27 Recovery Girl Saves The Day

Aizawa sighed inwardly as he looked at the crying teen on the bed. He sat down heavily on the bed next to him. This was not what he expected on the first day of school. At most he expected to have a bit of sadistic fun when he revealed the fact that the person who ranked last would be expelled.

Izuku hiccupped, trying to muffle his sobs. Recovery Girl and Aizawa-sensei were still in the room. How embarrassing. Part of him couldn't care less, but another part of him still wondered if he was making a bad impression on the adults in the room.

He heard the door open and shut again, causing him to flinch inwardly as Recovery Girl's Aura of exasperation and concern left the room.

Izuku tensed up slightly before relaxing when he felt a hand pat him awkwardly on the back. His vision was still blurry when he tried to look at his teacher.

"There, there," he heard. Aizawa-sensei's Aura was expressing awkwardness and concern. Izuku couldn't help the small laugh that left him when he felt the sheer amount of awkwardness his teacher was radiating, which also showed in his awkward reactions.

He pressed his fingers to his eyes, wrestling his fluctuating emotions under control. He harshly rubbed away the remaining tears in his eyes. Now wasn't the time to cry.

The green-haired teen looked at his teacher with swollen eyes, which felt a little dry, feeling a little calmer than before.

"So, kid," Aizawa-sensi said, still completely discomforted. "Mind telling me why you lied about your bond being broken?"

Izuku's thoughts screeched to a halt when he registered what his teacher said. What? How did Aizawa-sensei know?

"How do you know?" he blurted out, completely puzzled. Did this mean Kacchan knew as well and he left because he was so disgusted with him? Izuku's breath hitched at the thought, his mind falling into a state of chaos.

He distantly heard a groan. "I didn't know for sure, obviously, but you just confirmed it."

Izuku's trembling fingers slowly calmed down as embarrassment started creeping up on him instead. That was the oldest trick in the book. He couldn't believe he fell for it! Aizawa-sensei wasn't helping things any with his tinges of amusement.

The green-haired teen buried his face in his hands, trying to hide his burning face.

"Is there a reason why you lied about your bond being broken?"

Izuku struggled with himself before he recalled what the teen magazine said about how you should confide things to at least one person instead of bottling it all inside to wait for it to explode at the worst possible moment. At the thought of Kacchan, he felt a sharp pang in his heart.

"I – my Quirk…I didn't exactly have Kacchan's consent when it was used. Anyway, it only affects me. My feelings, I mean. Kacchan felt guilty when I tried committing suicide around ten months ago, so he started developing some feelings for me because of that. I don't want to force him into anything. He'd be happier without me. I – I –"

Aizawa cut him off abruptly, unable to let this negative train of thought go on for any longer than it should. "You're rambling, kid. Listen to me," he said, looking deeply into his student's eyes. He desperately wanted to look away with how awkward he felt, but he continued looking sternly at his student for his own sake.

"For a relationship to work, it has to be a two-way street, understand? I can tell that kid there," he said, nodding at the door, "definitely has feelings for you. It was all there in the way he reacted while you were still unconscious. If you want a relationship to work, both of you have to put in the effort."

Izuku shoved down his reflexive denial of the words his new teacher told him, slowly digesting the meaning behind the words.

"You don't get to say what the other person is feeling unless you ask first, and you didn't do that."

Izuku flinched.

"But I – I can feel emotions. Kacchan rejected me. He rejected me. I could feel it."

Aizawa-sensei gave him a dry look, his exasperation multiplying with every word that came out of Izuku's mouth. The green-haired teen hunched in on himself a little, feeling slightly defensive, and vulnerable. He'd never shared his thoughts and emotions with anyone before.

"Have you ever thought that maybe, you know, Bakugou had already half convinced himself that your bond was broken even before you woke up? How would you feel if the person you liked, who you knew for sure liked you back, would no longer feel that way any longer?"

Izuku paled, getting a sinking feeling in his stomach. A bad feeling started dawning on him, horror slowly building inside him, inch by inch. His heart rate started increasing exponentially.

The door opened silently as Recovery Girl strode in as quickly as her short stride let her. She was carrying a thick book that was half as tall as her. Izuku subconsciously tensed up as he felt her Aura radiating what he could only describe as similar to how Mitsuki-san felt when she was about to chew Kacchan out.

She placed the heavy book in his lap, flipping the book open to where the bookmark was placed. "Read this," she said, tapping her finger on a line.

Communication, he silently read. The imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium. A letter or message containing information or news. Social contact. The successful conveying or sharing of ideas and feelings. Izuku paused and ran through the words again, his mind tripping on the use of the word 'successful' in the last definition. His thoughts were running a mile a minute, frantically spinning over the one phrase. He felt like he was on the verge of a breakthrough, but he wasn't quite there yet.

"Do you understand, young man?" Recovery Girl said sternly, but kindly. "The successful conveying or sharing of ideas and feelings. And what have you done?"

Izuku sucked in a shocked breath, what he'd done suddenly hitting him in full force. What little blood he still had in his face left rapidly, leaving Aizawa and Recovery Girl looking at the new student in concern and worry.

Izuku lurched to his feet, stumbling. Aizawa-sensei quickly stabilised him before he was running out the door, using as much of One For All as All Might had deemed usable.

He had to fix this.

Behind him, Recovery Girl and Aizawa exchanged looks.

Aizawa shot the elderly doctor a dry glare. He'd been doing so well too. What Recovery Girl just did was akin to launching a nuclear bomb at the poor student. He was breaking the news to him gently, but what the fuck was up with that dictionary. Did she go all the way to the library to pick that up just to shove that in his face?

Recovery Girl felt both slightly relieved as well as worried that she took it too far. There was a reason why she specialized in physical recovery and not just because of her Quirk, either. Her medical professor had told her she had practically no tact, after all. She'd been getting slightly better over the years of being a professional, but there was always room for improvement.