Infectious

ch. 60

Chapter Sixty;;- Another and another

The conversation with Nemuri had [name] deep in thought during the rest of the day. At point Nedzu ended up pulling her aside to talk about how spacey she had been after a meeting about some of the curriculum. It was difficult to assure him that there was nothing wrong and to promise she would be on the A game from now on, but he must have sensed some of the sincerity in her voice-- at least enough to let her go without any sort of formal warning.

Even though she had gone through all that to convince the principal, the thoughts ended up plaguing her until the end of the day and carried over until her patrol.

The moonlight felt abnormally strong tonight, the clashing silver of the moon and the dull yellow of the streetlights enough to give her a headache pounding away at the back of her eyes. [name] ran a hand through her hair, annoyed at the way it always fell out of place just enough to be annoying. Perhaps she was a bit irritable.

She rolled her shoulders, massaging the joints gently with her opposite hand as she strolled along the edges of the rooftops. She didn't usually patrol from up high-- she wasn't like Aizawa with his capture weapon always acting like a way down. But today the height advantage gave her the headspace she needed to be a couple steps ahead of any petty villains while still being a touch mentally preoccupied.

So far it had been a quiet night, not much crime to really put a stop to. At some point she had to yell at some teenagers drawing graffiti swear words on a wall, but other than that there was pretty much nothing else. It was only early evening (which was why she was surprised at the brazenness of those teens), which was much earlier than her usual patrols as well, so the higher number of patrolling heroes meant less crime anyway.

It was like she had picked out the perfect formula to keep her head in a tizzy. Emotional conversation, early patrol, patrolling from up high... What's next?

Like the very thought had enticed fate itself, [name] happened to glance down at the window of a shop that sold televisions. On the screen, a news reporter sat with the video feed in the top corner displaying images of what looked like a proper gruesome raid.

It made [name] think about the raid she knew Aizawa and some of the kids were on. She hopped they were doing alright...

But again, it was like the thought had prompted the video feed to switch cameras and display the image of a battered hero... That's interesting, she thought. It looked a bit like Suneater, that cute third year she knew went to Yuuei. She thought he was a part of the raid that her kids were on.

The realization dawns on her rather slowly as the pieces come crashing together. Her brain packaged up the last piece of the puzzle with a nice little bow right as her phone began to vibrate with an incoming call.

Nearly frozen, [name] struggled to force herself to look down at the caller ID. It was Aizawa. It took another moment, but at the thought of missing the call, she brought the phone up to her ear in a hurry.

"Aizawa?"

His voice on the other end of the line is almost an immediate comfort. "[name]."

"You have such timing," She murmured, heaving a sigh of relief.

"Should I ask?" His voice is barely a low rumble on the other end. The background is much livelier than he sounds, a voice over the intercom, people talking to each other, beeping of equipment.

[name] shook her head, ignoring the fact he can't see her anyway. "It's not important. Are you at the hospital?"

Something gives her the feeling that he just nodded in the same way she had shook her head. "Yeah. There were some injuries."

"Our problem child again?" There's a smile in her voice, referring to Midoriya.

"He was mostly okay, actually. Kirishima was injured more than Midoriya. And I..." Aizawa trails off. He doesn't finish the sentence.

Considering the options for a few moments, [name] finally sighs. "Text me which hospital you're at. I'm on my way."

There's a brief moment that sounds like Aizawa is thinking about telling [name] not to, but after it passed, he only muttered, "Okay."

After hanging up, [name] followed the directions in Aizawa's text to get to the hospital as quick as she could. It wasn't close, but it wasn't a difficult journey to make either. In order to get into the section of the hospital that had marked off for the heroes involved, she had to flash her Yuuei badge and hero license.

The longer they took, the antsier [name] felt, her skin starting to crawl as she tapped her foot impatiently at the receptionist.

Finally, she managed to break passed the reception desk and into the wing of the hospital, looking around frantically for Aizawa. She spotted him after what felt like centuries of searching, sitting on a bench in between two rooms. She didn't spar a glance at the rooms long enough to know what they were for.

"Well, I guess at least I know you're not that bad," She said, almost casually, as she come to stand in front of him.

In response, Aizawa stood and pulled the neckline of his shirt to show some stitches on his shoulder. "That's all." But he didn't miss how [name]'s eyes lingered over the newly exposed skin, surely scanning for any more bruises and scrapes. "I'm okay."

"You said Kirishima--?" She could barely finish the sentence at the thought. "Is he okay?"

"He's looked better, but they say he's expected to make a full recovery," Aizawa answered. His eyes ran over her body. Her skin had the slight shine of sweat from her hurry to get here, and she was swaying lightly on her feet. Gently, he took her wrist and guided her to the bench, instructing her to sit.

She chuckled softly and sat. He let go of her wrist as she started her descent, but [name] wasn't having that. She caught his hand and pulled him down onto the bench as well. Even though Aizawa had been quick to let go in his initiation, [name] didn't let go at all, instead setting their joined hands onto the bench together.

Making sure she didn't land too hard on the stitches, [name] dropped her head onto his shoulder. "I was really worried."

"I know, [name]." Aizawa ran his thumb over the back of her hand, setting his own head on top of hers and closing his eyes.

"Our kids are amazing," She murmured.

"I know, [name]."

Her shoulders shook with a chuckle, prompting Aizawa to lift his head as she did her own. "You sound like a broken record." Her smile made Aizawa's chest feel warm.

It was Aizawa's turn to grin, turning to her a bit more and using his free hand to cup her cheek. "I know, [name]."

Again she laughed, inching closer to him. The smile lingered on her lips, even as she fluttered her eyes shut and closed the distance between them.

It was only a brief kiss, but as they both pulled away, neither could wipe the soft grins from their faces.

[name] swallowed, biting her lip. "I love you, Aizawa."

"I--" He started.

"Don't say it again."

Aizawa's laugh had always been so uniquely perfect to [name]. Rare and sweet and so rich. "I wasn't going to. Rude." He pulled his hand away from her face to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "I love you too, [name]."

And they shared another kiss.

And another, and another, too.

a/n: sooo. another one so soon. i think it just really dawned on me how close i am to finishing this story (there's only the next chapter and an epilogue) and thats pretty insane.

anyway bfs still sick, still have time to kill, and def still needing the distraction so i churned this out. i don't love it-- esp the tense was giving me trouble for whatever reason. but its not too bad considering how out of practice i feel. i hope you guys are enjoying finally getting to the ending lol.

ily all.