Deep Red

17

Shouta was still fast asleep when I had finished eating my own curry and when Aiko had made her way back to her seat. I would probably be able to watch the first few fights from the commentator's booth, depending on how bad they got. I hoped they wouldn't beat each other up too badly. Then again, I've heard what class 1-A could be capable of. And how competitive they could get.

I really didn't want to wake Shouta up, so I tried to be as quiet as I could when I walked up to him. I had to lean over him to put his cup of coffee and his curry on the table. When I looked down on him, he didn't seem like the calmest sleeper. He was starting to shift uneasily. If he was dreaming it wasn't anything good.

I really didn't want to be a creep and watch him sleeping, but I couldn't help it. I just kept looking at him, sitting down on my knees and watching him with a worried expression as he started tossing and turning. He got dangerously close to hitting his head on one of the chairs a few times.

Maybe I should really wake him up. He'd end up hurting himself and it didn't seem like he was having pleasant dreams or anything. His skull was probably still fragile, too, so I couldn't imagine him hitting his head on a chair would do him any good. Quite the opposite. I took a deep breath.

"Shouta." I said quietly, trying my best to wake him gently. He just tossed around even more violently. I put my hand on his shoulder and tried gently shaking him, painfully aware that he probably had a terrible concussion and shaking was not a good thing in that case. But at this rate he was going to hurt himself.

I had barely even touched him when he suddenly opened his eyes and his capturing weapon wrapped around my wrists, pulling me down on top of him and knocking my head against the chair.

"Ouch, what the fuck, Shouta?" I asked. There was a weird ringing in my ears. That really hurt. The look in Shouta's eyes went from panicked to confused to slightly worried and maybe somewhat embarrassed.

"Akane?" he asked, his voice sounding hoarse.

"Yup, the one and only."

"What are you doing here?"

"Brought you some coffee and curry. Was gonna watch the first few fights maybe. That is, if you're gonna let me get up." I said glancing at my wrists that were still tightly bound. Shouta gave me another confused look.

"Oh, of course. Sorry about that." he replied and the wrappings around my wrists loosened up. I carefully sat up, until I was back on my knees again.

"Bad dream?" I asked while examining my wrists. Man, he really wasn't gentle with those capturing weapons...

"Why do you care? Why'd you wake me up in the first place?" he retorted and sat up carefully.

"You were about to hit your head on that chair, because you were tossing and turning that much. Figured that wouldn't be good for you with you being all bandaged up and what not. Plus, I figured you were probably having a nightmare or something, so I figured I'd wake you." I replied. His face seemed to soften up a little after I had told him that. Maybe he wasn't as tough as he always let on.

"Comes with the job, I suppose." he mumbled, looking away from me. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Being a teacher?"

"No, being a hero."

"Ah." I answered, not sure what else to say. I mean, I had seen my fair share of traumatizing stuff in the past, but the stuff featuring in my nightmares was... much closer to home, I guess.

"You don't get them?" he asked.

"Oh, I do, they're just rarely related to hero work. It's more... other stuff." I answered, trying to get out of any further questions. I considered Shouta a friend and all, but some things were just very personal. Thankfully, he was a very private person himself, so he didn't ask any further.

"Fair. Show me your wrists." he said and held out his hands. I hesitated a little, before stretching out my arms, so he could take a look at my wrists. The whole situation had a certain intimacy to it that was making me a little nervous. But definitely not in a bad way. Not bad at all.

"Ah, shit, that looks bad." he mumbled as he turned my hands around to get a good look at the injuries. His hands felt rough and there were several calluses on them, but his touch was gentle and tender. The way he was holding my hands and looking down on my wrists made my knees weak. Fuck.

"Yo, Shouta, you better wake up from your na-"

Of course, it was right at that moment, that the door opened and Hizashi barged in. Shouta and I both looked at him at the same time, as if we were trying to hide something. Hizashi stopped in the middle of what he was saying and looked at me, then at Shouta and then at his hands that were still holding mine.

"Oh. Uh. Am I interrupting something? Should I go back out for a minute?" he asked. I felt myself blushing violently, but Shouta didn't even break a sweat. He just shook his head, took one last look at the bruises on my wrists and then let go of my hands.

"You should get a cream or something from Recovery Girl for that. Should be gone in a few days, but sorry again." he then said and started emerging from his sleeping bag. Hizashi looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"What the hell was going on?" he whispered to me (or whatever you'd call whispering when it came to him).

"It's nothing, Hizashi. I brought him his food, he was asleep, tossing around and almost hitting his head against the chair, so I wanted to save him from another concussion, woke him up and I guess he wasn't expecting me to be there, so he got me with his scarf thing and I fell over. Hurt my wrists in the process, so he was having a look at them." I told him. He didn't look like he was buying it.

"You sure about that?" he asked while wiggling his eyebrows at me.

"Of course I'm sure about it! What the hell did you think we were doing? Making out up here while you could bust in any second? We're not dumb, Hizashi, if anything was happening we would have locked the fucking door." I answered. He still looked like he didn't buy even a word of what I was saying.

"And what's your version, Shouta?"

"I don't owe you an explanation for anything." he just said with a mouth full of curry. Hizashi grinned.

"Oh, so you don't care what I think then?"

"Exactly." Shouta answered, taking a sip of coffee. Hizashi sighed and sat down on his chair again.

"You're no fun, Shouta."