As Luciana walked home, minus the wagon, she thought back to the warehouse. After playing with the kids for an hour, she left them to go talk to Kitten. KItten has introduced her to the lady she had rescued on a job. The blue-haired woman was very grateful and when she heard about this little band, who knew Redcat, she decided to join. When she had left, the two cats had a serious conversation about what was going to happen.
"You can't continue being Redcat! It's too dangerous!" Her successor as caretaker of the children had yelled in her face.
"I know… but I have to finish paying the debts, provide for Matt, and keep you safe. I can't do that as me, only Redcat can. She's famous enough that I can use it to get more jobs and stop sooner." Luciana had told her.
They had argued about it for a long time until someone rang the bell. Kitten had stormed off and Luciana had left.
The problems kept coming. She knew Matt was close to figuring out what her 'errand job' was and that was dangerous. The only way she could stop that was if she 'quit' the job. It wasn't as simple as quitting a real job would be. She had to kill Redcat in spectacular, impossible to survive way to be free of this completely. There was no other way to do that. If she just disappeared, her contacts might come after her and there were so many things that could go wrong. No matter how hard she tried to keep that part of her life separated, there were always connections.
"What am I supposed to do?" She muttered aloud. No one was around to look at her like she was crazy because she strolled above all the regular people on the roofs. It wasn't an uncommon sight to see people doing that around here.
Her best -and worst- plan so far had been to tell Enji and have him pretend to incinerate her. His flames could get hot enough to completely destroy a body and her quirk could protect her from them. She could even escape entirely without anyone being any the wiser. The only problem was, Enji was too good for her crappy self and he didn't deserve to be burdened by the knowledge of her villany. Sure, she had done a lot of good as a villain, rescuing orphans, saving the day from other villains, and other stuff. At the same time, she had done a lot of horrible things. Even if she only hurt others in self-defense, it was still hurting others. She had robbed countless bank and jewelry stores, broken into top-secret research and stolen harmless info, and she even worked for one of the most notorious underworld contacts.
The debts her parents had left her were almost paid off, Matt had a full scholarship to UA -one that had been promised since his flawless entrance exam-, and the 'AniOrphans' were almost self-sufficient.
She continued to worry over this problem even when she opened her window and climbed into her room. The danger of her, a villain of twelve years, dating a hero was great. The guilt from her career was so great sometimes it crushed her. The worst guilt of all was knowing she had failed every single person who relied on her or cared for her. Thom, Matt, Enji, Ichigo, Ren, Pake, Mishi, the orphans and Kitten- they would all probably hate her and be hurt. She had to fix this on her own.
Matt only had a year and a half left of hero training. Then, she could get rid of Redcat. She could keep it hidden until then.
"Luciana, come on!" Ichigo knocked on her door and said.
"What?"
"We're going on that double date, right?"
"No, we're not going clubbing," Luciana snapped. They had just finished eating dinner at a nice, expensive restaurant. Enji had insisted on that particular one, so they had gone. Now that they were done, Ichigo and Ren were very drunk and wanted to go clubbing. Enji had had too much to drink and refused to let her walk, so he held her in a bridal carry. She hadn't touched alcohol. She still had work later.
"But I waaaaaaanna!" Ichigo whined. Right now, three of them were walking towards their mutual apartment complex. Luciana was still being carried.
"Babe," Ren hiccuped. "We aren't dressed right, we need to go home, then go clubbing." He reasoned.
"Why not have a nice night in?" Luciana suggested. "Alcoholic drinks to destroy your liver, gay sex movies, and low lights and you guys can fuck whenever rather than when you get back."
"That sounds good to me. Minus the gay part." Enji's chest rumbled against her.
"I-I was t-talking to them!" Her face had gone completely red. It was adorable. "Besides! I've st-till got work later!
"That does sound good…" Ichigo contemplated. "All right! Let's do it!" He kissed his boyfriend lewdly while still walking.
"Please not right now." Luciana pleaded. Enji's muscled chest and arms pressing against her was too much combined with any thoughts of those kind. She had always been so indifferent about everything like this before she met Enji! Her face was so red, it seemed like it might as well have been on fire. The warmth Enji naturally radiated didn't help either.
"You're so cute when you're like this." Enji slurred slightly. He had definitely drank far too much.
She turned and buried her face against his chest and let out a muffled, "Stop!" The two gay men had started feeling each other up and she didn't want to see that.
After several more minutes of them being very obviously drunk and in love, Enji finally allowed his girlfriend to walk, but not too far from him.
The three were completely drunk. "We're almost back." Luciana muttered happily.
"Lucy, what are you talking about? We still have pretty far to go."
The woman winced at the use of that nickname. Only two people were allowed to use it -her brothers. She didn't bother correcting him and just said, "No, Ichigo, you're drunk. We're almost there." If we cut through the main alley, which is big enough for a car to go through so it'll be safe enough, she added silently.
"Ok," the man giggled. He and Ren were leaning against each other and laughing over something. Probably her red face and Enji's flirting.
"This way." She gestured to the right, into the alley. They were drunk enough to not care, but still be aware enough to protect themselves. It was slightly dimmer than the street, but not by much. The ground was clean. Not even clean for an alley, just clean for the ground.
It was eerily quiet.
"Something is wrong," she muttered. The silence wasn't natural. This alley was heavily used by regular traffic. Ren and Ichigo were still goofing off and being stupid so they didn't hear.
"What do you mean?" Her boyfriend asked.
"I use this path regularly, and it's always full of Friday night traffic. It's never dead. And no, I don't walk it alone. Mishi's always there." She hushed him before he could protest. "And tonight you're here. I don't think anything will happen, it's just really weird."
"Even if something does happen I'll protect you." The arm wrapped around her tightened and pulled her into his side more firmly.
"I can hold my own. I work as a damn bouncer literally later tonight." She pointed out dryly.
"And I can protect you and you can watch my back. It because I care about you that I don't want you to get hurt. And you can protect me from behind." He smiled at her.
"See, the only problem with that plan is you…" she paused for dramatic effect, "are drunk. You have a harder time keeping the flames safe for others when your drunk. You know this."
"Yeah, but I don't need my quirk all the time." He flexed his free arm, causing his muscles to bulge. The man was sculpted. Her face turned red.
"C-come on Ichigo, Ren. Quit lagging." She called. Their echoing footsteps were getting further behind them. She glanced back at them and say them still walking and trying to get frisky. A red barrier appeared between the two of them and shoved them apart. "Get a move on. You can wait five minutes." The two men made disappointed noises before catching up. When they were both back with their friends, the barriers disappeared. There was a light sheen of sweat on Luciana's forehead.
"Let me go for a little bit? Moving two barriers like that and having you right next to me is a little bit much." The bluenette asked her boyfriend. He reluctantly complied with several grumbles. "Just let me cool off for a moment."
It only took them around five minutes to reach their apartment complex once they emerged from the alley.
As soon as they were inside, Luciana made a beeline for the stairs and began climbing. Enji followed her while the other two went for the elevator.
"Where are you going in such a rush?" Enji asked as they climbed.
"I've got work soon. We were out later than I thought."
"That's disappointing."
"Don't worry, in a few weeks, I'll be able to quit a job, maybe two if I get the job I applied to." The stairs were silent aside from their quiet footsteps.
"Is it a day job?" Enji broke the silence again.
"Yeah. I'll only have one night job, which is infrequent, and the day job. Besides, the night job sometimes is daylight only."
"So, we'll be able to spend more time together?"
"Exactly."
"That's good. The only problem is… I'm moving."
"What? Where?" Luciana's voice was tight.
"My father is dying. I'm going back to the house I grew up in," he had told her about the abuse he suffered at his father's hands as a child.
"That… I'm sorry you have to go back there."
"Me too, but don't worry, I'll still spend time with you." As much as he could, at least. Being the number two hero was a lot of work and her limited availability had made everything harder.
"After you," Enji said while holding the door open.
"Thanks." She smiled warmly at him.
"Do you want to talk about it in the morning?" She asked softly.
"That'd be nice. Just go ahead and come in when you send Matt off."
"I will." She continued walking as he stopped in front of his door.
"I love how spunky you are."
"I-I love you-," she stammered back. "I love your hair." Her cheeks always got so red when he complimented her.
The door shut behind her, she leaned against it for a moment. His compliments genuinely embarrassed her, but she also felt guilty every time. She didn't deserve him. She was a murderer and a thief and he was amazing. It was wrong of her to do this.
