Silhouette

Ch. 1

"Go home, Midoriya."

The strict voice of Iida caused Izuku to nearly jump a foot in the air. He had been so focused on the paperwork in front of him he didn't even notice his long-time friend enter his office.

Only taking a few moments to recover from the shock, Izuku was right back to his work. "I will once I'm done with this," he promised, just like he always did.

Iida didn't seem to believe him. Working with the green-haired man for years had shown him that it's never just finishing something up. It just leads to a million different things until he ends up falling asleep at his desk. Iida wasn't even sure if Izuku still knew how to get home.

"Did you even go home last night?" the taller of the two asked, an eyebrow raised in question.

Izuku didn't answer, pretending not to have heard him.

"Staying quiet is just as good as a no," Iida said with a sigh. "You need to go home. You need to get some proper sleep. You need to take care of yourself."

Izuku rolled his eyes at his friend, not bothering to look away from his work. This wasn't the first time one of his friends had spoken up about Izuku's lack of self-care, and it wouldn't be the last. "I'm fine, Iida, really. This is just how I work, you know that, and you know it's effective."

"It's effective until you drop dead," Iida argued, raising his voice slightly in annoyance. "Izuku Midoriya," the use of his full name caused Izuku to finally look up at his friend. "Go. Home."

With an obviously angry huff, Izuku dropped the papers he was looking at and aggressively stood from his desk, walking right past Iida and out the door. He didn't turn back or slow his speed walking until he was down the road from the agency.

He had been done with his patrol for a few hours, so he had changed back into his civilian clothing: a hoodie and a pair of loose-fitting jeans. Jamming his hands into his hoodie pocket, Izuku let out a deep breath of air, trying to calm himself down. Hero work was the only thing that kept him going nowadays, and Iida was well aware of that, yet he continued to push him further and further away from it. Without something to occupy his time and thoughts, his mind wandered to many less-than-pleasant places he wished he could abandon altogether.

Izuku took a turn in the opposite direction of his home. He didn't intend to go back there anytime soon. He wanted to kill as much time and energy as possible before going back. It's the only way he knew he'd get any sleep.

Walking a few more minutes down the road, he finally reached his desired destination, a well-lit park. He had remembered when Uraraka had made an offhand comment about how pretty this particular park was after dark now that they had remodeled it.

Izuku hadn't really cared all that much when she had spoken about it, but in his defiance to go home, it was the first place his mind came up with. And he couldn't help but think Uraraka was completely right. The place was beautiful after dark.

Instead of the main path just being lit up by street maps, there were strings of fairy lights connecting each one and running along the side of the path. It gave the illusion that you were walking through a stardust street.

Mildly awestruck by the decor, Izuku hadn't realized how deep into the park he had managed to walk until a pair of voices brought him back to reality.

"I totally blame you for every part of that situation that went wrong!"

"How the fuck was any of that my fault? You're the dumbass that got caught!"

The pair were clearly in a heated disagreement about what, Izuku had no clue. His curiosity got the better of him, and he found himself wandering closer to the noise.