I do not own My Hero Academia or any of its characters.

Progress Recovering

"I take it Lee didn't cook again today?" Eijiro asked, sitting down with Midoriya, Uraraka, Su, and Iida, setting his bowl of cereal in front of himself.

"No," Midoriya said. "I haven't seen him around much either. And when I do, he looks...awful."

"All four of them do," Uraraka said. "Something had to have happened, but they won't talk to me."

"Me neither," Eijiro said. "I asked Mina about it and she just said it was nothing, then ran off. She looked like she was barely holding herself together, though. And that much only because of Lee."

"Yeah same with Toru," Ojiro said from the next table over. "I mean, it's a little harder to tell how she looks, obviously, but when I asked her if she was okay...I mean, she said she was okay, but she was almost in tears when she said it. Then she just ran off to find Lee. Also, I've been hearing her crying at night. Pretty much all night."

"Yeah," Eijiro said. "I hear Ashido sometimes too."

"I think I've heard Yaoyorozu a couple times," Su said.

"All three?" Uraraka asked. "Whatever happened, it must have been terrible. It's a good thing Lee's been there to help them. But, they must have talked to someone, right? Jiro, what about you? Has Momo told you anything?"

"It was horrible," Kyoka said, after a moment of silence.

"What?" Uraraka asked.

"You know what happened?" Eijiro asked.

"No," Kyoka said. "That was all I could get Momo to say. Just, 'It was horrible.' When she said it, she looked almost...haunted by the memory. And it's not just the girls."

"What do you mean?" Midoriya asked.

"You've all noticed how shaken up the girls have been, but none of you noticed Lee," Kyoka said. "He's been suffering just as much as them. Actually, all things considered, I think maybe he's been suffering worse, in some ways."

"Really?" Uraraka asked.

"Well, think about it," Kyoka said. "He's obviously in love with all three of them, and all three of the girls he loves are broken and suffering now, and no matter what he does, he can't stop it. He can't protect them from the pain now, and whatever happened, he couldn't protect them from at the time. He's as broken as they are. You can see it in his face as much as in Ashido and Yaomomo's. They all look...exhausted. Whatever happened, it's taken a huge piece of them. They're going to need time to recover. Without people asking them about it, or asking them if they're okay. They just need time of everything seeming normal."

"That's a good point," Su said. "Every time we ask, we probably reopen the wounds by making them remember."

"I never thought about that," Uraraka said.

"That's not your fault," Lee said, walking into the kitchen and rubbing his bloodshot eyes, getting some left overs from the what he'd cooked himself and the girls the day before, putting it in the microwave. He had dark circles under his eyes that reached his cheekbones, his hair was paler than it should be, and he was slumped fored tiredly. "Thank you all for trying to make sure they're okay, and for worrying about them. it's good for them to be reminded that you all care. But Kyoka's right. They need some time of everyone acting like nothing happened. And to satisfy your curiosity, I can tell you this much. Instant, the member of the League who's taken a likeing to me, the one who can match my speed, put a team together to try and kill me. We got to meet three of the new seven of them. To say it was horrible...it's like saying the world is physically big."

"Were they strong?" Midoriya asked.

"Terrifyingly so," Lee said. "But more than that...they're all...monsters. Psychopaths that make Shigaraki seem sane. And I almost couldn't stop two of them." He sighed heavily. "Anyway. Like Kyoka said, we just need some time. We'll get back to where we should be. We just need you guys to be patient with us."

"Of course," Uraraka nodded.

"Let us know if there's anything else we can do," Midoriya said. "For now, we'll let you guys have as much time as you need."

"We'll pretend nothing's happened," Iida said.

Lee nodded. "For those of you who were there after the brief when I read off the descriptions, please keep those to yourself for now. I'll share it with the class later, but for now, I just need to forget."

Uraraka, Su, Midoriya, and Eijiro nodded as the microwave beeped. He pulled the four stacked paper plates out of it, closing the door and rubbing his eyes again before heading back upstairs to Momo's room, where the four of them had been staying together every night. He passed out the plates and the plastic forks he'd grabbed and the girls all thanked him, beginning to eat in silence. After a few minutes, Toru stopped, swallowing hard.

"She could see me," Toru said softly, voice wavering.

Everyone stared at her. In the days since it had happened, no one had spoken about it. They'd held each other while they cried, including Lee, and they'd comforted each other when they needed it, but they hadn't spoken about it.

"She said...her tentacles had organs in them that allowed her to sense the space around them more accurately than she could see with her own eyes, allowing her to see me."

"When Twitch was...torturing me...I wished I was dead," Mina said, tears running from her eyes. "I wanted to die so that the pain would stop!"

"So did I," Lee said, his throat closing off. "I...I couldn't stop them. I was powerless! I couldn't protect any of you!"

"That's not true!" Mina said, beginning to cry again, as were the other two.

"You saved us!" Toru said. "If you hadn't stopped her..."

"I couldn't protect you!" Lee said again. "Mina was hurt worse than anyone ever should be, Toru was almost raped, and Momo was more afraid than I've ever seen her!"

"But you did protect us!" Momo said. "You saved all of our lives!"

"You ended the pain I was in!" Mina said.

"And I wasn't raped because you stopped her!" Toru said, cupping his face and forcing him to look at her. "You saved us all! We weren't prepared for that fight, but you still managed to save us!"

Lee pulled her into a hug, breaking down, and Mina and Momo hugged him as well. "I love you!"

All three's eyes widened.

"I love you!" Lee repeated. "All of you! I'm sorry! I won't be able to make a decision! Ever! I can't lose any of you! I won't be able to take it!"

All three tightened their hold on him.

"You idiot," Momo smiled. "We don't care about that."

"We've told you, we're all going to stay with you forever," Mina sniffed.

"We all love you too," Toru smiled. "We'll never leave you, so please, stop talking about deciding."

"I love you!" Lee cried, tucking his head into Toru's shoulder, the girls holding him tighter as they all cried as well, though it was different this time.

For the first time in days, as they cried, they began to feel a little better. It was nowhere near enough to make everything okay, but it was a start.

Lee stirred, opening his eyes slowly as staring at the three beautiful angels laying in front of him. He smiled, tucking his face into Toru's hair and squeezing her gently, Toru responding in kind after a moment.

"How'd you sleep?" Lee asked quietly.

"No nightmares," Toru said, squeezing him tighter as her voice wavered. "Finally."

"That's good," Lee smiled.

Toru pulled back slightly and reached up, kissing him. He sighed, kissing her back and holding her tighter against him. She also held him tighter as her tongue slipped out, trailing against his bottom lip. He allowed her access, his own tongue meeting hers, beginning to slide against hers. They continued to kiss for several more minutes until Mina sat up, humming jealously and reaching over, kissing Lee on the cheek to tell him it was her turn. He smiled, pulling away from Toru, who simply smiled, then turned his head, kissing Mina. Mina sighed heavily, leaning into the kiss, her tongue almost instantly slipping out to meet his, the kiss quickly turning as passionate and heated as ever. This time, however, when his body began to react to her, it pressed against Toru. She whimpered slightly, blushing bright red, but didn't pull away. Instead, her arms seemed to tighten around him. Lee continued to kiss Mina, struggling to hold himself in check. Finally, he pulled away when he felt Momo's hand lace its fingers with his own.

"You didn't have to stop," Momo said. "I just wanted to hold your hand."

Lee smiled, Mina sitting up out of the way and allowing Momo to prop herself up on one arm, leaning over Toru and kissing Lee. For a minute, it was calm, but inevitably, as it always did, it began to heat up quickly. Momo's hand squeezed his tighter as she sighed shakily. Lee's free hand pulled Toru a little tighter on instinct and she again whimpered slightly, though quieter this time. After a couple minutes, Momo pulled away, taking a shaky breath but smiling.

"Every time," Momo smiled.

"We held out a little better this time," Lee said, then sucked in a shaky breath of his own as Toru's lips met the side of his neck, suckling slightly.

His body reacted instantly, his member twitching ad straining against her as his hold on her tightened. However, when her hips subtly pressed into him, it sent his mind reeling. She was acting differently. She was never one to intentionally set him off. And after what happened to her, he couldn't believe she would start now. She pulled away from his neck and reached up, kissing him, and he could instantly feel the difference. The kiss was more charged than usual. More needy. Finally, he tore himself away from her, resting his forehead against hers and trying to regain his composer and slow his breathing.

"What am I going to do with you girls?" Lee sighed.

"I have a couple ideas," Mina, now laying behind him, purred into his ear, her arms snaking around him and squeezing slightly, pressing herself tight against him from behind as she gently kissed the side of his neck, suckling slightly and making Lee swallow hard, his body reacting as freely to her as it always did, and as it had to Toru before. "You could take us all to go shopping together." She pulled back grinning as he looked back at her with an eyebrow raised. "That'll cheer us all up!"

Lee sighed, smiling. "Fine. but none of the crap you pulled the last time you and I went shopping."

"Deal!" Mina grinned, kissing him, then climbing out of the bed. "I'm going to go shower and get changed! See you later!"

And then she danced out of the room, seeming to all the world to be back to normal, even though Lee and the others could still see the weakness and the pain she was hiding. However, she had a point. They did need something to cheer them up. And shopping usually did that. Since they had a day off today, it was the perfect opportunity.

"I'm going to go get cleaned up as well," Momo said, kissing Lee one last time before climbing out of the bed and grabbing some of her clothes out of her closet before leaving the room as well.

Lee glanced at Toru, who made no move to get up, instead holding him a little tighter again. He sighed, curling himself around her protectively. "If you don't want to go, we can stay here. I don't mind staying in bed all day."

Toru didn't answer.

"Hey," he said, pulling back and looking down at her. "Come on, talk to me."

"I..." She hesitated for a moment. "I was...so scared." Her voice shook and trembled, but she managed to keep herself from crying. "I thought I was going to lose you. All of you. And...I didn't want...I didn't want my first time to be because I was raped. I...I want you to be my first."

Lee's eyes widened as she looked up at him, her eyes swimming with tears but a determined look on her face.

"I want to be with you," Toru said. "I want to give you everything, that way no one can steal it."

"Toru," Lee breathed, then sighed, kissing her for a moment. "I will never let anyone do that to you. But now's...not a good time for...that. We're both still young, and right now, you're...you're still scared from what happened."

"Yes, I am," Toru agreed. "I'm terrified. But I'm not saying this just because Pornstar almost raped me, or because we all almost died. I mean it. I've wanted you to be m first for a while now. I just...didn't know how to say it. I understand if you want Momo or Mina to be your first. I can wait for that. But I want to give you mine."

Lee sighed, kissing her. "Toru. I could live as a saint a thousand years and never deserve you. Not yet. Now's not the right time. But I promise you that I'm not going anywhere, and I'm not letting anyone touch you again. Please, just...be patient."

"Okay," Toru nodded, smiling. "I'll wait until you're ready."

Lee smiled, kissing her. "Now, go take a shower and get dressed so you three can drag me all over the mall again."

Toru's smile widened and she kissed him, then left to head back to her room for clothes. Lee lay there for a long while, processing that that conversation had, in fact, just happened. He sighed, pushing himself up and leaving the room, heading back to his own to grab some clean clothes, then heading to the bathroom to get cleaned up himself.

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