Vodka Coke

Chapter 10: Baileys

Sorry that this chapter is a bit later than usual. I am ill.

Content Warnings: Unhealthy eating habits (bordering on disorder eating) and self-harm.

"Are you not going to eat breakfast, Izuku?" Hizashi asked kindly.

Izuku hummed and shook his head, "I'm not that hungry, sorry,"

"Well... Alright then, just take an extra snack, you need to fuel your brain for a full day of learning," Hizashi beamed as he handed Izuku an oat and raisin bar. Izuku took it without complaint and slipped it into his blazer pocket. His mind was far away from the breakfast table, he was thinking about his mother and how she was doing that day. Usually, at this time, Izuku would be reading or doing some sort of leisure activity before he left for school. He would check on his mum to make sure she was still breathing (though Izuku never thought of it like that) and then he'd be on his merry way, potentially crossing paths with Katsuki if he'd decided to walk to school that day. His morning routine was very different with his foster carers. There was no need to make sure his guardian was awake and fit to remain on their own, he was being persuaded to eat some food and he wasn't sitting on his own in his bedroom. It was so very different to the life he usually lived.

"We'll be leaving in five minutes," Shota announced as he passed through the kitchen, "Make sure you have everything you'll need for the day,"

Izuku took the chance to escape from the table and run upstairs to collect his school bag and make sure that he had everything he needed for the day. Away from the concerned looks of Hizashi and Emi.

Izuku knew that they were just concerned about his eating habits. Several adults had shown concern when it came to Izuku's eating habits, some to the point that they had tried to interfere, but Izuku never listened.

Truthfully, Izuku knew that he should be eating three meals a day, he wasn't oblivious, but he just didn't want to. His aversion to eating breakfast (specifically) had been born out of a lack of time in the morning (between looking after his mother and finishing the homework he hadn't been able to complete the previous night) and dissatisfaction with his body. Izuku was a thin boy, not so thin that his ribs protruded and he looked starved, but he was thin nonetheless. It hadn't always been that way, growing up, Izuku'd had a healthy dosage of puppy fat lining his face, arms and stomach, but as he reached his teen years, he grew upset that the fat wasn't fading away as it was in other people his age. Izuku knew it wasn't healthy, but he just stopped eating breakfast, one less meal a day meant fewer calories, which meant that his body would consume the excess fat to maintain itself. The logic was sound to Izuku. He hadn't meant for skipping breakfast to lead to skipping lunch more often than not. Hed only intended to keep up the routine of not eating breakfast for a few months, but now it had been nearly two years, Izuku's fourteenth birthday was approaching, and he still hadn't kicked the habit.

In Izuku's opinion, it had gotten worse. Ignoring when his body was practically screaming at him to eat because he had 'better things to do'. Only consistently eating dinner. Falling into day-long stints where no matter how much he ate, he was always hungry, which inevitably resulted in him binge-eating whatever he could find. Sometimes, Izuku would find himself sitting in front of the fridge at midnight, the yellow light from the appliance the only thing lighting the room, eating whatever he could. Tomatoes, grapes, cheese, sandwich meats. He ate and ate and ate. And then, the next day, the all-consuming hunger completely disappeared and Izuku went back to not eating breakfast or lunch. It was a never-ending cycle that Izuku couldn't break out of (he wasn't sure if he wanted to break out of it, if he started eating more, surely he'd put on the weight he had lost, making this entire thing pointless).