"Please!"

You stop, tilting your head up but unable to see because of the blood flowing into your eyes. The concrete is rough on your palms, stinging with a pain you don't recognize.

"Please stop!" Midoriya huffs, reaching for you, "Please!"

❧

Your mouth is dry from screaming and crying, and the pain dripping from your forehead shocks you into place. You can't move as you watch Midoriya limp towards you, his skin drenched with sweat. He must've run fast, must've seen you trying to get away. He must've ignored the heroes' screams when you tried to kill Uravity.

"Stop," you manage to tell him, "it's dangerous."

He ignores you, stepping closer, holding out his hand. You wince from the tingling feeling of your quirk trying to heal your wound.

"Liquid Fire," you say, looking at the burn scars on your arms, "I think I have it. I think it's inside of me."

It's almost as if you can feel it, flowing through your veins like lava, hot and burning red. Your body is tired from having to constantly use your quirk; trying to heal both the fire in your veins and your probably cracked skull.

"It's okay," Midoriya whimpers, coming closer, "We can get you a doctor. You're not dead yet, right?"

He forces a sad smile, approaching you like you're a frightened wild animal. You scurry away.

"I don't want you," you breathe, your body weary, "to die, too."

"Why?" He asks, "Why, if you're going to die, shouldn't I? We said we'd stick together, remember? And darling, I'd follow you into the depths of hell."

"I'm a monster." You shake your head slowly, partly blinded by the blood on your face. "I'm just . . . I just can't live and watch myself become the villain when all I've ever wanted is to be someone's hero."

He wraps his arms around you then, warm and inviting. 

"Would it be too cheesy to say that you're my hero?" He whispers, "and maybe . . . maybe a monster isn't such a bad thing to be."

You scoff. "You're everything but a monster. You're my hero."

His eyes seem to change, then, at the word hero. "There's . . . there's something I never told you."

You focus on his voice, feeling your mind slip away.

"This store was never abandoned." He chuckles. "I just . . . killed anyone who came here. The owner. The employees. Now everyone thinks it's haunted so they leave me alone. It was never abandoned, I just became a ghost."

The world spins underneath you, and the taste of blood is overwhelming your senses. Panic settles in your bones, and you jerk away from Midoriya.

"I'm sorry," you mumble, your voice shaking, "I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything wrong," he replies, "the greatest sin would be dying and leaving me  behind, but you haven't died yet. We can still get help."

"No."

And you feel it, then: what Shinimi must've been feeling. The unbearable urge to let everything go. To leave everything behind.

To die.

It's selfish, right? Feeling this way and wanting to leave Midoriya behind?

You look at him. His eyes are desperate, full of what seems like sadness and anger mixed. But below all that? Below the pain he's no doubt feeling?

It's love, small and quiet and scared you're going to say goodbye.

But before you can apologize, before you can decide you want to live, you pass out, the unfortunate, familiar darkness filling your vision. The smell of blood fills the air.

And in your head, you cry.

❧

The sound of police sirens wakes you up. Far off in the distance, faint, but still loud enough that you can hear. Still loud enough that, even in your waking, your muscles stiffen, ready to flee.

It's hot.

That's the first thing you notice; the unbearable heat, like you've been in the sun for days on end. But as you look around, you can't see anything but darkness. You can feel a bandage wrapped around your head, though, so you know Midoriya must be near.

"Midoriya?" You call, your pathetic voice hoarse with tears.

A light flickers on, and someone says your name. It's him, it's gotta be. You can barely move, and pain stings your heart, so you sit, waiting for him to come to you.

"I don't think there's a cure," he says.

You tilt your head.

"but I don't care," Midoriya continues, "we'll find one, okay? I promise. Until we do, this will work."

The first thing you see is a small, orange glow. It's eerily familiar.

"I'm sure Nakano wouldn't mind us using it, eh?"

He steps into the light, and you suppress a scream, a small gasp escaping your lips.

"Midoriya?"

His face is unrecognizable, a mangled mess of burns and blisters. His face twists when he smiles, making him look like a monster.

"Darling, don't worry. I'm okay. It'll heal soon enough."

"B-But how? And the scars it will leave . . . "

"You were right. You have Liquid Fire," he mumbles, "but I've been able to keep you alive with this."

He holds out the glowing coil.

Nakano's coil.

"She's dead, so I borrowed it from her," he laughs, a sound so tortured you think it's a cough, "somehow it's keeping us both alive."

You manage to stand, hugging him. "Thank you."

You look at the burns on your arms, unable to imagine the same thing on your face. The blood that dripped down it burned it too, so you must look a lot like Midoriya does. 

You kiss his scarred lips.

"Now," you laugh, "we really are monsters."

❧