Hizashi finally finishes his patrol late afternoon, he got a decent amount of work done and made progress on Izu's case. They sent feelers out to Detective Tsukauchi, Hizashi and Shouta are both confident in his ability not only to handle the case, but to do so without prejudice. Sato also managed to obtain Midoriya Izuku's full file. She spun a very clever story about their agency wanting to focus on missing children's cases to alleviate any suspicion and Hizashi is more than happy to dedicate some agency resources to that end to make it true. It's sitting unopened in one of his locked office drawers. He wants Izu to trust him and while he can argue the necessity of reading the basic file, it feels like a betrayal to read the full one. So, it sits until Izu trusts him or something happens to force his hand.
He sends Shouta a text before he leaves the agency, asking for updates. He gets a response almost immediately. A picture from inside a local hole-in-the-wall place they sometimes frequent of Izu smiling shakily over a bowl of ramen. Shouta must have taken it at lunch. There's a little more color in his cheeks than when he'd found him, it warms Hizashi's heart. He waits as Shouta sends a more thorough update, letting him know about everything they got up to while he was gone. Hizashi won't even try and deny how upset the knowledge Izu was living in a trash beach makes him, but reassures himself with the fact he trusted them enough to get his stuff, it's more than he'd expected this soon honestly.
While he's glad for his progress at the agency, he's excited to be done and able to do some shopping. It would be better if they could all go together but he's sure Izu's not going to be up for a big shopping trip for a while. So, he's going to pick a few things up for him.
From what Shouta said, Izu retrieved more clothes from the trash beach but knowing the state they're likely in, Hizashi's going to start from scratch. He guesses on sizes and hopes he's close to right. He doesn't want to overwhelm him and genuinely wants them to go shopping together and get some stuff that Izu likes so he only picks up enough to get through a laundry cycle. Mostly solid color shirts, long sleeve since it's getting colder. He's obviously underweight so they'll need to watch his health carefully and make sure he doesn't catch cold. He gets a few pairs of sweatpants, not daring to try and guess jean sizes.
He can't resist throwing one of his own merch sweatshirts in alongside a plain black one. He hopes Izu likes it, he didn't seem to react negatively to his costume or hero identity, so hopefully it's a safe bet. Plus, it would be adorable.
Next, comes the fluffiest, warmest blanket he can find. There's blankets in the spare room, sure, but Izu obviously needs comfort and what better way to show that they want him happy and welcome than a fluffy blanket all his own. He decides to go with a solid dark green to match his hair and eyes.
Finally, he gets some other basics: toothpaste, toothbrush, special soaps for his curly hair, etc. On the way to the checkout he passes some office supplies and, remembering what Shouta said about the Little Listener having a bunch of notebooks, throws a couple nice looking ones in with the rest of his haul. He has no idea what Izu has in those notebooks but it must be important if he took them with when he ran away. Pleased with his purchases, Hizashi heads home for dinner.
-
Izuku isn't sure what's going on. Yamada-san and Aizawa-san have been nicer to him than anyone has in years, and they know he's quirkless. It's overwhelming and terrifying. What if they're just being nice now and turn on him later? There were a couple foster families that took a couple days to get bad. But unlike those people, there haven't been any strained fake smiles. They haven't looked at him with hidden disgust or hartred. They've both been nothing but kind to him.
Izuku doesn't know what to do with that. He's terrified that he let Aizawa-san get too close by showing him the beach but he needed his notebooks. He tries to reassure himself with the knowledge he would need to move before winter anyway, even his little shelter isn't protected enough to keep the cold winds away. He carefully squashes the part that hopes he won't have to find somewhere new to hide. The part that desperately wants this time to be different. The part that's tired of being alone and hungry and cold and just wants to be a kid again.
He can't let himself hope, can't let himself trust. Not yet, maybe not ever.
But it's nice here, they let him pet their cats and they haven't yelled at him or hurt him and it's getting colder outside by the day. He's survived a lot of things and not much could be worse than what he's already experienced so he won't run yet. He'll take this chance for what it is and if he catches wind of them sending him back he'll be gone in an instant. He's pretty sure he could jump to the fire escape if he needs to. Hopefully, they won't try very hard to find the useless little quirkless runaway.
In the meantime, he'll savor the privilege of regular meals and something soft to sleep on.
-
After lunch, Shouta leaves the kid to his own devices. Izu sits on the couch and absentmindedly pets Tuna, seemingly lost in thought. If his life has been anything like what Hizashi suspects, it's probably hard to understand people treating him well. Shouta goes about his next project, getting both of them out of work for the next few days. After today, Hizashi's agency can handle his patrols for awhile and Shouta's already called in his rarely used vacation time. All that's left is UA.
They're lucky to be on an unexpected extended break already after one of the students managed to blow out both the power and the back up generators by accident, luckily Nedzu is nothing if not thorough and had back ups to the back ups but they still shut things down for a couple days just to be sure. They should be up and running again today with class resuming tomorrow. As expected, Nedzu is hardly a problem, a short and to the point email is all that's necessary to get approval for time off complete with some rather ominous emojis. Shouta is fairly certain he only includes those for the intimidation factor.
No, the real problem is going to be the rest of the staff.
If he leaves the notifying to Nedzu, he'll have Nemuri kicking their apartment door open within an hour. That's obviously unacceptable with a skittish child around so he thinks hard about how he'll word his explanation so as not to reveal too much while at the same time ensuring that he doesn't have well meaning visitors barging in at all hours.
Satisfied, he sends it off along with an additional text to Nemuri telling her to stay away for awhile. She's usually fairly good with boundaries but if she thinks they're hiding injuries or something she'll hunt them down to the ends of the earth.
Checking back on the kid he finds that he's still sitting on the couch, seemingly satisfied with giving Tuna all the attention she desires. Half an eye always on Shouta, but he doesn't seem tense, just alert.
Shouta leaves him to it and heads to the kitchen to start on dinner. He's fairly sure they have soba noodles somewhere.
-
By the time dinner rolls around Izuku is tired. The effects of long-term malnutrition haven't magically gone away just because he's had a few meals and his stamina is near non-existent. He tries really hard but he keeps nodding off and startling awake in between bites. He hopes it doesn't upset them, he's grateful for the food, really! He's just so tired. Eventually, he gives up and apologizes. Aizawa-san doesn't sound upset and Yamada-san just starts to usher him off to bed with a gentle smile. It really is nice of them to let him sleep in a bed, they didn't have to, plenty of foster homes didn't. Yamada-san makes a strange noise at that. Oh, he must be mumbling again now that he's tired.
Izuku pats Yamada-san gently on the arm as an apology, and manages to focus long enough to hear him say he'd bought him a few things and left them in his room. Oh no! He didn't have to do that! He does his best to tell Yamada-san that he doesn't need anything, he doesn't want to be a burden, but he isn't sure it comes out right with how exhausted he is. Yamada-san just looks sad but Izuku can't figure out why.
Yamada-san leaves him in the room and he finds some pajamas all laid out next to the fluffiest green blanket Izuku's ever seen. Oh, that wasn't there before. Yamada-san bought him a blanket. He changes into the soft clothes and wraps the blanket around himself, relaxing into the comforting warmth. He's gotten new clothes before, although they were almost all hand-me-downs. The blanket is different though, it's completely unnecessary with all the blankets already on the bed. Yamada-san didn't need to buy it at all. Izuku isn't in any shape to figure out why Yamada-san bought him a blanket but he thinks it makes him happy, he thinks it might be a good sign.