Fumikage Tokoyami has heard many things said in regards to villains and how their vile deeds have corrupted their personalities into a horrendous mimicry of what the typical citizen would be. He has experienced what villains are like, has been forced to fight for his life against the malicious machinations who sought to end him. After having Midosagi and his paramour attending classes at UA with him and the other hero course students (not even mentioning the child they've taken under their care), he knows that villains are not the irredeemable monsters that many would portray them as, but simply people that walk along the darker roads that life has laid for them. They are not pure evil, just as heroes are not pure good. But even with that understanding firmly within his mind…
""Shiggy's got a girlfriend~! Shiggy's got a girlfriend~!""
…Watching the same people who attacked their class acting similarly to their most laid back members is a bit… At least his fear from when he was trapped in the booth has been replaced with simple awkwardness. Looking on the less shadowed path, he is also able to observe the interpersonal relations that the League has with each other!
"If your dialogue repeats one more time…!"
Midosagi and Toga both pause and tilt their heads opposite ways perfectly in sync before exchanging looks and shrugging. Toga gets up without another word while Midosagi slumps back in his seat. "Eh, we're done. Not like you've got the nerves to make a move on her anyways~." He says with a teasing voice that causes the League's leader to have a murderous face.
…Tokoyami honestly has to wonder if Shigaraki has refused any attempts to try and reclaim his allies since Hosu due simply to the fact that he finds them incredibly aggravating.
`~`
I can't help but snort in amusement at how embarrassed Shiggy is about his crush before slipping under the table to avoid his outstretched hand. After a moment I pop my head back out to check if he's going to try again, but he's accepted the futility of going against my superior dodging techniques - which I really have no right to have developed to the degree I have - and withdrawn to grumble insults about me into his cup of soda.
"So," I say, moving past the teasing session Sky started about Shiggy's ~crush~, "what are you two doing at the mall?"
""New game,"" the two answer at the same time, though Shiggy with excitement and Sky in resignation, which is understandable. We're all familiar with how passionate he is about video games. Unfortunately this has led to the occasional… 'problem' when Shigaraki goes out to get more. Legally, I mean. Sometimes when he's bored he'll just ask Kurogiri to open a portal inside the store and he'll grab an armful before coming back, and it's honestly much easier than when he has a specific game he wants. It's those cases that causes problems, mainly when he overhears someone talking bad about a game he likes and he dusts them. Or when he gets into an argument about a game with someone, gets annoyed, and dusts them. Or when someone spoils a major surprise and he dusts many people, though that one is much more reasonable.
"What game?" Of course, their response immediately gets the interest of Eri, what with Shiggy having started her on the path of a gamer.
"New Halo," Shigaraki glances at me and smirks evilly - more evil than his usual smirk, anyways - and we both know why.
True to form, Eri looks at me with her patented unicorn eyes, all sparkly and begging and much more deadly than any boring old puppy dog eyes. I have but two things to use in an attempt to prevent the inevitable. "If you go back to the LoV, Himi and I won't be there with you." I pause before side-eyeing Shigaraki and Sky. "Unless you two think you can successfully kidnap us from the mall."
Shigaraki sizes up the feathered boy next to him, who shivers at my fellow villain's attention, before his smirk widens. "You know, it shouldn't be too hard to just walk out of here with the two of you."
"Are you sure about that?" Like a spirit manifested from the apathy of the occupants of the mall's food court, Shoko suddenly appears behind Shigaraki with a voice colder than her ice. The leader of the LoV jumps in his seat and bangs his knees against the underside of the table, causing him to curse in pain.
"The hell!!!" He turns around in his seat to glare at my first friend who has smug satisfaction dancing in her eyes but absent from her expression. "Where did you come from!?"
"My mother," Shoko says deadpan before moving around the table to take the seat next to me that Himi vacated to go get another pizza. Just in case though I give her a peck on the cheek. The two of them have spent so much time together that even I sometimes have trouble telling them apart when Himi turns into her, and Himi said that whenever I fail to give her a kiss while she's transformed she'll stab me. Since that's more of a private activity I started just giving Shoko a kiss on the cheek any time I see her and Himi isn't around. Neither of them seemed to mind that, so greeting both my girlfriend and my friend with a kiss has just become rote at this point.
'Shoko' seems pleased at my automatic greeting, even though I'm pretty sure she isn't Himiko, but I wouldn't put it past her to not get the new pizza just so she could get a chance to stab me in the middle of the mall. We would both find people screaming and running away in a blind panic pretty funny, after all. She hasn't changed into Himiko after the kiss though, so she's probably the actual Shoko. Unless she has something planned, but probably not. Probably.
"So how is your mother?" I ask curiously. I wasn't expecting her to show up at the mall today since she said she and the other Todorokis would be welcoming the woman back to their home. Conditionally and with someone from the mental hospital on the premises to make sure she isn't too overwhelmed, but it's still a big step forward for her.
"Overwhelmed," Shoko says point blank. "Father kept as much of a distance as he could while still being present, which helped, but she saw the training room and started to spiral into a panic attack, according to the nurse. She helped her calm down before putting her to bed, so the rest of us were able to go do other things."
"That's nice," I say. Nice that the family actually wants to be together and is willing to put in the effort to make it happen, I mean. Not that Shoko's mother had a panic attack. Pushing that to the side I look back at Eri, who seems to be trying to murder me through unicorn eye exposure. "Oh, right." I nod at the reminder and raise two fingers. "The second point is that you won't be able to go to I-Island and meet Melissa."
At the reminder of going on a plane and meeting my cousin the unicorn eyes vanish and she gets a cutely intense thinking face. A few minutes later, just as Himi gets back with an additional two supreme meat pizzas and drapes herself across my and Shoko's laps, she nods and looks back at me. "I wanna go!"
I smile and ruffle the girl's hair before looking at Shigaraki and shrug with a 'what can you do' look. "Welp, that's unfortunate. Maybe you can figure something out over the summer break? There's definitely a couple of good opportunities to stage a kidnapping."
Our glorious LoV leader scowls and accidentally dusts the pizza slice in his hand. "Kuogiri has two weeks on his vacation. Damn smoky bastard even had the nerve to lie and say he was going on a cruise with his girlfriend!" Seeing me exchange a surprised look with Himi, he frowns at me before leaning across the table while grabbing another pizza slice. "We both know that he doesn't have a girlfriend, Rabbits."
I raise my hands up in surrender. "Well how are we supposed to know! Maybe he hooked up with one of the new recruits?"
But Shiggy shakes his head and takes a big bite, speaking through a mouthful of food like the uncivilized savage we all know him to be. "Nah, too low level and not enough time to work their way through his route." His eyes flick towards the two actual hero students before he continues, probably realizing that he can't just be blatant about the members of the LoV. "We've got a fanboy who is a mix of you and Stain, a guy who never takes off his mask, a dramatic bastard, and a condiment."
Sky turns her head away from the table as she snorts soda out of her nose from amusement, much to the consternation of Tokoyami who took the full blast. She coughs and uses a napkin to clean her nose before chuckling. "Don' forget about ya smoking arsonist," she teases Shigaraki with a smirk before turning to me while doing a stupendous job of ignoring the girl using my arm as a beverage to wash down her food, and another poking ice needles into her hair buns with one hand while scratching my hair with the other. She does have an eye twitch at our dynamic but forges on regardless. "But yeah, 'parrently Giri is hooking up with sum lady he met on a blind date. Sketchy, I say, but he's happy, so," she shrugs.
I nod in agreement. "Yeah, I'd never agree to a blind date." I pause before fixing that statement. "Well, unless Himi wanted us to have a one night stand with a completely random person."
My girlfriend nods her head in agreement while Shoko pouts at me. That I can see, the expression changes are very mild. "What about me?" She asks petulantly, causing me to tilt my head.
"What do you mean?" She stares at me for a few more seconds before letting out a sigh. Then I feel a prick in my neck and see Tokoyami startling back in his seat. A quick glance down reveals that a newly pouting Himi has pulled one of the icicle needles out of her buns and stabbed it into my collarbone. Not in a spot that will kill me any time soon, but I'll definitely bleed out pretty fast once it's either removed or melts. "What was that for?"
She just sighs and shakes her head before tilting back so she's fully laying down instead of lounging so she can meet Shoko's eyes. "Don't worry, we'll make things clear at camp." Shoko brightens up with a visible curl of her lips while Shigaraki suddenly looks very interested.
"Oh? Care to elaborate?"
Before anyone can answer an alarm echoes through the mall announcing that villains have been sighted in the building. He and Sky curse and scramble from the table, Sky using Tokoyami as a launchpad to jump out of the booth before they both rush off. Less than a minute later a worried Uraraka is at our table with a security guard who's looking around with one hand on her taser. Evidently she saw Shigaraki at our table and made the smart decision to alert someone with the authority to do something about it. Someone else overheard them and sounded the alarm, which was not part of their plan and allowed Shigaraki and Sky to escape.
Still, Uraraka did the smart thing so I pet her head to congratulate her. Sure, she pouts at the pet-like treatment, but she doesn't complain so it's clear that she actually likes it. Or she's too scared to tell me not to do it. Either way works.