Eat My Stomach (Quirk Deku AU)

Don't Stop Me Now

He stared at his left eye in the mirror with a certain contempt, studying the black of his sclera, veins stark against the darkness. It felt no different than his other eye, which stayed unchanged. Izuku had glanced at the truth of his quirk moments after it developed, his nature as a bootleg analyst shone then, but he couldn't understand this part of it.

"Yagi!" He called out from the bathroom, hearing a sigh from another room in response. Not the exasperated kind, but more so one of those small expressive noises old men make when faced with any strenuous task.

"Yes my boy?" The man said as he walked through the hallway, the wooden floor creaking with the same sort of age his bones did. Izuku had noticed a deterioration within the man's health over the months he'd been living with him. Not concerning, like he was dying, just like his body was stressed. Izuku knew it was the fizzling power of his quirk. He'd learned of All Might's 3-hour rule early on, it being tied to his mysterious injury. Izuku had asked about the details surrounding that fight, and his quirk, but he'd gotten unusually sweaty and quiet about it. The man had his secrets, Izuku would respect that, for now. "What is it?" He peeked  from the door. Izuku ripped his gaze from his reflection to respond.

"How would you say I've acted when I'm hungry?" All Might stared for a minute, raising his hand to his chin in thought.

"Well, you get a lot more irritable pretty normally, but if we're talking about when you're really hungry, it's like you're not even there." Izuku nodded, he knew that part. "Like a starved lion, or maybe a shark." Yes, more animalistic, more predatory.

"Like an animal, right?" All Might nodded. Izuku looked back to his reflection, his red eye.

"You're hungry aren't you? Let's get you breakfast." He nodded and left with the man. In the kitchen All Might pulled one of his meals from the freezer, humming and smiling to himself as he slipped it into the microwave and hit defrost. Izuku watched him with a carefulness, like a child watches their angry parent, waiting for the moment this all ends, the moment he's disgusted by Izuku again. The meal was placed in front of him, and All Might looked at him with such appreciation. A love in his eyes Izuku recognized, then turned to eat rather than be reminded.

He stared at the bloody plastic bento, letting his emotions take a backseat, become numb and cold as ice. He bit into thin slice flesh, cut like deli meat.

"Maybe the eye is some sort of intimidation tactic. A lot of my behaviors are akin to animals, so maybe it's a lot like whale eyes, or something, a reflex that shows stress or in my case hunger." Izuku muttered in between sips of coffee. All Might nodded.

"Is there any way of finding out for sure?" Izuku chuckled.

"Probably, but I'm sure it'd include studying me like some endangered species." Toshinori frowned, then took a sip of his coffee. His bony aching knuckles soothed by the warmth of the mug. He wanted to bring up the day before with the boy, but he didn't want to stir any pots. Young Izuku was in an extremely emotionally precarious position, one Toshinori was not all too familiar with. He switched on a hair trigger, from quiet and stoic to bursting with feelings. Usually Toshinori would promote emotional expression, but not like this. He was only ever angry, or sad, and being around him was like walking on eggshells.

He was mostly sad. That was expected. When he was sad he'd lock himself in his room, stay quiet, cry to himself. Sometimes he'd ask for comfort, but Young Izuku didn't like being close to Toshinori for too long, due to the smell. He couldn't do much about that unfortunately.

The anger was rarer, tied to his hunger. His hunger or... Young Bakugou. That's why he was so concerned. Yesterday was a lot, clearly a mistake on Toshinori's part for letting it happen. Young Izuku hadn't said a thing about it, clammed up the moment he left the mock city, wouldn't even participate in the analysis of the battles, which really worried Toshinori. Analysis was the boy's favorite thing. He curled his fingers around his mug tighter.