Chapter 8 – Suns and Stars

There was only 10 minutes left in the session and they had yet to talk about anything other than her quirk, or at least what she was comfortable sharing with a 16-year-old kid.

"What is your pro-hero name?"

Aine shook her head, "I'm a civilian. Not a pro-hero."

The greenette started scribbling something in the notebook he had brought. She heard him start to mumble and when she leaned in a little closer, she could tell he was talking about the implications of a quirk like hers in hero work.

After a short amount of time, he stopped. "Miss Satterfield?"

"Yes, Midoriya?"

He fumbled with his collar, "Um…I was wondering….with a quirk like your's… it's so versatile…um…why didn't you become a pro-hero?" Almost immediately after he said it, his eyes went wide, and a blush went across his nose. He looked down at where his hands had clenched into fists on his knees, "I-I'm sorry. You…uh…you don't have to answer that."

It was a blessed relief when the bell rang, indicating the start of the school day and the end of their session.

"It's okay." she flashed a reassuring smile at him, "Go on to class. We will talk again next week."

The rest of the day passed with relative ease; she had even found a few students she was starting to evaluate for release from weekly appointments.

By the middle of the week, she had a solid idea on which students she would release and which students she would be requesting extra sessions with. Even a few of the more reluctant students had loosened up within the appointment time.

All except for the student sitting in front of her right now, arms crossed and eyes closed. Her final appointment for Thursday, Katsuki Bakugou.

"You're wasting your time. I don't need to talk about my fucking feelings."

Aine took a breath to calm her own anger to spoke with a falsely even tone, "We can talk about anything you want, doesn't have to be feelings."

His red eyes opened glaring at her before rolling his eyes as he sucked on his teeth, "Tsk".

Leaning forward, he shot her the same challenging look he had in the classroom. "They said it's required for us to show up to these damn things. There is nothing that says we have to talk."

This little shit!

Aine tamped her anger back down and sighed, "You're right, you don't have to talk. It will make it easier on us both if you do." she tried to keep an edge out of her voice to keep her speech even and professional.

He leaned backwards, arms behind the back of the couch. "Seems pretty easy for me right now, keeps me away from those damn extras for 30 minutes. Just wish I'd brought a book or some other shit to do."

She looked at the clock, it had been 10 minutes….only 10 minutes and already she was weighing how much trouble she could get in for strangling a student.

I wonder if Nemuri has anything stronger than wine. Hell, I might take her up on those concoctions she keeps making Hizashi drink.

Standing, Aine went to her desk and opened her laptop.

"What the hell you doing?" Bakugou closed his eyes and leaned his head back.

She shrugged at him, "Just catching up on paperwork."

"Aren't you supposed to be trying to get me to crack? See if I'll be a fucking crybaby?" he grinned as though he had won a fight.

Aine smirked to herself, "You said it yourself, you have to be here, but you aren't required to talk and in a similar fashion, I'm required to be in this room with you but if you won't talk, I'm not going to force you." She shrugged at him, "Besides, this is my office. I have plenty of paperwork to get done so no matter what, I'm not 'wasting my time'" she added air quotes for emphasis. "From what I see, the only one wasting their time, is you."

"The hell you say?" He sat forward in the couch; his hand popped with sparks as red eyes once again glared at her.

"Don't burn my couch or I'll have to report you to Nedzu." she replied coolly while continuing to work on her computer, eyes never leaving the screen.

Bakugou was fuming but he put his hands in his pockets and continued to glare at her. Aine could see his jaw working in annoyance.

He finally huffed and leaned back, hands still in his pocket but now his eyes were trained on the ceiling. They stayed like this for the remainder of the appointment, the only sounds being the clacking of her keyboard.

When the timer went off, he stood and headed for the door.

"See you next week, Bakugou."

He grumbled something before he stomped out the door.

Aine stood outside of Shouta Aizawa's office, raising her hand to knock on the door multiple times and letting her fist fall to her side each time. She needed to talk to him, about his students. This was a professional visit, nothing more. She had already completed several of these with the other homeroom teachers, this is nothing different.

She finally raised her hand and knocked.

"Come in"

As she opened the door, he was sitting at his desk working on some sort of paperwork. He looked up and paused when he saw her standing in the doorway.

"Ain-Miss Satterfield, is there something you need?" he sat back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest.

She took a breath before walking in and sitting in one of the chairs across the desk from him, "Yes, I was wondering if we could talk regarding one of your students that I saw today." She pulled the notes she had compiled out and opened to the student she wanted to ask about.

"Denki Kaminari. I noticed in the files Hound Dog had given me that the process had been started to test him for ADHD among a few other learning difficulties before everything…"

"Went completely off the rails?"

Aine nodded, "Exactly. I'd like to get back on track with that, I brought a couple of evaluation forms for any teachers who work with him to fill out. After looking through his middle school reports, I'm surprised no one else has caught it before he came here." she placed the papers in question on the desk.

She thumbed through her notebook to another entry she wanted to speak to him about as he took the papers and looked over them briefly.

"I also saw Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugou already this week."

"My two Problem Children." Aine looked at him quizzically, "Whenever something happens, one or both of them is at the center of it." he explained.

"I see. Midoriya seems like a pleasant kid, we didn't get very far – "

"Let me guess, he spent the entire session asking about your quirk."

"Pretty close." she gave a half-chuckle, "I'm sure now that his curiosity is satisfied, I'll be able to talk to him more. Bakugou however," she shook her head, "He stonewalled me the entire session. I don't think I've ever met a kid as stubborn as that one."

Shouta smirked at her over his capture weapon, "I have."

She crossed her arms in feigned indignation, "Excuse me" she pointed to herself, "I was an absolute angel, I have no idea what you are talking about."

"I seem to remember a 19-year-old kid who acted like they had chip on their shoulder against the world, an obvious death wish and a mouth that could make hardened criminals blush." he closed his eyes as he sat back in his chair.

"Tch" she sucked on her teeth "Any suggestions for getting him to open up, even just a little?"

Shouta sighed, "Bakugou is headstrong and hates for anyone to see him as weak, but he is also highly intelligent. He knows that he needs this, but his pride is going to stand in the way of any progress." he sat back forward resting his elbows on the desk and crossing his arms, "He will talk eventually but it might take the rest of the school year for him to make that decision."

He paused, staring ahead in that manner Aine knew meant he was mulling something over.

"He and Midoriya have a history, according to their parents the two boys were childhood friends, and, in my class, he also seems to be close to Eijiro Kirishima. If anyone would know how to get him to talk, those two might be the best bet."

Aine quickly jotted down Ask Midoriya and/or Kirishima on the blank page that was her notes on Bakugou. "Thank you. I'll remember that for his next session." She stood and started towards the door. "Send me an email and I'll come pick up those forms for Kaminari when you have them finished."

"Miss Satterfield?"

She turned and saw Shouta standing behind the chair she had just vacated; she hadn't even heard him move.

"You can still call me Aine."

"Right, Aine." his eyes caught hers and for a moment she wished her quirk allowed her to read minds.

He reached a hand up and rubbed the back of his neck, "I've missed you."

Everything in her brain seemed to malfunction as soon as the words hit her ears.

"It's ok if you don't feel comfortable enough to talk about everything yet. But when you are ready..." his voice trailed off.

Aine couldn't make her vocal cords work over the tears that strangled her voice and made her vision swim. She nodded quickly and left the room closing the door behind her. As she headed back to her own office, she prayed no one would see the tears streaming down her face at the words she wished she had spoken:

I've missed you, too.