Rejected Stones

A Semblance of Normalcy

Beta'd by kylekatarn77 and Poliamida

33. A Semblance of Normalcy

"Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life."

― Mark Twain

The next day was the first of the new semester, which meant that it was finally time to return to class. Part of the morning routine was familiar: wake up, shower, brush your teeth, and eat breakfast. But none of it was the same.

Getting out of bed was simple enough, but showering with one arm was surprisingly difficult. Izuku had been given a special brush to help him reach all over his body, but it was still challenging and awkward to scrub himself down, and took longer than it had before. Something as simple as squeezing shampoo from the bottle was simple no longer, as Izuku had to carefully aim it atop his head and squeeze out a small drop, then scrub one handed.

Brushing his teeth was a chore now too: he laid out his toothbrush, carefully put a dot of toothpaste on it, then brushed his teeth and flossed. He had to use a dental pick now, as he couldn't easily reach parts of his mouth one handed. As for getting dressed, well, Izuku was able to do it now with a lot of practice, but it was still awkward and took far longer than it should have.

Eating was something Izuku was getting used to. He was becoming more adroit using chopsticks with his left hand, and Hari was actually cooking for both him and Mei each morning. It wasn't anything spectacular, but she was insistent that the two of them needed hearty meals to help with their recovery, which was certainly the case. This morning she served up rice, eggs, and fried spam.

"Make sure the two of you get lunch in the cafeteria," Hari lectured. "It's included in the boarding fee for the school now so I don't want the two of you 'forgetting' or trying to skip it."

"Yes Hari," Izuku and Mei mumbled. Izuku looked up and smiled at her. "And thanks for the food, it's really good."

"It had better be, it's costing an arm and a leg to-" Hari froze, a look of horror coming over her face.

"It's fine," Izuku told her quietly. "I know it's just an expression."

Tears welled up in Hari's eyes, but she turned around to hide them, sniffing and busying herself with cleaning. Mei didn't seem to notice, worried about shoving the food in her face as fast as she could, as usual.

For once, they didn't head to the Workshop first. With all the extra time it was taking Izuku to get ready, they only had a few minutes to make their way to class. Since Izuku hadn't ever actually been to room 1A, he was a bit nervous about walking there, as he usually felt when he had to go somewhere new, imagining himself getting lost somehow and being late. They made it in plenty of time though, and Izuku found that most of his new classmates were already in the room.

"Izuku! Hatsume! You made it!" Ashido said, waving as Izuku came to the door.

"Yep, I had to make sure." Mei looked into the classroom, then nodded. "Izuku's class is 82 square meters, that is good, he will be safe here and we didn't get lost."

"Yeah, guess I found it after all," Izuku mumbled, blushing slightly. He turned to Mei, smiling. "Thanks for walking with me, I-"

"Hatsume, we need your help," Jiro said, suddenly coming out and grabbing Mei's arm. "When I was using the sonic amplifier you gave me I was getting this weird feedback. I just got it back from Power Loader and I was hoping you'd take a look at it."

"Is there something wrong with our baby?" Mei demanded, springing out of Jiro's grasp and hurrying over to her desk. She picked up the device, which was built like a small convex speaker that could strap on to Jiro's legs. "Ah, I see, Izuku, come look. I think some of the circuits were damaged by the vibrations."