Akiara's POV
"So..." Todoroki started once we had all finished our ice cream. "What were you two doing before I interrupted?"
Haruka smiled. "We were practicing my quirk!" Then she looked at me with a pained expression. "Are you sure you're okay, Akiara? I brought the nightmare on pretty quickly."
I waved my free hand in the air, my other still holding my empty ice cream bowl. "What? Haruka, no, no, I'm perfectly okay! Don't feel bad about it. In fact, we should get back to training."
Todoroki stood up to leave, but I quickly grabbed a hold of his wrist to stop him. He turned around with a surprised expression in his eyes, but otherwise showed no other emotion.
"You can... you can stay and watch if you want." I mumbled. Behind me, I saw Haruka smirk and I discreetly elbowed her in the arm.
Todoroki nodded but didn't sit down. I looked at him with a mix of a pleading and confused look on my face. He reached out his hand to me and I stared at it in confusion. "I'll take your bowl to the trash can and then return."
"O-oh okay!" I said, placing the styrofoam bowl in his cold hand. I now felt embarrassed for thinking he was implying for me to hold his hand...
Todoroki took the bowl and ventured out to find a garbage bin.
"You like him, don't you."
Startled, I whipped around to face my little sister, whose lips were curled up in a wide smirk. She wiggled her eyebrows.
"You little punk!" I said, getting ready to chase her. She hopped off the bench and ran around in circles, me right behind her. I tackled her and pushed her to the ground, where we wrestled uncontrollably.
Todoroki returned to see me on the ground with my arms held back by my younger sister. "OW! HARUKA GET OFF THAT HURTS!"
He stopped in his tracks as he watched me tickle Haruka until she eventually got off.
"Yeesh, you demon child." I spat at her, and she stuck her tongue right back at me. Then I saw Todoroki. "Oh! Uh-- huh no worries, this happens a lot." I said while scratching the back of my head.
Todoroki lightly chuckled. "Seems fun."
I sighed. "It really is."
"Can we train just one more time, sissy?" Haruka said, and I could see the worry behind her eyes for me.
I nodded. "Yes. This time, try to make the nightmare as scary as possible. I want to see your limits."
Haruka's eyes widened. "What?! Akiara, no!"
"Nightmare?" Todoroki questioned from the bench where he was sitting. Haruka and I were standing in a tiny clearing in front of the flower bed.
Haruka nodded. "It's my quirk. I can make other people see amazing dreams, what they want their future to be or something, and I can also give them nightmares."
"We've been working on changing from a fluffy dream to a nightmare." I stated, narrowing my eyes at the ground. "I've also been trying to improve myself during these exercises." I saw Todoroki raise an eyebrow. "I get scared very easily. Like today when Bakugou charged at me and I hid behind my arms," I smiled, remembering how Todoroki had saved me from the crazed pomeranian. "Anything scares me. During Haruka's training, I've been trying to get better with jump scares, and head on battles." My head popped up to face my little sister. "Make it as scary as you can, and I'll try not to have a heart attack." I said jokingly, although Haruka knew I was half being serious.
I closed my eyes and waited for the dream. The next time I opened my eyes, I was on the beach, looking at the sunrise. I was sitting criss cross, leaning against something. I glanced to my left to see a sleeping Todoroki. My eyes widened and outloud I screamed, "WHAT THE CRAP IS THIS, HARUKA! CMON. STOP IT YOU LITTLE TURD." I took a deep breath, knowing what was coming. "Don't hold back on me, Haruka. Do your worst. If I scream, keep going. Go until your energy says you can't."
Just like that, the ground below me gave way. I screamed, falling into a black abyss, my eyes shutting tight out of fear. When I opened them again, I was sitting on the ground, a tall man standing in front of me. All of my classmates that I had met that day were laying around me, covered in blood, their throats slit. My eyes filled with horror and tears filled my eyes. The tears rolled down my cheeks as I started to hyperventilate. I was having a panic attack.
I felt a warm arm wrap around my shoulders, but nobody was there when I looked around me. The dream started to fade away, and I was almost grateful. But Haruka needed to train, and I needed to get stronger. "Don't stop, Haruka! Keep going!"
I heard her voice like a speaker system in my head. "But Akiara-- you're having a panic attack, you can't take it."
My breathing quickened, and the arm around me tightened. "F-fine. Just... just don't feel bad for doing this, Haruka, honestly. It's my fault... I pushed myself..." The nightmare faded completely, and my vision was immediately met by heterochromatic orbs.
"Akiara! I'm so sorry! I--" I interrupted my little sister with sharp and quick breaths. "Akiara!"
I had thought the arm around my shoulders was my sister's but it was warmer than usual. I looked to my right to see that Todoroki's left arm was the one wrapped around me. I smiled at him through my tears and hyperventilating.
Haruka slipped into my arms and hugged me tightly before looking up at Todoroki. "Todoroki, help her. I don't know what to do, the last time she had a panic attack our parents helped her... but now they're gone and I'm worried!"
Todoroki's arm around my shoulder began to get warmer and warmer. I wondered what his quirk was. I hadn't quite figured it out yet. But apparently it had something to do with heat. Why was he on my right side though... when he was originally on my left? Why not use his right arm to comfort me instead of walking all the way around me to use his left? (Yeesh my explaining skills need improvement)
Todoroki looked in deep thought. "I'm not sure what to do... uh..." He facepalmed his forehead and began to quietly mumble, "Cmon, Shoto. Think. What can you do other than just warm her up with your quirk..." His head snapped up. "We can take her back to your house and help her there, where she's probably more comfortable."
A flash from the nightmare came into my head again, but I know it wasn't Haruka's doing. I whimpered, remembering seeing all my friends lying in pools of their own blood.
Todoroki flinched. "I don't think she can walk like this. How far away is your house?"
"Just around the corner there." Haruka informed him.
"I'll have to carry her."
Haruka smirked and made no remark of protest. (What a sneaky 6 year-old)
I felt Todoroki's warm arm leave my shoulders and I whimpered again from the loss of heat. The same arm wrapped around my back, his other arm tucking under my knees. He had picked me up bridal style, and I buried my face in his chest, feeling warmth coming over me again.
Flashes of the nightmare kept appearing in my mind again, and each time they did I'd twitch in Todoroki's arms. And each time I twitched, the tighter his grip on me got.
Even through my panic attack, I could hear their conversation. Haruka looked up at Todoroki from his left. "What's your quirk anyways? I can feel heat radiating off of your left side, but not your right."
"Half-hot half-cold is my quirk. I can control ice with my right side and fire with my left side." Todoroki answered, which resulted in Haruka nodding.
"Here we are." Haruka said, the worry still not leaving her six year old voice. Our house was small. It was simply made out of red brick and was only one story. It had a living room which was connected to the kitchen and dining room, which was the area you first walked into. There were two doors on the left side of the small but spacious room, one leading to a small bedroom and the other to a bathroom. The two of us shared everything, the bathroom, the room, even a bed. We had no TV, and had old appliances.
I started to cry again.
Why? Because I was scared to think what Todoroki would think about our underprivileged life. I already knew his father was Endeavor, the number two hero, so I knew he had quite a bit of money. What would he think when he saw the way we lived? How we had to share a rickety bed? That our couch was old and the fabric was tearing? How things in our fridge didn't last long because its quality wasn't the best? That our bathroom is dirty and the sink sometimes spits out dirt?
What if he would start to hate me, because we didn't live the same way?
What if he hated me... because we were so different?
With that last thought, my mind slipped into darkness as I lost consciousness.
Yeesh. A lot of reference to arms this chapter, huh?
I love scenes like this, I'm sorry. I'm a real sucker for fluff scenes, or damsel in distress scenes. There's going to be A LOT of them in this book. Cmon, don't tell me you don't like them either.
~Dream