Deep Red

30

It was really way too cold to be sitting on top of the roof tonight. I didn't know why I thought this was a good idea, but when Shouta came home he looked especially stressed. I knew better than to simply ask him what was up, but that man looked like he was about to murder someone.

So I suggested heading out onto the roof to have some drinks and eat some junk food. I didn't really expect him to agree to it, but he did, so we ordered a pizza and once it had gotten here, we went up to the roof with a few cans of beer and our (extremely cheesy) pizza.

We had eaten our dinner while barely talking. I didn't really want to push anything and Shouta was just staring out into the city angrily. I knew that something just had to be really bothering him.

"So. You wanna tell me what's up?" I wanted to know. He turned around and gave me an annoyed look.

"No." was all he said as he continued looking out over the rooftops. I was rubbing my arms, because it was getting really cold.

"Alright. Just thought, since you were doing me the same favour a few days ago, you know..." I said and handed him a can of beer. He looked down at it for a second, sighed and took it.

"I just didn't want to deal with someone who was all emotional." he mumbled and cracked the can open. He took a big sip from his can. I leaned back and looked up into the sky. I could see my breath when I was breathing out, which was quite unusual for a May night. But at least the sky was clear and I could see the stars. Anytime I was able to see them, I just felt more at peace.

"It's a quiet night, isn't it? Peaceful and all." I tried to change the topic. Shouta just huffed and downed more of his beer.

"I wish things were peaceful. But it seems like I can't get any damn peace with this school." he murmured.

"So it's something with your class, huh? Something happen during their internships?" I asked, still looking up at the sky.

"They're little devils and they're out to get me. They wanna ruin my life and rob me of my peace and quiet and I knew it from the start."

"Oh fuck, what did they do? You're usually not that grumpy with them." I remarked, as he was basically chugging the rest of his can. I made a note in my head that I possibly had to carry him off the roof later. Hopefully this wouldn't end in him falling off the roof. I mean, I had prevented that from happening before, hadn't I?

"Well, it's not all of them. Only some of them. I'm not really supposed to say, but I'll just pretend I'm not sober enough to remember this now." he said and grabbed a second can of beer.

"Who is it? Bakugou? Ashido? Maybe Kaminari?" I wanted to know. He shook his head with a sigh.

"You know, I'd suspect them, too. But not this time. It was actually Iida, Midoriya and Todoroki." he replied.

"Iida? The class rep? No way!"

"Yes way. Remember the whole incident with Ingenium? In Hosu City?"

"I do. He actually tried to go after Stain? That seems really unlike him. Shit, what the fuck happened?" I wanted to know. Iida had always been a great student, even though he went over the top at times.

"Well, the official version is that Endeavour saved the day and captured Stain and the kids just happened to be there coincidentally, but didn't get involved whatsoever." he answered. I raised an eyebrow.

"I'm gonna call bullshit on that, at least in Midoriya's case."

"Yeah. Well, for the record, that is the version I told you and you never heard anything else." he said.

"Alright, I got it. These lips are sealed, my dude."

"Perfect. So what really happened was this: Iida was out patrolling with Manual. Iida disappeared randomly into a side alley. Nomu started attacking and Manual had no time to go after Iida. So Iida actually finds Stain and he's about to kill someone else, a hero called Native. Iida decides to step in and get revenge for his brother, but of course he has no actual chance against Stain and is left paralyzed by his Quirk." Shouta explained while I was trying to follow what he was saying.

"Okay, I'm with you this far. How did Midoriya and Todoroki get involved?" I wanted to know, sipping my beer.

"Alright, so Midoriya was on a train to Shibuya with Gran Torino. The train gets stopped because of the Nomu attack. Gran Torino heads to the scene to fight the Nomu and tells Midoriya to stay behind."

"Which he obviously doesn't do, because he's Midoriya."

"Exactly. So he figures that Iida is in Hosu City and Iida's probably in danger, so he heads out, looking for him and finds him in this dark alleyway with Stain and Native. Now of course he goes on to attack Stain and all and when he realizes that he's in way over his head he decides to send out his location in a group chat, hoping someone will come and help him out. Which happens to be Todoroki."

"Because he's interning with his dad and Endeavour was basically there to go and save the day. Okay, Todoroki sees the location and decides to head out there on a whim? That doesn't sound like Todoroki." I said. Shouta shook his head and put down his can of beer, before leaning back to look up into the sky.

"No, no, no. If one of your close friends, say... the one you hung out with at the Sports Festival? If she randomly sent you a location in the middle of the night with no further explanation... while there is a villain attack in that part of town. Would you go and see what is up?" he asked. I sighed.

"Yeah, probably. So Todoroki heads over there and then they defeat Stain? All by themselves?" I asked.

"They did." Shouta replied, burying his face in his hands.

"Damn. That's really impressive, not gonna lie."

"It was probably a good portion of luck. And please, whatever you do, don't encourage them. They got other people into a lot of trouble and they got themselves injured. It didn't take long until I got a phone call from the hospital about three of my students getting injured and that's how I heard the story. And then the next morning Tsuragame, the chief of police, calls and tells me to keep it all a secret and that they'd tell everyone that Endeavour saved the day, so the kids wouldn't get punished for acting like this without a license or without instruction from a superior." he explained.

"Oh man. Did they get their agencies in trouble?" I wanted to know. This was really bad. They could have gotten into so much trouble, if the true story on what went down had come out.

"Yup. They sure did."

"Fuck."

"Yeah."

"Does Allmight know?" I asked. Allmight and Midoriya were weirdly close, I'd be surprised if he didn't know somehow.

"I'm sure he does. He got a call today, everyone in the staff room heard it. He went outside for the call, but if I had to guess, I'd say it was Gran Torino giving him an update." Shouta explained.

"Oh my God, did he have that terrible ringtone?" I wanted to know. Shouta turned his head and grinned at me.

"A phone call is here! A phone call is here!"

Both of us were imitating his horrible ringtone at the same time. I burst out laughing. I had no idea how Allmight got away with that. Had no one told him to get something decent? Or to just have his phone on vibrate like every normal person?

"I really hate that ringtone." Shouta said, looking back up into the sky.

"Yeah, same." I said, shivering a little. It was getting really cold. I wished I had taken a jacket or at least worn a hoodie or something.

"You cold?" Shouta asked.

"Nah, I'm fine."

"That was a rhetorical question." he said. Next thing I knew, I got wrapped up loosely in the material of his scarf. It was surprisingly soft when it wasn't wrapped around you tightly. And it was nice and warm.

"Thanks." I mumbled, a little embarrassed.

"You're welcome."