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“Fucking hell,” Tomura growls.
It’s three in the morning, and the League of Villains have found themselves awoken by a sudden storm. Everyone except for Dabi is absolutely drenched, and there’s complaints from the whole group.
“Time passes in your little marbles, right?” Toga asks Mr. Compress.
“Uh, yes,” Compress answers, uncertain of what will come next.
“Why don’t you just marble all of us so we can dry off and you and the human space heater can find us somewhere with a roof?”
“That’s unfair,” Compress tells her, which is out-of-character for him. The rain is really ruining everyone’s mood.
“Wow! It’s raining! Ew, it’s fucking raining!” Twice exclaims.
Tomura analyzes his team. While half of them are arguing, he watches as Dabi takes vast amusement in everyone else’s misfortune. What an asshole, he thinks. His gaze then turns to the final member of their nearly pointless crusade, and stops on Spinner’s disappointed face.
The rain is pelting off his scales, and his hair isn’t sticking up as well as normal. There’s some feeling of hatred in those pink eyes, glaring back at Tomura.
“None of this would have ever happened if you guys didn’t lose Kurogiri,” Dabi says, interrupting the staring contest between Tomura and Spinner.
“That’s real fucking rude,” Toga states, crossing her arms. “Maybe we can all just sit around you to stay warm.”
“I’m not a human campfire!” Dabi declares.
“If the mood was any worse, I’d make you one,” Tomura mutters. Dabi snaps around, blue flames manifesting in his left palm. His face cracks into screwed-up smile, and his eyebrows raise. It’s a clear invitation to challenge him - and Tomura can’t accept that, because one wrong move and Dabi is fucking dead.
“Let’s get moving,” Compress suggests. He’s already compressed all their things, and is eager to move on. Tomura notes that it’s weird to see him without either mask, because Tomura actually can’t recall the last time he’d seen Compress’ full face. Perhaps I never have, he thought, despite knowing that made little to no sense.
“Does anyone here have an internal GPS?” Tomura asks. There’s a laugh from Twice, before he straightens up.
“I don’t think so, boss,” he answers.
“It’s rural as fucking hell around here, so we should head towards the mountains,” Dabi states. “Gives us a higher chance of finding cover.”
“Why do you suddenly care about this?” Spinner asks him.
“It’s ‘cuz I still get wet and have to feel the rain, lizard,” Dabi says. Spinner instinctively coils at the name Dabi called him, before he looks to Tomura for answers.
“Dabi’s got a point,” Tomura announces to the small crowd. “We head for higher ground.”
“Yay,” Toga says under her breath, still distraught by the situation. Tomura sighs. This is going to be hell to manage.
“Why’d you send off Kurogiri anyways, Tomura?” Toga abruptly asks. They’ve been walking for what feels like days, but is probably only an hour or two.
“My master left something behind for me. Kurogiri was seeking it out,” Tomura tells her. “But now he’s gone…”
“We’ll save him and All For One though, right?” Toga inquires.
“Yeah,” Tomura lies, biting his lip. Out of the corner of his eye, he catches Spinner looking at him, but keeps his stance. He’s their leader. He cannot let his followers down.
“How’re we gonna get the stuff to do so, then?” Dabi jeers. “You even got a plan, boss?”
“We find what Kurogiri was seeking, and we will use it to tear down the heroes,” Tomura states. He knows he’s lying once again, but this time he tries to convince himself it’s the truth. Maybe he’d be happier if he believed in it.
The sound of the mud slushing with every step they took was the only thing that could be heard after that. Dabi and Toga remained quiet for once - Twice was out of words to say. Spinner and Compress strafed from the rest of the group, as if not to acknowledge they’d followed Tomura into this hellish lifestyle.
“I’m freezing,” Toga blurts, after what must have been an hour. Tomura can hear Dabi sigh, and his flames crackle to life. He turns around to see Dabi allowing Toga to warm herself over the fire lit in his palm, which is odd.
“I didn’t know you were like that, Dabi,” Compress said.
“...I had younger siblings,” Dabi tells the group. He then draws his hand away, extinguishing the flames. “But that’s behind me.”
Tomura then calculated how much he knew about each of his followers. Toga had happily spilled her life story. Twice had disclosed it to him like some kind of therapy session. Mr. Compress kept quiet, but would drop hints every now and then. Dabi was, well, he was Dabi. Not a talker at all. And Spinner…
“Hey, where’s Spinner?” Twice asks, on an ironic cue.
Tomura freezes, looking desperately around for the last of his friends. He’s panicked now - where the hell was Spinner? He stops, and begins to trail back.
“Woah, woah, woah. If we’re looking for him, we should send Compress. He’s got the most mobility outta us,” Dabi says.
“I’m the leader. I’m the one who looks out for you,” Tomura states. “Compress, keep going in the direction we’ve been heading. Make sure you don’t lose anyone else.”
Mr. Compress looked at him, and then gave an understanding nod. Tomura trudged past Dabi and Toga, who were in the back of the group. He wasn’t losing any more teammates - especially not due to something as stupid as rain.
It’s about a fourty minute backtrack until Tomura finds who he’s looking for. There’s Spinner, curled up on a rock, glaring at him. He was expecting more welcome company.
“Spinner,” Tomura calls. Spinner turns his gaze away, and shifts his body to lay down more comfortably. His movements are slow, like he’s struggling to even lift a limb. Something pings in the back of Tomura’s mind, and it’s worth asking.
He steps forward, towards Spinner, and sits down next to him. Tomura proceeds to remove his trenchcoat, and lay it over Spinner’s body. Spinner looks at him, confused.
“Reptiles are cold-blooded, right?” Tomura asks, hoping he’s pinned the answer down.
“I’m human, you asshole,” Spinner states.
“Then why’d you slow down if you didn’t get hurt?”
There’s a haunting silence between them, where neither of them know what to say. Tomura lets his hand (minus his thumb) shift over one of Spinner’s claws, and frowns.
“Okay, so I wouldn’t die if it was cold. I just slow down,” Spinner comments. “It’s stupid. My quirk’s fucking stupid. ”
“Hey, I think you look pretty cool.”
“Then you’d be the first.”
“I don’t really know what kind of discrimination mutant-types face,” Tomura says. “I know it’s worse than others.”
“It’s enough discrimination to face various numbers of mutant-type murdering cults.”
“Things are different for me,” Tomura tells him. “One touch, and something - or someone - is gone. All it takes is five fingers,” he says, withdrawing his hand.
“We’re both cursed by this new age,” Spinner grunts.
“Yeah…”
“You know, I can try moving.”
“Don’t worry about it, Spinner,” Tomura says. “I’ll stay with you ‘till the rain clears up. I can easily find the rest of us again - just look for a damn forest fire or dead body.”
Spinner laughs in response, and shifts around to rest his snout on Tomura’s lap. They sit together, talking and talking. About life, the universe, and everything - Spinner’s somehow also read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Tomura enjoys it a lot more than he’ll admit.
Eventually, the sky clears up. Tomura looks up, and then at Spinner.
“You ready to go?” he asks.
Spinner pulls himself off and returns Tomura’s coat to him. He walks off, in the direction he saw Tomura come from. It’s a bit disappointing.
He’s not ready, yet, Tomura thinks. Doesn’t trust me over the Stain ordeal. But he’ll come around. He’ll come around.