Worthless Necessity [HitoZuku]

Chapter 40 - I won't turn around

Midoriya found that Ryuto was shedding a few of his feathers. The small, fluffier, downy ones, to be precise. He was also growing out longer, more sturdy ones. Clearing them wasn't too bad; for some reason, Ryuto liked to sweep his fallen feathers into small piles, which made it a lot easier to clean up.

He was also starting to develop the habit of randomly jumping off things; the cabinet, the kitchen counter, the table, all sorts of places. Midoriya had no idea how many times he nearly had a heart attack and rush to save the bird because he was afraid that Ryuto would injure himself.

He knew that Ryuto was growing out his flight feathers, falling down or out of trees was a natural process for birds to learn how to fly, but he couldn't help but get worried whenever he threw himself off something. There were a few times where he had stretched his wings fully, but it only lasted for a few seconds before he pulled his wings back in and fell.

Midoriya was seriously going to teach his baby bird how to fly. He was going to start with the basics of gliding, getting Ryuto used to stretching his wings out, before moving on to flying once he grew his first set of flight feathers.

He wasn't sure how to do it, though. Maybe he should give Ryuto a demonstration,thought he had no idea how he would go about doing it.

Midoriya flopped down on the sofa in the common room, Ryuto nestled comfortably in his arms. Reiko was sitting on his lap, napping.

Midoriya looked down at the bird, "Ryuto."

The hawk turned up to look at him, and chirped. Midoriya lifted him up to eye level, "Listen to me, Ryu. No more jumping off things randomly, okay? It's dangerous. I know you want to fly, but you can't do that if you have a broken wing."

Ryuto chirped again, before using one of his talons to scratch at Midoriya's arm.

Midoriya narrowed his eyes slightly in exasperation, "Come on, Ryu. Focus. I'll help you fly, okay? Just... stop jumping off stuff, okay?"

Ryuto turned his attention back to the green haired boy, giving a happy sounding trill, before nibbling on one of Midoriya's fingers.

Midoriya gently shifted his position to wrap his arms around the bird. He held Ryuto on one hand, and picked up Reiko with his other, pulling both of them in for a hug.

Reiko and Ryuto both snuggled up to the boy, and Midoriya could feel their breathes against his neck. He bit his lip, and closed his eyes, as Ryuto rubbed his head against Midoriya's chin and Reiko nuzzled him.

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"Something on your mind, Mina?" Kirishima asked, looking up from his math homework. Ashido was aimlessly twirling her pen, staring into space.

Kaminari and Sero looked up from their worksheets.

"You know, I can't stop thinking about that time... when I grabbed Midoriya's arm." Ashido admitted, "I know you kind of called me cool in middle school, Kiri, but... I wasn't always so outgoing and friendly."

"What do you mean?" Kaminari asked.

"I look weird." Ashido stated, "Pink skin, horns, I don't look human. When I was in elementary school... I was very insecure about my appearance. People matured in middle school, but in elementary school -"

"You were bullied." Sero finished for her.

"I was trying to avoid using that word, but yeah." Ashido sheepishly laughed, before she turned serious, "I was never well liked in elementary school. I was pushed around, beaten up every now and then... I eventually told the teachers and they stopped."