Redintegration - (Kaminari x Reader)

FOUR: Blockade

     Waking up the next day, I find my arm filled with pinpricks and rigid numbness, a sure sign that I definitely slept on it wrong. Just what I needed.

     As long as class wasn't doing anything too quirk focused today, I figured I'd be fine. 

     A drawback of my quirk was that whatever my domes endured, my body tended to take on a diluted form of it. Heavy weight pushing down on the dome? Next day, my shoulders and back feel like I carried a steel safe up ten floors. High speed collision of a truck stopped? My arms and hands covered in mild bruising and feel as if they'd been repeatedly slammed in a car door.

     Heading out the door, I kept stretching out and pressing the acupressure points in my affected arm, trying to at least loosen up the muscles and tendons that had it feeling like a fifty year old rubber band on the verge of snapping at the slightest pull.

     After riding the train to the station near the school and walking past the crowd of media who seemed to be camping out for a hopeful interview. I joined the other students filtering their way onto the grounds. I figure I've got a decent amount of time before classes start, so I head down to the courtyard vending machine to nab a box of strawberry milk. Ah, the breakfast of champions.

     I head back to class and find my way to my seat, sipping on my drink as I try to finish it before the bell rings.

     With the announcement of deciding class rep in the air, the class erupted into shouts and chaos while I caught myself zoning out here and there, arm still feeling sore, but the pinpricks having faded.

     Papers were passed around after Iida had suggested making the process of deciding a democratic one, basing it all on classmates votes. Not really caring who would be rep, I wrote down Yayorozu's name and placed my paper into the box at the front of the room.

     I laid my head back onto my desk until the lunch bell rang.

     Once I got my meal, I headed towards an open seat, near Tsuyu and a few of my other classmates. Today I opted for one of my  favorite comfort foods, chicken katsu curry, with a fruit cup for dessert.

     I only managed to get about two bites down when an alarm blared throughout the cafeteria, alerting everyone of a Level 3 security breach.

Everyone around started to panic and rush towards the exit nearest them, the chaos of the crowd pulling me into the waves of students.

I try and put up a small dome around myself to stop others from shoving into me, but never make it far enough before someone slams into my arm pressing into the sore muscles.

I cry out as I continue to be shoved, shouldered, and elbowed by the other students around me, eventually forcing my way to a wall for some stability against the crowd.

The students continue to push and shove their way towards the exits, and I manage to get a slight reprieve from it all as I come to somewhat of a pillar, not even five inches across. But it was something, and it helped me stop being shoved forward.

Turning my head towards the window, I catch a glimpse of another crowd outside. The media. Of course.

With my attention turned away from the hall, I didn't notice a student's leg catch me  right behind the knee, buckling my stance and sending my kneecap into the corner of the pillar.

As I grit my teeth and groan in pain, a sizable hand catches me by my good arm before I fully hit the ground and pulls me back up to standing.

With the bustle shoving from behind my rescuer, pushing them ever closer to me, I crane my neck to look up at who they are.

"Oh gosh! Sero? Thank you for that, are you okay?" I have to all but shout up at him for him to hear over the panicked shouting.

"I should be asking you that, (L/N)! Looked like you hit your knee pretty hard there." He smiles down at me, concern crossing his features. His arm was raised with his hand against the small pillar to support himself against the pushing, making sure I wasn't  getting crushed.

"I should be fine, maybe it'll bruise later, but other than that I'm good," I say, backing further into the wall again, hoping to let him have some space.

With how close we were, and how he was holding himself against the wall, any onlooker would have assumed that the two of us were dating, or at the very least flirting. Well, had it not been for the panicked chaos in the hall, that is.

With yet another shove from the crowd, Sero is pressed further into me, my face practically rehomed into his chest.

He smells good... like citrus.. NO! Stop that! Don't smell the guy, (Y/N)! What the hell is wrong with you? I all but slap my hands over my nose and mouth to stop myself from subconsciously taking another whiff, and Sero looks down at me with concern.

"(Y/N)? Did you hear me?" I hear Sero say.

"S-sorry no, I didn't.." I hoped my face wasn't as red as it felt, but I'm pretty sure it was.

Lost in my self reprimanding, I hadn't heard his question, causing him to bend down and ask again, this time almost directly into my ear.

He's so close...

"I said 'are you okay?' Sorry about that... I didn't mean to get so close and make you uncomfortable." He averts his eyes a bit as he pushes back against the crowd, giving me my space back, cheeks tinged with a slight rosy hue.

"Y-yeah I'm fine! It's okay, no need for apologies, you couldn't help it!" I wave my hand in front of my face, shooing off his apology with a smile.

At that time, a slight thud from above the exit is quickly followed by Iida's booming voice ringing out over the crowd.

     "Listen up! Everything is okay! It's just the media outside, there's absolutely nothing to worry about!" I turn my head and follow everyone's eyes to where Iida had managed to position himself directly above the door, garnering everyone's attention. All the pushing stopped as the students listened to what he was saying.

     The students all calmed, begin to disperse back to where their rushed from, but Sero remained where he was with me, arm still against the wall, watching as the crowd thinned out.

     Once there was more than enough room to move comfortably, he pulled back, another apologetic smile across his face.

     "Right, sorry again about all that again. You're my classmate and I just wanted to make sure you didn't get hurt, y'know?" He rubs the back of his neck and chuckles. 

     "Sero, I already told you, there's no need for apologies okay?" I rest a hand on his arm and smile at him. "You really saved my butt back there, so I should thank you, actually." I laugh to myself and dramatically sigh and place the back of my hand against my forehead and with a airy accent say, "My hero, I do thank you for saving me from bein' trampled by that there herd of cattle."

     A slight moment of silence passes between the two of us before we both break out into snorts and laughter at my poor excuse of a joke.

     As we headed back towards the cafeteria together, I didn't feel the gaze of citrine against my back as I walked away, laughing with Sero.

'Man, my lunch is probably cold by now... bummer.'

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*****Hello! Am so sorry for the huge delay in updating this! I promise I'll do better!*****