Aizawa was the only one that was free at the moment to bring Midoriya back to the dorms, and even though Nezu was sitting on his shoulder, ready to calm Midoriya down should he wake up, each step he took in the direction of the dorms was a nerve-racking one. Inui would bring over Nezu's work in a few minutes; he was having a meeting with a couple of external counselors, and he wanted to discuss with Nezu what would be appropriate for helping Midoriya.
Aizawa was honestly afraid that Midoriya would wake up before they got to the dorms; sleeping medicine is clearly less effective on him, and Midoriya, while he wouldn't attack normally, was actually dangerous when he was panicking. He carefully pushed the door to the dorms open and placed Midoriya down on the couch. He placed a cushion under Midoriya's head, and Nezu settled down by the edge of the sofa, making himself comfortable.
Midoriya barely even stirred, and Aizawa excused himself to finish sorting out all his paperwork.
Nezu turned around, reaching out to gently ruffle Midoriya's hair, before taking out his phone to check up on the security systems. Reiko and Ryuto just settled down by the crook of Midoriya's arm.
It didn't take too long for Inui to pop into the 1-A dorms, placing Nezu's paperwork down on the table, before settling down on one of the other chairs.
"Nezu... I think you're going to have to talk to him, one way or another." Inui shook his head, "He may not show any signs of mental trauma... but it's definitely there. He's just hiding it, refusing to believe that it's a problem, and if we just wait until he asks for help... it's going to be too late. He's barely holding himself together now, even before his kidnapping... even if he believes that this isn't a problem, even if he doesn't show any signs of trauma, it's all there, lying beneath the surface. I know that we can't push him... not with all his other issues, but we need to find a balance between all this somehow."
"I know that, Hound Dog..." Nezu sighed, "I'm not going to push Izuku to talk. Give him time, let him decide what he wants to do for now. Right now, letting him feel that he's safe is the most important, and pushing him to talk isn't going to help his situation at all. I don't know how he'll be when he wakes up; Hatsume probably didn't do him any favours. I'll talk to him about what happened in the past, but only when the time is right."
"Understood. Midoriya has a lot of issues... and he's had them for a long time. Just calling it PTSD is simplifying it. We'll have to sort through everything slowly... but right now... it's better that he trusts you, and some of his classmates." Inui nodded.
Unlike the rest of 1-A, Iida wasn't too surprised to see Nezu sitting with Midoriya on the couch, working through some documents. Aizawa had already informed them that Midoriya was resting in the dorms after Hatsume had practically pounced on him, but they really hadn't been expecting the principal to be the one keeping an eye on Midoriya.
Then again, they had heard about how Midoriya was often pulled out of lessons to speak to Nezu while he had been in the General Education course, and how Nezu had specifically sought Midoriya out that one time in the cafeteria before the Sports Festival, and that other time after the attack on UA, where Nezu had been accompanying Midoriya in the infirmary. It made sense, in a way, that Nezu had taken some sort of liking to Midoriya.
Being the only one aware of Nezu's relationship to Midoriya, Iida spoke up, "Um... Nezu-sensei... how is Midoriya?"
"Ah... he's fine now. Recovery Girl healed him up. He just needs some rest to regain the energy she drained, before taking it easy to let the rest of his body recover. At the moment, there shouldn't be any outstanding problems." Nezu looked up, replying, before looking back at his paperwork.
"Alright, we were given English and Mathematics homework, so we should all get that done by tonight." Iida whirled around and ordered almost immediately, taking care to not raise his voice, "Who's in charge of dinner tonight?"
"Aoyama, Shoji and I." Sato spoke up, "I forgot to ask, does anyone have any allergies?"
No one had any major allergies, and Iida chopped his arms, "Great! Dinner will be at six at night. I expect that everyone should have finished their homework by then. If you have any trouble, feel free to ask us for help!"
Most of the students had already left the common room before Iida had finished talking, and Nezu let out a small chuckle as Iida groaned frustratedly. The only ones left besides Iida were Shinsou, Uraraka, Koda and Todoroki. Uraraka and Shinsou walked over to the couch, taking a quick look at Midoriya.
Todoroki looked up, "We tried to collect Midoriya's homework... but Mic-sensei said that Midoriya's english was fine and he could skip his homework, and Ectoplasm-sensei said that Midoriya doesn't have to do the current worksheet we're working on since it wasn't applicable to him anyways."
"I mean... he is the top in the class for almost every single subject." Uraraka grumbled, "Skipping some homework is fine, and it wasn't even his fault! It was those stupid villains that injured him so badly."
"Izuku... at the moment, he can't write, so he can't do homework anyways. His hands were damaged that badly." Nezu admitted, "Izuku's a stubborn child, and physical therapy isn't going to be a problem. But Izuku does have a tendency to hide his pain, and put up a facade that everything's fine."
Nezu looked up at the students, "Izuku trusts you. I can't be around all the time to keep an eye on him... and once he's outside UA's walls, I can't protect him. Please, I ask this of you, take care of him when I can't."
The students froze. Now it made sense why Nezu was around Midoriya all the time.
Nezu had practically adopted the green bean.
"We're all his friends. We'll do our best." Shinsou nodded, and Nezu gave them a small smile.
Midoriya shifted slightly, pushing his face into a cushion, before blinking in confusion.
Hadn't he just been in the infirmary?
He sat up groggily, recognising the room as the common room in the 1-A dorms, before turning to look at the principal that he was currently sharing the couch with.
"Hello, Izuku. Feeling better?" Nezu asked, and Midoriya nodded, still trying to figure out what was going on. He knew that Hatsume had jumped on him, Shinsou had brought him to the infirmary, where Shuzenji had most likely drained his energy and made him pass out. Nezu had probably gotten a teacher to bring him back to the dorms, and that, oddly enough, bothered him.
A lot.
Midoriya never really liked his teachers. Every single teacher in elementary and middle school pretty much hated him and called him a troublemaker all the time. It had gotten better when he entered UA, but he still wasn't too sure about all his teachers.
Yamada was way too loud for his liking. Ectoplasm and Snipe had, on several occasions, impeded his escape from the infirmary and the hospital room. Aizawa could have pretty much kill him at any time with his Erasure quirk, and Yagi was an idiot that would have killed him and his friends on several occasions; when the League had attacked UA, and by fighting with All for One and almost making the building fall on them several times. Not to mention that Yagi is retired, and it was only because he had been kidnapped. Ishiyama was nice enough, and hadn't stopped him from escaping from the hospital room, the guy was literally made of concrete; Midoriya had to admit, it wasn't really Ishiyama's fault, but he really was starting to dislike anything that had almost fallen on him.
Kayama was by far the worst, though. Midoriya had tolerated her; she was pretty loud in class, and while her quirk was useful against heroes, Midoriya just generally hated anything that induced sleep. Anesthesia, sleep medicine, anything. Shuzenji's quirk drained someone's energy to heal them, and that was understandable, but Midoriya would much rather be smacked on the head with a sledgehammer and be knocked out that way than to slowly lose the ability to move.
Nezu smiled at him, "That's great. I'm glad. Nothing's broken, luckily; Recovery Girl said that you should just rest."
Reiko leapt up to Midoriya's shoulder, and licked Midoroya's cheek, and Nezu continued, "We've already warned Hatsume to be careful around you... is there anything else that you think we should do?"
Midoriya blinked, and shook his head. It was his own fault that Hatsume had leapt on him; he knew that Hatsume was enthusiastic, and had sensed her presence, but was too slow to get out of the way. If he had reacted fast enough, this wouldn't have happened. He hated being so weak and useless.
He needed to start training again.
"Not her fault. I didn't react... fast enough." Midoriya muttered, and Nezu shook his head, "You're still recovering, Izuku. You need to rest. Everything that goes wrong isn't your fault, you know. We didn't tell the other classes about your condition for safety reasons... but either way, she should not have pounced on you like that."
Midoriya just looked at him in mild confusion, before he was distracted by Ryuto nuzzling his cheek.
Nezu could only look at Midoriya helplessly, thinking.
How else he could get him to understand that it was not his fault at all?
Midoriya sluggishly trudged back to his room, trying and failing to stifle a yawn. He slowly walked up the stairs, too lazy to wait for the elevator to come all the way down from the top floor, and pushed open the door to his room. He flung himself on the bed, not even bothering to change, before he flipped himself over.
He was weak.
He wasn't allowed to participate in training, he either wasn't given homework or wasn't allowed to do his homework, and he could barely even finish a tiny bowl of soup. His entire body was refusing to cooperate with him; his ribs and chest were still sore, his legs were aching horribly, his hands shook even while he was trying to eat, his fingers were stiff, and he could barely even hold a pen or a spoon properly without anything hurting at all.
Midoriya stared at the ceiling, as Reiko curled up by his neck, meowing. Ryuto snuggled up next to her, poking Midoriya's nose, and the green haired boy groaned. He turned to face his cat, sighing, "Why am I so useless?"
Reiko growled, lightly smacking Midoriya on the cheek, before nuzzling the boy, purring.
"Don't try to tell me otherwise, Rei. I literally can't do anything in this state. No one cares if someone needs to recover... there's too many things going on for everyone to be bothered about one person." Midoriya muttered, trying to will away the nausea that was starting to bubble up from nowhere.
"I need to get stronger. I can't stay like this."
Koda and Midoriya walked to the pet rescue center, and while he was sure that Shinsou and Uraraka weren't working there, the duo were somehow accompanying them. Nezu and Koda had already informed the pet rescue center of Midoriya's situation, and they had managed to rearrage the time slots so that Midoriya and Koda could have their shifts together. Midoriya was definitely bored, cooped up in the dorms, not being able to train, or do pretty much anything at all, but Nezu was okay with him going out as long as he wasn't doing anything stressful, and was with a couple of friends to protect him.
Not like he needed to be protected. If he got hurt, that was his fault. Then again, Nezu probably didn't want another kidnapping incident, like what had happened at the training camp.
Koda turned towards the lavender haired boy, signing quickly, before Shinsou gave a small laugh.
"Oh, my dad said that I could get a cat when I moved into the dorms... and I figured it was better to adopt one than to just buy one from a breeder. They're expensive, and there are a lot of cats that need new homes."
Uraraka frowned, "Does Aizawa-sensei know about this?"
Shinsou nodded, "Yep. Got permission from him. I mean... Koda has a rabbit, Midoriya has a bird and a cat, and even Tokage has a pet iguana. He said that as long as the cat doesn't make a mess and doesn't bother anyone too much, he couldn't really care less. Are you looking for anything, Uraraka?"
Uraraka laughed, "Nah. Just curious. Having a pet must be nice, though... I don't think I would want to own one until I have a job, though. Maybe a couple fish; they won't get lonely if I'm out heroing all the time. By the way, where are Reiko and Ryuto? I figured they'd be with Midoriya... but they're not."
"Oh. Sato's with them, as well as Fuwa and Haku. I think he wanted to see if they have any preferences, and if there's any foods he should avoid given how they join us at the dining table sometimes." Shinsou replied.
Fuwa was Koda's rabbit, and Haku was Tokage's iguana, and while Midoriya did feel slightly uneasy without Reiko and Ryuto, he pushed it away. He could deal with that on his own; making sure that they didn't get sick was more important.
It didn't take them too long to get to the pet rescue center, and Koda and Midoriya led Shinsou directly to the cats section. Shinsoy crouched down, and looked at the felines, as Koda and Midoriya sifted through the drawers for the files with the information on all the cats.
Most of the cats just outrightly ignored Shinsou, though there was white and cream coloured cat, a flame point ragdoll, to be precise, who had seemingly taken an interest to the lavender haired boy. It was shy, though, opting to remain in the shadows, observing Shinsou with its cyan eyes.
Shinsou looked at the cat curiously, and the ragdoll cat just stared back at him. Shinsou took a look at Koda, and the quiet boy gently opened its cage. The ragdoll cat carefully walked out, sniffing the ground, and Shinsou reached out his hand slowly. The cat flinched slightly, and Shinsou paused, letting the cat choose whether to proceed or turn back.
The ragdoll stared at Shinsou, then at his hand, before slowly, taking a step closer, then another step. It took a few more steps closer, sniffing the lavender haired boy's hand, before rubbing itself against his leg.
"Awnn!" Uraraka grinned, as Shinsou carefully picked the cat up, bringing it to eye level. The ragdoll cat let out a small meow, and Shinsou stood up, cradelling it, before he turned to Koda and Midoriya.
"Who's this? I think I'm choosing... him? Her? I can't tell." Shinsou asked, and Koda quickly identified the cat and flipped to its page, before passing the folder over to Shinsou, as Midoriya easily broke apart a fight that had been started between two of the other cats that were sharing a cage.
Uraraka peeked over his shoulder out of curiosity, as Shinsou easily carried the cat with one arm.
"Huh, a stray? Was found on the center's doorstep, gender, male, five years old. And he's a flame point ragdoll. Cool. Says here that he doesn't get along with the other cats... but he seems okay with me." Shinsou grinned, "You think I can keep him?"
Koda nodded, quickly grabbing the necessary papers for Shinsou to fill out, as Midoriya peered at Shinsou's new cat. It didn't take too long for Shinsou to finish filling out the papers, and he quickly picked out some cat food. Reiko didn't really eat all the canned food, and Shinsou wasn't too sure what his new cat would like, so he decided to go for something generic, before trying new stuff out. If he had any questions on how to take care of any pets, he could just ask Midoriya, Koda, or even Tokage; plus, he's already experienced in taking care of cats; Aizawa owned two cats, and they did move to the dorms with him, but they were lazy and preferred to just hang around in his room instead of roaming around.
Midoriya stepped away from Shinsou, going up to the cashier to ring up his products, before he turned around, and asked quietly, "Name?"
Shinsou gave a small frown, and looked at his cat, and laughed sheepishly, "I... didn't think of one yet?"
He lifted the cat into the air, staring at him, before he hummed, "I'll call you Shirou, then. You like it?"
The cat gave a small purr, before licking Shinsou's hand, and the lavender haired boy laughed, "I think he doesn't mind too much. Shirou it is, then."
Midoriya just wondered if Reiko would like the new addition to the dorms. She hadn't minded too much to the addition of Ryuto, and she seemed to like Haku and Fuwa, though she definitely did not get along too well with other cats.