Finding Me (Todoroki x Reader)

Chapter 116

I placed the last of my belongings in my school bag, letting it drop and settle before zipping it up. The zipper was the only sound that filled the room, breaking through it as a rake would through autumn leaves - so gentle, yet so loud.

It was my discharge day - I'd been cleared to leave and go back to the dorms, today. It was an odd feeling, really, finally leaving the monotonous, plain halls that had witnessed so much sadness, had felt so much pain. My wounds, covered nicely by a fresh set of bandages, pulsed. They were certainly better, but I didn't quite feel whole, anymore.

Breathing out a deep sigh, I picked up my school bag and slung it over my shoulders. Even that seemed too loud for the room to take, echoing about as whispers on a wind. The room had become far too quiet since that afternoon.

Since I'd told them everything.

{Two Days Ago}

Fat Gum and the boys pulled away from me as my sniffles died down; and eventually, my tears, too, came to a stop.

Suddenly aware of my more-than-likely dishevelled state, I quickly reached for a tissue from my bedside table. "Sorry about that. You guys have snot all over you, now."

"That's okay, L/N," Kirishima chuckled out. "Nothing a little washing can't fix. Besides, these aren't even mine."

"Yeah, don't be sorry about crying, kiddo," Fat Gum said, giving my shoulder - my good one - a gentle squeeze. "You guys have been through a lot. I'm surprised it's taken you this long to shed a tear or two. Kirishima here was balling the moment I woke up. Same with Tamaki."

"Fat Gum..." groaned the indigo-haired boy. "You promised you wouldn't say anything."

"Oh, come on. It's not that bad. What's so embarrassing about crying over your mentor that you love and admire so much?"

"Why do you like to humiliate me, so?"

A breathy chuckle escaped me as Kirishima and Fat Gum burst into a loud laughing fit. Poor Tamaki was practically a tomato now, his embarrassed flush peaking out from underneath his facial bandages. Aw, he really was adorable when he got embarrassed.

Once calming down, Fat Gum turned to me, his honey-coloured eyes locking with my E/C ones. He was still smiling, but it had softened; and his eyes no longer seemed as bright as they had been before. Now, they seemed sad - holding a knowing gleam that scared me to my very core.

"Anyways," he said, "what's really got you upset, L/N? Those tears before weren't just happy tears, were they?"

My breath hitched, my voice catching in my throat as my heart stopped all at once. More tears rose up, and so I bowed my head away from them. I couldn't face them like this. I couldn't let them see me so... pathetic and broken.

Fat Gum hummed. "So, I am right. There is something else on your mind. Something else has happened."

"Is it about Midoriya?" Kirishima asked, voice straining a little. "Or the others? Have you seen them?"

All I could do was shake my head, unable to open my mouth in fear of letting it all go, again. The rising, intense emotions from before came flooding back, washing away the small blanket of joy and reprieve I'd managed to hold onto. It was too much. It was just too much.

A shuffling of feet had me looking up, seeing a new presence beside me. Tamaki looked down at me, his one eye gleaming with worry and concern under the fluorescent room lights. He reached out with one hand to grip my own that was sitting in my lap, whilst his other hand reached behind and slid across my back. I stared back at him wide-eyed, both confused and shocked as to what he was doing.