Title: Do whatever you can, I'll watch.

Summary: Sakura comes to visit her best friend when she gets cornered by a villain during an attack on U.A. Shinso tries his best to be a hero and save her. He does, but now they'll never be the same.

Pair: Hitoshi Shinso X Sakura Haruno

Word count: 1862

Notes:
Hey guys, I'm excited to be posting my first fic (literally it's the first piece of writing of mine I've ever actually posted) I know it's weird for me start my Multisaku profile off with a crossover ship but I was in a mood thanks to some people on discord. (Thanks guys! 3)
I hope you all like this, as weird as it is. It's very angsty but don't worry it likely won't be canon to my main story "Pastel Heroes" (got the idea for the name thanks to my discord buds 3 3) which I hope to write-provided I don't lose motivation lol.

Anyways I love Sakura Haruno. Expect to see more content of her from me.

(This was originally posted on my Archiveofourown account-also under the username Multisakublossom)

It wasn't the first time U.A had been attacked by villains. Shinso was scared, yes, but nowhere near as scared as he'd been during the first few incidents. He had confidence now. In his teachers, his peers, and even in his own abilities. He'd made bonds with the people in this school and he knew the current day heroes and heroes of the future could take care of this. Everything would be fine.

That's what he thought when the alarms first went off.

But then his phone buzzed in his back pocket as he calmly followed the throes of other students towards the emergency exits.

It was a text from Sakura.

Shinso froze in place, horror overtaking him.

outside your classroom. villain attack. HELP- is all it says.

Sakura didn't go to U.A. But she was so proud of him for getting in that she often stopped by to visit him without warning. She must've come to see him right before the villains broke in. She was his biggest supporter after all. His sole confidant. The one who always encouraged him, stood by him, his first bond, first friend, and first-

She's in trouble.

It's all Shinso can think as he turns and violently pushes and shoves through the crowd of panicking students and screams at them all to get out of his way, and he's using his quirk left and right on the people who yell back to get them to move.

He only has a mild headache from using his quirk on so many people at once. He has Sakura to thank for that. She's the one that helped him train his quirk so he could get into U.A in the first place.

"I don't mind if you practice on me! It's not scary at all! I want you to get really strong so you can be a good hero!" Her smile is so bright, so reassuring, and Shinso is only seven years old yet his chest tightens and thinks he might be-

The teachers around him and that one kid-Tenya or something-are shouting at him to come back as he breaks through the crowd and races down the hallway. He ignores them.

His mind is in frantic overdrive as he runs and runs right for the General Ed department.

"Feels like I let you down." Shinso mumbles softly, interrupting Sakura's angry tirade against the 'stupidity' of U.A for 'incorrectly' placing him after the entrance exams.

Sakura looks up in surprise, her angry expression turning into puzzled inquisition. "What do you mean?" His expression softens at the sight of her, fondly noting how she always seemed to forget her rage when he started speaking to her.

Shinso sighed and looked away, face flushed in shame and- "You're always encouraging me. Saying I could be a great hero…then I screw up and land myself in the General Ed department?"

He laughs bitterly, unaware of Sakura's smoldering green eyes staring unblinkingly at him as he refuses to look at her dead on. "What a fucking joke. You must regret putting your faith in me-"

Shinso chokes in surprise when she smacks her hands against his cheeks, an action she always did when they were younger and he would berate himself. She holds his face firmly between her soft hands and leans in with a scowl, and he starts to lean in too, bewildered, but hopeful-

"Hitoshi." Sakura speaks sternly, knocking him out of reverie. "If you ever talk like that again, I'll punch the fuck out of you." Her eyes are positively blazing with the passion she puts behind her words. It's beautiful.

"Oh." Is all Shinso can manage in response. He stares at her, chest tight with disappointment as Sakura pulls away and starts ranting again, this time about how great he is, and how amazing his quirk is, and how he deserves to be in the hero course, and how dare he think she'd ever lose faith in her best friend-

It hurts. It hurts him just as much as it warms him to watch her when she's like this. But for now, it is enough to just watch.

He's almost there. Almost to his classroom, almost to Sakura. And he refuses to just watch this time. Refuses to watch as she's hurt or worse or-!

He can hear them. Cruel laughter and whimpering. He runs faster, passing by a cell phone shattered on the ground that's undoubtedly Sakura's, and it's covered in some kind of hair, but it isn't pink so he ignores it and keeps running and for a second he thinks I made it. I made it. Its ok. I can save her, I can be the hero she always knew I could be-

Shinso sees her at the end of the hallway. Pinned down by some weird looking villain bastard. He doesn't pay too much attention to appearances-doesn't care-he just sees Sakura, scared and squirming and crying as the villain taunts her with cruel laughter. He needs to get her away from this creep.

"HEY!" Shinso screams, thinking all he needs is to get this guys attention, all he needs is one word, one response to get this guy off her. "Yeah! I'm talking to you, asshole!"

Sakura looks up and mouths wordless pleas at him, terrified for her life and unable to stay calm enough to voice that terror. The villain holding her face first to the floor and pinning her arm behind her back looks up dispassionately. He smirks and opens his mouth-

Shinso resists the urge to smirk back, thinking, ha. Got you, bastard.

But the villain doesn't open his mouth to speak. No noise escapes him as strings squirm out of his mouth slowly. Shinso watches in mystified horror. Sakura can't see anything but the floor and the silence makes her uneasy.

Then the strings shoot out of the villains throat, numerous, lengthy, sharp, and fast. Sakura screams in terror and Shinso barely dodges as he backpedals away from something that he thinks could very well impale him. The threads thrash and destroy, and the window closest to Sakura shatters when the strings hit it. There's glass everywhere.

He feels like an idiot for not seeing this coming. Of course, of course it wasn't hair her phone had been covered in.

"Fuck!" Shinso shouts as he has no choice but to further himself from Sakura so that he won't die. It seems like there's a limit to how far the strings can stretch, because from thirty feet away he seems to be finally safe.

Sakura is not. She's crying horribly and loudly, and it tears Shinso apart to hear such a wretched sound. The villain keeps laughing, garbled and scratchy from the threads clogging his throat.

The threads are everywhere. Blocking the entire hallway, blocking him from getting to the girl that he-

He can see them still. The view is scarce, blocked by numerous black strings that look like needle thin prison bars, but he sees them.

The villain is about to kill her.

The sadistic bastard had gotten his fun chasing, catching, and scaring the hell out of her, but now he'd gotten bored and was ready to finish her off. Shinso could see him gathering a large hoard of threads, aiming high above to strike down at Sakura's neck in what could only be a killing blow.

Shinso feels cold and hot with terror and fury. He can't breathe.

But more than that, he can't watch the girl he loves be killed.

He can't help her. He's useless without his good for nothing quirk because it can't be used on someone that doesn't even seem to be capable of speech. He can't exactly tear his way through the threads to get to her either, even though he wants to, because that'll just get them both killed before he's even within ten feet of her.

Shinso tries yelling out to her, warning her to look out, do something, because he's useless and he can't do a thing. Sakura doesn't seem to register his calls, she's panicking so bad that she's just as lost as he is. He doesn't feel right seeing a girl that he usually knows as an epitome of confidence be reduced to this. This mess of fear and incoherence and how can he help her if she doesn't listen to what he says-

It hits him like a truck. He can use his quirk.

Just not on the villain.

It's horrible, how he doesn't even think of the consequences before he sets his mind on what he's going to do. He screams. "SAKURA!"

She screams back wordlessly. No connection. It doesn't count.

The threads are pulling back like a pitcher readying a fast ball, fully gathered in a spear shape and ready to strike. The villain grabs a tight fistful of her long pink hair and tugs it up and away, so he has a clear view-a clear shot-of her neck.

"SAKURA! It's me! I'm here!" Shinso yells again, desperate for a response. "Can you see me?! I'm here to help you, damn it! Say something!"

Sakura looks up. He can see her frightened green eyes through the strings. She focuses on him just enough to yell. "H-Hitoshi! H-Help me!"

It works. He has a hold of her in less then a second, and he yells-commands-without hesitation. "Escape! You must escape! It doesn't matter what, just do whatever you can!"

She does.

Sakura's pretty green eyes are dull as her hand shoots out-stupid villain didn't even think to tie her limbs in place-and grabs blindly at a glass shard a few feet away.

She grips it tight, not registering the pain as it cuts or the blood dripping in her palm as she flings her arm behind her, cutting through her hair and the threads and-

Shinso just watches.

Watches with wide eyes as the glass shard drips with red from where its imbedded in the villains' neck. He can't tell the difference between the guys blood and Sakura's. It's all just red.

The threads drop. The villain falls off Sakura and onto his side. He lays motionless on the floor beside her. Pink strands of hair scatter all around them like dying flower petals.

Shinso's control fades, unable to be kept up as he loses his focus in his shock.

The dead villain beside her is the first thing Sakura sees when she wakes up.

Sakura screams again and it's all Shinso needs to propel himself forward, rushing over the limp threads scattered everywhere. He grabs her when he reaches her side and she grips back just as tight and sobs.

It disgusts him that his first thought is to use his quirk again and force her to calm down.

Sakura hiccups and stutters as Shinso hides her view of the villain. "I-I…H-Hitoshi-!"

"It's ok." He whispers, voice cracking with both relief that she's alive, and grief because he made her do this, and she knows that. It's not ok.

Shinso holds her there till the alarms stop and the teachers come.

He knows they'll never be the same again, and he'll never be her hero.