NeonHorizon: There's one particular paragraph in this chapter that just broke me. I couldn't hold it together after I wrote it. I hope you like the new chapter, happy readers ^_^
"Why're you behind the bar?"
Kugutsu felt her heart racing and she was struggling to keep herself composed. She covered her mouth to hide the grin pulling at her lips and glanced across the counter at Shigaraki briefly. Calm down! I used to be so good at controlling my emotions, but when I'm around him it's like I just lose all control! I get too excited! But look at him! He's so cool!
He sat there for a moment, waiting for her reply. None came since she was having an internal fan girl moment, visible to him only when she glanced over with glimmering cat-yellow eyes. The villain scowled at her silence and reached up, picking at the chapped skin of his lips in frustration.
"Kurogiri needed to rest, right, Yami?"
"I didn't ask you." Shigaraki glared at Spinner, who was sitting a few seats down from him. Looking to Kugutsu again, he saw her hand lowering from her mouth. She was biting her lip, a rush of pink flooding her face when their eyes met.
"Kurogiri said he didn't sleep last night so he wanted me to take care of the bar," she explained, managing to keep her expression neutral. A hint of excitement leaked into her tone and she swallowed hard. Calm down. You slept next to him last night so talking to him shouldn't be such a big deal!
The villain's blood-colored gaze dropped to the black hooded sweatshirt she was wearing over her costume. "Why're you wearing my sweatshirt?"
The pink hue darkened to red and her feline ears flattened in embarrassment. Bowing her head, she found herself fidgeting with the hem of the sleeve. "I…I missed you so I put it on," she admitted, keeping her voice low enough that only he could hear her.
Kugutsu had dated in the past. She had been with other guys and spent the night with a few of them. After all, she was a young lady and it was only natural to date around while trying to find "that special someone". None of them had made her heart race like he did. None of them even came to close to making her feel the way he did.
She was pretty sure he was "that special someone". Looking across the counter at him, she felt her heart skip a beat. Those crimson eyes, narrowed into a villainous glare. The moderately damaged skin around them. That light blue hair, tangled in that "I don't care what anyone thinks" style. Those chapped, faintly bloody, lips pulling gradually into a grin that made her tingle. Yes, this was the man that made her twisted little heart race uncontrollably.
"Do you need anything?" she asked, hoping to be of some help. Hoping that she could do something to make that grin grow.
"I didn't eat yet. Get me something good."
"S-sure!" Kugutsu rummaged in her bag and produced a bag of salty chips. As soon as she had pulled it out, she felt her heart dropping into her stomach. What am I doing? Why would he want something like this? It's not good enough! Setting it on the counter, she ruffled her hair with her free hand and frowned.
"Hey, can I have-?" Before Spinner could finish his question, a glare was shot his way and Shigaraki dragged the bag closer to him. "Someone should probably go out for food. Yami, want to go with me?"
"Why would I send you? Out of everyone here, you'd stand out the most. Don't be stupid." Shigaraki was already helping himself to the chips with no regard for the hungry stares he was getting from the villains who had yet to eat. After a moment of crunch-filled contemplation, he determined that Magne and Toga were best for the job and sent them out.
Kugutsu was finally left alone at the counter with Shigaraki and found herself fidgeting nervously with the hem of her sleeve. Why am I so flustered?! We slept next to each other so I shouldn't get so nervous, but I feel so…happy! I need to calm down before I lose control and the shadows start moving.
She looked away from Shigaraki and her joy was swiftly replaced with irritation as her eyes settled on Dabi. The charred-looking lord of edge was still sipping his sweet coffee, completely oblivious to the fact that he nearly killed her the previous night. He had no idea who had caused that wound on his arm that seemed to have bled through his bandage because there was red dripping from his sleeve.
Kugutsu wanted to leap over the counter, grab the straw from his coffee, and stab it into his neck. The idea of seeing his blood spurt out of the straw with each beat of his heart made her want to giggle. It would be super messy, but she was sure Shigaraki would be amused. Even if it meant they would be less one villain.
She subconsciously reached up, gently touching the bruise on her neck as she recalled what he had insinuated. The idea of her and Shigaraki doing something like that and him causing the bruise during that act. It made her blood pump so fast that she started to tremble. Her pulse could be heard in her ears. Her face felt like it was on fire as she tried to imagine it. There was a warm wetness trailing down over her lips that smelled a lot like blood.
Blood?! Damn it! I'm seriously getting a nosebleed over this? How uncool! She was about to lift her sleeve to soak up the blood, out of habit, but then remembered she was wearing Shigaraki's sweatshirt. "Ugh. Napkin," she muttered to herself, searching for one behind the counter.
Kugutsu, with her typical bad luck, managed to attract attention to herself as she fumbled around to find something to soak up her blood. She dropped a few things and struggled to get them back to where they belonged on the little shelf behind the counter. When she found napkins she straightened up to see her new arch enemy standing across the counter.
"What are you staring at, burnable trash?" She tried to sound intimidating, despite having blood gushing from her nose. To her outrage, the villain smirked and leaned over to set a hand on top of her head. "Don't touch!"
"I thought cats liked attention," he taunted. "Or do you just like the leader's attention?"
She bristled and pressed the napkin to her nose with a trembling hand. "Shut up! I don't want to hear about attention from a half-singed piece of meat like you! Fucking crispy creep!" The hand on her head started ruffling her dark, scruffy hair and she reached up with her free hand to grip his wrist, nails sinking into his skin. "Back. The. Fuck. Up."
"Stop touching her." The order came from Shigaraki, who was now glowering at the other two villains. "I told you she was off-limits."
Kugutsu felt one of her nails sink in where Dabi's scarred skin met his normal skin and her stomach turned. She tasted bile and, just for a second, she was half-sure she was about to projectile vomit on him from disgust. Why the hell is his skin so warm?! Is he sick or something?
She tensed up when she felt the hand on her head move. Fingers sank into her hair and his nails dug into her scalp for a second before he drew his hand away. The female villain took a few quick steps back to put more distance between herself and him, glaring as fiercely as possible. Her hatred for Dabi was getting pretty close to being on par with her hatred for All Might at this point.
Shift P.O.V
Nothing was going smoothly. It was frustrating. Almost disheartening. Not that Shigaraki was that easily swayed to give up. This was just like a particularly hard level in a game; as soon as he got past it then he would be rewarded. However, this was maddeningly irritating for him to deal with.
An uncooperative "potential new member". Hunger, because chips were not an adequate meal for a villain. Everyone was being too loud and it was grating on his nerves. Dabi was harassing his fan girl. That last thought made him look up and found the girl swiftly redirecting her gaze from him, blushing faintly.
To anyone else, she probably looked like an absolute mess. Dried blood under her nose and on her lips, scruffy dark hair settled in perfectly chaotic tangles, wearing his hooded sweatshirt. It was a little too big for her so the sleeves covered most of her hands. She had that maniacal, happy look in her eyes when she glanced toward him again. This psychopath with cat ears was, amazingly, in love with him. So, to him, she was far from a mess.
Satisfaction began to overtake all of the feelings of frustration. He hated that he was that easily swayed now, but seeing his fan girl get so excited just by being near him brought him confidence. Thinking back to the previous night and how much she seemed to like sleeping with him, an idea started to form.
"Yami. I have a job for you."
Her ears perked forward and Kugutsu lifted a hand to hide her smile. It seemed that just hearing him say her nickname was enough to leave her overjoyed. "A job just for me or-?"
"Just for you. My fan girl. You'd do anything for me, wouldn't you?"
She nodded eagerly. "Whatever you need, Shigaraki."
"Careful. You don't want to get drool on the bar," Dabi taunted. "Do cats drool?"
"I'm not-! Ngh. At least I don't look like something that crawled out of a trash can," she grumbled, trying to keep herself from attacking him.
Shigaraki felt oddly irritated hearing them argue. It sounded too friendly, even if she did mutter a death threat under her breath. Deciding to break it up, he tapped a fingertip against the bar to get her attention again.
"…sorry…" Her ears flattened in shame and she bowed her head. "Yes?"
"I want you to convince that boy to join us," he stated, nodding toward the restrained teenager across the room. "If you convince him to join us, I'll give you a special reward. So don't disappoint me."
"What're you going to give her? Ear scratches and a belly rub?" Dabi smirked and leaned against the bar with that sickeningly sweet coffee still in his hand. "Might want to ease up on the choking the next time you-"
"What?" Shigaraki's eyes narrowed on the other villain, who responded by simply taking a sip from his drink. It seemed like Dabi was trying to insinuate something unseemly. However, being who he was and having minimal actual experience with human contact, Shigaraki had trouble grasping what he meant.
The sugary coffee was set down and Dabi reached across the counter, hooking a finger into the neck of the sweatshirt Kugutsu was wearing. He tugged her closer to the bar, another finger tapping at her bruised neck while the female villain bristled and grabbed his wrist. "I'm surprised you can even do it."
Again, whatever the crispy villain was talking about was beyond Shigaraki's understanding. He continued to glare and then looked toward Kugutsu. The fan's face was turning red as she quietly swore and tried to free herself. "What?"
"Are you kidding? Seriously? You got dirty with Yami last night."
Thankfully, this finally made it click. Shigaraki realized what he was insinuating and gritted his teeth. No, they had not done "that". They had slept next to each other and that was it. On top of trying to say they did "that", Dabi was saying Shigaraki had been the one that choked her and caused that bruise.
He wanted to slam his hand into Dabi's face and watch him crumble. The urge was almost overpowering. To think that the other villain would think about his fan that way and then try to say that Shigaraki was responsible for her injury. Dabi had to be either incredibly dumb or painfully forgetful. Though Shigaraki immediately assumed it was the first option.
What kind of idiot talks like that? I should just kill him. How much help is he to the League of Villains? He shows up whenever he feels like it and messes with my fan girl. He attacked her. I shouldn't even let him keep breathing. I'm so…angry…He realized that he had been tensing up all over and forced himself to try to relax, just a little.
Kugutsu slipped free from Dabi's grip and scowled, a hand touching one of the shelves behind the bar. The shadows there began to twitch and pulse to life. "Hands off! I don't want some trashy, half-burned, serial-killer wannabe touching me!" she snarled, lowering to a half-crouch as if getting ready to attack.
"Oooh! Are they gonna fight again?" Toga grinned as she looked over.
Dabi's smirk never faded as he pushed the remainder of his drink toward Kugutsu. "There's some cream left in there. Cats like that, right?"
Without a word, Shigaraki reached over and shoved the cup back toward Dabi. It fell to the floor at the villain's feet, a few drops of coffee splashing up and dotting his pants. Not quite as satisfying as when he got splashed with steaming hot milk, but good enough. Shigaraki felt at least slightly less irritated.
Kugutsu caught his gaze and gave a small nod. "Right…I'll do my best."
"Do better than your best; you're doing this for me." Seeing her blush, he felt a rush of confidence again. Of course, Shigaraki had no idea what sort of methods she might use to try to sway Bakugou to their side. This could result in him joining or them having to dispose of the boy's mangled corpse in a discrete location. It was anyone's guess what Kugutsu had planned.
"I've…handled hostage situations before," she started to explain. Stretching her arms over her head, she put on a neutral expression and gave another nod. Her shoulders popped and she sighed in relief. "Hostage situations, interrogations, holding captives. I've got a lot of experience so…I should be able to do this."
"Wait. Do whatever you have to without killing him. Think of it as a fun challenge." Shigaraki scratched at his neck, watching her approach the boy.