A Wallflower's Thorns

15

Consciousness is slow to return, fading in and out of a warm blanket of darkness. Izuku’s not sure how long it takes, but eventually he wakes up, and his first coherent thought is “Son of a bitch, my leg hurts.” When he opens his eyes, a white ceiling greets him, along with the smell of antiseptic. To the side, he can hear the steady beep of a heart monitor. A hospital. He’s gotten himself into quite the predicament, hasn’t he? He can’t remember much from when he passed out, but he definitely remembers getting stabbed. He has the distinct impression Gran Torino showed up somewhere towards the end. 

Holy shit, Gran. the old man is going to murder him. 

Izuku shoots up at the thought, looking around frantically for his mentor. Blessedly, there is no short, nightmare-inducing old man in the room. There is, however, Iida and Todoroki. Both of them had whipped their heads up from whatever they’d been doing, their eyes bugging out at Izuku’s sudden movement. 

“Uh.” Izuku says like a total idiot, “Hi?”

Iida is the first of the two to snap out of his surprise. “Midoriya!” He doesn’t leave his bed, but Izuku can feel the hand movements from where he sits. “You’re awake!” 

Yeah, he is, and he’s kinda regretting it now, cause his thigh is aching like nothing else. Both Iida and Todorok look tired, physically and emotionally. ”What happened?” 

“...The doctors said the artery in your leg was severed.” Todoroki’s voice is quiet, but his words echo in the room. “You almost bled out.”

Oh. That’s...a lot worse than he was expecting. Izuku swallows. “H-how--?”

Iida’s quick to explain, “Todoroki used his sleeve as a tourniquet. We wanted to take the knife out, but your mentor told us it was the only thing keeping you from bleeding out faster.” He looks at his bandaged arm, scowling. “Midoriya, this was my mission. You weren’t supposed to get involved. Neither of you were.”

There’s no emotion in Todoroki’s voice, just cold finality. “He would have killed you. He almost killed all of us.”

About that… “What happened to him, anyways?” Izuku asks.

“Gran Torino kicked the Hero Killer out of the alley. He took one look at you, told us what to do, then left to pursue him.” Todoroki looks down at his hands, “There was a lot of blood.”

Izuku bites his lip. He’d like to say he won’t do anything like that again, but there’s no point in lying. “I’m just glad I got there in time.” He straightens up, pasting a tired smile on his face. “Besides, it turned out alright, didn’t it?”

“For now.” There’s a small shift in Todoroki’s demeanor, just enough to change from somber to vaguely amused. “Just wait until Gran Torino gets done with giving his police report.”

The heart monitor attached to Izuku makes a high pitched whine as it registers his spike of fear. Moments later, a nurse pokes his head in, “Is everything alright?”

All three of them stare at the nurse with wide eyes. Then, Izuku starts to laugh. Todoroki tries to hold out, but a snort escapes. With his fall, Iida follows suit. The nurse watches, befuddled, as three teenagers are sent into a fit of hysterics.