[Image: "Python" by Raaor (didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped but here, have my shitty artwork.)

Happy (lowkey hurt/comfort) illness discovery feat. established Mina Ashido/OFC (Hatsuko Kisho)
⚠️ Warning for drug mention ⚠️

Requested by Echoisaweeb]

"Thank you for helping me get this work-study Mina-senpai," Kisho said.

"It's absolutely my pleasure to help out my favorite kohai!" Ashido grinned and rubbed Kisho's head, ruffling her already messy, long, blue-black hair. "But if you're really grateful, you could always give me a kiss to reward me."

Kisho looked up at Ashido, then around the hallway of the agency they were both working at to check if anyone could see them, and finding no one, she stood on her tip toes and kissed her girlfriend on the cheek without a word. Ashido giggled.

"Anyone ever tell you you're the most adorable person on the face of the earth?" Ashido asked, wrapping an arm around Kisho's neck and dragging her closer. Kisho glanced away, ran her fingers idly across the scales on her opposite wrist, and tried to keep her blood from rushing to her pale cheeks.

"Yeah, you. All the time." Although, Ashido was the only person who ever told her that. Kisho was quiet, socially awkward, and prone to zoning out, and with her Snake quirk, most people thought she was more creepy than adorable. That was just one of the many things that made Ashido special to her.

"Well this 'Yuu' person probably doesn't tell you enough," Ashido joked, and Kisho's thin lips curled in a slight smile. They stopped in front of the screen at the end of the hallway. It always had the day's schedule displayed on it, unless there was breaking news which pertained to the agency, and it showed where each of the sidekicks were supposed to be that day. "Looks like you and me are patrolling together today, Hatsuko. It's probably so that I can show you the ropes. Let's do our best." Kisho nodded.

Kisho and Ashido were assigned to patrol an area just south of downtown. Despite it's reputation as being favored by drug dealers, there weren't very many violent crimes there, plenty of misdemeanors, but surprisingly little violence. The hero they were working under, the Tracker Hero: Huntswoman, dealt with a lot of drug cases, so this place was one she had her sidekicks patrol often.

"Mommy look! Heroes!" a voice shouted. Ashido and Kisho looked over to see a little girl bounding down the driveway of a house across the street. She stopped to look both ways, very responsibly, before sprinting across the road toward them. Her mother followed after her with a long-suffering sigh. "You're heroes, right?" the little girl asked the pair of them excitedly. "What are your hero names?"

"I'm Pinky, and this is Python," Ashido introduced. "We're sidekicks under the Tracker Hero: Huntswoman." Kisho stood behind her, a safe distance from the excitable child who couldn't have been more than six years old and was therefore not Kisho's area. She didn't really like small children. They were too loud and energetic, and sticky for some reason, and they kinda freaked her out sometimes. Come to think of it, even though Ashido never freaked her out like that, she could be the same way sometimes. Maybe that was why she was so good with children.

"Nice job looking both ways before you crossed the street, but you really should use a crosswalk, even if you don't see any cars," Ashido told her, kneeling down to look the little girl in the eye, and thus depriving Kisho of her human shield.

"Heroes are so super cool!" the little girl said. "I wanna be just like you two when I get big! I'm gonna have a cool costume, and cool hero moves, and everybody'll love me!" Ashido laughed at the kid's enthusiasm, and Kisho took another cautious step back.

"Oh yeah? That's great!" Ashido told her, easygoing as ever. "I'll have to keep an eye out for you then."

"Can I have your autorgraphs?" the girl asked.

"Of course you can," she gave Kisho a meaningful look, "right Python?"

"Eh... sure?" Kisho said.

"Mommy, my book!" the little girl shouted, and tugged her mother's skirt while the woman pulled a pink, glittery, spiral-bound notebook out of her purse and handed it to her daughter, who promptly handed it over to Ashido.

"I love your notebook," Ashido said, signing her hero name in big, curvy letters. "Pink is the best color." Kisho nodded in agreement and looked at Ashido nervously as she signed the notebook herself. She hadn't come up with a proper autograph, so she just scribbled her hero name down as quickly as she could and handed the notebook back to Ashido rather than approach the child.

"Don't mind Python, she's just shy," Ashido said, handing the notebook back to the little girl who stared in awe at her newly collected autographs. "But she's really awesome when she's working. You should see her fight villains! She's amazing!"

"I bet! She looks super duper cool, I bet she's gotta cool quirk too!" truly, this kid had an impressive vocabulary.

"She sure does!" Ashido agreed. "It's called Snake and it's totally one of the coolest quirks I've ever seen!" The little girl's eyes sparkled and she gasped in excitement.

"We should get going and let the heroes get back to their work," the girl's mother interrupted, taking her daughter's hand, much to Kisho's relief. "Thank you for indulging her. I'm sorry for the interruption."

"It's no problem, ma'am. This is just another part of the job." Ashido said and waved the pair off as they headed away down the sidewalk.

"You didn't have to talk me up so much to that little girl," Kisho mumbled.

"What‽" Ashido demanded, looking upset. "That's not fair! I'm your biggest fan! Can't I fangirl about you just a little bit?" Kisho's shoulders tensed and she looked away. Ashido giggled.

Up until the last few minutes, their patrol was uneventful. Just after dusk, however, they ran into a villain. His quirk allowed him to create extra arms and hands from anywhere on his body, and after fighting the pair for only a few minutes, he managed to grab the back of Kisho's leather jacket with one of his many hands, probably in an attempt to capture her.

She was forced to slip out of her jacket in order to escape. Immediately she shifted into her snake form, hoping desperately that no one had seen her bare arms—her eerie, glowing, purple veins under her pale skin.

Her shift was enough of a distraction to give Ashido the chance to attack, but she was a close range fighter, and couldn't use a lot of her best moves without risking getting grabbed by the villain's many hands. Heedless of this, she sprinted in, dodging and weaving, defending with her acid while Kisho, in her snake form, slithered up to the man's leg, easily avoiding his grotesque extra hands, some half-formed, others melting from Ashido's acid.

Kisho sunk her fangs into the man's leg. He kept fighting for about two minutes before the paralysis kicked in. He dropped Kisho's jacket first, then dropped to the floor. Ashido called the police. Heroes weren't allowed to make arrests.

Kisho returned to human form while her girlfriend made the call, hoping that she could put her jacket on without being seen, but her silver, serpentine eyes caught sight of Ashido staring at her bare arms in the few moments it took her to put her jacket back on, and she regretted opting to wear a short-sleeved shirt underneath it just because it got hot in the summer.

Maybe Ashido would write it off as part of her quirk and not bring it up. If only she could be so lucky... but what did glowing purple veins have to do with a quirk like Snake? And dark as it was, the glow was hard to miss.

They gave the police their statements and watched as the villain was hauled off, all his many hands restrained. Ashido reached out and grabbed Kisho's wrist before they headed back to the agency to make their report.

"Hatsuko, what... what's that glowing thing?" Ashido asked. She sounded a little afraid. "Is that normal? Is it why you always wear long sleeves, even in the summer? Because I was actually starting to get really worried about you."

"Yeah it's normal... well, normal for me anyway," Kisho really wanted to leave it at that, wanted to just move on and never talk about it again, but then she felt Ashido's arms wrap tightly around her. "Mina-senpai?"

"I can tell you're upset. I thought you might need a hug," Ashido said, and her voice was right next to Kisho's ear, comforting her. "You can tell me things, you know? I'm not just your girlfriend in name alone. I really care about you, and I want to know you better than anyone else."

"I have a rare condition," Kisho explained, so softly that only Ashido could hear. Her eyes darted around, vision unaffected by the darkness, as she revealed a secret that very few knew. "It's called Damrothritis, and it makes my veins and heart glow purple. That's why I wear long sleeves. It can cause other things, like nausea and dizziness," she said. She didn't mention that it can cause her to pass out unexpectedly or vomit up blood. There was no reason to worry Ashido with such things, at least not yet. "I always take my meds, and they counteract all of that really effectively. The only thing the meds don't do anything for is the glowing, but I'm fine."

"I trust you," Ashido said, squeezing her more tightly for a second before letting her go. "As long as you promise me you're safe, I trust you."

"I promise," Kisho assured her. Ashido smiled and kissed her on the forehead. Kisho couldn't stop herself from blushing slightly.

"Hey, you know I might be imagining it, but in the dark your blushing cheeks glow a little bit too," Ashido said. Kisho covered her cheeks in embarrassment, but Ashido grabbed her hands and pulled them away, holding them in her own. "I love you, Hatsuko. You know that?"

"Yeah... I love you too... Mina-senpai."

[Damrothritis is a fictitious condition invented by the creator of Hatsuko Kisho who requested this fic. Just FYI

This was a little harder than I thought it would be. I wasn't sure how I was gonna work the reveal of a rare and potentially dangerous medical condition into a generally happy one shot, so I went for the slice-of-hero-life and emotional hurt/comfort route.

Idk if it worked, 'cause I've never really done hurt/comfort before, and I feel like I could have written the action better, and I meant for it to be more shippy, and I don't know what it is with me writing excited kids into these one-shots lately, but I'm not unhappy with how this turned out. I hope you liked it!

This is the last request I got, so I only have one more finished one-shot in my queue, which I'll post Wednesday. If you want more after that, I need requests! See the chapter "Raaor On Requests" for details if you're confused. Please give me something. I'm desperate. Love y'all.

<3 Raaor!]