Burnt to Ashes - Kenichi Todoroki

Do I.. Love Her?

Izora's POV:

The past few days I spent with Coda while Maxwell and Zay were busy, I learned a lot of things about her.

How she likes hotels on beaches with a balcony so she can sit at dusk and watch the sun set over the water, feeling the breeze of lake or ocean air. How sometimes she would get in the water while nobody was out because of how dark and eerie it was and swim, octopus arms and all.

Or maybe how she liked to read on her free time, with quiet music on in the background, indulging herself in the book she was reading. She would pay visits to the library constantly and read every fiction book they had to offer. Especially wlw romance, her favorite.

Which that gave away the fact that she liked women. She was a lesbian.

That's something we had in common.

Other things we had in common was that we liked the moon and night in general, and we both like some of the same bands, except she didn't like as much metal or hiphop as me. She was more into indie music, which was fine. She also liked cats a lot, and I did too, so that was good to know.

Everything else I noticed in a physical form. Things she didn't have to tell me, I just noticed on my own. Like how when she wore button ups, really the only clothes we could give her since she was sharing mine and I wanted my band tees, she buttoned them up all the way. She didn't like loose strands of hair and tried to wet them back. She also had cold hands and did tend to be cold a lot, and I assumed that had to do with her octopus quirk.

All of these things I wrote down on my notepad. And all of these things I found interesting.

"One more coat," Coda said, "hold still."

I had asked Coda to paint my nails, only so I could observe her more. And because I couldn't paint them myself, and Maxwell and Zay would not do them for me. Maybe Sasha would've, but I didn't want to bother her.

Besides, Coda was right here anyways.

"Do you like it here?" I asked her.

"Given that I'm here against my will.. I can't say I don't." Coda responded. "I miss my family. I miss when I wasn't in this mess. But I guess it's not the worst as long as I don't have to be around Zay and.."

She trailed off.

"And?" I prompted.

She shrugged and kept painting my nails black.

"I understand why you don't want to be around Zay." I said. "He's really something. He's not for everyone."

"Yeah, I got that much." She responded, finishing my last coat. She started cleaning up the edges. "But he's your best friend."

I nodded. "He is my best friend."

Silence lingered through the air as she finished my nails. "Don't mess them up, just keep them on the desk until they're dry."

"Mhm." I said. Since she wasn't focused on my nails anymore, she was giving her full attention to me. But as I stared back at her, she still couldn't maintain eye contact for long.

"You're staring again." She muttered.

"I know." I responded. "I think you would stare too if you could see what you looked like right now. You look better in my clothes then I do."

Coda looked away, hiding her face from me. "Quit flirting with me like that."

"It's amusing," I said, "I know you like it."

"Pfft, as if." She said, but I could pick up her joking tone.

I reached over and pulled Coda into a hug, but she hesitated. "Your nails, Izora!"