Detective Midoriya

Chapter 45

"You've made good progress, Midoriya. But remember, if you overdo it even a little bit, you're going to be stuck here all over again," Izuku's new doctor said, taking off his gloves. (The previous doctor was alive after his visit from Toga, but he'd decided to take an extended vacation after he'd suffered a nervous breakdown.)

"Does that mean I get to go home? And start work again?" Izuku asked, excitement coursing through him.

"It means you can go home and start doing paperwork again," Dr. Fujino said, staring Izuku down emphatically. "You are better than you were, Midoriya, but you're not healthy. You have a medical background, so you should know how serious your wound is. We still can't risk using any sort of healing quirk on you because your body is barely operating as it is. One wrong move and you're back in here with me, all day every day."

"I'll be the model patient," Izuku promised.

"I don't believe you, but you're going to give the nurses an aneurysm if they find you trying to stand by yourself again. I know you're a smart kid, but remind me, what are you allowed to do in your current state?"

Sighing, Izuku recited, "I can move from my bed to the wheelchair with assistance, and I can push myself slowly for short distances."

"And what can't you do?"

"Literally anything else physically exerting."

"Good. I don't trust you, but I do trust your mother to minimalize the number of stupid risks that you take," Dr. Fujino said, staring at him over his glasses.

Feeling more than a twinge of guile, Izuku bowed his head. "I promise I'll try to be a good patient for her. I've already put her through enough."

And Izuku meant those words when he said them, he truly did. But intentions and practice are two very different things.

Inko was more than happy to have her son home. She had been preparing for his return home for the duration of his rehabilitation, but nothing could have prepared him for the challenges that caring for a wounded Izuku would pose. It wasn't that his wound was complicated, or that he needed medication periodically - no, those were things that Midoriya Inko could handle. What she couldn't have prepared herself for was the constant threat that her son posed to his own well-being.

He'd always been a threat to himself to a degree, always in the name of saving someone else. While her baby was definitely less capable of saving others, he was just as selfless as ever. Every thoughtless move he made was a danger to him. If Eri couldn't find her favorite pencil, Izuku raced through the house in his wheelchair to look for it. Inko dropped something? Izuku nearly lunged out of his wheelchair to catch it.

As much as she'd love to, Inko just couldn't handle being his full-time caretaker anymore - she claimed that work needed her back next week, but frankly, her nerves just couldn't take it. So here she was, tasking Shoto with making sure that Izuku stayed alive while she paid someone a visit.

She winced when she heard the telltale sounds of an approaching wheelchair. "Who was it you're going to visit again?"

Smiling faintly, Inko turned to her son. "Oh, just a coworker who's feeling a little under the weather."

Inko could have sworn she saw a gleam in Izuku's eye, but it was gone before she could decipher it. "Right, I forgot. I also forgot to ask you, can Hinata come over to watch Takane's interview?"

"Of course, sweetie," Inko said. She genuinely liked the boy, but he was also one more person with a vested interest in making sure Izuku didn't do anything to further injure himself.

"Thanks, Mom!" Izuku said, wheeling away. Inko watched him for a few extra moments, partially out of fondness, but partially to make sure he didn't do anything reckless on the way to the living room - she'd found that a bored Izuku was a dangerous Izuku.