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Hitoshi watches with a sick feeling in his gut how Reika downs her daily dose of poison.
Miyatani watches her like a hawk and even though Reika once confessed to Hitoshi that the poison burns on its way down, she doesn't so much as move a muscle because Miyatani doesn't like it when they emote in any way.
And being hit on top of the burning is clearly something Reika tries very hard to avoid.
"Good girl," Miyatani condescendingly says, taking the vial back and Reika clutches at Hitoshi's arm. "Now let's just hope the mutt behaves today, mh?" Miyatani adds, giving Hitoshi a terrifying smile and Hitoshi feels himself grow cold.
One of these days Miyatani is going to find fault with Hitoshi's behaviour just because he can and he will withhold the antidote and then Reika will be dead.
One of these days, Hitoshi is certain of that.
"I will," he mutters, lowering his head to show his deference in hopes of appeasing Miyatani ahead of time but he only scoffs and walks off without another word.
"Toshi," Reika mutters, her voice shaky and thin and Hitoshi crouches down so he can look at her better.
"It'll be fine, I'll behave, I promise," he tells her because he will.
He will not give Miyatani a reason to kill her and Hitoshi thinks as far as incentives go, this one is a pretty good one.
His previous fosters were big on physical punishment but that never made Hitoshi behave in the first place, cause he had to get punished again and again but this?
Being responsible for Reika's life? Yeah, he's going to behave and be the best, most unobtrusive, most well behaved foster son ever.
"You feeling okay?" Hitoshi asks even though he knows she won't feel the effects of the poison just yet.
It takes twelve hours for it to kick in, twelve hours where he can fuck up any number of things, but so far, he managed to get her antidote every day.
And he intends to do it for as long as necessary, no matter what he has to do.
"I'm okay," she says, her eyes glistening with tears and she's so very obviously not fine, but Hitoshi doesn't call her out on it, because there is not actually something he can do.
There is nothing he can do except behave and offer her whatever meagre comfort he can.
Before he can find some meaningless platitude to say to her, Miyatani calls out for them, clearly ready to shoo them out of the house and Reika and Hitoshi go obediently, quietly, and Hitoshi doesn't mention the way Reika almost painfully clutches his hand in hers all the way to the train station.
"Will it ever get better?" Reika asks, barely audible with all the chatter around them and Hitoshi's heart breaks in his chest because he knows the answer.
He knows the truth, knows that it's his fault she has to suffer like this, because he's bad and rotten down to the core and his foster parents need a way to keep him in check and Reika is just the unlucky collateral damage in this scenario, but even though he damn well knows it he can't bring himself to say it.
"Yes," he finally settles on. "Yes, it will get better."
Because as soon as he's gone, she'll be fine and Miyatani won't have any reason to poison her like this anymore and then she'll be able to strife in that family.
"Okay," Reika mutters, trusting blindly in his words and Hitoshi stares straight ahead, unblinking, because he can't start crying right here.
That is reserved for when he's under the shower at UA after a gruelling training with Aizawa, where no one can see it, where no one can hear it, and where it doesn't matter.
He can't cry right now but there's always time for it later.
~*~*~
Hitoshi bursts into the apartment, panting, sweaty and terrified out of his mind.
He's three minutes late.
He's three minutes late because there was a villain attack and all trains stopped running for two hours and even though he ran from UA all the way home it took him three minutes too long.
And now Reika is going to die.
"You're late," Miyatani sneers out, already waiting for Hitoshi in the genkan, Reika at his side and trapped there by his hand around her upper arm.
Reika is crying, silent tears streaming down her face and she's as pale as death already and Hitoshi forces himself upright.
"Please, there was a villain attack," he pants out and gets on his knees for good measure, too, because maybe begging will do the trick. "No trains were running and I came as quickly as I could."
"You were out for three minutes longer than you're allowed to," Miyatani refutes him and Hitoshi presses his sweaty forehead to the floor. "And you know what that means."
It means no antidote for Reika. It means her death will be on his hands and Hitoshi dares to look up at Miyatani.
"Please, please, I'll do anything, just please give her the antidote," he begs but Miyatani seems unfazed as he pushes Reika towards Hitoshi.
"This is on you," he says as he turns his back to them and walks deeper into the house.
Hitoshi wants to call after him, wants to beg and plead and scream, even as he catches Reika before she can fall but then she starts convulsing and he has his hands full with other stuff.
"Reika, Reika, no," he whispers as he gently lowers her to the floor, where she continues to convulse and writhe and it's not long before her eyes roll back and she goes slack in his arms.
"No no nononono," he whispers out, tears streaming down his face and there's only one thing for him to do.
One way to protect Reika.
"Miyatani," he calls out, something cold settling over him and he feels very detached as he watches Miyatani storm back into the genkan.
"What?" Miyatani is already angry, Hitoshi can tell, but that's not going to matter in a second anymore because he neatly takes control of Miyatani and watches with great satisfaction how his face goes blank.
"Give me the antidote," Hitoshi orders and watches how Miyatani gets out a small vial from his pocket and holds it out to Hitoshi.
Hitoshi scrambles to take it and he pours it down Reika's throat, praying to every god he knows that it won't be too late, but he can barely see through his tears and so he doesn't know.
He doesn't know if she'll be alright but he does know that he has to call an ambulance for her. And the police for himself.
"It's okay, it's okay, you'll be alright, just hold on a while longer," he mutters as he gets out his phone and he should be calling an ambulance for her but his fingers have a mind of their own and he watches them dialling Aizawa's number.
Who picks up after the second ring.
"Shinsou?" he greets and Hitoshi lets out a desperate sob.
"I didn't mean to," he cries out and he doesn't even know if he's talking about calling Aizawa or killing Reika, but in the end it hardly matters. "I'm so sorry, it's all my fault, this is all my fault, I killed her," he confesses and Aizawa sucks in a harsh breath.
"Where are you?" he demands to know and Hitoshi tells him. "Don't go anywhere, don't do anything, I'll be there soon," Aizawa instructs him and then promptly hangs up on him and for a moment, Hitoshi stares off into nothing before he starts moving again.
Aizawa told him to not do anything but he knows that's not an option.
Reika needs an ambulance and Hitoshi needs arresting because he still has Miyatani under his control and so Hitoshi dials again.
He just hopes Aizawa forgives him.
~*~*~
Shouta isn't sure what he was expecting to find at Hitoshi's home, but it wasn't an ambulance and two police cars because he told the kid to not do anything, but clearly, he did.
Or someone did.
He flashes his hero license at the closest police officer and then asks "What happened?"
The guy eyes him up and down, clearly judging him for his every life choice, but Shouta couldn't care less about that.
He needs to know what happened here.
"Got called in for a reported murder, but it turns out the kid is still alive. We have one enraged adult and a terrified teen on our hands and no clue what actually happened yet."
Shouta lets out a relieved breath because apparently Hitoshi did not kill anyone and is also not too hurt, and everything else, they are going to figure out.
"Thanks," he absent-mindedly says as he struts past the officer straight into the house and even before he enters it, he can hear someone scream bloody murder.
Shouta follows the noise towards the living-room, where a man is currently screaming his head off about the demon child he's been fostering and Shouta has the sinking feeling that he's talking about Hitoshi.
Who is thankfully not in the same room, but if he's still in the same house, he must be able to hear this man rage anyway.
Shouta makes his way over to the kitchen, where another police officer is crouched down in front of Hitoshi, who is staring blankly at the table.
"—help if you don't tell us what happened," the officer says, his voice gentle and soothing but Hitoshi doesn't react to it at all.
Shouta comes to a stop next to the officer, who cranes his neck to look up at him.
"Eraserhead. He's one of my students. Do we know what happened?" Shouta courtly says and that finally gets a reaction out of Hitoshi, who whips his head around and almost instantly starts to cry.
"I'm so sorry, I killed her, I'm sorry," he sobs out and the officer pushes himself to his feet.
"It's really all he said so far, but—I'm not sure," he admits, even as Shouta steps close and allows Hitoshi to hide his face in his stomach. "We found him crouched next to a girl who showed signs of a seizure, but there was a vial next to her, so the paramedics suspect poisoning. The foster father was clearly under the influence of a quirk and flew into a rage when he was jolted out and we really don't have any clue what's going on currently."
"The girl. She's still alive?"
"Yes, but they rushed her to the hospital for potential brain damage. We also don't know what was in that vial or what poison could have been used."
"It's all my fault," Hitoshi's voice reaches them and Shouta pushes him away to crouch down in front of him.
"Why would you say that? Did you poison her?" Shouta asks, even though there's no way Hitoshi would ever do something like that, but if they want this to clear up, the boy has to talk.
"I wasn't on time, I didn't get back on time so it's my fault," Hitoshi mumbles and Shouta frowns.
"On time for what?"
"The antidote. I killed her, I—" Hitoshi's voice breaks as new tears stream down his face and Shouta is starting to have a very bad suspicion.
He has seen the worst of the worst in people and he knows there are some sick as fuck people out there, but surely Hitoshi isn't suggesting—
"Hitoshi, did your foster father poison your sister?" he asks and the police officer sucks in a sharp breath.
"It's my fault, though, I had one job, I was supposed to behave and now—" Hitoshi cries out and Shouta takes a deep breath so he doesn't storm the living-room and beat the ever living shit out of that vile monster.
"Did she get the antidote when you behaved?" he guesses and Hitoshi nods miserably.
"But I didn't, today, I was late and now—and then I took control of him, too, I used my quirk and it's all my fault, I'm so sorry."
Shouta doesn't like how he keeps saying that it's his fault when it's so very obvious that it's not his fault at all, but that is something they can focus on later.
"Did you brainwash him so he would give you the antidote?" he asks and again, Hitoshi nods.
"I didn't know what else to do, she was having a seizure or something and I knew she needed the antidote but he wouldn't give it cause I was late and I just wanted to save her."
Hitoshi sounds so defeated, so beaten down, that Shouta can't help himself and reaches out to tug him into a hug.
"And you did well, kid, you might have saved her life with that," he reassures him and watches how the police officer gets out his cuffs and then walks off towards the living-room.
He faintly hears him give his spiel about arrests and rights, though the foster father continues to scream and Shouta watches with now small amount of satisfaction how he's eventually lead away, hands cuffed behind his back even as he screams so loud his face turns red.
"Is there anyone we can call for him?" the same police officer asks as he sticks his head back into the kitchen and Shouta doesn't even think about it before he replies. "No. He'll stay with me."
"Okay. We'll contact you if we need him to make a statement."
"Thank you," Shouta replies, Hitoshi still crying in his arms and it's not even a question that he's going to accompany the kid to the station when that happens.
And the hospital, as soon as they figure out if his foster sister is still alive.
"Hey, you ready to go?" Shouta asks after a long moment and Hitoshi shudders before he presses himself closer.
"Am I going to jail?" he asks, his voice shaking and he truly seems to believe that all of this is his fault, when the only one really at fault is his foster father.
"Hitoshi," Shouta firmly says and crouches down again, to make sure that Hitoshi looks at him as he says this. "Listen to me. You did nothing wrong. You're not being accused of anything and you're free to go. Do you understand?"
Hitoshi only blinks owlishly at him and then very faintly shakes his head and for a moment Shouta thinks that if he wasn't cursed with dry eye, he'd definitely be tearing up right about now.
"We'll get there," he finally mutters when he thinks his voice will hold because it's so fucked up that Hitoshi thinks he's at fault here at all when he's so very clearly not. "Are you ready to go home with me?"
"I—think?" Hitoshi unsurely offers and Shouta nods, as if it was a ringing endorsement of the idea.
"Then let's get you home."
Shouta is going to bundle the kid up and keep him warm and safe and make him understand that he did great today and that what happened was fucked up beyond belief and not his fault at all, but there's still time for that.
For now, he just has to get him home and everything else will follow. He'll make sure of that.