Eijiro- It still hurts

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Eijiro nodded to passing students as he strode down the newly constructed halls of the school. They had done a good job. He hesitated as the he spotted a poster advertising Denki's funeral and he bit his lip. It had been two weeks since Denki sacrificed himself for the school. Half the school had promised to come to his funeral and honor him. Denki would have been proud.

He lowered his head as more tears threatened to leak from his eyes. He had been a basket case all week. He thought he was ready to go back to the school and help plan his friend's funeral, but he was wrong.

"Eijiro?" an unusually soft voice asked from behind him. "Are you okay?"

Eijiro quickly wiped the tears away and forced a weak smile. "Y-yea Kyoka," he responded as he turned to face his friend. "Yea I'm fine."

Kuyoka frowned and gestured to his wet sleeves. "I heard you crying," she frowned. "Don't hide it." she chewed on her lip. "Um...the rest of class 1-A is going over to Denki's dorm to go through his things. We were looking for pictures or something for a slideshow. Did you want to come?"

Eijiro nodded as he wiped away more tears rolling down his cheeks. "Yea," he responded. "When are you going?"

"This week," Kyoka answered as she gathered books from her locker. "Oh and please talk to Katsuki. Hes taking it a little rough and...well...you're the only one who really gets him." She sighed. "I didn't think his death would affect the class so much...especially Katsuki."

Eijiro drew in a shaking breath and pulled his backpack over his shoulders. "I'll talk to him," he promised before running down the hall to catch up with Katsuki. "Hey man!" he called, forcing himself to sound upbeat. "How ya doing today? They did a good job on the school didn't they?"

Katsuki ignored him and kept walking down the hall.

"Um...so the class was gonna go over to Denki's dorm to...um...y'know get some photos and stuff for the...um...the funeral thing...we were wondering if you were gonna come."

"No."

"Oh," Eijiro awkwardly looked down at the ground and bit his lip. "Uh...you wanna talk about it or something?"

"No."

"Not even a little bit?"

Katsuki turned and glared at the red head before storming off.

"Yea," Eijiro mumbled as he trudged on to Denki's dorm. "Yea that's what I thought."

Denki's dorm was one of the few rooms to have been untouched during the attack, much to everyone's relief. Little had been done to change it except for cleaning and keeping students out of the room. Today was different, though. Today All Might stood at the doorway with a tarnished key hanging on a worn leather keychain splattered with blood. Today the A-1 class stood with him, solomly mourning or shedding silent tears.

All Might handed Eijiro the key with a sad bow of his head as he stepped out of the way of the door.

Hand shaking violently, Eijiro inserted the key into the door and turned it. With a slight groan the door swung open to reveal a small yet brightly decorated dorm room. He had only been in Denki's dorm once late at night after a party. His friend had forgotten something and the room itself was dark and a mess.

The sight before him nearly brought the red head to tears. The room was furnished with cheap garage sale couches and tables. Framed pictures of his family hung on the walls and filled the mantle. In the kitchen sat a huge corkboard full of notes, dates, grades, and photos. The entire room had a cozy feeling to it.

Slowly, Eijiro stepped inside and looked around. His shoes clicked loudly on the tile floor, causing him to flinch slightly as he tucked his hands in his pockets and looked around. His hand traced the worn wooden table in the kitchen as he passed as tears threatened to spill out of his eyes. It was all so...perfect.

"Try not to mess anything up guys," Kuyoka ordered, quickly taking charge as she sensed Eijiro's emotional vunerability. "Look for pictures, relics, papers, or anything we can use in a slide show or to honor Denki." She rested a delicate hand on Eijiro's shoulder. "Are you going to be okay?" she asked as the rest of the class scattered.

Eijiro nodded with a sniff. "I just...I just need a minute."

Kuyoka hesitated but reluctantly stood back. "Alright," she responded. "Just let me know if you need anything, okay?" she turned and disappeared into the livingroom, leaving him alone.

Eijiro sniffed once more as he wiped the tears out of his eyes and made himself a cup of coffee. As the water boiled, he wandered over to the large cork board and looked over the many pictures that crowded for space. Many of them were selfies or goofy pictures taken at parties or when the teacher wasn't looking. Most of them were of Denki and him.

He choked back a sob as a small sticky note caught his eye. Eijiro's b-day—June 5—likes plushies, it read. Denki remembered his birthday, as well as his secret obsession with stuffed animals and anything else soft to counter his rough and painful quirk. Tears splashed onto the floor as his eyes drifted over the notes of important dates and things to remember scattered amongst the pictures. As he poured himself a cup of coffee, his eyes caught sight of a worn diary on the edge of the counter.

He frowned and reached for it. sitting down at the table, he opened to the first page and read the note on the inside of the cover.

To only be read when I am dead so no one teases me about it. If I'm dead and you are reading this, I hope I died in a really cool way and lived a long and happy life. If you're still reading this and laugh at anything I write, I will come back and haunt you for the rest of your life. It's private.

--Denki

More tears flowed down Eijiro's cheeks as he laughed weakly at Denki's joke. "Yea," he whispered to no one in particular. "Yea Denki you did die in a really cool way." He turned to the first entry of his diary and started to read through his friend's life, laughing and crying as he read each entry. Finally, he came to the last entry in the book. His heart stopped as he began to read the messy writing. It was devoid of the usual goofy depictions of his classmates as Denki wrote about Katsuki's insults and the mistakes he had made during training that week.

I hope they remember me when I die, he wrote at the bottom of the page, like I remembered them. Even if they remember how much of an idiot I was, at least they'd remember me. Quirk and all.

Eijiro choked back a sob as he stared at the final words on the page. Denki was gone. Tears wet the page as stifled sobs wracked his body. he clutched the weathered journal close to his chest much as he had held his friend the day he died. "I'm not good at goodbyes Denki," he choked out. "Why'd you have to go? Why'd you have to go and die?"

Silence met his question.

Drawing in a shaky breath, he stood up from his seat and left the kitchen to check on the others.

Well, *sniff* I got that *sniff sniff* chapter out of the *sniff* way. I wish my neighbor would stop *sniff* chopping onions. *wipes tears away* It's annoying.

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