Flea

Chapter Thirty Three

"How do you spell that?" Dabi asked, bent over a notepad and rubbing his temples.

"It would be far easier to just free my hands and I can write the list for you," Maeve suggested weakly, breath wheezing through a wad of tissues Spinner had stuck in her nostrils to staunch their bleeding. Dabi just shot her a look and she rolled her eyes.

"I-A-M-A-N-O-B-N-O-X-I-O-U-S-P-R-I-C-K-S-P-I-R-I-N."

He scrambled to copy, until throwing down his pen halfway through. Bakugo couldn't contain a shit-eating grin.

"Fuck this. Kurogiri, you're on babysitting duty," Dabi growled, tossing the pad and pen at the warp villain. It was already half full of prescriptions in surprisingly neat handwriting. Kurogiri merely made a warp in front of himself and behind Dabi so they sailed through, hitting the back of his head.

"Impressive depth perception. Your outfit is also excellent. I have to say, you're carrying the group in that regard," Maeve complimented Kurogiri between a wide yawn. Her breathing now had a permanent rattle that was only getting worse. She was struggling to stay awake; it had been a long day. The chair had seemed painfully uncomfortable when she first sat down but now... Actually, it was still just as bad. She just didn't care as much.

"Hey, HEY. Sweetheart." Maeve cracked her eyes open to wince and retract like a turtle into its shell at Dabi clicking his fingers in her face. She'd almost nodded off without realising.

"Finish this and you can have all the shitty little naps you want."

"Don't call me that. Unless you give Bakugo a sickening nickname as well. Love muffin? Sweetums? Your choice. It's late at night, I don't care, I'll just suffocate," she mumbled, too tired to blow wisps of grey hair off her face. Bakugo glared at the scarred man with a clear message. If Dabi tried to call him 'sweetums' he'd lose what was left of his face. Dabi glanced at the clock on the wall and furrowed his eyebrows.

"It's only 9 o'clock."

After learning their prisoner was possibly dying, which was an inconvenience, the villains all left the room to discuss ways around it. Kurogiiri stayed behind as a guard. Shigaraki eventually decided that they would warp into a pharmacy to steal medication for her. There was just a small complication: None of them knew anything about drugs. Well... The kind needed for this. Therefore, because he had the quirk most suitable for intimidating Maeve and was sane enough not to just murder her if he got frustrated, Dabi was reluctantly enlisted to get a shopping list of medicine from the girl. Everyone else just abandoned him. Typical.

"Exactly. God, I need a coffee," Maeve murmured quietly, shivering. She was sick. Very very sick. It gave him a headache.

"You're sure you don't know what kind of gas he created?" The girl asked with a sigh.

"All we know is that it knocks people out if they breathe in enough of it," Dabi replied. She closed her eyes and leaned back against the metal chair.

"Look. My best guess, with the symptoms I'm displaying, is that I have an altered version of acute respiratory distress syndrome. There's no fancy drug I can magically pull out of my mind to treat that. My lungs are filling with fluid; the only way to support recovery is with oxygen therapy or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. So sure, I can tell you to get me aspirin for my fever, and spironolactone to try and decrease my fluids, but those aren't going to actually fix anything."

She had a point. Shit. Dabi noticed the girl's lips were turning blue, probably from oxygen deprivation.

"The best thing you could do is get me out of this chair; sitting upright isn't good for my lungs. Oh, reducing the humidity in the room would help. Food and water would also be appreciated," she suggested dryly, between coughing. Dabi and Kurogiri exchanged glances. This wasn't going how they'd expected. Shigaraki would never agree to release the girl, even though it was obvious she was too unwell to escape anyway.