They were still looking for her and Eri. She knew that they were still looking for them. Of course, Sayuri was still unsure of why Eri was so important to Chisaki. She gripped the little girl's hand tighter and glanced down at the child standing beside her in the grocery store.
Eri looked up at her curiously. "Is…something wrong?"
Sayuri shook her head. "No. No, everything's fine. Just…here." She crouched down and adjusted the medical mask a little. The weird, cat face patterned mask that Dabi had given her a couple of months ago.
They had done a lot of moving around and hiding over the past weeks. She went through a lot of cans of temporary hair color; changing the color often. Dabi seemed to have a knack for finding the best places for them to hide and now they were finally settled in a small, cheap hotel that had a front desk clerk that was good at keeping secrets.
We have to hurry, she thought as she glanced over her shoulder. It had been at least three weeks since she even glimpsed Kurono, but just the thought of encountering him sent a chill down her spine. She and Eri were getting food while Dabi picked up supplies down the street; first aid stuff, hair coloring, and whatever else he thought they might need. If Kurono appeared, she might not survive the encounter.
She slipped her sunglasses on before they left the store and she walked at a brisk pace. Frowning behind her own medical mask and feeling guilt settle in the pit of her stomach. Being on the run, living like a fugitive, was not what she wanted for Eri when she took her from Chisaki. She wanted to give her a normal life, but at the moment, that was impossible.
We can't keep living like this. Sayuri pulled down her hood as they stepped into the smoky, musty lobby of the hotel. She nodded a greeting to the front desk clerk and the other resident he was talking to, but paused in her steps when she saw the resident.
He was smoking a cigarette and seemed a little jittery. A deep scar running down his forehead and his eyes narrowed. Vaguely familiar, but she was unable to place where she had seen him. Then it hit her. This guy had stopped her from getting run over by a bike what felt like forever ago. She even remembered wanting to thank him by taking his scar, but being unsure if she could.
Sayuri barely had time to think about what a weird coincidence it was when Dabi arrived. He had his hood pulled up and he was wearing sunglasses to keep his scars hidden. Without even sparing the other two men a glance, Dabi grabbed half the bags she was carrying and went ahead of her toward the stairs. She lifted Eri onto her hip and hurried after him; not wanting to be left behind.
"How'd it go?" he asked over his shoulder.
"It went well. They had some sales so I got a few extras."
"Apples were on sale," Eri contributed.
Dabi turned to look at the two as he unlocked their door. "Yeah? That's…pretty good. Been a while since we had apples, huh?" He reached toward Eri to ruffle her hair, but Sayuri stepped back. Seeing her frown, he raised an eyebrow. "What's the problem?"
Her nose wrinkled, having caught the sharp scent of smoke and burnt hair. She knew exactly what he had been doing and she no longer had an issue with it, but she did not want him to touch Eri when he had the ashes of a corpse on his hands. Sayuri's lips twitched into a smirk. "You smell like death. Try washing your hands first."
He stared down at her for a long moment before he smirked back, almost looking sheepish. Like she had caught him doing something small like stealing cookies. "Tch. You're too picky," he teased. "Not as bad as death, right, kid?"
Eri glanced from Dabi to Sayuri and back as they entered the hotel room. "It doesn't smell like death," she agreed.
Sayuri did not want to think about why Eri would know what death smelled like and shook her head as she put her down. "Anyway, that's pretty macabre talk. Why don't you feed the rats, Eri? I'll cut up an apple for you."
The new rat cage was over by the window on the floor so she took this moment to talk to Dabi as she put away their groceries in the mini fridge near the door. "So? What happened? Whose ashes are on your jacket?"
Again, he acted like he had been caught doing something minor. "Doesn't matter. Here." Dabi slipped a couple of wallets into the pocket of her jacket and looked away when she frowned at him. "Saw something interesting on tv while I was walking to the store."
She glanced over her shoulder to make sure Eri was still focusing on the rats. "Don't tell me. Did those fucking creeps get arrested finally?" she whispered.
"Nah. You know, we haven't seen that guy for a while." He saw the way she shuddered and shrugged. "Anyway, I'll see if it's still on the news. There's this guy…they call him the "Hero Killer"."
A snort escaped her. The young woman ran her fingers through her pastel blue hair. "That sounds like a villain." She saw his smirk return and she raised an eyebrow. "Dabi. What is it? You look a little too excited."
He sat on the edge of the bed and flipped through the channels on the tv until he got to the news. His smirk evolved into a grin as he saw that they were still talking about what happened in Hosu. The Hero Killer. The League of Villains. The destruction of fake heroes.
"He looks scary," Eri mumbled. She was holding Sayuri's rat Shirayuki and frowned at the image of the Hero Killer that was on the screen.
Sayuri glanced over from peeling an apple. Up until this point, she was just listening to the news. "Eri, it's okay. He's in jail now so he can't hurt anyone."
"He hurt people?" The little girl's large red eyes were becoming shiny with tears. "Why would he…?"
Dabi nodded for the child to come closer and he pointed at the tv. "He did it 'cause not all heroes are good. You've gotta learn that. Some of them are in it for…pretty selfish reasons. And some of them are monsters."
"Monsters?" She let him take the rat and perch it on his shoulder.
"Yeah." His eyes slid to the screen again and he licked his lips. "Some of them…don't deserve to call themselves heroes. Some of them hurt people. Isn't that right, Sayuri?"
She winced, but nodded. Dabi was technically telling the truth and she had the scars to prove it. "Just..." Sayuri paused as she finished slicing the apple and brought it over to Eri on her special plate; it was a pink plate with white cat faces on it. "You have to be careful who you trust, okay? Sometimes people don't have the best intentions. And sometimes people who are supposed to protect you-"
"They…hurt you," Eri finished for her. The girl's expression was somber as she took the plate. "Th-thank you, Sayuri."
I didn't mean to make the atmosphere heavy. But Dabi's right. People like Endeavor don't deserve to be called heroes. He hurt his own kids! And he made someone else's kid take Shotou's injuries so he could keep hurting him! It's…not right. No one should be able to get away with acting like that!
"Let's change the channel." She grabbed the remote and changed it to a children's anime. Something she knew Eri liked. When she saw the little girl's frown start to fade, it made her smile. "I'm going to get dinner started. No more talking about heroes right now, okay?"
"But…can you trust any heroes?"
Sayuri beamed and leaned down to ruffle Eri's pale, wavy hair. "Of course! Eri, how about I tell you some stories tonight before you go to sleep? I can tell you about the hero Calorie Bomb!"
"You sure you wanna do that?" Dabi took an apple slice off the plate and bit into it, making direct eye contact with Sayuri as he chewed. "Didn't think you were over him yet."
Since they had settled into the hotel, they fell into a routine in the evening. Either Sayuri would make dinner or Dabi would grab dinner from somewhere, they would watch tv for a while, Sayuri would brush Eri's hair and tell her some stories, the child would go to sleep, and then Sayuri and Dabi would slip away for a quickie. They always made a hundred percent sure that Eri was safe and secure before they would leave, of course.
This night, they went a relatively short distance for the hook-up. There was a room for doing laundry a little ways down the hall. It was very rarely used by hotel residents so it was the perfect place for a quick rendezvous.
She bit her lip, trying to stay quiet as her nails pressed against the cold surface of a washing machine. Sayuri heart was beating erratically as his hips pressed forward against hers; rocking against her and pushing in as deep as he could. Dabi's grip on her hips tightened and he leaned down to her right ear.
Heated staples skimmed over her skin and she could barely suppress a whimper. "Think I could be a villain?" He asked it in a growl as his left hand slid forward around her, pressing a fingertip against her sensitive bundle of nerves.
"Wh-what? Are you…serious?" she panted, turning her head.
"Yeah. C'mon. Wanna be with a big, bad villain?" He punctuated the words "big, bad villain" with particularly hard thrusts that made her gasp.
The tension had been forming quickly. A tightening in her core that made it hard to focus. It was taking all of her self-control to not let any moans slip out. She felt so close to the edge that she was almost afraid that talking would ruin it, but she forced out, "Why..talk about this…now, though?!"
"Gonna try to tell me you don't want me to do it?" Dabi leaned down, his chest against her back as he rubbed his fingertip over her in tight circles. "I can feel how excited you're getting. Don't even try to lie to me, Sayuri. You wanna…fuck a villain, don't you?" he teased her.
"Sh-shut up! It isn't…l-like that! Ngh!" Sayuri lowered her head and closed her eyes as her muscles fluttered around him. She felt him tense up and push in as deep as he could before he released into her. As she tried to catch her breath, she reached back and ran her fingers through his dark hair.
"You're…ridiculous. Why would you bring that up right now?" she muttered.
He grabbed her wrist and skimmed his lips over her fingertips. "Didn't wanna say it in front of the kid. And I'm being…totally serious. The Hero Killer was taking out the fake heroes. People like my old man. Aren't you sick of all the fakes?"
She opened her eyes as his fingers wove into her pale blue hair and shivered when he leaned down to kiss the side of her neck. "Fake heroes."
"You always light up when you talk about Calorie Bomb. Think he was a real hero, right?"
"He was a real hero! He wasn't anything like Endeavor or-!"
"So why should heroes like him have to get lumped in with people like that? Doesn't it…make you feel kinda sick?" His fingers tightened their hold on her hair, pulling enough to make her notice, but not enough for it to hurt. "People associate the two 'cause they were both heroes. Both went to the same school, even. You really want him being associated with that trash?"
There was a tight feeling in her chest when she heard this and it only got worse when she thought about it. The idea of her cousin being associated with a so-called "hero" that hurt his own children behind closed doors. It made her feel sick to her stomach.
Shirayuki Umetarou. Calorie Bomb. He was a great hero; he always put others before himself and he was amazing in public and in private. He showed the world and his family the exact same grinning face. No secrets. No ulterior motives.
"If I join, might get some perks. Could be safer for you and kid if I-"
"If we join." Sayuri felt the hold on her hair tighten again and she subconsciously pressed her hips back against him. "Ngh. What?"
"Cute. Think I'm gonna share my personal health pack with some strangers?" Dabi rocked his hips against her, his lips skimming over the side of her neck. "You're not gonna join."
Despite his best attempts at distracting her, she was able to stay focused. "I'm…a healer," she argued. "They're going to need a healer."
"What'd I just say?" Dabi let go of her hair and held her hips with both hands. Settling into a second round of driving his hips against her and now finding himself struggling to keep his thoughts on the argument at hand. "I'm not sharing you with a bunch of-"
"Who…said anything…about sharing like this?" Sayuri bit into her lower lip and shook her head. Trying to keep her breathing steady and failing miserably. "I'll just be healing. And it's…not like it'll take anything away from you!"
"Tch. Still stubborn, huh? Fine." He pulled away and smirked when she gave him a dissatisfied pout. "Consider it punishment. Arguing with me like that…you were practically begging for it."
She glared at him half-heartedly and fixed her clothes, listening to his belt buckle quietly click into place again. "I'm serious about joining, too. What you said…made a lot of sense. So I'm going to help."
