Pastimes of the Invisible Girl

Just Compensation

"I did it to see if you liked my chocolates."

Bakugo jumped a foot in the air from where he had been lounging against his bed, listening to music, and swore. She withheld her laugh as he scrambled for the remote to turn off the surprisingly normal level classical concerto. Though, granted, it had some very angry piano playing. The pianist had to have been playing fourteen or more keys at once.

"How the hell-you freaking-"

"I'm not a perv. This is the grand second time I've ever even been in your room."

"There still was a freaking first!"

"Which I did on order of the principal," she said cooly, crossing her legs from where she sat on his desk, which so happened to be close to his window, which he had left open. There had been the slightest breeze, which had disguised her entry through his curtains. "And I checked everyone's rooms, not just yours."

His eyes narrowed on her, or what he could see of her, which wasn't much, so he was basically glaring somewhere over her left shoulder. She didn't care, really. She was busy checking out the black tank top and baggy gray sweatpants. He looked quite cuddly. To her, anyways. Anyone else would have thought her off her rocker, but then, she was, wasn't she?

"What the hell for?" he growled.

"Check to see if anyone was connected to the League of Villains in any way, directly or indirectly. Our summer training camp had been top secret, after all. Everyone had to be checked."

"And why the hell not you?"

She gave him a droll look she didn't care that he couldn't see. "Point is, I'm not a perv. I only wanted to see if you liked my chocolates. I also came with a tribute to appease your rage, Lord Explosion Murder."

"Tough luck," his palms crackled. "It's just increased. Like hell I'd believe a word out of a sneaky stalker like you."

Sighing loudly, she proceeded to unwrap a mass of her hair around the book she had carefully carried over.

As it appeared, he jumped again, this time to his knees, palms at the ready.

"Hold on to your panties, it's just a journal," she said, very, very amused.

"Whose?"

"Mine."

"Why the hell would I want that?"

"Because, either or, I invaded your privacy." She tossed the book on the floor before him, where it bounced and fell open. "The only fair recompense would be to allow you to do the same to me."

And with that, she slipped back out his window, smiling as he continued spewing insults at her long after she had left. It made her insides tickle thinking how he might go around his room like a blind guy feeling around and making little explosions to ensure she wasn't there before closing and locking his window. Why he had left it open in the first place was beyond her.

Sure enough, she heard little explosions through her floor for the next hour.

"So cute," she said through a smile.

And smile she could. Because although Bakugo was about to learn her secrets, he already thought the worst of her. His opinion of her could hardly get any less. And since they weren't other's secrets (she would never endanger anyone so much by putting their secrets on paper), her conscience was content as well.

She spent the rest of the day catching up on sleep and the homework she had missed sleeping through the previous day. She went down for dinner, where she stumbled upon her friends sitting about the table with stacks of waffles and was faced with the confrontation she had been dreading. By their expressions, they had been too.

It wasn't that she thought they had abandoned her at the Nurse's Office. Not after knowing all the rest of their secrets. She knew them more than they knew her.

So, she sighed.

"Alright, guys, what was your plan behind ditching me?"

All three of them, Momo, Ochaco, and Mina, flinched.

"How did you-"

"We were going to confess all, I swear!" cried Ochaco very dramatically.

Mina snorted. "Figures. Look, Toru-"

"We promise we waited until you were safe home, we swear! We only wanted you to be happy!" said Momo.

Ochaco squealed and wrapped her arms around Momo's face. Mina just rolled her eyes.

"You're better off not knowing, buddy," she said. "Just know we still love you to death and made you waffles and homemade strawberry syrup as proof."

But the reason Toru had been dreading this meeting bubbled up like acid from her gut. Yes, she wasn't afraid of them not liking her. She wasn't afraid that they had forgotten her or anything like that. Nor was she angry. No. She knew why.

And it hurt.

"I'm not stupid," she said, softly, controling the growing rock in her throat with years of practice. "You tried to make something happen between Bakugo and me...even though you knew this is why I never wanted you to know if I liked a guy. Even though I specifically asked you not to."

A harsh quiet dropped over them.

Momo was the first to break it, standing up. "Toru, we just wanted to help. You've totally given up on yourself ever being love, and we just wanted-"

"-to try and hook me up with the guy least likely of everyone in the world to give me that."

Mina, somehow managing to look guilty and scoff at the same time. "Dude, even Bakugo's going to fall-"

"-in love with a girl someday? You don't even know if he's straight."

"Will you let me finish a damn sentence?"

But the end of Toru's control was ending and she had already turned around.

"Toru..." said Ochaco weakly. "Please, we didn't mean any harm. We knew he wouldn't leave you out there. Toru?"

She felt hot walking back to her room, even as she shivered. A few fat tears squeezed out, but otherwise she kept a tight rein on it. After all, she knew how this would all turn out. She'd have some time, get over it, and they'd all make up and go back to how things usually went. They'd throw themselves back into their studies like they were supposed to. Boys would go back to the subplots where they belonged. Bakugo...Bakugo would probably have a few more chances to call her Ginger Tits or Titties, whatever variation he wanted, then he too would get back to his life. She didn't expect her diary back. She'd probably get a new notebook to keep her secret mean-funny stuff in to laugh at whenever she was feeling down...

Like now. She really wanted her book now.

She locked her door and her stomach growled.

"Oh mini-fridge, my bosom companion," she sighed, slinging open the little white door and grabbing a packet of cheese and ham. "It is but you and I now in the field of battle."

She sniffed. Dug out some crackers from somewhere. Turned on her computer and curled up on her pink chair to morosely munch on her little ham-cheese crack-sandwiches. Hee ha. Crack. Ugh.

Yeah. She'd get over this. They all would. And move on.

But, for right now, she didn't want to.