Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“You’ve been in an exceptionally good mood today my dear.” Danjuro said, resting his chin on top of Manami’s head. Thankfully they were both already sitting, so he didn’t have to strain his back too much. “What’s got my partner in mischief wearing such a grin?”

“We have a big fan Gentle!” Manami waved her phone excitedly. “We’ve never gotten a reaction like this!”

“Well that’s wonderful news.” Danjuro replied, the corners of his mouth crinkling into a wide grin. “I’m sure it's all thanks to the wonderful editing you’ve been doing on the latest videos.”

“Oh, I can’t take all the credit!” She swooned. Thankfully she was in his lap, making it easy to catch her like a gentleman. “I’m only one half of our amazing team!”

“You always flatter me with such words my dear.” he insisted, pressing a gentlemanly kiss to her temple.

“I’m not sure who our fan is, but they’re making so many cute videos of us. They ended up drawing a lot of attention back to our own channel.” Manami explained.

“Well I won't say no to a chance to have our audience increased.” Danjuro stroked his mustache. “Are they one of those delightful little review channels?”

“No, they mostly just make fan edits of us.” Manami explained. “They take clips of us and set it to music, like we’re starring in a music video.”

“Really? Could you pull up one of those videos?” Danjuro asked with his interest quite piqued.

“Sure! This is one of my favorites!” Manami clicked on one and held the phone out so they could watch. The one video ended up being just the first of many they would watch in rapid succession.

***

(Y/n) was never anything special growing up. She had a tendency to fade into the background and go unnoticed. Even her quirk failed to get anyone’s attention. Wallflower was a deeply ironic quirk, allowing her to blend into her surroundings even more than she naturally did. When you were as forgettable as her, it could be hard to find a reason to keep going. But find a reason she did one late night while going down the rabbit hole of internet content.

Gentle Criminal and his partner in crime and love La Brava. They captivated her that night, and she was up until the early hours of the morning scouring the internet for any other trace of them. When she found that there wasn’t, there was a fire lit under her ass. Surely there were other people like her, people who felt stuck or like they were slipping through the cracks of society. People who would find the kind of joy and kinship she experienced through the videos she had found. So with an idea in her head and a dream in her heart she got to work.

Nothing on the internet truly got deleted, no matter how much the police tried to erase Gentle’s channel. It was easy to find early clips and videos once (Y/n) really got looking. And when she finally ran out of content she only did what was natural. She made her own. Videos ranking her favorite Gentle quotes, fancams of La Brava, music tributes about the couple, a particularly impressive fight scene set to an anime opening that (Y/n) really liked. The last one had made her channel explode overnight and she noticed Gentle’s view count also started to rocket. Good. He and La Brava deserved it for all the joy they’d brought her so far.

And then one day, a new video dropped. (Y/n) pounced on it eagerly, excited to see what Gentle Criminal and La Brava had planned this time. The video started out like it usually did, Gentle enjoying a cup of tea before he started but then… then he turned to the camera and grinned. “A quick and gentle shoutout to our number one fan, who makes such delightful videos of us.”

(Y/n) had cheered so loudly that her neighbors on either side of her pounded on the walls and yelled at her to shut up. She blushed, a bit embarrassed over her own outburst but mostly? She was so happy! (Y/n) had resigned herself to only ever being a part of the faceless background of life. But now? Now she was noticed. Someone had seen her. What was (Y/n) supposed to do now? The answer was clear to her, she needed to get on the scene and film the duo herself. It was only a natural progression, right?

But… (Y/n) hadn’t left her apartment in years. She dropped out of high school and only survived off of online editing. What if she went back into the outside world and nothing had changed? What if she finally met them and they didn’t see her? She wouldn’t be able to handle that. Maybe it was better to just stay hidden…

“NO!” She shouted, slapping her cheeks. “I can’t keep living like this!” She declared, marching over to her window and throwing the curtains open. (Y/n) had to blink rapidly, her eyes very unused to the full power of the sun after so long. Still she stood resolute until her vision cleared and she was able to survey the street below her. When she moved into her apartment, had there been so many shops and restaurants around? Things really had changed… no wonder it was so noisy these days. If she wanted to live in this world she needed to start by getting used to being outside again.

“I have to meet them. But how?” (Y/n) wondered. “Maybe I should try to put locations to where their videos have been taken. There’s gotta be a pattern to it, I just know that someone as clever as Mister Gentle always does his crimes with intent.” She mused pulling out her phone to start combing through video backgrounds. “Won’t be easy though, Miss Brava is always so good at editing out the most obvious links back to them.”

And then, another video dropped. Every so often, Gentle would foreshadow where he would strike next. (Y/n) studied the video intensively for three weeks until she finally puzzled out the location. It wasn’t too far from her house, but she would still have to leave the house to catch them. Could she really do this? It was easy being brave in the safety of her home but to commit to this idea and actually go out and film her idols in action? Was (Y/n) brave enough to actually face her heroes? Well they had the courage to live their dream, so she could muster the courage to document it!

But first… she should probably shower and change her clothes. They always looked their best in their videos, so she should do the same. She might still have some makeup stashed around from when she did go out, maybe she could use that!

(Y/n) looked at herself in the mirror, and for the first time in a long time… she liked what she saw. She struck a pose, giggling softly at how light her heart felt. “Let’s do this!”

***

La Brava swooned as she captured footage, awestruck as ever over her Gentle Criminal. He was always the most captivating sight. As her camera panned across the street, she noticed something odd. A pair of eyes, just floating in midair. Immediately her mind went over every pro hero agency in the area. None of their patrols should be happening and none of them had an invisibility quirk. Besides that, the eyes… they had a love-filled look in them she had only ever seen directed at her by one other person

La Brava bent down and picked up a rock, tossing it in the direction of the eyes. Whoever was the owner of the eyes realized they had been noticed and was probably about to try and beat a hasty retreat.

“Gentle we have eyes! Uh, literally!” La Brave warned.

“The police?!” Gentle turned to look in the direction she pointed at. He saw the two wide eyes hanging in the air.

“Maybe?!” La Brava shrugged, just as confused as he was. Suddenly the eyes were in motion as the person they belonged to began to run for it.

Gentle moved faster, jumping from elastic bits of street and air until he grabbed at a lamppost and bent it right into the path of their mysterious watcher. The invisible spectator made contact with the lamp only moments later, and was flung back. As they sailed through the air, they became totally visible again revealing them to be a young woman clutching a camera to her chest. Luckily she landed on a patch of elastic street and bounced for a bit before she was able to get to her feet.

“Hey! Filming Gentle is my job!” La Brava waved her own camera in the air indignantly.

“But if you’re filming him then who films your beautiful face?” the young lady replied before looking away with reddening cheeks.

“Wait a minute! Could you possibly be…?” Gentle stroked his mustache as he thought this over. “Our number one fan?”

The young lady blushed even more, clutching her camera to her chest. “I am… I just… after you gave me that shoutout… I wanted to do more for you.” She explained. “You have no idea what you mean to me and how much you’ve done for me. I was… I was in a really bad place mentally for a long time. I wasn’t sure how to find the will to keep going, and then I stumbled on your videos. You just have so much passion for what you’re doing.”

La Brava’s heart ached for the girl in front of her. It was like looking into a mirror, seeing what she had once been reflected back to her. She had been lost in a dark fog until she met Gentle and it was like a shining light was there to finally guide her way out. To know she had done the same thing for one of their fans? It made her heart swell and tears gush.

“I promise i wont show anyone else the videos i took of you. I just wanted to have some first hand content of my heroes.”

“Nonsense my dear lady!” Gentle took her hand. “We would be thrilled to let you make more of your delightful videos with your footage. It’s an honor to be your heroes. May we have the pleasure of knowing your name?”

“(Y/n), i’m (Y/n).” The girl introduced herself. “It’s okay if you can’t remember it. I’m very forgettable, that’s probably why i’ve got a quirk that made me blend into the background.”

“As if we could forget someone so important to us.” La Brava cut in.

***

“Danjuro i think we have a problem.” Manami said, leaning her head back on his chest.

“Oh? What problem might you be referring to my dearest?” Danjuro replied, kissing her forehead.

“I always thought the only person I would love with all my heart would be you. But now I’m in love with (Y/n) too. It’s not like my love for you decreased, but instead the love in my heart just doubled” Manami explained.

“Well that’s not a problem when I feel the same way.” Danjuro assured her, looking very relieved himself. “There’s something absolutely captivating about that young lady.”

“Do you think she feels that way about us?” Manami questioned with a hum.

“Of course she does! You saw and heard her.” Danjuro replied smoothly. “I’ve never heard a more impassioned woman, well besides yourself, my love.”

“So you think maybe we should do some about it?” Manami suggested.

“Are you suggesting some sort of grand romantic gesture?” Danjuro answered her question with a question of his own.

“Maybe, but I'm nervous. What if she doesn’t like Danjuro and Manami?” Manami said looking at her hands.

“I don’t think there’s really a difference between us and Gentle Criminal and La Brava.” Danjuro replied.

“Maybe not for you, but what if…” Manami began before being silenced with a finger to her lips.

“Now, I won't tolerate any belittling of my partner in crime and life. Especially when the criticism comes from herself.” Danjuro scolded gently.

Manami blushed. “Right, right. Sorry.”

“You are my partner, La Brava and the only reason i’ve been able to rise as much as I have.” Danjuro praised her. “(Y/n) has already stated how much we both mean to her, and you’ve seen how much focus she gives you in her videos.”

“Well, when you’re right, you’re right!” Manami laughed and hugged her lover.

“I think now would be best to switch our topic to how we will court our dear (Y/n).” Gentle suggested. “We should pull out all the stops.”

“Oh of course! Anything for our number one fan.” Manami agreed, going to get her laptop.

***

For the last few weeks, (Y/n) had been keeping a suitcase packed full of trip essentials under her bed. Not for any bad reason of course. No, she just wanted to be prepared. She had been blessed with more opportunities to watch Gentle Criminal and La Brava live and record their escapades for her own personal copies. A few times they had even given her a special heads up to see them before the crime for the preparatory tea drinking. (Y/n) was not blind to what was going on, she was being courted.

There had been a brief scare where it seemed like the cops were after her, but thankfully her quirk had kept her hidden along with La Brava’s computer skills. Still, she was a lot more cautious these days. She’d been getting little hints from the pair about a certain desire they had to have her move in with them. (Y/n) was flattered, but it was far too soon. She had just started her life again and was enjoying the world. She wasn’t eager to rush into anything anytime soon. Although, it did feel like fate was nudging her closer and closer to them without any other lifelines available to her.

She had been so busy with her new job and the friends she was making that she was actually starting to neglect her youtube channel. She felt bad, but she could always go back to it and Brava and Gentle didn’t seem to mind at all. At least that was what (Y/n) thought up until she was woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of her window being opened.

“I DON’T HAVE ANYTHING WORTH TAKING!” She screamed, wrapping herself protectively in the blanket.

“Relax, it’s just us.” Gentle assured her as he helped La Brava in.

“You scared me!” (Y/n) said, having activated her quirk, she blended into her blanket except for her eyes which made her blanket look haunted.”

“Sorry, the doorman wouldn't let us in.” La Brava apologized. “He’s kinda scary, ain’t he?”

“Really? He’s always seemed so nice to me.” (Y/n) blinked. “He must take his job seriously.”

“Yes, well, we would’ve been in sooner but he chased us for two blocks.” Gentle shrugged. “Onto business.”

“Business?” (Y/n) asked, feeling a wave of anxiety starting to rise in her gut.

“We’ve decided it’s time to move you in. We’ve all waited long enough after all.” La Brava bounced on her heels.

“Wait, what?” (Y/n) blinked. “No, this isn’t okay.”

“It’s perfectly and gently okay! We know what’s best for our number one fan.” Gentle cooed as he scooped (Y/n) up like the blanket burrito she was and headed for the window…

THE END

Chapter Text

As a little girl, (Y/n) has always heard that if a boy was mean to you then it meant he liked you. Well she didn’t like any of the boys in her neighborhood. None of them were mean, they did something worse: they were sickeningly nice. (Y/n) had been in a major accident as a toddler and ever since everyone has always treated her like she was made of glass.

It was soul crushing honestly. She was so excluded from every game, the other children not wanting to risk a tirade from her parents and a lecture from their own. So (Y/n) spent a lot of time alone in her backyard. Just laying in the grass watching the insects do their thing. How she envied the bugs that made their home in her yard. They were free to live and spread their wings wide unlike her.

Eventually her parents noticed how sad she was and decided to move for a fresh start. But it was just more of the same, everyone saw her as a delicate glass doll. Everyone except one girl…

“Hi! I’m Himiko Toga!” The little blonde girl grinned widely down at her from where (Y/n) lay in the grass. “What happened to your leg?”

“I lost it in an accident.” (Y/n) explained.

“Ooo!” Toga grinned even wider and sat next to (Y/n).

“You can touch it if you want. I don't mind.” (Y/n) said cordially.

Toga proceeded to feel all over (Y/n)’s prosthetic leg and what remained of her real leg. “Is this why you're all sad and mopey?”

“I’m not mopey.” (Y/n) protested.

“But you are sad.” Toga replied, tilting her head.

“I guess so, but it's not the same kind of sadness most people feel.” (Y/n) replied, tilting her head to mimic Toga.

“How so?” Toga questioned.

“You’re supposed to be sad when something bad happens or you get hurt. But I'm sad because neither of those things happen to me.” (Y/n) explained. “Nobody will play with me cause they’re afraid that since i got a fake leg i’ll get hurt more easily and they’ll get in trouble for picking on the cripple girl.”

“But you’re not a cripple, you’ve just got a fake leg. You’re like a pirate!” Toga said confidently. “Did they give you your real leg back? Can I see it?!”

“My real leg was too mangled to be recovered, they had to cut it off to get me free from the wreckage.” (Y/n) said apologetically. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what they did with it.”

“Aw.” Toga pouted.

“If they ever have to take more of my leg you can have the parts they remove!” (Y/n) offered, not wanting to lose this potential new friend so soon.

“Yay! You’re the bestest friend ever!” Toga declared, pulling (Y/n) into a tight hug. They were still for a few moments, and then sharp teeth were suddenly digging into (Y/n)’s arm. She yelped like a stuck pig and pulled away abruptly. After a moment she realized what happened.

“You bit me!” she said, folding her arms.

Toga looked at her with terror, tears bubbling in her eyes as she covered her bloody mouth.

“Oh no! Did I hurt you when I pulled away?” (Y/n) said, immediately scooting back to Toga’s side and holding her face in her hands to look at her mouth.

“I'm sorry!” Toga cried. “I couldn’t help it, please don’t tell my parents!!”

“Why would I have to tell your parents?” (Y/n) asked in bewilderment. Then she felt something wet on her arm and realized where the blood had actually come from. Toga’s sharp teeth had cut into her delicate skin. Sure it hurt a bit but it also felt a bit exhilarating feeling such a sting of pain. Whenever she had to go get check ups at the doctor for her leg, there were sometimes needles and pinches but those pains were so controlled and numbed they hardly counted.

Toga continued to sob and blubber, seeming genuinely scared. The complete switch of personality confused (Y/n). What was going on with her new friend?

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m not mad. I’m not gonna get you in trouble.” (Y/n) tried to assure her. “It didn’t hurt that much.”

“You’re not mad?” Toga asked between sobs.

“Not about the biting.” (Y/n) clarified. “I’m mad you did it without asking. Nobody ever asks me what I want or what I'm okay with. The adults just push and pull me where they think I should go. I can’t stop them from putting tubes up my nose or deciding what color shoes I should wear to draw attention away from the leg. It’s exhausting. You biting me was like you kissing me without warning and that's not okay!” she went on.

Toga sniffled and rubbed her eyes. “Okay.” She nodded. “You really won’t tell anyone?”

“No, I won’t. Why are you so scared?” (Y/n) asked.

“My parents… they hate me and my quirk.” Toga explained. “If they found out I slipped up again… they’d be so mad at me.”

“Well I don't even have a quirk yet.” (Y/n) said consolingly. “What’s yours do?”

Toga wiped the blood from her face, mumbling into her sleeves.

“What?” (Y/n) asked again, leaning in closer.

“I said I drink blood. I like blood and bloody things so much.” Toga confessed.

“You can have more of my blood, if you ask first,” (Y/n) offered with a smile.

“Really?!” Toga’s eyes lit up with joy.

“Mhmm, you must be hungry.” (Y/n) replied, lifting her arm out in offering. Almost immediately Toga latched onto it, digging her teeth in and lapping up blood.

And so began the oddest but greatest friendship of (Y/n)’s life. Every day she and Toga sought each other out to play. Toga wasn’t afraid to get a little rough, and (Y/n) was more than happy to feed Toga. It was all going great… until one day one of Toga’s little siblings noticed them.

What happened next was all a bit of a blur that (Y/n) is pretty sure she blocked out due to how traumatic it ended up being. According to her parents; the Toga’s yelled at the two girls for literal hours, ignoring the sobbing and begging and were only stopped by (Y/n)’s parents arriving and yelling right back. Her parents were so enraged and baffled by the encounter that they pulled (Y/n) out of the school and transferred her to a different one to keep her away from Toga and her family.

Eventually (Y/n)’s memories of her first friend began to fade as she learned to better speak up for herself and make more friends on her own terms. She even figured out her quirk: Lucky Touch. A touch from her right hand granted good luck, and a touch from her left hand granted bad luck. As she entered a hero high school she even managed to score quite the internship. Her favorite heroes, The Wild Wild Pussycats! She even picked a matching hero name to fit in with them: Maneki.

The hero life was exciting, yet risky. Just like tonight. Tonight, the forest was on fire and two scores of first years from UA were scattered in the woods. Villains were invading and Maneki was desperately running wherever she could hear the screams. She’d tap kids with one hand and smack the villains with the other.

Hearing a commotion off to her left, she dived through the trees, spotting Tsuyu Asui and Ochaco Uraraka being cornered. She picked up speed to pounce on their attacker and went rolling into the bushes with the mystery person. “You girls get going back to Eraserhead and the other adults!” Maneki ordered.

The two girls nodded and ran off, letting Maneki return her attention to the girl underneath her… who chomped down on her arm with no hesitation. Maneki kept her cool, not letting out even a single sound of pain as she attempted to pry the biting girl’s jaws off her arm. The blonde grinned widely, her teeth stained with blood as she pulled away. “I know you~” She cooed.

“Listen you, there is only one girl who’s allowed to bite me without warning.” (Y/n) said sternly.

“That’s meeeeeee.” The blonde giggled, a thick blush spreading across her cheeks. “I’m Himiko Toga, and I'd know the taste of your blood anywhere my (Y/n).”

“Himiko?! Is it really you?” (Y/n) said in awe, before hugging the other girl tightly. “What are you doing here? Why are you going after people? You joined the bad guys?” she asked in rapid succession.

“I’m going to live my life as freely as I want and meet Mr. Stainy!” Himiko explained fanatically nuzzling her nose against (Y/n)’s own. “And my new friends will help!”

“No Himiko, I'm arresting you.” (Y/n) said, reaching for the zip ties she kept on her costume.

“You look so cute like this.” Himiko praised. “You really pull off the kitty look. I just wanna keep biting you~”

“You can bite me all you want once you get bail from jail. I’ll give you my phone number so we can meet up.” (Y/n) said as she pulled out the zip ties.

“Oh hey Mister!” Toga called out. “We’re taking this one too, kay?”

(Y/n) had no time to react to that statement before everything went blank.

***

When (Y/n) came too, she found herself in a very different place, surrounded by very different people.

“So let me get this straight…” The skinniest man (Y/n) had ever seen rasped, scratching at his neck. “You had Compress marble some random pro hero?”

“She’s not a random pro hero, she’s my girlfriend. She just doesn’t know that yet.” Toga explained cheerfully.

“Your job was to gather the blood of at least three of the students." A very burned man chastised. “Not only did you only gather blood from one, but that ain’t even a pro hero. I looked her up, she’s a third year intern.”

“How irresponsible!” Another villain chastised before suddenly shooting two thumbs up. “Very romantic, I love it!”

“She’s awake.” The one with a lizard mutation warned.

“Where the heck am I?” (Y/n) asked with a frown as she looked around. “And why does it smell like booze and monster energy?”

The wispy bartender behind the counter only sighed tiredly, sending the one covered in hands a pointed stare.

“(Y/n)!!” Himiko hugged (Y/n) as tightly as she could with her being tied to a chair. “Wakey-wakey, good morning!”

“What’s going on?!” (Y/n) demanded.

“I brought you home with me silly.” Himiko said gleefully. “We’ll be together forever and ever. No one will ever separate us again, especially not our silly, stupid parents.”

Himiko Toga gave a slasher smile as she raised (Y/n)’s arm up to take a deep bite out of it…

Chapter Text

“My backyard, its gone,” Y/N said in shock. “It’s just one big, massive hole.” She went on as her cats Hoshi and Tsuki weaved between her legs. Still staring at the crater she pulled out her phone and dialed her mom. “Mom there’s a massive crater in my yard.”

“Are you safe?” Her mom asked.

“Yeah.” Y/N replied.

“And the cats?” Her mom asked next.

“They’re good.” Y/N assured her.

“Then you should probably call the authorities and get insurance on the line. You’re a big girl sweetie; you can’t keep running to me like this.” Her mother sighed before hanging up.

Y/N resisted the urge to throw her phone into what was left of her pool. She really should’ve known better than to reach out to her mother. Smacking her cheeks, she steeled her emotions and headed outside to investigate her yard. She could call the authorities after she made sure there wasn’t anything cool in the wreckage. Creeping closer to the crater, Y/N became aware of how deep it was. Shining her phone’s flashlight down into the pit, she realized there was something down there.

Picking up a pebble, she tossed it off whatever was shining under her phone’s scant light. The pebble clinked off something metallic down in the crater and suddenly there was an abundance of light as a-

“-Oh my god its a spaceship!” Y/N hissed under her breath in delight. Growing up, she had always been fascinated by the stars and outer space. And now she had real tangible proof aliens were real! Maybe there was one inside! Dashing back towards her house she grabbed the ladder from the garage to put down into the hole.

“I hope it’s like a Kirby alien and not a xenomorph alien.” She muttered to herself as she began climbing down. Once she was all the way down, she felt along for a hatch. Hopefully the ship hadn’t landed right on it so whoever was in there could escape. Otherwise she didn’t know what she could do.

Fumbling around, she felt a part of the ship that was elevated higher than the other parts. She tugged on it as hard as she could until it slowly came loose and opened up. As the lid opened the interior became visible revealing a sleeping girl. Well a girl alien to be more precise. At least, she thought it was a girl. She was very pink after all.

“Hello?” Y/N called out. “Are you okay? Miss? Miss Alien?” She reached out to touch her arm.

With a grunt, the alien seemed to snap to life and grabbed Y/N’s arm, flipping her over her shoulder and onto her back. There was a strong growling noise as a hand rested on her head before it changed to purring and the grip lightened. Y/N looked up to see the alien pressing her hands together with an apologetic look on her face.

“Um, hello?” Y/N sat up, rubbing her shoulder. “I’m Y/N. You crashed in my backyard. Are you okay?”

The alien tilted her head, looking at Y/N blankly for a few moments. Then she slapped a hand over her face and seemed to giggle. Reaching back down into her cockpit, she picked up a small device and pinned it to her chest. Strange purring sounds shifting into words. “...esting, testing, 1, 2, 3. Can you understand me now?”

“Yeah!” Y/N got to her feet. “Loud and clear! What is that?”

“It’s a universal translator!” The alien explained. “I’m so glad it didn’t get broken in the crash. Hi, I’m Ochako Uraraka, and this is my ship Uravity.”

“I’m Y/N.” She reintroduced herself. “Man, I can't believe I’m meeting a real alien!” she babbled excitedly. “You’re really strong! That flip was so cool!”

“Thank you, i’ve practiced a lot to be that good at doing flips.” Ochako said with a happy blush. “So where am i? I was in deep hypersleep for most of my journey until my ship collided with something and started to make its rapid fall to this planet.”

“Your ship must’ve got caught up in tonight’s meteor shower!” Y/N quickly explained. “I made a wish on one of the shooting stars that a friend would be sent to me so I wouldn't be so lonely anymore.”

“You wished for me?” Ochako said, her cheeks turning even pinker and grinning shyly.

“I guess i did.” Y/N said with a shrug. “So… what made you calm down after being in fight mode?”

Ochako held out her palms, showing a little pink dot on each finger tip. “Well being in space for long periods of time can make it hard to regulate certain body functions like center of gravity and emotions. My species developed extra senses to help reorient our body when in various gravitation settings. Most of those extra sensory organs are in these buds on our hands. As for the emotion part, its like… when i put my palm on another being’s head i can entune their emotional waves. You had non-hostile wavelengths.”

“Wow thats so cool!” Y/N clapped her hands excitedly. “You’re so cool!”

“Aw thank you!” Ochako beamed. “So where are we?”

“Oh this is the planet Earth in the Milkyway galaxy.” Y/N explained.

“Really?! Then that means my destination isn’t too far off!” Ochako pumped her first in the air excitedly. “I’ve just got to repair my ship first.”

“Is that going to be hard?” Y/N asked, concerned.

“Hmmm, not really, but it may take awhile depending on how hard it is to find parts.” Ochako said contemplatively.

“We have a big junkyard on the edge of town, I can run you down there tomorrow night?” Y/N offered. “You probably want to eat and relax first.”

“Food sounds amazing.” Ochako agreed.

“Oh one more thing, are you allergic to cats?” Y/N asked.

“What’s a cat?” Ochako asked tilting her head.

“Guess we’ll learn the hard way.” Y/N replied, leading Ochako to her back door and opening it.

“Mwer.” Tsuki said staring up indignantly at Y/N as Hoshi tried to wiggle under her.

“They’re so fluffy!” Ochako cooed. Being very mindful of her claws, she reached down to play with the cats. Hoshi immediately pounced on the new giant’s arm to lick and groom her. “Uh… this isn’t the food is it?”

“No! Nope, these are my pets, my little companions!” Y/N quickly confirmed.

“Oh good, cause they are too cute to even think about eating.” Ochako said in relief, giving Hoshi lots of pets.

***

The next night, Y/N drove out to the city junkyard, keeping Ochako wrapped under a blanket. The less people who saw her the better. They hadn’t even left the house until midnight just to minimize the chances of someone calling the army on Ochako.

“How will you know what you need?” Y/N said.

“I’m mostly hoping that i’ll be able to figure it out by sight.” Ochako admitted. “At the very least, if I can repair my communicator then I can reach out for an SOS to my fleet leader or one of my squad mates. The Ingenium is the fastest ship in our fleet and could get here in no time to pick me up.”

“Oh that’s great! I could meet more aliens!” Y/N grinned. “There’s so much i want to know.”

“You really like space, huh?” Ochako giggled.

“Ever since i was a kid.” Y/N confirmed. “I used to dream about flying through the stars as a kid.”

“Maybe you could.” Ochako offered. “I could take you out for a test ride. Or even get one of my squad mates to take you around! You could even… come with me when i leave.”

“You’re so sweet.” Y/N blushed. “Oh, we’re here! You can take the blanket off now. Let’s get looking.” Ochako threw off the blanket and scampered out of the car to start looking.

“So why were you so lonely that you decided to appeal to the stars for company?” Ochako asked, starting to dig through a nearby pile of junk.

“My parents and I aren't very close. You know what parents are right?” Y/N asked.

“Yes, I have parents, I miss ‘em a lot but we talk on the phone whenever we can.” Ochako confirmed. “I had to move away for school, but they made sure to help me pay for my new home and always came to visit me whenever they could.”

“Well my parents basically put all my stuff on the front lawn on my 18th birthday.” Y/N sighed. “They said I was an adult now and I could take care of myself. It was either move out or start paying them rent.” she added glumily as she moved some junk out of her way.

“That’s terrible! Didn’t they discuss anything with you before that?” Ochako said agasp.

“Nope.” Y/N sighed. “I’m just lucky I had friends like Himiko and Cardia who took me in so I didn't end up on the streets.”

“Oh i didn;t know you had roommates?” Ochako said inspecting a chunk of junk before tossing it aside.

“They’re out on a trip with some of their other friends.” Y/N explained. “I don’t really get along with their friend group that well so i stayed home. And… well i wasn’t really formally invited for the trip and i don’t want to intrude on their fun. Besides, watching the house for them is the least i can do.”

“So those are their pet cats?” Ochako asked.

“Actually no, Tsuki and Hoshi were originally strays. They picked me as their person.”

“Cute.” Ochako purred before gasping. “Oh this will work!” She held a car engine above her head effortlessly. “I just wish Hatsume was here. She’s an expert at this stuff.”

“Who’s Hatsume?” Y/N asked with a tilt of her head.

“A fleet engineer. She’s probably the best engineer of our generation.” Ochako praised. “She usually works out of Powerloader Labs but last i heard she hitched a ride on the Creati for awhile.”

“Are there a lot of people in your fleet?” Y/N asked.

“There’s about twenty of us.” Ochako explained. “There were two fleets to come from my year of schooling, so there’s my Alpha Squadron and then the other twenty in Beta.” She continued to grab items and tuck them under her arms.

“I never asked, but where were you heading?” Y/N made sure the trunk of her car was open.

“I was supposed to meet up with my commanding ship The Ryukyu.” Ochako explained. “Captain Tatsuma asked for the Uravity, the Froppy, and the Nejire-Chan for help on an important mission.”

“Oh no! You’re late to a mission?!” Y/N gasped.

“Don’t worry, they’ve definitely got it handled between the three of them.” Ochako comforted. “Captain Tatsuma will just be happy i’m okay.”

“Well that’s a relief.” Y/N agreed.

Ochako packed everything up in the car. “I’ll see what i can do with this for now.”

“Would you like to get a snack on the way home?” Y/N said, wanting to capitalize on Ochako’s time before she started working on fixing her ship and communicator.

“Sure, i want to try more earth foods!” Ochako agreed.

“Great, i’m craving dessert.” Y/N grinned, starting the car back up. “You ever had mochi?”

“No, what’s that?” Ochako asked.

“Oh, you’re in for a treat.” Y/N replied.

***

The next day, while Y/N was at work, Ochako was hard at work on her communicator. It took some work, but she was able to make it work. “Hello? This is an SOS from the Uravity. I was hit by a meteor shower and crashed on the planet Earth in the Milky Way. My coordinates are attached and this message will repeat on loop until i receive a reply.”

Uravity napped for a few hours until she heard the communicator beeping. “Uravity, this is the Eraserhead, come in Uravity.”

“Mr. Aizawa!” Ochako quickly picked up. “It’s me.”

“We’re glad you’re okay Uraraka.” Aizawa replied. “The Ingenium is out on a mission but the Deku is on his way to your location and should be there in a few days. Are you injured?”

“No, luckily the only thing broken was my ship.” Ochako confirmed. “How did the mission go?”

“It was fine and they immediately set off to retrace your path and find you.” Aizawa assured her. “Don’t be surprised if they show up before Midoriya does.”

“Well i am hoping they don’t come too fast, there's things i wanna try on Earth before i gotta go.” Ochako said wistfully.

“You are not on vacation.” Aizawa reminded her firmly.

“I met my soulmate though!” Ochako protested. “I knew the moment I touched her! I can’t just leave her!”

Aizawa sighed heavily over the radio. “Understood.” He grumbled before ending the call.

Ochako quickly dialed up Midoriya next. She had to make sure he understood exactly who he was picking up.

***

“Your trip got delayed?” Y/N blinked. “How did that happen?”

“Someone left the car unlocked and it got stolen.” Cardia explained. “So we’re stuck here for a bit. Especially since Jin’s wallet was in the car and some of us had left our bags in there instead of the hotel room. Tomura is pissed and I’m pretty sure Dabi just barely avoided punching a cop.”


“Yikes.” Y/N winced. “You gonna be okay?”

“We’ll be fine.” Cardia assured her. “I think Tomura’s got some weird connections to pull. Will you be okay watching the house by yourself for a few more days?”

“Yeah, of course. You take care of yourselves and don’t worry about me.” Y/N assured her even though her heart sank a little bit.

“Thanks. I gotta go, Magne’s on a witchhunt for who left the car unlocked and it’s getting tense.” Cardia hung up.

Y/N sighed and flopped onto the couch. Almost immediately she was crushed under the combined weight of both cats and Ochako. “You’re sad.” Ochako noticed, resting a hand on her head. “What happened?”

“My friends are stuck on their trip.” Y/N sighed. “They won’t be back anytime soon.”

“I have good news to cheer you up?” Ochako offered.

“What’s that?” Y/N asked, instinctively lifting her hand to give pets and scritching under Ochako’s chin.

“I’m getting picked up tonight!” Ochako beamed.

“Oh… that’s wonderful.” Y/N trying to keep her voice from sounding hurt. The prior few days had been some of the most fun she had ever had. She’d shown Ochako so many human things and made so many new memories.

“I’m going to show you the stars.” Ochako purred, leaning down to nuzzle her.

“What do you mean?” Y/N said confusedly.

“You really haven’t noticed? The special connection between us?” Ochako said, continuing to nuzzle Y/N.

“You mean me having the world’s most obvious crush on you?” Y/N asked meekly.

“That’s our bond as soulmates.” Ochako explained. “You need to pack a bag, Midoriya will be here in a few hours.”

“I can’t go with you into space!” Y/N said in dismay.

“Why not?” Ochako said tilting her head.

“Because… Because! Because who would take care of Tsuki and Hoshi? My roommates wont be home for another few days!” Y/N pointed out.

“Well obviously we’re taking them with us.” Ochako replied. “They’re part of our family and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.”

“Don’t quote Stitch at me.” Y/N replied. She had put on the animated movie for mostly ironic reasons but Ochako had loved it.

“It’s going to be okay, just wait for tonight!” Ochako insisted. “We’re going to have so much fun together.”

Her touch was always so comforting but now… now it felt like a deadly threat. Against her better judgment Y/N pushed Ochako away and make a break for it. Only to feel a light tap on her ankle that sent her off the floor to float by the ceiling.

“Oh i forgot to mention my pads have another use. I can make things float! Since you’re being so rowdy i guess our cuddle session will have to wait until we’re in space.”

“Wait what?!” Y/N flailed on the ceiling. “How long does this last?!”

“As long as i want it too!” Ochako grinned. “Why don’t you rest up while I get things ready?”

THE END

Chapter Text

(Y/n) was really starting to hate Waitress. Ever since her boss discovered it, the soundtrack was all that played in the cafe. At first it wasn’t so bad, the songs were fairly catchy. But now? It had been two months and (Y/n) wanted to destroy every speaker in the building. The only good part of being stuck on the closing shift was that she got to control the music. And her taste in music didn’t involve musical soundtracks thank you very much.

(Y/n) sighed as she hefted the garbage bag over her shoulder and went out to the dumpster. This was her least favorite part of the job, the dumpsters always reeked no matter what. She swore someone was dumping bodies out here. Tossing a bag into the dumpster, a faint grunt split the air as the trash bag made contact with something in the dumpster.

“Oh crap, are there raccoons in here again? I told Kimiko to stop feeding those little trash pandas,” (Y/n) grumbled, reaching for a broom to use to fend off the vermin from the trashcan.

“Hey you’re not eating any of this right?” A head popped up to ask her. On reflex she smacked it, quite hard in fact.

“Shit! Oh shit! Sorry! Hold on! I’ll get you an ice pack!” (Y/n) said guiltily.

“No, I’m fine!” The man protested. “Belive me, I've had way worse. Anyway, can I have the bag?”

“Uh… you don’t want what’s in here, trust me.” (Y/n) replied. “But… if you want to come inside, you can have the things we can’t legally sell anymore?”

“Are you allowed to do that?” The man asked. The poor guy looked awful, (Y/n) couldn’t but pity him as she took in his dark eyebags.

“Well not really? But honestly I hate the fact we’re just tossing out perfectly edible pastries cause they’re a day old. You eating and enjoying them would lighten my conscience all things considered.” (Y/n) replied.

“Lady, you are a goddamn saint.” The man replied, hefting himself out of the dumpster with ease. “Name’s Soramitsu Tabe.”

“Nice to meet you Tabe. Call me Y/N.” She introduced herself, leading him back in.

“Oh, ya foreign?” Tabe asked.

“No, I just had weird parents.” (Y/n) sighed. “I prefer my nickname to my real name.”

“What’s your real name?” Tabe asked.

“Well first I should tell you that my last name is actually Pie.”

“Oh shit.” Tabe snickered. “So they named you…?”

“Cherry. I’ve got an older brother named Pumpkin. He changed his legal name the day he turned 18, goes by Hibiki now. My little sister is named Apple and she hates our parents. They get into fights like every night from what mom says.” (Y/n) sighed.

“Christ.” Tabe shook his head. “Sorry to hear that.”

“It is what it is.” Y/N sighed again. She handed Tabe a tray. “Help yourself.”

“Alright, I should warn you I'm probably going to eat all of this.” Tabe replied.

“Huh?”

“Quirk.” Tabe explained.

“Ah.” Y/N nodded, not needing more of an explanation. Every quirk had their side effects and it just made her happy so much food would be eaten instead of wasted. “Does your quirk affect your sense of taste? Like do you at least get to enjoy when the food is of high quality or does all food just taste the same to you?”

“I usually end up eating too quickly to really enjoy anything.” Tabe admitted, loading up the tray. “But i’m never full. I don’t have a lot of money but i’ll scrounge some cash up if I accidentally eat the tray and silverware too.”

“Oh, okay.” Y/N blinked. “Have at it.”

And Tabe really did, tearing into the meal and going back for seconds, then thirds, until everything was gone down to the last crumb. When he was all done, he wiped his face with a napkin before swallowing that too. Then he clasped his hands together and bowed his head. “Thank you lady. I owe you big time. I swear I'll find a way to pay you back.”

“No, it’s fine.” (Y/n) insisted, finishing up her other closing chores. “Seriously, my boss won’t care.”

“Then I should get going.” Tabe realized. “I’ve taken up enough of your time.”

“Well… if you’re ever having trouble getting on your feet and having a reliable meal, come on by.” (Y/n) offered. “You’re welcome to the leftovers.”

Tabe looked like he could kiss her feet.

***

Around Tabe’s fifth or sixth visit, Y/N heard a knock on the back door. Opening the door, she was surprised to see that her visitor brought company this time.

“Hello, you must be Tabe’s friends?” she said, gesturing at the unfamiliar duo behind Tabe.

“We’ve got money this time!” Tabe offered eagerly.

One of them, a skinny blonde, held up a handful of loose bills and change. “Sorry, doesn’t add up to much but…”

“Come on in.” Y/N offered, opening the door wider. “You’ll have to share with Tabe.”

“Oh we’re used to that.” The hulking bald man grinned as they all shuffled inside. “Name’s Yu Hojo. the other guy is Toya Setsuno.”

“Any friend of Tabe’s is a friend of mine.” Y/N replied, stacking the trays of food on the table.

“We sure feel like friends already.” Setsuno grinned. “Tabe’s said a lot about you Miss (Y/N).”

Y/N’s heart skipped a beat, and she ducked her head to hide the blush forming across her cheeks. The fact that Tabe had apparently spoken about her, even making sure his friends used her preferred name? It was incredibly touching.

“Setsuno, you said you’d be cool about it if i let you come along.” Tabe protested.

“I’m just being nice!” Setsuno replied.

“Flirting ain’t being polite.” Hojo pointed out.

“Saying we’ve heard about her is flirting?” Setsuno spluttered.

“It is the way you say it.” Hojo grumbled over his bagel.

Setsuno pouted and dug into his croissant. Y/N couldn’t fight off her giggles as she started cleaning everything else up.

“Soon we’ll be actual paying customers and not just a couple of bums leeching off you.” Tabe promised as they all shuffled out the back door.

“I’m really looking forward to that day.” Y/N grinned sincerely.

***

That day was three months later, when all three of them walked into bakery in the middle of opening hours. All three looked cleaner and were wearing nice suits. Y/N grinned widely as they made their way to the cash register to place their orders.

“Told ya we wouldn’t be bums much longer.” Tabe grinned even wider than he usually did.

“You look fantastic.” Y/N praised.

“We met this fantastic guy.” Setsuno explained. “Picked us out of the gutter and saw potential in us. Gave us jobs we couldn’t refuse.”

“Now we’ve got pretty steady pay, so we’re not bumming off you anymore.” Hojo grinned. “We owe our lives to the boss.”

“That’s amazing!” Y/N grinned and clapped her hands together.

“Oh my god Y/N is that your boyfriend?!” Kimiko asked, borderline appearing out of nowhere to hug the other girl from behind.

“What! What are you talking about?!” Y/N said in dismay.

“Oh don't go playing shy silly. I’m the one who checks the security footage of the night before when I get in each morning. I recognize that muppet-mouthed, bug-eyed guy anywhere as your someone special. Why else would you give him all the goods we can't sell?” Kimiko said with a teasing smirk.

“Oh my god.” Y/N face palmed. Kimiko was a huge ditz, but she was Y/N’s closest friend. “Kimiko, this is Tabe, Setsuno, and Hojo. Friends of mine.”

They all greeted her calmly… except Setsuno, who cleared his throat and waved awkwardly in lieu of actually replying. Y/N took their orders and the three took their usual booth from their nighttime visits.

***

“Guys I'm feeling weird.” Tabe announced.

“What’s up man?” Hojo asked, tilting his head.

“You know how most of the time basically all I can think about is how hungry I am?” Tabe stated.

“Yeah we know.” Setsuno said, gazing off in the direction Kimiko went.

“Well now instead of my stomach feeling empty it’s my heart that feels like it needs a meal.” Tabe explained.

“Pay up, he figured it out.” Hojo laughed, slapping Setsuno on the back. Setsuno groaned and handed over a fistful of cash.

“Figured out what?” Tabe blinked.

“Tabe, you’re in love.” Setsuno explained. “You fell in love with the waitress.”

“Oh.” Tabe blinked. “What do I do?”

“Don’t do anything I did.” Setsuno sneered. “You’ll just fuck everything up.”

“I haven’t had a steady relationship in years.” Hojo admitted.

“We should ask the boss if he knows how to have a successful romantic relationship.” Setsuno suggested. “Someone with his act together like him surely would know how to not miss your shot with a girl.”

“But the boss is gay.” Tabe blinked.

“What.” Hojo and Setsuno both said.

“I saw him french Chronostasis," Tabe said. “It was really fast, he was just standing there, frenched Chronostasis, sprayed himself with sanitizer and went back to doing nothing.”

“He could still be bi.” Hojo pointed out. “We don’t know his alphabet.”

“Fair enough.” Tabe agreed.

“But just keep in mind that if you ask for advice the other guys are probably going to start showing up here.” Setsuno pointed out. “Do you really want to end up eating lunch with those assholes all the time?”

“I’m not gonna tell them where this place is!” Tabe said with a frown.

“Nemoto.” Hojo reminded. “That guy can’t mind his own business.”

“Ugh, right.” Tabe rolled his eyes. “Won’t be asking him then.”

“Probably not a good idea to bring it up with Sakaki either, he’d probably spill the beans while being all drunk.” Setsuno put in.

“Maybe we shouldn’t ask any of them.” Hojo realized. “We could ask her friend, since she actually knows Y/N.”

“I’ll go talk to her!” Setsuno quickly volunteered. He scrambled out of his chair and rushed to the counter, almost tripping over his own feet as he caught Kimiko’s attention.

***

“Tabe, are you okay?” Y/N asked, gently tapping his shoulder. “Usually, you inhale the food like its air and you're suffocating but today you’ve just been picking at it.”

“I’ve had a lot on my mind.” Tabe admitted.

“You wanna talk about it?” Y/N said kindly.

“Promise not to judge?” Tabe asked shyly.

“Promise.” Y/N assured him, moving to sit down across from him. They were the only ones left in the bakery today, letting them have total privacy.

“I think I’m in love with you.” Tabe admitted. “I’m always so, so hungry, starving. But you? You make everything stand out better. The taste of the food… you make it easy to forget how hungry i am.”

“Oh Tabe,” Y/N said in a neutral voice. “I’m so honored that you feel that way about me. But I can't return your feelings. I care about you very much but I'm not ready to be tied down in a relationship. I have a lot of issues I've gotta work through before I'm ready to date.”

“Oh.” Tabe replied blankly. He looked down at his hands, trying to process it.

Y/N felt awful. Tabe was a wonderful person, but he deserved a lot better than what she could offer him right now. Maybe it would be better if she went to the back and gave him some privacy. “I’ll be in the back.” She whispered.

Tabe stared blankly at the table, for once in his life not feeling the gnaw of hunger in his gut. That… that wasn’t a complete rejection, right? It was a promise that it could happen later! He could manage that. He’d be here every day for her, until she was starved for his love as much as he was starved for hers…

THE END

Chapter Text

Y/N moved through the kitchen, singing along with the soundtrack from Waitress. She had always been a huge fan of musicals ever since she was a kid. When she had stumbled across Waitress it quickly became her new obsession. She had never resonated so deeply with a musical before.

“Y/N, please.” Sheri groaned. “When are you getting bored of this musical and going to play something else?”

“What’s wrong with this?” Y/N asked, pausing in her whisking.

“It’s all you’ve played for months, everyone is tired of it. Including the customers.” Sherri pointed out.

“Oh.” Y/N pouted. She hadn’t realized customers were complaining.

“Y/N, the mix.” Sherri pointed to the bowl in her hands.

“Ah!” Y/N jolted in shock before doing a quick taste. “Not too bad, I can make this into something lemony.”

Y/N’s quirk was a very unique one. Flavoring allowed her to literally put her emotions into her cooking. The happier the emotion, the sweeter and more delicious the food. The more negative emotions made the food more and more sour until they were just too disgusting to eat. It made owning a bakery fun and a pain. She had to apply for extra licenses for quirk use around food and put a disclaimer on all the menus and the website to let people know.

“Hey Sherri, why don’t you just take control of the music?” Y/N offered. “And I’ll take closing shift tonight.”

“Whoa that’s super generous.” Sherri blinked. “Are you okay?”

“I just wanna give you time off for working so hard.” Y/N replied. “Plus this gives you a chance to ask Tabe out.”

“Stay out of my love life.” Sherri begged.

“Oh come on Sher-bear anyone can see that you are hopelessly in love with him~” Y/N teased.

“That doesn’t matter! What matters is that I’m not good for him!” Sherri protested.

“Not good for him or not good enough for him?” Y/N said tilting her head.

“Both! Either! Urgh!” Sherri cried, gripping her hair in her hands. “You know what I meant!”

“Do I? Maybe you should elaborate for me~?” Y/N posed the question.

“He’s clearly only just gotten out of a long rough patch in his life. I don’t wanna fuck that up for him by burdening him with all my issues.” Sherri said dismissively.

“Have you maybe considered you were his motivation to get out of that rough patch?” Y/N pointed out.

“Of course I considered it! It’s been at the forefront of my damn mind.” Sherri said with a huff.

“So you do love him!” Y/N noted, shaking her finger.

“Of course I do, if I didn’t I wouldn’t keep him at an arm’s length for his own good.” Sherri reluctantly conceded.

“I fucking knew it!” Y/N hooted with a triumphant fist pump. “My love senses are never wrong!”

“Except when it comes to your last three boyfriends.” Sherri snarked.

“Tom, Dick, and Harry were all just necessary bumps in the road in my love journey.” Y/N protested. “Gotta get practice in before you can be a champ.”

“Uh huh, and that’s why you let at least two of them almost completely drain your bank account and make you foreclose the bakery temporarily?” Sherri pointed out dryly.

“Um… what kind of music do you want to listen to?” Y/N quickly asked, thrusting the mixing bowl into Sherri’s arms before her quirk ruined the batch. She made a bee-line for the employee bathroom and barely made it inside before breaking down into tears. This was part of her dirty little secret. She projected an aura of impenetrable joy and happy-go-luckiness to her coworkers and customers. However it was a mask to hide her true feelings.

Deep down she was heartbroken, and she was so tired of constantly being heartbroken. Every relationship she got into had gone sour in the end. She just couldn’t figure out why she was so good at helping other people get into relationships but hopeless in her own romantic pursuits. Every Prince Charming turned out to be a Prince Charmless. Didn’t she deserve a handsome prince sweeping her off her feet?

***

The bell chimed, interrupting the silence of the closing bakery. Y/N jolted, hurrying to the lobby to see who had shown up. “I could’ve swore I locked the front door.”

“Hey.” Setsuno called, waving his hand shyly.

“Oh hi you!” Y/N greeted with a cheerful expression, hugging him without hesitation. “What are you doing here this late?”

“Yeah my bad, I know it’s closing but I think I left my wallet here the other day and I only just got time to come down here and check.” Setsuno explained.

“Oh let me check the lost and found.” Y/N reached under the counter and pulled out the cardboard box they stored all lost items in. “Say I have a problem that I think you could help me solve.”

“I’d do anything for you.” Setsuno said instantly.

“Tabe and Sherri need a push to get together properly. The only reason they aren’t is cause Sher-bear is all up her head about being good enough and good for him.” Y/N explained. “I’ve had love slip through my fingers and I don’t wanna see it slip through hers”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Setsuno sighed wearily. “I thought I had the perfect fairytale life set up and she just… I still don’t know what i did wrong.”

“I had an ex who fell on hard times and unemployment who I let move into my apartment with me. Cut to a month later I come home one night and the locks are all changed and after I pick one to get inside I find him plowing some random chick on the couch. Then the guy has the audacity to kick me out of the apartment I was paying for! I couldn’t get out of my lease so I had to keep paying for that place while also having to rent another apartment for myself.” Y/N said with an unhappy sigh.

“Can he legally do that?!” Setsuno’s eyes went wide.

“I… I don’t know?” Y/N winced. “I just kinda… let him have it?” She sighed. “Sherri says I'm a pushover when I’m in love, and she’s right. Then there was this other time with another ex where he swiped my bank card and withdrew all my funds before gambling it all away.”

Setsuno looked even more horrified. “God I feel like a dick complaining about my ex-fiancee.”

“No, no, it’s okay. I mean, what happened there?”

“She cheated on me and took all my money.” Setsuno explained. “I was in a bad mental place for awhile. I even tried to kill myself, but a hero saved me. That asshole didn’t even ask me what was wrong. He just smiled for the camera and then took off. I think if I hadn’t met Tabe and Hojo, and even the Boss… I dunno if I’d be here talking to you.”

“Oh my god that’s awful.” Y/N’s hand went to her heart out of sympathy. “More of my exes than not ended up cheating on me. They say it’s cause I’m so soft and stable that I’m boring so they need to find a more exciting bed partner. It’s always my fault.” She finished, her lip trembling a little at the memory.

“What a bunch of assholes.” Setsuno spat, clenching his fists.. “It’s not your fault. You are the sweetest, kindest woman I’ve ever met. Those assholes should’ve been worshipping the ground you walked on instead of throwing a gem like you away.”

“You’re so sweet to say that.” Y/N said, rubbing her eyes so they wouldn’t have a chance to tear up. “I gotta get a handle on myself, before I start spoiling the goods.” She declared, poking the corners of her mouth into a grin.

“I’m just now realizing that I don’t think I’ve ever seen you seriously frown before.” Setsuno said, blinking slowly.

“Frowns aren’t good for the bakery, especially with my quirk. If I'm feeling bad then the baked goods start to suffer in quality. I gotta be happy so every bite tastes delicious.” Y/N said assertively.

“That sounds exhausting.” Setsuno stated in awe.

“Sometimes it is, but it’s the least I can do for all my loyal customers.” Y/N said with a little salute.

“Doesn’t mean you have to shoulder everything alone.” Setsuno insisted. “Please rely on me. Let me help you”

“…I can try.” Y/N said after a long silence. “Have you found your wallet yet?”

“My what…?” Setsuno blinked for a moment before digging back in the box. “Right my wallet! That’s what I came here for!”

***

Setsuno had ended up owing Nemoto and Chronostasis a huge debt for this, but it would be worth it. He had the names and addresses for each of the three scumbags who had hurt Y/N. This would be his greatest act of devotion to his new beloved. He was going to make sure it hurt, because they had hurt his Y/N. Any torment he bestowed upon them would still pale in comparison to what Y/N had been through.

This was a task only he could take on. It was easy to break off the lock of the door to Y/N’s stolen apartment. It was a handy trick he learned with his quirk when things got really desperate on the streets. And there was the culprit, half drunk with a girl spread across his lap like a cat.

“Whaaa the fuck? Howdya get in here?”

“Woman.” Setsuno pointed at the door. “Get out now cause things are bout to get ugly.”

The woman apparently didn’t need to be told twice and dashed out the door. Setsuno sighed and drew his sword out. “Alright, let’s get this over with. I’ve got two other stops tonight.”

“Woah woah woah! What’s your deal pal?! I don’t got beef with you.” The drunk guy said, putting his hands up defensively.

“I got beef with you though. Big time.” Setsuno didn’t bother explaining further, bringing his sword down. And when that got tiring, he brought out the knives. Part-way through he stopped to curse. “Damn, I should be recording this on my phone for her. I’ll remember that for the next two guys.”

***

The bakery was closed for a month as Y/N found herself sorting out a pile of legal issues. And then suddenly it was resolved with little issue. She still wasn’t sure exactly what happened. She just knew that she had been at the police station, and a man with white hair cut like arrows had talked to a couple of officers and she was left free.

What she wasn’t expecting was for Setsuno to appear on her doorstep with a bouquet of flowers. “Surprise.” He said gleefully.

“Setsuno you shouldn't be around me right now.” Y/N said with a frown. “I must be hella jinxed right now. My exes are all dead!”

“Yeah, I know, I know.” Setsuno replied. “I heard you were in trouble and I had to get my bosses to help you out. I think it mostly worked cause Chronostasis is a huge fan of your lemon pie and he got pissy when we stopped bringing it in.”

“Hold on! What do you mean your bosses helped me out? What kinda job are you working at that has those kinds of connections?! Is Chronostasis some hero?” Y/N asked bewilderedly.

“Well not in the traditional sense.” Setsuno said vaguely. “We’re kinda local heroes. Yakuza. We’re Yakuza.”

“Oh my god that makes so much sense.” Y/N gasped, putting her head in her hands. “No wonder all the creeps who used to come and try to slap Sherri’s ass are gone.”

“Yeah Tabe ate them.” Setsuno affirmed

“He ate them?!” Y/N said in disbelief

“He ate them.” Setsuno repeated. “That’s not important.”

“I would beg to differ,” Y/N argued. “I think that’s cannibalism.”

“It might be, but right now it is about us.” Setsuno said, trying to get Y/N back on track. “I wanted to tell you how I felt.” He held the flowers out to her.

“Oh.” Y/N’s face turned bright red. “How do you feel?”

“I feel like I’m in love.” Setsuno confessed as she took the bouquet.

“I… I don't know what to say. I mean you’re a yakuza, isn't there like rules against dating?” Y/N said, smelling the bouquet.

“Not really. Y/N, no one has ever understood me like you do.” Setsuno continued.

“But what if you’re just imagining qualities onto me that I don't actually have? I mean I let you see the real me. I’m not the sugary sweet, unbothered queen I pretend to be for my customers. I’ve got a lot of baggage." Y/N said gently.

“So do I! Isn’t the point of a relationship to help carry the load?” Setsuno pointed out. “Y/N, I will never let you let me leave.”

Y/N blinked. “Are you trying to flirt with the lyrics from Waitress?”

“Is it working?” Setsuno asked desperately.

“Yeah, kinda.” Y/N agreed.

“Then yes I am.” Setsuno declared.

“... well I guess going out wouldn’t hurt,” Y/N said, inhaling the flowers' scent some more before her head started to feel dizzy. “Oh no, I must be having a sugar crash.”

“No, that's just the chloroform in the flowers.” Setsuno replied. “Just relax and breathe it in.”

Setsuno was quick to catch her as she fell, grateful for the mask the boss had given him.His sweet Y/N deserved some proper TLC, and it was up to him to make that happen. Besides that he needed to show her the videos he had taken exacting justice on her behalf. This was going to be the beginning of a wonderful romance…

THE END

Chapter Text

Y/N groaned as she finally clocked out of her shift. Another boring day that left her ears ringing and spine aching. She hated this job, but it was safe. All she wanted was to be safe. After what had happened, could you really blame her?

“I need a fucking drink.” Y/N sighed to herself. “Where the hell is the nearest bar?”

It was approaching that time of year again. The anniversary of when it all went to shit. Had it really been a decade since it had happened? The day Oboro died and she gave up on her dreams…

Once upon a time, Y/N had been a wide eyed hopeful hero in the making. She had made it to her second year in U.A., going by the hero name Aeolus. Along the way, she ended up giving her heart to a total goober named Oboro Shirakumo and the two began to date. Her life seemed fantastic, like it could only go up from there.

And then it all came crashing down, just like the building that dropped on Oboro. To make things clear, she didn’t blame anyone except that villain. Aizawa had just been a kid at the time, and everyone was doing their damn job.

Everyone was doing their job. It all came down to a stupid mistake. But that one mistake was enough for Y/N. She dropped out of U.A. and returned to a normal high school and a normal life. Nemuri and Hizashi tried to keep in contact with her but Aizawa kept his distance. And that was fine. She didn’t really reach out to them either.

Her life sucked now, but at least she didn’t wake up every day afraid it would be her last. Still the pain in her heart always had the nerve to flare up on days like this. Why couldn’t she just move on?! She was an adult for god’s sake! Why couldn’t she just fully close the book on the teen chapter of her life?!

She’s gone to therapy, that had been mostly a bust for her. Well not really, she’s been starting to heal but the bills she got made it an expense she couldn’t regularly pay so she got out of the habit of going.

She’d tried getting back into the dating field and went on so many blind and speed dates. Yet nothing stuck for her. Sure sometimes Y/N would see someone for more than one date but before she knew it the relationship fizzled out due to her own faults and fears. Try as she might, she was still hopelessly in love with Oboro.

Grumpingly to herself, Y/N scanned the street for a bar. She needed a quiet spot tonight, she couldn’t handle happy people right. Her eyes landed on a small barely lit sign over a door denoting itself as a bar. That sign looked as gloomy as she felt. Perfect. She headed for the door and pushed it open.

“Yo, you got booze?” She called out into the near empty room. There were only two figures present, a youth sitting in front of the bar and nursing a soda and an older figure behind the bar inspecting bottles.

“Do we look open?” The youth said sarcastically.

“Your light is on and the door is unlocked so yeah.” Y/N replied just as sarcastically. “So you got booze or nah?”

“Ppft, aren’t you at least a little suspicious?" The youth asked, snorting.

“More like I don’t care, I want to get hammered and I don’t want to deal with lots of drunk dipshits. Will you serve me booze or not!?” Y/N said starting to get annoyed.

“Kurogiri?” The youth called, tilting his head in the direction of the man behind the bar.

“Our liquor stocks are high, I doubt serving this stranger will deplete them to any significant degree.” The man behind the bar, Kurogiri said flatly. “If it is your wish that I serve this visitor some booze then it will be done Tomura Shigaraki.”

“Well then, come on over.” The youth, Shigaraki, beckoned, tapping the bar with his thumb curled to his palm.

“Good, I thought I would die of old age before you made up your minds.” Y/N said, strolling over to the bar. As she sat beside Shigiraki, a thought occurred to her. “Are you allowed to be in here?”

“What are you, a cop?” Shigiraki scoffed. “Mind your fucking buisness.”

“Fair enough.” Y/N agreed. “So is there a menu or do I order the house special and hope for the best?”

“I can make you something special.” Kurogiri replied, grabbing various bottles.

“No fair, you don’t ever make me anything.” Shigiraki complained.

“You’re on medication.” Kurogiri replied.

“I still deserve to get plastered!” Shigaraki protested.

“Maybe when you are older.” Kurogiri said, looking at the bottles thoughtfully. His temple pulsed a little and his hands began moving without his full control. ‘She always liked sweet stuff, she’d steal half of whatever I was drinking’ His mind said as he grabbed a bottle of soju and a can of beer. Carefully he cracked the beer and poured it into a pint glass before placing two chopsticks on top of the glass. Next he set a shot glass on the chopsticks, balancing them carefully before pouring the soju into the glass. After giving his audience a moment to admire the trick, he slammed his hands on the bar to make the shot glass fall into the pint glass mixing the drink.

“…Wow.” Y/N said in honest awe. “I haven’t had a Soju bomb in years. I’m excited.”

“What the hell, some random lady comes in and you pull out all the stops for her?” Shigiraki complained. “You never do this stuff for me.”

“Tomura Shigiraki, you are not allowed to drink.” Kurogiri rolled his eyes.

“Fine.” Shigiraki sighed before turning back to their guest. “So what kind of shitty day did you have that you wandered into this shitty part of town and stumbled across our shitty bar?”

“Very alliterative.” Y/N huffed, enjoying her drink. “It’s an anniversary coming up.”

“Sorry your marriage sucks.” Shigiraki replied with some sympathy.

Y/N laughed despite it all. “No, it’s not that. Uh… my boyfriend died in high school. Next week will be ten years.”

“Ten years? And you’re still grieving him?” Shigaraki asked with disbelief.

“He was a very special person, if you had met him you would understand.” Y/N said, reaching in her pocket for her wallet and opening it to pull out a picture with a tear down one side. “I took this photo with him only a week before his death. I took this half with him in it and he took the other half with me in it.” She explained pointing at the image which was of a young man with blue cloud-like hair grinning as wide as can be.

“That outfit…” Kurogiri said, leaning closer.

“He was a hero student?” Shigiraki didn’t bother hiding his sneer.

“We were in our second year. He left his half of the picture in his hero suit, for good luck.” Y/N explained. “He was out on his internship with another friend of ours. There was a villain fight and…”

“And the building came down.” Kurogiri finished.

“Yeah… how did you…?”

Kurogiri groaned and clutched his head, the mist that formed his body fluctuating constantly. For just a moment… the mist thinned out enough that Y/N could just barely make out the form underneath him. Shigiraki stood up, leaning over the counter.

“Kurogiri! Kurogiri, what's wrong?!” Shigiraki asked. He looked over at a tv monitor hooked into the wall before turning to glare at Y/N. “Get out!”

“W-what?” Y/N asked, struggling to understand what was going on. “Is he okay? What’s happening?!”

“This only happened because of you!” Shigiraki lashed out and hit the glass with his hand, causing it to decay and turn to dust. “Get out right now!”

Y/N was a little drunk, but she wasn’t stupid enough to linger around after that. She bolted out of the bar without a second thought, not even noticing how Kurogiri reached his hand to grab her before she was gone.

“I’m never going drinking again.” She declared as she locked herself into her apartment.

“Mew.” Pigsy came around the corner to greet her.

“Hello my little furry watermelon.” Y/N greeted, her spirits instantly rising at the sight of her cat. Pigsy couldn’t help looking like a little furry watermelon considering her tiny legs and super fluffy body. When she laid on the carpet sometimes Y/N couldn’t tell where the kitty ended and the floor began.

“Mewww!” Pigsy protested anyways stomping her little paw indignantly at the body shaming.

“Mommy had a very long, very weird day today.” Y/N sat on the floor with Pigsy. “How was your day?”

“Mrew.” Pigsy said, wiggling her butt to calibrate herself to leap onto Y/N’s chest.

“Well I’m just glad that you’re safe and sound.” Y/N decided. Adopting Pigsy had been a spur of the moment decision a few years ago. She had gotten into a very bad place mentally and gone into a bit of a depressed spiral. Y/N came very close to giving it all up but something in her gut stopped her. She needed something, someone to live for and that someone ended up being Pigsy.

At the shelter there had been plenty of friendly creatures who’d clambered for her attention. But it was the puffball on tiny legs who’d won her heart by trying to wrap her little paws around her arm.

“Hmm… I wonder if Nemuri still has that kitten.” Y/N mused to herself.

Actually speaking of Nemuri… maybe Y/N should contact her about that bar? It was obvious now she stumbled onto something illegal. And that Shigiraki kid… he seemed pretty young. Was he in danger?

No, it was none of her business! She should keep her nose out of this. Interfering when it isn’t necessary was a hero thing and she was no hero.

***

“Kurogiri are you okay?” Shigaraki said anxiously, wanting to help his caretaker. His gaze kept switching over to the computer. They never knew when Sensei was watching, it only turned on when he wanted to speak to them.

“I know, I knew her…” Kurogiri said blankly.

“Okay is this… is this Kurogiri or… or the other guy?” Shigiraki asked. Kurogiri did not answer, simply reaching into his vest pocket and pulling out a folded scrap of paper. He carefully unfolded it and exposed its contents to Shigaraki.

“That’s the lady.” Shigiraki’s eyes widened, hands clawing at his neck. “So you… so that’s… ugh…” He bolted over to the monitor, observing it carefully. “Shit… if Sensei… he’ll take you away again! Send you back to the doctor!”

“She can’t be taken from my memory forever.” Kurogiri said slowly. “I always remember her, this picture helps.”

“What if the photo disappears then you won’t remember her next time?” Tomura said anxiously, fearful. If he got rid of the photo then maybe Kurogiri wouldn’t be taken away from him again

“You will, won’t you?” Kurogiri replied. His voice sounded different, lighter and younger. “You’d remind me of her, right Tomura?” his voice was pained with sadness. “I need her, deep in my heart or I’ll lose whatever part of my soul they haven’t cut out.”

“I…” Tomura scratched at his neck for a while. “Yeah… I guess I would.”

“You’re a dreadful liar Tomura Shigiraki.” Kurogiri replied, tucking the photo away. “Hopefully drastic measures will not become necessary.”

“Drastic measures?” Tomura asked. “Like what? We can’t exactly keep her here. How the hell would we hide a whole ass woman from Sensei? He’s blind, not stupid!

“We’ll keep her where the cameras aren’t present.” Kurogiri said matter of factly. “I have access to all of our safe houses. This isn’t the first time we’ve had to hide something from him.”

As if on cue, a furry figure leaped onto the counter. Tomura huffed and reached out to pet Bandit, the stray cat leaning into his touch. “You’re going to owe me fucking big time for this.” Tomura declared.

“I’ll pay my debt in full.” Kurogiri replied.

***

No matter what she did, Y/N couldn’t stop thinking about her strange encounter in the run-down bar. That face she had seen beneath the smoke… it was too perfect a match not to be him. Except… except for the fact he had died that day. Aizawa had seen the body. Oboro’s parents had seen the body.

But Oboro had been cremated… and for just a moment… hadn’t Kurogiri turned blue? Or was that her desperate imagination? Was she really losing her mind just because he guessed her favorite drink?!

Oh she was desperately lonely, wasn’t she? She needed to get out more, meet friends, maybe go back to therapy. She needed to make some kind of change before she started spiraling and did something dumb like trying to go back to the bar.

However, someone else ended up making that choice for her, a misty portal opening beneath her and swallowing her and Pigsy whole. Instinctively, she grabbed her cat to make sure she wouldn’t get too scared.

“It’s gonna be okay my little Pigsy Wigsy Pie.” Y/N said partly to comfort the cat and partly to comfort herself.

“Is Bandit fixed?” A familiar raspy voice asked.

“I doubt he would let us check without a fight.” Another familiar voice replied.

“Oh fuck.” Y/N swore looking around her. “This is not how I wanted to spend my Friday evening.”

“Do you still need me?” Tomura asked.

“I’ll take it from here.” Kuorgiri answered. “Thank you for your help.”

Tomura disappeared into another portal while Kurogiri turned his full attention to Y/N.

“I didn’t tell anyone.” Y/N announced.

“I remember you.” Kurogiri said. “Do you remember me?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Y/N immediately denied.

Kurogiri reached into her pocket and pulled out her wallet, taking out the photo of Oboro. Before Y/N could protest, he reached into his own pocket and pulled something out, holding the two halves together. Y/N’s own youthful face stared back at her, the photo finally reunited

“Where did you steal this from.” Y/N said immediately on the defensive.

“I did not steal this. We split it in half.” Kurogiri replied.

“No we most certainly did not! That photo was cremated with my boyfriend’s body!” Y/N said, shaking her head in disbelief.

“I wasn’t cremated!” Kurogiri insisted, his voice changing. “My body- i was stolen! But it’s still me! We can be together again!”

“Stay away from me!” Y/N did something she hadn’t done in years, and used her quirk. Wind Manipulation was an insanely powerful quirk, and a big reason she even pursued being a hero was to try to learn to control it. She wasn’t trying to do much, just keep him away from her with a strong gust.

It didn’t have the intended effect… the man didn’t move a muscle. The mist that enveloped him however…

Y/N screamed as she took in the sight of Oboro Shirakumo staring back at her. Her quirk shut off, letting the mist close back over Kurogiri, who warped himself closer to Y/N and held her close. “It’s me. It’s me. We’ll never part again.”

THE END

Chapter Text

When Enji was called into the Hero Public Safety Commission's main office, the last thing he expected was to end up leaving the building with company. He was lead to a small meeting room and invited to sit down to wait for an official to enter and catch him up to speed. A few minutes passed before Mera entered, sat down, and after exchanging pleasantries began detailing the matter at hand.

“Mister Todoroki, i’m sure you’re well aware of your wife’s family’s less than legal activities.” Mera began, straightening his tie.

“I’m aware enough to know that it is frowned upon that I bought her hand in marriage,” Enji replied carefully. “Is the matter you requested my presence for related to that?” He added after a moment with a small frown.

“No no, your marriage is still quite legitimate.” Mera was quick to assure him. “I just wanted to establish a baseline of your knowledge. Since your marriage there have been a few more instances of the Himura family trying to reestablish their wealth by offering up their younger relatives to those outside the clan.”

“I see.” Enji said, nodding as he considered this information. Perhaps they wanted to speak with Rei and see if she had any information she could lend. His wife had said more than one concerning thing about her family over the years.

“Last year there was a minor incident regarding one of these exchanges. While the law can’t prevent the legally adult family members from being sold into marriages, there do have some children that were bartered off. Last year’s incident involved a young Geten Himura going missing under mysterious circumstances. The boy’s parents were questioned at the time but they did not provide any information so there was little that could be done to keep the investigation going for long. However the police were able to catch wind of another trade by the boy’s parents this time with the intent to pawn off their daughter. This time, we were able to intervene and rescue her, which is what leads us to this meeting today.” Mera explained.

“And why might I be brought in for this matter?” Enji said, a bit perplexed. “It sounds like you have the matter handled.”

“Well since the young girl’s parents are going to jail for attempted child trafficking she needs to be put in a new home in the meantime. Ideally a child would go to next of kin, but given the fact nearly the entire Himura clan is under suspicion for aiding and abetting in the crime. With the rest of her clan out of the question for caretaking, your wife and yourself are her remaining next of kin.” Mera explained. “If you can't take her in then she will be sent into the foster system which is very unideal, especially considering her health concerns.”

“She’s ill?” Enji blinked.

“Not quite. Her quirk has already manifested, we’re calling it Dry Ice. Any liquid she touches freezes. Unfortunately the poor girl cannot control it, and has already frozen her eyes, nose, and mouth shut at least twice since she’s come under our care.” Mera explained. “Hopefully as she gets older and controls it, she can get better but the doctor’s main concern is if she can accidentally freeze her blood.”

“Hmph.” Enji said, folding his arms and sitting back to think over the matter. “Give me a moment to call Rei and discuss this with her. We already have three children at home after all.”

“Of course.” Mera nodded. “I’ll be getting some paperwork together for you just in case.”

Once Mera left the room, Enji pulled out his phone. Thankfully Rei was able to pick up right away. “Is something wrong Enji?” Rei asked. “You don’t usually call when you’re working.”

“I’m fine, don’t worry. But I have something serious to discuss with you.”

“Oh no you didn’t get into some kind of accident and are calling me from the hospital are you?” Rei asked with a worried note to her voice.

“I just said I’m fine.” He huffed. “No, I'm afraid this concerns your family.”

Rei was silent throughout his whole explanation. When he was done, she stayed silent for a little bit longer. “I think we should take her in.” She finally said. “It’s not like we don’t have the money to support another child, and your quirk along with Touya’s would help her a lot.”

“Could you give the children a bit of a heads-up? I’m not sure they’d take well to the surprise of me coming home with a mystery toddler under one arm.”

“I’ll sit Fuyumi and Touya down. Natsuo might not fully understand anything just yet.” Rei promised. “What’s her name?”

“I don’t know, they haven’t told me yet.” Enji replied. “I haven’t even been allowed to see her.”

Enji was hanging up the phone just as Mera entered the room. “I’ll be taking her into my care.” He confirmed.

“I was hoping you’d say that, cause otherwise gathering all these papers would have been a waste of time.” Mera said placing a stack of paperwork on the table alongside a pen.

A few signatures later and Enji was being introduced to four year old Y/N Himura. The toddler was wrapped up in multiple blankets so she looked more like a stuffed animal than a small child.

“That’s a lot of layers, aren’t you concerned she’d get heatstroke?” Enji asked quizzically.

“The best counter we found to keep her from accidentally activating her quirk and freezing her fluids was to keep her temperature elevated.” Mera explained.

Someone had been kind enough to give the girl a toy to play with, a small stuffed white fox. Y/N clutched it like a lifeline as she craned her neck to look up at Enji. Enji tried his best to keep his features pleasant, he was well aware he wasn’t very popular in the little girl department. Most children found him too scary, and he had accidentally frightened a child or two during a rescue. Y/N stared up at him for a long moment without saying a word.

“Are you ready to go Y/N?” Enji asked. She didn’t respond, but she did give him her toy to hold, which Enji interpreted as a yes before scooping her up as easily as he would Fuyumi.

He must have been a sight, the number two pro hero standing on the sidewalk with a small girl in one arm and a tiny toy in the other. Luckily before anyone could start taking out a phone and bothering him Kurumada pulled up in the car.

“Oh good, you brought the car seat.” Endeavor sighed in relief as he buckled Y/N in.

“Yeah, I was wondering why you needed me to go back and get it.” Kurumada craned his head to observe the small girl. “Protective custody?” He asked.

“Yes basically, she’s from my wife’s side of the family and we were the next of kin available.” Enji answered keeping it vague. Of course he trusted Kurumada’s silence but the exacts weren’t the kind of thing Y/N needed to fully understand. The Commission hadn’t told him how much the little girl knew about the situation and he doubted she wouldn’t find the truth traumatizing.

The drive back home was peaceful, letting Enji concentrate on work. He had to let his agency know he was taking a few personal days to sort out an unexpected family crisis. Thankfully, since he almost never took off time like this, his sidekicks didn’t raise too much of a fuss. He’d give them all a more detailed explanation once things were settled.

Coming home, Enji spotted his entire family waiting out on the lawn for him. Touya and Fuyumi eagerly running to the car while Rei stood back with Natsuo in her arms.

“Guess they couldn’t wait.” Kuramada laughed.

“Guess not.” Enji agreed, a small smile on his face. He was glad the kids seemed to be taking this so well.

Enji got out of the car, blocking the kids from seeing Y/N. “I get that you’re excited but give her some space first.”

“Are we really getting a sister?” Touya asked.

“I wanna see her! What’s her name?” Fuyumi bounced on her feet eagerly.

“Are you expecting a sister or a puppy?” Enji responded back.

“Are we getting both?” Touya answered his father.

“No, I'm afraid you’re just getting a sister.” Enji said, unbuckling Y/N and scooping her up before removing her from the car and shutting the door.

“Wow! She looks a lot like Mama!” Fuyumi gasped in surprise.

“Hi.” Y/N said, trying to get one of her little hands free to wave.

“Well, aren't you precious?” Rei cooed, holding Natsuo out so he could get a better look. “Say hi Natsuo.”

“Hi!” Natsuo babbled happily as he waved back.

Together Enji and Rei managed to finally herd the kids inside only slightly hindered by Fuyumi and Touya stopping every five seconds whenever Y/N did something they deemed “cute”.

“Where’s she gonna sleep?” Touya asked quizzically.

“She can sleep in my room!” Fuyumi interjected eagerly. “And we can snuggle with all my plushies!”

“Y/N will probably be sleeping in the nursery with Natsuo for now.” Rei explained. “She’s too little to sleep in a big girl bed like you do Yumi.”

“And the nursery is close enough to let us keep an eye on her.” Enji added. “Touya, remember when you were younger and accidentally set some of your toys on fire because you didn’t have good control yet?”

Touya blushed at the memory. “Yeah?”

“Well Y/N doesn’t have control over her quirk either right now, and sometimes that ends up hurting her. So you need to help your mother keep a close eye on her when I’m not home.” Enji explained.

“Yes papa! I’m happy to help!” Touya said with a smile, happy to be trusted with responsibility. “What do I have to do?”

“Y/N has an ice quirk that is too cold for her. It makes the fluids in her eyes, nose, and mouth freeze up, so her airway gets blocked and her eyelids seal shut. The best way to keep that from happening is for her to stay very warm. Right now her body temperature is being supported by all the blankets she’s wrapped in but when she is active she’s gonna need someone to warm her up regularly.” Enji explained plainly.

“I can do that!” Touya agreed, letting a small ball of fire form in his hand.

“Ooo pretty.” Y/N said, wiggling in Enji’s hold so she could see the flame better.

Enji sat the girl down on the floor, letting the kids move closer while he pulled Rei out into the hall for a private conversation. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?”

“Little late to change our minds now.” Rei pointed out, crossing her arms. Her face grew concerned. “Is her brother really missing? Do you think she remembers him?”

“At this age its possible she doesn’t.” Enji said with a frown. “I’m not sure she even understands what almost happened to her, much less why she was taken from her parents and home.” He went on. “So does the name Geten ring any bells for you?”

“I’m afraid not, he was probably born after we got married and cut my parents off.” Rei mused. “I don’t really keep up with any of my relatives. Cutting off my parents made my grandparents and other relations decide to shun me. Really i’m sure that if they had any say in it they would not like that Y/N ended up in my- our custody.”

“We’ll have to keep a very close eye on her for the next few days.” Enji decided.

“Do you think she’ll try go home?” Rei questioned raising her eyebrows.

“It’s possible, but mostly i’m worried about other relatives trying to reclaim her, or even a potential buyer taking matters into their own hands.” Enji admitted.

“Dear i don’t think that’s going to happen. Someone would have to be very stupid to try and break into the number two hero’s home.” Rei reassured him.

“I have seen some very stupid criminals, Rei.” Enji replied. “But you’re right, I'm probably overstressing.”

“Mom!!! Dad!” Fuyumi shouted.

“I can fix it!” Touya shouted next.

“Her mouth is gone!” Natsuo yelped.

Rei and Enji rushed back into the room, where Y/N seemed mostly unfussed but clearly her spit had sealed her lips shut. Carefully Enji heated up his fingertips and swept them across the little girl’s mouth like a credit card in a swiper. Y/N, still entirely unphased by this, blew a raspberry at him as thanks.

“So that’s what it like.” Rei noted. “I’ll have to be careful and watch her mouth if she gets too quiet.”

“We might to get her like a bell or buzzer she can use to alert you when you cant have your eyes on her constantly.” Enji said thoughtfully.

“I’ll watch her when Mom can’t.” Touya promised.

“And i’ll help!” Fuyumi agreed.

***

“TouTou why do you look so sad?” Y/N asked, seating herself in Touya’s lap without asking. It had been some months since her arrival and she’d integrated into the family as if she had always been there.

“Oof, Y/N, you’re heavy!” Touya grunted. “Buzz off!”

“Nope, not until you tell me why you’re in a mood.” Y/N said, hugging Touya. “You’re super warm today, that's been happening a lot recently.” she added nuzzling lightly.

“You’re annoying, that’s been happening forever.” Touya replied, wrapping his arms around her.

“If i’m so annoying i could just go give papa my hugs for today.” Y/N said starting to pull away.

“No!” Touya said, tightening his grip around her. “Don’t go N/N, Dad’s in one of his moods again.”

“Did your training with him not go well today?” Y/N said, pressing her chin against his clavicle.

“He doesn’t like that my hair is turning white.” Touya mumbled.

“What’s wrong with white hair, mama has white hair?” Y/N said quizzically. “So do Yumi and Natsuo.” she went on. “I have white hair, so what’s the problem?”

“Do you want to go play outside?” Touya asked, standing up and dragging her off with him.

“Okay!” Y/N never minded when Touya dragged her off, always happy to follow in his footsteps “Hey TouTou?” she asked as they exited the house.

“Yeah?” Touya replied, picking up a ball to toss.

“You’re my number one hero.” Y/N declared. “And I love you okay?”

“Heh. I love you too N/N.” Touya ruffled her hair, a rogue thought came to him in that moment. The thought that if anyone ever tried to take her away from him that he’d burn them to ashes in a heartbeat. What an odd thought to have, it probably didn't mean anything… right? He pushed that thought aside for later consideration as he tossed the ball to Y/N.

It was only about fifteen minutes before Touya realized they were being watched. No, not both of them, just Y/N. Touya stopped what he was doing and pushed his sister behind him. “What the hell do you want?” He shouted. The stalker, realizing that their cover was blown, revealed themselves to the children.

“Easy kid, i’m not looking to hurt yah.” the stranger said with his hands raised in a non-threatening gesture. “We’re family after all.”

Touya sneered, moving back towards the house and forcing Y/N to move with him. “You’re no family i’ve ever seen before.” He growled.

“Aww don’t be so harsh, i’m sure little Y/N remembers me~” the stranger said, slowly advancing on the children.

“I don’t know this man TouTou!” Y/N said as she clung onto the back of Touya’s shirt.

Heat surged through Touya’s body, coalescing into his palms. Y/N was scared. It was all he could focus on and all he needed to know. The thought from earlier came back to the front of his mind again, he would kill this man if he came any closer and he wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep.

“What’s going on here?” Rei said, coming out from the house and standing in front of both children protectively.

“Rei, what a pleasant surprise. How’ve you been?” the stranger said, switching his attention to the adult woman now standing in his way.

“How I’ve been is none of your business.” Rei said coldly. “Touya. Take your sister inside and watch the rest of your siblings.”

“Yes Mom.” Touya said, having never heard his mother speak so seriously before.

Rei watched the stranger like a hawk, never taking her eyes off him as her children squeezed past her into the house. “You need to leave now.” She ordered.

“Come on Rei, be reasonable. You knew this was coming, you’ve been ignoring your parents calls asking for money. We’ve got debts to pay and that means people have to step up. Even kiddos gotta do their part to contribute”

“Get off my property.” Rei barked. “Stay away from my children.” Rei stood as an icy pillar, glaring down at him with an almost cold rage.

“Y/N isn’t your kid.” Her cousin replied. “She’s just a stray you took in, and the Himura’s want her back.”

“The Himura’s can pry my children from my cold dead arms.” Rei retorted.

“You couldn’t hurt a fly, you’re harmless without your big bully of a husband.” Rei’s cousin taunted. “Why can’t i feel my legs?”

“The family never did understand the power of Heaven’s Frost. And they never will because you’re not going to live long enough to tell them anything.” Rei replied. “There’s a reason Enji sought me out after all.”

A clench of her fist and the intruder on her family shatter into pieces.

“Oh my god, mom.” Touya said, having only half listened to his mother’s instructions by putting Fuyumi in charge of Natsuo and Y/N so he could return to her side and help.

“Touya, sweetie you have to understand that som-” Rei began.

“-i understand mom, he wanted to hurt our family. He deserved it.” Touya said, interrupting his mother’s words and coming to hug her. “We need to get rid of the body before dad gets home.” He added, stepping back after the hug and forming a flame in his palm. “If I turn his pieces to ashes it’ll be much easier to bury him in the yard around your flowers right?” He asked

“That’s right.” Rei nodded, patting his head. “Everything we do is to protect our family Touya. No line is too great to cross.”

“No line is too great to cross.” Touya echoed back.

Enji sensed something was off that night when he returned home, but he kept quiet until he and Rei retired for the night. “What happened?” He asked.

“Someone came for Y/N.” Rei answered. “I handled it.”

Enji didn’t have to question it further. “Good.” He agreed.

THE END

Chapter Text

Touya stood in the dark silent hallways of his house, chest burning with anger. No one noticed he was back. He stood in the doorway and they didn’t notice him. Enji Todoroki, his father, hadn’t noticed his own son was home. Touya had been replaced, forgotten. Why had he even bothered coming back?! He should have seen this shit coming. The flames of rage burned hot in his gut as he turned to leave the same way he’d come in.

“TouTou?” A soft voice floated through the air. “TouTou is that you?” The voice came again, a little louder this time. Touya slowly turned not sure he wanted to see her, or rather not sure he wanted her to see him.

“Hi N/N.” He said awkwardly, his eyes scanning up and down Y/N’s body. She’d gotten taller, puberty was about to hit her hard and fast at any moment. That didn’t matter right now. What mattered was whatever action she planned on taking next. She’d probably raise her voice and call for help from their father and he couldn’t have that. With his hand concealed he formed a small flame, intending to blind her momentarily so he could escape. Y/N tensed up and next thing he knew, Touya was thrown against the wall with arms wrapped around him.

“You’re back! You’re really back!” Y/N said sniffling, squeezing her arms around her big brother and rubbing her face against his chest. Touya was quick to extinguish the flame in his hand before he started a fire.

“Yeah I’m back.” Touya said, kissing the top of Y/N’s head as he held her close. “Seems like you missed me.” He said in a teasing tone. His new voice still threw him off, but talking to his favorite sibling still felt natural.

“Of course I missed you! You were dead! I mourned you! We all did!” Y/N said, banging her fists on his back.

“Well it seems dad’s moved on completely.” Touya said bitterly. “He’s got his perfect little successor to spend all his time on.”

“Stop it! You know that’s not true! He loves you, he loves all of us. He’s just not good at expressing it.” Y/N argued.

“Oh my god are you really still so naive?” Touya said in a pitying tone. He couldn’t believe how stupid his dear little sister was being. And yet… he couldn’t help adoring how pure her heart still was.

“I’m not naive! I’m sure if you went in there and talked to dad everything would be alright.” Y/N urged gently.

“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.” Touya said with a snort. “This family is dead to me. I’m leaving and I’m sure as fuck never coming back.” he went on, pulling Y/N’s arms away from his body.

“Please… please don’t go! TouTou… you’re still my number one hero. Please don’t give up on this family.” Y/N begged, her eyes tearing up before freezing as her stress levels rose and her quirk activated. Touya’s body moved before he could think and with his fingertips coated in faint blue flames he began defrosting her eyelids. With his other hand he found himself cupping her chin in his palm and gently rubbing his thumb over her lip.

“You’re such a pain Y/N.” Touya sighed before an idea came to mind. Was their father taking care of Y/N now that he had Shoto? Or had he even pushed away the child who needed his attention most? Would he even notice if she vanished? Enji didn’t notice his own son back from the dead…

Touya pulled his hands away from her face before she fully defrosted. As long as her nose was clear she would be fine, and leaving her like this would make the next part easy.

That night, Touya swore vengeance on his father and stole his sister.

Y/N didn’t realize what was happening for an hour; his stupid, trusting sister just let him lead her around by the hand until she finally seemed to realize they were no longer in the house. Even then she barely struggled, probably due to not being able to see or speak. “Just hold out a little longer, then I’ll thaw you out.” He promised her, making sure to hold her hand tightly. He didn’t want her to get separated and lost.

If a cop or hero picked her up, she’d be sent straight home and Enji would know everything. He couldn’t let that happen. He wasn’t strong enough yet, he needed time to build up his power. Y/N could only respond to his words with muffled protests which he chose to ignore. Eventually her muffled protests petered out into silence. “Good girl N/N.” Touya praised, giving her hand a light squeeze as they kept moving.

Eventually they reached an abandoned apartment complex, its insides gutted and scrapped. But it would do for now, and Dabi could scrounge something up for the two of them. Propping Y/N up on a broken sofa, Touya got to work unthawing her.

Y/N flinched away from his hands with a small gasp. “Did i burn you?!” Touya panicked, looking her face over. Her eyelashes were a little singed but otherwise she looked alright to him.

“No, your flames are just really hot.” She whimpered.

“Yep, cause i was trying to get more powerful so dad would take me seriously.” Touya said. “I’d never mess up and accidentally hurt you.”

“But i thought you were supposed to stop using your quirk cause it was too dangerous!” Y/N said in dismay.

“Yeah but how do you know that?” Touya asked with a frown.

“Mom told me, thats why i stopped going to you to defrost me and waited until dad got home.” Y/N explained

“That’s why?! I thought you decided you didn't love me anymore!” Touya was furious at his parents. Why were they trying to take everything away from him?! “Y/N, that means Mom made you wait for hours at a time! Some days Dad wouldn’t even come home because he slept at the office! What the hell?!”

“But it meant you didn't have to use your quirk and potentially hurt yourself for me!” Y/N argued. “I didn’t want to be the reason my big brother got hurt…”

“I’m not mad at you, just at Mom.” Touya sighed and rubbed his face. Mom. This was the first time he had really thought of her since he had woken up.

“Well to be fair, it’s not like she’s been around really. Not since she went to the hospital.”

“Mom’s sick?!” Touya snapped his head up to look at his sister.

“Um…” Y/N played with her sleeve. “She’s… sick in the head. Two years ago… there was an accident. She burned Shoto’s face, so dad sent her away.”

“I thought Dad did that!” Touya exclaimed.

“Why the heck would dad do that?!” Y/N said blinking widely.

“Why would mom hurt us?! Dad is a monster, that’s why i rescued you!” Touya protested.

“First of all you did not rescue me, this is a kidnapping. Secondly, it was because Shoto was starting to look too much like dad” Y/N explained.

“Dad bought mom and used her to pump out kids until he was finally happy with one.” Touya hissed. “And this isn’t a kidnapping!”

“Then can we go home?” Y/N asked.

“Don’t be stupid.”

“Touya, please. I’m tired, i wanna go to bed.” Y/N yawned. “Plus i need my medience”

“You can nap here on the couch, I’ll get things figured out in the morning.” Touya made her lay down, half asleep himself. All this walking and his quirk use had exhausted his body since it wasn’t used to activity anymore.

“I’m serious, I need my medicine or I'll freeze to death in my sleep!” Y/N insisted.

Touya sighed. “You’re such a pain.” He mumbled, laying down on top of her and curling his arms around her. “I’ll be your blanket, now shut up and go to sleep.”

“Okay, we can go home tomorrow.” Y/N replied quietly.

It was three months before she gave up on asking that question.

***

“Don’t call me Touya anymore.” Her brother ordered as he trudged into their “home”.

“Why not? You gotta make me really commit to this prisoner/kidnapper situation and start calling you master or something?” Y/N said, not even looking at him, instead making little frost designs on the bathroom mirror.

“Call me Dabi.” Her brother pushed past her to stand by the tub, reading over a box in his hands. “Alright, you’re first.”

“First what? I’m not taking a bath with you, we’re not little kids anymore.” Y/N said folding her arms

“Don’t be gross. I’m dying your hair.” Dabi sneered.

“Why?” Y/N asked.

“Cause Dad is only just now declaring you missing apparently.” Dabi rolled his eyes and started the tub. Today was one of the lucky days when the apartment got electricity and water thankfully, and Dabi let the water run over his hands for a second.

Y/N took her chance and slapped the water, freezing it solid over her brother’s hands.

“Y/N!” Dabi roared as she dashed out of the room, out of the apartment and down the stairs to escape.

Y/N panted as she hit the stairs running, swallowing her saliva before it could freeze. All she had to do was get out and find a cop, or better yet a hero. They’d save her and she could go home and tell Dad about Touya so he could get help. She didn't dare look back, putting all her energy into getting as far as she could.

Something grabbed at her hair and Y/N cried out in pain as the smell of burnt hair hit her nose. Her head was yanked back until she was looking up at a truly pissed Dabi. She had never seen him look like this, even before he went missing. For a minute, she thought Dabi would burn her to ashes then and there. There was a blue fire of insanity blazing in his eyes.

“I’m sorry!” Y/N winced. “I’m sorry, i’m sorry!”

“Let’s go, now.” Dabi ordered, dragging her back with him by her hair.

“To-” Y/N cried out in pain when his grip tightened. “Dabi, my hair! It hurts! Let go!”

“You’ve just proven i can’t trust you enough to do that.” Dabi replied, forcing her back up the stairs.

Y/N began to sob as Dabi forced her to sit while he gently cut away the burnt ends of her hair and dyed her now short white locks black.

“I look like a boy!” Y/N whimpered, her tears falling faster.

“Fuyumi had short hair and she was a cutie. You look adorable to me.” Dabi consoled her. “And if you didn’t want short hair then you shouldn’t have run like that. Come on, if you keep crying you’ll freeze yourself shut.”

Unfortunately that’s exactly what she ended up doing to herself and was only thawed out once Dabi was done dying his own hair. “Look,” he cooed at her. “We match~”

***

It had been three years since Dabi had stolen Y/N, and they had settled into something of a comfortable routine. Every so often they changed locations and maintained the dye in their hair. Dabi would take on jobs to earn money for new clothes and medicine and essential supplies while Y/N waited like a good girl or followed along with him. He found there was some new perks to her Dry Ice quirk, namely in keeping him cool so he could keep using his flames for longer and hotter durations.

Y/N was only too happy to help, devastated to see the burns get so severe without treatment that her older brother had to staple purple skin together. Dabi always chuckled when he remembered how her distress was so great, she froze her hands to her eyes. Y/N hadn’t attempted to escape in over a year, and Dabi was willing to reward her good behavior by loosening the leash. Thanks to being in a coma and missing his own puberty, he had no idea how typical fifteen year olds acted, but he wondered if Fuyumi ever acted as bitchy as Y/N acted some days. Although… there were parts of her developing body he was becoming very appreciative of.

“TouTou stop starring at my tits.” Y/N said, flipping through a magazine she’d swiped.

“I told you to stop calling me that. And you don’t have tits, Pancake.” Dabi replied defensively, annoyed at being caught.

“You may not be Touya anymore but you’ll always be my TouTou.” Y/N said flatly, making Dabi’s chest clench a little. “And I’m not a pancake.” She pouted so cutely.

“You’re so cute.” He teased. “What do you want for your birthday? I’ve got some cash saved up so we can splurge a little.”

“Hmph i dunno maybe let me go home.” Y/N said rolling her eyes. “Keep the money, you’re gonna end up needing it for emergency staples at the rate you’re going.” She added after a moment as she returned her attention to the magazine.

Dabi laughed, about to say something when his chest clenched, agony coursing through him. Shit, another flare up. “Y/N…” Dabi’s voice was shaky. “Meds. Now. Please.” He ordered through clenched teeth.

“Flare up?” She asked, rushing over to where they stashed the first aid supplies. Tucked inside were heavy duty pain medication that Dabi had gained through dubiously legal means and reserved for the moments when his body decided to remind him that he shouldn’t be alive. Shaking a few pills into her palm she rushed over to Dabi, snagging a bottle of water on the way. The usual routine was to give him the pills, ice down his sweat, and let him sleep for a few hours with a cold rag over his eyes.

Dabi sighed and relaxed into the couch, trying to just sleep and escape his ruined broken body for a few hours. But he couldn’t quite sleep, something egging at the back of his mind. He sat up, peeling the rag off his face. “Y/N?” He called out. “Y/N!”

Silence.

“That bitch.” Dabi lit the rag in his hands on fire as he realized what had happened. Y/N had abandoned him to his pain and ran again. But what his idiot of a sister didn’t know was that her necklace he gave her last year was actually a tracker for this exact type of bullshit. Dabi pulled out his phone and opened up the app. She wasn’t too far yet. He could get her if he hurried.

***

Y/N was so, so close this time. She could taste the freedom. She could save herself and then save her big brother as well. However she could feel heat building up behind her and getting closer.

“Y/N!” Dabi roared. “You selfish, ungrateful brat! After everything I’ve done for you! You ran away and left me suffering?!”

“No! I was just going to the drug store an-” Y/N wheeled around to face him.

“LIAR!” Dabi backed her against the alley wall, hands on either side of her head and smoking. “I oughta teach you a lesson, make what mom did to Shoto’s face look like a mild sunburn!”

“Dabi please, I’m sorry, i’m sorry, don’t be mad at me!” Y/N begged, starting to cry. “I’ll make it up to you, I swear!”

Like a switch had flipped, Dabi’s demeanor switched to something more comforting. “Shh, it’s okay N/N, come here.” He pulled her close, pressing her face into his chest as his hands slid up her shirt to rest on her back. “I’m not mad, just disappointed.” He cooed as an idea came to him.

Y/N gasped as his hands started to heat up, the temperature becoming too much against her bare skin and it began to smoke. She tried to protest, but she was held so tight against his chest it was practically smothering her. Y/N tried to claw at Dabi’s shoulders to make him let go as icy vapor began drifting up into the air and mixed with the smoke coming from her searing flesh. She thought the pain of having his skin flash frozen would make Dabi let go but all he did was smile.

“Yeah~ don’t let go.” He laughed, shaking slightly under her touch. “We’ll match, forever branded by one another.”

Her mouth was frozen before she could scream…

THE END

Chapter Text

"Hey Jin, am I unlovable?" Y/N said, flopping face first onto the couch.

"Of course." Jin said before rapidly contradicting himself by saying "What?! No?! You are so lovable!"

"Well, my luck in the dating scene says otherwise." Y/N grumbled, punching a pillow in despair. "Online dating is a fucking trainwreck."

"You should just give up." Jin offered before doubling back and saying "You've just gotta keep trying!"

“How can you be sure about that? Has your memory finally started to come back?” Y/N asked, raising his head quizzically. It had been three months since he pulled Jin out of that dumpster. He’d been going to throw out his garbage and found a sad man in the trashcan. Obviously Y/N had no choice but to bring the sad man back into his home and nurse him back to good health. After his top-tier nursing he had attempted to help Jin figure out how to get home but unfortunately the other man had forgotten just about everything about himself except his name. Even his quirk had become a mystery to him.

“Cause I’m smart duh?” Jin said stand-offishly before adding. “I still don't know anything about me but i know you’re great.”

“You know what? Fuck it! I’m taking you on a date.” Y/N said, sitting up straight. He liked Jin very much and he would be lying if he said the blonde wasn’t his type. However he had been trying to not cross that line in their relationship, just incase that when Jin remembered who he was that he wouldn’t have his heart broken finding out that the other man already had a special someone. But right now? Right now Y/N was tired of disappointing meet-ups with people who he just didn’t click with. Even if this didn’t spark anything significant, it would be nice going out with someone he enjoyed spending time with regardless of labels.

“A date?!” Jin said in alarm. “You wanna go on a date with me?! That's too much pressure!”

“Why is there too much pressure?” Y/N asked, tilting his head.

“I don’t wanna go on a date with you.” Jin replied dismissively. “I’ve hardly been outside since you took me in! What if its too scary?!”

“Hmm, we probably do need to take you out, Jin. It’s not healthy to be cooped up all day.” Y/N frowned.

“No, the boss almost never goes outside and he’s great.” Jin waved dismissively. “That kid is completely crazy!”

“What?” Y/N asked.

“What?” Jin replied, equally as confused.

“That sounds like new Jin lore to me.” Y/N said thoughtfully. “So wherever you worked before you had a young boss. Neat.”

Jin was quick to write it down in the notebook Y/N had given him. It was a good way to compile his thoughts when the voices in his head got too loud and let him keep track of anything he remembered. The biggest thing in his notebook was a name. Written in big letters and underlined twice to emphasize how important the name felt to him. Toga. Whenever he thought hard about that name his heart felt warm with affection. He wasn’t sure who Toga was, but he was sure that they were the key to his memories.

He just hoped Toga wasn’t his husband or something. That would get awkward fast.

***

“It feels weird not having anything cover my face.” Jin mumbled, scratching at his stubble.

“Are you going to be okay?” Y/N asked in concern. “I know your mask was important to you but it was more scraps than fabric when I found you.”

“I’ll be alright i just…” Jin trailed off.

“Would sunglasses help?” Y/N offered, fishing around his jacket pocket and producing a pair to offer to Jin.

“It would definitely be better than nothing.” Jin agreed, taking the sunglasses and putting them on. “These seem… familiar somehow… I… don’t like this actually, it just makes me sad.” He shoved the sunglasses back in Y/N’s hand.

“Okay, maybe the date isn’t a good idea. We can just go home and relax and you can use that pillowcase you cut holes into okay?” Y/N suggested.

“No! I want… I wanna do this! You shouldn’t feel chained to the house just cause i’m overly agoraphobic. I wanna be able to go down to the store without panicking so I can get stuff like cleaning supplies.” Jin insisted. “We need to go back and hide forever.”

“Okay, no problem. Maybe we can find something cute that works for you while we’re out here.” Y/N grinned and took Jin’s hand. Jin’s cheeks flushed with color and he happily followed where Y/N led him.

Y/N hadn’t planned on anything big, not wanting to overwhelm Jin on their first outing. So instead he had woken Jin up early and taken him to the local flea market. There was always something to find in a place like this. And there wasn’t usually a super large crowd that could overwhelm and upset him.

“Anything in particular you look for?” Jin asked.

“Not really, but you’d be surprised what you can find here.” Y/N replied. “Not to mention a lot of the stuff is made locally so we get to support the community!”

“Sounds fun.” Jin replied. “Man, sounds lame.”

“Come on, I’ll show you around, there are even a couple of food trucks around here! The crepe one is fantastic.” Y/N gently tugged him along.

Jin ended up having a pretty nice time. Y/N was on a strict budget, but they were still able to buy a few things. Jin ended up smoking while Y/N ran off to use the bathroom.

“Oh my god, Jin?!” A familiar voice cried out.

Twice dropped his cigarette as everything came back to him. “TOGA!”

***

“Sorry to keep you waiting Jin.” Y/N called. “Thanks for watching our bags.”

“Oh, no problem. Ready to go home?” Jin asked.

“Sure, you ready?” Y/N answered with a nod. They started heading back, arms interlinked. “So how ‘bout it?”

“How ‘bout what?” Jin replied blinking.

“The date, you enjoy it?” Y/N asked

“Oh! This was great!” Jin replied quickly. “We found some great things, didn’t we?”

“So… you wanna… you know… be a thing?” Y/N said casually.

“Yeah! No! Wait!” Jin shook his head a few times. “Can I ask you something first?”

“Sure, what’s up?” Y/N asked.

“What if i get my memories back… but I’m not a good person?” Jin asked. “What if it turns out I’m a criminal or something?”

“You are a good person though. Being a criminal wouldn't affect your goodness or badness. I had this neighbor, all he ever wanted was to be a hero. He tried to use his quirk to help someone and now he’s got a criminal record for interfering with hero work.” Y/N explained. “I think it matters more what you choose to do as a person. I mean lets be fair here, the system is pretty fucked in some places cause people get complacent you know? The you that you are right now is the you that matters, your past selves shouldn’t get to decide who you are going forward.”

“I think I love you.” Jin declared, though he looked oddly guilty.

“Well I would hope so considering I want you to be my boyfriend.” Y/N said with a chuckle.

“Yeah, I'd love that.” Jin agreed, taking his hand.

***

Life after that seemed to settle into a new pattern. Jin handled the house and seemed to be getting a lot better. He even found himself a mask to wear that worked a lot better than the pillowcase. Y/N couldn’t be too sure, but he was starting to get the feeling that Jin was remembering things more. Somedays it seemed like Jin was regressing and more confused about things he’d been sure of only the day prior, other days he seemed to be playing up how bewildered he was. The whole thing confused Y/N but not enough that he felt the need to confront Jin about it, the blonde was an odd guy and that’s why Y/N had fallen for him anyways.

One day the two of the were cooking together in the kitchen, joking, listening to the radio, dancing a little. And then Jin’s hand slipped with the knife and cut himself.

“Oh shit babe, let me get the first aid kit!” Y/N cried.

“Fuck!” Jin muttered, staring at the wound. He pulled out a cell phone that Y/N didn’t even know he had. “Hey, me. It’s me. Cut myself cooking. It’s bad.” His arm seemed to bubble with something that didn't seem to be blood. “I’m in front of Y/N, cover is blown. Sorry.”

“Jin, what the fuck?!” Y/N demanded as he hung up the phone.

“Listen, I don't have a lot of time.” Jin said frantically as he seemed to melt. “I’m on the way to explain everything. I remembered everything, my quirk makes copies. That’s what I am, a copy, not the real one.”

Y/N was too confused to even scream as Jin melted into mud on the floor. He stared at the mud pile in pure confusion for a while. Suddenly there was knocking on the front door. Y/N rushed to the door, peeping through the eyehole to see Jin standing outside with no injuries.

“Y/N let me in please. I wanna explain everything face to face.” Jin said, his voice muffled by the door. Y/N did not open the door and instead turned the deadbolt into place. “Y/N my mask is really noticeable, I think you’d prefer not to have the cops on your lawn.” Jin spoke again. Y/N covered his mouth, trying his best to be silent in the hopes the man outside would go away. He heard a deep sigh from the other side of the door followed by footsteps that became faint. Y/N let out a sigh of relief and went to slump on his couch. Only for the sounds of grunting to start coming from his guest bathroom and send his heart beat racing.

A few seconds later Jin was dusting himself off as he entered the living room. “Okay, so I owe you an explanation. I don’t owe you shit!”

“Okay what the fuck?!” Y/N demanded.

“You remember how after our first date, I- well my copy- asked you whether or not it mattered to you if I wasn't a good person, whether it mattered to you if I was a criminal? Well… I was trying to have my cake and eat it. I was trying to be both Jin Bubaigawara the househusband-to-be and Twice the-”

“-YOU’RE TWICE?!” Y/N interrupted in alarm.

“Okay so you really didn’t recognize my mask.” Twice muttered to himself. “You’re so stupid that it’s cute. Anyways I was trying to be both sides of myself without them overlapping. I like just being able to laze around and be with you without having to think about how big and scary the world is beyond the confines of our home. However I also have a responsibility to my friends in the league to be by their sides as we try to dismantle hero society. I had hoped to find the right moment to tell you everything but it never seemed the right time so I kept my mouth shut and kept switching in and out with my copy every so often so you wouldn’t start suspecting anything. But as we can see from tonight, it wasn’t going to work forever. Also Toga has really been on my ass about meeting you and making sure you’re good enough.”

“Toga… as in Himiko Toga, because you’re in the league of villains.” Y/N realized.

“Yeah.” Jin said simply. “I’m sorry. I can’t keep splitting myself like this. But it’s going to be okay. You’re coming with me!”

Y/N sat there shocked, trying to understand this imposter he had fallen in love with. His emotions felt all over the place. Did he feel betrayed? Yeah a little, how could he not feel a bit betrayed? The man he loved so dearly was a criminal and had been pulling the wool over his eyes for who knows how long.

“Jin, answer me this. Was it all a lie? The memory loss, the being in love, all of it? Was I just a convenient alibi and my home a hiding place for you to lay low until your comrades got in contact with you?” Y/N said biting his lip as heartbreak threatened to split his being in two.

“No, I got conked pretty good in the head and genuinely forgot everything.” Twice explained. “Only remembered because Toga was at the flea market that day. Dabi is still making fun of me for it. He’s such an ass, love that guy!”

“So what happens now?” Y/N said with a frown. “Am i just not gonna see you again?”

“No silly, I said I'm gonna take you with me” Twice said with a laugh. “This is technically a kidnapping.”

“WHAT?!”

“Stop screaming, I'm kidnapping you.”

THE END

Chapter Text

“What do you mean my campaign manager quit?” Koku Hanabata asked with a bemused expression as he gazed at one of his aides.

“Exactly what i just said sir. Your campaign manager just quit.” The aide said, pushing up glasses and staring down at a clipboard.

“Yes, i understood that part, what i am failing to understand is the why” Koku elaborated, the corners of his mouth starting to pull down. Each and every staff member under him was a loyal member of the Meta Liberation Army. They didn’t just quit on him, not without consequence.

“The list is long, but in summary: your supporters are the why.” The aide offered as they rifled through papers on the clipboard.

“What.” Koku replied blankly. Some small part of him was starting to understand why Skeptic hated people and dealing with them. “Give me that.” He snatched the clipboard and began rifling through everything. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Doesn’t that idiot understand the consequences of doing this to us?”

“I’m sorry sir. But we’ve already begun looking into a new campaign manager for you.” His aide offered. “We’re compiling a list of the best choices.”

“I want that idiot’s career blacklisted everywhere else and I want that list on my desk by the end of the day.” Koku ordered.

“Yes Sir.” the aide chirped before dashing away.

“This is not how I wanted to be spending my afternoon,.” Koku grumbled, putting a hand to his face.

“I bet your next campaign manager won’t last a day.” An unfamiliar voice said, causing Koku to look up. His unexpected guest was a tall woman in a sharp pantsuit with an orange sash draped over one shoulder and a red headband tucked into her hair.

“Can i help you…?” Koku trailed off pointedly.

“No, but maybe I can help you~” The woman said with a husk to her voice. “The name’s Y/N, here’s my card.” She tossed a laminated business card on his desk. “I’m your new campaign manager.”

“Are you going to last longer than a day?” Koku replied. “Because otherwise i don’t see this relationship working out very long.”

“Oh relax, I'm here for the long run.” Y/N waved dismissively. “I’ve researched the Hearts and Minds party extensively and I plan to keep this ship running in tip top shape.”

“You seem pretty confident that me hiring you is a foregone conclusion,” Koku said examining the business card.

“What’s the point of trying for the job if you aren’t confident you can have it~” Y/N said smoothly.

“I’ll give you an answer tomorrow,” Koku replied. “Until then, it was nice meeting you Y/N.”

“The pleasure was all mine~” Y/N replied before sauntering out of the office.

“What just happened?” Koku wondered to himself. After taking a few moments to compose himself, he pulled out a second phone and dialed up one of the numbers he had on speed dial.

“What do you want?” Skeptic snapped.

“I need you to do a background search for me.”

“Are you that fucking lazy you can’t vet your own employees?! I have work of my own to do!” Skeptic shouted over the phone.

“Be that way then, I’m sure Na-Lae will appreciate the excuse to come visit me.” Koku said casually.

“Don’t you fucking dare!” Skeptic hissed. “I told you to stay away from my wife!”

“Just run me my background check then. This woman came in and we had the strangest interview ever. I want to make sure she’s not undercover.” Koku explained. He read off her name and information from the card she had given him.

Skeptic was silent for a few minutes. “Alright, I found some things. It wasn't too hard to do, even your lazy ass could’ve found her.”

“What did you find?” Trumpet asked patiently. Patience was usually the only way to deal with Skeptic.

“She graduated with a degree in political sciences, has a minor fox mutation from her mother that doesn’t have to do with her quirk, and her quirk is called Subliminal.” Skeptic listed off. “Everything seems to check out cleanly.”

“So she isn’t some police spy trying to infiltrate my staff?” Koku asked.

“I doubt the police would waste a spy on your activities but yes, she’s not a spy or undercover agent. She does have some interesting legal documentation though. Got her name changed it seems.” Skeptic said with a thoughtful hum. “Let me see… oh. Oh. Nevermind, it’s unimportant.”

Koku raised an eyebrow after hearing that. “Hm? You deciding mid sentence not to finish giving details? That’s odd.”

“Koku, I changed my name.” Skeptic replied flatly.

“Oh.” Koku replied. “Got it.”

“Keep harassing me and I will release your nudes.”

“You know that the threat doesn't work when you always use it but never follow through. I think you just like looking at them at this point.” Koku pointed out

“I’m a married man!” Skeptic seethed.

“A married man with eyes apparently,” Koku teased. “Shall I just start sending them directly to you?”

“JUMP UP YOUR OWN ASS AND DIE!” Skeptic roared before hanging up the phone.

“Jump up my ass yourself coward.” Koku replied before realizing Skeptic had already hung up. He would only begin regretting the conversation a few hours later…

***

“YOU LEAKED MY DAMN NUDES?!” Trumpet roared over the phone.

“I had to make sure you weren’t going to underestimate me in the future.” Skeptic replied smugly. “Now you know better.”

“I’m going to kill you.” Trumpet vowed. “Do you have any idea how this is gonna fuck up my campaign? We need me to win so that I can keep my hand in government affairs and keep them going favorably for our cause.”

“Bad news Mister Hanabata.” Koku’s aide said nervously as they entered his office.

“What could possibly be worse news than what's already happened?” Trumpet said irritatedly.

“Because of the leak most of the applicants for the campaign manager position have rescinded their applications.” the aide said looking anxiously around.

“Shit how many applicants do we have left?” Koku asked with a grimace.

“Only two sir, a Miss Y/N and a-” his aide began.

“-Get them in here asap.” Trumpet ordered, cutting her off. “Whichever one of them can give us the best solution gets the job.”

“Yes sir.” his aide said before ducking out and sending the applicants in.

“Hi~” Y/N said with a fox-like grin.

“Mister Hanabata, it is an honor to be considered for this.” The other applicant said, wringing his hands.

“We don’t have time for pleasantries. I need solutions. My nudes got leaked, what are you going to do about it if you are my campaign manager?” Trumpet said straight to the point.

“Well i’m sure if we put out an apology and pay off-” the male applicant began.

“-I’m already arranging a press conference, and i have a speech all prepped.” Y/N cut in smoothly, busy on her phone. “Why would you be apologizing when you are the victim sir? and We are going to make people remember that it’s the Mind and Hearts party who have their best interest in mind and at heart.”

Koku sat up, smoothing his hair back. “You’re quick on the draw, Miss Y/N.”

“I’d be awful at my job if I wasn’t sir.” Y/N grinned. “All you have to do is just sit back. You don’t even need to be in front of the cameras.”

The other applicant seemed to flounder, not quite knowing what to do. For now, Koku would let him sit there and wring his hands together.

“How long do you think it will take before you think you’re ready to start the press conference?” Koku said calmly.

“All I'm waiting on is for the press to arrive.” Y/N confirmed, tucking her phone away.

“Oh? You didn't wait for approval?” Koku raised an eyebrow.

“Better to say sorry after the fact then wait and miss the ideal moment for the most impact.” Y/N said confidently. “You want to take control of the narrative of this scandal right? Well time is a ticking.”

“I like you.” Koku decided before turning to the other applicant. “You can go.” He dismissed.

“But sir-” the male applicant said in dismay.

“I asked for solutions, you gave me platitudes and suggested bribes. I need someone who thinks beyond the tried and true.” Koku waved his hand.

Y/N seemed to literally purr as her phone went off again. “Ah, everyone’s showing up and things are ready. Tune in on the big screen sir!” The sash over her shoulder shifted, revealing it was actually her tail as she turned and left the room. Her hand reached up to tug her headband out, letting two fox ears spring up.

Koku felt his phone buzz and picked it up. Great, Curious was here too. He let out a sigh and rummaged around for the remote for the tv on the wall so he could watch how this would play out.

Y/N stood in front of the podium, a serious and stern look now replacing her usual mischievous grin. Koku could spot Curious’ purple hair towards the front of the crowd

“May I have everyone’s attention,” Y/N said, speaking into the microphone. “Now i’m sure you all have many questions but first allow me to tell you the facts. Mister Hanabata has been wronged in this matter. The nudes in question were acquired via data breaching meaning that the hacker in question did not receive that content with Mister Hanabata’s consent. This qualifies them as revenge pornagraphy revealed to the public solely to try and tarnish Mister Hanabata’s reputation to the nation. Now I ask you, is that right?”

Something was off. Maybe it was because of the way Koku’s own quirk worked, but he was certain she was using a quirk during her speech. What was her quirk again? Subliminal? As is… subliminal messaging?

“What a woman.” Koku grinned. “I might be in love.”

It wasn’t long before Y/N had the crowd eating out of her hand, helped along by Curious asking just the right questions at just the right time. This potential disaster that could have lost him many supporters had been turned into a triumphant event that was sure to boost his popularity through the roof. Skeptic was probably throwing a fit and that just made this victory all the sweeter.

About a half hour later, Y/N sauntered back into his office, looking triumphant. “That’s that problem solved, no need to thank me.”

“You used your quirk on the crowd.” Koku brought up. It would be hypocritical to be mad over this, considering he did the same thing. Mostly he wanted to satisfy his own curiosity.

“Maybe a little, but mostly that was my own skill as an orator,” Y/N replied. “I only need the smallest in with my quirk before I'm able to get to people’s hearts with my genuine words. I don’t believe in lying to my audience. What I said about you is what I truly feel.” She explained.

“An honest politician.” Koku laughed. “You’re a rare breed.”

“Lies come back to you no matter what you attempt.” Y/N replied. “I take it I have the job?”

“It’s all yours.” Koku grinned. “You are truly one of a kind Miss Y/N.”

***

As weeks passed by and the election drew closer Koku developed a burning desire in his gut. Inar was just so purehearted when it came to her politics. She clearly had no idea that the Mind and Hearts party had any connection to the Meta Liberation Army. It was so adorable how naive she was to the pieces moving behind the scenes. He wanted to expose her to it all and see how she’d take it. Would she break down in despair? Would she try to quit? Oh, the thought was so enticing.

And it wasn’t like she would just be able to leave him. Oh no, not with his connections. It wouldn’t be hard at all to frame her for using her quirk to make his last campaign manager quit. Something like that was sure to interest the police. And if it really came down to it, it would be easy for Skeptic to frame her for the leaked nudes.

He would be keeping Y/N on a tight leash for a very long time…

THE END

Chapter Text

On the top ten things Y/N expected to encounter on her way home from her job bagging groceries at the Qwik mart, finding a bloody and half-delirious man in the street didn’t even break the top five. She approached the man, one hand going to her pocket as she looked him over. He didn’t look like any of the heroes from the nearby agencies… but he also didn’t look like any villains from the news. Maybe he was one of those vigilantes?

“Sir? Sir, are you okay?” Y/N knelt besides him, putting a hand to his neck to take his pulse. It was a bit weak, but still going. So at the very least the man was alive. Now the dilemma was just if she was going to call for help. If he was a vigilante, he’d be arrested straight from the hospital. She couldn’t in good conscience risk that.

“Hey. Can you hear me?” She asked again, patting his arm. If he didn’t respond then she’d have to call for an ambulance to save his life.

It took a few minutes, but the man on the ground finally groaned, turning his head to look up at her.

“Oh thank god, you’re okay.” She sighed in relief. “Can you stand? I can bring you back to my apartment and look you over.”

The man grumbled again, but his gaze seemed a little more focused.

“If you can understand me, blink twice.” Y/N said, trying to dumb things down so the injured man could communicate with her. He stared at her for a moment before managing two quick blinks. “Do I have your permission to take you to my apartment for a more thorough check over. Two blinks for yes, one for no.” She asked him in a clear voice. The man again stared before doing another two rapid blinks. With his consent obtained she helped him up onto his feet and bearing the bulk of his weight for him, led him back to her apartment. She fumbled with her keys for a moment before unlocking the door and bringing the man inside. Propping him against the wall momentarily she grabbed a spare sheet from her closet and threw it over the couch before helping the man lay down.

“Just hang tight for a moment, I'm going to grab the first aid kit.” Y/N told the man calmly as she made sure his head was positioned comfortably on the couch arm. “You don’t need to tell me your real name, but it would help to have something to call you. I put your swords in my closet by the way.”

“Stain.” The man rumbled. “That is the only title I need.”

“Oookay…” Sayone merely blinked in reply before shrugging and getting the first aid kit. She actually ran a bit of an illegal doctor’s office out of her apartment for vigilantes, underground heroes, and the very rare yakuza. She wasn’t proud of what she did, but she knew it was a necessary evil of the world. Sometimes the heroes who sparkled in the sunlight didn’t have time or worse didn’t care about the less fortunate of the city. People had to find their own local saviors in grave times. In this kind of community people had to take care of each other and keep each other's secrets.

She helped fix up those folks who were just trying to keep the darkness at bay and they looked out for her and the other civilians who called this apartment complex and block home. It wasn’t often that the Shie Hassaki was willing to scare off drug dealers from the nearby playground just because of the kids who lived in the complex. Or an underground hero making an anonymous donation to help refurbish the place after a villain fight smashed into it. To Y/N, there was good and there was evil, and then there were all the little people who blurred the lines just to help someone out.

Y/N tended to her latest patient, disinfecting cuts and bandaging, putting stitches in a particularly bad slash. “Is there anything I need to know about your quirk and how it might affect my treatment of you? Or your opponents quirk?”

“No, nothing like that.” Stain replied. “I don’t wish to burden you further, i can leave now that my wounds have been attended to.”

“I’d rather you at least stay the night.” Y/N argued. “The cops could be looking for you and you were in so much pain you were passed out..”

“I cannot compensate you for the treatment you have provided to me.” Stain insisted.

“Good cause I wasn't looking for compensation from someone clearly in need.” Y/N said briskly. “I didn’t help you cause I was looking to be rewarded, I helped you cause it was the right thing to do. Folks like you and I have to help each other out cause otherwise we’d all get pushed to the sides.”

“Are you a doctor?” Stain asked inspecting her handiwork.

“I would’ve been, once upon a time. Right now all i’ve got is a quirk that functions as anesthetic.” Y/N replied. “And almost four complete years of medical school under my belt.”

“You didn’t graduate?” Stain asked.

“I couldn’t.” Y/N explained. “My parents died in a villain attack and i couldn’t afford medical school after paying for their funerals and everything else.”

“Im sorry for your loss.” Stain said gently

“It’s alright, im a big girl. I’ve got time, maybe one day I’ll be able to go back and finish my degree.” Y/N said trying to keep a peppy tone but her voice shook a little.

“I lost my parents to a villain as well.” Stain recalled.

“Heroes can’t be everywhere.” Y/N sighed.

“Yes but there are too many false heroes.” Stain said bitterly.

“False heroes?” Y/N said questioningly.

“People who are just in it for fame, glory, and money.” Stain explained coldly.

“Not everyone can be a pure-hearted Good Samaritan I’m afraid.” Y/N answered with a sigh. “Some people are just wired towards needing compensation for goodness. As for the money aspect… nothing in life is free and nothing meant to last is cheap.”

“You’re not being compensated for helping me.” Stain reminded her.

“Sure not in a monetary sense. But you’re a vigilante right? So by helping you I get compensation by you being able to fight another day and make the world just a bit better to live in.” Y/N reasoned. “You’d be surprised how a little act of kindness goes a long way. Once, i had a yakuza man in here letting me treat him. I idly complained about how none of the kids here could go out and play because a lot of drug deals were happening. Turned out he was pretty high up in the Shie Hassakai and by the next week all the kids were back out on the playground because they sent their men to clean the area up.”

“You treat yakuza?” Stain asked.

“I’ll treat anyone who needs my help.” Y/N replied. “I won’t turn an injured person away no matter who they are.”

“Even if you know they might do more evil than good after leaving your care?” Stain questioned

“It hurts when that happens, but yes.” Y/N sighed, packing her first aid kit back up. “Everyone needs medical care. I had this one kid stumble in here once, blue haired and nasty eczema. I’m 90% certain he was up to something awful once he left, but I couldn’t help but treat him. The poor kid was terrified of me, and even more scared of whoever he was supposed to go home to. That “Sensei” of his didn’t seem to be taking proper care of him, so someone had to.”

“I see.” Stain mused.

“I’m going to get you some pain pills and let you sleep for awhile.” Y/N decided. “We can talk more when you wake up.”

“Thank you, miss?” Stain asked.

“Y/N.” Y/N answered.

“Thank you, Miss Y/N.” Stain said.

Y/N went about her usual routine as quietly as she could, occasionally checking in on her sleeping patient. Stain was certainly an interesting character, but Y/N had also once treated Sir Nighteye… now that was an odd guy. But he had paid for several apartments to be repaired and refurbished after a villain attack smashed into two floors.

By the time Y/N was going to bed, her guest was still asleep. Considering how the guy acted, he would probably be gone the moment he woke up. Wouldn’t be the first time. First time patients always left as soon as they could, not trusting her yet.

***

Stain quietly retrieved his swords, taking care not to wake his host. He had never met a woman like her before, and he doubted he’d meet another like her in his lifetime. Hero society should operate more like the values she endorsed. A truly kind soul like hers was rare, and in danger. She would not last long against a malicious soul and a practice like hers was bound to attract one sooner or later.

Y/N needed someone who could protect her. A weapon to hold back the darker forces. Was this meant to be his calling? Protecting her and her clinic while he purged hero society? He was not sure yet, he needed to clear his head. Perhaps he would pay her another visit once he’d made some progress in his other goals.

***

“Don’t you pretty much live at U.A.?” Y/N asked as she patched Eraserhead up. “Couldn’t Recovery Girl patch you up?”

“It’s late and i don’t see the point in waking her up for something so minor. Besides, you were closer. It was the most logical option.” Eraserhead replied.

“Right, of course. You and your logic.” Y/N rolled her eyes. “Say, you know a lot about the local vigilantes, right? You ever hear of a guy called Stain?

Eraserhead grabbed her arm, giving her a deathly serious look. “Has he been here before?” He demanded.

“Just once, why?” Y/N asked, concerned. Normally she never would have told anyone that, but something about the look on Eraser’s face made her bend her usual policies.

“He’s not a vigilante, he’s a hero killer.” Eraserhead explained. “He’s already killed three pro heroes and there’s several more on his hit list. He’s insane. I know you don’t like to call the cops but if he shows up again then you need to call for help for your own safety.”

“Really? He seemed to be such a good soul to me.” Y/N said bemusedly.

“Someone as crazy as he is tends to be good at that.” Eraser sighed, finally letting go of her arm. “He has yet to attack a civilian and I don't want you to be the first.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll get in contact if I see him again.” Y/N agreed. “Is he really that bad?”

“Worse.” Eraserhead replied grimly. “He’s a growing menace.”

“If you say so.” Y/N said but her heart wasn’t in it. She finished up Eraserhead’s care and sent him out the door so she could have time to think to herself.

***

“You can’t be here.” Y/N said, hearing the sound of someone landing on the sill of her window behind her.

“Why?” Stain asked, tilting his head.

“Because if you’re here then i have to call the cops and report your location.” Y/N said, keeping her back to him. “Eraserhead was here the other night, he told me about you and what you did. I don’t want to do that, so if you leave now then i won’t say anything to anyone. And you can’t come back here.”

“You won’t do that.” Stain declared as he crawled in from the window. “I know you won’t, because you’re just too kind for your own good.”

“I have to!” Y/N declared, whipping around with a kitchen knife clutched in her hands. “Get out before I have to hurt you in self-defense,” She added shakily.

“I can tell just by how you hold that that you have no idea what you’re doing with a weapon.” Stain laughed. “Give me the knife before you hurt yourself.” He said, grabbing her wrist and applying pressure to make her fingers loosen. Y/N gasped in pain before giving him what he wanted.

“Your hands were never meant to hold a blade in violence. But that is okay.” Stain said, reaching up to pull his mask down and expose his face. “I will be your weapon.” He promised, pressing his forehead against hers. “If anyone, anyone at all tries to hurt you. Or tries to threaten you. Or stop you from doing good, I will gladly bring you their heads on a platter.”

“I don’t… I would never… want that.” Y/N said, her stomach clenching and her blood running cold in her veins.

“I know, because you possess a heroic heart. You are something worth protecting.” Stain assured her.

Y/N shook in the grasp of this living weapon as she processed what was going to happen to her…

THE END

Chapter Text

Sometimes (Y/n) hated being a hero. Well that wasn’t totally accurate, she enjoyed being able to make the world a better place by taking out bad guys and saving the common man. What she hated was that she had basically developed a sixth sense for minor crime. After a long patrol sometimes a girl just wanted to go home and sleep like the dead for the next twelve hours instead of being unable to ignore a cry for help one street over.

“Damn it.” She muttered under her breath as she turned around to double back and locate the source of the cry. “Guess my bed will have to wait for a while longer.” She grumbled, breaking into a light sprint as she ducked into another alley and found the cause of the commotion. A trio of thugs had surrounded a rail-thin man and were harassing him.

“Three against one?” (Y/n) scoffed. “Hardly a fair fight.”

“Buzz off lady!” One of the thugs growled, pointing a knife at her. “Or we’ll have to teach you some manners next!”

“Oh you poor things.” (Y/n) cooed. “I meant my fight against you wasn’t fair for you~” Grabbing the nearest thug’s arm she quickly snapped the bone making him drop the knife. Without a second thought she kicked the knife good and hard sending it flying out of reach for all three thugs. With the first thug still in her clutches she whipped around using his body as a blunt object to batter one of his compatriots.

“Dude what the fuck! She’s just some chick! Why are you letting her man handle you?!” The thug who hadn’t been knocked over by his friend said in dismay.

“I can’t move! My body is all numb!” The captive thug said in protest. (Y/n) swang around again before delivering a sharp kick in the stomach to the thug still stand. He crumpled like a leaf from the strike and stumbled back. This quickly became a repeating pattern; grabs, drags, swings, and kicks until the thugs were all sporting bloody noses and black eyes.

“This ain’t fucking worth it!” The head thug declared, making a break for it with his nose bleeding heavily and his cohorts close on his heels.

(Y/n) wanted to pursue them, but she had to stay put and make sure their victim was okay. She put out an order over the radio to make sure someone else was in hot pursuit.

“Are you alright sir?” She asked kindly to the man who’d been harassed.

“I didn’t need your help.” He huffed.

“It was a three to one fight.” (Y/n) replied.

“I had it handled.” He replied.

“Well it doesn’t hurt to get help. Ever since AFO was forced to retire and All Smite came back into the spotlight criminals have gone crazy.” (Y/n) huffed. “God knows AFO’s student isn’t filling his shoes anytime soon.”

“And you’re a one woman army?” The stranger replied.

“With a gun.” (Y/n) said, patting her chest. “I have a concealed carry permit.”

The stranger’s eyes darted towards her holster for a minute. “I see.” He nodded before devolving into a coughing fit. (Y/n) yelped as blood splattered from his mouth.

“I’ll send for an ambulance.” She assured him, reaching for her radio comm.

“No!” The man protested, grabbing her arm. “I don’t need a doctor. I have a private doctor that works fine for me. This is a chronic health condition I’ve been dealing with.”

“Are you sure?” (Y/n) asked.

“I’m fine.” He insisted.

“Fine but at least let me walk you home or something so you don’t get ganged up on again.” (Y/n) insisted. “My street credit would be ruined if I let a civvy alone in critical condition.”

“I’m not critical.” The man rolled his eyes.

“Humor me.” (Y/n) said, folding her arms. “Or I could just pick you up and carry you.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” The skeleton sneered. “I could break you like a twig.”

(Y/n) raised an eyebrow before activating her quirk, placing a hand on the skeleton’s arm and paralyzing him from head to toe before hoisting him onto one shoulder. “Look at me, daring.” She chuckled. “I may be getting on in years but I can still lift a skeleton like you.”

“You’ve made your point, put me down.” The skeleton man said his face filling with color.

“Only if you let me escort you to safety.” (Y/n) said decisively.

“Fine but let me walk at least” the skeleton said pleadingly.

“Sure Mister?” (Y/n) inquired.

“Yagi.” The man said shortly.

“Sure Mister Yagi.” (Y/n) acquiesced, setting him back down on his feet. “You sure you don’t need help?”

“Do you bother everyone as much as you bother me?” Yagi asked.

“Are you always this much of a little bitch?” (Y/n) replied. “If you’re really good to go, then I'm heading out.”

Yagi’s eyes widened, but before he could do anything (Y/n) was already taking off to the rooftops and towards home again.

***

(Y/n) watched in horror as the news report played out All Smite’s latest rampage. From what they were saying, he didn’t have a plan, just rage.

“Hey… wait a second,” (Y/n) said leaning closer to the TV. “That’s where I helped that skinny man the other day. Sure hope he didn’t get caught up in the rampage.”

The timely appearance of Nine and his team managed to drive All Smite away, but it just crushed (Y/n) more. While it was carefully hidden from the public, it was becoming well known in hero circles that Nine’s body was breaking down. If he kept being sent out like this the poor kid would be gone before the year was up.

“I think I need to really step up as an elder hero in this community.” She muttered to herself. “Can’t keep expecting the kids to fix our problems.”

The next night on patrol she went to check in on the area that had been ravaged by All Smite’s attack. It was just her luck to find Yagi among the mostly uncleared rumble.

“Oh my god! Did the rescue heroes just leave you here?!” (Y/n) said in dismay.

“They did not notice me, correct.” Yagi said gruffly. “I don’t take up much space looking like this so it’s easy to overlook me.”

“Well, i see you so i guess it’s up to me to make sure you get help.” (Y/n) said firmly, moving rumble so she could free Yagi.

“That Nine guy is quite the powerhouse, huh?” Yagi grunted.

“Yeah, stuff like him makes me wanna believe that quackpot doomsday theory.” (Y/n) agreed dismissively, not wanting to go into why Nine was so powerful. “Guess you had a front row seat, huh?”

“You just want to believe or you do believe?” Yagi asked with raised brows.

“Eh?” (Y/n) blinked.

“The doomsday theory.” Yagi clarified.

“Oh, uh. I don’t believe in it, I think it’s stupid, but man this generation has some insane quirks.” (Y/n) sighed. “Here, i think you should be unstuck by now.”

“Right,” Yagi said wiggling into a sitting position. “Thank you.”

“You still look pretty roughed up…” (Y/n) said with concern. “You should go to the hospital.”

“No.” Yagi said quickly. “I don’t have insurance.”

“Damn really?” (Y/n) said, frowning. “But you said you have a private nurse?”

“She’s technically just an old friend willing to pay me a favour.” Yagi explained. “Long story. Although she’s going to be pissed to see me again so soon…”

“Then that settles it.” (Y/n) decided.

“Settles what?”

She quickly paralyzed him and tossed him over her shoulder. “You can stay at my place for a few nights.”

“This is just some weird powerplay for you isn’t it?” Yagi grumbled with only a little indignation.

“Maybe just a little but mostly I don't want you getting more hurt.” (Y/n) said. “Gotta look out for the folks like you who get sidelined by the system. Saw enough of that in America.”

“Ah, you’re American. That explains the accent.” Yagi said with an intrigued hum.

“Yeah, I never did lose it despite living here so long.” She sighed, starting to head back to her place.

“What made you come over?” Yagi asked, tilting his head.

“I met a man by accident in my vigilante days. Turned out to be pretty powerful, and kind of a selfish ass to be honest. But… he had his charm. He was hiding out in America with this kid he just adopted and we all ended up being friends.” (Y/n) explained, adjusting her grip on him. “After he left to return to Japan I ended up following him. Like a lost puppy.”

“You left because you fell in love?” Yagi said, his eyes flashing darkly for a moment.

“Oh fuck no, ew. Blech.” (Y/n) gagged. “No, not with him. No, he just had a charisma that was hard to ignore.”

“Sounds familiar.” Yagi grunted.

“Oh? You got someone charismatic you look up to?” (Y/n) said with an intrigued hum.

“I did… but…” Yagi trailed off. “She died when i was young.”

“Sorry to hear that.” (Y/n) said sympathetically.

“It’s alright, I do what I can to keep her spirit alive in what I do.” Yagi said.

“So what do you do for work?” (Y/n) asked, as her home came into view.

“Demolition.” Yagi answered, laughter in his tone.

“Oh neat, you use a bulldozer or something?” (Y/n) questioned.

“Or something.” Yagi replied.

“That sounds like hard work.” (Y/n) stated, setting him down so she could unlock the door and lead him inside. “I’ll help you sit on the couch and then I'll give you first aid alright?”

“Alright.” Yagi agreed.

(Y/n) went to the bathroom and pulled the kit out from under the cabinet. Then she looked up in the mirror and stared at herself. All these years and what did she really have to show for it? God she was getting old and wrinkly. She needed to settle down soon if she didn't want to end up ancient and alone. Maybe it was time to leave things to the next generation… sure Tomura was a little crazy but his vanguard squad did good work. The Shie Hassakai’s new leader had managed to take down All Smite’s right hand man Sir Frighteye and had apparently made it his personal mission to clean the streets of Japan. There were even rumors of the MLA secretly being active and making their own moves in the shadows to tilt the scales back in justice’s favor.

“Your face is still attached,” Yagi said, making (Y/n) jump.

“Whoa, what are you doing?” (Y/n) demanded, whirling on him.

“You were taking awhile, i got worried.” Yagi replied with a shrug.

“You are injured and need to rest.” (Y/n) scolded, herding him back to the couch and popping open the first aid kit to get to work. “Do you want me to order takeout?”

“Uh… can’t do that.” Yagi

“Allergies?” (Y/n) asked.

“I was in an accident a few years ago and i don’t technically have a stomach anymore.” Yagi winced.

“Shit, then how do you…” (Y/n) trailed off.

“Energy drinks, and liquid supplements.” Yagi replied.

“I’ll get some of those delivered then.” (Y/n) promised him.

***

These days nothing refreshed (Y/n) more than being able to come home to a new friend. She’d been nursing Yagi for about a week now and his presence made her home much more inviting to return to. She was getting close to just asking him to move in like she was some lovestruck teenager.

“Ah finally,” All Smite said manspread over (Y/n)’s couch. “I was almost worried you wouldn't be coming home after your encounter with Nomu. But I see now that I shouldn't have worried. You always rise to the occasion dear”

“Where’s Yagi!? Did you-” (Y/n) asked before her eyes bulged out her skull seeing All Smite point at himself. “YOU ATE HIM?!”

“What?” All Smite did a double take. “Are you serious?!” He asked, starting to cough up blood.

“Well then where is he?!” (Y/n) demanded.

“Here, i am Yagi.” All Smite explained.

“What?!” (Y/n) shrieked.

“Calm down.” All Smite said flatly. “Now here’s how things are going to go. You are going to quiet down and we are going back to my headquarters.”

“What?!!! No!” (Y/n) said indignantly.

“My bad, I phrased that as a request. It was a fact.” All Smite said standing. He towered over (Y/n), and whatever injuries Zen had given him five years ago didn’t seem to be affecting him. (Y/n) activated her quirk and grabbed his arm to disable him but to her horror he was able to easily lift her off the ground by raising his arm. “How’s that for a power play?” He sneered.

THE END…

Chapter Text

“I have a last minute request.” Her boss said apologetically as he entered her studio.

“How last minute?” (Y/n) asked suspiciously as she continued to sew sequins to a bodice.

“A hero last minute request.” Her boss said tentatively

“No.” (Y/n) said instantly

“You didn’t even hear me out.” Her boss protested.

“A hero’s failure to plan ahead should not constitute an emergency to me.” (Y/n) said firmly. “That’s how the other seamstresses in the department end up drowning under their workloads. I work my hours and when it’s time to clock out I do.”

“But this is a real emergency!" Her boss insisted.

“What, did Uwabami rip her dress again because she didn’t listen to her tailor about the fact her bodice is too small for her bust?” (Y/n) said flatly. “Or does Midnight need a brand new set of tights, again?”

“No, it's for Best Jeanist.” Her boss explained.

“Is this about the BJ belt buckle? Did he finally realize how weird it looks?” (Y/n)

“What’s weird about it?”

“I’m not having that conversation with you.” (Y/n) said with a raised brow.

“(Y/n) would you let me finish speaking please?!” Her boss said desperately.

“Sorry sorry, I'm listening.” (Y/n) apologized. “What does Best Jeanist need?”

“He didn’t disclose that, just wanted our best seamstress sent over immediately.” Her boss explained.

“Sounds a little suspicious but also I’m happy that you consider me the best seamstress,” (Y/n) said with a smile.

“That and you are the only one we can get on short notice.” her boss added.

“Okay that’s less joy bringing.” (Y/n) said rolling her eyes. “So where do I go?”

“I’ll text over the address.” Her boss said tapping at their phone. A ping noise rang through the air indicating that the message had been sent. (Y/n) checked her phone and grabbed her work bag before heading out.

Despite the occasional hero work, (Y/n) had never actually gotten to go to one of their agencies before. So it was a nice change of pace to be welcomed inside the Genius Office. She walked up to the reception desk and politely cleared her throat.

“Hi, my name is (Y/n).” She introduced. “I was called down for a last fashion consultation?”

“Oh yes!” The receptionist nodded. “One moment, I’ll send a message to the top floor, one of his sidekicks will be down momentarily to escort you.”

When (Y/n) finally made it up to the top floor, she was surprised to see the world’s angriest teenager on a shouting rant while Best Jeanist looked like he was trying his best to keep himself together.

“Did I come at a bad time?” (Y/n) asked.

“No.” Best Jeanist replied.

“Fuck off!” The blonde sneered.

“Oh you’re the winner of the sports festival!” (Y/n) realized. “Katsuki Bakugo, right?”

“That doesn’t count as a win.” Bakugo scowled. “Half and Half refused to actually fight me fair.”

“Yeah but you gave it your all during the fight yes?” (Y/n) asked.

“Of course I did!” Bakugou said, folding his arms.

“Well then you should take pride in that.” (Y/n) said calmly.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about lady.” Bakugou said dismissively.

“Be polite.” Best Jeanist sighed. “I’ve asked her here as a professional favor.”

“Right, what did you need from me?” (Y/n) asked.

Jeanist gestured to the few assembled sidekicks in the room. “As you can see, it’s a bit of a policy around here to wear denim. This makes it easier for me to grab my sidekicks and pull them out of danger if necessary as denim is the fiber my quirk works best with. The problem is that Bakugo doesn’t want to wear them. I’m wondering if it comes to comfort level and maybe they need to be adjusted somehow.”

(Y/n) nodded along at his explanation, a few things now making more sense to her. “Alright kid, answer me this. Do you think you know better than one of the top five heroes?” (Y/n) asked Bakugou.

“What?” The teen asked, blinking widely.

“I said, do you think you know better than one of the top five heroes?” (Y/n) repeated herself.

“…no…” Bakugou said, averting his eyes.

“You have talent kid, that can’t be denied. However you aren’t here to become more talented, you’re here to get experience. Experience in stuff they can’t teach you in school.” (Y/n) stated. “When a pro takes you on as an intern they are also taking on a certain amount of accountability for your safety since you are a minor. Now you’ve already had a pretty close encounter with villains while being a student and that’s not the norm. However, stuff can still go wrong and I’m sure you do not want to be the cause of the pro hero in charge of you being thrown into an unnecessary dangerous situation right?”

“…yeah…” Bakugou begrudgingly agreed.

“So in order for Best Jeanist to be able to give you the most useful and hands-on training experience, he needs to know that if things do get out of hand that he can easily pull you out to safety before putting all his focus into solving the problem.” (Y/n) nodded. “So then, what’s wrong with the jeans?”

Bakugo sighed, slouching a little as the anger seemed to drain. “They’re too tight around the ankles and too loose around my waist. It’s throwing off my balance since I can’t wear my knee guards so I can’t move the way I’m used to. Also, my costume is designed with sweat wicking material around my joints to account for the fact I sweat fucking nitroglycerin.”

Based on the way Jeanist’s eyes widened, he had forgotten to take that little detail into account.

“Is there a way we could compromise with the leg harnesses and belt you wear being made of denim?” (Y/n) asked. Who would’ve thought a few years of work as a nurse would make her such an expert at defusing these kinds of situations? She thought that skill would’ve rusted away by now.

“… yeah I could work with that for the week.” Bakugo confirmed.

“Perfect, hand me those jeans, I can get them changed into something more suitable for you.” (Y/n) clapped her hands, taking the pants and activating her quirk to cut them with her index and pointer finger, pulling thread from her ring finger and threading a needle made from her pinkie nail to quickly alter the article of clothing.

“Neat, now I feel like I can go outside with this crap.” Bakugo praised as he took in the new belt. Best Jeanist rolled his eyes but did not say anything.

“Was there anything else you needed my expertise in or is that all?” (Y/n) said politely.

“That should be fine, thank you for your help.” Best Jeanist replied. “I’ll walk you out.”

“Why thank you.” (Y/n) replied with a nod.

The ride back down in the elevator was calm. “So… nitroglycerin.” (Y/n) whistled.

Best Jeanist groaned. “I cannot believe I forgot to take that into account.”

“Well it isn’t entirely on you. The kid was also not communicating his boundaries with any clarity. He wasn’t telling why the denim wasn’t working for him as it was and instead just kept doubling down with no.” (Y/n) said sympathetically. “I saw patients like that a lot at my last line of work.”

“Oh?” Best Jeanist turned to her.

“I was a nurse for a few years but I got burned out and quit. Went into fashion and haven’t looked back.” She explained. “I do miss parts of being in the medical field but I volunteer at local clinics whenever I get the inch to get back into the thick of it. However most of the people I get there almost entirely seem to be people who ran afoul of the law.”

“Oh I see.” Best Jeanist nodded. “How’s that usually go?”

“Surprisingly well.” She shrugged. “Most of them just want help and the assholes usually get blacklisted so the rest know they can either behave or turn themselves in.”

“That makes sense.” He nodded. “I never really considered the smaller community clinics before.”

“Understandable, a big name hero like you is always taken to a big name hospital.” (Y/n) pointed out. The elevator chimed and the doors crawled open. “Be seeing you.” She said, heading out back to her real job.

***

A week later and Tsunagu was finally able to return to sleeping at his regular penthouse. He always made a point to sleep at his agency during internship weeks since that was where his interns were. But he missed his favorite coffee maker, missed his bed, and missed his husband.

“Well hello stranger.” Shinya said, throwing him a look over his shoulder. “Haven’t seen you around these parts before.”

“Overseeing my intern unfortunately had to come before seeing my lovely husband.” Tsunagu said, coming up behind Shinya to kiss his neck.

“Oh how’d that go?” Shinya asked, leaning his head back to nuzzle his husband.

“God next time you take the winner of the sports festival.” Tsunagu sighed deeply.

“That bad?” Shinya inquired with a quirked eyebrow.

“Frustrating, but not bad.” Tsunagu admitted. “Partly I’ll admit that I went into this expecting a boy on the path to villainy. But Bakugo is more stubborn than he is malicious. When I provided him with an explanation on why I was making him do something, he would usually do it even if he grumbled about it.”

“You know, I wondered if something was up with the sports festival.” Shinya agreed. “We went to school with Kayama and she never really did know how to interact with the younger boys. I wonder if she just gave up on talking to him and gassed him before tying him up.”

“Soemthing definitely happened behind the scenes because Bakugo refused to discuss the final match or anything that happened after.” Tsunagu agreed.

“So anything of note happened during the week beyond discovering that you had a normal teenager on your hands and not a future villain?” Shinya questioned.

“I met an interesting woman.” Tsunagu recalled. “A nurse who went into fashion.” He went on to describe the encounter.

“Well, well she certainly sounds like someone to keep an eye on.” Shinya said after Tsunagu had finished speaking. “Here, I’ve already made you a cup.”

“What would I do without you?” Tsunagu said fondly

“Probably destroy the coffee maker like you did the last one.” Shinya teased

“You will never let that go will you?” Tsunagu sighed.

“I will get it carved into my tombstone.” His husband lovingly assured him.

***

“Great, just what I need.” (Y/n) sighed. “A villain attack on my way to work.”

The entire street had erupted into chaos as the villain darted from place to place and effortlessly added cash registers to his growing stash. The driver of the getaway vehicle was tearing up the street with no concern for casualties. As for (Y/n)? She was making mental notes for all the people she saw injured, when the dust cleared and the heroes had done their jobs the EMTs would appreciate the heads-up on their work load.

“Come on, where are the heroes when you need them?” (Y/n) cried out.

A streak of red sailed across the sky, darting through the robber’s shoulder and into the death machine on four wheels. After a few moments, the car came to a stop and the driver was tossed out, Edgeshot exiting the vehicle and darting back to the robber to make sure he was down for good. (Y/n) watched the whole scene go down as if it was all happening in slow motion. Even as police began to arrive on the scene she stood stock still, trying to engrave the scene into her mind.

“Are you alright M’am?” Edgeshot had approached her, looking concerned. “I noticed you haven’t moved from this spot in the last twenty minutes.”

“Oh! Sorry I was trying to etch into my mind how you moved in and out of that car. It gave me an idea for my next project. I’m in the fashion field” (Y/n) said, blushing lightly.

“Ah, I understand exactly what you mean.” Edgeshot nodded.

“You do? I never really placed you as someone interested in the fashion field.” (Y/n) said eagerly.

“My partner is the one who is invested deeply into that sector.” Edgeshot offered. “But there’s only so much one can hear about color theory, shape language, and material quality before it starts to stick in a person’s mind and they can have strong opinions on it.”

“Oh, well I wouldn't want to bore you or prevent you from continuing your patrol or…” (Y/n) began to babble.

“It’s alright, I am in no rush. Tell me about your idea that I inspired.” Edgeshot said kindly.

“Well, not to brag but I have been doing some free-lance work for Best Jeanist. He asked me to create some prototypes to mix his signature denim with something more feudal japan. I was going to go with this terrible, terrible jimono idea.” (Y/n) explained.

“Jimono?” Edgeshot said bemusedly.

“Jean kimono, as I said. It was a terrible, terrible idea.” (Y/n) said with a dismissive hand gesture.

“Actually that might still be something he would enjoy,” Edgeshot pointed out.

“Maybe but he said it was for a special event with a special person to him.” (Y/n) replied.

“Oh! Well… I’m sure this special person to him will be happy with whatever he wears.” Edgeshot said, his ears turning suspiciously red.

“Well, yeah probably. But he asked me and I'm gonna give it my all!” (Y/n) protested. Just then her phone went off with her boss’s number on the screen. Quickly she answered it and did her best to call him down. Once she had achieved that she hung up the phone and looked back to Edgeshot. “Guess our time is up, I gotta get to work before my boss has an aneurysm.”

“Don’t let me keep you then Miss...” Edgeshot trailed off

“(Y/n).” (Y/n) said, turning her back and starting to walk away. In doing so she missed the stunned expression that appeared on the hero’s face.

***

(Y/n) didn’t expect to see him of all patients on her operating table. It was odd getting to finally seeing his face for the first time. Even though she was mostly retired from doing medical work, she still did the very rare hero surgery. As a child she’d awakened her quirk and developed the ability to make the things she sewed into shape function like what they looked like.

“Normally I use whatever fabric I have on hand but I feel it’s only fair if I use denim in this repair.” (Y/n) said mostly to herself before realizing she wasn’t alone.

Edgeshot, also maskless for the first time (Y/n) had ever seen him, looked up at her with sheer desperation. “Whatever you have to do to save my husband, do it. I don’t care if you have to use polyester.” Then he sighed and put his head in his hands. “If he makes it, don’t tell him that I said that.”

“My lips are sealed sir.” (Y/n) said, miming sewing her lips shut. “Now you need to let the nurses look you over while we operate.”

“I’m fine, i’m more worried about him. I can’t relax knowing he basically has a hole in his chest.” Edgeshot insisted.

“Well, right now worrying about him and neglecting your own health won't help either of you.” (Y/n) gently scolded. “And if your positions were swapped I would scold him just as much for not letting himself be checked over while I operate on you.”

“...How does it… work exactly?” Edgeshot said hesitantly.

“I’ll take out his damaged lung, make a pattern in the denim, cut it out and then stuff it. Then i’ll insert the denim lung into his body and close him up. That’s all it takes. I haven’t exactly advertised what I do because… well it’s not the kind of power that should get in the wrong hands.” As she spoke she began cutting into Jeanist’s chest, his body splitting open like a seam being ripped open by a seam ripper. “You might want to look away,” she advised.

“Fear of being grabbed by villains is a concern I hear for those in the medical field with healing quirks.” Edgeshot said but didn’t look away.

This was breaking dozens of medical codes and safety standards, but (Y/n) was desperate. She was currently acting as a field medic in the worn torn battlefield of Kamino Ward with Edgeshot as the closest thing she had to an nurse. Severing the damaged lung she took the provided denim and began cutting out a replacement lung. With the pattern cut out she soon was stitching it into shape and stuffing it with scraps. Once it was properly shaped and stuffed she placed it into Jeanist’s chest and sewed his skin shut. After a few moments the stitches began to fade and the color in Jeanist’s skin returned.

“Tsunagu, don’t die on me.” Edgeshot pleaded desperately. “All Might has just been forced into retirement, the rankings are going to change. What if Enji or god forbid Hawks becomes the new number one?! You can’t leave me to deal with that on my own! I will lose my mind!” He begged inadvertently, leaning on his husband’s chest.

Best Jeanist’s breathing came easier and he coughed lightly as he came to. “Dear, you are crushing me.”

“Sorry, sorry.” Edgeshot sat up.

While she let the couple have their moment, (Y/n) made sure to wave over a team of medics. Now that she had guaranteed the life of the number four hero, it was time for the couple to head to a hospital for further treatment. And it was time for her to find other people in need of help.

As she walked out of earshot, a whispered conversation began between the two men.

“It might just be my injuries making me delirious but I have been having some interesting thoughts,” Tsunagu said, his mouth bordering on being squished into Shinya’s ear.

“What kind of thoughts?” Shinya replied, nuzzling his husband.

“I have found myself becoming rather fond of (Y/n).” Tsunagu confessed. “I am almost as fond of her as I am of you dearest.”

“Mmph… is that so?” Shinya said thoughtfully. “Well i’d be lying if i were to say similar thoughts hadn’t started crowding my mind.”

“I find myself calling on her aid for fashion emergencies i could easily solve just so i can get her opinion.” Tsunagu said, looking off to the side.

“I find myself trailing her during her morning and evening commutes so that I can make sure no-one bothers her.” Shinya replied.

“So… Are we of one mind as to what to do?” Tsunagu questioned.

“That we should snatch her up, and hide her away even though that would be unheroic of us?” Shinya questioned back.

“That was what I was implying, yes.” Tsunagu said, relieved.

“Then we’ll do that, but first you need to focus on healing. We won't be able to properly protect her if you aren’t in good condition.” Shinya stated firmly.

“An unpleasant but true point.” Tsunagu acquiesced. “Did you… did you say something about All Might retiring?”

***

(Y/n) sighed as she shook her hair loose. Now that she was done with work she could finally relax. Nothing like starting your weekend with a glass of wine and a good romcom. The last few weeks had been quite hectic. While her main gig of designing was going through a dry spell, she had found plenty to do by volunteering over at the hospital. People were still recovering from the Kamino Ward Incident and trying to figure out how to deal with the new status quo.

The hero rankings had been put off due to everything that happened, but it was pretty expected that most of them would just move up a rank. Which meant Endeavor was the new number one to very mixed reactions. Personally (Y/n) felt it would be better to just let Jeanist shoot up instead of the hero with resting bitch face and a bad attitude.

But that was none of her business. All she wanted was to sit back and spend her evening mocking hallmark movies. Actually, personally, she thought it would be very romantic for both Jeanist and Edgeshot to shoot up to the top to be number one and two. Sure that was very unlikely but she could dream for the couple.

And what a shock learning they were married. But it did make sense when she thought about it. The two had let a few comments slip about having a partner before. (Y/n) perfectly understood why the two were so private about their relationship as well. Heroes who had partners, whether fellow hero or a civilian often found themselves under more intense inspection by the public. She was sure this was probably the leading factor why someone like All Might decided to not even dip a toe into the dating pool.

The horror stories of what happened between hero/civilian couples weren’t numerous but what stories there were, were very discouraging. A hero’s popularity could literally hinge on them remaining seemingly available to the common folk. That might be why most long-lasting hero/hero couples seemed to form while the heroes were in high school or college. For example, she had a very strong suspicion about the Erasure Hero: Eraserhead and the Voice Hero: Present Mic. There was definitely something not entirely platonic about those two heroes. And why someone young and handsome like Hawks was definitely marketed more towards young women and teen girls.

(Y/n) brought her wine bottle with her out into the living when all her clothing felt ridiculously tight, binding her in one place. Shit! Was this a kidnapping?! Was she getting fuckin kidnap before she could have her wine?! This wasn’t fair, she earned her wine fair and square! Somehow she managed to wiggle her pointer and middle finger enough to try and stab through the fabric of her clothes so she could cut herself free.

“It’s cute you think that will work.” A voice cooed. (Y/n)’s head snapped in the direction of the voice and squinted in disbelief. Why was Best Jeanist opening her wine and pouring himself a glass?! “Oh, this is a great year.”

“Why are you stealing my wine? Surely being a hero would cover getting tipsy with the good stuff?” (Y/n) said indignantly, more upset about the wine pilfering than the tying up at the moment.

“I’m about to steal more than your wine.” Best Jeanist said smoothly.

“Mister Jeanist you’re better than th-” (Y/n) began

“Tsunagu.” Best Jeanist said, interrupting her words.

“Huh?” (Y/n) replied in confusion.

“We are in a private setting are we not? Use my first name.” Best Jeanist explained as he sipped on the wine. “I think we’ve gotten close enough for that, don’t you?”

“I mean she’s technically fisted you.” Edgeshot mused as he appeared.

“We’re getting a divorce.” Best Jeanist immediately responded.

“You put your fist inside a man one time and then you are called a fister for life.” (Y/n) muttered before her brain glitched a bit. “Wait a minute Mister Edgeshot? You’re here too?”

“Indeed I am.” Edgeshot affirmed, sinking down onto the couch next to Best Jeanist.

“So why am i tied up, did a villain or something have dirt on you two and for some reason you have to kidnap me?” (Y/n) asked, fighting the urge to roll her eyes.

“No, we came to a decision. Your awakened quirk would be far too tempting for a villain to ignore. So we’re taking you and putting under house arrest.” Edgeshot replied.

“What?!” (Y/n) gasped out

“We’re putting you under house arrest.” Edgeshot repeated himself.

“You can’t do that!” (Y/n) said in denial.

“Yes we can, the law allows us to take into custody anyone with a suspicious quirk.” Best Jeanist said dryly. “Or allows us to put protective custody on even an unwilling citizen if we suspect they may be in danger. And it's only a matter of time before rumors of your quirk and how you saved me reach the wrong ears.”

“So you’re blaming me for saving you?!” (Y/n) said in disbelief.

“Oh no, on the contrary. I’m showing my eternal gratitude." Best Jeanist said, crooking his fingers so the threads pulled (Y/n) closer and closer until she was within arm’s reach.

“We’re just repaying the debt we owe you.” Edgeshot added.

(Y/n) tried to flail and get away but she was tied up too tightly to even twitch a finger….

THE END

Chapter Text

“Hey Shuichi, you’re like an excellent gamer right?” (Y/n) asked, plopping down beside her friend.

“I’m not as good as Tomura but yeah.” Shuichi replied, shuffling so (Y/n) could lean on him.

“Well nobody as good as our hero xXxKingxXxKnuckdusterxXx at video games.” (Y/n) said with a chuckle.

“How has he not gotten caught for using part of his hero name as his gamer tag?” Shuichi wondered.

“Because there’s a million people who make their gamer tags hero related?” (Y/n) pointed out. “Isn’t your tag like StainedxXxSpinningxXxSamurai or something?”

“True, but like that's not a one to one of my hero name.” Shuichi said, pouting a little.

“You go by Spinner.” (Y/n) scoffed playfully.

“What was your question?” Shuichi tried to change the subject.

“Oh yeah! Well I have decided I wanna become a game streamer!” (Y/n) said brightly.

“Like a Vtuber or…?” Shuichi blinked. “Are you sure you want to put your face out there like that?”

Shuichi and (Y/n) had been friends for a few years now and Shuichi was pretty comfortable in saying that (Y/n) wasn’t always the brightest bulb. She tended to do what she wanted without thinking of long term consequences. Personally he blamed her ridiculously overprotective parents and how much they sheltered her growing up.

“What’s wrong with my face Shuichi?” (Y/n) asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Nothing, your face is fantastic!” He said. “I just mean that people are weird. Like your super cute and people are weird.” He would know, he had been one of those weirdos once upon a time. It was a miracle that she had become his friend instead of thinking he was a freak and calling the cops on him or something.

“Then you should be my chat mod!” (Y/n) said with a grin. “You can help keep the freaks at bay.”

Shuichi looked up at the ceiling and thought it over. Yeah, he could do that maybe. Keep away the weird freaks online. But would he have the time to do that with his hero career as one of Tomura’s sidekicks?

“Pretty please? I really wanna do this.” (Y/n) said giving him big puppy eyes. “I can compromise and only stream when you aren’t doing hero stuff?”

“Do you have the stuff you’d need to set this all up?” Shuichi asked. “I think the most i’ve ever seen you play is like… Animal Crossing. Or Nintendogs.”

“I bought supplies, its up in my room still in the packaging.” (Y/n) replied.

“What would you have done if i told you no?” Shuichi said with an amused snort.

“I would have asked Tomura. But you’re my number one gamer so I hoped you would say yes.” (Y/n) said as if that was obvious which made Shuichi blush bright red.

God he was fucking weak to her. “Okay, fine. Let’s go set it up.” He sighed, pausing his game.

“Yay thank you.” (Y/n) said with clear delight as she kissed his cheek and raced upstairs.

Shuichi put his head in his hands. Why was his dating life so complicated?! He fell in love with Tomura, was too cowardly to act on it and lost his chance. Now he’s in love with (Y/n), and he’s too cowardly to act on it and is probably about to lose his chance. At this rate he’d be stuck in her friend zone forever! And she’d meet someone new after getting famous online and fall in love and be gone forever!

“Shuichi are you coming?” (Y/n) called down the stairs.

“Yeah.” Shuichi called back, moving towards her. Maybe he still had a chance, and he shouldn't waste it on being anxious. But what if he told her he loved her and she thought he was only helping her in exchange for love or worse?! What if she thought he was a pervert?! Oh god! He was going to go crazy at this rate! “Whoa wait what the fuck are you doing?!” He spluttered.

“Setting the playstation up?” (Y/n) blinked, her body half-jammed under a table.

“Right of course.” Shuichi nodded. “I know you’re a computer genius, but do you know how to hook up a playstation to everything?”

“It can’t be that hard” (Y/n) said with a small frown.

“Not usually but there’s extra steps to make everything compatible for streaming.” Shuichi explained.

“Ohhhhh! You’re so smart Shuichi! You really are my hero~”

Shuichi grunted in response, a bit too in the zone with his work to really focus on how flustered he was anymore. “You know, I could call up Tomura to help and we could make a bit of a party over this. Toga would love to help you set up your profile.”

“NO!” (Y/n) shouted, startling Shuichi so much he bonked his head against the desk. “I mean, no thank you. I want this to be a surprise. You’re the only one i trust not to ruin the surprise prematurely.”

“Okay?” Shuichi replied, rubbing his head.

“I’ll get ice for your head!” (Y/n) suddenly volunteered before dashing downstairs to do just that.

While Shuichi was downloading and setting up the programs (Y/n) would need, a thought occurred to him. (Y/n) was the definition of book smart, street dumb. Maybe it would be best for him to upload something that would let him monitor her? Just to keep her safe online. Before he knew it, he was installing three different programs onto her computer and his phone.

“I’m back with your head ice!” (Y/n) said returning after a few minutes.

“Hey thanks, I think everything is just about set up. You just have to make your profile.” Shuichi replied, exiting out of everything before she could spot it. He knew she was a computer genius, but also knew she had way too much faith in people to not check what they did on her devices.

“Really? Yay thanks so much!” (Y/n) said with loud delight as she applied the ice pack to his head for him.

“So when will you start?” Shuichi asked. “And what games do you want? I don’t know how much of an audience Nintendogs will get you.”

“I got your favorite game, teach me how to play good.”

“You bought League of Legends?! Oh we are so inviting Tomura to play, he’s going to be so pissed if we don’t.” Shuichi was so excited at the idea of having a player three in his gaming sessions.

“No! Teach me to play good first so he wont call me a scrubby newbie fish.” (Y/n) begged.

“He’ll do that anyway.” Shuichi pointed out. For a famous hero, he really was a dick online.One day his pr manager was going to get off his ass and get Tomura in trouble, but for now Tomura was still telling people online that he had fucked their mothers. “But he probably wouldn’t tell you to kill yourself for being a noob at least.”

“Yes he would, he has no mercy.”

“Okay fair enough.” Shuichi agreed. “Do you want to start up the stream then?”

“Yeah, okay!” (Y/n) agreed.

***

Shuichi monitored the chat closely as (Y/n) played. Any negative comment was immediately deleted and the user blocked, their names being written down for later. He was picking up a bit of a nasty new habit. See he wrote down the names so that he could track down the trolls and giving them a piece of his mind. And by that he meant giving them a thorough encounter of his fists pummelling them. It was the least they deserved, harassing (Y/n) when all she wanted was to have a good time.

Was this the most risky thing he had ever done? Yes. would it cost him everything if he was caught? Yes. Was it worth it? Oh yes. For (Y/n) he would gladly become a monster so many accused him of being just for his quirk.

His quirk, yes that blessing and that curse of his that made him a lizard-morph. His skin was covered with green scales and his facial features were gecko-like. Here in the city people didn’t really pay him much mind, their version of normal already colored vibrantly by heroes of all shapes and sizes. However back in the village he was born in, it was a whole story. He spent his days hiding from the outside and avoiding windows out of fear of his neighbors seeing him. Just going down the street once warranted him being sprayed in the face by pesticide. It was enough to drive anyone into giving up on humanity.

For years, Shuichi didn’t even leave his room. He just sat in front of his tv and lived off instant noodles. And then one day, a news report came on screen. The Villain Killer, a notorious vigilante who argued the only way to stop a villain was to put them down for good. His arrest had made international news and his final message was playing on everyone’s screens for weeks. A fire had been lit in Shuichi, eventually leading him to Tomura Shigiraki and the Vanguard Squad. They had taken Shuichi into their group full-heartedly and for the first time in his life he had felt like he belonged.

And that had led him to (Y/n). Sweet lovely (Y/n) who’d dropped by Tomura’s agency and made his brain go all soupy trying to talk since she was a pretty girl. He had made such an idiot out of himself that Dabi had immediately called him out on acting like a serial killer around her. Which only made Shuichi more nervous and led to him getting out of there as fast as he could. Only to find himself being chased down by the pretty girl trying to make sure he was okay. Next thing he knew he was exchanging numbers with the pretty girl and she was inviting him over to her place so often he had a toothbrush and spare clothes there.

It was just proof of how trusting and naive she was and why he had to protect her. What if he was some psycho killer?! She just let him move in! She needed a personal hero to make sure that her smile never was stolen away. And he was just the guy for the job.

***

“Wowie we’ve got lots of questions in chat today.” (Y/n) said cheerfully as she checked the chat as she waited for her next match in league to start. As usual Shuichi was watching her chat like a hawk to prevent strange and rude messages from being seen by her. However sometimes things did slip through his watch.

“Do i have a boyfriend?” (Y/n) read out. “Wow, that's a pretty private question chat, I'm not sure you’re ready for the answer.” She teased Shuichi was about to start his usual routine of deleting and blocking, but a part of him was curious over the answer. “To all my lovergirls and loverboys in chat, I hate to disappoint you but I do in fact have a boyfriend. He’s actually my moderator for streams.”

Shuichi blinked, switching over to his spy programs. There was no sign of anyone else involved with (Y/n)’s streams. Who was she talking about? He monitored everything she did online far too closely for her to have snuck anyone past him. He got up and walked closer to her. “Momi. Momi, who’s your other moderator?” He asked. She just smiled at him before reaching up and pulling him down and kissing him square on the lips.

“Here he is everyone! My boyfriend and the bestest moderator in the world! He’s the reason why I picked Neeko as my main cause she made me think of him.”

Shuichi’s brain did a hard reboot as he recontextualized two years worth of interactions. Oh my god, had he really been so in his head that he hadn’t even noticed that (Y/n) had been flirting and even thought they were a couple?! His friends were never going to let him live this down. They were actively not letting him live it down in the chat as they spammed it in all caps and emojis.

Honestly his heart felt quite light now. What he was doing was justifiable now. It was only right for him as (Y/n)’s boyfriend to defend her in real life by maiming her bullies and trolls. Although maybe he could delete some of the spyware and ease up on watching her online…

THE END

Chapter Text

“Okay Y/N you can do this, you passed all the pre-checks and interviews. Now you just have to impress the heroes you’ll be working under.” Y/N said to herself even as her caninesque ears lay flat to her skull and her tail hung limp against her backside. “No big deal, it’s just the first time you’re interacting with pro heroes since you retired. You just happened to have attended U.A. with them in their class. They probably don’t even remember you so it’s time to put forth a good first professional impression.”

It had been four years since Y/N stepped down from being a pro hero, and three years since she had found a new job at the Help Us Company. Her quirk of Canine Compatible gave her the ability to take on different traits of various dog breeds. Whether it be taking on the bite force of a German Shepard’s teeth, gaining the swimming ability of a Newfoundland’s webbed toes, or the superior sense of smell of a Bloodhound’s nose she was hard to stump. Until the incident that is.

Y/N growled at herself. “That’s enough dwelling on the past! Now it’s time to focus on the future!” Her ears perked up as the conference door slid open.

“Your feline fantasies are here~ Say meow~”

“Allow us to lend a helping paw!”

“We’re champions serving up justice with our tails!”

“Purrfectly cute and catlike heroes~”

“We’re the Wild Wild Pussycats!”

“Hi?” Y/N said awkwardly after staring at the quartet of heroes for a long moment. “Nice intro?” She added sincerely.

Mandalay laughed as she stood up and brushed off her skirt. “It’s good to see you again, La Lupa.”

“Oh, i uh… no, you can just call me Canis, or my first name Y/N.” She quickly but politely corrected. “Not really a hero anymore.”

“Right, sorry.” Mandalay nodded.

“Oh you left being a hero? I was wondering why we hadn’t heard your name in the news lately.” Pixie-bob commented.

“Yeah i’ve been out for about four years now, last time i saw you four in person Tiger was still Toyger. How’s life treating you?” Y/N asked, looking over at Tiger.

“Fantastic!” Tiger flexed. “I just wish we had gotten to meet up more after graduating.”

“Yeah things got very busy fast. Y’all did it right by setting out from the start as a team, means you never got time to feel lonely.” Y/N said with a mix of wistfulness and envy.

“Also our work keeps us really busy since we’re popular with other pro-heroes who want to give their sidekicks a crash course in rescue work or at least a refresher in it.” Ragdoll put in. “And we may be out in the forests most of the time but you would be amazed how much trouble happens out there.”

“Mostly drug deals.” Pixie-bob explained. “Once we had poachers.”

“Yuck that must have sucked big time. Aren’t these woods technically your private property?” Y/N asked, tilting her head.

“Yeah but we’re pretty lenient about people visiting during the times we don’t have people actively training at our base. It’s a nice stretch of land, it’d leave a bad taste in my mouth to hog it all.” Mandalay said thoughtfully. “We get a lot of families out camping, they say it gives them peace of mind knowing that anything goes wrong that we’ll be around to help.”

“And lost kittens are never lost for long between me and Mandalay!” Ragdoll grinned.

“You two always ganged up against me during search and rescue practice at school.” Y/N said with an exaggerated pout.

“We had to beat your nose somehow!” Mandalay teased. “So, now that we’ve caught up, let’s get down to business, yeah?”

“Yeah, of course!” Y/N said sheepishly, rummaging through her bag and pulling out a file folder. “You sent a request to the HUC asking if they could match you with a volunteer who could be on standby for exercises.” She said, offering the file to Manadaly. “I’ve got my references from my previous jobs in here, and a detailed breakdown of my quirk in case you forgot how it works after all this time.”

“Are you the only person the HUC sent?” Tiger asked bemusedly.

“I’m the only one who was up for the task of potentially spending a lot of nights out in the woods. The great outdoors isn’t for everyone after all,” Y/N replied. “While the HUC does pay its employees, the vast majority are volunteers helping in their free time. They wouldn’t be able to participate for as long as you need.”

“Honestly we’re relieved they had someone suitable at all.” Pixie-bob said, leaning in close to Mandalay to look at the files with her. “We were worried that we’d have to get rid of that part of the training schedule since there’d be no point without someone to be rescued. The four of us are each monitoring a team, and considering HUC does this professionally we assumed they’d be better actors and maybe even catch things we might miss.”

“I mean you’d probably be able to call in other HUC actors when you have a pre-planned scenario ready but otherwise I’m here to help get things set up. I’m here for in case all of sudden you need someone tied up and hanging in a tree waiting to be rescued.” Y/N said, missing the momentary eye glint and blush that crossed the Wild Wild Pussy Cats’ faces.

“Any hard limits on how much peril you’d be okay with being in?” Tiger asked.

“Here are my ground rules: you can punch me, kick me, pull my hair.” Y/N said, counting out the things on her fingers. “I am A-OK being stabbed. Biting and scratching are on the table. You can use fire!” She said enthusiastically.

“These are the ground rules? Is there anything off limits!?” Ragdoll asked her eyeballs ready to pop out of her head.

“Damn, girl! You got something real sick you wanna do, huh?” Y/N said with a playful grin. “Oh, you little pervert...alright! I like it!” she went on excitedly, her tail starting to wag. “Don't tell me. Surprise me! Ooh!” she continued clapping her hands eagerly. “This is gonna be fun!”

“Let’s set our own ground rules.” Mandalay said diplomatically, a sweat drop falling down her face.

***

Y/N howled in pain, stuck beneath a fallen tree. But not actually. This was just a test she had set up for Ragdoll’s team. They were a group of third year students from Shiketsu and their teachers wanted to see how far they had come. Sniffing the air she was able to detect how many teenagers were coming her way as well as if any of them had gotten injured on this exercise. She could also smell any approaching wild life and her ears pricked up, there was a bear nearby. If it got any closer then she was going to call off the exercise and have the children move away. Ragdoll’s quirk wouldn’t alert her to the presence of an animal.

“Over here!” A student shouted. Some type of speed quirk allowed him to race ahead of his team. “Are you able to feel your legs miss?”

Y/N smiled internally. That was a great start. Since she was “pinned” at around her waist and legs, it was important to know ahead of time if anything had happened before removing the tree. “I can feel my legs, but they’re a little numb after being pinned for so long.”

“Okay, one of my teammates has a quirk that will let them lift the tree. I’ll stay with you until they get here, it shouldn’t be too long.” The student nodded. “Are you injured anywhere else?”

Y/N was going to write this kid a glowing review. Someone had clearly been paying attention in class. “I whacked my head pretty hard when I hit the ground.”

“Oh that could mean a concussion, do your ears feel sensitive to the sounds we’re making m’am? Or does light hurt?”

“I’ve got a light.” One of his teammates said as they all arrived, Ragdoll on their tail. She raised her finger and it lit up. “Just follow my finger with your eyes.”

A few minutes later the group was carefully escorting her back to base on a makeshift stretcher, Ragdoll grinning down at Y/N. After letting herself be checked over and giving the kids scores, Y/N headed into the base to decompress.

“Having fun?” Pixie-Bob asked, handing her a cold water. “Those kids looked pretty excited after getting passing scores.”

“I honestly missed the excitement. You don't get this kind of enthusiasm from kids in the city.” Y/N said, popping open the water and gulping it down gratefully. “Kinda makes me miss being a hero.”

“Can I ask what happened?” Pixie-bob asked gently. “You were just so excited to get out there and be a hero, and one day your name stopped being brought up.”

“I failed,” Y/N said bluntly. “I couldn't save someone I should have been able to save. The worst part… was I did everything right. Everything I was supposed to… and that poor boy still died in front of me.”

“You can't blame yourself for that.” Pixie-bob said kindly. “We’re all just human, we can't always be where we need to be. Not even All Might can save everyone.”

“I know, I know. My therapist said the same thing. But I just couldn’t go back after that.” Y/N took a seat. “The HUC gave me a way to keep doing what I loved without the actual danger, so I took it. And now here we are.”

“I’m sorry Y/N.” Pixie-Bob said, sitting across from her. “I wish we had kept in better contact after school. Maybe we could’ve helped you.”

“Well, hey, we’re meeting back up now.” Y/N pointed out cheerily. “Before you know it you’ll be sick to death of this lil puppy’s face.” She added pointing at herself.

“That will never happen.” Pixie-Bob assured her.

***

“So how’s your cousin doing?” Y/N asked. “Last I heard she was taking a leave of absence for a baby, right?”

“Shhh keep your voice down.” Mandalay said conspiratorially. “I told Pixie-bob and now she’s in an extra frisky mode.”

“So is that why she’s” Y/N said blushing but stopped because she was too flustered. “Nevermind”

“You know how she is, boy crazy even back at school.” Mandalay fondly complained

“Boy crazy? But I always thought you were girlfriends.” Y/N said, shaking her head. “Actually I thought all four of you were in a polycule to be honest.”

“Everyone did!” Mandalay threw her arms up. “Drove us insane if I’m honest. Can’t we just be a group of four close friends?”

“You can be but society will try and find a different explanation.” Y/N said with a shrug. “I really was convinced you at least liked girls. You full on kissed me on the mouth once during senior year. I cant even remember why it happened.”

“Because I had a massive crush on you and you didn’t pick up on the hint.” Mandalay giggled. “I think we all did at some point? But you never seemed to notice anything.”

“Oh fuck.” Y/N said pressing her head into the table. “I’m a dumb dog for real. This is like when I showed up to Aizawa and Yamada’s wedding and thought it was just a very affectionate barbeque for like two hours.”

“How did you not realize it was a wedding?” Mandalay asked in awe and confusion.

“I came in late.” Y/N explained sheepishly. “And there was this little boy sleeping in one of the pews.”

“Ingenium’s little brother?” Tiger asked, joining the conversation. “He was about four wasn’t he? I’m not surprised he slept through half the ceremony.”

Y/N whined in embarrassment. “God, I'm so stupid.”

“It’s okay, you’re very cute.” Ragdoll consoled her, petting her hair.

“No I'm not.” Y/N protested even as her tail began to wag real hard.

“Yes you are.” Mandalay countered. “Remeber we all had a huge crush on you.”

“Yes I heard you, you all had a crush on me.” Y/N said, grabbing her tail trying to still it and not completely paying attention.

“Well that’s kinda a lie, we still have a crush on you and its bigger than ever.” Pixie-Bob added in. When did all four of them enter the room? Suddenly it was like she was totally surrounded. Y/N’s hackles were raised all of a sudden, why did she feel threatened.

“Whoa, easy there!” Ragdoll cooed. “No need to tense up.”

Y/N stood up, every animal instinct telling her there was a threat in the room. “This place isn’t safe.” She declared. “I’m going now.”

“So soon?” Pixie-bob pouted, and Y/N did not miss the fact that she had moved into the doorway.

“Ryuko move please, i want to leave.” Y/N said, using Pixie-bob’s real name to show how serious she was in her request.

“Say it again.” Pixie-bob demanded, her cheeks starting to fill with color. “Say my name please.”

“Mine too!” Ragdoll said, draping her arms over Y/N’s shoulders and resting her chin on her shoulder. “Pretty please say it? Say Tomoko for me.”

Y/N growled and snapped her teeth, shifting to a doberman. “Back off.” Her brain was shifting into battle mode, analyzing the threat. At this range Tiger was a far bigger threat than Pixie-Bob. None of the Pussycats had their claws on them, which meant Mandalay and Ragdoll were stuck when it came to hand to hand combat. But Y/N wasn’t good at fighting more than one opponent. This was an unfair fight. This had been a trap. And she was a very, very bad dog…

THE END

Chapter Text

If Tomura was totally honest, a part of him was pretty pissed at his adoptive father. It was only now that his mentor was stuck in a coma that he realized how much Tomura had become dependent on him. Now he was suddenly thrust into adult responsibilities he had never been prepared for. At least Ujiko was trying his best to help but the doc had so many responsibilities to manage that he barely had time to help Tomura.

But the truth of the matter was that Zen Shigiraki was arrogant, immortal, and powerful. Thus he never considered the fact he wouldn’t be around one day and never prepared Tomura for that event. And now Tomura was apparently the inheritor of his master’s quirk (which was locked away), a century long grudge (Against fucking All Smite), and a literal mountain for a bodyguard. Seriously, where the hell was he hiding Machia this whole time?!

The only saving grace in Tomura’s life right now was the Vanguard Squad, his own personal team that he had picked without his master’s help or influence. They were the best support system a guy like him could ask for in this situation, even if they were all assholes and gave him a lot of shit. Like right now, when Mr. Compress put his playstation in a marble to make him go on patrol.

At least Tomura wasn’t a spotlight hero, he hated dealing with reporters and their inability to mind their own business. He didn’t care what his pr manager said, that fucker deserved to have his camera destroyed for being so invasive about Toga’s parents. Being an underground hero served him just fine. Plus there was always a chance he could run into the villain Eraserhead, that guy was pretty hot.

“God i would kill to have something happen.” Tomura groaned.

As if the universe just wanted to make him suffer, the door of a nearby jewelry store flew off it’s hinges and into the street. But the alarms weren’t going off… inside job or someone who knew the routine by now? Either way, a relief to his boredom.

Walking out of the store covered in stolen jewels with more stuffed in her duffel bag was a notorious criminal known as Spyder. Good, he’d been hoping she’d pop up again. The last time he had seen her he had gotten a little… excited for lack of a better pg-13 word. The memory of that encounter still make the blood in his veins rush. Her, swinging from building to building with her strings. Him, racing down the streets in eager pursuit. Spyder had tried to juke him but he’d decayed her strings so she fell right into his arms. It was the perfect set up until that jag-off Overhaul had shown up wanting to take credit for the capture and distracted him, allowing Spyder to escape. This time however, there would be no distractions, or interruptions. He was going to catch her good and proper.

Y/N wondered for a few moments why Duster was just standing there staring into space. Then she decided she actually didn’t care that much and took off to the rooftops using her quirk. Strings was pretty much its namesake, purple strings she could shoot out of her fingers and use in a variety of ways. They used up the keratin in her body, so the nicer her hair and nails were, the stronger and more powerful her threads.

Y/N had heard rumors that Duster had supposedly been given a bunch of new quirks by his mentor before he died or whatever happened, but the criminal underworld had been watching him for months and the only thing he ever used was Decay. So Y/N wasn’t worried about him suddenly flying or anything. While she swung across rooftops, his dumbass would have to take the fire escape and waste time trying to get on her level.

“Get back here!” Duster shouted, finally starting to chase her.

“Right, yeah, because that’s exactly what i’d do.” Y/N rolled her eyes. “You’re gonna have to be sweeter if you wanna keep a girl around handsome.”

“Or just be persistent.” Duster replied, leaping into the air. A golden ring appeared beneath his feet allowing him to float through the air after her.

“Oh, that is not fucking fair!” Y/N hissed, shooting out another string and pulling herself forward to get some distance from the pursuing hero. “You did get new quirks?!”

“You were the one trying to take advantage of a landlocked hero, you’re just pissy that you have to actually try now.” Tomura said, speeding through the air after her.

“Jackass!” Y/N shouted back. On the plus side, she could probably make a fortune selling the confirmation of extra quirks to All Smite or one of his underlings. She yelped as her strings vanished from underneath her grasp and sent her plummeting back to the streets. She readied herself for a harsh landing but her fall was interrupted.

“Nice of you to drop in.” Duster grinned, immediately getting punched in his face for the world's cheesiest pick up line.

“That’s the second time you’ve used that line!” Y/N flailed. “Get new material.”

“Maybe you could weave me some new material with your strings.” Tomura teased, not flinching at all from the punch. “It would be such a shame to send someone as cute as you to jail,” He mused. “But I also can’t just let you go… Ah! I have the perfect solution.”

“I’m not gonna be a turncoat and spy on other villains for you. So if that’s your angle you might as well lock me up.” Y/N said quickly. She wasn’t stupid enough to risk her neck like that. Even with Sir Frighteye dead, there were far too many factors that would get her caught. Being caught meant being killed, or worse.

“Admirable sentiment but I would never ask that of you. I already have a rather competent man on the inside.” Tomura said fondly. “No, I have a much more pleasant plan in mind. Go on a date with me~”

Y/N blinked up at him. “Are you high or just stupid? Did I mishear you? Did you just ask me on a fucking date?” Maybe he didn’t catch her. Maybe she fell on her head and this is all a coma dream.

“No, I’m serious.” Duster insisted. “Let me take you on a date. I want to see your face.” He reached for her mask and she slapped his hand away.

“Why would I want to go on a date with you?” Y/N asked.

“Because I’ll take you to jail?” Duster replied. “I thought that part was pretty obvious.”

“How do I know you aren’t playing a trick on me and going to take me to jail anyways?” Y/N asked suspiciously

“Because I’m a hero and I have no need to lie to a villain like you.” Duster replied. Y/N almost punched him for the strict black and white thinking he had going on before she realized he was being sarcastic. That raspy voice of his made it hard to tell.

“Hmm date with an obvious psycho or jail.” Y/N mused. “Creepy date or jail? Tough decision. Okay, say I let you take me on a date. Where would we go and how would we meet up?”

“I’ll take you to the mall?” Duster offered quickly. “I’ll know you when I see you.”

“What’s stopping me from just skipping town and never doing crime again?” Y/N asked sarcastically.

“Because you wouldn’t, you love this city too much and love thieving.” Duster replied. “You’ve done so much over the last three years and we’ve yet to fully recover everything you stole. You could’ve left at any point before now. But you haven’t because you like it here too much. It’s your routine and you're comfortable in it.”

Shit he had her nailed down to a T. The only reason she’d ever leave is if the cops were bursting down her door or if All Smite and his cronies took interest in her skills. Something as weird as a hero nursing a crush on her wasn’t enough to break out her escape contingencies.

“Okay fine. But I pick the time and date and you have to leave me alone until then.” Y/N replied. “I’ll show up to the date and I’ll stay out of trouble until then. So let me go now.”

“Mmm~ and how do you intend on telling me the date and time for our date if I let you go right now?” Tomura said wryly.

“Shit…” Y/N cursed, having hoped she would still be able to escape this situation without properly agreeing to anything.

“I admire your tenacity in trying to slip free but it only makes me want to entrap you more.” Tomura purred, pulling her closer to his chest.

“I’ll give you the number of a burner phone.” Y/N compromised.

“Alright gimme your burner number.” Tomura said, pulling a pen out from a hidden pocket. Reluctantly Y/N gave the number. “Thanks, seeya on our date player two.” He said with a coo, tucking a lock of Y/N’s hair behind her ear and blowing lightly on her cheek before turning away to resume his patrol.

Y/N immediately headed home to confer with her cat on what to do. “Knave what the fuck do I do?!” She asked the scruffy beastie who immediately tried to make biscuits on her thigh. “You’re so unhelpful.”

***

A week later and Y/N was playing cat’s cradle with her quirk, wandering the mall. She was here as promised, even if she didn’t want to be. Maybe he wouldn’t spot her and she could just leave after a few minutes. Suddenly an arm wrapped tightly around her neck, pulling her into someone’s chest.

“Hey beautiful.” He said in a raspy voice. “Spotted you from a mile away.”

“Hi?” Y/N said her mouth suddenly very very dry.

“So that’s what you look like under the mask.” the man, obviously Duster said.

“Yeah and too bad a handsome face is wasted being on a person like you.” Y/N said standoffishly.

“Oh? You think I'm handsome?” Duster teased.

“No. Ever hear of chapstick?” Y/N quickly lied.

“Well you seem to wear plenty of that so i think i’ll be able to steal some off of your lips.” Tomura said grinning wildly. His grip around her neck only tightened as he steered her through the crowds.

“It’s poisoned for exactly that scenario.” Y/N warned. Her latest plan was to be the worst date ever and make him lose interest.

“No it’s not, otherwise you would poison your teammates Worst Jeanist and Edgeslash when you kiss their cheeks for good luck.” Duster replied. “Besides, you think I don't carry antidotes for your poison? You leave ample samples in your wake afterall.”

“Fuck you Duster.” Y/N snarled.

“Tomura, call me Tomura. We’re on a date aren’t we, Y/N~” Tomura cooed.

Y/N paled and tried to get out of his grip but all Tomura did was put his hand on her shoulder instead, only his pinkie lifted. “How did you…”

“My adoptive father had eyes and ears everywhere, and now so do i.” Tomura grinned. “It wasn’t that hard to find you.”

“Oookay…” Y/N breathed out shakily, this whole thing has just gotten much scarier in no time at all. He was more than a weirdo, he was a straight up psycho in a cape with the powers of a god.

“Now then, we are going to have a perfectly normal date, yes?” Tomura growled into her ear. “I’ve been planning a nice day all week and I want us to enjoy it.”

THE END