I Can't Cope Alone (A Kamijiro FanFic)

Chapter 3

 KAMINARI'S POV

It's been about four days since the incident. I was discharged my then. I heard from Iida that his group was also attack by the thing. The only thing I remembered before passing out was Jiro desperately shaking and shocking me, telling me to stay awake even though I think she nearly passed out herself. The U.A teachers were looking into the ambushes and discovered that the thing's main targets were me, Jiro, Todoroki, and Ojiro. I had no idea why. Nobody did. But since the teachers were off, we got the day off too. "So you two got the worst of it?" Midoriya asked Jiro and me in the common room. He had his notebook flipped open in his lap. Number 13, if I'm correct. Jiro played with her earphone jacks. "You could say..." she replied quietly. She plugged one of her jacks into her phone to avoid further conversation.

About a minute after Jiro got up and retreated into her room, she sent a group text to our whole class apologizing for walking out on the bonfire. "That's nice." Midoriya said to no one in particular as he typed out a response. It was a little hard to walk, you know, because of the villain. Don't get me wrong; I didn't need crutches or anything like that. But it hurt a little. Midoriya must've noticed because he helped me stand up. I thanked him and went to my room... sorta. I was on autopilot (again) and had landed at Jiro's door (again). This time, I'd take my chances. She wasn't so bad. Nice, actually, I think, if you get to know her.

I knocked. "Come in," came a muffled voice from inside. Jiro was sitting on the edge of her bed with a navy blue electric guitar in her hands. Of course, it wasn't plugged in. She seemed surprised- and a bit embarrassed- that I came. "K-Kaminari?" she said reluctantly. She set her guitar on a rack on her wall. There were lots of the, plus several basses, a drum kit, a keyboard, and a couple mics. "I never pegged you as this type of person, Jiro." I said, glancing around the room. She crimsoned. I sat down on her bed, and she made a hidden point to discreetly inch away from me. I noticed, but pretended I didn't. Jiro played with her jacks. "I... uh... I was worried about you." she said. I turned red all over. She was worried about me? "You were?" I asked meekly. "Yeah." She'd dropped her jacks now. "You scared me. All of us." Coming from Jiro, I realized that I must've been in a pretty bad condition. I guess I didn't know how close I was to... um, kicking the bucket.

Thinking of the bus incident with Jiro, I quickly looked away and tried to hide the blush working its way across my face. "Wanna hang out? It doesn't have to be here. You don't have to say yes!" My heart wanted her to say yes: it felt like the incident had somehow brought us closer together, and it just felt right. But my brain wanted her to say no. I wasn't ready for this. One wrong move and I could destroy the fragile friendship forming between us. Part of me wanted for us to be more than friends...

"Okay." I looked back up at her in surprise."Really?" My heart was doing a celebratory dance inside my chest, but sirens were blaring in my head. You'll do something stupid, as usual, Kaminari! It warned me. Logic was out of the question. I was acting on pure impulse now. Jiro nodded. "Okay." she repeated. She was really growing on me. If I blew it now, there was no way she'd ever want to do this with me again. I took a bold move and gestured toward her guitar rack. "Could you teach me?"

JIRO'S POV

Of course he'd want to learn guitar.I'd never taught anyone before, and definitely hadn't played for anyone. I should've said no, or at least told him that I wasn't who I thought he was.It was just that something about him tricked me into saying yes. His eyes. They were shining when I told him we could hang out. He looked so happy. I couldn't turn it down.

Kaminari picked up my yellow-and-black guitar and sat down next to me. I knew I shouldn't be doing this. Everything in my body was giving me multiple signs that this wasn't right. There was a boy in my room. He wanted to hear me play guitar. He wanted to learn guitar-- from me. Rule #1 was avoid everyone at all costs. This was the exact opposite of avoid everyone at all costs.

My palms were sweating. "Uh, hey," I told Kaminari, "I'm not used to teaching people, so..." He just laughed. "I can tell." I looked at him puzzledly. He immediately took it back. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean it that way!" he cried. I smiled a bit. "No, blonde idiot. It's not your problem." He grinned at me.

"So, maybe we should start with something simple. I could teach you a few basic chords and maybe write a song for you with them." I realized it as soon as I said it. We both turned pink. "Not like that!" I cried. "Oh." He replied, and he looked a bit disappointed. Wait, disappointed?! I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again. "Like, with the chords and stuff." I said calmly. I was remembering when I had fallen asleep on the bus not too long ago. Kaminari nodded. "Okay." he said. "I could have it ready by tomorrow night." His face brightened. "Sure! We could do it in my room, then." Afterward, it was pretty late, and we'd only done four chords. He was a slow learner, I guess. Kaminari yawned. "I'll be right back." I said, and left to get some water. When I came out, he was zonked out on my bed. I blushed as I laid a blanket on him and pulled one out of my closet for myself.

While rummaging through my closet. I came across an old picture of me and my parents on my first day of pre-school. I shoved it deeper into the closet and choked back tears. I turned the light off and climbed onto my makeshift bed on the floor. Part of me wanted to go back into my closet and stare at the picture for hours. I convinced myself, though, that it would only make things worse. I stared at the closed closet door in the dark for a while. I closed my eyes and fell into a nightmare. It was the day of the massacre...

KAMINARI'S POV

The room was dark. My clock flashed 2:53. Wait, no, that clock was purple. Where was I? I sat up in my bed-- no, Jiro's bed. I was in Jiro's room. I almost panicked, then recalled last night's events. Looking around, Jiro was on the ground on a blanket next to the bed. I felt a little guilty; I'd sort of intruded on her, asked her for a favor, and crashed in her room without permission. My vision finally focused in the dark room. Jiro was restless. She kept turning over, mumbling things, jerking in different directions, and even sweating a little. I didn't know if I should do something or not. If I should let her be or wake her up. If I should leave or stay. I couldn't make decisions, however big or small they were. Finally, I decided to turn the light on, but that didn't wake Jiro up. I opened the door and left.