Sons of Eraserhead | Dadzawa [BOOK 1]

Chapter 10 - Heavy Emotions and Ramen

Before anyone knew it, it was the weekend. The rest of the school days passed in a blur of painful silences, sympathetic looks, and avoidances of Bakugo, but Midoriya finally found himself able to stay in bed until lunchtime in the comfort that was 'Saturday'. He'd heard the front door open and close several times in the past couple hours, but other than that he'd been undisturbed.

That was, until, his stomach growled. Loudly.

Feeling sorry for himself, he pushed to his feet and hobbled towards the door, limbs still stiff with sleep. He thumped down the stairs and made a beeline for the kitchen, hoping to find something easy to make considering he had no idea where anything was - other than the coffee machine, of course. 

"Good afternoon." Midoriya flinched, pausing rubbing his eye to see who was there. Neito sat at the counter, making quick work of a box of chocolates. 

"Afternoon." He mumbled back, returning to the task at hand. He stared at the row of white cabinets, as if the longer he glared at them, something would magically appear from them. 

"You know what you're doing?" Neito asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Yeah, yeah, of course..." Midoriya turned back to the cabinets. He glanced at an unmoving Neito, who was studying his every move, looking rather amused. He sighed. "...no." 

Neito climbed down from his stool and went straight to work. "Sit down." 

"Thank you." Midoriya muttered, falling into one of the stools and propping his chin on his hand. He watched quietly as Neito retrieved a packet of instant ramen from the closest cabinet, then grabbed a pot from another and turned on the stove to warm up a pot of water. "You've been quieter at school this week." Midoriya said, staring out the window. He could see out the corner of his eye that he'd caught Neito off guard.

"I- erm... yeah, I guess so." He muttered, stirring the noodles. 

"Is everything okay?" Midoriya looked at him. Neito's gaze was fixed on the bubbling pot.

"Is anything ever really okay?" Neito said, looking to the pyjama-clad boy. "I mean... I'm fine?" His voice cracked on the last word. His smile looked painful. 

"That was the least convincing 'I'm fine' I've ever heard." Midoriya said slowly. He didn't know Neito very well - if at all - but he could tell when someone was hiding their hurt. He'd seen the expression they make in the mirror for years. 

"I'm just... shook up." Neito rubbed his arm.

Midoriya internally sighed, thinking he knew where this was going. "About what?"

"Last weekend, I-" Neito returned to stirring the noodles to avoid looking at Midoriya, who was now staring intently at him. "I was kidnapped. By Blue Crossed." 

Midoriya picked his head up, eyes blown wide. "Wait, what? Seriously? Did they hurt you? Did you see who it was? Do you remember where you were taken? What did-"

"Slow down." Neito laughed dryly. "And, physically, I'm fine. And I don't know who took me, nor where. But..." He rolled his sleeve up to reveal the two blue crosses and the 'crossed' in white ink. "They left me with this." Midoriya held Neito's hand as he studied the markings on his wrist. "It won't come off."

"Interesting..." Midoriya muttered. "The crosses are the same as those left at the other victims' scenes." He looked up to Neito. "How come no one knows about this?" 

Neito shrugged. "The Pros dealing with the case didn't think it was worth scaring the public with."

"And why were you targeted?" Midoriya released his hand so the blond to go back to the instant ramen.