Partnership

Perhaps things wouldn't have panned out the way they had had Izuku not happened to be walking back to the dorms by himself. If not for the fact that he had been motivated to get back to his room as quickly as possible. If not for the fact that Iida had still been explaining logarithms to Uraraka when the bell had rung, (a concept they wouldn't have to learn until they were third years, nonetheless). They weren't even that far behind him. It was no big deal really. It just so happened that a hero/villain fight had taken place during class and he wanted to analyze all of the footage of the incident for his research and add more to his collection of notes on the powers, abilities and strategies of the heroes he admired. It was his own form of studying. For future reference, of course. It all seemed like a grand coincidence that the circumstances allowed for this. Or perhaps the universe was simply determined to watch him get socked in the face.

Which is exactly what happened. So focused had he been on his own theories on how the fight might have played out based on his already acquired information about both the hero and the headline he had glanced at on his phone under his desk when he had gotten the silent notification that he looked up to notice his surrounding properly once he was nearly at the door to the first year dorms. That was followed by noticing two people waiting by the doors, followed by making eye contact with the one looking at him, followed by registering the sudden anger on the other's face, followed by fist to face.

Not only did Izuku hardly have time to react, but registering that the other person looked to be a girl, he made the split second decision to just take the punch. It hurt, of course, but it didn't even knock him back. This "conversation" was summarily finished with, "You must be a fucking idiot," said so that maybe only he could hear it.

Three things happened in reaction to this, none of which had anything to do with Izuku himself. Uraraka and Iida started to hurry to his side with distressed concern on their faces, the person next to the girl, a man, turned away as if embarrassed to be seen with the assailant, and said assailant slapped her hand onto Izuku's face and kept it there as if she were trying to cover up his face so she wouldn't have to look at it.

From an outsider's perspective, this looked bad. It looked entirely idiotic. A situation like this could only be understood by the universe itself. Izuku was meeting these people for the first time, unexpectedly at that. Yet even still, there was more to be understood by the insiders. The girl was clearly about Izuku's age, and the man, clearly much older. They both had laminated passes with the word visitor hanging from their necks. Her hand left his face when the man patted the girl's head and made to leave without looking at the situation.

"I'm going back to the principal's office."

"Deku-kun!"

"Midoriya-kun!"

"Are you all right?!" Izuku's two closest friends asked nearly simultaneously as they got close. He started to look over at them and open his mouth to try and communicate what he was experiencing but both parties were cut off from each other.

As Iida reached out to touch Izuku's shoulder, the girl violently slapped his hand away. "Don't fuckin' touch him!" she shouted at both Iida and Uraraka.

There was a moment when no one did anything, too stuck in shock. That moment passed the second Uraraka's frown turned from concerned to pissed. She was going to say something. She had placed her hands on her hips in a defensive stance meant to communicate at a frequency only girls could interpret. However, the look on Izuku's face as his wrist was grabbed and he was dragged off between her and Iida made her stop. He was completely willing to go along with her. Not a trace of discomfort or anxiety was found in his eyes.

So they let him go. They were stupefied. Cemented and too heavy footed to go after him. Something about it gave the air of "let it be," and then interrogate Izuku later.

Izuku knew how this looked. Oh, he was fully aware. It's just that he was curious. The moment she stuck her hand to his face, the pain from the slight bruising her punch had given him was gone. Not just that though, the soreness of his muscles, even the usual pain in his joints was absent. He felt great. Actually, he felt fantastic. He wasn't bone tired like he was when Recovery Girl heals him, he was energized. He felt like he could train for days straight without having to worry about holding back for the sake of his body. Not that the still-working rational part of his brain would let him do that, even in this elated state.

The, perhaps, irrational part of his brain though was taking him on a journey following this walking problem a step ahead of him. He would have to do damage control later to attempt to clear up all the obviously-gonna-happen misunderstandings. Uraraka and Iida weren't the only ones they were in clear view of after all. The other students of his class had either stopped to watch or watched as they kept walking.

He was almost in a daze. That is, until the girl briefly stopped as they were passing Izuku's childhood friend. He didn't care what Katsuki thought about this, he just didn't particularly like being around him in general. But the thought that Katsuki might actually react to this was a bit intriguing. Watching her back, Izuku couldn't really tell, but it looked to him like they just stared at each other for a beat before both moving on.

He decided to start observing her closely. She led him back into the school and down a couple hallways before finding one that had cleared out. She let his wrist go and turned to him. Her face was meeker than before.

"I know that now that I've done all that you have no reason to listen to me, but I came here to meet with you specifically. It's for official business..." she glanced to the side, "of sorts. I deeply regret my actions. Please at least hear me out." She bowed to him.

Still awe-struck from strangeness, he didn't say anything to her. She eventually straightened herself. She looked very uncomfortable.

"Please?" she asked again.

He realized he had been frozen but made no outward show of this and instead purposefully made her wait before, "Okay."

She relaxed a little and pulled a key from her pocket. "This needs to be discussed in private, wanna go up to the roof?"

This actually forced Izuku to give her an expression. "Did you get permission to go up there?" he asked rightly.

"Nope."

He looked anxious because now he had to try and convince her to do the right thing. "Uh, then we should just find somewhere else to talk. Closed doors are more private than out in the open anyway," he tried his best not to look forceful.

She turned standoffish. "The principal won't punish me for something like this even without the permission. And he won't punish you for it as long as you're with me. He knows what's going on, my teacher and him agreed to let us meet however we see fit," she firmly held her position.

He thought about what she said as she was saying it and already had a response in reaction. "However you see fit. You know what's going on while I don't, allowing you to choose the terrain wouldn't make me a smart hero."

"Well I'm not a hero and I'm not here to fight you. I told you, it's business… of sorts."

There, she did it again. "Of sorts?" This was asked as a genuine question not an accusation. He can't control how she takes it though.

"Just don't worry so much about it all and come with me."

Again, you could say it was the irrational part of his brain at work, but he was still curious. He nodded to her and started to lead the way. She probably didn't know where the stairs that led up to the roof were anyway. Once on the roof, she made it a point to lock the door behind them. She sat down and leaned against the wall that covered the top of the stairs. She sighed loudly and was severely upset. Inwardly, if Izuku was reading her correctly.

"Ishise Honoka," she held up her hand for him to shake.

He took it, "Midoriya Izuku."

She promptly pulled him to the floor.

"I guess I'll sit," he let her have her way.

Now that they were eye level, she leaned towards him, "Ugh! That was so embarrassing! I had no idea he went to this school! Do you know him? I don't remember his surname, but, Katsuki?"

He could suddenly see what was coming. He felt like she was talking to him the way a girl would talk to another girl. Way to show him his place in her eyes. "Um, yeah," he thought better of calling him Kacchan in front of her.

"Do you think that ruined my chances with him?"

There it is. If he hadn't seen it coming, his brain might have short circuited. "Uh… yeah, probably." He didn't really see how anyone had a chance with Katsuki in the first place.

"Aww." She deflated a bit more. She took a moment and gathered herself. Looking him in the eye, "I'm sorry I hit you and probably embarrassed you. I'm studying to be a doctor, specifically for heroes. I had read your medical history, the parts that are not case sensitive, but when I saw the scars on your arms and hands, I was angry. Um, the reason I was reading up on your medical history… as well as that of others," she added, "is because I'm going to be a part of a group of physicians that specialize in the treatment of just one person. The person I chose first is you because of what I read about how you keep injuring yourself." She paused as if hesitating. "Before I can continue to explain my purposes, I'd like to ask you to promise not the tell anyone about what you hear. I'm not asking you to commit to do anything, it's still just listening at this point."

She waited. Izuku could tell she was earnest in this at least.

"I promise," he said simply.

"Okay," she gave him the smallest of smiles. "There are people whose quirks are top secret because of how easily they can be taken advantage of. And there are physicians who dedicate themselves to practicing only for a hero. I have a quirk that can be used to heal people, and since I can't let that be known, I decided to become a physician for a person I can trust. I read about how your quirk hurts you when you used it, but that you continue to use it because you want to become a hero who can save people. At that point, it was more than just your medical history," she looked away. "Your circumstances are exactly the type of thing secret personal physicians are for. Heroes that have a high probability of injuring themselves because of their own quirks, or the nature of their quirks means that they have to be injured to use them. It's a secret so that villains don't exploit this weakness in the hero. When matching up hero and doctor, we're supposed to look for someone who needs exactly what we can give them. I think I can help you. And I want to help you."

Izuku listened and thought. "If I agreed, what would that mean?"

She thought about her words. "We… would be… partners for life. Or retirement, whichever one comes first. I would use my quirk when needed, but I'm also actually studying medicine, and I would also try to help come up with ways to prevent injury. For now it would mean I would come see you after school and maybe on the weekends. We would just mostly need to spend time together so that I could train my quirk to suit your needs. You have your provisional license, right? I have the equivalent for doctors. I need field training like you do. I can't help you fight in the traditional way, but I'll do my best to make sure you can always continue to fight."

She sounded like she was proposing a lot more than that. Though Izuku didn't think she even realized what it sounded like. He knew she didn't mean it that way.

Izuku took it in and thought about it. He had already started coming up with ways to keep fighting on his own. It cost him his arms though. Recovery Girl's abilities are limited to what his body can take. He knows all this. He's thought about this a lot. He's also realized that no matter what her abilities are, he doesn't want a do-over. Do-overs will never make him progress the same way failure pure and sweet will. So to get a clear picture, he wanted to know her side.

"Ishise-san—"

"No, no, no. Please, just Honoka," she interrupted. She looked ready to take a punch.

"Honoka-san, what motivation do you have for this?"

She looked a bit dumbfounded before responding. "I… I could live a normal life, and have a normal job doing normal things. I would hide and people would just think I'm quirkless. But to never use my quirk, to never heal someone when I very well could, a part of me would be denied. I can't help people directly because that would put myself and others at risk. But if I could help one person in secret, one person who helps other people, I can still serve the purpose I feel is mine. While you become a hero, I'll become a guardian."

He thought he might understand her feelings. The way he feels compelled by instinct to save and protect even when he's weak and useless, it's that feeling.

"Honoka-san, I trust you," he stated firmly. "I'll agree to this if you can promise me you won't just give me do-overs. I still need to be able to learn from failure."

She looked confused. "My quirk doesn't exactly work like that, but either way, if you lose in battle, you lose. We're not talking about time travel, I'll just save your body so that you can use it to try again if need be."

Somehow, she'd convinced him he needs this. "Deal," he held out his hand.

She took it and this time she actually shook it. She smiled, "So I'll tell you how my quirk works if you tell me about Katsuki."

This would probably be easier with an adult.


A/N: I'm not sure if this is all that enjoyable as is but I wrote this as a distraction for something else I'm writing and thought it was pretty useless if it just sat on my hard drive. I wanted to get creative with abilities without creating an entire world (this time), so voila!