06 • Just..What The Fuck

It takes me about an hour to coax Tenko back inside the house, then another to convince him to step inside the shower - the reminder of the blood covering him sending him into hysterics. It doesn't help that he can't seem to decide between keeping me close or as far away as possible.

"Tenko, hey, you really need to wash off okay?" I urge as gently as possible. While I was able to get him to agree to a shower, getting him inside the shower is proving to be a whole different problem.

He sniffles, hesitantly nodding. He reaches for his shirt before stopping, looking at me in distress.

I only stare back in confusion. Does he want me to step out? I really rather not let him out of my sight when he's clearly unstable at the moment.

"Q-Quirk," he flinches as he whispers.

Oh, right. His quirk that completely ruined my sweater with just a touch. Yeah, I can see how that'd be a problem.

"Okay, okay," I soothe, slowly stepping forward. "I'll help you out, alright? Just…try not to touch anything with your hands. Can you do that for me? Please?"

Visibly swallowing a fresh wave of tears, he shakily nods, curling his hands into fists. Smiling encouragingly, I step closer. I whisper assurances as I help him out of the bloody clothes, leaving him only in boxers.

Dumping the clothes in the sink, I set up a warm shower. With the reminder of what his quirk can do, I stay to help him wash off. I need to figure out how his quirk works to help him out some more.

Clearly it works from his hands, not skin contact. Maybe one of those five-finger-touch activated quirks? Hana (was her hand always so small? that's her lucky bracelet between her fingers. why is her hand so far away from her leg? there's so much blood, the stench is nauseating) once said one of her friends had a quirk like that.

So, we just need something that covers at least one of his fingers on each hand. That should, in theory, stop his quirk from working. Would a band-aid work?

Finally finished with scrubbing the blood off of my brother, I reach for the shampoo so I can do the same for his hair.

Maybe a pair of gloves with some of the fingers cut off? That'd be easier to wear. Is there some sort of product for quirks like these? Would I even be able to buy anything if there was? Probably not.

I should stick with the band-aid and glove plan for now.

After washing out the last of the soap from Tenko's hair, I turn off the shower and help him step out. Then I grab a towel and help him dry off, seeing how his hands are still curled into fists.

"I'll grab you some new clothes, okay?" I keep my tone soft while wrapping the towel around his shoulders. He nods, hunching in on himself.

Hurrying to our shared room, I decide to pick out the most comforting clothes my brother owns. I'll need to prepare something for him to eat and drink too, something to calm him down before trying to get him to sleep.

Then..then I'll figure something out from there.

God, this is a fucking mess. I was gone for about an hour.

Stepping back into the bathroom, I find my brother trembling where he stands. Slowly, I reach my hand out and gently grab him by the arm. He flinches but doesn't pull away as I drag him out of the bathroom.

I have him sit on the stairs so I can easily fit the new shirt over his head, helping him pull his arms through. Looking at the new pair of boxers in my hand, I sigh.

"You're going to have to do this one on your own," I whisper apologetically. While I have seen a lot of shit as Anna, I would really like to go through life without seeing my brother naked.

Tenko blinks, eyes focusing on me before falling to the boxers in my hand. It's a relief to see him blush in embarrassment. It means he's still present instead of caught up in his head and memories.

"O-Okay, but..," he trails off, looking down at his hands uncertainly.

"I want to test something actually," I admit as I place the clothes down on the stairs next to him. Looking around, I grab the decorative vase off of the nearby oriental stand in the hall. Turning back to Tenko, I hold the vase out to him.

"If you think you can do it, I want you, with one hand, to place one finger at a time on this," I explain as I shuffle close. "You don't have to if you don't want to." It's probably a bad idea to try and have him use his quirk so soon after something so traumatic, but I really need to confirm how it works.

He shudders but bravely squares his shoulders and shakily holds a finger up. He pokes at the vase for a minute, relaxing when nothing happens. Then he presses two fingers against it; nothing. Three fingers; nothing. Four; nothing. Five- the vase crumbles in my hands and he jerks back.

Dropping the ruined vase, I dust my hands off my bloody shirt. "Alright, okay," I whisper and focus on Tenko. "Hey, it's alright. You know what that means? It means you just have to do things with only four fingers. It means you know how to prevent your quirk from activating. It's alright, it's okay."

It takes a while but he calms down enough for me to remind him of his state of dress. "Think you can put the pants on too?" His eyes flicker back and forth but he nods. "That's great. I'll be in the restroom, okay? Call when you're done, okay?"

Giving him a thumbs up for encouragement, I look inside the bathroom and sigh.

There's blood on the floor, in the sink, in the bathtub - it's something out of an action or horror movie.

Would cleaning this up even be worth it? Well, that depends on what the hell Ten and I are going to do from here. Our family is dead for fucks sake. What the hell are we supposed to do? Call the cops? And tell them what, exactly? That Tenko killed them all?

"Fucking shit," I hiss angrily. "This is a fucking mess."

ʕง•ᴥ•ʔ

I decided to leave the bathroom alone, for the time being, focusing entirely on helping my brother. He was thankfully able to put on his boxers and pants himself, calling for me not long after I left him alone.Before I could try to figure out what to do about his uncontrolled quirk (though, how does one even control something like that?) with the resources currently available, his stomach rumbles.

Eating should get his mind off of things for a while, right?

Ushering him into the kitchen for something to eat, I debate on what I can make. I'm five-years-old, short and physically weak. A stool can only get me so far if I don't have the strength.

"Would you like some warm milk?" I ask even though I'm already pulling a stool over to the fridge. Tenko nods, watching me climb the stool warily. Normally, Hana or Mother would be nearby to make sure Ten or I didn't fall over whenever we used the stool.

It's happened a few times, so I'm not that surprised when the weight of the milk jug (newly bought that morning, it hasn't been opened yet, Gran said she was gonna use it for dessert tonight) overpowers me.

Rather stupidly, instead of trying to save myself, I keep my arms wrapped around the milk as I feel myself tip precariously over the stool.

Momentum pulls me back, the weight of the milk pushing me down, and I fall.

"Rena!"

I watch my brother instinctively reach out for me, all five fingers on both hands exposed, and panic hits me like a bullet.

"Ten, no-!"

He grabs me and I can the exact moment he realizes what he did hits him. He screams the moment pain explodes on my back.

It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, ithurtsithurtsithurtsithurts-

I bite down on my tongue reflexively to hold in my scream as my body spasms. I can vaguely hear Tenko scream over the blood rushing in my ears. I can barely see him scramble away from me in horror through teary vision.

There's blood in my mouth and I choke, the new pain of having bitten off my tongue holy fuck- hitting me in addition to the unnerving feeling of skin breaking away on my back and the feel of the air on my exposed muscles, shit shit shit-

I curl onto my side, choking on my blood and desperately trying to spit out my tongue, come on get it out get it out get it out!

My tongue falls from my mouth with a wet plop. Blood quickly follows like a waterfall, staining the tiled floor red.

My vision is blurry and quickly giving out. I can feel my heart erratically beating in my chest. It's hard to think through the pain. Tenko's horrified scream and sobs echo in my mind.

Tenko.

No. Fucking- no. No, I am not going to leave Tenko like this. I am not- I fucking refuse to be a part of his trauma.

I'm Shimura fucking Rena, five-fucking-years-old, Anna fucking Hethingway's goddamn fucking reincarnation.

I am not dying like this - not here, not today, not ever.

My heart jumps, skipping several terrifying beats as I spasm once more. Then my body freezes, stilling entirely and I can feel everything.

I can feel my muscles flex, can feel my skin burn as it stretches and grows anew. I can feel the blood flowing in my veins, able to follow it from the heart to wherever it's going. I can feel the remainder of my tongue pulse before it starts to grow.

I can feel my body fixing and healing itself.

Then it finishes and I'm left panting on the floor, trembling in a pool of my own blood, tears falling from my eyes and blood still in my mouth.

Well, that's new, I can't help the hysterical thought. I almost died and all I can come up with is "that's new"? What the fuck is my life?

A whimper catches my attention and I jolt, remembering my brother that just witnessed that horrifying display. He watched me almost die with the full knowledge that it'd be his fault.

I'm going to need to find one hell of a therapist, I note to myself while forcing my trembling body to move.

I slip on my blood a few times, each one accompanied with a choked off sob from the other side of the kitchen. I can only stand very shakily and stumble my way over to my brother.

He's pressed into a corner, hugging himself and ruining his shirt. He stares at me with wide eyes, flinching when I drop to my knees next to him. He bites down on a sob and I don't hesitate to pull him into a hug.

Pressing his head against my heart, I swallow the blood in my mouth and whisper.

"I'm alive. I'm here. It'll be okay. I'm alive."

Still hugging himself, Tenko presses closer and wails.

ʕง•ᴥ•ʔ

When Tenko cries himself to sleep, I'm not surprised, just resigned. It'll be difficult to move him out of the kitchen, but I don't want him sleeping on the cold floor or so close to blood. So after carefully removing him off of me, I began my search for some gloves and a pair of scissors.

I eventually found some pairs in our parents' room. I cut off the tips of the thumb and index finger on all of them, leaving the other three fingers to be covered. Then I carefully placed a pair over my brother's hands, getting up to grab some bandages to wrap around the wrist to keep the gloves in place. They're too large for him now, but it'll have to do.

After that, I carefully carried him to our room and in his bed.

Now I'm standing in the bloody kitchen all alone.

My clothes are ruined, I'm covered in blood and exhausted. It's been, what, five hours maybe, since I returned home? Two hours to get Tenko inside and in a shower. Then three hours spent cleaning him up, almost dying, and healing.

Just..what the fuck.

What am I going to do now? My family is dead in the backyard. The hallway, bathroom, and kitchen are covered in blood. Tenko is traumatized and I'm alone.

I'm tempted to call the police just to shove this problem on someone else, but I don't know what'd they do when they learn that this happened because Tenko's quirk decided to show up.

We have no relatives to turn to - Mother and Father were both only childs; Mother's parents lived with us (and died with them); and Father never talked about his, but it was implied that they were dead.

At this point, I should just fake our deaths and move us to another city.

If I had more energy, I'd probably do that. As it is, I just want to go to sleep and forget any of this ever happened. So I reach for the house phone and start planning.

I doubt lying to the police is going to be the worst thing I'll ever do.

ʕง•ᴥ•ʔ

Quirk: Accelerated Healing Factor

Well, were you expecting that? How'd I do?