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He was still in school. He thought he knew how cruel kids could be. He tried to be reasonable as his fathers had taught him but there was just too many of them. He could see them waiting by the edge of the school yard. he didn't want to go but he knew at the end of the day sometime he would have to go home.
The teachers didn't pay him much attention it's why the bullying persisted, despite a pro hero helping on the case. He swallows his fear as he had the past few days and went out to face them if he had to. He left the room and turned to the back gate trying to hide the top flaps of his All Might backpack.
Some were at the gate in front of him, he knew of advice from Hizashi, "Smile strong and be brave."
He took those words to heart as he moved closer and closer. There were the moments when his smile was fading and he forced it a little more he was walking right past them and his gut was telling him to run. His saying keep it cool and keep walking. He would learn to trust his instincts in all coming battles.
He cried out as one of the boys' quirks pulled him back, "Let me go!"
The boy freezes and looks straight ahead before viciously laughing. Hitoshi knew that they had to talk for him to use his quirk and realization hit him when they knew it too. He starts to hear one of them talk but then he get hit in the side of the head with a backpack taking him to the ground. His vision swims and he tries to think straight but feels a shoe on his back when he tries to get up, "Ple-!"
His two front teeth go flying as he gets kicked in the mouth dropping Hitoshi down to the ground and he coughs and hacks trying to spit out the other two that stayed in his mouth. He tries to scream for help but as soon as he opens his mouth he feels someone spare shirt being stuffed into his mouth. They force the fabric painfully down his throat, and someone's shirt is tied around his arms to stop him from struggling. He wasn't getting any oxygen and his vision darkens as he feels himself being picked up. He can hear his classmates complain.
"He's dead weight. pull that out a bit-"
"So he can be alive for the next day. "
Hitoshi passes out some time later he wakes up hearing his classmates laughing, he opens his eyes and tries to look through his hair that has been matted to his face. He tries not to draw attention to himself but lets out a cough and hacks tasting the dried blood in his mouth the cloth taste leaving his mouth dry.
Hitoshi sees them look away from their card game and look at him still with a dry voice he tries to talk, "Hewwo, pease yef me go."
They look at each other and moves closer Hitoshi struggles and sees that some rope was tied around his arms and he was propped up against a wall. He didn't have a chance to say something else before two kids grabbed him, they force him down on the ground and force his jaws open. He sees a knife that was from the cooking class and tries kicking out. He tried screaming but all he got was a punch in the throat. Coughing and hacking he could feel them taking their time toying with him.
The knife inches closer and closer to his face and he closes his eyes he couldn't see this he feels a hand go on his neck and his eyes open dragging them down to the knife holder. They smile at him and move their hand from Hitoshi's throat to his mouth and grab his tongue. His mouth was dry from coughing, hacking, and fear.
His head lifts slightly from the ground his muscles screaming for it to stop and then the knife connects. Everyone froze he couldn't see much past the elbow that was now in his face but he could feel their arms moving ever so slightly, the wrinkle in clothes. They were nodding.
He shuts his eyes and almost chokes on the torrent of blood that started streaming from his tongue. The knife wasn't meant to cut through meat. It had a horrible sawing motion and the nerves were slowly being severed. They didn't care how the handiwork looked they wanted the job done.
The knife was in his mouth for only ten seconds but for Hitoshi it felt so much longer they covered his mouth after the tongue was cut letting it flounder in his mouth. Hitoshi's eyes bulged despite his best efforts blood was still trickling down the back of his throat. He gagged and more bile forced its way into his mouth the knife wielder saw him squirming and when his cheeks puffed up They all let go and Hitoshi rolled to his side and threw up a messy combination viscera, bile, and blood. Hitoshi didn't have his hands to steady him but he had to do something, he tried standing and the rush of blood from moving made him woozy. He stumbled into the wall and sank against it. Once he found that he could see a little through the tears and pain he turned his head to see he was alone, "Heeeeeeeeeee!" he almost doubled over again when he felt the went mushy stump of a tongue connect to the roof of his mouth.
"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
He looks down at his uniform and sees that he has gotten paler from blood loss and he sees the light of the street ahead. Shaking Hitoshi pits one foot in front of the other and starts walking to the light of the street wailing as he moved along, "HEEE!"
People were paying attention to him he moves closer to the people and someone picks him up running to the rest of the street, "Someone call medical emergency services!"
Hitoshi felt bad about throwing up on them but it was the last thing he did before passing out, kids were more cruel than anything else.
Hitoshi wakes up in the hospital, he heard the beeping first and thought it was a nightmare from when he visited his dad here. He opens his eyes to see that the positions have changed. Aizawa was on the chair pulled up to the side of the bed and Hizashi was on the other side holding hands just past where his toes sprung up under the sheets.
He swallows and feels a tube in his mouth he tries to feel it with his tongue when he feels only the same amount. He remembers the fight and the monitor beside starts to beat erratically. Aizawa and Hizashi both bolt up and look at the monitor before realizing that Hitoshi was sitting up.
Aizawa sees Hitoshi and wraps his son in a hug, "Hey hey hey hey hey there. It's alright now. I have you. Please Hitoshi your'-"
Hitoshi hears his dad break into muffled sobbing in his shoulder he wants to say something but when he opens his mouth some bloody gauze falls out and Hitoshi lets out a wail. He could feel both of his dads hugging him and it was a start to making it feel better.
Hitoshi looks over to both dads after his wailing stopped and he couldn't cry anymore, he thinks about what he wanted to say to his dads but stopped. He couldn't say anything. It wasn't the fact he needed new gauze, or that his mouth hurt. He couldn't smile again. He couldn't speak, but he cried all his tears and couldn’t cry anymore.
He wipes away a tear and sees Hizashi wave and sign to him. Hey there kid.
Hitoshi gives a close lipped smile. He could still talk to the people he loved.
He was released from the hospital with liquid pain medication a few days later. The air was tense as they were thinking of what to do. The stitches in his front gums made it impossible to have anything through a straw and neither one knew the restaurant's well enough to recommend soups. they decide it would be best to go home and make something at home, and if all else failed, ice cream for a day or two couldn't hurt. Might have to have melted a bit but it couldn't hurt.
Hitoshi was moved schools hours after Aizawa had made it to the hospital, Hizashi was taking care of the rest of things but the core of the family would never change. Hizashi was quick to freshen up Aizawas skills on sign and to help Hitoshi learn it fully in the days to come but there are always the little moments.
"Hitoshi? what do you want for breakfast?" Aizawa calls out from the kitchen he waits a second and calls out again, "What do you want?"
Another second passes and Aizawa for his part didn't drop the cup of coffee in his hand but he guilty turned around to see Hitoshi's hands signing outside of his room, arms still bare.
"On it. And I know the answer but will ask it anyways. Cat on the pancake?"
There was a thumbs up before the hand disappeared back into his room. Aizawa runs his hands through his hair and lets out a deep sigh, some mornings were worse than others.
Kids were nice to him when he first came to school some kids even accepted the free lessons from the pro heroes to learn sign to be able to talk to him easily. He was having fun in school but people started to ask questions, "So how did it happen?"
He always shrugged away the question but kids were determined, "They did that because of your quirk?"
Hitoshi froze in place and he looked down to his shoes his hands behind his back he gives a small nod, no one who asked spoke to him for the rest of the day afraid that they would say something wrong. He talked about it with his dads and they said be forwards about it with the rest of your class.
Hitoshi spent the night awake his stomach in knots making large signs for his class and what questions they would ask.
He was standing in front of the class and looked at everyone and the teacher gently smiled and prompted him to go ahead. He gives the presentation explaining that his quirk needed him to talk to people and then his last class hated him and how he was glad that he had friends here.
He was given a some chalk to answer any questions that were thrown his way once it was done. He takes the chalk and looks at his class for the first time since it began his palms sweating there was the first question, "Did it hurt?"
Hitoshi breathes a bit easier and nods another hand pops up and he looks at the teacher who waves for him to continue while pulling a tissue out for herself.
"Can we see it?"
Hitoshi was not ready for that, he walks to the board his hand raised and chalk against the chalkboard, was he ready to let them see it. It was something he avoided looking at in the morning and he hadn't opened his mouth except to eat, checkups, brush his teeth or complain to Mr. Snuggles in drawled out tones.
If you want to.
He turned around and saw some fear and apprehension in the class and then came the nods. He nods and opens his mouth and most of the students rush up all stopping short of putting their hands in his mouth, he hears a few questions if he's able to move his tongue around and what happened to his teeth. Raising his hands above his head he signs and the teacher explains, "The kicked them out."
Hitoshi moves the stump of his tongue around. and sees the reactions of some kids moving back.
There was one kid left in their seat with their hand raised. The teacher sees that Hitoshi is a bit busy and answers it, "Yes dear."
"Isn't sign language like talking?"
The class froze and Hitoshi looked at them but they turned away, "You all talked back to him. I knew a kid in his last school. They said his quirk was brainwashing. He's got you all thinking he's your best friend doesn't he?"
The class takes a quick look at Hitoshi and then finds somewhere else to look in the room. If they couldn't see him then they couldn't talk to him.
Hitoshi moved to the people in his class and his teacher tried to get everyone in their seats trying to say that that wasn't the case. Everyone was back in their seats just like how it started and he just let out an incomprehensible shriek at the class that turned quickly into a wail. The teacher tried to get him to move but she froze in place her eyes glazed over.
Aizawa was opening the door and he felt something was wrong. He opens the door all the way and sees a pile of blankets on the couch. A little tuft of hair sticking out. He moves closer and sees the wet spots on the blanket under exhausted puffy eyes. The phone blinks on a table nearby and he plays the messages quietly, "Shota. You can't keep ignoring the calls like this. We hear crying and wailing. Do something."
There were three other messages saying the same thing all fifteen minutes apart starting roughly five minutes after Hitoshi got home. Aizawa looks back over at the sleeping from wrapped in blankets and was going to bring his hand to cover his mouth but it was already there. He closes his eyes and looks down, it hurt him to see Hitoshi hurt in any way.
Something happened and it was sudden. He knew that this was his fault, he had told him to explain his quirk to the class. Something had to have happened.
Hitoshi wakes up and sees his dad sitting on the ground beside him. He doesn't move and he just watches his dad he feels Aizawa run his hands down his face and looks over and sees he was awake, "what happened today?"
Hitoshi buries himself deeper in the blanket cocoon and Aizawa pats the mound of blankets, after a second Hitoshi pulls out a piece of paper without looking his father in the eyes he holds the paper out for Aizawa to take.
Daddy, I know you wanted to have a hero, its what I wanted too. I am sorry for everything, all the worry, all the pain, all of it. Despite everything I still have this villains quirk and i dont want it. I made a noise and people still could be used by me. I dont want it. I dont want to go back to school. No one will look at me, forget about talking or signing to me. I am scared. i dont want it to happen again. Please is there a way to take away my quirk? There was a part of the note that was scribbled down after with the page covered with some tear stains, Sorry the landlord wants to see you in trouble for me crying-
The note cut off there. He sees all the pen mark sitting on the page and the slight hole underneath. He must have passed out from crying before he finished writing it. Aizawa looks between the top of Hitoshi's head then to the page. He grabs all the blankets and holds them tight he can hear a bit of quiet sobbing in the covers. He peels back the blanksts and grabs Hitoshi pulling him in for a hug.
"I love you so much Hitoshi, and no matter what you will never be a villain. Because you feel this. Because you in your heart could never cause harm. I want to keep you safe from the world and I am sorry that as a parent I have failed. I want to keep you safe, and I will do that any way I can, I can help you change schools, I will never let you be taken from the world. I never want you to stop thinking that you can be anything less than a hero. Please don't ever stop thinking that you could be less than loved, less that what you are. Less than my son.-"
Aizawa feels a tap on his head and through teary eyes he sees Hitoshi sign, I won't give up. Never.