Chapter Text
“Uggh!” You groan as you go to pick up your ringing phone. Why do these things always have to happen at 4 in the morning?
“Pro Hero Kaleidoscope on the phone. Where’s the emergency?”
“I’m sorry it’s so early, but there’s been a lot of destruction after a villain attack at the mall and the police say it’s too dangerous for anyone to go search for victims until it’s been cleaned up.”
“Alright, I’m on my way.”
You hang up and start getting dressed in your hero costume. It’s not that you regret being a repair hero although you had expected less midnight calls.
The mall is just a short distance from your house, so you opt not to take the car. It’d just take longer anyway.
As soon as you step out of your door you shiver as the cold hits you. Maybe it’s time to switch to your winter costume again.
With a few shortcuts you get to the mall in just over 10 minutes, but you know that with people possibly trapped under tons of concrete and debris doesn’t really allow for slacking.
As soon as you arrive the sidekick that called you just some minutes ago runs up to you.
“You’re here already! Great, follow me, you’re gonna have to support most of the debris until we're sure we got everyone out.”
You follow her to the demolished ruins of a once very pretty mall.
“Naoki, what happened here?” You knew it had to have been a lot of destruction if they called you up in the middle of the night, but this…
“Eh..yeah, you can still hold it, can’t you? I’m sorry, it’s a bit much.” She started scratching the back of her neck nervously, so you just let out a long sigh.
“Yeah, I can do it, just tell Grand to call me in the morning. I’ve got a bone to pick with him.”
Holding up this much debris with just the glass inside it is going to be a challenge. You take a breath and concentrate on the bits of smashed glass inside the rubble until they start to move and form to separate the destroyed remains of the mall with arches and planes to make way for the rescue troops.
When you’re finished with your construction you turn to Naoki.
“Alright, they can go in now. I’ve got this.”
It was still pretty heavy and you internally thanked the jewelries for using bullet proof glass in their displays. It makes your job right now a lot easier.
Luckily for everyone, there weren’t a lot of people trapped inside the mall as it collapsed, just two security guards who got away with just a few scratches.
You report to the supervising police officer, who offered to let someone drive you home. Exhausted as you are after you simply say yes.
As soon as you get through the door to your apartment and change into house shoes you flop onto the couch and check your phone.
- Next alarm in 73 minutes -
The notification blinks at you with an inappropriate cheerfulness.
“Fuck it” you decide and get up into the kitchen to get started on breakfast. At least now you have time to prepare something good for lunch with it.
- - -
As you come into the agency Kairi already sits at his desk in front of the main
offices. You hand him a coffee as you greet him.
“Oh, thank you. Since when are you up early enough to get coffee for anyone let alone yourself?” You hear the teasing tone in his voice but decide to ignore it for now. You’ve known each other long enough, you can let it slide.
“Since I got called in to work at 4 in the morning. Don’t expect this to become a habit.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, boss.” You roll your eyes exasperatedly as he takes a sip from his coffee and make for your office.
Considering your short night it’s a rather productive morning. You already wrote and filed your report from the incident at the mall when someone knocks on your door.
“Come in!” It’s probably Kairi who needs something signed.
“Morning, cupcake! Already working hard, I see.”
You stop in your tracks and glare at the man currently getting comfortable in one of the chairs opposite your desks.
“Morning is relative, Shindo.” You pointedly look at your watch, which shows 12:11.
“But it’s nice to see you also deigned to come to work today.”
“Oh, come on, I had a long night! There was this really tough villain at the mall yesterday, so I only got like 6 hours of sleep.”
You really don’t feel like dealing with his ego, so you just go back to typing and hope you can just ignore him away.
“Really, cupcake? You know, sometimes I feel like you don’t like me.”
Don’t. He’s just doing this to get a reaction out of me.
“Aww, that really hurts my feelings. You don’t like me?”
And apparently he’s getting it today.
“This has nothing to do with how much I like or dislike you, and everything to do with how you always think you’re so far above everyone else, just because of your Hero rankings. Did you ever think about what happens after you catch a villain? No, you didn’t! So you didn’t get as much sleep? Well Boo-hoo, I also had to get up in the middle of the night just to clean up after you, because you never could be bothered to even think about damage control!”
Oh, I got really worked up about that. Maybe I should lay down for a bit, before I lay into anyone else.
You notice Shindo looking visibly taken aback. Maybe you got a little carried away.
“Well, anyway, I was just here to tell you we’re getting a new transfer for a case.”
“A transfer? What kind of case?”
“I don’t know. It’s apparently ‘super top secret’.” He made air quotes around his last words.
“All I know is we’re getting a transfer from Fukuoka and someone needs to pick them up from the airport Wednesday morning. Kairi doesn’t have a car and I’m on patrol, so we wanted to ask if you could do it.”
The tense atmosphere between you two is almost gone already.
“Yeah sure, I can get them, do you have a name or picture for me to identify them?”
“No, I didn’t even get an identification number, but I’ll send your info over, so they’ll just have to find you.”
He was obviously pissed about being kept out of the loop, so you decided to drop the subject.
“Alright, I can be there. Do we have a hotel booked already?”
“No, apparently everything is booked for the next few weeks, so we thought we’d just fix up the bedroom here until we find something.”
The ‘bedroom’ is just a small room with a shower and a bed that connects yours and Shindos offices that either of you could use when you worked late and the way home seemed too long.
You sigh. “No, it’s fine. I have a guest room. They can stay there. It’s not too far and you can’t seriously do good work from this thing here.”
Shindo gives you a look you can’t really decipher until he apparently relents and gets up to leave.
“Alright, if you say so.”
You’ve already started your work back up when he turns around again.
“And I’m sorry…I’ll try to contain my damage more.”
Surprised, you look up. He actually seems genuine this time.
“Thanks.”
- - -
To be honest you had almost forgotten about the transfer until the reminder you had set on your phone hadn’t gone off. So you quickly tidied your apartment as best you could and got some groceries for dinner that wasn’t instant before you reached the airport just in time.
You check the arrivals from Fukuoka and…Ah Gate 3! It also has a bit of a delay so you have some time to kill before this mysterious transfer lands. You actually don’t know a lot about where other heroes are stationed, so you’re not sure who could be coming.
Wait, isn’t Hawks from Fukuoka? But it’s not gonna be him and you don’t actually know the names of his sidekicks. Soo, what other agencies are there? But you actually can’t think of any more before the plane lands.
Since you still have no idea who you’re expecting, you just wait for someone to recognize you. You had Shindo promise you three times that he sent your name and photo to the commission.
You only realized you spaced out, when you hear someone softly call out your name. Startled, you look up to see “A bird?”
Oh my god! I really need to work on my filter! He probably thinks I’m against mutant quirks or something!
You cringe internally at your own reaction and start to apologize. “I’m so sorry, that was really inappropriate. I promise…”
You trail off as you hear him…chuckling? He's laughing?
“It’s alright. It is often the first thing people notice, I am not offended.”
Oh. Great! So that soft tone is just his normal voice? Wow, that’s…actually pretty nice.
And to be fair, now that you look at him properly, only his head is that of a bird. The rest is just that of a man dressed completely in black.
“Okay, great! So, my car is parked outside, if you want me to drive you home?”
“Home?”, he asks, sounding a bit confused but also amused (?) to an extent.
Oh right, that probably sounds weird.
“Oh yeah, all the hotels were booked, unfortunately, and the room at the agency is really tiny and basically just a shower room with a mattress inside, so your best bet right now is probably going to be my guest room, until we can book you something.”
“Well, in that case, I thank you for your hospitality.” You look for signs of sarcasm on his face, but all you find is a glint in his eyes, that you honestly don’t know how to interpret, so you leave it.
“Alright then, let’s go!”
After you helped him store his luggage and you’re both sitting in the car you hand him the aux-cable. When he just looks at you quizzically you just grin at him.
“It’s about a 45-minute drive. Passenger is responsible for the music.”
“But, I don’t know your tastes.”
“So? I don’t know yours. Just put your own on, it’s fine.”
“My taste is more…unconventional.”
You give him a deadpan stare.
“If you think I haven’t gotten the whole ‘revelry in the dark’ thing by the only black clothes and your whole gloomy vibe, then you should probably stay away from any undercover missions, my friend.”
You push the cord into his hand.
“And now play some music, emo boy.”
- - -
It took some convincing for your guest to let you carry in his bags for him, but they weren’t all that heavy and your parents taught you some manners.
You enter your home and set the bags in the living room.
“Welcome to my humble home…uh?” You’re halfway through a mock bow before you realize you haven’t even asked your guests name.
He chuckles again at your embarrassment - this seems to be a trend with him.
“I’m Tokoyami Fumikage. I apologize for not introducing myself sooner, I know it is a sign of bad manners, but I was curious as to how long it would take for you to ask.”
“Well then, Tokoyami Fumikage, as I am an exceptionally gracious host, your bad manners are forgiven.” You pick up his bags again. “Come on, I’ll show you to your room.”
Said room is actually quite spacious with a queen-sized bed, an ensuite-bathroom, and a desk he could work from home from, as there wasn’t really a spare office at your agency.
“Oh, this is a lot more than I was expecting, are you sure that it’s okay, if I stay here?”
“Yes, if I say so, then it's okay. My best friend just has a habit of staying over, so I went a bit overboard when I rented this place.”
He shifts a bit until apparently accepting your answer.
“Alright, you can get settled in and I will get started on dinner. If you need anything, just tell me. Oh by the way, do you have any allergies or food restrictions?”
You were almost out of the room again as you remembered to ask.
“No, I don’t have any allergies or something like that, just…” He seems a bit embarrassed to ask, so you just wait for him to speak up again. “I just prefer to eat with chopsticks, so…”
Oh, it was probably because of the beak, yeah that makes sense.
“Of course, no problem. I was planning ramen for tonight anyway. I’ll call you up when it’s ready.”
After you’ve eaten and laid in your bed you decide that Tokoyami is actually really nice and maybe whatever mission he’s here for could actually be a fun time for you.