Red and White, Black and Blue

Chapter 20: Return to... Normal?

Ryumi lands on the main walk of the UA campus on their first day back to class. She flutters down right next to Shoto, the gust throwing his hair and mixing the colors wildly. "Morning." She greets him as she pulls her flight goggles off and stows them in her bag.

"Good morning..." He responds, distracted as he pauses to attempt to fix his hair.

She bats her wing into his shoulder to try and get him moving again. "You're so fussy."

Shoto ignores the push, still struggling to get the different colored strands separated again without a mirror.

"Fine, here." Ryumi says with a sigh as she steps in front and helps him out.

"Thanks." He runs a hand over the area to resmooth it and starts walking again.

"So... how've you been? I... assume everything was okay, since you didn't say anything?" She asks, watching him carefully.

He nods. "Yeah. I couldn't do much until my arm healed, though." He gently rubs the part of his left arm that was wounded in the battle. She doubts it's actually still bandaged, though with his uniform jacket on it's hard to say.

"And... him?" She cautiously prods him toward her actual concern.

But surprisingly, Shoto just shrugs. "It was fine. He... never said anything about it."

Ryumi jumps ahead to look him in the eyes, disbelieving. "Seriously?"

He nods again. "Yeah... I even asked once. He brushed it off." Shoto looks upward, like he's trying to remember. "He just got a weird look and said something like... 'less important than what I'm trying to show you now'. It never came up again."

"Huh..." She puts a hand to her mouth, considering, her tail swishing behind. After a moment, her eyes flick toward him. "Could've saved me some worry if you'd just said so on the phone, y'know."

He shifts uncomfortably and shoves his hands in his pockets. "I... felt bad. Since you all got yelled at..."

"You would think like that." She grins her fangy grin. "Still worried about that curse of yours too?"

Shoto doesn't really answer, but he grumbles in a way that says 'yes'.

Ryumi laughs again, nudging him with her wing. "Well, I'll ask the others if they're still up for stopping by a shrine after class. Even if not, we can still drop by one on the way to that place."

Shoto nods, looking a little less anxious. He glances her way as she mentions the plans they made before. "You never said where we're going."

"Didn't I?" She answers coyly. "Well, it's..."

"Hey you two!"

A voice comes from behind them, and the pair turn to see Yaoyorozu running up to them. She slows as she catches up and joins them, walking to Ryumi's left. "Good morning Ryumi, Todoroki."

"Morning, Yaoyorozu."

"Good morning."

She smiles at the pair. "So how were your internships? Do anything exciting?"

"We fought some villains..." Shoto begins.

"Mostly a lot of patrolling, but things did get a little crazy at the end." Ryumi takes over for him. "Got in a bit over our heads, actually."

He sighs. "A bit, yeah..."

Yaoyorozu gives them a confused glance. "I didn't think you two were interning at the same place."

Shoto starts to answer, but Ryumi jumps in instead. "We weren't, we just... we both ended up in Hosu that night."

The taller girl's eyes go wide. "Wait, Hosu? You don't mean..."