Infectious

ch. 41

Chapter Forty One;;- Some Exposition

When Aizawa woke in the morning, his head a bit fuzzy from sleep, it took him a long time to get out of bed. Or rather-- his sleeping bag on top of his bare mattress. Did that count as a bed? Either way, it wasn't unusual for him to lie there for a little while after he opened his eyes, dreading the day ahead of him, but today it took him even longer.

The night from a couple days prior had been such a shock, it was difficult for him to process. There was a lot of unpack in that rather short encounter with [name]'s friend of eleven years. In fact, it felt a little uncanny that he would show up mere weeks after they had seen a picture of the two together.

First, there was Elijah himself. He was eerily similar to the photo of him, even if he did look a bit taller and his hair a bit shorter, his face bore almost no resemblance of aging. Maybe it was his quirk, or maybe he just took really good care of his skin. He was very American looking in nature, with the blond hair and the green eyes. Although the presence of quirks had diversified Japan's natural hair and eye colors, Eljiah's features still happened to look different from most of the people one would meet on the streets of Japan. His eyes were round at the corners, wide. His lips were fuller, bearing more of a pout. The bridge of his nose was wide and flat. He must have stood about 6'2, and although Aizawa was not short by anyone's standards (he was 6'!), just Elijah's height made him seem so obviously foreign.

Then, their relationship. As soon as [name] had seen the man and gotten over her original shock, she had jumped up to embrace him. Sure, Americans were less reserved about physical touching, but Eljiah's touch seemed to linger around her waist more than Aizawa was comfortable with. It seemed intimate, almost. When he had sat down next to [name], their shoulders had been nearly touching. [name] had laid her head on the table later and Elijah had been so quick to start playing with her hair. Was that another American thing..?She looked so content with having her hair touched too. Was that Eljiah, or a fact they just didn't know about [name]?

The way that Elijah spoke about her, too. Her past... sounded rocky. Aizawa didn't want to butt into [name]'s business without being invited, but the vague way that Elijah said about "the incident," made Aizawa extremely curious. The Yuuei staff had seen [name] plenty of times before she started working there, but none of them ever shared a personal relationship with her. True enough, when she had first arrived, she seemed a bit closed off and guarded, but she had since dropped it. Did she really trust them? Was she happier, like Elijah said?

It was weird to think of [name] as a troublemaker like Elijah had described. In the picture of her they had seen, some of what he said was obviously true. Her messy hair and her tired looking eyes, the hints of a slovenly worn uniform. He did indeed spot some scars from piercings around her ears when he checked. But a rule-breaker? The "touchy" might make sense, considering how she greeted Elijah. Perhaps she had been holding back that part of herself because of Japan's social customs. The rebelliousness that Elijah had spoken didn't seem like true at all though. The"abrasive personality"? It just wasn't very like [name]. She was nice, Aizawa thought, and generally a pleasant person to be around. The anger that Elijah had mentioned... Aizawa couldn't help but relate it to Bakugou. It couldn't possibly be as bad as that boy was, right?

Overthinking it won't help anything, Aizawa reminded himself, finally sitting up from his bed. He yawned as he slipped from the sleeping bag and slid his feet into his slippers, ruffling his bedhead with one hand. He shuffled out of the bedroom.

The nice part about having a generally empty apartment was that there was no worry about bumping into furniture when you wandered around the house aimlessly. As long as you had the floorplan memorized, there was no worry about running into the coffee table because you weren't paying attention.

That wasn't really the reason that Aizawa didn't have a lot of furniture, but it was an upside. He really just wasn't a materialistic person. The coziness of [name]'s apartment, with the surfaces covered in little trinkets, was nice, but Aizawa preferred his own decorating style. Or lack thereof, he supposed.

Pouring himself a cup of coffee to help wash away the sleepiness, Aizawa's mind unfortunately returned to man he had the misfortune of meeting. Aizawa decided that he didn't really like Elijah. He wasn't sure what it was, just that he was a bit too comfortable for him to seem trustworthy. Even [name] seemed shaken up to see Elijah there, so why was Elijah so quick to settle in next to her and touch her so freely so quickly?

Aizawa wrapped his hands around his mug, letting the warmth from the coffee seep into his hands. The morning was chilly-- fall was approaching, to Aizawa's dismay. Not bothering to pick up his feet, he shuffled through his living room again to the front door this time, pocketing his keys as he opened the front door to the hallway.

There was mailboxes lined up on the opposite wall from the doors to the apartment, with a number and name next to each of them. Aizawa went to his, unlocking the mailbox with a small key from his key chain. When the key clicked in the lock and the flap fell open, he picked up the stack of envelopes, shifting through them.

From behind him, another door opened. He turned, wondering if it was [name] coming to get her mail as well. Instead of seeing [name] opening her apartment door, Aizawa instead saw Elijah backing out of the open door with a smile on his lips as he waved.

"Sure, sure, I'll see you later," He said in English. Although Aizawa didn't understand what he was saying, Elijah's tone was cheerful and lighthearted.

[name] was standing in the doorway, her hair messy and knotted in the back as she rubbed sleep from her eyes. She raised her hand in her own wave, though most of her fingers were covered by the too-big hoodie she had on. She must have just woken up, Aizawa figured. "Yep. Bye, Elijah." Again with the English, though Aizawa figured out the gist of it from what he could understand.

Elijah turned, meeting eyes with Aizawa. He smiled politely and nodded his head in a greeting, which Aizawa returned reluctantly. He said nothing more, walking out further into the hallway and disappearing from sight.

"G'morning, Aizawa," [name] greeted, one hand holding the door open and the other hidden by the wall. After a few moments, it surfaced with a key in her hand and she stepped out into the hallway to get to her own mailbox.

Aizawa folded his hand around his stack of envelopes, looking back at the empty mailbox in front of him. "Morning," he replied, closing the box and locking it up again. "He was here rather early."

[name] winced, grabbing her mail from the box and closing it immediately. "Please don't be implying what I think you're implying. I'm not sleeping with him." Her face was turned away, and Aizawa couldn't see her expression to go along with the words.

"I wasn't implying that," He lied. He wasn't really aware of it until [name] called him out on it, but subconsciously, he had been thinking it. It was a natural conclusion, wasn't it..?

"Sure, okay." She didn't believe him either. He didn't blame her. "He came over to talk last night and it felt too late to send him home. We have... a lot to catch up on." [name]'s voice sounded distant and she finally looked up to give Aizawa a smile as she retreated back to her apartment. "See you later, Aizawa."

And she shut the door before he could reply.

a/n: look, a chapter from aizawa's pov! there's mostly just exposition in this chapter as i recap some events from his perspective, but i think it turned out pretty good! it really gives you an insight to his thoughts if you're reading well. n yeah, that's jealousy you're seeing (i'm getting a lot of comments about love rivals too.... hehehehe)

i s2g i am so fucking excited for what's coming in the next couple chapters. i can't express how much i've been wanting to write this arc for s o long now.

if u listen closely you can hear me gently sobbing every time i get a sweet chapter or someone makes art for me,, literally i love u with all my shriveled up heart <33