Goodnight, My Someone (Tododeku)

Newspapers and Tree Branches

Izuku got ready that morning like he would any other morning: get up, brush his teeth, change clothes, get screamed at by Bakugou, and scan the newspaper for anything interesting. This morning was somewhat an exception to that routine. Izuku pulled on his usual outfit, feeling the static crackle through his hair from the brisk fall weather. He sighed a long, shuddering sigh and prepared himself for another relentlessly monotonous day at work.

Opening his splintery bedroom door, Izuku stepped gingerly out into the hallway. The cold from the floor seeped into his feet, making him shiver and curse himself for not wearing socks. He carefully made his way to the top of the staircase, pretending to not hear the noises from Bakugou and Kirishima's bedroom. Izuku quietly hopped down the stairs and opened the front door of the shop to pick up the newspaper. After shutting the door, he walked into the back of the store to sit on a crate, using the weak early morning sunshine from the window behind him as a light for him to read by.

Mindoriya unfolded the newspaper with a satisfying crinkle. The headline read: TODOROKI SHOTO, KING ENDEAVOUR'S SON FOUND DEAD. Izuku took a sharp, hiccuppy, inhale and kept reading, not believing the headline.

"This morning, Prince Shoto was found outside the palace, dead. Reporters suspect he fell from his window, as he was right under the open window of his bedroom. No clear identification was found, but everyone, including his father and fiance, are sure it was the prince. Whether it was someone else's doing or not is still unclear, but one thing's for sure: the kingdom's beloved heir is gone-" Izuku couldn't read further. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't see properly dure to the tears clouding his vision. Running his fingers through his hair, Izuku tried to calm himself down, but ended up hyperventilating.

Midoriya sprinted out of the shop, after shoving his shoes on, and ran down a familiar road, going towards the forest. The cold morning air stung at his face and neck, as if scolding him for even trying, for even catching stupid feelings in the first place. As he ran, Izuku furiously rubbed his tears away, the newspaper he once held in his hand long gone. 

He finally arrived at the forest and hopped the old, mossy fence. Quickly, he made his way to the towering oak and began to shimmy his way up the trunk. Jesus, he hadn't done this since he was a kid. Sobbing now, Izuku clambered from branch to branch, desperately clawing at the next one, trying to get higher. Finally at the top, he sat on a thin, unsteady branch, not really caring at the moment whether he lived or not. He breathed deeply and unsteadily, both from the exhausting run, and trying to calm himself down. 

After some time, Midoriya's sobbing turned to crying, turned to sniffles, turned to contemplative thought. He mulled over the past few weeks. When he first met Shoto. When he ran all the way to the palace because he forgot to pay. When they sat under the very same tree that Izuku was perched on now. He thought bitterly, 'It's not like I had a chance anyway. He was going to get married, and I was going to spend the rest of my life in that goddamn potion shop with Bakugou. A future where anything would come of me and Shoto would not be possible.' Immediately, he felt bad about cursing out his mother's potion shop. It was both of their pride and joys, but now it felt more like a cage than anything else. No days off. No sick days. No slacking off. It was all drilled into Izukus head, and it made him tired. So, so tired...

Izuku snapped awake some time later. He looked around and saw, much to his surprise, that he was still perched on the highest tree branch. He looked up and noticed that the sky was painted rusty oranges and yellows, with some deep, majestic purple creeping up around the edges, impatient to show itself. Izuku sighed and slid off the branch, landing on the one just below with a thud. He continued this slow, clunky journey down the tree, until he jumped the 15 feet from the lowest tree branch to the ground. Landing, Izuku stood up and brushed himself off, heaving a big sigh as he did so. The leaves on the trees rustled as a slight wind blew them. Izuku stood still as if trying to listen to them. To his surprise, it worked to an extent. He could faintly make out the words, "Go to him", but he instinctively brushed them off as his overreactive imagination.

All his journey back home, all he could hear was "Go to him". The wind was saying it. The slap of his shoes on the cobblestoone was saying it. The quiet crackle of small flames in the streetlamps were saying it. It was all around and yet, Izuku had not idea what it meant. He couldn't just go to Shoto; he was dead. Anyway, even if that was what he was supposed to do, there was no way a commoner from the next kingdom over would even be allowed near a royal funeral. Izuku sighed to himself.

When he got home, Izuku quietly snuck in and thankfully was not caught by Bakugou. That would have made this day 10 times worse. By that time it was already nightfall, and, even though he had just slept a few hours before, Izuku was consumed with exhaustion. Before he turned in for the night, however, Izuku walked over to the windowsill and surveyed what little part of his neighborhood that he could. 

There had to be a good way to do this. Maybe a rulebook of some kind was made for someone, somewhere? Who knows. Izuku felt that this one was the proper method. He sucked in a shaky breath. "Goodnight, my... someone," he breathed on the shuddery exhale. With that, he turned around and slipped into bed.

k. so. this could end here OR i also have a p good (and p gay) continuation ending of this. after i finished writing this chapter, i realized it would be a pretty bangin ending chapter, but i also had more in mind for the story so... lmk