Freeze Frame

Chapter 70

Third person pov

Lillian fell asleep texting Bakugo only to wake up the next afternoon and apologize for falling asleep on him. Her panic over the fact that she'd left him hanging, and even worse, on read, sparked a whole new conversation that extended throughout the evening. It wasn't anything interesting, nor was it terribly in depth. That was just fine with Lillian. She was still wary of the explosive blonde, so holding a light conversation with him wasn't too bad.

Bakugo was by all means a wild card, unlike Midoriya. While Midoriya she could text without fear of him ever getting angered at her, save for when she said anything relatively self-deprecating, Bakugo had clear anger issues nobody dared to address for fear of getting their face blown off. Thus, nobody knew the type of guy he was outside his temper save for maybe Kirishima and some of the Bakusquad, as Ochako had dutifully named them. She needed to tread lightly. 

Talking to him was stressful, but she also wasn't too sure how to end the conversation. She'd closed many ends during her time talking to him. Plenty of times he could have left her on read and it would have actually been fine to just leave her be. The only issue was that... well, he kept texting. And she was too afraid to make up an excuse about being busy for fear of accidentally making a commitment to text him later.

Their conversation about which was better, waffles or pancakes, continued for around an hour somehow. It eventually shifted to their quirks. Lillian had been texting him on and off since she woke up, going between Yeet, trying to help Neito and Hitoshi bring Todoroki into memedom, and such of the like. She asked about his quirk almost without meaning to. It just... happened. The question slipped out without her meaning it to when he noted something he saw on the news.

It was a pleasant surprise to her when he elaborated without complaint. His texts were about as vulgar as you'd expect, but he was still efficient in his explanation nonetheless. She understood it far better than she thought she might considering who it was coming from. It was extremely interesting to hear about. Before she could stop herself, she found herself asking questions. Questions that only multiplied when he didn't discourage them, which was his own fault. He brought her queries upon himself.

Meanwhile, poor Todoroki had no idea what a meme even was. He was definitely struggling with his "second education" as Neito had called it. The most important education he'd ever be having, Hitoshi had also claimed like a proud father or something akin to it. Lillian just smiled and offered moral support in the form of back pats and small, simple explanations, and translations that helped him get what they were saying. She could already tell trying to convert him was going to be a long road, but it would be worth it.

There was no word from Endeavor just yet. Based on the paparazzi's sightings of him, he was in a completely other district. Todoroki was holding off on texting him about staying with a friend for that very reason. He didn't need to know Todoroki had been missing since day one, right? Besides, he'd probably assume Todoroki had been the one to get his stuff. That got Chad completely off the hook. The man was confident he'd avoided the cameras stationed around the property, but it was better safe than sorry.

Neito and Hitoshi had been in and out all day, as had Chad. Lillian was tasked with watching Todoroki to make sure he was happy, healthy, and not about to run off and try to go home to his asshole father out of sheer panic. She'd taught him how to play Uno, Go-Fish, and had introduced him to You Tube. His absolute awe when she'd introduced him to Bitch Lasagna was glorious. Essentially, she was his new den mother. She managed his space, brought him into the real world, and taught him things every teenager should know. 

A quick look at the half-and-half boy's phone revealed that it had software on it that let someone, presumably Endeavor, look at everything was happening and restrict things. Not much internet browsing was allowed, and he didn't have the You Tube app like most phones did by default. With a shake of her head and heavy sigh, she factory reset his phone. Put it back to the way it was when it was first bought. A new start.