As a courier Jin had become used to people coming up to him during his rounds, sometimes asking about a package that hadn't come when they thought it should have, or to give him something to put in the P.O. boxes to leave the South Side.
Of course, there was the correspondence within the South Side where the residents would give him a box or a letter for someone else in the South Side.
So, being stopped along his way wasn't uncommon and since Mezo had friends outside of the district it would only make sense the boy would get or send mail out of the South Side to Jin.
"Twice-San, do you have a moment?" Mezo asked a couple days after April came, when Jin was waiting for Magne to get all of the deliveries together for him.
"Of course, buddy! What 'cha need?" Jin asked back with a smile as he leaned back against the counter.
("Piss off brat, I'm busy.")
Mezo's hands fiddled with the hem of the poncho he was wearing, clearly a little nervous as he looked away from him.
"If you have time tomorrow... do you think that you could help me pack up my stuff?" Mezo shyly requested.
"Eh?" Jin couldn't help responding surprised and his other voice felt similarly given it didn't speak up when it had the chance.
One of Mezo's hands came up to his neck and he ducked his head.
"U.A. has student dorms and I'll be moving into one of them. Mom has a lot of work to do this week, and I don't want to bother her with packing for when I move." Mezo explained.
Oh, that explained why Mezo was nervous.
Gosh Jin remembered how nerve-wracking it was to move out of his home and live on his own for the first time.
It was because both of his parents died and not for school but that was beside the point.
"Bud you aren't a bother, and I'd be happy to help tomorrow. I'll be by after work, that sound, okay?" Jin offered.
("You're dragging us all down you damn leech, pack your crap yourself.")
Mezo gave him a quiet thank you, before grabbing one of the little doggie biscuits from the jar, a treat that was given to Scamp who was waiting outside.
Jin had to have been distracted watching Mezo give Scamp some affection, because he hadn't even noticed Magne had gotten back until she started chuckling.
"Getting in some brownie-points with your kid Twi?" Magne cheekily asked, waggling her eyebrows once his cheeks started turning red.
"Mezo's not my kid, Yua and I are just friends Magne." Jin hissed back embarrassed.
("Yep! Love my boy and can't wait to get home to the wife!")
Jin was very glad his second voice couldn't say things with his mouth right now because there was no way Mezo would not have heard it.
Magne hummed back.
"Uh, huh. Whatever you say but just make sure to send me an invite once you and Yua tie the knot." Magne told him with a wink.
Jin red in the face, grabbed the boxes and left far more quickly than he usually did.
He very much did not like being teased about his crush in earshot of the woman's son.
Scamp hadn't minded though and happily ran with him.
Jin tried to reassure himself as he walked over to the apartment of the Shojis'.
He kind of wished he had chosen to bring Scamp with him, even if Scamp would have made everything much harder to do Scamp would have at least been able to melt any tension that could occur.
But Jin had already dropped Scamp off to have a doggy-playdate with Taka, the two dogs off on a walk with both of the Tanakas to boot.
So, Jin was off to help Mezo pack up his room so he could move to the dorms at U.A.
Good, great even!
Now, if only Jin's nerves would get with the program.
Unfortunately, he reached the door before he could convince himself he wasn't being watched under a microscope.
("Just knock already fuckface.")
Wow, his second voice being helpful for once? It hadn't done that in forever.
It did give Jin the nerve to knock on the Shojis' door.
Mezo came and opened the door after a few minutes.
The boy wasn't in his usual poncho, instead in tank top that he could see didn't have a back but straps to be tied behind his neck.
Allowing Jin to see all three sets of Mezo's arms in full for the first time he could ever recall.
"Hello Twice-San." Mezo greeted moving away so he could enter the apartment.
"Hi Buddy, so where's your room?" Jin asked, trying his best to play off his nerves and walked into the apartment.
("Hello to you too you wanker, let's blow this popsicle stand.")
Mezo motioned with his head towards one of the doors, "Over there." Mezo told him before turning and walking to his room, and Jin followed after him.
Mezo's room was... pretty bare.
There was stuff in there definitely, but not as much stuff as Jin expected to see in the kid's room.
Like a bed, the only thing he could see that Mezo could have used was a large beanbag chair.
Perhaps catching on that Jin was staring, Mezo's hands came up to rub his primary arms, shifting his weight as he looked away from him.
Jin was quick to wipe away any of his shock and put his hands on his hips.
"So, what are we going to pack up first Bud?" Jin asked hoping to brush his initial reaction aside.
("You know what, fuck this we're leaving.")
Mezo took one of the boxes the boy must have prepared in advance.
"My desk has most of my things." Mezo informed him, pointing with a third hand.
"Righty-o!" Jin agrees moving over to the desk.
("Screw off pipsqueak!")
The packing hadn't taken long once they started, Mezo really hadn't had many things.
Most of it was in fact in Mezo's desk, small little trinkets that he was sure were gifts from his friends and the Uraraka girl.
It was easy to tell they were, Mezo treated each of his gifts with a lot more care as he wrapped them up in packing paper or bubble wrap.
The surplus of yarn wasn't given the same respect.
All in all, it took the two of them maybe a couple hours to pack up everything but a few days of clothes and his little bean bag chair.
Heck, Mezo probably could have done it all on his own in just as much time considering his ability to make more arms and eyes.
But Jin did notice how... despondent? Mezo was as he packed.
It was hard to accurately read someone's face when they have half of their face covered up with a mask.
Though he could see that there was something, maybe sad in the kid's face as he looked over the emptier room.
"Hey, you okay Buddy?" Jin asked, lightly bumping one of Mezo's arms.
("Speak up Shortstack.")
Mezo looked over to him before looking away towards the floor nervous again, one of his hands coming up to rub his other arm.
"It nothing really... just," Mezo tried to answer only to pause as he struggled to find the right way to describe whatever he was trying to say.
Maybe because Jin was basically a stranger or Mezo was still a kid and growing up meant complex emotions he hasn't felt before.
"A lot?" Jin offered.
("Underwhelming?")
Mezo's shoulders slumped, and he nodded with a lot more emphasis than he normally did, looking a bit relieved when Jin spoke up.
Welp, Jin wasn't the best person for this kind of a talk, but simultaneously he was probably a very good person to talk about this, his life had been a trainwreck for a long time so he could at least give the kid advice about what not to do.
"Like the move or?" Jin asked a bit leadingly trying to clarify.
("Planning to ditch and stay home instead?")
Mezo sat down on the ground with his primary arms crossed and on his knees.
"Kind of... " Mezo muttered, ducking his head and avoiding his eyes.
"So more of an, everything kind of thing?" Jin guessed also sitting down with Mezo on the floor.
("Nothing less?")
Two of Mezo's secondary hands came up to cover the rest of his face, letting Jin know he had hit the issue right at the root.
"I know I should be happy about this, everything is just getting better for us." Mezo confessed abashed.
"Mom and I live somewhere so much better, mom has a great job, I've got a bunch of friends now and I'm going to be in U.A's hero course." Mezo listed off.
"But it's just... " Mezo tried to say but cut himself off as he ran a hand through his hair.
"Too much, too fast." Jin said for the boy, completely understanding what the kid was feeling at the moment.
("Still not enough!")
"Yes." Mezo exclaimed, almost hissing the word with his frustration, letting his head hit his crossed arms.
Jin reached up to ruffle the boy's hair, seemly surprising Mezo.
"Don't worry Bud, what your feeling is completely normal." Jin assured him, glad this would actually be something he could help with... relatively speaking.
("Your heads completely fucked up brat.")
"Change, especially a lot of it, can feel scary, even good change. And I guess you've had a lot of change lately in your life." Jin told the boy.
Mezo looked bashfully down at the floor.
"It's always just been me and mom before we moved here... " Mezo admitted one of his thumbs rubbing his arm.
"We used to move around a lot too, this is the longest we've ever lived in one place." Mezo further explained to him.
"I've never had friends before either, most people are too scared by what I look like or what my quirk does, now I have two great ones and... Uki." Mezo muttered face a touch red when he bought up the girl.
"And now I'm going to move out to go to a school that I never thought I'd get into before." Mezo said looking to the other side away from him.
Jin merely nodded his head, letting the boy continue to get this all off his chest.
He'd thought all of those things himself, once he moved to the South Side after agreeing to work for Inko-San's son.
Having so many new things in his life, a stable job and money, people that were so weirdly accepting of him and his quirks, Scamp and a decent place to live.
And it was overwhelming, going from having nothing for so long to being in a comfortable place.
"I know I won't be alone there, Mido-Kun and Awa-Kun will be there and Uki will be in the same building but I... I've never lived without my mom before." Mezo told him, sounding much younger and scared as he admitted it.
And Jin felt his heart go out to Mezo.
Cause Mezo, for all that he could pass as a grown man, being an impressive hundred, eighty-seven cm tall and a body builder at that with all of his muscles, he was still a kid.
Only fifteen and soon to be sixteen, and approaching adulthood far faster than Mezo expected he would.
"Yeah, that is one of the scarier parts of moving out on your own, actually living on your own for once and being completely responsible for yourself." Jin commiserated with Mezo, gently rubbing the boy's arm.
("Only leeches live on others! Get your crap together.")
"You're getting closer to being an adult, and as one adult to a future adult let me tell you something I had to learn the long and hard way." Jin said.
("Cover your ears Shortstack, no kiddies allowed.")
"There is no growing up, not really. No part of your brain's going to be unlocked when your brain finishes developing that's going to help you understand taxes, god I wished that's what happens because taxes suck." Jin informed the kid, facepalming when he thought about the time he didn't send in the right tax forms before his bank robbing career.
("Soon as you're twenty-five you'll know the secrets of the universe.")
"But you have a phone Buddy, and three great friends that you can go to with anything. You'll never be on your own." Jin reminded him.
("Die in a ditch you social pariah.")
"And if all else fails, there's the google." Jin commented off handedly with a shrug.
("You'd die if you lost your phone.")
Mezo snorted, almost but did look much better now after listening to Jin talk.
"Thank you, Twice-San. I needed that." Mezo replied.
"Not a problem Buddy." Jin said back.
("I expect to be paid in full for this inconvenience.")
Mezo stared at him for another moment.
"You know I've heard Maggie talk about you and mom before." Mezo informed him.
*Fuuuuuuck, fuck, fuckity-fuck, fuck, fuck.* Jin panicked in his mind, knowing exactly what Magne could be saying about him and Yua.
("Oh, you screwed yourself this time monster-fucker.")
"I wouldn't mind if you and mom did get together." Mezo said next breaking Jin out of his mental freakout.
"Eh?" Jin lamely responded.
"You wouldn't be the worst guy mom could date." Mezo told him, like that justified what he said.
But Mezo was wrong.
The kid couldn't know obviously but Jin hurt people, hurt a lot of people and was still a wanted criminal.
He killed people, it was just his doubles made by his quirk but it was still his hands that stabbed his guts and his own neck that he crushed-
"Kid I can't, your mom deserves someone much better than me." Jin protested.
Deserved someone that could look at their own face without breaking down about it, or could only think about all the blood on his hands and in his mouth when he looked in a mirror without wondering if he was-
"You can't hurt her more than my father did." Mezo told him flatly.
Jin stiffened up hearing that.
He... didn't know much about Mezo's father, no one ever talked about him but that was a very pointed remark to make.
His words though were clear.
"Bud," Jin couldn't help saying.
("Motherfucker,")
"Just, think about maybe going out a couple times with her. I think the two of you'll be good for each other." Mezo asked him.
Jin, swallowed dryly.
"I'll think about it." Jin said back, wondering how the two of them got to here of all places.
("Because you're a monster fucker.")
Jin: I am constantly a second away from having a mental breakdown because I cannot look at my own face, 50% sure there is mold in my apartment, a formerly violent criminal who has killed before.
Paranoid to the ninth-degree, still heavily mentally unstable and technically suicidal as well.
Jin *Holds up Scamp*
Jin: But I do have a puppy.
Mezo *Places his hand on Jin's shoulder*
Mezo: This here is some grade-A father material
Jin: What?