Something is better than nothing.. Its my birthday so probably no chapter until tomorrow!
-5-
The gods watched in horror as the two who should have never met made physical contact, causing further unraveling. This was not good.
Asola felt her heart stop. This kind man had overheard her predicament and was seemingly trying to help her out a bit. This was not his problem. She couldn't take advantage of the kindness he was offering her. He's concerned about me, she thought as she eyed the small wrinkle between his eyebrows making his expression look more pained than it had before. He can probably relate to me, she thought as she realized she'd neglected to answer him. She tried to wave her hand dismissively but found that it was still shaking. Ever since he'd kissed it. The realization made her voice come out with much less confidence than intended.
"Yeah, well unfortunately I performed that fantastic display at my bosses' sons party. Its It's pretty safe to assume I should look for new employment," She realized her voice hadn't come off as casually as she had hoped and continued trying to smooth it over, "Though he hasn't said anything yet…"
Midoriya looked up at her words for a second before continuing go write in his notebook with a wrinkle forming between his eyebrows as well. She hoped he didn't feel guilty, this wasn't his fault. She had quite a talent for ruining her own life, no need to place blame elsewhere. Shigaraki hadn't stopped looking at her and she was beginning to wonder what he was thinking about. He seemed to be calculating something, or rather trying to figure out what he was going to say next.
I should probably show empathy, Tomura thought to himself before answering the woman. He needed to find a way to either get in touch with Midoriya or the woman after they left this alleyway. From this conversation it seemed like it would be an easier option to gather the female first and continue to watch the kid until the perfect moment showed up to get those notes from him. The best way to get this anxious looking girl to keep in touch with him would be from her thinking she had the chance at a job with him. Yes, this was the only logical option for now. He braced himself to continue with his ruse, worried his irritation was beginning to show through.
"I own a bar." He spat out tactlessly. Shit. "Also, I'm sorry that happened to you. You didn't do anything to deserve it. We could use a part timer. Wouldn't be much but it could hold you over." His worry that he didn't portray proper kindness was quickly quelled when he saw the elated smile on the girls face. It changed her appearance quite a lot from how she looked a moment ago. Her yellow eyes seemed to catch the sun and glisten making her entire face sparkle with happiness. It made him uncomfortable and he squirmed a bit where he stood.
"Wow., really?" Asola beamed at her savior, "I actually do have a bit of experience working in a bar, but I was only an assistant…" She trailed off a bit. This was ridiculous, this man didn't really want her to work with him. She let her face fall back to a more defeated sort of look and contemplated reality. How long would it be before she put another nice man in another horrible situation? No, it would be better if she stayed away from any kind of customer facing job. "...I don't want to be a burden on you, Sir. You have been so kind to us."
"Nonsense!" He said to her and then lowered his voice a little bit, "I know what you're worried about and you shouldn't be, you may find yourself fitting in quite well with my little group of misfits." Holy crap his smile seemed more sinister when he said that, but she shook it off. Her nerves must be completely shot. She looked over at Midoriya who seemed to be done taking notes and was impatiently tapping his pen on his notebook quietly behind her. Okay she needed to stop flirting and finish making all this up to the kid. Then she would worry about how she was going to survive after.
Alright, this was getting annoying. Izuku did not want to stand here and wait while this weird people comradery flirting whatever was happening. He wanted to figure out what was going on with that girls quirk and then go back home and be with his notes. He needed to properly decompress after seeing Kacchan and this situation was on his last nerve. He'd begun tapping his pen on his notebook, hoping the girl would catch his drift and move this along. She was too shy and nervous, Shigaraki was too passive and didn't know how to push. He knew he could move this along fairly quickly if he just got involved. Izuku straightened himself up off the fence he was leaned against and make direct eye contact with the man. "Why don't you exchange email so we can get going?"
That got things moving. The guy fumbled to write down his email and the girl fumbled to take it. Then they awkwardly said goodbye to each other, and finally they were making some progress. Asola watched Shigaraki walk back the way he came, returning to behind the house he emerged from behind before turning back to him.
"I'm sorry," she said, "Thank you for being so patient."
"Yeah it's fine. Ready to go?"
"Oh, yeah, o-of course! I do owe you." She laughed awkwardly at him and started walking in the direction she had pointed to when saying where she lived, "Are you hungry?"
After he replied the girl hopped on the phone and placed a delivery order for what he assumed was her apartment. As they walked up the way he was sure everyone they passed was staring at them. He knew exactly why they were staring, who wouldn't look at the two people who looked like they just got out of some strange food and fire accident. Not to mention that his entire sleeve was covered in blood, even if it was rolled up that fact was quite obvious.
After cutting through a yard they reached the footgate of a small apartment complex. It was not a nice place to live but it also wasn't the worse he'd seen by far. She seemed to take a deep breath as she typed in the access code and the thing swung open. There were a few people scattered on the random benches of the courtyard and most of them looked to be of high school or early college age. It was likely the reason the place had a run down sort of feel to it, cheap student housing tended to have that kind of feel to it. Every single person in the courtyard was staring at the girl as she walked past and murmuring to themselves. This was different than the stares before, these reminded him of the look of mobbing villagers in old movies. They hated her.
"It's ok, we're almost there." She said as she walked hesitantly past all of the onlookers and shot him a very not reassuring look that tried so hard to be and stopped dead as she turned the corner, "Uhh… Maybe we could go somewhere else?"
Izuku was puzzled until he turned the corner behind her. Along the line of about ten apartment doors he knew exactly which one was hers from here, it was the one that was plastered with graffiti and had garbage thrown on the ground in front of it. He couldn't make out all of the stuff that had been put there, but he could tell the paint was pretty fresh at a glance.
MOVE VILLAIN FREAK
GET OUT TRASH
LEAVE!
The girl took a step back and ran into him. He stayed still and put his hand on her shoulder as an attempt to comfort her, at least people didn't do stuff like this to him. This was brutal. He watched her drop the hand that had her keys in it and sigh deeply. She was holding back tears.
"I'm sorry, someone was supposed to do something about this earlier." Her head dropped and he saw a tear run down her cheek. What was he supposed to do to help her?
"It's fine," He shot a look back at the assorted people in the courtyard. A few of them were staring and laughing amongst themselves. That's why they were watching her so intently. "Let's get inside and I'll help you take care of this after we eat."
He decided it may be best to not bring up her quirk yet. She may need a minute.
Tomura strode back to his number two feeling pretty proud of himself. Kurogiri acknowledged his presence but made no further comment, much to his surprise. He almost wished his friend would say something, let him know how he did. Which was strange, he never wanted any kind of reassurance from the man before, but he was feeling anxious. Was it about the girl?
"We should follow and wait until we know where the both of them live." Tomura said mostly to himself, "Just in case she doesn't email me." He said even more to himself.
Kurogiri simply nodded and created them a portal to higher ground. Now that Shigaraki had made contact with the targets they needed to be more careful.
