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There is a goose in the Todoroki household.
The moment Natsuo walks in through the front door, he knows something is wrong from the faint scent in the kitchen. He's left wondering for all of half a second before a white creature with a bright orange beak makes itself known, honking obnoxiously at him as if it owned the house.
He attempts to grab a snack from the pantry and shivers ever so slightly when he feels the animal's gaze tracking his every step. The nerve of it! He may not come home that often now that he's a full-time university student and doing clinical on the side, but this is still his home — certainly more so than it is the goose's.
Food acquired, he turns around and makes to return to his room so he can hole up and study for his quiz on Monday. Instead, he finds himself face-to-face with a bright orange beak. The creature had suddenly moved much closer when he wasn't looking.
"Shoo. Go away," he tells it. Two beady black eyes stare him down. The menace refuses to budge.
It's this position that Fuyumi comes home to find them in mere minutes later. In tandem, he and the goose both turn toward the sound of her jangling keys and the door shutting. It takes her no time at all to spot the Issue.
"Natsuo-" she begins.
He throws his hands up. "Contrary to popular belief, I am not responsible for this.
She frowns, clearly not believing him fully, if at all.
"I have a quiz tomorrow," he elaborates. "Believe me, even if I decided to do this, today isn't the day I would pick."
"If you're not responsible… then… who is?"
He shrugs. "Dunno. Didn't really have a chance to figure that out, with it right here and all." Natsuo gestures at the goose, which has somehow gotten even closer to him, clearly finding his sister less interesting.
Fuyumi's eyebrows furrow. "What are we supposed to do with our guest of mysterious origins, in that case? It's not like it came with a note conveniently attached to tell us where to bring it back to. And Father surely won't be happy about this when he comes home."
Natsuo's eyes take on a gleam that Fuyumi knows means trouble.
"You know… we could put it in his study for the time being," he proposes. "Since, obviously, I don't want it in my room and I'm sure you don't want it in yours. Anyways, he barely goes into the study room since he stays at the agency so late, so the chances of him even noticing are low."
Fuyumi hesitates. On the one hand, it is tempting — she definitely doesn't want the animal in her bedroom, for who knows what kind of mess it would make. Plus, disinfecting the area, with all her tiny decorations and cloth coverings and trinkets, would be an absolute pain.
On the other hand, if Enji were to need the study tonight…
It would be a long night, indeed.
"Go study for your quiz," she tells her brother. "I'll take care of it." She beckons to the goose. "C'mere. Come on. Leave Natsuo alone."
The goose considers her for a moment before finally obliging and waddling toward her. Seizing his opportunity, Natsuo snatches his backpack off the chair and books it to his room.
Immediately, Fuyumi feels like she's made a mistake when she meets the goose's unflinching gaze, but rather than attack her, it merely stands there.
She sighs. "Where'd you come from, huh?"
The creature lets loose a cacophonic screech. She winces.
"Never mind. Let's get you out of the main area and into one of the rooms so you're not out here when Father gets back."
She contemplates Natsuo's suggestion of Enji's study for all of a brief moment before deciding against it for obvious reasons. Running a hand through her hair, she sighs again. "Follow me."
With that, she shooes it down the hallway to her room. Pointing to the one uncarpeted spot of floor, she orders it, "there. That’s yours. Stay there."
It regards its designated spot for half a second before it plops down in the center of her fuzziest rug and makes itself comfortable, almost as if the faux fur is nesting material.
Internally groaning, Fuyumi tosses her bag onto her desk chair, withdraws her laptop, and begins her own TA preparation work, ignoring her new roommate as best she can.
It's not long before Shouto too arrives home, ruffled from what must have been a particularly grueling training session.
The moment that front door opens, the goose bolts out of Fuyumi's room in a white blur, trampling over some stray papers in the process.
Any hope of peacefully coexisting with the creature flies out the window the moment she lays eyes on the scene in the foyer. As it would appear from the menacing look in its eyes and the way its feathers have puffed up, the goose despises her little brother. The two of them circle each other like wrestlers in a ring, neither taking their gaze off the other, although Shouto merely seems entirely confused whereas the goose is radiating antagonism from wingtip to tail.
"Did Father finally let us get a new pet?" he questions.
Natsuo, who had emerged from his room upon Shouto's arrival home, groans. "What do you think? Of course not."
"where'd it come from,then?"
Fuyumi sighs, rolling her eyes. "It's not like it came with a convenient card telling us who sent it and how to return to sender."
At that, the goose lets out a particularly loud squack and attempts to take off running, but before it gets very far, it finds itself almost entirely encased in a giant block of ice of Shouto's creation.
Striding over to where the creature is death glaring at him, he plucks out a creamy white slip of paper that Fuyumi hadn't noticed nestled between the goose's neck feathers.
"Dear Todoroki children, please kindly blame this monstrosity upon the misfortune of your birth," Shouto reads aloud. "Xxx, Dabi."
Natsuo looks from Fuyumi to Shouto to the goose.
"All right, that's it," he declares. "This thing? It most certainly won't be going back into Fuyumi's room. It's going straight to Endeavor's bedroom instead."
If they truly are to blame its presence on the misfortune of their birth, as the cryptic message says, than who better to take out their wrath upon than Enji Todoroki, after all?