Tenya

0 | summer

"Wait, what?"

"I made the hero course, Hinoka. I'm going to start as a first year next semester." Iida said, turning towards me as I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.

"But I thought you were going to Shiketsu, since that's where your parents went."

"Tensei went to UA, and look at where he is now! I think that it's going to be the right place for me in the long run."

I stayed silent, trying to process what Tenya had just told me.

UA? The hero course?

The plan had always been Shiketsu, and he'd come back from the UA tour with a glimmer in his eyes. I didn't ask him about it for a few days, letting him process and keeping the conversations to a minimum at lunch. I didn't want to intrude, and hated prying.

"Hey, Hinoka? You okay?" Tenya asked, a few steps ahead of me, his frame outlined by the setting sun behind him.

Fuck.

"I'm fine, just.. thinking. Let's get going." I said, walking forward and wrapping my arms around his bicep, feeling the tenseness in his body fade slightly.

I rested my head on his shoulder for the remainder of the walk, feeling his free hand wrap around my own to draw circles on my skin with the pad of his thumb.

He was safe. From the day I'd moved in next to him, he'd been the one that knocked on my window at three in the morning when I'd texted him I couldn't sleep, and the one who woke me up for school three hours later.

He'd been my best friend for five years, and the thought of him not being at the same school as I was next year scared the living hell out of me. I'd already heard back from Shiketsu, offering me a spot in their general studies course after I'd applied five months ago. I'd planned to tell Iida this weekend.

Now I questioned whether or not to accept.

When we reached our homes Tenya walked me to the front door and pulled me into his frame, wrapping his large arms around my frame. I snaked my arms around him, burying my face into his chest and swallowing the lump in my throat.

Feeling him squeeze me once, he let go after holding the back of my head with one hand and pressing a kiss to the crown and pulling back. Grabbing my keys and letting go of him, he waved before walking the twenty seconds to his front door.

I knew he'd be over later, the everlasting insomnia preventing me from sleeping before midnight most nights. On those days, when he hadn't been (unbeknownst to me)training for either of the entrance exams for the hero courses, he knocked on the window that faced his own.

He'd usually crawl underneath the covers with me after I'd unlocked and pulled the window open for him, hooking his arm around my waist and pulling me into him. He'd usually tuck his nose into my shoulder, breathing me in since I always showered at night. He'd usually wake before I did, letting himself relish in a few quiet minutes before he pulled away and went back to his own home to shower and get ready, before he knocked on the front door to walk with me to school, like he hadn't just been in the house an hour earlier.

I snapped back into reality as I walked through the front door, smelling my dad's cooking as soon as I let go of the air I'd kept hostage in my lungs. A smile grazed my face, letting my bag fall from my arm and onto the ground next to my shoes.

I padded over to the island and sat at one of the barstool chairs, laying my chin on my arms as I folded them across the granite countertop, watching my dad as the piano music reached my ears from the living room TV.

Closing my eyes, I let my thoughts quiet down and tried to focus on the sound of the food cooking a few feet away from me. As I decompressed from the day I heard a knock at the front door, pulling myself out of the nothingness I'd indulged in and getting up as my dad glanced over to the door.

We didn't have a peephole, so I pulled open the door and found Tenya standing there, a cupcake in his hand with a candle already lit, catching him as he'd quickly slid my neon blue lighter into his front pocket. A smile plastered his face as I popped a hip slightly, leaning a hand against the doorframe and letting a sigh leave my chest.

"You already wished me happy birthday."

"But I know you haven't had any cake yet! Besides, it's tradition." He said, grabbing my hand and pulling my fingers open with his own and putting the cupcake, melting candle and all, into my hand.

"Do I have to make a wish?"

"Two please."

***

Crawling out of my window, joint on the windowsill and blankets on the roofing panels that looked out onto the street and down to the city, I heard another window opening to my left and glanced over as I sat, seeing Tenya in his cat pajama pants as he jumped over to my roof.

I grabbed the blanket that we didn't sit on and wrapped it around my shoulders, holding it open as Tenya crawled underneath it as he sat next to me. Our knees touched as he pulled his corner of the gigantic blanket over his frame, his built shoulders taking up a good portion of the fabric.

I'd grabbed the joint I'd rolled an hour earlier and held my hand out for my lighter, putting it between my lips as Iida fished the neon blue plastic from his pajama pants and putting it into my palm.

He watched quietly as I lit up, taking a long hit as his dark eyes gazed through his glasses. I coughed once, clearing my throat before handing it to him. Tenya took it gingerly from my fingers, pressing his lips around the end of the joint and inhaling as I rested my head on his shoulder.

I took the joint from him as he handed it back to me, feeling his arm, now free, wrap around my shoulder and his head fall onto my own. He squeezed me lightly, taking another long hit and rolling the blunt between my fingers. I rested my hand on his knee, my eyes drifting towards the sky and readjusting my head slightly. Tenya moved and he kissed the top of my head, taking the blunt and hitting it for the second, and last time(he has a low tolerance).

"You didn't tell me you were taking the entrance exam to UA." I said quietly as he lifted his head from mine, letting me lift my own as he moved his hand from around my shoulder to my knee, drawing circles on the exposed skin.

"I thought I wouldn't need to tell you until I passed. I didn't want to worry you if I didn't get in." He said, the pads of his fingers grazing your knee and sending sparks down your spine.

"It worries me a little you didn't tell me you were even taking the exam, Ten. I thought we were going to Shiketsu together." I said, not realizing I'd shared your own secret until after the fact, Tenya stopping his fingers and looking at you.

"What do you mean by together? I thought you were going to a school near Shiketsu." He asked, genuinely confused as his hand gently cupped your knee.

"I was gonna tell you, but I got into their general studies program that's starting next year. I haven't accepted yet and-"

"You have to accept! That's one of the best schools in the country!" He said, a smile beaming across his face.

"Not if you're not there, Tenya! I can't do this without my best friend." I told him, grabbing his hand that rested on my leg and lacing my fingers through his.

He stared into my eyes, the navy of his irises pouring into the jade of mine. I could almost feel him thinking, formulating his next sentence, thinking through the whirlwind of his thoughts so he could say what he wanted and needed to say to me.

"Then decline and transfer to UA. If you made it into Shiketsu, you can make it into UA."

"It took five months for me to hear back from them. I can't just-"

"I think you forget that I have connections, Hinoka."

"I'm not gonna leech off your parents to get into a school, dude."

"You're not leeching. You and your dad do enough for my family, so let us do something for you. Besides, you've always wanted to go into hero marketing, right?"