Y/n was sprawled across her bed, staring at the bright laptop displaying less than half of an essay due before her next class. Every sentence she planned out left her mind with each long blink and eye-watering yawn. Just when she felt herself slowly slipping into a much-desired sleep, the blaring ringtone from the phone she wisely placed across the room. The girl lugged her heavy body over to her cell phone. "Hello?" Her voice was coarse and thick.
"Hello is this Y/n L/n?"
"This is she."
"This is Nara City Hospital, We're calling to inform you that your grandmother, Agnes L/n was admitted into our E.R about 10 minutes ago, she took a fall. You were listed as her emergency contact."
Y/n felt her throat dry up and her stomach tie in a knot. She snatched the sweatpants she had worn earlier off the floor and held the phone up to her ear with her shoulder. "Is she alright?"
"There were only minor injuries, a fractured wrist, and a sprained ankle. She's been asking us to call you since she got in the ambulance. Will you be able to come to the hospital?"
"No, yeah I can make it. It will take a while though. About 2 hours tops." She hurriedly trapped her shoes and ran out of her dorm room
"Great we'll see you then." The lady on the other line hung up leaving Y/n running out of the dorm room.
Sero, sitting cross-legged on the couch got up to follow her. "Where are we going?"
"Hospital, my grandma fell and broke something." Y/n ran toward the teacher's dorm—which for some reason was a mile away—with Sero almost right next to her. The pair banged loudly on the door until their greasy-haired homeroom teacher opened the door.
"Somebody better be actively dying."
"My grandma," She managed the wheeze out between deep breaths. "Hospital. Can we?"
He gave a deep sigh and ran his hand over his head. "Just go." The teens thanked him and continued their journey to the bullet train station
"You don't have to come with me," Y/n finally spoke to the person who blindly followed her. "We'll be on the train for like an hour."
Sero shrugged, "Fine with me, it's safer to be in pairs anyway."
Both of them seated themselves on the bullet train when they eventually reached it. Y/n's mind never stopped spiraling.
"If you stayed at home, this never would've happened. And for what? Attention? To meet your favorite heroes? You selfish prick. You never should've accepted that—"
Sero's cold hand brushed over hers that was gripping tightly at her thigh. She initially jumped at the contact, then looked down at their hands together and up at the slight smile on his face.
"You were staring at an empty seat for like twenty minutes. Are you okay?"
She sighed long and hard, "I will be. Thank you for coming with me."
"Why wouldn't I? I care about you."
Y/n blinked slowly and nodded, too tired and anxious to register what the boy said to her.
Or more importantly, what he didn't say.
~♡~
After a long train ride and a mile and a half run, that felt twice as long due to Y/n's nervousness. The two finally arrived at the hospital. "My name's Y/n L/n, I'm Suko L/n's granddaughter." The girl quickly told the receptionist, who then got a doctor to escort her to her grandmother's room.
Upon entering the room, was Y/n's grandmother in the bed cast on her arm, and an ankle split. Her cousin was sitting in the side chair texting with a small smirk on his face. He looked up from his phone to give Sero a grouchy face, then continued with what he was doing. The fluorescent lighting made everyone in the room look pale and sickly. Y/n sat in the chair next to her cousin, Sero stood right next to her.
"So, she came in with a broken wrist and sprained ankle. We gave you a cast for the wrists and split from an ankle." He handed Y/n's grandma a clipboard with multiple different prescriptions and discharge papers. "She'll have to take each of these pills for about 8 weeks for both injuries. Once you sign the papers, you're free to go." With that, the doctor left the room, leaving the family and Sero in the emergency room.
"What even happened?" Y/n asked in her drained voice.
Her grandma tried to sit up more and winced at the pressure she accidentally put on her wrist. Her sound made Y/n jump out of her seat towards her, "Calm down y/n, I was walking out of the bathroom and slipped that's all. Not a big deal."
"The lady on the phone said you were asking for me."
"Well is it a crime to want to see my only granddaughter? And her boyfriend." Her grandma turned to Sero and gave him a semi-warming closed-lip smile.
"Oh, this is Sero. And he's not my boyfriend." She said quickly. She had forgotten he was even in the room. Y/n's cousin let out a small 'hmm' after hearing Sero's name. "Do you want anything to eat? I can go to the cafeteria and get you something."
She sighed, "Not hungry, just thirsty. Can you just get me a water bottle or something from the vending machine?"
"When was the last time you've eaten?"
"About twenty minutes before you got here. Can you please get the water?"
Sero finally spoke, "I can get it. You look like you need rest anyway."
"Yeah, we'll get it," Y/n's cousin followed Sero out of the door. "You two catch up."
The door shut on the girl and her grandmother and the room's atmosphere felt slightly lighter, "Where's Masaru?" Y/n asked knowing what the answer would be.
"It's anybody's guess," Suko let out a half-hearted chuckle. "The last time I saw him was over a week ago."
The girl's heart sank. She crossed her arms and let her body droop back into the chair, "Grandma, I'm sorry."
Her grandma took the hand closest to the bed and unwrapped her granddaughter's arms. "For what? Following your dreams?"
Even though she was faced towards her grandmother, her eyes were still glued to the floor. "If I would've stayed at Shiketsu this never would've happened. I was being selfish."
"Y/n, not of this was your fault. You're just a kid. I'm not your responsibility."
Y/n nodded and lifted her head, but she still felt awful.
Like no matter what she did, it would always end badly for somebody.
~☆~
Sero and y/n's cousin shut the door and walked silently to the vending machines. Sero twiddled his thumbs, trying to find something to say. something that would take the awkwardness out of the conversation. "So, what's your name?"
"Saburo." He put his phone in his pocket. "What do you want with my cousin?"
The older boy almost let out a chuckle, "What?"
"You heard me, Sero." He sneered.
"I don't want anything, we're just close." Sero paused before saying the last word.
He then shook his head. "You're into her, aren't you? It's so obvious. But Y/n's not the most observant, at least when it comes to emotions. Want my advice?"
"Not really."
Sero's face twisted and he kept his head straight before Saburo stood in front of him forcing him to stop walking. "Just go for it, dude. YOLO, am I right?"
The two just stared at each other, one with a look of confusion and the other looking like he just solved the mystery of life. "That's actually a lot harder than it sounds." Was he really entertaining this?
Saburo exhaled sounding piqued, "Bro, just grow some balls and ask her out. That's how I got my girlfriend." He opened his phone and shoved his messages in Sero's face.
"I really don't want to read these," He turned his face away from the phone.
He shrugged and they both continued to the vending machine. "I was trying to help you out. Give you some tips from a pro player."
Even though it was coming from a kid probably half his age, he still couldn't help but recognize what he was saying. Maybe just going out and saying it would help him?
"Wait, what are you like 8?" He asked after being reminded of who he was talking to.
"I'm 11, actually." He retorted sharply.
They got the water from the vending machine and Sero was shown another set of messages on the way back. "I already told you I don't want to see these."
"But these are from my other girlfriend. So they're different." Saburo gave a cheeky smile.
"I still don't want to—other girlfriend? How many do you have?" He had just barely screamed that last question. Saburo walked faster to the room his grandma was in and left Sero in a state of shock.
'A 5th grader has more game than I ever will have.'
~☆~
Everyone in the room helped Suko get into a wheelchair and leave the hospital. The cold 1 AM air made Y/n shiver, giving Sero the ideal opportunity to hang his jacket from her shoulders. She put both of her arms in and softly smiled to herself.
Although she was practically swimming in his jacket, it fit perfectly.
"How cute!" Suko gave her grandaughter a flashy smile.
"Grandma!" She whisper-shouted, earning a cackle-like laugh from Saburo. "So how are you to getting home?"
"We can take the bus. The stop is a few minutes that way." Saburo pointed in the opposite direction of the bullet train station they came from.
"Okay, let's go."
"No Y/n," He put his feet shoulder-width apart and held his hand out to stop her. "You can't go. I need to learn how to take care of grandma too. Since Dad is always MIA."
"Fine. Just be careful." Y/n gave her grandma a forehead kiss, and her cousin a fistbump. and the two left for the bus stop, leaving Y/n and Sero to make their way to the train station. Once they finally boarded the—for some odd reason—crowded train. They found that there was only one seat left. The two looked over at each other.
"You can have it," Y/n sluggishly leaned against the pole.
Sero carefully took her hand and lead her towards the empty seat, "You're the one about to fall over, you take it."
Y/n gave him a small smile and drifted off to sleep.
~♡~
Sero briskly walked across the dorm's hallways, careful not to wake any more classmates than necessary. Once he got to the room he was looking for, knocked on the door repeatedly until a weary boy peeped his head from the other side of the door.
"Sero Hanta, you better have the best reason in all of existence to be knocking on my door like a maniac at two in the morning," Bakugou spoke with venom dripping from each of his words.
"Can I come in?" He bounced from one foot to the other like he was in line for the bathroom. "I'll only be like four minutes I promise."
Bakugouunenthusiastically opened his door and turned on his in-need-of-a-lightbulb-change desk lamp, lighting the room a dim orangey color.
"So I went with Y/n to the hospital, and I met her little cousin. And he had some very, interesting advice." Sero sat in his desk chair and fairly hunched over.
"Okay? I still want to know why you were beating down my door."
"He basically said that I should just go for it. And it makes sense, but it came from a middle schooler so I have no idea if I should take it seriously. So, I wanted advice from someone in a successful relationship."
Bakugou just stared at him, blinking for seconds at a time, and suddenly threw a pillow at Sero alarmingly fast. "That's it? You woke me up to tell me the exact same shit we've all been telling you for a month came from somebody else? Why was that wake me up in the middle of the night information? Get out."
"But I just—" As he tried to finish his sentence, Sero was pushed out of the room so quickly he never saw Bakugou get off of the bed, he yet just stood in front of the door to think about what his friend had just told him.
'The same stuff they were telling me.' How could he have been so stupid? The answer was always that obvious. Just go for it.
So what the hell was he waiting for?