AN: I feel kind of awkward saying this, but the reverse harem thing was a joke (I'll work on my jokes, I know they suck).
VII. Vergissmeinnicht
"Hmm, I see." Mr. Aizawa took a few notes. "It's a good thing you notified us, Doctor."
Being referred to as "doctor" by her former teacher felt… weird, to say the least. At least his attention wasn't resting on her, the real target of his speech being a very guilty-looking Midoriya standing next to her.
"…" Midoriya averted his gaze, finding a sudden interest in the concrete ground.
"I'm just relieved the situation didn't escalate any further." Momo sighed heavily, touching her forehead with her cold fingers. The whole thing had brought on a headache, along with the deep desire to fall into bed and sleep for the next three days.
"You should be." Todoroki entered the conversation, arms crossed and a worried frown on his brow. Worried about what, she couldn't tell… "Midoriya, can I talk to you for a moment?"
"Uh, sure, what do you need?" There was a trace of hesitance in his words, but eventually Midoriya followed Todoroki away.
Momo watched them walk away, wondering what was so important or secret that neither she nor Aizawa could hear about it. Whatever it was, she hoped it wasn't too serious.
"Just leave them be." Mr. Aizawa cut into her thoughts. "I'm sure you're tired after that encounter, so just sign here and I can send you off home." He held out a clipboard to her, and after scanning the contents of the papers fastened to it, she quickly scribbled her signature at the bottom of the last page.
"Thank you."
"No need to thank me, but… let me give you a warning." He tucked the clipboard away and fixated her with a grim expression. "Encounters like these… aren't going to be limited to this one. You've been dragged into this world, intentional or not, so you have to be prepared for what that entails." He paused, a contemplative wrinkle taking over his forehead. "… it's late, let's talk about this another day. Just call the office when you have some free time."
He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, then nodded towards somebody who was standing behind her. A quick glance over her shoulder told her it was Bakugou.
"Let's go back." He said, stuffing his hands deeper into his pockets. "Half-n'-half will join us later."
There were so many questions buzzing through her mind, but they were all overshadowed by the fatigue washing over her. She suppressed a yawn and joined him. "Yeah, I really need some sleep."
"You sure you can drive in that state?" Bakugou inquired harshly, but she knew he meant well.
"Don't worry, it's not far." She waved it off before digging out her car keys. Together, they loaded the groceries into the trunk, and finally headed back to her apartment afterwards. She could almost hear her bed calling out her name, and she was more than happy to respond.
When they finally arrived, Bakugou practically shooed her out of the car, telling her to leave the groceries to him and to "just fucking go to sleep". It was a rare gesture of kindness, one she accepted without hesitation, haphazardly kicking off her shoes, making a direct line for her bed, not even bothering to change into her pyjamas.
And the moment she hit the soft duvet spread over her bed, her brain switched off.
Shouto sighed. He had pulled aside Midoriya for a private talk, but the werewolf seemed to have misinterpreted the situation.
"I'm sorry!" Midoriya started the conversation off with a loud apology, head dipped in a low bow.
"I'm not going to reprimand you or anything." Shouto said, hoping to calm Midoriya's nerves at least a bit.
"You're not?" The defensive rigidness of his posture gave way for surprise, brows raised high in anticipation and curiosity. "But back there… It was my fault that…"
"Toga had already approached Yaoyorozu when you stepped in, right? Then you were only doing your job." Shouto went on. "If anything, I should be thanking you. However,…" He grimaced. "I won't say anything about how you deal with things when you're the only one involved, but when somebody else's well-being is on the line…" He trailed off. Midoriya could fill in the gaps for himself, after all.
Midoriya brought a hand to his chest, fingers digging into the fabric of his green hoodie. "I know. I'm sorry." The words were heartfelt, Shouto knew that much.
"Just keep that in mind. That's all I wanted to talk about, we should resume our search for Toga now."
Midoriya merely nodded in response. They returned to the site, meeting up with Aizawa there.
"Where's the doctor and Kacchan?" Midoriya glanced around. "I wanted to apologize to her again…"
"They went back home." Aizawa informed them. "We have enough personnel to handle this for now."
"Ah, okay. Next question." Shouto pointed at the massive something that had been captured, sedated and restricted further down the road. "What the hell is that?"
"We're not sure yet, but it seems to be some kind of Frankenstein-y monster. We'll let the others analyse it over the next few days, and hopefully we'll find out more along the way."
"So, we're back to looking for Toga?" Midoriya rubbed the back of his neck and groaned. "I can't believe I let her get away like that. She's probably shapeshifted already, so finding her is gonna be pretty much impossible."
"We've already dispatched most of our available Sensors, but I haven't gotten any feedback from any of them yet. It's very probable she's already escaped." Aizawa sighed regretfully.
The events from the previous night still weighed on her mind, so much that she had spent the past thirty minutes just staring at the empty slab in front of her. There was a spot in the top right corner, but she couldn't be bothered to wipe it off. She reached over, trying to rub it off with her sleeve, but it refused to budge. With a deep sigh, she chose to give up, moving over to her desk instead and slumping into her chair.
After she had called the association, as well as Bakugou and Todoroki, who had just gotten off their shifts, and given each a quick rundown of the situation, she and Midoriya had been thrust into a game of tag, except that it wasn't a children's game this time around. She knew that without Midoriya and his superhuman abilities, she might not be more than a fleshy pancake right now.
It wasn't her first life-or-death encounter, but it was also different from the usual scope of a police investigation. These were superhuman creatures, with devastating abilities. That thing from yesterday, that monster… The fact that she lived with two vampires had snuck to the back of her mind, drowned out by their lively, loud (particularly Bakugou) shenanigans, to the point she had nearly forgotten all about it. Monsters, real monsters, existed in this world.
And she was powerless against them.
"Yo, earth to Doc." A hand waved in front of her face a couple of times followed by a hard pinch to one of her cheeks.
"Ow!" She turned to glower at Jirou, who had entered the morgue at some point. "What do you need?"
"I was gonna ask you to sign something, but I guess the wall is a lot more interesting than I am, so I'll leave again…" The other woman dramatically put the back of her hand to her forehead. "What a grave betrayal!"
"Just give me that thing to sign." Momo reached out, pulling the clipboard out of Jirou's hand. She flew over the headline and immediately grimaced. "What's the meaning of this?"
"Beats me. Honestly, somebody further up the chain has to have some screws loose, why would they make you sign a contingency agreement? That's just a waste of effort and paper, you don't even do field work anymore since you shot that rac-"
"You can stop right there." Momo scratched something onto the paper that vaguely looked like her signature and pushed it back onto Jirou. "One more word about small, pesky animals and I'm personally throwing you out."
"Hey, …" Jirou's lips scrunched up into a worried frown. "…you feeling okay?"
"Just a bit tired, don't think about it too much." She put on a polite smile, hoping it would be enough to make Jirou leave her alone. She hadn't expected to find a, dare she say it, friend in Jirou, not in a million years when she had waltzed into the morgue for the first time, but right now she just needed some time to deal with her thoughts regarding vampires, shapeshifters and werewolves.
Mina gave the plate in front of her a conspicuous look. "I can't serve this to a customer." She looked up at the chef responsible for making this mess. "If you're not feeling well, just tell us, okay? And if you're feeling fine and dandy, get your act together and make food that looks presentable, got it? We have a reputation to uphold."
She left the kitchen without waiting for Bakugou's answer, tending to a few outstanding drink orders in the meantime. They had heard about the incident last night, but it wasn't a valid enough excuse to slack off during the day. Even Todoroki was working hard through his signs of fatigue.
"Didn't go that well?" Kirishima asked while transferring a few of the drinks to his tray.
"About as well as you could expect." She shrugged, pulling out a few coffee cups from a cabinet above her. "If he keeps messing up, we'll have to talk to Toyomitsu."
"Let's hope it doesn't come that far."
"Hope what doesn't come that far?" Todoroki approached the counter, a list of orders dangling between his fingers. "Bakugou?"
"You're supposed to be a vampire, not a psychic." Mina grumbled, plucking the list of orders from his hand and getting right to work. "But yes, we are talking about the one and only Mr. Sourface."
"Mr. Sourface?" Todoroki tapped a finger to his chin, his brows scrunching as he thought about it further in-depth. "That's a good one, I should remember it."
"I'll never understand your relationship." With a head shake, Kirishima took his full tray and went back to serving customers.
"Soooo…" She turned back to the only remaining co-worker. "Are you gonna talk about what happened last night? Toyomitsu was super vague when he told us, and I get the association is keeping the lid on some things, but I'm sure you can spare some deets for your adorable, absolutely stunning colleague." She grinned and pointed at herself, eagerly awaiting his answer. When nothing but silence greeted her, she hardly found herself surprised, after all, this was Todoroki, so his confused expression was probably the only thing she would get out of him.
"You know what," she sighed, loading a few beverages onto a tray and pushing it towards him, "just forget about it and do your job."
"Excuse me?" Momo gently knocked against the wooden service desk. The front door had been open, but for whatever reason the desk was unmanned. Had she gotten the time wrong? No, she was sure that Mr. Aizawa had specified 10:30 PM…
The withering wall clock confirmed that she was fifteen minutes early.
It took a few attempts, but eventually, after knocking a bit more forcefully, a dishevelled head of purple stuck out of the adjacent room. "You're early." Is all he said.
"it's called business etiquette." She shot back.
"Heh, you do have a point, but for people like us, time isn't such an issue." He finally fully exited the room, greeting her up-close. "Then again, doing things the proper way every now and then is pretty refreshing as well."
A lazy smile crossed his face, making him look almost childlike. It looked genuine but strained, and she couldn't help but wonder how long it had been since he had smiled like that. "So then, Doctor, your appointment is in ten minutes, please take a seat in the waiting area until the Boss comes and gets you."
She nodded politely and moved to the area in question. Mr. Aizawa's words echoed in her mind, tying in with her own conclusion. She was a trained police officer, but that didn't mean anything in the supernatural world. Possible threats and dangers weren't in the foreground until now, but that changed overnight.
A small part of her was nervous, she wasn't going to deny that. Mr. Aizawa seemed to have some plan of sorts, the scope of said plan was unknown to her, however.
"Doctor." Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. "Because of the most recent incident, I have been granted permission to give you something." Mr. Aizawa neatly stacked a few papers and tucked them under his arm. "Follow me."
"You'll be giving me something? Is it compensation for putting up with a certain two people's attitudes?" She asked with a chuckle.
"More like... Something that will help you in the future as long as you are associated with them." There was no humour to his words, just a grim, serious tone.
It did nothing to ease her nerves, in fact, it only spurred them on.
"We're here." They stopped in front of an old door, guarded by a number pad to its right. "In this room we store an almighty weapon from ancient times, wielded by a man who fought alongside our kind..."
Mr. Aizawa paused, then typed in a pin and pressed his palm to the scanner area. The pad beeped, allowing him to open the door. "This weapon should do you well. Let me present you with the almighty staff of l-"
"It's a rusty stick." She interrupted him.
He glanced at her, then continued talking as if she never said anything. "-the almighty staff of legends, the-"
"Mr. Aizawa, both of us can clearly see that it's just a rusty stick."
He paused again. "Yes, that does seem to be the case. Why is it a rusty stick?" He furrowed his brows, walking back to the door and checking a sheet of paper fastened to the back of it. "Ah, it seems maintenance has been lacklustre. I will have to deal with them later."
"You… have maintenance schedules for your legendary weapons?"
"Yes, unfortunately most of them were forged during times where science wasn't advanced enough to know what electrochemistry was." He added the schedule to his paper stack, pulling out another form a few seconds later. "I was hoping I could avoid this, but it seems I'll have to ask Hatsume to do some work. You specialize in bojutsu, do you not?"
"Yes… I'm not sure whether I should be surprised you know that…" She muttered. Mr. Aizawa merely nodded and proceeded to write down a few things, during which she decided to inspect the "legendary" weapon up-close.
She picked up the staff, eyes trailing over the patches of rust. "Hey, the person who used this staff… what was his name?"
"Uhhh," her former teacher scratched the back of his head, "Taka… Taka-something, I think. I don't really remember. I can check if you're interested."
"No, it's alright, but thank you." Gently, she swept off a flake of oxidized metal from the weapon. "I see, you've been forgotten, haven't you?" She whispered, carefully setting the staff back into its display case. Well, to be fair, it had been centuries since it had last seen battle. In a few hundred years, she'll have been forgotten as well.
"Anyway, I'll get in touch with Hatsume, then I'll call you again when the item is ready." Mr. Aizawa finished taking notes, nodding towards the door. "It's about time I send you off then, doctor. Sorry for calling you out this late."
"It's fine, I just got off work anyway." She followed him out of the room, glancing over her shoulder one more time at the weapon that had fallen prey to the effects of time and nature.
"You haven't been getting a lot sleep lately, huh?" There was a coy smile on Jirou's lips as she leaned against the slab. "Is there a special somebody in our life? Do I get to meet him? Is he good in b-"
"Jirou, I'm going to throw you out if you finish that sentence." Momo groaned, rubbing her forehead. She was busy categorizing stab wounds right now, she didn't have the nerve to deal with implications like that right now.
"Judging by your reaction, I'm going to assume the answer is 'no'."
"The door is behind you. Please show yourself out."
"How cold." Jirou huffed, faking hurt. She passed through the door, sticking her head in one more time to add, "You know this just confirms that the answer is 'no', right?"
Momo crumbled up a nearby scrap of paper and threw it at the door, where it hit the other woman straight in the face.
"Rude." Jirou stuck out her tongue one more time before disappearing into the hallway.
With a sigh, Momo turned back to her work at hand, the spreadsheet of weapon casts and wounds staring back at her blankly.
It was like a spark of instinct, but she began balling up another piece of paper when she sensed somebody approaching the morgue. Without any doubt that it was Jirou, she threw it the second the door opened.
It was, in fact, not Jirou. Lt. Yagi caught the paper ball that bounced off his head while looking slightly confused. "Doctor? What is the meaning of this?"
"Uh, well, you see…" Momo felt her brow twitch. Why was the lieutenant here?! "…I was testing the aerodynamics of a paper ball."
They exchanged looks that communicated just forgetting this paper ball thing ever happened. "So, uh," Momo cleared her throat awkwardly. "are you here to discuss that incident from a few days ago?"
"I am." Lt. Yagi put the paper ball on her desk discreetly. "I heard about your encounter with Toga, and I am deeply sorry that you have been involved in this so much." He gave her a brief bow of apology. "There's nothing I can do to rectify this situation, so I must ask you to cooperate regardless of the dangers."
"Is that what the contingency agreement was for?"
He confirmed it with a nod.
"Well, it's not as if I was expecting anything else. What about Toga?"
"Our agents from the association are doing their best, and I'm sure young Midoriya is working hard as well. However, in regard to Dt. Tsukauchi's work, this will end as another cold case." Lt. Yagi sounded downright regretful as he let out a long sigh.
"I see. So basically, I'm just supposed to be careful and keep an eye out for danger, right?" She summarised for both of them.
"Yes. You shouldn't be in too much danger, but there is always a risk."
"Well," Momo shrugged, "that's just business as usual."
"Is something wrong, Todoroki? You look troubled." Eijirou whispered to his co-worker when they passed each other at the bar.
"I do?" He seemed surprised. "I'm sorry, I'll try and look less troubled."
"No, that's not what I meant. Is it one of the customers? Or something else?"
"Don't worry, it has nothing to do with the customers." Todoroki muttered vaguely. "I shouldn't think about it too much right now. You don't have to concern yourself with me."
Eijirou watched him leave again and just shrugged to himself. He wasn't going to pry if Todoroki didn't want to talk about it.
Momo stared at the email unenthusiastically, the bolded title contrasting the white background innocently. The title was, in fact, innocent, it had merely been dragged into this mess by the real perpetrator.
Her eyes narrowed at the name of the person who had sent the mail, inadvertently turning the title into his unwilling accomplice. She inhaled sharply, one hand already moving to close her laptop and forget that email even existed, but another hand grabbed her wrist from behind before she could fully accomplish that.
"Stop." Bakugou's voice said, an oddly serious tone marking it. He let go of her wrist and pushed the screen back up, bringing the cursed email back into her sight. "What's this?" He asked.
"Something I'm not attending." She answered curtly, determined to successfully close her laptop and stash it away this time. Bakugou stopped her again, to which she let out a frustrated sigh. "What is it?"
"We should attend."
Momo laughed dryly. "You're going to have to drag me all the way there, there's no way I'm going voluntarily. Trust me, my former classmates are the last people I want to see right now."
"I don't care about those dipshits. I'm interested in this." His finger tapped against her screen, at a lower portion of text containing further information.
"…the venue? What about it?"
"No." Bakugou clicked his tongue impatiently. "The catering service."
Momo raised a brow incredulously. "…the… catering service?"
"Yeah, I recognize that fucking name. It's our main competitor on the market." He explained.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "You… You're making me attend this event… so that you can check out the competition?"
"It's part of basic fucking business practice, I thought you'd know, considering you had this lying around." Bakugou lifted his other hand, revealing a worn, well-read book. The crinkled cover page was stained by a large dark spot, covering part of the title, leaving it unreadable, but Momo knew it by heart.
She knew the entire book by heart, to be precise. Her fingers dug into the table surface. Where… How… Didn't she…?
"Where did you find that?" She whispered.
"It was stuck behind one of the shelves, must've dropped or something. It's weird you wouldn't realize, since you've made notes on almost every fucking page." Bakugou opened the book at a random part, showcasing her hasty handwriting adorning the free space around the printed text.
It was true that she had put it behind one of the shelves… had Todoroki accidentally found it? She'd almost managed to pretend that wretched book didn't exist, and now it decided to show up again? Was she cursed?
"Ah, okay." She answered apathetically after a few seconds, relaxing her clenched fist. "I hope you learned something new while reading it."
"I did learn something." He closed the book and put on the table in front of her. "It smells like a shit load of salt."
She cast her eyes downwards. It was almost funny. She'd have laughed in any other situation, but not here. Not now. She glanced at the book. The book itself was innocent as well, it was actually a pretty good book, but…
"It does, doesn't it?" She didn't dare touch it, the unwanted memories already resurfacing against her will. With a sigh she added, "I hate that I can't hide anything from you two."
"Listen up, woman, we go to your stupid reunion, get the free food and leave again." Bakugou pushed the book aside, placing himself into her centre of attention.
She wasn't sure what he was trying to accomplish by jumping between subjects like this, but she still had no intention of leaving the apartment. "See, even you're calling it stupid." She pointed out. "I don't want to see them, they don't want to see me, everybody's happy."
"I've figured out your problem."
"My… problem?" Momo mimicked incredulously. "My problem?"
"Yeah, it's the same problem our resident half-n-half has. You're just way too fucking reactive."
"Excuse m-?!"
"You never actively do things, you only adapt to the situation. You go along with everything and try to fix problems as they appear. You're completely reactive. You don't take action unless you see absolutely necessary to do so. And honestly? It pisses me off so fucking much."
Momo opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off once more.
"How long are you going to wait? How much more is going to have to happen until you start taking the goddamn reigns?!" He slammed his hand down on the table, and she could swear she heard something creak unnervingly.
"And don't you dare say you don't know what the fuck I'm talking about, because I will have you know that I slapped Todoroki across his fucking face when he pulled that bullshit and I will not hesitate to the exact same thing here and now if I have to!"
Momo had leaned back subconsciously, anything to increase the distance between her and him. Bakugou… was genuinely angry. At her, no less. Her eyes darted to the book. Why... Why was it always this...
"This is a prime example of what I mean." Bakugou picked up the book again. "I don't know why you're so fucking terrified of this book, but if it bothers you that much, just throw it away."
But she couldn't! If she did… If she did…
Her voice failed to form words, leaving them with an awkward silence. What was she supposed to say? What was she supposed to do?!
In an impulsive reflex, she stood up as well, firmly planting both hands on the table, blurting out the first thing that came to her mind. "You wouldn't understand!"
"I don't, but we're doing something about this right now." Bakugou pointed in the general direction of their bedrooms. "Go get dressed. We're going to that event, and you're going to take action."
"I don't have to listen to a single thing you say!" She retorted strongly. "I said I wasn't going, and that's final!"
"Yaoyorozu."
Hearing him say her name surprised her a bit, enough to give him room to continue speaking.
"Yaoyorozu, I don't forget things. I didn't forget what happened at the grocery store a while ago. I didn't forget that that bitch owes you one. And neither should you."
Momo grimaced. "I don't see the point of causing unnecessary trouble. It's better if I just stay at home an-"
"And they forget about you? Is that really what you want?" Bakugou was looking at her expectantly, waiting for her answer.
"What's the problem with that? I'm a ghost, it's alright if I'm forgotten." She muttered.
The sound of the slap echoed across the room, partially muted by the pain blossoming across her cheek, blanketed in the disbelief and anger boiling over in her. It took a second for her to realize that she actually had to turn her head back in order to continue shouting at Bakugou.
"What the hell?! What's your problem?!"
"Do you really want that? To be forgotten?" He was calm on the surface, and it was getting on her nerves. How could he- How dare he- Did he know in what position he was here?!
"What do you think?! Do you want to be forgotten?!" She snapped back at him, carefully cupping her injured cheek. Something cool, something she could cool her cheek with… Ah, the freezer! She had to get to the kitchen!
"Nobody wants to be forgotten. Not me, not you, not Todoroki." Somehow, his solemn tone was able to stop her mid-step. She was tempted, so tempted, to just walk out of the room, but something was holding her back. A speck of guilty conscience, a speck of given up pride. "So, I'll ask you again. Is this what you really want?"
Momo's eyes stung, tears surfacing that she didn't want to spill no matter the cost. She bit them back, clenching her fists in the hope that the notion would make all her problems disappear magically. Part of Todoroki and Bakugou staying here meant them not prying into her personal issues. It had never been made official, but she considered it as such.
Did she want to be forgotten? The answer should have been obvious. Something spilled over her lower lashes, dripping to the floor near inaudibly. But she knew Bakugou had heard it.
"Answer the question." He repeated, a hint of frustration coming through. "Just… answer it truthfully."
Truthfully? Let go of everything she had been clinging onto all this time? All those times she put on a tight smile? All those times she chose her pride over anything else? All those times… All that time that was lost… All that time… Was all that time… just time wasted on a hopeless, never-ending battle? No! There had to be something, something…!
Drip. Drip drip.
"I…" Her throat felt dry. She should have gone to the kitchen first. Something to drink and something to cool her stinging cheek. Kitchen. She cleared her throat awkwardly. "I…"
"Go get changed. This is the only thing I'm going to make you do, got it? We're going to that reunion of yours. We get the free food and leave again. You can't let things like these dictate your life, got it?!" His rant ended with a strict finger pointed at her, angry eyes leaving no room for arguments. "And if, by the end of tonight, I didn't manage to do anything about this stupid problem of yours, I'll back off and never bring it up again."
She had ended up complying, somehow. Bakugou had said he'd leave her alone after this, so she only had to do this one thing.
Her reflection stared right back at her, a simple, casual outfit being all she could muster wearing. The red mark on her face had faded significantly, but it still stung when she touched it. Reluctantly, she grabbed a jacket and headed to the living room.
In the living room she found two things. One, Todoroki, who had been silent during the entire argument, and two, … Momo stared at the two vampires in disbelief. "What on earth are you wearing? You look like you're about to rob a bank."
"You think so?" Todoroki pushed his sunglasses up into his hair. "I'm pretty sure this was considered 'fashion' in this decade."
"Don't forget that we're going there with an ulterior motive." Bakugou added, crossing his arms.
Their level of casual dress pretty much matched up with hers, but the sunglasses… in the middle of winter… were a bit much. However, … "You know what? I don't care. I'm not your mother, you're old enough to make these decisions for yourself."
She just had to get to the venue, let them judge the catering service and show Bakugou that he was wrong, and that she had no reason to be there.
"Oh my, look who decided to show up after all."
Katsuki recognized the snide voice immediately, not even bothering to glance over at the woman. He'd let Ponytail get rid of her.
He and Todoroki had two objectives tonight, and dealing with unimportant people was not one of them. Instead, he inspected the buffet with a sceptical eye. The pie seemed to be the centrepiece of attraction, all the surrounding dishes pointing towards it or complementing it. It wasn't a bad choice of arrangement, but next to presentation, there was another, far more important factor.
"Yo, Half-n'-half, try some of that pie."
"Why don't you?" Todoroki mumbled between a mouthful of appetizers.
"Cuz' it's obviously the main dish, moron." Katsuki rolled his eyes.
"Okay, then let both of us try it." His fellow vampire held up two fingers. "Two opinions are better than one, are they not?"
"Hn, I guess you have a point."
"E-erm, excuse me, sirs?" A meek voice cut in, followed by a trembling waiter folding his hands uncomfortably. "The buffet hasn't been opened yet, I'm going to have to ask you to return to your seats…"
"Huh? What was that? Not opened yet?" Katsuki tilted his head just enough to give the waiter his best glare. "You're withholding food from your customers? What terrible manners."
"You really aren't one to tal-"
"Shut up, Half-n'-half. I'm teaching this dipshit how to do his fucking job."
"Please, don't make me call security." The waiter put on a brave face. "The buffet will only be opened in half an hour, I must ask you to be patient until then!"
"Lemme ask you something," Katsuki picked up a piece of pie and bit into it right in front of the waiter, "actually, two things. One, do we look like we give a fuck? And two, what fucking imbecile made this pie? It tastes like shit." His hand found a napkin on the table, allowing him to spit out the leftovers of his chewed bit. The spices were all over the place, and there was too much salt. What a disgrace.
"This doesn't taste much better." Todoroki commented unenthusiastically, adding a half-eaten potato to his napkin. "I give it a 2/10."
The waiter opened his mouth, growing paler by the second, unable to say anything.
"Where are the beverages? I need to wash this taste out of mouth." Todoroki glanced around. "Oh, they're not available? Not even water? That will give you minus points, you know?"
"Hm, it looks like we're done here, we can leave again." Katsuki shrugged. "Let's get Ponytail and go."
"Wait, you can't just-" The waiter was left dumbfounded, and Katsuki half-expected Yaoyorozu to swoop in and reprimand them for harassing the waiter, but the lack of her interference was beginning to unsettle him. He glanced to the side, where he had last seen her with that annoying woman from the grocery store.
They weren't there anymore.
Shouto followed Bakugou's line of sight. "Are you looking for Yaoyorozu?"
"No, clearly I'm looking for fucking Santa Claus. Of course I'm looking for her." Bakugou muttered. "Where the hell did she go?"
He looked around the room, eyes peeled for her long black hair and the red blazer she was wearing. It was only when he almost completed his full circle scan that he spotted her. She was talking to two other women near the dessert section of the buffet line-up.
"Bakugou, I found her."
"Good, let's get her so that we can leave and take care of that other thing. And while we're there, we can try the cake, I'm sure it won't measure up to our coffee special, though."
As they got closer, Yaoyorozu suddenly approached the dessert table while still .talking to one of the woman. She began pointing at a few things, and soon enough a waiter joined them as well. "Ah, miss, please, the dessert buffet is closed off for anoth-"
Ignoring the waiter, Yaoyorozu scooped up a piece of cream cake and- "Oh my god, I'm so sorry, my hand must have slipped, how horrible."
There wasn't a single hint of regret in her voice as she picked up a napkin and proceeded to spread the cake further across the other woman's expensive-looking dress under the guise of cleaning up the mess. "Let me help you."
The other woman had been stunned into silence, a strangled screech breaking out a few seconds later once the realization had fully sunk in. "Get away from me! Don't touch me! What did you do?! You ruined it! You ruined my dress! How could you?!"
"I don't know, how could you insult me and my friends like that?" Yaoyorozu responded, rubbing in the cake one more time for good measure. "But since you want me to leave, leave I shall."
"Momo! Momo, don't you dare expect to just be able to just leave like that!"
"Try and stop me. Oh, and you have some cake in your hair." Yaoyorozu spun around with her head held high, meeting them at the middle of the buffet line-up. She stared at the two of them for a moment, then grabbed them each by the upper arm portion of their sleeves. "You two. We're leaving."
"Ugh, I can't believe we came all the way out here for ten measly minutes." Momo sighed heavily. "I still need to finish up some autopsy reports, you know? And even if I didn't, I have infinitely better things to do than deal with those two." She rubbed her temple, doing her best to forget that disastrous conversation she just had.
Bakugou and Todoroki were oddly quiet, walking a few steps behind her. She glanced back at them. "As you can see, I was completely unwanted at this event. I hope you two managed to accomplish what you set out to do, though."
Todoroki furrowed his brows briefly. "About that…"
"Wait." Bakugou suddenly grabbed her shoulders, steering her to the right. Towards… the park?
"There's still something else we have to do." Todoroki added, leading the way through the lantern-lit greenery.
"Something else…?"
They didn't reply right away, and soon enough she found herself standing in the picnicking area of the park. She probably hadn't been here since her university days… it was a bit nostalgic.
"There it is." Todoroki crouched down next to something and swept some dirt off it.
It was the fire pit. "What's the meaning of this? Why do you need to make a fire?"
"Because of this." Bakugou opened her palm and put something solid, rectangular in it. It was…
"Wait, you don't expect me to…!"
"Yaoyorozu, sometimes you need to let go. It's for your own health, trust us." Todoroki's words sounded so… raw. It was the only description she could find for the heavy tone of his voice, that look in his eyes and the rigid clench of his fists.
She would agree with that general thesis any other day, but… the book was clutched tightly in her palm. Not this time. Not this book. It was too… It was too… It was too… "It's too important."
"To you? Or to whoever gave it to you?" The blonde next to her scoffed. "Because if it was really that important to you, Todoroki wouldn't have found it behind a shelf."
"You… you don't understand."
"Yaoyorozu." Todoroki said her name firmly, putting an icy hand on top of hers. "Tell me one good thing about this book."
"It's well-structured and very informative." She replied right off the bat.
"Okay, tell me one positive emotion you hold towards this book."
Momo averted her gaze, even though she knew the motion wouldn't do her any favours. She knew he could feel her rapid heartbeat reverberating in her hand, her fingers pulsing with every pump of blood her heart sent through her circulation.
His hand remained right where it was, and he waited. Waited for a reply both of them knew would never come. A few seconds passed, and then he took the book out of her hand. "I found this by accident, and I would have put it back in the shelf without a second thought if I hadn't seen the abysmal stage it was in. You aren't the kind of person who would treat a book so poorly."
He was right. She loved her books. Just not this book in particular. She snatched it back from out of his hold. The thought that anybody had seen what was inside it… it was almost as if an outsider had seen one of her deepest secrets, something she wanted to erase from history. To top it off, they could tell. They could tell she had spent a lot of time crying over this book, they could tell she held nothing but negativity towards it, and yet she was still clinging to it like a helpless child.
She could still remember her father's face when he gave it to her. The stress lines and wrinkles tying together into a scowl, the anger simmering in his eyes as he told her to study it, every page, every line, every letter, until it was engraved in her soul.
She hated this book and all the memories it came with. But at the same time… she had invested so much time into it. Too much time. She couldn't just throw it away after all these years. All that time… wasted…
"I…"
"You know what the best way to get rid of something is?" Bakugou cut in, pointing at the fire pit. "Burning it."
…burn it? They wanted her to… burn the book? She shook her head frantically. "I can't, I can't!"
"The only person stopping you from doing this is yourself. Physically, you are free to do whatever you want to."
"B-Besides, we don't have anything to start the fire with, and it's winter, so finding dry wood isn't going to be that easy…" The words slipped out before she could stop herself. She knew how it made her look, and that she was attacking their statements because she had no arguments for herself left. But... but...!
"Don't worry about the fire, I brought something to help with that." Todoroki began digging through his inner jacket pocket, procuring a glass bottle a few seconds later.
Momo stared at him incredulously. "Oh my god, did you… did you take that from the venue?"
He opened the bottle of vodka with a straight face. "Maybe."
"Todoroki, that's stealing! You can't just go around taking things! And there weren't even any drinks around!"
"The waiter was oddly helpful after we talked to him. Besides, it's fair compensation for them wasting our time." Bakugou reasoned.
"Wh- I- How- You're the one who insisted on going in the first place!" She spluttered in disbelief.
"Let's not think about that too much right now." Todoroki changed the topic swiftly. "There's also a small storage of dry wood here, so we have everything covered." He explained, pouring the alcohol over the dried wood.
Bakugou stepped in shortly after, using a lighter to set fire to a piece of old newspaper, then tossing it into the pit. It lit up a few seconds later, the fire latching onto the ethanol, growing exponentially until the fumes were exhausted, dying down into a calmer flame mere moments later.
It was like a sudden burst of life.
Momo opened the book one last time, her fingers gliding over the worn pages, her messy pencil scribbles and notes smudging as she flipped through it. This book had been such an integral part of her time growing up, and to just let go of it like this…
She couldn't picture it, the pages catching fire, crumbling away as they turned black and crisp, finally vanishing into nothing but grey ashes. A part of her just wanted to clutch the book to her chest and run away.
But… both of them had a point. As much as it hurt her pride to admit she was wrong, she also had to admit that they were right. With a deep breath, she closed the book, for the last time. She'd never be able open it again. A hand came down on her shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
"Yaoyorozu, sometimes, we have to leave behind the chains that tie us down. Only then… only then can we spread our wings and fly."
"Todoroki, I don't have any books with cheesy quotes like that in my house. I'm not even sure I want to know where you read that one."
It was a bad time for her poor attempt of a joke, but a soft chuckle escaped his lips, followed by a hint of a smile. "It doesn't matter where I heard it, it still applies to this situation." He removed his hand, instead giving her a small push forward. "Letting yourself be chained down like this is a waste of your time and potential."
She took a few steps towards the fire, each one feeling shakier, each one begging to leave, but she had to brave through this. The warmth from the fire pit began to pull her closer, the quiver of her fingers slowly dying down with each step.
The flames danced unpredictably, bathing the pit and its surroundings in warm, orange light, illuminating the cold night like a single star in the sky. With all the conviction and determination she could muster, she held the book out over the fire, ignoring her increasing pulse, her rapid breaths and the tears building up in her eyes. She needed to let go. She needed to.
Her clammy fingers felt like they were glued to the cover of the book, not allowing her to let go of it. Her vision blurred as the first tears trickled down her cheek, and in a moment of a hurricane of emotions, she let go. With halted breath, she watched the fire devour the crinkled book pages, just watched as it curled up with rims of black, finally disappearing into the ashy pits that made the foundation for the fiery dance.
A suppressed sob broke free as she sunk to her knees hugging herself tightly, her tears falling from her eyes freely. It was over, it was done. So where was the feeling of freedom she was promised? Where was it?! Why did she only feel like crap right now?!
She didn't know how long she just sat there crying, and how long Bakugou and Todoroki just stood next to her silently, letting her digest these emotions on her own. But the next time she looked up, the fire had died down completely, the soft glow of the embers barely noticeable.
It was gone. The book was gone. Page 45, line 34… what was it that it said again? She couldn't remember. She should check. Oh wait… she couldn't, not anymore.
"How are you feeling, Ponytail?"
The question was more difficult to answer than she anticipated, but after sifting through her emotions, she managed to sum it all up in one term. "Tired. I feel really tired and hungry. I never got around to eating anything, you know?"
"That's not surprising, considering it's already two in the morning."
A gust of wind came along, blowing the remaining ashes of the book away, scattering them like grey cherry blossoms under the night sky.
"Hey, Bakugou." Momo tapped his shoulder on their way back home. "Look this way for a second."
"Huh, wh-" She didn't give him the time to finish his question, instead just going for it. "What the fuck, woman?!" He barked at her, his hands cupping the cheek she had just slapped.
Momo mustered a small smile. "Now we're even. Also, those sunglasses look really ridiculous."
She wondered exactly why she thought she would be able to sleep after that entire ordeal, and with a deep sigh she lugged herself out of bed towards the kitchen. She did have a small snack after they got back, but her hunger was still clawing at her stomach.
A cold breeze crept over her skin as she passed the living room, and with dismay she saw that the balcony door had been left ajar yet again. "Todoroki?" She called out, peering through it and finding his tell-tale head of peppermint hair. "What are you doing?"
"Watching the sunrise." He answered. "It's a new dawn, a new beginning of a never-ending cycle...…"
"Have you been looking at poetry lately?" She took a seat next to him, ignoring the cold for now. The sky had barely started brightening, a small strip of cyan visible behind the city skyline. It was a piece of natural beauty, one that didn't require too much thinking. "You've been saying a lot of things like that recently…"
He glanced over at her, then shifted his eyes back to the sky. "Not really. Just… thinking."
"Thinking? About what?" She was curious to know. There was still a pit of emptiness in her emotional bubble, a sense of uncertainty of what to fill it with. But then again... "Ah, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. You have all the time in the world to think about life, I guess."
"You. I was thinking about you."
"… eh?" She lifted a finger and pointed at herself. "…me?"
"Yaoyorozu, as I'm sure you've noticed, Bakugou and I seldomly agree on things. But sometimes we do. One of those times was the book. And something else we agree on is... that you deserve better." Todoroki was as straightforward as ever. "We've met a lot of people along the way, so many that I lost count a long time ago. I've seen so many different ways people deal with life. But… you deserve better than this."
Momo let those words sink in. She had been hoping that coming out her would help her find answers, not raise new questions. "Life isn't really about what you deserve, it's about what you make out of what you've been given. I'm sure there are many people who deserve better, but I wouldn't count myself among them." She responded. Shades of orange and purple began bleeding into the cyan horizon.
"If you say so. I can't change your mind, but I just wanted to have said it once."
"Thank you, regardless." She pulled her legs up to her chest, wrapping them closer in order to battle the cold. A smile spread on her lips as a small spark of happiness and appreciation built up within her. "Thank you for thinking about me."
He moved his head just enough to give her a side-glance. "Yaoyorozu, yesterday Bakugou asked you something. You don't have to answer, but…"
"But…?"
"For what it's worth," Todoroki looked into the distance as the first few rays of sun began to illuminate the city, "we'll never forget you, Yaoyorozu."
AN: Whew, it's been a while, hasn't it? This chapter got a bit longer than planned ^^' regardless, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!
~Emi
