Beautiful Disasters- Hawks x OC

Chapter 113

Every night since Mari's funeral, Hayato had been having nightmares about her death. It was because when concerning Mariko Saito's death- he was the only guilty party. Araya, Hawks and even Dabi (as Hayato came to find out) viewed themselves as responsible for her safety and their failure to protect her is what fed their guilt. Unlike them however, Hayato really was responsible for her death itself. It wasn't an exaggeration or him twisting the past in his mind to process his grief- it was true. Because of his own selfishness, his dear friend perished.

               Months before the mission, someone had told him that Mariko was going to die. That person was his daughter Ayuri. After coming back from her outing with the blonde hero and her Aunt Mari, Hayato had asked his daughter about the "daydream" she had had during lunch. With more detail than what should've been possible for a four-year-old, the young child described vividly what happened in her vision. She saw Mariko in some kind of hospital or science lab badly hurt. She was with Hawks and she wasn't moving. It was obvious that Ayuri's quirk had manifested, but Hayato had been in denial. He'd been desperately hoping that his daughter hadn't inherited her mother's clairvoyance quirk and naively thought that if he ignored it long enough, it would go away. It was selfish, stupid, and completely illogical, but he just couldn't stand the thought of his little girl being tormented with visions of the future as his wife was before she was able to control it. He'd wanted to protect her from being hurt; and in doing so, he not only ignored the warning she gave him and Mariko, but convinced the latter to ignore it as well. Now his friend was dead, and his daughter was hurt from grief.

               Tht particular night, the dreams had been especially awful. He dreamt he had the knowledge that the people in his dream were going to die, only it was Mariko, Ayuri, his wife Kaede, Araya... everyone precious to him was going to die and although he knew it, he was powerless to stop it. He'd broken out into a cold sweat and felt sick to his stomach when he woke up. He'd gone down the the kitchen to get some water and hoped that it would calm him down- and it did- but it didn't help much. After sitting at the breakfast table for an hour trying to decide what to do, Hayato realized he needed to talk to someone about what was doing on.

               Usually, his go-to was Araya because he didn't want his wife to suffer with him. The raven-haired male however, was in no condition to lend an ear right now; so, he turned to Sakura, the only other person who could understand what was going on with him.

               The brunette answered his text immediately despite it being almost five in the morning and he wasted no time in getting into his car and driving to her house where he was greeted with open arms.

               "Come on in," she said. Her voice had lost the usual pep and energy since their friend's passing.

               Taking his shoes off by the front door, Hayato sighed. "Sorry to drop in on you like this. I just..."

               "I don't mind. I get it," she said placing a hand on his shoulder comfortingly.

               Sakura led him to her living room where she already had two cups of tea sitting on the coffee table. The familiar gesture reminded him greatly of Mariko and caused his chest to ache painfully.

               Noting his expression, the brunette offered a sad smile and a small shrug. "I never liked tea much before, but Mari always insisted it was good for calming down. She was right."

               Hayato nodded and sat down next to her on the sofa. Picking up the mug, he just stared at his hands, not caring that the hot ceramic was stinging his palms.

               "This is about Mariko, right?" she asked. "Do you miss her?"

               Tears stung his eyes, and he shut them tightly. "It's killing me," he admitted.