quirkhidden. / hagakure *
She’s not even sure where she is at first.
The smell of the plastic oxygen mask greets her when she comes to, her body heavy with sleep. Her breaths burned, if only just a little. A vague memory of a sickening cloud of gas comes to her mind in flashes. She squeezes shut her eyes, taking in the sounds around her.
The low mumbling and shuffling footsteps of people in the hallway. The quiet sound of a home improvement channel on the TV in her room.
This had to be a hospital.
At least that meant she could rest easy; she wasn’t in the clutches of the villains who had attacks them and were searching for—
The last thing she had heard was him needing to be found… Panic rises in her chest, her heart monitor’s screen flashing faster as her heartbeat increased. A nurse found her way into the room, checking the machine before turning to the young girl.
“You’re awake… It’s alright, dear, you’re safe. And so are your classmates.”
observation. that was the word they had dropped on him the moment he’d cleared their fucking tests. observation because any kid that got abducted off the streets would walk away with some sort of trauma. observation they say , while they fasten machines to his biceps. and clip IV’s and monitors to his pulse; because he wasn’t just ANY KID. no, he was THE TARGET of the league of villains.
because he had the gall to be UPSET at taking first place under half-assed opponents. BECAUSE THEY HAD RESTRAINED HIM WHEN HE HAD VICIOUSLY DENIED THEIR FUCKING TROPHIES. that hadn’t been a win in his books --------- not even close to one. but it had been enough. that outburst had turned into the proverbial hammer, and of fucking course that chapped asshole pulled the trigger.
to bad nobody told him of katsuki’s aspirations.
all it had done was make him feel WEAK. a nuisance to his fellow classmates and a liability to the pro-heroes --------- a catalyst to the end of all might’s reign. it made him feel WEAK with the walls closing in on him. the sound of a heart monitor steadily increasing against the drum of his ears in the silence.
it fucking CHAFED, but the ire had long been washed out of him. had gone astray with the realization that all might’s victory pose / one he’d seen a thousand times / was nothing more than the passing of the torch.
a new reign given not to the next generation, but to his successor. TO DEKU.
annoyance reverberates like ash in his lungs. spent, useless, but still there, with garish teeth and claws.----- drives him to jolting away from the fucking bed he’s been left to stew in. his head snapping to the machine that unhelpfully CHIRPED his distress into the dim room. a chirp that’s effectively culled the very fucking moment he yanks the IV and monitor right out of his arm.
he can hear it from through the walls, and it takes one long dis-connective moment to realize that what he was hearing was someone else’s dismay bleating right alongside his own. curiosity devours what remains of his frustration and he, for lack of a better decision, leaves his appointed room to investigate.
what he finds, brings him no comfort.
it only spurs his unease and half-swallowed anxiety back into action, because there was only one reason as to why SHE’D be here. chained to machines and re-breathers. “tōru....?” and god, he hated the way his voice cracked. hates the apprehension that washes over the night nurse’s face as she turns on him, a hand cradled above that damnable pager, and no, he wouldn’t fucking put it past her to send out an S.O.S.
like he’d give her a chance, though.
katsuki chokes down any and all qualms he has about pushing himself further into the room. pretends he could care less about the way he can feel the still-sore muscles of his face contort in a habitual scowl. the mask he wore to cover the insecurities ---- the blame --- that pressed into the line of his throat like a knife to the quick. “the fuck is going on in here?”
