Fractures

Chapter 8

So I know this is a shorter chapter, sorry for that but I didn't feel like the next part of the story should be dumped with this one just to make it longer, this is the end of a chain of events.

It's just a little shared moment.

***

There was an undeniable smell of disinfectant.

You still felt like floating, as if your body was just in nothingness. But then your fingers touched something, and you grabbed onto it. You felt the crispness of the sheets underneath you, their slightly rough pattern on your fingertips as you fisted it.

You opened your eyes, slowly, blinking in the light that surrounded you. You stared up at the ceiling, counting the tiles and the lines meeting across it. The orange light of sunset made everything seem warm.

You were in the nurse's office.

"Y/N, you're awake!" you heard a boy's voice.

You turned your head, but it hurt and you winced.

"Take it easy." the same voice warned you.

You blinked up at Midoriya, who was sitting up in the bed next to yours. He had his back propped up with a pillow, an IV connected to his arm. His fingers were finally properly wrapped, and he was smiling again. Like it was the easiest thing in the world.

You felt groggy, and everything seemed like it was in slow motion.

"You're finally awake." someone else hopped off of a chair behind Midoriya, and stepped towards you.

It was an old lady, barely tall enough to reach the level of the bed you were resting on. She stepped on something to get higher and placed a hand on your forehead and then on your cheek.

"Your temperature is back to normal, which is good. You'll probably feel tired for a while, but that is not surprising after overusing one side of your quirk."

She noted something on a paper in her hand, while she lectured you.

"A quirk is like a muscle, something you need to use, train and take care of. But sometimes, and I'm telling this to both of you actually, sometimes that can be strained, when you use it too much without the proper precautions."

She turned back to you, her eyebrows all furrowed, a scolding in itself.

"You have two quirks for a reason. If you only use one side of it, it can have serious consequences."

She hopped off whatever she was standing on and walked away from your bed to get a glass of water. She handed it to you and then went to the door.

"I'm going to tell your friend you're awake. He seemed very worried." with that she was gone, the small thud of the door behind her was all that echoed in the room.

For a moment, you were sitting in silence with the boy, not entirely sure if you wanted to talk about the events of today. But you had to know.

"What happened?" your voice was hoarse, as if you just woke up from a lifetime of sleep. You quickly took a sip of water.

"You fainted after using your quirk." Midoriya started to explain. "You saved Bakugo, but it seemed like you over exhausted yourself and passed out.

"Is everyone okay?"

The boy nodded.

"Everyone is fine. We are the only ones that had bigger injuries, beside Mr. Aizawa and Thirteen, who are in the hospital right now. But they are going to be fine."

It was your turn to nod, staring down at the now empty glass in your hands.

"Is All Might okay?" you didn't know why you asked. You didn't know why you cared.

But there was something about watching him fight with that monster that made the words flow out of you.

Something passed on Midoriya's face before his answer. Sadness maybe.

"He's okay, he was injured, but he's fine now. He was here for a bit, but the police wanted to talk with him and Recovery Girl deemed him healthy enough to go."

You stared at him from your position in the bed. The orange glow coming through the window made the lines of his face look soft, created a small shadow under his jaw. He was still wearing his PE clothes, all scruffy and torn but he himself seemed unhurt now beside the fingers. But there was something sitting in his eyes, digging into his expression.

"Are you okay?" you asked softly.

He blinked at you, almost surprised by the fact that you would ask that question. That in a situation like this, you would think about how he was.

He broke the eye contact, turned back to staring down at his hands.

"I think so." he said after a while, his voice slightly raspy.

"I mean the villains were captured and everyone is fine."

The boy seemed to be lost in thought, or more like lost in the memories of what happened that afternoon.

"I just...I just feel like there is so much I still need to learn. Bakugo, Todoroki, Kirishima, you...every single one of you was so strong. I have to catch up to you guys."

"I think you were just as brave as anyone else today."

His head turned back towards you. You pushed yourself up, as slowly and gently as possible, but you still let out a small groan of pain. You felt like you got hit by a truck.

"You saved us on the boat." you pointed out, glancing at his fingers.

"And you helped All Might. You helped me."

There were beads of tears in the corner of his eyes. But he was smiling, one of his grateful smiles and you were glad to see it.

"Thank you." he whispered and you grinned back at him.

Suddenly, the door burst open, and Ryuu ran into the room. He had scratch marks on his face and arms, and a piece of his trousers was hanging loosely around his ankles, something probably tore it off. But he was standing there, whole and healthy.

You released the breath you didn't know you were holding. He did the same.

"Y/N! I was so worried." he ran over to you and before you could process it, his arms were around you, pulling you into him.

He never hugged you. Ever.

It wasn't that it was forbidden, but as you were the daughter of the head of the organisation he was working for, it was always kind of given. You were allowed to touch but never hug.

But he did it now, squeezed you with his arms, until you could feel his ribs digging into your own, his face buried into your shoulder.

"The old hag didn't want to let me in to see you, she said you needed to rest. I tried to insist and she sent me away, god I thought you would never wake up."

He was ranting now, and it was just so him, and his arms around you were so him and his smell was so him. You felt tears in your eyes and you lifted your own arms, albeit shaking, around him and squeezed back, your first real hug for a long time.

He was safe. Midoriya was safe. The others too. And that moment, in the last rays of the sun, you swore to yourself that you would do anything to keep it that way.