Deep Red

7

I tried to tell myself that it wouldn't be awkward. Because it wouldn't be. Why would it be awkward? Like, I knew why it would be awkward, but there was no reason to not get it over with quickly. (It would be awkward, because I was just really socially awkward myself. It was a personal problem.)

It would be easy. It wasn't like I didn't have a reason to knock on his door. It wasn't even his door, it was just the door to some classroom. I knew he'd be hanging out there to grade papers, because Hizashi told me so. And I still had to give him the cat food for this week. It kind of went under after all the craziness with the reporters trespassing on school grounds and the police being there.

Classes pretty much weren't back to normal for the rest of the day. Everyone was just too excited, there was no way that we could have a normal class. All the students were just talking among each other excitedly, mostly about how scary it was or how cool it was and whatnot.

Honestly, I didn't really trust the peace and quiet. I mean, was it really just the reporters that had managed to get through all the U.A. defenses? It seemed pretty unlikely. Everyone thought that, at least as far as the teachers were concerned. That's why they had started to implement additional safety measures starting from tomorrow. Just in case. It felt really weird, because nothing and no one else was found, but something about this whole episode was just off.

I took another breath and focussed on the task at hand. It was easy. Just knock, drop off the cat food and ask to exchange phone numbers. Just in case. And because I missed Cho. God, I really, really missed Cho. I took another deep breath and finally knocked at the door. Thankfully, it was late and no one saw me standing in front of the door to an empty classroom with a bag of cat food in my hand.

"Come in." I heard a muffled voice from inside. I opened the door carefully and peeked in. There was Aizawa, sitting at the desk and grading papers. He was wrapped up in his yellow sleeping bag from the waist down, so his arms would be free for grading the tests. Looked like a pop quiz from where I was standing.

"Hi, Aizawa." I said and quickly moved inside the room with my bag of cat food. He didn't even look up from his papers.

"What's up, Takahashi?" he asked, almost looking a little more busy now that I was here. I felt like I was intruding.

"Not much, just wanted to bring over the cat food. You know, like we said. We kinda forgot about it with all the commotion during lunch, so I thought..." I started, but I already saw him nodding.

"Sure, just leave it somewhere here, I'll pick it up when I'm done with work." he said, putting a big red cross on one of the papers. I gulped audibly and nodded. I had no clue where the hell I was supposed to leave the bag. This whole situation just felt really uncomfortable. I didn't like it at all. How Aiko thought I could have a crush on this man was absolutely beyond me.

"What are you waiting for? I'm kinda busy and you're distracting me." Aizawa mumbled when I was still standing there, the bag in my hands.

"Right. Sorry. Didn't mean to keep you from anything. What are you doing here this late anyway?" I asked and put down the bag beside the door where I was standing. Aizawa looked up from his papers at me, back down at his papers and then at me again, as if he couldn't believe I had just asked that question.

"Grading papers." he then replied dryly.

"Why don't you do that at home? Wouldn't it be much more comfortable?" I asked him. He just shook his head.

"Too many distractions. I also prefer walking home when there's less people on the road. It's more peaceful." he answered.

"Yeah, I guess that's true. Anyway, I'll leave the cat food by the door then. There was one other thing, though..." I started, not sure if now was the time to bring it up. But better now than never, right?