In His Element(s) || avatar / bnha

Bending is Still Different than Quirks

They were cold.

Everything was cold. Where was the life? The flame? Their embers?

Where were they?

The ground was smooth and too light and cold and made clicky clack sounds as they scuttled over it.

Heat? Warmth?

Their fire was so low. They cried out softly, all six legs curling up under them. Needed to be warm.

A noise! What was this?

A figure above them, bright fuzzy feet passing by, unobservant of their plight. The only movement during this time of no sun.

A person!

Warmth!

The person stopped before long, humming to herself high above them. They clambered forwards, claws sinking into the not-pelt on her feet before scrambling up skin they couldn't see.

Warm!

They dove inside.

She had fire inside. But not enough. She coughed, and they felt her lungs respond, corporeal and fleshy, wheezing in and out.

Not enough warmth.

And so they settled in, stoking the fire in this body.

Soon they would be warm again.

"Do you think Hagakure is ok?" Midoriya said worriedly, tossing Shouto's water bottle over to him. Shouto caught it one-handed, nodding his thanks and passing Tokoyami's to him when the other teen walked over. "I feel bad leaving her all alone today."

"I doubt our classmate will embrace the throes of death over a simple cold," Tokoyami remarked with his usual pragmatism. "Most likely, she'll still be sleeping by the time we get back to the dorms."

Their resident invisible classmate had woken up this morning with a fever and a debilitating headache. Given the simple fact that all her friends had been able to tell she was sick despite not being able to actually see her, she'd been given a clear for the day by Aizawa and promptly passed out on the common room couch under a ludicrous amount of blankets.

"I'm sure she's fine," Shouto agreed.

Midoriya still looked unconvinced.

"I'm gonna bring her some tea and my notes from today when we get back," he said decidedly, frowning slightly as he tapped his chin with his water bottle. He brightened after a moment, looking across the field. "Oh! What do you guys think of Aang?"

Shouto followed his gaze. The teenager was sitting next to Aizawa on the far bleachers. From this distance he couldn't hear anything, but it looked like he was talking to the teacher, hopping up after a brief discussion and easily falling into some sort of martial arts form.

"We haven't exactly interacted with him much," he pointed out.

"True." Midoriya pulled one of his wrists up, wincing slightly as he stretched out the tight muscle of his forearm. "I've never actually met a Tibetan monk before. What do you think his tattoos mean? Or are they a by-product of his quirk? It doesn't look like he has a physical one but maybe they... I don't know, peel off or something?"

"Why would they do that?" Shouto asked, confused. Midoriya threw his hands up.

"I don't know! Just a thought."

"He's coming this way," Tokoyami remarked. Dark Shadow peered over his shoulder and warbled softly in affirmation.

Sure enough, the cheerful teen was jogging their way at a surprisingly quick pace. Upon seeing them all looking his way, he briefly waved at the three of them, putting on a bit more speed the last few meters to zoom to a standstill besides them.