My Hero Academia: Stone Cold.

Touch.

"Uh...I'm okay." She replied to him, feeling like such a stupid fool. "I must be tired." She stood up to leave for her room to die of humiliation alone.

"Wait." He spoke up, halting her feet in their tracks. "Do you have to go? We were having a nice conversation."

She clenched her fists from the awkward tension in the room, why did she feel like this? What was going on? "Okay," she sat back down beside him and  glanced in his eyes. Red. She had never met my one with red eyes before. Red eyes were a thing of evil in movies and books but looking at him, his eyes were strong and powerful. The color almost held her gaze demandingly, such a domineering shade to own.

"What?" He caught her staring again and she awoke from her trance.

"Oh, sorry." She looked down apologetically.

"It's okay. What were you staring at?" He asked.

"Nothing, I wasn't staring at anything."she blushed, not able to mask the little smile she had upon her lips.

"You know, your face turns pink when you lie." He smiled at her when she looked back up at him. "I've noticed."

"I just noticed...your eyes." She spoke up.

He leaned forwards, fluttering his eye lashes trying to be silly. "What about them?"

"You have red eyes." She gazed at them a little more bravely now. "I've never seen red eyes before."

"When you were homeschooled, were you allowed to go outside?" He asked. "There's plenty of people with red eyes out there. It's Tokyo." He chuckled. 

"You're the first." She shrugged, a smile bubbling up to her face.

"Hmm, I guess I'm happy I'm the first red eyed person you've met." He rested his chin in his hand, "what do you think? Do they suit me?" He jokingly fluttered his eyelashes at her. 

"They match the rest of you." She giggled. "They're very strong eyes, I can tell it's probably the first thing someone notices about you."

"I can say the same thing about yours." He gazed at her multi colored eyes. She shook her head, lowering it to avoid any type of comment made about them. "I'm not very fond of them."

"Why not?" He asked. "They're unique."

"I've never liked them. It's been my biggest insecurity." She admitted. 

"Stop, they're beautiful." He blurted out, a blush following suit. 

Ari lifted her gaze back to him, astonished. "They are?"

"Of course. You have this turquoise that's bright and in your face, then you have brown which is simple and also pretty charming. It's the best of both worlds to me." He gave her a genuine smile. It was nice to see him smile the way her did, it was never forced, he smiled with his whole self. It was something she had never seen before. 

"Thank you." She smiled gratefully.

A question hung upon his lips but instead, an idea popped into his head, "Hey, I've noticed that you don't like to be touched."

"What?" The fear retuned to her eyes. "What do you mean?" He knew? He figured it out that easily? "I don't know what you're talking about." She replied, her walls going up.

"You don't have to explain anything. I just want to try something if that's okay." He opened his hand for hers. She stared at his hand like it was about to attack her. She could hear her heartbeat in her ears, "what are you about to do?" She asked.

"I just want to teach you something, I promise you I'm not going to hurt you." He told her. She slowly led her shaky hand to his own and he held it gently. "My sister had a boyfriend who was abusive to her. As a nine year old I would sit in with my parents on her therapy sessions and one day she asked old us to do this to help her brain associate touch as a good action to receive."

Ari was shaking, uncertain of what he was going to do. He traced his finger along her palm, her senses heightening, "first, concentrate on how it feels." He instructed.

She let him trail his finger over her palm, the feeling gave her goosebumps. It felt good but was she allowed to like it? It's was such a terrible experience, what she went through. There were times she would rather feel numb than feel any sensation at all.

She pulled her hand away, frightened. "Who do you think you are?" She asked, her voice hinting defensiveness. Kirishima looked up at her completely surprised by her reaction. He gave her an apologetic look, "I'm sorry if I offended you-"

"You sure as hell did!" She slammed her fist upon the table. "How can you just assume that-?" She hissed.

"I didn't mean to, you just-" He felt afraid, seeing her rage but his face showed genuine concern. 

"I'm not like your sister, Kirishima!" Her lion quirk wanted to come forth and protect her. "I'm not some little damsel in distress you think you can rescue!" Her claws came out, digging into the table, splitting the wood. His eyes shot open wide, trying to back up from her.

"Listen, I just want to help-"

"I DONT NEED YOUR HELP!" Her fangs came out, growling as she stared at him angrily. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

As scared as he was seeing her like this his mouth uttered words before he could process the statement, "I can't leave you alone!" He said, shielding himself, feeling her lunge towards him in her lioness form. "I'm sorry, I can't. I'm determined to be your friend." He opened his eyes to see the lion staring down at him. She panted with pure rage as she glared at him, what an odd thing to say to a ferocious beast. He wants to stay her friend? She couldn't let it happen. He was too close to the truth, she wanted to rip his throat out. Her anger pumped through her so vigorously that Kirishima could hear her heartbeat. "Ari," he gulped. "I'm here when you are ready to talk."

The lioness growled and then roared in his face, talk? That would never happen. She would never speak about this, especially with a boy! Oh the rage, the anger...the hurt. She didn't deserve it! Why on earth did this happen to her?!

She pushed off his shoulders and ran back to her room, leaving Kirishima with even more questions. What happened to Arinna?