"Maa~ Izu look at the beach!"

"Iruka don't run too far, we won't be able to catch up."

Iruka didn't hear her father call for her as she rushed towards the shade created by a large tree. Iruka twirled and fell backwards to lay down on the sand. The sand hardened as she fell. Shouts and explosions could be heard from her side. Iruka sat up to see she had laid in the rubble. Katsuki laid unmoving in front of a shadowed figure.

"Ahh, you shouldn't have hid." The shadowed figure cooed.

Iruka felt a hand around her neck and watched as All Might cried out in agony, AFO doing something but her vision to blurred to see.

"You were interesting. Your friend was just much more fun." That scratchy voice echoed in her head as she got slammed into the concrete.

==========

Iruka bolted upright. Iruka looked down to see Mocha looking up at her confused. Those nightmares were slowly getting more and more distorted than they used to be. She took Mocha into a hug to ground herself.

After a minute or so to process what had happened, Iruka looked up at the clock above the door. 5 am. If she went back to sleep now there was no guarantee she would wake up in time for training, or she wouldn't have another nightmare, so she decided to go for a run.

Tenya and Izuku had talked about it yesterday during breakfast. The two of them had jogged around campus around 6 am. Technically speaking, Shouta had never specified when curfew would be lifted, so Iruka changed into some sports pants and a t-shirt and slipped out of the dorms.

The sun was slowly showing itself while Iruka did stretches. When grabbing the sports shoes she had kept downstairs she noticed Izuku's and Tenya's shoes were still there, so it was a surprise the front door was unlocked. Tenya and Momo had been given spare keys to the front door to lock up at night and when the dorms was left empty so as to minimize the potential of a break-in in any way.

The only sounds Iruka could hear as she ran were the thumps of her foot on the ground and the wildlife starting to awake. It was a calm Iruka had missed. Not being allowed to leave home for anything had made Iruka restless, especially when the only thing she could do to forget about her nightmares was sit and stare at a TV screen.

Being on school grounds meant Iruka could use her quirk as she pleased. She headed towards the tree she had pointed out to Hitoshi the previous day and climbed it. The closer she got to the top, the smaller the animal she changed into. She could've flown up with ease, but there was this satisfying feeling of tiring herself out. Probably wasn't a smart move but damn did it feel great.

Iruka stayed atop the tree and watched the sunrise.

=========

It was 7 when Iruka got back to the dorms. She takes a shower and changes into her gym clothes and heads downstairs.

"Morning Tsu."

"Morning Iruka, kero."

Iruka filtered through the cupboards and pondered what to make for breakfast. They had an hour and a half before having to start training. That's enough time. She grabbed a bow, a few eggs, flour and milk.

"What are you making?"

"I'm going to make pancakes for everyone."

Tsuyu offered to help. With 3 pans of various sizes on the stove, the two of them set to work. As their classmates slowly filled the common area, the pancakes slowly disappeared. At some point, Tenya and Izuku came back from their own run and too enjoyed the pancakes.

Students walked in and out of the kitchen to grab pancakes, condiments and make their own morning drinks. The water boiler and coffee machine (Shouta had brought over the spare, unbeknownst to the class) worked hard in the background.

Coffee and teas brewed in mugs and teapots to share. Iruka even filled one of the teapots Momo had made with Milo for her classmates to try.

"Morning Kacchan!" Iruka moved her hands to match the words.

No one in class (at least not to Iruka's knowledge) other than Iruka and Izuku knew Katsuki was hard of hearing. They had no intention of telling anyone, which meant he had to wear his hearing aids more often than he would've liked. At least at home, he could take his hearing aids out no problem.

"Ya morning Whiskers." Often in the morning during breakfast, Katsuki only wore one hearing aid. Whenever he didn't contribute to the conversation, everyone chopped it up to them being a grumpy morning person.

Once the pancakes were done, Iruka finally grabbed a mug of Milo and a plate of her own pancakes and walked towards the tables.

"Hey Ito, why do you sign with Kacchan all the time when you guys talk?" Denki asked.

"It's just good practice for both of us."

"You should teach us sometime. Could be useful during hero work." Kyoka commented.

"Uhh ya, sure. If you want actual lessons, I'm sure Mic Sensei would be more than happy to take you on."

=========

"Hey Iruka could I ask you something?"

"Go for it 'Chaco."

They were on their lunch break in the dining hall. Hero course students scattered around as they enjoyed their food.

"The other day Aizawa Sensei brought up counselling. You're one of the people already going, right?" Iruka hummed. The entire table listened intently.

No one had brought up the counselling that was offered since getting their list. Iruka had badgered Katsuki on the importance of it, knowing he would've been the hardest to convince. Izuku had asked for some advice about which counselor he should pick, but besides the two of them, Iruka hadn't heard anyone else talk about it.

"What's it like?"

"Well I've only ever done counselling with Hound Dog, so it might be different depending which counsellor you choose, but I guess the basic gist of it is you talk to them about anything on your mind. Often times after something big like camp, they'll want to focus on helping you through your emotions, so it all doesn't stay bottled up."

There was silence amongst those who heard what Iruka had said.

"I'm going for my first session tomorrow." Izuku stated.

"That's awesome Izu! Who did you end up choosing?"

"Oh uh Mx Rio, they sounded nice."

"How did you choose so fast?" Shoto asked.

"Iruka helped."

"Do you think you could help me?" Ochaco turned back to Iruka.

"I'd be more than happy to help. I have my own session after training, but we can talk about it afterwards."

=========

"Good to see you again, pup, how have you been?"

"It's been rough. A little nice, too, though." Hound Dog hummed. "Nightmares are slowly being more distorted, but I can usually get myself to wake up or sometimes something will happen that makes me wake up. Like last night, it ended with Shigaraki bashing my head into the floor."

Iruka wrote every word that left her mouth into her notebook.

"I keep forgetting Katsuki is in the same building as me sometimes, and it makes me panic. I panic whenever I see Izuku and Iida leave for their morning jog. I haven't seen much of Papa, and I have to keep reminding myself he's fine. I usually don't know, though."

"You're protective of your loved ones. That's perfectly understandable. Have you told anyone about your concern?"

"Well Papa knows. He texts me every day to tell me and Dad, he's doing well. I haven't really talked to anyone about it."

"Would it make you feel better if you did?"

"I don't know."

"I think you should bring it up. At the very least, let Midoriya and Bakugo know your concerns. The three of you could set up a system. Texting on a regular basis, checking up on each other, or merely spending more time together could be some of them."

"I'll think about it."

"Want to tell me about what you thought was nice?"

"The dorm system as a whole is really nice. Seeing my friends. Getting close to everyone. It's all really nice. Even the cats are enjoying the move."

=========

"Oh hey Iruka!"

Everyone was huddled around a phone that was at the centre of the room. Hizashi's voice coming from the speaker.

"I didn't know all of you listened to Present Mic Sensei's radio show."

"Some of us don't we just got roped into this." Mashirao waved his hands around as he said it.

"Ooo we should give him a call."

Iruka snorted, hopped onto the couch where Katsuki sat. Denki took out the phone and called in the number.

"Hey, hey Listener!"

"Uhh, what do you think the hardest things to say is?" Iruka was sure Denki had called in with nothing to actually say.

"Well I think the hardest things to say is, I was wrong, I'm sorry and Worchistire Worchi-Worchistire sauce." Everyone listening in burst out laughing, and it could be heard through the call. "Have your buddies there, Listener?"

"Oh, uh ya, we're in the common rooms of the dorms."

"Well how about all of you say hi," Iruka held up three fingers and started to count down.

"HIIII!" They yelled in unison and heard Hizashi laughing on the other end.

"Thanks for the call, and thanks for all of you Listeners who are listening in." And the call ended.

Throughout the entire thing, Uka had been brought up. Everyone noticed how she hadn't joined in on the radio show in a bit, and Hizashi had to explain that it was due to school catching up to her. This also led to Izuku and Katsuki being badgered about what Uka was like. Iruka was busy texting Hitoshi to help Izuku get out of the conversation. He was smart enough to avoid letting it slip that it was Iruka.

Aizawa 2.0

Insomniac

Was that Kaminari?

Aizawa 2.0

Yupp

Izuku and Katsuki are getting hounded about Uka

Insomniac

WWWW

Your fans sure do miss you

Aizawa 2.0

Oh please I've only been gone for a week

Insomniac

Ya and your dad hasn't brought any guests

Their prolly bored

Aizawa 2.0

〒_〒

Insomniac

WWW

I'm suprised you haven't been caught

Aizawa 2.0

I am a master of secrets, ofc not

Insomniac

Ya sure you are

BTW whens your license exam?

Aizawa 2.0

In about a week

Insomniac

Yikes

How's ur ultimate move going?

Aizawa 2.0

I got 1 down

Gotta work on how to do the other 2

Wanna train with us tmrw?

Insomniac

Is that even allowed?

Aizawa 2.0

I don't see why Dad would be against it

wanting to do training is a great excuse

Insomniac

Should I just barge in or?

Aizawa 2.0

We start training at 8:30

You could come over to our dorms in the morning and we could all walk together

Insomiac

Ya cool

I'll ask Mezo and Okomura they want to come too

Aizawa 2.0

gtg Frappe looks about ready to murder someone

goodnoight

Insomniac

Heh goodluck Frappe

Night

Hitoshi stared at his screen. Damn, he hung out with Iruka a lot. That's what friends do, don't they? They're on campus 24/7 it's not weird to see each other often. Besides, he wants to train to get into the hero course and Iruka is offering help like a good friend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hitoshi is in denial can you tell?

Sorry for posting a little late, turns out I am not in fact back into the swing of writing despite writing in my mind a whole trilogy smh smh.

Anyways I hope you liked this chapter, if you did please a kudos and/or comment, both are always appreciated.

Hope you have a lovely day, night, weekend, whenever, wherever you are.

Stay safe, stay hydrated,
Bye Lovies~~