Smile for Me

Chapter 40: Nightmares

Emi POV

It's kinda dark in here...

"Hello?" Emi called into the darkness.

But nobody came.

She looked around trying to see anything. Suddenly she heard a quiet voice.

"....Trigger that alarm, and I promise you'll go out with a smile!."

Emi moved towards the voice curiously.

She saw a woman in black and orange leaning over what she thought was a man lying on the ground. There was noting around them; only the man on the ground and the woman in orange and black.

The man was laughing, but not a good kind of laugh. It sounded strained and forced, like he didn't have a choice.

"Ha ha ha ha! *gasp*  P-please! Let me- ha ha- go!"

She finished filling her  bag with what looked like cash, then paused on her way out of the invisible room. Looking to the side, she  saw a candy-bar, and grabbed it. Then, she filled another bag with some other random items. The woman looked back at the gasping store-clerk.

"You were cooperative, so I'll let you go...this time." she smirked.

The man suddenly gasped  for air and coughed profusely.

As the woman turned to walk out, she made eye contact with Emi.

They both froze, not knowing what to do.

"You...look like me." Emi finally spoke up.

The woman laughed. "That's because I am you!" she cackled.

Emi staggered backwards as the woman walked towards her.

"No. No, I'm...I-I'm a Hero! Heroes don't do that!" she tried to gesture to the man, but he was gone.

"Trust me honey," the woman said, now only a few feet away.,"you're no Hero."

As Emi stood in shock, the woman pushed her backwards and she began to fall. She screamed, praying someone would hear her cries for help. As she fell, she saw the woman over an invisible ledge watching her fall, un-phased. Emi squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for impact, and then...

It hit.

Aizawa POV

Aizawa was laying down in his bed with Sumairu, trying to fall asleep. However, his always rushing mind had other plans.

How should I go about helping her? At some point I need to tell her the truth. What happened between us, what happened to her....What she did as Maniacal.

He rolled over, playing with the kittens tail.

Maye I'm overreacting. Sure, it will be hard for her to hear, but that's why we'll ease her into in. Nice and slow...

"Maybe there are some points that we won't even need to tell her," he muttered to a sleeping Sumairu, "Maybe she'll get her memories back before that point, and all we'll have to do is keep her stable..."

He knew that was wishful thinking though. Maybe he could get some other teachers to help him out when they talk about it to her. They definitely couldn't tell her that all at once. That would be too much for anyone to handle all at once.

He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

Sleep on it, Shouta. You can plan it out better once you've slept.

After a few minutes of silently listening to the kitten purr in her sleep, he heard a noise. It sounded like groaning. He tried to ignore it, but it quickly became loud enough that he had to go check. He opened the room of his room and immediately heard the noise coming from Joke's room.

What is she...?

He hesitantly opened the door a crack to check on her and saw her curled up facing away from him and the door.

The groaning got more quiet, so he assumed she calmed down and shut the door. As he was walking the very short distance back to his room, he heard a loud scream. He busted into her room without hesitation and ran over to her.

"Joke? What's wrong?"

She didn't respond.

He sat down on the bed and watched her writhe around, screaming and kicking, tears falling down her face.

"Joke, it's just a dream, wake up!" He said a bit louder. But she couldn't hear him.

He finally took her by the shoulders and shook her.

"Emi!" he shouted.

She gasped and sat up, kicking the blankets off of her, desperately trying to get out of Aizawa's grip.

"Let me go! Let me go!!" she cried, still trying to pry his fingers off of her arms.

"Joke, look at me. Look at me; it's Shouta! It's okay, you're alright." he said, holding her face to make her look at him.

"It's just me."

She panted and sweated like she had just run a marathon and stared into his dark eyes.

Eventually, she slipped back into sobs, throwing her face into his chest, gripping his shirt like her life depended on it.

They said nothing for several minutes. All they did was hold on tight. Then, through the sniffing and chocking back of sobs, Aizawa hear her speak.

"T-There...T-there was this w-w-woman. A-and she pushed me off an edge..a-and she looked j-just like me, S-Shouta!" the cried looking up into his eyes at the last statement.

He felt his blood run cold.

Crap.

He pulled er back to himself and let her burrow into his arms.

"It's okay. She can't hurt you. I won't let anyone hurt you."

She didn't respond.

"Hey," he said, pulling her face back up to meet his eyes, "I won't let anyone hurt you, okay?"

She nodded, wiping away some of her tears. He got up to leave after a while, and she grabbed his hand.

"Wait!" he turned back around to look at her, still being held by her hand. She looked like she wanted to say something, but looked away, ashamed.

"Come on." he said, helping her up from the bed and guiding her to his room.

She hesitantly followed him, still gripping his hand. She felt like a scared child, and Aizawa could tell. He led her to the other side of his bed and motioned for her to sit down. She wordlessly followed his directions and snuggled up under the covers. Since Aizawa was gone, Sumairu had moved to the end of the bed and was sleeping near their feet.

"This will be a one time thing, okay?" he said.

She nodded and laid down. He laid down next to her and faced the other way as to not make anyone uncomfortable. It didn't work, obviously; they were both a bit embarrassed. Despite this, they both fell asleep in Aizawa's comfortable fortress of "solitude".

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There ya go! Some more fluff for ya, but also a bit of ouch. uwu

-Sarah