My Hero Academia: Day before the Storm (IzuOcha)

Chapter 4

"Just a little bit higher... yes, now a bit to the left, aaand perfect. I have to say Koda, you and Uraraka would make a great decorating team. Your birds could lift all the things that Uraraka had made weightless. It makes things a lot easier if you ask me."

"Thank you Ojiro, although I don't think my birds would like to do this at a regular basis."

"Too bad Koda. I was just about to suggest you and me could earn some money on the side besides school." Uraraka said with a little smirk.

They were nearly done decorating the common area. Ojiro was standing on a ladder and had been directing Koda to the exact places where his birds should put a couple of garlands, which Ochako had made weightless before. Koda was also flying in the air, to be closer to his animal friends and to help them whenever they had difficulties.

Meanwhile Tsu was on the ground, putting accessories here and there. One of the coolest ones was a picture of the entire class, for which Momo had been so nice to make a frame, just a couple of minutes ago.

All in all, Ochako thought they had done a pretty solid job. The room didn't look to shabby.

Decorating with Tsu, Koda and Ojiro had been relatively easy as well. Since none of them were particularly known for being extremely chatty, she didn't have to say much. So it wasn't that difficult for her to pretend everything was all right.

There was just one thing that kept her a bit on edge.

Her eyes slit to the side, in the direction of the kitchen, where the five guys were preparing the food for tonight. She was particularly looking at the green haired boy who was slicing some vegetables at the moment, extremely focused on his task at hand it seemed.

Even though they were just a couple of meters apart, they hadn't interacted at all since she came down from her room together with Tsu.

At first she had seen him meditating outside of the building. He looked peaceful as far as she could tell. When he came in though he looked a mess.

His hair was ruffled, even more than usual and his face was beaming red. When the other guys were trying to communicate with him, they would nearly always need two attempts to get his attention.

She had no idea what that was all about.

Well, at least it had resulted in him not really recognizing that she was even there. Which was a bit disheartening sure, bit since she feared she would just run away again, if he attempted to talk to her, it was mostly for the best at the moment.

But she knew, she wouldn't have that luxury forever.

After what Tsu had told her, it seemed highly likely that Deku wanted to speak to her at some point during the "party". That shouldn't have been such a big deal. They had talked so many times before. About everything and anything.

And it wouldn't have been, if there wouldn't have been nothing but silence and some awkward looks between the two of them since his return home.

She wanted things to go back to normal between them, she really did. It was just... something inside her was preventing her from taking the initiative. Today it had even driven her so far as to practically run away from him, before he could even say hello. Plus: until today she had believed that she would only distract him from the important tasks at hand.

He needed to focus. SHE needed to focus. The future of the hero society depended on their success.

But... he wanted to talk to her. So he didn't think it would be a distraction?

Maybe. Or maybe... it was her fault. Had she made the wrong impression this morning? Probably... wait, was he worried about her?!

Oh no! that was exactly was she was trying to avoid! Maybe it had also been her fault that his meditating had gone a bit wrong by the looks of it. Had he not been able to focus properly, because she was on his mind? He was the type of person that could easily be like that...