A Ray of Hope for Tenya Iida

Memories

(TW: light swearing, mentions of death)

3rd person pov: Iida seemed to zone out after a moment of pondering, Denki stared confusedly at him. Denki didn't bother him, he didn't know what was going on, so he just walked out of the library, which might've been the worst thing he could do in that situation. Iida stood alone, lost in the slideshow of his memories he was being shown, it fluttered through his mind and he didn't even realize what was going on. He sat as a mere observer to his past, thinking back to his life. It started young, maybe 3 or early on 4, he was looking at his brother, who was 18 or maybe 19, just starting hero work after graduation. He came home battered and bruised, he looked despondent. He'd just lost a fight with a villain, the villain got away, and he just came home to relax. Tenya walked over to him and gave his leg a hug, Tensei smiled a small smile. "Hey Tenya, what's up?" 

"I wanna be a hero when I get my quirk, I wanna be like you!" Tenya was a little excited.

"Oh yeah? Well then, tiny hero, what will your hero name be?" Tensei looked down at him with an expression he didn't understand yet. 

"Uhhhh... I don't know... wait, Ingenium! Like you!" He felt so excited, he was a hero already!

"Wow, really?" He laughed a bit. "You know, you can be yourself instead, you don't have to be me..."

"But I wanna be Ingenium, you're so cool!" He didn't understand why Tensei didn't think it was a good idea, it was the best idea ever in his eyes.

"Alright, alright, tiny Ingenium, what villain are we taking on first?" Tensei asked while saluting him. Iida smiled big.

"I know, dad! We're gonna have him the the big bad villain and when he walks in, we're gonna tackle him and then we're gonna tickle him!" He started giggling just thinking about it. 

"Uhm, we can't really do that..." Tensei looked a bit nervous. Just then, their father walked in, and before Tensei could stop him, Tenya ran at his leg and tried to push him over. 

"Tenya, what the hell's gotten into you?!" Their father was angry, Iida didn't understand why his father was yelling at him.

"He was just trying to play hero, he wants to be one when he grows up... he wanted you to play with him..." Tensei tried to defend Iida, but their father just looked disappointed.

"Well then, in that case, you'll have to train a lot in order to become a strong enough hero, you don't want to be a casualty, right, Tenya?"

"What's a casualty?" Iida didn't understand.

"You'll start training as soon as I find someone to train you enough, I don't have enough time for this, I've got work to do." Their father walked off. Iida hung his head, why didn't his dad want to be there with him? The memory faded, he was 4 and 1/2, the half was very important for little Iida, and he'd just gotten his quirk. He ran into Tensei, who was a little startled. His face was tear  stained, he was looking at a piece of paper. Tenya at that point didn't understand why Tensei's face looked like that, so he just lifted up his leg and plopped it into Tensei's lap. 

"Look Tensei look it's my quirk isn't this exciting? I got my quirk and I can be a hero and I'm gonna be big and brave and super fast!" He was talking almost too fast to understand, but Tensei was used to this when Iida was excited.

"Wow, bud, look at that! Did you have to put it in my lap, though?" He laughed a bit, wiping his face.

"Yeah cuz you always look at tech when it's in your lap, you hold it in your lap to look at it!" Iida was about to lose balance, but Tensei picked him up and set him in his lap.

"Well, why don't you go show dad? I'm sure he'll be impressed, right?" Tensei looked for every opportunity to make their father proud, even if it's only of his little brother. Iida nodded, giggled, and ran off. He ran over to his dad and smiled.

"What do you want, Tenya?" His father still wore a stern expression. Iida just lifted his leg to reveal the engines he'd recently gained. "Oh, it seems you've gotten your quirk finally. How well can you use it?" Iida tried to start them up, they made a little pop and suddenly he was running, but he couldn't steer, so he ended up running into a wall. "You'll have to work on it, but it's a good quirk, just a waste of a quirk holder using it." Iida figured that it was because he was so young, so he decided he'd train even harder and follow the rules better. He was in middle school now, he was being bullied. Tensei picked him up after all of that, he'd had a few bruises on him. Tensei's journal was laying open, it had notes on rare diseases and a big circle around the words "find a cure", then a picture near it had one of Tensei's friends smiling. Iida sat in the back, he knew better than to sit in the front too young, plus it was easier to hide the big mark on his cheek. Tensei knew better though.

"So, who was it this time? Doorknob, locker, broomstick, floor, stairs? There seems to be a lot of them recently..." Tensei looked at him through the rear-view mirror, Iida shrank back.

"I just tripped over someone's foot and bashed my face into the table, Tensei, I'm clumsy, you know this..." Iida tried to lie, but Tensei was too smart.

"Hmm... well that's a new one, you're getting smarter!" He laughed. 

"C'mon Tensei, why can't you see I'm alright? You worry too much."

"Cuz I care about you, Tenya, you're my little brother, why can't you take care of yourself or stand up for yourself?" He sighed. First day of UA, Iida was getting ready, he felt like everything had to be perfect, he was overworking trying to get ready very early. "What are you doing up this early?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Tensei- are you alright?" Iida could see tear stains on his face. He was holding the photo he'd seen years ago near that paper. 

"I'm alright Tenya, don't worry, I've gotta go somewhere tomorrow though, alright? I won't be back for a while... tell dad it's about my friend if he asks, can you handle that?"

"Yes, Tensei, I can do that! But why do you have to leave for your friend tomorrow?"

"I can't tell you now, maybe one day when you're older." Tensei smiled a small smile, but Iida could see through that smile at this point, he was hurting still, no matter how wide the smile went, he could see it. He gave his brother a hug, then continued getting ready, he couldn't keep postponing being on time with a few hours to spare, right? He couldn't let himself get distracted, he had to make Tensei proud, he couldn't stand around when his brother was counting on him to do his best! Iida snapped out of it, he was in a library. He knew why his brother attempted suicide, his best friend died of a rare disease, didn't they?