Pyromaniac

A Plan

"Problem Child?" Shota asked, and Izuku could tell that he was very confused. Izuku could barely stand at this point, he could feel his legs collapsing under the weight of his body.

"Shota? Who is i-" Hizashi walked to the entryway of the house, and cut his question short when he saw Izuku's form frighteningly close to crumbling to the ground.

"Midoriya, what's wrong?" Shota asks and Izuku's breath quickens at the question, and he starts to feel fear clench his heart once again.

"I- I can't, and he just-... and it hurts." Izuku barely manages to choke out and Hizashi pushes his husband out of the way to let Izuku into the house. Hizashi helps the teenager to the living room, Shota follows close behind them, and when Izuku sees the couch he immediately collapses onto it. He knows he'll have to talk at some point, but right now his main priority is relearning how to breathe. Shota sits on one side of him, not knowing what to do, and Hizashi sits on his other side, beginning to rub circles on his back. Izuku flinches away from his hand, the new burn scar being agitated by the motion. Hizashi takes the hint and instead starts to rub a circle on Izuku's palm.

"Hey, little listener, it's okay, you're safe now, breathe with me, okay?" Hizashi quietly asks, replicating the things he said whenever Shota or Hitoshi had panic attacks. Izuku numbly nods in response, tears finally clouding his vision as he tries to copy Hizashi's breaths. When his breathing patterns had calmed down a bit Hizashi still continued to breathe slowly as Shota finally made a move to run his hand through Izuku's hair in an effort to calm the teen down. After a moment Izuku had stopped crying and the three sat in silence an unbearable amount of time, the bad TV show still playing.

"What happened?" Shota asked, and Izuku tried to answer but it came out croaky, and rough. Hizashi got up to retrieve a glass of water for Izuku, who gratefully took it and drank as much as possible to calm the fire in his throat.

"I couldn't stay there any longer." Izuku mumbled, but Shota and Hizashi couldn't really gather any information from that. Shota's first thought was that he had come here from the sleepover, it didn't make any sense why he would leave, or why he would come here, but Shota asked anyway.

"From the sleepover? Why would you come here?" Shota asked, and Izuku tilted his head up to his teacher, startling a bit when Hizashi wrapped a blanket around him.

"No, I ducked out of it, so I haven't even been to Tensei's house today. And I came here because-... because I had nowhere else to go." Izuku says, and pulled the blanket tighter around himself, in that moment he looked so small, so fragile, and Shota was overwhelmed with a sudden urge to protect him

"What do you mean?" Hizashi calmly whispered as he gently put an arm around Izuku, trying to reassure him that he was safe here.

"I couldn't go to Keigo's because I didn't have enough money for a train to his agency. And I couldn't go to Tensei because he's out of town, and there's no way I'm trying to get through his with a bunch of brash teenagers. This was my only option." Izuku looks up between Hizashi and Shota with pleading eyes, as if he thinks they're going to kick him out at any moment.

"But why aren't you at home, problem child?" Shota presses for some answers, and starts to run his hand through Izuku's hair once again when he sees the kid tense up.

"I can't stay there anymore! I just can't, and it's tormenting me! What happened?!" Izuku yelled, as his eyes started darting around the room before finally connecting with Shotas. When Shota looked into those eyes he saw a scared kid, but he also saw a tired man, waiting for it all to end, it looked like Izuku was searching for something, but he couldn't seem to find it.

"Little listener, we can't help you if you don't tell us anything." Hizashi said, and Izuku shifted his eyes to connect with the other pro hero's. Izuku shook his head no, while squeezing his eyes shut, then he gulped.