Chapter Text
The sunlight began to pour in through the spare room window as the birds started singing, heralding the morning, catching in Himiko’s eyes and causing her to hiss quietly at the sudden brightness. She put down the string she’d been toying with, something she’d found hidden in the room, and pulled the curtains closed, returning the room to mostly darkness. She could already hear the footsteps of Inui wandering about the house, she had no idea if Kan was up, it was shockingly silent a lot of the time, and she was starting to suspect that any noise it ever made was on purpose.
She sprung up from her mattress, stretching her limbs before skipping into the living room. She said hello to Inui, who was sweeping the apartment, he woofed quietly in greeting and mentioned there being some breakfast in the kitchen. Himiko then said a very warm hello to Desmo who, over the last four days, had grown very attached to her, trotting over whenever she was in the room and greeting her with that adorably grumpy face. It also looked like Kan was awake, quietly drawing something in the corner, its eyes darting to her for just a moment of acknowledgment, and even after, Himiko knew it was keeping track of her, wherever she was. She’d found that out the hard way two days ago, when she tried to open one of the windows when its back was turned, and before she could even touch the latch it had called her out, without even looking.
She sighed, these heroes were really nice, but she couldn’t forget that she was technically a prisoner here, even though they were treating her much better than the police would have. She hummed a tune as she grabbed the plate off the kitchen counter and scarfed down the food as quick as she could, then, her eyes darted towards the fridge, hand hesitantly reaching out to open it. She knew she didn’t need to be sneaky about this, Kan had already given her permission to take as many as she needed after all, but she still checked that neither of the heroes were looking when she slipped the packet into her hand. She retreated to the corner and quickly bit off the corner of the packet, careful not to spill any of the liquid inside.
Apparently you could just buy packets of pig’s blood made specifically for people with quirks like hers, although these were already here. She had assumed they were Kan’s, but she’d never really confirmed that, and she’d never really seen it drink any, and when she asked either it or Inui, both of them usually just brushed her off, she wondered if Kan just had better control.
Animal blood wasn’t quite as satisfying as human blood, so she needed to drink it more often, but it was still tasty! She slurped up every drop she could get from the packet and made sure to put the empty packet in the bin before it stained something. And then she glanced at the clock, frowning, it was still only seven-thirty, she tapped her foot, she wasn’t going to be very patient, not after all the begging it took for both of the heroes, and Izuku’s parents, to allow her to see her best friend. But she’d made them promise to visit, and she was going to make sure that happened.
So she might have annoyed her wardens a bit throughout the day until she decided to retreat to the spare room until the time came. And a few hours later, as the afternoon had begun, she heard more than one set of footsteps, she heard two, which was probably one of Izuku’s parents since she almost never heard their steps from a distance, and definitely not through a wall. She flung open the door and dashed out into the living room, eyes darting around until they landed on Izuku, who was grinning brightly and waving at her, their other hand holding their talking notebook.
“Zuzu!” Himiko rushed to hug them as tightly as she could, and they returned the hug easily, she let out a little squeak of surprise as they nearly lifted her off the ground in their excitement. Her ears picked up a quiet ‘aww’ from an unfamiliar voice, she glanced towards where it came from and noticed Aizawa standing next to a man with very pretty blonde hair, that must be Izuku’s papa, she gave him a little wave before turning her attention back to Izuku.
They practically dragged her over to the spare room, Desmo trotting along happily behind, Himiko glanced back at the adults, but they were all talking amongst themselves, and didn’t seem too worried about anything she and Izuku could get up to.
They sat down on her mattress, patting the spot next to them for her to also take a seat. She obliged after opening the curtains and the two of them began chattering about whatever they felt like, Himiko asked them a bunch of questions about their family, now that she was actually getting some proper answers, and they went on long rambles, or rather, wrote essays, about whatever they were studying now. And even though Himiko couldn’t even pronounce a few of the words they wrote, she still nodded along, happy to just see her best friend again. Then, while they were writing down another question, she remembered something. Scrambling to her feet and ignoring the curious look Izuku threw her way, she dug through the sections of her school bag and pulled out the bracelet she’d been waiting to give them for days now.
She sat back down on the mattress and held out the bracelet in her palm, “I made you a friendship bracelet!”
Izuku blinked, ‘when did you have time for that?’ They asked.
Himiko’s smile faltered a bit, “oh, I made it before I, you know, and I was gonna give it to you that day but...”
Izuku’s eyes softened and they began to write what looked like an apology, but Himiko just shook her head, “it’s fine, really, I’m not that sad about it, well, I’m sad I couldn’t give you the bracelet but I’m not really sad about the whole ‘murder’ thing, Inui explained why but I can’t remember exactly what he said.” She shrugged it off, “anyways, you want it or not?”
Izuku held out their hand and let Himiko clasp the bracelet around their wrist, it was just a bit too big, ‘cause she didn’t know what size she had to make it so she figured it would be better to overshoot than make it unwearable. Izuku held up the bracelet to the light, admiring the way the beads all shined just a bit, and the ghost charm was even a little see through! They then waved their hand experimentally, and seemed utterly delighted that the beads, since they were so tightly woven into the string, didn’t jangle around at all, and the ghost only made a soft tapping sound. She knew they liked to be sneaky, and she didn’t think they’d wear something that made a bunch of noise.
Izuku giggled and wrote down, ‘I love it.’ Then, as Himiko spied the half-written question, they quickly completed it, ‘how have you been doing, staying here and all?’
Himiko shrugged, “well, your uncles are really nice to me, and Desmo is the best dog ever,” she said, petting the bulldog who had laid down on her lap, “and I’m really glad I don’t have to stay in a holding cell.” In fact she was starting to feel a little sad that this was only for a week, this was the best she’d ever been treated by anyone who knew about her quirk.
Izuku smiled, ‘that’s nice.’ And then the two of them went back to random nonsense.
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Sekijiro couldn’t help but glance over at the door to the spare room every so often, pulling away from the conversation and trying to hear whatever was going on and make sure nothing was getting broken, something that Shouta also seemed to be doing, and that caught the attention of both of their husbands who just started laughing.
“Really Moonlight?” Hizashi asked, trying and failing to muffle his chuckling with his hand, “they’ll be fine on their own for a few more minutes.”
Ryo on the other hand didn’t even attempt to hide his laughter, the bastard even had the nerve to roll his eyes, “has anyone ever told you two that you’re paranoid?”
“Everyone, at every opportunity,” Shouta deadpanned, which made Sekijiro snicker.
“Yeah Ryo, you told me only three days ago, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten?” It smirked, earning a tired look from Ryo.
“Damn it!” Hizashi laughed, “they’re combining their sarcasm, we’ll never win!”
“What, did you two expected anything else from us?” Sekijiro asked rhetorically.
“Yeah yeah shut up,” Ryo’s attempt as harshness was severely undercut by the amusement in his eyes.
“Still,” Shouta began, “I hope the kids are having fun,” he glanced at Sekijiro with a silent question, ‘how’s she doing?’
Sekijiro just blinked and tilted its head a fraction to respond ‘fine, so far.’ Then it shifted its shoulder subtly, ‘the investigation?’
Shouta tilted his head in a way that meant ‘as well as it can be.’ And then, blinking, ‘but there’s a problem.’
Hizashi coughed pointedly, “care to let us in on the conversation or are you two just going to stare at each other for half an hour?”
Sekijiro blinked, nearly having forgotten that it had slipped into the code it and Shouta had made up a few years ago, “right, sorry, we were just talking about how Toga was holding up.”
Ryo hummed, “I think she’s out of the worst bits of the shock, but she’s still being very, unbothered about what she did, I think she’s really only scared about going to juvie.”
Sekijiro noticed Shouta frown slightly out of the corner of its eye, “does that have something to do with the problem you mentioned?”
Shouta nodded, “the detectives checked with all of Toga’s relatives, none of them are willing to take her in.”
Hizashi frowned, “that’s news to me, didn’t you say she said her aunt would have her?”
“I think she was lying for, probably a lot of reasons actually, but no, according to the officer that tried to inform her, Toga’s aunt basically told the officer to fuck off and never talk to her again in more or less polite terms.”
“So she didn’t even consider it?” Sekijiro asked, though it couldn’t say it was that surprised.
Shouta glanced at it, “she also called her niece a blood-sucking leech, but that’s about it.”
“She fucking what!?” Sekijiro heard Ryo growl, quickly translating for the other two, holding back its own bubbling anger.
Shouta nodded sombrely, “so, odds are looking like it’ll be the system for Toga, I don’t like it but unless we can find someone willing to take her in, and, you know, capable of taking care of her in the eyes of the law, well...”
The new situation settled in the air like a suffocating blanket, Sekijiro shared a look with Shouta, neither of them were willing to let this kid go through what they did, but what could they even do?
After a while, the kids emerged from the room, with Toga animatedly talking at Izuku, occasionally getting a written answer from them. And the four adults tried to act like nothing was wrong, although Izuku gave them all an odd glance, nothing really got past that kid, still, they must have figured that it wasn’t too important because they just kept listening to Toga with a grin on their face.
About an hour later, Shouta, Hizashi, and Izuku had to leave, and Ryo drew the short straw for having to tell the kids that it was time to say goodbye. While he did that, Sekijiro caught a look from Shouta, who quickly asked him a question in code, ‘so, are you...?’
Sekijiro responded hesitantly, ‘maybe,’ it admitted after a few seconds, ‘just maybe.’