Chapter Three

Aizawa doesn't turn away when he hears footsteps behind him in the stairwell. He's been with Hizashi long enough to recognize him and the quick breaths he takes as he runs down the steps to meet Aizawa.

Aizawa keeps his eyes on the crowd outside, the only other sound in the stairwell being the low murmur from his phone as he plays the same coverage.

The rest of the stairwell is dark. It's not late enough for the overhead lights to be turned on. Dark and empty, Hizashi's footsteps echoing through the many floors of stairs. Morning light streams through the window Aizawa looks out of, and it's not long at all after dawn. These people should be sleeping, not gathered out on the hospital campus for some inane press conference about what they consider to be nothing more than hero gossip. The sky is grey and cloudy and it looks close enough to snowing that Aizawa expects the clouds to break at any time.

"Jeez, it's a little early for this, isn't it?" Hizashi hits the last step and in an instant, he's sliding in next to Aizawa. Aizawa hums and moves to the side, cocking his head to see out the window better, looking on with some sort of morbid fascination that he's rarely felt before. Hizashi groans, and he winds an arm around Aizawa's waist, sounding annoyed, "I don't think it'd take much to disperse them. You wanna—"

Aizawa glances up at him with tired, dry eyes, and Hizashi gives him what can only be a nervous laugh, "Just kidding, Shouta."

"Sure," Aizawa comments, but he leans his head on Hizashi's shoulder, looking out the stairwell window. This is the clearest view the hospital has of the gathering crowd, and from here, Aizawa can see what seems like a hundred people—reporters, cameras, onlookers—and right at the center of it, in a small clearing the others have cleared around a couple people. Aizawa wouldn't recognize them if he hadn't seen them on the previous disaster of a press conference. It's two men, both of whom had worked at Endeavor's agency, both of whom were close to him and both of whom were close to the family before everything had happened.

Both of whom are trying to convince the entire nation that everything was Shouto's fault.

Aizawa breathes a long sigh against Hizashi, speaking the words neither of them have dared to say since Aizawa had gotten the phone call from the police warning them about this entire thing, "They're releasing the name of the hospital."

"Reporters are going to be all over the place," Hizashi says softly, speaking just above Aizawa's ear. His arm winds a little tighter around him. "They're gonna figure out it was us eventually, Shouta. They'll release our names. Someone will get ahold of the records. Something. Are you ready for that?"

Aizawa raises his head to glance up at Hizashi again, "Are you?"

There's no hesitation, "Shouta, I'd do anything for this kid. I don't give a shit about anything else. They can drag me through the mud for all I care."

"It'll be fine, then," Aizawa rests his head back on Hizashi's shoulder again, leaning in slightly to his touch, enough for Hizashi to notice and pull him closer. "We're not going to lose our jobs over this. It might ruin our reputations for awhile. I don't care about mine. I was never supposed to have a reputation to begin with. And if you're fine with losing yours, then we don't have a problem."

He leaves what he means unsaid.

Aizawa can feel the anger starting to bristle from Hizashi. He leans on him more in an attempt to remind him where they are. Aizawa may be the one who avoids the media and hates it, but when Hizashi thinks they're intruding in places they shouldn't be, he can get a little impulsive. They can't do anything but watch and listen to the reporters excitedly try to predict what's going to happen from Aizawa's phone.

"He's a kid," Hizashi's voice is close to a growl.

"I know."

"I can't let that kid's career—his public life—be ruined before it even starts. He wants to be a hero, Shouta! He should have a choice whether or not he wants to be around the media, not be forced to go underground because his father's asshole associates have convinced the nation that he's at fault for nearly being killed by his father."

Aizawa pauses, and the only thing he can say is a repetition of his earlier words, "I know."

Hizashi isn't the only angry one. This isn't fair. And Aizawa doesn't understand why it's happening. Why is the media so happy to cover all this? Why is the public so entertained by this becoming some sort of reality shitshow? It makes no sense. All they want is privacy. All Aizawa wants is for Shouto to improve and come home, and he wants him to have a better life. His idea of a better life doesn't involve cameras, reporters, and a kid carrying the blame of his father's attempted murder.

"I can't do this," Aizawa finally says, pulling out of Hizashi's grasp. He shuts off the video on his phone and moves out of the view of the window. "I need to get out of here for a while. I can't watch this. I can't be here while it happens. I can't stand the media and I don't want to find out what'll happen if they take one step inside of this place."

It isn't the media he's worried about. It's himself. Aizawa usually has control over himself, but when it comes to this, this blaming a child for his abuse, Aizawa doesn't know if he's able to hold back. He needs control and the thought of losing it over something as small as the media overstepping their boundaries just a bit terrifies him. He doesn't want to find out what'll happen and more importantly, he doesn't want Todoroki to experience him like that. He needs to get out of here, if only for an hour or two, and Aizawa is finally starting to feel the effects of being in this hospital for going on six days.

Hizashi stares at him over his glasses, making no move to hold Aizawa back and no longer watching the commotion outside, "Where are you going to go?"

"I don't know. Somewhere. Those police reports still need to be picked up, right? We need to look over them before our court date," He glances away, staring at the window, no longer able to see the gathering crowd. "I need time to think. To breathe."

"Okay," Hizashi doesn't argue, and Aizawa knows he understands him well enough to get that Aizawa's reached his limit here. He steps forward, and Aizawa goes easily when Hizashi pulls him into a tight hug, murmuring in his ear, "Just…text me when you're at the police station. And wear a coat. It's cold out."

"Yes, yes. No need to lecture me."

It's a shoddy attempt at a joke. Hizashi doesn't laugh. Neither does Aizawa.

Todoroki is still sound asleep when Hizashi and Aizawa return to the room. Aizawa picks up his coat and looks up the directions to the police station, Hizashi assuring him that he'll stay in the room with Todoroki and keep him company. Aizawa's on his way then, finding his way out of the hospital. The air is cold when he pushes his way out and he keeps his distance from the crowd, walking fast by them, face buried in his scarf, so as not to draw attention to himself.

Wandering feels good. The air feels good. Aizawa isn't truly wandering, like he has a tendency to do when upset by something, but being outside, alone, walking around definitely feels better than how he'd felt standing in that stairwell. He's able to breathe here, even if it's cold air he brings in, and once he's a sufficient distance from both the hospital and the press conference, Aizawa stops and lets himself rest.

The reports. The police had given them the clear yesterday to come retrieve the reports from them. They've been cooperating well with them, and Aizawa in part suspects that it's because the school as a whole is friends with head detective Naomasa. The guy is friendly and does his job well, and Aizawa can't deny that it's always a good thing to have allies within police ranks. He doubts any other precinct would work this closely or this well with them, and he's altogether grateful that they were able to pull enough strings to get the case passed to them. It helps that they're the precinct that deals the most with hero issues, both issues with heroes themselves and issues that heroes solve or bring to them.

Hizashi found a good lawyer, the same lawyer who defended both of them on the rare cases that they were accused of excessive force. While those cases hadn't been particularly hard—more ridiculous and tedious than anything—she'd still been easy to work with. They need those reports to put together their case for custody, something Aizawa suspects will be another easy case, and now is as good of a time as any to pick them up and bring them back to the hospital so they can start going through them.

With that, he starts heading in the direction of the precinct. At some point, he stops thinking, sinking into the cold, clear air around him, blending in with his surroundings. It feels like it's far too soon when he reaches the police station. He pauses, sending a quick text to Hizashi, before he takes a breath and pulls open the doors to the police station.

The clerk recognizes him immediately, giving him a peppy greeting and waving him to the back, leading him into a room where the precinct's staff is gathered.

Aizawa almost wants to walk out of the room when he realizes that they're all watching the press conference.

"Aizawa-san!" Detective Naomasa spots him immediately, waving to him before he rises from his desk and approaches him. The clerk takes his leave and makes his way out of the room as the ever positive Tsukauchi Naomasa comes to his side. The room in front of Aizawa is large, filled with desks and technology and stacks of paperwork, and Naomasa is one of three others in the room, leaving it widely empty.

"I didn't expect you to be working today," Aizawa isn't really trying to be friendly or polite, using his usual unaffected voice. He doesn't say anything more, turning his eyes to the large television screen the precinct has mounted. He has to hold back from snapping at them to turn it off, and the simple sight of the two Endeavor associates on the screen makes his blood boil. He'd come here to get away from all this, not to see more of it.

"I'm a little married to my work," The detective is obviously trying to make a joke and lighten the mood, but Aizawa doesn't want to be humored. He wants those reports and then he wants to go back to the hospital and sit with Todoroki and Hizashi and shut himself off from the public. "Ah, you must be here for the reports. Hang on."

Naomasa waves for one of his underlings and asks them to grab Aizawa's copies of the reports, but he's hardly listening anymore, dark eyes fixed on the screen, watching as closely as he had in the waiting room the previous day.

"—From the reports, we know exactly which of the UA teachers caused all the problems for the Todoroki family, and at least one of them has gotten in trouble with the media before. To answer your question, we're definitely trying for custody of Endeavor's boy, but we're being fought tooth and nail for him. Truthfully, they should let us have him. We're close to family and don't believe, after what happened with Endeavor, that he's safe with them."

The camera stays on them, but a reporter speaks instead, "Are you saying that the UA teachers are trying for custody of Endeavor's child? That sounds….unethical."

Aizawa forces his eyes away, looking back at the head detective. Naomasa seems to realize that Aizawa hadn't wanted to see this and he gives him a shaky smile, "...Bad timing, huh?"

Aizawa ignores his question, "They have copies of the reports?"

"Yes," Naomasa answers him, giving a sigh. "Unfortunately, we had to turn over reports to the Todoroki family, as well. Both of you have a right to the evidence and both of you are involved in the case. It seems as though the family has been…spreading the reports a little, though. We gave them a warning, but the copies had already been made, and copies of those copies. It's a mess right now."

"How can they be pushing this narrative if they have copies of the reports? They haven't shown the media?"

He would've thought that if they'd gotten ahold of the reports, they would either shut up completely and realize they were wrong or not mentioned them on live television. The reports are damning. Aizawa's read over them. They detail every second of the camera footage of the incident, the language clinical, but still clearly showing that Endeavor was no doubt the aggressor who tried to beat his son to death. Giving the media a taste of the reports seems like a bad idea on their end, because they'll just keep wanting more and demanding for the full narrative to be released.

"They've only released parts of it, from what I know," Naomasa is looking at the screen, too, as one of Endeavor's associates starts to answer the question. "They've given the media little snippets, usually just a sentence or two long. They're intentionally not releasing the full thing. They can't defend their narrative if they do."

On the screen, the man is still going on, "—The teachers who want custody won't even speak with us at this point. Surely you all must understand how hard that's been on us. We'd like to work out a deal, but…"

He trails off and the reporter takes over again, "Have you thought about releasing their names?"

He knows it's coming, and Aizawa can't do anything but stare up at the screen as he listens to the actual words.

"If that's what it takes."

"Hey, turn this off!"

Naomasa's yell nearly startles him and there's a frantic scrambling as the only other detective in the room dives for the controls and clumsily turns the television off, the screen going from static to black in an instant and just like before, Aizawa can see his own shocked and angry expression as it goes dark.

"Sorry about that," Naomasa tells him, sounding genuinely apologetic. Aizawa slowly turns back to him, and he tries to keep himself calm and neutral, but it's hard. He has to get back to the hospital. He has to get back to Todoroki and Hizashi. That was a challenge, and Aizawa can't see it as anything else at all.

He has to do something.

No, he has to think this through. He has to figure out how to do something.

"How many copies of the reports are there?" His voice is a little sharper than he means it to be. He doesn't stop himself, though, and it almost feels like he's questioning Naomasa in the same way he would question a kid in trouble, "You said the family made copies, and then people made copies of those copies. How many are there?"

"We lost track," Naomasa's voice drops and he doesn't look the least bit irritated in the way Aizawa near-snapped at him. Instead, he's speaking lowly to him, and Aizawa raises an eyebrow, a little more interested now. "We have no idea how many copies there are. We've been trying for a gag order, but you know, it's the holidays and people don't really want to work on the holidays. Between you and me, the media is giving us hell, too. We tried to put a stop to people spreading the report, but enough people have seen it already or have copies of it. The worst part is that we can't necessarily tell what's a copy and what's an original."

Aizawa stares, "I see."

There's a logical, simple solution to all this. It's right in front of him. He needs time to think, but…

It's so simple.

Sometimes the simplest solution is the best, most effective one.

"If they were to release our names, how easy would it be to trace it back to them?" Aizawa words his question carefully, and Naomasa doesn't react.

"Near impossible. We have no idea who's leaking the information right now. We assume it's the two on the conference, but there's not much of a way to be sure without a court order and right now, with everything else legal going on, finding a whistleblower isn't one of our priorities. Besides," He pauses, and an unsettled feeling sits heavy in Aizawa's stomach. "There's not much action that can be taken without a gag order, and that isn't going to be granted for at least a few more days, if at all."

So simple.

"They seem like the type to scare people into submission," Aizawa casts a glance out at the room. He doesn't know Naomasa well, but he does know that the guy isn't head detective without a reason, and no head detective is dense enough to not be picking up on what Aizawa's saying. "I guess that's what they're trying to do with us."

Naomasa gives him a smile that almost looks friendly, "They've become a bit famous with us for doing that. There's rumors that parts of the family are in support of Todoroki Shouto never having to deal with any of his father's associates ever again, but they've been scared into silence. There's not much we can do about that, either."

Finally, Aizawa hears the footsteps on the tile behind him and he turns to one of Naomasa's underlings handing him a tan file bulging with papers. Aizawa nods, taking it, and gives Naomasa a wave, "I have to be getting back."

"Aizawa-san."

Aizawa is already halfway down the hallway when Naomasa calls out to him again. He stops, glancing back at him as the detective speaks to him in a serious tone, "I'm not going to tell you what to do. And I'm not going to tell you what not to do. I trust you'll make the right choice, whatever that is."

------

Shouto seems off when he wakes up, and Hizashi's immediate worry is that he knows. He can't, though, because Hizashi, Aizawa, and everyone else have been monitoring him this entire time, making sure that he sees nothing from the media. To his relief, Todoroki hasn't even been curious, though Hizashi suspects that it's the brain damage that's preventing Todoroki from thinking about the other unintended consequences of this.

Or maybe something else is on his mind.

That's what he starts to suspect, from the way Todoroki seems hesitant and lost in his thoughts. Even when he wakes up, he spends some time just staring at the hospital ceiling while Hizashi watches from the visitor chairs on the other side of the room. Hizashi doesn't force him, and he's worried too, thoughts occupied by the press conference happening outside the hospital. He forces himself not to look at his phone, not to watch the news stream, not to check his emails, not even to look at his news feed. He sits, watching Todoroki, wondering what horrible things they're saying about this kid out there.

Todoroki's mismatched eyes are open, but he lays in the hospital bed, silent and breathing steadily, like he's lost in thought. He's a lot like Aizawa—just able to sit in the silence and think, but Hizashi isn't like that. He's never been like that, always feeling the need to fill the silence with words and noise.

When he breaks the quiet between them, it's for partially selfish reasons, because he can't stand the deafening silence of the hospital room, only broken up by the distant noise of the medical machines.

"Hey, Todoroki," He calls out, finally getting up from his chair and making his way to the hospital bed. He needs a distraction. Shouto could clearly use a distraction. The way the kid's face had softened at Hizashi's offer to tell him a story the previous day had been heartwarming, and that's still fresh in his mind. Maybe a good story will calm them both down. Todoroki turns his head towards him, and Hizashi is just happy he hadn't startled him. He offers him a smile, unable to flash his usual, bright one, instead settling for a more private one, "You wanna hear a story? Like the one I told you yesterday?"

Hizashi reaches the foot of Todoroki's bed and with another glance at the kid, he sits down on it. He watches as Todoroki pulls himself into sitting up, the effort from the action making his arms shake, and Hizashi forces himself to keep the smile on his face.

"Sure," Todoroki says, voice quiet, stoic, like Aizawa's usually is. Hizashi knows from Aizawa that that doesn't mean he's not feeling anything. It's just that he's trained himself not to show it. "About Aizawa-sensei?"

"If you want," Hizashi hasn't really got a particular story in mind. He'd figured he'd tell Todoroki whatever kind of thing he wants to hear. "What do you wanna know about him?"

There's a long pause, and Hizashi gives him time to process the information and come up with an answer. In the silence that blankets the room again, Hizashi only hopes that Aizawa's not getting into trouble. Usually Hizashi's the one who has to be told to stay out of things but when Aizawa starts to lose his composure, Hizashi starts to worry. Just before talking to Shouto, Hizashi had gotten a text from him saying he was at the station, so at least he got there alright. Now it was just a question of getting back, and Hizashi had no idea if the conference was still going on.

"Tell me about both of you," Shouto finally says.

It's vague, but Hizashi's happy to work with that.

"Well you know that we met in high school…" Hizashi pauses, thinking. His voice picks up and he forces himself into his normal storytelling mode, assuming that if he acts happy enough, eventually he'll be able to ignore the anxiety stirring deep inside of it. "Ah, did you know that Shouta was actually in general studies, though? He wasn't in the hero course at first. He moved after the sports festival, 'cause he wound up beating me and winning the thing! Anyways, that's how we met. I was pretty blown away by his quirk. I kind of knew that there were quirks like his, stuff that was more psychological than physical, but I had no idea the extent Shouta could use his. It was amazing. I wasn't even mad about being beat! God, he was so cool."

Hizashi stops for a moment, lost in thought about his high school days. He thinks about it sometimes, though not so often lately. He looks at those days with nostalgia. It's nice to look back, even if Hizashi is pretty happy with his life now. He remembers being Todoroki's age pretty well, and he remembers not having much other than school and internships to worry about. It'd been different for Aizawa, and it's different from Todoroki. Hizashi had grown up where he had everything he needed, including all the love and affection from his family that he desired. It's hard to imagine a life where he hadn't had his adoptive parents, and Hizashi can't imagine that, let alone a world where he was abused and neglected. He is where he is because of his parents, because they supported him and loved him.

He hadn't been a spoiled kid. He knew he had to work for things. He'd worked hard for his grades, for the control over his quirk, during his internships. But he'd always known that he could've gone to his parents if he was feeling overwhelmed or in need of reassurance and they'd be there for him. He can't imagine where he'd be if he hadn't had his parents supporting him in the times where Hizashi had doubted himself.

Family's always been important to him. It was when he was a teenager, too. Hizashi has known the value of having a good family his entire life, though moreso when he hit his twenties and everything Aizawa had never talked about had come out.

He doesn't let himself dwell on it long, realizing that Todoroki is still looking at him, expecting him to continue. It's easier this time to rile himself up to excitement, and slowly, Hizashi's starting to feel better.

"Anyways, after that, I didn't really let Shouta go. I thought he was annoyed at me at first, but it turned out that Shouta just…didn't really know how to make friends. I think he thought I was making fun of him? I wasn't, though! Shouta was such a cool guy, even in high school. Well, he started liking me more and then suddenly, one day, he was all over me! I guess we were a little inseparable from there. Oh, but we didn't date in high school. Don't get me wrong, I really liked him in high school, and apparently he liked me, too, but I never made any moves on him because I didn't want to get rejected. That's my biggest regret."

He gives a laugh and reaches back, tangling his fingers in his hair, glancing away from Todoroki for a moment. It's not his biggest regret, but Todoroki doesn't need to know that. His biggest regret is missing all the signs, ignoring all the times he'd wondered why Aizawa came to school with cuts and bruises that weren't from training, all those times where he'd ignored the fact that Aizawa wouldn't let him come over to his house or the fact that Aizawa was always so stoic and quiet. They were all red flags, things Hizashi should've picked up on. He hadn't put it all together until Aizawa was already moved out.

But Todoroki doesn't need to know that. Hizashi carries a lot of guilt with him still. Someday he might tell the kid about it, but not today.

Shouto's listening closely to him. Hizashi can tell that he's paying attention to him from the way he focuses on him, eyes clear and not faraway like they are when he's in thought, and from the way he leans forward, towards Hizashi, just enough for him to notice.

He laughs again, but it almost sounds a little bitter, as if Hizashi's guilt is seeping into it, "After graduation, we stayed pretty close. We met up a lot and worked together a lot. Hm, but Shouta never let me see his apartment—Until this one day… This one day, Shouta was super late to meeting me for lunch and I started to get real worried, since, well, he was sick the day before with his allergies and he doesn't have the greatest track record with taking care of himself. So I looked up his address in the hero network and went to his apartment, and…"

He really isn't sure he should be talking about this. Not just because it's partially Aizawa's story to tell, but also because he gets emotional talking about it and he doesn't want to dump his emotions on this kid. He hesitates, thinking about stopping, and after a moment of deliberating, decides against it. Shouto wants to know more about them, and maybe, just maybe, there's some benefit in him hearing this story.

Hizashi takes a breath and tries smiling, "...That's when I found out about everything. Shouta—he lived in this really rundown apartment. And I thought that maybe he wasn't doing so well with his work. But then I got inside and Shouta—it's kinda funny now, when I think about it—Shouta lived in this tiny little studio with no furniture. He just slept in a sleeping bag. It was nuts. I had no idea why he was living like that. It turned out that he was actually making way more than I was doing hero work, and I could afford a one-bedroom apartment and I had furniture. It came out, I guess, that Shouta realized that once he moved out, he had control over everything in his life and he just…went overboard with it.

"I asked him why he was living like that and Shouta just—he didn't even tell me anything. He just gave me his parents' address and when I went there, I understood. It wasn't hard to figure it out, from the way their apartment looked and the way his mother talked about him. I remember feeling pretty sick when I was there. But," He raises his head a little, and flashes a smile at Todoroki. "I got Shouta to move in with me after that! Oh, he fought with me pretty hard about the furniture issue. That's the only time we've ever really fought. His parents are hoarders and Shouta just hates stuff, but that was something I wasn't moving on. He accepted it and Shouta was a pretty good roommate. Well, he still is, though he's not so much my roommate anymore. We started dating within six months of living together. It just sort of naturally happened. Both of us had had feelings for each other for a long time, and I wasn't a kid anymore. I didn't see the point of pining for years, so I told him. We got married a few years later."

He stops talking, falling silent, and with the end of his story, Hizashi feels a little better, a little warmer. It's nice to talk about the happier things, and it brings up a lot of memories of Aizawa getting used to living with him, those memories being more positive ones. The day they got their cats, the times Aizawa had tried to make dinner for him, the times they'd had stuff break in their apartment or house and they'd spent hours trying to fix them before giving up and calling someone to help.

"Thanks," Todoroki murmured after a moment, so quiet that it almost escaped Hizashi's range of hearing.

"You seem to like hearing these stories," Hizashi comments. Todoroki always looks so intent on listening when he talks to him, and even moreso when Hizashi tells him things like this. "I'm happy to tell you more if you ever want."

Todoroki looks away from him, looking down at the sheets on the hospital bed, "It's just interesting. I never got to hear this sort of stuff from my father."

Hizashi's smile falters a little, "Seriously? He seems like the kinda guy who loves talking about himself."

"Oh, well, I've heard plenty of hero stories from him," Todoroki's still quiet, voice almost drown out by the heartrate monitor at his bedside. "Just nothing else. I don't know much about him other than who he is as a hero. I don't know if there is much else."

Hizashi just stares at him, expression softening. That...doesn't surprise him. Endeavor is proud and pompous and seems to base his entire identity around being the best hero and being better than everyone else. It makes sense that he's lost every other part of himself in the process, to the point where his own son can't separate Endeavor the hero from him as a person. Maybe there isn't anything to separate.

Todoroki speaks up before he can, looking straight at him with a stoic expression that reminds him a little too much of Aizawa, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Hizashi answers. "I'll do my best to give you an answer!"

"I wanted to ask Aizawa-sensei, but I didn't know how to," Todoroki's voice is the same—unaffected and emotionless. "I want to know why it got this bad."

Hizashi's heart nearly stops.

"What do you mean?"

He knows exactly what Todoroki means.

There's a reason that the media is being influenced by Todoroki's family and Endeavor's associates. There's a reason why they can push their narrative. There's a reason that they haven't told Todoroki everything that happened to him.

"My father. He would never go this far. Something happened. It shouldn't have gotten this bad."

Hizashi can't look at him

There's no excuse for what happened. None at all. Everything Todoroki had done had been in self defense. Anyone who reads the full reports or sees the footage from the house can see that. He hadn't even been trying to hurt his father. It may have been the first time the kid had ever retaliated, but Shouto had just been trying to make what was happening to him stop. His father had thrown the first hit, and the second, and the third, and Shouto pushing him off and clawing at him had been nothing but self defense.

But his father hadn't seen it that way.

"You fought back," Hizashi breathes, his voice dropping into seriousness. "No, you tried to make him stop. But your father…he saw it as a challenge. Like you were trying to beat him. And—he didn't like that."

He looks back at Todoroki, and the boy can only meet his eyes for a moment before he turns his head, and Hizashi hears him breathe out a shaky sigh, "I've never fought back. I was stupid—"

"No, you weren't," Hizashi forces himself to keep his tone solid. Todoroki needs reassurance right now, not another emotional, guilty person in the room. "None of this is your fault. You were trying to protect yourself against your father. Nothing you did was wrong. You did the right thing in calling Shouta, and I'm sorry that your father did this to you."

Todoroki still doesn't look at him, and Hizashi finds himself wondering what's going on in the kid's head. He's slouched over slightly, head turned away, and that's when Hizashi notices that Shouto is biting his bottom lip, almost in the same way that he sees Aizawa do sometimes.

A familiar guilt hits him.

So he tries again, quietly, almost trying to reassure himself, as well, "I'm so sorry."

------

Everything comes down a day later.

Aizawa returns with the police records. Shouto is quiet. Aizawa is quiet. Hizashi is quiet. They don't talk much, though Aizawa leans on him as he goes through the police records. Todoroki seems lost in thought. Aizawa reads to him, out loud, until the kid falls asleep, and Hizashi finally checks the news, finding it still plastered with every word from the press conference.

It's tiring. Hizashi knows tomorrow's going to be bad, too. Aizawa tells him at one point that he's been in contact with Midoriya after their initial conversation and that Todoroki's agreed to let him visit. Midoriya's supposed to be coming tomorrow morning and honestly, Hizashi isn't looking forward to it. He doesn't say anything, though, instead going through the records with Aizawa before he convinces his husband to try to sleep in the sleeping bag with him.

It's the morning when everything comes down, but it doesn't happen immediately.

------

"I, uh, brought flowers. I hope that's okay. My mom said that's what people do when they visit hospitals and I dunno, I thought he might like them—"

Hizashi goes with Aizawa to greet Midoriya, and to no surprise, Midoriya Izuku is a bit of a nervous mess. Moreso than usual, at least. He doesn't seem to know what to stay, standing in the hospital visitor lobby wrapped in a huge winter coat and holding a bag of things for Todoroki, as well as flowers. He'd given Hizashi a stare, though Hizashi hasn't said a word yet, and in any other case, Hizashi would be happy to poke fun at him for not recognizing him.

"It's fine," Aizawa sounds like he usually does when talking to his students—strict, stoic, flat.

Hizashi, though, elbows him in the side, "You're allergic to pollen, Shouta."

Aizawa doesn't say anything, because Midoriya's yelp of surprise at Hizashi's voice is enough to drown out any of the words he had to say, "Mic-sensei?!"

"That's me," Hizashi finds it in himself to give the kid a small smile. He glances at the time, staring at the clock on the wall, and reaches out to give a pull on the back of Aizawa's sweater. "Hey, we should get going. Visiting for Todoroki is only an hour."

Aizawa gives a hum of agreement and beckons Midoriya to follow him. There's nothing different about Aizawa, and Hizashi doesn't notice anything off. Aizawa acts the exact same way he always does around his students, even giving off an air of slight annoyance, and then a little softness to combat that. Nothings off, and Hizashi starts to feel his nerves ease as they walk down the hallways, though it's a little difficult when Midoriya has a tendency to be the pinnacle of nervousness.

"I—I didn't know Mic-sensei would be here!" Midoirya tries to fill the silence on the way to Todoroki's room. Hizashi feels a smile spread on his face, and he glances at Aizawa, who's slouched over, hands shoved into the pockets of his pants. Hizashi doesn't say anything, deciding that he's not going to accidentally reveal their relationship this time, like he had to Todoroki.

Aizawa, though, takes him by surprise.

"It'd be weird for him not to be here, since I'm married to him."

Silence, and then Hizashi bursts out laughing as they start climbing the stairs. Midoriya stutters out a shocked, unintelligible response, and the nerves in Hizashi's body relax at Aizawa's terrible sense of humor. He looks to see Aizawa with a smirk on his face, though Midoriya is apparently too shocked to even look at him.

The rest of the journey to Todoroki's room isn't too long, and it's worth the trouble the moment Midoriya sees his friend through the glass panes looking into the room and breaks into a run.

"Hey, wait—"

Midoriya doesn't listen to Aizawa, though and in an instant, he's throwing the hospital's door open, and Hizashi hears a loud, excited shout of Todoroki's name. Hizashi lingers back with Aizawa as Aizawa narrows his eyes at the boy who'd just broke away from them and not listened to him, and Hizashi wraps his arm around Aizawa's waist, pulling him in close, "Give the kid a break, Shouta. He's worried about his friend."

"Fine," Aizawa doesn't pull himself from Hizashi's hold and instead, Hizashi follows him through the room's door,walking in on Midoriya talking to Todoroki in a flurry of words that all run together, hardly making any sense, and Hizashi can't tell whether or not Todoroki even understands him.

"—I was so worried! And so are the other kids! I tried everyone to figure out what happened. I knew something was up when you weren't answering your phone and I was so worried about you. I'm so happy that you're alright and that I could see you. I don't believe the—"

Aizawa clears his throat loudly and Midoriya nearly jumps out of his skin. Hizashi has to stop himself from laughing. Aizawa had told him that Midoriya has been informed to stay away from the topic of the media, and Hizashi should've expected the kid to start running his mouth and forgetting what he'd been told.

"I'm happy you're here, too," Todoroki says, drawing all the attention in the room to him. His face is beat red and he averts his eyes from Midoriya and Hizashi is tempted to jokingly tell Aizawa to keep an eye on the kid so he doesn't start a small fire from blushing so hard.

"Todoroki…" Midoriya murmurs, quiet, the kid's voice shaking like he's about to cry. "I'm sorry."

Hizashi lets them talk. Aizawa does, too, neither of them stepping in.

"It's fine. It's not your fault," Todoroki tells him, and Hizashi watches as his eyes flicker to the two of them. "I'll be fine."

And then, in the momentary silence that falls over the room, Hizashi's phone rings.

Beside him, Aizawa doesn't startle. He looks at Hizashi, and there's no questioning expression on his face or in his dark eyes, and Hizashi holds his gaze for a long instant before his numb hands fumble for his phone, reading Nemuri's name off of the screen before he picks it up and holds it to his ear.

He can't even get a word in before Nemuri is drilling him.

"Hizashi, what the fuck."

It's not a question. It's hissed, in anger, in frustration, her voice strained and sounding close to breaking. Something's wrong and when he glances at Aizawa again, there's no change in him. He only stares right back at Hizashi, face unchanging, solid and stoic. Like he knows. Like he knows exactly what Nemuri's saying.

"Nemuri, I don't know what you're talking about—"

"The media!" She nearly screams at him from the other end, enough for Hizashi's ears to burn with the volume. "The media, Hizashi! The reports! Your names. What the hell did you do?"

"Nothing—" His voice is a near whisper. "I—I have to go."

He doesn't say anything. He only grabs Aizawa's wrist. He doesn't say a word to the two kids in the room, and Hizashi can barely breathe as he drags Aizawa out of the room. His movements feel robotic as he pulls Aizawa behind him, and Hizashi automatically makes his way to the open area of the ward Todoroki is on.

The television is already on.

It's the same show that Aizawa had been stuck watching a couple days ago, when they'd gone to meet with the specialists. There's a bunch of hosts and an audience. And they're all eerily silent.

This can't be happening.

A male host clears his throat and the camera focuses on him, "As many of you know, the…full reports of what happened with the nation's number one hero, Endeavor, have been released…detailing what happened the night of the incident…"

Hizashi wants to scream. He wants to cry. He wants something.

But he can only look at Aizawa, at his side, his own tired eyes fixed on the screen.

Hizashi has never heard himself sound as broken as he does when he gathers the words to speak, "What did you do?"

His voice is cracking and quiet, and he doubts anyone except Aizawa can hear him.

Aizawa's dark eyes glance at him, his voice equally quiet, "The right thing."