Aoi took her time to get dressed slowly. Once dressed in some joggers and a loose fitting t-shirt she forced herself to walk out of her bedroom. After all, she could not avoid the man forever. She sighed softly before walking out of the room. She knew she couldn't avoid Izuku. But her guilt for snapping at him the way she had was making her feel bad.
Slowly stepping out of the bedroom she found Izuku looking like a kicked puppy. And that only made her feel worse. She had to remind herself he was only worried, and trying to help her.
"Are you hungry? I'm gonna make breakfast," she called out trying to force her tone to be lighter. Though she still sounded tired and exhausted. She watched those vibrant green eyes look up at her blinking back tears as she spoke.
"Oh uhm sure," he said, sounding rather hesitant. That only made her feel even worse as she turned and started towards the kitchen.
"I am sorry. I know I have not been easy to deal with lately. It's not fair I am taking my anger out on you," she said quickly as she started to run from him towards the kitchen. She wasn't surprised though as she heard him jump to his feet and quickly follow after her.
She stopped at the fridge as she opened it to poke her head in to grab some tofu out as well as a few other things. She was trying to keep herself distracted from the man that had followed her into the kitchen.
"No you don't have to apologize," he had started but that was all he got out before her head had whipped around to glare at him. That seemed to have him clamp his mouth shut.
"I do have to apologize. I should not have gotten so upset with you. You're just trying to help and I am only making this more difficult for us both," she said as she now reached into the freezer to look for some fish to pull out and fry up. Now she was looking for the rice to start in the rice cooker.
Izuku was not exactly sure what to say to the woman as he watched her starting to prepare breakfast for the two of them. His fingers start picking at the skin of his cuticles. He was worried about saying the wrong thing. It was clear that the woman was struggling in a number of ways. Everything had gone off the rails when she had been kidnapped. He still felt incredibly guilty for what had happened. He had not been able to save her fast enough. Or had he just been at home when they attacked her, then he could have kept them from getting her. And this guilt was eating up the hero. Even when he reminded himself of All Might's warnings that he would never be able to save everyone. But she was close to him. She should have been within his reach.
The sound of a hiccup had Aoi stop what she was doing as she was seasoning the fish. She had whipped her head around to take in the heart wrenching sight of the man standing in the kitchen. Oh fuck. She didn't mean to make him actually cry. And she was even trying to apologize for how she got upset. This was what she had been trying to avoid as she watched big fat tears roll down the man's cheeks.
"I'm sorry," he sobbed out softly as he rubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand.
"I should be apologizing. I didn't mean to get mad at you and make you cry," she said as she stepped closer to him. Aoi didn't know what to do. She had never been good at consulting people. And she didn't even know the true reason for why the large man had started to cry.
But hearing her apologize had the large man chuckle softly as he quickly calmed his emotions down a little. She thought it was from her getting mad at him earlier that had him crying. But that wasn't the case.
"It's not your fault. It's mine. I should have been there. I should have done something. What if I had been too late?" His words quickly turned into a garbled incohesive mumble after that as new tears seemed to fill his eyes as he tried to explain his thoughts that had upset him so much.
Aoi was shocked at the words. She had been so busy thinking of herself she had not once paused to think about how Izuku was feeling, or what he had gone through while she was gone. She never asked him about what he had done and how he was coping. Well now she feels even worse again. She was not the only one who was suffering, but he had simply been trying to keep it to himself till it overflowed like this. But she did not have a clue what to say. She never knew how to comfort or consult someone. What should she say to him? What could she say now?
A little hesitant she stepped towards the man who was still wiping furiously at his eyes. She did not know what to say to him. So instead she decided to just try and comfort him with a gentle action. She wrapped her arms around his lower back. She could barely get her arms all the way around him but she did not mind as she pressed her body against him. Her own eyes started to sting as she tried to blink back her own tears.
"It is not your fault. If it was not for you I would have surely died in that room," She said softly as she pressed her cheek into his chest. She could feel the large body against her shaking, or maybe it was her shaking?
"But it is," Was the weak argument he gave back and he would have continued had a hiccup not broken his sentence and given Aoi a chance to argue back.
"No. Arakawa knew too much. He knew things not just anyone would know about me. He may have been using me as a means to get to you. But he knew me. It was too personal to not be an attack on me. He had been looking for a reason to attack me. Even if I did not know you I could have still ended up like that. But because I know you, you saved me. I owe you my life Izuku," she said quickly before she buried her face into him as she felt his arms carefully reaching down to wrap around her. He was always so gentle with her, as if she may break and shatter under his touch. But at this moment he may have been right.
She could feel his face bury into the top of her head as she listened to the soft shuttered breath he took as Izuku tried to calm himself. And for a moment time stood still. But the moment couldn't last. She slowly forced her fingers to let go of his shirt that she had been white knuckling.
"Izuku I have a pan on the stove. I need to at least turn off the stove," she said softly. She did not want to pull away but she worried about having the oven turned on.
"Oh sorry," came the quick sniffled reply before his hands had suddenly shot up straight into the air as if she had suddenly pulled a gun on him. Which had earned him a warm soft smile from her before she turned to make sure the frying pan was not over burning. Luckily she had left the heat on low. At least the pan was nice and hot as she added the two pieces of salmon to the pan.
Even though she had returned to the task she had been doing before the emotional breakdown the two shared, she could still feel Izuku's eyes on her while she worked. And of course the man could never stay completely silent for long.
"You said Arakawa knew a lot about you? What exactly did he all say?" Izuku asked softly. At least he knew to tread carefully over the subject. And well, Aoi had brought it up. Kind of made the question fair game for him to ask now.
"Just a lot of things from my past. He knew of my connections to Dabi. I am assuming he must have dealt with Dabi based on the anger he had. Though I'm not sure. Dabi didn't usually leave people alive who bothered him," she said, pausing as she just looked into the frying pan in front of her as the fish sizzled.
"That man loved to remind me that there was no one to protect me any more. That his life was not in danger because of what he was doing. He knew I didn't like hero's and loved to taunt me that you may have left me there with him to die. Or that even if he got arrested it did not mean he could not still get to me. He reminded me that the league rule had long ago vanished," she said as she turned her attention to making some miso soup as well as cooking the fish.
Learning all of that seemed to have the hero go quiet. But a simple glance over her shoulder at him showed that he seemed to be deep in thought. She had not told Izuku about what had all been said during her four days with the man who was her torturer and honestly she thought he would be her executioner too. But she had been extremely lucky that Izuku had come to her rescue. After all, no one else would have. People go missing off the street all the time and no one bats an eye. She imagined no one would have even reported her missing had Izuku not known her.
"You don't remember seeing him around when you were younger? Uhm how involved were you exactly with the league of Villains and everything they did?" Izuku asked the question he has been dying to ask since he learned about the woman's connection to the villain Dabi.
Aoi sighed softly. She knew this question would come up eventually. Actually she was surprised he had never asked her about that earlier. She could not keep it hidden forever. She just hoped what she was about to share would not get her arrested.
"At first Dabi kept me close to him. I met a few of the league members. I don't think Shigaraki liked me very much, but Dabi was a very do it his way or no way kind of guy. And I don't think he cared. It also helped that at first the league was not doing a lot of illegal things. They were mostly hanging around that old bar. They would talk about their plans. When Dabi would go I would go with. Met Toga and Twice that way. I really liked them. Then again I think me and Toga were close to a similar age so it was easy for us to get along. She may have been a year older than me actually," Aoi paused to think about how old she recalled Toga being at the time of their meeting before nodding her head to herself and continuing.
"There was also another kid at first. Ugh I can't remember his name. He didn't talk to me much. Then again I think Dabi had scared him. I think he got arrested though at some point early on. I remember hearing about the league kidnapping some kid from UA. I was not around for that. Dabi kept me away any time that they actually did something dangerous and illegal. After all, I couldn't fight or take care of myself. I'd be a liability in a fight. He had left me home that day. We were living in a dinky single room apartment. Barely fit one bed in that place with almost no kitchen counter. And there was no stove. Also the bathroom didn't even have a shower. Had to use the communal bath. But it was home at the time. Dabi didn't stay there often. But he crashed there from time to time with me. I remember hearing about the fighting. How could someone not hear about All Mights very last fight? It was on every tv, radio and in news paper. After that he disappeared for a bit. Then came back. But things changed. I think he realized how dangerous what he was doing was now. I didn't notice. It didn't feel any different at the time. Dabi didn't always include me. He would disappear a lot. I also did not see the league after that. Not till they were all over the news after the war had started. I never even knew when the league had joined with the liberation army or turned into it, whichever ever it had been," she paused as she felt her throat threatening to close up on her and her eyes start to stinge before she continued, "I never got to say goodbye to any of them."
She could not bring herself to look at Izuku. She was too scared of how he may be looking at her now. Did he find her disgusting? She had seen cold blooded criminals as friends and even like family. And she did not regret it.
She turned away from Izuku as she started to pull plates and bowls out of the cupboards before she started to fill the dishes with their food. The entire time Izuku remained silent. And eventually her own curiosity got the best of her. Why wasn't he saying something? Was he going to arrest her for knowing Dabi and the league? After all she admitted she knew about plans and things they had done. She knew Dabi was a killer, and she had never turned him into the law. She wasn't a fucking snitch, she also knew all to well what happened to snitches.
Finally she looked over at the green haired man who looked deep in thought after what he had learned. With a bowl of rice in each hand she turned and watched the man who was just standing there.
"Are you going to arrest me?" She asked with a slight tilt of her head unsure if she was trying to make a joke or not. Izuku seemed pulled from his thoughts at her question as he quickly shook his head.
"Huh oh no. Why would I do that?" He asked as he took a step over letting her walk past him to carry food to the table for them.
"Well I just admitted to knowing a lot of criminals and having helped house one," she said simply with a shrug of her shoulders.
"That was a long time ago. And anyways you were just a kid at the time," Izuku said softly as he seemed to come back to life and moved to grab the plates with the fish before filling after her towards the table while she also moved to grab the bowls of miso soup.
"Sure, I was a kid. But I was more than old enough to know that Dabi was wanted by the law in some way. And even after I did not step forwards," she said as she placed his bowl of soup in front of him before placing hers down in front of her seat.
"Still would not change anything now. Those who survived will never leave Tartarus. Arresting you would do no good," he said simply, which had Aoi smile softly. It felt nice telling someone about her connection with Dabi.
"Well that's good to hear," she said softly with a light smile before she looked down at her food as she clapped her hands together in thanks before digging into her food. She kind of missed her cooking. The act was usually calming on its own, but she also enjoyed eating the food she could cook. She was far from a good chef, but she always thought she was at least a decent cook. And now that she could have healthy eating habits she really should try to force herself to eat healthier.
Watching her start to eat had Izuku quickly following suit as he said his thanks before shoveling as much rice as he could into his mouth. That sight nearly had Aoi laugh. The man ate like he had not had a meal in days. But then again she wondered if his quirk encouraged his large appetite, or maybe since he usually worked out a lot that could also help him require a lot of food. Though with being locked up lately she wondered if all he could do was basic workouts while she had hid in her room.
That thought reminded her of her earlier idea that she should try to work out a little and try to exhaust her body enough she wouldn't be able to dream. It was worth a try. She wasn't sleeping, so what could it hurt?
"Hey Izuku you said there's a gym somewhere here in the building right?" She asked, finally breaking the silence that had happened as they ate.
She watched as Izuku paused mid chew for a second before he nodded his head and quickly forced down the food in his mouth. At least he didn't choke doing that before he spoke up.
"Yes down on the main floor. It's one of the benefits of being an apartment building aimed at housing hero's. It's not that big of a gym but it's better than having to always travel to our agency's to just get in a little work out on our days off," Izuku said as he nodded his head and rambled on a little about the gym.
"Will you show me later?" She asked and watched his face light up as he nodded his head at her.
"Oh of course. We can go any time you want. It's open twenty four hours a day," oh he looked just so happy hearing she wanted to go to the gym with him. Of course she knew she could never hope to keep up with him on a workout routine. But he still seemed so happy and excited. Or maybe he was happy to see her leaving her room more.
She wanted to go before bed, but the thought that that time could be a little busy didn't sit well with her. She was not usually self conscious. But the thought of working out in a room full of men and women that look like Izuku made her start to sweat. She never really thought of herself as too out of shape or anything. But that thought just unnerved her some. She also didn't like the idea of being stuck with hero's all around her. Seemed midday it would be then.
"Let's go a little after lunch?" She asked and watched him smile and nod at her seemingly having no issue with her suggestion on the time for their work out.