You know Oswald has had times where he really wanted to sock himself.
Especially the past version of himself, he honestly had no idea how his brain worked sometimes to cause him to act in such a way.
Because sure leaving home in the middle of the night wasn't the stupidest thing he could do, nor was asking one of his friends to let him sleepover without calling ahead.
But frankly speaking there was no amount of lost sleep that could even explain to him why he thought opening up his chest or putting his heart in Jiki's hands was ever a good idea.
And naturally he didn't realize how big of a fuck up it was until the next morning.
Not the surprise sleepover part, Mirio was pretty chill with it once he woke up and saw him sleeping on the floor between his and Jiki's beds.
Mirio was more curious about when he'd shown up and if his dad knew that Oswald was there, and the answer to the latter was a resounding no and was thus corrected as soon as Mirio left the room to get ready for the day.
Of course he wasn't fully conscious when he first woke up, especially so early in the morning after being up so late, so when he saw Jiki staring at him he was confused and didn't know why he was.
"Something on my face Jiki?" he asked only for Jiki to go completely red and bolt from the room sputtering about making breakfast, only confusing Oswald even more.
Then he remembered exactly what he did last night and he took the pillow Jiki gave him and screamed into it for over a minute.
Of course a worry-wart like Jiki would be concerned about him after he opened his chest up and placed his heart in his hands after he trauma dumped on the poor guy *Can you get any more concerning you pink dunderhead!?* Oswald yelled at himself.
Not to mention Mirio's recent breakdown on top of what he did.
Oh yeah if he ever found a time-machine he was so going to go back in time and strangle himself for being so idiotically dense.
Done with his pity party, Oswald grabbed his bag and got himself dressed for school, forcing the whole incident from his mind and stalking out of the bedroom.
He passed what had to be the bathroom cause he heard Mirio singing and the shower running inside and left him to it as he sulked forward.
And entered the main part of the apartment and saw both Jiki and a man he assumed was Mirio's dad both working on... a squid? Oswald was like fifty percent certain that they were working on a squid.
Oswald hesitated for a moment before giving himself a kick to the ass mentally speaking and walked over to the two of them, the two of them noticing him right away, the man blinking surprised and Jiki getting red again.
"Hi... Uh, sorry for crashing last night, would've called beforehand but it was late and I didn't want to wake anyone." Oswald greeted rubbing the back of his head and gave a quick bow to Togata.
The man smiled at him "Don't apologize, Tamaki here told me everything. Do you need to stay another night or do you have some place else to stay Oswald-Kun?" Togata inquired.
Oswald breathed in, making a bit of a hiss-like noise "Yes, no, maybe?" Oswald answered unsure about it himself as he shrugged his shoulders "Still trying to figure that out." Oswald added a bit awkward.
Togata nodded "Well if you don't get it figured out you could spend a couple of nights here, I'm sure Mirio wouldn't mind having another friend around, and Tamaki here clearly doesn't have a problem with you given he snuck you in." Togata joked elbowing Jiki, making the boy jump and Jiki turned around so that his face was buried in a wall.
Oswald's lips quirked upwards as he watched Jiki getting so flustered over the ribbing but quickly focused back on Togata "That would be great, thank you Togata-San. So what 'cha two making?" Oswald asked moving the attention onto something else so Jiki could calm down.
"We're going to be having Ikayaki today, it's one of Tamaki's favorites, wanna help?" Togata said moving aside so he could join them.
Oswald's attention was immediately grabbed by that *One of Jiki's favorites?* he thought walking forward and rolling up his sleeves "Yeah that sounds pretty good actually, what you want me to do?" Oswald questioned.
Oswald sighed as he followed both Mirio and Jiki onto the train, they lived closer to U.A. so he had a lot of time to make up his homework he should've done last night, but then again he did do a runner and was way too tired to finish it last night.
Thankfully he had the time to make most of it up this morning and eat, Ikayaki wasn't quite his thing but Jiki certainly enjoyed eating it, so he planned on finding the recipe for it on his phone later, and maybe he'd pop into a mutation shop for some insect candy.
He'd need to do something to make up for dropping so much shit on Jiki last night and cooking him a favorite and getting him candy he liked seemed like a good way to do that.
Looking up from his phone he saw Jiki and Mirio were both talking about something and he didn't plan on interrupting, Oswald put in his ear buds and let his head rest on Jiki's shoulder making the boy jump.
Oswald smiled rolling his eyes at Jiki's typical reaction but didn't move from where he was, he'd know when it was time to get off without turning off his music, and he just wanted to drift off for a while.
And for all intents and purposes he quite enjoyed the quiet ride over, honestly the only hiccup was maybe when someone bumped into him from time to time, and even then he still liked having someone to ride with, even though he spent most of it just passively being there.
Then when they got to their stop much like he predicted Jiki shyly tugged on his jacket to get his attention, Oswald gave a hum of acknowledgement and removed his head from Jiki's shoulder to walk off the car with them.
Oswald was also glad that U.A. had managed to get the vultures to leave, he liked ferrying his friends over the wall as much as anyone else but it got old quick. There were only so many times one could make Rapunzel jokes before they became stale.
Oswald checked the time then groaned and turned to Mirio "Oi blondie, can you walk Jiki here to big, tall and scaly? I need to go meet with the therapy dog." Oswald asked lazily making Mirio laugh.
"Sure thing Oz, we'll see you later." Mirio agreed dragging Jiki away with him and Oswald gave them a wave before walking down a different hallway towards the counselors offices.
Oswald had to admit that talking with Inu wasn't all that bad, he still didn't like talking about all of the shit that was going on in his life but he could complain about his dad's wife and son without being bonked on the nose for it like a dog.
And after what Master-Sensei told him Oswald did have something else he wanted to talk about with the man, he couldn't deny that the idea of leaving the three of them behind was tempting but he wasn't completely sold either.
What would happen if he took his new homeroom teacher up on the offer to get away from his dad? Sure he'd become a ward of U.A., whatever that meant, but how would that change things for him?
Would he live with one of the teachers or is there a weird joint foster house thing? What would he have to do if he wanted to go to see his friends? Would he need to file some papers about leaving? Or would he need to be escorted by someone?
Hopefully he could get more information from Inu, or at least enough to make a choice about whether he'd be better off staying with his dad, it wasn't likely but he hadn't heard much good about the system and there were worse things than the chance of walking in on his dad and his wife.
Getting to the door Oswald knocked before entering the room, Inu was sitting at his desk and Oswald gave a half hearted wave to the man.
"Welcome Oswald, right on time." Inu greeted and Oswald gave a non-committal hum as he slumped onto the couch like usual.
Inu rose an eye at him and Oswald sighed sitting upright and rubbed the back of his neck "Okay so, Master-Sensei mentioned the whole U.A. ward thing to me, and I guess I've been considering it but he didn't tell me much about it." He explained "I mean, would I even qualify for that?" Oswald asked.
Inu tilted his head "From what you've told me Oswald I do believe we would have a reasonable case for you to become one, you've stated that you are deeply uncomfortable living in your father's home due to the way your step-mother is. And with the severity of parental alienation going on we'd have a decent case, not to mention if we brought up the original divorce's circumstances it would greatly affect the outcome." Inu commented.
Oswald nodded "Yeah, he really screwed mom over so that'd definitely make anyone think he's a bastard, and his bitch ain't a prize herself." Oswald conceded with a shrug "So I can opt out? Cool, but what does that mean for me? What the hell would happen to me after I blow the whistle?" Oswald pressed.
"Well, assuming you tell a teacher of your home problems and express your desire to leave we'd open a case with O.C.S.S, and during the course of investigation you'd stay with a social worker until the matter is resolved." Inu answered "Then if you were to become a ward of U.A. one of the staff members or a trusted foster family would take you in, depending on your preference and the staff's ability to house someone." Inu added.
Oswald paused to turn that thought over in his mind, which would he prefer? Sure living with one of his teachers would be a bit weird but would he rather stay with who knows which family and maybe other students?
His nose scrunched up at the thought *I think I'd rather room up with Midnight-Sensei than a bunch of randos.* Oswald mentally said with a shake of his head "Except for you? Master said you probably couldn't take me." Oswald pointed out.
Inu nodded "It would be a conflict of interest. Would you want to find another person to talk to?" Inu inquired and Oswald scowled back at the man making him huff "I didn't think so." Inu said.
"Forgive me if I want to keep using my favorite therapy dog." Oswald spat back lazily.
Inu scoffed though he didn't sound offended by the jab.
"Do you have any more questions? About changes if you became a ward?" Inu asked.
"Yeah," Oswald admitted "How would I go about seeing my friends?" Oswald questioned.
Inu gave a thoughtful hum "Well, that will depend on your guardian afterwards. Most of the families wouldn't ask you to do much more than tell them where you are going and for how long you'll be there, you'd probably need to ask for permission before you could have any sleepovers or the like." Inu told him after a few minutes.
Oswald couldn't help but wince at the sleepover bit, especially as memories of last night flashed to mind, thank god he couldn't 'blush' like a normal person and most people wouldn't think his hair squirming like it was a sign of him being flustered.
Oswald groaned and ran his hands through his hair in a vain attempt to calm his curls.
"Speaking of that... do you have any advice for when you fuck up with a friend?" Oswald asked figuring it wouldn't kill him to ask at least.
Inu blinked "Uh, did you have a fight with one of your friends?" Inu inquired with a bit of concern.
Oswald sighed "No nothing stupid like that, I just, I need to figure out how to apologize for putting my heart in Jiki's hands last night." he explained with a wave of his hand.
Inu blinked and his mouth opened a bit "... What?" Inu questioned.
Hound Dog:... You mean metaphorically, right?
Oswald:...
Hound Dog: Right?
Oswald *sweat drop*