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One of the first things they do is go to the doctor’s office. It’s not the same one his mom used to take him to, it’s on the other side of town and it’s much shinier. The plants aren’t plastic, and they even have a fish tank!
They go there twice a week, and Izuku talks to a nice woman named Dr. Kangae about his feelings. She asks him about his mother, and his new dads, and if he’s happy. He says he’s very happy, and he says he loves his dads.
He doesn’t like talking about mom. He had to stand up in front of her in court, and she gave him that look she always has when he’s messing up, when he’s breaking the rules, when she’s getting ready to teach him another lesson.
There’s a room full of people, and they listen to him talk about what she did with him. They learn that she made him sleep outside, and that she used his quirk to hurt him, and that she sometimes used other things too.
(After his speech, they project the pictures his dads took of the welt marks on his back, the bruises on his legs and arms and chest, the faded scar that wraps around his neck. He looks away.)
When they take a break from the hearing, Shouta leads him to the water fountain in the hallway. He lifts Izuku by his waist so he can reach the stream, and Izuku giggles, struck with some sort of joyous energy in his chest. He wants to laugh and play with Shouta, and let the man pick him up and twirl him around like mom used to.
On the way back to the courtroom, he sees mom and Mitsuki, Kacchan’s mom.
They’re yelling, screaming at each other about Izuku.
“-my son, and I can raise him the way I want to!” mom yells.
“You’re hurting him,” Mitsuki snarls, “and you’ve known it this whole time! I hope those men win, and that they raise him in a loving household like he deserves.”
Security guards are already pulling the two apart, and Izuku clings to Shouta’s leg. Mitsuki glances at him, offers him a smile.
He smiles back, and waves at her before she disappears into the courtroom.
“That was Bakugou Mitsuki,” he explains when he sees Shouta staring at him inquisitively. “She’s Kacchan’s mom!”
“I see,” Shouta says. “Bakugou-san seems like a nice woman.”
Izuku nods, and they walk back to the courtroom.
The hearing lasts for a few more days, and in the end, he gets to go home with two dads! He doesn’t even have to see mom anymore.
(Part of him feels awful. She’s his mother. She raised him, all on her own. Why doesn’t he love her?)
(...why doesn’t she love him?)
He and Dr. Kangae talk about mom anyway. They talk about her, and Kacchan, and the other kids at school who would tease him.
Or, “Bully,” as Kangae-san would correct.
One time, almost a month after the hearing, Dr. Kangae leaves to talk to Hizashi and Shouta at the end of the session. Sometimes Izuku asks them to be in the room for it, but this time, he wanted them to sit out. So Izuku is sitting on the big blue futon, curled up against the wall, wondering what they’re talking about.
Maybe you’re too broken for them after all.
You’re quirkless, and sad, and you’re too much work.
Not even Dr. Kangae can handle you.
Deku.
The rattling of the door pries him from his thoughts, and he is instantly calmed by the soft expression on Hizashi’s face.
“Hey, listener,” he coos. Izuku straightens himself, and smiles back. “How are you?”
“I-I’m okay!” he says quickly.
Shouta frowns, and Izuku recoils.
“I was talking with your dads, Izuku,” Dr. Kangae starts. “We’ve been talking for a few weeks now, and I wanted to get your thoughts on starting some medication.”
“Medication…?”
“Like medicine,” Hizashi explains. “It might help you feel less sad.”
And he holds back the “I deserve to be sad” that crawls up from his throat, though it takes enormous effort.
“But I’ve always been sad,” he says instead. “How would that even help? I just need to, to smile more, right?”
(That’s what mom said, and the doctor, and his teachers. Smile more, Izuku! Smiling makes you happy!)
“We believe that your sadness is really something called depression,” Dr. Kangae says. “It’s like a sickness, but it’s in your brain, and it makes you sad a lot. Do you remember the survey we took last week?”
Izuku nods slowly.
"Your answers showed that you have slight-to-moderate depression. We can give you medication that might help you feel better."
Izuku glances between Shouta and Hizashi, who have settled down next to him on the futon. Hizashi squeezes his hand, offering a little smile.
"I won't be sad anymore?" he asks.
Shouta huffs quietly, and Hizashi punches him in the arm.
"They would help you manage the sadness, but it probably won't go away entirely," she says.
He agrees to try it, and they pick up the prescription on the way home.