Chapter Text
He wakes to the sound of monitors beeping and a blood pressure cuff squeezing his arm.
Touya blinks, the ceiling lights bright against his eyelids. The room is a pale white, baby blue dashing against his peripherals. His head feels sluggish, brain slowly waking up from what felt like the deepest sleep. Like when Natsuo shook him awake at midnight from fear of the nonexistent monster under the bed.
Soft murmurs make his eyes flit towards the sound, straining to turn his head. A new pressure rests on his chest and he tries to pull away from it.
“Easy there, you’re still shaking off the sedation,” a light voice says soothingly. “It’s going to take a minute to be able to move.”
He whines, his mouth feels like cotton and he can’t form words. What’s going on? Where’s Father? Where’s his family? Natsuo is going to be so worried he has to tell his siblings he’s okay-
“Shh,” the voice says again, and Touya’s mind clears. “You’ll be alright. Just take it nice and slow.”
He curls his fingers, pulling up his arm and bending his legs. The monitor makes an uncomfortable loud noise. It jars against his head, like a needle thrust into his temple. He groans, squeezing his eyes tightly and opening them again.
It takes him moments before he throws himself over the bed. Wires spring off his chest and hand. Something rips out of his shoulder, and Touya yelps and he falls to the floor, head spinning.
“Shit, shit. I need help in here!” The voice raises in tone as Touya looks up. A tall woman with pinned back hair stares at him. Touya can tell she’s about to grab him.
He yanks off the cuff, standing on unstable feet and running towards the door. His vision doubles, but he grits his teeth. He’s trained for this. He can fight through blurred vision and dizziness. He can get out of here.
His legs are unsteady, and he feels woozy, like one of his old medicines did. Father still trained him through it until he had to switch. Touya winces.
He runs, bare feet slapping against the tile of the floor and fluorescent lights paving his way. His lungs shudder with the sudden exertion.
He rests his hand against the wall for a minute, just a minute until he needs to get further…
“Hey, Mr. Sleepyhead! You’re awake!”
Touya’s head jerks to the side, and makes eye contact with a young girl. She looks startled for a moment, face twisted in fear. She relaxes, splaying out her hands as if to catch him.
“Hey, are you okay? You don’t look good.” Her eyes fill with worry, and Touya wants to retreat away in disgust. He doesn’t need pity or worry. He’s perfectly capable of handling himself!
“Where—where am I?” He asks, before pausing in shock. That’s not my voice… why do I sound older? What’s going on?
Everything spins as he takes in his body for the first time. His limbs are gangly and long. He's a few centimeters taller than the young girl when he should be smaller. He was always shorter than his siblings, especially Natsuo, who was completely towering over him now. His hair is chopped in an unflattering style as he runs his hands through it. He is older. Perhaps a few years. The breath escapes from his lungs. The girl reaches a hand out to him but he slaps it away.
The girl yelps, snatching her hands back and he almost feels bad for a moment. His mouth forms an apology reflexively. Her hands drop too her sides, and she pursed her lips. “Mr. Sunny said you needed to sleep again. You’ve been gone for a couple weeks.” She said, quieter. Her excitement dimmed down, but he was reeling from the information.
“Sleep… again?” Touya repeated.
The girl tilted her head in confusion, before a hand rested on her shoulder and she tensed.
“Ah, young Touya, you’re awake again! It’s good to see you!” A man with a sunflower mutation beamed down at him. “You gave Nurse Riro quite a scare! How about we all take a deep breath?”
“What the hell is going on?” Touya barked out, balling his fists.
The sunflower man who he presumed was Mr. Sunny tsked.
“Language, young man. We don’t use foul words here.” He loomed over Touya, who shrunk away from him. An apology rose on his lips that he immediately squashed down. This wasn’t his home, he didn’t owe these people anything. His eyes narrowed, stiffening.
“What the fuck is going on here?” He says slowly, coldly, gritting his teeth. His body teeters, he can feel himself on the verge of collapse. Touya presses his side to the wall and cranes his neck up at the man in defiance.
Mr. Sunny visibly darkens at the cuss. He looks likes he’s about to reprimand Touya before thinking better. “I believe that this can all be explained, but perhaps not here, in front of the other children. Oh I almost forgot! My dear, how about you go back to drawing? That little puppy you were drawing was quite beautiful. I'd love to see it posted up on the wall." His attention turns towards the girl staring between them, eyes wide. She nods and skitters off.
Touya scans past him. A large group of children are huddled around a table. Toys and crayons are scattered on the table. A few of the children are still looking towards him, while others have gone back to whatever it was they were doing before.
"Now, Touya, I'm sure you have many questions." Touya's eyes snap back to the man in front of him, who's smile widens. Touya tries not to think of it as creepy. Father would probably slap him if he ever said that out loud to a mutant, so he buried the thought.
More aides stand in front of the doors down the hall, and Touya becomes aware of the adrenaline in his body wearing off. He clenches his jaw. He's too weak to escape. He's too weak to get back to his family.
Mr. Sunny simply continues to smile. "Yes, perhaps and explanation will do. Come with me." He offers out a hand, slowly receding as Touya gives him a glare.
He turns down the hall, aides moving aside in front of a dark brown door. Touya glances back at the children, happily playing as the workers watch over them, and follows past the door.
It's a small room, cluttered with papers and more bleak than the rest of bright childish building. A small computer rests on a desk, and Mr. Sunny boots it up. He inputs a few things into some sort of program, before leaning back and intertwining his fingers.
Touya takes the silence to speak. "I need to go back," he jumbles out. "Back to my dad, and the others. They need to know I'm alive. And I can go back to training. I can be a hero." The words spill out of his mouth before he has a minute to think them over. He can't help the smile that tugs at his face. He survived. He's okay. He can go back home. He can train, show his dad his flames. His blue flames. Dad would be so impressed that his quirk developed! He could continue to train and be a hero and not a burden!
A tiny, minuscule thought danced across his head of becoming a team with Dad and Shouto, but he shoved it aside quickly with disdain.
He rubs the back of his neck as he looks at Mr. Sunny, smile breaking across his face.
The man opens his mouth, as if to say something, but decides to close it. A small beeping noise alerts his attention, and his petals begin to wave.
"Please," Touya begs, "I need to go home. I said something terrible. I need to apologize to Mom and-and Natsuo and Fuyumi and Shouto. Dad must be worried sick! I need to see him!"
"Unfortunately, that's not possible anymore."
The computer fizzles to life, and Touya's head snaps towards it.
"Your body was nearly completely burnt up. It was a long and extensive process to sew you back up. We've grafted regenerative tissue on almost all your body—an expensive investment—but there's still burns on your body that need healing. You've undergone some drastic changes, but at least you're alive."
Touya's hands reach towards his neck, skin that didn't feel like his met his fingertips. It was rough, textured, the burns from overusing his power.
"I don't understand…" he chokes out.
"You won't be able to use your powers like before. Your body, your organs, your nervous system sustained damage we are still trying to reverse. But it's a useless battle, you are a failure."
The room started spinning as that word struck Touya in the chest. He gasped through a breath.
"Oh did that hit a nerve? You poor boy. But perhaps we can fix it. Restore your firepower! Stay here with us, let us continue our work on you. Let us train you. You might show promise still. And you'll have a new family! You can learn with us, and—"
"NO!" Touya screamed. "I don't want anyone to train me but my Dad!" Fire thrums through his veins, anger seizing his chest. He turns to Mr. Sunny. He moves, raising his arm, calling his fire.
A sound stutters out from the computer, almost unimpressed. "Well, that's about how we expected. Haruaki, if you would?"
Just as Touya summons a fistful of flames, Mr. Sunny tilts his head and opens his eyes. His petals shake violently, and Touya's arms feel like lead. He tries to fight it at first, hands sparking and sizzling, smoking pouring out his mouth. But the quirk is too strong. A sweet smell irritates his nose, but he doesn't have enough energy to sneeze.
"Unfortunately, poor boy, we've invested too much in you already. It would be a waste to let you go like this. Ah well, maybe next time you wake you'll be less lucid."
Touya's eyes flutter shut, and sleep once again claims him.