Tainted Love

ᑕᕼᗩᑭTᗴᖇ TᗯᗴᑎTY

"Do not underestimate her. You all saw how strong she is. Don't get over your head or you will fail."

~

"Are you ok? You haven't touched your food." Mina said putting a hand on my shoulder. I smiled at her assuringly, "It's nothing, maybe soup wasn't the best option for lunch." For a split second me and Shoto made eye contact. The only thing I could read on his face was guilt and it made me sick. Go ahead and feel guilty you jerk.

Being in the same room as him right now put a rock in my stomach. I had to get away. "I'm gonna see what else they have, don't wait up if I'm not back in time." All the other girls gave me a pout as I left the café. Once I was sure I was far enough, footsteps grew closer and at a fast pace. They were easy to recognize. "Akito at least let me explain!"

With those words I stopped. My eyes glared daggers at him and crossed my arms. "An explanation would be nice yes." No matter how hard I tried, resentment is hard to keep when I loved him so much. "I know I messed up. I always mess up and you don't. You've never made a mistake in our relationship... but how could I just sit by and watch my classmate suffer like that right infront of me? I had to help." If it were only just that one thing that has happened and nothing else were to go down that night, everything would've been okay. But that wasn't the only thing that happened. "You still could've answered my calls. You of all people should know how my childhood affected me. And when have I ever been in such a vulnerable state that I couldn't even defend myself? The one time I needed you more than anything and you ignore me." The silence in the air was scary I know. Sometimes silence is the worst sound. I'm used to ending relationships and winning arguments. But for some reason, staying calm was difficult. I don't want to leave him. I'm the only one he opens up to. Shoto is also the only person who lived in similar conditions as I.

"Are you going to break up with me?"

I was quiet when he asked that. My eye avoided his and the air grew thick. "I don't know."

~

"Akito? Where are you running off to this time?" Bakugo jerked to me. I shot my eyes into his and immediately softened them once I realized it was just him I was looking at. "I've got to try something. I'll be back before dinner. Don't be an idiot and follow me." I warned. His cheeks heated up to a pink from my flustering words and scoffed at me to hide that. "Not like I was going to." My one on one battle is tomorow and if I can't gain better control of my fire side, I can jeopardize a loss to Yoarashi. And there is no way in hell I am going to break my forty three time wining streak... I'm too petty for that.

The only reason I was only able to control my fire against All for One was because of the pressure to do so since it was a life or death situation. But this if different. I need to do it on command. And I think it's just my mindset that is stopping me.

Once I made it out to a nearby lake, my mind was set at ease seeing the calm body of water. Water is my forte but heat also needs to be apart of that. Starting out small and working my way up is the best chance I have at beating him. Even if it takes all night I can just heal myself in the morning using my stem cells. I guess my healing process must be a bit of a mystery huh? It's simple, in order for me to heal myself and others, my stem cells multiply my 100 and flow into others which will heal any wound, similar to a lizard. Of course it needs to travle through a form of water, mostly it's steam that I use. In my case though, I only need to have a body part touching water or moisture to heal. Learned that not to long ago actually...

I took a deep breath and glided my fingertips across the water. "Just don't think about it..." I tried to assure myself but that obviously hasn't worked out. On accident I let out too much firepower and made the water too hot and burned myself. "Now how in the holy hell did I manage to do that if I am suppose to be resistant to fire? Maybe I'm just not resistant to hot water... ugh this doesn't make any sense!" Now I was just losing my damn mind. This is a lot harder than it looks. I've always been resistant to heat so why now does it hurt? Is my mind really that weak?