The weather can be fickle, Arashi Shirakumo knows that better than most.
When she joins Class 1-A, she expects life to be much of the same, everchanging bullshit. Simple in it's monotony.
Reality is anything but simple however, and she finds herself...
Arashi doesn't know when she started calling Aria her friend...
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She feels like they've been friends for forever, even though they've only just barely met.
She figures going through a life or death situation with someone would do that to you. Her stomach is churning, coiling hot and heavy in her chest. She makes room to power through it, to ignore the feeling for later. Aria looks up when she wakes, her eyes are glossy from sleep, and her voice cracks. It makes Arashi frown, seeing her so beaten and worn. She can't help but feel proud of her though, for a match well fought.
Aria attempts to sit up, pushing her back flush against the wall. The movement takes the breath out of Aria's lungs, it was exhausting to move, Arashi could see, "Don't push yourself." She doesn't mean the tone to come out like a scold, but it does.
"Why...W-Why are you...?" Aria cuts herself off, groaning when the action of merely talking sends a shot of pain down her side, "D-Don't you have a match?"
The comment catches Arashi off guard, and her heart clenches. The coiling in her stomach grows ever present, settling like hot coals in her chest. Arashi shakes her head, forcing a tender smile on her face, "I lost." Arashi doesn't miss the way Aria's eyes soften with pity. Despite herself, Arashi can't help but feel angry. Not at her, but for Arashi's own actions previously. She pushes that feeling down, as well, for later and continues, "Sachi is moving on, however."
"I'm sure you put up a great fight." Arashi frowns, if only she knew how pathetic she was during that entire fight.
It slips, and Arashi feels slightly guilty for making this about her, "Not really... Iida completely overpowered me." The sudden statement is quiet, barely above a whisper. She feels Aria's hand clasp firmly over her own, unknown strength flowing through Aria as she squeezes, trying to be comforting, but the ball of self deprecation has long already swallowed Arashi whole.
"That's not true Arashi..." Arashi shakes her head, pulling her hand away to fold in her lap.
"Perhaps it isn't... but that doesn't matter anymore." The girls fall into a silence, it's not tense, or awkward, just silence . Arashi glances back up at Aria, who was staring at her lap, much like Arashi, deep in thought. Arashi sighs, and decides to break the quietness of the makeshift medbay, even though she already knew her answer, "Do you want me to take you to watch Sachiko?"
Aria's voice is so small when she speaks back up again, "No...I-I'll be alright..." Arashi frowns, her voice is strained, and she can see that she's fighting back tears, "I have some things I need to do now."
"Do you want me to stay?" Arashi knows that what Aria said was a silent push for her to leave, but Arashi feels the need to ask anyways. She's always up for helping someone else, even if she wasn't feeling 100%. It's what her father said made her a hero. If only he knew how wrong he was.
