Craving for her love,
Aching for her touch,
All my days of misery,
Someone could have taken them from me. - Rain Down on Me - Kane

Dabi

Mei rigged a rope and pulley system to put in her new condenser. She wasn't smiling now, and I understood that Ochaco had been a big help to our strange engineer as well. Izuku and I guided it into place as she shouted at just about everyone.

"Dabi?" Aizawa's voice came over the intercom, and I abandoned Izuku to answer it.

"What news?"

"I'm sending crewman Shinso to see you. He's got the story, and as soon as that pump is installed..."

"It's not a goddamned pump!" Hatsume interrupted, "This baby is a condenser!"

"Right." Aizawa might run our renegade ship, but he'd been trained in the Queen's navy. Unfortunately for ship board manners, Hatsume was too big a treasure to correct. "My mistake. We're flying to Paris as soon as Hatsume says we can."

Hatsume stomped over, addressing the intercom, "Maybe an hour, probably not less. Sorry. It's still got to be installed and tested."

"Then we all have work to do." Aizawa said, and everyone in the engineering compartment turned to look at me. "Shinso will fill you in, Dabi. Hatsume, If anyone else can help, you have permission to pull them off any task."

I scowled, but released the button. We had direction, and cap was on top of the situation. I felt my fingers curling, an old indication that I was on a short leash. I straightened them, walking back to Izuku.

"Get me the welding kit," He pushed a hand at me, and I swiped up the torch and gas rig. "We really are almost done. If you want to meet Shinso, cap said he was on his way down."

The peace maker strikes a blow for rationality. I would have smiled any other day. "He one of the guys we saved from the Russians?"

"Yeah. Purple hair and eyes. Always looks like he could use a nap." Izuku pulled down his brass bound welding goggles, and pulled up a face mask. He pulled an igniter out of another of his coverall pockets, "We'll get her back."

I nodded, turning away as he started the welding process. The smell of hot copper and other metal compounds burning my nose. Mei was connecting the water lines, looking my way, her goggles hiding her eyes. I was glad, if she had a look of misery or sympathy, I'm not sure I wouldn't break down. I was barely holding it together as it was.

I took the shortest route back toward the bridge, and saw the crewman in question before I'd gone too far. Midoriya was correct; the kid looked like a nap wouldn't kill him. He blinked hazy wisteria-colored eyes at me, but stood straight. I gestured, and he fell in behind me, as I turned direction to the mess.

The large cabin we ate in was sparse, nearly everyone gone to bring someone else back or attending to duties on board. I threw myself onto a bench, and he perched next to me. He ran a hand though his hair, almost the same color as his eyes, which looked nervous.

"You know you're not in trouble."

"I saw her get taken..."

"You what?!" I had to hold onto my quirk and fraying emotions with every finger of restraint I had left.

He crouched in his seat, "Sorry. I- I..." He straightened, "I saw it all happen, but I didn't know exactly what was happening, you know?"

"Tell me."

"I went to get something to eat, it was just past 12, ship time." He gained confidence with the retelling, "I saw Uraraka, and I was going to wave her over." He sighed, his eyes shifting to the side, "We're friends."

I raised my brows, "You don't have to defend yourself." I rolled my shoulders, "I'm on edge, but I won't go over because you want to eat lunch with her. Go ahead."

"Right." He tapped his fingers on the table, "So, she was about to order when this guy about our age stood up and said something to her. At first, I was surprised, because he stood out for a mile, you know?" He shook his head, "He was blond, and wearing a Japanese uniform."

"One of the Endeavor's crew?" I told her not to talk to anyone! To be careful and keep her head down! He opened his mouth to confirm, but I stopped him, "Was he wearing a set of green enameled gauntlets? Did you see anything else we could use for identification?"

"No." He shook his head, "I don't know enough about the uniforms to even tell you if he was from the Endeavor or not. Anyway, the story starts to go bad from there."

I raked a hand though my hair, making the mass stand on end, "Tell me."

"So, she was taken into an alley, and I was going to come back to the ship, that's what we're supposed to do if you see suspicious behavior."

I nodded, "Yes, yes. Get on with it. If she's on the Endeavor, we wouldn't go to Paris. What else?"

He swallowed, "Someone else followed them into the alley. I recognized the woman following the guy in the uniform." He looked away, color staining his ears, "She was on the Izanami when she took us and sold us to those asshole nobles. Her name is Himiko. She likes it when you bleed."

"Really?" A true pirate wanted a person from a Jap-Asian ship? Or.. Well, at least Ochaco hadn't been their target.

"Sorry. I should have spoken up, but I..."

"You were scared." I shook my head, "It happens. You spoke up when it counted. We couldn't have done anything any sooner anyway." He moved as if to leave, "What's your quirk?"

"Brainwashing. I can make a person follow simple instructions. Slightly more complicated ones if the tasks are familiar enough." He shrugged, "I hate it. I only ever used it to hurt people before I was rescued."

I lifted my hand, a searing hot blue flame wreathing my fingers, "Any quirk can seem hateful."

"I-is that..?"

I nodded, he could only have been wondering about my skin. "When I was younger than you." I waved my hand, dispelling the fire, "You didn't join just to be scared and hide?"

"No." Shinso visibly bristled, "My parents are dead. I don't have any family that wouldn't re-sell me to an orphanage or even another noble with a fetish." He shuddered. "But this.. thing. It can only be used to hurt."

I made up my mind then, "Shinso, we need to get you trained."

He locked eyes with me, his jaw dropping a little, "Wha..? But, I just... "

"We're going to train from now until we get to Paris. Maybe seven or eight hours. I think you could be invaluable helping me find Ochaco." He shot me a skeptical look, "Learn how to use your quirk. Your way."

Later...

I snored away on our bed, the boy wrapped up in a blanket on the arm chair Ochaco had insisted I move to our bunk. She loves that damned chair. Spending three hours training against Shinso, figuring out the loopholes and tangles of his particular quirk had exhausted the both of us.

The clank of tie-up at Paris' docks and the loud booming echos of sandbags being let down to keep the Magdalene from bumping too fiercely against the docking woke us. I tossed back the comforter that had only been wrapped around my arm and shoulder and Shinso stretched like a satisfied cat.

"Nap much?"

Shinso blushed, "I know I look tired, but I sleep okay."

"Right." I shook my head, I wasn't out selling all my secrets either. "Are you up for this? I think having you along will help, but it's not too late to change your mind. I won't make you hurt anyone. But Paris, hell, France can be rough. Lots of people looking to get the piss beat outta them."

He regarded me solemnly for a few eye blinks, "Yeah. I... It's the least I can do."

"Fine." I yawned, stretching the skin around the staples in a way I knew freaked people out. "Go to your bunk and get a bag with one change of clothes, good shoes, and a bar of soap. Anything you don't mind using for trade. Cigarettes, alcohol, condoms, anything mechanical. The smaller towns are basically cut off from the rest of the world, and they eat that shit up."

He nodded, and stood, tossing the blanket at me before stopping to look at me again from the door. "I don't want to use my quirk to hurt people, but I can fight. I can even use a gun, a little."

"Everyone can use a gun a little." I shrugged into my trench coat, and released the catch on the wardrobe to retrieve my own second set of clothes, "I'll bring a pair and a few boxes of ammo." I turned back toward him with a snicker, "Welcome to my self-defense class. I'll let cap know." He nodded, heading out when I caught him up short, "Credits, if you have any. Some towns love them, allows them to do work with the outside." He left and I tended my own packing.

Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I set out, nearly running down Shinso as he came from below-decks, a bag with far more bulges in it than mine. I shook my head at him and he smiled, a quick flash of teeth.

"Gotta tell Aizawa what the plan is. I forgot, do you speak French? At all?"

Shinso fell in behind me as I turned to walk to the ladder that would take us to the bridge deck. I heard him rustle in his jacket, "A little. The bastard that bought us from the Izanami was French, and..." he swallowed audibly, "Khilkov spoke it too. Sometimes he'd..."

"Forget it. That time is done, and Khilkov and his household are dead, now." I reminded him as gently as I could manage.

"Right. I speak a little French; commands, some... other things."

I turned my head, leaning my hand on the bridge doors, "You're going to play the part of my slave. The man I'm going to meet likes boys. Boys with quirks that give him something exotic to look at. You are going to be protected at all costs, but I may need you to play the part." He blinked, licking his lips, "I'm going to ask just one more time, are you up for it?"

His amethyst eyes, unlike anything I'd ever seen, darkened. His entire countenance clouded, "Look, you can stop babying me at any time. I'm sorry I gave in to fear, but I want to stop. Let me make my own decisions. Just stop..." He adjusted the strap of his satchel. "Stop treating me like I'm going to break any second."

"I had to know, kid." I pushed the doors open, and we both watched quietly as Aisawa turned in his chair, his blanket folded neatly over the back now. His vest glimmered in the shifting lights of the bridge controls.

"What are we doing?"

"I need the name of our underground contact, and where I can find him."

Hizashi laughed, the sound over-loud in the room, "You're going to feed Shinso to him?"

"Will it work?" I felt my flames trip up my spine. This was it, I was going to cut loose on the world that dared to make Ochaco suffer.

Hizashi's mouth gaped before he mastered himself, "Yes. But I can't allow it. He's part of our crew!"

Aizawa held up a hand, quieting Hizashi abruptly, "Dabi has a plan. Shinso looks like he's here of his own free will?"

Shinso nodded beside me and I rolled my shoulders causing a series of stress relieving crackles to be heard. "He is. I need a ham portable, and at least a few more contacts throughout France just in case. If I can get those, I am not needed for the job we have lined up. Snipe is well qualified if you run into a fire fight. You can leave tonight."

"Very well." Aizawa reached into his chair, "I thought that'd be the plan. Take care of yourself and Shinso. I expect a check in once a day." He tossed a cloth wrapped bundle and I caught it deftly, "Find her. Bring her home."

Toshinari coughed, bloody specks grim on his lips and hand as he dug in a pocket for a kerchief, "That list has a few cache locations too. Take whatever you need; there may well be area maps, dehydrated food, ammo..." He didn't grin and his eyes were chips of blue ice, "Stay safe."

Hazashi crossed deceptively thin arms over his chest, "Go to the crossroads near the Arc de Triomphe ruins. There's an underground..." He took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly, "It's not a bar, more a shop with music and liquor and rooms to rent. It's called Le Bloc d'Enchères, The Auction Block." He gave Shinso a sympathetic look, "They do trading of every sort. Drugs, information, and slaves. The owner is a man named Jean-Louis Brault. He'll like Shinso very much. He is the one I... worked with... to get the information on the people who'd bought and sold Shinso and the other kids. If the Izanami has a headquarters here, he'll know."

I looked at Shinso, now a little pink in the cheeks, "Does he know what your quirk is? Do you think he'd remember you?" Shinso shook his head. Fine. Aizawa would know his story, but no one else had to. That was a shipboard rule.

Todoroki's brows came together, "You aren't selling Shinso. Not to get back Uraraka."

"Drop it." Aizawa's voice cut into the thickened atmosphere, "He's not. Let's trust each other."

Hizashi blew out a noisy breath, "Jean-Louis has close cropped hair and likes to wear expensively designed suits. He has a top hat that he seems fond of." He eyed Todoroki with a snort, "It's not quite as nice as yours, but he loves the poor thing."

Todoroki turned his back to us, and Aizawa sat back in his chair, "You're both dismissed. Good hunting."

We walked out of the bridge, and away from the confines of the Magdalene. I kept my head turned forward, scanning the dock for people who might be on watch. I heard Shinso sigh behind me but step forward to walk next to me.

"I won't let you down."

I raised my brows, and rolled my shoulders, "Sure." He looked away, his eyes going to the ribbon of water, the Siene. "Look. You can't take everything that hard. You tell me that you won't let me down, that you don't want to be the guy who can't stand up for his friends, and that's great. You're the truth you present to the world, Shinso."

"Then, why are you so..."

"Wary?" I shrugged uneasily, "Ochaco is the most real person I've ever met. She's never tried to be anything she wasn't. The only thing she's ever lied about was her quirk. She never tried to be other than what she was." I shifted my bag, "I love her for it. When she turned down money in favor of her own truth..."

"Her own truth?"

"Yes. The life you lead. The one you and I want to lead; that is our truth. If that's the real you, it doesn't matter to me, you get it? If that's the truth that you show, it's you as far as I'm concerned."

"But she's real?"

I nodded, but stayed silent. She was. It was me who wore a shiny shell. Shinso might be the friend he wants to be. His slavery could have crushed his reality into something small and scared. But we just weren't as real. It is only our truth.

"It's a few more kilometers to the city center." Shinso's eyes swung, scanning the area like I was doing, "This whole place was a center of history, fashion, and beauty. It's said that Paris was one of the great cities. I wish I could have seen it."

"I have. In books, I mean." Jagged ends of a half-ruined bridge greeted our sight, "I used to love looking at old books back in the orphanage."

"This is the Pont de l'Alma." I pointed at the sharp points of metal that were now crude jump ship berths, "That used to be the Eiffel Tower."

"Woah."

I sent a stream of fire along our path, making a few men jump in the shadows. Foot-pads, maybe spies of some kind. It also served to light up the bridge, "The French tried to shatter as much as they could. Really make it look like they were not a wealthy target. There's many things they saved though. I wish we had time to see some of them. The remains of the Louve, the Grand Opera, even the Moulin Rouge can still be visited."

We crossed the arch over the water, and I continued, always ready to teach even now, "We have another twenty minutes to walk or so. We cross the Siene here, then follow the George to the Champs-Élysées where we walk until we come to the Arc. Or, what's left of it, anyway."

"How will we find the Block of you haven't been there?"

I felt my lips spit into what I knew to be a villainous smile, "I'll ask around. Believe me, I know how to ask questions and have them answered."


AN/ I use the MHA wiki for spelling, I know a lot of people use Shinsou. Please drop me a comment, they help, really! Sorry for making Shinso less... confident. but I think his three years as a slave has wrecked him emotionally. Also, I was misspelling the bad pirate ship! It's Izanami, and I'll endeavor to go back and catch them all. I shoulda named them the Rot. Rot is easy.