"I don't know..." You murmur unconfidently.
After allowing you to play on his handheld console for the majority of the evening yesterday, and for most of the afternoon, Shigaraki was now holding true to his request to do some quirk training with you today while Dabi was out with Atsuhiro.
Spinner was alongside him, standing a short distance away in the courtyard, his arms crossed as he waited to be instructed to do something.
Shigaraki wanted you to use your quirk on him. Something you weren't entirely comfortable with doing, knowing how sick it can make people, and not wanting to upset him or Dabi by extension. You wished Jin was back home so that he could make some more clones for you to train with instead. Even after your last training session with Shigaraki a month or so ago, you felt guilty whenever you even thought about your quirk and how it made people feel whenever you used it.
"It'll be fine." Shigaraki replies nonchalantly.
You were used to having your quirk spoken down upon, used to being told it was useless and you believed and understood that. But you weren't used to being told to use it, and you especially weren't used to people being completely unbothered by the idea that it would knock them sick.
"I don't want to make you sick." You continue to murmur, looking shyly at Spinner for a second before dropping your eyes to your hands, which were playing with the hem of your sweater.
"You know how to turn it off." Shigaraki replies. "Quickly activate and deactivate it. I want to see if you remember how to do it."
You fiddle with your sweater some more before sighing, taking a deep breath and trying to straighten your stance in faux confidence.
"Okay." You agree, reaching to touch his forearm.
You activate your quirk the second that your hand lays on his arm. It looked as though he had gained a little more weight recently, your hand not wrapping around his limb like it had before.
To your surprise, Shigaraki doesn't seem too affected. His eyes dilate ever so slightly, and his cracked lips turn upwards ever so slightly, but he doesn't sway, doesn't pale, and doesn't seem sick in the slightest.
Your eyebrows furrow in confusion, and you tighten your grip on his forearm, making him give a small giggle that you scarcely heard from him before.
"Impressive." He says simply.
"But you're not sick." You argue, activating your quirk a second time like you had when training with your clone last time.
This gets a reaction out of him, his eyes widening and his body swaying ever so slightly. You feel a little more accomplished before realising you'd deliberately made Dabi's boss and boyfriend more sick on purpose.
You quickly deactivate your quirk, apologising hurriedly.
Spinner seems to be ready to catch Shigaraki if needed, his own eyes wide and slightly concerned.
Shigaraki rights himself almost straight away, a gleam of amusement in his ruby eyes.
"That's a cool quirk." He praises.
You'd never heard that before.
You stare at him in shocked silence, your eyes wide and your arm slowly dropping down to your side again.
You'd never been told your quirk was cool before, and you weren't entirely sure you believed it. It wasn't cool like Dabi's fire, or useful like Jin's 'double' quirk.
But Shigaraki never lied. He was always honest, almost brutally so. So you couldn't help but feel a little prideful with yourself for the first time in your short life.
"I'm used to feeling unwell." Shigaraki explains, dropping to a crouch like Dabi does whenever he needs to tell you something important. "It was part of my training when I was younger."
You nod, listening intently to what he had to say, finding the lack of reaction he had to your quirk fascinating.
"Do it again." He orders, raising to his full height once more.
You reach for him, more confidently this time, only for him to move out of the way swiftly. You frown, reaching for him again, only for him to take a step back far enough away from you to stop you from being able to reach him easily.
You're about to voice a complaint when he beckons you towards him. You eagerly comply, under the impression that he may finally let you do what he asked this time.
Except he doesn't.
The second you get close enough to touch him, he leaps back, a giant grin on his face.
"Stop!" You whine, beginning to feel embarrassed that he was evading you so easily in front of Spinner.
"I never said I'd make it easy." Shigaraki grins. "Gotta raise your stats."
You make a noise of confusion, raising your arms in exasperation and looking over at Spinner for a translation.
"He means he wants you to learn to be quicker, maybe a little stronger. More observant." Spinner explains, smiling gently at you.
Shigaraki is still standing in place, waiting for you to move towards him again.
You think about what Spinner just told you. You weren't confident that you would ever be faster than Shigaraki. He was pretty quick, even from what little you'd seen. You were a little clunky on your feet at the minute, something Dabi put down to a 'growth spurt'. You definitely wouldn't be stronger than Shigaraki too now that he was carrying a little more weight. So you'd have to be observant, and work around your physical shortfalls.
You hatch a plan relatively quickly, wasting no time in pretending to lunge for Shigaraki again, being a little quicker this time.
As expected, he slips away from your touch, clearly having expected you to try to be faster after what Spinner had said. But he doesn't expect you to 'trip' and fall to the floor, giving a false yelp of pain.
Spinner is by your side before Shigaraki is, his arm wrapped around you as he worries over you, asking what's wrong.
You whimper until you see Shigaraki's red sneakers in your line of sight, your hand flying out to make contact with his leg, your eyes shining with pride when you activate your quirk with an annoyed hiss from Shigaraki.
"Got you!" You announce, looking up at him with shining eyes.
"Star!" Spinner exclaims in shock before laughing and rubbing your arm.
You deactivate your quirk, still kneeling on the floor and looking up at Shigaraki with a smug grin. He grins back down at you, crouching and scratching your scalp gently with three fingers.
"Stealthy. Good work." He praises, holding his fist out for a fist bump.
You bump his fist, beaming with pride now and getting up onto your feet in sync with him.
"You know 'tag'?" He asks, tilting his head.
You shake your head. "What's a tag?"
Spinner looks saddened by your response, but Shigaraki seems unphased, humming thoughtfully and scratching at his neck a couple times before dropping his hand to his side.
"Tag is when you chase someone and try to touch them to 'tag' them." He explains. "I want you to play tag with me and Spinner. Only you'll be turning your quirk on and off. Does that make sense?"
"But..." You look at Spinner anxiously.
Shigaraki was used to being sick, but not Spinner. And you didn't want to make him sick. You didn't like making anyone sick, but knowing Shigaraki could deal with it better than the others made you feel a little better training with him.
Spinner smiles at you reassuringly.
"I'm pretty vulnerable right now." He encourages.
You look at Shigaraki, who nods, before pressing your hand to Spinner's side and activating your quirk.
Spinner sways almost instantly, catching himself from falling over by holding himself up with one hand placed on the floor.
You apologise profusely, deactivating your quirk again.
"Good job Star." Shigaraki praises, taking a few steps back. "I want you to 'tag' us five times each. Do what you have to do to get us."
Spinner ruffles your hair with taloned fingers before standing and fleeing a good distance from you too.
You rise to your full height, staring at them both, Shigaraki looking as casual as usual and Spinner standing in a more defensive position.
You try to think of new ways to catch them out, but come up empty, pacing closer to them while you think.
You decide that Spinner is slower than Shigaraki, but significantly stronger. You'd seen him a few times in the gym with Dabi, and even without knowing he and Dabi were training together, you could see how more muscular than Shigaraki he was.
So you sprint towards Spinner first, as fast as your little legs would carry you. But you don't expect him to stick to the wall of the hotel you all reside in and climb up out of your reach.
You scowl. "No fair!"
Spinner chuckles at your reaction, and Shigaraki calls your attention back to him.
"You expect people not to use their own quirks in return?" He asks. "That's unrealistic."
You pout, jumping up to try and catch Spinner who scuttles up the wall higher in return.
You huff and spin to face Shigaraki again, hands on your hips.
"You're not using your quirk." You point out.
"Would you like me to?" He asks with a small smirk.
You shake your head immediately. You didn't need to revisit the memory of what his quirk had done to your clone when you last trained with him, it lived in the back of your mind constantly.
He was pretty good with his hands, aware of what he was doing with them and how he needed to hold and touch things in a way that wouldn't allow his quirk to take effect, but if you gave him the go ahead to use it, that would go out of the window, and that made you nervous.
"Then hurry up and tag us." Shigaraki grins, opening his arms out as if making himself vulnerable to your quirk.
It takes a long time, but you manage to tag Spinner three times, and Shigaraki twice by sheer luck.
It even gets to a point where even Spinner seems to be trying to help you catch Shigaraki out, too. But he is unsuccessful with every attempt as well. Every time he slides, jumps or ducks out of the way, Shigaraki's grin gets wider and wider, his tongue poking out to wet his lips on occasion.
You begin to get tired and sluggish, your movements getting more and more sluggish and clumsy. Even Spinner seems a little out of breath.
You're about to ask for a juice break when there's a flash of black and purple, and suddenly Shigaraki's being held hostage by Dabi.
He grunts in confusion, vermillion eyes wide when Dabi grabs him.
"Get him, Starshine." Dabi calls, grinning like the cat that got the cream.
You beam, happy to see Dabi back, and more than willing to tag Shigaraki for the third time. You still needed to tag them both a fourth and fifth time, but it was better than still being on three and two tags.
You giggle, running up to Shigaraki who was wiggling in Dabi's grasp, and grabbing his upper arm.
"Attagirl!" Dabi praises, grinning with his cheek pressed against Shigarakis when Shigaraki stops wiggling.
You deactivate your quirk quickly so that you can give Dabi a hug.
He lets go of Shigaraki in favor of lifting you up and giving you a hug.
"Been working hard?" He asks, kissing your cheek.
"Mhm!" You reply, wrapping your arms around his neck. "Spinner can climb up walls and Shigaraki's fast."
"Climbing up walls?" Dabi asks, sounding surprised himself. "That's cool, huh?"
"Yup!" You agree.
You notice Spinners scales go slightly browner as he hears the compliment, him stammering a little and scratching the back of his neck.
"It's not that cool..." He replies shyly.
"It's super cool!" You exclaim instantly, Dabi shifting you in his arms a little.
"We'll leave it there for today." Shigaraki interrupts, brushing his knuckles over your cheek faintly. "Good work. You tried hard."
You blush a little, not used to such affectionate words from Shigaraki, never mind the gentle touch. It's nice being praised, but you never seem to grow accustomed to it, even though Dabi, Jin and Uncle Giran always showered you with it.
"M' so proud of you." Dabi murmurs, nuzzling his scarred and metal laden cheek against you.
You whine in embarrassment, trying to pull yourself away from him. He chuckles at your antics, holding you closer and rubbing his cheek even harder against yours.
"Dad!" You whine again, struggling in his arms.
"Daaaad, stop it." Dabi mocks, kissing your cheek once more before setting you down. "Come on. Dinner."