36: Maybe They Care More Than You Think

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"Its itchy. Burns." 

"Miki, you have to wear clothes." Shota sighed. Miki just huffed and pulled at his uniform shirt like it was full of thousands of tiny needles, stabbing him. To be fair, Miki's skin was incredibly sensitive and easy to irritate, but he had a skin care routine to help with that now, so its shouldn't be that bad. Its not like he could undo the shirt for him. 

Just another fun part of quirk exhaustion. 

The teenager could only pull at his clothes for a couple more seconds before clutching his head in anguish. Shota's heart ached at the sight. He just wanted to hug his son and tell him it'd be all right, but he was driving and very interested in not getting into a car accident. 

"What did you even do to exhaust yourself to this point?". Shota was less asking Miki and more asking the world, but the 14 year old answered regardless. 

"I practiced lots." He mumbled, still in a daze. He was delirious, both from his quirk being a mental one and from all the headache pain. "M' not sure why...". 

At least he was a lot more talkative than the first time Shota experienced Miki's quirk overuse. Honestly he never wanted to repeat that again, it had caused both of them enough trauma already. 

With a shaky sigh, Shota turned onto the street the U.A campus was situated on. 

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"Don't go!". 

Miki's shout echoed throughout the infirmary. Shota could barely believe his ears. Logically, he knew that their relationship had changed since their first meeting, but to see the absolute 180 firsthand was shocking. 

Last time, Miki had asked him to stop touching him, to leave him alone. Now he was sobbing his poor heart out, reaching for Shota with shaky hands. 

So the pro hero obliged, rushing back to Miki's beside and enveloping him in a hug. "I wont go anywhere if you don't want me to. We can stay like this, I can get Zashi to cover the rest of my class.". 

Miki just cried, gasping for breath between sobs. "Don-don't leave me dad." He repeated. Shota's capture weapon wrapped them, careful to avoid Miki's bare skin. He didn't want to hurt him. 

"Shhh, shh, its okay." Shota said, gently running his hand's through Miki's hair. "I'm not going to leave you.". Miki nodded slowly. 

The pro hero was worried. Even after Recovery Girl said he would be fine Miki was still unaware of his surroundings. It must be terrifying, to be in so much pain and not know what's going on. Great. Now Shota felt like he was going to cry. 

"Come on, Minnie." Shota said, careful not to pull away while he shifted to boy into a more upright position. "Lets go home. You can hang out with Himiko for the rest of the day and just relax, how does that sound?". 

Miki nodded wordless and let his dad help him to his feet. He could walk. That was a good sign. Early on he had been so disoriented Shota had carried him to the U.A infirmary at full speed, terrified something else was going wrong with the teen. 

Shota just didn't feel like he could take chances with Miki anymore. It was all well and good for the boy to have character building experiences, but those experiences just kept getting riskier. And like hell was he going to let Minnie total another car. He didn't even know the boy could drive in the first place. 

The two made their way to the teacher's dorms at a snail's pace. Miki eventually gave up on walking and Shota easily carried the small boy on his back the rest of the way. 


"What's wrong?" Toga asked, answering the door the moment she heard movement in the hallway. Nobody knew how the girl always knew who was and who wasn't her family when the hallway was so public, but she knew every time. 

"Miki overused his quirk while practicing for the cultural festival so he's staying home today." Shota explained. "I guess I am too, seeing as he's not letting go of me.". 

It was true, Miki had gone full koala, gripping Shota like someone was trying to take him away. Himiko just ran to set up the best pillow nest the world had ever seen. 

  They soon discovered that even television was too much for Miki's headache, so they focused on trying to get him to sleep as soon as possible. 

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"'S not fair." Miki mumbled. It had been hours since he'd left school and the pink haired teen was feeling much better now. 

"What's not fair?" Himiko asked, tilting her head to the side to face Miki. "Everyone else uses their quirk all the time, yet I use it just a couple of times in two days and I end up with the worst headache ever.". 

Shota tried not to chuckle at the pout on Miki's face at that moment. "Well kiddo, maybe if you hadn't had to use your quirk to literally strip people of their memory of you, it wouldn't be so taxing.". 

"It seemed easier back then." Miki groaned. "I'm sick of recovery.". The pro hero looked at his son with genuine sympathy. 

"I know its slow and it probably feels like its been years since you've been able to use your quirk regularly, but if you don't recover properly you could keep ending up overwhelmed." He explained. It was exactly what Recover Girl had told them when Miki first showed up, and what she had said just a few hours ago. 

"Am I allowed to participate in the cultural festival still?" Miki asked, his eyes hopeful and pleading. Shota smiled. 

"Of course. As long as you don't still have a headache tomorrow that is. I already took the time off in the morning to visit your class's show. Then we're coming back to U.A's festival to take Eri around. I also promised I would take you and Himiko to Hitoshi's haunted house.". Miki nodded, satisfied with the answer. 

He was excited to see Eri again, and to actually be able to play with her, not just have awkward conversations in a hospital room. 

Miki's eyes slipped closed and his drowsy train of thought led him to his thoughts the night before. 

He had just thrown up in front of his whole class, fainted, been reminded of his own limitations and yet he couldn't find it in himself to be sad. 

This was the sort of stuff that might have been the last straw before he met his family but now? It was just a bad day. Something he could move past. Something he could find and see the good in. 

He had so many small happiness' now. 

Minnie sort of hoped his grandma would be proud of him.

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Welcome to the chapter I wrote while not studying for my chemistry quiz. Seriously this course make me want to drop out of school. I'm not usually the type of student to procrastinate but this damn course is turning me into one I swear to god or whoever else is listening. 

So I have started finalizing details about Because (which, if you don't remember, was the second pole option alongside the already released Try-Hard) and all I really need to do now is edit and get the cover in order. 

I'm kinda hyped ngl its a lot more lighthearted and fluffy than my other ongoing fics and I just want to indulge myself in the drama that story has. 

Stay tuned and wish me luck on tomorrows quiz! 🤡

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