Elly stood hunched over, panting with her eyes darting nervously about. Her partner from earlier that day on patrol was with her in the cool, sterile hospital room, holding one hand out towards her.
She flinched away from his touch and he frowned. "Ches? It's me, Yamada."
The primal cry of fear and hurt that wailed out of her caused him to step back in shock and almost fall. As he pinwheeled his arms wildly about to regain balance, she leaped, cat-like, into a dark corner of the hospital room. Her pale lavender eyes shone out at them as she huddled in terror, rocking back and forth with her tail curled tightly around her waist. Her breathing was loud in the stunned silence of the room, punctuated now and then by tiny little mews.
Hizashi exited the room as quickly as possible, his heart pounding in his chest. "Doc!" He called out in fear. "Hey - <i>hey</i>!" He grabbed ahold of the man's sleeve closest to her room. "What's happened to her?!"
"She's been negatively affected by a quirk," the doctor informed them gravely. "My colleague, Dr. Fern -" The first gestured at the new person that walked over, a flowery bush in human form wearing a lab coat. "was sent in when we believed there was mental trauma. I'll let them speak about her now." He stepped aside and the other doctor cleared their throat.
"Cheshire seems to have had false memories implanted in her mind." This doctor had a pleasant, whispery voice that was unidentifiable in gender.
Hizashi paled. "Oh, no," he whispered.
"Yes... Present Mic?"
"Yamada Hizashi," he muttered, nodding. He was in casual clothing now, but acknowledged his Hero persona.
"The memories were tailored to her psyche in a way to cause her the most trauma possible. She remembers pain and emotions that did not ever exist. It's an intriguing quirk that could have so many wonderful uses, but alas, a villain is using it commit heinous acts such as these."
Fern sighed deeply, a breezy, rustling sound. Some of the leaves around the area where their mouth was blew outward. "I'm very sorry to say that the root of these rotten memories involves you, Mr. Yamada. She is apparently terrified of you, yet she doesn't want you to leave. She let something slip whilst I was talking to her." The doctor cleared their throat uncomfortably. "She lost control during questioning and began to alternate between crying and saying 'Why, Zashi, why?' over and over again."
Hizashi went even paler, and his green-gold eyes filled with tears. "Sh - shit!" He choked. "Why me? Why did the bastards use me?!"
"We can only assume it somehow caused her the most pain."
The blond man winced. "If I ever come across him again, I'll blast his eardrums out!"
"There's good news and bad news." Dr. Fern paused, rubbing at one of the flowers on their body and ignoring the other's vicious comment. "My flowers have a soothing effect on traumatized patients. I've plucked as many as I could spare and set them in a vase near her bed for the moment."
"Is that the good news?" Hizashi asked, petulant. He wanted a solution to this - and fast. "<i>Please</i> let there be more good news." His left hand spun the red beaded bracelet nervously on his other wrist as he chewed on his lower lip.
The primary doctor laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "There is. We've had patients in that suffered from this quirk before. The results wear off eventually."
"And the bad news?"
"The bad news is that..." The bushy being sighed again. "It's probably going to take her over a month to regain her normal state of mind. Around a month for the memories to be seen as what they were - suggestions -- rather than the truth. But then she needs to overcome the effects of seeing her worst fear come to life."
Hizashi raised a weary hand to tuck a wayward lock of blond hair behind his ear. "I'd never hurt her and she acts like she's terrified of me!"
"If we can work very closely with you, we might be able to help her faster. The results from previous cases are promising, but you would need to be here frequently."
He jumped to his feet, hands waving in the air. "I'll do whatever it takes! I've got vacation time and I can call out a few times at the station. They'll understand."
"If you're willing, then, Mr. Yamada -" Fern gestured to the nurse's station with desk nearby. "Let me get some things and we can start immediately."
"Yeah, no prob. Great." Hizashi bounced over beside him, anxiously watching as the man pulled paper files and forms from an old fashioned cabinet.
"And ...here. I know it seems archaic, but we still need paperwork, even in this day and age." He set a series of files down and nodded to himself. "We're lucky," the doctor murmured. "She has you listed as her primary contact and allowed you to share her files. I must ask - are you dating?"
He shook his head. "No. We're really close, but, uh..."
<i>I never got up the courage to ask her out.</i>
"Nope."
"Hmm. Interesting. It's quite rare that someone would do this unless they're deeply involved with the other person."
Hizashi scratched at the back of his neck, where the loose ends of his bun dangled down to tickle. "Well, we're ...I mean, hell. I love her. I don't know if she feels the same way, but maybe she knew?"
"Maybe so." He took a deep breath. "If you'll sign here, everything will be ready." He nodded when the Voice Hero nearly pounced on the paper.
"What do we need to do?"
"We need to find out exactly what the implanted fear is."
Elly sat, hypnotized by a hospital technicians quirk as she recounted the events she was certain had transpired only a day ago. Dr. Fern sat behind Hizashi with a tablet, recording the events, as he sat next to her bed. She was calm at first, smiling and happy as she began.
<i>Elly smiled warmly as Hizashi led her into the room. It was small and furnished with only a large bed and an end table beside it, with another door leading to a bathroom. Her heart fluttered in her chest and her cheeks were blushing prettily, the excitement from what was to follow causing her to glow.
The blond man was dressed as casual as she was; in fact wearing his favorite outfit while she had on a simple, black t-shirt and jeans. He waited until the door was latched shut and pulled her into his arms for a powerful kiss.
This lasted several long, mind-numbing minutes before her tail smacked the floor. "Ow," she gasped. "Hey, careful with the teeth."
He chuckled. "I thought you liked the idea of me marking you up." His mouth closed on the skin of her neck this time, his hands tightening around her waist.
Elly hitched in a short, painful breath. She should be happy the man she loved wanted to mark her, but something felt wrong. His hands gripped her just a little too tight and his mouth -
"Hizashi!"
He pulled back, grinning and licking the droplets of blood off her skin. "I want you to feel that under your gear all day," he told her. "A reminder, yanno?" She frowned, but he picked her up and carried her to the bed.</i>
She began to show signs of distress, sweating, her ears laid back and her tail lashing under the thin hospital sheet, causing it to fall to the floor. As the tale went on, tears fell from her eyes and she sobbed loudly, clearly in both physical and mental anguish.
"You don't have to hurt me," she pleaded desperately. "Please, <i>I love you</i>, please, I'll give it to you willingly..!"
"<i>Doc</i>!" Hizashi snapped, spinning around. "Stop it! We know what she thinks happened already."
Fern sighed and gestured to the technician, who brought her out of the hypnosis. "Yes, thank you," he said quietly. "You may leave now."
Although still in a state of sleep, she wept for awhile longer, clutching the edge of the bed and breathing hard.
Meanwhile, Hizashi sat stiffly in the chair beside her. His mind was on fire; no one emotion could settle in but every single one was battering about in his brain. It hurt.
<i>She</i> hurt.
She thought he had beaten and abused her while making sure she knew he didn't care. She had no hope he loved her at all.
"Why did she <i>stay</i>?"
"Excuse me?"
"Why did she stay?" He repeated numbly. "She could've escaped at any time or even fought back, even in a dream. She - she <i>let</i> me hurt her."
"That's unfortunately the case with many abused people. They can't turn off the love they feel for their abuser, so they protect them. Many think they deserve the abuse as well."
He held up his tablet. "Her files say she had a mentally abusive childhood with men in her family but no father figure. She loved her father, but he didn't show love back. Thus, she's equated when she falls in love with a man, he will treat her the same. She's intelligent enough to have recognized the fact that this isn't true, but our fears are often irrational."
"Then she thinks she's not worth it..." He grasped the arms of the chair so tightly the plastic started to bend. "Ches, it's me. You're worth so much more than you think. And you're so important that I've been sitting here trying to reach you. You've got no idea how awesome you are. Please, come back."
Her ears twitched, and the soft weeping tapered back to sniffles.
"Good girl," he husked solemnly. "You're so brave, baby. I know you'll get through this. You have to know I'd never hurt you."
Some of the tension in her body leveled out, with her tail stilling. Fern looked excited, their leaves rustling. "That's it. Keep praising her, it breaks the narrative of her false memories."
"I'm not letting you go," he continued firmly. "You're too special. You laugh at all of my dumbass jokes and don't mind that I'm cranked up to eleven most of the time. You're -" He started to blush, but then blurted out, "you're my pretty city kitty and <i>I love you</i> more'n anything!"
She gasped loudly and shook her head.
"Yeaaahh!" Hizashi let loose a fraction of his quirk, just enough to vibrate through the air to counter her unspoken negative. "Listen to me, all those nasty memories are a bunch of frickin' <i>lies</i>! I'd never, ever hurt you, yo. You know that, I know you do! Come back to me an' I won't be chickenshit - I'll be yours if you want me!" He reached out and took her hand in his.
The doctor watched her very closely as her heart monitor started beeping faster. They didn't interfere at the touch, and it was a good thing, too, because it was what brought her all the way out of her mental fog.
Hizashi's hands were cold and shaking. She weakly curled her hands around his to warm them up, concerned.
<i>He shouldn't be cold... why cold?</i>
Elly's pale eyes focused for the first time in days, and she was treated to a scene she would never forget. Hizashi was sitting on the edge of one of those uncomfortable plastic hospital guest chairs, his eyes wide with the concentric lines around the pupils seeming to spin with worry. He was wearing a casual t-shirt with a local club name on it and torn jeans, with nothing about his neck, which was strange since he always wore a couple of necklaces. The gorgeous, long blond hair that was his trademark was pulled into a simple ponytail, but it was sloppy, with strands falling out to tickle his pale, wet cheeks. His short eyebrows were drawn so tightly up that his forehead was pulled into a point.
He looked haggard, to say the least. To see the normally energetic man so worn out was frightening.
<i>...wet cheeks?</i>
Cold, shaky hands, pale skin with dark circles under his eyes like Aizawa's ...and wet cheeks. He was smiling a big, trembling smile at her now, but though he looked happy tears were spilling from those heartbreakingly expressive greenish-gold eyes.
Elly wailed and tried to throw herself forward into his arms. She was still connected to the monitors, however, and the memories, though fading now, reminded her of the pain of rejection. She choked, torn between her needs and fears as the equipment rattled and prevented her from reaching him.
"It's okay," he hummed quietly in a soothing tone. Her ears twitched and he moved to sit on the edge of the bed. "I know you're scared, but I'm here to love you better, not hurt. The hurt was all a lie."
"Z - Zashi..."
He quivered happily at her use of his given name, especially turned into an even more personal one. "Oh, sweet babygirl. I'm'a never leave your side until you're all better."
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