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"Oh, you are kidding," Hitoshi groans.
In front of him is a bus stop. Not one he's familiar with, which maybe is the whole problem to begin with, because maybe he wouldn't be in this situation if he did know it.
On the bus stop, a digital sign is spinning around the top of it, words cycling with red lights that are particularly bright against the dark sky.
Route cancellations. Please visit the website for more information.
"Okay," he says to himself, trying to keep some kind of shred of positivity so that he doesn't just sink down to the ground and remain there for the rest of the night. "Okay, it's not hopeless."
He pulls out his phone, ignoring the low battery percentage in the top corner of his phone, and puts in the transportation website. He has to triple-check the bus stop number on the sign because he’s never seen his route before, and he has no idea where he currently is. He's on the other side of the damn city, possibly.
Wherever he is, he doesn’t know. He got on a bus at random and ended up here, thinking he'd be able to get back just by taking the opposite route, only to be met with a bright red glaring 'route cancellation'.
There should be some kind of route replacement, he thinks a little desperately, tapping through the site, trying to find any kind of information about the route having any sort of alternatives.
Only to be met with the fact that there is, in fact, not.
"Can they even do that?" He complains, speaking aloud because there's no one around to hear him. Everyone else, it seems, has gotten the memo about the fact this bus isn't going to come by. He checks to make sure there aren't any other buses coming past that will head back in the direction he needs, but it seems like this stop has been taken off all routes tonight.
Great. That's just great.
He walks across the quiet street — fuck, where even is he? — and checks the other bus stop sign, because routes circle back around, right? Maybe he just needs to get back on and he’ll end up where he started.
Wrong.
So very wrong. It just goes further in the direction he does not want and then stops there. It doesn’t loop back around.
"Fuck," he says, banging his head forward on the pole. Fuck.
His phone's battery percentage is dropping fast. He scrolls through the navigation map as quickly as he can, tapping on bus stops to try and figure out their routes for the night, but the only one that will get him back in the direction he wants is a twenty-minute walk. And by the time he gets there, the buses are running at longer intervals, and he'll have to wait at least forty minutes for the bus.
And considering it only gets him back in the direction he wants, and it'll still be another train ride after that and then a walk, it means that he's definitely going to miss curfew.
His phone only has 5% now. He locks the screen, keeping his head resting against the pole as he thinks.
He can start walking to that bus stop, but he's going to need the map on his phone to help him. His phone won't even last five minutes with the map running, and he doesn't have a charging cord or power-bank with him. He is severely underprepared for this entire situation.
If Aizawa tries to contact him, which he most likely will once Hitoshi misses curfew, he's just going to reach a dead phone. And then he'll probably go straight to the police and hunt him down, because Midoriya sets unbelievable precedents when it comes to getting into trouble when they're outside of the school zones. And in them. Midoriya just sets a lot of precedents when it comes to trouble in general.
This means that Aizawa will absolutely think the worst, and he will likely almost get dramatic when it comes to tracking Hitoshi down.
It means that Hitoshi will be found at least, but he'd rather avoid the embarrassment of having the police come to get him. He would really like to avoid that, but it doesn't look like he has many other options right now either.
He eyes the bench at the bus shelter. Should he just sit down and wait? Maybe he'll get so bored that he'll be able to fall asleep, at least. But then Aizawa will probably be even more pissed at him.
He sighs, bringing his phone up to tap it against his skull. 5% battery isn't going to get him anywhere. He has time for one call, or maybe a couple of texts.
Fuck, he supposes Aizawa's going to find out about this anyway. There's just no chance he will make it back before curfew.
He makes his decision, gathering the courage to scroll quickly through his contacts and hit dial on Aizawa. He hasn't had reason to call him often, so he hopes Aizawa will forgive him for doing so now. The phone rings in his ear for a couple of seconds, and then the line connects. Hitoshi's unbelievably glad to hear it, letting out a thankful sigh of relief.
At least one thing is going right, sort of.
"Shinsou?" Aizawa's gruff voice asks.
"Hey. Sorry for the late call, but I've kind of found myself in a part of the city I'm not able to get home from. Not in time for curfew, at least," Hitoshi says, unsure if his words are rushed due to his mild panic about the situation or the fact he's trying to beat out his phone battery. Actually, he figures they're kind of the same thing — he's definitely panicked about something, regardless.
Aizawa is quiet for a second. "Okay. When do you expect to be back?"
"Um," Hitoshi winces. "I don't... know. The buses are all cancelled in this area. And I haven't seen any taxis around. I'm really sorry, but... can you please come get me? Or... someone?"
It sounds like Aizawa is already moving on the other end of the line. "Yeah. Where are you?"
Hitoshi peers around again like that's going to give him a sudden epiphany about where he actually is. "Uh... I don't know. Bus stop 4305, if that helps?"
"That helps," Aizawa sighs, weary. His voice moves a little further away, probably putting Hitoshi on speaker so that he can type into his phone for the address.
"My phone's about to die, by the way, so um. If I hang up, it's because of that. It's really quiet in this area, I'm not in any trouble or anything, just so you know," Hitoshi rushes out to say.
Aizawa sighs again. "Right."
"Sorry," Hitoshi mumbles.
"Jeez, kid, why the hell are you out there?" Aizawa's voice comes over the phone, not quite loud enough for it to actually be directed at Hitoshi. He's moving again as a door opens and closes in the background. "Alright, I'll be there in about twenty-five minutes. Do not move."
"Don't plan on it," Hitoshi swears.
"I'll hang up. Try and save your bat-"
The phone dies.
The universe is well and truly laughing at him today apparently. He resists the urge to throw his useless device into the goddamn bin, instead stuffing it in his back pocket before he can give in to the urge.
Twenty-five minutes — okay, that's doable. Less than half an hour. That's hardly any time at all, really.
Except, fuck, it goes so slowly. He paces around the bench for a while, counting each step, trying to keep warm as the chill of the night starts to settle in. He gets bored of walking at some point, and scuffs his feet against the ground as he stands under the light. A couple of cars pass by, but the street is truly quiet otherwise.
It's almost unnerving, actually. Not scary, because Hitoshi has a pretty handy Quirk and the training of a U.A. hero course student, so he's not worried about any threat like that. It's just that the street, in fact the whole area, feels strange. Unfamiliarity is the biggest cause of it, but it grates on him. Then again, it might just be all the events of today compiling on him.
He doesn't even have his homework to distract him. He'd gone out with the intention of just getting some things he needed for his dorm room, and he'd expected it to be a relatively quick trip. Only to end up on the other damn side of the city apparently.
He groans aloud again. Stupid. So stupid.
Aizawa has every right to grill him about this, even though the teachers are usually pretty lenient and don't really care where the students spend their free time, just as long as they're back in by curfew if they don't have permission otherwise. But Hitoshi is out here with not enough money for a taxi, in an area where the buses aren't running, and no viable reason for being out here. He is definitely preparing for Aizawa to have some questions about it.
He sits down on the bench, kicking his feet out. God. He kind of wishes he took up Midoriya's offer to come along now, even though he would have simply died of embarrassment if anyone had come along to witness the absolute mess he's made of this entire situation.
A car engine distantly rumbles and the lights illuminate the road, and he watches it approach. He stands up, recognising the standard U.A. car model that the staff use to get around sometimes.
He's kind of dying of embarrassment right now. Just completely mortified as he stands up from the bench and shuffles shamefully over to the car that has pulled up on the side of the street. He opens up the passenger side and slips in, keeping his head down but quickly scanning his eyes across the car.
He'd literally heard Aizawa moving on the phone, but he is still a little surprised to see him in the driver's seat. Aizawa gives him a quick once-over, checking for any sign of mishap. But Hitoshi is just, at worst, mortified about the whole thing, maybe a little frazzled, but he's not injured or anything that Aizawa is probably worried about.
"Thanks," Hitoshi says, awkwardly putting on the seatbelt. Fuck, now he's got a whole twenty-five-minute drive to try and sit through.
But Aizawa is driving almost an hour out of his way just for him, and though he feels absolutely guilty because of it, he really is appreciative.
Aizawa points to a cord that's sticking out of the car's console.
"Charge up your phone," Aizawa instructs.
Hitoshi does so sheepishly, plugging in his phone and watching the battery symbol light up.
Aizawa peels off the side of the street and back onto the road. He hasn't got any navigation up, and he isn't looking out for signs, so Hitoshi figures he's probably familiar with the area.
"Sorry," Hitoshi says, biting down on his lip. "It's late."
Aizawa shrugs. "I'm really not for me, kid. And I'd rather you called me than turn up past curfew."
"I thought so," Hitoshi mutters. "But still, sorry."
Aizawa's fingers tap down on the steering wheel. "I don't mind. It's a whole lot less stressful, actually."
Hitoshi figures that's fair, considering the usual track record of the class. He feels guilty for it still, but he can definitely see how Aizawa prefers to be called for a pick-up rather than getting a call that one of his students has gone missing while trying to make their way back.
"I am curious as to how you ended up out there, though, as it seems to have been a trip you weren't intending to take," Aizawa asks, his head turning so he can look at Hitoshi for a moment.
"It really wasn't," Hitoshi groans, pushing back some of his hair from his eyes. God, the whole situation just seems so stupid — even more so now that he's in the front seat with Aizawa driving him back to the dorms. So unbelievably stupid.
"You're usually quite rational," Aizawa prods — more nosy than he usually is, but Hitoshi figures that it's fair enough with the whole situation. "Do you want to walk me through what happened today?"
The question is just that — a question. Not a statement. Not a demand. Hitoshi can say no, and though Aizawa won’t be happy about it, he'll still respect the answer.
"It's so stupid," Hitoshi sighs, shaking his head in some kind of belated embarrassment. "Like, genuinely."
"Kid, I've got a class of the brightest students around, but they also get up to some shit. Trust me, stupid is hardly the worst of it."
Hitoshi snorts. That's fair — he's seen some of the experiments Ashido and Kaminari get up to in the dorms, and he’s sure that Aizawa has seen worse.
"Also, you've been hanging around with Midoriya. I expected trouble to find you, sooner or later," Aizawa adds, and though his voice is flat, Hitoshi looks over quickly enough to catch the wry smile at the corner of his lips.
Hitoshi smothers his next laugh with his mouth, resting his elbow on the car door as he looks out the window.
"That's fair," Hitoshi replies. "It was probably long overdue."
"So it was trouble, then?" Aizawa asks.
Hitoshi blinks, staring more intently out the window. Damn. He walked into that one.
"Not anything of the villainous kind," Hitoshi says with a grimace, knowing he has to admit it now.
Aizawa looks at him again. "That doesn't reassure me, funnily enough."
Hitoshi's lips tilt up. He still wants to curl up and kind of die in shame, but he also feels a whole lot better now that he's in the car with Aizawa and on his way back to the dorms. Now, he only really feels embarrassed about his reaction and the cause of this whole mess to begin with.
"It's seriously so stupid," Hitoshi huffs. "Like, you're really going to wonder why the hell I'm even in the hero course."
Aizawa shifts ever so slightly in his seat, giving away that he has very strong opinions on that topic.
Hitoshi grimaces, speaking again to try and defend himself before he’s lectured about his words. "That's an exaggeration. Maybe."
"How about you tell me what it is, and I'll tell you what I wonder about it," Aizawa replies.
He watches some buildings go past, eyes locking onto particular objects and letting his gaze scroll through the scenery. They sit in silence, and Hitoshi knows this isn't a game he's going to win when it comes to outlasting.
He can still back down. Aizawa will respect it if he does.
"I saw some people I used to know," Hitoshi admits, fingers tapping down on the nook between the window and door. "Some kids back from junior high. I saw them waiting at the bus stop, so I... turned around and got on a different bus entirely. I, um. Didn't know where it was going. I didn't care — until, you know, I ended up in the middle of nowhere, apparently, where the buses have stopped running and there are no other people in sight, because, you know, just my luck."
Aizawa is clearly thinking about how to process all that information because Hitoshi has kind of just dumped it Midoriya-rambling-style.
"I— I've thought about it for so long, you know? I know I shouldn't, but I always thought of like... what I could do to them, or say to them, if I ever ran into them again. And today, with the very opportunity I've been thinking over for so long now, I just... turned away and ran. Like a coward. That's not very heroic," Hitoshi laughs bitterly, fingernails digging into the door.
Aizawa shrugs. "Good thing that a hero isn't defined by the fact that they'll go up to their old bullies and act out some kind of revenge fantasy, hm?"
Hitoshi never used the word bullies, but he’s not surprised that Aizawa has so easily read between the lines. He’s sure he’s giving it away with his own voice, anyway, his emotions controlling his usual flat tone.
"It's... Not a revenge fantasy," Hitoshi mutters, because he kind of hates how it sounds. And a pang of terrible guilt twists inside of him, ashamed by the fact he has any kind of emotion that equals out to revenge.
Sure, he's definitely thought about going up to his old tormentors and telling them where he's at now, just in case they've missed it at the U.A. Sports Festival. He's thought about all the different ways he can declare ‘look, I'm here, I'm becoming a hero, no matter what you said about me. You were wrong. You were all wrong.’
"Eh, never said it was a bad thing to have," Aizawa points out, pulling Hitoshi away from his thoughts. "I'm no psych, but I'm pretty sure that's a normal reaction to have. And it's also normal to turn around and walk away from it entirely."
"To an area that you're not familiar with, where the buses have stopped running and you have no way to get home? Yeah, sure," Hitoshi snorts.
"Maybe not the smartest move," Aizawa admits, "but I think it was a better one than going up to them."
"I guess," Hitoshi replies. He thinks so too, admittedly, when he thinks about the kind of people they used to be. The people that they, most likely, still are. They won’t care about Hitoshi's accomplishments — they'd just try and tear him down again. It wouldn't go at all like Hitoshi's dreams. They wouldn't turn around and apologise or grovel at his feet for forgiveness. They'd probably just laugh. Maybe they'd swing, just like they sometimes did when they knew they could get away with it.
Hitoshi always ran then, too. Even though he had all the ability in the world to goad them into a reply, had all the power in the world to get them to kneel at his feet and bow to him, to go off and embarrass themselves, he still never, ever did.
He's still not sure if it was out of shame, or some kind of self-righteousness. Or maybe he just never did it because he knew, really, that nothing would change. He could get them to do all kinds of things, but it wouldn't be them. Not really. It’d just be Hitoshi in control of them.
"Maybe they've changed," Hitoshi mumbles, but even he can hear the doubt in his tone loud and clear.
"Maybe they haven't," Aizawa counters. "But whatever they are now, it doesn't change what you are. And that's a hero, and-"
"A hero-to-be," Hitoshi corrects, cutting in.
Aizawa rolls his eyes. "And a good person, kid."
"Yeah, well, I don't feel like such a good person when I think about them," Hitoshi replies.
"Believe it or not, a good person can still think some not-so-good-things," Aizawa says simply. "I know seeing them was probably a lot, and you weren't prepared for it. I don't think any amount of hero classes can prepare someone for facing their biggest demons."
"I'd hardly call them my biggest demons," Hitoshi grumbles, just because he doesn't want to admit how much those stupid, snotty kids managed to get to him. He shouldn't care — he shouldn't care about them at all. He's proven himself to so many other people, so why does he keep getting stuck on the kind of people whose opinion matters the least to him?
"Alright, but we're not going to pretend like you don't have some issues that probably stemmed from them," Aizawa retorts.
Hitoshi holds onto his annoyance for a split second, and then concedes. "Fair enough."
"Back to the point, your reaction was... rather poorly thought-out, perhaps, but it was reasonable at its root. More than just heroes, kid, we're human. We're going to feel and think things that aren't so heroic."
“Right..."
Aizawa's lips tilt up, ever so slightly. "Like right now, if I saw those kids, I'd probably have some thoughts that aren't so nice. I might even consider just stringing them upside down a pole to hang out for a while, and I might not leave it as just a thought."
"That is... vaguely terrifying, actually," Hitoshi says, but he's currently trying to stifle his own smile.
"I'd hope so," Aizawa shrugs.
"And also reassuring. Thanks. And, uh. Thanks, really, for picking me up. It means a lot."
Aizawa hums. "Sure. Again, I'm glad you called."
Aizawa sounds genuine about it, and it means the embarrassment that has been flooding his body is starting to recede, finally loosening up its hold.
Hitoshi's phone charged back up a while ago. He decides to keep it off, and for the rest of the drive, he just talks quietly with Aizawa.
He's still mortified by most of the events tonight, but he's also kind of glad that he'd decided to get on that stupid, random bus out to the middle of nowhere.
And despite his embarrassment, he is well and truly glad that he called Aizawa tonight.
It's a sentiment they both share.