6. Quarrel

"And then, Ingenium-san--"

"Yes, yes," Mineta mumbled, mildly irritated, "you've gone on about him for the past twenty minutes, Waru." He poured some water from a jug into a cup, handing it to me.

Taking it with a shy snicker, the smile on my face was locked on and unable to leave.

"Heroes are so cool!" I glamoured to myself, attention not too fixed on the cup of water near my lips, "they just kinda swoop in and save the day, y'know?

Even before this life, heroes were a concept of daily fantasies. The Marvel comics-- ah, there was that manga about the bald dude, too. It was a world where the concept of childish cringe was barely acknowledged, and people showed off their inner superhero in gaudy outfits and cheesy catchphrases.

"What's so cool about heroes?" Mineta sulked almost spitefully, "there's a whole bunch of them making a mess of the towns all day."

I flinched at the negativity just pouring out of the kid.

"W-Well," I tried, "if they weren't around, who'd fight the villains?"

"We have the police for that," Mineta snapped almost angrily, "heroes have been around for ages, and there's no dwindling of the amount of villains, either. I fail to see the concept of it."

"Now you're not making sense," I retorted, "if there are villains, there'll be heroes. We have quirks for that, right?"

"No, we do not," Mineta's response was quick, "our bodies just evolved from a naturally quirkless state. It's adaptation to help us survive as a society, not to help us kill each other easier."

My teeth bit down my bottom lip-- my fists clenched over the bed sheets. 

"It's not the heroes' fault the villains want to do it," I swallowed my words.

"It's not their fault either that death rates in villain subjugation have risen highly over the years," his voice was satiric, a jeering mockery. "Accidents. They happen, right?"

My words were left in my throat as a sour heat brimmed at the edge, bubbled in my thoracic cavity, and spilled through as tears in the corners of my eyes. I left creases in my blanket, sniffling at the warm itch of snivels.

"You're mean," I snarled, biting down on my lips hard, "utterly unreasonable."

"How about you stop your incessant fangirling,"  Mineta seethed right back, stressing on the word like it was an insult, "and start focusing on your own goddamn future, instead?"

Something in me snapped right there. My future? Any other situation I'd be yelling snappy comebacks about how insolent Mineta was acting. How rude and insensitive he was being-- how he was letting some sort of background anger boil over his head and releasing it on me--

But I couldn't.

Not when he'd hit me right where it hurt the most. My future? I'd never wanted to think of that, not after someone decided to number my days. Not after all those meaningless surgeries and little sign of any improvement in health.

Was I going to let my health slowly rot me away until I die in this hospital? Am I not going to give myself a little something to do and make myself meaningful before I just vanish like I'd never mattered? Why wasn't I thinking of that yet?

Mineta knew I hated to think about it.

He knew, and yet--

"Get out,"  I spat, "just-- leave."

Throwing his hands into the air in a sort of exasperated strike, Mineta said nothing more and just stomped his way right out the door. He didn't look back even once, and the door was slammed shut on his way.

  ー  

Mineta was never a fan of competition. 

He was a boy that adored heroes too-- he gritted his teeth-- but not when it involved that guy. Not when it meant Waru's attention was all on them. Not when Waru became obsessed with them and just-- made it seem like Mineta was so inessential to her.

Was he jealous? So what if he was?

He hated everything about right now. The fact that Waru's outgrowing her pampering attention toward him, the fact that he's outgrowing the spoiled affection he had for her-- and literally, reality.

He'd started junior high a while back, and it's been going anything but well. Some Iida kid was showing him up every second, and anything Mineta did was faced with some negative feedback. This wasn't elementary anymore and Mineta's just growing a little slower than the rest. 

Frustration's taken over him, but as he felt the anger bubble down, the thoughts that started flowing in were tries of how to apologize.

But he wasn't going to apologize! He's come in for the one time he could this week, and the first thing Waru starts babbling about is how cool some hero was?

As childish as this was, Mineta just wanted some attention from her, dammit.

Of course, that was no excuse. 

Pouting, he kicked a stone away from the curb, leaning back and craning his head to the sky. It went without saying-- the sky was blue, so blue, so irritatingly blue.

I want to be a doctor, that was his vow, so I can heal you.

But is that what he really wanted to do?

Waru was so happy even without her legs. In fact, she sought strength against the lack of it. Mineta could say it as much as he liked-- I'll heal you, I'll heal you.

It really wasn't that easy. This hospital had doctors, most with quirks to give themselves their name and fame. Mineta evidently wasn't doing well in the medical field. He didn't even know where to begin with it.

He'd barely even started, and his cowardly ass was already trying to give up.

AAAHHHHH, screw troubles, to hell with anything difficult in life!He wanted to just scream out into the heavens and maybe a miracle would solve all his problems for him! 

Internally, he grimaced, realizing that that was pretty much the definition of heroes.

He didn't like this one bit.

He disliked himself so much.

He sighed.

Why was he believing he could surpass an illness even the mightiest of doctors have given up striving for? Why did he have the thought that his impulsive, random burst of effort would be enough to achieve something that would be considered an immense achievement?

Waru was a child waiting for a miracle.

And Mineta knew that if anyone could make that miracle happen, it wasn't him.

It wasn't too hard to realize, and now that it's hit him, he's just desperately trying to turn back, but failing to do so from sheer embarrassment of his own declining conviction. He even declared so proudly to Waru! Was he gonna crawl over and sob, saying he couldn't do it after all?

That made him an utter icon of shame and contempt and a cowardly deserter. 

He's really less than a man.

If he couldn't save Waru after trying, what then? Would he be sulking and mumbling to himself in the corner, like now? Would he just give up?

He hated it.

He hated that he's so adamant about not trying anymore.

On any normal situation, he'd just jump into Waru's boobies and-- wait, no, this isn't the time for that-- cry his heart out? He's not a child anymore, though.

He sighed and stood up.

Maybe Waru'll hear me out.

But I just yelled at her.

He grumbles again, and this time, he plucks a grape off of his head and marches toward Kawaru's room.

ー

"WARU!" he unnecessarily yells.

Kawaru leaps from her spot on her bed, teary eyes forgotten and damp cheeks hastily rubbed at-- she hadn't noticed the door opening, so when did this voice appear right beside her?

Smudging her tear-stained hands at her bedsheets, she hitched a breath as she realized that voice was Mineta's-- and he was somehow staring right at her, his short form barely reaching past her bed frame.

He looked apologetic enough.

"Minoru...?" she asked hesitantly, not so sure what that 'i was forced here' look was supposed to mean when Mineta was in her room, staring right at her. He wasn't expecting an apology, was he?

"I'm stuck to your bed frame!" Mineta declared almost haughtily.

Leaning onto her arm to get a closer look down, she realized that he wasn't lying-- the shoulder of his jacket was firmly planted onto the side of the metal frame, a purple round blob squishing like plump rubber, not a sign of detaching from its spot. He sat down almost too comfortably on a chair, side leaning against the metal.

"Feel free to ignore me if you're still angry!" Mineta proclaimed.

From how he was stuck, it was obvious he had pulled the blob off, and crashed his shoulder into the thing. Like, intentionally. 

At how ridiculous it was, Kawaru could only burst out laughing, so completely exasperated by the situation. Her fit of giggles thrummed warmly in her chest as she held her stomach, hitting the bed frame a few times in utmost hilarity.

"You got yourself stuck in your own quirk?" she knew it wasn't so, but the excuse Mineta came up with was just ridiculous, "oh, Minoru, I can't believe you!"

"Stop laughing!" Mineta snapped back, face flushing red.

"Well, I guess your quirk is trying to help us make up, eh?" she leaned across the edge of the bed, slumping her form over the cold metal as her face inched closer to Mineta's.

Mineta puffed up a cheek, tenaciously pouting. 

"It's just a useless sticker quirk," he spat at himself, "don't give it more credit than it's worth."

"Oh, are you quarreling with your quirk, too?" Kawaru mused, leaning a cheek on her palm, eyeing him dotingly, "we're both victims of Minorun's random rage battle, eh?" She spoke to the quirk, expecting no real reply aside from an imaginative one.

Mineta clicked his tongue, looking away.

Her smile graced her face again-- and her sore, red eyes were just a bygone now. And she let it be. Reaching down, she tenderly wrapped a hand around the grape ball.

"Wait, what are you--!!" Mineta freaked out, pulling away but the ball didn't come loose. Kawaru kept her hand there, stuck. He raised his gaze to the girl, absolutely horrified.

"Oh, looks like I'm stuck too!" she grinned cheekily, getting herself comfortable at the side of the bed. "Well, you can ignore me if you're still angry, Minoru!"

Kawaru would never  forget how hard Mineta blushed that day.

He began to lecture her. About recklessness, dumb impulses, and how they're likely to be stuck together until nightfall, without the capability to leave, even change or go to the toilets or anything! He was so frantic, panicked, evidently having not thought this all through.

Kawaru simply laughed through the ordeal. "I'm fine because you're here, Minoru!" she assured the boy, erecting a high-pitched screech only possibly elicited from a newly discovered grape neanderthal species.

After a while, Mineta got tired of being angry and they just sat there.

"Am I supposed to say sorry here?" Mineta spoke quietly, melancholy in his tone. He didn't look toward Kawaru-- even though the girl's stared at him the entire time-- and only kept his gaze on a particular mark on the ground.

Kawaru turned away, a content smile on her face that didn't need it anymore.

"Y'know, Minoru," she simply told him. "When you left just now-- I wasn't angry at you, I wasn't sad." Her voice was soft, "I was just scared you'd never come back."

Mineta doesn't know how many times he's felt his face heat up now.

"Hey, Mineta, everyone hates you."

Mineta flinches. But no, he doesn't take it seriously. Kawaru had called him by his last name-- that was something she'd never done-- she sounded like she was quoting from a book. From anything, from a conversation, somewhere, maybe?

But it hurt all the same. He felt tears prickling at him, his fists clenching-- because Kawaru-- Kawaru, of all people, is saying this.

Kawaru giggled. Even when Mineta just looked so mortified, so, so, terrified-- she didn't look at him, only smiling to herself as she eyed at the purple blob her hand was stuck on.

"I'm joking," she said half-heartedly, "did you really think I was serious?"

It didn't make Mineta feel any better.

"It's true people may not like you. Somewhere, somehow, someone loathes you just for being yourself," she tells him, "It's not true, not everyone hates you,"  she told the boy, something powerful washing over, "I'm living proof of that, at least."

Mineta bites his lips, hiding a whimper at just how pathetic he was.

"You can't change that, because it'll be changing who you are," she laughs, an angelic chuckle that just brims him a little more over the edge-- "but I like you like this, Minoru. So don't hate yourself, either, please?"

And that was it.

Mineta just cried, the waterworks bursting through him, unstoppable.

Why did Kawaru just know things?

It was unfair.

If this was love, he would say Kawaru doesn't deserve a single bit of him.

"I'm--" he doesn't know what blew through him, but here he was sobbing like a baby, "sorry," it just spilled through him, along with the tears, it just choked past his lips, unending, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry--" he sniffles and coughs, but it doesn't stop him, "I got angry at you-- for no reason... and made you cry, and--"

Kawaru listens to him, eyes closed, quiet, with the comfort and reassurance she loved to take in. 

Mineta lays his hand over hers-- and pretends their hands are stuck together on the little purple ball that wouldn't come off for another few hours.

For a moment, they wished it really wouldn't come off forever.