fear. || { bnha }

twenty two.

a/n: woo, a chapter relatively soon after the last one!
and now we're over 900 votes? thank you all so much!! <3

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Valui froze.

Her body went rigid; eyes growing wide and the color draining from her face. Altered memories flooded her head — instead of her father dying, it was Hitoshi; instead of a parental figure being gone, it was someone she adored above everyone else. In an instant, she felt his body growing cold; she watched the color leave his face and the light drain from his eyes. An uncomfortable cold feeling filled her stomach, the urge to vomit following soon after.

"V-Valui? What's wro—"

But instead, she just started crying.

"Y-you c-can't!" Valui stared frantically up at him, her sobs causing her already weak body to shake violently. Fear — unbridled, genuine terror — was in every movement she made; every word she spoke; every quick breath she forced into her body. She was very quickly slipping back into hysterics. "I-if you d-do you'll— Y-y-you'll—"

She couldn't even say it.

Hitoshi's expression became panicked. He took the sobbing and hysterical girl down a smaller side hallway, halfway frantically taking her face into his hands and crouching down to be more on her level. "Valui," he said gently, albeit with a strong undertone of worry. "V-Valui, it's okay. You're okay, y-you're—"

He was cut off when she broke from his grasp and flung her arms tightly around him, burying her face into his neck. The sudden action caused Hitoshi to slide down to the floor; though he held onto Valui in the process so she ended up on the floor with him. He didn't try to say anything else, instead opting to hold her close to his body and stroke her hair gently.

Eventually, Valui's hysterical sobs died down to more normal crying — soft whimpers, hiccupped breaths, sniffles. She kept her face hidden, her hands gripping tightly onto the back of Hitoshi's jacket. In the loudest voice she could muster — which was hardly above a whisper — she said, "I-I don't w-w-want you to...to d-die t-too..."

Hitoshi's hand stopped on the back of her head. She felt him look down at her; she could almost picture the confused expression on his face. "'Too'? Valui... What happened?"

She couldn't hide it anymore — she couldn't push it off until "later," whenever she decided that would be; she couldn't lie and say she was alright; she couldn't, both because she wouldn't be able to make it believable and because she just didn't want to lie to him. So, she blurted it all out as if saying it quickly would make it hurt less.

"M-my dad d-d-died earlier... R-right in f-front of m-me... He... H-he was k-k-killed protecting... Protecting m-me..."

Hitoshi's body tensed, his arms tightening around her. "O-oh," he started, the tone of his voice showing how unfamiliar he was with this situation; how he had no idea what he was supposed to say. "Oh, god, I— A-are you okay? You weren't—" He was struggling to find words; that much Valui could tell. "You weren't hurt were you?"

Something about his voice calmed her down — it always did, even when she was at her most upset. Valui pressed her nose more into his chest, managing a weak nod. "I-I'm okay. I wasn't h-hurt."

He relaxed, though not much. "Good." The word was mumbled as he rested his chin on the top of her head. Hitoshi stayed like that for a while, until Valui had completely stopped crying. She felt him lift his head up, one of his arms unwrapping from her so he could use his hand to tilt her head back. He smiled lightly — almost sadly — as their eyes met. "Hey, we were going to eat, weren't we? Do you still want to?"