It Takes Time

9

Aizawa was trying his best not to think too much of Y/N. He knew that nothing good could come from it. She wasn't going to talk to him right now, not after she had suffered the consequences last time. And Aizawa couldn't force her to leave her husband, after all – that part was still up to her in the end.

The days when he didn't have to go into the office to deliver some paperwork or get something done were passing by surprisingly quickly. He still felt kind of off on most days, but that was something he could get used to. It wasn't as bad as before. And it seemed like Y/N's husband wasn't showing up at the school anymore, which was progress. At least some sort of progress, even though he knew that Hizashi and Nemuri were starting to catch on that something was off. With both him and Y/N as well.

They had been trying to invite Y/N out again, of course, but she had always declined, and she had been stubborn about it. Aizawa was the one that told them to leave it, to let her be, and that she surely had her reasons. Of course, that made them suspicious of what he knew about Y/N, but he didn't say anything. He was sure that Y/N didn't want her dirty laundry aired like that, and he respected that.

Still, on the weekends he found himself researching domestic abuse statistics and all those websites that had tips how to help someone more often than he would have liked to admit. Y/N had a hold over him without her even knowing. If she knew, she would probably tell him to mind his own business.

He tried not to get too involved, to get his head out of all this misery, but he found himself going down the same old rabbit hole all the time. He was worried about her, even though she seemed a little more relaxed lately. Maybe he should have stayed away from her in the first place. This was all happening because he was meddling with things he shouldn't be meddling with. And now he was stuck with feelings he didn't know how to handle and with Y/N staying as far away from him as possible.

Aizawa hated it when he saw a problem and couldn't find a solution to it. He hated leaving things open like this. If he encountered a problem, he wanted to solve it and be done with it, but this whole thing was draining his energy and it was getting dragged out. Who knew whether he'd ever be able to help Y/N? What if she wouldn't leave her husband, ever? What if she was going to quit at some point and then he would lose her? He'd lose track of her, and she might get killed by her husband and he wouldn't even know.

Either way Aizawa spun it, he just couldn't seem to win. It was a pretty hopeless situation, and he was starting to feel just as trapped as Y/N must be feeling. Then again, who was he to presume what she felt like? He wasn't in her situation; he didn't know what she was living with day to day. He had absolutely no idea what she was really going through. And at this rate he would never find out because she wasn't talking to him. She wasn't talking to him because she was afraid her husband would beat her.

It was giving Aizawa a headache. He was at home, on his day off, and he was having a headache over this woman he knew virtually nothing about. Maybe he needed to get out of his apartment. He needed a change of scenery, or he would go insane in the long run. With a sigh, he got up from his couch and put on some shoes. He hadn't been out on a walk in a while, mostly because he generally used his weekends to sleep, and lately because he was too busy wrecking his head over Y/N and her life.

But maybe some fresh air and some movement would clear his head. It had usually done so when he was younger, but then again, he had been training lots and sleeping lots later on. Maybe he should get out of the house more often. Especially, when it was such a nice and sunny day like today. Maybe he was just lacking sunlight, like some sort of plant. Sometimes, Aizawa felt like he was nothing more than a plant if he was honest. He was just there in the background, going about his life.

But as soon as he stepped out of the door, he felt someone slamming into him and pushing him up against the wall of his apartment building. Aizawa couldn't even react fast enough, because he hadn't been expecting to be assaulted like this (a rookie mistake when going outside, really). It took him a while to realise what was going on, not just because of the surprise, but also because in his head, he was still mulling over what to do with Y/N. He had been caught completely unawares, and he hated it.