Ayano and Melissa Shield were coming back from one of the many training grounds. In Ayano's arms were the tattered remains of her most recent support item, leaving her with a very frustrated aura. Melissa walked by her side, giggling to herself at how Ayano only ever showed this much emotion usually when something went wrong with her inventions. "You know, the idea behind it was exceptional! It was pretty good until we got to stage four!" Melissa commented.
"Yes, but 'pretty good' is not good enough…" Ayano mumbled as she tinkered with the broken support item, not even looking up to see where she was walking. Melissa smiled at the girl, admiring her work ethic.
After Ayano had gotten an internship with Melissa's father, David Shield, the two had gotten to know each other quite well. Despite how different their personalities were, they were very similar. Both quirkless with the immense desire to still be heroes in their own right through the creation of support items, and even having the same roots: their admiration of All Might. They had developed a friendly rivalry with each other, much like the one Ayano had with Hatsume Mei. Although, perhaps not quite as eccentric.
Currently, the two were on their way to Ayano's personal laboratory. Normally, only third-year students at I-Island Academy were permitted the use of a personal laboratory, but Ayano was made the exception because she was only a student studying abroad for one year. As they reached the hallway where her lab was located, they saw a lively girl and a lanky boy already standing in front of the door.
Ayano had been paired with two of her classmates for a group project. Instead of the communal laboratory, they had agreed to meet up at Ayano's personal one instead because she was the only one of the second-years to have one due to her circumstances.
When her classmates had noticed Ayano and Melissa, the girl immediately dashed towards them with open arms. "A-YA-NOOOO!" She shouted as she swung her arms together to encase Ayano in them. Except, the girl had simply stepped to the side and around her to continue towards her lab.
"Oh, come on! It wouldn't kill you to let me hug you, would it?!" The girl grumbled. Ayano continued to the door, giving a nod of acknowledgement to the boy who remained there. "No, Sophia, but I would much rather get started on the project." The brown-haired girl stated as she turned the key to unlock the door.
"Jeez, you and Raymond are such sticks in the mud!" The red-head complained. "How did I get roped into this? I didn't even do anything." Raymond finally spoke, raising an eyebrow in annoyance at the slight insult. The girl just pushed past him, walking into Ayano's lab first. He just shook his head, following after her.
As they looked around, seeing Ayano's laboratory for the first time, their eyes widened. Melissa chuckled at their reactions, having already been here multiple times before. Although the place was relatively clean, there were piles and piles of inventions scattered around the room. There was just enough space on the floor to have a narrow pathway for access to the desks and shelfs.
"Christ! This looks like some kind of warzone! You've been here, what, a month now? How do you have time for all this between school and your internship with Mr. Shield!? You'd have to live in this lab!" Sophia exclaimed as Ayano went to work, clearing the desks so that they would have room to work.
Melissa hummed in thought, her finger coming to her chin. "Now that you mention it, I don't think I've ever seen Ayano's dorm. I've only ever seen her here or at Papa's lab, and I see her quite a lot…"
Raymond turned to the aforementioned girl. "You don't sleep here, do you?" He asked, his voice full of worry laced with a bit of disgust.
"Bold of you to assume that I sleep." Ayano joked, although her face and voice maintained their normal impassiveness.
"…" The three guests all had large sweat drops forming on their temples. "She's joking…That's a joke, right? You're joking with us. I mean, I say all the time that I don't sleep, but that's a complete joke. I love sleep! But when you joke about it, it's like a whole different meaning! Please tell me you're not serious." Sophia spoke quickly, showing concern for her friend.
Ayano smirked at them, finished clearing the tables. "I would like to start working on the project now." "You didn't answer me!"
Melissa laughed, patting the redhead's back. "Well, I'll leave you three to work then! Ayano, you're coming to Papa's lab tomorrow morning, right?" When the girl nodded in affirmation, Melissa went on her way.
The three of them sat down, each creating their own little makeshift station in the lab after divvying up the work. Raymond and Ayano worked mostly in silence, only the sounds of their tools filling the air. On the other hand, Sophia served as a stark contrast. Even with headphones, the two other students could hear the blaring music. The redhead sung along occasionally, performing a few dance moves here and there as she worked on the project.
After an hour or so, Sophia sighed in frustration. "Ugh! I need a break!" She shouted as she slumped in her seat, clicking through social media on her laptop, hoping to find a juicy story. Raymond shook his head at her as he returned to diligently working, and Ayano had paid her no mind in the first place.
Sophia suddenly released a large gasp, her eyes and mouth opening wider than when she first saw Ayano's lab. Raymond rolled his eyes as he spoke. "If it's another article about how redheads don't look good in pastel, I don't want to hear it."
The girl glared at him, raising a finger. "First of all, redheads can look good in anything, and don't you forget it!" She raised a second finger. "Second of all, that wasn't what I was looking at. I was looking at this!" She flipped her laptop around, unplugging her headphones.
On the screen was a video of Bakugou Katsuki in action. He appeared to be working under Endeavor along with Todoroki Shouto and Midoriya Izuku. At hearing his familiar shouts, Ayano's head finally looked up, her hands pausing.
Sophia shrieked in excitement, reminding Ayano of Mina and Hagakure. "Oh my god! So those rumors about you having a boyfriend back at U.A. High School are true!"
Raymond glanced at the screen. "Huh. Yeah, I can see it. His costume definitely has your flare to it." He remarked, earning an incredulous look from Sophia. "Are you serious right now? How can you talk about his costume when you're looking at an absolute masterpiece of a man!?"
The boy scoffed. "Yeah, well I'm in to women, so no thanks."
Sophia looked away. "Could've fooled me…" She muttered, earning her a glare from the boy as Ayano silently returned to working. "Anyways! What a hunk! And would you take a look at those biceps?! MMM!"
"Sophia. Please…" Raymond pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to concentrate.
"What!? Can you blame me? I've never thought about dating a Japanese boy, but I'm seriously starting to consider it if they all look like this!" The redhead exclaimed as she stared at the screen, star-struck.
"Wow, Sophia. That's awfully shallow, even for you." Raymond commented. Sophia smirked at him. "Don't be jealous of Ayano's boyfriend and his beautiful biceps just because you have flimsy arms." He glared at her once more, but ultimately decided to continue working instead of humoring her.
Sophia snickered, feeling triumphant from having the last laugh. She turned her attention to Ayano who strangely had no part of this conversation yet. "Enough about me though! I want to hear about you two!" She promptly grabbed Ayano's tools, throwing them over her shoulder so that the girl could no longer work. "I haven't heard you talk about guys even once! Spill!"
The brown-haired girl blinked, her hands still in the air from her previous motions. Slowly setting them down, she finally looked up at Sophia with a blank face. "There is not much to say. You already know that his name is Bakugou Katsuki and that he also goes to U.A. High School."
The redhead rolled her eyes. "Not that, dummy! I want the juicy details! Like how you guys met, how long you've been dating, all that stuff!"
"We met when we were children since we live in the same neighborhood. We started dating a few months before I came here." Ayano methodically answered as she got up to retrieve her thrown tools. Raymond looked up at her with furrowed brows, feeling something a bit off.
"You guys are childhood sweethearts!? No way! That's so cute!" Sophia gasped again. "Wait, you only just started dating and you guys are doing long distance? That must be tough! I'm surprised that works for people our age! Well, I guess it makes sense since you guys are childhood friends after all! But that's still got to suck, right!? The security here is so tight, you probably can't have any communication at all! What's he like? With looks like that, he's got to have girls all over him! You think h—"
"Sophia!" Raymond interrupted her chattering. She looked at him in confusion. His eyes darted towards Ayano and then back to the redhead, gently shaking his head at her. Sophia quickly looked at the other girl returning to her work. She still had her normally impassive expression, but her eyes didn't seem as bright. They didn't get that excited sheen on them like they usually would when she was working on an invention.
The redhead bit the inside of her cheek, mentally admonishing herself for being so inconsiderate. It was easy to forget, considering how Ayano acted, but she was a little less robotic and a bit more human than she led people to believe.
"A-Ah! But I'm sure you don't have anything to worry about! You're a great catch! Ahaha…ha…" Sophia laughed awkwardly, trailing off. Ayano gave no response, only continuing with her previous ministrations. The redhead quickly retreated back to her seat, almost as if she were shrinking in it.
Contrary to Sophia's beliefs, Ayano wasn't concerned about other girls looking at Bakugou. Far from it. There were actually two reasons for the massive amount of inventions piling in her laboratory. The first being her incredible work ethic. The second being her strong desire to push thoughts of Bakugou to the deep recesses of her mind. If she stopped working, even for a little bit, she knew that she would break and thoughts of him would flood her head. She needed to keep herself busy at all times.
Too bad all that effort in distracting herself went completely to waste as soon as she heard his voice from that video.
Although it looked like she had gone back to working, her heart just wasn't in it anymore. Her hands paused again, her eyes moving to her right wrist. The one wrapped with the reddish-orange cloth. The gift he gave her just before she left.
She raised her right hand, her fingers fiddling with the ends of her hair. Having only been a month, her hair hadn't quite gotten long enough for the need to tie it up. Even so, she kept the headband on her wrist at all times.
Ayano lowered her hand, her left hand now playing with the ends of the reddish-orange cloth on her wrist. "Katsuki is…" She started slowly. Sophia's head perked up instantly, happy that her friend wasn't mad and also that she was even willingly talking about her boyfriend! The redhead leaned in, eagerly waiting for Ayano to continue.
"Katsuki is an idiot."
Sophia nearly fell out of her seat. Obviously, that wasn't what she was expecting, but she probably shouldn't have been too surprised. This was Ayano, after all.
"He's an idiot. Loud. Gets angry easily. Often irrational…but…" Ayano smiled to herself, as if she were reminiscing about something. "He's my hero."
Sophia's and Raymond's eyes widened, never having seen Ayano so openly radiant before. They looked at each and smiled, feeling a bit privileged at being able to see her like this. Sophia laughed and joked, "Oh, I see! One of those 'He's an idiot, but he's my idiot' types. I dig it!"
After that, the three of them went back to working, fully content.
Ayano returned to her room after they stopped working on the project. Truthfully, she was going to stay in her lab even after they left, but Sophia insisted that she went back to her dorm. Even going so far as to steal the key to her laboratory so that she couldn't return until tomorrow.
She placed her bag on the desk, pulling out her laptop. Booting it up, she searched up that video Sophia found earlier. She sighed to herself, disappointed that she broke her code, but she couldn't help it after seeing and hearing him after all this time.
When she left that message for him, asking him to forget about her and that she would do the same about him, she was fully intent on keeping her word. She had been doing such a good job, too.
She avoided all news outlets covering U.A High School. If she so much as heard anyone talking about some new developments from there, she would immediately put in earplugs or headphones. She drowned herself in work so that she wouldn't even have the time to think about him. It was working, considering she had landed an internship so soon with the very man who created All Might's costumes.
To others, it may have been extreme. To Ayano, however, it was the only way she could cope. There was no last note, no secret final message. Not ones like she left for Bakugou. She didn't have those luxuries if she ever fell into a hole. So, this is what she had to do.
Everything proved to be futile though, once she heard his voice.
It took everything she had to not falter in front of her two classmates.
She clicked play on the video, waiting for it to load with bated breath. When Sophia had put it on, Ayano only allowed herself to look at it briefly before she forced herself to go back to work. Now, she was giving it her full attention.
She watched the video in its entirety, a montage of events in which Endeavor and his sidekicks were dealing with villains. Midoriya, Todoroki, and Bakugou seemed to be working under him, perhaps part of a work-study program at U.A.
Ayano was slightly disappointed, as much of the video was showcasing Endeavor's talent at disposing of villains quickly with the three U.A. students merely trying to keep up with him. Although, there were a few bits here and there where Bakugou was the star.
He still had a long way to go, but he really is amazing.
As the video ended, fading into a black screen, Ayano sighed in longing as she saw her reflection. Once again, she was reminded that she also had a long way to go before she caught up to him.
With that thought in mind, she clicked the replay button as well as a few other options. Several other holographic screens projected from her laptop. She tapped away on those with her left hand as her right hand prepared to take hand written notes.
She watched the video again, slowing it down, going frame by frame, pausing and taking screenshots as her hands diligently took notes of new ideas and improvements she had for Bakugou's costume. Her hands worked furiously, her eyes scanning everything.
When she finally ran out of ideas after watching the video numerous times, she set down her pen and returned to the original settings on her computer. She leaned back, pressing the replay button once more.
Without any notes or any other distractions, she watched the video over and over again, her smile growing bigger with each view as her fingers played with the cloth on her wrist.