Thorn's and Roses

Take 1

The worn fabric of the old seat dug into his arms where they wrapped around himself to keep him as warm as he could. The musty old van didn't offer much protection from the cold nights, but it at least kept the wind off him. He rolled onto his back and stretched his cramped limbs into the air before he sat up.

He had work to do, after all.

---

Izuku Midoriya had been homeless for only a few months. At first, it had been a rough adjustment. His life had been turned on its head, and he had to learn to navigate the frosty street life. He had almost died of starvation, dehydration, hypothermia, and infections multiple times before he found his new home, a run down, old van on Dagobah Beach, buried behind mountains of garbage and hidden from prying eyes and sticky fingers.

Since then, he had started working on shoring up the garbage piles to ensure he didn't get buried in a collapse, and he also began taking anything he could use and storing it in the cab of his van. So far, he had managed to fix up an old laptop and cell phone, and he found an old ice box he kept buried under the van.

Anything he found of value, he sold. He had a healthy nest egg stored in the floor of his van. He had used some of his funds to buy chargers for his electronics, as well as food whenever he needed it.

Izuku climbed down from his van into the awning of the massive heaps of garbage and began winding his way through them to exit Dagobah beach. He had his laptop and phone with him to charge at the cafe while he had his breakfast.

For the past few months, he had been following articles on an elusive vigilante only known as "Bee." But recently, no new articles had been published. Izuku was stumped. Bee had been very active ever since his first appearance, it didn't make sense for him to go into hiding now, and there was no news of his arrest.

The bells chimed pleasantly as he entered the cafe. The server greeted him and entered his order. Izuku took a seat and plugged in his laptop and phone while he waited. He would spend most mornings and evening sitting there, sipping soup as he did school work online and scoured the internet on articles of the newest heros and vigilantes.

He had stopped attending school in person after the incident that left him where he was now, but he still hoped to get into a good highschool so he found a free school online he could attend to keep his grades up.

He had fallen behind before he got his laptop, and hadn't immediately began his school work. For a while, he had't even thought of it. His only focus was finding out as much as he could about Bee.

After all, Bee was the one who had saved him.

Izuku and his mother, Inko Midoriya, had been in the red light district early in the evening when a villain came through. He was tearing out the sides of buildings and overpasses to slow down the heros.

All Might had been staying in Musatafu after taking down a villain made of sludge, and he had been quick to respond to the chaos. With one good punch, he had blown the villain back, and effectively knocked over all the damaged buildings.

Izuku and Inko had been too close, they both were pinned beneath the rubble. For hours Izuku had listened to his mother quietly plead and cry, growing weaker and weaker until she fell silent. The rocks were as quiet as a grave, and the air was getting stale. His lungs were burning with the effort to take in oxygen. His face and hands felt like they were falling asleep.

And slowly, the sound of concrete and rock being shifted reached him. Small openings began to appear, letting in fresh air that beat back the fog that had settled into his mind. He did not recognize the man that dug him out, but the articles that were quickly published after gave him the moniker Bee, for his transparent wings and the patches of yellow and black fuzz that adorned his back and arms.

Since then, Izuku was obsessed. He wanted to thank the man, but at that time he hadn't been in any state of mind to think of it. So Izuku was left to scour the internet in hopes of finding out as much about him as possible.

Izuku swallowed the last of his soup and refilled his cup of water to go.

The sun had fully came up now and people were filling the streets running to work and school. Izuku dodged around them and slid into an alley to take the long way back to the beach for a shower. Luckily, they had never turned off the water so showers and toilets still worked.

He came out the other end into a smaller, quieter street to continue his way home. He kept his head down and moved quickly. He didn't need anyone asking why he wasn't heading toward the school.

Though, in hindsight, maybe he should have been paying more attention to where he was going.

Maybe then he wouldn't have ran right into a hostage situation, nor would he have a gun pressed against his temple.

Though that's only in hindsight, because right now his only thoughts are how to survive this.

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Hey, there! I've not written in a long time so I'm very rusty. I don't have any schedule for writing this so expect irregular updates. Feedback is welcome!