Y/N stirred in her sleep before sitting up. Her head pounded with the memory of her friend's cries and the burning sensation that remained on her hands.
She was about to move before realizing there was a warm blanket wrapped around her. Her eyes squinted as she saw the ceiling lights, contrasted by the darkness still outside.
"You okay?"
She looked over at the voice that spoke to her. A boy was sitting beside her, his mismatched eyes like his hair which was split-colored.
"...yeah, uh, how long was I out?"
"Only about an hour. I thought you died."

Seeing Todoroki speak to the awakened stranger, those who held concern over her drew closer.
"Is that warmth coming from you?" She asked, feeling a cold only on the side without him.
"Yeah. You seemed to get weaker when it was cold."
"Yeah...thank you."
Jumping over the couch, Kirishima startled her. He sat beside her and smiled with his toothy grin.

"Glad you're all better!"
"Thank you."
"You have a lot of bruises still," he sighed, "also, those scars on your neck are still there."
"Scars on my-"
She quickly lifted her hand to the skin of her neck. She felt the crescent dips, remembering Tomo had been here. Tomo had helped her. Tomo knew she was somewhere she shouldn't be. Why had Tomo left the scars though?
"Those are...I—someone—"
"Did someone give those to you?"
Most of them wanted to listen in, seeing as it wasn't every night that an injured citizen shows up on their doorstep.

"My—friend, he got mad at me. He went too far."
"Well, I hope you aren't still friends with him!"
"I'm...not. He chose being a hero over me. Not that it actually means anything."
Midoriya sat on the floor with his legs crossed.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't really like heroes."
The group remained silent, nervously fidgeting.

"We're heroes," Todoroki told her, making the tense air in everyone's lungs escape.
"Damn, that's awkward," she mumbled, "I don't really mean to offend. I just don't believe in them."
"Why do you say that?" Midoriya asked.
"I've never met a real hero. I mean—I've met professional heroes, but not real ones."
"Which professionals have you met?" Uraraka asked, her fingers clasped together, excited to hear the answer.
"Uh..." Y/N struggled to watch her words. She needed to lie. She needed to remain a random stranger. "I've never met All Might or Endeavor..." she broke into a small bit of laughter, "my friends and I would joke about how I could beat him in a fight no problem. So I sorta wish we have met."

Y/N was being foolish, overwhelmed by the fantasy that was this school.
"I've met Midnight. She used to make my lunches because I was always making them for other people. I've met Snipe. He desperately wanted to teach me self-defense. I've...I've met Aizawa."
Y/N's eyes trailed to the floor, the warmth around her began to be captured by her hands.
"Every time we spoke, he always told me how much he believed in me. He told me how much he wished I was in his class. He promised that what he said was true. But I don't believe them anymore."

Y/N couldn't cry. Her tears wouldn't form.
"It was all a lie. Just a ruse. Just a phase."
Class 1A listened to the strain in her voice. The heat from the room was noticeably gone and Todoroki had felt himself become colder.
"I was just a kid," she whimpered, "I was just trying my best. I didn't—I didn't mean—no one listened to me."

Y/N shook her head.
"I told them I didn't want to be in the hero course. I said I wasn't cut out for that life. But everyone told me I was wasteful."
She looked up from the ground to meet Midoriya's bright green eyes.
"Suddenly, I didn't matter anymore."

The silence of the sincere moment was disrupted.
"You've got a pretty strong quirk, eh?" Kaminari asked, hanging down from behind her. "You absorb heat, right?"
She nodded, about to get a word in.
"People should've respected your decision!" Kaminari shouted, "Good quirks don't equal a heroic heart!"
People who agreed nodded. "I have to personally disagree when you say there are no real heroes. There's plenty that just want to help—like us!"
"I'm sorry for whatever happened in the past," Kirishima told her, resting his hand gently on her hot shoulder, "but there's a lot more good out there than you realize."

"U.A students seem to be a lot different than when I was here," she joked, her heart clenching. "You guys are much more kind than my classmates."
"So you did attend U.A?" Midoriya noted, "I was wondering how you knew Aizawa and such. You must be from last year's class."
"Yeah," she nodded, "I left because...because no one liked me anymore."
Kirishima rubbed his thumb over an imprint on her neck.
"Whoever did this should be ashamed." He assumed it to be from one of her supposed classmates. He wondered why her year at his school was so rough. "Don't let your past dictate your future."
Y/N thought it was already too late for that.

"L/N."
She lifted her head towards the door of the interrogation room, a place she had been sitting in for the past hour. They had left the room rather cold and the metal table she was sitting at was freezing to the touch.
She saw a police officer enter, along with Aizawa, a person she hadn't expected to join them.
"We'd like to discuss what happened."

She nodded.
"I know it was scary for you. What happened yesterday shouldn't have happened at all."
She squeezed her hands tightly in her lap. The only warmth available was the warmth stored in her body. She couldn't waste it.
"So, why don't you tell us about your friends?"
Her eyebrows creased.
"...w-why?"
"You're in general studies, yes? Your close friends are in the hero course and so is your boyfriend, am I right?"
Y/N didn't understand why this was important.
"Yes?"
"Do think you were ever—jealous—or envious of their status? Their popularity? Their strength?"
Y/N's hands clenched. Her arms felt heavy.

"N-no. I-I don't—I didn't want to join their class, but Jin—he made me sound so pathetic."
The police officer nodded, his eyes squinting.
"Why does this matter?"
He sighed, placing his arms on the cold table.
"Do you think maybe you were angry with them? You wanted to prove yourself?"
Y/N shook her head.
"I don't—? What does this have to do with anything? The villain—he hurt us."

Nodding, the officer clicked his tongue.
"Yeah. It took us a while to identify him. He looked—completely inhuman."
Her stomach twisted.
"He snuck onto your campus and picked your classroom. Or maybe you knew he'd be there?"
She looked over at Aizawa, wondering why he was letting these questions be asked.
"Answer him, L/N."

Her arms felt hot. They trembled.
"He had threatened us. I stood up against him. I didn't know he'd actually come back and try to harm anyone. But—he did. And I stepped in again."
"Right..."
The officer scooted his chair up closer.
"I get it, Y/N. Your friends are always out doing cool things and you finally get an opportunity to prove yourself. You get to show how strong you are. You went too far because you thought it would impress them."

Shaking her head, Y/N leaned forward.
"N-no. No, that's not it. He was gonna hurt us. Maiko was bleeding badly. I couldn't let him continue."
"So you stepped in."
"Yes."
"And you hurt him."
"Yes."
"You intended to kill him."
Her chest lumped with a disturbing twist of pain.
"He's dead?"

He grumbled at her question, his head leaning down, casting a shadow overtop the table.
"Don't play dumb with us, L/N. It's not going to get you out of here. Answer honestly and this will all be over."
Her breathing had become faster.
"He hurt my friends. I had to step in."
"You had to kill him."
"I had to protect them."
"Because it was up to you. You're the stronger one. It only makes sense."
She slammed her hands onto the table, the frozen sensation ran along her skin.
"They were going to kill Tomo! I had to stop it from happening! No matter what! I would do anything for her!"

Opening up a folder, he slid a picture towards her. It was Jin's arm as he lied in a hospital bed. Her handprint from when she burned him was the center-point.
"You wanted to prove yourself to him. You hurt him so that you could be the star."
"No! That was because he was going to hurt Tomo!"
"It seems that you hurt Tomo."
He slid the picture back into the folder.
"She was shaking while she spoke about you. She took a long time to speak."

Y/N's palms placed on top of the table were only making the table heat up, the burning smell wafted into the air.
"Calm down," Aizawa told her. "I'm sorry about this."
Y/N removed her hands, still stiff as she held them together.
"I blame myself for not realizing how much you wanted our attention. But this wasn't the way to do it. You put everyone in danger."
"I saved them!"
"Yes, Y/N. It seems that's your only way of viewing this. He wasn't innocent, but you killed a man. There's no way out of this one."

Y/N's tears were able to fall. Her temperature kept on lowering. She had to get out of this room.
"I couldn't control myself. I was so mad. And frightened. Everyone was watching and I couldn't let them die."
"You acted without thinking. I built up your ego and Jin put it in your head that you had to prove yourself. I understand that you thought you needed to, but you put a lot of lives in danger. So much that you ended one."

The tears fell into her lap; meanwhile, her headache was pounding. She was trying everything to stay awake.
"L/N. It's okay. The school will help lessen the punishment if you just tell us the truth," the officer told her, patting the table in front of her. "You will be expelled, but if you tell us the truth, you will not be locked away."
Her throat was so dry. The room was so cold. Her eyes stung. Y/N thought she was going to die.

The only thing to do was to agree.
"Yeah," she mumbled, "I hurt him and I killed him."
She squeezed her eyes.
"Because...I wanted to make myself seem like...a real hero."

Y/N lied on her back, the sun blaring down on her. Sunny was running around the yard with her empty juice box, playing with it as if it were interesting.
Her eyes were closed as memories flooded her.
"Tomo told us what happened."
Y/N bit her lip.
"That's how we knew. She told us all about Jin. She told us all about you."
Her arms wrapped around herself.
"Tomo wouldn't lie to us, but you, Y/N, it seems to just don't want to accept the truth."
The taste of metallic crimson reached her tongue. She licked over her lip.
"You murdered him, cold-blooded. You made all your friends watch."
The gate opened.
"You won't be permitted to see them any longer."

Opening her eyes, Shinso's fluffy head of purple hair looked down at her.
"Busy?"
"No," she sighed, sitting up.
He sat beside her, holding his hand out.
"You look rough," he said, rubbing the blood off her lip. "You're arms look like they've seen better days."
Her arms, marked up with purple and blue, crossed at her chest.
"I fell down the stairs."
"Ouch. Are your parents home?"
She shook her head as Sunny jumped in her lap, the juice box dropped from his mouth.

"Wanna escape with me again?"
She hummed, running her warm fingers through the orange fur.
"Probably not. I don't wanna get in trouble."
"You've done it before. You said they wouldn't care anyway."
"It's probably best I stay here."
Shinso's larger hands took hold of her chin, lifting her face to his. He admired her features, but the solum look in her eyes made him feel uncomfortable.
"I don't like the idea of you being trapped here."
He leaned forward, "will you come with me?"
Her jaw stiffened on his fingers and the hole in her chest ached as it debated answering.

Not needing an answer, Shinso stood up, holding out his hand to her.
Y/N looked at it for a moment, before gazing up at his face, the sun forming a glowing halo around his mess of hair.
Taking a deep sigh, she took his hand and the two of them left the yard, him leading.

"Glad to see you wearing the watch," he smiled, "it suits you."
"I appreciate it, but it's probably best you keep your gift-giving to a minimum."
"You always talk to me like it's temporary."
He squeezed her hand as her face turned away from him. "Why is that, Y/N? Do you plan to leave? Do you think I'm going to leave?"
"You already have."

Stopping in front of the train station, Shinso shook his head as he grabbed her arms.
"Y/N, I don't know what happened before, but it's not like that with me. I'm right here. You can't act like I'm not."
"Ever since my parents forced us to move, I haven't gotten a lot of permanent figures in my life."
"Then let me be one!"

His hands slid down to hers.
"Please don't push me away."
She hugged him, bringing him close and hoping that she would never have to let go. Shinso was surprised by her inflicting such affection, as he always deflected contact.
"Thank you, Shinso."
Y/N lied a hot kiss against his jaw.
"My hero."

"Your friends were released from the hospital."
Y/N looked up from the couch, watching another news coverage about the attack.
"Really?"
"You know the rules though. I just thought you should know."
"Are they alright?"
Her mother shrugged.
"Seiso and Kaikaku are fine. But they said since Potaru's fingers are gone, she's taking a break from the hero course."

Y/N scrambled off the couch, joining her mother in the kitchen.
"I can't talk to them at all?"
"That's the agreement. If I were you, Y/N L/N, I wouldn't test my luck."
"But—T—Jin! He deserves—I deserve to see him!"
Sticking the knife she was holding onto the cutting board, her mother's skin began to steam.
"I don't think you deserve anything after what you did."

Y/N had already lost a lot of her freedom.
She was currently on house-arrest and her phone had been confiscated.
U.A had expelled her and then the police charged her with a felony for using her quirk in a public setting.
U.A determined that she was a criminal and thus never allowed near or on their campus again.
Both her parents lost their jobs within the first week of news coverage.
They had been dwindling since it was clear to her that U.A wanted this to be swept under the rug as quickly as possible.

"He's my boyfriend."
"Do you imprint yourself on all your boyfriends?"
Her mother picked up the knife again and began to chop up a head of lettuce.
"That wasn't—it doesn't matter anymore, does it?"
Y/N wafted towards the counter and saw the tense face her mom was holding as if she were trying to control the hot steam from coming out her pores.
"My daughter," she quietly said, "a murderer."

She poured the chopped up pieces into a bowl before getting out another vegetable.
"I should've known the day you got your quirk that it would be this way."
The hot air fogged up the windows.
"It's just hard for me to believe. You put your friends in danger because—because what?!"
Turning to look at her, Y/N's mother had begun to cry.
"My own child killed a man for attention?!"

Her tears began to turn to steam as her insides boiled. The room became musty, filled with a humidity fueled by her mother's anguish.
She crouched to the ground, her hand holding tightly onto the counter as she wept at her daughter's feet.
"I'm sorry, mom."
Her hot, sweaty hands took hold of Y/N's ankles.
"How could you do such a thing! How could you betray us like this! What has become of you?!"

She couldn't tell her the truth.
It would only complicate things and she was sure by now that she wouldn't believe the truth anyway.
Y/N just had to live this lie that U.A made into reality. They wouldn't let it be any other way.
She hadn't known why this had to be the truth. Someone had died at her hands, but others would've died if she hadn't killed.
Why was she the bad guy because she wanted to save lives?

As she felt the touch of her mom, Y/N was filled with a confused sense of betrayal from the people she had begun to see as family as well as her own. She had been coerced into a life she didn't deserve. She had been the scapegoat for a society always looking for someone else to blame.

There was no good or evil. Not like this. If they were going to reject her from the good side then Y/N was more than willing to accept the invitation of evil.

Climbing up into the abandoned building that Y/N had been using as a refuge, they found that the light outside was plenty to illuminate the floors.
"It's much nicer looking when it isn't pitch black," Shinso mumbled.
"It's easier to get caught during the day," she laughed, pulling out her phone and beginning to scroll through it, "you definitely don't have a stealthy bone in your body."
"Is that so?" He challenged, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist.
"Shinso-!"
He lifting her in the air as if she weighed nothing and began to plod around while she kicked her legs.

"You wanna take it back?" He asked, swinging her around the room.
"No! Ah! Put me down!"
"Not until you admit that I'm an amazing hero!"
Y/N placed her hands upon his arms and he dropped her just like that, a feeling similar to that of a hot iron on his skin.
"Shinso!" She cried, "I'm so sorry!"
She approached him cautiously as if he were going to wrap his hand around her throat.
"It's alright, Y/N, calm down."
He held up his arm for her to observe and no distinct mark was pressed on him other than a highlight of red. "No worries, I got you worked up, didn't I?"

"No! Oh, Shinso-I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!"
Her hands clutched at her chest, keeping them far away from any victims.
"I'm okay. You didn't hurt me."
"But I could've! If the sun was shining in here any more or if the humidity was-"
He pressed a finger to her lips.
"Pass me your phone."
Shifting between his eyes for a moment, she hesitantly handed it over and she watched him smile before a song filled the air.

"Will you dance with me?" He asked, sliding the phone into his pocket before offering his hand.
She still felt the ardent skin of herself which hummed along to the irregular pattern of her heart. However, the heat of her arms rose to her face and Y/N warily laced her fingers with his.

Their feet stepped along to the beat, creaking the old floor with each of their movements.
She kept her eyes on him, as every time they fell down to the inflamed skin of his arm, his finger lifted her chin back up to meet him.
His hair moved like grass in the wind and became messier the more they danced.
He had a tall figure, so reaching up and keeping her gaze was difficult, but she didn't mind. As long as he was happy, she was too.

Y/N could feel her mind relax and the sun no longer became a bother, for it had no control over her.
Shinso smiled as he felt her hands go back to their calm state where she was so touchable that letting her go felt like a distant future.
There was no future right now, however; only the present, as that was all Y/N was allowed to live in.

But the present right now was so nice that she couldn't help but imagine beyond it.