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Let Me Count the Ways
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Their handler is weird.
It is not technically an inaccurate title considering he doesn't have a contract and the people he sometimes unthinkingly calls his children are not animals. But it certainly is his role. Even the League with their low opinion on people could see that Kurogiri is capable, efficient, independent, intelligent... most of all obedient. His life's purpose is to serve All for One and as they all six are racing towards the same goal, then all the better for them.
But sometimes his shadows flicker.
Shigaraki is the most aware having been around him for so long, and he hopes avoiding the topic will retain the other's absolute trust in Kurogiri, the League, the cause and Sensei. They don't talk about it, these little gaps in character not worth a trifle if their state as a group weren't always in such a precarious situation. Still, they ask him occasionally being the new kids. He shoots all of their assumptions down.
"Did Kurogiri-kun ever go to school? He says my uniform isn't like his buddy's in high school. When I asked him her name to put under an umbrella, he says he can't remember, but how can you forget your own first love, right? I say he's being shy!"
Probably daydreaming.
"Does Kurogiri have another Quirk or something? Every time he sees me, he does a little thing with his hands, and when I asked him about it, he says the sight of me makes him want to make it rain to soothe my burns. Apologized but still pretty fucking rude. What's up with that?"
Probably just pities you.
"Does Kurogiri have allergies? We passed a couple of cats on the way home from the groceries and he stopped to stare at them for five whole minutes. Like a whole idiot and a half! I asked why he won't just approach them and he says he'd rather not get punished for it. He asthmatic or something?"
...Sensei's trying to protect him.
"Well, I never thought Kurogiri-san to be a podcast sort of person. Are these his tape recordings? Please tell him to hide these from the rest. It would not bode well for the others to learn one the leaders they rely on is a fan of a Pro-Hero radio show host. Why, some of these are 10 years old!"
...I should.
"Does Kurogiri have a special interest for Underground operatives? It's my turn to clean up today and I found this scrapbook of newspaper clippings on an 'Eraserhead' behind the bar. And from obscure titles too. Who even is that? No wonder you were the ones to bring attention to Stain-sama."
Put it back or he'll have my head. Don't ask.
The truth is, Shigaraki's heard about Kurogiri's nameless high school classmate, and her Quirk is... lullabies or something like that. He knows what "that little thing he does with his hands" looks like because he had watched his guardian do the dishes and leave his fingers under the water a couple more seconds than needed for hundreds of times now. Long ago, Kurogiri took home a wet and homeless cat named Sashimi which Sensei had his disciple kill for training. Shigaraki doesn't listen to music but he knows which radio station let stupid Present Mic DJ for them and what time and what days of the week because he's heard it so often outside his room in the early mornings as a teenager. And he's seen that scrapbook grow over his childhood, remembers how sometimes he let himself be bribed with Kurogiri's miraculous pastries to scan the dailies, all of them, for rare clippings on a Pro-Hero of all things; and that's why even now he thinks Eraserhead is cool.
Shigaraki doesn't say anything. He knows Kurogiri doesn't know. Not how he could teleport into UA despite never having been there. Not how he used to have nightmares and screamed unfamiliar names. Not how he has a personality other than being a pawn and a tool. Not how he would look up at the clouds and look sad for a man with black mist for his head...
It's none of his concern, nor Shigaraki's or the rest. It must be if they want to reach their goal: stop to acknowledge you must catch your breath and you may never be able to run again. Never able to run after the one you follow once doubt overtakes your steps, and makes you see him for what he is-
"Shigaraki Tomura, is everything alright?"
Are you? he wants to ask. But he doesn't.
"You and the others have had far away looks in your eyes for days now. Would you like to talk about it? You might feel better. And I won't tell anyone."
There is only one thing Shigaraki wants to talk about right now but it's better shared with his comrades, his... family. And for their sake, perhaps, he cannot fail. "When all of this is over?"
Kurogiri studies him, this little drummer boy of their liberation, principled and wild and his ward. Looks at him with the ghost of fondness in eyes that aren't there. "When all of this is over."