4

Midoriya's POV

It was kind of embarrassing to find out from Kaminari that Dadizawa had followed Kacchan and I on our date to make sure we were alright. Then he found out that we were not supposed to know and well, one melted down, and a brain fried Kaminari later.

It's Sunday and we were relaxing watching TV in the common area and Kacchan had fallen asleep while I was dozing in and out. I kept seeing them, all of their bodies every time I closed my eyes. For some reason it wasn't as bad at night, maybe because Kacchan was actually spooning me most of the time, just holding me close. But it's not even lunch time and everytime I start to doze off I see one of the people screaming out for mercy. Their screams seemed to echo in my ears all the time.

But there is nothing worse than when we fell asleep and woke up in different rooms, like our first night back. Sometimes my nightmares are that all this is just a dream and I'm still only around six years old and Kacchan and I are tied up getting burned by Aunty again. That we will never be safe, that we will never be loved.

I try to shake the thought from my head, maybe some cocoa? I look over at my lover, yes waking up to cocoa is an amazing idea. I smile at the thought of him loving it and stand, careful not to wake him up and sneak into the kitchen to make a couple cups of instant cocoa. I even add a dollop of whipped cream on top before bringing the two piping hot mugs back to the coffee table and setting them down.

Kacchan is having another nightmare, he is flinching in his sleep and his eyes seem to be moving a mile a minute. I take a deep breath and slowly charge my fingers and rub his nose then slowly move out. I see him relax under my touch and he seems to snuggle with me as a reflex. Good I made the nightmare go away.

I sat comfortably in his lap while I sip my hot cocoa resigned to the fact that Kacchan would probably sleep until his was cold. That didn't stop how good it felt to just be in his arms, before I really knew it my cocoa was empty and I set my mug on the table happy enough to watch my favorite movie, 'The Rise of All Might' snuggled into my lover's arms. I blinked my eyes.

***

I'm at the hideout and Two is standing next to me. We were waiting to finally hear back from 'god' about our next set of orders. They said it was time to start weeding them out. We couldn't go straight to the big guys like Toga or Twice or whatever but we needed to get our names out there. One and Two are here and we will make them pay for crossing us.

They gave us our list and the conditions they needed to meet before we could begin. This wouldn't be the first time we tortured someone but it would be the first time doing it on the Hero Association's orders. We wanted to do well but at the same time that meant we had to be bad, very bad.

The first person we picked was Vee. She was a serial murderer who kept getting let go because the witnesses would disappear right before the trail. Her quirk was simple, she had gills. Her crimes didn't really require her quirk but more than once she would use water to get away. She was in her late 30's, maybe early 40's, white skin, purple hair and bird-like yellow eyes.

Honestly I have no idea how the League managed to get her, she was an old kind of criminal. The kind that thought the world owed her something. Like nothing was her fault, it was the world's fault simply because she was alive. I looked up at Two; his green lizard-like skin seemed somehow pale in the afternoon light. His eyes a deep green from the contacts he wore, his hair a stop sign red. I'm actually glad he went with red for his hair, it hurt me more than I cared to admit that I couldn't see his eyes. His beautiful bright eyes that seemed to light up with fire everytime the sun hit them.

The intel we had gathered said she would be here convenient for us considering how close to our base it was. We wouldn't even need to cross a street. She was camping out in the middle of nowhere because she didn't trust the League. I mean kudos for her but that didn't stop the fact that she has murdered dozens of people and maybe a bunch of witnesses each as well. I see her and let out a low growl stopping Two.

"I see her," he answered. Even though we don't want to be caught by anyone by some chance, if we are, we have to remain in our covers. I was One and he was Two. A car passed by on the street and I could see my blue skin absorbing the light rather than reflecting all that much, my hair on the other hand was not much help blond, very blond and wavy instead of curly, so it seemed longer than usual. It's really annoying but now isn't the time to complain.

We quickly follow the woman and I click my tongue and point up, Two nods and we climb up. The trees are thick here, large and close together. I'm pretty sure most of the lower limbs were larger than my torso, not that it mattered so long as they didn't give us away. We walked the trees carefully to stick to the thicker branches and stayed a few trees behind her to keep her from noticing our footsteps.

We followed her for what felt like hours but was only really a few minutes. She walked until we saw a tent in the distance and we stopped. Something isn't right, she shouldn't be leading us directly to her tent. Not if she was really as paranoid as what we had gathered about her. So why was she doing it now? I look over at a Two and see a set of yellow owl-like eyes nearby.

My heart was in my throat but I couldn't say anything, even if I was allowed to, I couldn't shout a warning to him in time. I shot a blade at him only for Two to freeze seeing my action. He looked behind him when he heard a soft thud and saw the large body of a man with a mutant quirk. He looked mostly like an owl but he was human sized. I tried to slowly take a deep breath but it wasn't working.

I just killed someone! I killed a man without even thinking twice. I mean it wasn't the first time but I mean this wasn't the same was it? Not the same as when 'She' held a knife to my lover's throat. It wasn't the same as when she demanded I kill someone or that she would take Two from me instead, even if it was her own son. This time I saw the man, I saw the knife in his human hand and he was sneaking up on him. I didn't have a doubt in my mind about what he wanted; he wanted to kill him.

I wiped away the tears and motion that we had to keep going. Vee probably had other guards out as well, otherwise why would she just stroll into her campsite like this?

We make our way quickly and quietly to the large tent keeping an eye out for more guards as we do. We make it and find the woman sitting comfortably in a chair reading a book. Two stepped on a twig.

"It's about time you got here Wings, were the boys that much fun? You were gone a lot longer than usual." She hummed as if it didn't really matter. I circled around her back while Two stayed where he was. He was already made if anything, he could distract her from seeing me. Thankfully when I threw the knife blood spurted from Wings and onto Two so if she looked up he would at least look injured.

"Wings, could you grab me a bottle of water from the cooler? I'm dying here." She snapped motioning towards a cooler at the far side of the tent and I nodded at Two telling him to play along for the moment. She hasn't noticed that he isn't this Wings guy yet.

I kept walking, sneaking up behind her and just as she went to snap at Wings again I grabbed her by the throat and let my green energy flow through her until she passed out. She didn't even have time to scream. Two ran up and replaced my hand with his flooding her system to make sure she stayed asleep until we were ready for her.

Two carried her back in the branches above the ground again just in case there was another guard that we didn't know about yet. When we got to the base we strapped her into the erassure cuffs on both her wrist and ankles after we laid her on the table.

It was time to wake her up. I had my regular knives in my hands and my surgical knives nearby ready to be used. It was time to see what all she actually knew. I watched as Two picked up the bucket of ice water and dumped it on her body and she woke up screaming. I let out a snarl as a warning when she set her sights on my Two. Rage filling me.

***

"DEKU! Wake up, it's only a dream!" I jumped and hit the ceiling that was a good 3 meters up. Huh? I looked around and for the first time noticed all the green lightning covering me as I held onto the handles I managed to carve into the ceiling.

What just happened?

I look around searching for an answer only to see Kacchan looking at me sad and confused. He noticed that I'm actually looking at him and he held out his arms and I just let go of the ceiling. In about a second I was safe in his arms again and I wrapped my arms around his neck before ever noticing my tears. I buried my head in his chest.

"Wings and Vee." I croaked out and I heard him shushing me, cradling me in his arms. I can't make out what he was saying but that didn't stop it from slowing down my tears. I woke up the moment her screams filled my ears, and even now I could hear her begging us to stop. That she would do anything at all, just please stop. The combined use of our quirks didn't work on her. When we were done with her she still remembered everything we asked her. We had to hunt her down a second time before torturing her again to find out who all she told before killing her. It was a nasty kill, a villain-like kill...

"Kacchan, is it really over? Are we actually free?" I sobbed in his arms to hear him coo in response, his fingers in my hair combing through it like the most magical comb in the world. I could feel myself relaxing and I started noticing our classmates staring but I don't really care. I am in Kacchan's arms and there is nowhere safer in this world.

"I'm so sorry I shouldn't have gotten up, it's all my fault. I just went to the bathroom for a minute I swear. Next time I'll wake you up. It's okay, I'm here now. I'm here," I can finally make out what he was saying. I blinked several times trying to register what he was saying. Oh he let me sleep hoping to get back before the nightmares started.

"No, it's not your fault. It's never been your fault not once," I held him like my life depended on it and in a small way it kind of did. I have no idea how long we sat there crying but Dadizawa came in and pulled us, guiding us to our room before sitting in my desk chair from so long ago. Are we really back? Which one was the nightmare? I don't know which would be worse; the dream where we still were not done. Or waking up to find this little bit of peace was all just a dream.

I cried my heart out holding onto Kacchan, I tried to stop my tears a couple times but then it was like hearing the echo of her screams. "Wings! He, he, he..." I couldn't go on breaking apart all over again. "And Vee, why won't her screams just stop?"

"I know. I hear them too. It's okay, it's not your fault. Wings was going to kill me, remember? If not for you I would have died. It's okay, it's going to be okay. The hero association knows they already know. The paperwork is done, Vee was a target. No one knew she had a bodyguard. I've got you," Kacchan tried to bring me back to the present. He tried telling me everything was okay now.

"But I can still hear her screams," I cried in his arms. We are laying down in bed, I don't even know when we got here, but here we are.

"I know Love, I know." He whispered, kissing my forehead and for the first time I noticed tears on his face. I'm an idiot, I can't shut up long enough to even realize what I was doing to him by freaking out like this.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry," I buried my face in his shirt trying to force myself to calm down. "Just use your quirk on me, I can't. I can't get it to stop. Please?" I look up to see his red eyes, bloodshot. I really screwed up. He nods and starts to run his fingers down my face and I can feel the moment he started using his quirk. Everything was slowing down and I was able to think again. I put a hand up stopping him from putting me out and just snuggled into his chest. "I'm so sorry Kacchan. You should be able to leave for a couple minutes without worrying about me."

I feel ashamed of the scene I had created but when I look up I can only see him smiling back at me. "Oi I said it was okay so it's okay," he teased before leaning down and kissing me gently. I take a deep breath and finally truly relax again in his arms. Everything is always better when I'm in Kacchan's arms.