What can't they tell me?

First Time I Hear It.

"Taoreta..? What was that sound?" I ask quietly, knocking softly on the door. There's shuffling and a grunt as it sounds like Taoreta falls towards the door. They crack it just enough for their dully glowing eyes to show through. There's sweat on their face, and they look distressed. "Taoreta?" I say again gently.

They shake their head. "Everything- everything is fine. Go back to sleep, Akuma." I give them a skeptical look. "Alright, I will. But if you need anything, I'll listen." I catch them nibbling their lip before turning back towards the inside of their room and shutting the door. I hesitate for a few more minutes before slowly walking back to my next-door room. It surprisingly doesn't take long for me to drift back to sleep, even with the back of my mind buzzing with worry.

The next morning, I walk down to the common room, where Ashido and Kaminari are already sitting. I wave hello before warming something up in the kitchen for breakfast. When I sit down, Deku and Uraraka have also joined the others in the common room. "So, Akuma, what is your quirk?" Deku asks. I take a bite, chewing as I think of how to answer. "Well, my main quirk is Beast Of Turmoil, which is where I transform into a large creature. But I also have this smaller, less-cool quirk called Healer Curse which is just enhanced healing capabilities that gets prevented from working with... y'know what? That's not important."

More people filter into the common area- it was Saturday so it wasn't like any of us had somewhere to be- as Midoriya questioned me more on my quirk. After a bit, I finish my breakfast and go to put the bowl away when Bakugou and Taoreta walk into the room. Taoreta looks extremely tired but is acting normal, jokingly saying their better than Bakugou.

"I'm better than you'll ever be, shitty hair!" Bakugou says loudly (not quite yelling up almost there). Taoreta snorts. "Oh, since you and Kiri are dating, I'm shitty hair?" “Hell yeah you are.” Bakugou shoots back, wrapping an arm around his boyfriend. Kirishima laughed, patting Bakugou’s hand. The trio then left, the front door clicking shut behind them.

“They’ve been training together an awful lot, a bet they'll all get super strong,” Uraraka commented. Midoryia nodded. “It’d be cool to watch them all train together, I’m sure Kirishima and Taoreta can practice well with each other. Kirishima could see how well his quirk holds up against metal objects! Though I bet Taoreta could also practice their shadow control quirk against Kacchan’s explosions by attempting to block out the light from his…” 

Iida ran over to the group as Midoryia lost himself in notes on different ways people could train against each other. I mindlessly listened to Iida discuss him and Uraraka’s date that night and Midoryia’s quirk notes. My thoughts drifted back to how I’d almost admitted the one weakness of my healing quirk to Midoryia. He seemed harmless, but I really didn’t want to risk the information falling into the wrong people’s hands.

An hour or so later, Kirishima came back to the dorm. “Hey, does anyone know where Taoreta keeps their medication? And also if we have any orange juice?” Midioryia and I looked at him in confusion (we were the only two left paying attention enough to hear him). “Medication? What would Taoreta need medication for?” Midoryia asked. 

“It’s a side effect of their quirk. Since they use the iron in their blood to manfuncate the weapons, they have low iron levels. That’s why their cold so often, plus why their legs bounce all the time. Recovery Girl gave them a pretty common medication to help with it, but orange juice also helps. Not sure why it helps, but its the reason they request 100% orange juice when we go shopping,” he explained. I stood, motioning for him to follow. “The medication is probably in their bathroom, I’ll show you to their room. Midioryia, why don’t you go look for the orange juice?” He nodded, also standing.

Once we got upstairs, I gestured to their room’s door. “Here it is. My room’s next to theirs, so as far as I know, it should be unlocked.” He gave me a smile before walking inside, and I followed him. “So, all the weapons they make are iron?” I voiced carefully, resting my body against the wall next to the door. Kiri gave me a funny look as he headed for the bathroom. “You didn’t know? How did you think they made them?” he responded, his voice echoing slightly from the open bathroom door.

I shrugged, even if he couldn’t see. “I kinda figured it was something like Yaoyorozu’s quirk.” He looked thoughtful as he reentered the main bedroom. “I guess that makes sense, but Momo uses her body fat to create things, which is why she eats lots. The more she eats, the more she can make. But Taoreta uses the iron in their blood to create weapons that can only appear through their hands. I’m not sure why that’s true though. Taoreta’s body already had slightly higher iron levels when they were born, but since they've been making so many more weapons then they would’ve if they hadn’t become a hero, the levels are decreasing at a slightly alarming rate. Recovery Girl has been trying to figure out a way to get their body to create extra iron, quicker. But that would also require them to eat a diet of iron-filled foods constantly, as that's how our bodies get iron. So Taoreta had suggested for now they care a special water bottle filled with orange juice to try and keep the levels up.” Kirishima continued explaining this as we left. Once we reached the bottom floor, he paused. “At least that's how they explained it. I really only understood a little bit of it.”

I shrugged. “It’s just… most weapons are made of steel nowadays.” He nods. "That's more 'Reta's department, they've done research on stuff like that.

We continue back into the main space, where Midoryia is waiting with the carton. "I didn't know if you wanted it in a bottle or something..." he explained, rubbing the back of his neck. Kiri grinned, taking it from him. "Nah, this is good. Thanks Mido-bro!"

And with that, he turned and went- I'm assuming- back to the gym.