Chapter 27

"Panic at the Disco"

A yapping dog was off its leash, the owner running furiously behind it, yelling its name, snapped Alarice out of her thoughts. Taking the dog by surprise, she picked it up as it ran over her feet. Which it did not appreciate her doing but she did it all the same.

"Oh thank you, young lady, His leash just slipped off my hand... He's still just a puppy." The woman said, taking the dog back into her arms, petting it. Even though it squirmed to be let down again.

"You're welcome. Have a Good day.." Alarice waved, even as the woman hurriedly walked off from them. It was starting to get late, maybe that's why she was hurrying off? Or was it embarrassment? Alarice settled on both, then jumped when Fatgum re-emerged from the building she was standing outside of.

Ever-glorious and needed food in his hands. She didn't even need to ask, much of her apprehension now lost in regards to him. She took her share happily.

"Despite helpin' out, you look a little sad, Arariel, what's up?" He settled against the wall next to her easily.

"I'm just... I don't want to go back to the states. Not yet, any way. I mean... I miss my dad don't get me wrong but I don't really fit in, there." Not that she really heavily fit in here, but at least here she had opportunities.

"Ah. That I get. Its possible you could work something out." Fatgum mused next to her, eating his own share in a relaxed pace.

"Probably only if some one gets expelled..." Alarice tried not to smirk to herself that she wouldn't really mind if a certain classmate did get expelled. "But maybe? They like to keep a certain number I think, but sh- a classmate did get approved to join the hero course so... maybe?" Alarice just went back to chewing silently and pondering to herself. A calm silence taking over as they people-watched and ate on their hero food-break. Before long, Fatgum started walking again, Alarice finishing her food and licking her fingers like the uncivilized creature she could be. "OH I also remembered, the lady in Mic's description, I think I do know who that might be. I just don't have a last name."

"Yeah? Who?" Fatgum's tone didn't suggest any annoyance that she hadn't said something faster. The Villain had run off, and to some degree they had time now before her next appearance to figure her out.

"I think her name is Gale, She talked to me at a festival once." Alarice said as her cheeks started to heat up about what Gale had talked about at the time. "I... don't think she likes Mic, or Heros like him. She kind of made fun of me, for having a plush Present Mic toy."

Alarice could see the smile threatening on his face, but he kept it down. There were much more important issues than the now-obvious knowledge that Arariel was a Fan for Present Mic. Every hero hopeful had someone after all.

"That's a little concerning. Have you told him that?" Fatgum stated, wrapping up his food garbage, now that he'd finished everything.

"No... I can do that right now, though."

000

Hizashi looked apathetically into his phone screen, reading the received text. Great. Not really of course, but hey, it was better to know if there was a possible villain gunning for you, rather than not. He put the phone down on the table and stared blankly into space.

This club's music was NOT helping his mood, either. It was not what he would call 'living'; in fact, he was considering calling the coroner. He was dying, here! It was loud enough he had to shout to be heard, but not good enough that he was entertained. So, silent he remained, lest he do something stupid by accident. He looked over towards Kayama, at least she was having fun. The Red-head definitely looked cute.

The waitress brought him his beer with a smile and a nod. He took it, and considered drinking the entire beast, right now. Maybe the music would be enjoyable if he was completely blasted off his ass?

No, he'd probably just be annoying. Surprising even himself, the urge to just go home, and curl up on his boyfriend, was very enticing.

He drank a sip of his strong beer, and settled into his seat a little more. Two sips, three, four...

Fuck it, he downed the entire thing as fast as he could, loudly thumping it back on the table. It was only his second large beer dammit. The sound and motion attracted Kayama over, with her new date.

"ohhh Hizashi, what's up?" The dark haired woman shouted over the boring beats.

"Nothin', Just exhausted, I think, from an entire day's teaching English to small demons." He cracked a toothy smile at that. The red-head giggled at little, so that made it worth it. Kayama smiled too, so, double worth it.

"Ahh, well, this is Rose, she's here on vacation." Kayama introduced, then continued to introduce as Hizashi ordered them more beers. They arrived swiftly.

"So what is it you do?" He asked, drinking into his next beer.

"I'm a support specialist for heros in Australia." Was Rose's proud response. "It's not too bad, and I get to work with some very nice people." She smiled wide, though it quickly faded. Hizashi turning around to see what had caused that, and Kayama standing up.

A young man, with long blonde hair, had doubled over onto the floor. His groans of pain, nearly drowned out, followed immediately by vomiting. His friends were with him, he'd be okay.. then another individual, of similar look started having the same reaction.

While Midnight and Rose watched this happen with confusion and worry, Hizashi noticed something else.

"Kayama..." Hizashi started, he too, found himself feeling whatever the other two were feeling. Everything inside of him was on fire, and tightening up. "I think... we should call for an ambulance..."

He was almost immediately on his side, as he couldn't seem to help it, curling up like the other two. She was with him, in less than 2 seconds, looking up to see Rose had taken on the task of calling-in the emergency, already. So Nemuri Kayama was the one to start calming people down, and getting the club under some form of control.

000

Alarice was standing outside Midoriya's door when he opened it.

"Hey Rice, what's up?" He asked, a little on the nervous side. He had a vague idea on what it was, given that her phone, clutched in her hand was playing a specific radio podcast. It helped that he also kept up with Hero news.

"I.. I couldn't think of any one else who would care, but, you saw, right, what happened to Mic?" Alarice asked, her breathing was rough and somewhere between panicked, and trying to be calm. "H-he's in the hospital."

"I did." Midoriya admitted, starting to try to think of ways to keep his fellow hero classmate from crying. She seemed to be just as fond of Mic as he was of All Might... and she was, apparently, seconds from freaking out. A few tears began to escape. "H-hey Rice don't cry, He'll be okay! He's in good hands!"

He tried desperately to reassure her, giving her a pat, even a hug, and finally all he could do was give her a few tissues. Continuously pushing the thoughts of his mentor out of his head.

"Alarice really, he'll be okay." Midoriya tried again. "L-listen how about we take your mind off this... Sato said he was making cookies today, you wanna go eat them, I'm sure he won't mind!"

The teen encouraged the other, who just nodded her head, and wiped her eyes. Following behind her friend, one earbud in, the other out, and the phone in her hand. Their passing to the kitchen was not missed by their pink classmate.

"Hey... Whats wrong you two?" Ashido asked.

"Present Mic is in the hospital right now." Midoriya said simply, while Alarice occupied herself in the kitchen, gesturing to the cookies on the tray, cooling. Sato just let her have however many she wanted. It was no secret in 1-A that she was a Fan of the voice Hero, and would naturally be concerned for his well being. Ashido made a knowing noise from the couch.

"You know what we should do then?" She started

" no?" Midoriya responded a little nervous.

"WE should make him a get well card! Especially if its in English!" Ashido chirped. "I bet it'll make everyone feel better too."

Whether it would, or not, was not discussed, the pink student wasted no time. Before a few minutes had passed, Ashido had gathered the supplies and had them set up on the table, downstairs. Alarice had been texting Jirou, who had, by luck, just gotten back, and had come to help. The students downstairs gathered and changed out as a few who had the time, kept working on it.

It took some convincing to get Bakugo to do it, but seeing puppy eyes did nothing to persuade him seemingly. He shouted loudly that he was going to prove he had the best english writing so he signed the card.

Jirou and Alarice were sitting together to write some lines of an English song on it, for him, signing it when they were done.

"So this is what you guys are doing." Came Aizawa's voice as he casually walked in, eyeing his students who were left at the table. He eyed the chibi-fied drawing of the voice Hero on the front of the card, as finishing touches were being added. "So you already know, good."

"Aizawa-Sesnsei! You should sign it, too!" Ashido chirped from the table, Midoriya moved over to allow his teacher the room to kneel down and do so. There was a faint smile that disappeared behind the man's capture weapon, wrapped around himself. Taking the offered pen from Ashido, and began to scrawl his name down on the inside, doing his best to write it in English.

"So do you have a plan for taking it to him?" Aizawa asked slowly, fully prepared that he was going to be asked.

"A-actually, I wanted to know if I could go do it?" Alarice asked, obviously nervous about that, but not so much so that she wouldn't try.

"Midnight is going by later, she can take you with her." Aizawa finished, then nodded, surprising Alarice (and a few others) at how easy that had been."1-B made one too, so you can take their's, too." He pulled out another card made by their rival class, putting it on the table.

000

"This was a mistake." Alarice mumbled under her breath as she followed behind Midnight in the hospital. In her concern and rush, she forgot how uncomfortable being in a hospital actually made her. On top of her other concerns, specifically concerning Gale. "What if this isn't okay? What if... what if its my fau-"

Midnight cuffed her (some what gently) on the back of the head. "Don't you start that, you already asked, and he said you could, so you're going in." To emphasize the point, she put the cards into her hands. "so you can give him those."

"But.." A sharp look from Midnight killed whatever else Alarice had to say in that one moment.

Mic, or rather Hizashi was laying down, looking a little uncomfortable, in his hospital bed, with his blond locks of hair all over the place, IV in his arm and everything. He looked towards the girls as they entered the room, managing to to sit himself up-right enough, even though that didn't look all that easy.

"Heyyy, Pupper came to see me in the hospital, this time." Hizashi managed to hoarsely chirp out. Alarice wondered why he was hoarse, but just kind of anxiously nodded, knowing her cheeks were turning pink. She'd gotten quite comfortable with him, but the situation wasn't sitting well with her.

"We uh... we made you a card, and so did 1-B." Alarice said very simply, while Midnight made herself comfortable in a chair, nearby. She put the cards down, realizing that they were actually kinda big. She flopped them down into his lap.

"Alright alright, lets see these cute works of art by my cute little listeners." He cleared his throat and started looking, of course. Alarice, not sure what to do with herself, tried to locate a chair to sit in. Finding one to the side, she could sit in, after a moment. A long silence followed while the blond flipped each card open thoughtfully, and a small thoughtful smile remained on his face. "These are very nice. I like the little English lyrics in there. You and Jiro did a good job."

Alarice nodded. "It seemed appropriate... how can you tell we wrote them?"

"You both wrote your names in English beneath it, Pupper."

"oh-oh right... " She knew her face was bright pink now. "I.. uh... Hizashi-sensei you're gonna be okay, right?"

The room paused, Hizashi looking at her with this big green eyes before a smile crept up. "Of course, I'll be fine. Just some bad club music got me, is all."

Midnight made a noise to the side. Silence crept back into the hospital room after that. Hizashi went back to inspecting his get well cards, an amused smile taking over his face. Alarice found herself staring out the window, so she didn't stare at her teacher. This was a mistake... she couldn't stop thinking about her mother, or that she was...

She pulled herself out of it with a dramatic shake of her head. No, no she was not going to have thoughts like that! She needed to do something else.. anything else.

"Hizashi-sensei.. can I uh.. braid your hair?" Alarice didn't know if it was okay to ask but he had such long locks, and it seemed like a good idea. It'd be nice.

"My hair?" He looked at her puzzled about it, for a second. His hair was fine, wasn't it? Aizawa had come by earlier before and brushed it out for him, and even given it a gentle wash to make sure it didn't smell like sweat and other things. Even though that had mostly been taken care of once he was stabilized and his treatment had started. "Why do you want to braid my hair? Is it a mess or somethin' ?"

"Er, no I just... it'd be a lot easier for it to not tangle if it's braided that's all." She started to fidget as he inspected his own hair for any of the mentioned tangles. Midnight hid her face behind her hand for a moment.

"Sure, Pupper, you can do that, if that's what you want." He finally answered, with a doofy looking grin on his face. Alarice mumbled an okay and walked over, grabbing the comb off the little table at the side, and Midnight helping him sit up just a bit better. The whole thing made her worry even more, for a brief moment, before she began.

Alarice settled into her work on his hair, almost wordlessly. She kept her touch gentle, since she was pretty sure with such fine, golden locks, he likely did not have a head as tough as her own. Combing out the hair and separating it, and letting herself sink into the activity. The whole thing reassuring her that he was okay, for the multiple times her brain worried about loosing her favorite Hero, teacher and importantly, friend.

Hizashi himself, was absorbed in the relaxing feeling and also how cute they both probably looked. It was such a shame he had to go and get poisoned to have it happen!

After a few minutes, he had a longish, carefully made golden braid of hair. Some conversation continued, mostly between Midnight and Hizashi, while Alarice found herself unable to not doze as she listened.