Need You (ShinDeku)

Ch. 109 - Restful

A/N: What? Me? Late? I think you're mistaken. I'm much too responsible for that.

Trigger warning: descriptions of paranoia throughout the chapter.

Izuku POV

Last night was about as bad as having a nightmare, although I guess I should be proud that I managed to keep it together. Sort of. I dragged my stretching routine on for almost a full hour, doing the same stretches over and over and trying to avoid using my brain. That was probably not my best idea, because soreness is starting to set in now that I'm up.

     After that, I spent a long while busying myself in my notebooks. I got a few pages of analysis down based on various past fights I could recall from memory, but my heart wasn't in it and my focus was fully out the window. I think I passed about four hours that way, before I decided I really needed to try to sleep for at least a few hours. I mean, at that point the sun was nearly ready to rise again.

I steeled my nerves and shut off the lights, pulling the window curtain slightly open. It was uncomfortable though, because the window was over the bed, rather than next to it like in the dorms. We were up on floor 11 but it still felt like I was just asking to be watched in my sleep. Finally I shut the curtains and turned on my phone flashlight, but it felt obnoxious and childish, so I turned it off and sat in the dark, and turned my music up in Hitoshi's headphones, which I had switched to after they spent some time charging.

Eventually exhaustion got to me, which is what I was hoping for, but I couldn't really say I was sleeping since I was battling with paranoia at the same time. There were short bursts of unconsciousness followed by jolting awake with adrenaline pumping, breaths not coming fast enough. I'd pull one side of my headphones back to listen for any sounds that shouldn't be there, or turn my phone flashlight back on just to flash it across the room with trembling hands. I didn't cry though, and that was surely an accomplishment.

I think I finally began to drift for about half an hour before I heard sounds outside my door. I spent about ten minutes of crippling fear trying to decide if it was bad people who had broken in or just Shota and Hizashi, because they were being very quiet. I know Hizashi regulates his volume around me more so than with others, but even then he's never just silent. he loves to talk, but nobody was talking even though there was clearly more than one person up in the apartment.

Even once I reassured myself there was no way people had literally broken in without the notice of two pro heroes, I was hesitant to step out of my room. I didn't want them to see me and the inevitable mess that I was, and I was feeling awkward again on top of the sleep deprivation. My body made the choice for me though, as my need to go to the bathroom overpowered my desire to never open the door again.

And so, I emerged from the room I almost went crazy in last night, probably looking like I wrestled with my blanket and lost.

The first thing I'm hit with as my door swings silently open is an overwhelming smell of coffee. The whole apartment smells like coffee beans, as if multiple pots have been made over the course of several hours. Must be some strong coffee.

"Oh good you're up, good morning green bean. Thought I'd have to leave for work before I got to see you this morning." I splutter at Hizashi's nickname for me, tired eyes going wide as I watch him walk out of their room, hero outfit on minus the boots which are tucked under his arm and his hair which is still down. "Did you sleep well last night?"

"Good morning," comes my hesitant response, and I look to Shota, who's sluggishly eating a piece of toast over the sink in the kitchen.

"Told him that you were the one we saw on the news last year saving Bakugo." Ah, so that's why.