It must have been pretty early or late at night when you woke up, because it was still pretty dark in the room.
You'd woken up because there seemed to be a consistent amount of sirens passing outside, as well as the odd collective yell, arguments and banging from outside.
In your worry that maybe something worrying was happening nearby, you slide out of bed, although it's a struggle with the heavy, warm blanket draped over you.
You can hear the muffled sound of voices coming from downstairs so you follow it, your feet padding softly down the stairs.
You head to the living area where the voices are coming from, vaguely registering that the TV is on, and that Uncle Giran has fallen asleep on the couch. You nudge his arm a little bit to try to gently wake him up.
"Uncle Giran, there's sirens..." You tell him as you nudge his arm, but he's fast asleep still.
His head is hanging back, his mouth open but no noises come out of him and his arms are crossed over his chest.
There was something eerie and familiar about the sight of it.
"Uncle Giran, I'm scared." You nudge him more urgently. "Wake up please."
Wake up mommy, please? You're scaring me.
You whimper, climbing onto the sofa and glancing at the TV.
Blue flames. Blue familiar flames were on the TV screen, licking at buildings and police, heroes and other emergency service people alike.
You look for a sign of Dabi, a sign that he was okay and that his quirk hasn't hurt him any more than he already was before leaving you with Uncle Giran.
You couldn't hear the sounds of the yelling from the TV, instead having to listen to the newscasters voice instead.
'This is the scene left behind today after Touya Todoroki, under the villain alias 'Dabi' fought his father, and loved and respected number one hero, Endeavor.'
A video flashes up of Dabi leaping at the large, scary man who had told you he was Dabi's dad, completely aflame.
Entranced by the TV despite knowing you weren't meant to be seeing this, and suitably scared, you grab Giran's sleeve with the full intention of shaking his arm again until you see the Dabi on the screen suddenly seem to multiply and begin running at the real Dabi and Endeavor.
Uncle Jin's clones.
The amount of blue flames being shown on the screen light up the room in a soft blue hue that doesn't match the terror on screen.
'Unfortunately, due to the sheer scale of the attack this afternoon, no-one was available or able to try to extract Endeavor from the flames. He was pronounced dead this evening, but medics on scene have been unable to recover the body.'
Your throat feels thick and your stomach churns uncomfortably, and you shake Uncle Girans arm again, your eyes unable to be torn from the screen as you watch the drone footage being shown of Dabi standing over the censored body of Endeavor burning.
Your pawpaw seems to be screaming with blood trickling down his scarred face.
You manage to tear your eyes away at this point, shaking Uncle Giran a lot more harshly, actually managing to wake the older man up this time.
He splitters in confusion for a second, rubbing his eyes under his glasses and frowning.
"Star honey, s' bedtime." He slurs sleepily.
"Dabi's upset!" You exclaim, pointing at the TV.
Giran blinks a couple of times, seeming to take a second to focus on what was being said and shown on the television screen before finally realising what has happened.
"Oh shit." He hisses.
He quickly holds your face to his chest as he changes the channel, but you wiggle in his grip.
"No! I wanna see Dabi!" You yell.
"Star, it ain't suitable for lil' eyes." Giran says firmly. "You should be sleepin'. Why're you here, hon?"
"The sirens woke me up!" You tell him. "Please put Dabi back on."
"I can't darlin', I'm sorry." Giran sighs. "You weren't meanta see all'a that."
"But now I have, so let me see more." You insist, refusing to let go of the matter.
You weren't behaving, but you needed to make sure that Dabi was okay. You knew his quirk hurt him and there were a lot of flames being shown on the TV.
The TV has a scrolling banner on the top of the screen announcing the death of Enji Todoroki as well as the current number of lives lost, so there wasn't too much point hiding it from you anymore.
With a sigh, and his body almost deflating, Giran relents and puts the news back on.
"I'm turnin' it off the second it gets too violent." Giran warns, letting go of your head.
"Thank you, Uncle Giran!" You reply, feeling relief flood you.
You press a quick kiss to his cheek, tucking yourself into his side, quickly finding his arm around you and his hand on your hair, petting it slowly.
"F' ya got any questions, you go ahead an' ask your grandpaw, 'kay?" Giran asks, leaning his head on your cheek.
"Did Dabi mean to kill that man? Or was it an accident?" You ask him immediately.
You watch as the news clip moves from a compilation of pictures of Endeavor, pictures of him carrying people out of trainwrecks and burning buildings and then a picture of him younger, with no scar down his face in his hero costume, to a live feed of civilians discussing what had happened and how they were feeling about it all.
"Ya don't start easy, huh?" Giran asks with a nervous laugh. "...Think he meant to, darlin'."
"But he said he just wanted to talk and maybe bite his dad." You explain curiously.
"Well, ya see..." Giran hesitates and then sighs. "Yer paw has a lotta anger inside towards his family. An' when yer paw gets mad he don't always think things through. You understand?"
"Like a tantrum?" You query, looking up at the older man who looks very much like he doesn't want to be in this situation.
"Kinda. 'Sept his quirk kinda works around his feelin's. Ever noticed how he gets a lil' warmer when he gets mad?" He asks in return, and you nod. "Well. That's what happened, probably love."
"His feelings got too big for his body." You nod, returning your attention back to the television.
"Sure. That works." Giran shrugs slightly.
"He's sad about it. He's crying." You say, nuzzling closer to Giran. "He bleeds when he cries."
"I know hon. Probably a lil' cathartic for him. He'll be alri'." Giran soothes, stroking your hair again. "Bastard had it comin' anyway."
"He was bad? And that's why he needed to be hurt, right?" You ask, almost worriedly.
"Sure was, lil' love. Hurt yer paw and his siblin's. Hurt his wife. All for a stupid quirk." Giran rolls his eyes. "Shoulda banned quirk marriages years before they did."
"Really bad." You whisper to yourself.
You didn't mind when mom's boyfriends hurt you, after all. It was scary, and it hurt a lot sometimes, but it was better than watching or hearing them hurt your mom. And you would rather be inside and hurt rather than locked outside, scared and alone while they hurt her with their friends sometimes.
Tomura comes on screen, being held down by someone that looks weirdly similar to the green sheep Himiko drew all those months back.
"I'm confused." You frown. "Why is Tomura fighting that boy?"
Giran is silent for a moment, but sighs yet again and moves to pull a cigarette and lighter from the side table.
"What's yer paw told you about his work love?" He asks, hissing as he takes an inhale of smoke.
"That they're trying to make Japan better." You reply matter-of-factly. "Because heroes don't look after people like us."
"Well. That boy there issa hero, hon. A hero wi' a big, powerful quirk that could change Japan." Giran explains loosely. "Shigaraki there wants ta take it to make things better for us all."
"He looks happy." You murmur. "Dabi was sad, though."
"Yeah well..." Giran exhales smoke through his nose. "Shigaraki's an unusual guy darlin'. Maybe he's happy that he's close to winnin'."
"They must be tired..." You muse.
"This is from earlier doll." Giran explains. "They're all done now."
"They are?" You ask curiously. "Can we call Dabi?"
"No, Star, it's four a.m. yer paw's asleep somewhere."
"I hope he's okay..." You worry.
"S'fine hon." Giran says, picking up the remote control. "See? Ya seen both of 'em, lets get somethin' a bit more relaxin' on."
"Wait! We haven't seen Himiko, Uncle Jin and Zero or Spinner yet!" You exclaim, grabbing at his hand to stop him.
"Hon, s' too scary for ya watchin' all this. If you got questions 'bout the others, I'll answer ya." Giran says firmly, still changing the channel and putting the remote on the table to his side.
"I'm not scared." You huff through your nose.
Except you were. You were scared and confused.
You knew that Zero had hurt people before, and even killed someone to take you back to Dabi. But you didn't really think Dabi would hurt or kill someone, because he was so nice to you, but you'd seen him kill his dad now, and seen how his flames had hurt complete strangers too, even if it was an accident.
Tomura was scary sometimes, but you'd never seen him hurt anyone beyond the clones Jin made before, either. He was relatively soft and gentle with you, and patient with the others these days.
You didn't want him to hurt the green haired boy on the TV over a quirk. If it was to make Japan better, you could understand it, but you couldn't quite understand how one single quirk had the ability to do that.
"Respectfully darlin', I don't believe ya. That's some scary stuff." Giran replies, bopping your nose with his finger gently while smoking with his other hand.
You go quiet for a moment, thinking about it all still. After a while of fretting, you tug on his shirt and look up at him.
"Can I have some cocoa?" You request quietly.
Giran blinks in surprise but agrees straight away, pressing a kiss to your forehead before standing up, taking the controller for the TV with him, leaving you to watch some black and white movie that you think you'd seen before when you'd stayed with him in the past.
You sit curled up, hugging your knees and worrying about whether or not they were all in trouble for hurting people. You didn't want to be alone again, and as much as you loved Uncle Giran, you didn't want to stay with him for a long time. Just a week maybe.
When he comes back with a mug in hand, you're lost in thought, scratching at the rash on your face, which Giran stops by gently pulling your hand away and placing the cup in your hand.
"None'a that." He chastises gently.
"Can you tell me what the others did?" You ask quickly.
He sits back down next to you, his expression softening when you immediately lean yourself into his side, holding your cup in both hands, letting it warm them up.
He drapes a heavy blanket over the two of you, giving up on the idea that you might be able to go back up to bed and fall asleep.
"Sure. Yer Uncle Jin helped Dabi out, an' then went off to find Toga to help her out. Zero went wi' the other nomu to help release the other members of the-" He pauses. "Yer paws ol' coworkers. Like Compress an' Re-Destro."
"What about Spinner?" You ask.
"He's alri'." Giran smirks softly. "He went wi' all the other people with heteromorphic quirks to th' hospitals ta get the other nomu. He wanted to get Kurogiri back."
"He's okay?" You ask quietly.
"They're all alri', love." Giran soothes, petting your hair as you startle when a siren sounds nearby again. "Don'tcha worry. They're all lookin' out for each other. Most they're gonna get is a few burns an' bruises."
You go quiet, sipping your cocoa, deep in thought.
Giran is a solid presence while you think over it all, considering the things you'd seen on the TV compared to how you'd been treated.
You still love Dabi, and all the others, but you know it's wrong to do that, because they'd hurt people, and killed people too. Killing people was wrong, no matter what.
Your brain pulls you one way and another, and doesn't allow a moment's rest.
"Uncle Giran?" You ask after a while, waking the older man up again instantly.
"Mm?" He asks, lifting his head.
"Do you still love Dabi?" You ask.
"'Course I do, he's like a son to me." Giran says like it's nothing. "An' he brought this lil' love into my life."
He squeezes you with one arm, a small smile pulling his whiskered lips upwards.
"Even though he did bad things?" You ask, not done being curious by any means yet.
"Well, it's hard ta explain, Star." Giran grimaces slightly. "Sometimes bad things hafta be done for the greater good. An' it's important to remember how you were treated. He's... hard work, yer paw. But he's there when I need him, an' vice versa."
"So I shouldn't be scared?" You ask. "Is it okay to keep loving him and Zero? Even though they did something really bad?"
Giran looks at you with an expression you don't really understand, and uses his prosthetic fingers to gently move your hair away from your face.
"Listen, darlin'. Yer paw loves ya to his very core. Right, deep down in here." He says, poking the center of his chest. "Yer paw... he's been through a lot. Struggled some struggles no kid should, an' suffered more than anyone I know. He never clung to anyone 'fore meetin' you. Figured he was keepin' everyone at arms length, 'cause his body's not built for the lifestyle he's livin'."
You don't quite understand what he means, but you kind of get the gist. Dabi was scared of getting close because he didn't want people to know his body was weak to his own quirk. Just like Tomura didn't want people to know about the medicine he took, maybe?
"He loves ya, 'cause he keeps ya around. You keep him goin', hon. Yer the fire in his veins. All'a this, is to help everyone tha' he's seen been done wrong in life, people that've been overlooked. People like you..." Giran says, stroking your cheek with his thumb. "...An' people like yer paw. The used an' abused, the scared an' alone. He's doin' this to avenge himself, the others, an' you."
"S' it right? Probably not." Giran shrugs, giving a kind-of apologetic smile. "But the heroes sure as hell ain't any better. 'M sure you heard all about Touya's paw, right? An' remember when you got taken, an' they were mean to ya? Even though you were scared?"
You nod, eating up every word like it's gospel.
"Well. If neither sides right, wha's the point in havin' 'em?" Giran asks.
"There isn't..." You reply quietly, uncertainly.
"'Xactly." Giran nods. "You don' need to be afraid of any of 'em, 'cause they're doin' what they think is right fer you, us, the forgotten ones. Yer paw would do this ten times over if it meant you were happy an' safe. He'd even sacrifice himself for you f' it came down to tha'."
He gives an amused huff. "Ya shoulda seen him on his birthday, hon. Was a mess 'cause you weren't around, an' Spinner gave him a little picture of ya both from new years eve."
You blink. "His birthday?"
Giran's face immediately falls, and his eye twitches.
"I missed his birthday?" You ask again, your eyes becoming teary.
"Hon-"
You begin to cry. Dabi had made sure you had a lovely birthday, and you couldn't do the same for him because the heroes had taken you away. He hadn't even mentioned it when you got back.
"No, no, no, no cryin', lil' Star." Giran panics, smoothing your hair out of your face and placing his hands either side of your face firmly. "Look, why don't we work on gettin' a present together for him?"
"I'm confused." You whine, rubbing your eyes roughly.
"Aw, darlin' girl." Giran says, looking at you like he's hurting for you, too. "C'mon, let's cuddle up an' watch a nice movie, huh?"
He pulls you even closer to him, letting you press your face into his torso and he begins petting your hair again.
"We'll try callin' yer paw later tomorrow, hon, an' you can talk ta him 'bout it all, yeah? He won't want ya all upset."
It should be relieving. And it is relieving, but the fact you find comfort in him when you know it's wrong just confuses you further, and you just continue to seek solace in your 'grandpaw', gripping onto him as tightly as you always did with your pawpaw.