Some people say that love is bittersweet. I think it tastes like cotton candy. No way! It's super bitter! He gritted his teeth and shook his head, as if to banish that nagging contradiction. Gripping the cold can, he studied the label. A pink can with blue polka dots. Probably embarrassing for any other man to purchase, but when the clerk gave him a weird look, his thoughts were elsewhere.
Jin opened the can and took a small sip from it. Sweet, but not unbearable. Though he did not buy it for its taste. He wanted to know what it was like. After all, she liked them. As he took a longer drink from the can, he felt anxious.
He had gone to her neighborhood against his better judgement in hopes of seeing her again. It had been a few days since he last saw her and he could not stop thinking about it. It's fate, he thought to himself as he lowered the can from his lips. Licking away stray droplets, he leaned his head back against the wall of the alley and felt his pulse quicken as he remembered their afternoon together.
Jin was just content to get coffee with her, but when he found himself spending the afternoon with the woman, he felt almost overwhelmed. The red-haired hero was funny; she made little jokes every so often and managed to bring a smile to his face a few times. She talked about how she liked being a teacher. She liked to read in her spare time. The hero was kind. When he started to look even slightly upset, she tried to cheer him up in some way. He found himself drawn to her even more than before.
Thinking about her smile, how those cherry-red lips curved in pleasure, he felt his pulse seem to almost skip a beat and his yearning grew stronger. It's fate, he thought again. But why did fate set me up with someone like her? She's not that great! She's amazing! She's a hero! I don't deserve her! I'm just as good as any hero! Akari…deserves better than me.
It was something that bothered him every so often when he thought about her. Always accompanied with a feeling of dread and self-loathing. She was a hero. She caught criminals and fought villains. She protected civilians and put her own life in danger to do so. Selfless. Strong. Beautiful. He was just a low-life in comparison. Someone that she would save, but not someone that she should get close with. He hated feeling this way, but he felt like he was undeserving of her kindness. The thought of her throwing her life away to love him just filled him with a dirty, guilty feeling.
He shook his head again and chugged the rest of his drink. Standing in the alley, the man lifted his gifts for her and resolved to do something. Anything. Because if he just stayed in the alley, thinking about her, then he would surely end up doing something stupid. Something that would upset her. He still admired her. That was not about to change, no matter how he felt about himself.
Shift P.O.V
"Heeeey, baaaabe! What are you doing? I didn't wake you up, right?"
Akari held her phone away from her ear when Yamada began screaming and smirked when she drew it back to her. "Nope; I've been awake for a while," she answered. "What's up? You miss me, Hizashi?"
"Awww! Akari, baby, you know my heart can't take you being gone!"
She snickered and leaned back against her headboard, closing her eyes as he rambled on about what he had done that morning. Day four of being suspended, she reminded herself. Well at least Shouta is coming over tonight.
"So what're you up to, babe?"
Akari opened her eyes and stared at the laptop screen before her. Heat bloomed in her cheeks. "N-nothing."
"Whaaaat? You sound kind of suspicious, babe! You weren't doing anything dirty, were you~?" he teased.
She could practically hear the grin in his words. "Hizashi!"
"Come on! You know I'm joking, Akari! Hey, don't forget about Sunday, okay? We're still finding you a new couch! And maybe we can get Shouta to come with us!"
When the call ended, she sighed and leaned her head back for a moment. Fingers ran through her crimson locks as she thought about her weekend plans. Spending the night with her boyfriend and shopping on Sunday with her best friend. A good weekend. Hopefully she could resume her teaching job on Monday.
Lowering her gaze from the ceiling to her laptop, she resumed her somewhat scandalous activity. I never knew that there was so much fan fiction about heroes. Most of these are actually kind of cute. She saw one title that caught her attention in particular and clicked on the story. As her eyes skimmed over the words, she felt her cheeks starting to rapidly heat up. Her pulse raced and a trickle of blood ran from her nose.
Reaching the end of the one shot, Akari put a hand over her mouth and the burning in her face was almost unbearable. All Might. Wow. That was…that was intense. I don't think I'll be able to look at Yagi-san with a straight face now. She went back to the list and skimmed some more titles. When she caught sight of a Heartstrings fan fiction, she decided that it was time for a break.
The All Might story had been entertaining, if not a little lascivious, but the Heartstrings one gave her a sinking feeling in her stomach. It reminded her of the online rumors from years ago. The Endeavor incident. As she walked to the kitchen to make some tea, she decided that she was done reading for the day.
Akari was about to enter the kitchen area when she heard a knock at the apartment door. She tensed, having not expected visitors. The woman cautiously approached the door and looked through the peep hole, but saw no one there. Though she could hear running footsteps. What the hell?
Opening her door, she tried to catch sight of whoever it was. Instead, she found something else. Lying on the ground was a bundle of red flowers that was tied together with red yarn. Along with them was a cream bun in a wrapper. Akari raised an eyebrow, but brought them into her apartment. Not from Hizashi. Unless he's trying to be sneaky. He's supposed to be at the school today.
She had no further time to ponder the gifts as her phone began to ring. A call from the agency she worked with, regarding some criminals in her neighborhood that were in the process of robbing a line of shops. Of course, she agreed to go stop them. Anything to help her forget about the fan fiction she had read. Anything to distract her from her boredom.
Shift P.O.V
Jin was catching his breath, having never run so fast before in his life. Hiding from her around the corner of the building, he ran a hand over his hair and released a sigh of frustration. I just want to see her! She's not that great! She's my soulmate! She's just a dumb hero that will judge me! She'll hate me if she sees the real me! She might love me!
He was so distracted with these thoughts that when he heard her door open a second time, he nearly jumped. The man peered around the corner and saw her in full costume, sprinting along the row of doors toward the stairs. Jin felt his pulse quicken as he saw her leap over the rails and land with grace on the ground below.
Without thinking, he ran after her. He kept a distance between them, of course, but he refused to let her out of his sight. The man's heart was beating at an erratic, painful rate and he felt a tightness in his chest. Gritting his teeth, he saw her turn a corner and quickened his pace to make sure that she did not disappear from his line of sight for long.
Shift P.O.V
Akari was excited to be able to get out of the apartment and do something, but she was also a little anxious. The fact that the criminals were supposedly targeting a row of shops indicated that she would be facing more than one opponent. With only her capture weapon, knife, and pepper spray, she was just a little ill-equipped to fight so many people. The sunlight did not help; she preferred to use sneak attacks and maintain stealth.
As she approached the area, she felt guilt twist her stomach in knots. They had already succeeded in raiding a few shops and were now making their way toward a jewelry store. Five opponents, she realized. Adrenaline spread through her and she gritted her teeth. Her capture weapon surged forward and encircled a man's wrist, drawing him backwards onto the ground.
The woman tugged sharply, scraping him over the rough surface, and when he started to push himself up, she sprinted forward. Akari landed a knee to his jaw, sending his head back and effectively smacking his skull against the ground hard enough to knock him out. Releasing him from the red ribbon of her capture weapon, she looked to the others with a smirk. "You're pretty stupid. Burglary in the middle of the afternoon?"
"It's called being gutsy!" Another criminal rushed at her, his arm drawing back as it seemed to shift in shape to form a point. He got pretty close and she dodged a potential strike to the face. When he got a face full of pepper spray, he recoiled from her and screamed in agony.
Akari looked to the remaining three as they ran at her. Shit, shit, shit! You couldn't make it that easy, of course! She dodged as best she could, wary of the quirks that they were using against her. One of them had wings and was simply punching, one of them had long claws and was trying to slice her, and the third had knuckles that seemed to sprout stones across them. At least they're all close combat. I need to subdue them, but I can only use my quirk on two at once! Shit!
She leapt back from the three and unsheathed her knife. Twirling it between her fingers, she kept her eyes on them. I have to use my quirk. If I can at least slow two of them down, maybe I can take down the third before they get up! She sliced across all of her fingertips and winced as her blood shot out as threads.
The hero's threads sank into four arms and four legs, effectively redirecting their blood flow away from the limbs. Two of the criminals crumbled to the ground, shouting in confusion. She was about to withdraw her threads when she sensed the third man's approach. As she turned to deal with him, something bizarre happened.
"Look out, Heartstrings! Why can't you take care of yourself?! This is such a pain! I love you!" A man wearing a black and white mask had, at some point, gotten behind her and was facing the third criminal. The punch that was meant to hit Akari hit him instead, directly in the face. He momentarily stumbled back, almost falling against Akari, but quickly recovered and aimed a punch at the criminal.
What…the hell? Who is that? Watching this complete stranger fight the third criminal, and eventually incapacitate him, Akari was taken aback.
With the last man knocked out, this stranger turned to her. "You okay?" He saw her nod and gave her a thumbs-up before sprinting away.
Standing there, staring after him, she tilted her head in puzzlement. What just happened? Who was that?
