Sayonara: If that's the way it is

Exposed

 After the soup had been simmering for a few minutes, Todoroki was sure it had heated through, so he shut off the stove and took the pot to the table, setting it on the trip. He then went to the living room, gently shaking Midoriya awake.

 "Zuku… wake up, dinner's ready."

"Hmm?" the greenette asks sleepily.

 "I made dinner."

Midoriya sits up, rubbing his eyes. "Have I really been asleep long enough for you to make dinner?" he yawns, looking up at Todoroki.

 The taller boy nods, leaning down to kiss Midoriya's forehead. "Come eat, then you can go back to sleep."

 "Noo, I've already wasted enough of our evening together," Midoriya whines as he follows Todoroki to the kitchen. "Why don't we watch a movie or something? Unless you have to get up early tomorrow."

 "I'm going to work at the usual time, so we could watch a movie," Todoroki replies, serving himself some soup. He has to fight the urge to wince when Midoriya serves himself and nearly drops the ladle. His fine motor skills had already been affected so much. He could tell sometimes Midoriya  found it difficult to use chopsticks but he kept quiet. For now anyways.

 "I had a nice talk with Ejirou when he drove me home. He and Kacchan have finally finished unpacking at the new place," Midoriya says, hoping to start a conversation.

 "That's good for them. Glad they're settling in well," Todoroki replies.

"I'm glad Kacchan found someone who makes him happy. It's good to see him happy," Midoriya continues.

"He does seem calmer, occasionally," Todoroki comments.

"So you noticed it too?"

The heterochromatic boy nods. "Yes, it's clear that Ejirou has a calming effect on Katsuki. He's less likely to try to start a fight if Ejirou's around, and if he does try, chances are he'll be calmed down by Ejirou."

"Huh. I didn't think it was that obvious."

"It's not, unless you know to look. You just happened to be muttering about it one evening, so I started paying attention."

Midoriya blushes, embarrassed that after all this time he still wasn't able to break his muttering habit.

"I think the muttering is cute," Todoroki says with a small smile, making Midoriya blush more.

They boys fall silent, eating their dinner. After, Todoroki offers to wash the dishes, convincing Midoriya to go to bed. The greenette is reluctant to agree, wanting to help Todoroki, but eventually he has to agree he's in no shape to help.

After eating, he was half asleep on his feet, so he allowed Todoroki to guide him to the bedroom. The taller boy tucks Midoriya into bed, a sad smile on his face as he goes back to the kitchen to wash dishes. He could tell Midoriya was struggling more than he let on. Walking was starting to become a challenge, as were stairs.

Todoroki doubted Midoriya would agree to some sort of walking aid uet, but perhaps he could be convinced to have ramps installed? It would have to be done eventually, and it would mean the only stairs Midoriya would have to deal with were the ones to the second floor, and most of the time Todoroki was there to help him. The only things on the second floor were the master bedroom and their offices.

Midoriya's office was no longer in use, so unless he was sleeping he had no reason to be on the second floor, which was why he went downstairs with Todoroki each morning.

Even if Midoriya agreed, there was still the issue of how to hire someone to build the ramps without the media catching wind of it. The press would find out eventually, but both Midoriya and Todoroki wanted it to be on their own terms, when they were ready.

"Of course, 'ready' might have to be sooner than we thought," Todoroki mutters. People had started to take notice of Midoriya's  absence and it had only been a month. They would have to go public before rumors started to spread.

Another worry Todoroki had was who would care for Midoriya. So far, he'd managed to get by with the help of his friends and family, making sure there was someone to take him to and from his appointments. But Midoriya would end up needing more care as time went on, full time care.

While they had the money for Todoroki to retire so he could care for Midoriya, the greenette refused to entertain the idea, saying he wouldn't be the reason Todorokj gave up on his dream of being a Pro. Inko had offered to care for her son when the time came, but Todoroku felt guilty thinking about her being the main one doing that.

But it was that or putting Midoriya in a hospital full time.

There was so much that had to be done, and while most of it could wait, Todoroki couldn't help but  to stress over it. He wanted to make sure Midoriya was as comfortable as possible. He wished there was a way he could protect Midoriya.

But how did you protect someone when it was their own body betraying them.

¤¤¤

It turned out Todoroki didn't have to bring up the topic of having ramps installed. Midoriya brought it up himself a few days later. The greenette had also found someone who would do the work and keep quiet about it.

There were a few days of activity while the construction people were installing the ramps, which Midoriya found enjoyable because he was able to talk to the people.

He could tell they were a little confused why such a young, popular Pro Hero was doing at home so much, but they never pried, just kept polite conversation while they did their work.

Of course, the peace Midoriya felt only lasted a day after the crew finished.

He was channel surfing when a news story caught his eye and he flipped back to it. It was worse than he feared. There were no big villain fights, so this is what took the headlining news.

A picture of him, in full hero attire, from one of his interviews. The caption read "Up-and-coming Pro Hero Deku: Where is he?" Midoriya turned up the volume, dreading what he was about to hear.

"...ere has Pro Hero Deku gone? His agency tells the public he's working on some top secret mission. Well I call them out on their lies. Deku isn't locked away at his office. He's at home and is hiding something from all of us," said the news lady. The picture behind her changes to a video. It wasn't the best quality, but you could clearly see it was Midoriya, in his kitchen, grabbing a mug from the cupboard, having a muscle spasm and dropping it.

There were a few more clips of similar events, even one where Midoriya had almost fallen to the ground. And Midoriya knew exactly when each of these things had happened. It had been when the ramps were being installed, which meant one of the crew members had filmed it.

"Clearly something else is going in here and it's trying to be covered up. But the public deserves to know the truth!" cries the reporter. She's about to start speaking again, but Midoriya turns off the TV.

It's not long before Midoriya's phone rings, the caller ID reading 'Murata Kichirou.'

"My publicity agent? I thought I was done with him when I retired," Midorya mumbles, answering the call.

"I trust you've seen the news?" Kichirou asks, blunt as usual.

"I- yeah, I have."

"Well, that saves us some time. I'm calling to arrange a press conference with you so you can tell the media about your illness before things start running wild," Kichirou continues, shuffling papers audible through the phone.

"I thought you only dealt with heroes," Midoriya said, a little shocked.

"Midoriya, when I agreed to be your publicity agent, I meant until the bitter end and we're not there yet. Now, focus. We have a press conference to plan."