Aizawa was directed to his friend's room the moment he walked into the common area that evening. Several of their colleagues noticed the counselor's distraught state after watching the news. Turns out the stress was too much for her and this made him worry.
When she opened the door upon his knock she looked terrible. Elly's ears were drooping, her eyes red and teary with hectic blotches of color on her cheeks. She let him in and collapsed onto the bed, rolling up to hide.
"The others said you were upset. For some reason they thought I should be the one to check up on you... are you okay?"
"No," she muttered.
"You look sick."
"Thanks." Elly curled up into an even tighter ball with her tail around her and sniffled. "I'd rather you not see me like this," she admitted with a groan. "I'm not my best right now."
"You ran off during the news. Was it villians?"
"Yeah, the new ones got me rattled. There's not enough fighting against them in my opinion, all mixed in with my usual fears and anxieties."
He shrugged. "Stress builds. You reached your limit, that's all. You need to rest." Elly looked up at him and nodded with a strange, weak smile he didn't trust. "Cheshire -"
"I'm sorry, I know!"
This time he passed a tired hand over his eyes, sighing deeply. She watched, trembling and nervous, as he locked the door. He turned back and sat beside her on the bed, shaking his head when she tried to move to make space for him. Instead, he carefully placed an arm around her.
Startled, she lost most of her anxiety of the moment. "Aizawa..?"
"You <i>don't</i> know."
"Uh..."
"Please." He ran one hand through his messy, dark hair and grunted. "No, shut up. This is hard for me... I'm trying to comfort you."
"You're trying to what?" She laughed despite herself and he blinked morosely down at her.
"Really?"
"Now I really <i>am</i> sorry. That was unexpected though, you have to admit. And why'd you lock the door?"
"I thought I'd spend the night." Her gasp triggered a creepy grin. "Not like that, we're at school. But sleeping together - <i>just sleep</i> -- would be all right. Unless you object."
"You." She pointed at him with a shaky finger. "You want to... <i>snuggle</i>?"
Aizawa's eyebrows raised. "Do you not want to?"
"Oh. Uh, yes! I mean, yes I want to."
"Good. Pull that blanket closer and get comfortable."
She took hold of her Alice in Wonderland themed blanket, the grin of the Cheshire cat smoothing out like her own as she tugged it over them both.
"Aizawa?"
"Yes."
"I never thought you'd offer something like this and I'm a little confused." Elly frowned. "Why?"
He sighed one of the largest, long-suffering sighs she'd heard from him in awhile. "Because I care about you."
"Does that mean -"
"Besides, I would never pass up the chance to nap with a cat."
She rolled over, grumbling to herself, but when she felt his arms wrap around her as he pulled her against him it turned to purrs.
No comments:
Post a Comment