-Let's Chat- (MHA x OC fanfic)

-13-

Once the air of the room hit the blood on her finger it set ablaze in a tiny, controlled fire, and she put her finger up next to the straps on the sides of Mizuki's face, causing the poor girl to try to bite back pained whimpers from the burning plastic-like material on her.

All of the adults in the room were just watching this in shock in all honesty, none of them expecting any of this. They hated the way that Mizuki sat in silence as the flames burned her face- not giving any hints to Noriko about the truly painful nature of the fire.

The plastic seemed to take ages to burn away, prolonging the pain further and making it so unbearable to watch.

But eventually the first strap went, and then the second, and the third, the fourth, the fifth and the sixth.

It was off.

As soon as the straps had burned enough  to snap, Mizuki snapped them all and dropped the muzzle to the floor, spitting out the wooden peice and grasping her jaw in pain from having it held open like that for so long.

Mizuki didn't make the move to make words yet, only making small noises of pain that she muffled behind the hand closest to her face.

She was strong, she could take it, she needed to be better for Noriko. Noriko needed her.

It repeated in her head like a mantra of suffering, it was the reason she was still alive. She meant nothing to anyone if she couldn't protect Noriko.

She had failed the previous night, she let  Noriko gain another set of burns, but she protected her from the worse rage of their father, so she had managed something. She was worth something. She wasn't going to stop being worth something now.

Noriko quickly covered her cut finger with her other hand and requested a fire-proof bandage, the normal for this new quirked society, and put it on to stop the bleeding in her finger before looking at Mizuki. "Can you speak? God that looked painful I'm so sorry.."

Mizuki gave a shaking smile in response, ignoring every bit of pain she was in. "Nothing a big sister can't handle. Dont worry about it Nori." She reached a trembling hand to pet her head, giving her a bit of comfort. Mizuki knew how painful this experience was for them both, but she wanted Noriko to stay even the slightest bit unaware. She didn't know how much Noriko saw of her state the previous night, but considering how okay Noriko seemed right now she assumed it wasn't much and she wanted to keep it that way.

Nezu called to her to come back to the couch and lay back down for a while, and she thought it was a good idea, so she prepared herself to move.

Another hiss of pain rose muffled from her throat as she stood again, almost collapsing.

"I'm okay. I'm okay.." she grimaced the words as she stumbled back to the couch Nezu and Chiyo were sitting on, basically crumbling once she reached it. But she kept repressing the pain from everything she had been through, trying to be strong for her little sister.  Noriko needed her to be strong. She swore to herself that Noriko would not get to see her weak.

"Hmmm.. yknow kit, maybe you and I should go out shopping! Get us outta the house and show you what life's all about? We could go get something to eat, and find some fun things for you and Mizuki! You know her sizes right?" Rumi caught on to the fact that Mizuki was forcing herself to stay alert and repressing the pain for Noriko, and decided to offer Noriko to leave with her for a while to separate the two so Mizuki could truly focus on recovery.

Noriko looked over to Mizuki for approval to leave, and when Mizuki gave a nod and her best attempt at a smile, Noriko grinned and jumped up to follow Rumi, Hizashi and Shouta tagging along.

"I'm giving you a base MINIMUM to spend on little Noriko, so please spend all you can!" Nezu called after them, receiving nods and a small, excited noise from Noriko as they left.