Lets be honest here, you were expecting this chapter for a long time. So let skip explanations and go for it! Thanks for waiting everyone.
Chapter 7.- Ghosts aren't scary when they hug you. Know I care for you.
To be fair, one would have a hard time expecting students to go back to normal after an attack, while no one had been hurt and the pro heroes, together with the group of the top three students of the school had managed to keep everything at a minimum, the headmaster decided a few days of rest wouldn't hurt the students. So in a way to help the students. He gave them the rest of the week to rest.
While some of the students liked the idea of an easy week, this left students like Izuku and Iida sighing at the idea that they had essentially four days to rest. Thursday was barely starting and Izuku was already giving another sigh as he practiced some sketching while Himiko was learning the fine art of cooking from Inko Midoriya.
"Just stir the mix like that, no rush, take your time and relax as you do it." Inko spoke softly, but her eyes betrayed that she was serious in her instructions.
While Toga's life had been by no means easy, she was used to being under stress and stares. But there was something different in the stare of Inko Midoriya, she dared to say it was a mix of expectation and hope. While she didn't really get it, she just followed the instructions to make a cake mix as best as she could. Needless to say, the small nods of Inko just made her feel she was doing things well.
While her focus was on following instructions, she could still do small chats as she spoke to Izuku who was sitting close to them in the living room.
"Izuku, I swear if you keep sighing you are going to pass out at the lack of air in your lungs." She spoke while focusing on the mix, while she adored Izuku, she wasn't a fan of the boy's sadness or disappointment.
"Sorry." He answered shortly but meaningfully as he kept his sketching. He was drawing the group of the top three students of the school. With a special focus on Tamaki, he wanted to practice some shading and thought the theme of shadows fit Tamaki. The focus of the image was Mirio shining like a sun, Nejire being the sky flying over both and Tamaki while in the shadows looking as heroic as the rest.
It was a hard piece really to make sure the three characters all shined through in the drawing. And really, his sighing was more of the result of not really being able to make it shine through as it was on his mind. He had been thinking of the piece since he met the tree students. But only now found himself with some free time to actually devote the mental effort to work it and bring it to life. But, as Toga could provide proof for, it was going as well as it had for four hours since he woke up.
He needed a distraction. He needed something else to help him. Some hit of inspiration he needed.
"Going!" Inko voice broke Izuku of his musings as she went to answer the door. This time it was Toga who sighed in relief at finally not being stared at while mixing.
To the surprise of Izuku, Inko, and Toga. The one who had knocked on the door was Reiko Yanagi. Dressed in casual clothes, a long jacket with buttons to the side, and blue jeans. The combination made her look rather stylish, the light-colored jacket contrasting her hair. She looked unexpressive, nothing truly new from her, her elbows close to her body in the front with her hands hanging to the front.
She looked like usual aside from her hair seemingly looking more brushed. She was obviously dressed sharply in comparison to Izuku who was in casual clothes, a set of jeans, and an All Might t-shirt with the words, "Plus Ultra!" proudly in the colors of his hero.
"Hello. My apologies for the inconvenience on your day of relaxation after the events of the previous day, but I was in the hopefulness that you would be in the positive assessment of an outing to enjoy the flowing of celluloid pictures." Reiko spoke formally while her face showed the small form of a smile, almost imperceptive to those who didn't know her.
This was a side of Reiko that Izuku had heard of but never got to see. Monoma had mentioned Reiko had two moods. Absolute silence or absolute parlance. She often didn't speak, seemingly out of the fact that no one seemed to understand her.
Right then Inko was trying to process what she heard. Toga's brain had just fried and decided to escape to the inner side of the kitchen before she ended up ruining the mix and earned Inko anger. Izuku meanwhile found himself nodding.
"I would love to go to the movies." He spoke without worry, without stuttering. Mostly, because he had hoped for a distraction from the drawing, right then and there, his brain was more focused on the outing than on the fact he had been just asked by a girl to go to the movies together.
Inko was still in shock when Izuku said he would go out with Reiko. Toga just wished him a good day from the inside of the kitchen. Reiko just nodded and walked outside in the company of Izuku.
Reiko found herself happy walking with Izuku, albeit, the former one was walking with her arms over the shoulders of the latter one. Who was confused about it.
"R-Reiko?" He found himself stuttering again at the close contact, especially since they were getting looks from people around them as they were walking to the bus stop.
"Haunting you." She spoke simply as they walked. When at the bus stop, she kept the contact and Izuku kept on silent, he was blushing while Reiko was just rhythmically breathing. In an odd way, both were content with the situation. Izuku because the contact was in an odd way, soothing, kept his mind distracted of worries. Reiko was just content of having a time of silence in the company of someone she had an interest in. Plus, the idea of seeing a movie was exciting. Her friends while good, weren't such a good company for movies.
Monoma was loud. Itsuka had to always chop Monoma. Kinoko didn't like horror movies, Yui… she was fine. Hiryu was too serious. And Pony was just too excitable. She hoped Izuku would be the kind of company she could bring to the movies more often. Then again. She wouldn't mind if he was loud or scared in the movies. Love worked like that. That was the main factor really of the recent outing she was undertaking.
It didn't take long for the pair to arrive at the movies. To Izuku's surprise, Reiko took to bring out a card and the employee simply nodded before smiling at her.
"And here I was wondering if we would be seeing you today. The marathon is going to start soon…" The employee's speech ended when he noticed Izuku at the side of Reiko. He raised an eyebrow before focusing on Reiko again. "Brought a new victim eh?"
Izuku didn't have much of a chance to ask or even comment on the words of the employee before Reiko got a pair of tickets and made her way through the movie theater. Before Izuku could comment on the employee's words, Reiko spoke.
"I arrive to the movie theater multiple times during the year. Even more so during the season where they play a marathon of movies." She allowed herself to express with that extremely subtle smile of hers that few could tell. Izuku was smiling himself before she took him to the room where the movies were being projected.
Festival of the Ghosts.
"Eh." Izuku face lost color as Reiko's subtle smile appeared. The girl enjoyed her movies the same way as she seemed to act. Like something of a horror movie.
Needless to say, the whole movie Reiko had been nothing but happy to such a point that she found herself in the need to express it in words to Izuku.
"I must admit, this is quite the joyful occasion, I was expecting the enjoyment of celluloid film would be good. But the feel of your embrace around myself is quite the interesting development too, I must admit to quite enjoy it." She spoke with her voice in monotone while she kept watching the movie and Izuku was shivering in fear at the ghost on the screen.
"I thought you wouldn't mind ghosts, Izuku." She spoke with her known monotone albeit it expressed a tad of mirth on it as she felt Izuku's arms holding her close.
"I… I…" He was ashamed to admit it but he didn't need to as Reiko spoke.
"Being afraid is normal. I love ghosts. They aren't real, even if they were, real-life and movies are different from one another, the point of the movie is to scare you, which mind you, is doing an excellent job at doing." Izuku found himself flushed in embarrassment but refused to release himself from Reiko who chose to return the embrace.
"I care for you, Izuku Midoriya." Reiko lightly kissed the scared young man in the cheek who now ended up flushing due to another reason. Reiko pointed to the screen making Izuku see a ghost falling inside a vacuum. Reiko smiled.
"See? Even a horror movie has fun bits." Izuku could agree.
There were fun bits even in the situation he currently was. While he found himself hugging Reiko he decided enough was enough and released her from the hug. But to his surprise, he couldn't remove himself from her.
"Reiko?" Said girl just shushed him. "Movie is still going on." She had dodged the question. She knew perfectly well what she was doing.
"Let us enjoy the movie shall we?"
Short one! But I do need to get back in the roll of things, hope you enjoy!