I wake up and open my eyes, but have to shut them immediately due to the bright lights above my head. Squinting, blocking the light with my arm, I turn my gaze around the unfamiliar room. Curtains were on either side of me, and a bedside table with a flower vase on it sat beside my head. I was in a clean white bed, a hospital gown draped over my figure.
'Who dressed me? Who saw my hot naked body?' I ask myself, then have to hold back laughter. That was what always got me about hospitals. Who dresses you when you're unconscious? I run the thought in my head a few times before getting bored and turning my attention to my injuries. One arm was wrapped in a bandage, the cloth stained a dark red from my blood. Nothing else was hurt, as far as I could tell, but I had an oxygen mask over my lower face.
'What the hell happened?' I wonder, looking around a bit more. A few minutes later the curtain on my left gets drawn open and a nurse steps through, wheeling a cart filled with food.
"Oh! You're up!" she says in surprise, staring at me.
"Good morning," I reply as she unloads the cart and folds down a table for me, raising the bed. She removes the mask, allowing me to eat, and takes a seat beside me.
"Do you remember what happened?" she asks as I take my first bite. I think about it as I chew, remembering the sludge Villain attacking and being pulled from it by Eijiro.
'Eijiro.'
"Is there someone named Eijiro here?" I blurt, swallowing my food quickly. The nurse tilts her head.
"Eijiro Kirishima?" she asks, and I nod. Too quickly. My head spins a bit and I lean back, closing my eyes to stop the room spinning. The nurse frowns but leaves the room, saying she'll check if he's still waiting. My ears perk up.
'Still waiting? How long has he been here for?'
A few minutes pass as I finish eating, then wait in nervous silence for the door to slide open again. As soon as it moves, I straighten up and whip my gaze over to it. I barely have time to register the red streak as he runs towards me, throwing his arms around my neck and burying his face in my shoulder, sobbing.
"I'm so sorry, (Y/N)! I should've saved you sooner, or stopped you from taking the hit," Eijiro says, clutching the fabric of my gown tightly and crying. I wrap my uninjured arm around him, rubbing circles on his back gently. The nurse leaves the room, giving us some time to ourselves. A few seconds of silence pass, broken only by the quiet sobs that come from Eijiro as he composes himself. When he succeeds, he sits in the chair beside my bed and I lean back.
"Do you remember what happened?" he asks, and my mind flashes back to when the nurse asked the exact same thing.
"We were in the mall and were attacked by the sludge Villain after being separated, right?" I ask, staring into his eyes. He nods.
"Yeah, that's right. You were out of it for this, but All Might saved us. How's your arm?" he says, gesturing at it. I move it around a bit, testing how much I could move, and get rewarded with a stinging pain. I flinch and clench my teeth, hissing in pain and screwing my eyes shut as it subsides. When I open them, Eijiro was leaning forwards, his face a mask of worry.
"Not good. Are you alright though?" I question, looking for any telltale bandages covering his body. He shakes his head.
"I'm fine. You were the only person that was injured. It would've been more if you hadn't put yourself in the way," he says, raising his gaze to meet mine.
"First you say it was a bad idea, now you're praising me for it?" I joke, chuckling. He leans forward even more and a strange, unfamiliar feeling springs from my heart, gone in a second.
"(Y/N), I'm being serious. You did a great job," he says, taking my hand in his. Heat springs to my face and I glance from his face to my hand in his, then back again. Just then, the nurse comes back in, telling Eijiro he has to leave so that I can rest. He releases my hand, standing up and waving goodbye. I watch his retreating back, sadness finding its way into my heart as he leaves my sight. The warmth of his hand lingers, comforting me, and I allow the nurse to make the bed lean back. She takes the tray of scraps away, leaving me in silence. I close my eyes, sighing, and let myself fall asleep again.