Chapter Text
“We’re going to be late.”
“No, we’re not.” Katsuki blinked at Mina. Took a second to check they had in fact drifted further away from the school than they had previously intended to then turned back to stare at his friend.
“We might be slightly behind schedule- But!” she raised her voice so that it carried over the explosive blond’s dramatic (over dramatic if you asked Mina) sigh, “We’re not going to miss curfew.”
“Curfew is in like twenty minutes Pinky.” Katsuki had already tuned out his friend’s cursing as she realised that she had in fact read the time wrong and Katsuki was in fact right. Like usual.
The explosive teen was trying to remember the map that Aizawa had made them study of the city’s layout and backstreets to see if there was a shortcut back home or if they needed to call PapaMic to come pick them up. Either parent would absolutely give them shit for being out past curfew and being in the less, ahem, reputable side of town but Mic was more likely to just ground them or make them act as a PA for the radio show whilst DadZawa would give them that disappointed look that made them all feel like they had let him down and that was worse then anything anyone could ever do. Besides, in their defence, the best chocolate came from a corner shop by the white cross hospital, and they deserved the best chocolate after having to share classes with 1-B for the entire week after Vlad King was injured during a patrol. Not only did they have to spend their homeroom period doing boring classwork that they’d already covered in their own study sessions, but they had to tone down all their practical training to match that of 1-B. Plus the league of maybe-villains-maybe-vigilantes hadn’t attacked them or even been seen by them all week and they all knew it was because of the other class. Even Hitoshi was disappointed, and he had only just gotten his head around the weird non-spoken agreement that 1-A and the League had.
“Right.” He cut through Mina’s whining that he wasn’t listening to her – because he wasn’t – and instead turned to look back at the way they’d just come. He could just see the glow of the white cross hospital from around the corner and he tried to time in his head how long it would take them to get to the police station that was just a few blocks away. He was fairly sure Sansa was on duty tonight, or maybe it was Tsukauchi, either way, they’d both be willing to drive them back to the academy. “Option A” he started, making the acid quirk user startle from where she had been staring at him trying to work out how he was going to solve this issue without either of them getting into trouble, again, “is we go to the police station that’s like a ten minute fast walk away and hope that Sansa-san won't mind breaking a few speeding laws to get us back in time. I’d say we have a fifty-" he raised his hand that wasn’t holding the shopping back and made a so-so gesture whilst tilting his head, “-per cent chance of getting in trouble. Option B, we go to the hospital and hope that Ayaka-Sensei is on shift. If she is, no trouble if she isn’t probably a good seventy per cent cuz then we’d have to resort to Sansa.” Ayaka-Sensei was a nurse at the white cross hospital and had a soft spot for the league, Aizawa and 1-A and they all knew it. She also had a very cool transportation quirk that allowed her to send people and objects through a sort of wormhole that she could produce and place on any wall which would then lead to anywhere she had been before. The only downside being that, whilst almost instantaneous, the longer the distance the colder the object or person became.
“Well, it's Wednesday so chances are she’s on shift. And even if she’s not there might be another member of staff who could help us.” The blond nodded and then as one they both turned to scurry back round the corner – this time bypassing the shop in order to approach, what looked like, empty warehouse doors. Between the humid air and their rushing, neither of them are in any place to touch anything right now what with explosive and acidic sweat respectively so Bakugo simply kicked the bottom of the door to serve as a knock. They watched as the sliding peephole opens enough for the security guard to eye them up and down.
“y’don’t look injured. Wha’s ya business ‘ere?” Bakugo rolls his eyes and Mina huffs at the gruff voice’s words.
“We could be injured.” Ashido folds her arms and glares at the eyes peering through at them. Next to her Katsuki huffs and realises that for once he is going to have to be the approachable and responsible one. He shifts his weight.
“We’re friends of Ayaka-Sensei.”
“Wha’s ya business?” this time it's Ashido who huffs and Katsuki makes a mental note to find out when this guard is on shift so that the next time they need to use the hospital and he’s here they can just break in instead – it might cause some hassle what with them being hero students but honestly fuck this guy does he not realise that they’re on a deadline here?
“Oh, what does it matter!” The voice behind the door is young this time and causes both students to acknowledge the discreet security camera that hangs above the door (Ashido waves with a smile but Katsuki just scowls and raises an eyebrow. It’s not that they make a habit out of using white cross hospitals it’s just that this is one of the few places that Aizawa will allow himself to be treated, their fights and Rules™ with the League and that's not counting the fact that Fumi has made friends been adopted by Hawks and the winged hero's propensity for ending up here after missions gone wrong so now all of class 1-A are quite familiar with the usual roster of staff and that includes Riku who works the security cameras most nights.) “Open the door Ichiro-San.”
The metal door slid open to reveal a tall man with, what looked like, a muscle quirk of some kind and Riku sat on the desk swinging his legs with a security tablet on his lap.
“Don’t mind Ichiro-San!” the brown-haired man’s voice was overly cheerful for the grey security lobby that they were in. “He’s new here and hasn’t yet had time to learn the faces of our frequent visitors and, as a reminder,” he sends the guard a pointed look over his glasses, “we may be called a hospital but we provide more than just medical help and we help everyone so next time open. The. Door. So! What can I do for you today?”
“What did they upgrade you to the receptionist?”
“We need to see Ayaka-Sensei!”
Ashido and Katsuki answered at the same time then turned to stare at each other unblinking before shrugging.
“What she said.”
“What he said.”
Riku blinked at them. Looked down at his tablet then looked up and blinked at them again.
“Right. Well, first things first – fuck you too Bakugo if I want to be a receptionist, I can be a receptionist and it was not an upgrade!” Katsuki snorted at Riku’s mock offence and theatrics which nearly cause the shorter man to fall from his perch on the table. “And secondly, Ayaka-San is in room five this evening but she’s with a patient right now you can wait in the lobby for her, and I’ll get Ren-San to send a message down.”
“Thank youuu!” Mina cheered before elbowing the explosive teen who grumbled a ‘thank you’ under his breath much to the amusement of his friends. With a nod to and from both Riku and Ichiro, the two students made their way through the complex, Ashido waving at the staff, volunteers and patients that she recognised. Most of the patients were vigilantes however, Katsuki noticed a few villains he’d seen on the news in the past week as they passed different office rooms turned doctors’ offices.
They stopped short at the doorway to the room that led to Ayaka’s waiting room. Sat, although Ashido had questions on whether a shadow could ‘sit’ (questions she was going to ask Dark Shadow tonight), was Kurogiri. They stared at him. He stared at them. The shadow stood.
“Who hurt you?”
Katsuki blinked. Then sighed. Then made a note to let the rest of their classmates know that somehow another adult seemed to have adopted them.
“No one. You think some nobody can hurt us?” Mina hid her smile behind her hand – of course out of everything that was happening this is what Bakugo classed as the most important thing. Honestly.
“We’re fine Mr Kurogiri sir – honest!” She rocked forward onto the balls of her feet, taking no notice of the way that her friend automatically went to hold the belt of her skirt to keep her from overbalancing. “We just need a lift to get back and Ayaka-Sensei always says we can go to her if we need to so we don’t miss curfew.” Was she perhaps giving too much information to a maybe-villain-maybe-vigilante? Maybe. But this was also the same maybe-villain-maybe-vigilante that followed the Unspoken Rule™ of ‘fights can happen if no one is gravely injured and if they are and it's your fault you take them to a white cross and sit with them until they get picked up’.
“Well this is weird.” Both hero hopefuls turned to stare at Shigaraki who was standing just behind Ayaka chewing on the side of his nail with one arm in a sling.
“What happened to you?” Ashido was, of course, the first to break the silence that had descended over the room like a weighted blanket.
“Villain activities.”
“He fell down the stairs.” Tenko glared at his shadow guardian.
“Villain. Activities.” The explosive teen didn’t even pretend to hide his wheeze of laughter at that before shaking his head with a smirk.
“As if we’d believe that the only fucking ‘villain activity’ you do is try and beat us up and we haven’t seen you all fucking week.” Katsuki did not sound put out or upset about the fact that a villain hadn’t attacked him. He failed but at least everyone in the room was nice enough to pretend he didn’t.
“Right well,” Kurogiri, used to looking after a bunch of teenagers and so knowing when to step in if he wanted to keep what little sanity he still had, injected himself into the conversation, “I’m happy to play taxi so Ayaka-Sensei can get back to work and we can all go home happy. So,” He conjured two portals from his smoke tendrils, “you go through there and we’ll go through here – please let your teacher know that there will be a break in any …villain activities whilst Te-Tomura recovers from his very villainous villain activities.” Both hero students wheezed with laughter as they stepped through into the shadows trying to commit to memory the look of betrayal of the blue-haired teen.
(“I still can’t believe you fell down the stairs!”
“I didn’t fall! Spinner pushed me.”
“I did not. You poked my tail and I flinched. Not my fault you’re built like a twig”
"That is not what happened! You pushed me!"
"Prove it.")