Birds of a Feather

What have I done?

          "I guess we do." Karasu looked up at her brother and bit the inside of her lip. "I... I don't know how to talk to Mom," she admitted, letting out a long sigh. "Part of me feels like she owes me an explanation at this point, but I don't know how to ask for it from here." She said and looked away, tugging at a piece of her hair. "If she's just going to be another version of Dad I don't know if I'd be able to handle it."
Todoroki put a hand against the small of his girlfriend's back gently, watching her as she spoke. He stepped closer to her and kissed the top of her head gently.
"Do you want me to talk to her first? Get a sense of why she's reacting to you the way she is." Hawks offered, sliding his hands into his pockets. He looked down the hallway and then back to his sister and her boyfriend.
"That would actually be really helpful." Karasu nodded as she met his eyes seriously. "Also, if you'd ask her if it's about-" she hesitated for a moment, "about my arm. That I'm a failure or something."
Hawks reached out and pulled his sister into a hug, closing his eyes tightly as he hugged her tightly. He hated hearing when she said things like that- because he knew that came from within her. She played it off well, but she still felt the loss of her arm emotionally. There wasn't much he could do about it either as long as she refused to open up to him about it. "Why don't you guys just head back to the party, huh?" He stepped back and looked over her head at Todoroki. "I need to make a call."
"Okay. See you later." Karasu nodded to him and turned to kiss her boyfriend's cheek before walking back up the hall.
"Hawks," Todoroki paused before following her. He turned to face the pro, a concerned look on his face. "Can I talk to you about your mother?"
Hawks stopped as he was moving to turn into the room behind him. "Ugh, shit, did she say something to you?" He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, she's weird about your relationship with Kara, and I don't-"
"No, no, nothing like that." Todoroki hesitated. He rubbed the back of his neck and took a breath. "I'm worried she was sent here."
Hawks froze for a moment. He turned and looked at Todoroki. "I've had the same worries," he confessed. "The timing of all of it. Dad shows up, and suddenly Mom appears too. It's too much of a coincidence."
"I haven't said anything to Kara yet about it. I was worried it'd just make things worse with all of that than it already is." Todoroki looked after where his girlfriend had gone. "She's already struggling so much with how her mom's been acting... it worries me."
"I agree with that. With everything that's been thrown at you kids, this is the last thing any of you should have to handle." Hawks pushed his hair back and shook his head. 'With everything I've thrown at her myself, I don't want to risk making it worse'. "Don't say anything to her yet. I'm going to try and gauge how likely it is when I talk to my mother in the next couple of days."
Todoroki just nodded, buttoning the middle button on his jacket. "I should head back out there so she doesn't think that... well, that this is happening."
Hawks nodded and patted his shoulder. "I'm gonna take a minute before I get back out there. Don't sneak off again during this party, okay?"
Todoroki blushed slightly as he followed after his girlfriend back to the main room of Mount Lady's agency. She was talking with Mina and Tsu on the side of the room. He walked over to her, sliding his arm around her waist.
"Hey, you." Karasu grinned as he tugged her close. "So, you two, how are you enjoying your first pro mixer?" She turned her head to look at Tsu and Mina again.
"It's definitely interesting." Tsu said.
"It's so cool! Makes me think we should have a dance at school!" Mina said excitedly.
"I definitely cannot see the teachers letting us have a dance at school." Karasu looked around the room as she leaned against her boyfriend. "But it would be fun. A chance to dress up really fancy."
"Maybe if we get a school festival this year, that can be what our class does." Todoroki said as he kissed her cheek.
カラス
          "Good morning." Karasu grinned as Todoroki woke up in his bed, rolling over towards her. They hadn't spent the night together in Hawks' agency that night, but she had decided to surprise him with coffee when he woke up. She leaned down and kissed him quickly before sitting up again and picking up the tray she had balanced their coffee mugs on. "Special delivery," she grinned at her boyfriend.
"This is definitely my second favourite way to wake up." Todoroki said as he sat up and took the mug that was clearly his- it was the one that had any cream in it at all- off the tray she was carrying and took a drink, looking at his girlfriend over the brim of the mug.
"Second? Not your favourite?" She gave him a fake pout as she set the tray aside and picked up her own mug.
"No. My favourite way is probably just waking up in bed with you." He smiled and met her eyes.
Karasu blushed slightly and smiled. "You know, I think I'll give you that one." She leaned over and kissed him softly, just gently pressing her lips to his.
Todoroki set his mug aside and grabbed her to pull her into his lap, one arm around her knees and the other around her shoulders. He pressed a kiss to her temple as he held her close in his lap.
"Shoto! My coffee!" Karasu laughed as he held her. She took another drink of her coffee and looked up at him with a smile. "If we didn't have to get ready soon, I'd set my cup aside too. But I think that'd be just too tempting."
"That's fair," he kissed her quickly and smiled. Typically he hated black coffee, but on her lips- it was the best thing he'd ever tasted. "I should get dressed. See you later?"
"See you later,"she echoed and kissed him again before standing up out of his lap. She crossed the room to his door and looked back at him for a moment as she used two fingers to pull it open. "Oh!" She blinked in surprise as she saw her mother stop a few steps away from the door. She always forgot that her room was at the other end of the hall. Karasu turned to walk away quickly, taking another drink of her coffee.
          "Did you spend the night with him?" Tomie asked immediately.
"Not last night. Although it isn't your business when and if I do or don't share a room with my boyfriend." Karasu looked back at her for a moment before she kept walking. 'She's so fucking exhausting, Keigo and I need to do something about this.' She glanced back and saw that Tomie was still standing in that same spot before going into her room.
She shut and locked the door before leaning back against it and sinking to the ground. "Why the hell did she have to show up again? Why did I think I wanted this?" She set her mug on the ground beside her and covered her face with her hand. "Fuck. Okay. I need to get ready." She stood up again and picked up her coffee as she walked to her wardrobe and began changing into her pro costume. She quickly downed the last gulp of coffee and stepped back into the hallway.
She walked down the hall, palming her closed staff silently. She wasn't really aware of what was on the docket today, probably patrolling and locating any new hints about this crop of escapees. There hadn't been much news since most of them had managed to slip through their grasp, including their father.
Hopefully he doesn't have a real moment to kill me before I get to help actually bring him to justice.
          "Little sister." Hawks said from where he was standing at the end of the hall, waiting for her. "Good morning.
"Morning." Karasu looked over at him.
"I put the two of us off for the morning. Let's talk." Hawks put a hand on her shoulder. "We need to sort all of this out together, and then we need to talk to Mom."
"Agreed." Karasu let out a sigh. "Did she tell you about our interaction a moment ago?"
"She didn't. What happened?" Hawks sounded exhausted of the topic.
"I brought Shoto coffee in his room this morning, and she got weird thinking I spent the night in his room- which I didn't last night."
"That explains why she glared at me this morning." He shook his head. "Okay. Let's commandeer one of my smaller meeting rooms and chat about this." He motioned for her to follow as he walked down one of the side halls in his agency. He unlocked a meeting room and held the door open for her. Once they stepped in, he closed the door and they took a seat at the table together. "I talked to Mom last night."
"Right." Karasu took a deep breath in as she looked at him, still palming her staff in her lap. "So how did that go?"
"She mostly talked in circles, honestly. I started out by asking her about why she was refusing so much to acknowledge you until she caught you kissing Shoto- she just kept saying she had missed me and hadn't seen me in longer and how she was just so overwhelmed and had thought it was me who had wanted to find her and she was just so excited." Hawks took a deep breath and set his flight glasses on the table between them. "She never actually answered me until I pressed her further. I told her she could either answer my question directly or I'd have her thrown out and banned from the agency. That your comfort and mental and physical well-being was more important to me than reconnecting with her. She said that she hadn't expected you to be here- that last she'd heard, we were no longer connected to each other. I asked if she only came because she thought you wouldn't be here."
"Oh." Karasu didn't have much else in her to say anything else. "I- I see."
"Here's the thing, Kara." Hawks stood up and walked around the table, leaning against it in front of her and putting his hands on her shoulders. "I don't believe her. She mentioned our fight- no one but pros and Nagant were present for that. Unless someone was listening in with technology- which is all too possible. She'd have had to have been told about that."
Karasu looked up at him, and suddenly everything clicked. "She was sent here."
"That's the going theory." Hawks confirmed with another sigh. "I don't think Dad's pulling the strings with this, either. I have a sneaking suspicion this is Dabi's doing- or ever just the entire League. Could go all the way to All For One, depending on how much he's insulted by the fact that I killed Twice." He sat up straight and took another breath. "What worries me is their goals in keeping us separated- I think they could be out for revenge on me by killing you. Because by keeping you apart from me, you're an easier target."
Karasu clenched the arm of the chair she was sitting in. "So they want to kill me again." She stood up and leaned next to Hawks. "Nothing new, right? Remember- I've been through it already, Keigo."
"They wanted to kill you over their misguided ideals, Kara." Hawks looked at her. "They have something real driving them now. Revenge is a terrifyingly good motivator."
"I can't hide at UA just because people want me dead. Where was this attitude when people were actively hunting down Midoriya and you had him constantly on the move?"
"Fair point." He smiled slightly, ruffling her hair. "Sometimes I look at you and still see that little eight year old girl I was desperate to save- not the capable young hero you're turning into."
"And you still insist on messing up my hair." She sighed as she fixed her hair and gave him a mock annoyed look. "So- next step is talking to Mom."
"Yeah. Next step is talking to Mom." He nodded as he stood up and offered her a hand.
She took it and let him help pull her off where she was leaning against the table. "Then let's go have an honest conversation with our mother."
          Hawks walked ahead of his sister out of the room. He pulled his phone out and checked the cameras to see where she would be as they walked through the halls together. She was in the kitchenette currently, getting herself a cup of coffee.
It was black- the same way Karasu took it.
He stepped into the kitchenette ahead of Karasu, motioning for her to stay back for a moment.
"Mom." Hawks took a breath. "We need to have a conversation... and by we, I mean you and me and Kara. Now."
Tomie stared at her son for a moment. "A-alright," she agreed shakily. She followed after him, just behind her daughter as well.
Karasu didn't glance back at her. Being here with her was nothing like she had expected it to be- she had thought that they would find each other again with a torrent or tears and apologies, that she could tell her about her life and the boy she was madly in love with that and they'd find room for Tomie in all of that together. It wasn't. Instead it was a whirlwind of hurt and pain- even without the aspect of her mother barely acknowledging her, and despite the fact that Karasu was so thankful that Hawks had become her guardian and she'd gone to live with him, she was hurt that Tomie never even put up a fight for her. That in her letter she didn't even mention her. That even though she had raised her until she was twelve, Karasu didn't seem to be enough for her. Tomie hadn't exactly fought for Hawks, though, either. She'd never even fought for herself.
Hawks lead them back to the same conference room, taking his same seat.
Karasu sat next to him this time, strength in numbers and all that.
As Tomie stared at her children, she was overwhelmed with a strange emotion- seeing them sitting together, united like this was never something she thought she'd get to see.
"Have a seat, Mom." Hawks said evenly, folding his hands. He cleared his throat as she did so. "I don't see a reason to put this off, because almost any question we have for you will boil down to this single question. Were you sent here by the League of Villains?"
Tomie looked surprised at the forwardness of the question. She cleared her throat and sat up straighter in his chair. "I thought you wouldn't be able to tell."
"The way you reacted to catching Kara and Shoto kissing gave it away for me," Hawks admitted. "It wasn't what a woman who felt unable to look at her daughter would do. It made me question things. I assume you were sent here under the assumption the rift between Kara and I was wider than it is, to either keep it that way or even push us further apart, and worsen the things Kara felt?"
Tomie just nodded. "They got the idea when they saw the footage where you mentioned me to Karasu, saying I had the right idea when I left her." Tomie didn't meet their eyes. "They saw her heartbreak, and then you seemed just to walk away from it- and thought I could keep her away from you in the long term."
"Did you realise their goal is to kill me?" Karasu asked her mother bluntly.
Tomie's head snapped to her. "Wh- what? No! They just wanted to keep you separate! It was nothing like that-"
"They already did want to kill her, they told us as much." Hawks interrupted her. "I killed a member of their team, and now they're trying to guarantee she's isolated."
Tomie looked between them as though this was the first time she had ever thought about it. "They- they just offered me money for this," she admitted quietly as she hung her head forward, "I knew I'd at least get to see you both. I never asked questions beyond any of that. I knew it would hurt you, Kara, but I didn't... know any options other than this. I'm so sorry."
Karasu stared at her mother. It felt like she was really seeing her for the first time. "That isn't enough." She stood up, her wings stiff and rigid behind her. "You say you're sorry- but again, it's something you did despite knowing you'd hurt me. You left me, Mom. You walked out, you didn't fight for me or for us. After a lifetime of neglect and you constantly being too drunk to actually be my mother- you don't get to just say a blanket I'm sorry and think that does fucking anything. If it hadn't been for Shoto and Hawks, the way you treated me when you arrived would have killed me."
Tomie looked at her daughter without saying anything.
"Of course." Karasu let out a sharp, upset breath and immediately left the room.
"Kara!" Hawks jumped to his feet to follow her.
Tomie reacted to that. "Keigo-"
"No." Hawks looked back at her. "Kara is my priority. At this point you're only here because Kara hasn't told me to kick you out." He turned fully back toward his mother and shook his head. "If you had just- explained things, tried with her, not flipped out when you saw her kissing her boyfriend, she'd have welcomed you back. She's an extremely forgiving and accepting person despite, well, her family. As it stands- if she wants you gone, I'm going to listen to her." With that, he left the room.
Tomie sat in her chair, staring at the door. She covered her face and murmured, "what have I done?"