{~Deku one-shots with angst~}

The Sanctuary In Their Embraces

A/N: S8 finally comes out very soon...man I'm not prepared for MHA to end a second time :( I'm excited for how it will look animated though! 

Inspired by @marzspitsbars on Tiktok, for their short story on Deku losing OFA! It was MONUMENTAL and made me sob like a baby. Highly recommend listening to Let Down while reading for ultimate heartbreak! 

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One for All had been warm- never overwhelmingly, but rather comfortably. A gentle, soothing kind of warmth, like steamed buns in January, billowing out steam amidst frost. A warmth like his mother's hands tracing his scars, while he dozed off. 

Then the warmth had stuttered. Izuku didn't need danger sense to know. For a brief moment, a mere second, he had felt devastatingly void. No one had to tell him- he could feel it slipping. One for All was leaving; it was a fact as instinctual as knowing how to breath. 

Past the windows and walls and forest and gates, he ran, One for All surging through him; if he stopped, Izuku didn't know if the next step would ever touch the ground. His lungs burned as it had on that fateful April, all those years ago, watching the beach shimmer at dawn. Warmth still streamed through his veins, and he latched onto it- don't. 

Don't let this end. Don't take this away from me. Don't take it back. 

He ran past UA, through the half-constructed Mustafu buildings, around the destruction and the healing. He ran on pavement, his steps pounding louder than his heartbeat, passing railways and valleys, and still, Izuku didn't stop. Each step was a reminder; he could still move. He wasn't done yet. Deku the hero was still here. 

"Stop." Izuku whispered, feeling the whisps of Fa Jin and Gearshift hang onto his skin, before eventually drifting into the sunset. Kudo and Lee patted him on his shoulders, their eyes telling him messages he could never bound to just words alone. "Don't leave!" Why did he think he could outrun time? Why did his whole body seem to be collapsing upon itself, a supernova soaring down towards the ground? 

Smokescreen left next, puffs of glistening purple shrouding him in an embrace one last time. En gave him a smug thumbs-up and, under his turtle neck, there was definitely one last defiant grin. Then, he was gone. Izuku was like a starving man, desperately consuming the energy strumming through his veins. The warmth of filtered sunlight on floorboards. The warmth of a hotpot with his class. The warmth of being lifted out of rubble, and embraced in safe arms. His quirk ignited in his cells, a field of a thousand fireflies slowly being cremated, bright and powerful at its end. With one fell launch, Izuku let himself soar. 

Float carried him upwards, pushing through the clouds, guiding him closer and closer to the sun; if he flew far and fast enough, would he escape his fate? Would he manage to salvage his wings? 

"Shinomori-san." Izuku cried, as Danger Sense bled from him- he was a sole missile launching skyward, flying through the landscape. 

"You'll be alright, Nine." the air seemed to whisper, but Izuku wasn't sure he wanted to believe in the Fourth. To be alright was to be subpar. Average. Not enough to be comforted, but too little to be celebrated. 

Through the tears, Izuku could see a kaleidoscope of colours splattered across the sky he was flying through. Bright oranges, sleepy purples, pretty pinks, dazzling blues; his own green sparks lit them up, letting them glow. 

Just a bit closer. One more leap. One more surge of power. If he tried enough, he knew that he could touch those clouds, could dissolve up there with the horizon, could grow to know nothing about being bounded by the ground again. Just one more time.