It felt incredibly awkward as Izuku worked at cleaning and putting some bandaids on her arms from where her own finger nails had broken through the skin. They stung slightly but it was an easy enough pain to ignore compared to her ankle that was angry and screaming at her. Maybe she stepped on it funny during her panic attack? She didn't know but it was back to gently throbbing even as she sat at the table and didn't move.
But maybe the biggest surprise to her was the fact that the blonde standing in their kitchen had yet to utter a word since Izuku had gone to fetch his incredibly oversized first aid kit. Then again he was a hero, one well known for getting himself hurt and apparently one who liked to refuse medical help too. Knowing him like she did now it made sense the man had a nearly duffel bag sized med kit.
But back to the blonde. Aoi glanced over at the man who was silently cooking in front of the stove and making Izuku's large kitchen look tiny with the two hero's mulling around it. Then again most people were not typically over six feet tall and nearly three hundred pounds of pure muscle like these men.
"Thanks Izuku. Can you also grab me a painkiller? Between my head and ankle I'm not sure what's hurting more," she spoke softly as she watched the man seem to light up as he was more than happy to offer her some Advil and topped off her glass of water so she could toss the pills into her mouth and wash them down.
"Do you need any ice for your ankle?" He asked as he looked at her with wide worried eyes and ready to do anything she asked.
"No it's okay. I'll just try and stay off of it so I don't irritate it any more," she said as she moved to place one elbow on the table then plop her chin into her hand so she could hold her head up.
"What the hell happened?" His tone was still gruff. But his volume was at a much lower level now. Almost as low as it had been when he talked to her during her panic attack.
"None of your business," she snapped back but it seemed a useless retort as Izuku answered his best friend.
"Aoi had a tumble on the treadmill the other day and twisted her ankle," Izuku answered, which earned him a shocked look of betrayal from the woman. To which Izuku flashed her a soft smile that just begged for her to forgive him.
Bakugo just simply clicked his tongue off of the back of his teeth but did not actually say anything at that. Was that a good thing? It probably was. And yet why did she wish he said something rude about it. Probably so she could get rude right back with him. Why did she itch to get into a screaming match with the blonde? Probably because he reminded her of Endeavour and Aoi always took every chance she had to pick fights with the old hero when she was growing up. And the same urge to get up in Bakugo's face itched at her skin. But she had a feeling with Izuku around he would do everything he could to be a buffer between her and the blonde ticking time bomb that she wanted to annoy till he blew up.
Maybe it was a good thing she could not get in the hero's face. At the end of the day Aoi really needed to come to terms that she was living with a hero. He had hero friends. She was going to be stuck seeing a lot more hero's now than she probably ever has. And since they were his friends or at the least they were a part of his life she needed to learn to not just fly off the handle at any hero who talked to her.
The smell of some heavenly cooked food drew her out of her own head as she looked down to see Bakugo plopping a bowl down in front of her. Inside it was a bowl of Oyakodon. So that's what the blonde had been making them for supper. It looked pretty good, and it smelled even better. Her stomach was cramping up in pain at the reminder of the lack of food she had been giving it lately.
"Thanks," she mumbled as if she had a sock stuffed into her mouth as she tried to get the single word out as she didn't look at the blonde. Based on the grunt he gave he heard her. Whether he accepted the thanks she didn't know. At least she had tried to be nice. Grabbing her chopsticks she mumbled her thanks to the food before she started plopping the first mouthful of rice, chicken and egg into her mouth. It was a simple meal but honestly it was delicious and soothed her stomach and body.
She would never admit to either man though that the meal was delicious and soothing for her as she tried to remind herself not to just inhale the meal all in one go. A silence fell over the table as the three ate their meals and it was making Aoi feel antsy. Was it the blonde stranger? Or the fact that even Izuku was silent that was making it feel so awkward? No matter, Aoi was going to break the silence before she found herself any more antsy.
"You should head back to work Izuku," Aoi said bluntly as she broke the silence between bites of food. She had been thinking about why the blonde claimed to be in their apartment. He had come to yell at Izuku to get back to work. And Bakugo had not been the first person to tell him that, his other hero friends had and so did she. Still it seemed no one expected that to be the way the heavy silence was broken. She could hear Izuku let out an audible squeak of surprise. Glancing up she watched as Izuku was taking a drink of water and trying not to choke on his mouthful of food. Bakugo on the other hand looked like he was trying hard not to just burst out in laughter from his position across the table from Aoi.
"Ha even your girlfriend thinks you need to get back to work," Bakugo nearly seemed to cackle as he watched Izuku take a drink from his water to wash down the food he nearly choked on.
"Not his girlfriend," Aoi grumbled even though she could feel her ears growing warm. But it seemed the blonde either did not hear her or if he did, he did not care.
Poor Izuku looked between his two friends, feeling a little out numbered at the moment.
"I'll return to work in a bit. I had lots of vacation time so it's not a problem," Izuku said as if his flimsy words held any importance to the topic.
"There's no reason for you to be sticking around all day. I'm not that helpless," Aoi grumbled though based on the looks both men gave her she had a feeling neither believed her. She frowned at them both. Which drew her to growl out, "it's a twisted ankle from a stupid fall."
As if the real issue was not the obvious PTSD she was suffering. The panic attack over an aggressive knock at the door. Her poor sleeping and eating habits. She was clearly a ball of nerves and issues and yet she was choosing to ignore it and pretend that everything was fine.
"Still it hasn't been that long and Arakawa and his boss are still on the loose," Izuku said, looking at her all concerned as if she may disappear again if he left her alone.
"Izuku this apartment building has security, the chance that someone is going to knock down the door and kidnap me again is unlikely," Aoi points out, but not just to Izuku but also it was a way to remind herself that she was safe here.
"She's right. And I live in this building too. If you think I would let some shitty ass villain in this building then you're an idiot," It was Bakugo who spoke up and to her surprise kind of agreed with her. Also she had no idea that the blonde hero also lived in the building. That completely had her attention now?
"Are there any other hero's that live in this complex?" She asked, actually looking at and having a civil conversation with said loud blonde hero.
"Well me and shitty hair are on the floor below you and Izuku and I am pretty sure there are a few other extras in the building but hell if I know who they are," Well the blonde was clearly no help at all after all. Which just earned him an unimpressed look from the woman. And who the hell was shitty hair?
"He means Kirishima. You may know him as Red Riot though," Izuku said, filling in the information that Bakugo had not properly explained when he noticed her confused face. At least one of the two idiots was smart enough to actually explain things to her, "There are a good handful of hero's in this complex. Most of the people who live here like or need the extra security."
Ah so this complex was home to probably a lot of important people and those with enemies. So hero's and probably politicians or the like. Maybe those who work in high positions of companies and who knows. But the fact that three top twenty hero's live within the complex was a rather nerve-settling bit of information. And although she had never met the red headed hero that apparently lived with Bakugo, she had seen him on the news. He seemed like a very nice person and honestly seemed to be the one keeping the loud blonde at their kitchen table from being too stupid. He was the golden retriever boyfriend in that relationship, clearly. Asking him for help would be easy enough if anything happened and she expected she would recognize him even out of costume. It was kind of hard not to recognize a mountain man with flaming red hair and a bright smile on his face.
She would never admit it but Red Riot was the closest she would come to calling someone her favorite hero. She liked his genuine warm smiles, the fact that he kept Bakugo in check as well as he could, and she had even seen him apologize for his boyfriend's actions. It made it hard to hate the man. Sure a part of her wanted to think it was all an act. Like most hero's, the persona the media saw was not the real person behind the hero. Hawks was a hard reminder of that. She used to like him and had been an eager teen fan when he made the number two spot. But after seeing him kill twice she had felt so betrayed. Since that day she never trusted a hero based on their persona.
"See, there is no safer place I could be. You can go back to work. I'll still be here at the end of the day," she said, simply still not dropping the fact that there was no real reason for him to stay home, "anyways not like there's anywhere for me to go either."
She had no issues pointing out that she had nowhere else to go. Though it was not the first time, and she honestly expected it would not be the last time she ended up on the street. But at the end of the day she was safe here, it was warm, and there was food. Izuku did not beat her. There was no reason for her to run away. Sure her old apartment no longer existed, but could live without it. It would be hard. She would need to find another job, save up money, and get a new place. She had done it before, she could do it again. If she had to.
But she knew she did not have to. She may not like living with Izuku and being reliant on him. But he seemed happy to help her, he was nice to her. And he had yet to ask anything of her for it either. She was waiting for the day he would. In her world everyone wanted something for their efforts. But until Izuku started asking for repayment, if he ever did, she would stay. Well she would probably stay.
She couldn't help that paranoid side of her brain that tried to tell her that he would betray her eventually. All hero's did. Even with all the good things Deku did she could not completely crush that paranoid side of her. Maybe she was just crazy? She honestly was not too sure any more.
She had been thinking so much she had not even been paying attention to what the two men were talking about. Turning her attention back to the conversation at hand she noticed the two men were still bickering about how safe the apartment building was. Izuku made his doubts clear. Though it was easy to tell he was trying to pull excuses out of his ass. And Bakugo was crushing each poor excuse.
Watching the two bicker like kids was interesting. For a second it was easy to forget the two men were hero's. Nor in their mid twenties as she watched the two argue like children.
"You shouldn't worry so much about me," She said, stopping their bickering mid fight as both men paused and looked over at her as she finished her bowl of food. She almost wanted to lick the bowl clean. It was not fair, the blonde was such a good cook.
The room going silent had her pick her head up to look over at Izuku. He was staring at her with wide eyes and pink cheeks. He looked a bit surprised and embarrassed or maybe flustered by her comment. The blonde was just smirking smugly at his friend.
"Well I can't help it. It's a habit to worry about my friends," Izuku said, trying to defend himself.
Turning her head she looked at the blonde, the only other person in the room currently who Izuku would call his friend, even if said blonde would not say the same back.
"Is he like that with all his friends?" She asked.
"Yeah. Damn nerd is always worried about people," the blonde said bluntly with his scowl on his lips. That made her own lips press together into a firm line as she looked unimpressed between the two men.
"Still this is one of the safest places I can be. Only a moron would try and get in. And even if they do, you and Dynamite would never let anything happen," she pointed out. She tried to ignored the loud blonde who started yelling.
"Hey! Don't lump me in on saving your damn ass," he yelled at her and pointed an accusing finger at her.
"Oh? So you would let a villain break in, run a muck, and then kidnap a helpless civilian. And you wouldn't step in and stop them?" She asked as she taunted him slightly with her question. And she knew he hated it as she watched his anger only grow. It was entertaining watching the blonde get angry now that she wasn't actually scared of him.
"Of course not. I'd never let a fucking villain step foot into this place. So none of the rest would happen," the blonde barked. Oh how badly she wanted to see just how angry she could make the blonde. But with her current headache she couldn't take the loud yelling. So instead she just rolled her eyes at him. Though she was pretty sure that action had steam starting to rise from the blonde.
"Okay okay. See Izuku. The great Lord Murder God Dynamite will not let anything happen in this complex. So there's no reason for you not to go back to work. Japan needs their number one hero. I am sure your absence has been noticed by everyone already," She pointed out. She knew all too well how villains would be taking advantage of his absence. Crime has increased lately. That meant other hero's were stuck picking up the slack. And the look she shot the green haired man said that he was well aware of the same thing as she was. He really could not be missing from the streets any longer. He had already been missing for too long. Clearly there was more he wanted to say, he opened his mouth once and then closed it seeming to be thinking over what he wanted to say then it seemed to dawn on her.
"If you're worried about me leaving and being jumped I won't leave the building without you or some other hero," She said simply. She could see the little gears in his mind turning. That seemed like it may have been one of the things on his mind. Though he was still clearly uneasy as he mulled over his thoughts.
"For fuck sakes Deku what the hell else is the issue? The place is safe, your girlfriend will be safe and she even agreed not to leave the place alone. You're going back to work. I will even come here and drag your fucking ass out of this apartment tomorrow morning with me if I have to," The loud blonde said as he made his threat clear to Izuku.
"Not his girlfriend," Aoi grumbled softly once again but she just watched the blonde roll his eyes at her. So he had heard her earlier but did not care. Ugh he was annoying.
"Whatever. I'm getting the hell out of here. You two losers can enjoy your evening together," The blonde said as he stood up. Carried his dirty dishes to the sink and plopped them in before heading for the door. Izuku happily called a farewell to his friend while Aoi just glared at the man's back as he slipped his shoes back on and strolled out of the apartment like he owned the damn place. She really hated that cocky bastard.