Chapter Text
Aizawa wasn't paid enough for this.
It was routine patrolling as usual, maybe slightly less eventful than some nights but that's to be expected with the sort of hero he is, boring at least until he had been called while in midair as he leaped from building to building to investigate some strange light show in the nearby woods bordering the city.
It was significantly out of his way but apparently, he was still the closest hero in the area. It took him a while to get to the location, and even longer to actually find the incredibly cryptic 'something' he was meant to look into, but eventually, a bit into the woods, he found some smoldering branches and a very oddly dressed young teenager, or maybe a slightly older child by the looks of it, in a small crater in the ground, ashes and sparks still fluttering around them.
The kid was wearing.. a tunic? A green tunic with a brown leather belt with a whole entire sword in a sheath. He also had a satchel strapped to his belt, and his white leggings were slightly grass stained around the knees. He had a long green cap of some sorts on his head, and peeking out from it were long, pointed ears and messy blonde bangs that were slightly charred in some places.
His boots were rustic in style, with buckles and straps without zippers or laces. He had some strange sort of fingerless gloves on his hands, but they almost looked more armored than the mere fashion statement they appeared initially to be.
Grasped loosely in the kids hand, strangely enough, was some sort of instrument, blue and polished with sort of engravings Aizawa couldn't make out from the distance and the poor lighting.
Most concerning at the top of the list of very concerning things he was seeing right now, was the fact the child was both unconscious and also covered in minor injuries; bruises, scrapes, some bleeding cuts on his cheeks and hands, all in all just generally beat up, which isn't a look he liked seeing on children in general, much less potentially homeless kids who are found in the aftermath of mysterious light shows.
Maybe this was some sort of malfunctioning quirk caused by an attack? Or caused by the kid getting lost and freaking out, losing control of their abilities? Whatever it was, he didn't know if there were any worse injuries he couldn't see right now, and he couldn't see any attackers in the area, so his top priority was getting this kid to the hospital.
He used his scarf to lift the kid before starting his trek back, kid in tow. He had a feeling this was going to be a long night.
He hated being right.
After getting the mystery kid checked into the hospital room, his shift was over by that point and he was officially off of patrol. That meant it was now daytime, and that he was also exhausted.
Slogging through the process of setting himself up as the mystery child's caller for when the kid inevitably (hopefully) wakes up, he gets himself home and immediately passes out, remarkably glad that school hasn't started again and that he doesn't have to teach whatever batch of new brats come in yet.
He gets all of a whopping four hours of sleep before his phone is ringing, letting him know that the kid is awake, and to get over there ASAP, frantically speaking into the phone as some crashing can be heard in the background.
Aizawa really, really hated being right.
He got to the hospital as quick as he could, the secretary pointing him in the proper direction hastily as he ran to the proper wing so he could help with WHATEVER was happening.
He slammed open the door where the crashing was loudest to a very odd scene. One of the nurses who had a mutation quirk was doing their best to restrain the child with their gelatinous appendages as the kid was flailing and kicking in hospital garbs, in a room that was largely trashed and- why were there SCORCH MARKS on the CEILING??
The kid was grunting with exertion, but they didn't seem to be wearing themself out, which was frankly ludicrous considering that they were unconscious and beaten to hell just a few hours ago, but whatever. He used his support item to take the kid from the slightly beaten and extremely frazzled staff, who let the kid go gratefully, massaging their arms and wincing.
The kid, now significantly less mobile considering they were now wrapped neck to feet in a metal alloy-enforced nano technological scarf, looked even more panicked and frustrated than before.
He asked, "What happened?"
The nurse eyed the kid, responding, "Well, they woke up and immediately flipped out, both in general and out of the bed, and started- I don't even know what. They started fighting and tried to jump out the window, so I grabbed them from where I had been filling out their vitals in their chart with my arms, and luckily my quirk lets me stretch across long distances otherwise they would be gone by now. They somehow used some sort of fire, I'm assuming it's their quirk, to try and get me to let go-,"
So that's what happened to the ceiling, Aizawa mused,
"-but it didn't work on me because of my quirk. They haven't said a word since they woke up, though."
The kid in question was still struggling futilely, eyes roving the room for an escape and seemingly not finding one as finally, the kid slumped, limp in the support item's grip and eyeing Aizawa warily. That was one less thing to worry about.
He asked them, "What's your name, kid?"
The kid didn't respond, lips tight, and tried to move their arms, shifting where they were still being held just a bit above the ground. He repeated the question, the kid now looking more frustrated as they grunted, trying to move their arms again.
Aizawa had an inkling of an idea of why the kid wasn't responding, and, hoping it wouldn't backfire miserably, loosened his scarf just enough for the kid to slip their arms through.
The kid used their hands to sign, 'Link,' looking confused at their own movement.
Aizawa raised an eyebrow, clarifying, "Your name is Link?"
The kid, apparently named Link, nodded. Aizawa's mouth stretched thin but he just sighed, instead asking, "Okay, Link. What are your pronouns?" Link's brows furrowed, confused.
They signed hesitantly, 'What? Boy, I guess?' Aizawa clarified, "So, he/him?" Link shrugged, still looking painfully lost.
"Does he/they work for you?"
Link slowly nodded, before signing, 'I don't really mind.'
Aizawa hummed, saying, "My name is Aizawa, he/him." He watched as the kid nodded, next asking, "Do you know how you got here?"
Link shook his head. Aizawa frowned.
"What do you remember?"
Link just shrugged once more. He looked generally vaguely baffled at everything around them, and signed, 'Where?'
Aizawa answered, "We're in a hospital in Masutafu(? im pretty sure that's the name of the place but dont quote me on that), I found you unconscious in a nearby forest after reports of a strange light phenomena that I was investigating."
Link nodded, his feet reaching for the floor idly, and Aizawa figured it was safe to let him down now that he was calmer, carefully unwrapping him, wary of aggravating his injuries and hoping he didn't do so during the prior quarrel. Link looked around again, searching with a slight amount of panic, before signing, 'Where blue?', indicating with his hands a smallish object that was oval-esque.
Aizawa realized he was referring to whatever instrument he had had with him before, and turned to the nurse.
"Where is the kid's instrument he had with him?"
The nurse startled, having partially zoned out off to the side as they were idly standing there, and yelped, "Right! I can get that right now, it's with his things in another room."
Aizawa nodded gratefully as the nurse rushed out of the room. While they were waiting, Aizawa got the chance to examine Link more closely, now that he wasn't a flurry of fighting spirit.
The kid's blonde hair, without his strange cap, was messy and wild, not quite curly but not straight, either. He had bright blue eyes, almost unnatural in hue, with thick eyelashes. One of his ears was pierced with a blue ring that complimented his eyes.
He was relatively short, but not lanky, his frame built with muscle made more obvious by the hospital gown.
Far more concerning, however, was the plethora of scars littering his body. His legs, his face, his arms, his neck, all various sizes and types but it was abundantly clear that this- this CHILD has seen hardship far, far beyond his years.
He was interrupted from his extremely concerned musings by the nurse, returning with the bizarre blue... flute, maybe?, in their hands.
Link immediately rushed to grab it, holding it delicately in his hands like it was fragile, or maybe just sentimental.
As Link held it, Aizawa noticed an odd... it wasn't quite a scar, or a birthmark, but some sort of slightly darker shape on the back of his left hand, in the style of three triangles arranged like a pyramid, with one in each corner of a triangle and an empty triangle space in the center.
He hadn't noticed it initially because of the kid's gauntlets and the poor lighting.
Odd, certainly, but not the strangest thing he's seen.
What was odder, however, was the mark suddenly glowing, the bottom left triangle beaming a ray of golden light as the rest of the triangles were illuminated faintly, as though from a source just behind the skin.
Link stiffened, staring at his hand, and his face went through a plethora of emotions- fear, confusion, frustration, despair- before settling on tired resignation and understanding.
He looked around the room again with exhausted, old eyes, older than eyes in the skull of a face that young should ever be, and walked to the window slowly.
Aizawa was right behind him, in case he tried to escape again, but the child just stood, gazing out onto the city landscape, and started to cry.
It was a broken, quiet thing, the steady unwinding of thread pulled taut for far too long, filled with an unspeakable grief.
It was shaky and hesitant and jolting, as if this was the first time Link had cried in a long, long time, and had forgotten how exactly he was meant to. Gone was the fire in his eyes, stamped out by something Aizawa had no idea how to face or understand.
He just saw this boy in front of him for what he is: Someone who should have been protected, and someone who wasn't.
Someone who had to grow up too fast.
Aizawa had no idea how close to the truth, at least part of it, he was with that thought.
Whatever happened to land Link in a crater, bruised and beaten and filled with an emotion that surmounted some of the most devastated people he had encountered, could not have been good.
Aizawa leaned down, not touching Link, but letting him know that he was there. Link didn't respond, just crying as he sunk to his knees, tears falling to the floor and a wordless cry wrenching his mouth open in despair, clutching the instrument to his chest like a lifeline, hands clasping and unclasping around it desperately with a vice grip.
It went on like that for a while, until the boy slumped to the floor, unconscious. Aizawa sighed, lifting him with his scarf and placing him back in the bed as the nurse rushed to perform vitals to make sure the kid was alright while Aizawa moved out of the way, thinking over everything he just saw.
There was definitely more to this than first met the eye, and none of it was shaping up to be anything good. If he was concerned before, there weren't words to describe what he was feeling now.
He had a lot to contemplate before Link woke up again.