ZINNIA DREAMT OF FALL SKIES AND COTTON CANDY CLOUDS. Where the skies were an astounding shade of sherbet orange and the clouds gleamed an ethereal mix purple and pink as they painted the stratosphere with texture and life. Of a world that was not the sterile whites and stainless steel, where the taint of chemicals staining her flesh couldn't reach her, even then. Verdant and emerald grasses grazed against her exposed skin with the sway of the breeze, tickling the nape of her neck, much like her mother would do to wake her up when she was younger.

Strands of glossy, wavy scarlet swept in the playful air as if the wind itself had grasped several small locks and proceeded to gently tug them to rouse her from her daydream.

The scent of persimmons and loquats touched the air as Zinnia pulled herself upright, sugar sweet and all things delightful on the tongue. Like whipped cream and dreams spun on a late summers afternoon, with those special treats she remembered Kali used to prepare when she had the health to spend her energy on the more mundane activities. Cinnamon camaraderies shared between her members, before life took its inevitable turns.

It felt almost like Zinnia could touch the sky, and perhaps sometime she might just try. But the soft sounds of laughter on the breeze drew her attention, calling her to climb to her feet and follow it wherever it may take her.

The grasses beneath her bare feet brushed gently against the arches of her soles before falling motionless, as if the blades sought to cast her a farewell caress before she left. The ground beneath her feet was stained with persimmon orange footprints, marring the otherwise picturesque landscape with unyielding marks that outlined her every step. They remained without change, even as Zinnia's form disappeared through the thicket of trees down the slope.

Chimes echoed overhead, periodically, as regulated as a clock ticking far slower than it should. The world almost seemed to tremble with every chime, the air was charged and sent jolts shooting up her spine with every repetition.

Footprints of different colours began to blemish the ground, all the more with every step she wandered within the forests. Cherry red soles at first, only distinguishable from Zinnia's own for the fact that they were remarkably larger than her own, though sunflower gold came and went in peculiar patches, as if the owner had changed their destination part-way through. Pawprints of lime green, the rough, lavender two-toed feet of some kind of perching bird, and other various footprints peppered the forest floor at varying levels, though those cherry-red boot-prints were the most frequent.

As the world darkened and Zinnia's footsteps began to follow the trail of cherry red boot prints, the sound of crackling thunder echoed overhead, and water began to rise up out of the ground, as if possessed by effervescent motions. Droplets lifted up out of the ground, from puddles oozing from the very ground to return to the skies. The droplets ran up her bare legs, grazing over the pinafore dress she wore over her tiny form, but never staining it. Like an ethereal existence, it traced over her like glass beads rolling over her skin.

Zinnia slowed to a halt as she watched the droplets rise towards the heavens, realizing before long that she seemed to have forgotten a great number of things. She didn't recall how exactly she had gotten here, to a dream that felt so real she could swear she was awake, to watching the rain rise from the earth to meet in the darkening skies above. She didn't remember anything, who those footprints belonged to, why she was here, and why she found herself wishing she would never leave this place.

The chiming seemed to reverberate louder, sending rippling discomfort tearing its way down her spine and prodding at her eardrums.

It drowned all other sounds out, pressuring her senses until they were rendered void and her breath fell short of maintaining her consciousness within this lucid dream.

Zinnia's knees gave out beneath her, and yet, she didn't recall hitting the ground.

She felt the abyss underneath the ground open up and swallow her whole.

* * *

Kirishima Eijirou had never gotten such a chilling sense of dread in his life, of something serious lurking in the background waiting to pounce when he was least expecting it. Not even when the League of Villains attacked his class just hours ago had rendered such a frightening sensation over him, and yet the way Zinnia had hung up on him had set off warning bells inside his head.

It had occurred to him that something might have been wrong when she had cut in mid-discussion his classmates were having over the information they'd received from her, and it had in fact grown more profound when he'd heard that falling lilt in her tone. He couldn't describe the tone, couldn't find the words to express exactly what it was.

However it had hit him like a sucker punch the very moment Zinnia had said "I won't be here" when she'd told him not to come in to see her.

He'd been preoccupied with finding out for everyone if their teachers were going to be alright; Of course, they'd just seen two Pro-Heroes get mangled to bloody pulps before their very eyes, so it was natural. He wanted to reassure everyone with reliable information he could get through Zinnia, and his thoughts were whole-heartedly focused on that.

But as he heard the disconnection tone ring through the speaker of his phone for everyone to hear, he recalled immediately that it was only yesterday that his friend had been rushed to hospital after winding up in a very similar state to his teachers. She was recovering in the ICU, and he'd somehow neglected that fact all through the urgent need to source how his teachers were doing.

It had bothered Eijirou enough that he'd apologized to everyone and left on his own, though Iida had announced shortly after that it was probably best that everyone went home. The only thing he could actually do at that moment was heed the girl's words and not come in, even though it felt wrong. Even though as he made the conscious decision to not turn down that street, he felt like he was missing something. But it couldn't be helped.

His parents would have undoubtedly heard that his class had just been attacked by the League of Villains that afternoon, and while they were more than happy to let him get away with coming home late if it was to see Zinnia, given their fondness for the tiny girl, it was another matter entirely after the USJ.

The most he could do that night was call the hospital line to her room once his mother had finished stressing over him.

But it only sought to worry him all the more when the line rung out, unanswered.

In lieu of the villain attack, school had been cancelled for the next two days for class 1A in particular, though really, those days off only really catered to Saturday classes given that Sunday was a day off regardless. Eijirou had awoken at an uncharacteristically early hour, what with the havoc that foreboding sense of dread wrecking on his ability to sleep. The sun had barely started to peek out from among the city jungle horizon before he had given up and dragged himself out of bed.

He didn't bother to do any training, even though he knew his parents were likely already awake. He didn't bother to log into the group chat some of his classmates had invited everyone to joining after everything had panned out at the USJ, even though he had several dozens of notifications sitting in his activity feed.

He simply threw on a careless set of slacks and a tee shirt before making his way downstairs, mind too preoccupied with the foreboding chill that had yet to leave him.

He hardly even noticed that his mother already awake downstairs, preparing breakfast for both herself and his father, scarcely even looked up from his phone as he walked towards the fridge and collected the milk from within. The smell of cooking bacon, eggs and sausages on the air had barely tugged more than a fleeting thought from the boy as he proceeded to pour himself a glass of milk.

'Good morning, Eijirou.' He heard his mother call out, and he offered a half-hearted wave of his phone-wielding hand. 'You're up early. I thought you'd sleep in a while longer than this after everything that happened at school.'

Eijirou's mother hadn't been the least bit disheartened by his lack-lustre greeting, it seemed.

But then again, she rarely was.

A woman of an easy-going, albeit overly prone to becoming a mother-hen for anyone at the drop of the hat, Eijirou's mother was a small woman with raven hair, ruby red eyes and a soft smile at most times.

'Nah... couldn't really sleep well, anyway.' He offered in response.

'Well, you picked a good time to come downstairs anyway, I've almost finished cooking breakfast. Would you like any?'

Normally, he'd be all over breakfast in a heartbeat, especially when his mother went out of her way to cook something as mouthwatering as a meat-lovers breakfast. But now?

'Thanks, but I'm not actually hungry...' He admitted as he returned the carton of milk into the fridge. 'It's yours and dad's anyway.'

He soon found himself realizing he should have worded his answer a bit differently when he'd shut the fridge door and found his mother fixing him with a look of undiluted horror.

'Eijirou... you're passing up on sausages and bacon?!' His mother choked out, covering her agape mouth with a petite hand. 'And you're having trouble sleeping, too? Oh this really isn't good!'

Eijirou stood stock still at the fridge door as he watched his mother begin to furiously wipe her hands down and shuffle quickly towards the phone.

'I think we need to take you to see the doctor, dear! This really isn't healthy! It's unlike you!' The woman spoke as she quickly lifted up the phone from its cradle on the wall. 'I hope they're at least--'

'Mom.' Eijirou called, though his mother didn't appear to hear him over her worsening muttering. 'Mom, I feel fine!'

'Dear, you were involved in a villain attack, of course you're not fi--'

'Yes, I am. I promise!' He insisted as he took the phone from his mother's grip and placed it back in its cradle. 'Really, I'm totally fine. I'm not hurt and everyone got out fine. Our teachers are okay, too. They're pretty roughed up, but they're going to be alright.'

Really, besides Midoriya, every student essentially got out fine.

However, his mother clearly wasn't convinced, if that narrowing gaze of hers was anything to go by.

'Give me one good reason why this change in behaviour of yours isn't because of that attack at your school yesterday!' His mother demanded, sternly. 'I have half the mind to keep you on house-arrest for the whole weekend, I'll have you know.'

Eijirou leaned past his mom to look at the stovetop, to see that the contents were beginning to smoke slightly.

'Mom, the stove--'

'Don't you change the subject on me!' She snapped.

'Seriously, the food is catching fire.' Eijirou deadpanned, much to his mother's alarm.

'Wh-what?!' She gasped out, yelping as she turned and saw that indeed, the flames from the stove top element had caught oil splatters from the bacon and spread to start engulfing the contents of the pan. 'OH NO!'

Needless to say, Eijirou could only sigh as he watched his mother frantically turn off the flame and grab the steel lid for the pan and forced it over it to extinguish the fire.

He ignored the heavy breath of relief that escaped the petite woman as she carefully removed the lid a minute later to find that breakfast had not suffered all that much from the wandering flames, though he did feel the pointed frown the woman cast him next.

'Thank you for warning me, but that doesn't get you out of answering the question.' She told him, sternly. 'Otherwise it's to the doctors we go.'

She really wasn't going to drop this, was she? The subject really must be bothering her, given her persistence over it, near miss with the stove top and all.

Guess he'd better be blunt about this.

'I'm worried about Zinnia. Alright?' Eijirou answered with perhaps a bit more force than was necessary, stunning his mother within an instance. 'It's nothing to do with the villains yesterday or my teachers or anything to do with that. She told me not to come in and see her, so I'm worried. That's it.'

Silence greeted Eijirou's words, though by the startled look that flashed across his mother's face, it wasn't out of disbelief.

'Oh, of course you are... I shouldn't have forgotten about that...' The woman eventually responded, almost as if she was rather ashamed of herself at that moment. 'You didn't tell me too much, but is she... she's just worked herself to collapsing from fatigue, hasn't she? I mean, you told me her volunteer work takes a lot out of her, and she's there all the time... She uses her quirk for it, right?'

Eijirou resisted the need to sigh at his mothers words; It wasn't uncommon for the woman to completely miss any form of news report, since she purposefully avoided most media so she wouldn't see how many people were hurt in the city.

He couldn't blame her for not knowing, but he was already dreading the fact that he had to actually tell her the truth.

She was going to throw a fit as soon as this all sunk in on her.

'It's not overwork... Her school was attacked by villains the day before Yuuei. Everything got messed up so bad, it makes yesterday look like the villains came to bring us lunch instead of actually attack us.' Eijirou admitted with a grimace spreading across his face as he saw the alarm begin to appear in his mother's eyes. 'Apparently a lot of the students got hurt, but Zim came out of it the worst, and her school just went and expelled her not even a day afterwards...'

'How ... severe is this? Zinnia-chan's injuries, I mean?' His mother asked.

'Bad enough that she might not be here anymore if Endeavor didn't leap in and save her?' Eijirou let out a humourless chuckle as he turned to retrieve his glass of milk form the counter. 'The hospital won't tell me anything, cause we're not family, obviously. But from what me and Kaminari eavesdropped on, it's pretty bad...'

'And she's still having trouble with her family?'

'Enough that a friend of her mom's the one coming to check on her instead...'

'What?!' The petite woman practically screeched, causing him to flinch so violently that some of his milk had sloshed over the rim of his glass to splatter on the floor. 'A friend of her mother is the one checking in on her?! Haven't they even stopped in to make sure she's okay?! If not the siblings, then her own mother has at least, right?!'

Eijirou clearly grimaced at the question, hesitating in answering.

Considering Kennedy Kali's ill-health, he knew for a fact that if she could come and visit, she really would have. There were reasons, he just didn't know them. And what he did know, he couldn't exactly say without Zinnia's permission, considering how personal it was to her.

But it turned out that his silence was enough of an answer for his mother to get the general gist of it; The lid of the frying pan in her grip was slammed down on the counter top with far more force than was necessary, and once again, she was marching herself straight over to the phone.

'Mom, what are you--'

'Now now!' She snapped, causing the boy to let out a groan as he went to clean up the mess his brief startling had made on the floor.

And there was the fit he'd been expecting her to throw, or the start of one, at least.

Eijirou shuffled over to sit down at the kitchen table as his mother frantically dialled a number and pressed the receiver to her ear, all the while he could hear footsteps echoing through the ceiling, and the telltale sound of closing doors that foretold his father's emergence from the master bedroom. He remained silent as he listened to his mother tell somebody on the phone that she was going to be late to work due to unavoidable circumstances, along with a string of complaints when whoever it was on the other end tried to argue the fact.

He pitied whoever it was on the phone right now, because while his mother was usually soft-spoken and polite, she could be unpleasant to deal with when she was upset. And while Zinnia was technically a fifteen year old girl, his mother had the terrible habit of pampering her like she was really a chronically depressed and underfed ten year old kid.

'Good morning.' Came the familiar greeting from Eijirou's father as he soon emerged at the door, a man who Eijirou inherited most of his appearances from, as well as his quirk. 'What's happened in here? It smells like an innocent steak got cruelly tortu--'

'Breakfast is there in the pan! Serve yourself!' The woman of the house snapped, much to her husband's obvious alarm.

'Dear, is there something wrong?'

However, the woman did not answer and simply returned to arguing with the phone.

'She's not going to be fun to live with for a few days.' Eijirou muttered beneath his breath as his father sat down at the table.

'Is she still stressing over that attack at your school, yesterday?' The man questioned as he poured himself a glass of juice.

'She was.' Eijirou admitted with a sigh. 'She's completely forgotten about me, now.'

'Ah.' His father seemed to pause for a moment as he began to dig in to breakfast. 'Did you tell her about Zinnia-kun?'

The teen turned his head to look at his father, who was simply gazing down at the front of the newspaper discarded nearby his plate at the table. He didn't seem confused by the atmosphere now, and Eijirou could only let out what felt like the tenth sigh that morning.

'You already knew, huh?' He asked.

'Through work. We wound up reviewing all of the footage from the reports to verify the legitimacy of the insurance claims, too.' His father admitted without so much as a shrug, pausing briefly to cast him a brief glance. 'We're actually finalizing the investigation on that today, come to think of it.'

Well, that explained why his father hadn't so much as asked what was wrong with Zinnia the other night.

'If you want to head off to check on Zinnia-kun without your mother in the way, I suggest doing so now.' Eijirou's father murmured quietly to him, to avoid being overheard by his wife as he pulled out his wallet and handed the boy some money from inside. 'You know how she gets when she's got a bee in her bonnet.'

Yes, all too well.

Without a word beyond a brief muttering of thanks beneath his breath, Eijirou quickly pocketed the money and downed his drink before leaving the table.

He washed up and got dressed in a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, brow furrowing as he scooped up his necessary belongings before he quietly made his way back downstairs. He hadn't bothered to try and style his hair how he usually would when he wanted to leave before his mother decided she was going to arrange hospital visits and all sorts of other things; while with the best of intentions, his mother had a certain nack of overcomplicating things.

So he left with just a dismissive farewell called over his shoulder, and took off at a jog down the street before his mother could respond.

The city itself felt rather bleak as Eijirou took the bus to the centre of Hosu. The people on the bus were surprisingly quiet for a Saturday morning, even though the bus was packed with people for the morning rush. His thoughts were, of course, on more important things at that moment.

Though it didn't stop the groan from escaping him as he felt his phone begin to vibrate from within his pocket.

He frowned as he found it was yet another message on the group chat for the class, Ashido of course, asking if anyone wanted to hang out downtown. Several people had been tagged as prime invites, such as Sero, Kaminari, even Hagakure and himself, though Eijirou wasn't interested right now.

[Sorry, I'm busy today. Next time though, I promise.] He had replied to the chat, and before he could even put his phone away, notifications began to pour in.

Ashido:

What?!

But KIRISHIMA!!!

WE NEED YOU!

PROVIDER OF BEST-BRO VIBES

FOR TOP-CLASS HANGOUTS!

YOU

HAVE

TO

COME!!!

[Sorry Ashido. I'm not coming.]

Though right now, he really wasn't. He was starting to regret the fact that he hadn't ignored it.

Ashido:

Awwwww.... Fine

BUT YOU HAVE TO COME TOMORROW!

YOU HAVE TO

YOU PROMISED YOU WOULD!

The seen count on the messages were ticking up towards ten as Eijirou watched, and he was tempted to sigh.

Kaminari:

Oi Kirishima, you heading to Hosu now?

Can I come?

[Nah, sorry man.] Eijirou answered. [I'm escaping house arrest right now. Harder to do with multiple people hanging around, you know.]

All he wanted was to go check on Zinnia, he didn't want to do that with half of his classroom following along.

Kaminari:

Ah, I know them feels.

My mom's threatened me with it, too.

Can't go on dates like this...

Ashido:

LETS ESCAPE HOUSE ARREST TOGETHEERR!!!

PLEASE

I'M BORED TO DEATH HERE!

Bakugou:

WILL YOU DAMN EXTRAS SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY!?

Oh, and there was the regular Bakugou explosion. It was odd, because Eijirou was fairly sure the eternally-angry male adamantly refused to join the chat.

But back to the problem at hand...

[Right. Well, I'm busy, I can't hang out. I'll log on later, though. Promise.] He finished, and then proceeded to put the group on mute.

Eijirou let out a sigh as he finally pocketed his phone and looked up at his surroundings. But then he let out a panicked yelp when he realized the bus was about to leave his stop – the doors had just shut, and he could hear the hydraulics of the bus pressurise again.

'Whoa—Wait! WAIT!' He called out frantically as he slammed his hand on the button and quickly rose to his feet. 'I need to get off here!'

Needless to say, the weary frown he received from the bus driver who grudgingly opened the door was understandable, in his opinion. That didn't mean he paid it any mind as he leaped out onto the Hosu city streets just a city block away from the hospital.

He stopped by a store he'd passed by yesterday morning and spotted, shrugging his way inside past a gossiping pair of women as he perused the wall of stuffed animals both realistic and greatly fictional. He ran a hand through his hair roughly as he stumbled upon what he'd been looking for; Something that he was sure Zinnia would like.

She had been playing Pokemon games with him of late, and she liked ghost pokemon. Never had he suffered so horribly than dealing with a group of carefully tailored ghost pokemon with IV trained stats and sitrus berries.

His poor little rock pokemon didn't stand a chance...

He managed to find a nice shuppet with a price tag that thankfully didn't eat away everything his dad had passed him, managed to ignore the obvious cooing of the women who'd come to the assumption that he was buying for a significant other, and definitely left as soon as he'd paid for the shuppet and got his change.

And with a brief stop at a nearby bakery and nearly arguing with the baker inside about making sure the pastries inside were made with things Zinnia could actually eat, he was walking through the front doors of Hosu General Hospital, past a group of reporters staking out the front like vultures waiting for an animal to collapse in the open.

He knew they were here for Aizawa and Thirteen –He'd heard them talking about it when he'd walked past- and he could only let out a sigh as he realized just how prominent Yuuei being attacked by villains was.

It was as if everyone had forgotten that another school had been attacked first, with far worse results, and it was all for a bank heist.

He couldn't help but admit he could see exactly what Zinnia meant when she had said that the world was transfixed with the idea of sensationalizing Heroes. As soon as some Hero sneezed or collapsed from a cold, something else more tragic was shunned to the side, forgotten and abandoned.

It was a rather unpleasant fact.

However, Eijirou didn't have too much of an opportunity to continue with his train of thought, and he certainly didn't get any opportunity to get further than the front counter.

'Kirishima-kun! Wait a second!' Called out a vaguely familiar voice, startling the boy out of his thoughts and bringing him to a halt right there in the corridor.

A nurse he vaguely knew to be called Moriya came briskly jogging after him from the corridor leading to the Emergency ward, clipboard in hand and her mousy hair coming loose from it's bun at the back of her head.

'Oh, hello.' He greeted the woman, who appeared rather frazzled at that moment. 'Is there something wrong?'

'N-no, just, you're not here to see Kennedy-chan as well, are you?'

As well?

Did Kaminari already come in to visit?

'I am, yeah.' He admitted with a wry smile. 'She's still in room thirteen over in ICU, isn't she?'

For some reason, Moriya seemed to hesitate as she glanced over to the row of chairs over by the windows.

'I don't know if I should be telling you this...' She hedged, glancing further away as if checking that no one was nearby. 'But you won't be able to see her for a while. It's taking a lot longer than expected, but.. well, she's still in surgery.'

'Surgery?!' Eijirou practically gaped at the woman. 'Since when?!'

'They started preparing her for the operation yesterday afternoon. She's been in there since midnight.'

Eijirou felt the colour begin to drain from his face when he did the mental calculations and realized it was a little after nine in the morning right now.

So... nine hours, and she's still in there?!

'What operation runs for that long?!' He couldn't help but ask.

'Open heart surgery.' Moriya admitted with a sad smile. 'Her heart had developed more holes than even the cardiologist expected. They're still working to close up what they can.'

So that was why she suddenly had to hang up on him...

'I promise I'll let you know as soon as they've released her back into the ICU, but for now, we can't let you in to see her.'

Eijirou could only nod slowly as the nurse gently patted him on the shoulder before making her way back towards the emergency ward.

He stood there, stunned motionless as his heart fell a little more at the news.

He suspected she probably knew about this before he'd called her during lunch break, now that he thought about it. She'd offered up being expelled from school a bit too quickly as the reason for her off mood, but he hadn't thought about it at the time. And it made him feel even worse to know that her mother undoubtedly hadn't been able to come in yet.

He felt horribly guilty for the fact that she felt she couldn't tell him.

It was horrible that she'd been here all alone dealing with this.

And it was even worse that the only thing he could do, was take a seat, wait, and hope that the surgery at least went alright.

He didn't recall when he'd wandered over and sat down on one of the waiting room chairs, with his purchases of a pokemon plush toy and a box of chocolate-raspberry eclaires sitting on his lap, nor did he recall exchanging little more than a brief nod towards a strangely miserable looking bunny-girl with a large bouquet of flowers clutched in her arms.

Had he not been so torn with the thoughts reverberating within his mind, he may have noticed the tag nestled within the bouquet that read; For Kennedy-chan.

He sat for hours, not noticing that the girl was still there when Kaminari eventually turned up with a small teddy bear tied to a bunch of get-well-soon balloons, and even then, Kaminari and all his need to flirt with girls, didn't seem to notice either.

It was a sad, miserable way to spend a Saturday, sitting there waiting for news that felt too hopeful in the grim of the past week.

--=[Submitted March 2nd 2019, 4888 words total. Dedicated to soniczurcx. Thank you for all your ongoing support, sweetheart :)]=--