Eight months after school had started. So much had happened. And most of that time was spent in the dorms. God, eight months of being away from home. He still missed it, that hadn't changed with time. Maybe it had ebbed and flowed in intensity, but he'd always missed home.
He and his three closest friends were taking a walk around the campus, enjoying the nice weather in mostly comfortable silence. It was just nice to be out in the fresh air. Maybe they should go on walks more, even if they didn't talk and Luffy had to walk faster to keep up. When they got back to the dorms after walking a full circle, Sanji found that the girls were doing the cooking, his own recipe. He had improved a lot while cooking for everybody. So, many good things came from the dorm situation for them, but Luffy still was tired of them.
His nightmares had died down after the two months since the last villain attack. The literal last one, as Blackbeard was dead and gone. He wasn't coming back. He knew it wasn't healthy, the way he coped. Not talking to anybody professional about it, just stomping it out as best as he could. And Luffy felt he was doing okay. So were the other three, though Tokoyami sometimes looked truly haunted. Still, nobody knew the real details, and not a soul knew of the students killing others. Tokoyami wasn't the only one who'd killed one of the blob students, just the only one who'd made it out alive.
But, they were all doing their best to move past it.
-x-
Luffy had a headache. He brought out his healing light, and had it try to heal him. It put it's orange paw on his head, but the headache didn't go away. He was sleeping in his own room that night, as Law had a cold. So he wasn't sleeping with him tonight, instead in his own room.
He pressed down on his ears when his healing light shook its head, as if it couldn't help him. Then other parts of his body started to ache. Especially his back. He laid down on his stomach, turning on his TV, the volume on low, and watching the first cartoon that came on. When he was still hurting over an hour later, he shifted into his neglected beast form. He was on the floor so he didn't crush the bed with his size and weight.
He was tiny in his normal body, but heavy and large in his beast form. Law's size difference wasn't so drastic, but maybe five Luffy's could fit into his large beast form. The ache didn't go away until he heard a terrible tearing noise, and felt blood run from his first set of shoulderblades. He whipped his head around, looking at feathers forced their way out of his back, blood getting on the carpet below him.
The teen didn't make a sound, didn't want to scare anybody. Having anyone else there would just cause a panic, as he was sure there was no way anyone else could help him. He bit down on a pillow, his teeth shredding it, the stuffing coming out around his mouth. The wings continued to slowly force themselves out.
He started to count in his head to ground himself. After he reached 220, they stopped, and his huge, slightly bloody, wings stretched from one side of the room to the other. He moved them around, and they didn't hurt too bad. A little sore and the skin that had been torn open stung. But the skin hugged tightly to the new base of the wings.
Oh how he hoped they weren't there in normal form. More attention would be brought to him, and he liked how he looked and didn't want more abnormalities added. He shut his eyes, and was glad that at least the headache was gone. He shifted back, and the wings shrunk and shrunk before easily entering his skin again. He had blood on his back and in the fur on his arms, but the wings were not there.
It might all be a dream, he would find out in the morning if there was still blood on the carpet. But he went into the bathroom and wiped the blood off of his back and rinsed it out of the fur on his arms. Then he went back to his bed and laid down. He was out of a pillow, now, so he put his head on his large stuffed bear.
When he woke up, it was to his alarm clock, and he sat up. He forgot what happened in the middle of the night until he saw the blood on the carpet. The carpet was gray, so it was pretty dark on it. He'd clean it up some other time. But he didn't have the wings out now. He got off his bed and shifted, and didn't have the wings.
But he could smell the blood, it wasn't like he knocked paint or ink over, not that he had any in his room regardless. Maybe it was like his other two quirks, he chose when to use them. So, he imagined wings being there, and he wasn't disappointed when two black feathered wings came out seamlessly, not painfully at all.
He could go on flights with Law! His wings were a lot bigger than Law's. Seemed more sturdy, which made sense since his best form was much heavier than Law's. He detracted the wings and then changed back to normal. He decided to see if there were conditions, and tried to grow wings in his normal body.
It worked! But these ones were exponentially smaller and lighter than the other ones, since Luffy was small and weighed a lot less in his human form. Well, this brought up more questions. Was it part of his original quirk that hadn't developed until now, or was it a new one like his lights? He sighed and put them away, watching as the feathers shrunk and faded into his skin, sealing up around it to show a smooth back.
There was a knock on his door and he jumped. He opened it and saw Zoro there, a toothbrush in his mouth. "You okay? Usually you come out pretty early," he said, and Luffy smiled. Zoro really knew him. Then he saw the blood on the floor. "Is that blood?!"
"Ah, yeah. So, I have another quirk?" he said kind of awkwardly. Zoro demanded to know what kind of quirk spilled blood. "Don't worry, it's fine now."
"Show me." So Luffy did, and Zoro dropped the toothbrush out of his mouth and barely caught it before it hit the floor.
"They woke me up, forcing out of my back. That's why it was bloody. First my head hurt, and the healing light couldn't fix me." He looked at his hands and said, "I… don't want any more quirks. I just want to be more normal. My appearance isn't normal, but it was always one quirk. I don't want to be a target again. I don't want to be treated differently by villains or their groups."
Zoro's face fell in sympathy and sadness. "I'm sorry, Luffy. How scary it still must be. Even though Blackbeard is dead. But you'll never go through the pit again." Luffy smiled, and said he didn't think he'd ever return. It was a quirk, not an actual location. But he wouldn't be surprised if he was targeted again. "And now you're not alone, Law has a similar one, too. But you guys look similar, so I don't know. I know there's a reason why its you two, but I won't press."
Luffy smiled and thanked him for being understanding. "We've been best friends for almost ten years. I should know you by now. You don't keep secrets unless they are important." The smallest nodded again, and said he should get dressed and ready. The wings sunk into his back and he hurried to get changed and then checked on Law, knocking on the door softly.
"C'min," he said, voice nasally. He was still sick.
"Do you want me to tell the teachers you're sick?" Luffy asked from the doorway. Law nodded. He wasn't going to lie and say he felt good enough to go out. He said he'd text Marco and let him know he wouldn't be there this evening. "Okay. I'll make sure to get copies of the homework. I wish I could do something other than that…"
But then an idea popped from his head, and he pulled out one of the lights he didn't use, as he found no use for it. Maybe he could assign it a power. It looked up at him with its glowing eyes, looking like a rabbit. All of his lights looked like soft and friendly animals. Usually cats, but a bunny and there had been a deer when Luffy wanted the light to be bigger.
"Will you record me? And then play it back?" It cocked its head, but nodded. "Record this," Luffy said, and named a random song. "Play it back, please." The bunny opened its mouth and sound came out. Luffy's voice. "Can you do video?" The light shook its head.
Law was looking at him in awe. "You're so cool, Luffy." The teen grinned, but didn't tell him about the wings yet. "You could just record the things the teachers say and then I can listen to it. Thanks a lot," Law said.
"You can repay me by getting better," he said lightly.
"Did you have nightmares without me?" Law asked, but didn't sound like he'd be sad if the answer was no. He wanted Luffy to get better, they all did. And if that meant he wasn't sleeping with him at night, then Law didn't really mind. The smallest said he hadn't had any nightmares, but he did wake up in the middle of the night.
"I'll tell you about that later," he said. "It's nothing to worry about, promise. Feel better, I'm gonna bring you some applesauce. Cinnamon powder like usual?" Law nodded, and Luffy got him a bowl of Sanji's applesauce and ground fresh cinnamon into it. The school provided them with all the cooking ware they wanted. They probably had the fanciest kitchen out of all the dorms.
He brought the food up to Law, and then got his things and ate some cereal before going to class with Sanji and Zoro. Luffy made no show that Midoriya talking animatedly with Todoroki was anything out of the ordinary. And the half and half wasn't annoyed, but listened intently. He was a hard person to read, but nice and patient.
When they got to class, Luffy put the bunny light on the table, and asked it to record the moment Rayleigh began speaking. When it started, he wispy ears perked up, and every time Luffy turned it off the ears flopped down and it left. Soon he was able to pull it out with his mind. All day he was distracted, and kept feeling his shoulder blades.
When it was time for hero training, All Might had them do a free for all for capture the flag. It went on until there was one winner over everybody. Luffy had lost fairly quickly, before Zoro and Sanji, even, because he was so distracted. About his wings, the future and hoping Law was okay and feeling better.
So, Luffy sat on the side lines with Ashido and Sero. They were the first three with their flags taken and were doomed to wait and watch for over two hours. Luffy was bored, but was cheering on for his best friends. "Luffy? Do you think any of you will say what happened to everyone? About the second time Blackbeard struck?"
"No, I don't, honestly. There are things that we'll never say. You wouldn't say anything if you had been there. Just… our time, when you were there, it was horrible, right? Amplify that by a thousand. I mean, over 14 people died in there. It wasn't pretty, so you'll never find out. That's all I'm gonna say," he said honestly. He wanted to make it clear that they weren't just being secretive jerks and weren't going to say what happened.
She seemed to understand, and nodded. Sero looked a bit curious, as he hadn't been with the other obvious mutant quirk users. He was a mutant type, but not visually proving that enough to be immediately recognizable.
More students came in, most frustrated with losing. The one who won would be deemed the strongest by the students, even if it was only in this scenario. Luffy knew his classmates knew he wasn't weak, so he wasn't too upset about losing fairly quickly. Just too distracted.
The losers all sat and watched the videos spread sparsely around the training ground, as they were waiting in the hub. He wanted to get away so he could look at the wings more. He hoped that these were the last ones. Looking at Shoji when he lost, Luffy walked to him and sat down next to the much larger teenager.
"Shoji, have you developed any new quirks?" he asked quietly. He was one of those that had the drug, and one of the few to escape the second and last time they were taken. He shook his head. He nor Tokoyami had gotten a second quirk, unlike Luffy and Law. The pair had a hypothesis that it came about after they injured their brains. Got bad head injuries. That was the thing on common before Hero and Dazzy made themselves known.
But why have the wings, too? He bumped his head on the fall down the mountain, but that was over a week earlier, and had not knocked him out. If every bump to his head made him have a new quirk… well, then he didn't want that to be the case. He really was fine how he was. Flying would be really cool, but it just wasn't necessary for him.
At least he could do more rescuing this way. But he was thankful that he could get rid of the wings, or they'd ruin the perks about his body size. He wouldn't fit into small spaces if he always had wings poking out of his back, taking up space.
He went back to watching the screens, seeing Sanji take out Bakugo with a kick to the gauntlet, causing it to explode on him and then ripped the headband away from him. He grinned at the angry explosive kid and then bolted, knowing that Bakugo would fight to get it back even though he was disqualified for losing it.
Midoriya was still going strong, mostly hiding and using his smarts to strategize. Zoro was floating from Uraraka's quirk, and defending himself while in the air by constantly releasing shock blasts. So, unable to get to the ground, he was now holed up in the air, unable to advance, but relatively safe against many of the students.
It was funny watching Zoro float around and just keep blasting everybody away. But, when the numbers dwindled down and down, Sanji went against Todoroki, who got him by burning away the flag. Sanji accepted defeat graciously. Midoriya was hiding, now, and the fire and ice user was going after Zoro. He blasted away each attack of fire and ice and landed hard when Uraraka finally released him once she woke up after being knocked out on accident.
Todoroki got blasted away as an emboldened Zoro rushed at him, grabbing Todoroki's flag right after his own burnt away. Zoro took the defeat gracefully and leisurely headed towards where the rest of the class were waiting. When he entered, everyone expressed how bad ass he had been.
"I'm sorry I kept you up so long," Uraraka apologized.
"Nah, it was good practice in case something crazy like that shit ever happens again," Zoro replied, and then took a nap in the corner. Luffy smiled at his awesome best friend, and then turned to watch his other best friend. He went after Iida, who caught the smaller teen off guard and got his flag.
So, all of his best friends were out of the game. Sanji walked up to him and sat down next to him. "Why'd you get out so soon?"
Luffy honestly replied, "I was distracted."
"About Law?"
"Partially. I'll tell you the other reason later," Luffy said vaguely. Luffy rose his eyebrows slightly, showing he wasn't going to say any more in front of others. The blonde accepted this, and then asked why one of his lights had been out with him all day. Usually, he didn't use any of them during class, let alone one all day. So, he brought out the recording bunny, and explained that he'd been able to record audio and play it back. "It's for everything Law missed today, since hates getting behind in anything."
Todoroki won while they were talking, being the only one to have not lost his flag. It was nice, and Luffy was bored but interested in the whole thing. Bored because he barely had any chance to play before Tokoyami yanked his headband, but also had fun watching his friends adapt and fight.
After class, he headed straight to the dorms, vowing to explain to Sanji later, and hooked his bags to his back and zoomed to the train station and then to the agency. He usually walked with Law, since he couldn't race like Luffy could, but now he could go as fast as he pleased. And once Luffy could fly, he and Law could fly to and from work together! It would be so fun. Though he would want practice from Marco.
When he changed, he felt lucky that Marco said that day was paperwork only, since his patrol and trainee partner had called in sick. "Marco, um, I found a new quirk that I want your help to use," Luffy said quietly in the break room, as he'd followed his boss and cornered him. Marco raised his brows in surprise.
He sat and asked for Luffy to please explain. He sat on the couch next to him, and talked about waking up to the wings, and then he pulled them out easily. Marco didn't look surprised when he saw them, as Luffy had just explained they were there and was not a known liar. "So, now you have three quirks? And Law has two?"
Luffy nodded, and was glad and unsurprised when Marco didn't press as to why they had these things happen to them. The teen was sure he had his suspicions but knew nothing concrete. "So, you want me to teach you how to fly?"
"Yes, please," Luffy said politely. Marco smiled, saying he'd be glad to teach him. So, they went to the training grounds adjacent to the agency. It was up against a park that was bought just for the Whitebeards to train in. Mostly physical training. Marco brought out his wings, and it was a bit windy that day, and he told Luffy to, as well.
When he did, he got swept away immediately, shouting in alarm before Marco brought him back down. They trained for hours, but it really seemed like the wings were just tossed in half assedly since they weren't compatible to his size and weight. They were too big and he was too little. If he did get in the air, it was clumsy and downright useless.
But when he was in beast form, he was able to fly easier. But in that form, he was not the cute and calming looking hero, he was a large, muscled monster that could now fly. So, it was a bit frustrating. Was his size because of his quirk, or was it some medical disorder? Was something wrong with his body, or his quirk?
As he darted back to the train station, he had one thought, one question: was something wrong with him? He felt more and more upset, and needed to talk to somebody. He called his mom, sitting, smooshed to the seat of the train, and waited for her to pick up. He deflated when she didn't. He called a second time, but no answer. She was probably away from the phone.
So he called Ace, who hadn't been at work that day. Sabo was with his girlfriend, Koala. Ace answered, and Luffy talked to Ace about his insecurities about his size, briefly bringing up the new addition of his wings without thinking of how shocking that might be.
"You have wings, too, now?" Ace asked kindly, in the big brother voice that used to assure him he wasn't a monster. He deserved love, deserved a kind father. Luffy affirmed this. "Would you like to grow bigger? Do you not like your appearance?"
"I don't know… I wish I could be big enough to be taken seriously, to fit on rides, wear adult clothing. I like what I look like, but I want to be bigger," Luffy said, firmer at the end. "I know there's nothing I can do about it, and complaining about it is stupid-"
"It's not stupid, Lu. Any feelings you have are valid, even if someone sees them as stupid or pointless. There's nothing wrong with feeling insecure and wanting to talk about it with somebody." Luffy did his best not to cry in public. "But no matter how big you get, you'll always have people that love you. Friends and family."
Luffy nodded before remembering Ace couldn't see that, and thanked him. "This really helped. I love you. Maybe you and me and Sabo could hang out some time out of work?"
"Love you, too. I can't speak for Sabo, but I'm sure we can get together. And mom can come, too. It's been too long since we were all together. Just be patient and I'm sure you'll get to go home as things progress smoothly." Luffy said he hoped so. He wanted to go home, and missed his mom and brothers.
When the train got to the station, he got off the phone and dashed back to campus before the sun set, though he was cutting it very close. When he got to the dorm, he explained the new wings to his three friends and the still sick Law, who had appreciated the recordings of the day. But he was still sick. Luffy was sad he couldn't cuddle, but he didn't want to get sick, either.
Midoriya didn't understand how Luffy got another quirk, and Sanji didn't seem too surprised. "When you developed the second quirk, I vowed to not be surprised by any strange things. Just to be there for you," he said as they ate at the table after everyone went to their room. Law was at the table on his phone, absolutely refusing to get Luffy sick and staying in his room. Luffy smiled, and thanked his friend.
"Thank you. You and Zoro know me so well," Luffy said with a smile. Midoriya didn't get upset about this. He was their best friend for under a year, where Zoro and Sanji had been with Luffy since kindergarten. Zoro ruffled his hair affectionately. "So, are any of you recognized by Endeavor yet?" he asked, changing the subject to talk about someone other than himself.
Sanji huffed. "He's never going to be truly satisfied with us. I think we haven't had a moment yet to really show what we're capable of," he said. "I think he obviously deems us useful by letting us do our work studies at his agency, but still."
Zoro added, "We're not there to be the best. But being there sure gets us a lot of information on how to deal with bad guys. Endeavor isn't like the Whitebeards. He doesn't answer to calls of lost little kids or broken down cars. He's called for villains and criminals."
"The Whitebeards sure are different," Law said over the video phone.
"I like being a Whitebeard employee more," Luffy commented.
"Well, you're also both suited for that agency. I don't think Endeavor would want anything but powerhouses. Luffy's light quirk is incredible and can be used intelligently, but it doesn't help against villains. More for solving problems that aren't always immediate," Sanji pointed out. "Law is strong, fast and smart. And is good at team work. Zoro's quirk is good for destroying things. Mine is literally kicking things hard, and Midoriya has super strength. I think we ended up where we're all suited."
They could all agree on that, and went to bed. Luffy had bad dreams, and didn't sleep well at all.
