❛ i... may be a bit behind on my teaching duties, ❜  a bit. your desk is a warzone of ungraded essays & tests & instruction manuals. the clutter is so terrible you had to set a handful of textbooks on the floor & you’ve tripped over them at least three times. you’ve just been staring at iida’s twenty page paper because you’re not quite sure what angle to attack it from. a bit. you’re drowning,  ❛ ... but i’ll get everything sorted in no time, i promise ! ❜

    ❛ ...ah. i’m sorry for worrying you, my girl. i should have realized you’d be able to hear it, what with that brilliant quirk of yours, ❜  nolite timere is on your tongue as if there is not a backlog of blood lodged in your larynx, as if you’re not the old veteran who’s still-at-war body is perpetually waiting for someone to martyr it, as if your pulse is not skipping lines / thrumming in fingertips again, something dying & restless & wanting escape  ---  ❛ it’s just a simple heart murmur. the valves stiffen a bit with age, ❜  a half truth eclipsed on the latter; that’s the wrong diagnosis, it’s not the age & she probably knows that, given your condition. they do not know the full extent of it, though; it is best that way. to them, maybe, it might still not be right for you to be able to bleed / isn’t right / for the god made golden hero / to have blood so red.  ❛ it’s natural, nothing to be concerned about, i assure you ! ❜

     ❛ midoriya  ---  izuku. breathe, ❜  a knee is immediately taken, hands clamping down on his quaking shoulders, arthritis addled joints curling firm & grounding. remember: he’s strong, so so very strong, but  ---  he’s still just a child.  ❛ take deep breathes now, my boy. you’re starting to hyperventilate. ❜

     ❛ i am here, & i’m going to make everything alright !  what’s troubling you, young todoroki ? ❜

          ❛ ah, bakugou my boy, good timing !  would you mind getting out the baking powder for me ?  seems i forgot to grab it... old age will do that, hah !  i’d get it myself, but, ❜  a sheepish grin & a show of chalky hands, completely powdered in a floury mess.

     ❛ never fear, my girl, everything is going to be alright, ❜  she must have been terrified, but the perennial polaris of your smile is there to sing the child home; intrepid as ever, edged golden with firelight & the radiating warmth of a hearth  ---  safety.  something had caused her to forsaken school grounds, & a solicitous kind of anger roils vicious at that: no child should feel unsafe at ua, especially not with you in the vicinity. you will not have it. this shaken girl’s wellbeing is first priority above all, however; herculean arms open & extend, offering the comfort of an embrace.  ❛ why ?  because i am here now ! ❜

     ❛ don’t belittle yourself, young man. you have an incredible quirk, & a bright personality !  what you must do is let both of those shine through. some quirks might seem naturally flashier than others, but everyone can make their power into something that can stand out  ---  it’s all about what you do with it ! ❜