Ultra Responsibility (My Hero Academia X Spider-Man Reader)

Issue 104 - Take the Wheel Brock

Blood.

That was all I could see at first.

On my hands. On the ground. Across my face in warm, broken streaks.

I was on my knees, though I didn't remember falling. My mask hung loose around my neck. My breath came too fast, too shallow, tearing in and out of me like my lungs had forgotten what air was meant to do.

In.

Out.

In.

Out.

The shape in front of me did not move.

I stared at it.

Then looked away.

"No..."

My voice barely worked.

"I didn't..."

The words crumbled before they could become anything real.

I shook my head, harder and harder, like I could shake the memory loose. Like I could undo the moment. Take back the choice. Take back the silence that came after.

"I didn't mean to."

My chest caved around a sob that didn't fully come out. I shook my head again and again, trying to deny the blood, the silence, the truth lying in the wreckage.

Something wrapped around me from behind.

Arms.

Soft at first.

Careful.

They slid over my shoulders and around my chest, holding me together in the exact moment I wanted to break apart. Her chin rested gently against the top of my head, and for one impossible second, the whole world narrowed down to the feeling of her there.

"Mina..." I whispered.

She did not answer right away.

Her hand moved to my cheek.

Her fingers brushed through the blood there, smearing it softly across my skin like she was wiping away tears.

"Shh," she whispered. "It's alright."

It was her voice.

It had to be.

Warm. Familiar. Close enough to make my heart twist.

I leaned back into her without meaning to, desperate for anything that felt human.

I trembled against her. "No, it's not."

Her fingers brushed my cheek, smearing the blood there like it was nothing more than rain.

"They made you do this."

"I could've stopped."

"They would have hurt you again."

"I should've stopped."

"They would have hurt everyone."

Her voice was soft.

Too soft.

Her arms tightened.

"You did what had to be done."

"I'm not supposed to be this."

Her hand slid down to my chest, resting over the place my heart was hammering.

"You are supposed to be stronger."

The words sank in like poison dressed as comfort.

I wanted to reject them.

I wanted to stand up, scream, tear the suit away, run from her, from the blood, from myself.