--2--
"Aaaaaand here." You pointed over the documents Faust held, sitting in his hospital bed. He initialed it quickly. "How many more of these do I have to sign?"
"Uh, a lot." You turned to the next page, leaning forward from the chair you pulled in close to the bedside. "This is ridiculous." They scoffed, pinching at the pages left to go over. "No, what's ridiculous is you ripping off your primary arm in front of your nurse and by proxy having her put on leave." You frowned.
"I told them it's faster for it to grow back than heal."
"Okay, but still." You pointed again and again in the empty spaces along the pages, watching him sign with one of his good hands.
"Three days to grow back or six weeks to heal. A-"
"Uh huh, sign here, last one...for now." You flipped through the document, showing him the last place to be signed.
"What do you mean by that?"
You snapped the folder shut. "By that, I mean I'm gonna see what strings I can pull to keep you out of trouble for that stunt." You stuffed the folder away in your side bag, pulling out an envelope. "You want this now or...?" You waved it lightly. "What is it?" Akria snatched it from you. "A check." You answered plainly. "A check? Government too scared to direct deposit my out of town expenses now?" He asked. "Ah, no." You puffed. "That's for your heroics within a minimum diameter of Might Towers."
"Huh?!"
"You'd be surprised how many heroes just...don't patrol that area because they assume it'd be handled by one or less." You watched them open the envelope and peek in. "What the fuuuck." Their eyes went wide. "Yeah you should've seen Liu Wei's face this morning." You chucked.
"Speaking of." Akira set the envelope down on the table next to his bed. "How are things?"
"Liu Wei is doing good." You nodded. "His scratches have healed really well, they probably won't scar."
"I meant you."
"Oh," You raised your brows and looked elsewhere while you thought. "I'm okay, not really sore anymore." You shrugged.
"Anything else?"
"I have a lot of followers on my socials now, a few fan cams, a couple of 'this you?'s from the people back home, it's pretty alright I guess."
"So?" Akira leaned forward, coaxing you to continue.
"Oh, no, nothing's coming of it."
"Bullshit."
"I'm being serious." You said honestly. "No talk of getting you official or suited at all?" They lifted a brow. "There's barely any talking about anything." You laid your head on the bedside on your folded arms. "I did not sign up to listen to your relationship problems."
"Okay, but I don't really have anyone else to vent to right now so I need you to shut the fuck up and listen."
"Spicy."
"Like I was saying, we haven't really been talking since then. Like, I'll try to strike up a conversation but he's so brusque."
"He's actually mad at you?"
"He's not mad, I know he's not. He's...upset? I don't know. Well, I know I made it worse a few days ago."
"How'd you manage that?" Akira rested a hand on your head.
"I, um," You let out a long winded sigh. "There was this one time, when he put an offer on the table. He's like 'Hey, not saying you have to but it'd be cool if you married me el oh el.' and I'm like 'Yeah, sure, okay, pal. Whatever you say, buckaroo.' Y'know? A little jokey joke. So I walked up to his room door, and I peep in, and I don't remember what he's doing but he's sitting on his bed facing away from me. I ask him if I can take him up on the offer. He's like 'Which one?' so I tell him the one on the table and he takes a little while to look at me. Like he stopped what he was doing completely, to process the dumb shit that just came out of my mouth. And I know it's dumb, because when he finally gets around to looking at me, he tells me I need to give him space. So judging from that reaction it-"
"It was not a little 'jokey joke', no." Akira patted your head. "I always knew you were weak in the knees, but this is almost pathetic."
"What if I snapped your neck right now?" You asked calmly.
"What colors do you want at your funeral? I'll tell your mother you went out like a bitch."
"Fuck you. I thought you liked my mom."
"I do, that's why I have to tell her the truth."
"Anyway." You rolled your eyes. "There's been less communication unless it's work or house related. I really just want to get the conversation over with."
"I think you would've been better off telling him from the beginning."
"Yeah, no." You laughed. "Nooo. No."
"What will you do then, hm? He leaned down, your head adjusting just enough for you to meet his eyes. "This is a soft bed," You looked away. "I might stay here for a while."
"As long as you want, but only if you smuggle food in for me." He leaned back against his pillows. "Anything you want."
But you couldn't lie there forever.
Deep inhales and slow exhales. You looked out over the city, legs dangling over the edge of the building. You leaned back on your palms, trying to find it in yourself to bob your head along with the music playing through your ear buds. Your mind just went where it wanted, zoning out over the blurred lights of vehicles zooming to their destinations.
There was a low whistling that pulled you from your thoughts. You blinked slowly, not turning to the soft thud that happened behind you. Not turning to the steps that approached. Not turning to the one that sat beside you. You could see him in your peripheral, that was enough for now, and it seemed he felt the same.
So quiet. Even with the buzzing and occasional honking of traffic, and even with the gliding wheels of the trains.
Leaning forward, and resting bent elbows on his thighs. You saw his brows pinch in the slightest when he asked you "Do you trust me?"
You nodded slowly, humming with your answer. "Do you really?"
You repeated yourself.
"When I asked you, all that time ago, if there was anything else I needed to know about you, why didn't you tell me this?"
"Part of me wanted to, most of me didn't. It's not that I thought you wouldn't take it well, I just never saw an outcome in my favor."
"You omitted it from your resume."
"It's public record, Might. If you wanted to know everything that bad you would've started with a google search."
"I wanted you to tell me. I want you to feel comfortable enough around me to tell me these things."
"Would it have made a difference?"
"What?"
"In how you treated me. If I told you I had my provisional from the jump."
"Yes. You're a liability."
"Wow." Your head flew back, gaze fixing on the sky. "So now what?"
"Be honest with me, please. If there's anything, I mean anything you need to get off your chest so we can move forward on a clean slate, say it. I'll do the same. No judgment."
"Where do you wanna start?"
"Who...Who were you on the phone with the other day? The one who said you can still call her mom."
You nodded. "There was this guy, we grew up together, that was his mom." You sighed. "She called to say he'd be proud of me." You let your eyes close. "I can still see it, clear as day, like I'm still there. I'd just gotten back from an internship, it was my third or fourth I don't remember. He picked me up from the airport, my number one fan, and we talked the whole car ride. He had so many questions and then bam. Everything went white, then black, then white again. I was upside down when my eyes opened.
We'd been t-boned by a garbage truck and flipped seven times. The brakes malfunctioned is what they claimed, it ran right through a red light and just bam. I called his name, I called it a lot. When I saw him hanging there beside me, so quiet. When I let myself down and my head slammed against the roof of the car, when I pulled him down and out of the window and his hand didn't come with him. When he lied on the asphalt, so quiet, bleeding out while my quirk wouldn't function. While I tried in vain to bubble where he lost his limb and just nothing happened. I took my belt off and tightened it as much as I could around his arm. I took his off and tied it around his thigh because his femur had broken so badly, it was poking out. There was so much blood, and he was so quiet.
He never answered me when I called his name. Jason, stay with me. Jason, just hold on. The paramedics came, someone called for them, and they took us both in. He died on impact and Broadside died alongside him. How could I have the audacity to call myself a hero if I couldn't pull it together under pressure. Whether he died or not, I couldn't do anything. I switched career paths, he would've hated it but," You shrugged. "I just couldn't keep that up." You tried to smile. "He, uh, he had this nifty little quirk. He was a mimic, a mockingbird. He'd do this retro radio voice whenever I was down." You fixed your throat, having mastered mocking the mockingbird. "There she is! The prettiest girl in the world, ladies and gentlemen, my sweetheart." It took you too long to get it down, but when you did...man oh man.
"I finished school and moved here. I didn't have my desired job lined up yet so I figured I'd just teach English until then. I loved the kids but it was draining. I met someone, Faust, and we got pretty close. They helped me through a lot and unintentionally convinced me to quit teaching. It was alright though, I found a job in claims and planned to work my way up from there. Much to his surprise we were coworkers, sort of. We'd have lunch together in the cafe and I'd complain about my shitty supervisor and the bullying that was at a minimum. When he left it escalated to workplace harassment. I was fired and evicted the same day," You looked at him. "And then you caught me."
"I know it doesn't mean much, but I'm so sorry that happened to you. That amount of trauma at that age..."
You hummed again, turning back to the sky. "Your turn."
"What do you want to know?"
"Anything. You're hiding more than I was. It's in your eyes at all times." He didn't say anything. "It's okay, we've all got secrets."
"Ask me something."
"Why don't you talk about your people?"
His lips pursed, almost to forbid him from speaking, broken after a sharp inhale. "You know what it's like only having your basic needs met. Food, shelter, some clothes. The social workers looking over me said someone found me in a locker, they reminded me everyday. 'They didn't love you, Ueno'. That's what they called me. Ueno. Ueno Station. 'They put you there and never looked back, Ueno'. I wish I could say I was old enough when I packed the few things I had and ran. I wasn't Ueno, someone loved me enough to give me a name. They stitched that name into the blanket I was wrapped in. I bounced from here to there until I found somewhere stable. They're the closest thing I've got to a family, living at least.
I had a lot on my plate for a great portion of my life. I still do, but I started chipping away at it bit by bit. Whatever was most important to me at the time or whatever I could afford at the time. I came home after years abroad and started to build this place from the ground up. Having 'people', a family, was never at the forefront of my mind. I'd see someone, I'd start to entertain the thought, and then I'd sweep it under the rug. I didn't have time. I don't have time. Sometimes I feel like I just don't want to put in the effort." He shook his head. "I hate the thought of bringing someone into this world and not being able to give them everything they'd ever want. I've got the money, okay, I could buy them anything but.... As soon as I could I started actively pushing for change in orphanages and the foster care system. The homes I fund have the most brutal application process with borderline illegal screening for employees and potential parents. I made it that way, and will continue to do so to make sure only the most capable can care for and mold those young minds. I hated not having that. Only tasting it every once in a while and it wouldn't even linger."
"I'm not going to tell you that everything that happened made you the person you are today, because I know you don't want to hear it."
"I appreciate that."
"Did you ever try finding your birth parents?"
"I could never bring myself to. I think about it. It used to be everyday, but the older I get I just...don't know."
"And the family you stayed with?"
"They live not too far from here. I see them from time to time. That's who the wedding invite was from, in case you were wondering."
"It wasn't at the top of my list, but yeah, I was."
"Anything else?"
"There's a door in the house. I've only heard you open it once. What is that?"
"Mancave."
You snorted. "Okay. What about you? Do you have anything else you want to ask me?"
"Just that you tell me anything that may cause unrest."
You took a deep breath, inhaling slowly. "I ran into your ex. Her girl ran me down at the airport."
"I don't- I'll talk to her."
"You can't. I made it so you can't and she...I don't know. I want to say she's obsessed, I want to say she's bitter. She was warning me. She had pictures, descriptions of who you've been with. 'Toshinori was with me for this long and then moved on to them, then he came back to me and moved on to this person', and so on and so forth. She even had pictures of us that day at the cafe, she saw us. And she played both of us, because she thought you were cheating on her with me. He's manipulative, she said. He'll strip you of your autonomy, you'll have nowhere to run." You grinned. "And when he's done with you, he'll come calling me. I fixed that, I broke her phone. I bubbled it crushed it until I couldn't tell what I was looking at anymore. I played good cop, I played bad cop. I made her stress and turn red. I made tears fill her eyes and let her fear me hurting you. Then I dried those tears and I fixed her crown, I helped her pack and sell the condo. We had a spa day with mimosas and I watched her board that plane to wherever and disappear. I let her speak her piece and then I broke the vice." You looked at him. "Heal. Tell me about the murders."
"....It's not as random as we originally thought. They prioritize the most mentally and physically healthy. They're also the second."
"Second."
He nodded. "The first one was sloppy like they wanted to get caught. This one...everything is strategic. The damage done is so precise. From the injection to the severed fingers, it's like a machine did it. There's never any camera footage, it's either scrubbed or the cams are disabled. No prints, no hair, nothing. Nothing but a body sent for autopsy."
"No idea what happened to the first one then?"
"He could be one of the unclaimed in the morgue for all I know. Anything else?"
"Why didn't you kick someone's ass while you were in the system? Me, personally, with a quirk like yours, I would've done some damage."
"I was a late bloomer."
"Ah, in all the trauma and we find something in common."
"You didn't say anything else to her, did you?"
"Bianca? I told her I was your employee and she was reading too much into shit. She let it slip that she had a feeling you knew and were just trying to get back." You paused. "You, uh, you ever considered that women might not be your thing?"
"Have you ever considered that all I need is consent and a hole?"
"Whew, wow. Just like me for real." You sat up fully. "So what now?"
"That's up to you."
"...Make up sex?"
"No."
"Worth a shot."
"I'll give you that."
"Food then. I found a good hole in the wall." You pointed as best as you could, in the general direction of the little restaurant you mentioned. "They should still be open."
"Sounds like a plan." Yagi stood, holding out a hand for you to take. You did, and he brought you to your feet with ease while he brought his other arm out. "What?" You looked them over, taking your hand back. "I didn't drive, I can carry you."
You snorted, "You know now.", and leapt from the edge, the bubbles covering you kept gravity from pulling you straight down. You landed on the rooftop of a building far below the Towers, but not too far to see Yagi where you left him. You waved, yelling for him to come join you on the scenic route.
The air was thick, but at least the food was good. You spoke up while giving up your bamboo shoots, moving what you had over to his plate. "I'm sorry." It was quiet, just between the two of you in the tiny restaurant, hidden away in an alley. "You don't have to apologize for saving people." Yagi replied. "I'm not." You shook your head. "I'm apologizing for the other night, about the offer thing."
He only hummed.
"Yeah. I know." You sighed. "It wasn't a joke."
"It's still there." He took a bite of the bamboo you gave him, glancing at you for only a second. "Really? Why?" You leaned in, wrists pressing against the table. "Because I want it to be."
"Can I take you up on it now?"
He snorted, shaking off his smirk while he pulled a piece from the fried squid between you. "Absolutely not."
"That's fair." You shifted in your seat. "Is it...is it still there because even with your status and social class you're realizing that your dating pool is beginning to narrow so it's best if your just settle."
"One, fucking ouch." He plucked one of your tofu cubes from your bowl. "Two, I'm not the one settling."
"I'm not...I don't think-"
"Don't think too much about it, just know I'll get you back. I'll wait until you're mad. Seething. Livid. So much that you don't don't even want to look at me and I'll tell you I want to cash in on that bet I won almost a year ago."
"Wooooooow. Wow. Okay, Tosh, that's a- that's pretty dark, not gonna lie."
"Not even close."
"That's not comforting...but I'm still glad the offer's there."
"And why's that?"
"I don't know. Sorry I couldn't be the soft, civilian: 'All Might's wife'."
"I'll get over it." Yagi chuckled, repeating that last part under his breath. "I think Broadside sounds better, it has a nice ring to it. How long did it take you to come up with that?"
"Not long at all." You confessed. "I spent some time on the water for an internship."
"And you didn't want to go with a siren or mermaid theme?"
"Nope, but my support item at the time was a trident."
"No." He lowered his chopsticks from his mouth. "I swear." You set a hand on your chest. "I didn't see anything about that anywhere." Yagi's brows furrowed. "Well it didn't last for very long." You pulled a piece of squid for yourself. "I left the water and just used a regular staff."
"And what else?" Might sat forward. "What do you mean?" You asked through bites. "What else? Tell me about what you did before you retired."
"Really? It's not much." You trailed off. "Not many people retire on a provisional license and keep their abilities on par like you have, so I'd say it's a lot. That dome you made is something to brag about, don't you think?"
"It wasn't that cool." You said sarcastically, "It only fit a few people."