A Grey Thin Line

1

It sounds odd, but Izuku feels safest at nighttime. Something about the cityscape lighting up under him, untold potential and danger laying in wait, resonates with him. Shadows are both his friend and his enemy — they can hide him, but they can hide others, too. Yet sitting on the patio of Kuroda’s apartment, his legs swinging off the ledge and into open air gives him the first sense of being grounded he’s felt in weeks.

God, so much’s happened. First getting moved into heroics, then finding out he had an organized crime syndicate looking out for him. Really, Shigaraki breaking out was icing on the cake. Just his luck.

He doesn’t have any concerns about who to trust now, the answer’s already pretty damn obvious. Kuroda’s going to stick with him through thick and thin, probably dragging Kei along with him. Seamstress would most likely murder for his sake, and Dabi...Izuku still doesn’t know what the older man’d said to those guys at the park, but that particular shade of pallor couldn’t mean it was anything nice. He just has to wait for a plan to get hashed out.

Yeah, Izuku isn’t a terribly patient person when lives were at risk. Shigaraki’s dangerous to everyone around him, one touch and it’s over. He rubs at his neck, feeling the few remaining scabs. It’d hurt, flaking off like a bad sunburn. Izuku counts himself insanely lucky that Kuroda had gotten Shigaraki off of him in time, a few moments later and he might not have had a trachea.

“Careful,” a voice says behind him, “If you think too hard, your head just might implode and make a black hole.” Kuroda comes into Izuku’s peripheral, moving to sit down. His balance is still off from losing his arm, he falls on his rear and hisses. “Fuck, this’s gonna get real old real fast.” Izuku huffs, rolling his eyes. Kuroda puts his legs through the bars of the railing, mimicking Izuku’s pose and looking out at the city. He gets to the point with brutal honesty, “Your mom’s worried. About—“ he motions between them, “—this, about Yuuei, about Crusty MgGee. You should talk to her more.”

“I know.”

“You need to get it out.”

“I know.”

“I’m here if you need me.”

“I know.”

Kuroda sighs. “Kid, it’s not just your mom that’s worried. So if you could say more than two words, I’d really appreciate it.”

Izuku keeps looking out at the cityscape. “I miss it. Running around on the rooftops. Fighting criminals. Making a difference.” His fists creak curled around the metal railings. “I feel...useless.”

He should’ve expected the swat to his head. “You know damn well you’re not useless.” Kuroda growls, “You’ve done more for this city than all of your classmates combined. Taking a break isn’t going to hurt that—“

“But I wont be able to go on the streets again until I’m a pro now!” Izuku bites back, “It was better when I had free reign to work on my own.”

“Yeah?” Kuroda leans back, letting his break out between his teeth, “Well I hate to break it to you, but the League went and blew that option out of the water with their kidnapping stunt. We’re damn lucky Kei pulled our asses out of the fire.”

Izuku groans, “Don’t remind me. He could probably kill us and the police would never find the body.”

“True.” Kuroda laughs, “He won’t though. I’m a pain, but I’m his pain.”

“Must be nice.”

His mentor punches his arm, “Half the time we want to kill each other, but we come through when we need to.” His joking grin dies, “You don’t have to talk tonight, but it would make everyone feel a lot better if you shared the load with someone.”