Restless Nights - Big Hero Six SI-OC

CHAPTER FIVE: BERK

When Val wakes up the next day, just a few hours after going to sleep, her body's aching. Her shoulders lock when she moves her arms, her palms rough and sore. Her groin and inner thighs feel as if they went through fire, and her chest. God, her chest. It's panging and panging and she regrets ever deciding to be a hero.

She knows the pain will just disappear after a while, like it's done all the times she's hurt herself in this world, but right now she can't stand the idea of feeling like this while still having to deal with her messy emotions. So, she gets out of her bed and starts stretching. She has never done it before, but she guesses it'll help. Somehow. She should stretch before going out, too, if she has time.

She ignores the events from last night while she stretches, because honestly, she just woke up, and she can't deal with that shit. Not without breakfast.

...okay so she's just making time. No one can blame her, tho. She almost died yesterday.

...she thinks.

...

...she can't ignore it anymore.

After taking a hot shower and getting dressed, she makes her way downstairs, serves herself a cup of chocolate milk and plops down on the couch. Taking a sip, she resigns herself to go through yesterday's events.

The flight was good. Amazing. She's gonna start carrying a camera to record those. The sight was just too good, a mess of dark blue and vibrant lights, San Fransokyo's night life making itself known. There was music too, she thinks. Music that sounded clear on her ears despite how high up above she was. Maybe Blackwell somehow made it play through her helmet? To set up the mood? She'll have to ask. Non important, though.

After Toothless flapped his wings everything went downhill. They fell down and hard and fast, the ground a shining blur that grew closer every second. She thought she was gonna die. Again.

That shouldn't have happened. Obviously. But she just can't figure out why.

Why did that happen? What went wrong?

She mulls over her thoughts for a while, until her brain finally clicks.

The wings were made of resistant, light metal, so that it could fly. But not catch air. They could glide for as long as the wind accompanied them, but the moment the wings were flapped, the momentum was cut, the aerodynamics messed up, and the wings, being so heavy, didn't catch air. They just added weight to Toothless. Made him sink.

So fuck those wings. Val hates them. Those stupid, useless wings.

If it weren't for the emergency thrusters, she would be dead now, a bloody mess in the streets of San Fransokyo. She didn't even add them as emergency. Their only purpose was to help Toothless go faster if a villain was outrunning them.

She's so glad she installed them. She's making sure they work every night from now on.

Also the handles. Toothless couldn't fly if she wasn't holding them in the right position, and only if she was the one holding them. It was also a way of controlling where he went, if he were to panic or fail or needed an extra help with sharp turns or stops. She probably wouldn't be alive if it weren't for those, either. Or if she hadn't seen the roof. Which brings her...

Felix.

For whatever reason he was there, in a deserted street, and he saw her in full hero gear, riding a dragon, with her visor up. He recognized her.

At that moment she couldn't grasp exactly what that meant, just that it somehow meant danger in one way or another, and almost had a panic attack. Well, a second panic attack, she already had one when they landed after the fall, and wow, wasn't that terrifying.