Veiled Viper

Surprise, Surprise!

“I’m home!” Oboro calls out as he toes off his boots, slipping his feet into white cloud shaped slippers with a quiet sigh. 

“Welcome home love! I’m in the kitchen.” a voice calls from down the hall, accompanied by the sound of running water. The voice is like a release switch to the day's tension, making his shoulders relax.

He takes off his gear, hanging it all in the closet by the door, and walks into the dining room with quiet steps. 

Upon entering the room, he’s met with the sight of his two new husbands. Hazashi is in the kitchen, hair up as he washes dishes. He's wearing that gaudy apron that says ‘kiss the cook, don't be shy’ that was a gag gift from Nemuri for their wedding.

Shouta is lounging on the couch with his eyes closed, hand’s softly scratching their cat Tinklebell, who is laying on Shouta’s bare stomach. Tinklebell had followed Shouta home one night after patrol and wouldn’t leave, so the large black tomcat had become part of the family.

Shouta isn’t in his hero costume yet as his patrol doesn’t start for two more hours. He’s wearing bright yellow sweatpants that hang low on his hips, showing off his hard earned muscles.    

Something is cooking on the stove, making the apartment smell heavenly as the steam wafts in the air, and he smiles warmly. It's a domestic sight that Oboro never tires of coming home to, a pattern that's quickly becoming the new normal.

“So I found some interesting information.” he says, wiggling his eyebrows dramatically as he plops himself at the dining room table. 

“Oh? Well spill the tea.” Hazashi says, setting down the dish he was washing and turning around to lean on the sink facing Oboro with a curious expression. Shouta doesn’t move to get up, simply turning his head to show his interest had been piqued.

“So today Rin stalled a kidnapping at the park by the shelter.” he looked at Shouta when he said that, receiving a nod.

“Did everything go okay?” Hazashi asked, his expression morphing into concern.

“Yea it went fine, Rin held her own pretty well. She broke one of their arms with a kick.” Shouta raises his eyebrows approvingly, and Oboro smiles.

“Well when Tsukachi was getting Rin’s statement, something interesting happened.” he paused, letting the suspense build.

“Oh c’monnnn tell us.” Hazashi whined, walking to the table and dropping into the chair across from Oboro.

With a short laugh, he continued. “So while he was interviewing Rin, he realized that she doesn’t set off his quirk. He didn’t say anything to her because obviously it couldn’t be a quirk.”

“Whaat?! First Viper and now Rin too? She’s the second person ever who doesn’t set it off, right?” Hazashi asked.

“Yeah. Isn't it kind of weird that the only two people who don't set off his quirk have a bird quirk and no quirk? Like it would make sense for someone with the right quirk to get around it, but Tsukachi’s quirk works on everyone, so it should work on someone who’s quirkless. But it didn’t.”

“Maybe it wasn't the people that it didn’t work on, but instead his quirk was being suppressed?” Shouta asked, looking at Oboro. 

He shook his head. “I asked him, and he said he wondered that too but could still feel it, so it couldn’t have been suppressed.”

They fell silent, pondering the information.

“It seems like too much of a coincidence that the two people that don’t set off his quirk are in the same area, doesn’t it?” Hazashi asks, his face scrunched in thought. “And neither one of them has the right quirk to avoid Tsukachi’s, so how does that work?”