Chapter Eleven | Good Feeling
"Try to remember that quirks can put a strain on the body. They are an extension of power, but without proper training the user can suffer greatly," the nurse with a bow in her hair explains. She writes several things down on her clip board as she lectures me. "In your case, Miss Usui, your mind isn't strong enough for the amount of stress you put on it. I'd suggest taking it easy for a couple of days. Then, once you are able to, try strengthening your mind a little. Don't push yourself too much, but widen the limits of your control."
I agree with her, even though I am upset with it. The news fills like salt on a wound. It seems like the practice I put in during the 10 months before the practical exam were for nothing. I may have exceeded my limits, but not by much. My mother had pushed far beyond hers in such a sort time. It feels awful that I can't.
"Does this mean I can go home?"
The nurse with a bow in her hair gives me a quick smile, then glances down at her clipboard again. "Looks so. You seem to be able to stand without feeling dizzy, and according to your tests you have a slight heart arrhythmia, but it's nothing serious. I'll ask that you avoid stressing yourself. If it persists; the dizziness and shortness of breath, you should come back immediately."
"I understand," I tell her.
She hands me a paper with my diagnosis on it, explaining my reason for being hospitalized, then allows me to go. I have been checked out already. The nurse tells me that the person is waiting out in the hallway for me, and once she leaves the room, she allows them in. I am surprised to see Katsuki here.
He comes over to the bedside and moves my food tray to the side, placing down a small bag with my necessities in it. He then sits in the chair across from me.
"Classes are canceled for the day. The school is being investigated, so you didn't miss much." Katsuki looks me over. "Get dressed. We're going on that date I promised you."
I am confused. I remember winning the date, but I don't see why he'd choose today to take me. It's Thursday afternoon. I have been in the hospital since yesterday. The way I see it, Katsuki should take the day for himself. He needs to relax too.
"Are you sure? You fought harder than me at USJ. Don't you want to spend the rest of the day at home?"
"Of course I do, fuck munch." His reply is course. He sounds tired, but I don't comment on it, and allow him to continue. "However, I lost. You made a decent score in the practical exam, so I'd be a liar if I didn't take you out. Today is a better time to go, then this weekend."
I don't argue with him. Instead, I grab the bag and stand up. I'll get dressed in the bathroom. This morning I had taken a shower, so I am good to go. Once I am inside the confines of the stark white room, I close the door and strip out of my hospital gown. I take each of the items out of the bag; my underclothes and bathroom supplies. The last item is a white dress with light blue snowflakes printed on the fabric. I remember this dress. My mother had bought it for me to apologize for missing the snow festival last year. She had said it reminded her of the statue of the snow woman in one of the pictures my father took. I love this dress. How does Katsuki know?
Once I'm done, I bag my stuff and leave the room. I decide to leave my hair down today, since it's nice outside. Katsuki glances up at me, and sits his phone down in his lap.
"Is something wrong?"
He scowls at me. "You look nice, dumbass. The dress is out of season for this weather, but it suits you."
I feel my face heat up. Did he really just compliment me? It was very Katsuki-like, but still, he actually gave me a decent compliment. "Are you sure that you're up for this? You seem different. Are you sick?"
"Piss off," he snaps. "I was only telling you that you look nice, so you won't complain. I don't have time for your mood swings."
He should take some time to look in the mirror. He's the one with the mood swings. Even so, I am happy that he likes it. His father works in the fashion industry, so I assume some of his comment spawns from the this fact. His mother might kill him if he leaves the house wearing something vile. The truth is, he looks nice anytime he goes out.
I give him a quick glance over, and slip my arms behind my back. Suddenly I feel very shy. He's wearing a red shirt beneath a black button-down that he keeps completely open. Sometimes I wonder if Masaru dresses him before he goes out. I've seen what he wears at home; sweatpants and shirts with violent logos on them. I doubt they'd let him walk around the city like a thug. However, I will admit, he looks nice either way.
"Ready to go?"
Katsuki stands up and leads me from the room. Once we make it down to the lobby I notice my father. I call out to him and run across the room to speak with him.
"Glad to see your doing better, kiddo." He pats my head. "I came here to check you out, but I ran into Bakugou on the way. He mentioned taking you out on a date, so I waited here to get your bag from you."
I laugh, honestly happy to see him. "Thank you for bringing the dress."
"It was Sachiko's idea," he admits. Sachiko is my mother's name. Somehow I had known that she was behind this.
My father rakes his fingers through his light-colored hair, and dips his head towards Katsuki. "I'll be heading back now. Try to have Airi home before dark." He pats my head once again, and takes my bag from me. I wave goodbye to him as he leaves. Soon after, Katsuki and I follow after, heading into the city.
I glance around at the shops, enjoying the bustle of the busy urban environment. But, Katsuki pulls me from my thoughts.
"Where do you want to go?"
I frown; honestly I don't know. "I don't care. Anywhere is fine with me."
"Don't give me that bullshit. I know better than that," the blond argues. "If I listen to you and take you somewhere you don't want to go, you'll complain the whole time. Now answer the damn question."
"What about you? How do you spend your day in the city?"
"I go to the arcade," he says with a sigh.
I recall him going to the arcade a lot with his friends. I had assumed it was something they liked to do. Katsuki had never taken me with them, so I knew nothing about it. Honestly I am happy. This is something new about him that I am learning. I want to be someone he can enjoy himself with.
"I've never been to an arcade before," I admit. "Let's go there."
He agrees to take me and leads me to a game center that is five stories high. I can't believe how massive this place is. We take the escalator up to the fourth floor – Katsuki refers to it as the floor with the fighting games. Once we're there, Katsuki picks a game. It's a 2 player station with knobs and buttons. The idea is to fight each other until one of us wins. I chose a character with a color scheme of hot pink; Katsuki choses a male character that's like him, uses explosives. The round begins.
Katsuki beats me the first round, but once I have the moves down, I easily beat him. During the last round, I manage to beat him again. He narrows his eyes at me, stating that I used the same move over and over. I agree, but at least I beat him.
The credit screen pops up and I am allowed to type my name in. I notice a familiar name amongst them and laugh.
"King of Explodo-kills. Is that you?"
He nods, despite being upset about his loss. I am impressed. Katsuki is really good at a lot of things he does. He has a high score in this game, which it pretty cool. I didn't do bad, but I doubt I'd be able to beat Katsuki's score.
"Give me a name," I order him. The blond furrows his brows so I explain better. "You have a nickname. I want one too."
Katsuki agrees, taking the knob in his hand. He begins to type in a name while I wait in anticipation. Once he's done I hiss annoyance. The screen reads fuck-munch. I poke at his cheek.
"I demand a rename. You can't write anything with curse words in it," I argue.
Katsuki ignores me and grabs my hand. He pulls me over to a new game, and we begin playing. He curses at me as I button punch again. Sooner or later, he'll see that playing fighting games with me is pointless. He'll never win.
Hours pass by on the fourth floor. I am having fun. Once we get bored of fighting games, Katsuki takes me to the first floor to try my hand at the crane machines. I am surprisingly good at this and score a cute, sleeping Pichu plush. It reminds me of Denki, so I laugh.
Katsuki doesn't seem to like crane machines much, but that's okay. I notice a photo sticker booth in the corner of the room and drag him over to it. He takes some convincing, but I manage to do so. We enter the booth and pay the machine, getting an option for 4 pictures. I chose this option. Within seconds we are asked to pose, and the timer begins to count down.
"How should we pose?"
"I'm not going to pose. Just let it take the pictures so we can get out of here," Katsuki tells me.
I can't allow that. At the last few seconds, I reach over and use my fingers to pull up the corners of Katsuki's lips. The camera snaps before he can protest. The next picture is wasted with him glaring at me. I pretend to never have touched him. In the third photo, I lean forward and kiss his cheek – his face turns red. The last photo is next, so I beg him to make it count. I smile and lean against his shoulder. He faces the camera, but flips it off once the shutter snaps. Honestly, I am not mad. This is Katsuki; king of pride.
As we leave the booth, I pick up the pictures and look them over. They're kind of cute. I defiantly like the two were Katsuki is being himself, so I decide to keep them. I offer the first 2 over to him, which he looks at with a soft expression, then shoves into his pocket.
We decide to leave the arcade and head home. It's getting late. On the way, Katsuki buys me a cupcake from the bakery. He catches me trying to peek at a fan service magazine at the stand across the street, and calls me a pervert. Guilty pleasures; I can't help it. I pout at his name calling and take the cupcake. It looks delicious. I thank him and eat it happily as we continue to walk.
"You eat like a damn pig, Airi. There's frosting on your face," Katsuki hisses at me.
He stops and uses his thumb to wipe the chocolate frosting from the corner of my mouth. My face instantly goes warm. Since when does he use my first name? Maybe I am overthinking this. Maybe I'm not. I really do like Katsuki a lot. A smile pulls at my lips.
"The hell are you smiling for?"
"I'm just happy is all," I admit. "I like being with you."
I notice the blush spread across Katsuki's face. He seems embarrassed, which is cute. Wish I could know what he's thinking. Maybe he likes me too.
"Do you consider this a date?"
"Yeah, I guess. Why do you ask?"
A sly smile pulls at my lips. "I just wanted to hear you say it, is all."
Katsuki glares at me, then takes my cupcake and smashes it against my face. I can feel the frosting coat my skin. My poor cupcake. Annoyance boils in me.
"I can't believe you did that," I pout. "I don't like you very much anymore."
Katsuki scoffs. "I don't believe that."
"Then you're right. I don't hate you," I admit. I wipe some of the icing away, and lick it off my fingers. "You're a good boyfriend, Katsuki. Even those times you tried to talk sense into me. I wasn't lying when I said that."
Katsuki slips off his button-down and starts to wipe away the icing on my face. This makes me kind of sad, considering I like the piece of fabric. But, he owes me for ruining my cupcake.
"We've been dating since middle school; longer if you consider preschool," he says suddenly.
I feel my stomach flutter. "Do you?"
"It's something the hag told me before I left the house," he recalls, ignoring my question completely. "She calls it a childhood romance."
"Sounds weird," I admit. Do people still have this? I never thought of what we have as a romance. I just thought of it as something life partners have. It's strange to think of us as actual lovers. We don't act like a couple.
"No shit," Katsuki agrees with me.
"Are we an actual couple?"
Katsuki scrubs at my face. "Kind of stupid to disagree now. That fucking hedgehog already told everyone we are. You didn't disagree, so now you're stuck with me. Like it or not, you're my girlfriend."
"I can live with that," I agree with a smile. "However, don't you think calling me a fuck-munch is a little mean. You should be a little nicer to me."
"Not a fucking chance," the blond hisses. He grabs my nose and squeezes hard.
I cry out in pain, swatting at his hand. He's the absolute meanest person I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. "I take it back. I don't think I like you. When I get home, I'm looking for a new boyfriend. Maybe one of those cuties from that magazine."
"Good luck, pervert. None of those dumbasses can equal up to me," the blond boasts.
I wrap my arm with his and walk beside him to the station. The truth is, I wouldn't trade him for the world. I just wish he wouldn't tease me so much. A smile pulls at my lips. Tough luck, I guess.