It's HIMITIME! Chapter 3

Himiko Toga woke up to another unfamiliar ceiling.  Or she would have, if someone hadn’t left a sticky note stuck to her forehead.  Again.  Honestly it wasn’t all that funny but it made her laugh.  Not a lot, not really, and the strangled yelp that left her lips was less a giggle and more a sob, but it counted.  At least, that’s what she told herself to tamp down the well of feelings that she didn’t understand from drowning her.

She cuddled into the blanket that had been draped around her, the soft fabric absorbing the trickle of tears that fell from her eyes, again.  She hated that, the crying, because it didn’t help, didn’t mean anything, didn’t matter because all it did was tell them that they won one more time.  It didn’t stop her from losing herself though.  Because she knew what she’d done.  She could still taste him on her lips, that salty, perfect, wet, juicy, euphoric drug that beat through his veins.  It made her tingly in places that she didn’t want to acknowledge, made her whole body vibrate in ways that seemed beyond lewd, and made her crave it more and more, even as her full stomach protested.

Perhaps two dozen waffles and what felt like a gallon of blood didn’t mix well, but she would refuse to admit it to her dying day.  It was such a strange mix of feelings, dealing with just how strange the last two days had been.  Part of her wanted to cling onto these gentle moments like a scared child would a security blanket, but another laughed at her in the recesses of her mind, telling her it was all a lie and that she was going to suffer for it.

She had spent so much time sleeping today, so much time eating, and ruminating, and being confused and… and… and dealing with it all, or trying (and failing) to.  Himiko almost missed the times before all this.  At least then she understood the routine.  How to stay out of sight and out of mind until she was Required to be in their presence for this reason or that.  She had a strict bedtime of eight, a strict wakeup at five, if she was proper and present and silent and unobtrusive, she might be able to get some rice and on a rare occasion some fish or a pickle prepared by the maid.  Then school, and maybe some “normal” activities, then homework, sometimes dinner, and bed.

Even waking up unrestrained, without the mouth guard, without the locked door and the monitoring camera, it all felt so wrong to her.  At least out on the street she was with the trash where she belonged.  Here… she didn’t know the rules.  Tetsuo confused her.  She’d tried to kill him, as earnestly and absolutely as she could, and he just…

He just accepted it.  He fed her.  Made conversation.  Looked at her with eyes she couldn’t understand.  He’d let her… let her feed on him.  Let her drink his blood until she had all she could want.  Had drank until it hurt him, even, and what did he do?  He laid her out on the couch and put a blanket on her.  Let her sleep off her food coma, and her panic attack.

It was… kind of touching of him.

She didn’t know what to do with that.

The note had peeled off by then, crumpled between the folds of the covers, but she fished it out gently anyway.

*Put the rest of your stuff in the washer.  Should be done in an hour or so.  In my room if you need me.  Tetsuo*

Another simple message, not unlike how he spoke to her.  Direct.  Nonconfrontational.  Almost gentle in its own boyish way.  She could almost hear him speaking the words as he went about this or that chore.  She didn’t know if she liked it.

But she also didn’t hate it.

Stupid… confusing… feelings!  Ugh.  Things were easier when she was on the streets.  But they weren’t better.  She was self-aware enough to acknowledge that.  It didn’t make it any less agitating though.  Tetsuo and his big innocent eyes haunted her when she closed her eyes, so she didn’t.  She forced herself up, stood despite her belly’s protests as she rose, tired still even after spending most of the day sleeping.

First, she was going to go get her clothes.  She may have lacked a lot of body shame that she felt she probably should have, and Tetsuo probably got a full look on his own, but damnit, she had some pride as a woman!  She would make him work for it at least.  Step one of that was to go get her underwear, which might help with the breeze she was feeling, and then!  Then… well, then something else.  She was Himiko Toga, and she was on a roll.

The energy lasted long enough for her to trundle back into the hallway.  Her first time through, she’d been in a daze, not really paying attention, not really caring.  Now, though, what she saw brought her up short.  It wasn’t anything strange that caught her eye.  Wasn’t anything weird.  Just… just pictures.  Pictures of a normal family.  Doing normal family things.  The big lug of Tetsuo was in the center of a lot of them, towering over his father along with his mother, the rotund but jolly man tucked in between the two.  A family trip, maybe?  Then another, with Tetsuo holding up a huge trophy with a kicking figure at the top, a martial arts trophy maybe?  He looked so proud.  They all did.

And it just kept going.  Science fairs, sporting events, awards ceremonies, more and more, pictures of his family, of him, living their best lives.  And the thing that got her the most?  None of them looked fake.  None of them were putting on a show just for the sake of it.  None of them were unhappy or distant or anything.  Just a nice collage of parents that loved and supported him and seemed to genuinely want to be around him and… and it just… Himiko wiped the tears away and stalked down the hall to the bathroom.  She didn’t have a lot in the way of happy memories herself and she never understood just why it seemed so easy for everyone else.

Why their parents didn’t seem to have that instinctive hate and distrust of them that hers constantly reinforced.  It was bullshit and she was old enough to be able to spot it, see how she was the unwanted one, that nothing was ever good enough for them, how her sister was the chosen, perfect child while she was defective.  It just… wasn’t fair.  Or right.  Or proper.  She knew that, but it didn’t make it any easier.  Make it any less all-consuming as playing the never perfect, never right, never loved or wanted daughter for them with all their rules and their… their… Himiko forced it down.

She had to force it down, because at the end of the day all of that was over.  Because she’d snapped.  Because she just couldn’t any more, and even then some sick part of her yearned to go back, yearned to be accepted again, to be locked away in the asylum her parents always told her she belonged in, or some prison, or wherever they would throw her until they forgot about her.  She hated that part, hated it with all her heart and soul, even as it sat in her stomach like a hot coal, burning away at her resolve.  God knew how many times she’d wanted to just walk home and face the firing squad when she was trying to choke down some days old sandwich fished from a dumpster or squatted under the cold awning of this or that derelict.

Not that it mattered, in the end.  She could still hear the begging of the man who had tricked her.  Had snuck in with a moment of kindness and a quiet offer of sanctuary against the cold.  He almost got her too, with his Quirk, his scent, luring her deeper and deeper into the dark.  He smelled like blood and chocolate and safety and nostalgia.  He smelled like care and love and the color purple, which she didn’t really have a way to describe but was drawn to all the same.  She remembered how heavy her eyes were.  How hazy her thoughts got.  How… how she saw the crate, the plastic, in his home.  How some little part of her screamed in denial, how the feeling of his hands, so cold and clammy around her shoulders shocked her into action.

He told her… he told her it was time to go home.  Time to go back.  Time to let go even as he tried to pull her jacket away, even as he pulled the syringe from a hidden pocket in his shirt.

And then there was screaming.  Fighting.  She grabbed a knife from the kitchenette, desperate to get away as her head got more and more confused, the kind, genial man so soft and warm suddenly oppressive and cloying and hot.  Then she cut him, and he screamed, and she went out the window, two stories down into the piles of trash, only for him to follow after.  She didn’t even realize she’d stabbed him when his hand wrapped around her arm, or the second, or the third, or the fifth, as he fell back in shock, the light leaving his eyes as the blood covered them, covered everything, the heady scent of his pheromones mixed with her ever-starving need too much.

She leaned down, the blade sinking into his splayed out body, and she lapped at the crimson that stained his chest.  Hungrily, dazedly, desperately, and then?  Then there was Tetsuo.  Tetsuo who subdued her, almost with a dismissive ease.  Tetsuo, who brought her back, cleaned her up, washed her clothes.  Tetsuo, who watched her with those non-judgemental eyes as she feasted on everything, including him, before laying her down to rest.  Who didn’t seem to want to hurt her, despite all the chances he had.  Who just… confused her, in a way she hadn’t ever been before.

Because… because her life was all about control.  Controlling her feelings, her interactions, her words and looks and everything in between.  Never stepping out of line, never showing how ugly she is, never… never indulging in her monstrous side.  Never letting herself be Himiko Toga.  Just the actress that plays her on TV.

She was half tempted to strip down and walk into his room just to see if it would break him.  If he would force her to do the unsavory things Father’s coworkers were so prone to after a few drinks, while he turned a blind eye and Mother ignored.  At least then she would have some… some semblance of normality.  Some basis for who he was.  Something that would reorient her perception into something she could, if not like, understand.  He’d been willing to let her leave, and fed her when she didn’t.  His bed was soft and warm.  His shower was heaven.  So what if he took a little advantage of her?  If it let her keep enjoying the small amenities that she’d longed for then maybe it was worth it.

She was at the door, hand out towards the handle, the little whale plaque declaring it to be *Tetsuo’s Room* mocking her before her conscious thoughts could stop her.  She hadn’t bothered to get her underwear.  Hadn’t bothered to do anything but stand outside his door ruminating, stuck in its orbit like she was caught in some kind of strange whirlpool of self-loathing and grim determination.

Then the door was open.  She’d opened it.  When had she done that?  Tetsuo was at his desk, turned and looked straight at her as it slid wider and wider, and then she stepped inside.  His eyes were still that inscrutable, patient, and slightly wary look that was less fear and more concern, and it still rocked her psyche when she realized it was concern for her of all people.

“Feeling better?”  Tetsuo asked after she made herself comfortable, leaning back on his bed as he sat in the honestly massive chair at his desk.  He didn’t seem any worse for the wear, despite the four bandages that sat prominently on his arm, his hands folding themselves in front of her as he gave her his full attention.

“...yes.”  The word was quiet as it left her lips.  Her face was stony, blank, as she took in his measure.  He genuinely didn’t seem put off by her, even after everything.  “I don’t get you, you know?”

The words cut through the silence between them, and Tetsuo tilted his head.  It reminded her of a bird, curious and guileless all at once.  She let out a most unladylike snort as her hands found themselves on her knees.

“You don’t make sense.  It bothers me.  I don’t know if I like that, Tetsuo-kun.”  Her tone was terse, the emotion in it all but smothered as her cat eyes stared into his.  “I don’t… I don’t understand what you want.  Why you did what you did.  Why you keep doing what you’re doing.”

Tetsuo remained silent as she stared back at him, his legs crossing as he leaned back.  Himiko was starting to find the non-replies a bit grating, all told, but she’d said her piece.  The boy in front of her, for his part, seemed to be chewing on an answer.  Like he was having the conversation in his head, his eyes watching her but his entire body shifting subtly back and forth in the process.

“Because… someone…”  He said, finally, seeming to chew on the words.  “Someone very wise, they told me something.  They told me that when someone is at their lowest, their most desperate, that’s when they most need a hand.  You could say they pounded it into my head, when I was first falling into the whole Hero thing.”  He chuckled, his eyes twinkling with amusement at some inside joke.  “He sat me down, explained what being a hero really was.  What it meant to understand, to see, before judging.  To learn, before deciding.  So I decided to do just that when I found you.”

“You want to understand me?”  She hissed, “What’s there to understand, Tetsuo-kun?  You saw me.  I killed someone.  I was living in the streets with the trash before then.  I… I did things.  What makes you want to understand that?”

“Because you… you deserve it.  Because you deserve to have a real chance to be better.  To be more than… this.”  He didn’t gesture to her, but she knew what he meant.  Kind of.  She just didn’t know what he got out of it.  Because nobody was just… just selfless!  Himiko watched him for a moment, before she stood.  Tetsuo seemed confused for a moment, as she stalked up to him.

“What do you know about this!”  She hissed at him as she got so close she could see the veins in his eyes, her hands finding his shoulders as she pulled close.  “What do you want from this, Tetsuo-kun!?”  She plopped into his lap, legs spread, exposed, as she leaned into his personal space.  “Is it this?”  She motioned downwards.  “Is it something more!?  What else do I have to give, Tetsuo-KUN!?”

“I-”  He started, only for her to press in closer.

“Nobody just… just helps people!  Everyone wants something!  Everyone!  So what is it you want!?”  Her hands found the sides of his head as he froze, staring at her in shock.  “I don’t buy this goodie-goodie bullshit you keep spewing, talking about ideals and principles and saving me like I asked for your help!”  The words were quiet, but hard.  Tetsuo stayed frozen, and as close as Himiko was, she could visibly see something come over Tetsuo.  The shock and surprise and boyish impulses of having a half-naked girl pressing into him all seemed to fade, leaving a distance in those eyes.

“I can say a lot of things, Himiko.”  Even his tone changed, slightly.  It was deeper, older, firmer.  “But the truth is that sometimes it really is just about trying to help someone.”  He sighed, and his hands gently found her shoulders as her wide eyes narrowed, her light frame lifted surprisingly easily from his lap and set on her feet as he stood.  “But you’re right that I want something too.”

And there it was, Himiko thought.  Finally, a little vinegar to go with the honey.  Something that maybe she could understand.  Something she could grasp on to.

“I want to see… if you can be saved.  I want to see if the risk… I… took was worth it.  I have my doubts.  I have my worries.  If you think I haven’t been thinking about everything with you you’d be mistaken.  Because I don’t know you.  I don’t know why you killed that man.  I don’t know anything about you besides the fact that you were hungry and filthy and hurting in the back alley of a dingy neighborhood.”  He said, stepping away from her.  “And I don’t know if I can help you.  I don’t know if there’s anything I can do to make it matter.  But I want to try.  I have to.  Or else… or else what was the point of it all these years.”

“If you wanted to run off right now I wouldn’t stop you.  I’m not going to start a fight in my parent’s home.  Not just for that, and I genuinely don’t want to fight you, either.  But the truth is I don’t have the magic combination of words to tell you what you want to hear.  To find what makes… me… tick.  All I do know is bad things happened to you and I don’t want to be one of them.  You can do with that what you will.”

Himiko flopped down onto the bed, more confused than before, but also less?  It was a strange feeling, trying to puzzle out just what Tetsuo was trying to say.  But the intensity… that was there.  That felt real.  Himiko could almost see it radiating off him.  He said he didn’t want to be another bad thing in her life.  That… that she found herself believing.  Or maybe just wanting to believe it.  Would it really be so bad?  Of course it would be, some dark part of her hissed, but there was another part that just… was so tired of it.  Tired of feeling like a life wire, questioning everything, treating everyone around them like they were all wearing masks.

But maybe she’d misjudged just what Tetsuo’s was.  He operated on a different wavelength than other shallow girls that would smile to her face and nitpick behind her back.  Different from her parents, always demanding the most they could from her and then punishing her just because.  Different even from her sister, who could be so kind and caring one moment and then a sadistic bitch the next.  He wasn’t even like the other boys she’d interacted with those scant few times in the mall she’d managed to slip away to.  He was…

He was Tetsuo.

She chewed on that in the silence that stretched between them.

“I…” She paused, thinking, “I… don’t get it, Tetsuo-kun.  But you seem to, and that’s… you confuse me.  I don’t like that.  But… I also don’t think I hate it.” She said, almost to herself. It was almost absurd, and she knew it. It was hard for her, to not get attached, to cling onto the first person in forever that somehow felt… genuine.

She hated it. She loved it. She felt confused, and despite it all he just kept watching her with those gentle, forgiving eyes. She didn’t know what to do. She came in here because… because she was trying to prove to herself that he was exactly like everyone else she ever met. Like her Mother, who belittled her, ripping her apart for every little flaw, sneering at her with all the hate she could muster, or her Father, who viewed her as filthy, and unclean thing to be used and discarded, whored out to his friends while propping up that miserable cunt of a sister. And her sister? The one who she tried so hard to be there for, to give everything their parents denied her? She grew up resentful and deceiving, spreading rumors and lies behind Himiko’s back every chance she got.

Nevermind her ‘friends’ from school, the bunch of backbiting bitches that smiled to her face while twisting the knife in her back. The teachers who lied and derided her, the councillors who took her in confidence and then spread her secrets to her parents. The police, the heroes, the people who were supposed to help her, who sold her out for nothing but a pat on the back and a good boy…

How sad was it that a complete stranger was her last, best hope. How broken was she to not only expect, but demand him to use her for the privilege. How pathetic- She was pulled out of her thoughts when a weight dropped onto the bed next to her, a big, heavy arm wrapping gently around her shoulder, pulling her in. When had she started crying? Why hadn’t she stopped? Why couldn’t she?

Tetsuo glanced down at the tiny girl as she wrapped her arms around him and started sobbing. He didn’t know what was going through her head, but he could almost see the byplay on her face as she slowly collapsed in on herself again. Call him a coward but he’d let Finch take over when Toga had crawled into his lap and started flashing her privates at him, not trusting himself to handle it well. Thank god for that, the man juggled her well enough that she’d stopped doing that.

It was going to take both of them to keep her from going off the deep end, it seemed, and wasn’t that a whole thing? He’d need to start reading up on some more advanced psychology, because neither he nor the voice in his head were equipped for what he knew was coming. He’d tried to do some research on her, but Togo was a shockingly common family name even in a district like Musutafu. Hell, there was even a Councillor by the same name, and despite hunting for it in the limited time he had before she barged in, he hadn’t been able to find her socials either.

Himiko Toga was a ghost. St. Herebiki’s didn’t broadcast the names of its students for any reason, what with it being the institution it was, and he had a feeling that it wasn’t so simple as just calling them up and asking, either. He’d have to see what he could learn from the horse’s mouth when he had the chance. Preferably when she wasn’t scream-sobbing into his stomach.

He stroked her hair as his mind whirled with thoughts on the topic, not quite sure how things wound up the way they did. There was one thing he knew for certain: Himiko Toga was one fucked up person. It wasn’t her fault either, because she had a ton of hallmarks of abuse, strung up with neon lights and pyrotechnics. The blood drinking had been indicative of an altered obligatory diet that hadn’t been managed well, if at all. While rare, it did have a lot of concessions made for those sorts of antagonistic Quirk expressions specifically because of how life-altering they could be. Like an obligate carnivore, denying those dietary needs could result in, aside from starvation, bouts of violence, outbursts, panic-driven hostility and worse. To the point that it was considered a crime in most countries to forcibly suppress those expressions, usually on par with attempted murder.

The most famous case was out of China, as it happened. There was a boy that had an obligatory diet that required bone marrow as a food source. His powers allowed him to sprout bony protrusions from his body, which required the needed source, but at the behest of his family due to some kind of communal shame, he was forced to go without for long periods of time. Eventually he found himself at near full starvation, and, driven insane by his hunger, murdered thirty four people in a hunger-fuelled rampage. He was put down four days later by the Red Star Seven, but not before he killed most of his village in the process.

And both he and Finch had a sneaking suspicion that this was similar. But it also raised a number of questions, too. Quirk Rehab centers had an open door, believe all comers policy when it came to obligate needs, and the state had spent no small amount of money establishing emergency access programs for people who might be getting abused. The police, at the least, had mandatory reporting, as did the school system, and he refused to believe somewhere as prestigious as St. Herebiki’s wouldn’t report it if she came to them.

He would need to find out, but… then there was the man she’d killed. He still didn’t know the whole story there, but he wanted to believe there was something more to it than just Obligate Mania. The sniffling blonde weeping into his lap didn’t strike him as some unhinged psychopath, chasing people down so she could get her favorite human happy meal in the alleys of Musutafu.

‘Watch it, kid. You’re doing a lot of assuming there. In both directions.’ Finch mentally nudged him, and he paused. His head buddy was right, of course. He would need to come at this with a more open mind, especially when it came to assuming if she did or didn’t seek help, and how that was received. ‘You’re damn right you need to watch that bad habit of yours, Tetsuo. This is big league shit you’re in. You do this wrong, you’re going to catch an accessory charge at the least, now.’

That was the other side of the coin, wasn’t it? He was aiding a fugitive, and the Japanese legal system was as draconian as ever, if not more so with the advent of Quirks. It was going to take a herculean effort to just get to the bottom of things, and he wasn’t sure if he could do that, much less potentially clear Himiko’s name, if she was indeed worthy of the effort. He was still a minor, but there was precedent for charging even people as young as him for Capital Adult felonies. Attempted coverup of a murder was one of the big ones.

‘Fuuuuuuck.’ he groaned mentally as he stroked her hair some more. The girl had devolved into semi-conscious whimpering and he wasn’t quite willing to try to disengage just yet. For obvious reasons, he wasn’t sure if she would handle the sudden pullback well, but there were others. He could admit, in the depths of his mind, that she was warm- No. fuck, what was wrong with him? Finch just chuckled in the back of his mind, and he projected a raised middle finger in his direction.

‘Aww, little Tetsuo discovering girls?’ Finch asked condescendingly, and he mentally glared at the man. ‘Don’t take it to heart, kid, Jeeze. It got your head out of that spiral, didn’t it?’ Even if he agreed, the man could be a little more circumspect. ‘No, I can’t. I don’t exactly have a hand to slap some sense in you, do I? Besides, you don’t know how to handle female attention yet. You’re going to get your signals crossed. Teenager, remember?’

‘I still don’t like it. It’s not appropriate.’ Tetsuo harrumphed. Then he noticed Himiko staring at him from where she’d tucked into his stomach, and for a moment the boy worried that she’d heard him somehow. He’d, rarely, let that inside voice outside, and it rarely ended well.

“That’s weird.” She whispered, unblinking. “That thing you do.” Her eye, the visible one, was red and her cheeks blotchy, but she seemed to have caught him drifting.

“Sorry.” He said, shaking his head. “I was just… thinking about stuff.” Then it hit him. “What thing?”

“You twitch weird, and your body language shifts. You go far away for a minute, then come back, then go.” She explained, and that was remarkably unhelpful. Yeah, he’d sometimes made faces when he was a kid and first getting used to her perpetual stalker- ‘Fuck off-’ but he’d gotten a hand on that, or so he’d thought. Himiko, for her part, let out a wet giggle as she wrapped her arms tighter around him.

“I see.” He lied unconvincingly, but Himiko was kind enough not to call him on it. “Feeling better?”

“Mmmhmm.” She hummed, still holding onto him.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” He asked, gently, but she shook her head. That’s a no then. Fair enough. Still she clung on, burying her face in his shirt, close enough that he could feel her breathing through it. “Are you gonna let go?”

“Mmm Mmm.” She hummed again, and Tetsuo sighed as she latched on even tighter. Standing didn’t help, as she barnacled onto him with her legs somehow, supporting her entire weight while throwing him half off balance.

“Himiko, you need to let go.” He tried again. “I stayed up to make sure you’d be okay, but I do need to be up early tomorrow.” She stayed clinging to him, and while he liked to think himself a particularly stoic and willful young man, she was basically naked from the waist down and her skirt was doing nothing to hide that fact as she wrapped her legs tighter around him. He took another step, nearly stumbling as she swayed, before he manifested a cane on that side to help him keep his balance. For a moment he considered poking her with it. The shock wouldn’t be too bad and it would get her off, but he knew he wouldn’t. He was annoyed, not a bastard.

“Dun’ wan’.” Himiko said, pressing her face against him. “Soft, comfy. Helping m’ headache.”

Yeah that tracked, he thought as Finch cackled in the back of his mind. He was glad the guy was getting a chuckle at his pain, at least, but that still left him with a blonde limpet. Gingerly he shuffled around to try and figure out how to detach her without touching her, because the only place he could get a grip right then was someplace round and bare, and that was asking for trouble.

“Look, you can stay, but I need you to hop off and put some underwear on, okay? I also need to shut down my computer and stuff.” He eventually offered, and he heard her giggle, before nodding and functionally unwinding around him to clamber back onto the ground.

“Promise?” She asked, playfully, but there was something desperate under it. Tetsuo nodded.

“Promise.” And with that she was gone. Tetsuo sighed in relief as he went to go kill his PC, only for Finch to hum a moment later.

‘She’s disseminating pretty hard, huh?’ He stated more than asked, and Tetsuo found himself agreeing. Her behavior was outrageous, but it was all in service of distracting herself from whatever had caused that last collapse. The weaponizing of her body was worrying, too, but that was a whole thing he wasn’t sure how to approach, and Finch wasn’t any more help there. ‘Personally I think you need to reach out to a professional there.’

Flipping off his computer he changed into a tank top and jersey shorts, half because his shirt was now covered in snot, and half because it just wasn’t comfortable to sleep in a lot of clothing in the heat of summer. That said, he wasn’t quite willing to get down to his skivvies with little miss grabby hands either. Letting her stay instead of putting her up on the couch was already way, way past his personal boundaries, but he was willing to take the hit, at least for now.

‘I’ll look around online later. I know that a few of the bigger heroes have anonymous help lines for stuff. Maybe someone has something for whatever happened to her?’ Tetsuo wondered, as he also took a moment to swap his sheets and hit Mr. Gang Orca with some freshener and a quick wipedown. He hadn’t quite managed to get that done before Himiko had gotten up and visited. ‘Until then, do you mind keeping an eye on things while I sleep? It’s been a fucked up day, and I’m running on empty.’

‘Yeah, I gotcha kid. Just settle in and I’ll put the lights out.’ And thank god for that. Sometimes he was genuinely glad Finch could just take over and he could sink into the comfort of his Deep mind. He was sitting on his bed, checking his alarm on his phone when Himiko walked in, and while he wasn’t sure where she found the pajamas (probably his mom, she liked cutesy stuff like that) he was glad she was mostly covered. Seemed like the little hellcat wasn’t looking to make things more weird than he already felt.

She was silent as she padded over, and he lifted the covers. She watched him for a moment, hesitating, but as he was about to drop them she crawled under the thick comforter. While he wasn’t sure what to expect, she seemed content to just lay there, neither moving nor speaking, before cuddling into his side. He pretended to ignore the shiver, not sure what to make of it, as he reached over and killed the lights.

WIthin minutes, Tetsuo relaxed, drifting into the back of their shared mindscape, and it was Finch who found himself playing the waiting game. He didn’t need to sleep, per say, but despite the trust the dominant mind decided to offer the little vampire, he set himself to keep on eye out all the same. That was when he noticed Himiko shifting, ever so slightly, before she tilted her head up and stared at him with those cats’ eyes. Their gazes met, and she whispered, almost imperceptibly, “I was wondering when I was going to meet you.”