A/N: Back to our regularly scheduled programming!
Izuku...hasn't the slightest idea of what he's doing anymore.
He understood very well that he was meant to be studying abroad. He figured that it didn't just limit him to being in California. That he'd be transferred to Texas---maybe even Louisiana.
He did not, however, expect to be shipped out on the first jet to Australia before he could even fix his mouth to say 'Plus Ultra!', especially not when California was still as dry as the fucking Sahara.
"You've helped immensely in California but they need us more here. You're aware of what's happening, right?" All Might begins to brief him even though he's sure he just sounds like a fucking fire engine ringing through Izuku's tired ears.
Poor boy is going to have tinnitus.
The freckled boy nods, albeit a bit absently.
"Yeah. Bush fires, right?"
"And it's pretty bad. Animals and all kinds of important life being burned to death in the process."
Izuku cringes at the thought.
"Fuckin' global warming..." he sighs under his breath but All Might just shakes his head. "Not quite. There's been an investigation launched. This isn't an act of nature---it's arson."
"What do you mean?"
"Remember a few months back---the rainforest incident when those tribes won that lawsuit for their land in retaliation to an American cooperation attempting to build resorts on sacred land?"
"Right. It miraculously caught fire and burned out nearly the entire thing. The indigenous people there were devastated." Izuku replies, feeling a tug at his heart for those poor people. The same thing happened in Africa no later than a few days after.
"Well, this is a...very similar situation. I don't know the details, but I know that there were plans to build a railway in that area...at the exact location point of where the Bush Fires started."
"That's..." Unsettling? Infuriating? Disgusting?
Pick one and they'll all be correct.
"They've made the arrest of over 300 people in this case."
Izuku nearly jumps out from his seat in shock.
"What?!"
"Yeah, tell me about it. The really screwed up part is that they can convict all of those people and still never touch the real culprit. Because they can't."
Right. Because big men with big money run the fucking world and no one can touch them.
It amazes Izuku in the worst of ways that a man-made concept like money makes people so ruthless and evil. So evil that they are willing to kill millions of life---to kill off the entire fucking planet for the sake of a piece of paper that THEY print. Themselves. In their own countries.
"So what's my job here? Am I diving headfirst into more flames or what?" Izuku is...less than enthusiastic. He's been in so much smoke and soot that the smell of it is ingrained in his hair, his clothes, and into his nostrils.
"Well, mostly producing rain. A lot of it. You can do that with One for All, can't you?"
Izuku raises a skeptic brow.
"Really? That's all I have to do?"
"For now. Licensed hero or not, you're still just a kid. And uh...kind of wimpy."
"Shut up."
"Don't shoot the messenger."
"Messenger of a message that you made?"
"Maybe."
Just a few more weeks and Izuku can go home. Can be in the arms of his Eijirou---can hold his Kacchan again. These last week's have been so difficult but he knows he'll be a better hero by the end of it all.
If not burned to a crisp by then.
#
"Oh, baby, don't cry---"
Katsuki has been lying face down in the bed for at least an hour, howling and sobbing at the top of his lungs as his tears soak into Ochako's blankets. Any word he tries to make out is just muffled, incoherent gibberish and no one knows what to say or do to calm him down.
It's...man, it's really fucking sad.
Kaminari is on the verge of joining him.
"D-D-D-Daddy d-d-doesn't l-love m-m-me anymoreeeeee!"
"Baby, that's not true. I know daddy still loves you. But I'm very upset that he lied and he hurt you. Hey---look at me, sweetheart." Mina says, coaxing him up from the bed. He allows himself to be dragged into a sitting position, still shaking and lips quivering even as she holds his cheeks in her hands.
"You are so strong and smart and soooo beautiful. And you're such a good boy. And you don't ever have to feel responsible for daddy's horrible choices or for anyone else's, okay? No matter what happens, we will always love and protect you. Yeah?"
Katsuki nods, face scrunching up again as he flings himself forward to cry into Mina's shirt.
A moment later, the bedroom door opens and Mashirao comes in with Hitoshi in tow. He's got bags of snacks in his hands including ice cream as well as movies. Hitoshi is carrying a large, fluffy blanket in his own.
The moment he sees the state that Katsuki is in, Hitoshi freezes.
"...so, who's ass do I have to kick now? Or is it a murder scale issue?"
Mashirao sighs.
"Murder is never acceptable, Toshi."
"It was Shouto." Sero supplies.
"Murder is sometimes acceptable, Toshi."
"Maybe we should just focus on getting the baby to calm down, yeah?" Ochako attempts to de-escalate the situation and Hitoshi, albeit begrudgingly, complies.
"C'mere, kiddo. I've got a nice, warm blanket for you and all your favorite movies."
Wiping at his eyes, Katsuki nods and then reaches for Hitoshi with wiggling fingers and watery eyes.
He folds right then and there, smothering Katsuki with his body as he hugs him. Mashirao tries to join their cuddle huddle as Kaminari distributes snacks and Ochako started the first movie, but he's straight armed by Hitoshi as the purple-haired boy looks down his nose at him with a scoff.
"Get your own; the blonde fluff is mine."
The nerve.
#
"Someone's at the door."
Everyone just lays still on the bed, not really wanting to get up and check to see who it was.
"Not it on 3?"
"Just go answer the fuckin' door, Kaminari."
The blonde complies with a groan, limbs heavy and lethargic from being in a group cuddle for three hours straight. He doesn't bother asking who it is as he swings it open, eyes damn near popping out of their sockets when he sees.
"H-Hawks? What are you doing here?"
The older blonde smiles and gives him a friendly wave.
"Hey. Just need to talk to Kitty Boy for a while. Is he here?"
YOU ARE READING
Love Like You
Fanfiction*Safe Space Sequel* "Is that what you want? To destroy this family?" Does Enji really have the gall to ask something like that when he's the one who's always torn their family apart? He's the reason Shouto's lost his big brother long ago. He's the...
