3. Hugs For Warmth
The prompt was initially spooning for warmth but we wanted our questioning boy and our gay girl not in a relationship to get some love! Pls don’t ship, Haeun is a lesbian and they are just friends!
Haeun took a deep breath and did her best not to shake. This ALWAYS happened when she overused her powers. And she hated it, but this time, it had been necessary. This particular villain was incredibly destructive, and Haeun's powers, used properly, were great for damage control. She had spent the whole time using her powers over gravity and space to get buildings to stay up just long enough to clear the area, and naturally, that took a lot out of her.
When she overused her powers, she didn't do what most people did--Dakota tended to pass out if he'd done too much, and if Bay tried to hold onto too many powers, they'd start to bleed into each other and mess up without her thinking about it. But Haeun...her body heat was sapped in seconds. Her internal temperature fluctuated heavily, especially if she was using her powers for attack. If she was making things like black holes, it went down, and if she was making stars, it went up. It was sort of a subconscious way of matching what she was doing. She never noticed it in the moment, but if she did too much either way, it exhausted her system, and her body eventually just stopped producing heat at all. So now, she felt like she was laying in a snowdrift, every breeze felt like it ripped right through her costume. She began to shiver, but sooner than it should have, the shivers started to get slower.
Well, that was hypothermia right there. Damn.
Haeun felt sluggish, disoriented. She knew she should be finding someone from her team, but who? Where? She had a comm, but she didn't think to use it. Haeun stumbled out of the alleyway where she'd...somehow gotten. Honestly, she didn't remember heading back there, but there she was, so it must have happened somehow.
"Haeun?" It was Kai. Usually Haeun was a little bit scared of Kai--he'd been a real ass to her at the beginning. Sure, he was trying to be better now--everyone could see that he was trying to be nicer. Some of the team took it at face value, some of the team didn't believe it. Usually, Haeun was somewhere in the middle. But now, all she could think was that Kai was there and Kai would help her get warm. "Haeun, what's wrong?"
"Cold," Haeun mumbled. "'m cold," she decided to clarify. Kai looked confused for some reason, but he approached her. Haeun tried to meet him halfway, but everything felt heavy, and she ended up tripping. She expected to feel the ground, but no, she felt warm. Warm. Something was warm. She didn't quite move or look anymore, just moved closer and closer. She was warm. So everything would be okay.
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Kai froze as Haeun practically nestled her body into him. This was...new. It was new and it was weird and Kai definitely wasn't super comfortable. Something was wrong. He hadn't missed the tiny bit of apprehension he always saw from Haeun when he did something nice for her; he probably deserved it after how much of a dick he'd been. But now, she was trusting him, unconditionally. And the mystery was solved when he tried to help her up, and her hand touched his.
"How the hell did you get so cold?" Kai's words were harsh, but he didn't mean to be--it was more concern than anything else. It was October, so it wasn't HOT, but Haeun's skin was like ice. "Haeun's down. We need help," Kai said into the comm. He looked a minute and recited the street they were near; it was covered in rubble and had been evacuated, so he and Haeun were completely alone. Granted, it wasn't half bad that reporters weren't there; they'd have a field day with the awkward position they were in. But Kai couldn't help her all on his own.
After confirmation that the team was coming, Kai looked down at Haeun. He was still holding her very awkwardly--she was half slumped into him, and him standing was the only thing keeping her from falling forward. His arms were half-holding her up and half pushing her away, which made the whole thing look even more awkward. But it also meant Haeun wasn't getting warmth. So, with stiff, inexperienced movements, Kai helped move Haeun so she could rest against him more upright. She cooperated a little, but her uncoordinated movements were definitely less effective than they should have been. Eventually, they ended in an awkward position where Kai had a stiff arm around her and she was slumped against his front, her head resting on his chest.
That was how Bayleigh and Agent Schott found them a minute later, and both of them looked a little surprised at the scene. "Well, are you going to help her or not?" Kai snapped, and Schott immediately moved over to her.
"Haeun? Haeun, can you hear me?" Haeun made a vague sound that might have been affirmation. "Can you walk?"
"No," Kai answered for her. "Don't let her try." Schott nodded and took Haeun from Kai. He picked her up and immediately looked at her in shock.
"Shit, she really overdid it. Don't tell Jefferson I said that," he added after a second. "We need to get her back so we can get her body temperature up. It should stabilize on its own, but we need to at least help it get that way. Bay, where's the car?"
"A block down. There's a first aid kit in the back and I'm pretty sure there's a blanket in it. I mean it's thin, and usually used for, like, shock, but it's better than nothing." Schott nodded.
"We'd better go. Let's get Haeun back to the base." Bayleigh led the way, and Schott followed. Kai trailed behind, looking at Haeun's limp form with more and more concern. As much as he had tormented her before, he cared about her and was really trying to show it. He couldn't stand it if his awkwardness meant that she'd had some permanent damage done.
She had to be okay. She just had to.
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A few hours later, Haeun still had a blanket around her shoulders, but was coherent and able to function. As Schott had said, her body temperature mostly got back to what could pass as normal on its own, and they hadn't had to warm her blood or anything intensely medical, but it had been touch and go for far too long. Agent Jefferson had sat down with her for a while and they'd had a long talk about how Haeun was allowed to ask for help, and she shouldn't overdo it that way, so it was easier for Kai to bite back how upset he was that she'd done that to herself. A couple months ago, he would have yelled at her over it, which, he reflected, probably would have made her cry. Now, he was at least thoughtful enough to know that, thanks, again, to Agent Jefferson.
Now, he awkwardly approached her as she sat in the common room, hands wrapped around a mug of tea. "Are you feeling better?" he asked. Even as he asked, he cringed a little at how disinterested he sounded. How did people show that they fucking cared?
"Yeah." Haeun took a sip of her tea and then looked over at Kai. She looked a little bit afraid, but there was something else...something kind of different. Kai had no clue what it was, and he could feel himself getting nervous. "I'm...thank you for helping me. I'm sorry I still am kind of...distant."
"Why are you sorry?" Again, Kai's tone sounded annoyed, but that wasn't the case--not exactly at least. He deserved distance after what he did, so why was Haeun bothering with an apology?
Haeun set her tea down on the coffee table. "Because you're trying to be better? And I don't quite...act like I see it." At a loss for words, Kai just shrugged.
"Well, I'm glad you're not dead," he said, monotone as he got up from the couch. This situation was starting to get awkward, and he knew Haeun was better. That's what he came for.
"Me too," Haeun replied with a slight smile. "And Kai, really. Thank you." Kai didn’t say anything, just left.
Tagging @marlettwrites @aconstantcrisis @imaghostwriter @fizzyhedgehog