Chapter Text
"Welcome back, class 1-A."
The lounge of the 1-A dorms was filled with all of the students, who had been conversing with one another just a moment ago. It was a Thursday night, and their first day back to classes was Friday. It was odd, but it was to ease them back into the swing of things, as stated by the principal.
"I hope you all have had the chance to recover and get back on your feet over your extended break," Aizawa said. "I know there still might be some tensions because of the events that happened, but please be kind to those who had a hard time recently. And I am sure you all have read the letter sent out by Principal Nezu, but I am going to reiterate it. Please refrain from speaking about the events of the Sports Festival and all that followed suit, as it is still a sensitive topic for many of us..."
Aizawa soon finished up his little speech before adding something else on, "Before I let you all off for the night, I do have another announcement."
Everyone went silent, and the teacher continued, "... I know I said not to talk about the recent events, but in light of them, UA has received three new students attending a special program. Many of you have already encountered these three, as they were involved with the League of Villains."
A few of the students knew who he was talking about. Shinsou, Toga, and Monoma.
"These three will be living in this dorm building, under my advisement," Aizawa continued. "They are going to need time to adjust to the campus, so please be kind and help them out if you see them."
The teacher then dismissed them, but they all hung out in the lounge for a while longer.
"It's kinda dumb to start classes on a Friday!" Kaminari groaned. "Isn't it?"
"Did you even read that letter?" Iida sighed.
"... No."
They all decided to turn in early that night, heading up to their rooms. Todoroki followed Midoriya to his room, leaning in the doorway and looking around as the other took his nightly medications. He looked to Todoroki, raising an eyebrow, "Are you not coming in?"
"Do you want me to?" Todoroki questioned.
"My mom gave you a key to our house, Shouto," Midoriya scoffed. "I don't care if you just up and walk in."
Todoroki chuckled at that, deciding to come in and close the door behind him. He crossed his arms and looked around a little, "... It's been a long time since I saw your room."
It looked a little different now. Midoriya wasn't one to really hang up a lot of things, but when they moved back in earlier that day, he changed a lot of things and moved things around. Hung up a few posters and photos. It had more personality.
"It has, huh..." Midoriya muttered, sitting on his bed and looking around.
"I came in here and found your journals from Detective Tsukauchi," Todoroki admitted, walking further into the room and sitting down next to him.
"You snooped in my room?" Midoriya said, looking offended. A very fake offended.
"I did not snoop, I knew exactly where they were!"
"So I have to find a new hiding spot?"
"You don't use the journals anymore, dummy."
"That's mean..."
Midoriya ended up ditching the journals after his first few meetings with his new therapist. He didn't really need them anymore, and he honestly hated knowing that other people had read them after the Sports Festival incident. If he wanted to talk, he'd talk to his therapist or Todoroki. Or Bakugou. Or anyone, really. He just wouldn't write it down anymore.
It seemed to be their new nightly routine to play a game together on the gaming device before going to bed. It was something that had just become something they liked to do together, and Bakugou usually joined in whenever he got on at night.
But the did end up going to sleep fairly early, still.
The morning before class made everything seem like it was back to normal again. Todoroki and Midoriya got downstairs and already heard Bakugou shouting at Kaminari, and the expected laughter afterwards.
"I think you guys are freaking them out," Iida sighed.
Shinsou, Toga, and Monoma sat at the table as well, and they were definitely not used to 1-A's usual morning shenanigans.
"You'll get used to it," Uraraka said.
They went on with breakfast, and then headed over to the school building. The three newcomers didn't go with them, probably because of their special program to get caught up to where they were education-wise.
The walk wasn't that different, but there was still added security to the campus. A good precaution. They got to their classroom, where they talked in their usual groups. Before Aizawa even came into the room, Present Mic's voice rang over the intercom.
"Good morning UA students! Welcome back!"
The hero went on with some announcements as Aizawa walked into the room, and the students went to their seats. Once the hero stopped speaking over the intercom, Aizawa spoke, "... Good morning, everyone."
The classes that day were definitely more easy going. More like some review from before the Sports Festival, but not really anything new. Then came the gym period, where the students essentially just had time to practice with their quirks.
Midoriya was pulled aside by Aizawa when he stepped outside.
"If you want to continue using your support tool, you do have access to a new one," the teacher said.
The support tool... the metal chain.
"... No," Midoriya shook his head. "I don't think I need it."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah."
Aizawa nodded and let him go to practice.
Todoroki waited for him to come back over, "What was that about?"
"He asked if I wanted to use the support tool," Midoriya said.
"And?"
"Never again."
The training during that period felt like when Midoriya and Todoroki trained together in middle school. But on a much different level.
Midoriya surprised himself. He hadn't used his quirk in months. He didn't want to, did have a need to. But he didn't really hesitate when thrown into training.
Then again, since he was out of practice, he forgot that he needed to regulate his own temperature. He had put out too much heat, and ended up freezing cold.
"Alright, let's stop for a minute," Todoroki said when he took notice. He put his left hand on Midoriya's back.
"This hasn't happened in a while..." Midoriya muttered to himself.
"You just have to remember to also take in heat, or else you'll turn yourself into an ice cube."
Midoriya ended up having to sit out for the rest of the period, thankful for Momo's quirk when she tossed a blanket his way. Aizawa ended up coming over to him to talk for a few minutes.
"Putting aside this," Aizawa said. "You're getting better with your quirk."
"Really?" Midoriya questioned.
"You usually hesitate."
"I've trained with Shouto before, that might be why I didn't, but..."
The class soon went back into the building to get changed, and they went on with the rest of their classes for the day, along with the lunch period.
Once the school day was over, and they were walking back to the dorms, Momo spoke up, "Are you guys up for a movie night tonight? Or anything else?"
The majority of the class agreed, and settled on 8 to meet in the lounge to pick some movies to watch. Iida would speak to Aizawa for permission to stay in the lounge past curfew, as well.
Midoriya and Todoroki headed up to their rooms to drop off their bags, and Todoroki came to stand in the doorway of Midoriya's room, changed into casual clothing. Midoriya hadn't changed yet, writing something down in his planner.
"... Do you want to go out before movie night?" Todoroki suddenly asked.
"Go out...?" Midoriya said, looking up to him.
"A date."
"... A date?"
Todoroki just nodded, "Our first and last date was in May. It's September."
Midoriya closed his planner and slipped it into his backpack, "What would we even do?"
"... A picnic?" Todoroki suggested.
"A picnic?" Midoriya laughed a little. "You don't seem like a picnic person..."
"I mean, going to see a movie and then having a movie night doesn't make sense," Todoroki said.
Midoriya just nodded a little at that, pausing for a moment, "... I'm okay with a picnic."
So Midoriya got changed, and they headed out to go buy some things for a picnic. Todoroki packed a blanket in a backpack, so after picking up a few things, they decided to set up outside of the dorms, but far enough that no one would really interrupt them.
Todoroki had also brought his laptop, and ended up playing some music. And since they'd probably still eat dinner with the rest of the class, they ended up mostly getting some drinks and snacks instead of a full dinner.
"So how was the first day back?" Todoroki asked.
"Better than I expected, to be honest," Midoriya said. "I thought people would be... weird around me."
"They're all your friends, Izuku," Todoroki said.
"I know."
"... And your definitely getting better with your quirk," Todoroki spoke again. "Like, a lot better."
"Aizawa Sensei said something like that, too."
Midoriya was still stuck on the fact that he forgot to regulate his temperature. It should have been something to come naturally to him now, but it must have been the fact that he hadn't really trained his quirk since the Sports Festival. He did notice that he felt a little more confident while using his quirk... As Aizawa said, he didn't hesitate at all. It actually made him a little excited to continue training from now on with his new found confidence in his quirk, and not using that support tool.
"We should go on dates more often," Todoroki suddenly said. "We could go ice skating again."
"I suck at ice skating..."
"It takes practice!"
"What about... an amusement park?"
"Aquarium?"
"Cat cafe?"
"Cat cafe?!"
"It sounds like fun! Doesn't it? Do you like cats?"
"I do, I didn't know you did."
"Yes, I do like cats."
"Good to know."
They both laughed, stopping their little argument on where to go on dates. They decided then that their next date would be, in fact, at a cat cafe in the city. And then maybe they'd go to an amusement park.
Much like their last date, Todoroki took plenty of pictures and posted them on Snapchat. They did eventually clean up and head back inside, taking their things up to their rooms before heading back to the first floor in time for dinner.
"How was your little date?" Ashido teased when they sat down.
"None of your business," Todoroki said.
"Don't snoop, Mina," Jirou sighed.
"I was just asking! It looked cute on Snapchat!"
Kaminari sat up straight at the table, "Hey, do you guys mind if the new guys join us tonight?"
"I thought that was a given," Kirishima said, looking to the three at the table.
"It's a 1-A thing, isn't it?" Monoma questioned.
"You live in the same building," Momo said. "It wouldn't be fair if we left you out, would it?"
"As long as you like movies, you're free to join us," Iida nodded.
The three of them just kind of looked between one another before Toga spoke up, "... We haven't really watched movies."
"No way!" Kaminari shouted.
So that caused the entirety of dinner being talk of different kinds of movies, and trying to figure out what they would want to watch. They had only watched a handful of movies, mentioning Touya, which meant that it was the times they stayed over at the Todoroki house.
They decided on a couple of movies to watch before they finished dinner, and started early on so they could get more movies in. Midoriya didn't really like the first movie, so he ended up playing on his gaming device. He did notice that throughout the first movie, Kaminari sat with Shinsou and talked with him throughout it, and the other classmates also interacted with Monoma and Toga. It was... odd to see once villains interacting with students from the hero course.
But now they were getting back to the lives they should have been living.
Midoriya stopped playing his game when the next movie started playing, getting invested in it.
But they could only watch so many movies before getting kind of bored, so they decided to introduce the three to the video games that they always played in the lounge. It gave Midoriya the chance to play his own game again, but he did pay attention every now and then to the others learning how to play Mario Kart.
"Katsuki, you can't play yet," Ashido warned. "You're too violent! They need to learn first!"
"You just don't want me to kick their asses!" Bakugou retaliated.
"They'll probably kick your ass, Katsuki," Todoroki said.
"Shut up, icy hot!"
"I don't know if I can get used to you all..." Shinsou muttered to himself.
"They're always kinda loud," Midoriya said mindlessly, still staring at his screen. "You learn to ignore it."
"You lived with Katsuki already!" Sero said.
"IT'S NOT JUST ME, DUCT TAPE!" Bakugou shouted.
"... Nicknames?" Monoma questioned.
"Oh, you'll get one soon," Kirishima nodded.
The three of them got the hang of Mario Kart after a while and, sure enough, they did end up beating Bakugou a few times. He laughed at himself, though, instead of getting angry like usual. They switched between a few different games before it got pretty late, and they all needed to head to bed. Since they were living in the same building, they decided to exchange phone numbers to keep in contact, and Iida even added them to the 1-A group chat.
"It gets kind of chaotic, fair warning," Iida had said.
Midoriya fell back onto his bed, letting out a sigh as he stared at the ceiling. He heard Todoroki shut the door behind him and walk over to sit on the edge of the bed.
"... I heard Kaminari mention going out tomorrow with the new three," Todoroki said. "Get them more accustomed to the area, and we can get to know them more."
Midoriya didn't know much about Monoma and Toga, but he felt as if he knew a lot about Shinsou already. Maybe it was because of his quirk and Brain Dead, but Shinsou already felt like a friend to him. Almost a friend. Not quite. But hanging out with and getting to know them a little better sounded like a good idea. They could end up being a classmate in the hero course one day, but that was a mystery for the future.
"... That sounds like fun," Midoriya said, moving to sit up.
Todoroki looked to him, pausing for a moment. He turned to face him, "Are you okay with them here? After what happened..."
Todoroki genuinely cared about him and his well being, and was just checking. And maybe Midoriya had been a little quieter that night, and didn't really take notice of it.
"I'm fine," Midoriya shook his head. "They... they didn't do anything. None of it is because of them."
"I know that," Todoroki said quickly. "But I just wanted to check. You seemed a little quiet."
"I'm just tired," Midoriya said honestly. "I'm still kinda worn out from gym today."
"Okay. Just making sure..."
"... Thank you."
Midoriya got up and took his nightly medications before laying down beside Todoroki, staring at the ceiling.
Although he had slept in the room last night, now it felt... weird. A good weird, if that made sense. If felt like everything was back to the way it should be. Laying in his dorm room with Todoroki beside him, Bakugou and Kirishima across the hall. It felt like they had just gotten done with their weekly Friday night activity, just like they had done so many times before.
Midoriya didn't want to spiral into his thoughts, so he pulled out his phone to check the group chat.
Tenya added Hitoshi Shinsou to the chat!
Tenya added Himiko Toga to the chat!
Tenya added Neito Monoma to the chat!
Tenya: please don't be chaotic it's past midnight
Denki: But past midnight is prime chaos time
Hitoshi: Oh no...
Katsuki: If I hear you blasting music I will kill you
Shouto: just knock his glasses off then he won't be able to find you
Denki: HAHAHA
Katsuki: I'M GONNA KICK YOUR ASS GLASSES OR NOT
Shouto: do it blind man
Hitoshi: You've already made Neito mute this group chat.
Himiko: I'm thinking about it
Denki: Nooo!
Izuku: Some people are trying to sleep shh
Shouto: you're not trying to sleep
Shouto: HE HIT ME
Mina: GASP
Izuku: I literally smacked your arm shut up
Shouto :(
Ochaco: You hurt his feelings
Izuku: If I wanted to hurt his feelings I'd kick him out of my room
Shouto: you wouldn't
Izuku: would I?
Todoroki turned his head to Midoriya, "Am I kicked out now?"
"No!" Midoriya laughed. "I would never kick you out."
"If you say so..."
"I wouldn't!"
Todoroki laughed, putting his phone away and shifting to face Midoriya, "I know, I know."
Since the light was already turned off, Todoroki pulled the blanket over them. Midoriya let out a breath and closed his eyes when Todoroki combed his fingers through his hair. They were both quiet for a while before Midoriya spoke, "... I missed this."
"Me too," Todoroki murmured.
Although Midoriya didn't specify what exactly, Todoroki understood. Just this. This room. Nights like this. The ongoing arguments ensuing in the class group chat.
Todoroki rest his chin on Midoriya's head, closing his eyes. They ended up muttering "I love you" at the same time and laughing afterwards before falling asleep.
In the morning, it went on just as Saturdays usually would. They woke up, Midoriya quickly took his morning medication before they went down for breakfast. Kaminari had already been talking about going around the city, and a lot of people seemed to be in agreement with it, including the three newcomers.
And so that's how their weekend went. A group from the class went out to walk around the city with Shinsou, Toga, and Monoma, showing them around and introducing them more to the area. That night consisted of an activity that they had done before from a Friday night: ice skating.
"I'm so bad at ice skating," Midoriya groaned as he laced his skates up.
"The last time we went was in April or something!" Uraraka said as she stood. "And you don't have to be good, just have fun!"
Midoriya did end up sticking by Todoroki the whole time, but in the end, they all had fun, even though the new three had no idea how to ice skate. They got the hang of it fairly quickly, though. It was probably the first time Midoriya had seen Shinsou genuinely smile.
Sunday consisted of teaching them how to play other video games, and 1-A working together to do their light homework from Friday. The other three sat in the lounge with them as they did their work, as well; they had a heavier amount of work, though, as they had actually started earlier the previous month to get a head start.
Now, Mondays are when things changed. As opposed to before, Midoriya had therapy Monday morning before class started. His new therapist agreed to come to the school for his session at that day and time, and Midoriya was excused from homeroom as long as he reminded Aizawa the first few weeks to get accustomed to it.
Midoriya had to get up earlier than Todoroki, careful not to wake him up as he quickly got ready. By the time he was leaving, Todoroki had woken up, and he said goodbye to him before heading out, already completely in uniform. He grabbed something small to eat before heading to the therapy office.
"Good morning, Izuku!" The therapist greet when Midoriya came into the office.
He immediately noticed that the office was more homely than the last time he was in there. It was definitely more comforting.
"Good morning, Dr. Hirota," Midoriya said as he sat down.
"How was your first day back?"
"Pretty good... I messed up using my quirk during gym, though. I forgot to take in heat, and almost froze myself."
"Well, you haven't used your quirk in a while, right? You'll get used to it again. And how was using your quirk?"
"Uh... Aizawa Sensei told me I didn't hesitate while training with it, which was something I really struggled with."
"That's good. Is everything good with your classmates? What did you do over the weekend?"
So Midoriya went on to tell her about Friday, including the date and movie slash game night, how they showed the new students around the city and went ice skating, and Sunday was teaching them how to play more games and having a homework session.
"I'm glad you're adjusting well with going back to school and being around your classmates again," Dr. Hirota said. "Just in these past few weeks of seeing you, I've seen a lot of improvement from what I read from your file. Of course, taking into consideration what you went through..."
Midoriya was very openly speaking to her, didn't hesitate to do so, and seem genuinely upbeat the whole time he spoke.
"And how are you feeling right now?" Dr. Hirota asked. "Anxious about anything?"
Midoriya thought for a moment. He didn't feel anxious, or even stressed out about anything that was coming up. So he just shook his head, "I feel... pretty good."
"No disruptive thoughts or anything?"
"Nope."
"That's really good, Izuku. I'm glad you're doing well."
Midoriya couldn't help but smile at that, and the session continued on from there.
To be "doing well" after everything that happened seemed to be a miracle. It wouldn't have been possible without the people who stood by him the whole time. Even before the whole thing with the Sports Festival, they were with him. Not just Momo and Kirishima, but Todoroki, too. He dealt with some of Midoriya's breakdowns and horrid nightmares, and was there when he really needed someone, but didn't want to admit it. And he was one of the first people, aside from Bakugou, that he put his full trust into.
"We can end a little early this morning, I don't want to make you too late for class today," Dr. Hirota said.
Midoriya nodded, thanking her and then leaving the office to head to class. He felt a little brighter from before he entered the office, and he realized what it was that caused it.
He no longer thought of himself as a burden.