Running on Empty

Decisions are made

Hitoshi's guardians' intense stares were more than a little disconcerting as Shouta seemed to run through a mental checklist.

"Okay, firstly," he started, "school. We have a couple of options for you to consider. There are a few local middle schools that we've checked out, they have very strict policies against quirk discrimination, so they're a possibility. Or... if you'd prefer you can do online school. There's only a month or so of term left before summer, but we don't want you to be off school for that long so you need to pick one."

Hitoshi nodded, thinking. On the one hand, being in school would be much better preparation for if he got into UA, but on the other hand, he was already worried enough about meeting all the new students there, to have to face a whole other set before that, well, he wasn't keen on the idea.

"How could I do online school?" He signed curiously. It's not like he had any form of technology to use.

"Oh well, we were actually discussing this the other day kiddo," Hizashi rested his elbows on the table and propped his chin up with his hands. "We'd like to get you a laptop and a phone— no hear us out!" He chided as Hitoshi raised his hands to object, he dropped them immediately, but made no effort to hide the frown that crept over his features. "Thank you. The phone is so that we can contact you, and you can contact us. It's important that we're able to reach you if something happens." Hitoshi nodded in understanding, he could see why that might be necessary.

"The laptop though?"

"For schoolwork!"

He squinted suspiciously at Hizashi.

"...and other stuff. For fun!" He amended.

"We're not going to force you to accept it," Shouta spoke up. "But it would be useful for you to have, we'd love to get it for you, and we can easily afford it."

Well, he couldn't really argue with that. He didn't like it, but he was beginning to get used to them spending money on him.

"Okay."

"Yeah!" Hizashi yelled excitedly. "I can't wait to be able to text you!"

"He's going to spam you." Shouta warned and Hitoshi cracked a smile. Alright, maybe he was looking forward to this a little bit. "So is that what you want to do then? Online school?"

He hesitated a moment, and then nodded. It was only for a month.

"Okay, we'll get you enrolled later today then, and you can decide whether you want to stay at home with the cats or come to school with us and do it in the teacher's lounge."

"On the topic of education," Shouta continued. "We start training tomorrow, unless Recovery Girl says no, in which case we don't start training tomorrow. But it should be fine, we're going to focus on building up your physical strength before we look at your quirk anyway."

Hitoshi bit back a grin at that. He was very excited to get started, to have someone actually help him become a hero, and it was Eraserhead himself training him. It was a dream come true.

"Speaking of Recovery Girl," 'Zashi shot a look at his husband and Hitoshi felt anxiety bubble in his stomach at the softness of his tone, that meant he was trying to soften the blow of whatever he was about to say. "She mentioned to us that you need speech therapy. That might be why you've lost your voice — because you hadn't used it in a while and then you jumped right back into using it quite a lot."

Hitoshi bit his lip nervously, that made sense, but would any speech therapist actually be willing to work with him when there was so much potential for him to brainwash them. He'd like to gain proper control over his voice sure, but no one had actually asked him to speak in years, and he wasn't sure how he'd cope with that.

He felt a hand reach out and grab his and he realised that Hizashi had leant all the way over the table to get to him. He huffed a laugh at that and moved his arm so that the hero could sit back down and still hold his hand.

Hizashi smiled at the gesture and squeezed it, "We can come with you if you'd like."

Hitoshi was surprised, he hadn't considered that possibility. He returned the hero's smile, albeit much weaker, and nodded gratefully.

"That's not all." Shouta said and he raised his eyebrows. Just how many things were on this list? "We'd also like you to consider seeing a therapist for your mental health."

Oh.

Yeah.

He bit his lip nervously. That would probably be really good but... no, it would be good. Sho and 'Zashi would make sure they wouldn't judge him for his quirk.

"There's a counsellor at UA who would be happy to see you even though you're not a student yet. If you'd rather someone else we can find them, but we can vouch for this guy personally." Hizashi assured him and Hitoshi gave a hesitant nod.

He was going to be a hero, but he had to be in control for that. Having a panic attack in the middle of a villain fight could be catastrophic.

"Okay, I'll try it."