A Silent Kind of Strength

Chapter 28

After dismissal Izuku checked his phone to see where Shinso was. The whole thing with his current fosters was so new he didn't really know what the routine was going to be. Luckilly his friend had texted, apparently Aizawa wanted to talk to them really quickly before they left for the shop.

He snagged Mei by the elbow, guiding her through the halls as she sketched a diagram on some spare graph paper. The halls were congested as students and teachers milled about, heading to their various destinations.

Someone bumped Mei's drawing hand and she hissed in irritation as it caused a jagged mark across her page. Izuku paused to make sure she was ok. But just as he started to turn to look and see what had happened someone practically ran him over. The point of their shoulder was right at the perfect height to slot itself into his already bruised eye socket. The force of the unexpected collision made him fall onto his butt as the sudden flare of pain from his face caused him to yelp. He didn't see who had knocked him over, though he did hear a masculine sorry as the other person apparently hurried off.

And now he was on the floor in a busy hallway. Immediately people started tripping over him. He scrambled to get up and made it to his hands and knees before someone stepped on his fingers. His cry was drowned out as yet again someone tripped, instead of catching themselves though the person fell on top of Izuku, sending the boy to the floor again, this time on his belly and pinned under a heavier body. He wheezed as the other person laid frozen for a second. But another yelp from the boy underneath them as his arm was stomped on sent the other student scrambling. 

Mei managed to kick it into gear by that point too, standing in the way of people as they walked and shoving people around the two boys on the ground, protecting them from traffic on one side at least. As his victim? secondary assaulter? hurried to their feet a knee accidently found its way into his ribs and his breath left in a silent scream as the still tender area exploded with pain. "Shit. Midoriya. Fuck. Hold on. You need to stand. There's a classroom right there. I'm going to help you ok?"

The words didn't really sink in as he was too focused on trying to work air back into his lungs. There were hands on his upper arms that tugged him to his feet, and then Mei was on one side. And a blur of yellow was on the other. It took maybe a minute for the three of them to make it to the empty classroom.

They sat down against the wall under the smart board to catch their breath. Mei sent off a quick text to Shinso. Izuku curled up around his ribs in an effort to ease the throbbing. "OK. Ow." The person on his right moved to kneel in front of him and green eyes looked up into bright gold. Kaminari. "Dude I'm so sorry! I didn't see you in time to stop! And then when I was getting up someone kneed me and oh fuck! Your ribs! Are they ok?!"

Izuku took a slow, deep breath. Sitting up a bit with a grimace and poking along his side, ignoring the small flares of pain. After a moment he sent a weak smile at the bubbly blonde. "I d-don't think anything is br-broken so that's good. Are you ok? You fell pretty hard. And you said you got kneed?" He could see the bright red beginnings of a bruise forming on the other boy's cheek and he frowned with worry.

But Kaminari just kind of stared at him with wide eyes. "Are you seriously worried about me right now? You just got trampled!" But the support student only shrugged as Mei answered a call on her phone. Izuku ignored her as she explained, presumably to Shinso, what had happened and where they were. As she hung up and let them know he and Aizawa were on their way the green haired teen shrugged out of his blazer. He started to roll up his sleeve to check the damage where his arm had been stepped on, pausing when he realized one of his fingers wouldn't move. He cursed quietly when he realized it was broken. He continued to struggle with his shirt sleeve, grumbling when he couldn't get the button undone.