We Can't Be Friends: Chapter Twelve
Moving into the dorms was a little chaotic; the speech that Mr. Aizawa gave just outside of them – singling out those who went to rescue Bakugo – and how he was ready to expel just about everybody for either being a part of the plan or not stopping those who'd been involved, had kind of shook Aoi up. But once inside her room and once she'd started unpacking, her nerves calmed down and she started to feel a little better.
Her old room was kind of a blue and white wonderland: a little ethereal and neat, like a place you wouldn't want to touch. She had a large white fluffy rug that she laid on the ground, light blue bed sheets with a matching bed skirt that hung to the floor that gave it almost a princess look, and she did cheat a little and brought a white headboard for her bed to give it more of a touch of home. Next was the curtains, light blue with sheer white to decorate them that hung to the ground. She placed a white table runner over her dresser to decorate it, and put a small fake candle on each end and "lit" them up to test them. She had a three-pronged silver lamp that she put at the foot of the bed, and that was when she stepped back to look at her little piece of home.
It definitely looked relaxing; so much so she could take a nap in that bed right now, but a knock at the door interrupted such a thought. She opened it and on the other side stood Ochako Uraraka.
"Oh, hello, Uraraka," she said, tilting her head inquisitively as she observed the other girls in the dorms behind her. "What's up?"
"We want to host a competition of the boys' rooms, you in?"
"Uh—" To look inside the boys' individual rooms and judge them? Did that seem right? "Sure." Why not?
Mina was the one to ask the boys if they were all set up, and also present the idea to them in the first place. Before they could protest, the girls started with Midoriya's room, and as to be expected it was full of All Might memorabilia. Next was Tokoyami's room, which was "dark and scary" to quote the girls, to say the least. Aoi did like it, though, even if it was a little on the "emo" side. She knew another former student that would have liked it, too.
She tried her best not to think about her while packing, and while moving in. However, Aoi thought of all the things they would be doing if they happened to be living in the dorms together, of all the things they would be doing together in general – all the training, all the study sessions that would have taken place, the late night talks in each other's dorm rooms.
Those would be memories that Aoi would miss out on, and especially that Shiya would miss out on as well. And something about that made Aoi's heart irrevocably sad. She didn't talk to anyone about it though; she couldn't imagine anyone here would understand losing someone so precious like that and essentially losing all those potential memories with someone. She also didn't want to bring anyone down with how disheartened she had felt throughout the day, with how enthusiastic everyone else had been (post Aizawa-lecture). So it would be a burden she would have the bear alone.
Sometime while lost in thought they had decided to look through the girls' dorm rooms, and it was now her turn. "Minoru?"
"Hmm? Oh!" Aoi gave a quick, fake smile before turning the knob on her room and allowing everyone inside.
"Wow it's so… ethereal. Like an angel's room," Mina commented. "Is this how you decorate it at home?"
"Yep! Down to the lamp."
"So chic," Yaoyorozu said, which gave her the biggest confidence boost.
They moved on, and she could feel someone's eyes on her. When she glanced around, she noticed Midoriya was staring at her, not as if he was wanting to question something but as if he was sad for her for some reason. Could he see through her? That was something that Aoi sometimes found both endearing and annoying about him; his empathy.
They voted on the best room out of everyone's – Aoi just picked Todoroki, as she wasn't paying attention to anyone else's anyway – and so commenced the first year dorm room competition.
As Aoi headed back to her room, Midoriya approached her. "Are you okay?"
"Me?" She pointed at herself, as if he was talking to anyone else in the vicinity. "Yeah! I'm just tired. Long day."
"Are you sure?" But before she could answer him, Uraraka had called for him to follow her outside.
"Go ahead; like I said, I'm tired. Good night." She smiled at him – as much as she could – and walked to her dorm room, closing the door silently behind her. Once by herself, she slid her back down the door and buried her head in her arms, trying hard to not allow the tears that had been threatening her all day to release from their prison behind her eyes.
Even when she wasn't around, Shiya still consumed her thoughts. And all the what-ifs of their broken future plagued her.
They were going to start school the next week, meaning she had just a few days to commence with this wedding. She figured that she would just have it at farmhouse; they'd had enough weddings there she knew what they were supposed to look like. She'd reached out to her aunt Iki and her grandfather on Satsuki's side – the only people that supported her moms and their union – and they agreed to be there this Saturday. She managed to pull together a caterer who agreed to cook for them a feast, despite the fact it would just be a few of them; she did get a florist, mostly to deliver bouquets of roses to the farm and decorate the front of the farmhouse with them – the tulips were not allowed to be plucked so she couldn't use those to decorate like she'd like. And then the cake decorator was gracious when she said she wanted a three tier cake, plain white with a some flower decals, by the end of the weekend.
The only thing she was having trouble with was a Chastain to marry her moms. It wouldn't be a legal union; in Japan, same-sex marriages weren't recognized at all, as backwards as that was. But she just wanted someone to bid them their "I-do's", is all. Which, as soon as they hear it's about two women, they pretty much immediately hang up the phone.
After the fifth hang-up, Aoi was ready to throw the phone book – and her phone – in frustration. She sat on the floor of the common area while she did this, mostly because she was using the phone book, but she tried to be as subtle as possible about it.
Apparently, not subtle enough.
"Are you getting married?" Uraraka asked, sitting on the couch behind her. This seemed to draw everyone's attention, and a small crowd formed around them.
"What—no! Not me." Aoi sighed, setting her phone on the long coffee table and burying her face in her hands. "My… parents are."
"What, really!" her friend exclaimed. "That's so exciting. When?"
"This Saturday, if everything goes according to plan. But…" She felt heat rise to her cheeks as she was about to say the next part, "no one wants to marry them."
"Aw, why?" asked Ashido, crashing on the couch next to Ochako.
"Uh…" This is the type of questioning she tried to avoid. Oh well, here we go. "Because … they're both women."
A silence hung in the air; Aoi didn't pull her face from her hands, didn't dare to. Then, "Well, that's ridiculous."
"What—" Aoi whipped her head around, ready to snap at Midoriya for being small-minded.
Then he added, "It shouldn't matter who they are. If they want to get married, then they should be allowed to."
Her classmates murmured in agreement.
Aoi could have cried, she felt so relieved at their reaction. "Well… yeah. But that's just the way of the world." She ran a hand through her long, blue hair, frazzled all over again as she stared at the dwindling list of chastains. "Anyway, I could keep making phone calls. But I have a feeling I know what their answers are going to be."
"Why not ask Mr. Aizawa?" suggested Midoriya. "Or All Might?"
Aoi blinked at him, but the others were all once agreeing with him. "I – don't know. I could." She felt her face go red again. "Don't they have enough going on –"
"What's the worst they can say? No?" Ochako said with a smile.
"You're… right."
"And who all is going?" Momo asked, leaning on the back of the couch. "You're planning on having a big party, right?"
"Well, no." Aoi's eyes went to the floor as she said the next part. "Only two of my biological mom's family even supports her, and my stepmom's family completely disowned her when they ran away together in the first place." She shrugged. "It's honestly been the three of us for a long time."
"What about your dad?" Ochako asked, then, noticing Aoi's grimace, she added quickly, "You don't have to answer that—"
"It's okay. I don't know him. I just know he sucks as person." Aoi stood up, grabbing her phone. "Let me… make one more phone call."
She was surprised that Mr. Aizawa agreed to marry her moms. He did remind her that he wasn't licensed to do something like that, and Aoi reminded him that under Japanese law her parents wouldn't really be married, anyway, so it worked out. She did say he could invite a plus-one if he wanted to, to which he said he would probably bring their other teacher Present Mic with him. That would be fine, the more the merrier. Speaking of…
She did invite her classmates to the wedding, and they received the invitation with enthusiasm, to her surprise. Even her quiet classmates like Shoji or Todoroki agreed to go. She did warn the caterer of the added guest list, and they didn't seem bothered by it at all; as said before, they planned on making a great feast despite the previously small guest list, so now having people to feed seemed to delight them.
"Wow, they all want to come?" her mom had asked, surprised by the additions to their guest list. "Well, I hope they like vanilla cake. That's what you ordered, right?"
Now she had one more thing to ask a friend of.
"Me?" Midoriya sounded shocked at the suggestion, his green eyes wide.
"You don't have to if you don't want to. But I figured I would ask."
"But—but the ring bearer? Isn't that a big job?" Then he asked quickly, "Can't you do it?"
"I'm the maid-of-honor," she answered with a chuckle. "I'm going to be orchestrating the rest of the wedding, I can't do this part." She raised her hands in surrender, shaking her head. "You really can say no—"
"I'll do it."
"What—really?" Aoi beamed at him; she would have hugged him if that was something she often did, but for her that would overstep a boundary. "Thank you so much." She took out her phone and sent him a quick text before saying, "You'll go to that address Friday evening. We'll be doing a rehearsal before the real thing, okay?" Smiling at him, she couldn't help but say again, "Thank you."