pyromania

truth.

Izuku sat on the bed, anxiously fidgeting with his fingers as he glanced between the door to his room, the clock, and the quietly playing TV that was on the wall. He pulled his covers over himself even more as he got a chill, unused to being without his usual natural warmth.

An hour had already passed since the nurse, Kohana, had left to contact the police and check on her other patients. Worry creeped into his stomach, making it turn and causing nausea to flow through him. Maybe she wasn't going to come back. Maybe she was going to get another nurse to check in on him because she didn't want to be around him anymore. Maybe the police didn't care enough to even come to talk and she decided that he wouldn't be worth taking care of -

A sharp knock ripped him out of his thoughts and Kohana, a rather plain man with a tan coat, and a man with cat features entered the room. "Hey, honey bunny! These two are detective Tsukauchi Naomasa and officer Sansa Tamakawa!"

Nausea flooded his senses as his anxiety almost reached its tipping point, but he swallowed it down and waved shyly to the trio. "Alright! You ready to begin?" Kohana asked, her kind smile never wavering as the two officers sat in the seats beside his bed. Izuku nodded slowly as he switched his attention to his hands.

"Okay; first of all, your name is Izuku Midoriya, correct?"

A nod.

"When is your birthday?"

"It's-it's July fifteenth, I'm gonna, gonna be nine next year." Izuku said softly, waiting for one of the adults to comment on his stutter, but none came. Only a hum of confirmation filled the room.

"You're registered as quirkless, and yet you have a quirk, correct?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Can you tell us what your quirk is?"

He fell silent and fidgeted with his hands more than before as he thought over his words, but the nurse waited patiently as he collected his thoughts. "It's, it's, um, I can create and-and-and manipulate fire... It doesn't hurt me, but, uh, it-it, it will burn anything else? I think? I, I call it pyromancy..."

"Have you seen a quirk counsellor?"

"No, miss Kohana."

"Have you learned to control it?"

"No-no, miss Kohana."

"Would you like to?"

"Yes! Yes, I-I-I, I want to learn!"

Giggling, the nurse nodded. "We'll set you up then, kiddo. I'll ask you more questions after these two leave, is that good with you?"

Izuku's head shot up to look at her, then sent a panicked glance to the men beside him. "I can stay in here with you if you'd like me to!" Kohana rushed out, hearing the heart monitor's beeping beginning to pick up speed.

With no hesitation, he nodded feverishly, relief written all over his features. She carefully walked to his bed and sat down on the edge of it, gently taking hold of his hand as he looked between her and the two men. "I'm-I'm ready whenever you-you-you are."

Tsukauchi nodded and flipped open his notepad, clearing his throat. "Okay; let's get the biggest question out of the way. Is it true that you ran away from your last foster home?"

A scandalized expression ripped itself on to the boy's face as he shook his head. "No, I-I-I-I, I was kicked out when my quirk showed up! They didn't want a, a future villain in their home!" Izuku shouted, voice breaking. "I would never do-do-do that! Please! I'm, I'm not just say-saying that!" Tears pricked his vibrant eyes and he felt the heat returning back under his skin.

Nurse Kohana pulled him closer, whispering reassurances in his ear and rubbing circles on his back. The detective reigned in his emotions in after a few moments passed while his quirk rang that the boy was telling the truth. "It's okay, Midoriya. I have a lie detection quirk so you don't have to worry about me not believing you." Tsukauchi said with a gentle smile, trying to reassure him.

By the way Izuku relaxed and relief washed over his features, it had worked, even if a tear slipped down his freckled cheek. That was good. Probably. "Next, did anyone in your past foster homes hurt you or say things to make you feel bad on purpose?"

Nodding, it took him a moment to respond. "They, um... They would-would hit me sometimes, especially when I wasn't quick or, or, uh, or if I wasn't quiet. But-but-but not all did that! They, um, mostly told me I was, was worthless, and useless, and, and, and a lot of them wouldn't let-let-let-let me eat if I was really bad..." He fiddled with his gown, avoiding the eyes of the men. "I, I wasn't allowed to-to-to speak a lot, because they, um, none of them wanted to hear me, me stutter..."

Nodding gently, the dark haired man wrote in his notebook. "Did they ever touch you in places that made you uncomfortable?"

Izuku seemed to think on it for a few seconds before replying. "The kids, they, they would grab my neck sometimes and-and-and it would make me really, really, really uncomfortable..."

"But they didn't touch you, say, between your legs or your behind?"

He shook his head. "Were they supposed to?"

That took a few moments for Tsukauchi to process, before he shook his head. "No, absolutely not. It's a really bad thing to do."

Silence washed over them for a few moments more before they continued on.

<><><>

Shouta had made his way to the alley where the boy and the cats were, looking around to see if he could find anything that could be what the cats had been talking about.

He felt somewhat silly to be going off something a cat said, but what can you do?

Sighing, he looked in the nooks and crannies in the alley before spotting something yellow behind one of the dumpsters.

Well, he thought as he fished out a dirty and ragged backpack, cats can be assholes, but somehow they like the kid enough to be truthful. Makes me wonder what he did for them to love him so much.

When he was on his way back to the hospital, he decided to look through the bag, and was surprised to find multiple notebooks labelled "hero analysis for the future." He made a mental note to look through them later on. There were also some books on quirk theory, flowers and plants, and animal care - an odd combination, but completely understandable, he supposed. Kids had weird interests all the time.

When he spotted a few little polaroids, his curiosity got the better of him, and he pulled them out.

Pity filled him when he saw the kid, younger than he is now, with a woman who looked almost exactly like him. Life filled his eyes in every picture, but the woman... It was obvious her health was declining in each photo, and she seemed to be at the end by the last one, where she sat in a hospital bed, frail-looking arms wrapped around the boy as her teary eyes held regrets and overflowing love. It told a story that he'd heard too many times.

Carefully, he put them up, and tried to shake off the heartache he felt for the kid. It wasn't like he'd be able to take care of him. He and Hizashi had enough to do without worrying about a kid being thrown into the mix.

Even so, he itched to do something, anything, to help the kid. He had an overwhelming amount of potential based just on how quickly he recognized him, especially with how it seemed he had only limited schooling.

Maybe he could talk to Nedzu about having him teach him basic analysis and help him catch up education-wise? Or perhaps he could talk to one of – no, he wouldn't trust any of his friends with such a fragile child, they'd probably lose him within three seconds.

Oh, this was going to be a pain.