He doesn't know what time it is when he wakes up, but he smells food and it feels way later in the day.

Practically falling off the couch, he shoots up when he hears noise from the kitchen.

It hurt his neck to turn so fast in the direction the noise came from, but when he does eventually make his vision focus, he sees his teacher moving around the kitchen, not noticing that the blond was awake now.

Kaminari gets up, stretching and looks at the time on one of the digital clocks in the common area.

Shit. It's noon.

He feels embarrassed and guilty for being asleep so late. He made Aizawa change his plans. Why is he being such an inconvenience when the man has given him so much?

Once he registers the time, his arms drop and his posture changes, trying to make himself smaller.

With that, he walks towards the kitchen where Mr. Aizawa still hadn't noticed Kaminari. Because the teacher was still so unaware, he made his footsteps audible. It was then that the man finally noticed and turned around to face the blond.

The man smiles. "Kaminari. I hope you don't mind that I didn't wake you up. I just know you haven't been sleeping, and rest is important. We can always spar on a different day if that's okay with you," he suggests.

The blond nods, feeling his chest tighten in shame.

"I'm sorry I fell asleep. We made plans, so I should've stayed awake," he apologizes, bowing slightly.

Mr. Aizawa shakes his head at him when  he finally looks up at him.

"Don't apologize. It's good to sleep whenever you can since you can't sleep at night. I don't blame you," he laughs, "I sleep literally anywhere at any time."

Kaminari knows. His teacher's outfits were either his hero costume or sleeping bag which helped him to be able to nap at all hours. Kaminari was just lucky he was actually able to go back to sleep this morning. Sleep is something that has been harder and harder to get.

The blond laughs, acknowledging what his teacher said. "I don't know how you do it. Please teach me," he laughs, and Mr. Aizawa actually does the same.

He watches as the man moves around, cooking some vegetables.

"If you really can't sleep, have you tried melatonin?" The man asks.

Kaminari has heard of it, obviously. He googled it to see if he needed a prescription, but ended up finding out the downsides of it.

"I've wanted to, but I don't know. It doesn't seem like a very good option given the side effects."

Mr. Aizawa nods.

"Yeah, I googled that, too. Talk to Arai about it some more. Do you think your mom will let you take medications? If they just can't afford it, I can always pay for you," he suggests.

Shame fills Kaminari once more and it hits hard. It's weird to take medications. He feels weird for maybe having to take some. It's not exactly logical given that he would encourage others to take medications, but for himself? He expects more of himself. He expects himself to be perfect and to be able to sleep without having trouble or waking up from nightmares.

He expects not to have constant flashbacks. To not have to hurt himself to forget the flashbacks. To not have to rely on Shinso to feel better about himself. To get perfect scores on his exams. To not get distracted so easily.

He expects to be normal.

When Kaminari takes long to answer, the teacher looks at him and sees how nervous and embarrassed the kid looks.

"Kid."

It gets his attention and the boy looks up, blinking.

"You deserve at least the bare minimum. Feeling okay is the bare minimum. You deserve more than that, but I just want you to know that providing for your kids is just the bare minimum. Your parents aren't doing that, but you deserve it, so if there's any reason that they can't give you that, I will. You're technically my kid. Gotta make sure you at least have the bare minimum."

Kaminari finds it funny how many times Mr. Aizawa has said bare minimum, but is too caught up in his feelings to laugh.

"You get that? I don't know why your mom would just leave you on your own like this, but all she has to do is consent to you being able to get pills from a psychiatrist. Have her sign the papers if Arai thinks medication is the best for you, and I'll handle the rest. Okay?"

Kaminari opens his mouth to talk but falls short. He doesn't know what to say. His eyes are starting to burn, and he really doesn't want to cry in front of his teacher for the second day in a row.

"I haven't seen my mom since my birthday. I wouldn't even know when I could see her. She- I- cause-" he takes a deep breath, hoping he calms himself down, "She works pretty far, so I would have to plan stuff out to be able to see her without m- to see her alone."

He fiddles with his fingers and presses his fingers into the bruise on his forehead, not enough to raise suspicion from his teacher.

"Why plan out?" Aizawa asks.

"Cause the subway routes and times. She also sometimes works outside of her office, like, in different buildings for meetings which she used to have all th- I don't know if she still does, so that plus the subway times, which aren't always so reliable, along with times that my mom is actually in her usual building will make it harder for me."

Mr. Aizawa looks at him, blinking, making Kaminari feel stupid and even more nervous about all of this.

Kaminari could call the building, but with what phone? The dorms don't have phones, he doesn't have a phone, and he won't bother anyone else about their phones. He can't really afford one right now, either.

"I could just take you," Mr. Aizawa starts, and Kaminari's head shoots up to look at him, heart beating way too fast, feeling like crying at being such an inconvenience, "if it takes us a while to actually see her, then we just wait. You could always just ask for things, Denki."

That's the problem. He doesn't want to be asking for things.

Not when he's been given so much, especially by Mr. Aizawa. He keeps taking and taking and taking from his teacher. How annoying is that for him?

Kaminari is sick of himself, so he can't imagine how frustrated the man is with him. He doesn't want to be so annoying that Mr. Aizawa just gives up on him and leaves him to fend completely for himself.

"I can do this on my own, I swear. You don't need to baby m-" he's interrupted.

"This is not babying, Denki. I know you're capable of taking the subway and finding your way. I just want to be able to help you. Make this just a tad bit easier for you."

Kaminari just listens to the man as he goes on, finding it harder and harder to keep himself together.

"I already know that just thinking about seeing your mom is stressing you out. I don't even know what kind of stress you're putting yourself through by thinking about going to the subway, without any way of being able to contact anyone for help, figuring out routes and times, and being worried about the people around you. It's a lot. Being able to take away at least half of that is my goal. It's not babying. It's just helping you."

And it's all true.

He's terrified and so utterly tired already just thinking about seeing his mom. Talking to her is a whole other problem. Especially the topic of what he might have to talk to her about. Arai has already brought up the possibility of medications, so it's definitely something he's going to have to deal with.

It's physically exhausting and even though he just woke up from a nap, he's already wishing he was back on the couch, asleep.

There's just so much to worry about, and now he has to worry about a way to pay his teacher back for all the trouble he's been putting him through. It's barely been a week of summer vacation, and already, Mr. Aizawa has been on campus for 5 days.

Just because of Kaminari.

He's not exaggerating. Mr. Aizawa has to be on campus more because of Kaminari.

"I just don't want to be an even bigger problem already. It's not your job to deal with me, and yet you're stuck here. How many teachers have had to stay here just because I didn't go back home?"

The man was caught off guard at the sudden honesty.

"Denk-"

"And don't lie."

Kaminari feels rude for interrupting him.

"I'm sorry. Dammit. I just keep messing up, huh?" Kaminari laughs, finally feeling the tears flow, so he makes his way around his teacher, pretending he was getting something from the fridge all of a sudden.

Mr. Aizawa really just has no idea how to help Kaminari when he gets like this. He gets so embarrassed and starts feeling so guilty, and the man just blanks. Kaminari needs to realize that not everything he does or needs is a burden.

Clearing his throat, Kaminari wipes his eyes quickly and turns around with a water bottle in his hand.

After closing the fridge, the teen opens the water and starts drinking from it.

"I know that Midnight came in here last night," Mr. Aizawa finally speaks up.

Kaminari tenses up at just the thought of the woman.

"Did she bother you?" He asks, and Kaminari shakes his head no, chugging down the water.

"She didn't stay here for long. Did you see her?"

Kaminari nods, wiping his mouth, and turning to throw the bottle away, so he doesn't have to look at his teacher much longer.

"Yeah, she just scared me when I was down here. Nothing much." He tries to say it as nonchalantly as possible. It wasn't a big deal, it was just Kaminari being annoying and a little bitch. He realizes that now, and he doesn't want Mr. Aizawa to know.

"Did she say anything to you?"

"Just that I should've been prepared to fight back rather than get scared."

Kaminari doesn't see, but the man watches him carefully, looking at how tense he's become, and wondering why he became like this.

"I see. Okay, back to the other thing," he starts, making note to talk to Midnight and to Kaminari even more about this, "I am not inconvenienced by taking you to get what you need. Kaminari, you could possibly need medications. I would be way more than happy to be able to help you get them. Call it selfish, but I want to be able to help you with that."

Kaminari nods, feeling somewhat happy at his words, but everything else is still just so...

Just so much.

"I'm sorry I was asleep."

"You already apologized for that. There was no reason to apologize in the first place."

Oh shit he did apologize for that already.

It was legit the whole reason for the conversation before.

He just sighs heavily and rests his whole body on the counter, trying to relax, which he hasn't been able to do for a while.

"Why don't you like Midnight?"

Kaminari tenses up tenfold.

"I mean, I guess I know why you don't like her, but has she ever done anything that makes you uncomfort-" Mr. Aizawa snacks his face, "of course she has, it's her whole personality, never mind that. Has she ever touched you, though?"

Finally the end to that whole thing.

Kaminari just looks at the back of his teacher as the man continues moving around, cooking up some meat now.

"No. It's just that she makes me nervous. I don't really feel safe around her," he admits and it feels easy, but of course the shame has to make him regret ever living.

Maybe it's just easier to say since his teacher isn't looking at him.

"I've been trying to tell her that her behavior is inappropriate. I've been doing that since I could remember. No, she shouldn't be ashamed of her body or anything like that. I just don't want her to be so sexual towards students. Minors. The people who are supposed to feel safe around us. I won't mention you, but I'll talk to her again."

Kaminari nods, but realizes he can't see him, so he hums in acknowledgment.

What is he doing with his life?

***
Word Count: 2,132
Yall it's so annoying cause when I put the word count, I write the number first because I don't want 'word count' to come out in the word count so I have to put the number first because I will not remember it for the life of me by memory, yes even for a few seconds, and then I'll move the cursor to the front to put 'word count' LMAOO. also, i had school off on Monday and then on Tuesday they cancelled because I live in Texas and we're ways having water problems. And then they gave us the rest of the week online 😈😈(cause we still have either no water or low pressure 👎🏼). Anyway I hope y'all liked this chapter. I really want to add more angst but idk what to add so just be aware because next chapter there will be angst 😈 next chapter will go up on Sunday 8pm central time. Thank you for reading I love you all<3