As the summer ends, Kaminari's anxiety spikes severely.

Even with his medication, he's had way too many anxiety attacks in the last week.

School doesn't start for another two weeks, but even then, Kaminari is not doing well with his anxiety at all.

He's had terrible stomach pains, and he'll start shaking randomly.

Sleeping also gets harder even with the insomnia pills. He still actually gets sleep, but it takes a while and his dreams are filled with nightmares.

It gets so bad that he accidentally uses his quirk in his sleep, so he doesn't let Shinso stay with him at night, and he's put Smushy in the restroom at night before he goes to bed.

She used to be able to help him get to sleep, but he's afraid of hurting her, so he'd rather lose sleep than that.

A lot of the time, he just spends his time in bed awake thinking about second year.

Then third year and leaving UA.

Thinking about if Shinso will leave him.

Relationships end.

School will end.

He'll have to find a place to live when he's graduated.

It's not like with the rest of his classmates where they have family or money to fall back on when they're done.

His parents were making enough to get by. They're probably doing better now that he's not with them anymore.

The ones who don't have those luxuries have insane talent, so they'll probably have offers lined up for them for when they're graduated. Kaminari isn't that skilled.

And then with the bad publicity he got with his dad.

Rape is a controversial topic, and not many hero agencies are going to want to be associated with that, so having him in their agency would not be an option.

He could end up all alone with no money, no house, no nothing.

Like hell is he going to ask for help, though.

Not with that.

Not with stuff he should be able to do alone.

It's so scary and like every night this week, he falls asleep crying.

~~~~~

"Aizawa tells me your friends are worried about you."

Kaminari looks up slowly, feeling absolutely drained and tired.

"Only my friends?" He laughs.

Arai smiles. "Okay, he was worried, too, but he didn't tell me that."

His posture is horrible, making himself seem smaller. Almost curling into himself as he slouches.

"I'm not going to sugar coat this, kid, you look horrible."

"Man, and here I was thinking I was at least average looking."

Arai rolls her eyes in amusement.

Kaminari is just far too anxious for his liking. He's shaking with how much he's worrying, and at the moment, his mind isn't on anything particular.

"What wrong? You seemed pretty bad during out last session, but you've gotten worse."

Kaminari finally gives into the urge of bringing his knees to his chest and wrapping his arms around his legs, resting his head on his knees, facing to the side.

He's using one of the blankets Arai has in her office for her patients.

"School's starting up soon. I don't know why but it's making me really nervous. The anxiety pills aren't really working for this. I also don't know why my stomach gets worse the more nervous I get."

Arai hums in acknowledgement, writing stuff down.

Kaminari's used to it at this point.

"I see. And how long has this been going on?"

"For the last week or so. It was alright until it started messing with my sleep schedule. Also got nightmares. I have to keep Smushy in the bathroom at night so I don't accidentally kill her with my quirk."

Arai's eyebrows furrow as she listens to what Kaminari has been keeping secret.

"Aizawa didn't tell me any of this. Why were you hiding it?"

Kaminari shakes his head as he closes his eyes, feeling exhaustion wash over him.

"I wasn't hiding it."

"You didn't tell him, your boyfriend, or your friends. That's hiding it."

Oh.

"Oh."

Sometimes he forgets that even though he wasn't actively trying to prevent people from finding out, not making people aware of stuff is basically hiding stuff, too.

The blanket is so soft and comfortable, he kind of just tries to focus on that rather than how hard he's trying not to tremble.

"Tell me what other symptoms you've been having with this anxiety."

"So I can't sleep, trigger my quirk accidentally, I've been shaking a lot, um," he pauses, trying to think about other things, "I think I've been more jumpy. It makes me feel really embarrassed, which makes everything worse. I've been thinking about my future non-stop. Also felt more exhausted. I think that's because of the lack of sleep, though."

He talks slowly, which annoys him.

After a few seconds, Arai clears her throat.

"I think we might have to change your anxiety medication. You'll have to go to your physician again to get these prescribed, and they might not have to have you on them for long. Does the anxiety contribute to the nightmares?"

Kaminari nods. "My nightmares are usually what I'm worried about the most at the moment."

Arai nods. "I figured this was the case. Because of this, I don't think you'll have to get prescribed anything for nightmares. As long as the anxiety medication works, your nightmares should lessen. Of that doesn't work, tell me and we can help you with that. Now, let's continue with the session."

Kaminari takes in the information and nods.

"Okay."

~~~~~

It takes forever to get his new anxiety medication.

He had to meet with his physician, get the papers, then Aizawa had to get them signed, so he had to go talk to Kaminari's parents, then they had to show the physician and Arai the proof before they allowed him to get the pills.

It took about a week, and now he's here waiting outside the pharmacy with Aizawa.

They bought battleship to play in the car earlier in the week and now they play it all the time.

"I-2."

"Miss."

"HOW!"

Kaminari is at his limit. He swears Aizawa is cheating because how has he not sunken anything yet.

"A-3."

Kaminari glares at Aizawa as he says, "Hit."

Mr. Aizawa smirks and Kaminari wants to scream at himself for being so damn bad at a game of luck.

Or strategy. Whatever.

This goes on for about an hour more before the medication is ready.

Mr. Aizawa tells Kaminari to wait in the car, putting away the game before going to pick up said medication.

Kaminari wonders if the people who label the medications or whatever think he's insane or something with how many medications he's taking. And then there's the anxiety medication that got upped because of how bad his anxiety was.

Great.

He wore the hoodie Shinso got him for his birthday.

Also the sweats.

And the socks.

And shoes.

Ugh, okay maybe his boyfriend spoiled him on his birthday.

The point was that he was comfortable, and he brought his knees to his chest which really helped with his anxiety, he found.

He feels so utterly ridiculous because of the way he feels. He feels weak and shaky. It makes him feel useless and like a burden to his friends, his boyfriend, Aizawa, his parents.

He's just been feeling too much which is the problem.

Biting the inside of his cheek has made the inside really rough, and when recently he's been biting so much that it's starting to hurt and bleed.

There's also the soreness in his jaw that he's been feeling recently.

Probably from working so much on biting the inside of his mouth.

He takes out his new phone and responds to messages left my his friends and boyfriend. He's barely opened up a game to play on his phone when Aizawa comes back, so he puts the phone away and looks at the man.

"Who's keeping your pills?"

"I took them back, so now I just have them."

Mr. Aizawa nods and then hands him the paper bag that holds his new bottle of anti anxiety pills.

Hopefully they're more successful.

"You wanna eat somewhere?"

Kaminari nods from where his head is rested on his knees.

"Yeah, thank you," he says quietly, barely audible over the music.

"Alright, let's get going. You can take your first pill today so hopefully it starts working within the next week or so," Aizawa goes on, reversing the car.

Kaminari nods in acknowledgement, turning his head to the window to look out.

His stomach pains are okay sometimes like now where he's with someone he trusts, but when he's put into high stress leveled situations, it gets bad.

He doubled over the first time it got bad and Shinso got worried.

The new medication better work.

He thinks about this all the way to a restaurant that Aizawa introduced him to. He ended up really liking it.

After they're seated and their drinks arrive, Aizawa starts talking.

"Listen, Kid."

Kaminari looks up at the man and waits for him to continue.

"I know you're having a really hard time and so do the other teachers and Nezu. I haven't said anything to the teachers, but they have noticed changes when they see or run into you. I brought up something with Nezu to make it easier for you. You can get stuff you need. Arrangements. We're here to help you, okay?"

Kaminari takes it in, but he's still confused.

"What does that mean?"

"Anything that you need, we'll be able to accommodate for it. You need a day off? That easy, just tell me to set a day where we have someone give you the lesson, or have one of your friends explain it. You don't even need to explain to me or anyone else why you need the day off, just tell us, and it won't affect your attendance. Just communicate."

Kaminari takes his pill.

Isn't that like favoring him, though?

"How is that fair?"

Mr. Aizawa shoots him a questioning look.

"To the rest of the class, how is that fair if I can just decide not to go to class?"

Aizawa gives him a bored look.

"Kaminari, how is it fair to you that we expect you and are forcing you to attend school like everyone else? You're struggling with your health right now while everyone else isn't. If they were, things would be put in place for them to heal, too. You need this right now. Bakugo was given the same treatment. He communicated with me and he was able to get the help he needed. He's a lot better now, but even still, sometimes he'll let me know when he needs the day off."

Kaminari focused on his drink, swirling it around with his straw while Aizawa talked to him.

"Hey," Aizawa called, making Kaminari look up at him, "you need these things if you want to get better. Know your limits. It's okay to need or want help."

Kaminari takes a deep breath to calm himself down.

"So what does the whole accommodation thing mean?"

Aizawa smiles.

"So you can decide to leave class when you need, or go to class later. When you miss for mental health issues and you contact me, we'll know that we need to set up a day where we teach you the lesson. You can set up the day, and if there are any assignments that are assigned for that lesson, you'll get an extension. It won't be special treatment because you'll get the same amount of time to do the assignment as your classmates, you just got it later, so you turn it in later."

Kaminari nods.

"Okay. I get that."

The waitress comes over to take their orders, and once she leaves, they start the conversation again.

"Arai will be here at the school once classes start, so if something happens or you just want to talk to her, she'll be there. Did you get her number?"

Kaminari nods.

"Okay, contact her if you need whenever. I'm sure she's told you that already, but she's serious. Anything you need, text either of us."

Kaminari sighs as he continues playing with his drink.

Man he's kind of hungry.

And feeling really embarrassed.

"Alright, I will."

Aizawa takes that and nods.

"Now let's just hope those new pills work. Arai told me that if they don't and your stomach continues to hurt, we might have to take you to a doctor in case it gets bad."

"Ugh, don't tell me that or I'll freak out right now," Kaminari says, trying to play it off while laughing.

***
Word Count:2,110
Y'all ima end this soon. I'll let y'all know next week how many chapters are left. I have a project due tomorrow and I just finished it earlier today I was stressing 😭😭😭 I'm chill now tho😈 anyway I hope y'all liked this chapter. The next one will go up next Sunday at 8pm central time. I love you all and tysm for reading<3