Smile for me [KamiSero]

Chapter 8

Denki POV

Exhausted after spending the majority of the night awake in Sero's dorm, I walked back to my dorm before he woke up to get ready for the day ahead. Taking off my shirt, I turned around and looked at my back in the mirror, which had been in pain all night. My back was covered in faint scratches and bruises from Sero.

Pulling on my uniform, I thought about the wild, fearful look in Sero's eyes. I knew I had to say or do something to make up to Sero soon. As of now, he didn't seem like he would want to talk to me anytime soon.

Class went back to being chaotic, my classmates were strewn across the room as normal. Iida was shouting without success for the class to sit down in their normal desks. We knew we had plenty of time before Mr. Aizawa came in and we didn't want to be in our desks anytime before that.

I had started a conversation with Jiro but I soon became distracted, scanning the room for any trace of Sero every minute or so.

"Kaminari, is something wrong?" Jiro asked.

"Yeah. I'm just worried about Sero," I said truthfully, my voice trailing off at the end of my sentence.

"I think Mr. Aizawa has his eye on him right now. He'll be better soon, I'm sure of it," Jiro said, probably in an attempt to comfort me.

Come to think of it, I no longer felt the butterflies in my stomach when I was around Jiro. It made me wonder, did I even like her anymore?

"Mr. Aizawa is coming!" Iida yelled, signaling for us to take our seats. As Mr. Aizawa entered the room and laid down in the corner like normal, Iida went through attendance.

"Koda...Todoroki...Midoriya...Sato...." Iida went through names, as usual, checking to see if they were in class. When he got to Sero, he scanned the room twice, before concern crossed his face as he marked him absent.

The day went by like normal but it didn't feel the same without Sero around. He didn't contribute to conversations often but just having him around always made me feel better. Without his presence, everything seemed dull. At the end of the day, the Bakusquad decided to go back to our dorms together.

"Denki, are you going to ask out Jiro anytime soon?" Kirishima asked, snapping me out of my daze.

"Oh um...About that," I began, looking down at the ground as I walked. "I don't think I like Jiro anymore."

"REALLY?!" Mina cried, clearly shocked by the news. She cleared her throat before calming down. "Sorry about that. But if you don't like Jiro anymore does that mean you like someone else?"

Until Mina had mentioned it, I hadn't really thought about it like that. But now that she brought it up, I did have a person on my mind. "You could say that," I said simply.

"Oh oh! Tell us!" Mina yelled excitedly. Kirishima seemed to share the same excitement though he didn't show it as much as Mina.

"I won't tell you but I'll give you a hint," I said. Mina and Kirishima seemed to accept a hint though they looked a little disappointed. "He's in our class."

"He? I knew you were bi!" Kirishima shouted, seeming proud of himself. I couldn't help but laugh at how happy he looked.

"Could you narrow it down a bit more?" Mina asked.

"Hmm... Well, he's kinda tall and doesn't talk a lot," I said, pretending to stroke my chin. Mina and Kirishima looked like they were deep in thought as they considered who the person might be.

We soon split up, luckily no one making any guesses about who I might like...yet. I'm not ready for them to find out since he probably hates me.

My concern for Sero got the best of me. I needed to see how he was doing or else I didn't think I would be able to sleep that night. I went past my dorm, down the hall to Sero's. I knocked on his door and waited for an answer. When there was silence panic rose in my chest as I automatically assumed that he had done something to himself though he was probably just listening to music again. I knocked again a bit more forcefully this time.

"What?" Sero said flatly, his voice muffled by the door.

"It's me, Denki. Can I come in?" I asked cautiously, not wanting to say something that might trigger him to snap like he did last night.

"No. Go away," Sero replied. The fact that he hadn't been at school today and his change in looks and behavior lately had caused me a lot of worries. I wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Please? I just want to check on you for a moment and then I'll leave. I promise," I said, trying to persuade him to let me in. When he opened the door I prepared for him to yell or hit me but he just moved out of the way to let me in.

He closed the door behind me and motioned wordlessly that he wanted me to sit on his bed. Without questioning it, I sat down on the edge of his unmade bed, shifting uncomfortably in place.

"I need to talk to you," I sighed, not making eye contact with Sero, who was standing over me with his hands in his pockets. "Words can't explain how sorry I am for what I did. I was a coward and I will do anything I can to make it up to you."

I searched Sero's eyes for any traces of anger or resentment towards me but they were empty in lifeless. My eyes flickered around the room wanting to find anything else to fixate on besides my friend.

"Answer me honestly. Do you hate me?" I asked, forcing myself to make eye contact. There was a long pause before he gave me his answer.

"No," He answered. I studied the dark bruises that scattered his arms and neck. The scratches he inflicted on himself had begun to heal but still reflected the extent of damage he did to himself.

I wanted to say or do something that would coax a smile out of him. Even a small one. More than ever, I wanted to be able to talk to him like we used to. But along with his smile, his talkative nature had disappeared as well.

"What are you?" Sero asked out of the blue, breaking the heavy silence between us.

"An idiot sandwich," I replied, saying the first thing that came into my mind.

Sero looked taken aback at first but I noticed a faint smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

"You're right about that," He said, all traces of a smile leaving his face as quickly as they had appeared. "By the way, this is for being an asshole," He pulled back his fist and slugged me right across the face.

"I deserved that..." I said, biting back the throbbing pain in my jaw.

Sensing it was time for me to leave, I got up and walked out the dorm racking my mind to come up with a plan to make up for abandoning Sero.