After I got on my uniform, I ran out of my room and threw my backpack onto the counter. I stuffed my bento box inside and giggled as Papa ruffled my hair.

“Hey there, you 15-year-old! How did you sleep last night?” He asked me as he put a bowl of fruit on the table in front of me.

“Pretty good, I guess.

~*On the walk home*~

We were silent the entire walk. We didn’t even know where we were walking to. I could feel Midoriya’s gaze every time he looked past me at everyone else. My heart was racing and my face was so warm. After a few minutes, there was a loud boom in the distance. Both Izuku and I looked at each other and smirked. He grabbed my hand and ran behind a building. We hid our backpacks behind a dumpster. Izuku grabbed his new notebook and smiled brightly. We both ran back to where we heard the explosion. There was a person who had used their Quirk to grow. Or at least that was what I assumed they did. Midoriya wrote in his notebook.

“Well, it’s kinda insane to go full size in the middle of the city like this, and it's weird for someone to use this to become a villain. But to use this to be a hero would be very useful. An-”

“But sometimes these can be random citizens, Zu. Some people get mad for no reason and go full out. This, however, is rather stupid and to be in full size?” My questioning tone got the attention of the man next to us.

“Hey you two! Are you two taking notes on this?” He asked, looking at Izuku’s notebook. We both smiled.

“Yes sir! We both want to be heroes someday.” His smile was so bright. The man just rubbed his neck and smiled.

“Well... we’re going to count on you guys!” He turned and walked away. I jumped up and down and pointed when I saw

Aiko… Aiko, I need you to stay safe. Be you. You’ll be safe here, little one. I love you. I’m sorry.

Coduro! Ayano, get back! No! Saskae! No… Why… They were all I had. You are evil… evil people- BOOM!

~Nightmares~

My eyes opened and all I could see was a blur of white. Looking closer, I saw it was a white tank top. As I groaned, a hand swept across my forehead. I gripped the jacket that my hand felt and tightened my eyes shut. Soon, I heard humming. It was calming and allowed me to feel better. My pulse was slower, and I could finally breathe. As the hand gently stroked my head… Once again, I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up again. My head was resting against something that I couldn’t quite guess what it was. Someone was whispering. I did not know who they were or where I was. There were police sirens. I stretched my arms out and smacked something.

“Ow…” they mumbled. I quickly sat up.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to hit you-” I soon realized… It was Dabi. Quickly, I pushed myself off of him and backed up into a wall. While I was rubbing my back, he looked at me.

“Not even a th-”

“Thank you… But how the… Why are you here?” I coughed and pushed hair behind my ear. He explained how he saw a group of guys walking into an alleyway with a grim look on their faces. He walked in and got rid of them. Then he explained how he carried me to safety to get me out of the way.

“Be careful, by the way. We’re on the top of a building. That isn’t a wall you backed into, it’s a lifted ledge.” He looked away and watched the birds. I realized he carried me… to the top of a building. Holy crap! He carried… ME! My face turned red as my skin burned.

“What’s bothering you? You weren’t heavy, so… chill out.” A grin spread across his face as he moved his hand through his hair. I wanted to ask him a question, but I just didn’t know how to ask him. As I itched my hand, a tear rolled down my cheek and fell onto my leg. He looked at me and I quickly averted my eyes. He adjusted his legs and let his head hang as he rested his head on the lifted ledge.

“You know,” I wiped my face. “I used to think that hiding everything was fine. I know that you’re hiding things and, to be honest, I don’t think it’s a good thing.” With a sniffle, I looked at him again. A groan left his lips, and he sat up.

“Fine. I want to kill my father. He deserves to pay for what he did. And the rest of my family is fine. They did nothing wrong.” He sighed and lit a small blue flame on his finger.

“I wouldn’t know… my family’s dead.” While laughing, I brushed the hair out of my face. Call me psychotic, I don’t care, but whenever I think about how my family is dead and half of them don’t care that I exist… I laugh. I think it surprised him I had taken such a dark turn or how I had become so “evil”. When I looked at the ground, I remembered I had left the house to go to Izuku’s house. Dabi stood and pulled me to my feet. With a glare, we walked down the stairs to leave the building. Now and then, Dabi would grab my arm and hide behind a wall so that we could hide from people around us.

“You can’t exactly show people your face, can you?” My eyes drifted to his scars. He shook his head with a sigh. My hand reached for my zipper, and then I pulled my hoodie off.

“Here.” while putting it over his head, I put the hood over his eyes. With a smile, I continued walking. Behind me, he followed. He looked like a kid who wanted to just sleep for his whole life. He looked at me, just barely showing his eyes… and I broke out in laughter.

“What? What’s so funny?”

“N-nothing! Your face is just so perfect!” I continued to laugh as we walked. Once we got to Iuzku’s street, he went down a different street and disappeared into the darkness. Maybe it wasn’t too late. I reached the door and knocked. Izuku opened the door, not realizing who it was, and handed the money out to me. My face went red as he told me I could leave the katsudon on the table. I burst out in laughter as he realized I wasn’t a delivery guy. He said sorry too many times for me to count. When he finally stopped, we sat down in his room. I sat on the floor and he sat next to me. He told me about how when he had got home from the exams he didn’t know what to do since all he could do was wait for the letter. When it finally came, he didn’t know what to do either. I guess when he opened the letter he didn’t expect All Might, but there he was!

Soon enough, the katsudon guy came. I think I had a bit, but I didn’t have too much. My dad texted me, asking where I was. But I didn’t respond. Izuku watched me as I fumbled with my fingers. Mostly when I did this, I was worried about something. He just sat there and watched me. Izuku then smiled and nudged me.

“Now we can go to U.A. together and become the best heroes ever!” his fist bumped mine as we laughed together. Around 10:45, I walked home. Papa called me and I answered. He said how he was beyond worried about me and I apologized to him. I feel like I could hear his smile on the other end of the line. He told me to hurry home and that they would wait for me. Once he hung up, I took a deep breath before I walked. There was a loud flapping noise as I continued to walk. This caused me to move faster. A loud sound boomed behind me. I turned and saw giant red wings with feathers falling around me. Then, yellow eyes peered into mine.

“Hey kid.” said the man with — to be honest — outstanding eyeliner. This is when my heart stopped and then I realized…this was Hawks. I froze in pure happiness and my jaw dropped. He chuckled and rubbed his neck.

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry. I just…um…anyway! What’s up Hawks?” I looked to the ground with my hand on my chin, “Wait, that doesn’t sound right…” He flapped his wings and smiled as he handed me a coffee.

“Don’t sweat it, kid.” His voice was just as calm as I remembered. He told me how it had been a while, all I did was nod.

After a long period of silence, he had taken me by the arm and brought me to the top of a building, where he always would. He threw me a coffee bottle and rested on the top of the cold concrete. I did the same. After chugging the coffee, I yawned and fixed my hair. Hawks mumbled words of nothing, but I was looking at the stars, not even caring about what he was saying. Every star was twinkling in its own pattern. With a smile, I looked at Hawks and sighed.

“Hey, would it be any trouble to walk me home?” I asked him, holding out 1300 yen. He laughed and pushed the money away.

“Sure, but for free. Being near you is kinda good enough since neither of your fathers want me to be hanging out with you since I can ‘hurt’ you if I were to drop you if we were flying.” We walked. He was drinking the rest of his coffee and played with a feather that he had in his hand. I asked for a feather one time. He said it wouldn’t hurt if I pulled it, but I still felt terrible. We reached the house, and I thanked him, but he didn’t let me walk inside.

“I want to ask you if you could do me a favor.”

’“Sure. Well, actually it depends. I’m on a curfew.” I smiled and rubbed my neck.

“I want you to write a song for me.” My heart pounded as he asked me this serious question. My face became beet red as my hands slapped onto my burning cheeks.

“Sorry, that may sound really stupid, I just . . .I’m going through something and I think your voice and violin are the only way for me to get through.” He flashed a smile and waved as he flew away. You don’t have to! He yelled as I walked inside. Papa ran over to me and hugged me, asking me where I had been. For a response, I just smiled and told him I was fine. He told me that Dad was out looking for me and would soon be on his way back, then we would all have to talk about this incident. I hate having to talk to them about things like this because, mainly, we end up talking about things that aren’t even related to the topic.

~11:45 p.m.~

We sat at the table looking at each other, only they were looking at me and my hands were scratching each other. Papa started the conversation.

“I want to ask who has been in your room when you are not here.” His voice sounded serious, and it never does. My eyes grew wide as my hands shook even worse than before.

“What . . . do you mean?”

“I found a jacket in your closet that I know isn’t yours, Aiko. There was a pillow in there. All of your clothes were out too.”

“What were you doing in my closet?” I straightened my posture and looked at him as if accusing him, but really, I just wanted to have this conversation over with.

“I was trying to put your clothes away. Also, I needed a place for the sleeping bag from camping.” He placed his hand on his forehead and sighed. Dad crossed his arms and then slid his phone across the table with a news article opened. A new villain on the rise. Where is he hiding? Is he being helped? So, they thought I was involved with this. Dabi . . .

“If you were hiding a friend, we need to know because with this villain around, we don’t know if we can even trust you or them right now.”

“What?!”

“You are hiding someone in your closet. What do you think this looks like to us?” Dad slammed his hands on the table as Papa said this.

“JUST TELL US ALREADY, AIKO!” His eyes glow red as his eyebrows bend. As tears escaped my eyes, I jumped to my feet and ran to my room. Before closing the door behind me, I turned to see the two of them looking at me.

“I just . . . wanted to help someone for once in my life, since I ruined everyone else’s lives.” I shut the door behind me slightly and opened the window. I always hid this bag underneath my bed, filled with clothes and other things that I would need if I did this. Run away.

I slipped my extra shoes on and jumped out the window. After walking for a bit, I turned onto a random street. It was lit more than the others, so I felt safer. I sat next to a wall and pulled out my phone. Then I turned off the tracking app that my parents had downloaded for whenever there was a new villain. I drifted through the gallery that I had collected over the years and stopped in one picture. One of Me, Papa, Dad and the cats. More tears escaped my eyes, and I bashed my head on the wall behind me. That’s when he sat beside me, pulled me into a hug, and sighed. I tried pulling away but then stopped, realizing he wanted to help. I sobbed into his shirt once again and tried to stop after a bit. It had been a while, and I had finally stopped crying and we had moved to a safer spot. We were in silence.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” Dabi’s voice mumbled into my ear. My voice was quiet, but I knew he could hear me.

“I got into a fight with my parents because they knew I was hiding someone in my closet.” I hiccuped and hugged my knees. He was speechless, and he looked up at the stars as a can of soda rolled by his foot.

“Looks like I can’t stay there anymore.” he chuckled, trying to make it better, but he was terrible at it. But somehow I still laughed a little. I played with a strand of hair and then punched the ground. My knuckles began bleeding, and I just smiled. Why are you such a bad person? Why do you do this? Can you just stop being so freaking bad at being a daughter? Therefore, your family disowned you. Tears then again ran down my cheeks and onto my neck. The hiccups then attacked me once again. Dabi grabbed me and pulled me to his chest, hiding my face and blocking out the sounds I was making. I clasped my eyes shut tight as I tried not to cry as footsteps veered closer to us. They threw a bottle above our heads and the glass fell onto us.

“Stay here.” he whispered to me and let me go. I shook my head and tried to hold on to his hand, but he pulled away. When he stood, I tucked into a ball and tried to stay out of sight. I heard Dabi try to talk the guy out of what he was trying to do to us and tell him it would be better if he just walked away. I looked over to see Dabi’s hands glow a bright blue and burn the man to a crisp. With a gasp, I pulled myself backwards, hitting a wall. He looked at me and sighed.

“What. . .did you do to him? You could have pushed him away and told him to screw off!” Again, tears poured from my eyes. He walked over and crouched in front of me. His hand touched the side of my face and I flinched.

“I won’t hurt you.” His hand felt warm but cold at the same time. His ocean blue eyes pierced me and I suddenly felt calm. I nodded and pulled his hand off my face as my fingers traced his burned hand. A police siren blared close to us and he jumped. This time, instead of letting him take the lead, I stood and pulled him by the arm. We ran and ran and ran and ran and ran. It felt like we would never stop running.

At this point, I had no idea what time it was. My head was resting against his shoulder as I tried to get some sleep. His jacket was covering him as I used my backpack. He gently breathed as he slept. Sitting up, my legs brought me to the broken window. My heart raced as a cat ran across the street and stared at me. We found a motel that was pretty much trashed. How can he sleep right now? I threw the giant bag into the corner and used it as a pillow. I quietly sobbed as I faced the dirty wall. A firefly glowed brightly in my head. I hoped that I could look my parents in the face after all of this. Before I knew it, I had passed out and woke up to the bright sun shining on my face. I sat up and looked around. He was gone. What was I expecting?

“A phone call is here!” My phone screen lit up and I knew who it was. . . mainly because of the ringtone. I immediately ignored it and stood. My hair wrapped around my finger as I looked out the window. It was a ghost town and a smile crept its way onto my face. Swiftly, I walked over to the back door and tried to kick the door open. Once opened, my body carried me to the trees that were behind the motel.

“Where are you going?” He said behind me. I turned around and looked at his shoes.

“I have to go somewhere other than here. If I get called again and I accidentally answer it, then they can track my phone. Obviously, I don’t want that.” Finally, my eyes reached his and his face was bleeding. I dropped my bag and ran over to him. Geez, Dabi, what did you do? I took off my loose sweater and wiped off the draining blood from his scarred face. He continuously tried to peel my hands off his face but I kept smacking his hands. The bleeding wouldn’t stop. By now my hands were stained red.

“What is your blood type?”

“Red?” He grinned and sat down with his back resting against the cold brick wall. I squirted next to him and gingerly smacked his cheek.

“Dabi. What is your blood type?”

“O. . . I think?” He grunted as my hands lifted from the blood. I gagged and covered my mouth.

“What’s wrong? Too much red for you little one?” He smirked again and closed his eyes. I have never wanted to smack someone so hard in my entire life before. My brain went everywhere and I landed on my rear as my head smacked onto my knees. Tears burned my face as they rolled down my cheeks. At that moment was when I realized that I missed them. All of them. I didn’t even know what I was doing. Running away with a villain. Dabi didn’t look like he would hurt me, but at the same time, I am scared of him. He is mysterious and frightening. Two qualities of a villain. The only thing is, he isn’t like the others. When I think of a villain, I don’t think of Dabi. I can’t think of him.

The red. It made me think of that day. That stupid stupid day. The pain came back to me. Every single small pain stabbed at my skin. The heat. The moment I woke up in the hospital, the memories came flooding back. If he was sorry, then he would have said it with meaning.