Archive of Our Own

Himiko doesn't get many scars for the first fourteen years of her life. She scrapes her knees like most kids do. There's a chicken pox scar on the inside of her thigh from where she picked at it too much and a thick line of tissue on her temple from when she fell after her father slapped her, because of the bird. There's faint outline of teeth on the back of her hand, near her thumb, from when she got too hungry. 

All normal kid things, right?

So yeah, Himiko goes about mostly scar-free as does her soulmate. She has a few from them, one across her knee and three neat golden lines clawing up her shin. Other than that, they seem to be a careful person, or just good at not getting scars. 

Himiko tries her best to avoid getting scars anyway so that her soulmate doesn't get any damage for themselves. That changes, though. That changes when she's fourteen.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Up until a random day in middle school, when Ochako is about thirteen, she doesn't have many scars from her soulmate

There's one across the skin of her temple, faint teeth marks across the back of her hand, a thin one across her knee. They shine a dull gold, waiting for the moment they touch and then they'll come alight.

Her parents aren't soulmates, but they encourage Ochako to find hers all the same. Her mums scars are a dark, deep black. Sometimes Ochako will see her looking down at then, something strange and sad in her eyes. Like she's missing something she never had. She knows to leave her mum alone then, to tell her dad and let him wrap sturdy arms around her shoulders.

Her dad's are skin coloured, a very faint reflective sheen to them. Ochako knows that means that her dad met his soulmate and they already found their soulmate, one that wasn't him. 

Despite them not being 'missing halves' of each other, her parents are very in love. It's a little embarrassing, but Ochako would rather this than parents who hated each other.

She thinks about her soulmate a lot now that she's older. When she was in single-digits, they hardly crossed her mind apart from when they got a new one, or when she herself got a scar. 

Ochako has met a few people who don't like their soulmate scars, who don't like scars in general. Ochako quite likes them though, it means they're real and that, whoever they are, they're alive.

Up until that random day in middle school, Ochako looks forward to new ones. Then, she doesn't.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Hungry. Himiko is so, so hungry. Shes been hungry for so long and now she's sat in front of a feast.

She can't remember why she's out here in the first place, can't remember why she's so hungry. She just is. Everything around her is blurred into a mess of some and thing. Nothing is any different from anything else, not when that sharp metal tang is in the air. Not when her mouth is producing so much saliva she thinks she might be drooling, wet sliding down her chin, salt down her cheeks. She's so hungry.

Blood, her mind hums. It's blood. You want it, you want it so, so bad. 

She takes a wavering step forward, hands shaking. Her vision is tunnelled to her feast at the end of the corridor. That's what she wants, that's what she needs. Another step, Himiko. You're close, so close.

Something hums, harsh and violent. Is someone talking?, Himiko thinks faintly, swaying there she stands, eyes locked onto red, red, red. But it sounds like they're underwater. It doesn't matter, she's so hungry. 

She takes another step forward, and another, until she's across the corridor, until she's inches away from the blood. Her knees hit the ground, jarring the air out of her lungs. Something hits her, pushing her backwards but she swats it away, shoving the thing in front of her down so she can get to the blood. Saliva fills her mouth, she's so, so hungry. It's - blood - so close. She can smell it, taste the faint echo of it at the back of her throat, metal. Her canine teeth ache, a horrid pulse of low pain flooding through the tissue of her gum. Himiko can't wait any longer, she pounces, teeth digging into soft, breakable skin. There's a second where all she has in her mouth is a lump of flesh but then. Then it pours into her mouth, out the weeping wound.

Thick and smooth it floods her mouth, flowing past her teeth and down her throat. Himiko wants more, she wants to devour it - him, Saito. She wants to eat him whole. She could, she might.

His blood is clean, metallic but blissful against her tongue. Himiko revels in it, this ecstasy of hunger being sated. 

There's something wet on her face, she realises with a start, letting go of her piece of heaven to brush at her cheeks. I'm crying, when did that start, she wonders. But the hole in her stomach is still there, and she must sate it, no matter what. Or who knows what will happen? It might grow to be so big it swallows Himiko whole, until she's more hole than girl. Until she's more hunger than the person she might be.

She clicks her box cutter open and tightens her fist around the straw.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

"Hey, Ochako?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you see the news the morning?"

"No, why? Was there a villain attack?"

"Oh, my, god! Okay so, it was crazy, you won't even believe it. So, like, this girl in Osaka, attacked her classmate, like, full on mauled him! He had to go to hospital and everything, and this girl, yeah, her names Toga Himiko and her Quirk is, like, she can drink blood and then turn into the person she just drank blood from. Like, a whole double-ganger! Isn't that scary? Gives me the shivers. Anyway so, after she attacked this boy, she escaped and she still hasn't been found! Like, she could be any of us, ugh, I'm scared to go out at night, what if she attacks me too?"

"She won't attack any of us, Osaka is ages away! Plus you would know if she got some of your blood."

"Yeah, I guess."

"What does she look like though? She won't be around here but it is still good to know."

"Well, gimmie a sec let me look her up.. okay here she is! Apparently she stuck a straw into his wound and sucked all his blood out of that! Eugh, what a creepy girl! D'you think shes even human?

"Oh... she's. Shes quite pretty isn't she? Like a doll. And yes, Himari, I'm pretty sure she is human."

"Fine, I guess. Such a tragedy that she became a murderer instead of a model, huh Ochako?"

"I wonder.."

"What?"

"Nothing. I just hope that boy is okay."

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

As it turns out, mauling your classmate and drinking his blood, no matter how much you need it, doesn't get you very many friends.

She was on the news though! Not just for her area either, but for the whole of Japan! Of course this means that she can't go outside, like, at all, but still! Himiko is basically famous - infamous? Eh, either or.

But, as it turns out, putting your classmate in the hospital, then running away and evading the police and the heroes that try to catch you, makes you a wanted criminal and if you're caught, you're going to jail or one of those quirk camps that basically turn you into a vegetable. The thought of them makes Himiko feel sick, she won't go to a camp. They can't make her, - well, they can, but not if shes dead before, right? - she would die before being caged like an animal. So if she has to live of the streets for the rest of her life, so be it. It's better here than it ever was a home, at school. The streets can't judge you, the streets can't starve you, the streets can't hit you or call you names, or lock you in a dark room even though the bird was already dead and it was so pretty, why couldn't she do it if it made her feel-

The streets can't hurt her. That's the point.

It's okay, for, maybe three or four weeks, it's okay. Himiko survives. Snatching food and water from shops and sleeping under bridges and in abandoned buildings, filled to the brim with dust and spider webs. She hasn't bitten anyone else yet, hasn't drank any more blood. There's still that dull pang of hunger in her stomach, but hasn't gotten as bad at it did.. that day. When the hunger opened to a wide, gaping hole and swallowed Himiko, till she herself was practically gone.

She gets more scars than ever on the streets, never anything big, but some tiny little nicks. A few from running away after even glimpsing the flash of red-blue lights off in the distance, some from skipping across rooftops in the dead of night, some from the feral alley cats and dogs that roam the streets at night, trying to sniff out any food they can. Himiko feels a strange sort of connection to them, like, they're both scavengers, they're both unwanted, they're both starving. What's the difference between Himiko Toga and Sprinkle Angel that cat, really? (She's been on a bit of a naming spree and sometimes she forgets what she called then the first - or fourth - time and just renames them)

She feels a little bad about getting as many scars as she does, but for the first time in her life - she's free, and wouldn't her soulmate be happy for her? Anyway.

All she has to do is keep evading the police, keep running away from any heroes and keep a low radar for a few months. Then she can... maybe Himiko needs to start figuring out what she actually wants to do. Once the media buzz dies down, she might be able to go out and not get recognised, get a job or something, stop being homeless and stuff.

Or... she's hungry. Why shouldn't she steal someones blood? That cute lady in the suit and tie, that man with the slicked back hair, that girl with the big eyes. Why shouldn't she? It would calm that hunger in her stomach, it would make her so happy, to be in love and to not be so freaking hungry -

Just as she's imagining a cute girl bleeding out all over the floor, her mouth watering, something deep within her chest revolts. No, no, no! It screams, don't you dare! Himiko startles - what?

Was that her s - 

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Ochako tucks her knees close to her chest, snuggling down in the chair she claimed at the cafe. Her eyes locked onto the TV fixed to the wall. its just a new program, blabbing on about stocks, and a new villain and yaddah, yaddah. What Ochako is waiting for is news on that girl, Toga Himiko. The last report - other than the few throwaway sentences about how she hasn't been found yet - was three and a bit weeks ago.

She shuffles around impatiently, biting at her bottom lip impatiently. Ochako doesnt know why she wants to see the broadcast about her so much. So much that she came to a random cafe, told her parents she was going out with friends, bought a milkshake just to see if there are any updates on a middle school girl who attacked someone weeks ago. But. She just does.

Its like there's something inside her attracted to Toga. Ochako can admit the girl is pretty, but this feeling goes beyond anything like that. She doesnt get it, what is it about this girl?

That day, when her friend had shown her that picture, Ochako had felt - something. Something fizzy, like she swallowed a can of coke and its sitting in her stomach, waiting to explode.

Or like she had just swallowed a mouthful of glitter. Or - well. Similes are hard, okay? There's only so much you can compare something too when you dont know how to discribe it yourself. 

Ochako sucks a breath through her teeth, eyes going wide. Toga. Theres a picture from middle school, zoomed in on her in a group of friends. Shes blonde, hair fanning about her face in a halo, yellow eyes with sharp, thin pupils gazing back at Ochako, like Toga knows its her, like shes been searching for her this whole time.

Ochako focuses back on Toga, at the reporter standing in front of her picture.

"Today, the police have captured fourteen-year-old Toga Himiko. The middle schooler had been on the run from the police for three weeks since she attacked classmate. The police are determining her motive as we speak. Tanaka, do you think there will be a public trial?"

"Well Suzuki, since she is only fourteen I doubt it. She'll probably be sent to a juvenile detention centre, or a Quirk Camp, personally speaking, I'm leaning toward the second as the police investigation leaned more towards it being a part of her Quirk that made her attack Saito Kimura. Though, with the amount of public outrage, I wouldn't be surprised if the trial was public..."

Ochako swallows down the acid that seems to have risen at the back of her throat. Detention centre? Quirk Camp? She shudders, for some reason, unknown to Ochako, she doesn't want Toga to go to either of those places.

Stop it, Ochako, she tells herself, sternly. You're being silly, she attacked someone, of course she's gonna go to jail or a Quirk camp.

The sick feeling stays with her, though.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Himiko gets caught. Of course she does, it was naive to think she wouldn't. How could she be so stupid? She wasn't strong or powerful, she was just a silly teenage girl who needed to be reigned in.

The police catch her sneaking out a bag of chips from a random shop, they yank her hands into cuffs and drag her away, kicking and screaming. There are tears streaming down her face and snot leaking from her nose as she fights to escape. No, she thinks, desperately, kicking at the hundreds of hands and blurred faces restraining her, no, no I can't go, I can't go there, please no!

Of course, no god hears her pleas. No hero comes and undoes her cuffs, sets her free. No, Himiko is shoved into a prison cell, stuffed into it. There's no one else in there, and the room isn't even that small, but she feels like she's being crushed from all sides. Like the walls, floor and ceiling are all deciding to squeeze her into pulp. 

Hours go past and Himiko remains curled up in the corner, her knees drawn up to her chest. It's with a start that she realises she's got a new soulmate scar. It's small, across the side of her hand and painted in a delicate, gentle gold. Himiko skims her fingers over it, feels the texture of it. Smooth, like it really was painted with liquid gold.

She relaxes in tiny increments, never truly unclenching her muscles (she won't relax-relax for a long long time), but she unstiffens slightly, breathes a little more easily.

She thinks about her soulmate, did they see her on the news? What do they think, do they hate her, do they like her? Do they think she's cute?

Himiko really, really hopes they do. But the things she hopes for never seem to happen.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

A week after seeing that broadcast, nothing more is said about Toga Himiko on the news. She looks up some stuff on the computers in the library, but they give her week old articles shes already read. Ochako gives up, begrudgingly.

One night, as Ochako is lying in bed, propped up against her bedroom wall reading a textbook for school (her eyes keep almost slipping shut, yawns drifting out her mouth, rippling through her entire body) she feels a sharp tingle on her thigh, like someone dusted a feather along the skin there. She frowns, peels back the covers to look down and sees -

A shiny new scar. Fresh, as it's still gleaming. Ochako flutters her fingers over it, taking it in. It's a simple line, thick in the middle but thinning out towards the ends. Ochakos breath catches in her throat, dread filling up her lungs.

She feels the tingle again, on her other thigh and Ochako sees a new golden mark bloom to life on her thigh. The gold bleeds out into the skin like water colour paint in paper, spreading its hands until it hits a wall. There's another, and another. Ochako watches new scars form on her soulmate, and is powerless to stop it.

She goes to sleep that night will a runny rose and swollen eyes.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Himiko sets her switchblade down onto her nightstand, her blood dripping from its blade stains the wood. She doesn't care.

The court decided to send her to Quirk camp. She didn't want to go, she never wanted to go there but they grabbed her and put her in a straightjacket and threw her in a van and forced her there. She kicked and she screamed and she cried but no-one cared. No-one cares.

Himiko got to camp and the kids there was all sad and bland and stupid. They walked about like ghosts, nothing left inside them. If you shook them, you wouldn't even hear them rattle. Hollow, dead.

They wrapped Himikos legs and arms with bandages to keep her from biting anyone and they scheduled an appointment for her teeth to be filed down. Himiko cried and twisting so much that they couldn't do it, but every time she closes her eyes she remembers that bright light shining into her eyes, that whizzing saw lowering to her mouth, ready to take away her fangs, to take them and not give them back. To leave Himiko without herself.

She compiled with them after that. Terrified of anything they might decide to do. They could sedate her. They could sedate Himiko and take her back to that place and then take away her teeth forever. She thinks about it and feels sick, the nausea swirls in her stomach, a violent, angry tornado threatening to eat her inside out.

Himiko doesn't bite anyone again. Doesn't even bite herself. The pit opens up again and no amount of food will fill it. When she was delivered home, half comatose and lethargic, her parents thank the camp guides with tears in their eyes. Himiko watches, unfeeling. Unseeing. Numb, numb, numb.

Instead of drinking blood, she picks up her switchblade and presses it to the inside of her thigh, with fast, neat little swipes. It's to feel something angry, other than this all-consuming nothing-ness. This compliance, like she's a dog they had to train out of a bad habit.

The angry heat of the blade splitting open her skin, the heat of the blood pooling on her skin, red against ghostly white, its a relief from feeling like someone scraped out her insides.

It's just to get away from this world. To be separate, just for a little while. To curse herself, to curse this world, to curse her soulmate. Whoever they are, they can't save her now.

If I have to live with this, she thinks, staring down at the blood smeared along the inside of her thighs, so do you.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

The scars start on the top of her soulmates thighs, then they migrate down to halfway down their (and Ochakos) thigh. Then, they start on the wrists, underneath the bicep. Hips. Stomach.

Most of them don't scar-scar. Only shining when they catch the light. But some of them, the deeper ones, the ones Ochako skims her fingers over at night, wishing to help, turn a deep, sparkling gold. She doesn't hide them, but she doesn't show them off like some people do. It feels private, only for her soulmate and for her. It's like if she went around telling people about her parents money troubles.

She's not ashamed, but you'd have to ask to know.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Himiko goes to high school on a dull, sad day. It's bucketing it down with rain, the water beating the ground like it owes it something. Himiko stands on her doorstep, peering out at the war she'll have to breach.

She doesn't have an umbrella, or a coat. Just her high school jumper. Himiko could go back inside her house ferret around for something water-proof.

She doesn't, stepping out into the rain, letting it hammer against her.

Immediately, she's soaked. It's almost fun though, she can pretend like she's younger with other kids and they used to dance about in the rain, kicking mud at each other and laughing so hard it hurt. The memory should make her smile - it used to - but now she just trudges on. She's so cold and numb and tired.

Himiko knows that high school will be shit, just like middle school was. Everyone there already knows her name, what she did, who she is. They all already know that her parents are disappointed in her.

The building comes into view, Himiko contemplates turning around and running, then she remembers. A bright light shining directly into her eyes, that whirring thing being lowered to her mouth, thrashing and screaming-

No. She can't risk it. Himiko trudges forward, each step heavy and reluctant. This is so not cute, she thinks, though the words are more for show than anything. A vauge attempt at rebellion before her life is played out in perfect subservience. Himiko Toga, an example of who good Quirk camps can do! A girl, already on her way to becoming a villain, left reformed after she spent just six weeks with us!

Stupid, Himiko thinks, they're all fucking stupid.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Ochako gets into UA!

It's such a shock, but a good one! Like a birthday party you didn't know was coming. She can't stop smiling for the whole day, her cheeks ache with it.

Ochako will be able to help, she can save her parents she can save other people. (She can save her soulmate?)

That happy glow surrounds her for an entire week. Until she feels that tingle on her wrist. It doesn't disappear, the happiness, but some of it morphs into determination. The idea of actually being a hero solidifies in her mind, takes shape and form. What kind of hero does Ochako want to be? There are types, rescue, defence, military. Who does she want to be?

The answer is simple really, Ochako wants to help, she wants to make people smile, that's everything she could ever want.

And, well. Everyone knows heros, right? If she gets popular enough, there's a way higher chance to actually meet her soulmate as a hero.

So, yeah. Ochako knows what she's going to do, and she will do it. No matter what it takes. 

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Hate. Himiko hates, she hates her fellow classmates, she hates her teachers, she hates the food, she hates the bulding.

This, she's sure, is hell. Maybe she died of hypothermia when she was out on the streets and this is her punishment for simply being born. Everyday she wakes up and she has to go to this place, this place full of pumping hearts, and rosy cheeks and blood that flows through every vein. She can smell it, all their blood melds together in a great big taunt, "look at us, Himiko, look at this red. Don't you want it? Of course you do. Why dont you take it, coward? Or have they already leashed you?"

Himiko isn't a coward, but she is. She's too scared to take what she wants, she's too scared to run, she's too scared to even open her mouth. What is someone sees her teeth? What if they see and them produce that great big razor and shove it into her mouth, and this time, no matter how hard Himikoo screams and cries and struggles, they'll take her teeth away.

So she hates in silence. They throw things at her, shove her in the hallways. She comes in one day to 'bloody bitch' scrawled across her desk in red paint. 

One day, she's walking down the stairs and there's hands against her back and then she's fallingfallingfalling. The world spins, fast and then slow, she feels the impact before it actually happens, or maybe her memory is just going sketch. Her head cracks against the metal stair, and it hurts. A sharp, stabbing, pulsing pain that aches in time with her heartbeat. People gather around, hands pressed to their mouths, there's a teacher, Himiko thinks, scolding a student while he smirks. No-one offers her a hand up, no-one lies her head in their lap and smooths down her hair, whispering something nice - Himiko doesn't deserve sweet, not while she's being a coward -She blinks, the black invades her vision, crowding into her head until Himiko thinks she'll never be able to open them again. She does, but it takes a while, and when she finally is awake, she's lying half-curled on a nurses bed, a bandage wound around her head. They call her parents and they don't answer. Himiko walks home, smelling her own blood in the air. 

Feet soft, Himiko creeps into her house. It's empty, so she shouldn't have bothered, really. She walks the rest of the way to her room normally. Theres a black hole in her chest, and it's trying to eat her. Himiko picks up her switchblade, sinks it into the skin of her forearm, drags it down, down, down until the pain makes her see double.

She hates. She hates school, she hates her parents, she hates quirks and camps and dentists. Himiko hates the police and the heros, they're why she's here, they're why she's so numb.

But even her hatred feels fragile, like a strong wind could blow and it would crumple into nothing, leaving Himiko a husk.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

It's on the way home when Ochako sees it.

UA is hard, she feels like her muscles are being ground down until it's just bone rubbing against each other. 

She loves it. Her friends are amazing people and she's finally getting a chance too be stronger, better. Work on her nausea and strength until she's strong enough to hold up the world. She's told a few people about her soulmate, Tsu, Izuku, Iida. Just a couple, but it feels like a great weight has been lifted off her shoulders. 

Of course, when she's walking the long, long way home, muscles screaming at her, Ochako doesnt feel particularly thankful. She is! Just... not as much right now.

Shes stopped at a bench, just to give herself a minute before continuing the battle back home, when she notices a poster fluttering, caught in the wind. Ochako tilts her head, straightening it out so she can read it.

"MISSING - TOGA HIMIKO

16 year old Toga Himiko was last seen exiting a convenience store on Hirayashi street. 

Blonde hair

Yellow eyes

Five-feet two-inches

Last seen wearing a pleated black skirt, ripped tights, loafers and her school jumper.

Please contact +81 ####–#### if you have any information."

Something in her chest constricts, tightening and tightening, a string pulled taut. She stares down at the photo of Toga. She's not smiling, and her eyes are empty and lifeless. She's pale and skinny, looking at that camera but not really seeing it. What was it called? - thousand yard stare 

The date one the poster is marked two months ago, when Ochako looks around, there aren't any other posters of Toga anywhere. She bites down on her lip, eyes stinging for some unknown reason.

Aizawa-sensei told them about their next assignment today - look into a cold case of a person, figure out what went wrong, how it went wrong and how you, as future heros, should correct it.

Ochako knows what she wants to do.

The next day as school, Ochako submits her request - Toga Himiko, missing persons case, closed last week.

Aizawa-sensei raises one eyebrow but slides her submission back with a tick. "This will be a homework and in-school task. Complete it by next week."

Ochako nods, and heads back to her desk, already plotting out what to do, how to do it. As a UA student she's allowed access to their government documents, things about health, family, that kinda thing. She could submit a request for her documents at reception today after class and look at some security camera footage. 

Izuku comes with her, muttering excitedly about what case he'll do, where to figure it out, if there's any chance for it to solved ect, ect. Normally, she's quite good at following his whispered rambles but today she's a bit lost in her own head and Ochako loses the thread of his voice almost as soon as it starts, retreating back into her own head to think.

There's nothing particularly special about Toga Himiko, sure she's pretty but all that really happened to her was an incident in middle school and then she went to a Quirk Camp and was alright again. Ochako doesn't understand why she's so... fascinated. It doesn't make any sense. 

She shakes herself out her head, putting in her request for any documents about 'TOGA HIMIKO' 

It gets approved and Ochako goes home with a copy of all her verification-level-five files on a hardrive. Plugging into her dad's computer and sorting through all of them is going to take a while, she sighs and scrubs at her eyes, preparing for a long night.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Yes, Himiko thinks, grinning and jumping up and down, twirling in wild circles. Yes, yes, yes!

Her case has been shut, there's no-one looking for anymore and in a few months most of the people put on her case in the first place will have forgotten. She's free, no-one can cage her anymore, no one can tie her down and file down her teeth, no one can force drugs down her throat to make her more 'docile' no-one can spit in her face.

Never again, she promises herself. I'll never be caught like that, and if I am I will kill myself. She draws an x across her heart. If she's good at one thing, it's keeping promises.

Right now, Himiko has holed herself up in a random empty flat. It's in a big building, made up entirely of flats, but this door was left open and it doesn't look like anyone has used it in ages, like. Maybe someone slept here a week ago or something, but there's a stale smell in the air and nothing in any of the cupboards apart from a singular pair of chopsticks, one bowl and a mug. She'll stay here for a little while, then after a few days of recovering from moving place-to-place so fast with no breaks, she'll head back out onto the streets, maybe find a more permanent base.

Himiko is just contemplating these things, sprawled out on the floor when the door creaks open. She sits up so fast the room spins, and twists her neck to face whoever just came in.

It's - well. He's a man, tall and lanky, purple scars dripping off his face. 

They stare at eachother for a long, long minute.

"Why are you in my flat." The man says more than asks, his voice like rocks rubbing against each other.

"Dunno," Himiko replies, her heart pulsating in her throat. "It was empty. I'll - go?"

He blinks at her, narrows his eyes.

"How old are you."

"Twenty-seven." She says, nervously. The man frowns at her again, eyeing her up and down, recognition leaking into his eyes.

"Wait. Aren't you that girl who attacked someone?"

"Maybe," she says through gritted teeth. "I'll stab you if you tell anyone."

He barks out a laugh, grinning. "Alright, crazy. How about I give you an offer?"

"What kind of offer?" She says, eyeing him warily. Himiko knows what kinda things men like to offer young girls, alone with no money.

"How would you like to join a vi-"

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Brought to Quirk Councilling age five.

GCG called on her parents for neglect and abuse multiple times, but nothing ever came from it.

Accounts from teachers about bullying.

A report on her Quirk about how blood might be a need.

Ochako gapes at her computer, horror filling her veins. Holy - Toga has had no help from anyone her entire life. She had a few Quirk Councillors but when Ochako checks their notes, she finds nothing but a few little notes about "controlling urges" with no more explanation! Looking at the police file of her missing persons case, Ochako can see that Togas' parents didn't even call the police, the school did it because she just didn't show up one day. She could be anywhere in the world, in someone's basement, being tortured (that makes Ochako feel sick) or worse. D-

She can't think it. That word, it's like when her middle school put a ban on any words they didn't like, putting a stopper over the thought. She just can't think like that, somewhere, somehow, Toga Himiko is alive. Ochako couldn't tell you how, but she knows it.

She dusts her fingers over the golden scars on her thighs, there hasn't been any more for months, just a light scratch across her shin, but that looks like it'll heal. 

Ochakos got enough information to put her report together now, she should get started on it, really. Glancing up at the clock, she sees that it's already eleven-thirty-three. Jeez, she's been working on this for hours, maybe she should go to bed, otherwise she'll be dead tomorrow.

Tugging her pyjamas on, brushing her teeth quickly and tucking herself under her blankets, Ochako does sleep. Quite easily, which is appreciated. When she dreams though, she dreams of blonde hair and slitted pupils. Of a hand on her face, of a golden glow lighting up her hands, entangled with someone she doesn't know.

She can't remember the plot when she wakes, but there's a nice, sweet fizzy feeling in her chest for the rest of the day.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

"-gilante group?"

Vigilante group?

Himiko considers it, rolls its around her mouth, swallows it down. Be a vigilante, take down the people who hurt her, be a real hero. Not those fakes, the people who call themselves "heros" but turn thier backs on the people who actually need them. Those heros who are far more like villains than the people they arrest.

"Yeah," Himiko says, really it was an easy decision. The man doesn't say anything, but he grins, staples stretching out across the line between skin and burn. "I'll join you."

He holds out his hand, free of purple, and she shakes it. It's quite warm, not the texture she was expecting. His palm are calloused, but his fingers are long, easy for writing or playing the piano. Hm, Himiko thinks, rich kid?

"So," she chirps later, skipping alongside the guy (no name yet, alas) as she trails down Musufastu backstreets. She's eyeing his every move, just in case he's lying. Himiko has her finger tips just grazing the handle of a knife, stuffed into the waist-band of her skirt. "What kinda group are you?"

"We're not villains and we aren't heros," he says, playing with a lighter, click, snap, click, snap "we're vigilates, so we don't really have a moral code or whatever. As a group, we have seperate goals and we've come together to try and make them come to life."

"Okay," Himiko taps her bottom lip with the tip of her index finger. "What's your goal?"

He shrugs, thin shoulders hunching under the fabric of his dark coat. Up close, he's tall but wiry, no muscle on his bones. He must be a long-rage fighter, otherwise there's no way this guy is anything but behind a screen. "That's nothing you need to know."

"Fine," she says,"what kinda people are in the group?"

"Theres dusty, lizard, Twice, cards and Magne." 

"I have a feeling those aren't their real names." 

"You'll see in a minute."

"What's your name?"

"You can call me Dabi."

"Okay, Dabs!"

He - Dabi, name acquired! -gives her a nasty side eye, and pushes open a door to a non-descript bulding Himiko hadn't taken notice of. She tenses, ready to run if nesassary.

Instead, holded up in the empty brick-walled room, is a group of people. Himikos eyes widen, so it was real!

"Hey," Dabi rasps. "I got a new recruit."

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Ochako turns in report and gets a 93%, because Aizawa-sensei is notorious for never giving out hundred percents. Normally, Ochako would be a little frustrated, but today she's still a little lost inside her head. The term is almost over, but there's this camp in the summer going on soon, so she can't really get to caught up with one almost hundred percent.

Toga stays on her mind though, sometimes she's not there as much, hiding at the back of her head, waiting until Ochako will be doing something and yellow eyes will pop into her head. She haunts her, even though Ochako is sure she isn't dead. 

She tells Tsu about it one day - or. Well, night, really. In hushed whispers on their way back to the dorms, her head resting on Tsus shoulder. 

"Do you remember that project we had to do ages ago? About the cold cases?"

"Mhm," Tsu nods, looking down at Ochako. She barely has any scars from her soulmate, just a small golden one across her forearm. Ochako looks at it now, instead of looking at Tsus eyes.

"I keep thinking about the girl I did my project on.. her life was so sad, Tsu. She just went through all this suffering and then she went missing and no-one is even looking for her... I wish I could've helped.. "

"I know, Ochako." Tsu murmurs, voice low. "But you can't save everyone."

"Yeah," Ochako says, looking out the window. "I know."

She stays up thinking about her that night.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

The vigilante group is called, get this, The League of Vigilantes. 

When Himiko hears it, she laughs so hard her stomach hurts. League of Vigilantes, c'mon. 

"Be any more creative," She complains to their sort-of leader, Tomura Shigaraki. "Like, theres gotta be a little bit of intrigue, right? You could've chosen anything else, like, no-heroes or... death to heroes or whatever."

Tomura himself is grouchy and annoyded, alllll the time. Hes got shaggy light-blue hair and hes skinny as a twig, but not as tall as Dabi so he's not even intimidating. He loves video games and Himiko has a sneaking suspision that he named them after League of Legends, that game he's always playing.

"Shut up," he snaps, rifling through his collection of games. Him and Spinner play all the time, and sometimes Himiko can force the third controller to work so she can play minecraft with them, gore mods installed. 

Their missions are really quite easy, see crime, stop it, At the moment they're quite underground, Tomura and Dabi - who is the Leitenant apparantly, maybe Himiko should be flattered that she was chosen by the Leitenant, but she's pretty sure it was just circumstance - seem to prefer it that way, but Himiko wouldn't mind a bit more puplicity. Then her name might really be everwhere.

Later that night, it's Himikos turn to go get food for all of them, she's been told to stick strictly to the list, because one time, she spent the money on a massibe box of candyfloss but everyone ended up eating some so they can kiss her-

"Oh, isn't that the Todoroki boy?" Himiko turns at the mention of the name that Dabi hates.

"No, this is just a replay before the next round."

"Right. Who is it this time?"

"Mmm, that girl with brown hair and that rude boy, y'know? The blonde one?

"Oh! Yes, him."

Himiko turns towards the TV, behind the check-out desk, fixed to the corner of a wall. It's the UA sports festival. Himiko remembers these, she used to watch them all the time with her friends back in middle school, they would all root for their favorites, and moan together when they lost. She shakes the memory away, approaching the counter. This could be useful, scout out some of the heroes they might meet in the future.

"Hey!" She chirps, drawing the workers attention. That time when her face was across every TV in the nation has long since passes, Himiko hasn't been recognised in ages now. "Is that the UA sports thing? Can I watch?"

"Sure," One of them says, glancing down at the uniform she's wearing. Himiko doesn't go to high school anymore, duh, but it makes people go a little easier on her. "It's uhm... Ochako Uraraka verses... Bakugou Katsuki."

"Cool!" Himiko says, grinning, peering round to look at the TV. The name rings a bell, but she's sure she hasn't ever seen or met the girl before... hm. Might've been a classmate she never spoke to or something.

The girl in question is small, but Himiko can see the muscle built into her form. She's got brown hair cut short to her shoulders and choppy bangs, two longer parts of her hair frame her face at the front. Her eyes are the same colour of chesnut brown, deep and chocolately. Himiko bites at her lip, staring almost entranced at the screen. Ochako Uraraka...hmh. She's cute, really cute. All big eyes and strength.

Himiko settles down to watch.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Four months go past in a blur of training and hard work, all day everyday. Her muscles ache all the time, soreness pulsing through her entire body. She grows to love it though, that feeling of building new muscle and strengthing herself. Ochako has still got a long way to go, but she knows that it's a journey she'll enjoy.

There was a week when Ochako though Deku might be her soulmate - they get on so well - but when she finally built up enough corage to ask, he didn't have the scratch from when she tried to pet a feral cat. Plus, when they touched hands, nothing lit up gold, and she couldn't see any scars across his wrists, though from what shes heard about his time at middle school, she wouldn't blame him if he did.

Ochako has her suspisions though, about a rude blonde with a scar down his forearm, and the light gold scratch she saw down Izukus. But that's none of her buisniess, and they still have a long way to go before they can even be in the same room together, so she'll let them figure it out.

One day, in class, Aizawa says that their new course is about vigilantes, the groups that are out there, when they run, what to do if you encounter one. All that kinda stuff.

"Interacting with vigilantes as a hero is how you shape your image, not your public image, but how the people in need of the most help will see you. Most of them don't see heros as favourably as common civillains, so they turn to vigilantes to fill the hole. How you as heros take this will impact whether they'll trust you, if they'll ask you for help and trust you won't jail them."

Ochako thinks it over, heroics involves a lot more thinking that she thought it would, but also a little less than she thought it would, if that makes any sense?

She wants people to look at her - look at Uravity - and know that if they came to her for help, they would recive no judgement, she wants to be the kinda hero everyone knows will help, regardless of who you are.

"So," Aizawa contuines, interuppting Ochakos musing. "today, I'll be telling you about the newest, most sucsessful vigilante group as of late, The League of Vigilantes."

Ochako can't help her laugh, though she slaps a hand over her mouth as soon as it comes out. "Sorry!" She says through giggles. "Sorry, it's just.. a really bad name."

Aizawa glowers at her, shaking his head, but there's a degree of fondness to it that makes her go warm, he continues on. "Right now they're very underground, the reason you won't have heard of them before is because they work enirely in the underworld."

"But Aizawa-sensei!" Deku says, frowning "isn't that where you work?"

"Yes, Midoriya, it is." He says on a sigh, giving Deku a look that makes him shrink into his seat. Ochako smiles a little, he still hasn't gotten the message to stop calling out. "I've met the League a few times and while they are scrappy, they are powerful. If you ever come into contact with them, do not try to talk to them or arrest them, we still don't know enough about them as a whole to know how they react to hero students. Now, back to my point..."

Aizawa continues and tells them that today, they'll be going out into the city in their civillain clothes to observe any vigilantes. "This goes out to all of you, but espesially you Midoriya, Bakugou," he gives them a mean side eye and Izuku shrinks in his seat while Bakugou puffs up like a cat. "do not interact with any vigilantes, this if for your safety because while you are heros-in-training you are still children."

Ochako is placed in the Musufastu prefucture. Aizawa holds her back after the bell rings.

"The places where you're patrolling are places where the League has been spotted multiple times. Remember what I said Uraraka."

"Don't approach, don't interact, don't arrest." She parrots back." He nods, a grit to his jaw.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Light from a streetlamp glints off the edge of Himikos knife as she jabs it deep into someone's thigh. They fall with a cry and she kicks them in the nose, turning back towards the rest of The League. There was a villain group roaming around here, preching about "reforming the word into a new order" whatever that means. It was an easy fight in the end, the villains didn't even put up all that much of a fight, most of them running at the first sign of The League coming out to play.

Himiko licks the blood up from the blade of her knife, savoring the taste. She's never hungry now, that pit in her stomach has closed, sealed itself away after a constant supply from her family. Himiko loves blood, but in the end it really doesn't mean all that much if it ties you to someone else. You make your own family, and Himiko has found hers.

After cleaning her knife, and collecting all the ones sticking out of people, slotting them neatly into the belt around her hips, there's a flash of brown in the coner of her eye. Himiko jumps and turns, knife out streched readly to run, but the only person there is a girl with a hook tucked over her head, brown hair peeking out the folds.

Huh, Himiko thinks, flipping the knife so the point of the blade faces the floor. It's just a civilain.

Unbidden, the image of Ochako comes into focus in her mind. The girl has been on her mind since she saw her fight at the sports festival.. those bruises on her face, blood vessels bursting under her skin. The way she struggled again and again to raise herself up on her forearms, to try again and again. She was so cute, so bloody. She feels salivia fill her mouth at the thoughts, red flooding her cheeks.

"Hi!" Himiko calls out to the girl in the allyway. Shes got a baggy jumper on, the hood flipped over her head, a sliver of brown hair hanging out the material. The girl jumps, but doesn't respond, freezing in place like a deer in headlights. She giggles, skipping closer to the girl. "Have you been there the whole time? You should probably get outta here or else the heroes or police or whatever might come by!"

The girl stays silent, taking a wary step back, Himiko takes a step forward, curious, tilting her head. "Do you wanna see the heroes? I mean, wouldn't, but we could take you to a police station if you'd like?" The girl shakes her head, fists clenched, hands shaking.

There's a harsh flurry of wind, pushing Himikos hair into her face and the girls hood off her head, she looks up once her vision is free, only to come face-to-face with-

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Himiko Toga!

Ochakos heart seizes in her chest, her eyes blowing wide - the girl shes been thinking about twenty-four-seven for the past few years is right in front of her.

In person, she's even prettier than poster, her blonde hair is thicker, tied up into two messy buns of either side of her head, her fringe has gotten long enough to brush the eyelashes that sweep over the bright yellow of her eyes. At night, they almost seem luminesant, glowing like there's a fire lit within them. My hood, Ochako realises with a start, it's gone. 

Damn it! No matter how pretty she is, Toga is still a vigilante and Ochako doesn't know anything about her opinions on heroes! For all she knows, Toga could be planning a genocide of every hero in the country!

She takes a step back and Toga takes a step forward, the smile that was once fixed on her mouth has fallen off, splattered somewhere along the floor. 

"Oh," Himiko says, her voice a whisper. "You're - cute."

"Cute?" Ochako squeaks, feeling heat flush her cheeks.

"So cute! I saw you in the sports festival, and you were all beat up and bloody," Toga takes another step forward, Ochako tries to take a step back but her back hits the wall. She's cornered nowhere to run. "I wanted your blood so bad... I bet you would look even cuter with-" the rest of Toga's sentence is cut off when she raises her hand, brushing her fingertips along Ochakos cheekbone.

Ochako gasps.

Time seems to stop and all she can feel are the soft pads of Togas fingers pressed to her cheekbone. It all feels slow - syrupy. Ochako takes in the way Togas mouth seems to form a neat little 'o' the way she starts to fall away, all in slow-mo. Heat floods through her veins, swimming through her blood, the warmth concentrating in her wrists and thighs, on the hardh line of golden scars tissue down her forearm.

Oh, Ochako thinks, it all makes so much more sense now. 

Wheeling back, Togas eyes dart to the three lines on her shin, now glowing a bright gold. Ochako peels back her sleeve, desperately and is almost blinded by the outpour of gold right into her eyes. It lights up the allyway, shining off the damp brick. Every breath Ochako sucks in is so cold against the warmth of her body.

"You're my soulmate." Toga - or is it Himiko now? Ochako doesn't even really know Toga, can she start calling her by her first name? She doesn't know, no-one seems to talk about this is any of the romance books she's read! - says. Shes backed herself all the way to the far end of the allyway, near the exit, like a spooked cat.

"Yeah." Ochako says, feeling like someone just zapped her with a tazer, all sparkly and electric. Her soulmates is a girl she's been practically obsessed with for years and a vigilante. Oh god - are there protocols for when you meet your soulmate as a hero? What is she supposed to do? "I..I am."

As it turns out though, Ochako can't really do anything, because at that moment Toga Himiko turns on her heel and books it out of there, away from Ochako.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Himiko -

Himiko runs.

She doesn't even really know why she's running, running away from the one person who's supposed to understand her, to love her regardless.

But, as she runs down and through and out the Musufastu back streets, warmth building behind her eyes, Himiko thinks about soulmates.

Your other half, that missing part of yourself, the only person you're ever supposed to be with, and hers is a hero. How could a hero, love her? Himiko has killed people, hurt people, stole and didn't care about any of the consequences.

Why would a hero-in-training want that to be their soulmate? Himiko can't fathom it, maybe it was a mistake, maybe she's dreaming. Any second now, she'll start awake to the sound of her middle school alarm, right?

But no, it's just another cruel joke, one that fate has been playing on her since the day she was born.

Her breath comes in harsh pants, sweat pouring off her limbs. It can't be, it won't work. The one person she's meant for can't be a hero.

No matter how much Himiko wants it.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Ochako wanders her way back to UA in a daze, vision swimming in front of her.

It all makes so much sense, she curses herself. How hadnt she figured it out sooner? It makes so much sense.

Her soulmate is Himiko Toga. 

A runaway, a 'villian' a girl who needs help. Someone who's meant for Ochako, someone who knows her better than anyone ever will. And she's a -

A what? A vigilante? Well, Ochako thinks, staring at wet pavement, vigilantes and heroes aren't really all that different and The League doesn't have any reported kills that aren't in self defence... she could make this work. Ochako just - won't tell anyone. Just for a little bit, just in case.

For Toga - Himikos. For Himikos protection, so Ochako can keep her safe, just for a little while. So she can have this secret, so she can know that actually, someone out there is made for her, built for her.

It hums through her veins, overshadowing the shock. She's happy. Almost impossibly so. Ochako has found her soulmate and she still wants more. She wants to ask Himiko about herself, she wants to watch her smile and tell her about every scar. Ochako wants to tell Himiko about all her scars, the one from the cat, when she fell out a tree, that time a car almost hit her. She wants to know all of it.

My soulmate, Ochako thinks again, a flush rising to fill her cheeks, my soulmate. That's like, big. She dreamed of this when she was younger, wondering what they were like, what they liked to do, what they looked like, if they wanted to be a hero too.

Ochako gets to the dorms and spends the rest of the night in a strange daze. The feeling of Himikos fingertips against her cheek, that strange rushing warmth, the way she looked at Ochako, scared and happy and wondering. Ochako wants to help her, she wants to sooth any feats she might have a tuck them away. She wants, she wants she wants.

But, as she stares out the window, listening to Present Mic go on about something or other, she realises that they might not work. Himiko is a vigilante and Ochako is a heros, forgetting the moral aspect of it all, how will they see each other? How will they meet up, does Himiko even want to meet up?

Sometimes, rarely, but sometimes, one soulmate doesn't want the other, and their scars go black. It happened to her dad, and he told Ochako that it was a long time ago, that he loves her mother and she loved him and that was enough for, but Ochako never believed him. She'd catch him looking out the window with this strange, lost expression on his face. Like he didn't know what to do.

But, that's why Ochako wants to be a hero. She became one to save her parents, to make them smile, but then she realised that there's so much more out there than just her parents, there are people everywhere who need help, people who need to smile. And, Ochako thinks, Himiko is one of them. If being a hero about saving people, why can't Ochako save Himiko?

She can't find a reason not too, but Ochako still spends the next few days thinking it over. How, where, why? Maybe she should talk to someone else, but what if they ask her to bring Himiko in? She can't do that, but she also can't not help the heroes.

This is all too - oh!

Ochako turns around at the tap on her shoulder, and sees Izuku standing behind her, frowning slightly.

"Hey, Uraraka?" He says, a worried note to his voice that makes Ochako stand up straighter. 

"Oh, hey Deku. Is something wrong?"

"Nothing! I - can I talk to you?"

"Um, yeah!" She says, smiling. Does he know? Does he know?Does he know?Does he know? Does he know?Does he know?Does he know? 

She knows the Deku isn't like most heroes, he'd listen to her. He'd try to understand, he'd try to help, but it still makes fear spark in her chest.

She follows him out by the school gates, shoving her hands into her pockets to keep from fidgeting.

"Are you okay?" he asks, eyebrows furrowed together with worry. Once-upon-a-time it probably would've made her heart flutter, but now it just makes her feel softly fond. Silly Deku, she thinks, smiling, always worrying about everyone but himself. "It's just - you've been really quiet for the last few days, and you dont look great - I mean you look great but you're super pale and there are really big bags under your eyes but I'm just a bit worried because ever since you came back from that mission you haven't been all yourself and-"

"Izuku!" Ochako laugh, nudging him with her arm. "Jeez, take a breath!" He flushes but does take a breath, still looking at her with concern.

"Are you okay, Ochako?" He asks again earnestly. "You can tell me anything."

"Well..." Ochako replies, lost in thought. To tell or not tell? She changes tactics. Be vauge.

"Izuku?"

"Yes?"

"What would you do if you found your soulmate, but they're not who you thought they'd be?"

Izuku flushes, and swallows. "W-why are you asking, um. Me?" He squeaks.

"I," tell him, Ochako. "Imetmysoulmateonmymission!" She says, all in a rush, the words clamouring to get out her mouth and in the process getting tangled and stuck together in one big knot.

"Oh," Izuku says, relaxing - wait. Why was he so tense before? "That's great, Uraraka! Who was it? Can I meet them?" is his soulmate someone unexpected too?

"Deku," Ochako says, squinting at him suspiciously. "Have you met your soulmate?"

He freezes, "No! I absolutely, definitely have not met my soulmate at all, haha, now where did you get that idea...ha." he rubs at the back of his neck, purposefully avoiding eye contact. 

"Oh my god." Ochako says, shook. How did she miss this too?! "You have! Who is it? Is it someone in our class - ugh, how did I not see this!!"

"Well - I um. What about your soulmate? You haven't told me about them."

"If I tell you who my soulmate is, will you tell me who your is?" She challenges, eyeing him a little nervously. It's Izuku, she reminds herself, he's, like, the nicest person ever. He won't do anything to hurt you. Or Himiko.

"...okay." He mumbles after a minute, still flushing pink.

"One... two... three!

Toga Himiko!"

"It's Kacchan!"

They stare at each other in absolute, silence. Bakugou, Ochako thinks. Of course it's Bakugou, jeez, I need to be better at observation!

Izuku blinks at her, once, twice. He opens his mouth and shuts it twice. "A vigilante?" He says, weakly, after a few minutes of painful silence. 

"Yeah, well," Ochako mumbles, fussing with her hair. "Yours is Bakugou. How long have you known? Haven't you known him since you were babies?"

"Well," she can sense a ramble coming on. "I think it has something to do with compatibility, and since me and Kacchan didn't get on very well in middle school, our scars didn't light up because we didn't register to each other as matches. But the other day, I saw one of Kacchans scars and it matches one from my soulmate so - wait! You're getting me off topic - Toga. Himiko."

Damn it, plan foiled!

"What happened, Ochako? What did she say, how did you know, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know, Izuku!" She moans, slumping against the wall. "She's a vigilante! What am I going to do..."

"You have to go see her again," he says, fire lit in his eyes. She's reminded of all the times he talked about soulmates in that dreamy, hopefull way that kids think about it. Izuku is such a hopeless romantic. "You have to, Ochako!"

"Yeah, but she-"

"It's doesn't matter!" He declares, setting his hands on her shoulders and looking into Ochakos eyes. She feels like she's being cut open and dissected, like Izuku is x-raying her brain to see every thought she's ever had. "You're made for each other, you'll figure something out."

"But what if she turns to villiany?"

"Then you convince her not too. You're soulmates," he stresses, "Built for each other. She'll listen to you."

"Okay, let's say I do go see her, how will I even find her? Mususfastu is massive!"

"You'll have all day and all night."

"What? Izuku, I have to go to the dorms-"

"I'll cover for you!" He blurts, blinking rapidly. "Go, go now and you'll have ages to find her, and you're soulmates. You'll know."

He pushes her towards the gates and Ochako stumbles, and looks up at him. "I know you're not sure about it, Ochako," he says "but the only way to figure it out is to talk to her! Go! Find her!"

Ochako goes.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

"Dabi?" Himiko calls, quietly. 

It's been a few days since... that, and Himiko hasn't told anyone in the Leauge about it. What? Sue her, she just wants to keep this to herself for a while. Its been a while since Himiko has had something that she can call hers, she wants to hang onto it, just for a while.

It's late now and everyone in the Leauge has gathered in one of their many, safe-houses. Himiko doesn't like this one all too much, it's a basement under an abandoned apartment complex. Himiko has never liked being underground, something about all that weight being above you, able to crush and suffocate if even one structure failed.. ugh. (There's also something about being imprisoned - again)

"Dabi?" She calls again, cold kitchen tile against her bare feet. She can't sleep, and she knows that he never can, unless she's extra unlucky this time and hes actually gone back to his flat and she's all alone a-

"What." Comes his flat voice, Himiko relaxes. So he is here. 

"I can't sleep." she winds her way into the kitchen, finding his lanky frame leaning against the counter top, hands buried in his pockets.

"And why," he drawls, opening and shutting a cabinet. "Is that my problem?"

"'Cause," Himiko shrugs, hops up onto the counter, shuffling back until she's comfortable. Dabi gives her a a look, but she ignores him, biting at her bottom lip. "Dabs?"

He grunts. Aren't you a chatterbox today, Himiko thinks, rolling her eyes. 

"Do you know who your soulmate is?"

Dabi doesn't freeze, per say, but he definitely didn't like that question, slowly stopping his rampage through the cabinets to look at Himiko.

"Why you asking?" She shrugs, putting her hands under her thighs just for something to do.

"Just curious."

"That killed the cat, y'know."

"Well I'm not a cat. So, you gonna tell me?"

Dabi glares at Himiko, but it's his Thinking Glare, so she doesn't take it to heart.

"I remember having a few scars from them when I was younger," he begins slowly, running his tongue over his teeth. "But I don't really have anywhere to get them now."

"I wonder what their scars look like." Himiko says, thinking out loud. Dabi stiffens a little bit, pursing his lips.

"I don't know," he says through gritted teeth. Oh, Himiko realises, he feels bad about it, change the subject.

"I met my soulmate the other day." not like that Himiko! Ah, fuck! Her mouth just moved all on it's own, spilling out the words she'd been bottling up. 

"Really?" Dabi says, raising an eyebrow, looking suprised. "Why didn't you say?"

"Well," she starts, stops, sucking her lower lip into her mouth. "Itwasaherostudent." She says, in a rush, watching Dabis every move, more out of instinct than being actually scared. (Shes never been scared of Dabi... and that kinda scares her too)

He looks at her, eyes squinted, and he studies her face, trying to find any glint of humour. He finds none, and his face goes slack, eyes wide. 

"Fuck, crazy." He says with meaning. "What happened?"

"I touched her cheek," Himiko says, spurred on by the fact that he hasn't had a bad reaction yet. "And she lit up - it was shining right through her clothes. And then I ran away."

"Why?"

Himiko frowns at him. It sounds like a joke or a trick question, but when she looks him in the face, Dabi looks completely sincere. Or sincere as he can be with all the... yknow. 

"She's a hero, Dabs. She might - bring me in. Put me in jail. And even if she didn't, how would it even work? We're on two different sides."

"Actually," Dabi starts. "You said she was a hero student, and really, heroes and vigilantes aren't that different, being a vigilante just means being a hero without a licence. There have been heroes who were vigilantes first."

"Really?"

"Yeah. So, I don't really see the problem. You just gotta go talk to her, figure this all out."

"How would I find her though?"

"Go look where you first met her," he shrugs, "since you two are soulmates, your gonna tend to have the same kinda ideas, so she'll probably be looking there too. And if she isn't, go find the dorms. Know what school she's at?"

"Yeah, UA."

"Easy, Kurogiri could warp you there, done"

"Why are you so..."

Dabi raises an eyebrow. "So, what? 

"So..." she searches for the right word. "Happy. To help me find her? I thought you hated heroes."

"I do," Dabi says, hands clenched tightly around a plate. "It's... complicated. I'll tell you another time, now go away. Make out with whoever "she" is." He pushes her.

"Okay!" Himiko shrieks, toppling off the counter and landing in a crumpled heap on the floor. "Okay, I'm going! I'm going!"

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Ochako pads around Musufastu backstreets until day settles back into night. She's growing hopeless, her chances of seeing Himiko dwindle as every hour passes. This is dumb, she thinks, shaking her head. Deku has always been such a hopeless romantic, I should have never listened to him.

She considers going back, it's dark out, and Ochako keeps looking behind herself, the night and the emptiness of the streets sending cold trails down her spine. It's silly - Ochako bets she could beat half of the people who would try to attack her, but still. She worries.

Rounding a corner, her breath stutters, heart leaping up to her throat like it wants to look too.

Blonde hair whipping around a corner. Ochakos mouth opens without her permission and she calls out, "Himiko!" 

Immediately, she slaps a hand over her face, eyes darting around to check if anyone's heard her, bones trembling. After a moment of no-one coming onto the street to try and beat her up, Ochako wipes her clammy palms on her skirt and debates whether she should run after Himiko... last time it didn't go so well, but there's this harsh, angry tug in her chest, steering her towards the alleyway. Ochako sighs, and starts to jog towards Himiko, biting at her lip and running through scenarios in her head.

Slowing the closer she gets to the mouth of the alley, Ochako wrings her hands, messing with her hair and tugging at her coat she threw on to conseal her UA uniform. Her breath comes out shaky and she tucks a strand of brown hair behind her ear. Ochako takes a trembling step into the alley, holding her breath.

Himiko is facing away from her, her signature half-up half-down hair facing Ochako. Ochako clears her throat, and Himiko doesn't jump, but also doesn't turn to face her. 

"Uhm.." Ochako says, all the things she wanted to say dissolving now she's coming face-to-face with her soulmate. People dream of this day, Ochako has dreamed of this day, and now she can't even find the words she spent so long thinking of. "H-hi?"

The way she says it, Ochakos voice tipping up towards the end, makes it sound like a question. She curses herself, cheeks flaming. 

From her position at the end of the alley, Ochako has a clear sight of Himiko back, the uneven, fast-fast-slow way her body heaves. She takes an uncertain step forward, ready to step back if she needs to.

Himiko makes no move to stop her, she doesn't even twitch, though there's an almost imperceptible relax of her shoulders, back un-hunching slightly. Ochako takes another step forward, with more confidence.

This time - since she isn't so preoccupied - Ochako can really take the time to feel. The golden scars across her body buzz the closer she gets to Himiko, there's a tug in her chest, more insistent the closer Ochako walks to her. She chews on her lip, nervous, so, so nervous. Is it normal to be this nervous to see your soulmate, or is it because her job and your job almost contradict each other, and the last time you saw her, she ran away so fast you didnt have the time to call out?

Maybe. Or Ochako could just be in a super super specific set of circumstances. Who knows?

"Himiko?" Ochako says quieter, the gentleness of her voice suprising even her. Everything about her seems to soften around Himiko, her voice, her muscles, her morals-

Ochako raises trembling fingers that connect to a trembling hand and that leads to a shaking wrist and arm. She sets her fingers - minus her pinkie - onto Himikos shoulder, and though it isn't skin-to-skin contact, Ochako still silently gasps at the warmth she can feel through her coat. It makes her think about what Himiko skin would feel like, not just her fingertips that caressed Ochako cheek for a second, but her arms, arm thighs, the smooth, pale skin of her stomach. Would she be paler there? Warmer?

Himiko shifts on her feet, Ochako hears her open her mouth, close it again. She turns to face Ochako, and its like the sun has turned to look at her.

Before, when they first met, Ochako hadn't had the chance to actually look at Himiko, to take in the slant and hue of her eyes, to watch the way her eyelashes brush her cheek bones, to memorise the shade of her hair, not a rich, bright blonde, something darker, a little grayer, but no less beautiful. Her pupils are sharp, like a cats, a straight slit down her yellow iris, but the black seem to start expanding when she looks at Ochako. It fills her with something so sweet it makes her molars ache.

Ochakos blinks, breath stuck in her throat, eyes latching onto every detail they can, Himikos lips part to speak, the light pink parting to expose the white of her teeth, and the edge of her canines, only the sharp point of them visable.

Ochako is so-

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Pretty, Himiko thinks, feeling dazed and drunk and high. On adrenaline, on crack on weed - whatever, everything in existence. On Ochako, on her brown hair, on the way her eyelashes flutter, on the flush of blood to her cheeks, of the sent of her, intoxicating and so familiar.

They're both trembling, two girls in the middle of the night, two soulmates finally colliding, a hero and a vigilante having an unlikely meeting. Two girls, two soulmates, one hero, one vigilante.

Himiko blinks and regrets it. Ochako dips put her sight for the second it takes her eyes to close. A second she could have spent gazing at the curve of Ochakos jaw.

"Hi," Himiko breathes, barely audible. "You're-" her throat clogs.

"Your soulmate." Ochako finishes, a fire flicking to life in her pupils. Determination. Himiko watches her chest rise, fall. "Why did you run away last time?" She asks gently. Her eyes are so big, so beautiful.

"I..." Himiko stops looking at Ochakos eyes, if she kept staring into them for much longer, she wouldn't be able to talk at all. "I was scared."

"Of me?"

"No!" Himiko yelps, eyes darting to Ochakos face, the furrow between her eyebrows, the soft frown on her pink lips. "No, not you. But... you're a hero. Heroes and vigilantes don't mix."

"We could change that."

"How!?" Himiko says, throwing her arms wide and taking a step back. She needs space - so she can think. "I'm- I'm not gonna become a hero if that's what you mean, I couldn't it-"

"I didn't mean that!" Ochako says, her mouth set in a firm line. She takes a step forward, backing Himiko against the wall. There's no-where to go now, no space to have, no where to think away from Ochako and her eyes and hair and -

"I meant," she continues "that we could find a way to make this work. We don't have to tell anyone - or I don't have to tell anyone. Any pro heroes, anyone who will tell. I can keep a secret, Himiko, and - I-" 

Himiko has the horrid feeling that whatever Ochako is about to say, will rock her world, will turn everything she knows about herself upside-down. She doesn't want to hear it, she's happy, comfortable in her little reality. The feeling shakes at her heart, biting into the meat of it. Himiko doesn't want to hear this and she looks around frantically for an exit. There's not a clear one, not with Ochako standing so close in front of her. Himiko screws her eyes shut, thinks, I'm sorry, and shoves violently past Ochako, rushing out into the street.

Her feet slam against the ground, she's going - going where? Fuck - Himiko didn't think of that. She just needed to get away, away from Ochako, to somewhere she could think without brown eyes and hair invading her every thought. 

She knows that she's being childish, but she doesn't care. Maybe Himiko wants to keep believing in her stereotypes about heroes, how they never help anyone but themselves. It keeps her sane. She's believed it almost her whole life, to lose it would be admitting she's been wrong, that maybe, Himiko was just unlucky. 

With a start, she realises she's the back at the place she first met Ochako. It makes her stop in the middle of the street, the adrenaline wearing off as she stares down the dimly lit path.

She can hear Ochakos footsteps behind her, hear the second when her lips part, Himiko shudders, she's attuned to every action Ochako makes, like its Himikos own private radio station. 

She can't hear what Ochako has to say, her heart is hammering in her ears but there's nowhere to go, it's a dead end. Himiko spins around, but its too late, Ochako is standing behind her at the opening of the street.

"Himiko," she pleads, taking a step forward. Her chest heaves, though Himiko can tell it's not from the running. Her cheeks are flushed, her eyes big and wide and desperate. Her heart feels like there's a fishing hook dug into the meat of it, and the string it's attached to is Ochako. "Please, just listen to me!"

"No!" She yells, balling up her fists, ugly heat blooming behind her eyes, so unlike the warmth she feels from Ochako. "Don't you dare!" Himiko moves to run past her again, to just get away.

But Ochako is a hero student. A hero student at UA, the best school for heroics in the country, maybe in the world. She snags Himiko by her arm, tugging her close. Himiko struggles - she's nothing if not stubborn - tries to push away but Ochako snags her wrists, pushing her onto the ground, legs straddling her waist.

Himikos breath comes too-fast, she can't keep up with it, her chest heaves, up and down. They're so close - so close. Himiko can count her eyelashes, the strands of hair in her eyebrows, the depth of her eyes. Every time she exhales, the breath ghosts over Himikos face and neck, flushing it warm.

"Just," Ochako murmurs, eyes so, so gentle. So sweet. "Listen. To me. Please?"

In her position, it's not like Himiko can say no. Her wrists are held above her head, her legs are being sat on, there's no-where for her to go. But, really. With Ochakos eyes looking at her like that, all gentle, deep, sweetness, with her sent crowding around Himiko, every inhale bring a fresh burst of it, with every part she's touching feeling so warm, would she ever say no?

She doesn't nod, doesn't say yes, but she doesn't protest either.

"When I was thirteen, one of my friends told me about you," Ochako says quietly, her voice for Himiko, and Himiko only. "I think they saw something about you on the news and they were worried. After that, I couldn't stop thinking about you, I read every article I could find and I watched every news report there was about you. Every picture I saw of you make me blush. I couldn't get you out of my head. 

And... Himiko. I remember a night where... where I saw the scars happen. They were so beautiful, but they made me so sad I cried myself to sleep that night. But when I woke up... I was so determined. I didn't know it was you then, but I knew that I needed to become a hero, to save you. 

And another time, I was walking home, and I saw your missing poster. It was so old, and I didn't even see anything about it on the news. There wasn't anyone looking for you. I felt like the only person who cared. I wanted to become a hero for you as well, but you and my soulmate were the same person. I became a hero for my parents, and for you.

We had a lesson about vigilantes a few months later, and my teacher set us an assignment where we had to go out and see if we could find a vigilante or a vigilante group to observe. He told us to figure out our own opinions on vigilantism, to write a report about it, and I was assigned to Musufastu. I saw you that night - it was like seeing the sun. And then you ran away, and I didn't know what to do with myself.

My friend, Izuku Midoriya, convinced me to come out tonight, to try and find you. And I did. And you're... you're so much cuter than you were on your missing poster, or any pictures of you on the news."

Himiko blinks, tears finally overflowing out her eyes, pouring down her cheeks. She gasps in a shuddering breath, lips trembling. Ochako relaxes her grip of Himikos wrists, and Himiko uses this new freedom to brush her knuckles against Ochakos cheekbone, warmth flooding the skin. Ochako inhales sharply, closing her eyes and leaning into the touch, her eyelashes fluttering. 

"It's not coincidence I found you, we're soulmates. Built for each other, we can figure it out, we will figure it out, even if I have to hide it for the rest of my life. I've been chasing you my entire life, Himiko. You've been my only constant."

"Ochako," Himiko sobs out, voice hitching. She looks up, vision blurred by tears. Her soulmate. She was wrong, there's someone who loves her, a hero, no less. A hero who became one, to save her. Stupid, blood-sucking Himiko. "...you think I'm cute?"

Ochako laughs wetly, leaning her weight off Himiko, sitting back onto her haunches. Himiko raises herself up onto her elbows, a shaky smile pulling at her lips as she watches Ochako laugh. There's a warm glow in her chest, and it's not from contact this time.

"Is that what you focused on?" She says through a smile, her big eyes locked onto Himikos every move. 

"...no." Himiko admits, quiter. "You... you're a hero, for me?"

"Yeah. Every time I saw a new scar, it made me even more determined to help you. Will you?"

"Will I?" Ochako snorts, smiles. Her eyes crinkle.

"Will you let me save you?"

"Yes," Himiko says, beaming even as more tears leak from her eyes. "I will."