*Trigger warning for breakdown? IDK, I'm desensitized.*
I stare at the girl sitting across the table from me in my game room. Why do I have a table when most of the games I have in here are video based? Well, after I met Hatsume I called the DAB to get the beach secured as her territory, and they insisted on getting me some board games that I could 'play with friends'.
Hatsume and I aren't friends, I think, but I didn't really see a reason to argue the point. And I do intend on inviting her over at some point to introduce her to the inventing lab I had them construct after she mentioned using my scales to make some interesting support equipment. And obviously I'm not going to let her experiment with something coming directly from me in her dump or her own workshop. Though I'm honestly still unsure of actually allowing her the privilege. It bears more consideration.
But that's for me to address later. For now, I have to deal with the odd girl who decided it was a good idea to try and cling onto someone who was flying through the sky. What kind of idiot does that!?
I huff out a small puff of flame, causing the girl to sit up straight with her hands folded in her lap. "So. Care to expand upon your earlier comment?"
She gives me a bright smile that seems just a bit off for some reason. "I told you, I want to be best friends!"
I raise an eyebrow. "Ok… Why?"
She bounces in her seat and starts ticking things off of her fingers. "You're cute, you're strong, and you smell amazing," she shivers as her face flushes, and my own isn't much better.
"Y-y-you think I'm cute!?" I shout as I look away, my face beet red. I haven't been called c-cute before. She thinks I am? And I s-smell good!? That's such an embarrassing thing for someone to compliment!
I've been complimented on my strength plenty of times before. Yes, usually it took the form of people screaming in pain and terror while I tore either them or their group apart or Giran complimenting my ruthlessness, but praise is still praise. I'm more than used to people thinking highly of my strength, that's only natural. As is my strength and abilities themselves.
But cute!? Nobody has called me cute before! Apart from the Midoriya bitch, but she only did that because of societal expectations placed upon her, so she doesn't count.
I squirm in my seat while cupping my face, giggles slipping past my lips. "Th-that's-"
I don't even know what to say! What do you say to someone who wants to be your friend because they think you're the cutest thing in the whole wide world!? Wait, she said my smell is part of it! Does that mean that she wouldn't want to be my friend if I started to smell bad?! I need to take a lot of baths to make sure that never happens! Oh, and I can't forget-
*Tink*
I blink, my panicked thoughts coming to an abrupt stop. Slowly, I turn to look at the girl while feeling something lightly trail across the scales on my neck. I stare at her, the girl I brought to my Lair. To my home. And there she stands with a frozen smile on her face, the now dull blade of a box cutter held against the scales on my neck.
There's silence for a minute as the two of us simply stare at each other, neither moving. A bead of sweat trails down the side of her face, and I watch it as it curves around the edge of her mouth and makes its way to her chin where it hangs precariously for a moment before it drops, splashing harmlessly against the ground.
The same effect her attack on me had.
I let my head tilt as I channel my emotions and stare into her eyes, seeing them tremble. I ask in an emotionless voice, "Do you want to die?"
She doesn't answer, I don't think she can. But she does start trembling as her smile drops, her face pales while her mouth opens and closes, utterly silent. I let a growl build in my throat as I casually swipe at her chest, throwing her off to the side and to the ground.
I stand, scales growing down from my forearms and engulfing my fingers, which become tipped with my claws. The girl scrambles backwards across the ground, evidently free from the force of my glare. She frantically waves her hands in front of herself with her face clearly showing her panic. "W-w-wait! I-I-I'm sorry! You just smell so good that I couldn't stop myself!"
I don't reply, continuing my measured pace as I move forward and she crawls backwards. Eventually though, she hits the wall of the cave and can't move away anymore, meaning that I'm getting closer and closer with each step. She starts rambling as her eyes go wide, desperation mixing with her panic and fueling the certainty that she's about to die.
"M-m-my quirk! It needs me to drink blood! And you smell like a bunch of different kinds of blood! It's really tempting which is why I was following you! Then when you were fighting with All Might something happened and I could smell your blood even though you didn't get hurt! Which is amazing since you fought All Might which means that you're absolutely amazing too! Um, y-your blood though! Your blood smells so much better than anyone else's blood that I've ever smelled before! It's amazing! You're amazing! I'm sorry for trying to take it! I couldn't help myself! You're just too amazing and cute so I wanted to know what it would be like to be someone as cute and amazing as you so I couldn't resist trying to get some!"
I'm standing over her now, looking at her with a blank expression. She swallows as tears pool and leak from the corners of her eyes. "I-I-I'm sorry!" She starts to bawl, curling into the fetal position and covering her head with her arms. "I-I know I'm sick, but I couldn't stop it! I-I want to be normal, but my disgusting villain quirk won't let me! I-I-I don't want to be this way! I want my parents to love me! I want to be normal! I-I'm sorry!"
She devolves into just repeating 'I'm sorry' over and over, her cries loud enough to echo in the cavern. I slowly reach down towards her, unseen by the girl, and-
Pet her head.
She doesn't react to the contact, simply continuing to sob. I take a seat next to her and bring her upper body into my lap and use my other hand to gently run my claws through her hair while speaking gently to her. "Shh. It's ok, you're ok. It's not your fault. You're not sick."
She seems to hear that and tries to flinch away, but I hold her still. "You didn't choose your quirk, so you shouldn't feel bad about it." My voice is soft, like I'm talking to a scared child. Not that keeping my voice soft usually works with the scared children I've talked to before, what with them typically being scared of whatever it was they saw me doing that got them scared in the first place.
"There's no such thing as a villainous quirk. Nor is any quirk heroic. Quirks are just that; quirks. It's up to the person they belong to to decide how they'll be used, not anyone else. If your quirk means you have to drink blood, then that's ok. That means it's natural and not some kind of disease. Heck, the number two hero is usually on fire, do you think that's normal?"
She sniffles before giving a tentative shake of her head. "No?"
I nod firmly. "That's right. It's not normal compared to everyone else, but it is for him. Which means that needing to drink blood is normal for you. And that's ok. Your normal is exactly that, your normal. It's nobody else's normal, which means it's nobody else's business."
She rolls over so she's facing the ceiling from my lap and looks at me with red-rimmed eyes. "Really?" She asks in a weak voice. I smile down at her, showing off how sharp each of my teeth are. Really, I should be calling them fangs instead of teeth. Because teeth are what humans have. But I'm a dragon, which means my fangs are better.
"Of course. It's normal for me to eat people, and so what if others have a problem with that? It just means that I'll eat them too if they try to make my business their business."
She blinks at the casual reveal of my debatable cannibalism before giving me a shaky smile. "H-heh. Y-yeah. Drinking blood should be normal for me. It's fine if others don't need to drink it, but I do."
"Now say it. Say that you need to drink blood, so that's your normal."
"I need to drink blood, so that's my normal?"
My gaze pierces her. "Again, but like you mean it!"
"I need to drink blood, so that's my normal."
"Again!"
"I need to drink blood, so that's my normal!"
"Again!"
Her tone gets firmer with each repetition, like her resolve is rising alongside her voice. "I need to drink blood, so that's my normal! And it's my business!"
"And what are you going to do if someone decides to make your business their business?"
She shoots to a sitting position and gives me a predatory smile. For humans. I think. To me she's simply showing off how happy she is. Unlike her previous smile, I can tell that this one is real. "Then I'll drink their blood, transform into them, and ruin their fucking life!"
I throw my head back and laugh, its echoes bouncing off the walls and making it seem like a chorus of people is agreeing with her. I bring my head down and meet her blazing eyes with my own.
"You've got that right. They have no right to dictate how you live. Your life is just that, yours. Yours to decide how to live. Yours to decide what you do with it. And the only one to decide whether your quirk belongs to a villain or not is you!"
She wraps her arms around me while she throws her own head back, her laughter mixing with my echoes to create a cacophony of noise that resembles a roar of challenge instead of cries of joy.
When she stops, we stay like that, not moving. I pretend not to notice the feeling of my hoodie becoming wet where her face is buried into it, letting her have her moment.
But eventually, she does pull away. She sniffs and brings the heel of her palm to rub at her face. After wiping away the tear streaks to her satisfaction, she looks at me with bloodshot eyes. She opens her mouth, and when she speaks, her voice is quiet once again. But instead of quavering, this time there's sad acceptance.
"What about my parents? They…" She trails off, but I can finish the sentence for her. I know what it's like. So there's really only one thing to say.
"Did you know… that I grant wishes?"
She looks at me with confusion, so I expand on my words. "I grant wishes, if someone can find me and provide adequate payment." I tap her on the nose, causing her to cross her eyes as she tries to look at the spot, which makes me giggle. "You may have found me in the wrong way, but I'll still count it. So, do you have a wish for me to grant, Miss…"
I trail off as I realize that throughout the girl's breakdown, I never got her name. Seeming to come to the same realization, she quickly tells me. "Toga. Himiko Toga."
I smile at her, a smaller one this time. "Well then, Toga, what wish would you ask of me?"
She looks down and pushes her finger tips against each other, either thinking or hesitating to say what it is. I wait. After all, it's her wish, so she's allowed to tell me when she's ready.
Thankfully it only takes a few moments before she takes a deep breath and looks back up to meet my eyes. "Can you get my parents to love me?"
I wince, awkwardly scratching my cheek with a claw. "Ah, well. I'm not really experienced in the whole 'love' department. Familial or otherwise. The bastards I was born to tried to kill me, so…"
She gasps before giving me a tight hug. "I'm sorry."
I wave the apology off, she has nothing to be sorry for. "It's fine, I'm over it." A lie, but I'll get there eventually. Maybe I'll burn down the apartment complex the Midoriya family lives in later. "I can certainly try to explain to your parents that there's nothing wrong with you, but I don't think I'll be very successful if they are the ones who have been turning you against yourself."
She falls silent once again, her look of disappointment making me feel bad about my answer. But it's true. If they haven't accepted their daughter for who she is by now, I doubt that it will ever happen. It doesn't mean that I won't try, but people like that tend to only see what they want to see.
"Then… if they don't accept me for me…" She looks at me pleadingly. "Can you help me… get away from them? I'm tired of acting like someone I'm not. Tired of my mask. I want friends, real friends who are happy to be with the real me. But," more tears pool in her eyes but don't fall, "but I can't do that if they won't let me be free. Let me be me."
I gently wipe her eyes with my thumbs, clearing away the unshed tears. "Are you sure? I may end up killing them." The DAB accommodated my request to turn Trash Beach into Hatsume's territory, but I get the feeling that something like this is outside of their purview. They would still try, I know. But the effort to reward ratio just wouldn't be worth it, given they'd have to find Toga an entirely new life to live. And she doesn't want that, she wants to be free.
Though the girl blanches, I see her resolve firm itself on her face. "I want to be free. No matter the cost."
I smile at her, which now has a bit of a predatory tint to it. "Yes… cost. What do you offer, for me to grant your wish?"
Her look doesn't waver. "I'll offer you anything, as long as you let me be me."
I raise an eyebrow and stare into her eyes. "You would offer yourself?"
She doesn't look away. "Did I fucking stutter?"
I'm silent for a moment before I ask her one last question, stuttering myself just a bit. "D-did you mean it? When you called me c-c-cute?"
She blinks while I peer at her with slightly narrowed eyes. Then she giggles and glomps onto me. "Of course! You're absolutely adorable!"
I blush and look away. "T-then in that case, you can have the honor of being added to my Hoard. We will organize your addition after I grant your wish, but know that I care for that which belongs to me!"
She giggles again. "You're kind of like a tsundere, huh?" She blinks before tilting her head and looking at me questioningly. "Huh. I told you my name, but I still haven't gotten yours."
I clear my throat. "Ah, right." I gesture for her to get up and she rises from my lap with puffed out cheeks. After following her up I give a small bow, my instincts flaring as I formally introduce myself.
"I am Izumi. The Emerald Dragon."