Zero - A Vigilante Deku Story

Chapter 34 - Nocturnal Encounter

Hi there,

I kept you waiting with the update and I'm sorry. I was really busy with fighting the final boss: the bureaucracy of German public authorities.

I guess it will be two more weeks and then everything is settled for being a full time freelance author. Eventually this means: I will have to write to feed myself. xD

So look forward for chapters on time. (Hopefully)

______

POV Zero

It was dark. Zero couldn't make out where he was. It was hard for him to focus on anything. His head was filled with absorbent cotton. He couldn't think. What was happening to him?

An image flashed before him. It was a blond man who was much taller than he was. Zero knew this man, he was sure of it. But where from? He watched as the man's head was jerked backwards and at the same time he felt pain flare up in his right hand.

What was happening to him?

The man in front of him was wearing a hero costume, a very familiar one. Why couldn't Zero remember his name?

Again and again he saw the man being hit, while at the same time he felt pain in his hands.

Then the pain became unbearable. Zero screamed and screamed, but no one seemed to hear him. It did not stop.

The man was in front of him, holding him. Who was he? Why was he hurting Zero? What was going on? What was happening to him? Zero didn't understand.

The pain subsided. The hero had let go of him, but Zero ran towards him again. It was as if he could not perceive anything other than this man, whose name he could not think of. He came to an abrupt halt. Zero fought against it. The urge inside him was still insurmountable.

His focus changed. For the first time, he saw something other than the tall man in front of him. It was a boy who also had blond hair, but it was sticking out wildly from his head, but his eyes... Zero knew those eyes. He liked those eyes. After all, that bright ruby red was his favorite color. Did he like the eyes because they were that color, or was it the other way around, that it was his favorite color because the boy's eyes shone in that unique color?

He had never thought about that before.

The blond boy's lips moved, but Zero couldn't hear anything over the noise in his head.

He looked again at the hero in the red and blue costume and the urge to rush to him overwhelmed Zero once more. The hero looked at him wordlessly and waited.Something caught Zero's attention and he looked to the side. The boy's lips were still moving. Tears of despair shimmered in his eyes.

Zero didn't want the boy to cry. The sight made his chest sting.

His head wanted to turn back to the side where the hero stood, but Zero fought it. He wanted to hear what the boy was saying, just had to know. Very slowly, his priorities shifted.

"Zuku."

Then everything went black.

~~~~~

Zero shot up. His breathing was intermittent and his heart was beating far too fast. He stroked his face and forced himself to calm down. He sat on the mattress in his room. Zero was at home. Not in the forest of the training grounds, not in the warehouse, and not with the LOV.

It had been a nightmare.

At least Zero could be sure he hadn't woken anyone in his family. The fear of making the wrong sound was so ingrained in him that he had stopped screaming during a nightmare by the time he slept near the League. Far too often he had been awakened by blows from the person he had roused from sleep.