Deep Red

41

"Are you readyyyyy?" I heard Hizashi's voice from outside the door. Shouta sighed and pulled the blanket over his head. I shook my head laughing and made my way over to the door.

Hizashi and Kayama had organised for all the teachers to go out on a pub crawl, since it was the last day of school before the summer break. They had started that tradition a few years ago, but apparently it was still going strong (even though at the end of the night usually only the two of them were left).

I knew Shouta wasn't very excited about this, but he went along for my sake, because I really wanted to go and he insisted that I needed someone to take care of me (and he was probably right about that).

"AKANE!" Mic yelled. I held my hands over my ears, but grinned at him being so excited for this.

"Hizashi. Relax or I'll go deaf before the night even starts. Come on in, I'm almost done." I said to him and Kayama who was following behind him. Her outfit was on point and she almost looked overdressed for this time of the day.

"Hey, hey, hey, what's that weird lump on the couch?" Hizashi exclaimed with a big grin and jumped onto the couch, hugging Shouta who was still completely covered with the blanket and would probably have a few bruises now.

"Hey, Akane, I'm glad you two are coming out with us tonight." Nemuri said and hugged me tightly.

"Yeah, I'm glad you invited me. It's been quite a while since I had last been out properly. Not that I used to go out a lot in the first place, but you know... from time to time." I answered. That's when I heard a loud thump and saw Hizashi who had fallen to the floor. Shouta glared at him, his hair a complete mess.

The next thing I remembered was that we were at a small, very niche looking club. Pretty much everyone had gone home at this point, except for Nemuri, Hizashi, Shouta and me. I remembered all of us getting pizza and a few drinks and then we moved on a couple of times and I had already lost track of all the drinks I had had so far.

I remembered Shouta making sure I didn't fall into a ditch at the side of the road at some point, but that was all. The place we were in now was pretty crowded and it was really warm. I was getting a little clearer in the head. I was in the middle of the dancefloor and I just had this epiphany that it was probably early in the morning and I was 30 years old and what was I doing here?

Nemuri was next to me, dancing. I was dancing, too, but at this stage I barely knew what I was doing. I just went through the movements automatically. Hizashi came over to the two of us, Shouta trailing closely behind.

"I convinced him. Let's go!" he said to Nemuri and me.

"Convinced him to do what?" I wanted to know. Nemuri and Hizashi exchanged a look while Shouta sighed.

"Do something stupid. Come on, just follow us!" Nemuri answered and took my hand, dragging me behind her.

And this is how I ended up outside the school swimming pool at 3.21 in the morning, regaining more clarity by the second. It was a warm summer night, so I wasn't cold, but I still had no idea what we were doing. Hizashi and Nemuri were working away on the fence, trying to get it open, while Shouta was watching them, slightly annoyed and slightly amused at the same time.

"Guys, what's going on? What are we even doing here?" I asked.

"We're breaking into the pool." Nemuri answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Why are we breaking into the pool? We can just walk through the door?" I wanted to know. Shouta sighed.

"They said they wanted the challenge. Come on, let's leave them to their own devices." Shouta said to me. I gave him a confused look. How the hell did he get wrapped up in this? He was the last person I had expected to go and break into the U.A. pool. What the hell was going on?

"Wait, you're okay with this?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I don't know, I didn't feel like arguing with them. Plus, it is a tradition for those two to break into the pool every year, especially when there is a new colleague. Someone has to make sure they don't kill themselves." he answered.

"And you have a plan to get in easy?"

"Yeah."

"What's the plan?"

Shouta just smirked and held out his arm. I looked at him, not sure what he wanted me to do. I was still somewhat groggy from all the drinking I had done. I couldn't even properly remember where we had been the entire evening.

"What... what exactly do you want me to do?" I finally asked. Shouta rolled his eyes and waved me over to him.

"Hold on tight. Don't look down." was all he said. I hesitated a little, before walking over to him and hugging him tightly. What the hell was he trying to do? He put one arm around me and then slung his capture weapon around some high traffic light, pulling both of us upwards.

I screamed a little and closed my eyes, until I landed safely. Shouta had let go of me and we were inside the fence with Nemuri and Hizashi giving him angry looks. He just grinned at them and held up a middle finger.

"Did you just catapult us inside school grounds with your capture weapon?" I asked, still not quite sure what exactly had happened and how we all got to this point.

"I did." he answered and walked over to the pool. I had no idea what was going on, so I just followed him, watching as he took off his shirt and emptied his pockets, before taking off his pants, too.

"What are you doing?" I asked, not even sure where to look, because hot damn. I may have been drunk, but I sure as hell wasn't blind.

"Swimming." was all he said, before he jumped head first into the water. I just watched him, completely fascinated.

"Come on in. Water's not even that cold." he shouted at me after swimming a few rounds. I was standing at the edge of the pool, unsure on how to proceed. I threw my bag to the side and started taking off my shoes, before deciding on whether or not to get rid of the dress I was wearing as well.

On the one hand I didn't really have anything else to change into, on the other hand these were still people I worked with. But what the hell. I doubted that either Hizashi or Nemuri would mind much and it wasn't like Shouta and I hadn't seen each other in underwear before. I mean we lived together. Sometimes you just forgot to lock doors and stuff like that. It happened.

I quickly pulled the dress over my head and tossed it aside. As soon as I was out of that, I felt something tug on my feet and I was pulled into the water. That water wasn't even supposed to be that cold? My ass. It was freezing.

"Cold!" I squealed. I heard Shouta chuckling beside me. I looked over at him, shivering and trying to stay afloat without getting a cold water shock.

"Sorry. Didn't seem that cold to me." he replied and pulled me into a hug. I was glad the cold water gave me an excuse for why my heart was beating so fast. I knew that Shouta was ripped, despite being such a lean person, but I had not expected being able to feel every single one of his abs with that hug.

"Better?" he asked and let go of me. He was still close. Really close. He had his eyes completely fixed on me and it felt intoxicating. I really, really just wanted to kiss him right there and then. But that was interrupted by Hizashi and Nemuri. There was a loud scream from the side of the pool and then there was loads of water splashing.

"We made it inside, too, losers!" Hizashi yelled, splashing water at me and Shouta. Nemuri was there as well, laughing.