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There’s a blonde wonder staring down at her.
Granted, Shoto had seen many pretty women in his days. A good majority of them blonde, but something about the girl standing in front of Shoto staring down at her made her want to squirm. Her gaze was so intense, but not like the men Shoto had been with before. It was good intense.
“Um, hello.” Shoto said quietly. The pretty blonde scoffed.
“I don’t speak your language, halfie.” She said, her voice melodic but flat.
Shoto stared. Her language? But she could understand what the blonde was saying. Calling her by her hair colour feels demeaning. Shoto should ask her name, at least.
But how if she doesn’t understand her?
Shoto pointed to herself.
“What about you, huh?” She asked. “I don’t know what you’re trying to say, but if you’re trying to thank me, knock it off. I did what any well-adjusted person would do.” She seemed offended that Shoto would attempt to thank her.
Well that’s not what she was going for anyway.
Shoto pouted and shook her head. “Your name.” She said uselessly.
The blonde stared. “I’m hearing a whole lot of nothing.” She crouched down in front of Shoto, evening out their height so now Shoto was looking directly into those bright red eyes. “Do you know even a lick of my language?”
“No spoken.” She tried.
The blonde smiled. “I caught that one pretty girl.” She says. “Look, you can do this. C’mon, try.”
Shoto was quiet. It didn’t seem like she could do it. She barely remembered the word for saying that she didn’t know any. But nonetheless, she wants to know the strong girl's name so she had to try her very best. Like before when mom would tell her to try her best when her brother threw a ball and she was meant to catch it.
Shoto frowned slightly at those memories.
She wonders where mom and Touya are now.
Not that she would know.
“You…” She began, her head full of distractions and spinning around the words of a language she doesn’t speak herself.
“Good.” The blonde says. “What about me?”
Shoto glared down at the ground as she searched her mind. The words were hard and her mind kept mixing up letters, but trying was what mattered.
“Called… you.” She said. The words were out of order, she knew that much. But her brain couldn’t come up with the words right now, so this was the best she had.
The blonde smiled and snorted out a laugh. “I think you’re looking for my name.”
Shoto lit up and began nodding. That was it! The word that she was forgetting was name. It’s what would allow her to know exactly who she was talking with. And maybe if she ever finds her way back to mom she could tell her about the brave and strong girl she met.
“My name is Katsuki. I’m also known as super—”
“Superman!” Shoto blurted out, a smile on her lips.
She had heard stories of someone called superman, but she didn’t know he actually existed. And that he was a she. Shoto had thought that she was just a bedtime story her mom used to tell her to get her to stop crying at night cause she was scared of the dark.
Superman was kind of crass.
The blonde stared at Shoto for a minute with her jaw dropped; mouth agape. The girl sputtered and looked around at the most barren and broken down city.
“Do I look like a fucking man to you?” She asked loudly.
Shoto’s nose scrunched up. That word sounded like a bad word in Katsuki’s language. Mom had always told her that if she was ever forced to learn to speak English instead of just understanding it that she should never use that word. She said it was a mean word.
Katsuki groaned.
“Listen to me.” She said, “I am Supergirl. You hear me? Don’t you ever lump me in with the species that is men, okay? Most of them are gross, don’t know their left from their right, and are overtly stupid. I am not stupid, understand?”
Shoto nodded.
Katsuki was very smart.
Smart enough to be able to help Shoto and all those other girls get away from the mean men who called them brides. Shoto wasn’t a bride, she was hardly a girl. Last time she checked she was only five feet tall. Her last birthday cake, before the men came, had the obvious number 15 on it.
She remembers Touya teasing her about it. Saying that she was growing up so fast and asking if she was gonna be huffing and slamming doors soon. Of course she would never. The doors didn’t do anything to her to deserve being slammed. She didn’t wanna be like those mean people who she saw slam doors at pubs as she walked past to get to Momo’s house. They always seemed so angry.
Shoto doesn’t want to be angry.
Being angry had only ever gotten the people around her in horrible situations. Thinking about it made Shoto’s skin crawl and her eyes misty. How long had it been since she had last seen Touya or Natsuo or Fuyumi? Maybe a year. Very possibly more.
Shoto’s just glad they didn’t get Fuyumi.
“Hey,” Katsuki nudged Shoto’s bare leg with the toe of her shoe. Shoto looked up and found her looking at Shoto with mild confusion and barely hidden annoyance. “What’s got you looking like a kicked puppy all the sudden?”
Shoto shook her head and looked back up to see that Katsuki was now looking at her with almost an expression of guilt but also understanding.
“The men…” She tried.
“Those men were pieces of shit. Who goes around and takes girls for the sole purpose of bearing children and being wives?” Katsuki asks, outraged. “Women don’t exist solely for the purpose of bearing children and to think that—?” She scoffs.
Shoto stared at her. No one had ever said something like that before.
“Look, I didn’t do some heroic shit, okay? I did what had to be done.” Her voice lowered and she looked Shoto in the eyes. Her eyes were intense but tired and the bags under them were deep. “I don’t need you going around thinking I was your hero or some shit. Because I’m not.”
“Good.” Shoto said.
Katsuki stopped. “What?”
“Not heroic.” Shoto repeats, shaking her head. Someone who is heroic would be like her brothers for trying to stand up to the men who took her. Or someone who saves people out of the goodness of their hearts. “Good. You are.”
“Flattery isn’t getting you anywhere with me.”
Shoto nodded. She wasn’t trying to flatter the girl in front of her. There wasn’t much to flatter her with. She was rude and had no inhibitions obviously and she seemed like the type that would do a week long bar crawl. She reminded Shoto of her Touya.
Katsuki reached forward and pushed Shoto’s sweaty bangs off of her forehead before leaning in and pressing a small kiss to the area. Shoto blinked at her.
“You’re sweet, pretty girl.” Katsuki says. “Wanna tell me where you live?”
Katsuki was offering to take Shoto back to her home? To her family? That was, if they still were where she remembered them being. Even if they weren’t, at least she would get to spend more time with Katsuki.
Shoto stood carefully watching as Katsuki’s eyes brushed over her as she stood. She needed a proper bath. She was sweaty and gross and having Katsuki’s eyes on her when she felt so yucky was nothing fun. She’d prefer Katsuki to look at her when she wasn’t covered in the evidence of those bad men.
Regardless, Shoto reached out. Her soft hand grabbed Katsuki’s and she pulled. She watched Katsuki stumble to her feet again, standing a few inches taller than her.
Shoto pulled Katsuki’s hand up to her lips for a minute as gratitude.
“What did I say about thanking me?” Katsuki asked.
Shoto just smiled and pulled her along.
Maybe, if they really could find Shoto’s family back where they were before, Touya and her mother would really like Katsuki.