maybe | hitoshi shinsou x reader

~chapter 20~

There's a police officer.

(The last time you saw a policeman was when you had to give your own statement. When you had almost died.)

Lots of them, really, crowded around and ushering away civilians, talking into their little radios, but you don't notice them at first. You only notice the one interrogating your friends.

They're stood close together, Midoriya and Shinsou, like they're trying to anchor each other against the waves of people and their probing questions. Shinsou's still and silent, eyes directed at the ground like he's waiting for it to crack open and swallow him whole. Midoriya's giving a statement—though it looks more like babbling, his mouth running a mile a minute—and he keeps rubbing at his neck.

It's much too red, and there are crescent-shaped marks, little moons left by fingernails.

It feels like someone's dumped a bucket of ice water on you head, or pushed you into a freezing pool.

Something's pulling you forward, and you're too dazed—what if what if what if—to resist it. There's a moment when you almost fight it, try to rip your hand away, but then you realize it's just Uraraka tugging you along with her through the crowd, and you let her. The mass of people around you is just as diffulicult to navigate now as it was before you caught sight of Midoriya and Shinsou, but Uraraka doesn't hesitate to put her own bony elbows to use this time, so people part faster.

When the two of you finally make it to the edge of the crowd, a policeman stands in your way. He's tall and stern with a hat that shadows his eyes, and he tries to brush you away. Says something old and condescending, but you can't hear it over the blood boiling in your veins, because they're right there, feet away, but this absolute dingus—!

You breathe in, and out, and in again. Must formulate a new plan of attack.

"Oh no! What's that?" you ask in a dramatic, high voice, pointing somewhere over the police officer's shoulder. Startled and on edge from whatever just happened here, he looks back, and this time you're the one pulling Uraraka forward.

Sucker.

There's a shout as the officer realizes he fell for the oldest trick in the book, and then an exaggerated sigh, but by then you're already at Midoriya and Shinsou's sides. The man taking Midoriya's statement gets one heck of a fright at your sudden appearance, but you can't quite bring yourself to care right now. When Midoriya sees you and Uraraka he looks relieved, like some invisible weight's been lifted off his chest, and his shoulders droop. Shinsou's eyes aren't as hard when he peels them away from the floor.

It takes a lot of willpower to not try scooping them up into your arms and hugging the life out of them, or something else hasty and emotional.

"What happened?" Uraraka asks, and her voice is steadier than you might've expected, but you can see the way her hands are shaking out of the corner of your eye.

"Well..." Midoriya trails off, looking to the officer who was taking his statement. The officer's calmed down now—is trying to pretend he wasn't just scared out of his wits by a couple of teenagers, like it never even happened—and gives Midoriya a short nod and shrug, as if to say "do whatever you want, kid." He's probably got all the information he needs anyway, if Midoriya really was in stress-muttering mode.