Touya wakes up with Tomura's face pressed into his shoulder, and Star drooling on the arm Touya had placed under her head.
His other arm is still draped over her side, and he uses his quirk to heat up the little heatable duck he'd gotten her the first time she'd gotten her period.
If it were warmed up, it'd ease her discomfort for a little longer, and the longer she's out cold, the longer he could have Tomura to himself.
Two birds, one stone.
Gloved fingers begin running over his stomach, Tomura yawning behind him. It was thoughtful of him to wear gloves in his own bed for the sake of Star.
Touya himself didn't care too much. He'd seen Tomura and how he operated around his quirk for long enough to know that Tomura was incredibly careful.
"Mornin' boss." Touya greets in a hushed tone, feeling cracked lips pressing against the clear skin on his shoulder.
"Out of hours." Tomura replies with a smirk.
"Sorry. Mornin' babe." Touya corrects, cringing a little with how awkwardly the word escapes him.
It makes Tomura happy though, feeling his lips curving upwards against Touya's back moments before he pulls away from him, reaching for his phone.
Touya lets go of Star's little ducky, kissing the top of her head before slowly turning onto his back to look at Tomura.
He'd never woken up next to Tomura yet, and somehow Tomura didn't seem any different to how he usually was.
Both Touya and little Star took a little while to wake up properly, both of them looking scruffy from restless sleep and having to stretch and rub their eyes to fully realise they had woken up.
But there Tomura was, sitting up, gloved hand cradling his phone, the other reaching for a glass of water by the side of the bed. His crimson eyes were completely clear of sleep, even if they were narrowed, and his hair was just as messy as it typically was.
"Thanks for lettin' her... well, us. Stay." Touya says, voice just above a whisper.
Tomura grunts a little into the glass of water in response, lowering it back to its place on the bedside table.
"It's fine. I sleep better with people around anyway." Tomura replies with a small shrug.
Slept better with people around?
Touya raises an eyebrow. Usually it was the other way around, people liked to be alone to sleep he thought.
He can't help but wonder why it was that Tomura slept better with company and desperately tries to ignore the jealousy bubbling up underneath his skin when he wonders how Tomura knew that about himself, too.
"Didja ask Kurogiri to wash her 'jamas?" Touya yawns, sitting up slowly himself, and rubbing his eyes.
"No." Tomura replies bluntly, sounding a little confused, looking at Touya from the corners of his eyes. "Sounds like a pawpaw job."
Touya has to take a moment to collect himself and remind himself that Tomura wasn't being a dick, he was just being his usual matter-of-fact self and completely missing the point of adding some kind of tone to his voice to make it sound softer than it currently did whenever he spoke.
"She wasn't wearing those pants when she went to sleep." Touya replies quietly and calmly, gently plucking at the material covering Star's legs. "An' you were in our room. Surely you musta seen some pants lyin' around?"
Tomura raises one of his wrinkled brows in a way that Touya just knows is aimed at the mess that is Star and his room.
It wasn't easy sharing a space with a prepubescent kid that had never been taught how to tidy a space, and seemed absolutely fine living within a mess thanks to the neglect of her mother.
Mess was homely to the poor little girl.
"I didn't." Tomura replies coolly.
Touya frowns.
He'd been the one to put her pyjamas on her considering how deep in sleep she'd been last night. He knew for a fact that he put some pink pants with bunny heads dotted on them on her.
And now she was just wearing plain dark pink ones.
He pets her hair softly. She was still sleeping soundly with her face buried in her beloved teddy.
Tomura gives an amused huff of air, shaking his head in disbelief at his phone.
Touya looks over, a little surprised to hear that noise leaving Tomura so early in the day. He really must sleep better with people around, usually he was unapproachable in the mornings.
"What?" Touya asks curiously.
"According to the heroes, your kid's dead." Tomura replies, holding up his phone screen so Touya can read the words on the screen.
'Charred remains belonging to child victim Y/N L/N discovered in an abandoned factory.'
Touya's temper flares immediately, the flames that want to burst through his skin just barely being held back by the mere fact that Star was in such close proximity to him.
"I'm sorry?" He seethes, his fists bunching in an effort to hold his quirk back.
"They're trying to appease the people." Tomura muses aloud. "They can't get her back so it's better to claim she's gone. The public will be outraged, but it'll be brief instead of them dragging out the capture and making the public question their abilities to save people. Especially a child. The public always cares so much more when it's children."
Tomuras voice becomes more and more venomous throughout explaining his theory on why the heroes would do such a thing.
Touya's hands begin to shake in anger, his body temperature rising more and more despite his attempts to keep it under control.
"She's right fuckin' here." He hisses through gritted teeth, gesturing towards the slumbering child at his side. "Safe an' happy, like she should've fuckin' been with her ma."
"You'll wake her up." Tomura deadpans, not even sparing a glance towards him as he continues reading.
"Can't. She's dead." Touya replies sharply. "They'd just fuckin' give up on her? Jus' like that?"
For a second the fog of rage within his mind clears enough for him to have a realisation.
"Hol' up. Did that say charred?" He asks, with a whole new sense of fury.
Star groans in her sleep, moving away from Touya's heat.
"You're going to singe the sheets." Tomura informs him, smirking a little when he adds: "Again."
Touya's too pissed off to partake in the banter, slowly shuffling himself off the bed, trying not to wake up little Star as he starts noticing small wisps of smoke drifting up from between the seams of his arms.
He doesn't say another word to Tomura as he grabs his shirt from the floor, throws it over his head and snatches his cigarette carton from on top of Tomura's dresser.
"Check for her pyjamas." Tomura reminds him as Touya heads for the exit.
Touya grunts an acknowlegement, leaving the room before he bursts into flames.
He makes a beeline for the courtyard, needing to get outside to cool down now. He doesn't speak to any of the others as he passes them, lighting the cigarette he'd tucked behind his ear prematurely as he ventures through the building at speed.
He doesn't even spot Jin in the courtyard as he growls and throws a ball of fire towards the water fountain. A futile action, of course.
But it made him feel a little better having some of the fire inside his body, melting his innards, outside of his body.
"Heard the news, huh?" Jin asks sympathetically from behind him.
"Charred!" Touya barks angrily in response. "Why me?! I love the kid!"
Considering all the people in the building, he was glad that Jin was the one around to deal with him while he was like this.
Jin had a kid, albeit an actual blood relative, his own kid, but a kid all the same.
Jin got it.
Jin understood.
"Easier to explain." Jin shrugs. "Can say that the teeth and shit were ruined by your fire. If they blame Shigaraki they couldn't really say with certainty that it was our little Star, and they'd need a body to blame any of the rest o' us."
That was the longest Touya had ever heard Jin speak without splitting, and he's almost a little surprised that Jin's reasoning made perfect sense.
"Great." Touya scoffs, taking another puff of his cigarette. "Lucky me."
He throws another more controlled stream of fire in the direction of the water fountain before flopping onto the same bench as Jin with a huff, removing the cigarette from between his lips.
Jin carefully rubs between Touya's shoulders in an oddly parental fashion that Touya had never experienced before.
"She's better off them thinkin' she's dead." Jin tries to reassure in his own weird way. "She's fillin' out a bit more. Had a haircut. No-one'll know it's her. She could go outside of here."
Touya grunts.
He doesn't even really know why he's so angry. Probably the lack of family that hadn't even bothered raising their heads in the news to even pretend they wanted to find her.
Never mind the fact that no-one seemed to want to find her, and the fact that she was so easily cast away by society as a whole.
Easier for everyone, especially the heroes if she was just dead.
It strikes a nerve in him that was still raw from his own experience of 'being dead'.
No-one questioning it. Life moving on without you. No-one caring.
He almost begins steaming again when he thinks too much about it.
Jin doesn't say too much more, just continues rubbing Touya's back as they smoke together in silence.
"Y'know how your kid's doin'?" Touya asks in an attempt to change the conversation, to cool his head.
"Yeah." Jin grins. "She's okay. Seen her around here an' there. They grow up so quickly."
"Still a baby!" His second voice pipes up finally, and he clears his throat.
Touya gives a singular dry chuckle in response. "Yeah. Star'll always be a baby to me too."
They fall back into silence, and Jin slowly stops rubbing Touya's back as his body temperature drops back to a more regular heat for him.
He begins worrying instead. Should he have just taken her to a care facility instead of dragging her into his world of villainy and crime, even though he did try hiding the extent of it from her?
That way Y/N L/N would still be alive. Maybe in a normal home, with normal adoptive parents that loved her instead of a twenty-something year old with a point to prove.
"You really think she's happy here?" Touya asks quietly.
Jin flicks ash to the floor, and gives him a big grin, crows feet appearing in the outer corners of his black eyes.
He bumps Touya's shoulder with his own playfully.
"Sure she is. She loves ya to pieces!" Jin reassures. "Nah! I'm her favourite!"
"You're definitely a close third." Touya grins, feeling a little more at ease.
"Hey! Definitely a second!" Jin argues.
"Giran's second, well and truly." Touya snorts, shaking his head and taking the last drag of his cigarette.
"That's fair enough. Giran's a great guy." Jin nods. "Total sleaze!"
Touya gets up from the bench, feeling a little more stable internally.
He looks down at Jin, who keeps his eyes trained ahead as he finishes off his smoke too.
He looks less tired than he had since Magne's death. The bags under his eyes were still there, but less dark, and the blonde mop of hair atop his head was less messy than Touya remembered.
"Thanks, man." Touya says in a rare show of appreciation. "Glad you're back."
Jin looks up at him and nods. "Anytime, Dabs."
Touya nods back, turning around and heading back inside with a clear head.
He playfully ruffles Toga's hair this time as he passes, chuckling to himself when she whines about him messing it up. He nods silently at Spinner when he passes him, too.
Once he gets upstairs, he gives their room a once over, looking for Stars pyjama pants.
Annoyingly, Tomura was right. They didn't seem to be anywhere within view, even in the bathroom.
When he goes to open the door to Tomuras room, he can hear him talking to Star through the door.
Shamelessly, he leaves his hand resting on the door handle, listening carefully to their conversation through the door.
"How many operations have you had?" She asks.
"A few." Tomura replies, his answer brief, not giving away too much. "How do you know you're ten?"
"Because last time mom missed my birthday she said I was ten!" Star replies confidently, not realising just how sad that was. "Did your operations hurt?"
"I was asleep for them." Tomura replies, pausing briefly before continuing. "The healing was a little annoying."
Star hums thoughtfully. "What-"
"My turn." Tomura cuts her off, although his voice sounds more patient than harsh. "When did she realise she missed your birthday?"
He was fishing for information in the form of a game of questioning again.
Touya shakes his head with a small smile. Considering how abrupt and rude he'd been with Star for a long while after she and Dabi had fallen into his care, he did seem to know how to deal with her well.
"On Shūbun no Hi!" Star replies. "I wanted to go and make a wish at the shrine with everyone else like we did every year before mommy started taking the sleepy medicine and that's when mommy realised. She said 'oh shit, your birthday!'"
"Star." Tomura warns.
"Sorry." She apologises quickly. "...Don't tell Dabi."
There's a short pause, and Touya takes that as a sign to let himself in and interrupt their little 'game'.
Star looks overjoyed to see Touya back, her little eyes shining as he reappears in the room with a lazy grin.
"Starshine." He greets. "Sleep good?"
"Dabi!" She exclaims, and nods her head up and down with such ferocity that she bounces the bed a little. "Shigaraki said you went to smoke but we played a game while you were gone!"
So cute. So innocent.
How could they all just give up on her?
Remembering threatens to break his heart again. He needs to distract himself. Quickly.
"Yeah? Have fun?" He asks, perching on the end of the bed and reaching for her hair. "Was looking for your 'jamas. Where are they, dollface?"
Her demeanor changes entirely, a look of embarrassment and shame crossing her features as she looks a little worriedly at Tomura.
Touya didn't want any of that, but before Touya can even open his mouth, Tomura takes over.
"We need to know where they are so we can clean them. No-one will get mad, but we need to clean them quickly so they're not ruined." Tomura explains in his math-tutor voice. "Kurogiri is good at getting blood out of clothes."
Star takes a second to soak in what Tomura says before speaking up.
"I hid them under the bed." She confesses quietly.
Touya cups her face with one hand gently, stroking his thumb over her heated cheeks.
"Why'd ya hide 'em, princess?" He asks softly.
"I thought you'd get mad." She admits, her voice small. "Mom used to get mad when I got my clothes dirty."
Touya takes a deep breath to stop himself from losing his shit once more, and Tomura snorts, rolling his eyes from where he sits against his headboard.
"Kids are meant to get dirty." He informs her with total confidence.
"Really?" Star asks quietly, turning her attention to Tomura.
Touya tries not to think too much of how whenever he tried to reassure Star or tell her things, there was always a slight hint of doubt behind her eyes.
Even when he told her he loved her, which was the most truthful thing he'd said in years, she looked as though she was unconvinced at times.
It hurt. He hated that a child so young doubted something that he tried making so obvious. He didn't want her to feel unloved even for a second.
He knew how much kids needed that love growing up.
But now, watching her interact with Tomura, she was taking every word spoken as gospel.
"Sure. I used to get dirty all the time." Tomura shrugs. "That's why Kurogiri's so good at cleaning."
"You used to get dirty with blood a lot?" Star asks, sounding concerned. "Why?"
Touyas eyes dart towards Tomura, gauging his response. There were two answers to that question. One that Tomura didn't want to directly share with little Star, and one that Touya had banned anyone from sharing with her.
Tomura seems to always have an answer prepared, though.
"I used to hurt myself a lot." He says simply.
Touyas eyes widen.
That... wasn't an appropriate answer either, not for a ten year old at least.
But he supposes that Star had seen him claw at his neck while in one of his worse moods, so it wouldn't exactly be a surprise to her.
"Oh! Falling over." She nods, her innocence shining through once more. "You were clumsy? But you're so careful now!"
Tomuras eyes glaze over for a split second, and this time Touya does open his mouth to distract the overly curious child.
Once more, Tomura catches himself in time to answer.
"It took a while to learn." He explains casually with a shrug. "Do you want to keep playing our game, or would you like to watch Pokémon?"
Touya smiles softly at Star once he realises she's at ease once more.
Instead of just retrieving the pyjamas himself, he decides to just text Kurogiri telling him where they are instead. He wanted to spend some more time with her, and Tomura.
As much as his jealousy spiked at times watching the two interact and get on so much better than they had before, there was something oddly domestic about it all.
Or the closest thing to domestic Touya could imagine. It wasn't exactly something he'd experienced growing up, either.
"The game you showed me? There's a TV show?" She asks, her little eyes wide with excitement.
Tomura grunts an affirmative, reaching for the remote controller.
"Can we do both? Can Dabi join?" Star asks, tugging Touya further up the bed so all three are sat in a line against the headboard.
"Sure thing, Starlight." Tomura agrees, quickly flicking off the regular channels in time for her to miss the headlines on the news.
Within no time at all, Pokémon is on the TV, Star half-watching it, and asking Tomura and Touya questions.
"What's your favourite animal, Dabi?"
"Cats." Touya replies instantly. "And yours?"
"Oh. I thought you liked ducks." She murmurs. "Mine is ducks now! Because they make me think of you."
Touyas heart lifts a little at the adorable answer that he hadn't really expected.
"Shigaraki, can I call you mister Tomura?" She asks Tomura shyly.
Tomura smirks, brushing his knuckles gently over her soft cheek.
"Just Tomura is fine. Toga calls me that anyway." Tomura replies. "Very polite to ask, though. Good job."
Touya finds himself smiling a little. They'd come along leaps and bounds since Tomura called her ignorant and told Touya to fix it.
"If you were to have a birthday party, little Star, what would you want to do?" Tomura asks in return, his eyes flicking back to the screen.
Touya was kind of getting the feeling that Tomura wanted to watch the show more than Star did.
Little Star goes quiet, seemingly considering the question a lot more than Touya or Tomura did when she asked them questions.
"I'd wanna dance some more with everyone." She says, tilting her head in thoughtfulness. "And see the ducks with Dabi. And have McDonalds again. I also really want to see Uncle Giran, I miss him."
She pouts a little after mentioning Giran, and Touya feels his gut twist with guilt.
Maybe he had dragged his anger out a little too long at what Aiko had said. His past was a sore subject for him, and he especially hated it when people who had never had to fall to such extremes had opinions on how he'd learned to survive growing up on the streets.
He finds himself leaning his cheek on her head, hoping that she wasn't too upset at not seeing Giran for a while.
Maybe he should call him. Fix things... Again.
Slowly, the questions begin tapering off as both Tomura and Star end up getting completely distracted by the show, the question game instead turning into a pop quiz from Tomura, asking Star what every Pokémon that came on screen is called.
"Nerd." Touya had teased under his breath after the tenth Pokémon Star couldn't name.
Tomura huffs a little, but there's a smirk sitting on his face.
Touya feels slightly guilty once more when Tomura stops playing that game with her too, instead only indulging in 'who's that Pokémon' questions with Star during the mini breaks each episode.
The situation he and Tomura have found themselves in, along with the rest of the League, in the world around them isn't normal. He knows it's not normal.
But it's warm right now, sitting here between the kid he took on, and his lover. It feels comfortable. It feels safe.
It feels kind of like how home is advertised in movies, adverts and stories.
So for once, Touya embraces it.
He embraces his new, and first, feeling of 'home'.