𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐂 ᵐʰᵃ

SIX

THE BOY WITH GREEN EYES IS EITHER BRAVE OR STUPID. Nothing about him tells her that he acknowledges the possible danger of this situation. His posture is relaxed, a notebook and pencil held loosely by crooked fingers. The freckles that explode across his skin almost hide the dark moons under his eyes. He smiles, a polite smile that could be reassuring if not for the sympathy hidden in it, and holds out a scarred hand.

"Hello. I'm Deku."

She stares at him. This boy, radiating hope and sunshine and untapped chaos, is the one that Tomura is near obsessed over. Ranting, throwing things, complaining for hours on end about how "the Midoriya brat" ruined his plans in Hosu. She's seen his picture punctured with darts and knives, then disintegrated in a fit of rage.

She's held his heart in her grip as his classmates were attacked.

"You were there," she says, blinking slowly. "I remember you."

"I was," he says with a nod, still smiling, still offering his hand. She narrows her eyes and spares a glance at the other boy.

Shinso won't meet her eyes.

Her anger returns as she grits her teeth and accepts Deku's - Midoriya's? -  handshake. "What do you want?" She wants them to leave, so she can be alone with her tainted thoughts and bloody nails. She wants to return to her room and curl up on the stiff bed, glare at the walls and wait for day to slip into night and back.

(She wants out, from everything and everyone. Even the grasp of sleep isn't enough, now that it's been defiled by Him and His cruelty, now that she will only wake to a world of questions and muffled static.)

The two boys share a look and sit at the table.

Midoriya - Deku? - flips open his notebook and rifles through to a blank page. "I have some questions- "

"So the detective sent you."

"I have some questions," he repeats, firm but still infuriatingly patient. "About your Quirk, I mean." Midoriya twirls the pencil and seems to look through her. "It looks to be an Emitter type, right? You don't physically transform when you use it, and you don't seem to have any permanent mutations. Or maybe you do, and we just can't see it? I think it's an Emitter, I've never seen anything like your Quirk so I can't be sure, but obviously it's complex ..." She blinks. ...what?

Shinso - just as tired and deadpan as she remembers - rolls his eyes. In annoyance or fondness, she can't tell. When he catches her staring, he frowns and and looks away.

" -and I remember you could control the heart and lungs, is it just those two or the whole circulatory and respiratory systems? Or just the nervous system, because you were able to freeze up all the nerves in my body so I couldn't move, and that was really cool even though it was terrifying, but controlling the entire body is kind of over-powered so is it natural or- " Midoriya sucks in a deep breath and pauses, eyeing her. She must look as confused as she feels, because he smiles sheepishly and waves it off. "Sorry."

"Uh ..." It takes a moment to process everything, like one of Tomura's old video games trying to load on an overused network. "I don't ... know?" I'm too tired for this. Her nails are still bloody and her arm is starting to itch where she tore the scars open. At this point she's not even angry anymore, just weary and ready to be done with this. "All of that, I suppose."

Midoriya opens his mouth, closes it. Chews on his lip as he scribbles down whatever is running through his mind. She's curious enough to lean forward and watch him write, gaze drifting to a small but detailed sketch of a girl with dark hair and thick lines curling around her neck.