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The seasons were shifting at UA, and it was that time of year where poor unfortunate souls were coming down with the cold. Shouji was currently among those students.
After waking up that morning feeling absolutely miserable, he visited Recovery Girl, who gave him a note to excuse him from classes for the day. His only recommended treatment was simply bed rest and medicine to take the edge off. He regretted not being able to go to classes and just tough it out, but just walking from the dorms to the nurse’s office and back was exhausting. By the time he collapsed back onto his futon, he was fine with not moving ever again. Or at least for a couple of hours.
But a couple turned to many as Shouji spent most of his day under the covers of his futon, either sleeping through the morning and afternoon or just trying to relax when he was awake. His throat burned and breathing was a pain, even with his Quirk helping him out. What started out as a small pile of dirty tissues grew into a mountain over the course of the day. He had one hot drink after lunch and a couple of glasses of water, but for the most part his appetite had left him. He had little energy to do anything, but every once in a while he checked his phone, and appreciated all of the get-well messages from his classmates.
Tokoyami was amongst those wishing him well. The two had recently started dating, and seeing his messages—both in the class groupchat and their private chat—made Shouji feel a little bit better. But his illness had gotten in the way of something else. They were supposed to go out for their first date tonight, but that was cancelled now that Shouji could barely leave his room. It couldn’t be helped, he knew that. Tokoyami was also understanding about it when they texted about it, insisting that he take care. But he sensed his disappointment, and understood it too. It was a simple date—just a picnic at a park near the school—but they had both been looking forward to it all week.
The only thing I can resolve to do now is recover as soon as possible.
In the meantime, he hoped that Tokoyami was having a good day.
After another nap, Shouji woke up to the blue sky turning orange outside his window, and he heard footsteps outside of his room. Classes must be over for the day, with everyone returning to the dorms.
There was a knock on his door. Shouji wiped his nose one more time before readjusting the medical mask on his face—it had replaced his usual mask, but still did the job of keeping most of his face covered—and morphed one of his dupli-arms into a mouth. It slipped out from under the covers and he called, “come in.”
The door opened, revealing Ojiro and Hagakure. They were still in their uniforms, had their school-bags with them, and they also wore medical masks to protect themselves from catching what Shouji had caught.
Ojiro’s eyebrows furrowed in concern, seeing his friend in a sniffling heap under his blankets. “Good evening… are you feeling much better?”
“A bit,” Shouji replied through his morphed mouth. He certainly felt better than he would have if he had gone to classes. “How was class today?”
“It was alright. We had more rescue simulation during our hero training.”
“And we brought you your homework! We took down extra notes for you too!” Hagakure cheered proudly, whipping the papers out of her bag and into the air. And then she looked around the room with diminishing vigor. “Um, where should I put this…?”
“Here is fine,” Shouji said, the tiny mouth indicating the floor next to his head. Hagakure put it down gently. “Thank you. I’ll get to work on it later.” He was flattered, grateful that they thought of him in his time of need.
“Do you need anything else?” Hagakure asked. “Are you hungry? In the mood for anything?”
His appetite had come back a little bit after spending the day in bed. It sounded like Hagakure was offering to get something, but he didn’t want to make his friends do anything else for him. Shouji could visit the kitchen later when he was feeling up to it.
“I’m alright, but thank you.”
“You don’t have to worry about that either,” Ojiro said. “Tokoyami—”
“—hopes that you’ll feel better soon, just like the rest of us!!” Hagakure quickly cut in, stepping in front of Ojiro. The boy behind her sheepishly pressed his lips shut as Hagakure's wooden laughter chorused out, her sleeves waving around. Shouji glanced between both of them curiously, wondering what was up with the bizarre behaviour all of a sudden.
But Hagakure moved the topic along, and the three made small talk about what happened at school that day, and what their hero training was like. Shouji was still a bit confused about the strange outburst from before, but let it go and enjoyed the conversation that he had with them.
Ojiro and Hagakure didn’t stay much longer after that, not wanting to impede on Shouji’s time to rest. They wished him well again before leaving together, leaving him be. Shouji sighed as he slumped into his sheets. As comfortable as they were, he was starting to get a bit restless. Sleeping more might have been a good idea, but he had already slept so much that he thought any more of it would make him feel worse.
Maybe a bath will do. The steam would help clear his sinuses, and washing up would help him feel refreshed. With a groan, Shouji pushed himself out of bed, tidied up the tissues, and pulled out a clean set of clothes and towels before heading out. While he usually took the stairs for sake of exercise, today he took the elevator down to conserve energy. As the ride went down, Shouji couldn’t help but sag his head, sniffling. What started out as a yawn ended as a cough.
I hope I’m not sick for long, he couldn’t help but think, running a hand through his hair—his bedhead. Maybe he should have brushed it.
The doors opened at the first floor, and Shouji stepped out. As usual, the common room was full of life and leisurely energy after a day of hard work, and it was filled with the sounds of laughter and conversation. The strong smells of different, delicious foods drifted to Shouji’s nose, enticing his stomach. Whoever was in the kitchen was making something good.
Tsuyu, Uraraka and Ashido were huddled nearby, the latter two giggling and whispering excitedly behind their hands.
“It’s so romantic, isn’t it? I can’t wait to see how everything turns out!!” Ashido squealed. “’bout time something like that happened around here!”
“Yes!! It’s such a sweet idea!!” Uraraka agreed. “I’m excited to see how everything turns out!”
Absent-mindedly, Shouji’s gaze passed over them, looking for Tokoyami, but instead, his eyes met Tsuyu’s as she noticed his arrival.
“Hi Shouji,” she greeted, but her voice was loud and clear, like a warning.
Shouji waved back, only to pause as the other girls, Uraraka and Ashido, whipped their heads around at breakneck speeds. While Tsuyu was as stoic as ever, an unknown form of hysteria slowly filled the features of the other girls’ faces. Before Shouji could even think to take another breath, they were up in his face so fast he almost fell back into the elevator.
“Shouji!! What are you doing down here?!!” Uraraka exclaimed, frantically waving her arms in the air.
“Um, well I don’t just live in my room…”
“Shouldn’t you be in bed?! Sleeping?! Resting?!” Ashido acted much the same on his other side, almost pushing him back into the elevator. But he resisted without much effort, so he didn’t budge.
“I… came down to take a bath…” Shouji said, having no earthly idea why they were freaking out like this. But his words had some sort of positive effect on them, as their eyes lit up with their smiles like they had unlocked some sort of secret. Shouji glanced down to Tsuyu for some kind of answer, but her face was as neutral as ever.
“Oh! The baths! Yes! You should do that!” Ashido said, stiff-arming him away.
“Yeah! They’re over there! There’s nothing to see here!” Uraraka added, copying her.
Uraraka and Ashido helped him along, awkwardly yet forcefully, away from the kitchen. Tsuyu followed quietly behind, finger tapping her chin as she said, “be careful with him while he’s still sick, ribbit,” but that was the most effort she put into helping Shouji with the situation.
Clearly gathering that something was up now, he couldn’t help but glance over his shoulder back to the kitchen. There, for the briefest second, he saw Tokoyami peeking out from around the corner, before pulling back out of his sight. Shouji only grew more confused as he was hauled away.
Shouji hadn’t intended on spending too much time in the baths, but once he was in, he had found it difficult to leave. The water was warm and relaxing, and the steam helped him breathe easier. It was so pleasant that he couldn’t help but sink into the water a bit, reclining his head back with a calm sigh.
But while his body had relaxed, his mind drifted back to the strange antics of his classmates, including Tokoyami himself. Shouji tried to think of what they could be up to, but came up short on ideas.
We did cancel our plans for the night… it makes sense that he would have found something else to do, Shouji thought, leaving it at that. If he really wanted to know, he could just ask about it later.
He didn’t dwell on it for much longer before he finally left the baths. Stepping back into the common room though, he found that Tokoyami and the girls were gone. Scanning the rest of the common room, he wasn’t at the tables or the couches either. But in the kitchen, there was some commotion. Upon taking a look, he could see Satou and Kouda inside, both dressed in aprons as they searched through drawers and cabinets. An assortment of ingredients, dishes and utensils were being laid out on the counters, eggs, sugar and butter to one side, a couple of bowls and a mixer to another.
Probably getting ready for a round of baking.
Shouji’s stomach growled at the thought of food; he was finally hungry enough to really want something to eat. And now that he was here, he figured it was as good of a time as ever to pick something up before going back to his room.
Satou and Kouda both looked up as Shouji approached the kitchen, and smiled at their friend.
“Hey, Shouji!” Satou said as Kouda waved. “How are you feeling? It’s nice to see you up and moving.”
Shouji coughed into his hand, then replied, “thank you. I do feel a bit better.” He looked around at everything they had prepared so far. “What are you planning to make today?”
“We were going to do some baking with Kouda’s new cookie cutters.” Satou turned to Kouda, who smiled timidly as he held up a bunch of small, pink cookie cutters shaped like various animals. “We would have started earlier but the kitchen’s been pretty busy today.”
“Oh?” Shouji thought about earlier. “Because of Tokoyami?”
“No!” Satou answered so fast that it caught Shouji’s attention. Satou blanched, then coughed into his fist and said, “I-I mean, no.”
“I see…” Shouji said, back to being confused. His nose tingled, and he sneezed into the crook of his elbow as he added, “I just thought I saw him here earlier, that’s all.”
Shouji turned away from them, missing their sighs of relief, as he turned back to his original reason for being here: food. Unsure of what to eat, he decided to just take his pick from what was available. He bundled up his dirty clothes and towels under his left arms as he reached for the door to the fridge with his right hand.
A nervous squeak pierced his ears; alarmed, Shouji swivelled his head to the other two, and saw Kouda with his hand clamped over his mouth, staring fearfully at the hand on the door. Why was everything he was doing and saying getting a reaction out of his friends?
“What is it?” he asked through one of his dupli-arms.
“Oh! Th-that’s right, we’re actually a bit low on food right now,” Satou said quickly. “Yaoyorozu hosted one of her study sessions, and everyone took something for fuel. Yeah! Right, Kouda?”
Shouji had found Satou’s words a little hard to believe. Since moving into the dorms, the fridge had always stayed pretty well-stocked thanks to Iida’s diligence. Kouda did not lie well either, but at Satou’s prompting, he nodded insistently in agreement with what he said. So Shouji let his hand drop from the fridge door.
“Alright then…”
“Don’t worry though! We’ll make sure something gets delivered to you! Lunch Rush should still be delivering now!”
Like Uraraka and Ashido did earlier, Satou practically escorted Shouji out of the kitchen back in the directions of the elevators. Shouji didn’t understand what the rush was until he glanced back down to their preparations; maybe they just didn’t want to be disturbed. After all, they had waited a long time to be able to use the kitchen, and he was still sick.
At that thought, Shouji relented, not wanting to trouble them. He stepped away as he said, “Don’t worry about me. You two have fun.” He coughed into one of his hands. “I’m going to get more rest.”
Shouji might have imagined it, but Satou seemed to hesitate for a second. However, his tone was still energetic as he replied, “Alright! Take care of yourself!”
“Take care…!” Kouda repeated meekly from the other side of the counter.
With a curt nod of his head, Shouji walked away from the kitchen back to the elevators, leaving the two boys alone. He pressed the button for the elevator, and got inside when it arrived. As he made his way back up to his room, it occurred to him that maybe his cold was the reason that everyone was acting out. School life at UA was pretty tough, after all, and getting sick was never fun. But then again, it wasn’t like what he had was very serious. So why was everyone being so over-the-top around him?
The elevator doors opened at the fourth floor, and Shouji sighed, suddenly feeling very tired. Maybe he would just eat and go to bed. He had wanted to at least talk to Tokoyami for a bit before that, but maybe that should wait until tomorrow.
He returned to his room, discarded his dirty laundry in a corner of his closet to be dealt with later, and laid down on his futon as he picked up his phone. He was going to check if Lunch Rush’s on-campus services were still available when he saw a new message from Tokoyami.
[Tokoyami]: Are you free?
Shouji’s heart fluttered with more excitement than he expected from himself, and he quickly thumbed his response.
[Shouji]: I am. Back in my room now.
[Shouji]: Why?
The dots appeared, and then his reply.
[Tokoyami]: I will be up in a moment.
Shouji’s eyes widened behind his hair. Tokoyami was going to visit him? Now?
He got up quickly, going into the bathroom. He gave his hair a quick brush and his teeth a quick rinse before replacing the medical mask. Not sure what else to do, Shouji stood idly by, waiting. Despite keeping his composure, excitement welled up in his chest. He felt a little foolish about it, but happy all the same.
Finally, there was a knock at the door. Shouji answered it quickly, opening it. What he expected to see was Tokoyami; what he did not expect to see was the basket in his hands, or Dark Shadow hovering next to him, a deep purple blanket rolled up in his arms. While Tokoyami was as stoic as usual, Dark Shadow looked positively elated.
“Surprise!!” Dark Shadow exclaimed, holding up the roll like a prize.
Shouji’s eyes darted between the two, and then the objects in their possession. Their purpose was pretty obvious, yet Shouji still felt like he was missing something, so he had to ask, “What’s this?”
“It’s for our, um…”
“For your first date!” Dark Shadow finished excitedly.
Flabbergasted, Shouji peered down at Tokoyami, whose interest was suddenly with the floor beneath them. If it weren’t for the feathers on his face, he would probably be blushing.
“But…”
“I know we couldn’t go out anymore,” Tokoyami said quickly. He gestured with the basket as he explained, “but… I thought… that perhaps you would feel better if we had it here.” He gestured with his free hand to Shouji’s room behind him.
“A picnic? In my room?” Shouji clarified, still a bit shocked.
“If you’re not feeling up to it, I understand,” Tokoyami said, looking up at him. “I made some food for the both of us, but if you’d rather—”
Behind his mask, Shouji smiled. Just like that, everything made sense. In retrospect, he supposed he should have figured out why Tokoyami was going through all that trouble for just for him. But he never would have guessed that his boyfriend intended to replicate what was supposed to be their first date.
That is, I guess this is our first date now.
“I guess my only concern is for you,” Shouji said finally. He’d hate for Tokoyami to go through all of this trouble only to get sick himself.
But Tokoyami merely held up a hand and said, “had I a fear of pestilence, I would not be here at your door.”
At that, Shouji stepped aside. “Then please, come in.”
Dark Shadow cheered as he and Tokoyami entered. Dark Shadow floated up, letting the dark purple blanket unfurl before laying it in the middle of Shouji’s bare floor, and then retreated back into Tokoyami. The two boys knelt down on it, seating themselves comfortably. Tokoyami opened the basket and took out the containers of the various foods he had prepared. It was not as much as they originally planned for their picnic, but Shouji knew a couple from the list. Most of the dishes were hot, soothing foods: okayu, miso soup, and small vegetable-based sides to go with them. The perfect get-well meals.
Shouji quietly observed Tokoyami setting everything up. There was something delicate in the way he was moving, like a simple mistake could turn the whole surprise over on its head. It wasn’t very extravagant as far as first dates went, but he was still putting his all into everything.
“I did not make much,” Tokoyami said as he handed Shouji a bowl and chopsticks. “I didn’t know how hungry you would be, or if you’d be hungry at all.”
Shouji took the bowl and chopsticks. He looked down at all the food and said, “I’m sure it will all taste great.” He formed a mouth on one of his arms and licked his lips. He thought about who he ran into over the course of the day and asked, “Did you have help?”
“I did. Once the girls figured out that I was doing this for you, they were eager to help with the cooking.”
It wasn’t hard to figure out which girls he was talking about. “That’s not all they helped you out with,” Shouji teased as he broke his chopsticks apart.
“Yes… I apologize.” Tokoyami broke his own apart. “I merely wanted to keep it a surprise.”
“It paid off. No one’s ever done anything like this for me before.”
“Well, it’s about time someone had, right?” Shouji’s head snapped up at that. Tokoyami’s tone softened as he continued, “you’re always looking out for everyone, even in little ways, without expecting anything in return. And you’ve… stuck with me through a lot of bad times as well. So in turn, I want to be there for you too when you need it.”
Shouji didn’t know what to say to that. He shifted in his seat, not sure how to accept or respond to that kind of praise, almost embarrassed by it too. But the words alone moved him, too. He felt very lucky, having someone like Tokoyami become such an important part of his life.
For a moment, he was quiet before finally, teasingly, responding, “For a patron of the abyss, you’re very sweet.”
Tokoyami rolled his eyes, and Shouji chuckled. The smaller boy brought his hands together. “Shall we eat then?”
Shouji mimicked him, and bowed his head. He looked at his boyfriend, who worked so hard to put all of this together, just for Shouji, just for their first date. Even though Shouji wasn’t at his best, he knew that he would always remember this evening that they were going to share together.
“Thank you for the meal.”