Infectious

ch. 20

Chapter Twenty;;- Whoops

[name] scrolled the page that was open on her phone, mindlessly staring at the images that passed. She felt exhausted by all the grading that she had to do for the midterm grades to be done and ready. It had only been a couple minutes since she finished, but [name] felt so drained she wasn't sure if she had the energy to force herself to stand and get home.

So, naturally, she distracted herself with her phone until she was feeling up for the task. Currently, she was searching an online shopping center for a specific type of cat food that Weird Bug was recently boycotting all other food in favor of. It must be some damn good food, although she wasn't sure why he was so interested in it now, considering she was pretty sure she had only given him it once.

Of course, the food that Weird Bug was now in love with was only available via online retailers.

[name] sighed with relief as she finally found the food. She picked up a sharpie, taking the cap off with her teeth and writing the brand name on her palm so that she wouldn't forget it again. Seriously, she didn't want to go through all that again.

"What's that?" Yamada asked casually, leaning over to glance at the sharpie on her hand.

She jumped with surprise. It must be because she's so tired that he managed to sneak up on her. "God, Yamada, you have to stop sneaking up on me." [name] showed him the writing on her palm, only to realize a second later that she had written it in English rather than Japanese. "Oh, whoops, I didn't even notice I wrote it in the wrong langauge," She laughed.

Yamada shook his head, looking over the rim of his orange tinted glasses to read the writing. "I can speak English," He reminded. "Otherwise I definitely wouldn't be the English teacher here." His eyes flickered across the words. "Isn't that a cat food?"

[name] nodded. "Yeah, one of my cats is suddenly being really picky and won't eat any other food but this one." She let her hand fall back to her side as she pocketed her phone with the other one.

"I think that's the food that Shouta buys for the cats that come around his house." Yamada shrugged. "That's the only reason I recognized it."

She nodded slowly, puzzling out the new piece of information in her head. [name] did live relatively close to Aizawa and Weird Bug did sometimes disappear for a little while... She always figured that he wasn't interested in food because he was out gorging himself on gross bugs that he hunted, since he always brought one back to [name]. "Oh my god, is Aizawa spoiling my cat? Is that why his dumbass won't eat any other food?" She finally asked out loud.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Aizawa entered the room, running a hand through his hair absentmindedly with one hand and his other hand holding a stack of papers.

[name] pulled her phone back out, finding the best picture she could of WB. She held the phone up to Aizawa. "I know he's generic looking, but have you ever seen this cat?"

Aizawa steadied the phone and studied the picture. It was of Weird Bug sitting neatly, his green eyes staring up at the camera as his dark, smooth coat reflected the lights. Eventually, he nodded. "One that looks just like that comes by my apartment every now and then, so I feed him."

She frowned heavily as she took her phone back. "His name is Weird Bug and he's a spoiled little brat that won't eat his biscuits anymore because he's decided that he only likes the brand of food that you give him." Before he could ask, [name] added: "Yamada told me that it's the food you get."

"I thought he was a stray," Aizawa said, shrugging. "Sorry 'bout that." He set his stack of papers down on his desk. "I didn't know you had cats."

[name] held up three fingers. "Three little idiots that are getting a food change," She murmured, sliding her phone into her pocket. "It's cool though. The other two like eating too much to mind a change in food."

Aizawa looked like he wanted to ask more about the cats, but held his tongue. Yamada met eyes with [name], glancing back at Aizawa as if to say talk about the cats more.

She hesitated. How do you go about talking about your pets forever so casually and not seem weird? She wasn't really wanting to apply for the crazy cat lady position. "Sorry, didn't mean to talk about them so much," She said, aiming for it to sound nonchalant enough that if he really did want to say something about them, it would prompt further conversation.

"It's okay," Aizawa answered immediately. "I don't mind hearing about them... I like cats."

"A lot," Yamada added, smiling cheekily and ignoring Aizawa's glare.

[name] smiled at their dynamic, recognizing it almost. It seemed like the classic pair: the outspoken, charismatic and loud one and their quieter, more introverted friend. "Yeah? That's good then. I think Bebus might be pregnant and I have no idea what I would do with her kittens if she was."

"Her name is Bebus?" Yamada asked, raising an interested eyebrow.

She shrugged. "What can I say, I've never been good at naming stuff. After I renamed our neighbor's cat Ham and Cheese when I was in high school, my brother told me if I ever named my children they would lead a rough life."

Yamada blinked. "I have a lot of questions. You renamed your neighbor's cat?"

[name] nodded. "Yeah, they named him something funky like Bartholomew and I hated it."

"So you chose Ham and Cheese to replace that name?" He asked.

Another nod. "Yeah, I was sure it was brilliant at the time." She remembered that cat well. It was a beautiful calico with the prettiest golden eyes, so affectionate that [name] would sometimes sneak out of the house to go stroke it for a little while.

"Your brother?" Aizawa interrupted Yamada's questions. "You've never mentioned a brother before."

[name] blanched. Had she really let her guard down that much that she had mentioned someone that she swore she wouldn't? Slowly, she nodded. Might as well come clean. "Yeah, I don't talk about my family because I don't want the media to annoy them. That's why I don't tell people where I'm from either." She averted her eyes, looking down at her lap instead. "When my identity was revealed back in America, the press was all over my family. I don't want the same thing happening."

Yamada patted her shoulder. "Don't worry, [surname]. You definitely don't have to worry about us leaking this to the media." He grinned reassuringly when she looked up to meet his eyes.

[name] couldn't help but smile back and once Yamada felt sure that she wasn't still feeling upset about it, he let his hand slide off of her. She broke eye contact, debating heavily in her head what she was about to do. "Hey, I know there are implications of this or whatever, but you guys can call me [name]. I always seem to forget that I'm [surname] and not my dad or something," she laughed nervously. "You'd think after almost four years..."

"[name]..," Yamada repeated. It sounded awkward, a [nationality] name coming from the tongue of someone who was so obviously not, but [name] was sure that she probably sounded like that with names she was new to pronouncing, too. "Yeah, I don't mind." He glanced over to meet eyes with Aizawa.

Aizawa merely shrugged. "I have no problems with it," He responded, immediately dropping his gaze back to his papers, although [name] thought she might have heard him murmur it under his breath. "Don't forget to tell Kayama too."

[name] made a mental note to tell her, feeling grateful to have a group of friends like she did. She had never found friends like this before.

Well, if there was a lesson that her teachers had ever ingrained her mind, it was definitely "better late than never." For the first time, she found herself agreeing with something her high school teachers had told her.

High school [name] would be rolling in her grave.

a/n: that last line is obviously metaphorical but also conspiracy theory high school reader was killed by the illuminati and replaced by a clone

anyway, to answer questions about pacing for people who don't really enter the comments: since the reader is officially pretty good friends with mic and midnight, you should expect for the reader and aizawa to get a lot closer during the training camp arc. granted, romance won't really start until the reader's backstory is revealed (almost directly after the training camp).

did i just like, spoil my own story or something?