Rejected Stones

Catharsis

Beta'd by kylekatarn77 and Poliamida

40. Catharsis

I don't know whether war is an interlude during peace, or peace an interlude during war.

-Georges Clemenceau

As luck would have it, there was no school the next day for Class 1A, as the moment everyone returned to school, Recovery Girl ordered them all on bedrest for at least the next day. For a brief moment it appeared Mei would be forced to endure all her classes alone, until Mr. Aizawa announced he would be on bedrest as well, as they had managed to give him a migraine. However, based on the fact that Mr. Maijima kept the workshop open well into the small hours of the morning, Izuku had a feeling it was much more related to the need for replacements for all of their destroyed gear.

The most pressing loss from Izuku and Mei's perspectives were of course the destruction of Izuku's prosthetic as well as the Power Suit, both of which were damaged to the point that Mei declared them write offs and set to work on building improvements from the ground up. However, everything from Kaminari's insulator band to Bakugo's sweat storage tanks had to be reworked and rebuilt. Hari spent nearly all of her own time in the workshop with Mei, while Izuku slept and recovered from his injuries.

Despite their recent triumph in getting their licenses and in the day off, the dorms were rather subdued and quiet. Everyone had suffered some degree of injury, from the ubiquitous burns to broken bones and simple exhaustion. Everyone had a collection of new scars, including several rather nasty ones for Yaoyorozu, who's costume had left a great deal of skin exposed. She'd suffered second and third degree burns from the steam, including a rather hideous looking scar that covered the left half of her lower jaw and torso as well as her left arm.

"She's very sad," Mei reported to Izuku the next day. "Jiro says she thinks she's ugly now."

"She was hurt really badly, will she recover?" Izuku asked worriedly.

Mei nodded. "Hari says she'll be ok but she won't be as pretty anymore." Mei frowned, looking down at her bowl of noodles. They were in Izuku's room, Mei having brought him a late lunch. "Do you think I'm still pretty?"

That caused Izuku to half choke on his noodles, but after Mei pounded on his back a bit he managed to nod. "I've always thought you're pretty, Mei. Even beautiful. Why do you ask?"

"Because of my eyes," Mei said quietly. "They don't look right anymore."

That shot a pang through Izuku's heart. He frowned, then motioned to his arm. "Do you think I'm ugly?"

"What? No!" Mei said immediately. "You look...well, I don't think you're cute like our babies, but I do like how you look."

"Even missing an arm?" Izuku asked.

"That's the best part about you," Mei said seriously. "It's how I know you love me."

Tears filled Izukuk's eyes, and he had to set his bowl down as he cried. He felt Mei at his side, hugging him, and expected her to say something, but instead she just held him, humming softly. All the horrific things that had happened to Izuku in the last few weeks, all the raging emotions for the trials of the test and before them poured out in those tears, as did his love for Mei. When he finally got himself back under control, he wiped at his eyes with a sodden napkin.

"I'll always see your eyes as a sign you believe in me even more than I do," Izuku told Mei. "I might have given up my arm to rescue you, but you gave up your eyes so the world could see me."

Mei was quiet for a moment, thinking. At last she asked, "Is that a metaphor? Because I'm pretty sure the Black Mask took my eyes because he's evil. But I did think what you said was nice anyway, even if it wasn't what really happened."