EFFLORESCING EDELWEISS ( s. todoroki )

3; moonflower

HANAKO IS BORED. It's eleven in the evening and she's traipsing through the dimly lit streets with her hands behind her back. They didn't see the boy Momoka is smitten with when they visited the Noodle House, but she got to taste tasty ramen so she really didn't lose anything. They parted ways back at the subway with the two other girls telling her to take care on her way home.

Hanako doesn't have home. She has an apartment above the parlor owned by a former drag queen and current teacher, Eli-san, but that place isn't a home. It is merely a place to stay.

Papa once told her that homes were places where you felt safe and happy and warm and Hanako had asked him with wide, innocent eyes if the house, the dingy apartment where they stayed was a home and Papa nodded with tears pooling in his eyes that no matter where they were as long as they were together, they were home.

Now that Papa is gone, there is no home. There is an apartment made of rotting wood and cement where she needs to stay because she's still a vulnerable human being, but that is no home. She wonders if Papa's murderer has a home too and if she has, Hanako wishes that it burns to the ground. She'd gladly dance in its ashes.

"Ouch!" Hanako has bumped into someone, she can tell because there's immediately a hand reaching out toward her the moment she bobs her head up. The impact is also ridiculously strong and she feels pain.

"I apologize," the person says. "I didn't see you there."

Hanako contemplates if she should give him flowers in special places, but she decides against it. There will come a time when she will be able to do whatever she wants without fearing the backlash, but this isn't that time. Besides, this is the boy Momoka is smitten with and if they find his corpse by the river, it'll probably be too noisy for her tastes.

"It's okay," she says, but she doesn't accept his hand. There are no other personages in the path seeing as it is almost midnight, so she finds no reason as to why he shouldn't notice her, as to why he should bump into her when there are meters of space around them. Maybe she is just that unnoticeable and Hanako rolls her eyes at how foolish she is being. It doesn't matter if this boy thinks she is insignificant. He is insignificant in her eyes too.

"Really, I'm sorry," he says and she kneels in front of Hanako and she wonders why at first, but there is a trickle of blood on her knee. "My house is just nearby. My sister can help you with that."

This boy is the Number One Hero's son and no way in hell will Hanako risk catching the attention of that man. It will put a dent in her plans.

"It's alright," Hanako says with her voice and the pain is worsening at every second. Hanako hates to admit it, but her body is more sensitive compared to the norm, so wounds and scratches on her hurt twice than it should. Her house (not home, because home is gone and in order to avenge it, you have to endure that pain and stay away from the watchful gaze of people. Hanako, everything is for Papa so endure) is still very far away and the stinging in her knees is beginning to feel more excruciating by the minute.

"Are you sure?" he asks. " Your knees are trembling."

Hanako needs to get away from this boy. She has to remain insignificant under his eyes, she has to, she needs to, because she will fail Papa if there is a single dent in her plans. Maybe she should just kill him, she can manage a flower or too. She'll put them in his brain and it will be that simple. But he's the Number One Hero's son and they might trace it back to her!

"It's okay," she says again and curse her frail body, and that red red red ( she hates red so much, make it stop! ) blood trickling from the cut. "I need to get going."

Hanako begins to walk and it hurts, maybe she should just head to the convenience store since it is nearer. It's open for 24 hours anyway and the one on duty is Morita-san who really likes Hanako. There is a first aid kit in the store if she's not mistaken. It really hurts ( shut up, don't complain, you will not achieve anything if you do! Shut up, shut up! ).

Hanako trips.

But this time she doesn't fall to the ground.

° ° °
m o o n f l o w e r ;
night, instability