Tomura had said that he'd come and see you, but it took him a couple of days.
You actually hadn't been expecting it when he did arrive, you were busy colouring in a dress that you and Aiko had been working on together. You didn't understand drawing clothes, but you liked choosing the colours after Aiko had all the lines drawn out for you.
Giran had come in, holding the door open and grinning.
"Star, someone's here ta see ya, love."
Your head snaps up and you see a familiar mass of white hair following behind Giran in the doorway.
You scramble off of the chair and to your feet, running to your visitor and throwing your arms around him.
"Pa!" You cry out, feeling strong arms lift you up like Dabi used to before you got too big to carry.
"Hello, little Starlight." Tomura greets, giving you an amused smirk when your fingers work through the ponytail at the back of his head, trying to find the braid you had put in it before he'd left.
And then you see another mess of white hair approaching while you're running your fingers through Tomura's soft hair to try and find the braid. You pause to see who else has come to see you, only to see Dabi smirking at you and kissing your cheek as you look at him in shock.
"You're back! Your arm is better!" You exclaim.
"Can't keep me down for long, dollface." He replies, pinching your cheek with a cold, metal hand. "Aiko."
"Your body finally gave out then." She replies, ignoring his rather abrupt greeting.
"Yours gave out years ago, darlin'." Dabi replies with a cruel simper.
You don't really understand what Dabi's talking about, because Aunty Aiko didn't have any missing limbs like he did, and she seemed healthy in every other way, too. But whatever he meant by what he said got Tomura to give him a sharp glance, as though he's unimpressed with his behaviour, like he used to way back when you and Dabi first moved into the bar.
"You've been drawing?" Tomura asks you, ignoring the two bickering behind you.
"Aunty Aiko draws the dresses, I just colour them in. Drawing clothes is hard." You explain disheartenedly.
"Practice makes perfect." He tells you, slowly lowering you back to the floor.
"Get my EXP up?" You ask, using a phrase you'd heard him use so many months ago.
It seems to take him by surprise, but he collects himself enough to give one of those amused huffs of air that passes as a laugh for him, and nods. "Exactly."
You link your pinky finger through his carefully, leading him to the table where you'd been working on colouring in a dress with Aiko. He allows it without any sharp looks, words of warning or flinching whenever anyone gets too close to his hands without him expecting it.
Dabi has Aiko in a headlock, grinning as he rubs his new metallic knuckles against her head as she grunts in annoyance and tries to get free of his hold with her face screwed up in her frustration.
"Ah yeah, I like this arm." He says cheerfully.
"Cut it out!" Aiko snaps, swatting at him irritably.
"Kids." Giran warns with a scowl at them both.
"Look, pa." You encourage, tugging on his hand and trying to get Tomuras eyes on you instead of Dabi.
His red eyes follow your other hand to where you're pointing, and he crouches behind you to get closer to the drawing. He looks over the drawing properly like he always does, unlike Dabi and the others, and nods, pressing his cracked lips to your temple for a very quick moment before standing up again.
"Good job Star." He says, and then quirks one of his wrinkled brows at you.
"How's your English coming along?" He asks, in English.
You blink at him for a second, not expecting him to suddenly start speaking to you like that. You process the words in your head before nodding a little to yourself.
"I practicing with Aiko." You tell him in English. "She is smart."
He grins wonkily at you, clearly pleased with your response despite it not being perfect. Your heart lifts at the sight of it, it took a lot to get Tomura to smile properly, and you had been the cause of it this time.
"And what's seven times three?" He asks, back to speaking Japanese.
You look at him for a second as you go through the math you'd memorised as well as you could.
"Twenty-one?" You reply, a little uncertainly.
His look softens, and he brushes the backs of his knuckles against your cheek very gently.
"Well done Star. I'm proud of you." He says honestly, and you don't see Aiko rolling her eyes behind him, still stuck in Dabi's grasp.
The words make your face light up though. It'd been a while since Tomura had praised you like that, so it makes you feel twice as good about yourself.
"Get off of me, Touya, you reek." Aiko finally spits, trying to shove Dabi off of her.
"That's the smell of success, Aiko." He tells her teasingly.
"It's the smell of hospitals, freak." She hisses back in return. "Congrats on the 'success' by the way. Thanks to you, I had six stores broken into!"
"How much in damages?" Tomura asks, his hand resting on your head.
You don't even think about how he has all of his fingers on your head, rubbing at your scalp comfortingly, you just trusted him to not hurt you now, even by accident.
"You think you can just chuck money at me and I'll be happy?" Aiko sneers at Tomura in a way no-one really dared to usually.
"Aiko, cut it out, Touya, stop windin' her up." Giran snaps finally.
Tomura doesn't seem too bothered by her attitude though, shrugging it off and looking down at you again. "Starlight, would you like to come home?"
"Really?!" You ask, looking up at him in awe.
"Yes, but, there's something I need to talk to you about before you agree. Do you want some help packing up?" He asks, tilting his head.
You nod eagerly, practically running out of the kitchen, leaving Aunty Aiko, Dabi and Uncle Giran together while you and Tomura go upstairs to pack.
You immediately start stuffing things in the bag that you'd arrived with, changing out of your new pyjamas and folding them up nicely to put in one of the bags full of clothes Aiko had given you. Tomura turns his back to you, clearly not having expected you to be that open about changing in front of him.
"What did you need to talk about?" You ask Tomura, pulling a sweater on. "Am I in trouble?"
"Are you dressed?" He asks, a little amused.
"Mhm!" You reply, taking a wide stance and holding your arms out as he peers over his shoulder at you.
He rolls his eyes, smirking a little, and crouches once more, beckoning you over. You walk over to him, holding your arms out, half expecting a hug, which you get, but he soon peels you away and his crimson eyes are boring into yours.
"We can take you home today, but we have a little extra company." He explains. "You have to promise to listen to me without interrupting, can you do that, Starfire?"
Your shoulders raise a little at the new nickname and you nod your head eagerly, ready to prove how good of a listener you can be to impress Tomura even more.
"Promise me."
"I promise, pa." You vow.
"Okay... So, I was busy a few days ago, and I got called over to a special building for heroes." Tomura starts, and you nod to show you're listening. "When I got there, HakuchÅ was there."
You go to say 'oh', but manage to stop yourself, not wanting to interrupt Tomura after you promised you wouldn't.
He watches with faint amusement as you collect yourself and kind of just flop against him again, him catching you in his arms easily.
"HakuchÅ has learned some horrible things, and isn't in a very good place here." Tomura says, tapping your head gently. "Hawks hasn't done a very good job of protecting her. So we're taking care of her a little bit."
You raise your hand to ask a question and he rolls his eyes with a smirk.
"Yes, Star?" He replies.
"How long for?" You ask. "Do I have to share a room with her?"
"Well, they had you for a month, so I think it's only fair we have her for a month. What do you think?" Tomura asks in return.
"A month is a long time...But she's not staying forever? I don't want a real sister..." You murmur the last part, feeling a little guilty for not wanting to share Dabi and Tomura's attention with anyone else for an extended period of time.
"She's not staying forever." Tomura reassures. "She won't be your sister, but if you can find it in yourself to forgive her, I think she could use a friend like you right now, little Star."
"I forgive her, she let me go." You tell Tomura. "But my room?"
"You won't have to share a room with her. She has habits I don't want you picking up on." He says firmly. "She'll be staying with Zero overnight."
"But Zero stays with me..." You whine a little. "What habits? Like snoring? I promise I won't start snoring, 'Mura..."
"Well, it's either she stays with Zero, or me and your dad." Tomura says, ignoring your question and raising a brow at you, despite the fact he's running his fingers through your hair as softly and as gently as he can.
You pout a little at the idea of her being with your pas instead, and reluctantly find peace with the fact that Uncle Zero would be sleeping in the same room as and looking after HakuchÅ while you were all looking after her.
"Okay..." You grumble, and Tomura nods.
"Do you want to come home with us, or do you want to stay here for a little bit longer?" He asks, allowing you the choice again.
"I want to come home, I miss everyone." You say, wrapping your arms around him properly again.
"Okay, Starlight." He says, rubbing your back. "Pack up then."
You nod, letting go of him and continuing to pack your things up, Tomura taking the initiative to help you out, too. You talk to him excitedly about how excited you are to see the others, about being back in your own home, and telling him about how you'd been working hard with Aunty Aiko and Uncle Giran on your lessons in English and math, learning about what was going on in Japan thanks to Tomura and the others from Aiko, and how you'd been learning to cook with Uncle Giran, too.
He hums along as you talk, not really much for adding too much into conversations if he didn't have much to say, but it was nice to just have him around and be able to talk at him at the very least.
When you're all packed up, you come back downstairs with Tomura carrying the heavier bags behind you.
You feel a little bad for choosing to leave Uncle Giran behind, but you know you'll see him again relatively soon anyway. You drop your bag and cling to his side, even though he's smoking and it'll probably make Dabi snap at him.
"Goin' home, darlin'?" Giran asks fondly, patting your head.
"Mhm. I'll miss you though." You reassure him.
"I'll miss you too, my lil' shinin' Star." He grins, putting his cigarette in the ashtray on the table where Dabi's beginning to get up, ruffling Aiko's hair a little more affectionately than before on his way up.
Giran hauls you up, giving you a big hug, and kissing all over your face despite your wiggling, whining and giggling, his beard scratching at your face a little until he stops.
He puts you back on the floor and you shyly approach Aiko. She was a lot friendlier now, and nicer to be around, a little less scary... But you still hadn't hugged her yet, and she's too distracted watching Dabi circle his new prosthetic arm around Tomura's waist to see you sneak up to her and awkwardly tap her arm.
Pink eyes land on you, and she looks at you curiously. Unable to find the words, you reach out to ask for a hug, and she gives you the most soft look you'd ever seen her muster up, and she wraps her arms around you, giving you a tight squeeze before pulling away again, using her finger under your chin to tilt your head up.
You look up at her curiously, and wait for her to speak.
"If you need a girl to talk to about things, or maybe someone to tell you how great you are, or someone to kick some ass if anyone upsets you, you come to me 'kay?" She says. "Come to your aunt."
"Okay!" You agree, your eyes practically sparkling with the fact that she'd called herself your aunt for the first time ever.
"C'mon Starshine, let's get ya home." Dabi urges, his hand on the back of Tomura's neck, his thumb coursing over the baby hairs on the nape of his neck.
You nod, traipsing back to them, realising that Dabi was now carrying the bag you'd brought down with you. Dabi leads you forward with his arm against your lower back, ushering you out of the room while holding your bag in his other hand.
Tomura stays behind, but you hear him telling Aiko that if she changes her mind about wanting her damages paid for to let him know. Whatever he was staying behind for doesn't seem to take him too long because he's soon joining you outside the car as you wrap your arms around Uncle Zero, who seems pleased to see you too, burying his face in your hair as you cling to him.
You can see HakuchÅ's silhouette from the outside of the car, but it doesn't look like she's going to come out to say hello, so you wait for Zero to slide back into the middle seat in the back before climbing in after him while Tomura and Dabi put your bags into the trunk.
You lean past Zero after he's strapped you in and checked that it's safe to look at Hakucho, not that you can see much of her face with her hair in the way. Her wings have weird sticks attached to them, and it looks like she's trying to use one of them to create a wall between her and Zero.
"Hi, HakuchÅ." You greet nicely. "Are you okay?"
"HakuchÅ doesn't really want to talk, Star." Zero explains, moving hair out of your face carefully. "Why don't we talk instead?"
"But pa said that HakuchÅ needs a friend right now..." You say, still looking at the winged girl one seat away from you.
She seems to shake her head a little, even though she's still looking out of the window, flinching when the car doors shut after Dabi and Tomura get in the front.
Your shoulders drop a little, even when Zero's scarred knuckles brush against your cheek so similarly to the way that Tomura's do when he's being gentle and affectionate with you.
"You can be friends when she's feeling better. Why don't you tell me how your time with Giran was? Did you do lots of drawing? Can I see?" Zero asks, capturing your attention again, although you do feel like you should try to put more effort into talking to HakuchÅ.
"Mhm! Me and Aunty Aiko did lots of fashion drawing..." You begin to explain, leaning your head against Zero's firm arm and trying to ignore the bad energy rolling off of HakuchÅ as you head back home.