Can't Choose

Chapter Eleven

Izuku stretched out, tired from practice. His hair was still dripping with water from his earlier shower, and he had meant to go down to dinner, but he didn't feel like moving at the moment. He'd probably go down to the dorm kitchen to get a snack later. He knew he had to go find Kirishima to work on their presentation later, but he had time to nap now, right?

Gently rubbing his hair dry with a towel, he flopped down onto his bed. He threw the towel to the side and lay there for a few minutes before sleep came to him. He allowed himself to be carried away by the silence, everything leaving his mind.

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"Midoriya? You in here?"

Izuku jolted awake, yawning as he glanced around. A knock sounded from his door, and he hastily rubbed the sleep from his eyes, sitting up straight.

"Hello?" It sounded like Kirishima... Crap! He'd slept longer than he'd planned! Izuku scrambled to make sure he looked presentable before running to the door and opening it nervously. Sure enough, Kirishima was standing there, smiling like normal.

"Um, h-hi, Kirishima! Sorry, I promise I didn't forget! I just got back from practice, and I was tired, and I wanted a nap, but I didn't know I'd sleep so long, and一"

"Midoriya, chill, it's fine! We only missed out on like 20 minutes, anyway." Kirishima chuckled with that almost angelic grin. Izuku immediately felt a lot better about things.

Laughing and relieved, he replied, "That's good, that's good."

"Since we're here, can we work in your dorm, then? I brought my laptop."

Izuku nodded quickly, then winced internally, thinking he seemed much too eager. Then he sighed at his own overthinking and stepped back, so that Kirishima could come in. The taller boy glanced around, and Izuku saw his gaze linger on the All Might merch that decorated the entire place. Then he turned back to Izuku, who could almost swear that Kirishima's smile now contained a tiny bit of fondness.

"Can we sit on the bed?" he questioned. Izuku nodded again, and Kirishima moved to sit on the edge of the bed, opening up his computer and placing it on his lap. Izuku sat down next to him, peering over at the screen.

Kirishima had a blank set of slides opened up, already typing down a title and their names on the first slide. Kirishima moved on to the next slide, and Izuku wondered what they should do first.

"How about we do general facts about tsunamis first? We can use your laptop to do the research, then type everything down on mine."

"Yeah, that would be more efficient!" Izuku quickly jumped up, desperate not to waste any more time than he had already. He strode over to his backpack, slipping his laptop out of the computer sleeve. He opened it up as he walked back over to the bed, password already entered before he sat back down.

They sat there together as Izuku looked things up and Kirishima typed things down.

"'A tsunami is a series of ocean waves caused by an underwater earthquake, landslide, or volcanic eruption,'" Izuku said. "That's important, right? The basics?"

Kirishima nodded, thinking about how he could rephrase the sentence. No plagiarism around here! When he had the paraphrased statement, his fingers quickly glided across the keyboard, just like Izuku, who was looking up the next thing.

Before they knew it, they had an almost complete research section. Facts about tsunamis, what the main danger they pose is, data from places hit by tsunamis, different practices that help prevent the danger, etc.

They'd spent quite a bit of time on the work, almost two hours. They were working on the organization a little bit when a harsh rapping on the door made them both jump.

"Hey, shit nerd, is shitty hair in there?" came the annoyed voice of Bakugou on the other side. Kirishima sighed, while Izuku nervously rose to open the door. His anxiety increased as he actually saw the blonde standing at his door, but he swallowed it down.

"H-he's in here, Kacchan."

"Quit stuttering, damn it," Bakugou told the anxious teen, irritated. He pushed past Izuku and looked over at Kirishima. "Why're you in the nerd's room, instead of yours?"

Kirishima raised an eyebrow, wondering why that even mattered. "Oh, Midoriya fell asleep after practice, so I had to come look for him. That's why he wasn't at dinner."

"I don't give a damn about why he wasn't at dinner!"

"Uh huh," Kirishima said sarcastically, a tone Izuku didn't know that he could use. "You totally didn't say, 'Where the hell is that nerd?" at dinner." The red-haired boy laughed as Bakugou's face reddened just slightly.

Izuku blinked, but decided not to comment on whatever was going on. It was making feel something that he'd been trying to suppress for years. Instead, he hurriedly changed the subject with a question that had popped up after he Bakugou had knocked.

"How do you guys even know where my room is?"

"Oh, easy! It was the only empty one in this building, and all the Class 2-A dorms are here."

"Oh," Izuku said, wondering what he was expecting. Bakugou rolled his eyes. "Come on shitty hair, it's almost curfew."

"That's why you came to get me?"

"Yes, dammit! Now hurry up!"

Kirishima chuckled and shut his computer, carrying it at his side as he stood up from Izuku's bed. He glanced back at Izuku, who was still standing there, noticeably nervous. "See you tomorrow, Midoriya. Lunch?"

Izuku nodded hesitantly as he heard Bakugou muttering something angrily, and he was actually pretty glad he didn't hear it, knowing the blonde. Kirishima flashed him a quick grin before walking out the doorway, leaving Bakugou and Izuku alone for a moment. That moment consisted of a second of staring, green on red, before Bakugou tch'd and walked off behind Kirishima, slamming the door.

Izuku continued staring at the closed door for a couple seconds, before realizing how hard his heart was beating, and then turning away. He walked almost robotically back to his bed, allowing himself to fall face-first onto the covers.

"This is bad," he mumbled to himself. "So, so bad."

A/n: I'm back guys! I'm finally, finally back! And I am very excited for what's to come in the next couple chapters. Very excited. This is one of the few stories I've written that I have an actual plan for, which is great. I'm gonna try to get in two more chapters before the school year starts up.

Hope you have a great afternoon guys!

-Lavender