Chapter 115: Girls Night

"And then what happened?" Himiko asks excitedly as you paint her nails a bright shade of red slowly and carefully.

"And then Dabi got onto one knee in front of Tomura, and Tomura held his hand out like he was telling Dabi to be quiet." You inform her, trying not to get too excited while recounting the story in case you messed up her nails. "But then Tomura pulled out a ring too! And Dabi said 'so that's a yes, then?', and then they both hugged."

"So romantic!" Himiko coos, her eyes sparkling and her grin the widest you'd ever seen before. "If Izuku or Ochaco ever propose to me, I want it to be romantic too!"

Hakuchō hasn't really spoken since being in Himiko's room, being sat on her floor with Cloud purring on her lap as she pets him. She pulls a bit of a face at Himiko's words, but remains silent, seeming to know better than to say anything mean to her.

"Hakuchō, how do you want Shinsou to propose?" You ask, trying to get the winged girl involved in your conversation.

She stares at you for a second, a range of emotions flickering through her face as she opens her mouth and then closes it.

Himiko looks at her, and then slowly turns to look at you to see your reaction to being ignored. When she sees how hopeful you look, she looks back at Himiko again, putting on an almost sneering smile.

"Yeah, Hakuchō, how do you want Hitoshi to propose?" She asks, her smile becoming meaner when she sees how using his first name affects Hakuchō.

"Don't call him that." She says weakly.

"But it's his name." Himiko replies matter-of-factly.

"You're not his friend." Hakuchō points out, sounding like she's trying to remain calm.

"Don't worry, I don't think he's cute." Himiko giggles. "So tell us. How should he propose?"

"Is he even alive?" She asks in return, which changes the vibe of the whole room.

Himiko's smile wavers a bit, and you look at Himiko a little puzzled, unsure as to why Hakuchō would ask her that question. Himiko shrugs, though, and returns her attention to what you're doing.

"Probably. Lots of sneaky little heroes got away." She says coldly, and then her mood changes again. "What about you, Star! What kind of husband do you want?"

"Boys are gross." You say simply, shutting down the conversation before it can even start.

"Aw, c'mon, I've seen you get all blushy about Spinner sooo many times!" Himiko says, leaning her head back dramatically. "He's too old for you, though, so maybe we can find you another lizard boy!"

"Stop!" You whine, embarrassed.

Himiko giggles, and Hakuchō continues watching her with an expression you don't really recognise.

"Does it have to be a lizard, though?" She asks, continuing to tease you as you close the nail polish and scowl at her. "There might be a nice... fox, or something."

"Cut it out, Himiko!" You say, nudging her leg with your foot playfully. "I don't like Spinner!"

"Sure." She replies in a sing-song tone. "Do Hakuchō's nails now if she's just going to sit being boring."

You hum, turning to look at Hakuchō, who doesn't really seem too interested in participating, but she does get up, picking Cloud up carefully and plopping him on the bed next to Himiko.

"Sit here." You direct, patting the other side of you so you can turn your back to Himiko while you work on Hakuchō's nails. "What colour do you want?"

She pauses, looking at all the colours in the bag of nail polishes you offer her, and her wings sag a little for some reason.

"I don't know. Red, blue or purple will be fine." She says, shrugging as though it doesn't matter.

But it does matter to you. You want to make the right decision, to make her happy.

And she wasn't really giving you too much to work with.

You decide not to go with red, because you'd already done red on Himiko's nails, and you were getting the feeling that neither of them particularly wanted to match with one another. Blue was for boys, really, and it reminded you of Dabi's eyes, so you didn't think that she'd really like that. So you end up picking out a purple that kind of matched how you remembered her boyfriend's hair to be.

When you pull the shade out and look at her for reassurance that it was the right colour, her bottom lip trembles a little, but she seems to catch herself.

"Yeah. That's fine." She says, turning her head to look out of Himiko's windows.

You're uncertain, but if she really didn't like it, and told you to go for it anyway, she only had herself to blame, so you unscrew the lid and gently take her hand in yours to help keep it still for you to paint.

"Answer the question, Star!" Himiko presses when the room's quiet for a little too long.

"Ugh!" You grumble, although it's playful. "I don't know! I've never thought about it!"

"Well think about it now!" Himiko insists. "It'll be fun! What if they proposed at the duck pond you like so much?"

"What if I don't like ducks anymore when I'm older?" You question. "I don't see many grown ups there without kids..."

"You'll always like ducks! How can you not? They're sooo cute!" Himiko drawls, scratching Cloud's head in a way that makes him a purring, drooling mess.

"They are cute..." You muse as you try to paint Hakuchō's nails as carefully as possible.

"Don't you worry about getting Shigaraki and Dabi's permission, though?" Hakuchō asks, catching you off guard.

"What do you mean?" You ask, pausing the task at hand to look at her, confused.

"The guy has to ask the family's permission to marry their kid. Didn't you know that?" Hakuchō asks in return, and although her words aren't as belittling as usual, it does make you feel a little bit stupid.

"No... Mom wasn't married, I don't think." You reply quietly.

"Tomura and Touya would say yes as long as the person loves Star just as much as they do." Himiko pipes up defensively.

"They're protective. That's all I'm saying." Hakuchō mutters.

You return back to painting her nails, a heavy silence weighing over you all for a good few moments before there's a knock on the door, it opening a crack soon after, with Zero peering around the door at you all.

"Is everything okay?" He asks, smiling softly.

"Mhm!" You and Toga reply.

"It's a girls night, Zero." Himiko reminds him. "I can handle it!"

His expression softens slightly at her, and he cocks his head a little. "Of course, Himiko. I'm glad you're all having fun. Behave."

Himiko giggles and nods, which seems to be enough for Zero as he closes the door again, leaving you all to it once more.

Himiko then begins talking in detail about how she wants to be proposed to by each of her crushes, which makes Hakuchō's face grow more and more somber, but she doesn't say anything, so you assume she might just be thinking about something else, or maybe missing her own boyfriend.

"Is Midoriya okay, then?" Hakuchō asks while Himiko is mid-sentence.

"Of course! I would never let anything happen to Izuku!" Himiko defends, as if the very premise of this Izuku boy being hurt was offensive to her.

"Didn't he fight Shigaraki?" She asks.

"Tomura spared him, he just wanted his quirk." Himiko defends.

"Oh, Izuku is the boy that 'Mura fought?" You ask, putting two and two together. You'd seen that on the TV when you were at Uncle Girans. "Hm."

"What does that mean?" Himiko asks, the frown clear in her voice.

You freeze. You hadn't meant to say anything out loud, but Izuku was kind of... plain. Not what you'd expected Himiko to like in a boy. He had weird green hair, and big freckles. You kind of always assumed that Himiko liked boys that had a little more edge to them, and definitely didn't expect her to go for a hero.

"Just that you're really, really pretty big sis. You could have lots of boyfriends if you wanted, like my mom did." You tell her, hoping the flattery would soften the nature of what you were trying to say.

It does, luckily, her arms being thrown around your neck while you're beginning to paint the nails on Hakuchō's other hand, only narrowly avoiding being knocked and painting her hand instead.

"You're too cute, Star! I wanna be you one day." Himiko says, rubbing her cheek against your head like some kind of cat.

Your cheeks heat up at the compliment, but you let her carry on while you try to finish up Hakuchō's nails, wanting to get yours done next as quickly as possible, because you were getting kind of bored of doing everyone else's.

"Done!" You announce, releasing Hakuchō's hand. "Do you like it?"

She lifts her hands, looking at them quietly. She nods, though, waving them in the air to help them dry a little quicker.

"Me next!" You announce, digging through the bag of nail polish to find the black one that Dabi usually wore. "I want this one!"

Himiko tuts, pouting a little bit. "Black isn't cute! Can't we do another colour?"

"But I want my nails to match Dabi's..." You insist.

"Don't you have another favourite colour?" She asks, exasperated. "We could do one nail on each hand a different colour from black."

"I like f/c..." You murmur.

"You could do it alternately, so it'd be black, f/c, black, f/c." Hakuchō suggests, unprompted.

You nod eagerly, mainly because you wanted Hakuchō to keep getting involved rather than actually wanting to do that with your nails, and even Himiko seems impressed by the suggestion, taking it in her stride and beginning to paint your nails exactly like she'd said.

"So, you have a boyfriend." Himiko says, her voice as chirpy as usual when she addresses Hakuchō this time. "Is he romantic? He looked kind of grumpy on the TV."

"He's nice." Hakuchō replies simply.

"Then why'd you cut yourself?" Himiko asks, looking up at her over your shoulder.

"What?" She asks, sounding shocked.

"You cut yourself?" You ask, turning to look at Hakuchō in concern, trying to spot some blood on her arm or sleeves that she was desperately pulling down. "I didn't notice, are you okay? Should we get Uncle Zero?"

"I haven't cut myself!" Hakuchō insists. "I... Don't do that."

"Liar." Himiko says, licking one of her smile-exposed fangs.

"Are you hurt?" You ask again, and she shakes her head, moving to stand up, but your arm flies out and captures her wrist before she can move any further. "Stay. I'm having fun."

"Stay. I wanna know why you do that." Himiko adds. "Can I have some of the blood?"

"Himiko!" You complain, exasperatedly. "Leave Hakuchō alone, she said she doesn't."

Something flashes in Himiko's eyes but she does stop pestering about it, falling silent and her yellow eyes focusing in on your nails again, her fingers working carefully to paint your nails.

Hakuchō looks a little torn, like she doesn't really want to be here with you both, but you continue looking at her with pleading eyes that only really worked on Dabi and Uncle Giran.

She sits back down on the floor, though, and Cloud immediately jumps off the bed to rub against her. She pets him softly, allowing him to loaf up in the little open area where her legs are crossed.

"Shinsou is really nice." You tell Himiko, trying to stand up for the boy you'd only met once as she works, uncharacteristically quiet. "He likes cats. We went to a cat café and he got me some apple juice and it was really nice."

"A cat café?" Himiko repeats quietly. "Aw... I wanna go."

"We can go sometime!" You suggest eagerly. "We could take Dabi, too, because he likes cats a lot."

"I want Jin to come too." Himiko says firmly.

"Deal!" You agree enthusiastically. "Hakuchō, you can come too, if you're still with us!"

"Thanks." She says, not really matching you or Himiko's enthusiasm, but you both ignore it anyway.

You and Himiko then talk excitedly about the plans for the cat café as she puts away all the polishes, letting Hakuchō sit in her usual silence. Whenever you peer over at her quickly, she's looking at her nails and smiling sadly to herself, so you kind of just assume that she's doing okay, even if she is quiet again.

*•*

Himiko was curled around your back like a cat, cuddling you like you cuddled your teddies at night. You could feel her smiling against the back of your neck, and Cloud was purring happily too, seeming to enjoy the extra night time company.

You hadn't stayed in Himiko's room overnight before, so you were finding it a little hard to settle down properly to go to sleep, especially with her holding you like she was, like you might run away if she doesn't keep a death-grip on you.

She'd suggested a sleepover, and although Zero said that Hakuchō wouldn't be able to stay in Himiko's room overnight, that didn't extend to you.

"Himiko?" You ask into the darkness.

"Mhm?" She replies serenely.

"Why would Hakuchō cut herself?" You ask, unable to shake that accusation from earlier from your mind.

"People do it for lots of reasons." Himiko says with a yawn. "Usually people do it when they're sad."

You frown. That checks out, Hakuchō was sad, Tomura had told you as much, which was why you needed to try really hard to be a good friend to her.

"But why? Surely you should do something nice for yourself if you're sad." You ask. "Like eat chocolate or ask for a hug."

"It makes them feel better or something, I don't know." She says tiredly. "I'm usually cutting other people, not myself."

"That's bad, Himiko." You chastise gently.

"Well it's what I want to do, and Tomura said I can do whatever I want in his world." She says stubbornly, and then nuzzles her face against the back of your neck again. "I wanna sleep now, lil' sis."

"Okay. Love you, Himiko." You say, suddenly very aware of all the knives in Himiko's room.

"Love you too, little Star." She replies, smiling again.

And you have to believe her, even though you're a little bit scared after what she said, because people don't cut people they love.