Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the original characters.
Author Note: I would like to thank everyone who added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone who reviewed the last chapter.
"Why the hell were all you fuckers listening in on our conversation?"
Naruto kept her eyes focused on her classmates as Bakugou screamed out the words that were on the tip of her tongue. Her cousin glared and growled at the members of their class, who glared at the weeping Mineta before flinching at Bakugou's glare. It was hard not to blame them. The glare radiating out of the blond-haired boy could probably kill someone.
She pressed her lips into a very thin line and folded her arms against her chest as her eyes locked onto her classmates. Most of them couldn't meet her eyes as if they knew just how wrong it had been for them to listen in on their conversation. Their expressions didn't really matter to her. The one she cared most about was Shouto.
Her boyfriend kept darting his eyes at her before looking away from her, never once fully meeting her eyes. That alone spoke volumes to her of how guilty he felt for listening on the conversation between Bakugou and her.
"W-Well we thought you were going to confess your undying love to Uzumaki," Ashido rubbed the back of her neck and flashed an apologetic smile at them.
Naruto clenched her jaws together and locked eyes with her pink-haired classmate. Control your temper. She inhaled and exhaled as her fingers dug into the palm of her hand. They meant well. They knew what they did was wrong. All of their eyes looked at the two of them with an apologetic look.
Yet no matter how many times she reminded herself this, the vein on her forehead still throbbed with irritation.
"And you thought that you want to see him get humiliated?" She controlled the irritation from leaking out of her tone as her eyes focused on everyone standing right in front of her. Every single one of them blinked at her words as if they never once considered what could have happened if the scenario had been true.
Hurt green eyes flashed before her own eyes and Naruto clenched her jaws together. It was painful for a person to get rejected from her own observation between her teammates. It was embarrassing when a person get rejected in public. The whiskered teen forced herself to exhale before looking away from them.
"Would you have seriously turned down Bakugou if it had been true?" The blonde twisted her head around to look at Kaminari. Her fellow blonde gawked at her like he couldn't believe she would do it and Naruto nodded. She stole a glance at her cousin, who kept flickering his eyes between her and Shouto. Kaminari knitted his eyebrows. "Why?"
It is obvious, isn't it? Naruto chewed the inner corner of her cheek and focused her attention on her boyfriend. No emotion erupted from his eyes and there was not an obvious body movement that could hint of his current emotional state. But his shoulders trembled as if he had been fearful for a moment that she would actually choose Bakugou.
The fact he feared she would actually do it, made her heart twist in pain. I can understand why. A lump formed inside of her throat as her eyes locked onto the boy. Even though the two of them were together, it was normal for someone to have their doubts. Well that was what Naruto believed anyway.
This whole dating thing was kind of new to her.
"Because I like someone else," Naruto curled her lips into a smile as Shouto looked at her. "And I won't be cruel to someone and accept their feelings when my feelings for that person hasn't changed one bit."
Kaminari slumped his shoulders as Ashido nodded her head like she understood what she meant. Perhaps she understood that the feelings she felt towards Shouto weren't that fickle or based on physical appearance. Naruto frowned. Ashido probably did not understand or else she wouldn't have been so confident that she would accept Bakugou.
A quiet silence hung between them as Naruto looked up at the floating clouds. Some of the clouds looked like animals while one of the clouds reminded her of Shikamaru with its pineapple shape. A sigh escaped her lips and the blonde returned her attention back to the gathered classmates. All of them had their heads tilted to their side as if they were deeply considering something.
Had her words been weird? Or was it wrong for her to believe that it would be cruel to accept someone's feelings when you don't feel the same way?
"So…is anyone else curious to know how Bakugou and Uzumaki didn't know that they were cousins until now?" Kirishima asked as his red eyes darted from her to Bakugou. Whatever gloomy atmosphere hanging over her classmates faded at that question. Every single one of them bobbed their heads in agreement.
Bakugou and Naruto exchanged glances and the whiskered teen nodded, fully understanding of what the boy wanted her to do.
"My father went with my grandfather to his hometown," Naruto kept her eyes focused on them. If she looked away from them then it was obvious that she was lying. If they figured out she lied then there would be more questions. "He didn't exactly tell our grandmother, so she didn't find out about me until Ero-Sennin found her."
It isn't a complete lie. Naruto rubbed the back of her neck as her eyes darted to the various members of Class A. Most of them nodded their heads but the one expression that interested her the most was Midoriya.
Those green eyes flashed with understanding as if he could figure out the reason why her father decided to leave his loving family to go to Konoha. Maybe he does understand. She curled her lips into a bitter smile. Until the entrance exam, Midoriya had been considered Quirkless. He probably could understand why her father chose to leave his mother and half-sister.
She probably could never fully understand what her father went through.
"But why didn't your father tell her about you?" Uraraka frowned and knitted her eyebrows together as her eyes flickered between her and Bakugou. "You don't just keep a child birth a secret from your family."
Naruto shrugged and forced herself to smile. "My father was a very complicated man."
Bakugou eyed her like he didn't fully believe her words and the whiskered teen shrugged her shoulders. It was wrong of her to call her father a very complicated man but how else could she describe him? How could she explain the whole thing? There were a lot of things she didn't know about her father.
For her to understand his reasoning, would mean either for her to go back in time or for her to make contact with ghosts.
I will be too terrified to find someone who can contact ghosts. She shivered and plastered on a smile as her classmates offered their apologies to them before shouting out their goodbyes to her. Ghosts weren't real. If they were real then they would haunt her every single night, never allowing her to have a moment of sleep.
It was not long before the only people standing right in front of the tree were her, Bakugou and Shouto. The mismatch-haired boy stole a glance at her before looking back at Bakugou. Her newly found cousin grunted and kicked a pebble before throwing a glare at the fading backs of their classmate.
"I can't believe that those shitheads thought I would like you in that way," Bakugou shoved his hand into his pockets and kicked another pebble. The pebble flew and smacked the back of one of the students, who turned around to look at them. The older male squeaked at the sight of the glare radiating from Bakugou.
"Ashido likes a dramatic love story," Naruto pressed her lips into a thin line and relaxed her shoulders before making her way to take her spot beside Shouto. He did not look at her and the whiskered teen sighed. "I didn't understand why she thought you liked me in that way until Setsuna pointed out that you treated me differently from all the other girls."
Bakugou scowled. "Well Lizard ain't stupid."
A little laugh escaped from Naruto's lips as the whiskered teen stared at the blond-haired boy. The tiny scowl played on his lips told her that maybe he found the whole thing ridiculous. It was silly when she thought about it. Not once did the boy ever indicate he liked her in that kind of way. She shook her head and regarded the scowling boy.
Should they just continue discussing things?
The whiskered teen shook her head and decided to focus back on the topic at hand. "Well she seems to be the only one from the girls, who seems to know what your feelings towards me were."
The blond-haired boy blinked and blinked before shaking his head like a dog trying to dry himself. It looked like he was denying her words but Naruto couldn't be certain. It was rather difficult for her to figure out what was going through his head or the kind of relationship that her two friends had with each other.
She raised a single eyebrow when Bakugou twisted his head around to look at Shouto. A glare erupted from his red eyes and the clenched jaws told her of his irritation but she didn't know why he was so irritated. Her boyfriend had done nothing to him or say anything to accuse him of having feelings for her.
"You are a fucking idiot if you think I fucking like Whiskers in that way, IcyHot," Bakugou finally growled.
Shouto flinched but did not say anything to either contradict or defend himself from the accusation. He only darted his eyes at her, not looking her in the eye and Naruto understood why. He probably felt guilty if you asked her or maybe her boyfriend truly agreed with what Bakugou had just called him.
Naruto clenched her jaws together and narrowed her eyes at Bakugou. "Don't call him an idiot!"
He is anything but an idiot. The blonde inhaled and exhaled, forcing herself to stop the trembles that threatened to come out, as her eyes locked onto her boyfriend. He looked even like he accepted the words of her relative as if he truly believed that he was an idiot for thinking that Bakugou would have that kind of feeling for her.
Her cousin only rolled his eyes at her, not looking one bit irritated at the fact that she defended Shouto, before putting his hands over his head. Clicking his heels together, Bakugou began to walk away from them. Not once did he turn to look at Naruto or the mismatch-haired boy as he dragged his feet away from them.
It was only when he was ten meters away, did the older boy turned around to look at her.
"I'm telling the Old Crone and the Old Hag that I did my job," Bakugou eyed her before darting his eyes to Shouto. "If you want to meet our grandmother then just tell me—"
"—I want to meet her."
She was curious to meet the grandmother who gave birth to her father.
"Do you want to talk about why were you worried about me accepting Bakugou's feelings?"
Naruto slid her hands into her skirt and darted her eyes at Shouto. The two of them had been walking towards Kenji's house in complete silence, always stealing glances at each other but never talking about the elephant in the room. It took her a while but only now did the blonde gathered the courage to vocalize her curiosity.
The mismatch boy stopped in his steps and locked eyes with her. A small frown played on his lips and the younger boy knitted his eyebrows together into a single line. It was an adorable sight and made her want to smile but the fact that he had that kind of expression made her stomach churned with worry.
"I'm not loud or aggressive like Bakugou."
She frowned at the observation and tilted her head to the side. "I know that but what does that have to do with me accepting his non-existent romantic feelings for me?"
Shouto twisted his lips into a little grimace and kept darting his eyes away from her, locking eyes with the pedestrians who passed them. A few of them stole glances at them, occasionally they would slow down to take a picture or two before scurrying from the two teens. Letting out a little sigh, the youngest son of Endeavour looked back at Naruto.
"What if you want someone like Bakugou?" Shouto ran his hand through his hair and the blankness in his heterochromia eyes were replaced with anxiety. "I'm not someone who can loudly declare my feelings or show my affections to the whole world."
Naruto stared at him for the longest time, trying to wrap her head around what the boy's concerns were, before grabbing his right hand. Taking a deep breath, she began to drag the younger boy towards the small alleyway. There was no way either of them could have a discussion when there was the occasional pedestrian taking photos of them.
The alleyway that Naruto chose to pull her boyfriend into was a narrow one, where the distance between the two buildings was enough for only two people to walk through. It was like a cage but the blonde knew they needed to feel a little bit trapped. Neither of them would feel comfortable talking about such a serious topic that could be easily overheard by people.
"Shouto, do you believe that you aren't good enough?" Naruto kept her tone calm even though a part of her wanted to allow her tone to waver only slightly. She steeled herself and inhaled to control the tremors running throughout her body as her blue eyes focused on her boyfriend. It was impossible for him to think like that.
He was more than good enough, too good for her if you asked the whiskered teen.
Shouto did not say anything, only knitting his eyebrows together like he was trying to figure out the answer to the question. His mismatch eyes locked onto Naruto, moving from her bright sunkissed hair down to her blue eyes before darting to the crowded street behind the girl. Taking a deep breath, he relaxed his shoulders. "I have doubts too."
That was probably the closest she would ever get a confession from him.
Taking a deep breath, Naruto looked at the mismatch boy. He looked down at his feet, almost like he was ashamed for not being that confident in their relationship, and the whiskered teen paused. Why wouldn't he have doubts? There were a lot of things she wasn't certain about their relationship too. It was not like she had ever done it before.
Shouto stared at her with uncertainty and Naruto decided to wrap her arms around him. "I have the same concern too."
"Why?" Her boyfriend questioned, knitting his eyebrows together. He looked like he couldn't believe she would be uncertain about their relationship and Naruto only hugged him tighter. She inhaled in his scent as her mind raced to explain about the cause of her doubts to their own relationship towards him.
The whiskered teen exhaled and looked up at those mismatch eyes that Naruto came to love. "Well I wasn't the kind of girl that the boys back in Konoha would like. As Shikamaru and Kiba would say, I'm too loud and too much of a tomboy to get any boy to notice me."
Perhaps it was because of the orphanage or maybe because she lived in the streets for a whole year but the whiskered teen could never find it in herself to be gentle. There was no such thing as kindness in the streets but Naruto found it easy to be gentle with Shouto. It was perhaps why her hand began to trace his jaw as her other hand patted his back.
Shouto knitted his eyebrows together and looked at her like he didn't understand how her behavior mattered to them. There was a thought in Konoha that little girls should be feminine. They should like flower arrangements, seduction and learn the art of poison. Girls should be polite and never try to be stronger than a male. That was the belief held by the civilians and most shinobi. Naruto never adhered to those standards.
She just wanted to be greater that those expectations.
"Why does it matter if you act like a boy?" Shouto darted his eyes to the main road before looking back at her. His mismatch eyes flashed with an innocent curiosity like he couldn't fully comprehend why boys would care about such things. "Why would you think I will leave you for something like that?"
Naruto inhaled. "Well I was always told that boys only like girls who actually act like a girl and I worry that maybe that it is true. I mean I'm not exactly the image of gentleness or subtleness…I worry that you will leave me because I can't be that kind of girl."
Mikoto-obaachan had been gentle and she tried to be like the mother-figure that she lost, but Naruto could never fully emulate her. Hinata adored the fact she had been blunt and Sasuke never seemed to care but the whiskered teen wanted so badly to be accepted by her classmates. But her temper was too great for her to stifle.
"You don't have to be something that you are not, Naru-chan." That was what Mikoto had say when Naruto admitted that she tried to be like her. Even now the whiskered teen recalled the absolute acceptance in those black eyes as she sobbed over the fact that she couldn't do the whole gentle, demure lady-thing. Only Mikoto-obaachan and Hinata-chan accepted her for who she was.
Everyone else tried to change her into an image that she couldn't be.
"It doesn't matter to me," Shouto informed her as his mismatch eyes locked onto her. Only sincerity shone through his eyes and the whiskered teen felt her stomach flutter at his words. "I like that side of you."
She smiled and pressed her lips against him. It felt like time slowed down as Naruto poured all the gratitude and so many other emotions inside the kiss. Even though it was not their first or second kiss, the little flutter of joy in her stomach never seemed to fade away. A part of her wondered if there would be a day where her chest wouldn't tightened or where she didn't think it was a figment of her imagination.
If it was not for the fact that they were in the streets then Naruto would have continued kissing him, but the whiskered teen tore her lips away from him.
A little sheepish smile played on Naruto's lips as Shouto looked down at her with dazed eyes. There was a dark look in his eyes like he wanted to gobble her up and never let her go. It should terrify her but the girl only shivered in excitement. Was this pure joy? Or was it another emotion? Well Naruto only knew that she didn't dislike the feeling coming from inside of her.
Her eyes fixated on her boyfriend and she recalled the confession of how he had doubts about their own relationship. Naruto knew that he didn't really answer her question but the blonde also knew it had been an indirect admission of his own feelings. They made quite a pair when the whiskered teen thought about it.
Naruto curled her lips into a frown and the blonde inhaled. "Do you want to tell me why you think you aren't good enough?"
Shouto paused and looked at her with careful consideration as if he was not certain of whether to tell her the reason. Warm hands rubbed her back as the younger boy continued to regard her. It was a curiosity for her to understand what went through his mind. Was it something she had done to give him this idea? Or was it another thing? She could never know.
"Endeavor was always comparing me to Touya," he explained with a tiny frown playing on his lips. "I didn't want his acknowledgment but it always felt like nothing I ever did was good enough for him."
The whiskered teen nodded and poked her tongue against her cheek. What should she say exactly? These kind of topics had to be handled lightly or so Naruto believed. Telling him that he shouldn't want his acknowledgment or telling him that he was good enough didn't fully acknowledged the pain he was in.
Empathy wasn't her strong suit but Naruto was willing to try with Shouto.
"It made you feel like you were always a replacement, didn't it?" Naruto asked, knitting her eyebrows together. She did not know if that was the right thing to say nor did she know what was going through Shouto's mind as he looked down at her with blank eyes. That had been the best thing for her to say to him.
She wondered if that was acknowledging his pain or if there was another thing for her to say.
The younger boy finally nodded. "Natsu-niisan believes that I'm Endeavour's favorite but Touya was always the favourite child. If his Quirk didn't burn up his skin then Endeavour would never even notice me."
It was the matter-of-fact tone that made her stomach twist in pain as Shouto kept his expression blank. Naruto might not be able to see his emotions in his eyes but the waves of hurt crashed over her. It overwhelmed her to the point that it felt like she was drowning in the sea but the girl accepted the waves.
For the first time in her life, Naruto accepted the wave of emotions and without a second thought the blonde hugged him. The whiskered teen knew that there was only so much she could for Shouto but showing her support and care for him seemed to be the best way to help him. The feeling of never being actually seen by people was one that she could understand.
Neither Naruto nor Shouto noticed a pair of black eyes watching them with a calculated glint or that a photo had been taken.
"Whiskers will meet you and Old Hag tomorrow after her dentist appointment, Old Crone!"
Bakugou only stole a glance at his grandmother before throwing his bag to the corner of the living room. The bag landed with a loud thud and the blond-haired boy took a seat on the couch, kicking his feet onto the table. His parents shot a look of disapproval but he didn't really care about the whole manners thing. This was his home and he was going to relax.
Narumi made no comment, only nodding her head as she took a sip of her tea. It always infuriated the blond-haired boy on how his grandmother could always keep her composure and looked so poised like one of his mother's models. He knew the old woman was pleased from the way a little hum escaped from her lips.
His mother did not even bother to keep her composure, beaming at the knowledge that Whiskers was willing to meet her, while his father knitted his eyebrows together like he always did whenever he was concern. The old man probably realized like he did that his mother had a high expectation for tomorrow meeting with Whiskers.
"You seem furious, Katsuki," The Old Crone put down her cup of tea and regarded him with knowing eyes. "You didn't do as well as you hope in your exams, did you?"
Bakugou twisted his lips into a scowl at the reminder of his scores. Today had been a bad day for him. Not only did those shitheads listened in on his conversation with Whiskers and jumped to conclusion about his feelings towards the girl, he also did not get the top spot in their year. That bouncy girl that his cousin sometimes hanged out beat him out of that spot again.
Not once since he entered Yuuei High, did he ever get the top spot in anything. Whiskers bested him in the Sports Festival but the knowledge she was a fully trained soldier did not ease his anger. If anything it made his stomach twist with absolute anger. She had been younger than him when she began training to become a shinobi.
How the hell do you catch up with someone with experience?
"It is none of your fucking business, Old Crone!"
Mitsuki narrowed her eyes at him, not looking one bit pleased by his screams, but Narumi did not flinch at his yells. She only tutted and looked at him like he was still a child. "You know no one thinks less of you for not getting the number one spot, Katsuki. Yuuei is a whole different ball game from the middle school."
The explosive teen grunted and dug his hand deeper into the pockets of his pants. He knew it was a whole different ball game from Middle School. The Quirks his classmates had in Middle School had been nothing special. Not one of them had been smart enough to get into Yuuei except for Whiskers and Deku.
Then again, he wouldn't acknowledge either of them if he ever thought for one moment that they were stupid.
His mother looked at his grandmother like she did not believe that he would be frustrated over something like this. The Old Crone studied psychology and always liked to analyze the shit out of people but his mother must have forgotten that little detail. Mitsuki only pressed her lips into a thin line and darted her eyes at him.
Bakugou ignored the silent question coming out from his mother's eyes and focused on his calm grandmother.
"Didn't you always say that my Shitty Uncle got first in everything?" He retorted, daring the old woman to contradict his words. The scowl on his face deepened as he recalled the conversation that their whole family had. "And now I found out that the Shitty Uncle graduated at the age of 9! Whiskers was fucking 12! How the fuck can I ever compare?"
His grandmother pressed her lips into a thin line and her eyebrows twitched while his parents exchanged glances. No words were spoken between the family members as they recalled the fact that two members of their family were child soldiers. It was stupid but Bakugou couldn't help but think of the huge gap between them.
"The culture that your cousin and uncle live in is completely different from our own," his grandmother reminded him. Her blue eyes looked at him for the longest time like she was trying to figure out what to tell him. "Comparing yourself to them isn't fair to you or your cousin. If you are going to crack from the realization that there are children out there stronger then you then that is our fault and the fault of society."
Bakugou blinked and knitted his eyebrows together while his parents swirled their heads at Narumi.
"Mom, what do you mean?" Mitsuki finally asked.
His grandmother regarded his mother with careful eyes. "He gets an amazing Quirk and we tell him that he is going to become an amazing Hero and that he is very a special child. It gives him a big head—"
"—I don't have a fucking big head!"
Now Narumi looked at him like she was not impressed by his words and Bakugou scowled. How the hell did he have a big head? He was amazing. So what if his younger cousin bested him in the Sports Festival? Or that Deku was actually catching up to him? That did not mean he had a huge head or whatever psychological issue that his grandmother believed he had.
"You have got superiority complex," his grandmother observed. "You act like a brat whenever you feel weaker than someone."
Was the damn old Crone trying to analyze him again!
"Katsuki!" His father warned as his eyes darted to the sparkles cracking out of Bakugou's hand. The blond-haired boy grunted and cancelled out his Quirk. "Your grandmother means well—"
"—If she wants to psychoanalyze her grandchildren then she should do it on Whiskers!" He snarled, leaning forward towards the table. Bakugou smashed his hand on the table. The table rattled but did not crack under the slam of his fist. "She is the one with rejection and trust issues! I don't have a fucking problem and I won't be one of her patients."
His chest rose up and down as his red eyes focused on the three adults in the room. Bakugou knew that his grandmother wanted and insisted that he went to therapy when it came to his so-called superiority complex but he didn't have a damn problem. A superiority complex implied that he felt inferior to someone and Bakugou wasn't inferior to anyone.
Not to Whiskers and definitely not to Deku.
"Do you even understand why your cousin will have these issues, Bakugou Katsuki?" Narumi asked. Her tone was calm and cold but her eyes were filled with irritation. Was it to the village that messed up his younger cousin? Or was it to him? Bakugou did not know. It could be either of these things when it came to his grandmother.
"Does it matter?" He grunted, digging his hands into his pocket. "You think I have to be fucking polite and do all that nice bullshit? I ain't going to treat her differently because of her crappy life? I ain't going to pity her for that stuff."
His grandmother pinched her nose, looking almost like Whiskers whenever she tried to control her temper towards Pikachu and Grape Boy. Yeah those two were definitely granddaughter and grandmother with those gestures. Bakugou grunted. Any minute now and the Old Crone was going to explode into fury for not being like her.
"If you pity her then I will whack you in the head like I should have when you started to ignore and bully Inko's boy," his grandmother declared, looking as though she sucked a lemon. "When you pity someone, you don't look at that person like they are human but an object. What I want you to do is to start learning compassion and empathy, boy!"
Bakugou kept quiet and his grandmother seemed to have decided to take this as an opportunity to give him a lecture.
"You had a childhood where people loved and cared for you," his grandmother reminded him. "Your cousin? She had to learn how to survive in a country where they don't care about the mental wellbeing of their own children. She had to grow up before you even finished elementary school. That would make anyone have issues. You need to learn things through her perspective and not just your own."
His grandmother made it seem like it was so damn easy but how the hell could he understand her perspective? He could be an even bigger asshole and just say Whiskers had been lucky not to have parents. But only a spoiled brat would say such shitty stuff. They had nothing in common with that regard so how the hell could he understand her?
But he did know one thing about Whiskers.
"You know she ain't going to believe for one minute that you want to get to know her or that you even fucking care about her," Bakugou grunted. "The girl is too fucking paranoid for her own good."
His grandmother chuckled. "Maybe there is some hope for you, Katsuki but fix your tongue and maybe you will be as popular as All Might."
Bakugou really hated the Old Crone.
Where the hell am I?
Dabi groaned and pushed himself up from the blanket as his turquoise eyes scanned the living room. Photos of various red-heads decorated the living room but what stood out to the man was the small shrine in the corner of the room. A picture of a beautiful grey-haired woman with warm light blue eyes stood in the center of the alter.
Dread coiled in his stomach as the man realized who was the woman in the photo. Was her father here? Was she here? It had been a struggle for Dabi to leave that hellhole without saying goodbye to her and Eisuke. But if he faltered then he would be forever chained to that man. There would always be a fear for him to crack like his mother did.
The black-haired man shook his head and tried to recall what happened. Right there had been meeting with Isamu's Boss and the childish Boss demanded for his real name. They argued until Shigaraki relented on not knowing his real name until it was really needed. After that, he left Isamu and got cornered by a bunch of thieves.
He burnt them to a crisp, not caring about the consequence of what would happen to his body.
"Well I'm glad that Sleeping Beauty is finally awake."
Dabi stiffened as a familiar voice ticked his ears, reminding him of the days where he and his sister would go over to her cousin's house to play. It should not surprise him. That tiny alter in the corner of the living room had been his little hint of who took him in. That woman had been familiar to him after all.
Amused violet eyes met him and the black-haired man watched as his childhood friend stood right in front of him. The white coat dangling over her shoulders confirmed Dabi's suspicion that Tomoyo was well on her way of becoming a famous doctor. Not that he ever doubted her for a moment when she declared to him and Eisuke about her plans for the future.
He cleared his throat. "You must be blind if you think I'm Sleeping Beauty, Sweetheart."
Tomoyo paused and looked at him for the longest time with blank eyes. That was a very new expression if you asked him because the girl had always been open when it came to her emotions. Then again, the last time he saw the girl was when he was 18 and she had been seventeen. Time passed and people changed.
Just like how he changed, his childhood friend must have changed too.
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," Tomoyo commented, reciting some quote from some book. It hadn't been the first time that the young woman would quote something out of a novel. Her violet eyes regarded him carefully, fixating on his burnt injuries. "How are you feeling? I patched you up as well as I can do."
Dabi only nodded and looked down at his burnt injuries. The old ones were still there but there were no hints of new burnt marks, which told him that the woman had either used her Quirk carelessly again or did something else. He could never be certain with her, not when her father had a strange Quirk that held no drawbacks.
Exhaling, the male darted his eyes back at the grey-haired woman. His stomach twisted and turned with guilt as those violet eyes looked at him with so much concern. She had always been like this. From the first time they met as little children, the pretty grey-haired woman was always the type to worry about people.
He hated that part of her because it made escaping from that hellhole difficult.
"I'm fine, Tomoyo."
The words spilled out of his mouth and Dabi cursed himself. It was a stupid habit of his to make that comment whenever the woman used to show unnecessary worry towards him. He thought after being separated from each other that the habit would disappear. But it served to remind him that Touya couldn't be fully erased from him.
It wouldn't be long before the girl figured out the truth because out of everyone he knew, Tomoyo was the smartest girl he knew. It would be a good idea for him to think of a good lie before the woman quickly caught on to his real identity.
"Your name and photo were blasted all over the newspaper," Dabi shifted his weight around and pressed his feet down to the ground. "You made a name for yourself when Uzushiokage and Hawks rescued you."
Tomoyo twisted her lips into a scowl and clenched her jaws together. It would not surprise him if it would be difficult for him to pull her jaws off or if the young woman cursed him in her mind. Not even when they had been little children in the playground, did the girl like the knowledge that her older cousin saved him.
That expression told him that she hadn't changed one bit.
"I couldn't heal your old burnt injuries," the woman said, changing the topic like she didn't want to discuss over the events of her kidnapping. If he was Touya then they would talk about it and he would rant over how Eisuke was irresponsible for losing her captors. How could he be a Hero when he allowed them to kidnap her? Dabi clenched his jaws together. "But your new ones are healed."
The man forced himself to nod and looked down again at his injuries. There was a part of him that wanted to tell her to be more careful when it came to healing people but he bit his tongue. They were strangers now. Touya died on the night he ran away, reborn into Dabi and he didn't care about the woman.
Tomoyo regarded him and looked like she wanted to question him but his phone ding. With a small frown, he pulled out his phone and swiped left to read the message from Isamu. For the first time in his life, Dabi was quite grateful for the interruption. Any moment longer and he might began to falter again.
There is another meeting tonight, Dabi and from what I heard from Kurogiri we are going to be meeting one of All For One's associate.
Dabi grunted and slid his phone back. If they were insane and childish like Shigaraki then he would be having the biggest headache of his life. It was already bad enough he had to deal with Isamu, who had been getting agitated over the fact that the relatives of his mother's killer were being protected or something.
The black-haired man sighed. "You are done healing me, right?"
Tomoyo nodded and looked like she wanted to stop him from moving out but Dabi only scowled. Judging from the evening sunlight, he wasted too much time being inside of her apartment. There were going to be a round of questions from Isamu, who probably came back to their apartment and realized that he had been stuck with all of the chores.
God, he was going to be insufferable.
With another sigh, Dabi pushed himself off from the couch and began to drag his feet towards the door. Not once did his eyes flicker to the photo of the three of them in the middle of Eisuke's garden or to her graduation photo. Nope. The past was the past and he only had one goal. The Hero Society would get a rude awakening and maybe the hunger inside of him would fade away.
He stopped in his steps when Tomoyo called out to him.
"We met before, haven't we?" His heart raced against his chest but the man did not look away from the door. "You look a lot like one of my best friends but he escaped from his house."
Dabi kept his lips shut and thought to himself that the woman used the right term to describe his actions. So many people would think he ran away from his childhood home but he escaped. Escape from the man who looked at him like he would never be good enough and who pushed him to his limits when it came to his Quirk.
The man who made his mother cracked and the man who forced his wishes on his sibling.
"Do you miss your best friend so much that you think any stranger on the street is him?"
The words were cruel but he wasn't Touya, who had been too timid and polite around the girl. He was Dabi and it was time for him to destroy any hopes that the girl had when it came to him. But the girl did not look too put off by his rude tone, only giving him a blank expression like she didn't want him to read what was on her mind.
The intern only cleared her throat. "Why wouldn't I miss him? I only said that you look like him but I never implied that you were him."
"Good because I'm not him."
Touya was dead and he was never coming back even if Tomoyo looked at him with those knowing eyes.
Author Note: So Dabi refuses to acknowledge his past and there is an associate that the League of Villains are going to meet. Naruto and Shouto have a discussion and someone overheard them. Bakugou and his grandmother have an argument while Naruto made it clear to her classmates that her feelings won't change.
Here are a couple of questions for you:
Question 1: What do you think of the whole conversation between Naruto and Shouto?
Question 2: How do you think Sasuke will react once he finds out that Naruto is with someone else?
Question 3: What do you think of the relationship between Bakugou and Narumi?
Please do tell me of your thoughts on this chapter.