Chapter Text
Miyu stepped out of the hospital just as dawn began to wash the sky in pale blue. Twelve hours on her feet had left every muscle aching, and the only thing on her mind was getting home and collapsing into bed.
She barely made it halfway down the quiet street before something in a narrow alley caught her eye.
Someone was there.
Slumped against the brick wall, a man sat with one leg bent and the other stretched out across the damp pavement. The acrid smell of smoke lingered in the air. Burn scars crawled across every patch of exposed skin, some old, some frighteningly fresh.
"...Seriously?"
She closed her eyes for a second, muttering a quiet curse under her breath.
I could pretend I never saw him.
She knew she couldn't.
With a tired sigh, Miyu walked into the alley and crouched a careful distance away.
"Hey," she said softly. "Those burns are getting worse."
The man's turquoise eyes snapped open.
They were cold.
Predatory.
His gaze swept over her white hospital uniform before settling on the ID badge clipped to her chest.
A nurse.
Without waiting for permission, Miyu reached toward the angry burns on his arm, a faint golden glow blooming in her fingertips.
The instant her hand brushed his skin—
"Don't."
His voice came out rough, like gravel dragged over broken glass.
The warning alone was enough to freeze most people.
Miyu didn't move.
The glow continued to spread beneath her palm, easing the inflamed tissue little by little.
"...Go touching people whenever you feel like it," he growled. "Who the hell do you think you are?"
He shifted his weight, forcing his burned back harder against the cold brick wall as if putting distance between himself and that unbearable warmth. Every instinct screamed at him to slap her hand away.
He hated being touched.
Hated kindness even more.
Yet exhaustion anchored his limbs, and the ache that had been gnawing at him for hours... was fading.
The warmth of her Quirk seeped beneath layers of ruined flesh, dulling pain he'd long accepted as normal.
It was wrong.
Unnatural.
He clicked his tongue in irritation.
"So..." His eyes narrowed, suspicion dripping from every word. "You're really a nurse."
A humorless laugh escaped him.
"Figures."
His stare hardened into something almost venomous.
"People like you make me sick."
He tilted his head, the corners of his mouth twisting into a cynical smirk.
"Running around trying to save strangers in filthy back alleys."
His scarred fingers flexed lazily, wisps of blue flame flickering between them.
"You should leave."
The flames danced a little brighter.
"Before I decide to burn you too."
The threat lingered in the air.
Miyu looked at the tiny blue flames, then back at the burns covering his body.
"...If you were actually going to do that," she said quietly, her hand never leaving his arm, "you would've done it before I touched you."
The man had no immediate reply.