Sensitive / bnha

1 - Pyre

Note: Feel free to listen to my playlist 'Sensitive /' by kkourts_c to get the mood of the story either before, during, or even after reading. I will try to organize the songs when I get the chance. If you have any recommendations dm me on Instagram; in bio.

Her sensory quirk activated in her sleep and she began to sweat and feel the raging heat of the fire. After tossing and turning in her bed the sudden sense of smell indicated the lingering smoke. Manipulated just as quickly, the girl's sight was tricked into her quirk's submission as she woke to scream, with fires crawling, painting the dorm walls with bleached red and grey ash. Leaping to her feet, Arti runs down the hall throwing her door open. With each step or better described as leaps and hobbles; the more pins are felt dug into her body. Panicking as the elevator drops as if in slow motion and through the open rooms below her own, confusion was blinded by the overwhelming pain that struck through her limbs and stabbed at her nerves. Through her muffled cries, shaking hands cover the blue lips cracking at the psychological dehydration set in motion. The glass her free hand leaned on whilst scurrying across the living room was, in reality, bitter cold, as were the couch cushions and water falling from the kitchen tap. Although, from the eyes, ears, and hands of the shaken girl; it was incessant heat that surrounded the blaze.

Wrapping her body around the corner of the wall, the sweat-dripping limbs carry the girl to the house's showers. Rows of doors invite the girls' mentality to scramble. With a set goal to put the fire out; to allow her body to rest, her body almost crawling at this point of time, she reaches both of her hands above to turn the 'cold' tap. As the blue lips are breached into the cold yet alight with ember air amidst the girl, her once muffled cries rise to sharp screeches once the waterfalls like thumbtacks onto her back. As the water is thought to distinguish her body conceived within flames, for what her mind was not processing was that combined with the chill air, the cold water was harshly lathering her skin with ice-like temperature clothes. Drenched with the combination of sweat and pouring water, her spine protrudes the clothes grasped tightly to her skin.

A rushed creak at the door interrupts the eerie atmosphere and the light in the showers stung her eyes as the white gleamed off of the tiles.

'Kaliyah?"

A shadow crawling its way up the tiles that she stared at had a familiar attitude about itself; cautious movement yet rushed at the same time. With worry for the stranger's likely possibility to be caught by her quirk's uncontrolled fit, her toes dig the ground and spring her body forward and twisting so its back could be parallel to the tile wall. The echo of the shower rang through her ears, louder than usual. Although the fire was unimagined and the burn marks were nothing but once illusions; the claw marks and redness from her fright were clear across her bare legs and arms.

"Kaliyah!?" the male voice cut the thoughts of confusion from within Artemis's mind. Once her thoughts and senses were focussed on reality, the boy's figure was seen towering over her. Apologizing word after word, she watched as he knelt down quickly before turning the tap off.

"What the hell were you doing dumbass?" Shinso's tone was smoother as it quieted down, adjusting to the seriousness of Arti's situation. Clasping her knees into her chest, shivering overtook control of her still aching limbs. Realizing this, Shinso sighs and calmly reaches his arms both behind her back once leaned against the ice-cold tiles and through the concave at her knees. Immediately as his skin came into contact with her own, the girl yelped. Not only was her body aching as the muscles adjusted from his own movements; she was also wary of whether her own quirk would cause harm to the boy.

The two students weren't exactly close as friends, but both of them shared the same care for each other, although it was never mentioned; not even thought about within each other's minds. 

Sighing at the stone-cold body before him, he glanced around the showers for a towel or some sort of cloth for warmth. Cloaking his own body were sweatpants with clasping ankles and an ordinary black and white patterned sweater rolled halfway up his forearms. The boy was fit in the aspect of muscle tone and carried the ability to do whatever he pleases if it wasn't for his constant need for appreciation from teachers and heroes. With this, he reached again under her legs and behind her arched back swiftly to carry Arti out of the showers. His continuous glance forward apologized for the aching and promised he was moving as fast as he could. 

Still shivering and shaking from the frustration and anxiousness of the whole situation, she leaned her head against his chest. The thump of his heart cleared her mind; each beat slowly matching the rhythm to her own. Focussing himself on where he was walking, the two were at the center of the living room within what seemed like seconds. Without a word, Shinso left Arti to herself. The room was opening and inviting to light yet there seemed to be so little of it, only the remnants of the kitchen light and the moon from the obscure windows to the left of her kept the sofa company. 

"She ran into the men's showers and just sat there?" he whispered to himself. With brows furrowing he shook his head, confused. Reaching his arms into the cupboard in the hall, the dripping hands fiddled around the towels searching for the thickest fabric. Pulling a grey one out, he still couldn't comprehend the reason to which she was so freaked out, and didn't know whether she was running to or from something. 

"Anyone would've thought you were on fire." 

After passing the towel to her body against the arm of the sofa and the carpet, Shinso continued to find her options for warmth. The quicker he can go back to sleep; the better. 

"I'm sorry." she sighed. Disappointed, the words strung together by shaky breaths. 
"Why'd you come bursting in here like you were on fire or something, huh?"

"...I was," she said as her body trembled like an earthquake silently shook the room. The boy walked back over and knelt down across from Arti. The towel still lay in her lap as the pale and blue-tinged legs wrap below the left to the body. 

"I got that for you to use, not to keep as a pet." Lifting her hands from under the bundled fabric, every finger shook as they grasped the towel. The tightly stitched edges also moved with her trembles when lifting it to her face. Wiping the dampness from her forehead; Shinso could easily tell her limbs were abnormally tense. As if about to have a seizure from what looked like hypothermia was about to set in, the boy took another blanket from the cupboard; wrapping it around her. 

Due to both the white shirt and grey shorts having been drenched in the showers and sweat from her panic, her body couldn't warm itself as fast as they had hoped it to. 

"You should change into dry clothes if you want to get warm." 

"I would if I could." 

Since Artemis had only recently entered UA academy, packages of her belongings were only slowly arriving at the dorms. The one of which had her clothes other than a single sports uniform, school uniform and the casual clothes now soaked were not to arrive until the next day. 

"Huh? Just go get changed, I know it's cold but-" 

"Smartass, I don't have any other clothes other than the uniforms in the washing." 

"And how would I have known that; my brainwashing, not brain-reading," he said sarcastically. 

"Telepathy," she whispered to herself. 

"Humph!"