Chapter Twelve

The war began not with a bang but a whimper.

Steam filled the bathroom as Levi washed her hair. She'd been so thoroughly soaked in sweat from training and probably stank- and not like Katsuki, who smelled like caramel when he was sweating. The moment she turned on the steaming hot water, shed her gym clothes and stood under the steady stream it was like washing all the exhaustion from her bones. She'd sleep great that night, and not just because she planned to crawl into Katsuki's bed. He told her she could go into his room and hide when she had a freakout, but hadn't stopped her from simply existing in his space whenever she wanted. That wouldn't be the first night she'd slept in his room. He just accepted his new lot in life, despite the grumbling.

Smart boy. Smart, stupid boy.

Levi smiled to herself. It was nice, actually, staying with Katsuki. He had a TV in his room so they watched movies and ate popcorn. Sometimes they played games, their competitions loud and filled with creative swear words. Ida more than once stopped by to tell them to keep it down and remind them of how inappropriate it was for a boy and a girl to be staying in the same room unsupervised. He stopped that after the fourth time he woke up with a penis drawn across his forehead in marker. Then, when the time to go to sleep, Levi would squirm into one of Katsuki's hoodies and fall right to sleep.

Neither of them would've seen that coming when they first met and became rivals. If someone would've told her that before even Christmas she would be snuggled up in Katsuki's bed in his hoodie, waking up in the morning to find his arm draped across her waist and his warm breath over her head as he snoozed on, she would've punched them in the stomach.

A lot of things had changed since they started at U.A., and so quickly too. It was almost hard to believe.

She thought she heard the click of the bathroom door.

"Hello?" she called out. She stuck her head out from the stall but couldn't see through the immense steam. There were showers enough for the rest of the girls to bathe if they wanted to, but Levi didn't hear any other faucets come on.

Her heart pounded hard against her chest. All the horror movies Kat forced her to sit through raced through her mind at once. Shaking, Levi stepped out of the shower and groped blindly for her towel. Fuck, why did she let the room get so steamy? This was how people died!

"Whose there?" She called again, met with only silence. "Come out!"

Moving blindly through the steam, Levi at last found where she'd folded her clothes up on the counter. She covered her mouth to silence a scream.

All of her hair pins and hair ties had been stolen. In their wake was a note, in handwriting that was unmistakably Kat's.

"Levi,

I had hoped you would stop on your own. I thought maybe if we talked, you would see that you were really upsetting me. But, as I can see, that's not going to happen.

So consider this war.

Give Shoto back his shit. For every piece of his stuff that you return, you'll get a hair pin back. I expect all of it back by the end of tonight or I'll start breaking pins.

Think I'm bluffing? Do you remember 8th grade? Are you willing to take that chance again?

Hugs and kisses,

K"

Levi crumpled the paper up, got dressed and stormed out of the bathroom. She took fast, determined strides all the way to Kat's room and threw the door open to find her and Todoroki on the floor working on their math assignments.

"Where are my fucking pins, Kat?"

"What ever are you talking about?" Kat batted her eyelashes. She looked at Todoroki. "Shoto? Do you know?"

He shrugged, his face blank and impassive. Almost bored. "No clue."

"I found your fucking note!"

"MISS KANE! WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE!"

Levi stuck her head out the door. "SHUT THE FUCK UP IDA!" She stormed into Kat's room and started tearing it apart limb from limb. Behind her, Kat and Todoroki shared a look. Kat sighed.

"Anyway Shoto, so you carry this, right?"

"Right. Then what?"

"Then . . . multiply?"

"Yeah, that's right. See? You're getting it."

"THEY'RE NOT FUCKING HERE!"

Kat rolled her eyes. "I told you they weren't here. Can you wrap this up? You're getting my carpet wet."

"FUCK YOUR CARPET! LOOK AT MY HAIR!" She knelt down in front of Kat and Shoto. "You do realize this means war, don't you? "

"Obviously. That's what my note said."

"SO YOU DID TAKE THEM!"

"I didn't take them. But I know where they are. All I did was write the note."

"GIVE ME MY PINS AND TIES!"

"I said I'd give them back if you give Shoto his shit back." Kat grinned. "You started this war, Levi. You fired the first shot, I'm just retaliating. You can't expect only one side to take casualties."

"Oh, OH HO! You know nothing of casualties! You have no idea what power you have wrought."

"Don't I? Levi, I've known you since we were in Kindergarten. I know how your mind works. I know the ins and out of that sick little fucking skull of yours-I know the details of your twisted soul-I know you. You should've thought twice before pulling that shit on me. I will rain fire down on your entire life and you will beg me, on your hands and knees, to please stop the pain! YOU WILL KNOW WHAT MISERY IS BY THE TIME I HAVE SEEN FIT TO RELEASE YOU FROM THE HELL YOU MADE!"

Next to Kat, Todoroki held up his phone and lightning sounds came from it. He didn't say a word or make a single expression.

Fuming, Levi stormed out of Kat's room. As she did, she made the gesture of "I'm watching you" with her fingers to both Kat and Todoroki. She shut the door behind her and stormed back to Katsuki's room. He sat cross-legged on his bed flipping through a magazine when she stormed in. Katsuki glanced up at her, bored beyond reason, and watched her storm over to his closet and slam the door open. She knelt down and started rummaging through.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"Fucking-thinks she's so smart-oh she'll pay for this! She'll pay for this!"

"What are you muttering about?"

In a fury, Levi grabbed everything she borrowed from Todoroki and stored in Katsuki's closet. A shoe, his calculator, his notebook, a pen, and a plush keychain of that stupid egg thing Kat liked (Guatemala?). As she gathered it all up in her arms and started for the door, Katsuki stopped her.

"Where are you taking my stuff?"

"It's not your stuff." She sighed. "I . . . borrowed . . . all this from Todoroki."

"Wha . . . WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!"

Levi huffed. "Because."

"BECAUSE WHY?! YOU FUCKING KLEPTO!"

Angry, and positive that there was no way out, Levi whipped around to face Katsuki. "Because Kat likes him! Okay? Kat likes him and he likes her too and I won't let him hurt her!" A heavy vibration hung in the room after her admission. Levi took in a deep breath and blew it out her nose. She gripped the pile of junk tight. "I've seen her hurt too many times-by her parents, by her brother, by her old boyfriends . . . I won't stand by and let someone who's not worthy of her break her heart." Levi looked away. "She's falling hard for him too, so I've got to work fast. I won't let him fuck her over."

Katsuki sighed. "Half and Half might be a dumbass, but he wouldn't fuck her over. Not if he likes her how you think."

"Then he shouldn't have any problems passing my tests."

"You don't think you're . . . sabotaging this for her?"

Just as she reached for the knob on the door, Levi stopped. She turned around, dropped the pile of stuff on Katsuki's desk, and went to stand by him. "One of her ex's threatened to break up with her if she didn't put out. She was head over heels for him but she still didn't, so he dumped her just like he said he would. After that she stopped eating lunch with me and our other friends. She ate by herself in a hallway and I was scared for her. Physically fucking scared. Another guy . . . he asked her out and . . . Katsuki, she was so happy. The next day, that guy came back to her and told her he didn't know what he was thinking of asking her out. Another guy pretended to like her just so he could get close to her parents-he was a huge fanboy of theirs and wanted their autograph. He didn't give a shit about her. He moved onto another girl when his obsession left her parents." She slapped a rogue tear off her face. She stormed back to the desk and gathered Todoroki's stuff up again. "I'm not letting this asshole hurt her. I'm not going to give him the chance. Kat might be legitimately falling in love with him and I'm not going to let him push her back into that dark place."

"Hey, Todoroki wouldn't do that." The seriousness, the solemnity, in his voice struck a chord with her. "I'm not his biggest fan by far, but I also know he . . . ugh, don't make me call him a good guy, okay? It gives me heartburn."

Levi hesitated for only a moment before pulling his bedroom door open. "Then I guess he'll pass my tests if he's as great as you think."

Five items earned her five pins.

She still had to get five more pins and all ten hair ties.

She sat on Katsuki's desk before class and looked in her phone's front-facing camera at her hair, her heart sinking. "It's so wavy and fucking thick!"

"Y-yeah, it is."

"God, do you know how many times I rolled over on it last night?"

"N-No idea."

Levi looked away from her camera at Katsuki. "Why the hell are you so red? Do you have a fever or something? You better not get me sick." She reached over and put her hand against his forehead. He was warm but nothing too alarming. He swatted her hand away.

"Get your hand off me you dumbass."

"Ouch. Grouchy." She turned her attention back to her reflection in the front-facing camera. Levi kept messing with her hair but nothing looked right. She needed her braids. Her hair ties. And, at this rate, several fucking hours to braid it all back.

The door opened and Todoroki stepped through. He stopped, poked his head back out into the hallway, muttered something Levi couldn't hear, reached a handout, and walked back in with Kat holding onto his arm clothed from head to toe in yellow.

A hush settled over the class. Tokoyami muttered "my god . . ." under his breath as he watched Kat walk-in adorned in a yellow version of her school uniform. Instead of the green skirt all the girls wore, Kat had to sport a yellow one. Her knee socks were yellow. Even the blazer she wore over her white blouse was yellow. Levi grinned when she saw Kat-and Kat, when she saw Levi, had a completely different reaction. Her face turned scarlet and she stormed into the room right up to Katsuki's desk. Everyone watched as Kat shoved her face in Levi's. Todoroki strolled behind her with his hands in his pockets.

"Where are my clothes Levi?"

Levi shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about."

But she did. While Kat and Shoto were downstairs having breakfast with the rest of the class, Levi used her key to Kat's room and broke in. She'd conscripted Katsuki, Kirishima, and Kaminari to help her shove everything in Kat's closet into Katsuki's room and fill her closet instead with entirely yellow clothes. She had no choice but to bring three huge guys to help her-Kat had so many fucking clothes there would be no way she could quickly transport them on her own.

"Uh, I feel weird about this," Kirishima said as Levi piled all of Kat's black clothes in his arms. Why did one person need so many shirts that all looked the same? The ones with prints on them she understood. Those were different. But she had so many clothes that were just black. Would it have killed her to wear some color?

Well, she'll find out soon!

"I don't have time for weakness, Kirishima!" Levi pointed in his face. "This is war! Are you on my side or her's?"

Denki's bottom lip quivered. "I hate watching you guys fight!"

"Don't start crying! Who do you think you are? Deku?" Katsuki barked at him, then turned his attention on Levi. "This is fucking stupid! I never said you could-!"

"Look I just really need your support right now!"

"STOP MAKING ME THE VOICE OF REASON!" Katsuki shouted.

"Yeah," Kirishima said, nodding. "It's not a good look for him."

But they did what she said anyway, switching out every article of clothing Kat owned that was black (which was, again, all of it) for something bright and yellow. She knew it would be funny, but she hadn't thought it would be this funny.

"I know you took my clothes, Levi. Where. Are. They?"

"I don't know." She shrugged. "Probably the same place as my pins."

"LEVI THIS IS SERIOUS! LOOK AT ME!" She gestured at herself. "I LOOK REDICULOUS!"

"LOOK AT ME!" Levi pointed at her hair.

"OH POOR LEVI HAS LUXURIOUS THICK HAIR! LET ME PLAY YOU A SAD SONG ON THE WORLD'S SMALLEST VIOLIN!"

"SHUT UP I LOOK-"

"YELLOW WASHES ME OUT! LOOK AT ME! AND WITH MY HAIR I LOOK LIKE A BUMBLEBEE-!"

The door slid open. Mr. Aizawa walked in. "What's with all the-?" He stopped halfway to his place in the front of the room. His eyes landed on Kat. A long stretch of silence proceeded him coughing a few times into his scarf. "Oh, Garrison-" he coughed again. "-Brave, uh-" he coughed again. "-fashion choice."

Although it would've been smarter not to, no one ever accused Levi of being smart. She busted up laughing. Was Mr. Aizawa laughing at Kat?

Mr. Aizawa cleared his throat. "Kane, off the desk. Garrison, where is your uniform?"

"Oh-um-"

"She had an accident with her's," Levi answered quickly as she hopped off Katsuki's desk. As much fun as she had tormenting Kat into giving her back her pins and hair ties, their battle wasn't serious enough to let her get in trouble with their teacher. They were still friends. "She and I replaced her uniform the best we could, but that's all we had. Sorry Mr. Aizawa."

Mr. Aizawa sighed. "Fine. Whatever. Just take your seats and we'll get started."