fear. || { bnha }

seven.

For a moment, Valui's mind had fabricated a lie that Hitoshi was lying. There was no way what he had said was true — there was no way a hero could have been killed right there in the middle of the street. It didn't make sense. They had been right there. Wouldn't they have heard something? Seen something? Sure, she wasn't paying that much attention to her surroundings, but she was sure she wouldn't be so oblivious as to not see a murder.

"You're... You're lying..." Confusion swirled around in Valui's mind. This was a lie. It had to be.

The sound of an ambulance siren tore through the air, the closeness and suddenness of it making Hitoshi flinch and Valui cringe. It stopped on the main street, the front of it just visible at the end of the side road the two teenagers were on. Her false reality — that this wasn't happening; that this was all a lie — was shaken.

Her hands shook. Had she been any less aware of herself, she would have forgotten about the ticket still gripped in her fingers. She stuck it gently into a side pocket on her backpack, then dropped the item entirely and started walking toward the ambulance. It was like she was transfixed; she wanted to see if it was real.

"Valui?" Hitoshi's voice behind her sounded distant, though she couldn't tell if it was because of distance or because the ambulance siren grew louder and louder as she stepped closer to it.

Valui didn't get very far — she didn't even get back to the main road. A hand grabbed her arm in the bend of her elbow, effectively keeping her from moving any further. She turned her body slightly to see Hitoshi standing behind her, her arm in one of his hands and her backpack in the other.

"You don't need to see that. Come on." He led her back down the street, his hand not leaving her arm and his eyes not leaving her. There was some kind of tone to his voice that sounded desperate.

But I need to become stronger to be a hero.

Valui stopped in her tracks the moment the justification of her seeing a dead body flashed through her mind. She hadn't thought that phrase since she was younger — before she learned that she would never get a Quirk and, subsequently, never be a hero. Valui was a timid girl. She was shy, and scared of just about everything under the sun. But she loved the idea of being a hero; of being noticed and loved by others, rather than ignored or teased for her shyness. She would watch scary movies, play scary games, force herself out of her comfort zone all under the guise that it would make her stronger — that it would make her transition into a hero easier.

After she learned she would never achieve her dream, Valui had trained herself to drop the notion that she had to get stronger. She didn't need to anymore — the ones with Quirks would look after those who didn't. Over time, the thought stopped crossing her mind altogether; she had nearly forgotten it. It was in these rare, unusual situations that it happened again.

And it hit her like a truck.

"Valui?" The girl only grew aware of her trance when she had been snapped out of it. Hitoshi was closer to her now, his hand having left her elbow and moved to her hand. There was a look of concern on his face. "What's wrong?"

Valui shook her head. She didn't want to relive the pain and devastation she felt when she learned she would inherently amount to nothing — that she would forever be at the bottom of the food chain in this world; forever be the proverbial, and sometimes literal, damsel in distress for the heroes to come save. The endless pain in her heart had finally dulled to a soft throb. The last thing she wanted was to reopen old wounds. "Nothing," she lied, forcing as much of a smile as she could. "Just thinking about something."

Hitoshi looked at her in disbelief, but didn't say anything. Valui took her hand from his to reclaim her backpack and pull the straps over her shoulders. With a more genuine smile, she placed her hand back in his and they began walking down their detoured path to the train station.

"You..." Valui hesitated; this still didn't seem real. "You saw it, didn't you? The body?"

She glanced up to see Hitoshi nod. "Yeah. They were pulling it out of an alley. It was... pretty bad." He looked down at her. "I wanted to protect you from it."

Her heart throbbed.

Valui turned her gaze to her shoes, awkwardness filling her. She smiled. "Th-thank you."

"Of course."

They fell quiet as they walked. Soon the sound of the ambulance and police sirens faded away until everything was peaceful white noise in the background. It wouldn't last, of course, once the general public got wind of a murder that happened. Death wasn't uncommon in any society, and this superhero one was no different. Crime was still a definite thing. It wasn't unusual for heroes to get seriously injured, or even die, from fighting villains.

But a murder was different.

It sent a chill down Valui's spine that made her body move closer to Hitoshi.

"Something wrong?"

She could feel him looking down at her, but she didn't return his gaze. Instead, she shook her head. "No, I'm fine." It wasn't entirely a lie — with him, she did feel fine. She felt safe and secure, like nothing could possibly hurt her. It was the thought of what could happen when he wasn't around that scared her.

Hitoshi pulled his hand out of hers. The action was so sudden and without explanation that it made her look up, a distraught expression making its way onto her features. Had she done something wrong? Was he mad at her? A million paranoid questions raced through Valui's mind, only to come to a sudden halt.

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"You're scared, aren't you?" His question didn't receive an answer, only an embarrassed nod as Valui hid her burning face behind her hands. Faintly, she heard him do that little breathy laugh he always seemed to do around her. "I'll keep you safe. Promise."

The red on her face spread to her ears. Valui smiled behind her hands, spreading her fingers to gaze up at him between them. "A-alright. I believe you."

Hitoshi smiled lightly down at her. Was he turning red too? Yeah, he was. A shade of pink had dusted itself across his cheeks, much as it had done for her. Valui would have giggled, had she not been sure her heart had just jumped up into her throat. His arm tightened around her, pulling her closer to him. Hitoshi looked ahead of them again; but the smile hadn't left his face.

"Okay, good."

As they walked, Valui found it hard to look away from him. She felt starstruck. She suddenly had the strong desire to commit him to memory — the way he looked; the way his voice sounded; the way his hand felt in hers and how his arm felt around her shoulders; the overwhelming feeling of comfort and safety he gave her. A desperate thought entered her head as justification for this, a thought that she would never have the courage to voice aloud.

Please stay my hero forever.