Chapter 15 – A report, An Outburst

It was the evening, and the princess was stood in the kitchen with her fantasmin, washing up their bowls at the sink.

The stew had come out less watery than the last: the roots were more flavourful, and the leaves had retained their integrity the heat. Uraraka felt rather pleased with the whole affair. There was hardly a thing left in either bowl, and her ugly bird had even waddled back to her for seconds. She deliberated that for her subsequent attempts, if she felt more confident, she might add some herbs or spices, and her mind wandered to where in the market they were sold.

Leaning over, she pumped a last gush of cold water to rinse the bowls and set them aside to dry. She shook her hands to get rid of the drips of liquid and then stepped over to the fireside. The fire was dying down, shrinking back to a few glowing embers, as though the flame had grown shy and hidden itself. She saw no sense in adding another log to keep it alive whilst she wasn't there, and was content enough to give it only a desultory stoking. It winced as her iron poker shifted the cinders about.

"Come on then," she said, twisting to look back at the fantasmin "let's be off to bed."

It understood her perfectly this time, without the need for additional miming, and swiftly hopped over to her side. They had just begun to make their way out together when there came the sound of four steady knocks, echoing down the stairs from the great hall. Uraraka frowned, and bit her lip. She looked down at the mimic bird.

"Stay here a moment, will you?" She pointed at the ground and made a patting motion "Stay, here."

She rushed up the stairs through the murky darkness, one hand on her long skirts and the other on her lantern. The dust and gloom illuminated sharply as she rounded the corner and arrived at the main doors. The hinges glistened warmly from the shadows as she heaved the doors open.

Knight Tenya Iida stood in the blackening purple of the night, his midnight blue hair seeming to fade with the falling dusk. His velvet cloak was damp on his armour, and his thick eyebrows, usually set in a serious line, were angled and lax. He smiled gently at her.

"Good evening, your Highness."

She laughed.

"Good evening, most loyal knight. Would you like to come in?"

XXX

Uraraka put another piece of wood on the fire, and they sat on the stone floor before it as it reignited. Iida took off his plate armour and set it on his lap as he began to speak.

"Your cheek-" he began "what happened to it? Who did that to you?"

"Earl Monoma. My suitors are a lovely lot, as you well know."

He gripped at his chainmail.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Ochaco. I believe you already know why I'm here."

"I have an inkling, yes."

He sighed.

"With only two left, I thought that our patrols would be easier today. Izuku and I finally found the time to visit Melissa and get my helmet fixed, and we helped the tinsmiths with their absurd project in the afternoon. I thought I would come to you today with no news at all."

"However…?"

"However, on the way here, I came by a side street. There, I found Kosei Tsuburaba, all picked apart."

He watched the flames lick up the wood.

"Today was the final day." He said "Tsuburaba is dead. If everything had gone according to plan, you would be free to sleep easy by now."

"There is still the night."

"You're right. But I had hoped- I wished that we could have stopped this all by now. We tried our best to protect you, and still it wasn't enough. I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry, Ochaco. If only I had stopped Monoma from hurting you. If only there was a way-"

He gritted his teeth.

"If only I had stopped that thirteenth suitor."

Her eyes widened with surprise, and she looked up at him.

"No, no." she hushed "You couldn't have done any more. You have helped me so much, Tenya, and I am so grateful for what you have done."

"I am glad." He reached out his hand, and she placed hers gently in it. He looked as though he was trying very hard not to tear up. "I would do infinitely more if I could."

"You are already doing enough."

They smiled weakly at each other in silence for a moment.

"Izuku is on night duty tonight." Started Iida after a time "He will report to you if Bakugou is found."

"Do you think he will? Be found, that is."

"I don't know. I don't know."

"And what if he isn't?"

"We will come to the castle in the morning, and see that you are safe. We will still be there for you."

She twiddled with her sleeves.

"Tenya," she said "What will become of me?"

His face hardened, and his square eyes set fiercely.

"Nothing. Nothing will happen to you. We will keep you safe, no matter what."

He pushed the steel from his lap and awkwardly offered her his arms. She jumped to envelope him in a tight hug, and he was almost knocked over by the force of her embrace. Chuckling, he slowly wrapped one arm around her small back, and used the other to pat her gently on the head. She curled into him, pressing her cheek against the soft wool of his sweater, inhaling the powdery smell of steel and smoke. He was warm. All the worries poured out of her through the contact that she held with his broad back.

His hand on her hair and her arms around him were so gentle that she let herself melt away in it. They went droopy in each other's hold, slackened like a wilting daisy.

Once she felt her hands prickling from their proximity to the fire, she unwrapped herself. Iida smiled as he pulled away, then let out a chortle as he found that her dress had caught on the edge of one of his gauntlets. He untangled it and sat back.

"Would you like me to stay with you in the castle tonight?" he asked.

Uraraka thought about it for a moment. She liked the thought of having him there when morning inevitably came, and the security that he would bring, but she did not want to burden him. There was nowhere ready for him to sleep save the other side of her bed, and even setting aside that he was quite substantially bigger than her (the tallest of her friends, in fact), he would likely be uncomfortable with the arrangement. To add to his discomfort, and to hers, there was the possibility that she would dream again that night, and she did not much fancy the idea of Iida listening to her talking to herself in her sleep. As she saw it, it was likely best that he didn't, and she said so in polite terms.

"But thank-you for offering." She added "I really appreciated it."

"It would have been no trouble at all." Said Iida, standing up and replacing the plate armour on his chest. She stood too and helped him with the buckles. "Well then, I'll see you again in the morning."

"I'll look forward to it. Have a safe journey home."

"Thank you, your Highness."

She laughed.

"You're welcome, most loyal knight. Goodnight"

"Goodnight"

The princess saw him to the door and waved him goodbye as he disappeared into the black of the near-spring night. He was engulfed by the darkness, the shine of his smooth plate armour dulling, and soon there was nothing to be seen save for the swaying outlines of the growing sprouts in the garden. She stayed there, surveilling the shyly crenated parsnip leaves and tiny shoots of climbing gourd as they bowed in and out of the light, trying to calm her head as it buzzed with confusing and contradictory emotions.

Through the obscurity, slipping from beyond the castle gates on a chill wind, a ghostly whisper rose. Like the haunting moan of the wind through the boughs of a tree, it droned and hummed in the freeze. A deathly rattle tickled over her skin, leaving her hair standing on end.

"Ochaco"

The scrape of dead hands on stone. A muffled wail of pain and anger.

"My child…"

Hidden in the night, a creature with her mother's face clawed and snarled. She heard the terrible drip of blood on the snow.

"Ochaco, I'm so hungry… So hungry…"

She slammed the door behind her and fell back on it, her heart in her throat. A few strands of her hair caught in her mouth and she felt choked. A sweat had bloomed on the back of her neck.

No, she thought with distress, no, she was safe. She was safe inside the castle. They could not reach her there. And it was not her mother, it could not be, and it would be gone come morning.

As she calmed her breathing, she realised that the fantasmin had already hopped up from the kitchen and was sat on the hall's carpet watching her curiously, its head cocked in that funny, bird-like way.

She sighed, and fetched it off to bed.

XXX

Uraraka's heart was loud in her ears as she pulled off her day dress and hop-step-jumped into her night clothes. The lantern light had burned low, and she was weary, but the thought of sleep terrified her.

She was sure that she would dream again. That she would owe him a story she hated to tell.

Positioning the heavy iron door bolt in place, she breathed deeply, trying to steel herself. The fantasmin, nestled in its usual spot beside the wardrobe, copied the action somewhat mockingly.

She glared at it, then stood still for a moment.

"If I talk to you now," she said "will your master hear?"

It wiggled under its goat skin. In the fantasmin's golden beak, her reflection danced and warped. She stared at it, at her pale skin and tired eyes, and a brief but terrifying sense of helplessness washed over her.

She wanted to be alone. Just a single moment of release, a single scream for herself and she would cry herself hoarse cursing the gods and her fate for what they had wrought. She wanted to cry for Tsuburaba, for the boy whom she had let down, let die. She wanted to cry for her parents, she wanted to cry for all that she had taken from those that she loved, but she could not. That girl reflected in gold was her, and her expression was cold, drenched in guilt. And gods, was her face really that frigid, that hard, that unforgiving?

She disgusted herself. A bitter taste rose in her throat. She was ugly. Her heart was rotten. What was left of her? When had she become such a twisted thing?

The strange, ugly bird still watched her cautiously as she stood transfixed, and from somewhere beyond its master listened in.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, and she patted it cautiously on its bone white skull as it twitched warily "I'm sorry about all that. Goodnight."

XXX

It was quiet in the Todoroki-Yaoyorozu household that night. As the last day of the festivities drew to an end, the house's owners and their guests had dined together before bidding each other goodnight. Yaoyorozu and Todoroki had hidden themselves away upstairs in their respective rooms, leaving Ashido and Kirishima curled on the carpet before the fireside in the main room.

Kirishima had laid down and was resting on Ashido's lap as she stroked his bright red hair. As the fire crackled and her fingers scratched his skull, he let out a low, barking growl. A few flames flickered against his pointed teeth as he let out the sound, a dragon's true sigh, more animal and magical than human.

"Mina," he said, quiet against her touch "could you sing? Please?"

"What do you want to hear?"

He hummed a chain of rising notes, ending with a low and sustained spiral.

"Ah, that one," Her speech changed over the course of her speech, mutating wildly from her typical, unobtrusive low-Capcanish accent to a tone with lilting burrs and shortened, sharp vowels. "You've always liked that 'un."

Her true voice, the brogue of the north-Capcanish, was one now rarely heard. She found it embarrassing, a little rough, indicative of her roots, and so preferred to keep it hidden away, masked by a well-crafted imitation of the Common Tongue. It was only when she was with those who knew her that she began to relax enough to shorten her "T"s and drop off the ends of her words, and her original accent was revealed.

Ashido still felt a little shame in it, but Kirishima loved those unintentional drifts to a different register. He loved most of the things about her, after all.

She hummed a few notes to get herself into pitch and then began to sing, her soft voice all but melted into its true form:

"The boys whom you left have gone into men,
Who sigh a sor-row-ful sound.
Do you hearr the knell,
Of the warning bell,
And the howl of a huntin' hound?

As the days grow long, do you hearr them now,
Scream like a rra-lli-ach tide?
Through the rrising flood,
Can you hearr your own blood,
And the sound of a tear not cried?"

The song faded into the crackle of the fire. There was near silence.

"What's wrong?" asked Ashido, switching to rub his neck. A few red scales were beginning to appear behind his ears. "You haven't asked for that song in a very long time."

"Nothing." He said, still watching the fire.

"You know that's not true. You're thinking of our Katsuki, aren't you?"

Flames puffed from his nostrils as he sighed again.

"Yeah"

"That song makes me think of 'im too. But he's changed now, don't you think? We came up this mountain on his suggestion, an' no one pushed 'im."

"Even then, Mina, even then; I heard the warning bells, and the hunting hounds, as soon as we arrived here."

"Did you hear him scream like a ralliach tide?"

"No…"

She ran her fingers through his hair.

"He's still alive then, somewhere. He must be."

"Yes, it's just… what are we doing here, anymore? Why are we still here?"

"It's all gone a bit pear-shaped, hasn't it? I told you from the first day."

"Yeah."

She massaged away the prickly crimson scales forming on his forehead.

"D'you think… like, tomorrow morning, d'you think it'll be over with?" she wavered.

"I hope so. We'll have to shift off right quick, though."

"You've been ready to leg it ever since we got here." She mused playfully "Ec-to-therm that you are."

"That's not it; I'm alright, really." Said Kirishima "It's Katsuki I'm worried about. I've been telling you all this time to put your faith in him and now I just don't know. We just don't know what he's up to."

He rolled over to lay fully on the plush carpet. She took a pillow and snuggled down beside him.

"Really, that boy… He couldn't even stick to the plan that he created."

"Still, he chose a bloody good hiding place."

" 'Course he has. He's sharp as a pin, not like us. I'd never have thought of it."

"Clever or not, we'll have hell to face in the morning."

"Not more than him, I expect."

They grabbed a blanket that had been left to the side for them and huddled up together under it. Smiling feebly, Ashido opened her mouth to speak, but she never quite got the words out.

Yaoyorozu had come down the stairs, steps firm and fast, and was standing over them. She had heard them. She was quivering with rage; her face had crumpled terrifyingly, all the lines leading back to her irate eyebrows and eyes wide like a tiger upon its prey. Her mouth twisted into an unladylike snarl.

"You've known where he's been hiding this entire time?"

Ashido scrambled away, but Kirishima couldn't escape. Yaoyorozu caught him by his collar and held him close.

With a whimper he nodded, and looked back at Ashido, who was backed against the table.

"How could you?" her voice strained with anger and pain "You've slept under my roof and all the while you have known that my friend isn't safe, and you have conspired to keep it that way."

"Katsuki is our friend!" cried Ashido.

"And Ochaco is mine!"

"You're asking us to let our friend die for yours! Would you do the same?"

Yaoyorozu tightened her grip around Kirishima's neck, and he winced. She spoke through gritted teeth.

"Do you mean to tell me that Ochaco is in danger?"

He spluttered at the pressure on his windpipe, scrambling at her hands to relieve the chokehold. Water wobbled in the corners of his eyes as he gasped for breath. Ashido watched him with fear, desperate to reach out.

"Is." Spat her host "Ochaco. In danger?"
"Let him go!" she shouted in response, letting pink magic fly as she launched a volley of stinging acid.

Yaoyorozu hissed as the astringent chemical landed on her skin, flinching just long enough for Kirishima to twist out of her grip. He stumbled to Ashido, who held him protectively.

"Listen," she said harshly "I didn't mean to do that. I don't want to fight you."

"Tell me, then!" Pleaded Yaoyorozu, the backs of her hands red with burns "Just tell me! Tell me, for the Earth Mother's sake!"

She clasped her hands and folded in on herself, close to sobbing.

"Please tell me! We have to- we have to see that she is safe." She howled, and in her grief she was a wounded wolf, all teeth and tears in the moonlight "Your apathy condemns you! How can you- How can you sit aside and watch?" Her voice cracked. "I saw it- I saw the end of this vile affair in my dream. We could have stopped it, and now, and now-"

"Momo."

Todoroki had tumbled down the stairs, awoken by their din. He gripped the bannister with such force that his knuckles turned pale, ice crystals spilling threateningly up his skin from his wrist. His dual-tone hair was ruffled from fresh sleep, and his eyes stared wildly at something that was just out of reach.

"It's too late." He mumbled, breathless "Momo, it's too late. It's just turned midnight."

XXX

The night was black and moonless when Ochaco Uraraka's eyes opened. The light from her bedside lantern only barely peeked from beyond her curtains into her bed, creating from the blankets a shifting maroon desert as her eyes began to roam. They flitted through the darkness, over the vague contours of the pillows and the headboard and the bedposts, sifting minutely through the grainy shadows of things she thought she knew.

She rolled over, and suddenly lay still. Two ruby red eyes stared at her through the dark.

A/N: Due to exceptional circumstances, I will not be uploading the next chapter for about a month. I hope that the next chapter, when it comes, will be good enough to redeem this in your eyes.

In the meantime, keep an eye on jellydishprince on twitter or dreaming-is-easy on tumblr.

You can listen to the original Sound of A Tear Not Cried here:

watch?v=mLuqJCv_9_g