Authors Note: Hey all, I just wanted to thank you for reading. I've never wrote for the my hero academia fandom before, but I really wanted to try since MizuToriFFN, Nimarin Driggen, and QuirkQuartz inspired me to begin writing, not just fanfiction but writing as a whole. I apologize in advanced if this is bad, critique and thoughts are welcomed. I should also note, you won't really see me using the words like senpai, kun, chan, any of the sorts, aside from Kacchan, because I just am incapable of really doing it consistently well otherwise. I'm trying to learn how for future reference, and once again I apologize for the trouble of it.
It was a normal day as any other at U.A. High School, the school with the best Heroics education in the country. It was quite the title to uphold in a world where 80% of the populace had special powers, referred to as quirks. The school held the most promising teenagers to shape the future as heroes, although the current students of the hero course had been through far more than the classes before them in much shorter of a time span.
The sun was beaming brightly on this cloudless day, lunchtime had just begun and one of the young boys that were assigned to class 1-A was sat outside by himself. His messy green hair being blown slightly by the gentle wind, as he enjoyed the peace and food alone.
He was Izuku Midoriya, one of the hardest working students in his entire class. He was wearing a gray jacket with bluish-green stripes, a red tie and a white undershirt. He kept his bright red shoe covered feet rested on the lower steps, as he tried to just enjoy the food that he had been given by the school chef, Lunch Rush. And it was as delicious as always, even if Midoriya had turned to a healthier diet not too long ago, Lunch Rush made every meal taste like gold. The teenager normally sat with all his friends and classmates inside, however today he wanted to just enjoy the sunshine and peace.
A day for Deku to be alone with his thoughts was a rare one nowadays, and he was happy with that fact. There were just sometimes though where he needed to hear himself think, that was what his teacher had taught him most after all.
"Hm?" Izuku heard the door behind him open without any warning, he saw a familiar blonde friend that had a black lightning shaped streak in his hair. Denki Kaminari, the electrical quirk user of their class.
"Oh, hey there Midoriya! I was wondering where you'd gone off to." Kaminari crouched down alongside his friend, honestly most of class 1-A was friends with Izuku, heavy emphasis on most. He was just so innocent it made it hard not to be attracted to him, that strong aspiration of his to be a hero helped inspire those around him even.
"H-hey Kaminari, sorry. I was just feeling more like eating alone f-for lunch." Deku apologized, it wasn't like he was out here trying to hide from anybody or anything, he just needed to gather his thoughts. It was pretty normal for him to do every now and then, it had become far less common since he had been accepted into U.A.
"Yeah, I get that, sometimes I just skip lunch all together and go wandering around when I need to think or clear my head." Chargebolt responded, after another moment he stood up and began to walk away. "I'll see you later, I need to check in with the development studio."
"O-Oh, wait!" Midoriya stood up when hearing the support course be mentioned, leaving his food behind as he began following along with his friend.
"Sorry, I wanted to check on the progress with my new equipment." Izuku apologized, barely able to hide how excited he was at the thought of getting new gear. The electric quirk user lightly laughed, shrugging it off.
"That makes two of us, let's go then! We only have 30 minutes before lunch is over." Denki agreed to let his green haired friend come along. With how common explosions were in the support studio's workshop, having someone that was fast tag along made him feel a lot more at ease.
Izuku wasn't sure why his classmate had decided to take the longer route to get to the support studio, though with how forgetful Kaminari could be, he simply brushed it off as nothing. The two could see the large doors that made up the entrance of the development studio of the support course students, they did not wait around before heading on inside.
Midoriya was enamored with the studio, so many aspiring support gear creations were made in here. The support course existed to teach aspiring engineers how to create gear, modify or outright make costumes, work with various materials, everything one would need to develop support gear. Whether it was for their own personal use to become a pro hero, or in hopes to sell for a larger company.
"Huh, I don't see her anywhere... I figured she'd be asleep at her workbench again." Kaminari confessed, noticing the workshop was currently empty. Izuku had not even realized that until the actual silence set in, normally by now the strong teenager would have been assailed with a dozen queries already by the support studio's glorified resident.
"You're right, m-maybe she just went for lunch too?" Deku suggested, though knew how much of a longshot that was. The person in question they were looking for rarely left the workshop unless they had to, it was what she was known in the school for after all.
"Nah, I didn't see her at all in the cafeteria." Denki responded; they both knew that their schoolmate would prefer to eat in the support studio and work as she ate instead of 'waste time' on just eating in the cafeteria.
Kaminari was disappointed, he had hoped about hearing an update on the item he had requested. Though the green haired teenager was more-so worried about the absent friend, that was just his unintentional state of mind though, heroism came naturally to him but most of the time Deku put others before himself.
While the two class 1-A students were in the support studio, they heard the sound of the door opening once again. They saw the support course teacher, the excavation hero Power Loader, stepping inside.
"What're you two doing here?" Power Loader quirked a brow, only one person was allowed to be in the development studio whenever they wanted to be, and she was the only one currently not inside.
"W-We're sorry Power Loader, we c-came to see Hatsume about t-the new gear we requested..." Izuku apologetically bowed, Denki would have apologized too but his classmate seemed to be doing enough of that for both of them. That and the support course teacher did not seem to mind, or at least he wasn't in the mood to scold them or even act stern.
"Are you okay, teach?" Kaminari attempted to query, becoming worried about Power Loader. At this point now Deku had even began to get a grasp on the demoralized feeling that was radiating off of the U.A. teacher, if he needed help the aspiring heroes would more than gladly offer it.
"I've had better days, either way you two aren't gonna find Hatsume here. She's at Hosu General Hospital." The support course teacher stated, the 1-A students were shocked hearing this.
"W-What happened? Did she overwork herself a-again?" Izuku worriedly asked, hoping their friend would be okay. Now he felt bad for disturbing Hatsume by adding onto her personal workload.
"Apparently, she was on a bus that got into an accident, she's awake but I haven't heard anything else. Recovery girl went on over to help treat her and the other people that had been in the crash." Power Loader explained all he knew; the two boys were horrified at the news. Midoriya had more than enough experience in the hospital, to never ever want to see or hear about any of his friends winding up in one.
"Oh crap..." Was all Denki was able to say, he was pretty bad at processing information as is and was not the brightest person as a whole. This had left him speechless though, he had Hatsume to thank for him being able to control his electricity a lot more accurately after all.
"I-Is there anything we can do to help?" The green haired teenager offered without much hesitation. The support course teacher pondered it momentarily, but nodded.
"Yeah, if you can take her bag to her, I'd be grateful. I wanna go make sure she's okay, but I still have classes to teach today. And it is a pretty important lesson too." Power Loader requested of the two 1-A students, handing over Hatsume's bag to them. He had gathered it with the intention to deliver it himself, though Recovery Girl reassured the support course teacher that she would keep him informed and he did not need to cancel his lessons planned for today.
"O-of course we will!" Izuku agreed without even the slightest bit of hesitation, taking the bag.
"Leave it to us!" Denki nodded gladly too.
"Thanks, I'll call to let Aizawa know what's going on. I owe you one." With that said, Power Loader went to another part of the support studio to begin preparing the next lesson for his students. It was apparent how concerned he was for Hatsume, almost in a parental fashion.
Deku wanted to try and comfort the teacher, though before he could he felt Chargebolt put a hand on his shoulder, motioning that they should leave the teacher alone for the time being. The two 1-A students left the studio immediately.
"Man, I was really looking forward to our next class too..." Kaminari exhaled, the blonde was odd like that. He hated regular school stuff, but when it came to the heroic side of the learning coin, he was more than enthusiastic. Deku shared similar sentiment to his classmate, though that didn't make him any less worried over Hatsume.
"You can go onto class; I'll deliver her bag to her." Izuku offered to do it, seeing the electric quirk user look at him in surprise.
"Really?!" Denki smiled, looking more than happy hearing this.
"Ye-yeah, you can catch me up on the class later. I can tell you what I find out at the hospital." The green haired teenager nodded, insisting it was no problem. He wouldn't be able to focus on class anyway right now, he always felt guilt ridden when any of his friends were hurt and there was nothing he could do. It was just how Midoriya was at heart.
"That's probably for the best, I'll let the others know. I'm pretty sure most of our class gets their new gear and costume upgrades from her." Kaminari said, that was when he saw the time however. Lunch had ended 15 minutes ago, Aizawa was going to probably give them extra work for this, good reason to be late or not typically did not matter to him.
"Crap- I'll see you later! Good luck!" With that said, Chargebolt took off as fast as he could, U.A. being as big as it was probably did not help how late he was going to be any.
"I wonder if this is everything Hatsume needs?" The green haired boy muttered to himself, someone as technologically and mechanically inclined like her would definitely get bored easy in a hospital. Everyone in the school that knew the support course member knew how often she worked after all.
During his muttering, Izuku passed by a vending machine and stopped, looking over and seeing the several dozen various types of snacks within it. He had an idea spark to mind, smiling as he went over to the vending machine.
After a few minutes, Deku was outside U.A.'s front gates and beginning to head out with the bag over his shoulder. He had gotten used to living in the dorms with his fellow classmates, it was an interesting experience that he doubted would be something he would ever be fully adjusted to 100%.
Somehow that sounded all too familiar to himself, Izuku tried to ignore it as he began to make his way to Hosu General Hospital.
"A bus crash is pretty rare, most heroes are pretty attentive when it came to watching roads too, especially for public transports... I wonder what could have happened?"
That muttering got Midoriya a good few glances from the people he passed by, this was just something the teenager had a habit of doing. When he got lost in thought he would mutter under his breath out loud, sometimes his inside thoughts would slip out as well. Needless to say, anyone that knew the aspiring hero knew this was his own personal trait.
Izuku's brain was like a personal vault for hero knowledge, it was just how he grew up really. Being quirkless most of his life until recently, had made him view the world from both sides of the preverbal fence. Every day was another step toward his dream of being a hero after all, and he refused to give up on it no matter what.
Deku was snapped out of his muttering when he realized he was already at Hosu General Hospital. Time flied when one talked to themselves apparently. He felt embarrassed realizing that once again he had talked to himself the entire way here basically. The aspiring hero brushed that off, and began to make his way inside. Going straight to the front desk at reception.
"E-Excuse me." Izuku spoke up, getting the person working behind the counter's attention. The green haired teenager had a problem with that stutter of his, he always did it when he was nervous worried or anxious, it wasn't something he was born with either.
"I-I'm here to see M-Mei Hatsume, could y-you tell me where she is?" Midoriya tried to ask, though that nervousness of his hit again. Whether it was because he was inside a hospital, which the teenager was never fond of to begin with, or because he was scared to see how hurt a friend was, it was making him shake a fair bit inside.
"One moment..." The glorified desk jockey typed on their computer for a moment, before turning their attention back to the U.A. student.
"She was admitted not too long ago, she's in the 3rd floor I.C.U. You can go up there, whether or not they let you see her is the doctor's call though." The receptionist worker said. Izuku felt his heart sink hearing that Hatsume was in the I.C.U.
"T-Thank you." He managed to say, before beginning to make his way towards the steps. "The I.C.U...? That's for really bad stuff..." The green haired boy tried to not mutter to himself, mostly staring down at his red shoes as he climbed up the steps to the 3rd floor. Even Deku himself hadn't been in the I.C.U. more than a couple of times, it was enough to make him loathe the intensive care unit out of fear more than anything.
When Midoriya made it to the third floor, he saw it was a little busy. There had clearly been a fair few accident's today, he found it odd that so many had happened in short concession apparently. The teenager passed it off as simply being nothing but his imagination trying to distract him, there were a million reasons to be in a hospital after all.
The 1-A student was worried he would have to spend the time looking through all of the I.C.U. for his schoolmate, though was relieved when he saw an all too familiar small elderly lady wearing a medical coat and pink sided helmet that had a purple-tinted visor.
"Recovery Girl! H-hey." Deku greeted the elder. She was the 'Youthful Heroine' Recovery Girl, she was U.A.'s school doctor, with a quirk that allowed her to help heal others. Due to said nature of her quirk, she tended to get around a lot to many medical facilities.
"Midoriya? What are you doing here?" The elderly lady quirked a brow, she was just happy the teenager had stopped breaking his bones constantly. That was something she had refused to treat anymore after a certain point, until he had actually learned how to use his quirk safely.
"I-I came to bring Hatsume her bag, can I see her?" Izuku requested, the healing quirk user sighed. She looked exasperated at the mere mention of the support course member, yet nodded nonetheless.
"I'm still waiting for the results of her X-Ray, however; she seems fine so far." Recovery girl claimed as she led Midoriya along, the teenager simply listening as he followed.
"C-can you tell me what happened? I only heard that she was in a bus that got into a wreck..." The green haired boy asked, unable to really hide his curiosity. Recovery girl stopped at the door to one of the side rooms that usually were reserved for people that needed to be watched in the ICU, but not be held under intense constant vision.
"Well, that's all I told Power Loader so he wouldn't be too worried, truth be told a garbage truck hit the side of the bus and caused it to roll over three times." The 'Youthful Heroine' described the situation. Deku stared in wide eyed horror, an accident that big was sure to result in some bad injuries.
"We'll be able to release Hatsume if her X-Ray scan shows she's fine, otherwise she seems to have gotten really lucky." Recovery girl finished at that, before the 1-A student could ask any questions, he saw the healing quirk user motion her head towards the door of the ICU room that Hatsume was in.
"Are her parents not here?" Deku questioned, he noticed a lack of people in the room. All he saw was an empty room, beyond a curtain that was partially pulled closed with Hatsume's all too familiar workshop boots being sat on the floor. That was all he could see though, no signs of anyone else being in there beyond the usual doctors and nurses presumably.
"They've been trying to get in contact with her parents ever since she came in, but they've had no luck so far... Well, you can go on in, I'll come back once we get the results of her scan." Recovery girl answered, once she finished her sentence, she left Deku alone. The 'Youthful Heroine' had a lot of people to try and help at the moment.
"O-Okay Izuku, breath... Just stay calm and relax." Midoriya tried to tell himself mentally, a little mutter escaping occasionally. Being alone in a room with a girl other than his mom was anxiety inducing in and of itself, but Hatsume was a whole different type of girl.
Eventually the young boy got up the courage, based on the assumption that presumably his schoolmate would be too exhausted to be her usual self. He knocked on the door.
"Come in!" The tone of that voice made him immediately know that he was completely wrong, Deku just shook his head. He opened the door and stepped inside the hospital room.
Resting in the hospital bed, wearing a medical gown was the all too familiar girl with short dreadlock styled pink hair and yellow irises that had a cross in the center of them. The 1-A student had to pause for a moment, he was just surprised to see Mei Hatsume not wearing her steampunk goggles and she looked pretty unharmed too, aside from the obvious scrapes and bruises given the incident.
"Midoriya?" Mei seemed equally surprised to see him, she expected her teacher Power Loader to be here long before anyone else. Not that she minded, Deku was her favorite client after all. More so because of the challenges his quirk brought, though she saw it as him helping her skill evolve as a whole.
"H-Hey Hatsume... Sorry f-for coming unannounced." Izuku apologized, though knew she didn't mind at all. The green haired teenager felt relieved to see she was relatively okay; he had been dreading the worst during the entire trip to the hospital.
"It's always great to see my favorite customer! How's that new baby I gave you working out?" Mei warmly replied. He felt bad upon hearing that question, she was the one that Deku would always go to whenever he needed a new support item, or modification to his costume. A lot of 1-A and 1-B as a whole used the support studio, though the 1-H student herself was the one they always went to.
"I-… It blew up when I tried to use it..." Midoriya shamefully admitted, a week ago he had requested the support studio to make him a new personal item based off of something he had witnessed from a certain 'friend' or rather 'frenemy' of his own.
"Okay well, that's my bad for underestimating your muscle baby's strength. I'll get to work making a better one the second I get out of here!" Mei gave an enthusiastic grin, she acted like she did not even want to be in this hospital. The teenage boy wondered how they stopped Hatsume from escaping at this point.
"N-no really you always d-do great work! I-I uh, I brought your bag for you..." Izuku immediately tried to change the topic, not wanting to see his pink haired schoolmate make an attempt at a breakout before she was even given a clean bill of health. He rested her bag on the other chair nearby, before reaching into the side satchel of it.
"I b-brought you something else too, to lift y-your spirits." Deku claimed while pulling out the three chocolate bars, though doubted her spirits ever needed lifting. He had never seen the pink haired girl demoralized in any situation, besides once but he did not want to remember that incident whatsoever.
"You brought me chocolate?!" Mei's face was in his face in that half second that he had looked away, the teenage aspiring hero felt his brain lock up on the spot when seeing those intense practically sparkling eyes of hers. Hatsume had certain, 'features' about her that he tried his best to not focus on when seeing her. Even if she made shoving those thoughts of his into the back of his head a very hard task to achieve.
After almost being knocked down by Mei, Deku was able to somehow get his brain together long enough to get her back in bed. He tried to give her the lectures he had heard a lot before himself, telling her how important 'taking it easy' was, and 'you don't know how bad the injuries might be so you shouldn't stress your body.'
Izuku did not even care about the fact that he only intended to give her two of the chocolate bars, he had planned on keeping the third one for himself since he had essentially skipped lunch during his attempts to see her. Obviously by now Hatsume had been ignoring him while she stuffed her face with the first chocolate bar like an over enthusiastic child.
Izuku found it, well, for lack of a more appropriate word in his mind, adorable. He always had that, along with many other thoughts cross his mind whenever he saw Mei, that passionate intent behind her work, that determination to succeed no matter what challenge was thrown at her, and an immense infatuation with what she loved most above all, inventing.
"...She reminds me of myself..." The 1-A student muttered, while having a smile on his face. Though he snapped out of his daze and looked up, noticing Hatsume looking over at him with a quirked brow.
"How much did I say out loud?" Midoriya did not even try to deny it, he had a bad tendency to lose control of his inner thoughts escaping when he muttered.
"Just the 'she reminds me of myself' part." Mei responded, as she began unwrapping the next chocolate bar. Her hospital guest let out a sigh of relief when hearing that, maybe his idol/teachers lesson's on controlling his inner thoughts better were actually working.
"I just get worried when you start looking at the floor, usually it means something bad is going on in that brain of yours." The pink haired girl stated as she offered half of the chocolate to her schoolmate, Deku blinked at that. He had many ticks, but that was not one of them last he checked.
Hearing Hatsume of all people admit to being worried about someone, when half the time she immediately forgot someone's name after they met was surreal.
"T-thank you." Izuku nervously said, he did not waste anytime beginning to eat his own share of the snack. Though before they could talk further, they heard a knock on the door before it opened. Recovery Girl stepped inside, alongside another doctor following behind them.
"Sorry for interrupting you two." The 'Youthful Heroine' apologized, the other doctor that was with her looked uninterested in everybody as a whole, he was just there to do his job after all.
"Midoriya, can you please step outside for a minute? We have something we have to discuss with Hatsume." Recovery Girl requested from the most commonly injured student, still being unable to decide whether or not she could add 'formerly' to that or not. The healing quirk user was just happy when he stopped breaking his bones, or at least stopped doing it as often.
Deku looked to Mei, she did not seem worried whatsoever, she still had that smile on her face. Even if it looked a little slanted now, like it was fighting to droop in a nervous fear.
"I-I understand." Midoriya stood up, he was about to leave but then he felt something grab his hand and tug him back. "H-Huh?"
When the green haired teen looked, he saw Hatsume was holding his hand by the wrist, in a rather firm fashion too. That feeling, he recognized it a lot more than he wished he could. The support course student had a tremble in her hand, subtle or not, Izuku felt it.
Her parents weren't here, nor was her favorite teacher, Power Loader, he acted like a glorified parent for her at times. The 1-A student reached down and put his free hand on Mei's hand, he never thought he would sense that feeling from her. The feeling of fear, of uncertain terror.
The feeling of being alone with bad news. One of the worst feelings he imagined in the world.
"Let him stay." Hatsume said, while focusing on the two doctors. Deku was surprised to hear that, he saw U.A.'s doctor looking at them quizzically.
"I-Is it okay if I stay?" Midoriya requested, more than aware that he should not be here. It should be her parents, her teacher, a classmate, he doubted he was the best fit for being in the current position.
"I'm not gonna argue with two of the most insane students of U.A..." Recovery Girl murmured, the other doctor just stepping to the side where a lightboard was, he took the folder out from under his arm. They watched him put two X-Ray scans on the lightboard before turning it on.
Deku had no clue what he was looking at, and judging from her look, neither did Mei. The other doctor pointed to a certain part of the X-Ray, hovering a finger over a specific part of the skull.
"You have a longitudinal fracture of the temporal bone, and it's not a small one either. It goes all the way down to your ear canal, frankly it's nothing short of amazing that you're conscious right now." The doctor claimed, apparently being a neurologist that the healing quirk user had brought along to help explain things.
"A-A skull fracture?" Izuku could only repeat that in his head, he saw Mei had not stopped showing that bright expression of hers. She wasn't demoralized, she was awake and felt relatively fine at the moment, so she personally saw no need to worry.
He hated that he saw through it with such ease, for even someone as over energetic as her could not hide that nervousness behind that warm face of hers. It reminded the 1-A student of himself even more, and that made him chew on the inside of his mouth in an effort to fight off those inner thoughts.
"Oh, I just banged my head? That's all?" Mei responded, only to feel Recovery Girl's cane hit her shin and make her wince in pain. Izuku knew that pain all too well, how many times had he been on the receiving end of that cane before? It was weird to see someone else getting that treatment.
"This isn't just a boo-boo! This is serious!" The healing quirk user scolded the pink haired girl. Deku just kept quiet as he felt Mei's grip on his hand tighten in response to the pain, he would have said something but chose to remain silent, out of fear that he would get his own share of that cane otherwise. It was almost like dealing with an overbearing grandmother. The Neurologist in the room seemed to be in the same mindset, almost like the 'Youthful Heroine' was infamous for it within the hospitals she helped at.
"Can't you just use your healing quirk on her?" Izuku asked Recovery Girl, wondering why they had not just simply done that from the start. After all, the elderly woman had repaired his busted bones dozens of times, and most of those times they wound up in far worse condition than Hatsume's head currently was in.
"That's where the second problem is... I've already tried using my quirk on her, three times actually." Recovery Girl declared; she had treated everyone that came in from that horrible accident after all. Most of them were already discharged from the hospital by now. The 1-A student quirked a brow, wondering why his fellow Schoolmate wasn't healed then in that case.
"Is your quirk getting weaker with your age?" Mei spoke with literally zero thought or hesitation, Izuku felt sweat running down his head when hearing her basically accusing Recovery Girl of becoming weak in the field she was professionally trained in. He felt more panicked when hearing age get brought up, that was something you never brought up around the healer.
"H-Hatsume! L-Let her talk! Being witty w-won't make your head heal faster! Kacchan's taught me that!" Deku interrupted Hatsume, hoping that his makeshift scolding would be enough to save her from another few cane whacks. The pink haired girl rolled her eyes, reluctantly nodding.
"My quirk uses up the persons energy to heal them, that's why anyone I use my quirk on feels drained afterwards, the worse the injury the more energy it takes." Recovery Girl began, meanwhile the Neurologist she had brought along with her was just being patient to the side. He clearly did not want to be here, Izuku just focused on what the 'Youthful Heroine' was saying since he doubted Mei was.
"Maybe I can explain it better, by having you answer some questions..." The elderly lady shook her head, guessing that would make it easier to explain than trying to argue with a stubborn patient.
"Hatsume, when was the last time you ate?" She began the questioning, Deku looked at his Schoolmate, and became immediately concerned when seeing her actually pausing to think on this.
"Five minutes ago?" Hatsume responded, feeling that nervous sweat herself now. Being around Midoriya so much lately was causing her to pick up some of his ticks now.
"I meant REAL food, not junk food." The doctor corrected herself, there was silence initially.
"I don't know...?" The zoom quirk user had a nervous grin now. Izuku held his head with his free hand, not even able to imagine what it was like living off of junk food alone. He wondered if that vending machine near the support studio was her primary source of nutrition.
"And when was the last time you got a real full night's sleep?"
"...I don't know." Now that smile she had was one of full-blown nervousness.
"Hatsume..." Deku muttered, on one hand he was amazed, on the other hand, terrified by how she was still so awake given the multiple days without sleep.
"And when was the last time you slept in a bed, not at your workbench?" Recovery Girl pressed further; it had only been a few months since Mei last came into the nurse's office at U.A. to get her back pain checked out after all. It was easy to find the cause behind that one.
"I haven't been to my dorm for a month probably..." The pink haired inventor felt that nervous smile of hers beginning to droop, she was trying to be optimistic but hearing the questions and her answers side by side made it hard to be not nervous.
"You actually SLEEP in the workshop?!" Izuku stared at his close friend, mouth agape. He thought everyone saying that Mei lived in the support studio was a joke until now.
"It lets me get to work faster after my powernap!" She tried to defend herself, very poorly if the 1-A student's face was anything to go off of. Power Loader had given her permission to use the support studio whenever they wanted, she gladly took advantage of that offer too.
"And is it safe to presume you basically live off of canned coffee or energy drinks?" Recovery Girl threw her last one sided question out there, to which Mei gave hesitant slow nod. Izuku held his head with his free hand.
The green haired teen might not have registered it initially, but the entire time this conversation was going on Mei had been holding his hand, her fingers wrapped around his. He didn't mind, he figured she was just holding on unintentionally from when she stopped him from leaving. Izuku had no problem acting like her emotional support, especially given the circumstances.
"Well, that means we can't go with my treatment plan either." The Neurologist said, this made the old healing hero feel annoyed like it wasn't the best option available to begin with, even if the circumstances implored otherwise.
"What can we do then?" Mei tried to make them get to the point, she understood what all those questions meant. It meant Recovery Girl's quirk would not heal the pink haired teenager due to her lack of 'real' energy, Mei's nonexistent selfcare did not help that whatsoever either.
"Well, since my quirk didn't work the other plan was to perform surgery to have neural implants installed into your head... Usually those are only given to people that suffer from multiple concussions, but this is a severe injury." The Youthful Heroine began, the Neurologist beside her nodded. He initially had been brought along to discuss that procedure as well, with that no longer on the table he was just there to act as an assistant advisor at best.
"W-Why can't you do s-surgery?" Izuku hesitantly asked, by now that smile on Mei's face was gone, as if the gravity of the situation had set in finally. Or rather, she had given up trying to brush things off.
"Because she isn't healthy enough. Her body is lacking in proper nutrition, minerals, and vitamins as well." Recovery Girl finished at that, all their options for quick treatment were not plausible. Deku swore he felt Hatsume's grip on his hand tighten, she was looking for comfort clearly, even if she did not realize it. In response, the green haired teenager returned her hand squeeze with one of his own to silently reassure her it would be alright.
"So, the best thing we can do is assign Miss Hatsume here to 2 weeks of brain rest. We can clear that with the school easily, and after 2 weeks of proper eating, sleep, and rest, she should be perfectly ready to have Recovery Girl's quirk used on her." The Neurologist explained the best course of action available, the elderly hero nodded in agreement at this.
"W-what's brain rest?" Deku had to query, he had never heard of it before now.
"It's where you try to rest and not do stuff that makes your brain work too much..." Mei explained to her schoolmate, and her tone sounded miserable at the mere concept of it.
Hatsume, sitting around and doing nothing essentially? For longer than 5 minutes? Midoriya could tell that was one of her greatest nightmares, he remembered when he got put on dorm lockdown for a few days after fighting with Bakugou. Those were some of the worst days he could remember, and would do his best to not have it happen again.
Anyone who knew Mei knew what she was like, it wasn't really a short attention span problem, as much as she was just madly in love with creating her 'super cute babies' as she called her inventions. Although it did tend to take multiple visits to get her to remember the name of anyone she met. Izuku was just amazed she memorized his name after their second to third meeting.
"S-She doesn't n-need surgery then?" Deku could only manage to say those words, he sounded very relieved to hear that.
"Not unless thing's get worse... I'll handle the paperwork for her discharge, you can take Miss Hatsume straight back to U.A. She'd probably be able to rest better outside of this hospital." The Neurologist left on that note, leaving the two U.A. students and U.A. faculty member in the room alone.
"Do you want to wait for your parents? We've been trying to call them but they haven't answered yet." Recovery Girl offered to the support gear inventor, aware how stressful this all was and imploring how important it was for Mei to let her parents know what happened.
"Nah, I'll be fine; I can get back to U.A. on my own." Hatsume declared, getting out of bed before beginning to stretch. She had gotten stiff from being in that bed for what felt like ages. Izuku knew that feeling all too well, his hand now free from his schoolmate's grip after things had calmed down. His fingers actually felt a little numb.
Midoriya's eyes shot open upon seeing how careless Mei had been when tying up the back of the hospital gown she wore, out of his natural reaction the young boy turned around and slapped his hands over his eyes with a bright crimson quickly creeping onto his face. It didn't help when he heard Hatsume begin to change back into her normal clothes either.
"I-I thought I had gotten better at n-not being affected by this st-stuff just by having Y-Yaoyorozu for a classmate... W-Why is Hatsume changing r-right behind me?! D-does she just not care?!" Deku mumbled to himself under his flustered breath, he felt weak when it came to girls. The aspiring hero was not a pervert by any means, he just simply had no confidence when it came to social situations involving women.
"Well, at least one of you has decency." Recovery Girl commented to the green haired teenager, not minding his muttering. "Do me a favor."
The 'Youthful' Heroines words made Izuku stop muttering, he looked down to her, more than appreciative of the distraction.
"Make sure she gets back to her dorm as soon as possible, please. This isn't a matter to take lightly, that injury can and will get worse if she doesn't take care of herself." Recovery Girl requested that Midoriya act as a personal escort back to the Hero Highschool, she knew she could trust him with that task.
"Y-You can count on me." He nodded, that sounded like an easy enough task. He was going to head straight back to U.A. the second he left the hospital after all, taking Mei with him would be simple enough he hoped.
After a few minutes of feigning intense interest with a wall, and another few spent reminding Mei to sign all the paperwork needed to be discharged instead of just trying to flee the hospital the second she got dressed, the two found themselves outside the entrance of the building.
"Guess these are gonna need fixing." Mei sighed, looking down at the goggles in her hand. They had more or less been destroyed in the crash, Deku felt bad for her but knew she would have no trouble with such a simple task.
"Uhm... H-Hatsume, can I ask you s-something?" Izuku chirped nervously as the two began the return trip back to U.A. Hatsume nodded while she stuffed her busted goggles into her bag that was slung over her shoulder.
"W-Why didn't you wait f-for your parents to come? I-I'm sure they're w-worried about you." He asked, he knows if he got hurt his Mom would be at the hospital within a few minutes. Deku couldn't deny, he was happy to at least see she had that same crazed smile on her face again.
"Oh, they were never gonna come. They'll get the bill eventually, then talk to U.A.'s insurance staff, they'll both call me separately. I'll lie and tell them it's nothing serious and life'll go on as normal." Mei answered her escort back to U.A. However, the reply she gave made Izuku stare in a slight wide-eyed surprise.
"D-… Do you n-not get along with them?" Izuku hesitantly pressed the question past his vocal cords, one that he had asked himself many times before. He only got along with his Mom; and that had its own history looming over them both. Izuku had never actually heard from his Dad, outside of the occasional letters in the longest of times now ever since he went overseas for work when Deku was a child.
Hatsume looked to him, initially unsure if Midoriya was being witty or not. Then she saw that innocent face and those cute eyes of his reminded her who she was talking to, the most socially awkward hero on the planet plausibly. The pink haired teen had to ponder on that for a minute, as they came to a crosswalk and found themselves waiting for the lights to change.
Was Izuku even capable of banter? Mei made note of that to test later since now she was curious, and curiosity was the greatest thing to her.
"Nah, they're just too busy for me. And that's fine. The only thing I need to love in my life are my babies and that's it!" Hatsume replied with the smile on her face slightly weakened now, her answer did little to make Deku less confused. Someone being too busy for their own child? He wished he could deny being familiar with that feeling.
"W-What? Y-You got into U.A., you m-made it really far in the sports festival, have helped most of the students in 1-A and 1-B, they must b-be really proud of you! I-I'm sure!" Izuku claimed, he didn't really know what to make of the 'only needing the love of her babies' part though. Mei found herself looking at him, that happy face of hers being replaced by one of surprise. She never heard Midoriya being serious like this, not in their times together at least.
"Midoriya?" Hatsume simply said his name, that was enough to make him look down at his feet. As if the green haired teenager was expecting a negative response based on that alone, Deku knew he could be as much of a worrywart as his own Mother at times. His worry came from a spot of genuine concern for a dear friend though.
Mei wasn't used to hearing someone, anyone really talk to her like that. She hadn't many friends after all, or at least 'close' ones. Iida usually held a dim dislike towards her, due to her stunt at the sports festival. Uraraka secret disliked her, Mei had no idea as to why as well. And she only remembered their names due to helping them a lot more recently.
Power Loader was the only one to really show Hatsume anything resembling a parental bond. She treasured that a lot more than she ever led on, or would allow him to know if she could help it.
"Thanks, and you're probably right, but I don't want to talk about my family anymore. Plus, my head hurts too much to deal with that right now." Mei requested from her favorite customer, while expressing her gratitude to him for sharing some of that optimism he had.
"I-I understand, really... S-Sorry I brought it up." Izuku apologized, and just like that an awkward silence took over from there. He would have asked more, then he remembered Mei was supposed to be resting her head not dealing with internal conflicts or discussing stressful topics. That'd have the opposite effect.
It wasn't long before the two arrived back at U.A., Hatsume expected Midoriya to leave once they got past the security gate. To her surprise however, he courteously and gladly escorted her all the way back to the support course members dorm specifically. It was a five-floor tall building, though the first floor was a common area. It was the same as all the other dorms.
"Thanks for coming to check on me, and for bringing me my bag. I appreciate it. The chocolate was great too." Mei said to Izuku, as they stood at the front doors to the support dorms.
"I-It was no trouble, I-I owe y-you a lot after a-all." Deku claimed nervously, as far as he saw it, she was the reason he had grown a fair amount in the last year. Because of her he even came up with a new style of fighting, that was what made him willing to put up with a lot of Mei's insanity.
"Pr-promise me you'll take c-care of yourself... okay?" Midoriya requested, he wasn't trying to hide how scared he was for her wellbeing. Recovery Girl's words being more stuck in his mind than they were in his pink haired friend's head.
Hatsume wasn't used to having a boy fret over her so much, she never really had anyone worry about her health other than Recovery Girl and Power Loader before. The other support students tended to avoid Mei, she was very 'rough' around the edges, her intensity tended to scare off potential friends rather easily.
"I'll try my best, but you know laying around and doing nothing isn't my specialty." Hatsume laughed, though she felt guilty when seeing those bright green eyes of his looking worried for her, it reminded her of a sad puppy actually.
"I promise." Izuku heard her assure him, as he felt Mei's hand on his shoulder, he swallowed hard. The green haired teenager wished he was used to the feeling of a girl touching him. Deku was more than happy to hear her swear to taking care of herself, he did not want her to wind up in the hospital again due to simply refusing to take a few days off from inventing.
"I-I better get going, m-my next class should be starting, b-bye Hatsume!" Midoriya was able to stammer that sentence out, before he hurried off to get back to school. He had missed his class after lunch, if he was fast enough, he would be only really late for the next class.
Mei watched Izuku as he left, once he was gone, she turned around to make her way inside. She paused when she grabbed the handle of the front door, a thought occurred to her.
"Well... I did rest for a while in the hospital, and they did pump me full of medicine and painkillers by the time I left." Hatsume put a hand on her chin, oblivious to the fact she was muttering her thoughts aloud to herself.
"And he did say that the baby I gave him blew up again, it'd be rude to make my favorite customer wait half a month to get a new and improved one." She continued, after another awkward minute of talking to herself, she slammed her fist into her open palm upon reaching a conclusion.
"I'm healthy enough to keep working, I just can't work on the big stuff I'm sure!" And with that decision made, Mei hopped off the steps, and took off excitedly running the second she hit the ground. She was heading straight for the support studio workshop, once again.
"Here I come babies!"