Maeve's eye twitched.
"I am not bringing a fucking wheelchair."
Aizawa's eyes remain perfectly steady.
"There's a compartment in the bottom for coffee storage."
"Well, why didn't you start with that?" The girl suddenly grinned, running her hand through her hair. She was still in her hospital bed, nursing a cup of the stuff already.
"Is it an off-road one? Because I'm not sure densely packed forest is the ideal terrain for wheeled metal boxes."
"We'll manage," he replied, with a rare grin, and added, "You need to get dressed, the bus will be arriving soon."
"I am dressed."
Aizawa looked her up and down. Maeve was wearing one of his oldest, most worn tartan button-down shirts and sweat pants over her bodysuit. The clash of red, white, green and grey was quite overwhelming in the worst way possible. He gave an approving nod.
"Alright, let's head down."
She tried to stand up from her bed and immediately swayed as the blood rushed from her head. Maeve giggled slightly that it felt weird before toppling to the floor with a thump. Or she would've if her father hadn't caught her. He just plopped her in the waiting wheelchair, ignoring her protests, and sped her expertly out the door into the corridor.
"No wonder the villains want me. I pose such a threat to them," Maeve wheezed from her mobile throne in laughter. She hurriedly drank the dregs from her coffee cup so they wouldn't spill over her carefully chosen outfit.
"Oh, they have no idea," Aizawa drawled, steering them into an elevator.
"It's a shame Midoriya's memory isn't as good as mine. Exact wordings from Shigaraki would've been interesting," Maeve pondered.
"All we know is that he was obsessed with you and All Might. Apparently the lunatic is convinced that the number one is the symbol of peace, but you're also a key player in all this. It's problematic that the league knows your past."
"Ah well, can't be helped. Anyway, this is supposed to be my vacation. Let's not talk about terrorists wanting my head on a spike."
"I doubt Shigaraki would bother with a spike. Turning it into dust and then sprinkling that dust down the toilet would probably be enough for him," Todoroki yawned, meeting up with them in the waiting room.
"Also, how are we going to get the wheelchair on the bus?"
***
It was a mission. They somehow managed it, with Shoji's muscles and Kaminari's confusing advice regarding different strengths of torque. Iida had organised 1A getting there, so everyone was even more organised than when Aizawa was in charge. They were struggling to hide shit-eating grins, though.
"Good morning, children," Maeve called with a tranquil expression.
"Good morning, cripple," they called back in cringeworthy sing-song voices. Maeve snorted and settled down in her chair next to Aizawa. This was going to be a long drive.
Everyone was soon yelling about what music to listen to. Aizawa had already fallen asleep, so Maeve was able to inch her chair out into the aisle, ignoring a warning look from Todoroki. She tossed her phone to Jiro, who caught it with a confused expression.
"This is literally just the Beatles," the earphone student hissed.
"Exactly. Don't hold back."
Jiro hesitated, then plugged it in. Low and behold, they had their own personal speakers. A piano riff loudly began and Maeve clapped along with it. Everyone just stared at her in confusion.
Desmond has a barrow in the marketplace
Molly is the singer in a band
Maeve couldn't dance properly in the chair, but she inched up the aisles to the first verse. Everyone was pissing themselves laughing until they realised she was actually a very good dancer.
Desmond says to Molly, girl, I like your face
And Molly says this as she takes him by the hand
By this time she'd reached Midoriya's row and grabbed his hands, practically feeling the sweat through her gloves. Maeve didn't care, encouraging him to make shy movements that came close to what could be called dancing.
When the chorus finished, she moved further on.
Desmond takes a trolley to the jeweller's store
Buys a twenty-carat golden ring
Maeve pulled out a coffee-stained napkin from her pocket, twisted it around her finger in the shape of a ring, and pulled it off again.
Takes it back to Molly waiting at the door
And as he gives it to her she begins to sing
She offered the ring to Bakugo and blew him a kiss. Everyone lost it. When he told her to 'fuck off' she couldn't even hear him over the music. However, incinerating the fabric sent the same message. Maeve twitched slightly but continued dancing.
By the end of the song, she'd reached the back of the bus. Mineta gestured for her to join him with a glint in his eye. She incorporated pulling a middle finger at him into her groove.
Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Maeve slowly wheeled her chair back to the front, chatting with people along the way as various Beatle songs played. She had an incredible bop to Hey Jude with Kaminari, who shouted at her that she couldn't be a genius and talented at the same time. Maeve just shrugged in a clear response of 'what can I say, I suppose perfection really does exist.'
When Yellow Submarine came on the entire busload lost it. They began shouting along at a volume that caused Mr Aizawa to tap on the windows and test their strength. Smashing through them to escape was always an option.
By the time they made it to the drop off point, everyone was far too enthusiastic. The class should've known better by then. It was just giving Mr Aizawa all the more reason to make their lives hell. Maeve climbed gingerly out of the bus and peered curiously at the car already waiting for them. The location had been changed at the last minute for security reasons and the hero team dispatched to care for them were unfamiliar to her. Mineta rushed past her screeching about needing to pee. Maeve couldn't help but give a small grin in the knowledge of what was coming. It was at that point that Todoroki exited the bus. He saw her expression and immediately walked back inside, saying, "Now I think about it, I don't really need fresh air."
Maeve pulled him out with a cackle and cried,
"Nonsense, it's good for you. Doctor's orders."
From her gleeful expression, the entire class could tell something very bad was about to happen. Two women jumped out of the waiting car and introduced themselves in the most extra way possible. Maeve loved it. The conversation continued and just as they catapulted the entire class off the cliff, she cried,
"Good luck! I'm not allowed to heal any of you!"
The remaining group stood in quiet satisfaction for a moment.
"It's nice to finally meet you two; I've heard a lot of good things about the Wild, Wild Pussy Cats. I suppose we've just kept missing each other," Maeve said to them with a wide smile. They immediately agreed and started worrying over how skinny she was. Usually, she'd find that exasperating, but the bus ride had put her in an even better mood than usual. The small figure huddled beside them caught her attention.
"Ah, Koda! It's been a while, the last time I saw you you were a little potato in baby clothes."
Mandalay explained, "When you were born, you had breathing problems, so Recovery Girl here healed you. It was very kind of her."
Koda just scoffed, kicking into the dirt with his shoes.
"So is she just another hero too?"
"HA!" Maeve laughed, her eyes sparkling.
"No. Being a hero seemed like far too much bother and paperwork, so the logical choice was to become a doctor," she said to him with a crooked smile. He still sulked but seemed slightly appeased she wasn't a pro. Koda looked a lot like his father but had his mother's nose. Noticing that sparked a pain in her chest, but Maeve didn't let it show in her expression.
"Well, shall we head out?" Aizawa asked, burying his head in his scarf to escape the wind. Maeve suggested to Koda that he could wreak havoc on the now-empty bus with her. He refused with a disgusted expression, which she found hilarious. The driver, an old codger UA had been using for years who hated Maeve, honked the horn and they climbed back into the bus.
"I really shouldn't have let Joke babysit you so much as a kid," Aizawa grumbled, putting an arm around her. Maeve yawned and rested her head on his shoulder.
"She taught me the valuable lesson of laughing at things that would otherwise scare me. Like climate change, or Mic in swimsuits. I feel like those two things have a correlation somehow, but I don't know why."
"That's called denial and immaturity," He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Of course not. Laughter is one of the mos' power'ul weapons in the worl'. It's also the bes' medicine. The true swiss army knife of actions."
Maeve said that yawning so widely her words were swallowed up in an impossibly stretched gullet.
"Are you pissed at me?" She asked into his scarf.
"The only thing I'm pissed about is Hizashi handling the situation better than me. Hizashi. Yamada. I'm never going to live it down."
"Eh, you're still young. He's got a few months on you, you can still catch up," she grinned. Very soon, Maeve was dozing, curled up in a ball against him.
***
They reached the Catnip Inn at around midday. Tiger easily removed Maeve's wheelchair from the bus and pushed her to a smooth patch of ground, before heading back to unload. Vlad, Aizawa and Tiger lugged all the student's gear inside. The group were then faced with a decision.
"There's a smaller room with more privacy and a larger room overlooking the forest. Which gender should go in which, do you think?" Tiger asked Aizawa. Maeve wheeled up beside them and pointed to a pair of night vision goggles dangling from Mineta's bag. Her dad sighed, confiscated them immediately, and directed all the girl's gear to a smaller room in the corner of the facility. Maeve played with the goggles, intrigued.
"He's definitely resourceful, I'll give him that. I think he's modified these himself."
"To do what?"
"Oh, they don't do anything different. But there's some impressive decorating and he even labelled them."
She showed the man what Mineta had called the device and he swore quietly under his breath.
"You're sure you can't expel him?" Maeve asked, looking at Aizawa through the lenses.
"I can't expel people for just being perverted brats," he sighed.
"Just? Sure you can."
His father shot her a look and she dropped it. The adults all went to help prepare lunch and dinner, leaving Maeve to wheel herself outside.
How long had it been since she'd sat in a forest? How long had it even been since she'd taken a moment to smell how sweet the air was?
She wasn't sure when she fell asleep, but by the time Maeve woke up, the sun was already setting. Instead of just resting sitting in the chair like a normal person, she'd curled up at the base of a tree. Her exposed fingertips were covered in dirt from gripping roots while she slept. Someone had wrapped a blanket around her tight ball of a body and placed a cushion strategically so when she moved during a nightmare, her head rolled onto it.
Maeve was just weighing up whether to go back to sleep or get food when she heard something. Someone moving quietly in the undergrowth. She froze, eyes scanning the treeline to try and spot anything. No one from 1A would bother to be that stealthy. For some reason, it sent shivers down her spine and her gut clenched. Maeve slowly sat up, heart racing.
A fox stared back at her with inscrutable eyes. It blinked and in a flash, disappeared, making the same noise as before. The grey-haired girl exhaled, running a shaky hand through her hair. When had she gotten so jumpy? It seemed the phone call with Tsukauchi had affected her more than she thought.
***
Dabi exhaled slowly through his nose with ominous calm.
"That was too fucking close, wackjob," he hissed at the fox trotting at his heels. They hurried through the woods away from a sickeningly titled 'Catnip Inn.' He was surprised the place hadn't been attacked before now by people with any decency.
"Also, I'm not your laundry maid. If you're going to transform, sort your own clothes out," the scarred man rasped, gripping a wad of fabric in his fist. It included a girl's blood-stained high school uniform. The burned, stapled hands clasping such ominous clothing looked like something straight out of a horror movie.
When Shigaraki sent them to confirm the target's location at the camp, Dabi hadn't expected to almost step on her. The doctor had been passed out under a tree away from the main building. An empty wheelchair was the only thing that betrayed where she was so he walked right up to her without realising. Luckily, it seemed that the brat was a heavy sleeper because she didn't stir even when he let out a muffled curse.
She was smaller than he was expecting. Very small. Curled up, Recovery Girl could pass as a kid. Definitely not the mammoth figure in medicine and heroics Shigariki envisioned her as. Escaping to a denser tree line, Dabi had settled down to spy on the comings and goings of the house. It soon became clear there were six pro heroes: two teachers and the 'Wild, Wild Pussy Cat' team. A little brat in a horned hat occasionally poked his head out, but that didn't concern Dabi. His gaze kept being drawn back to the girl.
Why was she sleeping like that?
It was fucking weird, and that was coming from him. Her body was curled in such a tight ball he wouldn't be surprised if she couldn't get herself unravelled. It was also obvious Recovery Girl was having nightmares. The target's breathing became shallower and her fingers would scrabble at the ground until they found a root. Even from a good distance, Dabi could hear her whimper and the tree she was sleeping under would suddenly wilt, leaves going black and withering before his eyes. Then it would gradually become lush and green and the cycle began again.
What did a Mother Teresa, Florence Nightingale type have nightmares about? It was almost funny. Was she haunted by the guilt of not handing out enough sweets at the last event?
Ah well. They'd soon be giving her proper material for bad dreams.
When the target began to stir and turn their head, Dabi noticed Toga twitch beside him. She'd already been getting bored. He was there primarily to stop her from killing anyone before they were ready.
"I don't know why everyone's making such a big fuss over her. She's not even that pretty," the psycho pouted. Dabi had to agree, to be honest. But they had their orders.
"Why don't we just grab her now, there's no one around. This way we can have a bit of fun with the thing before taking her back to Shiggy..." Toga began creeping forward before he could stop her. This wasn't part of the plan, they had to wait until the group were all here to make as big a spectacle as possible.
A branch broke underneath her foot and Recovery Girl's head snapped around like a viper's.
Holy shit.
The intensity of her stare was akin to twin searchlights. Brief flashes of eyes he spotted before ducking behind a tree were sharp as razor blades. Okay, not a Florence Nightingale type. Unless the old bat had raw intelligence that practically stabbed people when she peered at them.
Dabi gave Toga a fiery look that clearly said,'You got us into this, you can get us out.'
She made a face at him and melted in grey sludge to form a mangy fox. The wackjob's clothes fell in heap, but Toga ignored them and slunk to the edge of the clearing. Dabi relaxed ever so slightly in relief when Recovery Girl bought it.
Why wouldn't she? The girl had come here to be safe.
***
Maeve openly guffawed.
"LOOK AT YOU!"
Todoroki was not in the mood. As he staggered past her wheelchair, he flicked her off and for good measure, a little flame puffed at the end of his middle finger. It wasn't enough to trigger Maeve's phobia, but she got the message.
"I have to say, exhausted and beat up suits you," she called to the rest of the class emerging from the forest.
"You look damn fine right now."
Kaminari gripped the armrests of her wheelchair with a crazed expression.
"I've been training with my support gear. I didn't have my support gear. Why didn't you give me my support gear? It. Was. Hell. I could've flown there in like ten minutes but noooo."
Maeve raised her eyebrows at him and he facepalmed.
"Right. You teachers are sadists, you know that?"
"I didn't, actually. But I'm always open to self-discovery. You might be on to something."
"Fuck this," he howled, making for the doors of the inn.
"That is the shittiest name for an inn I've ever heard," Bakugo growled, rubbing his twitching hands together. A large group sidled up to Maeve with injuries, pleading for her to patch them up. The grey-haired girl cheerfully refused.
"Sorry kiddies. If you think that's bad try intensive chemotherapy."
She blew her nose loudly. Not your typical school nurse by any means. Koda peeked out the door to watch the group and she waved.
"Everyone, this is Koda. His hat is the coolest thing here by about 100 degrees. Seriously, I might need to steal it off you," She smiled at him. He looked at her in a manner that so resembled a disgruntled cat Maeve almost expected him to hiss at her. She wasn't great with kids, unfortunately. It probably stemmed from having friends who were on average 30 years older than her.
"Hi! I'm Midoriya from UA high school's hero course. Nice to meetcha!" Midoriya beamed at him, going in for a handshake. Not even Maeve was expecting what happened next. The punch landed. Everyone gave a collective 'oooooh' of sympathy as the green-haired boy doubled over, eyes bugging out in pain.
"Cute kid," Bakugo commented with a smile bordering on proud.
"He reminds me of someone," Todoroki replied, deadpan, with a sideways glance.
Maeve exchanged a glance with both of them and began to chuckle quietly, wiping her eyes.
"Sorry... Just imagining... We should introduce him to your pops," she snickered to Todoroki, whose deadpan expression cracked slightly.