The internship week went by pretty quick. It consisted of me watching him apprehend villains from the side-lines, and him never letting me leave his side after the incident. And, of course, me trying to get my school-girl crush under control.
But at the same time, I knew it was more than that.
"What's up with you lately?" He ate his dinner, looking at me refusing to touch mine. My thoughts were constantly running amok at the fact that I could never have him. Plus, I was bothering him by taking up his room, and fawning over him like a little girl. I caused him all this worry. And if he were ever to know how I felt, it would ruin everything. My love was a destructive force. A ticking time bomb waiting to go off.
"I've been feeling sick-"
"Cut it out. I can tell something's wrong. Why?" He dropped his fork, and refused to break eye contact with me.
"You're not gonna give this up, are you?" He shook his head.
"I... don't feel like I deserve to be here, okay? I take up all this space in your home, and just bother you by being here. It feels shit. Costing you money, and worrying you all the time. Alright? Happy now?" He looked at me worried. I was telling the truth; just leaving out the part where I was crushing hard.
"No. I'm not happy now. I know it must be distressful living in someone else's home, but it's yours too now. Don't ever think you're bothering me. I- enjoy having you here. I like it. And I love cooking for y- other people. Please don't continue to punish yourself." I looked down at my food. It was tempting me with the broth.
"...Okay." I slowly picked up a mouthful of noodles, gently putting it into my mouth. I began shovelling the rest of it in my mouth.
"I feel lucky that I'm the one that gets to worry about you." He mumbled.
I smiled, satisfied with my meal.
----
Strolling into homeroom, the usual scene was taking place. Katsuki threatening Midoriya, Ochaco watching on blushing, Iida chopping his hands about trying to restore order, and Mineta drooling at the nearest female. Luckily for me, I got to sit in the middle of it all.
"'Scuse me." I gently pushed past Midoriya to get to my seat. They continued to argue with me between them.
"Can you two give it a FUCKING REST ALREADY?!" I yelled at the pair.
"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, HAG!!" Bakugo refocused his attention to me.
"Sit the fuck down and be quiet, Katsuki. Dear Christ, you have a lot of energy this time of morning..." I rubbed my temples tiredly.
"He sleeps at 8pm every night-"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP, DEKU!!" Katsuki grabbed Midoriya's collar.
"Pffft, does your mom tuck you in every night as well?!" I laughed at the 14-year-old boy.
"YOU OLD H-"
"Settle down." Aizawa entered, using his quirk to freak everyone out. His fair fell back to his face, as he took a seat in his squeaky desk chair.
"There is going to be a summer training camp in the forests. However, your final exams are also coming up. These will be made up of a written component, and practical component. If you fail these, you will not be allowed to attend the training camp. Study hard, and train hard. That is all." Aizawa promptly climbed into his sleeping bag and zipped it shut.
The written part wasn't what I had to worry about. Being quirkless, you learn that studying is one of the only things that can help. Gotta keep the brain trained up. Obviously, I got 1st on the midterms. Being older and in education for longer maaaay have helped as well. Especially for the 100% I got in English.
The class began chatting amongst themselves, some freaking out due to their low place on the midterms, and some offering help. And those asking for help, of course.
"L/N, can you help us a bit with English?" I heard Sero say. Looking up, half the class was gathered around my desk.
"Uh-"
"And maybe every other subject? You got 1st on the midterms, right?"
"Yeah. Fine, I'll help. What do you need?" I asked in a monotone voice.
"Can we come over to study?!" Ashido asked excitedly.
"Sure, yeah, don't see why that would be a proble-" Almost immediately, I felt Aizawa's death stare peeking through the sleeping bag from across the classroom. I had forgotten that small detail.
"ACTUALLY NO- Uh, my landlord doesn't like me having people round. It-it's a studio anyways, there's no table or anything- and, um, I basically live in poverty! There's, like, homeless people outside the door. Terrible area." The kids stared at me wide-eyed. I may have overcompensated in my explanation a bit, out of panic.
"Oh my... that sounds awful, L/N... Do you need help or something?" Yaoyorozu looked at me sympathetically.
"No no of course not! I'm fine, really. Just a bad place for studying. What with all the gunshot noises and everything! Hahahaha..." I trailed off, nervously rubbing the back on my neck.
"Well, in that case, we can study at mine! I could get mother to open up the hall for us..." They looked at Momo happily.
"The hall? How bougie." I smirked at her.
"Besides, English isn't my strong point either. Surely there must be something you struggle with that I or someone else can help with?" Thinking about it, she did place 2nd in the midterms.
"Hm. Japanese Literature, and History. I'm not great at those." I admitted. But even then, my stronger subjects compensated for the deficit in the weaker subjects.
"Those are my best subjects! I'll help you with those, and you can teach us stuff like Math and English!" She decided.
"Sounds like a plan." I flashed a thumbs up at the crowd.
As fed up as I seemed, I was secretly happy that these guys wanted my help. And of course, I was totally more than willing to help them out; just not at my apartment. Which they now think is some kind of crack den.
----
"SHITTYZAWAAAA." I groaned with my head on the table.
"What?" He said from his room.
"What in the shit does this say?!" I read the kanji of the poem. I could speak Japanese fluently, okay? I just didn't know all these poetic phrases and idioms all written in kanji. Plus, kanji wasn't something I actually learned when moving to Japan.
"This is your fault. All of your texts are written in hiragana. Why haven't you learned proper Japanese?" He questioned me, coming over to the table.
// If you understand this reference in any form, I love you. If not, I apologise for what you're about to witness. //
"Because I never actually have to read kanji. Now, what's this? It's some sort of folktale about this guy who needs to name his son, but asks a priest to do it. But I think this says he gets indecisive or something. This is that name, but what does it read...?"
He closely inspected the paper scribbled over with my translations before answering.
"His name is 'Jugemu Jugemu Goko no Surikire Kaijarisuigyo no Suigyomatsu Unraimatsu Furaimatsu Ku Neru Tokoro ni Sumu Tokoro Yabura Koji no Bura Koji Paipo-paipo Paipo no Shuringan Shuringan no Gurindai Gurindai no Ponpokopi no Ponpokona no Chokyumei no Chosuke'" He recited, only taking a couple of breaths in between the words.
"...Come again?"
"His name is 'Jugemu Jugemu Goko no Surikire Kaijarisuigyo no Suigyomatsu Unraimatsu Furaimatsu Ku Neru Tokoro ni Sumu Tokoro Yabura Koji no Bura Koji Paipo-paipo Paipo no Shuringan Shuringan no Gurindai Gurindai no Ponpokopi no Ponpokona no Chokyumei no Chosuke'"
I stared at him, dumbfounded.
"You're telling me his name is 'Jugemu Jugemu Goko no Surikire Kaijarisuigyo no Suigyomatsu Unraimatsu Furaimatsu Ku Neru Tokoro ni Sumu Tokoro Yabura Koji no Bura Koji Paipo-paipo Paipo no Shuringan Shuringan no Gurindai Gurindai no Ponpokopi no Ponpokona no Chokyumei no Chosuke'?!"
"Yes. His name is actually 'Jugemu Jugemu Goko no Surikire Kaijarisuigyo no Suigyomatsu Unraimatsu Furaimatsu Ku Neru Tokoro ni Sumu Tokoro Yabura Koji no Bura Koji Paipo-paipo Paipo no Shuringan Shuringan no Gurindai Gurindai no Ponpokopi no Ponpokona no Chokyumei no Chosuke'."
"Isn't 'Jugemu Jugemu Goko no Surikire Kaijarisuigyo no Suigyomatsu Unraimatsu Furaimatsu Ku Neru Tokoro ni Sumu Tokoro Yabura Koji no Bura Koji Paipo-paipo Paipo no Shuringan Shuringan no Gurindai Gurindai no Ponpokopi no Ponpokona no Chokyumei no Chosuke' a bit of a weird name?!"
"Yes. 'Jugemu Jugemu Goko no Surikire Kaijarisuigyo no Suigyomatsu Unraimatsu Furaimatsu Ku Neru Tokoro ni Sumu Tokoro Yabura Koji no Bura Koji Paipo-paipo Paipo no Shuringan Shuringan no Gurindai Gurindai no Ponpokopi no Ponpokona no Chokyumei no Chosuke' is a weird name, so it's been used as a comedy piece as well."
"Oh. Can I drop out of Japanese Literature?"
"No."
----
The weeks spent studying went without a hitch. At Momo's, I was given a crash course in kanji, as well as me teaching the others in English. Things were going damn well. I completed the written exams without a hitch, with some of the other kids saying they didn't leave anything blank on the pages.
But now? The practical exams. We'd heard we were fighting the robots from the entrance exam, and the sports festival again. I was getting a bit bored of robots, not gonna lie.
So here we were, clad in our hero outfits, standing with all of U.A.'s teachers.
Aizawa was the first to speak up.
"So, you probably gathered information beforehand about this exam."
"Yeah! Robots again, right?!" Kaminari piped up with all the confidence in the world.
"Not this time!" Nezu crawled out of Aizawa's scarf. I was reminded of their chat I overheard, and looked away from him.
"We wanted an exam more closely based on real exams, so..."
"You'll be fighting us teachers." Aizawa finished his sentence. The class began to discuss, until he continued.
"You will fight in pairs, which I have pre-determined based on your quirks- or lack thereof, skills, and interpersonal relationships. Then firstly, Midoriya and Bakugo, you will be fighting against All Might."
The pair looked at each other in horror, as All Might himself came crashing down.
"We'll be wearing these training weights too! They are half our body weight, and will act as a handicap for us to make things fair!" The number 1 hero said, clipping on the weights.
"However, one teacher will not be wearing training weights as per my request. L/N and Tokoyami, you will be fighting against Ectoplasm. With no handicap on his part." He smirked, locking eyes with me. My jaw dropped, as I looked at an annoyingly stoic Tokoyami. How was he calm right now?!
"You trying to kill me, Shittyzawa?" I deadpanned. He simply laughed a little. However, what worried me, was he looked like he wanted to continue.
"Oh, it gets worse. You, L/N, will be wearing body weights that weigh a quarter of your body weight." My eyes widened- what the hell was he playing at? He pulled out training weights that were the same as the teachers.
"You've got to be kidding..." I muttered to myself.
Slightly worried, I made my way over to the bird-boy.
"No handicap, huh?" I said to him.
"I have quite the feeling that we are now disadvantaged because of you. I'm not sure why Aizawa-sensei has done this, but he clearly has a lot of confidence in you. I hope you live up to his expectations, and don't cost us the exam." He finished, avoiding looking at me.
"Hah. I won't cost us the exam. I'll trust his reasoning. So don't get in my damn way then, asshole." I walked off, heading to the spectator's room.
Nobody fucking underestimates me. He's either with me, or against me right now. If he weren't willing to work as a team, then I'd win this thing by myself.
----
A/N
The final exams start! But with an unfortunate twist, it seems...
Sorry about this being a little shorter. Felt like this was a good place to cut it off.
Till next time,
Wyatt.