DOGMATIC DABI X OC

13

'Xian!' the boy snapped out of his daydreaming to a voice yelling out his name from below. Xian shook his head a little, shaking away the bad thoughts and whatnot, and dropped down, Minerva standing underneath waiting for him.

'You off on your own, leave me to fend for myself,' she growled, smacking his shoulder harshly. He laughed it off and rubbed his shoulder, smiling down at the old woman who was glaring up at him.

'I bring you item, since you out here stargazing at fucking sun for long enough.' she held up a bag, inside, all of Xian's personal belongings that hadn't been obliterated by dust, which wasn't much.

'You go now?' Minerva said, a long look on her face as she pushed through the leaves to the edge of the cliff, looking out as the valley winded down, barely able to see Xian's damage from this angle.

'Yeah, it's about time I go rejoin civilization.'

'And leave me to clean up dead body? Fuck you.'

'Love you too Gran.' Xian pulled Minerva in, hugging her tightly as she wrapped her arms around him back, her actions betraying her words and she squeezed him tight, not wanting to let go of the boy.

Xian slung the bag over his shoulder, walking to the edge of the cliff with a heavy look on his face. Minerva had a pang in her heart as she watched the young boy wave goodbye and promise her that he'll come back and send her things. She didn't care about that, she cared more about what would happen to him out there.

A young boy, eighteen, perhaps nineteen years old, and already like this? She shook her head, tutting at him as he jumped from the cliff, exploding the air under his feet to soften his landing as he dropped.

A boy who should be in school, instead fighting against a broken system that has labelled him a villain for killing people, rather than a vigilante or an anti-hero for trying to fight the fights that no hero would want to get their clean hands on. Not even her daughter would fight those battles, where the line of the grey area became too skewed to even consider one's actions any different from villains.

A boy who killed with such a look on his face when he killed that made you question whether he had good intentions, and then a look so serious after that made it so obvious that it ate him up on the inside. Someone so at war within himself that's trying his hardest to keep his sanity.

And the boy who collapsed at her doorstep, covered in blood and shivering, severely dehydrated and malnourished. The boy who screamed in his sleep every hour about a new thing, a different trauma. Who didn't weep tears even when his rawest emotions were showing.

She turned back from the edge, sure enough in Xian's abilities to be safe getting home. The boy was talented.

But she did hesitate, wondering how long the boy could hold onto his memory like that until he himself snaps, or his sanity snaps first.

She could never admit it to the boy, but holding him in her arms, nursing him back to health made her feel just like a mother again, and made him feel just like a naive little boy again.

Minerva walked back into the forest, in the direction of her house, stepping over the lumps of melted people that she chose to ignore on her own volition.

***

Xian looked down at his phone, which luckily he was able to charge once he got back to his own home, watching as his calls bounced back. At this point, he couldn't tell if she was just ignoring him or if anything bad had happened.

'Ekio?' Xian knocked at her door, the hardwood echoing under his fingers. No answer.

He knocked again, this time harder as the wood scraped against his knuckles. He hasn't seen anyone today that could even fill him in on what's happened.