AroAce Female OC x Male Canon Reverse Harem
Today's Flavor: Aizawa Shouta & Yamada Hizashi
Word Count: 2.8k
canon x oc, aizawa shouta x oc, yamada hizashi x oc, medical talk of injuries
Despite what people might think from their personalities, Shouta's room was a mess and Hizashi kept his sparkling clean at all times.
This visit however, Nemuri and Shouta saw various items that their friend must have been using when he got Shouta's phone call strewn on the ground.
Hizashi quickly began picking up the place as soon as they entered, muttering to himself.
The three of them settled in without a word, guided entirely by the grace of muscle memory, subconsciously seeking comfort in a once familiar space that now felt so foreign without the presence of their civilian friend.
Shouta sunk into a bean bag chair in the corner while Nemuri sat leaning up against Hizashi's thrifted record cabinet. Hizashi sat across from her, leaning back against his bed frame.
No one touched the record player. No one cracked open any manga. Neither was there any talk about how well they thought they did during exams or what it was that they planned to do for spring break.
The oppressive silence was severely juxtaposed by the vibrancy of the teenager's bedroom, making the place feel like a colorful, lived-in tomb. The only sound they could hear was the distant, hypnotic hum of the streetlight just outside Hizashi's window, an infuriating reminder that the rest of the world kept spinning despite the unfolding of their own personal tragedy.
For three entire hours, the trio waited in solemn silence. Their brooding only interrupted by Ms. Yamada knocking to offer the kids some late dinner. Hizashi signed to her that they weren't hungry, but would gratefully have the leftovers for breakfast.
She gave them all a mournfully tender look, signing back to let them know that she was going to go to bed soon, but to be sure to wake her up with any news about Lucia.
"She said to wake her when we get the call back," Hizashi explained to the others after his mom had left.
They nodded in tired acceptance. The adrenaline that had once fueled their vicious screaming match at the hospital was entirely gone now, leaving behind a dreadful fatigue that felt both unnervingly cathartic and shamefully sacrilegious.
They went back to watching the floor where they had placed their respective phones in a circle, waiting for a call that would be either their damnation or their deliverance. Their eyes burned from a mutual refusal to blink, their focus on the black screens too important.
It was eleven at night when Nemuri's phone finally rang.
She scrambled to pick it up, dropping it once in her panic before putting the thing on speaker.
"Yes?" She prompted breathlessly.
"Hello, am I speaking with Kayama Nemuri? This is Dr. Matsumoto. I'm calling with an update on Stewart Lucia."
"This is Nemuri," she confirmed, "I'm here with her other emergency contacts." The two boys had quickly crawled over to Nemuri's side of the room to lean in and listen.
"Yes, well." The three heroes in training could hear the clicking of a keyboard in the background of the call. "Miss. Stewart is out of surgery now and has been moved to the Intensive Care Unit. She is currently stable"-all three of their bodies sagged from sheer relief-"but I need you all to understand that she remains in exceptionally critical condition."
They straightened again in alarm. Shouta spoke aloud this time, his voice raspy and stripped of his usual defensive armor as he asked the question all three desperately wanted to know, yet were terrified to hear: "Dr. Matsumoto, this is Aizawa Shouta. Can you elaborate on what you mean by critical?"
The doctor sighed on the other end. "Ah, Aizawa, you were the boy that came in with her. You see, the trauma to her body was, as you saw today, catastrophic. Right now, advanced life support machines are doing the work of her heart and lungs. We have patched the leaks and stabilized her vitals, but I'm afraid that the skeletal damage is severe."
He paused, likely to allow them to soak in his words. On the other end of the line, the sharp, rhythmic clack-clack of his keyboard finally stopped. The silence over the speaker was deafening.
"I cannot give you a definitive prognosis yet, but when, or if, she wakes up, the orthopedic damage was so extensive that she is facing a lifetime of intensive physical therapy, chronic pain management, and a very real possibility of permanent paralysis from the waist below."
Nemuri’s breath hitched. She blindly reached out, grasping both of the boys' hands and squeezed so hard that her nails dug into their skin. They squeezed back just as fiercely, matching grim expressions on their faces.
"We have done everything modern medicine and technology can do. Now, the rest is up to her. Do you have any questions?" Dr. Matsumoto sounded exhausted.
"When will we able to see her?" Hizashi asked, trying futilely to hide the desperation in his voice.
"Well for now, she is resting. You three haven't slept yet, I'm guessing?" The doctor's tone was more sympathetic than judgemental. They winced, finally starting to feel their own exhaustion now that they had answers. "Go get some rest of your own, and you can speak with her primary care team during visiting hours tomorrow morning. I'm certain that UA will be agreeable in allowing you three an absence note for the day. We'll be contacting them on Lucia's behalf first thing tomorrow to give them her status and request a medical absence."
Lacking the energy and brainpower to think of any more questions, Nemuri muttered her goodbyes and gave her thanks to the doctor before hanging up.
The sound from the now disconnected call cut off abruptly, leaving the three teens reeling as the room returned to silence. No one bothered to move. The phone lay still in the center of their circle, the screen glowing faintly before timing out and abandoning them in the dark.
-
The sunrise offered no comfort, and by the time visiting hours finally opened the next morning, Shouta, Nemuri and Hizashi were already waiting inside one of the ICU consultation rooms, having been let in early by Mrs. Sano who recognized them.
"I called you last night to warn you about the permanent damage to her spine and pelvis." Dr. Matsumoto, in person, was a deceptively young looking man with only his salt and pepper hair and some crows feet hinting at how old he really was. "At that time, we fully anticipated that she would never walk again."
The trio looked at each other. "'At that time'? Did something change between last night and now?" Shouta asked wearily. He didn't let hope climb into his voice. Not yet.
"Well, because Lucia is a registered UA student, the hospital automatically alerted the academy's medical staff. Principal Nezu after heading about the accident immediately dispatched the Youthful Heroine Recovery Girl to our facility just before dawn."
Hope. Fragile, tender hope began to well within their wrung out hearts.
Recovery Girl? The hero who could heal even the most hopeless of wounds with merely a kiss?
If the doctor was mentioning having called her in, then did that mean Lucia would have a chance after all?
But, wait. No. Recovery Girl's quirk wouldn't work properly on someone in a state of such frailty. She relied on the stamina of her patients to accelerate their healing. Even if it were to work on Lucia, the kiss would be more likely to kill her than save her.
The doctor validated their concern. "Normally, Recovery Girl's quirk requires a massive amount of the patient's own physical stamina, and in Lucia's state, the accelerated healing shouldn't have worked. However, the moment Recovery Girl made an attempt, your friend's body experienced a sudden surge of energy. It was as if she had a secondary, untapped reservoir of raw life-force inside her that fueled the regeneration near completely. To be entirely frank with you, I have never seen anything like it."
Dr. Matsumoto adjusted his the papers in front of him before referencing their contents.
"It was nothing short of a miracle. Within minutes, her shattered bones fused. Her spinal bruising vanished. Her internal tissue repaired itself entirely. We were just able to take her off the ventilator this morning, and she is already breathing on her own. She is, however, still covered with deep bruising, and will carry some significant surgical scarring on her abdomen, but-" he smiled softly at the three buzzing teens sitting across from him, "-she is going to make a full recovery. You can go in and see her now."
Relieved tears streamed down Nemuri's cheeks as she let loose a small, grateful laugh that sounded more like a sob. Hizashi placed his head in his hands as his body shook uncontrollably. Shouta inhaled shakily, holding the breath for several seconds before releasing not just the air, but a good amount of his pent up stress and grief too.
Lucia was going to be okay.
-
The sharp tang of sanitizer perfumed the air as Shouta, Hizashi and Nemuri were led to Lucia's private room. She was granted the luxury due to a combination of her previously grave injuries and at the request of UA's Recovery Girl.
The nurse who they had been following came to a stop outside of a rather unassuming room located in a rather quiet wing. She gestured towards the door in front of them. "This is Lucia's room. Make sure you treat that girl carefully now. She may be healed, but physically traumatic accidents like these often leave behind scars you can't see."
"We'll be gentle with her," Hizashi promised earnestly. Nemuri and Shouta nodded solemnly in agreement. "I promise there wont be a uh, repeat of last time." The nurse's face scrunched up at the reminder of the three teen's total crash out not even twenty four hours ago.
"Be sure to it that there isn't." She smoothed out her expression professionally before bowing politely and leaving them to their business.
Now alone, the three friends, once so eager to see their fourth, hesitated.
What would they see when they enter? Would Lucia even be awake?
-
Lucia woke up groggy, her body fighting between the urge to fall back asleep and the ache of literally her whole body.
It was with no small amount of effort that she pried her eyelids open.
Oh, ouch.
Why did that hurt so much?
"Mmngh…?" Lucia's head lulled to the side, triggering a sharp pain in her neck. Her entire body felt tender, as if she had been run over by a truck…
Truck?
No, wait. That was wrong…
Lucia's eyes snapped open, painfully.
Bus.
Lucia had been hit by a bus.
No wonder I'm in a world of pain. She grimaced, letting out a strained huff. Ouch again. Good lord, even that little maneuver caused her poor abs, diaphragm and throat to throb tenderly.
It was as she groaned in pain, resisting the urge to curl up into a miserable little ball that would only hurt her more, that the door slid open and in walked the entirety of her friend group.
"Oh, thank god! Lucia you're okay!"
"Lu! You're awake!"
Nemuri and Hizashi were the first to rush to her bedside, fussing over her apparently sorry looking state.
Shouta hung back near the doorway, an uneasy expression on his face as he stared at Lucia's own visage.
"What? Do I have something on my face?" She croaked out to Shouta, teasingly.
The teen coughed awkwardly, quickly swiping his sleeve over his eyes. "Nah, just a bunch of bruises."
"Aww, man," Lucia wheezed, "and here I thought getting crushed by a vehicle would make me look pret- cough -pret-tier-"." The tired giggle she tried to force out backfired instantly, sending her into a harsh coughing fit that had her wincing against the raw burning sensation in her throat. Her abdomen also tensed agonizingly with each cough, triggering a deep, nauseating pull across her bruised up everything while her chest locked up in painful protest.
Fuck that hurt. Whatever had happened to her after she blacked out must've been straight up body horror levels of bad.
"Hey, hey! Easy now, girl." Hizashi's hands hovered uselessly over Lucia's spasming form. "We just got here! Can't lose you again, not cause of some little cough…" He couldn't keep the slight panic out of his voice.
"I'm- hack -good!" Lucia rasped out. "Just a little, uh karma probably." Her breath evened out slowly as her abused muscles and bones began to relax.
"Karma for what? You literally died saving a poor defenseless animal!" Nemuri stared at Lucia incredulously. "In what possible way could that be karma?"
"It's karma for leaving you guys behind." Lucia smiled sadly at her exhausted looking friends. "I'm really sorry. Please forgive my impulsiveness." She tilted her head, wincing from the sharp pain, in as deep of a bow as she could manage while in bed.
"Lucia. Don't." Shouta's voice was tight with his own pain as he finally walked over to her bedside. "Don't apologize. Not to us, not to the ones who couldn't keep you safe." His nails dug deep into his palms as his hands shook.
Lucia's small smile cracked with emotion, not liking seeing him look so defeated. She reached out her hand, the one that didn't hurt as much, to Shouta.
He took it carefully with both hands, a desperation to the motion that he looked a little embarrassed by.
Lucia relaxed in his hold. His cold hands felt kinda nice on her green and yellow skin. Like a human icepack.
"It wasn't your fault, Shouta." Lucia's eyes flashed a brilliant, blazing orange, as if someone had reignited a long dead fire inside of her. Her chest heated up, easing the ache of her ribs. "It wasn't any of your guy's faults."
Her three friends' breaths hitched as delicious warmth flooded the room. Lucia didn't know why, but for some reason she could feel her friends. Their presence and concern became forefront in her mind, cementing their existence deep in her heart.
"Lu-" Hizashi's mask of positivity broke. "God, Lu, we were so fucking scared." One of his hands flew up to scrub harshly at his wet eyes. "I'm just so happy. I'm so, so happy you're alive." Sharp, painful sounding sobs escaped the teen as he folded in half over her hospital bed, clutching at his chest.
Lucia reached out with her bad hand to gently pat his loose, blond hair. "I'm sorry, Hizashi."
Nemuri, seeing the usually chipper teen fall apart, crumbled herself. "I-I can't believe we almost lost you…" She hiccuped, sniffling. "Look at you, you're all banged up and bruised and- and- and you can't even laugh right now!"
"I know."
"And why'd you have to go play the hero?" She whimpered in frustration. "That's our job, dummy…"
"I know."
Shouta squeezed her hand gently before placing it back onto her bed. He took a step back before suddenly bowing at a ninety degree angle.
"I'm sorry," his voice was rough, uncharacteristically thick with barely restrained emotion. "I failed to protect you and you got hurt. You died, dammit. I don't care if you say it wasn't my fault- I was right there. I could've stopped it, and I didn't."
Lucia opened her mouth to argue back, to point out that there was no way he could have gotten to her in time, but Shouta slowly straightened, holding up a hand up to interrupt her.
"Now, because I failed you, you're lying in a hospital bed. I won't let that happen again. From now on, I'll protect you. I don't care what it takes, or what it costs me."
"Shouta!" Lucia hissed sharply. What the hell was he even saying?!
"You can't change my mind." Shouta narrowed his eyes, not in anger, but in determination. "I'll make sure that this never happens again."
"Yeah, Lucia." Hizashi pulled away from her hand, but not before brushing his lips over her knuckles like he would always do. "Count me into that promise too. I'd rather die than see you like this again." His usual cheer and levity was nowhere to be seen at the moment.
Good lord, they were serious about this.
"B-But, but I'm not worth that much!" Lucia's voice cracked, her own tears starting to form. "Not worth your lives."
"Lucia." Nemuri frowned at her. "You're worth a whole lot more than you think. We'd do anything for you."
"Hah… Where did all of this come from?" Lucia began to cry, touched by their words. "How did I ever deserve such great friends?"
"We should tell you about all our mushy gushy feelings more often," Nemuri teased tearfully, "at least until you learn to accept them."
Lucia didn't think she'd be able to accept the apparent depth of her friends' emotions any time soon. The last time she thought she had a forever love with someone, he moved on from her without a word.
It would still be a while before she could fully open up her heart again. But with this new sense of her friend's presence in her chest guiding her, maybe she could get there sooner than she thought…
[Masterlist]
Sorry for the break! So. Many. Migraines!
Looks like Lucia's self confidence took a pretty big blow due to Kai never visiting... Poor thing. She'll bounce back, though!
AroAce Female OC x Male Canon Reverse Harem
Today's Flavor: Aizawa Shouta & Yamada Hizashi
Word Count: 2.5k
canon x oc, oc has a quirk (non combat), aizawa shouta x oc, yamada hizashi x oc, grief and tears and anger
"Coffee?"
Shouta blinked numbly up at the steaming paper cup held in front of his face.
One of the hospital's receptionists stood in front of his chair in the waiting room, offering him what looked like vending machine coffee, likely from just down the hall.
"Yeah." Shouta took the drink from her dainty, manicured hand. The paper walls of the cup were toasty, warming his frigid fingers. "…Thanks."
"You looked like you could use the pick me up." The older woman frowned down at him, eyes full of pity. Her name tag read Sano Atsuko.
"You thought right." He couldn't even bring himself to be snarky as he typically would with those that pitied him.
"Well, when you're feeling up to it, we'll need some extra information about Lucia"-Shouta flinched at the name-"the patient you came in with. We have her school bag, so we know her full name, birth date and that she attends UA, but not much else."
"I'm her best friend," Shouta offered weakly. He refused to use past tense. "I can tell you anything."
-
After filling out several forms on Lucia's behalf and going through two and a half cups of coffee, Shouta got to the emergency contact page.
The paperwork was halfway filled out, as some of the info was already found in the hospital's shared patient profile database. Things such as major allergies, immunization status and emergency contacts. This system was implemented as a government backed initiative to help expedite treatment as villain attacks became more and more common.
Not all information about the patient was shared between hospitals though, which was why Shouta had so many papers to fill out.
Embarrassingly, he didn't even need to think too hard about any of the questions.
Home address?
Of course he knew it. He walked her there every day.
Blood type?
Easy. She was O positive.
Current prescription medications?
He wrote down both the brand and generic names for each of them.
But when the names of his two other friends stared at him from the already filled in contact page, his face drained of any color that was left.
Fuck.
He was going to have to make some calls.
Nemuri would be the angriest, but not the scariest, so Shouta dialed her first.
The phone rang only twice before she picked up. "What happened?"
Shouta cringed immediately at her tone. "How did you know something happened? I haven't even said anything yet."
"Well one, you just confirmed it. And two, we can barely get you to text us, let alone call us. Whatever it is must be world ending. So spill."
Shouta opened his mouth to answer, but an unexpected tightness in his throat cut off all sound. He bit down hard on his lower lip to stop it from trembling. Speaking about what happened felt almost impossible, like somehow verbalizing it would make it real and not just a bad dream.
"Shouta, are you still there?" Nemuri sounded worried now.
He swallowed back his hesitation. She was Lucia's closest friend. She needed to know. "There was an accident, I'm at the hospital and Lucia… Lucia is in the OR."
Silence.
"You're fucking with me," Nemuri spit. "Shouta, I swear if you're fucking around with me I'll-"
"I'm not." His voice cracked. "I wish I was."
Nemuri swore sharply, "Which hospital is she at?" Shouta could hear frenzied movement in the background of the call.
Shouta read the hospital's name and address off the business card that he had been given by Mrs. Sano earlier that afternoon.
On the other end of the line there was a jangle of house keys and the heavy slam of a door. "I'll be there in ten minutes."
Nemuri had hung up on him.
Shouta took a deep breath before shakily exhaling. He chugged the other half of his, now lukewarm, third cup of hospital coffee for courage.
Now, for the call he'd been avoiding.
Hizashi.
Shouta was honestly worried about how his love-sick friend would react to hearing what happened. He'd only seen Hizashi genuinely angry once and that, in Shouta's opinion, was one time too many.
The phone rang only a single time before his eccentric friend picked up.
"Hey, hey, hey! I thought you'd never call! Miss me already, Shou?"
Shouta's words caught in his throat again. Damn it.
He knew this one would be harder.
On the other end of the line there was the sharp pop of a stereo receiver being switched off. The background music Hizashi always had playing in his room was gone.
"Hey…" Hizashi's voice softened in concern after several seconds of dead air. "What's up? Did something happen?"
The sudden, considerate quiet was suffocating. Spit it out, Shouta, you coward.
He squeezed his eyes shut against the burning behind his eyelids, took a ragged breath, and spoke.
"Lucia and I are at the hospital." Shouta didn't give Hizashi time to interject before continuing. His fingers dug into the plastic of his phone casing until his knuckles went white and his hands, his useless fucking hands, shook. "There was an accident and she's hurt. Bad."
"Where." All levity dropped from Hizashi's tone. They both knew that Shouta wouldn't lie to him about something like this. Not when it came to Lucia.
Shouta soberly gave Hizashi the same address that he had given Nemuri.
"Call me immediately if anything happens. I'll be there soon."
Hizashi, too, hung up on him.
Shouta slumped back into the hospital's hard plastic chair, completely drained by not even five minutes of conversation. He stared blankly at the empty paper cup clenched in his hand. He was going to need a fourth coffee.
The thought of the bitter, scalding hot machine-made drip made his stomach churn in protest, but he didn't know how else he was going to keep from completely falling apart otherwise. Shouta had a feeling it was going to be a very long night.
-
Shouta drearily looked over as the doors to the OR suite's waiting room slid open with a hiss. In came Nemuri and Hizashi. Both were out of their UA uniforms as it was nearly dinner time when Shouta had called them over.
Nemuri's eyes were bloodshot and her face was uncharacteristically puffy from crying, which was still happening as she speed-walked into the room. She was obviously beyond upset.
Hizashi, however, glowered at Shouta before striding over to the other boy. The usually chipper and easygoing blond grabbed Shouta by his uniform's collar and, with unusual strength for the long distance fighter, hoisted his gloomier friend out of his chair.
Thick, angry tears were already spilling chaotically down his flushed cheeks.
"What the fuck, Shouta!?" He snarled, shaking him, his voice cracking under the weight of his out-of-control feelings.
"Hizashi! Stop that!" Nemuri grabbed him by the shoulder, trying to pull him away from their mutual friend, her own tears blurring her vision.
Hizashi shook her off, his eyes never leaving Shouta's haunted stare. “What the hell happened?! You were right there! You should have protected her!”
At the word 'protect', indignation flared in Shouta's chest. A single, stubborn tear finally slipped from Shouta's eye and down his ruddy cheek, fueled by pure, defensive rage. His hand snapped up to seize Hizashi's wrist and clamped down hard. “What was I supposed to do against a bus?!" He snapped.
"A bus?" Hizashi's jaw dropped as he put two and two together, his furious glare instantly dissolving into a wet, horrified blink. "She got hit by a bus?!"
"She what?!" Nemuri gasped, hands clenching at her sides. "You're lying. You asshole! You're lying!"
"I'm not fucking lying. Would I ever lie about Lucia's safety?" Shouta growled, feeling the bones in Hizashi's lower arm start to shift under his hand. His chest was heaving, his own breathing turning irregular as he fought a losing battle against his watering eyes.
Hizashi's grip on Shouta's collar tightened in response, stretching the fabric. Tears dripped off his chin. "You should have done something! You know she can't protect herself, how could you have let this happen!?"
Hizashi's words cut deep, but Shouta refused to show it. He was too busy trying to cut at the other boy himself. "Hah! Like you could have protected her?" Shouta sneered. His vision was completely swimming now, though he refused to blink and let any more tears fall. "What could you have done in my place? Shouted at it?!"
Hizashi's eyes flared with outrage, Shouta's taunts having worked. His free hand clenched itself into a fist before winding up for a punch, a frustrated, quirk-laced cry ripping free from his throat.
"You idiots!" Nemuri hissed, fingers pinched at the sleeve of her shirt, ready to rip into it and use her own quirk.
"All of you SHUSH!" Mrs. Sano power-walked over the the shouting trio. "If you three cannot speak at a reasonable volume"-She glowered at Hizashi in particular-"or behave yourselves then I will be forced to ask you all to leave the premises. The only reason I haven't already done so is because I can see how upset knowing your friend was hurt has made you."
By upset, Shouta knew she meant the pathetic sight they were currently made. The three teenagers may have been screaming at each other, but they were also miserably crying their eyes out.
The three friends glanced at each other awkwardly now that the majority of the angry tension they held had suddenly been drained from them.
"We're sorry, Mrs. Sano." Nemuri bowed apologetically, releasing her shirt sleeve. "We'll quiet down. Just please, don't kick us out."
Hizashi shakily released Shouta's shirt. "'M sorry. It's just… You know..."
Shouta understood Hizashi's intense feelings towards Lucia. He felt the same after all.
"It's fine." He tugged at his shirt, looking anywhere but at his friends. The guilt was truly eating him alive. "We're good. I get it."
Hizashi frowned at Shouta, knowing that they'd need to have a conversation about this later. Right now though, the only thing that mattered was Lucia.
-
After calming down somewhat, the three friends sat in a row waiting for news of their civilian friend's condition.
Shouta had filled them all in on what had happened. How it started, the impact and the immediate aftermath.
Now, burdened with the gruesome knowledge of how, and the extent of which, Lucia had gotten hurt, the trio could only find ways to endure the pressuring silence.
Nemuri was still crying, but the tears were now the kind that only emerged under sheer frustration. Her left leg bounced a mile a minute with frantic energy. Her nails dug mercilessly into her bare thighs, aiming the mini, manicured daggers just below the hem of her shorts. The pressure left distinct half moons imprinted into her peachy skin. She was a hero-in-training, dammit; her ultimate instinct was to fix the situation, to protect the innocent, to do something! Knowing that she was entirely helpless here was a different kind of torture altogether.
Hizashi, his rage completely and utterly drained from his soul, stared blankly at the beige, spotless wall in front of them. Any hint of his usual jovial self was completely gone, leaving behind only a devastatingly numb mask of unblinking disassociation. If he allowed himself to think of Lucia, whether it was her goofy, crooked smile or the mental image of her bleeding, shattered body, he would break completely. He couldn't break. He wouldn't allow himself to break. Not before he knew if she would be okay or not.
Shouta sat between them. Without the mindless distraction of paperwork, he frowned helplessly at his laced fingers. His brain, overstimulated from a mix of heady caffeine and suffocating survivor's guilt, did what it always did under immense stress. It overthought. He counted every second that they hadn't received news of their dear friend's condition. Shouta wondered in silent, agonizing ignorance just what gruesome procedures were happening to Lucia while under the knife.
Eventually, the surgery had gone on so long that Mrs. Sano had to reluctantly tell the trio that visitor hours were over and that the students were required to leave for home.
They tried to negotiate staying until there was a verdict, but the receptionist wasn't hearing any of it.
"You can come back tomorrow after school," was her final, decisive statement on the matter.
"We're her emergency contacts. Call us at any hour," Nemuri who had by now run out of tears said. "We… probably won't be able to fall sleep anyway."
It was then, at eight in the evening, that the three friends repeated their afternoon ritual of walking each other home.
The last time they all felt this way was after Oboro had died. Walking home without their fifth idiot.
Except this time, it was without their Lucia.
"Hey…" Hizashi kicked a rock down the sidewalk. "Wanna head to my place? We can like, hang there until we get news."
"There's no way I'll get any sleep tonight anyway," Nemuri murmured, drained from hours of tears and her own powerlessness, "not without knowing if she's gonna be okay."
Shouta was quiet.
"…Shou?" Hizashi tentatively called out, recalling with vivid detail their violent spat from earlier.
"Yeah, I'm down." Shouta eventually sighed, glancing over at his friends. "Lead the way."
Normally, before spending time at the Yamada residence, the group of friends would be dragged by Lucia to the nearby corner store for snacks.
But without her, and with their knotted up stomachs filled with dread, there was no way they could even think about eating anything.
[Masterlist]
It's only been five months post-Oboro's death, and now their other precious friend could die at any moment. Gee golly I sure do love tormenting these kids! （＾ω＾）
Sorry for the kinda late update btw. Work, migraines and visiting family got in the way of my writing time :p
Oh, and I cannot tell you how much I've been relying on my ancient 1996 physical copy of the Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus. Ever since Google replaced their robust and informative thesaurus with their absolute dumbass of an AI, I've been struggling to find the right synonyms and Thesaurus dot com has been a total bust as well.
This three inch thick bad boy has my back though. <3 ╰ (´꒳`) ╯
Writing two characters in one body has always made me a little nervous.
In my fic, I'm going to be bringing back Oboro's self/personality (much later on of course) but I find it more realistic to also retain Kurogiri's self/personality as his nomu protocol of "serving Tomura Shigaraki" is incredibly strong as we've all seen in the source material.
It just doesn't make sense to me to, like... delete him from the equation all together, just to bring back another character.
SO! The conundrum for me is that this is a superpower/fantasy/sci-fi society with the rules of reality and how people (and zombie puppets) work being inherently wonky and fantastical. Pretty much none of what happens in MHA works like how it does in real life, and I acknowledge that.
HOWEVER! Aspects of how I would write bringing Oboro back while still keeping Kurogiri in the story would likely involve having them share a body while still being two separate yet kinda entwined consciousness.
This is close enough in general description to writing about DID (dissociative identity disorder) than I honestly feel qualified to write about. It's... technically not? DID I mean? Since that would, according to what I've read, imply that either Oboro or Kurogiri would have had to have experienced significant trauma between the ages of like, 1-6.
Which, for Oboro isn't possible as he was already a teen when he died and for Kurogiri also impossible as he's technically like, a frankensteined zombie programed to be a person?
But their situation, on paper, sure does sound a lot like how I've heard DID works. Or at least is described as.
I guess the choice I need to make is between trying to keep the whole "Oboro and Kurogiri sharing a body" thing as sci-fi as possible. Which will be hard when it comes to them coming to terms with what happened and navigating their new situation.
(Which is something that I want to at least touch upon.)
On the other hand, I could write about it as if it was indeed a DID-esque (up to a certain point of course as their situation is very different than what a system traditionally experiences). If I went this route, I would definitely do my research on the topic, and not just from medical journals. I would want to read blogs by those with the diagnosis and maybe even interview those in the community who have it as well in order to ensure I would write the characters with respect, accuracy and dignity.
The last thing I want to do here is just slap the label DID on these two characters, do whatever I want with them and their journey and call it a day. I'm not a Hollywood movie writer. AKA, the DID diagnosis doesn't exist as a spectacle for my entertainment.
I myself am not neurotypical, so maybe I'm just projecting my own irritation at people using my multiple diagnoses and conditions as idioms or (ugh) romanticizing them in books, fics and movies.
Manic Pixie Dream Girl anyone? 😑
If I'm going to write something featuring an entire community, I want to represent it right.
So I guess if anyone who either has DID (or intimately knows someone with it) has any advice on how I should go about this little conundrum I've cornered myself into, I would graciously welcome a DM. 😅
I'm super friendly, I swear! And will genuinely welcome any advice or constructive criticism offered to me with grace and understanding. Representation matters, even if it's in an barely known, little self-indulgent fanfiction. And I acknowledge that it's not people's responsibility to educate me on the topic. This is just a request, not a demand!
Wow, this was uhhh, long. Sorry about that! I really appreciate you reading until the end!
AroAce Female OC x Male Canon Reverse Harem
Today's Flavor: Aizawa Shouta
Word Count: 1.9k
oc has sky flames, canon x oc, oc has a quirk (non combat), aizawa shouta x oc
major tw: detailed description of major physical trauma, gore, temporary main character death
High school was a weird time for Lucia.
It was only a year or so ago that she had, by accident, discovered that she had a quirk all along and just five months prior to present day that one of her best friends, Oboro, had died.
Things between her and her friend group had changed after that day.
Before, they were close sure but not obsessively so. Now, after they had taken time to grieve a loss they didn't think they'd ever come to terms with, Lucia couldn't help but feel just a bit smothered.
Being the only civilian in the friend group, Nemuri, Hizashi and Shouta had become hyper vigilant of her. Nemuri had given her multiple civilian appropriate personal safety gear. Some legal and others not so much.
(Lucia carried around the pepper spray, but left the pink brass knuckles shaped like cat ears at home.)
Hizashi was the first to ask, rather brazenly, to be added to her Locate My Friends GPS sharing app. Lucia valued her freedom, but didn't care much about privacy, especially among loved ones, so she gladly added him. Predictably, Nemuri and Shouta found out and wanted in on the stalking app too.
Shouta was less obvious about his care, but care he did. Lucia knew that he lied about where he lived just so that he could walk her all the way home after school, claiming to reside just past her house when he really lived closer to Hizashi.
Today was another one of those days. Hizashi and Nemuri had split from their little group to head to each of their respective homes, leaving Shouta and Lucia to their own devices.
Shouta always purposefully walked a little in front of Lucia, his one hundred and seventy centimeter frame parting the crowds of the busy street they always took to get to Lucia's home like pages in a book. Lucia, standing at a grand total of one hundred and fifty three centimeters, would have (and have been) been bowled over by taller pedestrians if Shouta wasn't there.
This was one of the reasons why she never revealed that she knew he was, quite literally, going out of his way to walk her home. That and she rather enjoyed his quiet company. It wasn't very often that the people around her were both chill to be around AND actually liked her. She loved Nemuri and Hizashi for who they were, but sometimes Lucia got overstimulated by their unique energy.
Her parents were quiet around her, but other than that there wasn't much benefit to spending time with them. They weren't neglectful or abusive (that she knew of?), just… absent. They paid the bills, and gave her some allowance once every two weeks, but other than that it was up to Lucia to make her own food, take care of her space and do other tasks like plan her own medical appointments and do all of the paper work for applying to UA.
She planned on moving out to live with Nemuri as soon as she turned eighteen and graduated UA's general studies program. The school counselors for the third years would be able to help her apply for an occupational quirk license and quirk enhanced food handler's permit.
Brew, her newly discovered quirk, would make her an exceptional barista or tea master once she could get her name out there. Her friends were incredibly supportive, despite their own future occupations being so different than hers.
Each of them swore to be her first customers, which was sweet.
Lucia startled out of her meditative thoughts when Shouta gently, but firmly grabbed her upper arm to guide her away from a swift paced and distracted salary man who would have definitely knocked her over had they collided.
"Oh! Sorry Miss!" He called back absently, not even stopping to properly apologize.
Well at least he noticed. Most didn't unless they had actually run into her.
"You good?" Shouta turned around to examine Lucia, eyes narrowed, always the worrier even if he denied it.
"I'm good, no worries!" Lucia turned her frown upside down. She didn't want to make a big deal out of it if Shouta found out that she was actually bothered by the rude man and decided to make a detour to confront him. She just wanted to go home and get started on studying.
Shouta gave her one final look over before nodding and continuing moving forward. Lucia let out a quiet sigh of relief that he didn't cause a scene. Score one for Lucia.
Maybe it would be an uneventful day after all.
Just as Lucia thought that, the walk sign turned green. Shouta, always two steps ahead of her, began to move and thus Lucia did as well.
They were nearly in the clear when time seemed to slow to a crawl. The world was now moving in slow motion as Lucia was forced to make a life altering decision.
Shouta had just made it to the other side, not yet having turned around to make sure Lucia was still behind him as he usually did.
Lucia, still only two steps behind her friend, came to a sudden stop as she watched a scruffy little tabby cat dart stupidly into the middle of the street.
There were no other pedestrians other than the two of them.
But there was a bus.
Barrelling down the hilly road, the number forty continued to accelerate, faster and faster.
The cat turned to see the massive vehicle racing towards itself and froze, a metaphorical deer in the literal headlights.
Shouta hadn't seen any of it yet, but was in the middle of turning around, having heard the rumble of the bus' engine grow louder as the accelerator was pushed to its limits.
Later on, eye witnesses and the bus' passengers would report that the driver, halfway down the hill began to seize. The man's previously undiagnosed epilepsy manifesting for the first time, at the worst of times, extended muscles pressing the gas pedal to the floor.
But Lucia and Shouta saw none of that.
All Lucia saw was the frozen cat, her favorite animal, about to become roadkill.
All Shouta saw was Lucia bolting into the middle of the road as a bus flew top speed towards her.
His eyes widened, mouth opening to shout for her to stop. He lurched forwards; too slow, too slow, TOO SLOW- to run after her.
"LU-!" Shouta screamed before being cut off by the most sickening noise he'd ever heard.
CRUNCH!
Just as Lucia borderline launched the poor, bewildered cat three meters to safety, the towering vehicle made impact with her body.
The initial collision felt like it did the most damage.
Bones were crushed all along the right side of her body. Arm, leg, ribs, pelvis, collarbone. Her right lung, punctured by her now broken ribs, began to deflate as the torn blood vessels filled her chest cavity with blood. Her brain bounced around like jello inside of her now cracked skull, although a concussion would be the least of her concerns.
Post first impact, Lucia was flung onto the asphalt only a few meters, the hit fracturing her cervical spine, inducing a brain bleed and resulting in some brief road rash, before the still-speeding bus began to run her over.
This is around the point where she officially lost consciousness.
Buh bump, buh bump, buh bump- CRASH!
Organs bruised, pelvis pulverized, the skin of her abdomen de-gloved. The cherry on top was her bladder rupturing, popping like an especially meaty water balloon.
The bus' trajectory curved as a brave passenger, all too late, finally took hold of the wheel and crashed the vehicle unceremoniously into a nearby internet cafe, instantly halting it's forward momentum, injuring several in the building but killing none.
Later, the news would report that the driver and all of the passengers made it out of the incident alive albeit very bruised and traumatized.
Lucia, however, did not.
It only took a few seconds after the trauma of being run over for her heart to stutter to a halt.
Time sped up again, almost too fast.
"NonononoNO!" Shouta sprinted to Lucia's mangled body, terrified panic and PTSD overriding all logical thought. "No, God, please not Lucia, please! Fuck! Fuckfuckfuck-!"
He dropped to his knees, skidding slightly across the pavement, to her side. Blood had already started to pool around her crushed form, soaking into Shouta's pant legs and warming his knees morbidly.
"Shit, okay, fuck. You've trained for this, goddamn it! Think, asshole, think!" Shouta's hands hovered uselessly above Lucia's body as he tried to remember first aid for extreme physical trauma. That's right. Ambulance. "You! Call one one nine! Now!" He pointed at the closest bystander, delegating contacting emergency services to him.
He looked down.
"Oh my God." Shouta gagged. Looking at Lucia, really looking at her, made his stomach roil. His friend and beloved crush was completely and utterly broken.
Fucking do something! Shouta swallowed down his nausea before getting started. Hovering a palm over her bleeding nose and mouth he determined that she wasn't breathing. He then leaned in to place his ear against her chest to listen for a heart beat while simultaneously feeling for a pulse.
Nothing.
Lucia was clinically dead.
Tears welled up in Shouta's eyes at the realization.
"You there! Boy! I have a dispatcher on speaker." A smart phone was shoved into Shouta's field of vision as he used his sweatshirt to put pressure on Lucia's bleeding abdomen. He had tentatively pressed into her chest earlier to determine if CPR was even an option. The crunchy sensation of shattered ribs told him otherwise.
"Hello? Am I speaking with the one performing first aid?" An authoritative voice came out of the speaker.
"I already told them our location and what happened. Oh, and that it was bad." The bystander told Shouta before backing away.
"Yes, shit. I'm here at her side. Sh-She's not breathing and has no p-pulse." Shouta went through his mental check list. "It's- It's really bad. Her chest is crushed so I'm putting pressure on her stomach, but she just keeps bleeding…"
"Help is on the way, you're very lucky there is a hospital close by. The ambulances should only be a few more minutes." The dispatcher was calm and collected, a welcome change of pace from Shouta's inner dialogue. "Now, describe what she looks like…"
From that point onward, Shouta barely remembered a thing.
He was told later that when the paramedics arrived and tried to pull him away, he had elbowed them in the face, snarling.
It took two police officers to drag him away from Lucia's corpse, kicking and shouting at them to let him go back to her side.
He didn't remember doing any of that.
He didn't remember calming down. He didn't remember the shock blanket, the panic attack, nor eventually accompanying Lucia in the ambulance as the paramedics scrambled to bring her back from the dead and stabilize her failing body.
Later, he was told that the only reason Lucia wasn't declared dead on arrival was due to one of the medic's quirks.
Spare the Dying.
Named after a spell from the man's favorite tabletop role-playing game, his quirk allowed him to hold a person who had just died in a sort of stasis, stabilizing them in limbo as long as he was touching them.
Miraculously, his quirk worked on her, which signaled to the medics that there was a chance. It prevented her injuries from progressing and getting worse, allowing for them to get her into the operating room with hope in their hearts.
Shouta watched, now at the hospital, as the medical team wheeled away his precious friend to where he wasn't allowed to follow before slumping helplessly into one of the waiting room's chairs wondering just how the day had gone so wrong?
