Inko hummed to herself as she closed up shop for the day, she had covered one of her co-workers so they could go buy something special for their wife this Christmas, apparently they had to make up for missing last year's Christmas flop.
Inko had no problems and had taken on a double shift with no problems, she had closed up once or twice before so she felt comfortable doing that now and the only thing she wished she remembered was that sunset was coming earlier in winter, so it was quite dark outside as she started her walk home.
There was no problems for her given there was enough streetlights to keep her path well-lit and she carried a decent sized flashlight for her to feel safe walking home at night, it helped that she had a lovely can of pepper spray that would work on just about anyone, Izuku had guaranteed it with only a few exceptions.
So Inko simply chose to enjoy the scenery as she walked home and occasionally stopped to stare because sometimes when she saw a particularly pretty sight just to soak it all in, she was looking at a large field of untouched snow in a park when she heard something in the alley behind her and jumped nearly ten feet in the air with a squeak of fear.
Whirling around she came face to face with a- a stray dog.
Inko sighed shaking her head and knelt down to pet the puppy on the head "Awe, aren't you a cutie." she cooed at the stray, the pup eagerly nuzzled her hand with a soft woof and licked her palm *Adorable!* she thought in her mind and continued to coo at the dog for a few seconds before she stood up and gave the puppy a wave, ready to go on home.
But before she could take a step the puppy rushed in front of her and barked "Oh I'm sorry but I don't have any food little one and I need to get on home." she apologized and tried to step around the dog but the puppy suddenly bit her pants and fruitlessly tried to tug her back with a whimper.
"Oh dear, little one I can't stay I have to-" she tried to apologize to the animal again but the puppy whimpered again much louder and she felt her heart twinge at it's sad face "Okay, I won't go just yet." she said waving her hands placatingly, the puppy whimpered again tugging her pants more insistently.
Getting the idea she slowly followed the puppy into the alley and down them a ways until she someone calling out "Scamp? Scamp? Where are you?" but the voice quickly added "Stay away if you know what's good for you, you mongrel!"
The puppy let go of her and gave a happy bark and it ran down to the mouth alley ahead of her, Inko stayed where she was and a man with a paper bag over his head in a thick coat appeared around the corner and knelt down to the dog, the man began pet and scratching behind the pup's ears.
"There you are Scamp, I've been looking all over for you!" the man said then his voice dropped and he growled "Stupid dog! Get lost I don't need you!"
Scamp didn't seem to mind the second part of the man's sentence and happily barked again and tried to lick at the man's face under the bag "No Scamp, no kisses." the man playfully said softly pushing the pup away "Give me more Mutt!" he added with the deeper voice scooping the dog up.
"Is this your dog?" Inko managed to ask and the man jumped with a gasp, apparently not noticing her before then and Inko suppose she should have expected that given that the bag only had two eye holes in it "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to surprise you." she quickly apologized with the wave of her hands.
The man gulped and timidly moved back from her "I-it's fine! I'm sorry if S-Scamp bothered you Miss!" the man replied but quickly reversed his demeanor and waved a threating fist in the air "You're a bitch and deserved everything the mutt did to you, you damn hag!" he shouted in the deeper tone only to again switch and flinched back away from her.
"I didn't mean that!" he quickly exclaimed then flipped her the bird "Yes I did!" he shouted only to try and correct himself and apologize but the deeper tone would always snap back saying the opposite.
At this point Inko was sure the man wasn't all there mentally since he kept snapping at himself but she didn't feel the need to pull out her pepper spray since Scamp wasn't concerned by the man's arguing, the pup only sat in the man's arms tail wagging a mile a minute.
She had her fair share of experience with people with mental disorders though not as much as the rest of the nurses and doctors, so she wasn't as unprepared for the man's oddities but she couldn't say she was fully comfortable either, honestly it was the years of living with Mitsuchan's ED that really prepared her for the man's behavior.
"It alright, it doesn't bother me dear." Inko assured the man, bringing him out of his cycle.
Not feeling any negative intent from the man Inko decided to take a page out of her son's book and smiled at the man "Please let me introduce myself properly, I'm Midoriya." she said with a slight bow.
The man shifted slightly, and his head was shyly ducked a bit "N-nice to meet you Midoriya-San, you can just call me, uh, bag-head? And this is S-Scamp." the man mumbled clearly unsure of himself as he spoke, but as she somewhat expected his demeanor changed "This is such a chore, I'm Bubaigawara Jin and you better call me that! I don't know this mutt." he exclaimed before slapping his free hand over where his mouth should be likely horrified, and she understood why he would do that.
Inko had distantly knew that name from a series of robberies about six months ago, the stories had stopped suddenly a month or so ago and she had just assumed he had been caught and she just hadn't seen the coverage over it because she was busy with her new responsibilities helping Izuku, but here he was with a bag on his head and a happy pup in his arms.
In normal circumstances she should have ran and called for the police or a hero, but if she had come to understand one thing from Izuku's continued work in the red-light districts was that people weren't so two dimensional, Izuku regularly spoke with high level criminals and a daily basis after all.
And looking at this man she didn't see a dangerous criminal as much as she saw a man down on his luck, and a timid one at that.
So against her better judgement she nodded with a slight smile "It's lovely to meet you as well, and Scamp of course, he's a sweetheart." Inko told him slowly stepping closer and pet Scamp on the head, the pup barked and licked her hand happily.
Bubaigawara relaxed a bit and adjusted his hold so she could pet Scamp easier "He is, sticks with me even though I snap at him." he confessed "It's a stupid mutt and leaves whenever I try to hug him." the deeper tone huffily followed up with as he hugged the pup closer, Scamp immediately tried to lick at Bubaigawara's face through the bag making the man laugh "Scamp no!" he softly scolded but Scamp was hardly discouraged when said "Keep going mongrel." a second later.
Inko felt her anxiety fall away as Bubaigawara continued to play with Scamp and she became quite certain the man was nothing like the psychopath the media tried to paint him out to be, maybe Izuku was right about most outlets these days being full of hooey.
Before she got too caught up in the sweetness of the moment Scamps ears twitched and the dog snapped his head up to the sky, his ears folding back and Scamp began to whimper.
Concerned Inko looked up and saw the whole sky was a large dark cloud and just barely make out the first few snowflakes as they fell "Hey, no worries buddy. I'll find us someplace warm to stay tonight." Bubaigawara quietly promised petting Scamp "Panic you stupid dog, we're going to freeze!" his deeper tone snapped.
Worry wormed itself in Inko's mind upon hearing that, tonight was supposed to be one of the coldest storms of the year and the thought of these two possibly spending it outside without any shelter was terrifying, gosh... it was no wonder her son ran himself ragged during that first winter if this weight was on his shoulders.
"Do you need a place to stay tonight?" the question left her lips before she could really think about what she was offering and Bubaigawara was just as surprised as she was that she said it.
"W-what? No, no. Scamp and I will figure something out, you don't have to stick your neck out like that for us." he told her and that was a perfectly valid response given they were strangers "Absolutely! Dig your own grave!" his deeper tone gleefully encouraged.
"Please, I couldn't sleep easy thinking the two of you out here in this mess." Inko insisted "You don't have to stay with me, just take a little money for a hotel at least." Inko added digging through her purse.
Bubaigawara's hand came over hers "Midoriya-San you really don't have-" he tried to say but sharp gust blew through with a larger snow fall that caused Scamp to whimper even louder.
"Just for the night." Inko repeated.
Bubaigawara looked between her and Scamp a few times before his shoulders sagged "Okay, just one night." he conceded "No! We will stay forever." the deeper tone countered.
Inko nodded and gently coaxed Bubaigawara into following her to slightly run-down motel and got the two of them a room before bidding them a good night.
This would not be the last time she would see Bubaigawara or his dog, Inko started to keep dog treats on her because of how often Scamp would run up to her, normally with Bubaigawara following shortly behind or the pup would bring her to the man if he had been unable to follow him completely.
Bubaigawara had dropped the honorifics after a week and wasn't even surprised when Scamp was found with her and merely apologized if she was clearly doing something like shopping, Inko hardly minded and found his arguing with himself a bit amusing when it wasn't a serious fight.
And she found the company helped the ache of her empty nest syndrome just a touch, though she had come to notice that Bubaigawara didn't seem to have much money and would mutter quiet thanks to her for the small bits of food for Scamp, she had offered to buy small bags of food for Scamp but he would always turn her down always saying he didn't wish to bother her.
It hurt to see the two of them scrape by and frankly she couldn't understand how Izuku handled knowing so many people living like this, his almost frantic efforts made far more sense to her now that she was seeing it in person for the first time, at least Izuku had managed to get them into letting him help them and she wished she knew more about how he did it.
She had eventually broken down and called up Izuku for his advice when she saw a large chunk of cloth used as a bandage for his hand, Izuku wasn't to shaken up about her hanging around with a confirmed criminal and she supposed he wouldn't mind given his own company now a days would probably be much worse than a bank robber, and he had some good advice for how she could help Bubaigawara.
She had talked about it for a couple hours with Izuku before coming to a solid plan and she had done her best to calm herself before she approached Bubaigawara with it the next day.
"A job?" he questioned in one of the rare times when the deeper tone didn't counter it, likely from his shock.
Inko nodded "Yes, my son has an opening for a delivery person, it's a dangerous area so he doesn't really care too much about background checking, you'd probably fit in well with the rest of his staff actually." she commented hoping it sounded as off-handed as she wished it would.
Bubaigawara was quiet for a while and didn't mention it when he started talking again and she was content with leaving it at that for today then call up Izuku when she got home but just as she was about leave Bubaigawara gently grabbed her sleeve with a gentle tug "I'll think about it Midoriya." he muttered "Don't hold your breath bitch." the deeper tone snapped.
Inko smiled and nodded quite chipper before heading home.
A week later when Scamp had a broken paw did Bubaigawara ask if that job was still available and she was all too happy to tell him it was, the job was made for him specifically so it would always be there for him.
Well, Izuku would have made that job at some point, she had only caused it to be made a touch sooner than it would have on Izuku's own volition.
Inko would merely be happy that Bubaigawara and Scamp would have a roof over their heads soon.