A/N - Happy New Year's everyone! I'm so excited to see what this year has in store for all of us! May there be unending light over your days and hope in your nights!
We have lots of great things coming down the pipeline for this fic (more fights, espionage, dorm duty and lots of cute fluffy moments :) to balance out the angst and frustration).
Until next time - Love and Light to you all!
Kahelle
Chapter 31 – Derniere Danse
"That looks like it hurts."
"Hmm?" Aine looked up at the stern blonde, his vermillion eyes glancing pointedly from her face to her sling. "Oh this?" she raised it slightly, "Nope. It's a bit of an annoyance to have to wear this thing but there's no pain."
"Hmph." He grunted before turning back to his work - scribbling notes for Kaminari.
The tense silence stretched on as Aine turned back to her computer screen. After several moments, the solitary sound of a pen scratching across paper stilled. Aine looked up to see Bakugou staring at the pages, the pen sitting in his hand hovering over the page. "You know, that was a pretty ballsy thing you did."
She couldn't help the slight laugh, "So I've heard."
"So what's going to happen to the extras telling him to jump?" his eyes still didn't lift from the page.
Aine watched him carefully as she answered, "I can't tell you specifics but be assured that they will no longer be welcome on campus for at least the rest of the term." In reality, they had all been called in to a meeting that morning where Nedzu himself had informed them that the students involved in both the initial fight and the taunts were all expelled effective immediately – Ikeda included. There was no reports yet on when or if Sasaki would return.
His jaw clenched and an imperceptible emotion flashed quickly across his features.
She tilted her head slightly to the side, still evaluating him with her eyes "Were they friends of yours?"
"FUCK NO!" he slammed his hands on the table as he abruptly stood, causing Aine to involuntarily jump. Bakugou turned away from her, his hands clenched tightly into fists. "I wouldn't be caught dead with extras like that." Under his breath, she almost didn't catch him add "not anymore". Aine decided not to address his addendum but tucked it away for knowledge later.
Holding up her unrestrained arm in surrender, "I wasn't meaning anything by it. Sometimes people act certain ways due to the company they keep. If those kids were caught up in peer pressure or anything like that, I need to know so we can appeal for them..."
He turned just barely to where she could make out the darkness in his features, "No. They are getting exactly what they deserve. Too many get away with it."
Slowly, Aine stood and walked around the desk, "Like the kids at Aldera?" she said quietly as she leaned against the desk.
Bakugou whirled around to face her, his eyes flashing "What did you say?"
Aine looked over his face and his body language, the imperceptible emotion on his face was now clear as a bell – fear and guilt.
"Were you bullied by someone for being quirkless?" "Not just someone….everyone."
"He and Midoriya have a history."
The pieces clicked into place: the missing names in Midoriya's files, Midoriya's fear that their conversation would be found out, his reluctance to name any names. She knew she needed to walk carefully so as not to betray Midoriya's trust or alienate Bakugou.
"After the fight that first brought Ikeda's behavior to our notice, Midoriya made some concerning statements that led me to look into Aldera and the treatment of students with either weak or missing quirks." She reached over and tapped the files that still sat on her desk, "You and Midoriya have known each other for a long time even before Aldera, right?"
Bakugou stood silent, his eyes now looking at the floor but unfocused. She could only imagine what was going through his mind.
Aine let the silence hang in the air between them, not pushing for a response but simply watching to see what he would decide to say. It wasn't long before he sighed and put his hands in his pockets before closing his eyes, and opening them to look up at her, "Everyone picked on Deku. It was like a right of passage at the school. Most of the teachers turned a blind eye while students pushed him around, some even participated and all but one or two actively encouraged it." He scoffed, "The teachers were smart enough to never get physical though. They would grade his papers just barely above passing, his assignments and supplies would go missing."
"Is that why you are protective of him now? Like the other day at Ground Beta?"
Bakugou shook his head, "I'm not protective, somebody has to be the voice of reason. I have my own things I need to say to the nerd, and I can't exactly say them if he's dead in a ditch somewhere."
"Bakugou, you should…" the timer on her desk started ringing, nearly startling her. She reached over to stop the interruption turning back to the teen who had already begun shoving his belongings back into his backpack. "Wait, I don't have another client if you'd like to stay."
He didn't pause except to sling the backpack over his shoulder, "Look, I'd…uh…I'd appreciate it if you didn't say anything about this." No curses, no threats, just a soft-spoken response. He looked small in that moment, for the first time she felt like she was seeing him as the child he was.
Aine nodded, "Always."
Bakugou didn't say another word but walked out the door leaving Aine standing in front of her desk. She sat in the silence for just a moment mulling over both the spoken and unspoken things that had just transpired.
He all but admitted to bullying Midoriya but also said it was widespread, and condoned. She pushed herself away from the desk, walking around behind it to start gathering her belongings. Her thoughts continued as she began putting things away, He also seems remorseful, although that could just be that he is worried he'll be expelled too now. Maybe…maybe he could be convinced to say something…specially to save his own skin from expulsion. Aine shook her head, No. Don't think like that. We are not blackmailing a child. Especially not a child who could be a victim as well.
She ran a hand through her hair before setting it on her hip as her phone began chiming the reminder for her visit with Recovery Girl. Silencing the reminder, she slipped the phone into her pocket and grabbed her keys. Locking the door behind her, she headed down the hallway towards the infirmary.
As she walked down the hallways near the General Education classrooms, she could hear the hushed voices and feel eyes watching her every move.
"Miss Satterfield, may I walk with you?" Out of the children milling about, a friendly face materialized out of the crowd his hand extended towards her. Almost instantly, the atmosphere in the hallway shifted. It seemed as if some sort of bubble had burst allowing the usual afternoon movement and hum of students in the hallway to resume.
"Absolutely, Shinsou. I'm just headed to the infirmary. How have you been?"
Shinsou had been one of the students she had originally planned to set mandatory weekly visits with but after a short amount of time with the boy, she had felt confident to lessen his frequency of visits with her to only once every 3-4 weeks, especially with the support he had at home.
"Not too bad. May I?" He gestured towards her bag. She handed it over with a nod as he shouldered it nonchalantly.
They passed a group of girls who immediately ceased speaking as they walked by. "Pay them no mind. General Studies has been in a bit of an upheaval today. We have heard the tales of expulsions happening in the hero course, it's a rare occurrence for it to be one of us regular students much less an entire group."
"Ah, that explains it. I wouldn't imagine the staff responsible would be very popular now, would they?"
Shinsou laughed, "HA! Excuse the language but Ikeda was an absolute ass. Nobody is upset that he is gone." He gestured with his hand, "It's unfortunate that the others got caught up in his activities, but they made their bed." He shrugged.
"Actually, you're a bit of a celebrity for a lot of us in Gen Ed." She paused briefly looking at the taller boy, he had a small smirk on his face. "Seriously. You showed that a civilian can be just as heroic as the heroes, and…" he stopped, looking forward as though there was something on the horizon he could see, "if you could do something like that…" he trailed off as they continued walking.
Shortly, they arrived at the infirmary. Shinsou handed Aine her bag and left with a wave as she knocked on the door.
The door swung open to the small healer "Come on in dearie. Running a bit behind are we?"
Aine chuckled to herself as she followed Recovery Girl into the room, "Just a little."
"Does it hurt?"
Aine looked up from the puzzle they were working on to see Eri's eyes looking at the sling. She smiled, "Not at all, kiddo. This is just to protect it until I'm finished healing up."
Eri nodded and with her curiosity sated, she turned back to the puzzle. They chatted back and forth about different things: Eri's classes, their favorite foods, favorite games to play.
"Would you like to do the honors?" Aine handed Eri the final puzzle piece. Nodding and smiling from ear-to-ear, Eri plinked the last piece down in its space. She clapped her hands together in excitement as the image of four heroes clad in cat tails, paws and what looked to be metal headpiece shaped like cat ears popped in bright vivid colors there on the coffee table.
As if sensing a comradery with the puzzle's image, an orange tabby materialized at the edge of the table pawing at the edge of the puzzle.
"Toffee! No!" Eri scooped the cat up under it's arms and deposited it away from the table. The ginger cat wasted no time returning to wind itself around the table legs, meowing pitifully for attention. Aine chuckled as she reached over to scratch the cat behind the ears, earning an amusing kitty-tap dance that had Aine and Eri both giggling.
"Alright, kiddo" she paused to catch her breath, looking at the time on her watch, "It's time for you to get ready for bed." The slightest beginnings of a protest began to form across Eri's face, "If you are quick, we'll have time for me to read a story for you before bed."
Eri's eyes lit up, "Okay!" She bounded up from the table, sending Toffee scurrying back to the bedrooms. In a matter of minutes, the girl had reemerged from her bathroom in pjs with a brush in her hand. "Can you help me?"
Aine motioned for her to come closer, Eri climbed in her lap and handed her the brush. Gently, she brushed Eri's hair and put it into a ponytail for her. "How's that? Ready for that story now?"
Eri jumped up and ran a hand over her freshly brushed and tied back hair nodding with a wide smile.
"Alright then," Aine smiled back, "Lead the way!"
The night air was still and crisp, Shouta shoved his hands further into his pockets as he stood on the rooftop overseeing this small section of Best Jeanist's patrol route. It was wrapping up to be an easy night, mostly just overseeing the sidekicks who had taken over most of the pro's duties while he was still recovering.
Not much different then checking in on his students during work studies.
He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, pulling it out he groaned as he saw the caller ID flash across the screen.
"What do you need, Emma? I'm in the middle of patrol."
"Well excuse me tall dark and broody. I promise I won't use up too much of your time. I tried calling Aine, but she isn't answering her line." Emma's too bright and cheery voice stabbed into his ear through the phone speaker.
"She may not have it with her. Recovery Girl wanted to see her after school this afternoon so she may not have had time to grab it. She's watching Eri for me tonight at my apartment." He could almost feel the woman's grin through the phone.
"Oh, that's probably it. Wait….Why is she needing to see the nurse?"
Shouta quickly recounted the story to Emma, hearing her gasp when he talked about the specific cause of Aine's dislocated shoulder, "Is the kid alright? How long is Aine out of commission?"
"Kid has some bruises but other than that he's physically fine. No telling how he is doing emotionally right now." The boy's words echoed through his memory, he shook his head, "Depending on how today's follow-up went and if she will actually rest, she should only be out a week or so."
He heard the sigh of relief on the other end. "At least everyone made it out in one piece," When he didn't say anything, she continued, "Now, about my reason for calling. You know how we have been looking for a way to solve the little Commission problem?" Her voice instantly changed tone, losing the bright edge to it.
"What did you find out?" he switched the phone to his other ear.
"It's not fool-proof and really it's more of a safety net than a solution." Emma's voice wavered, making her sound younger than she was.
Shouta could almost imagine Aine's friend pacing as she was speaking, "Out with it, Emma."
"Okay okay. So, here's the idea…"
"But he never knew that it really was his own Bunny, come back to look at the child who had first helped him to be Real." She closed the book and set it to the side, soft deep breathing was the only sound from the bed. Aine pulled the covers up over Eri's sleeping form and went to the living room.
Settling in to the couch, she pulled out her laptop and fished the thumb drive she had collected from Corusca out of its specially made pocket in her bag. Plugging it into the port, she began pouring through the camera recordings - trying to find anything that she could use. There were thousands of recordings to filter through and after several hours of watching clip after clip she still had nothing solid.
"This is going to take a lot longer than I thought" she rubbed her forehead, looking at the clock. Shouta should be home soon. Aine put a bookmark where she had stopped watching and put everything away.
She had just finished putting the flash drive in its hidden pouch when she heard the beep of the front door unlocking.
Aine set the laptop bag on the couch beside her and stood just as Shouta came through the door. "How was patrol?"
"Thankfully, quiet." He toed off his boots at the door walking over to lightly kiss her forehead, "Thank you again for watching her tonight. I trust she didn't give you trouble?"
She shook her head, "None at all." Aine could feel the weight of something in the air, she couldn't put her finger on it, but it was as though there was something thick in the air around Shouta. "What's wrong?"
He sighed, stepping away from her and looking down the hallway almost absentmindedly. "Emma called me tonight."
"Shit! I didn't stop by my apartment to grab the burner phone." A lead weight settled in her stomach, "Shouta? Is she alright? Did something happen?"
"Hmm?" he turned back to her, shaking his head, "No…nothing like that. She just had news about your situation with the Commission."
Aine sat down on the couch, "Oh! What did she find out?"
He huffed out a chuckle to himself, "Well, you might want to sit down for this."