Deep Red

39

I was standing in the kitchen, preparing some food when Shouta finally made it home. He seemed to be especially late today, probably busy with getting all the papers together, so he could get his students' final grades for this term. There was only one day of school left before the summer break. And that meant two sweet weeks of doing nothing at all, before we had to head off to the summer camp. I couldn't wait to finally have some time to myself and enjoy summer.

"Why are you cooking? It's my turn." was the first thing Shouta said, when he came in through the door. He looked even more tired than usual. Pulling together exam results could be an insane chore.

"Well, I saw you get beat by your students in a fight, so I figured you deserved to lean back a little." I replied.

"You saw that?"

"Of course. Got in at exactly the right moment. Did you let them win on purpose?" I wanted to know. He smiled a little and shrugged.

"Maybe. Did you teach them about that nitinol alloy?"

"I did, indeed. I didn't really expect any of them to remember it, but I really should have expected it from Yaoyorozu."

"That stuff was a pain in the ass." Shouta mumbled and rubbed the back of his neck. It seemed like without any work left to do he had no idea what to do with himself or how to occupy himself.

"Stop standing around. Dinner's almost ready. Sit down, relax, read a book or something. You're making me nervous." I said and laughed. Shouta sat down on the couch, staring at the wall in front of him and then nervously tapping his foot. After about half a minute he got up again and walked over to where I was standing in the kitchen. He looked over my shoulder.

"What are you making?" he asked.

"Yakisoba. Why are you so restless today? Did any of your students flunk out or something?" I wanted to know.

"A few didn't pass the practical, but no one completely messed up the written exams. And I'm not restless." he replied. I raised an eyebrow and continued stirring the noodles in the pan.

"Sure. Not restless at all. Whatever you say." I mumbled. We were both quiet for a while, while he was staring angrily at the pan and crossed his arms, as if I had just told him an uncomfortable truth.

"I have a bad feeling about the summer camp. I don't think it should happen, but Nezu begs to differ." Shouta then said. So that was why he had been in such a grumpy mood lately. I had to admit I didn't like the idea of heading off to the summer camp with the League of Villains still at large and probably waiting to attack again. It had been awfully quiet around them lately and I didn't like it.

"And that's why you decided to drag me along, so you can sacrifice me as a pawn, if things get bad?" I joked. Shouta gave me a long and serious look, as if he was offended I even thought that was a possibility.

"You know I'd never even consider that, right?" he asked quietly. I had never seen him so serious about something. This really seemed to weigh on his mind and it made me a little nervous, too. Shouta wasn't the kind of person that would be this serious about something that wasn't worth worrying about.

"I was only joking, Shouta." I replied with a nervous laugh. He grabbed me by the shoulders and made me face him. He had the most intense look on his face that I had ever seen on him.

"Akane. I know it probably doesn't seem that way, but I do really care about you. I don't want anything to happen to you. I like having you as a roommate." he told me, his eyes fixed on my face. His hand reached up and moved a loose strand of my hair back behind my ear. My heart was beating so fast, I thought I was going to black out and faint right there. But then my timer went off, indicating that the noodles were done. It was like both Shouta and me suddenly snapped out of the moment.

"Oh, jeez, I had almost forgotten about dinner! Could you get some plates and chopsticks while I finish up here?" I asked nervously. I mean, what the hell had just happened? I could have sworn he was about to kiss me. But maybe that was just wishful thinking and I was imagining things.

"Uh, sure. I just need to get to the cupboard for a second-"

"Oh yeah, sorry, I'm in your way."

It was a mess. We were moving around the kitchen awkwardly, stuttering and stammering and laughing nervously, as if we were back in high school and had just realized we were both into each other. It was the most awkward thing I could have imagined. And all I could think about was what he had said just there. That he really cared about me. Did he mean that?

"Uh... sorry if that was weird just there." Shouta then said out of the blue, rubbing his neck. I was just putting food on both our plates. I almost dropped the frying pan and then looked up with a smile.

"It's fine, it wasn't weird. I guess you just get really intense when you're worried." I replied. I had no idea what I was talking about, I just blurted out the first thing that came to my mind. I was so confused.

"Yeah, it doesn't happen often, but people said that before." he told me, looking a little embarrassed.

"So you like me as a roommate?" I asked, a teasing grin on my lips. He shrugged and looked away.

"I mean, it's not as bad living with you as I thought it would be. I guess I'm enjoying having someone around that's not as loud as Hizashi." he answered. I laughed. That was probably the closest thing to a compliment I would get today. I still wasn't sure if he actually meant it when he said he cared about me.

"Hey, Shouta?" I asked. He looked up at me, a bit of nervousness visible in his eyes. He had his arms crossed again.

"I really care about you, too. Let's try not to die during the training camp, okay?" I said to him, hoping he wouldn't notice the little bit of heat rising to my cheeks, as I held out his plate to him.

"Thanks. We'll be fine, I'm sure. I sometimes get hung up on stupid things and then I worry for ages." he replied and took the plate out of my hand. We made our way to the tiny kitchen table. I smiled when I saw that he had set down two cans of beer on the table, one for each of us.

"So it's a beer kind of night?" I wanted to know.

"Obviously." he replied and started eating the yakisoba I made. Beer nights usually meant that we would end up on the rooftop as usual and talk about memories. High school stuff, our childhood, the time when we started out as heroes - anything that happened before I started at U.A.

I liked beer nights. We also had wine nights from time to time and those nights were more philosophical, but they also usually gave me headaches the morning after. Beer nights were fun. I had started remembering way more things from my time in high school, especially the ones relating to Shouta.

I really wished those summer nights on the roof would never end. I didn't think I could get so attached to a person in the space of a few months, but if anything was to happen to Shouta at the summer camp, I probably wouldn't know how to go on. I didn't think I could go back to teaching at U.A. or to living in this apartment or to anything, really. The thought of something happening to him was just unbearable.

"Shouta?" I asked. He looked up from his food.

"Hm?"

"You're going on patrols more during the summer break, right?" I wanted to know. He nodded slowly.

"Yeah, so are you. Why?"

"Can you promise me something?"

"What is it?"

"Can you promise me to be careful? You being so worried about the summer camp just made me realize that I'd... I'd really miss you as a friend if anything happened to you." I mumbled, looking down on my plate. I heard Shouta chuckling a little. I glanced up and saw him shaking his head.

"Don't start getting cheesy now." he replied. I laughed a little, but I couldn't stop thinking about him not coming home one night.

"Sorry. Got carried away by you being so intense earlier." I said.

"I'll be careful, Akane. I promise. But."

"But?"

"Only if you're careful, too." he replied. There was a rare expression on his face, shy and hesitant.

"I will be careful."

"Promise?"

"Promise."