TW: Mentions of drug usage and overdose, references to past trauma
The Commission President's office is as empty as it usually is, save for the few chairs and the desk the old woman sits at. The blinds are closed across the windows, but Keigo knew the sky outside was gray and the chill in the air was becoming more obvious with each passing day.
"It's a shame about what happened to Elementia," the Commission president remarks, not bothering to look up as she signs off paperwork. The winged man says nothing, trying hard not to grind his teeth in frustration. "But it was to be expected. She never truly gave her all to her job."
The fuck? Reina's life was her job and Leinei.
"You may disagree," she continues, not having to look up to see the dark glare in Keigo's eyes. "But I knew the girl long before you did, Hawks. How is Empathia holding up?"
"Leinei is doing better than I thought she would be," he replies, shoving his hands into his coat pockets to hide the way they're shaking. He feels guilty enough for returning to work almost immediately and letting her rush herself back to school. But neither of us could stand to be in that apartment anymore. "The sidekicks at Starlite have been hired at other places with glowing recommendations and the same salaries Elementia gave them in the two weeks since the funeral. However, many voiced their desire to follow Leinei when she graduates."
"I see," she murmurs, finally looking up from her paperwork as her brow creases. "Hawks, why do you think that is?"
"Because being a hero is in her blood and she cares for the people around her," he answers without thinking. "Being at UA has been good for her and for working on her social skills."
"That would be a basic answer, yes," she agrees, scooting back out of the desk to open the long drawer that sat at her stomach. She selects one of the smaller keys sitting there, leaning over to open one of the locked drawers in her desk. "Empathia has been a special case since we found her," she adds, pulling out several files before closing the drawer with the key still in the lock. She lays them carefully on the desk, templing her fingers before nodding her head for Keigo to step forward. "While all three of you demonstrated very useful and versatile quirks, her's was the one we struggled with the most."
"Well, yeah," he murmurs, confused as he sees two names he doesn't recognize, the Salinsas minus Leinei, and then one file marked Unknown. "She struggled with it more since she was a late bloomer. We already know this."
"Yes, there is that. However, why do you think that is?"
"Because she was a kid and wasn't stressing her quirk like everyone else would've?" God knows I hate mine constantly. "She had a good home life according to Reina prior to them coming here. Loving parents, friends."
"About seventeen years ago, maybe a little longer if you forgive an old woman's memory," she starts, sliding the two named files he didn't recognize forward. "A beat cop responded to a call that sounded a lot like a domestic dispute. He arrived and saw what looked like two drug addicts overdosed on the ground." She notes how Keigo stiffens, his eyes closing for a moment. "A woman named Keiko, and a man named Emes. In the room with them was a baby, no older than six months." She waits until Keigo picks the files up, flipping through Keiko's first, then Emes' before looking at her again. "She wasn't crying. She didn't start crying until he picked her up and tried to take her out of the house. She cried until they reached the police station where a social worker took her into their custody."
"Kid was probably in shock. I've seen children not cry at all when faced with tragedy," he remarks, unimpressed. "She also probably didn't know what was going on."
"Of course. Very possible as well. I digress. We monitored the child for a month, searching for signs of withdrawal, but she was calm. She had only cried when someone picked her up. Otherwise, she was quiet." She slides the unknown file forwards. "We couldn't for the life of us figure out why that was. At first, we determined that she wasn't used to being held. Some parents are like that, especially unfit ones as from what we've seen in your case. Go ahead, Hawks."
He leaves the file on the desk this time, opening it to see pictures of the baby, familiar purple curls hanging off her head, seeing a pair of purple eyes staring back at him in the picture. His heart stops for a second, knocking the breath out of him as he skims the scribbled reports on the front page, turning it and seeing more details. He can barely take it all in, his head spinning with new information trying to crawl off the page in front of him.
"Her quirk was active from the day she was born, until it shut off one day, and we realized the child's eyes were actually blue," she continues, seeing the surprise on his face. "At the time, she only displayed a partial quirk we didn't exactly know about. Looking through her parents' files, we determined she had a kind of empathy quirk, and it worked through touch. However, we could never turn it back on after it turned off. I suppose she knew her parents had died and the trauma of it turned it off.
'After we concluded our study, we placed her with the Salinsas, who were infertile due to medical reasons after the birth of their first daughter but desperately wanted another child. We vetted them of course, and made sure to note that this child may be important to us-"
"Wait…wait, wait a minute," he stops her, putting his hand up much to her annoyance. He looks up from the file, his heart beating in his ears. "You're telling me that this kid is Leinei. Reina swore up and down they were biological siblings."
"What similarities do they share, Hawks?" she asks, arching an eyebrow as she interlaces her fingers and rests her chin on them. "Please enlighten me. I have the blood work to prove they are in no way related."
"So you're telling me that Reina didn't know this?"
"Due to their…strenuous relationship, I decided it best to not tell her in the concern that it would further the rift between them. I only wanted them to have a competitive rivalry, much as you and Elementia had. As we can see, that wasn't the way it evolved. I do hope they managed to resolve that before her death. However, regardless if they had or not, I figured now would be the best time to tell you about her situation."
"And why's that?" he remarks, trying hard to keep his voice civil but some of the anger leaks out regardless. "Because you're going to send her off to potentially get killed by villains?"
"I suggest you check your tone when you address me, Hawks. Remember what power I hold over your career and your relationship with Empathia."
She's really fucking threatening me with this? If I lose Lei, I have nothing.
And nothing will stop me from gutting her like the trout mouthed bitch she is.
"Yes ma'am," he says instead, taking a breath to even his racing heart. "But why now? Why is this information necessary now?"
"As you know, we have All For One in custody, under twenty four hour surveillance in Tartarus," she begins. "Even without All Might visiting, he is rather…chatty as we say. He asks after the students that were in Kamino that day. However, he asks after two more than the others. One being Izuku Midoriya, however that's only when All Might is in attendance, seemingly to rile him up. The other is Leinei."
Keigo swallows, his stomach twisting so much he can taste the coffee he had for breakfast in the back of his throat. He feels so sick, lightheaded as he grabs the edge of the desk and stares down at the impeccable wood. How bad would it be if I stormed Tartarus right now? I mean, if I kill him, I'll probably end up there myself, but at least the deranged bastard wouldn't be breathing.
"None of the guards thought anything of it. All Might simply told him they were adjusting well, which as we can see, they are. But recently, a question about Leinei came up, and it surprised the guards so much they thought it wise to alert us in case the child was in danger."
"Stop beating around the bush."
"Patience is a virtue, Hawks. But he asked if his followers had found her yet. He seemingly…became upset when he discovered Kurogiri had been captured the day of the Shie Hassaikai raid by Gran Torino and Detective Naomasa. We have deduced that this wasn't meant in a way to harm her, but a place of worry. We have yet to discover why."
"So…what do you want from me knowing this?"
"When you two inevitably do go undercover, I want you to keep a close eye on her. See if you can find out how exactly he knows about her beyond her kidnapping by the League. See if she's been playing us for a double agent this entire time, and if she has, neutralize her. Her quirk, with its potential, is too unpredictable and powerful to be left unchecked."
The affirmative leaves his lips before he can even think about it. He's too shocked to say anything else, and she dismisses him afterwards with a gag order not to tell Leinei. He debates going back to his agency, but with the way his heart is shaking and his head blanking out, he wouldn't be of any use to them today.
How can I be expected to kill my sister? After everything, could I even do that?
The question races through his head as he returns to his apartment, walking past the boxes lining the wall separating his kitchen from the living room. Each one is marked with Leinei's name or various kitchen supplies that Reina's kitchen would no longer be needing. He wants to cry seeing them, and then looking around the seemingly soulless apartment. Everything was bare, not even some kind of bowl on the coffee table with some kind of fake fruit.
How much of what she said is true? Why would they wait so long to tell anyone? Why?
Are they really going to expect to kill Leinei?
Am I going-
No, I would. That's the sad part of this. I would kill her without hesitation.
I don't want to, but I would.
He can't even force himself to cry as he sits down on the couch, burying his face in his hands. He's still trying to wrap his head around the new information, and if Leinei knew anything of it. He doubted it, since she would've dropped hints or flat out told him. There's no way she knows. There's no way, right?
He has his phone in his hand, calling Leinei before he could realize it. It rings twice before she answers, seemingly out of breath and giggling.
"Hey, Kei, what's up?" she asks, coughing catching her breath. "Sorry, we're practicing a dance."
"A dance?" he remarks, a small smile tugging his lips at the way she sounds so carefree. "Having fun, huh?"
"Yeah, our school festival is coming up soon and the class is putting on a concert. Jirou is writing the music and Mina volunteered me to be in the dance group while we were out."
"That sounds fun, but she does know you have two left feet right?"
"Slowly figuring that out. But it's fun. Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, everything's fine. Just calling to check on you. I hadn't heard from you yet."
"Sorry, we've been really busy-Hold on Kiri, I'm-" Her sentence is cut off by a happy gasp. "Hey, I gotta go. Love you bye!"
"Love you bye," he murmurs as she hangs up.
Leinei follows Eijirou outside, her eyes lighting up seeing the small girl with off white hair standing next to Mirio and in front of Izuku. Ochaco and Tsuyu are there too, talking up a storm and smiling at her. A few others find their ways outside to see the commotion, the girl's red eyes following each of them with wary concern.
"Is that-" she whispers to Eijirou, who nods while holding together a watery smile.
"That's Eri. That's the girl we saved from Overhaul."
She's…
Leinei has to cover her mouth to keep from crying, seeing how small she is. How sad her eyes are despite being surrounded by so many people who care for her. How she flinches ever so slightly when Izuku reaches out for her hand.
She's just like how I was.
"Lei, are you okay?" Eijirou asks, concerned at seeing the tears in his friend's eyes. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"Nothing, I'm fine," she assures, her voice breaking. She walks past her other friends and crouches down next to Izuku, who smiles at her as she holds her hand out. Eri looks at it, then at her. "Hi."
"Hel…hello," Eri greets softly, her eyes widening seeing the tears. "You're crying-did I make you upset?"
"No, no you didn't," she tells her. "You're Eri, right?" The younger girl nods. "I'm Leinei. You didn't really get to see me that day, but I was there at the raid too."
"I'm sorry if I caused any issues-"
"You didn't. You didn't cause anyone here any issues at all, we wanted to save you," she says, her voice breaking. "I'm just really glad you're safe."
"Then why are you crying?"
Because you remind me a lot of myself.
"Because I'm so happy I can't keep it all in a smile," she replies, trying hard to smile wide to prove her point. Eri looks down at her feet, holding the strap of her little purse crossing her body. "Everyone here is very happy you're safe."
"That's right," Izuku pipes up, tilting his head as he folds his arms on his knees. "And we're all working hard so you can have fun at the festival!"
"Really..?"
"Yep," Mirio adds, grinning as Eri looks up at him. "Oh, Midoriya, did you want to help me show her around?"
"Really?" He looks over his shoulders at everyone, who tells him to go. "Alright. I'll be back later."
"Bye, Eri. I hope we get to see you again soon," Leinei says, standing up. Eri looks up at her, seemingly wanting to say something. "Is..everything okay?"
"You…have cuts on your arms." The purple haired girl flinches at her statement, her face flushing as Izuku and Mirio look at her with concern. "Did..did someone scary hurt you too?"
"A little," she chuckles, using the side of her hand to wipe her tears away. "But it's fine. I'll heal in no time. That's what heroes do."
"That's right!" Izuku agrees.
"We should get going before it gets to lunchtime," Mirio points out. "Ready, Eri?"
"Mmhm. It was very nice to see everyone again."
"Come back soon," Ochaco calls as the trio walks off, waving. "Well..we should get back to practice, huh?"
"Yeah, ribbit."
Later that night, after their rehearsals, Leinei groans as she sits on her bed. Her entire body is sore but in a pleasant way. She has most of the dance down by now, and is very proud of herself despite how far behind the others she kept falling. Nothing more rehearsal can't fix.
She takes a breath and stretches her arms over her head, leaning to either side until she feels her back pop. Rolling her shoulders either way, she leans forward by her nightstand, sliding the top drawer open. Reina's letters and her star hair ornament sit at the top, the ring Dabi had given her sitting at the bottom in a corner.
I should really throw that away, she thinks to herself. She gently picks it up and turns it over in her hands, studying it. She'd stopped wearing it after the night he had killed that man in the warehouse and when she called Keigo for help. She keeps meaning to throw it away, but can't bring herself to do it, feeling guilty every time after she throws it in the trash can to just dig it out again.
"Oi, Short Stack," Katsuki yawns as he walks into the room, not bothering to knock this time. His eyebrow perks as she drops the ring back into the drawer and closes it. "What was that?"
"Nothing," she replies, not able to look him in the eyes. "Don't worry about it."
"It seemed like something from the way you're acting," he remarks, coming over to her and curling his finger around her chin to tilt her head back. He places his other hand on the edge of the bed as he leans down. "Talk to me."
"It's really nothing," she assures, shrugging. "Just something from the apartment."
"It's bugging you."
"A lot of things bug me nowadays."
"I've noticed. So talk to me and tell me why they're bugging you."
"And if I don't want to?"
"I can't make you, but I can't blast their asses to hell if you don't tell me what it is."
"It's really nothing, Katsu," she tells him, reaching up and gently wrapping her fingers around his wrist. It's then she realizes how much he's trembling. He pulls his hand away and stands up, not looking at her as he runs his fingers through his hair. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I just haven't actually been on a drumset in forever," he replies, shaking his head. "Adjusting. Actually I kinda missed it."
He's lying. He only shakes like that when-
"You've been having nightmares again."
"It's not a big deal. It's nothing," he tells her, letting his hand fall. She stands up and takes his hand before cupping his cheek with her free hand. He lets her turn his head to look at her. "What?"
"Talk to me," she says softly, earning a scoff from him. "Hey, please, I hate when you get like this."
"So what? You expect me to talk to you when you don't even have the decency to even tell me how you're feeling?" he asks, his voice harsher as it comes out. She doesn't flinch, or look away. He's right. "I had to find out from Kirishima that your sister was dead. You didn't talk to me for two days and I find out you cut yourself, and then I can't even help you because you immediately have to take off with fucking Hawks and barely talk to me."
"You had class-"
"That doesn't matter." He pulls away from her, breathing forcibly through his nose as he glances towards the door. He takes a moment to walk over to it and lock it, just in case Eijirou or Denki decide to pull one of their famous barges. He leaves his hand on the door knob, not wanting to turn around as she stands there with her hands at her sides. "And then stupid Icy Hot gets to go to your sister's funeral and you didn't even want me there."
"I didn't know he was coming. I didn't know until his sister told me."
"Why didn't you want me there?"
She stops, hearing the way his voice cracks. His shoulders are trembling now, rising and falling in staggered steps as he keeps swallowing back the lump in his throat. Don't cry. Don't cry.
"Katsu, I…"
"Do you hate me?"
She flinches, blinking fast in surprise as he finally turns to face her. He hastily wipes the tears growing in his eyes with the heels of his palms. He doesn't take his hands from his face, trying hard to keep his breathing under control. Her stomach twists seeing him this way, her feet moving with a mind of their own as she walks over and hugs him. She can hear his heart racing in his chest, even more than usual.
"I don't hate you…why would I..?"
"Be-because of the summer camp when I left you alone," he whimpers, hugging her and burying his face in her hair. "You begged me not to and I did. Then you got kidnapped, and I couldn't even gather myself enough to protect you, and you almost died. I wasn't even able to visit you in the hospital. And then when I broke our rule of not using quirks during our spars-I could've hurt you and I didn't want that, and I still feel like a fucking villain for hurting you-"
"Katsu," she murmurs, looking up at him as he pulls his head away from hers. He sniffles and she can't help but smile at how vulnerable he looks, then feel guilty for thinking that way. "I don't hate you."
"Why not?" he whispers, choking on his words. "I hate me, for everything and I can't even help you when you need it most! Ever since the licensing exams, it..it's like you don't want me around. Or you go out of your way to avoid me. I get that you're grieving now and you've been through a lot, but..I..I just want to know you don't hate me, even if I hate myself for not…not being there. Because I want to be there."
"Katsu, you're fine. I don't hate you, I promise," she assures him, smiling softly. "I wouldn't sit there and say I love you or drunkenly ramble about how I want to marry you if I did. I still feel really bad about putting you on the spot like that."
"Don't," he murmurs, shaking his head. "I…after I got my heart to stop trying to beat out my chest, I slept like a baby, knowing that. Well, Mr. Spokes is a very judgy bastard too."
"How dare you," she gasps, stepping back to fake being offended as she presses her hand to her chest. "Mr. Spokes is the least judgmental person ever."
"I can promise you, that is not the case. He was very judgy when I hung up on you after you had fallen asleep."
"He is not judgey. He is slightly opinionated."
"Slightly opinionated my ass," he laughs, stepping forward and cupping her face between both of his hands as she giggles. She reaches up and gently holds his wrists, letting her thumbs brush over his knuckles as he smiles at her. "I love you. And I want to be there for you and help you the same way you've helped me. Please let me do that."
"We can work on it," she promises, watching as he nods carefully. "And, I love you too, Katsu. I could never hate you."
"Promise?" he murmurs, leaning forward a little awkwardly to dip his head down so his nose runs along hers and a gentle kiss finds itself on her cheek.
"I promise," she replies, her face turning pink at how close he is now. "What..what are you doing?"
"I…Um, I've been wanting to kiss you for a while now…but I can never find the best time…"
"Oh." Her eyes widen, her face turning volcanic as he lets his hands fall to her shoulders and he looks away, almost ashamed. "Oh. That's why you get upset every time the others barge in."
"A little. I just..I dunno, the first kiss between a couple is supposed to be this special built up moment."
"You've been reading the romance manga again."
"I see where Mr. Spokes gets his judgey side from," he grumbles, pouting a bit as she laughs at him. "I'm just trying to do it right, because-"
"It doesn't have to be perfect. You could come in while I'm doing homework and kiss me, and I'd be fine." Even if it would be my first kiss. "Just surprise me, okay?"
"Could I do it now?"
"No, because then we're both going to overthink it, and then it's going to be weird. It'll happen when it happens."
"As long as Dunce face and Shitty Hair doesn't interrupt us."