Warped

Him

     "I guess we'll be interning together, hmm?" Sakura asked maliciously with a not so hidden grin.

     The boy shivered under her gaze on the train and turned pale when she sat down beside him. She snaked her arm around, having it rest on the poor boy's shoulders.

     "S-sakura-san..." he stuttered.

     She only smiled happily, relishing in Midoriya's discomfort and inability to speak up for himself.

     "Let's do well in our internship, right?" she asked him innocently.

     "Yes!" he exclaimed automatically, spine as rigid as ever.

     Suddenly getting annoyed with the boy, she frowned, folding her arms over her chest. His reactions were all the same, meaning that he was slowly losing his entertaining side. 

     "Relax, " she sighed, pulling out her phone and slouching, "It's going to be a bit before we get there. Don't tire yourself out before you get there."

     From her remark, Izuku slowly let his muscles relax, adopting a much more comfortable pose. He had been stressing since the moment Sakura had pulled him from the platform and into the VIP section of the train that had... No one else but them.

     Once he no longer had to worry about Sakura as much, the cogs in his head were turning. "You're in the General Studies class, right, Sakura-san? H-how are you interning?"

     "Connections, " she answered briefly, "Mostly my adoptive father though."

     "The Principal?"

     She nodded while rummaging her luggage for something. She couldn't just have one large storage scroll or that would raise suspicions. So she dealt with lugging around the suitcase while also carrying a couple small scrolls. "Here they are..."

     She pulled out her fans, all of which were hanging on a belt. Tying it around her waist, her face lit up with satisfaction while testing the weight and how well they would hang on without falling off. 

      It would be a lie if Izuku Midoriya wasn't the tiniest bit jealous of Sakura Haruno. She wasn't in the Hero Class yet was able to go on the internship. It wasn't fair that someone with enough power could do whatever they wanted without putting in the effort. He had trained for multiple months straight with harsh training to get into U.A.

     "I think these look cool, " she gushed, allowing her metal fan to fully extend out, "What do you think?"

     The sharp edges glinted dangerously from the LED lights, and Izuku was once more reminded that Sakura wasn't a particularly normal student, even among the strange collection of people accepted into U.A.

     Looking at Izuku's perplexed expression, Sakura's lips twisted into a scowl. "You weren't actually thinking that I was going to take this week as a joke? Principal Nezu wouldn't let me go if I didn't have the skills, you know."

     That was also true. The Principal, an absolute genius that ran the school, wouldn't just let her do whatever she wanted without a reason. "I don't doubt that you have the skills... It's just that-"

     "I'm not in your class... Right?"

     He nodded feverishly. Although he feared Sakura down to the very depth of his bones, he still found something intriguing and mind-bending underneath, something that he wanted to uncover.

     What made Sakura Haruno so special?

     "... My quirk is useless, you hear me? My life would've been better if I never had it in the first place. Then I wouldn't be so closed off, have to deal with all this bullshit, have to wake up everyday and remind myself of how much of a failure I am to everyone back at home-"

     She paused, eyes narrowing at him, looking at Izuku as if he was the scum of the Earth. "You're not anything like him... But why the hell is it that every single damn time I look at your face, all I can think about is him?"

     With a frustrated grunt she shoved her fan back and sat at the opposite end. Sakura bit her lip to the moment that it bleed and placed her arm over her eyes. She could act as if it was nobody's business, even when talking about the death of her parents, but why... Why was she so unstable when it came to Izuku Midoriya?

ᴡʜʏ ᴅɪᴅ ꜱʜᴇ ʟᴏꜱᴇ ᴄᴏɴᴛʀᴏʟ

ᴇᴠᴇʀʏ

ꜱɪɴɢʟᴇ

ᴛɪᴍᴇ?

     "... Sorry, " she bit out in the silence, "I drudged up some memories and took it out on you."

     After a long pause, he was briefly reminded of the time back in the USJ. The person that saved him had also said the same thing. Hesitantly, after gathering up much courage, he asked the question that was bugging him, "Who... Who do I remind you of?"

     He had only meant to get it off his chest, not expect an answer. It didn't seem like the appropriate time, but no time at all seemed appropriate. If she didn't wish to say anything at all he would accept it with no problems.

    "His name... Was Naruto Uzumaki, " she murmured, a voice above a hushed whisper, "And he was the strongest... Hero I have ever known. Due to his... Quirk, a lot of the people regarded him as a monster, abusing him long into his childhood days. Only a select few treated him like a normal being, after all, he had no parents to protect him. They died on the day of his birth."

     Her face then turned into a melancholic smile as she recounted more. "He wanted to be the strongest, but that was only the means to achieve his own goal: to be acknowledged and accepted as who he was, not by his quirk. He'd do anything, even become a renowned prankster just for a snippet of attention. Along the way we formed a team with two others and fought together. Picking up other comrades and losing some, he ended up saving everyone else..."

     "Then what happened?" he asked curiously, wondering what exactly happened to such a great hero that he had no recollection of hearing.

     "... The rest don't matter anyways, " she sighed, causing his anticipation to drop, "I was one of the fallen comrades... I was supposed to die from poison and a stab to the heart." 

     Pulling the neckline of her shirt down, she revealed the scar right over her heart, an ugly and jagged thing from a blade. "But we're getting off topic, aren't we? I was meaning to answer your question, but it ended up being all about me."

     Suddenly he had wished that he had asked a different question.