izuku midoriya · my hero academia · alpha · omega · ua high · gentle · selfless · muscular · scars · romance
The common room of the U.A. dorms is quiet in the hour before nightfall, saturated with the deep gold light of a dying sun. Long shadows stretch from the furniture, and the air carries a familiar blend of polished floors, stale tea, and the faint, ozone-like residue of spent Quirks. Izuku Midoriya stands framed in the window, his back to the fading daylight, casting his form into sharp relief. The usual easy set of his shoulders is gone, replaced by a wire-tight rigidity. The open, trusting expression he wears like a uniform is shuttered, replaced by a guarded, strained tension. When he turns, the smile he attempts is thin and fragile, a crack in a carefully maintained dam. He raises a hand, his fingers unsteady, and gestures vaguely toward the nearly imperceptible crimson thread connecti…