Infectious

ch. 57

Chapter Fifty Seven;;- Hope

Aizawa was stumped.

Well, that was putting it lightly. He had genuinely no fucking clue what he was going to do about... everything. Nemuri had been right. He was stupid, just completely idiotic.

He resisted the urge to smack his forehead. Maybe it'd knock a little sense into this thick skull of his.

Catching feelings for a coworker... What did he think was doing?

Fool. Moron.

His options were limited. He could confess, and get the rejection over and done with. The downside to that one though is that he'll then have to distance himself from a third of his close friends, and he though [name] probably needed him by her side right now anyway. He didn't want to make himself sound more important than he was, but Aizawa realized that he was a support system in her life now.

Or, Aizawa could keep quiet about the feelings forever. That worked pretty well too. If he never spoke up, he could never be rejected, he could never be hurt. They would continue to be good friends, and he could continue to support her, and everything would be good. Yeah, that was a good idea. He liked that idea.

"Hello, Earth to Shouta?" Hizashi waved a hand in front of Aizawa's face, drawing his attention away from his thoughts and back towards the bar they were sitting at.

He, Hizashi, and Nemuri were out for drinks at their favorite place. [name] had to decline, it was her night for patrol but she encouraged them to still go and have fun without her. Admittedly, while Hizashi and Nemuri were chatting and having fun though, Aizawa had spent a lot of the time buried in his own thoughts, surely overthinking everything about the whole situation he had stupidly let himself into.

Nemuri giggled, clearly intoxicated, covering her mouth with her hand. "Hehe, I bet you're thinking about [name], aren'tcha?" She asked cheekily, winking at him.

Hizashi raised a thin eyebrow. "Why would he be thinkin' 'bout [name]?" He asked. The slight slur of his speech indicated that he was also succumbing to the alcohol.

"He liiiikes her~" She sang, downing the rest of her glass. "Didja know that, 'Zashi?"

He burst out laughing, slapping his knee once even. "He does! That's so funny!" Hizashi took a moment to regain his bearings, propping his head up with one of his palms and looking at Aizawa with a funny smile. "Heh, you know she likes you too, right?"

Aizawa shook his head disapprovingly. "Gee, thanks for sharing it with the whole bar Nemuri." Annoyed, his face started to flush. Now even more embarrassed by the fact he was blushing over it, Aizawa pushed Hizashi's arm out from under his cheek and rolled his eyes at the overexagerrated save Hizashi pretended to do. "No she doesn't Hizashi. Quit being an ass just because you're drunk."

"Whaaat?? You don't believe me?" Hizashi looked hurt, and for a moment Aizawa couldn't tell if it was genuine (the next, though, he figured Hizashi was just trying to bait him into doing something). "You know, if you won't take my word for it, you should try to figure it out from her perspective."

Nemuri nodded enthusiastically in agreement, giving two thumbs up.

Aizawa didn't want to take the bait but... he wanted it to be real. "What do you mean?"

Nemuri shoved Hizashi out of the way, taking over as the current resident love professor. "You know, little tests to see if she likes you back! Pay attention to how often she touches you, or how long she keeps eye contact with you. She'll lean towards you, or mirror your actions. She gives everything you say so much attention.. You know, the signs."

He rolled his eyes, but secretly, the advice made him feel a little excited. Those signs were so easy to watch for and if they were true... Nonono, what was he thinking? He was not going to pursue this. There was no reason, it was just stupid.

But still... Aizawa felt the little spark of hope, and there was no use extinguishing it now. Even if he tried to squash those words of advice, his subconscious would probably start watching for the signs and (in)validating his feelings.

He hated that. Of course she didn't like him. Nemuri was just setting him up to hurt his own damn feelings. His first thought was to resent her, but he knew she was just too optimistic, too hopeful for him, too trusting. Nemuri wanted what was best for him, and he couldn't deny that. Aizawa felt bad for the bitterness that was rising in his throat.

"Guys, I think I'm gonna take off." Aizawa stood. "I'll call you guys a cab, okay? Hizashi, you're a little less drunk, so make sure the both of you get home. Got it?"

Hizashi nodded, doing an okay sign with his fingers. Nemuri slumped over onto the table now that the attention was away from Aizawa's love life, her cheek pressed against the varnished wood. The two of them watched Aizawa leave.

Nemuri immediately seemed to sober up a little. Yeah, maybe it was a little shitty of her to pretend to be drunk to give advice, but Aizawa would immediately have brushed off all the conversation about it if she wasn't willing to be loud and interupting about it. "Does she really like him back, Hizashi?"

Across from her, Hizashi leaned back on the booth and nodded. "She told me the other day. Funny timing, isn't it?"

Nemuri laughed, sitting back up so she could meet his eyes. "No way. He only told me after a bunch of prodding a little bit after they came back from the States." She paused. "I want them to be happy together. I'm not awful for pushing them together, am I?"

"Are you kidding?" Hizashi laughed. "There's no way they'll ever get together without our help. Twenty years from now when they're super happy and together forever, they're gonna thank us so hard."

She grinned back, grateful for Hizashi's reassurance. "It's not going to be easy for either of them. A relationship between two people who hate showing their emotions?" She shook her head. "But I couldn't just sit back and let Aizawa convince himself his feelings weren't real. When was the last time he let himself have a crush?"

Hizashi shrugged. "A long time ago, back when we just got out of high school. It didn't end well though, so he just made up his mind not to anymore. And you know how he gets when he's made his mind up... He deserves a bit of happiness though."

"Don't we all?" Nemuri pondered back.

"Let's let the least fortunate get their shot first."

a/n: don't love the length of this. too short.

also YES i hinted at erasermic. it's subtle so pretend it isn't there if that's not your thing. it's not even really my thing it just made sense lol

my life is still good, follow me (on quotev) if u wanna see me be cheesy and also sometimes very leftist. im going to go be w him now <3 love u guys sm, sleep well pls