I Pine Like Trees

6

Midorito: I didn't know you and Uraraka were dating

Me: we aren't

Midorito: really?

Me: yeah

He didn't get another reply so he turned off his phone and rolled onto his back. He sighed, irritated with everything. He clearly wouldn't be able to sleep with his mind restless.

He was even more irritated with what Uraraka told him. All about that damn prick. He groaned at the thought. Everything was so goddamn irritating. He needed to blow off some steam.

Pun intended.

~

His throat ran dry, heart beating out his chest, and breath laboured. His muscles ached, screaming at him to stop but he kept going. It kept his mind clear and distracted. It was almost liberating at this point. Odd how a simple run around the school campus could do that.

He was beyond just a simple run, though. This was maybe his fourth or fifth time around the campus. He lost track after the third.
He couldn't help though. Even if his legs felt ready to collapse as did his lungs. He kept going and going. Anything to keep his mind as clear as possible for as long as possible. Even if that means he'll collapse at one point.

That point being now unexpectedly. He braced himself for impact to the ground but never hits it. Instead he's floating and he's put on a nearby bench.

"Todoroki, what the hell are you doing?" He doesn't respond to Uraraka's nagging, too busy trying to steady his breath and not go into a coughing fit. He looked down at the concrete below him, trying to concentrate on that. "You're going to hurt yourself if you keep doing that."

"That's...the goal...." He gave a breathy laugh turned into a cough fit.

"You're insane."

"Yeah, so?" He finally regained enough of his lungs to speak normally. "That was already established at this point." He looked up at her as she stood in front of him. "And don't even start lecturing me or anything because you're the last person I want to be talking to right now."

"What? Why me?"

"Oh-I don't know-you just didn't listen to me and instead interrupted something important to me. All to talk about that piece of shit I could care less about." He didn't try to hide the irritation or anger in his voice. There was no point.

"I said I'm sorry and it wasn't my fault that Midoriya walked out of room-"

"Uraraka, he thought we were dating."

"Oh."

"Just...go away." He looked back down to the concrete, trying to clear his cluttered head again.

"No." He felt her sit down next to him on the bench.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't think self destruction is healthy." He looked at her for a moment. She really cared about him and it baffled the hell out of him. Their friendship always baffled him, honestly. It was a nice one though. And she was patient with him. Not in the same way that Izuku was but she was caring. He always took that for granted. Maybe she wouldn't be that bad of an option. If the circumstances were different.

"What do you think I should do?"

"Get your shit together and face this head on."

"You know, I just realized that were actively trying to destroy a relationship."

"We're not trying to, we're just being one of the many causes."

"And you called me insane." He shook his head.

"Because you are, you ran around campus over seven times."

"That's how many? Wow, I'm getting slow." He joked.

"Stop it!" Uraraka lightly slapped his shoulder and he laughed.