Between Two Worlds (Aizawa x Reader)

Chapter Forty: Poker Face

Being in UA's main campus building felt almost like last time. Walking down the halls of a school I knew, while it wasn't one that I attended, was almost similar to the feeling of entering the building of an alma mater post-graduation. It felt foreign. Weird, even. I looked at Aizawa who looked straight ahead as we walked behind Nezu. I wanted to get his attention somehow, but what he said echoed in my head.

"In order for us to continue doing this, we must unfortunately maintain secrecy."

Still, my heart was dying for a little affection before "Plan A" started, even though the risk was there. I was already a bit of a troublemaker. I figured it was time to test the waters and see what I could get away with.
I slowly reached my hand over to his, and quickly, but playfully, glided my fingers along his. While I heard no reaction, I glanced at him and saw him peek over to me before looking back ahead as we walked. I tried again but let my fingers grace his a little longer, lingering there in an effort to show him it wasn't a mistake. I peeked at him again but noticed that he didn't look at me this time. Before I could feel disheartened, I felt his rough fingers gently play with mine as subtly as possible. My heart fluttered to the feeling of his reciprocated touch as we continued to walk down the hall behind Nezu.
But before I could live in that content feeling, we had reached our destination, forcing Aizawa to quickly withdraw his hand away from mine before Nezu turned around.

"We're finally here." he announced.

I looked to the room, and it was similar to the one I was in before. The only difference being that instead of a bed and giant machinery, there was a treadmill, a chair, long tubes, and a screen.
I raised a brow.

"If this is your subtle way of telling me to lose weight, I don't approve." I said sarcastically but with a bit if a smile.

"HA! Such spunk! I like her!" I heard a booming voice behind me.

I jumped and saw both Nemuri and Hizashi behind us.

'Shit! How long have they been there behind us?' I thought, 'Did they see what we were doing? Alright, don't panic. Act cool.'

"Seems like Aizawa's attitude has started to rub off on you." Hizashi teased.

"Not like we need two of him." mused Nemuri, as she rolled her eyes before winking at me and whispering, "Seriously, he can be such a stick in the mud."

"If you two are done, I'd like to carry on with today's objective." groaned Aizawa, who looked unamused as usual with their antics.

I chuckled.

"Thank you, Aizawa." said Nezu before continuing, "Now, today we'll be monitoring your activity and energy expenditures. In the event that we use Recovery Girl to solve this problem, we need a better understanding of how much energy you possess. We'll be doing a VO2 Max Test, along with a few others. Given that her quirk requires a great deal of energy from the recipient for it to work, if we're not careful, we-"

"Run the risk of accidentally killing me?" I interrupted, "I figured as much." I was already aware of the limits Recovery Girl's quirk had. I personally hadn't seen the consequences, but I knew of them, and that was enough for me.

"Correct." he said, "We'll be taking data of your REE, TEF, and AEE. Essentially, your resting energy expenditure, your thermic effect on food, and your activity energy expenditure. With the other tests, I'll be logging in all this information to a formula to get a better understanding of your total energy expenditure." Nezu saw the unease on my face, "I know I'm throwing a lot of terms at you, but don't worry. I'll explain everything as we go along."

"You said there were other tests involved. What exactly are they?" I asked, curious about what else I was about to get myself into.

"The other test will involve the DLW method. While the VO2 Max Test is a wonderful tool, it doesn't tell us everything we need to know. This test will require a blood and urine sample, and an oral administration of the DLW solution."