Chapter Text
Tomura appeared unceremoniously, standing ominously in the doorway like a ghost. Kiki found that she’d gotten used to his weird gimmick, which was weird. His red eyes peered out through the hand mask, darting toward Kiki and her half empty juice glass. Shigaraki surveyed the rest of the room, confused as to where everybody else went.
“Where’d the rest of ‘em go?” Shigaraki questioned Kurogiri. He found it hard to believe that they would all just part ways from Kiki easily, especially since he could hear their excitable chatter from his room. Shigaraki then noticed the box that now rested on the beat up couch in the corner. At least now Kiki had clothes now and could properly… go out.
That very thought shook him to his bones, disgusted him even. No doubt those filthy heroes were still clambering for the chance of using Kiki to further their ratings. He growled inaudibly. It was like those UA brats all over again. And who knows what’ll happen to Kiki next?
If she’s safe with the League then Tomura has full control over what happens to her, they’ll all know. It was reassuring to know that his members were just as invested as he was in seeing Kiki flourishing into the best person she could be. Even if their methods were unconventional. Shigaraki had to keep an eye on Dabi though, he wasn’t becoming a bit too pushy even for Tomura’s liking.
“I had them run the errands you requested of them.” Kurogiri stated simply. Shigaraki was a bit taken aback since Kurogiri usually operated whenever he was ordered to do something. So for him to suddenly thrust them into errand running was a minor surprise.
“Oh, well hopefully they’ll be back soon because I need Spinner.” Shigaraki grunted before taking a seat beside Kiki who turned to him.
“Hi Tomura, how’s your day?” She awkwardly asked him, although she didn’t stutter this time around. Tomura decided to entertain her, she’d been so good for the last few days. Her white hair looked much better, albeit it was a little scruffy.
‘I’ll just have Toga or Magne fix it up. And never let Dabi do this again.’ He mused quietly. Tomura honestly preferred the short hair better, set Kiki apart from her old life and was a part of her rebirth. Shigaraki was looking forward to helping her come up with her villain alias the most. AFO refused to let Tomura make his own and Kiki deserved better than that.
‘It’s important to reward good behavior, Tomura.’ His master’s words echoed through Shigaraki’s head. ‘Your main issue was being too brash with the poor thing, you lure more flies with honey than vinegar you know. You can’t expect the drugs to do all the work.’
“I was with you the whole day, you should know the answer.” Tomura replied in a dry yet teasing manner. Well as teasing he could manage. Kiki shrugged, sipping the rest of the juice. The drugs the Doctor gave were a step up from before, unlike the last ones, these would kick in much later. He also suggested injecting her with a special serum every night before bed so her limbs would be weakened.
‘She’ll collapse half way out the door, no doubt preventing any escape. Be sparing of it though, it’s potent and you wouldn’t want a catatonic state I assume?’ The Doctor had said, placing the vials of the clear liquid in Tomura’s gloved hands. Shigaraki knew that it might be a pain to introduce them to Kiki while she was conscious but he’d find a way. No doubt Magne could potentially soothe her during the ordeal since Kiki liked her the most.
Which agitated Tomura to a degree since HE brought her here. But he couldn’t be mad since he locked himself away half the time. Kiki made it challenging for him to bond with her in his opinion, not her fault since she was brought up in such an ugly society while he was enlightened much earlier. “Although I was wondering if you would like to play with me and Spinner when he gets back.” Tomura said, Kiki swallowed the rest of her noodles before replying.
“I’m not too sure about that Tomura.” She meekly replied. Kiki rubbed the nape of her neck, unless Tomura wanted to see her shout at a tv screen. “Don’t you remember what I told you about that crappy Nintendo 64?” She asked. “Besides, I'll probably take up space and be annoying.”
“You’ll only be annoying if you ask obvious questions or touch my stuff without permission.” Tomura corrected. “Besides, it'll be good for you to branch out more instead of staying in your bubble.” He said with a firm etch in his raspy voice. “It comes with the territory of being one of us.” He added. Kiki wanted to dryly rebuff with how she preferred a different career path but decided to keep quiet.
The emptiness of the otherwise lively bar hit Kiki like a rock. She tended to cope with the lack of noise back home through keeping herself busy. Kiki looked forward to when she would clean up the school after classes, the sounds of sweeping, vacuuming and idle chatter was nice. ‘Just another thing that you can’t go back to.’
Kiki drummed her fingers on the bar counter as Kurogiri took away her dishes. Much to Tomura’s relief, Kiki didn’t notice the residue of the crushed up pills resting at the bottom of her cup. Kiki then asked an odd question.
“Since I can’t go outside yet for whatever reasons, can I maybe help you guys out in some other way?” Shigaraki arched his brow, intrigued. He thought for a moment, usually Kurogiri handled the upkeep of the bar. Although it was a difficult task since everyone had a bad habit of tracking muck, filth and blood in the place.
Ashes of some recruits Tomura hated, Twice’s cigarette butts, blood of Toga’s “friends” and god knows what else. It was a miracle that some new virus wasn’t discovered yet.
It wouldn’t be too much to hand Kiki a broom and dustpan and give her a task. Or she could be their little errand girl, just delivering orders from Tomura to others in the building. No phone yet, or ever really.
“I just feel bad that I’m not doing much of anything, especially since you talk about how I play a part.” Kiki continued, playing with her hair.
“I could arrange something like that.” Shigaraki confirmed. “It wouldn’t be a pain to have you sweep out here or fetch something that we might need.” Shigaraki said. It was good to make Kiki feel important, sealing herself in their ranks even if it was sweeping up Twice’s cigarette butts or getting Tomura a ginger ale.
Kiki smiled pleasantly at that, feeling much better about herself. Without much regret, she was looking forward to the others coming back.