Cubicity

Chapter 6: The Comforts of His Home

Pain.

Physical pain.

Self-induced physical pain.

This time, however, Tooru was at his side.

Before being healed by Recovery Girl, Izuku's body was thrashed. His right arm, hand, and fingers were a bloody and broken mess. His left arm was heavily bruised and his left leg was broken and swollen. The smallest injury was on the boy's left cheek, which had a cut on the inside and was bruised and swollen on the outside. After Recovery Girl used her quirk and performed surgery, Mirodriya could walk again, though with a wobble. He still had his right arm in a sling and was covered in bandages. Izuku felt even worse for his homeroom teacher after he started moving around in them, as he too was still wrapped in bandages. The older woman instructed the boy to keep the sling on for two days and removing the bandages would have to wait till Saturday.

The Hero Festival was over. The students of 1-A were on a bus that would soon take them back to their campus. Eraserhead was busy talking to the bus driver as they finalized things before their departure and most of the students were busy chatting at what had just occurred. Izuku was sitting at the back of the bus with Tooru on his left side and both were silent at the moment.

Midoriya found that Hagakure had been distant to him since his last match. She didn't say a word or acknowledge him as he sat in the bleachers nearby during the final two matches of the tournament event. The green haired teen had wanted to sit next to the invisible girl after he was healed, but the only open seats were next to Ochako. Tooru was sitting between Denki and Momo and didn't make any attempt to get his attention when he arrived. Izuku expected her to say something or at least give a wave but nothing happened. He did wonder, perhaps the invisible girl was too engaged with the current match between Katsuki and Fumikage?

But Midoriya thought back to before his surgery when Recovery Girl was interrupted when giving All Might the details on his wounds. His friends from lunch including the two he had teamed up with during the villain invasion; Tsuyu and Minoru had barged in and expressed their concern for him except Tooru. Ida had one of his hand gesture episodes when he had learned of Midoriya needing surgery. Uraraka had called him Deku, again, which was something he still wasn't used to hearing from anyone but Bakugo. Ojiro had thanked him for winning against Shinso as Midoriya promised but also apologized if had pushed him to try too hard in his match against Todoroki. Mineta only commented how no pro hero would want to hire him after his reckless behavior from earlier, but Izuku could tell he was still concerned from the tone of his voice. Asui might not have said anything directly to Midoriya, but he appreciated the frog heroine's quick smack with her tongue to the short hero and proceeded to chide him for his statement. Hagakure just stood silently in the background, not saying a peep. All of this worried the boy greatly.

Tooru was currently saying nothing and hadn't said anything since she had grabbed Izuku's left arm as he boarded the bus. She was sitting there waiting for him as he stepped into the vehicle and simply said, "Come with me," as she pulled him to the back of the bus. This luckily didn't make a scene, as only a few of his classmates were on the bus at that time. The invisible girl was still grasping his hand, and by now the warmth of it was starting to make his bandages damp with his sweat.

There was so much Midoriya wanted to ask the girl sitting beside him, but he couldn't make up his mind at which to ask first. It finally came to him, perhaps start with something simple, and unrelated to himself? It took a bit, but as the bus began to lurch forward, Izuku asked in a shaky voice, "S-So you seemed to e-enjoy being a c-cheerleader out there t-today."

Tooru was slow to exhale and then said, "I don't want to talk about that right now."

Izuku closed his eyes and internally sighed. That didn't work, he thought. Perhaps a different approach. Midoriya asked with a bit more confidence, "Then what do you want to t-talk about?"