Chapter Text
It had been a few weeks since the U.A entrance exam and Mahiru had been stressed. And his stress tended to translate into productivity, so here he was at three in the morning, in the apartment they started renting before the exam, making breakfast. "Pancakes, bacon and eggs, the breakfast of the entirely too stressed out." Kuro quipped, but his worry persisted. Kuro had is concerns mostly in regards to Mahiru's abysmal sleep schedule. But their were other contributing factors that he chose to ignore.
"Shut it cat!" Mahiru snarled over the sizzling bacon. Mahiru wasn't trying to hurt Kuro's feelings or anything, he was just tired and stressed, a genuinely terrible combination. "I'm sorry Kuro... I'm. I'm just..." Mahiru just sighed long and heavy with emotion too complicated that it couldn't be put into words.
"It's okay, Mahiru, I get it." Kuro softly spoke, full of sincerity. Mahiru smiled at his partner, ever thankful for Kuro being in his life. Telling Mahiru the news could wait, he deserved a few more moments of relative peace. But a knock at the door interrupted the serenity of the moment. "I'll get it." Mahiru just nodded silently as Kuro made his way to the door. The servamp slowly and softly opened it to a familiar face, as tired and eye bag riddled as the eldest servamp.
"Didn't think anyone would be awake," the man mumbled to himself, "hello I'm Aizawa Shota, I was informed that I could find Shirota Mahiru, Todoroki Licht, and Nobel Iduna." Kuro's mind managed to remember his eve's encounter with Aizawa. Kuro just glared at the man, unsure of his purpose in something his eve has come to see as a haven, even if only in name. He wasn't about to allow this man to burn it to ashes. "I just need to talk with them about becoming wards of the school," Kuro's brow furrowed, "It's more so for their safety as emancipated children."
"I'll take it from here." Said a small unrecognizable animal as he emerged from Aizawa's scarf. "Just have the young lady look these over," the animal said with a falsely happy tone as he handed three papers to the servamp. "I'm sure she'll see the benefit in this." Kuro could see the bristles in the intelligent creature's fur, he could see Nezu's fear. But all Nezu could see was a predator, a beast of primal fear entirely uninterested in any sort of potential hunt. More house cat than lion, but something told him, if this man wanted to, he could easily hunt him down.
"What a pain." The man sighed as he took the papers, "I'm gonna get broomed for this." The man said as he closed the door leaving the two heroes to be on their way.
"How long were you there?" Aizawa asked his boss, unamused by Nezu's antics. "And I'm being ignored. Great."
The possible rodent ignored him in favor of focusing his attention on the short interaction with the slothful man. The man who smelt of blood, who made his every instinct even ones his hyper intelligent brain could normally push aside with logic scream in abject terror. But aside from unleashing terror it also made him question, why did he feel that way about a single man, a rather unmotivated man no less. Even when the man was out of sight, Nezu's mind remained on him, the man with weary and aged crimson eyes. "How interesting," he said to himself as Aizawa walked away from his first encounter with 'The Silent Demise'.
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"We should sign them." Iduna stated as she cut into her share of pancakes. "It'll be easier in the long run," She paused for a moment to eat before continuing. "Plus we don't run the risk of some hero getting the 'smart' idea to attempt to become our legal guardians." She chuckled at the thought.
"They could try." Licht rebutted, glaring at the papers like they had personally offended him. "Can't say they would like the result."
The servamps made no effort to way in, knowing it wasn't their place. It didn't affect them in the same way it would the eves, but it was a relief to know they passed the exams. "What to you think Mahiru, as the tiebreaker you get last say." Freya asked with a maternal tone. Her angry expression momentarily melted into worry as she saw the confliction on Mahiru's face. He had completely disregarded his food in favor for picking at a scab on his arm.
"It can wait," Kuro said softly as he put his hand over Mahiru's. The other eves seemed to want to object, but Kuro beat them to the punch. "The weird mouse didn't say anything about a deadline." Iduna's expression turned slightly sour as her only retort was shot down. Mahiru looked towards the slothful vampire with appreciation as he picked up his plate.
"I'm gonna finish eating in my room." Mahiru informed the others as he walked off, Kuro following close behind. Softly closing the door behind the two as they entered the compact space. He sighed as he set his plate on the bed, barely used. "We should just sign them, get it over with." His face flashed with disappointment before it was replaced with a sad smile, a smile unwilling or just unable to reach his eyes. 'Kuro, why didn't I just say that?"
"I don't know. It can be hard to always have the answers or to not have the right ones." Kuro's mind recalled an all too familiar question, the hurt of his siblings, and the screaming pain it caused him. "It's hard trying to please everyone." But it was always easiest to recall Mahiru's hand in his, the hope Mahiru gave to him.
"Yeah." He replied through glassy eyes, the eyes of a tired fool. Mahiru's mind was filled with static. Kuro's voice felt warm, yet distant. Mahiru was very tired, he desperately wanted to sleep, but resisted. Absently his eyes wandered to the still full plate of food on his bed, he didn't know why he made so much. It didn't seem like it was worth the effort in retrospect. He was able to register the feeling of being carried, being placed down on something soft. A gentle hand being run through his hair, "Mom?" He absentmindedly asked, his eyes didn't want to stay open as blankets we pulled over his cold body. He didn't even notice he was so cold until he was covered, it felt nice. Safe.
Kuro watched as Mahiru fell asleep, he had moved the plate of food off to the side. Mahiru would be hungry when he woke up, so the servamp wrote a note for him. He quietly left the room and was met with Hyde's smirking face. "Didn't peg you as the type to fall for your eve." Hyde had a air of believed superiority. "Rather hypocritical, isn't it."
"At least I'm not delusional enough to think that a human would genuinely want anything to do with a monster." Hyde didn't glare at him, in fact his face didn't hold any anger. He just stared at his elder in stunned silence. Kuro walked off before Hyde could respond, the last thing he wanted to do was have a discussion with Hyde of all people about something as bothersome as his feelings. Kuro wouldn't be the same as Hyde, human life was temporary, sure eves didn't age after a point, but they could still be killed and hurt, and Kuro was desperately afraid of growing too attached.
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She asked me, "Son when I grow old, will you buy me, a house of gold?"
Mahiru liked dreaming, it tended to be the same dream each time. He had just come home from school, his mom was listening to some music as she baked his favorite cookies or preformed some other task. Sometimes his uncle was also there, chatting with her in the simple apartment they lived in together. The music never really was different, it was always her favorite song, something that made him cry to listen to. She would ask him about his day and he would happily tell her. Sakuya said a stupid lie again, he asked if he could meet up with Misono and Tetsu after dinner. She smiled and told him it would be fine. His father wouldn't be joining them for dinner. He never did, but Mahiru would pretend like it was disappointing to hear. "And when your father turns to stone will you take care of me?"
Dinner would always be nice, sometimes the boy from next door, Kuro would visit. His mother would pretend like it wasn't painfully obvious that, Mahiru was in love with the boy. Kuro wasn't a vampire, such things don't fit into Mahiru's prefered simplicity, he was a human, close to Mahiru in age. Life was nice and it would always remain so, Mahiru wanted it to stay like that. Let's say we up and left this town. Magic was the thing of fairy tales, he didn't have to worry about his or anyone else's, no world ending threats. Just a nice and simple family dinner. Being able to hold the hands of his mother, to talk with her, it's perhaps the best feeling in the world to him. Being close with the ones he loves most, without the need to question, to worry if he would ever be worthy.
In this perfect world he didn't need to be a soldier, always ready for battle. Or a commander with a plan for the war. He was just a fool, a child who had yet to start his next great journey. And turned our future upside down. We'll make pretend that you and me, lived ever after happily.
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Licht and Iduna remained seated, long after Mahiru's departure. They both had important matters to discus, things that would only provide their friend with pain. "Mahiru still hasn't said a word about..." Iduna struggled for a moment to find the right words. "What he did." The words of blame she settled on felt wrong as she allowed them to fall past her lips. "Maybe his magic isn't to blame for this." She recalled the panic on his face when he discovered that a hundred years had passed in what must have been a blink to them. Thankfully technology had failed to advance much in that time due to the upheaval brought forwards by quirks. She couldn't stop the tears when she had seen the obituary, their friends and family thought they were dead and had themselves also departed. "Aside from combat, no one has ever found a way to perform anything close to this scale. And almost every non combat oriented spell was never recorded."
"We both know what we saw. Something inside Mahiru just... Broke." Licht played the events out in his head. Mahiru had fallen to his knees, he was crying out, screaming as his lead manifested in his hands. And in a bright flash of light, or perhaps everything just faded away all at once as he was robbed of his senses. Kuro had rushed into the room right as Mahiru started to lose control, but even he proved helpless to stop it. "And then we ended up here. We can't just pretend like the others aren't going to have questions." The thought of forcing Mahiru to tell them what he did crossed his mind. But it wasn't right, the fact that Mahiru wasn't talking about it proved that he lacked information. Licht thought back on Hyde's quiet sorrow after he discovered the fate of Gil and his other subclass. "We at least deserve to know if we can get back," the 'somehow' went unsaid, refusing to address the alternative unwanted.
Freya and Hyde watched the two with mixed emotions. Hyde, ever impatient wanted to get the the heart of the matter, just as his eve did. Freya the more honed of the two, had her own opinions. She could understand the need for answers. But she could also see that Mahiru was clearly keeping something from not just his friends, but also himself. Given the nature of her sin, she found it quite easy to tell when someone was hiding from one emotion in another. She'd seen it in Hyde and even in herself in the beginning. Wrath was always a shield, but it proved to be both protective and blinding, a lesson her eve quickly came to understand, a rare pride for the servamp. Hyde's impatience stemmed from brashness, but it could also be traced back to grief, the thought that if he found an answer fast enough he wound be able to protect everyone. But his thoughts were also on Kuro and his sloth.
It was strange to the passionate and greedy vampire. Hyde never denied himself of what he wanted, he was greed, selfishness incarnate. That was the entire reason he formed a contract with Licht, a familiar selfishness. Sure his opinion of Licht had changed to a more respectful outlook, but they still shared the same desires, a selfish want. But Kuro was sloth, a fear tuned to inaction, so he was different from avarice. But a sin was never the sole definer of the servamps, Hyde of all people knew that all to well.
"What do we do now?" Iduna asked, her eyes focused on Freya's wolf form. "Mahiru deserves to know, about this. About everything." She turned her head to face the silhouette of the servamp of sloth. Lying has never been one of Iduna's strong suits, she hated lying no matter the reason. But she could understand that the truth wasn't always the best solution. "We don't have the right to keep all of this away from him."
"And what happens telling him makes him freak out again?"
Iduna stared at Todoroki with questioning shock. "What happens if he loses control because of something else? If we tell him, we can take steps to find some way to control..." Iduna's emotions were a torment in her own mind, if she failed to calm down Mahiru would feel her emotions. He would want to understand, help her. So she took a few breaths, to calm her temper and confusion. "What ever power Mahiru has awakened to." Kuro and Licht's eye seemed to be examining her. Picking through her every word as if hunting for some flaw in her already imperfect argument.
It was Kuro's words that finally broke the quiet scrutiny. "Train him. But don't tell him about what he did." Kuro's sleepless eyes stared into Iduna's wise but youthful soul. "If he found out about his part in all of this. He would never forgive himself." In that moment Hyde could see his elder brother clearer than ever before, Kuro's love was painful for him. He was afraid of loss something that an immortal would rightly fear. Something that Hyde had already felt the venomous bite of. "I'll let you talk to him about it." Kuro seemed to quietly contemplate something for a few moments, "When you feel it's necessary."
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Katsuki Bakugo had recently received some infuriating news. Not only did he have first place usurped from him, but even the quirkless loser Deku did better than him. When her saw that some nobody named Mahiru had completely trounced his efforts, his quirk activated and he destroyed the device that informed him of his failing. For his whole life he was always told that he was the best of the best. He was a god amongst men, he had power and that made him the best. Made him popular. He was gonna destroy those three weaklings, they just got lucky and he was gonna prove it to them. No one could ever be better than him! No one.
Midoriya Izuku had a very different reaction to his acceptance. Tears of joy fell from his eyes as well as his mother's. Relief had washed away the doubts of worth for a time and left only joy, a safe and silent comfort. Even his mentor had offered his congratulations, deepening the well of joy. Even the sight of the strange black fox couldn't dissuade him of his joy. The fox looked at him with a boredom in it's eyes, almost as if to say, "Not interesting at all." Perhaps he wasn't interesting to the strange two tailed fox but Midoriya had a feeling that he would be seeing the fox again before too long. And as if to answer this assumption, somewhere in his mind he heard a voice, "Don't be a hero, be you. Midoriya Izuku, with all the kindness that entails. My big brother's eve deserves as much."
Midoriya was left with questions looking for the a possible origin of the voice that echoed in his mind. A voice that held a familiar pretext of jovial intent to deceive from the sadness it carried. But only the fox stared back at him. With it's twin tails at attention, and clever face showing sneering delight. But it soon departed. But it left Midoriya without any answers, only questions. But sooner rather than later he would have his answers from a light that was slowly dimming, but when the time came who would he chose to be? Midoriya Izuku with his many flaws and damages, or a hero a parasocial idol, a hope in name alone.
For he, just like the eve is a fool. A journey that has yet to begin, a child of the world, naïve of all such things. But perhaps the fox was wrong and salvation for the reversed fool would not come from a fool, but a lion. Black as the darkest night, a beast without mercy. Yet tamed to serve the upheaved fool, to love said fool. So in the end the question Midoriya should be asking, but is ignorant of is: The Fool, or The Lion.