Chapter Text
“Tenya, did you eat breakfast?”
Tenya stiffens, his hand still gripping the brass handle of their apartment door. He’s tempted to lie, but he knows better than to mislead his brother. Tensei is, after all, just looking after his well being. He turns to face his brother, who is giving him a fond but knowing look. He’s leaning out into the hallway of their small apartment from the kitchen, which is mere feet from where Tenya stands in the doorway.
“I recognize the nutritional value of breakfast, but I must place a premium on timeliness to class, you see! Thirty percent of my grade is attendance, and tardiness causes a fifty percent deduction for the day’s participation grade!” Tenya gestures with his hands as he speaks, a habit he’s been unable to break no matter how much his brother teases him for it.
“And you overslept, so you didn’t have time to eat and get ready.” It’s not a question, and Tenya wilts a little under his brother’s disapproving frown. Tensei has been trying to parent him less now that he’s in college, but it’s proven difficult to undo the habits of 10 years of acting as his stand-in caretaker. Tenya is so grateful to his brother for doing so much for him that he cannot even think about resenting him for treating him like he’s still in high school.
“I had a big project due last night at midnight and it took me until the deadline to finish it,” Tenya offers weakly. Tensei rolls his eyes.
“Don’t look like such a kicked puppy, I saw you working last night when I got in.” Tenya opens his mouth to defend himself, but Tensei raises his hand to shush him. “I know how hard you work, so don’t worry, I don’t think you were slacking or something. I just figured you’d oversleep, so I made you breakfast to eat in class. Come here, I packed it up and made it portable and everything.” Tenya freezes again, briefly overcome by gratitude. Then his stomach growls and Tensei laughs, beckoning him into the kitchen. Tenya trots into the kitchen obediently, his feet making dull sounds on the worn out blue carpet of the hallway. He steps onto the white tile floor of the kitchen and swings his backpack off his back, opening it so Tensei can place the bento box inside.
“It’s just rice, a fried egg, and some leftover tofu from last night, but I figured it’s better than nothing.” Tensei reaches up and rubs the back of his neck, nervous. He’s leaning against the counter, trying not to crowd his brother in the small space of the kitchen. “I know I shouldn’t be doing this anymore, but when I see you working so hard on your schoolwork it just makes me want to help out.”
“You help so much already though!” Tenya’s hands fly into the air as words begin to tumble past his lips. “You work so many shifts to pay for the apartment and help me pay for school, and you do most of the cooking, and--”
“Tenya, it’s okay.” Tensei places a hand on Tenya’s shoulder and gives it a comforting squeeze. “I like taking care of you, remember? Let me be the cool big brother who saves the day as long as I can. There’ll come a day when you’ll have to take care of yourself, but for now, I want to help you.” Tenya wants to argue further, but a glance at the clock tells him he has no time to waste. He bows deeply at the waist and thanks Tensei before pulling his backpack on and making his way to the door.
“I’m going into the station today, but I should be home for dinner!” Tensei calls after him. Tenya gives a sound of acknowledgement and exits the apartment, willing his legs to move him faster as he makes his way towards campus.
He ends up making it just in time, and hurries to his seat without any effort at grace. The lecture hall is crowded, and he’s the clearly the last one entering into the large room. His neighbors, Midoriya and Uraraka, give him questioning looks from either side of him as he shrugs off his bag and slumps into his seat, grateful to have arrived on time. He pulls out his laptop and flips it open, and then pulls out the bento and puts it on the side of his desk.
“Tensei packed you breakfast?” Midoriya asks in a hushed voice, leaning in a little to be heard better. Green eyes sparkle with curiosity, and he’s smiling. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Uraraka also leaning in, curious to hear their conversation. Tenya has to physically sit on his hands to keep from gesturing and drawing the attention of the professor, who has begun to lecture.
“He, being the caring and responsible older brother that he always is, noticed that I stayed up late last night working on the physics assignment and took it upon himself to pack me a breakfast in case I overslept. Which I did.” He pushes his glasses up his nose with a finger, trying to appear less flustered than he actually is.
Midoriya snorts and Uraraka places a hand over her mouth to suppress a chuckle, amused as usual by Iida’s thorough and earnest response. “Yeah, that assignment was tough,” he says. “Want to compare answers after class?”
Tenya nods and turns back to his desk, his hands moving automatically to bring up microsoft word and start taking notes. He opens the bento box during pauses in the lecture, and listens as he tries to discreetly bring food to his mouth. His brother raised him well, so the only noise he makes is the slight click of his chopsticks, but he feels rude breaking class rules to eat nonetheless. However, he reasons it would be even more rude to disregard his brother’s kindness and leave the food he made untouched.
Class passes quickly, and Tenya is soon packing up both bento and laptop, his mind racing to categorize and store the new equations they’d learned today. It’s physics, which has long been his best subject, but Tenya sees that as all the more reason to take it seriously rather than relax. He bids goodbye to Uraraka, who has to rush to a course on peace studies, and then turns to Midoriya, who is already packed up and waiting for him. They walk out of the classroom together, Midoriya filling the air with amicable chatter. The hall is crowded and noisy, but Midoriya never has any problems making himself heard. Tenya is mostly content to listen to him as they follow the familiar path out of the lecture hall and out onto the quad, interjecting when necessary. They sit in the grass under their usual tree, which is in full bloom of spring with blossoms and vibrant foliage.
They pull out their notes from the assignment and begin comparing, the dynamic easy between them. Tenya is comfortable and calm when Midoriya is around, happy to talk physics with someone who he considers to be equally intelligent. Physics isn’t really Midoriya’s strong suit but he likes it well enough, so he had taken it to have another class with Uraraka and Tenya, who had all become friends in high school. The fact that it fulfills his laboratory science gen ed is also a big plus. Midoriya is a diligent student – almost as much as Tenya himself – and always picks things up quickly. He’s stronger on concepts than he is on the actual calculations, and Tenya is more than happy to help him with the math. After all, it’s good practice for him, and it’s a demonstration of kindness that should properly accompany friendship. Anyways, being around Midoriya always makes him feel unusually happy in a way he can’t explain, and it’s only fair that he try and give some of that happiness back. The smile Midoriya gets when he cracks a difficult problem is electrifying, and always makes Tenya feel like he’s done a good job.
They’ve been going over notes and talking for nearly two hours when Midoriya’s stomach growls loudly, interrupting their conversation. His hand flies to his stomach, curling in the fabric of his t-shirt (which, much to Tenya’s bafflement, is emblazoned with katakana that reads “T-shirt”) as he tries to laugh it off and get Tenya to review another problem with him. He’s convincing when he smiles like this, but Tenya cannot help but remember his brother’s kindness earlier in the day in staving off his hunger. With a little persuasion and a lot of gesturing, he manages to talk him into accompanying him to the student union to get lunch.
“Do you think I should get sushi or katsudon for lunch?” he wonders aloud as they walk inside, glancing around the hall at the various food stations. Classes during this hour haven’t released yet, so the hall is relatively quiet as they make their way over to the food lines.
“You’ve had katsudon every day this week,” Tenya points out. It’s a Friday, so Tenya isn’t even exaggerating. “It’s important to vary your intake to ensure you are getting all the nutrients you require.”
Midoriya makes a face. “You would make me give up a chance to have my favorite food with logic.” He pauses, and then smiles “You’re right, even though I don’t want you to be. Hm, ok, sushi then.” Tenya follows him as he moves to get in line. He’s looking around as he walks, lacking Tenya’s single-minded focus in favor of a broad observation of the world around him. “Oh, Iida-kun, look!” He points as something catches her eye, and Tenya’s eyes follow her finger. He’s gesturing at a TV, which shows a reporter standing in front of a burning mansion, fire crews fighting the flames in the background. The banner at the bottom of the screen reads “The Affluence Arsonist Strikes Again: Are Wealthy Neighborhoods No Longer Safe?”
“Man, that guy has set 10 fires this month!” Midoriya marvels. Midoriya knows all about the local crime patterns, and is seriously considering going into investigative work when he graduates. If he can convince his mother that’s a better idea than becoming a politician, that is. He turns to Tenya, whose eyes are still glued to the TV. “Do you think your brother is there?”
“Of course!” He punctuates his declaration by making a chopping motion with his hand. “Tensei is one of the top firefighters, so of course he is always dealing with the biggest cases! That’s why he’s so cool! He’ll make sure the entire affair is handled quickly and safely, I’m sure.”
Midoriya gives him a big smile at that. “Your brother is awesome! He’s been involved in all the major fires and has been key in saving at least a dozen potential victims of this arsonist! And you guys have such a great relationship too!” The line has moved as they’ve spoken, and it’s Midoriya’s turn to order before Tenya can reply properly. They gather their noodles and grab a table for themselves, eating in a rare instance of quiet between them as they enjoy their food. Once they finish, they toss their garbage and head to class, both of them grumbling about how little they want to spend the next two hours in a dumb freshman seminar on Japanese philosophy.
They sit beside each other in this class as well, because after three years of being forced to sit apart in high school they want to take advantage of their freedom of movement. The room is much smaller than the one where they take physics, and there are tables rather than desks. They have pens and notebooks out, taking down the philosopher’s names that the professor is scribbling onto the chalkboard at lightning speed. The room is silent save for the click of chalk on slate and the scratch of pencils on paper. Class is almost over when there’s a buzzing in Tenya’s pocket, distracting him from the biography of Yosano Akiko being projected on the overhead. He reaches into his pocket to silence it when Midoriya whispers.
“Maybe you should take that. No one calls you during the day normally, it might be important.” His look is one of concern. “Especially since Tensei was fighting a fire today.”
Tenya, normally loathe to break rules, acquiesces to pull out his phone to check the number flashing on his screen. He doesn’t recognize it, but it does seem odd that someone would be calling him now. His worry spurred by Midoriya’s words, he closes his laptop and stands, quietly excusing himself from the room. His phone has stopped ringing by the time he has made it to the hallway, so he opens the phone app and taps the missed call with his thumb. He brings the phone to his ear and paces nervously across the hard grey linoleum tiles as it rings.
“Hosu General Hospital, how may I help you?” A female voice rings through the phone, and Tenya’s blood runs cold. Hospital?
“I… received a phone call from this number a moment ago. My name is Iida Tenya, is there any reason you may have contacted me?”
“One moment sir…” There’s a rustling noise, and he can hear muffled voices discussing something. His pacing increases in speed as he waits, his footsteps echoing through the large hall. “Ah yes, Iida-san. You’re listed here as the emergency contact for Iida Tensei. You are his brother, is that correct?”
“Yes ma’am.” His voice is tight, and it’s all he can to keep it from trembling.
“We’re going to need you to come in to the hospital sir. Your brother suffered a severe injury fighting a fire, and while he’s stable, he’s still in critical condition.”
Tenya doesn’t wait to hear any more. He hits the end call button and shoves his phone in his pocket, his mind racing. Tensei is hurt. Of course it’s occurred to him that Tensei could get injured in his line of work, but it had never seemed real before. Tensei is the best. Tensei doesn’t get hurt fighting fires because Tensei is invincible, Tenya’s tireless caretaker and protector.
Before he can realize what he’s doing, his legs begin to move, and he’s running. The hospital isn’t far from the university, but at the moment it seems like he is separated from his brother by an insurmountable distance. He shoves open the doors of the school building and races across the pavement in the direction of the hospital. He draws no small number of curious stares, but he can't bring himself to care. All he can think about is Tensei. Please, Tenya begs in his mind as he runs. Please be ok Tensei.
The sprint to the hospital passes in a blur of concrete and people. Tenya bursts into the hospital and races up to the front desk, explaining his situation in a loud and hurried voice. The man at the desk gives him an exasperated look, but checks his computer and calmly explains to Tenya that his brother has just been moved out of intensive care and into a private room. He fidgets impatiently while the man looks up the room number, glancing around the hospital lobby as he waits. Everything is white, and the smell is chemical clean. There’s people in scrubs and people and people looking sad and people pushing wheelchairs, all of them reminding him of the grim reality of why he’s here.
“Iida-san is in room 634,” the man at the desk informs him, jolting him out of his thoughts. Tenya thanks the man brusquely and speeds away, rushing towards the elevator. He bounces on the balls of his feet as he waits for the elevator door to open, and barely lets the people inside out before rushing in to take their place. He presses the button for floor 6 multiple times, as if the elevator could somehow understand his sense of urgency and move him faster. Time seems to crawl as the elevator moves upwards, and Tenya decides that the metallic walls only add to the cold and fear he’s been feeling since he stepped into the building. Nothing, it seems, is friendly about hospitals.
The elevator dings and the doors open, and he rushes forward without paying any heed to the people in the hallway. His footsteps pound on the white tile of the floor, echoing off the walls which are sickly white and dotted by grey doors and small brass plates which depict room number. He reads the plates as he runs, determined to find his brother as fast as possible.
632… 633… “Ah!” Tenya exclaims, coming to a stop in front of room 634. He pulls the door open and rushes inside, a shout on his lips. However, his voice dies in his throat when his eyes fall on the hospital bed, where his brother lays still, covered in bandages and hooked up to an oxygen machine. Tenya’s body goes cold. He has never seen his brother look so helpless. The sight of him is like a blow to the gut, and Tenya is much more subdued as he shuffles over to his brother’s side. Tensei’s chest rises and falls gently, confirming what the beeping heart monitor already tells him: his brother is, at the very least, alive. Compared to what Tenya is used to, though, Tensei looks like a ghost.
“Brother…” Tenya whispers, reaching out to place a hand over Tensei’s. Tensei’s face looks strange without his trademark smile. His stillness would be disconcerting even if he’d been healthy -- the Iidas are always on the move, rushing from place to place -- but in the hospital bed his inaction appears almost deathly. He looks around the room, desperate to look at something else, but finds little other than more medical equipment, a window, white walls and a single chair. He pulls the chair from its position on the other side of the room over to Tensei’s bedside and sits. His heart is heavy, and his body is shaking. He can feel tears dripping down his face. He takes his brother’s hand again, and squeezes.
It’s odd, Tenya realizes, that even now he’s clinging to his brother’s hand for comfort. Tensei had always been there for him since their parents had died, his steady pillar of support. Even now, when Tensei is injured and in pain, Tenya cannot help but seek him out for comfort. Guilt, hot and heavy, flashes in Tenya’s chest, and he winces as if physically struck. He’s being selfish, thinking so much about himself when Tensei is suffering. He squeezes his brother’s hand softly, and whispers an apology. Tears continue to stream down his face, but he does his best to ignore them. He needs to be strong now, like Tensei always has been for him. If only having strength was as easy as wanting it.
“Ten… Tenya?” The voice is barely a whisper from beneath the oxygen mask, but it grabs Tenya’s attention nonetheless.
“Tensei!” Tenya exhales in relief. He takes his brother’s hand into both of his own and squeezes it hard. “Thank goodness you’re awake.”
Tensei smiles weakly. “Thanks for coming little brother.” Tenya feels Tensei squeeze his hand back feebly. “How did you know I was here?”
“The hospital called,” Tenya explains. “Enough about me though, how are you?”
“Ah, Iida-san is awake.” A voice comes from the doorway, interrupting the brothers’ conversation. Tenya turns to look at the speaker. An older woman doctor stands at the entrance of the room, clipboard in hand. “I stepped out for a moment to talk to the doctors who did your x-rays, but it’s good to see you with your eyes open. Who’s this?” She gestures at Tenya with a hand.
Tenya stands and bows stiffly to the doctor. “Iida Tenya, Doctor. I am Iida Tensei’s younger brother.”
Understanding dawns on her face, and she gives a slight smile. “I’m glad you could be here Iida-kun, it’s always best for patients to have family around in such dark times.”
“Dark?” Tenya intones, cocking his head. His heart sinks. He doesn’t like where this is going.
Tensei, apparently also sensing the mood shift, coughs self-consciously. “Uh, maybe you could step out for a minute Tenya? I’m sure whatever the doctor has to say to me is something I can handle on my own. You’ve had enough stress for the day.”
Tenya turns to his brother, a frown on his face. “I won’t leave you alone! You always support me, and it’s time I do the same for you!”
Tenya can see Tensei’s face soften from behind the oxygen mask. “If you insist, little brother. I just want to make sure you’re happy.” Tenya’s heart skips a beat at that. Even in what must be the greatest hardship he’s faced since their parents’ passing, Tensei is still putting him first. Tears well up in his eyes again, and he bites his lip to stifle a sob. Tensei is too good to be suffering the way that he is.
“Very well. Iida-kun, if you’d like to take a seat, I need to talk with you both.” The doctor walks into the room and stands at the foot of Tensei’s bed. Tenya sits down on his hands, determined to be stoic and strong for his brother.
“So to reiterate for Iida-kun, Iida-san was struck by a falling beam at the site of the Affluence Arsonist fire as the building collapsed. The beam struck him down and landed on his back.” She adjusts her gaze to look Tensei in the eye. “There were significant burns, but there was also considerable internal damage. We took x-rays and an MRI while you were out. It would seem that you suffered a fracture in your thoracic vertebrae, as well as damage to your spinal cord.”
Tenya goes cold. He knows what spinal cord damage can mean.
The doctor goes on, unperturbed by the horrified looks the brothers are giving her. “Although we need to do more tests to confirm the total effects of the damage, you will undoubtedly lose significant function from the waist down. Although with significant therapy you may be able to walk with assistance, such a course is both painful and expensive.”
“But it can be done, right?” Tenya asks, unwilling to accept the full gravity of what the nurse is saying. Tensei is strong. Tensei can’t be hurt this badly. “He can be returned to health?”
“I’m sorry Iida-kun, but I’m afraid it is highly unlikely that Iida-san will ever regain full, normal function in his lower body.”
Tenya’s stomach feels like he swallowed a stone, heavy and wrong. This cannot be happening.
“Could you… give us a few moments.” Tensei’s voice cuts through the tense quiet of the room. The doctor nods and walks out, closing the door behind her. Beside him, Tenya can hear Tensei take a deep breath.
“I’m sorry Tenya.”
Tenya jolts, looking over at his brother with wide eyes. He pulls his hands out from under him to place one hand on his chest, the other moving wildly between them. “Why are you sorry? If anything, I should be the sorry one. You’re the one hurt! I had no place asking the doctor things.”
“I… You just always looked up to me so much, and now… now I’ve gone and ruined it. I’ll never be the same again. You’re such a brilliant little brother… and I’ve gone and messed it all up for you.”
Tenya bites his lip. It’s true that he looks up to his brother, that he’s his guiding light whenever he’s feeling lost. But it’s also true that he loves Tensei no matter what, and that in the end, all he wants is to see Tensei’s smile again. Even if that smile comes from being taken care of by Tenya, rather than taking care of him.
“Please, Tensei, don’t say that. You’ll always be my cool big brother.” Tenya reaches over and takes Tensei’s hand again. “You’ve done so much for me over the years. It’s about time I lived up to your example and returned the favor.”
Tensei is silent for a moment. Then, much to Tenya’s surprise, he smiles.
“How did I end up with such a cool little brother?” He asks, tears welling up in his eyes. Tenya doesn’t feel very cool, only helpless and sad, but he owes it to Tensei to be strong right now. So he holds his brother’s hands as they both cry silently, completely unsure where to go from there.