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“Sero!”
Hanta loops and latches a tie of his tape around the top of a lamppost, hanging off of it as he lifts his visor to look down the street. He sees Kirishima and Ashido running towards him.
“Where’s Denki?” He feels vibrations come from lower down. He peers down to see Tamaki knocking on the metal post, waving for him. Hanta lets go of the tape to slide down. “Tamaki? What’s up?”
Tamaki’s expression is much more anxious than usual. “Denki wants to see you… He’s over in medical.”
He’s in medic-…
Hanta gives Tamaki a smile, not wanting his upperclassman to mistake his worry for annoyance. “Thanks man, I appreciate ya.”
Kirishima and Ashido tackle Tamaki into a hug as Hanta runs off. Surely he’s just busy with helping the injured evacuees. The pro’s wouldn’t have put him on the frontline… Hanta gulps, his anxiety bubbling up. Would they?
His trot raises to a run as, passing many heroes. Injured heroes. Healthy heroes. Heroes cheering. Laughing. Celebrating. Hanta’s heart twinges at the memories flooding into him of Denki smiling, laughing, bringing the class together.
Before he realizes it, he’s at the U.A.’s medical tent. Rushing in, he searches for Denki, something inside him growing as he’s seeing more classmates than pros. He grimaces as his imagination begins to run to the faces of his friends, all of them injured, bleeding, sad, and emotionally breaking as he tries harder to focus on his present.
“Hanta?”
Hanta pauses, eyes trying to focus on the person in the bed he finds himself standing beside. “Den...ki?”
The blond tries to force a smile, but this time, for the first time since Hanta has ever known the other, he can’t seem to muster the mental strength to so, tears running down his heavily bandaged and bloodied face. His left wrist and foot are in casts, but Hanta knows those tears aren’t just from physical pain.
“Denki, man, it’s alright,” Hanta rushes to his boyfriend’s right side, “I’m here. I got you.” Hanta reaches over to the unbandaged left side of Denki’s face, gingerly caressing his face.
The moment Hanta touches him, Denki breaks further, his right hand weakly trying to grip Hanta’s shirt.
Hanta wiggles onto Denki’s bed to make him lay back down to avoid further injury. He sits against the temporary headboard as Denki melts into him, but the blond is still crying uncontrollably, his shoulders tensing over and over. He shakes his head, his breath quivering as he tries again and again to speak. He’s only getting increasingly upset, his voice not allowing him to communicate to Hanta.
His heart aches at the sight of the blond who tries so hard to make sure everyone is happy and listened to just break in his arms. Hanta pulls Denki closer to him, pressing a kiss to the gauze covering his forehead.
It feels like hours pass while Hanta lulls Denki into a slumber. The sun has long since set and all of the other patients have fallen asleep or left. The medical staff still here work on treating the remaining injured until they are stable enough to be moved to a hospital. They had enough courtesy to leave him and Denki be.
When Denki stirs, Hanta is combing his fingers through his hair. Partially to ease his boyfriend, but also to help him tame and calm his own emotions. He needs to refill his anxiety prescription soon…
Denki groans as he opens the one eye that isn’t covered. “Hanta?”
Denki tries to sit up, but Hanta stops him, curling his other arm tighter around him. “It’s alright Denki, I’m right here.”
The blond relaxes once more, sighing as he looks up at Hanta. When he meets the raven’s eyes, he quickly looks away. Hanta watches as regret… shame? ...floods his face. Hanta brushes his thumb over Denki’s cheek, the other sighs out his nose as he pressed his cheek against Hanta’s palm.
“I ran back.” Denki’s voice is soft and rough. The look of self-deprecation increases as the darkness in Denki’s eyes grows. “After I came to, all I saw was fighting and everyone’s quirks flying without rhyme or reason. I couldn’t focus on what was happening and I got scared and- and I just ran. I ran away like a fucking coward. I was supposed-”
Hanta shakes his head, he feels the colour drain from his face. “Denki. Look at me.”
Denki cuts his babbling off. It takes him a minute to work himself up to it, but he brings his gaze up to Hanta, every bit of fear he experienced earlier in the day still alive in his eyes.
“They didn’t tell any of us what to prepare for. They took you away from the rest of us. I’d be worried if you weren’t scared, Denki.” Hanta reels himself back in. Denki’s fear is very possibly what saved him. “You were- are heavily injured. No one even checked to see if you were okay. Denki, you want to be a hero, yes?”
The blond nods slowly.
“To do that, you need to be alive. You need to take care of yourself first or you can’t take care of anyone.” Hanta presses a kiss to the tear falling from Denki’s eye. “You’re not a coward. You were scared. There’s a difference.”
More tears form in Denki’s eye. “Isn’t part of a hero’s job to be selfless? Isn’t that what makes a good hero?”
It takes everything in Hanta not to start crying too. “You have to be selfish sometimes, Denkins, you have to be.”
The large tent is dead silent for a few moments. Up until Denki begins to tremble intensely, suddenly breaking out in a cold sweat. The fear in his eyes drowning everything else out, desperation clawing at him.
“Hanta,” tears stain Denki’s face, the pureness of the fear becoming overwhelming to both teens, “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I- I can’t… Ha-”
Hanta presses his forehead to Denki’s, feeling helpless in face of Denki’s panic attack. “I won’t let that happen, Denkins. I won’t. I’ll protect you, I promise.”
Denki’s breathing evens out, Hanta can feel the blond’s heart rate return to normal. Denki’s body goes lax against Hanta.
He feels his own tears finally begin to drip from his eyes. “I promise,” he whispers; an anger growing inside him. How many times has this happened in the past? How many others have been reduced to panic attacks, falling asleep to only the thought of their inevitably premature death? How many have met that death?
“I will protect you.” Hanta won’t break that vow. Something here has to change. No matter what it takes.