Blurred lines

Of brushes with death

Going to school on Monday was its own kind of hell. His eyes held the kind of heaviness that seemed to press from his skull into his eyelids. He could already feel the migraine coming. The shadows surrounding them were a semi-permanent fixture to his features. His lack of sleep the last couple of days served to only deepen the dark color into an ugly purple.

Walking through the campus, he kept his head down, eyes trained on the red of his shoes. Thankfully, the halls weren't yet crowded at this hour.

Resisting the urge to book it out of there, he kept walking, hands flexing at the empty air in his palm. Oh, how he wished he had his sword. He missed the days when he could just equip his gear and weapons and head straight into the dungeons. Farming away at the monsters always felt somewhat cathartic.

Predictably, the classroom was empty when he entered. Allowing himself a moment of relief, he relaxed his shoulders, having not realized until now how stiff they'd gotten.

He'd barely crossed the threshold when he spotted a familiar yellow-clad figure peeking from behind the main desk. Of course, Aizawa would be here before everyone. He did always like to nap in the strangest of places. Izuku should've expected it.

Backtracking as slowly as he could, he contemplated turning on his stealth mode. Silent steps would be a godsend right about now.

Luck, however, was not on his side. Right as he was about to be out and free, a voice interrupted his escape, halting him in his tracks.

"Problem child." Aizawa's face materialized from within his sleeping bag. The man remained unfazed as he slipped out from his confines. His movements carried a kind of grace and elegance that no one ought to have while getting out of that yellow monstrosity.

"Aizawa! Didn't see you there!" He laughed rather awkwardly. "Had a nice nap I hope?"

The hero for his part only stared back blankly. Eyes narrowing considerably as he looked Izuku over. Searching and scanning him for any kind of injury.

"So... uh I'm going to- "He gestured toward the general direction of his seat. "Yeah-" He swallowed, already moving to his destination.

"Midoriya." The hero's hand landed on his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. Izuku barely stifled the instinctual need to move. "Got a call this week about a certain vigilante arrest. Know anything about that?"

Averting his eyes, he nodded, knowing that Aizawa wouldn't be asking about it if he didn't already know the full story. "I couldn't stay out of it, Iida would have died."

The teacher regarded him for a long moment, as if looking for something in his eyes, finally he nodded, already slinking back towards his place behind his desk.

Izuku, taking that as a dismissal turned to head to his own seat. "Izuku." The man called out, once again preventing him from reaching his destination. Sighing, he turned to look at the hero. "We're glad your safe." And did that make him feel funny. He really should work on getting his feelings in order. He was starting to take out his emotions on the people that cared about him.

"Th- thanks...Zawa."

Whatever the man wanted to respond was interrupted as the class started to file into the room. The rest of the day was spent with relatively nothing of importance to note. The announcement for the final exams took him slightly off guard, he'd completely forgotten that exams were still a thing to worry about.

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Sword art online, 1 month into the game.

Shinsou wakes up suddenly, consciousness snapping back like a sturdy rubber band that's been stretched too far. His eyes take everything in high definition, like the lens of a camera, he watches the light rays of sunshine barely peeking through his curtains. The room is bathed in a cold blue that's slowly morphing into orange as the sun rose ever so slowly in the sky. It tells him that it's probably way too early for him to be awake.