Smile for Me

Chapter 12: Guilt

This chapter and Chapter 13 happen at the same time, so that's why I'm releasing them together. Enjoy!!!

-Sarah

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Aizawa POV

Noise. All I hear is white noise.

Why didn't....

"Aizawa- sensei!!"

"Yes, Midorya?"

The green haired problem child looked at his teacher with concern.

"Are you okay? You've been laying in your sleeping bag longer than usual before class, and you keep making these faces..." Midorya trailed off.

Of coarse he's concerned. Come on, Shota. What are you doing?

"Sorry, class. With that, let's get started." Aizawa says as he emerges from his sleep cocoon.

For the rest of the day, Aizawa trudged through his lessons (more than usual) and he wasn't sure why. At his lunch break, All Might tried to sit with him and talk. However, he did most of the taking. The Erasure Hero simply ate his lunch in silence.

At the end of the day, when he was walking out of UA towards the train station, Midnight stopped him.

"Aizawa, wait."

He stopped in his tracks.

Maybe if I answer, she'll leave me alone...

Wait...why am I getting deja-vu? 

He turns around to face her, and sees the concerned look of his friend.

"I know you're still taking the loss of Emi hard; we all are.  That's why some of us were going to get together again." Midnight offers.

Aizawa raises an eyebrow, still not moving from his position.

"Not like we did on the weekend. Heh, I can see how you may have taken it that way. No, no. Some of us were just going to get dinner and-"

"No."

.....

Midnight looks her friend in the eyes.

"But-"

"I SAID NO!" Aizawa yelled as his quirk and scarf activated.

The other dark haired Hero looks at him in shock that he raised his voice, especially at her.

"...O...Okay. I understand." She starts to walk away.

"Thanks."

She turns her head back towards him cautiously.

"...For inviting me. I just want to be alone."

Midnight turns to her fellow teacher with sympathy. "Eraser, you don't have to bear the grief alone. I know you were kind of close to her, but you aren't the only one that cared about her. We can get through it together."

Aizawa looks at her through his now relaxed scarf in silence for a moment.

"Is he considering..." Midnight thought.

"It's okay. Tonight I think I'll just go home. Lesson plans and all. You guys go have fun without me; maybe I'll join you next time."

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Midnight POV

"I'm not sure what to do," Hizashi says while spooning ramen into his mouth, "he just won't let me help him."

"Same here," Midnight explains, "I tried to invite him to come with us to have dinner here, and he snapped! He...he raised his voice at me and activated his scarf.."

At this, the other Heroes in the room stopped eating for a moment to look at her in shock.

13 finally speaks, "I tried to talk to him as well, but he never got violent with me. Maybe everyone just kept asking him and he finally snapped?"

"I don't think that's it," Fatgum says as he shovels sushi into his mouth, "He's generally okay, until someone pulls him out of his own little world, then he looks around and becomes super depressed."

"How come? It's not like he's responsible for what happened. Especially to Emi..." Mic responds.

"Maybe..but that's not the point."

The others look at her in confusion, however Fatgum looked confused with a face full of food.

"What if he feels responsible in some way? Or some kind of subconscious guilt for not treating her better when she was....here?" Midnight proposes.

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Aizawa POV

The tired teacher tosses his things into his room, and heads straight for the kitchen to scavenge something to eat. When he finally finds something, he decides to eat it on the couch and watch something.

Maybe some mindless tv could help this weird ache in my chest...

//////////the next morning/////////////

He awakes to find himself sprawled out over the couch, cold ramen sitting on the coffee table.

He notices that he himself was a bit of a mess as well. He looked down to find that he was clutching Emi's bracelet in a fetal position like it was his lifeline.

I really need to stop doing this every night.

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Weren't expecting something from Midnight's perspective, were ya?! Also, awww, Aizawa feels guilty!! BB nooooooo!

-Sarah