Infectious

ch. 59

Chapter Fifty Nine;;- Confessions about a Confession

[name] entered the teacher's lounge quietly, sighing as she unloaded the armful of papers onto her desk. With Aizawa away to help out with the Overhaul case, it was a whole different sort of workload. She knew he did a lot for the class, but she had no idea it manifested into so much paperwork. Where did he even keep it? How come she never saw it?

Shoulders sore from the stack, she took her time to stretch them out, content with the embarrassingly loud pops from her joints. She rubbed her eyes and finally took a seat at her desk, feeling around the mess for her favorite pen. Instead, she nearly knocked over a cold mug of coffee and struggled to catch it before it made a mess.

A laugh from behind her makes a blush crawl up the back of [name]'s neck and onto her ears. Embarrassed of her own obliviousness, she turned slowly.

Nemuri was sitting at her own desk, only a little bit away from [name], a witness to the whole incident. "That was close," She chuckled, winking.

[name] looked away, burying her face in her hands. After a moment, her head shot back up and she pointed intimidatingly at Nemuri. "You saw nothing, you hear?"

Stifling another laugh, Nemuri nodded. "Little ol' me? I'm blind, I swear."

The embarrassment washed away from [name] at the joke, the bright red of her cheeks disappearing as she broke into her own laughter. "Sorry, I'm a little frazzled."

Nemuri got up from her desk and plopped herself instead in the desk right next to [name]'s. It was Aizawa's, so the both of them knew they had no worry of the owner coming in and needing it. "What's on your mind, sis?" She asked.

"Nothing exciting," [name] answered quickly. "I'm so glad I normally co-teach with Aizawa, my god. There's so much to do and barely any time. Makes me worry about what's going to happen if Nedzu decides to split us up next year or something."

"Are you kidding? The way you two work together?" Nemuri dramatically rolled her eyes at the thought. She ran her eyes over the stack of papers and takes one off the top. "Just grading?"

[name] shook her head. "A bit of lesson planning too. He really tried to leave me with all the stuff I would need but I guess he didn't forsee being gone so long..." She parted the stack to show a section of worksheets with a sticky note on it in Aizawa's handwriting. "I am curious about the mission they're on. I wonder how things are going."

Nemuri leaned back in the chair, eyeing [name] down carefully. "What're you so worried about?"

"Worried? I'm not--"

Nemuri cut her off. "No, no, I want to guess. You've hardly talked about anything other than Aizawa so... Are you scared he's gonna get hurt?"

It was [name]'s turn to roll her eyes this time. "He's a very capable hero, Nemuri. Of course I'm not worried about Aizawa." She distracted herself from the line of questioning by removing the top of the stack of papers, and situating them in front of her to begin grading.

"Well..." Nemuri shrugged, raising her arms above and behind her head to make herself a headrest. "You know, it's normal to worry about someone you love. Especially in a dangerous job."

[name]'s fingers paused counting the tests her had in her hand for just a brief moment. After just a second of silence, she sighed a bit and chuckled to herself. "I didn't think he'd told you." She didn't look up.

Nemuri laughed. "Hizashi can't keep his mouth shut about anything. You know we're cheering you guys on."

[name]'s lips twitched. "Oh, I thought you meant Aizawa told you."

At this Nemuri was stunned into silence. Her face fell slack and she leaned forward in the chair again. "You mean..."

Finally, [name] glanced over at Nemuri again. She smiled expectantly. "I mean what, Nemuri?"

"How would he know you like him?" Nemuri asked, the gears in her head obviously turning.

"That's easy, I told him." [name] patted Nemuri on the knee. "After he told me. Isn't there a word for that..."

Nemuri blanched. "You guys confessed?" She gasped out, her voice a touch louder than [name] would have liked.

[name] turned back to the papers again, the tips of her ears touched with a spot of color. "Confessed, yeah, that's the word." She picked her pen up and smiled to herself. "He told me you and Hizashi got him all confused. Ended up making even me worried since he was acting all weird." She glanced back at Nemuri with a stern look.

The look's recipient looked bashful (a rare look on Nemuri) and started to pick at her tights. "We really were just trying to help him. He said he was never going to say anything at all even though everyone knew how he felt. It made me feel bad, the both of you deserve happiness. Together."

Uncapping her pen and redirecting her gaze once again to the tests (even though she knew that there was no way she was getting any grading done with the conversation currently at play), [name] nodded. "I know, I'm kidding." She paused. "Mostly."

Nemuri processed everything for a second, finally her face shooting back up from her tights. "Oh my god, [name]! You guys confessed!" She took the pen out of [name]'s hand and set in not-so-gently onto the table. "You guys confessed!" She cupped her friend's face in her hands.

"Yeah, we did, I just said that." [name] struggled to get all her words out with the way Nemuri was squishing her cheeks. She reached up and pried Nemuri's hands away from her face.

"And?"

"What do you mean 'and'?"

"What happened next?"

[name] tried to look away again, but Nemuri snapped to pull the attention back. "Nothing happened, Nemuri." She shrugged. "We've just been acting like normal."

"You're totally aware that the two of you have feelings for each other? And you didn't immediately swap spit or something? Anything?" Nemuri's eyes were wide with disbelief.

"Gross."

"Seriously, [name]."

[name] sighed loudly and leaned back in her own chair, swiveling it to face her friend better. "No, Nemuri. We didn't swap spit the second we shared our feelings. Or at all." She rubbed her neck nervously. "I mean, you know some things about my past. The sort of love I feel for Aizawa isn't something I have a lot of experience with. My relationships growing up were so physical and..." Another deep breath. "The physical part of a relationship can be really important but I worry about this one going the same way as all of other ones have. I don't want to let myself get caught up in that part of a relationship when the gooey, emotional side feels so good. You know?"

Nemuri leaned forward and patted [name]'s knee. "Of course I know, hun. I know the way I present myself probably makes it seem like sex is a prominent part of the way I navigate life. It's not even that wrong. But I know what you mean wholeheartedly. Lavish in just knowing your love is requited. Take your time getting there." She smiled. "But I think you owe it to yourself and to Aizawa to be as honest with yourself as possible and know that just being friends isn't what you guys are."

"Be in love, [name]. I think you'll like it."

a/n: hey guys. i find myself writing vicariously about myself and my bf all the time with these chapters these days. i was not totally open to admitting my own feelings about him for a while and well. i do like being in love and i'm glad i let myself.

he's in the hospital again. i knew what i was getting into, falling in love with someone with a chronic illness, but man. shit's stressful. practically the only reason i could finish this chapter was because i needed the distraction.

i hope yall are doing well. <3