Frozen Wings

Chapter 39

Hawks' POV

"W-Winter, you what?" I stuttered.

"I think I have nine lives." She quietly said.

"How is that possible?" I asked.

"I think it's because of my Shapeshifter Quirk. It has to be!" Winter shook her head, changing forms.

"Shinso!" Aizawa got up, still shaking.

"Aizawa, I need you to back up for just a couple minutes." Winter softly said. He looked at her, going to say something, before falling quiet, backing away.

"We gotta get you inside, kiddo." Winter carefully picked Shinso up, carrying him bridal style into the students' house. I opened the door for her, making sure she had a clear path to Shinso's room. She carefully laid him down on his bed, inspecting the injuries.

"Can you breathe properly?" She asked. Shinso shrugged weakly.

"I need an answer! Yes or no." She sighed.

"N-No."

"Alright. I've got to get the rest of the seawater out of your lungs. Do you want to be awake or asleep? It'll hurt pretty badly if you're awake." Winter said.

"A-Awake..." Shinso said. She nodded, using her ice to create a tube.

"Keigo, can you talk to him?" Winter asked.

"Of course." I hopped on the other side of the bed, talking to the kid.

"So how's your training been going?" I started.

Shinso looked at me with a bored expression.

"Oh. Right. My bad." I realized he couldn't answer. Winter had carefully placed the tube down his throat so it could enter his lungs and clean out the fluids.

"Hm... hey, wanna hear how many times I've flown into a billboard? It was a lot more common when I first started flying. I flew into billboards eighteen times in one day. After I figured out how to fly, I had a total of seventy two times. I thought I was done flying into things, but every time Winter started texting me when I was out I would fly into a billboard. It was horrible! My total went up to one hundred two.

Shinso's eyes shone with amusement.

"I think she knew that that happened because she did it so many times, especially when I was close to a billboard." I glared at Winter. She stuck her tongue out at me.

"Anyways, I think that if I hit another billboard, even just one, I'll probably lose my intelligence from all the concussions I've gotten. Hopefully Winter knows that too." I passive-aggressively said.

"Oh shut up! You're fine, bird brain." She snapped playfully.

"Alright. It's over, Shinso." Winter let the tube dissolve into nothing.

He drew in a shuddering breath.

"T-Thank you." He said.

"Of course. My ice already healed your wounds, so just let me know if you have any pains, okay?" She gently brushed his fluffy purple hair out of his face.

Shinso nodded, quickly falling asleep. I carefully got off the bed, following Winter out of the room. She went back outside. "How is he?" Aizawa asked.

"He's fine. Don't worry." She smiled. He nodded, thanking her.

"We owe you so much, Storms."

She shook her head at his comment. "No one owes me anything."

"Storms!" Midnight came over.

"Yes?" Her ears perked up.

"If you have nine lives, how many have you spent?" The heroine seemed worried.

"I don't know." Winter shrugged.

"You might want to find out. It could be dangerous if you don't." She said.

"Alright. I'll try." Winter sighed. I noticed she seemed a little tired.

"You wanna go sit down?" I asked.

Winter nodded, walking alongside me. I made sure she could sit down without falling over and moved my beach chair closer to hers. I sat down next to her, taking her hand in mine.

"Please be more careful, Winter. I don't know that you're used to exerting that much energy." I said.

"Probably not. I'll figure it out." She shrugged. I sighed.

"You take care of me all the time. I want to take care of you, but you need to let me." I said.

"If I could I would." Winter mumbled.

"Huh? What do you mean?" I sat up, frowning.

"The last time I let someone take care of me was when I was in captivity. And you know the shit-fest that turned into." She replied.

"O-Oh. Right. I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"Don't apologize, Keigo. I know you have no intentions of harming me. I just... can't get my body to figure that out, is all." Winter said. I still felt bad.

"Well, if you need me, I'm here." I reminded her.

"I know. Thank you." She squeezed my hand.

"Anytime."

——————

"Hey, kid. How're you feeling?" I asked. Shinso looked at me for a few moments before responding.

"Like I just went through a smoothie blender." He croaked. I couldn't help but laugh a little.

"It should get better soon. Winter said those pain killers are pretty strong." I said. She had given me the task of delivering the medicine to the injured teen.

"Tell her thank you. For saving my life." Shinso said.

"I will, don't worry." I nodded.

"Hawks?" He seemed a little worried.

"Yeah? What's up?"

"I... I just want you to know... I'm not upset anymore."

"About what?" I frowned.

"You leaving your post that night," He said. The memories hit me, a fresh wave of guilt crashing over me.

"I know you had something important to do. Something that could have ended really badly if you didn't do it. I get it. You had to make a choice, and you chose what you thought was best. That's okay. I was mad at first but over time I realized that that's part of a heroes job. Choosing between two things, even though one may end badly. So, I wanted to let you know, in case I never get the chance to again, that I forgive you. I shouldn't have been so cold to you. I'm sorry." I felt my heart breaking. He didn't need to say that.

"There's no need for you to be apologizing, Shinso. I made a bad choice, even if I thought it was the right one. I should have at least told Winter or someone that I couldn't patrol that night. I don't deserve your forgiveness. I'm really sorry that all that happened." I apologized.

"In hindsight telling someone might have been a good idea. And I accept your apology. Just... if there's one thing I ask you to do, it's make sure that Storms is okay. We all see how hard she works herself. She's tough, yeah, but everyone needs a break, even people like her. So please... make sure she doesn't die from exhaustion." He sighed.

"Of course. I know how much she means to you all. I don't want her to go out like that either. So I'll do everything in my power to follow your wishes, alright?" I gave him a smile.

"Thank you."