Limitless || BnHA X JJK

12 • blast from the past

Kirishima has been oddly quiet and pensive these last few days. He rarely talks about his exciting patrols under Fatgum's watch, rarely goes out of his way to tell you funny stories about his friends, and most of all, he rarely smiles. He has this distant look in his eyes like his head isn't quite here. You noticed it first a few days after he got shot, but whether his sudden depressive mood comes from that incident or something else is still a mystery.

"Maybe it's a crush?!"

"Satoru, I doubt he has the time to think of relationships."

"But what if someone caught his eye and he's dying on the inside because he knows it will never happen?!"

Despite your previous hesitancy, you ended up confining in your cousin, calling the white-haired man only to vent about Kirishima's behaviour. You could have asked the boy himself, but talking about feeling isn't your strong suit, and therefore, you aren't quite knowledgeable enough to know how to approach the situation. Not to mention that dealing with a hormonal teenager is harder than with an adult.

You sigh for what feels like the one hundredth time today, rubbing the bridge of your nose with two fingers to ease your upcoming headache. On the other end of the phone, Satoru laughs, giggles even, like a schoolgirl with a new crush would. "I just wish he'd speak about it first. How do you bring something like this up in the first place?" Your cousin might have the charisma of a God, but his social skills are lacking drastically, so you might not get a good answer out of him. But on the other hand, he's been working with teens for much longer than you.

"Just ask?"

You groan "I can't. What if he feels like I'm overstepping a boundary?"

By now, the man on the other line has stopped giggling. Instead, he sighs in frustration while you're the one frustrated. "Trust me. He'll probably appreciate it even!" Though there is still uncertainty in your mind and swirling in your stomach, you agree to what Satoru says, promising him that you will at least try to spark up the topic during your next conversation with Kirishima. Not long after that, you hang up, leaning back into your office chair and staring at the ceiling.

Later, you'll have to overcome the hurdle of speaking about your feelings. Whether you like it or not, it's an important part of your developing trust and teacher-student relationship with the red headed boy. You'll just have to suck up your ill manners and uncaring nature to appear trustworthy so Kirishima will open up to you.

And true to your words to Satoru, you're standing in front of Kirishima's door later that day, debating if you should knock or call out to him. From the pressure you do both, giving the wood a few taps with your knuckles while calling Kirishima's name. His voice calls back for you to enter, and you swiftly step into his room before anyone else on the floor notices your distressed body language. The red head is sitting on his bed, tapping away at his phone, only laying it to the side after you've stepped closer to him. "What's up?" It takes you a while, but after swallowing the lump in your throat and averting your eyes to the floor, you spit it out. The dreaded questions you've been dying to ask for days now.

"Is something going on?"

Surprised, the boy takes a little to react, reaching up and rubbing the back of his neck. "Not really." It's an obvious lie you're not buying, and while you could back off now since he doesn't seem to be in the mood to talk about it, you insist.

"You seemed off these days, but tell me there's nothing? I know you better than that."

He frowns, biting his lip and letting his hand rest on his shoulder. "Well, there's something. . . but I can't talk about it right now. Sorry." He adds the last bit later on, looking off to the side.