𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕖𝕣 {𝕥. 𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕘𝕒𝕣𝕒𝕜𝕚}

•𝕔𝕙. 𝟙𝟝: 𝕤𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕘•

•*•*• "BE careful himi and twice!! make sure he doesn't hurt y'all or anything", chō said as she waved them goodbye.

at first, they really didn't want to go. they asked shigaraki why they'd make them work under him.

—•—

"did that mask wearin' bastard get to you too?!? don't forget that he killed magne and took compress's arm off too! even if chō healed them...

it was my carelessness that brought him to us in the first place!!! I'm...a human too, y'know?! shigaraki...!!", twice said, as he pulled his mask off.

he revealed a big stitch on his forehead. it made chō wonder if she could heal it.

toga pointed her knife at shigaraki, asking why she had to do something so unpleasant.

shigaraki took father off his face. he gave off a smile. it wasn't creepy nor psychotic. it was...convincing.

"you're doing it...for me, you, and all of us", he said.

—•—

"did you really have to send them away?", chō asked, pouting.

"I didn't have a choice. it was either them or you. and I denied him taking kurogiri away", shigaraki answered.

"thank you", chō mumbled. she grabbed onto shigaraki's pinkie. perhaps this was her new way of comfort.

she looked up at shigaraki, who had his usual hand on his face. he seemed to be deep in thought.

in chō's perspective, shigaraki was slowly growing to be the leader that he's suppose to be. maybe chisaki was part of the process. and if he was what shigaraki needed to prosper into that leadership, then so be it.

chō pulled shigaraki outside. she wanted to bring him to the café that she went with compress and kurogiri.

she thought that it'd be a good way to destress and get all the negative feelings out.

even though magne was still alive and compress still had his arm, there was an unspoken silence that both of them were least to say, vengeful.

"welcome back miss! how may I help you today?", the waiter asked.

"you came here before?", shigaraki asked.

"mhm! kurogiri and compress actually showed me this place. I came here once but I guess they remember my face", chō said as her and shigaraki were seated at a two person table this time.

"and what can I get for you two today?", the waiter asked.

"I'll have a caramel frappe and a fruit tart please", chō said. she wanted to try a new drink as a part of going out of her comfort zone.

"alright, and you sir?"

"I'll have a black coffee....and a crème brûlée...", shigaraki said, mumbling the last part.

luckily the waiter heard it and went straight to work.

shigaraki of course left father at the base as he never wore it out unless he was attacking. and it was times like these, where chō enjoyed since she doesn't get to see shigaraki's face often.

"stop staring. it's weird", shigaraki said, avoiding eye contact.

"oh come on!! it's one of the only times you don't have father on your face", chō whined.

"why do you like looking at my face so much? do you do that with everyone you meet?"

"what? no! I like looking at yours because it's interesting", chō replied honestly.

shigaraki didn't know whether he was offended by that comment or not. all his life he had been called many things. 'disgusting. ugly. gross. a freak, commonly used by dabi'.

"I just think your face is pleasing to look at", chō commented. "I mean, look at all these lines. that's definitely a new record for the amount of lines you have on your face at the young age of 20", she joked.

shigaraki didn't respond. he knew he shouldn't have expected any different from her. so why did it hurt so much to hear her say that?

"I'm just kidding. on a serious note, I think the scar on your lip and eye just tells a story that you're not ready to verbally share", chō said.

almost never was chō serious. but the times that she was, shigaraki listened closely.

"and plus, your skin condition isn't something a little lotion and chapstick can't fix".

shigaraki was stunned. was he hearing her correctly? maybe she was just joking again and he was just anticipating the 'I'm kidding!!'

but it never came.

"and your red eyes. I just think they're beautiful. they capture such emotion that your face doesn't show. don't you think?", chō asked smiling.

the waiter quickly dropped off the food and drinks, leaving the two alone again.

"d-did you really mean it?", shigaraki managed to say.

"if I didn't mean it, I wouldn't have said it. others may think you're a freak or whatever but I don't. and I won't be the only one. there will be others in the future, who think the same as me", chō said.

she then stood up and walked over to shigaraki. she pulled her chair along with her so that they were now sitting side by side and not across form each other.

like always, she pulled out two star hair clips. except this time, they were red.

"don't lose these. I think the red ones match your eyes", chō said as she clipped them onto his hair.

she could now see shigaraki's face better and saw that he was absolutely stunned.

shigaraki.exe has stopped working.

chō had tried her caramel frappe. least to say, it was pretty good and now she would be more open to trying new things.

she devoured her fruit tart while shigaraki just sat there. she couldn't force him to drink his black coffee but she was used to force feeding him sweets.

thus, she took a spoon and scooped some crème brûlée and shoved it in shigaraki's mouth.

he had finally seemed to process everything that happened in the last 15 minutes. not even complaining, he continued to have chō feed him.

"it is good?", chō asked like she always does.

"yeah", shigaraki would reply.

but chō knew better. she knew that one day, shigaraki would grow to say he likes it without her constantly asking.