Work Text:
Something was wrong with Hatsume. Now, Higari knew that wasn't unusual because even on the best days she still seemed a little unhinged. But it was the kind of unhinged that ended with her exploding things and excitedly talking to some non-support students about her babies, not the kind of unhinged that led to her…
Sleeping through class?
He'd never seen her do that before. Hell, even with the dorms and all he's pretty sure he has not once even heard a mention of her being asleep.
Their relationship might be antagonistic a lot of the time - Hatsume explodes something, he tells her to cut it out, she apologizes while already setting up the next explosion - but she was still his student. And right now she was nothing but a miserable little caricature of the energetic girl he'd been forced to learn to get along with.
The break was about to start anyways, so he dismissed the class a few minutes earlier as usual. The students, also as usual, were very thankful because now they wouldn't have to wait in line with the rest of the billion hungry Hero kids. Hatsume was still not doing anything, not even begging for five more minutes to finish whatever she's been working on.
Okay, that was it. He walked over to her (almost stumbling over a something one of his students had placed/lost on the floor) and poked her shoulder. That finally got her to look up.
"Break's started, you know."
It was a minuscule movement, barely even noticeable, but Hatsume flinched at the sound of his voice. Now that he took a closer look at her, he saw how tense her shoulders and jaw were. And fuck, her eyes looked like she was about to cry. Not in a way that made him fear she was scared of him, but something was still deeply bothering her and setting her on edge.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll go."
She made no move to get up.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Now she sounded like a grumpy teenager, which he supposed was fair. Not like her, but fair.
After looking at her for another second, Higari grabbed a nearby chair, spun it around and sat down so the backrest was in front of him. Even if she said she was fine, it was quite obvious that she wasn’t. Normally, Higari wasn’t one to push his students to talk to him, but seeing as him and the other teachers were the only adults immediately available for the kids to turn to, he figured it wouldn’t hurt to poke around just a little bit more.
"You really don't sound like it."
Hatsume sighed. "It's nothing you need to worry about."
Well, now that made him worry even more. Was it school-related? Maybe she was having troubles with the upcoming exams? Fuck, he sure hoped so, that could be fixed easily enough, unlike hypothetical problems with her family. There was no reason for them not to be, but he still found himself begging the universe to let her dads be okay.
"If you're stressed because you have problems with school, I can help you, that's what we teachers are there for, y'know?"
"No, it's not that!”
She honestly looked offended at the mere suggestion that she couldn’t handle everything this school was throwing at her.
“I just have a stupid and annoying headache again, that's all."
For Hatsume to be this affected, it had to be quite bad. She’s the one who went to class with a ridiculously high fever and was still her usual self (until she ended up at Recovery Girl’s and Higari scolded her for it while knowing she’ll do the same next time), and now a headache is what takes her out?
“You should go back to the dorms and rest.”
“If I were to do that for every headache, I wouldn’t go to school anymore.”
Now that was concerning. She always had the tendency to push through everything to reach whatever goal her mind had come up with, and sure, to a certain degree determination and endurance like that were good and something any Hero (or Hero-adjacent person) should have, but perhaps even more important was the ability to tell when you needed to stop and rest. Hatsume certainly didn’t lack any of the former, but only at the cost of ignoring obvious stop signals like it was her destiny.
“Your body is obviously telling you to take a break, so listen to it. Stop pushing yourself so much, Hatsume.”
“Well, what else am I supposed to do?!”
Hatsume’s anger disappeared as suddenly as it appeared, leaving her to lower her shoulders in defeat.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. I’m just irritated right now.”
He could see that.
“Do you really have a headache? Or a migraine?”
She sighed.
“Migraine. I just say headache because migraines make everyone think of vomiting into a trash can and it usually doesn’t get that bad.”
Higari got up again and, while under the scrutinizing watch of Hatsume, began packing her things into her bag.
“How long has it been going on for?”
“This episode or the whole thing in general?”
He took another look at her work bench, but it didn’t seem like he’d missed anything that hadn’t already been there previously.
“The episode. I assume it’s chronic, right?”
She stared at him for a moment as he gestured for her to get up.
“Yep,” he’d never heard someone pop the p of yep with less enthusiasm before, “it started yesterday evening. I thought it’d get better overnight. Also, I’m not going back to the dorms. I can’t just miss everything because of that!”
Despite her protest, he took her back and gently steered her towards the exit, a hand on her back to make sure she wasn’t about to fall over and get a concussion on top of a migraine.
“Hatsume. Please take a break. At best you’re not doing anything and at worst you’re a liability for yourself and the others.”
He could tell he’d won her over, even if she didn’t say anything.
The way out of the building was thankfully empty. Most students were in the cafeteria right now, and the few that weren’t were at least not making any loud noise, just walking along to whatever their destination was. That didn’t mean the lights weren’t affecting her. Higari had fought some nasty migraines of his own when he was younger, so he still remembered just how evil lights could be.
Thankfully, the sky outside was overcast, so at least the sun wasn’t going to bother Hatsume even more.
When they finally made it to the right dorm building, the lights inside there were also turned off, probably because no one was in it right now. Higari kept it that way as they entered, there was enough light filtering in from the outside to let them see everything.
As soon as they reached her room, Hatsume all but fell onto her bed, shoes still on and everything.
Higari placed the bag next to her desk (it was just as chaotic as her work bench, no surprise there), careful not to disturb the gigantic tower of books and loose papers that had accumulated there as well. Making his way over to the window was a challenge on its own with all the stuff strewn around the floor. Were those parts of the entrance exam robots?
He decided not to question it and instead close the blinds. That turned out to be a mistake because now the room was littered with things and it was dark. After letting his eyes get used to the darkness, Higari moved back to the un-cluttered part of the room.
Wait a second, eyes. Visual stimulus was one of the main factors when it came to making a migraine worse and Hatsume’s Quirk was one that altered her eyes. Now that he thought about it, Eraserhead was prone to getting eye strain and dry eyes along with some nasty migraines as well.
“Hatsume?” He tried to keep his voice down as much as possible, not wanting to aggravate her pain any more.
She hummed in acknowledgement.
“Are those migraines a side effect of your Quirk?”
Silence.
Just as he was about to backtrack, Hatsume decided to reply after all.
“...They are.”
Higari sighed. Poor Hatsume shouldn’t have to deal with something as hindering as chronic migraines.
“You’re not alone in this. Lots of people suffer from drawbacks like that.”
“Well, it doesn’t feel like it. Everyone’s always talking about how awesome their Quirk is and not about all the shitty migraines they’re getting.”
“Just because they’re not talking about it doesn’t mean they’re not there.”
“I know, I know, it’s just frustrating.”
“Try to rest for a bit, it’s the best you can do right now.”
In lieu of a reply, Higari heard Hatsume shuffle around, and grab something from her nightstand that turned out to be some meds she quickly popped into her mouth. She swallowed them dry, which was a skill that Higari still hadn’t mastered after all these years.
“Ugh, I’m sorry I made you waste your break.”
Higari couldn’t help but snort.
“You’ve done so much worse than taking a few minutes off of my break. Don’t worry about it. You know, even though you keep blowing up everything solely to antagonize me, I still care about your wellbeing.”
“I’ll be back with my babies tomorrow and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”
“Aside from banning you from the workshop, you mean?”
“As if you really think that’d keep me out. Innovation always finds a way! Hey, that should be the slogan for Hatsume Industries.”
Some part of that must’ve actually helped her because now she seemed to be in a much better mood. That didn’t mean Higari didn’t roll his eyes.
“You can think about that more when you wake up. Rest, Hatsume.”
She moved around again, presumably to find a more comfortable position.
“Sure, Dad."
Higari raised both eyebrows at that, and a moment later Hatsume choked on something, presumably the last shred of self-control she had.
“That was ironic!”
“Mhm.”
He honestly wasn’t sure which one of them was feeling more embarrassed right now.
“Let’s pretend this never happened.”
Oh, definitely.
“That what never happened?”
Hatsume gave him a thumbs-up that he was barely able to make out in the dark.
He left to grab her a glass of cold water, waking up with a dry mouth and not having anything to drink nearby was the worst. Plus, drinking lots was good for migraines. Probably. Drinking lots was good period.
When he got back, Hatsume was already asleep and snoring, despite lying on her side. She really kept surprising him, huh? After pushing some things slightly to the side, he placed the glass on her nightstand and then pulled Hatsume’s blanket back onto the bed from where it was dangling down on the side.
Once he was done with classes, he was going to talk to Recovery Girl. There had to be something that could be done to help Hatsume with her migraines. Then again, if this was the kind of willpower and ingenuity she was working with while suffering from chronic pain (because that’s essentially what constant migraines were, right?), he was deeply afraid to find out what she would be like at full power.