The Couples of Class 1-A

LCO | Ch. 45: Slow-Falling

"It's over... everything is—over..."

Midoriya tensed his fists as he watched Uraraka clutch tighter around her abdomen. Even after Todoroki had left, they'd both remained standing in the hallway—slowly grasping the reality of what Yaoyorozu's outburst had meant. Of how everything, despite their desperate efforts to maintain it all, was now in shambles.

"It's my fault," Midoriya blurted, even though he knew there was little point in declaring it now, "I... I was telling Iida about it, and she overheard me. If I'd have just kept my mouth shut..."

Uraraka shook her head, "No... it's as Todoroki said. You're not the one to blame for this. It... it would've happened eventually."

He clenched his jaw at those words.

It was his fault—he sincerely wanted to make that the truth. Yes, he was aware that taking all of the blame would be wrong, and he was aware that he hadn't intentionally leaked the information, but if he could just blame himself for what'd happened, everything would be so much easier to accept.

Of course though, reality didn't work like that.

"Ugh..." he relented, letting his head drop in disappointment, "I know that, I just..." he shrugged, "I just wish there were something I could do."

Uraraka sighed, nodding in agreement, "I know. Trust me, I feel just as awful as you do about it. Probably more." her arms stiffened around herself, "He... had a panic attack. I've never seen him like that before."

The air was eerily quiet when she brought that up, and Midoriya found his throat going very dry as he bore down at the floor. Todoroki had done more than just panic; Uraraka had probably seen it, too. The way he'd held his arms over his head—the way he'd cowered in such visible, unbridled terror when Yaoyorozu had spun around to snap at him.

Midoriya didn't have to wonder what could've conditioned that type of reaction into him.

After a minute or so had ticked by, Uraraka finally let go of herself, and turned back around to return to her room. There was still a grim atmosphere in the air, but it seemed now that the danger had passed. No further damage would be done tonight; which though relieving to know, did little to lift up either of their moods.

"Are you... turning in for the night?"

Uraraka looked up as Midoriya said those words to her. She sort of blinked, as if coming out of a daze for the first time, then shrugged.

"I probably wouldn't be able to sleep if I wanted to now," she said depressedly, shifting her gaze to the wall, "I'll give it a try though. Tomorrow is our last day to study before the license exam."

"Ah... right," Midoriya cringed, realizing that through the chaos of everything else, he'd almost failed to notice. In a way, that had been good on his nerves, but he also hadn't done much in the way of studying lately. He figured he should probably jump on that sooner than later. "Are you confident you'll do well?"

She shrugged again, "I've got my ultimates down, but I'm still struggling in our core classes, if that's what you mean. It's probably a good thing the license exam won't have a math section."

He almost chuckled there, barely letting a puff escape his lips before catching himself. If Uraraka still wasn't smiling, he strangely felt like he shouldn't either.

"I can always tutor you, if you want. I'm pretty good at math and Japanese—contrary to popular belief, I've got more going on in my head than just All Might, haha."

She seemed to grimace at that rather than laugh though, "Oh, right. S-sometimes I... kinda forget."

Unfortunately with that remark, the conversation dropped off. As a result, feeling out of place, Midoriya cleared his throat and quirked his head in the direction of the stairs. "Well, I should be going to bed too at this rate. Now that everything has winded down, I get the impression I should just leave things be," he gave Uraraka a swift nod, starting to step away, "Goodnight, Uraraka. I um... hope you're able to sleep well—"