The Shadows I Hide

Chapter 28: Forgiveness

The following day Izuku was bombarded by his classmates. Deku was caught a bit off guard by how much people seemed to have been worried for him but he was glad nonetheless. That said having everyone in his whole class throw questions at him one after the other without any time between them was rather overwhelming.

"ALRIGHT GIVE HIM SOME SPACE," a familiar angry voice suddenly yelled over the uproar. All at once, everyone's voices went silent and their faces turned to expressions of guilt after seeing how uncomfortable Izuku appeared to be.

"Sorry man," said Kirishima. "I guess you can tell us what happened when you're ready," The rest of the class agreed and began to disperse, returning to whatever activities they had been doing before. Izuku began to pick himself back up from where he had fallen over from the confusion of so many people surrounding him to see Bakugo extending a hand out to him to help him up. He had a scowl on his face as he did so but Izuku accepted anyway.

"Hey listen, Kacchan, I'm really-" He was silenced by a sudden right hook to the face. Izuku recoiled from the surprise of the attack.

"That's for running away like an imbecile. Next time don't act like an idiot and there won't be any problems. Got that?" Izuku nodded. "Good," and with that Katcchan walked off. Izuku rubbed his face where Katcchan had hit him. The blow hurt for sure, but not as much as it should have. Did he hold back on that punch? Izuku shook his head and began walking in the direction of his new dorm room. He was always impressed by the school's ability to carry out large scale construction or renovation in barely any time at all. Walking down the halls taking a few unfamiliar turns along the way Izuku finally found himself standing outside his new doorway.

'It's also HER new doorway,' he thought to himself stirring up a well of anxiety within him. Forcing himself to push those feelings aside he walked inside. From his first glance, it looked to Izuku as if the school had simply knocked down a wall separating two previously existent rooms and moved around some furniture. However, upon closer inspection, he saw a few changes which although not very life-changing, would have taken the time and planning to carry out. Thank god for quirks. The room was long, stretching out to Izuku's right for a good 50 feet. A bed was placed against the wall over there along with a similar one placed directly in front of him on the left. Additionally, each wall had what appeared to be a closet as well as a door that Izuku assumed to be the bathroom. In the middle placed against each other were two desks facing each other. After casting his gaze once more across the room Izuku made a beeline for the desk. Sitting down in his chair Izuku looked around feeling paranoid. After being sure no one was around anywhere near the window Izuku ran his hand through his lump of green curls, holding his breath as he did so. A felt the dread he'd been feeling since the incident set in deeper as he felt a sharp hardened point on each side of his head. They were small, and because of that they'd been hidden by his hair, but there was no doubt about it. They were his horns. They hadn't gone away entirely. His hands were shaking as he withdrew them. He hadn't let anybody know about this. He'd been too scared. He shook his head and grabbed his bag for a distraction. Now that he was here he could afford to waste any time. He'd missed quite a bit of school and he needed to catch up as quickly as possible. Retrieving a laptop and notebook from his bag Izuku began to work through the material he had missed, hoping it would spare him further from his terrifying thoughts. Hours went by without his realizing and he wasn't drawn out of his task until a knock at the door startled Izuku out of his concentration. It was dark outside at that point. The knock came again this time accompanied by a familiar voice.

"Deku? Are you in there?"

"Uh... Y-y-yeah," he managed to stutter. He grimaced at his inability to speak clearly for once. He tried to brace himself to face her the guilt of previous days resurfacing tenfold. The door opened and there she was. Standing in the doorway with a shy smile on her face. Izuku couldn't look her in the eye. It was his fault, he could've prevented the struggle and fear she was no doubt going through now.

"I'm sorry," he muttered to her with his eyes cast downward.

"If I hadn't been such an idiot, I wouldn't have dragged you into this," Izuku began to feel tears stream down his face. "If I had just been stronger, I could have protected you,"

A gentle hand cupped the side of his face gently. He looked up to see Uraraka's big brown eyes looking into his.

"It's okay Deku. I know what you wanted to do, but even if you weren't able to, if not for you I wouldn't even be here right now." She wiped the tears on his face with her thumb even as tears began to fill up her own eyes.

"You've done more for me than I could ever thank you for,"

Izuku was unable to speak. No, no she had to be mistaken. He was a monster, what could she see in him to bring out this kind of treatment.

"Uraraka.. what do I look like to you?"

A smile began to spread over her face after he said that, and in a quiet voice, she whispered.

"You look like Deku. You look like the cute nerd boy I befriended. You look like the boy I look up to,"

"But I hurt you, for my own selfish reasons,"

"You made a mistake Deku, so do all of us,"

"But my mistake ended up costing you something precious,"

Uraraka hugged him gently.

"Hey, I haven't gotten my test results back yet, so it might not be as bad as you think. But even if it is, I'll learn to live with it. After all, the person I admire most lived as a quirk less boy for seventeen years,"

"Deku? Are you still awake?" Izuku and Uraraka had spent a lot of time talking to each other before finally agreeing that they should sleep. It was late and pitch black in the room except for the small bit of illumination provided by the moon. Despite this Izuku was wide awake.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Well... I just had a thought about your situation. I mean if you were kinda born with this, then don't you think your mom would know something about it?"

Izuku sighed. He'd thought about it, of course, he had. But he'd been too afraid to actually try asking in case what he heard was something terrible. Uraraka knew what he was thinking.

"You need to ask her eventually, Deku. Putting it off is just going to stress you out more,"

"I know," he said, his voice sounding defeated. "I'm just.... scared. Scared of what I'll hear,"

"Would you want me to come with you?"

"You'd do that for me?"

"Of course dummy,"

Izuku thought about it. It would be great to have her by his side for this. But he couldn't pull her into his own personal problems more than he already had. He shook his head finally feeling his resolve well up inside him.

"No. I appreciate it, but I think I need to do this on my own."

"Alright then," she said happily. Izuku could hear the smile in her voice.