A Lost Creation

How It's Supposed to Be

There had been a lot of tears.
Touya had expected tears, he knew it'd break little Star's heart to hear about Magne, no matter what lies he told and how much he tried to soften the news.
But he hadn't quite expected as many as there were.
Really, he should have known the somber mood in the hotel would have affected her. She was a switched on kid who was typically pretty good at reading a room.

Jin had pretty much kept to himself in a single room by himself, only ever being visited regularly by Toga. So at least Touya didn't have to worry about him accidentally informing Star what had happened with Magne.
Toga herself would be fine and then randomly burst into tears and run off upstairs too.
Spinner was just kind of... checking out here and there. It was almost like you'd see his eyes go dull when it was happening.
Tomura was brooding more than usual, sitting by himself in various places, deep in thought, only offering the odd response here and there when encouraged to.

Touya was pretty convinced none of them had actually slept yet, not even himself, which didn't help the grief they were all feeling in their own ways.

At least Compress was okay. Stable, from what he'd heard. In some kind of back alley surgery that Touya was all too familiar with. Hopefully having a better time than he ever did in them, on account of the fact that Tomura was actually somehow paying for his treatment and prosthetic replacement.
Trying to explain that to Star was going to take a little more work than Magne suddenly getting 'sick' and perishing.

Star had tried hanging around downstairs but the atmosphere proved to be too heavy for her.
The poor kid had already been privy to a fight between Touya and Aiko anyway, and although he'd tried to keep his cool for her sake, the comment about his sordid past had almost annoyed him to the point of bursting into flames, likely taking out the whole of Girans kitchen if he had.
Giran had already tried calling him three times by the time Star had asked to go up to their room.
That had taken a total of ten minutes downstairs.

He had contemplated calling Giran, swallowing his anger and asking him to have her a little longer. Just until the initial shock was over.
But the truth was, as much as he trusted Giran to have her for the night, he wasn't sure he was comfortable letting him have her for any longer than that. After all, the old fart couldn't stop himself from smoking in front of her when Dabi had made it crystal clear he didn't want him to do that around her.
The whole reason he'd picked her up earlier than agreed was because he was getting a little stressed not knowing what she was doing.

Was she too young to have a phone for occasions like this?
Probably.

He'd put on Spirited Away for her yet again, half wondering how that film was somehow comforting to her when it was pretty creepy for a kids film, and sat picking at one of his staples, trying to fight the urge to drag her out of the room so he could smoke.
He was still feeling a bit grimy from the blood he'd been covered in, never mind the tiredness that was finally settling in.
He kept catching himself zoning out, staring at nothing in particular for small chunks of time before he'd pull himself out of it.
He tells himself it's the stress of making sure Star's okay, and the lack of sleep.

"Dabi?" She asks out of the blue, her eyes still focused on the screen.

Touya hums an acknowledgement, pulling her back a little by her waist so she's not sat so close to the TV.
She doesn't even blink when he does it, just allows him to move her wordlessly.
At least the square eyes warning had worked.

"Everyone's sad, but nobody's crying." She states.

"Toga's been crying." Touya replies, gently correcting her.

"When mom died I cried a lot." She says simply, but Touya spots her jaw clenching.

Touya wished she would realise just how shoddy her mom had been. He wished she knew how much she'd missed out on because of her moms skewed priorities, how neglected she had been.
He didn't want her to waste her tears on someone that probably wouldn't have cried for her.