Puppet Master

Did You Know?

Eijiro woke to a small vibrating body next to him and the sound of quiet whimpers. He looked down, taking a second to process that he and Izuku had fallen asleep together, and another to realize that Izuku was crying in his sleep.

Eijiro internally panicked. What was he supposed to do!? He couldn't wake the boy, for safety purposes, or call out to his parents, also for safety purposes.

Eijiro bit his lip. He slowly rose his hand that was not underneath the greenette's body, also that had fallen asleep -ouch-, and did what Mom does when he's crying or hurt. Eijiro pet Izuku's head. "Shhh... It's okay. It's alright." This is weird. Eijiro had no idea what the heck he was doing so he just kept trying to calm down the crying boy in his arms that he didn't even know if he could hear him or not.

Gradually, the tears did stop streaming and Izuku's face relaxed slightly. The shaking didn't stop but he wasn't shaking as much which Eijiro guessed was a good thing.

The next time Eijiro woke up, it was to the sound of Mom in the kitchen. Eijiro looked down. Izuku was still sleeping. It was around the time when Eijiro could hear a very quiet beeping from his room that Izuku began to stir. His alarm clock was going off. Like clockwork, Izuku's eyes opened. It occurred to Eijiro that Izuku might freak out about waking up like this when Izuku immediately went stiff in his arms.

Eijiro looked down. "Ah," Izuku flinched, "you're awake." He smiled when Izuku glanced up at him. "Sorry, I didn't want to wake ya. Want to get up?" Izuku nodded. With as much caution as he could give, Eijiro slowly unraveled himself.

The change was obvious.

Izuku ate less, looked up less, spoke less, or, well, not at all anymore. And that was fine. They would give him time to process it.

Time and all of the care and love they could offer.

_______________________________

The funeral was a week later.

Izuku stood in front of the grave covered in pink roses as the guests dispersed. Yami stood to his left, Shinsou and Kiri to his right.

Izuku looked up, trying to stop the tears he could feel welling up in his eyes again.

"Y- Yami..." The man looked down at him. "Hmm?"

-----

'Please don't hide it, Izuku... Don't suffer alone.'

-----

"I- It hurts," Izuku choked out. Yami rested a hand on Izuku's shoulder. "I know."

"W- why?"

"Why what?"

The tears wouldn't stop.

"W- w- why d- does it 'urt 'o m- much?"

Izuku could hear the sharp intake of breath the man took in.

"Because you are human, Izuku."

The clouds parted and a soft, yellow glow shone down on the residents of the cemetery.

"You feel things, believe it or not," Yami spoke softly.

Izuku hung his head. "W- what a- a- am I f- feelin' r- right now? W- what t'is t- this f- feeling...?"

"What do you think it is?"

Izuku squeezed his eyes shut. "I- It- don'- Pain..." he forced out. "S- sad. H- hurt b- b- but no' physical. Ju- I- I- Can'- I don' know wh- what i- it t'is..."

"That's what we call 'Grief', Izuku."

Izuku looked up at the man through teary eyes. "D- do y- you feel i- it too?"