1 – 1 of 1 Works in they'll be getting it soon enough
Counting The Days (Since We Refused To Break) Anthology by Otaku6337
Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga)
28 Jan 2025
Summary
Izuku and Aizawa are caught in a loop of the USJ, dying and trying and failing over and over again until finally, finally, they break the cycle.
But they're not the same as the reality that they've returned to, and with the events of a single day changed for only two people, a drop falls into the ink of their world, and the story rewrites itself from there.
Anthology containing:
Climbing The Rigging And Counting Bloody Dreams (Never Quite There)
The USJ attack is awful and traumatic, and it goes worse than anyone could have predicted.But then it happens again, and again, and again, with Izuku and Aizawa caught right in the bloody, cycling centre of it.
~~~
Regardless, he needs to think now. Because yesterday was a carbon copy of the day before, excluding a few little conversation changes like people asking if he was okay and then things that changed because of his own actions, but Aizawa-sensei still died and then he threw himself in front of Asui and died, and then everything went black and he woke up to his All Might alarm again and-
And Izuku doesn't know what to do.
~~~
They both move the few inches to squeeze their hands together then, feeling the bloodstains that aren't there right now, but, more than that, feeling the body heat-warmth and knowing that the other is alive, present, with them. Right now, for a few moments, they're okay.
We Didn't Break Then (So Don't Falter Now)
Izuku and Aizawa survived the USJ timeloop. (They died so many times, killed and saved and failed over and over, and they'll forever be able to feel the blood on their hands-) They didn't break.But one success doesn't stop reality from returning, and the rest of their story is piling up in front of them, demanding to be faced. And what are heroes to do but to keep fighting?
So they'll keep on moving, and they won't break now.
~
"Thank you, Shouta." It's a deliberate word choice, just like it was when they left the USJ and when they left the Midoriya apartment, as it is deliberate how Izuku reaches out, palm-up and fingers splayed, bloodstains and a single rose-gold shimmer laid bare.
And Aizawa slips his own callouses and bloodstains against it, not-now rust flaking away between their warmth, and they squeeze thrice, just like in their death throes and promises and quiet grief. Like this, with this, things will be alright. Together, they'll make sure of it.~
(The longfic following from my Climbing The Rigging And Counting Bloody Dreams (Never Quite There)!)
Through Their Eyes, The Unbroken (The Moments Sweet And Bitter Both)
The loops have had a lot of ramifications, and whilst most of them are directly upon Izuku and Shouta themselves, there is also the wider butterfly-ripples, the things that have affected their friends and class and colleagues.The faculty, in particular, get to be privy to several of Shouta and Izuku's quieter moments, glimmers of Izuku's intelligence and of their knife and of naps to catch up on lost sleep.
~~~
For now, however, they simply observe from a distance as they watch Shouta hunch his shoulders, take two deep, shuddering breaths, and get his phone out to send a text or two off. It's halfway through lunch and Shouta has been blatantly on-edge for hours already, in his free periods or the times they pass him in the corridors, and now. One of his knees is bouncing, very slowly and slightly and deliberately.
And none of them were fully expecting Izuku to turn up at a blatantly quick pace, knocking very briefly upon the faculty door except he's already coming into the room, knife in hand and a faint frown on his face.
Forever Coming Home (To A Heartbeat He Can Always Trust)
Izuku is worried.Shouta can handle himself. It's literally just a patrol, and he's not terribly late.
Except Izuku has watched Shouta die far too many times to not worry, to not think of all of the worst possibilities, and to have to wait, in their home, Hizashi asleep and one of the cats keeping him company... It's an agony of his own.
Good thing that Shouta comes back to him unharmed, then.
(For my own birthday, I wanted to write myself some 28 on the mid-day of the 28 month, so here we are~)
Roots Intertwined (In Devotion), Keeping Them Together (Keeping Them Unbroken)
Shouta is having a bad night, and Izuku notices, comes to comfort him, to remind him that they didn't break.
And Hizashi gets home hours later to find them asleep, calm, and gets them set up for a content day together.~~~
Some combination of all of this is why, when he has woken up from a quiet nightmare for the third time tonight, Shouta isn't all that surprised to have a quiet knock on his ajar door, dark curls tumbling through the gap. Green eyes, too-bright for how dark the room is, blink at him.
"Want some company?"
"If you're about," the man returns, not wanting Izuku to feel pressure, but also unwilling to push him away right now. (Not when he's just watched Izuku die two-dozen times in his memories, clutching at blood and bone and gone-slack hands-)
Izuku doesn't quite falter at Shouta's bedside, but his hand wavers at the edge of it, until Shouta flicks over the edge of the blankets, inviting Izuku underneath too.
The Day Of The Unbroken, Of The Fractured
The only non-28 date I'll ever post a 28 fic on - 11/04 is the anniversary of the loops for Shouta and Izuku, and it's not fun :)~
No matter what he does he only sees the shatter and swell of a broken cheek bone, of an eye that is closed but he knows would be blank if he could see it, because nobody can be bent backwards over a solid wall at that angle and survive. It's odd how someone taller than him, mature and steady and strong, suddenly looks so much like a child. Are those the broad shoulders of a man, a hero, or are they the still-slim shoulders of a teenager?
They are both, perhaps, but always too much of a child for Izuku to ever think of anything else when that vision assaults him.
Through it all, there is a heavy, cloying smell lodged in his throat. It is salt water and burning wood and iron, sharp, acidic, ferrous. It is death. There's a certain quality to it, something he doesn't know how to quantify. Izuku knows that no matter how times he showers or throws up or tries to override the scent, he'll never be free of it. Not really. He can smell it, even now, blinking reality over the top of his flashbacks.
Izuku needs to get out. He needs to go now.
Shelves: My Hero Academia
- Site:
- archiveofourown.org
- Words:
- 226,907
- Status:
- In-Progress