"honesty and grace" (Mezo Shoji X Reader)

Chapter 9

"Who was she?" Mr. Aizawa stood in the center of the pathway as Shoji came from the sidewalk. He waved to him, but stopped to ask the question. Shoji's eyes fall down to him, having his teacher be just a bit shorter than he was. The expression on his tired face is now more curious, an odd look for someone as emotionally vacant as him.

The student adjusted his backpack, holding his drink in hand. "She's just a friend." His low voice barely gets muffled by his mask. The black haired man nods his head, only giving Shoji a slight glare before allowing him to go into the building. To his surprise, a few of his classmates are already here; Bakugou and Tokoyami eat breakfast at separate tables, Koda sits on the couch quietly, Tsu brings her dishes to the small kitchen, and Ojiro has just walked in before him.

"Hey, Shoji, did you catch her on her morning run or something?" Asks the boy with the tail, looking up at him with a small smile.

Before he has time to answer the question, Tokoyami asks another one as he approaches with empty dishes. "So whose house did you stay at last night?" He looks at him, a serious expression on his face. The taller boy's eyes flick to his bird-headed friend quickly, but not before hearing Ojiro gasp behind him.

"Oh, I see." Internally, Shoji groaned as the blonde connected the dots. "You spent the night at (F/n)'s apartment, didn't you?"

Shoji sighs out loud, now, kicking himself for not just catching the bus on the way here. He knew his friend was only trying to tease him, but he was already in no mood for immaturity, especially so early in the morning.

"Who?" Tokoyami had asked aloud, not really at anyone specifically.

Ojiro took it upon himself to answer his question, not turning to greet Kaminari as he entered the building. "(F/n) is this American girl who works at that new bakery. She's a friend of mine, and she kind of wanted to meet Shoji after I had mentioned him. Bakugou, Kirishima, Mina, Sero, Shoji and I all met up with her yesterday. He went off on his own with her in the mall."

Awkwardly, he sighs again and walks out of the common room, making his way swiftly to his own room. As he does so, Midoriya walks through the large entrance doors, greeting everyone good morning. All he can do is wave a hand behind himself, trying to seem friendly.

On his way up, however, some obviously hushed voices could be heard from behind him. Trying hard to ignore it as he entered his room, a part of him couldn't help but be curious as to what people were saying beneath him. Was it about him? Wanting to doubt the thought, Shoji closed his door behind himself as he formed an ear on his left side. Softly, he pressed it against the floor, beginning to hear the muffled conversation.

"Guys, I don't think it's any of our business." He hears what sounded like Tsu says, her voice faint as if she's talking from the kitchen.

Kaminari laughs softly. "It's always the quiet ones." At the sound of this, Shoji looks at the floor as if it were the yellow haired boy, giving it an odd look.

"Don't start making assumptions, that's immature." Midoriya's voice is urgent. "Tokoyami, you said that he needed a place to stay last night?" He pauses, most likely awaiting a response from the man he's talking to. "Well, he probably just wanted to stay some place close to where he already was, so he called someone he lived near." He states.

With his classmate being exactly right, he takes his ear off the floor, not wanting to listen to any more of what is being said. Although he had a very good rest last night, Shoji still found himself tired. Most likely because of the time he had awoken, around four o'clock. By that point, he had just laid there, looking up at this girl's ceiling for almost around three hours. The whole time he would think about things, get in his own head, break himself down, just to quiet himself at any sound in case it could've been her. For a while, though, she began to linger in his mind. She doesn't have a quirk, as he's heard her and Mina talking about, but she seems to hang out primarily with those who have them. However, she doesn't exactly get to be picky with her friends at this point, as she had said while at the mall.