Chemical Resistance (Dabi x OC)

Chapter Three

When Hawks had offered to take me to a hospital, I hadn't expected him to pick me up with his one arm around my shoulders and the other under my knees, then launch himself into the air at full speed. I instantly threw my arms around him panicked, worried that he'd drop me. The feathers that had been my blanket before had now returned to his wings in full, their furious red colour stretching out from his shoulder blades in all their glory. It was quite beautiful in person. Even the further we got from the ground, the more I didn't feel as scared. Watching the ground get further and further away wasn't as frightening as I thought it would be, and once we were in the sky, it was even peaceful. I knew he wouldn't drop me.

He paused for a moment in mid air hovering, clearly amused by the O shape my lips were forming. The view from up here was incredible.

"Do you see this every day?" I asked him, tightening my arms a little around his neck when the wind blew. Hawks laughed before he nodded.

"I do, but it's not often I share it with such a pretty woman in my arms."

His words made me instantly blush, and I turned my gaze away from him in embarrassment. Sure, Hawks was totally my celebrity crush, and I had posters of him in my bedroom that I'd had for years now, but hearing those kinds of things from anyone, let a lone a hero heartthrob, was still embarrassing.

He laughed again and we began to fly.

*****

The flight was very short since it turned out we were only a few blocks away from the closest hospital, and after checking me in at the reception, Hawks asked if it would be okay to pass my details onto the detectives that would be involved in this case whilst we waited for a doctor to come and see me.

I nodded, but he continued to stare at me as if waiting for something. When I looked back at him confused, he laughed.

"I kinda need a name, yakow, to give them to contact you?" he joked, scratching the back of his head. Realisation smacked me in the face and I immediately apologised.

"It's Kurosawa, Ren Kurosawa," I informed him, bowing slightly in apology.

A doctor began approaching us, greeting Hawks like old friends, and then turned to me to ask my name. Hawks answered for me before I could, my voice catching in my breath as he looked at me with a cheeky grin.

I couldn't stop myself from smiling shyly back.

A vibrating sound began, faint at first, then growing in sound. Hawks reached into his pocket and pulled his phone back out, looking at it and closing his eyes and sighing.

"Shit, I gotta go," he said, pocketing his phone and looking back at me and the doctor. He raised his hand to touch the side of my bare arm, the gesture comforting. "I'll be in touch Ren Kurosawa."

Before I could reply, he was already halfway out of the hospital main doors, and once his near surroundings were clear, he fully extended his red wings and took off, the force causing the doors to swing back open and a gust of wind to blow through the lobby, breezing through my hair.

The doctor only rolled his eyes and laughed before asking me to follow him for a check-up.

I thanked the taxi driver as I got out of the car, offering again to pay him for the journey. He insisted again he'd already been paid generously by the winged hero and smiled in assurance. Hawks had most likely asked the hospital to arrange my transportation home.

The doctor, as expected, said if it hadn't been for the state of my clothes, he wouldn't have believed I'd had a run in with one of the more recently infamous villains in Japan. Even now as I stood in front of my apartment block in a mix match outfit consisting of apparel from the hospital's lost and found, I didn't believe it either. The doctor couldn't believe I was still alive, and the only damage I'd taken was from the running on my bare feet. Some ointment and a nurse's advanced quirk easily repaired them, well enough that I could walk and talk with the detectives on the case. When I dropped by for questioning, they were even more impressed with my quirk and ability to avoid being harmed at all against Dabi and Toga.

They'd been so surprised that I wasn't shocked when one of them asked me if I'd gone to UA, and had was confused when after a pause, I replied a cautious no.

The taxi drove off and I began making my way towards the apartment block entrance, letting myself in with my code and starting to ascend the stairs. The building itself was rather plain, no decorations or such to give it any character. It was a standard build with the only purpose to it being to give people like me with a low income somewhere secure to stay. Even with my savings, this place wasn't as cheap as it could have been, but it did the job. Some of the cheaper places had me wondering how their landlords were even allowed to legally let them, given some of the conditions they were in.

Reaching floor 3, I wasn't surprised to see Mrs Nomura watering the plants she had placed around her apartment door, shuffling between them all and cooing to herself about how well they were handing the recent heatwave. She was the only resident in this block that had allowed her good-natured personality to grow beyond the inside of her apartment, and I knew the landlord didn't have the heart to tell her to move them because of how sweet she was.

She heard me approaching as I walked down the corridor to my apartment door, number 306, and smiled at me, her eyes gleaming from behind her round glasses frames.

"Oh Ren, what an adorable shirt you have on today," the small elderly lady beamed, stretching the wise wrinkles on her face. I looked down to see what she meant and saw a photo of a cartoon bee with the phrase 'Bee Nice' below it on the bright pink fabric. I laughed and thanked her.

"How have you been Mrs Nomura?" I asked, bowing slightly in greeting. She continued to water her plants whilst I went over to her and picked up the spare watering can from the windowsill, and following her lead assisted her.

"I've been fine, thank you very much for asking my dear," she said, bending down to reach one of her lower plants. I quickly grabbed it and raised it for her, and she smiled at me in thanks. "I just want to make sure all of my babies are well watered before the storm tonight."

After I finished helping her watering her plants, she waved goodbye to me as she retreated into her apartment alone. I felt bad for her being by herself, so whenever I saw her, I always tried to make sure she was aware I was always happy to spend time with her. She told me once her husband had been the ultimate love of her life that together they felt like they could do anything, but ten years ago he'd been walking home and got caught in the crossfire of a fight between and hero and villain. Debris had been sent flying his way, and unfortunately, he didn't survive.

She'd been alone ever since, just her and her many plants. And her cat, Cheshire, however he was always off exploring so wasn't much of a companion, despite how fiercely she loved that furball.

I reached above my apartment door frame for the spare key I hid above it in the dent in the wall, noting I'd need to have a new spare made to replace the one that was melted today.

I let myself in, stepping over the threshold into my personal space and sighed.

Home. Finally. It only took me 6 hours.

Taking the oversized sneakers off to switch to my house slippers, I tiredly trudged towards my small kitchen where the pile of dirty dishes from yesterday still stood untouched, my snake plant dropping almost dead behind it.

"I'll do those tomorrow," I told myself, even though I knew subconsciously I'd most likely leave them for at least another 3 days, or at least until the pile was double in size. I grabbed a soda from the fridge and walked into the adjacent seating room, flopping my body onto the sofa, sinking into the fabric.

According to the media's reports of the fights being aired in the patient room I had been in, the fight had started as I was walking home, and had only finished just before I left the hospital, meaning in total it had taken me six hours to get home. Thankfully, I didn't live with anyone else, so it wasn't like anyone was worried about my coming home extremely late. Maybe it was sad that no one other than my elderly neighbour would notice me missing, but I saw it as a relief. No one was desperately relying on me, and that was the way I liked it.

Not long after lying on the sofa I fell asleep, blissfully unaware that the crazy events from today were far from finished.