(WARNING: THERE IS MENTION OF RAPE IN THIS CHAPTER! It's also a very sad chapter so you've been warned!)
~*5:30pm, at Manami's apartment*~
As I was pouring the udon noodle soup I made from scratch in a bowl for everyone, a knock at the door sounds throughout my apartment.
"Sayuri-chan, can you get that? It's probably Hizashi-kun." I call out to her from the kitchen.
"Sure thing!" She replies from the living room. A few seconds later, I feel a strong pair of arms wrap around my waist.
"You smell amazing, babe...have I ever told you that?" I hear a certain Friday night DJ mutter into my neck before planting a loving kiss there. I smile.
"No, you haven't...but thank you. Can you tell the lovely couple in the living room that dinner's ready for me, please?" I ask sweetly as I put the final touches in each bowl of soup.
"Sure." He pulls away from me and I hear him walk out of the kitchen as I place the bowls on the table with a pair of chopsticks next to each bowl. After everyone, including myself, was seated, we all start to eat silently.
"So, I heard from Hizashi that you met the Midoriya twins today...what'd you think of them?" Sayuri asks casually before slurping up a bunch of noodles into her mouth quietly.
"They are so adorable, not to mention they're both are quite intelligent! Izuku-san was super sweet and quite endearing, especially after I gave him an autograph when he asked for one and told him he should come check out the studio, since he has quite a knack for drawing! Seraphina really reminds me of you, Shota...somewhat quiet, but very perceptive. All in all, they're great students, at least from what I heard and noticed. I hope to meet the rest of them soon; I want to see for myself what they're like." I explain before continuing to eat.
"I'm sure you'll get to meet the rest of class 1-A sooner or later. They tend to attract the teachers' or even other pro-heroes attention one way or another, from what I noticed." Shota quips in, "I mean, Izuku somehow caught the attention of All Might and is now receiving training under him personally, but that's just what I heard from Recovery Girl." I nod in understanding.
After we all finished our meal, Hizashi helps me clean up before giving me a quick kiss and leaving after saying goodbye to me and the other two, Sayuri doing following suit a few minutes later while doing the same to Shota.
"You ready yet?" I hear from my bedroom door as I grab my special whip from my nightstand, along with my phone, before turning to him as I place my phone in my utility belt and hook my whip to its usual place on my hip.
"Yeah, let's go." I reply as I walk past him.
~*2am, Hizashi's POV*~
I had fallen asleep after getting home from my patrolling around midnight when I hear my phone go off. I groan slightly into my pillow and reach for my phone to answer it, not bothering to see who it was.
"Hello, Hizashi speaking..." I answer, not really caring at how tired I probably sounded just now.
"It's Shota, you need to get to the hospital. Now. There's no time to explain, just get here ASAP. It's about Manami." I dart out of bed, now completely awake.
"I'll be there in a few!" I reply before hanging up and quickly slipping on a t-shirt and pants before putting on a pair of tennis shoes and rushing out the door, slamming it shut in the process.
"Please, let her be alive..." I murmur to myself, tears welling up in my eyes as I dash to the hospital, which was about ten minutes away via walking distance from my apartment, thankfully. I arrive in less than five minutes, seeing Shota waiting for me at the entrance while noticing he had a few bruises and cuts scattered on him and his arm was wrapped up in bandages.
"What happened?!" I ask frantically.
"We got into a big fight with a gang of criminals that was robbing a bank and she was caught off-guard. She was stabbed in the left thigh and both shoulders a couple of times and lost a lot of blood. Don't worry, though, they've already been turned in. Come on, I'll take you to her. She should be getting out of surgery right about now and is most likely resting, so please, try to keep your voice down." he explains before walking inside, with me following closely. As we enter the room she was in, I see a vaguely familiar doctor checking her vitals before writing down something on the clipboard he was holding and looking up at me and Shota.
"How's she doing so far, doc?" I ask quietly while wiping away the tears that were in my eyes.
"She's going to be in quite a bit of pain after she wakes up, but we've got her prescribed to some painkillers when she needs it, so she'll be alright. She's going to have a few scars, due to how deep the stab wounds were, but she's expected to make a full recovery. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some other patients to attend to." He explains before exiting the room quickly. I approach the bed she was lying in before silently pulling up a nearby chair closer to the bed and timidly grabbing her bandaged hand to hold it, sighing shakily at the sight of all the bandages around her upper arms and shoulders, along with the breathing mask over her mouth and nose, which was fogging up every now and then from her slow breathing pattern.
"I'm so sorry, Manami...I should have been there with you to protect you..." I mutter quietly while my eyes began to water again.
"Don't blame yourself over something you didn't know about or couldn't control...it's not your fault." I hear a gruff, yet soft voice murmur sourly from behind me. I glance over my shoulder to see Shota staring at the ground with a slightly pained look on his face and his arms crossed against his chest tightly. "...If anything, I should be the one being blamed for all this...it was my fault she got this badly injured, after all..." He pauses and inhale shakily as he continues with a few tears making their way down his face, "I should've been quicker to react when the bastard got her distracted for a few seconds...but I...I couldn't do anything as I watched her get stabbed...I was being held down and I couldn't fight them off in time as it all went down...I almost killed the asshole who stabbed her, however...he's in a room a few floors up above us with a bunch of officers watching him closely...turns out I broke a bunch of his ribs, both his arms, hands and fractured his skull in a few places, but they said he's going to be fine with little to no damage in his brain but won't be able to use his hands to the fullest ability for the remainder of his life...I'd feel a little bad, but he said something that really got to me when I knew he was just trying to mess with my head...though I am still almost eighty-nine to ninety percent positive he did exactly what he said..."
"What'd he say, exactly...?"
"He...he knew about me and Sayuri...and he apparently was her ex-boyfriend...you remember the guy she used to tell us about in high school but suddenly broke the relationship off one day for no real reason, was gone for several days and refused to give us a straight answer as to why when she came back?" I nod, unsure where he was going with this, "It turns out, he raped her several times and had gotten her pregnant...she had an abortion and she left him after gaining enough courage to do so, with the help of her mother and father. He was sent to prison for it, but broke out nearly a month ago and has been stalking her without me knowing it...I feel incredibly stupid for not catching onto the signs that were clearly there...I just...wish she told me or the police sooner about this whole issue with her ex-boyfriend... but you know how she is with her 'I don't want to seem helpless and can handle things by myself' mindset...once she'd set her mind on something, she's going to do it." I hear him sniffle softly as the tears fell from his face.
"Shota, I'm so sorry...really, I am. I had no clue that she had all that shit happen to her...if you or I had pushed her a bit further to talk about what happened to her, maybe we could have done something, anything, to help her out..."
"What could we have done, Hizashi? We were still in high school and still just teenagers...there's not a damn thing that we could have done to change the outcome of this whole ordeal." He snaps at me with a glare in his tired, tearing up eyes before sighing softly and closing his eyes tightly, "Either way, he's going to be rotting in the highest security prison for the rest of his pathetic life as soon as he's released from the hospital, from what the detective told me earlier...and I'm...sorry for snapping at you, by the way...I'm just really tired and extremely stressed out at the moment, more so than the usual. So, excuse me if I seem a bit on the mean side tonight...at least, more than the average amount."
"It's fine, Shota. I understand...at least you're admitting you're a hardass...about damn time you did, too..." I chuckle out slightly. He huffs out a small, single noise that resembled a laugh.
"And Shota?" I softly call to him while still looking up at him.
"Yeah?" He finally looks at me while wiping his eyes and face free of tears on his sleeve, his emotionless gaze back on his slightly tear-stained face.
"I'm glad you're opening up to someone, especially me, about what's been going on in that head of yours. For years, I never would have thought you'd talk to me, or anyone for that matter, about what goes on in there, but you've just proved me wrong. So, thank you for trusting me enough to do that. I'm sure Manami would agree with me on this when I say that I'm proud to be able to call you my friend, and if me and Manami get married one day, Brother-in-law."
"I...appreciate it, Hizashi. I really do. But everything I told you tonight is to stay between us and whoever else I decide to tell about what went on between us. Got it? I don't want everyone to know about how I finally vented and talked with you and basically, broke down into a crying mess in the hospital room my sister was in due to my mistake on patrol. If Nemuri or even Toshinori found out, they'd never let me live it down and start calling me a softy...I really don't want that..." I smile and reply with, "There's the Shota I know...but, anyways, you got it, bro, I won't tell a soul...and for the love of God, don't ever blame yourself for the state that Manami is in at the moment. She wouldn't want you to, anyways. It's like you said before; you were pinned down and couldn't move. So, it wasn't you're fault. I know I don't blame you in even the slightest, so you shouldn't either." He cracks the smallest of brief smiles and pats my shoulder slightly before walking over to the door, saying, "Thanks again...keep an eye on her and take good care of her for me...she's the only family I have left. I'm heading home for some much-needed sleep after taking her stuff to her apartment."
"See you soon, Shota. Be sure to see Recovery Girl about that arm of yours when you get to school. I'm sure she'll help you out...oh, and can you do me a favor and ask Nemuri or Sayuri to see if one of them can cover for me for a day or two? I'm going to see about sticking around here until Manami's given the go ahead for releasing her out of here and try to assist her at her apartment as best as I can." I reply.
"Sure. I'll be sure to do that first thing. I'll let the nurses know about you being in here. See you later." he yawns out as he grabs the bag of, what I assume was, Manami's stuff, opens the door and closes it behind him, leaving me alone with my girlfriend, who was still resting, thankfully. I look down at her and lean over to move a piece of hair that was in her face, only to see that her hair was a good bit shorter, but still longer than mine by several inches, maybe a bit past her hips.
'Wonder how that happened...' I quip in my head as I lean back into the chair that I was sitting in with a small, tired huff and close my eyes while still holding onto her bandaged hand, '...she's still perfect in every single way...I'm so glad to see that she's alive and that she'll be alright...' and with that last thought, I fell into a dreamless, and slightly uncomfortably positioned, sleep.