Ugh! I can never know with this guy! Izuku pinched the bridge of his nose before trudging over. He whacked Ezra, which was a surprise to everyone, then helped him up. Gritting his teeth he muttered "Stop. Laughing."
Ezra only complied because it felt nice to be held while being helped to walk.
"How did you get here? Where's your car?" Izuku popped his bubble.
"Bottom of the hill.."
They reached where Katsuki and Eijiro were. "Thank you again for coming.. I think it'll be alright now. I'm going to see this guy out and then I'll meet you all at the house." Izuku patted Eijiro on the shoulder as he passed by, "You guys relax, have fun."
Poor Eijiro was confused for the umpteenth time today but nodded all the same. "Take.. care.." He processed slowly as Izuku winked at him.
"Long story short, Izuku was followed from overseas. There are still some.. idiots.. hovering around but I'm guessing Izuku is trailing them away from the party first." Shoto gestured towards the area the sound came from earlier, then went to follow Izuku.
Katsuki tch'ed then headed towards the area Shoto had pointed out. "You coming?"
"Y-yeah.." Eijiro was strung along.
Shoto discreetly observed this as he walked away, satisfied that Katsuki had followed up as intended.
Izuku let Shoto follow if for no other reason than to separate him from Katsuki. Shoto and I might know what this lunatic was getting at, but the others..
Ezra hopped along, choosing his next words carefully. "I really did just want to make sure you were okay."
Izuku stopped and turned to a quiet Shoto who was surveilling from a couple yards back. "You should go to the house. Go eat and relax, fill my friends in for me. I'll be okay."
"You want me to leave you alone with him. In these circumstances. Sure." Shoto crossed his arms.
"Yes."
Shoto snapped from sarcastic to serious with that one solid word. "I won't."
"Let me deal with this. The others hardly know what's going on, and if these people end up at the house.." Izuku started. "They haven't done anything to me in a year or in the who-knows-how-long we were all just standing there through now. I'll be fine."
They had reached the car and Ezra dug in his pockets for his keys. Shoto took this sudden movement as a threat and went to push him aside when Izuku caught his arm. "He obviously can't drive right now."
Shoto retorted, "And you can?!"
"I'll figure it out! Now, go."
Izuku helped Ezra get in the passenger seat. Shoto stayed to watch that Ezra didn't try to do anything or contact anyone while Izuku made it across his way around.
"Could you just.. not?" Shoto softened.
Izuku glanced at Ezra, who was covering his face with one hand, Seems he finally let the pain get to him. Attempting to void his response of all emotion, Izuku said simply, "The place we looked through the photo album.." He took another glance at Ezra, "Keep everyone safe there."
Shoto wanted to push but he was no stranger to Izuku's cryptic messages. He had no choice but to follow his lead. He took a step back to show his compliance.
Izuku carefully got in and started the car. It was a simple rental. Watching Shoto shrink in the rearview, Izuku formulated his first 'question'. "We'll tend to your injuries but first you're going to tell me what exactly was so fucking funny."
***
