Fic Prompts: Free Day Thursday
(More Everybody Lives au.)
Izuku hadn't expected the mysterious Shimuras to ask him to visit. Honestly, he hadn't even expected them to remember him. Ever since they'd moved out of intensive care, All Might had been visiting them every week. He never talked about those visits to anyone, as far as Izuku knew.
At least, not until he'd stopped Izuku on the way to lunch to tell him that "Tenko" wanted to see him.
"Keep in mind, young Midoriya," Toshinori said, "Young Shimura is...he er, bears an uncanny resemblance to a villain you have...history...with. And he is aware of that, so if you feel uncomfortable, or run into any traumatic triggers, don't hesitate to say so."
They found him playing with the PS Vita Izuku had leant him. As soon as Tenko moved, Izuku froze. All Might hadn't been exaggerating. Tenko's hair was loose, covering some of his face, and all Izuku could see at first was the scowl. He felt the ghosts of fingers around his throat.
Shigaraki?!
Beside him, Toshinori cleared his throat, and the young man in the bed jumped. He looked up at them, momentarily confused. Izuku could understand the feeling. Seeing an overall lack of scars and lines on Shig- Shimura's face left him disoriented, like he was looking at a doppelganger.
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The first thing he said to Izuku, oddly, was, "How do you beat the giant Flan? It just party-wiped me again."
Then he lifted his bangs and got a good look at his second visitor. Tenko dropped the Vita and scrambled off the bed. He stopped a few feet from Izuku and just stared at him.
"Is he-? Is this-?"
Toshinori nodded. "Shimura Tenko, allow me to introduce my successor, Midoriya Izuku. Young Midoriya, this is...my predecessor's grandson."
Tenko gave them a bittersweet smile. "Oh wow, your hair really did stay that curly. Gram always thought the curls would go away when you got older."
Izuku blinked. Did this person know him somehow?
Tenko waved his hands quickly. "Ack! Sorry, wait, let me back up!"
He backed up physically a step, as if to emphasize his words. "Uh...let's see. Has Dr. Flashpoint's agency proposed Multi Theory yet?"
"The...thing about extra dimensions?" Izuku asked after a moment, "I thought that was a String Theory thing."
"Not...exactly..." Tenko said awkwardly. "Look, I'm really bad at science stuff, so you're going to have to be content with a terrible simile. It's like, uhhhhhh, it's like if you peel a stick of string cheese. It all starts from the same spot, but then one string goes left and one string goes right."
Toshinori shook his head and laughed under his breath. "String cheese," he muttered, "Egg in the microwave. Now there's two of them."
Izuku found that he was a little less put-off by the resemblance to Shigaraki now that he'd heard Tenko speak. Their voices were similar, but not similar enough to unsettle him too badly. He tried to work out what the older boy was trying to say, and it finally clicked that he was in the hospital with two Shimuras.
"Are you saying you come from one of those, er, strings?" he asked cautiously.
Tenko nodded eagerly. "Yes! Yes, exactly!" He held he hands up parallel to each other. "Okayokayokay, so. Let's say you're the string on the left, where Gram died when All Might was my age give or take. So here's Gram and me on the right, where Gran Torino was the one who died."
The thought weighed sickeningly on Izuku's mind. He couldn't imagine the thought of losing Gran Torino now that he knew the man. He swallowed hard.
"That's terrible," he managed.
Tenko took another step back and collapsed to sit on the end of his bed. "Terrible doesn't begin to cover it," he said glumly. "Creep for One couldn't stand being foiled by Number Seven. He escalated outrageously. Anybody we knew, anybody we loved, anybody I even met at school. All gone. Things went from dystopian to apocalyptic by the time we escaped."
Now he was afraid to ask. But curiosity drove Izuku to reluctantly say it anyway. "How did, uh, how did you know me, there?"
The older boy shuddered and looked away. "We were neighbors. Your mom half raised me when Gram and All Might had to work. It's not going to do anyone any good to talk about what happened to everyone in our timeline, so don't ask."
He rubbed his fingers together oddly, as if remembering a texture. "I guess you could say my string snapped in half. So we kinda...jumped to your string."
Izuku wasn't sure he believed any of that, but he still asked, "How?"
Tenko shifted uncomfortably. "...uh...I...may have stolen a villain's super-collider and combined it with a warp gate."
Well, that explained why he'd launched out of Kurogiri, at least.
"Singularly horrible experience, by the way," Tenko added, "0/10 stars. Do not recommend."
Despite himself, Izuku cracked a smile.
Toshinori cleared his throat and placed a hand on Izuku's shoulder. "My boy, would you be comfortable with me leaving you to get to know young Tenko for a few minutes? If you'd rather I stay, we can just go visit Nana afterwards."
Privately, Izuku thought that All Might probably wanted to speak to his mentor alone. He hadn't seen her since high school, right? Izuku couldn't imagine being separated from All Might for thirty years and then unexpectedly reuniting. He could handle a little discomfort if it meant All Might got to spend some time with Nana, Izuku decided.
"I'll be fine, All Might," he promised.
"I won't try to sneak into the waiting rooms this time," Tenko promised.
"This time?"
"Look, the food here is so bland my tastebuds cry," Tenko huffed. "Can you blame me for trying to find a vending machine?"
He waved Izuku over. "So...have you beaten XIII 2?"
Izuku was confused until he saw Tenko pick up the PS Vita. "Oh! Yeah, just recently. You can save over my file if you need room, I don't mind."
Tenko tugged Izuku down to sit beside him. "Okay, what is the deal with the One Ton Tomato flan and why can't I kill it?"
He turned the screen back on and Izuku peered over his shoulder. Then Izuku laughed.
"Oh! You're not supposed to kill it here, there's a cutscene coming!"
"You say that, but the only cutscenes I've been getting are the "Game Over" ones."
When Toshinori returned five minutes later, pushing Nana in a wheelchair, they found the boys huddled over the Vita. Tenko was yelling at the screen, and Izuku appeared to be trying to help him pick dialogue choices.
Well, at least they were getting along.