Chapter 6 Games

To Kurogiri it almost seemed like Tomura was postponing all of their plans to destroy the heroes. Reason? Well it was obvious to anyone that the young man wanted to keep the new addition under his control. He spent a considerable amount of time with Izuku, sometimes talking and sometimes just being close to him. It was a foreign sight to behold, at least to see Tomura acting like that. The man was usually playing a game by himself, growing frustrated by the second until he disintegrated something nearby. Now Tomura seemed to have mellowed out, using Izuku as a catharsis for his pent up anger and childish tantrums. Izuku, on the other hand, seemed to be fine being used as a vehicle for the older boy's desires. What their Sensei had done to him was pure craftsmanship – truly something to behold.

"So I was thinking we can work on making a pathway towards the school, maybe underground. We could be right below them and they'll never notice, but then I guess we would have to worry about certain quirks like Mezou Shouji's and Kyoka Jirou's that could possible hear us huh?" Izuku had been rambling out different tactic and strategies to Tomura who lied down on the dirtied sofa, legs up on the arm rest. He had Father's hand on his face, his own hands folding on top of his stomach. To anyone passing by, Tomura looked like he was asleep. In actuality, he was very intent on listening to Izuku's voice.

"The best course of action might be spreading them all out in locations that don't accustom their quirks, but even then I feel they're well adapted to changes in environment…" Izuku rubbed his face, scratching out something on his notebook before realizing he could've easily erased the writing instead. He took the pink eraser and began furiously erasing the work.

"Maybe it would be better to lure all of them away and take them all at once, it would save time and I'm sure we can do it if we brought them to our terrain…" He continued to mumble, now mostly to himself as he scribbled in his notebook. Tomura reached up and took ahold of Izuku's wrist, one index finger off the skin.

"Enough. You're over thinking." Tomura let go of Izuku's wrist, causing the boy to sigh in annoyance rather than relief.

Izuku turned towards Tomura, looking down at him. "Do you have any ideas? Did you even hear anything I said?" He asked, a small smirk spreading on his face. It was met with a pap to the head from Tomura.

"Of course I did. I think right now you need some new perspectives." Tomura hoisted himself up to a sitting position, scratching the back of his head lightly, not enough to break skin. "I think you've been frying your brain out being locked up in here, probably our fault for making you stay put." His hand went up to scratch his neck but stopped himself, remembering that Izuku was there.

Izuku hummed thoughtfully, leaning back and stretching his arms back. He rolled his head to stretch out his neck and pulled up his notebook, reading it over. His eyebrows furrowed, re-reading what he wrote in the rushed chicken scratch on the paper. "What do you mean? Can I go out then?" His face beamed at the thought.

Tomura sighed, nodding his head. "Yeah I think you should go out, but I'm going with you this time."

A questionable look came from Izuku's face while Kurogiri made his curiosity unnoticed. Tomura stood up from the sofa and walked over to Kurogiri.

"Take us to Hosu Arcade Walk." He took Father's hand off his face and slid it into his hoodie's pocket. Izuku got himself up and ran over to Tomura's side.

"Wait really? We can go out?" The excitement was apparent on Izuku's face – he almost looked like a child that was given an all sugar buffet. Tomura nearly snorted at the sight but headed towards the bartender.

"Kurogiri, we're going out. We'll be back whenever." It was a command. The bartender only nodded in acknowledgement as Izuku ran towards the two, nearly jumping up and down.

The warp portal was out in front of them, Tomura rubbing his neck gently as to not scratch it. Izuku thanked Kurogiri and walked through the portal. Before the older boy could go in, Kurogiri placed down the glass loudly on the table. "Make sure you keep him in check. We don't want another incident to happen. Are you sure this is okay?"

Tomura only nodded his head, placing his hoodie over his head. "Yeah yeah, it'll be fine. I'll look after the brat." The word almost sounded endearing. Kurogiri nodded once more as Tomura entered through the warp gate.

-

The boardwalk was lively, despite it being the evening. There was a wooden walk way towards different carnival stands as well as entrances to arcades. On top of that, there were multiple carnival rides that operated by locals either using mechanics and even the quirks of those operators. It was a nice boardwalk where people went to enjoy themselves. The only reason Tomura knew the place is because they had a certain vintage game in the back of one of the arcades that he liked to play. (He filled up the high score rankings rather easily.)

Izuku stood next to him, dressed like any other teenager who was going out for a night of fun with friends. A plain hoodie and T-shirt (for some reason had the kanji that said T-Shirt?) and jeans. No one knew that the two of them were villains, people who sought to end the age of heroes. The green-haired boy beamed at everything, taken by all of the lights and different kind of games there were.

"We're seriously here? Going to play games?" He nearly laughed at the fact. Tomura raised an eyebrow, stuffing his hands into his hoodie pockets.

"Yeah. You're paying though." Tomura looked down at the boy whose face dropped.

"W-Wait! Me? I didn't bring my wallet! Actually I don't think I even had a wallet to begin with either, I actually don't know what I've been doing I mean sometimes Kurogiri gives me money but he didn't give me any now so I don't have anything on me, oh man I'm sorry Tomu-chan we came all this way and now we can't-" Izuku was interrupted by loud laughter. Tomura covered his face with his own hand, a pinky up but began snorting into his sleeve.

"Shut the fuck up you idiot, I was joking. C'mon." He took ahold of Izuku's arm with his other hand and dragged him to one of the carnival stalls despite his protests of betrayal. The game was a simple one, it was throwing the ball to hit one of the cartoon paper monsters on top of tables. The stall had a sign that read "NO QUIRK CHEATING" to which Izuku found rather amusing. He quickly scanned at the prizes that were decorating the exterior of the stall. Some All Might plushes (no thanks!) but there was some cute animal ones that Izuku noticed instead. A certain stuffed animal caught Izuku's eyes: it was a cow with a mad face on it. Its eyes were low and its body looked like it was slumping. For some reason, it reminded him of Tomu-chan.

"Let me do this one!" Izuku grinned, looking at Tomura.

"Fine, whatever." Tomura took out a small pouch, handing the stall operator the money. The operator gave Izuku three balls, all of them worn out and soft. He took ahold of one of them and threw it up in the air to catch. Izuku wanted to test the ball and what material it was made out of.

Izuku was about to mumble once more holding the ball in his hand and his other hand on his chin. "Alright so I only have three shots and to win a prize I have to hit everything down with no mistakes. That seems fine, I don't need my quirk to hit something with precision... But there's got to be some trick to this, obviously these games are rigged for everyone so I just need to figure out what the trick is going to be, but I don't have a test throw to figure it out so-"

A fist tapped the top of Izuku's green mop of hair. Tomura stared at him with dull, tired eyes. "Fucking just throw the ball." Izuku flushed with embarrassment and nodded his head. "O-Okay!"

Izuku stood in front of the stall, taking a deep breath before he aimed the ball, tossing it with his regular strength. WHAM! He hit the first monster! Okay cool, next ball. Izuku shifted to the left and aimed, tossing the ball and WHAPOW! Another direct hit! Now it was the last ball, final chance. Izuku took another deep breath, focusing on the target before him. He threw the ball, it was on the course to hit the final target. Izuku didn't notice the stall operator's grin, especially when the ball hit the back of the stall.

"Oh, too bad kid, here's a consolation prize." The stall operator handed him a lollipop. There was a yellow smiley face printed onto the wrapper. Izuku took it and frowned, looking at the stall and what had happened. Surely it was the operator's quirk that affected the ball in some way but it happened too quickly for Izuku to see. He couldn't really prove that the stall operator had anything to do with it. Tomura; however, had caught wind of what was going on. He was watching Izuku the entire time and the ball had somehow gone off course from its intended path.

"Move." Tomura stepped up, pushing Izuku back. He handed more money to the stall operator, taking the balls with a few fingers. Izuku was rather perplexed. How would he throw the ball with only a few fingers? He never really saw Tomura do anything like that, so he was rather interested in how he would go about the game.

Tomura took ahold of the ball with all of his fingers. It disintegrated and fell into pieces of ash.

"HEY!" The operator looked at what was once his ball.

"Sorry, my bad." He took ahold of the other ball and tossed it really hard towards the monsters, the ball disintegrating before it could reach anything. The stall operator was getting angrier, stepping directly in front of the game.

"Listen kid, give me that ball, get the hell out of here-" Before he finished, Tomura tossed the ball at his face with only a few of his fingers.

"Whoops." Before Tomura could grin and challenge the stall operator, Izuku took ahold of his arm and dragged him away, turning the corner. Tomura was about to argue but saw Izuku holding the large stuffed cow in his arms. His brows furrowed, puzzled for a second as Izuku continued to peek over the corner to see if the stall operator was looking for them.

"Did you steal that?" Tomura asked, staring in the eyes of the sullen cow.

"Um, yeah! The booth was rigged anyways!" Izuku grinned, handing him the stuffed animal. "Here, I wanted to get it for you, it totally reminded me of you." He laughed, Tomura taking the plush cow with his wrists. He stared at it, frown mirroring the animal's.

"Fuck you." Tomura pressed his face into the cow's head, feeling the softness while hiding the smile that crept onto his pale face.

-

The two had chosen not to do any of the stall games, seeing as they all were rigged one way or another. One stuffed animal was good enough, plus what the two of them really enjoyed was the arcade games. The fighting games were familiar, easy to play and good when it comes to two players. While Izuku was great at tactics, he couldn't beat Tomura when it came to anything virtual.

"Tomu-chan I don't think this is fair at all, you always win!" Izuku pouted, watching as the screen blacked out with the phrase "PLAYER TWO WINS" crawling from left to right. Tomura only shrugged.

"Fucking get better." That left Izuku with an even deeper pout.

"When was the last time we played an arcade game together?" Izuku tapped his chin, thinking back in his memory bank. Tomura stiffened up, knowing that he wouldn't have an answer to that since it's… never happened before.

"Shut up, stop being a sore loser let's play something else." Tomura reached up to scratch his neck before Izuku slapped his hand down.

"Want to play Dance Dance Revolution?" Izuku pointed, his face beaming.

"No." Tomura began moving to the opposite direction of the dance machine before Izuku tugged at his arm and pulled him towards it. Tomura kept his stance wide, keeping himself grounded. No. He did not want to play DDR.

Izuku continued to pull, coming to a standstill as Tomura was ready to slide onto the ground to prevent the other from dragging him. All of a sudden, Izuku had lifted Tomura by his midsection, carrying him over to the DDR machine. He placed the villain on the right side while he threw quarters into the machine. Tomura stood there frozen in place, the cow sitting in front next to the machine, as he stared at the song selection screen. He was ready to turn and walk the fuck away but saw Izuku bouncing up and down, stretching his legs on his side of the machine. If Tomura left him, who knows what stupid U.A student would show up and trigger some dumb fight in the middle of the arcade? It would be better if he stayed and watched at least, but there was NO way he'd be playing the dumb movement game.

A pop song was selected, electro beats pumped out of the machine as Izuku began moving his feet to the corresponding arrows. He looked to be on a higher difficulty with the amount of arrows flying up and down the screen Tomura, on his side, only had a few arrows moving from the bottom of the screen, all displaying "MISS" whenever it passed the top gauge.

"It's been forever since I've played this!" Izuku laughed, his face breaking out into a grin as he held onto the red bar behind him to hit all of the fast arrows. Tomura couldn't help but notice how much of an idiot the kid looked, but why was he smiling himself?

Tomura stared at the screen and slowly tapped a foot on the arrow when it was close to the top arrows. His "good" and "almost" weren't as impressive as Izuku's "perfect" and "marvelous." Tomura stopped moving his own feet to just watch Izuku move on the steel platform. He couldn't tell if the boy was using his quirk to power his legs up to catch the speed of the game, but either way it was something impressive. A few other arcade passersby had made their way over to watch the performance, leaving Tomura would a sense of anxiety on his stomach. Though they weren't looking at him, they were all staring at Izuku. The younger boy was taking the limelight, not what anyone had intended with the new dynamic. Sensei had given Izuku to him as a gift, an apprentice, a sidekick even, so why was he shining above him?

The anxiety in his stomach had churned into frustration and then detest. Why was everyone's eyes on him? He was nothing but a brainwashed kid who got himself kidnapped. He was pathetic, an idiot, something to be disposed. Tomura reached over to grab ahold of Izuku's arm with the full intent of using all his fingers. Right when he was about to wrap his fingers around the forearm, Izuku quickly stopped moving and took ahold of the man's wrist, keeping it off him.

"Are you okay, Tomu-chan?" Izuku had stopped everything he was doing, letting the game continue until it ends after too many misses. His green eyes are soft and full of concern, Tomura can't help but look away. Fuck. Shit. Every time Tomura looks at Izuku and his bright, green eyes he can't help but see something he's never seen before. He didn't know any words to describe it, but the feelings inside of him was something entirely new.

"Nothing, I'm tired. Let's go." Izuku didn't seem to be bothered by losing his game, only nodding and following Tomura outside. The crowd had dispersed by then but the anxiety was still simmering inside of Tomura's stomach. He headed out the arcade before realizing what he had left inside.

"Wait, fuck I left the dumb cow." Before Izuku could say anything, Tomura made a U-turn straight back into the arcade. He headed directly towards the DDR machine to come face to face with a small boy who had picked up the cow, looking victorious. Izuku followed behind and leaned down to the child.

"Hey there, we left our cow here, thanks for giving it back!" Izuku grinned, holding his hands out but the kid only grinned back and stuck out his tongue.

"No way! Finder's keeper!" The kid looked back at his other friends, all of them looking to be around the age of six.

"But it's our's, and if we could have it back now-"

"Get out of here stinkface!" Izuku blinked, looking at this young child who had such a potty mouth. He couldn't help but be reminded of a certain someone… someone he detested with all his being. His fists began to ball, teeth barring as they were pulled tightly.

"Listen kid…" Before Izuku could continue his thought, the child held up a hand and popping noises crackled at Izuku's face.

"Go away or I'll use my cool quirk on you!" The other boys behind the kid cheered him on, but something had snapped in Izuku. He quickly took ahold of the boy's wrist, pushing it down. The child let go of the stuffed cow and began to cry out.

"Listen here you brat you shut up right now or I'll snap this hand off." Izuku's face became dark, Tomura was more than surprised to see him act like this to a complete stranger, a child no less. A grin cracked onto his face as he watched the child shrink back in fear.

"You remind me of someone I hate, but I'm letting you know now that if you don't stop being a piece of shit someone's going to kill you." It looked like a promise, as Izuku had promised himself to kill Katsuki Bakugou long ago. The kid only nodded his head hurriedly and his wrist was freed. The boys quickly ran out of the arcade, screaming their heads off. Tomura almost thought he saw a puddle where one of the boys were standing at.

Izuku picked up the cow stuffed animal and handed it to Tomura before standing. "I'm feeling a bit tired myself, we should definitely get going." He gave the older boy a small smile, though his eyes looked sullen and dark. Tomura nodded and the two of them headed out of the arcade and towards the alley they both arrived at.

They walked in silence for a while, standing in the dark alley as the sun began to creep below the horizon. The two of them stared at it for a while before Izuku sudden spoke up.

"Thanks for taking me out today. I know I'm not allowed to anymore since I got caught, but I had a lot of fun." Izuku smiled softly, thought it looked strained. Tomura could only nod his head as he texted Kurogiri on his flip phone, the cow resting between his hip and other arm. The sun began falling underneath the ocean's line, bringing in the darkness of the night. The warp gate opened and the two of them walked in.

Izuku had always slept on the couch since their new hideout was a small, cramped room in between alleys. Something was different today, as there was an object on top of Izuku's face that was soft. Opening his eyes, he slowly lifted what was on top of his face off him, blinking. He came face to face with a stuffed sheep with wide eyes and matted wool. He blinked, squinting at it.

"It reminded me of you."

Turning his head, Izuku saw Tomura leaning over his cow plush on the other sofa playing an online game on his phone. Izuku could only grin, bringing the sheep toy under his arms and went back to sleep.

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