Kuroko and Mikoto

A tiny Mikoto stood with her hands up against a large window looking down at what looked like a gym. She blinked as she watched a boy struggle to walk between two hand railings, the effort clearly exhausting him.

"Is that boy hurt?" the tiny voice of Mikoto asked the large man in a lab coat who stood next to her. The man felt like a giant to her. He shook his head.

"Not at all, Mikoto-chan. He is suffering from a disease known as Muscular Dystrophy. He fights hard against it, as you can see, despite the difficulty." He explained to her with what could be called a soft and sympathetic look. Mikoto smiled at the man's words, seemingly encouraged.

"But…" He began, causing Mikoto to look up at him once more. "In the end, the disease will continue to spread, and he will not even be able to stand up. Eventually his heart and lungs will fail, and he will die." The man explained, his hands behind his back. Mikoto frowned and looked through the window once more, a sad look on her face.

"However, with your Electromaster powers, we might be able to help him in a way modern medicine has not been able to do." He continued, kneeling down next to her. "Mikoto-chan, would you be willing to give us your DNA map? With it, we might be able to help those young people." He smiled to her softly, offering his hand to her. Mikoto didn't even hesitate, beaming at him.

"Yes!" She smiled, taking his hand happily, filled with the glow of doing a good deed.

Mikoto groaned a little as she woke up, the sun shining through the window on one of her eyes, causing her to squint a bit, squeezing her stuffed bear a bit tighter.

"Dream…? Why something from so long ago? At least it's not like the nightmar-"

Her train of thought was cut off as she felt a tightness, a squeezing, around her waist. She blinked a bit, fully waking up as she glanced down and spotted a pair of tiny, thin arms wrapped around her waist. She heard a sleepy groan behind her and a body pressing up against hers, and felt her face starting to heat up.

"Mmm… Onee-sama…" Came the familiar, sleepy voice of Kuroko as Mikoto felt a cheek nuzzle up against the spot between her shoulder blades. Mikoto had a brief moment where static built up to shock her liberally touchy roommate for invading her bed, but it almost instantly died down with a sense of overwhelming guilt in her chest. She'd already hurt Kuroko because of her nightmares, hurt her so much she was rendered temporarily comatose.

As she laid there, the prolonged contact created by Mikoto's uncertainty as to how to respond if her typical more violent approach was off the table was causing an intense flush to generate on her cheeks as Kuroko simply cuddled with her in her sleep, occasionally mumbling a little, but otherwise, doing nothing besides sleeping.

"U-um… Kuroko?" Mikoto finally spoke up. No response. She internally cussed. "Kuroko." She said more firmly and louder, which mercifully created the sound of a stirring girl.

"Mmm? Onee-sama?" Kuroko blinked herself awake as she looked around and gasped in a way that was nothing short of gleeful. "Onee-sama~! You sneaked into my bed!?" She said with a joyful cry, before Mikoto wormed her way up and turned to face Kuroko, leaning back a bit.

"W-what?! No! You're in my bed!" She objected, pointing from one bed to the other, Kuroko following with her eyes before she raised her hands up, laughing nervously, seemingly expecting a shock. When it didn't come, there was a brief awkward silence as Kuroko sat up as well, her nervous giggling unending.

"Oh, I guess I must have really been tired or… something!" Kuroko said, off-balance since she'd never gotten past the point of being electrocuted, placing her arms to her hips and puffing herself out a little to try to show confidence through her jittery nerves. There was a squeaking sound of pain that escaped out of Kuroko's suddenly clenched teeth as her eyes shot open wide and she stiffened, a small amount of blood starting to stain her nightgown from roughly her belly area.

Both panicked.

After a moment of running about the room in a slight panic, Mikoto had gotten Kuroko to the bathroom and seated in the edge of the bath as she changed her roommates bandages, Kuroko hugging her bare chest as Mikoto went to work.

"Thank you, Onee-sama…" Kuroko said with a sigh, simply enjoying the close proximity. Mikoto nodded a little, making a small grunt of affirmation. "What did the doctor say about your nightmares?" Kuroko added in, in an attempt to keep the conversation moving. Mikoto took a moment to answer, focusing on redoing the bandages for a minute.

"He said that I had some kind of copper-based neurotoxin in my system somehow. Said it got worse from day to day, so they had to clean out a lot of my blood." She said in a kind of neutral, emotionally restraiend tone. "Kept me awake for something like 40 hours just so that I wouldn't cause another natural disaster." She muttered, causing Kuroko to frown and look over her shoulder at Mikoto.

"It isn't your fault, Onee-sama. People get sick, and maybe something is in the food we've been eating or…" She trailed off in thought for a moment, causing Mikoto to look at her and raise an eyebrow, before Kuroko just smiled at her. "I don't blame you. For any of it." Kuroko said as she met eyes with Mikoto. Mikoto didn't respond at first, before simply quietly nodding to her. They finished changing their bandages and clothes in relative silence.

After getting into their uniforms, the pair had wandered out into town together, making idle small talk.

"So, what is it on the agenda today, Onee-sama?" Kuroko asked Mikoto as they walked down the street, occasionally smiling or waving at passerby's who recognized Mikoto- a fairly common occurrence in Academy City.

"Well, we have that cross-cultural study trip coming up in September, I thought maybe I could go shopping for supplies for that… though not sure if I will be traveling at all." Mikoto mused, smiling a bit as her mind wandered to Gekota-styled bathsets and toothbrushes and…

As her mind wandered, Kuroko was staring at the back of her head with intense judgement. "More childish items, huh…" Kuroko lamented with a weary sigh. When would Onee-sama grow up… this was really unbecoming of a lady such as her.

"You say something?" Mikoto asked as she looked over her shoulder at Kuroko curiously, who quickly waved her off.

"No, no! Nothing at all! You know, I think I know a shortcut, follow me! We can get to the shopping mall faster this way!" She said, grabbing Mikoto's hand and dragging her into a very thin alleyway. Mikoto marveled a little bit at the tight quarters, looking around at all the piping, surprised that such a shortcut existed.

"I'm surprised you know about such an odd shortcut, Kuroko." She mused to the girl, who gave her a big grin.

"I know this city like the back of my hand because of my work with Judgement! Best part is, these alley's are always deser-" she began, before blinking at the oncoming traffic of a young man who seemed to be staring at the ground. Both Kuroko and Mikoto squeezed against the wall as he passed by.

"W-well, as I was saying, it's USUALLY deser-" She stopped as yet another passerby came walking down, the irritation growing on Kuroko's face, with Mikoto giving her a raised eyebrow.

"Deserted, huh?" Mikoto asked with some sarcasm, to which Kuroko sighed.

"Yes! No one ever comes down these areas, I don't know what could-" She paused yet again as a rather obese man began to walk down the alley, Kuroko's face growing into one of solid annoyance as she reached behind her and grabbed Mikoto's hand, teleporting them both past the man.

"Seriously, what is going on-" And suddenly the world spun as her foot landed on something round and she slammed into the ground, an empty can rolling down the alley. "Owie… can I just finish a sentence.." She groaned.

"Kuroko!" Mikoto dove to the ground, looking at her. "You OK? Your bandages alright?" She asked quickly, Kuroko smiling up at the concerned face of her partner. "Just fine! I think… huh?" She blinked as she reached underneath an AC unit, grabbing an envelope and standing up.

"What's that?" Mikoto asked, tilting her head. Kuroko popped it open and looked inside, pulling out a thin card. They both looked it over.

"Is that…" Mikoto began.

"A cash card?" Kuroko finished with an incredulous look on her face.

"You found one too?" Asked the sweet voice of Uriharu as Mikoto and Kuroko got settled in to the Judgement office.

"Too?" Asked Mikoto with a raised eyebrow, to which Uriharu nodded.

"Yup, we've gotten reports of people finding envelopes with cash cards all over town, 48 already- oh wait, it's up to 56!" She said as she peeked at her computer screen. Both Kuroko and Mikoto looked at each other with raised eyebrows of suspicion.

"That seems… weird. Who just leaves cash cards lying around?" Kuroko asked, standing up from the chair she'd straddled and sighing.

"Uncertain, and it's not technically illegal to leave cash cards lying around, only money itself, so we're not really sure what to do." Uriharu admitted, frowning. "But the Skill-Out gangs have become a lot more restless because of it, with these treasure hunts citizens are getting into causing an increase in muggings and territorial dispute." She sighed, looking at her screen again, her fingers tapping away at the keys.

Kuroko sighed and slipped on her Judgement sleeve, frowning to Mikoto. "Sorry, Onee-sama, we'll have to continue our date some other time." She said, trying to give her a smile. Mikoto waved off any concern with a grin.

"No worries, I can shop by myself. I'll see you tonight, OK?" She said, waving as she took off, not noticing the pouting Kuroko as Mikoto tore off.

"Nooo… now that just makes me feel even lonelier…" Kuroko whined as she bit at a handkerchief in her hand as her roommate tore off. Uriharu patted her back and handed her a map.

"Time to get to work!" Uriharu said with a beaming smile that brightened the room around the saddened Kuroko.

"Yeah, yeah…" Kuroko sighed out with a wistful look.

"Stay safe, Onee-sama…"