Mind Boggled

Chapter 40

Third person pov

Harper and Dabi stared at each other grimly. Midterms had come and gone in just a matter of a few days, and Harper had been excused from them, and they would instead score her police work for a grade. Sansa and Tsukauchi were raring to go, with heavily detailed reports of how she'd been doing, and the precinct she usually worked with had nothing but praises to rain down. It actually made her feel sort of good to be backed like that, even if this was a shitty situation. Poor Kirishima had been grilled six ways to Sunday while she was out trying to figure out how to best approach this 'Kurogiri at UA' problem.

The redhead hadn't given anything away, though. He went through it with a pained grin, texting her updates loyally and without fail. It made her smile just a little, even if she felt incredibly guilty. In the midst of his testing, it had to have been incredibly stressful. She was grateful to him, though. It was pretty obvious he and Aizawa both had told them in clear terms not to bombard her with text messages. She'd gotten a few, but none of them were relating to Kurogiri. She was more glad than she knew how to express.

There was an odd period of time between now and when they'd be leaving for Summer Camp where Kurogiri would be placed into the class and given time to adjust, and work with Hound Dog on being more independent. Harper was hoping and praying the counselor would get through to the ex-villain. Harper was ready for him to stop clinging. Like, now.

"I fucking hate Mondays." Dabi breathed, breaking his gaze away from Harper. He was nervous. "Will Shoto recognize me? What am I supposed to do if he does? Do I even want him to remember? I'm not the same... same Touya he remembers. I'm not Touya at all anymore."

"You and me both." Harper agreed, also turning away. Kurogiri was excited, insisting he carry Harper's backpack for her. For the first time, he was going to get the chance to warp them to the front gate. Nezu had prohibited any quirk use on campus unless it were an emergency. It was a strict guideline, and if Kurogiri broke it, he'd be removed immediately. The warp-gate user had readily agreed

"It's going to be fine, Harper. Didn't Kirishima say they'd warmed up to the idea?" Tsukauchi asked. He was about to leave for work, but was waiting for them to be ready. Kurogiri was taking an oddly long amount of time in the bathroom for someone so excited. Harper didn't really care. The later they got there, the better, in her opinion. Dabi seemed to feel the same way, looking physically pained as he stood there next to her. At least she wasn't alone in her suffering. Tsukauchi grabbed his keys. "Besides, Aizawa and Kirishima are both aware. I'm sure it'll be fine."

"That doesn't mean it'll go well." Harper grumbled. Dabi nodded solemnly in resigned agreement. He was, personally, terrified. Harper was going to have to support him while making sure Kurogiri didn't have some sort of weird freak out, or accidentally terrify one of her traumatized classmates even further. They were already going to be on edge.

"I'm ready, Harper Rye! Dabi!" Kurogiri burst out of the bathroom excitedly, dressed to the nines in his best suit, with his shoes shined, and his tie ironed to perfection. "This is so exciting! I get to be with Harper all day long! This is the epitome of best friendism. I cannot express my joy."

"It's too early to be that happy." Harper sighed as Kurogiri made the gate, ready to take them to where they needed to go. Dabi looked to her grimly, and she grimaced back, feeling like she'd much rather go curl up in her bed and pass out rather than deal with this literal bullshit. Just when things finally felt like they'd semi-calmed down, more bullshit had to arise and fuck it all up. Story of her life, she supposed. Whatever. If someone tackled Kurogiri and tried to kill him, at least it would make for an entertaining scuffle. 

"Shall we?" Dabi asked sarcastically, offering her arm. "I know she'll interfere with Shoto if she needs to. She's got my back."

"So we shall." Harper sighed heavily, linking her arm with his. It felt sort of nice to have that much faith put in her, but she was also now deathly afraid of letting him down. She probably would. Oh well. Tsukauchi wiped a tear as they stepped through the portal, stepping out finding themselves disorientingly in front of the hulking gates of UA High. A few people jumped slightly at their sudden appearance, inching away from Dabi, who had a moderate amount of terror rolling out from within him. He kept his expression passive enough, however. Harper was impressed.