Held |There's something in the water. . . .|

Held.

Y'all's  I really liked this book even
though it looks like a 11 year old made it..

Hope you guys ENJOY THE END.
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It was Izuku's sixth morning in the hospital
when there was a knock at his door. He sat up,
sure it was Mama and Papa.

But it wasn't. Eijiro, Katsuki, and Tenya stood
In the doorway. Uncle Yagi was right behind
them. The hospital was a two hour trip from
Eri Hills. Had the guys really come all this
way to see him?

They all looked a little scared, and Izuku felt
nervous. We're they still mad at him? Izuku raised
his hand and gave the briefest, tiniest wave. And
just like that, the guys came barreling across
the room, fighting each other for a spot on his
little bed. Their jostling hurt his leg, but Izuku
couldn't have cared less.

"I'll be in the hallway, kids," Uncle Yagi
said. "I think that pretty nurse likes me."

The door closed, and all the guys started
talking at once.
"They dinamighted the creek!"
"A guy caught a shark in the bay, says it's the
same shark!"
"It was ten feet long!"
"They cut open its stomach."
"They found human bones!"

Of course Uncle Yagi had told Izuku all this.
But he didn't stop the guys from telling him
again. He liked the sound of their voices around
him. He hoped they never stopped talking. They
told him that Captain Sorahiko was a celebrity, that
newspaper reporters were coming from around
the world to talk to him.

"Your uncle said your leg will be okay," Eijiro
said.

"You're going to have a huge scar," Katsuki said.
He sounded almost jealous.

Izuku hadn't looked too closely at his leg when
the nurses changed his bandages. That was when
it hurt the most, when they washed the wound.

He had to keep his eyes closed tight he even
needed help breathing with a cannula until the
cleaning was done.

A chunk of flesh was missing from his calf. He'd
have more than a scar. He'd have a limp.
"Just like me," Uncle Yagi had said. "Won't
slow you down a bit."

"Ochako keeps asking about you," Eijiro
said.

     Izuku wondered what Ochako would think of
a boy with a limp.

Katsuki moved a little closer to Izuku. "We're sorry,"
he whispered.

"We're sorry for everything," Tenya corrected.

Katsuki looked like he was about to cry. "It's my
fault."

"What?" Izuku said. "You didn't put the shark
in the creek."

Katsuki scoffed and grinned a little, he wiped his
eyes on his sleeve.

"We should have listened to you," Tenya said.
"If we had gotten out of the water, you wouldn't
have gotten bitten."

"And if you hadn't come," Eijiro said, "we'd
be . . ."

"But if I hadn't played that stupid prank,"
Izuku said, "you would have believed me."

"You saved me," Katsuki said.
"You guys saved 𝘔𝘦," Izuku said. He swallowed
hard, and they all sniffled a little.

Then a hush came over the room. And in that
quiet moment, Izuku realized something: He
and the guys would always be tied together. By
the terrible things they'd seen. By what they'd
done for each other.

It was a while before Katsuki said, "We're calling
a truce. No more pranks."
As usual, nobody argued with Katsuki. It was
settled.

*—_—*

The guys stayed all afternoon, until Uncle
Yagi poked his head in and said it was time to
go. The guys lingered until Uncle Yagi shooed
them out the door.
"Wait for me," Uncle Yagi told them, and then
he closed the door and came over to Izuku's
bed.

"Your mama called the hospital," he said.
"She and your papa will be here after dinner
tonight."
Izuku smiled.

"You know," Uncle Yagi said, straightening
the sheet, "I had an idea, thought I'd mention
it to you."
He cleared his throat.

"Maybe your papa would like to help me run
the diner," Uncle Yagi said. "It's a busy place.
I think he might enjoy it. We do well enough.
And I sure wouldn't mind having more time to
myself."

It took Izuku a few seconds to understand what
Uncle Yagi was saying.
"Your papa might decide it's time to settle
down," Uncle Yagi said. "I'm not sure he'll say
yes, but I guess it's worth a try, don't you think?

Izuku opened his mouth to say something, but
the words seemed to be all stuck together. So he
just nodded.

"Okay then, kiddo. It's a plan."

Izuku lay there for a while after Uncle Yagi left. He
Thought about Mama and Papa. He couldn't wait
to introduce them to the guys, and to Captain
Sorahiko. He struggled to keep his eyes open, but it
had been a long day. Before long he dozed off.

He dreamed that he was an old man, sitting
in a diner, telling a story to a gang of boys. He
told them about a shark in the creek,a huge killer
shark with bloody jaws and coal-black eyes. He
described how the shark had chased him, and
how the shark scared him out of his wits, but the
beast couldn't get him. Because Izuku hadn't been
alone. Because his friends had reached out for
him.

They'd held him tight.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐝