The sound of her cell phone interrupting her breakfast had never been as welcomed as it was at that moment. The silence between the two had felt heavy. She noticed Midoriya's gaze shift over to her. But even his mumbling had stopped. No, it seemed more like now his mouth was refusing to work correctly. Whether it's because he wasn't sure what to say or wasn't sure what to ask first. So when her cellphone offered her a saving grace she jumped at the chance to put a little distance between the two of them. Though the conversation that followed was not exactly what she wanted as she listened to a coworker begging her head off to swap shifts.
Well it's not like it really made a difference if she gave up her shift today and instead picked one up a few days from now. But now she was going to be stuck all day with the green haired man who was sitting on her couch watching her pace the kitchen as she spoke and thought over how she could nicely turn down her coworkers request. She had no desire to be stuck with the man all day, but the shift she could be swapping would be a nicer shift to work if weighted out the shift she was giving up against the one she would be picking up. Also the sound of desperation coming through the phone from her fellow coworker was rather hard to dismiss. Aoi was too much of a people pleaser; there was no way she could turn her coworker down even though she really wanted to.
"Yeah sure. Fine I will trade shifts," She said with a heavy sigh before she had to pull her phone away from her ear listening to the shrill shriek of happiness that came through the phone speaker. A quick glance over at the man who was still sitting on her couch it seemed even he had been able to hear that horrible noise as he silently quirked an eyebrow up at her with a soft tilt of his head. He almost looked like a dog watching its master after they made a funny noise.
"Alright just let whoever is managing know. And have my schedule changed so I do not forget," She said once the sound from her phone had finally stopped and she could raise the device back up to her ear. With that the call ended and she walked towards Midoriya who was sitting silently on the couch watching as she tossed the device from her hand onto the couch beside him.
"Well it seems you're going to be stuck with me today," She said, forcing a small smile as she started to gather up their dishes from where they had been placed once no longer needed.
"I think you have it a little backwards. You're the one who is stuck with me," he said with a good hearted light laugh as he pointed out that with it being her day off now she was stuck with him. He did have a point and she did find the corner of her lips tugging up as she smiled while listening to him laugh and trying not to join him.
"I guess we are just stuck with each other for the entire day," She said, unable to help the more genuine smile that pulled at her lips while she tried not to laugh before she grabbed their dishes and headed back to the kitchen to clean up the mess that breakfast had made.
"Feel free to watch whatever you want," She called out from the kitchen before she finally heard the sound of the tv turning on as she started to fill her small little sink with hot water and got to work washing the dishes that they had used. She figured it was best to simply try and do what she would typically do on her days off. So first dishes, then she popped the window in the living room open a little letting some fresh air into the apartment. Then she gathered up her dirty clothes with his that he had been wearing yesterday and started sorting her colours and getting small loads of laundry started that she would work at throughout the day. Midoriya seemed to stay pretty quiet throughout the day and even though he tried to make it seem like it was the tv that had his attention. But in reality his green eyes would watch her from time to time or any time her back was turned to him. The shorts she had decided to wear that morning were smaller than they should be, truly they were not meant to be worn in front of someone she could still consider a stranger.
Watching her bend over to reach into her little washing machine was enough for the bottom of her ass to slightly become visible. That ever so sinful little view of where her thigh meets her ass cheeks. It wasn't the same as if she was fully naked and he could see her entire ass, yet still it seemed so wrong for him to be able to watch her stroll over towards the little thing she had crammed into a small closet space and watch her bend over. The material of her shorts shifting and being pulled tight against her ass. It felt wrong to sit on her couch and watch, unable to force his eyes away from her till he feared she was going to catch him and finally he ripped his eyes away from her to quickly turn his gaze back towards the television as she started to hang the clothes up to dry before tossing in another load.
Should he try to encourage her to put on something else? Eh but then she would know he was staring and could creep her out, also he didn't want to admit he had just checked her ass out when she bent over. No! saying anything would most likely either creep her out or make her upset and she would most likely slap him for any sort of comment about her ass or her shorts. So instead he bit his tongue trying desperately not to embarrass himself as she walked back towards him plopping herself down onto the couch beside him like she had the night before.
"What in the world are you thinking about over there?" Her soft voice filled the silence between them as a delicate finger reached out and poked him in the cheek. His face had already flushed even before he jumped and turned to look at her, his face filling with even more blood as he started to stutter.
"W…what?" He asked as he turned to look over at the woman who was trying to hold back her own laugh which only caused him to blush even more till his freckles were almost hidden among the dark red that spread from his ears, across his cheeks, over his nose and up to his other ear.
"I asked what you are thinking about? Must be pretty bad if your face is as red as it is," She said as her lips started to pull up into a wide smirk. Well now he felt panic sinking in at still being found out because his body decided to give him away and betray him. So of course he panicked, raising his hands in front of his face.
"I..its nothing," He whined softly now hiding behind his hands and closed his eyes. Now he felt like his former upperclassmen and now fellow pro hero Amajiki as he blushed and tried to hide the evidence of his blushing from her. And of course hearing her soft laughter only seemed to force the blushing more.
"You don't spend a lot of time with the opposite gender do you hero? And I don't mean at all in a professional setting, I'm talking about outside of your work. Though I think you're just a sensitive little sugar cookie," She couldn't stop herself from laughing at him even though he childishly tried so hard to hide his embarrassed state and she still did not know what had actually caused the blush and embarrassment to begin with. She just noticed him staring off into space and blushing. At first she had feared it had been a fever starting but then when she noticed his lips moving silently she noticed he was talking to himself silently. So he was thinking pretty hard about something and whatever it was had him blushing a little too.
"I don't spend a lot of time with civilians. All my friends are hero's, the only person I spend any time with who isn't a hero is my mother," he answered honestly as he finally dropped his hands even though not all of the heat had left his face.
"Is that the woman with you in the photo by your front door?" She asked even though she was extremely sure that the woman was his mother since they looked so similar. And of course at the mention of the photo by his front door she watched his face light up as he smiled widely at her.
"Yes, that's my mother with me in that photo," he said, sounding like an extremely happy child.
"Figured. You look a lot like her," she said, smiling softly at him as she leaned into the couch.
"You think so," He almost sounded surprised, which made keeping a straight face hard for her.
"We are both talking about the same woman right? A person would have to be blind to not notice. Though you are a lot taller than she looks," Aoi said with a light giggle as she thought of the image where Midoriya had his arm sling over the woman's shoulders and pulled her in close to him for the photo to be taken. Actually if Aoi thought about it she probably was just as tall as Midoriya's mother. If she was to stand beside him like his mother had for the photo she would stand just the same height beside the man.
"I guess you're right," He said with a light chuckle as he ran a large scared hand through his wild green locks.
"Your mother must be pretty happy to have her son as the top hero in Japan," Aoi said softly as she smiled as she watched the man's smile falter.
"Oh well yes she is very proud of her pro hero son. But my mother sometimes has a bit of a hard time with my choice in being a hero. It can be really hard on her," He said softly as his smile fell a little.
"She cares for you so she worries. You're lucky that someone cares for you so much," She said softly flashing him a small warm smile even though she felt her stomach tighten as a little lingering jealousy weighed her stomach down. He was lucky that he had a parent who loved him so much, she wished she had even half as nice of a relationship with one of her parents.
"Yes but then I worry about making her worry. And as you can see that just gets me into more trouble," He said with a light forced chuckle. Since his need to hide his injuries from the media and as such from his mother it led to him breaking into the wrong apartment thanks to his injuries.
"You know if your mother loves you as much as you love her, I'm sure she will worry no matter what. And if she ever finds out you hide your injuries from her and let yourself suffer she will not take that well," Aoi pointed out the flaw with the man's attempt to keep his mother from unneeded worry.
"You're probably right. But still I want to try and not add onto the stress she already has," When had their simple conversation changed into something so personal? Aoi rarely wanted to actually get to know someone. Getting personal means creating some sort of bond. Growing attached to people means that they can hurt you down the road. Jumping to her feet she was fully prepared to run away from this conversation not wanting to think about it any more.
"What do you want for lunch? Do you have any cravings?" She asked as she moved to fiddle with the window in her living room.
Izuku quickly noticed the way the woman ran from any really personal conversation, she first did it when her quirk or lack of one was brought up. She had run from him then, and at first Izuku assumed it was because she was upset at the conversation. But just now talking about his mother she once again had physically put distance between the two of them by getting up and going over to the window and even quickly changed the subject. The first conversation had been about her and he assumed it was simply a touchy subject and that's why she ran. But this time she ran from a conversation about him. The only thing the two conversations had in common was the fact that they were both personal. She clearly ran from conversations that got personal. But why? The man was curious to know why she seemed to avoid conversations that turned personal.
"Whatever you feel like making is fine with me," He said simply as he watched her open the window and stick her head out to enjoy the fresh air. Well that was not the answer she had wanted. She planned to enjoy the rest of her left overs and then make something for just him. It would save another meal she could make for him. But no he had to go and say that, and saying she was just going to eat her left overs so what she felt like would not matter.
"Well I figured I would just eat my leftovers. So what I feel like eating doesn't really matter," She bit the bullet and admitted she did not plan to cook anything for herself.
"Well we could just order something else in then. I don't want to make you cook something just for me," he said as he watched her pull her head back into the apartment and turned to lean against the window sill. And of course she arched an eyebrow at the man who suggested they eat delivered food yet again. Of course that quickly made her think of his unused looking kitchen next door.
"Do you always eat fast food?" She asked bluntly, watching him blush and nervously rub the back of his neck.
"It's that obvious huh? My mother is an amazing cook. But I am sadly not. I'm not a bad cook but with my lack of time and practice I don't often enjoy my own cookie," he shyly admits.
"You should not eat such unhealthy foods. Your lucky being a hero is such a physically strenuous job. Or you would probably be as wide as you are tall," she said with a light chuckle. Of course he couldn't help but laugh with her.
"You're right. My eating habits are far from healthy. If it wasn't for my hero training and work I would probably be in trouble," he agrees with her, well aware that after hitting his twenties he knew the body did not always metabolize as well as it did for a teen body. But his heavy workout schedule and all the hero work he did kept his body incredibly fit and muscular.
"Save the take out for when you don't have someone to cook for you, if you're not fussy then I'll see what I can make," she says, pushing herself off of the window frame before she heads to the kitchen. Really she just was happy to have an excuse for why she could hide in the kitchen away from him.
"Don't make it anything to over the top," he called out after watching her stroll into the kitchen.
Of course she wouldn't listen to him as she started to pull out the ingredients she planned to use and get the rice started before she was throwing frozen vegetables into a large pan. A stir fry would allow you to make a good deal of food and whatever he did not eat she could later. She did not usually have the luxury of adding meat to her meals. But she had spent a good bit of money on groceries to ensure she could properly feed him even if it meant she would be eating cup ramen for the rest of the month. She finely sliced up a bit of beef adding it to her stir fry mix as she quickly made the sauce. Really it wasn't that hard or time consuming of a task. It was often something she liked to make when she had the vegetables to be able to make a simple stir fry. Pairing it with the rice helped make for a very simple and tasty meal. With his serving she tried to add most of the meat to go with his large bowl of rice.
With his meal in hand she left the kitchen to find him still on the couch as he should be. Well it was good to see he had not been an idiot. Sure she wasn't far if he got up and ended up tripping and whipping out in her living room she would have heard it. Hell if she didn't go out of her way to avoid looking over at him she could even watch. But luckily he remained seated and not moving. Though he seemed to be able to stand alone, Izuku did not want to risk trying to get up without help unless it was really important. Like going to the bathroom. So for the time being he was stuck sitting on the couch.
At some point he had tried to lay back and sprawl out over it the best his large form would allow over the little couch or more so loveseat. But with its small frame and extremely uncomfortable material it felt more like he was trying to lay out on a couch made of bricks. Okay maybe he could understand how the woman had ended up on the floor last night. He barely spent fifteen minutes trying to lay across it and he could not get comfortable. It was also a very small couch that barely fit him and her side by side on it. What if she had started out on the couch and had rolled off and just said fuck it, as he could now see that being a possibility. Even as he could hear her frying up something that was actually smelling pretty good. With a glance over his shoulder he looked at the woman who was focused on her job of cooking. Maybe his assumption was wrong this morning when he had found the woman sleeping on the floor with a rolled up jacket as a pillow.
Pulling out his cell phone he started texting the group chat that he had started with Iida and Ochako early that morning. It was a good thing both worked early morning hours and were awake when he started texting them well before six am. So of course he needed to share his new finding of how uncomfortable and tiny her couch was and once again that he was questioning his earlier assumption. Iida still didn't offer much advice on the woman but he was still a nice rational voice and reminded Midoriya that not everyone had regular company and her couch was most likely not bought with the assumption of being slept on. It was the private text that he received from Ochako that surprised him when he noticed she did not reply in the group chat but rather in a private one.
If anyone had an idea of what it was like to live a less leisurely life it was his dear friend who had become a hero so her family would never go hungry again. He had to read the text message a few times as Ochako reminded him the woman most likely did not purchase the couch for any reason other than it was dirt cheap and better than sitting on the floor in her apartment. Midoriya never realized the couch was probably bought as a way to try and appear less broke than she was. That thought pulled his eyes to take in the edges of the seats that had been sewn back together. Realizing how much his neighbor was struggling was quickly coming into focus as his friend delicately pointed out things he had mentioned to her earlier. He had not even thought about it at all but he needed to remember not everyone chose like him to live in this apartment. Most of its tenets were most likely here because it was all they could afford. Which was a sobering thought as he got so stuck in his head he didn't even notice her walk towards him with his food in hand. It wasn't till she was tapping his thigh with a foot since her hands were full that he quickly looked up at her. Shoving his cell phone into his pocket he quickly sat up.
"Oh thank you," he said quickly, taking the bowl of food from her hands before looking up at her and questioning her a little, "Will you be eating with me?"
"Yes but you get started I'll go grab my lunch and be right back," She said with a nod of her head before she turned and went to pull her left overs from the fridge and heating it up in her crappy tiny microwave that took nearly five minutes to just simply warm up her meal enough to enjoy eating it.
Aoi was completely unaware of the new way her neighbor was watching her as she carried her own meal over to the couch where she sat down and started to eat her own meal. She even told him if he wanted seconds there was lots of rice and stir fry left. Which was all the more reminder that she had cooked enough for him and him alone, if there was anything left over then would she get to enjoy her own cooking. Now he couldn't help but question everything she did, and now it itches in the back of his mind to question her about it. But Ochako had quickly reminded him to be careful about the subject as not many people want to be reminded that they are poor nor did he want to come across as pitying her even if he knew he was. The woman was nice, she went above and beyond to help him when she did not have to. Nonetheless his thoughts kept him quiet as he ate his meal while sitting beside the woman who consumed his thoughts.
