Frames (Mha Fanfic)

Chapter X

Clink!

The glass was left on the counter by small soft hands, half empty with the warm milk that Shota had prepared. The seemingly harmless child stared back at the tired man, his eyes clear with curiosity. It's emerald sheen was quite beautiful, drawing in the man's attention. It was so . . . Glass-like, as if it could be broken at any moment, and it was that thought that made Shota wince.

The irony.

Izuku Midoriya wasn't glass.

He was far from it.

He was like a mountain made of metal, with a fiery core, burning anything within it's range. Although the beauty of it was, you could see its grand nature from afar.

Immovable.

Indestructible.

Incredible.

. . .

Isolated.

The steam from Shota's mug blurred his vision of the boy in front of him, allowing him to retract his gaze for a moment, before returning to guard Izuku.

They both stared intently at one another, observing, as if both had become each other's lab rat for the day.

It has been this way since coming to UA grounds, in Shota's apartment built with the other teacher's temporary homes.

Three months ago, they were forced by the principal to move in.

Like a dorm, Shota supposed.

"Are you sad?" The tiny mellow voice of the child pulled him back from his thoughts, and he shook his head in response.

"No. Are you?" The same question with the same answer.

"No. But you do."

Hah. How funny.

He was so sure he could handle a small child, if he was able to handle a bunch of rowdy teenagers, but he may have double thoughts about this decision.

"Why do I do?" His lazy tone confirmed his tired form. Too tiring. It's too tiring.

"You just do. . . Um, maybe it's your face," Izuku fidgeted the hem of his shirt with both hands, "it kinda looks sad but it's not. . ?"

The boy tilted his head, his brows furrowed in contemplation, like he was solving a million-pieced puzzle, or a riddle with an essay-long answer.

Unsolvable, Izuku thought.

Again, he failed to see through this man. He didn't know why this man was helping him unconditionally.

It wasn't like at the lab, where people wanted to know where his quirk's limits were, to use and gain an upper hand. He wasn't naive. He knew what those people had intended from the start.

After all, weren't they kidnapped on the news?

They even lied on the surface, just so they could erase his past and use him as they pleased.

Even his mother's death was fabricated.

Izuku's grip on his shirt tightened. That's why he had to know why this man was so kind to him.

Although, even if he knew, there was nothing he could do.

He'll let them use him anyway.

He doesn't have anything anymore, so what's the point of fighting back, much more, for himself?

With those thoughts in mind, he settled with just pretending to be the naive kid that everyone felt pleased to monopolize.

". . . Nevermind." Izuku glanced down, enveloping himself in his own world of silence, while Shota was at lost once again.