The Boy Savior - Ekko x Reader - Season 1

Chapter 5

You stepped closer to the firelight. He was damn tall compared to you. To reach his face, you had to stand on your tiptoes and still, you barely managed to touch his cheek. It didn't help that he kept pushing your arms away, trying to stop you from reaching him.

"Please." You said as your eyes met his only one, he could still open. You saw the hesitation in his gaze, and then his eye jumping to look at Ekko - the boy behind your back probably signaled him to stay put, because he finally let you place your palm on his injured face.

You felt his drying blood sticking to your skin as you closed your eyes. First, you had to concentrate on your heartbeat. You couldn't explain it, but you had always felt that your powers somehow came from your heart. You followed the pulse of your own blood through the veins of your right arm and when it reached the very tip of your fingers you felt the familiar warmness.

Under your palm, you also felt his bones crackling and skin twitching and you waited a few seconds after knowing there was nothing else to heal - just to make sure. Only then did you let go of him and open your eyes to see his face seeming healthy again under all the blood and both of his eyes now looking back at yours.

You let out a tired sigh. You always felt a little drained after using your abilities; your exhaustion usually depended on the seriousness of the injury you dealt with. If it was just a cut, you never even noticed it, but if it was something more complex like a broken bone for example, you always felt a little tired afterward.

You looked at Ekko behind you. He seemed like he had been holding his breath back all this time because when your eyes met, he let all the air out at once.

"What..." he started but he seemed to be overwhelmed by what he had just witnessed. "We gotta talk..."

***

After Ekko asked the other firelight to leave, whose name you learned was Scar, it was only the two of you left in the dimly lit, little room. The only light source was a narrow, little window on top of one of the walls. As the weak light made its way inside, you could see the particles of dust flying through it, slowly dancing around each other.

You had to sit down to gather your strength back and Ekko followed your example - he probably needed to get himself together as well after seeing you braze the bones of his friend with just a touch.

So now the both of you were sitting by each other again in a dark room - seemed like it was becoming a regular way for you to talk.

"I remember the very day when I discovered I could heal." You looked at the boy by your side whose eyes were pinned on you. Under the weight of his gaze, you felt your cheeks warm up, so you looked away from him. "I was about 5 years old and my brother was 9. We were playing a game in which if you fall off the furniture, you'll get eaten by our imaginary monsters - and of course, you had to make sure the other one would fall first." You smiled to yourself as you thought about your favorite childhood game. "My brother pushed and I fell, but in a very unlucky way and I broke my right arm." You'd never forget the panicked face of your brother after seeing your lower arm bending unnaturally under you. "I remember how worried he was - both because I got hurt and because he was afraid our parents would find out he broke my arm."

You looked at Ekko again, who'd been watching you the same way as before as you said: "Of course, they wouldn't have done anything to him, but you know how children are." You shrugged your shoulder. "Anyway, I also got scared - not because of my arm, but because of my brother. He had always been some kind of a role model for me, so seeing him panicked was way scarier than seeing my arm wrecked." You chuckled a little. Ekko also smiled as he watched you. "I wanted to fix everything so much that I managed to heal my arm without even knowing how I did it. I was just holding it, as I cried and one moment it still hurt, then a second later the pain was gone." As you talked, you reached your right arm in front of you and twisted your hand from right to left, the same way you did when you were 5, and wondered how it became healthy again.