It was their first day back and Hitoshi was nervous. Despite knowing that there were only a handful of people at the school who knew about the raid, outside of the teachers of course, he was worried that someone was going to make comments about his part in the circumstances leading to Sir. Nighteye's death.
With Kacchan and Zuku having spent the night in the dorms this meant that he was walking to school by himself. It wasn't as if it was the first time he'd done the route on his own so he didn't really mind it, the walk was peaceful and sometimes it was nice to clear his head.
Arriving at the main school building, navigating the corridors thankfully didn't end up bringing anything new and so he finally found himself in the locker room. Taking a seat on the bench he began to finish the homework for Ectoplasm-sensei's class that he hadn't been able to solve the night before.
"Hey, Tosh."
He looked up to see his cousins enter, the two of them walked over to go chat with Kirishima.
Toshi heard someone softly clear their throat behind him.
"Good morning Hitoshi and welcome back. As class representative of Class 1-A it is part of my duties to make sure that you are okay."
Hitoshi smiled.
'FRIEND TOO' He signed before realising that his classmate wouldn't understand what he was saying.
This was further cemented by how Tenya looked over in Zuku's direction, his cousin noticing this and walking over.
"What did you sign, Toshi?"
Hitoshi repeated the sign.
"Oh he says you're his friend too."
The youngest Iida brother seemed caught off-guard by the remark before a smile came to his face.
"Very well then, it appears then that it is also part of my duties as your friend, and I take the wellbeing of my friends very seriously. If you ever need anything don't hesitate to-."
The class rep seemed stumped as he realised the current conundrum, Hitoshi wasn't speaking right now and he couldn't translate what he was saying.
"I shall learn sign language, I should have undertaken such a task the second you joined 1-A and I apologise for not endeavouring to learn this method of communication with you sooner, that is a failure on my part as class rep. But until I've learnt don't be shy to let me know whichever way you're most comfortable if something is bothering you, whether it be through translation with your cousins, written down, or by text."
Hitoshi was now the one taken aback. Seeing someone so willing to accept him even during the depths of his mutism, especially an acceptance as wide as Tenya was stating, brought a smile to his face.
'PHONE?' He signed.
"I know that one."
The class rep handed over his phone in which Hitoshi quickly tapped in his own number.
'THANK YOU'
"You're most welcome, Hitoshi, this is the least I can do."
'BYE'
Tenya watched as his classmate rushed over to his cousins, hands moving at a million miles an hour as he excitedly signed to them, the biggest smile on his face as he did so.
It would be a travesty for someone as pure hearted as Hitoshi to feel isolated from his own classmates and he did feel an overwhelming sense of guilt for not even trying to learn his language to help him feel included, it truly was the least he could have done.
He noticed Midoriya looking over. Bakugou was walking off down the corridor in the direction of the homeroom classroom with Toshi, who was practically bouncing with each step, as they signed to each other.
The power-type hero walked over.
"Thanks."
"I don't know why I would deserve thanks."
"I think you do, I doubt you haven't seen how some people treat Toshi here, if they don't shout awful things at him they throw stuff or pretend he doesn't exist which is real easy when he's down like this and his mutism flares. Even though people in the class talk to him I don't think Toshi believes they're interested in being friends back so him being all happy like that was because you wanted to be friends too, and of course you said you'd learn sign language."
Tenya could've growled at the mention of fellow students' cruelness.
"I'll be sure to be more vigilant in future, as class rep I won't allow this to go on towards my classmate."
"It mostly happens in the corridors between classes, Kacchan's been walking with him but he can't always be there, we think that's when they do it."
"Why anyone would undertake in such cowardice, and against someone as sweet as Hitoshi no less." He shook his head in disgust.
"Some people still don't agree with him being here after the USJ and they want to make their feelings known."
"But that attack was months ago."
"They don't care."
Midoriya opened his backpack and pulled out a piece of paper.
"My Uncle, uh, Mic-sensei, is gonna' be doing JSL classes if you're interested, he's got me and Kacchan asking around about them."
"I will absolutely be in attendance."
"Great!"
"May I ask you a personal question?"
"Sure."
"Mic-sensei is your brother-in-law, correct?"
Midoriya nodded.
"So why do you refer to him as Uncle?"
"Kacchan and I were born when Shouza was in his first year of UA. We used to see Hizashi all the time when he'd come round so he jokingly said he could be 'Uncle Zashi'. Everyone started using it and with us being so little, we did too. They started dating in second year, obviously got married too, and after that we just never changed it so he calls us his nephews and we call him Uncle." He smiled.
"Yeah, as it turns out I was at that wedding."
"Yeah my Mom has pictures of you and Tensei dancing." Midoriya smirked. "You're on the group photo too."
Tenya smiled but it fell away.
"I made an awful comment on the first day and then my older brother grilled me for being disrespectful to his friend."
"You didn't know."
"Still shouldn't have said it regardless."
"I guarantee you won't have been the first." Midoriya groaned.
The bell began to chime.
"Come on, we need to get to class."
After being made aware of the situation surrounding Hitoshi and the other students Tenya found it almost impossible not to notice the clear signs in his friend throughout the school day; the nervous nods given after a 'you okay?' was directed at him by a classmate, the red marks on his wrist in the shape of finger prints, and the way he would duck his head down the second he left a classroom to head towards the hallway.
It wasn't right.
There were a few options he could take: the first was to intervene whenever he saw Hitoshi around those who wished to cause him trouble, and the second was to alert the UA faculty about the situation.
The second seemed the best course of action.
But who would he tell this information to?
Aizawa-sensei would be the obvious choice considering he was their assigned homeroom teacher and therefore their liaison of sorts for all things welfare related during their time at the school, but he was also Hitoshi's adoptive Father, did he already know what he was going through in the hallways, or had the three of them been keeping it quiet.
Same deal with Mic-sensei.
So maybe Principal Nezu?
There had already been a whole school assembly back after the USJ attack where the headteacher had spoken to them about personal conduct in the school environment and how actions taken even as early as their teenage years at UA could brand them with a bad reputation for life that hero agencies and pros could decline them for.
Did that mean he already knew?
Maybe not, that assembly was probably spurred by the fact that Hitoshi himself was involved in the USJ attack, having been dragged from the warp gate by Shigaraki. He had ties with the League of Villains back then and there was so much talk around the campus that you could get lost in it. He couldn't even begin to imagine what that must have been like for Hitoshi, but apparently this torment had never stopped, people just stopped noticing.
And wasn't that just the saddest thing?
"Tenya."
He jumped as his name was called, turning to find Mic-sensei walking over to him.
"You okay, you looked miles away?"
"Sorry, just thinking about something."
"Everything okay?"
Tenya sighed.
"I have something I wish to discuss with you, a personal matter."
The pro furrowed an eyebrow in concern.
"Sure."
Hizashi was not having a good day.
Pushing open the door to the staff room he located his husband sat at his desk.
"Hey Shou?"
"Yeah?"
"Can I talk to you, it's important?"
It was Shouta's turn to look concerned as he locked his computer and got up from his seat walking over to the door.
"Something wrong?"
"Come on, we'll talk outside."
Sat out on a bench in the grounds Hizashi had the pleasure of letting his husband know just what exactly their son had been going through since joining the hero course.
"So Tenya told you all this?"
"Yeah."
"And Tenya learnt about it from Zuku who also mentioned Kacchan?"
"Yeah."
Shouta shook his head, anger rising.
"And neither of them said anything to us?! What were they thinking?!"
"Maybe Toshi doesn't want us to know, I mean, it wouldn't exactly be out of character for him to think he deserves all this, either that or he thinks it's normal and not something he should tell us about."
"That doesn't excuse Zuku and Kacchan."
Hizashi sighed.
"I know it doesn't Shou, but you gotta' remember their kids training to be heroes, they'll be thinking it's their job to deal with this on their own, especially with Toshi being family and all."
Shouta scrubbed a hand down his face.
"All this time and he said nothing…"
"We need to tell Nezu about this, it's not something we can handle ourselves, we're too close to this."
"Yeah you're right; I don't particularly trust myself not to lose it on a bunch of teenagers."
Hizashi smirked before taking a breath.
"You okay?"
His husband furrowed an eyebrow as he turned to him.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"
"I mean… you went through crap like this too when you were here."
Shouta scoffed.
"Yeah but those were assholes trying to compare me to my Dad, I just beat the crap out of them off school grounds and they never bothered me again."
Hizashi's eyes widened.
"When the hell did that happen?"
"Remember the day I came to school with a broken arm and Recovery Girl went ballistic on me about it?"
"You're kidding?! Shouta I could have helped."
"Nah I was fine, plus it was something I had to do for myself anyway."
"Well let's not encourage Toshi to do what you did, yeah?"
Shouta smirked.
"Well obviously not, Zashi."
Hizashi sighed.
"So… should we talk to him tonight?"
"We'll go see Nezu first and try and get this sorted."
"You never know, Toshi might actually tell us himself."
