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Compress sped walked through the dark, cold night. He straightened his coat as he kept walking at a steady pace hoping to quickly find and calm down their youngest member Mustard. He didn’t know what exactly set him off but it was bad enough for him to break a bottle and run out the bar crying.
Out of all the members of the league Compress was the one who Mustard was the closest too with Shigaraki being in close second, having a near father-son relationship with him, making sure the boy was doing alright and making sure things weren’t too overwhelming for him, so it was pretty obvious that out of all people it would be Compress to help calm him down.
The magician took another turn through an alley and barely heard the faint sniffing down the dark alley, slowly Compress wandered past a few stray boxes and there was Mustard sitting there, knees tucked into his chest and arms wrapped around himself.
“There you are dear, you gave us quite a scare when you ran off like that!” Mr. Compress spoke in his usual tone hoping it would cheer the teen up.
“Compress?” the boy whimpered in confusion wiping the bangs from face, he winced his eyes that were still wet from past tears..
Slowly and gently Compress approached the boy, sitting close to him.
“A man must make sure his fellow acquaintances are in good health both physically and mentally.” Mustard only sniffled.
“Do you want to tell me what happened back there?” As before he only had guesses to shoot for rather than a definitive explanation. Mustard only shook his head but he still wanted Compress to stay with him since he didn’t want to be alone. that was still fine with Compress, he didn’t want to push his limits or him be uncomfortable, so the two sat there in silence for a few moments with Mustard scooting closer to the magician and leaning on his shoulder.
Soon the tear began to fall from Mustard’s face again and compress tightened his grip over his shoulder.
“Those kids, on the TV they…knew me before I uh..got here and they..were at that orphanage and they..” soon his cries turned into full blown sobs as he cried into Compress’s chest.
“They said I would never be a hero or even a student and…I wanted to prove them wrong so bad!” Mustard yelled, he was getting more and more upset despite Compress rubbing his shoulder
“Then they take away my way to get into UA because of all of the stupid stupid things! Everyone keeps looking down on me!” His voice quavered.
..I’m just a fucking failure!” Mustard covered his face with his hands and began to sob uncontrollably.
Compress pulled Mustard into a big hug as sobs took the boy by force near howling into the older man’s chest. The damn had been finally broken as all the things bothering him had simply been too much for him to contain anymore as he broke down.
“Shh..you’re not a failure dear, quite far from it.” Compress said in a soft fatherly tone that only wanted to make Mustard cry more, having never been allowed that affection before. Everyone always overlooked him and always seemed to focus on the other kids with the flashy quirks, leaving him behind.
It was hard to tell how long they stayed like that, with Compress whispering sweet nothings and helping the boy calm down and slow his breathing. Soon Mustard stopped crying and got down to just hiccups and burrowed his face into the older man’s neck.
“Why don’t we head back hmm? It’s getting quite chilly out.” Compress stood up, still holding Mustard who whimpered and held on to the older man’s vest harder.
“No!, m’gonna be mad at me!” He buried his face deeper into Compress’s neck shaking like a wet dog.
“No they won’t dear, I promise.” Compress soothed the young boys nerves and began to walk back towards the bar, Mustard tucked safely in his arms. Compress took the long route back not only to give more gentle comfort to the weeping boy, rubbing his back and whispering soothing words to him, and for the more practical reason of avoiding being spotted by unwanted guests. Around half way through Mustard had fallen asleep and Compress realized just how small and light he was in his hold, it struck concern in the magic and he took a mental note to make sure he was eating well.
They got back to the bar sooner than expected, opening the door. Shigaraki was sitting on a stool waiting for them and saw Compress holding Mustard like a baby.
“Mustards small.” Shigaraki spoke out loud after a few moments of thought. As if in a que Mustard woke up,
“S’iggy isn’t mad?” He whispered, shivering slightly as Compress rubbed his back.
“No I’m not.” Shigaraki said as he awkwardly pat Mustard’s head.
Compress explained the situation to Shigaraki who felt guilty about sorta being half the cause of it,
“It was a bad move on my part…should have expected that.” He rasped out, scratching his neck.
“Now now no need to be hard on yourself Shigaraki, it was an honest mistake.” He assured softly.
Mustard let out a yawn and Compress figured it was time to get him to bed and took him to his room and tucked him in. The young boy let out a small whine and pointed at a drawer on his nightstand, opening it revealed a teddy bear plush with soft brown fur and a camo backpack on it.
“Could this be what my dear boy wants?” Said Compress holding the bear like a prized trophy ready to be given out.
Mustard embarrassingly nodded and Compress handed the teddy bear, patting his head. once Mustard was tucked in the soft blanket Compress sat on the bed beside him and pulled out a small book from his pocket.
“How about I tell you a little story hm?” He said petting the boy’s fluffy light brown hair.
Mustard nodded and held his stuffed bear closer, feeling a sense of safety.