G H O S T [Shota Aizawa x OC]

F O U R T E E N

Shota's phone was going off non-stop the next morning, bringing them into consciousness. He groaned as he found his cell-phone and his neighbor basically sleeping on top of him. He reached for the back of his head in the nerves that flooded him with her resting her entire body on him and bumped into the fuzzy cat she owned.

Sumire released a tired noise and pulled herself upright, freeing the man from being trapped between her and Echo.

"So loud..." She hummed in a rough, tired voice.

"Sorry." He grumbled and checked the messages he had. "Eri's awake."

"Oh, good." She gave a sleepy smile.

"Until we find her a permanent home, I'm responsible for looking after her. It's because of her quirk; I think I'm the only one who can stop it right now." He explained as he stood and straightened his clothes.

"Ah. There's coffee..." She pointed to the coffee pot in one of the corners of the kitchen and rubbed her gray eyes.

That's exactly what he headed towards. "Now I can do my part." He muttered.

"What?"

"You cooked last night."

"Mmhmm."

"I can make you coffee."

She chuckled. "You're weird."

A couple minutes later, he brought her a mug full of coffee after searching through every single cabinet until finding them. "I need to go." He stated bluntly, staring into the coffee he had just poured for himself.

"You can borrow that." She offered.

He didn't acknowledge it, but asked, "Are you going to work today?"

She sighed. "I'm going to go get some paperwork and catch up, but I'll be back in the office as normal tomorrow."

He made a low hum of understanding, then headed for the door. He wasn't the type of man to rush when he was late to something, but by now he certainly was later than expected to being there for Eri and had missed meeting up with the students for their homeroom.

"See you later."

"Yeah." She agreed as he left her alone to gather herself and become presentable.

As soon as Shota shut the door to her apartment he released a heavy sigh, nearly spilling his coffee. Both of them had gotten good at trying to remain calm and collected in front of each other, even in embarrassing situations. But when they were out of each other's sight, they were overcome with the nerves, fluttering sensations, and warm red cheeks that they stifled.

For the man, he recognized that he was crushing on the silver-haired woman. He always had a secret admiration for her as the Phantomess - like he was a quiet fan among the few who knew of her as a heroine - but now that he was really getting to know her, the real Sumire Eto, it was becoming evident that this was different than just a hero-to-hero esteem.

But it was just a crush; harmless and going nowhere as far as he was concerned.

----------

When Sumire visited her office later that day to grab paperwork, she was greeted by a freshly baked cake, a bouquet of white flowers, and two cards. A smile stretched from ear to ear upon the 'welcome back' she received.

The card in front of the cake read that it was from the students of class 1-A; Shota's class. It contained some variations of "get well soon," "thank you for taking care of U.A.," and "you're so cool." Although there was one note from Ashido that read, "P.S. I'm waiting for you and Mr. Aizawa to hook up."