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Himiko holds the scissors shakily, which, she admits, is probably not good when you're cutting your own hair. Her face grimaces in the mirror, lips pulling taut as she lines her fringe up to cut it.
This, is a terrible idea. Most of her ideas are.
She snips the scissors closed and a hunk of her hair falls into the sink, dirty blonde against pale white. She should paint the sink, white is one of the worst colours literally ever invented.
Looking into the mirror, Himiko frowns. Her hair is not even at all. She thought that she'd lined up the scissors alright, but now that she's actually cut it, her fringe is wonky as can be. One of her eyebrows is covered by her hair, while the other is fully visable.
She sighs. That's what you get, Touya says inside her head. He used to be the one to do her hair give it a trim if needed. It was nice, sitting down in the bathroom and listening to the neat little snips the scissors would make when he cut some off. He was surprisingly good at hair too, though now she knows that he had a younger sister, it isn't as shocking.
"You gotta hold them still and steady," she had heard him mutter to himself once when he'd cut her hair at 3am once. Back from stealing, and everyone had gone off to bed apart from them. Himiko couldn't sleep, the adrenaline was still buzzing in her veins and Touya... she doesn't know. He was still a mystery to her. He still is.
But that's what love is really. You don't have to know everything about a person to love them, Himiko knows that. She's fallen in love more times than shes cartwheeled, which is also surprising because when she was younger, she had an obsession with cartwheeling. That, was before her Quirk came in and everything...
She doesn't like to dwell on it. There had been plenty of time to think back at the hospital and now Himiko is pretty sure shes had her fill of dwelling. Probably more than enough, more than anyone should have to do in their lifetime.
She sighs again, flicking her fringe, debating wheather to cut it again or not take the risk...
She raises the scissors, cuts across her fringe. Wonky, again. She grits her teeth, sets the scissors down. Sighs.
'That's what you get!' Touya says inside her head, crowing sarcastically. Himiko curses as she messes up her hair, glowering at it. Stupid hair. Stupid scissors. Stupid-
Four sharp, knocks on her door. Himiko jumps, twisting her head towards the noise so fast she hears her joints click.
Her breath catches in her throat and she races towards the door, flinging herself out of the bathroom and into the kitchen, she flattens her hair, takes a deep breath. Sets her hand on the doorknob and takes it away.
Finally, she opens the door. "Ochako-chan!" she says, a smile pulling at her lips so hard it almost hurts.
"Himiko," Ochako replies, her voice and eyes soft, as they always are. "You cut your hair!" She reaches up and twirls a strand of Himikos fringe between her fingers. Himiko feel breathless, excited, like when she was younger and her parents would give her a penny to use the claw machines and she finally managed to snag the one she wanted. Its been like that ever since Ochako got her out. Everything feels new, electric, bubble-gum and sweet against her tongue.
"Yeah, I did. It was time, wasn't it?" She says, a grin curving at her lips. Ochako giggles.
"I did miss seeing your eyes. Though, um... I think it's a little wonky..."
"I know," she sighs, "Touya always used to cut my hair, he was so good at it. So not fair."
When she looks back up at Ochako her face is careful, like she's judging the situation. Figuring out what to say, how to say it.
"Himiko," she starts, then changes her mind. "I have something to tell you, let me in?"
"Oh, yeah, sorry!" She chirps, even as the anxiety boils in her stomach. She swings the door open, shuts it after Ochako makes her way in.
Her apartment is small, there's a bathroom, a combined living room and kitchen area, though the kitchen is tiny and the living room is basically just some pillows on the floor, and her bedroom. Which is also tiny, but Himiko doesn't hate it. She loves it. If she didn't like it, she'd be kinda screwed 'cause she can only go out at night with her hood up. Not that Ochako knows that.
Ochako sits down on one of Himikos floor-pillows, she brings her knees to her chest and just studies Himiko for a moment. Then, she speaks.
"Would you - would you want, to see Dabi - Touya?"
Himiko says nothing, only gapes.
"Yeah," Ochako sighs, "that wasn't the best way to introduce it, was it? Well, if I asked I think Todoroki would give you some of his blood..."
Himiko unsticks her tongue from the roof of her mouth to speak.
"I-" she starts, stops. "See him?"
"Yeah, like, go to the hospital where he is."
"Yeah," Himiko says faintly. "Yeah, I - I'd give everything."
Ochako smiles, though it's a little sad. "You don't even have to give anything, let me ask Todoroki for his blood. Don't get your hopes up too high, though."
"I won't," she promises, mind spinning. "Do you- do you know how he is?"
"He's..." Ochako bites at her lip. "He's on life support. They don't know if he'll survive even with it."
Himiko swallows. "Okay."
"Um... Todoroki doesn't say much about it but... he says that he's in like - a really big machine? I don't know a lot other than that, sorry."
"It's okay," she replies, trying to be reassuring. "It's not your fault."
"Yeah," Ochako says, brown eyes wide, looking at Himiko with concern. "Yeah."
Himiko swallows loudly, picking at her nails. Its quiet for a little while, only their breathing in the silence. "'Chako," she murmurs, looking up. "D'you mind... could you help me cook something?"
She smiles back, it's grateful and sugar-sweet. "Sure! Curry?"
"Yeah," Himiko grins, fangs on display. "I love your curry."
🌸˚˖𓍢ִ໋🌷͙֒✧🩷˚⋆‧₊˚💛✩ ₊˚🌼⊹♡
She kisses Ochako goodbye by pecking all across the round apples of her cheeks and biting playfully at her nose. Ochako giggles, bites her back and shrugs on her hoodie, closes the door behind her.
And her flat is empty. And quiet. A Ochako-shaped hole making itself known in the silence.
Himiko pads into her bedroom and flops down onto her bed, kicking her feet into the air as she does.
Touya...
Does Himiko want to see him? Stupid question, she would give so much to see him, she'd go back to the hospital if it meant he could be free and happy. She'd give up her own life if it meant Tomura could come back too, though she'd at least like to say hi before dying.
She clenches her fist, looks up towards the celling. Himiko remembers that hollowed-out feeling she'd had back in the hospital, like someone had scooped all her insides out, leaving her with a gaping hole in her stomach.
Touya Todoroki. His real name. What she wouldn't give to ask him why. Why had he run away, why hadn't he gone back, how did he get his scars, what had Endeavour done to him?
She could've kept it a secret. Cupped it close to her chest and treasured it, a sign that Touya had loved her, had trusted her. That their time together was real, it wasn't just a dream, that at any second she could wake up to her middle school alarm. She would've kept it for him, carried the burden so he didn't have to. But he didn't, and now, he never would.
Teeth dig into her bottom lip, hard. Hard enough to draw blood. Himiko starts when she realises what she's doing, she doesn't need to drink her own blood anymore, Ochako gives her enough.
Ochako. Himiko skims her fingertips over her cheek, the last place where Ochako tucked a kiss into her skin.
It's been two months since Ochako got her out the hospital, two months and the government is still searching for her. She'd asked Ochako how long the search would take, and she said anywhere from three months to a year! A year! That's a year of Himiko's face being broadcast everywhere to see if someone's spotted her. And a bad picture of her too, the one she got in the psych ward, her hair long and shaggy, eyes empty of practically all life. Himiko's seen the way Ochako looks at the billboard with the picture on, sadly, like she missed a chance on something.
She's too hard on herself. All hero's are, but she is especially. And after the war, Ochako walks around with the weight of the world on her shoulders. Himiko wishes she could take some of it, any of it.
Himiko sits up, eyes darting towards the nice little window she's got in her bedroom. It's small, but big enough that Himiko knows she could fit through it, if it ever came to it. It's dark out, light from the lampposts below is the only way to see the street itself.
Now. Now, is the perfect time.
She stands, slips on a hoodie - the red one. The one Ochako brought for her, when they got her out the hospital - shrugging on a long skirt and trainers.
Ochako doesn't know about what Himiko does at night, and if she's honest, Himiko isn't going to tell her any time soon. Not that she doesn't trust Ochako, but she'd tell her that it's too dangerous to go out, she'd better stay inside. Ochako is right, Himiko is being dangerous, selfish even.
But you can't cage a bird and expect it to fly. Himiko rotted away in the hospital, sometimes she still feels like she is, and she rotted because she was a prisoner. And that she was grieving, had no support and was being starved but her lack of freedom played a part too.
Himiko isn't a hero. She doesn't have to bother with the self-righteousness stuff.
So, like, yeah. Sometimes she goes outside when it's super dark out. All she does is walk around anyway. Tour the dark, dark streets. Feed the kitties.
There's a little litter of them, fuzzy, lumps of fur. They feed off their mother desperately, though she herself is skin and bone. She leaves them tuna, chicken stripped off the bone, scraps of stuff.
Himiko had always wanted a cat when she was younger, baby fat packed onto her cheeks. Of course, she never got one. After what happened with the bird, it was probably the best solution but, like, cats are really fast, right? Baby Himiko, probably wouldn't have been able to catch a cat, she was the slowest in her class. That might have been the malnourishment though.
She slides out her room, feet making a squeaking sound on the floorboard. Her hands click the door open, locking it behind her in one smooth motion. She pads down the almost-collapsing hallway, shoving open the door at the end and clattering down the fire escape.
Himiko takes a deep breath, breathing in the dank air of the ally that the fire escape leads into.
It's gross, but after months of breathing in hospital air, and only hospital air, Himiko takes whatever she can get. Wheather it's slick concrete under her feet, piles of rubbish heaping at the sides leaking mysterious liquid and flickering lampposts, their bulbs popping off randomly. It's gross, but she loves it. Better than shining white floor and the smell of sanitizer everywhere.
Himiko trots down the ally, leading into one of the intricate labyrinths of roads and apartment houses. Rickety, probably not PMDA approved, ramen shops. She gets food from them sometimes and it really isn't all that bad. Not like she thought it would be (though some of them are definitely fronts for money laundering.)
Her parents weren't poor, they were more middle class than anything, but with the amout they both worked, and drank and had affairs on one another, you've thought they were distant rich people, far above caring about their only child.
She doesn't think about them much anymore. Or, she tries not to.
Himiko reaches the ally with the kittens, treading carefully as to not startle them too badly. She crouches down beside the box they use as home, stretching out a hand slowly. She wasn't a patient person before the war, even during it she just couldn't wait for shit. But if it's for kittens? Himiko'll do anything.
Eventually, one of the kittens nudges into her palm, pressing its tabby furred head into her hand. Himiko scratches behind its ears, reaching into her hoodie pocket to get a can of tuna and popping it open. She pushes it into the box and shuffles backwards, watching at the mother cat sniffs around the food. Eventually, she takes a bite and her four kittens crowd around her, battling eachother to get some.
Himiko smiles softly, fangs peeking out and resting gently against her bottom lip.
The mother cat winds its way out the throng of cats chomping at the food. She sits in front of Himiko, tilting her head and eyeing her with a sharp ice-blue gaze. She stares back at the cat.
Back fur, though her paws are white. It's hard to see because of the dirt and grime clinging onto her fur. The first few times Himiko had come, she'd arched her back and hissed. Got a good scratch along Himikos forearm too, leaving a scabbed ugly line. She's gentled though, or at least, shes gotten used to Himiko and she needs the food she brings for her kittens.
Himiko looks into her eyes. They almost glow in the dark of the alleyway. The sky is clouded over and the light from the lampposts doesn't reach, so Himiko can't see all too well.
Touya would've though. With his fire, his blue flame. The thing that hurt him again and again.
The cat gives her one last glance and slinks back to her kittens. Picking up one white and black cat, though it's more brown than white, by the scruff of its neck and settling down to clean it.
Himiko looks down at her hands, at her bitten nails. What would she even say to Touya? What would he say to her? Well, the only way to find out is to go. But that means Todoroki would have to agree. And there's a high chance he won't. Her Quirk is - well. Other people, stupid people, think it's gross.
She hopes Todoroki isn't one of those people.
🌸˚˖𓍢ִ໋🌷͙֒✧🩷˚⋆‧₊˚💛✩ ₊˚🌼⊹♡
After a few days of Himiko practically bouncing off the walls in her nervousness and anticipation, Ochako knocks on her door.
Himiko swings it open immediately, coming face to face with a smiling Ochako. She kisses Himiko on the tip of her nose and says:
"He said yes. We are going to do it next week, Thursday because that's when he visits."
Himiko throws her arms around Ochakos shoulders and only cries a little into her shoulder.
🌸˚˖𓍢ִ໋🌷͙֒✧🩷˚⋆‧₊˚💛✩ ₊˚🌼⊹♡
Thursday comes far too slowly. The days stretch into infinity, an hour becomes an entire day, a minute becomes an hour and so on.
Himiko feels a strange thrumming beneath her skin. It shifts and vibrates. She doesn't eat for a little bit, her stomach churns so badly she can't put it in her mouth and swallow.
But, eventually, the day comes. Like a train shugging to a stop. Himiko watches the door like a hawk - ha. Like a hawk. Like Hawks. - her heart jack-rabbiting in her chest.
Ochako knocks on the door and Himiko opens it so fast she feels like a blur. Ochako takes one look at her face - Himiko looked at herself briefly. She looked pale, sickly. Panicked. - and tugs her into a hug.
"It'll be okay." She says to Ochako. Trying to convince herself as well as Ochako. "..right?"
"Yeah. Yeah, it'll be okay!" Ochako grins, but it looks strained. Himiko presses a kiss to her cheek. Weight of the world.
They interlock their fingers.
🌸˚˖𓍢ִ໋🌷͙֒✧🩷˚⋆‧₊˚💛✩ ₊˚🌼⊹♡
Todoroki's blood tastes cold. It isn't really cold, more lukewarm from being kept at the bottom of Ochakos bag, but Himiko feels like she can taste the ice on her tongue.
She closes her eyes, slips someone else onto her frame. Feels her muscles grow, her hair get shorter as she gets taller. The skin stretching taut around her right eye. She swirls her tongue around her teeth, Himiko feels vaguely defenceless without her fangs.
She can feel the familiar feeling of love seeping into her veins, though this time it feels different.
Loving Ochako felt like pulling on an old coat that had molded to your body. Feeling the fabric fit snug against your skin. This love was almost cold and hot. Like diving into a freezing cold sea and feeling the sun on your back. It was a shock, sudden and harsh.
But at the end of the day, she always went back to the coat, to Ochako.
"Himiko?" Ochako murmurs, brows furrowed. "You alright?"
"Yeah," Himiko says, breathless. "It's just... y'know."
Ochako expression softens. "One day, you are going to meet my friends, my class 1-A."
"Really?"
"Yeah. They'll love you."
"I love them."
"I know," Ochako says smiling. "I know."
"Can you come in with me?" Himiko asks.
"No, sorry. Only his family are allowed in."
"Okay," Himiko takes a deep breath, trying to stop the storm in her stomach. "Okay. I'm ready."
Ochako walks her to the doors.
"I'm so not ready." Himiko says staring into the white inside of the reception area.
"You are." Ochako insists. "This might be only time you can see him. I believe in you."
The doors automatically slides open. She tucks a spare vial of blood into Himikos coat pocket.
"Okay. Okay, thank you." She breaths in, lets it out, and walks into the shiny white intestines of the hospital.
🌸˚˖𓍢ִ໋🌷͙֒✧🩷˚⋆‧₊˚💛✩ ₊˚🌼⊹♡
The walk up to Touyas room is quiet. The worker that comes with Himiko doesn't talk much, the only words she says are when they reach his room.
"Here. I'll ask everyone to leave."
The guards trail out, glancing back at Himiko as she stands in front of one of the worst things shes ever seen in her life.
It's like a real-life saw trap. A large glass tube, the figure inside is plated with metal, covering every inch of his body, apart from his face which has a horrific metal mask thing over it. There's a IV drip leading into the gaps between the metal, going straight to his veins. The only part of Touya, Himiko can see is his sharp fire-blue eyes, staring at her with a strange kind of intensity, and his teeth. His lips burnt away.
Himiko hears the door behind her click shut like there's water filling up her ears.
She swallows. Her mouth is so dry it feels like bone resting against her tongue.
She knew. She knew that he wouldn't be pretty or cute, that his continued existence at this point was basically an affront to God. He's only still alive 'cause of all the drugs they're pumping into his system. But the thing in front of her, and the person inside it - it's worse than Himiko has ever thought it would be. It looks like pure hell.
"Touya," she whispers her voice cracking down the middle. Himiko lets Todoroki drip away from her fame, his hair and eyes turn to sludge at her feet. She steps over it. "What are they doing to you? You can't even laugh in here."
She presses her palms to the glass, looking up at this - this torture machine they've got him in. She can feel her lip tremble, the backs of her eyes sting. Her vision blurs, obscuring the thing in front her.
Touya coughs, it sounds like he's hacking his lungs up. "Crazy," he rasps, the familiar drawl of his voice long gone, replaced by a horried bome-dry croak. "Long time no see-" he cuts himself off, coughing.
When he talks, she can see his entire, exposed jaw open and close. It's barely attached, hanging on with a few thin tendrils of skin.
Himiko sniffs, wiping away the tears with the back of her hand. "I can't believe this." She whispers, looking up at him.
"Who would've thought?" He pauses to hack out his lungs. "Poor little Touya, the disappointment-" another cough. "-of the family. Now his old man comes to see him every day. I wouldn't have believed it."
"How - how is it? How is he?"
"Fine." Touya rasps, from the slits in the metal mask he's wearing, Himiko thinks she can see him roll his eyes. "I dunno. Weird. He comes to talk to me every day, retired from hero work forever. Says he's 'repenting'."
"Want me to stab him?"
"Yeah," there's a hint of a smile in the gravel of his voice. "That'd be funny."
Himiko takes a few steps back from the machine, eyes blurry as she looks up at Touya. "How are you? How is - this?" She can't keep the horror out her voice. "It's-"
"Horrible? Torture? A slab of metal designed to keep me in hell?" Himiko can hear some of his familiar sarcasm leaking into his tone. Her lips twitch, she has missed him. "Can't describe it, crazy. My burns were so bad I can't feel half my body. Quirks, huh?"
"Fuck your old man." Himiko spits, venom spilling from her tongue. "I hate him. I hate him."
"Don't we all." Dabi muses. "S'alright. I tell him every day."
"What about your siblings?"
"Alive. I think. Natsuo left."
"Oh," Himiko breathes.
"Good for him. He always did deserve better."
"You all did. We all did."
"Yeah," Touya says, the croak of his voice almost soft. "Know what happened to creepy?"
"Creepy and crazy." Himiko says "so uncreative, Touya." she complains.
A beat.
"He's dead." Himiko says quietly. "Spinner and Compress are in jail. Kurogiri is dead too." Hes silent for a while, digesting.
"Don't suppose you know how?"
"No."
Touya dissolves into coughing again. Himiko half expects to see his lungs come up, the way he's going at it.
"What 'bout you, crazy? How are you alive?" Himiko tucks her hair behind her ears, suddenly nervous.
"I dunno. I almost died in the battle, but they saved me. Kinda."
"They have a habit of half-assing the saving, dont they?"
"Only some of them. I went to a psych ward - they didn't want to drag my trial out. Ochako - Uravity - broke me out."
"Huh," Touya crackles. "I remember you talking about her-"
"You said you weren't listening!"
"I wasn't. Anyway, she got you out there?"
"Liar. Yes, she did. I'm on the run now."
"Who would've thought you'd be the only one of us free. Little psycho."
"I'll find the picture of you with makeup on!"
"You can't."
"I can do a lot! I almost won my fight."
A pause.
"Why'd you lose?" Himiko runs her tongue over her fangs.
"Ochako. We had a - a talk."
"Oh." Touya says. "Did we all go down like that or something?"
"Maybe." Himiko giggles. "I wonder if Tomura went down like that too."
The mood sobers. Himiko thinks about Tomura, really thinks about him. She thinks about how thats all she'll ever be able to do with him now, think and remember and mourn.
"I miss him. I miss the league."
"Me too." Touya says so quietly its almost masked by the beeping and humming of the machines keeping him alive.
"Did-" Himiko starts, suddenly remembering something. "Did he name us after Leauge of Legends?!" She exclaims. Touya laughs, or she thinks he does. It's not all that different to his cough.
"You only just figure that out, psycho?"
"I- what!" She splutters. Touya keeps letting out his strange, hacking laugh-cough. "How- that's so bad!"
"What would you have called it?" Touya asks, sarcasm flooding his tone. "Himiko and her friends? League of Love?"
"Its better than League of Legends! And what would you've called it! Leauge of kill Endeavour? Let's All Hate The No.2 hero?"
"I would not."
"Bet you would've said something like 'Ashes to Ashes.' Or, like, 'Flame burns brighter.' Emo brat."
"I'm punk."
"You're emo. It says it on your birth and death certificate. Under gender."
"Crazy is on yours then."
"That's not even a style!"
"You made it a style."
"Did not."
"Did too."
"Did not!"
"Did too."
The conversation brings a sharp wave of nostalgia to Himiko. It's exactly the same kinda conversations they would have back in their bases, when they were all on the run together.
"I bet if we hadn't split up we could've defated them with the power of friendship - oh my god, that's what we should have called ourselves!"
"League of Friendship."
"Yes! Oh my god, yes."
"No, no. Absolutely not."
"I'm gonna start calling us that."
"Don't you dare."
"Sorry, Touya, I'm already doing it. League of Friendship."
"Fuck off, crazy!"
"Nuh, uh! You'd miss me."
"No, I would not."
"You literally would."
"Would not."
"Liar, liar, pants on fire!" She crows.
Touya coughs, and Himiko takes a few steps back to looks at him probably. God, his face. It's like how his skin was before, but all over. She can see the dark purple of his scars through the gaps in the metal plates.
"Not cute." She sighs. Glancing towards the door. "When d'you think they'll be back?"
"Dunno." He rasps, thoughtfully. "When they check the cameras."
"There are cameras in here?!"
"What? Didn't you know?"
"No! Why didn't you tell me?"
"Thought you knew. You guys are terrible at planning."
"Shut up, Touya." She huffs, scowling.
"They won't check until nighttime. You have a while." Himiko purses her lips at she looks up at him, locked away inside his cage.
"They'll probably put in some stupid security thing after this so I can't come again. This - this might be the last time I see you. Like, ever."
"Yeah, yeah I know, crazy." He says, sounding tired. Touya pauses, thinking.
"I just- ugh. I'll miss you, psycho, okay? You- you weren't bad. I mean, you killed a lotta people, but you weren't bad company. Go have fun with your hero girlfriend or whatever. I don't think-" he swallows. "I don't think I have very long left."
"What do you mean?" Himiko asks, knowing exactly what he means.
"I'm not long for this world, crazy. I'll be sleeping with the fishes, six feet under, in a better place, whatever they say. Just, ugh, I hate this," he spits out a curse and a cough. "The days with the league, they're some of my favourite, yeah? You guys... you guys are my family. Blood doesn't matter shit."
"Oh," Himiko says, dumbly. "You're my family too. I'll miss you Touya. Your food is so good."
"I knew you were only keeping me around to cook for you." He says, dryly. "...I'll miss you too, Himiko. Go have fun."
"I had fun with the league."
"Have normal kid fun."
"Okay," Himiko sniffs, wiping away the tears she hadn't realised were brewing in her eyes. "I will."
She swallows as she looks up at him, imprisoned there for the rest of his life, but this time, Ochako can't do anything about it.
"You probably have to go now." He gravels, "They'll be coming back soon."
"Okay," Himiko says, fishing out the spare vial of Todorokis blood, she puts it to her lips and is a second away from drinking it before he says:
"Wait."
"What?"
"What did you do to your hair." He wheezes out a laughs, that's definitely a laugh now. "God, you take a pair of scissors to it or something?" When Himiko doesn't response, only flushes a light pink, he wheezes harder.
"Shut up, Touya!" She mumbles, embarrassed. "I was bored." Himiko whines.
"Imagine how I feel!"
"Ugh, shut your mouth." She grumbles, drawing the vial. The cold blood slides down her throat. Himiko feels herself transforming.
"It's so creepy when you do that." Touya grumbles.
"Ugh, you complain about everything."
She turns to walk out the door, but at the last second Himiko hesitates. "Thank you. For burning down my old house that time." A pause. "Iloveyou!" She blurts, feeling oddly embarrassed. She never had any trouble saying it to the people she had crushes on, it's probably just 'cause its Touya. And he's the worst.
He doesn't say it back. Himiko didn't think he would, the league definitely wasn't the place to find emotionally regulated people after all, but she hears him mumble a faint "goodbye, Himiko." When she swings the door closes behind her.
And that is the last time she ever sees him. Ever.
🌸˚˖𓍢ִ໋🌷͙֒✧🩷˚⋆‧₊˚💛✩ ₊˚🌼⊹♡
"So," Ochako says, once Himiko has slipping Todoroki off her shoulders and they're well hidden in the backstreets of Musutafu. "How... how was it?"
"It was good," Himiko says, a smile worming its way onto her face. "I missed him. He's still Touya, even after everything." She muses, smiling fintly.
"And you're still Himiko."
"Yeah," she says, grinning at Ochako. "I am. Thanks, for setting it up. You're risking so much for me... I dunno how I'll ever repay you."
"I told you, you don't have to."
"I know! But you're doing so much for me... I dunno what I've done to deserve it."
"Everything," Ochako says, her voice brimming with some strange, unshed emotion. "You died for me Toga Himiko. Without you, I wouldn't be here, I wouldn't see my friends or my parents. I'd be dead. You changed that. Don't say that again, please." She says, practically begging.
Himiko snaps her mouth closes at the sight of glistening tears in Ochakos eyes. "Sorry." She mumbles. Himiko pulls Ochako in for a hug, and the hero buries her head into Himikos shoulder, breathing softly.
Huh, Himiko thinks, feeling the fabric of her shirt grow damp, who would've thought a hero would be crying in a villains arms?
She dismisses the thought, pressing her head into Ochakos shoulder and closing her eyes.
It doesn't matter who would've thought it, it matters that it's happening now.
"What was he like," Ochako croaks out when shes calmed a bit, wiping at her eyes with the back of her palm. "In the league? I think Todoroki and his family might like to know."
"D'you want me to write it down?"
"Yeah. Yeah I think he'd like that."
🌸˚˖𓍢ִ໋🌷͙֒✧🩷˚⋆‧₊˚💛✩ ₊˚🌼⊹♡
Back at home, Himiko settles down with a notebook and a pen in her hand, carefully scrawling out words onto the paper. Ochako leans against her, her back to Himikos arm and shoulder.
Himiko thinks she might be dozing off. She's making these little snuffling noises and she keeps jerking herself awake. Himiko giggles, presses a kiss to her crown.
She'll always miss the league, she'll always miss Touya, and Ochako can't be that for her, it goes against her nature. That's fine, Himiko thinks, this is cute anyway.