"Don't Call Me 'Genius.'" (Saiki x Fem!Reader)

(8) De-stressing.

Usually, you were quite a calm and composed person. But lately, your mind had felt scattered, almost as if your own skull was crushing your brain.

It was not a nice feeling.

You were lying on your couch, with a headache, mindlessly watching television as a desperate attempt to quiet your mind. Yet, it didn't seem to work.

School ended about two hours ago, and the sun was setting. The week just feel flew right by you, yet it dragged on forever. It was almost like you were just watching the days pass.

It was getting increasingly difficult to be a little cheerful around people, or even remotely happy or energetic. It's just that you didn't feel... your best.

You were tired, and always sort of in your mind. Teruhashi and Yumehara had noticed you zoning out multiple times throughout the week, and they had grown worried.

Your anxiety had grown a bit worse too. You started feeling inferior to your friends, which led to you feeling bad about being jealous of them. They just seemed to have a picture perfect lives. And since the entire incident with Takahashi and his friends that happened a few days ago, you constantly felt as if people were watching you, or like people were judging you for that situation.

You didn't like being the center of attention. You disliked being perceived.

Not only that, but focusing was growing increasingly hard. You still were thriving academically, but your mental state just felt like it was melting for no reason.

You just wanted to crawl up in your bed and sleep.

You were tired.

You didn't want to do anything, and you didn't want to talk to anyone, and you didn't want to move, or get up. You felt exhausted even if you didn't do much. Everything just felt as if it required so much energy, energy that you didn't have or couldn't seem to get.

So, what did you do?

Bake.

People have their own coping strategies. Some people journal, some people have support systems they can vent to, and some people use other forms of artistic outlets to let out their emotions or frustrations.

You baked, as a coping mechanism. You found that when you baked, you felt you had some sense of control. Life was so unpredictable, and it was hard to navigate. With baking, you can be precise, and you can measure things exactly, and you can follow a recipe to the letter and have the same tasty outcome every time.

Even if you didn't feel like being precise and measuring things exactly, things can always be tweaked, like how many chocolate chips can go in, or you could add something like cinnamon or nutmeg to a recipe if you wanted.

The creativity and sense of control mixed together in baking provided the perfect coping mechanism for you. So, you mustered up the courage to get up off the couch, and head to the kitchen, where you got out a whisk, three bowls, and all the ingredients i to make brownies.

     Preheating the oven, measuring and mixing the dry ingredients... mixing the butter and sugar together... combining dry and wet ingredients together and creating the picture perfect bowl of brownie batter. You added in... the entire bag of chocolate chips, unsurprisingly, because who actually uses the recommended amount of 2 cups?

     You got out a baking dish and lined it with baking paper, and nonstick spray, just to be safe. You put the tray of brownies in the oven, and looked at the date.

      February 9th.

     Valentine's Day was only in 5 days... you didn't really dislike Valentine's Day, but you did dislike seeing couples in the hall making out and baby talking to each other.

     You thought that maybe you'd bring some brownies to school on Valentine's Day for your friends. It'd be nice, considering they'd been good friends to you so far.

     After waiting what felt like an eternity, the brownies were ready, and baked to perfection. You got some oven mitts and put the glass baking tray on the stovetop, so you wouldn't damage the counter with heat.

     Now came the long part of waiting even more for everything to cool off.

     You sat on the couch, and sighed quietly as you put on some random Netflix show to pass time. You felt a bit lonely in the house all day... since your father worked so much, there wasn't really anyone around.

You contemplated on asking maybe Yumehara or Teruhashi to come over... but you remembered Teruhashi was going to go volunteer at an animal shelter... which was very sweet. You reached for your phone to call Yumehara, but then remembered she got sick with a cold.

'Great.. I really need to expand my circle... although, some of my classmates are odd.' You thought, turning your attention back to the tv.

     Saiki's POV:

     Geez, this girl really needs to get some more friends... and a therapist. It's annoying listening to constant anxiety over things people never even notice.

     I can guarantee that no one is judging her. From just reading their minds, they're more focused on their own lives. That's why I don't get people with anxiety. But I guess it is irrational for a reason...

     Although she's right about most of the students being weird. So pickings for decent friends are slim. She's the only semi-normal person in the entire class. Besides being a genius.

     ...Although, she isn't like Kusuke. There might be more pros than cons of being her friend..

     She draws some, but minimal attention, she's normal enough, and she also bakes, which means if I can play my cards right... I can save money on sweets if I manage to get her to give me some.

     ...I know I don't usually go out of my way for people, especially oddities like geniuses, but she seems like a decently good person just from monitoring her mind.

     ...Besides, she's lonely. She could use some company, and I could use some brownies.

A/N: HOLY SHIT IM SO SORRY I LEFT FOR LIKE A MONTH AND A HALF 😭😭😭 as an apology I'm releasing a handful of chapters to make up for lost time. I just got caught up with school and didn't have time for fanfic 💔💔💔 I WILL UPDATE MORE THOUGH TRUST ! Also... I'm realizing just how much of a bigback I made Saiki in this fic 💔💔💔