Chapter 47

"A Indoor Water Feature"

Hizashi, well Mic now, was trying not to be bothered by how protective the nurse was being about her patient. When had he actually misbehaved with his quirk in the hospital?

Three years ago actually, but he hadn't don't it since and that time had been an accident!

Mic let out a breath, best to reassure her. "I'm aware of her situation. I wont be loud."

The nurse looked at him like he had no idea what he was talking about. Still, she finally just let him through the doors. Though he could feel her eyes still, as he walked down the hallway. He should have gotten out of uniform before heading this way. Aizawa had given him the most rationed amount of information about what had happened with Alarice, but not much more. So to some extent, he stayed in the get-up, almost entirely just for her, since she'd had a rough day.

Though Mic had to admit to himself that he was impressed she threw Sunshine out on her own.

Now if only he got a chance to pay her back, too, for all the trouble and stress she'd caused them. Using him to manipulate such a sweet pupper was something he really couldn't stand.

Mic came to a stop in front of Alarice's room door. He took in a big breath, and prepared for the possible worst-case, which was that she might get upset or weird about seeing him. He also told himself to, either away, approach it like he did whenever his mom was sick, by being patient, gentle and very visible. He opened the door and walked into the room, his boots made some noise, but he was pretty sure he was the only one who was hearing them.

To his ego's relief she didn't look that upset at all, though she also looked tired, perhaps drugged. It was probably both, given the earlier events. She saw him, a little dull half smile appeared and faded away. He waved at her, and she waved back and he came over to a chair, pushing it up near the bed and plopping down into it.

"Hey." was her only response. She wasn't even really fiddling with the covers, just kinda reclined there, not doing much. Though she watched him with tired confusion, as he held up a finger for her to wait, and pulled out a tablet screen from his jacket pocket. He tapped out a message quickly:

'thought I'd bring this along with me today! :) '

Alarice stared at it for a minute, before cracking a smile, herself. He was smiling along side his own smiling emoticon. He pulled it back to himself, clearing that message.

'How are you feelin' ?'

Alarice just gave a shrug of her shoulders. Mic couldn't get upset about that response, flipping the screen around to himself, and tapping it aggressively with his fingers.

'guess what!'

"What." she tiredly responded, while she felt she could hear the tap-tap-tap of fingers on the screen, but knew it was memory. Those kinds of sounds were too soft for her to hear, even with help. There wasn't a whole lot, even with the hearing aid, she could pick up, now. A lot of hallucinatory sounds were playing out in her head, as he moved, probably just from memory. He stopped, and turned the screen over to her.

'I know Sign language, if you want to learn.'

There it was, slightly stoned puppy eyes at him, big, reverse coloration puppy eyes. OF course she would want that. She wiggled, most noticeably with only one leg, up to a better sitting position. He noticed that there were three bracelets now, one for fall risk, one for identification, and another that was basically a warning that she had lost control of her quirk, was possibly dangerous, and that it could happen again. A thought entered his head, that he knew Aizawa had as well, and that thought jumped to the conversations between, Nezu and Jonathan.

Her voice, lacking confidence now, for completely reasonable reasons, snapped him back out of his thoughts and back to the situation at hand.

"I'd like that. Also, the leg's okay, I mean I um... well I strained it, but nothing tore or anything. Again. Popped a few stitches though, I guess. " she started nervously fiddling, again but she checked him for more than just the nod he gave her. "It hurt earlier but.. doesn't any more. The uh.. hearing aid survived its fall too... " She opened her mouth, closed it, and stared hard into the sheets like she was trying see through them. Little tears started to form, and then landed softly on the sheets. "I'm really glad, that you're okay."

She wiped at her face, and Mic began to fiddle with his speaker, getting it off his neck. He was off patrol anyway, he got up to put it on a chair, by the wall.

"Don't go!"

Mic nearly jumped, hearing her call like that. She was much louder than necessary, but that was understandable, she was still learning how to talk and communicate with the loss of a major sense. He turned around, showing he'd just taken his hardware off. Settling it into a spare chair, before coming back over to her.

He mimed breathing at her, to get to her understand she just needed to breathe, for a moment. Drugs or not, she looked so alarmed. She followed along, for a moment, before she just shook her head and kept crying. He hesitated patting her shoulder, sitting there awkwardly, while she cried. He handed over some tissues.

Alarice, between racing thoughts and gasps for breath, really wished she wasn't crying so much, it made it hard to smell, and see. With her stuffy nose, and her eyes full of tears, it was difficult to keep some of the rising panic at bay. Something she couldn't let out. She took the tissues and wiped her face as best she could, before a few words fell out of her mouth.

"Wwhy would... Why didn't Sunshine protect me?" she asked, trying very hard to control her breathing, but feeling it slip out of control anyway. Even being drugged didn't make her feel any better. She was searching him for answers, but not getting any of them, just the rapid movements of his fingers on the tablet screen.

'I wish I knew.' the little screen said.

She grabbed for his arm gently, she sucked in air, and continued to softly cry, but this time just against his hand. He didn't really know what to do besides, relaxing himself as much as possible, and getting the little screen again. Tapping on it, asking her if she would like anything.

"I don't know, a mom who cares again, maybe." she said quietly before a fresh wave came. She took a few more tissues, while she quietly cried.

'You can have me, for now?' He put the tablet where she could see it, before Mic settled himself on the side of her bed, so that this would be a little less awkward, and he wouldn't accidentally scare her. She didn't seem to notice, till he was done, when he made a show of being available for hugs now. As well as having written down on the tablet 'Just tell me if you need anything else.'

"okay." Though Alarice looked around, then almost cautiously, got close enough, before settling herself, into his chest and shoulder. Taking-in a strong inhale against the body-warmed leather, before visibly seeming to 'relax'. It wasn't really relaxing, a new wave of tears and sobs came afterwards. She was curled up in his lap, crying against him, while he held her. His grip on her was soft, a very soft embrace, like she might break. He only held her tighter when she nestled in, still sniffling, but the big sobs had passed for now. Just quiet, the quiet giving him time to question what he was doing, and chastise himself. For a brief moment, he wondered if she didn't know this could end, so he let go with one arm, only to find that while she had pulled her arms against herself, she hadn't let go of his jacket. She had a pretty good grip on it, too. So instead, he just grabbed the tablet.

'How are you feelin' now?'

"Sad."

'do you want to talk about anything? I'm still the listening hero too!'

That got something other than tears, a half-hearted laugh, and a response "That's a bad joke."

He knew she couldn't hear it, or see when he stuck his tongue out at her and made a disapproving noise. He typed out the appropriate emoticon on the screen. Another long moment passed, more tears, breathing became erratic again and then calmed back down. She shifted a little, but nope... she was still clinging to him like an over-sized teddy bear. Unfortunately, her weight was cutting off some circulation to his leg, though he wasn't about to say anything about it. He'd accept his funny walk later, like a big man.

"I saw someone die on the island." she said quietly. "There wasn't anything I could have done to save her, an.. she was a hell-hound too, but … she died, all of her guts came out and she bled death." She moved, reasonably uncomfortable with what she was saying. "I couldn't do anything.. I .. she just wanted me to stay there, so I did."

Alarice started to cry all over again, with that admittance. Hiding her face into the black leather.

It was difficult to type with her being there, but since she was unwilling to move, and he wasn't keen on trying to force her just yet, he dealt with it. Thinking of his own solemn thoughts, dark memories from the past.

'Sounds like you did do something, you stayed with her.' She sniffled as she read, and he added more 'sometimes, that's all you can do.'

"has that happened.. to you?"

'Once.'

"Oh."

'Sometimes comfort and company is all you can do for someone.'

He felt her nod against him, then whimper, and start to cry again. "I.. It.. I just feel so bad about it."

'That'll pass, it's normal, just remind yourself you did what you could, because you did.'

He gave her shoulder a soft pat, and she numbly nodded to him. Things went quiet again, and then she shifted herself, a little, and let go of him a bit.

"Is that what you do when you think about it?"

He nodded, and she accepted that answer, wiped at her face with a tissue. She inhaled, sniffled, she hunched up again, tensing. He wondered was she going to talk about what happened? He couldn't really tell her that 'he already knew' because that was a lie. He knew about the aftermath, not the situation. Instead a quiet voice came out of her. "A lot of bad things happened on that island."

'Indeed they did, pupper.'

"I'm glad Parasus didn't get you, tho."

'get me?'

He almost regretted asking that, but she'd seen the text, so it was to late to erase it.

"She threatened it a lot. 'n she was probably going after you on the island when I at-, I mean Sunshine and Aizawa stopped her."

'Is that why you jumped on her?'

She didn't verbally respond, just nodded stiffly. It didn't surprise him that she didn't know he knew. He probably shouldn't have let her know that he knew about her attacking Parasus. A few more tears slipped free of course. She'd been a waterworks display for a bit now, it was surprising there were still more tears available. "are you mad at me for that?"

'no, I can't say that I am.'

Probably not what he should tell a young hero hopeful, she did make a bad call. On the other hand, he doubted she had more sisters to pull that stunt on. He patted her shoulder while the new indoor water-feature let out more water.

He sat there with her, till his leg went numb, and realized she was basically not really awake anymore. Leg tingling, as he moved her weight off of it, he carefully made sure she was placed back on the bed. Even half-awake though, she still clearly wanted him to stay. By the nature of the job, he was her Hero, whether she could hear him or not, she found comfort in his presence. However, he did have to to go, and he couldn't let her sleep on him even if she wanted to.

Mic, instead, had a million thoughts now racing about in his head. It helped distract from the tingling in his leg, as feeling returned completely. Remaining silent and deep in-thought all the way down to the lobby. Had he done, or said the right things? He hated this feeling, and it never seemed to stay far away from him. Was it the DJ side? The Hero side more likely, that attracted the lost souls looking for comfort. Lost in his thoughts, he nearly jumped out of his speaker when Aizawa touched his arm.

"Tired?" he asked.

Mic just nodded. "Yeah, got a lot on my mind, right now.."

The pair walked out, avoiding any serious conversations in the car ride. Mic was pretty sure Aizawa knew he was troubled, Aizawa had a knack for reading him pretty well. He didn't start talking to the other, till they were in the privacy of their apartment. Some sparse commentary at best, that she practically passed out on him, which Aizawa didn't seem to judge him about it. He'd kind of been expecting it. Though perhaps it was because Aizawa was more concerned with how to tell her she couldn't be a hero.

If he needed his help, Aizawa would say so, and so far, he hadn't said anything. Mic just hoped he didn't have to be there, when he did tell her.