As soon as Ichigo was out of the room, Izuku started to freak out. He hadn't meant to upset her. He really, really hadn't. He'd only wanted to know whether or not she planned to attend UA or not. And yet...

"Dammit." He breathed, his tone angry and full of loathing as he felt his sensei's hand slowly move from his wrist to his shoulder where it settled there and squeezed ever so slightly in what was supposed to be a comforting manner.

"Calm down kid." Aizawa said gently. Understanding all too well what the boy must be thinking of himself right then. Even he hadn't expected something like the story that Ichigo had just told them. He probably should have, but somewhere in the back of his mind- he had desperately hoped that she'd had a fairy tail kind of childhood before everything had gone straight to shit.

Now he knew just how stupid it was of him to have clung to that futile hope. And knowing about her father, and the other guy and how she had been treated and such absolutely made him fucking furious and sick to his stomach.

Christ. No wonder she wanted nothing to do with being a hero.

She probably believed that it was just another way to use her as a weapon. And while she wouldn't be entirely wrong. She wouldn't exactly be right either. At least he hoped not.

"I didn't mean to upset her like that." Izuku finally said after several heartbeats of internal seething.

"I know." Was all that Shouta could think to say in an effort to assure the boy that he wasn't angry at him. Hell, he very much doubted that Ichigo was mad at him either.

He was quickly learning that his not-daughter was a very calm and laid back person. Who was also very, very understanding about things, even when she shouldn't be. She must have had a considerable amount of practicing forgiveness between the training/abuse and everything else. Shouta thought darkly to himself as he grit his teeth together until his jaw hurt.

Sighing, he finally glanced over at Toshi and noted that his mental state wasn't any better than his own or Izuku's. The man was beyond pissed. He was fucking livid. And Shouta had no doubt that if Ichigo's father and the other guy had been standing in front of the blond right then, he would have torn them both to pieces with his bare hands.

As far as the two men went, such behavior towards a defenseless child was beyond inexcusable. It was utterly appalling.

"I guess that you plan to crash here tonight Toshi?" Shouta asked as the man tried desperately to keep himself form transforming right there and taking his fury out on his helpless kitchen.

"I will." He didn't have to tell Shouta that he was planning to stick around and help keep an eye on Ichigo. His friend already knew, and didn't seem to mind. If anything with her previous history of trying to kill herself and such- an extra pair of eyes on her would be a relief.

Especially since it meant that she wouldn't have much of a chance to do anything stupid to herself.

"Sensei...I want to stay too." Izuku said, but Shouta merely shook his head no. He didn't want to boy there just in case something happened that was...ugly.

It would hurt him. And he would blame himself more than he already did.

"No."

"But-"

"No, Izuku!" Shouta snapped at him when he started to argue. Izuku recoiled from him as if he'd just slapped him and Shouta needed to take a moment to calm himself before then saying in a much softer tone, "You need to go home. You're mother is expecting you soon. Besides, Toshi and I will keep an eye on her tonight. But I really don't think that she's going to do more than sleep. So try to stop worrying so much."

Izuku curled his fingers into tight fists at his sides and nodded his head curtly, hating that his sensei's were trying to get him to leave when he might be needed when he heard Aizawa say softly, "You call me tomorrow around ten am or so- And if she's feeling better then you can come over and see her. And I'll take you both out to the local park and let you run around and do...problem child stuff as long as it doesn't cause anybody any trouble. Okay?"

Izuku chewed his bottom lip for a moment as he mulled over Aizawa's words before nodding his head again, figuring that it was the best offer that his sensei would be able to give him right now.

Toshi got up out of his seat and grabbed some tupperware to put some of Izuku's share of the food that Ichigo had made for them in, so that he could take it home and eat later. And not long after that, Izuku headed home for the night.

Once he was gone, the two men made quick work of dividing up/putting the food away for the time being and then retiring to the living room where they spent more than half the night alternating between just talking, and taking turn's checking up on Ichigo to make sure that she was really okay.

Ichigo didn't sleep worth a damn.

She spent most of her night tossing and turning and trying desperately not to give in to nightmares. It had gotten so bad that after the first few hours or so- she'd finally given up trying to get any damn rest and had simply lain on her bed and stared up at the ceiling until she'd seen the first few pink-orange rays of light filtering through her bedroom window.

After that, she had gotten up. Or out of her bed at least. Well- sort of anyways.

But she hadn't left her room. To be perfectly honest, she wasn't even sure if she was supposed too after upsetting everyone the night before. Especially at dinner time. Even more so after all of that hard work that she'd done.

If her dad had been alive, he would have slapped her out of her chair for daring to ruin everyone's appetites and waste food.

Scrunching up her nose a little bit at her own thoughts, she completely missed the bedroom door being opened a little bit and a pair of dark eyes peeking through the small sliver to check on her.

Shouta wasn't sure what to make of her behavior yet this morning. He and Toshi had practically stayed up all night keeping watch over her, just in case.

And then this morning around breakfast time, after they'd both consumed enough coffee to have their hearts explode in their chests- they'd anxiously waited for her to come out of her room and join them in eating some of the leftovers from the dinner that she worked so hard on... Only for her to be a no-show?

They'd both exchanged a look and Toshi had asked if maybe she had simply slept in late. But here she was awake. Looking more than a little bit sleep deprived herself, and staring blankly ahead at absolutely nothing. Which was...frigging worrying to him since he didn't know if this was normal or even typical behavior for her or not.

And that kind of worried him even more.

Quickly weighing the pro's and con's, he decided to go ahead and see if he could coax her out.

Knocking lightly on the door to announce his presence, he waited until she reacted and told him to come in, before doing so. Once he had her permission to enter, he pushed the door open a little bit more and stepped into the room and gently closed the door behind him.

"Hey."

"Hey." She said back as he shifted a little bit uncomfortably under the weight of her stare.

"Do you plan to come out and...maybe eat something? There's plenty of leftovers from last night. And Toshi is nearly chomping at the bit to see you." He said in a soft, coaxing tone.

Ichigo sighed and just slightly ducked her head before saying, "Yeah. Sure." As she slowly got up off of her bed and walked over to him, letting him place a hand on the small of her back and usher her towards the door with a soft nudge. He studied her covertly, from underneath his lashes while she wasn't paying any attention to him.

She seemed to be depressed.

He couldn't exactly blame her. After all she had relived some very bad things from her childhood.

Though he didn't really understand why this seemed to bother her far more than the things that she showed them, the day that they met. They had in many ways been much worse than what she had told them all last night. Walking down the hallway close behind her, Shouta had to keep nudging her ever so slightly to keep her moving when it looked as if she were going to start dragging her feet.

Once they were past the living room, and could hear Toshi puttering around in the kitchen, Shouta maneuvered her towards there so that Toshi would be able to see her. Since he'd been wound up tighter than a spring for the past few hours and his anxiousness was finally starting to get the best of him.

"Look who's up and finally out of her room!" He called out, trying to make his tone light. Hoping that Ichigo's mood would lighten up some if she was closer to Toshi since the two seemed to get along and all.

Toshi was in the middle of stacking/unstacking his dishes again when they walked in. And damn near dropped about a dozen or so of his glass plates on top of his own head when he saw Ichigo.

"Ichi-"

"Dammit, Toshinori put my fucking dishes down before you break them!"

Toshi set his dishes down on the counter in a hurry, and still managed to break at least one. And then wound up staring at the two of them frozen like a deer-caught-in-the-headlights for a heartbeat or two before Ichigo finally snorted in amusement and hid her face for a second.

Both men seemed to breathe a little sigh of relief for the moment. As Shouta gave the girl one last nudge and then went to go and grab his broom so that he could clean up the glass before Toshi hurt himself trying to pick it up.

Ichigo didn't know exactly what her guardian wanted from her, but she could take a hint and sat herself down at the island out of the way, while the two men worked to clean up the small mess before then returning their attention to her.

"How about some leftovers for breakfast?" Shouta suggested in an smooth tone as he dumped the last of the glass in the trash. "You didn't eat any last night and considering how much you probably need the calories-"

"Sure."

"Okay-"

"I'll get it for you Ichigo!" Toshi said in a heroic 'All Might-ish' manner as he made a quick beeline for Shouta's fridge before the other man could even remember to call out that he better not break anymore of his stuff as he made haste in grabbing everything out of the fridge and fixing Ichigo a nice helping of everything.

Not really caring or not whether she'd actually eat it as long as she ate something.

Putting the dishes down in front of her, he then handed her a fork and then sat down across from her so that he could monitor how much she decided to eat.

Which wasn't creepy at all.

Though it seemed to elicit a shake of the girl's head before she started to tuck into her meal and pointedly ignored the man for the moment before he finally seemed to gather up enough courage to ask her if she was okay.

Ichigo paused, eating for a moment to cast him a slightly nervous look before then replying that she was fine as she resumed eating. Toshi looked towards where Shouta was hanging out for the moment and noted that his friend didn't seem to be buying her lie anymore than he did.

"Ichigo…" Shouta started to call her on her lie. But stopped when Toshi cast him a slight warning look.

"I'm fine. Really," Ichigo insisted as she finished polishing off what was left of her meal. "All I did was share stuff that's best left alone. It's not like any of it really-" She stopped talking when she felt one of the men wrap his arms around her, and had to hold herself perfectly still and not try to struggle to be let free again.

If she struggled she'd either hurt him or she'd hurt herself.

So staying still was good. Right?

Besides it wasn't as if the concept of a comforting or protective embrace was entirely foreign to her. She'd used it far too many times on others for it to be. Still... She didn't know what to do with this. She was used to always being the one who initiated. Not received.

So she was sort of at a loss as to how to...react.

"It's okay to be sad. Speaking so openly about what happened to you last night- must have been incredibly difficult for you. You were so brave. But you don't have to be brave all the time, kid. No one expects you to really feel like yourself right now. And no one will hold it against you any if you're depressed for a little while either." Shouta said softly, his lips close to her ear.

Ichigo seemed to mull over his words as Toshi chimed in with his own opinion. "Shouta is right. You were incredibly brave last night to share something so dark with us despite you're nervousness and anxiety. But you don't have to put up a front around us and pretend that you're alright. You can be upset. We don't mind."

"Taking care of you, protecting you, making sure that you're okay- that's our job, kid. Not the other way around. I'm sorry that no one ever really stepped up and told you that before. But it's the truth. So...it's okay to not be okay. Just as long as it doesn't last forever." Shouta said as he straightened his spine a little bit so that he could rest his cheek on top of her head as he felt the first of what most likely would be many, many tears, fall onto his hands.