Popped Knuckles, Dry Eyes, and Burnt Hands

20

Aizawa walked me out and down to the parking lot, it was quiet, but it wasn't awkward, "So why did you call me by my given name?" I inquired as we neared my car.

He tensed a little and looked over at me, "It slipped because I got really worried about you. I'm sorry if it made you uncomfortable." He bowed to me and I raised my eyebrows with wide eyes, putting a hand over my mouth to cover my nervous grin.

"It's ok, it didn't make me uncomfortable. It was just surprising," I blushed and shifted my eyes to the ground, "I think we're good enough friends for you to use it— unless you don't wanna I get that." I stated the last part quickly and hid behind my hair.

He stood up straight again, his face held a weird mix of emotions before it settled on embarrassed, "I'll think about it. I know we definitely can't call each other by our given names at school. It's unprofessional."

"No, no, I get that. If you don't wanna it's ok." I stated waving my hands dismissively in embarrassment.

He stepped closer and scratched the back of his head for a moment, hesitant, "Do you know mine?"

I blanked and looked up at him; it had been a whole month and I didn't know his given name. None of the articles I'd looked at mentioned it nor had anyone at school ever used it, "N-no?" I said shamefully.

"It's Shota." He stated, looking of to the side. 

My eyebrows raised and I repeated him in a whisper, "Shota," I looked down at the ground in thought. It was one letter off from Shoto and I smiled a little. 

He looked a little flustered, "What?" 

"Toya's youngest sibling's name is Shoto. I just thought it was ironic; nothing bad." I reassured him, putting a hand on his arm. 

He nodded and straightened up, "Alright, well I'll let you go take care of your mother. Tell her I said hello." 

"Of course, Shota."

I drove home on cloud nine, my heart was fluttering and my face was so hot I had to turn the air conditioner on blast. He was such a kind and caring person, I could feel my heart swelling from the raw emotions I had started to develop. What was I gonna do with him?

I arrived at home and grabbed my bags from the passenger seat before heading inside. Once inside I kicked my shoes off and picked them up, but I was caught off guard by another pair of men's shoes sitting off to the side. 

"Hey mom," I called, "I thought dad left for work."

"He did," I lifted my head to see my brother rounding the corner with his boyfriend being a guide.

I gasped and dropped my things, "Ankoku!" I exclaimed and ran over to him, giving him a big hug.

He let out a loud laugh and hugged me back, "Happy birthday, Hana."

We all sat around the living room and talked about recent events, "Oh! Seijin and I are getting married in a few months," Ankoku stated as Seijin started sifting through his satchel. He pulled out a wedding invitation and handed it to me; I took it with wide eyes.

"Oh!" The invitation envelop was 8" x 10" and black with a silver wax seal. The imprint was a beautiful capital M that stood for Maki. I opened it to find the invitation itself was made with thin flexible plexiglass. Seijin was a judge for Tokyo's courthouse so he was higher up and made a lot of money; I wasn't surpised it looked that extravigant, "This is beautiful." I breathed out, running my hand over the front of it, feeling the raised letters.

"We decided it needed to be able to have brail and Jinnie thought it would be nice if it were plexiglass," When he said that I realized the words had brail under them.

"That was a wonderful idea, Seijin." Mom stated as I gave her the invite, letting her hand run over the letters. She read it and smiled, "You're having it here? That's sweet of you both."

"I loved the way the forests around this area looked and I thought it would be a wonderful place for our special day." Seijin smiled and scratched the back of his neck. 

I smiled and nodded, "That's wonderful," I paused and remembered that Aizawa wanted me to tell her hi, "Oh, by the way mom, Aizawa wanted me to tell you hello."

She grinned, "That was sweet of him," She waved a hand in Ankoku's general directions, "Hotaru has this very sweet student teacher that's training her in sparing almost every day of the week, how long do you both plan on staying down here?" I rolled my eyes in embarrassment and ran a hand down my face.

"We plan on staying until Tuesday if that's alright with you all," Seijin stated, "I wanted to look around abit tomorrow and see about reservations for a spot." 

"That's wonderful! That means you both would get to meet him; he visits on Mondays." She gushed and I groaned.

"Mom, you're being a little excessive," I sighed and softly chuckled, "he's not exactly a people person." 

She wilted a little, "But," I quickly ammended it, "I'm sure he wouldn't mind saying hello before training tomorrw; I'll just warn him before-hand." 

That mended her excitement, "Wonderful, you two would enjoy him, he has a wonderful sense of humor. He and Hotaru feed off each other's energies." She giggled, causing me to blush.

"Ok mom, it's time to make you dinner." I stated, changing the subject.

After dinner we got I got Ankoku and Seijin settled in their room before getting mom to hers. I sighed as I waddled down the hall to the front door, where I had left my things, to grab them. I got back to my room and looked at my phone. It was nine o'clock and I had received a bunch of texts from different friends telling me happy birthday, but only one stood out. 

'What did you do today?' 

It was from Toya and my heart dropped to my stomach, I didn't open it or else he would've known I saw it so I went to my other messages and scrolled to my group chat with Kyo and Miyu.

'If Toya asks, I was with you guys at the mall today. Delete this message from your phone.'

I went back to Toya's convo and opened it, my hands were getting clammy and my body felt like I had been under a humid heat lamp.

'At the mall with the twins, why?' 

'Because I saw you on the news. You did a good job taking care of that lion guy.'

I let out a breath of relief.

'Thank you.'

'Did you do it by yourself? Father was curious.'

'I did. I recognized him from a few weeks ago and decided I'd had enough of him. I'm just happy he's gone.'

He left me on read and I sighed heavily as I fell back onto my bed. I heard a quiet ping from my phone and I held it up to see that Aizawa had texted. 

'Did you make it home safe? Mic's been paranoid since you left.'

'I did, tell him not to worry.' 

I chuckled as I cleaned up my notifications and got ready for bed.

'False alarm.' 

I sent to the group chat and was immediately bombarded with questions. We chatted about the day then I finally got ready for bed.