Queen (A My Hero Academia Fanfic)

22: Our turn to go!

A few days had passed since we had the meeting with Sir Nighteye. I've been watching the main base for a while now, but there has been no good time to strike. Eri is never there during the time I go.

I hadn't been sleeping very well at night lately, so I'm groggy and tired during my classes. I just hope nobody noticed. I'd rather they not worry about the worries on my mind. About Eri.

I also worried about the League of Villains finding me. Specifically, Dabi. I don't know what his intentions are with me, but whatever they are, it's probably not good.

I wanted to vent to somebody so bad, but we were forbidden to talk about it to anyone. I've wanted to vent to Aizawa, but he probably thinks I'm still not letting this get me down.

That's not true at all, obviously.

I could tell Midoriya was thinking about this too. Whenever I look at him, he has the same expression on his face.

That afternoon, I was done with teaching classes for the day. I trudged to the teacher's lounge, completely exhausted.

I had been doing combat training with the students since All Might couldn't, and that wore me down to at least my collapsing point.

When I had almost reached the door to the lounge, I heard someone calling my name.

"Valerie? Valerie!" I turned around to find Todoroki running up to me.

"Oh...hey Shoto." I yawned.

"Are you okay? In classes today and for the past few days, you've been really tired. Are you sleeping alright?" He asked. I swear I saw a hint of worry in his eyes.

"Yeah! I'm sleeping fine." I rubbed my eyes, and gave him a smile. I really hope he would buy it.

"Valerie..." Todoroki looked down, a shadow covering his eyes.

"Yeah...so...if you excuse me, I have to go do paperwork. These papers won't grade themselves, right?" I fake laughed.

I turned around and started to go for the door handle, but Todoroki grabbed my arm.

"Huh?" He spun me around and pinned me against the wall. I could real worry in his eyes.

"Valerie, please don't lie to me!" He said, shaking my shoulders. "I can see and tell by your eyes that you haven't been getting sleep! If you haven't, then why are you lying to me like this? Did something happen lately that's causing you not to sleep like this?!"

His words and tone really scared and surprised me. I never pictured Todoroki to be a guy to act like this. I tried to stop myself, but one by one, tears started to fall down my cheeks.

"No...no...stop..." I tried to wipe them away, but they just kept coming.

Todoroki stepped back a bit. He was clearly surprised by his own tone, and surprised I reacted this way.

"No...I'm sorry...I shouldn't be acting like this...I'm sorry..." I kept apologizing, but I didn't know why.

Suddenly, I felt myself quickly wrapped in a hug. Todoroki had hugged me.

"Valerie...I should be sorry. It's just...I don't want to see you like this. I care a lot about you." He said.

My eyes widened. He cared about me?

He let go of me and looked at me, hands on my shoulders. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I shook my head. "I'm sorry...I can't. It has to do with a case I'm working on. I'm not allowed to speak about it."

He closed his eyes, then sighed and let go of my shoulders. "That's fine." Then, he scratched the back of his neck. "You know, Midoriya was crying at lunch too. Does it have something to do with his work studies?"