Running on Empty

Cramming is valid

Hitoshi had managed to go the past few days without thinking about it. What with his disastrous trip to school on Tuesday and the couple of recovery days that followed, he had, on the whole, managed to steer clear of thinking about it.

But he couldn't avoid it anymore, because the gen ed exam was officially tomorrow and he had done absolutely nothing to prepare for it.

He hadn't been worried about the written part of the hero course exam, he was by no means at the bottom of his class — having no friends or family who wanted to spend time with you gives you a surprising amount of free time, and it's not like he had anything else to fill it with. He spent whatever time he could at the library, either studying or reading, just to avoid trouble, and so he'd consider himself pretty smart.

The problem was, that whilst 'pretty smart' could get you into the hero course, the general studies exam was known to be much tougher as there was no practical exam to go with it.

Everything would be decided by the one, written exam that he had done absolutely nothing to prepare for.

It was all he could think about as he tried to stomach his breakfast, but he only managed a few mouthfuls before he felt too twisted up inside to continue.

What would he do if he didn't get in?

"You will."

Hitoshi started, unaware that he'd voiced his question. Had he really let himself get that comfortable around these people.

"Hitoshi," Shouta spoke again. "You will, we got your results from the written exam you did last Saturday sent over to see what you might need to work on so we could help. But you got one of the highest scores."

"We were a little surprised actually 'Toshi," Hizashi interjected."Because your grades at Nabu were pretty low."

"Oh, yeah," he scratched his head awkwardly. "Well, I always get most of the questions right the teachers just put low grades on my report cards because they assumed I brainwash someone else into doing it for me."

Shouta grit his teeth, "That'll be included in our case against them."

"Anyway!" Hizashi smiled. "The point is you're very smart and we have no doubts you'll ace this exam."

"But what if I don't?" He fretted.

"Then we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. There are always other options, it's not the end of the world."

"You won't— you're not gonna..." he trailed off, unsure.

"Nothing's going to change if you don't get in Hitoshi, we'll still want you here, and we'll still care about you."

"Don't worry about it Little Listener! We're not going anywhere!"

Hitoshi relaxed and shot them both a grateful smile, before digging back into his breakfast, feeling distinctly lighter, although he was still nervous.

"Is there anything you wanna go over before the exam?" Shouta asked. "Anything you're not sure of?"

"Um, there are a couple of things," he admitted. "I was gonna try and do some revision today, if that's alright."

"OOOO—" Sho cut his husband's quirk off with practised ease, "—ohh we can help!"

Hitoshi cocked his head to the side curiously.

"Well we're both teachers remember! You stuck on any English?!"

"Yeah actually, that- that would be really great if you could help. Thank you."

The voice hero ruffled his hair, "We can get started after breakfast."

True to his word, as soon as breakfast was finished with, Shouta started washing up and Hizashi led Hitoshi to the sofa with a notebook and a bunch of pastel highlighters.

"Sho said my quirk was loud enough, my writing didn't need to match it." He joked, and didn't comment on Hitoshi casually rearranging them into rainbow order.

"So, where do you wanna start?"

—————————

By the end of the day, Hitoshi was distinctly calmer than his breakfast self. They'd gone through every topic he was worried about, and he was feeling a lot more confident now.

He couldn't help the little voice at the back of his mind that kept telling him he would never make it, but his two guardians had said that he could enough times that he didn't dwell on it.

After all, there was no point panicking about it now, the best thing he could do was try and get a good night's sleep before the big day.

Thankfully, that wasn't too much of a challenge, as Recovery Girl had given him some sleeping pills after the last appointment they'd had. Shouta had told her about his insomnia and she'd given him a trial run; if they worked, he'd get a proper prescription, but for now he only had a week's worth.

Half an hour after taking the tablet he felt himself drifting off, plushies under his arms and three out of the four cats curled up around him.

In that moment, he couldn't find it within himself to worry, because he knew — no matter what happened tomorrow he'd be able to fall asleep like this the next night, and the next night, and the next, and the next, and the...