fear. || { bnha }

three.

A different, new expression flashed through Hitoshi's eyes. A faint shade of pink made itself present on his otherwise pale face. Purple eyes quickly broke their contact with Valui's blue ones; he fixed his gaze on something else, some irrelevant object on a shelf next to them.

"I—" He stopped himself short. Valui heard the waver in his voice. He swallowed. "I...guess I am. Is this all you needed?" He tacked on the last part quickly — a subject change.

Valui didn't address it. Instead, she counted the groceries that were split between their arms, ticking them off on an imaginary list in her head. Finally, she nodded, blonde hair brushing against her shoulders. "Yeah, this is all."

Her answer brought Hitoshi's eyes back to her, but only for a moment. "Come on," he said, walking past her, his arm brushing against hers. For a second, Valui feared she had made him mad at her — the thought brought a crushing, suffocating weight onto her chest. She had made the person who, quite literally, saved her life — her hero — hate her. The frantic, irrational thought didn't last long, for the next words her ears heard dispelled it entirely.

"It's getting late. I still need to take you home, don't I?"

Gentle. His voice was so...gentle. It made a warmth flood her small body, the heat settling itself in her face. She smiled to herself; all her self-loathing seemed to melt away.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was all a dream.

It felt too surreal to be reality. Good things didn't happen to her — that had been Valui's reality for her whole fifteen years of life. She was an extra, an out of place background character in a world ruled by those with Quirks. She had been locked into an eventless, inevitably unfulfilling life upon birth. She was doomed to her fate.

Or so she had thought.

Shaking her head to send her doubts to the back of her mind, Valui spun on her heel and partially ran to catch up with Hitoshi. How tall was he? He had crossed nearly the whole store in not even a quarter of the steps it would have taken her.

He was waiting for her at the register, the items he had been holding already scanned and bagged. Valui huffed in annoyance — not at him, but at her own shortness — and dropped her armful of items in front of the cashier.

A soft chuckling got her attention. She craned her neck up to Hitoshi looking down at her, an amused expression on his face. "You're pretty short, aren't you?"

Valui's face burned and her cheeks habitually puffed out. She was sure she looked like a child — her parents always liked to remind her of how childish she was. "S-so? I-it's not like I can help it!"

Hitoshi waved one of his hands dismissively, his chuckling dying down until the only remnant was an amused smile on his face. "It's fine. It's endearing."

E-endearing?

Valui didn't have time to think about what he said. The cashier finished scanning the last of the items and looked to the blonde with a small smile.

"Your total is twenty-five dollars and forty cents."

"O-oh, right. S-sorry." Valui dug around in her pockets for what felt like an embarrassingly long amount of time, producing a single twenty dollar bill. She hesitantly turned her gaze upward to the cashier. "I...only have twenty..."

"I'm sorry, you'll have to put something b—"

"I've got it."

Valui blinked, her mouth hanging open slightly in disbelief. All she could do was watch as Hitoshi easily placed six dollars — a five and a one — on the counter. He didn't look at her until the cashier gave him his change; which he then offered to her.

"Here."

Is... Huh...? Is he...serious...?

"I-I couldn't—" Valui started, her eyes frantically flickering between the coins Hitoshi was holding out to her and the bags of groceries — her groceries — that he had picked up in his other hand. "It's— It's yours—"

"It's fine, it's not that much. Take it." Despite his insisting, his voice never turned harsh. It was new; so new, in fact, that Valui was stunned for a moment. She was used to people getting frustrated at her. She was used to harsh voices; harsh glares; harsh everything. This...kindness was foreign to her.

"Al...alright..." Valui caught the coins in her palms and pocketed them. Her eyes trailed after Hitoshi as he made his way toward the exit of the store, her feet following suit soon after.

Her eyebrows furrowed as they exited the store, the two of them stopping on the sidewalk out front. "You didn't have to do that," she started, her mouth forming a frown that she doubted he could see in the dark.

Hitoshi looked down at her. With the faint glow of the streetlights and the lights inside the store, Valui could see the confused look on his face.

"But I'm your hero, aren't I?"