A Ray of Hope for Tenya Iida

Hollow

(TW: swearing, blood, and mentions of panic)

Denki's pov: I decided to pay Iida a visit, I shouldn't have hit him and I knew that, so maybe I could make things right by just trying to be a friend to him or something. I knew he liked to talk to people and help them, it's just the way he acts isn't the way someone should act, he was rude and loud. I shouldn't have been thinking that about him at the moment, I was supposed to be preparing to be his friend! Now, what had he needed before in class? Something of his broke in Aizawa sensei's room, so maybe just asking Aizawa sensei what broke of Iida's so I could get him a new one. I walked over to Aizawa sensei's classroom, but instead of seeing just him in his sleeping bag like usual, I saw him with some man and woman who looked like Iida. They were talking, I had to be quiet, but I wanted to know what they were talking about. Was Iida in trouble or something? That was a funny thought, him being in trouble. 

"Alright, now that that's over with, let's get to the subject at hand. An anonymous student reported suspected abuse from your household." Wait what?! He was being abused this whole time and I was just being a jerk to him about him being uptight when it wasn't even his fault?! Fuck, I was a dumbass. "He was seen with a bruise on his cheek recently and was seen on a phone call with you, Mr. Iida, and he seemed to be behaving anxiously while on the call. He faked his emotions on the call after seeming exhausted before that, but seemed perfectly fine once you called. Are you able to prove any of this is wrong or that it's not connected to you?"

"I may be a strict parent to protect Tenya, but I would never put my hands on him. Whoever did put their hands on my son will be held accountable for that, but it wasn't either of us. My wife over here can barely get aggressive with the villains she encounters, so it definitely wasn't her. I have no idea why he's been faking it, but he's not one to get exhausted, there must be another reason. We'll have a talk with Tenya about it as soon as we-" Iida's father's phone went off, he answered it. He walked out of the room, so I had to move around quietly to make sure he didn't notice me. 

"What's going on, dear?" Iida's mother asked as he walked out. 

"Just a phone call, nothing too major I'm guessing. You just stay in the room and continue talking with Tenya's teacher about what's going on." He stepped fully into the hall, so I made sure to follow him close behind. "Hello?... Yes, this is he.... Why's Tensei in the Emergency Room?... No, I didn't know anything about this! If I'd known he was suicidal, I wouldn't done something about that... We weren't home, we were on our way to talk to our younger son's teacher about something... Will he make it?... alright, do what you need to, I just want my son to be alright... Wait, who called 911? We weren't home, he wouldn't have done it on his own if he was suicidal, right?-... Tenya?! But he's just a kid, he's in hero training sure, but why does he know his way around that kind of call?... Right, I shouldn't ask a question I can't expect you to answer, sorry... At least he wasn't panicking... alright, we'll be right over... I understand... bye." He hung up the phone and walked away. What the hell?

Iida's pov: I finally stopped whatever that was, I was tired. I ended up tripping during that because I was pacing around the room to try to keep myself calm, so now I had a bloody nose and a bruise on my face, I could feel it forming. After that, I just stayed still and waited for it to stop. So now, I was laying on the floor with a puddle of blood around me, my whole face hurting, and a pain in my side from hyperventilating too much. My lungs burned and I felt dizzy, I didn't feel like getting up. I could hear someone walking towards my room, that wasn't good. I had to get up. I started to stumble to try to clean up the blood first, I had to make sure it didn't look like I killed someone in here or anything. They were close, I was throwing away the paper towels in the bathroom. I put on my glasses, which had somehow survived the fall, and grabbed some makeup that the girls didn't end up needing the last time I got them makeup before today, then put it over the bruises on my face. They were knocking already, I wasn't even done. "Hello! Please wait a moment, I'm in the bathroom! Thank you!" I just gave them a reasonable excuse, then finished putting on the makeup. I had to wipe off some blood from my nose, fix my hair, and get presentable. They knocked louder. I opened the door to see Denki staring at me, looking alarmed. 

"Oh, hello Denki! Can I help you?" I smiled at him, he seemed to be conflicted. 

"Hey, Iida. We need to talk. Away from other people." He was serious. Was he mad at me? I couldn't tell.

"Alright, where to?" I decided I might as well follow along with him, it wasn't like things could get much worse. We ended up going to the library, it was closed for the day but we were able to get in since I help organize books. "I'll go ahead and organize books while we talk, I can multitask. You don't have to help me with this."

"Dude, is your hand shaking?" He pointed, it was apparently because the book in my hand was quivering. 

"Hmm, I don't know why that's happening, I've eaten enough and I'm not worried about anything..." I wasn't lying, I knew my brother would be alright, right?

"I watched Aizawa sensei talk to your parents today, they were talking about the possibility of you being abused. What's going on?" He eavesdropped on my parents and the teacher?

"Denki, eavesdropping is unheroic! You should go back immediately and apologize to them!" I kept my tone low, making sure not to yell in the library and not to startle Denki. "You do realize that eavesdropping on them could've led to you learning something completely confidential! If you'd learned anything like that, you could've been arrested and possibly convicted! You could've gone through something horrible! Why didn't you think this through?"

"I found out about your brother."

"My brother, Tensei, pro hero Ingenium? Yes, I thought I already told you he was a hero too."

"You handled the 911 call, why were you so calm?" How the fuck did he know that?