𝘙𝘦𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘺

Chapter 2

"Goodmorning, my dear," All Might greeted.

His eyes were sunken, etched in dark circles, and immersed in pain. He had some sort of bowl in his hands, a plastic spoon hanging out the side. Painfully, I pushed up onto my hands and forced myself to sit up. I tried to gasp in pain, biting down on my tongue as a voiceless whine whispered through my throat.

All Might furrowed his eyebrows, having to look away once my arms began shaking and I squeezed my eyes shut in pain. "Ice chips," He whispered, sitting beside me as he sat them in my lap. "Have you tried speaking?"

I woke up just yesterday, but this afternoon was spent in surgery. It was quick, one that barely surpassed an hour. Soon enough after that, Recovery Girl had spent the entire evening having healers cycling through my room every few minutes in order to attend towards my throat as best she could. I was grateful, and couldn't even imagine the debt in which I was to her after this hospital visit.

Still- I haven't spoken yet. There were words burning my throat like fire and carving themselves into my tongue which pressed against my teeth and begged me to try, but still. For some reason-

I was afraid to speak.

Afraid of the lies my mouth would spew to protect those I love.

Afraid I would say the words that I feared like nothing before.

I shook my head, gradually reaching my aching hand down for the ice as he watched me attentively. He sat a bag down, rummaging through it as I watched him pull out my homework from UA and begin flipping through it. "Bakugo..." He hummed, his eyes scanning across every problem and note I'd taken. "Bakugo is going to come in and try to help you with your homework a little bit..." He sighed, pulling a pencil from my bag as he began rapping it against his chin in contemplation.

"You haven't missed much... The school's under construction for dorms and the world has seemed to stop since our fight with All For One. People have been taking time from work and school, so you've got a bit of time to rehab and study before going back. You've got that provisional license exam coming up too..." He began scribbling something down, trying to solve the problems on my homework. I didn't bother to lean over and see what he was doing- too focused on trying to raise my arm high enough to reach my mouth with an ice chip. "They were going to send Iida, but... I figured Bakugo was second best. Besides, family is what you need right now. Young Bakugo... well he's one of the most loyal people I've ever seen."

I reached out, tapping my finger on the tops of my paper as I tried to get him to lay his hand out to me. He looked up, quickly setting the pencil down before following my request.

I-Z-U-K-U

"Getting loaded up on fluids... he'll be up and in here in a little bit."

A-W-A-K-E

"Yes, he's starting to stir," He chuckled, shaking his head. "Should have seen him, Asami. I thought he was going to hit the nurse trying to get her off of him... saying something about how he needed to get to you and apologize. It was no use, he was too tired to even get up and walk in here. Kind of like when you woke up from your coma and you were all exhausted? Except, he wasn't exactly in a coma..." He hummed, glancing up at me before flipping through the sheets of paper and eventually closing the binder after finishing only one page of work.

"Asami, try to say something. Um... try saying your name."

I bit down on a piece of ice, the shattering and grinding of it between my teeth fluttering through my ears. I bit my cheek for a second, trying to swallow before attempting to speak. I watched him for a second, wrapping the sheets in my hands into a weak fist as I tried to sum up the courage to possibly embarrass the living hell out of myself.