My Dilemma: Shoto, Aizawa or Me?

39

Entering the agency and going our separate ways I headed towards the healing department.

From my understanding we had a state of the art facility, allowing our teams to be serviced in house instead of heading to the hospital where they could be hounded.

There were a select few that still went, but only for major cases that our team couldn't handle.

Walking through the doors I met with Burnin who introduced me to the healing team.

"You'll be working with them moving forward on Thursdays, whatever they instruct you do. I recommend coming here with this note book as this training will be different from combat training." and with that she handed me a new journal and said goodbye to everyone.

Turning around I faced a healer with bright blue hair and yellow eyes.

"Hi there, call me Glow Up, I assist patients by using my power to reattach tissues and muscles, the name refers to the glow that occurs around the area while I heal it." she stated while shaking my hand.

I nodded back with a small smile, "(y/n), it's nice to meet you. Energy focused"

As I was welcomed by the team they proceeded to show me round the unit, pointing out locations for medicine, paperwork station, machines I might need,  break room and more. When we reached the end of the hall we were stopped by large red doors stating "ICU."

The team paused, 4 of us in total.

"Here we keep patients that need intensive care. Whether it's around the clock or just special care for certain issues. Usually we won't need you here as you're training, but its only right you tour and understand the layout anyways." Glow stated.

The other two wished us well stating they had assignments to work on before leaving the group.

"C'mon in, we only have a few back here right now and nothing scary to see." she stated with a small smile opening the door.

As I followed her around the unit I noticed speicialized equipment around the area that wasn't on the main floor.

"These cases sometimes require machines or tools we don't have in hand. We either rent from the hospital or a medical agency," she said, noticing my interest.

Following her I saw one Hero with a broken arm and leg, one with his head wrapped and sleeping, and then we made it to the last who had a curtain around them.

"One second, let me see if he's awake," Glow said before going behind the curtain. I could quietly hear her speaking with what sounded like a groggy male.

Opening the curtain slightly she welcomed me in.

"This one is a special case but I'm sure you know about it," and entering I saw the person I had been looking for. Shota.

I tried to control my breathing, though I almost felt it hitch as he looked at me confused from his spot on the bed.

"Hello Sir," I said softly, noticing that Glow had lowered her voice earlier.

"(l/n), what are you doing here?" he asked.

Glow was the one to speak up, "she's our latest recruit for the side-kick program."

Nodding my head in agreement I continued for her, "I was signed on after the battle due to Hawks. He nominated me to become a side kick."

Shota eyes showed he wasn't very happy with this, though I couldn't understand why.

My whole reasoning for coming here was because I had an opportunity I never would have found in America, and it was finally happening.

"Im sure you're proud of another student being picked up, aren't you Eraserhead?" Glow responded, staring at him with a smile.

It was like she saw the same thing in his eyes that I did, almost dissapointment.

"Yes, of course," he stated, but I felt it. He didn't mean it.

Turning to Glow and ignoring him I asked what made his case special.

"As you know, his lungs had almost failed by the time you reached him, had it not been for you I'm not positive I can say he would still be with us."

My breath caught in my throat but I refused to show my fear.

I almost lost him?

I saved him?

"Unfortunately while you did amazing work, you weren't able to fully heal the muscle or tissue scaring on his lungs, so our team is doing a little clean up work. The hospital was overwhelmed with the villains they needed to care for before they transferred to the prison units. Currently he has about 5% to go before we can confirm %100 fix." she continued, showing me the X-rays on the wall and pointing to the places fixed.

Shota stayed quiet behind us, but I felt his eyes follow.

"Will I be able to learn that?" I asked, seeing how the tissues had been repaired with almost no scaring.

"Not exactly, your power is different. What you seem capable of doing is maximizing, or almost speeding, the healing process, but I'm not sure yet if you'll be able to control the actual tissue and how they connect. Hence why you keep having issues with scarring I've been told."

And I could see it, a few spots that definitely scared originally but were being healed smoothly.

"We expect a full recovery by Sunday. He'll back to UA by then." she finished, placing his paperwork back.

"Thank you for letting us bother you for a moment Eraserhead. (y/n) will be training in here so I wanted to show her what her healing had done."

Shota only nodded at us, but I felt his eyes follow me until the curtains closed.

Glow looked at me for a second, like she wanted to ask something, before she seemed to change her mind and kept moving.

I grateful for the choice, and followed her lead as she began discussing my training plans with her.

Every Thrusday would focus on healing, unless instructed differently by Hawks or Endeavor. We would start small, mostly with me shadowing her but in a few weeks I should start being able to work on patients with smaller issues regularly. The plan was to work my way up so that when I did heal something like lungs again, I could reduce the bruising and scarring.

As I finished the day with a note book that already had a couple pages of notes, I made my way to the lobby. It was already 8, and I was excited to go back to UA and eat.

I was trying to ignore the Shota interaction.

It had left me feeling almost... dirty? Like Hawks setting me up for this was a mistake.

But I knew it wasn't.

I had proved it every time I came in and trained with no complaint, taking every hit and paperwork assignment given to me. So what if it had just been a week? I was handling school, the teaching program, agency work, training! I was finally exactly where I needed to be and I wouldn't let Shota take that from me.

I couldn't.

And I really hated how much I still liked him right now.

A/N —————-
I'm thinking of retitling the story, so thank you to everyone who has been reading, just wanted to let you know 🫶🏼