Work Text:
Truthfully, Shouta knew something was wrong the instant he spotted the empty space in which Midoriya should have typically been. When he further noticed the looks of concern the rest of the class were shooting the empty desk, it really began to nag at the back of his mind. Furthermore, when he took attendance and the boy was yet to show, worry had begun to take up the majority of his focus.
"Does anyone know where Midoriya is?" he finally asks. All he gets in return are blank looks and shaking heads.
"He didn't walk with us this morning, and he hasn't been answering his phone…" Uraraka supplies, causing Shouta to squint slightly in confusion. After a brief bout of silence, Iida shoots up in his seat.
"Sensei, I would be more than willing to go and check in on him! He should still be in the dorms."
"We will finish homeroom and then I will go and check in." He speaks in deadpan, despite the slight edge that comes with each conscious or subconscious thought. "You all will continue with your classes as usual."
Iida deflates slightly at this as he sits back down, as do a few others around the room. They all resignedly nod anyway, knowing that putting up a fight with Shouta would be especially unwise. He goes about the class in the typical manner, but he's constantly aware of the empty desk as the minutes tick on.
Of course it's Midoriya — the appointed problem child of the group. It couldn't have been someone like Kouda, or Kirishima, or even Tokoyami, just to shake things up a bit for once. He doesn't even have a guess as to what the teen's hold up must be, because really, it could be anything. Despite this, though, he knows he can't help but go easy on the kid. Whether he wants to admit it or not, Shouta has noticed that he habitually has become less harsh towards all his students.
The ten minutes eventually end, and he quickly organises the room as the students all file out the door. He's just about to head out himself when Uraraka quietly gets his attention. When he looks up, he sees that she is standing alongside Iida, Asui, Tokoyami, and Todoroki, all of which are looking at him with varying degrees of repressed worry. When he gestures for her to go on, she looks at the floor and then back up.
"If it isn't too much trouble, could you please let us know if something is wrong? We just…" she trails off, but Shouta understands.
"If you wish, I will notify you if anything is the matter. Now get to your next class before you're late."
They do so hurriedly, nodding and thanking him appreciatively before rushing away. He quickly follows suit, taking long strides out the door and down the hall as his fingers swipe across the screen of his phone. Sending a quick message to Nedzu about following up on an absent student and asking for a relief teacher in his place for his next class. It isn't long before he's already walking up to the front entrance of the Heights Alliance dormitories and pushing open the glass door.
He casts a quick glance around the common area, and upon not finding hide nor hair of the boy, he makes for the staircase up to the second floor. Shouta knocks two separate times on the door to Midoriya’s room. The first time neutral while the second is loud and more insistent. When his knuckles ease away from the wood a final time, he hears something like clattering on tile, as if something had fallen. It's all he needs to twist the knob and push open the door before quickly scanning the room. He doesn't see the boy, but he does notice that the door to his personal bathroom is half-open.
"Midoriya?" He calls out. When he doesn't get any sort of response, he crosses the room and peeks through the gap. What he sees is definitely not what he had been expecting.
His eyes lock onto Midoriya, who is slumped over beside the toilet with an arm draped over the edge of the bathtub. His skin is almost deathly pale, and when he lifts his head at Shouta's appearance, his gaze is glassy. When his head lifts, though, the kid's eyes widen slightly before he's reaching out and suddenly bent over the toilet bowl, dry heaving.
"Shit…" is all that Shouta can manage before he steps over and is kneeling beside the boy with a hand on his shoulder. He brings his hand away almost instantly before returning it to press the backs of his knuckles against the back of the teen's neck. The boy flinches away from the contact even as his head is still stuck in the bowl. As Midoriya finally draws back with a groan, Shouta makes sure to keep him steady. He sees the tear tracks that have lined their way down the boys cheeks and something settles in his chest heavily. "You're burning up. What happened to you?"
Midoriya takes a second to take a deep breath, head rolling to rest his chin on his chest while Shouta solely holds his body up from collapsing to the tiles below them. "Don' know." His voice sounds wrecked , and the fact that he sounds like he's near sobbing doesn't help. "Might have been… dinner…"
Food poisoning, he concludes. At least it'll be out of his system pretty quick.
At his own mention of food, Midoriya urgently pushes himself to the toilet again before he's retching up nothing but bile. During the new stream of vomiting, Shouta begins to rub circles into the boy's back. He quickly moves to rummage through the cabinet under the sink beside them, grabbing a washcloth and quickly rinsing it under the cold tap before wringing it out. When Midoriya slumps away again, he catches the boy's weight and brings the damp cloth to his face, wiping away the tears, bile and saliva. The teen seems to slowly realise what's happening and instantly takes on a look of mortification. Shouta can admit it sparks a little amusement.
"'m sorry. I'm sorry, 'm s'rry," he doesn't even seem entirely present as he speaks now. He's staring at the wall as though he isn't actually entirely there. Shouta just hopes it's due to his fever and not an underlying problem.
"Nothing to be sorry for. How are you feeling?" He pushes back the hair that sticks to the boy's forehead and swipes a clean part of the cloth to get rid of the sweat.
"I'm sorry."
Shouta sighs, recorrecting the kid's lean to be supported by the bathtub before standing and rinsing the cloth in the sink.
"How else are you feeling?"
"... Disgusting... Sore… Body 'urts."
"Whole body?" he inquires. When the teen nods he finds himself lowering to his knees beside the kid before reaching over and flushing the toilet. "How long have you been like this?"
Midoriya seems to have to think about this, eyes half-lidded and looking a few seconds from keeling over. The sight of him kicks up an odd feeling in his chest he doesn't know how to name.
"All morning…?"
That brings up more concern. Dehydration is definitely a problem right about now.
"Have you tried to drink any water?"
Midoriya closes his eyes and shakes his head minutely, likely to avoid setting off the nausea again. "Can't ge' up. Keep puking. Legs sore."
"We have to try, okay?"
The boy just lets out a pitiful whine at the suggestion and shakes his head more fiercely. He lurches for the toilet bowl again while Shouta goes to rinse the washcloth, bringing it across the kid's face when he's done. He's starting to wonder as he flushes the toilet again how he hasn't puked his guts up by this point.
When Midoriya appears to be settled and not on the verge of another round of heaving, Shouta gets to his feet and makes for the door. This causes the kid to finally let out a sob, which has the hero turning right around to kneel in front of him, slicking his sweat-dampened hair away from his forehead. He can’t explain exactly what he’s feeling, but he does know that it involves him being especially protective right now. He’s going to do all he can to look out for the kids he’s been tasked with.
"I'm not leaving, I'm just going to get some stuff to help, okay? I'll only be a few seconds, I promise. I’ll be back and then I won’t go unless you tell me to."
This seems to placate him slightly, though tears are still falling steadily from his eyes. He nods slowly, all the confirmation Shouta needs to get up, however far more hesitant this time as he backs away, reaching out behind him for the door.
God, he's so far gone, isn't he…? He knows he would do anything just to stop the kid from being in such blatant distress. For now he'll just have to pray Yamada doesn't find out about this.
He practically dashes to the kitchen, grabbing one of the unopened Gatorades from the fridge before finding a half-eaten sleeve of crackers in one of the cabinets. As he's doing this, he has his phone out and is alerting Recovery Girl of the current situation. It doesn't take long for the nurse to notify him that she has a clear spot in the infirmary and subsequently offers to send medical bots to the dorms to collect him. Shouta shoots it down, saying he'll get the kid there himself soon enough since it would be faster.
By the time he's back in the bathroom, the kid is slumped over against the bathtub again and his eyes are closed. He freezes in the doorway, unsure if he should keep him awake or try to transport him while he's asleep. On one hand, Midoriya needs to try and get some fluids into him, and on the other, keeping him awake now would only result in more vomiting and discomfort. He quickly concludes that it might be easier to get him to Recovery Girl sooner rather than later and on an IV instead. It would only be a matter of a few minutes, anyway, and at least this way he won't be sitting on an uncomfortable tile floor. He doesn't want to put him through anymore of this if he can help it.
With that he places the crackers and drink on the sink counter before once again kneeling down next to his student. He tucks his arms beneath his knees and back before getting his feet under him. He brings the both of them up as slowly as possible, thankful that Midoriya doesn't appear to awake due to the movement. He exits the bathroom, worry taking his thoughts as he feels the way the boy shakes against him and seems to try and curl himself up, chasing both his own and Shouta’s body warmth. He knows it must be part of the fever, and he just wishes he had taken the time to check his temperature to know how severe the reaction is.
He takes the stairs steadily, noting with guilt and pity the way the boy's features pinch up in something like discomfort or pain — probably a mixture of both. When he's kicking open the doors to the entrance of the dorm, he finds himself grateful for the clouds that dim the light of the day. Midoriya turns his face away from the light with a near-silent whine, but he doesn't seem to wake up due to it.
It takes all of a few minutes to traverse the grounds to the infirmary, and he thinks of it as a saving grace when there isn't a person in sight to witness the boy like this. The instant he steps in, Recovery Girl is there and leading them into an empty room, where Shouta sets him on the bed with as much care as humanly possible. When he sees the woman staring at him as she readies an IV, he raises an eyebrow questioningly. She does nothing more than shake her head with a small smile before she's stepping up and hooking his student up to the line. He finally releases something like a sigh of relief when it begins to feed into his system. As the nurse goes around linking him to several other devices, Shouta is the first to notice the kid's eyes crack open.
He makes his way over and leans over him slightly, getting himself into view. When he does, it takes a second, but eventually Midoriya's eyes fall on him with a dazed, faraway look before he lowers his eyebrows in confusion.
"Wha…?"
"You're in the infirmary now, kid." He keeps his voice low but clear, ensuring Midoriya can process everything he's saying. "How are you feeling?"
His eyes dart up to look at one of the monitors, reading his temperature as he waits for the boy to digest his words.
38.7 degrees. That's manageable.
The teen's eyes close again, and he lets out a small groan. Recovery Girl looks up at this with furrowed brows for a second before moving away to the cabinets. Shouta doesn't look down, but he takes the large bowl that is offered to him soon after with a sigh.
Leaning away, he grabs one of the chairs along the wall of the room and brings it closer to the side of the bed. He sits down into it and keeps the bowl in his lap, watching as the boy tries to curl in on himself. Shouta feels a very distinct urge to reach out and attempt to comfort him, but he thinks better of it, knowing that it likely wouldn't be of much use. Instead, he turns to the other hero.
"He said he was in pain before."
The nurse hums. "Common symptom of food poisoning. I'm just worried whether the rest of his class will be in similar states."
Shouta remembers his promise at that, whipping out his phone. He quickly sends a message to the Class 1-A chatroom that the class had put together not long after the start of the school year. Exasperatedly, he knows he's bound to get a message quickly despite their class being in session.
[09: 24] Sensei: What did Midoriya eat last night?
He doesn't even need to wait twenty seconds before the indicator states 'Seen by 5 others' .
[09:25] Bread Briot: pretty sure i saw him with some leftovers
[09:25] Tentacruel: Uh. Chicken or smth i think
[09:25] Urararakakaka: wait did u find him????
By now he sees that there are twelve people actively watching the group chat. He feels a bit bad for distracting his students like this, but he'd rather avoid the drama of having a bunch of sick teenagers start throwing their guts up during class.
[09:26] Sensei: Did anyone else eat what he ate? And yes, I've found him.
[09:26] Urararakakaka: i didnt
[09:26] Ho-oh’s emo cousin: Me neither
[09:27] Yoyo-rozu: I believe he ate the last of what was there but why do you ask?
Shouta sighs in relief. Aloud he repeats the information to Recovery Girl, who similarly looks especially pleased to not have to deal with almost two dozen sick students.
[09:29] Sensei: Looks like he has food poisoning, but he's alright. He's with Recovery Girl now, and I will probably be staying with him for the better part of the day. Now go back to focusing on your classes.
He turns his phone off as the abundance of confirmations and well wishes roll in, slipping it back into his pocket before slumping against the back of his chair. Shouta watches as the boy continues to stay in his curled position, eyes now once again closed.
"You're not going to go back?" Recovery Girl inquires lowly least she awake the student. He's not so much of a fool that he doesn't spot the spark of intrigue in her eye.
"I promised him I wouldn't leave," he says, simple as to not give anything away.
When the nurse hands him an enclosed tube of ice and tells him to be helpful by getting his fever down, he knows he's stuck in for the long haul. For them, though, he knows he would jump at the chance in an instant.