Freeze Frame

Chapter 128

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Third person pov

"Hey, you with the collar. Did I... offend you somehow?" Shoto asked with tired hesitance. Lillian hovered next to him, hoping she looked as threatening as she felt. Her dad was intimidating. Those genes were buried somewhere deep in her, right? Maybe she could make her eyes glow and that would be enough to make this guy go away. He seemed awfully rude and quite terrifying. He'd been shooting Shoto dirty looks since they'd gotten in here. Lillian had half the mind to knee him in the nuts, honestly. Too bad she had social anxiety. The moment she got over that, it was over for these plebs.

The giant tornado guy turned and stared at her friend with no small amount of venom. Not very cash money of him. What was his problem? Was he jealous? If so, he could go take a seat and keep his thoughts to himself. Shoto was going through it. All of 1-A was, actually! They didn't need this guy fucking up their already fragile mentalities with... whatever was going on here. Lillian wasn't sure she wanted to ask. Kaminari was hovering back too, glancing between Shoto, Lillian, and the giant wind man as well. The tension in the air was palpable. Why did they have to deal with this in the middle of an extremely stressful test? Could this guy not save it for later?

On the long, long list of things they didn't have time for, this was at the top. Shoto had been polite. Asked kindly if he'd somehow managed to offend this ape! He hadn't been crude or snide in the way he said it. Lillian was there. Her ears were in perfect working order, and her judgement was only slightly clouded by panic at the moment. She knew Shoto well enough to know he wasn't upset-- just confused. Rightfully so! This guy was looking at the half-and-half teen like he'd accidentally stepped on his hamster and then tried replacing it with one from PetSmart that looked vaguely similar, but not similar enough to fool him. It wasn't a good look for him.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I hurt your feelings?" The giant guy said in a cold, dangerous tone that was clearly meant to deal as much emotional damage as possible. Shoto froze at the unexpected remark, and Lillian's jaw dropped at the sheer amount of audacity being exuded. And in her own home! "Well the thing is, son of Endeavor, I just can't help but--"

Um, sorry. Wait a second. Put the truck in reverse and roll back. Crank down that window. What had this guy just said? No, actually. Really and truly. Were Lillian's ears truly fooling her? Was she, perhaps, hallucinating? Maybe those dumplings she'd eaten earlier had something in them. Perhaps Momo was experiencing the same thing. She'd eaten them too. No, no-- no amount of food poisoning could cause this sheer amount of bullshit. There was simply no way. Lillian felt stunned. The same emotion one might experience after being ambushed by a hoard of seagull who worked together to steal your entire burger and the fries that came with it.

Tornado boy didn't get a chance to finish whatever hurtful thing he was going to blurt out to her friend, who looked stunned and like he might cry. Of all the things to bring up, why Endeavor? That should've been behind them seeing as he was literally in jail. Apparently not, but whatever. If anything could drop Lillian's croissant, it was the ex-flame hero. She swooped forward in a way that would make Hawks proud, approaching like a bird of prey, ready to rip this guy's throat out with her teeth if she had to. She could hear Katsuki's palms popping. She was glad for the backup. All she needed was an epic soundtrack to complete the moment.

Inasa let out an odd sort of noise as Lillian's heel slammed into the top of his foot, her hand shooting up and grabbing his fluffy collar and yanking him out with more strength than she probably should've possessed. His wide, dark eyes met her glowing red ones. Her hair drifted up around her, swaying like angry snakes in the air. Kaminari let out a low whistle, taking out his phone to he could send photos to Hitoshi. Katsuki looked all too satisfied, slapping Shoto on the back in his own, comforting way. The boy still seemed stunned. By the Endeavor comment or by Lillian's sudden turn to violence, who knew. With all that they'd been through, Lillian didn't have the luxury to sit around and beat around the bush.