Chapter 51:

Logically, Izuku knew why he needed to stay in the hospital for a while longer. Emotionally, he lasted all of two days before he was ready to walk out on his own, permission from his doctor or not. Two days, and the only people he had seen were his mom, Hizashi, and Toshinori. Kaminari was out of surgery, but Izuku hadn't been allowed to see him yet, and Aizawa was still unconscious. The doctors had assured him that this was expected, and that everything was going to be okay, but Izuku still felt like there was something they weren't telling him. He tried to tell himself that it was just his anxiety talking, but he couldn't shake the feeling.

His mother has spent her time during visiting hours split between hovering over him and fuming about Nedzu. She hadn't offered any details about what specifically she was mad at, and Izuku hadn't asked. He had only seen his mother in this type of mood a handful of times before, and it wasn't something to be trifled with. Whatever Nedzu had said to her, it wasn't going to end well for the principal, and that was all Izuku needed to know.

Hizashi split his time between Izuku's room and Aizawa's. Izuku had tried to encourage him to spend more time with his friend, but Hizashi wouldn't hear it. Aizawa wasn't awake yet, he argued, and Izuku would be bored out of his mind of Hizashi didn't come break up the monotony of his hospital stay. Izuku knew he was right, but he still didn't like the idea of Aizawa laying in some hospital room, alone except for the beeping of the machines.

Toshinori hadn't visited him very often, but Izuku felt that was because of guilt more than anything. There were a lot of ways that Izuku could see himself relating to the number one hero, and this was probably the biggest one. Even though there was nothing All Might could have done, he still blamed himself for not being there to stop the attack from happening before it started. Once, when everyone thought he was asleep, Izuku heard Hizashi trying to console him, but Toshinori wouldn't hear it. If he had been on time, he would have been there before the villains, and that was all that mattered to him. Izuku knew he would have to have a talk with him eventually, that Toshinori would probably continue blaming himself forever without a little intervention, but that conversation would have to wait.

His biggest priority at the moment was convincing his mother that is was okay for Mei to visit. She was worried that Izuku would push himself too far, not rest when he needed too, but Izuku wasn't stupid. He knew that being away didn't mean that he was fully healed. The bandages wrapped around his throat and across his face were proof enough of that. But he also knew that Mei wouldn't believe that he was okay until she saw the proof with her own eyes. Trust but verify. If he couldn't go see her, then he needed his mother to okay her coming to see him.

Izuku wanted to see his friends. He wanted to see his mentor. He wanted to get away from the constant reminders of everything that they had just been through. So yes, logic was important, but sometimes even logic needed to bow in the face of mental health.

Hizashi, thankfully, was helping Izuku wear his mother down as much as he could. "Let Mei visit, Inko. If you don't, she's going to in up breaking into the hospital herself. It would be better to avoid all possible explosions and just let them see each other."

"See!" Izuku said, knowing that he sounded like a five year old but couldn't help himself from wearing the expression that helped him get away with almost anything when he was younger. Most of those things had been attempts to sneak away and see hero fights, but that was beside the point. It had worked, and he was fairly certain that it hadn't lost any of its charm in the intervening years.

"And if he over exerts himself, then you can always ban visits until the hospital okays him to leave!" Hizashi added.

"Whose side are you on!" Izuku demanded, adding enough drama to his tone that he was sure that Hizashi would appreciate it. His honorary uncle hadn't been smiling near enough for Izuku's liking since he woke up. Izuku had been trying to do what he could to change that from the confines of his hospital bed. The slight twitch in Hizashi's face was definitely worth it.

"I'm on the side of your health and safety. Like you should be," Hizashi replied. "Although given the people you spend so much time with that might be a little too much to ask."

"Which people?" Izuku asked. "The mentor who refused to sleep? The best friend who blows things up for fun? The other best friend who fried his brain on the regular? Those people, or am I missing somebody?"

Hizashi rolled his eyes. "See, Inko. The kid is going stir crazy. Let his friend visit before we get a formal complaint from the hospital because Izuku's tried to turn the equipment into a weapon or something."

Izuku looked appraisingly at the machines beside his bed. "I wonder if-"

"Stop right there, Midoriya Izuku," Inko said. Izuku thought she was trying to be stern, but the smile on her face gave it away. While Hizashi had been down the entire time Izuku had been awake, his mother hadn't stopped smiling. Izuku didn't take it personally. Hizashi wouldn't be back to normal until Aizawa was awake and the doctors were able to assess the damage that remained.

"Just a few minor modifications," Izuku said. "Mei was telling me about rewiring systems-"

"Mei can visit," Inko interrupted, and Izuku forced himself not to cheer, "but if you start to feel too tired or ill, then you have to let us know immediately. You're still hurt, Izuku, and you don't need to make things worse by pushing yourself too far." His mother turned her sharp gaze on Hizashi. "And if any equipment is damaged during the course of this visit, I will be holding you responsible. I need to run some errands, so I'm leaving you in charge."

Hizashi waved her off with a fake salute. "I've got it Mama Midoriya! Don't worry about a thing. The room and this precious child will still be in one piece when you return."

"I'm counting on that," she said, before hugging Izuku tightly. "I shouldn't be gone too long."

When she finally slipped out the door with one last look at the two of them, Hizashi turned to Izuku. "I was wondering if she would ever give in. Hatsume should be here any minute."

"You already called her?" What would Hizashi have done if his mother hadn't agreed?

Hizashi shrugged. "I knew that she was going to agree. She knows that you are sick of having nothing to do, and Hatsume's mom has been on the phone with both of us about how worried her daughter has been. You really do need to be careful not to push yourself too far, but a short visit would be good for the both of you. Hopefully Kaminari will be up for visitors soon, and then the whole gang will be back together."

"Not the whole gang," Izuku said softly, and then immediately regretted it. Hizashi didn't need the reminder.

"He will be okay, Izuku. It's just a matter of time. Now. Do I need to look away when Hatsume confronts you about what happens? How likely do you think she is to resort to violence?"

"Very, as it turns out," a voice said from the doorway, and Izuku felt his heart tighten. Mei step inside the room, her mother just behind her, and Izuku didn't know what to even begin to say. Hizashi got up from his chair, moving towards Mei's mother. The two adults exchanged and unreadable look and then left the two of them alone. Izuku doubted they would go far. After all, Hizashi had promised that he would be responsible for all damages.

For a moment, the two simply stared at each other. Izuku didn't know what he looked like, but Mei was a wreck. And not the working in her lab hours after she should have gone to sleep wreck that Izuku had seen in the past. Her hair was pulled back into a loose pony tail, her goggles nowhere in sight, and her eyes had dark circles ringing them that Izuku would have expected to see on Aizawa. There was no grease on her face, or paint on her hands, or any sign that she had been working on a project earlier in the day. That had to be the most worrying thing of all.

"Mei-" Izuku was cut off by Mei throwing herself on his bed, wrapping her arms around him tightly.

"Mei-"

"Shut up, Izuku. I have to make sure that you're real."

Izuku sighed, but shut up, letting Mei curl up on his bed beside him. Her head was tucked against his collarbone, and it only took a small shift for him to wrap his arm around her. There was so much they needed to talk about, so much that he needed to tell here. There was still Aizawa and Kaminari to worry about, and his other classmates who had been injured, but those worries could wait for the moment. Mei was here, and for the first time since waking up in the aftermath of USJ Izuku finally felt like he could breathe.

Objectively, Inko acknowledged that Nedzu was in an impossible position. His school's safety had just been compromised. His students had been injured. His staff attacked. He was dealing with a nightmare scenario that no one could have anticipated, and the media was more than willing to drag him into the chopping block in order to get a story. Nedzu couldn't take the blame for what had happened on his own. Aizawa had gone into detail multiple times about the precautions that had been taken to ensure that a school full of potential heroes wouldn't be wiped out by villains looking to eliminate their future adversaries.

That being said, Inko was two seconds from calling for his job herself. It wasn't totally fair to blame him for what happened to Izuku. She knew that. Some things, however awful, were outside his control. Maybe if the security had been lax, or he hadn't prepared for the eventuality at all then then she would have been within her rights to blame him for the incident. No, what made Inko burn with a fury she had no prior comparison for was the way he conducted himself in the aftermath of the attack. And that? Well, that he had complete control over.

After all, what person in their right mind would tell a room full of grieving and shocked parents that the incident that had left their children in the hospital that it would all be a valuable learning experience? Inko had personally never been a fan of Nedzu's after the way that he had repeatedly jerked her son around, but she had left Aizawa and Hizashi to handle him. They knew him best, after all, and would see him every day at school. Any punishment they felt was required for his unorthodox actions would be swift and unusual. Aizawa was still unconscious and recovering from his injuries, and Hizashi was waiting with Izuku and for any updates about Aizawa's condition. Which meant that dealing with Nedzu had fallen to Inko. That was fine with her. A meeting with the interfering principal seemed long overdue.

Todoroki was going to be very disappointed in himself if the tapping of his therapist's pen against her pad of paper was the thing that finally made him snap, but it was a very near thing. He had five minutes of his school mandated session left, and Todoroki was determined to make it through without saying a word. He had been successful last session, but only barely. His therapist-Harada- seemed to be trying to annoy him into talking, and he refused to let her win. It didn't seem like an ethical way to get him to participate in this farce besides.

Yuuei may have been able to force him to attend sessions as a condition of 1A returning to school, but that didn't mean that he needed to open up to a complete stranger about anything that was going on in his life. His father had made the situation very clear to him. Todoroki kept his mouth shut and waited for the clock to run out. He would have to find a better solution eventually. Apparently, they had to continue to meet until their therapist gave them the all clear to stop, which she clearly wasn't going to do if Todoroki continued to say nothing.

It was a problem Todoroki had no solution for. He doubted he would be able to lie his way out of it. He wasn't a very good liar, and he thought that she must have been trained to see to the truth of the situation, and he couldn't very well tell her the truth. If she had only wanted to discuss what had happened at USJ that wouldn't have been a problem at all. Much to his father's own disappointment, Todoroki hadn't been involved in much of the action. He'd seen the initial confrontation and then been transported away. There had been some minor villains to deal with, but they hadn't been a challenge for him. By the time he made it back to the main entrance All Might had arrived and the attack had been all but handled. There wasn't much for him to talk about.

Sure, some of his classmates had been seriously injured, but Todoroki hadn't been injured himself. They needed this far more than he did. Giving him a session would just take time away from someone who actually needed it. He had tried to explain that during his first session, but Harada just scribbled something down on her notes and asked him if there was anything that he wanted to talk about. It had been productive to say the least.

So, Todoroki sat there listening to the tap-tap-tap of her pen and wishing that he had a clever way to get out of this. He debated playing along for a second, giving her a morsel of what she wanted so that he could set the groundwork for being released, but there were too many minefields that he was wary of stepping on. The few questions that Harada had asked him at the start of his current session had all been about his family, and Todoroki wasn't entirely sure what she had been trying to get at, asking about his relationships with his siblings. His mother. She hadn't said anything specific, but it had been enough to set Todoroki on edge. Maybe that was her other new strategy. If she wanted to trick information out of him, she was going to have a hard time of it.

The timer on her desk went off, the soft tinkling of chimes signaling that his time in her office had come to an end. Todoroki stood to leave without waiting to be dismissed. He was almost at the door when Harada's quiet voice stopped him.

"This isn't helping you, Todoroki-san," she said. Todoroki turned to see a soft, disappointed look on her face. "I'm only here to help you, but you have to meet me halfway. Yuuei wants to make sure that you are ready to go back to school. That your classmates are recovering from the catastrophe that you were thrown into. Right now, I have to say that my recommendation is that you are not ready."

Panic rose in a wave. She couldn't. She couldn't do that.

Harada raised a hand before he could interrupt. "I don't want to do that, Todoroki-san, but you are giving me no choice. Your refusal to share during our sessions speaks volumes. Whether this is related to what occurred at USJ or something else, I can't determine at the moment. And that is very worrying."

"What else could it be other than USJ?" Todoroki burst out in his panic, and immediately tensed. He should have kept his mouth shut. He should have walked away.

Harada's stare cut straight into him as she hummed. "Yes. That is the question, isn't it? If it's not USJ, what is it that you are trying so hard to avoid discussing? There are rumors, of course, about-"

Todoroki cut her off, forcing the words out before the panic wiped away his ability to speak. "I'm late. I'll see you in two days." He was out the door before she could protest. Todoroki went down the stairs in a daze, slipping into the bathroom on the ground floor and locking the door solidly behind him.

Okay. Okay. This was fine.

This was anything but fine.

Todoroki knew this whole therapist thing was going to blow up in his face if he wasn't careful, but he thought that he would have time to deal with it first. Come up with a plan. Now he had two days to come up with a way to do damage control. Harada hadn't referenced anything specifically, but she had mentioned rumors. There were plenty of those to go around. There was no way to know for sure what she thought she knew until her next session. He should have known that refusing to talk would make things worse. He should have acted torn up about what had happened at USJ instead. It didn't matter that he hadn't seen any of the violence, that he wasn't friends with any of the people injured. He wasn't heartless. It just didn't have anything to do with him. He didn't need therapy to address his issues. He needed to be left alone.

It was too late for him to take that route now though. She would know that he was trying to deflect attention elsewhere. He had given himself away, and if even a whisper of this left that office…No, Todoroki wouldn't worry about that now. She didn't know anything. Not for sure. And she wouldn't say anything yet. This was her attempt to test the water, and Todoroki had only hinted that there was something underneath by accident. He could still save the situation. He had two days to figure out how.