Protostar - Chapter 10

--6 Years Ago--

The day before yesterday, Raven told everyone to put their trash out by their door.

Yes, the trash that was collected in everyone's rooms over the last week.

Today is trash day. She's going to pull a prank on Hagakure, the sweet little invisible bundle of joy.

And so, as she collected everyone's trash that morning before the dorm woke up, she--one by one--put all of the trash bags in front of her door. there was so much trash, that by the time she was done, she could barely see the door from where she was standing.

It was an odd prank, to say the least, but it was a prank and there wasn't any harm being done, so Raven gave it a ten out of ten score.

People were filtering through the hallways, some stopped and stared, others passed by without even a second glance. Raven didn't care about any of that, only Denki's and Hagakure's reaction.

When she spotted Denki trudging out of his room, she quickly dropped the last trash bag in front of Hagakure's dorm, knocked three times, and ran over to Denki, tackling him back into his room.

"Shh!" She shushed him as he went to scream out, but ultimately decided to slap a hand over his face anyway.

He let out a muffled, "Hmph!" and looked at her as if she were crazy, which in this case, she very well might be.

Raven rolled her eyes as she peaked out of his doorway, to see a very confused and angry looking Tohru eyeing all of the trash that was outside her door. Or, at least, she thought that's what she looked like. She is invisible after all.

"What the hell?" Raven heard her say from a distance. She watched as a pair of floating clothes climbed their way over the mountain of trash bags, only to trip and fall on her face when her foot caught on the plastic. "Ow!"

Raven had to slap a hand over both of their mouths to keep themselves from wheezing at the sight. She could feel Denki shaking, and when she looked over, she saw tears in his eyes from trying not to laugh.

Now, this only caused Raven to laugh even harder, and especially so when they locked eyes. They burst out laughing, drawing eyes, and unfortunately Hagakure's as well.

"Raven!! You're dead!" Raven ceased her laughing when she heard the murderous intent in Hagakure's voice, looking over to see her stomping her way over.

Denki and Raven looked at each other, "RUN!!" They said at the same time, and booked it.

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--Present Time--

Raven has just gotten back from patrol, and so far, she hasn't seen Izuku at all today. She faintly wondered in the back of her mind where he was, since he's been showing up more recently.

And no, when she says 'more recently' she doesn't mean just running into him at the grocery store. She means that he's been showing up uninvited in her own apartment.

How he's getting in? No idea.

The first time it happened was when he showed up with takeout and they fell asleep together on the couch. But ever since then, she would come home from work to her fridge and pantry completely stocked with fresh cooked food on the kitchen counter, and a curly haired broccoli man sitting on her beat up sofa.

She figured he realized she didn't go out often other than patrol, so he just decided that he would get her food to put in her house.

When Raven first found out, she threw a fit. Getting mad over the fact that she wouldn't be able to pay him back for everything he got her. All he said was, "Don't worry about it! I got you covered." With a cheesy smile.

That just made her rage even more.

Anyway, today was a Thursday, and usually, Izuku had Thursdays off.

Raven trudged up the stairs to her rotting apartment, fishing her keys out of her purse and opening the door. When she stepped inside, though, she was met with silence.

Most of her expected Izuku to already be in her house, but apparently that wasn't the case today.

She frowned, pulling out her phone to see if she had gotten any messages from him, but she had no recent notifications.

Her frown deepened at the radio silence. Sure, he didn't announce when he was coming over, but he was usually here most days. Most commonly Thursdays.

So when Raven discovered he wasn't here, it gave her an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

She shook her head, 'He's the number one hero, he's fine,' She thought to herself, trekking her way through her apartment to her bathroom to take a shower.

Raven thought about texting him, but didn't want to seem like she enjoyed having him over. Or seem like she was worried about him. She was most definitely not.

Raven doesn't understand why she's so uneasy, but she tried to ignore the ever growing pit of anxiety in her stomach the more hours that passed. She even turned on the news to see if anything big happened, but nothing was going on.

'Maybe he finally got sick of me,' Raven's shoulders tensed when the small thought wriggled it's way to the surface, the TV playing in the background of her thoughts. He couldn't have, right? After all this time, why would now be the time to finally ditch Raven? After she-

Oh.

Oh.

That made sense.

After she got attached again.

Raven clenched her fists in the fabric of her oversized shirt, her shorts just a little too short to where you couldn't see them.

For some reason, the revelation of Izuku finally leaving, finally getting tired of being around someone as boring and gloomy as Raven, made her upset.

Of course she'd be upset. She made her first friend after five consecutive years of being alone. Alone in this shitty fucking apartment.

She was angry. Terrifyingly angry. But all she could do was lean back into her couch with tears in her eyes as she came to terms with being alone again.

Alone in a world full of people.

It was unfair.

Maybe she was jumping to conclusions, but it made sense--

Suddenly, three sharp knocks threw her out of her pity party, and she snapped her head to attention.

It was almost ten thirty, who the hell was at Raven's door so late?

She stood up, walking her way to the door and wiped her eyes that had already become red.

Peaking through the peephole, she really wasn't expecting this sight.

All she could see from this angle was a tuft of green hair, one she was all too familiar with.

Her heart stopped, and hope rose inside.

Why now?

But the thought was cut short when she saw a glance of his face. Gasping, she quickly unlocked the door and threw it open, coming face to face with a beat and bloody Izuku.

"Oh my fucking god, Izuku!" Raven's face paled when she saw the trail of blood leading from the stairs up to her door. She glanced at her door and saw blood smeared on it. He must have been leaning up against it for support.

She finally got a good look, and her breath caught in her throat.

He was in regular clothes, so she figured someone must have attacked him. 'But how could he let that happen?'

He was leaning up against the wall holding his side with his left arm, blood dripping from his right hand. He smiled that charming smile looking her up and down and said, "Hey."

Raven stumbled into action, ignoring him obviously checking her out and took his uninjured arm to put it over her shoulder and help him walk inside.

Easing him onto her dusty couch--she really didn't care about blood stains right now--she ran into her bathroom and grabbed her first aid in a panic.

she kneeled down in front of the couch and began lifting up his shirt, her hands a little shaky.

"Hey!" He moved to stop her, but grunted when he shifted too fast.

She grabbed his hand, "Don't worry, I'm just patching you up," She said a little too softly, looking directly into his eyes to ease his tension, "I need to take off your shirt so I can assess the damage. Trust me, I know what I'm doing, Izuku," Saying his name seemed to calm him down, herself as well.

Instead of taking off his shirt normally, she rationally made the decision to grab a pair a scissors that were nearby and cut it off. "My mom gave me that shirt!" Izuku griped, obviously growing dazed by the look in his eyes.

Raven's eyes widened when she saw the damage. He was cut deep on his left side. Luckily, it missed his vital organs, but it was gushing blood.

"Hush now. Lemme work," She said, ignoring the way Izuku's green eyes studied her as she grabbed a wet rag and cleaned the wound of blood.

He flinched when she accidentally hit a sore spot, "I'm sorry," She said softly, focusing intently on the matter at hand, "Is there anywhere else that you got hurt?" Raven asked before she started stitching the wound.

He nodded, and for some reason, it was as if having a stab wound this bad wasn't affecting him at all. Only times when she accidentally prodded it would he show signs of pain.

She knew the reason for this, though. It was because back in high school he would break his arms and legs continuously. What a dumbass he was back then.

Raven pulled out a stitch and a needle from her medkit, "Alright, I'm about to stitch you up. I need you to stay still for me, okay?" He nodded, and she began.

She threaded the first stitch, and decided to help get his mind off of things. Not like he needed it, but she had questions. "Izuku?" He hummed, "What happened?"

He only mumbled something that she couldn't make out, putting his uninjured arm over his eyes, and only then realized how much blood he lost. He should probably stay home for a few days, just until she can get Recovery Girl over here.

She wiped up the excess blood that was around the wound. The entire time she was fixing him, she could feel his hazy eyes on her every move. Especially her face.

Raven looked up and caught him staring. She raised a brow, "Where else I should worry about?"

"Just a small cut on the side of my arm, nothing big," He managed to answer, his eyes droopy from exhaustion.

Raven's brows furrowed. If she remembered correctly, his arm was dripping blood, too. "Sit up," She commanded, and helped him ease his way into a sitting position.

"You're too bossy," He whined, before a smug look replaced it,"I like it."

Raven's face heated up when he slurred out that last part. She had to remind herself that he was not in his right state of mind.

'Drunk words are sober thoughts,' Her thoughts betrayed her. What is she thinking? He's not even drunk!

She maneuvered her way to sit next to Izuku so she could have full access to his arm. Sure enough, it was covered in blood. Raven grabbed her now soiled wash cloth, realized it was useless, and grabbed a different one to help soak up the blood.

Her thoughts wandered back to what he said just moments prior. 'So he's into that kind of stuff, huh?' That's good to know. But not the time.

He leaned his head back against the back of the couch as she cleaned him up, closing his eyes. It would be okay for him to go to sleep now, since Raven's almost done fixing him.

The initial panic wore off and now Raven just calmly stitches up the last slash. She figured she would ask him what had happened the next day.

For now, she's just mindlessly thinking about her thoughts before he showed up.

Raven almost felt bad about assuming he left. Though, in reality, she wouldn't judge him. Raven found it reasonable for him to leave, and unreasonable that he's staying, but the world just likes to do weird things.

She put a patch over both of the wounds, then wrapping both of them in bandages. She figured it would help if he didn't sleep sitting up, so she used all of her strength in laying him down on the couch without waking him up or hurting him.

Walking into her room, she grabbed a blanket off her bed and threw it over him. As much as she said she didn't care, deep down, she really did.

She didn't say she cared, but she didn't deny it either.

Raven cleaned off her hands and threw the blood soaked rags in the wash, soon laying down in her comfy bed, and dozing off to sleep.

It's been a crazy day.