Beta'd by Greed720 and HardwinPotter

Izuku went through a mixed bag of conversations. He received plenty of support from most of his classmates, but the meeting with Iida was strangely subdued. He could tell Iida had something to say, but every time he met his eyes, Iida grimaced and looked away. The session ended with Iida excusing himself and walking out half an hour before their time was done.

Mina had been scheduled towards the end. Izuku wished he could put it off forever. Even now, he had no idea what to say to her. Thoughts of trying to rekindle their broken relationship, despite how mentally shaky he felt, haunted his mind. As the seconds ticked by, Izuku waited with dread for the door to open.

Mina had a grin on her face as she sauntered in and took her seat. She gave Izuku a big smile and turned back to Hound Dog.

Hound Dog, perturbed by someone smiling in his office for once, asked, "How are you feeling, Mina?"

"Good! I don't have any problems with Izuku, so we can wrap this up quickly."

Hound Dog raised an eyebrow and turned to Izuku. "Anything you'd like to add?"

"Nope!" Izuku immediately said, mirroring Mina's carefree smile with far less grace. "I think that's fine. We don't really need to talk about anything."

Hound Dog frowned at them both. He could smell the nervous subtext between them, but unlike with Iida, he wasn't willing to let it lie. Since he knew Izuku would fight him every step of the way, he instead asked Mina, "I understand you were dating for most of last year."

"Yeah, but nothing major. We went out about once a month, classes were a bit much, you know." Her smile widened in a futile attempt to convince him everything was fine. "It was a bit awkward, but I still had fun."

Given an opening, Hound Dog pounced on it. "How did it make you feel that he acted differently around you?"

Mina's smile slipped, but she forced it back into place and shrugged. "I was weirded out at the time, but I understand now."

"And how do you feel about Izuku keeping his Quirk from you?"

"Fine. I mean, he couldn't tell anyone, right? Now I know, and there's nothing to worry about."

Hound Dog stared at each student in turn. Part of him felt it best not to push further, but he was close to the heart of the issue. Just a bit more prodding, and he'd have them really talking to each other.

"If I understand correctly, that awkwardness was the cause of you breaking up with him, correct?"

Mina's smile dipped again. "Yeah, why?"

Izuku's face was as still as stone, but Inui could smell the emotions welling up underneath. He knew Izuku was avoiding their relationship, and he needed to figure out why.

"Not that I'm suggesting it, but now that you know about his Quirk, would you reconsider going out with him?"

Mina's smile vanished altogether, and her shoulders drooped. Inui wondered if he had pushed too far, but after a moment, Mina straightened in her seat and said, "You know, I guess I'd be open to it."

Panic flashed across Izuku's face. "No, um, it's over, right? I kept my Quirk from you, led you on this whole time, I'm too awkward and everything was weird all the time, I can barely talk without stuttering or going off on a tangent, it's better that you forget about it. We're done, right?"

Mina gave him a confused look and said, "It's not that I had a big problem with how awkward you were. If anything, I thought it was a bit cute. I just didn't understand why you were different around me, that's all. Now I know, I'm cool with it."

Izuku felt himself floundering. He couldn't deal with Mina right now, it still hurt too much. He knew Mina was only trying to be nice and not hurt his feelings, which was only making everything worse. He needed her to stop, had to drive her off somehow. As options whirled around his head, he latched onto the first one that he thought showed promise.

"You don't have to pretend, Mina," Izuku said dully. "I know you're trying not to hurt my feelings."

"I'm telling the truth, Izu-kun. I don't understand why you're so upset with me."

Izuku bit his lip. He knew he'd be crossing a line with his next retort, but the pain of their break-up, still fresh on his mind, pushed him beyond his hesitance.

"I saw a future where I was exactly who you wanted me to be. So please, stop pretending."

Mina looked as though she had been slapped. After a moment, she said, "If you're just going to be angry like this, then I don't know what to say."

"Just say we're done." Izuku cringed, ready for the blow to fall.

Mina gave him a sidelong glance and said, "Fine, we're done. Happy?"

Izuku felt far from happy. Even spoken as carelessly as they were, Mina's words cut deep, right into the scar left by the break-up. His eyes stung, but he held tears back by sheer force of will.

"Yeah, I am."

"Well, alright then! I guess there's nothing else to talk about." When she stood up, Hound Dog made no move to stop her. "See you in class, Izu-kun!"

Once she was gone, Izuku slumped forward until his forehead hit the desk. Inui said, "I can tell you weren't actually angry at her."

The unasked question hung in the air between them. After a long minute, Izuku sighed and said, with his face still buried in the desk, "I can't go through that again. I need it to be over. Done. Finished. It still hurts too much, thinking about it."

"Honestly, I agree."

Izuku's head whipped up. Tears smushed all over his face glistened in the light. His eyes swam with a mixture of pain and confusion.

Inui offered him a tissue and said, "It's not anything to do with your Quirk or keeping it a secret. Everyone has secrets, and everyone lies. As long as you're able to respect each other and communicate, you can make the relationship work."

Izuku clenched his jaw and looked away. "She's not interested in me, so it doesn't matter."

"A discussion for another time," Inui said as he added a note to his prodigious stack of papers, "But what's more important is how emotionally taxing such a relationship can be. Dating and romantic relationships require you to be invested in the relationship. It takes time and energy, and though your partner could help you through whatever troubles you're having, you would need to do the same for them. As you are right now, you need time to adjust. You need to take care of yourself before you can think about caring for anyone else. And yes, this also applies to hero work."

Izuku grimaced and shrunk in on himself. Inui reached across the desk and put his hand on Izuku's shoulder. "The takeaway here isn't that any relationship you have is over. It just needs to take a break for a while until you can sort yourself out. Once you feel ready, you can re-evaluate your feelings and figure out what you want to do."

"What about my hero work?"

"That too. Like I said, you need to take care of yourself first."

"How long is that going to take?"

Hound Dog tensed up, and he took a moment to think. "However long it takes. Maybe a couple months, maybe a couple years. What matters most of all is your own wellbeing."

"But I need to be there to save Yaoyorozu!"

"I don't care about what your Quirk says. We've already proved that it can be overwritten." Hound Dog stretched his neck and gave Izuku a warm smile. "There are plenty of heroes, but only one of you, Izuku. You matter too, and you're the only person that can help you. I can guide you and offer advice, but ultimately, if you don't take the time and effort to take care of yourself, you won't heal. Do you understand?"

Izuku's voice shook as he said, "I understand."

"I think you'll make a great hero someday. Think of this as an important step along your journey to get there." Inui searched through his papers and brought out a few notes on the next visitor. "Bakugo should be here in a few minutes. Do you feel comfortable seeing him?"

Izuku flinched at the memory of Bakugo's betrayed expression when he learned of Izuku's Quirk, but he took a deep breath and straightened his back. "I'll be fine."

"Izuku-"

"Kacchan's the last one. I put off talking to him for long enough."

Inui grumbled and said, "Fine, but I'm not putting you through another panic attack. At the first sign of trouble, we're done." He brought out Bakugo's notes and said, "I'm mildly optimistic about this, but I've never been able to predict how he'll behave. I'd rather avoid this until I have a better handle on him, but the sooner we impress upon everyone the importance of keeping your Quirk a secret, the better."

Izuku heard Bakugo coming. The footsteps sent a shiver up his spine, and he fought to keep his anxiety off his face. Inui gave him a wary glance but didn't say a word as Bakugo took his seat.

The silence stretched out for minutes as Bakugo glared at Hound Dog, arms crossed, while Izuku gave him the occasional nervous glance.

"Well?" Bakugo's sour question had enough nitroglycerin packed in it to explode in a stiff breeze.

"Well what?" Izuku asked.

"Don't act confused. You know why I'm here."

"No, I don't. I'm not using my Quirk, so I don't know-"

"Bullshit." Hound Dog tensed at that, ready to spring between them, but Katsuki plowed on. "You might have everyone else fooled, but I'm not stupid. I know how much of a manipulative asshole you are."

"Kacchan, what?" Izuku felt the room spinning, but he fought to keep the panic away. He couldn't lose control, not when Hound Dog would make it end. He needed to do this.

"You knew, this whole time. You knew I'd get in deep shit for what I did to you. You knew I'd get angry by your attitude, knew how to goad me into being a monster. You tricked all these teachers into pitying you so if I put a toe out of line, they'll kick me out of U.A."

"No, I swear, I didn't want you to-"

"I don't care what you have to say. All I want you to know is that I'm on to you. I know you're not a real hero. I know you set everything up with the USJ and Hosu to make yourself look like a fucking saint. I know you stole the number one spot from me, and I'll make damn sure you never take it away from me again. Got it?"

"K-Kacchan, I…"

"That's enough." With a glare at Bakugo, Hound Dog said, "You're way out of line. We'll be talking about this during your next appointment."

Bakugo growled at Izuku and let out a pop in both hands. He stalked over to the door and slammed it behind him.

Izuku couldn't stop shaking. Bile crept up his throat, and his head felt as though it were stuffed with electrified cotton. "Why?" Izuku whispered. "I don't understand…"

"If I had known he had leapt to those conclusions, I would have never allowed this meeting," Hound Dog said. "He's blaming you for his problems."

"He's not wrong. I mean, if I hadn't acted the way I did, he wouldn't have…"

"You aren't responsible for your actions, he is. Bakugo is looking for an excuse to absolve himself of his actions. If he is to move on, you can't take the blame for him. Anything like this happens, you let a teacher know immediately. Understood?"

Izuku numbly nodded. Hound Dog pressed a hot cup of tea in his hands, and he took shallow sips until the shaking stopped.

By the time Izuku had finished with his appointment, classes had already finished for the day. The common room in the dorms was mercifully empty, and Izuku slunk into his room before anyone could see him.

Well after the sunset, Izuku was about to turn in for the night when a furious pounding rattled his door. Izuku opened it and found himself face to face with Bakugo.

"Oh, K-Kacchan, what's going on?"

"Meet me outside." Bakugo's voice was unusually quiet, almost somber. "There's something I need to say that I didn't think of earlier."

"Oh, b-but, I mean, shouldn't we schedule another appointment-"

Katsuki slammed his fist on the doorframe. "Now, Deku."

Izuku swallowed and followed him. Once they were out of the dorms, in the shadow of one of the training grounds, Izuku asked, "What did you want to say?"

For a moment, Bakugo stared at him. Izuku shuffled his feet, unnerved by the growing silence. As he was on the verge of asking again, Bakugo bolted towards him, right arm cocked back. On instinct, Izuku ducked aside. Bakugo's fist rushed past Izuku's ear.

"You knew I'd do that," Bakugo sneered. "Of course you did. You knew everything, the whole time. Had it all planned out."

"Kacchan, what are you doing?"

Bakugo grinned maniacally, and his hands crackled with explosions. "Proving that you're a fraud. Once the teachers see that you've been stringing them along this whole time, they'll kick you to the curb."

Izuku backpedaled as Katsuki threw punch after punch. He felt himself drowning in panic, his chin barely above the roiling surface as each frantic dodge churned the waves. One thought pierced his roiling emotions. Kacchan was going to get expelled if this played out.

Latching onto that thought, Izuku thought through ways he could de-escalate the situation. Bakugo was beyond words at this point. His eyes were bloodshot and wild with rage, and his swings came fast and sloppy. The only way to save him, Izuku realized, was to beat him and make the whole thing look like it was his own fault.

On the next wild swing, Izuku stepped past Bakugo's arm and fired a quick jab at his nose. Cartilage crunched beneath his fingers, and blood dribbled down Bakugo's chin.

Bakugo wiped the blood onto his wrist and grinned. "About damn time you stopped running away."

"Kacchan, you're going to get expelled! Let's go back inside and-"

An explosion lit up the night. Izuku turned aside, and Bakugo's fist rocketed into Izuku's shoulder. Gritting his teeth, Izuku dodged the next punch and sent a kick into Bakugo's knee. Bakugo grunted and fell forward. Izuku's foot caught him in the face and sent him sprawling on his back.

Before Katsuki could get up, Izuku pounced on him. He brought a knee onto Katsuki's shoulder and pinned his other hand to the ground.

"Kacchan, just listen to me! This needs to stop before you get expelled!"

"What does it matter?" Katsuki screamed. "I'm fucked anyways! No matter what I do, you'll always be ten steps ahead of me. I bet you're laughing to yourself right now, knowing that I'll get thrown out like yesterday's trash because of all the crap you pulled. Well, are you happy, Deku?"

Izuku's heart ached at the sight of madness in his friend's eyes. He felt the temptation to reach for his Quirk, to see how to fix all this, but his Quirk started this in the first place. He couldn't trust it to save Bakugo. Numb terror settled in his gut as Izuku realized what he was about to do, but he pushed it back. He had no other choice.

Straddling Bakugo's chest, Izuku punched Katsuki's face. Bakugo snarled and writhed under him until an arm came free. He latched onto his wrist, and with a maniacal grin, Katsuki ignited his palm. Screaming through his teeth, Izuku raised his free arm and punched over and over again. Katsuki grunted with each blow, but he held tight onto Izuku's wrist. Wisps of smoke curled from between his fingers. Izuku punched on, his blows more frantic as the searing pain crept up his arm.

The scent of charred flesh and spilled blood filled Izuku's nostrils. A dull buzz echoed in his ears as blood thundered through them. Vision blurring from the pain, Izuku raised his head high and brought his forehead squarely down on Katsuki's. The world wobbled, but Izuku clung to consciousness with the desperation of a man dangling off a cliff. Bakugo let out a pained grunt, and his eyes rolled back into his head. His fingers slipped from Izuku's wrist.

Once he was free, Izuku scrambled off. His mind felt strangely blank as he stared at the blood smeared on his hands, not quite the trance of his Quirk, but rather afloat and drifting as panic, grief, and fear welled up underneath him. Even through the adrenaline rush, his arm felt as though a thousand glowing-hot needles had been jammed directly into his bones. Each heartbeat made the pain ebb and slosh about like a pot of boiling acid.

Katsuki groaned and sat up. His face looked like raw hamburger, his nose was bent sideways and crumpled in on itself, and one eye was swollen shut with a mass of bruises. Blood spattered his shirt as he coughed. He tried to stand, but his leg gave out underneath him.

Izuku crawled over and sat him up against a wall. Katuski glowered with his one good eye. As he spoke, blood trickled from his mouth.

"Why?" he wheezed.

"You were going to get expelled if you beat me up." Izuku tried to dab Katsuki's face clean, but a sharp hiss at the slight touch made Izuku draw back. "I couldn't let that happen."

"Why didn't you do this earlier? You could've kicked my ass any time with a Quirk as powerful as yours. Instead, you pretended to be weak and let me beat you up. Is this all some kind of sick joke to you?"

"I couldn't control my Quirk."

"Bullshit. The USJ… you knew I'd be with those two. You had the whole thing planned out."

Izuku felt himself waver as he thought of disclosing his foretold deaths. The thought of revealing it made him feel nauseous, but he pushed past it. "I was supposed to die that day, with the slime villain." Bile rose in his throat at the memory of it. "I never saw All Might save me."

Katsuki looked confused for a moment, before horror widened his unbruised eye. "Why?"

"All my life, I saw hundreds of people I could have saved with a phone call, except my Quirk wouldn't let me. I believed, all this time, that you would be the next number one hero. It made dying that day feel worth it, that as useless and insignificant as I was, I could save one life and make it count. I was never meant to be here, I know that. But now? I want to do it my way." Izuku rose to his feet and dusted himself off. Seeing Katsuki lying on the ground and knowing that he was the one who put him there, without his Quirk, filled him with a guilty giddiness. He was strong, and there was his proof. "I know I'm a mess, but if I'm able to beat you in a fistfight on my own, I can do it, and I want you to be a hero beside me."

Katsuki clenched his hand and looked away, shaking with the effort to not break down and cry. Izuku grabbed him by the shoulder with his good hand.

"We're going to Recovery Girl. A couple bandages aren't going to hide your face."

Katsuki didn't protest as Izuku helped him to his feet. A limp made for slow going, and they stumbled a couple times in the darkness. Once they made it, Izuku knocked on the door, wincing as it jarred his burned wrist.

Recovery Girl grumbled and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she opened the door. At the sight of Katsuki's face, she snapped to attention and rushed them both inside. One kiss had Katsuki out like a light with a healthier complexion. Izuku tried to hide his burned wrist, but Recovery Girl, with a sharp eye for injuries, gestured for him to pull up his sleeve.

Aizawa stormed in as Recovery Girl applied burn cream on the diminished handprint around Izuku's wrist. "What happened?" he asked.

Izuku's mind sped a hundred miles an hour as he spun out his story. With deliberate slowness, both so he could continue to think and so he wouldn't stutter through every other word, Izuku said, "Katsuki wanted to talk outside. He… said something that made me angry, and I lost control of my emotions. I punched him. A lot." Izuku stared down at the floor, hoping his face wouldn't betray the lie. "I know I shouldn't have done that, and I take full blame for what happened.

At an inquiring glance from Aizawa, Recovery Girl said, "Izuku's wrist was burned in the shape of a hand, and there was a bruise on his shoulder. Katsuki's nose was broken, his face was swollen up from repeated punches, and he had a mild concussion."

Aizawa turned back to Izuku and said, "I checked the camera footage before coming here."

Izuku froze up. He fought back tears as he realized that all his effort was for nothing.

"Hound Dog warned me something like this might happen. Given how unexpected this development was and how we failed to deal with it earlier, instead of expulsion, he'll be suspended, then moved to General Studies until Hound Dog clears him to return to the Hero Course. Feel free to tell him when he wakes up. As for you, three days suspension and chores. You chose to escalate the situation when you should have gotten a teacher involved. Now, go to bed. Break curfew again and I'm expelling you both."

Izuku felt such dizzying relief that he passed out on the hospital bed. By the time he woke up, Katsuki was gone.

A/N: So, a fair number of people are unhappy with the direction the story has gone. To some extent, that's my fault. More time has been spent dealing with Izuku's therapy then I should have allowed. Pacing's always been a problem area of mine, doubly so when I'm working without a solid outline.

The pacing, however, is the only thing I will apologize for. The character development is about the most well-planned and thought-out part of this story, something I've led up to between dates with Mina and the few other times Izuku found himself without his Quirk. His Quirk had been a crutch all his life, and Izuku needed to learn to adapt without it. A lot of focus has gone into giving characters realistic reactions to the situations they're in, and while it's not a perfect science, I'd like to think it makes for more grounded plot and characters. Zero-emotion, does-everything-perfectly Izuku is not the foundation on which I wish to build a story. Too boring too quickly.

In any event, I normally don't like tipping my hand. I don't like spoiling the surprises I have in store. However, given the discontent with the story's recent direction, I will say this. First, this is the last therapy session. That's done. Over. Kaput. If any therapy is to occur, it'll be a snippet of background info, no blocks of dialogue swallowing up chapters. Second, there'll be two more chapters until the story picks up again – a B-plot interlude to tie things up in the background, a time-skip to get to the next set of internships, and then we're back in business. Sound good?

Alright, now that I got that out of my system, I'll also say that it probably hasn't helped that I'm a smidge burnt out on this story. I had given some thought to A: moving this to a biweekly slot, or B: basically A, but the Sundays I'm not posting this story, I'll post a new story. However, I had decided to keep this weekly, and to keep myself sane, write something smaller and more manageable on the side.

Speaking of… if you're reading this, Deku Ex Machina just hit the virtual shelves! Woo! It'll be a light-hearted drabble series, updates Tuesdays and Thursdays. More details at the story itself. Give that a look if robo-Deku tickles your fancy.

With that out of my system, let's get on to the reviews:

ShadowPillow: "That's a little scary, considering that Izuku has his quirk turned off - I suppose this only means the active component of his quirk."

Bardothren: Nice job picking up on that. Makes you wonder if Izuku has any free will, doesn't it?

Chrome Cheetah: ""She bowed to Yayorozu" need to change that to Izuku or Hound Dog."

Bardothren: Nice catch. Not sure how I missed that one.

StillHere: "I don't know if it was intentional, given that each conversation comes in two different forms, but I thought I'd make you aware of it."

Bardothren: Yeah, that was my bad. I don't know how I wrote out the same stretch of dialogue twice without realizing it, but I facepalmed when I saw it. Couldn't think of a good way to trim it out, so I molded it a bit instead, so it was slightly different. Not a perfect solution, but I'm not a perfect author. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Kazumeisan: "Uhhh...did you accidentally upload chapter 46 again?"

Bardothren: I DID! ARRGH! I don't know how I keep doing that, but that's the second time I made an edit and uploaded the wrong chapter. It's because the numbers of my documents don't quite line up with my chapter numbers, so I go 'ooh, 48, click!' and post Ch. 46 instead. So, while I may accidentally repeat a line of dialogue, I don't repeat a whole chapter. If all of 48 looked suspiciously familiar, give it a re-read. Thanks so much for catching that.

Monsta7D: "and pls read your reviews."

Bardothren: I read each and every single one. Twice. Once when I get them, again when I post chapters. While I take into consideration all the advice I get and make decisions based on feedback, I won't necessarily follow all advice I receive.

Sage Aspira: "while some have objected to the pacing, I appreciate having the progression in your story "make sense" (although I am still surprised)"

Bardothren: The way I get that kind of effect is by ditching story outlines almost entirely. Sure, I know where the story will go and a few stops along the way, but the path there is governed by character choice from every major player in the story. The style has its weaknesses, notably a weaker overall structure and erratic pacing, but helps with dialogue, character development, and a sense of realism. Definitely not to say it would work for every story or every writer, and I would encourage new writers to start with an outline so the story doesn't fly off the rails. Happened to me a few times when I started out.

So, go check out Deku Ex Machina if you haven't yet, and see you all next week!