We made a pit stop, still in Sapporo where I lost my dinner and Deku only just managed to keep his down from the amount of jumps Miko did to create distance from the villains chasing them. Miko took the chance to withdraw cash and throw away her bank cards, Deku already had cash in his bag and neither of them had brought phones with them, so I pinched some loose change from Deku to make a call on a public phone. I didn't really remember too many numbers off the top of my head, but I did remember my house number growing up, so I called home. Being after midnight, no one answered so I left a message for my parents to call the school and just to let them know that I was with Deku and couldn't bring him back yet due to circumstances. I didn't have the time or patience to get into it over the phone and left it at that so at least the school wouldn't think something had happened to me and also so they could know that Deku was alright, and they could pass that on to Tsukauchi.

"Took you long enough" I hissed to the girl as she returned to us. Deku and I had been milling around in an alley waiting for her to return so we could move on again. Using her quirk was a useful way to travel and it got us far fast, especially if she started off high up, but god I didn't think my stomach was ready for it. She shot me a look before it turned into a smile when Deku rose to his feet.

"How's your leg?" she asked him warmly as he rolled his shoulders.

"it's fine," he replied, "If we keep moving like this I won't have to use it much"

"Yeah well good for you" said the girl with a big stretch, "lugging your two heavy asses around is doing a real number on me," she said with a smile, "I'll do another big one and to get us to the edge of the city and then let's find somewhere to sleep. I need a rest and a nice long sleep in after this"

"Sure" replied Deku. I wasn't so sure my stomach could take another jump.

"Shame I didn't bring the crutches for you" she smirked at Deku, and he blanched

"I don't need those" he shot back defensively.

"If you keep misusing your leg you will. I know you push yourself too hard when you come home limping from the gym" she smirked back with a lifted chin. Seemed to me she just enjoyed pushing Deku's buttons. I could see the appeal in that.

"Are you still mad about that?" squeaked Deku

"And what if I am?" she sneered back, "after all the effort I put into making you well again and your just going to throw it down the drain? Ouch" she turned her head away with a pout. Maybe I could learn I get along with this girl after all.

"Miko" whined Deku.

"It was like caring for a big baby," she chuckled warmly, "you couldn't even go to the bathroom by yourself" she snickered and Deku's mouth hung open and his eyebrow twitched. He clamped his jaw shut and turned, stomping out of the alley.

"I'm walking" he announced grumpily.

"Aww, come on Izuki, " she wailed playfully after him, "don't be like that"

"You're mean!" Deku shot back over his shoulder and kept walking. For the first time in a while I actually had to cover my twitching smile.

"C'mon, you know you can't get away from me" she pushed and Deku stopped at the entrance to the alley and looked back over his shoulder with a scowl of his own.

"I'm pretty sure I could out run you" he spat back with pointed finger.

"Not with that leg you won't" sneered back Miko. She disappeared and reappeared right beside him and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug and she smiled and squeezed him and rubbed her cheek against his teasingly.
"I'm just playing, you don't need to get so upset" she told him, and he didn't return the hug and just glared at nothing.

"I hate you" he hissed back.

"You love me" she laughed and squeezed him tighter. I had to turn away to hide my snicker. Seeing Deku so pouty was just too much.

"Alright knock it off" I called to them and marched over to them once I had composed myself again and they separated, or more so the girl finally released Deku who was still pouting.

"I'm glad you too are so in love," I drew out the words with an eye roll, "but the sooner we get going to sooner you get to enjoy your sleep in" I told the girl and she smirked at me.

"I like this one" she mock whispered to Deku beside her and he frowned at her, but she offered her hand to both of us. Deku adjusted his backpack again and Miko was wearing the other and we both took her hands again for the sickening trip.

By the time we landed in front of a hotel, she was inside getting a room while Deku was rubbing my back while I lost what little food I had left in me in a trash can.

"You'll get used to it" he told me with a small smile, and I growled back at him.

"You really know how to pick em" I muttered back as I finally stood up straight again. Empty inside. His smile grew enough to show teeth and this close I could even see that his eyelashes behind his fake glasses were black now. I huffed at how thorough he was being. Aside for the eyes, he could almost pass as the girl's brother or something.

"Ah yeah Miko is pretty good," he looked towards the doors she had vanished inside of, "she's not usually so mean though," he thought aloud, "I think she's just excited" he moved to step towards the hotel entrance.

"Excited about what? Leaving her home?" I scowled and Deku looked back to me.

"I think she likes the idea of an adventure," he smiled and then his brows came together as another thought struck him, "or maybe it's just because you're here" he added and headed inside. His limp was far less noticeable now.

We met Miko inside and we followed her up to a room on the third floor. Inside there was a kitchenette, bathroom, a pair of arm chairs and a double bed. I turned my gaze back to the smiling girl.

"There's three of us" I pointed out in case she had forgotten.

"I know that" she smiled back to me with a shrug and shrugged her bag off onto one of the arm chairs. Deku dropped his on the floor beside it.

"I'll get my own room" I announced and turned to leave.

"Believe it or not, this was the last room they had" she told me, and I stopped and glared back at her.

"It will be fine Kacchan" Deku raised his hands in a useless attempt to calm me like he always has. I clicked my tongue at his efforts.

"So who wants middle?" called the girl as she launched herself on the bed and rolled across it happily. Deku and I both watched her with expressions like something was wrong with her then Deku turned back to look at me with a questionable look.

"Hell no," I barked at him, "I am not being some part of your freaky threesome"

"Threesome?" squeaked Deku with his black eyebrows drawn like I had just said something gross.

"No thanks!" called back Miko from the bed without looking our way. Deku sighed.

"Pick a side Kacchan" he told me as he turned for the bed.

"Fuck no. I'm sleeping on the chair" I told him, and he turned back to look at me with a displeased look. I was not used to seeing him so gloomy, but it wasn't a depressed sort of gloom, more just a reactive response to the people around him. Seemed to me he was just getting better at expressing that actually could get annoyed with his face. A thought that made me want to smirk, but I pushed it back, opting to glare back at the nerd instead.

"You can't sleep on the chair Kacchan" he told me.

"Watch me" I spat back.

"There isn't a spare blanket for you"

"So, I don't need one"

"I'll take the chair instead then"

"Like hell you will"

"I'm smaller than you"

"And you're the one with the bung leg"

"C'mon Kacchan, come to bed" called a sleepy voice from the bed and I looked past Deku to her sprawled across it. Deku didn't argue anymore and turned to the bed.

"Miko you should at least change" he told her with a whine.

"Okay" she yawned back, and I looked over to the small pitiful arm chair. I knew even a few hours in it would make my back ache like hell for the next day or two.

"Not here!" I heard Deku cry out from by the bed, and I shut my eyes and let out a long sigh. Bed it was.

Deku managed to get a sleepy Miko into the bathroom to change while he was comfortable enough to strip down partially in front of me. He simply took off his pants and shirt to remove his compression sleeves. I watched as I stood on the opposite side of the bed while he slipped off the sleeve on his upper right arm. He had worn one just like it back at school to help with the burn scare he had received when he had tried to stop the League of Villains from taking me. I always felt a strange twinge inside when I thought of that night in the woods. This time though there was new scar there like a streak across the outer part of his upper arm that left a raised pink scar.

Next her started to roll down the black compression sleeve that covered from the hem of his boxer briefs to below his knee on his left leg and this was the one I was interested in seeing. I had seen in the footage how his leg had been damaged to the point of being immobile and I wanted to know what had happened to it. He noticed me watching and paused at the top of it and lifted his gaze to mine.

"Kacchan?" he asked with a small head tilt.

"Your leg," I started because there was no point in hiding the fact that I had been staring at it, "what happened to it?" I asked finally lifting my eyes to him and his green eyes darted away and back again as he thought.

"It got burned pretty bad" he explained but didn't seem willing to go into more detail about it, "It's, uh, pretty ugly" he added shyly.

"I want to see" I told him firmly and his yes grew wider and he diverted his gaze again, but this time I knew it was out of embarrassment from the flush in his cheeks. He hesitated for a moment like he was thinking of something to say back, but then he decided not too and went back to pulling down the sleeve and since I had permission to look now, not that I needed it before, I walked around the bed to be closer. I knew from the way his shoulders tensed that he knew I was there but didn't lift his head to look while he rolled it down and lifted his leg to remove the sleeve from around his ankle.

He stood straight again and turned his head to the side as I squatted down to see it closer. It was a huge scar covering almost the entire left side of his thigh and it was riddled with a network of raised pink scars like a chaotic spiders web. I reached out to touch it and he made a small noise of discomfort but didn't try to stop me and kept his eyes facing the wall. I stood back up and he went to his backpack to retrieve shorts to sleep in and to deposit the sleeves.

I knew his mum had already been dead before the explosion his brother had set for him and considering the gap of time between the explosion and the footage I had seen of him I figured that he had gotten the burn from the explosion. I didn't have to ask to know that. I felt like I needed to mention his mum. Not to tell him that I was sorry for his loss because I wasn't the type of guy, and he knew that, and I doubted he would appreciate the sympathy right now but more so because I wanted to know what had happened in that room. What had happened to his mum because I wanted to add fuel to the fire of hatred I felt towards his brother, as if that fire couldn't burn any stronger. I had been there with my parents for his mum's funeral. I had seen how sad it had made my mum and that had only added more kindle to the fire. Things with Deku's brother was already personal, now I just felt even more involved.

"Here," spoke up Deku as he held out clothing to me from his bag and I eyed the pieces of material. I was bigger than him so I didn't know how he expected me to sleep in anything he wore.
"They're big on me so they should fit" he added as though he had figured what I had been thinking and I wouldn't put it past him to have done just that. I had seen the nerd's face so much growing up that he was easy to read for me and it would be foolish for me not to believe that Deku could read me the same way.

I snatched the clothes from him and turned my back to him as I changed into the shirt and shorts and Miko came out of the bathroom throwing a small item my way. I caught it and saw a cheap looking toothbrush.

"Lucky you," she smiled, "they had some here for guests already" I accepted it and marched into the bathroom to brush my teeth. Deku followed in after me and brushed his own teeth beside me and other than his black shorter hair I could almost imagine we were back in our dorms.

When we were done Miko was already in the middle of the bed and smiled to us, patting the bed on either side of her teasingly in a mocking way. Deku got in on the side closest to us like lying next to a girl was a normal and easy thing for him now and Miko snuggled in closer to him while I walked around and flicked off the light before getting in on the other side. Luckily I didn't hear any gross sounds from the other side of the bed while I fell asleep or I would have pushed them both out with my feet.