a/n: almost 4k votes, i'm ;w;
also i love you guys so have this extra long chapter
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Hero.
That was what she had always wanted. From the moment she could think for herself; from the moment she had learned what a hero was and what it meant to be one, Valui had wanted to be a hero. Even after learning she had no Quirk and subsequently no chance of ever being one, the desire never went away. She could never be what she wanted to be. That reality had shattered her heart only to rebuild it with a piece missing — a peace that was vital to achieving any level of true happiness that would last a lifetime as opposed to fleeting moments.
Hero.
That word had brought her so much grief and pain for so long. It used to hurt to hear; used to feel like listening to nails on a chalkboard while being stabbed; used to make her want to stop existing. The pain the word brought never stopped, though it did ease over time. The only time it brought something similar to a positive feeling was when she had used it to describe the purple haired boy laying in front of her; the only time the word ever brought her close to the feeling that the hole in her heart had been filled; the only time she felt truly happy.
Hero...
I'm...a hero...?
She was a girl — a regular, boring, Quirkless girl — who had been born into a world that didn't want her; that had no use for her. She had had a dream that could never become a possibility, yet...it had. Quirk or not, she was a hero. Maybe not in the sense she had always longed for, but she was still a hero. It still filled the void in her chest. It still brought her happiness — true happiness; a feeling that replaced all the previous ones of being an outsider and not belonging anywhere.
"Valui?"
Hitoshi's voice brought her mind back to reality, making her realize that she had spaced out the moment his words had registered in her head. She turned her gaze back to him, blinking slowly to bring everything back into focus. He had a weird look on his face — one that made her own mimic it. "What is it?"
"You're crying."
Again?
Valui blinked quickly, suddenly becoming aware of the tears that were streaming gently down her cheeks. A small part of her brain — the part that always seemed to sound like her parents — criticized and mocked her for crying again; "What is this, the third time? Is that all you can do?" The voice went uncharacteristically ignored, the negative feelings it brought being snuffed out by the overwhelming happiness that had rooted itself in Valui's chest.
"I'm...happy," she explained softly, finding it almost weird to say the words out loud and wholeheartedly mean them. "I-I'm...your hero...~"
Saying that felt even weirder.
But she liked it.
Hitoshi's expression — which Valui had recognized as one of worry — faded into something softer; something more relaxed. "You are." He smiled softly at her, carefully pushing himself up so that he was sitting. "You wanna sit next to me?"
Valui nodded, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand and smiling. In the next moment, she had gotten up and switched from being in the uncomfortable recliner to sitting on the equally uncomfortable bed — but she was next to Hitoshi now, so it was tolerable. Once she was at his side, he shifted and leaned his head down onto her shoulder, his eyes shutting contently and his hair brushing against her cheek and neck. Valui blinked softly, looking down at him just as he turned his arm over and opened his hand up to her.
As Valui slid her hand into his, her eyes trailed up his forearm to the small dots that were in the bend of his elbow. "Did you have IVs in?"
"Earlier, yeah." Hitoshi shifted his head against her shoulder, weaving their fingers together and squeezing her hand tightly. "They got taken out a little before you and Mom came."
"That's good."
He huffed softly; Valui distantly imagined him rolling his eyes. "It was awful." His voice had changed just slightly — whinier; poutier. It made her giggle softly. "Now I get why you hated it here so much."
Valui hummed softly; teasingly. An amused smile had formed on her lips. "Try staying here for a week."
"No thanks."
She giggled again at his response — both because of his tone and how quick it had been. Valui leaned her head against his, noticing how soft his hair was and wishing in the back of her mind that she could be playing with it.
"Hey. Valui?"
Anything she had been about to say was stopped when Hitoshi spoke up again. She glanced down at him, wondering if something was wrong, only to grow confused at how peaceful he still looked. "Yeah?"
"You never told me that story." Hitoshi shifted his head, opening his eyes slightly so he could look up and meet hers. "About you playing music."
You remembered that?
"It's not that interesting," Valui started, her eyes breaking their contact with his. "It's actually pretty bor—"
"I don't care. I want to hear it."
Valui blinked, a faint feeling of surprise filling her chest. Time and time, he did that to her — did and said things that were always so vastly different from how everyone else treated her. As she relaxed and thought about where to start with her story, she wondered if she'd ever get used to how he acted around her; acted toward her.
"Um... Well, at the beginning of the year, my school kind of forced everyone to pick a club. Something about having us find 'a place we all belonged' or something."
As if any of us belonged.
"The only thing that really appealed to me was music, so I picked that one. Um... It was all rock band sorta instruments, so I ended up picking the drums."
In the small lull in her storytelling, Hitoshi asked, "Why those?"
Valui laughed softly, though awkwardly. "Because it fit the best? I was too scared to even think about singing, guitars were too big and heavy for me, and it would've taken too long to learn keyboard or something. I guess I liked the drums because I could be in the back and hidden and just...make rhythms? I'd been doing it since I could remember, so." She stopped to laugh again, this time more naturally. "My parents always got really annoyed because of that. I think they were happy when I started staying after school because they didn't have to hear it."
Hitoshi hummed softly; Valui kept going.
"So I ended up really liking it, and I started staying after school even if I never really made actual friends with the other members because of how shy I am. They were nice, though. I haven't been back in a while. I wonder if they're worried. Or if they've replaced me."
Surprisingly, it didn't hurt to think that like it would have done a handful of months ago.
"But yeah, before I met you, I spent almost all my time just playing and practicing, so I basically taught myself and—"
Valui stopped when she heard Hitoshi's breathing go soft. She lifted her head up, craning her neck to look at him. He'd fallen asleep, his body leaning gently against hers for support. Valui briefly considered trying to move and lay him down, but decided against it to keep him from waking up — he'd looked exhausted; he needed to sleep, even if this wasn't the best position for either of them.
"Goodnight," she murmured into his hair, kissing the top of his head softly.
Silence fell over the room. Valui swung her legs gently, the toes of her shoes just barely scuffing against the linoleum floor of the room from how far back on the bed she was sitting. Every now and then, she'd lift her head up to see if Hitoshi was still sleeping, and when she saw that he was, she'd lay her head back down on his and let her mind drift off.
The sound of the door opening brought her back to reality. Valui looked toward the door as Tori and Hakaru walked back in.
Tori looked from Hitoshi to Valui, her head tilting a bit. "Is he asleep?"
When Valui nodded, Hakaru let out an inaudible sigh of relief — even without the auditory clue to tell he was relieved, the look on his face showed it. "Finally. I've been telling him to since he woke up."
While he moved to lean on the wall opposite the bed, Tori sat in the recliner Valui had been in before they left. The latter watched the two glance between each other before both pairs of eyes landed on her. Valui shifted uncomfortably, her mind immediately and habitually jumping to dark places — she had done something wrong, hadn't she? She was going to be yelled at, wasn't she? They hated her, didn't—
"Valui," Tori started, a faint smile on her face that couldn't have been genuine — not fully. It looked somewhat genuine, but then also somewhat forced and awkward. "Is it okay if I ask something?"
"...What is it...?"
"What's the situation with your parents?" When Valui let out the breath she had been holding, Tori's smile softened a bit and lost some of its awkwardness. "Hitoshi didn't really explain much when he told us."
What did he tell you?
"Um... It's kind of...long and complicated..."
"That's fine," Hakaru said, causing Valui to glance over at him. "He can't leave until he gets looked at again, and who knows when that will be."
Valui nodded slightly, then let her gaze drop down to her feet. "I... My...dad is dead. And my mom blames me, so she...I guess disowned me...?"
Valui didn't see the look that passed over Tori's face, but she could only assume it wasn't good. Her voice turned strained, like she was trying to contain some kind of emotion and nearly failing at it. "Why would she blame you? How did your dad die?"
Images and memories flooded her mind. It hadn't been that long, yet it still felt like a lifetime had passed between her father's death and now. She shut her eyes tightly, opening them a moment later after she shoved the vivid pictures from the forefront of her consciousness. "...Protecting me. I...don't have a Quirk, so he...h-had to. That's why my mom blames me."
It isn't like she ever doesn't blame me for something...
Valui hesitantly lifted her head up, her eyes immediately meeting Tori's and taking in the sympathetic look that had appeared on her face. "I'm sorry," she said, the apology taking Valui by surprise. Why was she apologizing? She hadn't done anything to her beside show her a single fraction of the care her own mother should have shown her. "You're free to stay with us for as long as you need."
"I-I am?"
Tori smiled widely, bringing her hands together in front of her in a soft, inaudible clap. "Of course~"
Hakaru let out something similar to a laugh — the same kind of amused breath that Hitoshi usually did. "Plus, I think Hitoshi would kill us if we didn't."
Tori laughed softly; Valui distantly found it contagious. A faint smile ghosted across her face as Tori looked to Hakaru with an amused smile. "Oh, he definitely would."
Valui started to say something only to be stopped when the door opened again. A nurse walked in, stopping short when her eyes landing on Hitoshi's unmoving figure still leaning itself against Valui's side. "Oh, is he asleep?" she asked, taking a small step backward. "I can come back later—"
"I'm awake," Hitoshi mumbled, shifting his head heavily against Valui's shoulder before sitting up straight. He blinked slowly as if to wake himself up, but Valui could have sworn it made him look even more tired.
The nurse smiled, nodding lightly and crossing the distance of the room to stand beside the bed. "Alright, then. You probably are, but I just have to make sure you're well enough before you can go home. It shouldn't take very long."
Valui gently — and reluctantly — pulled her hand out of Hitoshi's to stand up. The moment she was on her feet, a wave of dizziness rushed over her; the corners of her vision went white; and she wobbled on her feet. She would have fallen over had a hand not grabbed her upper arm at the last second to keep her from crashing down onto the floor. It took her vision a second to return back to normal, and when it did, they met Hitoshi's.
"Are you okay?"
"Y..yeah." She stood up and, after showing that she was solidly on her feet, Hitoshi let go of her. "I'm just hungry, I guess."
"There's a vending machine at the end of the hallway," Tori said. When Valui looked toward her, the woman smiled gently. "If you want to get something, I can give you money."
You're all too nice to me.
"N-no, I have my own," Valui stammered out quickly, shaking her head — and giving herself another small dizzy spell that luckily went unnoticed. "Th-thank you, though."
"Anytime, dear."
Valui nodded, then slipped out of the room and into the hallway. She pulled the door shut behind her, waiting for the soft click before heading down the hallway to where the vending machines were. She distantly remembered passing them on the way to Hitoshi's room, but she hadn't committed their location fully to memory. As she walked, she toyed aimlessly with the bottom of her shirt, her gaze alternating between watching the ground move beneath her feet and watching ahead of her to make sure she didn't bump into anyone.
When she reached the vending machines — there were two: one for drinks and one for snacks — Valui pulled out the few dollars she normally kept in her back pocket and gazed up into the machine. It didn't really matter what she got. She didn't want anything specific, just something that would satiate her hunger until she was able to get something of substance to eat. So, with minimal deliberation, she fed two dollars into the machine and pressed the numbers that would give her a candy bar.
Valui yawned softly as the machine hummed lowly. "What time is it...?" It had to be late — it was already dark when everything earlier happened. After the fear and adrenaline from everything happening had worn off, she found herself a lot more tired than she otherwise would have been.
"Half past midnight."
The sudden voice made Valui jump and tense up, though she relaxed quickly after upon recognizing it. She turned around as the candy bar dropped down into the bottom of the machine. Shouto was standing in front of her, his head slightly tilted off to one side. He was in a hospital gown; bandages were wrapped around his arms, and there was a small one on his cheek.
"O-oh. Shouto."
His eyes drifted away from hers to the machine behind her. "Your candy bar fell." As Valui blinked and turned around to get her food out of the machine, Shouto continued, "Are you doing better now?"
Valui turned back around, peeling open the wrapper and taking a small bite out of the candy bar. "Yeah, I'm okay now. What about you?" Her eyes trailed down to his bandages. "You were hurt?"
"Oh." Shouto looked down at his arm, then back up at Valui. "Just a little. I'm okay." He looked off to the side, shifting his weight between his feet. "You came to see Shinsou, right? How is he?"
"He's okay now." Valui glanced down at her candy bar, taking another small bite of it. "He's supposed to be able to leave tonight. Hopefully."
But if you can't, I'll stay here with you.
"Hopefully."
Valui absently chewed on the candy wrapper, glancing up and down the hallway, then behind Shouto to where Hitoshi's room was. The sight of the empty hallway told her that he still wasn't done being looked at, and thus they still weren't leaving. Looking back to Shouto, her head tilted slightly. "What're you doing out here, though?"
Shouto shrugged lightly. "Bathroom." He looked over his shoulder briefly before turning his head back to look at Valui. "I was just about to go back, though. Do you want to come?"
Huh?
"I... Y-yeah, sure."
It probably wouldn't be very much longer before they knew whether or not Hitoshi could go home that night, but Valui figured it would take less time to go with Shouto back to his room. The distraction was welcomed, even — being in the uncomfortably quiet and still hospital brought back memories of her own stay in one, and why she had ended up there in the first place. It wasn't that Valui would have rather been with Shouto than Hitoshi — quite the opposite, actually — but the latter was tired and Valui didn't want to keep him up and talking to her to help keep her own unease at bay.
The two walked down the hallway in a somewhat comfortable silence, passing by the room Hitoshi was in and going to another one a few doors down. In the short walk, Valui finished off her candy bar, tossing the wrapper into the trash can that was outside the door Shouto had stopped in front of. "This'll make Midoriya calm down, at least," he said to himself aimlessly, turning the handle of the door and letting it swing open.
Midoriya... Izuku? He's here, too?
"You're back, Todo— Oh! Valui!"
Valui blinked, her eyes immediately meeting Izuku's from across the room. He smiled and waved at her from the bed he was sitting on, seemingly unfazed by the setting of their meeting. "Hey, Izuku," she said back, waving and smiling lightly back. She stayed in the doorway, partially in and partially out of the room. Even from where she stood, she could see bandages on him as well. A soft frown passed over her face. "Are you okay?"
Izuku looked down at himself as Shouto went to the empty bed in the room — there was a third bed that was occupied by the guy who had been on the ground when she and Hitoshi had ran into that alley. What was his name again? Iida? That sounded familiar; Iida. Iida was asleep, one of his arms wrapped up in a sling — distantly, Valui remembered seeing all the blood that had poured from the wound in his arm.
Suddenly, she felt dizzy again.
"I'm okay." Izuku's voice made Valui blink and bring herself back to reality. Now, Izuku's face expressed worry. "What about you, though? I didn't think you were hurt..."
"N-no, I'm okay!" The feeling of making someone worry about her made guilt wash over her. "I came to see Hitoshi." When she said that, she leaned backward a little to look down the hallway.
Still empty.
Are you not okay or something...?
Valui looked back ahead of her into the room. Izuku tilted his head. "He's here? Is he okay now?"
"I'm fine."
All three of them — Valui, Shouto, and Izuku — jumped at the sudden fourth voice that filled the room. Valui whipped around, exhaling heavily when she saw Hitoshi. He gazed inside the room, nodding his head toward Shouto and Izuku before looking down at Valui.
"We're about to leave. Are you ready?"
"Y-yeah, I am." She looked over her shoulder and said a quick goodbye to Izuku and Shouto, then followed Hitoshi down the hallway. At the end of the hallway, near where the vending machines were, stood his parents, talking to each other and waiting. "So you're okay enough to go home?"
Hitoshi nodded, slipping his hand into hers as they walked. "Luckily. Staying here is the last thing I wanted to do."
"I-I would've stayed with you!"
While her outburst made Valui's face turn red, it made Hitoshi smile softly down at her. "Hm~ You're sweet."
Only for you.
When they reached Tori and Hakaru, the group started heading out of the hospital; out to the parking garage and to the car. The walk was quicker this time — at least to Valui it was. They reached the car much quicker than she had expected; and just moments after reaching the vehicle, they were on the road.
Valui looked out of the window of the backseat, blinking softly — sleepily — as the dark shadows of trees passed by. A weight on her shoulder made her jump slightly, but when she saw Hitoshi leaning on her again, she relaxed; her head leaned against his again, her eyes slipping comfortably — and peacefully — shut.
For once, sleep came easy.