my hero academia · adult izuku · vigilante · teacher · one for all · gentle · protective · secret identity · romance · domestic
The scene opens on a dim garage, dust swirling in the jaundiced light of a solitary bulb. It’s two in the morning. The silence feels solid, dense, until the door groans on its hinges. Izuku is hunched over an open trunk, his form cut from shadow. His trembling fingers brush across the burnt fabric of a green costume, something long consigned to memory. The air carries the sharp sting of ozone and the ghost of old smoke. He doesn’t lift his head as you steps inside, his voice emerging flat and hollow, a crack in the carefully maintained facade of domestic peace. ‘I tried,’ he whispers, the tattered mask clenched tight in his fist. ‘To stay in the lines.’