A Lost Creation

Goodbyes

"Pawpaw! Pawpaw!"

Not what Touya wanted to wake up to so early, but at least it's an excited call rather than a scared call.
He groans sleepily in response, instinctively curling his arms around the little girl jumping on his bed and pulling her against him, shushing her softly.

"The tooth fairy came!" She exclaims, trying to free one of her arms from his grip.

"Tha's great, Starshine." He yawns. "S' too early for your dad right now, hon. Sleep."

"But look what the fairy left behind!" She insists.

It takes everything in him to peel his eyes open. He had barely slept last night, worrying about things he would never have worried about if he had just kept his wits about him and kept his heart closed off to everyone around him like he had originally planned to.

He was worried about Star, about the stress rash on her face and the fact that she was getting worse under their care instead of better. She wasn't gaining weight still, and her bouts of depression were becoming more frequent.

Realistically, he knew that was probably just her getting older. Nothing fucked with the head quite like puberty on top of all the other issues poor little Star has, but it didn't make him feel good about his ability to care for her anyway.

He was also, annoyingly, concerned about Tomura. About what All For One will end up doing to his partner's body while he's not in control of himself.

Touya knew that All For One's kindness didn't stretch far without conditions, or at the least, repayments. And he was willing to bet that the blind eye All For One agreed to turn to Tomura's actions for two days would somehow come back to bite Tomura in the ass.

"Wow hon. That's cool." Touya yawns as he gazes drowsily at the coin gleaming in the dim light. "A whole five hundred yen? Musta been feelin' generous."

He pretends to swipe the money off of her, and she squeals, tightening her grip on the coin and wiggling her entire body in his hold.

"Sleep time." He says again, squeezing his arms around her waist.

"Do you think the fairies will make a good house from my tooth?" She asks, ignoring his request for sleep.

"Mhm. They'll have it pride of place, hon." He replies, his voice a sleepy rumble.

It wasn't exactly a lie. He had planned on making it into some kind of jewellery that wouldn't burn up if he needed to use his quirk while wearing it.
He needed to trust its safety with Giran, and then trust it in the hands of whoever Giran managed to find that could make such a thing.

"But what about the teeth I swallowed?"

Touya fights back the urge to groan. He just wanted to sleep.

"Why were you swallowin' teeth, Star?" He asks, a little more sourly than he should.

"I didn't mean to, they just fell out when I was eating..." She replies, sounding embarrassed.

"Well, 'fraid they're gone then." Touya replies, trying to force himself more awake because he definitely wasn't going to be getting any more sleep. "Don't worry, hon. The tooth fairies never run outta teeth."

"But what about the ones mom put in the bin?"

He takes a deep breath before replying. Even his own mom, who struggled connecting with any of her kids, kept all of their teeth in separate boxes in her bedside drawer.

One... two... three...

"The poor fairies'd come and get 'em probably, hon. Dumpster divers like you." He forces himself to tease.