RENEGADE [Izuku Midoriya x OC]

Chapter 31 - Heal

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Noriko's blood-soaked hands trembled as she shoved her key into her lock.

Tears streamed down her cheeks, frozen to her skin in rivers from the frigid winter wind and clung to her eyelashes as crystalline testaments to her willpower. Beneath her frosted villain costume, her muscles strained under Deku's dead weight, unconscious and unmoving.

In the fading sunlight, with her limp boyfriend draped across her shoulders, Noriko trudged across town, feeling Izuku's heartbeat slow against her skin. With every icy step, every frigid mile, she forced herself to keep going. She couldn't, wouldn't, stop, not when his life was on the line. Not when she knew she had an AED and medical equipment back at her apartment. Not when Izuku could save so many more lives. Not when he had so much more life left.

Not when she had finally come to terms with how much she cared for Izuku.

She realized it during the fight, when she saw him sparring with Dabi. A spark of something desperate caught in her chest—the same something that flickered to life whenever she saw a press release about Deku, the same something that gnawed on her gut when she wondered if he was okay, the same something that gripped her heart tightly whenever he looked her in the eye when he smiled—and Noriko knew. If either one of them died and Noriko left Izuku without him knowing her true feelings... the emotions she'd been slowly building since high school... she'd never forgive herself.

The three little words lingered in the back of her mind, never quite coalescing into a clear, concrete thought, but Noriko knew, without a doubt, that they were true.

She loved him.

Kicking her front door open, Noriko didn't care that it banged against the wall or that she accidentally knocked a frame down, glass shattering on the hardwood when it fell. She closed the door with a bump of her hip and stomped over the shards in her combat boots, making her way to the bedroom, where she gently deposited Izuku's body and got to work.

She made quick work of tying her ponytail into a bun, keeping all of her fiery hair out of her face as she tore her barely-there mask off of her skin. In the bathroom, under the sink, Noriko's hands tore apart the cabinet, unearthing the dusty AED and pristine first aid kit.

Her heart pounded so fast that she couldn't hear it anymore.

But at Izuku's bedside, where he lay unconscious and still, she knew in her heart of hearts that she was the only one who could save him.

In the middle of the night, in the depths of villain territory, with no backup or able-bodied allies other than the off-kilter Shoto, Izuku would've died if Noriko hadn't put her mission on the line. She knew in her heart that if she hadn't lied to Dabi, hadn't taken the chance, and hadn't put herself and her job at risk, then Izuku would've died in that alleyway.

With the few tools at her disposal, he might survive.

She grit her teeth and kneeled beside him, her hands shaking as she tore the first aid kit open. Without thinking, she grabbed his closest hand as she rummaged through the medical equipment, maybe subconsciously taking his weak pulse, or maybe just anchoring herself to him for another moment or two, feeling his warmth rise as the chill receded. Tears blurred her vision, and with a sniffle or two, they cleared away and Noriko refocused, pressing a shaky kiss to his knuckles.

Stay with me, Izu. Just a few more minutes. Just another hour.

I have to tell you something important.

Please.

The greenish glow Noriko thought she'd been imagining out of the corner of her eye hadn't dissipated when she sniffled, or when she wiped her eyes on her sleeve. In fact, it grew brighter. Louder. Clearer.