Aesthete

Chapter 11.

I turned the doorknob to the room that I knew Uraraka was at; Midoriya and Iida were behind me.

When I saw her standing in the center of the room, she turned, giving me a huge smile.

"I almost had him!" She cried out, slamming a fist into her palm. I nodded, nearing her to gauge her expression.

She was on the verge of tears, but she nearly had me fooled that she was feeling alright. I squeezed her hand, saying, "Come back to the viewing room when you're ready," in the softest voice I could muster.

Midoriya began speaking to her while I nudged Iida with my shoulder.

"Mind telling me your game plan to defeat me?" I asked, wiggling my eyebrows.

Iida chuckled, "Now where's the fun in fighting you if I tell you my strategy?"

"Well my strategy is to jam apple juice into your engines, what do you think of that?"

His chuckling turned into full-blown howling. When he got himself settled down, he only readjusted his glasses and chopped his arm through the air, "That wasn't so polite, Reyna."

"You know I'm kidding."

He left to talk to Uraraka privately when I watched Midoriya leaving.

That's right. He's competing against Todoroki right now. He's probably going to hurt himself.

My legs moved without my permission, I left the room and followed him down the hall that would take him to the arena.

I'm sure he heard me, but I knew he wanted me to make the first move.

Call me Bakugo because I refuse to swallow my pride.

Fine. I'll make the exception.

"Midoriya." He faced me, lips etched into a frown.

"Reyna?"

I stepped closer, holding one of his sizable hands in my two palms.

I whispered, "You hurt me. You're the first person I considered a friend, I trusted you. You went and told Todoroki I was weak-minded. Even if you're right, why do you look down on me that way?"

"I promise I didn't mean it like that. When I said that, I was referring to how you walk around in sadness like you deserve it. You barely started smiling, but when you didn't, you would hold yourself back like you didn't deserve to be happy."

He took his hand away from mine before cupping my face, eyes hardening into frustration.

"I can tell bad things have happened to you. Why are you holding yourself back from moving on? Let yourself be, Florence. That's what I meant by weak-minded, it's only a facade. You know you're strong." He finished, before releasing a deep breath and stepping away.

I closed the space he created, almost feeling like if I let him slip away, I'd throw my entire friendship with him as the distance grew wider.

"Izuku?"

"Florence?"

"Thank you." I rearranged the collar of his uniform, hoping he understood what I thanked him for.

As I stepped back, he grabbed my wrist, thumb grazing over the bone that jutted out from the odd angle of my hand.

"That cheer uniform." I narrowed my eyes at his sentence, "What about it?" I asked, trying to figure out what he was getting at.

"Orange is a pretty color on you."

I blushed, unused to compliments from anyone. "Thanks." He let go, as Present Mic screamed his name as the introduction.