"Welcome, you must be our volunteers." One of the nurses greeted us once we'd entered the hospital after speaking briefly with Mic. We nodded and she looked around at each of us. "Oh, what are the chances! Hello there, little (y/n)."

"Hmm?" I studied the nurse's face and as I focused felt my quirk surface just a little in my horn as if itself trying to see if it recognized her. "Oh, hello."

She'd been one of the nurses that'd attended to me after the LOV rescue mission. I hadn't noticed at first that this was the same hospital I'd stayed in that week. After all, they all looked the same to me.

"It's good to see you're getting you in school and looking healthy." She said, then turned to address the five of us as a whole. "So," She began as Mic rejoined us. "Unless there is something specific we need a lot of help with we don't typically give our volunteers much structure. Essentially, what I'm saying is that you'll kind of have to wander around or stand idly by and wait until someone looking frantic comes up to you and hands you a task. Just make sure to stay out of everyone's way until someone asks you for help. Here are your nametags."

Before I'd really begun to process all of the information she'd taken little air and even less time to spew out she began passing out little sticky slips of paper and pens.

"These are the nametags?" I asked Kyouka quietly. She nodded silently and turned around to stick hers on my shoulder for a surface as she scrawled her name on it. She then peeled it off and pasted it onto her lapel. I cocked my head at her and then, assuming this was the regular course of action, spun towards her and did the same.

She laughed a little as the pen tickled her arm through the nametag, making me smile to myself.

Shortly after explaining the rest of the rules to us, both the nurse and Mic left us to sort of fend for ourselves.

Uraraka blinked and looked around once they'd left.

"So I guess we just stick together and-" She was cut off by a hospital staff member marching up towards us,

"You two." He pointed.

"Us?" Kirishima asked, motioning to himself and Uraraka.

"Yep, you look like volunteers. Come with me." He turned around and Kirishima wasted no time in hurrying after him.

"I guess we can't just-"

"Hurry it up, pink cheeks. And actually, you too. The one with the ears. The more the merrier." He interrupted Uraraka again and gestured to Kyouka who still stood next to me.

"Uh." She half heartedly attempted to object.

"Now."

"Sorry, (y/n)." She whispered to me somewhat apologetically before walking off.

"No problem.."

Before I knew it it was just me and Satou standing there, abandoned in the middle of the crowded hallway. Someone in a lab coat rushed by, jostling me by the shoulder and almost knocking me over before he reached out a large hand to steady me.

"Maybe we should find somewhere to wait out of the way." Satou suggested. I nodded, thrilled to get away from the horde of people by any means.

Together me and Satou made our way through the masses to some sort of break room or cafeteria looking space that seemed relatively empty. What I learned during this short walk was that maybe it's the quietest people who are the most observant and considerate. Satou took about two seconds to realize how the people and loud sounds made me uncomfortable and about two more seconds to find a way to shield me from everyone else with his large frame.

I smiled. Kyouka was observant and considerate like this too. And though it doesn't seem to be as much the case around me, I'd heard from other classmates that she was usually quiet as well.

Though I'm pretty sure that has always excluded Denki. She has no problem getting loud with him. Or at him.

"(y/n)?"

"Hmm?" I snapped out of my haze to see that Satou was trying to open the door to the break room for me and my foot was blocking it. "Oh, sorry."

"No problem."

I stepped aside and he opened the door before softly ushering me inside. I bid him a quick 'thanks' and then shut the door behind him as he made his way into the room.

There were glass windows all across the wall that separated us from the hallway, so I figured if anyone needed a volunteer they could see us through the glass and wouldn't have a problem coming into the room to grab us for help. Besides, they did tell us to keep out of the professionals' way, so I didn't have much of a problem resting in here. Satou sat down on an armchair in the corner and I followed suit. We were alone in the room, so I was able to take a deep breath.

Or at least, alone for about a minute.

Soon enough two women who looked to be in their early thirties or so walked in with a small boy in between them, holding onto their hands tightly. They smiled our way and sat down in the seats across from us, the little boy climbing into one of their laps.

"Volunteers?" One of them asked. We nodded. I glanced at the little boy in the woman's lap and he made wide eyes at me and stuck out his tongue. For some reason just this little act made me feel all fuzzy inside and I made a face back at him. He giggled.

"He likes you." The woman chuckled as she bounced the little boy on her knee. I smiled, then remembered that we were in a hospital.

"Is there something wrong with him?" I asked. Satou shot me a look as if to say 'that was a bit blunt', but I merely wanted to know if the boy was sick. I didn't want him to be sick. He was adorable.

"No, dear. We're just taking him in for a checkup."

"Oh, so then this must be the pediatric ward's waiting room?" Satou pondered aloud.

"Mhmm," The woman without the boy in her lap confirmed. "Apparently you have to take your kid in for checkups every four months until they're fourteen. Personally I don't think children should be taken into the hospital that much, seems a little traumatizing." She laughed. Satou nodded his head next to me.

"I remember going when I was a kid. It wasn't that bad until I turned eleven, then they started giving me all these weird booster shots and from then on I was always terrified to go back." He said.

Is this small talk? I thought to myself. It seems a little weird. Satou then looked to me expectantly, putting me on edge. Wait, am I supposed to make a contribution to this awkward conversation? Do we like take turns or something?

"I- um. My parents stopped taking me to the doctor when I was really young.. So I don't really remember being scared. But I guess I can see how it would- um.. make a little kid nervous." I stated awkwardly, not really sure of what else to say.

"Oh.."

The conversation lagged and petered out after that, giving me time to think in silence. Though all I could really think about was whether we were actually going to get to do any volunteering, along with wondering about what Kyouka and the rest were doing.

While I was thinking, wondering, and just generally staring off into space waiting to be needed, some other families filtered in and the women and their son left at some point to go to their appointment. I guess now that it was a little closer to midday than morning, more children had checkups scheduled, because now there were about five or so other families in the room.

At some point I overheard some kids whining about being hungry, and their parents began to complain about the lack of food or snacks in the waiting room. Satou must have overheard as well because he leaned over to me and whispered.

"You know, since we probably should be looking for something to do by now anyway, maybe we could head over to the cafeteria and ask the staff if we could bring some snacks back in a bowl or something for the kids."

"Okay, that sounds like a good idea." I agreed.

"Uhh.." I felt as though I had stepped into chaos. For about three hours the nurses had had me, Uraraka, and Kirishima running from place to place delivering charts and paperwork, but this was somehow a hundred times more chaotic.

They'd let us off for a little break fifteen or so minutes ago and I'd left the others to try and find (y/n). Eventually I found someone who told me someone of her description was helping out in the pediatric ward and pointed me in the right direction.

Now, I stood in the doorway, staring on into a room of screaming children and stressed parents, directly in the center of which was (y/n) standing on a chair with four bags of Doritos and Slim Jim's thrown over her shoulders and chest like armor and a bowl of oranges held over her head.

At least fifteen little grubby hands were reaching up towards her as she passed out the snacks, seemingly trying to at the same time get both closer to the children to provide them with snacks, and further away from them.

Ew, kids. Gross.

She must be some kind of angel if she was willing to put up with this, but that I guess I already knew. Suddenly I remembered I'd come to ask her something, so I made my way to her from the doorway, parting the crowd of parents like the red sea or something as I walked.

"(y/n)." I called up to her. She looked down and her eyes widened.

"Oh, hey Kyouka."

My heart skipped a beat as it did every time she called me that, but I managed to push through it and appear as unfazed as I could.

"Where's Satou? I thought he'd stay with you." I asked.

"He got stuck down in the cafeteria. When the staff there realized he could bake they put him to work in the kitchen and I haven't seen him since." Some kid below (y/n) began to cry and she kneeled down in a panic to calm him down, bringing the rest of the snacks to grabbing height for the rest of the children as she did.

"Eep!" She squealed as they piled on top of her.

"Oh god." I pushed forward and began picking children up off of her, then grabbed her by the hand as soon as I saw the opportunity and pulled her up quickly. In the process this caused her to drop her bowl of oranges, which immediately the kids flocked to like food-deprived pigeons. I pulled her face close to mine and spoke loudly over the racket so she could hear me.

"Can I borrow you for a moment? I wanted to ask you something."

"Uh," She looked around at the mess in defeat. "I guess so, but I should get back here quickly to clean this up."

"Sure, it'll be fast."

"Alright." She said, then turned her attention back to the swarm of families, "I'll be back in a few minutes!"

"No! (y/n)!" One of the smaller kids called.

"They know your name?" I questioned in horror. "My god. We've got to get you out of here."

I dragged her out of the room, across the hall, and into the nearest empty space I could find, which just happened to be a janitor's closet.

😏