A good bag was worth its weight in gold, in Takuma's opinion. It had to be large but not too large, with a good strap that would hold when someone tried to grab and run, and thick enough to stop a blade. The perfect combination was pricey, but with his payment, he could afford a nice one. Cloth that would last him a while and protect him from the cold were in the same range: underwear, thick socks, and a new pair of shoes. He bought everything twice just to be safe. His once-a-year deal for Nighteye had come right when he needed it the most.
Now that it was done, he was left with the realization that he had nothing else to do for the day.
He couldn't go and check on his regular, Mrs. Saneya. She would be fine for a long time; he had scared off the last gang he fought against deeply enough that no one else had tried to step into their turf after he had cleared them out. The few other hobos he was acquainted with would be fine on their own; they never needed him in the first place.
The principal reason why he had nothing to do was the fact that, for once, he had a roof over his head. He didn't need to renew his gym membership because Mei allowed him to use her shower; she fed him, so he wasn't hungry for once; her house was warm, so he wasn't fighting the cold and the sickness that always came with lower temperatures.
He was on the upside of being homeless. Nothing needed to be done, so he had nothing to do.
The day passed slowly. He kept wearing the hoodie he came to the city with, even though he had clothes that fitted him better. The hood was the next best thing he had after a set of working arms, so he kept it over his head just to be safe. If the girl was intent on claiming his bounty, she would probably start putting filler around. The last place he was seen at would probably be known by the time the sun hit the horizon, and he needed to be long gone before the opportunist started looking for him. He could still run, but that wouldn't help him much if an actual threat came looking for him.
About an hour before Mei's classes ended for the day, he made a run to the local supermarket to grab a few things. His host's love for take-out and chocolate was definitely something he picked up on, but it wasn't enough to stay healthy. Also, watching the supplies in her cupboard dwindle made him so anxious he had to fight himself not to start hiding food, and it was getting exhausting to deal with. So, he made a run to the pharmacy to buy a first-aid kit worth of stuff, first to replace what Mei had spent on him and make sure she had enough stuff to treat herself with the next time she burned herself.
He waited for her near a bench close to the main entrance. He had moved a few times during the day to stay away from the crowd, but he wouldn't be able to dodge the rush of students leaving for the day, so he hunkered down and kept going through his breathing exercises and grounding techniques to stop himself from being swallowed by the rush of minds and bodies. In ten minutes, the flow started to simmer, and he could breathe easier again, and after another ten, he noticed the familiar mind of an exhausted Mei mentally crawl her way to the main gate while she physically walked there.
Her eyes were half-closed, and he didn't need his Quirk to know she was barely hanging in there. She kept walking, and after a few more steps, walked right into him as if she hadn't seen him until now. She raised her eyes, looking up at him confused. "You're still here?"
Takuma blinked, unsure what he was supposed to say. "Yes?"
She nodded with a lingering sadness he hadn't felt from her before. "That never happened before," she numbly remarked before turning and starting to walk toward the train station.
Takuma watched her walk away with an unsteady gait. If his instincts had been sending red flags until now, they were positively blaring the red alert. There was no explanation as to why Mei acted the way she did, none that he knew of at least. She was struggling with something, the specifics he had no idea about, but one thing was sure: he was going to do something about it because the state she was in wasn't something he was willing to let stand a single second longer.
Walking up to her, he gently grabbed her elbow to help her walk. He slowly slipped off her bag off her shoulder so he could start carrying it for her. His shoulders weren't enjoying the sudden weight, but he couldn't care less. Mei slowly started to lean on him even more as they walked to the train station, and he had to catch her from falling a few times before he could seat her on the bench. His injuries were starting to make themselves known again as the added weight from nearly carrying her pulled on his back and side. The backpack was also heavy as heck, and he welcomed the few minutes of relief the bench brought him before he had to guide her to the train. Having a mentally checked-out girl to deal with was hard on him; he was used to having something to use to deal with... anyone, really. Even behind his mental wall, he always had an inkling of what someone was feeling, and it helped him interact with them. It felt wrong to even touch her, still, it was better than letting her find her way home on her own, and he toughed it out long enough to reach the station.
This time, he paid for the ticket with the change from his shopping spree. And he sat next to her, maneuvering her bag into a makeshift pillow in such a way she wouldn't hurt her back too much. It helped that he could feel some second-hand pain coming from her upper back, and he kept moving the bag until it helped lessen the strain. That done, he could finally breathe and rest his back against his seat. He was going to hate the walk to her house if he had to half-carry her again. Running had cost him more than he thought it would; he wasn't out of the woods yet.
The train ride was quick, with barely half an hour of rest he wasn't feeling at his best, but when did he? He shook her gently, but firmly, given the time-sensitive nature of the stop. He again half-carried her out of the train and barely two steps later accepted his fate as her unofficial method of transport while he made his way toward her home. It was a ten-minute walk, and he felt every step after the one before it, eat shit and die.
In his lower back was a single ball of pain that radiated from his hips to his shoulder blades; he was starting to feel nauseous, and he felt like the door was farther away with every step he took. Somehow, he still made it inside and dropped both bags like the weights on his soul they were.
"Alright Mei, bedroom," he said more to make sure she knew where he was taking her rather than an order. He hadn't gone anywhere close to her room since the first time he had woken up on her couch, and he didn't know what to expect. Hopefully, nothing explosive.
He carried her to the door and opened it, turning his head away from the inside as to not peek any more than he had to into her privacy and started coaxing her into a more awake state than the zombie he'd been hauling around for the last half-hour. "Mei, you're home; you need to go to sleep."
Some sense of thought returned to her as she looked around her in a daze. "Oh," she mumbled before walking to her bed and sitting on it. Her hands reached to pull her shirt off.
Takuma closed the door before she even had the time to pull on the fabric. He took a few steps away and, after entering the living room, simply let himself fall slowly on the tiled floor. It was cold, and right now, it was downright heavenly to his burning muscles screaming at him. Lying down on the floor was becoming a habit. There were worse habits out there; he knew because he had taken a sip of alcohol a week ago, and it still hadn't left his mind. Kicking the habit had been a journey in itself, and he couldn't believe he had just downed half a bottle the first opportunity he had. He was glad Mei hadn't had anything to drink in her home, or he would have ended up drunk the first night in her house.
'Maybe I should go back and pay for that bottle,' he thought.
He could tell Mei's head hit the pillow because the raging anxiety and sadness she broadcasted lessened, and soon after, he could barely sense her mind. Now that he was reassured nothing would happen to her in her fugue state, it was time to figure out what the heck was going on with her. Standing up was not the most fun experience he had today, and as soon as he got his bearings back, he walked to the kitchen cupboard and grabbed her entire first aid supplies. It wasn't as full as someone with an entire warehouse of dangerous material should have stocked it, but it had the bare minimum to deal with the usual day-to-day mishaps: burns, nausea, pain, and enough band-aids and bandages to deal with most cuts. She lacked the necessary material to help with gunshot wounds and drug overdoses, but he didn't expect her to need any of those anytime soon.
What he was looking for was anything that was out of the ordinary, pills specifically. He had dealt with autism in the past; a lot of the homeless population had some kind of health or mental issue. He didn't know if it was what she dealt with, but he would find the answer in the pill she forgot to take.
His search ended when he grabbed a bottle with the name of the drug being either Latin or the beginning of a chant to summon a demon from hell.
"Who names their product 'Ampulla pilularum quam scriptor nomen nesciebat appellare'?" he wondered out loud.
No demon popped into existence. Sad.
The date of expiration was at the end of the month, but he still didn't know what it was for, so he turned the tablet on and wrote the name of the drug and pressed enter. Taking his time to read through whatever medical bullshit he was wading through, he took a few seconds to gather his thoughts.
"What the heck is ADHD?"
A few searches later, he was presented with a list of symptoms he could definitely recognize in Mei. Thinking back on his interaction with her, he started to make a few connections here and there. His host was always fidgeting in some way; she could barely stand still on a good day. She forgot he existed multiple times when he was right next to her and tended to go from one project to another in less than a heartbeat sometimes. He couldn't count how many times she had grabbed one of the newly unearthed gadgets from the death pile to immediately turn her attention to another a second later.
Yeah, his digging had not helped with her sleeping schedule.
He knew she hated being bored; she'd made it pretty clear multiple times, and watching her go through her math homework like a woman on death row brought what she was going through under a new light. He now had more context for the bout of anxiety and many other negative emotions he had no choice but to be privy to.
Of course, like many disorders, the symptoms were as diverse as they were the case, and he wouldn't become an expert in one day, so he turned off the tablet after clearing the history, then he started putting the first-aid kit back together. Only when he was finished did he remember he had a bag of supplies and food that needed to be sorted. Then a thought hit him.
"Oh, please tell me I can't catch ADHD," he moaned into his hand. "Stupid Quirk; my mental health is already messed up enough as it is, so don't even try."
There were a few mental disorders he could catch just from being near some people, and that wasn't even taking into account Quirks that would mess with his senses. Seeing every person around turn into pink five-meter-tall elephants had been pretty traumatic; the kid who had a 'useless' Quirk had sent him to his knees in barely five seconds.
Grabbing both bags, he laid hers on a chair while he brought his to the kitchen table where he started to empty the bag of groceries into the fridge and cupboard. It was a boon for his nerves, as he now knew she wouldn't starve because of him. She wouldn't have to go to the supermarket for a few days at least; it was lucky he decided to grab a few things just for his peace of mind. Also, chocolate, because for some reason, she was a fan of the stuff.
Next, it was the medicine's turn to be refilled and put back into their place; only the prescription for Mei's ADHD stayed on the table. Now he just needed to find a way for her to take it, and hopefully she wouldn't be too angry about the violation of her privacy.
Yeah, he'd long since stopped expecting anything from anyone.