Kugutsu spent a few hours out, trying to find just the right games for her crush. She also grabbed a bunch of food she thought everyone might like, since she was in a decent mood. The guilt from earlier lifted and now all she could think about was how she had dozed off while lying next to her idol.
When she stepped into the new hideout, she took a minute to try to calm herself down because she knew her face was probably red. Aggressively ruffling her hair, the girl closed her eyes. Just stop blushing! I probably look like some kind of freak! Damn it, damn it, damn it! She stomped a few times and shook her head.
"Okay…it's okay." Pushing her hair away from her eyes, she grimaced. "Just be normal, damn it!"
"Everything okay down there?! Hey! Keep it down!"
She jolted and lifted her head to find Twice staring down at her from the open doorway to the second floor. Are you serious? How the hell did I not expect my voice to echo in the stairs? How many people heard that?!
Kugutsu's ears flattened in embarrassment and she huffed in frustration. Forcing her mouth into a straight line, she gave a nod. "I just…dropped my bags, Jin-san," she called up to him, hoping to reclaim her dignity.
Unfortunately, he took that as a request for help and came bounding down the stairs to grab half of the bags for her. "Oooh! What'd you get?"
"Food." She tried to keep her heart from racing as she imagined handing over the new games to Shigaraki. He's going to love them! I got him the collector's edition of that one RPG, with the little figures. The others look like they'll be fun, too. I wonder if he'd let me watch him play. Agh! I can't just demand something like that!
The girl told Twice where to set down the bags and started handing out rations to everyone, but she soon realized something important. For one, their resident trash panda was missing. For two, Bakugou was also missing. For three, the absolute love of her life was still asleep in his room. Her left ear twitched as she looked around at the other villains.
"Where's the kid?" She glanced over at Spinner, who had seated himself next to her while he ate.
"Huh? It was Dabi's turn to watch the kid, right?" He almost sounded like a kid that was worried they misread a chore wheel or something.
Kugutsu's neutral expression gave way to confusion. "What?"
"Everyone was taking turns watching him." Grains of rice fell out of his mouth as he talked and he frowned, trying to keep them from getting all over his costume.
At this point, the only ones left in the little room were Kugutsu, Spinner, Twice, Toga, and Magne. Compress and Kurogiri took their share of food and left the room to presumably eat in a different room where they would not have to worry about actual human interaction during a meal.
"So where is that dumpster fire?" She looked at each of her fellow villains, pausing at Twice as she saw him try to eat through his mask.
Her first assumption was that maybe the kid had wanted to spar and they went to a room on the first floor to do that. She kind of hoped they went to the roof to spar and that he might have shoved Dabi over the edge to an untimely demise. She frowned when she realized that if that had happened, she definitely would have noticed the singed ragdoll's remains splattered on the ground outside.
"Oh. Uh…I don't know," Spinner admitted first.
"Yeah. I haven't seen Dabi in a while," Magne agreed. "Maybe an hour ago?"
"I saw him leave! No I didn't!"
"He'll be back eventually. What's the big deal?" Toga pointed out. "They probably went for supplies, right?"
Kugutsu's ears drew back as conflict set in. She had enough experience as a broker's assistant to know that even if a captive does side with you, any trust you have in them has to be built up cautiously because they could always turn against you again. She had learned that the hard way during a hostage situation once.
Her eyes settled on the game store bag beside her and she felt her frown growing deeper. A hand lifted to try to hide it from the others until she could get her emotions under control. That idiot will be back eventually, she reassured herself. Besides, I've got better things to do than worry about if he's doing his job.
Lingering in the room for a while after her meal was gone, Kugutsu thought back to the absolute train-wreck that was her last job from Giran. All she had to do was retrieve one file for him and she had somehow managed to not just fail at doing that, but cover an entire neighborhood in a thick, moving shadow. More importantly, she had really inconvenienced Shigaraki.
She ruffled her hair without thinking, her lips twisted into a snarl as she tried to push away the memory of what that man said about her crush. Calling him crusty. Saying he looked gross, basically. Shigaraki…is amazing! How the hell could anyone see him as anything less than incredible?! Just look at him!
"Are you okay?" Spinner, like the others, looked more than a little concerned. This was the concern you feel when you see a supposedly deactivated bomb start counting down.
Realizing how many people just witnessed her miniature meltdown, she pushed herself to stand up. "I'm fine." Her face was set in a neutral expression and she regarded the others with as much aloofness as she could manage. "If you hear from that creepy staple face, let me know. I've got stuff to do."
Kugutsu closed the door behind her when she left the room and quietly made her way to the room she had shared with Shigaraki. There were no sounds on the other side of the door. Nothing to indicate that he was awake. As much as her warped little fan girl heart wanted her to go in and watch him sleep, she felt guilty when she thought about why he was so tired.
Leaning her back against the wall beside the door, she slid down and sat. Sinking into the hooded sweatshirt he had given her, Kugutsu had to just satisfy her Shigaraki craving by sniffing at the dark fabric and grinning to herself. He's…the best! He's so amazing and hardly anyone can even appreciate it! But that means he's all mine! I'm the only one that can admire him and really appreciate how great he is!
She tried to run her fingers through her hair, but they got stuck in her tangled locks pretty quickly and made her wince she tried to tug them free. Kugutsu scowled, head down, as she tried to carefully get her fingers out of her hair before anyone could see how ridiculous she probably looked. "So damn stupid…"
The girl had managed to get her index finger free and was trying to slide the others loose when she heard the door beside her open just a little. Kugutsu tensed and turned her head to the side, her face quickly turning red with shame. "I-I can explain this," she started.
A red eye appeared in the small opening as he drew closer and then a finger came into view, beckoning her into the room. The eye and finger disappeared quickly and the door was left open. This was basically all she needed as an invitation to eagerly follow him like a puppy.
Inside, the room was lit by one battery powered lantern. It cast shadows across her crush's face, giving him an appearance that any sane person would probably find terrifying. It made her heart skip a beat and she had to bite her lip to keep herself from grinning. In such a dark room, if she lost control of her emotions then her quirk would turn this room in a writhing mess of solid shadowy shapes.
Shigaraki was sitting against the wall with the lantern off to the side, frowning and still appearing a little sleepy. His pale blue hair looked a little messier than usual so he had probably just woken up. A hand was held out to her, expectant. Thankfully, she seemed to read his mind and carefully placed a rice ball into his palm. He immediately began eating, but said nothing.
Kugutsu's horrible awkwardness kicked in again and she looked around, trying to decide where to sit. Then she tried to determine if it would be rude to sit down. What if he wants me to stand? What if he just wants me to leave the food and go outside again? Why am I just standing here watching him eat like I'm some kind of creep?! Then she remembered that her right middle and ring fingers were still tangled in her messy obsidian hair.
As she tried again to get her hair untangled, she knew how he probably saw her right now. After all, she was standing in front of him and frantically tugging at her hair like some kind of lunatic. All while attempting, and failing, to keep a straight face.
He finished eating without even looking at her and grumbled something under his breath. A can of chilled black tea was placed on the floor in front of him and he nudged it back toward her with his shoe. "Open it. I'm tired. You don't want to make me do more work, do you?"
"N-no, sorry. Here." Kugutsu fell to her knees in front of him and opened the can of tea. It was handed back to him and she found herself staring at him while he drank. The way the lantern light shone on him highlighted his collarbone when he tipped his head back to drink from the can. She felt herself starting to sweat a little as she stared at his neck and collarbone, a tingle running through her and making her want to grin.
Setting the can down, he narrowed his eyes on her. "What're you staring at?"
"…nothing…" She turned her head to the side, but felt a bead of sweat running down the side of her face. What's wrong with me?! Why do I want to keep staring at him? Why am I getting this excited over something like a neck? He probably thinks I'm one of those crazy fan girls that breaks into their idol's house naked and steals their hairbrush when they're out of town!
Meanwhile, Shigaraki was a little perplexed by the fact that she had turned her head, but was still staring at him intensely because her eyes were still locked on him. He started scratching his neck and then dropped his gaze to the bag next to her. "What is that?"
"Oh! I brought you something…er…well it's more like a gift. You said that I should make it up to you since I caused so many problems with my quirk so I got you some games and snacks. I even got the collector's edition of this RPG. It comes with hand-painted figures of the main classes you can pick and there's an art booklet-"
"My console died yesterday and we don't have electricity. How am I supposed to play games with a dead console?" Despite grumbling about it, he still reached over and dragged the bag closer to him. Shigaraki began looking through the games and snacks, still frowning. At least he had stopped making those angry little gremlin sounds. It gave her some hope that he might still like the gifts.
Kugutsu saw his eyes abruptly lift to look her way again. He nodded in a beckoning motion and she was more than happy to sit beside him while he looked at the games she had picked out. As much as she wanted to sit right next to him, touching knees, she kept a respectful three inches between them.
All of the irritation from earlier was gone and replaced with pure, fan girl bliss as she watched him flip through one of the game booklets. He likes it…right? She glanced up and the annoyed look he was wearing had faded just a little. Kugutsu lifted her hand to hide her smile and caught him glancing over.
He chewed at his lower lip, watching her from the edge of his vision. The corner of his chapped lips lifted and he lowered his head a little. "You wanted to impress me, didn't you?"
A hand settled on the top of her head, four fingers stroking over her hair and her pointed ears. Her eyes half-closed and, to her humiliation, she started purring in contentment. This was still the second happiest she had felt since they moved to the new hideout. Second only to falling asleep next to her crush.
The moment was completely destroyed by the door opening with no warning. The fingers that had been basically playing with her left ear stopped moving. Shigaraki lifted his gaze to the figure now leaning in the doorway. "What do you want? Haven't you heard of knocking? Get out of my room."
Kugutsu, not at all caring that her idol sounded like a moody teenager growling at their mom, moved to stand and confront Dabi. Three fingers gripped her sleeve to stop her from crossing the room. She glanced down at Shigaraki, who nodded toward the spot beside him again in a silent command.
She wanted to obey. She wanted to make him happy. She was totally devoted to him and she hated to disappoint him. However, seeing Dabi's smirk made her bristle with rage. "Where's the kid?"
"What?" He looked down at the bag in front of Shigaraki, as if debating if he should ask for some snacks or not.
"The kid. The kid you were supposed to be watching. Bakugou. Where is he?" Kugutsu tried to keep her voice level, but it was becoming difficult.
Dabi stared back at her for a long moment before shrugging. "I was supposed to watch him?"
"So where the fuck is he?! Damn it! Who thought that a piece of burnable trash like you should be left in charge of a kid? I wouldn't even put you in charge of a hamster! Let alone a living thing!"
This finally prompted Shigaraki to let her go. He stood and walked past her to Dabi, his eyes narrowing as he approached. "If you don't know where he is, then we need to find him. Now I'll have to organize a search party."
