Lost Souls

Old Habits Die Hard

Touya was in a bad mood.
Admittedly, it was nobody's fault but his own that he was in a bad mood, after all, it wasn't the rest of the League's fault that his body was actively falling apart and that he needed all his staples changed.
But his niceness was spent entirely on making sure Star was as happy as she could be while having her first period, and he didn't have the time nor energy today to try and extend his patience to the others, too.

He didn't want to leave her, but knew he had to. He couldn't bring her with him to the back alley doctor he needed to visit later to get everything checked and replaced. And the good kid she is, she agrees when he asks if she'll be okay with the others while he goes out.
He tells the truth when she asks if he's going to see Giran, and luckily before she can continue to take guesses at who he'll be leaving to see, Compress appears and distracts her.

Compress also tries pulling Touya into a conversation about recruitment, a conversation Touya shuts down quickly, hissing at him to shut the fuck up about work in front of Star.
Compress leaves him alone after that.

"Dabi." Shigaraki rasps as Touya is mid-bite of his breakfast.

"What?" Touya snaps, accidentally.

Shigaraki's wrinkled brow raises, but he doesn't bite back. "Can you go with Compress today while he gets groceries?"

"Can't. Busy." Touya replies bluntly.

Shigaraki's brows furrow. "You clearly aren't."

"I got somewhere to be." Touya shrugs. "You guys don't mind looking after Star for me, right?"

Touya begins to get up before Shigaraki can force him into doing such a menial task. His staples were close to falling out any day soon, and he probably couldn't risk leaving them for too much longer. Especially if he and Shigaraki were going to continue their late night trysts, because too much movement and they'd pop right out at this point.

"I told you already, we're not a daycare." Shigaraki replies coldly, still scowling. "Take her with you."

"Can't." Touya shrugs.

"Why not?" Shigaraki immediately argues.

Touya couldn't get into that with her there, and not with everyone else around listening, either.
Luckily, Kurogiri sides with him, explaining that Star should stay at home while her body's under strain. Shigaraki clearly isn't pleased by this, and Touya can feel Star's fist tightening in his shirt in nervousness.
He turns and crouches to talk to her eye-to-eye after peeling her fist from his clothing.

"I'll be a couple hours, 'kay?" He informs her.

"Okay." She agrees uncertainly.

"Four." He says, bumping his forehead affectionately against hers.

"Four." She agrees. "Come back soon. My tummy hurts..."

"I know, princess." He sighs sympathetically, looking up at the misty man behind the bar. "Oi, Kurogiri, give her some painkillers."

Kurogiri immediately moves to follow the order, and Touya raises to his full height, digging in his pocket to pull out a cigarette, placing it in his mouth, and waving lazily as he walks out of the hotel, calling out 'later' in a drawl.
He ignores the feeling of Shigaraki's eyes boring into him.

He braces himself for the next two hours as he makes his way to the clinic. Staple removal and reapplication wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't the worst now he'd had to do it so many times. It was the payment, what came after, that sucked.
Usually he could turn his brain off for long enough that by the time it was over he hadn't even realised it had begun. But he had the new nagging feeling of guilt to consider too, now. He doesn't get why, because it wasn't like he was dating Shigaraki, they were just messing around with each other for the fun of it.