You wake up in Uncle Giran's bed alone, covered in multiple blankets.
Your head still feels foggy and confused, like you're awake, but not really. You half-decide to go back to sleep, but crashing and clattering from downstairs begins to fuel your anxiety.
You know that really, it could be Uncle Giran, but he was never usually this loud in the mornings. And with all the police, fire engines and ambulances that passed last night, you were a little worried that it could be something more serious than that, maybe a burglar, or worse, heroes.
So you cautiously get out of bed, trying to ignore the insistent itchiness on the side of your face and the twitching of your lip as you walk quietly along the hallway and crouch at the top of the stairs.
There are a couple of large bags at the door, full of clothing, and you just about make out the sight of Aiko's hair tied up as she walks into the living room.
A little less nervously, knowing that Aiko was here, you go down the stairs, immediately getting Aiko to peer back around the doorway at you.
"Hey Star." She greets, gesturing loosely to the bags in front of the door. "Those are for you."
"All of them?" You ask quietly.
"Yeah." She shrugs. "Don't worry, there's no colours or patterns in them."
Your face heats up, kind of just standing uselessly in the middle of the staircase, watching her duck back into the living room.
"Um, Aunty Aiko?" You call.
"Yeah?" Is the grunt back.
"Where's Uncle Giran?" You ask, continuing to walk down the stairs.
"In his office." More clattering from inside the living area. "Gone to get some of his stuff. The looting's started."
You walk into the room too, watching as Aiko picks up some of Giran's little nick-nacks and begins to wipe a cloth over them, and then the surfaces before putting them back down neatly.
"You can thank your dad for me by the way. Six of my stores got looted last night." She huffs.
You listen, and take note of that, but your curiosity gets the best of you.
"Okay, but what's a looting?" You ask, watching her wipe down Giran's TV screen.
She pauses, but runs the cloth over the TV stand quickly before turning to look at you with an unreadable expression.
"Looting is when people break into stores and take stuff without paying." She explains. "It usually happens during riots, and civil unrest."
You don't know what that last bit means, but you do understand what rioting is, but it still doesn't really make sense why you'd need to thank Dabi for that.
"But why do I need to thank Dabi for you?" You ask, confused.
She looks a little exasperated, but explains it to you anyway. "Because he, and his little boytoy, have caused an uprising."
"What's an up-"
"They've taken over the government, Star." She explains tiredly and then turns back around to continue cleaning.
You think about this for a second, about how much work that must have taken to do, which explains why Tomura and Dabi must have been so stressed and fighting a lot.
"But Uncle Giran only has paper and paintings in his office." You say, still a little confused.
She sighs a little, continuing to dust the sideboard, carefully lifting up the pictures of her and her dad and taking more care cleaning them than the rest of his belongings.
"Those pieces of paper are more important than any clothes, TVs or expensive bottles of sake, kid." She explains, setting a picture frame back down carefully and turning to face you again. "They're all pieces of information. Things written about his clients. Their names, where they live, business deals, family members..."
You listen intently, trying to learn as many new things as possible after finding out about Dabi.
"Information is the most valuable thing my dad has. And if it got into the wrong hands, horrible things could happen to him, or his clients." She says, a finality to her tone. "He's already been punished once for information."
You feel like the words are pointed towards you, like she's mad that Uncle Giran got taken, like it was your fault.
But her words are soft, sad, not sharp and angry like they could be a lot of the time, and her pink eyes are trained on a picture of Uncle Giran when he was younger.
"Anyway. You need to eat. What am I making you?" She says, tightening the ponytail on the top of her head.
You want to tell her you still don't eat, not really, but Aunty Aiko... she was a little scary, and you didn't want to annoy her. Especially when a lot of her stores had been looted the night before.
"Uncle Zero used to give me protein bars and make me fruit shakes..." You tell her shyly.
"Protein bars?! You're what, ten?" She asks, horrified.
"I'm eleven." You correct.
"Fucking hell." She mutters, shaking her head. "Come on, I'm making you an actual breakfast."
Your stomach immediately feels unsettled, but all you can do is follow her nervously through to the kitchen.
She clatters around in the spotless kitchen, clearly having cleaned it before you'd gotten up, and sets about making you the first meal you've had in a while.
"How is Zero, anyway?" She asks as she cuts vegetables.
"He's okay." You reply, sitting down at the table slowly.
He didn't really do much to give her more than that, he just looked after you and everyone else, and didn't really seem to spend much time away from you all, or speak too much about himself.
She hums, dropping the vegetables into a pan, which hiss the second they make contact with it.
"Go check out the clothes." She instructs. "Anything you don't want I'll take back."
"Okay. Thank you, Aunty Aiko." You say politely, immediately scurrying to the bags in the hallway, not wanting to annoy her.
You dig through the neatly folded clothes. She was right, there weren't any bright colours or patterns. There were a lot of the same items in clothing, but in varying muted colours and sizes. There wasn't anything too offensive. Lots of plain shirts, jumpers and vests. And then jeans, some with rips in and some just plain. There were also a pair of white sneakers and a pair of black dolly shoes, a couple of plain black pyjama sets, an array of panties and bras, socks, and even a new jacket.
You didn't dislike any of them, so you go back to the kitchen, a little more relaxed about being around Aiko. Maybe she did like and care about you after all.
"There's a lot of clothes..." You lead with. "Thank you."
"Well, there's different sizes so you should be covered until you're like, fourteen." She sighs as she checks some rice. "Men are useless when it comes to clothes."
"Tomura let me buy some new clothes." You defend shyly.
"Well at least one of them is capable." She huffs.
You watch her as she plates up some rice and vegetables for you, trying very hard not to appear like you were being ungrateful when your stomach turns in the anxiety of actually having to eat it.
You sit down obediently when she turns and raises an eyebrow at you.
You realise, finally being brave enough to look her in the eyes, that Aiko looks tired. She has bags under her eyes that her makeup isn't quite covering, and she has a few creases in her forehead from frowning. You wonder why she's so tired, and whether it's because of the looting.
"Thank you." You say again when she puts the bowl of rice and vegetables in front of you, followed by a bottle of soy sauce.
It's kind of familiar. Mom used to make just rice and soy sauce when she was alive, and this was just a little extra than that. The rice looks fluffy this time, and not hard like mom used to make it, though.
"Aunty Aiko?" You ask, picking up your utensils.
"Yeah, kid?" She asks, sitting opposite you with a cup in her hands.
"Why are you so angry at Dabi?"
She pauses mid-sip, her eyes narrowing momentarily, but it's more thoughtful than angry.
You nervously take your first bite of plain rice, finding it just as fluffy as it looked.
"When dad first took him in, I really liked him." She explains, watching you eat slowly. "He was cute before all the... grafts kinda weren't taken care of."
You blink in surprise, pausing. "You had a crush on Dabi?"
"Yeah." She admits easily.
"But Dabi likes boys." You say, confused.
"Dabi likes whoever he can get." Aiko corrects and rolls her eyes. "Anyway, we used to be really close, I used to follow him around like a lost puppy."
She rolls her eyes at herself. "It was obvious I liked him, and so stuff ended up happening, and I thought he liked me too."
You scrunch your nose up, thoroughly distracted and unaware of how much you've eaten. "You kissed."
She snorts. "Yeah. Kissed."
"Gross." You comment.
"Right?" She agrees, a small smile pulling at her lips. "Anyway, the next day he was kinda distant, and it turned out he didn't really like me."
"Oh?" You squeak.
"Yeah. He thought he had to like me to carry on staying with dad." She says, leaning back. "But as you know, dad is a softie that'll let anyone stay here if he feels sorry enough for them."
"He's nice." You comment, reaching for the soy sauce without really thinking about it.
"He is. He's a good man." She agrees, smiling a little more fondly at the mention of her dad. "But it still hurt my feelings to think Dabi thought so little of my dad and I. Dad was doing a good thing, no strings attached. And I... genuinely liked him."
She rolls her eyes again.
"But your dad was in a hard situation, one that makes people not trust anyone." She continues as you eat the vegetables with the rice. "And desperate times make people do desperate things."
"Why are you mad at him now then?" You ask curiously, forgetting your manners and talking with your mouth full.
She doesn't comment on it like Uncle Giran always did when you did it, just raises an eyebrow.
"Because he does dumb stuff without thinking about how it'll affect other people." She replies blandly. "And he treats dad like shit sometimes."
You hum thoughtfully, going to eat some more and then realising the bowl is empty.
Panic hits you like a freight train, you can't even remember the last time you ate a full, solid meal, but you do remember throwing up when you tried to eat a protein bar.
"What's wrong?" Aiko asks the second you fly to your feet, frowning at you in confusion.
You hear the front door open, Uncle Giran humming a little tune to himself.
"I haven't eaten a proper meal yet, I might be sick." You fret, picking at your clothes in lieu of scratching at your face.
"Well, if you freak out before it's even happened, you probably will, yeah." Aiko says, sighing a little to herself and getting up, too. "Just don't think about it. You can't change it now."
"There's my girls." Giran says proudly, lifting you up the second he's in the room. "How're you, lil' love?"
"She's fine." Aiko replies at the same time you reply 'I'm okay'. "She's had breakfast. How was Dabi?"
Giran blinks, but gets the hint the second your head snaps to look at him at the mention of him seeing Dabi.
"Yeah, went to see your paw." He admits. "He's doin' alright. Bored outta his skull sittin' waiting for that Ujiko, though."
"Is he hurt bad?" You ask curiously as Giran sets you back down on the ground.
"That guy could survive world war three." Aiko teases dryly as she makes her dad a cup of coffee. "Which fits seeing as he'll probably start it."
Giran tuts at her and rolls his eyes, but looks back down at you with a loving expression. "He's fine, darlin' girl. Nothin' that can't be fixed. And hey, we got a present for you."
"Yes, I said thank you." You tell him, glancing at Aiko.
Giran's grey eyebrows furrow, and then release and he chuckles. "No, Star. Another present."
And then he digs his hand into the pocket of his tight, zebra patterned pants, and pulls out a phone, handing it to you.
You look at it, and then him a couple of times, uncertain that he was being genuine.
"S' for you, love. Take it." He encourages, gently taking one of your hands and pressing the flat screened phone into your hand. "Comes with rules though. Yer paw made that very clear."
Rules. That was okay, you were good at rules. You still remembered the rules from when you were homeless, clear as day, and they'd never done you wrong so far.
You stare at Giran, waiting for him to tell you the rules.
Aiko passes him a cup, kissing his cheek before going off to continue cleaning, leaving you and Uncle Giran in the kitchen alone together.
He takes a seat at the table, and you follow suit, putting the phone on the table, wanting to listen to the rules before you touch it.
"Alright, hon." He says. "Yer paw wants you to only text or call the numbers already in the phone. Ya can't add any without askin' him, me, or Shigaraki first. Okay?"
"Okay." You agree.
"F' ya wanna download any games, or apps you gotta ask us as well, okay?" Giran continues.
"Mhm." You nod.
"When your paw's back outta hospital, he's gonna take it back, 'kay? But you can have it if you ask him, or if him or Shigaraki are away."
You nod again, listening intently.
"No answerin' numbers that aren't saved, or talkin' to any strangers. You know howta use it?"
You nod a little bit, you knew how to call one one nine, and you knew how to use the video apps that Dabi let you use sometimes.
"Can you show me how to text pawpaw?" You ask, pushing the phone towards him.
Giran nods, patting his lap, which you eagerly clamber onto, leaning against him as he opens the phone, resting his chin on your head.
"Saved yer paws number under this little icon here." Giran says, pointing at a flame picture in your contacts list. "The knife is darlin' Toga, the hand is Shigaraki, Jin is this lil' yellin' man, Spinner is the lizard, Compress is the magicians hat an' your Uncle Zero is this black cross."
"What about you?" You ask, watching as he scrolls down all the icons.
"I'm the ol' man. Obviously." He replies, grinning. "Now, f' ya wanna text your paw, you click on his icon, an' then 'send message'. See?"
You nod, watching carefully.
"Here, say what ya want." Giran says, passing you the phone.
You take it, thinking for a second before trying, and failing to find the right way to spell 'pawpaw'.
â¨: dabi?
There's a short wait before a little speech bubble pops up, and you get a response.
ð¥: starshine
You beam, showing Giran the response enthusiastically, and he chuckles.
You immediately go to type more.
â¨: we can speak now
ð¥: we can, but u have to follow the rules otherwise i'm takin the phone away
ð¥: u understand?
â¨: i'll follow them i promise
ð¥: attagirl. u feelin better?
You pause. Your head was a little clearer than it had been when you'd first woken up, and you'd actually forgotten entirely about how much food you'd eaten and the anxiety that had come with it.
â¨: i'm okay, aunty aiko made me a breakfast and got me lots of clothes
ð¥: thats nice doll. what did she make ya?
â¨: rice and vegetables, it was nice
You pause, remembering what she said earlier.
â¨: she said thanks for the looting
The speech bubble appears and disappears a couple of times, and you wonder if your phone's broken already, but a response still comes through eventually.
ð¥: aint my fault
â¨: okay, i'll tell her
ð¥: good girl
ð¥: love u hon
â¨: love you too
Dabi doesn't reply after that, so you peer at Uncle Giran, who smiles softly at you, and then decide to send a text to Tomura too before giving your phone to Giran for the rest of the day.
You click on the hand icon in your contacts list, then 'send message' like Giran showed you, earning a proud kiss on the head from the older man.
â¨: hello pa are you okay? i saw you on tv
There's a longer pause between you sending the message and getting a reply, enough time for you to ask Giran if his office has gotten broken into and be reassured that everything was fine and that he had managed to avoid being stolen from, unlike Aiko.
âð»: Starlight. You have a phone now.
âð»: Be sensible with it.
â¨: i will, there's rules.
â¨: are you okay? i miss you
âð»: I'm fine. Just busy, trying to take care of everything. Are you, little Star?
â¨: i'm okay
âð»: Good. Behave. Stay safe.
You get the feeling that Tomura's too busy to talk too much more, so you pass the phone back to Giran, happy to go back to doing other things now you'd spoken to both of your dads.
"Thank you, darlin'." Giran says, seeming thankful that you weren't being more reluctant to give the phone up. "Whaddaya say we get some paintin' done? Eh?"
You nod, more than happy to be distracted from why Dabi was in hospital, and why Tomura was busy and asking you to stay safe.