Born To Die {Private}

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    Saori had heard about the Sports Festival thing. She was kinda surprised, like Kaiya said, that Ezra did it but she figured that Ezra would be a bit softer when it came to emotional things. Ezra could feel them and therefore knew how bad it was to feel that. Despite Saori not exactly getting along with her, Ezra was still training to be a hero. Saori would never say it outloud, but it was a wonder how she was going to be a hero with that attitude. Though there was plenty of heroes who seemed unconcerned with how people actually felt. Endeavor was just one of those heroes and he placed rather high in the rankings. Perhaps Ezra would be like that once she became a hero.


    "Oh-! Uhm... I am excited about it." Saori started, averting her eyes even from the paint. Her face was going slightly red from the question. Kaiya answered things so easily! "I... have no one in mind honestly. I don't think anyone would go with me anyway so I'm just going to go by myself and hang out with who ever goes. N-not in our class at least. I'm not really close with any of the boys." She wasn't sure what to add onto that. "That means that you're not asking anyone though?"

    Does Saori like someone? Maybe not. But she looks quite flustered. Odd. She wouldn't push it though, if she really felt that shy about it. Forcing someone to talk about things wasn't ever a good thing. Once more, she seemed to be the one under question. It was a simple enough question. "Well, I thought of seeing if Ezra would come. She said she didn't want to go, but I think distancing herself more would be bad. She won't ever make friends like that. So I thought... maybe if I asked her to go... maybe she'd go?" It seemed silly now though, saying it out loud. A small laugh left her lips, almost lifted her hand to tap her head but realizing she'd mess up her nail polish she was putting on, she caught herself just in time. "So not really anything like gossipy."

    Her nails were turning out better than she expected, though she knew she still had a lot to learn about painting nails. Even so, it was fun. Hanging out with another girl. A friend. Sitting and talking about silly things like they did in the movies. It was nice. "I don't know why you think no one would go with you. I'd go with you. I'm sure a lot of our classmates would go with you, too." She added, nodding her head decisively. Saori was a really nice person. "What about Naoko-san? Isn't she usually with you? Are you guys not going together?"

    Saori's eyes widened ever so slightly when Kaiya brought up asking Ezra. Though, she said that she didn't like anyone? They must be on different wavelengths or something. Was Saori not understanding something or...? Maybe she had been unclear with what she was trying to get across. Or perhaps there was no misunderstanding and Kaiya was just.... in denial. Either way, the suggestion to take Naoko made her wave her hands a little.


    "Oh ha ha, no. I can't ask her to the dance! I don't like Naoko-san like that. We're just friends." Saori laughed a little, but after a moment she realized that Kaiya didn't understand what she meant by asking someone to the dance. "Usually you ask crushes to the dance... like a date.... kinda." She explained, going over her hands with the towel when she got a little on her skin.

    Kaiya blinked, really confused about what she was saying. Oh. Dances were for crushes? Hmm.. It would be information she'd need to remember for later. She was pretty new to the idea, but it sounded normal enough. "Then I guess there's no one to ask in that case." Though she thought of something, "Oh! I wonder if Nagisa is going to ask anyone. He's not shy at all, but I've seen him get awkward a couple of times around people he has crushes on."

    She paused to study her nails, making sure she didn't miss any spots on the sides or anything. Her hands weren't the steadiest while painting, but fixing mistakes didn't seem to be all that impossible. "I didn't realize dances were for crushes, though. In movies the friends always end up going together, so I just thought that was more of the point." She admitted. "I've never been to a dance. We had one in middle school, but I wasn't allowed to go." Between not being able to go because Rika was worried about her quirk and needing to stay and keep an eye on Touya, she'd had to miss the dance. Though because of it, Touya had played music in her room and they'd danced like idiots for an hour or so. She didn't feel like she'd been left out of anything.

    "Still, I think I'll ask Ez to go with me, or she might not go at all and try to stay in the room by herself. That'd be really sad to me." She admitted, setting down the polish to let one hand dry. She didn't think she had the skill to try to paint the other one while the one hand was still drying. With her luck she'd spill it all over the place and ruin her drying nails.

    Saori shrugged when Kaiya brought up Nagisa. She wasn't sure if he liked anyone. Did he act awkward around anyone? Saori didn't think that she paid enough attention to any of the boys to really notice, if she was being honest. Kaiya wasn't wrong about going to the dance with friends either. She just knew that when people talked about asking each other to dances it wasn't usually just as friends.


    "I didn't go to my middle school either." Saori admitted. That was a... terrible time for her. She was still being bullied and avoided by most people then so if she went, it would only draw attention to her and her friends. She wouldn't want to do that to them. "You can go with friends and a lot of people do. When people ask about asking something to the dance, that's when it's usually about crushes and stuff, but people always go with friends too. I guess this will be both of our first dances though!" Saori said, sort of skirting around the topic of Ezra. "You have that dress so you definitely have to show that off!"

    "Go to the dance with crushes?" Kaiya laughed a bit, feeling rather awkward. "That makes sense, I probably should have figured that out sooner." She admitted, checking her nails once more. They were dry enough so that she could put on her second coat, as she'd always seen them do thin coats in movies, and they did their nails like twice. She began working on her second coat, glancing up occasionally to Saori. "I don't really wear dresses all that often, though I think they're cute." She'd never had a reason to wear one. Though she'd seem plenty of movies where girls wore them for no reason, but at school it always seemed like everyone wanted to get away from skirts and dresses, so she just went along with them to avoid being singled out even more.


    "I guess crushes are something big though? I just figured we'd be focused on becoming Pro Heroes. I never considered that people here would develop feelings for someone while in training. It makes sense, I suppose." If she thought about it, it made sense for a Pro Hero to be with a Pro Hero, as they both understood the desire to help others and the stress of the career. Kaiya never really thought much about something like that. After he left, I realized that was for the best. I can't die, so I'll outlive anyone I may ever love... Losing someone... living longer... distancing myself would be better. But.. she had to admit, she was pretty bad at it.

    Saori put the stencils along the towel she had laid out on the floor. The nails on her other hand were still drying so it was a bit awkward to pick it up. She peeled it off of the back, tiltnig her head a bit when Kaiya expressed her view on crushes. Saori didn't really think about it like that. Perhaps she wasn't as goal or work focused as someone like Kaiya though, who seemed to be the first ones to throw their lives on the line. That wouldn't be brought up now though. Kaiya had always seemed a bit sensitive about it. Maybe it was something that she had a hard time controlling, like storybooks said a true hero would rush into danger headfirst. The other girl might have taken that to heart. She shrugged in response, pulling out a darker blue that she thought that would look nice.


    "Maybe. I don't think you can really stop feelings though. Just like making friends. You can't just... stop liking them. You've never liked anyone though?" Saori blinked. "You liked Nagisa-san." She waved her hand a little as a dismissive gesture. "Anyway, I think we should all focus on what we're working on too. It's not something to be taken lightly, but I think we can also date and stuff. As long as we don't fall behind or anything. It be kinda weird if you met your soulmate through hero training though! What do you think your soulmate is doing right now?"

    It was all too true that feelings couldn't be helped. She didn't think she needed to explain that her crush on Nagisa was really just her thinking she liked him, because that's what everyone said was happening. Because everyone in middle school saw how close they were, they naturally assumed they liked each other. Kaiya didn't know any better, and got wrapped up in the gossip, thinking it was right. But being rejected by Nagisa was almost a relief, even if it was kinda disheartening. Even if she didn't like him like that, being rejected still was awkward and was definitely a blow to her already low self-esteem. Which had only resulted in the unfortunate accident that caused Nagisa to turn into a mother-like figure from movies.


    Even as Saori went on about crushes, and liking people, she was taken aback by her question. Her hands failed her, the nail polish tipping. She only realized she had spilled it onto her skin when she glanced down to check on the status of her drying nails. "Uhm.." What is my soulmate doing? White hair popped into her head, that contagious smile that'd been so solemn the last time she'd seen him. Right now I just hope he is alive... and safe. I want him to have gotten everything he ever wanted. She blinked, glancing up to Saori, having gotten lost in thought again. "I don't know. Maybe something good? I don't think I could be with someone who hurt other people, you know?" After all, that's why I didn't go with him...


    She shook her head, pushing the thoughts away. "I think Ren-kun has the wrong idea about Nagisa and I." A little off topic, but it suddenly popped into her head. "I couldn't see during the match, but I can take a guess about how it looked towards the end when I lost. Nagisa's protective of me for different reasons than Ren-kun might think, or anyone for that matter, but..." He was a good friend. And because of that, he wouldn't tell them about Touya. Wouldn't let them in on the reason he was so worried about guys mindlessly flirting with her or teasing her because she was often oblivious to it, and if she wasn't, she took them seriously. It really was a bad combination. "It's not like that at all, like I said."

    Saori gasped when the nail polish spilled. She wasn't too worried, but it had startled her. Luckily whatever spilled just went right onto the towel she had laid out, for this exact reason too. Some did get on Kaiya though. The girl listened to what Kaiya responded with while pouring some nail polish remover on the corner of the towel, handing it to her afterwards. Kaiya's response made sense though. Kaiya seemed far too nice to be with anyone who was doing anything other than good. She didn't deserve it either. Then, before Saori could answer that, Kaiya went along and changed the subject. Which wasn't that big of a deal, especially since Saori could see how it would be uncomfortable for Kaiya to talk about it.


    "I've seen Ren-san train before and usually it's a bit worse than that. Technically he's supposed to put his body weight down to hold you down but during your match he didn't. I think he was just trying to use Nagisa-san's protectiveness to his advantage since he knew he wouldn't win any other way." Saori stated matter-of-factly, waving her hands back and forth to try her hands. "He definitely wasn't trying to do anything though. It's just how that style of fighting is." She peeled the stencil off carefully before holding them up for Kaiya to see. "How do they look?"

    In the midst of cleaning up her mess, Kaiya glanced up to Saori. "I know, I couldn't see but I could tell he was ready to hit me. Nagisa is pretty sensitive about that." She had to take a second to realize there was another way the position could have looked, and her cheeks heated. "Ren-kun didn't mean it like that - we were sparring. It'd be silly to think anything else." She'd learned that from her play spars a couple of years ago... I wonder if Nagisa thinks Ren-kun likes me. That'd be kinda weird, 'cause I don't know him that well and he just seems like that with everyone to me. She hummed, glancing up from cleaning up her nails with the corner of the towel to check out Saori's stencil. "Oooh." She nodded her head vigorously. "I like it."

    She was still working on her own mess, but that was fine. She'd gotten all of the nail polish that she had spilled off of her hands. Now she needed to allow her nails to dry before she thought of stencils, though she almost decided to ignore stencils and leave them as they were - of course Saori's nails looked too cute to not at least try them. "I think Nagisa will learn eventually, though I hope I can become better friends with everyone in class." She admitted, setting down the nail polish bottle after closing the lid tightly. "I don't mind being an outcast, but I think it's more fun to train together."

    "You and Ezra both always seemed to be on the outside of the class, so I'm glad that you're warming up to everyone!" Saori said with a smile. The topic of Ezra had come up again, but this time it was in a positive light. Despite everything, Ezra did seem to hang out with everyone more, even if she left without saying goodbye when things didn't interest her enough. Or she wasn't the nicest. Poor Ren. "I hope Ryoku-san does the same. I hardly see him if it's not in class." Saori smiled turned solemn. "I heard he got in another fight outside of school. If he keeps this up, he won't last in the hero course. Hopefully it was the last one." A yawn quickly overtook her, nearly muffling the last part of the sentence. Although Saori wasn't quite ready to go to bed, she was starting to feel tired again. Talking with Kaiya was really nice though and she hoped to have more of these moments in the future. Especially since it seemed to be bringing the class together. Ezra still seemed like she was on the line about things despite hanging out more often. Saori wouldn't be surprised it if was just for Kaiya instead of a genuine interest to be around the class. Kaiya, though, seemed to actually want to be around them and that made Saori happier than it probably should. "Anyway, I'm glad that we are friends. I really appreciate it."

    "Ryoku-kun gets into fights?" She wasn't aware of that fact. Should she go see if he was okay? Was it because he pent up his anger? If he gets into trouble he won't last, huh? But what if he needs someone to help him release pent up frustrations? I can see if he wants me to be his punching dummy. I won't tell anyone, and any wounds will heal so no one would ever know and he won't get into trouble. After thinking about it a moment, though, she realized that wouldn't help him. If he didn't learn self-control it wasn't as though she could be his punching bag forever. "Maybe I can try talking to him... and if he hits me, it'd be fine since it won't hurt." She mumbled, mostly to herself. With her nails dry, she went ahead and began looking for a cute stencil, finding a complimentary color that would look good on her nails. Humming to herself, she placed the stencil on her thumbnail and glanced up at Saori's words. "Me too!" She smiled, eyes closing with how wide she was smiling. "You and Ezra are my first real friends aside from Nagisa."

    Mumbles were lost to music, but it pulled Saori's interest. Was there something Kaiya wanted to say? She moved on with the topic, acting as if the mumbled words were never said. Saori decided to play along, not wanting to push her into saying anything. Hearing that she was her first real friend made her smile, heart raising to her face. There was someone else that Kaiya had mentioned though, someone that seemed like they should be listed there but... maybe something happened to take them out of that. Kaiya didn't want to talk about it. Saori tilted her head ever so slightly as she thanked the girl. There were certain things that Kaiya wanted to avoid. Just what had the girl been through?

    Kaiya was thrilled to have a sleepover with a girl for the first time. It definitely was different from Nagisa and Touya. Especially the nights when Juno had his friends over - those had always been quite interesting. She'd tended to stay in her room on those nights to avoid her quirk being revealed. Even so, the day had taken a toll on her. As soon as her top coat had dried, she'd ended up passing out, her body exhausted. Even if her only fight with Nagisa hadn't been that bad, she'd already been a little sleepy because of her fall from the stairs before they went to the gym and she'd had to heal. She'd not been in her top condition at all. Still, she thought their girl's night was enjoyable.


    The next morning she woke multiple times, tossing and turning and refusing to get up more than once. She was still tired, needing more sleep than the average person. One downside of her quirk was definitely how tired it made her, though she knew she'd have to work on that in order to be able to help people. If she got tired and passed out in the middle of rescuing someone, that'd be bad. For now, though, she'd enjoy her sleep time.

    Except... She slowly peeled open her eyes, realizing that she wasn't in her dorm with Ezra. "Hmm?" She remembered the sleepover rather quickly and nodded silently to herself. Right. It wasn't much of a big deal, wherever she was. Though last time it'd happened she was kidnapped. So at least she should try to be more aware of her surroundings, right? "It's morning..." Such an obvious fact, though she was a bit surprised it wasn't the late afternoon. Kaiya wasn't much of a morning person most of the time. "Today's still a weekend..."

    Saori has fallen asleep to the sound of the radio playing in the background. It hadn't been much longer until her nails fully dried. She inspected the striped colors and then started cleaning up when Kaiya was done with hers. As fun as it had been to talk like this, she was tired. There was a lot of excitement earlier, and the whispers of the mysterious Shiketsu student had continued until everyone started heading off to bed. She had wondered too, almost looking forward to seeing him again when the schools met up. He seemed awfully nice- With those thoughts she had buried herself under blankets, making sure that Kaiya had more than enough blankets and pillows at her disposal. Just in case.


    --


    Saori had just showered and slipped in the room when Kaiya rose. Saori had smiled at the endearing sight, tying a handkerchief in her hair to push it away from her face. She had slept well, though it was odd trying to enter and exit the room without waking the other girl.


    "Good morning! It's still pretty early actually. If you want to go back to sleep you can." Saori's chipper voice was still hushed, not wanting to be loud when Kaiya had just woken up. "I'm not sure who's up either."

    "Early..." Kaiya grumbled, but began pushing herself up into a sitting position. "Why does the sun rise so early? I miss when it was dark all of the time." She rubbed her eyes sleepily, attempting to wake herself up. If she could go back to sleep, she would, but she wanted to get up and get ready for their last day off before classes started back up the next day. "I wonder what everyone has planned for today." She said, getting to her feet and stretching out her limbs. They hadn't gone to sleep early, and yet she was still awake right now. This should be considered a form of torture. It probably is. Kaiya yawned again, hand covering her mouth. "Is there breakfast? I'm hungry..." She hummed, blinking and looking at Saori. Her stomach growled confirming her words.

    Saori nodded, adjusting the bandanna in her hair.


    "There is! Kameko-san made a ton for everyone. I just saw a little bit as I passed, so I'm not exactly sure what it is. We can go see though?" Seeing Kaiya stretch made Saori stretch her arms a little bit even though she had been awake for a little bit already. "How'd you sleep?" It was obvious that Kaiya was not a morning person. Saori knew that before now though, so she wasn't surprised that Kaiya was still acting tired. Her and Ren usually got up at the same time, Ren typically a bit later if there was nothing to do.

    "Good. I usually sleep better after I heal a lot." The more beat up she got, the heavier she slept. Which meant that she wouldn't have to deal with her nightmares. Unfortunately she'd not gotten knocked around enough for that, but her nightmares hadn't startled her awake like they sometimes did. At least not to the point where she'd wake up Saori and startle her. Which is a major relief. Nagisa panicked when I did around him for the first time. "Food sounds wonderful. I didn't know Kameko-san could cook. Maybe I should ask her if she'd teach me some day! I want to learn more." She only knew a little bit. Enough to make a decent meal for herself, and that was about the extent of her abilities to put together a meal.


    Kaiya glanced at her nails, happy to see that they still looked decent despite how tired she had been when she'd done them. She certainly had fun with Saori, though she also felt a girl's sleepover was a lot less... eventful than with the boys. Nagisa had always put on movies that were pretty comedic, and they'd end up cuddling on the couch until they fell alseep, but only after they played a few rounds of what Nagisa had said was called, "Chubby Bunny". She always failed this game, but Nagisa was always good at shoving the marshmallows into his mouth and talking.

    Saori moved to the door, putting her hand on the handle. She had waken up sooner so she was able to shower and change before breakfast. She didn't want to drag Kaiya down if she wanted to do that first too. It wouldn't take that long so Saori was happy enough to wait a little bit.


    "She does! She often makes little meals since almost everyone eats at the cafeteria. I think she shares them with Aiko-san since they seem close." Saori tilted her head a little bit as she spoke her next question. "Do you want to get ready first or just come downstairs to grab some breakfast first?"

    It was interesting, how much Saori knew about everyone in class. Kaiya was still trying to remember everyone's names despite having been classmates with them since the beginning of the year. So much had happened, though she'd always stuck to Nagisa, and now Ezra. Though she was quite proud of herself for branching out as much as she did.

    "I can go downstairs like this." She didn't know what they were doing for the day, so she figured she'd wait to change and 'get ready' until she knew what she'd be getting ready for. Instead she opted to stay in her light pink pajama shorts and black and white striped tank top. "I'm pretty comfortable." Besides, wouldn't changing clothes make her feel their coolness on her skin and take away the warmth she felt? No thank you. I'd rather be warm and cozy like this.