Echoes of Vapor (Shoto Todoroki)

01.07

PART 07

PROCESSING

Ryou wasn't sure when exactly he fell asleep, but he assumed it was while he was in the ambulance.

When he woke up, he was greeted with the sight of an asleep Ben, who had laid his head down right next to Ryou's as he sat in his chair. The position didn't seem like the most comfortable one, but Ben seemed to be able to make it work.

Ryou glanced at the clock, and realized that it was 4 in the morning. Then, the memories of yesterday began to flood his mind. He glanced down at his left hand and all it took was his right thumb tracing over the indents left by Katashi for the tears to come pouring out of his eyes.

All at once, the suffocating feeling of loss, despair and grief began pressing down on his aching heart. Katashi was gone. He watched Katashi die, and he couldn't do anything about it.

He wasn't strong enough to do something to help them. If he used his quirk, nothing would come of it, because the two villains would've found them easily. If only he were stronger, he could've done something.

If he was stronger, he would've been able to buy them some time.

Ryou bit his lip, bringing his legs up to his chest as he sobbed into the blanket the hospital provided him. As he thought about all of the ways the situation could've gone, guilt began to eat away at his conscience, mixing in with the feelings of grief he had woken up with.

He allowed his quirk to pour out of his mouth, shrouding his entire body in steam as he sobbed, not wanting to wake Ben up. His body shuddered, the grief he was experiencing being too much for him to handle.

katashi... katashi... Ryou thought of the boy's last words, his last facial expression, and his last-

Ryou hurriedly kicked the sheets off of him as he ran to the trash can, spilling his stomach out with a heave, ignoring the stinging pain from all of the wires he had accidentally ripped out of himself in his haste.

"Woah- woah, Ryou, you okay?"

Ryou felt a bit bad for waking Ben up, but he didn't have time to think too much about it as he heaved again into the trash.

The bile burned his throat even more so than usual due to how raw it was from him screaming as everything was happening. Tears spilled out of his eyes as his mind scrambled for stability.

Ben kneeled beside him, gathering Ryou's long hair in his hands to ensure that none of it got in his face as he emptied his stomach. A warm hand began to rub comforting circles on his back, which helped him stop vomiting, but did not stop the endless stream of tears dripping down his cheeks.

"Here, drink some water," Ben quietly urged, pressing the water bottle to Ryou's lips.

Slowly, Ryou accepted the water, gulping down quickly.

"Not too quick, buddy. You'll throw up again," Ben whispered softly, running a gentle hand up and down Ryou's back until he was done drinking water. "Come on, let's get you back into bed."

Ryou nodded hollowly, sluggishly walking back to the bed, rubbing his eyes, despite the pain that followed due to how raw the skin had gotten.

Ben lightly clicked his tongue, batting Ryou's hands away, "Let me." He said as he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket before lightly dabbing at Ryou's damp skin.

"Ben..." Ryou croaked out, his eyes gushing out even more tears, "He- He's dead." He whispered, allowing himself to be enveloped in a tight hug from Ben.