Emery scowled drumming his right foot's claws and his tail swish irately behind him as he watched the clock tick on.
His emerald should be here any second with the swarm of brats, annoying as their group was he didn't hate them and they weren't the source of his ire... well not directly.
Hearing the happy chanting of the younger brats Emery turned his head and spotted his emerald leading the group in singing some song he couldn't be bothered learning the name of, and he knew it was his emerald and not the counterfeits because the thief was trailing behind them.
His scowl only got deeper as he saw his emerald smiling at the brats.
Having seen the boy every Wednesday since the kid gave him back his property Emery felt familiar enough to say that something was deeply troubling his emerald, with or without his ability to smell a hint of emotions.
The boy was doing a good job of hiding it but there were little tells Emery had seen when his emerald wasn't looking.
The soundless sighs, how tightly wound his shoulders would get or slumping as he thought of something deeply, his eyes growing dull in hue trading it for a sharper gaze instead.
Something was happening to stress the boy and his emerald was hiding it from nearly everyone judging by the fact there hadn't been any waves made, and he didn't fucking like it.
He lead them up to the roof and sat himself down on a crate to watch them water the seeds they planted last week.
The armless telepath made her way over to him subtly and leaned over to him "You can tell something's wrong too?" she whispered.
"Your mind-fuckery?" he growled back unsurprised she over heard him.
She nodded her head "The older kids have picked on it too, well the emotes have, Deku's pretty good at hiding these things." she explained to him.
"Any chance you know what's fucking him up?" Emery fished but the girl shook her head.
"My quirk is strong enough to ruin my nervous system if I'm not careful but I can't read his mind like everyone else because he's quirkless, that part of my quirk only works through the quirk gene and unless I want to lose another limb like this or more I can't try." she told him moving the little bit of her arm left attached to her stump for emphasis.
Emery tsked *Damn it.* he thought and continued to scowl at his emerald while armless went back to work using her quirk to move a hose to refill the tiny water cans.
Emery's eyes reluctantly slid off his emerald and onto the thief that has been sticking to his emerald's side for some reason. The man was never more than twenty feet away from the boy and for some reason it made his skin crawl.
Not in to gross perv kind of way, but Emery was certain that if his emerald's tension wasn't directly his fault then he damn well knew what was causing it.
Unfortunately gave the man was never too far from his emerald Emery could hardly interrogate the mother-fucker.
Some deity was giving him a hand however as he was struck with a stroke of genius.
*Oi! Tele-bitch! * he called in his mind and she turned to him with a single raised eye.
*I know you can't mess with the brat's crap because he don't got a quirk, but you can make the stalker think shit right? * Emery asked and she turned her eye to the man before looking back at him questioningly.
*Look, whatever is going on that son of a bitch knows and I ain't just going to let this shit fly if I can help it, so make the fucker think he really needs the bathroom or something so I can get it out of him. * Emery barked at her in his head.
She frowned even deeper but nodded and turned her eyes onto the thief, the man didn't break easy and lasted under Armless's assault for a good five minutes before excusing himself and Emery followed almost right after, careful to not let his claws give him away.
Emery waited until he was sure they wouldn't be overheard and struck punching at the thief, but the thief seemed to suspect something was up because he leaped away and just as quickly threw out knives at him.
Emery dodged using his tail to change course but one of them cut his arm.
Pissed Emery didn't stop and crawled up the walls using his claws and the bastard's attempt to use his quirk on him by scrambling over the ceiling, tearing a fuck ton of holes in his building.
The thief reached back for something and Emery didn't let the chance slip to jump down on the man and pin him to the floor, gripping the man's wrists tight enough to draw blood and cut off circulation.
"Alright you fucker, you're going to tell what the fuck was that and just what the hell is going on between you and Deku, or I'll make sure you can't walk a straight line, much less use your quirk." Emery threatened snarling in the man's face.
The man gulped "Deku-San wouldn't let you-" the thief protested trying to struggle out of his grip but one of the things about being a dragon meant Emery had far more strength then one would assume he had given his lanky frame.
"Deku ain't here and I was his long before you were you merry-men reject, between the two of us and armless backing me I think you're the one that should be worried about Deku learning about this." Emery interrupted letting his snout get right in the man's face and scrunch up his nose.
The man was silent for a moment before he shakily told him "O-okay I'll tell you, but Deku cannot ever find out about this, you need to swear to that before I'll tell you anything." the thief countered.
Emery scoffed "Fine, I swear on my emerald I won't say shit to Deku." he said rolling his eyes * Like hell I won't you bitch. * he added privately.
The man sighed "Seeing as I doubt you'll let me up I'll get straight to the point. The reason I reacted like you saw was because I am a personal bodyguard for Deku hired by his father Morozov Yuri, something Deku is not aware of since Morozov impressed the need to not reveal such a thing to him." the thief answered, wincing when he tightened his grip.
"And why is that?" he growled overlooking the dad thing, Emery was far more interested in the fact his emerald apparently needed a bodyguard and why the kid wasn't to be told.
"Hey, hey ease up! Deku will kill us both if he sees blood on my suit!" the thief snapped at him, unfortunately the man had a point so he did but struck the man's leg with his tail for the insolence and the thief hissed.
"Right you've made your point. Morozov noticed that the wrong kind of people were starting to pay attention to his son, people who wanted to use his connections and power in the underworld like the hero commission, people who would eventually send people after him so he used the Vespas to hire me privately." the man told him.
"Those hypocritical bloodsuckers." Emery hissed shaking his head, who the fuck did those bastards think they were?
"And as for why he insisted on not telling Deku, well, Deku thinks Morozov can be overbearing at times, and hiring a bodyguard to stay with him would likely be seen as encroaching on his independence, and Deku doesn't seem the type but Morozov didn't want to risk him doing anything stupid in retaliation." the thief explained.
Emery scoffed rolling his eyes, his emerald wasn't that stupid, throwing himself into fire-fights notwithstanding.
Allowing himself to thrill he scowled back down at the man "Alright, let's say I'll believe that bull crap, but that was months ago, something else is going on so spill what's been stressing out him out." he growled.
The man pursed his lips "Unfortunately, Deku plays most things close to his chest... but I think being outed by the tv broadcast has been the main source of it, especially with He who takes eventually going to take notice that he's losing resources to someone quirkless." he explained to Emery.
Emery snarled darkly clenching his hands causing the man to sharply inhale, Emery shook his head and quickly let go of the thief to pace the hall cursing under his breath using every french swear he could remember at the moment.
He wasn't part of the underground like his emerald was but he knew how dangerous He who takes is, and that having that man's attention would be the worst thing and would stress anyone out much less his emerald.
"Given you've released me, I believe you understand the depth of the situation." the thief commented and Emery turned to him to snap back.
"Oh course I do you fuck-wit!" he growled tugging at his hair with his hands.
Emery knew there was so little he could do about this bullshit, he was strong for a kid his age without a strength quirk and could breath a bit of fire but how was that supposed to help against He who takes? He'd hardly be more than a damned gnat in the face of someone like that.
"Damn it!" he yelled his tail lashing out and knocking over one of the side tables and the pot on it would've broken but the thief got it first.
"I can certainly understand your frustration, but I doubt Deku would approve of senseless destruction of property." the thief told him setting the pot down.
"Fuck you-" Emery growled only for him to swept off his feet and the thief put his boot to throat choking him.
The thief took a deep breath and released a long exhale "While I can sympathize with you're upset learning this, Deku is a very kind person whom has done quite a lot for you... but I'm afraid you aren't unique in this regard." he said as he pulled out some bandages to treat his wrists, having already rolled up his sleeves at some point.
Emery growled bringing his hand up to swipe at the man's leg but the man leaped up and kicked his hand away as he did, Emery scrambled back getting on his knees as gasped air, before he formed a plan outside of that the man kicked him in the side of the neck.
Emery croaked as he fell to the floor unable to move his body, panicking Emery tried hard to move his body through the eye-watering pain but nothing below his neck was responding to him.
"Apologizes young Aris," the stupid fucker said as he moved him into an upright sitting position and squatted down to his level "I certainly didn't want to do this, however you haven't given me much choice but to resort to this so we might have a civil conversation on this topic." he continued going to bandage his other wrist.
"I don't have anything more to say to you, you-" Emery hissed but the man cut him off grabbing his snout to shut him up.
"As I was saying, you are not the only person who cares for Deku since he's helped you get your life together." The fucker told him.
"I, myself would not be in such a good place if the boy hadn't gotten involved in my life, I'd still be some two-bit thief making ends meat stealing from corrupt heroes if I wasn't recruited by Morozov, and even then I was resigned to just being manual labor for the kid." the man said and though Emery would prefer to tune him out the man grabbed his throat in a silent threat to choke him again if he tried that.
"However, Deku didn't reduce me to that... instead he gave me far more than I could've imagined, he gave me a stage, an adoring audience and on top of it all it's completely legal so I don't ever have to worry about the cops breathing down my back so long as I keep him safe." the man told him getting closer to his face.
"So l can personally assure you that I will never just let something happen to Deku. Even if that means letting those rabbits beat me black and blue for the rest of my life to learn how to properly protect him from that bastard." The man stated before he pinched Emery's neck causing his body to jolt and he could move again.
"Now then, I shall reimburse you for the damage I did to the hall here but I believe it would be in both of our best interests that Deku isn't told about this." The man commented as he unrolled his sleeves hiding his bandages from view.
Emery rubbed his neck still feeling it ache and began cursing under his breath again.
Emery: Robin... Robin, the boy wonder... Robin, hood-
Compress slightly annoyed: Yes, yes, it's all a very rich tapestry.