Rejected Stones

Deep Breath

beta'd by kylekatarn77 and Poliamida

22. Deep Breath

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man.

- King David (Psalm 27, Traditionally attributed)

The next morning, Izuku and the others rose with the sun. They were sore and many had to rub sleep from their eyes, but the hero hopefuls faced the new day with determination and vigor. It felt odd to Izuku, being around so many people who simply got up and began exercise routines. Every single one of the boys seemed to roll out of bed and begin doing push ups, situps, stretches, or martial arts katas, either in the bedroom or just outside the building, where some of the girls were doing the same thing. Izuku did his own exercises, silently counting out the pushups and situps.

"Tuesday. I wonder if there are weights?" Izuku muttered to himself as he finished his squats. "How am I going to do my curls and bench presses?"

"Ha! Sounds like someone else is doing The Hero!" Kirishima laughed, doing his own set of crunches. "I got a couple small barbells in my bag."

"I have weights as well," Shoji said, pulling out a few concrete blocks with handles in them. "You can borrow mine when I am finished."

"Um, thanks, I didn't think to pack mine," Izuku admitted. "It's OK though, I did bring my jumprope. I'll just do that and jumping jacks."

"Improvise, adapt, overcome," Ojiro grunted in agreement. He was doing pull ups on one of the ceiling beams. "My dad says that. Grandpa was an American Marine."

"Good advice," Iida said, finishing a set of stretches. "I'm going for a morning run. Make sure everyone's ready for breakfast."

Kaminari laughed as he ran through a martial arts kata"I don't think that'll be a problem. If you're all half as hungry as me you could eat a house."

"Most people just say horse, man. Only termites eat houses," Kirishima chuckled as he began his reps with the barbells.

After he finished his own exercises, Izuku hesitantly knocked on the girls door. "Um, Mei, are you up?"

The door opened, and what appeared to be an empty blouse and gym shorts with a sweatband hovering over them stood there. "Mei left already! Said she had to check on her babies," Hagakure said. "Morning, Midoriya!"

"Oh, um, thanks, Hagakure" Izuku said. "I'll go check on her."

Izuku jogged over to the workshop, finding Mei already hard at work on refurbishing the Power Suit. "Hey Izuku!" she called, waving. "Help me finish! Just a little more and this should be ready for your training today!"

"Right!" Izuku quickly helped Mei assemble the last of the repairs, then they left for breakfast.

"About time you showed up," Bakugo grumbled, crouching over a gas stove. He snapped his fingers, making a spark and lighting it. "Either of you know anything about cooking?"

"Yes. I know I am very bad at it!" Mei declared.

Bakugo frowned, then shrugged. "Fine. Go fill those up with water." He pointed to several pots. "Midoriya, I know you won't poison everyone at least. Figure out how to be useful. I'm not bossing you around."

"Um, OK," Izuku agreed. He went over and started cracking eggs into a bowl for cooking. Bakugo took water from Mei and started washing rice. A few minutes later the others began showing up, some aiding in preparing the food, others wiping down tables as Iida directed them. Bakugo fell silent, only grunting when told to do something or elbowing his way in to complete some task he thought needed to be done.