Chapter 49

"Free to a good home"

They did find a spot where she could lean and keep her weight mostly on her good leg, so she could stand up with out falling over. It wasn't any less fairly painful or difficult, or awkward but between two strong boys and her own good leg they managed it. That she was deaf was certainly news to some of her classmates, obviously not Bakugo or Deku. Denki also didn't appear surprised either. Momo was as unphased about it however, rolling up her sleeves to to produce dry erase markers and incredibly simple white boards for the group so they didn't have to pass around sheets of paper or what not. Kyoka was taking It about as well as Alarice was, but everyone was calm and Alarice had to thank them for that. Not a-loud but internally.

'You Leg will get stronger again soon, you've got this!' Kirishima encouraged, Alarice noting that Everyone's marker's had been color coded for them. She hesitantly smiled at him.

"It's... something. I keep trying but I guess they did a lot to it. " Alarice paused, "Actually I don't even know. I haven't asked... Been kinda distracted with options for you know, " She gestured her to her ears. "this." She forced out an uneasy smile, that seemed go over well enough with group. Though Some were clearly disapproving that she hadn't asked if they'd done anything beyond stitching the leg up.

'How are you holding up besides?' Kyoka asked, Alarice pretending she couldn't tell that she was trying to hide concern from her.

"Holding... I guess, Mic-Sensei's teaching me sign language."

'Mic-sensei knows sign language? Wait which one?' Denki's question had been sloppily written, clearly as quickly as he could to get his thoughts out before any one else. Midoriya and Momo reading it and nodding along side.

"W.. I mean it surprised me to but yeah he's actually fluent in a lot of langauges … I didn't ask that either." Alarice's ears burned and she felt her body sweat nervously. She put her head in her hand and pretend she couldn't see Aizawa pretend to cough into his scarf. She hadn't realized it but she was just leaping at things to distract herself... which made sense but she probably should have asked.

'I bet its JSL, that would make sense, I don't think he knows ASL.' Midoriya wrote down, being the only other Hero nerd in the room who would nerd out for Present Mic with same ferocity as she would.

" Yeah but... " She stopped her thought, No one had even talked about if she was staying or leaving. Either way she would need to know one or the other, and Midoriya was probably right, Present Mic might be familiar with ASL but likely he only knew JSL well enough to teach it to her too. "I'll ask."

There was some nods, Kirishima flashed his sign first; ' If its JSL that probably means your staying, you know!?'

'If your staying you should definitely share that knowledge with us.' Denki added, scratching the back of his head. He was good with language as far as Alarice knew, so he could probably pick up on it quick. Maybe. If he paid attention. Kyoka was quick to follow up with her own purple letters.

'Yeah writing things out like this is isn't very efficient.'

Alarice let out a little snort, "Sure. I can try I guess."

'Is there anything beyond hearing aids they can give you? like... a transplant of some kind?' Kyoka asked, smudges of the previous question remaining.

"hm.. There's not anything right now that can be done for my right... it's... permanent, there's to much damage." Alarice quickly buried the thoughts, continuing, " My left isn't likely to improve either, I mean, Adaption might help me but, I mean, I wont be able to hear with it ... mostly likely it'll just make general vibrations easier to pick up." Alarice picked at her hair, trying not to think to hard about her lack of options for her hearing. " I meant that's.. that's all sound is, it's just vibrations."

There was a shrug from Bakugo who looked like he let out some sort of huff at her, or maybe at nothing, she couldn't really tell. Midoriya looked genuinely sad for her, which was.. okay. Maybe. Really the most heart broken was Kyoka. Which made sense, Music was something they did together, And Alarice was sorely missing that too every night. "Hey, Beethoven was supposedly deaf-!"

She'd taken a step with the wrong foot, out of pure habitual nature. Pain shot right up her leg, to her brain, and made her back feel like it was tingling. She wasn't sure if her face had gone white, but the look of immediate alarm in the few of her friends, said that she probably had. Her tail came out, and supported her before her heroic hopeful classmates could get to her and support her.

Her resistance to being touched didn't help but at least Midoriya patiently held the chair still while she managed into it, color now returned to her face. Which she promptly buried her hands into.

"Sorry." She mumbled out quietly breathing hard. "I think I might be done now though, for the day." Alarice's breathing was leveling out slowly, the head rush from the pain, immediate vertigo it seemed, in ability to hold hers self up for very long... and of couse that her Tail had come out. It was still sort of there, laying completely transformed now, across her legs. The Fingers on the end twitching, but the appendage itself not moving.

Aizawa seemed to nodd, and she paid more attention to than she showed. Kyoka and Denki were talking to him, trying to convince him of something it seemed. Then Kyoka explained what they had talked about, showing her the board.

'Denki and I are going to come up with you and Sensei, if that's okay.'

"Can it be just you? No offense Denki you are a good friend just... It's a bit to much already I'm sorry." She didn't take her hand of her face, and her tail hand had begun to pick at the metal on the chair, before transforming out of existence. She really hoped her classmates weren't offended, or upset. She was pretty sure Midoriya was just worried and Bakugo was the usual.

In a few moments it didn't really matter. Kyoka did the wheelchair pushing, Aizawa was walking some where nearby, he'd slip into her field of vision, a Nurse was gotten. Alarice holding her breath when they had to go through key-card sealed doors and now Kyoka was going to know how bad it was. Alarice was the most scared of her judgment, but wanting to spend just a little bit more time with her.

000

Aizawa was reading, quietly, enjoying the silence, calm, and relaxation he was able to some what get after all the drama that had gone down recently. Between the school, things he wished he could un-learn, and of course, the puppies, he'd barely had a moment. However now it was all looking up, most of the puppies, including 'Laser' had either been spoken for or adopted by other hell-hound families locally living Japan who had avoided the issues entirely. There were a few who had gone to families with similar quirks. Leaving 4 puppies to find homes or go into Foster care. Anna had some family they had managed to locate but there was some... issues with that. Still eventually, all of them would be safe some where and hopefully well loved.

Thusly the hospital didn't need him quite as much, which suited him just fine.

What did not suit him just fine was the method in which his boyfriend Yamada Hizashi decided to enter the apartment. 'mock' kicking the door open, catching it before it slammed the wall in earnest, but still be loud enough to announce one line that made Aizawa go cold, and then furious.

"GUESS WHAT AIZAWA! I ADOPTED A PUPPY!"

Hizashi caught the book Aizawa had just chucked in a Kneejerk reaction to Hizashi's announcement.

"What makes you think we are in a place to raise a child Hizashi!? OR A DOG!?"

Aizawa barked back at him, Hizashi clearly quickly and nervously regretting his poor choice of words or good news. Hizashi had the door shut quickly and both men were thankful that Hizashi's quirk was taken into consideration when this joint apartment was made for the two of them. Aizawa was glaring angrily at him, something Hizashi was clearly not prepared to face as the result of his antics. Infact he'd kind of hoped to keep Aizawa from being mad.

"okay, okay it was a poor choice of words!" Hizashi tried to calm it down in the apartment, His green eyes pleading. "I didn't adopt a dog." Aizawa inhaled so sharply, and his eyes were so full of suspicion and even anxiety, that Hizashi wrapped it up quickly; "I adopted Alarice Stone."

"You what."

"I... kind of became her dad now? She's my ward? Her dad gave his Parental rights over to me, The paperwork just got finalized." Hizashi was fiddling with this headphone cord. His cheeks where pink but he was keeping an eye on Aizawa who did not look pleased, or even placated in the slightest. "Her dad asked me too!"

"Did you just forget that her dad was a convicted Con-man? He offered and you just took her?" Aizawa squinted at him, but shook his head to physically rid himself of that thought. "What were you thinking Hizashi!?"

Hizashi looked at him almost with a glare, but it came out more pouty. "I was thinking her dad is dying and he wanted to protect her. I've already been in an discussion between him and Nezu about how she could stay here."

"Stay? But I'm already going to expel her, she can't be in a hero course with no control of her quirk... even if it is the result of a traumatic incident." Aizawa didn't particularly like what he was hearing. He'd been trying to find the right time to tell her, her father and finalize the whole thing. The therapist had to some degree kept him at bay in saying it though, advising that she needed something to reach for during her sensitive time of recovery.

"Nezu's aware of that, we've been discussing her either taking one of the openings in the support classes or the one Shinso just left in the General department." Hizashi gave a shoulder shrug and took off his jacket. "For the most part I just need to... Talk to her about it soon. It was basically just.. don't take her in and she goes back to the states in her terrible condition, watches her dad die and either goes into Sunshine's Care or Foster care. Or, take Stone in, she can continue some kind of education, and.. well be safe and have support even after her dad dies."

"Your that sure her Dad is actually... passing away that soon?" Aizawa asked, skeptical and crossing his arms as he tried to still figure out why his boyfriend hadn't even asked him before doing this. Probably because he would have said no, but also because Cats were fine for him.

"Well.. how old you think he is?" Hizashi asked, finally relaxing a bit as he shed off his coat and scarf.

"Late 50s, early 60s, maybe." Aizawa responded looking furiously tired now, his arms still folded despite the mewl of cocktail from the hall way. Not happy her humans were upset probably.

"He just turned 40." Hizashi put his shoes to the side and sat himself onto the couch. Death was a heavy topic for him to deal with, and recent events were not light ones, the best parts were probably the happy ends for the puppies and His student-turned-adopted-daughter not being dead herself. "He's got an aggressive cancer, they where still trying treatments but … If he was lying about anything else, he wasn't lying about that."

The whole tone in the room quickly went somber and quiet. Aizawa had no real response to that, he did not really know Jonathan Stone's health or state, Hizashi had at this point met the man far more times than he had. Instead he picked up his cat, who meowled in his deep, angry voice, as Aizawa headed ot the bedroom, stopping to lean on the door frame. "Your Sleeping on the couch to night for the puppy comment alone. Now more than before you need to treat her with more respect when talking about her."

"Right." Hizashi agreed.

"I'm taking the small group of her classmates who didn't get to visit her last time tomorrow." Shouta grumbled out, his Tomcat looking slightly displeased about being held but putting up with it for his favorite human. "If your going to visit her tomorrow, you should tell her these things and … the update about her UA situation if you can, It'll be easier for her to take if it comes from you and not from me."

"Y-yeah I was planning on that since Nezu gave us the response on where and if she could stay. He's being surprisingly kind about this honestly..." Hizashi rambled slightly.

"Nezu probably figured out how bad Alarice's situation was months ago." And that was the last bit of conversation Hizashi got out of his boyfriend before he disappeared into the bedroom. Hizashi flopping dramatically onto the couch where cocktail jumped up onto his chest happily. He really should have asked Shouta about adopting a kid before he agreed to it.

Well he wasn't going to give her back, it was way to late for that.