MHA Stories i find on Ao3

Desperately departing

By: Saavaage

"Hello all, I thank and welcome you as we honor and mourn the life of  one who was taken from us far too soon. Inko Midoriya was a good and  generous woman..."

The words that the pastor spoke swam and faded as  Izuku's ears began to ring. This was really happening. He was really  here sitting amongst people he hadn't seen since he was a child and  listening to the pastor of the church that they used to attend speak  kind and encouraging words about his mother.

His mother...

Flashes started filling his mind of the accident. Blood...sirens...red and blue lights...

Looking  back now, it all seemed like one big blur, but at the time it felt like  an eternity. Izuku could've spent hours or mere minutes staring at the  unmoving form of his mother until he was forced away by some paramedics  who insisted on checking on him even though he was fine. Physically at  least.

It had been a week and the images stayed painted on the  back of Izuku's eyelids. Anytime he tried to sleep all he got were  nightmares. Any downtime he took was filled with unwanted memories and  guilt. And heaven forbid he try to look in a mirror, Izuku doubted that  he would be able to see himself and not break down at how much he looked  like his mother anytime soon.

Such a short amount of time, yet it felt like centuries of agony.

Muffled  voices sounded around Izuku, and he could vaguely see people standing  up around him, but he wasn't paying attention enough to realize why.  Dazed he slowly let himself drift, the pain, the voices, the memories,  all of it falling away until a heavy hand landed on his back and jolted  him back to reality.

"Your mother was a good woman; I am truly sorry Midoriya."

Please don't touch me.

The only response he could manage was a slight nod. He knew that  if he tried to talk his voice would crack and if he looked at the man  beside him then the tears that were pooling in his eyes would fall.

Weak. Useless. Crybaby. Coward.

Izuku refused to cry in front of all of these people that he  barely knew. Most of his life it was just him and his mom. Not much of  anyone around, no friends, no family, no dad... But now that she's dead  suddenly all of these people care.

Not when his father left her,  and she was on the brink. Not when she was struggling with working two  to three jobs at a time to try to support herself and Izuku. Not when  Izuku was diagnosed quirkless and both of their lives shifted  drastically. Not when the kids at school tormented and tortured him  every day just because he wasn't like them.

It's funny how much  people care when you're dead. It's like that old saying, 'You never know  what you have until it's gone'. Izuku knew.

He knew exactly how  blessed he was to have a mom that loved and cared for him and did  everything in her power to prove that to him every day. He was fully  aware of what an amazing person his mother was, and he made sure she  knew it.

Izuku knew, he had lost so much in his life that he knew  when to hold on and appreciate what he had. So why was this happening to  him? How could life be so cruel as to take away the one good thing he  had in this god-forsaken world? It wasn't fair.

The feeling in his  chest was unlike anything he had every felt before. It was clawing at  him, digging under the skin and raking down destroying everything in its  path. It dragged it's sharp claws up to Izuku's throat and latched on  tight, slowly suffocating as the world closed in around him.