahead of you! But with all this rounded off, you decided it was time you faced a history in the past you buried for you and only you, going to the Shie Hassaikai to meet your bedridden father and find out what's just going on out of your sights.

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In that slightly lit room, you found yourself stepping in faced with the warm summer breeze wafting through the open window. The room felt empty like no one had entered for a while-desolate to the outside world. Yet that was a lie, as your eyes fixed against the man under the bed cover in the middle of the quaint room.

You reached a handout to shut the door quietly, sliding the tatami door in hopes of being especially quiet for the occupant, yet there was no sound from said man. For most, you find yourself reeling in the room, noticing the unclutter of the room, practically lacking any furniture besides the bed and the beeping of the heart monitor. Other than the infusion bottles hung by the bedside, and the few Hospital necessaries, there was almost nothing. So bare. And so very quiet.

With your eyes trained on the lonesome figure, your legs did the work for you. You took slow steps towards the bed, stepping to the side to slowly come face to your father. His aging, tired face that you had not seen in a while made your inside swirl unease. Your father had always looked old, but he especially looked worn down. He looked pale, like a man who had not seen the sun in years. He looked skinnier too, the tired lines of his face showing the body's endurance to stay...breathing.

During that small period, you simply stood by the bedside, almost against coming any closer than this distance. Perhaps you shouldn't threshold that invisible line. Watching the way his chest rose with shaky breaths, a nose cannula attached to his nose as he struggled in the realm of unconsciousness.

You wondered if it felt too hot, or would he prefer being stuffed under the blanket in this warm air? The room's only light was that open window, showing out the greenery of the place's garden, the tranquility of nature swishing and moving just a step away from this silent, cold, unmoving room.

There was a tiny twitch of his fingers, his left arm dragged out of the blanket, and that's when you slowly moved. You carefully sat by his bedside, reaching a hand to his cold hand, stiff and unmoving. An uneasy crawl flitted at your being, as you quietly moved to snuggle him closer to the blanket, gently draping the material just below his chin, as you moved to grasp his hand lightly once more.

It was still. In your imagination, you saw him twitch at your touch. But alas, it was a trick of your mind. He didn't wake. He didn't move.

Ever since you found out of his illness through Kurono, the man that had been following you at times, you wondered...what would your father say if you had visited him just a little sooner? Would he look at you the same way he did when you were young, that same...love that he could not quite show? You tightened your grip a bit, by perhaps by some god that he would arise.

But most of your thoughts always dwelled on this; What would you say to him?

Silence fell, as you let the sound of the beeping monitors and machinery waft the room.

In this quiet solitude, you were struck a little by the sudden chime entering your eardrums, the sound so lighthearted compared to the dreading machinery. As a gust of wind blew in, lightly ambling the room in cool air, the sound came again, like the tinkering sound of a bell, slowly being rung.