Shangri La Pt. 1

51: Subtlety

'Am I... Am I dead?'

"Ah– Are you awake, Katsuki?" Izumi spoke through the curtain, making the blond flinch from how she noticed him. 

"Y-Yeah, I-I'm awake." he stuttered as he turned his head away from the curtain. 

And after a few minutes of waiting–and hearing the sound of shuffling and water–Izumi peeked herself out from behind the curtain to reveal she was fully dressed in clean robes. 

"I was washing up, so I didn't think you'd be waking up so soon. Sorry about that." she stated as she approached him. 

"Tch– W-Whatever, y-you're allowed to do w-whatever you want." he stuttered as he continued to keep his head away from her. 

"Hmph– I suppose you're right, now let's see~" Izumi hummed as she lifted her hand just as Katsuki was turning his head to face her and for her to rest her hand on top of his forehead. Katsuki's face blossomed a bright red as his lips quivered from feeling the greenette's soft hand resting on his face.

"W-What're you d-doing?" he stuttered to ask. 

"Hm? Oh– I'm sorry, you had a fever after I healed you earlier, so I just wanted to make sure if your fever was gone by now." she explained, catching his attention. 

'Huh? I had a fever, is that why my clothes are all wet?' he thought as to how damp his clothes felt at the moment. 

"Anyway, it seems that you've broken your fever in just a few hours and now we need to re-address your bandages." Izumi added as she didn't even ask for permission to start undressing the blond. 

"W-Wha– Yah! You're gonna undress me without even asking?!?!?" 

"Ah– S-Sorry, I-I just figured you'd want me to help undress you since your shoulder is still in a lot of pain." she noted, instantly making him remember how she helped him undress when his wounds were open earlier. 

"O-Oh... I guess... It's fine." he mumbled, allowing the greenette to continue what she started.

"The wound turned out worse than I thought, but I was lucky that you had your Ruby with you." Izumi started. 

"Ha? What's that got to do with anything?" he asked just as his robes were carefully pulled off his left shoulder and he could get a strong smell of burned skin that easily made him nauseated. 

'This– This smells like–' 

Right before he could finish what he was thinking, Izumi started to unbandage his left shoulder to reveal how dark and burnt his skin appeared. The scorches on his skin felt like pins and needles from just the smallest of movements he tried and that's when he realized what the greenette meant. 

"You– You burned my arm?" 

"Mn. I don't know how to sow skin yet, and because you were losing a lot of blood, I thought that searing it closed would be faster. And since I don't have powers, I remembered that you have that Ruby on your sword, so I took it off and used it to sear your wounds closed. I could tell you were in a lot of pain after I did it since you passed out right after the procedure was over." Izumi explained, leading Katsuki's eyes to be shocked by such words.

'She– She used my Ruby? But that's not possible! Only I can use it, so how was she able to even produce flames and burn my skin? Wait–' 

"Did you get hurt when you burned me?" he questioned as he focused his attention on her face. 

"Ah– Oh– No, I didn't get hurt at all, but I did feel the warmth of the flames. I was just so focused on healing you that I guess the Ruby reacted and didn't want me to get hurt." she answered, which led to another shock factor for the blond.