Work Text:
Day Seven
"Tell me you're okay, and I'm fine"
Trapped with the Enemy | Elevator | Pushed beyond breaking point
The world was cruel.
This was a fact ingrained in Hitoshi. Carved into his bones as his quirk developed, as people became meaner. He never saw the world around him as something to be good. It was full of people with bad ideals and discrimination hardwired into their brains.
Hitoshi was set on surviving alone. That's all there was to it. Make it out of the system and school, he would never make it uninjured, then be a hero. One who would protect others like him.
Eventually he would die in the field and prove everyone who ever told him he couldn't wrong. With his death he would finally be something and he was fine with that.
That plan changed when Aizawa started to train him. It was one of the hardest adjustments. The man was quiet, stoic, but gentle in his teaching. A steady, even, rock that saw something in him that wasn't the exhausted, cynical teen he portrayed. Aizawa was the first adult to not only prove that people could be kind but also that he had more value than just a rotten kid with a bad attitude destined to be a villain.
Then he got into 1A. The class of his dreams. With it he met Izuku Midoriya. The kid was a walking disaster who wore his heart on his sleeve.
Or so he let people believe.
He had learned differently one night a few months into his stay in the 1A dorms. It was brutal, his insomnia was finally letting him sleep but his mind was filled with nightmares. He'd woken up screaming, clawing at his face for the muzzle to be taken off. Begging to just be let out of the small cramped space so he could breath.
Izuku had heard him and kept the others, who he'd woken up, away before joining him. Talking him through it. Afterwards, once Hitoshi could breath again. Izuku toyed with his fingers as he spilled everything from his own past. It took a lot for him not to go punch the shit out of Bakugou.
He swore he would save that fight for another time however.
They grew closer after that. Seeking each other out when in need of comfort. Training and practicing their skills while improving their quirks. All to prove everyone wrong.
Hitoshi had grown to love him. Between all the gentle touches and fierce spares. Their nights spent huddled in the dark whispering secrets and fears. Bright afternoons of wicked strategies and quirk analysis flying between.
It was easy for the moon to fall in love with the sun.
They were happy.
They bought a cute little apartment along the edge of the city right after they graduated. Slowly they filled the space with things they loved.
They had picked up a few stray cats. Built little nests for them around their home.
They were happy and stupidly in love.
This wasn't happiness.
"Izuku please." Hitoshi sobbed. The words trying to choked him as he begged. "You have to be okay."
This was pain and ruin. He would give up anything , destroy anything, to trade places with Izuku right now.
"Izuku." Hitoshi pulled his partner closer. Blood soaked both their hero costumes. He had lost vision in one eye, a blade had cut clean through. The wound pulsed and ached but it was nothing compared to the hurt of a broken heart.
Morbidly his thoughts strayed to Aizawa for a second, they would match now. Not that it mattered at all.
"Izuku you need to get up." His love was fading fast but the villain still raged. Innocent people were still being hurt, still dying. How many families were ruined today because of them? Because they weren't good enough.
"-To-shi…" It was warbled and broken, spoken as blood bubbled out of his mouth.
It was all he needed.
With gentle movements he let his quirk reach for Izuku and pulled him under its control. Izuku's glassy eyes grew that vacant, hollow look. Hitoshi's stomach rolled, bile threatening to rise at what he was about to do.
They had learned, in the long days of quirk practice that Hitoshi could fully take control of Izuku. It was only doable because Izuku fully trusted him and never fought against brainwashing.
Izuku had let himself drift under it once, retreated to the back of his mind and enjoyed the gentle embrace that was Hitoshi's quite love. It was then they noticed that a bump wouldn't pull him out of it. Either Izuku had to push or be released.
It's what made what he was about to do so horrible. A complete and utter breach of that trust.
They had answered a call, an emergency begging for any heroes. Someone had continued the Nomu experiments after the fall of the league and many of the beasts were on a rampage. The first one they found was a hulking giant fueled by strength and regenerative quirks, fire bloomed in its palms and breath.
There were a dozen spread over the city, back up wasn't coming. The com lines were filled with desperate cries for backup. The heroes had been spread far too thin and were clinging with white knuckles to what little grounds they had won. Izuku and him had been the only ones who could reach this one. no one else was coming. No backup could be sent their way.
Deku had taken several nasty blows, skin torn open, bones broken from taking all the attacks. Now, he was barely hanging on to life. Hitoshi wasn't doing much better.His ribs and spine ached from being thrown into a building. Back burned from the Nomu's breath. He had reached his own limit. Black spots danced in his remaining vision.
They had lost.
Izuku was dying in his lap and Hitoshi only had his quirk and a desperate, disgusting way to use it.
"Deku-" He took a deep shaky breath, "kill it."
For a moment all stood still. The very world paused at the sin Hitoshi spoke. He damned himself to hell with this but Izuku… Izuku would want the civilians — who were not all evacuated yet. His ears rang with their screams and pleas for help — to be saved.
With a sharp crack, green lightening exploded around them. Hitoshi knelt in the dirt as concussive blows rang out from the battle. Agonized screams echoed from the beast. He emptied his stomach. Heaving and aching.
What had he done?
The weight of those few words crashed down on him, fast and hard. Oh god Izuku wouldn't survive this. He was already broken and bloodied, he was fighting and tearing open every single wound further.
Hitoshi had killed his love. He didn't even get a chance to marry him yet. He thought he had more time, that they had had more time.
He'd killed Izuku.
After heaving until his entire body ached, the world fell silent. The battle was over. Feet gently touched the ground behind him. Hitoshi hesitated at the sound before he slowly turned and looked up. He couldn't understand how he had done this to Izuku.
The hero swayed, knees threatening to buckle but his quirk keeping him upright. Green cracks of lightening bounced of his skin. Izuku's entire right side torn the shreds, blood coated every inch of him.
Slowly he crawled to his partner bridging the few steps between them. He opened his mouth, wanting to beg him for forgiveness. Nothing came out. Instead he reached up and pulled Izuku towards him before releasing his quirk.
He fell into Hitoshi's lap, entire body slack. Back on his thighs, he pulled his love impossibly closer and gently pressed their foreheads together.
Izuku's breaths rattled beneath the shattered bones of his chest. He only had moments left.
"Kiss- one-" Izuku mumbled, his lips stained a deep red.
Tears rolled down Hitoshi's checks, they hadn't stopped but that broken sentence made everything all the worse. Kiss me. One last time. Hitoshi wanted to deny him, say he didn't deserve such a tender gesture after what he had done. But Izuku was fading fast and to deny him this final comfort? It felt far too cruel.
He tilted his head, lips met and Hitoshi closed his eyes. Heart shattering as he tried to remember every little detail of this moment.
His last kiss with Izuku, his heart and soul.
Slowly, unwillingly he pulled away. The tears rolling down his cheeks landed softly on Izuku's own. Carving little spots through all the dirt and blood staining his face.
"Yours now." Izuku whispered, "Love you." Then closed his eyes.
The need to beg Izuku to stay bubbled up inside him fast and all consuming. He can't do this alone. He fucking couldn't. Not after everything they had been through. He wanted to say those gentle words back, but his voice was firmly locked away.
With a final, gentle sigh Izuku was gone.
Hitoshi curled over him. Holding his partner close with everything he had left. Silent tears as his shoulders shook. His spine and ribs screaming in agony from the burn and awkward angle crushing his broken bones. Maybe a shard of bone would destroy his heart. He deserved the pain for what he'd done. Deserved that agonizing death. Izuku was gone and it hurt. He killed the only good thing in his life.
For all the good he wanted to do it, for all the people like them he wanted to save. He had only proven that he was nothing more than a villain.
Hitoshi had fulfilled the destiny he tried so hard to beat.