A Life Worth Living (Aizawa x OC)

54 - The Importance of Communication

"I'm pretty sure that one time would have been fucking en-...oh, h-hey."

As the door to Himari's house finally opened, it revealed the woman in question, starting off with a snarky and slightly sour remark about the resounding ringing of the doorbell she was unable to finish at the sight of her visitor, who didn't turn out to be the elderly lady she'd expected.

On the other side of her door, standing on her porch, was none other than the man who had already caused the brunette quite a headache today, his hand still attached to the bell, apparently ready to press it once more if she hadn't shown up.

Aizawa, who had taken some time to thoroughly prepare an apology and everything he wanted to say to her before he'd come here, found himself at a loss of words as his eyes fell upon the woman he'd been waiting for the last minutes. Apparently, the sight of her was enough to delete his carefully arranged and repeatedly rehearsed speech from his mind.

After she'd left the gym, obviously in a complete turmoil - which he couldn't blame her for since he'd been the one causing this chaos of a situation, he'd needed a few minutes to wrap his head around the fact that he'd made everything worse because his heart had won the battle against his mind, pushing it and his rationality in the background during this short moment of weakness.

Knowing that there wasn't anything he could do to undo what had happened, he'd made the decision to go home, convincing himself that running after her wouldn't exactly be the best idea. Also, there had been one thing he'd been certain of - he needed some time to process the excessive amount of information he'd received today, and most importantly, he had to cool down after this sensory overload, still completely baffled by how this confrontation with her had eventually turned out.

However, as he'd arrived at home and tried to distract himself by working through some of the ungraded assignments that had piled up on his desk, also planning to catch up on some sleep by going to bed earlier, Aizawa had realized that his mind didn't agree with his plan to block out his emotions and ban Himari from his thoughts.

The moment he'd made himself comfortable at his desk with a gigantic cup of coffee, his thoughts had immediately started to circle back to everything he'd desperately attempted to fade out, causing him to overthink and question his decision to not go after her and sort things out right away.

With a sigh of defeat, he'd accepted that there was no way he could pretend that everything was fine until Monday. He had to apologize. Yet, knowing all too well that this was not his forte, he'd started to break his head about what to say, spending the entire way back to the campus mentally preparing a speech, word-for-word, hoping that this would help him to clearly express what he wanted to without any misunderstandings.

Yet, there he was, standing directly in front of her, rendered speechless and unable to form a coherent train of thoughts, experiencing first-hand that things don't always go according to plan.

Not exactly helpful was the fact that Himari opened the door in nothing more than an oversized shirt that ended mid-thigh, which was already enough to cause his brain to go haywire and disconnect from the rest of his body - something he wasn't proud of, but he couldn't help it. Her hair was dishevelled, and her freckled cheeks were tinged in a faint red as she stared at him with big eyes and her mouth slightly ajar, clearly surprised to see him here.

Trying his best to regain his composure as fast as possible and shake off any indecent thoughts, he focused on her eyes, attempting to fade out everything else to prevent his mind from sliding straight into the gutter.

An apology. That was what he owed her and why he'd come here in the first place.

But the moment his dark orbs locked with her moss-green ones, that were sending him an expectant look, he found himself struggling even more than before, ending up completely entranced by her.