NeonHorizon: I feel like I can do better than chapter 38. So we might be seeing another chapter like that, but better...
Kugutsu woke up to the sounds of what seemed to be a really stupid, decently annoying, argument a few feet away from her. She opened her eyes and frowned, realizing she was lying on her side on the cold, hard floor. Still wearing Shigaraki's hoodie and apparently hugging her bag like it was a stuffed animal.
What's…happening? She was facing the wall so she pushed herself to sit up and turned a little to look behind her. Still pretty groggy from just waking up, she saw Spinner standing between her and Dabi. Arguing with him and apparently pretty worked up about whatever it was.
She rubbed her right eye with a hand, yawning. Looking to the rest of the bar, she became a little confused. Kurogiri was behind the bar, their new member was devouring some food while seated at the counter, and no one else seemed to be around. What happened? Last night…actually happened, right? I didn't dream that, did I?
A look down at her hands showed that there was dried blood on them, as well as on her hoodie. A grin tugged at her lips. This just confirmed it. Last night really had happened. She really had "done it" with Shigaraki. This blood was from those trespassers she killed afterwards.
"Doesn't matter anymore anyway. The kitty's awake." Dabi nodded toward her, making Spinner turn to look and go quiet. The charred villain smirked and tilted his head slightly. "Have a nice cat nap?"
The girl bristled, her irritation momentarily overshadowing her moment of fan girl bliss. "What're you looking at, crispy creep?"
"Ouch. That one almost stung." He turned away to walk off, but paused and looked over his shoulder at her. "Might wanna wipe away that drool before the leader comes out."
"I don't drool in my sleep. Don't project your gross habits on me." Nonetheless, she wiped at the corner of her mouth as soon as he turned away. "What time is it? And where is everyone?" she mumbled, pushing herself to stand.
"It's past noon. Shigaraki hasn't come out of his room yet and everyone else just started leaving. They'll probably be back, but this is a big problem! What if the cops see them? Twice isn't hard to miss running around with his full costume on!"
"Right…and Toga's self-control isn't great when she sees a guy she likes." Kugutsu ruffled her dark, scruffy hair and yawned again. I slept great, but I wish I could've slept with Shigaraki. That would've been perfect.
She put her bag's strap across her chest and walked to the bar with Spinner following. Leaning against the counter beside Bakugou, she put on a neutral expression. "Did anyone say where they were going?"
Kurogiri had been observing the teenager seated at the bar and now seemed to lift his misty head to look at Kugutsu. "Magne said that she would be picking up some supplies and Toga said that she was going to the store. Twice informed me that he needed to buy cigarettes. Compress did not say where he was going and Dabi just left as we were speaking."
That gutter-spawn ragdoll. She ruffled her hair again, trying to stay calm. I don't want to leave. I don't want to miss seeing Shigaraki if he comes out of his room soon. But…if I can bring everyone back…he'll be really impressed! Maybe then…maybe he'll…want to do it again.
Kurogiri's glowing eyes narrowed as he saw her face turning a vibrant shade of red, despite maintaining her neutral expression. "The last time you attempted to bring Dabi back-"
"I know what happened. I have a scar to remind me," she muttered, subconsciously lifting a hand to the still healing burn on her right cheek. "I'll just…focus on the others. At least the girls and Twice. I'll be quick."
"You're not going alone! I'll help!" Spinner argued. "I'll do better this time!"
"What're you talking about?" the teenager growled, finally looking up from his food.
Kugutsu raised an eyebrow, seeing some rice stuck to his cheek. Messy brat. You're…what? Fifteen? Sixteen? How'd you even manage to get rice on your cheek? She reached out and plucked it off using her nails. "The big kids are going out to play. Wait here."
"What the hell?! You convinced me to join this stupid group and now you're gonna just make me sit on the side? What was the point-?"
She planted a hand over his face, a smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. "Be smart." Kugutsu heard a growl and pulled her hand away, her feline ears twitching at the sound of what she suspected might be Kurogiri's chuckle. If he was capable of being amused. She was unsure of his range of emotions since his entire face was just a dark, misty vortex.
The girl led the way into the dark passage that would lead them to the alley, but paused in the dim hallway. She listened closely for any sounds coming from Shigaraki's room. His door was closed and everything seemed quiet.
Kugutsu was a little hesitant to leave the bar as she stared at the closed door. What she really wanted was to go into Shigaraki's room and be with him. To bask in the twisted glory of her idol. Of course, she knew better. She was afraid of being too forward and pushing him away from her. Making him disgusted by her enthusiasm and eagerness to please him. Besides, she really wanted to gather everyone together again and impress him with her leadership skills.
The two villains slipped out into the alley after she convinced Spinner to shed the most glaringly obvious costume pieces from his outfit so they might be able to blend in with normal civilians. She kept her hands in her pockets, thinking about which villain to track down first. The easiest to convince to come back would be Twice. However, he could probably be saved for last for that reason.
"So…why were you arguing with Dabi?" she finally asked.
"Huh? Oh! He was saying he was going to take your bag so I was defending you!" Spinner replied kicking at a pebble and sending it tumbling ahead of them.
"Thanks." She tried to run her fingers through her hair, but they got caught in her tangled locks. Sighing in frustration, she tried to detangle them without looking completely lame. "We need to find Toga first. She's the most likely to-"
Kugutsu's words were interrupted by a sharp yelp escaping her lips as something pulled at the strap of her bag from behind. She nearly lost her balance and tried to turn quickly to snap at whoever had grabbed her. Instead of shouting, she went silent and felt her face start to heat up as her eyes met a pair of blood red ones. "Sh-Shigaraki?"
The blue-haired villain was frowning and looked from her to Spinner. The reptilian villain swallowed audibly when he was met with a fierce glare and took a step away from Kugutsu. "Why did you leave?"
Embarrassment made her heart do a flip and she lowered her gaze to the ground. One hand lifted to hold onto her bag's strap as she tried to calm her racing pulse. Worse than the blushing or the fast pace of her heart, Kugutsu felt something else. A warm, tingly sensation in her lower abdomen that was brought on just by the sight of Shigaraki.
"I was…going to bring everyone back," she admitted. Kugutsu's eyes closed as he stepped closer and set his free hand on the top of her head, keeping his little finger raised. She felt his thumb and other fingers run through her hair as he rubbed, a humiliating purr starting to come from her.
Just seeing him makes me remember last night! This is a problem! I can…feel myself getting excited. I want to do it again, but I can't just ask for something like that! It was a gift! It was a really, really big deal! She winced and realized she had been biting her thumbnail and accidentally bit her fingertip in her nervousness.
"You wanted to impress me." He let her nod and released her bag so he could scratch at his neck. Deep, angry red lines were left in the wake of his nails as he slid his glare toward Spinner. The sort of glare that would probably be directed at a fellow gamer that just grabbed the last copy of the new release you had been wanting for a long time, but you did not want to pay full price so you waited for it to be in the clearance section and now some jerk was taking it away from you and you just want to grab their throat in your decay-quirk hands and watch them crumble away into nothingness.
"We know where three of them went," Spinner started explaining. "So we were just going to try to get Toga, Magne, and Twice to come back."
"Oh really? Look at you. You're so helpful." To Spinner's unease, Shigaraki's scowl twitched into a grin. The man's dry, chapped lips were pulling into a particularly wicked expression as his fingers drifted to rub behind Kugutsu's left ear. As expected, she started subconsciously rubbing against his hand.
"Why don't you make yourself useful and go look for Toga? We'll handle the rest." Shigaraki moved a little closer to Kugutsu, but his stare continued to be fixed on Spinner. "Bring Toga back and you're done. That's not too much of a challenge, is it? Don't you want to prove yourself?"
"Yeah! I can handle that!" Spinner seemed to brighten at the idea of having only one target, despite having to split from his friend. "I'll bring Toga back without any casualties! I'm on it!"
Kugutsu watched him go and felt a slight pressure as he leaned down, resting his forehead against the back of her head. Warm air brushed over the girl's neck as the villain behind her sighed and she bit her lip to keep a particularly needy sort of sound from escaping. The hand slid from her hair and the female villain soon felt her idol's arms sliding around her to pull her back against him.
She had an underlying fear that her intimate activity with him had been a dream. That she might have just sleep-walked out of the bar at night and killed someone. It would not be the first time she murdered someone while she was barely awake. This made her feel better, though. It at least made her feel more like it had really happened.
"Such good friends," he murmured behind her. "You're such great friends with that guy. I don't get it."
"He…likes games, too. Oh!" Kugutsu rummaged in her bag for her phone and tried to suppress a smile as she drew it out. "He showed me this game. It's like a mobile RPG with really good visuals and lots of side quests. It's really fun and the gore…really looks like gore. The body parts and blood are super realistic. Here."
She brought up the game and held her phone up a little to show him. "I joined his party for now, but I thought you-"
Shigaraki carefully grabbed her wrist, keeping one finger lifted, and pulled her hand up more so he could look at the screen. His blood-colored eyes narrowed as he examined the game. "I'll start a party," he determined in a grumble. "And you'll join my group. It doesn't make sense for my girl to follow someone else."
The villain released her wrist and pulled his own phone from his pocket to download the game. He started walking down the alley toward the street. After all, they still had to find Magne and Twice and bring them back to the bar before the police or heroes could catch them.
His…girl? Kugutsu quickly put a hand over her grin, but she still released some manic giggling. She felt tears forming at the corners of her eyes as she jogged to catch up to him. His girl? His girl! I'm…his girl! I'm Shigaraki's girl!
Her heart was beating so fast, full with so much joy, that she really thought it might burst. The grin remained in place as she shakily lowered her hand to her phone. She bowed her head, trying to hide her expression from him as she came up beside Shigaraki. On some level, she knew she was wearing an unnatural yandere sort of grin, but it was impossible to make a neutral face now.
"Why are you so happy?" He glanced toward her and started absently chewing at the chapped skin of his lower lip.
She tried to hide her grin again, but unsuccessfully. I don't want to say something embarrassing. If I tell him I'm this happy just because he called me his girl, I'll sound like such a loser! Why can't I calm down? It feels like I'm losing control of myself!
Shadows fell over her as they neared the opening of the alley and they stretched behind her. Weaving back and forth like snakes over the ground. Creeping up the walls of the alley like tendrils. She took a deep breath, trying desperately to calm herself down so she could attempt to control her emotions again.
"I…like what you said," she finally muttered.
"What're you talking about?" Shigaraki's tone showed a little irritation as he turned his head so he could look at her. Seeing the maniacal fan girl grin on her face, he was completely undeterred. In fact, he seemed pleased by it.
In a moment of particularly girly shyness, Kugutsu played with a stray lock of hair that was hanging beside her face. "I mean…when you…c-called me your girl. It made me really happy." She stole a glance at him and saw him still watching her, wearing that grin that made her heart race. "I-I love you. I mean…I love you so much that it hurts sometimes! And it's really embarrassing to say that so-!"
Two fingers stroked along the curve of her left ear, earning a purr from his fan. "You love me. Of course you do. You're my fan. You love me more than anything else, don't you?" He saw her nod slightly and leaned down. "I never rewarded you, did I? I think I know what you want. I know my fan better than anyone else does."