#1.) The Injection Scene like it's for his. Adrenaline or whatever but the first thing i said when i saw it was an injection joke

[todayisafridaynight]

i'll probably be skipping stream today & tomorrow on account of my personal challenge to finish JE before you (<- absolutely not going to happen)

but while i'm here SHUT UP your headcanon is not icky :) though i can't really talk since i don't bring my own up very often either, and i honestly haven't even put that much thought into the logistics around it. anyway trans masato 🤝 trans wagi as personal coping mechanisms

DAWG you gotta finish it... idk how long youve had it but prob longer than me cmon now gamer i know you can do it ✊

trans masato is just funny because Like Everything I Do it just started as me joking about scenes from the game and then the ending happened and i was like Oh Lol It's Not A Joke Anymore I Think

I DONT USUALLY SUBSCRIBE TO TRANS HCS EITHER THAT WHY IT ICKY TO MEAJLWKJL but thank you. i promise to only mention it once every five months

[barcaavengers]

Weakness || Bucky Barnes Imagine || Pt.2

Note: It's hereee! First of all I want to thank all of you for the feedback on the first part. It means a lot to me since it has been quite a while since I've written something like this, plus Bucky is a complex character and I'm trying my best to make him justice. I came up with this random idea as I worked on part 1 so I hope you guys can give me some feedback on it. Again, thank you so much!

Disclaimer: Gif not mine. Credit belongs to the amazing@captain-james.

Tags: @hanakin-im-panakin, @evie-pr, @justinekomwriterkru, @felicityofbakerstreet, @maaaaryx, @ijustwantedplums, @winterberryfox, @ttatum14, @pastelbabygirl19, @love-buckybarnes, @forever-aimless, @izzlenizzlebizzle

You have to blink a few times for your eyelids to open, still feeling them heavy from whatever Karli and her crew had injected you with.

"Oh good, you are awake" you hear the girl's voice from a distance, you couldn't focus on anything specific with your gaze, it was all blurry.

"What the hell did you do?" You are surprised that your arms aren't tied when you lift your hand to your head.

"Nothing serious, relax" she says as she comes to your line of vision, your body felt like it was on fire. "We wanted to test something out, you were the best option."

"Why me?" You wince as you sit up, surprised again that they trusted you enough to leave you entirely untied, you wonder for a moment why.

"You are the best way to catch Sam's attention and that is accessible. Sam won't dismiss my calls if we have you. I still called Sarah, just to have him on the edge."

"Leave Sarah out of it" you snarl but your head felt heavy when you did. You have met Sam's sister a while back now, along with her kids. She was a nice, simple, humble woman, she didn't deserve to be brought into this mess.

"Like I said, it was just to leave him on edge" she shrugs. "I have already sent them a message to meet up."

"Karli, I don't know what you are up to but you can't keep doing this" you say. "We know that the Power Broker is after you because of the serum, you can't win the two battles."

"And that's why we need you for the message" she says. A man you hadn't noticed before was in the corner and he was giving Karli a look.

"You want us to help you with the Power Broker?"

"We need to get rid of Captain America first," she says.

"And I couldn't agree more" your arms extend in a gesture. "I told you, we hate the guy, but we don't want to kill him, we just want him out of that uniform and give us back the shield. He doesn't deserve it."

"I used to look up to you, when you first joined the Avengers" she starts. Now it made sense why you weren't tied up. "Then all of the Sokovia Accords happened and you picked a side. You took the side against the government. We are no different."

"We are not the same. You are hurting people! You killed innocent people at the GRC!"

"They wouldn't understand any other way!" Her voice raises as well and you relax your shoulders, you couldn't show her the same behavior.

"Karli, again. I'm asking you to give us a chance to find a way to help you. To help everyone…"

She ignores you as she looks at her phone and looks at the man behind her. They share a look before he leaves. "Come on, he is here for you," she says.

"Aren't you going to inject me with something? Tie me up so I don't run away?"

"I trust you enough to know you won't" she says before she starts walking away, you have no other choice but to follow, but then you notice another man walking behind you.

"So much for trust…" you roll your eyes as you are escorted up the stairs to a balcony. You try to walk further but the man stops you. "Got it. I'll stay here…" so you lean against the wall.

"Is this how things will play out?" You can hear Sam's voice in the distance.

"I wanted to understand you better," Karli says and you frown. "You didn't come alone." Your heart raced at the thought of Bucky being close as well.

"Where is Y/N?" Bucky's deep voice reaches you and the man motions you to move, so you do and stand a few feet away behind Karli. Bucky was staring harshly at Karli, but when you came into his vision his gaze softened in a beat.

Sam extends his hand out to you and you look at Karli who nods her head towards him. You rush to him, reaching for his hand and he pulls you behind him. “Are you okay?” Sam asks over his shoulder and you nod. His brown eyes shifted to look at the girl before you. "You have to end this now…"

"I don't wanna hurt you, either of you, Y/N knows that" she says and your eyes meet hers. "You are just tools in the regimes I want to destroy. You are not hiding behind a shield. If I were to kill you, I'd be meaningless" she explains.

Sam takes a moment and looks behind you, meeting your gaze. "She is after Walker, Sam" you just confirm what he already knows. His hand tightens and then you hear the faint sound of the earpiece in his ear going off. "The Power Broker is after her, Sam. We have to…" and there it is.

"It's Walker…" Sam looks at Bucky and the soldier is quick to jump the balcony, but Karli thinks the same way and jumps as well, pushing him out. Sam and you jump from the balcony, you land roughly, vibrations going up your legs but it doesn't hurt, the adrenaline soothed that impact apparently. Sam kicks Karli against a wall. "I'll send you the location. Go!" Sam instructs, Bucky and you share a look before running off.

"Did they hurt you?!" Bucky asks as you two run.

"Not really!" You say with a heavy breath as you run. "Or at least I don't feel hurt!" You run. "They only injected me with something to knock me out."

"Injected you?" He shouts as he runs, he barely sounded out of breath. "Left!" Bucky shouts and you take the next left. You jump over the back of a car, running down from it and jumping off the hood swiftly to catch up with Bucky. Once in, you two stand still to try to hear where everyone was. "Upstairs" Bucky calls and you two move quickly.

A soldier jumps down from the stairs and pushes you against a wall, you grunt before turning around only to see the man's fist almost on your face. You duck quickly, sneaking under his legs and kicking the back of his knees making him fall against the wall. You deliver a punch on his cheek as he turns around, before sending another one on his stomach making the man bend. You are quick to grab his face and push it against your knee and then back against the wall, knocking him unconscious.

Bucky was fighting another soldier and you went his way. He punches the guy and the man falls down the stairs, but is quick to get back on his feet. You go running to him, Bucky takes your arm and spins you so you can deliver a kick to the man's side, but he catches your leg, chuckling. Your eyes widened for a moment before you lifted your other leg, kicking his stomach and falling hard on the floor with a thud, it hurt, but you were sure that was supposed to hurt more. Bucky stands quickly in front of you, shielding you from the man before he kicks him, sending him flying against the wall and the concrete falling on him. "Stay there," Bucky says to the man who you were sure was unconscious before he moved to you. "Are you okay?" He asks as he offers you his hand, not the vibranium one, to lift you up.

"I have to practice that kick more often" you groan as you pull yourself up, and that's when you get close to him, almost chest to chest. "We should go help Sam."

"We should" his head nods before you two run up the stairs. As soon as you walk through the door you are met with more soldiers. One holds Walker from behind and you see Karli rushing to him with the knife.

"Karli!" You call out, Hoskins appears and tackles the girl.

Your instinct tells you to duck as you see Sam approaching you, his wings open and knock the guy away from you and you look at him. "You owe me" you two chuckle before Bucky appears and punches a man, sending him flying over to the other side of the room.

"You owe me" he mocks and you can't help but smirk. Then, it was like everything happened in slow motion.

Karli kicks Hoskins and sends him flying against a column and you hear the cracking of bones. The three of you turn together to find Battlestar unconscious and blood dripping from his lips. Karli takes off her mask, horror all over her face before she storms off, another male which was the one that was mostly around her, took after her as well. Walker is checking on his friend, calling onto him with no luck or sign of life.

You can't help but find it absolutely odd how the story repeats itself. Captain America losing their right hand man once again. First Steve with Bucky, now Walker with Hoskins.

Walker's expression turned dark, even bloodlust you would say. He wanted to make them pay for killing Lemar. He straps his shield and storms off, jumping off a window without taking a second glance back. "Let's go! Let's go!" You shout at your friends before you all start moving. Sam flies up through the ceiling while Bucky and you start running down the stairs. Your head thought of the good idea of jumping over the handrail and you do, landing smoothly before continuing down the stairs and outside.

"Aren't you hurt after that?" Bucky calls as you two run, letting him lead the way.

"Not really! Probably the adrenaline!" You didn't even have a second to think that that landing should have at least made you limp, you will later question it. Right now you had to find Walker before he found Karli and the two ended up hurting each other.

You approach a crowd of people in the plaza, everyone with their phones out. Sam lands on your side and you glance at each other in question before walking faster in front of the crowd. That's when you see Walker delivering the ultimate blow on a body, you can't tell, but the person was dressed exactly like the man that was with Karli a while back. You gasp at the scene before you, you could see the blood from your spot in the crowd, and then you saw it in the shield. "Oh God…"

The shield that was once used to protect innocents while in the hands of Steve Rogers, now was being used as a weapon against innocents by John Walker. The thought made your heart boil, and you knew the guys shared the sentiment when the three of you exchanged glances before turning to Walker and the crowd. That's when you spot Karli. You could see the tears in her eyes as she brought her hand to her mouth as she gasped. Things were about to get really ugly.

"I have to talk to her..." you say as you share a look with the redheaded.

"Don't...Give her space" Sam says as he holds your forearm.

"Sam, if Walker sees Karli...Things are going to get bad. Please..." the Falcon frowns at your words because you were right, but he knew as well that right now, both their heads were hot with rage and grief and there was no possible way to reason with them this soon.

"We will get to her, but let's take care of Walker first" his head nods at Walker who was now running away. "Let's keep a close eye on him before we engage…"

The three of you were walking, Bucky was eyeing your legs, you arch an eyebrow. He notices the gesture and looks away, "You should be limping at least…" he says and you get even more confused now.

"But I am not?" It sounded like a question, but you were just questioning why he was bringing it up. "What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing. Just…" your eyebrows raise in expectation for his next words. "Are you sure you are okay? Your back?"

"I am, Buck. Relax" you assure him.

"I'm starting to think this was a mistake. If I hadn't given up the shield…"

"There was no way to know this was going to happen, Sam. You did what you thought was right…"

"Too bad this had to happen for you to realize it" Bucky says harshly and you glare at him.

"Not the time to talk about that, Buck" you say.

"Yeah, let's talk about the way you fought those Super Soldiers."

"Give it a rest, Barnes" you roll your eyes in annoyance.

"What's going on between you two?" Sam intervenes.

"She jumped two stories of stairs like it was nothing. No limping afterwards. No time to recover. She also fell on her back and she is…"

"Sorry for not feeling hurt or weak by those things" you roll your eyes.

"It's not that, Y/N…"

"Hold on, you jumped from the balcony too with me. Since when do you do those leap of faiths?" Sam questions.

"Exactly!"

"Guys, I'm fine. You guys have seen me fight before and you know I can take hits, what's the difference of now?"

"That they were Super Soldiers with brute force and you put up a good fight with them" Bucky points out and you frown.

"Maybe they weren't at their full potential, or they took it easy on me. Guys, relax. I'm fine. I'm not hurt, I'm not in pain" you take a quick step in front of them and spin. "See?" You walk backwards, your arms extended.

"I'm still weirded out" Sam eyes Bucky and his gaze towards you was so…different. He was eyeing you like he was trying to find something. "I forgot to say, Walker must have taken a serum because that guy folded a metal pole right in front of me."

"What?!" Bucky exclaims, stopping in his tracks.

"If he took the serum we are screwed. There is no way to stop him."

"We have to find Walker. I'll make a call to Sharon, see if she can find anything" and with that he pats your back and walks inside Zemo's apartment.

"And Zemo, or we are taking over his place." you say as you follow him inside and then turn to Bucky. His arms are crossed against his chest, eyes staring almost into your soul, you sigh in annoyance. "What, Bucky? What?"

"Come here" he says and you eye him questioningly before he takes your hand and pulls you to him. He tilts your head to the side and runs his thumb on your neck, right where you remember being punctured.

"What the hell, James?" You push his hand away and he frowns.

"What did they inject you with?"

"I don't know, Sargeant. I couldn't ask since I was out like the light" you say to him.

"Y/N, can't you see it? You are doing things you wouldn't be doing in normal circumstances…"

"This isn't normal! I'm doing things to keep up with all of this! Ever heard of adrenaline rush? It makes you do these kinds of things" you snap and Bucky's gaze hardens at your tone.

"Guys, I'm trying to talk on the phone. What the hell is going on now?!" Sam asks as he looks between the two of you.

"Someone here can't accept that I can fight against Super Soldiers."

"I would be the last person to say that because we have fought, even when I wasn't me!"

"Then what the hell is wrong with today, James?!"

"There is something wrong with you!"

"I'm fine!"

"Guys, calm down.."

"Why are you questioning all of my moves?!" He stays silent and his eyes look away from you. "I am not helpless..." you say in a soft tone. Right now you felt...You didn't even know how you felt. You felt confused, couldn't choose an emotion to feel. "I'm going to go shower, I need to cool off" you run a hand through your hair as you walk to your room.

"I never said you were helpless, Y/N" Bucky calls from behind you but you ignore him and close the door with a loud thud.

-Bucky's POV-

He watched her walk away, and he couldn't find a reasonable explanation as to why you weren’t hurt from all these fights and moves. He knew enough to know that jumping two stories, for any normal human, would result in pain, a limp, a twisted ankle, but you didn't even flinch. Didn't take you a second to process the landing. No, he isn't saying you were weak because she is one of the strongest women he has met, but he just knew something was off about her.

"Can you tell me what the hell is going on with you?" Sam asked him, his whole expression screaming that he needed an explanation to this sudden argument.

"Something is wrong with her, Sam. I know you feel it too" he falls on the couch and throws his head back. "She has fought me before, I know she is tough and strong but everything she has been doing after we got her from Karli…" he couldn't find the words to end that sentence. He was worried, he needed to know.

"I'm sure you have a theory. Care to share it?" Sam takes the couch on the side of Bucky.

"I don't know anymore..." he pinches the bridge of his nose in annoyance. He knows that it just couldn't be what he was thinking. It was too much of a long shot, yet a part of him, that instinct, told him that he was right.

"If this is your way to flirt you are doing a terrible job" Sam teases. "Your way of showing you care is strange, man" he chuckles.

"It's not like I had practice while in HYDRA's control" Bucky says with a shrug, completely sarcastic. "And I'm not flirting. I'm worried…"

"You two are driving me nuts along with Karli and Walker. Go up there, man" Sam says as he stands up and walks to the kitchen.

"Don't forget Zemo" Bucky says and he sighs. He looks after the direction you disappeared to, pondering on Sam's suggestion. What was he supposed to do? Apologize? Kiss you? He wasn't an expert in doing any of those. Kissing you the other day was like an instinct kicking in, and he wasn't even sure it was what you expected from him. Hopefully whatever had to happen once he went to you would be like that. Finally, he stands up from the couch, but not before stopping by Sam, taking the glass the man had just poured his whiskey in, and swallowing it up in one go. "Thanks" he pats the man's shoulder before going to your room.

Sam glares at the man as he pours another drink in the same glass, watching after Bucky.

Bucky makes his way to your room and knocks softly, "Y/N?" He calls from the door, waiting for an answer but there is none. He sighs and turns to leave but he holds back and turns back to the door. "Listen, I-" he trails off, searching for words. "I'm sorry, alright? I guess I overreacted with the whole thing…" he pauses and frowns. "I just...You are the closest person I got, okay? I don't want you to get hurt and I know, trust me, I know you can perfectly take care of yourself and you are strong and you know-" he hears a distant thud and his eyebrow raise. "Y/N, are you okay in there?" He remembers that you were showering so he holds back for a moment, but what if you fell in it? He turns the door knob and when it budges to the movement, he opens the door. No sign of you anywhere, so he walks quickly to the shower only to find that the sound had been the bottle of shampoo falling.

He returns to the bedroom area, and any normal person might have missed it, but he saw the few drops of water from the bathroom door to the mirror, and then to the window. The window was open. "Sam!" He rushes to the kitchen area where Sam was sipping on his drink. "She is gone!"

-Y/N POV-

"So you are asking to meet up now before kidnapping me?" You ask as you sense Karli behind you a few feet away. "My condolences about your friend… I'm sorry we couldn't stop Walker…" You say as you turn around.

"Thanks" her eyes soften for a moment at your words. "Just wanted to check on how you were doing" she says as she tilts her head to the side, eyeing you.

"Why are you worrying about me?" You question.

"You truly haven't noticed?" The redheaded let out a short laugh, if it was a different circumstance, you would find it cute. "Don't you feel different? More adrenaline running in your veins? Feeling like you are unstoppable?" She asks and takes a few steps to the side. "Honestly thought it was going to wear off already, but it seems it lasts longer…"

"What are you talking about?" Oh now you were getting worried. "What did you do to me, Karli?" You hiss taking a step forward.

"Dr. Nagel was working on it a while back, to get the Power Broker off my back with this trick" she explains, and the name of the man who was doing the replica of the Serum was enough to have your heart racing. "Same ingredients, but with a difference, it doesn't last much…Should wear off soon if he was right."

"Karli…" you call onto the girl.

"We injected you with a temporary Super Soldier Serum, Y/N.”

[icasttourniquet]

Common Misconceptions: Raising the Dead (CPR)

Let's start with the bad news: basically all the CPR you've seen in movies and TV shows is performed terribly.

Here's the good news: most CPR is performed on dead patients, which means even bad CPR is better than nothing.

What is CPR?

CPR stands for (googles hurriedly) Cardio-Pumonary Resuscitation. It has two parts: 1) chest compressions and 2) rescue breaths. Here's a video in case you're still confused, but most people have seen CPR performed a ton of times during the climaxes of medical shows. It comes right before either a) the nurse yells "Clear!" and the patient comes back to life or b) the EMT says "I'm not losing you" and injects the patient with adrenaline right to the heart, and then they come back to life.

Raising the Dead

CPR is generally performed on dead patients. That is, patients without a pulse. In the first responder business, the situation doesn't really get worse than dead, so it provides a unique opportunity for authors because you can't really get it wrong.

Here are some questions I've heard people ask while learning CPR:

Should I perform CPR on pulse-less patients who have chest wounds?

Can I continue performing CPR if I break a rib?

Should I perform CPR on pregnant people?

What if I can't give rescue breaths? Should I still give CPR?

My patient has a lot of broken limbs. Should I fix those before performing CPR?

My patient was electrocuted. Should I give CPR?

Here's the trick to answering all your CPR questions. Is my character dead (no pulse)? Does performing CPR put a) the first responder, b) another patient, or c) a bystander in danger?

If you can answer (yes) (no, no, no), congratulations! Your first responder can perform CPR, even really crappy CPR, even CPR that is ineffective, for as long as the plot requires (ModN's WFR instructor tells the story of a 6-hour CPR session on a dead patient during a journey to care that included a toboggan ride).

(NOTE: there's actually one solid contraindication: if the patient is severely hypothermic, their heart rate may be so slow and weak as to be undetectable. In this case (and pretty much only this case) chest compressions may actually do more harm than good. Other than that, obvious signs of death like decapitation or rigor mortis indicate you don't need to start resuscitation, but there are still plenty of compelling interpersonal reasons to do it – at that point you're doing CPR for the responder and survivors rather than the patient.)

Otherwise, your character should go for it!

The bad news about CPR

Time for the bad news (other than you having a dead character on your hands). In general,* CPR is not enough to bring someone back. Its role is to continue circulating oxygenated blood while you wait for a defibrillator like an AED to arrive. The AED or manual defibrillator is what actually convinces the heart to stop fluttering/beating erratically, and allows it to resume something like a normal rhythm. That means that in the wilderness, CPR is almost never going to work. That said, ModN's WFR instructors had a couple tales of AEDs falling from the sky (via helicopter, not under their own power), so it's worth trying regardless.

* The exception: lightning-struck patients can at times restart regular rhythms with just chest compressions. This leads to interesting triage considerations when dealing with the aftermath of lightning, but that's a subject for another post.

How to perform non-crappy CPR

There are a million videos on YouTube that can talk you through every sort of CPR. Keeping in mind, of course, that some CPR is better than nothing on a pulseless patient, here are some quick tips that could indicate your character has some training:

Your character distinguishes between adult and pediatric CPR. Because children don't tend to get heart attacks, pulse-less children almost always have a trauma or respiratory cause. This means responders give children more rescue breaths.

Your character keeps their elbows locked. Here's a playlist of some examples of bad CPR (and some are really quite bad). Actors generally can't lock their elbows because they'd risk injuring or even killing their scene partner (so, okay, fine, that's a decent excuse), but people with real training will know better.

They do not always give rescue breaths. Any CPR is better than no CPR. Rescue breaths can put the first responder at risk because they can involve lip-to-lip contact, assuming no PPE is available. I once had a paramedic say bluntly that he really only gives breaths to children—it's just not worth the risk to him for anyone else. If this sounds callous, remember, CPR is (almost) only performed on dead patients, and the number one priority in any disaster is yourself.

(ModN edit: in a professional setting your character will always have some sort of PPE for rescue breaths: a face shield at the minimum, or in the front country a full-blown bag valve mask (BVM) that allows them to use their hands to get air into the patient.)

Your character does a blood sweep before staring CPR in a trauma injury. You may have heard the rule no pulse = chest compressions immediately. This is almost always true, especially in the frontcountry, when most pulse-less patients you encounter will have had a heart attack. However, in the wilderness, we can run into a bad situation: chest compressions that pump all my patient's blood out the gushing wound in their side.

Maybe you're thinking, hey! I thought you said my character could always do CPR on a dead patient and they'd be fine! And yes, I did say that—thank you for listening. If your character performs CPR on a patient with no pulse and arterial wound, they have not killed their patient. This is because the patient was already dead. They have not "sped up" the bleeding out process because this patient has basically already bled out. So, I'm not blaming your character for anything.

That said, the pro-est of pros will do a blood sweep after finding no pulse and stuff/apply direct pressure/tourniquet as necessary. As an added note, your character with no pulse and the arterial bleed? Probably not going to survive.

This leads me to...

Writing more realistic necromancy

If your character's CPR is successful, your character has just raised the dead. Thinking about it this way can help you write more realistic resuscitation scenes. Here's the number one thing that will make all your CPR more realistic:

Your dead patient does not go from dead to walking and talking in a few seconds.

When the body has no pulse for a while, it gets unhappy. This is because all its internal organs are dying and also because it is dead. CPR replicates the pumping of a heart, but not particularly well. Most people whose organs are all dying don't get that shot of adrenaline to the heart (this is not part of any WFR or EMT protocol but whatever) and then go back to swashbuckling adventure after a quick sip of water.

In fact, in real life, checking the pulse of your patient is an important part of performing CPR because sometimes they come back to life and you don't notice.

So how might you accurately describe someone who's just come back from the dead via CPR (possibly plus defibrillation)? May I recommend some of the following words (no need to cite me—just plop 'em in your writing):

Unconscious

Unmoving

Pale

Clammy

Weak pulse

Non-responsive to pain

Not dead!!!

An added point: absolutely no one whose heart stopped is now "okay" because their heart restarted. They are "not dead" because their heart restarted. Admitedly, not dead is pretty good in the first response business, but they need to see a doctor. As soon as possible. This is because something caused the heart to stop and CPR did not treat that underlying cause. Many people who come back from the dead die again soon after, and could come back and die multiple times before picking a state more permanantly.

Wilderness-Specific CPR

In the wilderness, we have get one (1) special CPR-related ability and that is the ability to stop.

In the US, there's a thing called patient abandonment that can get folks in trouble. Basically, if you start treating a patient, you need to keep treating them until 1) they are dead, 2) they are conscious enough to refuse further treatment and do so, or 3) someone else with an equivalent or higher level of training is treating them (ModN: as a W-EMT this is tricky – it's hard to find people more qualified in the wilderness to hand a patient off to!).

Because WFRs and EMTs cannot declare patients dead, and a dead or unconscious patient cannot refuse treatment, that means you are treating them until someone else is treating them. (As a side note, my first first-aid instructor told the story of performing CPR for 30 minutes in an ambulance on a patient missing part of his brain [this is bad] because the police officer at the scene didn't want to declare him dead on the highway, which would mean shutting down the road for a few hours).

CPR is unique, however, because it's performed on dead patients. The law doesn't want a poor WFR to be stuck in an endless CPR loop because they can't abandon their patient, so in the wilderness only, your character can stop CPR:

After 30 minutes of sustained pulselessness.

If another patient needs more help.

If continuing is dangerous to self or others.

Otherwise, backcountry and frontcountry CPR are pretty similar.

Summary

CPR is generally performed on dead people.

It is difficult to get worse than dead.

Garbage CPR is better than no CPR.

Recovering from being dead takes time and always warrants more care.

WFRs have a superpower and it is called stopping CPR.

Good luck raising your characters from the dead!

[randomguywithwords]

As The Dust Settles: Chapter 17 (Dabi X fem!Geten Slowburn)

Chapter 17: A Frozen Heart

AO3 Link: Here

Previous Chapters: 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Long chapter ahead btw. 2.8k.

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For fifteen minutes, Dabi watched the broken, unconscious form of Geten breathe, every inhalation causing a shudder to ripple through her body. Every time she made a hacking cough, blood spurted from her mouth, making his fists clench tighter and his teeth grind against one another with building rage. Ten minutes in, he reduced Takame’s corpse to ashes to vent some feelings. 

That was all he could do. He couldn’t move her because of all the broken bones and fractures. The one thing he could was to shift her head an inch, to ensure she didn’t choke on her blood. 

All he could do was wait. The throbbing pain in his arms from blocking that hit was nothing compared to the pain in his chest at seeing her on the verge of death, enduring a merciless pummel that she didn’t deserve. 

He felt like every breath he took injected him with even more fury that he wanted to scream, to let the world know he wanted to burn it all. 

Stupid girl. Why can’t you see that you never belonged to the MLA? Why are you getting yourself killed for them? 

Geten shuddered as she coughed out more blood that stained the rusty containers’ surface. Dabi tore his eyes away. You could have stopped Takame before he went after her. You’re weak.

Wasn’t my fault I got sent on this damn assignment, he argued on instinct.

He paused, feeling his conviction disappear upon seeing Geten’s state. He ignited his arm, feeling the fiery torture wrack his already fractured limb. It didn’t expunge the guilt, but he liked to think that it could, somehow. 

Did Shigaraki know, sending two people whose quirks don’t work well against him? 

He was confronting Shigaraki when they got back, that was for sure. But for now, his attention was drawn to her. 

Is her breathing slowing? Shit. 

He squeezed his eyes shut, feeling helpless, so utterly helpless. C’mon, girl, don’t die on me. Please. 

When he opened them, he saw two figures rushing towards them. He recognised one of them as the soldier who had welcomed them at the airport. 

“Help her first, I’m good.” He said as he extinguished his punishment. The two of them nodded. One of them stepped forward to lay a hand on Geten.

Dabi slapped it away with a glare. “Are you an idiot? She’s in no state to be carried.”

The soldier gave a patient smile. “I’m not moving her. My special ability can teleport people to a nearby location I’m familiar with by being in physical contact. We’re bringing the both of you back to the airport where Compress will take you back to Deika.” 

“Ah,” Dabi said, leaning back, “My bad.”

With one hand each, the soldier touched each of their shoulders, while the other companion laid a hand on him. The teleporter closed his eyes.

In the next few seconds, Dabi felt a light tugging sensation, definitely smoother than the gunky horridness that was the Doctor’s method. The next moment, he found himself back at the airport on solid ground. 

“Keep her spine in line,” Dabi ordered, and the two obeyed, gingerly holding Geten in place. “How long till Compress gets here?”

“ETA ten minutes,” The teleporter announced. Dabi swallowed – If he doesn’t get here on time...

The night was quiet and of a cool temperature, but Dabi was still sweating, and the serenity of this scene was destroyed by the haggard breaths Geten was drawing. He kept looking at the sky, trying to spot a black dot in the darkness. When a seeming eternity had passed feeling more anxious by the minute, he saw it, illuminated by red lights. 

He heard the whirring sounds of the chopper as it closed in and landed. Dabi spotted the familiar orange-brown coat and the black hat of Atsuhiro Sako, and a painful smile of relief tugged at his lip. 

One thing Dabi liked about Compress was that despite his showman persona, he didn’t mince words, or speak when there was no need to. Sako raced out of the aircraft, compressed Geten and pocketed her. 

“You need me to do you, too?” Sako asked him. 

Dabi shook his head. “Let’s go. Thanks, you two.” He acknowledged the soldiers, who bowed in return and left. The two Lieutenants climbed into the helicopter and the pilot lifted off. 

“No headsets? I’m not going deaf here,” Dabi shouted over the whirring. 

“Chill, the pilot has a noise-cancelling quirk. He’ll activate it soon.” As Compress said this, the ruckus disappeared, as if they were back on the jet. Another pang of hurt poked at Dabi, thinking about his nonchalance at the start of the mission.

“You look like hell.” Compress noted Dabi’s arms and the dust and grime on his coat. 

“Yeah. Assignment was harder than we thought.”

“I presumed much. Who was it?”

“One of the advisors in my regiment, and his daughter.”

Dabi heard the surprise in Sako’s tone. “Oh, Skeptic’s gonna go mental. Not that he already isn’t.”

That got a chuckle out of Dabi, but it died as he thought about the damage Takame had done. 

“But you guys finished the mission, right?” Compress asked. 

Looking out the window at the night sky, he muttered, “Yeah.”

“You didn’t throw her under the bus, did you?” 

Dabi’s head flicked back to face Compress. “What the hell, no! Why would I?”

The performer raised his arms to placate his anger. “Sorry, last time you talked about her, you were ready to kill her or whatever’s in your head. You mean to say that you guys are on good terms now?”

Dabi sighed. “I just don’t hate her. And I have no reason to let her die. Shigaraki wouldn’t be happy.” He added as an afterthought. 

He gave a tiny sigh. “Well, I’m sure you have a thrilling story of how you two managed to get to this state.” 

“We definitely do,” Dabi said dryly. 

“Tell us all about it tomorrow. Go get some sleep tonight. The doctor has a cell activation quirk, he’ll fix you up first, then her.” 

“No, get her first. I’ll wait.” 

“Fine,” Compress relented after seeing the adamant expression on Dabi’s face. “You’re really...concerned for her. It’s weird.” 

Dabi replied with a yawn.

––––––

The doctor flipped through his clipboard. “Multiple fractures on her arms, five broken ribs, dislocated jaw and she suffered a skull fracture.”

“But you fixed all of it...right?” There was an undertone of a “You better have.” that the doctor understood, given the reassuring smile he wore at Dabi’s question. He was getting sick of people trying to calm him down with smiles, like that would help.

“I used my ability as best as I could, and it fixed most of it, but I only sped up the recovery of the cell reparations. We’ll be providing iron and calcium supplements to help her along, but she’ll be bedridden for the next few days.” 

“Any permanent damage?” 

“As long as she gets enough rest and doesn’t exert herself, she’ll be fine and back to normal in a few weeks.”

Dabi exhaled. “Alright. Thanks doc.” 

Dr Shimano nodded and left the room. Dabi looked at Geten, whose chest rose and fell at a stable pace as she slept, no longer shaking, a significant improvement from just an hour ago. 

“Sorry Geten,” He said. “I fucked up.” 

As the words left his mouth, he took a second to realise what he had just said. He blinked. When did I start caring so much? 

The air-conditioned room and the leather chair he was seated on let the remaining surges of adrenaline fade out, to be replaced by an ice-cold fist of realisation – The events that had transpired in the last couple of hours punched him in the face. 

He had not left her side once the entire time. 

You’re really...concerned for her.

He got out of his seat, staggering upon registering Mr Compress’ words from earlier with clarity, similar to receiving a fiery touch on his skin. What the hell? 

He glanced back at Geten sleeping, then he left the room with extended paces. I should get back to my room. Yeah, that’s a good idea. He pushed all thoughts of the girl out of his mind, focusing on the inevitable debrief from him the next council meeting, since she couldn’t –

He swore under his breath. Stop thinking about her. These thoughts, feelings, whatever they were. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it was unnatural. Foreign. Probably dangerous. 

––––––––

The next morning’s meeting convened, in the absence of Lieutenant Apocrypha, with Dabi’s debrief of the mission. 

“Alright, Dabi, care to explain what happened?” Shigaraki drummed his fingers on the table.

Dabi stood up, wearing his trademark lazy expression, though he was actually fatigued. “So our target turned out to be a Mihara Takame, daughter of Shingu Takame, who was an advisor to Violet Regiment.” 

He noted the widened eyes of the old MLA executives. Hanabata’s gaze flickered between the desk and him. And was that a bead of sweat rolling down Skeptic’s forehead? It might have been his imagination.

“What?” Re-destro gaped, then turned to Shigaraki. “Grand Commander, I apologise deeply for this treachery. I had no idea —“ 

Shigaraki waved his hand. “Never mind about that first. Continue.”

“We got into a fight, which turned out bad for Apocrypha, who took most of the damage, but I managed to finish the assignment.” 

“Yeah, that’s the part I wanna know.” Shigaraki leaned forward, clasping his hands together. “Why did you guys end up taking the beating you did?” 

“Takame’s quirk was a shitty matchup against mine and hers. He just wouldn’t feel any pain. Impossible to incapacitate him.”

“And Apocrypha’s ice did nothing?” 

“No, it didn’t hinder him much.” 

“Then how did you kill both of them?” 

“I took out the woman first.” Dabi mimed twisting a neck. “For her old man, I concentrated my flames onto his head. Carbonized it. He probably died from brain failure or something.”

“Ah, copying Endeavour now, eh?” A small grin made Dabi bristle, though he concealed it. 

He shrugged. “What can I say? He’s got decent moves to copy, and I have the firepower to match his. Speaking of which, you might want to send a team to dispose of the body. I didn’t burn up the girl, only Takame.” 

Shigaraki frowned. “Why don’t you do it?” 

“Excuse me?” The coldness in the room spiked as the two stared at each other with venom. 

“I don’t know why you could cremate the larger-sized adult male but not the small girl. Go fix your mess.” 

“You’re really going to send me all the way back just to burn one more corpse?” 

“Yep.” Shigaraki’s eyes were still fixated on him, as though daring him to act out. What do you want? Something about the way his leader questioned him was off. Hell, he was never so interested in these small problems that cropped up. Dabi had talked to Twice before the meeting. According to him, a small riot broke out in the town centre over Shigaraki’s leadership, and the latter didn’t seem to care. 

Did you send the hit squad on us? Dabi’s eyes swept the room. Hanabata and Skeptic’s faces were whiter than normal, but that was because Takame was on their list that Apocrypha freaked out so much about, right? 

Dabi was about to argue further, but decided against it. He needed answers, and he doubted anyone in the room would offer anything worthwhile. Maybe going back would be helpful. 

He spun around and walked towards the door. “Fine. I’ll get to it now. Prep the jet, Skeptic.”

Without waiting for an answer, or for Shigaraki to stop him, he left the room, slamming the door behind him with a growl. He had to admit, though, that the solitude and this menial task given to him allowed him time to think about everything that had happened last night, and he kept coming back to the one name.

Mesa. 

That was all he got from the thug. A name that he couldn’t even be sure was real. Dabi was somewhat confident it was a legitimate answer: the thug was terrified of dying, especially after Dabi used his partner as a demonstration. 

When one was about to die, truths became more apparent. They stopped lying and told the truth, whether one was on their deathbed or backed up against an alley. 

Sensei had done the same thing. 

Dabi frowned, and quickened his pace. Which reminded him...that factory, it looks similar to the one that night. Guess I’ll look around there too. 

He emerged from the underground tunnel to the airport, a convenient distance from the mansion. And his face blanched. Why the fuck is she here? 

Geten was talking with the pilot, her posture bent, and Dabi didn’t need a doctor to tell him she was still injured. 

He marched up to her and waved off the pilot. “What are you doing here?” 

“I’m going back.” She said, her face tight with pain. Or defiance. One worried him, the other annoyed. 

“No, you’re not. You’re still fucked up, you’re going back to the hospital.” He pointed away from the helicopter beside both of them, which reminded him of a parent sending a kid to their room. 

And just like the kid, she was acting like a brat. “I need to go back. Please. How did you even know I was here?” 

“I didn’t.”

“So you’re going back to Tokugawa?” 

Dabi bit back a retort. “No,” he tried. 

Her eyes narrowed. “If you’re going, I’m going.” 

Dabi envied Sako for the issues he could solve with his quirk with one tap. He stretched his sigh out. “Alright. Fine. One condition.” 

“What?” 

“Go take a shower and change out of this. You look and smell like shit.” 

Geten seemed to be in no mood to shoot a returning insult. She nodded. 

–––––––––

The two took a helicopter ride, which Dabi figured was Skeptic’s way of flipping him off — he was in the mood for another private jet ride, at least up till Geten showed up. 

Along the way, Dabi explained what had happened while she was unconscious or hospitalised. She nodded, rather numbly, to everything. He felt like pressing her on why wanted to come along, but she looked to be in such a somber mood Dabi kept quiet once he was done. 

“Thank you,” Geten said, which caught Dabi off-guard. 

He stared at her. “Huh?” 

But she lapsed back into silence. 

Takame’s words really affected her, huh? He got the gist of it: Takame was pissed off. Dabi was too focused on finishing the job, and the concussion dulled his senses, even as he crept up to the both of them. He didn’t hear everything Takame said, but enough of it. 

He still had no idea what she was doing here. Guess he would find out. 

They touched down a while later, took another motorbike ride, also in silence, to the factory. When they got off, there was a rush in her step, as though in anxiety, to reach the site of their Pyrrhic victory. Although, Dabi managed to keep pace with her. 

Mihara’s body was still there, and the imprint of Shingu was visible on the stone ground. Geten took out some ice from her pocket and used them to shut her wide eyes, then adjust her broken neck. She looked like she was sleeping. 

Next, she fashioned her ice into a platform which carried the young woman. Dabi quietly watched all this unfold, not wanting to interrupt whatever she was doing. 

Then Geten walked towards the nearby forest. Taking out more ice, she formed a wide, curved object, which she used to shovel dirt. 

Oh, so that’s what she’s doing. 

As if in a trance-like state, he picked up some sticks off the ground, lit the tip of them and passed three to Geten, who had laid Mihara’s body in the grave and filled it with dirt. 

She looked at the makeshift joss sticks, then at him, and gave a quivering smile. She knelt down to place them on top of the grave. 

As she tried to stand up, she stumbled a bit with a wince of pain. Dabi grabbed her shoulders to steady her. “Hey. Don’t stress yourself.” 

Her footing is off, he noted that, as well as her constant flinching. Her ribs were probably still hurting. 

He sighed and muttered, “You – You can lean on me. Just don’t tell anyone I said that.” 

“I’m fine,” She said with less believability than a hero’s promise. But she did, after a pause, rest her head on his shoulder, as the two stared at the blue flame that slowly died, its bright azure radiance leaving small spots in their eyes. 

“Why’s it seem like you trust me all of a sudden?” Dabi had to ask. 

After a moment of silence, Geten mumbled, “I think...I think I just do. You’re not the worst.” 

That’s a first. 

“So why’d you bury her?” 

“Because…” She looked at her hands. “They didn’t deserve it. It’s weird, isn’t it? I got beat up so much by them, but I’m still respecting her.”

“No, it’s not weird. It means…” Dabi considered his next few words. “It means your heart isn’t cold.” 

––––––––

Nice chapter to write, though very long. I realised I had a lot to say so this is sorta still part of this arc, but I’m starting to transition to the next. And now writing these two just became a lot harder, given the change in character. 

So if you guys have any feedback on whether I’m too OOC on them, given what’s happened to them, do let me know. I’d appreciate it. I’m especially worried about my portrayal of Dabi this chapter, whether he’s acting too nice (for his character) too abruptly. 

I’ll have to do a long re-read of the whole story after a while to reboot and see whether their character progression is plausible. 

Nevertheless I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. 

And also yeah we’re starting to get into some Dabiten stuff. Should be fun, and hard to write. 

[kinda-ooc-just-a-little]

Heart of a Lion

Chapter 8 Aftermath

Shinso x Reader

Rated M for Future Mature Themes (Not Explicit)

Tags: slow burn, mutual pining, secretive quirk

Summary: You never wanted to be a hero. You come from a long family of heroes, so why not just be a normal person? That’s what you hoped, until you re-connected with your old High School friend/crush.

Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 /

All Shinso could feel was pain and all he could taste was blood. He knew he must have had a couple of cracked ribs by now, but the adrenaline running through his veins refused to let him feel it. All he knew was the he needed to hold on.

He had hoped you understood that he needed you to get away. It was the first thing he learned in hero school and you getting hurt was the last thing he wanted. Although, his planned turned south when he realized that he was basically powerless now that he couldn’t use his quirk and his binding cloth not with him. Even still, every time he was hurled into a tree he got back up, despite his body crying for him to stop. His only hope was that you ran away and got help. Or at least, that you were safe.

“What a weak, pathetic hero.” Yuto mocked. “I thought you were a pro-hero? You’re nothing without your items. It’s just like I always said, you won’t get far with a quirk like yours.”

“I don’t care.” He managed to speak out, lying face down on the ground. “I won’t let you hurt those I care about.”

“But I will, dear hero. Once I’m done with you, I’m going to kill that little cheerleader of yours.”

Shinso clenched his fist, feeling another rush of adrenaline. “I won’t-” He forced himself to stand up but was shoved down by Yuto’s foot.

“Yes, you won’t. Because I’m going to kill you.”

He raised his foot and Shinso scrunched his eyes closed, preparing for the inevitable fall, but instead Yuto stopped. Shinso’s breath hitched because he knew Yuto heard it: a crack of a stick behind the bushes where Shinso left you.

“Oh? What do you have over here Shinso?” Yuto sneered, making his way toward where the sound came from. “Were you trying to hide your dear cheerleader?”

Shinso desperately tried to stand, a million thoughts running through his head. He needed to get to you first. He needed to save you. He needed-

All his thoughts stopped when a bright figure leaped from behind the bushes, ramming right into Yuto, sending him flying.

The sight before Shinso was so surreal, he could have believed he fell unconscious and dreamed the scene in front of him. But as he felt the heat from the fire radiating from the tail of what looked to be a seven-foot-long lioness, he knew he wasn’t dreaming.

The lioness slowly approached Yuto, letting out a low growl. He jumped to try to get away, but the lioness jumped faster, whipping him with her tail of fire, sending him straight into a tree.

“What the fuck?” Yuto groaned. “They didn’t say anything about this!” He grabbed another bottle of the strength serum and downed it just as fast as the last one. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. I’ll just have to overpower you!”

The lioness simply stared as the villain’s muscles seemed to grow twice his size again, the muscle to body height looking ridiculous, rather than intimidating. A growl radiated through the area as the lioness shook her body, the fire now spreading from the tail making a line to her head, creating an outline of fire surrounding her face.

Both fighters, now powered up, began to bull rush each other. Lioness pounced on her hind legs when she got close enough and went in for a claw swipe, but Yuto managed to dodge and get a punch into her underbelly before she could. She recoiled and spit a small ball of fire at his legs, causing him to dodge right where she positioned her hind legs and kicked him right into the gut. He fell backwards, hardly able to stand because of his over-sized muscles.

Shinso could barely keep up with what was happening. Where did this lioness come from? Was this someone’s quirk? Were you able to get back to camp and this is the work of a pro hero?

Were you okay?

Before he thought another question, he saw a flare of fire pulse throughout the lionesses body as she dashed to pin Yuto down, and chomped down the device on his head.

“Shit,” Yuto managed out right before he used his arms and legs to thrust the lioness off him. Knowing he’s defenseless without the psychic quirk blocker, he scurried to his feet and ran off into the forest.

Lioness gave a loud roar into his direction before turning to Shinso. He froze, gazing into her golden irises, not knowing what the lioness had planned for him.

She slowly walked up to him, her fire retreating from her face into her tail as she leaned down, as if bowing before him.

Shinso managed to pull himself up to sit against a tree. “Who… are you?” He asked.

The lioness did not respond, continuing to stare into his indigo eyes.

“Are you… going to hurt me?”

She shook her head and remained bowed, but this time she used her paw to write a message in the dirt.

WE GO.

“Do you… want to take me somewhere?”

The lioness blinked and nodded her head slowly.

Shinso managed to stand up and wobbled over to her figure, carefully climbing up on her back, hoping he didn’t weigh too much for her.

The lioness stood and started to trot back to where Shinso knew was the direction of the camp. It didn’t take long for her to reach the destination with her long strides. Shinso could see spinning lights of red and orange that indicated there were ambulances, most likely a response to the villain attack.

Before they reached their destination, the lioness stopped just on the outskirts of the camp. Shinso hopped off her back and gasped as he watched her immediately fall over.

“Hey! What’s wrong?” He placed a hand on her side, only able to listen to her labored breathing as she simply stared at him with darkened eyes. He observed the fire on her tail slowly starting to fade out and a bright gold light encircled her form. He leaned back and shielded his eyes at the brightness.

Once the bright light faded, Shinso’s eyes widened as he saw your body splayed out on the floor in place of the lioness, completely naked. “What the hell…”

Realizing that he was staring too long at your less than decent form, he removed his over-shirt and placed it on you, covering the important parts, unable to hide the slight blush of embarrassment on his face.

How did it end up like this? He thought.

“Seriously Shinso? I can’t believe it! It’s official?!” You shouted in excitement.

Shinso hushed you, aware of all the curious eyes in the class room. “Yeah, but the teachers are trying to keep it on the down low, so stop blabbering!”

“I’m sorry!” You whispered. “I’m just so excited for you! This has been your dream since you were a kid and now, you’re making it into a reality!”

You looked at him, expecting at least a sly grin, but his face looked troubled. You placed a hand over his where it laid on his desk. “Hey… is something wrong? You don’t look super excited about having your lifelong dream come true.”

“It’s just…” He sighed and laid his head on his arm, mindlessly running his thumb over your hand. “I feel like I’m leaving you behind. I like hanging out with you after class, but when I transfer, I’m not sure if I will have the time.”

“Then you’ll just have to promise me.” You flipped his hand and interlocked his pinky with yours. “Promise me you’ll make time for me?”

He smiled. “I will.”

You jolted awake, groaning from the pain that shot through your worn muscles, feeling like you just ran a marathon. You observed your surroundings finding yourself in what looked to be a hospital room. Sitting up, you rubbed your head, trying to remember what happened to get you here. All you remember was calling upon your quirk so you could save…

Shinso!

You rapidly tried to move your Iv around so you could go mobile, but before you could a voice called your name. “I wouldn’t move around so much, you were pretty nocked out.”

You looked toward the door to see the coordinator, or your boss, with her hands cross. “Mrs. Saito. What… what happened?” Your voice was harsh, feeling like you haven’t drunk water in days.

“We were raided by a group of villains. They underestimated us, thinking their enhancing drugs were enough to take us on. Thankfully, our heroes have experience with this type of thing and they seriously misjudged how much they could inject before it became too much. We were able to handle it swiftly and transport the injured to the nearest hospital.”

“And… Shinso?”

She sighed and walked to the side of your bed. “He’s a bit beaten up, but he’s fine. He’s being questioned by the police in his room right now.”

The police? This is bad. You thought. If the police found out you used your quirk, strict action could be used against you AND Shinso. He could end up losing his license, as well as being fired from the agency.

“I know that look and you shouldn’t be worried. He’s calling for self-defense.”

Your eyes widened at the woman in front of you. “Can he do that?”

“He’s a hero with a good reputation, he can do anything he wants.” She placed her hands on her hips. “Plus, the situation called for it. If you didn’t use your quirk, Shinso would probably be dead right now.”

You frowned at her. “You… know?”

“Of course, I know. I always do deep background checks on everyone I hire. I know what family you come from, even though they don’t go around showing of their quirk, so I could put two-and-two together.”

You looked at her with pleading eyes.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. But you might want to talk to Shinso. He seemed pretty… upset for some reason.” Her phone ringed and she excused herself to take it. “The nurse will be here soon, you may want to ask her when it’s okay to walk around if you want to see him.”

You simply nodded at her as she left, now alone with your thoughts. You really hoped he wasn’t mad at you for hiding such a thing, but you wouldn’t blame him. He trusted you and yet you couldn’t even trust him with the knowledge of such a powerful quirk. Honestly, him not trusting you was the last of your worries. What if he never wanted to talk to you again?

No, he’s not that type of person… you hoped.

A day passed and your muscles were still sore but good enough to walk around. At least, that’s what the nurses forced you to do. You were ordered to walk a certain distance per day, so your muscles don’t lock up, but every step felt like pins prickling throughout your entire body.

You really wanted to visit Shinso. You hadn’t seen him since the villain attack and every hour you don’t see him makes you worry that he’s mad at you even more. You wanted to confirm that he hasn’t seen you because he hasn’t recovered yet, but your nervousness stopped you from seeing him yourself. You don’t know what you would do if he was actually upset.

“I’ll be back in a couple of hours to help you walk again. Do you need anything else?” The nurse asked.

“No, thank you.” You responded, your voice clear now that you have had enough fluids to clear your dry throat.

“Then I’ll see you in a couple of hours.” She stated as she left you alone in your room.

You reclined yourself in your bed, closing your eyes and trying to relax. The silence of room only served to fill your anxiety. In the back of your mind you wished you never went on this trip in the first place. Then again, who knows what might have happened if you didn’t.

As you were wallowing in your thoughts, you almost didn’t catch the quiet knock at the door. “Who is it?” you questioned.

“I-it’s me.” You heard Shinso’s voice.

Your heart trembled at his presence. “Come in.” you said.

He slowly opened the door and gave you a good look. He had bandages around his arms and when he turned to close the door you could see some more around his torso. You focused on your hands, unable to look at him in his injured state.

“I heard you’re feeling better.” He stated as he sat in the guest chair beside your bed.

“Yeah. They’re making me walk. It’s basically hell in here.” You tried to joke.

You heard him give a small laugh before the room grew awkwardly quiet. You knew he was looking at you, but you couldn’t bring yourself to look at him. You still didn’t know what he wanted from you. An explanation? An excuse?

“Are you okay?” Shinso asked.

“Yeah.” You couldn’t bring yourself to say anything else.

“Then why won’t you look at me?”

Your hands clenched at his words. Of course, you couldn’t look at him. “I don’t know. I feel like everything has gone wrong.”

“Then how can we fix it?”

You turned to look at him. His face sported a look of guilt, an emotion you never wanted him to direct at you. You figured it was time you trusted him. “What do you want to know?”

He gave himself a few seconds to think. “Whatever you want to tell me.”

“Okay.” You said. “Then I’ll tell you about my quirk, and the reason I kept it a secret for so long.”