Strays (WHM)

Part 8

The three of them rode in awkward silence as night fell, before Izuku broke it to return the pendant to Rody. Senji, not wanting them to keep reaching over her, took it and passed it over. She slowly uncurled her legs, trying to keep out of the way of the pedals Rody needed.

"They're safe, by the way," Senji spoke softly. Rody and Izuku, not following entirely, responded in unison with confused grunts.

"That case, it's somehow related to Humarise, right? And you got roped in because they took your family hostage. They're safe. You're welcome," Senji adjusted her position again, clearly uncomfortable.

"Um, thanks. How did you..?"

Rody trailed off, keenly aware of how close he was to her. Her shuffling was hard to ignore, even in the current circumstance, and he started to lose focus on the driving. Senji coughed again, and reached down into the growing number of bags in the floorboards. She pulled up a bottle with a red label, some kind of pain medication. After fighting the lid for a moment, she dumped several pills out and threw them back before settling back into her seat.

"Shouldn't you be more careful with that?," Rody was again questioning her label as a future hero. Izuku seemed less bothered by this specific thing than her other explanations or actions, though that on it's own was deeply concerning.

"That grumpy bartender dude. His extra worker was with the group. Took him out, and took care of the guys at your, uh, house. Oh, you might need some new furniture though. And a new door," she finished off on a weird note, not making eye contact when Rody side eyed her. Her lips were curled up again, almost forming a nervous smile. Rody took note of that before, when he saw her at the bar. It was something he understood pretty well, having a similar bad habit when in tough situations.

"A new door? Huh?," Izuku had some pretty obvious questions from her weird explanation. Rody laughed, relieved, but also because even her classmate was shocked by the way she behaved and carried herself. Their meeting could have been in a better situation, but the boy acknowledged to himself that he did enjoy the company these two brought. And all their goofy interactions, that somehow made him feel at ease.

Pino rested in Izuku's hair, and the boy eventually fell asleep. He leaned against Senji's shoulder, and Rody caught her smiling sweetly at the other two for just a moment before she wiped the expression away. The storm was still going, but letting up now. One final crash of lightning, and thunder after, made the girl jump nearly out of her skin. Her tail thwacked against the driver's door, making Rody jump himself. The noise and movement didn't wake up Izuku, though, and Senji let out an exasperated sigh.

"So, don't like lightning?," Rody attempted a conversation. Senji tensed for a second, then relaxed herself. She let her tail rest across the boy's lap, and took several deep breaths to center herself.

"They're cute. I'm...a little jealous," she chose to ignore his question and continue a conversation from earlier. Rody, confused at first, drove on in silence.

"Oh. Your brother and sister, I mean."

"Oh. Right. I don't know what you fully meant earlier, but thanks again."

"It's fine," Senji accepted his thanks, somewhat awkwardly.

"What do you mean, though, about being jealous?," Rody kept talking. The conversation helped him stay awake as night fell over them. The girl thought for a moment, glancing at the boy to her right, then answered.

"I don't..really have a regular family. It's like..well my birth parents are gone. One's dead, the other in prison or something. And I didn't spend a lot of time with them. Was sort of homeless for a long time? But in a country I didn't know, and a language I didn't understand," Senji explained, leaving out a few details here and there.

"Is that why your English is so good? Huh. So you don't...have any family?," Rody seemed to answer his first question, and went into another.

"Well, no. A hero ended up taking me in, though he's not really like the big famous ones. And another...helped me a lot with my quirk. You and him are sorta similar, in some ways."

"I doubt any hero like me would be a very good one," Rody interjected with some self deprecation. Senji thumped his gut with the end of her tail, and he glanced over at her for a second. She wore a complicated expression, but shot him a look and kept going.

"The point is..I don't really know what it's like to have a family like that. Or a home that's more normal. I mean, I know your situation is still rough in a lot of ways, but...having someone to go home to's gotta be nice," she relaxed her tail again, and stretched her arm.

"So that hero, wouldn't he be like your adoptive dad?"

"Uh," Senji was taken aback by that statement, and scratched her cheek while thinking it over. Her cheeks flushed a little when she answered, "I guess...he's sorta like a parent. And Kei-I mean. The other one's sort of like...a big brother? I guess."

The cab fell silent, with Senji's tail occasionally flicking while she was lost in thought. Rody found himself smiling, enjoying the drive. The girl eventually fell asleep herself, and a bump in the road made her fall over against his shoulder. Pino stirred, tugging at her short reddish hair before Rody quietly told her to stop. The little pink bird tilted its head, then nuzzled in against the girl's neck. Rody felt his face grow hot, but chased it away and focused on driving.

"You should rest, too," Senji murmured next to his ear, making his face burn up all over again.

"I will...in a little bit," he assured her quietly, barely speaking over a whisper. She didn't respond at all, and he wondered if she had even been awake when she said it.

The night dragged on, with the silence broken only by Senji humming broken tunes in her sleep or occasionally uttering a name or phrase in Japanese. Rody chuckled about it at first, but found the songs made his drowsiness only more apparent. Finally, giving in, he pulled off the road and parked in the middle of a small patch of trees. He carefully stretched, so he didn't disturb either of his partners in crime, and leaned against their weight. Maybe it wasn't quite right, but he decided to keep enjoying the little moments he could with his new friends.

"That's weird, huh. Friends," he thought aloud, before yawning and knocking out himself.

Parked under the trees, the sun didn't disturb the sleeping trio as it overtook the moon in the sky. Morning crept up on them quickly, along with their rumbling bellies. Rody woke up first, and flew into a flustered panic for a moment, pushing Senji over so she leaned into Izuku. That woke the other boy up, who entered a similar state of panic when he realized his position. The two shared a glance, a silent understanding, and cracked open some of the snacks they'd gotten at the gas station. Senji stirred, smelling food and starving. She stretched, wincing from the pain of her almost forgotten injuries. She tilted her head at the other two, not understanding the weird looks on their faces, then shrugged and tore into the snack stash. Izuku and Rody both exhaled heavily, laughing a little.