𝙰𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚜 - 𝙺. 𝙱𝚊𝚔𝚞𝚐𝚘𝚞 𝚡 𝙾𝙲

Chapter Three

Being the first person to class felt weird to Rokuda. To her, it felt as if it were the calm before the storm. Early morning sun spilled through the windows and warmed the seats immediately beside them, making Rokuda wish she had been lucky enough to get one of them so she could enjoy it. Instead, she propped her elbow up on her desk and let her cheek rest in her palm as she stared through the windows at the rustling leaves of the trees being jostled by the breeze.

"Shoto, stopppp," Yaoyorozu giggled just before entering the classroom. Rokuda rolled her eyes but kept herself facing away from them even once she could feel Todoroki's gaze burning into the side of her head.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed and she also hadn't noticed most of the class fill into the room as she had tried to block out everything but the trees in the windows and her longing to feel the warmth of the sun's rays.

Kaminari turned around in his seat and poked her cheek, pulling her out of her reverie. "Hey, pretty lady," he grinned.

Rokuda's eyes lazily met with his golden ones and she sat up straighter in her seat. "What's up, Kaminari?"

"Wanna sit with us at lunch again today? It was fun having you there yesterday."

"Depends. Is this a pity invite?"

"Nah. I always want cute girls to sit with me," he winked.

"It's true," Sero interjected from her left as he dug his notebook out of his backpack.

"Huh. Well, even if it was out of pity, I'm clearly in no position to be turning down your offer unless I want to eat in the bathroom. Which I don't. So, sure, that sounds good."

Kaminari laughed. "Glad to hear that sitting at our table is better than eating in the bathroom."

Sero chuckled. "Such high praise."

A smile pulled up Rokuda's cheeks and she was about to reply until she heard her name being said a few rows behind her. Kaminari, who was still turned toward her, also heard and saw her expression change in a matter of seconds.  He glanced in the direction of the not-so-quiet whispers and he watched as Yaoyorozu continued to talk Uraraka's ear off, the brunette wearing a small frown as she did so.    

"Don't worry about it, Rokuda," Kaminari smiled kindly as he brought his attention back to the redhead. "It'll pass."

Rokuda simply nodded as she kept her head down and cleared her throat before replying. "Yeah... Thanks, Ka-Kaminari," her voice breaking as she said name made his chest tighten. His eyes flickered over to Sero in the desk beside her and he pursed his lips as he shrugged sympathetically, not knowing what the right thing to do was.

-

The bell rang overhead, signalling that the period was over and it was now time for lunch. Kaminari was at Rokuda's side in an instant, not bothering to pack up his notebook since they'd be back in the room after lunch anyway. 

"So! Ready to go?" The blond chirped.

Rokuda's eyes met with his as she looked up at him from her seat, it was clear he was feeling bad for her and she hated that. "I'm fine, Kaminari," she sighed. "Stop looking at me like I'm about to break."

"Sorry..." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I just don't like seeing my friends upset. I'll stop being weird, let's just go grab some food, yeah?"

She nodded. "Yeah, sounds good."

The look that Kaminari gave her in the classroom was nothing compared to the looks she was getting from other students in the hallway. It was as if every person in the school knew what happened by now and no matter where she went, she heard whispering.  Kaminari could also see the sympathetic and pitying glances that other students were giving her but tried to distract her with small talk about Aizawa's lesson that day, though it was obvious that she wasn't fully paying attention to him.