freakshow | technoblade bnha au

arc three: part eight

Astelic was a kid around the same age as Purpled with long, brown hair and brown eyes that would look bigger if they weren't narrowed in a glare all the time. Eighty wasn't deaf, he could hear the little children whispering about him by his side. Purpled brought his friend Astelic to meet Eighty a few hours ago, and Astelic had tried to bite him. Purpled stopped her, but she kept shooting Eighty side-eyes and whispering into Purpled's ear as if Eighty couldn't hear her.

"He's going to kidnap us, Purpled! He looks like a bad guy! He has chains hanging from his belt, Purpled, chains!"

Ouch.

Eighty poked at his chains, which clattered against each other and made Astelic jump. Purpled eyed him suspiciously and whispered back to Astelic, "If he tries to kidnap us, we can just run. He doesn't look that old either," Eighty prevented himself from chuckling at this- he could pick both of them up and throw them. Not that he wanted to kidnap them, but he could easily restrain both of them if he did want to.

Not that he wanted to, though.

He swallowed, glancing at the two by his side. Maybe this was a bad idea. He was barely thirteen, could he really take care of two nine-year-old children by himself? He took them in because he didn't want them to get caught by the wrong people, but maybe he was considered the wrong person for this job too.

———

"Are you sure you're okay?"

Purpled pulled at his jacket tails as Eighty sat on the rock, feeling the ocean breeze against his face. A gash was opened on his cheek and blood still dripped down it even when he tried to stop it by pressing a bit of gauze to it. Astelic stood awkwardly behind Eighty, fiddling with her oversized purple sweater sleeves that Eighty bought her to match with Purpled. Eighty winced as he continued to try to stop the bleeding.

"Yeah, just a cut," he reassured Purpled, gritting his teeth. They were ambushed by a group of thugs trying to rob them of their valuables. When Eighty tried to explain they didn't have anything they would want, one of them scoffed and grabbed Purpled's arm harshly. He had heard Astelic cry out in protest beside him and knew she was being grabbed as well. It didn't take much to bring the idiots down with his quirk, but one of them got a pretty nasty slash in.

"Does it hurt?" Astelic whispered from behind him, leaning forwards and touching Eighty's cheek gingerly. Eighty smiled at this, but it fell back into a grimace when the gash stung more.
"A little," Eighty admits. "But nothing I can't handle."

Astelic poked at his cheek a little more before Purpled spoke up and told her to stop. The two slept peacefully that night in the sleeping bag Eighty stole from a shop but Eighty stayed up, watching them sleep. His eyes fell to a scrape that Astelic earned on her forehead in the encounter earlier and bit his lip, subconsciously bringing a hand up to touch at his cut. He needed to make sure that they wouldn't get hurt, or else he would never be able to forgive himself.

———

Four years later, Eighty crept up behind a kid wearing sunglasses and a black hoodie with jeans. He looked well-dressed, but Eighty has seen him around the area and knew exactly what he was. "Hey,"

The boy let out an ear-piercing shriek that made Astelic bend down and cover her ears. It ripped through the air like a banshee scream and even Eighty winced a little at that. The boy scrambled up and whipped around, drawing a small switchblade from his pocket and pointing it at Eighty, the tip a mere two inches from his neck. Astelic let out an indignant cry at the scene, but Eighty held up his hands in mock surrender just like he did with meeting Purpled. "Relax, dude," he says wryly. "Not here to hurt you."