vigilante

Fifty

"You know, I'm really happy Ko joined us," Toga commented as she sat with Shigaraki, lounging around. "While he's not always smiling, he's still his little silly goofy self. When he was with Dabi, Ko was always either silent, snarky, or crying. It actually really sucked seeing him like that," She pursed her lips.

"Silent, snarky or crying, huh?" The handman repeated with a slight frown. "What, did Dabi just fuck him all day?"

"Nope," She shook her head. "As far as I know, he only touched him that one time at the base before All Might attacked. Actually," Toga nervously touched her chin. "I also did a bit with Ko while he was with Dabi.."

"How am I not surprised," Shigaraki rolled his eyes. "And spare me the details."

"But I noticed something really weird!" She exclaimed, causing him to deadpan at her. "I'm serious! When I was riding him, I put my hand on his side to support myself, and he hissed in pain. It turns out," The villain narrowed her eyes, her voice lowering significantly. "Dabi burned him. And after his one and only escape attempt, Dabi burned Ko's leg."

"He what?" Shigaraki made a face, and suddenly the door was thrown open.

"You're too heartless, you bastard!" Spinner glared at Dabi, who was in the kitchen minding his own business.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" He blinked at him like he was some sort of delusional elder.

"Toga said you burnt Kosuke! Why the hell would you hurt Stain's kid when he's one of the only true heroes out there?!" The gecko demanded, and of course, it was right then that Kosuke emerged from the bathroom with his leg freshly bandaged.

After the breakthrough of being able to pull people into his shadow, he had been allowed to start moving around on his own within the villain's house. The first thing he had done once they had returned was find some first aid stuff. Since the burn on his leg was hurting like a bitch from how much moving around he was doing, Kosuke redid the wrapping after putting some cream on it.

"Uh, what's going on?" Kosuke asked, glancing between the heavily breathing lizard and the annoyance-ridden patchwork villain. Spinner's eyes instantly located the bandages and he started seething even more.

"Dammit! You know we don't have a healer, and yet you did something so stupid! What are we gonna do if Kosuke's legs give out because of the burns, huh?"

"Are you saying I should have amputated his legs instead?" Dabi glared at the other villain. "I only burned one, so--"

"One is still one too many!"

"Spinner, chill," Kosuke was suddenly in front of him. "Thank you for worrying about me, but now really isn't the time. What's done is done, and we can worry about my full recovery once this operation is a success, alright? When that time comes," The boy winked. "I'll hold him down so you can punch him for me, how about it?"

"It'd make more sense to reverse that."

"You don't get an opinion!"

"I'll help hold him too!" Toga volunteered. And just like that, Kosuke had defused what could have been a disastrous civil war in the league, all with just a few words and a wink. Shigaraki narrowed his eyes, he really is too cool.

~*~

"How are we feeling? Think we can try another round before we finish for today, or wanna stop here?" Kosuke asked Kurogiri. They were at the warehouse the next day, having been practicing for over four hours. The first hour, they had just gone into the boy's shadow and lengthened the time they could stay there. After being able to lengthen the time by a good two minutes, Kosuke had started working on moving the shadow around while he and Kurogiri were both inside the shadow.

He'd be honest, it was tough. It was actually more both mentally and physically taxing than just he himself being inside his shadow, which he supposed made some ounce of sense. It took a while, but he was able to move them around the inside and outside of the warehouse, and now they were taking an oxygen break.

"I'm fine, so let's continue," Kurogiri confirmed after a few more breaths, and so with a nod, the two stood together and sunk into the endless black abyss that was Kosuke's shadow. The two could go under for three minutes at a time, though Kosuke could be under for five minutes if he absolutely needed to. This time, the dude used the three minutes to go as fast as possible around the outside of the warehouse.

"Ha.. haa...haaa," The two panted as they energed back inside, Kosuke wiping his forehead as Kurogiri coughed a bit. "Holding my breath is harder than it would seem," The warp gate said once they had stablized their breathing.

"Yeah, it took a while to get this much lung capacity. Dad may or may not have dunked me in water to get it that way," the azurette grimaced with a smile. "So I was really impressed with how fast you were able to expand your time limit, Kurogiri."

"Thank you for saying so," He nodded. "Shall we head back?"

"If you please," Kosuke returned the gesture, so the warp gate enveloped them and released them both in Dabi's residence. "We're back!"

"How'd it go?" Dabi asked, sauntering out of the kitchen with a mug of something steaming.

"It went great," The boy gave him two thumbs up and a grin. "So, where is everybody else?"

"Out," He shrugged. "They'll be back though. Tomorrow is the big day, after all," A smirk slid onto his lips for a moment before he glanced at Kurogiri. "Shigaraki said he wanted to talk to you for a bit, he's out back."

"Of course, then please excuse me," He excused himself, disappearing within the second. Kosuke raised his eyebrows but didn't really question it as Dabi put his mug down and put his hands on the boy's hips.

"What?"

"I love you."

"Yeah, but what's with the touchy feely stuff?" Kosuke crossed his arms, and patchwork only hummed before pecking his forehead.

"I'm also really proud of you, Kosuke. I know you only joined up to save your dad, but," He hugged him closer. "It's nice not having to be on guard around you, being able to get to know you without you being tied up and all that jazz. I've had a lot of fun these past few days, so," He looked into the former hero's eyes. "Let's keep being like this even after we rescue Stain."

"I couldn't agree more," Kosuke smiled up at him. "But you're not getting out of getting punched, sorry."

"Aw man."