if you're still breathing

[blindfoldcode]

Who: Izuku and Kido
What: Prayer #18
When: April 24
Where: The Near Shore
Warnings: shrug

Izuku has a habit of picking up prayers that are just about being generally nice to people. Kido has no issue with it, but she can't help but feel a little pointless when it came to things like actually interacting with people.

She's too shy for any of this. She's not good with people. And Deku's so much better than her, if there's no ayakashi, she doesn't see the point in her being pulled along. After all she felt like she made everything worse in their first prayer. She stings him, she's invisible half the time, now. He does well without her.

But she can't deny that it makes her happy that he insists she comes along. It's an interesting back and forth in her mind and chest. So she just stuffs her hands in her pocket, one earbud in her ear.

"You said we're trying to console somebody, right?"

Comments

[blindfoldcode]

"How can you just want to forget somebody like that?!"

Deku pls calm your shinki because the kid is just kind of staring at her like 'why is she a thing why did you bring her is she going to trash my apartment?'

"Just because it hurts doesn't mean you should forget it! Do you get how lucky you are to remember? How lucky you are that you get to keep everything, even if it's bad?"

[fullcowl]

He looks over at Kido and thinks of course this is a sore subject for her. She lost all of her memories, for somebody to say they wanted to forget them like that-

Izuku has to wipe some tears from his eyes, emotional over her emotions. She can say them aloud, she isn't trying to keep them to herself- they really have managed to come a long way from when he first met her.

"Kido's right."

[blindfoldcode]

She's about to keep going when she realizes--is he crying. Deku you nerd she looks panicked for a second, but she doesn't want to address it in front of an outsider :<.

The kid looks at his hands. "So I'm just supposed to deal with this? How can anybody do that?"

[fullcowl]

Look, he's constantly full of emotions, and he really makes no attempt to hold them back. He wipes away the tears and takes a breath. He needs to be strong for this kid and Kido.

"Kido's right, even when it hurts, memories should be cherished. You had good times with him too. Remember those. Remember how much he cared about you. It's hard, of course it's going to be hard, but you owe your friend his memory."

[blindfoldcode]

The kid looks away, scowling, silent for a minute.

Kido just crosses her arms. "And they stop you from making the same mistakes." She doesn't sting Deku as much anymore because she remembers how awful it felt in the first place to hurt him.

The kid's still silent for a while. Kido's losing patience. "... Deku, it's not gonna work."

[fullcowl]

And he will forever appreciate it.

Izuku at least has patience to spare. This kid hasn't really taken up a great fraction of it, however long it takes to talk to this kid, he's prepared for it.

"I took the prayer, we can't leave until we help him."

[blindfoldcode]

"Why bother? He's just a waste of--"

"Do you really think he'd want me to remember him even when he was pretending to be okay?"

[fullcowl]

"Yes. Absolutely, if that's how he acted, that's how he wanted to be remembered."

[blindfoldcode]

"Even if everything was a lie?"

[fullcowl]

"How much he cared about you wasn't a lie. He just never wanted you to have to worry about him."

[blindfoldcode]

"I wanted to worry about him. I never even really got to say goodbye." Aha. The heart of things.

[fullcowl]

Ah, so here's the real heart of the problem.

"There's things in life that you cannot control, there's no way you could have known how he was. Especially when he was doing his best to keep it from you."

He can't call back the spirits of the dead. He's quiet for another long moment as he thinks, "Have you been to his grave?"

[blindfoldcode]

He shakes his head. "I don't want to think about him like that."

[fullcowl]

Very gently, "It's a way you can say goodbye. I think he'd appreciate that."

It's not like this kid can bury his head in the sand forever either. He has to move on somehow.

[blindfoldcode]

"Would he even know?"

Kido glances at Deku. "Maybe not. But it's nice to think someone'd miss you when you're gone.

"And it'd be nice to think the people you cared about were okay."

[fullcowl]

"He might or he might not. But if there's the chance he does, isn't that enough?" It is for Izuku, anyway.

[blindfoldcode]

The kid thinks a minute. "... Maybe I'll tell him about how our favorite show ended."

[fullcowl]

He smiles, soft and encouraging. "I think he'd like hearing about that."

[blindfoldcode]

"You really think visiting there will help?"

[fullcowl]

"I really think it'll help you." It might take a little while longer, but as long as he feels like he can talk to his friend in some way- that should be able to soothe him, right?

[blindfoldcode]

He watches his hands again but he nods. "T-then I'll try it."