Natsuo groaned as he stretched his arms and heard a few pops from his joints.
The train he'd taken back to U.A. had been cramped and barely had elbow room, but he supposed that was to be expected when he jumped on a train so close to the mall post normal school hours.
Still though he was glad he made the trip.
This would be the first time Shouto would have his own room, the control over what he had in it and his baby brother deserved to be allowed to have some nice things to decorate it.
Natsuo couldn't say he had any ideas where Shouto's tastes lay, but having any choices outside of the ones Enji forced on him would be a welcome breath of fresh air Natsuo was sure.
So, Natsuo got some starter stuff to allow Shouto to ease himself into finding out what he liked as well as help his brother come to terms that U.A. would be nothing like Enji's house and the freedom he'd have here.
A thought which had kept a grin on Natsuo's face since he woke up this morning, even though he had to run to catch the right bus to get to his campus earlier.
Back on U.A. grounds Natsuo made a B-line to the medical wing.
Midoriya might have finished up with the kids at this time but maybe he'd be lucky and Shouto was still around.
The guy had been willing to speak with Shouto last when Natsuo asked him to so Natsuo might be able to surprise him, and just maybe Midoriya had been able to keep Shouto for longer than the consult was supposed to be.
When he walked into the medical wing Natsuo didn't see any of the kids around, and for a moment Natsuo cursed himself for missing his brother in his mind.
Wonder child Midoriya might be but his brother was as stubborn as he was.
Hearing the soft hum of the one of the machines Natsuo peeked his head around the curtain and saw Recovery Girl was sat in her chair and writing something down on a clipboard.
"Evening Recovery Girl, did I miss Shouto?" Natsuo asked walking over and leaning on the desk next to her, more than assured that the desk wouldn't move given it and most of the furniture was locked in place or bolted down.
Recovery Girl hummed and looked down a microscope.
"No, he's still speaking with Midoriya-Kun." She answered half-focused on the conversation.
Natsuo was a touch surprised, he wasn't even sure that Midoriya would be able to talk to his brother at all with how hard Shouto could stone wall people.
"Since you're here could you make yourself useful and fill a new prescription for me." Recovery Girl requested motioning to the cabinets.
"Sure? This for one of the new kids?" Natsuo asked, setting down his duffle bag and dug out his keys.
A little confused since he would have thought most kids would have refilled any prescriptions before they moved in.
"Unfortunately, yes, a few of the first years will need medical intervention due to lack-luster counselors before now." Recovery Girl bitterly told him and Natsuo scoffed himself.
If there was one thing he learned working this closely with Recovery Girl and Midoriya it was that quirk counseling was mostly bullshit.
And while most people wouldn't know the difference given that quirk use outside of the home wasn't common, those in hero circles made it clear that no one actually thought about their quirks that much.
"What am I getting?" Natsuo asked unlocking the cabinet and grabbing one of the unlabeled bottles.
"Eszopiclone," Recovery Girl told him, following up with the strength of the pills he should fill the bottle with and the details to put on the label.
"Geeze, Midoriya wants the kid on something this strong after just one talk?" Natsuo commented as he entered the details in the label maker.
"He has a mental quirk, and you could count the number of times he's used it every year without both hands." Recovery girl spat back venomously.
Almost at once Natsuo immediately understood and was pissed himself.
Neurosurgery was a field he considered before, and he knew damn well what kind of damage not using a mental quirk to that degree would do to someone.
"Have you written a report yet?" Natsuo asked.
"I've texted Nezu to expect one, Midoriya-Kun will be the one to write the initial report since he was the one Shinsou spoke with, I'll be making mine later when we can have a full work up done on the boy." Recovery Girl answered tersely.
Natsuo nodded.
"Here's hoping they'll nail the kid's old schools." Natsuo spat as he went back to his place leaning on the desk, next to her.
Recovery Girl scoffed.
"There won't be anything left of the schools once Nezu gets his paws on them." Recovery Girl replied.
"Yeah, don't doubt that." Natsuo agreed, shaking his head, putting his hands in his pockets.
"Got a list of things we'll need to arrange and test for yet?" Natsuo inquired.
Recovery Girl sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"It seems we will have to do more brain scans than we previous thought, amongst other things." Recovery Girl answered.
"I don't know what Midoriya-Kun will want for your brother aside from quirk counseling sessions since he's still speaking with him," Recovery Girl informed him.
Natsuo nodded.
He figured as much, Enji's 'training' of Shouto was hardly proper training and even then Shouto more than likely didn't listen to half of it beyond muscle memory anyways.
"But we will be running multiple tests looking for vitamin deficiencies and confirming quirk genes in a couple of cases." Recovery Girl started to list off before a machine dinged and she went to check on it.
"Confirming quirk genes?" Natsuo repeated faintly surprised.
"Mainly for your brother and a girl from 1-A, Midoriya-Kun wants proof that your brother's quirk is only singular, and he suspects the girl's quirk was mislabeled as emitter instead of a mutation based one." Recovery responded.
Natsuo frowned thinking back over the list of students that were supposed to come in to be seen today and tried to think which of the girls it could be.
Recovery Girl, however, continued listing off tests and appointments that would need to be arranged so Natsuo shelved those thoughts for now, talking with Recovery Girl about which days it would be best to do what tests and when.
She, Midoriya and Nezu would have the final say but he still wanted to give his opinion.
So wrapped up in their talk Natsuo must have missed the sound of the quarantine room opening nor the approaching footsteps.
"Nii-San?" Shouto's fragile voice timidly called.
Natsuo turned around and spotted his baby brother, standing there surprised and wide eyed like a baby deer.
"Hey Sho, surprised?" Natsuo said as he pushed off the desk and immediately went over to hug him.
Shouto had met him halfway and if Natsuo wasn't so fit from the year working in the field Shouto might have even made Natsuo have to take a step back.
Natsuo chuckled "I'll take that as a yes." He told Shouto teasingly as he nuzzled the top of Shouto's head.
"How are you here?" Shouto asked once he pulled back slightly, though he didn't fully let go.
Not that Natsuo would ever complain.
"Well as member of the staff it would only be natural I'd be here, wouldn't it?" Natsuo coyly asked.
Shouto's eyes somehow found a way to get even wider.
"You work here?" Shouto quietly asked.
Natsuo huffed ruffling Shouto's hair.
"Uh, huh. Live here too in the staff dorms since they want one of the medical team here in case of any emergencies. So, I best not see you in here outside of joining me for lunch once school starts, got it?" Natsuo confirmed.
Shouto stared up at him with a quiet stunned awe.
"I… I can do that? I can come see you?" Shouto asked, his utter disbelief clear along with his tepid hope.
Natsuo's heart leaped and twisted hearing it.
"Shouto you can see me whenever you want from now on, so long as I'm not working or busy with my coursework. Hell, I'll be stopping by to check on you every night once I'm done for the day, and probably even join you for dinner most nights." Natsuo promised.
His words had an immediate reaction and Shouto's good eye began to turn misty as tears built up.
"Can we please?" Shouto pleaded in a near whisper, like if he spoke any louder he'd be told no.
"Absolutely Buddy. Now if you're all done talking with Deku-San I've got some stuff that you might like for your room." Natsuo brought pointing his thumb over to his duffle bag.
Shouto's eyes went over to the bag, surprised and he turned back to say something, but Midoriya beat him to it.
"Shouto and I talked about the major things, we'll probably cover them deeper once we start his counseling sessions but there's no reason you both can't go ahead back to the dorms." Midoriya answered as he walked over to them.
Unfortunately, due to Midoriya's near silent movement and by coming over from behind and on Shouto's left he spooked Shouto, making his brother jump slightly.
"Great Deku-San, thanks for covering for me." Natsuo told Midoriya holding up his hand for a first bump, which Midoriya readily did.
Shouto's eyes flicked from him to Midoriya as they spoke.
"Not a problem Natsuo, now go on and have fun you two." Midoriya encouraged with a chuckle and a wave before heading over to join Recovery Girl.
Natsuo reluctantly pushed away from Shouto and went over to grab his bag, before slinging an arm over Shouto's shoulders and walking out with his brother to the dorms.
"So, how's moving been going so far?" Natsuo asked.
Shouto hesitated for a moment before answering.
"I've placed down the flooring and gotten both the screen doors and ceiling fixed, I just need to bring in the furniture and test the light." Shouto explained.
Natsuo frowned for a minute.
He knew that the rooms were supposed to be ready to move into aside from painting and adding furniture, so why was Shouto talking about that?
He shook it off for now, he'd probably see what Shouto meant when they got there anyways.
"Cool, how do you feel about take-out tonight after we're done? Cause I know one of the good burger places is on the approved takeout list and have set aside money for you to order whatever you want to try." Natsuo offered.
Shouto's mouth opened then closed.
"What about Endeavor?" Shouto asked, no doubt referring to the strict and harsh diet Enji had him on.
Natsuo scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"What about him? It's not like he'll ever know about it." Natsuo replied.
"Won't Aizawa tell him though?" Shouto questioned.
Natsuo internally sighed, understanding why Shouto thought that.
"Nope, Shouto the only thing the staff will tell Enji is the bare minimum, and they sure as hell won't tell him that much unless he calls them first." Natsuo assured.
Shouto's eyebrows furrowed.
"But isn't Endeavor already putting pressure on them to keep up with my training?" Shouto asked, confused.
Natsuo stopped walking at that point and placed both of his hands on Shouto's shoulders.
"Shouto, buddy… Enji could donate half of the family fortune to U.A. and it wouldn't make anyone here budge about how your work and training will go, especially not Aizawa-San or Deku-San." Natsuo told his brother.
"But-" Shouto tried to protest but Natsuo cut him off.
"Shouto, I'm ninety percent sure if given half the chance Deku-San would make Enji's body disappear under mysterious circumstances if they were in the same room and it would never be recovered. He, nor Aizawa-San would ever let him have any say in your life here Shouto." Natsuo said, making sure to stress the seriousness of what he just told his little brother.
Because when he first went to talk with the two of them about Shouto he'd been swiftly assured by Aizawa that Enji wouldn't have any say, and Midoriya fucking laughed when he brought it up.
The fact the boy had ominously assured him with a far too wide grin that Enji wouldn't be a problem directly afterwards still sent a bit of a shiver down his spine as Natsuo thought about it.
Shouto did not need to know about that part though.
Natsuo watched as Shouto reluctantly stewed on his words before nodding "Okay." Shouto muttered.
"Good, so how do you feel about trying a burger for the first time?" Natsuo asked, trying to move away from the heavy stuff.
Shouto didn't say anything for a moment, maybe thinking before he said.
"Can I get two?"
"Definitely." Natsuo agreed with a pleased huff.
His brother, Natsuo discovered upon opening Shouto's dorm room door, was attempting to remake his old room from home.
In fact, for a moment Natsuo's mind blanked on him and he wondered how the hell he found himself in one of the main house's guest bedrooms.
Part of him wanted to ask why Shouto would want to be one of these rooms again, but he kept his mouth shut about it.
Shouto likely wanted somewhere familiar to retreat to, and for as soulless as he found rooms like this it might just be Shouto's style outside of trauma bonding for all he knew.
"Well, I'm impressed you were able to do all this." Natsuo said as he walked in, dropping his duffle bag on one of the unopened boxes.
"Thank you." Shouto replied after a quiet little sigh.
"So… do you want to get finished unpacking before I show you what I brought? Most of it is knickknacks so it won't matter if I show you them before or after." Natsuo asked.
"After," Shouto decided with little thought "I didn't bring much, and it won't take long to put everything in place." Shouto explained.
"Done, so which box first?" Natsuo asked as they both got to work.
Shouto was right though that it hadn't taken long to get everything in order to how he wanted it, longest thing was putting together the dresser and closet Natsuo knew were brought from home given the covered-up scorch marks.
The bamboo pot was new though, never would've had a plant in the main house given Enji's temper.
"Okay, ready to see what I got you?" Natsuo asked.
Shouto obediently nodded his head.
"Well first, I have some little friends here to go along with bamboo over there." Natsuo told him first, taking out some small planter pots, inside each was some plastic plants of various colors and shapes.
"They're all plastic so don't worry about watering them or finding the right amount of sunlight for them." Natsuo assured handing the first of the small pots to Shouto.
His brother blinked and looked the plant over before placing it next to the bamboo pot, two more of the pots were also placed there and the last two set on the dresser, one on both sides of a flower plate Shouto had set up.
"Now I also got you some figurines too if you want to look at 'em." Natsuo offered pulling out a few of the ones he grabbed.
Starting off with a collection of the four sacred animals, then a few others, a kirin, kitsune and small little lucky cat, and lastly a set of three bears, a polar bear, panda, and koala.
Shouto looked all over the little figures.
"What's this?" Shouto asked, turning the kirin one over in his hands.
"That's a kirin, it's a kind of dragon that is supposed to be so peaceful that it would float above the ground as to not hurt the grass if I remember correctly." Natsuo explained, trying to recall what the little plaque said about them.
"It looks like a horse." Shouto pointed out.
"That it does." Natsuo agreed, watching as Shouto placed all of the figures on his desk.
"Thank you Nii-San." Shouto told him, rubbing his thumb along the back of the kirin.
Natsuo huffed and ruffled Shouto's hair again.
"You don't need to thank me, and I've got one more thing for you bud." Natsuo informed him going back to his duffle bag.
"You have more?" Shouto asked, stunned.
"Yeah, you know how we used to star gaze before Touya, passed?" Natsuo reminded him.
Shouto sadly nodded his head.
It didn't happen often, but a least a handful of times Touya managed to sneak both of them outside to look up at the night sky.
One of the best was when there was a blackout that let them see so much more of the stars overhead.
"Well how would you feel about having your own little night sky?" Natsuo asked pulling out the box of glow in the dark stars he managed to snag.
Shouto's eyes went wide and his hands hesitantly opened the box, picking up a few of the stars.
"Could… could you help me put them up?" Shouto softly asked.
"Of course Sho, want any specific constellations or are we just freewheeling this?" Natsuo agreed.
Shouto was silent for a moment.
Natsuo's heart felt squeezed when Shouto asked back "Did Touya have a favorite?"
"Yeah… It wasn't a real one, so I'll need to make it on a paper, don't remember what he called it." Natsuo told him.
"Okay." Shouto said going back over to his desk to get out some paper and a pen for him.
Izuku, somehow in the same room as Enji.
Izuku *loads his gun*
Izuku: Glory! Glory! What a hell of a way to die!