You were so happy to be back at Dabi's place of work, even if he'd told you that you had to stay with Uncle Jin or Atsuhiro while you were there, behave and do your lessons.
It was a compromise, but one you were happy with, because at least you knew he'd be nearby if you wanted to see him unlike when he goes off to work and then leaves you at home, which had been happening so much recently.
Maybe the day he'd spent curled up in bed with you had reminded him properly how much he missed you. That would make you feel important if so.
You're holding Uncle Jin's hand as you walk through the halls, reciting the English numbers in turns with him when you hear someone call 'Star!'.
Both you and Jin stop, Jin's other hand on the door handle to your lesson room for the day. You peer around the larger man's body to see Hakuchō heading towards you, her white wings tucked behind her back.
"Hakuchō!" You exclaim excitedly. You hadn't seen her in a while.
"Hey Star. Hey Twice..." She smiles awkwardly. "Um, Star, could I borrow you for a sec?"
"Okay." You agree, automatically letting go of Jin's hand.
"Don't take too long." Jin calls. "I like not bein' on fire!"
You giggle, nodding an agreement and waving at him before jogging to keep up with Hakuchō.
"What's the matter?" You ask curiously, craning your neck to try and get a view of your face.
"Do you know where Dabi is?" She asks.
You shake your head. "He's in a meeting, probably. He has a lot of those now, and they're really important."
She grimaces. "Alright, well..."
She pauses for a moment before taking a deep breath and looking at you properly, looking a little embarrassed. "Do you have any pads? Or tampons?"
Your eyebrows raise a little in surprise at the request, not used to having anyone beyond Himiko ask. You shake your head, and her wings sag a little lower than she usually holds them.
"Uncle Zero usually has them for emergencies, but he's with a doctor right now..." You explain, trying to solve the other girl's problem for her. "Himiko said that one of the bathrooms has tampons and, um... comdoms? I don't know what that is though. Maybe we could look?"
She looks even more embarrassed at this for some reason, but nods. "Yeah, please."
"Okay." You nod. "Let me just tell Jin-"
"No need to, right? We're just going to the toilet, it won't be long." She tries to reassure you.
"Well, he said to not be long, and there's a few bathrooms..." You reply cautiously.
"Fine, but can we be quick?" She asks, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot.
You nod, giving her a sympathetic look. You'd never experienced being caught off guard since your first period, and could assume how uncomfortable she probably was.
You wander back to the room where you'd left Uncle Jin, opening the door to the sight of Uncle Jin curled up hugging his head on the mud-covered floor, Hawks standing with his back to you with, big, sharp feathers in his hand.
His head snaps to look at you both, his golden eyes practically glowing.
"What are you doing here?" He snaps at Hakuchō. You flinch in response and duck behind her legs.
"Shit, I-" She begins to say, grabbing your arm.
"Star!" Uncle Jin calls, making a double who rushes towards you, only to be cut down quickly by Hawks.
You cry out in fear, despite knowing that it's just a clone. This seemed like a really scary training session, and you didn't know Hawks well enough to know if he looks that serious when he trains all the time, or if it's just because he's annoyed you interrupted them.
"Get her out of here." Hawks says coldly, not turning to face Hakuchō again, approaching Jin on the floor and pressing a feathered blade to his forehead while Jin babbles about letting everyone down.
It seems pretty convincingly like he's scared considering it's a training session.
"Come on, Star." Hakuchō encourages, trying to turn.
You shake your head. "Uncle Jin is scared. Leave him alone."
You had never had this bravery before. Although Hawks wasn't the typical type for you to be scared of on account of his shorter stature and his hair being a little longer and darker than your mom usually liked, you were just generally nervy around men anyway. And this man in particular had already grabbed you before, and was also holding two giant sword-like feathers in his hands.
Jin begins to call out a word beginning with 'r' towards you, but Hawks steps on his throat harshly to stop him from being able to talk, making you lunge to try and pull the winged man off of him, but Hakuchō pulls you back.
"Come on." She tries to pull you away, but you're beginning to panic now, shaking your head and trying desperately to get out of her grip.
"You're hurting him! Stop!" You cry out.
"Get her out, Hakuchō." Hawks hisses, glaring at her again.
She tries pulling at your arm again. "They're just training. Come on, I need your help, remember?"
Uncle Jin needed your help more, he looked actually hurt, and Hakuchō seemed fine. Periods were normal, everyone said so, so she could wait.
"No they're not, 'Mura said you're not allowed to really hurt people in training!" You argue.
Suddenly the room is hot, hotter than you'd ever felt anything before, and your skin begins to burn a little, making you yelp, looking down to see small blue flames licking your arm slightly, but practically swallowing Hawks whole.
"Pawpaw!" You cry out as you see his silhouette forming behind the wall of flames.
His boot lands on Hawks' head, shattering Hawks' yellow visors, his stance not too dissimilar to how Hawks had stood on Uncle Jin's throat.
You hear Hakuchō curse as she backs into the corner, taking you with her, backing away from the flames.
You'd never seen Dabi's flames like this before. They were the exact same colour as his eyes, and pretty, even if they hurt.
"Didn't see me there, didja, hero?" Dabi sneers down at Hawks.
He glances over at you with concerned azure eyes, his eyebrows pulling together when he sees Hakuchō gripping your arm tightly.
Hawks uses the fact he's momentarily distracted to pick up Jin even though he's even bigger than Hawks, and fly him towards you and Hakuchō. It's not elegant, both of them landing with a thud to the floor. Uncle Jin isn't talking much, and you're worried that he might have hit his head like Dabi did when the heroes blew up the bar.
"Whatever." Dabi scoffs. "You've lost most of your weapons anyway."
"And you nearly burned up your friend and your kid." Hawks replies, half of his face badly burned, making one of his eyes stay shut.
"Star, c'mere honey." Dabi calls, holding an arm out for you.
You move to join him, but Hakuchō doesn't let go, even when you put all your weight into trying to yank your arm out of her grip.
Dabi's look turns darker.
"Really kid?" He asks angrily.
Hakuchō looks at Hawks before returning her gaze back to Dabi's. She looks torn between guilt and confused, whispering an apology that you doubt anyone but you can hear.
"The force of that attack... you knew about me already." Hawks says, touching his burned eye softly. "What gave it away?"
Dabi scoffs, sneering at the feathered man. "Gave it away? Nothing. I never believed anything from the start."
"Right." Hawks says, almost sounding a little defeated as he stretches out his burned wings, as though he's looking to see the extent of the damage.
"Dad! Uncle Jin's hurt!" You call, still trying to get out of Hakuchō's iron grip. "Let. Go. Of. Me."
Your distress and confusion begins to form into your body beginning to glow green as your quirk stirs without you really actively trying to start it up. Hakuchō's eyes widen, and her grip loosens slightly for a split second before she doubles down and grips tight again.
Suddenly Uncle Jin moves quickly, and Dabi's arm raises, producing more blue flames along the scarring there.
"Burn 'im good!" Jin calls out as he flees towards the balcony.
"I said don't move." Hawks calls out after Jin, throwing a sharp look towards Hakuchō. "You're gonna have to use it."
Hakuchō curses again, swaying slightly and a cold sweat forming on her face thanks to your quirk, and digs into her pocket with her hand as the room gets hotter again with Dabi's flames growing and spreading.
Dabi exchanges encouraging words to Uncle Jin and high-fives him as he passes him, grinning widely at Hawks as he directs more fire towards him. It sounds like he's trying to encourage you too, as you definitely hear your name over the roaring of the flames and your grunts as you try to get Hakuchō off of you.
"Sorry about this, Star." She apologises, pulling out a large needle and pulling the cap off it with her teeth.
You scream in fear immediately, the last time you'd seen a big needle like that was when your blood had to be checked, but your pa did that, and made sure he was gentle and that you were distracted when he did it.
And truth be told, you were still confused by the entire situation, everything was happening so fast, and it's like the sight of the needle suddenly made everything very clear. That you, Dabi, and Uncle Jin were in danger, and that Hawks and Hakuchō wanted to hurt you, even though you didn't understand why, or do anything to deserve it.
Dabi begins to storm across the room as you panic and call for him, ignoring the fact he was getting burned by his own flames as he does so.
"I swear to fuckin' god, if you touch my little girl wi' that thing, I'm gonna fry your dad right in front of your eyes, kid." He warns, but it's too late because she's managed to jab it harshly into your neck despite your squirming.
She refuses to let you go even when Dabi's within distance of being able to grab you, letting you wail and claw at the needle poking out of your skin, the green aura around you beginning to glow even more.
"Why?" Dabi asks Hakuchō angrily as she backs up with you as much as possible, angling towards the balcony where Hawks stands with-
"Uncle Jin!" You cry out, your legs beginning to wobble.
Dabi's attention swerves to Hawks standing over Jin, a sharp, large feather buried into his back. His eyes widen, and his head snaps to you.
"Star..." He begins.
"Get off of him! Get off!" You yell, your voice getting weaker as your body gets heavier. "Let go! I wanna see Uncle Jin! Daddy!"
Dabi's expression turns furious just as your knees buckle and your sudden deadweight pulls Hakuchō to the ground, too. It must hurt her, because she yelps out in pain, wincing as you glare at her with as much energy as you can muster.
"You were meant to be my friend, but you lied." You sneer. "You hurt me and Hawks hurt Uncle Jin... I hate you."
She has the audacity to look hurt before you close your eyes, and focus the rest of your energy in making her even more sick with your quirk, allowing whatever she'd injected you with to finally pull you to unconsciousness, content in hearing her throwing up and briefly registering the feeling of being picked up, flames still warming your body enough to make it feel like you were just going for a nice nap with your pawpaw.
*•*
When you wake up, you're in a white, white room. It reminds you a little of the hotel you all lived in before it got too expensive and you had to move away again. You wonder if you were back there again. You would like that, even if you had to have your own room.
You blink awake slowly. The first thing you really register is a pain along your arm, the skin feeling tight and uncomfortable there, and when you turn to look at it, it's all bandaged up so you can't even see why it hurts. You look away when you realise you have needles in your hand, squeezing your eyes shut again.
Your body aches a lot, too, like it used to when you trained really hard with 'Mura or Uncle Jin.
Uncle Jin. Uncle Jin was hurt, more than you were. You needed to see him.
"Pawpaw?" You call, used to having him arrive in no time whenever you called for him, and a panic gripping your heart. "Pawpaw!"
You're a little alarmed when your dad doesn't arrive, but a surprised looking older lady wearing an equally white dress comes in. Your anxiety heightens again in the presence of a complete stranger.
Her dress tells you everything you need to know, you're in a hospital. If you were in a hospital, that means that Uncle Jin might be too, which means you might be able to see him.
"Who are you?" You ask cautiously, trying to edge away from her as she approaches you, only to cry out when the needles in your hand pull uncomfortably.
"Careful." She warns, pulling up a seat and giving you a soft smile. "You're a little hurt, so make sure you stay as still as you can, okay?"
"Who are you?" You repeat. "Where's Dabi? And I wanna see Jin."
Her smile falters for a moment, but it returns anyway. "I'm Nurse Tachihara. I've been looking after you while you've been sleeping. You were hurt pretty bad, do you remember?"
You shake your head slightly, still eyeing her cautiously. Nurses were nice in your limited experience, but you were still confused and she didn't answer your question about Dabi, and ignored your request to see Jin.
"You have second and third degree burns on your arm, under here." She says, softly tapping your bandaged wrist with her index and middle finger softly. "Because of Dabi's flames. Do you know what that means?"
You shake your head again. Burns were bad, but you didn't know what degree burns meant.
She gives you a sympathetic smile, her wrinkled grey eyes softening and she returns her hands back to her lap.
"Second degree burns are a little painful, and they blister. They're quite a common type of burn... Have you had them before?" She asks, pulling out a notebook.
You nod, and her expression becomes more pitying as she jots down something quickly on her notepad.
"Third degree burns are a little more serious." She continues once she's done writing. "It's when you get burned so badly that it damages all three layers of your skin, and it destroys the nerves there. Nerves help you feel things, do you understand?"
You nod.
"I won't show you the pictures, but..." She lifts her own arm and gestures with her index finger a large patch of the outer side of her arm. "This much is a third degree burn. So you won't be able to feel much there, and the skin might feel a little tight when you're all healed. It's also lost its pigment, so you're gonna have a pretty big scar."
This doesn't bother you. Dabi had scars too, as well as 'Mura, and Jin, and even Zero was going to have scars when his stitches were out. You thought they were cool, and maybe now you could match.
She gestures to an even bigger area around the area she'd pointed out before. "This is all second degree burns, which are the ones that hurt."
She continues without any input from you. "They'll probably scar too, but you'll be able to feel around the big, colourless scar perfectly fine once you're all healed up though."
"Okay. Can I see Dabi now?" You ask, unbothered.
She pauses, frowning ever so slightly before reaching out and pressing the back of her hand against your forehead, even though you flinch away. She lowers her hand again when she realises you don't have a fever.
She makes another brief note on her pad before looking back up at you with that same confused frown ever so slightly knitting her brows together.
"You want to see him?" She asks. "Honey, he burned you. Badly."
You shake your head. "Not on purpose. Hawks was hurting Uncle Jin."
She searches your face with her cautious, older grey eyes for a moment, reaching out and taking your hand in both of hers.
She sighs, looking like she might cry as she gazes at you softly.
"You won't be seeing Dabi again, darling. You're safe now, thanks to Hawks, and his little girl."
Your face immediately sets into stone, all of your emotions spiking so high so quickly that they kind of just numb out into nothing. But because you were feeling so many things, just all at once, your quirk activates without you even wanting it to again, the green aura starting to emit faintly and then growing more and more vibrant the bigger your feelings get.
Nurse Tachihara manages to hold on for a moment or two, but does eventually let go of your hand to gag behind one of her own hands.
"Please don't do that." She begs with a strained voice. "Aren't you happy? You can be safe and happy now. Those horrible people... they won't hurt you again."
"It was an accident!" You yell, your hands beginning to shake and the aura coming off your body stretching it even more. You'd never seen it glow so brightly before. "Pawpaw would never hurt me. Never, ever, ever!"
She struggles to stand, probably in an attempt to flee your quirk.
"We talk about things! We don't even yell!" You continue. "He wouldn't hurt me! Give him back!"
But she's not even paying attention to you anymore, stumbling out of the room with her hand plastered firmly over her mouth.
Her free hand flies out to hit a red button on the wall, and within no time at all, there's a whole new load of nurses flooding the room with masks on, a couple helping Nurse Tachihara out of the room while the others begin fiddling with the bags hanging up beside you.
Three end up pinning you to the bed and restraining you when you begin kicking and thrashing around in response to all the strangers appearing, yelling out for Dabi, Tomura, Jin and Zero. You even sob out a plea for Uncle Giran when they pull out a needle just like the one you'd seen before Hakuchō had jabbed it into your neck.
Only one of the nurses stays with you as the injection forces you to calm down, petting your hair like Dabi used to, only her hand isn't warm and rough with callouses like Dabi's are. They don't feel safe or like home.
They're cold, clinical. The strokes feel more like an obligation than due to love.
"I know it's scary." The unknown woman says as you battle with letting your eyes close. "But you're safe now. You're safe, Y/N."
"My name is Star." You manage to argue weakly before giving in to the fight with the sedative, all the aches in your body and pain in your arm falling away as you embrace the darkness.