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Shoji is a quiet, reserved kid. Aizawa knows that today, though, the six armed boy seemed off, he is shaky, pale, and he seems to be struggling with the worksheet sheet Aizawa gave the class.
While everyone is busy, Aizawa decides to pull Shoji aside.
Once the two are outside Aizawa asks, “what's going on.”
Shoji stares at him for a moment, then shrugs.Aizawa just sighs at that response.
“Recovery, girl, now,” he says gruffly, but there's a hint of concern.
“I'm fine,” though he seems more tired.
“I wasn't asking. Go to recovery, girl.” Aizawa says more firmly.
Shoji shakes his head. There were times like this Aizawa hated teenage stubbornness. Despite being stubborn himself. Shoji usually wasn't stubborn unless he needed it. And apparently, Shoji felt like this was needed.
Aizawa decides to leave it be. So he says, “fine but if your ‘I'm fine’ changes, you tell me.”
Shoji nods and heads back inside.
Throughout class, Shoji continues to look worse, and as much as he doesn't want to admit it, he can feel the churning in his stomach, and he is cold.
Tokoyami, Shoji's boyfriend, knew something was wrong but when he asked about it on their walk from the dorms to school, Shoji brushed it off.
Shoji is able to make it to lunch without much issue, but when he walks into the lunchroom, his already pounding headache worsens, and the smell of everything makes him more nauseous. He knows he can't stay there.
He decides to go to the courtyard, maybe that'll help him. He texts tokoyami, ‘hey, Yami, can we eat in the courtyard today?’
Tokoyami sends him a thumbs up, and the two meet in the courtyard. When he gets there, Tokoyami instantly knows something's wrong or worse than before.
“Sho something's wrong,” tokoyami states, but the taller boy shakes his head, lying against the tree.
The bird headed boy huffs annoyed, “Shoji, I know you don't want to admit it, but you're sick or something.”
Shoji shakes his head again, and tokoyami scoots forward, placing his hand on Shoji's forehead. After a moment, he says “Oh, yeah. Then why do you have a fever, and why won't you talk?”
Shoji just makes a small noise that sounds suspiciously, like a whimper. Tokoyami sighs and moves to rub his hand against his boyfriend's back.
“Sho, can you please come with me to Recovery, Girl?” He asked softly, a stark contrast to his usual gruff so stoic voice.
Shoji seems conflicted, he doesn't know what he should do. He wants to push through it, that's what a true hero would do, but he also just wants to curl up in a ball and lie his head in Tokoyami's lap. He's so lost in thought he almost misses the rising nausea…almost.
He can feel himself getting more fidgety. His stomach is churning more than before, and it hurts. His whimpers get more pronounced and often.
Tokoyami's face softens as he hears Shoji's whimpers, “Sho, I think we should take you to the recovery, girl. You seem like you're in genuine pain.”
Shoji, too tired and ill to argue, nods.
Tokoyami carefully helps the white haired boy up, and they make their way to Recovery Girl. After an examination and test, Recovery Girl tells the two that Shojo most likely has a stomach flu and just needs some rest and fluids.
The two go to leave, but before they're fully out of the doors, she says, “oh, and I recommend taking off the mask. it'll mess up your quirk if you throw up through one of your Duplo arms.”
Shoji was hesitant. He's worn his mask constantly since he was young due to scars and his odd face shape. He was bullied, and other kids feared him. He rarely even let Tokoyami see his face, but he also knows Recovery Girl's right. In the past, when he used his Dupli arm mouth when sick, it messed with him a lot and ended up with tearing and other issues he does not want to deal with again.
Tokoyami, knowing the inner terminal he must be facing, says, “it'll be okay. It'll just be us in your dorm.”
After a moment, Shoji nods, and once they get in his dorms, Shoji takes off his mask and tosses it to the side. Shoji lies down on the mattress and curls into himself. Tokoyami sits next to him, places a trash can next to the mattress, and leads Shoji's head into his lap.
“Can you talk to me? Tell me how to help? Not with your quirk?” Tokoyami asks gingerly, brushing Shoji's hair out of his face.
Shoji hesitates for a long moment. It had been so long since he used his actual mouth to speak because the mask often muffled his voice, so he used his dupli arms to grow a mouth and spoke through one of them.
When Shoshi finally decides to speak, his voice is rough and hoarse, “Just stay, and maybe you could tell me one of your poems?”
Tokoyami smiled at that, though it looked odd due to his beak, “Yeah, I can do that. Just let me know if you feel worse.”
Shoji nods, and tokoyami starts telling one of his poems.
After about an hour or so, Shoji starts getting restless. This Tokoyami notices quickly.
“Darling, what's the matter?” Tokoyami asked calmly.
“So nauseous,” Shoji says in a small pained voice.
Tokoyami knows this’ll be hard for both of them. Shoji rarely got sick, but when he did, he would throw up through his dupli arms. In doing that, he would cause infection and tearing, and it was a hassle. There's also the issue of Shoji's gag reflexes being very hard to trigger.
“Can you do it on your own? Tokoyami asks, gesturing to Shoji's duplicate arms.
“I can barely keep my normal hands,” he mumbles.
Tokoyami nods and ties a towel over his dupli arms to keep them from forming mouths, and has his quirk, dark shadow, cover the remaining as tokoyami takes a trash can and puts it under Shoji's chin.
After a few minutes of just hiccups and nothing being able to fully trigger his gag reflex, tokoyami asks, “do you need me to help?”
Shoji nods. Tokoyami carefully brings his hand up and slips two fingers into Shoji's mouth.
“If you bite me, forgiveness will be hard.” It's a joke, partially at least.
After a moment, tokoyami is able to trigger Shoji's gag reflex and pulls his hand back just as Shoji threw up into the trash can. Tokoyami used his clean hand to rub Shoji's back.
After a few minutes, Shoji's stomach seems to settle, and he leans back.
Tokoyami, understanding this action, moves the trash can away.
“I'm going to get you some water and wash my hands. Don't die while l'm gone.”
As tokoyami leaves, Shoji lies back down.
He wraps his multiple arms around himself.
He seems smaller.
After a few minutes, tokoyami comes back with medicine, water, and some crackers.
“You don't have to eat, just at least take the medicine and drink some water,” Tokoyami says, sitting back down.
Shoji nods and takes the water and medicine from Tokoyami. He takes a dose and sets the medicine down, then he has a few sips of water. As he does this, Tokoyami rubs Shoji's back calmly.
After a few moments, Shoji goes back to having his head on Tokoyami's lap and falls asleep.