Chapter Text
Rody’s quirk ‘Soul’ was an enigma in itself.
In a world full of superhuman abilities, there existed quirks where a user and quirk were two separate beings. Hosted within the same entity, linked by shadow and body. There were quirks that created copies of another person through blood and through considerable measurement, able to act on behalf of the same ideas of their user.
Pino wasn’t like that. She was a manifestation of Rody’s innermost thoughts and feelings, that much of what he’d written on the registration was true, but she tended to stretch the limits on what defined a quirk.
When he was younger, and his quirk had first manifested, he was delighted by how vibrant and expressive she could be. Pino loved to play with Rody and his siblings as they invented games to catch her and she chirped through their home with a group of giggling children chasing her.
Rody used to spend hours just looking at her as she preened under the attention. His mother had chuckled at him, for how proud he must feel for his quirk to be able to emulate soaking up the attention he was giving, but he didn’t really understand what she’d meant. Pino liked the attention, sure, but she didn’t stop preening when he looked away and he didn’t feel less proud when she was out of view.
By the time he’d thought to ask his mother to explain her words, she was already gone.
Pino was somebody Rody could confide in. More than a quirk, more than his friends, and more than his family. He relied on her like a crutch to the pain of his broken heart and she was always there for him, willing to share the burden of his emotions between them.
It became worse when his father left.
He was only a kid, cast out by his community and kicked from his home, and he had his two siblings to protect and provide for. The first week on their own had been the worst week of Rody’s life. He’d searched day and night for a restaurant, store, or anywhere that might hire him, but he was always turned away. They were running out of food and he’d made the choice of work by less-than-honest means.
Doing what it took to survive never meant he had to like it , though. He didn’t want to steal, or cheat, or break the law; He was a good kid! And he was an even better brother, but that hardly made a difference when Pino couldn’t help but squawk at some storeowner's face when Rody stared a bit too long at a shiny necklace.
All of the things he'd grown to love about his quirk were suddenly a hingerance. Instead of fawning over her feathers, Rody had to keep his eyes on her for an entirely new problem. Her expressions couldn’t hide his lies from the police or the town-heroes. Her knack for ‘accidentally’ setting off a mark’s home security system threatened to send him to jail that night instead of home. Her persistent tittering on his shoulder displayed too much nerves for the villains he worked under.
He’d had to lift a coat from a bargain bin just to have somewhere to hide her incessant chirping. It felt like the sound followed him on every street corner and echoed in every grimey alleyway. The sound set him on edge, too familiar from his childhood and freshly painful memories.
At night he would plead and beg her to just stop messing everything up for them- He didn’t like what he was doing, but he had to. If he didn’t, they were all going to starve to death or worse and it would be his fault. Every time, he felt like she understood him. He believed the remorseful expression on her little bird face and Rody would hold her tight against his chest as she tweeted her apologies, but it never stopped her from doing the same thing the following morning…
His siblings, if they’d known, had overlooked the sudden increase in food and were just grateful to have something besides a ratty doily on the table. They smiled at him and the soundless chirps in his head finally fell silent.
He didn’t know if Pino had finally decided to listen to him or if his morals had grayed out enough that he was no longer bothered by what he did and frankly, he didn’t care to find out. She stopped interfering, often helping him in his criminal antics and he was grateful for it. The lies came easier, the jobs he took paid more, and he was able to swallow the guilt of how horrible of an example he was setting for his siblings as long as they were all well-fed and cared for.
Pino was, simply, more than a quirk. She was her own being, attached to him by this random bond they shared with his soul. If anything, he considered the ‘bond’ itself as an ability alone.
He hadn’t known another quirk like his existed…
It should have stayed that way.
-
"-And then I said to him," Rody paused, lowering his voice considerably. " I don't know man, sounds like rats- and he still didn't figure it out!"
Deku laughed, "Really? He never suspected you?"
Any of Rody's feelings of offense at the heroes’ disbelief melted when paired with the sight of Deku's, completely genuine, awestruck expression. Rody grinned, "Not even a little bit, hero."
It had taken a lot of convincing on Deku’s part to pull them out of that cramped truck to ‘stretch their legs’ and that’s how they ended up here. Sitting beneath the shade of a wide tree with dozens of rows of beautiful flowers around them that stretched on for miles.
The grass was soft and the light morning breeze was a pleasant break from the dry air of yesterday, he coudln’t blame Deku for wanting to take it all in up close.
The startled gasp from the hero had caught Rody by surprise, but not nearly as much as the happy chirps from Pino that followed the sound.
"Rody, can we pleeeease stay?" Deku had pleaded, clasping his hands in front of his chest while Pino, the traitor, sat on his green head. "Just five minutes! Then we can keep driving!"
The five minutes had come and gone by now, but none of them had made any attempt to leave; Lying to themselves that the clouds hadn't moved an inch in the time they'd spent conversing together.
Rody wasn't sure how they'd reached the topic of his life of crime but, given the circumstances of their meeting, it was bound to come up. Deku was the ask questions first, ask more questions, and then ask even more questions, and maybe punch later kind of guy, which made for interesting, albeit long, moments of their trip to pass in the blink of an eye.
It didn’t help much that the more they spoke, the easier it was for Rody’s lips to loosen.
He never told anyone about his past, his father, or his quirk, but now Deku was pulling stories of actually committed crimes from him with something as simple as a smile. He couldn’t stop himself from doing it, either. The light atmosphere and distance from his home was enough of a distraction to make him spill his guts to the hero, but Deku didn’t seem to mind. Most of the stories weren’t nearly as fun as he was describing them, but they were still very much illegal and relatively immoral!
Deku just… acted so eager to learn anything and everything about Rody. It was hard to pretend he disliked the attention…
Rody sighed, “I’m still waiting to wake up to that crime boss at my door. He wouldn’t even be angry, I think. Just disappointed.”
“Your life is so exciting, Rody.” Deku said, adjusting the sunglasses that he borrowed from Rody back on top of his head before they could slip to cover his eyes.
“Yeah?” Rody scoffed, “Nothing I’ve been through can compare to all the crazy shit we’ve done these past few days.”
"You mean not every jewelry heist ends with being accused for murder and becoming wanted outlaws?" Deku asked with a hint of amusement coloring his voice.
“Technically, only you are being accused of murder.” Rody corrected before gesturing to himself with a hand over his chest, “I’m simply a victim of circumstance.”
Deku snorted and Rody dropped the act.
It was too easy, he decided.
Deku was too good at being… well, good. The guy practically radiated good intentions and forgiveness, weaponizing his bright smile and disarming Rody completely. A far cry from the green monster that chased him through the streets of Othean and bounced off of the rooftops like they were made of jello.
Maybe it had something to do with Deku taking an arrow for him - which was still really fucking stupid- but for the first time in a long time, Rody didn’t feel like running away. Deku was just the right amount of crazy, and the wrong amount of right . He made Rody feel comfortable. Safe despite the danger that followed their path to Klayd.
The hero never reeled back in disgust or hatred; He just laughed right along with Rody. He accepted him. He accepted a wayward criminal like it was the easiest thing in the world and Rody might believe it if he said it was.
Rody chuckled silently to himself. Deku must be a terrible hero, to make an exception and become friends with someone like him.
He tried to subtly glance in the hero’s direction, but Deku was already looking at him.
Warmth spread through his chest and Rody ducked to hide his flush as he turned the other way, gently picking up one of the tiny bright blue flowers out of the cluster beside him.
It looked delicate between his fingers, with a yellow eye as its center, and similar to the yellow pinwheel-shaped wildflowers that Lala would dig out from the weeds near their trailer.
“Hey, Rody…?”
Rody hummed instead of answering, twirling the stem of the flower and watching the five petals blur into one. Like a clear blue sky surrounding a bright yellow sun.
Deku said, “It wasn’t your fault.”
The flower in Rody’s hand wilted.
He gasped as the blue and yellow faded to white and curled into itself. The stem disappeared in his grip and dropped to the grass, dying the green beneath it into a dark seaweed color.
Rody jolted back, kicking his legs out to stand, but stopped as he watched the rest of the flowers around him begin to dull and bow around him in a ripple effect.
The beautiful array of rolling hills that had invited them to rest were drained of its original scenic beauty, washed into a dry, barren field and cast in the shadow of a rapidly dimming sky.
The gentle breeze took a violent turn, whipping Rody’s hair in his eyes and clawing at the thin material of his jacket as he braced his arms to cover his face. The wind acted as a pestilence, picking up what was left of the rotted flowers and spraying their remains through the air like ocean mist.
Rody twisted to his partner in crime, “Dek-”
He stopped, the words stolen by the roar of thunder as he paled at the boy before him.
Deku’s eyes and nose were leaking, something black, viscous, and thick, and it dripped so slowly down his face. His body was hunched over and leaning on one side, shaking from his legs to the dark tendrils drawn off of his arms, the only thing holding him upright, like some kind of fucked up reverse puppetry. Sparks of green fizzled in the air, matching the beat of the thunder and the intensity of it’s lightening.
“I’m sorry.” Deku said, dark fluid stained his teeth and dripped from the corner of his lips. His voice echoed several times over, each voice repeating the word with more emotion but none of them sounded like the one Rody knew. “We- I didn’t want to do it like this…”
Rain poured over them as the wind roared a challenge and distorted lost words with a layer of sound.
The storm was getting worse, if they didn’t get out of there soon one of them might get hurt.
Thunder struck, revealing Deku’s pale skin and glassy eyes.
He looked more dead than alive.
Rody grit his teeth and clawed his way up the tree trunk, scratching the skin of his numbing fingers on the rough surface.
“Deku!”
Rody reached out for him.
They were so close .
He was losing his footing and Deku was getting worse. The world around them was in complete chaos, but the hero remained unchanged, producing his own light and wind and mist in a way that didn’t make sense to Rody.
He wasn't smiling anymore.
“Come on !” Rody struggled not to lose his footing and Deku was close enough to almost touch.
Deku grabbed his hand and Rody nearly cried.
Then Deku pulled.
Everything went dark. Deku disappeared and the world was silent.
“ We couldn’t be saved.” Izuku said.
Screams filled the void.
-
Rody jolted upright and he was blinded by white. He covered his eyes, but the darkness was just as overwhelming. His body felt like it was on fire and a jittery ice-cold panic rushed through his veins, the split sensation sending him through a disorienting spiral. His stomach rolled as a gentle warning and his left side burst into agony.
He tried to take in a breath, but nothing came out. He knew he was falling apart, but the reasons behind it had already slipped from his mind. He couldn’t remember. He could hardly think.
Something pulled his hand off of his eyes and he flinched at the unexpected touch.
Rody blinked past the brightness as his hand was guided to rest on something soft. The hand squeezed and he found himself squeezing back, grounding him as he tried to catch his breath and see through the haze. In a merciful bout of coherence, Rody forced his eyes to the recipient's familiar face.
“Roro…?” Rody croaked.
Roro nodded quickly, adjusting to envelop Rody’s hand in both of his. “Yeah,” He said, just as strained, while his lip wobbled between his teeth and the wetness reflected off the light pooled under his eyes, “It’s me, brother.”
“Rody!” Lala jumped onto the other side of him putting her tiny hands over both of theirs and all of the tension in Rody’s body snapped like a twig.
His siblings-
“Thank fucking god- ” His curse was covered by a sob as he ignored the pain in his side to wrap both of his siblings into his arms.
All this time- He was so fucking worried . The collection of memories from everything that happened in this past week came rushing back to him.
The key, Flect, his father - So much had happened.
He and Deku were wanted fugitives fleeing the country.
The puzzle box.
They never stopped in a flower field.
There were bombs planted across the world.
It was only a dream.
Neither he or the hero would have suggested such a thing, even if the scenery they passed was incredibly beautiful, they just didn’t have the time for it. Rody was determined to make it back to his siblings as soon as possible and Deku needed to cross the Klayd border. It wasn’t real.
Then there was the plane and Deku’s friends and…
“You did great,” Deku spoke softly, selflessly cradling Rody’s bleeding body off of the cold metal floor with warm battle-bruised arms. “You’re amazing , Rody.”
His lips formed a shaky grin, “That’s true, I am pretty cool”
Deku’s laughter replayed in his mind and he felt compelled to indulge the hero with his own.
None of it felt real, but it was. These past few days were a riddle of impossible circumstances, one right after the other. Rody was taken on an adventure of a lifetime and took down the people that ruined his life, and the lives of many others, and saved the world.
He tightened his arms around his siblings, almost to an uncomfortable degree, but neither complained.
It didn’t matter, he was just glad they were all finally safe.
Rody would have held onto them forever if he could, but he just settled for leaning back and keeping them close.
They were in a hospital room. The brightness from earlier had come from the bright fluorescent light above them and the white walls and floor, much less overwhelming now that his eyes had adjusted. Rody was propped up in a bed at the center of the room with a door right across from it and a window with the curtains drawn on his left side. He couldn’t tell how much time had passed, but the strain on his side and thick mound of fiberglass molded to his leg told him he had been asleep for awhile…
He took a deep breath and gathered what little energy he had left to assume his role as the oldest sibling and pretend he was whole until it felt true.
“Where are we?”
Roro straightened a bit, still leaning against the bed’s side instead of sitting on it like Lala, and his fingers wound into the blanket pooling next to Rody’s lap. He seemed a bit unsure, but still said, “Closer to the border, I think…?”
Further from the direct bombs, then.
“Are you both okay?” Rody swallowed, trying to think of how to phrase his question delicately, “Did um… Anything happen to Othean?”
“Yeah! It was really scary!” Lala interrupted, grabbing onto Rody’s free wrist, “People were running around outside and screaming-”
“We couldn’t be saved.” Izuku said.
Screams filled the void.
Rody blinked and something felt like it slipped away from him again. He ignored it.
“But nothing happened, the bombs didn’t go off.” Roro shot his sister a scathing look before it muted to something a bit more somber, “...We didn’t evacuate, though. There were too many people.”
He tried not to flinch at the mention of the quirk-bombs. It’s not like he could have hid his siblings from an international broadcast of their impending doom, even if he hadn’t been away from home. They seemed to be handling it much better than he would have at their age. Shit, he was still shaken up over it and his siblings looked completely fine!
They were a hell of a lot stronger than he gave them credit for.
When the silence had dragged on and Rody continued to stare, Roro retracted his hands from the blanket. “What?”
Rody shook his head, a smile creeping onto his face as he tried to understand it all. It was hard to remember they were all just kids doing the best they could. “It’s nothing,” He chuckled, “I’m just… really happy you're both okay.”
If he had died in that basement, he was glad they at least had each other.
Roro stopped fidgeting and met his gaze. He mumbled something, too quiet for Rody to hear.
“Hmm?” Rody prompted, gently petting the top of his head.
Roro burst into tears.
“But you’re not!” Roro yelled, pushing his hand away as Lala chimed, “Yeah!”
“You got hurt! A-And you’re still hurting right now!” Roro said, “ You’re not okay !”
“No, no,” Rody backtracked, raising his hands in front of him to save himself from his siblings' wrath, “I’m totally fine! The doctors patched me up, yeah? So I’m okay again!”
“But you did something dangerous!” Lala scolded, though it was worsened from the stream of tears running endlessly down her chin, “You left us all alone !”
Rody felt the lazer through his gut might have hurt less than his sister’s words.
“I would never do that to you.” He whispered.
She threw herself onto him and wailed loudly against his chest. Rody coaxed Roro closer and let him cry into his shoulder. They held onto him tightly, as fierceful as they were fearful, and Rody leaned back against his pillows with a dejected sigh. “I haven’t been a very good brother, have I?”
“The worst!” Lala agreed, clinging to his shirt.
“You don’t even make us lunch!” Roro complained, though they all knew he prided himself on his ‘Special’ grilled cheese.
“And you stay out all night! We need you home… ” Lala said, then, much quieter, “Please come home .”
These two certainly knew how to pull on each of Rody’s tender heart-strings. He was already weak from battle, and maybe hospital drugs, and they weren’t giving him a moment of reprieve; Which was great, because he didn’t want one anyway . They weren’t playing fair, but this was exactly where he wanted to be- Where he was always meant to be.
He couldn’t promise he’d never worry them again, but damn it he wanted to try.
Rody heaved a dramatic sigh so loud that his siblings' tear-stained faces stalled long enough to look up at him.
“Geez, I didn't realize how poor of a job I was doing raising you two,” He said, lacing his voice with sarcasm as he dramatically placed a hand over his forehead. He pretended to shift his gaze between two spots on the ceiling and then shrugged, “I guess I'll have to quit my job to give you heathens more attention.”
It took a second, but Roro was the first to understand. “Really?!” He asked, excitedly tugging on his shirt, “You’re going to quit?”
Lala sniffled, but her expression was considerably brighter, “You’re not going to do dangerous stuff anymore?”
“Yup!”
He’d have to talk to the old man, but he was pretty sure he could convince the guy to let him work in the bar. Would he believe that Rody saved the world? Could he use Deku as a reference or something on his CV?
Roro rubbed his eyes with the back of his arm, “And you’ll come home every night? And help us with our homework?”
“I’ll do my best!” He tried to sound more confident than he truly.
Roro nodded, but it was unclear whether he understood Rody’s possible scheduling issues or if he just thought Rody would struggle with their math homework too.
“And you’ll get us a pet cat?” Lala suggested innocently, tilting her head to complete the effect.
“Ye- Wait, no.” He pouted, “We can’t get a cat, they’d eat Pino.”
Lala giggled and Roro shared a fond smile with her, suggesting this was an inside-joke Rody wasn’t a part of.
Speaking of Pino…
Rody looked around the room, but there was no sight of a garish swatch of pink against the plain white walls. He lifted his hand, focusing on… well, just focusing - his quirk really wasn’t that complicated- and was surprised when a pink spark briefly snapped in his palm before fizzling out.
No Pino.
“Huh.” He muttered, mildly surprised that he was unable to produce even a shadow of his quirk.
This wasn’t the first time this had happened. Pino was a passive ability, he didn’t have to put much thought into using it, but she still required energy. It wasn’t anything to worry about, he’d just overworked himself. That or the hospital put him under quirk-sedation medication? It would explain the strange burning feeling under his skin…
He’d have to ask someone about that later. Preferably a nurse or a doctor-
The door to his room slammed against the wall behind it and all three siblings jumped at the noise.
A foot greeted them, having kicked the door in, and a teen about Rody’s age stepped into the room with fire in his eyes.
“ You.” He hissed.
Rody knew this boy. One of Deku’s friends- Kacchan, was it? That didn’t sound right and something told him he really shouldn’t get it wrong.
Something was off about this boy. He looked angry- And not just the regular grouchy angry that Rody had put up with before they got on the plane. This time, it felt different. Vicious.
Rody had spent a lot of time in his life dealing with ruthless villains and he learned to trust his gut. He’d never felt more in danger than under the white-hot gaze of this young hero student.
The boy stalked forward. His hands lit up at his sides and it was unclear of whether the quirk was being activated without conscious thought or if it was being used to purposefully intimidate him.
Rody instinctively pulled Lala off of the bed and pushed both her and her brother away from his bedside. He kept his eyes locked on the other, trying to keep his attention on Rody and protect his siblings from whatever grievance he had with him.
The blonde grabbed the railing at the foot of Rody’s hospital bed, squeezing hard enough for the bar to creak.
“Give it back.”