Supernova

Chapter Thirty Nine - Longing for Belonging

For the remainder of the afternoon, the only ones sparring, unfairly and half-heartedly of course, in the name is recalibration, were Elias and I. The moments again started to blend together in a series of cracking and groans and pauses and swallowing. I was losing track of them, finding habit and indifference in the dance and routine, and I was only pulled from it at one point when Todoroki lifted to his feet and brushed the dust from his pants.

"Bakugo," he said matter of factly. "We'd better get going."

"Yeah, yeah," he responded, pulling himself to standing.

"We'd best head out too," Elias agreed. "We did promise that this would be a supervised internship, and I believe we've done enough for today."

As Todoroki and Bakugo headed towards the door, Demon started scoffing and cackling, very clearly to himself, but loud enough to trigger everyone's attention. When he looked up at me, I saw that it was my attention he was vying for. "What? I just find it funny that he doesn't give enough of a fuck about you to kiss you goodbye."

After I rolled my eyes, I could see Bakugo turning back around, fists clenched. I held my palms up to stop him.

"Don't fall for it. He's just trying to get you to touch the paralytic."

"It's not that bad, is it?" He asked, still walking back over, his eyes lowering to my arms briefly. Good question. I shrugged. Elias, finding this all very amusing, didn't offer any answer either.

"Not bad at all," Demon told him with his own shrug. "Barely feels like anything."

"The only reason they tracked me down is because they can't even touch," I told my poor sweet boyfriend, and his pride filled eyes.

"Do it," Todoroki whispered to Bakugo, a small smile coming over his face.

Elias came to stand next to me and held his unscarred and ungloved hand out in Bakugo's direction. His face showed no indication of what was to come. Admittedly, I was interested in seeing how this turned out, and figured I had given adequate warning. He had watched our fight with The Big Three, after all. Bakugo took a slow step forward, and was then overcome with his own pride, and closed the rest of the gap with quick footsteps as he lay his hand on Elias'. It was very brief.

"What the fuck?" He yelled, filling the entire gym with the noise, cradling his hand into his chest. Demon started cackling, and Elias and Todoroki joined in with their soft laughter. I knew I was smiling, but I refused to laugh. I hit Elias on the arm.

"You're such an asshole," I scolded Demon.

"He's a big boy. He made his own choice," Demon said on the back of more cackling, stepping forward to rinse his hand off for him. "Stop being a fucking idiot. You're going to get it everywhere."

After the door to the gym closed, Bakugo and Todoroki on the other side of it, Demon lay his hand in Elias', slightly longer than Bakugo had, but not by much, before yelling at me that it still hurt like a bitch, and I'd better start making myself more useful. Eyeroll. He then rinsed himself off and packed up their things while Elias redressed himself. I was told that the gym would be cleaned nightly, and I need not worry about it, but I was mindful to wipe down the light switches and door handles anyways. They tried to get me to join them for dinner, but I refused. I knew full well that Demon would have grabbed at me and taken me if I had not still been covered in paralytic, and Elias' eyes were uneasy about my refusal, but we parted ways anyways. I was careful making my way up to my room and the bathroom, treated myself to a long shower and some fresh clothes from the stranger's suitcase, and headed into the common area.

I ended up running into Midoriya, who was walking the hall of the fourth floor, which was not his floor, I feel I should mention, with some kind of purpose. You know, fists clenched and serious expression all over his face. That kind of thing. When he saw me slip out of my room, the way his eyes widened and flared with relief told me that he'd found what he was looking for.