Midoriya had sheets to launder… he also had homework to do. It was Thursday at four am. He had slept since after his spanking, twelve hours ago. He knew that if he was late to class because he didn't do his sheets on time, it'd be a paddling, but would it be worse than a ruler across the hands as he was unable to hand in his homework in front of the class? Which was worse? - that he did not know.
School went by okay; Bakugo was actually in class again. Todoroki was grateful for that, secretly. With the final bell, the Therapy Gang headed to the large conference/study room in the library. No one was thrilled Katsuki was back this time.
Luckily, they started off with journaling again and Bakugo picked up his pen and did a single paragraph. It was enough for Aizawa. The kids were also introduced to sandbox displays, wherein they chose plastic figurines and placed them into the sandbox before explaining what the figures meant and analyzing them.
Ashido had an interesting one. She had a plastic alien head in the middle, buried face-down and surrounded by spiders. She said it represented her in the middle as the alien and the spiders were the League of Villains- watching her and her classmates.
"Where are your classmates?" Midnight asked.
Mina shrugged. "Eh. Todoroki took all the other cool ones that could have represented anyone else from U.A."
Shoto blinked. "What?" He looked down. "Oh, yeah- sorry."
Todoroki's sandbox was filled with a plastic praying mantis and a gold crown with three marbles south of the mantis and crown and a plastic cockroach upside down in the corner.
"You did a lot of shit, Shoto." Katsuki noted.
Todoroki nodded. "It's my family." He shrunk and looked away.
"Do you want to explain it, man?" Kirishima pushed.
"Only if you do it first." Shoto dared.
Eijirio shrugged. "'Kay, I guess. This rock is me and under it is a plastic clown figurine: that's Shigaraki."
"What the fuck?" Jiro asked, annoyed. "He orchestrated attacks on our school, and you make him a clown?"
Kirishima nodded. "Kidnapping and thinking you'll get away with it is clown behavior. Straight up."
"Uh- my man? A lot of kidnappers actually get away with it." Kaminari pointed out to Kirishima.
Bakugo had prayed someone would take note of the fact that he had stopped breathing correctly the second the name Shigaraki was mentioned. Aizawa excused him from the room and took him for a walk to the clinic.
"Did I do that?" Denki asked.
Kyoka frowned. "C'mon Chargebolt. Think about it. You're not in stupid mode- you reminded Katsuki that he was lucky to be alive."
"Oh." Kaminari sighed.
"Let's ask Todoroki what his means." Midnight offered.
Shoto sighed. "It's my family. Dad thinks he's king. Mom's waiting to chop his head off. Me, my sister, my alive brother, and the cockroach is my dead one."
Back in the clinic, Bakugo looked up and saw Shoto coming through the door.
Katsuki lifted his head from his homework. He was at the desk. "Hey."
"Hey." Todoroki returned.
"Sooo I heard you have a dead brother." Bakugo said.
"And why the fuck do you care?" Shoto asked Katsuki.
"I don't." Bakugo returned. He was silent for a second. "I didn't mean anything bad by it- just- I'm sorry I thought your only trauma were Daddy Issues."
A knock sounded on the door, and Todoroki got up to answer it. He blinked at the sight of Midoriya at the entryway to the hallway from their room.
"Izuku?" Shoto asked.
"Is Recovery Girl in?" Midoriya asked.
Todoroki shook his head. "No. What do you need?"
Izuku looked uncomfortable. "I'll come back later."
Shoto was not one to pry. "Okay, I'll tell her you came by."
"Thanks." Midoriya said, closing the door.
"Oi! Deku!" Bakugo shouted.
The door opened back up. Izuku looked confused. "Kacchan? What are you- wait, do you two share a room here?"
Todoroki sighed. "We're not allowed back until we have two full dry weeks."
"Mn. I see." Midoriya sympathized. "I was threatened with clinic monitoring, but I think it was an empty threat- though I did kinda go off the rails Tuesday night and got paddled by… All Might." The boy sighed.
Katsuki felt annoyed that he was being ignored, and stood to pull the curtain closed so that he could change clothes. He looked at the other teens. "If you two ladies are done chatting, I'm going to go for a run before sun-down."
"No, you are not." Came a voice. It was Shuzenji.
"Recovery Girl—" Izuku addressed, surprised.
"You need your briefs, I dropped them off with your teacher, Mr. Yamada."
Midoriya sighed. "Thanks."
"Be grateful, young man." Shuzenji lectured, waggling a finger. "I could have left them outside your room for who knows to go snooping around for."
Izuku turned red. "Right! Thanks—" He said, before dashing off.
Recivery Girl sighed and looked at Katsuki. "You can't go exercise until that rash heals, young man."
Bakugo deflated and made his way to the bed, where he flopped onto his back, grabbed his pillow and screamed in it. He got up and stalked out of the room in his school uniform.
"And where are you headed to?" Recivery Girl asked.
"Principal Nezu." Katsuki said, angrily. "I have a grievance."
"There's a surprise." Todoroki muttered.
Bakugo put earbuds into his phone and blasted an American song. It was angry and full of hate and… in English. He did not understand it, but he felt powerful listening to the heavy metal dirge.
When he arrived to U.A.'s main school building, he ascended several sets of stairs and walked down to Nezu's office. He knocked on the door and waited in a chair outside the office as though he was a bad kid, sent there for some reason or another.
After waiting a minute, Yamada came to the door.
"Present Mic, sir." Bakugo said, standing up. He was not prepared to talk with Mic! Hizashi looked confused and frowned. With a stern voice he asked a question.
"What are you here for?"
"I need to talk with Principal Nezu, sir." Katsuki said, shoving his hand in his pockets.
"Turn off that music at once." Yamada ordered. "It's not appropriate in this company."
"Right." Bakugo frowned, slipping out his phone and pausing it before pulling his earbuds out and putting them in his pocket.
Nezu appeared behind Hizashi. "Young Mister Bakugo." Nezu said, sounding surprised and almost delighted. "What brings you here?"
"I want to make a contract." The teenager said. "Are you free?"
Nezu looked at the small dive watch on his wrist. It ticked loudly. "Yes, I suppose, but I only meet with students if there is another staff member in the office. Liabilities and whatnots."
That was not what Katsuki wanted, but if Mic had to be there, so be it—at least it wasn't Aizawa.
They filed into the office and Mic sat, comfortably in a chair, while Bakugo slumped in anger, elbows on Nezu's desk edge.
And so the meeting began…