A State of Decay

Chapter 22

Per his therapist's wishes, Izuku is trying to hang out more with his friends. 

Ever since his talk with Stain, he's put vigilantism on the back burner. He hasn't been out at night since then, and he can honestly say that being able to sleep at night and be awake in the daytime has helped, just like Ms. Ono said it would. 

He always knew his sleep schedule was unhealthy but thought it necessary. But after everything that's happened recently, he's realized that this isn't the case. While the path to being the hero he wants to be is even less clear than ever, he's still going to try.

First, he needs to piece himself back together and become someone worthy of the title—someone his old master, All Might, would be proud of. Because right now, this is the furthest thing from the truth. 

It's late in the evening, and Izuku sits in the back of a bar with some friends. Katsuki is to his left, silently sipping his beverage, while Ochaco and Mina chat about something to his right. Kirishima and Denki were somewhere else in the bar, outside of Izuku's line of sight. Izuku's attention is elsewhere, though. He's a few drinks in, and while trying his best to stay present in the moment, his thoughts keep returning to the tingle of that bond in the back of his mind. 

He knows that Tomura is listening. After becoming more acutely aware of when the man was and wasn't present, it wasn't hard to tell when Tomura was tuning into his thoughts. While Izuku might have minded not long ago, the idea doesn't startle him as much as it used to. He assumes that this was something Tomura did quite frequently, even before. As of now, there didn't seem to be much he could hide from the man. 

And Izuku really didn't mind. 

They were bonded together by something more substantial than even blood, and that's how it would always be until Izuku decided to pass his quirk off to a successor. Honestly, the thought of losing this bond with Tomura startles him after having it for so long. It's a comfort he didn't know he'd come to rely so heavily upon, but that had slowly become the case. He still loathed it even if this loss wouldn't be for years. 

"Deku, are you listening?" Ochaco says next to him, and he snaps his head up. 

"Yeah! yeah, I was just thinking about something." He rubs the back of his neck while sipping his drink. He's a few drinks in at this point, so it's been getting more challenging for him to focus on one thing for too long. 

"Then what did I just say?"

He pouts. "Okay, fine, maybe I wasn't. Sorry!"

"Damned idiot," Katsuki grumbles beside him. "She asked if you were going to that class reunion thing, which I don't see the point of. I see enough of you idiots at work, and when you decide to drag me off to shit like this." 

While Katsuki wasn't wrong about them all seeing quite a bit of each other, Izuku still loved their class reunions. It was an excellent way to get everyone together at least once a year. A few of them always missed out on other things like birthdays or nights like tonight, but everyone made an effort to attend the reunions.

"I'll definitely be there!" Izuku responds. 

"I thought so, but I wanted to check!" Ochaco smiles. 

"Hey, Midoriya," Mina interjects somewhat playfully. "I've got a question I've been meaning to ask you."

"What's up?" he says, turning his attention to her. 

"Denki mentioned something interesting the other day, and I wanted to see if it was true or not." The grin she had on her face was a little... startling, to say the least. Izuku had no idea where this was going. "Denki might have mentioned something to me about a certain visitor you had at your house a few weeks back."