"Happy Birthday."
"What?"
"I said, Happy Birthday."
Shota turned on his side in our bed, his black hair gently flopping over with a soft smile on his lips. My gaze fixated on those thin, pink, pale pair of lips as they moved slowly.
"Birthday?"
✐ ✐ ✐ ✐ ✐
I stood outside your apartment building tonight, atop a roof across the street, just for a little bit. I managed to sneak a peek of you coming home from work.
You've gotten skinnier, Shota. Are you eating right? Are you sleeping? I already know the answer to both but I still want to ask.
I wish I could pester you about it like how I used to. Bugging you over and over everyday, reminding you to eat more and sleep longer. I think you started listening to me there towards the end. Your juice pouches had turned into home cooked meals and your two hour naps morphed into long, quiet nights.
And in those nights you often clung to me in the tightest manner to stop the nightmares from reaching my dreams. You would hold me against your chest and stroke my hair while whispering the sweetest things in my ear.
I miss you, Sho.
Maybe one day I'll work up the courage to scale your fire escape and get a closer look.
Maybe one day you'll leave your window open and I'll catch the faintest smell of your cologne, or the leftover smoke from your evening cigarette.
Maybe I'll be close enough one day to hear your voice again, if I'm lucky your laugh, but I doubt I'll ever be that fortunate.
I exhaled, seeing my breath in front of me as I pulled my mask back over my mouth, watching carefully as the man I loved more than anything cautiously pull his mail out of the boxes in the apartment lobby.
"Happy Birthday, Sho." I mumbled underneath my mask as I watched him from far away.
"Smokes? Smokes? You there?" His voice broke through the static, flickering me back to reality and what I was really out here to do. I frowned. Sitting on the edge of the building and laying out the laptop Dabi had given me in front.
"Yeah." I said, pulling the mask that covered half my face down and tapping the microphone button on my ear piece. "I don't like this, Dabi."
"Repossession isn't murder."
"It's robbery."
"Details, details." He chuckled, "If it's too much for you-."
"I'm fine." I lied, my fingers pressing against the keys of the keyboard a bit harder. "It's just-."
"You were a hero." He interrupted me, I paused my typing, looking over my shoulder to see Shota thumbing through his mail so carelessly behind those windowpane doors. "Conflict of morals, I get it, but these ain't good people. They're criminals, like me." I bit my lip, opening up the tabs necessary and clicking through them with specific coding until I was looking at a map of our area. "We are doing society a favor." I was silent on the other end, swallowing hard as I double clicked some icons and enlarged the map on my screen. "Are you ready, Harbinger?" My heart trembled in my chest as I heard my hero name for the first time in forever.
"Harbinger is dead." I mumbled.
"Huh? That's right, isn't it." Dabi hummed, "Well then, are you ready...." he trailed off, "Azureth? Like the Blue Dragon?" My eyes narrowed over the flashing screen in front of me, the slightest hint of annoyance in my voice.
