Canary

Chapter 47: Sacrifices

When Shinso left his room that morning, he stopped in the corridor. The door to Midoriya's room, next door, was wide open. He crept around it unsurely and peered inside. His bed was left messy and unmade – pyjamas tossed aside with equal untidiness, which was unlike him. Midoriya liked everything to at least have some kind of order and logic. Not to the extent that Iida did, but still...

He stood there for a moment, and Todoroki soon joined him, "We should get going; we'll be late for registration..." he voiced.

"...Yeah," Shinso nodded, shifting the position of his bag over his shoulder.

He remembered that the work study group had all received messages yesterday evening, probably indicating that something big was about to go down... And Shinso had a strong feeling it revolved around Eri.

"...He'll be ok," Todoroki said as they walked down the stairs together, leaving Midoriya's door swinging open as he'd left it.

Shinso swallowed and nodded, "I know."

But it was a lie – because he didn't know... And a nagging thought in the back of his mind reminded him that there was a good chance that he was not ok – even now.

It was just like before, when Midoriya was with the villains... Shinso knew he was out there, fighting, somewhere – but it was out of his reach. He couldn't help him now. All he could do, was hope that he wouldn't be a reckless idiot again and over-do it...

"Besides..." Todoroki added as they reached the door, giving him the slightest of smiles as he turned his head, "He has Siren to look after him."

Shinso let himself grin too, "Yeah, obviously. And that little bird is indestructible."

"Exactly," his friend nodded. He passed him a cup of coffee from the side of the table. Perhaps he'd made it before coming up to check on him. Shinso had slept in quite late, which was unlike him... Everything was backwards, wasn't it?

Shinso accepted it with a grateful nod after pulling on his shoes, and the two left Heights Alliance together.

"I heard Mr Aizawa was going with the work studies group," Shinso remembered. "Maybe we won't get told off for being a little bit late then – by anyone other than Iida, that is."

Todoroki grinned, "Yeah."

Shinso sighed, "I bet it's Present Mic – you don't know the pain of his morning registrations – his afternoon ones weren't much better. But the mornings – God, he's so loud – I'm not alive enough for this..."

"I wonder if Canary will ever end up being more like Present Mic," pondered Todoroki, swirling his own cup thoughtfully.

"God, I hope not," Shinso groaned. "I can see it happening though. Midoriya's always been so... energetic and enthusiastic – he was just so shy and apologetic about it."

"He's improving though."

"Yeah – and quickly too. Ever since Eri's Quirk saved his voice, he's really... I-I don't know. Either figured things out or made them worse."

Todoroki shrugged, "Probably a bit of both."

"Probably," Shinso agreed, chugging the rest of his coffee and letting the last few droplets run down the edge of the mug that now hug leisurely from his fingertips as they strolled along.

In the morning light, a couple of birds dove in front of them, twisting around in the air happily.

"I hope they find Eri," said Todoroki, breaking the eerie calm.

Shinso just nodded, watching a warm trickle of liquid escape from the little volume that remained in the cup, and run down his hand. "Me too."

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