Hiya. People actually seem to like when I put music above the chapters so I'll try doing that more often. This is "All I Need" by Lloyd
Enjoy~
(y/n)'s POV
"Huh?"
"What have you been up to? Kirishima asked where you've been," Mina asked.
"Oh, just busy," I replied, "I guess I've been missing them."
I was slapping myself on the wrist at this point, not taking the clearly laid out advice Aizawa had given me. He had told me not to avoid Bakugo and Kirishima, but I was and just labelling it as hanging out more diversely. I had hung out with Kaminari and Shinsou, spent the afternoon yesterday talking with Deku, and now I had circled back to Mina. I was still in possession of the second volume of Bakugo's romance manga and even though I was already finished with it, I did not want to return it just yet. It was cowardly, but at this point I felt like I had some justification in the way I was acting. With the amount of trauma I had under my belt, I just needed time to myself without drama.
"You avoiding them?"
"What? No. What makes you say that?" I asked, shrugging her off.
"You were busy yesterday because you were listening to Midoriya rant for hours."
"He's interesting to listen to."
"Not that interesting," Mina pointed out and I let out a soft sigh.
"I don't mean to avoid them or make them feel like I don't like them, but I just...need a break is all," I said. "I try not to let myself use my background as an excuse for how I feel or how I'm acting, but at this point...I've never had a crush on anyone, let alone 2 people who very clearly like each other. It takes a lot out of me and I don't want to deal with it right now."
"Awe...(y/n), I didn't know that was how you felt. I mean...I guess it makes sense and all considering you technically have never had a crush on anyone."
"Mmm."
"Well. If they ask, I'll just steer them away from you for a little while," Mina said.
"Thanks, you really don't have to," I replied. "It's not like I can just avoid them forever."
"True..."
"It'll be fine, eventually I'll just miss them too much to be avoiding them," I pointed out and she nodded. We completed our homework together and I ended up walking back to my dorm with a cautious eye out. It was clear now that at least Kirishima had figured out I was trying to keep my distance right now, having gone to Mina about me. I knew that Kirishima was a tenacious guy, so the idea he might be looking around for a moment to talk to me did not phase me--hence why I was keeping an eye out. As for Bakugo, I didn't know. I peered around the corner, seeing that my hall was empty and made a mad dash to my door. I stopped, entering in the code and opening up the door.
"(y/n)!"
I immediately recognized that as Kirishima and just pretended I couldn't hear him, shutting myself in my dorm. I didn't know what good that did me besides buy about 30 seconds of time before he knocked on my door to talk to me. I didn't know why I thought he might just leave. He knocked again and I cringed before opening up my door.
"Hey--"
"Are you avoiding us?" Kirishima asked and I glanced to his right, seeing Bakugo turn his head to look at Kirishima incredulously. That obviously was not their plan and Kirishima had just blurted it out. They were a pair, acting together as usual.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"Are you avoiding us?" he asked again.
"...No...why would you ask that?" I questioned, taking the offense. It felt dirty to be so sneaky and secretive, like that was all I was meant to be. I was probably acting like they had expected me to when I first arrived.
"Oh, well, we just haven't seen you in a while," Kirishima pointed out. I furrowed my eyebrows, glancing aside.
"We don't have to hang out all the time," I pointed out, though I felt bad saying it.
"Yeah, that's true."
I looked to Bakugo who was just staring at me. It wasn't his usual glare, but he looked rather confused and the fact he was confused made him angry. He didn't break his gaze from me, so I had to be the one to look away.
"Uhm...so was that it?" I asked, getting uncomfortably itchy just standing in this interrogation.
"We just figured you might want to do something with us," Kirishima said. It was an innocent sentence, but it hurt way more than it should. Kirishima had been referring to himself and Bakugo as a 'we' this whole time and it was evident that Kirishima thought I was the one who wanted to be a part of whatever they had going on. That maybe I had nothing to do all by myself and wanted somebody to tag along. It was always me and then them.
"I'm actually pretty tired, I was going to just take a nap," I replied. "Maybe tomorrow."
"Yeah! Tomorrow," Kirishima said, after a palpable pause. It took them a second to physically gather themselves and start moving away from my door.
"Uhm, wait--" I said, dipping into my room. I returned with the second volume of the manga Bakugo had lent me and held it out to him. "So I don't forget."
"Right," he said, finally speaking.
"Later," I said, giving a small wave before shutting myself up in my room in embarrassment. I sat on my bed, face in my hands. Why couldn't I just suck it up and be a normal person? I couldn't even live with that interaction it was the worst one I had ever had, and I worked service in a villain bar. I couldn't just tell them to their faces that I didn't want to see them right now, so I just had to keep blatantly and badly lying to them. I had binged enough romance drama recently to make sense of things, and I knew better. I really just had to talk about it. It was too hard to talk about with Kirishima and Bakugo and it wasn't just my inexperience. TV made those characters lie and avoid each other because of how hard it really was just to talk to people.
I didn't think I was a dramatic person, but it was clear that I was.
I had dug myself a hole, half-promising a tomorrow. I guess I should take Aizawa's advice and just be as normal as I could around them. I was actually right in what I said to Mina, I couldn't avoid them forever. I couldn't even avoid them for one day.
The next day I shifted around uncomfortably throughout school, until it was over. As I was walking back Kaminari solidified plans for going to the arcade this afternoon.
"We can play laser tag. They have a huge one with pairs as teams instead of just 2 colors," he ranted to me. I walked alongside Kaminari with the rest of the group tagging along. "So it's a more interesting game!"
"That sounds fun," I reassured.
"I thinks so," he said. "I can teach you all the games."
"I'm familiar with arcades. More so than regular video games," I reassured. "I'm certain I could beat you at Skee Ball."
"What? No way."
"Yes way," I replied.
"You're so on," he said. "It's just down there," he said pointing a ways down, across the street. We all followed him there and before we dispersed to play games amongst ourselves, we all met in front of the laser tag area. Mina linked arms with me before I could even process the spoken instruction from the worker.
"We can be the pink team," she said. "Obviously."
"It has to match," I replied, leaning over to talk with her quietly. We were filed into the prep room and set up with chest plates. Mina and I were lit up in pink. Deku and Uraraka were the green team. Todoroki and Tsu had elected to be the blue team. Kirishima and Bakugo--though reluctant--were the red team. Kaminari and Sero were the orange team. There was one more purple team that was unused, but no yellow. I thought maybe Momo and Jirou would play and be purple, but they had elected to sit in the food court. I believed there was no yellow because it would probably be a little more difficult to distinguish it from the other colors--specifically orange.
I held my little blaster in 2 hands before we were released into the playing area.
"Okay, there's no capture the flag or anything. We just have to rack up the most points," Mina said as we listened to a countdown. "I'll go left and you go right. Stay away from the center."
"Won't everyone avoid the center because we all have fighting tactics?"
"...Shit that's a good point. You go for the middle and snipe I guess? I'll run the perimeter," she said, quickly changing her plan. There was a loud buzzer and she gave me a solid fist bump before we went our separate ways. I made a dash for the middle, slinking along the shadows. It was extremely dark. The edges of all the walls in the maze were lit up as well as colorful neon lights and stars up on the ceiling. The walls were padded, I could feel as I skimmed them with my hand. I ran my way towards a general middle, shooting 3 people within the minute and a half it took me to find my way. I slowed my pace, hearing shouting and noise. I was obviously lit up in pink, but I tried my best to remain unseen. I gripped my blaster carefully, peeking around and shooting before running the opposite way. I managed to rack up some points. Todoroki didn't quite understand the point of the game, so it was easy to score off his blast plate.
"Oi! Nerd!"
"Kacchan, why do you have to be so mean about it!" Deku called back as I heard the deflated 3 tones that meant Deku had been hit and was out for about 5-10 seconds. I had gone a good ways along without being shot.
I sprinted to the other side of the middle cluster of walls after dodging a shot from Kaminari and scoring off him instead. I was doing pretty good.
"I've been hit!" he called.
"Get up you dummy!" Sero called and I smiled slightly, running towards a spot of shelter. I turned a corner, seeing Bakugo turned the other way down a lengths. I picked up my blaster to shoot, taking a step back.
"Don't even think about it," Bakugo called, turning and pointing towards me. We would both gain nothing from shooting each other, but we stood stagnant. I kept an eye out around my peripheral. When Bakugo took a step forward, I shot. He ducked and I felt a hand on my waist before my back sensor was pressed up against the wall. I stumbled slightly, blaster against the censor at my stomach. Bakugo's hand pinned the hand of mine that held the blaster against the wall, stopping me completely. The breath was pressed from my lungs and I stopped, looking towards Bakugo.
His face was lit up, in fact small space between us was lit up red and pink, shadows cast on our faces as if we had placed them above a flashlight. Bakugo was taking this game...way too seriously.
"Don't think you can just lie and get away with it," he said. "I'm not Kirishima. I know you've been avoiding us. Him."
I felt my breath stuck in my throat, heart pounding from the exercise and the sudden contact and call out from Bakugo. I felt him push my wrist into the wall, feeling the padding give slightly. Bakugo was closer to me than he had ever been. I watched the shadows shift.
"Don't do that to him."
Bakugo was protecting Kirishima. From me.
"You're not a mystery anymore Scarface."
This was way too cheesy and fun of a place to be having such a serious scolding. My throat was tight as I swallowed even more air as a lump in my throat. I pressed the back of my head up against the wall, eyebrows twitching to keep themselves from furrowing and giving away my discomfort. Bakugo shot me once with the blaster before letting go of me. I hadn't realized that I was up on the balls of my feet until I sank down to my heels, back against the wall.
"Your move."
He walked away and I realized that he could've kept shooting me over and over to gain as many points as he could. However, Bakugo was no cheat and...he clearly didn't need it. He walked away and my chest plate stopped blinking, signifying that I was free to attack. I didn't know if I felt angry or guilty, watching Bakugo walk smugly away as if he were in some movie.
I shot back at him, hitting him in his back sensor. He glanced down before turning back to me, surprised that I hadn't just let him go in shock. We locked eyes for only a second before I ran off, ducking behind the walls. Bakugo didn't follow me, but I almost immediately ran into Kirishima. I actually physically ran into him, the crash of plastic sensors clattering as Kirishima placed steady hands on my waist.
"Woah, you okay?" he asked, blaster loose in the grip of his fingers as he pinned it against my waist. Looking slightly up towards his face, his eyes were currently lit up with amusement as well as reflecting the neon red of his attire. I retrieved my hands from his shoulders where they lay, holding my own blaster. Kirishima was sturdy and I knew I would never trip if he was here to catch me. I recognized that my breath was rather heavy and Kirishima's face grew more and more concerned as I stayed there. I stepped back and he let go, his hands falling to his sides.
"Sorry," I breathed.
"That's fine--are you--"
I ran past him, not bothering to shoot because he wasn't intending to get me.
"Wait--"
I ran off into the sound of different blasters. I scored 4 more points before the buzzer sounded and we were to make our way to the score room. The scores were tallied as I walked up beside Mina, taking off the chest plate. Bakugo knew I was lying and he knew that I was avoiding them both. It was gut-wrenching to know how Bakugo protected Kirishima so diligently. Running into Kirishima just made it so much worse, knowing how it may have affected him. Kirishima was so loyal and strong, it just made me slimy to be so avoidant.
I couldn't stop thinking about what Bakugo had said, "You aren't a mystery anymore."
Bakugo knew before I had come to the realization, that I had been holding onto the past much more than ever expected. I thought that...maybe I just wanted to set fire to my past life and memories. But here I was...clinging so hard to my mysterious and tragic past that even Bakugo noticed. I wanted to accept my new home and my new future, but I believed now that I was subconsciously finding it much easier to live like I did in the past. I was avoidant of them not just because of my inexperience, but because I felt if they knew more about me or got closer that they would run off with their tail between their legs.
I wanted to be mysterious or aloof because it was simpler.
"Oh man! Good job guys," Deku complimented, directing my attention towards Bakugo and Kirishima again.
"Duh, of course we won, stupid Deku."
"Hey, (y/n) and Mina were really close," Uraraka stated, crossing her arms with a rounded pout towards Bakugo's obtuse bragging. I looked to the board to see that we were 2 points behind. I had scored a point on Bakugo after he had scored one on me, so there was no way that we had given each other the win.
"Nice, you only got hit once," Mina said, nudging me with her elbow.
It felt like I had been actually shot with that one.
The bitter part of it was that I still...found myself liking Bakugo. It was admirable the way he defended his friend...or whatever it was they were. I wish I weren't the enemy in this case. I shook my head, shrugging off my accuracy score.
This arcade part will be continued in the next chapter :)
~Caly