Midori the Queen

Inner Demons

He'd all but forgotten his past.

So when he dreamed of his family, the vicious nightmare tore him from sleep with violent tremors and pure outrage. Through the muddled and cloudy memories he remembered feeling helpless, scared, and completely abandoned by the people who were supposed to love and comfort him.

"Never talk about heroes in this house!"

"Wanting to be a hero will cause nothing but trouble."

"Heroes are people who abandon their families to help complete strangers."

The bitter voice of his father echoed in his mind and made him want to curl up in a ball and cover his ears. With the gloves Karma had given him it allowed him to rub at his face, press his palms to his temples and let his emotions and fears just crawl out of his skin.

Why was he remembering that man now? Why was that awful and terrifying time ripping through his mind after all this time?

He looked around the room. He saw Toga curled up in a ball beside him, half dressed and the guise of Karma completely melted off. Without Karma there to supply the blood for her transformation he'd overused that method of comfort and was left with nothing but a poor substitute.

"Karma..." he got out of bed and walked to the window pressing his hand to the glass. Where was she? Where was the one person who knew exactly what to say to calm his heart and make him feel at peace?

She was with HIM!

That stupid zombie was monopolizing more and more of her time and it was damn infuriating. He didn't care if the logic made sense or if Dabi was technically reliable and useful to him and the league. The guy was stepping out of alignment, gaining more and more influence over his woman and he didn't care for it.

"Tomura-kun?" Toga sat up looking sleepy eyed and oddly adorable with her mussed up hair, and rumpled shirt he let her borrow. "What's wrong?"

"None of your business, go back to sleep or if you're awake then get out." He said grumpily, his eyes staring out at the slowly rising sun. He tensed up and grunted when he felt a hand on his back. Turning his head he glared at her. "I told you to go."

"You seem sad. Do you want me to try turning into Queeny again?"

"I don't want a replacement, I want the real thing." He clenched his fist against the cool glass of the window. "How much longer is she going to make me wait!?"

"I'm sure she'll be back soon." She pouted when he shrugged her off. Poking her fingers together she tried to think of something to cheer him up and then a smile suddenly split her face. "I know, why don't we go out and have some fun? We can find a hero to kill and release another video with Ace and Broadcast. You like doing that!"

"It's not the same without Karma..." He walked away from the window and started to pace. "She makes the scripts, picks the targets."

"You didn't have a script when you put Queeny on trial. Look at how well that turned out."

"It's still not the same. There's nothing driving me, nothing acting as inspiration. Everything feels empty." He holds his chest as the pain ached there. "When she's not here the world comes back, this suffocating and infuriating world. I want to escape it, destroy it, I can't-"

He trailed off as Toga placed her hands on his face and looked into his eyes with surprising sympathy.

"It hurts, doesn't it Tomura-kun?" She gently ran fingers over his face. "This world is just too hard to live in. No one understands us, no one shows any sympathy for those of us born a little different, who long to belong and yet can't."