Miserable, the boy looked, for he was struggling not to sniffle and sneeze his way through the school day, his eyes were glazed over and his body swayed when he stood with Iida and Uraraka during breaks. It was obvious he was suffering, and despite the rest of the class's attempts to find out why, the poor student in question had only scratched the back of his neck while he waved his other hand frantically back and forth in an attempt to dispel the many faces crowding close to him with raised eyebrows. Most of them were the various females of the class, all of who had some sort of maternal instinct kicking in at the sight of the half-dead boy.
Allergies seemed reasonable enough. It was spring time after all, albeit a bit late, and although, cherry blossoms were common in Japan, that did not mean every native was immune to their affects. Perhaps Midoriya was just one of the unlucky ones? Yet, his depleted health was too sudden, as Todoroki pointed out. If it was allergies, surely the class would have seen it from the first day, when the flowers were in full bloom. A passing cold was quite possible, but the boy seemed a little to disorganized and out of it to fit the symptoms.
"The fuckmunch's mom wouldn't let him leave the fucking house without some form of medicine if that were the case." Bakugou had managed to spit out between some other, untimely prepositions to hide his worry. Despite his hot tempered attitude and frequent shouts of frustration every time the kid cleared his throat quietly, it was hard to miss how he kept staring at the boy, even if his expression was one of a daunting glare with teeth boring from behind the fingers awkwardly bent in front of his face when his chin balanced on his palm.
"Hey, Midoriya, are you okay?" Kirishima asked before third period, having to shake the kid back to reality when he realized he wasn't paying attention. His posture was slouched, his head tilted back to let him stare absently at the ceiling with his mouth catching flies. Uraraka fiddled with the edges of a closed notebook as she stood beside Iida, watching the exchange with concern as the boy blinked a few times before he finally seemed to process the red head speaking to him.
"Huh? Kirishima? What- Oh. Yeah. I'm fine. Just a little tired that's all." He managed to force out, his response disconnected in speech as his head seemed to roll and droop on his neck, almost as though it was too heavy for him to manage.
"Did you stay up all night studying? We don't have a test until next week, you know." He asked.
"I'm fine, just a little drained from yesterday's training." Uraraka finally decided she couldn't take it anymore and handed Iida her notebook, rather, she pushed it into his chest as she stepped closer to hover over the front of his desk.
"Deku, we didn't do any training yesterday. We worked in the classroom all day." The boy didn't seemed phased by this, he only continued to repeat his previous answer, and suddenly it became apparent to the three surrounding him that he actually didn't hear a word they were saying, he was just spouting words to the questions he was assumed he was being asked. Probably due to all the girl's hounding him from earlier. As their mouth's began to open slightly open this realization, the boy took this cue to sneeze, sending half the class in a frenzy to find a box of tissues for the boy.
"Tissue! Tissue!" Ashido shouted and fumbled her hands in the air as Yaoyorozu spawned a box from her chest. Shouji swiftly caught it and tossed it to the pink-skinned girl who then handed it hastily to Uraraka to tend to her friend. She squatted down as she extended one to the boy for partaking, and it took him a minute to find it as his eyes were squinted shut in pain, his other hand firmly pressed over his nose.
"Aahh…Thank you, Uraraka." He managed in an adenonial voic e as he took hold of the tissue. Things died down for a few seconds as the three waited for the boy to collect himself and someone even dragged the garbage can over but, as things tend to go in class 1-A, the class was in a panic again just as Midoriya went to toss the dirty rag, and someone caught sight of specks of blood.
"He's bleeding! Oh no, he's dying!" Mineta exclaimed as he ran over and suddenly Uraraka was awkwardly trying to scold Midoriya and help him at the same time, ending in a state where she just accidently ended up punching him in the face with wads of tissues. All of which, including the one that had previously been tossed, were now beginning to float towards the ceiling.
"Uraraka! Your quirk! Your quirk!"
"Ah! Sorry!"
Midoriya watched on as his classmates began to race around with the trashcan, trying to catch the now released tissues as they fell towards the earth. Eventually, his eyes drifted towards the clock, and the apparentness of the time woke the boy up with such vigor that he actually leapt to his feet and began to wave both his hands frantically as he called to the few students running about and yelling to settle down.
"Guys, I'm fine! Really! I did some extra training after school yesterday and I pushed myself too hard. I went to bed late and now I'm sure this is just my body paying me back for pushing too hard despite not breaking another arm. Please, just don't bring it up next period. I'll be fine by lunch time, I swear."
"Deku…" Uraraka's voice was soft as everyone settled down, Bakugou was unusually quiet, but he appeared to be pretending to sleep with a book standing up on his desk to block his face.
"Are you sure?" Kaminari asked, "You seem to be a little more than just exhausted."
"Yeah, I'm positive. Plus, I can't really afford to fall behind if I miss a class to go to the nurse."
"But you're one of the top of the class in terms of academics..."
"Really, guys, I'm fine."
"I don't think all the attention is helping him either." Todoroki stated matter of factually as he watched on from his desk. The small collection of students who had gathered around agreed with defeated head-nods and hums, eventually dispersing and walking back to their seats, although not without one last glance at their nervous friend who still had a box of tissues on the corner of his desk and trashcan against the side of it. The bell rang to signal the start of the next period and on cue, the door slid open and a booming voice and attitude burst into the room.
"My young heroes, how are we all today?"
A wave of regret over their stupidity and a saddening awakening settled over the group of students as they grew dumbstruck at the sight of All Might walking in.
Of course, everyone collectively thought as they all felt the urge to glance at their friend in the back of the room.
"Now, before we begin, I'd like to pass out this worksheet for the day. Hm…Midoriya, my boy, care to do the honors?" The man pulled a stack of worksheets from inside his folder, and the boy stood, wobbly legs and all. The class watched on nervously as the boy walked forward, his knees shaking as he tried to keep balance by touching the desks lightly. All Might examined the boy, his eyes half-lidded as he slouched in front of the man, his hands trying to grapple around the ends of the stack. He sniffled a little, and then eventually got a decent enough hold on them to begin the actual task. All Might turned around and began to unpack his lesson plans while Midoriya walked to the front of each row. His sweaty fingers slipped on the edge as he mumbled to himself.
"One…Two…Three…Four-no…Wait…" He struggled to count out the number for each row, but his dazed state took hold as each paper became six in his vision. Aoyama frowned, ready to make a boastful comment but Ashida hit the back of his head before he could say anything to embarrass the boy.
"Midoriya, give them here." Ojiro offered, extending his hand to the boy. He graciously handed off the stack, to which the boy hurriedly divided the papers up into four sections of five. He handed them back individually to the boy making sure his fingers were in between each section so he wouldn't mix them up and kept one grouping to send back through his own row, saving Midoriya some time. The boy's voice rasped out a thank you as he began to make his rounds. It took several minutes, but a lot shorter than if Ojiro hadn't stepped in.
"Very good!" All Might said as the boy sat down at his seat, "Now, today we aren't going to be doing any field exercises, but instead we will be learning foundational studies from cold, hard text!"
From there on, things proceeded rather slowly. All Might's lesson began with his usually grandeur in speech and the class tried to continue on as per normal, but when the man noticed a lack in enthusiasm and spark in the boy sitting near the middle row, he became perplexed. Was he asleep?
"Continuing on to the clause that describes what should happen if there is an incident near a hospital or any sort of facility providing care…Actually, I'd like to have you read this section aloud. Young Aoyama, would you mind starting us off?"
And so, the countdown began. Midoriya scanned the page, counting the number of paragraphs in the passage and assigned them to each of their classmates as Aoyama soared through the first part. Almost all of them were short, limited to about five or six sentences detailing the limitations the heroes had in battle around areas full of injured people. Skipping over the absent Hagakure, that left him with…
Oh. Oh, no. Midoriya felt himself inwardly die inside as he landed on the paragraph that would have been given to Bakugou, had Hagakure been present. It was over twelve sentences, lengthened by complex vocabulary that were designed to ruin the boy. He sat, sweating nervously over the paper, praying that Hagakure would appear out of nowhere, well, that was a little farfetched, but he wished that she would appear in her all invisible glory, saving him from the hell he had been sent to.
Suddenly, without warning, Bakugou was standing and in his rather deadened and annoyed voice, he began to read boldly. Midoriya's eyes traced the words with defeat, his heart nearly pounding out of his chest as he felt his throat get dryer and dryer by the minute. There was no way he could read that section, his throat would close up before he could even stand. The fluttering in his stomach made the boy lean heavily on the desk, the threatening nausea coming from the dread of the wave of insults that would no doubt fly from Bakugou if he screwed up and the thought that All Might would make everything worse by trying to help and send him to the nurse made him cover his mouth. Bile rose in his throat as his mind jumped around from situation to situation, despite knowing full well that some of them were far too intense and insane to even occur. Midoriya sucked in a deep breath as Bakugou reached the final words of his paragraph and he prepared to rise.
"Furthermore, if there happens to be a quirk that could pose potential threat to the safety of the area if not properly controlled…" Bakugou continued on into the next paragraph, drawing everyone's eyes towards him. Midoriya glanced up from his seat, his face morphing into one that practically conveyed that the boy was his savior. The hot-headed teen blazed his way through not only his paragraph, but the remaining two, taking Yaoyorozu's and Mineta in a flash. All Might attempted to interrupt him, but it had no effect. When the paper ran out of words for him, he pulled it away from his face and cocked his head at the teacher who was taken aback by the boy.
"Ah, thank you, Bakugou, my boy. You may be seated now." The blonde slumped down into his seat rather ungracefully, crumpling the paper slightly as it landed hard against the desk under his curled fingers, "Now, we'll move on to the questions. Midoriya, what is the answer to number one?"
Calling on the boy resulted in a rather uncharacteristic display of the green-haired boy fumbling and flailing about with his notebook in an attempt to find the question he had written down in the beginning of class. He stood hunched over, his hands flipping idly through the pages in a desperate attempt to find the page he had written it on. However, what was possibly even more frightening was the speed with which hands shot up around the room in an attempt to cover for the boy. The pro-hero nearly stepped back as the aura in the class shifted to something of menacing form of begging, all of the students heads were bowed, their faces overshadowed with the determination to answer in place of Midoriya.
"Sir, if I may be allowed to answer?" Yaoyorozu took the lead, standing without being called on to respond to the previous inquiry. Almost instantly, all the hands slammed down in synchronization.
"Certainly, Yaoyorozu. Good right ahead." All Might attempted to mask his unease as Midoriya sat down, his lips quivering slightly.
As this pattern continued through the next few minutes of the period, All Might took it upon himself to sneak in some small glances of observation at the boy when he had the students read independently in their books or write down short answers to some questions he hastily threw together on the board. When he had first arrived, the boy looked fine. A little dazed and perturbed, but other than that he appeared rather normal. Now, about half of the way through the period, he was slouched awkwardly in his seat, his face smeared with red color as he tried to swallow his heavy breathing and cover his wet coughs. His hair was lacking its usually wild and scrambled flair, instead being flattened down and matted with sweat and he had wrapped his arms around himself in between writing down answers to help contain his few shivers and sudden jerks despite there not being a cold breeze at all in the room. The tissue box on his desk that All Might had somehow missed, soon was emptied and tossed into the practically overflowing bin beside him, and the man watched with his hands behind his back as Yaoyorozu tried to hide her quirk by bending over her desk as she unbuttoned her blouse. Soon enough, there was an exchange that ended with her handing a new box to Mineta to pass up to Midoriya, who silently thanked the girl with a weak thumbs-up before he turned back to his work.
The kid was sick, and All Might had somehow completely overlooked it. The man thought about asking the boy if he wanted to go to the nurse, but from the way everyone else was acting, he could see that they must have already tried. Instead, he watched on anxiously as the boy pushed his out of his face, his face knitted with pain as he struggled to write. Most of the students had already finished writing, giving them time to cast concerned glimpses at their friend. Deciding it was best to continue on with the class as per usual, All Might turned back to the blackboard, picking up an eraser and his sheet of notes to look over while he cleaned the board. He listened closely behind him though, and the moment there was an unusual noise, reminiscent of someone gagging, he whipped around.
"Woah! Midoriya!" Kaminari yelled as the boy lurched sideways, his face going into the trashcan as he began to vomit viciously, his stomach going into violent spasms as his throat squeezed the flaming bile and chunks up into his mouth. The sour and bitter taste filled him and his dried lips cracked as they were stretched to accommodate the large amount of puke exiting him. Almost everyone was on their feet immediately, even Bakugou turned around, but knowing him he was most likely sporting an annoyed grimace of disgust. All Might managed to make his way through the desks in time to help pull the boy's hair out of his face while he continued. The man himself felt sick, guilt bubbling within him for not questioning the boy earlier on his condition. The entire class was silent as the boy retched, and after about two minutes, the boy began to dry heave, a string of yellow bile mixed with saliva dribbling down his chin and bobbing above the mess in the trash can. All Might pulled a tissue from the box as the boy sat up slowly, offering it to him to wipe away the remnants. He took it with glossy eyes and his throat cracked out an apology instead of a thank you.
At some point, Todoroki had crossed the room to reach the boy. He paused before the teacher and student to give the incapacitated one a moment to process his presence. Midoriya turned when the shadow of the other boy cast over him and Todoroki took this as an opportunity to lift his chin with one hand, the other pressing against his forehead.
"How the fuck are you going to assess if he's got a fever or not if you're body temperature is already so fucked on either side?"
Todoroki's eyes narrowed at the owner of the voice, pulling back as the distant and profane fired up boy stood up and walked the few steps to where the two were. Bakugou pushed aside the duel colored hair boy and slapped his own hand against the boy's forehead, Midoriya's head snapping back at the impact. Not that there was any response, as the boy was too dazed to even process half of what was going on. The majority of the stimuli he was picking up was blurred shapes and muffled voices.
"And how will yours be any better? Last thing I recall, you can cause fire too." Uraraka taunted from as she and Iida moved from their seats to the other side of the room. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently at the pair. All Might stood behind Midoriya's chair, watching the display unfold.
"Quiet, bitch. It's not fire, its explosions. Secondly, I have a normal body temperature unlike this guy over here." He growled before turning back to the boy, pulling his hand back and staring at it with angered eyes as though it had burned him, "Damn fucking nerd, interrupting class again." Annoyed, the boy stood up, but he ungraciously yanked on Midoriya's hand, tugging him up on unstable feet before he tossed him towards Uraraka and Iida who scrambled to catch him.
"I guess that's your way of treating a sick person?" Uraraka raised an eyebrow as the boy slumped across her arms, his chin barely finding leverage on her shoulder as he leaned on the ends of his toes, slowly slipping out of her grasp and down towards the floor.
"You seemed so upset about it, figured his fucking girlfriend should drag his sorry ass down to Recovery Girl's office."
"W-what?!" She sputtered.
"Bakugou, my boy, that's quite enough!" All Might called out, slightly satisfied when he saw the boy's eyes widen in surprise and his jaw clam shut at the scolding, "Both Todoroki and you shall take Midoriya down to Recovery Girl's office."
"Huh?! Why me?!"
"I'm certain that if Midoriya was to pass out completely along the way, one of you would be able to carry him alone, but someone needs to open doors for the person carrying them."
"What?"
"Bakugou, if you want to get this over with, then you would ask less questions and instead would hurry up and help me already." Todoroki's calm voice sent waves of anger through the already irked boy. It took a few seconds, but eventually the boy caved at the sight of All Might's face, which still in characteristic smile seemed to be sending an unnerving and silent command that Bakugou better do it. The blonde balled his fists as he stomped over to the large red door of 1-A while Todoroki maneuvered Midoriya's arm around his shoulder with Uraraka and Iida's assistance. The rest of the class watched on in silence as the two hobbled over to the open door where a practically living flare was radiating explosive energy as they limped past. The boy mumbled apologies continuously as they slipped through the threshold of the door, and once they were safely out, Bakugou slammed the door closed with such ferocity, the desks shook.
"Everyone, please take your seats once more. We must resume the lesson if you want to be able to take on another outdoor practice later this week." All Might summoned the students back to their seats as he turned back to the board and picked up a piece of chalk and began to write.
"Wait! He's falling forward! Quickly, help me." A voice in the hall yelled out, seeming to be calling after a fleeting figure. The children's eyes quickly snapped back to the board when the piece of chalk snapped in half and rolled along the floor, All Might's head turned slightly as he stared at the door indefinitely, his free hand was crumpling his lesson plans as his gritted his teeth.
"So…Why did you read the rest of the paper earlier?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't play dumb. You continued reading past what you were supposed to about the hospitals and such. You even went into Mineta's and Yaoyorozu's part."
The two were struggling down the hallway, Midoriya still clinging on to pieces of consciousness as he kept trying to force himself to walk on his own, too worried about getting the other two sick if they got to close. Currently, he was attempting to walk at less than one mile per hour while the two stood behind him, Todoroki with his hands out to catch him if anything happened, Bakugou looking about ready to kick the kid all the way to Recovery Girl's office if he didn't get his act together soon.
"That was just because I got sick and tired of waiting around. All Might himself said that if we finished today's work we would get the rest of the week to do more outdoor training. I don't want to be crammed in that shitty class all week. Everyone else was taking their damn time reading, I figured that nerd couldn't do any better, so I just took over."
"So I take it I read it just as slow as everyone else too?"
"You're the fucking slowest."
Todoroki let a small smile slip onto his features before he walked forward and put a hand on Midoriya's shoulder, stopping the boy dead in his tracks.
"Just let one of us carry you. It will make the trip faster, please."
"Oh…Sorry, I just didn't want to get you two sick."
"It's fine. It's fine. Bakugou, do you want to do the honors?" Todoroki shoved his hands in his pockets and twisted his body to face the third boy. His face morphed into a frown for a moment before he resigned himself to mere grumbles. He walked in front of the smaller boy and squatted down, bending his back and motioning for the boy to climb on.
"Come on, Deku. I don't have all fucking day."
"I'm sorry, Kacchan…" The boy whispered as he wrapped his arms around the blonde's neck and hopped on carefully. The two titled sideways for a minute with Bakugou cursing the boy for his weight before he stabilized himself. Todoroki smiled and walked beside the two as they continued down the hall to the nurse's office.
Five minutes later, Recovery Girl was greeted by the sight of the three boys in her little school clinic. Todoroki shut the door behind them as Bakugou hurriedly dropped Midoriya off his back and onto the floor, watching as the boy crawled in a hurry to the trash can, furthering to empty his stomach into it.
"Poor child! What happened to him this time, Todoroki?" She asked as she pushed away from her desk on her rolling chair. She wheeled herself over to the fallen boy, producing a thermometer from her white coat. Bakugou picked up a box of tissues and tossed it over at the crumpled boy to wipe his mouth with.
"He has a fever. He was sneezing and coughing this whole morning but he finally threw up a few minutes ago."
"I see. Open your mouth, sweetie." She cooed as she pushed the thermometer under his tongue, waited a few seconds for the beep and then frowned upon the reading, "You're correct, and it's a rather high one at that. Might as well put him to bed in the meantime then." She hopped off her chair and pulled back the curtains by the beds, folding down the top sheet before she smoothed out the bottom one, "Can you two help me get him into bed? He seems far too weak to move anymore."
"Certainly." Todoroki obliged and helped hoist the boy up from underneath his arms and Bakugou took his feet as they set him on top of the cot. Recovery Girl made quick work of removing his blazer, tie, and indoor shoes, laying them at the foot of the bed with his shoes beneath them. Bakugou and Todoroki stood awkwardly watching by the door until she turned around and brought a hand to her mouth in surprise.
"Oh. You boys can go now. You've done more than enough. Besides, you have classes to attend to."
"With all due respect, I think we need to have a diagnosis to give our teacher." Todoroki joked as he thought of what the rest of the class must be witnessing with the three of them gone. Perhaps All Might was continuously breaking a new piece of chalk each time someone so much as coughed, thinking of the ill state of his favorite student.
"That man, he isn't supposed to play favorites but it's obvious, even to his other students!" She threw her hands in the air a little as she sat back down on the chair and rolled back to her desk, beginning to sort through emergency files, "Tell him the boy's fine. He can come by and see him when he's on his lunch break if he so desires."
"Very well. Thank you." Todoroki said as the two bowed out, beginning the trek back to the classroom. Bakugou was silent as he walked, the memory of the curly haired boy fitfully resting on that cot with a reddened face filling his mind.
"Damn nerd." He cursed under his breath.
"All Might-sensei, I'm sure Midoriya is just fine so-"
"Young Uraraka, of course he is! He can't be a hero is he allows a little illness to get him down. I'm not worried about him at all."
"But sir, we've done the same questions for ten minutes now."
The man was silent, his face still drawn in that beaming characteristic smile, his mind blank as sweat began to bead at his temple. Finally, he struck another one of his odd poses and let his chest rubble an array of words he had already used minutes ago.
"Never fret my young heroes! Review is always necessary. I'm merely trying to pound this into you for tomorrow's training course!"
"Sir, what will tomorrow's training be?"
"We are going to be doing something similar to what we did earlier in the year, but this time we will be having a third group of you act as the injured or civilians."
Iida folded his arms and sat back in his chair, pondering this for a minute while the rest of the class mulled it over.
"But won't that be especially hard for the villain team? I'm certain no one will be able to go full out if it means putting the others at actual risk."
"Perhaps we can just have Bakugou play the villain and have Midoriya play the civilians." Sero said as the door slid open, and immediately everyone's attention was there.
"Todoroki! Bakugou! How is Midoriya?" All Might asked, clapping his hands together before he extended his arms in greeting as the two walked inside.
"He's fine. Asleep right now but-"
"He threw up the moment we got to there. Weak ass punk."
Everyone stiffened as Bakugou trudged to his seat, bypassing All Might who had gone frozen at the words. Todoroki's mouth gaped open, but he quickly closed it in a stoic expression with his eyes firing lasers that could rivals Aoyama's. He mumbled something to All Might before he turned and went to his seat, just as the bell rang to signifying the changing of the period. All Might hurriedly gathered his things and bid his students a quick farewell just as Present Mic stormed into the classroom.
"There you are. Now, what did you make them do the other day that caused this?"
All Might quickly deflated as he entered Recovery Girl's office, returning to his emaciated form as he glanced away from the old woman.
"We didn't do anything intense. If anything, it was mild compared to what we normally have them do. I don't think that's what caused his fever."
"Perhaps, but I can't help but think that whenever he comes in here, you're connected some way or another." She frowned as she tucked a manila file back into the cabinet. The man shifted on his feet as he waited by the door, feeling too out of place to just walk forward. He could see a small piece of the gray blazer sticking out from behind the curtain, and the shadowed shoes hidden just under the bed were visible under the hem of the curtain as well. The boy must be asleep, he thought just as Recovery Girl stood.
"I called his mother."
"Wait, why?"
"To torment you. No, I just feel that it would be better if he was home right now. Of course with my quirk, he would be better in a matter of minutes, but I feel like I'm doing a disservice to the mother if I don't let her dote on him a little." She pulled back the curtain slowly, trying to avoid the loud ringing sound that could occur from the metal rings scraping the bar too fast. Toshinori pulled a chair over to the bedside and sat down, rolling up the sleeves of his suit as he stared at the boy. He had been mostly green in the classroom, vomiting and all, but now he was red. His freckled cheeks were stained with the feverish color of his blood as his mouth moved slowly to breathe hot and heavily out with strain. Beneath the blanket, Toshinori could see his small body, no longer made blocky by the heavy blazer.
He remembered when they trained on the beach together, the boy in the tank top struggling to use his scrawny arms to drag the heavy balls of metal across the sand. His heels dug into the ground, his eyes shut tight as he grinded his teeth in desperation. He was tiny, the boy was skinny and a little short for his age. Now, clad in his white button down, Toshinori could see the places where the sleeves sagged a little too much, where the extra fabric near the shoulders built up to hang the rest of the garment on his torso haphazardly. No amount of muscle could fix his natural stature.
Toshinori took his hand and pushed the bangs of the boy back, his hand flinching at the amount of heat radiating off his forehead. His brow furrowed as watched the boy squirm for a second, a chill running through him at the sudden touch, but then he relaxed against it.
"Are you sure a mother can fix this?" He asked, uncertainly.
"Of course. Mothers fix everything. Dads are supposed to be the ones who make the things that need fixing though." The old woman said as she dialed an extension on the phone, speaking softly into the receiver.
Toshinori breathed out a little smile and dragged his hand down by the boy's cheek, freezing when the boy rolled onto his side and pulled it closer to him, his own hands so warm and small even now. The man tossed his head back and shut his eyes for a moment, and let the silence wash over him as he felt the little breaths puff against his hand. He truly felt horrible. He hadn't realized the kid was sick, he hadn't seen the trash can or the box of tissues until it was too late. But even then he still could have said something, stopped the kid from embarrassing himself in front of the class. He did find it a little odd that Bakugou kept reading on when normally he would want to sit down as soon as possible, but now it made sense, well, sort of. The kid was a mess. He was easily excitable and energetic, but that was often quickly overshadowed by his yelps of surprise and flustered self. Anxious and self-conscious, the man could see years of what looked like being bullied by Bakugou had done to him, despite his declarations of his nickname having new light. Just last week, he had called him "dad" by accident, and now the kid had vomited in front of his classmates, technically twice. If he had picked up on the signs earlier, perhaps he could have done something small, gotten the kid to the nurse quicker. Surely, he would have refused, but it would have been something to have eased his conscious. Toshinori wasn't good at picking up on things, he may have been the top hero, but he wasn't very observant when it came to small things like this.
"She's coming into the school now. It would be best for you to transform." Recovery Girl spoke as she set the phone down, hanging it up. Toshinori sighed and opened his eyes, reluctantly standing and pulling his hand away from the sleeping boy's figure. He shut the curtain and stilled, changing back to his persona. The door slammed open seconds later, a middle aged woman with dark green hair bursting in with her bag flopping around her wrist as she teared up.
"Izuku!" She shouted and ran to the bed, whipping the curtain aside. Recovery Girl got up and walked past All Might to the woman, tapping her on the shoulder to garner her attention.
All Might watched as the woman listened, albeit a bit distracted by the sight of her sick son beside her. Recovery Girl spoke that it was but a mere fever and he would be good in a day or two. She continuously reassured the woman that he had not sustained any injuries, today, she had emphasized, turning to glare at All Might for a moment before returning to the mother once more. Upon this acknowledgement, the woman had paused at the presence of the man, recognizing him.
"You're the hero in all of Izuku's posters and action figures!" She announced, pointed at the man in awe. All Might chuckled heartily at this, imagining the sight of the boy's room. It wasn't hard, taking into account that hero notebook.
"Yes. I am one of his teachers here at Yuuei, All Might. I teach Foundational Hero Studies. It is a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Midoriya."
"No, no. The pleasure is all mine. Thank you for taking such good care of my son. Even before he met you, you've been his idol. I can't imagine how he would have gotten through all those years thinking he was quirkless without you."
All Might fought to keep smiling at that line.
The woman turned back to her son quickly, her hands gently shaking him awake lightly. The man watched as she cooed softly to him, urging him out of bed with much success. His eyes opened and panned over to the sight of his mother. Confused, he tried to sit up, but was taken out by his dizzying head. The woman helped steady him as she pulled back the sheets, lifting his legs to rotate him to the edge of the bed.
"Deku! I brought your bag!" A voice called out, and the four turned to the door of the office to see Uraraka out of breath, clutching the boy's bag in her hand.
"Oh, Izuku. Is that the girl you told me about?" His mother leaned in and whispered, snapping the boy out of his half asleep state.
"Mom!" He hissed out, his face reddening even more than it already was. Uraraka walked forward and handed the boy his bag, but it floated up when he tried to rest it on his lap. The mother watched with wide eyes as the girl scrambled her hands about for a moment before seeming to remembering how to release her quirk. The bag fell quickly, and All Might caught it while the boy slipped into his blazer, feeling chills rush through his figure once more now that he was without blankets. He took the bag from All Might and stuffed his tie inside, dug his feet into the indoor shoes before standing, wobbling around a little as he sniffled. Uraraka backed up by All Might, watching as his mother helped balance him and walked him towards the exit. All Might followed the two, guiding her and her sickly son to the shoe lockers so he could switch to his loafers. The woman leaned the boy against the wall and turned to the hero once more, bowing to him deeply before she stood and scratched her cheek nervously, glancing away.
"I can't even begin to express my gratitude towards you and how much I feel indebted to you."
"Mrs. Midoriya, there is no reason to feel indebted at all. Your son is a wonderful student. He's a pleasure to have in class. I'm only sad we have to see he leave so early in the day."
"As am I. I know he must be so upset that I'm taking him home. If he was a little more coherent, I'm certain he would protest. He didn't give you too much of a hard time about going to the nurse, did he? I know he likes to be stubborn, but when it comes to his health I fret over him a lot. Especially since the sports festival."
All Might tried to hold in his collapsing heart as he thought back to the boy's dismembered hand, how he continued to fight through the pain for the sake of Todoroki.
"I'm sorry for what occurred that day." All Might bowed to her, taking her by surprise, "As his mentor, we should have stopped the fight, but your son…By staying in that arena and torturing himself, believe it or not, he saved someone."
Now was different, he was being selfish, plain and simple. He didn't want to go to the nurse out of embarrassment, seeming to be helpless and having to go to Recovery Girl, yet again. All Might was certain that was the reason behind his stubbornness today.
"Oh, no! Don't apologize for that! It's not your fault in anyway."
Except it was.
Midoriya closed his locker, his shoes now on his feet and stumbled forward, tripping and slumping his face into the back of his mother.
"Moooom…." He groaned, wrapping an arm around his side. He seemed to not notice All Might, either that, or he was too miserable to care. His mother twisted around and moved her son beside her, taking his hand and beginning to drag him out of the building.
"Sorry, but I know he's going to be mad later if I don't get him home now and he wakes up still sick tomorrow. Goodbye!" She called as she pulled her son along, heading towards the parking lot as her son staggered about like a tangled marionette puppet.
All Might lingered a little in the lobby of the school, staring down the path that led to the gate of the school. Remnants of cherry blossoms twirled in the wind before they were struck down by the fired arrows of a drizzling rain. All Might watched as the mother and son stopped at the gate of the school, his mother standing on her toes to press a kiss to his forehead while he held his bangs out of the way, glancing away as the light droplets of water began to poke at his skin. The mother pulled away and laughed, leading her son by the hand through the gates.
If mothers fix everything…